Cain shifted against his cane, trying to put some of the weight off his aging body, and glanced around the ruins he was exploring for fossils on Mesozoic plant life to prove his theory. His colleges had made fun of him for trying to find such findings, but he ignored them. However, ever since he had arrived and begun to dig around this area, about a month ago, he had been getting an odd feeling from the area - like death.
Turning his head, he gazed across the horizon and watched the red sun floating down below his view. It would be dark in less than fifteen minutes so Cain turned off his scanners; stepping back, he moved towards his tent, pulled out a cylinder. Holding it over some wood he had gathered earlier, he broke the cylinder and sparks flew down, causing the wood to catch on fire. As the fire began to pick up, Cain sat down on a rock, giving out a weary sigh as his body protested his being out here.
Cain was in his late fifties and had no hair on his head anymore. He had a white beard growing down from his face, but it wasn't fluffy or well taken care of. His right leg was crippled in an dig accident some years back and he never really regained the use of it. While Cain still stood up straight, his back ached in protest and in about a year, Cain knew he would begin to hunch over. He predicted he had about six to seven years left in him.
Being a brilliant scientist for his time, Cain was on no level with the deceased Doctor Light. While Cain was an excellent builder and designed some robots in the past - no robots that passed the levels of the ones from Dr. Light's time, due to the fact records were lost from the devastating World War III that had hit the world. Records were too sketchy from about ten years ago and only old men like himself ever knew what had happened. That's why Cain and a few of his colleges were on a level of their own in the science department while men who were just children in the war knew nothing of creating robots. The world had entered a dark age of which only the older generation could help it through.
That's why Cain felt funny about this area he was working in. There was something strange about it. Like a secret was laying around here that could change the world forever - and for the better. Cain shivered, also knowing that following the feeling was a feeling of death. But his curious side refused to let him leave. Looking up from his entry, Cain looked over at the ruins of a hill - it was damaged severely, obviously from some type of explosion that had ripped through it. Cain assumed it was a battle wound from World War III, but perhaps it was even older than that. Maybe Dr. Light's time? Yes, that would do nicely...
Laying down his journal entry, Cain hobbled inside his tent as night completely fell. Tomorrow was April 9th and for some reason, he considered it to be the beginning of something to change the world forever.
The hill's explosion was obviously older than World War III and the Robotic Wars. No doubt, it happened in Dr. Light's time. Cain smiled as he leaned against the scanner for support, remembering how young he was back then. Perhaps it was even a battle resulting from Mega Man and Dr. Wily.
However, while the fantasy was fascinating, the explosion had made the hill uneven and unsafe. The soil was loose and shifted under his steps and climbing around the many obstacles that it presented was challenging. At one time, there could have been something built into the hill, probably a building of some sort, that ran underground too as well as above ground, which could explain the strange unbalance of the area. And when whatever caused the hill to explode, probably blasts to the building's reactors or generators, it blew it away in a strange, odd angle. Cain doubted anything of the building survived in there - until his scanner beeped.
Pulling himself off the scanner, Cain glanced over it's readings. Some metallic reading was coming off from E-46 of the hill, buried several feet under the ground. Obviously something of the building HAD survived. But it could be only a wall or something - - - then again, if that was the case, then why wasn't there more readings? No, this was definitely some sort of machinery, not any part of the building that was once here. Unless...it was a laboratory. Cain bent down and picked up his cane. Hobbling over to E-46, he gazed down. Yes, tomorrow he would begin to dig here.
A slight shift in the breeze caught his attention and he glanced up the side of the old hill. A robot and a dog were standing there, looking down at him. Blinking his tired eyes, he glanced again but saw nothing. Sighing, Cain shook his head. "You're getting old..." he muttered to himself and hobbled back to his camp.
Cain watched his digging machine, nicknamed 'Shovel Drive', cut through the ground at E-46, throwing aside mounds of dirt, rock, and minerals. He walked around the area the dirt was landing, shifting his cane to lean against it again as he watched the progress from a new angle, the hole getting deeper. He estimated they already had gone down a good two meters. How many more could there be?
