This was the life he led. And he didn't regret his decision in the least. He knew that fate had chosen for him long, long ago that he would have to face these trials, just like everyone else had to face their own trials.
His trials consisted of him being a loner. To keep away from everyone and everything in order to help. And he didn't mind. He was used to being alone, since the day he was created, all those years ago...
His name...was Protoman.
He was created by Dr. Light and Dr. Wily. The first of a new line of robots that would determine the future of the world. But neither of the two doctors knew that, at least not then. Their hopes and dreams went into creating Protoman in the hopes of building a better future for mankind, not dreaming that these actions they took here would spawn a new race...robots and then...reploids.
He was codenamed "Protoman", aka Robot #000. His designation was "Break Man", for the type of work he would be used for. When he came online, one cold November, the two scientists were astounded and partied. They readily tough the new robot everything they could and marveled at his intelligence and how quick he learned. Plus he seemed so human.
Protoman took on the name "Blues" for himself. As a personal name friends would call him. He found an old scarf one day that Dr. Light no longer bothered using and put it on, instantly falling in love with the old thing. The two scientists marveled at how the robot had such an attachment to the old rag.
Another "personality" trait Blues adopted was the fact he wore a visor, which he thought made him look cooler. The scientists teased him about it at first, but soon they too became used to the idea of him wearing it. And so it began...
The world was amazed at all the things Protoman could do. This creation was the turning point for the future many thought. How little they truly knew...
Blues stayed on with them for near a year and even helped with the creation of "Rock", Robot #001. At first, Blues disliked how he and Rock looked the same, but soon thought of it as ironic. He considered him a little brother right off the bat in a way. However, things wouldn't go as a family for the robot.
Learning that Dr. Wily was against the ideas of building so many robots for the idea that robots could bring about the destruction of mankind, Blues felt himself rejected. During one of his jobs breaking up some mountains for future miners, he vanished in a mysterious cave in and was lost. The two scientists mourned his disappearance, but when ahead with finishing 'Rock' and then 'Roll', aka Robot #002.
Rock and Roll became invaluable help as lab assistants and Dr. Light began to consider them as children, thus beginning the legacy in that department. However, Blues' legacy laid elsewhere. For the next year and a half, he wandered about, doing what jobs he could find and staying in the shadows, never allowing himself to be seen. He watched over Rock and admired his courage when he decided to become Megaman, to fight Dr. Wily and the six reprogrammed robots. But he never interfered.
Blues watched as the battles between Megaman and Wily continued until finally Wily conformed, but he knew better. The crafty robot knew that Megaman couldn't allow himself to be so easily tricked and when the eight reprogrammed robots began to try and steal the materials that Dr. Light and Dr. Wily desired, he knew immediately who was behind it. Wily.
So, to keep Megaman on his toes and make sure he was strong enough for the trials, Blues began to battle his brother, never revealing himself to him other than the fact he was 'Break Man', hoping the name wouldn't alert Dr. Light and Dr. Wily just yet. Megaman considered his own brother to be an enemy, never understanding why sometimes he helped him out.
Finally, right before Wily made his move, Blues tested Megaman for the final time and was pleasantly surprised when he was defeated. His younger brother had proven to be strong enough and went on to defeat Wily. But that wasn't the last time he would need "Break Man's" help. However, Dr. Light had put two and two together and Megaman now knew who Break Man was.
Blues aided Megaman once again by rescueing Cossack's daughter while Megaman dealt with Wily. He thought he was earning Megaman's trust over the years, until a rogue Protoman kidnaped Dr. Light and once again it seemed it would be brother against brother. But Blues managed to reveal the fake Protoman's true colors before Megaman was destroyed. And then he saw to it that Megaman could escape as the ceiling came crashing down.
Always remaining in the shadows, never coming out, Blues felt alone, but lived with his decisions. He was there for Megaman and they both knew it. However, remaining in the shadows would soon become a thing of the past to him...and he grew in that comfort. When Wily escaped jail six months after being captured by Mega Man, all hell broke lose with the introduction of Bass and Treble, Wily's newest duo of robots. However, they were more advanced than the previous robots and current robots running around. They too were like Mega Man and Proto Man, perhaps Roll too. They had the ability to feel also. Whatever Light and Wily did in their first three robots, Wily had managed to duplicate in Bass.
