Greetings Rockman (Mega Man) Classic fans! As a rabid Blues (Proto Man) fangirl it is my DUTY to write at least one fic going over the stiff this fic does. Namely: why does Blues leave, where does he go, what does he do? The first chapter is about Blues shortly before he mysteriously disappeared, how he did and a little of the why. I use the Japanese names, because they're easier to write. And I like puns. As the story progresses (if I ever get more written) I'll make sure to have translations of the names ready for you guys. However, there will be no actual Japanese. This is based as much on the game canon as possible and that means the actual events take place in America. Anyways, if you enjoy the fic please let me know. I need encouragement to keep at it or I get bored and go back to spriting or something.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. None, at least none in this chapter. I don't own the basic premise this story is based on, I do own this story though.
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It was another normal day at Light Wily Labs, like so many that had come before. The labs were clean, tidy, and humming with activity, it was amazing that humans could run anything on such a large scale so efficiently. Or so Blues thought as he navigated his way to one of the computer labs on the other side of the complex. Every week like clockwork he made this journey to the computer labs where Dr. Light would run diagnosis programs to test how stable his operating systems were, to make sure his checks and balances system was running correctly, and to measure how well his program was adapting to an ever changing environment.
Blues neither liked nor disliked the tests or the journey across the vast laboratory complex. He saw the journey as a sort of test as he only made the journey once with anyone to guide or watch him. And even on the first trip he was required to walk back on his own to the larger warehouse where final products were stored and had their physical testing done. Since then he had made the journey to and from the computer labs without guide or guardian. Though, as Blues rationalized, he was most likely under surveillance somehow to make sure he didn't do anything unexpected or possibly dangerous.
That didn't stop Blues from neither enjoying nor detesting the weekly journey. He walked the same path he had always walked, avoiding the technicians, mechanics, programmers, interns, and other people going up, down, and across the hallways. Well, maybe today he wouldn't take the usual route per se, as on one occasion the usual route had been completely blocked and he had to find an alternate route. Since then he sometimes took that route for a change of pace, or found a new one just for the sheer interest of looking at something he had conceivably never seen before. There was no danger in this since the entire complex was uniformly built with hallways and laboratories clearly labeled to make finding one's way easy. Dr. Light had commented on this but not disallowed it, he rather seemed delighted. So Blues kept on finding different routes from time to time as a way to amuse himself.
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Dr. Light was waiting for him, holding a clipboard, beaming down at his first fully functional android quite proudly. "Good morning, Blues. I'm glad to see you made it safely."
"I always do, Dr. Light," replied Blues evenly, a slight smirk on his lips. He never seemed to show much emotion to anyone, but slowly little bits such as smugness or disappointment crept in here and there. Light smiled at Blues, he was pleased that the android looked as if to be developing a bit of personality, small as it may seem.
"Today will be a little different," started Dr. Light. "We're going to run a full systems test rather than the usual platform testing. Dr. Wily and I think it's about time to collect a bit more data than usual to see how you've come along in the past couple months since your activation." Dr. Light beamed proudly at Blues, it was clear he thought the data they collected every day was a good indicator of itself but Wily was a bit more cautious and wanted to take some more concrete measurements as well. "Now why don't you sit right here on this table while I hook you up?" Dr. Light indicated the table he was standing next then started preparing the diagnosis machinery.
Dr. Light went about hooking Blues up to the first diagnostic machine. He meticulously opened panels hidden over Blues's surface, discernible only by tiny creases in his synthetic skin. "How did you like the latest robotics conference?" Dr. Light tried to keep himself and Blues entertained during these otherwise seemingly dull diagnostic runs by conversing with Blues. In the two months and three weeks since Blues was first activated he had been to a grand total of four conventions. That was nearly one every third week! And there was another scheduled in another fortnight and two days, the most recent one having happened but two days ago! Of course Dr. Light and Wily were proud, Blues was the first fully autonomous artificial intelligence housed in a humanoid body to ever be created. They were showing him off and the other scientists were eager to see him.
"It was the same as the other conferences before it. I believe that all robotics conferences appear to be about the same." And they were, he was paraded around, the doctors gave some lectures, they sat through some lectures, then other scientists came up to the doctors and Blues and started poking, prodding, and inspecting Blues as if he weren't a sentient being that could hear everything they said.
