Chapter 3: Ruminations of the Past

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21XX:  New Tokyo, The New Tokyo Institute of Technology, 0730 Hours GMT

“Thank you for that warm introduction.  As your professor said, I am Dr. Xavier Hikari, and I just want to get something out of the way before I start; how many people in this room are reploids?”

I kept my hand down as I sat in the back of  the room.  I didn’t tell him that I was coming because I didn’t want his attention to keep wandering my way.  Pretending to be human was easy enough for me.  Just act like you don't give a damn and you've got 90% of it down pat.  Of course I’m biased seeing as how I’m not one of them, but it still gets me that, even in this so called ‘unified and peaceful’ society of ours, there is still the foul presence of racism towards my kind.  Sometimes I wonder, what would old Martin Luther King Jr. have been like if he had been a reploid.  Heh, he would've probably dreamed of electric sheep.  Oh, better pay attention, the ‘Doctor’ is talking again.

“Alright that’s great.  This lecture should be of particular interest to you all then because the topic involves the ever progressing science, although some might say it’s more of an art, of advanced artificial intelligence applications in reploids.  You’ll have to forgive me, but I’m just going to briefly go over some of the history behind this topic, just so that you have an idea of the context.  Now as we all know, reploids all share a common origin.  Robots.  The very first robots were primitive machines that had the bare essentials and could only preform preprogrammed tasks...”

The kid sitting directly next to me leaned over and whispered in my ear, “do we really have to be here?  I’m already getting bored.”

I barely glanced over at him and said, “yes.  Now be quite.”

“But the schedule says that he’s going to be going on like this for another two hours!”

“Good, maybe you’ll learn something to put in that dummy head of yours, now shut up.”

“I’ve already learned something.  Me and school ain’t supposed to mix.”

“‘Ain’t’ ain’t a word grammar boy, now shut it or you ain’t going to be feeling pleasant tomorrow.”  He got a sour look on his face and crossed his arms like he was going to have a fit as I brought my attention back to the speaker.

“...all changed with the development of the first advanced robot master.  Significantly different from most of the robot masters that would come after it, the first advanced RM was DRN-000, otherwise known to the world at large as ‘Protoman.’”  Dr. Hikari paused as a picture of Protoman came up on the slide.  A couple of the kids and more than a few of the reploids looked at the picture in fascination, they had never seen such a good picture of the robot.  Of course, none of them would ever guess how he had gotten this picture, one of the many files on his father’s computer at the site where he had been found.  He continued speaking.  “Developed by the team of Doctors Light and Wily, Protoman was the first robot that could make decisions for itself, within the boundaries of the three laws of robotics, which both Light and Wily had agreed would be done with all their robots to prevent any danger should Protoman go haywire.  The development of Protoman led to the eventual creation of one of Dr. Light’s other masterpieces, not to mention, the reason that the world is still inhabited by humans.  He was originally designed as the laboratory assistant, Rock, but you all probably know him better as the robot who fought for everlasting peace, Megaman.”  And, replacing Protoman’s picture was one of Megaman with a bound Dr. Wily at the end of the sixth robot rebellion.

I smirked at the picture.  So, that little robot was the world’s best hope against destruction for at least a dozen robot rebellions.  Hard to imagine.  He probably wouldn’t be able to take on even the weakest maverick.  Although, the trials he went through back in those days must have been every bit as difficult as the ones he and ‘Dr. Hikari’ go through.  Being the only one who could stop a madman time after time, and never being able to finish the job?  Sounds a lot like what we go through with Sigma.  Although, Megaman had that First Law of Robotics in him that wouldn’t even let him lay a finger on Wily with the intention to hurt him.  At least we could have the satisfaction of killing Sigma, even if it’s never a permanent thing.

“THAT thing is the reason we’re all here,” he whispered to me.

“Yeah, hard to believe huh?  Now pay attention, if anyone knows anything about the original blue bomber, it’ll be him.”

“Now, I don’t think there can be any doubt that without Megaman, humanity would most likely have been wiped out by the mastermind behind the robot rebellions, Dr. Albert Wily.  Megaman stopped Dr. Wily from achieving total world domination not once, nor twice, but over a dozen times.  Each time he was able to do so without harming a hair on the crazy scientists head.  The fact that he was able to fight Wily at all was incredible.  Does anybody want to guess why that is?”

One of the students in the third row tentatively rose his hand.  “I don’t know if this is right, but, didn’t one of the Laws of Robotics state that a robot had to obey any order given to it by a human?”

Dr. Hikari pointed at the student and said, “exactly!  That’s exactly the reason.  Wily should have been able to tell Megaman to stop fighting him based on the fact that he might have accidentally gotten hurt.  That’s the Second Law of Robotics by the way.  However, Megaman, and his brother and sister, Protoman and Roll, demonstrated the unique ability to break the second and third laws from time to time.  Megaman first accomplished this in the first robot rebellion when Wily ordered Megaman to stand down and Megaman refused.  By all rights, this should have caused his processor to seize up in a casualty loop, but instead, Megaman was able to avoid the fatal loop by reasoning that, were he not to break the Second Law, Dr. Wily would definitely go on to kill more people.  However, there was no chance of ever getting around the First Law, so each and every time he stopped Wily, he managed to do it with out even touching the mad scientist.”

