It wasn’t often that Shade Man ventured far from the fortress. What reason did he have to leave, really? He was busy enough inside, and he could command hundreds of lesser units to be his eyes wherever he wished to send them. It was dangerous, too, leaving the safety that the island’s cloaking provided. He wasn’t exactly the stealthiest of robot masters, either, what with his size and talons.
Still, he found himself wandering on occasion. Perhaps it was the stuffy nature on Dr. Wily’s offices, or perhaps it was what remained of that spark of wanderlust that any caged creature would develop from his early years. It didn’t exactly matter, given he was already quite far out. He had given a vague excuse of monitoring, but it wasn’t like anyone looked over his work. The doctor had his own business to attend to. Shade certainly wasn’t expecting for anything to actually capture his attention.
That was until a glint down below caught his eye, and a familiar figure emerged from the darkness. Whatever was he doing all the way out here, away from his post no less? Shade had begun to open up logs to communicate, only to find the location of his own brother to not match up with his sight. So this was another. Well, he certainly couldn’t pass up the opportunity to chat in that case. With surprisingly little noise, he descended from the sky, though he made no effort to truly conceal himself.
There were a lot more robot masters around the world since Snake had been activated. Light and Cossack were heralded as pioneers for their innovation in constructing so many different types. You don't see creators like them very often, and for good reason. Building one Robot Master for one job takes a big budget for not much initial return. Nowadays it was more common for creators to make one or two designs, purchase the trademark, and then sell them off to a company for mass production. That didn't mean there weren't still doctors like Cossack and Light, though. Those were the interesting ones.
A full line of eight, all under one name, no duplicates. That was worth looking into on its own, but a deeper dig revealed the existence of a ninth unit as well. A prototype, still active. Prototypes weren't uncommon by any means, especially not for up and coming scientists, but they were usually scrapped for one reason or another by the time the first official model was finalized. They certainly didn't last decades. How coincidental that this prototype, who appeared to be one of first few Robot Masters ever serialized, was still kicking.
That was more than enough to peak Dr. Wily's interest, so he did what he always did when another scientist thought they were hot enough for the big leagues. He sent a spy.
Search snakes descended upon Takahashi labs with ease, getting to work mapping out the land before their owner even set foot on it. It was a quaint little place. A single, moderately large building seemed to double as both a laboratory and a home. It reminded Snake Man of Light Laboratories. Perhaps that was a good reflection of Dr. Takahashi's character, if she was anything like Dr. Light. With the landscape mapped and the optimal route planned, he quickly dropped through the large ventilation system of the laboratory. The only thing stopping him now was a stray Takahashi number wandering about right where he needed to be.
Rather than sit next to Ring, Metal hoisted himself onto the table, legs haphazardly dangling off its edge.
"Me? Cause trouble? I would never." The lilt in his voice suggested he indeed would if the fancy struck him.
He raised the glass to his mask. A small, seamless panel clicked open, revealing a dark, mesh-like structure beneath. Lacking functional lips, a filtration device had been incorporated into his mask to allow him to drink. He pressed his tongue to the other side of the opening, the liquid passing through all but unobstructed, and flowing into a tube at its tip. Such a method meant he also didn't have proper taste buds, but it got the drink into his system all the same. With the shot downed, he leaned forward, resting an elbow on his knee and his chin in his hand.
"You don't seem to spend much time with civilians, either. Drinking all by yourself, then?"
Shadow Man moved quickly and effortlessly through the city streets as he made his way to the mass robotic grave of a junkyard that laid just beyond it's limits. He glided weightlessly through the darkness, peering out through the shadows made by passersby like windows to the physical world, keeping track of his relative location. Normally Dr. Wily preferred to scout out such places himself, but many larger scrapyards, especially those near populated areas, began increasing their security measures after that little hobby of his had become public knowledge. Personally, Shadow found the places to be quite distasteful. Humans made such a fuss about what would be done with their bodies postmortem, and yet they carelessly tossed the corpses of robots and robot masters alike onto simple piles without second thought.
