The Cataclysm

Chapter 01: The Beginning

By ElecmanEXE

This is a fic based on my opinion on what happened in the mysterious event known as the "Cataclysm" which took place between the years 20XX and 21XX (Rockman and X timelines). I came up with all of the plot material myself and worked it out for almost a year before starting to write. Originally, this was supposed to be a video game idea of mine but that didn't work well. I never discussed this fic with anyone and so, I have not plagiarized anybody's work. I did not copy any story from others' "Cataclysm"-esque fics. The closest to a Cataclysm fic is BnG's Flash movie series which is very different from my fic.

All original characters that will be appearing in this fic were created by myself and I hold all copyrights to them unless they're cameos of other people's OCs which I had obtained permission to use in this fic (unlikely).

Disclaimer: I don't own Rockman or all related characters/intellectual property except for the OCs which I or their respective creators own. Rockman and all related characters are property to Capcom.

Now on with the fic...

The year is 20XX. It is a time of peace and prosperity. It is a time when relations between mankind and machines were at their zenith. Robots worked alongside with humans in many places around the world and were considered to be friends by many. Thanks to this relationship, much technological progress has been made in terms of space travel. Thanks to the peace, it was possible to create developments that enabled humans and robots to start constructing colonies both in orbit in space and on the Moon; construction for the Mars colonies are already under way. The people were content with their lives. Unfortunately, all good things come with a hefty price tag.

Many years ago, in the year 200X, two world-renowned researchers of robotics, who were very best friends by the way, were working together on developing robots with artificial minds that can live, sense, move, and think like a human being. The fruit of their efforts brought forth the creation known as DRN-000 Protoman. Regrettably, Protoman left the laboratory in which he was built for reasons unknown and was never seen for many years.

Refusing to be discouraged by this setback, the two doctors, named Dr. Light and Dr. Wily respectively, went back to square one and eventually succeeded in creating eight individual robots who could think and act like human beings. These robots were called Robot Masters. Each of these Robot Masters had individual functions. There was Rock and Roll, a "boy" and a "girl" respectively. Their functions were laboratory assistant and housekeeper respectively. The others, Fireman, Bombman, Gutsman, Cutman, Elecman, and Iceman, worked in the industrial sector in jobs that matched their abilities. For example, Gutsman worked in the construction sector because of his sheer brute strength and because of his knowledge on construction and architectural engineering.

Coming back to the story…One day, Dr. Wily took control over six of the Robot Masters and unleashed them onto the world in his ambition to take over the world. Everywhere they went, there was chaos, destruction, and despair. Out of the two who Wily had left behind, Rock, because of his great sense of justice, volunteered to become a fighting machine to defeat Wily and his brothers, and bring peace to the land. Dr. Light eventually agreed to modify Rock and soon, created Rockman, the fighting robot for peace.

Rockman, armed with his Rockbuster and Weapon Copy System, battled each of his Robot Master brothers and defeated them in combat and soon, vanquished the remainder of Dr. Wily's armies and cut his plans of world domination short. Humiliated and defeated, Wily escaped in his flying saucer vowing that he'll get his revenge. And true to his word, he came back many times to plague Rockman and the rest of planet Earth. He attacked with new and more powerful Robot Masters (up to Mark VIIIs), gargantuan robots of mass destruction, alien robotic entities, dark energy from the remains of a deceased alien entity, and even an apparently superior robot to Rockman. But in the end, Rockman always prevailed and even once put Wily in jail (but only for a short time because Wily escaped).

But the story does not start there. This story takes place a looong time after the "Wily Wars" as the scholars called the period of turmoil. It has been exactly two decades since Wily's last attack upon the world and given his supposed age, the people presumed that he was dead and lived on with their merry lives.

Dr. Thoman Light, now age 97, and his assistant, Rock, were working on a breakthrough technology in robotics. This technology, once successfully created, would upgrade the physical capabilities and artificial intelligence of the robot, surpassing the abilities of Robot Masters, and thus, making them obsolete (and a lesser threat). The research was once stolen and sabotaged by a Robot Master named Bass (Wily's of course), but the stolen data was useless compared to what Dr. Light had worked hard on for the past two decades of peace.