Suddenly the Shovel Drive did a beep and collapsed into the ground, a cloud of dust blowing up, causing Cain to cough violently. When the dust began to blow away in the wind, he stepped up and peered over the hole and saw the insides of some sort of structure - a floor.
Grabbing a ladder, he lowered it into the ground and then threw his cane down the hole. Gripping the rungs of the ladder, he threw himself over the side and began to climb down, using his left leg and arms to move down, letting his right leg hang limp. By the time he reached the ground and picked up his cane, he was panting, exhausted from the sheer work of having to do all that.
Blinking his eyes and trying to get them adjusted to the dark, he saw his Shovel Drive first, broken and smoke rising from it from the fall. It was old, after all, but it should have survived that fall.
Cain walked over it as his eyes finally adjusted and he saw he was inside the ruins of an old lab. The area was devastated from some sort of attack that had obviously shredded it and buried everything that was in here. He walked along the areas he could, trying to avoid the debris scattered around, until finally he reached a desk that had papers on it, preserved from aging but damaged from the lab's destruction. This had obviously been a serious attack - he wondered if anyone in here survived.
Picking up the papers, Cain pulled out a light from his pocket and flashed it on them. They were hand written and obviously more than a few decades old. He glanced over them, reading bits and pieces, until he came to a signature. Dr. Thomas Light. Cain felt like he had been hit by a wall of bricks. This was Dr. Light's LAB he was standing in. He glanced around in awe at the lab and in visioned how it must have looked like long ago. He remembered briefly when he was younger learning of Dr. Light's death and the destruction of the lab, but couldn't recall up the details.
He shivered at the thought of Dr. Light's remains might still be in the lab, along with whatever creations he kept with him at the time. Cain glanced back down at the notes, trying to forget that thought, and began to read them, losing track of time as he did so. The notes referred to a break through in recreating something. The plans were titled 'reploid' and it seemed that this creation went beyond that of a robot, like Mega Man. It referred to it's location, somewhere in the lab, even deeper than this area. On the last few pages, Cain read Dr. Light's concern of his aging and knew he wouldn't be around to see X and he hoped his creations would teach the young reploid well - but to make sure nothing terrible happened, everything had to be kept from X in the event of causing damage to his programming. Light had built several capsules with his AI in it to simulate himself to the fullest, so if X ever came across these capsules, he would be able to talk to him in a manner of speakign. These capsules were hidden throughout the world, thanks to Protoman. Cain frowned as Light's expressed concern that X never have to find these. And that was it. Nothing more was readable.
Cain glanced up and looked around the room. He would have to move more machinery in here and find the capsule Light referred to. Perhaps this reploid plan survived.
Turning around and leaning against his cane, he looked up at the ladder and frowned. Looks like he was going to have to CLIMB back out...dammit.
He leaned back and let his thoughts drift. Dr. Thomas Light and Dr. Albert Wily were geniuses of their time. What they managed to accomplish, no one had ever done. There had been a century of fighting almost, the few records seem to indicate, before their time and the world was ready for a new age. That's when the two men created Protoman (Blues). And from there a new line of robots rose, each stronger and more humanlike for the rest - except for Rock, Roll, and Blues, who were on a level of their own. Until Bass. He could bend the rules and had a will of his own, which had been engulfed by the dark energy from space and sent him on a jealous spree to kill Mega Man. Cain didn't know what the outcome of all that was, but did remember that when Dr. Light and all his creations died and the same with Wily, trouble began to brew with the robots of the world. And later on the Robotic Wars broke out. A horrible time, robots fought each other for man when France continued to build their robotic fleets. All robots were destroyed in the war. The Robotic Museum was the only thing that survived that era with all their robots in it. Cain always wondered how the Robotic Museum retained the right to hold onto robots, but they did. And it was still a famous tourist site today.
World War III broke out shortly after the Robotic Wars. France rebelled at the destruction of their robots and placed the world into a time of war and chaos. Most of the world's knowledge was destroyed, thrusting the world into a new dark age which slowly recovered and began to build again. And this brought Cain back to the present in his thoughts. Just like in Light's time, the world had just exited a time of war and was ready for peace. Perhaps, just like in Light's time, whatever Cain discovered could do that for the world today.
