"Alright Topman, take it easy." Dr. Light said softly as the pipes were taken out of the robot's chest slowly. Rock had finished the diagnostics until there was nothing wrong with his half-brother, and shut the lab computer down. Snakeman was watching from the door, ready to step in if it got messy.
"We fixed your core as much as we could and stabilized your circuitry. As long as you don't move too erratically, you won't have to worry about your internal components moving around."
Top nodded while smiling and took the first step. The wheelers on his feet slipped on the slick floor, and Rock grabbed his chest to avoid falling. He took a couple more steps and gradually relied less on Rock's hands. He staggered to the door and walked normally to the living room. The rest of the Wi-lights were watching tv with others when the robot came into view.
"Topman! You're alive and walking!" Sparkman yelled in happiness.
As soon as he sat down, Top pointed at Rock and patted a spot on his right. The Light bots suddenly stopped their conversations by the gesture, tensing up for any possible argument about to happen. The stares were cold and full of judgement on all the half wily bots' faces. Rock felt he was going to break until Roll gripped his shoulder.
"Do you guys have a spot for me?"
The Wi-light's stare softened as the twins took their spots. Roll had squeezed between Magnet and Needleman, and Rock had sat against Top's side. Gemini was on the left side of Hardman, who acted like a cushion for Sparkman. Snakeman was behind Topman on the couch, the tail of the helmet dangling off the side and brushing against his brother's shoulder. Rock felt his hair ruffled by the reptilian robot.
"Told you he would warm up Gemini. Pay up."
"What?! That wasn't part of the deal Snakehead!"
Laughter erupted from the pile with Gemini grumbling giving up money. The next half hour was a collection of small talk and jokes, occasional laughter over fighting over the remote. Rock had gotten involved with most of the conversations, but they became more casual with each one, and he gotten more excited to bring up a new one. Magnet as some point grabbed some utensils and controlled them like puppets with his magnetic abilities. Snake was throwing pots and pans to add to the tricks, and Roll marveled at the skill.
Dr. Wily entered through the door surprised to see so many robots in one place. The Light bots had a deep scowl, the Wi-lights raised their hands in greeting. Top was last to raise his hand because he had pulled Rock closer, despite the child wanting to scoot away from the doctor.
"Here. I was told to give this to you." Rock was lost for words and Wily disappeared into the lab again. It was a letter with a peculiar stamp on the end. Ignoring the background noise, he ripped opened the letter.
Hello Megaman,
We needed to contact you without drawing attention. We must discuss your heroic antics as soon as possible. Meet at Downtown near the marketplace at 2 p.m. on the 24th of July. Don't be late.
"24th of July? But that's today, and..." Rock stared at the clock and noticed the time was drawing close. He hopped out of Top's lap, much to the surprise of everyone, and hastily put his jacket on. "Sorry everyone, there's something I need to get in the city. Tell dad I'll be back before dinnertime."
He headed into the city, sprinting faster when every minute went by. He didn't know why he needed to be there, but the letter sounded important. Even if he didn't know who sent it. He slowed down to process his thoughts. It could be a trap, and the letter was to get him separated away. He thought about going back to the lab and ask one of his siblings to come with him. Or better yet, ignore the letter all together.
Rock shook his head and pressed forward. There wasn't anyone threatening his family anymore. Dr. Wily was in their care, and his probation time was coming soon. He will be proven innocent, and everything will be back to normal. Any robots that tried threatening his family are gone, even if thinking about them and their fate made him feel sick. Finally he was in downtown with the marketplace close by. There was a noticeable crowd, so finding the person that sent the letter was going to be difficult.
"Megaman."
Or easy if they found him first.
Rock turned around and recognized the female with the dark red hair, wearing more normal attire and hiding her badge in her blue jacket. "Ms. Rosalyn?"
She nodded and lead the way through the crowd of people robots. Near a lit alley was the dark green coated man, looking through some files. He gazed up and hummed, "I did say I was going to keep an eye on you."
