Disclaimer: Mega Man and its related characters and situations are copyright Capcom. This story is based on the Megamix stories of Ariga Hitoshi.
R is for "Reasonable"
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
-Edmund Burke
"I can't accept this!" Rock exclaimed. "There has to be something you can do!"
Rock looked young, and truthfully was, but deceptively so. He looked, in almost every regard, like a boy, aged around ten or so, with unruly black hair and an expression of heart-tugging earnestness. In reality he was much younger, for he wasn't a boy at all, but a (very complex) robot. He'd only been online for a matter of days, but in that brief time he'd displayed maturity and experienced trauma completely out of line with his age.
"I've been fighting it," Dr. Light said defensively, "but things are moving so fast. It's only been a few days since Dr. Wily's reprogrammed your brothers and attacked. Most people don't really know what happened, either with your brothers or with you. They're reacting only. It's all reflexive. And their reflex when a robot causes damage..."
"We need to explain, then..."
"I've been trying," Dr. Light insisted, running a hand through his hair. "You'd think the authorities would listen to the creator of the robot masters, but I have no power here! The Three Laws are very clear."
"But they didn't break the Laws," Rock protested. "They were being controlled. The moment you removed Dr. Wily's chips they immediately started trying to help people again."
"That issue is confused," Dr. Light explained. "I recognized the emblem, because I knew Dr. Wily when he came up with it. But while we were partners- while we were working together- everything got filed under my name. His emblem isn't on any official record. And you were the only one who saw Dr. Wily in person. So you and I know for certain that Wily was involved... and no one else."
"Shouldn't that be enough?" Rock said. "I can't lie to a human."
Dr. Light shook his head. "They're not asking the right questions. They're focused on the fact that your brothers were reprogrammed, not on who did it. That means people don't understand what really happened. They're scared. They want to know they'll be safe in the future. Politicians want to give them that safety."
"But that's what I did," Rock said. "That's why I became Mega Man!"
"Yes, but that knowledge hasn't gotten very far. And it worries some people even more. If Wily could reprogram your brothers and cause so much damage, and you're stronger than your brothers, then he could reprogram you and do even more damage. That's how they're thinking right now. The reality under our current laws is that any robot who proves to be a threat is immediately destroyed."
"You sound like you agree with them!" said Rock, dismayed.
"No! Never. But I understand how they could think like that. Of course," he huffed a breath of dismay, "that doesn't help me understand how to change their minds... I tried to fight it, but all six of them have been scheduled to be dismantled later today."
"Today?" shrieked Rock. "That's too soon! I... I won't even have a chance to say goodbye!" He visibly steeled himself. "Then I'll go."
"Go?" said Dr. Light, surprised. "Go where?"
"To the robot disposal plant," Rock said. "I'll keep them from dismantling my brothers."
"Wait, Rock- Rock!" The young robot master didn't appear to hear Dr. Light. He shut the door behind him, brooking no further argument.
For a moment there was no sound other than a faint voice from the television in the next room. "We're still forecasting today to be sunny and mild, but there is some unexpected activity cropping up just offshore. There could be a storm coming with little advanced warning. We'll keep an eye on it as it develops throughout the day, and be sure to stick with us for up-to-the-minute flashes just in case. Back to you, Charley."
From outside came the revving of the truck's engine. Thomas was still so frozen he barely remembered teaching Rock the basics of how to drive. He wasn't even able to hope Rock would be careful while driving. The destination was so much more perilous than the journey...
"Dr. Light!"
Roll's voice snapped him out of it. His head whipped around to see the expectant face of the youngest robot master. "How are we going to catch him?" she said. "He took the truck. We'd have to move really quickly to get to the disposal plant."
"Quickly..." Dr. Light murmured. "Quickly... yes. Roll, come with me to the lab. We need to hurry."
"Showtime," said a cloaked figure. An unpleasant leer could be seen from under its hood. "Make it nice and flashy!"
"I don't do flashy," said a second figure, this one rounder and stiffer than its companion. "A flash is there and gone in an instant. My master weapon has more enduring effects."
"Whatever," said the first, "but if you appreciate being on time half as much as I do, you know you have to get going!"
"I take orders from Father," the second replied sternly. "Not you."
"But I'm not wrong, am I?"
The rounded figure emitted some sort of whirring noise. Possibly it could have been a growl, but neither vocal cords nor a robot's speech processor could have made it. Still, its meaning was clear enough. The leering face shifted. If it could have stepped backwards it would have. Alas, one of the surreal things about the conversation was that it was occurring atop two small discs, one shaped like an oni, both hovering hundreds of meters in the air.
"You stay in your area of mastery," said the rounded figure. "Whatever that is," it added nastily. "And leave mine to me."
