I decided to try something different and go with a Lupin III story. This one will be ... really strange, believe me. Enjoy!
Also I don't own Lupin.
A loud thunder crash Jolted Jigen out of his peaceful sleep. Well, it would've been peaceful had he been sleeping on a nice bed instead of the backseat of this old car. Or even a nice couch, anything was better than waking up with a crick in his neck. Or Pain in his back. Or stiff knees. Overall, sleeping in the backseat of a small, yellow car was not a pleasant experience. He sat up straight in his seat and messaged the side of his neck with his left hand, yawning.
"Are we there yet, Boss?" Jigen asked in is cool, rough voice.
"Good morning to you too, Jigen" Lupin the Third said from the front seat, both of his hands tightly squeezed on steering wheel, "And no, we're not there yet."
Jigen gave out another yawn, his mouth wider than before, then leaned forward to set his face closer to Lupin's body, "How much longer?"
"Just about half an hour Jigen, stop being so impatient and wish me a good morning!"
"Fine, fine …" Jigen growled, "Good morning, your majesty, would you like your tea weak or strong?"
"That's better, I suppose." Lupin sighed.
Jigen sat back in his seat, taking out a bent cigarette and placing it in his mouth. He turned to the window, the vision of lush green evergreens and the grey sky blurred by the hard, pounding rain against the window. In the front window, the windshield wipers were working their hardest just to give the Red-Jacket thief a clear vision of the soaked road ahead. Suddenly, the vision of the trees were obscured by a dull-grey tunnel, its fluorescent lights flashing as the car drove by. "So boss," Jigen began, "Why are we going to some abandoned city?"
"Jigen, you've been with me for over 20 years, now." Lupin said skeptically, "Why else do you think we're going to an abandoned city?"
"Lemmie guess, you've found out about some treasure there." Jigen answered.
"Bingo." Lupin said, "But this treasure has some history behind it, as does the city." Lupin slowed the car to a crawl and finally stopped it at a fork in the road, the left tunnel blocked off with several planks of wood nailed down. Both Lupin and Jigen crawled out of the tiny Fiat to stare at the entrance. Lupin took a moment to crawl back in to grab two crowbars from the front seat, throwing one to Jigen. "You aught to know what to do with this, Jigen."
Jigen nodded and proceeded to jab the crowbar into the wood, yanking the wood off. Soon after, Lupin joined the gunman in forcing the wood off of the entrance. Soon, the wood gave way and revealed the tunnel, its fluorescent lights broken and hanging off the ceiling. The street in there was cracked and faded with time. Jigen glanced at Lupin, seeing him smile that familiar, scheming, cat-like smile.
"Jigen, my friend …" He began, "We are going to the abandoned city of Citas."
"Citas, huh?" Jigen said, giving one last puff of his cigarette before throwing it down to the ground, mashing it with his heel, "What's waiting for us there?"
"Get in the car and I'll explain a long the way." Lupin said, walking back to the Fiat.
Jigen promptly followed, taking residence in the front seat this time, closing the door with a soft slam. Lupin urged the car forward, taking the entrance that they were previously working hard on revealing. The headlights flashed on as the tunnel got darker as they ventured on.
"Y'see, Jigen, this City was once the cream of the crop: It had every technological advancement known to man, a long the way, saving energy and time." Lupin began, "Scientists were so proud of their accomplishments, they decided to work a step further."
Rain started to pound hard on the car again, signaling to Jigen they were out of the Tunnel. He took a look out the window, revealing decrepit ruins of a once glorious city – Building burnt out and half destroyed, bridges bent to the ground, streets lined with crevasses and pot holes – he could only imagine what could've happened here.
"A step further?" Jigen asked, "How could they top this?"
"Well, Jigen, when you've replaced everything obsolete with a new and better thing, from Buildings to toasters and everything in between …" Lupin looked at Jigen, "What do you think we have left to replace?"
Jigen did not answer. He only stared at the thief.
"Man, Jigen." Lupin said, "The only thing left we can replace is the entire human species."
"The scientists there decided to play god?"
