Revise Note: I went a little deeper in the angst and questionable scenes of this chapter. I also got rid of some of the grammer problems to make them a little more understandable. The angst scene was more of an inspiration of the "anti-drug" commercials (Which may give some of the grown ups reading this fanfic reasons to tell their kids not to smoke...like that ever happens).
2 - A New Start on Robot Civilization
Many years have passed since 20XX. All of Dr. Light's robots have long since disappeared for various reasons and with no one around to keep an eye on the capsules, X has yet to be unleashed into the world. Dr. Light, himself, grew old and died of natural causes (Or so the history books claim).
The old city of Tokyo has become nothing more than a ghost town almost buried in sand along with the remains of Dr. Light's lab and the shack where X resides. There has been no word on the whereabouts of his other robots. Giving up on the search, everyone assumed that with the death of Dr. Wily at the hands of his own creation, everything was going to turn back to normal with the addition of Dr. Light's last line of robots. But the robots left by the good doctor only served to obey society, not have a life of their own.
Because of this, everyone went back to believing that robots were nothing more than tools created to do what everyone told them to do. They never reacted to the way humans have been treating them like most of the robots created just for family purposes. Dr. Light seemed to have lost his will to make those anymore. As he was dying, his only hope was that X would wake up in a world where, despite how robots are being treated by the humans, he could learn to adapt to the world as the first (And possibly only) robot to have human feelings.
- - -
The year is now 21XX. Because of the way humans have been treating Dr. Light's last creations, not many robots were left on the planet. Very few were left for very rich people, but even some of them have forgotten how robots should have been treated.
A lot of the robots that were unable to work have ended up in the junkyard or torn down for parts. But one person was about to change all that. He and a few of his mechanical nerds have pitched in and with the money they got from high-paying jobs, opened up a hospital for robots called "Robot Rescue". It was a non-profit organization created for the soul purpose of finding and repairing broken robots and sending them to people who knew how to take better care of them.
Unfortunately, they only made the situation between robots and humans worse by giving them to people who are too lazy to do simple things themselves. And due to the lack of knowledge on how robots should really live, very few volunteers came in, expecting to be paid rather than have a feeling for robots and coming in to make a difference. Most of the other volunteers were robots who had very little emotions and reactions against human activities towards them.
- - -
A year later, the robot (who fled Dr. Light's lab in confusion and anger years ago) appeared at the doors of Robot Rescue. The people walking around him all murmured at how he looked. He still had the same features as when he disappeared from the world, except this time, he wore a yellow scarf and black shades and his hair was tied into a very long braid. The robot can barely remember why he wanted to wear these, but despite this, even he thought it made him look cool.
Most of the people who saw him had chills running down their spines and would quickly move away from him, but the robot paid no heed to them. He just turned his attention to the door and walked in.
The woman at the check out desk was also shaken by his appearance. He seemed so dark and emotionless. She, not knowing what to expect, ask what he wanted. She was soon surprised when he mentioned wanting to change his life. More confused, she brought him to the president of Robot Rescue for a private interview.
The robot didn't say much, except that he owed the world for nearly abandoning his doctor's last wishes. The president had no idea what he was talking about and the robot knew it both by looking at him and by how long he had been around. He reluctantly opened his left arm and showed the president what he was talking about.
Almost everyone in the President's office gasped when they saw what was inside his arm. Right then and there, the robot had proven to them that he was the very first of the mechanical species to actually have human feelings. The president was overjoyed and wanted to use this discovery to prove to everyone that robots have feelings too. As for the robot himself, he was placed in lab 14, the only lab in the center who's volunteers weren't ordinary humans or robots. This made the robot very uncomfortable, but he knew that in order to get familiar with the human world, he would have to put up with it.
There were three "people" in lab 14. One of them is an 18-year-old computer freak named Skie. He had white hair that reached his knees and wore a black and yellow trench coat over a black shirt and pants. He has no memory of his past, though he never bothers to find it. The volunteers claim that he's been having nightmares that may have something to do with his forgotten past.
Another is a 16-year-old girl named Gato. Parts of her clothes were cat-related as well as her ears and tail. Some say she had the ability to morph into a cat at will. She came in with Skie, which had some volunteers believing that she had something to do with his past. But no matter how much they ask, she wouldn't tell.
The last volunteer in 14 is a 20-year-old boy named Fig. He wore a red, hooded, unzipped sweater with white fire patterns on the collar of his sleeves over a white sweater, white pants that also had fire pattern on either sides of his outer legs, white and red gloves and sneakers. He had red hair that reached his ankles, tied back in a bandaged ponytail and goggles on his forehead with wing patterns near towards the curve. Most of the people thought the wings were genetically attached to his head because they moved depending on the mood he'd be in.
Fig was different from everyone else in a strange way. In fact, before the robot came along, he used to be the most talked about volunteer in Robot Rescue not because of his unique ability to turn into a fire-based robot at will, but because he was one of the three high-school students who survived a chemistry explosion during a biology fieldtrip into one of the most radioactive labs in Tokyo. Most of the students who were caught in the explosion have died due to radiation poisoning. Fig was the first to recover from his coma, the other two were still being examined for any side effects from the accident, their chances of waking up were still questionable. Since then, Fig went by two names: his human name and his robotic name, Fire-Star.
Skie and Gato didn't like their new partner. He looked more stuck up than he wanted them to believe. They didn't like people who sits back and looks at them like he didn't have a care in the world. Fig, on the other hand, knew that the robot was just built to act like a punk. He figured the two were going to get used to him eventually.
- - -
Robot Rescue wasn't a 24-hour a day center. Because most of the volunteers were either human or nearly rusted robots, the president had to set a closing time for tomorrow. Fig never really told anyone where he lived, thinking that his partners/friends would risk their career to help him escape his family problems.
His birth parents were drug addicts. They spent most of their life arguing, smoking and drinking until their tolerance level reached its limit. The worst time for them to get this bad was during the night. Fig had problems sleeping with his parents constantly arguing over the simplest things. Whenever he tried to get them to stop, they would either beat him up or pretend he didn't even exist.
When things got worse, he would retreat to his grandfather's house for a few weeks until things were back to "normal". But while his grandfather wasn't as bad as his parents, he had a few things that would sometimes embarrass Fig in front of his friends.
