Well, here we are yet again, eh, minna? A year after its last update, Ebony Heaven has a new chapter. The whole idea of the story being read aloud by its readers has seemed to fall through, however, but now I'm considering a new project; given my current state of affairs, it may remain on the back burner for a little while longer, but with spring break coming up in a month, it might just happen. I'm not too shabby an artist, and I was thinking about making Ebony Heaven into a manga, so everyone would get to see the story as well as read it. However, it may or may not happen any time soon, but it's still an idea that has actually been on my mind ever since EH got off the ground. So, with any luck, the manga version of EH won't be too far off into the horizon; I may even start sketching out the first chapter after I post this one. And now, on with Chapter 8 of Ebony Heaven.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 8 - Mission Start

"Enter, Protoman."

The door slid open as I approached it. Once again, I was standing face-to-face with Master Wily, who was still seated in his chair; however, he had his back to me this time.

"You called, Master Wily?"

"Yes." He turned in his chair so that he was now facing me. "It is time for your first assignment. I have already sent out your brothers to various parts of the world, and as we speak they are setting up their bases in their respective assigned points."

"Excuse me, sir, but…weren't your original plans to send each of the androids to different parts of the country? Why did you change your plan?"

Master Wily's cold eyes narrowed at me, as if I had dared to say anything at all. I stiffened, awaiting his inevitable yell. But, surprisingly, he did not yell; he did not even raise his voice. Instead, he merely clasped his hands together and said to me, "I merely felt that a change was in order. If I want to conquer the entire world, then I will need more than a few key points in this country alone; I'll need strongholds in various points of the world itself. That way, I'll be able to gain more ground in less time; do you see what I'm saying?"

I nodded. It did seem like an excellent plan now that I thought about it. I bowed my head.

"Please forgive me, Master Wily. I did not mean to step out of line. Please, continue; I will not interrupt you again."

Master Wily twisted his mouth into a crooked smile. "That's quite all right, Protoman. Now then, listen up - here is your first assignment." He turned his chair around again, but this time he pressed a small button on the control panel at the front of the long table. When he did, a large digital map of the world was displayed on a screen opposite of Master Wily's seat. On the map were six red dots, which I assumed were the positions of the other androids.

Master Wily confirmed my assumption. "Do you see these dots, Protoman? These dots represent the places where the others have been stationed. What I need you to do is oversee these places. You know, make sure that the others aren't screwing things up, as they most likely will. There is a control room a few doors down from this one, which has an array of monitors and other equipment. From that room, you can survey the others' positions without having to actually go to those places. Your fellow robots are already well-equipped with the necessary arsenal to deal with any…interferences…should they present themselves, so you need not worry about going to assist the others."

Actually, I hadn't been worried about the others at all. Why should I care about what happened to them? If they messed things up, the fault was theirs, and Master Wily would punish them, not me.

"Oh, and by the way, Protoman…since you are the one advising them, if any one of them fails in their task, you are the one I am holding responsible; do I make myself clear?"

Well, there went that theory, although Master Wily did have a logical point. After all, I was the one controlling the others' moves, so if one of them failed, it was indeed my fault for executing a poorly made plan. I certainly didn't want Master Wily to punish me again, so I had to make absolutely sure that not one of the androids failed.

If they were not successful, then I was not successful. And if that happened, then I would disappoint Master Wily, which could never happen; I could never disappoint Master Wily. I would never disappoint him. I silently vowed to myself that I would do whatever it took to uphold this statement.

"…Protoman…?"

I gasped and sharply raised my head. "Yes…sir?"

"Do I make myself clear or not, you fool?!" he shouted. I cringed.

"Yes, sir. I understand completely."

Master Wily leaned back in his chair, satisfied. "Good." He turned his chair so that its back was facing me, and pointed toward the door. "Now go. And remember, Protoman - you may be monitoring the other Robot Masters, but I am monitoring you." I nodded and exited the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I found my way to the control room. When I entered it, I was greeted with a plethora of machines, all blinking and flashing with electricity. I sat in the only chair in the entire room, which was seated in front of an array of monitors, just as Master Wily had said. To my sides was a set of control panels that operated the monitors and communications devices. I activated one of the many switches, and one of the monitors came online. I was now able to see the position of one of the androids.