"Well, not exactly." Lupin said, once again stopping the car in front of a destroyed section of the road, getting out of the car. Jigen soon followed, staring at the enormous buildings surrounding them.
"They wanted to create something like a human, but not exactly. Something to replace the police force and fire squad at first, but then became a full scale population." Lupin turned on his heel, frowning, "They created Robotic Operating Man or ROMs for short. They were invented by a scientist named Jean Macbeth, a hidden scientist among the geniuses of the world. He secluded himself here, building these machines to serve everyday purposes. They were the top of bio-mechanical creations, Jigen. They had the power to think, feel, create, and make conscious decisions on their own. They were basically human, but underneath all that skin beat the mechanical heart of a robot. The only way of telling that and a human apart was to strip them naked –." Lupin paused to notice Jigen's scowl "- they had no reproductive organs, Jigen."
"Lemmie guess what happened …" Jigen said, "Because these robots were free thinkers, they decided that they were superior to the human race and decided to kill them off in here."
"That's a nice guess, Jigen, but that's a science fiction ending. Have any more geusses?"
Jigen remained silent.
"No Jigen, while the ROMs were free thinkers, they remained loyal to their creators and kept the fundamental rules of robotics in their programs." Lupin turned to Jigen, "You read 'i-robot', you tell me those rules."
"Gladly." Jigen said, thinking. "The first law is that a robot may not injure a human being, or allow a human being to be harmed."
Jigen continued. "The second law is that a Robot must obey the orders given by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law."
"And the third?" Lupin asked, smiling.
"A Robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law."
"Yep. Simple and straightforward." Lupin said with a smirk, "Those rules were set in stone, and Macbeth made sure they followed those rules. Get out of line …" Lupin threw his index finger at the direction of a certain structure, "And you were up against Yggdrasil."
"Yggdrasil?" Jigen asked, pushing his signature fedora with his thumb, "As in the Norse myth about the tree of life?"
"Yes, Jigen. That tree lived up to its name. That Tree drew power from the earth and sun and used the energy to give life to all these ROMs." Lupin sighed in content, pulling out his own cigarette. "For a while, there was peace. These Robots were courteous, kind, helpful, and energy saving. They didn't need to eat, sleep, or even use the bathroom."
"So then … what happened?"
Lupin lit his cigarette, and then proceeded to stare at the tree with a pensive face. "Humans got angry."
Lupin turned to Jigen. "I would be angry too, feeling threatened by the thought of practically being replaced by a synthetic version of themselves. They started riots, rallies, petitions, anything to stop the production of these ROMs. Finally, a man took it one step further … and implanted a virus within the Yggdrasil Tree, infecting every ROM there was.
"Something went haywire, though … the Virus made the ROMs go from kind citizen to crazed mad-man. Apparently, the Virus was only supposed to wipe out the memory of the ROMs, making the incapable of doing anything. But the Yggdrasil tree had some sort of 'Antivirus'. When the tree tried to boot that up, the virus attacked it head-on. Something in it when 'kablooie', and basically, it activated a sort of defense mechanism that basically told the ROMs that if it wasn't mechanic, it had to be destroyed.
"Now, the scientists were naturally worried, so they went to work right away on a new type of ROM that would help cure this problem. They called her R.A.I.N. Robot And Interface Network. She had the power to directly work with the Yggdrasil Tree. She was basically an incarnation of the tree. She, too, was built with an Antivirus, one that was hoped to cure the problem and bring back piece. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case …
"Y'see, Jigen, The Virus wouldn't go down easily. While she couldn't be infected, she couldn't exactly fight the Virus. The Tree also saw her as a sort of Virus, too, making it harder for her to fight the Virus. So the only option left was to shut down the tree. R.A.I.N. did just that, shutting herself off, thus causing a chain reaction to shut the tree and the ROMs off. After that, the remaining human survivors decided to pack up and leave. With Jean Macbeth's reputation completely tarnished, he had no way of taking his treasure with him. Therefore, he left it behind here, leaving clues to the whereabouts in R.A.I.N."
"Lemmie guess."Jigen said, "The old coot died before he could get his treasure."
"Right on." Lupin answered.