That's where the trouble began, as Bass was bested by Mega Man in their fights. Wily was brought down and Mega Man came close to making a turning point decision. He had attempted to kill Wily, breaking the first rule of robotics: never harm a human. But Bass had jumped in and saved the good doctor at the last moment, thankfully. During this entire conflict, Proto Man had tested Mega Man's strength and was bested by his younger sibling once again. That's when he decided to come out of the shadows.
Hanging around the labs more, Proto Man became a regular sight around the area. And that's when the world's future took a lurch. Or, perhaps, it was when Mega Man began to feel justice had to be dealt with in death. Who knows. And who knows how the story shall end.
During that point in time, Light began to try and figure out what made the four robots unique in that they acted more human than other robots being created or produced. His works continued long and hard, but Wily wasn't through yet either. Out in space, two robots of an unknown origin battled each other. Defeating each other, they both hurled into space and crash landed on Wily's hidden island. Mega Man, after beating down Bass once more, rushed to the scene. Proto Man watched his back, but found himself not needed...until Wily found the dark energy of one of the robots. Mega Man found the other one and brought him back to the lab.
And so the eight battle broke out between Mega Man and Wily, each trying to get a hold of the dark energy Wily was putting into his robots. During this time, the good robot, Duo, revived and tracked the dark energy source to Skull Tower. But Mega Man caught up and the two battled. Proto Man showed up but found he wasn't needed as Duo escaped into the Tower. Upon there, Mega Man and Duo teamed up while Proto Man tracked his own leads.
But the dangerous turns of fate didn't stop there. Bass, in a fit of rage that he was losing to Mega Man, took the dark energy into himself in order to wipe his opponent out once and for all. And in doing so, lost his mind to insanity. Mega Man managed to prevail and moved on to stop Wily, with the aid of Duo and Proto Man. The tower crashed down and Wily barely escaped once again.
Duo himself returned to his planet. Proto Man himself had no idea where this was, but he didn't look into it further. Other problems where looming in the near future that 'Blues' would have to face. Dr. Light had finished testing the designs to find out what caused Bass, Blues, Rock, and Roll to be special, and X1 was created, the prototype for a new line of robots... they were to be known as...reploids.
The new family was expanding and Proto Man took a liking to the crazy robot, who was obviously far from perfect. But that wasn't minded much in the lab, but it made Light decide to work on some programming that would take a thirty year test period for any future reploid. Not wanting to leap right into it, he had put it on hold. Fate, on the other hand, had different plans.
Bass, in a rage due to a dying Wily who had given up, attacked Mega Man with all his vengeance and attempted to once and for all destroy the one he hated. Perhaps he never truly understood anything in his relation with Mega Man. Proto Man didn't care. All he knew was that he had lost in his battle to protect Mega Man. The lab was breached and Mega Man destroyed. But Light's plans for a reploid was put into motion and Mega Man was soon being made into X. Bass, fatally wounded, returned to Wily. Proto Man vowed to find out what happened to him one day.
Over the next year, Proto Man played protector of the city, trying to fill in the void his brother left. But, right when 'X' was being put in the capsule, a scientist who Proto Man had been warring with over the past year, hoping to prove he was better than Wily or Light, a Dr. Zealous, played out most tragically. The lab was attacked and destroyed, buried under tons of steel. His entire family was gone. Even X1. Even X...
Proto Man, no longer having his scarf since that final battle with Bass, moved on. He didn't look back, knowing he would have to wait almost thirty years before X would turn himself on. He was alone again. What he witnessed in those years was horrible. The Robotic Wars took place and soon all robots were a thing of the past. Then World War III played out and most of the records of all previous history was destroyed or lost.