Dr. Cain is an archeologist who never admits that he's an old man. Fig has been having problems trying to get him to stop doing things that he was way too old to do and would sometimes break his back trying. But despite this problem, Dr. Cain had taken better care of Fig more than the people who brought him to this world in the first place. He would sometimes wonder why Fig still insists on going back home when he knew his parents no longer loved him like they used to and would care less what he did with his life.
Fig arrived at the gate of his home. It was a peaceful white house with a wooden arch covered in vines. He sighed and opened the gate, walking to the door of the house and opening it. His parents were inside, staring at the TV like mindless zombies, the whole house smelling like the usual burnt tobacco he was forced to smell every single day. His parents' condition continued to worsen, their body pale and thin to the bone, their face baggy and wrinkly as if they hadn't slept in years.
The minute he stepped into the tobacco-scented room, his parents creaked their heads toward him, their blood shot eyes scanning his appearance.
"Well...look who finally came through the door...." Fig's mother mumbled, half-sick.
"Where have you been all day," his father mumbled in a not so loving way, the marijuana flapping up and down with each move of his lips, "Working at that god-damn repair center again, haven't you."
"It's not a repair center, it's a robot hospital!" Fig said, "Besides, when do you care what I do anymore? Ever since you started burning weed, you made me feel like a ghost to you. It's gotten to a point where I just want to get away from you two for good."
"Then why don't you?" the father said, getting up, "You don't seem to care who brought you into this world in the first place. Why don't you just grab your things and find someone else to live with?"
"Fat chance," Fig's mother said, "Our son isn't worth the time we put into raising him. Who'd want to take him in after all this time? He's just going to end up in some ally with nothing but a box and a soggy, old newspaper serving as his shelter."
"Then why did you give birth to him in the first place!?" the father yelled, turning to the mother, "'Oh, but we must have a child! Every married couple HAS to have a child!' You should've known the problems we would have raising this sorry excuse for a son, and yet you insisted we have one!"
"Are you accusing me of WANTING a child and expecting god to give us a damn manual on how to raise him!? I didn't have it alone, you know! You stuck your manhood into this plan too! Why don't you prove you care about him once in a while instead of just pushing him aside like he was some sick animal!?"
"Oh, and I suppose you're just going to sit back and snort coke up your nose while I work my butt and our life savings off trying to keep him alive!? Fig should've learned to take care of himself when he turned 10, but nooooooooooooooooo! You said that he couldn't leave this house until he's 18! Well, guess what!? He's now 20 years old and he still lives here, too helpless to find a real job and get his own life!"
"What!? That isn't why I keep coming back here!" Fig said, "The doctor told me to take care of you two because your condition was getting worse! If you don't take it easy on those drugs, it could kill you! I love you guys too much to lose you!"
Both his parents stopped arguing and glared at him. His mother huffed a cloud of foul scented smoke.
"Love? You keep disappearing from us for over 10 years and you have the nerves to say that you still love us?"
Fig began to back up, "Well...I...." his father turned and walked up to him, forcing him to continue moving backwards until his back hit the screen door.
"It's those damn schools," he muttered, "not one of the teachers he listened to taught him the true meaning of 'love'."
"T-That's not true! I know what love is! Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten a volunteer job at a robot hospital!"
Fig's father turned around, throwing his hands in the air and nearly smacking him in the face, "There, you see!? Brain damage! The kid's so obsessed with robots, he thinks they could live like the rest of us! I'm beginning to think that explosion he got involved in had somehow brainwashed him to believe that robots can live like humans and not like the roles they were programmed to do."
"B-But...."
"I've heard enough!" the father whipped around and sent his bony hand into Fig's chest, shoving him into the screen door and knocking it off its hinges, both hitting the cobblestone floor. Fig soon sat up to see him stand near the top steps of the porch, glaring at him, "I don't want to see your face in this house again! Go steal a cardboard box and spend the rest of your life where you belong...OUT IN THE STREETS!!!" with that, he walks back into the house and slams the door.
- - -
"They did WHAT!?" Dr. Cain wailed when Fig told him why he was moving into his mansion.
Fig fiddled with the zipper of his red sweater, trying to fight the tears that were spilling down his face, "They think I don't know the true meaning of the word 'love'. I tried convincing them that I care about them despite what they do to me, and instead of sympathy, they think I've been taught by teachers who're too stupid to understand life. Now that they've pushed me out of their life, I don't have anywhere else to go." His mouth quivered, "I...I don't want to live in the streets the rest of my life!"
Dr. Cain walked up to Fig and pats him on the shoulder, laughing, "Who said you should live in the streets just because you're parents threw you out? You've got me after all. I ain't dyin' too soon, you know that! Besides, I was hoping you'd move in anyway. Things have been so lonely around here I could always use the company...even if you aren't home all the time." He then put his arm around the back of Fig's neck, "Come on. I've got dinner on the table that's getting cold."
Fig tried to smile as he let his grandfather escort him to the dinner table. When they got to the table, Fig was shocked to see the red robot sitting there, head resting on his hand.
"Ah, I see you've met our new family member," Dr. Cain said as he walked over to the table, "Funny thing too. I found him sitting on an old box in an ally and, after finding out he also didn't have a home to go to, decided to bring him here. I just couldn't believe someone had the nerves to throw out a robot with this much technology programmed into him. The ability to be like a human. If he had a brother, I'd probably give up research and become a robot designer like that old creator, Dr. Light."
The red robots eyes widened behind his shades. Fig took a seat next to him and both had a quiet dinner for a few minutes until Fig looked at him again.
"You know, that reminds me," he said, "I didn't quite catch your name."
"Name?" the robot sounded like he didn't know the meaning of the word.
"Well...since you'll be staying with us, it's only fair that we know your name." The robot looked down, muffling a grunt.
"I...I can't say," he said, "these memories I have...it feels like they belong to someone else. There is a name in my head, but I don't want to say it for fear that this robot would eventually return and claim I'm an imposter."
Fig just stared at him. He had never met someone who wandered the planet for over 100 years without a name he could feel comfortable with. Dr. Cain grinned.
