8.1 - Paperwork
Wily was in jail once again, the only question was how long this would actually last.
Bryan for his part just didn't care, this had happened a whole bunch of times to the point he no longer bothered trying to get the man released via the proper channels. Eleven out of twelve times the German managed to escape before said process could be completed anyways.
Thus instead of doing that and wasting time he decided to focus on much more relevant processes such as the various shell companies that existed under their pre-view.
The number of them was annoying but Wily surprisingly had a good system set up to deal with them without needing to interrupt him, most of the time that is. There were a few unexpected things that popped up every now and then causing the older man to fob them off on the cyborg more often than not.
Thus here he was going over the various reports and signing off on those good enough to pass muster or denying others. Slash and burn of an old forest, denied, new avenue of clean energy research, approved, potential of illegal chemical dumping, put to the side for investigation for now.
On and on the paperwork went with no signs of stopping any time soon with the only interruptions being either the occasional yawn, sip of a drink, or bathroom break. To be fair though, this was the one day a month that had been set aside for said work, if only to stay on top of things.
Honestly, Bryan normally appreciated this time as it allowed him to calm down from all the chaos that happened when hanging around a mad scientist.
New potential contract for the military looks good so it's accepted, oh look, an attempt to sue them for malpractice, amusing since that branch is normally used for all legal matters and everyone avoids such things with it so he can set the bots out to find out what's going on there. If the claim is provable then they would only be allowed to cause mild mischief, otherwise they can cause whatever chaos they want within reason to prevent the idiots from attempting to repeat this.
Morals? At this point he has hung out with the Wily faction for so long that his own are heavily skewed for whatever reason.
Acknowledging the problem is the first step to potentially treating it, right?
Eh, whatever, Bryan cocked his head to the side as he looks over another proposal and notes that this looks like someone is attempting to embezzle from them. That goes in the special section for especially stupid decisions that require retribution and potentially a personal touch.
Maybe his own Robot Master units would be pleased to have a new toy to play with? Throw in Tarkin for a little extra fun as well?
Oh well, he still had a bunch more paperwork to deal with and his creations were normally content to be wandering chaos bringers/anti-heroes more often than not.
8.2 - Rolling along,
Roll let out a sigh after she dealt with yet another human who didn't seem to understand that no she wasn't a child. She liked her model make no mistake but there were times where appearing as a child was more often than not inconvenient.
Walking along down the street on one of her rare days off they robot wondered why she had even decided to head into the city. Maybe she'll find something interesting and Doctor Light would be willing to buy it for her later on?
"Nice to see you out and about Roll, how's the day treating you so far?"
Roll tensed upon hearing a familiar voice and resisted the urge to potentially deck whomever had snuck up on her. It would cause a scene and no doubt bring about a lot of problems for her but thankfully the one who snuck up on her was familiar.
Turning she saw that Bryan was now walking beside her and giving a soft smile as amusement danced in his eyes. Instead of saying anything however she pouted upon noticing that he had gotten taller once again.
"Bryan… to what do I owe this unexpected visit?"
Watching the cyborg the Robot Master saw him shrug as they continued to walk around the city without a care.
"Nothing really, I just saw you and decided that you needed someone to keep the less intelligent folks from bothering you. There's also a new police officer around here that was approaching as well and I think they're of the opinion that you might be an actual child."
The female bot winced slightly at this admission and indeed managed to catch sight of a police officer that had been making their way towards her. They had thankfully stopped and were now looking at them both in thought.
Hiding her panic she grabbed the teens hand and forced a fake smile on her face causing him to chuckle in response. If she could, Roll would have stomped on his robotic foot in retaliation knowing that he wouldn't have taken it that bad.
Instead the cyborg let her guild them along until they were out of sight of the officer and heading into the shopping district. Thankfully he didn't say anything as she let go and pouted at him but couldn't help the small grateful smile on her face.
For all that the Light bot wanted to be mad at the cyborg she knew that he was one of the few good members of the Wily faction. Not that they were bad or anything but Wily bot's tended to get into mischief more often than not which she did not want to deal with today.
