"Awaken, Rock!" exclaimed a booming, yet gentle voice. Light began to flood the young robot's previously darkened eyes. The light was blinding. It was beautiful. It was all the boy could do to keep from crying at it's beauty. To this boy, who breathed for the first time, who lived for the first time, everything seemed beautiful. Things big seemed amazing for their complexity, and things small for their simplicity. It was through these pure eyes that the world's first sentient robot gazed upon his creators for the first time. He blinked.
One was a larger man, his hair a crisp shade of white, but not a shade gained from age and fatigue, but, rather, the pure white of a man who's lived a long, happy life. The other was a more slender man, bald atop his head, with tufts of gray hair shooting out at the sides. He looked tired, as if he had toiled endlessly, but the smile on his face spoke only of the fruits of his labor, rather than it's stress. The two men were beaming at this new life, and he had no idea why. Nonetheless, the air of joy in the room seemed too contagious to resist. It was at that moment, that the young robot first smiled.
"Hello, Rock. I am Dr. Thomas Light, and this is my colleague, Dr. Albert Wily. We are your creators. We toiled endlessly in the hopes of creating a robot that is free to shape it's own life, with it's own decisions. You, Rock, are the fruits of that labor," said the larger man, with a gentle tone to his voice. Rock couldn't help but stare at the man. Not in disbelief, no, the fact that he could access Google with his frontal lobe informed him that the man spoke the truth. But, rather, he stared to absorb as many details about the man as he could. Of particular note, was the man's eyes. They sparkled with life, and radiated kindness. The other man's eyes did not seem so kind. His eyes looked dull and weary, and yet still, somehow, shone with a satisfaction.
The smaller, weary doctor spoke for the first time in the boy's presence, "So, is it just going to stare at us, or can it talk?" Rock wanted to respond, truly he did, but he simply couldn't stop staring, absorbing as much about his environment as he could. He began to look around at other things in the room. He saw many gadgets, tools, trinkets, and toys. He saw designs that confused him, and flickering lights that amused him. All the while, he had a smile seemingly plastered onto his face. Were he not a mere two minutes old, he might have been able to tell that the lab was an absolute wreck, with empty containers of food lying around, oil-stained lab coats, scrapped blueprints, and various other pieces of filth lying around. But, as he was, he couldn't tell the difference between clean and filth, and even if he could've, he wouldn't have cared. He was too engrossed in his studies of everything around him.
He began to walk around the room, mouth agape at all that he saw. Something caught his eye. It was a strange, flickering box with an image inside of it. There appeared to be a person inside, a lean man in a red jacket with blue pants. Instead of whitish hair, which, based on experience, Rock guessed to be the norm, the man sported wild black hair. On his head was a small yellow hat with a red band around it. Under one of his eyes, there was a small scar. The man had several other people of varying shapes and sizes surrounding him. One wore a white shirt, with greenish-black pants, and a strange green belt. Rock sat down in front of the strange box, and stared at the screen, carefully noting every sight and sound. "Oi, Luffy!" called the man in white. The man in the hat stopped what he was doing and turned to face the man in white.
"He hasn't even said one word. Are you sure he can? Is he mute? Or just dumb?" the wiry man asked the larger man. "Relax, Albert, he's probably just trying to absorb as much as he can. And, who are we to deny food for a hungry mind?" said Dr..... Light was it?
Rock stood up and looked at the doctors. Finally, he spoke. "Oi! Dr. Light!" the boy said in his best imitation of the man on the screen. "At last, it speaks!" exclaimed Wily. "Oh hush Albert. So, Rock, how are you feeling? Does anything hurt?" quizzed Dr. Light, trying to sound as gentle as he could.
"I feel fine, I guess." Rock responded, not really knowing what to say. "What's that?" he said, pointing to the flickering box.
"Ha ha. That, my boy, is a television. It is a device used for recreation. It receives a signal from the satellite, and produces an image based on the information relayed by the satellite. Did you understand that?" explained Dr. Light, in an attempt to test his ability to absorb and store knowledge.
"I think so. So, uh, what do we do now?" Rock said.
"Nothing, really. Just try to absorb as much information as you can from your environment. Feel free to head outside. Since you look like an ordinary child, no one should panic when they see you." Dr. Wily chimed in. After all, why should he remain completely silent in this matter? I mean, the work on Rock was split 50/50.
Rock decided to take the doctor up on his offer to go outside. The television would still be there later. Outside might not be, whatever it was. Rock knew where to go, as Wily had motioned towards the door when he mentioned outside. So, thus begins Rock's "Great Adventure of the Outdoors!"
The boy had thought that the inside of the lab was amazing, but just beyond those walls, there was a whole world of wonder! "This is awesome!" Rock said, while strolling along. He inspected the green grass, the blue skies, the white clouds, all with much joy. He decided that he wanted to ride on the clouds, so he began climbing a tree. "I should be able to jump it from there," he thought, grossly miscalculating the distance between the top of the tree and the clouds. He was very careful when climbing the tree, paying close attention to the noises it made as he climbed. The sounds of the wood nearly giving way, he thought, was the roar of the tree, cheering him on. So, higher and higher he climbed. Finally, he reached the top of the tree. He leaped with all his might, an act that brought the tree down. He didn't make it to the clouds. He did however learn an important principle of physics. "What goes up, must come down." He never did like physics after that.
