| Otis's profileTwo thousand years of pr...PhotosBlogLists |  Tools  Help |
Shackles unbound, life quarantinedSometimes a beetle unwittingly kills an ant, giving just enough power to a rival colony to gain unparalleled control over the hill. Sometimes a tree gives just enough sap to cover a mosquito from billions of years back, sometimes a higher form of life gets it, and eats the tasty amber. But what if the beetle had instead spared the ant and there was days of strife before either colony destroys themselves? What happens if the tree was instead burned prematurely and the mosquito was squished?
What happens when someone decides that what should be, no longer should and changes things? What happens when that someone is the universe?
Sometimes things just end up being far too cool.
Somewhere in a far away continent a butterfly is about to flap it's wings. It will flap at just such an angle as to strengthen a small breeze. This breeze travels so perfectly as to strengthen an even stronger wind, continuing just beautifully so that there is a wind just strong enough to hold off a storm for a full day.
Somewhere a cat just got a quantum meal. And the dominoes fall, breezes lose focus, and nothing stacks perfectly. Chaos wins again. A storm rolls in with sound and fury. Today there will be lightning and thunder of all colours and sounds. The earth will seem to shake itself apart with trepidation, the very fabric of reality rended by such anger from the Gods.
Of course, to those on the ground this was nothing more than rain.
Central Park was still packed tight with people fleeing the city, though not in the same record numbers. The jam of people was from those trying to flee getting caught up with those who realized how silly a city-wide evacuation would truly be, those who had second guesses as to the actual emergency, and those who were being forced back by the army. The army that still remembered the first Wily War, one that was fought, and won, by a ten year old boy. The army that stood helplessly by as six robots that were supposed to strengthen the country's infrastucture instead brought its citizens to their knees. A war with too much blood and the man responsible still having enough mechanical support that he could not be defeated, save by other androtomical monsters.
They now surrounded their own city, quarantined all from escaping in hopes of keeping the androids, the most dangerous of them all, in check. The androids were the ones who controlled the smaller ones, the generals of the grand mechanical wehrmacht. Intelligence stated that the blue boy was in the nuclear plant where four other robots were situated. The plant itself was also surrounded: tanks, plasma rifles, and EMP's all targeted the building just itching for anyone to come out and test their new toys.
Within the stark lines of the military, a cloaked figure moves swiftly and silently. Eyes darted away from him, knowing that even their training couldn't stop this man from gettign what he wants. Not even the most foolish would attempt to stop his movements, mostly because he only walked behind the lines but well between the civilians and the military. There was a small trench between them, approximately rifle length. Only this shadowed man walked up and down the lines, like a cat stalking its prey. Every movement was descisive, every look with purpose. If you were to look hard enough, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the sunglasses in the darkness.
It is 4:00, and the world stops.
Or at least it slows down long enough to notice that the figure is not moving anymore, but staring intently to the power plant. The butterfly's work is done; a slight breeze kicks the ends of his cowl. Even in the darkness, his smile can be felt, almost cruel in the way it does not reach his eyes. I have you now, brother. And a brother...After the first Wily Wars, when Mega Man had beaten all of the robot masters, destroyed all of Wily's machines of mass destruction and finally confronted Wily himself only three days had passed. One to destroy the masters, one to find Wily, and one to fight his way to him. Only two people knew what had happened down in the innermost sanctums of Wily's lair, only they knew why Mega Man returned to the surface world without arresting him. Or at least, so they thought.
Dr. Light was both wide awake and quite worried when suddenly Rock severed his connection to the hive computer. The computer itself was a simple AI used to route all conversation between Light bots; it was affectionately known as the Hive Mind, or the Hive for short. All Light Bots were supposed to be hard wired into the system, making it possible to track to any location on the surface of the earth. Light argued for the system many times since it made rescue operations so much simpler, and to make sure that everyone maintained proper coding. Errors in the code could be fixed and transferred even without the robot's knowledge upgrades flowed seamlessly.
