Chapter 3
The morning was fresh, well, the mid-morning, anyway. Mega Man was back in the city. He just never got enough of watching the human activity. He strode through the streets, looking this way and that, sitting, walking, listening, watching… the scene was organized chaos at its best. He walked along the streets and browsed various stores, looking at their wares, and the people trying to sell them. Usually he'd simply do this casually, as if it were a form of entertainment, but today he was searching for something. Dr. Light had sent him out for a few things. Usually he sent Roll for these small errands, but Mega Man had volunteered. He was always looking for a reason to get out of the house during the times that Wily was silent. However, this time his thoughts were interrupted as a strange sight met his eyes. A very thin, very pale young girl was walking down the street across the road from Mega Man. He never would have given her a second thought if he hadn't unconsciously focused on her for a while. When he finally realized what he was looking at, he suddenly became suspicious. She was constantly shifting her eyes around, and the look on her face was almost one of pure terror, as if she was drastically out of place. Mega Man recognized this look as one of two things. She was either about to commit a felony, and was extremely nervous, or she was scared out of her wits because of an unknown danger. Mega Man decided to follow the girl.
When not fighting Dr. Wily, Mega Man usually kept an eye on as much as he possibly could, sometimes helping local law enforcement to catch criminals or subdue wayward robots. Still, he had enough experience to recognize the girl's facial expression. She walked through the plaza, and never even seemed to notice the short, black-haired boy following her from a discreet distance.
* * *
Back in the lab, Dr. Thomas Xavier Light was busy working on yet another of his many inventions. He never seemed to stop working, he always had settings that needed adjusting or some gadget that needed a few bugs worked out. Lately he'd been working on his computer a bit, more specifically the security radar. A few days ago it began to pick up strange signals in the sky at random times throughout the day. Dr. Light figured it was simply the radar getting old, and had shut it down temporarily until he could get it fixed, but at the moment he had more interesting projects underway. His housekeeper robot, Roll, was beside him, keeping track of tools that the doctor needed in his work.
She was a short robot, about the height of Mega Man, which was just over four feet. However, unlike Mega Man, she was blonde, though she had the typical blue eyes characteristic of Dr. Light's robots. Dr. Light usually had her out of the house, running errands for him, but lately he'd been having problems sending her out of the house. Even though she was completely robot, and was not a Bioroid like Mega Man, Roll was given enough artificial intelligence to fool most people, and that was apparent. Whenever Roll would leave the house, various teenage males continued to hit on her. Dr. Light was amused how they reacted to her, even though she was completely indifferent to them. The problem was that some of them had begun to follow her home, and Dr. Light had to send Mega Man to act as an "overprotective brother" to deter them from seeing where she lived.
So now that Mega Man was no longer fighting Wily, he could go into town and pick up what Dr. Light needed. He was always willing to go anyway, so Dr. Light kept Roll at home to help him with his work and keep the lab in working order. She was a rather efficient cleaner and housemaid, but that was because it was what Dr. Light had programmed her to do. He was much to busy to bother trying to keep his lab clean. Besides that, she also helped him to remember formulas and important dates and appointments that he might had, after all, he was only human, while she had a computer for a brain. At the moment, she was also proving to be a big help. Dr. Light was currently working on a surprise for Mega Man. A small present for recently defeating Wily's somewhat ridiculous attempt to take over the world through soccer matches. That Dr. Wily was always full of surprises. Unfortunately, they were never surprises that were enjoyable.
As Dr. Light continued to work, he became engrossed in his project and completely missed the multiple figures approaching his laboratory, and because his radar was off, he never knew they were there, until suddenly...
The doorbell rang.
That's funny, thought Dr. Light, No one ever bothers to visit the "famous" Dr. Light without an appointment. The only person who knows me that well is Dr. Cossack, and he always notifies me before he visits. I wish more people would, though, it gets awfully lonely in this big lab, even with Mega Man and Roll around. Seriously, I think more people are afraid of me than they are of Wily. He makes more public appearances after all, maybe they've become more familiar with him. Dr. Light ended his muses. "Roll, go get the door will you please?"
As his housekeeping robot went to the door, Dr. Light went back to work and thought nothing of it. Roll would take care of it, or she would notify him if he needed to be there. Yet once again his work was interrupted. Roll's high-pitched scream floated through the structure, and without thinking, Dr. Light ran to the aid of his distressed housekeeper.