Moving along the two entered the shopping district proper and Roll hid her slight frown upon noticing something. It wasn't noticeable to humans just yet but as one of those quite familiar with the cyborg she could see that he was starting to limp.
The two had stopped for a moment on the side where the cyborg had taken to lean against a building to seemingly fiddle with his shoe. Some of the regular humans looked over but looked away as he dropped a pebble onto the ground as if to realize what he was doing.
Roll instead knew that the cyborg had a few pebbles in his pocket to fake such an action as he instead needed a brief break. His cybernetic limbs were just a hair too short right now for his organic frame and this was starting to take its toll on him.
The blonde couldn't help but feel some pity for him now as she realized that he needed another adjustment to his limbs. Despite all the similarities Bryan had with the Robot Masters he was still human as well and that meant he was growing.
To make that more complicated he was going through what humans called puberty which was making him grow even faster.
Suddenly Roll was glad that her frame had a set height and her movement routines were pre-programmed. She couldn't even begin to imagine how hard that must be to deal with for him let alone how many little mental games he had to play so nobody would realize what had happened to him.
"Hey Bryan?"
The cyborg looked over at her in curiosity as he readjusted his boot and attempted to retie its lace.
"Do you need help with anything in particular?"
His brows furrowed in confusion for a moment before looking at her with a silent question of if she was sure she wanted to help him. Bryan was always quite considerate with his actions towards the Robot Masters and never directly asked them for help, more often than not leaving it up to them to decide if they wanted to do something or not.
Roll smiled slightly as she remembered the time Doctor Light had visited a power plant to check up on Elec Man after he started having problems. Only to find that Bryan of all people had beaten them there, repaired her brother, and had left behind something that had looked like some sort of wires.
Turns out they were replacement strings for Elec's guitar and a week later he had stopped by the house to grab a few parts for an emergency repair. Only for her to later on find out that they were for the cyborg after an experiment had damaged his leg making it hard to move.
Thus upon seeing his look she subtly nodded in acceptance causing the teen to give her a small look of thanks.
"Yeah… we're running out of a few ingredients at home and I decided since we're already here I might as well grab replacements instead of waiting."
Pushing himself up off the wall the two started to wander around the shopping district looking for various shops that held what they needed. Roll looked things up online to help them get the best prices for the stuff on the list he had physically written down and messaged her with.
If he had bought her a particularly cute dress or a piece of jewelry that she liked then that was nobody's business but their own.
8.3 - Boys will be boys,
This was definitely illegal but none of the trio cared as they used the various equipment on their impromptu gun range. It was in a rather remote location in the mountains anyways and far off the beaten path so the odds of anyone finding them doing this was rather slim.
Blues, Bass, and Bryan were just having some fun and blowing off some steam anyways with the kinetic projectile weapons. Though this was one of the few activities that they kept Rock out of intentionally, questionable drinking habits aside, the blue bomber was still innocent in certain ways and they wanted to keep him like that.
Also this was mostly a Wily bot bonding activity and Blues was unique in that he also had a Wily designation known as Break. That said the three of them were just enjoying the quiet, sans the sounds of gunshots, while it lasted.
"So… holidays are coming up. Any plans going forward for them?"
Blues spoke, causing the cyborg and other robot to trade glances at each other for a moment before shrugging.
"Eh, not really. The Docs settling down for Christmas as far away from the festivities as he could possibly get.
"Beyond that, us bots are mainly gathering in one of the Canadian bases and throwing one massive party."
Bass spoke as he readied up his shot causing Blues to let out a hum and glance at the hybrid amongst them. In turn said hybrid raised an eyebrow at the two even as he still managed to line up his shot and fire blindly at the target.
Said shot still hit dead center, somehow, but he ignored them and went on to fire several more times at his target. It was an impressive trick really but all of them knew it was because of their robotic natures that made it possible.
AKA, he obviously hacked the few cameras they had watching the surrounding areas and themselves just in case someone managed to somehow stumble upon them. Still impressive to those who weren't in on the cyborgs nature.
