Oh, I have the Crash to induce first. Remember?Second chapter:Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 1 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll blinked as her memory banks glitched.Looking down at herself, she suddenly wondered if she'd always been this tall. Or had been such a mature-appearing model. The yellow bodysuit with the red stripes on the side certainly didn't seem familiar to her...She really didn't remember getting into a fight with a buff-looking Cut Man.She dodged a rolling cutter narrowly and pointed her arm at Cut Man, feeling it reform like her brother's often did - when did Dr. Light install that on her? - into... a toaster?What good was a toa$73R/$%&^$Fg5ev6&^]......................ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 2 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll hated her life.To start, she had fragmented and corrupted memories of at least one timeline that really didn't match the one she was living, reality couldn't seem to make up its mind about what was really going on, she was anatomically correct (which felt extremely weird to her despite the fact that her clearest memories insisted she'd always been this way), and her clothes kept getting destroyed for the most ridiculous reasons.she thought angrily to herself,ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 3 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll reflected that the oddest things tended to cross one's mind during times of peril.She could have been reflecting on the fact that she had a glut of unexplained memory errors showing a completely different life - or was it several different lives? - she'd led.She could wonder why Dr. Light apparently seemed to be based in Hawaii rather than this 'Mega City' she recalled from the other lives.She might possibly wonder why she was programmed for Polynesian cultural preservation in addition to the housekeeping duties her base design was meant for.A question more pertinent to her current predicament was why, during his tenth attempt at global domination, Dr. Wily was using the Genesis Unit - Buster Rod G., Hyper Storm H., and Mega Water S. - to support his robot masters instead of a trio of robots her memory errors told her were called Enker, Punk, and Ballade - the Mega Man Killers?An even better question would be why they had kidnapped her to set a trap for her brother when her memory errors insisted she should be sick with something called Roboenza instead.However, what Roll really wanted to know all of a sudden was why she'd spent her life dressed as a hula girl complete with grass skirt.Of course, Tempo seemed to dress the same way for equally unapparent reasons and her brother seemed much more interested in her than her memory errors indicated he would have been, so in the end it wasn't that bad she supp0$3|)^V%W^WY%%$GHYFg6yer.............ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 4 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll did her best to remain focused as she fought one of Dr. Wily's latest robot masters. Her brother had managed to do it, and she refused to dishonor him by failing to do the same. But that day haunted her incessantly.Rock had gone off to Dr. Wily's latest space station to capture the madman and put an end to his latest reign of terror. He'd done it more than once already, and there was no reason to believe he wouldn't do it again.So the whole world was understandably shocked when Dr. Wily appeared on every channel laughing victoriously.Beside him was her brother.More specifically, what was left of him.Dr. Wily had apparently decided to indulge in a barbaric practice and mount her brother's head on a pike.Consumed by sorrow and rage, she'd insisted that her father make her into a fighting robot like her brother had become so she could carry on his work. It was a testament to how affected Dr. Light was himself that he didn't even raise a complaint. He'd just wordlessly and mechanically done exactly as she asked, and more. She'd been outfitted with some experimental upgrades that allowed her to combine with Tango - the only surviving animal companion left - and the moment she'd seen the claws at the ends of her fingers that first time using the 'super adaptor', she'd known exactly what she would do with them.Roll had descended on the armies of Dr. Wily like the wrath of god, carving her way through his forces with a ferocity that a force of nature would have approved of. But he'd escaped then. Roll vowed he wouldn't do so again.She was determined to catch Dr. Wily for real this time. But she wasn't going to hand him over to the authorities.No, she was going to straight up k!11 4!|\/|VU&BB&^$F{}|543f65$%2$#**************ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 5 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll was a little jealous of her brother for something that could not possibly be his fault. The reason was that she'd gotten a slew of memory errors about a lifetime where he was the hero instead of her, and during this lifetime he had to deal with a radical pro-human terrorist movement known as the Emerald Spears led by Xander Payne.Her? She had to deal with a fanatical robot-worshipping cult lead by a nutjob named Reverend Samuel Tiberius Dark. She'd have traded him for Xander Payne in an instant.Aside from the unfortunate initials which must have made his school life hell, the man preached that the fate of humanity was to submit to robot rule and the only salvation for humans was to become robots themselves. He'd come up with a perversion of the 'three laws' as the central tenets of the religion. 'A human may not harm a robot'. 'A human must obey the commands of a robot'. 