The odd shapes of rusting machinery and large towers of scrap metal left him with no shortage of vantage points. He started to scour the area for anything that might be useful, only for his defenses to pick up a signal. Mega Man's signal. Shadow frantically retreated further from the open point he had been looking through to both fully conceal himself and properly investigate his sensors. Was Mega Man here? Why?
Upon further, more collected inspection, he found that the signal was incredibly weak, like it was injured and dying. Had something happened to Mega Man, then? The Doctor had not sent any units to this area that Shadow knew of, and news of any fight with Bass or some other rogue would have certainly reached him. Surely the hero of mankind had not been so carelessly dumped in a place like this without any note.
Cautiously, he made his was closer to the signal's source. Mega Man was far too honorable a warrior to use deceptive tactics like playing dead. If he was truly injured, Shadow was certain he should look for his body, if only to report his findings to Dr. Wily.
Surely enough, as he emerged from the darkness to get a proper look, he found exactly what he had feared. Half buried under a pile of junk laid a husk of blue armor and exposed framing. Shadow quickly moved about the area, ensuring it was not monitored, before carefully inching closer to inspect the body.
Oh boy, it's Blues. It seems that he hadn't been intending on running into Shadow, though, given the curious lilt in his voice and his raised eyebrow as he greeted the ninja.
"I wasn't expecting to run into you so--"
"What are you doing."
Caring for his weapons was an activity Shadow tended to reserve for his own room, and truthfully, one of the few reasons he ever even used it. But sometimes, he found it pleasant to do so outdoors. It was nice to get away from the chaos he often could hear his brothers devolving into outside of his door. Besides, even a combat unit like himself could appreciate the serenity of nature.
Of course, it would seem every version of Proto Man had an uncanny ability to interrupt him at the worst possible moments. His tongue was positioned halfway along his katana, visibly mid-lick, with a thin black substance dripping down to it’s point, the excess of which pooled into a small bowl beneath it. It took him a moment to actually move, frozen like a deer in headlights by the sudden intrusion. When he finally did, he first carefully removed the blade from his mouth before speaking.
“Tending to my weapons,” he spoke incredulously, like it was completely lost on him that sticking his sword in his mouth might look weird to a bystander without context. “What are you doing here?”
His lips didn’t move when he spoke as he specifically avoided moving his tongue. Shadow gingerly picked up the bowl by his leg and held it beneath his chin. He pressed his tongue between his teeth and squeezed the excess liquid from it, before setting the bowl back down and properly looking up at Proto Man.
You open your eyes to a pristine, white room. Your internal system already knows this area to be the main laboratory, as it has the entirely of the facility’s layout mapped. An [organic], also dressed in white, approaches you.
“Hello, [Luna].” You recognize this to be the codename you were dubbed in development. You recognize the [organic] to be one of the head [scientists] of that development. “Is everything functioning properly?”
“Yes, [doctor],” you answer.
“Good. What is your directive?” It is a simple question that [she] knows you know the answer to.
“Operate and manage [crystalline] systems within the city.” Your response serves only to confirm that you are indeed functional.
“Excellent. I am sure you understand that you will not be operating alone in that endeavor, of course.” [She] gestures to [her] right, and your gaze follows as commanded.
Next to her stands another unit, and though you have yet to properly see your reflection, you know that [he] is near identical to you in appearance. The only traits that differentiate you from [him] are the colors of your eyes and [gemstones] (your red to [his] green) and the designs on your chest plates (the same shape, inverted to one another). There is also the fact that [he] is smiling, while you are not. Though the [doctor] radiates little to nothing, you can detect positive energy emanating from [him].
“This is your twin unit, SRN:001a. [Terra].” [She] does not need to tell you this, you are already equipped with that knowledge. Regardless, [Terra] approaches you and takes your hand. A wordless stream of data is broadcasted to you, and you decipher it as a greeting. [He] is pleased to meet you. You return the formality, and the widening of [his] smile appears to indicate [he] received it without issue.