And it was on a spring day, in the middle of this important research, that the fateful broadcast, the announcement that changed the course of history of mankind, was aired all over the world. This is where our story starts…in the year 20XX…

"Rock, can you get me my hydro-spanner at the other side of the lab please?" Doctor Light asked Rock. Doctor Light was well on his way to reaching his centennial year of life, but unlike a lot of other old people, the doctor was still lively and strong. Many others would be using machines as substitutes of weak limbs, but Doctor Light said that he didn't need any.

"Sure will, Doctor Light!" Rock skipped happily across the laboratory keeping in mind to not step on the new carpet that Roll had just finished cleaning and rolling out.

"ROCK!"

Rock stopped in his tracks. That high pitched yell caused his mechanical backbone to vibrate and disrupted his auditory senses a bit; it's usually the sign of impending doom. He almost never figures out why he's being punished though…Really, it shouldn't matter where Rush disposes of his solid wastes, be it the guest room bed or the buffed up linoleum; they're just compressed balls of excess steel.

Well…It matters to her, he thought. Sighing, he turned around to face Roll's face contorted into what Dr. Light would describe as "Shortage of cleaning supplies."

"Rock! What did I tell you about running across carpets?" Roll asked.

"sigh Don't step on a crack, or you'll fall through and break a Metool's back."

"No, not that! The other one!" She was visibly getting angrier.

"Umm…Always clean the feet before treading on new carpets."

"Right, and are your feet clean?" She looked him straight in the eye.

"I don't know. I haven't left the lab today, so they should be relatively clean enough to tread on carpets" he replied blankly.

"Relatively! RELATIVELY!" To quote Doctor Light: "Fireman burned the curtains again."

Rock sighed as he stood there while Roll paced up and down the floor, carefully walking around the new carpet, going on a tirade about how relative is not the same as absolute. He glanced around to see if anybody could help him but Beat, Tango, and even Rush disappeared behind the machinery. Obviously, his six brothers already made themselves scarce when they heard her yell. They're probably with Doctor Light. He shifted his eyes back onto Roll before she noticed the lack of attention he's paying to her. Being a robot is great he thought. I can shut off my external audio sensors while humans can't. Uh-oh…She's pounding her fist into her hand. Better nod. Hmm…Is that a flower hairpin in her hair? Haven't seen her wear that since the 10th anniversary of peace celebration. Today must be special. Uh-oh…I think I might have over-looked a crucial date for her. Rock quickly scanned his internal calendar to see what he might have missed.

"...Good! I hope you got it this time" she concluded and walked off to clean the waffle iron and serve the doctor his favorite breakfast. Cinnamon waffles covered with maple syrup and a healthy blob of whipped cream on top.

"Rock! Did you find my hydro spanner yet?" Doctor Light yelled from his room.

"Coming Doctor Light!" Rock replied and hurried to fetch the hydro-spanner.

Rock went through the tool chest and found not one, but two hydro-spanners of different sizes. Hmm…I wonder which one he wanted…he thought. I'll just take both. And he ran back to the workshop where Roll and Doctor Light were. On the way back, his scan of his calendar proved to be inconclusive about any special occasions today. Maybe it's just her.

Just then, Rock heard a loud crash coming from the workshop but no cries of panic or surprise. Something is wrong…Gutsman usually breaks things and Roll would yell at him but it's too quiet…Something's up! Rock dashed over to the source of the crash.

"Doctor Light! Roll! Everyone! What is go…ing...on in…" he paused.

Rock stood in disbelief and did not notice that the two hydro spanners dropped to the floor with a loud CLANG! Roll, Doctor Light, and his six brothers, in an obvious state of shock, didn't notice either…because…on the television screen above and in front of them…was Doctor Wily!

The evil doctor's appearance hasn't changed significantly over the past twenty years it seems, but surprisingly, he seemed to be younger and "fresher" than his pre-war days. The only way you could tell that he's older is in the refinement in his standing posture and facial features. With his closed eyes, and expressionless face, he actually looked calm and serene to Rock, and that was mind-boggling. Wily seemed…nice…Rock's logic circuits started heating up over the apparent gap in logic here.

