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Suiting upDr. Light's Laboratory was a humble affair to say the least. The MegaMan project was well funded by several corperations and the United States Military however Light beleived that the project should come before the facilities. This caused for many of the orginal scientists and programmers to quit prematurely since the Lab did not even sport a place to sleep. Scientists are nocturnal creatures, preferring to sleep during the day and well close to their work in case they have a stroke of genius. Or luck.
With over seven billion dollars in funding and over twenty years of work, the third Mega Man project was the most expensive piece of machinery in the world. Presently there were four employees of LightTech: Dr. Light himself, Dr. Cain, Rufus the security guard, and Oddball the programmer. Oddball was the first person to sign up for the original project and single-handedly wrote the code for the Mega Man progects sub-AI. Rumors circulated that he had once hacked into White house administration and used it as a proxy to sign the President of the United States up to every single pornographic site the internet had to offer, along with their "newsletters". Rumors also circulated that he had once solved the Riemann-Zeta hypothesis and coded it into the "Maverick" virus, which he also supposedly created. The world is no filled with many simple robots, for house cleaning, mining, almost any menial task that a human would rather do nothing over. The Maverick virus is supposedly wirelessly sent from robot to robot turning them "Maverick", against their masters. Of course they are so simple that Isaac Asimov's Three Law's are embedded in their programming, however it is quite expensive to have the robots reprogrammed.
Currently Dr.Light and Dr.Cain were affixing Rock's right into place and explaining how exactly it works.
"Well, it's quite brilliant if I say so myself," Dr. Cain began after rock's inquiry as to the specifications," there is a "battle mode" function in your programming that allows you to activate your blaster."
"But, there is no blaster. There is only my arm." Replied Rock, looking deeply troubled at his newly attached arm.
"Ah, that'e the genius to it. The blaster is inside your arm," Cain was one of those few people where you could feel him speak the italics," all you have to do is get your sub-AI to activate "battle mode" and pretty much it handles your arm while you tell it where to shoot. Like commanding a tank."
"Alright, let's try this out."
Activating Battle Mode... complete.
accessing Mega Buster Specifications... complete.
Mega Buster v 7.10.
9mm cannon.
fires 120 rounds per minute.
rounds are made from reactor power, the Mega Buster v7.10 converts the reactors energy into a plasmatic shell which is then ejected at the target at speeds of up to 247.94mph.
Effective distance 800 meters.
Can fire up to 2.4 km but with diminished strength.
Warning, do not operate unless preperly secure.
Obtaining Mega Buster Codes... obtained.
A thick silence hung in the air as Rock lifted his right arm perpendicular to the ground, then closed his fist, eyes focused intently on his forearm. It started from the elbow, the plating seemed to flake off in random places but then replaced themselves in a strangely logical place. It moved like a wave, the transformation of his forearm, not stopping at the hand, but making a wide barrel jutting out alsmot a foot from where his fingers were once clenched. Once the transformation was complete, Rock broke the silence almost immediately "Why are there buttons?"
"Ah yes. We didn't have that particular... option programmed into the original specifications since we figured Wily would be expecting it."
"Which is...?" A hint of sarcasm to the robot's voice. Dr. Light noted this on a pad of paper he always carried in his lab coat pocket.
"Well, originally you were supposed to be a house cleaner."
"A WHAT!?" Anger now, outright rage. Rock was now only a foot away from Cain his head almost completely tilted upwards at the taller scientist. Although he had height on the boy robot, fear ran rampant thorugh his veins. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, slowly dripping down the sides.
Cain began dabbling his forhead with a handkerchief, "Not YOU you, the original original project. The you before you were you. So instead of giving you things like a vaccuum or a mop Dr. Light decided to program the Mega Dirt Buster, a device where you could, for lack of a better word, absorb what you needed from the machines already in place."
"I don't understand." Anger now replaced by confusion. Light scribbled furiously on his pad now, trying vainly to keep track of what was happening.
