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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
Games by Coda (updated 10/1/2023 - New game: Adrift)
Art by Coda (updated 8/25/2022 - beatBitten and All-Nighter Simulator)

Mega Man: The Light of Will (Mega Man / Green Lantern crossover: In the lead-up to the events of Mega Man 2, Dr. Wily has discovered emotional light technology. How will his creations change how humankind thinks about artificial intelligence? Sadly abandoned. Sufficient Velocity x-post)
Old Posted 11-04-2017, 01:40 AM Reply With Quote