In the far reaches of the Ghost Zone, in an area where few ghosts tended to go was a floating island. The island itself was un-extraordinary since in the land of ghosts where there wasn't a floating violet hued door or emerald colored floating ectoplasm there usually was a floating island of sorts.
The island was actually rather plain, no real landmarks to speak of; the only thing of interest would be eight "humans" with odd wardrobes all settled in a circle, facing the middle. Most ghosts that did pass by the odd sight of "humans" merely shook their heads and went on their way.
They could not touch "real world" things or the "living" in the plain of existence in which they called their home unless they were powerful enough or had special items that allowed them to do so. Humans in the Ghost Zone, while a rarity, did not stay long; they always seemed to find a way out, those that didn't would just become more ghosts themselves adding to the population.
The ghosts that decided to try and scare the eight would find them all to be unresponsive and deathly still. Being ghosts in the Ghost Zone they couldn't check to see if they had already kicked the bucket or if they were just ignoring the ghosts that were teasing them.
Had any of the ghosts listened closely they would have heard the faint whir of machines sounding under their skin. Had they looked more closely they would have seen that the "eyes" of the "humans" had small wires going though the irises and that their "clothes" had the dull sheen of metal armor. If any of the ghosts had paid more attention they would have noticed that one of them had no hands, one of them had a giant light bulb on its head, another was a vacuum cleaner with eyes and appendages, and that another had armor in the shape of a submarine, along with the oddities of the others.
But alas, none of the ghosts did see these oddities, or rather they thought nothing of it. Very little could surprise the residents of the Ghost Zone as odd things tended to be a regular occurrence, like the killer vegetarian flowers that had once infested the lairs of the more well known ghosts for a time. Undergrowth was never quite the same after that…
One ghost, however, did notice the oddities of the "humans." He knew where the eight had come from, he knew very well what they were, and he knew what they had done, what they did, and what they could do. It was this ghost that came to them one "day" and spoke to them.
This ghost was ageless yet seemed to change age constantly. There were constants: blue skin, solid red eyes, a large hooded purple cloak, a scar over his (for the ghost was definitely male) left eye, a multitude of clocks and watches on his person and a staff with a stopwatch as its head between the curves of a sideways C with a violet W shape engraved into the C.
The rather knowledgeable ghost entered the center of the circle and looked each one of the "humans" in their "eyes" taking in their "faces" and sizing them up. When he reached the last one, the one with a skull like face mask his currently elderly face lit up with a smile, clearly liking what he seemed to find.
"Input override code," He spoke at last, his voice cool and rather fit for a man "younger" than he was at the moment. "2526-M-272829-S-303132-C, code password Kalinka."
At once all the "humans" responded in perfect sync with each other in the same monotone voice. "Override code acknowledged, awaiting orders."
The ghosts smile grew as the now child ghost created a swirling blue vortex. "Perfect, follow me." He ordered, entering the blue portal.
The robots, for that is what they were, obeyed his orders and trailed behind. When they exited the portal they were in a rather spacious room filled with clocks of all sorts. The eerie green glow that accompanied every place in the Ghost Zone made the place seem rather creepy. The constant ticking of clocks did not seem to bother the ghost of time or the mechanical beings that followed him into his lair.
Meeting them were eight other ghosts, all of which regarded the humanoids with interest. One of them, a small child like ghost with green hued skin floated close to the smallest robot, a green one with armor modeled to look like a toads. The ghost said nothing, only looking in childish wonder.
Another ghost, this one lithe with blue skin and a teenage appearance, approached the now middle-aged ghost.
"Clockwork," He started, "Explain to me again why we're supposed to overshadow these humans."
The ghost, now identified as Clockwork smiled. "You won't be overshadowing them, and they are not human. Rather they're machines."
"Machines huh," One of them muttered. "That's cool…Hey this one doesn't have any hands!"
Another ghost with the appearance of a scientist looked closely at the one with a light bulb on its head. "Fascinating, they're so advanced, so life like…Almost…" He added after seeing the blank, dead look in its eyes.
"Cool!" The child ghost was enjoying himself, poking and prodding at the toad like one, though when he waved his hand in front of its face he was a bit disappointed when the ruby eyes did not follow his hand.
"If we're not ta be overshadow'n em, then whot will we be doin?" Another ghost, a former doctor, asked floating near the one with the skull mask.
"I must admit, I am curious." The sixth ghost, a former marine captain, piped up.
"You will become their souls."
This caught everyone's attention.
"S-souls?" One of the quieter ghosts spoke up, slightly edging away form the vacuum like robot that he was next to. "What do you mean by that?"
"The robots you see standing before you are merely shells, a body that can only follow orders. They can't think for themselves. If you overshadow them then you would be stuck inside them as they don't really have a mind. You wouldn't remember your former life, nor your time as a ghost."
"But why us?" The last ghost of a former Egyptian king asked. "Why not ghosts of unborn children?"
"Because, the robots would still remember their existence before coming here, this would put too much strain on a blank soul like that. You are all the best choice for this, trust me, I know."
There was a moment of silence while the eight ghosts digested the information presented to them. It was a chance that few ghosts ever got, a chance to come back to life, to live with the living once again. Then all at once they asked questions.
"Which one do I get?"
"Can I have this one?"
"What does this one do?"
"What're its abilities?
"This one has no hands, why does it have no hands?"
"Will it be suitable for my presence?"
"What's its name?"
"Whot was it made fer?"
Clockwork cleared his thought to get their attention. "I suppose I will explain their names and uses. Keep in mind though; their abilities do not define what they could be."
Turning to the one that the scientist was nearest to, he started. "This is Doctor Cossack Number 025, or DCN: 025, but its commonly called Bright Man." Bright Man was the one with the large yellow hued light bulb adorning its head. It had bright orange red armor with dark grey undertones, its right hand was apparently nonexistent, and in its place was an arm canon. Its grass green eyes gleamed dully in the dim light. "The light bulb on the top of its head can produce a flash that can briefly stun organic beings and temporarily stall other mechanical things; it's called the Flash Stopper.
"Next," He indicated the sole green robot in the room, the frog like one. It was rather round and very green. Its ruby eyes were in the armors "mouth" and it had two eye like headlights on top of its head. Its belly area was white as were its gloves and shoulder plates. "Is DCN: 026, Toad Man, a robot made to study agriculture, or more specifically around swamps and rivers. Its weapon is called the Rain Flush in which it can make a type of acid rain, which while harmless to humans and other organic life, is dangerous to other robots."
After Toad Man was Drill Man, the handless one. A robot built for construction and digging, it had a drill on the top of its head as well as where its hands were supposed to be. It had bright red armor with yellow highlights and ocean blue eyes. Its weapon was the destructive Drill Bomb.
The next robot was an Egyptian themed one with tan and yellow armor as well as an Egyptian headpiece like helmet. Like Toad Man, this one had ruby colored eyes; however its left hand, like Bright Mans right, was an arm canon. It was built to study ancient civilizations. It was introduced as Pharaoh Man, which considering the theme was rather appropriate. Pharaoh Man can create and charge a fireball called the Pharaoh Shot.
The fifth one was Ring Man, whom like Drill Man, was mainly red and had blue eyes. However this one had golden rings adorning its arms, legs, head, and torso. It was apparently built solely to destroy another robot named Mega Man. Its weapon was the Ring Boomerang.
Dust Man, was next. It had blue and white armor and vermilion eyes. At the top of its head was a rectangular vacuum like hose. It had a variety of tubes and hoses encircling its neck and an arm canon on its right hand that was far less cylindrical than that of the others. It was primarily made for cleaning. It attacked with something called the Dust Crusher, which was basically a block of garbage that broke apart when it hit something.
The largest of the robots was next, it was called Dive Man. It was a darker blue than Dust Man, but its coloring was blue and white as well, its eyes, however were sea foam green. Its armor was in the design of a submarine, complete with a Para scope coming out the top of its helmet; it had a red anchor symbol on its left side. It was built for underwater exploration and combat; however it could fight just as well on land as it does in water. Its weapon, Dive Missile, was a type of homing torpedo that could be fired on land as well as in the water.
Finally they came to DCN: 032, Skull Man. Its eyes were the same color as Dive Mans and like Bright Man and Dust Man; it had an arm canon in place of its right hand. Its armor was bone white and skeletal. Its facemask was in the shape of a skull and it had skill like shoulder plates, its chest plate resembled ribs. The weapon this one used was called the Skull Barrier, which consisted of six skull shaped plates spinning around it very quickly. Despite the passive like nature of its attack, it was the only robot out of the eight made for total warfare.
After Clockwork finished telling the ghosts about their future bodies he fell silent. Allowing them to think about and choose which one they want, though he already knew which ones they would go to.
After a stretch of silence the "youngest" ghost spoke up, well shouted up. "I call Toad Man!"
