#dwn 019

[theletterwsartflap]

I was playing Animal Crossing New Leaf and a snowman said something rather Gemini Man like.

[the-real-dwn-022]

Alssssso your relationsssship with Geminiman?

He'sss my bro, asss are the ressst of the Thirdsssss. He hasss rough edgesss in perssonality, but we have fun.

[mmx-code-crimpphire]

Headcanon - The Robot Master Wanderers

Since I know this won't get touched upon in detail within the story, so I might as well make a post/chapter about this.

NEW CHAPTER ON AO3!!

So - Protoman aka Blues, makes a group called the Robot Master Wanderers. He makes this out of other Robot Masters wanting to escape being Wily's robot, to explore the world as a human would, or explore beyond their programming. It didn't start out that way, of course.

But Blues did it all on his own. It all starts by running away to not have his personality taken from him just to get his core fixed. Yes, I think you noticed I got this from the Archie Comics. From there, Wily finds him and he becomes part of Wily's legion of robots and fights out of his newfound hatred for Dr Light.

Until he meets Rock in person. They fight and Blues realizes how much Rock cares for their creator. No matter if Rock has a driven purpose or not. Rock trying to convince Blues that Dr Light isn't a bad person and that he doesn't want to destroy any part of him, is the first instance of his code expansion-

Damn I should make a delta nano headcanon part 2- since it started from code expansion, plus Blues' independence, his coding helping with that.

Anyway- It's, of course, a visible change, albeit subtle, and Blue definitely notices it.

He then learns that Wily only temporarily fixed him, and he decided to run off again. Fighting alongside Rock. He then finds another Robot Master named Night Man, who was one of Cossack's Robot Masters and they grow a friendship in a short matter of time. I'll also make another post about Night Man and who he is, don't worry. But I'll have to get my best friend's permission first, cuz it is his character so- ye lmao

But yeah they wander together while helping Rock as he fights the Robot Masters tied to Wily and Wily himself within his Wily Machines.

Over the course of the two wandering, they find a few Robot Masters have escaped Wily's clutches to find out about their story and rumors circulating around them. Some were curious about their wanderings and if they could do the same, and Blues knows they can do what they please, as long as they don't hurt other humans, referring to the First Law of Robotics.

Which I may also touch upon. Man, I'm thinking of other headcanons I wanna post from this one alone, jesus.

I'll put in the list of wanderers they acquire throughout the story of Classic, and a little bit of X in the AU.

In order of joining in the Robot Master Era, we have

-Protoman/Blues (DLN-000) -Night Man (DCN-009) -Metal Man (DWN-009) -Skull Man (DCN-008) -Star Man (DWN-037) -Tengu Man (DWN-057) -Bass Maestro (SWN-001) -Tornado Man (DLN-010) -Splash Woman (DLN-011) -Jewel Man (DLN-013) -Chill Man (DWN-076) -Sheep Man (DWN-077) -Solar Man (DWN-080) -Block Man (DLN-017) -Fuse Man (DLN-018) -Blast Man (DLN-019) -Tundra Man (DCN-010)

And in the Replioid Era we have

-Kejicchi (Who I'll also touch upon, and he's my OC huehue) -ProtoBlues (SLN-REP-000) -Nocturnal Bat (SCN-REP-001) -Bass “Fortenium” Maestro (SLN-REP-001) -Dynamo -Night Shade -Axl (Temporary) -Lumine (Temporary)

The reason why Axl and Lumine go in temporarily is when Axl tries to ask the Hunters for help in X7 Arc, he teams up with Keji, who also fights alongside Zero. I can't wait to write that arc too omg.

And why it's temporary for Lumine is after his redemption arc starts (yes, he gets one), he goes to Keji and Blues to see if he could join somewhere, so he won't be cooped up at Hunter Base all day. And Keji welcomes him to the club. And so he and Axl can find their respective creator, since she went missing after Lumine went under quarantine for his very dangerous variant of the Maverick Virus.

After they find her, they all live together as a family, a domestic life they all wish they had and are having their wish come true.

And because of the Wanderers starting in the Robot Master Era, they have code expanded on them as well, Blues being untouched most of the time, because his already does that on its own. X's does too, of course, but on a wayyyyy more advanced level compared to Blues.

Bass' code expands when he joins the Wanderers and gets a torn cape from Tengu Man to try and find Blues to join. Especially being closer to Rock.

Oh- and the Wanderers have a theme of wearing capes, cloaks, and scarfs, thanks to blues starting that with wearing his own scarf. But it's unintentional, he swears upon it. The others just started wearing their own after a while and he established the group officially.