"I know what it is," he said, "People who don't hear their names for a long time eventually forget who they are. Kind of hard for a robot to do the same, especially when he thinks that it doesn't belong to him," He then scratched his beard, "Hmm.... Since he doesn't remember his name, we'll just have to give him one." He began studying the robot's appearance, "You remind me of someone that hasn't been around in ages. But who?"
Fig also studied the robot's appearance, and soon noticed something drawn onto the right side of his belt, "Hey. There's some kind of insignia on your belt."
The robot looked at the marks on his belt. It looked like a slanted "X" with a slanted "P" in front of it. After staring at it, Dr. Cain snapped his fingers.
"That's it! We'll call you ProtoX!" he laughed.
"Proto...X...?" the robot muttered, "It...it sounds familiar...somehow."
"Well, given time, I'm sure you might get an idea on where those memories." Fig said, "Right now, you just need to learn how to adjust to life as a human. Who knows? You might run into someone you might have remembered some time ago."
ProtoX looked at his folded hands sitting on the table. For all he knew, the people in the memories he was permanently stuck with could be long gone. What are the chances he'll see someone he could easily point out by appearance?
- - -
It had been five months since ProtoX's appearance at Robot Rescue. By then, everyone had gotten used to his mostly serious expressions. He was at least helping Lab 14 repair the robots that were brought in from the junkyard and Skie and Gato had gotten used to him being here and he was more than used to everything around him.
One day, Dr. Cain pulled him and Fig out of their volunteer job for an archeological trip to another historical sight to study mosaic plant life. He kept a log in his voice-logged journal on what he found during the excavation. Nothing much was said about his discovery and he had already moved to three different sights within the past few days.
Then one day, they arrived in a desert that used to be a city with most of the demolished concrete and poles that used to be buildings barely sticking out of the sandy ground. Dr. Cain noticed a change in ProtoX's expression, like he had been homesick for 100 years. More shocking was that he never told anyone why he felt this way. Even Fig couldn't figure out why he was acting strange.
The next day, one of the archeologists found something in one of the grids they were excavating. There was detection of some kind of metal 30 feet underground. Dr. Cain disregarded it as a buried soda can since they had already dug up several of those in the other grid areas and went back to examining some of the things they found in those said areas. However, ProtoX never left the grid.
He just stood there, staring at the very spot the archeologist had pointed out, his expression even more homesick than when he first arrived in old Tokyo. The rest of the day, ProtoX was just silent. He never talked much and he spent dinnertime in front of that very grid, staring at what might be underground.
That night, ProtoX came into Dr. Cain's tent, seeing the archeologist talking in his voice-logged journal about what happened during the day. When he noticed the red robot at the door, he shuts off his journal.
"Ah, ProtoX," Dr. Cain said, "I was about to go out and get you. I take it you aren't here for idle chat?"
"It's about that grid you ignored earlier," ProtoX said, "I...seem to remember a lab buried underneath there. A lab I remember waking up in.... It seems to belong to that robot creator I saw on the Internet."
"Yes? Go on."
"Well...I believe that whatever is buried under there might be one of Dr. Light's hidden shacks where he keeps all his top secret robots."
"You serious? The sand didn't get into your systems, did it?"
ProtoX gritted his teeth, "I'm not kidding, gramps! These memories I have seem to link to that grid area. I think your team should dig it up tomorrow to see if I'm right."
Dr. Cain stroked his beard, "Hmmm.... I suppose we could see what's buried under there. Might be worth something after all." He looked at ProtoX, "Very well. We'll start tomorrow."
"Thanks, Dr. Cain."
- - -
Early the next morning, Dr. Cain had his team dig up the grid ProtoX pointed out last night. After half a day of digging, they were shocked to find out that instead of what Dr. Cain had predicted, they had found an underground lab that looked like it was involved in some kind of explosion.
ProtoX jumped down into the old lab and looked around, his expression becoming more and more gloomy with each scan. What he saw in the old labs were identical to the nameless robots memories of 100 years ago before he came along. He found an old cabinet that wasn't nearly as destroyed as the lab itself.
Walking over to the cabinet, ProtoX reached out to open it, only to see the door fall off its hinges. Inside the cabinet were stacks of worn out, spiral strapped notepads with writing on it that surprisingly didn't suffer with the rest of the lab. He took all of the notes and came back to the surface, handing them to Dr. Cain.
Dr. Cain looked through each one of them that night. They were old logs of the last few years of Dr. Light. ProtoX wasn't kidding when he said that the grid area used to be a lab created by the father of all robots. He then noticed something that had been repeated in every note he read. Dr. Light kept talking about the capsule's progress during his time of existence in the living world. Dr. Cain kept reading the notes until he came up to a blank sheet of paper, which seemed to end Dr. Light's final logs.
ProtoX only knew about the lab, he had no memory of a capsule hidden inside somewhere. Dr. Cain decided to have him search the place tomorrow for that said capsule.
- - -
Ever since ProtoX was rumored to be one of Dr. Light's last creations, the team kept ganging up on him, asking him a lot of stuff about what was going on inside the lab and if there was a chance that there will soon be robots with the ability to think like he did. Fig couldn't help but laugh at his stepbrother's problem.
Fig's robotic alter ego, Fire-Star, and ProtoX had been searching the old lab for any sign of the capsule mentioned in Dr. Light's log. After three days of searching, they found an underground shack that lead to a row of capsules.
"This must be where Dr. Light keeps all of his latest creations," Fire-Star said. He then looked at ProtoX, "They're all damaged. I'm not sure if any of them are still functioning."
"This one isn't," ProtoX said as he threw chunks of the fallen ceiling away to reveal a glowing capsule underneath. He noticed that there may've been another capsule, but it had been ripped from its wires for some odd reason. Could there have been another robot resting in the missing capsule?
ProtoX decided not to bother as Fire-Star soon appeared, looking inside the capsule. The silhouette resembled ProtoX without the scarf and shades, a helmet of some kind covering his head.
"Let's get this capsule back to Gramps," Fire-Star said, "maybe he might know something about this capsule."
- - -
With their robot strengths, ProtoX and Fire-Star managed to haul the 14-meter long capsule into Dr. Cain's tent. Dr. Cain was completely shocked at the robot sleeping inside.
"I can't believe such an amazing design actually survived the wreckage," Dr. Cain said in awe, "So this is one Dr. Light's final creations. If this robot has been programmed the same way ProtoX was programmed, why did he decide to seal this one up in a capsule?"