From the looks of the place, it already resembled a construction area of some sort. However, whichever android that was stationed here had also done a few modifications of his own. By activating another switch on my right, I opened up the communications channel with the android.

"Hello? Come in - this is your commander Protoman speaking."

There was a bit of static on the other line, but then the android's face appeared on screen. This android was red and black, with a Metool's helmet atop his head, as well as a protruding lower jaw. When he spoke, his voice was low and rumbling, like that of a crane or other construction machine.

"Yessir, Protoman, sir. Gutsman reporting."

So, this one's name was Gutsman? I briefly remembered Master Wily mentioning his name earlier on in the day, when the eight of us had all assembled in the conference room.

"Gutsman…status report."

"Well, everything's going according to Master Wily's plan so far, boss. He told each of us to build our own bases once we arrived at our respective spots, so I got to work just like he told me to."

"So I've seen…good work, Gutsman. And have you encountered any sort of trouble?"

"Naw…the guards were easy enough to take out, heh heh. They tried resisting me, but their efforts were pretty poor, I gotta tell ya. It was easy gettin' rid of 'em. After I took care of 'em, I started remodelin' their base here."

"Good," I said. But then Gutsman looked at me sheepishly.

"There's just one tiny little problem, boss."

My eyes narrowed behind my visor. "…what…kind of a problem, Gutsman?"

Gutsman sensed my displeasure and quickly waved his hands in front of his face. "Oh!! W-well, it's nothing too serious, boss, just a pesky security door that I couldn't get through...and it kinda leads to the main entrance of the entire facility."

"A security door? Surely you, Gutsman, with your impressive strength, should have no problem getting past an insignificant door."

"Ah, well…that's what I thought, too, boss…but when I tried breakin' it down, this emergency security system popped on an' just made it worse. It was askin' fer a password an' stuff. It also looks like there's some sorta card slot or somethin'. I guess you need a keycard to get inside."

"Imbecile…" I muttered under my breath. "Give me the coordinates of this security door, I'll see what I can do from here."

"S-sure thing, boss," said Gutsman, and he sent me the coordinates. I had discovered that there was also a navigation system built into the control panel that would allow me to view other parts of the place via coordinates. I focused on the security door, and there was indeed a security card slot, just as Gutsman had said. From what Gutsman had told me, I assessed that you not only needed a keycard to gain access, but a password as well. Without a moment's hesitation, I focused back on Gutsman.

"Gutsman, where did you stow the guards?"

"Oh, them? I put 'em in one of the outdoor holding cells that's used fer construction supplies an' stuff, an' I locked 'em all in real good." He grinned stupidly and looked proud of himself; I merely rolled my eyes, but they were hidden behind my visor.

Ah, the joys of that visor…one of its many benefits is that it allows you to hide your eyes from others, which also allows you to obscure your expression. That way, no one can tell if you're frightened, or worried, or any other embarrassing and unnecessary emotion.

Tounikaku… [In any case…]

"Well, I want you to go back to that cell." Gutsman merely blinked at me stupidly, and started at me with a vacant expression.

"Uhhh…but…why, boss?"

Despite the visor across my face, somehow Gutsman was able to see me glaring at him, because he shifted uncomfortably.

"I-it was just a…question, sir…"

I smiled. "You're absolutely right, Gutsman; it was just a question. And now, I have a question for you."

Gutsman's face brightened. "Yeah, boss?"

"Well, Gutsman, what I want to know is…WERE YOU PROGRAMMED THIS STUPID OR DID YOU HAVE TO WORK AT IT?! YOU DON'T QUESTION MY ORDERS, YOU DOLT, YOU JUST DO THEM, UNDERSTAND?!"

Even though Gutsman is a large android, he was still able to leap straight up for quite an impressive distance.