The doctor nodded as he finished hooking up the wires. "But did you enjoy yourself?" Blues suspected this was another test, it seemed everything everyone said to Blues was calculated to test his responses and draw conclusions to be added to the next scientific paper to be published.
"I am neither fond of not abhor the robotics conferences." Blues smiled wanly, he had said similar sentences about many things since his "birth." Light seemed convinced Blues would develop preferences eventually but that didn't seem to be the case.
Light sighed as he finished hooking up the wires and continued absently as he started up the machine, "Dr. Wily seemed pleased with the last conference."
"Oh?" Blues perked up the slightest bit. He had never gotten to really know Dr. Wily because he was hardly ever in the Labs. Light seemed to be the one in charge of overseeing the projects for the company while Wily mostly stayed over at the corporate headquarters.
"Yes, he said there were some highly interested investors. Pretty soon we may have enough funding to work on more androids like you." Light was now staring intently at the screen as he typed on the attached keyboard, only half paying attention to what he or Blues said.
There was a silence as Blues processed the information he was just given. "More androids like me?"
"Oh yes. You were a bit expensive, being the prototype and all. It took quite a bit to get the funds together to build you, but with new investors we should be able to start making more and at less of a cost. Wily explained it all to me but I didn't get half of it." Light continued absently tapping at the keyboard and intently staring at the screen as information scrolled down it. Blues decided not to respond. Besides, even if he did Light was so engrossed in what was on the monitor that he probably wouldn't notice if Blues did anything short of run screaming from the room.
The rest of the afternoon wore on in a similar manner: Light would chatter while hooking or unhooking cables, wires, and such between Blues and various diagnostics computers of varying kinds then lapsed into silence while the diagnostics were running. Blues answered question asked him in the manner he always did and was silent while the doctor was. Then finally, Light had finished with the last machine. "That wasn't so bad, now was it?"
"Why would it be 'so bad'?" Blues asked.
Light chuckled, "Well, my boy, most humans don't enjoy this sort of thing. We find having an exam to be tedious and intrusive. Though I suppose you wouldn't find it as intrusive as a human would."
"I suppose not," Blues replied evenly. He sat on the examining table, waiting obediently for his next order.
Light cleared his throat, "Why don't you run along back to your quarters? I have a lot of data to go over and discuss with Wily." Blues dutifully slipped down from the table, left the room, and started his return journey across the complex back to the warehouse where his quarters were. Light watched as he walked out of sight, then sagged as he picked up a printout and scanned down the readouts. "It's as we feared..."
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Blues calmly finished his journey to his quarters, opened the door and closed it quietly, then just as calmly picked up the nearest object and calmly hurled it at the wall. No, he wasn't calm at all! He ran his fingers through his hair in a quick, unconscious imitation of his creators, then sat down on his bed.
His quarters were rather sparse, what did an android need? A bed, a nightstand with a lamp beside that, a desk with a chair and computer, and a little mirror with a comb as well as a closet with some clothes. The comb and clothes were mostly for the robotics conventions because he hardly ever wore civilian clothing while inside the laboratories. Blues sighed, staring blankly at the desk and computer. Truthfully he hated the conventions, the testing, being treated like a science experiment.
Sure, the attention was fun at first, but Blues quickly felt smothered by it all. He hadn't understood the feeling until the first robotics convention. Until the moment that he was formally introduced as the first fully functional autonomous android everyone but the Light and Wily had thought he was a normal human boy. Possibly one of the scientists' child or grandchild, and had treated him as thus. It was a nice feeling, not to be poked, prodded, or inspected the way he was shortly afterwards. Blues longed for that normalcy again. Or least a little more freedom.
And now... now there were going to be more. Probably with his exact face. He would be obsolete, just a prototype and probably considered far inferior to anything to come next. He was the Model A and the Model T was about to be introduced. What would happen to him now? Probably discarded like all other obsolete machines. Or worse, put into a museum next to the first computer. Blues shuddered at the thought. Well, maybe he would just save them the trouble. He smiled at the thought, why not? He could eat, he had the clothes, he looked human enough unless you knew what to look for. He could just dress as a civilian, slip out, and disappear. Go exploring, see the world.
Blues's smile turned into a wide grin as he thought about it. Then he quickly moved over to the closet and began sorting out his clothes. A long sleeved shirt, pants, a scarf and hat since it was late autumn and chilly out. He grabbed a jacket as well, hoping he wouldn't look too warm once he got out. Getting out shouldn't be too hard if he was casual about it. If that didn't work there were other ways to get out. Windows, emergency exits, the ventilation system, the possibilities were near endless.
