Conflicting Objectives
Roll was homesick, but she couldn't admit it to anyone, so she retreated to her room to brood. She lay down on her stomach and closed her eyes, sadness lying heavy in her gut and a mild, poisoned pain around where her heart would be. If she was human and could cry…
She shoved her head in the basket of her arms and sighed, missing the sunlight and all the good memories it brought with it, like the time they had gone for a picnic in the park.
She had just finished helping Dr. Light unpack when Rush bounded up to her, shoving his nose in her hand insistently and barking.
"You know you're never going to get him to leave you alone until you play with him. I'll finish up here." Dr. Light said kindly.
She shot him an uncertain look. "You sure?"
"Go on Roll. It's too nice a day for an energetic young bot to sit around being bored."
Roll grinned and brought out the soccer ball.
"Hey Mega! Me and Rush are gonna play a game of kickball. Wanna join in?"
"Sure." Said Mega Man.
Roll kicked the ball, while Rush ran after it, bumping it with his nose around the field. Mega Man lifted it on his foot, bounced it on his knee and kicked it back to Roll. Who returned a high kick back. Rush scrambled for it but miscalculated and it ended up bouncing on his head, before he and the ball tumbled into the manmade lake.
Roll and Mega began to laugh and Dr. Light joined is as the bedraggled dog climbed out of the lake and shook himself hard.
Roll's pleasant daydream ended with someone knocking at her door. The Robot Masters may have been bad guys, but not even they would barge into someone's room without permission.
"Who is it?" Roll called.
She opened the door and didn't see anyone, then a wave of gold caught her eye and she looked down.
"You're Heat Man right?" She said.
He seemed pleased that she remembered.
"Star and Gyro want to know if you'll come train with us today."
Roll hesitated, she didn't really want any company with the way she was feeling, but it was a nice day and maybe the company would help make her feel better.
"Oh and Ice Man will be there too." He said.
The company…hmm the company…well…Heat Man didn't seem so bad, and Star and Gyro were fun to be around. But Ice Man? She wasn't sure how they'd get along. She sighed. "No time like the present I guess."
"Sure."
"I don't understand doc, what makes her better than us?"
Air Man and Guts Man were standing in front of Wily. Guts Man was leaning on the desk, demanding information. Her presence made him edgy, Mega Man could be stomping in anytime to rescue her.
"It's very simple, with a few keystrokes I can transfer all the powers of the robots she accompanies to Ultra Girl. Whatever that little blue pest steals can be regained as Metal Man already discovered. Now go and get Crystal Man and Fire Man, it's your turn to guard the president today."
"You got it." Guts Man said.
Air Man shot the doc a nasty look, he'd discovered what Roll really had been and he wasn't keen on the idea of keeping her around, programming could be undone in an instant and she could turn on them easily, but it wasn't his choice and as distracted as Wily was, it wasn't wise to antagonize him.
After they left Proto and Quick Man sauntered in.
"You rang?" He asked.
Wily got straight to the point.
"I understand that you don't like leaving witnesses Quick Man, but your idiotic little stunt at Daedalus Labs has the FBI watching our every move." He sounded extremely angry.
"What are you talking about?" Proto asked, arms akimbo and suspiciously eyeing Quick Man.
"Are you really that ignorant? Killing Dr. Vallejo was one of the worst things you could have done! He has deep connections to the FBI!"
"Oh shit!" Proto cussed out loud.
"He was still alive when we left." Quick Man said, more perturbed by Wily's anger then by what he'd done.
"Language Proto Man," Wily warned, "and that's not the point. He wasn't supposed to know you were there at all. He died in the hospital two days ago."
Neither robot knew what to say and so they didn't say anything.
"Don't be so careless next time." He snapped and dismissed them.
"Why are you so worked up over it?" Quick Man asked. "He was more upset with me than you."
"Because I told Roll we didn't kill him." Proto said.
"We didn't know he was gonna-"
Roll was walking towards the training room with Heat Man and Star Man.
Quick Man shut up until they were out of earshot.
"Anyway why do you care what she thinks? You don't care about anyone's opinion except for yours and Wily's."
"She's family." He said.
"We're robots Proto Man, we don't have families." The robot walked away.
"There's a helluva lot more to us then you think, you annoying idiot. Too bad you don't realize that you even know how to think." Proto Man muttered darkly under his breath.
Star and Gyro welcomed Roll playfully. Ever since the short success of Cold Steel, Gyro had taken to playing several instruments and discovered that he really did enjoy it, especially drums. Sometimes he even played for Roll and flirted with her, more to rile up Star Man and Pharaoh Man then anything else cause they seemed to have what humans called a crush on her, but she was upbeat, friendly and fun and they'd become fast friends.
Ice Man was in the corner of the room glaring daggers. He hadn't forgotten or forgiven how Mega Man and Dr. Light had tricked him, which nearly got him scrapped by Wily and because he was one of the few robots who had discovered that they had some amount of free will and were more human then people realized, the idea had become that much more terrifying to him.
