Chapter Twenty-Two: Smoke & Mirrors
It's a beautiful sunny day, the weather just perfect for a day in Central Park. To Mega Man's left, the stage is nearly finished being set up. The speech is only hours away, and a crowd is already gathering. A few people notice him standing next to it and yell, trying to get him to come their way. Mega waves apologetically, hoping his expression matches his intent. Soon Mitchell Deacon and his security team will arrive. The Cossacks are already here, safe and secure in a reinforced transport vehicle. Roll's within sight, in deep conversation with the security team. Dr. Wily will show, everyone knew that. It was only a matter of time.
Mega glances away. Somewhere nearby is the bench where he and Proto Man met. Where his brother betrayed him yet again. It feels like it was yesterday. It feels like years ago.
After Shadow Man had left, he'd woken Dr. Light as quietly as possible, and waited until they were in the privacy of the lab to show him the eye. Dr. Light could say nothing. He'd wrapped Mega in a hug. Dr. Light had held him tight until he'd stopped shaking, but he still feels it in his metal bones, the memory just waiting to rise up and get to him again.
This plan is risky. This plan is crazy . It has to work.
"You'll never know until you try," a voice behind his ear says.
Mega whirls, but there's no sign of Shadow Man. There's barely a sliver of dark behind a nearby tree where he once might have been. Mega might have even imagined him. Real or figment, though, he's right. They won't know unless they try.
"Mega Man!"
Mega blinks, returning to reality. Governor Deacon is approaching him, arms wide and welcoming. It's all Mega can do to keep his expression neutral. Something—distaste, maybe—must have flickered across his face, because Deacon slows, his expression faltering.
"It's good to see you here," Deacon says, recovering quickly.
Mega manages a smile that's only somewhat tight. You tried to kill my brother , he thinks. And I nearly let you.
"Just doing my job, sir," he says.
Deacon's return smile is perfectly political. "I'll leave you to it, then."
"Sure," Mega says, watching Deacon leave. He'd give up half his circuits if he never had to deal with politics again. He knows there's no avoiding it, not with Wily around.
Then
"I could've been melted, man. Getting sentimental, brother?"
"I owed you for telling me about the scrambler chip. Now we're even."
The heat from the molten metal around them blurred the air around them. Anything more they could've said was interrupted by the scream of Wily's Skulker, waiting overhead. Proto's smile faded, but he obediently leaped up to return to Wily, pausing to look down at his brother.
Come back , Mega wanted to say. Don't go.
But he didn't say it. Proto stared down at him, expression unreadable for a few more seconds, before leaping through the window and into the Skulker, fleeing yet again.
Once again, Mega had failed to reach his brother.
Now
"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Roll asks worriedly.
Kalinka's smile is wan. "We have to be."
Dr. Cossack shoves his glasses up his nose. "I'd like nothing more than to avoid this whole scenario," he says. "But I owe it to both Kalinka and your brother to make this right. It will be okay. I trust you."
His gaze sweeps over all of them; Mega and Roll, Dr. Light, Kalinka and his robots. "All of you."
"We won't let you down, Papa," Ivan says quietly.
Outside the transport vehicle, the crowd cheers as Deacon wraps up the final parts of his speech. It's almost time, and there's nothing left to say. Dr. Light and Dr. Cossack make their way to the stage. Rush stays with Kalinka, protectively perched between her and the door. Mega and Roll spread out, keeping their eyes on the skies.
The Cossack bots, for now, stay put.
"Thank you all for coming here," Dr. Cossack says, clearing his throat. His English is impeccable, his accent only slightly thicker than his daughter's. He speaks a few more minutes about the GAMMA program, and the crowd grows restless. They didn't really come here for scientific progress. They came here for a show, and they're going to get one.
"I'm supposed to announce the rollout of GAMMA across the country," Dr. Cossack says, pretending to study his notes. "But truth be told, that's not happening. I'm withdrawing my research from this project, and returning to Russia. This whole endeavor has been a terrible mistake, and it's my duty to rectify it."
The crowd begins to murmur, and Mega sees Deacon's face fall. He moves toward the stage, but Dr. Light is there to head him off, his expression pleasant but firm.
"First, I must introduce you to my greatest creations," Dr. Cossack says. With a wave of his hand, his Robot Masters emerge from hiding and join him on the stage to the alarm. Drill Man. Dust Man. Toad Man. Dive Man. Bright Man.
Not Ring Man. Not Skull Man. They're somewhere in the crowd, blending in.
"Don't be afraid!" Dr. Cossack says, motioning for calm. "You are only familiar with them through Wily, but I assure you, they are their true selves again, thanks to Dr. Light. These are my robots, not Dr. Wily's, and he will never gain control over them again. They are Robot Masters, here to make the world a better place. And they will, if you let them."