And- there you have it. A brief history of how the Wanderers became an official group of Robot Masters who would expand their coding to experience things and to be able to break the obey code for the Three Laws of Robotics. As well as Blues internally promising to himself that he would redeem robots having independence like him and hot have a stigma of Robots being dangerous.

Which may hint that he may feel responsible for starting the obey code become a reality in the first place >w>

[magnetiix]

@wearewilynumbers​

[DWN-019] > [DLN-000]: Less than you'd think. The little Snake and Magnet seem to have a better idea on what is going on. Magnet just has me searching my current location for any signs of them. I figured I'd ask you since you know there area far better than I do.

...That so, huh...?

Blues sighed, his expression settling into a deep frown.

[DLN-000 > DWN-019]: I’ve heard a few things through the grapevine... Echoes of the nine, though I can’t say they’re simply remnants of past events. The city’s sewer’s stew with discontentment. 

[wearewilynumbers]

There was no way. They were all dead. They made sure of that after MegaMan defeated them.

Still, that oppressive feeling that seized his core was unmistakable.

[DWN-019 >DWN-022': You need to come to the fortress. I need to fill you in on some things you might not know about. ]

@titaniumthamnophid

[lakeraydia]

DWN--019 -> CALIOSTEOCUP

also messing with my theme a bunch bc i want to be more active on tumblr but am tired of it and dont feel like trying to edit and update all the old info lol

[mowseries]

Siam, what's the story behind your happiest memory?

[He beamed.]

Siam: Cardinal came to me all excited, you see.

Siam: He had just had a sudden idea. An idea that would change everything.

Siam: We’d been scavenging for parts for a long time. Months! And we were burning through resources fast.

Gemini: Emphasis on theSiamini: “burning”Gemini: part.

Siam: We were thinking of sending Cardinal offline so we could try and reverse-engineer some of his cooling system. He was the one who needed repairs the most, after all.

Siam: It was such aSiamini: shame.

Gemini: All he ever really wanted was the chance to enjoy life. Always perpetuallySiamini: dying…

Siam: But see, “Anon”, that is when he came to us with theSiamini: idea.

Siamini: The idea that would change everything!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

((Starring @codedhopes, naturally))

{March 28th, 2016T}

{Main LabLater}

[Cardinal and Siam seem to be engaged in a battle of wills. Gemini is over at a terminal, looking at some data.

Small footsteps echo in the hallway, and the door opens. Beck, in his normal, default form, strides into the room.]

Beck: I’m here! ^.^

Beck: …Oh, Hi, Siam!

Siam: -Looks over-

Cardinal: Humor me, Siam.

Siam: -Sighs- Hi, Beck.

Cardinal: Thanks for coming, Beck. I appreciate it.

Beck: No problem!

Beck: Sooooo…you said you wanted me to make a mold…?

[Siam goes over to get something.]

Cardinal: Yeah. Specifically, of some hardware.

Beck: …Parts…?

Gemini: -Not looking up- Yes.

Siam: Mostly fans.

Beck: (Fans…? What…what for…?)

Beck: Um…OK…I can make a mold of some fans, I think…

[Siam comes over with a shoe box.]

Cardinal: …A shoe box. Seriously?

Siam: Oh, be quiet.

Beck: ….?

[Siam puts it down on one of the tables and rummages a bit before pulling out something that might remind one of the internal fans for computers and laptops.]

Beck: ….That?

Siam: We’ll start with this, as practice.

Beck: Hmkay, just, uh…gimme a moment.

[He walks over to another part of the lab, and rummages through a small box branded with the logo for Sanda Enterprises.]

Beck: I’d need some Xel, of course, and a basic support core to keep the mold in place…

[The first thing he pulls out is a small, round white sphere, about the size of a golf ball.]

Beck: Perfect! ^.^

[Siam and Cardinal watch curiously.]

Beck: Next I’ll need Xel…should be a canister here…

[He opens another box, and he rummages through that too. Soon he pulls out a medium sized black cylinder with a single blue stripe near the top.]

Beck: Xel Count….800,000. Should be enough for the practice and real thing…

Cardinal: Wait.

Cardinal: Question.

Beck: Yeah?

Cardinal: -Seems… unsure how to ask-

: > -Streams data that basically conveys that he knows that they need and use Xel and he really doesn’t want to be taking from them, would he be able to… undo the mold if it doesn’t work out/to use the Xel if they need it?-

Beck: Oh, sure! I can turn it back to loose Xel and put it back in this canister. If this was something more complicated with more cores, then I’d need Dad’s help…

Beck: But I’m pretty sure I can do it myself.

[Cardinal and Siam both look relieved.]

Cardinal: Oh, okay, good.

