application
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Teal
OOC Journal: teal_deer
Under 18? no
Email/IM: ryuutenshi@gmail.com / failscream
Characters Played at Singularity: puppetfetishist, machine_god, parasomnist
Character Information ;
Name: Megaman
Name of Canon: The Protomen
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Act I: The Protomen
Reference: Official Site, wikipedia, TV Tropes
Canon Point: From just before the end of the song Vengeance, before he hits the Shocking Revelation that Protoman lives and has been working for Wily.
Setting: The year is 200X, and the world has fallen into darkness. Thirty-some years ago, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, good friends, had begun a project to help save their city, an industrial city whose wealth came from mines and factories. Light had lost his father to the mines, and had vowed that no one should ever have to face that again - so it was that he and Wily built machines to replace the workers, to make everyone's lives easier.
But Light expressed some trepidation about what would happen to humanity when the machines were turned on. At first, Light's intent was to only make the people's jobs easier, but Wily convinced him to build an army of machines to replace the human workers entirely. Furthermore, Wily modified them to be able to carry small arms, “just in case.” He and Wily argued, with it eventually becoming clear that Wily intended to use the machines to take over the city. Wily invited Light to join him and Light refused, saying that the people of the city would never stand for this, that while Wily could tie their working hands, their spirit would never be bound.
How wrong he was...
That very night, Wily confronted Emily, Light's lover, in Light's apartment. She had come to deliver a letter to Light, a letter containing something she felt was very important. Wily offered the city to her, saying that they should leave, together, that after this night Light would be nothing. Emily refused, saying that she'd stand by Light's side, that she believed in him. When it became clear that this was going nowhere, Wily ordered a robot he'd brought with him to murder her, then fled.
Light found Emily dead in the apartment, arriving just in time to see Wily's machine leaving through the window. He knelt by her body and held her in her arms - when police arrived, all he could do was scream incoherently at them about a robot murderer. The police took this about as well as expected, and Light, rather than go quietly, further complicated his situation by flinging himself through the window rather than surrendering. He did not read her letter.
Wily, of course, uses the whole situation to his advantage. First, in secret he had already been building a network of telescreens, cameras, and speakers throughout the city that he'd use to cement his already powerful control over the city's population. He fielded the questions of the media about Emily's murder, making certain that the blame was firmly on Light and beginning a witch hunt to distract the people of the city from his real plan, of making the city his own, fully and completely.
Wily's plan was devious indeed - he convinced the people completely that Light was guilty, but then the courts found him innocent, ruining the people's faith in the city's justice system. This led them to hand Wily absolute power even as Light was escorted out of the city.
Over the next twenty years, Light languished in exile as Wily completely changed the city. He gave the men of the mines generous severance packages for their long years of work in the mines - after all, with his automated armies of miners and factory workers, he could easily afford it. Over the years, the children of those miners grew up in a world without work, without pain... without sacrifice, without knowledge, and ever in fear of the shadow of the machines, for those who dissented were silenced, simply vanishing in the night.
Joe was a victim of these disappearances - no, not directly, sure, but a victim nonetheless. His father was snatched from him when he was but a child, and his mother followed later, both for daring to voice dissent against Wily's perfect clockwork world. Joe chomped at the bit, he strained at curfews and schedules, he rebelled against the ever-tightening controls Wily put on the city, he ignored the endless babble of the telescreens and he wanted something more.
One day, Joe got on his bike and followed the train tracks to their very end, the outer limits of the city, where he faced down Wily's assassin - the very same robot who had killed Emily, who had no doubt killed his parents, who had, in the name of order and stability, murdered so many in the city. He might have died, were it not for a lucky grab at the assassin's gun while it tried to kill him, which he used to blast it away. Doctor Light, who had been watching the whole time, then stepped out of the shadows and finished the job.
Joe and Light made their plans then - take out Wily's central control tower and it would take out the entire network of telescreens and cameras that Wily used to control the populace, disable his robots, and thus allow Light to return to the city and exact his revenge on Wily. Joe would be the one to take a bomb to that control tower, planting it and then escaping quickly before it went off.
Of course, this plan was doomed to failure. The bomb went off too early, and Joe was killed in the ensuing blast. The control tower was destroyed, as were Wily's telescreens... but there was a second transmitter tower (and possibly others still), controlling Wily's robot army, controlling the loudspeakers throughout the city. Wily used the attack as an excuse to send his robot army against the city itself, brutalizing and terrorizing the populace under the pretense of there being “terrorist insurgents” hiding among them. Countless people died, and once again Light's will was broken.
