RS - Arent We Alike

[]-----[] PROLOGUE []-----[]


In the year 20XX, Robots and Humans lived peacefully together. Subservient though robots were to mankind, they neither wished, nor had the ability to turn against their masters. Mechaniloids, the lowest leveled intelligent of the robot hierarchy were used to handle the most remedial and hazardous of tasks, making them invaluable, but meriting them the littlest of respect and thanks. Centered, in the hierarchy were the Robots known simply as such; having very little to close resemblances to humans, these robots were given the task of caring for their living counterparts, working tasks that require some level of creative thinking and communication.

Then there were the “others.”

Robots though having near human qualities and developed personalities, could not compare to those rare creations that had somehow moved beyond their programming limitations and were given a form of freedom that could only be described by humans as “souls.” These robotic entities would be considered the prototypes of what the future would someday call “Reploids.” Their ability to think, feel and learn, though synthetic in nature, far surpassed their own kind, and would become untouchable to their creators. It was because of this, and humans inherited fear of things it cannot control, that many began to regulate the creation of robots, and were determined to never allow them an inch of space to breathe (though, as one would expect, they didn’t NEED to breathe.) and thus the standard rules of robotics were placed as safeguards

Created though they were by a science fiction author these rules were sound, and as fiction became reality, they became the standards in which all Fourth-Generation and above robots would follow:

Rule #1 – A robot must never harm a human being, or through inaction allow harm to come to a human being.

Rule #2 – A robot must follow the instructions of a human being without the violation of the first rule of Robotics.

Rule #3 – A robot must protect itself, without violating the first and second rule of robotics.


However, no one gave thought towards the idea that someday, one of their own kind would betray them, and set loose upon the world an army of truly heartless killing machines.


[]-----[]


Dr. Thomas Light, pioneer father of scientists everywhere had once worked with an equally brilliant scientist from Germany named Albert Wily. It was the turning point of technology when Light and Wily had created the first ever artificial intelligence program powerful enough to replicate human qualities. Working tirelessly they constructed the body of a young boy and gave him the end results of their lifelong efforts - only to be disappointed by the aggressive nature the robotic boy displayed. Wrecking havoc on the laboratory, the boy was crushed by a device within the labs. It was later believed by Doctor Light that had it not been stopped there, it would have surely turned it’s hostilities towards them.

Looking at the battered form of the boy, the two doctors began to contemplate what could have possibly gone wrong. Light concluded that it had to have been the guidance chip within that caused the AI to recklessly destroy all around him. Distraught by such an accusation, Dr. Wily tried to reassure Dr. Light that it simply had to have been something else, not the very piece he placed the greatest effort in programming.

Unconvinced by Wily’s plea, Dr. Light merely shrugged off his partner’s absolution and told him the plans would be redone. Hesitant and though clearly distraught, Wily agreed to dispose of them himself.

Wily returned to the lab the very same night, his mind still heavy with grief and frustration. Wily lifted the plans from their place and scanned over them once more. “No,” he wondered aloud. “No, this vould not have caused za trouble. I programmed it perfectly! Doctah Light must have done something vrong, he is blaming ME for his own mistakes!”

The lights flickered on as Wily began to pocket the guidance system plans and Doctor Light appeared, he fumed angrily not only at the words he heard from Wily’s mouth, but the idea he would risk potentially harming someone or even himself to prove them. “Doctor Wily! What are we doing with those plans?”

“Zar iz nothing vrong wit zhem doctah Light!” Wily growled. “YOU are za problem! YOU probably blamed ME to cover your own mistakes zo YOU could take all za credit!” He backed away from his advancing partner. With one violent shove, he threw a cart filled with metallic scrap and pieces at Light, causing the doctor to fall over in his path to Wily. Wily ran towards the hanger; he paused only momentarily to pick up the small de-activated boy robot, then fled the door sealed behind him.

“DOCTOR WILY NO!” Light called as he reached the locked doors. “You can’t use those plans!” he implored, his fists pounded uselessly against it as he heard the sound of an engine being started. “They are dangerous!”


[]-----[]

Wily could not even begin to remember how many months it had been since he fled from the confining restraints of society, all he knew was that he was free; free from the judgmental eyes and voices of those who thought him mad.

Dr. Light hadn’t been the first to judge him so harshly. Doctor Light had been his namesake to Wily for a very long time. He trusted Light, he knew a man of such brilliance should clearly be able to see his own potential.

Dr Light had given him a chance where all the others would not, and now even that dream; that pitiful dream of working with him was gone.

