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Ryder Beechler

The History of Mega Man: Prologue

Updated: Sep 24

The year is 200X. Over the past few years, science and technology have been greatly advanced, thanks to the efforts of the esteemed Dr. Thomas Light: the widely-acclaimed “founding father of robotics”. Over recent years, he has created a new breakthrough; robots that have more complex AI than others, robots with the ability to feel emotions.


With this in mind, Dr. Light decided to test his findings by making the world’s second (there was a first, “failed prototype” that had gone AWOL) robot to be shown to the public. Its name was Rock. A lab assistant robot modeled to appear like a 10-year-old boy, Dr. Light would be joyful about the success of his creation and developed a sister robot by the name of “Roll”. While Rock was a lab assistant robot to Dr. Light, Roll would be the “younger sister” and housekeeper robot for Dr. Light’s laboratory. Following the successful creation of the two robots, Dr. Light would go on to create six more robots intended for industrial purposes. Today, Dr. Light is about to reveal these robots to the public for the very first time, in a hotel ballroom. Perfect for the occasion.

“Greetings, one and all,” Dr. Light would start, getting the crowd’s attention. “Today I have gathered you all for the grand reveal of each of my industrial robots. All of whom are designed to aid you and your coworkers in your jobs.” The crowd would applaud, cheering for the Doctor’s reveal of the robots. “And now… without further ado, I shall reveal my esteemed Light Numbers!” The crowd cheered uproariously as the curtains opened, showcasing each of the six industrial robots. Rock and Roll were sitting amongst the crowd, also cheering for their creator. “Woo!” Rock would cheer. “You got this!” Roll would cheer after. Now settling down a bit, the two would have a short conversation. “So,” Roll started. “Which one of our newest brothers are you most excited about, Rock? I’m personally excited for Ice Man! Ooh, he looks so cute and all…” “Well,” Rock would start to reply. “I… I’m looking forward to all of them, really. I felt scared when he was working on both Bomb Man and Fire Man simultaneously, but I’m glad it all turned out good in the end!”


“Now,” Dr. Light gestured behind to the right. “This is the first of my six industrial robots: Cut Man. Designed as a wood harvesting robot, he will aid you all in wood collecting and tree felling with his mighty Rolling Cutter.” Cut Man waved as the crowd clapped. “Next is Guts Man,” gesturing fully behind him now, “a land development robot that will help clear debris and heavy rocks. There is nothing too strong for him to carry with his Super Arm.” Guts Man would grin and chuckle, the crowd clapping once more. “Now we have Ice Man,” Dr. Light said, gesturing to his right, “a small robot designed for scouting through the harsh conditions of the arctic regions. With his Ice Slasher, capable of freezing anything and making scouting easier. He will be able to provide us with much more than we can by ourselves!” The crowd clapped for Ice Man as he cutely waved, a little innocently too.


“Bomb Man is next,” Dr. Light gestured to Guts Man’s shoulder, where Bomb Man was sitting. “He will also aid us in land development, specifically in demolitions and clearing large amounts of rough, rocky terrain with his highly powerful Hyper Bomb. Make sure not to be too close to him when he does so, though.” Once more, the crowd applauded as Bomb Man gave them the “V-sign” and smiled. “Second to last is our brightly-burning Fire Man,” gesturing behind him to the right. “He is our waste management robot and will help with incinerating any scraps and garbage with his 2750°F fires generated from his Fire Storm!” The crowd clapped once again with a small cheer, Fire Man pumping and raising one of his arms in the air. “Finally, last but not least, is our nuclear power controller, Elec Man!” Dr. Light now gesturing to his left, the crowd wasting no time in cheering for the electrifying Light Number as he struck a pose for a bit. “He is equipped with faster decision-making and high-speed capabilities for the dangerous work environment he is designed for. His Thunder Beam will allow him to redirect lethal amounts of electricity away from human workers.” The Doctor would then put his hands behind his back. “May we get one final round of applause for our newest industrial worker robots, everyone?” The crowd uproariously cheered and applauded, Dr. Light bowing with respect. “Thank you all for coming, and have a great night.” He would then walk behind the stage, his Numbers following behind.