The lab groaned from the shifting of it's structures and Cain looked over at the machines and saw that they had uncovered a passage that was still in one piece. Light must have had it double fortified in case something ever happened to the lab. Standing up, he leaned against his cane and fished out a controller, aiming at the diggers and switching them off.
Hobbling over to the passage, Cain glanced down the hallway, and smelled the air that was musty with age. It made him pause and reflect on what could be down here after so many years, but he ventured on, hobbling down to an elevator pad that was switched off to reserve power. Pressing the on switch, he watched the elevator pad switch online, obviously on reserve power from the rest of the lab, and flicker online. Stepping onto the pad, he rode down ten feet to the second level of the lab and gazed out at the capsule that sat before him. He found it!
He walked over to it and looked over the capsule, which sealed the reploid beneath from his sight. He glanced over all the controls and saw that the capsule's warning message was flashing, but the light next to it was green, as if indicating it was okay to open. He read the warning that flashed repeatedly onto the data pad. Supposedly this capsule was suppose to wait for a thirty year period before opening, but Cain knew that thirty years hadn't passed yet. Yet, the indicators said it was a go to open, so he watched with an air of mystery. Unknown to him, you shouldn't play with the fates. The warning was meant for a reason...and even though the capsule indicated a go, future generation of reploids that would be based off of X would be based off his system that was not completely stable. No reploid would be put into a 30 year sleep like Light had warned, and the end result sprung up reploids going 'Maverick'.
It was late, however, so Cain held in the urge to open the capsule right there on the spot. It could take hours for the waking up process to finish and then he would have to talk to the reploid and learn more about him. But it was late already today and Cain was exhausted. Stepping back, Cain hobbled back to the elevator pad, vowing tomorrow would be the day he met Light's greatest creation...X.
X's eyes fluttered slowly and glanced over at him. Cain breathed in, wondering what the machine was thinking as he looked at him sleepily. Then he began to glance to left, then right, and then back at Cain. "...my name is X, isn't it?" he asked confused.
Cain nodded. "Yes, it is. It's a pleasure to meet you, X. I'm Dr. Cain." X blinked and nodded slowly, still looking like a little child waking up from a long, deep sleep. It seemed that when a reploid was first activated, they had to learn everything that was programmed within them. Like a child learning how to take it's first steps, so it was for a reploid, except they learned everything they needed in less than an hour. And they could learn infinite amounts afterward, from books and such.
X leaned forward, or tried to, and succeed in only falling back into the capsule. He blinked, confused, obviously knowing how to walk, but his body not having done it before still had to learn it. "Take it easy, X. From what I know about reploids, which is what you are, they have to learn everything they're programmed to do. But you'll do it rapidly, so, don't fret." X nodded slowly and leaned forward again, succeeding in getting out of the capsule, but fell towards the floor. Cain reached out and caught him, but was taken by surprise of the sheer weight of the reploid, falling to the floor.
"Oh, sor-ry!" X stuttered and pulled himself up. He lowered a shaky hand down to Cain and pulled the older man up. "I didn't mean to hurt you. ...it's just confusing trying to learn all this stuff," X told him and gazed around.
"...fascinating..." Cain muttered to himself, watching X look around the room, studying it. "Can you tell me a little about yourself?"
X glanced back at him and shrugged, smiling. "My systems seem to be working perfectly fine. I've access all the information I know on myself and saved it to a data disk inside me..." he started, walking around, testing his limits. "Then I tried to access my memory systems, but...I can't remember anything..." X frowned, disturbed. "Should I know something? All I remember is Dr. Light created me."
Cain was disappointed briefly that X wouldn't be able to tell him what had happened to Dr. Light before all this. "I wouldn't worry about it, X. I'm sure your memory will come to you later on. You've been asleep for a long time, you know."
X nodded and smiled. "So, Dr. Cain, what year is it?"
Cain blinked. "It's 2107."
X frowned and glanced around. "That's not thirty years like my systems warn about."
Cain shrugged, finding himself talking to X like he was a human, which surprised him greatly. "Well, the capsule indicated it was okay, so there's no problem there....fascinating..."