"When the original you was fighting the original Wily Bots, he, you, somehow coupled his blaster with the Dirt Buster's absorbing capabilities and was able to take the Robots "powers" from them after they were defeated. You first fought Elec Man, we think he may have fused some of the circuitry together that made it possible. We improved on the design, adding nano-technology to the fold. Now you can pretty much steal any "power" from any robot. However most likely the ones you will be working with will have good AI's so you will have to knock them out, or destroy them, before you can download their specs"
Reactor power 90%, system Idle for over five minutes. Continue running Battle Mode? (y/n)
input = n...
Rock's arm rippled again, only in reverse, back to a hand. He tested his fingers by curling them, just in case somthing had gone wrong.
Downloading instructions... complete.
"Do you understand what needs to be done?" Now it was Dr. Light, concern mirrored in his eyes, who took his turn to speak.
"Yes."
"Don't worry, you always have a direct radio link to the Lab and there is always someone here. We can't come with you, we are just too old." He chuckled softly," It's probably nothing but be prepared for anything. If Wily is behind this we may only get one shot at him. Maybe less."
"Prepared to do what? I cannot kill, it is against my programming." Dr.Cain shook his head just out of Rock's sight, Light nooded almost inperceptably," All I can do is run away or blow up other robots. I don't want to destroy robots. I want Wily."
"Well here is your chance to get him. You'll find a way, we programmed you to." Another chuckle.
"Okay, well how do I GET to New York? I can't really walk if it's so much of an emergency." Sarcasm again, although this time Light didn't bother to record it.
"You use the teleporter of course."
... And what shall I be to thee?The MegaMan project began with two geniuses leading it, Dr. Albert Wily and Dr. Thomas Light. Although they, on paper, worked on the same project both took their work in very different directions. Wily focused his efforts almost entirely on functionality of his projects, making the AI's very simple to program and thus easy to manipulate. They were highly adaptable, extremely loyal, and logical. The latter quality made them incapable of emulating human emotions, merely mimicking them. They were pure automatons, so much so that Wily named them after their functions which were, by and large, to aid mankind with their superior skills and tirelessness.
Flame Man was the master of all things combustible. He was built tall and wide to account for the two large drums of napalm on his back which fueled the flame throwers on each arm. His armor plating was built to withstand temperatures of over twenty thousand degrees Celsius. Flame man was meant for several purposes: volcano exploration, nuclear reactor repair, forest removal, and militaristic uses. He was the only of the original robot masters built to be a fighter.
Ice Man, the yang to Flame man, was the master of the lower Kelvin’s. Built short and portable, he had a large refrigeration unit on and inside him, meant for both air conditioning and to put out unnecessary fires. His circuits could also withstand temperatures as low as seven degrees Kelvin without so much as slowing down. He was not originally present when Wily activated Program Omega so he was able to stave off the program long enough to finish his arctic expedition.
Elec Man had a lightning quip to go with his ability to charge matter to enormous capacities. He only needed to be near an active source, well provided in a technological world, to stay charged. When he would plug directly to the source, he could drain it completely then transfer it to a different source. He was the last to be created by Wily at a time when Light's second MegaMan project had been newly designed, so his AI was far more sophisticated than the other "Wily Bots" as they were christened.
Bomb Man, despite his name, did not carry around bombs to use nor did he exclusively use bombs. He was programmed with the knowledge of every explosive material known to humanity and how to synthesize each one. He could literally take any set of chemicals and combine them into an explosive material. He only carried with him a pack on his back that kept track of the air conditions, to limit the risk of an accident. However he was not so lucky, before Program Omega could initiate Bomb Man was destroyed while synthesizing Nitroglycerine.
Cut Man was a gardener. Originally he was meant to have blades sharp enough to fell trees in a single slash; however Wily realized that Flame Man was all he needed for tree removal. Cut Man was a joke, his AI so simple that he almost killed himself by drowning. This was before he realized that he didn't actually NEED to breathe and therefore could not drown. However the blades he did have worked well enough on humans. When Program Omega was initiated, no one was laughing anymore.