"Oh Gil, have a little heart for the kid. Thank you so much for receiving the letter, Megaman." She smiled and was handed the files.
"No problem miss. How did you figure out I was Megaman?"
"We had a few clues to go off of, and all it took was headquarters to figure it out. But that is why we're here. To discuss you...well..." Rose trailed off and Megaman tilted his head.
"We need to discuss you giving up the title of Megaman." Gil finished the sentence. "Look, it's a good thing that Dr. Wily was stopped and the citizens are safe. But now's the time for the super fighting robot to put the mantle away, especially since the press is going crazy over the news. And not everyone agrees with having a robot deal with fighting for justice."
Rock looked at the file in Rose's hand. It showed details of Megaman's heroic actions, but a subtitle of possible human protesting. "I don't understand. Why are there people disagreeing? Would they rather have wanted Dr. Wily destroying all of the city?" He said confused.
Rose kneeled to him with a kind smile. "No, you did good for your creator and the city. It's just some people have strong opinions against robots fighting for peace instead of the police."
"And most of them are complete morons. Especially those crazy 'Spears'." Gil grumbled.
"Spears?"
"Megaman," Rose gripped his shoulder and stared into his eyes like some form of a mother figure, "I may be new to all of this, but I know there are some people in the world that are grateful of your father's robot masters. But there are also people that hate the thought of robot masters living among humans. And some of them will hurt others and much worse to prove that robots don't deserve to live. And we are concerned that if you continue to be Megaman, you could potentially put your family in danger."
Gil approached Rock slowly with a some sort of look. "It doesn't help that you've taken Dr. Wily into your home for probation purposes. Even though he has proven to not show any hostile behavior as of yet, the press and news is not afraid to twist it to make your family look bad. And that can spark more divide between the public, and cause more problems. For the sake of your creator's safety, the government, and the public, you need to put away the mantle of Megaman and return to your true function."
Rock looked at a photo of him fighting Dr. Wily's yellow devil, then at the photo of him and Roll hugging each other. "Okay sir. I did it to protect my family, but now I don't need to be Megaman anymore. I'll stop, I promise."
"Good," Gilbert nodded in satisfaction and started to head towards his car, "It's better this way."
"Gil's just old fashioned, not used to genuine heroes like you. Just in case you need help, contact us. We'll be in touch." The two shook hands and went into the car. As they went out of view, Rock headed back into the marketplace.
The words from Rosalyn replayed in his head for a majority of the walk. "People don't like us living among humans? I thought dad created robot masters to live in peace with everyone, so why do they feel the opposite? Why do they have the need to hate us?"
As he headed back into the direction of the house, Rock saw a parked jeep parked near the doorway full of tools and pots. He opened the door to see Dr. Light chattering with a younger man. The man had short messy black hair and beard, with the right sleeve of his yellow shirt dangling off with no arm.
In the corner was a robot resembling a colorful flower talking to Topman. His head had spotted red and yellow petals sticking out, vines wrapped around his legs and sticking out the waist. Whatever they were talking about, Topman found very funny while laughing every few sentences.
"That sounds great Pedro! The botanical garden really came together, and your robot is wonderful. I would never have organic matter and technology could-" Dr. Light took notice of Rock and the man shook his hand. "Rock, there you are. This is Pedro Astil, an old colleague and friend. He studied in the same field as Albert and me."
"Hello young man, it is wonderful to see so many of Thomas's robots in one day. If there's anything to say, it's that you always come up with the most charming designs." Light chuckled to the compliment, the two patting backs. The flower robot came up to Rock next.
"Olá, se estou certo, você deve ser Megaman. Eu estou-" The plant robot saw the little boy's shock and confusion by the language. He closed his eyes in embarressment and reached into his collar bone until a click noise was heard. One more cough and he spoke again. "Sorry, my translator must've been off. I'm Plantman, Doctor Astil's personal assistant and botanical caretaker."
Roll, who was happily giving Astil some welcome gifts, walked up to her brother and Plant with enthusiasm. "So you take care of plants?"
