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Elec Man.
Yes, that was his name...right?
He stared up at the ceiling of the room, silent and confused. No one was here, no one was at the computers, and he was the only one awake. A brief diagnostic check told him that he had not been given the code to be activated yet.
So why was he wide awake?
After at least ten minutes according to his internal clock, Elec Man sat up, gazing around the room he was in. Seven other tables lined the room, each with an unactivated robot lying down. Elec Man blinked and climbed down from his own table, walking around the room and surveying each of the other robots.
On the table beside him lay a grey and red robot, obviously male. It bore a helmet with a torch-like top. 007...Fire Man... the back of Elec Man's mind provided, Waste disposal robot. Why someone would need a walking candlestick for waste disposal, Elec Man did not know.
Next to Fire Man lay a rather rotund, red, yellow, and black robot. 006...Bomb Man...ground disruption. Why not just put dynamite in the ground? Next to Bomb Man was a very small robot, almost childish in appearance, wearing a blue and white parka. 005...Ice Man...arctic exploration. Possibly the best excuse for building a robot so far.
004, Guts Man, was stuck on the floor thanks to his enormous -- and probably rather overdone, in Elec Man's opinion -- size. Wilderness reclamation...why in the world would he have to be this big?
Across the room was 003, Cut Man, a small, red and white robot with a large set of shears on his head. Timber feller? Isn't that what chainsaws are for?
002 and 001 were not in the room, having most likely been activated much earlier, perhaps before he and the five others were even constructed. He, Elec Man, was 008, built for atomic energy control.
"Who's in here?" came a voice at the door behind him just before the lights flared to life, making Elec Man cringe, and shade his eyes as he looked to the door. Something moist -- water? -- filled his eyes as a result of the bright light startling his senses, a slight throbbing just behind his eyes.
The newcomer blinked large, blue-green, ocean-colored eyes at him. His dark brown bangs fell in front of his face, but not enough to bother him. Elec Man felt like he should recognize the shorter robot, but the name escaped him even as he realized that the robot was 001.
001 blinked again and spoke, voice soft and monotone, "Elec Man? How are you awake? We haven't activated any of you yet." Elec Man just stared at him, unable to bring himself to speak even as 001 asked him a second time. When he still received no response, 001's eyes narrowed and he stepped forward. "I don't know how or why you're up, but you need to go back to the table until the doctors are through with their maintenance checks." 001 stepped around behind the confused Elec Man, quickly opening a panel in the taller robot's back and pulling a metal panel loose.
Elec Man barely managed to yelp in surprise before he was again surrounded by darkness.
* * * * *
Elec Man felt a tingling sensation, and something in the back of his mind sprang to attention. The activation code...! It was finally time to awaken.
He sat up and opened his eyes. The room was bright and all of the other robots were up and walking around. Two scientists -- Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, Elec Man's mind confirmed -- were standing at the main computer. Two additional robots -- 001 and a blonde female Elec Man guessed to be 002 -- were greeting the other five new robots and double-checking their structure to make sure they were walking and moving properly. Dr. Light typed something into the computer and spoke, "Well, that's the last of them."
"Good," Dr. Wily responded, crossing his arms, "Let's show them around and get them to work." Elec Man blinked.
Work? So soon after they were activated? Shouldn't we be given time to acquaint ourselves with the building first...? he wanted to ask, but something prevented the words from being spoken. Something strange.
They cannot learn of what you are, something in the back of his mind whispered, making a shiver trail down Elec Man's spine, Not yet...
Why...? Elec Man found himself "asking". No answer came. Even as he tried to figure out what that "voice" in his mind was and why he was so confused, Dr. Wily lead the other seven robots out of the room to be shown to their assigned jobs. Elec Man had still not left the table he had been lying on.
"Elec Man!" Dr. Wily's voice barked from outside the room. Elec Man hesitated, but climbed down from the table. He started to the door, but caught his foot on the table Fire Man had been lying on. He tripped and almost landed face first on the metal floor. He hissed and grabbed the ankle that had gotten hung in the table legs. It quickly grew stiff, throbbing. Elec Man tried to stand back up, but his ankle gave away underneath him.
Dr. Light blinked, waved Dr. Wily to go on, and walked over to Elec Man to see what was wrong. "Balancing sensors not working?" he asked.
Elec Man blinked up at the scientist and managed to stutter, "Uh...y-yeah..." Again, he was restrained, kept from telling the truth. Why? "M-My ankle...isn't working right."
"Let's get you up here on this table and have a look at it," Dr. Light said, helping Elec Man back onto the table. Elec Man rubbed his ankle, wincing, as Dr. Light left to find some tools. Wait...were robots supposed to feel pain? He wanted to ask his creator, but he was still being restrained. Confusion was threatening to overflow his senses, but he remained quiet.
"Hmm..." the scientist muttered to himself as he worked on repairing Elec Man's ankle, "That's odd..." Elec Man blinked at him. "The structure seems...different from what the schematics show...oh well. Something caused some of the cables to swell up." He began putting his tools away. "I gave you an energy injection, so the swelling should reverse in a few minutes. Try walking again in about five minutes." Elec Man nodded. "I'm going to go see how Dr. Wily's doing assigning everyone." With that, the scientist left, leaving Elec Man on the table, in pain, thoroughly confused, and in thought. Deep down, he knew that what he was feeling -- confusion and pain for starters -- was not typical robotic behavior. The only thing he could think of was that something happened when he had awakened before the activation code was given.
What he wished he could find out, however, was why.
* * * * *
It was not long after the activation and assigning of the six robots that Dr. Wily went insane. Everyone thought that 001 and 002 -- Rockman and Roll -- had been the only one to escape the reprogramming, but he was not. Elec Man proved to be immune to the codes and programming Dr. Wily was using. He also found that he did not have a sense of loyalty to Dr. Wily and did not want to carry out his orders. Yet another question of why, but the restrain from his first day of activation told him to stay quiet and do as he was told as well as restrained him from asking Rockman why he had not informed either of the scientists of his early activation.
Elec Man escaped being destroyed at the nuclear reactor by Rockman, but the other five were not so lucky. However, Dr. Wily managed to rebuild them easily.
Once they had been rebuilt, Elec Man had noticed that the five Robot Masters acted strangely around him. They would sometimes freeze in his presence; freeze and stare at him, as if awaiting a command. Curiosity sparked, Elec Man finally tested the idea one day, giving them a set of elaborate orders.
They obeyed.
I knew then that I was not like the
others.
I suddenly saw my path in front of me, as if it had been there all this time...
I knew then...that I was a Kaiser.
