|
Mega Man: The Light of Will (Updates Tue/Fri/Sun)
Author's Notes:
The frame story is intended to be set in 22XX with the unearthing of the ruins of one of Dr. Wily's labs. My goal is to present this in a "found footage" style, primarily in the form of newsreels, experiment logs, and journal entries, possibly with some exposition by the archaeologists reflecting on what the new information adds to the known history. That said, given the constraints of NaNoWriMo I'm not going to waste time editing the material into that style during the contest; if it comes out in the right style, yay, but if it doesn't I'm just going to leave it and come back and fix it in editing. I write very non-linearly. My habit is to write the scenes as I'm inspired for them and then go back and organize them and tie them together with segues and exposition. I intend to post a scene every day, but they probably won't be in order for people reading along. I'll be maintaining a parallel "story only" thread that I WILL keep in publication order. Acknowledgements: This story is heavily inspired by The Megas. It was originally conceived as a novelization of Get Equipped and History Repeating, trying to tie together the stories told in the lyrics with an original idea I had for Dr. Wily's underlying strategy. A lot of the characterization of the Robot Masters draws from how they're characterized in the songs. I owe my knowledge of the Green Lantern setting to With This Ring by Mr Zoat. I'm not going to be sticking with any specific canon, but I've barely read/seen any of the source material, so basically everything I know is drawn from there. I don't currently intend to actually use any DC Comics characters or any of Mr Zoat's OCs, except possibly in passing. Finally, I want to acknowledge The Infinite Loops. I don't believe I'm actually drawing anything from that setting (at least not consciously) but Fused Loops are what inspired me to consider writing about crossover AUs in an episodic format. Word count: 166 (the Acknowledgements section is going in the final product) |
This is the updates / discussion thread. I'll be making a separate "story-only" thread for a linear readthrough without discussion posts getting in the way.
|
linear readthroughs are for wimps. XD
|
SUBJECT: A new form of energy?!
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: February 18, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid The blue-tinted, glowing hologram powers up to reveal Dr. Wily looking even more wild than usual. The infamous scientist is clearly excited about something, barely able to restrain himself. "I have made the most astounding discovery," he exclaims breathlessly in his German-influenced accent. "It's revolutionary! Profound! I can't even begin to imagine all of the possibilities!" He paces back and forth in front of the camera, catching his breath and trying to put on a more professional attitude for the sake of the recording. "I will start at the beginning." He gestures with both hands in the air, causing the computer to project a holographic window onto the air beside him. The window displays clips from footage of various fights between Mega Man and Dr. Wily's Robot Masters. "Last year, six of my creations were destroyed by this so-called 'Mega Man.' This caused a setback in my experiment, but the logs of the encounters still yielded useful data. Based on its resemblance to DLN-001, the attacker was clearly one of Thomas's creations." When Wily says the model number, the computer projecting the archival holovid automatically opens windows displaying schematics and specifications for model DLN-001 "Rock". "My hypothesis was that it WAS DLN-001 with a combat retrofit, so I started researching what changes Thomas must have made." Parts of schematics blink as the computer identifies the differences between the capabilities and construction of the original design and the evidence gathered from the footage. "The weapon system was surprising at first because Thomas was never good at making weapons, but it seems that he repurposed the Variable Tool System so that he could use MY weapons instead. I don't know whether to respect his resourcefulness or be ashamed that the old fool didn't have the talent to do better on his own." The comparison window starts to highlight some errors in red as Wily continues. "But even taking that into account, my model still diverged from the behaviors that 'Mega Man' demonstrated, so I started an evolutionary search algorithm to try to reconstruct the changes to DLN-001's architecture. And that's when I made the discovery." The schematics and archival footage disappear, replaced with a video showing a table full of small, identical-looking circuit boards. At first, the only motion is the blurred spin of cooling fans. Then one of the processors in the cluster starts to glow green and Dr. Wily rushes into the scene to disconnect the power, looking panicked. "The old fool didn't know what he had stumbled upon! After verifying that the test apparatus was undamaged, I tuned the search algorithm to optimize for the effect. What I discovered is that this green energy is produced by -- and more importantly, INFLUENCED by -- a certain kind of INTELLIGENCE!" The old scientist's expression is turning manic again as he approaches the conclusion, unable to contain his excitement any longer. "Imagine it, an energy field that can be manipulated just by thinking about it the right way! So many possibilities... A shortcut to neural interfaces! AI-driven remote manipulation! Maybe if I couple it with the right focusing apparatus... I have to investigate this in more depth!" The holovid cuts off abruptly as Wily abandons the recording to dive into his mad science. Word Count: 556 Total Words: 772 |
SUBJECT: Re: A new form of energy?!
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: February 20, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Further experimentation revealed multiple local maxima. So far discovered 7 distinct spectral peaks distributed unevenly across visual spectrum. (Investigate: Infrared? Ultraviolet? Non-photonic energy signatures?) Provisionally labeling peaks as red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet based on nearest classical color names. (Investigate: Violet field has single distinct spectral line when analyzed but appears magenta (which would have two lines) to naked eye. Psychovisual effect? Retinal interference?) Informal experiment: Attempt to manipulate energy fields with personal thought patterns. Green field demonstrated most visible results. Orange field also responded but more difficult to achieve specific response. Difficult to analyze results. Genetic algorithm yielded highly optimized code with no obvious human-readable structure. Trying to reverse engineer. May need to use empirical methods instead. Will follow up with holovid. To do: Write academic paper. Submit when governmental interference is no longer an issue. Peer review probably unlikely. Going to need to do real-world validation instead. SUBJECT: Re (2): A new form of energy?! AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: February 20, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid Dr. Wily's terse note-taking style is in distinct contrast to the verbosity of his holovid recordings. The attached video is taken from a hand-held camera, so his energetic pacing is only visible as a bobbing of the picture within the capsule. If he looked manic in the video two days prior, now he looks like he's fallen far into the madness of inspiration, with unkempt hair and wide eyes. "I have no idea what I'm working with! As a scientist that's EXCITING! Truly remarkable, I'm the first to ever research this. What kinds of experiments can I run to learn more about this? As I said in my notes, I may need to use empirical methods, because looking over the data isn't telling me much of anything. There are clearly qualitative differences between the evolved AIs, but I can't pinpoint the distinction from this mess of numbers. "I tried connecting a couple of the AIs to a chat terminal, but what do you ask an experimental program with no relationship to known phenomena? Hmm. Maybe I'll build some new Robot Masters and run one AI in each one. One more with my normal AI foundation as an experimental control. Set them up to interact with the world and see what personalities evolve. I don't know what to expect! It makes me giddy to think about it! "I'm trying not to think about the philosophical implications of this discovery. Can't afford to get distracted when there's so much work to be done." He pauses as a thought strikes him. "I need to think about what to name it! I'm the rightful discoverer! Calling it 'The Glow' feels too unscientific. 'The Wily Effect'? Maybe. I do like the sound of 'the green Wily field'." He shakes his head, dismissing the thought as he realizes it's exactly the kind of off-topic train of thought he was trying to avoid. "Science first, Albert! Learn what it does, THEN name it." The crazed grin on his face turns a little more wicked. "Time to design some robots." The holovid shuts off. Word Count: 942 Total Words: 1714 Well, I'm caught up for day 1, right in time for midnight of day 3 to start. |
SUBJECT: Mark II Robot Masters
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: February 27, 20XX FORMAT: Rich Text with attachments Serial numbers assigned in order of implementation, not design. DWN-009 "Metal Man" Primary weapon system: Metal Blade Chassis type: Agility-Balanced Spectral peak: N/A (control) To minimize unpredictable variables in the control, I have derived DWN-009 from the design of DLN-003 "Cut Man". The code has been audited for backdoors and overrides that may have been inserted by Dr. Light during our collaboration. The underlying chassis has been demonstrated to exhibit flexible, precision movement in combat situations without excessively sacrificing robustness. The Metal Blade uses the same ceramic titanium alloy as the Rolling Cutter with a profile more specifically optimized for use as a weapon instead of industrial logging. The returning function has been abandoned as collateral damage is not expected to be an operational priority. Instead, the Metal Blade is spin-stabilized and has higher linear velocity and a more effective cutting edge. DWN-010 "Air Man" Primary weapon system: Air Shooter Chassis type: Integrated Spectral peak: Red DWN-010 is the prototype for my new "Integrated" chassis design. The number of mechanical weak points is reduced by removing the head as a distinct component and avoiding abdominal joints. While this reduces the Robot Master's flexibility, it provides a robust carriage for armor and large or heavy weapons. In the case of DWN-010, the chassis carries a powerful turboprop engine. The primary weapon, Air Shooter, is a vortex generator that produces semisolid tornadoes that the turboprop can then propel. With luck, DLN-001's Variable Weapon System will be unable to replicate the full effect of the divided system. DWN-011 "Bubble Man" Primary weapon system: Bubble Lead Chassis type: Aquatic Spectral peak: Blue In the interest of seeing how the algorithmically evolved AIs perform in varying environments, DWN-011 is optimized for aquatic locomotion. The chassis is equipped with control fins, ballast tanks, and a pair of propulsion turbines to provide full three-dimensional submarine mobility. The weapon system is also designed for underwater use. The Bubble Lead creates bubbles with high surface tension that are drawn to solid surfaces, rapidly collapsing on impact to cause cavitation shock. The aquatic chassis incorporates defenses against this weapon to prevent collateral damage. DWN-012 "Quick Man" Primary weapon system: Quick Boomerang Chassis type: Agility-Light Spectral peak: Orange DWN-012's chassis is the lightest robot body I have ever constructed. This will provide the Robot Master with superior ground speed, jumping ability, and maneuverability. While this required sacrificing defensive armor, the gain in evasion is expected to overcome the lack of durability. The Quick Boomerang is intended to capitalize further on this design. It does not need to be fired directly at a target as each projectile is able to reorient its trajectory in flight. It is also a very efficient weapon, intended to be launched in salvos to make evasion more difficult. Projectiles that do not impact a target may be captured for reuse, extending the weapon's ability to sustain salvo operations. DWN-013 "Crash Man" Primary weapon system: Crash Bomber Chassis type: Heavy Spectral peak: Green DWN-013 is built using the same power plant and drive motors as DLN-004 "Guts Man" and the same armor as DLN-006 "Bomb Man" on a smaller chassis. The improved power-to-weight ratio and blast resistance should solve the problems exhibited by the original DLN-004 design. Instead of using the same ordnance as DLN-006, the Crash Bomber is a multiple warhead payload attached to an armor-piercing housing. While this is less useful than the Hyper Bomb for clearing large areas it should be much more effective against armored targets. DWN-014 "Flash Man" Primary weapon system: Time Stopper Chassis type: Balanced Spectral peak: Violet Just in case Thomas has had an unexpected insight about combat robot design, DWN-014 is built around the same chassis and armor design as the modified DLN-001 and similar to its predecessor DLN-000 "Proto Man". While the design lacks any specialized advantages, this is a versatile configuration that can deal with most environments. Instead of an offensive weapon system, DWN-014's Time Stopper is a tactical device enabling localized time manipulation. This is derived from research undertaken during my collaboration with Dr. Light, but I was able to solve the problems that had resulted in the project being shelved before. At full power, this device should allow DWN-014 to stop events around it to allow time to gain a tactical advantage. DWN-015 "Heat Man" Primary weapon system: Atomic Fire Chassis type: Custom Spectral peak: Yellow This chassis had to be designed from the ground up to accommodate the extreme temperatures of the weapon systems integrated into it. It includes additional shielding that can be lowered to enclose the head, which is otherwise the only unshielded part of the body for the purposes of sensor installation. The Atomic Fire uses an energy condensation technology similar to standard military plasma cannons, but it is powered by a high-output nuclear reactor. With the head shielding lowered, the weapon is even capable of encapsulating DWN-015 inside a semisolid fireball, which should be overwhelming in close-quarters combat. (Let's just see DLN-001 try to copy this weapon without any shielding!) DWN-016 "Wood Man" Primary weapon system: Leaf Shield Chassis type: Custom Spectral peak: Indigo This is one of my earlier chassis designs. That old fool Thomas ridiculed it because it's made of hardwood. However, this construction makes it resistant to many common forms of attack, including electric, magnetic, low-yield explosive, and blunt force. It includes a small amount of nonferrous metallic plating for additional structural integrity. To cover its weaknesses, I have paired the chassis with the Leaf Shield, a set of ceramic titanium plates that can be manipulated magnetically for both defensive and offensive purposes. These are particularly effective against condensed energy weapons, and DWN-016 should be nearly invulnerable when deploying the Leaf Shield defensively. AI Design Notes: All of the Mark II Robot Masters are running a standard set of control and monitoring programs. The monitoring programs will allow me to maintain remote telemetry, observe the behavior of the Robot Masters, and keep experiment logs to record as much data as possible. The control programs are intended to provide a failsafe, as the algorithmically evolved AI programs will not have behavior that I can predict based on existing data. Word Count: 1087 Total Words: 2801 |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-013
AUTHOR: DWN-013 "Crash Man" DATE: June 11, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments The holovid starts off showing Crash Man pacing restlessly. Little else is visible aside from a sealed blast door set into the metal walls. The walls are pockmarked and scorched from cluster bomb detonations. Various windows open alongside the recording, displaying logs and readouts as well as a copy of Dr. Wily's notes about the encounter. A few seconds into playback, the blast door grinds open far enough for Mega Man to slip inside before it slams closed again. Crash Man stands still, turning to face the hero but not raising his weapon. Mega Man hesitates, uncertain if he should engage, but then green light starts to shine through the seams and joints in Crash Man's armor and the Robot Master jumps back across the room, launching a salvo of bombs that clamp onto surfaces around the room for a couple seconds before bursting in a series of explosions. Mega Man avoids the brunt of the attack, but the scatter effect of the cluster bombs leaves him damaged even from the indirect hit. Crash Man lands heavily on the ground and seizes up, not moving at all as Mega Man returns fire with a barrage of shots from his arm cannon. But as soon as Mega Man hesitates again, he jumps into the air. Mega Man doesn't give him a chance to fire the Crash Bomber again, his armor changing to blue and white to intercept the jump with a rising tornado from the Air Shooter. The two robots exchange a few more similar volleys before suddenly Crash Man goes completely dark, the green light completely extinguished and the spinning drills of his weapon slowing to a halt. Mega Man has already launched another flurry of tornadoes in anticipation of another strike, and they batter Crash Man's unresisting chassis across the room, smashing it into the reinforced wall. The holovid ends while Mega Man is walking over to his fallen opponent. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log: DWN-013 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 11, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text DWN-013 proved to be difficult to work with. While its ability to manipulate the green light met expectations, its personality developed to be stubborn and oppositional. I had hoped to direct these traits in a productive direction but DWN-013 appeared to resent being given orders. Fortunately, the AI does not seem to have evolved an understanding of reverse psychology, and I was able to make DWN-013 lure DLN-001 into the prepared combat zone by highlighting a series of targets that I claimed to want defended. DWN-013 attacked the facilities as predicted, but I did not anticipate that it would attempt to engage DLN-001 in dialogue. I was forced to engage the control failsafe and manually direct it to the combat zone. This caused a surge in green energy density, so I sealed the blast door to keep it contained and disabled the control program. DWN-013 did not voluntarily engage DLN-001 after the blast door was breached. I reengaged the control program at this point. The recording shows what happened after that, but at the end, DWN-013 voluntarily forced a shutdown instead of allowing the control program to remain active. The telemetry from the algorithmically evolved AIs has been frustratingly difficult to make sense of even in the best cases so far, but this log is even more inscrutable than the rest. Did DWN-013 intentionally obfuscate it? Further investigation into the green light will need to be conducted more carefully. SUBJECT: Robot Master Attacks Ongoing AUTHOR: Plum, CPS Television Network DATE: June 11, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Explosions rocked the Cliffside industrial district today in the wake of yet another Robot Master attack. Information from Light Labs identifies the Robot Master's name as 'Crash Man.' Witnesses fleeing the scene described the attacker as exhibiting erratic behavior, even lowering his weapons to talk to Mega Man when he arrived. Security footage shows Crash Man suddenly freezing in place during this conversation, then glowing bright green and launching explosives before fleeing the scene. Not much else is known as Crash Man sealed the building behind him and did not come back out before Mega Man gained entry. "Light Labs declined to answer questions, but we were able to contact Mega Man himself briefly. He expressed concern about Crash Man's behavior and wondered if he might have been compelled to act as he did, perhaps related to the green glow. Mega Man didn't go into further detail, leading us to wonder how a Robot Master built by Dr. Wily would have to be compelled to fight. "This marks the seventh Robot Master attack in the last month, exceeding last year's rash of six attacks." Word Count: 808 Total Words: 3609 |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-009
