MegaMan Generation, Chapter 2: Humble Beginnings
For the world, the next six years were a blur of scientific discovery and advancement. Metanium Alloy, also called Met Alloy, was developed, robots with exponentially more complex AIs were produced, and the first Metool, a construction robot equipped with Met Alloy armor, was created. Now the little robots were at work all over the planet, even in Russia.
The seven-year-old Kalinka Cossack had just gotten her license, after quite extensive testing. People were uncertain as to if she should get permission to drive that early, even with the benefits of Light Syndrome, but she had gotten her license on the condition that her vehicle had a decent AI to take control of the vehicle in emergencies, and she wasn't driving at night. She rode in one of these vehicles now, driving home to her father, who had called her sounding extremely happy, almost manic. She remembered his words.
"Kalinka! It's happened! It's finally happened! A partially sentient robot has been completed! Come home quickly, we're going to Japan!"
Kalinka hasn't been fully convinced, and was worried about leaving Russia, but curiosity got the better of her as she parked the car, Dr. Cossack dashed out, bags packed, and jumped in the car, in the driver's seat. It was all Kalinka could do to jump into the passenger's side before he landed on her. Since her mother's death, he'd done that sort of thing a few times, but he was generally a good father, so she accepted his hustled apology and they went toward the airport, Dr. Cossack yelling at the car's AI the whole time, which, to his dismay, blatantly REFUSED to exceed the speed limit.
"Come on, speed up!"
"Negative. Speed limit is 100 kilometers per hour. Current speed is 100 kilometers per hour. Request for speed increase denied."
"…We should have taken MY car…I can't believe they want to install these things in every non-emergency vehicle in the world…"
They arrived at the airport, where many other scientists, mathematicians, investors, and even a few psychologists were boarding. Within an hour, Kalinka and her father were in the air, joining nearly every scientist in the world worth mentioning in a global descent upon Tokyo. Never before were the airports so full of aircraft, and Tokyo bay was quickly filling with boats. Hotels in the city were filled beyond capacity, people sharing tiny rooms, and even the tube hotels were crammed full. Separated by gender and age, Kalinka found herself with girls her own age, while her father chatted with other male scientists in his room. Both of them were fluent in many languages, and became unofficial translators for their respective rooms. Dr. Cossack probably had a better time than Kalinka with this, as he was discussing robotics theories, requirements for sentience and consciousness, and power supply systems, while Kalinka was translating topics about boys and shopping. She turned in early, while her father chattered into the early morning.
Normally, Dr. Cossack and Kalinka could have easily gotten lost, but all they had to do was follow the literal sea of people heading toward the Tokyo Technology Exposition Building. After an hour of everyone getting seated and ready, everything was ready. Almost every single person had a laptop or a notepad in their hand, Kalinka included. She and her father watched the front stage like hawks, when the crowd abruptly fell silent. A doctor with black and graying hair stepped out, his blue eyes conveying an honest pride and happiness at what he was to announce, and a brown haired scientist with black and shifty eyes also came out with him, Kalinka guessed that he was the assistant of Dr. Light's, Dr. Wily. It was said that he had a big hand in the design of the robot, almost an equal part to Dr. Light's. When Dr. Light cleared his throat, the majority of the audience put on earpieces, apparently so that they could listen to Dr. Light's words translated into their respective languages. Dr. Cossack and Kalinka both listened to Dr. Light in his native Japanese.
"My esteemed colleagues from around the world, today I would like to show you what may very well be the future of technology. World, I'd like you to meet EDDIE!"
He dramatically unveiled a red robot, seemingly based on a Metool, but more complex. It looked out to the crowd, and beeped, doing a small back flip. Kalinka raised an eyebrow, and looked at her father with a quizzical look, but her father's gaze was fixed on the little robot, his face not unlike a child's staring into a toy store window.
"Eddie is made of Metanium Alloy, and his brain is capable of complex logic and problem solving capabilities, as well as self-awareness, self-preservation, and more recently, emotion. He can be happy, sad, angry, just like a living thing. His AI isn't as complex as a human mind, more like that of a very smart pet, but given some time, a relatively small amount of time, we believe it is possible to build a robot capable of human-level sentience."
Kalinka got more and more interested as Eddie did various tasks, showing the powers of his mind. He had reasoning tests, self-preservation tests, adaptation tests, and even tests in comprehension. Kalinka noticed that all of Dr. Light's tests were quite humane, and he was quite proud of Eddie. After the expo was over, Eddie got a standing ovation, which made him give a bow, unordered. This caused the crowd to go wild. Kalinka knew that this wouldn't be the last time the world saw some of Dr. Light's work, as shown by almost all of the investors making a bee-line for the stage afterward.
As Kalinka walked out, a six-year-old boy bumped into her. After noting her attire, he made a polite and fluent apology in Russian, and went on his way again, seemingly in a hurry. Kalinka blinked and shrugged it off, going with her father back to the hotel.
On the way home, the boy saw a Metool, damaged, in the trash of a construction site. Apparently, it had been shocked heavily by electrical wiring on a weak point under it's armor, and was discarded. He picked it up and carried it home.
"Toshiro how was it?" Toshiro stopped in the living room and looked at his father.
"It was amazing, Dad! They had a robot there that was like a very smart pet! It's only a matter of time before they have full sentience!"
The father smiled as Toshiro went to his room, noting the Metool. Toshiro got together a mess of technology and computer components from various junked robot types, and a few devices of his own design. He pulled green and blue paints off of the shelf and got to work. He was setting up for the first of many all-nighters.