#roll (mega man) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

missjukebox8bit · 1 year ago

Text

GET EQUIPPED WITH: New Chapter of The Roboticist's Daughters

I finally did it! I finally made a second chapter of my Rollinka fanfic The Roboticists' Daughters before Pride Month ends! Four hours before AO3 goes down! Great timing!

Because AO3 is going down I will also be posting it under the cut!

The year was 20XX A.D.

Wasn’t it always?

It was two years before Dr. Albert Wily first waged war between man and machine. The world did not yet know the man made horrors and wonders that lifelike robots would bring, but it was not a time without hardship. They still had to worry about the natural horrors. Katyusha Cossack had been fighting a battle against one such powerful enemy for a long time, one that had taken many lives and split apart many families, and though she had many rematches that ended in victory… her game would eventually come to a premature end.

Leaving her family to find a way to continue.

Mikhail Cossack slowly walked into the doorway of his apartment. It wasn’t particularly big or fancy, but it was home. A home he shared with his daughter and… no, just her now. It was going to take a while for him to get used to that. He steadied himself on a counter. Without Katyusha, this place felt empty, hollow even. Everything he saw reminded him of her. The turquoise fur coat she loved so much was still hanging up by the door, and he knew the matching ear-rings were on the nightstand by the bed they used to share. Resting on the couch is the stuffed frog she had won for their daughter in a claw machine… Part of him wished he could just leave this all behind and start over-

Wait… where is his daughter anyway? He didn’t see her come in… His heart started racing and he looked around the room frantically, until he heard a voice. “Papa?” The scientist jumped and his head turned to the source of the sound. A little blonde girl in the middle of the apartment, wearing her papakha and clutching something to her chest.

He breathed a sigh of relief and chuckled. He walked up to his daughter and affectionately patted her hat. “You have a talent for slipping away when I’m not looking, little Linka. What do you have there?” But when she showed him what it was, his heart sank. It was an old DVD of Don Bluth’s Anastasia . It wasn’t a favorite of his. He hated the historical inaccuracy, the glorification of the Romanov family, and the blatant demonization of communists. But that was far from the main thing on his mind right now. Because to Kalinka, this film was significant because-

“Mama said she would watch this with me when she got all better.”

It was already hard for Mikhail to tell her no when she looked up at him with those adorable puppy-dog eyes of hers, but in his current emotional state there was no way he wasn’t immediately dropping everything to sit down on the couch and watch a princess movie with his daughter as she cuddled her little frog doll.

The mood in the room was tense at first, but as the film went on, Kalinka was engrossed in its story. Mikhail was familiar with the history of the real Grand Duchess Anastasia, and it was not quite as wholesome and fantastical as this film portrayed, but… he saw how his daughter’s face lit up as she watched the screen, how wide she smiled seeing the beautiful palaces, the music, the dancing… and it was then he realized, he would do anything to see that smile on her face forever. And it made him smile too.

By the time the film was over, Kalinka was getting drowsier and drowsier. Mikhail gently scooped up his daughter and led her to her bed.

As he tucked her daughter into bed, wild fantasies filled her head.

“I want to be a princess, papa. Like Anastasia!”

The doctor felt weary. “Things didn’t end happily ever after for the real Anastasia, sweetheart.”

“But it would be really fun! We could live in a big pretty palace, and we could have a big ballroom, and we could have a lot of robots be our servants and I could be friends with them!”

“You want a robot to be your friend?” he chuckled.

“Yeah, I’ll make friends with all the robots!”

The doctor admired his daughter’s optimism. Robot AI at this point was only smart enough to just barely simulate human speech, let alone have real emotions. So a robot that could actually be your friend? Technology like that was surely at least a decade away. But given the circumstances, he thought he might as well indulge her science fiction fantasies. “What kind of robots would live in your palace?”

She thought about it. “One of them could be a vacuuming guy, who vacuums, and he’s called uh… Dust Man!” She said, very proud of herself. “And there could be another guy who like… makes it rain when you want it to rain, and his name is uh…” she held her frog plushie up. “Toad Man!”

“Do all their names end in ‘Man’?” he asked teasingly.

“Yeah!” She thought about this for a second. “But, it would be fun if there was a girl one… We’d be bestest friends.”

Mikhail was amused by Kalinka’s ideas… but he had to admit they didn’t all sound so bad. Maybe a new project would help him get his mind off things.

“Can you sing me that song, papa? The pretty one from the movie.”

Mikhail smiled. “Of course, my princess.” And started singing her what would become her favorite lullaby.

“ On the wind, 'cross the sea, sing this song and remember

Soon you'll be home with me, once upon a December… ”

Kalinka yawned and curled up nice and cozy in her bed.