ProtoX opened the left side of his mouth slightly. Most of the nameless robot's memories seem to spy on Dr. Light's work on the construction table. Somehow, he knew that whatever was inside the capsule had to be what Dr. Light had been working on for so many years.
Dr. Cain walked up to the capsule, seeing a small computer beside it with some text scrolling up. It seemed to be some kind of warning label. The letter "X" kept being mentioned in each paragraph. Dr. Cain figured that was probably the robot's name.
He looked at the capsule again, torn between wanting to open it now or wait 30 years like the warning ordered him to. He then noticed that the diagnostic program that tested "X" and his abilities had been completed 70 years ago, making the robot ready to be released. He decided to wait until tomorrow to know for sure.
- - -
The day had finally come for the robot's release. Almost everyone who wanted to see what was inside the capsule had crowded around Dr. Cain's tent as he and his two grandsons surrounded the capsule in question.
Dr. Cain was a bit nervous about opening the capsule despite what the warning said. Would the robot inside jump out the second he opened the glass door? ProtoX had assured him that if the robot wasn't ready to be released, he would force it back inside before it could take any lives. Sighing, the aging archeologist reached for the row of buttons that would open the capsule and began punching in the password ProtoX somehow remembered.
Steam shot out of slits of the capsule as the glass slid open, revealing the colors of the robot, "X". Indeed, he looked like ProtoX, with the helmet and no braided, white hair, but instead of him being red and gray, he was blue all over.
Once again, ProtoX just stared at the robot, expressionless. The robot seemed familiar somehow. Maybe he is the answer to all the memories welled up inside of him.
After a few seconds, the blue robot's eyelids twitched before opening slowly, revealing his green eyes. Dr. Cain shook slightly as the robot sat up, looking around his new surroundings.
"W-Where am I?" the robot asked, a bit slowly. Dr. Cain tried to remain calm, but was still jittery.
"Oh, uh. This is my tent," he said, walking up beside the robot, hands behind his back, "It's an honor to finally see you, X."
"X?" the robot mumbled, "So...you must be Dr. Light."
Dr. Cain nearly panicked, "Oh no! I only know him from history and these old notes he's been writing. I only got the name from the warning label on the capsule you were sealed in."
"So...then if you're not Dr. Light, where could he be?"
"Long gone," ProtoX said, walking up to X, "You and I are the first creations to think like humans. There...are a few things you might want to catch up on over the past 100 years."
"Wow. You seem to know a lot about him, ProtoX," Fig said, "Are you sure those memories you have floating around your electrical brain doesn't belong to you?" ProtoX looked at Fig, then his folded arms. At least this time when he instinctively mimicked what the memories original owner did, it wasn't out of pure rage.
"You...you know about me?" X asked. ProtoX lifted his head towards him.
"Yes...you could say that."
Dr. Cain examined this strange relationship between ProtoX and X. After much thought, he slapped his knee, cackling and pointing at them.
"How could I have been so stupid!?" he said, "If you and ProtoX were made by the same creator, you must be brothers!" Both robots snapped their heads toward him, ProtoX more shocked than his would-be brother.
"B-But I just told you I only remember Dr. Light constructing him! I'm not exactly sure if I was part of his blueprints."
"Nonsense, of course you are! You act like you're a brother to X, only fair that you be one until we figure out the truth behind your memories."
ProtoX had a look of nervousness on his face. If those memories he had didn't really belong to him, he would have a very upset aspect to deal with. He wasn't sure if he could handle it. Fig stood beside ProtoX and threw his arm around the back of his neck.
"Chill out, ProtoX," Fig said, "At least it'll be nice to have another robot as a stepbrother. You two'll get along great!"
- - -
X's appearance has inspired Dr. Cain to create robots with the same feelings as the original blueprints that made him and ProtoX. But with the line of robots still following human orders like mindless slaves, Dr. Cain was worried that the first robot was going to feel just as used as the robots that don't have the features of human activity.
He decided to call these human-persona robots "Reploids". For the next seven months, Dr. Cain, along with X, ProtoX and Fig's help as well as some of the archeologists who were experts on deciphering and constructing machinery, have managed to create the very first reploid of 21XX, named "Comp".
Comp may look like a humanoid, child-like, long eared dog, but he still had the same modifications that gave X and ProtoX the ability to make his own decisions. Dr. Cain was excited about the success he made with this type of robot and wanted to advance this knowledge to other robot designers.
By the end of the year, Reploids have been accepted as a replacement to the old robots the robotic nerds have been tired of seeing for many years. And with the new assembly of Reploids coming along, Robot Rescue was finally recognized as more than some repair shop. More than just human volunteers and minor personality-type robots now worked and the organization gained so much money, they went from a dull, graffiti riddled shack to a resemblance of the original hospitals seen throughout most of Japan.
Very few humans still regarded the Reploids as machines with the brain of a human, but Dr. Cain was sure that nothing bad was going to happen. The Reploids seem to handle the name-calling and have yet to be pushed to a boiling point and strike down the first human. But ProtoX knew this wasn't going to last long.
ProtoX would spend most of his time in the cafeteria, wondering why Dr. Light was afraid to show him and X to the public in the first place. Could it be that giving a robot the ability to think and feel like a human was a little much for a machine? The way he lashed out at the good doctor, he was surprised he hadn't dismantled X out of fear that he would do the same to an innocent human in the future.
While thinking about Dr. Light, ProtoX remembered seeing two robots help him up. They seem to have the same thing he and X had. What if something in their program convinced him to try and build a robot with the ability to think for itself? What ProtoX doesn't know was that his and X's answers were about to be answered soon....
OOC: Okay, so the whole thing wasn't revolving around the intro in the first MMX game, but you all know that fanfics don't HAVE to be exactly like the game itself. I'm just trying to do things my way instead of how the instruction books mention.
Next Chapter: Reploids with too much of a human personality have finally snapped and went on a rampage. Anyone who hasn't pushed them to a breaking point now fear the outcome of the rest of the Reploid population. Instead of stopping the production of Reploids, Dr. Cain decides to keep it going, but how much longer can he keep this up before a coup is formed to destroy all Reploids? And what is the fate of Zero when his fight with Sigma has wiped out every memory if who he really is out of his memory banks as well as one mysterious reploid who may hold the key to peace?