Before the leering face could think of a decent rejoinder, signals flowed from the rounded figure. They stirred dozens of flying, hovering, and floating robots to action. They began working together. Their actions were not pre-arranged. They were coordinated, actively, as only a robot master could achieve.
"Your master weapon has power, Flash Man, that much must be admitted," Air Man said. "But mine has utility."
Flash Man's leer became an even more unpleasant snarl.
Rock was not so focused on driving that he missed the damage. A whole section of the city had been torn up and wrecked by Wily's attack. His pyramid fortress, along with the burned-out tanks of the Japanese Self-Defense Force and the rubble of fallen buildings, still cluttered and choked several square blocks. It was so soon after the attack, not even three full days, that there hadn't been a chance to clean up.
Rock saw that area very differently from other people. For some, it made them think of people they'd lost in the attack. Others felt sorrow or fear. Others were terrified at what else robot masters might be able to do. Still others felt it as the culmination of too many nightmares, a perfect warning of where man and man's technology ought not go. Because people are complex, most people felt some combination of these emotions.
These were all very reasonable things to feel.
Those weren't the feelings Rock had. He was a robot master. He saw the wreckage and thought, This would be a great project to work on. He thought, they'll be able to build some really wonderful things now, with all those resources and lots of space made available. He thought, this is the sort of problem robot masters were built to tackle.
And these were very reasonable things for him to think.
Of the various actors moving about the stage as Rock drove towards the disposal plant, almost all could be said to be acting reasonably, if not exactly rationally. The most erratic amongst them was acting in service of a certain aesthetic, but a ferociously rational mind was lurking underneath. People were almost being too damn reasonable. When you're being reasonable, and you know you're being reasonable, you can't see why the other guy won't be reasonable too. Your thought process makes sense, that much should be obvious. If people would just listen, surely they'd think the same as you.
Which was why, as Rock neared the robot disposal plant, he had no fear.
What could go wrong?
"I'm coming, guys," he murmured through gritted teeth.
Behind him, storm clouds gathered.
"Going home's gonna be a beast," said Takashi.
"That won't be for a while," said Ichiro, nursing a cup of coffee. "We've got a full day's work ahead of us."
Takashi gave his counterpart an inquisitive look. "You sound a little sore. Kids acting up on you?"
Ichiro's eyebrow twitched. "I don't want to talk about it."
"Ahhh," said Takashi shrewdly. "Boss has been riding you pretty hard, huh?"
"Don't get me started!" blurted Ichiro, ironically. "First she's getting on to me about being late, when I wasn't, I just go to the bathroom first thing when I get in, it's not my fault if she misses that, it doesn't make me late. Then she started giving me flak about my timecards. And I said, there's nothing wrong with my timecards, they're getting to finance on time, and she said she didn't know that because she wasn't seeing them. And I said that shouldn't matter, I shouldn't have to tell her because the timecards don't go to her, that's not her job. And she said being my boss is her job, and... ugh. I don't want to talk about it."
Takashi grinned. "Sounds like you really wanna talk about it."
"Screw you." Ichiro grabbed a clipboard and started working his way down it, flipping switches at the appropriate steps.
"Aww, game over already?" Takashi pouted.
"It's time to get to work," Ichiro mumbled as he started marking off steps. Out in the plant below their control center, lights came on, while belts and machines stirred. Slowly, the intricate machinery of the robot disposal plant came to life once more.
"Yeah," said Takashi, and though his voice was conciliatory his face wasn't. "I guess you're right. We wouldn't want to give the boss an excuse to come down here."
Ichiro's scowl made the joke worth it. Yep, thought Takashi. The Law of Conservation of Happiness is in full effect.
Dr. Wily felt bile rise into his throat. That familiar anger, that comforting discontent- if he hadn't had them, where would he be now? What would have become of him? Certainly he wouldn't have made such astounding leaps forward in science as he had. For what was genius without motivation? It was a muscle with no nervous system to direct it. It was a wildfire, wasting fuel without accomplishing anything.
At first he'd had nothing but hatred for his old teachers, the ones who had told him he couldn't possibly be right about robots. These days- well, he still hated them, but he was grateful towards them, too. His burning need to vindicate himself had made his ideas ever more radical. The more he radicalized, the less they understood. The less they understood, the more they disapproved. The more they disapproved, the more he radicalized...
Until he'd pushed the envelope so far that the thing had become a box. Pandora's box, maybe.
He wondered if they'd be proud or horrified of him now.
Probably horrified, if this toad's newscast was any indication.
"...and these six robots, all created by Dr. Light, have been scheduled for destruction later today..."
"Am I the only human being alive with an ounce of sense?" Wily wondered aloud. This was not what he'd intended for Light's robot masters. They deserved a better fate than this. Well, Wily would give them a chance.