Beck: ^.^

[He twists off the cap. A white and rainbow-Ish glow emits from the interior of the cylinder. As if in response to this, the small support core starts to glow a bit as well, sensing nearby Xel. With a wave of his hand, Beck’s eyes begin to glow a brighter green as he commanded the Xel to his will.]

Beck: Okay, first I gotta get the Xel to sync with this core, and…

[As the rainbow colored goopy substance floated upwards, it seemed to…REACH for the support core as it was guided by Beck. The Xel creates rings around the core, almost looking like some kind of mini-planet with rings.]

Beck: … … … …

Siamini: -UTTERLY TRANSFIXED-

[Beck himself seems VERY concentrated…]

Beck: …Aaaaaaaand… …done!

[As soon as the word left his lips, the core and its Xel spun in unison. Syncing complete!]

Beck: Okay, gimme that fan.

Cardinal: … -Hands it to Beck since Siamini is busy processing and cross-referencing all of this-

Beck: Thank you…

Beck: OK, so…I’m gonna need to REALLY concentrate because I gotta VISUALIZE this mold in my head first before it takes shape, so…just be quiet for a sec.

[Beck holds the fan in front of his face, staring at it…

…And staring at it…]

Beck: … … …

: > …You okay over there?

: > This is the coolest thing ever in ages

[…Finally, after a few more minutes, Beck waves over the core and its synced Xel.]

Beck: … … ….

[His hands never quite touch the Xel itself, but it almost seems…ALIVE, in its own sense. The core is placed squarely in one corner where the mold would be…

…And the Xel follows suit, proceeding to form small cubes that seem to click into place…

The cubes form BIGGER cubes, and take shape around the fan itself…

It almost seems fluid than solid, really….]

Beck: … … … …

[Finally, a full cube forms around the fan itself. A line is seen drawing itself across the faces…and…

The whole thing glows for one second, and it all suddenly seems to solidify in one instant. Beck, not quite noticing he had closed his eyes somewhere in the process, opens one up just a crack.]

Beck: …….

[He seems to be holding his breath for some reason…?]

Beck: ….

[When nothing else happens, he seems to sigh with relief.]

Beck: Whew…

[The cube mold floats back towards him, and he holds it in his hands. He knocks on it for a bit, inspecting it this way and that, placing his palm on each side.]

Cardinal: (…That. Was really cool.)

Beck: ….I think…I think I did it! ^.^

Beck: Let’s see…

Siamini: -SO INTENSELY FOCUSED LIKE A KID AT STORYTIME AAAAA SO COOL-

[The line that was drawn across the whole thing was where the mold opened. Once he pulled it apart–]

-CLANK-

[…The fan falls out.]

Beck: Oops–

[…But the mold!

It was perfect!]

Beck: Oh man I kinda forgot the fan was still in there I’m sorry–

Cardinal: -Grinning- That was amazing, Number Nine.

Siamini: -Keeps PINGing in approval and excitement-

Beck: …!

Beck: Eheh…Um… .////. I-It’s nothing, I mean it’s… (Just a mold with one core…)

Siam: That’s incredible!Gemini: The possibilities!Siam: Xel is amazing!Siamini: You are amazing!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Siamini: -Sighs happily-

Siam: And you know what?

Gemini: The fanSiamini: worked.

Gemini: It worked!

Siam: We were able to make and use replacementSiamini: parts!

Gemini: I know that he’s done greaterSiamini: things,Siam: but that first spark that saved ourSiamini: familySiam: was the one most wonderful, to me.

[hxrderthansteel]

Examine gemini!

It’s DWN-019, a mining robot that responds to the callname “Geminiman.” He specializes in arctic mining, and has a quartz crown headdress.

Gemini struggles with NPD, and takes out a lot of his frustration and aggression on Hard simply because Hard won’t fight back. Hard’s very attached to Gemini, but doesn’t know how to voice that Gemini hurts his feelings without it ending poorly.

Hardman really wants to have a better relationship with Gemini. Gemini has always taken good care of him, so Hard doesn’t really know what to do.

[robotiic-natiion]

Character Profiles #2 - Gemini Man, Shadow Man, and Needle Man

Name: Gemini Man

Serial Number: DWN. 019

Civilian Form Face-Claim: Houka Inumuta (Kill la Kill)

Personality: If there ever was a narcissist, it’d be Gemini Man. His obsession with his own beauty going beyond just simple self-admiration, to straight-out open bragging and boasting about himself. But he is not all vain and arrogant, as he more than often recognizes other Robot Masters to catch his fancy as well, making him quite flirtatious as well. He has a deep-seated fear of snakes.