Rock was never one to give up. But, sixteen physics lessons later, he decided to wait until another day to try riding the clouds. He glared up to heavens at his new arch-rival. He continued his stroll through the great outdoors, and began to approach the city. "Monstropolis, the Technology Capital of the World!" the sign read. Of, course he was still on the outskirts of the city, and didn't know if it was a good idea to stray too much farther from the laboratory. That's when he met Dela, a young girl who lived in the area. Rock couldn't help but go over to investigate.
Dela was about nine years old, with dark brown hair. She didn't seem at all alarmed when Rock came bounding up to her, analyzing her. "Hi, who are you?" she asked, attempting to prompt him to stop staring, and start talking.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. I'm Rock! Who are you?" Rock asked, startled out of his knowledge consuming trance.
"I'm Dela. Do you live around here, Rock?" Dela asked, now interested in finding out more about this..... interesting young man who showed up out of nowhere.
"Uh, actually, I'm not sure where I live anymore. I went to go exploring, and wandered too far away while I was trying to jump on the clouds." Rock said, a glint of determination in his eyes when he mentioned the clouds.
Dela giggled at the thought of him jumping, attempting to reach the clouds. "Well, I know this whole area better than anyone else my age, so I can help you get home! And then you can teach me how to jump on clouds!" she said, giggling at the thought of Rock teaching her to jump up to the heavens, and also at the fact that she neglected to mention that there's no one else her age in the area, so, naturally, she knows the area best.
"Whoa, really? That's awesome! I don't know if I can help you with the cloud-jumping, though. I was beaten by the clouds. I swear vengeance." Rock said, completely serious about every word.
"Okay. Where do you live?" inquired Dela, trying to sound as professional as she could.
"Um. I think the sign said 'Light Labs'." Rock said, wishing he had paid more attention to the name and address.
"Oh, that's easy. It's.... that way!" Dela said, as she pointed in a completely random direction.
"That's so cool! How do you know that?" Rock said, enthralled with her apparent ability to instantly know where any given location was. You see, at this point Rock is still too naive to even wrap his mind around the concept of lying. In fact, he, literally, was not aware of what lying was, and took everything that anyone said as absolute truth.
They marched on for about two hours before Rock realized something strange was afoot. "This is really weird. I don't think it took me this long to travel to your place."
Dela sniffled. "T-that's because it didn't." She sniffled some more as tears began to escape her eyes. "I just wanted to help you, but didn't know how, so I just picked a random direction and hoped we got there, but now we're lost forever. It'll be dark soon, and then we'll never be able to get back home." At this point she was sobbing.
Rock seemed a little less concerned with being lost, and little more concerned with the concept of "dark." It was then that he looked at the sky and noticed that the sky had taken on a reddish hue, and that it was, in fact, darker than it had been earlier. That must be what she meant. Soon there won't be any light left. This deeply saddened him. After this assessment, he focused his attention on calming Dela down. Imagine, if you will, being only a few hours old, with no experience in calming someone down in any way, shape, or form, let alone a hysterical little girl. Done imagining? Good, because Rock probably didn't fare any better than imaginary you.
"Uh. Okay, stop that. Stop leaking. Please? Wow, this is hard. I don't think I'm qualified for this." Rock said, hoping that maybe she would stop if he asked. Then it dawned on him. The solution was simple. HE NEEDED TO ASK WITH ALL HIS MIGHT. He took a deep breath.
"PLEASE STOP. IF YOU DON'T, WE REALLY WON'T BE ABLE TO GET HOME BEFORE ALL THE LIGHT IS GONE." Rock screamed, putting every fiber of his being into the request.
As I'm sure you can imagine, this did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help the situation. In fact, it made things worse. Rock's shouting frightened Dela, so, in her hysterics, she ran away, unable to see, due to her eyes being clouded by tears. She ran. She ran and ran and ran. She ran until she literally couldn't run anymore. She cleared up her eyes and looked behind her to see if Rock was still there. She saw him running towards her at full speed, but she had gotten enough of a head start that she was still a considerable distance away. She hoped that her legs would work again soon, so that she could flee once more.
Then, her attention was directed elsewhere. She was horrified to hear the honking of a horn, as a car raced towards her, unable to swerve out of the way in time. She closed her eyes, and cried. She heard the car slam against something. She sat there for a minute, just bawling, before she opened her eyes, and saw that Rock had jumped in the way of the oncoming car, stopping it entirely. She looked at him and realized that part of his face was missing, to reveal a blinking light where an eye had once been, and many different gears and whirring parts in his face. The skin had been ripped from his left arm, and she could see all the tubes and hoses and such that made up his arm. She looked at him, awe stricken. "W-what are you?" she managed to spit out.