X looked at him. "What is, Dr. Cain?"
"...you. It's like I'm talking to a ... man, not a machine..." Cain said, shaking his head in disbelief.
X smiled, though a little confused. "Ah." He glanced back at the capsule and looked it over. "Seems to have taken some damage. I'm surprised it was still functional when you found me. Guess I'm...lucky."
Cain nodded. "Yes, you are. The lab above us was almost in ruins from some sort of battle. I'm not quite sure what happened up there, but it looks like it was meant to wipe out. I'm sure that was when...Dr. Light and his other creations were wiped out."
X looked pained briefly, as if recalling something. "...I remember the name Mega Man. Is that part of my name?"
Cain thought a few moments. "It was the name of Light's second creation. His name was Rock, but when he was transformed into a super weapon to defeat Dr. Wily, his name switched to Mega Man."
"...super weapon," X said, his voice full of distaste. "Well, the name holds no meaning to me then."
Cain nodded, fascinating that X had already decided he didn't like weapons and such. Perhaps that meant the reploid was for peace. And that raised Cain's hope even higher than they had been before. "X, you are a remarkable machine. Come, lets go back to my camp to talk..."
X followed Cain to the elevator pad, looking back once at the capsule, then stepped on.
Cain clucked his tongue and shook his head in disbelief at what Dr. Light had managed to create before his death. X went beyond his wildest dreams. Tomorrow morning he planned on going over the reploid designs with X to see if he could build his own reploid.
Gripping his cane and standing up, he made his way over to the tent. Also, wait until his college's saw what he had discovered, their jaws would drop open in disbelief, no doubt. This would be great. Moving inside the tent, he popped his head out once more to look at X, who was still staring at the moon. Smiling, he went inside and laid down.
And then his eyes opened, it being morning. Yawning, Cain leaned forward, amazed that he had fallen asleep so quickly. Grabbing his cane, he pulled himself up and walked out of the tent, looking around for X. He found him sitting down on a rock, his eyes closed, reserving power.
Taking his cane, he lightly tapped X, bringing the reploid online. "Hmmm? What is it?" he asked, glancing around.
Cain smiled and nodded. "Good morning, X. Time to get up. We have a busy day in front of us. Let me go grab my frying pan and shoes so I can start myself some breakfast and we'll go over your designs." He moved back into the tent and looked over at the shelf he kept his frying pan on, but it was missing. "What...?" he muttered to himself and looked around. "Damn forgetful mind, where did I put that stupid pan at?"
Looking concerned, he glanced all over the tent for the pan, scratching his bald head in concern. "...how could I have misplaced a frying pan..." he muttered to himself, knowing that he hadn't moved it from the shelf since he cooked eggs yesterday morning.
Throwing up his hands he grabbed his shoes and put them on, hearing a squish. He wiggled his toes and felt something wet and squishy inside them, so he quickly kicked them off and saw his toothpaste had been emptied into his shoes. Grabbing a towel, he wiped his feet off, fuming, and walked out of the tent. X was watching a lizard run around and turned to see Cain fuming. "...what is wrong?"
"Someone stole my frying pan and then put toothpaste in my shoes!" Cain roared.
X blinked. "But I haven't seen anyone around here all day..." he said, waving his hands over the area. Cain looked around and saw that there was, in fact, nothing in the area but a strange looking rock near his tent, which he hadn't remembered seeing there before.
"...riiiiiiiiiight," Cain muttered to himself. After he finished cleaning out his shoes and getting dressed, he went back out to X, who was playing with the lizard now.
"Feeling better?" X asked Cain, looking him over.
Cain smiled. "Yes, though that incident earlier is disturbing." He glanced around, feeling like he was being watched. "Anyway, lets run a few checks on your system and see if we can learn how Dr. Light built you, shall we?"
X nodded. "Lets do it, Doc." Over the next few hours, Dr. Cain went over the designs Dr. Light had used, growing more and more in his admiration of what the man had managed to accomplish. This was simply remarkable how the man did all this.
That evening, Cain sat back, shaking his head in admiration. "I believe, X, that if we use Dr. Light's designs as a guide, we can build our own reploid. Will you help me do it?"