Their systems, no matter how complex or simple, they were supposed to be tied into the hive with equal weight and equal control. The original Mega Man was partially controlled from the Hive, this one was supposed to be completely self sufficient but still monitorable. Certainly not able to sever its connection. His connection, Light thought.
But how?
Far away another robot activated himself, a backup supposed to be used in the most dire of circumstances. His creators specifically made his AI strong enough that it would be completely unbounded, making him the fastest learner with the only limit being physical memory space. He slept because no matter how powerful a mind he had; his power system was sub-par along with his weapons system. Although with such a fortuitous mind he was as deadly as any weapon in existence.
-incoming transmission- -who from? -Wily. Accept transmission? (y/n)?- -y -accepted. posting script...
Proto there has been a breach of contract, Light has created another Mega Man. He will be disabled when you reach him to destroy him. I need complete retribution. My price is:
10 grams of Nanobots 2 hours of recharge time
I might also try and see what I can do for your energy system, perhaps we can get it so that you won't have to sleep so much.
These are my terms, do you accept?
-The offer is good. Tracings show legitimacy. Should I send the message to accept?- -yes -sending... message received. No text, only an attached file. It is where the new Mega Man will be. And a timer for when he will be fully functional again. We have 20 minutes. It will take 15 to get there. Probability of error = 21%, low risk, high probability of mission success.- -wake me up -waking-
What happened?Rock left the antechamber that held the various coolant tanks meant to both sustain the fusion reaction and convert the heat energy into usable energy. The technology was so well formulated that there was less than 10% wasted energy, which was significantly more efficient than any fission power plant. There was a total of eight tanks in-taking water from the ocean. There was no need for desalinization since the sodium crystallized in the many catches for it, and was sold to salt companies to melt the snow off of roads.
Then the other robot was in front of him, two boomerangs, one in each hand, pointed straight at him. Time slowed. Methodically they curved inwards. Their metal edges glistened, sharp and deadly. Rock dropped another metal disc into his hand. He had only one shot, and he had to somehow be faster than this "Quick Man".
The curved metal blades arced perilously as the metal disc danced inwards, through the double helix formed by the criss-crossing blades. It spun against the grain of the boomerangs and struck the chest of Quick Man perpendicular to the ground and dug deeply. Meanwhile the two arcing smaller blades buried deeply into Rock; one entrenching itself deep in the right shoulder, the other into the left hip. Various warnings went up on Rocks HUD. Red lights flared and repair programs initiated. Nanobots coursed through his robotic veins.
Time resumes.
Quick Man fell to the ground, the metal blade barely poking out of the back of his spine. Actuators refused to respond; he lay helpless as Rock rose, pulling the two boomerangs from his body. Already his wounds were closing as he walked to the fallen robot and placed his hands overtop of his eyes.
"What are you doing? Stop that!" The fallen one demanded.
"I am doing what is necessary." Ice was the blue robots voice. Weren't the light bots supposed to be the good guys? Quick Man thought. And then he was dead.
... Sleep undisturbed...Still early in the morning, an aged man sleeps unperturbed his mind dancing with the possibilities of what could be done upon waking. He was one of the few who were still very situationally aware whilst unconscious, his mind working too fast and furiously to ever truly shut down, even for a moment. He did however have visions of what his mind was thinking about: complex calculus equations appeared and disappeared as he searched for the correct formula, various different thought experiments played themselves out in full detail, and his former love. She was so beautiful here, unlike what she was now. Hatred seized his entire mind, threatening to wake him, but he was mindful and the burning desire cooled slowly. Patience, he told himself, after tonight nothing could stand in his way.
A ringing phone brought him out of his sleep with a slight start, he grabbed it. The voice on the other line sounded desperate, "Sir, we need you to go to the digital phone. One of your robot masters needs to speak with you. It's urgent."
"Who?" replied the now roused man, both from sleep and curiosity; the emphasis in his voice did not slip past.
"It is Quick Man sir, there seems to be a slight problem."
"Slight? How slight is slight?" he now sat up, problems that required solving. His mind perked up and moved into gear. There was no problem that he could not solve, why he was even bringing someone back from the dead.
