Part 4: The Experiment of Personality

For the next test, Albert would have to leave his hidden labs. It had been a long time since he'd last done that. Months? Years? He wasn't sure anymore. He didn't see anything in terms of particular days, just in abstract terms of how many days. Whenever holidays came around, he didn't care. He had his own schedule.

But for this particular test, he had to go by the schedule of the rest of humanity. He let his computer keep track of the date and time; it had alerted him that he needed to get himself ready. Him, and experiment number 2468.

He had a suspicion that the last generic robot master structure he had stolen included a personality developing routine. 2468 was supposed to be a total blank, just following orders. With the way he was pacing about in the hall outside the bathroom, one would think that he was excited. Lately, he had been in a slump, not practicing as constantly and reminding Albert of some sad ignored puppy. He told 2468 about this test some time ago and the robot had gotten all fired up again, practicing even more and hovering around waiting for the time to come.

Sighing, Albert checked on the red wig he had on his head, as well as the dye he had put into his eyebrows. It seemed excessive, but people noticed things like that. He had green colored contacts in his eyes and a long black winter coat over his body. That, plus a scarf and a hat… and a voice modulator that made it sound like he had a cold and a paper face mask. There. That should be a sufficient disguise.

He grabbed a different mask and headed out of the bathroom. 2468 turned to him immediately and stood to attention. Thinking to himself that experiment robots shouldn't have personalities, Albert handed over the other mask. "Here, wear this. It's obviously a mask, but I don't have the time to give you a proper face. So don't take it off."

The robot master nodded and looked at the mask. It was quite festive, a full face masquerade mask with gold, silver, red, and green glitter decorating it, as well as a fake sprig of holly. Hopefully that was enough to get people to ignore his still face. Then the two went to the teleporter room and left for their destination.

Several minutes later, they were thick into a crowd of people signing in to an ice skating exhibition. 2468 seemed simultaneously interested in all the people around them and spooked by the crowd. He looked and watched certain folks, but kept close to Albert and didn't try to call attention to himself. At least that development worked for the scientist's favor.

Still, Albert kept his hands in his pockets and avoided looking at people. He heard all the chatter around him: how-do-you-do's, talk about the weather, pointing out the latest entertainment gadget, wishes of good luck in the exhibition. Stuff that everybody talked about, again and again to no end, without much thought into what they were talking about. And the wishes were shallow, with hidden messages of 'don't do better than me' and 'make me look good in front of all the people I invited', as well as others.

He closed his eyes, not allowing himself to grumble aloud. There was a reason he didn't come above ground very often these days and it wasn't because the police would love to capture him and put him on trial, eventually executed. No, he disliked all the hot air that people spewed to no end. Conversation should relate actual information, but so many people used words to play cruel games and carelessly ruin other people's lives. He had been a victim of such word poisoning long ago, and it had just kept escalating, putting someone less worthy on a pedestal and pushing him into the shadows.

They wanted to forget about them. He wouldn't let them. In fact, he wasn't going to let those shallow minds decide anything anymore. Once things were ready…

The line moved, breaking him out of his reflections. And then one of the staff was open, beckoning him to come over. He tugged his robot master from staring at a lit Christmas tree and went over.

"Good morning sir," the young woman said cheerfully. A large bell on a red cord around her neck jingled. "Do you have your reservation papers?"

He nodded and pulled them out of his pocket to unfold. "Yes miss," he coughed. "Sorry, I'm a bit sick, but still wanted to come."

"Ah, I heard that the cold going around this year is pretty bad. It's nice of you to come out, though." She looked to 2468. "So you're entering your robot in the robotics display?'

"Yes and no," he stated as he handed over the papers. "Two here is not meant for combat, so I entered him in the figure skating group."

She brightened. "Oh really? That ought to be interesting. Are you ready, Two?"

2468 seemed puzzled briefly that they were just using his first numeral, but he nodded.

The young woman smiled. "He is really handsome; you do your work well."