“I’m gonna turn out the light now, princess. Maybe I can build a robot that can do that for us too.” Mikhail joked.

“You could call him Bright Man, and he’ll have a biiiiiiig lightbulb on his head…”

Mikhail chuckled at his daughter’s wild imagination.

As the lights and her eyelids fell, Kalinka drifted off to sleep, and the last thing she heard was her father’s voice.

“You are the most precious thing in my life. I promise that I will do anything in my power to make you happy and keep you safe, my princess.”

--------

Kalinka opened her eyes. She was still curled up, but not on the couch, or in her father’s arms, or on her bed. She was on a bed, but somebody else’s. And as she stared across the room at the owner of said bed rummaging through her closet, the reality of her situation came flooding back to her.

The year was 20XX A.D. It had been roughly five years since Mikhail Cossack made his promise, one week since he proved just how far he would go to keep his promise, and half an hour since the situation had been mostly resolved. But there was still the fallout to deal with.

“I know we have a first aid kit in here somewhere…” Kalinka was watching closely as she sat up on the edge of Roll’s bed, helping herself to some leftover soup and rice balls they set out on a tray. She thought it tasted a lot better than what she was given at Wily’s Castle. There was also an E-Tank on the tray. She picked it up hesitantly, she thought these were just for robots, but she took a tentative sip. She instantly perked up. It tasted like sparkling blue raspberry juice…

After the Cossacks were let into Light Labs, Dr. Light had taken Dr. Cossack to the living room to rest (and Proto Man went with them, Dr. Light seemed to have something he wanted to talk to him about), while Kalinka was set up in Roll’s room. She seemed to have dozed off.

“There it is!” The robot girl turned around with a first aid kit in hand and her eyes widened. “Oh, you’re awake! I hope I wasn’t too loud…”

“N- no, not at all! Don’t worry about it.” She felt a sharp pain in her arm.

Roll knelt down to Kalinka’s bedside. “Sorry, I’ve done a lot of repairs on broken robots, but it’s been a while since I’ve had a human patient…” She inspected the Russian girl’s arm. “Your wounds don’t seem that serious, just a couple bruises. Dr. Cossack seemed to absorb most of the damage.” She took an ice pack out of the kit and applied pressure to her arm. “You’re not feeling feverish at all, are you? I could get you some Coldkiller X…”

“N- no, I’m fine! This is really nice of you.”

“It’s no trouble at all! It’s the least I can do after… everything today.”

“Do you really need to do all this for me? Shouldn’t this be enough?” She swished the E-Tank around in her hand.

“Those only heal robots, unfortunately. For humans it’s basically just a tastier version of Monster Hunter Energy. No, we have to do things the old fashioned way.” She bandaged up the girl’s arm.

Kalinka shyly stared at her. “Umm… hi.” Kalinka waved at Roll with her other hand weakly. “I never really got to introduce myself. I’m Kalinka.”

“Oh. Oh! Right, sorry. Where are my manners?” the robot girl shook her head, then held out her hand to Kalinka. “My name is-”

“Roll, right?” The girl smiled as she held Roll’s hand. Roll looked at her, kind of stunned. “DLN. 002,” she continued. “The housekeeping robot. One of the first two of Dr. Light’s Robot Masters to be unveiled to the public.”

“You know about me?” She was… a little surprised. Sure when the Robot Masters were first introduced and she was one of a set of twins, she caught a lot of attention from the media. But after Mega Man put a stop to three different major attacks from Wily, she was increasingly sidelined in favor of her brother. Rock and Roll got stopped in the street a lot by Mega fans, but they rarely paid her any mind.

“Oh yeah, I’ve read a lot about you in Father’s scientific journals!” She blushed. “Sorry if that’s weird, I just… really like studying robots, and I thought you always seemed really cool… it’s nice to meet you.”

Roll smiled. “Nice to meet you too!”

Kalinka’s smile turned gloomier. “I just wish our first meeting could’ve been for some other reason than this… There was supposed to be a Robotics Convention this week, but we had to miss it because of…”

Roll looked at her sympathetically. “Look I’m… I’m really sorry about… all of this. If we had known what Wily was up to, we would’ve made sure you were safe way sooner.”

“No, it’s ok! It’s not your fault! It’s that jerk Wily’s fault.” Kalinka pouted and crossed her arms. “Making Proto Man take me away from school, using me to get Father to pretend to be evil, and make those two new robots to fight Mega Man…”

Roll’s eyes widened. “Woah woah, back up. Proto Man kidnapped you?!”