* * *
Mega Man was about to leave the poor girl alone. He'd followed her through most of that side of the city, but she did not appear to be in any apparent danger, it would've happened by now. He was about to brake it off when she made and abrupt entrance into a crowd of people, and he lost her anyway. His mind took over from there.
She probably noticed me following her, and maybe she's just been looking for a way to lose me this whole time. He thought twice, Who am I kidding? She couldn't have noticed me, I may not be as good as Proto Man, but I know enough about discreet following to keep from being noticed. Well, I'd better not take the chance, I've got nothing else to do at the moment. He turned back around to follow her again, momentarily forgetting the task that he had been sent out to go. It suddenly hit him that the girl had lost him. Thinking quickly, he activated his personal com-link, hidden in his helmet.
"C'mon bro, I know you're around here somewhere, you always follow me into town." Mega Man scanned the area to see if he could possibly locate his brother's whereabouts.
"You're learning, Mega Man."
"I've got an older brother to set me a good example." Mega Man quipped.
"Yeah, funny. Don't bother looking, you'll never find me, oh, and she entered the plaza to your left. Don't think I don't know you well enough."
"Never have, you've known me almost all of your life. Of course, by human standards, we're only about five years old."
"You may be eight, but I'm nine. Don't forget, I was constructed a year before you were."
"Yeah, yeah...I know. Anyway, thanks for the help."
"No problem, little brother. I'll see you around."
The communicator clicked off and Mega Man went into the building his brother had indicated. {There's no way I'm gonna find her in here,} he thought. But still, he kept looking, until another communiqué broke into his thoughts.
"Mega Man... Can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear Dr. Light, what's up?"
"I need you to return to the lab ASAP, you might want to hear this."
"Something up, Dr. Light?"
"Just get back here, you need to hear it from them. Oh, and if you can, bring that brother of yours, he's always following you into town, so you might be able to reach him better than I can."
"Can do, Dr. Light, just give me enough time to find a place where I can teleport without arousing suspicion."
"All right, just hurry, because frankly, I don't feel very safe with them by myself. Dr. Light out."
I wonder what this is all about, and who is he talking about anyway? Mega Man thought. "Proto Man, you catch that?"
"Yeah, I heard, I'm already there, hurry up, Dr. Light usually doesn't act like that, and I'm not to sure I like it. Take care bro."
"You too. See ya there." Mega Man wandered into the men's room of the shop he was in. Thankfully it was empty. He walked into the nearest stall and flipped open the hidden panel on his wrist. He pressed one button and his fighting uniform was instantly recalled to him. As he pressed the middle button, he disappeared in a streak of blue light. The girl would have to wait.
* * *
He was running through the halls towards the lab. His teleporter was never very reliable, and accuracy was always a problem. If it was accurate enough, he would be able to teleport right into the robot master's room instead of having to fight his way to them. Luckily it wasn't too far off this time, and had managed to place him inside Dr. Light's fortress' living quarters. As he turned the corner at a dead run he saw a blur of red appear in front of him. *WHAM* Mega Man was knocked to the ground, and felt a little dizzy. What the heck was that! he thought. Then his vision cleared, and he saw another robot standing in front of him. It was mostly gray, though it's hands, wrists, calves, feet, and helmet were red, along with a red streak across it's waist. It's helmet had a white outline around the faceplate, which went up in a sharp spike at the middle, and it's eyes were obscured in a pitch black visor. Strapped to his back was a red and white shield, with it's own visor imbedded into it. The only other color was the yellow bandana around it's neck, unless you include the slight green at the side of it's helmet.
"Oh, hey bro."
The mysterious robot known as Proto Man helped his brother to his feet. "Mega Man, Don't you ever watch where you're going? C'mon, we've been waiting for you, and try not to blow the place up in shock.." He led Mega Man into the lab. As Mega Man entered his eyebrows shot up.
"Shadow Man!" he exclaimed to the blue-white robot standing in front of him. Without even thinking, Mega Man charged up and fired a half-powered shot in Shadow Man's general direction. It was easily dodged. Mega Man felt a pair of arms grab him, and immediately started struggling.
"Whoa there, easy pal." It was Proto Man
"What's going on!? Why are they here!?" Mega Man indicated the various robot masters in the lab, he counted about six of them. They were Magnet Man, Tomahawk Man, Crash Man, Metal Man, Crystal Man, and Of course, Shadow Man.
"Just calm down, bro, and let's hear their story." Mega Man looked around and spotted Dr. Light, who was busy hunched over something on the table. He walked closer and saw a very battered-looking Dr. Wily lying on the table. He turned to the robot masters.