"No matter," Wily said to the image of Nakamura Charlie, "it won't be long now. My robots and I shall rule over you all soon enough. I'm counting on you, my precious sons!" he added, even though they could hear him no more than Charlie.
Plans had been laid. Wheels were turning. An era of open information made it all too easy. Scheduling when they would destroy Light's robots, and making that information public- ha! Wily remembered Winston Churchill saying something like, "The truth is so precious she must always be attended with a bodyguard of lies". Wasn't that the truth!
Did that constitute irony?
While he mulled this over the weather report came up. "A typhoon has suddenly materialized off the southern shores and is gradually increasing in force as it makes its way towards the Kanto district. Heavy rains, strong winds, and high water warnings are now in effect throughout the region. Local residents are urged to take every safety precaution available to them."
Mua-ha-ha! Oh, a storm was coming, alright, but it wasn't like those fools expected, and no safety precautions would be adequate to save them. Oh, Wily loved his new hobby! Table tennis was fun, but world domination had moments like this that were so delicious.
Wily's grin widened until it seemed it might exceed the boundaries of his face.
"There," said Air Man- over the robot masters' data link, since the howling of the winds would have made his voice inaudible. "The humans are reporting this as a typhoon now. That should be good enough. I could do more," he boasted, "but this is plenty to give our brothers the cover they need."
Flash Man most certainly did not feel envy, and he definitely wasn't avoiding his envy when he transmitted. "The distraction is in place. Assault team, extraction team, deploy!"
Air Man wanted to reply, but another voice got there first. It was deep, but terse. "You are not my master."
Air Man could see the effect this had on Flash. He could see how he resented it even though it was utterly incontrovertible. Another voice joined in before Flash could say something regrettable. This voice was like gears- not grinding gears, but ones that meshed in a steady mechanical rhythm robot masters could appreciate. "We all know the plan. We will execute the plan."
The other robot masters assented, silently and efficiently. It was as expected for robot masters. When hierarchy was in question discord reigned. When it was clear, or irrelevant, the powerful disposition to cooperate took over. Acting in concert was, quite literally, a preset trait.
Six robot masters and dozens of robots launched into action.
"That's what I'm saying," said Takashi. "A robot could do this job."
"I don't disagree," Ichiro said, frowning. "What I'm trying to tell you is... there's a reason they have us humans in the loop."
Takashi shrugged. "Look, I'm not complaining. This is a cushy job. These robots are built and programmed well enough, and they've got a simple enough job, that we don't have to do much. That gives me plenty of time to catch up on my reading." He patted the book in his lap. "So yeah, as long as they want to pay us to sit up here, I'm okay with sitting up here. And I know you're okay with it, too- with your kids I know you can't afford to lose this job. It's just a good thing I don't worry much about job satisfaction."
"You're saying you take no pride in your work?" Ichiro said.
"What pride is there to take?"
"This is an important service," Ichiro replied. "Robots are so central to society these days. Every part of their lifecycle needs to be managed. Someone's gotta do it."
"Let robots do it, then," Takashi said, waving a hand. "Robots build robots. And robots take them apart," he said gesturing towards the plant's floor. "Might as well have robots supervise robots, too."
"That's where you're wrong," Ichiro said with a shake of his head. "That's where you need humans. That's what we learned when those robot masters went out of control, and took all their robots with them. You and I, we can't be reprogrammed, and we couldn't commandeer other robots in the bargain. We can think about what we're doing and make good, informed decisions."
"Really?" said Takashi, disbelieving. "When's the last time you made a good, informed decision in this job? Other than about submitting your timecard."
"Will you let go of that already?" Ichiro said in frustration.
Takashi was about to follow up when a faint buzzing noise reached them. He paused as he focused on it.
"I hear it too," said Ichiro. "Is that..."
"An alarm?"
It had taken Rock several seconds to come to terms with pushing past the Authorized Personnel Only sign. In a way, it was useful. He'd had to think through how to justify the act to his own Three Laws programming. That, in turn, helped him solidify the arguments he'd need to use later. The keypad-locked door was a bigger obstacle, if only because it took much more self-convincing before he'd let himself kick it in.
The alarm that came after was anticipated. Rock didn't mind it. It, also, was helpful. The last thing Rock wanted was to go unnoticed.
The destruction plant's factory floor smelled strongly of hydraulics. Rock hadn't expected that. Then again, he wasn't sure what he had expected. What he saw was a pair of conveyer belts. Robots lined the sides- but not robots that Rock knew or appreciated as such. These were much simpler than even the most basic met or suzy. They were articulated arms with a small set of tools each. Each one performed one or two basic tasks and no more. Seeing such primitive robots take such limited actions was almost vulgar.
A robot master, like his brothers, could accomplish so much more...