"I have to keep an eye on Wily but my crew is having a get-together somewhere in Australia last I heard. They want me to, at the very least, make a pit stop for them to pass on presents but don't want to join in on the larger gathering of Wily bots.
"Something about how their last gathering resulted in them getting black out drunk and swearing never to set foot in Tibet ever again. Oh, and they asked me to pass on an invitation to you as well Blues but understand if you have other commitments and can't reach them."
Bryan shrugged as he finished the last of his clip and frowned upon noting that he was off target on his last three rounds. He needed more practice using the cameras to shoot then but went about reloading his firearm anyways.
The yellow scarf wearing bot tilted his head to the side in thought, he had received an invitation from them over the network but it was nice to receive one in person as well. As for actually going to join Bryan's group of Robot Masters?
He had nothing against them and did enjoy traveling with them the few times he bumped into the eight of them. Though considering some of the things said group got caught up in he might be better off joining his younger siblings at the Light residence.
He remembered Tibet, he could completely understand their reasons for that incident but he got the feeling Australia might become another one if he went there. Blinking he turned at the same time the other two did to look in the direction of a lost hiker even as he made a note to lock down teleportation between the two bases.
The bots would be drinking and he did not want to deal with the drunken fools making any incidents if he could help it.
8.4 - Bryan's Robot Masters Pt2,
Rock growled as he walked up to the obviously sheepish cyborg and dropped both the weapon and what remains of the dragon-like robot at their feet. He was completely covered in black-white dripping goo, some of which was starting to harden into crystals, and was just done with this.
"What in blazes did you do to those weapons?"
Bryan blinked slowly and shrugged even as he stared at the white parts of the goo because that wasn't something he had expected to happen. Making a note to get samples just in case he ignored it to focus on his creation instead and quickly got to work.
The blue bot just simmered in rage for a moment before taking a deep breath and calming down. It wasn't worth getting mad at his friend for the time being, he could get revenge later either in video games or just pranks.
"Right, sort that out and… there. It can still shoot goo and restrain others, or stop things from moving.
"As a bonus you can also either create a crystal barrier for defense or a platform for better movement."
Finishing his work the cyborg handed the data-chip over which Rock gladly copied the weapon data from. He could see a few other uses for it but didn't bother voicing anything as Tarkin came running over yipping.
The companion bot let out a series of barks that sounded like utter nonsense but the Blue Bomber knew it was just for theatrics. Unusual build aside that fox was just as capable of talking like anyone else, he heard them once, but for some reason refused to.
In truth the giant fox was just communicating via a private link with his creator that nobody, not even Bryan himself, could figure out the reason for.
"What is it?"
Mega Man spoke as the cyborg tilted their head before turning away from the fox who took off once more. Bryan was now frowning in thought about something before shaking his head and speaking up.
"He found another bot at the local botanical guardians but they took off before he could approach and disappeared into the sewers. They are rather skittish for some reason and he lost them at some point before stumbling upon another one.
"Tarkin feels that it might have been planned but that's beside the point, they're at the local water treatment plant. Normal weapon is a liquid base with acidic qualities of various strengths but now seems to carry an electrical charge.
"Oh and keep an eye out for stealth base attacks, this seems to be their preferred tactic but… Never mind, just keep an eye out for anything unusual please."
Rock raised an eyebrow at this before shrugging, the cyborg probably received some puzzling news and was trying to piece it together. He'd find out soon enough probably and was soon teleporting away to the location as requested.
Not before he saw some bots however picking up the remains of the bot he just destroyed and carting them away, again. Just like what had happened during the war really which was rather convenient for multiple reasons.
Least of which was that he wasn't needed to help clean up the mess like all the other wars Wily had created. If there ever was a plus side to this whole situation it was that cleanup times would be practically non-existent.
8.5 - Kalinka's Cosplay Aftermath
Kalinka would like it to be known that she had few human friends due to her fathers work. Not that she blamed him for it but having such a famous relative did tend to put a damper on such relationships.
She had to keep an eye out for those who only wanted to be friends because of her father Mikhail, gold diggers, corporate espionage, terrorists, or who knows what else. It didn't help that she had inherited his intelligence even if she applied it to other fields instead of robotics.
