The Cure - I

[Proto Man]

The first thing the robot did was take a seat at what had been the homeowner’s cushioned chair. A look around the small house revealed what had once been a family of means. Instead of dirt, the floors were polished wooden planks, and there was an actual ceiling overhead, rather than the central arch of the roof, which was one of the few in the village that wasn’t thatched. Glancing at the little nook that had been their kitchen, Proto Man saw a wood-burning stove and what seemed to be stone countertops for preparing meals.

All dead. The android scowled at what must have been a senseless massacre. His thoughts inevitably went back to the Dataverse and the Jubilee. In an act of pure malice, Judge Dredd had used him to pinpoint the location of the Copper Eye, an assortment of sickly, malnourished citizens of Coruscant trying to stand up for change. The judge and a collection of space marines had killed every last person in the compound, leaving Proto Man and Samus Aran with medals and snickering commendations for their role as ‘Imperial defenders.’ Proto Man’s system kept the audiovisual feed from that massacre—he would never allow himself to forget what had happened.

Incoming Message … The textbox was accompanied by a melodic tune that played inside his helmet’s audio receptors. Ever since his battle with Cell Delta, his communication applications had failed to operate, and in the absence of appropriate technology, he’d been unable to troubleshoot what may have been the problem. Why, then, was the program appearing to function without any clear indication of a change in the status quo? Although nothing seemed to be abnormal about the app, the caller id function still didn’t work.

“This is Proto Man,” he spoke aloud as the ringing stopped and the audio channel flashed up on his screen, along with a notification that the program was attempting to pinpoint the origin of the signal.

“Can you hear me, Blues?” The voice was instantly recognizable, even after thirteen months away from the Sixth Tier.

“Ice Man, how are you?”

“We’re doing all right,” despite the word selection, there was a clear nervousness in the tone of the Inuit-themed Robot Master. “We’ve been trying to call you for about six months now, what happened to you? The boys and I were starting to think that you went and go yourself banished.”

Proto Man chuckled softly. “I got into a fight in the Ashen Steppes… It was a really bad fight. I lost the majority of my higher-level functionality for a few weeks as I wandered the Tangled Green.”

“How far have you traveled?” Ice Man asked, his voice picking up a little of its usual cheerfulness as the stout robot was distracted from the situation at home by the prospect of hearing of his older brother’s adventures.

“I’m in the Pale Moors right now. There was this disease in the Tangled Green, and the origin is in this verse. I came here to try and stop it from spreading to other verses, and along the way, I believe I’ll be helping to slay a dinosaur.”

“A dinosaur?! You mean like Godzilla or something?”

“Not sure,” Proto Man, shaking his head as if he were having a conversation with someone sitting in the chair across from him. “It’s called a Tarrasque, and from what I’ve read on the Dataverse, it’s some kind of monstrous killing machine. My partner and I are also being harassed by these evil elves called drow.”

“It sounds like you got your plate full,” Ice Man muttered, his tone deflating a little as Proto Man picked up some background noise in the form of hushed whispers. “You’re coming back to Coruscant afterwards, right? A lot of people here think you died or left the city forever… the last tangible news they put on the radio was that you helped protect Camelot and then wandered off into a volcano.”

“So I’m a defector?”

“No, the Empire eventually spun it so you came off as a ‘vagabond hero.’ Apparently there was too much backlash about the ‘Hero of the Jubilee’ being painted in a not-so-positive light. I guess the Empire shot itself in the foot when it decided to pin the destruction of the Copper Eye on you.”

“What about Samus?”

“You haven’t heard?” Ice Man almost gasped at the question. “They ran her out of Coruscant!”

Proto Man’s eyes went wide. “What do you mean? What did she do?”

“No one has all the facts, but I guess she aided and abetted some felon who was wanted by the Empire. The two of them and some wizard named Dresden [i]blasted their way through Tier 1… I saw the videos before they were censored, and I’m not lying when I say that they went down cannons blazing through that gate. Last anyone heard, Samus escaped into the Vasty Deep.”

Harry Dresden? The name was familiar, and before he could place it, his processor accessed the file for him. Harry Dresden had been there to fight the two dragons in Camelot, and the wizard had invited them to his ‘home’ after the battle. Proto Man had been the one to tell him the ins and outs of the Omniverse before word of Heat Man drove the android to head off to the Ashen Steppes. All the primes I know are outcasts? It was a harrowing thought, if only because now he doubted that he’d find the female bounty hunter anytime soon.

“How’s Roll?” Proto Man asked, trying to change the subject to a lighter topic.

There was a pause. It wasn’t your standard pause, but instead, it seemed to linger for a few moments too long. “She’s good, but she was real busy today… she’s curious as to when you think you’ll return home.”

The question pulled Proto Man away from the other android’s weird, almost nervous tone. “Soon, I think. I don’t know how long it will be; because I can’t willingly leave this place without knowing that I’ve done everything I can to make it a nicer place. Maybe another month or so? You tell her I’ll be back soon though, okay?”

“I will!” Ice Man replied enthusiastically. “We have to go now, Blues, we’ll talk to you later.”

“Of course,” Proto Man answered as the line closed, leaving him back in the silence emptiness of the abandoned house.

***

Back in Coruscant, Ice Man stood at the center of five other Robot Masters. None of them looked too pleased with their shorter sibling.

“Why didn’t you tell him?” Bomb Man demanded, causing the Inuit-themed android to flinch a little.

“He’s out there saving the world and trying to make it a better place! You don’t tell someone putting their life on the line that their sister was kidnapped by a piece of outdated computer equipment!”

“But what if he’s the only one who can save her?” Guts Man asked, his softer tone (compared to his bombastic sibling) made all the more amusing coming from his giant frame. “We did get two of those little devices.”

“He’ll be back soon… he said so,” Ice Man muttered as he pulled the fluffy hood of his parka up over his head.

“Let’s hope he doesn’t get sidetracked again…” Fire Man said with a sigh as the siblings split off to what had become their daily routine for the last few days—Roll’s old routine. For some reason, the one little girl had done the work of nearly a dozen people, which meant that all of her brothers—none of whom were designed for the same type of workload—had to try and fill in for her.

The results were leaving much to be desired.

***

Outside the little window, the sky was beginning to slip back into darkness. That meant they were losing or had already lost the sun. Rising up from the cushioned seat, Proto Man checked his arm cannon to make sure it was within optimum operating parameters. If this fight was anything like the last one, he would need all of the various tricks he’d learned during his adventure through the Omniverse.