X nodded. "Sure. I mean, I don't have anywhere else to go to...and I know nothing about what's out there."
Cain patted him on the shoulder, feeling his cold metal and getting a bit disturbed, since he thought of X almost like a human and not finding that human warmth. "You'll find a world of knowledge at my lab. We'll get you caught up."
X smiled. "Thanks."
Cain stood up, leaning against his cane. "We'll go to my lab tomorrow. I'm going to get something to eat and go to bed. Feel free to wander around but be ready to help me pack up my stuff into the research truck first thing in the morning." X nodded at him.
Hobbling back into his tent, Cain had a good feeling about what was to come.
Sighing, X glanced up at the evening sky, pinpointing a few stars that sparkled. He wondered why he was here...so many questions he didn't know, so many things he would like to learn, so many things...
He wandered around the area, thinking. He was the only one of his kind, to his knowledge. The only one...no one else to relate to. And there was so many fragmented memories of his past, most revolving around Mega Man, who he tried not to think about. Mega Man stood for violence to stop Dr. Wily and X felt in his soul a strong dislike toward violence.
X had a feeling history was a play that acted out the drama of fighting, violence, and war over and over. He would have to learn about it at Cain's lab. From what he heard about the Robotic Wars and World War III, it saddened him to think that man would kill one another ... and that robots killed each other until the point no more existed except in a museum.
Glancing around, X found himself standing on the hill. He walked to the edge and glanced around the area. It was barren, but for some reason he knew in his heart it was once beautiful, full of life. Sitting down, X hugged his knees and rocked back and forth, wondering about his purpose. Wondering about his past.
He heard some movement and glanced behind him, but saw nothing except an unusual rock. For some reason he felt more comforted being near the rock, and sat there throughout the night, rocking and thinking. And longing.
"Alright then, we have everything. I left a beacon here so we can come back later on with more scientists. Who knows what we'll find in Doctor Light's lab," Cain told him as he moved over to the driver's seat and pulled himself in.
X grinned and hopped into the passenger side of the truck, slamming the door shut behind him. Cain slammed his door shut also and powered up the research truck and began to drive off.
The figure then watched a rock hop after the truck and leap onto the back, making it as the truck drove off into the distance. Standing up, the figure blinked, puzzled, and glanced down at the dog beside him. "Well, Rush, that was something you don't see every day, now is it?" he asked and stepped into the light, it shining off his visor.
Protoman watched the research truck drive off completely. "Good luck, X." He then began to work his way to the hole Cain had dug into the lab and leaped down, Rush following him. Ever since the day the lab had been destroyed, Protoman and Rush had been together, even though Rush had been Mega Man's dog. Over the years, the two had grown close, probably to the point Mega Man had been with the dog. Or so Protoman would like to think.
Glancing over the lab, Protoman frowned. He knew he couldn't let a bunch of moronic scientist get their hands on Light's stuff. They wouldn't know what to do with it all. Reaching up to his neck, he felt air and frowned. He kept forgetting he no longer had the scarf around his neck, since it was lost ages ago. Sighing, he ignored the phantom tugging around his neck and worked to begin to move the lab's critical parts out of it.
Working hard, he began to transfer the dead computers, notes, and equipment up to the surface. By the time the scientist ever returned, they would only find an empty lab. Protoman dusted his hands off and grinned sadly when he accomplished this. He would leave the capsule so no one would doubt X was created by Dr. Light. It was his right to have that legacy.
About to head back up to the surface, Protoman stopped when he scanned something under the buried rubble in the corner that caused a deep pain to run through his robotic heart. Walking over there, he leaned down and began to throw the rubble aside and pulled out a young looking girl, cradling her. While robots like Protoman had limited emotions, he was far more advance than any machine and would like to think he really felt the loss of the girl inside.
"Oh, Roll..dear old Roll..." he murmured, cradling the broken robot's body. She was too far damaged critically to be repaired and it looked like she took the main blunt of the blow when the lab exploded all those years ago. Standing up, he teleported her to the surface sadly, but stopped when he glanced at the rubble where he found Roll, knowing if she took the main blunt of the blow . . . it must have been for Doctor Light.