Name: Shadow Man

Serial Number: DWN. 024

Civilian Form Face-Claim: Kakashi Hatake (Naruto)

Personality: Stoic and calm in nearly any situation, Shadow Man is a mystery to most robots of the Earth. Even after his revelation of being one of the Stardroids, Shadow Man claims to never have had a sense of kinship to them, but still not denying his origins with them. He prefers to be his own robot master, wandering the world and occasionally returning to Wily Castle to rest and spend time with his new ‘family’. He is not the quickest at cracking jokes, but he loves to hear them.

Name: Needle Man

Serial Number: DWN-017

Civilian Form Face-Claim: N/A

Personality: Needle Man is easily the more skittish and nervous of the DWN’s, as he is quite unfit for combat, in his own words. He is always hesitant to fight, but will do so if his brothers are threatened. Some of his brothers think of him as a coward. He does love knitting over all things, and he loves to make special sweaters for his brothers.

[eclipsedfates]

[DWN-019 to REN-001]: >What's with all the screaming? -.- Did you pun one time too many to the wrong audience?

[ KING ] - SCREECHING. It's mostly Hense's name, something about a blue dragon, and fire. It's wild and erratic data, though not combat based. Clearly, he's running away from something....and HORRIBLY failing.

[theletterwsartflap]

The original sketch for this is actually from 2016, believe it or not. A close friend of mine saw and adored so I figured, eh, might as well clean it up!

[the-real-dwn-022]

Should I sssstart tagging myssself in posstssss? I've been trying to tag my brosss where relevant but maybe I'd be ssslightly easssier to find if I ssstarted tagging myssself more often.

Not that I want to ssstart picking up any of Gem'sss habitssss. He'd be very jealousssss.

[dauntlesstales]

=CHAPTER 2D: BEYOND THE WATERY VORTEX=

~AO v2.0~

((Courtesy of @codedhopes))

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

[MEANWHILE....]

"Phone call for you."

"......"

"Hey. PHONE CALL--"

"I heard you the first time."

"Tch. Jeez, old man. Don't think anyone would be using THIS frequency ever again..."

"....So it's him."

"Yup."

"Do you wanna answer...?"

"......."

"Uh....P-2045453?"

"I have a NAME."

"Sorry. Warden's orders."

"...Hmph."

"Hang up."

"That's gonna waste your one phone call for the day."

"I do not care. It's not like anyone calls me besides conspiracy theorists and crazed lunatics."

"....Yeah, you do get some loonies over the phone, huh..."

"But--I REALLY don't think you wanna hang up on the president of CherryDyn."

"........."

"Do I need to tell you twice?"

"......Oookaaaay, but I'm pretty sure he's gonna call back regardless--and I gotta come back here every time to let you know, so."

"........."

"....Uh--P-20--"

[A low, grating growl.]

"UH--I--I-mean--D-- Dr. Blackwell..."

"........"

"....Doctor...?"

"........."

"........I...I'm just gonna leave--uh, last meal of the day is in half an hour."

"............"

".......Soooo....bye. Man, I hate this job..."

[CLICK.]

"............"

"............."

"........Greg."

"You obsessed fool."

"You've DOOMED us all."

"......"

"I knew I should have taken...."

".........."

" . . . ."

"M-...My Ray of Hope..."

"....Forgive me..."

——————————————

{In the Meadow…}

[The days seemed to go on forever. It had gotten very dark and cloudy outside, blending day into night.

Mikhail and DWN-019 worked almost non-stop on Doctor Light Number Eight—with the Doctor’s sons enforcing mandatory mental and physical breaks to prevent burnout.

Getting to Tobias’s actual coding was not easy. Offline or not, he was highly defensive—and not pleased that anyone was going near his coding.

And when they did find him…

It was just a mess. There were errors all over the place, and clearing them up would take quite some while. Sifting through the error report from the last system crash alone took DAYS.

And now, they were finally getting past the system reports and into the base data.]

Mikhail: …

Siam: Doctor?

Gemini: Is everything alright?

Mikhail: Mmm? Oh, yes… I’m fine.

[…But it was a lie.

A lie so as to not distract the twins from their analysis on the data they had got from Avi as part of the ordeal—for that information could prove quite enlightening.

But no…]

Mikhail: Just… a little weary, I suppose.

[…He was concerned.

Inspection of the Awareness code had showed that it had changed. Crucial components had changed—rewritten themselves.

Somehow, the encounter with Avi had prompted (or, more likely, FORCED) Tobias to rewrite himself.

What worried Mikhail the most was that some of the coding was beyond what he could recognize.]

