Rebooting DCN: 029
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"Bah, useless machines, I should have known that Cossacks' creations would be nothing more than scrap!...If I just adjust these dials a bit and input new coordinates then I'll be rid of you useless piles of scrap!...Now enter the portal, and never try to find a way back again!"-Shurkffffffffffffffssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh-
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Runing…Please wait…Runing…
Behind pale eyelids information flooded a machine that looked like a seventeen year old boy. The machine learned that just about everything in his body had been replaced. New power source, new armor, new arms, new legs, new hands, new everything. But that wasn't all. He could feel things, like confusion. He could feel confusion at his confusion; he had never felt confusion before.
His lids snapped up, revealing deep sapphire eyes. He could hear sounds of many clocks ticking and tocking away, the sound was soothing, in a way.
"I see you're awake, Ring Man."
Ring Man…That's what the press had called him, that was what Dr. Wily had called him. Upon thinking of the man who had once owned him, he felt something other than confusion. A burning desire for something…Was it hate? Anger? This new emotion that he wasn't supposed to feel brought on more confusion.
He sat up; he had been lying down? Questions entered his CPU at a dozen miles per second. Questions that he shouldn't have been able to conceive, he wanted to ask them all but he didn't think he would be able to ask them all. Was he allowed to even speak at all? He wouldn't know until he tried.
"What-" He stopped, surprised at the voice he heard. The voice, was it his voice? It was…Different? Younger? Softer? Real? "I'm…" There it was again, it was his voice. He shouldn't sound so human, should he? This seemed to bring on more questions that he shouldn't be able to think of, more emotions that he shouldn't be able to feel. How should he react? His programming didn't seem to be there, what should he do? What was his purpose now? Finally he managed to say something else. "…Buwah?"
The voice that had spoken earlier gave a small chuckle. "You're confused."
Ring Man looked for the source; he didn't have to look far. The speaker was a floating blue skinned man with a purple cloak and no legs. The man shifted into a much older man with a long white beard. Ring Man figured that it was a hologram, but nothing else really made sense though what the hologram said was true. However, confused might have been an understatement.
He decided to try speaking again. "What happened to me?" Success, he had managed a complete question.
"You were upgraded."
An upgrade that explained just about everything. A part of him wanted to hit himself for not thinking of it earlier. But… "Why was I upgraded? Who did it?"
"I and an acquaintance did. You wouldn't have been able to defend yourself or remain hidden in this world had I not."
"This world?" Ring Man recalled the last audio memory file before waking up. A fresh emotion filled him. It felt painful? He did not have any damage so why did it hurt to remember that he was basically thrown away, like garbage? "Oh, right that…Wait, you're a hologram you can't upgrade me."
The "hologram" gave him a look though it's solid red eyes. "I assure you that I can and that I am not a hologram. My name is Clockwork, and I am a ghost."
"That's not possible, ghosts don't exist and holograms are just light projected into a 3D image and unable to interact with solid objects."
A groan captured Ring Mans attention away from the hologram program apparently called Clockwork. The source was Drill Man.
"What hit me?"
"Nothing hit you, we were upgraded."
"Ring Man? That you? Your voice sounds different."
"So does yours."
Blue eyes, slightly darker than Ring Mans own glanced down onto their owners' body. "Damn it! Even upgraded I still don't have any hands." Drill Man groaned, as if on cue the drills on his arms retracted to reveal red gloved and fully functional hands.
Drill Man stared at them for a short time before springing to his feet and started dancing. "WHOOHOO!! YES! YES!! I have hands! I have hands!"
Ring Man could only watch in morbid fascination as his "older brother" completely butchered, maimed and slaughtered whatever dance he was attempting to perform. Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew he should be wondering why Drill Man wasn't as confused as he was, why Drill Man was so accepting of his newfound emotions and ability to express them. However the rest of his mind was completely blank save for one thought. Drill Man can't dance.
"What's Drill doing?"
Ring Man blinked at the new and much lighter and younger sounding voice, he turned to the source. "Toad Man?" Sure enough it was Toad Man, a much smaller, thinner, younger looking Toad Man; well actually, it looked like a kid in a frog suite but he knew it was Toad Man. Ring Mans eyes flickered form the child like machine to…Whatever the heck Drill Man was doing. Covering the smaller ones eyes with one hand, he used the other to steer Toad Man away form Drill Man. "Lets go see if the others are okay."