'Humans may not preserve their existence at the expense of robots'. The man believed that Dr. Wily was some kind of messiah, Dr. Light was the devil incarnate, and that she and her brother were traitors to their divine race for daring to defend the lives of humans.And her other brother? Blues apparently had been sucked in by the cultist propaganda since he was leading the latest revolution in their name.She dueled her older brother, trying to find something that indicated he wasn't doing this of his own volition when Blues what shot... by Blues.Roll stared in confusion at two of her brother when the image of the first, her opponent, wavered and then dropped entirely to reveal a completely different robot.An impostor.Using her older brother's image to give the cult a semblance of credibility.To say Roll was livid would be an understatement.But even as her fury built up, she noticed something that replaced it with disgust.The unknown robot was like the other models she'd faced in the fortress, only red. The other major difference was that the clear dome revealed not a complex CPU, but a live human brain. The cult had gone so far as to surgically remove a person's brain and place it in a robot? What kind of sick people were in charge?"Well," chuckled a familiar voice, "I suppose the facade couldn't have gone on forever."Roll's jaw dropped. "Reverend Dark?!" she shouted incredulously."Samuel Tiberius Dark is dead," the robot declared, activating a rotating electro-magnetic field around himself in preparation for further combat. "I am the Dark Man!"Roll fumed. The nutjob was going down. She couldn't let him spread his fanatical poison an>- 10|\|&3Reht^%4656%76&)=()(^ [email protected] !***************ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 6 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll was really disturbed right about now.The constellation droids, she could handle. Even if Gemini looked like a robot hermaphroditic transvestite.Having to fight a slew of Dr. Wily's robot masters along with them, she could handle as well.What was creeping her out though was the addition to the team that accompanied her and her friends.The chinese robot Fan seemed to have no personality whatsoever. He didn't talk, emote, or anything. He just stood there and stared blankly at whatever was in front of him despite the fact that he was supposedly just as advanced and human-like as Roll herself.He was looking at her again. With those empty eyes that just seemed to cons|_||\/|3 3^3R>-74!|\|$%vu^ct5***************ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 7 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll cheered from her seat in the pulsing crowd.Everything was going great. Dr. Wily hadn't been heard from in a while, both she and her brother Rock were actually going to school, Rock had a girlfriend named Chelsea, and they were all about to enjoy the latest rock and roll sensation."Greetings everyone!" yelled a boombox-themed robot master from the stage. "I'm DJ Jazzy J4-8950, and I'm your mix artist for the evening! Are you all ready to rock?!"The crowd cheered."I said, ARE YOU ALL READY TO ROCK?!"The cheers became thunderous."Then welcome to the stage the newest mechanical music sensation, and my fellow band mates: The Dreamwaves!" DJ Jazzy yelled to the crowd. "On drums, we have the incredible BARRAGE MAN!"The crowd yelled in approval for the massive 25-foot tall robot and his equally huge drum set that took up the entire back of the stage."On guitar, keyboard, bass, and saxaphone, we have the amazing MULTI MAN!"The cheers continued for the self-replicating instrumentalist."And on vocals is the sensational EXPRESS MAN!"A blur zoomed to the center of the stage and the sleek form of the band leader stood before the delirious crowd."But before we begin, I'm afraid I have some sad news for everyone," DJ Jazzy said somberly.The crowd's cheering died down in confusion."I'm afraid Dr. Wily has ordered your termination," DJ Jazzy intoned ominously as the eyes of all the band robots turned glowing red. "Nothing personal, you understand."And with that, the robots jumped off the stage, which itself rumbled and stood up, revealing a massive Godzilla-sized steel machine that looked very much like the devil series robots and towered over the suddenly terrified crowd.It was about then that the screaming finally [email protected] |)%Y$n8k&df54tf#%^*************ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 8 using secondary Anchor candidate:Roll stood behind her brother the hero as he faced down the strange alien robot known as Terra.She worried for her brother, partly because she had false memories of a reality where he'd failed at being the hero and was brutally murdered for it. She also had false memories of taking his place for multiple lifetimes, during one of which she'd failed catastrophically. So she'd let her brother volunteer and trusted him to save the world, but she'd requested to be outfitted as his field support to help make sure he stayed alive. It had worked so far, but this opponent worried her more than any other and she wasn't really sure why."So," Terra sneered down at them, "this is what the pathetic inhabitants of this planet have to defend them. I am not impressed.""This is your only warning," Rock called confidently. "Cease all hostile actions and leave this planet in peace!""Or what?" Terra laughed mockingly. "Your weapons couldn't even scratch me. Here, I'll even give you a free shot to prove it. And when you fail, you die pathetic Earth scrap."With that, Terra spread his arms wide in invitation. Mutely, Rock took him up on the offer and shot to disable, only for the buster shot to dissipate harmlessly on what looked like a personal energy field surrounding Terra."My turn," Terra grinned maniacally and pointed his hand at the blue bomber. "SPARK CHASER!""ROCK!" Roll screamed as the laser weapon zig-zagged from Terra and straight through her brother's head. An instant later, several more proceeded to shred the rest of his body mercilessly."NOOOOOO!!!!" Roll wailed in grief and fury as she saw her brother fall. She felt herself move and Tango attach to her as her arms simultaneously formed into clawed weapons of destruction. Some rational part of her mind noted that Dr. Light had never given her the modifications she was now using, but the rest of her didn't care. All that mattered was hurting Terra as much as possible.Terra was caught off-guard in shock at her transformation and he took a rocket claw to