CHAPTER 12

Roll stood on a grassy field with slight hills and valleys. A slight breeze ruffled the one or two blond hairs straying out of her ponytail.

She had no idea where she was. She had no memory of this place and couldn't locate it using geographic markings, such as terrain shape or sun position.

"Hello?" she called out. "Is anyone here?"

The last thing she remembered clearly was sitting next to Dr. Light. After that, everything was hazy bits and pieces floating in her mind. She knew what had happened, but couldn't recall it.

Rock walked up the hill, his black, mussed hair waving in the wind. He was not in armor, but a matching color scheme of shirt and pants. "Roll?"

"Rock? Where are we... what are we doing here?"

"I don't know. This isn't any place I've ever been. And I feel strange. Like I'm overly corporeal, if that makes any sense."

"I do too. Even this place. It seems real, but just a little outside real. Like it's too good to be true."

"Pretty close," said a third voice nearby. Protoman appeared, walking up the other side of the hill. He was also bereft of battle armor, but wore sunglasses in lieu of his helmet. "It is real. But only in a way we perceive."

"Blues? What are you doing here?" Roll asked.

"And what are you talking about?" Rock asked.

"Good, doesn't appear to be any pre-cog cycles lost," Protoman said. "We're in a construct - at least humans would call it that - that runs simulated data through our CPU cycles. It's hard to explain without revealing its exact nature. And if I do that, it loses some of its charm. Think of it as an astral projection into shared dreamspace."

"Then shouldn't we be able to sense that? I can't use any of my trackers or scanning equipment," Mega Man said.

"Suffice it to say, everything's been 'dumbed down'. However, the upside is that brings us a closer approximation to humanity, since we no longer have physical bodies."

Mega Man touched his chest, examined his arm. "Hair? I have arm hair. I never had that before." Protoman smirked as he watched them. Rock plucked at the wispy black hairs. "And it hurts. I mean, it hurts-hurts. Not in a force-feedback way. I can feel abstract pain."

"I have veins. And skin marks." Roll pulled her shirt open. "And breasts. I mean, real breasts. They look real, they have imperfections. There are hair follicles. One is slightly bigger than the other. And..." She dug her hand down the back of her pants.

She had everything. Every protrusion and orifice. No substitutions. "What happened? Are we human?" Roll asked.

"Simulated human. Close to it as you can get, in a stateless virtual space. You get the whole package. Physicality, hormones, sensations. It's all there."

"But it's an illusion," Roll half-said, half-asked.

"Depends how you interpret illusion," Blues replied. "I know I can't tell the difference. This feels like it's been my body all my life. That's what's nice about this place. It's our own little world. Separate from humanity's taboos and societal morals. They won't ever get in here. They can't judge us, can't see us. And we won't ever leave," Protoman said. "We can't. What's done is done. But now we have what we wanted."

"Blues, what are you saying?" Mega Man asked.

"I'm saying," Protoman took off his sunglasses. For the first time, Mega Man and Roll saw his sharp blue eyes. "That we're free."

Roll glanced to him, then back to Mega Man. "I guess... I guess he's right."

"We can do everything we couldn't do before," Mega Man shrugged. "The limits are gone. We can explore ourselves how we never could in reality."

"We can have sex the way we were meant to. Naturally. Normally. Like humans."

Roll placed a hand on Rock's cheek. "Become one family again," she said. "Without anyone judging us."

She pressed her lips against his, and they kissed. Her tongue moved around his. Instead of mechanically operating her body, her body was doing the work for her. She massaged his lips with hers, and could feel so much more sensation. The smell of his skin, the slipperiness of his saliva.

"Hey, can I get in on this action?" Protoman asked. He smirked and raised his eyebrows.

Roll smiled so her dimples disappeared, and approached him. She touched his cheek. "You have beautiful blue eyes," she said.

He shrugged, "No real point to hide them anymore."

"We're all friends here," Mega Man added.

Roll giggled. She clutched his butt and brought him closer in. He had the same smell as his brother. His tongue was a bit faster, more rugged.

...

Finally, Roll collapsed on top of Rock. Protoman collapsed on top of her. She kissed Mega Man, then turned to kiss Protoman. She laid her head down and closed her eyes, a wide smile on her face.

"Thank you," she said, to no one in particular.

The CPU usage on the construct box spiked, then petered out to almost nothing. That was the signal.

Dr. Light powered down the machine. He had no idea what was going on in there, and didn't want to know. It was their playground. In a few days, the construct would fade, lose power, and their essences would dissipate into the world wide network. And that's how they wanted it.

Light turned away, back to the computer console. The AI had finished uploading and compiled successfully. The whole thing took up most of his free space. If he was going to do anything with it, he'd have to get new equipment.

Light stroked his beard as he stared at the "Save Project As..." prompt box. Would he be working on it? Would he bother? What else would he do with his time?

He had two choices: stay in the house, devoid of occupants, or crack this new puzzle. If he bothered giving the AI a body, it couldn't be like his old models. It would have to be new enough to process the throughput, and tough enough to handle it. Some of the people at the convention had given him ideas - new advancements for robotics, especially that rep from Hayatom Inc., and the fellow working on the new titanium alloy.

Light shrugged. He might as well see where it led.

The prompt box waited. Light tapped lightly on the keyboard. He was always so bad at inventing with names and project codewords. But he couldn't stare at the screen forever, stuck on something insignificant.

"Project X", he typed.

#END#