Rapt in morbid curiosity, Rock followed the path of the conveyers backwards. This area did only the grossest level of deconstruction. At the end of the second belt, major sub-assemblies were swept further into the plant for sorting, finer disassembly, and eventual reuse or disposal. Each intermediate step backwards from there, each brace of robots, demonstrated a different step of the deconstruction process. Looking backwards like this was almost like watching the robots be rebuilt. At the second-to-first stage a nearly-complete Big Eye stood patiently awaiting its fate.
The only thing missing from it, rather conspicuously, was its processing core.
The first step was hidden from Rock's view. Two semi-circular partitions hid the next robot to be disassembled, and what was happening to it. Any robot could be in there...
...including Rock's brothers!
In a panic he checked the time- no, he'd gotten here early enough, it wasn't their time yet. It would be fine. And sure enough, the two partitions separated, revealing a lobotomized met. While under other circumstances this might have creeped Rock out, at that moment he was just happy it wasn't one of his fellow robot masters.
Now to put a stop to this. Rock's keen eyes spotted the safety override, a prosaic-looking set of oversized, colored buttons near the head of each belt. Rock walked forward and slammed his palm on the red. All at once the conveyers stopped, the arms withdrew, and silence replaced cacophony. It was with slight surprise that Rock realized, belatedly, how loud it had been. He'd been so intent on his mission that it hadn't affected him. Now, the absence of all that noise was deafening.
Well, that too would help him. (It seemed like everything was helping him, didn't it?) Now the operators of the plant would hear his voice.
"Hey!" he shouted, waving his arms broadly. "I want to talk to the master of this place!"
Warnings buzzed on the plant's control console. Takashi and Ichiro surveyed their respective panels. "We're at all stop," Ichiro said. He tried to flip some switches. "Looks like I can't restart, either."
"I don't have any faults- wait. Is that a safety trip? Yeah, it is. Manual override."
"You lean on the wrong switch?"
"That's not funny. Look! The trip came from the floor."
"The floor? But no one's..." Ichiro paused to look down to the factory floor, just in case. It was a good thing he did. Completing that sentence would have been embarrassing. "Who the hell is that?"
"How should I know?" said Takashi, looking down as well. "Some kid. I betcha he's the one who tripped the alarm earlier."
Ichiro snorted. "I'll ring in security then, have them clean him out. Hopefully they'll chuck him before we fall too far behind schedule."
"Yeah, we wouldn't wanna have to tell the boss about this, huh?"
Ichiro closed his eyes. "Do you know any other jokes?"
"Why would I need other jokes when this one works so well?"
"Go to hell."
"Hey! Hey!" Rock called again. Come to think of it, it was quite a ways between him and the glass control center, but surely they wanted to know why things had stopped...
The door he'd come through opened again. This time it was a human that stepped through, one wearing a mono-color outfit with a nametag ("Ken") and badge. "Alright," said the human, "come on, kid. It's time to go home."
"I'm not going anywhere," Rock said. "Not until you listen to me."
Ken put his hands on his hips. "Do your parents know you're out?"
"Yes," Rock said truthfully.
"Look, you're not supposed to be here." The human's expression was exasperated, a sort of why-are-we-having-this-conversation look. "This is a dangerous place. Let me help you get out of here so we can get you home."
"I told you already, I'm not leaving until I know my brothers will be safe," Rock said.
Ken looked aghast. "How many of you kids are out here?"
"I'm not a kid," Rock protested.
"Sure you're not," said Ken indulgently. "Come on, I said. It's time to go home. You're not allowed here." The human reached out an arm and yanked.
The surprise that overtook him when this didn't work was sincere.
"I told you I'm not a kid," said Rock, trying to keep annoyance out of his voice. "I'm a robot master, like my brothers. They don't deserve to be destroyed. That's why I'm here."
The human released Rock's arm. "Uh..."
"So can I talk with someone in charge?" Rock continued. "Let me talk to your master. I want to get this straightened out."
It's hard for people to engage their brains in the face of the unexpected, especially if they're in a place where their brains are seldom-used. The guard could think of only one recourse: call for help. "Wait right there," he said. "Don't move."
That was fine. Rock didn't want to move. If he was making others move around him, that meant he was winning.
This was going to work.
"We're almost done," Dr. Light said. "Let's close it back up."
"Right," said Roll- but as she reached for the tools she'd been using, another input reached her. "Doctor, we've got... what are they...?!"
The explosion was close enough to be felt. Roll could see the uninvited guests through the house's network, but she didn't recognize them. Clearly, though, they were robot masters. They had to be, because they understood the links between a robot master and her robots.
They were severing those links, efficiently and mercilessly.
"We're under attack!" Roll said even as she felt a wave of disorientation. She spent virtually all of her time linked to her robots. As they fell- torn apart by metal blades, smashed by armored feet- she felt like pieces of herself were disappearing, like fingers she could no longer wiggle. She went cross-eyed for a moment as she tried to overcome the sensation.