Rock and Roll would be smiling while the crowd was beginning to leave. Roll would start the conversation first. “Dr. Light seems to be really passionate about this new industrial project, doesn’t he?” “Yeah,” Rock replied. “And I’m pretty glad that he’s enjoying this, considering it took him a lot of months and a lot of effort into the six of them!” They would both smile, then get up and walk backstage to meet with Dr. Light. But amidst all of this, one person would have their arms crossed: another old man, skinnier than Dr. Light’s rotund body and sporting a bat-like hairstyle. This was Dr. Albert Wily, another scientist like Dr. Light, except he was always in the latter’s shadow; being second to Dr. Light. “Hrrgh, that Light…! Soon enough, the great Dr. Wily will be recognized as the better scientist of the two… and then… and then!-“ He’d pause for a bit, losing his train of thought. “Hm… it would be easier to take his robots for myself now, wouldn’t it… heheheh…” Plotting away, he’d follow the crowd outside, leaving the ballroom for the night.


Back at Dr. Light’s laboratory, the Doctor would be working on two more robots: a purple-and-pink, clock-like robot, and a black-and-grey, oil drop robot. Rock would be assisting the Doctor while he continued working on these two. “So, Doctor,” Rock asked. “Who are these two meant to be?” “These two are experimental robots of mine,” Dr. Light responded. “The first one is Time Man, used for my  time travel experiments.” “Have any of those ever worked successfully, Doctor?” Rock would ask again. “Well… not entirely,” Dr. Light answered. “My current formula is only good enough for slowing down time itself, but not being able to travel back in time.” He’d then gesture to the second robot. “Anywho, this one is Oil Man, another experimental robot of mine used to refill any type of robot with a single, multipurpose oil that works on anything.” “Ooh…” Rock would look at Oil Man, or rather what’s built so far, being mostly everything but the left arm(this is the arm used to refill robots). He would then eye two robots, both of the same color palettes in a pile of “unused concepts”. “Who are these two?” Rock would ask Dr. Light. “Oh! Those are both designs I had for a number that I called “Bond Man”, and he would’ve used adhesives to stick objects together. Needless to say, his designs just couldn’t sit with me right, and unfortunately I had to shut down the Bond Man project.” He’d look away from the unused Bond Man designs, now back at Time Man’s and Oil Man’s. “These two, though, are still experimental. I don’t know if I plan to set them out as industrial robots, but for now I will keep experimenting with them.” Rock would then nod, yawning from feeling tired. It was reasonably late at night, so he at least had a reason to. “My, boy, you’re past your bedtime already,” Dr. Light would say, noticing the time saying “10:15 PM” on a digital clock on the nearby shelf. “You should go and rest up now. I’ll promise that we can finish the two of them up tomorrow morning.” “Mmm…” Rubbing his eyes, Rock looked at Dr. Light. “…alright, but is there anything else you might need before I go off to bed, Doctor?” “No need,” he would reply. “It’s about time I dozed off as well, hehe.” Chuckling, he waved good night to an exiting Rock, closing up shop for the night too, and securing the two experimental Light Numbers. The other six Numbers would be down here too, all powered off and ready to get working the next morning. That would have been the case, but instead after Dr. Light had left the lab to rest up, a familiar face had snuck inside of the lab, making his way into where the Numbers were held at. “Now then,” he’d say. “This begins the start of my greatest feat ever: world domination! With Light’s robots, I’ll be able to rule this world, and nothing will be able to stop my reign of this world!” He would cackle to himself, coughing a little bit after and began tinkering with the robots.