Thus to no surprise to those few friends she did have, the Russian girl was rather overenthusiastic with them.
It wasn't her fault exactly but prolonged contact with Robot Masters resulted in humans picking up unique personality quirks. Unfortunately as Mikhail's only child and his preferred workplace she had been exposed to these creations for quite some time.
Whether it be because of radiation, chemical exposure, lack of human contact, some sort of combination of the three, or something else entirely Kalinka has picked up some quirks. Thankfully however she was very much aware of them and like the only other teen her age could keep a clamp on them, for the most part.
Bryan was the main character most people thought of when potential consequences came up of prolonged contact. Then again he was more often than not in the news whenever Wily got up to something trying to keep the German from going overboard.
Everyone knew he was overworked dealing with the mad scientist and had thrown in the proverbial towel at this point. The fact he still tried was appreciated even if nobody would blame the boy if he snapped one day from stress.
That said, Kalinka Cossack was considered the most normal of the entire group beating even Wily's Apprentice out for the coveted prize. The blonde haired girl kept up the illusion to the best of her abilities but every now and then however she got the itch to do something most would consider crazy.
More often however she let loose around Bryan whenever the two of them met up knowing that he wouldn't mind. Or if he did the boy was too polite to say anything unless she was pushing a bit too much and making him uncomfortable.
Maybe it didn't help that her father had given her one tower of their castle home to do whatever she wanted with? Even she tended to balk at times whenever she realized that her cosplay hobby, could it even be called one at this point, had taken over the entire place.
The Roomba's Bryan had invented were worth the headache collecting them from the city without anyone noticing for keeping the place clean, plus she thought they were cute. Combined those with her recycling tech and she had very few things to worry about beyond potentially going over budget or running out of space.
Getting back on track however Kalinka did try to keep within her friends interests and comfort zones more often than not. Sure she might accidentally push a few of her own interest upon them at times but her friends were willing to indulge a little whenever it happened.
The lone cyborg of her little circle, not that anyone but she knew of his true nature, however tended to bear the brunt of this and only put up with it due to being used to such things. Sure it might have created a few questions amongst their friends but everyone knew what he had to deal with daily so they said nothing about it.
Also, no Sarah, no matter how many times you ask the two of them aren't dating despite how much time they spend together. Both of them just could relate better to each other and talk about topics that nobody in their group could understand.
Oh the perils of being surrounded by such intelligent people and getting caught up in their shenanigans as collateral.
They might also create such things as well but that Kalinka blames on overexposure to such things due to their daily lives. Plus she might be responsible for most of those between the two of them due to taking advantage of Bryan when he either has a head injury, overly caffeinated, or unbelievably exhausted.
Such as now when the cyborg was a combination of all three due to the recent Wily War and the base they were in collapsing. No clue what was going on about then but she had come to visit her friend after said incident and might have gotten a little bit too involved in talking about her new ideas for her hobby without realizing.
One thing led to another and she herself might have indulged in too much coffee as well before passing out alongside him. Not the first time this has happened and the blonde suspected that this wouldn't be the last time either.
Blinking her bleary eyes the dark green eyed girl tried to make out the blueprints that were on her face but gave up after the math started giving her a headache. All she could make out was that it involved making some sort of pod that used a variation of Time Man's Master Weapon to preserve whatever was inside it.
Why such a thing was here she had no clue but blew a bit of air to push it off and look around her room in confusion. For a moment Kalinka had to wonder how she got here when the last thing she remembered was willingly being in a Wily Fortress.
It helped that the man had been arrested again but she didn't bother to think anymore about that upon noticing how many blueprints were scattered around her room. Upon tasting the coffee on her breath the Russian girl had to wonder how many she made, either blueprints or pots of coffee would do.
Waking a bit more she realized she was wearing one of her cosplay outfits and it took her a bit to realize it was her Roll dot EXE outfit. Something she made after a memorable encounter with that other timeline and meeting the NetNavi during that event.
