EPISODE 4: Gamma.
The following takes places between the first and second seasons of the Mega Man cartoon show.
The year is 20X2. March 20X2, to be exact.
The War for Everlasting Peace has endured for nearly a full year. Mega Man - along with help from his sister Roll, his dog Rush and their creator Dr. Thomas Light - has foiled all of Dr. Wily's attempts to take over the world, but Wily has escaped apprehension every time.
This war has already weighed heavily on the Light family, who lost one of their own when Wily killed the prototype Met robot known as Doc, but Dr. Wily's obsession with conquering the world has only become stronger and his plans have become more and more bizzare and dangerous with each passing mission.
Now, Wily has his eyes on Dr. Light's top secret creation in conjunction with the nations of the world, the giant peacekeeping robot known as Gamma, the most powerful machine in the world.
If Gamma were to fall into the wrong hands, the results would be catostrophic ... especially if those hands belong to Dr. Wily.
Gamma, Chapter 1: Alpha.
Sydney, Australia.
Members of the press from all over the world have gathered here today to witness the unveilling of Dr. Thomas Light's newest creation.
While is has been no real secret that Thomas was working on something big in conjunction with all of the nations of the world, nobody really knew what it was, save for the parties involved.
This creation will hopefully ensure that there will be everlasting peace throughout the world for many years to come.
Dr. Light is currently taking a stage standing in front of a wide open patch of barren land and the news photographers snap pictures of him as he enters. With Thomas are his creations and children Mega Man and Roll, as well as their dog Rush.
While most of the Light family are excited to be here for this big moment, Mega Man cannot help but feel unsettled.
Over the course of the past year, he has witnessed Dr. Wily's attacks grow from random strikes in New York all the way to complicated and deadly plots for world domination, which have included finding a way to bring all appliances to life, creating massive earthquakes by altering fault lines, shrinking entire cities to sell them to known criminals, creating a giant glacier in New York and hijacking a large solar focusing lense and weaponizing it.
Defending the human race is only getting harder and harder for Mega Man and he knows he can't do it alone. While he does have his sister Roll as his partner now, he worries that one day she might get herself in serious danger... or worse. He is also distraught about his brother ProtoMan still serving Wily as his right hand bot, and seemingly enjoying doing so.
Hopefully this new creation of Dr. Light's will help deter Dr. Wily from carrying out any more plans... but, Mega has a feeling that it could only make things worse.
"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," Dr. Light says into a group of microphones that are cobbled together in front of a podium, "I am happy to be here in Sydney to introduce my latest invention. This is undoubtedly the most advanced peacekeeping robot ever made. Now, seeing as there is nothing behind me, you may be asking yourselves where this peacekeeping robot is... well, he should be here any second."
Dr. Light checks his wrist watch (he is one of the very few who still wears one) to check the time.
Roll nudges Mega Man's side with her elbow and whispers, "This is gonna be so cool!"
Mega nods back, not speaking, unable to shake this feeling of dread he's been having lately.
After several seconds of silence, Dr. Light chimes, "Ah! Here he comes!"
Then, the sound of approaching jets can be heard in the sky. The jets get louder and louder and the press begins looking around until a large shadow comes over them.
Everybody looks up to see a towering giant robot soaring over them. Everybody points and looks at the larger-than-life robot which has a blue torso and legs, and red arms with wide broad shoulders. The 'head' of the robot has a caucasian-shaded face with bright white eyes and a square jaw.
The top of his head is red and almost looks like a beanie... a beanie with two silver drill-like horns sticking out either side.
When the intimidating robot prepares to land in the patch of land well behind Dr. Light's stage, he re-arranges his body into an upright standing position and slowly lowers himself down to the surface. Gamma's jet engines are so powerful, they cause the ground to shake like an earthquake.
The peacekeeping robot finally lands in the landing zone, clearly showcasing his towering height, appearing to be 100 stories tall, about as tall and as wide as a skyscraper, if not even wider than one.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Gamma!", Thomas boasts, holding his hands out toward the giant robot as a frenzy of camera shutters are heard clicking in the media section.
"Gamma is a joint project by myself as well as all of the nations of the world," Dr. Light begins, "Gamma's mission is simple: help preserve world peace and make sure that no threat can ever harm humanity... including Dr. Wily, if he is foolish enough to try. Now, even though Gamma is technically a robot, in actuality he is operated by a small crew located inside Gamma's head, or the bridge of the robot. He is armed with several missile launchers and turrets, as well as a large plasma beam cannon, which is located inside of Gamma's mouth area. There isn't anything else on earth that can match Gamma's firepower. But, believe me when I tell you, I don't take great pride in creating something like this, because I am a pacifist, but with the uncertain times which we live in, the nations of the world felt that it is best to make a pre-emptive move to deter terrorism."
