The Megaman War:
Part 1 - Whistle in the Wind

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 4: Misguided Intentions

Dr. Light finished explaining everything to Rock, who immediately looked for a place to sit.

Dr. Light had, of course, left out his suspicions that Rock had not been a willing test subject. He’d also left out the bit about the Suits. He’d ‘forgotten’ about all of the moral problems he had with what he was doing. He even left out the harrowing story of his first test subject, because there was no reason to alarm the boy... He’d let Rock draw his own conclusion that he was on a one-way track to hell.

After a while of the youth sitting down and taking it in, he looked up at the scientist. “Okay, so what do we do next, doc?”

This threw Dr. Light for something of a loop. He hadn’t expected the boy to grow accustomed to the idea that he was a living weapon so quickly! His first test subject had gone insane with the installation process alone, but Dr. Light could always tell that whatever his test subject had become hated him for his intentions. His mind scrambled around for something to say, but a sudden knock on the heavy steel bulkhead that sealed his lab off from the rest of the Mountain.

Sighing in a sort of odd relief, Dr. Light tried to get to the door through the table he’d been leaning against, winding himself in the process. As he tried to force his old lungs to draw in air again, Rock stood up, made an easy leap over the table and landed softly next to the door. “I’ve got it, doc,” the boy said with a smile. He wrenched the heavy steel door open like it was made of plywood and stood behind it, out of sight of the would-be visitors.

Dr. Wily could FEEL his jaw drop and his eyes widen when the door flew open before him. He could also hear Reggae squeak uncomfortably. But all he saw was a man about his own height, maybe a little older than him, sporting an unkempt white beard and a full head of curly, white hair. Remembering himself, he took four full steps into the room, Reggae following meekly behind him.

“Herr Light, I presume?” Dr. Wily said as he swept into the room. “My name is Albert Vily, und it is mein pleasure to be vorking vith such an accomplished scientist!”

“What?” Dr. Light managed.

“Ze higher up have decided za you vill be requiring a bit more help in ze coming veeks, and so zey have sent me to help you viz ze project Prometheus,” Dr. Wily tried again.

“Oh... Well... The project hasn’t had much help since Dr. Caine disappeared a few weeks ago, but I suppose more help is always welcome...” Dr. Light said, more to himself than to anyone else, as he stood up and adjusted his lab coat. “Welcome aboard, Dr. Vily.” Thomas Light smiled warmly and extended a hand.

“Vily,” Albert Wily corrected, taking the proffered hand and shaking it a few times.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Dr. Light said in an innocently confused way.

“Er, begging your pardon sir, but his name is Dr. Wily, sir,” Reggae spoke up, receiving a withering glance from his own boss. “Well, sorry, but, with your accent, it sounded like...”

Dr. Light laughed heartily. “No need to worry, lad. I assume you’re Dr. Wily’s assistant? Good, good... we need all the help we can get around here.”

Dr. Wily adjusted his own lab coat and threw a glance around the lab. “I’ve ben given a very brief summary of vat you hope to accomplish here, Herr Light, viz you revolutionary, if not somevat controversial, ‘System.’”

Dr. Light shrugged. “Well, if you already know that much, I believe I should introduce to you the first successful test subject of my System, Rock Volnutt,” he smiler, gesturing behind them to where Rock stood, leaning against the wall behind the open door. The youth in the blue armor smiled.

Dr. Wily took a moment to take in the sight of the System at work. “So you haf managed to make un glorified doorman?” he said, with the slightest of smirks on his face.

Thomas laughed again. “Not at all. We were about to head to the testing field on floor 5C. If you’d care to accompany us, I’m sure you’ll be pleased to see what Rocky here is capable of.”

As Dr. Wily and Reggae filed out, unsure of what they were about to see, Rock tapped Dr. Light on the shoulder as he passed. “I’d like to put in a formal request that you never call me ‘Rocky’ again.”

Dr. Light smiled as the youth shut the heavy steel door with ease. “Fine then, but you never get to call me ‘doc’ anymore, either.”