But then, one day, a Dr. Cain found X, a few years early. Proto Man learned of his digging and returned, having changed a lot. No longer the same robot he was a few decades back, he had seen much and done much. In fact, he had seen the future and it's outcomes due to some disturbances in time.
Moving into the lab, Proto Man discovered a few capsules Light had left behind with some blueprints. Taking them all, Proto Man learned that Light had programmed his AI into a little capsule and he used this to finish Light's works. Proto Man himself got the capsules up and running, then when the Maverick War broke out, he cleverly hid them where X could find them and upgrade himself. Plus it was a chance for a son to see his father. But Proto Man decided never to reveal himself to X, only choosing to watch in the shadows. He was even there when X battled Sigma, watching the floating fortress with much worry.
And so, this was how the one named Blues, code named Proto Man, lived throughout his days...
Glancing across the streets, he watched the families going about their daily lives, unaware of anything dangerous or terrible. So many times he had wanted to shout out, "Do you know what's coming? Can you possibly tell what horrible, horrible secrets the future has?" How he wanted to shake his brother, X, tell him everything was alright.
But what he saw might not come to pass. What he knew might not come into being. X himself might never die in such a way. He might not have to the things he knew he must. He---might live happy himself.
Shaking his head, the reploid let out a sigh. He knew these things would never come to pass. He would have to work in the shadows, offering aid where he could. He knew that would have to build a reploid version of himself, to keep things going on. Also he knew he would never be able to directly confront X. To do so could alter both their destinies. He remembered how, the last time, he had decide to defy what he considered his own laws. When he had fought Mega Man to test him.
However, he knew better than to test X. X was confused and alone. Like a child. What he needed was not something of the past, but something in the present, to hold him still. He knew that X must think every day of his past, where he came from, what his destiny was, what his purpose could possibly be. And every day he was sure that X suffered with the knowledge of the fighting that went on. But like Rock before him, deciding to become Mega Man, X had made the decision to become a Hunter, to fight that which was wrong.
And that, the robot knew, which was made them both great. In the end, it made it so much more tragic because fate is never kind to those who must lay down one destiny and pick up another one out of necessity. To have to leave behind their hopes and ideals to become a defender, a 'hero' of sorts. The strain broke many - the robot had seen it happen more times than he cared to admit.
In the end, Mega Man wasn't broken by this strain. He laid his life down in order to protect those around him and later became X. It was a never ending cycle, it seemed. The robot wondered dully when it would end. Perhaps when he and X were both long gone - to have become something else, like Roll - Light - Auto - and so many others did all those years ago.
Vaguely, the robot wondered about X1. A child of the past, too, X1 didn't have long to establish too many ties that would bound him to the past of wondering. He knew who created him, what his purpose was, and then left it behind, to enter this new age. And X1, still watching over X, never revealed his role to X, just like the robot never revealed his role to X1 or X. A web of secrets. But out of them all, he knew X1 was the most likely to stabilize and lead a normal life in the new era, as strange as that may sound. His own role was to play the shadowy protector. And X's role was to finally come to terms with everything. When that happened, his play in this generation would be over, tragically.
The robot teleported and landed on the roof of a building across from the Hunter HQ, looking out at it. Since the victory over the mavericks, the Hunters' numbers had more than tripled, new people coming in all the time. The robot had made it a note to memorize some of the ones he thought would make an impact on the history of this planet. Who could, possibly, lead one generation into a new era and close out an old era. That would mean closing him out too, but the robot knew, sadly, that was best. He wasn't immortal and it wasn't his place to wander the earth forever.
Focusing on one Hunter, the robot noted he was Brian Carter. He came here briefly before the first war with the mavericks had begun. --- Strange, why did the robot keep calling it 'the first war'? Because, he answered himself, there will always be wars. Especially against humans and reploids. Focusing in on the human once more, he pushed these thoughts away. Brian, he recalled, enter the Hunters after he narrowly missed being killed by a maverick attack. He had a wife and a kid. Strange to enter such a dangerous line of work when you had family, but the man had been spending more time at home than at the hunters, now that things had calmed down.