Exactly what he wanted to hear. "Thank you. I hope it's all in order."

She skimmed over, mostly looking for missed lines and obvious problems. "This should be fine. Do you have a song chosen for him?"

It was in the papers. "Yes, on that last page."

"Okay then. Good luck sir, and you too Two."

2468 bowed his head to her, then followed after Albert with a light step.

The whole show seemed to be exciting for the robot, as he eagerly watched the other ice skaters show off their stuff. There were human children performing what they learned in class and other robot masters demonstrating what skills they had for arctic or winter use. Later, there would be the skating superstars.

Then, an usher came up to them. "Two's on after the next showing, so he needs to go over to the queue line."

Albert nodded. "Go on then," he told 2468. "And put on a good show for us all."

"I'll show you the way, Two," the usher said.

He nodded with eagerness and followed the usher to where he needed to be. Albert bowed his head. "Please don't mess up your jumps now," he said under his breath.

Then someone moved into a seat next to him. Albert frowned under the mask. He had hoped that his disguise would dissuade people. Just to make sure, he faked another cough.

But then that person said, "You ought to take better care of yourself, old friend." He leaned in and quietly added, "Albert."

He looked and was annoyed at the white bearded face that met with his gaze. "What are you talking about, Thomas?" he asked back.

"You weren't particularly clever with this ploy," he pointed out. "I came to see how the work of others was going on; I don't have a robot master right now that I'd want to show here. So of course I noticed a name I've never seen before entering a robot master as a figure skater." He smiled at that. "You and I both know how much work it takes just to get them to walk, much less to do as you claimed for Two."

"Hmph, so you've got me. Don't let it get to your head. And it's experiment number 2468, but that wouldn't look good on the papers."

"Indeed. So he's nobody important?"

"Right," Albert confirmed.

Thomas shook his head. "That's a shame. He seemed to have such personality, even though I haven't heard him speak yet."

On one hand, it would be risky telling anything to what basically amounted to his greatest enemy. Then again, there weren't many people on his intelligence level that Albert was willing to speak to at all, and even fewer that would dare call him 'old friend'. "I didn't give him speaking capabilities. And I didn't give him a personality."

He gave him a curious look. "You're using the proto android build, then? It has to be at least version 4 to develop its own quirks from a basic blank state."

"Version 7."

"Ah. That's a few years old, then."

Albert made a mental note to check what version was most recent.

"So what are you doing here with a non-combat robot?"

"How do you know about that?"

Thomas gave one of his infuriating smiles again. "My robots aren't in the competition, but they are handling security."

"This is just a test," he said. "No more, no less. I just needed outside opinions, that's all. Those are hard to come by these days."

"That they would. What are you going to do with him after this?"

He shrugged. "It doesn't matter. Probably recycle him."

"I could take him in if you'd like; I'm rather interested about…"

"No," Albert said flatly. "I don't share my technology."

"Yet you take that of others," Thomas pointed out.

"Like you've never done that," he replied bitterly.

Shrugging, he said, "I acknowledge my sources and give them free access to my work and studies. That's basic…"

"Don't try to boost your ego and sense of moral superiority off of me." He still spoke conversationally, to keep others from suspecting something was up.

"If you wish. So what is 2468 testing?"

He considered it. "I'll tell you if you agree to tell me something in exchange."

Being the gullible fool he was, Thomas nodded. "All right."

"Improvements on balance, agility, and movement. I want to reduce the length of time robots are in their clumsy stages when asked to do tasks requiring great balance and grace. They can learn it, I've seen, but that task takes years. 2468 isn't that old. Performing under the stress of being watched like this will prove that it should work in any circumstances."

"Ah. That would be a help in many areas." He seemed thoughtful.

"And for my question," Albert said, "I noticed during the last conflict that Mega Man was not running at full capacity, at any time. Why is that?"

"He wasn't running at full capacity?" he asked, although he seemed to know it.

