Megaman: Reboot

Prickly Shell

Hardman couldn't stand it anymore watching Needleman pace back and forth outside of the labs. No one else is daring to talk to him, and Dr. Light's children are too frightened to even approach him. It wasn't fair to Needleman and he knew it, so why was he hiding his feelings behind such a prickly shell? Hardman stomped right up to his brother, who was playing darts with his needless for the tenth time.

"Needle."

"Brother."  Needleman murmured back.

Hard sighed before speaking again. "Brother, it is time for you to get a hobby. You can't spend your time here alone, shooting darts, and playing hard to get with everyone else."

"Pfft, how hard can it be? Just walk up to a person, my body covered in needles and spikes, and ask to be pals. Seems simple enough." Hard's expression soured as Needle plopped down.

"I don't like your tone. It would be wise not to do that again."

The shorter spiked robot blinked, sighed and rubbed his arms together. "You're right and I'm sorry. But I am right, you know? If we don't feel welcome by the rest of the robots in this prison of a house, how are we supposed to feel welcome outside the house? They alienate us before they even know us."

"All the more reason to get you out of this place. Vent the frustration building up in your core and do something productive." Hard hit his chest. Needle nodded and with Dr. Light and Dr. Wily's approval, they left for the city. As they walked through the streets, Needle was avoiding the stares and murmurs of the crowd, though it grew to be extremely frustrating. If they were trying to hide what they're saying, they're doing a horrid job. Hard gripped his shoulder before resuming.

A while later, they entered a small mall and navigated through the hallways. Little robots fled to prevent being squished by Hardman's massive feet, humans pushed lightly by the robot's huge size. At the end was a indoor dojo, the inside full of dummies, a ring with some people sparing, and robots passing out drinks and equipment. Needle's face was full of pure confusion.

"What in Asimov are we doing here?"

"Doing something productive." Hard smirked.

"In a dojo?!"

"Fitting for Wily bots to pick a place to beat up others." There was a crowd of teenagers right behind them, the leader scoffing and murmuring to the rest. Needle eavesdropped on him, the oil inside him was starting to boil.

"I'm not going in there." He growled.

"And why not?"

"It's not a good place for someone like me, Hard. Prickly design, dojo full of fragile humans that can lose a limb easily. Get the picture?"

"I hope to god the manager doesn't allow such devilish machines to be in his store. If he does, he's just a moron." The lead teen snickered. It was followed by a lot of agreement.

"Yeah man, seriously. I would rather have clothes scratched up than be near those monsters." The teenagers murmuring was growing louder, aiming more towards him every sentence.

"I'm leaving right now." Needle was shaking really hard.

"Needle, come now. You're acting kind of childish." That was poor choice of words as Needle threw his hands in the air and shouted so loud, half the mall turned towards them.

"I'm the childish one? I'm not judging you on how you were built, or picking on you just for the sake of how you're designed. At least I'm not a coward, to the point where I have to poorly whisper rude gossip to others to make themselves  feel superior, when it is clearly not the case." At the last comment, the teenager shut up and faced the two robots. Needle scoffed at the sight, kid was so acting so tough and now looked like he wanted to wet his pants.