Kalinka nodded. “Yeah, but he told me he only did it because Wily said he'd explode if he didn’t.”

Roll scowled skeptically. “Yeah, he would say that, wouldn’t he?”

Kalinka waved her arm defensively. “You don’t get it. I wouldn’t even be here if he hadn’t fought off the robot guarding me.”

“Oh yeah, who was that? Quick Man? Snake Man? Don’t tell me it was freaking Bubble Man-“

Kalinka shook her head. “None of them. It was… someone else.” Kalinka thought back to the robot she had seen. She started to pout and curl up into the fetal position on the bed. “I thought I knew every robot that’s been released to the public, but that one… with her dark spiky helmet, the weird coily fingers, a stringy spark plug tail… I’ve never seen or heard of anything like her. She was scary.”

Roll searched all her memory databases for a robot that matched that description, but curiously found nothing. “Did she give you her name? A serial number?”

Kalinka shifted awkwardly in her seat. “She didn’t say. I tried to talk with her, but she didn’t seem to want to say anything about herself at all. I only know she was a she because that’s what Proto Man called her when he was rescuing me.” She brought a finger to her lips in thought. “But he could’ve been wrong, it’s 20XX, it’s not great to assume things like that just from looks...”

Roll was worried. Kalinka was clearly affected by this experience. “What did they do to you?”

She side eyed the robot girl. She was scared, but something made her feel like she could open up to Roll about all this. “She didn’t hurt me, if that’s what you mean. Not yet anyway. But Wily told Father and me that if I tried to escape, or if he let anyone know about his plan, if we didn’t do exactly what he said then… it would be game over for me.” The Russian girl started shaking. “You don’t think she’d follow us here, would she?”

Roll frantically waved her hands back and forth. “N- no, of course not! Mega Man will take care of it, just like he always does! He’ll save the day, and then we’ll get you home. I bet your mother will be excited to see you get home safe-”

“My mother passed away when I was four.” She looked like she was about to tear up.

Roll felt as if some obscure glass part inside her just shattered. Oh great going, Roll, your bedside manner is phenomenal today. “I am so… so sorry for your loss.”

“It’s okay. I was really little... It’s just been me and Father and my brothers as long as I can remember…”

Roll rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. “Yeah… same here. I mean it’s not really the same because I never had a mom to begin with but… It’s just always been me, Dr. Light, Mega Man, Cut Man and the others. It’s kind of lonely being the only girl in the family, you know?”

She smiled a little at this. “Yeah, I don’t really know any girls my age at all.”

“Me neither.” It felt nice to talk about this with Kalinka. Roll had never really been able to talk to anyone like this. “... Do you wanna-”

“Do you wanna be friends?!” Kalinka shouted a little too loud before she caught herself and started awkwardly twirling her hair. “I- I mean, if you want to…”

“Yes!” Roll agreed with no hesitation. “I would love to!”

Kalinka smiled widely at her. The two girls had only known each other for a short time, but something about them just seemed to click.

And it was at this moment that they were interrupted by a knock on Roll’s door. “Come in?” Roll said hesitantly. And when the door opened she frowned at the person she saw. Kalinka on the other hand seemed happy to see him. “Proto Man!” Even if Kalinka seemed to be on good terms with him, Roll still couldn’t get a read on this guy. What was his deal? Why did he act like an enemy sometimes and help them other times, but never stay long enough to explain what his problem is? To his credit, Proto Man seemed to sense the hostility. “Your uh… father wants to speak to you.”

“Mine or hers?” Roll asked, venom in her voice.

“Yes.”

--------

The roboticists’ and their daughters gathered in the living room. Proto Man walked in with them, but had since beamed away while nobody was looking. He felt awkward about the whole situation, and probably wanted to avoid confronting Roll about it. Kalinka wished he had at least waited long enough for her to say goodbye. Her injuries were minimal, but Mikhail was a lot worse for wear. His whole back was bandaged up and his arm was in a cast. Nonetheless, he looked a little happier seeing his daughter again. “Kalinka! Are you okay, my dear?”

Kalinka looked worried at her father’s appearance, but forced a smile. “I’m fine, Father. In fact, I should be good to go back to school really soon.”

Mikhail winced. “About that… I’m not letting you go back to that school. The faculty should be ashamed at what they let happen on their watch, I need to enroll you somewhere that I can be sure won’t let that happen ever again.

Kalinka looked surprised, but not necessarily disappointed. “Oh… okay, that’s fine. I didn’t really fit in at that school anyways…”

Mikhail gently rubbed his thumb on his daughter’s face. “Don’t worry, my princess. They didn’t appreciate you there, but I’m sure you’ll do great at Pajitnov Academy.”