"I do more than that! Astil and I are in charge of a rehabilitation center for all flora near the Amazon. Many plants around the world that are given to us have either been damaged, sick, or even smuggled illegally. It is my job to make sure the plants recover and return to healthy habitats. I even helped a damaged ecosystem recover after talking to the plants about the problem!" Plantman had a proud smile as Roll had stars in her eyes.
Snake's tail rubbed against Plant's vines to grab his attention. "You work in the Amazon?"
"Yes! We have great progress in charting unknown territories that normal maps wouldn't be able to find. And...wait a second!" Plant snapped out of it and excused himself from the room.
"He's a sweet guy, but he gets so invested that he forgets to let others breath." Astil smiled by his creation walking out. Roll blurted out saying that Plant was awesome, which made the robot stop for a moment and blush when he reentered the room. He sat Roll down and showed the map of all they've explored in the Amazon. Rock smiled at Roll being happy for the first time in a while.
"So Astil, what brings you here?" Dr. Light asked.
"Well when I heard that you and your robots protected the city a few times, I wanted to come check how you're doing. And I wanted to see if you'd like to come to Brazil and see the garden yourselves."
The Wi-lights turned to the conversation, Rock peeking under Dr. Light's coat, even Wily came with a cup of coffee in hand. "Oh well, that's a great offer Pedro, but I don't think I could afford for the tickets. We're working on a major project, so I can't-"
"Oh it's alright Thomas! I can pay for the tickets for every single one of you. And it won't be a long visit, just a couple of days." Astil urged on, patting Light's back.
"Well, we still need to wait for Albert's probation to end. And my children-"
"We can come with you!" Everyone was alerted to Topman, who had remained silent for the majority of the day. His voice was confident, but slightly young much like a teenager. "You can take all of us with you on the trip. That way we won't cause trouble, and as a added bonus, stretch our legs for a while before serving the public. We can even test our abilities if you want us too. You won't have to worry about any of us."
Dr. Light scratched his head in deep thought, each of the robots looking at each other. Roll clutched the map with bright eyes. Wily and Light exchanged looks before he nodded and chuckled. The response was enough to bring a childish hope to all the robots.
"All right, but you all must behave, okay? No roughhousing or destroying anything." All the robots celebrated at the thought of leaving the cramped house. Wily excused himself and headed toward his room to start packing.
"Excellent! Plantman and I will prepare all of your tickets until you are all ready. I promise you will all love it." With a happy goodbye from Plantman, the two botanists went into the jeep and back down the road.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next couple of hours was full of excited chaos. Due to Cutman and the others having to fulfill their functions and jobs, they were unable to join for the vacation, leaving just the Wi-lights to join. Nevertheless, each of them gathered their most precious object for the trip. Needle had packed his knit kit he got a couple days ago, while Spark and Hard combined their things together. Gemini and Snake had a quarrel over how much of their own stuff they should pack. And Magnetman helped the doctors gather some tools and boxes in case of emergencies during the trip to Brazil.
Meanwhile, Roll was helping Topman with his packing. Due to him being newly activated, she often mixed her things with his stuff. However, he grew insistent on bring a music player and earphones. The orange robot occasionally cracked a joke or made a pun, lightening the barrier that Roll had made between herself and the half-brothers.
However, amongst all the happiness and anticipation, Rock had stared at the map left behind by Plantman. Many checkpoints were made as tiny flags and personal landmarks such as lakes or cliffs were inked on the paper, except for a large white spot on the very edge. Covering the entire left corner of the map were bold words spelling:
WARNING: EXTREME DANGER. DO NOT PROCEED FURTHER.
He knew about jungles from books and tv channels, and the dangers of animals and illnesses to be aware of, but not where an entire section of a forest is off limits. What was in the corner that Plantman and Astil found to be so dangerous to keep away from human eye? The warning stayed in Rock's head for the rest of the night, long after everyone went to sleep.
Perhaps he would ask Dr. Astil about it on the way there...