Mikhail: (-Groooooaaan- {Will… I wish you were here…!})

[He still had the few fragments of notes that his best friend had given him regarding coding with Xel. That was a lifesaver—it told him that some of this seemed to be connected to functioning within a Xel chassis.

It may just be junk data, useless without the proper hardware. (Which, of course, would mean it would need to be pruned somehow, or else it would cause perpetual system errors.)

But he couldn’t say for sure what it would do, yet. He needed to go through the rest of the code to be sure—

He needed to know for sure that Tobias’s self had not been torn apart by being fused with Avi. At least… not in a way they couldn’t fix.

Sure, they had a back-up, but…

He dreaded the thought of being forced to resort to using it.

But it was already apparent that Tobias was fragmented and getting data from elsewhere, even though he was not inhabiting his own chassis. If it turned out that this damage was beyond repair… he would have no other choice.]

Mikhail: (Oh, Avi…! What did you DO to him?)

——————————————

{SANDA LABS...}

Will: Nnngh...

[Much like Mikhail was having troubles of his own, William was feeling rather hopelessly at a loss of what to do himself.]

[...He had hoped that having two separate samples of the Virus—one from Pyro and Cryo—would clear some things up.]

[Instead, it only raised more questions than answers.]

[These samples, while accomplishing their directive, had done so in a MUCH different way than the other. The coding was...so different. So...

....brilliant.]

[...Whoever had coded this KNEW what they were doing.

And they knew it WELL.]

Will: . . .

Will: (This...sinking feeling...)

Will: (The more I stare at this code, the more I want to look away...)

Will: (Why?)

Will: .......

Will: (God, I wish you were here, Mikhail...)

Will: (But with Avi holding the airwaves hostage--who knows when I'll hear from you again?)

[Will sighed heavily, and let the rest of the analysis programs run by themselves for now.]

Will: (—Perhaps another sample is needed...)

Will: (Fortunately...)

Will: (The pattern here is clear enough to give us some idea of where to go next...)

Will: Call?

Call: Yes, Dr. White?

Will: I know that we keep getting interference, but please continue to try and pinpoint the locations of the other Mighty Numbers--and cross reference them with places that their abilities would have the most effect and damage.

Call: Right away. Scanning...

"Will?"

[White looked up from his terminal, his expression twisting into concern as he saw his best friend hurrying across the lab with his phone in his hands.]

Soi: You might wanna take a look at this...

[His phone's screen showed nothing but purple static--and didn't seem to be responsive in any way whatsoever.]

Soi: Either this is Avi's doing or the virus somehow infected cellulars...

Will: Mm...

[Will checked his own—]

Will: ....?

Will: I don't remember shutting mine off...

[Try as he might, he couldn't get it to turn on—]

Will: ......

Will: Wait a minute—

[With an sudden swift movement, Will dug into his shoulder bag—

...And pulled out his charger?]

Will: I must have forgotten...but—

Soi: ...? Will—you do realize this isn't exactly the time to—

Will: I just want to test something, hold on a moment—

[He plugged it in, connected it, and waited for exactly five, tense minutes—

If he was right about this, then—]

[DING!]

[The phone flickered to life—working perfectly.]

Will: Yes!

Soi: —?!

Soi: Wait...how...?

Will: It's just like Call...!

Will: My phone was out of charge when the virus struck—thus it wasn't affected!

Soi: —!

Soi: Huh...that's something, alright. Seems like anything that was shut off at the time this all started wasn't affected...

Will: Yes, since it wasn't connected to any servers at the time. Technological isolation, as it were...

-PING!-

Will: !

[The “New Message” icon pops up.

…And then as it continues to load, a number appears next to it, and climbs higher, and higher… joined by the “Missed Call” symbol and the “New Voicemail” symbol, which also show multiples…]

Will: ......

Will: They're from Mikhail...

[The time frame shows they were placed after 11:46 AM on June 21st, with the last message sent before said Russian actually managed to get a hold of Will some time later.

There are dozens of pictures of lines of code displaying on a mainframe— apparently taken with a phone camera.]

Will: ...?

Will: This code—

Will: (Hrm—can't quite tell what it is...)

[Will then moves to check his voicemails—and puts it on speaker so that Soi could hear as well.]

[NEW MESSAGE FROM: MIKHAIL RECEIVED ON JUNE 21st, 11:49 AM]

“ -Click- Will? Will?”

“{Papa, why won’t he answer?}”

“{Oh no… please be quiet, Princess…}”

“{Papa, I’m scared—! It’s like with… with the /bad man!/ What if my brothers are sick again?!}”

[A pause, and then a click, as he’d hung up.]

Will: (Oh, God, little Kalinka...)