Wily sat tiredly in his broken down recliner, he was forced to leave his comfortable home in New York for fear of being hunted down by the authorities; now his home consisted of a small maintenance room inside of a sewer. He watched the TV idly as the news reporter announced the weather conditions above. “Pah,” he muttered, and stood up, his body was too restless for sitting, he needed to pace. He stepped carefully amongst the pieces of junk and electronics spewed along the floor, making sure he would not damage a single bit of the potentially useful equipment. “Zhey hated me, always!” he whispered. “Even vhen I vas a little boy za other children vould make fun of me... It didn’t even stop vhen...” His throat clenched and he turned his head away, tears threatening to fall from his tired old eyes. “N-NO!” he cried out. “No I vill not allow myself to be distracted!” he stormed his way to the nearest table where a near completed robot in gray and red lay inactive, it’s eyes shielded by a black visor. “Za other children laughed at me because of my appearance, zay laughed at me because I vos too poor to have any toys! Vell I have toys now, bigger toys, ROBOT TOYS. And zay will regret ever laughing at me!”


[]-----[]

Months earlier, Doctor light sat in his laboratory in the dead of night, ceaselessly writing, scratching out - and then throwing away in frustration pieces of paper that quickly filled the wastebasket beside him. These last few days had been terribly hard on the doctor, he could not stop thinking about Dr. Wily, or the plans. Slowly his eyes moved along the paper, these plans would never do. They lacked stability, they lacked life.

His eyes shifted slowly to the disk laying beside him. “No,” he told him over again. “No I will not use those plans, ever. No.” Dr. Wily had the originals, but the backup remained with Light, hidden away in that protective diskette. He frowned again, and slowly rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I couldn’t possibly...” he began again. “They are dangerous, what would happen if the same thing occurred?”

Dr. Light stood up and reached for the disk, he plucked it up and stared with a sullen expression at the source of all his stress. “I should dispose of it.” He whispered. “Dispose of it, and never think about it again.” He moved to his computer and slid the disk into the drive, he wiggled the mouse and the screen came to life from idle mode. He double clicked an icon and a prompt appeared. He thought for a moment how the rest of his companions laughed at him for using such a low end operating system, how even though he himself had designed it, he left the GUI as the secondary option, and stuck to simply typing out his commands.

He frowned deeper, there was one who did not laugh.

“Vell Doctah Light, it beats using zat awful vindows or shutters or votever it’s called.”

Dr. Light sighed, he remembered it as a kind of kissing up to him, but he laughed, and Wily laughed with him. He looked at the screen once more and began to type:

>>LDOS (Light Disk Operating System)
>>cmd login T.Light
>>pw?
>>*******
>>OK.
>>C:\
>>C:\A:\
>>A:\
>>A:\del *.*
>>A:\*.*, Are you sure? (Y/N)?

How long had he wanted to do this? Ever since that night, when he was angry and in panic? He didn’t though, he didn’t because he thought Wily would return and realize his mistake. He had hoped Wily would do this himself. It was long since pass now, now there was no excuse, no reason to keep it.

>>A:\*.*, Are you sure? (Y/N)?
>>A:\*.*, Are you sure? (Y/N)? N

“Perhaps, perhaps if I look at it myself, I could pinpoint where he went wrong...” he said aloud, he nodded to himself. “Yes, yes perhaps that is a good idea. For future reference.” He typed once more and brought the file up. Slowly, as the near infinite string of writing scrolled, he began to nod. “Yes, yes, ingenious. Remarkable work, but where is the mistake?”

Hours passed, soon the sun rose into the sky and still the doctor continued to scan and read until finally he saw the ‘mistake’.

“M-My word... What would have possessed him to...?” He read it over, and over again, it was unbelievable, impossible to imagine that such a mistake could be made. “It was perfect, all he needed to do was add those two lines... Why wouldn’t he?”

The doctor slowly slouched over the keyboard and leaned his head into his hands. Now he was left with a new problem, and a question he would only understand later in his life.

Why would Doctor Wily leave the first and second rules of robotics out?

[]-----[]CHAPTER 1[]-----[]



It was around three o’clock in the morning by the time the bus had pulled into the station just at the borders of New York City. The people aboard tiredly lined up, they pulled their belongings out from above the storage compartments and began to make their way outside. Amongst them was a young teenage boy, who remained sitting and waited for the crowd to slowly disperse. Dressed in a pair of faded blue jeans that concealed his somewhat bulky robotic legs, a grey t-shirt with a faded logo of some long forgotten band and plaid blue and white button up shirt that served as a jacket, Megaman stared longingly outside from his window seat towards the quiet countryside just outside of the city.

It had been days since he had seen his father and his sister, this time away had humbled his feelings towards them considerably. He missed their laughter, their faces and their voices – perhaps - he thought idly; this trip had been what he needed to calm himself after what had happened at the smelting plant those weeks ago.

