Mega Man A Second Chance

Side story: A dysfunctional family

"Wake up everyone!" The doctor hollered. The pods that contained us eight robot masters slowly opened up. First came Metalman, then his big blue brother Airman, and so on down the generation line. Each of us talked to each other before the evil doctor called us up for a checkup. It was the same every day; checkup for any malfunctions, then he'd let us do what we want. I would always use that excuse to go tend to my garden and leave my brothers to their chaos.

"Metalman, you go train with Quickman today. I need both of you to sharpen your strategies. Can't let that blasted Megaman get the best of me!!!"

"Don't you mean 'us', sir?" Heatman's little voice spoke up. Heatman was probably one of the shyest among us, constantly hiding in the little yellow box-like body he had.

"Yeah, whatever." Dr. Wily ignored him. "The rest of you, do whatever you want, I don't care."

It would be the same everyday. Metalman disappearing to who knows where, none of us could ever find him except for the doctor. Quickman would run around the place for most of the day until he either grew hungry and drank oil or to attempt to bond with Crashman. Key word; attempt.

I don't know why, but it seemed the two never got close. In some way or another, Crash would wind up getting angry and chase Quick, all while the red and yellow brother would continue to tease him. And that would result in Airman breaking up the fight by punishing Crash in a room, and only Crash. Quick never got punished, and I think that only boosted his ego. Heatman and I were the only people that ever bothered talking to Crash, it seemed like he had a soft spot for us.

Heat would always allow Crash, and only him, to close his lid over and over again like a drum. And in return, the brother would allow Heat to eat one of his crash bombs as a snack. The two did seem to bond closer than anyone else. I even caught them snuggling against each other when Heat got scared of a storm. I guess it's because the two were in common of being out of place. Bubbleman was the same way, but he always hid away in the lake close by than talk it out. Mostly to avoid getting into hopeless fights with Heatman.

Flashman also seemed to love to get on Quick's nerves. Whenever my scarlet brother was running, Flash would always stop time in front of him and plant some form of trap or hurt him when he unfreezes it. Flash claims it to be 'rightful payback' but I felt he always took it too far.

Airman never did anything other than hang on top of the Wily fortress by himself. He didn't talk with anyone except for me, despite him hating being near my garden.

Our family really did not get along, except for this one time.

Dr. Wily had a particularly bad day, and it seemed to affect all of us. Flashman had the brilliant idea to let all of us hang out in the garden. To avoid the two getting in a fight, Bubble and Heat made a deal to get into a fight themselves. Weird thing about Quickman was he always started fights involving him, but he hated his brothers fighting each other and would stop them himself.

So when Bubble and Heat got into their fake fight, Quick resulted in them getting into a competition to catch him to vent. Afterwards, it was a entertaining race between the three, in which Flashman took pictures of the while thing. It was the most I saw anyone laugh.

Metalman hung out by the shade, but that was enough for me to just see him. Crashman looked content watching the little birds in the trees. Something about the little chicks hopping from tree to tree made him happy, but it made me happy to see one of my brothers sharing my love for forest life. To help him out, Airman made him float a few inches so he could touch one of the birds.

At the end of it all, when it grew dark, nobody wanted to go back to the fortress.

"I'm beat!" Bubble plopped on the grass.

"Oh come on! You guys barely did fifty miles!" Quick boasted.

"I hate you..." Heatman's moan was muffled by the grass as well.

"Do you guys want to head back to the fortress?" Metalman asked.

"No." All of us responded.

"What? You guys want to stay out in the dark? Wily will kill us."

"I don't care honestly. I like the view out here." Flashman took a picture of the sky.

"I like the birds." Crashman smiled at the owls flying in the night.

"Woodman, could we stay in your garden?" Heatman gave me the 'cute eyes', and I smiled.

"Of course."

"You all are just impossible! Just don't blame me if Wily goes off on all of you later!" Metal huffed.

We all wounded up scrunched up in a pile under a tree, one by one falling asleep under the sky. Metalman was the last one to fall asleep besides me, Heatman with his lid closed huddled in Crash's lap, and Flash dangling off a tree from trying to take pictures. I saw a large owl fly farther up the sky, almost reaching up toward the stars as I entered sleep mode with my sleeping brothers.

Did we get along? No, I can see that.

But we were family, as close as we could ever be.