Well, minus the helmet that is since she can see it sitting on her desk, but the lightly armored outfit is still as uncomfortable as the last time she wore it. Then again she was the one who insisted on and got her friend Bryan to make a functional outfit that could protect against low level plasma shots.
It still took her a moment to realize she was essentially hugging another girl in her 'dark' Twin-Tail, Tail Red outfit. Another one that was technically modified to have a functional energy beam weapon and lightly armored via her friend.
The cyborg had made the armored cloth she made it from initially for himself but she had appropriated the designs one day, not that he minded. Technically she even nabbed the weapon from him and it was supposed to be a prototype version of Tarkin's Master Weapon that she had modified.
At least she assumed the person wearing the outfit was a girl but after what happened last night she wasn't so sure about that. While it wouldn't be a surprise if the two of them came up with something last night she didn't exactly have the energy to really care right now.
Again it wasn't the first time they had passed out after she had stuck him in a feminine costume/outfit. That said Kalinka was fairly certain it was another of her friends they had suckered into this as she could see Bryan wearing a Chat Noir, sans mask, outfit passed out in a chair at her makeup bureau.
Taking another glance around the room she also spotted two more people also unconscious in a Cheetara costume and an Iron Man armor that was half off revealing that the wearer was another girl. One more look at her companion and the Russian mentally shrugged before going back to sleep.
She'll worry what the five of them did whenever they properly wake up.
8.6 - Hospital Work,
Bryan's main field of work was in the medical industry, therefore there were days that he reluctantly left Wily to his own devices and went somewhere else. Today just so happened to be one of those days which was why he was waiting just outside the operating theater for the surgery to finish up.
The cyborg was reasonably confident that everything was going to be just fine and kept said appearance up for the benefit of the family waiting alongside him. The small part that was worried however was expertly buried under the experience of dealing with Wily's various antics.
"Are you sure everything is going to be fine?"
Taking a sip of his coffee the teen looked at the worried mother who was holding the arm of her husband rather tightly. Not that he was doing any better than she was with the thin sheet of sweat on his brow but at the very least the man was keeping it together.
Then again how could any parent be calm when their only child was undergoing potentially life changing surgery?
Leaning against the wall he lowered the styrofoam cup and shrugged at the two of them before speaking.
"It's fine ma'am, the doctors are professionals and there shouldn't be any concerns with this type of procedure."
The woman shook a bit in her worry causing her husband to hug her.
"But how can you be so sure?"
Breathing through his nose for a moment knowing that this was just one of the many ways someone would express their worries Bryan kept his professional look up. This wasn't his first time fielding such things and he doubted it would be the last time either.
That said he glanced at the nearby TV screen even if it had been muted and read the subtitles that scrolled across it as the newscaster spoke. Another sip of his coffee later he dropped the empty cup into the trash and spoke.
"Truth be told nobody can be completely sure with such new technology but this is the last of the beta testing phase. Out of the 199 others who came before there was only one incident due to misinformation on the patients part concealing something.
"They still came out alright on the other side but let me tell you, it came as a nasty shock to us."
Pausing for a moment the cyborg saw the couple pale for a moment and offered a soft reassuring smile. He didn't want to worry them but continuous contact with his mentor had made the teen rather blunt at times.
"As I said they came out alright and we took into account what happened and implemented stricter protocols. At this point your child is merely a formality since we're rather confident that everything is going to be alright."
The two calmed down slightly as he walked forwards a bit and opened his bag to retrieve a tablet from within. A few taps later and he brought up a brief video showcasing a bunch of people with various prosthetics being carefully taken through various rehab sessions.
As the couple watched the video in fascination Bryan continued with his little lecture.
"This here is a pre-compilation of those who have given us permission for the press release that's going to go out sometime next month. If you're willing I would like permission to add a little bit of your own child's journey but understand if you want to keep yourselves off the radar so to speak."
It took a bit for them both to tear their eyes off the showcase but the man managed to first and looked back at him.
"We will need a bit of time to think this through."