"Y-yes, sir!! I understand, sir!! Please forgive me, sir!! I'll go without another delay, sir!!" And with that, he took off as fast as his large, bulky frame would allow him. In the meantime, I leaned back in my seat, my temper slowly dying down. That idiot…he didn't realize it, but his success was the key to my own; if he failed, I failed, and I couldn't let that happen. I didn't want Master Wily to punish me again, nor did I want to disappoint him.

Suddenly, a most terrifying thought crossed my mind. It occurred to me that the old saying of "Ignorance is bliss" was most certainly correct. If I let the other androids know that I would get in trouble if they failed, then they might rise up against me and purposely fail in order to hurt me, or even try to destroy me with their own hands. I was fairly sure that none of them was that intelligent, but nonetheless, I still worried; I could not let them find out. I had to maintain authority over the others so that they would be too afraid of me to question or oppose me. That way, my safety was assured.

"…sir? Are you there? Sir? Protoman??"

I was jolted out of my train of thought by the throaty voice of Gutsman. Annoyed, I snapped, "What is it?!" Gutsman visibly winced, and I smiled grimly. It was nice to see someone else cringing for a change, and, even better, because of me. I wrung my hands together as I watched Gutsman.

"I-it's just that…I went back to the cell, just as you ordered me to. Now what?"

"Now go in, you idiot," I said acidly. Gutsman winced again, and opened the door, which he had crudely barred by placing a girder he had twisted between the handles of the two doors. Impressed by his strength, I grimly thought of just what he could do to my body if he ever opposed me. I grimaced and quickly snuffed the mental image from my mind, determined to never let that happen.

Looking back at the monitor, I noticed that Gutsman had entered the cell, and piled in a heap were the bodies of the guards.

"Oi, Gutsman…are they…dead?"

"Hn? Naw, they ain't dead, boss." He looked at me quizzically. "You know that we can't kill humans - it's programmed into us."

I blinked, a blank expression on my face, which was thankfully halfway covered by my visor. No, I hadn't known that. I quickly called up my own system status, and was surprised to see that there was indeed a list of rules that prohibited an android from doing certain things, one of which was killing a human. It could be assumed, then, that we were allowed to hurt humans, but killing them was forbidden. In addition, we were, by programming, not allowed to even think about hurting our creator, let alone even touch him; he was the only human that had an exception to the "hurting, but no killing" rule.

"Well," I said, bringing myself from this reverie, "that's good. Now then…here is what I need you to do, Gutsman. Examine each and every one of these humans until you find a keycard; being guards, they're bound to have keycards to get into that security door."

Gutsman's face brightened. "Hey, great idea, boss!" he quipped. I started at him nonchalantly.

"Of course it is," I drawled. "That's why Master Wily put me in charge of the six of you; now get to work."

"You got it, Protoman, sir!"

Surprisingly, it didn't take Gutsman very long to find and acquire a keycard. Now the only thing that we needed was a password. I figured that the people weren't stupid enough to have the password anywhere on the card, so it would just have to be a guessing game, which would take too much time. There had to be another way to find out what the password was…

It was then that I noticed something on the human that Gutsman had taken the card from. The man was wearing a gold band around one of his fingers. Racking my memory banks, I thought back on Master Wily. He, too, had been wearing one of the gold bands; they must have symbolized something…but what? I squeezed my eyes shut tight and thought, trying desperately to remember something, anything…I was certain that those gold bands had a very large importance.

I had just started to remember something when Gutsman's voice cut into my thoughts, causing me to forget everything I had just started to remember. Livid because I had come so close to remembering something, I shouted at Gutsman, causing the larger android to quiver in fear.

"G-gomen nasai! S-sumimasen kudasai, Protoman-san!! [I-I'm sorry! P-please excuse me, Mr. Protoman!!] It's just that I found these pictures on the human! In addition to the keycard, they were also in the little pouch that I took from him!"

I narrowed my eyes, still annoyed at losing my already faded memories. "What kind of pictures? Show them to me!"

Gutsman shakily held up the pictures so that I could see them. They were all different - in a few, there were simple portrait shots of smaller humans, and in one was another portrait of a woman. In the last one, the guard, the woman, and the two smaller humans were all together, happy and smiling. For some reason, it caused a great pang of loneliness and want in me, although I didn't know why. The entire scene of these happy humans sparked something poignant in me, but I shook my head slightly and thought.