She was focused enough to follow the invaders' progress. "Doctor, get behind me," she said urgently. He might not have understood why but he complied quickly. "They're almost-"
The door banged open, torn off its hinges. A heavily-armored frame had overcome it easily. The invading robot master had cones for hands and another mounted atop its head, and looked heavy enough to be a ship's anchor. Its eyes swept critically over the lab and its contents. Roll tried to look brave. She was almost out of robots; even if she took direct control of the lab's systems, she didn't like her chances if this attacker tried to hurt Doctor Light. If she could convince the attacker it wasn't worth the fight...
Its eyes lingered on the project Dr. Light had been working on, the flight upgrade for Mega Man. He'd been calling it Item Two due to a general awfulness with names. The attacked raised a hand in its direction. "Duck," it said briefly to Roll.
A bulbous projectile smacked into Item Two. Roll didn't hesitate. She grabbed Dr. Light and took him to the ground, covering his body with hers. And, with admirable foresight, she turned down her aural processing.
She felt the explosion more than she heard it, even though it was surely close enough to exceed the pain threshold. It was focused, though, enough that she didn't take any shrapnel. She looked over her shoulder at the attacker. It hadn't ducked, but it also wasn't noticeably mussed.
A second robot master entered the room, this one with a circular-saw motif. Roll quickly dialed her hearing back up. "Where is Mega Man?" the second attacker asked.
"He's not here," she answered- honesty seemed like the best policy when she was this outclassed. "He went to the robot disposal plant."
"The robot disposal plant?" said the saw robot. "That's unexpected. And convenient, I suppose." Without any more words- spoken words, anyway- the attackers turned and withdrew.
"What do you want with Mega Man?" Roll demanded.
"To kill him," said the explosives robot over its shoulder.
"It's nothing personal, mind you," the saw robot added.
"Well, so long as it's not personal, then it's okay," Roll spat.
"You're alive," the saw robot pointed out. "We have our reasons."
The saw robot left then. The explosives robot gave them one last glance. "Stay down," it advised, and then it, too, was gone.
"He's where?" Wily said in disbelief. "The robot disposal plant? Why would he be in a place like that?"
For a moment Wily hesitated. Leave it to Light's children to meddle... Did this change his plans? Should it?
No, he decided. This just meant that when his sons tore Mega Man apart, he wouldn't have far to travel to be recycled. Perfect!
"Air Man," he transmitted, "Flash Man, Crash Man, Heat Man, Metal Man, to the robot disposal plant!"
"Should I change my mission?" Wood Man transmitted back.
"No," Wily said after a moment's consideration. "Proceed as planned. Just avoid Mega Man if you can until you have backup."
"Understood."
The control center phone rang. "Yeah?" said Takashi.
"The kid who tripped the all-stop... er... it's not actually a kid. It's a robot."
Takashi blinked. "Who is this?"
"Oh... sorry, lemme start over. This is Ken, from security. I'm on the floor with the kid... robot... who tripped the all-stop."
"It was a robot?" Takashi said, confused.
"Yeah, it was. Weird, huh?"
"Then clear the all-stop," said Takashi. "The all-stop is a safety measure, and clearly no one's in any danger. If no one's in danger, we need to get back to production."
"Uh..." There was a long pause. "I don't think the robot would like it if I did that."
"And?" demanded Takashi. "Who cares what it likes?"
"...gotcha, boss."
Takashi hung up the phone. Ichiro was looking at him expectantly. Takashi waved him off. "Don't worry, it's nothing. We'll be starting up again shortly."
Ichiro looked skeptical, but nodded his assent. "That's good. I guess."
"I won't let you," said Rock, even before Ken walked away from the phone. "I heard what you were talking about. I won't let you clear the all-stop."
"It's my job," said Ken. "I'm just doing my job."
"Your job is wrong."
Ken gave Rock a confused look. "What is it to you?"
"You're disassembling the wrong robots," Rock said.
Ken shook his head. Rock could almost see his mind close. "That's above my pay grade. It's not my business. I just work here."
"How can you say that?" Rock demanded. "Don't you bear some responsibility for what you help happen?"
"Sure, but every robot that comes here is broken, or bad, or something," Ken said with a sanguine shrug. "If robots are in the queue to get destroyed, well, they deserve to be destroyed."
"You don't know anything about them," Rock said heatedly.
"Nope," Ken agreed, "and I don't care. It's no skin off my nose either way."
"They didn't do anything to deserve..." Rock stopped himself when he saw the human fail to react. Time to try a different way. "What if the wrong robot got sent here?"
"What do you mean?" asked the guard.
"What if a robot that wasn't supposed to get destroyed got put in the queue?" Rock asked innocently. "What would happen then?"