Kalinka’s face lit up at this. Today has really been a rollercoaster of emotions for her. “Pajitnov Academy? The school with the best robotics program in all of Russia?!”

“And the lowest kidnapping rate! It’s difficult to get in, but I’m sure I could pull some strings after I explain our… situation.”

“Oh Father, you’re the best!” She went straight to hug her father, causing him to wince more. “Ow, ow, not so tight!” She released him and chuckled nervously. “Hehe, sorry…”

As she thought about this, Kalinka’s face fell for a second. “But if I go to that school, I’m gonna have to spend a lot less time at the Citadel…”

Mikhail sighed. “That’s fine, sweetie. I’ve had time to think about it, and I think it’s time we stopped shutting ourselves away from the world in that fortress. If I hadn’t been so reclusive, perhaps people would’ve figured out something was wrong much sooner… And besides, the Citadel is in a bit of… disarray lately. With Dust Man out of commission, it’s going to take months to clean out everything Wily did to it…”

And with that sentence it was like a switch had flipped in Roll’s head. Mostly because a switch did flip in Roll’s head: the switch that told her it’s time to fulfill her purpose. She raised her hand proudly and shouted out “I could help with that!”

Everyone turned to look at Roll, who had been silent this whole time. Dr. Light was the first to respond. “R- Roll? Are you sure…?”

“Dad, cleaning is literally my thing, I was built for this job! If I can’t keep a house tidy, then you might as well recycle me for scrap metal.”

That thought didn’t exactly make Thomas feel very good. “I- It’s a very big house, dear…”

But Roll was more determined than ever. “So we’ll get some of the mechaniloids to help, it’ll be fine! And…” She turned to the Cossacks, and made eye contact with Kalinka. She was making those puppy dog eyes. “... I want to help make up for all the trouble we caused. This is what friends do, right? Help each other.” Kalinka smiled at the word “friend”.

Dr. Light was still hesitant, but took a deep breath and smiled warmly. He laid a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. “You’re right. You have a good heart, Roll. You and your brother are cut from the same cloth, after all. Would that be alright with you, Mikhail?”

Mikhail shared a look with his daughter, who nodded enthusiastically. “Of course, Thomas. Thank you for your kindness, Miss Light.”

Dr. Light laughed heartily. “Perfect! I’ll have some arrangements to make, but I’ll make sure you’re perfectly prepared for your first big mission.”

Roll was giddy with excitement that she was able to help out. “Thank you so much! I won’t let you all down!”

--------

Technically speaking, the official name for Dr. Light’s breed of hyper intelligent robots was “Numbers”, but market research found that “Robot Master” ended up being much more appealing and cooler to the average consumer. The only issue with the title is most people weren’t quite sure what it meant.

Some say it’s because they were masters at their main skill. This certainly applied to Roll, if there was anyone on Earth who could clean a room better than her, she hadn’t met them yet. Some of the Wily bots would tell you that they’re called such because they will be the masters of the new world once humanity dies out. Roll didn’t like that one as much, she didn’t mind humanity and running the new world sounded exhausting. And some would say the name just sounds really freaking cool, which Roll could not deny.

But one other distinct possibility is it refers to their ability to take command of armies of lesser robots. This was not a feature Roll had used much before, it was mostly something Wily’s rogue robots did, but today was different. Today, a few weeks after the fourth Wily incident, there was a job that needed to be done. A job she couldn’t do alone.

Roll stood in front of a crowd of worker robots, putting on a stoic face and stomping around like a drill sergeant, holding her broom as seriously as a 9-year-old girl could.

“Alright, mechaniloids. We’ve got a job to do. Wily’s forces outfitted this citadel with lots of tricks and traps. But we’re not going to rest until this palace is safe and spotless , do you hear me?” She punctuated her last line by getting right in a Metool’s face. It nervously nodded.

“Good. Now you all have your tasks. The Foojeens are going to help me scrub all the floors. Pointans, plug up all the pitfalls. Bunby Catchers are in charge of spike disposal. And the Met Corps will do… whatever it is you do, construction or something?” A Pickelman shrugged at this.

“Now I don’t wanna see any funny business or loafing around, okay? The Cossacks are counting on us to fix up their home, and we are going to do it right! Let’s show them what Light robots can do!” Roll dramatically swung her broom and accidentally exploded a different Met, to which she backed away in shock. “Oh crap, I didn’t mean to… you guys don’t feel pain, right?” The crowd of robots shook their heads, or whatever they had that resembled heads. “Okay, that’s probably fine then. Now… Light bots, ROLL OUT!”