"Ok."
As they walked over to Pharaoh Man, the scarlet and gold clad Cossack bot couldn't help but wonder why he tried to prevent Toad Man form seeing Drill Man do whatever. Toad Man was technically older than both Ring Man and Drill Man, but he was so much smaller now. Toad Man could take care of himself…but he looked so innocent…Ring Man shook his head, it was probably best not to think on it too much.
Kneeling by the yellow and sand colored Reploid, Toad Man viscously shook his shoulder. "Pharaoh, Pharaoh Man, wake up, it's time to get up!"
"Let the servants take care of it." Was the mumbled replay.
"Pharaoh Man." Ring Man started. "We don't have servants. Get up. Now."
Tanned eyelids opened. "Fine, I'm…Wait, what's going on? And what in the name of the Great Nile River is Drill Man doing?"
"I have FINGERS!"
"We've been upgraded to new bodies and minds; apparently…As for Drill Man…I think he's happy."
"Com-on Pharaoh, let's wake Bright next!"
Ring Man glanced at the "hologram" that had stayed silent and out of the way ever since Drill Man woke up. Clockwork was floating a distance away form the group with a small knowing smile on his face. "Yeah," Ring Man said, "you guys do that…"
Pharaoh Man and Toad Man watched as their "younger" brother went up to the purple cloaked child hologram. "What do you suppose he's doing?"
Toad Mans ruby eyes looked up to his brother. "Most likely stalling while we wake the others up, also to most likely extend the chapter length just like this paragraph is most likely filler. Probably some character development too. I mean, it's the third chapter and they know nothing about the main characters, then again, eight is a pretty large number to write for, and this isn't even the entire cast…Sides, he's supposed to believe in ghosts."
"…What the heck are you talking about?"
"Les go wake up Bright Man!"
"But wait, what about-Hey, HEY! Quit pulling! A king does not get pulled by people smaller than him...Or at all!"
Meanwhile Ring Man approached Clockwork.
"You still think I'm a hologram."
"Unless you can prove to me otherwise, I'll stand by my previous statement that ghosts don't exist and holograms can't upgrade robots."
"Here then, hold this." The ghost said holding out a gear shaped medallion with a stylized CW on it.
"If you can hold it then it'll just pass right though my…hand…" He finished lamely as the medallion landed quite solidly in the palm of his hand. Ring Man held it close to his face, and examined it at every angle; he came to the conclusion that it was indeed real.
Glancing at Clockwork, the reploid slowly and gently put his hand on the ghosts' shoulder, almost jumping when he felt that the blue skinned being was indeed, solid.
"What are you?"
"I am Clockwork, the ghost of time."
"Fascinating!"
Ring Man jumped, not expecting to suddenly hear a voice behind him, Bright Man had apparently been revived and was now staring at Clockwork with a mixture of awe and curiosity. Ring Man decided there that he did not like to be surprised. His "eldest" brother then started to ask their ghostly host a million questions, most of which were answered as vaguely as possible, but some were pretty much straight forwardly answered. Ring Man shifted away form the pair.
He looked as Bright Man talked about a mile a minute; Drill Man did a little dance of sorts, and Toad Man and Pharaoh Man wake Dust Man up. After the initial shock, none of them seemed to display the confusion that he felt. What was he supposed to do now? He had never had emotions until a few short minutes ago. Had it even been minutes? It felt like hours. What was he supposed to feel now? What was going to happen to him? To all of them? He had so many questions, with no answers presenting themselves.
He did know a few things. He knew that they weren't supposed to feel things, like they were doing now. He knew they weren't supposed to have the emotions that his brothers were currently showing. He knew that they were doing and feeling everything that they weren't supposed to…It made him feel confused and frustrated.
He heard footsteps behind him; they were soon accompanied by a quiet voice. "A penny for your thoughts?"
"Hmm?" The speaker was the rejuvenated vacuum like Cossack bot. "Hello Dust Man; I'm just trying to figure out if our new emotions and free will are good things or not."
Dust Mans eyes seemed to sparkle as he looked to his brother. "Of course they're good things! We've never been able think for ourselves before; we've never been able to feel happiness before! This is a wonderful opportunity to make up for the horrible things we've done in the past!"
'If only I could be so easily convinced.' Ring Man thought, though he didn't say that out loud, rather he gave a weak, "I suppose so…"
"What's that?" The blue and white asked, pointing to the gear medallion in his hand.