"Ok...let's hear it."
Shadow Man went into all the details that he knew, and each of the robot masters gave him their own version of what they knew. The whole time, Dr. Light sat and shook his head. After hearing the story, Mega Man couldn't help but ask... "Yeah, but why come here? We're your enemy, remember?"
"We didn't know what else to do. Those of us who were left in the fortress rushed to his aid, but by the time we got there, his craft had just about had it, not to mention it was surrounded by these things, whatever they were. Plant Man and Wood Man went in and got their attention, while the rest of us rushed to Wily and teleported him out. The other two never made it. We came here because Dr. Wily needed medical aid, and we knew conventional hospitals would never have left Wily alone had we taken him there. Besides, we thought that Dr. Light might want to hear this. So we came here."
Mega Man was becoming infuriated. "What makes you think that we'd want to help you! And where's Bass! Isn't he supposed to be Wily's bodyguard!?"
"You know Bass, he's always out looking for you, besides, Mega Man, we were programmed to hate you, not Dr. Light."
Mega Man thought that over... he had to admit that it made a little sense. His attention then turned to Dr. Light. "Doctor, what do you think of this?" However, his question was unheeded. Mega Man saw that Dr. Wily was awake, and that Dr. Light was talking to him.
"Wily, what was going through your mind? What did you do?"
"All I've done was recreate my robot masters, you've seen me do it before! What am I doing here! Release me now!"'
Dr. Light began to raise his voice. "Are you crazy Albert! Do you realize what you've done! You're robot masters were able to make a decision! They were able to make their own decision without you to tell them what to do! They brought you here because THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO!!!"
"What's you're point, Thomas?"
"My point, Wily, is that you've given your robots actual thought, Wily, they can learn, think, and decide, but what are they lacking? They are lacking emotions, that which keeps us humans from making certain, unethical, decisions! Those robots could explode in your face if they wanted to!"
"For pete's sake, calm down Thomas. Yes, I have given my robots the ability to think for themselves, but they are still bound by their creator. They must still do what I tell them to, I only gave them enough intelligence to increase their fighting efficiency, and to be able to make certain decisions when I am not there to guide them."
"You're treading dangerous ground, Wily, and you'll regret it someday."
"Enough! What am I doing here, and what happened?!"
"You're robot masters brought you here for treatment, whatever it was that attacked you today they were nothing short of brutal.
"They weren't entirely invincible, there were just too many of them to handle."
"You're robots think that we should work together to solve this puzzle, but first I would like to know what I'm dealing with."
"I have some info on the first probe that was caught by my masters in my fortress."
"You're fortress is probably leveled by now, Albert!"
Wily didn't know how to explain it, he didn't want to tell Dr. Light of his other fortress, not to mention the two being built. He was saved when a console started beeping. Light turned to the console.
"There appears to be trouble in the city. Something is attacking the Plaza Mall in the west section of town, and it's causing quite a ruckus. Maybe it's one of your friends, Wily."
"I was just there," Mega Man said, "I'll check it out." Mega Man left the room before anyone else could speak.
"Proto Man, go with him, he might need you."
"Dr. Light, you're crazy if you think that I'm going to leave you surrounded by robot masters, even if you do have Dr. Wily by the tail. Mega Man's got more experience at this sort of thing anyway. He'll be fine."
Dr. Light sighed. He knew there was no arguing with Proto Man. Dr. Wily looked back and forth between Proto Man and Dr. Light, and grumbled.
"Oh, all right, Shadow Man, go with him, you've fought these things before, he might need the help."
"You got it doctor." Shadow Man quickly teleported out.
Wily turned back to Dr. Light. "Told you they will do anything I tell them to, even if it meant helping the very thing that they were programmed to hate," Dr. Wily said.
"Oh, so now you can program emotions can you?" Dr. Light replied.
"Well, as close as I could get to it anyway. Look Thomas, whatever these things were, they took out one of my fortresses, and with much more efficiency than your annoying creation ever did. I don't like these things, and they need to be stopped, I know what they can do, and we might just be able to stop this."
Dr. Light looked skeptically at Wily, "Alright, Albert, but in order to help you, I'm gonna need your data, and your promise that you won't try anything sneaky. Even though I doubt that you would keep it."
"You should know me better than that, Thomas."
"I do, that's why I'm going to be taking every precaution to make sure you stay in check."