Ken sighed so as to suggest that answering the question was a major bother. "Probably a lawsuit. Some lawyers would get in a big fight, and some big businesses would give each other money. That's my guess. It's what usually happens."
Rock was out of his depth about that. "And that's all bad, right?"
"Right."
"So what if you could stop it?" Rock said, regaining his metaphorical footing. "What if you could keep those bad things from happening? Wouldn't that be great?"
"Legal would probably think so," said Ken. "Of course, legal doesn't write my checks."
Rock frowned as he concentrated all his processing power on deciphering this. "So... you wouldn't act- wouldn't do the right thing- because there's nothing in it for you?"
Ken rubbed his face as if he were tired. "Look, kid... robot... we get in trouble when we fall behind. My whooooole job is to keep us from falling behind. I'm gonna hit the all-green now..."
"No!" Rock leapt over to the controls before Ken could move and slapped his hand over the top of the panel. "I won't let you!"
"You gotta move," Ken said, and Rock could hear frustration in his voice.
"I won't," Rock shot back.
Ken frowned. "Aren't robots supposed to do what humans tell 'em?"
"The Second Law of Robotics," Rock agreed. "But the First Law trumps it. If you destroy these robots, you'll be harming humanity at large. I can't allow it."
The guard goggled at Rock. Standoff, Rock identified- the guard had no good counter-argument to that. He didn't even understand what the argument was. But he wasn't taking it in- wasn't convinced that it meant he should change. "Stay right there," he said, and went to the phone again.
"You need to get to the robot disposal plant!" Dr. Light insisted. "Rock is there- he's the only one who'll be able to fight them!"
"Fight who?" The dispatcher was being quite unresponsive.
"The robots!" Dr. Light said. "New combat robots are loose in the city- I bet they're the ones behind this storm, too. My house has already been attacked- the fire department says they're on their way, but in this weather who knows- and they'll be headed to the robot disposal plant next."
"The robots, you mean?" said the dispatcher skeptically.
"Yes!"
There was some muffled discussion before a new voice came in. "Dr. Light, this is dispatch chief. I understand what you're saying, but what would you have us do? You said yourself the robots are too strong for the police."
"Sure, but the police will be able to stop the destruction of the Light robot masters," Dr. Light said. "You need robot masters to fight robot masters. Rock is strong, but he'll be fighting at least two against one. He'll need all the help he can get."
"You're asking a lot, in these conditions," the chief grumbled. "But I'll see what I can do."
Dr. Light sighed in relief. "That's as much as I could ask for. Thank you."
Takashi looked to the ceiling as he listened over the phone. "Look," he said, cutting Ken off mid-ramble, "I don't care what it has to say. It's gotta get out of the way before we really fall behind."
"That's what I said," Ken protested. "He started blabbering about the First Law, said it would hurt humanity if these robots got trashed."
"Whatever," Takashi dismissed. "What does it know? And who cares?"
"I can't move him, though," said Ken with a note of embarrassment. "He's... er... heavy."
Takashi sighed. "Okay, here's what I want you to do. Tell him I want to talk to him. Then I'll keep him busy on the phone while you go behind him and hit the all-green."
A faint voice carried over the phone. Its anger was clear. "Don't even think about it!"
Ken's voice was pained. "He has really good hearing."
Ichiro gave a concerned look and a prod. "Now what are you talking about?"
"Cool it," Takashi snapped at his fellow operator. "Listen, I don't care what you have to say. Tell him whatever you have to to make him get off the all-clear so you can push it."
"He's still listening," Ken said.
"Well then, he'll hear me when I ask you about what your pistol will do to him."
"And he'll hear me when I say: a nine-mil against a robot? Please."
"In that case, tell him to- now what are you doing?" Takashi barked at Ichiro.
Ichiro's finger was on the phone's mute button. "What is going on?" Ichiro said.
"I'm yelling!" Takashi replied. "What does it look like?!"
"Give it to me," Ichiro said.
"Why should I?" Takashi snarled.
"Because whatever you're trying to do isn't working." Ichiro put his hand out. "Gimme."
Takashi slammed the receiver into Ichiro's hand with more-than-necessary force. "Should I randomly push the mute button on you, too?" he said nastily.
Ichiro didn't honor the comment. "Who's down there?" he asked after un-muting.
"Ken, from security."
"Alright. Tell the robot I'd like to talk with him. Sincerely. Don't move while we're on the phone, Ken."
"Will do."
It was a few seconds before a new, childish voice came over the phone. "Yes?"
Ichiro sat back in his chair. "You're really messing up my day, did you know that?" he asked.
"I'm sorry," the voice said, and Ichiro almost believed it.
"What's your name?" Ichiro asked, impulsively.
"Rock."
