A Different Place

Chapter 47 - More Megamans Equals More Fun

Strange, familiar feelings began washing over MegaMan as he entered the chamber at the bottom of the Main Gate. He didn't know why, but he felt as if he might have been in here, or somewhere very similar before. These feelings of familiarity were not comforting, however. They were giving him a sense of foreboding; he felt as though something terrible would happen, and most likely soon.

While Teisel was silently sneaking up to scout out the next room, MegaMan felt as though there were something he needed to do, and swiftly. He followed his instincts to the westernmost corner of the room and knelt. Searching with his hands, he found the edges of the panel and removed it. Behind this section of the wall, many wires crisscrossed with many others, each one part of a rainbow of color.

"What are you doing?" Tron hissed from behind him.

MegaMan cocked his head as he gave that idea some thought. "There's something...I need to do here." His hands, seemingly of their own free will, located two junctions of the wires and disconnected them. Then, he took the Digger's knife at his belt and purposefully frayed the edges of the wire, so that they could not easily be rejoined. "I'm not sure what it is, exactly," he explained to Tron in a whisper. "It seems important, though."

"Shh!" Tron said, as other voices from the room ahead could be heard.

"Was it you who awoke me? It is somewhat earlier than I had planned..." MegaMan conintued disconnecting several input junctions as the strange new voice spoke. "Ah, no matter. Thank you for awakening me. I see you are one of the numerous carbon units that has overpopulated the land above." Just one more interlay to sabotage, and his work would be finished. "How refreshing that you have taken a long-sighted view of your perilous situation and decided to ask me to reinitialize the island yourselves."

"What?" asked Roll's Digger. His name was...Dantz, MegaMan reminded himself as he stood up.

"I can think of no other reason for my awakening," said the calm, polite voice. "According to Urban Military Security Ordinance A-10, the number of carbon units is not allowed to increase beyond a pre-specified limit; if this happens, they are to be purged immediately. My observation, if left unattended, you carbons will reproduce indefinitely. Your numbers will grow, polluting the surface world. As you can imagine, this can be quite an undesirable state."

As MegaMan made his way toward the other room, he noticed that Dantz sounded a bit overwhelmed. "Urban Security Ordinance what? What are carbons?"

MegaMan was now at the same vantage point as Teisel. The Digger, clad in his dirty grey Digging armor and his orange miner's hat, was facing what seemed to be an odd conglomeration of Reaverbot and human. The upper half was that of a handsome young man, normal in every respect except for the lavender-colored hair. The creature's lower half was that of a large Reaverbot: powerful and massive, including the metallic halves of his lower arms. He continued speaking to Dantz. "Quite simply put, carbons, or beta units, are all descended from a unsuccessful attempt at cloning the Master's genetic code. All of the carbons on this planet were originally rejected by Eden several thousand years ago, but they were never eliminated, despite several reinitializations that have occurred over the centuries. Unfortunately, you carbons fit Mass Population Model B. You are unstable, very difficult to control. This is why it may be better to simply reinitialize the island now rather than at the scheduled time."

"What are you talking about? Who are you, anyway?"

The young man smiled. "How impolite of me. This unit is designated MegaMan Juno, Bureaucratic Model, Third Class. I am the keeper of this island's systems."

It sounded like Dantz was choking, but a few more seconds revealed that the Digger was laughing nervously. "MegaMan? Like on TV?" From behind the doorjamb, Teisel took in a harsh breath and looked at MegaMan with questions in his eyes.

"I am sorry," apologized MegaMan Juno, "I do not understand your inquiry."

As MegaMan strode boldly past Teisel and into the room, a plan already forming in his mind, Dantz was shaking his head nervously. "What's with all the guys named 'MegaMan' anymore? I don't---"

"Not so fast, MegaMan Juno," said MegaMan, revealing himself and walking past Dantz to stand directly in front of the almost frightenly large Bureaucratic Model. "You've forgotten Urban Military Security Ordinance B-17."

MegaMan Juno looked at him appraisingly, then tilted his head a bit to the left. "'All Prototype and Secondary Anthro Units are required to be within their respective quarters after 2330 hours?'" he quoted directly. "I fail to see the relevance to this particular situation."

"Err, right," MegaMan stumbled over himself. He tried to access some of the knowledge that was hidden in his memory. "What I meant was, perhaps you need to re-examine the situation."