2 - A New Start on Robot Civilization
Many years have passed since 20XX. All of Dr. Light's robots have long since disappeared for various reasons and with no one around to keep an eye on the capsules, X has yet to be unleashed into the world. Dr. Light, himself, grew old and died of natural causes (Or so the history books claim).
The old city of Tokyo has become nothing more than a ghost town almost buried in sand along with the remains of Dr. Light's lab and the shack where X resides. There has been no word on the whereabouts of his other robots. Giving up on the search, everyone assumed that with the death of Dr. Wily at the hands of his own creation, everything was going to turn back to normal with the addition of Dr. Light's last line of robots. But the robots left by the good doctor only served to obey society, not have a life of their own.
Because of this, everyone went back to believing that robots were nothing more than tools created to do what everyone told them to do. They never reacted to the way humans have been treating them like most of the robots created just for family purposes. Dr. Light seemed to have lost his will to make those anymore. As he was dying, his only hope was that X would wake up in a world where, despite how robots are being treated by the humans, he could learn to adapt to the world as the first (And possibly only) robot to have human feelings.
- - -
The year is now 21XX. Because of the way humans have been treating Dr. Light's last creations, not many robots were left on the planet. Very few were left for very rich people, but even some of them have forgotten how robots should have been treated.
A lot of the robots that were unable to work have ended up in the junkyard or torn down for parts. But one person was about to change all that. He and a few of his mechanical nerds have pitched in and with the money they got from high-paying jobs, opened up a hospital for robots called "Robot Rescue". It was a non-profit organization created for the soul purpose of finding and repairing broken robots and sending them to people who knew how to take better care of them.
Unfortunately, they only made the situation between robots and humans worse by giving them to people who are too lazy to do simple things themselves. And due to the lack of knowledge on how robots should really live, very few volunteers came in, expecting to be paid rather than have a feeling for robots and coming in to make a difference. Most of the other volunteers were robots who had very little emotions and reactions against human activities towards them.
- - -
A year later, the robot (who fled Dr. Light's lab in confusion and anger years ago) appeared at the doors of Robot Rescue. The people walking around him all murmured at how he looked. He still had the same features as when he disappeared from the world, except this time, he wore a yellow scarf and black shades and his hair was tied into a very long braid. The robot can barely remember why he wanted to wear these, but despite this, even he thought it made him look cool.
Most of the people who saw him had chills running down their spines and would quickly move away from him, but the robot paid no heed to them. He just turned his attention to the door and walked in.
The woman at the check out desk was also shaken by his appearance. He seemed so dark and emotionless. She, not knowing what to expect, ask what he wanted. She was soon surprised when he mentioned wanting to change his life. More confused, she brought him to the president of Robot Rescue for a private interview.
The robot didn't say much, except that he owed the world for nearly abandoning his doctor's last wishes. The president had no idea what he was talking about and the robot knew it both by looking at him and by how long he had been around. He reluctantly opened his left arm and showed the president what he was talking about.
Almost everyone in the President's office gasped when they saw what was inside his arm. Right then and there, the robot had proven to them that he was the very first of the mechanical species to actually have human feelings. The president was overjoyed and wanted to use this discovery to prove to everyone that robots have feelings too. As for the robot himself, he was placed in lab 14, the only lab in the center who's volunteers weren't ordinary humans or robots. This made the robot very uncomfortable, but he knew that in order to get familiar with the human world, he would have to put up with it.
There were three "people" in lab 14. One of them is an 18-year-old computer freak named Skie. He had white hair that reached his knees and wore a black and yellow trench coat over a black shirt and pants. He has no memory of his past, though he never bothers to find it. The volunteers claim that he's been having nightmares that may have something to do with his forgotten past.
Another is a 16-year-old girl named Gato. Parts of her clothes were cat-related as well as her ears and tail. Some say she had the ability to morph into a cat at will. She came in with Skie, which had some volunteers believing that she had something to do with his past. But no matter how much they ask, she wouldn't tell.
The last volunteer in 14 is a 20-year-old boy named Fig. He wore a red, hooded, unzipped sweater with white fire patterns on the collar of his sleeves over a white sweater, white pants that also had fire pattern on either sides of his outer legs, white and red gloves and sneakers. He had red hair that reached his ankles, tied back in a bandaged ponytail and goggles on his forehead with wing patterns near towards the curve. Most of the people thought the wings were genetically attached to his head because they moved depending on the mood he'd be in.
Fig was different from everyone else in a strange way. In fact, before the robot came along, he used to be the most talked about volunteer in Robot Rescue not because of his unique ability to turn into a fire-based robot at will, but because he was one of the three high-school students who survived a chemistry explosion during a biology fieldtrip into one of the most radioactive labs in Tokyo. Most of the students who were caught in the explosion have died due to radiation poisoning. Fig was the first to recover from his coma, the other two were still being examined for any side effects from the accident, their chances of waking up were still questionable. Since then, Fig went by two names: his human name and his robotic name, Fire-Star.
Skie and Gato didn't like their new partner. He looked more stuck up than he wanted them to believe. They didn't like people who sits back and looks at them like he didn't have a care in the world. Fig, on the other hand, knew that the robot was just built to act like a punk. He figured the two were going to get used to him eventually.
- - -
Robot Rescue wasn't a 24-hour a day center. Because most of the volunteers were either human or nearly rusted robots, the president had to set a closing time for tomorrow. Fig never really told anyone where he lived, thinking that his partners/friends would risk their career to help him escape his family problems.
His birth parents were drug addicts. They spent most of their life arguing, smoking and drinking until their tolerance level reached its limit. The worst time for them to get this bad was during the night. Fig had problems sleeping with his parents constantly arguing over the simplest things. Whenever he tried to get them to stop, they would either beat him up or pretend he didn't even exist.
When things got worse, he would retreat to his grandfather's house for a few weeks until things were back to "normal". But while his grandfather wasn't as bad as his parents, he had a few things that would sometimes embarrass Fig in front of his friends.