Except at last he read Emily's letter, which implored him to take a stand against Wily, to fight back, to take back the city. With new resolve, he knew what he had to do...
Light returned to the city, and for the next twelve years lived in a run-down tenement twenty stories up, working nonstop on a secret project. He brought to bear all of his knowledge of robotics, all his hate of Wily, all his passion for the city and all his love for Emily to create the ultimate warrior, a being capable of defeating Wily's robots and restoring freedom to the city: Protoman.
Protoman took the fight to Wily's doorstep and fought like a demon, tearing through Wily's robot armies like they were nothing... until he encountered Wily's six robot generals, the Robot Masters. These six all attacked Protoman at once, joined by the remaining shock troops, and tore Protoman to pieces. A crowd of humans gathered to watch, but did nothing, said nothing, too afraid of death to stand up and support the one who came to fight for them. They watched in frightened silence as Protoman begged for their help, screamed for someone, anyone to stand by his side, only to watch as he was finally silenced.
They carried Protoman's battle-scarred helmet and placed it in a makeshift grave, then went back to their homes, content to suffer under Wily's tyrrany rather than try to stand up against him. After all, if Protoman could not defeat the machines, who could?
Light stood before Protoman's grave and found himself in tears, feeling an emotion he had not allowed himself the luxury of since Emily's death -- grief. He realized that he'd thought of Protoman as a son, and he'd sent that son to his death.
He swore he'd never build another machine, and that night he tore down the tools in his workshop... only to find himself, in his fury, beginning to weld together the inner skeleton of a new machine, finding himself scrawling new blueprints, new equations (a more efficient power converter here, a larger fuel tank there) for a second machine. A second son.
Megaman.
Light kept Megaman in the apartment for years, seldom exposing him to the world outside. For the most part, the android looked out through the glass at the suffering city, watching its people struggle to survive, watching them cower before Wily's secret police, but never interacting, never touching. Occasionally, Light would take the android (disguised carefully, so as not to arouse suspicion) with him on errands, and then he'd see the suffering up close, try to reach out and help these unfortunate souls, but Light always held him back. He felt a deep sympathy for the people of the city, but it seemed nothing could be done, much as he wanted to help. He learned the history of the city, grew to hate Wily and his armies, and soon paced the floor of the apartment, feeling that he was meant for something greater. Something bigger. Light had built him to be a weapon, so why should he not fight?
In an attempt to stop his wayward son from charging into the night, Light told Megaman a story every night before the android powered down, a story of a hero who rose up against a tyrant to fight for freedom, only to be cut down when the very people he was fighting for refused to help him. Yet this story had the opposite effect -- instead of seeing this as a moral lesson, a tale of caution to warn against trying to help those who will not help themselves, Megaman only thought that the warrior should be avenged and the people could be saved if only there was just someone stronger to fight.
Light knew he could not paint this tale as a mere story for much longer. The people still spoke of Protoman, still whispered in the streets, and Light felt it would be better if Megaman heard it from his own lips rather than those of another. He told the truth -- the warrior was Protoman, Megaman's elder brother, the tyrant was Wily, and the people who refused to help in Protoman's darkest hour were the very people of this city. He implored Megaman to stay, said that the people of the city could not be saved, that it was over, finished.
Megaman would not hear it. He could not understand why Light would refuse to avenge his older brother. Light said mankind could not be saved, but Megaman had to know the truth. He had to see it for himself. He believed that even now there was hope for mankind, they just needed a hero to show them the way, that it could be done.
He would be that hero.
Standing at the grave of his brother, Megaman swore to finish the fight Protoman started. He then turned to the heart of the city, marching on Wily's fortress. Slowly, the people of the city came out of the shadows, following tentatively at first, then boldly, empowered by this strange young man. Wily's loudspeakers sang a chant to try to quell the populace: "We have control. We keep you safe. We are your hope." The people raised their voices in turn, repeating the chant and drowning out Wily's words.
Emboldened by the people of the city, Megaman charged straight for Wily's armies, led by a shadowy figure in a dark cloak. He shouted at them to send their most powerful, to do their worst, then tore through the waves of machines, trying to reach his target. His buster sang with power, and he felt like a god, unstoppable, unbeatable, undefeatable.
((Note: this is the canon point at which Megaman is being taken from. Things after this point are In The Future))
Finally, he reached the gates of Wily's fortress, then paused in confusion. The commander of Wily's armies was not a machine like the others -- his eyes glowed in the darkness like Megaman's own, shining out from under the shadows of the cloak. His confusion didn't last, however.
"Is this the best you've got?" he snarled, charging up his buster to end the battle then and there. But as he did, the commander stepped out of the shadows, taking off his cloak.
