Michael did take a defensive position. He did question the mysterious figure about themselves.
But first, he screamed like a scared little girl and fell on his face.
He dropped the lantern in the fall, and when he recovered himself, he grabbed around for it. As he did, the light suddenly returned to his vision.
"You lookin' fo this?" The voice came again. As Michael turned towards the lantern, he saw a face illuminated in the dim light. It was strange, a very navy color, with eyes the only visible facial feature. Anything else that might be there was covered by a smooth red scarf.
"Who..." Michael stopped to grab the lantern. "...Who the heck are you?"
"I'd ask you the same thing, pal. Whacha doin' in Lights laboratory?"
Michael froze. "You know Dr. Light?"
"Well, I oughta. I'm his creation, after all." He stepped back so that his whole body would be illuminated by the lantern. "Oil Man. At your service."
Oil Man stood proudly for a moment. He stopped and looked down again. Michael was still looking at him with pure confusion. Oil Man sighed. "Listen kid, you came up here for something, right?"
After another moment, Michael blinked, and nodded. He held up the lantern. "Uh, I got it."
Oil Man chuckled. "All right. You seem like a cool enough dude. I trust you, bro." He patted Michael on the back, which made him extremely uncomfortable.
"Okay...I have to go take this thing somewhere, now. It's really important."
"Well then pal, lead the way."
---
The man in the eye patch didn't look like he was armed, but so far no one wanted to try to stop him. He spoke again. "I'm sure you've all heard of the problems that plagued this city with the attack of Doctor Light's 'Robot Masters'. I'm sure you've all heard about the destruction in this city that went on. And how the army themselves couldn't truly prevent them from doing anything."
Dr. Light began to feel sick in his stomach. He had a bad idea of where this was going.
"I'm here to talk to you about these robots. I have a few questions for you. Do we really need them? Answer me, do we really need these self-functioning machines to replace the work of hundreds, maybe thousands of people?"
The man continued speaking as he began to pace on top of the small car he stood on. "Another question: Even if we somehow decide we need them, is it worth the risk? Light's creations weren't even meant for destruction or fighting, but they still did it pretty darn well."
Dr. Light suddenly yelled out, "You don't understand everything about what happened. Dr. Wily was-"
The man chuckled. "Ah, yes. Your old lab partner, if I recall. I seem to recall the two of you being very ready to produce robots built for military purposes back when-"
"That's enough! I left that behind. These robots aren't meant to hurt anyone, and they never will be!"
"Who was that one robot you built? Oh yes, Mega Man, I believe he is called now?" The man looked Light directly in the eyes. "Just how many of his own kind did he have to fight?"
He stood up and looked around. "People of this city. We are human beings. We've come this far in society, and no challenge has prevented us from furthering our race. But what this man does, this can destroy everything we've built. And we can't stop them. I have something to admit to you all."
He took a deep breath. "What you are experiencing is an Electromagnetic Pulse. An EMP. It's disabled everything running on electricity within this city, and beyond. Why did I do this? That's a good question. Because I believe the age of robots had its chance. And it failed."
He waved his hands, and suddenly, the footsteps of several people could be heard at the edges of the crowd. Light's eyes wandered to where he could see several other people dressed in similar uniforms. They, however, were definitely armed. While very few were drawing their weapons, they had their hands ready on them. A few steps sounded behind Dr. light, and he glanced back to see a few more men holding their weapons to the backs of the officers guarding him.
"Sorry for the hostile environment. But we are here to make sure every robot gets destroyed. And we will not let anymore be built."
The man began to walk away, then stopped. "If you do come to your senses and want to help us, then I, Xander Payne, welcome you..." He pulled his weapon out and loaded it. "...to the Emerald Spears."
---
"Ow!"
"What'd you do this time?"
"Hey, there's stuff all over the place here!"
Michael sighed. "Well, walk around it!"
"I just came outta some pod five minutes ago, excuse me for not being too good on my feet." Oil Man retorted.
"Whatever." Michael came into the room. As he made his way towards the couch, his leg tapped against something. He moved he lantern down, and saw a cold metallic arm lying on the ground. He followed it back to where it began.
Rock lay there, still unmoving from whatever it was that had knocked him out. Even though Michael knew he was a robot, his lifeless appearance still shook him to his core.
Oil Man knelt down. "Friend of yours?"
Michael nodded. "Yeah..."
Oil Man gave him a playful rub on the head. "We'll get him back to normal again, bud. Just you wait."
Michael stood and walked over to the couch where Elec Man was still completely still. He reached into his pocket and pulled the cable out. He hooked it up to the two ports, and took a deep breath before beginning to turn.
After a little while, he noticed it wasn't really working.
"Crank it a little harder."
Suddenly, light flashed in Elec Man's eyes, and Michael fell back. A few stray bolts of electricity flashed across the robot's body, then the light in the eyes stayed lit.
Elec Man suddenly leapt forward. "What happened to it?" He stopped, and looked around, noticing Michael standing there. "I swear if this had anything to do with you..."
"I just gave you a jumpstart, man! Chill out!"
"That's Ice Man's thing." Elec Man replied. He then glanced past him to see Oil Man stretched out across the couch.
"Who the heck is that?" He asked, sparks forming on his hands.
"Hey, whoa, that's-"
"Oil Man, buddy. Nice to meet ya." The slick robot pointed at Elec Man. His mouth couldn't be seen, but it was obvious he was grinning.
Elec Man stopped. "Oil Man? Are you serious?"
"I'd hope so. If I wasn't Oil Man, then there's definitely something wrong with my design."
"I...hmm." Elec Man seemed to be thinking. "It's just that...I've never seen you this far in production, Oil Man. We all saw you in the prototype phase, but..."
"Uh, you did?"
Elec Man nodded. "You were originally intended to work with Ice man. You were designed to be able to slide and skate safely on anything. When we saw you, you were just in basic prototype, you hadn't even had a full AI programmed yet."
He chuckled a little. "While Light was showing us what you could do, you burst something inside you, and oil started leaking all over the place. Of course, then you just started sliding around on the oil, which led to Guts Man joking about your name being Oil Man."
He shook his head. "Enough reminiscing. What's going on?"
"It's a bit of a long story-" Michael began.
"Short version." Elec Man cut him off.
"Everything's powered off for some reason, we're the only robots active, and Light needs our help. That good enough for ya?" Oil Man asked.
Elec Man nodded as he walked over to the window. He looked down and saw the crowd of people gathered to see Dr. Light. Then he noticed the people with weapons ready, moving about the crowd.. "You guys might wanna see this."
They joined him as they looked down at the people and what was going on. Michael pulled away. "This is not good. We have to get down there. Can't you boot up Rock so we can get going and kick their butts?"
Elec Man spun around. "There's two reasons that wouldn't work. One: Our programming prevents us from harming humans. It's a fundamental rule of robotics. And two: I am awesome, but other robots can't use the electricity in the same way. I can't just boot someone up, my system is more updated and unique the others."
Oil Man spoke up. "Well, you all better figure out what the heck we gonna do, 'cause we may not have a lot of time."