Dr. Cain is an archeologist who never admits that he's an old man. Fig has been having problems trying to get him to stop doing things that he was way too old to do and would sometimes break his back trying. But despite this problem, Dr. Cain had taken better care of Fig more than the people who brought him to this world in the first place. He would sometimes wonder why Fig still insists on going back home when he knew his parents no longer loved him like they used to and would care less what he did with his life.
Fig arrived at the gate of his home. It was a peaceful white house with a wooden arch covered in vines. He sighed and opened the gate, walking to the door of the house and opening it. His parents were inside, staring at the TV like mindless zombies, the whole house smelling like the usual burnt tobacco he was forced to smell every single day. His parents' condition continued to worsen, their body pale and thin to the bone, their face baggy and wrinkly as if they hadn't slept in years.
The minute he stepped into the tobacco-scented room, his parents creaked their heads toward him, their blood shot eyes scanning his appearance.
"Well...look who finally came through the door...." Fig's mother mumbled, half-sick.
"Where have you been all day," his father mumbled in a not so loving way, the marijuana flapping up and down with each move of his lips, "Working at that god-damn repair center again, haven't you."
"It's not a repair center, it's a robot hospital!" Fig said, "Besides, when do you care what I do anymore? Ever since you started burning weed, you made me feel like a ghost to you. It's gotten to a point where I just want to get away from you two for good."
"Then why don't you?" the father said, getting up, "You don't seem to care who brought you into this world in the first place. Why don't you just grab your things and find someone else to live with?"
"Fat chance," Fig's mother said, "Our son isn't worth the time we put into raising him. Who'd want to take him in after all this time? He's just going to end up in some ally with nothing but a box and a soggy, old newspaper serving as his shelter."
"Then why did you give birth to him in the first place!?" the father yelled, turning to the mother, "'Oh, but we must have a child! Every married couple HAS to have a child!' You should've known the problems we would have raising this sorry excuse for a son, and yet you insisted we have one!"
"Are you accusing me of WANTING a child and expecting god to give us a damn manual on how to raise him!? I didn't have it alone, you know! You stuck your manhood into this plan too! Why don't you prove you care about him once in a while instead of just pushing him aside like he was some sick animal!?"
"Oh, and I suppose you're just going to sit back and snort coke up your nose while I work my butt and our life savings off trying to keep him alive!? Fig should've learned to take care of himself when he turned 10, but nooooooooooooooooo! You said that he couldn't leave this house until he's 18! Well, guess what!? He's now 20 years old and he still lives here, too helpless to find a real job and get his own life!"
"What!? That isn't why I keep coming back here!" Fig said, "The doctor told me to take care of you two because your condition was getting worse! If you don't take it easy on those drugs, it could kill you! I love you guys too much to lose you!"
Both his parents stopped arguing and glared at him. His mother huffed a cloud of foul scented smoke.
"Love? You keep disappearing from us for over 10 years and you have the nerves to say that you still love us?"
Fig began to back up, "Well...I...." his father turned and walked up to him, forcing him to continue moving backwards until his back hit the screen door.
"It's those damn schools," he muttered, "not one of the teachers he listened to taught him the true meaning of 'love'."
"T-That's not true! I know what love is! Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten a volunteer job at a robot hospital!"
Fig's father turned around, throwing his hands in the air and nearly smacking him in the face, "There, you see!? Brain damage! The kid's so obsessed with robots, he thinks they could live like the rest of us! I'm beginning to think that explosion he got involved in had somehow brainwashed him to believe that robots can live like humans and not like the roles they were programmed to do."
"B-But...."
"I've heard enough!" the father whipped around and sent his bony hand into Fig's chest, shoving him into the screen door and knocking it off its hinges, both hitting the cobblestone floor. Fig soon sat up to see him stand near the top steps of the porch, glaring at him, "I don't want to see your face in this house again! Go steal a cardboard box and spend the rest of your life where you belong...OUT IN THE STREETS!!!" with that, he walks back into the house and slams the door.
- - -
"They did WHAT!?" Dr. Cain wailed when Fig told him why he was moving into his mansion.
Fig fiddled with the zipper of his red sweater, trying to fight the tears that were spilling down his face, "They think I don't know the true meaning of the word 'love'. I tried convincing them that I care about them despite what they do to me, and instead of sympathy, they think I've been taught by teachers who're too stupid to understand life. Now that they've pushed me out of their life, I don't have anywhere else to go." His mouth quivered, "I...I don't want to live in the streets the rest of my life!"
Dr. Cain walked up to Fig and pats him on the shoulder, laughing, "Who said you should live in the streets just because you're parents threw you out? You've got me after all. I ain't dyin' too soon, you know that! Besides, I was hoping you'd move in anyway. Things have been so lonely around here I could always use the company...even if you aren't home all the time." He then put his arm around the back of Fig's neck, "Come on. I've got dinner on the table that's getting cold."
Fig tried to smile as he let his grandfather escort him to the dinner table. When they got to the table, Fig was shocked to see the red robot sitting there, head resting on his hand.
"Ah, I see you've met our new family member," Dr. Cain said as he walked over to the table, "Funny thing too. I found him sitting on an old box in an ally and, after finding out he also didn't have a home to go to, decided to bring him here. I just couldn't believe someone had the nerves to throw out a robot with this much technology programmed into him. The ability to be like a human. If he had a brother, I'd probably give up research and become a robot designer like that old creator, Dr. Light."
The red robots eyes widened behind his shades. Fig took a seat next to him and both had a quiet dinner for a few minutes until Fig looked at him again.
"You know, that reminds me," he said, "I didn't quite catch your name."
"Name?" the robot sounded like he didn't know the meaning of the word.
"Well...since you'll be staying with us, it's only fair that we know your name." The robot looked down, muffling a grunt.
"I...I can't say," he said, "these memories I have...it feels like they belong to someone else. There is a name in my head, but I don't want to say it for fear that this robot would eventually return and claim I'm an imposter."
Fig just stared at him. He had never met someone who wandered the planet for over 100 years without a name he could feel comfortable with. Dr. Cain grinned.
"I know what it is," he said, "People who don't hear their names for a long time eventually forget who they are. Kind of hard for a robot to do the same, especially when he thinks that it doesn't belong to him," He then scratched his beard, "Hmm.... Since he doesn't remember his name, we'll just have to give him one." He began studying the robot's appearance, "You remind me of someone that hasn't been around in ages. But who?"