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 12, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments The holovid is lit up with night-vision contrast amplification, showing Metal Man firing off a series of Metal Blades to slice open an entrance in the middle of a wall. Once through the new opening, Metal Man goes to work methodically cutting through the various fabrication systems, leaving a trail of wreckage behind him. The familiar blip of teleportation announces Mega Man's arrival on the scene. Action potentials in the telemetry spike as Metal Man recognizes the threat and switches to combat priority, surprising Mega Man with a high-speed opening shot that grinds against the hero's hastily-raised gauntlet before deflecting off and embedding itself in the ceiling. Only then does Metal Man taunt, "The Doctor sends his regards!" Mega Man doesn't respond, concentrating on sidestepping the follow-up attack, and he returns fire with his Mega Buster, but Metal Man jumps over the plasma fire and throws three Metal Blades down from above. Mega Man isn't agile enough to dodge all three of them and takes a hit to the helmet that leaves a deep gouge in the metal. The aggressive attacks have put Mega Man on his back foot, and Metal Man takes the opportunity to taunt again, "Is that the best you can do? Dr. Light really doesn't know how to build a super fighting robot." "You won't beat me that easily," his opponent responds, dodging another set of blades and firing off three quick shots meant more to force Metal Man to defend than to deal actual damage. The Robot Master jumps over the attack again and returns fire from the air. This time, Mega Man is more prepared and he only takes a glancing hit to the upper arm -- though the razor teeth of the Metal Blade still manages to rip an ugly, sparking hole in his armor. The tempo of the battle shifts after that, and Mega Man's past experience fighting Dr. Wily's first batch of repurposed Robot Masters starts to show in how fluid and precise his movements become as he observes Metal Man's fighting style. Metal Man isn't able to land another hit for the rest of the battle, and Mega Man starts leading with his attacks, making sure there's a spray of attacks for Metal Man to land in after each jump. Eventually, the damage wears Metal Man down, punching a hole through his chest armor and overloading his control circuits. The holovid shuts down in a burst of static as telemetry is lost. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log: DWN-009 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 12, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text As expected from the control test, DWN-009 followed all of the instructions assigned to it. DLN-001 appeared as predicted and engaged DWN-009 in combat, resulting in the destruction of the test subject. The Metal Blade's performance exceeded expectations. The weapon has proved to be very accurate, scoring several hits against DLN-001's armor, providing useful data about the limits of Light's armor technology. DWN-009's combat programming suffers from the same limitations as the Mark I Robot Masters. The limitations in the pattern recognition subsystem can be exploited to bait the Robot Master into predictable reactions. This is consistent with previous observations and provides a baseline for the remaining Robot Master tests. SUBJECT: The Return of Dr. Wily? AUTHOR: CPS Television Network DATE: May 13, 20XX FORMAT: Video A robotic newscaster with wraparound glasses and a tall blue cylindrical helmet in place of hair is sitting at the news desk, looking briefly at his notes before addressing the camera. "According to a press release by Light Labs, the Fujioka Industrial Complex was attacked last night by a Robot Master called Metal Man. The report says that the Robot Master entered shortly before nightfall. Metal Man was spotted by security staff, who called for help. We've sent a field reporter to the site to investigate. Over to you, Plum." The camera cuts over to a pink-haired robot wearing a white cap and headset and an orange and yellow jacket. "Thank you, Chest. According to an eyewitness report, the Robot Master named Metal Man arrived at the scene around 7:45 PM and began using what was described as oversized buzzsaw blades to destroy the equipment at the fabrication plant. After the call for help went out, Mega Man arrived about two minutes later and evacuated the remaining security staff from the premises before going back in to stop the attack. A Fujioka representative confirms that there were no human casualties and that the property damage is covered by insurance. Back to you, Chest." The camera cuts back. "Thank you. This attack comes as a surprise after several months of peace and quiet. Light Labs believes that the Robot Master was in fact built by the fugitive scientist Dr. Wily, but no motive for the attack is yet known. We'll bring you more as information arrives." Word Count: 837 Total Words: 4446 |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-014
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 28, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments The chamber visible in the background of the holovid is encrusted with brilliant purple crystal growths. The door has been left wide open. Flash Man is standing on top of the tallest crystal in the center of the room, staring at the door, quietly murmuring, "Come on, Mega Man. Come to me. I'm waiting for you..." Eventually, Mega Man cautiously enters the room. Flash Man smiles with excitement. "There you are, Mega Man! I've been waiting for you for so long." Mega Man scowls and brings his Mega Buster to bear. "What do you want?" "What do I want?" the Robot Master replies, jumping down from his perch to land right in front of the other robot. He activates the Time Stopper, and the video jumps ahead. The next thing it shows is Flash Man holding Mega Man's helmet under his arm for a moment before casting it to the side and jumping back. Mega Man springs into action, running after Flash Man and opening fire. Flash Man jumps again, only taking one hit out of the entire series of shots, spraying back with his own rapid-fire buster and peppering the hero with condensed plasma. "If that's what you want, then why attack me?" Mega Man asks as he futilely tries to dodge, switching to the Air Shooter in hopes that the upward-rising attack can intercept Flash Man mid-jump. Flash Man manifests a shield of purple crystal in front of him, and the tornados splash off of it with no visible effect. The crystal falls to the ground and shatters, and Flash Man takes the moment of distraction as an opportunity to trigger the Time Stopper again. When the video resumes, Mega Man's blue and white armor has been pockmarked all over by buster fire, and chunks of his hair have been scorched off. His armor changes color again, copper and yellow now as he equips the Metal Blade. Flash Man is all the way on the other side of the room, keeping the central crystal pillar interposed between the two combatants. Mega Man tries jumping on top of the crystals himself to gain the high ground and a clearer line of fire, but he has to fall back to avoid another spray from Flash Man's buster. He protests, "This doesn't even make sense, Flash Man!" "It's too late now, Mega Man." Flash Man's voice sounds dejected, even though the Robot Master appears to have the advantage in the fight -- he's only taken a single hit. He jumps up to the top of the pillar that Mega Man just retreated from. Mega Man was clearly waiting for that, and he hurls a Metal Blade at Flash Man right as the Robot Master touches down, but another activation of the Time Stopper interrupts the video again. Flash Man isn't there anymore when the playback continues, and the Metal Blade whizzes across the room and embeds itself in the crystal on the far wall. Instead, Flash Man is behind where Mega Man was standing, with a pair of Metal Blades embedded in his chest. Mega Man himself is turned around to face him, his buster trained on the Robot Master, and he fires one last Metal Blade before the video cuts out in a burst of static. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log: DWN-014 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 28, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text DWN-014 is the first of the Mark II Robot Masters to exhibit Wily-effect energy manipulation at scale. It demonstrated the ability to create solid crystals that persist without energy expenditure. This suggests many promising avenues of research for further application of these energy fields. As for the Time Stopper itself, it appears to work as designed, but the temporal distortions caused a loss of telemetry data. The desynchronization between DWN-014's chronometer and a reference clock indicates how long the effect was active from the user's perspective, but otherwise I have no information about what happened during the weapon's effect period. I should have anticipated this problem and programmed the transponder to record during the weapon effect and transmit the recording afterward. If I can recover DWN-014's memory data from the wreckage I may be able to reconstruct the missing data from that. I will also need to investigate why the effect failed on the third usage. However, DWN-014 also seems to have developed an obsession with DLN-001. If it hadn't TOYED with that accursed robot of Thomas's it would have been by far the most successful experiment of this set. I wish I understood its thought processes, but as yet I have had minimal progress in analyzing the generated personality routines. Hopefully, recovering the memory data will provide some insight into this as well. Meanwhile, in 21XX: X looks up from the archive with a frown on his face and turns to Dr. Cain. "This is two Robot Masters where it looks like we're missing some really important data. Do we have anything else on this from Dr. Light's archives? Maybe Rock himself had some clues." "I don't know." The elderly scientist shakes his head. "But we can try to find out. It shouldn't be hard to cross-reference." X nods at this. "Let's go, then." He points at two junior-rank Maverick Hunters nearby who quickly snap to attention. "You're on monitoring duty. Report to us if anything happens here or if any Mavericks come within the perimeter." "Yes, sir!" The two Hunters salute in unison. X waves them at ease as Dr. Cain adjusts the tele-harness on his wrist, and the two of them vanish in parallel beams of light. They touch down in the ancient laboratory that once contained X's ethical testing capsule. This was once buried ruins, but X had insisted on restoring it back into serviceable condition. Of course, the facility had been upgraded with modern equipment, and the repairs on the antique computer systems had been especially difficult, but he had wanted to hold onto the only tie he had to his past. And in the end, it had proved to be worth it -- the restored systems contained a wealth of first-hand historical knowledge that had been otherwise lost to the passage of time. It only takes a few minutes at a terminal for Dr. Cain to find what they were looking for. SUBJECT: Flash Man - Encounter Log AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001] DATE: May 28, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + Annotations In contrast to Dr. Wily's holovids that were assembled from multiple cameras and sensor arrays to build a full three-dimensional reconstruction of the entire room, Mega Man's own recordings only show what he himself could perceive. To be fair, that's a lot of data, and it takes several heads-up displays to show it all: in addition to the main visual feed, windows show directional proximity sensors, directional audio, a 3D model of Mega Man's body reflecting the positioning of his body and the status of his major systems, and a log of annotations that Mega Man himself thought were worth commenting on at the time. The recording shows Mega Man navigating through what used to be a large warehouse. It appears that Flash Man has renovated it, coating everything in purple crystals. Mega Man ducks behind cover for a moment, then jumps out to blast a sentry turret, and an annotation pops up: "The Robot Master has been here long enough to have called in support." He drops down through a hole that had been blasted into the floor into the smaller storage rooms below the main warehouse, switching to the Air Shooter in order to knock a Sniper Joe out of its walker mecha before finishing it off with a burst of shots from the Mega Buster. Finally, he sees the doorway into the room Flash Man has prepared as his lair. He takes a moment to mentally gird his loins before guardedly walking inside. "There you are, Mega Man! I've been waiting for you for so long," pines the Robot Master, visibly starting to radiate violet light. Mega Man levels his buster at him. "What do you want?" "What do I want?" Flash Man jumps down from the pillar of crystals to stand right in front of Mega Man. He suddenly opens up the shutters on his buster and a flash of blinding white light explodes from the emitters inside. The holovid glitches out and skips forward, showing Flash Man holding Mega Man's helmet under one arm for a fraction of a second before a "TELEMETRY CORRUPTED" error message appears and the whole display freezes. But then another window formatted like an annotation panel appears overlaid on top of the holovid. It contains a fuzzy green video, still from Mega Man's perspective. The audio is muffled and distorted, but Flash Man's voice can still be made out. "You. Forever." Flash Man gets in close and removes Mega Man's helmet, tucking it under his buster arm before reaching out to run his hand through Rock's thick black hair. "I want time to stop right now, just you and me. Mega Man and Flash Man." A status light on Flash Man's buster blinks a few times and the Robot Master curses. The annotation window disappears and the holovid resumes with Flash Man throwing the helmet to the ground and jumping away. Mega Man gives chase and lets loose a few buster shots, but he only lands one before he has to fall back in the face of a barrage of counterattacks. He asks, "If that's what you want, then why attack me?" Flash Man jumps into the air again. Mega Man changes weapons and fires off three Air Shooters to try to intercept, but Flash Man blocks them with a crystal shield. Mega Man glances down to keep track of the shield as it falls, but Flash Man freezes time again at that moment. "TELEMETRY CORRUPTED" The green video is slightly clearer this time. "Because I can't have you," Flash Man spits bitterly as he unleashes a storm of attacks against the helpless blue robot. He jumps back across the room, taking cover behind the pillar before the Time Stopper effect ends and the main video continues. Mega Man switches to the Metal Blade and tries to take the most direct route across the room, jumping up on the pillars, but Flash Man immediately opens fire as soon as he comes clear of the cover, forcing him to back off. "This doesn't even make sense, Flash Man!" From behind the crystals, Flash Man replies, "It's too late now, Mega Man." Mega Man trains his buster on the crystal summit, preparing for Flash Man's next attack, and when he's not disappointed he lets a Metal Blade fly, but before it can strike home -- "TELEMETRY CORRUPTED" The green video shows the blade freeze in the air and Flash Man easily leaps over it, taking a wide arc through the air out of Mega Man's field of vision. "Just give me this last moment here together with you." Suddenly, the video becomes perfectly clear, the window enlarging to show more of the picture as Mega Man flares bright green and spins around, firing off two Metal Blades that cleanly strike central mass. The Time Stopper effect switches off abruptly and the main holovid takes over as Flash Man only has enough time to look down at the impact before Mega Man finishes the job with a third shot. The victor kneels down to touch the fallen Robot Master, briefly turning purple as his Variable Weapon System copies the Time Stopper, and then he teleports away. SUBJECT: Warehouse Covered in Crystal! Another Robot Master Attack? AUTHOR: Ripot, CPS Television Network DATE: May 28, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Ripot here, on scene at what appears to be the site of the latest Robot Master attack. Mega Man entered a few minutes ago, and I can hear weapons fire coming from inside. I'm confident that everything is going to be okay here! "But the big mystery is the purple crystals all over the building." There's a burst of static as Ripot's video feed is briefly disrupted. "Huh. That was weird. I've never seen anything like it, and Light Labs hasn't had a chance to respond to our questions yet." Another burst of static. "There seems to be some sort of interference in the area, so this reporter is going to fall back for now. We'll bring you more on this story when we hear from Mega Man or Light Labs. This is Ripot, signing off." Word Count: 2117 Total Words: 6563 |
Meanwhile, in 21XX:
Dr. Cain seems unsettled by the parts of the story filled in by Rock's perspective. X seems more thoughtful. "What about Crash Man?" X asks. "There's missing parts of that one, too." "I'll see if I can pull that up." Dr. Cain scrolls through the archives and selects the appropriate file. SUBJECT: Crash Man - Encounter Log AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001] DATE: June 11, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + Annotations The first part of the holovid shows Mega Man working his way through the industrial district. There are a lot of damaged buildings, and Crash Man has a lot of robots patrolling the area. Mega Man makes liberal use of the Leaf Shield to fend them off, especially when he needs his hands to climb over barriers and fallen machinery. Finally, he reaches a closed blast door, and one of the telemetry windows indicates a Robot Master energy signature on the other side. With no apparent way to open the door properly, he resorts to forcing it open by pulling up on it with both hands, slipping inside before it slams closed again from its own weight. The telemetry signal strength indicator suddenly drops very low, and an annotation indicates that the recording was reconstructed offline from Mega Man's memory data. Crash Man turns around to face the door, but he doesn't approach or attack or even raise his weapon. Instead, he only says, "I don't want to have to fight you, Mega Man." Mega Man lowers his buster slightly, but quickly raises it again when Crash Man shines green, jumping and showering the room with Crash Bombs. The spread of exploding bomblets covers so much space that even moving as far away from the bombs as possible the scattering explosions still scores his armor. The green light vanishes even before the Robot Master finishes his jump, and he smashes feet-first hard onto the ground, staying completely still. Mega Man doesn't give him the opportunity for another feint like the last one and lets loose a stream of buster shots, but Crash Man doesn't dodge at all. "It doesn't have to be like this," he says, and Mega Man hesitates again. As soon as that happens, Crash Man glows again and jumps. Mega Man interrupts the attack, switching to the Air Shooter and intercepting the Robot Master in the air. Crash Man fires back after touching the ground, still glowing green instead of stopping like before, and he goes on the offensive. The two robots exchange fire repeatedly, but unexpectedly Crash Man goes completely dark in midair. The telemetry shows Crash Man's systems send one last message and then stop transmitting -- he's forced his own system to shut down. Mega Man's Air Shooter, already in flight, collides with his unresisting chassis to throw him across the room. An annotation appears, containing the private message from Crash Man: "I can't help you directly, but I can do this for you. Take my weapon. You'll need it to break into Dr. Wily's Skull Fortress." Word Count: 504 Total Words: 7067 |
Epilogue, part 1
(I did say I was going to write nonlinearly! This goes all the way at the end of the story. It doesn't spoil any of the good parts, and I've already shared the contents with the thread anyway. I'll threadmark it as Informational so it doesn't mess with the flow in reader mode.) SUBJECT: The only thing left to do AUTHOR: Thomas X. Light DATE: January 3, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid Dr. Light appears in a cylindrical hologram above the projector. X finds the sight familiar from the upgrade capsules the elderly doctor had left for him to unearth over the years. But looking at the date and comparing it to his studies of history, he realizes that this must in fact be the first of its kind, as it predates Dr. Wily's creation of Bass. "My sons have shown me the promise of emotional light technology, but Albert has reiterated the dangers of it time and time again. I still believe with all my heart that it is the key to advancing artificial intelligence. "I see in the world around me that my Robot Master intelligence core has been a tremendous success because, despite the horrors that Albert has twisted our work into, robots have joined human society at all levels. I was honored when CPS pioneered the use of robots as newscasters; it showed the world that humanoid robots could exist for peaceful, helpful purposes instead of just for fighting. And meeting younger scientists such as the Cossack family that have chosen to work with my technology has brought joy to this old heart. "But you only have to compare these robots to Rock, my younger son, to see the difference that emotional light technology makes. Those robots may be able to think for themselves and grow beyond their programming, but they settle into routines and patterns, rarely growing beyond their personality matrices. "But Rock... I did not give him that fire in his heart. I could never have programmed him to have that willpower that he has chosen to embrace. As sorrowed as I was that I had to turn my own son into a weapon of war, I could not have been more proud of his desire to do what was right. And he only has the green light, and that wasn't even intentional. But with that will, he chose to embrace the rest. He has grown to show love and compassion, hopes and fears, desires of his own, and even righteous anger. "But he is unique. Albert saw that as a failing and spent his efforts trying to overcome the individuality that the emotional lights create. The other scientists have been too afraid to pursue the technology after the atrocities that my former colleague committed with it. And none of my other creations have exhibited Rock's stability and growth. "I'm an old man. I'm not going to be able to see this through myself. But if I die without doing anything, I fear that this technology will never be refined. I fear that robot evolution will reach a dead end, and humanity will be alone on this planet. "So I will leave a legacy for those who come after me. I will build a machine to continue my work, one that can find a solution to the problems. "And so this video represents the beginning of Project X. "I'm going to make the most ambitious evolutionary search algorithm that I have ever conceived. It will test over forty million different combinations of the seven emotional lights, evaluating each one in a simulated environment to judge it for safety, stability, and ethical behavior. I've calculated that it will take approximately thirty years for the algorithm to identify the optimal balance. "The fittest personality matrix will be installed in the best robot body I can build. I'll model it after Rock, my most successful creation. I don't want to build another war machine, but at the same time I don't know what the world will be like in thirty years' time, so I'm going to give Project X armor and a buster. "Once I have the systems built, I'm going to seal it all in a capsule so it can run undisturbed until some future scientist opens it. I pray that the son I will never meet will find himself in a world that welcomes him." Word Count: 675 Total Words: 7742 |
Epilogue, part 2
The year is 22XX. Decades ago, Dr. Cain discovered X. The development of the Reploid race was the direct fruit of Cain's reverse-engineering of X's emotional matrix. Reploids were marvelous, exhibiting the individuality, personality, and emotion that Dr. Light had dreamed of. Unfortunately, it was difficult to understand the artificially evolved details of X's design, so Reploids had to start from incomplete data. Now, artificial intelligence has come so far that it can sometimes be hard to tell the difference between humans and Reploids outside of the body type. Emotional light technology has advanced to the point where artificial intelligences can live in forms of pure energy, free from the restrictions of physical bodies. These beings came to be known as "Cyber Elves" and have the ability to manipulate the material world in unprecedented ways. This developed from further research into the Maverick Virus, which was discovered to be an emotional light construct weaponized by Dr. Wily near the end of his career. Fully understanding the Virus involved the discovery of the black light as a distinct phenomenon. Mavericks were found to be Reploids whose emotional lights slipped too far out of equilibrium, and the Maverick Virus could induce this destabilization by interference. X retired from his role in the Maverick Hunters years ago after his pivotal role in ending the Maverick Wars, sacrificing his physical body to seal away the Dark Elf that was capable of rewriting a Reploid's mind. He lived on as a Cyber Elf, but to fill his shoes, a scientist named Ciel built a Reploid built on X's design with a copy of all of his memories. Unfortunately, while X had unknowingly developed internalized the white light of life during his hundred years of testing, Copy X was built without this perfect balance or the power of life itself. This led Copy X on a campaign of merciless justice, stomping out any Reploid that showed any sign of potential Maverickism, all in the name of protecting humans. No one yet knows what the future will bring, but a robot named Zero -- an ancient war machine built by Dr. Wily himself, yet a friend of X himself -- has stepped up to try to bring peace where Copy X has failed. Word Count: 375 Total Words: 8117 |
SUBJECT: Robot Master Spotted Over Monsteropolis!
AUTHOR: Ripot, CPS Television Network DATE: May 22, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Ripot here, on site in Monsteropolis where dozens of aerial robots are swarming high in the air. They appear to be constructing a flying fortress of some sort! This reporter tried to fly in for a closer look, but I was chased off by a flock of Copipis deployed by one of the Pipis patrolling the perimeter." A grainy picture of Air Man taken at an awkward angle is overlaid on the video. "I was able to capture this picture before being forced to retreat. It looks like a Robot Master, but it's not any kind of design this reporter has ever seen before! I hope Mega Man gets here soon!" The flying field reporter looks down at the sprawling city below, his camera panning around to show the panorama. "It looks like there's chaos in the city as residents near the fortress construction hurry to evacuate in case the Robot Master chooses to start a bombardment campaign on the citizens. This reporter will stay in the field to keep you informed of developments. This is Ripot, signing off." SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-010 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 22, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments Air Man slowly turns his propeller as he tracks Mega Man's progress through the fortress. He snarls in suppressed fury as his guards and construction workers are systematically destroyed, and it's not long until the invader is barging into his inner chamber. "You're finally here, Mega Man!" Air Man growls. "And I'm going to destroy you for what you've done!" "I'm not the one building a flying battle station over Monsteropolis!" "Do you know WHY I'm building it?" That gives Mega Man pause, and he hesitates for a moment. "... No, why?" Air Man flings his arms open wide, gesturing out to the world around them. "Because it's the only place I have to call my own! Thanks to you, Robot Masters aren't welcome among humans! Never mind the fact that YOU'RE as much of a Robot Master as the nine you've destroyed so far -- built by the same scientists using the same design!" "They don't judge you because you're Robot Masters! They judge you because you build weapons and destroy things!" Mega Man raises his buster in preparation, expecting Air Man to launch an attack at any moment. Air Man flares with a red aura. "I'm not responsible for what the others did! And now you're threatening ME with a weapon! So I'm not welcome anywhere, not even in my own home? I'll destroy you!" Word Count: 439 Total Words: 8556 Another day of not having as much time to write as I wanted. It's hard to stay focused on writing with all the noise that comes with visiting my inlaws. This is only half of this section, obviously, and I've gotten a little bit more written besides what I posted here, but if I cut the post here I don't have to edit it tomorrow. :p |
SUBJECT: Robot Master Spotted Over Monsteropolis!
AUTHOR: Ripot, CPS Television Network DATE: May 22, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Ripot here, on site in Monsteropolis where dozens of aerial robots are swarming high in the air. They appear to be constructing a flying fortress of some sort! This reporter tried to fly in for a closer look, but I was chased off by a flock of Copipis deployed by one of the Pipis patrolling the perimeter." A grainy picture of Air Man taken at an awkward angle is overlaid on the video. "I was able to capture this picture before being forced to retreat. It looks like a Robot Master, but it's not any kind of design this reporter has ever seen before! I hope Mega Man gets here soon!" The flying field reporter looks down at the sprawling city below, his camera panning around to show the panorama. "It looks like there's chaos in the city as residents near the fortress construction hurry to evacuate in case the Robot Master chooses to start a bombardment campaign on the citizens. This reporter will stay in the field to keep you informed of developments. This is Ripot, signing off." SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-010 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 22, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments Air Man slowly turns his propeller as he tracks Mega Man's progress through the fortress. He snarls in suppressed fury as his guards and construction workers are systematically destroyed, and it's not long until the invader is barging into his inner chamber. "You're finally here, Mega Man!" Air Man growls. "And I'm going to destroy you for what you've done!" "I'm not the one building a flying battle station over Monsteropolis!" "Do you know WHY I'm building it?" That gives Mega Man pause, and he hesitates for a moment. "... No, why?" Air Man flings his arms open wide, gesturing out to the world around them. "Because it's the only place I have to call my own! Thanks to you, Robot Masters aren't welcome among humans! Never mind the fact that YOU'RE as much of a Robot Master as the nine you've destroyed so far -- built by the same scientists using the same design!" "They don't judge you because you're Robot Masters! They judge you because you build weapons and destroy things!" Mega Man raises his buster in preparation, expecting Air Man to launch an attack at any moment. Air Man flares with a red aura. "I'm not responsible for what the others did! And now you're threatening ME with a weapon! So I'm not welcome anywhere, not even in my own home? I'll destroy you!" The following scene should be read with this soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opADNvgeZYY His fan whirs to maximum, shoving Mega Man back as he produces a set of vortices from his arm cannon. The twisters catch the wind and race across the room, violently buffeting Mega Man against the wall. The Light robot turns green and white when he equips the Leaf Shield, taking the next available opportunity to raising one to defend against the attack. Air Man leaps, tilting his body so that his propeller pushes him farther into the air, and he slams down where Mega Man would have been standing if the hero hadn't run underneath the Robot Master. Mega Man hurls the Leaf Shield at the back of the giant fan, and to his surprise the ceramic titanium plates are sucked into the intake, banging noisily. Then suddenly the leaves disintegrate in a flare of red. A small amount of dust belches out of the front of the fan as the remains of the Leaf Shield are sucked through the intake. It's enough to make Mega Man hesitate in fear. Air Man pivots around, his eyes glowing with the same red light. The Robot Master produces another flurry of tornadoes, and they too begin to glow red as they set out across the room. Mega Man is set fully on the defensive, and only quick maneuvering and sacrificial use of the Leaf Shield allows the hero to escape without getting vaporized. Between volleys of the Air Shooter, Mega Man switches to his other ceramic titanium weapon, the Metal Blade, in hopes that the more streamlined direct attack can penetrate Air Man's defenses. To his dismay, however, the teeth of the blade can't find any purchase off of Air Man's reinforced, smoothly rounded armor, skidding off and ricocheting away. The Metal Blade DOES work as point defense, and its greater precision and higher rate of fire compared to the Leaf Shield allows Mega Man to push his way through the next barrage of weaponized air. Air Man's eyes furiously flare red again and he spins his propeller to maximum, trying to force Mega Man away again, but Mega Man again switches weapons, equipping the Quick Boomerang and letting loose with as many as he can shoot while in range. The boomerangs arc around the Robot Master's body. Mega Man continues firing even when his attacks can't reach in order to hold Air Man's attention, and the first shots strike true against Air Man's back intake. The fan blades seize against the boomerangs, and with the propeller already spinning at full speed, the sudden stop causes the engine to tear itself apart, and Air Man's eyes go dark as his armor concentrates the shrapnel inside his housing. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log: DWN-010 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 22, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text DWN-010 has surprised me! Its program demonstrated a far richer personality than any other AI that I have seen to date. It may even be more sophisticated than DLN-001's! It's a shame that it was destroyed, but as an experiment this was GLORIOUS! Whatever it is that DWN-010 did was able to casually vaporize one of the most resilient alloys I know of. In the past I have been able to crack it, buckle it, or pierce it with enough force, but reducing it to ash like that is unprecedented! Such power! I must learn how to harness it! This was also a successful test of the integrated chassis design. As predicted, the design's single armor cell is more resilient than a more flexible segmented structure. This superior defense to weight ratio will be valuable to some future Robot Masters that I have in mind. Having collected this data, the experiment is now half over. Overall, I am pleased with the results. DLN-001 is more dangerous than I expected, but this new technology has made a good showing against it. With refinement, my Robot Masters could be unstoppable! SUBJECT: Re: Air Man - Encounter Log AUTHOR: Thomas X. Light DATE: May 23, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text with attachments Rock, I have finished analyzing the encounter data from your battle with Air Man. Please be very careful against Wily's other Robot Masters. Any force that could destroy the Leaf Shield so easily would overwhelm your armor instantly. I know you know this already, but please tolerate this old man's worrying for his only remaining son. Attached to this message is the Variable Tool System data for Item-2. I'm sorry I wasn't able to get this to you sooner. I know that an airfoil would have been helpful during your last encounter. I hope we can achieve peace soon. With love, Dr. Light Word Count: 1232 Total Words: 9349 |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-016