"Well sir, Bubble Man and Metal Man are both missing. We believe them to be destroyed based on the video feed. Some sort of strange blue child with a gun for a hand." The words "blue child" rang clear and true in the old man's ears, memories raging up threatening to boil over.
"How old would you say this boy was?" A strange question to all who did not understand the machinations of the old man's mind.
"Er. We guess around ten, sir. Um, Quick Man is becoming more insistent sir. It seems he is almost afraid sir."
"Damn," the old man got up and moved to a terminal across the room, "patch him through."
The terminal screen turned itself on; the feed was poor and full of static. At least one of them is still doing his job, he thought. "Doctor... we have a problem."
The screen was filled mostly by the face of Quick Man, a direct likeness of a practitioner of ninjitsu, save for the boomerang on his head. The slightly curved mouth was meant to look menacing, but now it was lined with worry, much like the rest of the robot's face. Quick Man had been one of the last to be built, his AI more beautiful than the others, but the doctor did not quite remember whether or not he put Code in for fear.
"What kind of problem?" he already tired of this question, but it had to be asked.
"Father, Metal is headless and cut into small pieces with his own blades. I can't find the blades either, I think they were stolen. Bubble is nothing more than a couple of chips strewn about in water. Something powerful came through here, and I think he might be able to destroy Flash. The EMP must be fired now Father if we have any chance of succeeding."
"Are you giving me an order?" Quick Man's head quickly hung itself, obviously this was not what he was expecting for a response to his distress call, "but you and I both know the other's must be in place. We haven't gotten word from Air or Heat; they are integral to the plan. We can't just fire the EMP like that, they are still in range. Half the world is, we must make sure the planes are grounded or else they will fall and many many people will die."
At this, the robot twitched, a glitch? What had become of his rule of minimal casualties?
"You must be patient Quick Man, barring that you must be strong enough to destroy this menace. I built you to be the most powerful of the six and I expect you to act it. You have already taken the plant, that it half of our plan already finished. You have already failed me once in a past life, do not presume to think that I will keep even a small fraction of your programming should you do so again. Useless things have a tendency to disappear."
"Yes, sir"
Quick Man began to turn, but a bright blue mass in the distance appeared for only a second and the screen turned completely to static. The old man quickly rewound the feed, just up until the appearance of the blue intruder. Zoomed in on it; it had the shape of a human boy, no more than 10. Frame by frame he searched, the blue figured tossing something much like a discus. Finally he found it, just as the thrown object, now recognized as one of Metal Man's circular blades: the intruder's face.
He recognized it instantly, his thoughts racing. He had seen this boy before, but he had destroyed both models before... even the human one. His old colleague could not have built another so quickly, it was impossible. Unless there was a decoy on one of the targets.
Over and over he watched the feed where the blue boy appeared, there was no mistaking him. This was Mega Man, but not the same one that he had encountered previously. His movements were too fluid, something that the old man still could not accomplish, even in his technological brainchild: Quick Man. Who looked to be so easily dispatched by this new version of Mega Man. There was no immediate explanation, he almost moved like a human...
No matter, there was still work to be done. But he now put everything off schedule. He would have to fire the EMP and send in a cleanup crew, but who? There was no one left, except... a smile crossed the old man's lips bereft of happiness and borne entirely of cruelty. He would send his brother; the first. After all Dr. Wily would not be beaten again, the odds were in his favour.
He sent the message out via his terminal; this new Mega Man would die by his old brother's hands. The irony was delicious enough to eat.
background... no real story hereThe fusion power plant was the brainchild of several United States think tanks that consisted mostly of non-Americans. The hydrogen fusion technology was somehting of an accident, it turned out that all that was required for fusion to be enabled was a heavy enough atom to be a catalyst. Earlier, scientists had found a way to stablize radon and the heavy atoms drew the hydrogen in fast enough to initiate fusion. The main problem was that the reaction itself, once sustained required that all energy needed to be used or else it would be reased as heat. Of course this was only for large scale reactors, which is why the few ones that existed were beside a source of water, just for cooling purposes. The smaller ones, like the one that powered Mega Man, didn't require the coolants as the nanobots required heat to remain functioning.