Megaman dropped to his knees, his gun falling to his side. It could not be. It must not be. The very person he'd been fighting to avenge, the very brother whose fight he'd vowed to carry on... now stood before him, the commander of Wily's armies.
Protoman.
Dr. Light stepped out of the crowd. "You're trying to understand. I told you your brother had been killed. Yet, here he stands in the very shadow of the man you came here to destroy. You came here to avenge his death. You came here to save mankind. You see now, you cannot do both."
Megaman raised his eyes to meet his brother's gaze. Protomen held this for only a moment, before turning to the crowd. He asked them if any one of them would be willing to stand up, to fight by Megaman's side against him, to stand for themselves against the tyranny of Wily. When not one person stepped forward, he turned back to Megaman.
"They looked to me once. Now they turn to you. Do you understand now? Do you see that the truth is they don't want to change this? They don't want a hero. They just want a martyr, a statue to raise."
Protoman then stepped down into the crowd of robot warriors, raising a fist and crushing them one by one, destroying his own troops to reach his brother. At last, they stood face to face, eye to eye. Megaman slowly stood.
Here, they would decide the fate of mankind, Megaman vs Protoman. If mankind stood by Megaman's side after all, his point would be proven. If not... no matter which one won, mankind would have proved themselves as true cowards, unwilling to even try to stand for themselves, as docile as sheep meant for slaughter.
Megaman raised his gun to fire... but then stopped. He would not murder his own brother, his childhood hero who his father had told him of so many nights; he would not believe that Protoman had truly lost so much faith in mankind as to be working for the enemy. He offered to be the one to stand beside Protoman, begged him to change his mind, to stand down, to fight with him against Wily, explained that mankind needed to be protected, that they were mankind's only heroes, their only hope.
"We both know they'll never fight!" said Megaman, intending to prove that Protoman and Megaman together were the only hope for mankind.
But Protoman only laughed. "You finally get it. There are no heroes."
As Protoman spoke, the gathered crowd began to cry out for Protoman's blood. None of them moved to help either side, simply chanting. In that moment, Megaman finally understood. They hadn't come here expecting to be saved from Wily at all. They'd come here for a show. For blood sport. And they'd known about Protoman all along. Protoman was, in the end, right.
There were no heroes left in man. And Protoman was right -- there was no other way out.
He fired the shot, a blinding, fully charged flash of searing light. Even as Protoman fell, Megaman was at his side, catching his brother's broken body before it hit the ground, holding him as the power faded from his body.
The crowd seemed pleased, cheering. They asked why Megaman was crying for Protoman. Your brother was a failure, they said, a villain and a traitor, you had no choice, why do you bother crying? You are our hero.
"And you are the dead," Megaman said quietly.
He took off his helmet and let it fall to the ground, turning away from mankind. As he did, Wily gave an order for his robot army to slaughter the humans, to run through the streets killing all they could find.
Megaman did nothing. Said nothing. After all.
They were the dead.
Personality: Megaman is hot-blooded, impetuous, rash, idealistic, and determined. All his life he heard stories of heroes, of martyrs and warriors, of people fighting back against the status quo, and all his life he's wanted to be like those people in those stories, to stand up and fight himself. He won't let anything stop him -- when Light tells him Protoman's story, he doesn't hear the notes of caution, doesn't hear about the fallen hero or the way humanity just didn't care, he hears only about an injustice done, only feels the need to right that wrong, regardless of consequence. He believes in the idea that there is hope for mankind and the city so blindly that he refuses to listen to reason until the truth is pointing a gun in his face.
In many ways, he is also terribly naiive. He thinks he's leading humanity to the fight against Wily, when in his heart what he knows is that humanity won't fight. Initially, he holds this to be the status quo, just part of how things are -- he's the hero, after all, it's his job to protect them. It's only once it is too late that it becomes clear that if humanity cannot stand on its own, then protecting them has no meaning.
This isn't to say that Megaman cannot be swayed -- he obviously can, as Protoman manages the feat. It's just that by the time he sees that his ideas may be incorrect it is far too late, and the damage is done (see: Protoman's death, Wily loosing the robot armies on the city).
Megaman is also oddly well-spoken, probably because of his sheltered upbringing -- his lines in The Will of One and the Sons of Fate especially have a poetic lilt to them which suggest that he's actually very intelligent, just also extremely bull-headed.