He pauses, nodding toward Dr. Light. "The same is true for all the Robot Masters recovered from that awful man. They've been returned to their true purpose, and he won't twist them for his evil ways again. We should not fear Robot Masters. We should not halt progress over the actions of a madman! But that's not the reason I am here."
Dr. Cossack's gaze sweeps over the crowd as it quiets, waiting in anticipation. His robots wait behind him, silent. Ready.
"What I'm really here to talk to you about is Proto Man," he continues. "You know him as one of Wily's evil robots, and I must admit, for a long time, that's what I believed him to be. But I—I was wrong. In my blind grief, I threw my principles away. I've spent my whole life trying to create robots who could make complex decisions, who could think and feel like people, and yet I treated Proto Man like nothing more than a machine. I let Governor Deacon talk me into doing something terrible, and for the rest of my life, I will regret that."
The murmuring gets louder. A few of Deacon's men try to get close to Dr. Cossack, to shut him up, but Alexei and Ivan are there, holding them off. The security team keeps the stage clear. Dr. Light's paying them, not Mitchell Deacon.
"I'm not here to talk to you about the Proto Man you believe to be a murderer," Dr. Cossack says, pulling out a small device from his pocket. "I'm here to talk to you about the Proto Man who was my daughter's friend."
He plays Proto Man's confession. All of it. How he and Kalinka met, how Kalinka was trying to rescue her brother, how Proto was only trying to save her in turn. It's just as painful to hear the second time around as it was the first, but it was necessary. Proto Man wasn't a cocky, evil bad guy in his recorded confession. He was grieving, and scared. He was a person, with emotions and regrets. It won't convince them all. It probably won't convince most. But it's out there, to the public, to the media. It's what they have to do to clear his name.
"Now you may think this is another trick," Dr. Cossack says quietly, once the recording has finished. "And I would not blame you for it. But we have recovered footage from the rooftop, backing up Proto Man's version of events. We have reports from the hospital staff confirming that he begged them to help. And I have one other thing."
He holds out his hand, and Kalinka Cossack walks onto the stage. The crowd erupts. Deacon is trying to shout something, but everything is too loud, reporters pushing close, shouting questions.
Kalinka raises a hand until the crowd quiets. "I suppose it is not every day you see a dead person," she says calmly. "But Proto Man was telling the truth. He tried to save me. He did save me. And the one person who tried to hide that for his own gain, who tricked my papa into faking my death, was Mitchell Deacon."
The crowd explodes again, reporters pushing to the front and demanding answers. Deacon finally wrestles his way past Dr. Light, who gives a subtle hand signal to the guards to let the man onto the stage. Pale, his smile slightly shaky, he holds his hands out imploringly as the Cossack bots gather protectively around Kalinka and their father.
"Miss Cossack, I beg your pardon," he says. The crowd is yelling. The crowd is booing, and Deacon sweeps his gaze across his constituents with desperation. "I beg all of your pardons! I was merely trying to protect the Cossacks—"
"You faked my death to win political points by trying to deactivate my friend ," Kalinka says sharply. "Proto Man saved me, and you were going to destroy him for it!"
"I was trying to prevent a dangerous robot from causing any more harm!" Deacon snaps, losing his cool at last.
"And what good did that do?" Dr. Cossack says coldly. "Had you given him over to Dr. Light like the government originally wanted, he could have been reformed as all the other recovered Robot Masters have been. He could have been the key to stopping Wily for good! But instead you kept him in a cage while you bragged about his capture. You used my fear for my daughter's safety against me, and what good has that done? Proto Man is back under Wily's control. You've caused nothing but more pain and suffering."
Dr. Light had moved to Dr. Cossack's side as the exchange went on. He speaks at last, his eyes on the media cameras watching. "It's true. The government wanted to turn Proto Man over to me, and I'm convinced had they done so, we would have been given a great advantage over Dr. Wily. But Mitchell Deacon used all his political power to prevent that. He cared more about his political prospects than the safety of the world."
The crowd completely loses it, yelling, cursing, demanding answers. They're minutes away from throwing things at the stage. As Deacon gets more flustered, Kalinka turns on a video projector behind them, playing a video of a nurse describing how Deacon bribed and bullied them into silence over Kalinka's survival. Mega feels almost wobbly with relief. It's working. They're listening .
A horrible sound, a metallic scream, cuts through the noise, stopping the chaos in its tracks. Mega watches grimly as Wily's Skulker swoops in.
It's time.
Author's Note: Look, what was in the container was probably molten plastic or something, but that idea was stupid, so I'm ignoring it.