It was obvious that this guard cared about the woman and the small humans, considering the way he was smiling. Perhaps, then…I suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"Gutsman! Check those photos to see if there's any sort of writing on them! If there is, it would be on the backs of the pictures."

Gutsman awkwardly pulled out the pictures from their places in the wallet, and flipped them over. Suddenly, his face lit up with excitement.

"Ah!! You were right, Protoman-san! There is writing on the backs of these!!"

"Well? What do they say?"

At this request, Gutsman's face slackened. "I…I don't know, sir..." he said sheepishly. "I…I can't read. It's not in my programming…"

Of course… I sighed. "Fine…then turn them around so that I can take a look at them." Gutsman happily complied, and I was able to see what the inscriptions on the backs of the pictures said.

On the back of the first picture, which featured one of the smaller humans, the writing said, "Rin"; on the back of the picture of the other small human it read, "Takage"; the woman's picture read, "My darling Tessa"; finally, on the group shot, the writing read "Christmas with the family", as well as a year, which was smudged.

Christmas…this word also stirred something in me…it was a very familiar word. But it would have to wait…I had orders to follow.

"Gutsman…bring those pictures, as well as the keycard, back to the security door with you. I will tell you what to do from there."

"Yessir!" said Gutsman, and he made his way back to the security door, locking the cell back up with the girder by freshly bending it back into shape. I inwardly shuddered as I again imagined the girder as myself, but once again quickly took the image from my mind.

When Gutsman got back to the security door, I told him to swipe the keycard through the small machine that had the card slot. He did so, and the emergency security systems were instantly shut down. Then it asked for a password, as Gutsman had said earlier. I thought back to the pictures. My theory was that the guard had used one of the names of these other humans as his password; however, which human was hard to say. I recalled the different inscriptions on the backs of the pictures. After a moment's worth of thought, I deduced that the password had to be the name of the woman - the man had shown extreme caring toward her by using the phrase "my darling".

"Gutsman! Type in the following: T E S S A!"

"B-but, boss!! I can't read, remember?"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" I muttered; it had totally slipped my mind. In frustration, I slammed my fist down on one of the control panels. I must have hit another button, because at that moment, a keypad slid out from the edge of the panel. Surprised, I stared at it, but dimly realized that with this, I could access the security door's program and type in the password myself; it also hit me at that moment that I could have merely hacked into the door's program and manually have overridden the program to open the door. I could have also disabled the emergency security system, as well have done about one hundred other things, and we wouldn't have had to go through this big production. Cursing myself for not thinking about the keypad earlier, I typed in the supposed password.

My hunch had been right, and the security door slid open with ease. Now I was ready this time. I told Gutsman to stay still, and began hacking into the system. It turned out that the place was littered with traps, just in case of an intruder, but they were easy to disable. Once everything was shut down security-wise, it was easy for Gutsman to go in and take control over the rest of the building.

"I will leave the rest to you, Gutsman, but contact me in case of further problems."

"Yessir!" And his face was gone.

I leaned back in my chair; it had been a success, and nothing had gone wrong. Gutsman had completed his mission. Relieved, I smiled weakly, glad that it was over. However, I realized that Master Wily would not like it if he caught me resting, so I quickly sat up straight, turned back to the control panels, and began my second mission.
[Authoress Follow-up: In the future, the missions that Protoman goes through will not be a chapter's worth by themselves; Gutsman's was only this long because it needed to introduce certain aspects of the story. UPDATE: I've gotten a LiveJournal for updating purposes! But for some reason FF.net isn't letting me write the URL here, even without the URL HTML tags. Just go to livejournal.com and look for the user shika_exe; that's the journal. Please make sure you read through the first entry. I know it's long, but it has some important info in it. I'll still give you the option of receiving e-mail updates, though, so if you'd like to know when updates to the story are completed, just e-mail your e-mail address to me at sailorgalaxy@snip.net.]