Fig also studied the robot's appearance, and soon noticed something drawn onto the right side of his belt, "Hey. There's some kind of insignia on your belt."
The robot looked at the marks on his belt. It looked like a slanted "X" with a slanted "P" in front of it. After staring at it, Dr. Cain snapped his fingers.
"That's it! We'll call you ProtoX!" he laughed.
"Proto...X...?" the robot muttered, "It...it sounds familiar...somehow."
"Well, given time, I'm sure you might get an idea on where those memories." Fig said, "Right now, you just need to learn how to adjust to life as a human. Who knows? You might run into someone you might have remembered some time ago."
ProtoX looked at his folded hands sitting on the table. For all he knew, the people in the memories he was permanently stuck with could be long gone. What are the chances he'll see someone he could easily point out by appearance?
- - -
It had been five months since ProtoX's appearance at Robot Rescue. By then, everyone had gotten used to his mostly serious expressions. He was at least helping Lab 14 repair the robots that were brought in from the junkyard and Skie and Gato had gotten used to him being here and he was more than used to everything around him.
One day, Dr. Cain pulled him and Fig out of their volunteer job for an archeological trip to another historical sight to study mosaic plant life. He kept a log in his voice-logged journal on what he found during the excavation. Nothing much was said about his discovery and he had already moved to three different sights within the past few days.
Then one day, they arrived in a desert that used to be a city with most of the demolished concrete and poles that used to be buildings barely sticking out of the sandy ground. Dr. Cain noticed a change in ProtoX's expression, like he had been homesick for 100 years. More shocking was that he never told anyone why he felt this way. Even Fig couldn't figure out why he was acting strange.
The next day, one of the archeologists found something in one of the grids they were excavating. There was detection of some kind of metal 30 feet underground. Dr. Cain disregarded it as a buried soda can since they had already dug up several of those in the other grid areas and went back to examining some of the things they found in those said areas. However, ProtoX never left the grid.
He just stood there, staring at the very spot the archeologist had pointed out, his expression even more homesick than when he first arrived in old Tokyo. The rest of the day, ProtoX was just silent. He never talked much and he spent dinnertime in front of that very grid, staring at what might be underground.
That night, ProtoX came into Dr. Cain's tent, seeing the archeologist talking in his voice-logged journal about what happened during the day. When he noticed the red robot at the door, he shuts off his journal.
"Ah, ProtoX," Dr. Cain said, "I was about to go out and get you. I take it you aren't here for idle chat?"
"It's about that grid you ignored earlier," ProtoX said, "I...seem to remember a lab buried underneath there. A lab I remember waking up in.... It seems to belong to that robot creator I saw on the Internet."
"Yes? Go on."
"Well...I believe that whatever is buried under there might be one of Dr. Light's hidden shacks where he keeps all his top secret robots."
"You serious? The sand didn't get into your systems, did it?"
ProtoX gritted his teeth, "I'm not kidding, gramps! These memories I have seem to link to that grid area. I think your team should dig it up tomorrow to see if I'm right."
Dr. Cain stroked his beard, "Hmmm.... I suppose we could see what's buried under there. Might be worth something after all." He looked at ProtoX, "Very well. We'll start tomorrow."
"Thanks, Dr. Cain."
- - -
Early the next morning, Dr. Cain had his team dig up the grid ProtoX pointed out last night. After half a day of digging, they were shocked to find out that instead of what Dr. Cain had predicted, they had found an underground lab that looked like it was involved in some kind of explosion.
ProtoX jumped down into the old lab and looked around, his expression becoming more and more gloomy with each scan. What he saw in the old labs were identical to the nameless robots memories of 100 years ago before he came along. He found an old cabinet that wasn't nearly as destroyed as the lab itself.
Walking over to the cabinet, ProtoX reached out to open it, only to see the door fall off its hinges. Inside the cabinet were stacks of worn out, spiral strapped notepads with writing on it that surprisingly didn't suffer with the rest of the lab. He took all of the notes and came back to the surface, handing them to Dr. Cain.
Dr. Cain looked through each one of them that night. They were old logs of the last few years of Dr. Light. ProtoX wasn't kidding when he said that the grid area used to be a lab created by the father of all robots. He then noticed something that had been repeated in every note he read. Dr. Light kept talking about the capsule's progress during his time of existence in the living world. Dr. Cain kept reading the notes until he came up to a blank sheet of paper, which seemed to end Dr. Light's final logs.
ProtoX only knew about the lab, he had no memory of a capsule hidden inside somewhere. Dr. Cain decided to have him search the place tomorrow for that said capsule.
- - -
Ever since ProtoX was rumored to be one of Dr. Light's last creations, the team kept ganging up on him, asking him a lot of stuff about what was going on inside the lab and if there was a chance that there will soon be robots with the ability to think like he did. Fig couldn't help but laugh at his stepbrother's problem.
Fig's robotic alter ego, Fire-Star, and ProtoX had been searching the old lab for any sign of the capsule mentioned in Dr. Light's log. After three days of searching, they found an underground shack that lead to a row of capsules.
"This must be where Dr. Light keeps all of his latest creations," Fire-Star said. He then looked at ProtoX, "They're all damaged. I'm not sure if any of them are still functioning."
"This one isn't," ProtoX said as he threw chunks of the fallen ceiling away to reveal a glowing capsule underneath. He noticed that there may've been another capsule, but it had been ripped from its wires for some odd reason. Could there have been another robot resting in the missing capsule?
ProtoX decided not to bother as Fire-Star soon appeared, looking inside the capsule. The silhouette resembled ProtoX without the scarf and shades, a helmet of some kind covering his head.
"Let's get this capsule back to Gramps," Fire-Star said, "maybe he might know something about this capsule."
- - -
With their robot strengths, ProtoX and Fire-Star managed to haul the 14-meter long capsule into Dr. Cain's tent. Dr. Cain was completely shocked at the robot sleeping inside.
"I can't believe such an amazing design actually survived the wreckage," Dr. Cain said in awe, "So this is one Dr. Light's final creations. If this robot has been programmed the same way ProtoX was programmed, why did he decide to seal this one up in a capsule?"