Mega stood up from his seat and reached above himself, he picked up the graying locker bag he had taken with him on the trip and hung it over his right shoulder. It was empty now; he had long since eaten his snacks along the trip back. He walked to the front of the empty bus and gave a friendly wave to the driver who had taken him the last segment of the way home. He stepped onto the pavement and felt a cool breeze run over him, he looked back to see the bus had already taken off towards the inner city without a moment hesitation.

The trip had been an important one. Mega knew he could have easily done it in less than a day with a plane or even with Rush, but he wanted to savor his time returning and instead opted for a slower method of transit. This gave him time to think; that’s all he really wanted.

Mega looked down the road leading to the suburbs and smiled. It would take him at least another hour to walk to Dr. Light’s lab but that was fine by him, he wasn’t sure he wanted to wake his father in the middle of the night. He shifted the empty bag strap on his shoulder and began to walk.

The sounds of the city grew quieter as Mega walked; being replaced instead by crickets chirping and bullfrogs croaking. The artificial lighting from the streetlamps soon became scarce as he distanced himself from them, this was fine; the moonlight would guide him the rest of the way home.

His mind slowly began to wander from the beauty of his surroundings and instead tried to focus on the memory of the person he had tried to forget these two weeks: Protoman. Ever since his brother had pretended to side with him, Mega had found himself feeling less and less willing to confront him in combat. He remembered the feeling of happiness and love he felt when he had let himself finally believe that Protoman had changed. He remembered afterwards, how angry he had been at his father for insisting he give his brother a chance, he remembered the haunting expression on Protoman’s face when they battled over the spilled slag and Mega spared his life under a lie that it was merely returning the favor. It hurt him terribly; it had been the first form of betrayal Mega had ever experienced on such a personal level, but he could not kill his brother.

He had subconsciously taken a shortcut through a small park in the middle of the suburbs and walked along the path most shielded by trees and bushes. It was by pure coincidence that he had shifted out of his thoughts long enough to hear the crack of a branch breaking behind him.

He whirled around quickly and glared into the darkness. “Who’s there?” He called out. “Show yourself.”
“Hey, relax bro.” a coy voice responded. “It’s just me.”
“...Protoman.”

Megaman’s brother slowly came into the dim moonlight and smiled sardonically at the blue bomber. His armored features were obscured by the black trenchcoat he wore, but Megaman knew Protoman was geared for a fight, he was always ready to fight. The glistening moonlight reflected sinisterly off Protoman’s sunglasses, which kept his eyes well hidden. “None other, brother.”

It was at this moment that Megaman felt complete clarity at how defenseless he was without his armor on. He took a step backwards as Protoman moved closer. “You’ve been following me.” Megaman declared. “From the bus station, haven’t you?”

“Maybe,” Proto responded, a smirk formed over his lips. “Maybe even before that brother. You really didn’t seem intent on catching other people’s eyes on that bus did you?”

Megaman felt a cold sweat come over him. How long had Protoman been tailing him? Did he ride the entire way with him from Dr. Cossack’s home? No, impossible – surely he would have seen him. The silence Megaman was struck with seemed to fuel Protoman’s aggression with the situation. He enjoyed rendering his brother speechless; it was so rare a thing to happen. “What’s the matter Mega-bro? Do you think I’d let you out of my sight for too long?”

“...And why did you follow me Protoman? Looking for an ample time to ambush me?” Mega retorted harshly. Though his previous unwillingness to face his brother was still there, he instead flooded himself with anger, forced himself to feel wronged by the idea of being stalked for so long.

“If I had wanted to do that, I would have already done it. There were plenty of opportunities TO do it.” Protoman stepped closer to his brother, purposefully breaking the space between them. “I’ll follow you around, If I want to follow you around bro, in fact, I’ve been noticing a bit of a change in you.”

“A change? What do you mean ‘a change’?” Megaman growled back, his synthetic heart hammered in his chest the closer Protoman moved to him. He watched Protoman circle him slowly, almost predatory.

“Yeah a change, I’ve been noticing how weird you’ve been acting. You’ve been growing more distant from them, you’ve been THINKING, which is a nice achievement for you bro.” he laughed. “I’m assuming, you’re FINALLY letting it sink in?” Again, Megaman remained silent, he didn’t know what Protoman was talking about, he couldn’t possibly know what’s been going on in his mind. “You were bound to figure it out eventually.”

Growing frustrated, Megaman responded angrily. “Figure WHAT out?”

“Ha! Still in the dark huh? Do I need to spell it out for you? You and I! we’re so alike; I mean we ARE brothers. It’s about time you started realizing that, and figuring out why I do what I do.”

“Oh I know why you do what you do Protoman,” Megaman retorted. “Because you’re a scumbot, that’s why. Just like all the rest of Wily’s goons.”