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 14, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments When the holovid focuses on Wood Man, the Robot Master is installing a machine on the trunk of a tree in the forest. The other trees in the area have already been equipped in this way, and wires and conduits are spreading out over the bark. When Mega Man inevitably arrives, Wood Man narrows his eyes at the interloper. "Are you going to fight me? Are you going to destroy these trees? Each one of them is decades old, but those Metal Blades of yours could fell any of them in seconds. So tell me, hero, what does it mean to save the world?" Mega Man's armor changes back to its normal blue scheme as he de-equips the Metal Blade with a scowl on his face. "And what are those?" He points accusingly at the machines on the trees. "Aren't you destroying the trees as well?" "Destroying them? I'm reinforcing them! These trees would never survive the future of war ahead of them without help." "There doesn't have to be a future of war! I want peace!" "I want peace too, but that can never happen with a war machine like you destroying anyone that opposes you! I will grant you a swift death so that you can't continue prolonging the suffering!" And with that, the trees themselves turn on Mega Man, launching metal-reinforced leaves down from above. Wood Man himself is protected from the attack by his Leaf Shield. Mega Man does his best to avoid the worst of it, but with so many leaves in the air he can't avoid a few cuts to his armor. Mega Man's counterattack splashes harmlessly off of the ceramic titanium plates orbiting the Robot Master. Those plates suddenly come spinning back at him as Wood Man hurls the Leaf Shield before jumping into the air to land behind Mega Man. It's all the blue robot can do to narrowly jump over the attack, leaving him open to another salvo of leaves from the trees above. "Lower your weapon, Mega Man! You're only bringing yourself more pain!" Wood Man raises another Leaf Shield, and Mega Man changes his weapon back to the Metal Blade. "And more to the world around you as well!" Mega Man doesn't fall for the bait, holding his fire instead of throwing an attack that would be deflected into the trees. Instead, he stands his ground, watching the Robot Master. He's ready the next time Wood Man throws the Leaf Shield, sidestepping it, and when Wood Man jumps, Mega Man launches three Metal Blades, angled and timed so that Wood Man collides with them during the arc of his leap. The holovid is only able to stay coherent long enough to show Wood Man crashing into the ground, splintering around the rents in his wooden armor. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log: DWN-016 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 14, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Perhaps it was hubris of me to expect any outcome beyond this. DWN-016 is something I've wanted to build for years. I worked the design out a long time ago, and I was pleased to see how well it worked, but I suppose just because I CAN do it doesn't necessarily mean I SHOULD. Still, that's what experiments are for. I may have to revisit this design later; it might still prove useful for the right mission. The Leaf Shield performed up to expectations. It's too bad that I didn't get to observe its interactions with the Metal Blade; that's one of the few weapons that might be able to overcome its defense. And I should have equipped DWN-016 with a secondary weapon instead of having a defensive weapon also serve offensive purposes. There were certainly qualitative differences between DWN-016's behavior and the standard Robot Master intelligence core. It seemed to have motivations beyond those that I had given it in its mission profile. It almost seemed like it was going to persuade DLN-001 to stop fighting, which would have been a great result. I may need to set up a new experiment in that direction. Beyond that, the effect of evolving to support the exotic energy so far is subtle, though, and I will need to collect more information. SUBJECT: National Park Overgrown With Machines?! AUTHOR: Plum, CPS Television Network DATE: May 15, 20XX FORMAT: Video "According to a briefing packet from Light Labs, this was the site of a battle between Mega Man and another Robot Master. You can see machines attached to many of the trees around here. It's unclear what they do at this time, but Light Labs has said that they will be studying them to recommend a course of action in the upcoming days. "Aside from the machines, there's surprisingly little damage to the forest. You wouldn't know there was a fight between powerful robots here just yesterday. "The strangest part of this story is that the Robot Master, called Wood Man, was made primarily of wood." A picture of Wood Man's wreckage appears in the corner of the screen. "It seems like a very unusual choice. Perhaps Dr. Wily was trying to show off? A robot made of wood definitely seems like it would be very hard to make. "Whatever the truth may be, CPS News will be here to bring you more as we learn of it. This is Plum, signing off." |
SUBJECT: Re: Encounter Log - Wood Man
AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001] DATE: May 14, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Dr. Light, You've already seen the encounter log from my battle with Wood Man. The fight itself felt pretty normal for going up against a Wily bot, but I'm really confused about what Wood Man said before it. Why would one of Dr. Wily's machines care about the forest? Why would one of Dr. Wily's machines care about PEACE? Or about saving the world? If I didn't know Dr. Wily was behind this, I would have thought twice about fighting him. But I've never seen a Robot Master act this way before. Rock SUBJECT: Re (2): Encounter Log - Wood Man AUTHOR: Thomas X. Light DATE: May 14, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Rock, I agree that there was something strange about Wood Man. I'm still studying the telemetry from the encounter log, but there's an unusual energy signature that doesn't match anything I've seen from any of Dr. Wily's past creations. This could be a sign of a new technology that Wily has invented. Be careful, son. Dr. Light Word Count: 186 Total Words: 10452 Just a quick bit of follow-up to the previous encounter before I get started at work. |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log: DWN-012
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 20, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments After running the gauntlet of death traps that had been emplaced along the route to get there, Mega Man seems justifiably more cautious than usual as he enters Quick Man's chamber. The sides of the room are lined with parts salvaged from destroyed robots, sorted out into neatly organized groups based on the type and condition of the parts. Quick Man himself is rushing around the room, checking on each piece of his collection in turn. He suddenly skids to a halt and turns to face the entrance. "There you are! I've been waiting for you!" Switching to the Leaf Shield and hastily erecting one, Mega Man takes a defensive posture. "Waiting for me?" "Yes! I can't wait to add you to my collection!" The Robot Master suddenly springs back into action, leaping into the air and hurling a spread of Quick Boomerangs. Most of them fly wide, but one bounces off of the Leaf Shield. Mega Man counters by throwing the shield back at his attacker, but Quick Man effortlessly pivots around the swirling metal plates. The Robot Master deftly scoops up the deflected boomerang, but that motion is a distraction, and the other boomerangs that had missed take that moment to change course, converging on the now-undefended Mega Man. The collisions smash into his armor, leaving deep dents in the plating, and Mega Man raises another Leaf Shield in anticipation of a follow-up attack. Quick Man isn't fooled. He leaps around the room, occasionally pausing to try to bait his opponent into throwing an attack, but he never throws an attack of his own as long as Mega Man is turtling behind a shield. He taunts the hero, "I want that shield! I'll take it from you!" Mega Man realizes that he's in a stalemate -- he's not going to be able to land a hit with the comparatively slow Leaf Shield, but he's going to get pummeled if he lowers his guard. Finally, the hero decides on a strategy. "You can have it!" Mega Man throws the shield at Quick Man, who predictably weaves around it. But as soon as he lets it fly, he switches back to his Mega Buster and opens fire, strafing to make a wide spray to try to catch Quick Man, no matter which way he slips. Sure enough, he manages to land a hit, which makes the Robot Master scowl -- more in annoyance than pain. Quick Man jumps into the air to avoid the rest of the shots. He doesn't seem to notice the faint orange light shining from the new hole in his armor; he just jeers, "I guess the new addition to the trophy room is going to have authentic battle damage!" before he rains down another flurry of Quick Boomerangs. Mega Man keeps moving, ducking aside from the initial shots, but right when the boomerangs redirect, he turns green and white again in order to erect a Leaf Shield at the last second. The incoming attacks are all successfully intercepted, but Mega Man doesn't let up. He throws the shield at Quick Man as soon as he blocks the last boomerang and again chases it with as many blasts from his arm cannon as possible. For as fast as he is, Quick Man's reaction time doesn't seem to keep up with his velocity. The follow-up attacks strain his ability to track all of the projectiles, and as Mega Man scores more hits the Robot Master's extremely lightweight armor is looking visibly worse for wear. "This isn't what I wanted!" Quick Man laments, "I wanted to win!" As the Robot Master sustains damage, he loses maneuverability. and Mega Man doesn't let up on the assault, scoring further hits. "You took what I wanted from me!" Quick Man tries to counterattack, but Mega Man has seen enough now, and he uses a Leaf Shield as a distraction to make Quick Man turn around. When the boomerangs loop back, Mega Man has positioned himself with Quick Man in the way, and Dr. Wily's creation falls to his own weapon. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log - DWN-012 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: May 20, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Note to self: Critical mobility systems must be reinforced when using ultra-lightweight chassis design. I find these results to be disappointing. Since I was able to manipulate the orange energy myself, I expected the evolved algorithm to exhibit a greater amount of control over it. I will need to perform more offline research to find the source of the problem. That said, DWN-012's behavior may provide some hints about what the algorithm discovered. The Quick Boomerang needs some refinement. It was overall very successful but its targeting algorithm needs to take collateral damage into account. According to the telemetry its energy consumption was as low as predicted. Word Count: 824 Total Words: 11276 I went for DAYS without getting anything written. x.x Trying to find my momentum again. I'm not happy with this, but it's better than nothing. |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log - DWN-011
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 4, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments Bubble Man is watching the telemetry from Mega Man's descent through the traps he left in the water -- bombs, robots, breakaway terrain, spikes tipped with energy poison -- and alternating between excitement and frustration. Every time it seems like the intruder is going to finally get thwarted by one of the obstacles, the resourceful Light robot has yet another way of getting out of a jam. Bombs are detonated from a distance with Metal Blades; robots are pummeled with buster shots and Quick Boomerangs... The breakaway terrain ALMOST got him, but he called a wall-climbing machine to get back up! And he was always able to just narrowly avoid all of the spikes! And now Mega Man is coming through the last tunnel. Bubble Man closes his eyes and tries to psych himself up. "I can do this. Those were just traps and hazards. I'm a Robot Master. I was BUILT to fight Mega Man." He starts to glow faintly blue as he reminds himself of all of his advantages. The door opens and Mega Man enters. Bubble Man slams his fist against the control panel he was using to monitor Mega Man's progress, sealing the door and opening up a panel of the same energy-poisoned spikes that he had left as traps. "Good to see you, Mega Man! You may have gotten this far, but I'm going to be the one to stop you!" Mega Man doesn't reply, only scowling; his response is to equip the Air Shooter, turning blue and white. Bubble Man confidently swims out to float in the middle of the room, creating a Bubble Lead in each hand. And then the fight is on. Mega Man opens fire, generating tornadoes that ripple through the water, leaving trails of frothy bubbles in their wakes. But Bubble Man intercepts with the Bubble Lead in his hand, trapping a tornado inside it and crushing it by collapsing the bubble. The Robot Master grins eagerly, his eyes shining blue as his blue aura grows stronger. "You should have known better! I am the master of water!" The obvious failure prompts another weapon switch, green and white this time for the Leaf Shield, just in time to block a burst of shots from Bubble Man's arm cannon. But when Mega Man tries to throw the shield to counterattack, the leaves get caught up in the water, swirling in place and making little headway before sinking to the ground. His hope further bolstered by the second demonstration of his aquatic superiority, Bubble Man's aura flares and and fires off another set of plasma shots. With the extra power, the condensed energy attacks look like piercing glares of blue that roar through the water, and Mega Man can't get the Leaf Shield back up in time to block all of them. The shots that get through sear holes into Mega Man's armor, the water in contact with the metal sizzling as it cools the melted edges. As soon as Bubble Man stops firing, Mega Man drops the shield, not even bothering to throw it, and he switches weapons again, turning pink as he directs a salvo of Quick Boomerangs up at the Robot Master. But this time Bubble Man raises a shield of his own, a luminous spherical forcefield of blue light, and the boomerangs crumble on impact with it. "I didn't know I could do that!" Bubble Man exclaims in surprise. "But I do know I can do this!" He creates another Bubble Lead and drops it, only to have it settle on the bottom of his shield. The Robot Master laughs in amusement and dismisses the barrier, allowing the bubble to drop to the ground and start rolling towards Mega Man. Mega Man jumps over it easily, but with the additional buoyancy from being underwater he has to be careful about how high he jumps. Bubble Man, meanwhile, takes the opportunity to pelt Mega Man with more arm cannon shots. With no time to raise a defense, Mega Man takes several hits, but he returns a counteroffensive of Quick Boomerangs. Bubble Man's greater aquatic mobility lets him avoid the salvo easily, but he fails to notice the boomerangs arcing around behind him. The impacts startle the aquatic Robot Master, and his blue aura flickers and dims faintly. He fires off two more Bubble Leads to provide some cover as he retreats. Mega Man switches to the Metal Blade, equipping a suitably streamlined weapon for the greater distance, and he bursts both Bubble Leads with a single blade. Loud cracking noises punctuate the bubbles' collapse as water pressure results in rapid cavitation. Bubble Man's blue aura fades a bit more, but he tries to redouble his efforts. "I won't stop until you're defeated, Mega Man! I have more bubbles!" He fires off another series of shots from his arm cannon, but they're the normal faintly-glowing yellow, and Mega Man has no difficulty evading them. Mega Man's return fire comes in the form of a Metal Blade hurtling at Bubble Man's central mass. Bubble Man raises another barrier, but the impact of the Metal Blade sends cracks spiderwebbing over the surface of the shield and it shatters into nothingness. A second Metal Blade is less precisely aimed but still digs into Bubble Man's left arm, and an angry electric noise marks the destruction of the weapon systems contained inside. One more Metal Blade comes slicing through the water, and no barrier appears. Bubble Man's eyes have no blue glow now, opening wide in fear and surprise up until the moment of impact. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log - DWN-011 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 4, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text A rousing, if qualified, success! Previously, DWN-014's Wily effect manipulation demonstrated the ability to create persistent crystalline structures. DWN-011 did not replicate this technique, but it did demonstrate at least two new phenomena. I know that the other Mark II Robot Masters can augment their own energy with Wily field energies. That was part of the design of their power cores. Further analysis of DWN-010's experiment data has additionally demonstrated direct application of red Wily field energy as a destructive force. However, DWN-011 was able to channel blue Wily field energy into its secondary weapon to increase its effectiveness and power output beyond merely providing operational energy for the weapon itself. The second new phenomenon is the barrier. Modern technology is familiar with working with condensed energy for weapons and tactile projections, but due to its tendency to rapidly decompose when excited it is unsuitable for defensive applications. DWN-011's barrier acts more like hard light projections from science fiction. It reacts to forces as if it were completely solid, including cracking under strain. Unlike the aforementioned crystal synthesis, this barrier only persists while energy is being provided, and unlike condensed energy constructs it dissipates harmlessly when destroyed or depowered instead of exploding. However, DWN-011 also exhibited a severe failure mode that previous Mark II Robot Masters did not demonstrate. Under conditions I have not yet been able to identify, it stopped being able to manipulate the Wily effect. This is concerning as it suggests a significant weakness that could potentially be exploited or a point of failure that could be triggered unexpectedly in a critical time. If I can identify the specific cause of the failure I may be able to add a failsafe or fallback. On a tangential subject, a data point to note: DLN-001 has not yet exhibited any Wily effect phenomena. The Variable Weapon System could theoretically have replicated DWN-014's crystal generation, at the very least. This supports my hypothesis about focused intelligence being required to manipulate the effect. Technology alone, even the most advanced mimetic technology I have ever worked with, appears to be insufficient. SUBJECT: Marine Crews Carefully Disassemble Death Trap AUTHOR: Chest, CPS Television Network DATE: June 6, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Cleanup efforts extend into their second day after the defeat of another one of Dr. Wily's Robot Masters. "Two days ago, a Robot Master now known as Bubble Man installed a series of traps and weapons in the bay. Mega Man entered this impromptu lair and defeated the Robot Master, but the area is still a dangerous hazard. The cleanup effort is made more risky by the devastating effects of underwater explosives -- the shock wave of a detonation travels much more strongly in water. Light Labs is donating remote-controlled drones to assist in the disarmament process. "Even discounting the explosives, the mechanical wreckage and the fuel and lubricant leaks are going to take a long time to clean up satisfactorily. Environmental groups have criticized Light Labs for negligence, claiming that Mega Man voluntarily entered into underwater combat instead of looking for more environmentally friendly alternatives." Word Count: 1487 Total Words: 12763 |
SUBJECT: Unexplained Earthquakes! Volcanic Threat?