"I know he wasn't." He clenched his fist. "I scanned him in action, registering output heat, output energy, calculating what his current systems should be capable of. And he was running around fifty to sixty percent capacity with no obvious explanation for the rest. Even in the trickiest parts, his processors weren't running as much as they should be capable of, and yet he remained fully focused and adaptive. Why is that?"

"It's about that, then. He wasn't running at full capacity then because he didn't need to."

That worried him. "He didn't need to?"

"No. I found out that even in the early conflicts, he didn't have to. The extra capacity wasn't much, but I've increased it for his battle form."

"Then what are you using it for in his civilian form?" Albert asked. "You aren't one to let that much potential power go to waste."

Their conversation got momentarily interrupted by Rock himself. He was dressed in a holiday sweater, a pompom hat, and fuzzy gloves. In that, he could truly be mistaken for some young boy. But Albert knew his face too well to be truly fooled. Rock gave him a look of concern, then turned to Thomas. "Dad, Mikhail says that he'll buy us some hot cocoa if it's okay with you."

He nodded. "Sure, that sounds fine. And make sure to save one for me. I'll be back in a little bit."

The robot boy smiled briefly. "Okay. Are you doing okay in the cold?"

"I'm fine. I'm dressed plenty warm."

"All right. Who's this?" He sounded suspicious, although not as much as he should be.

"Just a friend I haven't seen in a while. But I'm not sure he's going to stay for long, as he has a cold."

"Oh." Rock smiled a little more warmly. "I hope you get better soon, sir."

"Thanks," he said in a low voice, but didn't dare speak longer and risk the robot picking up on who he really was.

"I'll see you in a bit, then," Rock said, then went back up to where they had been.

Once he was gone, Thomas said, "His processors are running at full capacity now, or nearly so."

Albert snorted. What a waste, to have him at full running capacity in civilian form, but nearly halved in battle form.

At that point, the audience was clapping for one act that was leaving the rink. As much of it was dark except for a few spotlights in the center, Albert had to look carefully to see 2468 emerge from a side gate to skate into the spotlight. He had his bladed skates active now, to fit in with the human competitors. However, they had placed him with the other robot masters. That was annoying, as he was the only one demonstrating figure skating. He would have accepted this one coming in after the kid students, especially since that would have gotten them out sooner.

"The next exhibition for the robot masters is Two, created by Robert Langley of Wyoming. Two will be demonstrating his ability at figure skating for us with a routine that he and his creator made."

"Really?" Thomas asked.

"He came up with most of it," Albert admitted. "I had him doing Olympic routines."

2468 came into the spotlight now, to a few cheers from the crowd. His mask sparkled and his hair was swaying slightly to keep him in balance. While he came to a stop to wait for his cue, Albert could nearly see him twitching, eager to go.

"I also had to dissuade him from using some truly awful music," he added. "I don't know where he found copies of those sickly sweet pop ballads, but he has absolutely no taste in music." It made Thomas chuckle.

"And take it away, Two!" the announcer called as the music started up.

There was a bit of a lead in so Two started moving to get ready for the routine. Albert still didn't like the piece of music, which was some semi-Latino dance pop song. But he had to admit, it worked with what 2468 wanted to do. Then the robot went into an ice dance routine that he had been running through over and over and over again ever since he had decided on it. There were quite a few cheers as people recognized and liked the song, or liked how 2468 was dancing to it.

After the minor parts, he started going into the more technical portions. Skating backwards into a curved turn, tight spins, the weaving, multiple turning jumps in a row. And then a triple axel jump, which he performed perfectly. There was quite the loud cheer when he did, as the audience started to realize that 2468 was really good at this. Albert felt relieved. He hadn't wanted the triple axel in there, but the robot had insisted on having it. Not once did 2468's hair get caught or in the way; it always flowed behind like a graceful accent. So that was working just as he wanted too.

Then the end of the routine came and there was a loud cheering and clapping from the audience, including Thomas. "Really remarkable work," he said with a smile.

