"You'll be going into the Juuban Ward to investigate sightings of girls fighting with magical powers," the recording of Dr. Light said.
Roll tilted her head to one side. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Furthermore, this chip will with the your arm's components act as holographic camouflage to conceal your arm bracer."
There were further instructions on how to blend into Japanese society and the name of the school that Roll would be attending while in Japan. The robot looked around the lab and shook her head.
'If I'm going to be investigating girls with magic powers, I'm going to have set the lab up differently than what Dr. Light usually has,' Roll thought, as she removed the chip and opened her bracer up.
Installing the chip, Roll nodded as the bracer faded away to make it look like Roll's arm was uncovered. She found a box that had 'mission supplies' written in Japanese on it. Opening it up, she saw that it had schoolgirl uniforms and drawings based on descriptions of the Sailor Senshi. As Roll picked up one of the drawings, Roll's memory replayed what Dr. Light last said to her in person.
"This is an important mission that MegaMan can't do, so don't doubt yourself," Dr. Light said.
'Okay, Dr. Light," Roll thought. 'I'll do my best. I should have some sort of government contact. If not, I'll have to build a booster and use it to boost the signal so I call Dr. Light on my arm communicator.'
Roll removed the yellow and red jumpsuit that was her signature clothing and put on one of the school uniforms. She had some difficulty getting the pants of her jogging suit over her lower legs, but she did it. She smiled when she found some socks that would go over her feet that Dr. Light had sent.
'Really heavy padding to prevent my feet from damaging the floor of the school. I'll have to replicate that chip twice and install one in each leg,' Roll thought.'
As she worked on duplicating the chip, Roll went over her what she had to do. She shook her head at the absurdity of it all. As soon as she got the chips done and installed, she saw that Dr. Light had built two new aid robots in the same mold as Eddie, except done in red, and Doc, except done in blue. She quickly activated them and told them of her mission.
'Dr. Light is really sending me on a mission on my own," Roll thought with a bit of excitement and dread.
The robot built like Eddie she called Flip and the one built like Doc, she called Med. She found a mirror and saw that with the holochips installed in her limbs, she looked like a teenage girl. She frowned as she felt the energy drain from the chips on her systems.
'I won't be running forty-eight hours straight without recharging, while those chips are installed. They've cut my energy efficiency by about twenty percent,' Roll thought and then grimaced. 'I know it's part of my cover, but it feels wrong. I'm supposed to refer to Dr. Light as my father and not mention his name.'
Shaking her head she sat finished what she could before she sat down in the recharging bed and powered herself up for the next day.
===/\===
Roll got herself ready and headed for Juuban High to attend classes and to start her investigation of the Sailor Senshi. She did make sure she was fully charged up before she left the lab, since she had no idea what she was getting involved with. Once there she was assigned a room to attend classes.
"Students, this is Roll Light from the United States. She will be attending classes with us for a while," Miss Haruna announced.
Roll bowed and said in perfect Japanese. "I am honored to meet you and be here."
Miss Haruna pointed to a seat next to a girl with two long ponytails. Without saying anything more, Roll went over to the seat and sat down. Roll noticed she was also next to a girl with auburn hair. The girl with ponytails turned to Roll.
"Hello my name is Usagi Tsukino. I hope you enjoy Juuban," the girl said enthusiastically.
Roll smiled and held out her hand. Usagi hesitated for a moment but then shook Roll's hand. The auburn haired girl shook her head in amusement and introduced herself.
"I'm Naru Osaka."
"Hello," Roll replied. "I'd like to talk to both of you at lunch, but I think class is about to start and we really should pay attention."
Even though she didn't need to due to her photographic memory, Roll took notes during the various classes to maintain her cover. Other than Science, Math, Japanese, and English classes, Roll did gain a lot of information during the various classes. At lunch, she faced a challenge to her ethics to not lie.
"Roll? Where's your lunch?" Usagi asked.
"I didn't bring one," Roll replied.
"Well, you can share some of mine," Usagi offered.
"Thank you, but no."
Usagi pouted as she looked at Roll. "But, you'll starve."
'How do I get out of this without revealing I'm a robot. Maybe that will work,' Roll thought as she looked at Usagi.
"I'll be fine Usagi. I have...special dietary requirements and I can only ingest certain things," Roll replied. "As soon as I get home, I'll deal with it."
"But,..." Usagi objected. "Why didn't you bring any food with you."
"There are reasons," Roll replied. 'Yes, reasons. Like if I tried to drink the bottled plasma, I'd glow green for a second.'
Seeing Usagi's still worried face, Roll shook her head and smiled. "Don't worry; I've had all my life to get used to this."
"Well, okay," Usagi said, reluctantly dropping the subject.
The rest of the school day went smoothly for Roll. Usagi had accidentally fallen asleep in class and was sent to stand in the hall with a bucket of water. Fortunately for Usagi, it was the last class and she didn't have to stand that long. After school, the three girls walked alongside each other. They soon stopped at a jewelry store and Roll looked at the building. She noticed a living quarters above the store.
"I take it you live here?" Roll asked Naru.
"Yes, my mom owns the store and I help her out," Naru replied, nodding.
Roll shrugged. "I'm not one for jewelry. Gemstones are more use in scientific work."
"So you intend to be a scientist?" Naru asked.
"You could say it's a family business. That's one of the reasons I'm in Japan for. I'm setting up secondary lab for research purposes," Roll replied. "I could be spared from what's going on back home," Roll replied.
"Must be nice to be so smart," Usagi said.
"Maybe, but it's not that important," Roll said.
Naru waved at the two of them. "See you at school tomorrow. Usagi, don't forget to study."
Usagi made a face, but waved her goo-byes to Naru. Roll also departed Usagi and headed back to the lab. Once there she checked to see what her energy reserves were and changed back into her normal attire. She quickly memorized the chapters from her schoolbooks. After that, she spent all of ten minutes doing the homework.
"Med do a diagnostic on me, before I start working on the lab," Roll said.
The beeping noises coming from the dark blue and white robot would make no sense to a human, but to Roll they made perfect sense. She allowed Med to attach a wire to her arm brace to pull up her diagnostic routines. After assuring Roll that she was still functioning at proper efficiency, Med detached the wires. Roll looked at the lab and started setting up some of the smaller equipment. The first piece of equipment she set up was a scanner to scan the surrounding neighborhood. Turning it on to see if it worked, Roll blinked in surprise.
"I really hope that's a glitch in the system, but I'd better check out that weird energy reading. Flip, I need two cans to get to full charge," Roll stated loudly.
The red and gray robot opened his top and Roll removed two cans from it. As she drank the liquid plasma from each can, a nimbus of green light surrounded her.
"Flip, I'm going to investigate this. If I signal, bring the Sky Cycle. Dr. Light added something to it, so it would home in on me," Roll instructed.
"Will do, Roll," the small robot assured.
Roll was about to run right into her first encounter with the Sailor Senshi
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(Posted Fri, 02 Jun 2006 05:55)
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