Me: Alright, yeah... Finally got this thing finished! Woo! Now, if you see any missing apostrophes or quotations, yeah... This thing hates me when I submit my documents, so there! And now, enjoy yourself!
"So, how do you feel about all of this, Rock?" asked a man. The man, who appeared to be in his late sixties, had white hair and a white, fluffy beard; he wore a white lab coat that rounded around his belly, which draped down to his knees, the rest of his legs covered by dark red pants. His light brown-gray eyes were staring, not at a second person whose back was turned to him that stood a few feet away from the edge of a cliff but, past him and out into the never-ending horizon that connected with the ocean, a dark tint of orange covering the sky.
It's the year 2030. More than ten years ago, Dr. Albert W. Wily and Dr. Thomas Xavier Light had proposed to the Department of Robotics a new concept called the Robot Masters after pointing out the flaws that were contained within Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. However, they rejected the Robot Master concept proposal, claiming the Three Laws of Robotics were infallible and that the concept was an unnecessary risk, fearing that robots with true free will could potentially turn against humans. Unlike Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, embarrassed from the rejection, acted out of anger and discontentment; he planned on showing the Department of Robotics that the Three Laws werent infallible.
"I'm... not too sure, Dr. Light," replied Rock. Rock, better known as Mega Man, an advanced robot for its time, had on his iconic light blue armor. He wore what seemed to be gloves, both a blue darker than his body armor, on each hand; his left limply swayed with the nonexistent wind, and his other one was holding onto a blue battle helmet that seemed to be able to fit perfectly on his head. He stood, in boots the same color as his gloves, and his black hair swayed ever so slightly, continually hiding and revealing his cobalt blue eyes.
Wily hacked the Department of Robotics central system and took control of all government robots slaved to the system, and brought the entire country to a standstill. Despite the fact that the Department of Robotics was fairly impressed by his actions, they were nevertheless embarrassed, sacking Wily out of anger. Shortly after humiliating the Department of Robotics, Dr. Wily was disbarred from the scientific community by Mikhail S. Cossack. Disgraced and now left with no will, Wily disappeared, hiding somewhere where nobody could find him. However, the Department, hating what he did, acknowledged the faults in the Three Laws and decided to take action.
"That's very understandable. You have gone through much in the short time after your activation," stated Dr. Light. "But," he started, letting his eyes drift onto Rock, "this is life... This is your life now, Rock."
They went to Dr. Light and, refusing to fund the Robot Master plan, asked for a new plan. At first, Dr. Light brought up the Alpha Initiative plan, which helped lessen the problem, but it didn't completely resolve the problem. So with the X Foundation funding the project, Dr. Light revived the Robot Master plan. He created the Robot Masters mainly for industrial purposes but, in payment for creating these robots, he asked for two prototypes: DLN-001 and DLN-002. However, when the two were created, DLNB002 was stolen, never to be heard from again.
"Yeah," Rock said as his eyes dropped down past the cliff and at the water that crashed against the mountainous terrain, "my life now..."
DLN-001 was spared, and Dr. Light was able to do what he wanted to do with it; program him to be like his own son. Dr. Light, a recent single father to a daughter named Roll M. Light, created and programmed DLN-001 to help fill in the gap in his family. He called him Rock, a robot with free will. Light had successfully been able to fill in the gap that was empty for such a long time; he was finally able to bring his family back together. However, reality refused to let him retain that happiness that he loved and held onto so much.
Rock's eyes began to quiver and water up as he stared at the water. "Dr. Light," he said softly.
The old doctor looked over at Rock and, in a caring look, asked, "Yes?"
One day, disaster struck the city. Wily had returned from hiding, but with more "accomplices". With him, eight robots, having the same buildup as Lights Robot Masters, appeared, bringing terror to the citizens. The citizens ran in shock, hoping to escape the wrath of the now psychotic doctor. The military came and attempted to suppress the invading force; keywords, they attempted to. They, however, failed miserably, and they retreated, falling back to the only person they knew could help them: Doctor Light.
"... Is my free will only an illusion that you programmed into me?" Rock asked.
"Your free will, an illusion?" responded the doctor. "Of course not, Rock. I made it so that you could have the choice to do whatever you wanted to do."
Doctor Light, surprised by the sudden turn of events and shocked by the actions of his old partner and friend, gave his assistance to the military. Knowing full well that his group of Robot Masters didn't have the capability to fight against Wily's, Dr. Light did the only thing he could do; he reverted back to the original prototype of the Robot Masters and unlocked his latent memories and information of combat that he held. DLN-001... Rock had been reverted back to his original purpose, a combat robot. Whether by his own free will or by Light's desire, it did not matter as Rock ran off to counter Wily and his eight Robot Masters.
"If my free will isn't, then," hesitated Rock, "...how come it feels like everything that I've done and accomplished has been devoid of will?" questioned Rock.
"Devoid?" inquired the doctor. "What do you mean?"
It was days before Rock was finally able to down the first Robot Master named Elec Man. It was then that the citizens began to call him Mega Man, in honor of his efforts to do something that the rest of the city didnt do, defend his hometown. However, Wily took note of this and gave no rest to the newly risen hero; he sent in hordes of his creations to prolong and weaken Mega Man, but to no avail. Mega Man defeated the servants of Wily, and did more; as he continually fought against the ever ending attack, his latent abilities continued to awaken more and more. It was only a short time later when another Robot Master fell; this time, it was the notorious Air Man.
"I'm... not too sure, Doctor Light," was all Rock that he could muster. "But, becoming Mega Man, I feel like I didn't really have much of a say in it."