ProtoX opened the left side of his mouth slightly. Most of the nameless robot's memories seem to spy on Dr. Light's work on the construction table. Somehow, he knew that whatever was inside the capsule had to be what Dr. Light had been working on for so many years.
Dr. Cain walked up to the capsule, seeing a small computer beside it with some text scrolling up. It seemed to be some kind of warning label. The letter "X" kept being mentioned in each paragraph. Dr. Cain figured that was probably the robot's name.
He looked at the capsule again, torn between wanting to open it now or wait 30 years like the warning ordered him to. He then noticed that the diagnostic program that tested "X" and his abilities had been completed 70 years ago, making the robot ready to be released. He decided to wait until tomorrow to know for sure.
- - -
The day had finally come for the robot's release. Almost everyone who wanted to see what was inside the capsule had crowded around Dr. Cain's tent as he and his two grandsons surrounded the capsule in question.
Dr. Cain was a bit nervous about opening the capsule despite what the warning said. Would the robot inside jump out the second he opened the glass door? ProtoX had assured him that if the robot wasn't ready to be released, he would force it back inside before it could take any lives. Sighing, the aging archeologist reached for the row of buttons that would open the capsule and began punching in the password ProtoX somehow remembered.
Steam shot out of slits of the capsule as the glass slid open, revealing the colors of the robot, "X". Indeed, he looked like ProtoX, with the helmet and no braided, white hair, but instead of him being red and gray, he was blue all over.
Once again, ProtoX just stared at the robot, expressionless. The robot seemed familiar somehow. Maybe he is the answer to all the memories welled up inside of him.
After a few seconds, the blue robot's eyelids twitched before opening slowly, revealing his green eyes. Dr. Cain shook slightly as the robot sat up, looking around his new surroundings.
"W-Where am I?" the robot asked, a bit slowly. Dr. Cain tried to remain calm, but was still jittery.
"Oh, uh. This is my tent," he said, walking up beside the robot, hands behind his back, "It's an honor to finally see you, X."
"X?" the robot mumbled, "So...you must be Dr. Light."
Dr. Cain nearly panicked, "Oh no! I only know him from history and these old notes he's been writing. I only got the name from the warning label on the capsule you were sealed in."
"So...then if you're not Dr. Light, where could he be?"
"Long gone," ProtoX said, walking up to X, "You and I are the first creations to think like humans. There...are a few things you might want to catch up on over the past 100 years."
"Wow. You seem to know a lot about him, ProtoX," Fig said, "Are you sure those memories you have floating around your electrical brain doesn't belong to you?" ProtoX looked at Fig, then his folded arms. At least this time when he instinctively mimicked what the memories original owner did, it wasn't out of pure rage.
"You...you know about me?" X asked. ProtoX lifted his head towards him.
"Yes...you could say that."
Dr. Cain examined this strange relationship between ProtoX and X. After much thought, he slapped his knee, cackling and pointing at them.
"How could I have been so stupid!?" he said, "If you and ProtoX were made by the same creator, you must be brothers!" Both robots snapped their heads toward him, ProtoX more shocked than his would-be brother.
"B-But I just told you I only remember Dr. Light constructing him! I'm not exactly sure if I was part of his blueprints."
"Nonsense, of course you are! You act like you're a brother to X, only fair that you be one until we figure out the truth behind your memories."
ProtoX had a look of nervousness on his face. If those memories he had didn't really belong to him, he would have a very upset aspect to deal with. He wasn't sure if he could handle it. Fig stood beside ProtoX and threw his arm around the back of his neck.
"Chill out, ProtoX," Fig said, "At least it'll be nice to have another robot as a stepbrother. You two'll get along great!"
- - -
X's appearance has inspired Dr. Cain to create robots with the same feelings as the original blueprints that made him and ProtoX. But with the line of robots still following human orders like mindless slaves, Dr. Cain was worried that the first robot was going to feel just as used as the robots that don't have the features of human activity.
He decided to call these human-persona robots "Reploids". For the next seven months, Dr. Cain, along with X, ProtoX and Fig's help as well as some of the archeologists who were experts on deciphering and constructing machinery, have managed to create the very first reploid of 21XX, named "Comp".
Comp may look like a humanoid, child-like, long eared dog, but he still had the same modifications that gave X and ProtoX the ability to make his own decisions. Dr. Cain was excited about the success he made with this type of robot and wanted to advance this knowledge to other robot designers.
By the end of the year, Reploids have been accepted as a replacement to the old robots the robotic nerds have been tired of seeing for many years. And with the new assembly of Reploids coming along, Robot Rescue was finally recognized as more than some repair shop. More than just human volunteers and minor personality-type robots now worked and the organization gained so much money, they went from a dull, graffiti riddled shack to a resemblance of the original hospitals seen throughout most of Japan.
Very few humans still regarded the Reploids as machines with the brain of a human, but Dr. Cain was sure that nothing bad was going to happen. The Reploids seem to handle the name-calling and have yet to be pushed to a boiling point and strike down the first human. But ProtoX knew this wasn't going to last long.
ProtoX would spend most of his time in the cafeteria, wondering why Dr. Light was afraid to show him and X to the public in the first place. Could it be that giving a robot the ability to think and feel like a human was a little much for a machine? The way he lashed out at the good doctor, he was surprised he hadn't dismantled X out of fear that he would do the same to an innocent human in the future.
While thinking about Dr. Light, ProtoX remembered seeing two robots help him up. They seem to have the same thing he and X had. What if something in their program convinced him to try and build a robot with the ability to think for itself? What ProtoX doesn't know was that his and X's answers were about to be answered soon....
OOC: Okay, so the whole thing wasn't revolving around the intro in the first MMX game, but you all know that fanfics don't HAVE to be exactly like the game itself. I'm just trying to do things my way instead of how the instruction books mention.
Next Chapter: Reploids with too much of a human personality have finally snapped and went on a rampage. Anyone who hasn't pushed them to a breaking point now fear the outcome of the rest of the Reploid population. Instead of stopping the production of Reploids, Dr. Cain decides to keep it going, but how much longer can he keep this up before a coup is formed to destroy all Reploids? And what is the fate of Zero when his fight with Sigma has wiped out every memory if who he really is out of his memory banks as well as one mysterious reploid who may hold the key to peace?