The next morning, Roll would be in the kitchen, making breakfast and coffee for Dr. Light, who in the meantime was in his lab. Suddenly… “MY GOD!” The Doctor exclaimed with shock in his tone. “What is it, Doctor Light?!” Rock rushed in quickly, worried about what happened, but he didn’t need to explain as it was right in front of him: all of the industrial robots, even including the two experimental ones that had almost been completed and finalized, were gone. Missing from their positions from how they were last night, Dr. Light began looking around the room frantically. “Surely the... the perpetrator would’ve left some kind of clue, right?” Speaking with worry, the Doctor would then find several laid-out utilities on the ground, seemingly left there in a hurry. “There,” he said. “They- they must’ve left this behind while they were leaving! … oh, my poor creations, what has happened?” Rock came over to Dr. Light, patting him on the back as comfort. “Come on, Doctor,” he’d then say. “Let’s just go and eat breakfast and worry about it all later, okay?” He would sigh, but then nodded and went with Rock back upstairs for breakfast. Heading upstairs after Rock, he would sit at the table with him as Roll handed the two their breakfast: a perfect meal of over-easy eggs, golden-brown toast, and crispy, freshly sizzling bacon. “Here you go, you two,” Roll said. “Enjoy!” “Thank you, Roll,” Dr. Light would reply, still concerned about the wellbeing of his eight civil service robots. “...is something the matter, Doctor?” Rock would ask Dr. Light, then looking at Roll and back. “Is it the other robots?” “Yes, Rock…” He answered solemnly. “I’ve spent months working on the eight of them. Now they’re completely missing without much of a trace to go off of.” He would then look at the siblings. “But not you two. You both are still here luckily. It might be because whoever must’ve stolen the other eight robots must not have found much use for whatever plans they would’ve had in store.” Roll would look at Rock, worried. 

After breakfast, the Light family would get a phone call with Roll answering. “Hello, this is Roll speaking!” “Hello,” said the voice. “Is this Dr. Light’s residence?” “Yes,” she replied.” “He’ll be with you shortly!” Now gesturing to the doctor to come talk. “Hello, this is Doctor Thomas Light. What seems to be the matter?” “Well, Dr. Light,” the voice started. “It seems that one of your robots has come to our construction site early for their first shift; I believe it’s called “Guts Man”. Are you sure they’re properly registered to operate here?” “Well,” he’d reply. “I have registered him to work at that site for today, but… they’re supposed to be there 2 hours from now. Did he at least ask about site authorization?” Dr. Light would sound concerned, especially after the sudden (and strange) disappearance of his robots, but hearing the news of Guts Man’s arrival felt suspicious. Something felt wrong. “I don’t think he asked,” they said. “He just suddenly showed up and started worki- AGH!” Rumbling could be heard from the phone, sounds reminiscent of a rock slide occurring. “Huh? What’s going on?!” Dr. Light now sounded heavily concerned for the worker after hearing this supposed rock slide happen. “I- it’s your robot,” the worker responded urgently. “He’s gone out of control, throwing rocks and boulders at coworkers. Think he fractured my arm too, ugh.” “Oh… oh no,” Dr. Light remorsefully said. “What could make him start to do such a thing… hold on, just call the police and seek out medical help immediately sir. I’ll try and get back to you later, okay?” He would hang up the phone but soon got another call. Call after call after call, it was all with the same urgency of his robots going out of control and wreaking havoc across their workplaces. The second call was about Fire Man, him using his Fire Storm to scorch anything in sight and causing severe burns, was notably one of the more dangerous ones. But compared to Bomb Man, who was only throwing bombs at anything and everything, was posing much more of a threat than the others with his Hyper Bombs and the Area-of-Effect explosions. “…what happened to my robots,” Dr. Light said with shame after all of these calls. He sat back down, sounding exhausted and worried. “If only I could’ve predicted such an outcome to occur…” Defeated, he would hunch over, hiding his face with his hands in frustration and sorrow.


To be continued…


All characters are owned by CAPCOM Co. LTD, and thumbnail sprites(characters) are also made by CAPCOM Co. LTD. Used with credit.

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