“Connection established, [doctor].” [He] clarifies for [her] sake, as [she] is unable to detect your communications [herself].
“Good. All is working optimally, then. We can begin testing. Both of you, come with me,” and [she] motions behind [her].
[Terra] does not release your hand as the two of you follow [her].
> playing mem_hDir2sp5LagCtr1uf2wjdyAlq48xUaod.mp4
Wily City’s database was vast, but it was not too hard to find information if you knew where to look. Shadow was very familiar with its organization process, often being the one to update it with data from the Doctor’s latest experiments. However, he rarely probed it unprompted. Unlike some, he saw no reason to dig for information he did not need. He. . . did not exactly need the information he was looking for, but he certainly was not going to get it anywhere else. Proto Man had not been terribly grateful over his revival. If anything, he only seemed more angry with Shadow than he usually was. Typical. Shadow didn’t know why he expected anything less, really. Telling him that he had potentially damaged a fragment of his hyper energy crystal didn’t seem like it would make the situation any better at the time, so he’d have to rely on the Doctor’s research alone.
Searching through files relevant to the crystal yielded a wealth of information, but nothing mentioned it changing colors. It did not take him long to skim through all that was openly available, given Dr. Wily had only had a few months to test it, but then he came across. . . files he had never seen before. These were password protected. Strange, the Doctor rarely used passcodes on anything unless it was still in development. Shadow tried the one he knew to be most common and-
Denied.
He tried another, and another, until finally, an old code he managed to dig out of the recesses of his memory files granted him access. It was one the Doctor had only ever told him once, in order to retrieve files he had hidden about Proto Man back on Asteroid Alpha. Why was it still. . .
Reactivation Attempt no.3 | DWN:016 (pending)
Reactivation? What? He knew the Doctor had used knowledge from the ruins to enhance his body, but why had he required reactivation? And why was this hidden so deep in the city’s database? If it had to do with his development, it should have been a part of his proper files, not stored with Proto Man’s. This didn’t. . . it didn’t make any sense.
The longer he read, the greater a strange sense of foreboding grew in the back of his mind. The file spoke of recovery, of tests dated between the Seconds’ activation dates, information that did not line up with what was on his public record, what he had been told his whole life. This was wrong, no, something was wrong, he-
He had not noticed when the crystal fragment he had kept tucked tightly in his hand began spasming again. He had not noticed the way his body had begun forcibly ventilating. He had not noticed the myriad of warnings and errors trying to grab his attention in the corner of his eye before being swiftly closed out by. . . something that wasn’t him. He had not noticed the dread crawling its way down from the base of his skull, spreading across his chest and towards his hands. His hands. He could not feel his hands anymore. The one that wasn’t gripping the crystal instead clutched the collar of his armor. It was trembling. He was trembling. And yet, he could not take his eyes off of the screen before him. He could not send or receive signals from his hands as they continued to move in spite of himself. He still had not noticed. He could not notice. Something would not let him notice.
Something was wrong. Something was wrong with this file. No.
Something was wrong with him.
Something was wrong with his brain.
Something was in his brain. Beneath the surface. Just out of reach. It was there. This file had always been here. It had always been there. If he could just reach it. He needed to reach it. He needed to reach it. He needed to reach it. He needed to rememb
Who is… currently running through the halls at full speed for no good reason. Huh.
“Outta my way meat slicer!!” He yells before bodily shoving Metal.
(from @kyabetsunomuses)
Shit, what the fuck-?? How did that bastard even- it didn't matter, Metal was not about to let that little shit bust a whole through another wall or something.
Metal usually tried not to be so quick to violence when dealing with the more erratic younger units, but Forte was an exception. The kid only knew violence, he didn't know how to listen to reason. That, and Metal wouldn't stand a chance trying to pin a bot like him. Having only been slightly thrown off balance by that little tank, he threw a metal blade carefully aimed at Forte's leg. He didn't want to cause any real damage, just stop him in his tracks.