Turning to another reploid, the robot noted who he was. Death Star, possibly the second in command of the Hunters, though never officially said. He entered the game after his family and their lab was destroyed in a maverick assault. Presumed to be a pacifist similar to X, Death Star had found a strange knack for battles during the war. He had quickly rose to be well qualified while his blood thirsty 'brother' turned out not to be able to handle it. That particular reploid was no longer around and the robot had no way of finding out where he was.
Next the robot spied a few more rookies, noting each of them had recently joined due to the hype of the war. Each looking for some action and being immensely depressed at not finding anything. One of them, clad in green armor, was known as 'Vertigo'. He and X had been getting closer lately. It seemed the two took quite a liking to each other and the robot was glad. X needed a friend. While Death Star made for good arguing company, with Zero gone, X had no one.
Zero. The robot stilled pondered over that one. He didn't have a good feeling about the reploid named Zero --- but he had in a selfless act given up his life so that X may live. And that was something you didn't quite find in this world today. To lay his life down so that others. But, as the robot glanced back at Vertigo, Death Star, and Brian Carter, he knew that any of them would do the same thing -- for any of their comrades.
And for that, he knew some of them would be leading this generation into the next era. If the forces of evil didn't get in that way. Like General Cran. Truly, the robot considered him a vile man. While he was doing what he thought was best for the human race - and himself - the man could put the entire generation back by a century or more if he wasn't careful.
Standing up, the robot absently tugged at the spot where a scarf used to be at him. He looked down, more in surprise that he still did that than actually not finding it there, and glanced over his black armor --- once red and grey. He missed that, but he changed his looks so drastically now, it didn't matter. The only thing resembling him to Proto Man was the visor. As far as he was considered, Proto Man had died long ago --- or until he was needed for his final act.
Sighing, the robot clenched his fist and looked in the direction of the Reploid Museum, once known as the Robot Museum. He half-considered visiting the robot there who had his scarf. How the robot had come in contact with it, he didn't know, but for the most part he was content with not bothering the robot. He was a janitor and a tour guide of sorts, having survived the decades like he himself had. And for that, he could keep the scarf.
Teleporting over to the roof of the Hunter HQ, the robot quickly entered through a vent, working his way through an old airshaft. Thankfully he knew there were no sensor alarms in the vent and that allowed him to easily work his way through, until he dropped down in some storage room. Opening the door, he stepped out into the hallway, and worked his way through the building, blending in. Most people didn't give him a second look, considering him to be another rookie that was just getting enlisted in.
Entering the room to Cain's office, he looked around and made sure there was no in there to witness him. Pulling out a small little device, he pushed it in, effectively taking out the cameras from seeing him. Working his way into the office, he opened the door and worked his way down a series of stairs to Cain's lab, which was shared by X1. To his knowledge, X1 was out making a few rounds or just plain harassing people.
Examine the office, the robot reached into an area on his body and pulled out a small version of the capsule Light used to upgrade X. Inside was the same AI chip as the others. He placed it on a crowded work bench and stepped back, grinning. Sometime, in the future, if X1 ever stumbled across this, he would have a source of knowledge to tap into.
Turning around, he noted someone was coming down the stairs. Cursing himself for being to wrapped up in what he was doing, the robot glanced around the room. Perhaps the best course of action would be to try and attempt a teleport. Maybe the dampening field was actually down in this area. Clenching his fists, the robot began to concentrate on finding a weak point in the field. After a few moments, he succeeded, vanishing in a red teleport just as X1 entered the room, looking around.
The robot found himself on the streets again, working his way along, as if he had been a casual part of the crowd all along. Pretty soon the cameras would be working again, with his devices' influence gone, and the techs would wondered what just happened, not quite sure of it themselves. Which is well. They would blame it on 'ghosts' or what not, legends of old, to try and make themselves feel like nothing could slip past their attentions unnoticed.
And that suited the robot just fine. After all, he was just a ghost, moving between the people he cared about, leaving things behind for them to find and use, but never showing himself to them.
That was...his legacy.