"Ah, yes," said MegaMan Juno. "You are a purifier unit, correct? Designation: MegaMan Trigger. Please forgive me. I did not recognize you in your current configuration."

"No matter," said Trigger. He recognized Juno's model but did not know what his specific functions were, other than guarding Kattleox Island. "What I meant by my earlier statement will become clear shortly. State the current situation as you see it."

"I am currently supposed to be in standby mode," Juno recited, "except for every two-hundred-year interval, where I am to awaken automatically and participate in the worldwide Carbon Reinitialization Program mandated by Eden's protocols."

"Do you know why you have been awakened now?" asked Trigger.

"I assume, since it is approximately four years, seven months, twelve days, fifteen hours, thirty-seven minutes, and two seconds before the scheduled maintenance period, that this island has become so overpopulated an early reinitialization was necessary." Juno's voice remained modulated throughout his statement.

MegaMan Trigger began walking around the spotless chamber with no particular destination in his mind. "Your assumption is incorrect. My minions and I have ventured down here to awaken you and present your conscious program with your new orders. I assume you have a humaniform shell located somewhere within this facility?"

"Of course," Juno said.

Trigger nodded. "Excellent. Please transfer your functions into that shell and return here."

"Affirmative." Juno smiled pleansantly and vacated the chamber, floating several feet off the polished ground. "Please make yourself comfortable until my return."

"What are you doing?" Teisel demanded as he and the others hopped into the room. "Have you met that monster before?"

"Yeah," said Tron, "you'd better not be trying to pull something over on us, or I'll---"

"I'm just spinning stories out of thin air," said MegaMan. "I've never met this guy before. I'm just trying to talk the same way he is, and it's working." Some part of him protested that this was not entirely true, but he ordered it to keep silent.

"Why does he have the same name as you?" Dantz asked weakly. The Digger looked as if he might just faint at any moment.

"I don't know," said MegaMan. "It's not like there was any logic to the way I got my name. I guess we could ask him, but I'm more worried about the Carbon Reinitialization Program, which sounds like---"

"Mass genocide," finished Teisel, staring darkly at the far door.

Tron looked shocked. "You mean he's going to murder everyone on the island? That's insane!"

"He doesn't seem to have any problem with it," MegaMan said. "We're probably going to have to do some fast talking to get out of this."

Teisel shrugged approvingly. "You seem to have a handle on this...robot, or whatever he is, so far, so I'll follow your lead."

Tron turned to the Servbots. "All of you had better keep quiet, or else you're gonna get it, you hear me? Not one word!"

"Roger!" said the Servbots in unison.

"I see that you have brought the remainder of your minions within," said Juno as he returned in the humaniform shell. Juno's body looked much the same as his older one, from the shoulders up. Lower than that, however, it looked a great deal more natural, as if the Bureaucratic Model were merely a normal young man instead of something far, far different. "I had thought they would all be carbon units as well, but I can see that you have quite a few primitives with you also." MegaMan Juno indicated the Servbots as he said this. Then, he looked at Bon. "And this one is quite interesting, I can tell. It would seem that he is made up of---"

"We can discuss my servants later," said MegaMan, trying to ignore the nasty look Tron was giving him. Trying to emulate Teisel's art of on-the-spot deception, he said, "I have a new set of directives for you. This island is no longer to be kept in stasis. You have been selected to...take a survey of the surrounding carbon cultures and report it back to...um..."

"To Mother?" Juno finished. "This is highly unusual. I will, of course, have to verify your directives' authenticity with Eden before I can..." His face went blank. "Odd. I cannot establish contact with either Eden or the Mother System."

"Of course not," said Trigger. "When was your last direct contact with Mother?"

"Three hundred fifty-three years, two months, three days---"

"That will do," said MegaMan Trigger. "Clearly your communication systems have been inoperable for a great deal of time. This was why you received no confirmation during your island's last reinitialization. Mother has declared the current Order to be stagnant. She wishes us to preserve the carbon civilizations for future study."

"Continue."

Trigger was starting to enjoy himself. "Yours was one of only three sectors which reinitialized during the last interval. I have already visited two of those station keepers to determine what malfunction was responsible for this deviation. You are the last. You are to follow your new orders without question; otherwise I might find it necessary to exercise my Perogative of Correctional Displacation..."

