The gentle breeze seemed incredibly loud without the normal bustle of vehicles and work. The electrical plant itself was dim and quiet, a steep contrast to what Elec Man had experienced in the few days he had worked there.
Before he and his brothers were reprogrammed and sent on an insane rampage.
"Hey, Elec Man. Save the volts for the the power plant, please?" Michael's voice suddenly jolted (author note: pun not intended) him back to the present. He glanced down and noticed his hand was crackling with electricity.
"Oh. Sorry." He quickly shut his hand, extinguishing the sparks.
Michael took another look back at the building. "There's not a ton of men out there, but more than I expected. I guess they really didn't want anyone bringing the power back up."
"Understandable. No matter how brilliant my strategic mind may be, I can't come up with anything that would really work considering I can't attack any of them." Elec Man muttered.
Ignoring the extreme self-centeredness in his voice, Michael continued to watch. He began to notice somethings while Elec Man ranted about his frustration.
"I can't believe I have these limitations on my system. Of course I understand why Dr. Light wouldn't want us to be able to hurt people, but right now, my unmatched power and performance would be indescribably useful. Stupid three laws..."
Michael spoke up. "I think they're worried about something."
Elec Man turned his attention back to Michael. "What?"
"They look like they're moving kind of frantically. And they keep looking out over..." Michael turned himself and the robot away from the plant. "...that way."
Coming closer was a large group of people. They wore various clothing, and were of all sorts of ages. They all, however, looked rather unhappy.
"Wait, I think I recognize some of these people." Elec Man told him.
"You do?" Michael asked, giving the robot a confused look.
Elec Man continued to stare at the crowd. "Yeah. They're workers. At this power plant. I met some of them."
"What do you suppose they're doing here?"
Elec Man pondered for a moment. "All things considered, I'd say they're probably planning to take the plant back. From what I saw of them, these people are real proud of their jobs."
"Is that good for us?"
Elec Man turned to face him. "I honestly have no idea."
The two watched as people at the front reached the entrance. They seemed to be having some words with the guards posted out front. The men seemed very uncomfortable. Michael and Elec Man ventured closer in order to hear what was being said.
"...demand that you let us back in this building!"
"I don't believe I can let you do that. We are under orders-"
"Orders from who? Who does your boss think he is preventing us from doing our jobs."
"I can ask to see if I can let you in."
One of the guards stepped back and spoke quietly into a radio. After listening for a moment. He straightened up and turned around. "I...we can't let you come through."
"This is our job. You can't prevent us from doing that." The people began to walk forward. One of the guards stepped in front. They tried to move past, but he pushed them back.
"If you don't leave, we will have to use force."
"You are the ones who need to leave!" A man at the front of the crowd yelled, before he was hit back into the crowd by one of the guards.
Elec Man felt something twinge in his head.
"If you think that will make us leave, you're very wrong." The man replied.
"Try again, and greater force will be used."
The people prepared to step forward.
Elec Man suddenly leapt from his position. He landed between a guard and a man in the crowd. The guard had been prepared to strike.
There was an awkward, silent tension as everyone watched in shock.
Elec Man turned slowly to the guards. "I won't allow you to hurt any of these people."
One, who seemed to have grown especially confident, stepped forward. "And what do you plan to do? We know about the laws of robotics, machine. We know that you can't hurt us. What do you think you can do if you're not allowed to harm people?"
Elec Man said nothing at first. He only wiggled a finger and hoped.
A spark formed on the end of his hand.
A grin spread across his face, and he stood to full height, holding both arms out with energy crackling full power across them. He finally spoke.
"You need to reread law one, my friend." Then he let loose.
---
Author note: For those of you who don't know, there are the Asimov three rules of robotics. These rules basically are considered a moral code for robots with fully functioning AI to follow, which are that robots cannot harm humans, they must follow orders unless they will harm a human, and they will protect their own existence unless they will harm a human or defy orders. The first law, however, also includes the fact that robots cannot allow humans to come to harm due to inactivity.
---
Dr. Light wasn't paying much attention to Oil Man's communication over his communication set. He was occupied as he worried about Rock and pondered about Tempo back in Light Labs. Oil Man was busy getting ready to infiltrate the building where the Emerald Spears were based, information he had successfully gathered from the member he had...interrogated.
Oil Man could sense the distress Light was experiencing, and so he tried to make him feel better. "Honestly, guy talked a lot sooner than I was expecting. I figured I was gonna have to up the threats like at least twice before he spilled anything."
"I'm sure, Oil Man." Light replied, still concerned as he studied Rock to see if he could find any important visible effects. However, without access to all of his electronic equipment, it would be difficult to find much.
Meanwhile, Oil Man crouched in a tree outside the building, looking at its main entrances and exits. He watched as some of the guards stepped towards the side of the building.
"Can't talk now. Got an opening." He quickly communicated before dropping from the branches and dashing for his opening. He ducked behind a wall and waited. After a few moments, confident that he was in the clear, he made his way stealthily through the building. His dark coloring and slick design made him ideal. He was quiet and smooth, able to give almost no sign of anywhere he had traveled.
After traveling for a while, he found an air vent, which he popped the grate from and slipped through (considerably easy, thanks to his oily surface).
He removed another grate and stepped out onto a balcony high above a room full of various machinery. Most seemed to be advanced weaponry, but stashed in the back of the room was a large machine with several cables and lights. It was bizarre for Oil Man to see a machine actually functioning. It hummed quietly, and as he moved along the balcony closer to it, he began to feel strange and weak.
This must have been what had caused the blackout.
"Well...that's convenient." He whispered to himself. He then noticed two men standing next to it, one seemed to be actually using the machine, while the other appeared to be giving orders to him.
Something about the man giving orders gave Oil Man a bad feeling. Maybe it was the eye patch. Maybe it was his large, somewhat excessive body movements. Or maybe it was just the fact that he was getting very close to the machine.
Without taking another moment to overthink, he slipped over the edge of the railing and landed with a soft thud on the metal floor in the middle of the room. He stood and took a confident pose. "I'm gonna need to shut that baby down, if you don't mind."
The two men spun to face him. While the scientist working on the machine seemed very surprised by Oil Man's presence, the man with eye patch seemed more aggravated.
"How did you get in here?" He asked Oil Man angrily.
"Oh, you know. Just slipped in." Oil Man said with a grin under his scarf.
"If you try to shut down this machine, I will have you destroyed."
Oil Man switched his stance to a more combat ready one. "I'd like to see you try, pal."
The man snapped his fingers, and Oil Man spun around to see four armed men standing behind him. "Oh. Were, uh, were they there the whole time?"
The scientist sort of nodded.
Oil Man shrugged before looking at the man with the eye patch and giving him a wink. "Guess I didn't notice." He told him before performing a sudden leap to the side. He somersaulted off of his hands and landed on his feet. He ducked behind a metal shelf and squirted a blob of oil onto the floor. "Been dying to try this one out."
He stepped quickly onto the puddle, which began to slide him across the floor. He slid across the room with incredible speed, and fired one shot of oil which knocked over one of the men. He turned and slid directly towards the other men, knocking into one and causing him to fall on another. He blasted their weapons with oil before pointing his cannon back and shooting a glob at the last one, knocking him out quickly.
As he stood up, a gunshot sounded, and he glanced back quickly to see a bullet embed itself in the wall behind him. He spun around quickly to see the man with the eye patch walking towards him, holding a smoking weapon.
"Try anything else, and I fire at that oil. Metal on metal makes sparks, and sparks make oil go boom. Sparks make YOU go boom, I'm guessing."
Oil Man said nothing, but put up his hands. The man laughed.
"I suppose we haven't been formerly introduced. My name is Xander Payne. And my one purpose is to remove your kind from the world."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"Because you're just machines. People act like you can take our place in the workplace. Nothing can beat good old human willpower and capability. And if you do try to replace us, you'll try to get rid of us. You need humans to give you purpose, but what happens when humans become unnecessary?"
"We hug it out and go on with our lives?" Oil Man suggested.
A growl rumbled behind Payne's lips. "You're the ones who aren't necessary. Human society has functioned for more than two thousand years without you. Surely we can go a little longer."
"Why do you hate us so much?" Oil Man asked, his mind filling with genuine concern.
"Why? Because all you're meant to do is be BETTER than us! The first of your kind were meant to be better soldiers, and now you're meant to be better workers. You're like some sort of cheap replacement for humanity that the big, rich geniuses think we need. Well guess what? Maybe humanity, doesn't WANT TO BE REPLACED!!"
Oil Man was silent, as the tension in the room only rose when he stopped speaking. After looking at the man's face, filled with anger, he spoke.
"We don't want to replace you. We care about a lot of you." Oil Man told him.
"Really? Tell that to your lightning crazy BUDDY, huh? Tell that to THIS EYE, that he made me lose!"
Oil Man reached behind his heat. Payne raised the gun to him, but Oil Man shook his head to indicate his intention. After a tense moment, the weapon was lowered, and Oil Man undid the knot on his scarf. He made sure Payne could watch his lips as he spoke.
"My brothers messed up big time. Heck, I'm not even done yet, so who knows what I could do. And you know what? They're still not perfect. They can't help that. You know why? Because we're made to be imperfect. To be human. But we will always need humans with us, and you know why? Because we can never be fully human. In the end we'll always be robots, and we're made to serve people. But we can still try not to be."
Oil Man looked the man in his one eye. He stared into the darkness of the man's brown eyes unwavering.
"I don't want to replace you or anyone else. I don't want to hurt you or anyone else. And I won't fight you."
Payne stepped right next to Oil Man and looked at him. Oil Man broke the silence one last time.
"But I can get the drop on you."
He let a foot fly into the man's leg, causing him to hobble over to the oil, and slip. Without hesitating, Oil Man spun and let some more oil land around him.
"Have fun getting up with that stuff there." He told him, before walking over to the large machine, tying the scarf around his neck again.
As he stepped up to it, the scientist looked at him with shock.
"You look like you're smart enough to not try to stop me. Right?"
The scientist spun around and sprinted for the door, before slipping on the oil halfway out and landing on his butt with a yelp.
Oil Man turned back towards the machine and turned on his communication.
"Hey, Light. Long story, but I'm here, and I'm ready to shut this puppy down."
"Really? Good, then do it."
Oil Man prepared a shot of oil. "Happy to oblige."
---
Thanks for reading! I desperately wanted this to be just 5 parts, so this one ended up a bit long! I hope you enjoyed, and don't worry, cause Mega Man will be back real soon, and things are gonna get exciting!