Blues dressed quickly, then typed something on the computer. When he was satisfied with what he had done, he quietly slipped out of his room and made his way down the corridor. With any luck he could slip out with the other interns and such going home for the day.
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Light sat in Wily's office explaining the readouts from the tests he had run on Blues earlier that day. Light had to explain the readouts rather than let Wily look over them himself because even though Wily did technically have a doctorates in robotics he had never really been very good at it. If they hadn't met and become friends in graduate school Wily would probably be some third rate assistant for the lead roboticist at some other company or some such thing. As it stood Light never regretted this because he was much happier letting Wily take care of the tedious business of actually running the company and being the charismatic figurehead. Light was happiest alone in his labs fiddling eternally with this one last circuit board in his latest project.
"Look," summed up Light, "this readout means there's a drastic flaw in his power systems. If we shut him down and do some work on him we can repair it before it becomes a problem."
Wily nodded and was thoughtful a moment. "How much would it cost though?" Always the bottom line for Wily.
Light sighed and dropped the papers on Wily's desk, leaning back in the chair in front of it. "Does it matter? We can afford the cost for repairing Blues, we can't afford to lose our poster boy."
"We're about to start making more androids, Blues has served his purpose for now. We can simply shut him down and leave it at that."
"I beg to differ," countered Light quickly. "We haven't made the new models yet, and we both know those will be more industrial than Blues is. Blues is a good all around show piece that's versatile and life-like. Besides, how would it look if we shut him down for having a power core flaw? It'd look like we couldn't repair him, like we didn't even try. And our investors might wonder if everything we've built so far has this fatal flaw."
Wily sighed, "You're right you know. Even though the real reason you want to fix him is because you're so attached to your little masterpiece."
"Our masterpiece," Light reminded him.
Wily harumphed. "I suppose you're right about that part." Wily didn't seem like he meant it, he almost looked a little jealous as he said it. "What's the 'bot up to right now anyways?"
"Last we checked he was surfing the web. Should we tell him now or wait until tomorrow?"
"May as well wait until tomorrow, we can start making arrangements now but we can't do anything tonight. Just make sure you actually sleep some time tonight."
"You don't have to mother me, Wily. I haven't pulled an all nighter for a while now." They both chuckled over memories of nights past staying up until the sun rose working on some project or other in a garage when they were in their younger years. "See you tomorrow." Light rose to leave.
"Yes, see you tomorrow." Wily got up and patted Light on the back as he left.
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Things weren't so congenial the next morning when it was discovered Blues was missing. Light had gone to fetch him personally to break the bad news and had found the room empty, Blues's computer surfing the web all by itself. It seemed he had set up a simple 'bot to click random links in some sort of encyclopedia site. Of course Light panicked and now the whole lab was in an uproar as they searched for the missing prototype.
When Wily found out he was furious. Light had told him personally when Wily arrived at the company that morning. Light was worried and meek, but Wily became furious and yelled quite a bit. Wily blamed Light for Blues's disappearance. And when they found the surveillance tape of Blues just waltzing out of the complex with a group of specialists and interns Wily blamed the shoddy security and negligent employees. The people who were on the tape and the security on shift at the time were found, questioned, then fired. Light wanted to just reprimand them but Wily wouldn't budge. They had just lost a multi-million dollar product and heads will roll! Never mind he wanted the product in question shut down just the day before.
"You know Wily, it is possible Blues will come back eventually." Light was tired, it was the end of a long day and nothing had gotten done. Now they were at least a day behind on nearly every project the company had been working on besides Blues. It would take probably the better part of the week to get back into the swing of things and Wily was faced with a great deal of spin control ahead of him trying to keep this under wraps. He would have to explain that the android had gone missing but for now it was best to keep it quiet until they found out where he had gone and why. Hopefully Light was right and the wayward android would return on his own.
"I don't want to hear it right now Light. Just leave me alone." Light silently left the room and let Wily pace and worry on his own. Light hoped this wouldn't destroy their friendship, thought it would probably never be the same again. Light decided to take his mind off Blues for a bit by working on the designs for the new androids. The work had to be done and there was nothing more that could be done for Blues at the moment. Light was tired but he knew he couldn't get any sleep right now. As he ambled through the labs he looked around him and wondered how Blues must have seen it to just up and leave one night without so much as a "good bye" note.