Slowly, Wily opened up his eyes and looked at the camera. The eyes were not the eyes of maliciousness and evil that Rock had encountered years before time and time again. They looked…different…but they were still brimming with the ambition and conviction he had in the past.

"ahem Is the camera on?" Wily asked the off-screen camera operator slowly and clearly in a non-hoarse voice. "Good. ahem" he turned to face the camera again. "Greetings to the people and robots of Earth and of the space colonies. If you don't know me, I am Doctor Albert Wily, roboticist extraordinaire; you probably know me by my exploits and actions during the Wily Wars starting from the year 20XX."

"Some of you would probably be shocked to see me on international television. There were many rumours of my death but none of them were true. In fact, I was mainly in hiding for the past two decades." He cleared his throat.

"Before I continue, I'll answer a couple of questions most of you would probably have right now. First, I'm not dead, and I'm not a robotic android copy of myself carrying on my evil wishes of world domination. Second, my official age is 96 for those who are wondering."

"Now, you are all probably asking yourselves why I disappeared two decades ago, or what I was up to in the last twenty years or even why I decided to appear now. All will be answered soon enough."

"Now…Two decades ago, in the year 20XX, there was the fiasco with King and my attack with a whole bunch of Robot Masters. After my consecutive defeats, I decided to have a nice long "me time" to think over my past actions and my future plans."

"You see…" he started to pace to the right of the screen. Of course, the camera followed too. "Back in the year 200X, I decided to take over the world because it was apparent to me that the robots of the world were treated as tools for human benefit and that the situation wouldn't change for many, many years. But after my initial defeat at the hands of Rockman, I was bent on revenge. I sent wave after wave of Robot Masters to defeat Rockman but that all proved to be fruitful. I realized that I probably forgot my purpose and reasons of world domination which explained why I failed repeatedly, but that's old news." Wily paused to remember what the next part of the speech was.

"Ah yes…Ever since that fateful day when my latest castle of doom sank to the ocean floor, I became a changed man. Yes…I changed. I realized that my actions have only brought misery and suffering to a lost cause that was achievable in other, less stressing ways. Two decades later, we have ultimate peace and cordiality between robots and humans…what more could I ask for?" Wily stopped in front of a table covered with a large, dust-covered red cloth. It was covering something big because something was so tall that it's above the camera's "ceiling." Everybody looked at each other quizzically wondering what could be under the cloth. A cough from Wily made them instantly turn their heads back.

"So, what is my plan now that I've changed you ask? Well…Over a quarter of a century ago, the first International Robotics Competition was hosted by the mysterious Mr. X. Me. I'm sure some of you older people would remember it. The world's leading roboticists entered 8 robots into the competition and I stole those robots in an attempt to take over the world again. Well…I would like to express my greatest apologies for the entire Wily Wars and express my joy of the peace between robot and mankind by hosting the world's first…!" he yanked the cloth and threw it into the air and releasing lots of dust. "The cough hack cough cough The world's AGH! cough cough cough hack cough cough cough Turn on the fans! The FANS! cough cough cough cough" Wily was waving his hands frantically before he disappeared in the dust. Rock smiled to himself because it reminded him of the times when Wily gave up and bowed down to him in defeat. Looks like he gave up to the dust. He snickered at the thought.

When the dust cleared…there was a small scaled model of what seems to be a set of stadiums and in the middle, a GIGANTIC tower in the middle which, as the camera slowly inched up to reveal, the largest colosseum Rockman has ever seen. The colosseum in Rome in that boot-shaped country on the other side of the ocean has nothing on the one Wily just showed…Rockman thought. "ahem As I was saying…" Wily glared to somebody outside the screen before looking back at the camera. "I present to you…the world's first re-incarnation of the International Robotics Competition!"