Though he spends most of the album kicking ass and taking names, it seems evident that there must be another side to him -- he initially cares very deeply about the fate of mankind and about the death of his brother, and it's also clear when he meets Protoman just how betrayed he is by Protoman's actions. Protoman was a person he idealized and looked up to, after all. In the end, he even embraces his dying brother, before the shock of the revelation that mankind is doomed sends him into despair.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: ROBOT - Megaman is a robot, designed, like his brother, to be "a perfect man, an unbeatable machine." Given that Megaman is the second robot Dr. Light built, there were probably some improvements made to his model, an idea further backed up by the fact that he wins the battle between himself and his brother, as well as managing to tear through Wily's robot armies with ease where his brother failed in the task.
As a machine, Megaman is tougher, stronger, and faster than the average human. He isn't as quick on his feet as his brother, and is designed to be a bit more of a tank, capable of great feats of endurance. While he can tire, it takes him far longer than a human.
That said, while Megaman has some rudimentary self-repair systems and internal redundancies (such as a backup reactor and self-repairing skin), he does not heal naturally and needs routine tune-ups to fix any combat damage.
MEGA BUSTER - Megaman can transform either of his arms into this plasma canon (but not both at once). Its primary setting lets him fire three plasma shots; he can also hold a charge and fire one large blast. This gun is extremely powerful, and runs off his main energy core, thus it has unlimited shots.
Inventory: The clothes on his back.
Appearance: Megaman looks very human; he seems to be a young man of ambiguous age (late teens / early 20s) with jet black hair. His features are a little too fine and smooth, however (in some lights he gives off a distinct uncanny valley effect), and without clothes he looks like a ball-jointed doll (smooth and featureless). His eyes, too, are rather inhuman - they glow brilliant blue, and the pupils are rather clearly camera lenses.
Age: 10-ish (canon never really specifies, but it's quite young)
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample: There was no rain. Only ash.
When it rained in the city by now it rained acid, and he was careful to cover himself with a hooded cloak, for the last thing he needed was to find his metal parts etched and scarred. And it rained so seldom, so rarely, that it barely mattered.
Still. His hood was up, and on it today fell ash. The city burned, again, as it always did, another home set aflame for real or imagined dissidence. Before him was a grave, a grave with no name on which was marked the words, "Hope Rides Alone."
He reached out one trembling hand to touch the letters.
I wanted to know you.
A thousand nights at Light's knee, listening to the story of a lone warrior who had ridden against Wily, who against all odds had tried to fight, only to be cut down in his hour of triumph.
But I wouldn't fail.
And now, the truth. It was no story. It was real, all of it; it was real, and the fallen hero had been his own brother.
He'd heard people on the streets describe the other machines as unfeeling, but he knew he wasn't like that. There was no other explanation for the burning feeling welling up inside him, that combination of sorrow and rage that beat at the inside of his head and his chest and wouldn't stop. This had been his brother, and his father had lied to him about it. Told him to stop, told him not to even try.
But how could he not? All his life, the story of the lone warrior had both given him hope and a reason to be, he'd secretly trained in the lab at night, using his gun to hit precisely, quietly teaching himself to be better, stronger. And now to know it was true, and to be told no, stay back, don't even try, don't do it...
No.
He clenched his fists.
"And as I live, there is no evil that will stand..."
He let the fury fill him, let it drown out the sorrow, let it drown out the regret.
I wanted to meet you. I wanted to be you. I wanted to stand at your side when they refused to help, I wanted to stand up from the crowd and shout I WILL STAND, I AM HERE! and then the two of us would end Wily, end this madness once and for all...
I'll have to settle for avenging you.
He turned to face towards Wily's fortress, the lurid glow of the factory clearly visible even from this distance. Eyes narrowed in determination, he locked his helmet into place and then dropped his cloak to the ground. Stretching out his hand, he let the plates click, slide, and transform into his weapon, the Mega Buster.
"I will finish what was started: the fight of Protoman."
Network Sample:
[It's video time! It would seem to be that black-haired guy with the slightly too intense blue eyes again---Megaman, he said his name was. ]
Okay, so, let me get this straight. And forgive me, but I lived most of my life in my father's apartment-don't laugh, it was a dark time-so I'm going to need it said again to me a few times.
We've come through a rift in space time and we're on a space station run by a fragmented and psychotic AI. Some parts of her are helpful, but there's certain parts which are absolutely bent on doing terrible things to us.
So...
Why haven't you fought back? I mean, why haven't you tried to upload some of your friendlier AI into her? Or reprogrammed her? How many of you have her mad components murdered? How many will she still murder before you stand up and say, "That's enough! We will not stand!"
I don't care if she can hear me, or which parts of her can hear me-it doesn't matter. The point is, we should stand, and we should fight.
Your Nickname: Teal
OOC Journal: teal_deer
Under 18? no
Email/IM: ryuutenshi@gmail.com / failscream
Characters Played at Singularity: puppetfetishist, machine_god, parasomnist
Character Information ;
Name: Megaman
Name of Canon: The Protomen
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Act I: The Protomen
Reference: Official Site, wikipedia, TV Tropes
Canon Point: From just before the end of the song Vengeance, before he hits the Shocking Revelation that Protoman lives and has been working for Wily.
Setting: The year is 200X, and the world has fallen into darkness. Thirty-some years ago, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily, good friends, had begun a project to help save their city, an industrial city whose wealth came from mines and factories. Light had lost his father to the mines, and had vowed that no one should ever have to face that again - so it was that he and Wily built machines to replace the workers, to make everyone's lives easier.
But Light expressed some trepidation about what would happen to humanity when the machines were turned on. At first, Light's intent was to only make the people's jobs easier, but Wily convinced him to build an army of machines to replace the human workers entirely. Furthermore, Wily modified them to be able to carry small arms, “just in case.” He and Wily argued, with it eventually becoming clear that Wily intended to use the machines to take over the city. Wily invited Light to join him and Light refused, saying that the people of the city would never stand for this, that while Wily could tie their working hands, their spirit would never be bound.
How wrong he was...
That very night, Wily confronted Emily, Light's lover, in Light's apartment. She had come to deliver a letter to Light, a letter containing something she felt was very important. Wily offered the city to her, saying that they should leave, together, that after this night Light would be nothing. Emily refused, saying that she'd stand by Light's side, that she believed in him. When it became clear that this was going nowhere, Wily ordered a robot he'd brought with him to murder her, then fled.
Light found Emily dead in the apartment, arriving just in time to see Wily's machine leaving through the window. He knelt by her body and held her in her arms - when police arrived, all he could do was scream incoherently at them about a robot murderer. The police took this about as well as expected, and Light, rather than go quietly, further complicated his situation by flinging himself through the window rather than surrendering. He did not read her letter.
Wily, of course, uses the whole situation to his advantage. First, in secret he had already been building a network of telescreens, cameras, and speakers throughout the city that he'd use to cement his already powerful control over the city's population. He fielded the questions of the media about Emily's murder, making certain that the blame was firmly on Light and beginning a witch hunt to distract the people of the city from his real plan, of making the city his own, fully and completely.
Wily's plan was devious indeed - he convinced the people completely that Light was guilty, but then the courts found him innocent, ruining the people's faith in the city's justice system. This led them to hand Wily absolute power even as Light was escorted out of the city.
Over the next twenty years, Light languished in exile as Wily completely changed the city. He gave the men of the mines generous severance packages for their long years of work in the mines - after all, with his automated armies of miners and factory workers, he could easily afford it. Over the years, the children of those miners grew up in a world without work, without pain... without sacrifice, without knowledge, and ever in fear of the shadow of the machines, for those who dissented were silenced, simply vanishing in the night.
Joe was a victim of these disappearances - no, not directly, sure, but a victim nonetheless. His father was snatched from him when he was but a child, and his mother followed later, both for daring to voice dissent against Wily's perfect clockwork world. Joe chomped at the bit, he strained at curfews and schedules, he rebelled against the ever-tightening controls Wily put on the city, he ignored the endless babble of the telescreens and he wanted something more.
One day, Joe got on his bike and followed the train tracks to their very end, the outer limits of the city, where he faced down Wily's assassin - the very same robot who had killed Emily, who had no doubt killed his parents, who had, in the name of order and stability, murdered so many in the city. He might have died, were it not for a lucky grab at the assassin's gun while it tried to kill him, which he used to blast it away. Doctor Light, who had been watching the whole time, then stepped out of the shadows and finished the job.
Joe and Light made their plans then - take out Wily's central control tower and it would take out the entire network of telescreens and cameras that Wily used to control the populace, disable his robots, and thus allow Light to return to the city and exact his revenge on Wily. Joe would be the one to take a bomb to that control tower, planting it and then escaping quickly before it went off.
Of course, this plan was doomed to failure. The bomb went off too early, and Joe was killed in the ensuing blast. The control tower was destroyed, as were Wily's telescreens... but there was a second transmitter tower (and possibly others still), controlling Wily's robot army, controlling the loudspeakers throughout the city. Wily used the attack as an excuse to send his robot army against the city itself, brutalizing and terrorizing the populace under the pretense of there being “terrorist insurgents” hiding among them. Countless people died, and once again Light's will was broken.
Except at last he read Emily's letter, which implored him to take a stand against Wily, to fight back, to take back the city. With new resolve, he knew what he had to do...
Light returned to the city, and for the next twelve years lived in a run-down tenement twenty stories up, working nonstop on a secret project. He brought to bear all of his knowledge of robotics, all his hate of Wily, all his passion for the city and all his love for Emily to create the ultimate warrior, a being capable of defeating Wily's robots and restoring freedom to the city: Protoman.
Protoman took the fight to Wily's doorstep and fought like a demon, tearing through Wily's robot armies like they were nothing... until he encountered Wily's six robot generals, the Robot Masters. These six all attacked Protoman at once, joined by the remaining shock troops, and tore Protoman to pieces. A crowd of humans gathered to watch, but did nothing, said nothing, too afraid of death to stand up and support the one who came to fight for them. They watched in frightened silence as Protoman begged for their help, screamed for someone, anyone to stand by his side, only to watch as he was finally silenced.
They carried Protoman's battle-scarred helmet and placed it in a makeshift grave, then went back to their homes, content to suffer under Wily's tyrrany rather than try to stand up against him. After all, if Protoman could not defeat the machines, who could?
Light stood before Protoman's grave and found himself in tears, feeling an emotion he had not allowed himself the luxury of since Emily's death -- grief. He realized that he'd thought of Protoman as a son, and he'd sent that son to his death.
He swore he'd never build another machine, and that night he tore down the tools in his workshop... only to find himself, in his fury, beginning to weld together the inner skeleton of a new machine, finding himself scrawling new blueprints, new equations (a more efficient power converter here, a larger fuel tank there) for a second machine. A second son.
Megaman.
Light kept Megaman in the apartment for years, seldom exposing him to the world outside. For the most part, the android looked out through the glass at the suffering city, watching its people struggle to survive, watching them cower before Wily's secret police, but never interacting, never touching. Occasionally, Light would take the android (disguised carefully, so as not to arouse suspicion) with him on errands, and then he'd see the suffering up close, try to reach out and help these unfortunate souls, but Light always held him back. He felt a deep sympathy for the people of the city, but it seemed nothing could be done, much as he wanted to help. He learned the history of the city, grew to hate Wily and his armies, and soon paced the floor of the apartment, feeling that he was meant for something greater. Something bigger. Light had built him to be a weapon, so why should he not fight?
In an attempt to stop his wayward son from charging into the night, Light told Megaman a story every night before the android powered down, a story of a hero who rose up against a tyrant to fight for freedom, only to be cut down when the very people he was fighting for refused to help him. Yet this story had the opposite effect -- instead of seeing this as a moral lesson, a tale of caution to warn against trying to help those who will not help themselves, Megaman only thought that the warrior should be avenged and the people could be saved if only there was just someone stronger to fight.
Light knew he could not paint this tale as a mere story for much longer. The people still spoke of Protoman, still whispered in the streets, and Light felt it would be better if Megaman heard it from his own lips rather than those of another. He told the truth -- the warrior was Protoman, Megaman's elder brother, the tyrant was Wily, and the people who refused to help in Protoman's darkest hour were the very people of this city. He implored Megaman to stay, said that the people of the city could not be saved, that it was over, finished.
Megaman would not hear it. He could not understand why Light would refuse to avenge his older brother. Light said mankind could not be saved, but Megaman had to know the truth. He had to see it for himself. He believed that even now there was hope for mankind, they just needed a hero to show them the way, that it could be done.
He would be that hero.
Standing at the grave of his brother, Megaman swore to finish the fight Protoman started. He then turned to the heart of the city, marching on Wily's fortress. Slowly, the people of the city came out of the shadows, following tentatively at first, then boldly, empowered by this strange young man. Wily's loudspeakers sang a chant to try to quell the populace: "We have control. We keep you safe. We are your hope." The people raised their voices in turn, repeating the chant and drowning out Wily's words.
Emboldened by the people of the city, Megaman charged straight for Wily's armies, led by a shadowy figure in a dark cloak. He shouted at them to send their most powerful, to do their worst, then tore through the waves of machines, trying to reach his target. His buster sang with power, and he felt like a god, unstoppable, unbeatable, undefeatable.
((Note: this is the canon point at which Megaman is being taken from. Things after this point are In The Future))
Finally, he reached the gates of Wily's fortress, then paused in confusion. The commander of Wily's armies was not a machine like the others -- his eyes glowed in the darkness like Megaman's own, shining out from under the shadows of the cloak. His confusion didn't last, however.
"Is this the best you've got?" he snarled, charging up his buster to end the battle then and there. But as he did, the commander stepped out of the shadows, taking off his cloak.
Megaman dropped to his knees, his gun falling to his side. It could not be. It must not be. The very person he'd been fighting to avenge, the very brother whose fight he'd vowed to carry on... now stood before him, the commander of Wily's armies.
Protoman.
Dr. Light stepped out of the crowd. "You're trying to understand. I told you your brother had been killed. Yet, here he stands in the very shadow of the man you came here to destroy. You came here to avenge his death. You came here to save mankind. You see now, you cannot do both."
Megaman raised his eyes to meet his brother's gaze. Protomen held this for only a moment, before turning to the crowd. He asked them if any one of them would be willing to stand up, to fight by Megaman's side against him, to stand for themselves against the tyranny of Wily. When not one person stepped forward, he turned back to Megaman.
"They looked to me once. Now they turn to you. Do you understand now? Do you see that the truth is they don't want to change this? They don't want a hero. They just want a martyr, a statue to raise."
Protoman then stepped down into the crowd of robot warriors, raising a fist and crushing them one by one, destroying his own troops to reach his brother. At last, they stood face to face, eye to eye. Megaman slowly stood.
Here, they would decide the fate of mankind, Megaman vs Protoman. If mankind stood by Megaman's side after all, his point would be proven. If not... no matter which one won, mankind would have proved themselves as true cowards, unwilling to even try to stand for themselves, as docile as sheep meant for slaughter.
Megaman raised his gun to fire... but then stopped. He would not murder his own brother, his childhood hero who his father had told him of so many nights; he would not believe that Protoman had truly lost so much faith in mankind as to be working for the enemy. He offered to be the one to stand beside Protoman, begged him to change his mind, to stand down, to fight with him against Wily, explained that mankind needed to be protected, that they were mankind's only heroes, their only hope.
"We both know they'll never fight!" said Megaman, intending to prove that Protoman and Megaman together were the only hope for mankind.
But Protoman only laughed. "You finally get it. There are no heroes."
As Protoman spoke, the gathered crowd began to cry out for Protoman's blood. None of them moved to help either side, simply chanting. In that moment, Megaman finally understood. They hadn't come here expecting to be saved from Wily at all. They'd come here for a show. For blood sport. And they'd known about Protoman all along. Protoman was, in the end, right.
There were no heroes left in man. And Protoman was right -- there was no other way out.
He fired the shot, a blinding, fully charged flash of searing light. Even as Protoman fell, Megaman was at his side, catching his brother's broken body before it hit the ground, holding him as the power faded from his body.
The crowd seemed pleased, cheering. They asked why Megaman was crying for Protoman. Your brother was a failure, they said, a villain and a traitor, you had no choice, why do you bother crying? You are our hero.
"And you are the dead," Megaman said quietly.
He took off his helmet and let it fall to the ground, turning away from mankind. As he did, Wily gave an order for his robot army to slaughter the humans, to run through the streets killing all they could find.
Megaman did nothing. Said nothing. After all.
They were the dead.
Personality: Megaman is hot-blooded, impetuous, rash, idealistic, and determined. All his life he heard stories of heroes, of martyrs and warriors, of people fighting back against the status quo, and all his life he's wanted to be like those people in those stories, to stand up and fight himself. He won't let anything stop him -- when Light tells him Protoman's story, he doesn't hear the notes of caution, doesn't hear about the fallen hero or the way humanity just didn't care, he hears only about an injustice done, only feels the need to right that wrong, regardless of consequence. He believes in the idea that there is hope for mankind and the city so blindly that he refuses to listen to reason until the truth is pointing a gun in his face.
In many ways, he is also terribly naiive. He thinks he's leading humanity to the fight against Wily, when in his heart what he knows is that humanity won't fight. Initially, he holds this to be the status quo, just part of how things are -- he's the hero, after all, it's his job to protect them. It's only once it is too late that it becomes clear that if humanity cannot stand on its own, then protecting them has no meaning.
This isn't to say that Megaman cannot be swayed -- he obviously can, as Protoman manages the feat. It's just that by the time he sees that his ideas may be incorrect it is far too late, and the damage is done (see: Protoman's death, Wily loosing the robot armies on the city).
Megaman is also oddly well-spoken, probably because of his sheltered upbringing -- his lines in The Will of One and the Sons of Fate especially have a poetic lilt to them which suggest that he's actually very intelligent, just also extremely bull-headed.
Though he spends most of the album kicking ass and taking names, it seems evident that there must be another side to him -- he initially cares very deeply about the fate of mankind and about the death of his brother, and it's also clear when he meets Protoman just how betrayed he is by Protoman's actions. Protoman was a person he idealized and looked up to, after all. In the end, he even embraces his dying brother, before the shock of the revelation that mankind is doomed sends him into despair.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: ROBOT - Megaman is a robot, designed, like his brother, to be "a perfect man, an unbeatable machine." Given that Megaman is the second robot Dr. Light built, there were probably some improvements made to his model, an idea further backed up by the fact that he wins the battle between himself and his brother, as well as managing to tear through Wily's robot armies with ease where his brother failed in the task.
As a machine, Megaman is tougher, stronger, and faster than the average human. He isn't as quick on his feet as his brother, and is designed to be a bit more of a tank, capable of great feats of endurance. While he can tire, it takes him far longer than a human.
That said, while Megaman has some rudimentary self-repair systems and internal redundancies (such as a backup reactor and self-repairing skin), he does not heal naturally and needs routine tune-ups to fix any combat damage.
MEGA BUSTER - Megaman can transform either of his arms into this plasma canon (but not both at once). Its primary setting lets him fire three plasma shots; he can also hold a charge and fire one large blast. This gun is extremely powerful, and runs off his main energy core, thus it has unlimited shots.
Inventory: The clothes on his back.
Appearance: Megaman looks very human; he seems to be a young man of ambiguous age (late teens / early 20s) with jet black hair. His features are a little too fine and smooth, however (in some lights he gives off a distinct uncanny valley effect), and without clothes he looks like a ball-jointed doll (smooth and featureless). His eyes, too, are rather inhuman - they glow brilliant blue, and the pupils are rather clearly camera lenses.
Age: 10-ish (canon never really specifies, but it's quite young)
OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across?
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?
Samples ;
Log Sample: There was no rain. Only ash.
When it rained in the city by now it rained acid, and he was careful to cover himself with a hooded cloak, for the last thing he needed was to find his metal parts etched and scarred. And it rained so seldom, so rarely, that it barely mattered.
Still. His hood was up, and on it today fell ash. The city burned, again, as it always did, another home set aflame for real or imagined dissidence. Before him was a grave, a grave with no name on which was marked the words, "Hope Rides Alone."
He reached out one trembling hand to touch the letters.
I wanted to know you.
A thousand nights at Light's knee, listening to the story of a lone warrior who had ridden against Wily, who against all odds had tried to fight, only to be cut down in his hour of triumph.
But I wouldn't fail.
And now, the truth. It was no story. It was real, all of it; it was real, and the fallen hero had been his own brother.
He'd heard people on the streets describe the other machines as unfeeling, but he knew he wasn't like that. There was no other explanation for the burning feeling welling up inside him, that combination of sorrow and rage that beat at the inside of his head and his chest and wouldn't stop. This had been his brother, and his father had lied to him about it. Told him to stop, told him not to even try.
But how could he not? All his life, the story of the lone warrior had both given him hope and a reason to be, he'd secretly trained in the lab at night, using his gun to hit precisely, quietly teaching himself to be better, stronger. And now to know it was true, and to be told no, stay back, don't even try, don't do it...
No.
He clenched his fists.
"And as I live, there is no evil that will stand..."
He let the fury fill him, let it drown out the sorrow, let it drown out the regret.
I wanted to meet you. I wanted to be you. I wanted to stand at your side when they refused to help, I wanted to stand up from the crowd and shout I WILL STAND, I AM HERE! and then the two of us would end Wily, end this madness once and for all...
I'll have to settle for avenging you.
He turned to face towards Wily's fortress, the lurid glow of the factory clearly visible even from this distance. Eyes narrowed in determination, he locked his helmet into place and then dropped his cloak to the ground. Stretching out his hand, he let the plates click, slide, and transform into his weapon, the Mega Buster.
"I will finish what was started: the fight of Protoman."
Network Sample:
[It's video time! It would seem to be that black-haired guy with the slightly too intense blue eyes again---Megaman, he said his name was. ]
Okay, so, let me get this straight. And forgive me, but I lived most of my life in my father's apartment-don't laugh, it was a dark time-so I'm going to need it said again to me a few times.
We've come through a rift in space time and we're on a space station run by a fragmented and psychotic AI. Some parts of her are helpful, but there's certain parts which are absolutely bent on doing terrible things to us.
So...
Why haven't you fought back? I mean, why haven't you tried to upload some of your friendlier AI into her? Or reprogrammed her? How many of you have her mad components murdered? How many will she still murder before you stand up and say, "That's enough! We will not stand!"
I don't care if she can hear me, or which parts of her can hear me-it doesn't matter. The point is, we should stand, and we should fight.