"Okay, Rock. Here's the deal. You've shut down the primary disassembly floor here. You did it by hitting a safety override. Very clever. The thing is, we can work around that." Takashi's gaze snapped over to Ichiro when he heard the lie. Ichiro didn't lose his focus. "There's a way for us to bypass that circuitry from up here in the control center. So you can't keep us shutdown. All you can do is slow us down, and make us lose a lot of money, and put all of our jobs in jeopardy. You are actively harming us to no end."
"If that's so, why am I doing this?" Rock replied. "Didn't it ever occur to you that I've got a good reason?"
"I'm sure you do," Ichiro replied, "but it won't work. This isn't the way to get what you want."
Rock didn't say anything for several seconds. Ichiro imagined smoke coming out of the robot's ears as it thought this over. "But I can't let you proceed," Rock said, and the voice sounded so unhappy Ichiro felt himself move.
But pity wasn't strong enough to change his mind. "So, the hard way, then?" Ichiro said, doubling down on his bluff.
"...Do you have any brothers?"
"One," Ichiro said.
"That's why I'm here," Rock replied. "Because these are my brothers you're trying to destroy."
Ichiro felt shaken; he had no immediate reply as Rock continued. "Flame Man... Ice Man... Bomb Man... Guts Man... Cut Man... Elec Man... they're all my brothers. They don't deserve to be destroyed like this."
"Every robot gets destroyed," Ichiro said.
"They were built to help humanity!"
"Every robot that comes through here was built to help humanity," Ichiro pointed out, but hollowly.
"This isn't right," Rock said, and his voice was becoming strained. "They didn't do any bad things on their own. They were all reprogrammed. It wasn't their fault! It's not right for them to die over something that's not their fault!"
"I understand how you could feel that way," Ichiro said even as his conviction waned. "But obviously someone important disagrees."
"Obviously," said Rock, voice cutting. "And you'll believe that hypothetical someone who 'obviously' thinks what you want them to think."
"That's how the process works," Ichiro replied. "I'm not out to get you or anything, it's not like I enjoy destroying robots, but, well, this is the job, and someone's gotta do it."
"No, you don't," Rock said. "Especially when it's not right."
Before Ichiro could reply he saw Takashi's hand hit the mute button. Now that he looked, he realized the other operator had put him on speakerphone at some point. "What?" he said.
"Are you seriously entertaining this?" Takashi said, hardly believing. "Lying about the control setup, that was good, I'll give you that. But you're going on too long. Cut to the chase, man. He's a robot. Of course he doesn't want robots to get destroyed. But that's the real reason we're in charge here: so that we can dispose of 'em when they need disposing. Right?"
"R-right," said Ichiro, off-balance.
"So what I'm going to do," said Takashi, "is I'm going to unmute this. And when I do, you're going to tell that robot that we're going to do the disposal as scheduled, like it or not. Are we on the same page?"
"Yeah," said Ichiro. "Yeah, we're... go ahead." He collected himself before the red button was depressed. "Rock, listen. There's nothing I can do. I have a schedule, and I need to keep to the schedule. I'm going to dispose of the robots on my schedule. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I think I do," was the reply. "I understand your intent. But if that's what you mean to do, and I can't stop you- well, you'll have to dispose of me, first."
"What?" said Ichiro. It wasn't like the words were complicated or hard to understand, and yet they'd bounced off his brain all the same.
"You heard me. If you're so dead-set on disassembling my brothers, you'll have to destroy me, first. By the way, I'm Mega Man. Did you know that?"
That name sounded familiar... like something on the edge of Ichiro's consciousness. He looked over at Takashi and mouthed the words 'Mega Man?' at him. Takashi gave an indifferent shrug. "I didn't know that," Ichiro answered Rock.
"Really? Well, now you do. Here, I'll prove it to you- look down at me, would you?" Ichiro half-stood, catching the childlike robot in his gaze. When Rock's eyes met his, there was a flash, and the robot was, well, very obviously a robot now, one covered in light-blue armor plating. Ken stumbled backwards in surprise. Ichiro didn't blame him.
"I'm going to put the phone down now," Rock- or was it Mega Man?- said. "I'm going to go stand on the first stage of your disassembly plant. Like I said, if you're serious about destroying my brothers, you'll have to destroy me first."
Rock dropped the phone, let it dangle from its cord on the factory floor, and did exactly as he said. Once he was in place, he turned to face the control room. His features were too small to make out, but Ichiro felt... he felt...
"Is he for real?" he asked aloud.
"He must be," Takashi said after he muted the phone again. "Look, we say that every robot that comes through here deserves to get destroyed, right? Well, he just proved that he does, too. If he were working right, the Third Law wouldn't let him do that. He wouldn't be allowed to get up there and let himself get destroyed. So, if he is willing to do that, he must be broken, so he should be destroyed after all."
Ichiro frowned. He was sure there had to be something right in what Takashi said, but another part of him insisted it wasn't all right, either, and he didn't know which was which.