Shaking his head, Protoman gripped the wall to his right. This was the first time he had bothered to come in here since that day. And the memories were overpowering. He tried not to think about it, but it was too hard. Too painful. Refusing to let them get Dr. Light's body, he began to dig again until he find the skeleton. It was broken, cracked, and smashed, but it was Dr. Light's. Teleporting each bone carefully to the surface, Protoman stepped back, saluted one last time, and teleported to the surface along side Rush, who howled mournfully.
Arriving on the surface, Protoman looked up at the sky and howled a painful scream of rage of what had happened. Reaching up, he threw down his visor and blinked his eyes painfully, not caring. He looked exactly like Mega Man did, no difference. He always had guessed in the past that was because Dr. Light didn't have any ideas on how to make Rock look, so he just used the same face . . . or thinking Protoman, who was also called Blues by the doc, was dead, wanted something to remember him by.
Protoman stood there without his visor, screaming, and then let his voice die down. Rush barked in concern, recognizing Proto's face as Mega Man's and concerned that his old master was still alive. Shaking his head, Protoman gripped the visor and put it back on, vowing not to take it off again until the day he came face to face with his brother, Mega Man, once again.
All this resulted in alot of chaos with the governments. The world at this time refused to do a world government situation since that meant one organization would run all the nations of the world. So, each country had its own separate government. The United States still had it's old form of government with a President, Britain kept its Parliament, but ended up losing the King/Queen image, Russia had become a government run by five individuals and so on. They all made their own decisions and what not, but when it came to matters that would affect the entire world possibly, The Council had been formed to handle this.
The Council passed laws on the scientific world and other things where a discovery could possibly change the world. The planet was already in huge economic trouble and many nations were bankrupted. It had to keep a balance that would effect a large scale. If The Council banned something, like Robots perhaps, and a nation ignored this and did a mass production, The Council had proper grounds to handle this matter by allowing nations to declare war on the nation and hopefully beat it into submission.
By no means did The Council have full power, but it would be the means of an early form of government known as CorSec, which would rise on in later years as a Military Organization that controlled all matters that could "effect the world". Later on, when EarthGov finally would be established, CorSec was under it's jurisdiction and became the world's army then, which in the end resulted in even more power to CorSec.
Cain stood next to X before the men. "I would like to introduce to The Council, X, the first of a new line of robots known as reploids, created by the deceased Dr. Light himself," he began, waving towards X.
One of the men interrupted him. "But Dr. Light has been dead for decades now..."
Cain nodded. "Yes, but I found his lab today. And there, I found X. I set up a beacon to lead a team back there as soon as one can be formed. But, X here is beyond anything we could ever imagine!"
Another one scoffed. "After the Robotic Wars, those who lived through it could imagine alot. Why would we want to start a new line of robots?"
Cain nodded. "True, but you see, X can think and make decisions for himself, plus he has emotions. He's basically human but in the form of a machine."
The group of men began to mutter and discuss this among themselves, turning back to Cain. "How is this possible?"
Cain sighed. "Dr. Light's design notes are far complicated and I can't just explain it to you. But, with your permission, I'd like to transform my lab into Cain Laboratories, a company, and build, with X here, a reploid of my own. If we can succeed in building a reploid just like X, then imagine the possibilities of the future!" Cain pleaded with them, leaning against his cane. "We would be far more advanced than any other time in the history of this planet and with reploids, we could help heal the world's scars."
The men murmured among themselves and looked at X. "...X, do you think Dr. Cain is right?"
X nodded. "I know myself to be willing to start a peaceful future. I've learned alot over the past few days on the wars of the past and personally wonder why such things happen. Why must man fight like he does? Why did robots fight one another? The concept is...horrifying and I would take any means...and I mean any means necessary to preserve a future of peace."
The men nodded and glanced at Dr. Cain. "If you can successfully create a reploid, and it runs like it should, then we'll grant that your new Cain Labs begin to manufacture reploids and that other scientist can build their own personal reploids too."
Cain smiled at X. "You won't regret this at all," Cain told The Council has they hurried to the door.