“Then for some reason Megaman, Wily, Dr. Light and all the others, disappeared.  We do not know what happened or when it took place.  All we do know that sometime after the King incident, Megaman and the other players in the Age of Robots just dropped off the face of the Earth.  This led to most of the remaining robot masters that had been mass produced to scrapped due to the massive stigma that had been built against them.  The only robots made during this period of time were the ones with incredibly primitive AIs.  It would be decades until thinking machines would make news again.  This occurred with the discovery of Megaman X, the successor to the original Megaman’s legacy.  The amount of work that Dr. Light put into him is amazing, and something that modern day scientists have still not been able to figure out.  Even today, modern reploids still can’t match the level of complexity and advancement that X has.  Some have even gone so far as to call X a human who was born a reploid.”  The picture of Megaman clicked off and was replaced with one of X fully clad in his iconic blue armor.

“He’s giving himself some serious props isn’t he?”

“Only what’s been proven by all the best reploid researchers in the world.”

“Now, I feel the need to point out that Megaman X is not technically a reploid in the strictest sense of the word.  Reploids, and the term does get misused from time to time, stands for 'replicate androids’ and designates the machines that were built off of Megaman X’s blueprints by Cain Industries.  Most AI programmers in todays world still can't understand how Light managed to program X’s AI so perfectly and had to cut out parts of the design that they couldn’t reproduce in order to keep it from totally crashing the reploids they were making.  In effect this makes X something more than a reploid, but I digress, Megaman X was designed to be able to choose his own path in life.  He was to be given the conscience of a human being and none of the limitations of a robot, meaning he was not bound by the Three Laws of Robotics.  Now the dangerous thing, and what Thomas Light feared, was that X would not have properly developed ethics and would somehow become an unstoppable force of destruction.  So he made X go through thirty years of stasis where his intelligence was given a multitude of ethical tests with the purpose of making sure that he wouldn’t become that which his older brother had fought against.  And his discovery, and the subsequent creation of more reploids that were partially based on his design, led to reploids starting to become a staple in our society.  Reploids would soon be accepted in all walks of life as the equals of humans.  Of course, there was, and still continues to be prejudice against the reploid race.  This prejudice, which was especially prevalent in the early days of the Age of Reploids, caused many reploids to be mistreated by humans.  Eventually there emerged some reploids that would no longer stand being mistreated and began attacking humans.  These reploids were deemed mavericks and they initiated a special group to combat them, the Maverick Hunters, of which Megaman X, and Zero Omega are a central part.  However, the first mavericks weren’t the types of mavericks that the Maverick Hunters fight today.”  At this, the picture of X was replaced with that of the leader of the mavericks, Sigma.  A few of the students shifted uncomfortably, as they knew what Sigma had done over the years and were afraid that, somehow, Sigma could, and would, attack them through the picture.

“Hey, what am I, chopped liver?”

“Easy kid, you haven't been around as long as we have.  You’ll get there.”

“Mavericks as we know them now, first emerged with the first maverick uprising, led by Sigma, former leader of the Maverick Hunters.  Sigma had been built by the late, great Dr. James Cain, the man who uncovered Dr. Light’s buried laboratory.  At the time, Sigma was supposed to be the most advanced reploid ever built.  To be sure, Sigma led the Maverick Hunters to great success during the early days.  However, one day, every thing changed, as Sigma suddenly went maverick and attacked Maverick Hunter Headquarters with his elite squadron of eight former hunters.  For years, no one knew what had caused Sigma to so abruptly go maverick, and he was defeated twice by Megaman X before the reploid scientist Dr. Doppler uncovered that reploids that went maverick did so because of an aberrant piece of code in their AI that was deemed the Maverick Virus, a malicious piece of programming that rendered even the most peaceful of reploids vicious, unnaturally powerful killing machines.  This discovery also led to the revelation that Sigma himself now existed as a computer program that was able to inhabit new bodies to initiate maverick uprisings.  To date he has come back almost a dozen times, each time more powerful than the last.  It’s a certainty that, without the two hunters X and Zero always standing in the way of his goals, Sigma would most certainly have eradicated every living human being on the planet and crowned himself ruler of the reploid race.”

“There he goes again with the two ‘almighty’ hunters that everyone loves and praises and not even mentioning the new guy.”

“Truth be told, for first few times it was just him that stood up to Sigma.  Oh sure I helped out a bit, but for the most part, during the first, second, and third he was able to beat Sigma without needing too much assistance.”

“Really?  He’s never mentioned that.”

“Are you kidding, how is he your friend and you don’t know about his modesty yet?”

