The first thing he noticed was the loud clanging sounds happening around him. Blues couldn't imagine where he had ended up that had such a racket going on.
It certainly wasn't his bedroom back at home. Dr. Light had made certain his bedroom was fair enough away from the lab that the sounds of construction wouldn't disturb him.
Not that he would have been there anyway.
A year after he came online, a defect had been discovered in Blues' power core, one that had leaked out and caused some damage to his integration chip. The effect was a slow cooking of his inner workings that would eventually kill him. It could have been replaced, but removing the supply of energy on his IC might have ended up sapping him of his intellect and will, reducing him to an ordinary robot.
Blues certainly didn't want to die, but he dreaded the idea of becoming a willess serval even more. Thus, he decided to forgo the treatment, and live what was left of his life to the best of his abilities.
Dr. Light, however, had disagreed. Without telling Blues, he had made plans to carry out the treatment, whether Blues wanted it or not. The young Robot Master overheard the doctor discussing his plans with another doctor, one Noel LaLinde, over video chat.
Without hesitating a moment, Blues ran away. There was no way he'd risk becoming like a car or assembly line robot. That fate would be worse to him than death.
For the next couple of months, Blues wandered around. He helped people who needed it, assisting at disasters and such. However, homesickness, the fear of death, and pain from the faulty core grew in the young one, until he finally decided that maybe the treatment wouldn't be so bad an option. He wouldn't agree to it right away, but he'd go back to Dr. Light and talk about it. Maybe the doctor had found another option since he left, after all.
When Blues got back to the lab, however, he didn't find Dr. Light. Instead, he found another robot, partially built, lying on the work table. The new robot was covered from the waste down with a tarp, and Blues could tell just by looking at him that he was meant as a replacement.
The new bot looked exactly like Blues, except that his hair was a much darker shade of brown and his eyes, which had not switched on yet, were blue instead of green. Aside from the listed changes, he was Blues' exact twin.
Grief struck Blues when he realized Dr. Light was replacing him. He hadn't looked for him at all, just got started on a new bot just like him. Tears welled up in the young bot's eyes, and he dashed out of the lab, only barely missing the car pulling into the driveway before running off into the woods.
He heard the doctor calling his name, but he didn't care. Dr. Light could have his new bot, if that was what he really wanted. Blues would go off somewhere else, somewhere he'd never be found.
Blues stopped hearing the calls about an hour into running. A day later, it had started to rain intensely. Later that night, he fell into an old well. It was empty, but the rain had left it slick and muddy, so it was impossible to climb out.
Thus, Blues decided to go into sleep mode until it dried off and he could work his way out. And thus, he now woke up, not in the old well, but on a table surrounded by racket.
"Crash Man, Heat Man, Flash Man, knock it off! I'm working here!" Blues recognized the voice in an instant. It was Albert Wily, the man who had assisted in Blues' first awakening.
"Wily?" The question was less for validation and more to make sure this wasn't a hallucination.
"Ah, good, you're waking up." Wily sounded pleased. "Let me activate your new eye so you can get a look around."
Blues felt a fiddling around with the back of his head before his sight came back. He was in a dark room, lying on a table. He could now tell that the racket had been caused by a handful of robots, who were scuffling just outside of the room they were in. Wily was in front of him as well, looking even more disheveled than Blues remembered.
"Well, can you see?" Wily snapped, not even bothering with greeting.
"Yes," Blues replied. His own voice sounded strange, like he was older, and his face felt odd, but he didn't question it.
"Excellent!" Wily rubbed his hands together. "You were quite the catch, my boy. Good thing Wood Man found you while scoping out that forest. Just so you know, I replaced that leaky core of yours with one of my own design." He gave a smug grin. "It's much better than the one that fool Light gave you. You'll be the prize of my collection for sure! Mega Man and Light will tremble once they learn I have…uhh…"
Wily paused for a moment, rubbing his chin. "Now, what to call you."
"My designation is Blues Light, DLN-000." Blues felt like he should have been disturbed by the monotone in his own voice, but it didn't come. He just accepted it.
"Yes, yes, I know all that, " Wily replied, waving his hand dismissively. "But no one trembles in fear at Blues . You'll need a better name. One you'll use when you break that obnoxious brat...That's it! You'll be SWN-000: the Break Man!"
"I am Break Man," the newly redubbed bot replied.
"Ha!" Wily gave a malicious grin. "Wait until Light sees what became of one of his precious Light Bots! In fact, you have a look-see!"
Wily yanked Break Man off the table and took him over to a mirror. The person who looked back at him looked similar to what he remembered, but it was clear Wily had remodeled him to look older. Instead of a child of eleven, a young man of sixteen stood, clothed in a dark grey and red jump suit.
The biggest change, however, was that the green eyes were gone. Long tendrils had been placed in his eye sockets instead, and these led to a large, red eye stuck in the middle of his face. Blues would have been horrified by the change, but Break Man didn't care. He got the feeling he should care, but he just couldn't .
"So, what do you think?" Wily asked, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"Think about what?" Break Man replied, as monotone and apathetic as ever.
Wily squinted in thought, before a look of realization came to him. "Oh, I must not have activated all the installed chips." He pulled out a remote and pressed in.
In an instant, all the emotions Break Man had been unable to feel flooded him all at once. Rage at Dr. Light for abandoning and replacing him, hatred towards his replacement, the previously unknown Mega Man, the lust for thrill and action, a desire for destruction, and an unquestioning obedience to Wily alone. A little part of him hated everything he was feeling, but he couldn't hold it back.
When he straightened up, Wily peered at him. "So, now what do you think?"
"What do I think?" Break Man peered in the mirror, and an evil grin spread across his features. "I think Light's going to be sorry he ever thought of replacing me!"
"Perfect, perfect!" Wily clapped Break Man roughly on the back. "Now, come along, my boy. We have much work to do. But first…"
He took a box off a nearby shelf and handed it to Break Man. Inside sat a red and black helmet, which would cover his entire head. Break Man slipped it on and glanced in the mirror. His features were now hidden from view, save the single glowing red eye, which could still be seen through the tinted glass.
"You look excellent!" Wily proclaimed. "Better than ever! Now, onto my plan for destroying that wretched Mega Man…"
Wily wandered down the hall, speaking aloud of all his grand plans. Break Man turned to follow, and as he left, he noticed a picture of a blue armored little robot on a nearby dart board. "You'd better watch out, bro ," he said to the picture, and the last word was produced as a sneer.