Unlike Proto, Shadow or Pharaoh who obeyed just enough to keep Wily from realizing what they knew and still subtly defying him in their own ways, he had turned in on himself and obeyed every command almost obsessively.
"Hi." Roll said.
"Why are you talking to me?" Ice Man snapped back.
Even though Roll was expecting some hostility, she glared, wishing she could pull off icy anger like Shadow Man, but she had a fiery temper and it usually got the best of her.
Star Man tried to head her off.
"You don't gotta be like that around the babe!"
Roll opened her mouth and then shut it, even though she'd tried to make it clear that she wasn't interested in Star Man as anything more then a friend, she couldn't help but feel this strange, pleased, tickling-nervous sensation whenever he mentioned she was pretty. A feeling that increased whenever Pharaoh Man was with her, and suddenly guilt flooded her.
What was she gonna do if people caught them and wanted to destroy them? Maybe she could plead their case to Dr. Light and get him to take them all in. even though were bots she couldn't stand here, she didn't like the idea of playing favorites.
Shaking her head, Roll turned back to Ice Man.
"Look, we can either try to be civil or you can keep being a jerk bot, but I'd like you to give me a chance."
Ice Man considered, Wily had warned him about letting his jealousy and insecurity go to his head, before wondering how he had acquired those emotions, fearing that the secret would be discovered, Ice Man quickly assured him that it wasn't jealousy or insecurity, he just thought he was gonna get scrapped and since he had implanted self-preservation chips into his bots it made sense and Wily had let it go.
"I can be civil if you aint gonna go traitor on us." He grumbled
What could Roll say to that? She was suddenly so confused and unhappy that she barely realized she was nodding.
"We'll see." Ice Man acknowledged cautiously.
And the training session began.
Mega and Rush had gotten radioed about a group of Wily bots and were stealthily following them towards the old swamp base. When they got there, Mega told Rush to stay put and turned on a small listening device. This would usually be Roll's job. He thought with a pang, she was good at this kind of stuff.
"Here's your grub for the day Mr. President." Guts Man said laughing.
A clatter of metal and a slopping sound on the floor let Mega know he'd dropped it on purpose.
"Oops. Guess I got butter fingers."
"Quit antagonizing him Guts Man." Came Crystal Man's irritated voice.
"When am I gonna be set free?" The president asked.
"When you turn over your position to Wily." Fire Man said.
"I've told you before I can't do that. The US government doesn't work that way." The man sounded like he was close to breaking point.
"Then I hope you enjoy your new presidential suite, cause you'll be staying here for a very long time." Fire Man said.
"Not if I can help it." Mega said.
He beckoned to Rush and crashed through the door.
"What the-?"
"It's Mega Man!" Guts Man said.
"Get him!" Fire Man barked.
Crystal Man used Crystal Eye and the large crystal bounced and broke off, slashing some of Mega Man's titanium armor.
Mega Man found himself being picked up by Guts Man and flew across the room.
"Looking for a rematch?" Mega asked as he picked himself up.
"You aint got no chance against me!" Guts Man laughed.
"That's what you think Guts Man!" Mega Man said and shot behind him.
"Ha ha ha! You missed Mega dweeb!"
The old tree came crashing down and Mega Man took his power.
"You idiot!" Crystal Man growled. "I'll get the president! You two hold him off!"
"Who made you boss?" Fire Man sneered, but did as he was told.
"Sorry Mega Man, but I'm too hot for you to handle." A jet of red-hot flame burst from his arm and Mega rolled out of the way.
He sidestepped the cumbersome Air Man and took his power.
"Than it's time to cool you down!" Mega said and used the miniature tornados to suck up water right over Fire Man. He went down and lay still, electricity sparkling and crackling.
It was just down to Air Man now and Mega Man punched him hard, before taking off after Crystal Man.
"Not so fast Crystal Man, Rush get the president!"
"Ruff ruff! Rokay!" Rush barked and tackled Crystal Man.
Mega Man tried to punch Crystal Man, but the robot was very fast and shot off another crystal.
Mega used Air Shooter to blow them away and Crystal Man was sent flying back, but managed to right himself and took another shot.
"Give up Mega Man. You know you can't defeat me."
"Defeating you wasn't exactly what I had in mind." Mega said with a grin.
"What the-?"
Rush swung around with the president on his back and Mega hopped on his back.
"See ya later Crystal Man!"
They took off into the air and headed back towards the Skull copter, dumping the powers of the defeated robots, Mega Man charged up his Mega Buster and started shooting. It exploded in a fiery blast and then Mega Man shot into the water, which put out the fire, before flying off.
Crystal Man surveyed the wreckage as he and Air Man dragged their fallen comrades off.
"In today's news, Mega Man rescued the president from Wily's bots at their hidden swamp base, which was destroyed after-"
"What?" Wily roared. "Those no good incompetent bots let him foil my plans again and-"
And whatever else he was saying, was replaced by furious German all of which sounded like it would make a sailor blush. It probably didn't bode well for Air, Guts, Crystal or Fire Man in any case, and every bot at the base felt relieved that it hadn't been there turn to guard the president today.