[Coda]

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.

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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.