"That will not be necessary," Juno said quickly. "Are there any sub-directives about which I should be aware?"

"No carbon units are to be reinitialized without prior immoderate behavior. That is to say, you may defend yourself, but not initiate any proactive violent action against them. Also, take steps not to reveal yourself as an emissary of the System. It will skew the results significantly."

"Understood," said Juno. "I will leave immediately." The Bureaucratic Model stepped through the Servbots and headed for the Main Gate's exit.

No one said a word as MegaMan Juno left, each remaining silent for several minutes afterward until it seemed it might be safe to talk again. "That was brilliant, my boy!" Teisel said, slapping MegaMan on the back. "How did you manage to keep all of it straight?"

"I have no idea," said MegaMan. "I just bluffed my way through it all." After the grand deception he'd just spun, a simple lie like that one would be easy to pull off, right?

"Uh, yeah," said Dantz, looking stupidly at everyone. "I'm glad that nobody...got reinitialized, or whatever."

Tron looked at Dantz with distrust. "Did you get a chance to steal all the treasure from us before that MegaMan Juno showed up? I ought to pound you!"

"Um, I looked in the rooms behind this one," said Dantz smoothly, "but there was...nothing there. Just a couple of small flying Reaverbots. Juno...whatever he was, he didn't wake up until just before you got here. I don't know why."

MegaMan thought he might have an idea of why, but he didn't want any of the others to guess it. "That's not important right now," he said.

"No," Teisel agreed, his mind already back on treasure. "If you're sure there's nothing back there..." Dantz nodded in agreement. "Then let's head back upstairs. I suppose you," he said to Dantz, "can keep the refractors you've already found. We'll take the rest."

"Teisel," Tron said, "remember that door we found a few floors up? There could be something big inside! Let's go check it out."

"Babu!" Bon agreed, flexing his immense arms.

The large group ran back up the spiraling passageway to the other door they'd found, then went inside. After following a few twists and turns, and battling more than a few Reaverbots, they found an exit, which led them right outside Kattleox City's power station.

"Well, thanks for not pounding me," said Dantz, saluting the others informally. "I'd better go find Roll and tell her I'm okay. She gets pretty cranky if I don't check in with her." He ran off to the north. "Oh," Dantz said before he was completely out of sight, "I'm really sorry about stealing the Gate Keys from you. That was probably something I shouldn't have done."

"I suppose not," Teisel said, "but it wasn't anything we wouldn't have thought of if our roles were reversed. I think we can let it slide...this time." Tron looked like she might say something, but kept her mouth shut as the tall Digger ran off. Teisel smiled mildly. "You know, he's not a bad Digger. I wouldn't mind having him working for us."

"No way!" said Tron. "He's a goofball, and he doesn't really seem very dependable."

"Miss Tron?" piped up one of the Servbots, which MegaMan realized was the first time one of them had spoken in a long while.

"What is it, Number Thirty?"

"Can we start talking again?"

Tron gave an exaggerated groan. "Well, I GUESS so, but try not to say anything stupid for a bit, okay?"

"Roo-gerrr!" sang all of the Servbots at once.

"You guys did a great job today!" MegaMan said reassuringly as he stood next to Tron.

"No," Tron corrected, looking at MegaMan's emerald eyes, "you did a great job today!" She squeezed the boy tightly in an unexpected hug. "I'm really glad you were with us."

MegaMan's cheeks flushed red as Teisel, Bon, and the Servbots looked at him in expectation. "Uhh..." he said. Then, after thinking about it some more, "Uhh..."

"Buu..." Bon said with disgust as Tron released MegaMan.

"Oooh, Miss Tron!" Number Twenty-One said, waving his hand with zeal.

"Yes?"

"Remember that loan we got from the bank?"

Tron's eyes narrowed. "Yes..?" she said with a hint of ire. MegaMan almost felt sorry for the plump Servbot.

"Let us show you what we did with it!" Twenty-One latched onto Tron's hand and began dragging her towards Kattleox City. "I hope you like hamburgers!"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Tron asked sharply as she was led away.

MegaMan smiled as he and the others followed. No matter what surprise Twenty-One had in store for them, he knew that it would be all right. In fact, everything in his life was all right. He was certainly in a different place than he might have imagined, but as long as he was with the people he cared about, everything would be just great---and there was nothing that could change that.