“Fair enough,” Rock shrugged.

The testing field was about the size of the average indoor golf dome. It had a clearly marked football field for those days when the security guards were bored, and it also had a pair of tennis courts at either end and a ceiling that was 100 feet high. The difference was that, instead of astroturf, the floor was made of a titanium alloy, but rolled up mats of softer material sat on the edges of the room. Dr. Wily had, of course, been here before, but whistled low every time he stepped into it anyway. Reggae’s jaw dropped along with Rock’s as they entered the massive space. Dr. Light simply picked up a clipboard that seemed to be waiting for him on a small table, as well as a stopwatch.

“Okay, Rock, the first thing I’d like to do is measure your average running speed. Could you run from one end of the field to the other?” he asked, gesturing to the football field.

Rock simply nodded and walked to the nearest end zone, standing there at ease until Dr. Light shouted “Go!” The youth took off running, with absolutely no style or form, and still managed to go faster than the average Olympic competitor.

As Rock crossed through the other end zone, Dr. Light clicked the stopwatch. “9.2 seconds... not bad, Rock. Why did you go so slow?”

Rock jogged back over to the group. “I was pacing myself, so I didn’t get tired half way through.”

Dr. Light laughed. “Try it again, son, but this time, go all out and see if you feel any kind of tired.”

Rock raised an eyebrow, but did as he was told. He ran the distance again, this time at full tilt, and he never slowed down. When he came back to the scientists, he wasn’t even breathing hard. “How’d I do?”

“4.1 seconds,” Dr. Light grinned.

“Wow,” Reggae managed.

“Remarkable,” Dr. Wily nodded. Things were shaping up better than he hoped. His ‘Quick’ model could probably outrace a train, if he tuned it right...

“Next, we’ll test out your secondary mobility functions,” Dr. Light cut into Wily’s brewing fantasy. “Try jumping again, Rock.” The youth did so, easily clearing 20 feet of air space. He landed softly, and Dr. Light smiled as Wily and Reggae both did a double take. “Try it again, this time with some effort.”

Rock bunched up his legs and really gave it a shot this time, launching himself easily 30... 40 feet into the air, where he hung gracefully for a split second before falling back down, landing easily as the Armor absorbed the shock of the impact and reduced it to little more that a solid thud. At this point, Wily swore in German.

“Zis is incredible!” he exclaimed, barely able to contain himself. “Vy, viz ze proper alterations und equvipment, zis design of yours could haf hundred of applications!”

Dr. Light smiled a little. “The original idea behind this System was to allow the lam to walk again...”

“Very noble, sir,” Reggae put in.

“... but when the Government got wind of what it could do if I ‘over clocked’ it, so to speak, they almost beat me into creating this...” Dr. Light sighed and Rock could almost feel his pain.

Wily, however, was doing everything he could not to laugh aloud again. Having SEEN the basic design in action, his mind was coming up with and categorizing new ideas by the cart load. His own project was sound in theory, and solid to boot, but the possibilities that came with Thomas Light’s own System were nearly infinite! And what was more, the old fool didn’t seem to realize the cornucopia of options he had unwittingly invented!

The testing continued, and determined that Rock could stay in the air for almost a full minute with controlled bursts of the A.B.J., and that he could also use the A.B.J. to move at an average ground speed of 30 mph. Rock’s physical abilities were tested as well, such as his ability to flip, tuck and roll, shift his weight in midair to redirect himself without the use of the A.B.J., and any number of other gymnastic feats. About an hour and a half after they entered the testing field, Rock brought up something.

“Hey, I have this weird red flashing light going off in the corner of my vision... is that normal?”

Dr. Light checked his watch. “That’s the ‘Low Battery’ light... we better get you back to the lab and out of that Armor so we can recharge it.”

Rock nodded, and the four of them made their way back to Dr. Light’s lab.

Back in Dr. Wily’s own lab, though, on of the lab technicians couldn’t help but wonder that the use was in the thing he’d just made.