the face before he could recover, and then Roll was upon him. Her purely physical weapons rent through Terra's defensive energy field with only some resistance and she clawed apart his body with fury, ripping out large chunks of his torso at the same time.In the space of a few seconds, she'd rendered the alien invader to a shredded mess and let his body fall lifelessly to the ground while she mourned for her brother.Or, that's what would have happened if Terra hadn't stood back up.Roll stared in shock and horror at the sight of Terra getting back to his feet. She'd not only shredded his armor and ripped out at least half his vital mechanisms, but she'd also taken half his head off... and he was still moving.....The apparently undead robot raised his damaged fingers in her direction and yelled her death sentence. [email protected] |< [email protected] $ER!"Roll found herself incapable of moving as the lethal laser weapon that had killed her brother cut a jagged line right towar|)$ 43RET%$76gy45%^65vy54************ATTEMPT FAILED-----Yggdrasil Log: Loop activation attempt 9 using secondary Anchor candidate:If there was any robot that Roll genuinely hated, it was the future-tech clone of her that Dr. Wily made named Waltz. According to some glitchy memory errors - one set of several she possessed - if Rock had stepped forth to become a hero he'd have gotten a counterpart named Quint. A bitter and disenchanted robot who was originally convinced that he was somehow Rock himself from the future, and had not taken the truth of his origins very well after he'd returned to said future.Waltz? Waltz was batshit insane.The Dimensions, a set of robot masters from the future, when they had been led by Quint - or 'Mega Man's Shadow' as he'd taken to calling himself by then - in this other life had been rather typical of robot masters like what Dr. Wily had unleashed. That is, dangerous and causing lots of property damage, but relatively minimal loss of life all things considered. They were far more concerned with taking over territory than they were with killing people.Under Waltz, the Dimensions were little more than crazed killers that put forth more effort targeting civilians than infrastructure. Their initial appearance had been a bloodbath.Thankfully, Waltz's brother Bass had no more love for his insane sister than Roll herself did and had been all too happy to help her destroy the Dimensions and face off against Waltz herself.Unfortunately, Waltz had been ready for them and the two of them had suffered severe injuries in bringing her down. Bass had lost one of his arms at the shoulder, Treble had half his body strewn over the battlefield, and Roll estimated her armor had more holes than swiss cheese. It was a miracle she was still functional.But they had won. Waltz was missing her entire body from the waist down, her teleporter circuits were fried, and her arms were useless. There was no way she could escape this time."It's over," Roll brandished her chosen weapon at the fallen Waltz, a telescoping broom made of highly durable material. Despite its appearance, it made for quite the lethal weapon when she chose for it to and many foes had fallen prey to it after laughing at its appearance."You haven't seen the last of me," Waltz grinned maniacally from where she lay."What makes you think that?" Roll managed not to sneer, her expression studiously neutral."Because father gave me the kind of data copying ability yours gave you and that my dear brother got as well," Waltz laughed dementedly. "I've seen your memories."Roll's eyes widened involuntarily."I've seen that this hasn't been your first time through..." Waltz said darkly. "And it won't be the last. It's only a matter of time before I repeat like you have and then I'll KILL EVERYTHING YOU EVER LOVED WHILE I MAKE YOU WATCH H31|>13$$1>-wtd5ce5vy6654$^&^*($#@@#$$%***************ATTEMPT FAILEDSECONDARY ANCHOR CANDIDATE DEEMED UNVIABLE DUE TO SUCCESSIVE FAILURESADDITIONAL SECONDARY ANCHOR CANDIDATES CURRENTLY UNRECOVERABLEPROCEEDING TO TERTIARY ANCHOR CANDIDATEAttempt 1) I actually kind of liked the mega man cartoon show...Attempt 2). Yeah, it's pretty much like that.Attempt 3) Aloha.Attempt 4) Something just went very wrong...Attempt 5) Reverend Dark is the product of my own twisted imagination. Feel free to toss him Ian Flynn's way and see if he sticks.Attempt 6) Fan is just kind of... there in the game he's from. He doesn't really contribute anything to the storyline as far as any source I can locate reveals.Attempt 7) If you're unfamiliar with the names introduced here, they're all from the 4-issue run of Mega Man in Dreamwave comics before they folded.Attempt 8) Since when was Terra a zombie?Attempt 9) Oh crap.And there's Roll's failure to Anchor the Megaverse.Why'd I have her unite with Tango? Because I can't get the concept of catgirl Roll out of my head. At least this justifies its existence in the Loops.Waltz... Waltz is something that originated in a single image. This one:She's the girl robot telling Roll she's going to be disintegrated. Absolutely no further (official) characterization. Aka fertile ground for fiction writers. Her attitude in the snippet here isthe kind of thing I had in mind when I came up with the concept of an MLE. The girl is just plain bad juju.Anyway, what is going on here is that the Megaverse is deteriorating with each failed activation attempt and hidden nastiness is rearing its ugly head.I said previously that Rock was remembering failed Loop activation attempts as a result of the heavy damage to his universe, and the same is happening to Roll. This is going to stick with them once the Loops come online and have a significant affect on their developing personalities.Rock's already gone through nine radically different lives, most topped off with highly divergent insanity. He's going to be a bit harder to shock than most new loopers.Roll's had a repeated baptism of fire here, and she's already shed the 'simple housekeeper' role she was designed for. "Taking out the trash" has multiple meanings for her now.Blues... Blues is next. And it's not going to be pretty.