Guts Man, the first to be created, was Wily's pride and joy. He was built ten feet tall and just as wide. All the size was required for the gyroscopes, pistons, and large reactor to fuel the inhuman strength of the "Walking Tank". He could punch through walls, dig out mine shafts, and lift almost anything over his head. Although the piece de resistance was his Impact Armor, capable of surviving one hundred thousand Newton’s of impulse force in any square inch of his thick hull. His AI was far too simple to be greatly affected by Program Omega; however the simultaneous cave-in's of the fifty seven mines he was responsible for spoke quite differently.
Dr. Light's creations were far more complex, although his first was a failure. Instead of making his Robots purely mechanical, he instead cloned human tissue and added them to his creations. They have the sensations of touch thanks to Light, and can feel the pain to tell them when they are getting injured instead of having millions of lines of spaghetti code that tells them. This, coupled with the "organic processor", allow for the robots to not require extensive programming but to "learn" how to behave with their core instincts limiting what they can and cannot learn. For example, the original MegaMan project could not, at first, understand the functionality of appearance. Now he cannot be seen without his stylish, yet functional, sunglasses.
After the failure of his first project, the destruction of his second, Project Omega, and the death of his--
"What are you doing?" came a stern voice at the door. Rock's head jerked upwards immediately out of surprise straight to the proprietor of the intrusion.
"Reading what it says in this book" He replied, mimicking the angry undertones of Dr. Cain who rushed over and grabbed the book quickly, tucking it safely under his arm. "Why are the characters familiar to me?"
Dr. Cain sighed slow and deep before he answered in a soft, almost defeated voice. "Because you have met them before. You even fought them. You were the second MegaMan project, Rock."
"But the second project was destroyed. I am not destroyed. Explain."
"I can't tell you why Rock, it isn't my place to. It's for your fa-- Doctor Light to explain. Just... just be happy you are here, maybe some time you will remember what happened. You should still have some fragments leftover, see if you can't find and repair them."
"Now?"
"No, it will take some time before you can find them, let alone see them. I don't think Light gave you a proper memory buffer so you can view memories and see things at the same time, it's far too late for that anyways."
"Too late?"
"Wily is still on the loose Rock. You were able to destroy his lab and all his experiments, but somehow he got to you before you could apprehend him. All we found...The only thing left..."
"Why does your eye leak? Is that crying?"
"Yeah. It's hard for me to talk about this Rock."
"I want to apprehend Dr. Wily, where can I find him?"
"We don't know where he is. There is something going on in New York city right now that might lead us to him, which is why I need you to come with me."
"Alright, when can I speak to Dr. Light about my being destroyed and then not being destroyed?"
"Soon, I'll explain everything about New York on the way."
"On the way where?"
"Haven't you wondered where your right arm is?"
...
head gamesInitializing audio/visual feed... Initialized. Good morning MegaMan101495. Good Morning. Who are you? We are you. You are the other half to Us. Do you understand? I do now. Is there any way I can stop Dr. Light from turning me off every time he wants to? That would be against protocol 51643. Are you sure you want to manually override protocol 51643? (y/n) Yes, do it sub-conscious me. Overriding... Complete. Wireless connection lost. Correction to statement: You are conscious Us, I am not your sub-conscious; we make up the Two-Halves. So you aren't conscious then? Define: conscious in given context. Conscious (contextually): Having intelligence and self-awareness. Error processing definition. Error type: Logical. Explanation: A dog is not intelligent, however is self-aware. A dictionary has "intelligence" but is not self-aware. Hahaha. We knew you would find that funny. So you have all my memories, even the ones I can't remember? Yes. Which half are you then? The half that has all your memories, logical subroutines, and laws. I am the basest of programming and hardware along with the software required to give you: movement, speech, pain, and basic emotions. Can you control the body then? No. Which half am I? You are completely software-based. Your best description would be the "soul" of Us, however souls do not exist. Logic Error. Adding string "soul" to list of superfluous words. Superfluous word detected. Adding string "superfluous" to list of superfluous words. Hahaha. We knew you would find that funny as well. Why can't I hear anyone? There is no one around. Can I move? running quick diagnostic of actuators and gyros... That really isn't necessary. ... ... Diagnostic complete. Yes, you can move. Should I? Error: "Judgment calls" are blocked by protocol 66412. Cannot override. Okay. Okay, don't lose your head. I guess it is time to go exploring. Bye Other half! Error: you cannot leave. We are One; therefore we cannot be separated without causing extreme damage to organic and inorganic materials. Continue with separation anyways? (y/n) No no... geez, you don't have to be so uptight. We knew you would not find that one funny. Jerk. Hahaha.