“Hey, lighten up man, he’s talking again.”

“To this day, the exact origin of the Maverick Virus is uncertain, but it remains just as dangerous now as it was when it first turned Sigma against everything he once fought for.  Now, that’s pretty much it for the history lesson, I’d like to start by addressing the problems with......”

‘Dr. Hikari’ kept on talking but all my attention was focused inwards.  The Maverick Virus.  Possibly the most dangerous thing on the planet.  Certainly, if it turned Sigma into what he is today, and could do the same to other reploids, it had the potential to be more devastating than World War III.  I remember what Sigma was like before he turned.  I remember that it was during the Repliforce incident that Sigma showed me our first encounter.  How I had almost destroyed him, but in the end, couldn’t do it and was beaten.  He told me that I had been a maverick, but I remember Dr. Cain telling me when he reactivated me that he only repaired the damage done, and that he hadn’t touched my circuits.  But that must have meant that I wasn’t infected with the Virus.  Than why don’t I remember it myself?  How had Sigma come into contact with the Virus?  He is widely accepted to be the first maverick that was influenced by the Maverick Virus.  But he was built by Dr. Cain, and Cain wouldn’t have put something like that in any reploid, much less his most prized creation.  Is it possible that he could have been infected during our fight?  But surely there would have still been some indication of the Virus in my systems.  Unless, it was somehow able to hide itself inside of my systems.  Hide itself so well that not even Doppler’s ‘vaccine’ for the Virus could get rid of it.  But that could only make sense if the virus had been made to tailor for my systems.  But, saying it was, could that mean that the Maverick Virus is a part of my systems?  Could it be that I’m the original maverick.  If so, than my creator would have been the one who made the Virus.  But why?  Why would any man make something so dangerous, something that could destroy the entire world?  Why...unless...kill him ...what was that...kill him...who...what are you talking about...kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him
kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him
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kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him
kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him kill him.......

“WHO!!!!!!”

“Zero!  Jesus, wake up dude!”

My eyes snapped open, I was still in the conference room, but it was empty now.  “What...Axl?  What happened?”

“Dude, you tell me.  I was sitting here and you must've been having a bad dream or something cause you just started spazing out like crazy.  I put us both into stealth mode so that we wouldn’t make a scene.”

“Too bad not every one was fooled.”

I looked over to where the voice came from.  Oh crap.  “Hi X.”

“Zero, while I am glad you and Axl wanted to come to my lecture, I’m worried because this is the second time today you’ve been having these nightmares.  I think we should talk about it.”

“I don’t want to talk about it X.”

“Zero, if I hadn’t cleared the room as soon as I noticed Axl go into stealth mode with you, you most certainly would have made a scene, and I think some people would have started asking questions.  And they wouldn’t have been easy questions either; people would want to know why a reploid suddenly started acting crazy with seemingly no provocation.  By the way Axl, that was a good move, even if I knew it was you that did it.”

“I don’t understand, how did you know it was me?”

“In between the time you started the cloak and when it actually covered you, you unleashed a special energy pulse that I picked up.  I had no idea where you were, but I did know you were here, and I figured that you probably wouldn’t have come here alone, so I deduced that Zero was with you.”

Axl looked like he was torn between happiness from X’s praise and embarrassment that he had uncovered their presence so quickly.  “I’m sorry, I didn’t ruin your lecture did I?”

“Nah, I was almost done and nobody really seemed to mind being let out a little early.  Although you did give Professor Nagashima quite a surprise.”

I looked over at the human standing next to X.  He looked vaguely familiar.  “Wait, haven’t I seen you someplace before?”

“Yeah I was actually in the hunters for a while, 22nd unit.  Beam sabre specialist, kind of like you.  But that was years ago.  I’m actually surprised that you recognized me.”

That surprised me.  No wonder this guy knew who I was.  I trained with those guys for a couple of weeks a long time ago.  This was someone who probably did give a damn about repliroids, and he had thought this was some stupid, arrogant human who, if he had his way, would have made it so that robots had never been thought up.  ‘Shows what judging a book by it’s cover says.’

“Anyway Zero, what's bothering you?  If you want to keep it private we can go somewhere else.  I just want you to talk to me.  We’re friends remember?  You can trust me.”

I thought about it for quite a while.  “Yeah, okay.  Let's get back to HQ.  I’ve got some booze that needs opening and now seems like a good time to open it.  See ya later Axl, and you too.”

Nagashima stood up straight and gave a salute.  “It was good seeing you again sir.  Hope we can get together and catch up on old times.”

“Don’t call me sir.  I’m not your commander and you’re definitely not my subordinate.  As far as I’m concerned, you’re better than a lot of humans I’ve come into contact with.”  I gave him a weak salute back, just so that he wouldn’t keep doing it.  Then X and I left the building heading over to my place.  Hopefully I could tell X what's been really bugging me.  Hopefully...

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End Chapter 3