Rock's jaw and arms dropped because his logic processors were suddenly overloaded with the concept that Wily would try to restart the International Robotics Competition which he ruined in the first place. When Rock finally regained control of his body, he looked around and saw that the others experienced similar problems. Elecman forgot that he was arc welding and therefore melted whatever was in his hand, Gutsman was holding something Fireman burned a hole through...Gutsman might need some thermal damage repairs on his hands later on. Iceman didn't notice that he was spilling liquid nitrogen onto the floor, Bombman dropped a concrete block on Cutman and even Dr. Light had dropped his fork that had the cinnamon waffle he was about to eat (He never drops eating utensils).

Wily coughed so that everybody would wake up from their shock. Of course, he waited as the others scrambled in panic; apparently, he expected this to happen everywhere. A couple of minutes later, he started walking again.

"As everybody can already see, I am very serious about restarting the International Robotics Competition. It is only one of the things that I can do to repay the world for what I had done in the past. After this first competition, I am going to relinquish the responsibility of organizing future competitions to a committee dedicated to the cause of creating a utopia for humans and robots." Wily and the camera entered a gigantic glass elevator.

"As for the contestants and rules, those details will be released later, but I will tell you this. Anybody who believes that they can enter a robot capable of enduring many harsh trials that will test the limits of robotic engineering to the utmost extreme, are allowed to enter."

And with a large "CLUNK!" the elevator suddenly shot out into open air above what seems to be the actual island shown in the model several minutes ago. The camera zoomed in a bit and moved to the walls of the elevator to do a scrolling 360 degree view of the entire island. The view was breathtaking. Rock had thought that Wily was only capable of destruction but it seems that he was wrong. Dr. Light seemed to be thinking the same thing because he was muttering words like "Impossible", "Ridiculous", and "Bakana" (whatever that one meant).

"Marvelous, isn't it?" Wily resumed. "I had put a lot of work into this project and I intend to see it through," he looked off to the side and sighed deeply with a smile; he looked sad though. "Oh, for those with the new holographic entertainment systems, you can bring up a scaled model of the entire island with RGB color."

Rock and gang turned towards Dr. Light and the doctor, in turn, fumbled in his pockets for the remote. When he clicked the "On" button, a three dimensional wire frame appeared and the colors progressively started to take form. Dr. Light aimed the remote to the middle of the floor to move the projection there. The model was just as magnificent looking as the view on the television. Roll's eyes sparkled a lot and Rock wondered if something was wrong with her optical sensors. The island's buildings were covered in construction frames, but despite that, they seemed to blend in perfectly with the island's vegetation. The tower in the center was the most intriguing structure because not only was its base a smoking volcano, but according to the dimensional scale, it was many, many kilometers tall! It had landing strips, several elevators in the central spine, a domed structure on a "branch", and the colosseum at the top…The doctor seemed to have been serious about the tournament. But something didn't seem right but Rock wasn't able to figure out what it was…Maybe later.

"The tournament will officially start in one month. For anybody who's even remotely interested in entering, log onto http/ THREE WEEKS from now. Nobody can access the website at all at this moment until three weeks from now. When there is one week left, I shall start accepting entries and other mail, but not now."

"Oh, one more thing before I end this broadcast." His smiling face became grim and serious; he sure got a lot of wrinkles over the past couple of decades, Rock couldn't believe that Wily was able to hide them until now. "I would like to advise the military from trying to scan and search for the island because it is impossible for you and that money could be used to support my colleagues' research in robotics. I'll see everybody in three weeks! And remember, this is only the beginning of great things to come!" Wily winked at the camera and with that, he disappeared from the massive television screen.

Everybody stood there in silence and turned towards Doctor Light. After a couple of minutes of silence, Doctor Light responded: "Don't even think about it," he said and gave one of those looks that Rock couldn't describe with his vocabulary, but it gave him the feeling that the doctor isn't going to change his mind anytime soon.

"What a buzz killer…" Elecman said. The robots all nodded.

To be continued…

Author's Note: No, the URL does not exist. Don't bother going.

Author's Note2: No, it's not a stupid "ZOMG EIGHT NEW ROBOT MASTERS" plot.

Author's Note3: Yes Doctor Light is old, but hey, this is the year 20XX where people live longer. P

Author's Note4: Crossovers will appear later on, so it's not a mislabel.