Nodding he backed off slightly and poked around to start reading a few readouts from back at the Wily Fortress he had left the German at. So far things looked to be going quite well, Albert was working on his newest military contract and the RM's were quietly checking up on him at random times.
At fifteen minutes of silence he glanced at the couple from the corner of his eye and noted that they were starting to get worked up again. A glance at the closed doors leading to suit later he mentally shrugged and decided to speak up.
"You know… you're rather lucky in a sense."
Two heads snapped to look at him in sync in which he seemingly ignored and continued to pretend to be more interested in his tablet. An odd habit but he needed to do something to hide his own unease as well as the seconds seemed to almost crawl past him.
"My original designs for this sort of thing would have required the doctors to not use any form of anesthetic. They were also quite heavy as well due to the materials used in their construction."
Letting out a hum he swiped his screen to pull up a live video of Wily to study and nodded as nothing seemed out of place. Good, he did not want to return to chaos if he could help it.
Sending a quick text to the German to remind him to take his medicine just in case he was rewarded with the older man flipping him the bird through the camera. This inflicted a soft sort and an amused shake of his head before he looked back up at the couple.
Both were confused and silently asking the cyborg why he was asking them this, increasing the teens' amusement even more. One teasing grin later he decided to continue his little history lesson as it seemed to be taking their minds off the matter at hand.
"The prosthetic is based off of Robot Master technology but most used metal alloys that are a bit more durable than the ones being utilized in this setting. As a consequence however the metal is heavier which isn't ideal for someone to use in their day to day lives.
"This new alloy blend makes the limb barely weigh a pound which makes moving around a breese, is highly comfortable so there shouldn't be much trouble if you forget to take it off during the night, and its battery life lasts for a month between charges. Just don't expect your kid to be able to do that well in sports as a consequence any time soon as the limb doesn't grow with them.
"Though if need be you should be able to manually adjust it with a simple screw gun but I recommend contacting your doctor first before going ahead just in case."
It wasn't exactly a good thing to say he could tell but Bryan got lucky as the light next to the door suddenly turned off at just the same time a doctor came through. Both parents were off instantly and led through to their child electing a chuckle from the teen as he followed behind them.
Standing back for a moment he watched as the couple saw their six year old suddenly straightened up with a big smile on their face. Then, before the doctors could stop them, they quickly took a few stumbling steps to their parents and grasped them in a hug.
Quite frankly for a child suffering from congenital amputation and never having legs it was definitely a sight to behold.
Standing back so as not to ruin the moment he glanced up at the various doctors who were looking on in fond exasperation. More than one had a slight glisten in their eyes of unshed tears but held back with expert ease that spoke of years of experience.
A few traded amused looks with him even as they set about with their cleanup procedures and powered down the odd machine in the middle of the room. The sleepless nights, uncountable hours of research, and who knows how many consultations and collaborations later were worth it.
Said machine not only mapped the nervous system in real time but also allowed one to temporarily disable the pain receptors of others without harm or any ill effects. It could do a lot more as well but was a monumental headache to build even for him.
That however did not diminish the pride he felt watching the mother and father cry tears of joy at the fact their kid just walked to them for the first time in their entire life.
Still though, despite how much he's done here Bryan knew he still had a lot more work to do and he needed the data the doctors had if he wanted to improve upon this. The following month was going to be a headache but much like everyone else in his little circle he was determined to make the world a better place.
Is the smirk he wore on his face in the lab a Bass teased him was just a bit softer and more genuine then? Does it truly matter that Wily gave him a good pat on the back and told him he's proud of his hard work?
Maybe not but he doesn't say anything either way as he once again cleans up yet another mess created by the German with just a little more pep than normal. Now if only he could stop the rest of the Wily bots from creating as many headaches for him as he tries to help build this new bot Wily wanted.
What in blazes is in those blueprints Thomas wanted sent over slash stolen from him that's got the man so excited anyways?
gfj4e: Is this thing working now?
gj44r: Looks like it... mostly.
uurmn: Names are still messed up.
av098: I'm aware...
8anlk: M- Oh well, at least someth-
Minor fix to actually say what outfit Kalinka is wearing.