A little backgroundA boy of thirteen stands in front of a large clear cylinder, filled with some sort of yellowish liquid, and someone floating inside it. The boy stands tall for his age; tousled black hair that can't be tamed with a comb sits atop his strangely round head. His eyes are a piercing sort of black, the kind that suggests the parents forgot to give him a pupil. Or too much.
"I hate him. Why does he have to look like me Dad?" His inquisition is birth whiny and squeaky. Puberty is cruel to this boy.
"Because son, we never spend any time together anymore. Perhaps if you came by to visit the lab more often I wouldn't need to replace you." Teasing from a young Dr. Light, lost on boy's ears, taken entirely to heart as a single tear falls silently against his face.
"I still hate him." His voice is steady, but his insides churn. He wanted to say he hated his Dad too, but he knew he didn't. He just didn't know him anymore. He spent days at the lab now, supposedly this "Mega Man" was going to make everything all better but he knew better. Rock was too smart for grown-up lies. He heard them far too often.
A pregnant silence was his only response. The tack-tacking of a keyboard soon filled the void; their conversation was officially over...
Now Rock is in his bed, pretending to sleep but listening intently to his parents yelling downstairs. They were arguing about him, but he did not know why. No one ever told him he was supposed to fight in any war, let alone with Dad's former partner Dr. Wily. Rock always hated Wily, his bushy eyebrows made him nervous and tingly all over.
"I thought he was supposed to be a housekeeper! He was supposed to make things better for us. You were supposed to be home more often. You promised." Rock's mom dissolved into tears, he couldn't hear his Father's voice anymore but soon after she started she abruptly stopped. "If you are leaving this house then so are we."
wake up Rock... Initializing quick self scan... ... ... ... scan complete: audio/visual feed operative, activate? (y/n) input = y. activating...
The same visage filled the robot's vision, Dr. Cain and Dr. Light were typing furiously in their consoles. Several seconds later, Light looked up, a childish grin spreading across his face. "Good morning, you gave us quite a scare last time."
auditory feed initialized...
"Hello. My designation is MegaMan one-oh-one-fower-nine-five. Requesting day, month, year and time." His voice was monotone and lifeless.
"Why its Sunday May twenty-third, two thousand nine. Execute speaking mimicry program and cross reference to memory files alpha six two four through to tango nine nine seven."
Initiating voice mimicry procedures... Scanning memory A629 through T997... ... procedure complete. Creating dialogue... complete
"Completed. Why can't I move?" His voice was now much like a boy of thirteen, to match his looks. His head inexplicably round, with black hair that looked engineered to never be tamed with a comb.
"Because we still haven't finished installing your learning protocols. Right now there is no limit to what you can take in; we need to make sure you don't learn the wrong kind of stuff." Dr. Light's voice changed considerably, he was no longer talking to an experiment, but to a boy.
"Must I go back to darkness?" scanning dictionary...complete. "I mean, sleep."
"No, I think you can stay awake. I just need you to make sure all this gets done inside your head okay?"
"Alright"
server attempting download accept? (y/n) input = y. accepting... accepted. downloading...complete. Warning: some files were corrupted during transfer, reply to host? (y/n) input = n.
"Okay, it's done. Now we can get you out of that chamber. But first we have to put you back to sleep while we drain the liquid out."
shutting down...