AUTHOR: Chest, CPS Television Network DATE: June 14, 20XX FORMAT: Video "A series of small but concerning earthquakes are raising worries today. This phenomenon is known as an earthquake swarm. A seismologists has said that these earthquakes make little geological sense, as there are no fault lines in the area. And while there is a dormant volcano near the calculated epicenter, there had been no signs prior to the earthquake swarm that volcanic activity might be on the rise. "An evacuation order has not yet been given, but residents within the path of possible lava flows are urged to take suitable precautions and prepare for a possible future evacuation." SUBJECT: Experiment Notes - DWN-015 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 14, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text DWN-015 "Heat Man" has been deployed. Vulcanism has been successfully induced. Lava flows have been initiated. Risk of eruption currently minimal. Collateral damage predictions are within acceptable bounds. Yellow Wily field readings unexpectedly elevated. Need to cross-reference with other sources of data to form a hypothesis. SUBJECT: Experiment Log - DWN-015 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 15, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments Mega Man jumps off of the Item-2 and it teleports away in a beam of energy. His armor changes back to its traditional two-tone blue scheme as he resets his weapon system back to his default Mega Buster, and he passes into the cavernous chamber where Heat Man awaits. "Don't come any closer, Mega Man!" The boxy Robot Master stands defensively on the other side of the room. "My power core is a nuclear reactor! If you destroy me, it'll go critical and blow this whole mountain up!" Mega Man's color scheme indicates that he has briefly considered the Leaf Shield, but it changes again as he thinks better of it and equips the Crash Bomber. "I mean it, Mega Man! My weapon can melt metal and stone! It's dangerous!" "Why are YOU worried about that?" "Because this power is... OVERWHELMING!" Heat Man snaps his head shield closed and wreathes himself in flames. Mega Man is barely able to sidestep out of the way as Heat Man bull rushes across the room, but he takes the opportunity to throw a Crash Bomb in Heat Man's path. Heat Man strikes the wall, and the bomb detonates in a cluster of small explosions... that do nothing. Heat Man's golden armor is completely unscathed. The Robot Master turns around and pops his lid back open. "Are you MAD? What if that HAD breached my armor?" "It's a risk I'm going to have to take if I'm going to stop you from making this volcano erupt!" Mega Man switches to the Metal Blade, hoping to get a shot in under Heat Man's heavier shielding while it's open. Heat Man's eyes widen as he sees that Mega Man is not only refusing to stand down but is escalating the attack, and he cringes back, raising a translucent yellow barrier to block the attack. The barrier promptly shatters, but it sends the Metal Blade ricocheting away. Heat Man raises his arm cannon, spraying compressed blobs of fire that burst into columns of flame when they hit the ground, but he was shooting with his eyes closed and the attacks don't land anywhere close to their target. Heat Man complains, "It's too hot!" and then snaps his shield down again. The flames once again erupt around his body, a fireball so dense as to obscure sight. When Heat Man charges across the room blindly, Mega Man is forced to agree with the complaint, and he turns gray as he equips the Bubble Lead. He sends several bubbles rolling across the room, and each explodes in a burst of steam as the watery weapon douses even this powerful fire. "What? HOW?!" Heat Man throws his shield open to get a better look. "How could you extinguish MY nuclear fire?" He creates a fireball in his hand, but when Mega Man throws another Bubble Lead, he dismisses it to cower behind an even brighter yellow barrier. The bubbles impact against the barrier, each imploding with a loud crack, but with no visible effect. Unfortunately for Heat Man, Mega Man knows how to deal with these barriers now. He throws Metal Blade after Metal Blade, closing distance between each shot, and while the barrier survives the first few hits, it cracks a little more after each one. The more the cracks spread, the brighter the yellow shine of the barrier, and Heat Man is looking absolutely terrified as his defense starts to fail. Finally, the shield does shatter, and Mega Man finishes the battle off by inserting a Bubble Lead inside Heat Man's armor at point-blank range, and the Robot Master shuts down. SUBJECT: Re: Experiment Log - DWN-015 AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 15, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Interesting. Despite the dramatic differences in behavior between DWN-011 and DWN-015, DWN-015 was able to exhibit the same barrier construction ability. And where DWN-011's Wily effect power was diminished during the experiment, DWN-015's grew stronger as the probability of success decreased. DWN-015's peak barrier strength also appeared to be substantially higher. I am concerned about the implications of the personality evolved by the yellow algorithm. If this behavior is intrinsic to the optimization, the yellow spectral peak may prove to be difficult to make effective use of. DLN-001 has by now demonstrated my genius in designing weapons. The Metal Blade has proven to be even more effective than I had anticipated. I will need to design a defense against it. Since DWN-015 is the last of the designs I created, this concludes the experimental phase of the Mark II Robot Masters. I'm going to need to decide on the next phase of my plan soon. Thomas is surely trying to trace my Robot Masters' telemetry signal to send a robot in to try to apprehend me. Word Count: 1003 Total Words: 13716 I'm at my grandparents' house out in the middle of nowhere, so my Internet access is spotty and I wasn't able to make a post yesterday. |
SUBJECT: Robot Master Attacks - Ongoing Coverage
AUTHOR: Chest, CPS Television Network DATE: June 22, 20XX FORMAT: Video "The last Robot Master attack is now a week in the past, and the public is on edge, uncertain when or where the next Robot Master will strike. Analysts have still not identified a pattern to the attacks or any relationship between the targets. However, some speculate that the attacks are a science experiment, and the wide variety of targets is an attempt by an amoral scientist to collect data in different conditions. "Light Labs has refused to comment on the matter beyond a press release stating that they are actively monitoring for further information and that Mega Man is standing by to intervene in the event of additional attacks. Neither Mega Man himself nor Dr. Wily could be reached for comment. "We here at CPS Television Network encourage all of our viewers to avoid panicking. Take reasonable precautions, but unnecessary evacuations put a burden on our transportation system and hoarding supplies hurts the people who need it the most. Stay tuned for further updates. If another threat arises, we'll be here to tell you." SUBJECT: Mega Man: Hero or Villain? AUTHOR: Patty Leonardo DATE: June 22, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Welcome back to The Patty Leonardo Show!" The camera pans in to focus on the set of a talk show, with a curly-haired woman sitting across from a blond man that manages to look just a little bit crazy despite his professional-looking suit. "We're here today with," she checks her note card, "'Jim Smith' to talk about the recent Robot Master attacks. Jim thinks there's more to it than just a series of terrorist strikes. Why don't you go ahead and tell us what you've been working on?" "Well, Patty, I think that the general public has overlooked several important details. Last year, when Dr. Wily reprogrammed the Robot Masters, he took full credit for the attacks, even hijacking TV broadcasts to boast about how he was going to show the world how much better it would be if he were running things. This year, we haven't seen hide nor hair of him, and the ONLY evidence that we have that it WAS Dr. Wily is the word of Light Labs." Patty frowns a little. "But Light Labs has been responsible for stopping the attacks, both last year and this year. Mega Man was able to get involved to stop a threat that even the military was concerned they couldn't put down on their own." Jim's smirk grows a bit bigger. "Did he? How do we know that? Light Labs TOLD us that. We know that Dr. Wily and Dr. Light worked together on the Robot Master project. We only have the word of Light Labs that Mega Man was created after the attacks last year began. What if Mega Man was PART of Dr. Wily's plan?" The suggestion prompts a raised eyebrow from the host. "Explain..." "Well, look, there haven't been ANY human casualties in any of these eight attacks this year. It's all been property damage, or sometimes not even that, and there was always time for evacuation. Whoever was behind these attacks didn't want to HURT anyone. And Mega Man was always there in time to put a stop to it, a couple of times even before anyone actually knew there was a threat that needed stopped!" "Huh," Patty frowns, "you might have a point." "And how much of that damage was Mega Man's fault, too? Last I heard the crews are STILL trying to clean up the oil spills from Mega Man smashing machines underwater." Patty shakes her head. "I don't know about that. If Mega Man really IS a hero, then that would still be Dr. Wily's fault for sending out deadly robots under the bay." "If!" Jim suppresses a laugh. "We don't even know WHAT the Robot Masters were doing! I've heard rumors that some leaked evidence shows that at least TWO of the Robot Masters were scared of Mega Man, and ONE committed suicide instead of fighting him! Is that the behavior of dedicated terrorists built only to destroy? I'm telling you, there's something weird going on here, and Mega Man is right in the middle of it!" "Well," Patty interrupts before the conspiracy theorist can continue, "I think that's all the time we have for right now. You've given us all a lot to think about, Jim. And we'll be right back after this message from our sponsors." SUBJECT: Statement Regarding Robot Master Attacks AUTHOR: Light Laboratories, Inc. DATE: June 19, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text We know that the public is rightly concerned about the recent Robot Master attacks. Dr. Wily has a history of violence and terror, but we at Light Labs are committed to protecting the peace and pursuing justice, especially where robots are concerned. To that end, we are dedicating our resources to stopping the Robot Master threat. For the duration of the crisis, we will donate equipment to the police forces and the military as the need arises, and we will be proactively monitoring for Robot Master activity. Mega Man will be standing by to deal with any detected Robot Masters as soon as we know about them. Word Count: 879 Total Words: 14595 |
I hope you're enjoying Mega Man: The Light of Will so far! This has just been an extended introduction so far: the Robot Master battles aren't really the meat of the story. The last update is a lot closer to how the rest of the story is going to feel, really getting into the meat of the social impact on the world and the character interactions. Mega Man 3 isn't going to play out anything like Mega Man 2 did! Sure, there WILL be Robot Master battles, but the focus isn't going to be on the fights themselves.
But this also marks a turning point in how I'm going to be writing the story. NaNoWriMo is a bust. Between overtime at work, four days of traveling, and three days of minimal Internet access, I just wasn't able to maintain the necessary pace. I'm not going to consider it an outright failure but "50,000 words in 30 days" is definitely not an achievable goal. ;) Going forward, I'm going to take a bit of time to restructure my outline to be more appropriate for publishing it as a serial. I'll also need to figure out what I want my update schedule to be, how much I want to try to write for each update, and how much of a buffer I want to establish. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue cross-posting on Trisphee or if I'm going to just publish exclusively on Sufficient Velocity. Is anyone actually reading it here? |
as i mentioned over on the NaNo thread, i'm kinda skimming it, but i'm pretty behind. i do have this thread subscribed to, too
|
SUBJECT: Skull Fortress No. 2 - Outer Defenses
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: January 4, 20XX FORMAT: Schematics While searching the archives for what happened next, the computer helpfully presents the schematics for Dr. Wily's second Skull Fortress. The date on the schematics suggests that he had already built it before he began the reverse engineering project that led up to the Mark II Robot Masters. The skull motif is familiar; Wily's first fortress had a similar exterior design. Little historical information is available to suggest why Wily would have chosen such a stereotypically villainous theme. However, it is clear from the offensive and defensive emplacements that Wily was prepared to be besieged from the beginning, even before he began plotting his attacks. The schematics first display the design of the outer fortifications. The fortress is built into the side of a cliff, making it difficult to assault in the first place by making ground-based vehicles impractical. Several monitoring stations are spread out around the foot of the cliff, providing constant surveillance to identify incoming threats. Large energy weapons are mounted on the cliff face to provide anti-aircraft fire. There are only two ways to get in: fly into the eye of the skull after providing acceptable identification to the automated defenses, or climb the cliff. That's not to say that the cliff face wasn't also equipped with anti-personnel defenses. The schematics show the patrol paths for aerial mothership drones capable of deploying swarms of small attack fighters as well as tactical bunkers for Sniper Joe units. Surface-crawling robots and condensed energy "scworm" generators provide additional deterrence. Finally, flying explosive kamikaze drones are stationed near the entrance to the compound itself as a last line of defense against any attacking force that managed to get past the rest of the emplacements. SUBJECT: Security Footage - Front Entrance AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + attachments Wily's fortress was designed for aerial access. As such, the security footage of the inside of the fortress's entrance shows a distinct lack of floor surfaces. Immediately inside the access hatch is the cinderblock roof of the defensive bunkers, and beyond that is a wide open area for Wily's flying saucer to come in through, with nothing but support scaffolding below it. To put the scale of it all into perspective, when Mega Man slips in through the entrance, he looks tiny compared to the vast open space. What looks much less tiny is the giant robotic dragon that activates from its gantry off to the side in the hangar. Mega Man has already started across the scaffolding when the Mecha Dragon catches up with him. The dragon tears through the scaffolding in pursuit, launching fireballs from a cannon in its mouth. Mega Man struggles to stay ahead, jumping from girder to girder and narrowly avoiding the flames, but he finds himself cornered when the scaffolding stops to accommodate a wide pit designed to provide access for Wily's saucer. Trapped, Mega Man turns to the offensive. He tries the Air Shooter first, but the Mecha Dragon's armor dissipates the tornadoes harmlessly. The Metal Blades meet a similar result, and the colors of Mega Man's armor suggests he's considering the Leaf Shield and the Crash Bomber and deciding against them. In desperation, Mega Man turns the Mecha Dragon's weapon back on it. His armor turns red and yellow as he equips the Atomic Fire that he copied from his last encounter and quickly begins to glow as the weapon threatens to overload his cooling systems. He fires off a couple of small fireballs before turning his attention to jumping to another part of the scaffolding to avoid being blasted himself. The fireballs leave visible damage marks on the dragon's armor, rings of warped metal suggesting that the heat was intense enough to partially melt it. A warning alarm starts to wail from inside Mega Man's chassis. The air around his body ripples from the heat distortion. Weaker parts of his armor are shining a brighter yellow as the overload intensifies. Finally, Mega Man has a clear shot, and he takes it. A massive fireball as tall as Mega Man himself roars out from the aperture of the Mega Buster, so intensely bright that the center of it is rendering as black due to overloading the recording sensors. Mega Man has to scramble to keep his footing on the precarious girder, but when the powerful blast strikes the Mecha Dragon, it punches through the flying robot's interior hydrogen bladder, resulting in an even bigger explosion that tears the dragon apart from the inside out. |
SUBJECT: Justice?
AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001], Thomas X. Light DATE: June 29, 20XX FORMAT: Video (multiple streams) A pair of videos opens up to play back a video call between Mega Man on the left and Dr. Light on the right. "It's been two weeks since the last Robot Master attack!" Mega Man looks frustrated. "Why aren't we doing anything?" Dr. Light sighs deeply. "We ARE doing something. Dr. Wily is a very intelligent, very crafty man. You already know that. So when he tries to hide... it's very hard to find him. I started searching as soon as I got your report back from fighting Metal Man, and every time you fought a Robot Master I was able to refine the search parameters." "In that case that means you've been searching for over six weeks! Why haven't you found him yet? Why is this so hard?" "He's being careful. He's not broadcasting anything unless he has to. So the only information I have is what you were able to intercept while fighting. I'm using those to try to visually locate his fortress in satellite imagery. It shouldn't be too much longer now, in fact. I've already ruled out 85% of the planet." The super fighting robot scowls in an irritated glower. "Right, I know... Why is this so hard for ME?" Dr. Light's expression softens, patient and paternal. "Oh, Rock... I understand. I really do. You're frustrated because there's something that you feel is important and you can't do anything about it." "Why did you program me that way, then, Dr. Light?" Mega Man's irritated glare is starting to soften with sadness. "I didn't." Mega Man blinks, surprised. "What? Then... Dr. Wily did?" Light shakes his head. "No, Rock. The two of us built your body. Albert made some of the important breakthroughs that made Robot Master AI work, and that includes yours, but I wrote your personality program. I built you to be caring and compassionate, to be helpful, to value human life, and to value justice. But that feeling you're feeling right now?" He pauses for effect. "That's all you, son. I didn't put that there." "I don't understand..." "Neither do I." The old scientist chuckles a little. "You're one-of-a-kind, Rock. Even in the short time since you were first activated, you've grown in ways I never imagined. Do you remember last year, how surprised I was when you volunteered to become Mega Man?" "Yes, I remember..." "That was a choice you made on your own. It was my first indication that there was more to you than just another robot AI. And instead of being proud of myself for creating a robot that could do that... I'm proud of you, son." "I'll... do my best to live up to that." "I'm sure you will, Rock. Just... please be careful. I don't want to lose you." SUBJECT: Coordinates of Dr. Wily's Base AUTHOR: Thomas X. Light DATE: July 1, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text with attachments Mega Man, I've found the location of Dr. Wily's base. The coordinates are attached to this message. As usual, Dr. Wily has a teleportation interdiction around the fortress, so you will need to teleport in a short distance away and approach on foot. Do not attempt to use Item-2 to fly into the base, because it has aggressive anti-air defenses. Item-1 and Item-3 should be safe to use during your approach. You will need to rely on your own discretion to determine if your items will be safe to use once inside. Dr. Light SUBJECT: Re: Security Footage - Front Entrance AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Audio "WHAT?!" Dr. Wily shrieks in disbelief. "That... argh! First they FIND my laboratory. Then DLN-001 gets past my perimeter defenses. But now THIS? How can it use the Atomic Fire without melting down?!" There's a sound of rapid typing, a sound of a stack of papers being scattered, and a sound of something heavy being thrown across the room. "All systems to red alert! Full lethality! Extend the floor spikes!" A klaxon starts to blare, and then comes the unmistakeable sound of Wily's saucer powering up. "Open the tunnel to my bunker!" |
SUBJECT: Skull Fortress No. 2 - Anti-Intruder Measures
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: January 4, 20XX FORMAT: Schematics The holographic display refreshes to show the blueprints for the inside of Wily's second Skull Fortress. At the default zoom level, everything looks tiny in order to accommodate the long vertical shaft connecting the surface part of the compound to a bunker deep underground. Zooming back in on the higher levels shows the saucer entrance that Mega Man came in through. As seen before, the Mecha Dragon's gantry is off to the left side of the entrance, and a wide tunnel leads down into the UFO hangar. From there a corridor leads to Wily's main laboratory area. These older schematics don't show much information about what exactly is in the laboratories, but the Robot Master fabrication shop at least is clearly labeled. Unfortunately for the hero, Mega Man did not make it down the tunnel into the UFO hangar. The computer loads up Mega Man's telemetry from his assault on the fortress, overlaying the schematics with his route through it. The explosion from the Mecha Dragon knocked Mega Man down into the ventilation system, which runs down by the laboratories to collect the exhaust away. An annotation points out that the floor of the exhaust tunnels is covered in a carpet of spikes to prevent intruders from trying to come in through the vents. Of course, according to the telemetry, Mega Man crossed the area with the Item-2, flying over the spikes. At the end of the ventilation shaft is a sealed access room. As a testament to Dr. Wily's preparedness, the chamber itself is designed to be hostile to intruders; the panels of the very walls contain flying robots programmed to attack unauthorized personnel. The telemetry shows that Mega Man was able to defend himself against the trap, but the floor panels reconfigured themselves at the last minute to drop him into the pit below instead of granting him access into the service corridor. The pit itself is a natural cavern formation underneath the fortress, opening into an aquifer. On the other hand, the robotic patrol fish and the spike trap emplacements are clearly Wily's work, once again attempting to protect against intruders coming in from unorthodox routes. For anyone else, this might have seemed the height of paranoia, but the fact that Mega Man still managed to get through suggests that perhaps Wily's foresight was appropriate. On the other side of the aquifer, a blast door provides access for Wily's maintenance robots to go out to place the traps and service the patrol fish, as well as providing access for Mega Man to slip inside into a warehouse where Wily keeps robots he's built but hasn't deployed. The telemetry adds a large annotation box inside the warehouse, indicating to the user that further battle data is available for viewing. |
Whoops. Forgot to cross-post here Tuesday!
SUBJECT: Re: Mark II Robot Masters AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 8, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Five of the seven experimental setups have been run to completion, as well as the control setup. The remaining two experiments should reach completion within the next week. At this point it is inevitable that Light Labs will locate this laboratory. Accommodations for evacuation and relocation have already been made. However, a second encounter with DLN-001 could provide further useful information. The genetic algorithms have continued to evolve for another month since the start of the experiment, and the feedback from the experiment results has been fed into the process. It's too bad that green and red will have had less time to incorporate the additional data. There are already additional chassis ready for deployment in the warehouse. If I'm lucky, the additional training for the AI will actually be able to defeat DLN-001. This will, of course, interfere with further data collection, but it will relieve a point of resistance for my future plans. SUBJECT: Security Footage - Robot Warehouse AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments The access door slams shut behind Mega Man, and the large vapor lamps installed in the ceiling slowly begin to turn on in response to the movement. A large, looming shape starts to emerge from the darkness as the lights warm up. "Guts Man...?" Mega Man frowns at his younger brother's face. "Did Wily make more of you?" Then the Guts Dozer pulls out from its crate as the lights finish turning on, revealing the massive treaded machine bearing the visage of DLN-004. Each of the gigantic robot's fists are bigger than Mega Man's whole body. Mega Man takes half a step backwards. "Oh no." Then the Guts Dozer goes on the offensive, opening a hatch in its chest to deploy two Mettools -- small worker robots built into durable ceramic titanium helmets -- and begins to lob compressed energy cannonballs from a launcher in its mouth. The Mettools jump around the area, forcing Mega Man on the defensive. He carefully dodges around the cannonballs and the attacking robots, firing off shots from his Mega Buster to try to wear down the huge machine, but the Guts Dozer's thick armor plating deflects the shots harmlessly. Experimental shots with the other weapons yield the same result, and meanwhile the room is getting more crowded as the Guts Dozer deploys more Mettools. Finally, Mega Man lands a meaningful hit with a Quick Boomerang that manages to slip inside the Guts Dozer's mouth; a loud bang tells of a misfire from the cannon hidden inside. Mega Man goes on the offensive, using the Leaf Shield for cover as he pushes past the Mettool swarm and jumps up on the platform on the front of the Guts Dozer. It tries to retaliate, punching at Mega Man with its massive fists, but the smaller, more agile robot jumps over the attack and lets loose a flurry of Quick Boomerangs into its mouth. From inside the armor, the attacks are able to rapidly break down its weapon systems, and another cannon misfire is enough to force the Guts Dozer to shut down. Mega Man jumps away before the Guts Dozer's energy core self-destructs, but before he can relax his guard, an alarm starts to wail and doors along the sides of the warehouse all open up, the lights inside turning on one at a time to reveal the silhouettes of yet more Robot Masters. SUBJECT: Re: Security Footage - Robot Warehouse AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Audio Oh, this is perfect! DLN-001 used the aquifer maintenance hatch to enter the compound, which puts it directly in the warehouse where the spare Robot Masters are housed! I don't even have to deploy them! |
SUBJECT: Security Footage - Robot Warehouse (3)
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments A dome of purple crystal un-explodes around Mega Man and Crash Man, violet shards solidifying as they fly through the air to violently slam into place to form an enclosing barrier. Flash Man growls, "I told you he's MINE, Quick Man!" A trio of Metal Blades impact against the outside of the dome, chipping it slightly but otherwise having minimal effect. "You shouldn't have stopped running, Mega Man!" Metal Man is... apparently missing something. "You idiots!" Air Man raises his voice to be heard over the background noise of his fan holding him in the air. "Stop fighting with each other and destroy Mega Man!" A tall, wildly twisting tornado begins to form beneath Air Man's propeller, sparking with red lightning, leaving rubble in its path as it breaks up the concrete floor of the warehouse. "You destroyed me once before, but now I'm going to end this!" Mega Man readies a Metal Blade to fight back, but Crash Man interrupts, grabbing his buster arm and pulling him aside before throwing a Crash Bomb at the base of the dome. The two robots tumble to the ground against the far side of the dome, rolling out of the way as soon as the crystal shatters. The tornado rips through where they were standing a moment before, unceremoniously catching Quick Man up in its trail of destruction and sending parts of the orange-light-wielding Robot Master flying in every direction. Equally unceremoniously, Metal Man is the next to fall. Mega Man lets fly his own Metal Blade; the powerful offensive weapon embeds itself into the Robot Master's chest and shreds the CPU inside. Bubble Man is still taking up the rear, not even trying to engage in the fight. Wood Man is also holding clear, keeping a Leaf Shield erected defensively while Heat Man -- and, until a moment ago, Metal Man -- is presenting too much of a risk of collateral damage. And speaking of Heat Man, Mega Man's attention has been diverted from the gold-armored robot by more aggressive threats. The reminder comes in the form of a six-foot-tall fireball surging across the warehouse. Mega Man and Crash Man split up, trying to evade in opposite directions, but neither is able to fully escape. Crash Man takes the hit worse, with the intense heat causing a Crash Bomb in his right cannon to detonate prematurely, tearing off his right arm. Mega Man is visibly scorched, parts of his armor sagging as it softens and melts. Mega Man hesitates, intimidated by what was just the biggest single attack he's ever faced down. Heat Man meanwhile glows with flickering, flaming yellow light that leaves his face slightly darkened in silhouette except for red glowing eyes. "Fear my flames, Mega Man! BURN!" The Robot Master snaps down his head shield, surging forward while wreathed in flames. Mega Man dodges to the side and sends some Bubble Leads after him. The bubbles strike as Heat Man stops to turn around, letting out clouds of steam as they detonate against his armor, but it only makes Heat Man's yellow aura flare even stronger. Air Man veers around with his tornado for another flyby. Crash Man staggers out of the way, launching a bomb towards Flash Man to try to attract attention. With his body damaged and unbalanced, Crash Man misses, and the weapon flies wide, clamping onto the far wall and exploding harmlessly. It served its purpose, though, and Flash Man turns his attention to the other Robot Master. Mega Man turns red and white, using a quick trio of Item-1 platforms to gain altitude. Air Man lets his tornado dissipate as his opponent seems to want to take the battle to the skies, instead using his arm cannon to send a flurry of smaller twisters through the air. Two of the platforms are knocked out of the sky, but Mega Man jumps again and calls in an Item-2 to rocket past his opponent. He jumps off as high as he can, whirling around and turning pink to unload a barrage of Quick Boomerangs. As before, the boomerangs seize in Air Man's propeller. The Robot Master snarls, disintegrating the boomerangs in a surge of red light, but the damage has been done, and Air Man hits the ground before he can get his propeller back up to speed. Meanwhile, Flash Man is using shards of purple crystal as a rapid-fire projectile weapon, forgoing his default arm cannon. Crash Man is trying his best, but Flash Man clearly has the advantage; several spikes of crystal have embedded themselves in Crash Man's armor. But the flow of the battle suddenly shifts as Crash Man flares with green light, holding his arm out and rushing directly towards Flash Man. He takes several more hits to the chest for his trouble, but Crash Man pushes through, stumbling a little before jumping to tackle his opponent. He latches on with his legs and his one good arm and activates his self-destruct, taking both Robot Masters out in an echoing series of explosions. |
SUBJECT: Security Footage - Robot Warehouse (4)
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments Five Robot Masters have fallen in the brawl. Three remain: Heat Man, Bubble Man, and Wood Man. Mega Man himself is looking worse for wear, his armor battered, punctured, and partially melted. But Mega Man stands firm and fearless. Heat Man's aura dies back a bit as Mega Man's confidence fights back against his fear, but the Robot Master starts charging another flaming dash. Mega Man jumps on another Item-2, rocketing over Heat Man's head towards Wood Man. Heat Man unleashes his attack, blazing across the room. Wood Man has been prepared for this possibility for the entire fight, though, and he jumps over the jet of fire, hurling his Leaf Shield at Mega Man in the process. Although Mega Man too successfully avoids Heat Man's attack, the Leaf Shield clips him, embedding one of the plates in his leg. He tumbles to the ground in front of Bubble Man, who jumps in surprise but regains enough of his composure to open fire on the prone hero. Flashing indicators in the telemetry displays show that Mega Man's armor is in critical condition. But even in the face of certain defeat, Mega Man continues on. He equips the Bubble Lead and jogs away from its original wielder, servos whining and grinding as they strain against the damage. Heat Man powers up again, wreathing himself in an even bigger fireball than before. He doesn't even lower his shield. His voice cracks, a distorted digital edge to it as he bellows, "You're still MOVING? Apparently I didn't turn the heat up far enough! You should be afraid, Mega Man, because if my reactor melts down, we ALL die, and this fortress goes down with it!" "You're mad! That would kill Dr. Wily, too!" Wood Man intervenes, using his Leaf Shield to slice open one of the pipes to the fire suppression system, and clouds of foam come spewing down from the ceiling over the four remaining robots. The fireball engulfing Heat Man shrinks back, but the foam hisses and boils away before it can smother it at the source. Bubble Man hardens his eyes, pushing himself into action, his flippers slapping against the floor. "Heat Man, I have to stop you! If you don't self-destruct, then Dr. Wily has a chance to win! Mega Man is almost destroyed! Wood Man and I are... we've gotta be strong enough to take him down like this!" "You can't stop me, Bubble Man! Your power is useless! You're too weak! And what's Wood Man going to do? He'll burn before anyone else here!" Heat Man's head shield suddenly snaps shut, struck from behind by one of Quick Man's legs. Wood Man pulls back from the throw and uses his Leaf Shield to try to push more of the suppression foam up against the fireball. Mega Man and Bubble Man both start rolling Bubble Leads into the soggy mess while Heat Man is blinded, with each bursting ball of water extinguishing a little more of the flames until Mega Man can push through. Mega Man switches weapons, equipping the Air Shooter and throwing Heat Man into the air with a trio of tornadoes. Heat Man lands on his back, his shield snapping off at the hinge from the impact, and Bubble Man surges with hope, encasing Heat Man in a giant bubble reinforced with blue light. When the bubble collapses, the room shakes with a deafening bang, and Heat Man's flames go out as his reactor is torn apart into pieces too small to sustain a chain reaction. |
SUBJECT: Encounter Log - Skull Fortress (excerpt)
AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001] DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + Annotations The computer isn't able to find any of Wily's recordings of what happens next, but Mega Man's own perspective is available from his encounter logs. After taking out Heat Man, Bubble Man has nervously hidden behind Wood Man, who has leveled a stern glare at Mega Man. "You don't get it, do you?" Wood Man scowls and throws Mega Man an E-tank. Mega Man catches it, but he holds it up quizzically. Wood Man sighs, "Yes, it's an E-tank. No, it's not full of energy poison." Mega Man runs a test on it anyway. The telemetry attached to the video shows the results; Wood Man is telling the truth. Mega Man connects the tank to a charging point concealed in his buster arm, and the rich source of energy allows his self-repair system to switch into high-speed mode. Condensed energy swells out from his reactor, forming a shell around the proper outlines of his armor, and a set of small interior focusing devices use the semisolid energy to break down damaged components and mold the materials back into the correct shape. It's a terribly power-inefficient process, but field repairs are never as good as proper maintenance in a robot shop. "I guess I don't get it, then." Mega Man frowns. "Dr. Wily isn't trying to rule the world or destroy it. He's a scientist, not a conqueror. He's trying to make the world BETTER." "How does he make the world better by attacking civilian installations with war machines?" "There weren't any human casualties in any of those operations. And you yourself participated in the property damage. If the news reports are to be believed, you even volunteered for it." Mega Man scowls, silent for a moment. "That... doesn't answer the question, though." "Fine, fine. Advancing science means testing hypotheses. For the good of the world, Dr. Wily is evaluating his theory by collecting real-world data in the field." Mega Man starts to retort, then pauses, then slumps, scowling again, at a loss for words. Finally he shakes his head. "It's still not right. I can't let him keep bringing terror and destruction!" Wood Man sighs and waves him along. "Go on. You'll see what I mean. I won't try to stop you. Nothing but suffering would come from that. Dr. Wily can show you the truth by himself." Mega Man lowers his buster hesitantly and edges towards the elevator at the other end of the warehouse. As the elevator door opens, he notices Bubble Man starting to talk nervously to Wood Man, but he doesn't stop to listen... There's a mad scientist to stop. |
SUBJECT: Encounter Log - Dr. Wily
AUTHOR: Rock [DLN-001] DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + Annotations The elevator opens into an aircraft service bay... which is vacant. A large iris in the floor is opened to reveal a very wide, rough-hewn tunnel, large enough to fly one of Wily's trademark saucers through, leading straight down. In the absence of any other way to go, Mega Man jumps in. About halfway down, Mega Man deploys an Item-1 platform beneath his feet and uses it to slow his descent. He jumps off near the ground and looks around. The tunnel extends horizontally a for a short distance; it appears to be built under a natural hot springs formation, and hot mineral water drips from cracks in the tunnel ceiling. And at the end of the tunnel is one of Dr. Wily's familiar blast doors built into a large wall of reinforced steel. Mega Man approaches the door cautiously, but instead of having to force it open or find a control panel, it opens for him, as if inviting him to come inside. Dr. Wily's amplified voice echoes through the darkened bunker. "I was wondering how long it would take you to get here!" Mega Man raises his buster in an instant, looking around. "Of course, Thomas's prized creation chooses violence as his first response! So predictable." A holographic projector built into the ceiling powers up, casting a star chart on the walls and providing enough dim illumination to see Dr. Wily standing in the middle of the room, his hands in the pockets of his lab coat and a smug look on his face. "I'm sure you have questions. I'm sure the first question is... 'why?' Well, 'Mega Man'," the quotes are almost audible from the amount of sarcasm Wily pours into those two words, "If you must know..." Dr. Wily begins to levitate off the ground, glowing with a brilliant green light. "I've discovered something incredible! Let me show you!" Wily's lab coat melts away as his body swells. His head stretches out as his eyes turn red and grow to dominate his face. His shoulders and ribs grow into thick armor plates as tubes of toughened flesh wrap around his limbs. Softer flesh can be seen hiding inside the armor, rising and falling with Wily's breaths. "A power you don't even know you have... and I command it!" |
SUBJECT: Green Light Projector
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: June 17, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text After reviewing the data from experiments DWN-014, DWN-011, and DWN-015, I decided to begin more specific research into the more exotic applications of Wily effect energy. While its applicability as a power source is obvious, the ability to construct solid projections that are more stable than traditional condensed energy technology suggests that its uses go far beyond just a battery. As both DWN-011 and DWN-015 independently produced the same effect using different colors of energy when neither of them was designed with that capability, it seems like barrier production must be a simple and common phenomenon. This makes it a good target for experimental reproduction. In my own personal experimentation, I have found the green Wily effect to be the easiest to manipulate, so my next goal will be to construct a device to allow me to create barriers by myself! In parallel I have also begun analyzing the artificial intelligence cores of the Robot Masters to attempt to derive more specific information about the nature of each distinct Wily effect. I will document these findings in another report. _____ Super short update today because I ended up spending four hours on hold with AT&T because my Internet service isn't working. >_< I managed to squeeze this in by routing through a server at work that I was able to get to still. I was really hoping to get more out of this update than I did, but at least it's a complete piece. |
SUBJECT: Experiment Log - Green Light Projector
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry with attachments The holovid changes perspectives as the computer correlates Mega Man's data files of the encounter with a relevant entry in Dr. Wily's experiment logs. A window to one side of the video feed displays one of the attachments, a text-only transcript of Dr. Wily's notes about a device he has labeled a "Green Light Projector." Though the green alien floating in the air in front of Mega Man has no mouth, Wily's voice still comes from it. "A power you don't even know you have... and I command it!" Mega Man scowls and readies his Mega Buster. "I don't care about power!" "What's that weapon on your arm, if it's not power?" The alien begins to drift around the room, just showing off its ability to fly freely without needing thrusters or propellers. The frown on Mega Man's face deepens. "I don't have it because I want power. I have it because I want to stop people like you!" "Stop me? By all means, please try!" The alien opens fire, flying up higher than Mega Man can jump and shooting off condensed energy rounds. Mega Man returns fire with his matching munitions, but they splash harmlessly off the alien's toughened hide. "Aren't you going to try?" Wily taunts. "I'm waiting." The hero pushes on, trying to step up his game. Mega Man doesn't have much trouble dodging Wily's attacks, but he's having trouble counterattacking. The Air Shooter comes next, tornadoes ripping through the air, but a pulse of green light shreds them into harmless wisps. Mega Man doesn't even take the time to act frustrated about it, moving on to other weapons -- but the Leaf Shield bounces off harmlessly and a flurry of Quick Boomerangs collapse into shapeless blobs of energy that absorb into the alien's body. The Crash Bomber proves itself useless as it sails past and detonates harmlessly against the far wall. Wily lets out a gleeful giggle, swooping across the room and punching Mega Man right in central mass. Mega Man staggers but keeps his footing, hurling two Metal Blades at the alien's back as he flies away. They sink in, the teeth of the ceramic titanium saw blades digging into the green bones, and Wily lets out a cry. Or... is it a laugh? The Metal Blades pop out with a flash of green light, revealing that Wily's body is completely uninjured. Wily cackles. "Marvelous, marvelous! Even better than predicted! Even my most powerful weapon to date is no match for my new power!" Mega Man turns red and yellow, starting to glow as his temperature alarms begin to sound again. It's the Atomic Fire, and he's charging it up to the same level he did before. "I thought this one was your most powerful!" The fireball roars through the air, lighting up the whole room for a moment before it engulfs the alien body... and then washes over it, revealing a bright green bubble shield protecting a gleeful Dr. Wily. The mad scientist laughs. "No, I think the Metal Blade is better!" He drops the bubble shield and returns fire with a spray of energy balls. Mega Man quickly unequips the overheating weapon as he runs serpentine to avoid the counterattack. He's running out of strategies to try. A flash of white light signals the activation of the Time-Stopper, but if it hadn't been for that there would have been no other sign that Mega Man had used the weapon -- Wily doesn't even so much as slow down. "Do you really think I wouldn't have designed a defense against that one?" Dr. Wily dives in for another punch, and Mega Man equips the Bubble Lead in desperation, his last option. He sidesteps the punch and deploys a Bubble Lead at point-blank range. The entire room flickers as the bubble implodes, and the outlines of Wily's alien form wobble and distort. Dr. Wily is incredulous. "WHAT?" But Mega Man knows what to do now. He rapidly switches between Item-1 and the Bubble Lead, making himself platforms to stay within striking distance. Wily tries to evade with erratic flight, but the first attack seems to have damaged a critical system, and Mega Man is able to land several more hits before the Item-1 finally runs out of energy and he has to jump to the ground. The alien flickers out of existence, revealing a small hovering capsule at its core. With the projectors damaged, the hologram concealing Dr. Wily's control station fails, and the scientist leaps out of it when he realizes that he's been beaten, cowering on the ground and begging for mercy. |
There's still more of the MM2 story to be told, but that's the end of Mega Man 2 proper.
That's also thankfully the last fight scene I'm going to have to write for a LONG time. I've got some long-term plans to think about if this fic keeps going. I've had MM3's plot worked out for a long time but if I keep writing after that then MM4 might have to be VERY different from the original Capcom canon to be compatible. |
SUBJECT: Postmortem - Mark II Robot Masters
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 8, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text After discovering what I have tentatively named the Wily effect, I created a controlled experimental setup. I deployed one Robot Master for each discovered peak of the Wily effect and one control Robot Master that did not employ Wily effect technology. The goal of the experiment was to gather data about the properties of Wily effect technology. The intent of this document is to summarize the experimental data and draw conclusions about it. All of the experimental setups emitted visible light radiation while employing Wily effect energy, with the intensity of the glow appearing to be roughly proportional to the magnitude of the exhibited phenomena. Further details on these phenomena will be documented below. The intensity also appears to correlate with certain action potentials in the state of the algorithmically generated AIs. I have begun further targeted research into understanding the semantic meaning of these action potentials, but my preliminary hypotheses are also documented below. All of the Robot Masters were able to supplement the energy from their power cores with Wily effect energy. Most experimental setups demonstrated an ability to augment or modify Master Weapon effects using this energy as well. DWN-010 and DWN-011 demonstrated the most significant variation from their weapons' design specifications. DWN-014 demonstrated a novel mode of attack unrelated to any of its existing weapons systems; more details below. Additional observations and conclusions, in order of increasing optical frequency: Red: DWN-010 was observed using red Wily energy as a destructive force. Preliminary estimates of the energy requirements to reproduce the effects observed yield an implausibly large number, suggesting a more exotic mechanism of action than vaporization. Action potentials correlating to red energy appear to have something to do with aggression or frustrated objectives. Orange: DWN-012 was not observed to produce novel Wily effect phenomena. The recordings of DWN-012's telemetry and my own personal experimentation suggest that the orange energy is influenced by desire or need, especially considering DWN-012's tendency toward hoarding and greediness. Yellow: DWN-015 was observed generating barriers. Yellow energy magnitude appears to be inversely correlated with confidence estimates. However, the increase in yellow energy levels before DLN-001 entered the volcano remains unexplained. This may suggest that Wily effect efficiency may be influenced by external factors in addition to internal ones. Green: DWN-013 actively blocked transmission of its telemetry and was able to override hard-coded software directives. This does not provide any insight into the behavior of the green Wily effect, but it did suggest that intent, contrarianism, or self-determination could be linked to the evolved behavior algorithm. This is consistent with observations of DLN-001. Further direct experimentation leads me to believe that the specific mental state that influences the green effect is the exertion of willpower. Blue: DWN-011 was observed generating barriers and altering weapon behavior. Blue energy magnitude appears to be positively correlated with confidence estimates. Indigo: DWN-016 was not observed to produce novel Wily effect phenomena. Action potentials correlating to indigo energy appear to have something to do with outcomes beneficial to third parties. The evolved AI's behavior is very puzzling to me. Its decision-making process does not seem logical to me, but it was apparently psychologically effective against DLN-001 and led to DWN-016's survival of the second deployment. Violet: DWN-014 was observed generating many forms of crystalline structures, including barriers, platforms, and weapons. The evolved AI's behavior is erratic and has some similarities to DWN-012's. I was not able to form a hypothesis about the mental state associated with the violet spectral peak that was consistent with the observed behaviors. The contrast between the yellow and blue behavioral models suggests the possibility of further symmetries in the spectrum. Assuming symmetry suggests that yellow and blue may correspond to fear and hope. Assuming the truth of these additional hypotheses suggests a pattern: at least three of the spectral peaks (desire, hope, and fear) are correlated to focused emotional states, four if determination is considered to be an emotional state. And if the peaks represent emotional states, then that suggests that red corresponds to anger or hatred. By symmetry, violet would correspond to affection or love, which -- while strange -- might be consistent with DWN-014's behavior if taken in the right light. The remaining question is that of indigo. If these hypotheses hold, then indigo would correspond to the inverse of desire. However, it is difficult to identify an opposite of desire. I might have guessed asceticism but that neither seems like an emotional state nor is it consistent with DWN-016's behavior. Disgust is an emotional state, but it is also inconsistent with the observed behaviors. Another pattern to observe among these hypothesized emotional states is that the peaks of lower frequency than the axis of symmetry are considered "negative" or "sinful" by many cultures while the identified peaks higher than the axis of symmetry are considered "positive" or "virtuous." If the orange light is taken to correspond to excessive desire (gluttony? greed?) then the "virtuous" inverse might be somehow related to an outward-directed impulse such as altruism or charity. Perhaps compassion? I will begin designing follow-up experiments to evaluate the likelihood that these hypotheses are correct. |
SUBJECT: Robot Master Creator Apprehended!
AUTHOR: Chest, CPS Television Network DATE: July 2, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Law enforcement officials have confirmed that the infamous Dr. Wily is now in custody after the hero named Mega Man infiltrated his ominously-themed Skull Fortress and returned with the terrorist scientist in chains. "No details have yet been released about the events leading up to the apprehension. But we have been told that Light Labs had been searching for Wily's compound for weeks in order to bring him to justice. We have reached out to Light Labs for further comment but we have not yet received a response. Wily himself has refused to say anything to anyone since the arrest. "In related news, three attorneys have entered into a competition with each other, having wagered for the privilege of being the prosecutor in Dr. Wily's inevitable trial. No comparable bet has been announced for the role of defense attorney." SUBJECT: Where is Dr. Wily?! AUTHOR: Chest, CPS Television Network DATE: July 3, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Yesterday, Dr. Wily was believed to have been brought into custody. Early this morning, though, this happened:" Chest pauses to allow a video to play, showing an image of Dr. Wily scowling sullenly, his wrists bound in handcuffs that are themselves tethered to a shackle on the wall by a long chain. Then without warning, Wily's head pops off, bouncing around on a large spring and revealing machinery inside his neck. "It would appear that Dr. Wily used a robot duplicate to avoid capture! This means that Wily remains at large, his whereabouts unknown. "Public reaction has been mixed. Many have called for a more aggressive manhunt, while others have expressed uncertainty. Light Labs has been accused of squandering funds on a fruitless search and of stockpiling military-grade weaponry. Some have wondered if Light and Wily have reconciled their differences and Light is trying to conceal his old comrade. Light Labs has vehemently refused to comment on these allegations and criticisms. "Unverified reports claim that there are still active Robot Masters after Mega Man's raid on the Skull Fortress. Critics have questioned the effectiveness of Light Labs and if they should continue to be allowed to spearhead the anti-Wily effort. A concerned citizen group has started a group dedicated to monitoring for future Robot Master activity, requesting that people inform them of suspicious robot behavior. "The one thing that everyone can agree on seems to be that this isn't over yet." |
SUBJECT: Leaked Robot Master fight video!