The robots got to work right away renovating this makeshift death trap into the home that it was meant to be. Roll was more focused than ever on making sure every inch of the floors were squeaky clean. To most people, this would be a daunting and boring task. But Roll was not most people. She was made for this, and she took it as seriously as Mega Man took fighting Wily’s forces, and enjoyed it a heck of a lot more. Her broom was her weapon, and the dust and grime in every crevice was her enemy. She was in her element, in the zone even, and nothing felt more exhilarating. And besides… she’s doing this for her friend. And that made her feel even happier.

--------

“Alright, we’re almost here…” Roll led the Cossacks into their home with their eyes closed. Their injuries were healed by now, but Roll insisted they wait to see the results of her efforts. “Aaaaand open!”

They opened their eyes, and they almost couldn’t believe them. The old castle looked cleaner than it had in years. Kalinka looked on in awe, every hallway and corridor was shining like a diamond, the ballroom in particular looked gorgeous. “Wow! It’s beautiful!” Kalinka flapped her hands in excitement. “You did such a great job, Roll! Thank you so much!!!”

Roll wiped some coolant off of her forehead. “Eh, it was nothing.”

Mikhail’s reaction was more subdued, but he was similarly impressed. “Certainly not nothing. The old place looks good as new, you even took care of some of the mold we’ve been trying to scrub out for a long time.” He smirked. “I would expect nothing less from Thomas’s pride and joy.”

“Aw, shucks…” She didn’t feel like she fully deserved such praise. If anyone was her dad’s pride and joy, she knew who it was, and it wasn’t quite her… but she appreciated the compliment. “I’m just happy to help after everything.” She watched happily as Kalinka sprinted around the wide open space, gawking at every sparkling corner of the room. She had such a big smile on her face. Roll was glad she was able to make her smile. In that moment, she felt like she would do anything to see that smile on her face forever.

As she was lost in thought, Roll was taken by surprise when Kalinka ran up to her and grabbed her hand. “Come on, let’s go see the roof!” Before her systems were able to process what was going on, Kalinka was pulling her along through the system of lifts and ladders that led to the upper level of their castle.

--------

Eventually, the two girls had finally gotten to the upper level of the castle, and rested just on the edge of a floating platform, overlooking the snowy countryside below. Roll hadn’t paid close attention to it when she was working, but now it was her turn to be in awe. “Wow. It’s a really beautiful view up here. You’re lucky to live in a place like this.”

Kalinka grinned proudly. “I know, right? When I was really little, I told Father I wanted to live in a castle. So he made his robots build this for us. Just to make me feel like a princess.”

“He must really love you a lot.”

“He does! He’s always doing things to make me happy. Even… all of that from before.” She rubbed her arm nervously. “He did that to protect me… He wouldn’t have done all that if he didn’t love me a lot.”

Kalinka made a face, but Roll couldn’t tell what it meant exactly. “So, now that you have your home back, what are you going to do?”

Kalinka pushed some hair out of her eyes. “Well, I’m starting off at a new school really soon. You know how that is.”

“Psh, of course I do!” She did not. Roll had been homeschooled by Dr. Light her entire life, she had no experience whatsoever with real schools. But she had watched Rival School Musical and she was pretty sure that was about the same thing. “Are you nervous?”

“A little bit. But I have a good feeling about this. There will be a lot more kids that are into the same things I am. Robotics is just scratching the surface, I’m also gonna be taking some piano and dance classes, that’s going to be really cool!”

“Well that’s awesome! I hope you have a wonderful time.” Roll was happy for Kalinka, but it felt bittersweet. Kalinka was the first real friend she had ever made, and now it’s going to be a long time until they could see each other again.

Almost as if she read her mind, Kalinka continued on. “But don’t worry, we’ll still be able to talk and stuff! I’ve got a really good cell phone, I can give you my number, and my e-mail, and my dorm address when I figure that out! I’ll make sure you won’t forget about me!” She playfully elbowed the robot girl, which made her smile. “And I have summers off, I can come visit then!”

Roll liked the sound of that. “That sounds great-” Kalinka cut her off by pulling her new friend into a tight hug. “I’ll be back next year, okay?”

Roll was surprised, but hugged back. “Thanks, Kalinka. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Roll stayed for dinner that night, and they had a nice conversation, but before long, it was time for Roll to say goodbye to her new best friend. She felt a weird pain in her chest area, almost the same as whenever Mega Man leaves for a mission, but slightly different in a way she couldn’t place. But she knew it wouldn’t be long before she saw Kalinka again.

20XX will pass. But 20XX will be here before you know it.

21 notes · View notes