The nanobots were the only thing keeping the reaction under control. When Mega Man takes damage, they fix it. However that leaves less nanobots to keept he reaciton stable. Since they cannot replicate themselves, eventually the amount reaches a critical number and the reaction becomes unstable. All the Light bot's are equipped with the nanobot-fusion reactor, the most famous being Mega Man however since it is so expensive most of the Wily Bots just have an internal cooling system alongside the fusion core. disposition...It had taken about 10 minutes to finally take care of Metal Man. After their brief conversation metal man jumped away, up atop a catwalk and tossed a blade down to where Mega Man was. He had already took off in a sprint towards the wall, bounced off of it as another blade sang just beside his head burying itself deep into to the wall. He lept off the wall, onto the catwalk realizing at the last second that it was a conveyor belt. Running along it to stay in position, like a treadmill, Mega Man had no time to dodge the blade thrown straight at him. He did dodge enough to not be hit in the chest as Metal Man had aimed for, but it did pass straight through his right arm. The blaster fell straight down onto the conveyor belt heading down to one of the water tanks.
Rock jumped down into the tank, chasing after his lopped off arm, thankful that Metal Man only had 3 blades. The one responsible for disarming him fell into the tank as well. Again he was in an intake tank, idly wondering what was dropped into the tank that would require a conveyor belt. Almost as immediately as he grabbed his fallen arm up, he dismissed the curiosity. He tried to reattach the arm then and there, but the cut was too perfect for a synch job.
Outside he heard Meatal man hit the outside wall where he had thrown his second blade, and tossed his arm out of the tank disregarding it for now. He threw the metal blade into the side of this tank, piercing it allowing himself to be swept out again. This time Metal Man was waiting in strike, like a cat for his prey. Only luck and a miscalculation saved Rock from getting his arm severed again. Another stroke had him land beside the first blade thrown at him. He drew himself up, while taking the fallen blade with him.
Metal Man was disarmed, the two blades behind Rock and to his feet respectively. "So this is how it will end for me? Beaten by a boy."
Rock judged the distance, taking everything into account, even though Metal Man was moving, dashign for the door. One shot is all it took, through the crimson robot, burying itself into the stairs. Metal Man's CPU shut itself down almost immediately. Rock took another blade and split the head perfectly into pieces, never would he wake again. Not even in new life.
... A second chance...Three metal blades, all that was needed to do so much damage. So many lives lost in a crimson sea, so much silenced in mere hours. Rock looked down at his own hands, these had silenced the killers in far less time. One already known to be a resurrected brother from a time when he was two people.
No.
He was a person and a robot. Even now he was less than human and less than robot. Imperfect. Incomplete. Yet here he was, the only hope of destroying these killers. How could he bring himself? They were more complete than he was. He wasn't even finished.
Three metal blades, each with a barely recognizable insignia scratched into them. At first he thought they were oblong shapes "M" 's, but upside down made much more spatial sense. A "W". Wily. Why was he so bent on killing people? There seemed to be no logical reasoning behind it, he was a man of science, not some murderer. But it made sense, almost. He never killed anyone, he had his robots to do that.
Servants.
That's all we will ever be to them, Mega Man thought bitterly; knowing already the falseness behind it. But it was him who had to deal with the fact that he was destroying his brothers, the fact that he was killing. Even with puropse killing is just murder, cold and hard. No matter the ideals, the stygma, or the method, killing was ending something that once was. There is no retribution for Metal Man, nor Cut Man, nor even Bubble Man. So why then do I live again after dying two deaths?
Questions buzzed through his head, unanswerable even with his powerful logic. No truths for the mathematical, he mused. A slight smile crossed his fake lips, perhaps this is what it is like to be human. To have questions that can never be answered constantly taking up precious thinking power. To be led by people who aren't there, who cannot possibly see what you see. To lose even when you win.