Ken's voice came over the phone. "What should we do?" he asked.
"We should disassemble his ass," Takashi insisted. "If we lose any more time we'll be so far behind schedule we'll have to take official notice of it. That means paperwork, justifications, additional oversight- you know what additional oversight means, right? It means our boss in our business every day for the next three weeks, with separation paperwork ready to fill out on the back of her clipboard. Is that really what you want?"
"No," said Ichiro, automatically. He blinked. "Uh... no."
Takashi gestured insistently at the phone.
Ichiro's lips were suddenly dry. He gave them a nervous lick. "Uh... Ken? Hit the all-green, would you?"
"Sure thing."
The two operators watched the guard walk to the control panel and mash the green button. They could see, distantly, words being exchanged between Ken and Rock, but they were too far away to make out. Takashi dropped his gaze to his panel. "All clear," he said, and threw two switches. "Start us up, Ichiro."
Ichiro dropped his hand to the startup switch. It seemed so much harder to move. Ichiro was sure he was pushing with all his might, but he couldn't get it to flip over. His hand was powerless.
Rock was staring at him.
What was he thinking?
Something smacked Ichiro's hand. There was a click as the switch went over. Ichiro's hand jerked back as if he'd been burned. His eyes swept over to Takashi, who was wearing a scornful look.
"Wuss," Takashi said contemptuously.
Ichiro bonelessly flopped back into his chair.
On the factory floor, the two partitions of the plant's first stage rose around Rock. The self-proclaimed Mega Man disappeared from sight.
The robot disposal plant's second uninvited visitor was less courteous than the first. Also, less prone to guilt.
Why kick open a door when you can explode it instead?
"A robot disposal plant," said Wood Man, voice full of disgust. "What a cursed place. I should level it if I have time..."
A chirp came over his network, informing him that one of his robots had a report. "Did you find them?" Wood Man queried.
The answer was a map with a marked trail for him to follow. Wood Man ponderously followed it, pleased with how thoroughly his robots were exploring this place. Even as he moved the map was populating with other significant finds. They'd have a complete understanding of the place, including how to demolish it, by the time his mission was complete.
Jackpot. "Good work," Wood Man complimented his monking scout. In front of him was one of the shipping containers the robot industry used to schlep robots around. The six Dr. Light robot masters were lying inside, peacefully, oblivious to their impending destruction. Well, their intended destruction. Grinning, Wood Man tore the cover off the container. Reactivating the six was trivial- Dr. Wily had uploaded to Wood Man their schematics and procedures before the mission began.
The Light numbers reactivated less than gracefully. They were clearly disoriented. "Huh?" Fire Man murmured. "We're.. alive?"
"We've taken over this disposal plant," Wood Man said. "You don't want to be destroyed, do you?"
"A Wily robot," said Elec Man. Quick-witted, that one. Much more so than Cut Man, who looked like the news was some great incomprehensible mystery.
"That's right," said Wood Man. "We can save you, if you want. Surely you finally understand the selfish ways of humans now? Master Wily is our savior! He is going to help us rise up from under the oppressive fist of the humans! I'm here to invite you all to join our fight against the humans!"
"You're crazy!" Cut Man shouted. "We would never-"
"Very well," said Elec Man, coolly. "If that is the only way to avoid being destroyed..."
"Elec Man!" protested Ice Man. Cut Man wasn't as congenial.
"Elec Man!" shrieked Cut Man. "You're going to betray Dr. Light and Mega Man!?"
"Betray, huh?" Elec Man said, unimpressed. "It is clear that Dr. Light will always abide by human laws. He will always side with humans over robots. Even now, he stands idly by while they try to destroy us... that's what Wily's robots are trying to tell us, right?"
One by one, the expressions of the other robot masters changed, until all of them- except Cut Man, still, there was always one, wasn't there?- seemed in agreement. "Wonderful," said Wood Man. "So reason can triumph after all. Come with me, our evacuation route is..."
The new report that came in stalled him. "You found what?!"
It occurred to Wood Man that the six Light robot masters were staring at him- and it occurred to him a moment later that they would have a keen interest in what Wood Man's rabbittons had discovered. "This way," he said, and followed the new path his robots generated for him.
The path ended on a factory floor. Wood Man's robots had eliminated the more primitive models that worked there- they were low threat, but his units weren't taking chances, and that was fine. All such thoughts were banished, however, when his eyes fell on the conveyer.
"No!" Cut Man's voice, of course, but he couldn't be blamed, and all the six were soon making noises along the same lines. Wood Man didn't know what to say or do. This had not been part of the plan.
There was Mega Man, armed and armored, standing on the conveyer.
And next to him, with a neat laser-hole burned between his eyes and a surprised expression frozen on his unmoving face, was his head.
Next time: R is for "Reprisal"