"But, Dr. Light," asks one reporter who stands up, "What about Mega Man? Gamma is not going to replace him, is he?"
"Mega Man still has a job to do," Thomas answers, "Apprehending Dr. Wily is still his top priority. However, if Albert would ever think of planning a full-scale assault on the entire world... at least Mega Man will have a lot of help."
Mega Man steps up to the microphones and confidently assures the reporters, "Don't worry everybody, Wily's still going to face justice."
"Are we going to be able to see the inside of this Gamma robot today, Dr. Light?" asks another reporter.
"I'm sorry, but I'm affraid not," Light answers, "The inner workings of Gamma are top secret."
"Dr. Light, I don't mean to sound morbid, but what are the chances of Dr. Wily destroying or hijacking this Gamma robot?" asks another reporter.
"Gamma has been specially reinforced," Dr. Light answers, "it would be nearly impossible to destroy him. As far as Gamma's security, we have taken special measures to make sure that no unauthorized persons can even get inside Gamma, let alone hijack him."
If he only knew, however...
Skull Fortress.
In his main command center deep inside of the fortress, Dr. Albert Wily sets with his loafer-clad feet up on the main computer station inside the room, watching the live coverage of the unveiling of Gamma with a confident grin on his face.
Now that Albert has seen the peacekeeping robot in all of it's glory, he only wants it even more.
"Don't worry everybody, Wily's still going to face justice," says the live shot of Mega Man.
Albert chuckles at Mega Man's guarantee of apprehending him. "I wouldn't be too confident, blue boy," he says.
Then, Dr. Light appears on the screen again. "As far as Gamma's security, we have taken special measures to make sure that no unauthorized persons can even get inside to Gamma, let alone hijack him."
"We'll see, Thomas," Wily says with a sinister confidence, "We will see!"
Dr. Wily laughs aloud again, because very soon, his latest and deadliest plan yet will go into motion.
Vick-Tek corporate headquarters.
New York City.
Sitting at his desk in his office on the upper floors of the Vick-Tek skyscraper, Marcus Vickers stares at a computer tablet which displays the front page of the online edition of a major national newspaper.
It reads "Light debuts peacekeeping robot Gamma at conference" in bold text at the top of the screen.
"I can't win," Vickers depressingly sighs, "Right when my company is about to unvail our Robot Warrior at long last, Dr. Light upstages us again."
Vickers puts the computer down and sneers, "I know he's only doing what he feels as best for the world, but if I didn't know any better, I'd think I had a mole in my company."
"Sir, I seriously doubt that anybody in this company is supplying information to Dr. Light," says Scott Erikson, Vick-Tek Vice President.
"How do you know unless you find out?", Vickers snaps.
"As I said, I'll see to it that our private investigators get to work on finding any perpatrators right away, sir," Erikson replies, completely changing his tune.
"Wait a second, Scott," Vickers says, his voice sounding skeptical and suspiciously eyeing Erikson, "How do I know you aren't tipping off people?"
Scott freaks out at his boss' sudden accusation. "Uh, I w-would never betray the company, sir! Y-y-you know that I'm the m-most loyal employee you have."
Vickers keeps his stare on Erikson as he inches his finger towards the shiny red button on his desk, which causes the Vice President to leap out of his chair in fear of being dumped into the parking garage.
Vickers sighs and moves his finger away from the trap door button and rubs temples of his head. "I apologize, Scott," he says, "You're right, you are the most loyal person to this company."
Erikson lets out a sigh of relief, but is still hesistant to sit back down. Given the frame of mine he suspects his boss is in, he might press that button any minute.
Vickers continues, "I am so focused on making sure that our Robot Warrior project is a success that I'm over-reacting to a great many things lately... But, seriously, do get our private investigators involved. Because, if anyobdy is betraying this company... I'll have to drop them down a higher trap door."
Erikson gulps at the thought of the trap door, even though nobody has died from a trap door fall... yet.
"In the meantime, I'm going to place a call downstairs to Dr. Wagner," Vickers says, pulling his phone out of his pocket, "I want to know how close this project is to being a reality.
Erikson leaves (and allows his heart rate to return to normal) as Vickers calls Dr. Wagner, the Sweedish scientist who was hired to build the long-anticipated Top Secret Vick-Tek Robot Warrior project.