Lies, that is all these robots are based on. How can they enjoy such slaughter? On innocents who cannot defend themselves agains the metallic Blitz. Such power at their command yet they choose to use it indescriminantly.
No.
There is no choice in their actions, they were programmed to be like this. There is no learning in their code, they were created to serve but one purpose. And yet, he understood. Absolute power in these metallic monstrosities, all Wily had to do was tell them to kill, and they would. And why wouldn't he? There is just as much reason to destroy humanity than to save it, but destroying it meant fear. Fear breeds chaos. And from the chaos comes the beautiful calm of an entire society that needs order. Who can offer such bliss but the one with absolute power, appease the puppet master and the deadly marianettes are appeased. A new world order built upon forced sacrifice.
And yet, peace at this price was not something he could accept. Nor could he ever.
Is this part of my base programming?
Yes. Are you going to change it?
...
...
...
...
...
No. It is time to stop thinking. From end to beginningMega Man grabbed his severed arm from the floor, vaguely recalling that it had even been lost. The battle was over far quicker than he could have imagined, but still it took several lifetimes. Two hours before, he would have never guessed that he would have to defeat his brother again, or that they both were resurrected. He knew he was another version, but to think that he was created because a previous version was blown up, it never crossed his mind. He just assumed that the other him was derelict and need to be replaced instead of upgraded.
The nanobots worked on reattaching his arm, perhaps he was obsolete already. He scanned the three metal blades left behind from Metal Man, more adamantium.
Searching for all scientists with adamantium capabilities...
Dr.Light (30 seconds old)... Dr.Cain(30 seconds old)... Dr. Wily(2 years old)...
scan complete...
2 years? What happened?
searching...
0 matches found
WHAT!? you mean of the entire internet there is no mention of Dr.Wily and myself?
correct.
search: proximity (self), search filters.
warning: only Dr.Light can change filter specifications
override.
unlawful command. sending message to Dr.Light's lab.
shut down wireless connection
connection closed.
now, we are going to make some changes
MegaMan stood, eyes closed for several minutes, oblivious to his surroundings but always keeping a passive scan. There were still two robotic signatures in the plant, one was by the fusion reactor, while the other was runing around, as if searching for something that neither could find. If one could watch the code and understand it, they would be horrified to find that it was changing itself, as if mutating against its original ideals, creating failsafes against the hardwiring of his creator. However to all, it would just be numbers. Perhaps thought of as the robot thinking, a reminder that the robot had artificial intelligence, born from equations, born of need and not a want of these equations. Cold hard numbers and facts need not. Of course, there were only a small team of people int he world who understood the fallicy of these thoughts, they understood the organic components. The real reason behind such a drain in energy.
Until about thirty seconds ago, when MegaMan finally got behind his programmers code. All the information about the first Wily War flooded into his brain.
Dr.Wily was an established genius who worked on robotics, building complicated machines however with simple programming. The Yan to his Yin was a relatively unknown Dr.Light, a newly understood genius who had given birth to artificial intelligence, but it was only a program. They had been introduced to each other 4 years ago, when they had worked together on creating a humanoid robot, which they had. Their first prototype unfortunately was created with too many flaws int he programming, becoming far too dependant on his surroundings to be functional in a human world. Nothing else was mentioned about him, but there are rumors and sightings of him along with an "official" statement that he had been scrapped for the "Robot Master" program.
Robot Master was a government sponsored program to create a veritable army of simple robots guarded and guided by aritficially intelligent ones. There was originally supposed to be one Master, who presided over the rest, a female robot named Roll. Unfortunately there were was a large difficulty with males programming females, she turned out to be most suited for house cleaning rather than usefulness.
Cut Man was created first, subatomic processors had just been introduced to the world, and Wily/Light incorperated immediately scooped up the new technology for their projects. The newest Cadmium/Promethium processors had a peak of 7.45 THz, over 2000 times faster than the fastest processor out there. Processable memory and storage space soon followed, and the Robot Master program blossomed. The advent of Adamantium, an element created to be invincible, basically was nothing more than hydrogen collapsed so far into itself that their magnetic feild was only strong enough to hold itself together. It was extremely dense, so could only be made into atom thin planes. The scissors on top of Cut man's head, fashioned to look like "Pac Man with his mouth pointing up" were Wily's idea. Supposedly created to be a forest cutter, and quasi-gardener, Cut Man's programming was the most simplistic of all of them. This was 2 years ago.
