Arrogance
Ruby Spears fic by Teribane
Rating - T
Summary - Wily is not a kind man. He's fond of his Robot Masters - or most of them - and treats them well when he's happy. But it's all too easy to forget that he can't always be happy... Quick oneshot. -Ruby Spears cartoon-
AN - I blame lalalei for this. Again. -_- Pesky plot bunnies.
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Shouting. It was easily heard in the top floor of Skull Fortress, in the "command" room - the one right behind the structure the building was named after. And it was loud - as Cutman stepped up to the door, he paused for a moment, then decided that right now was not a good time and turned away. He stepped quickly to the stairs, then shook his head and burst into a full out run. Now was not only a bad time to bother Wily and his... visitor, it was probably a bad time to even be within a few miles. Let alone right outside the door.
"Well, excuse me if I didn't know everything you were planning! I thought we were losing, so I took what I thought was the best course of action! I can't exactly read your mind, you know, and if you don't tell me what you're going to do I can't always expect it!"
"You had your orders! You're supposed to follow them! Or don't you remember who's the robot here, and who's the creator?"
"Wily, what you seem to not remember is that I'm not a mindless drone - unlike some of your other Robot Masters! I look around, I see we're all about to get captured, and then what? Just follow orders? Okay, I screwed up whatever fancy intricate little plot you had this time, but it's not like I'm the only one at fault here! Yes, I follow your orders - when it's a horrible idea not to!"
The Doctor's eyes are glaring beads. This is one of those times that he looks truly insane, instead of just sounding like it when you listen to him for longer than a minute or so. In a deceptively soft tone, he states, "You're forgetting your place, Proto..."
But the red-grey robot is too angry to just stop right now. "Besides, it's not as if Mega-dweeb wouldn't have messed with your plan anyway! Your last... what, twenty little plans have failed because of him - what makes you think this one would've been any different? In fact, it'd have been worse, since if this one messed up, we'd all get stuck in prison - or you'd get stuck in prison, and the rest of us reprogrammed to be 'good' bots! It's probably a good thing I was the one who screwed it up, so at least we managed to get away!"
"That's it!" Wily shouts, slamming a fist into the table he's standing over. "I'm sick of this! Override - ALPHA^DR2!"
Protoman spasms for a second, then straightens with an angry glare. "What? What did you do?"
Wily grins, suddenly seeming calm and unruffled. "Protoman - freeze."
The robot stops in his place with a tiny startled noise, then tries to move again - but can't. His body shuddering slightly, fingers convulsing where they hang near his side, but he can't move.
Wily is still smiling. But not a friendly smile, not happy - almost deranged. This is not a smile you'd like to meet walking down a dark alley.
He steps up to the robot and lifts his left arm. "Form your blaster."
Protoman manages to resist for a long, stretched moment, then grimaces. His hand pulls back into his arm.
And Wily is still smiling. He points the blaster under the robot's chin, aiming at his neck, and that's when you can see, for a single second, a flash of fear. Wily's mouth stretches all the wider at that flash."You forget, Proto -"
You forget that Wily is not a kind man. He, like any other human being, has emotions - including sentimentality. If he builds you, and you manage to survive longer than a few days, he will get attached.
But there's still a number of Robot Masters that failed in those first days - usually because of Megaman. And those he's scrapped. Painfully. Ripped apart and crushed to death, and then what's left of them recycled to make new robots.
You forget that Wily won't hesitate if he you haven't satisfied him long enough for him to become fond of you. He doesn't have many resources, and he's trying to take over the world. He can't spare useless robots. He's stretching himself very thin as it is, especially with Megaman stopping him from stealing more supplies or even money to buy them with.
You forget that Wily is insane. He has enough sanity left to be rational - most of the time. But you can never predict what he'll do when he's angry. He may be angry enough to do something he'll regret later - such as destroying one of the robots he is fond of. He's done it before. He's managed to restrain himself from doing it to his right hand so far - but that was before.
You forget how angry Wily is right now. He's learned to bear your disobedience on the subject of your brother - it doesn't matter who destroys him, after all, and you're one of his strongest robots. And if you manage to convince Megaman to join you, all the better - Megaman is a formidable force, and destroying him is not Wily's first goal - taking over the world is. If he can do that and somehow get Megaman to stop interfering without destroying him, Wily can settle for that.
But disobedience on any other orders - Wily does not tolerate that. And the subject hasn't come up often, but now that it has -
Protoman lets a small whimper escape, and hates himself for it. And there's no point hoping that Wily didn't hear it - the crazy sparkle in the mad scientist's eyes attests to that.
"Now then, " Wily comments, almost conversationally, "I could just order you to shoot your own head off, and you wouldn't be able to stop yourself."
Proto cringes, his eyes flicking quickly to the blaster at his throat and then back up to meet Wily's - if through his visor. Interesting, that he doesn't shrink from battle, where he could just as easily get destroyed, and is so much more afraid of this - but he's scared of being helpless. Even if he won't admit that he's scared of anything to anyone.
"But... I don't think I will. Next time, remember who's the master here, hmm?"
Wily's obviously waiting for him to say something. Protoman manages to squeeze out a short, "Yes, Doctor."
"Now get out."
There's a flash of yellow scarf and the robot is gone.
As he runs, Proto wonders why he still can't hate Wily.