[NEW MESSAGE FROM: MIKHAIL RECEIVED ON JUNE 21st, 12:01 PM]

“ -Click- {Will, something’s very wrong. I need you to call me back as soon as possible, when you get this—it’s an attack on the server, they’re all sick.} -Click-”

[NEW MESSAGE FROM: MIKHAIL…]

“ -Click- {Will, I REALLY need you to call me back now—it’s coming from YOUR servers— what is going on over there?!} -Click-”

Will: . . .

[NEW MESSAGE FROM: MIKHAIL TIME STAMP INVALID]

“ -Click- … … …”

[A pause.]

“ -Soft sigh and a groan, faint sound like he’s rubbing his face- {It’s bad, William. It was an aggressive virus. I had to hard reset not only the server, but also all of my sons and the Rebel Angels.}”

[Another pause, before he continues in English, before going back to Russian because he’s too tired right now.]

“The code…. … {It did… some very strange things. …I recorded the raw data with a video camera so I could analyze it later—preferably with you, my God I hope you are alright and get this—without having the actual thing being a squatter in the RMDC.}”

“{I’ve sent over some screenshots I pulled off of that—namely, the initial interaction it had with the server, and the start of some of the consequences in action. I’m still looking it over, but it looks like it activated some very bad cross-references… I’ll have to look closer to tell you which ones.}”

“{It did send them all into Lethal mode—or tried to, anyway—it actually just didn’t work with DCN-000, as his current highest setting is Non-Lethal. …Which isn’t to say he can’t cause damage… it’s just that he doesn’t have… -Groans- I’ll tell you when you call back, please call back, alright?}”

“{I’m going to have Tobias search you out if you don’t respond in 24 hours—I hope that isn’t necessary, but I’m very worried.}”

Will: -winCE-

Soi: Ngh...

“{You needn’t worry about one thing, though—}”

“{It did try to activate the DLN_COMBAT.EXE, but that program never went live in any of the constructs that have access to my server. It activated the DWN_COMBAT.EXE program instead—which I can tell you is something that activates when they are afraid or in great pain… but they have always been defensive. When it went active, they shut down to avoid damage. They are not gone Maverick— so PLEASE, /DON’T/ panic and send Shade over—/}”

Will: .......

[Will just put his head down next to the terminal and groaned. Of course, he had no idea what had happened to the Mighties then...]

“{I really hope I hear back from you soon, Will. We… I need you over here. Some of the interactions…}”

“{The Awareness aspect of the AI_OS—it just can be so… adaptive…. … … … I know you might not think that such a high-tech bit of code from your world could even run in a system as ‘outdated’ as what we use, but the boys… they’ve already long been adapting to data and coding from your children, this…}”

[He trails off.]

“{I won’t let Tobias poke around if I can help it. But for the love of God—

CALL ME.}”

[A click signifies the end of the message.]

[NEW MESSAGE FROM: MIKHAIL TIME STAMP INVALID]

[The next message is much later—it appears to be relatively recent. Right away, it’s pretty apparent that Mikhail is not in good humor.]

“Will, I’m starting to wonder if you even brought your phone back with you from England.”

Will: (S-sorry, Mikhail…)

“I know things ended off rather suddenly, and… I just have to say I’m sorry about what happened. I wish… I wish it could have been another way…”

[There was a drawn out sigh before he continued.]

“Will… Tobias and Avi seem to have fused together.”

Will: -Alarmed- Wh-WHAT?

“We got some data from Avi that we’ll try to analyze, but I don’t know if we’ll get anything useful out of it. This data… I can’t understand all of it, William. Tobias’s Awareness seems to be running somewhere, and is updating his cross-reference memory banks, but… we keep getting errors when we try to bring him Online, because the Awareness is active elsewhere. I can only hazard a guess as to where, but…

You should expect problems from the branch server until the matter is resolved. Tobias was the true master of the database, even though I’m the Admin of my server. I can tell you from experience that if Tobias is trying to protect the main server from getting attacked again, the branch server won’t be able to connect to it. There may be other ways he interferes, if he gets input data that he feels is a threat.”

Will: That… that would explain why he’s blocking their signals…

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to fix this on my own, Will. Not without resorting to his last backup, which had the Awareness software intact.”

Will: (Oh no…)

“But if I do that, that may make things worse in the long run, due to two versions of the Awareness running at the same time. Not to mention the side effects to both Tobias and Avi that we can expect anyway.”

Will: (S-Side Effects...?)

Soi: (That doesn't sound good...)

“We’ll have to talk more after you have Avi back, and try to go from there. As long as he’s an active threat, there will be interference that prevents us from communicating. Please… be careful.”

[Click.]

[…Wait.

There was one more message.]

Will: ...! There's...another...

