Interlude 1: Paper beats Rock, Scissors beat Paper, Rock beat Zero?
by Tremor3258
Disclaimer: This teensy tiny part not brought to you by Capcom, the rightful owners of Megaman, and all its many, many derivatives.
Dr. Light, important researcher, and one-man think tank behind Megaman, the Blue Bomber, was worried. Not about the current threat, Rock had handled it with his usual aplomb, but from how the current threat had acted. From the reports Roll had compiled, the robots hadn't been acting correctly, and Bebop had disappeared in his first sortie. For that mater, examinations begun by Megaman and Bebop had pointed to Wiley being dead. Still, that gave Light great hope that X would not have to deal with war in his future, but still, if the possibility became necessary. "I guess the basic designs didn't have enough power, and I can't just stop the testing process on X. Of course, he might not need them, I should be able to go in and set up some relays if he decides to fight to grant him power-ups," mused the researcher, already thinking of future battles, which gave him the occasional burst of depression. His robots had been intended for peaceful purposes before both sides had suborned them for use in combat. Light hoped X would have a better path. Light called Roll over. He would have her call the brothers, asking them to take Bass in one piece, so they could examine for what was wrong.
Bass fled. He was damaged, and the virus wanted to continue functioning. Most of those infected were already gone, and Bass doubted he could quickly take down Protoman. So affected by those problems, he didn't notice Megaman and Rush coming from the opposite direction. Bass roared, and fired quickly, his weapons were unaffected. Megaman, caught by surprise, got knocked down. Protoman decided to waste a few precious seconds grabbing up his younger brother, figuring that Bass was acting so far out of normal parameters, that a little assistance would come in handy. Megaman had it already pegged as such that Protoman was really worried, and followed behind quietly.
Bass wandered the streets, looking for something to infect. When the lean blond-haired warrior bot stepped out into the open from an alley, Bass saw a target. So did Zero, but he knew what he was dealing with to a far greater degree than the ailing Bass. Zero slammed forth with a blast, and Zero's arm-mounted buster was a lightyear ahead of Bass's current systems. The robot had managed to make emergency repairs with his systems, or Bass would have ceased to function right there. As it was, the force of the blow was sufficient to knock the robot skidding along for several meters.
Protoman jumped reflexively as Bass went skidding past the intersection he was approaching, with an rocket-boosted orange robot heading after it. Protoman reached the intersection, and saw the orange robot preparing to blast him to pieces. "No, stop that! He must be taken intact!" yelled the robot.
Zero shook his head sadly, "I'm sorry, but he's too dangerous to the world. What he had cannot be allowed to continue." Protoman paused. That sounded well thought-out, similar to phrasing humans used. Protoman paused, caught on the horns between the First and Second law of Robotics (a robot must protect humans, and then do as humans ordered, with the first law overriding the second). And Zero displayed his most important function, making a decision, feeling the mere unthinking robot behind him would soon attack and try and destroy him, Zero turned and fired. Megaman arrived in time to watch his brother fly backwards, tattered and having his wires exposed from the force that shut down Blues.
Megaman didn't notice that at the time, knowing the mission was more important, as Blues could be repaired later. Megaman began to attack Zero, but the robot had already unleashed another plasma charge, immolating Bass and causing the robot's fusion reactor to go super-critical. Then, booby trapped systems in Zero triggered, knocking the first thinking robot out. Megaman calmly walked over and collected Blues and Zero, placing them on Rush in jet mode. He simulated emotion rather well, and was close to decision processing, but wasn't quite there. The death of Blues and Bass were barely noticed besides a log in his data banks.
Light was a bit more torn up when they gathered in Tokyo a week or two later, and taking their cues from that, Rock and Roll acted a bit more morose as well. A pang got shot through Light, knowing that no matter how advanced Rock acted, he was still programmed. Still, Rock had collected the data banks of the Robot Masters, and Light was carefully going over them, using systems that were kept physically separate from everything else. Dr. Light was horrified to find that Bebop had been shot down over the river, along with some sort of apparent cat-drone, but that was weeks ago. Without the coordinates of the initial beacon, the odds of finding him were slim to none.
"Of course, he may have survived that. In that case, he'll eventually come back," murmured Light. Of course! In that time, the dreamstate that the repair cycle would put Bebop in would probably break him free of preprogrammed restraints. It was a simple matter, Light would install a capsule, buried underneath the one X was in, that would teleport out if Bebop came searching for the lab, which would imply he was still following orders, and hopefully the Laws of Robotics. Considering the AI advancement system for X's armor Dr. Light was developing, all it would take would a signal from that capsule, and the other capsules would make themselves available for Bebop.
Bebop was basically X's design with a few minor modifications, and the capsules were designed to continue scanning world science nets and work on small experiments of their own, given effective limited Artificial Intelligence. Then Bebop could reach modern, whenever that was, capacities, and still be able to function as a productive member of society. Light sighed, he hadn't expected to throw two robots into the world without a lot of assistance from him, but that was the hand fate dealt him, "I'm sorry Bebop, it's the best I can do." Light shook himself, and then turned and looked at the deactivated Zero, "Now, let's see about you, my mysterious friend."
Time passed. Light discovered more about Zero, and surprised Wiley could put such potential into a machine to make it the equal, or greater, to humans in thinking ability, but still such a machine designed to fight, Light decided to put it in stasis for a while to run similar checks on it, burying it in Wiley's fortress. Zero would eventually activate, freed of some of Wiley's programming, as Light couldn't see himself simply wiping the mind of an ACTUAL THINKING ROBOT, and hopefully become a warrior for good.
X continued to be tested and reacted, to ensure he would not try and harm humanity. Megaman continued to serve as the guardian of order for several years, but the death of Wiley meant the end of the Robot Wars, and Rock spent more of time in his original role as a companion for Light. Eventually, Light died from old age, after spending much of his later life in seclusion. Rock, Roll, and most everyone else from the original games was immolated in lava. Sigma stopped by Wiley's fortress, taken over by some Mavericks, and was affected by the Maverick Virus, turning him into a living representation of said virus. X defeated Sigma, apparently destroying him, four separate times, and stopped four separate massive uprisings of Mavericks.
Meanwhile, in what was once New York, the rivers eventually changed, and a team of engineers were sent out to dig a foundation. One day, they ran across two bodies in their excavations...