"Y'know, boss, you sure do find the strangest of places." Jigen said as he got into the car. "How did you find out about this place?"
"Internet."
Jigen stared.
Lupin shrugged, "You can find just about anything on there."
---
A half an hour of driving more, give or take about 10 minutes taken to maneuver in, out, through or around crevasses, and finally the master thief and the gunman reached an unusually shaped building – it was perfectly rectangular until about 30 stories up, when it looked as if a random panel had been jabbed through the building. To the naked eye standing directly under the building, no one would be able to see the solar panels that giant panel was built with, taking in the sun's energies and harvesting them for future use.
"Of course," Lupin mumbled, "There's no need for those solar panels anymore, seeing how no one lives here anymore."
"Hey, boss." Jigen began, "How do we know what this 'R.A.I.N.' fellow looks like? By the size of that tree, there had to be a lot of 'em."
"4,677 precisely, Jigen, and over 200 either inactivated or still in production. The more ROMs there were, the bigger the tree grew to accommodate for those ROMs. But no worries, Jigen. This place is one of the Tree's 3 main control panels, not to mention Macbeth's home turf where he made his office. If anything, I'm willing to bet there's something in there that will point us to her." Lupin said, putting one last device into his brown pack, throwing it over his shoulder.
"You're assuming Rain's a girl?" Jigen asked.
"Well, Rain is a pretty feminine name."
"Hey, Boss …" Jigen started, staring at Lupin, "I just realized something. Where's Goemon? Or even Fujiko?"
"You know those two." Lupin said, walking up to the gunman's side, "They'll join us one way or another eventually. I'm just not sure when." Lupin turned to Jigen, "I don't know where Fujiko is, and when I told all this to Goemon, he just said 'I'll think about it'. Something tells me he's actually afraid to go."
"What about Zenigata?"
"Wouldn't be a heist without him chasing our tails. I left him a note like usual, but really there's no telling when he'll arrive. Well, either way, it's just you and me." Lupin made a spectacle of himself, bowing so elegantly like a regular gentleman would. "After you!"
Jigen nodded and walked up to the huge entrance of the building, using his strength to pry it open. When the door was wide enough, Lupin and Jigen slipped into an abandoned lobby. Bodies of these ROMs were scattered about, even a few behind the desk.
"Something bothers me, Lupin." Jigen announced as they approached the desk, "You said yourself that these ROMs were created to replace the police and the fire squad, so why did Macbeth decide to create more?"
"Hell if I know, Jigen." Lupin answered, leaping over the counter of the desk, "Perhaps he did want to play God. Maybe he thought doing so would lead to a better future. Maybe he was just crazy." Lupin searched through dozens of papers scattered in the drawer until he pulled one out, smiling. "Ah, here we are, a map! Now according to this map, Macbeth's office should be … level 31, section T, right wing." He folded the map, stuffing it into his pocket "Okay, Jigen, we have our heading."
"Yo, boss, I hate to be a drag, but …" Jigen turned his face towards the elevator doors, and then turned his face all around the room, finally resting his gaze back on Lupin. "The electricity seems to be out here. And there aren't stairs. Have an idea on how to get there?"
Lupin smiled, stuffed his hand inside the brown pack he brought with him and pulled out what looked close to be a grappling gun. "The archaic way."
After some effort forcing the elevator doors open, finding that the elevator was on the ground level, they slipped in and removed the door in the roof to gain access to the elevator shaft. Lupin carefully aimed and shot the grappling gun, the hook landing on the edge of the 31st elevator door. Lupin took the liberty of lifting himself up to the doors, forcing them open (Which wasn't an easy feat when you only had 6 inches of floor space to maneuver). Afterward, Lupin threw the gun back down to Jigen, who repeated the process save for the door part, and finally after a half an hour of working, they were successfully on the 31st floor.
"See? We got up here easily." Lupin said, putting the grappling gun back in his pack, fetching the map he got from the desk, "Now, lets see … I think we're in section R in the right wing, we should head this way …"
Lupin started to walk down a labyrinth of a hallway, turning every which way to get to Macbeth's office with Jigen, following close behind. After at least 5 minutes of walking, they finally found themselves at the door labeled 'Jean Macbeth O.L.C'.