The robot was almost ready in January but needed more time for bug testing, and since Vickers did not want a repeat of the abysmal VickBot prototypes from last year, he allowed Dr. Wagner to have extra time to complete the robot warrior.
"Greetings, this is Dr. Vagner," answers Wagner, "Vith who am I zpeaking vith?"
"Doctor, it's Mr. Vickers upstairs."
"Ah, yes, Mr. Wickers!", Dr. Wagner says.
"Vickers," Marcus corrects (again), "Do you have any good news regarding my robot warrior?"
"Yes. I vant to tell you that the robot varrior vill be ready by Tommorrow night. Then, ve can begin testing his capabilities as vell as his recognizance zkills."
"Bless you, doctor, you're a mircle worker," Vickers beams, "I look forward to seeing him in action tommorrow night."
Vickers terminates the call and looks uplifted from the news that his robot warrior will finally be a reality tomorrow. The smile on his face then disappears as he turns his chair around, looking at the news headline about Dr. Light's Gamma again and he groans. "He beat me again."
The Next Day.
Dr. Light's laboratory.
As the sun is setting on this mild March evening, Mega Man stands atop the roof of Dr. Light's lab and stares across at the New York City skyline off in the distance.
Mega's forbodding feeling about Dr. Wily's next attack is haunting him more than ever right now. He has a bad feeling that something about to go horribly wrong, and that Dr. Light's new Gamma robot could play a big part in all of it.
Mega had voiced his concerns to the Presidents and Prime Ministers of the nations of the world who launched the project to begin with, but they were dead set on proceeding anyway.
Mega wonders why everybody was so insistant on making Gamma. Was he not doing a good enough job as the Defender of the Human Race? Wily has launched over a dozen attacks since last year, and he's managed to get away each time. Maybe the people of the world are getting impatient...
Another thing that bothers him is how persistant Dr. Light was at designing Gamma. Mega knows that his father dislikes creating a weapon of any kind unless it is absolutely necessary... then, why did he fell the need to create Gamma?
"There you are," calls the voice of Roll from behind him, "I've been looking all over for you. You must like it up here."
Roll stands beside her brother and notices he's been acting a little uneasy since they came back home from Australia yesterday. "You okay?", she asks with concern.
"Yeah. I'm just a little worried," Mega replies.
"About Wily?", Roll asks.
Mega nods. "It's been two months since he's launched an attack of any kind, which means he must be working on something big... bigger than then anybody can imagine."
Roll asks, "Like what?"
Mega doesn't respond right away, knowing that everybody around the lab is probably sick of hearing him worry about this subject, but Roll answers for him...
"You still think Wily's going to go after Gamma?", she asks.
Mega Man replies, "I don't think he will... I know he will."
"Even if that monster does try to go after him, Dr. Light said that Gamma is the most secure machine in the entire world," Roll says, trying to assure her brother.
"I know what Dr. Light said... but, do you really think that's going to stop Wily?", Mega asks, looking over to Roll.
"... No," Roll replies, shruging her shoulders.
"I know it would be difficult for anybody to take Gamma, maybe impossible, "Mega adds, "But, if there's one thing I've learned about Wily, it's that he can make the most impossible nightmare senario and make it possible. He made made appliances come to life and shrunk entire cities last year, for goodness sake."
Roll would know all about Wily creating nightmares. Last Summer, he blasted her friend Doc the Met during an attack that took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. And ever since, Roll has had an even stronger desire to assist Mega Man in bringing Wily to justice and has been a valued assistant in many of the missions that have since passed.
She steps away from her brother to the other side of the roof and looks down at Doc's resting place, right beside his favorite tree in the back yard area, which is just starting to show signs of sprouting new leaves.
Roll steps back to Mega Man and puts an arm over his shoulder. "I know you're worried about Wily, Mega. I am too. But, I think you're worrying a little too much lately. Remember, when that plane flew too close to The White House a few weeks ago? You were freaking out about that until we found out it was a malfunction in the controls onboard."
Mega looks downward to the ground below as he thinks about how stressed out he's been lately thinking about whatever Wily must have up his sleeve. But Roll puts her right arm on his left shoulder and tries to ease his fears a little bit.
"Look, Mega, as crazy as Wily is, I don't think he stands a chance at hijacking Gamma. You personally went through the security drills with the team last month and even you couldn't make it past all of them, and you're the best robot in the world."
Mega sighs as the sky on the horizon gets darker, wishing that he had had more time to go through each of those security drills to ensure they were flawless. "I hope you're right, Roll."
The Next Day.
Gamma site.
Sydney, Australia.