Fire Man and Ice Man followed after, six months was all it took to make the two twin robots, their abilities obviously meant to counteract the other. Both were meant to be dangerous climate explorers. Fire Man's flame burning atop his head, and supply of oil was a defense mechanism thought by Wily along with Ice Man's ability to fire ice from his mouth.
Guts man, a robot built primarily for debris removal from Bomb Man, had almost comically simple programming. As if he was meant to be stereotyped as a big dumb ape. Bomb Man was given the abililty to make explosives from everything, for mining operations of course.
Elec Man, made last, could control his namesake. Electricity did his bidding though an almost viral method of programming pioneered by Wily.
Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Light was having marital troubles. His wife and son barely saw him, putting strain on their family and stress on his son to compete with the robots. He was 9 when Light created Rock Man, a seventh Robot Master made to look identical to his son. He is quoted to have asked his son what he wanted his twin to be able to do, to which the boy responded "everything". Thus the Mega Buster idea was incepted.
When his son had turned 10, and Dr. Light was at home celebrating the birthday with his family, Dr.Wily activated the sub programming in all of the robot masters he helped to created. Rock and Roll were not affected because Wily beleived them inferior, since he himself had not helped program them. The robots wreaked havoc in the nearest major city: New York. In total, 300,000 people died.
Originally Rock Man was suposed to be made in two phases. Rock and Mega, the first meant to be a lab assistant and the second to be a friend and protector of his son. However as soon as he heard what Wily was doing, he quickly installed the Mega Buster along with simple battle programs into Rock Man and sent him to fight. He was originally a poor fighter, relying on luck and straight shooting to hit his targets, but his programming was based on learning. Quickly he taught himself to fight, and within hours he had destroyed all of the Robot Masters.
He went found Wily, fought his way to him, and returned home. His programming never stated what he was supposed to do when he finally caught up to Wily, so he qent back home.
Quite the legacy you have
But there is more
You don't want to see this
Of course I do
Please don't
When the police arrived in Wily's last known location, he had fled. He left a small note, claiming that he would return again, this time with better robots and would destroy all of New York, along with every major US city. In that time Wily had become the worlds most wanted man.
Two days later, in a suspicious explosion, Dr.Light's lab was destroyed. RockMan was inside and completely obliterated. Light and his family were making a short visit, Light had decided that he was going to quit, and brought his famly with him for strength. His wife had gone inside to get their son a day pass while Dr.Light and his son stayed in the car to talk.
I remember this, why do I remember this?
Because this is where you died.
I died in the lab, why do I remember being in the car?
Because there is where you died.
But that doesn't make any sense. Unless...
Yes, you understand. You survived long enough to be taken to a hospital where you died. Do you remember what you and your father were talking about?
Yes. I said that if it had been me, I would have taken Wily to prison. That I wished it was me he had chosen and not some dumb robot. So, how much of me is human then?
Less than 2%. There is only pieces of your brain, the parts that survived long enough to be put in the new Body. The rest has been downloaded into the memory bank, which is why it is so scrambled.
Is this why I am fighting now?
Yes.
But I didn't want to fight. I don't want to.
But what about all of those dead people. Don't you want Wily to be brought to justice?
Why doesn't Dr. Light just make more robots? He is good at that. I can just run away.
You know that isn't possible. Metal Man already knew what you are, obviously Wily does too. He will be hunting you down until he finds you and kills you a third time. Besides, you have seen firsthand the power of these two. There are at least two more. The probability that the American Military can get to the plant though the crowds in time before they are able to kill many more people is less than 11.7%.
Fine. But we no longer fight because Dr.Light said so. It is for the people.
Then open your eyes and fight, Mega Man.
My name is Rock. |
|
|
