The Mega Man: War Games

Ch. 14 The Good, the Bad, and the Alien

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up on high alert. I glanced around, and to my pleasant surprise, found myself on my lab table in Light Labs. Out the window in front of me, the light of the sun was just coming over the horizon. Looking to my left, I saw the other Robot Masters laying peacefully in a row. Ice Man, directly to my left, also sat up.

He looked down at himself. "We-we're alive!"

He looked up and saw me, and straightened back up, saying with more composure, "Your assumption must have been correct."

"Rock! You're active!"

I turned around and saw Dr. Light staring at me with joy. The real Dr. Light, looking as sharp as ever (although he did show signs of not getting much sleep).

He quickly got up and hurried over, wrapping me in a tight hug. "Oh, thank goodness. I was worried we were losing you."

Ice Man cleared his throat. "Ice Man, reporting for duty, Doctor!"

Light turned and quickly embraced Ice Man as well, which I think caught the robot off guard. When Dr. Light released him, he seemed flustered.

I looked over and noticed Roll standing quietly by Dr. Light's computer. She looked back at me, and after a moment, she smiled.

"If you'll excuse my interrupting, Doctor," Ice Man said, "What exactly has been happening?"

He separated himself and brushed off his coat. "I'm not quite sure. Something happened during the update. I was woken up during the night by an alert. When I came in here, all of you weren't in any physical peril, but your systems had begun destroying themselves."

I frowned. "Any idea what caused it?"

Dr. Light rubbed the back of his head. "All I can say for sure is that it was some kind of influential foreign program. Something all of you were exposed to, or perhaps the computer system. But while computer had firewalls to block it out, you were all affected."

Roll finally spoke up. "You all registered being in significant pain or turmoil while we were working on reactivating you. If your systems were forced under those conditions for much longer, some of you might have taken serious damage to your vital hardware. Do you have any idea what that was doing to you?"

Ice Man and I looked at one another briefly. "You...don't want to know." I told her.

I looked over at the others. "So how soon will they be back?"

Dr. Light shrugged. "It's hard to say. Their systems are still returning to normal. They were in much more jeopardy than the two of you. The self-repairs are fairly simple, though. They should be up and running by mid-afternoon."

It was then that I noticed the time it must be. "Did you say that this happened in the middle of the night?"

"Yes."

"So, what you're saying is you've been up for hours now working on getting us back online? How much sleep did you get?" I asked.

The doctor chuckled and patted me on the back. "Believe me, after that presentation yesterday, any sleep was fine."

I couldn't help but disagree. "Doctor, you just operated on energy provided by epinephrine for several consecutive hours, without the support of a proper night's sleep. Even if you're still feeling alright, you need to rest."

He shook his head. "I appreciate your concern, Rock, but sometimes you need to do things that are-"

Roll interrupted him. "Stop right there, mister."

We all froze and looked at her.

"He's right, you know. Rest is a very important factor in accomplishment on a given day. You can't be expected to perform you best today after the stress of yesterday and this morning with only a few hour's sleep in between."