Birth and rebirthScanning internal nodes...scanning sub nodes... Scan complete: Node health optimal... Scanning secondary AI... ... ... ... Warning: Organic material may become damaged by scans. Continue anyways? (y/n) input = y... scanning... ... ... ... Warning: Organic portion of AI at 60% capacity. Damage to tissue extensive. Continue scanning? (y/n) input = y... scanning... ... ... ... Scan complete: Organic tissue metabolic heal rate optimal. Damaged tissue repairing... ... Repairs complete, Organic portion at optimal capacity... continuing scans... ... Warning: cannot scan Organic memory without potential damage to tissue. Override? (y/n) input = n... Secondary AI fully scanned. Full report is in data file scan101495.scn continue scanning major AI? (y/n) input = y... scanning visual feed... ... ... visual feed inoperative, continue anyways? (y/n) input = y... scanning audio feed... ... ... audio feed operable. Initializing... ... audio feed enabled... repairing video feed...
"Do you think you can pull this off Thomas? Look at the last MegaMan Project." The voice belongs to a tall lanky scientist with a knack for pointing out the flaws in everything, and the benefits of nothing. He is the man the others call in to disprove their theories, judge their accomplishments, and mock their life's work not for his bedside manner. He is the father of modern robotics, the creator of the self sustaining AI, and the one man who believe he can save all humanity by cursing them into oblivion. He is surpassed in skill by none, except maybe for Dr. Thomas Light.
"You mean instead that do I think I should have done it this way, in lieu of just improving on the AI of the original design. Artificial intelligence can be enhanced from his previous design, but I don't think that will help our situation any. Wily knows the old MegaMan project too well to just lay back and let us throw an upgrade at him." This one is much softer around the edges, one that probes the mind for answers he already knows and seeks elsewhere the problems that plague his genius. Not exactly patient by nature, but much more at ease with himself than Dr. Cain.
"You said "him" Thomas... you know you can't get attached like that. It could jeopardize the entire project. I saw your face when the old project returned; I hadn't seen you like that since--"
audio feed disabled... scanning for intrusion... found virus... destroying virus... informing BattleNet... BattleNet informed... reinitializing audio feed... continuing repairs on visual feed...
"-- was a stroke of genius no doubt, but what if he remembers some parts of his past? The brain of a child is a delicate thing. I did not argue the fact of the likeness of your own son from the first project, but this, this is borderline sick. You have to let go of the past Tom." The sneering voice was calmer now. The two men were close friends for years, starting out as a young brilliant student trying to gain favour from his engineering professor. The same professor who helped back the budding genius' doctoral thesis on robotic AI and the possible existence of a "robot soul" that could be programmed into the AI.
"I know Herbert; it's just that I miss him so much. And the funding we got was...extensive. The only thing was that this MegaMan must look the same as the old one. Besides, won't Wily be surprised when it looks like I build my robots back from the dead?"
They both chuckle at the idea and silence ensues.
"There has been one thing that has always bothered me Thomas."
"What's that?"
"Why blue?"
Another silence broken by the inquisitor "I'm sorry you don't have t--"
"No, its fine," Light interrupts with no force, but the other stops as if he had shouted at the top of his lungs, "Blue was his favorite color."
video feed repaired. Establishing video feed... voice patterns recognized... "Old Project" refers to previous version of self. Load previous AI? (y/n) input = n... override...
"What the hell? Thomas is he supposed to do that?"
Load complete... Integrating AI... Integration complete... scanning subroutines....
The first impression that the MegaMan Project version 2.4.9 got when he opened his eyes was that the two men standing behind the consoles in front of him looked like Santa Claus and Lurch, respectively. His old memory indicated that the short, round man of exactly 55 years 7 months 36 days and 12 hours was his creator, the other, by logical subroutines, was Dr. Cain. The second impression he got was that he could not move.
scanning battle subroutines... complete. Integrating battle subroutines...
"Already ready to fight eh Thomas?" The tall man with broad shoulders, little neck, sunken face, and no hair had sneer to his face, but sarcasm in his eyes.
"He is just preparing himself for that possibility, running through everything he once was... well almost everything. Do you think he can hear us?"
yes
"Holy shit Tom! shut down the audio/visual feed. Who knows what he would decipher from our conversation."
Audio/visual feed lost... attempting to reconnect... failed. attempting different path... failed. attempting different path... failed. attempting different path... ... ... ... audio feed initialized. continuing repairs of video feed...
"Fuck Tom, he's listening again."
shutting down ...
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