As the giant peacekeeping robot stands tall (taller than any building in the continent) in the hours before dawn breaks, a duo of security policebots stand outside patrolling the area and keep an eye out for any undesireable persons. The group of guards would be larger, but the shift change is taking place so the ammount of guards is smaller for the moment. The rest of the guards should be here any minute.
Earlier today, several humans (including tourists) were coming by and gawking at Gamma or taking pictures of it, and taking pictures of themselves standing in front of the robot. Now as it is the middle of the night, there is a peaceful lack of activity here, aside from a pair of rogue kangaroos who bounced past the scene earlier.
One Policebot eyes somebody driving up to the scene in a black sedan, parking just outside the security gates.
"Attention Supervisor Savage, subject is approaching the site. Recommended course of action?", asks the Policebot.
"Ask him what he's doing here. If he's a hostile... you know what to do."
"Copy that," replies the Policebot, who eyes the driver as he gets out of the car and approaches the policebot guards.
This fellow is carrying a handled case of some kind and running a hand through his perfectly styled brown hair. He is a suave-looking man, wearing a black suit a yellow cloth underneath that looks almost like a scarf. He is also wearing sunglasses... at night. And also, his feet are noticably larger, and he has red hands.
The Policebots can clearly see that this is a humanoid robot and approach him with weapons at the ready in case he is a threat.
"Hold it," says the lead Policebot, "Identify yourself."
"Howdy," says the robot in the suit, using a put-on Texan voice, "I'm from the Federal Bureau of Investigations. I need ta' inspect your robot to make sure he don't malfunction anytime soon, you hear?"
The two Policebots glance at eachother, then turn their attention back to the suit guy. "Gamma has already passed inspection," replies the main Policebot, "No further inspections were planned to our knowledge. I'll need to see your badge and registration number if you are to proceed."
"Why, my registration number's DLN-000, son," replies the suit-wearing robot.
"Checking database," says the Poliebot. Once he finds out who the registry number DLN-000 belongs to, he reacts appropriately... "What?", he blurts.
"I would've said the same thing myself," says Proto, using his real voice now.
Proto's left hand retracts into his forearm and he quickly blasts both of the policebots standing in front of him with the copied Ice Slasher, freezing them both into frozen ice statues.
Before he was sent on this mission, ProtoMan said he wanted the special powers of certain Robot Masters in case he would need them, so he got them (no matter how much the owners of said powers protested.)
ProtoMan knew what he was doing too, because if he had fired a plasma blast outside of Gamma, the sudden surge of energy would have been detected and would have triggered a full security alert and this mission would have been lost.
Without enough time to gloat over his victory, ProtoMan quickly picks up the frozen bodies of the dispatched Policebots and moves them towards the front of Gamma, near the gargantuan peacekeeping robot's left foot, where one of the entrances are located. Then he hears something...
"SL-55, what's the status update of this subject outside?", asks a voice coming from the Policebot's right arm. It was the secruity supervisor.
Proto kneels down and presses a button on the Policebot's frozen arm and mimicking the Policebot's voice, replies, "He is an agent from the American F.B.I. He is coming up to check on Gamma."
"Copy that. I thought we were done with tests, but I suppose we could let him in and get it over with. The next shift will be reporting any minute."
After the call is cut off, ProtoMan smiles. "I'm so glad you people are stupid."
Proto takes the frozen Policebots and places them beside a pair of recharging chambers and is soon his way up to the top levels of Gamma, where that fool Thomas Light said the bridge was located. But, he knows he doesn't have much time to accomplish this mission. He knows the outer security was the easy part (easy for him, at least), but there is still the inner security that he doesn't know anything about. Plus, when the next shift of Policebots arive, they could snoop around and find their frozen partners. And if ProtoMan is captured, he knows the mission will be a bust and he will probably be brought back to Dr. Light. He also knows that all of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters don't have the skill that he posesses, so he is the only one who can pull this off.
"Nobody ever said this job was going to be easy," ProtoMan quips to himself as he proceeds, still carrying his mysterious case.
Author's Notes:
I decided to remove Gamma's second head that he had on top on his big square-jaw head, because I thought it was too goofy looking for this story. I also made Gamma much bigger than he was in Mega Man 3. (In Mega Man 3, Gamma was only big enough to fit one person in a cockpit inside his head.)
I almost cut the first half of the scene with Vickers, because even though it is kind of funny, it is a little strange. But, the idea is that Vickers is so wrapped up in this "Robot Warrior" project that he might be becoming paranoid.
Please don't forget to leave a review/comment.