"O.L.C.?" Jigen asked, "What on earth does that mean?"
"You ask too many questions, Jigen!" Lupin said, putting his hand on the doorknob, "We're a step closer to finding Macbeth's treasure."
Lupin turned the knob and opened the door, but what he saw next left him wide eyed and his mouth hung agape. Inside Macbeth's office, the walls were lined with glass containers big enough to hold a man inside, many of the broken and covered with dust. Wires and glass shards were spilled across the floor and the room was almost dark, only one source of a dull-green light coming from one container at the end of the room and the glowing computer monitor beside it. Lupin braved going in first, being wary of the loose glass and wires surrounding his feet. Jigen followed closely after, the two approaching the Computer and the glowing container. Upon closer observations, Lupin and Jigen noticed that housed inside the container was a female shaped ROM. The female laid in this container with her eyes closed, her arms cross over her chest.
"That must be Rain." Jigen finally said after a moment of silence. "That was quick and easy. Now what do we do?"
"Now we find some way to read her memory." Lupin said, sitting at the computer desk and madly typing away at the computer, "Maybe this will help us. It seems to be directly linked to Rain so …"
The thief typed away on the keyboard, numbers and letters lining up in columns and rows on the monitor screen. Jigen decided this was the best time to take a smoking break, slipping his lean body between two containers and lighting a cigarette. After letting out a puff of smoke, Jigen turned his head towards Lupin. "How much longer are you going to take?"
"No tellin' Jigen." Lupin responded, not looking at Jigen, "It might take me a little while to break through this thing. Macbeth's programs and certainly weird, half the time I don't know what I'm doin- what the …"
Jigen slipped back out from between the containers and walked over to Lupin, seeing the source of the thief's confusion. The monitor was being filled with windows opening up and certain programs being activated. Finally, a message blinked across the screen, flashing the words 'Yggdrasil Reboot'. Lupin finally felt panicked enough to get up and back away a few steps from the computer when the electricity suddenly turned on, the container with R.A.I.N. in it suddenly glowing brighter.
"Lupin …" Jigen growled through his teeth. "What did you do …?"
"I didn't do it!!" Lupin cried, throwing his hands over his head.
The thief and the gunman turned towards Rain's container upon hearing glass splintering. Jigen noticed that the ROM opened her eyes, moving slowly inside the container.
"I think it's time to jet, friend." Lupin said, backing away from the awaking ROM.
Jigen followed suit, backing away from her and towards the door, taking out his magnum in the process. Before Lupin could get a hand on the doorknob, though, the glass finally shattered, sending sharp shards hurling towards the two. They instinctively covered their faces with their arms, but found that not a shard of glass pierced through their skin on any part. In fact, none of the glass shards made impact on anything. When the two men realized this, they lowered their arms and saw that the glass shards were floating in mid air. The men's mouths hung agape as they saw this, the glass suddenly dropping on the floor. Lupin and Jigen looked at the addition of the new shattered glass on the floor before looking up to Rain, strands of Grey-blue hair hanging over her bare shoulders, her grey, emotionless eyes scanning the two for a moment.
Finally, after a moment, her emotionless eyes became full of life, a look of worry filling her face. It was soon replaced with anger as the ROM marched up to Lupin and promptly slapped him across the face.
"OUCH! Hey!" Lupin yelled, rubbing the red mark on his cheek, "I haven't even introduced myself …"
"You idiot!" The Rom yelled, "Don't you realize what you've done?!"
Lupin and Jigen looked at each other for a moment before looking back at her, shaking their heads sideways.
"I'm connected to the Yggdrasil tree! Reactivating me meant reactivating the tree, which in turn reactivated all the ROMs in this city!!" She yelled, exasperated, "The ROMs are still infected with the virus!! You two are in danger!!"
Jigen actually dropped his Magnum upon hearing the unpleasant news.
HA! You thought there couldn't be such a thing as Zombie Robots! WELL I MADE ZOMBIE ROBOTS! WAHAHA!!
will update sporadically.