Soi: Huh—?

[NEW TEXT MESSAGE FROM: D L N — 0 0 0]

Will: CARDINAL—!

"WHA—"

"DAD WHAT ABOUT HIM I HEARD YOU SCREAM—"

[MN.1, 2, AND 9 ARE NOW ONLINE.]

[MN.1] //: -DATA, DID YOU FIND HIM?-

Will: No—hold on—

“J O H N 15:13”

[END OF NEW MESSAGES.]

Will: John 15:13...?

Soi: Why would...?

[MN.2] //: Is it some kinda code, or...?

[MN.1] //: ....

[MN.1] //: "No greater love than this..."

[MN.1] //: "...than to lay down his life for his friends."

[MN.9] //: . . .

[MN.9] //: Cards...

Will: ......

Will: (Cardinal—I pray that you're safe—but PLEASE don't find him before we do...)

Will: (—Your heart's in the right place, but you lack the tools to save him...)

Will: .....

[Will saves the pictures Mikhail took of the coding from the RMDC—and silently thanked him under his breath. He now had three samples to go over and compare—even if the Rebel Angels weren't of Xel, this information could essential to working out the cause of the malfunctions.]

Will: (I hope you're having better luck than me, friend—)

[—Blink.]

Will: -Looks up- ??

Soi: Wha—

Soi: Did the lights just—

[BZZZZZZZT!]

[The whole building was thrown into darkness.]

——————————————

[.....]

[CHERRYDYNAMICS INC. MAIN OFFICE BUILDING...]

[BACK UP GENERATORS RUNNING.]

[A phone rings. It seems to be a private line...]

[Click.]

"Mr. Graham?"

"Graham speaking."

"Sir, the recent power outage is going to take some time to work around—"

*"What's the status of our servers?*"

"...Still infected, sir. But our firewalls are holding for our factory lines—at least on the west coast—"

"What about her."

[Silence.]

"What. About. HER."

"....It's....still....here."

"Any changes?"

"No, but--"

"Good. Leave her as she is, don't tamper with anything."

"Sir--"

"If I see once scratch on her, I WILL FIRE your whole department and worse. Do you understand?"

"Sir—she's—"

"I asked you a question."

".....U-Understood, sir..."

"Mm. Notify me if anything comes up."

"Yes, Mr. Graham..."

[CLICK.]

"Idiots..."

"Just when this was all going to plan..."

"This VIRUS rears it's ugly HEAD..."

"....."

".....Well. As long as she remains untouched..."

"This can still be fixed..."

[Click. Click. Click.]

"......Senator? Ah! Greg Graham here—yes, yes, I'm perfectly safe, but what about—Oh! Well, that's good news—Yes. Yes, we're doing EVERYTHING we can—In fact!"

"We may be on the verge of a solution as we speak..."

[ ...... ]

<<—Previous——————Table of Contents——————Next—>>

[magnetiix]

[DWN-019] > [DWN-018]: We all understand why you did what you did Magnet, but think for right now you need to keep yourself scarce for a few weeks after your repairs. At least while Metal cools down. I can keep our brothers out of trouble and cover your duties.

[DWN-019] > [DWN-018]: I won't push this but I at least want you to think on it.

@wearewilynumbers

[DWN-018 > DWN-019]: Don’t need to tell me twice... I will. I’ll figure something out in the meantime. 

[DWN-018 > DWN-019]: Worst case scenario is I drag my sorry ass to Proto Man’s doorstep and beg him to hide me somewhere for a bit. Only thing I’d receive is a damaged ego. Can’t be much worse than that, right?

[wearewilynumbers]

Will one of you let Magnet know that woman has a crush on him!?

"I dont think thats a good idea-"

"No no! I got this Shadow!"

[DWN: 019 > DWN: 018]: Guess you really are a chick magnet!

@magnetiix

[mirrorshaded]