Protoman cackled and he shook his head in disbelief. “Bro, bro, bro... You still don’t get it do you? Still living in that make-believe world of yours, do you really think they care?”

Megaman tilted his head slightly, though his expression of resentment and loathing didn’t change. “Who?”

“The humans, Bro. Who else?” It was Megaman’s time to laugh, and he did so with such joyous relief that it seemed to take Protoman aback slightly. “And what’s so funny?” he demanded.

“You, Protoman.” Megaman smirked. “You never stop preaching on and on about how much you hate people and yet, you’re working for one. One that mistreats you, and uses you. If you ask me ‘bro’ I think you’re the one who needs to open his eyes.” Mega turned his back to Proto; he knew that insult would cause some form of retaliation from Protoman and fully expected to be shot or punched for it. He just didn’t care.

“I don’t work for Wily,” Protoman growled, he rounded on his brother and sneered at him from the front. “I stick around because -I- feel like it.”

“You’re his lapdog.” Megaman smiled mockingly, he took vindictive pleasure from Protoman’s anger, despite being in this compromising position. “Sorry Protoman, you’re not going to twist me with your words.”

“You’ll learn, you’ll learn just like I did.” Protoman smirked. “You’re already learning how much fun it is to be evil.” Megaman raised his eyebrow to his brother’s words, which merited a laugh from Protoman. “Admit it, you’ve always enjoyed tearing up those dumb-bots of Wily, and you’ve been starting to really like it now huh? Just look at you, taking pleasure in your poor brothers hardships in life.” He chuckled. “Aren’t we alike.”

The smirk on Megaman’s face was wiped entirely from it. It dawned on him just how terrible Protoman’s words were; how accurate and terrible. The smile he had on his face reminded him of someone else when he saw his own reflection in Protoman’s visor – It was his brothers smile; the one he wore when he did the horrible things he does. He remained silent, his face contorted from a blank expression to one of growing distaste.

“You think about that for a while bro, you think about just how much you really mean to them too. Especially Doctor Light, does he really care? If he did, why does he keep sending you into battle against us big bad bots? - You’re his tool Mega-bro.” Protoman purred these last words to him as he purposefully broke their space to wrap one arm around Mega’s. The sensation brought a shuttering gasp from Mega; his brother’s hand was icy cold and the touch felt offensive, almost like a mocking reminder of his lies from that day two weeks ago.

“You’re wrong.” Megaman whispered, his voice suddenly unsteady. He forcibly shrugged off Protoman’s arm.

“Shielded, you’ve been shielded from the real nature of these creatures.” He scoffed. “You live in this BORING suburban area, ha! I’m surprised Dr. Light doesn’t feed you with a ba-ba little brother. You need to experience what it’s really like. You will someday.” Protoman reached a hand out and touched Megaman’s face, gliding his fingers along his right cheek eerily. The younger robot shivered uncomfortably – how pleasurable this moment was to Protoman; he wanted to remember the expression of unhappiness and horror on Megaman’s face forever. “My poor little brother, so blind.”

“D-don’t touch me.” Megaman jerked his head slightly away from Protoman, his eyes betraying his feelings. Why was he afraid? Why did this bother him so much? Protoman’s hand reached out once more for Mega’s face but stopped short of touching him again; his grin widened at Megaman flinching away. A moment passed, then his smile relaxed, and he turned away.

“Till next time, brother.” Protoman flicked his scarf over his shoulder and walked back into the darkness.


He was gone.


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YouTube video of the coloring (Now with an even MORE NEW intro! You get to hear my voice for all of 2 seconds! Snazzy! Wow!) - [link]


Oh look, another story Liz'll never finish. Although this could be considered an ending in and of itself. If you think you're smelling a bit of slash and man love there, you should trust your senses, because that's how this story was initially going to be written. But as ~DarkHedgehog23 has pointed out before - I don't really allow myself to just give into carnal fapperies. (He didn't state it like that, that sounds too awesome.) So i accidentally a plot of angst, darkness and a side of RS-Mega we've only seen touched upon very lightly by most Mega/Proto stories. You know me, I ruin old saturday morning cartoons and turn them into pits of despair and violence... It's what I do. :3

Obvious alterations to a few episodes are obvious, the primary being the idea that Dr. Wily took the boy robot. The reasoning for that should be plainly obvious that it doesn't even need to be stated. It'll get touched upon as I progress in the tale. (up to 13 pages so far! There's hope for this one!)

Made Proto's hair red here, just for ~General-RADIX because she helped me bounce some future ideas her way and came up with some fantastic ones of her own. (Sorry about the 3 Rules of Robotics being there. I know you hate them. </3)