"This?" Ring Man hadn't even realized that he was still holding it. "It's nothing really." He said, slipping it into a hidden pocket, he'd give it back to Clockwork the next chance he got. None of the awakened Reploids noticed how the ghosts' solid red eyes flicker to the ring wielding mechaloid, nor did they see the knowing smirk that flashed briefly on his face.
However, they all heard Drill Man yelp in pain and they all saw Skull Man standing behind him.
"Quit yer dancen's maken me queasy, an ah dun know ow thas possible."
"Bu-but I have hands."
"So do we all."
It was then that they all realized that the ones who were originally missing one or both hands were not missing them anymore.
"Oh, well, um how about that." Drill Man laughed, slightly embarrassed.
"How about that indeed." Dive Man said, sitting up and giving a quiet thanks to Toad and Pharaoh Man. "What will happen to us now?"
"Well, due to the recent circumstances and the improvement that we recently went through, I propose that we turn to the one responsible for our new thinking capabilities." Bright Man stated, turning to Clockwork. "Might I inquire as to what purposes you desired from advancing us?"
"Yeah, what he said!"
"Hush Drill Man."
Clockwork ignored the small interruption and merely answered the question. "My reasoning for making you as you are now is simple. You will play an important role in this universes time line, though what you will do will be your choice entirely."
"Thus you gave us the freedom of choice." Dive Man confirmed.
"Exactly, you can save the world, destroy it, do nothing at all, or something else entirely."
"How do you know that we will be important? How do you know that we will have an affect here?"
"Simple, I know everything."
This got the Robot Masters talking and eagerly answering questions which Clockwork answered as many as needed. They were like children, they were children, he mused. They were experiencing things that they had never had a chance to before. They could choose what they wanted to do and when they wanted to do it, they could choose not to take orders from anyone. They had a second chance. He knew that taking them in and giving them true sentience would make him responsible for them, just as, if not more so than a certain ghost hybrid, but he wouldn't regret it. Not even if they took over both the Ghost Zone and the real world, not even if they started a bid for world conquest. But, those scenarios were something that may or may not happen. He knew that what ever they decided to do, they would play a vital role in the life of one of his other responsibilities.
The eventual discovery that they could remove their armor was made as was the inevitable discovery that they had hair, toes, and in some cases, mouths.
After that excitement died down the ghost led them into another room. This one was full of screens that showed various things, all of them Clockwork said, were before the time in which they would come into the world. This was to help then learn about the world and give them knowledge and the ability to get a job, for the older ones, and go to school, for the younger ones.
Eventually, they all drifted to screens that showed stuff that they were interested in; cartoons for Toad Man, ancient Egypt for Pharaoh Man, a marine thing for Dive Man, ect. The only one who seemed to have a problem was Ring Man. He would go to a screen, look at it for a while, lose interest, and move on to the next one. This continued until he ran out of screens, leaving him frustrated and confused. Clockwork floated up to him, carrying a chess set.
"What's wrong with me? Why can't I find anything that I want to watch?"
"There's nothing wrong with you Ring Man, just that there's nothing here to catch your eye. Perhaps you're looking too hard. Would you like to play me in a game of chess?"
He eyed the set carefully. "I've never played it before."
"But you know how."
"…I have nothing better to do."
Thus the two played, the first times Ring Man was slaughtered, but to his surprise, he found himself enjoying the game. It was difficult to tell how long they played, as all of his internal time equipment didn't seem to work and all the external clocks were wonky, but they played until he was able to beat the time ghost numerous times in a row.
It was then that Clockwork decided to stop them, saying that they were ready. He sent Bright Man, Dive Man, and Skull Man away first, allowing them to establish themselves before sending the "minors." Before sending Skull Man off though, Clockwork made a comment that Amity Park was a nice place to live. None of them really knew what he meant by that, before they could ask, he made a portal for them to get in and go to one of the others.
Relishing slightly in the silence provided by their absence, Clockwork gave a small chuckle as he went back into the main room, making his viewing screen show a scene in a hospital. A grey haired doctor was handing a new born baby boy to a tired and happy mother while the boys' father tenderly and proudly held a two year old little girl to the chest of his orange Hazmat suit, his face looking more like a child's then the one he held as he talked with is wife about the newest edition to their family.
Clockwork smiled broadly, the future was looking quite bright.