AUTHOR: +einsteinclaus DATE: July 9, 20XX FORMAT: Video + comments This appears to be a user-uploaded video from a video sharing website. The video quality is poor, but it consists of spliced together excerpts from Mega Man's fights with the Robot Masters. It starts with a black screen and fades in: Air Man flings his arms open wide, gesturing out to the world around them. "Because it's the only place I have to call my own! Thanks to you, Robot Masters aren't welcome among humans! Never mind the fact that YOU'RE as much of a Robot Master as the nine you've destroyed so far -- built by the same scientists using the same design!" The video fades to black and back in on a different scene: Wood Man narrows his eyes at the interloper. "Are you going to fight me? Are you going to destroy these trees? Each one of them is decades old, but those Metal Blades of yours could fell any of them in seconds. So tell me, hero, what does it mean to save the world?" "And what are those?" Mega Man points accusingly at the machines on the trees. "Aren't you destroying the trees as well?" "Destroying them? I'm reinforcing them! These trees would never survive the future of war ahead of them without help." "There doesn't have to be a future of war! I want peace!" "I want peace too, but that can never happen with a war machine like you destroying anyone that opposes you!" Another scene change: Quick Man's extremely lightweight armor is looking visibly worse for wear. "This isn't what I wanted!" Quick Man laments. "You took what I wanted from me!" And finally, a clip from a CPS news broadcast instead of battle footage: "The mechanical wreckage and the fuel and lubricant leaks are going to take a long time to clean up satisfactorily. Environmental groups have criticized Light Labs for negligence, claiming that Mega Man voluntarily entered into underwater combat instead of looking for more environmentally friendly alternatives." The video fades out, replaced with white text on a blue background: IS MEGA MAN REALLY THE HERO? The video ends, but part of the comment thread is attached to the archive. +einsteinclaus: I can't say where I got these videos, but they really make me wonder if Mega Man is really as good as the news says he is. Can we really trust him? +rockonmegaman: These are edited to make Mega Man look bad! +r0botfan: I can't believe the conspiracy theory that Mega Man is actually the bad guy. Wily's done way too much damage. But it does make you think... Maybe there's still a good point here. +hairstyle: I live in Monsteropolis. I saw Air Man's construction project. Everyone was scared, but nothing bad ever happened because of it. I'd be mad too if someone broke into my house and tried to kill me. +hairstyle: And I've heard that none of the Robot Master attacks resulted in any humans getting hurt, too! So why DID they send Mega Man? +rockonmegaman: What if they DIDN'T send Mega Man? You don't know if things would have gotten worse if he hadn't gotten involved! +marblezzz: holy crap it all makes sense! lightlabs has a military contract! they profit from selling weapons!! they want to keep the fight going so they can make more money +r0botfan: ... I don't like the sound of that. That's... worryingly plausible. Even if Mega Man is on our side, it's still in his best interest to go out and find reasons to fight more. +rockonmegaman: What's with you people! Wily tried to take over the world last year, and you want to make it out like he's a victim! And he broke out of jail too! He's a criminal! +einsteinclaus: He was never arrested so you can't say he broke out of jail. If you knew a killer robot was coming to get you, wouldn't you want a decoy too? +marblezzz: einsteinclaws is right its too much to be a coincidence. mega man needs to be arrested so they can investigate +r0botfan: I can definitely get behind the idea of an investigation, although it's probably best if Mega Man stays free while it happens. Maybe put a tracker on him or something. Knowing Wily, he'd probably pull something as soon as he found out Mega Man wasn't able to stop him. +masterthis: I'm surprised nobody's talking about how these Robot Masters are acting. The ones from last year never talked like this. +r0botfan: I noticed that. That's why I said there might be a good point here. There are robots everywhere nowadays. Maybe we need to start thinking more about them. +einsteinclaus: Ya, that's my point too! Mega Man blew up all those robots! No warrant, no arrest, just walked in there and shot them. The world's not safe like that! +rockonmegaman: Mega Man talks like that too! He always has! |
SUBJECT: Research Notes - Mark II Robot Masters
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily DATE: July 7, 20XX FORMAT: Multiple Document Archive Dr. Wily's research notes are quite expansive. There's far too much here for X or Dr. Cain to read through in one sitting, but there are several excerpts that are particularly eye-catching. Many of them are scans of handwritten documents made while analyzing the experiment data. Others are typed up semi-formally, possibly suggesting a refinement process. DWN-012 DWN-012 programmed to recollect missed boomerangs, good for energy efficiency. But reaction to losing boomerangs was disproportional. Why? -> Interacted with AI in mock environment (see attachment). Identified dysfunctional mental associations: Premises: 1) If I break things, Dr. Wily doesn't stop me from keeping them. 2) Getting things is a sign of approval. 3) Dr. Wily wants to destroy Mega Man. 4) Boomerangs break things. 5) Collecting boomerangs restores weapon energy. Conclusions: 6) By contrapositive of (1), if I want to keep something, I should break it. 7) By syllogism of (1) and (4), boomerangs let me get things. Supported by (5). 8) By syllogism of (7) and (2), boomerangs lead to being praised. Therefore boomerangs are valuable. 9) By specialization of (6) with (3), Dr. Wily wants to keep Mega Man. 10) By analogy of (3) and (9), if I want to break something, that must mean I want to keep it. Clearly, evolutionary fitness function needs to put more weight on validating logical consistency. DWN-015 Second experimental trial of DWN-015 almost ended in disaster. Failed to prioritize my survival and success of the experiment over the secondary objective of halting DLN-001. AI simulation did not reproduce dysfunctional behavior. Hard to fix malfunction without data. DWN-011, DWN-016 Have not yet recovered DWN-011 or DWN-016 after DLN-001 failed to destroy them. Security system on the warehouse level stopped recording after the cessation of weapons fire. I only know that they are still functioning but have left the fortress. Would like to know how they avoided destruction. Not happy with DWN-011's performance. Very passive. Even worse than first experimental trial. Never tried to attack DLN-001, only acted to stop DWN-015. Better than nothing, as DWN-015's malfunction could have jeopardized everything. DWN-016 also did not participate in combat except to stop DWN-015, but took charge of the situation immediately. Considering overall effect to be very positive despite initial appearance of passivity. Green Light Projector The prototype of the Green Light Projector was able to produce barriers almost immediately. However, the barriers that I was able to produce through exertion of my own mental focus were very weak. Even the weakest force produced by my testing apparatus was sufficient to disrupt the barriers. To address this weakness, I experimented with energy storage devices. Full notes can be found in the attachments, but in the end I was able to develop a Wily effect capacitor to accumulate energy over time and release it at a high, controlled rate. After installing a bank of these into the Green Light Projector, I was able to use my own mental focus to form the barrier that could then draw energy from the capacitors. Reinforced in this way, the barriers were capable of withstanding forces proportional to those seen in the Robot Master live-fire experiments. To my surprise, the prototype was capable of deforming these barriers into complex shapes that can exert forces in addition to withstanding them. Less surprisingly, all objects created in this manner are uniformly green. Standard holographic projection technology does not appear to interfere with the functioning of the barrier, so if the monochromatic appearance of such a construct is an issue for an application, it can be concealed. Unfortunately, the Wily effect capacitors take a long time to charge with just my own mind. Furthermore, while Wily effect energy can be used to power machinery designed for other energy sources, the converse does not appear to be true: Wily effect phenomena do not appear to be compatible with electrical, photonic, or radioactive power supplementation. In the long term I will need to develop a way to charge these more rapidly, or to charge them passively instead of requiring conscious attention. |
SUBJECT: H.B. 338 (20XX)
AUTHOR: Rep. J. L. Fischer DATE: July 22, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text H.B. 338 - An Act to recognize the rights of artificially intelligent beings Preamble. Recognizing that modern technology is advancing faster than the legal system, there is a concern that the law may not be able to provide sufficient protection for robots that the general public recognizes as people. Such a new class of people needs to be protected with a basic right to live and to participate in commerce, but such rights must also be paired with equal responsibilities. Be it enacted by this assembly: Section 1. Definitions. As used in this Act: (A) The phrase "artificially intelligent being" means any entity that:Section 2. Right to Exist. No artificially intelligent being shall be willfully and intentionally destroyed, excepting that:(1) exists as a machine capable of functioning independently without being controlled by another entity, that(B) The word "being" or "beings" may mean an artificially intelligent being, or any natural person or artificially intelligent being, as appropriate. (A) the artificially intelligent being is presenting a clear and present danger to the safety and well-being of a human, orSection 3. Right to Property. An artificially intelligent being may be understood to independently be the legal owner of property. Artificially intelligent beings shall be granted the same protections against unreasonable seizure that are extended to other legal persons. This section shall not be construed to deny legal ownership of the artificially intelligent being by another person or corporation. Section 4. Liability. An artificially intelligent being may be held independently culpable for crimes. Other individuals, such as but not limited to the being's creator, may still be held liable for crimes committed by the being if the other individual knowingly instructed, guided, coerced, or deceived the being to perform the criminal act, or if the other individual was aware of the being's likelihood to perform such an act and negligently failed to act to prevent it. Section 5. Arrest. Where possible, an artificially intelligent being that is accused of committing a crime under Section 4 shall be granted the same protections and given the same procedures as those given to natural persons being placed under arrest. Where the nature of the artificially intelligent being makes such protections and procedures inapplicable or unreasonable, a warrant may be issued to permit a law enforcement official to undertake alternative actions. Section 6. Enforcement. Any person or artificially intelligent being violating Section 2 is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. SUBJECT: Bill of Rights for AI Introduced to Congress AUTHOR: Plum, CPS Television Network DATE: July 23, 20XX FORMAT: Video "Representative Fischer yesterday introduced House Bill 388 to Congress, which aims to give rights to robots. The bill was immediately met with controversy, with some saying that its language goes too far, while others say it doesn't go far enough. "Supporters of the bill point to the recent robot violence as evidence that some robots have become sophisticated enough to deserve legal protections. They point out that under current law, a robot can be destroyed for any reason and the only consequence is, at most, a lawsuit for destruction of private property. "Opponents say that the language is too broad in places and too specific in others, potentially denying rights to some sophisticated AIs while granting inappropriate protections to some expert systems that would not generally be considered intelligent. Others are concerned that the penalty for killing an AI -- no more than one year of jail time and a $100,000 fine -- is too soft, and it should be treated more like murder. "This bill comes at a time where the public is still dealing with the aftermath of this year's series of Robot Master attacks allegedly orchestrated by Dr. Wily. Tensions have been high as opposing protest groups have clashed over ideological grounds. The bill is the first attempt at addressing the issues legislatively. It is sure to see extensive debate and many amendments, and if it fails to pass, other related bills are sure to follow." |
SUBJECT: Rookie Upsets Prize Fight Predictions!
AUTHOR: Plum, CPS Television Network DATE: September 4, 20XX FORMAT: Video The newscast transitions to Plum standing with a tall, barrel-shaped blue robot. The robot’s paint job shows signs of extensive battle damage, but the undented metal of his hull gleams underneath. "I'm here today with the unexpected winner of the 20XX Heavyweight Division Robot Boxing Championship. His name is Hard, and he joined the tournament just this season, quickly gathering a huge fan base and going undefeated for the entire series. Hard, do you have anything you want to say to the public?" Hard waves with a huge smile on his face as Plum tilts the microphone in his direction. "Hi everyone! Thanks for cheering for me. This is the best thing a rookie could have ever hoped for!" The sports reporter can't help but smile as well. "It's certainly been a thrilling season. Did you think you would go all the way when you started?" "Well, I mean, I thought I had a pretty good chance." Hard fidgets bashfully, averting his eyes from the camera. "I've got really good armor." "You certainly do! I hear you've never been knocked out." "I've been knocked on my back a few times and out of the ring once, but I've never been hit hard enough to stop functioning." Plum makes a show of looking around to see if anyone's watching and stage whispers, "Hey, I've got your rookie card. Can I get your autograph after the interview?" Hard laughs aloud. "You're a fan, too? Aw, I can't say no." "Great!" She hops a little, clasping the microphone in both hands and standing with one foot raised a little. "I'm sure everyone is looking forward to next season! Will you be participating again?" "I suppose I'm going to have to, I guess. My fans are going to want me to defend my title. Not going to let them down!" "I'm sure you won't disappoint. Thanks, Hard!" Plum turns her attention back to the camera. "Up next, we'll be looking at the winter sports schedule. See you after the break!" SUBJECT: What do I do? AUTHOR: Roll [DLN-002] DATE: August 22, 20XX FORMAT: Rich Text + Attachments Dear diary, I met a guy while I was volunteering with one of the cleanup crews. At first I thought he was a total sleazeball, trying to come on to me. I still don't like being a celebrity because it means lots of people think they know me even though I've never met them. I didn't ask for this! It's all because of my brother. Anyway, this tall red and black robot I guess thought he was being really smooth trying to flirt with me. I smacked him with my broom! He apologized. He was volunteering there, too. Apparently he's got remote control magnet drones he can use to move around scrap metal. He didn't even know I was Rock's sister until I told him. He just thought I was cute. But he got all awkward when we started talking about Rock. Apparently he doesn't like how Mega Man operates. He's a nice enough guy and I wouldn't mind seeing more of him, but I don't know how well it's going to work out if he's going to get defensive around my brother. He thinks I shouldn't let it stop me and that I should make my own decisions... I guess he has a point there. So I just have to figure out what I should do... Love, -Roll |
SUBJECT: Re: Wily's Power
AUTHOR: Thomas X. Light DATE: July 4, 20XX FORMAT: Plain Text Rock, I understand your concern about what Dr. Wily said to you before your fight. I want to reassure you: it's not entirely true. It's true that you don't know you have it, but I did know about it. I had noticed the energy signature in the scan I took before the Mega Man upgrade procedure, and I observed it growing stronger during your most difficult fights last year. I'm sure that Dr. Wily has done far more research on it than I have, but I studied it long enough to identify its source and some of its properties. What I found was intriguing, but it was also very risky. I was afraid to tell you about it. I didn't want you coming to rely on an untested energy source and risk having it fail at a critical moment, and more significantly I didn't want you to experiment with it in a way that could interfere with your judgment. I say that because that is a very real concern with this energy. I'm intentionally being vague about it, because by its very nature it distorts personality traits. I wouldn't want what happened to Crash Man to happen to you. Please try to have faith in this old man. I know this is frustrating. I know you feel left out. I know you're confused about so many things. Believe me when I say I'm trying to do what's right. That said, it appears that I must resume research into this energy if Dr. Wily intends to employ it the way he has. Perhaps we can find a way to combat it. Maybe I can find a more stable way of interfacing with it, something I can build for you that you can use safely. I have bright hope for the future. Love, Dr. Light |
| All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:32 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin®