Chapter 8: Just as Human
Dr. Light arrived at the school discovering that he had seriously lost track of the time. According to the school officer that was standing outside, the school wouldn't open for visiting until that afternoon, and it was still early.
"Whoops..." Dr. Light said, chuckling nervously. Rock grinned from the car, and Blues groaned. "Well, at least we can get you registered for next year..."
Rock grinned even wider. This "school" thing was something he had heard about, and he had always been a twinge jealous of the people who went to it, since he couldn't. But now he could, and he could make friends! Real friends! At this thought, he mentally hit himself. Auto, Roll, and the others had always been his friends...his real ones. And they still were real now...sort of.
"Come on, Rock!" Dr. Light called out. Dropping his train of thought, he opened the door ran after him. He then realized that Blues wasn't following, and in fact was still in the car.
"Aren't you coming?" Rock asked. Blues shook his head.
"Just go on ahead..."
If Roll could shed tears, she probably would be shedding a lot. Her worry for Rock and the others had taken over, and she was in a state of depression. Auto had given up trying to cheer her up, as it was no longer working.
Roll knew Dr. Light being gone was normal, but the house had never been this empty or lacking of activity, even when Dr. Wily wasn't around. Out loud, she wished something would happen...
At that very moment, Auto informed her that someone was at the door.
Forte looked at the beginnings of his first machine. In a matter of about two days, he had completed all the blueprints. All of Wily's machines had allowed him to begin to build them. The first one was already looking magnificent...it was his exact height, but it was fives times his length, and it looked like a giant metal oval with six huge claws. The claws had guns mounted in them, and the main body was covered in an enormous outer shell that reflected all attacks back at the attacker. If it all worked right, the robot would have no noticeable weaknesses...but he planned on testing that theory upon its completion.
"What the hell are you going to call it? Scorpion Man?" Wily interrupted out of nowhere.
"STOP. DOING. THAT." Forte growled, taking a deep breath and speaking calmly afterwards. "No, I'm not. I'm not calling him one of your silly names."
"Whatever." Wily sighed, leaving. He felt kind of sad, even though he knew that Forte had never appreciated him before either...
After Wily left, Forte went down to the blueprints, and looked at "NAME". The line was still blank, but he grabbed a pen and wrote something.
"SCORPION MAN"
The someone at the door was a tall, skinny teenage boy, with messy orange hair and deep blue eyes that seemed disturbingly distant. He was also wearing a red backpack over a loose black jacket that had the words "YOU WILL BOW TO ME" under a picture of a cartoon child with a large oval head, and a pair of black pants. He looked around, and then noticed Roll.
"Oh, you must be one of Dr. Light's robots," he said, looking down and smiling at her in the way you'd smile to a small child. It annoyed her. She wasn't a child. "Is he around?"
Roll shook her head, and the boy sighed.
"Can I wait for him to arrive?"
"Why are you here?"
The boy smiled that annoying smile again. "I'm doing a report on people that have inspired me, and that person would be Dr. Light."
Accepting this, Roll nodded, and the boy walked in and lied down on a couch. After a short while, he took a thin black laptop out of his backpack and turned it on. After a short wait, the boy began typing furiously. Roll decided to keep her nose out of it.
"This is a nice place." The boy said after a while longer. Roll nodded silently. There was another bit of silence, interrupted by the tapping of fingers on a keyboard.
"Hey, can you answer a few questions?" the boy asked her. Roll turned towards him.
"OK."
Rock looked around in awe at the school building as he entered it. It seemed positively enormous on the inside, and was filled with sounds…voices, laughter, and footsteps, as a ton of people of different sizes walked down the hallways. Turning, Rock saw a clock. It was an unusual clock, with different sized moving sticks pointing towards numbers. One of the sticks moved quickly, one of them moved slowly, and one didn't seem to move at all.
"What time is it?" Rock asked. Dr. Light looked at the clock.
"Noon." Dr. Light responded, as he turned towards a door down a hallway and opened it. Rock followed.
"Hey, thanks," the boy said, smiling that smile again. "Alright, first question… How many robots has Dr. Light built?"
"Um…" Roll said, a little stumped. She counted the ones she knew of…Mega Man, herself, Proto Man, Cut Man, Elec Man, Bomb Man, Ice Man, Guts Man, Fire Man, Rush, Auto…
"A lot?" she tried. The boy sighed.
"Nevermind."
When Rock and Dr. Light entered, there was a thin, dark-skinned person sitting in front of a wooden desk, typing on a computer screen. When Dr. Light entered, she looked surprised, and when Rock entered, she looked even more surprised.
"Young man! What are you doing outside of class without a hall-" the lady began angrily, turning towards Rock. Rock took a step backwards, surprised by the sudden outburst.
"That's my son." Dr. Light interrupted. The lady was surprised again, but this time smiled.
"Your son? I didn't know you had a son…well, welcome to the school then! Are you planning on registering?"
Dr. Light nodded, and the lady got up and walked towards a large green cabinet. She clicked it open, pulled out a drawer, and pulled something out of it.
"Thank goodness we still have a few copies leftover…Just fill all these forms out, and return them to us ASAP!" She said happily, handing him the papers. Dr. Light nodded, took the papers, and walked out.
"Is that it?" Rock asked as they left the room. Dr. Light nodded, and walked down the hallway again.
"Yes, until this afternoon. Then we get to take a real look at your school," he explained. Rock was overeager already.
The boy, getting bored now, had stopped typing and was now playing games. He seemed to move with the character on the screen, until there was a screaming sound from the speakers and the boy threw his hands up in frustration.
"Damn!" he said, pressing two keys at once. The image on the screen vanished, and the boy sighed again. He put away his laptop, and put it back inside his backpack.
"Thanks anyways, kid. I need to get home, but I'll try again later," he said, swinging the backpack around his shoulders and walking out the door. Seconds later, there was the sound of a car pulling up, and some excited talking.
The door opened again, and the boy came back in, closely followed by Dr. Light and Rock. Upon seeing Rock, Roll yelled out in surprise and gave him a tight hug.
Dr. Light was pulling up into the driveway when a teenage boy with orange hair and black clothing walked out of his house. The boy saw them, grinned, and ran over. He started speaking really fast, the grin never leaving his face.
"Hello, Dr. Light! I'm David Wren! I'm one of your biggest fans, and you've motivated a lot of my studies, and are the reason I want to have a career in designing robots! I need to do a report on you for school, and I must ask you…can I interview you?"
Dr. Light was taken aback.
"Uh…sure. Just step inside. I'll be there in a minute," he replied. David grinned, and then noticed Rock.
"Hello? Who is this?" he asked. Rock looked at him, and extended his hand.
"I'm Rock!"
David didn't return the handshake.
"Is he a robot?" he asked. Dr. Light shook his head. "Then is he adopted?"
Dr. Light was silent, and David looked nervous.
"I guess it's none of my business," he said awkwardly, as Dr. Light and Rock stepped out of the car and they all walked towards the door. Blues, once again, did not follow.
David got out his laptop again as they entered, and began asking questions.
"How many robots have you made?"
"I think I've made about fifteen or twenty."
"What do you consider your greatest achievement?"
"I like them all equally."
"Do you consider your robots your children, as if they were real things rather than machines?"
"Yes, I do. They can be as real and loving as human beings are."
"I see…now, here's an interesting question to think about…If you could change your robots into humans, would you? Or the other way around?"
"I think I'd leave that decision up to them."
"But if they are robots, do they really have that choice? Are they capable of making such decisions?"
Roll stopped listening. This boy made her sound like she was nothing more than a pile of metal, and she wanted to leave. Deciding that was a better choice, she did leave. Dr. Light noticed.
"I'm not sure, but I think we're offending her…" he pointed out.
"It's an it. Not a her." David corrected. Roll had not fully left the room yet, and this final sentence hit her like a large knife.
"…I think that's enough." Dr. Light said. David looked offended.
"I'm sorry…I don't know many people who care about their robots so much. I'll try to be more understanding."
Running out of Wily's lab, Treble barked and jumped at Forte, knocking him over. His four paws resting on Forte's chest, he panted and howled at the air.
"Good to see you again, Treble." Forte said, laughing. Dr. Wily didn't seem to be around, but Forte thanked him silently. After all, him and Treble were like an arm in an arm socket…it would take quite a lot to separate them.