Day after day, Robot Masters began to fall to Mega Man. Bubble Man and Wood Man finally fell to Mega Mans powers. Shortly after, Mega Man finally met one of the three leading Robot Masters, Heat Man, and, after a much difficult battle, came out victorious. Wily was appalled by Mega Man's unexpected victory over Heat Man and decided not to take any chances. But, unfortunately, even after setting up precautions to defeat Mega Man, Wily still saw his Robot Masters fall to the hands of Mega Man. As Mega Man made his way toward Wilys last stand with Metal Man, he began to hope that it would be the end of Wily's terror; however, Mega Man soon found out that it wasn't the end.
Rock waited a few seconds for Dr. Light's response, but when it never came, he turned around, his slightly quivering eyes looking at the doctor. The doctor shifted his brown-gray eyes to the side, averting Rock's cobalt questioning eyes.
When Mega Man confronted Wily and Metal Man, he found one other robot, unknown to him; however, Dr. Light soon discovered it to be a robot named Bass... or, known by Light, DLN-002, the one stolen years ago. As Mega Man fought against the three with much difficulty, Dr. Light was going through much turmoil, having second thoughts about having his son destroying one of his own creations, of destroying what Rock would consider a brother. Light's decision came, but at that point Mega Man was finally able to defeat Metal Man.
"I guess it was true after all…" murmured Rock. Dr. Light looked back at Rock, and Rock finished, "Free will is nothing more than a faint illusion for me…"
"That's not true, Rock. You do have free will," replied Dr. Light. "Weren't you the one who decided to rid yourself of your happiness in order to fight against Dr. Wily?"
Mega Man stared down Bass and Wily, thinking of some opportunity to give him an edge. He blinked and saw a bright blue light covering him, before being teleported away to Light's lab. Dr. Light had chosen to save Bass' life, taking away Rock's opportunity to end Wily's terror.
"Why, Doctor Light?" Mega Man yelled out. "Why did you bring me back!? I could've stopped both of them! I could've ended the terror Wily brought upon us at last!"
"I had to, Rock!" the doctor replied loudly.
"No you didn't!" retorted Mega Man. "Because of you, now we'll never know when we'll have another chance like that to stop Dr. Wily!"
Rock remained silent for a few moments, turning his head back around toward the vast ocean horizon, before bitterly replying, "Was I really the one who decided that?"
"Of course you were, Rock, you-"
"You're the one who programmed me, Doctor Light!" spat Rock. "You're the one who gave me the powerful sense of justice! You're the one who created my thoughts and how I would react to them!"
"But Rock-"
"But what!" Rock turned around and his cobalt eyes bored into Doctor Light's light-gray ones. His breathing had deepened, and the calmness in his eyes was fading away. He thrust his arm forward and pointed at Dr. Light and continued, "I have never seen free will affect my life! My decisions, my actions… they weren't picked based on what I wanted! They were chosen out of the will of everybody else!"
"Rock, Bass was your brother!" explained Doctor Light.
"So what!" replied Mega Man. "He was in an alliance with Dr. Wily! He needed to go down!"
"Rock, he was your brother," Dr. Light replied, gritting his teeth in the process.
"He was in Dr. Wily's plans! Now that you've forced me to retreat, there's nothing at the moment that's stopping Wily from ordering Bass to invade the city again!" cried out Mega Man. "Do you even realize how critical the situation is due to your decision, Doctor Light?"
"Even if I did let you continue your battle, Rock, do you really think your body would have held up much longer?" questioned the doctor. Rock's eyes widened a bit before looking at his body, several "cuts" littered his arm. "My Lightanium isn't indestructible, Rock. You've gotta learn that before you face your limits in a hazardous situation. Now, I want you to allow us to repair you before you go back out there to fight Bass."
Mega Man's eyes dropped and drifted around. He grudgingly nodded his head and followed Dr. Light to another room...
"Rock, listen…" Dr. Light tried to explain.
"No, I'm sick of listening to you. I'm sick of hearing that I have free will!" replied Rock. He flung his arm back and pointed at the ocean, continuing, "Look at that ocean! Does it have anything controlling it? NO! It acts on its own, and I want to do the same! I want to make my decisions based on what I think, not what you programmed into me!"
Dr. Light stared into Rock's eyes, seeing them quiver and noticing the tears forming at the edge of his eyes. "Rock…"
"No! I'm sick of this!" Rock yelled out, shutting his eyes and allowing a tear to flow down. He opened his eyes again and held up his other arm, the helmet reflecting the sun. "You see this?" he asked. He dropped the helmet and it bounced over to Dr. Light's feet. "I give up! I'm tired of all of this fighting. I'm tired of all of the deaths that I've brought…"
"Deaths? You've only disposed of Dr. Wily's creations," commented Light.
"Is that not still murder?" Rock replied harshly.
"Well, yes," stuttered the doctor. "But it was a justified reason for destroying them."
"But murder is still murder, Doctor Light," stated Rock. "I killed countless amounts of lives, Doc, and there's no difference between Dr. Wily's murder and mine."
"But if it weren't for you destroying Dr. Wily's creations, this world would be in a much worse state," explained Dr. Light.
Rock put his back to Dr. Light and stared out into the calming ocean. His mouth opened and he tried to form words, but nothing came out. He took a sigh before finally being able to say, "I'm sorry, Doc-… Dad, but all of this fighting… it's become so pyrrhic…" Rock said, his voice weakening. "All of this fighting has become so meaningless. There's no need for me to be fighting this battle any longer." Rock closed his eyes one more time, another tear flowing down his cheek, before his hair began to gently flow upwards.
"No!" Dr. Light said as he reached over to Rock, but only too late. Rock turned into a bright, blue beam and shot upwards. Light dropped down to his knees and stared up at the sky but then, after his mind fully comprehended the situation, stared out into the ocean. "Rock…"