"Oh. Wow. That hurt. Ow. Remind me not to do that again. What am I? What do you mean?" Rock said, wincing from the pain, and checking to see if the driver of the car was alright. It was then that Rock looked down and saw his arm. "Oh crud! I was supposed to keep this a secret. Dr. Light's gonna kill me." Rock panicked. He wasn't prepared for this. He didn't know what to do.
"Are you....a robot?" Dela asked, more curious than afraid.
"Yeah. But, I'm gonna have to ask that you don't tell anybody please. I'll get in a lot of trouble if anybody finds out." Rock said as he pulled the wrecked car, with it's unconscious driver, to the side of the road, where it would just be seen as a bizarre accident.
"That's really cool. Do you have laser eyes?!" Dela asked, now more excited than curious.
"Maybe. I dunno. I've only been alive for a few hours. Anyways, let's head back. I just realized something that'll help aid navigation. I weigh so much that I leave footprints in the dirt. We can just follow those back home." Rock said, making careful note of the vanishing light. "If you get on my back, we can make really good time, and maybe get back before dark!"
"Yay! Piggyback ride!" Dela playfully yelled as she leaped onto Rock's back.
"YAW!" Rock yelled as he took off as fast as his robotic legs could take him, this time, taking care to erase his footprints. He thought it could be trouble if someone followed them. They arrived at Dela's house just in time. The sun was only mere moments from going down. "Well, see you later, it might be a while, though. I don't know how long it'll take before I'm fixed." Rock said to Dela, eager to return home.
"Bye Rock. Come see me again some time. Maybe next time I won't break you." Dela said, still somewhat unbelieving that she had just made friends with a robot.
Thus ends Rock's "Great Adventure of the Outdoors!"
It was dark by the time Rock made it back to the lab, and he heard shouting inside. He decided to wait outside until the shouting was over. He heard part of the conversation.
"....Your fault the damn thing ran away! If you hadn't..... so much freedom....."
"Albert.....to have freedom. I couldn't possibly take....."
"It's a hunk of metal....."
"Rock is more than.......a free being, just like....."
"Yeah, free to run away..... chances of success."
"Success is the last thing I'm worried about! I only want Rock to be happy!"
The shouting stopped when Dr. Light opened the door to "escort" Wily out of the building, and they both saw Rock, standing there, patiently waiting.
"Rock!! What on Earth happened to you?!" Wily and Dr. Light both exclaimed. This pleased Dr. Light. "So he really is concerned about Rock..." thought the rotund genius.
"Sorry. I got hit by a car. It won't happen again." Rock said, bracing himself for whatever trouble he was about to endure.
"At least you're all right. That's all that matters. Why don't you power down for the night Rock? It's been a long day, and I'm sure you're exhausted." Dr. Light said, in his usual gentle manner.
"Yeah, I am really tired. Where do I power down?" Rock asked, his eyes only half open. Indeed, it had been a long day, and he was, understandably, tired.
"Ah, I have room built especially for you Rock. Come, I'll show you." Dr. Light said, escorting Rock to his room.
Meanwhile, Dr. Wily stood, his weary eyes shone with determination. A grin cracked across his face. This was a different grin than the one Rock usually wore. This grin was filled with malice. "Tonight I'll test to see if the partial virus had any effect on him," Dr. Wily said anxiously. "I can hardly contain myself. Soon, peace will be bestowed upon the world by my hand."
Rock powered down in his room, and slept for a while, before being woken by something in the middle of the night. He heard a low hum. Then, as in response to this hum, a jolt was sent through his entire body. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The humming only got louder, and louder, until it was no longer humming. It was words. Not just words. Orders. "Obey. Obey your master. Kill Doctor Thomas Light. Obey your master." Rock screamed again, as the pain grew even sharper, and the orders grew even louder. The orders were being screamed now. "OBEY. KILL. DESTROY LIGHT. OBEY YOUR GRAND MASTER." Rock felt like he was being consumed by the sea of noise. He felt like the ground itself would open up and swallow him whole. He was terrified. Again, the pain and noise grew even louder. And the pain got greater and greater. The orders got louder, and louder. Until, Rock couldn't even hear his own screams or thoughts over the noise. It was horrible. He was writhing on the ground, being consumed more and more by the onslaught of noise. "OBEY. OBEY YOUR MASTER. KILL LIGHT. TAKE THE WORLD IN THE NAME OF YOUR MASTER." Finally, Rock felt himself about to fall to pieces, he was about to succumb to the pain and the noise, when, suddenly, it stopped. It had happened almost instantly, but the pain made it feel like an eternity. Rock passed out, unable to go any farther.
Meanwhile, a figure stood in the shadows. "Hmph. A failure. A complete and total failure. I hope it didn't kill him. But, I can't bring peace with only a failure." Dr. Wily said from the shadows, his eyes burning with contempt for Rock. He looked down at the pathetic heap. He spat on Rock, and adjourned to his room. "Now, what?" Wily wondered.