He’d followed the schematic perfectly. The dimensions had struck him as odd, but Dr. Wilt was an odd person to work for. On the table before him was a pair of, for lack of a better term, scissors. Possibly the largest pair in existence. When closed, they formed a perfect circle, about three feet across. Near the joint for the blades, cut into the circle rather than built onto it, were a pair of sturdy handles, so that the scissors could be operated. The blades had been sharpened to the written specifications, and had easily passed the test they were supposed to be given...

The lab technician looked uneasily at the paper on the table, cut so cleanly in half that one might suspect a machine had done it. The lab technician had never actually moved the shears, though. He’d just draped the piece of paper on one of the blades and it had fallen right in half, before he could even think about bringing the other blade into it. All in all, these scissors were an incredible tool, possibly capable of cutting a steel girder in half without much of a second thought. The only problem was that they were heavy and unwieldily, so the lab technician couldn’t see much of a use for them outside of a workshop.

Another one of the lab technicians had fashion what looked like a spring. A copper coil, wrapped around a steel cylinder, was now being fitted with a vacuum-sealed black box about three inches across on the inside of the coil. The lab technician was confused, as it looked like the German scientist had scribbled this schematic over a poor copy of an unfinished idea that was only labeled ‘Plasma Rifle.’ What a copper coil and small box had to do with plasma, the technician had no idea. Presumably, Dr. Wily would elaborate further when he returned.

Yet another technician had created something that looked like an oversized CO2 tank, like you might find on a paint ball gun. Still another had constructed several sets of folding boomerangs with a small explosive charge on one end holding the two parts together. He could only guess that the idea was that the charge would shoot the boomerang out of a gun, where it would fold out and fly like a normal boomerang, but what was the use in that? Still other technicians were creating bulky armor, odd looking gauntlets and boots, and stylized helmets.

Of course, the gelatin they’d all worked on was still being filled with gold, albeit at a much slower rate, but none of the lab technicians really knew what they were working toward anymore. Any semblance of an idea of the grand plan any of them once had vanished when Dr. Wily had ordered the start of this second project. Some of them were becoming convinced that their boss was well and truly insane...

Roll had always had a key to Rock’s apartment, just like he’d always had one to hers. She slid quietly into the room and closed the door behind her, searching for any kind of clue that would tell her where he was. She’d been here before and had no luck, and she knew she’d be here again, but she couldn’t help but worry. Besides, someone needed to feed Rush, anyway.

The oddly-colored copper Labrador came almost immediately as she opened the door, his tail wagging excitedly. She crouched down and petted him as he sniffed her, catching whiffs of Tango. Roll sighed as the dog laid down, demanding a belly rub.

“I don’t suppose you know where Rock went, do you?” Roll said sadly. Rush didn’t seem to care, but hopped up to his feet and sauntered to his empty food bowl with a sad look on his face. This made Roll smile, ever so slightly, as she got up and rummaged around to find the dog food.

Dr. Light sat back in his chair. Dr. Wily and his assistant had left a while ago, and Rock was dozing happily on the table that had recently been stained with his blood. Something about the day kept nagging Dr. Light. He felt he’d missed something, and that the something was important...

His tired gaze fell on the clipboard that had the paper with Rock’s personal information on it. He picked it up and read it over again, and then, without really knowing why, he ripped the paper off of the clipboard and bunched it up.

Feeling around in his lab coat, he pulled out a small lighter, a stinging reminder of the fact that they didn’t allow smoking in the Mountain. In fact, it had been the only reason he quit in the first place. With as smart as he was, he felt he deserved a vice, and smoking had just happened to be less debilitating than drinking.

With a sigh and a few tries, he got the lighter to ignite, and set the crumpled ball in his hand aflame. Tossing the now burning paper into a nearby sink, Dr. Light watched it burn for a while. When he was sure that it had been rendered totally illegible, he sprayed it with water and tossed it in the garbage can. He looked once more at the boy, who shifted in his sleep, and smiled.

“Whatever secrets you had are safe now... Whatever happens from now on will happen to me. I swear it...”

Sitting heavily back down in his chair, Dr. Light soon fell fast asleep.