"Hmm…I think Bright Man…" The scientist muttered.
One by one the ghosts chose a robot, soon the only ones remaining were Skull Man and the doctor.
"I'm not sure ow ta feel…" He murmured. "Ta live in th body of a war machine…"
"As I have said before, their abilities do not define what they can be." Clockwork reminded him.
The doctor ghost thought for a moment. "Very well, I'll give this un a chance."
"Are their more of these Robot Masters?" Bright Mans new soul asked. "There are only numbers 25 to 32 here."
"Yes there are more Robot Masters in existence, however these are the only ones created by Doctor Mikhail Cossack. Where they originated it's required to issue a number to Robot Master that comes after the number of the last registered Robot Master. Thus Bright Man is the twenty-fifth Robot Master in existence, but the first Robot Master to be made by Dr. Cossack."
"Really? Fascinating! Who made the other Robot Masters?"
"Ok, so now what do we do?" The ghost who first spoke interrupted, wanting to get on with it.
"Simply do what you would to overshadow them."
The ghost quickly, and for some eagerly, entered the bodies of the robots. The shock of foreign substances that rapidly entered their systems, too fast for their self repair systems to keep up with and fix, coupled with the overload of data that their newfound emotions were rapidly producing caused all of them to swiftly enter an emergency shut down.
The ghost of time looked at the robots now lying sprawled out on his floor before disappearing and reappearing with a very familiar white haired, green skinned, and sunglasses donned self proclaimed master of technology.
"Clockwork, master of time, what is it that you need me, Technus, master of all things technology for?"
"I require your assistance in upgrading these eight based off of the blueprints in the middle." The child conjured up a time window, showing nine images. Eight of them were the blueprints to the robots that were, for now, frozen in time, with comments and measurements written in Russian. The blueprint of the robot in the middle was far more advanced then the other eight with writing in Japanese rather than Russian. "I also need you to come up with a way to allow them to run on ectoplasm rather than the fusion core they're using now."
The tech ghost whistled, genuinely impressed, as he looked the schematics over. "I, Technus master of all things electronic, have never seen anything like this before!"
"Nor will you ever, they were made in another timeline altogether."
"Hrm, the advanced one required a thirty year period for "ethical testing" but that probably wouldn't be a problem for you…Allows a robot or rather a Reploid as this Dr. Light calls it, to think, feel and make decisions like a human, why anyone would want emotions like that who knows…" He started to mutter to himself after a while before finally saying. "Very well, I, Technus master of all things robotic and programmed will help you!"
"I knew you would."
As Technus worked on the first "Robot Master," as their creator had called them, the thought of doing something to them crossed his mind, but was quickly dismissed, the time ghost did not frequently claim to know everything because he thought it sounded cool. Besides, the ghost master of all things electrical and beeping did not want to find out what would happen if he crossed the ghost master of all time.
After what seemed like a short time, (time did not flow in Clockworks lair, so it was difficult to tell and didn't really matter) they were done. The Reploids, as they now were that, did not look all that much different then what they had before, except that now most of their armor was slimmed down, Toad Man now looked to be about seven or eight, Skull Man, Bright Man and Dive Man all looked like adults and the other four looked like teenagers, also they could now take off their armor and look indistinguishable from normal humans. Their weapons could also now be charged with ectoplasm, allowing them to be able to attack and fight ghosts.
After thanking Technus, Clockwork sent him back to where he picked the ghost up. When that particular Technus returned to were he should be, he would have no memory involving Clockwork or the robots. The time ghost may know that Technus wouldn't dare tamper with the machines in his lair, however he also knew that the self proclaimed master of technology wouldn't hesitate to use the information gleaned form this encounter for his own use. To make certain he could not, Clockwork had chosen a Technus from a time line where the former Robot Masters did not come to this world.
"Now," Clockwork said, turning to the eight Reploids, "it's time to wake up."
((AN: And here we end the second chapter. Told ya it'd be longer. I'd like to take this time to thank the two of you who reviewed. I try to be original but I do have some unoriginal ideas that may or may not be appearing in this fic. If any of you who actually read this have any questions just ask, I'll be happy to blunder my way though answering them.
Do you think I got Clockwork and Technus right? Did I move the plot too fast? Too slow? Did the ending bit feel rushed? I'm a terrible judge when it comes to things like that. As for the killer vegetarian flowers at the start…Well you don't really have to eat everything you kill…And they may or may not reappear later on.
Please give your thoughts.))