Albert shrugged and gave some claps so that he didn't look too out of place.

"That was wonderful," the announcer said with enthusiasm. "So wonderful, I think that is why one of our guests, a professional ice skating judge, has come over to give some comments."

2468 dropped his ending poise and turned around to where the announcer's box was. With his usual quiet, he stood there with his hands clasped in front of him, the attentive pose that he usually gave to Albert when listening to orders. Albert frowned at that, not liking to see one of his robots do that to another person.

"Yes, that really was a remarkable performance, Two," the judge said. "The technique and execution of your routine was pretty much flawless, although the routine itself could have used some more professional work. But it was a marvelous display of a robot master's capabilities, which far exceeds my expectations in coming in to watch this. If you were a human competitor, I would have added that your expression was good, but could have been better. I'd give you a 9.5 for this if I were scoring it."

There were cheers to that as 2468 brought his hands up, in a surprised pose. Then he gave a deep bow before skating off to the exit gate.

"It would be a waste to just recycle a robot like that," Thomas said.

"He's not important in the overall picture," Albert responded.

"I do agree that he could use some more expression. Is that why he has a full face mask?"

Expression. That triggered something in Albert's mind. So Rock was running at full processing power now? And he behaved much like a child who was uncertain of who his parent was paying attention to, more expressively than he expected any robot master to be capable of. Albert looked to Thomas. "Just how far along are you on making a full android?" he demanded.

His old partner looked back. "Just how far along are you?"

The stare down lasted for a couple of minutes, while those around them chatted and mostly didn't notice. And then 2468 came back, sitting back in the seat on Albert's other side. Although he'd been started as an obedient blank, he was now bopping his upper body like some kid on a grand holiday. When Albert gave up the stare down to nudge him, 2468 gave a little hand sign over his mask that seemed to say, I'm very happy and if I could smile, I would be beaming.

"You did a beautiful job out there, Two," Thomas said kindly. "That's what we were talking about, right?"

At that, 2468 stilled and looked to Albert. One might even say expectantly, or looking for confirmation of approval.

He did not like doing that. It gave the unimportant experiment robots inflated senses of self. Which they shouldn't have, but due to the program he was running them on, they did. No wonder he had been seeing more and more erratic behaviors from supposed blanks.

He also hated Thomas for putting him on the spot like that. "Yes, that was a vast improvement," he admitted. Vast from how he'd started, wiping out on every jump.

Hearing that seemed to thrill 2468 even more, as he started bopping around again, behaving as if he were giddy. An experiment should not be giddy. Chuckling, Thomas said, "I'll leave the offer as I stated it, if you would be willing to hand off this one. I would much like to know what he'd be like with a voice. Good to see you like this." He patted Albert's shoulder and got up to return to his box.

And he would not want to hear this one with a voice. Still, even if it had annoyed him, he felt compelled to call back, "Same to you."

Thomas smiled and waved.

Albert turned back around and rolled his eyes. He could have just called the cops when he realized Albert was here. Probably should have too. Had he really just wanted to talk? Foolish. "Let's go," he told his robot. "I don't feel that great now." He wanted to get away from all these fools.

2468 stilled again, this time pointing out to the rink. He was enjoying this trip and wanted to see the rest of the exhibition.

Albert didn't care and got up. "We're going," he said, coughing once more to convince the others around him that it was due to illness.

Although disappointed, 2468 was still obedient, getting up to follow him out. But once they got back, the robot master got all excited again, going back through the motions and sometimes giving an extra twirl. Not only that, but Albert really did get sick after that little excursion, an actual cold that cut a week out of his work. Yet another reason to avoid going out ever again.

At least the message boards gave him the feedback he was looking for.


Somewhere between deciding that he was devoted to ice skating and describing him acting as a 'sad ignored puppy', I decided that I rather liked Two. So I gave him some spotlight time. He was a bit of an unintended character for me too.