Family of Steel [Exemplary]

[Proto Man]

From the shadowy balcony of a nearby tenement, a pair of humanoid machines stepped forward to survey the scene below them in a little more depth.

“There’s no denying it…that was Proto Man.” Spoke the first android, whose forehead bore a bladed metal disc. Despite the guard over his mouth, his voice came out clear and unimpeded.

“It changes nothing, Metal Man. We knew sooner or later that he’d track us down. Those damned Light Robots probably got him to come here to meddle with our plans.” The second machine had a similar physical appearance: Red-and-black with yellow accents, but the resemblance ended with body shape and color. Where the other robot had a metal blade, his companion had what seemed to be glossy, yellow horns. Given the yellow boomerang on his chest plate and the one hanging from his belt, it was obvious that the crest was designed to emulate the appearance of the thrown tool.

“Well, Quick Man, what should we do about this? We certainly can’t deal with Light’s lackeys and the Prodigal Son, now can we?”

Quick Man snorted as he watched the vagrant struggle to his feet. “The plan goes forward regardless. Father wouldn’t want us to quit just because of some obstacles. We’re not even sure the Prodigal is working with the others, he could wind up as just another rogue element.”

“And what of the Hybrids? Perhaps we should reach out to them again?”

“No, they had their chance to join us, Metal Man. Now they can watch as we succeed with Father’s will. They can feed our scrap heaps!” With that, Quick Man stepped to the edge of the balcony, grabbed his boomerang from his belt, and sent it spinning into the street beneath. The metal arc spun through the air before curving back and impeding one of its arms square into the chest of the human who’d tried to attack Proto Man.

Metal Man scoffed as he watched the grotesque human twitch and bleed out onto the cracked, trash-stained streets of the city. “I could have dispatched him from twice this distance.”

“Don’t over-sell your skill, Metal.” Quick Man said with a smirk as a fresh boomerang materialized in the loop on his belt. “Report back to the others at the plant. Tell them we can confirm that the Prodigal Son is on Six, but we’re going to press on with construction and manufacturing in an attempt to meet our initial goal.”

“What will you do up here?”

“I’ll trail the Prodigal. Air Man is around here somewhere keeping tabs on the Lights.”

“No leads on the Hybrids?”

“Negative, but I’m sure they’re lurking somewhere on this level or the one beneath us. We’re all wanted for questioning on some level, so I don’t see them risking being caught up there with all the cameras and soldiers.”

Metal Man nodded in response. If Quick Man believed something, it was probably true. The boomerang-wielding android’s moniker referred to more than his speed or reflexes. “I’ll hail you on the com when I get in touch with the others.”

The android responded with a nod and a pat of the walkie-talkie also belted to his waist. They’d constructed the short-range devices to stay under the ears of the Imperials, and since they’d gone undisturbed more or less since their departure from the top tier, they imagined the communicators were working flawlessly. Without another word, Metal Man hopped off the balcony and vanished into an alley across the road, leaving his brother to mull over the best route to take.

As Quick Man slid down the side of the structure with the grace of a career acrobat, Shadow Man, who had been hiding in the room behind them the entire time, emerged from the blackness and smiled. The Gen 2s had seemed quite one-dimensional from the information in the archives, but the ninja robot was amused to see that his intuition and research were overwhelmingly spot-on.

“Now what are you all planning?” The Gen 2s—Wily’s combat robots—had approached Shadow Man and his cohort about a week ago to propose an alliance. It seemed that they were sticking to the original purpose they’d be designed for: The destruction of mankind.

While they were still quite unsure about their situation, none of Shadow Man’s allies felt any compelling interest in putting themselves at risk of destruction once again. The memories of their deaths at the hand of Mega Man were still fresh in their minds. Despite the fact that they had been designed by the two doctors, they found they lacked an integral, unitary purpose. Their urge to destroy Monsteropolis had been the result of hacking, rather than a fundamental aspect to their code. In that sense, most of them appreciated the strange sense of freedom they had. Because of that, Shadow Man and his brothers didn’t really want to see the Gen 2s succeed in whatever scheme they had hatched.

All he knew at this moment was that he should trail Quick Man, especially if the robot succeeded in tracking down Proto Man. With that thought in mind, Shadow Man did what he did better than anyone or anything—he slipped into the shadows and became an invisible element of the night.

***

The Sixth Tier Recreation center seemed to be the only bastion of color and joy on the entire tier (at least the parts of the city that Proto Man had seen). Unlike the other structures, the center was well-maintained. Its windows were intact—albeit with bars on the outside—and its outer walls were free from decay, graffiti, and unwanted plant growth.

Perhaps the most important indicator of its importance was the fence and the armored marine patrolling the gate. As Proto Man approached the rec center, the helmeted soldier turned to face him and drew his weapon, which appeared to be a high-powered rifle with a chainsaw for a bayonet.

“Order of business?” Without a pause, the man cocked his massive weapon, and the chainsaw hummed to life, the individual blades quickly vanishing into a lethal metal blur.

“My name is Blues.” Proto Man almost had to shout to be heard over the thrum of the horrifying weapon. “I’m just seeking some momentary asylum as I search this city for some machines.” The boy robot raised his hands and executed a slow 360 spin to show that he had no visible weapons. A few seconds later, the heavy gun fell silent, which seemed to be as good a sign as any that the marine wasn’t planning on rending him to pieces.

With a sigh, the soldier holstered his weapon on his impossibly broad back. Once the gun was secure, his helmet broke apart and slid back to reveal a haggard-looking man in his mid- to late-twenties. “I am Private Hiberius of the Angels Revenant.” The marine remarked as he ushered Proto Man through the gate. Once the robot was through, Hiberius closed the entrance behind them and resealed the heavy latch. “It’s been a little more exciting down here since the Copper Eye took that thrashing in the Dataverse. A lot of their sympathizers and members of surviving cells fled here for solace and vanished into the mobs or safehouses.”