Top 8 Robot Masters

Mega Man is one of those series’ that I nearly know inside and out, yet don’t speak of all that often. It was an obsession throughout most of my childhood, with Mega Man III (NES) having been my first. In a lot of ways its appeal is not so dissimilar from Pokémon (hear me out), in that it has a large assortment of simple, themed characters fans can choose favorites from or project onto. I’ve heard the Pokémon analogy used on similar things, such as the Touhou Project. (Don’t quote me on this, I still don’t know what Touhou is despite having it explained more than once.) I guess I’m fond of the Pokémon analogy and things that fit the bill, and although the Mega Man franchise typically only introduces eight robot masters to fight per game, there are... a lot of games. So anyway, after much consideration, I’ve finally complied my top 8 (listed in no particular order): DWN-016: Wood Man (Mega Man II) I'm about to lose everybody on this, but II might be my least favorite main entry in the classic series (fight me). This could be because I missed the hype train and had III to compare with, or simply because I'm tired of hearing about it. For the record, I like it, but for some reason whenever I want to play something older I just pick up the first one. Regardless of this, it has Wood Man. I'm kind of a plant person, and a robot made of wood is fairly ironic. Come on, he shoots leaves at you; tremble with terror as they slowly descend from above! In his defense, Air Man was from the same game and a glorified air conditioner. I feel you, buddy. I've always been fond of how these games never took themselves too seriously. (Well, that was until "retro" became marketable and they gave us things like Sheep Man a few years ago.) I remember seeing Wood Man in the Ruby-Spears cartoon and thinking his version of the leaf shield made a lot more sense because it was, in fact, a shield (though, I definitely favored his design on Captain N most). His cameo in 8 was a welcome surprise. DWN-019: Gemini Man (Mega Man III) III, IV, and VII are my favorite entries of the classic series. With III being what it is for me (sliding!), it was difficult not to fill this roster with more from it. The trippy, pseudo-aquatic ambience of Gemini Man's stage really caught my attention as a child (easily my favorite stage overall), and that largely has to do with him being here. Gemini Man himself is a pretty suave guy and entertaining to fight, though. DWN-022: Snake Man (Mega Man III) Snake Man was a given. Usually, when people ask me what my favorite robot master of all time is, he's the safe answer. (In fact, I own an unopened action figure of him from the Ruby-Spears cartoon line.) Apparently, he was originally designed to investigate narrow areas and survey topography on uninhabited planets marked for development. His bio is more of a curiosity than others: "Snake Man is intelligent and shrewd, but he can also be tenacious. He enjoys actively hunting and cornering his prey like a snake, which puts him at odds with the fair-minded Hard Man. He enjoys the company of Toad Man, for whom the feelings are unfortunately not mutual, and has a hatred of slugs." Also, his stage is pretty ridiculous: what he shoots, the enemies, the floor—all snakes. DWN-028: Pharaoh Man (Mega Man IV) Pharaoh Man is awesome. DWN-032: Skull Man (Mega Man IV) IV is an interesting game in that I consider it the bridge between old and new when it comes to the classic series. Not just for the New Mega Buster, but the fact that it lacks many of the cheap shots seen in the previous three installments, while retaining difficulty. V and VI definitely had that safety net feel to them you'd find later in a portion of the SNES library. Maybe I notice a difference because I'm drawn to punishment, I'm not sure. What I'm getting at is that IV appears to be the most balanced of the NES lot. You could say that my three favorite "things" in life are botany, traditional martial arts and classic horror, so Skull Man is a no-brainer. (Get it?) IV was kind enough to give me two horror-themed robot masters if you count Pharaoh Man. I hate barrier weapons, I swear, yet three of those bastards snuck in here somehow. Skull Man's stage is creative; really like Skeleton Joe. DWN-045: Plant Man (Mega Man VI) I like Plant Man's design more than Wood Man's. It's a shame his fighting strategy managed to be worse. (Maybe I shouldn't have taken a stab at the floating leaves thing earlier.) I felt they did a much better job with him in The Power Battle and The Power Fighters. His bio states he's prone to depression for some reason—could be that his stage is known as the "forgotten area?" DWN-054: Slash Man (Mega Man VII) I've come to find that VII was either hit-or-miss for people. My only complaint was that I'd've preferred they hadn't cut the robot masters into two separate groupings. Slash Man is one of the hardest bosses in the series to me (somewhere under Quick Man). Like many stages in VII, the Robosaur Park is paced well and doesn't get boring. (Robot dinosaurs!) Obviously draws inspiration from X-Men's Wolverine. (Curious, in the hallway leading to him there's an X dead center on the wall.) You know, when this game came out it took me forever to find Beat because Proto Man's hint was partialy misleading. He tells you to "try the flame weapon in the woods," and I considered Slash Man's stage a jungle. For a while I assumed he was just telling you to light the candles in the lower half of Shade Man's stage, which technically takes place in a forest—that would've been a stupid hint. DWN-055: Shade Man (Mega Man VII) Lastly, Shade Man. I'm not sure they could have done his stage more justice. I'm not so much a fan of Ghosts 'n Goblins, but the homage is welcomed. I'm fond of the mid-boss and werewolf enemies. Always liked split-path stages, and being able to fight Proto Man there was a nice touch. Shade Man himself needs little explaining, doesn't he? He's basically the lord of darkness. Well, that's that. Maybe some day I'll get around to a Mega Man X maverick list, but it seems unlikely.