At his home in the United State, Dr. Thomas Xavier Light was working on one of his non-robot projects. He shook his head when MegaMan came back from the last foiling of Dr. Wily's plans.
"That went faster than usual," Dr. Light said.
"Yeah. Well, I don't think he was trying all that hard," MegaMan replied. "He seems to be testing something by these attacks."
Dr. Light frowned. "I'll have to go over the footage to see what was going on."
"No problem. I'll get it downloaded in a second."
"After that, you'd better get yourself recharged," Dr. Light said.
MegaMan nodded and made a connection with one of Dr. Light's computers and downloaded the information. After doing that, MegaMan left for his recharge booth. Before Dr. Light could look at the footage from the battle, the phone rang and Dr. Light answered.
"Hello. This Light Laboratories," Dr. Light said.
"Dr. Light. This is the Mayor. I've recently been asked by the Japanese government to send a request to you."
"Go on."
The Mayor said, "There has been some strange incidents going on in an area of Japan and they want someone to investigate."
"I'll send MegaMan right away," Dr. Light assured.
"No."
"No?" Dr. Light repeated.
"MegaMan is too famous and too well known for this investigation, and Rush is too obvious," the Mayor explained.
"Roll?" Dr. Light asked, even though he knew the answer.
"Yes. Her. She's not well known outside the United States. According to her dossier, she'd be perfect for this mission."
"Dossier? What dossier?" Dr. Light asked, a bit bewildered.
"Her government file. The government keeps files on all the robots you and Dr. Wily have created Dr. Light," the Mayor replied. "Those files are in the same category as yours and Dr. Wily's files."
Dr. Light grimaced, as he heard that answer. "I don't like the sound of that, but tell me why she was chosen."
"Very well," the Mayor replied. "She is intelligent and resourceful. She seems to have picked up Dr. Light's knack for inventing, but can do it with much fewer tools. She wants to constantly prove herself, but starts to have self doubts when it looks like she might actually show herself to be more competent than MegaMan and hesitates, causing her to look incompetent. However, when she needs to be competent and is in no danger of upstaging MegaMan, she pulls through admirably. The various abilities she has built into her arm might not be as strong as the abilities in Dr. Wily's robots, but are not to be taken lightly. She is far more versatile than Dr. Wily's robots, since she has multiple abilities compared to a purpose built robot like ElecMan. Her physical strength is not as great as most of Dr. Wily's robots or MegaMan, but she is still much stronger than most construction robots and can easily lift about three tons with one hand. This strength is speculative based on her catching the shrink ray that Dr. Wily used on the cities one handed while driving the Sky Cycle. Since she was built by Dr. Light and does assist him, it is speculated that she has most of the same scientific skills that Dr. Light does. That is what I was sent by the US government, Dr. Light."
Dr. Light remained quiet as he thought about what he was told about Roll from an outside source.
"Dr. Light? Are you still there?"
"Yes. I'm still here. I just realized I've been something of an idiot," Dr. Light replied.
The Mayor laughed. "You were too close to see her strengths and she was usually getting upstaged by MegaMan and Dr. Wily's robots. Now then, can I get you to send her to Tokyo."
Dr. Light sighed. "Yes. I'll also have to come up with some way to get some equipment over to Japan for Roll to use."
"Didn't you used to have a lab over in Japan?" The Mayor asked.
Dr. Light winced. "Yes. I still own the land it sits on and sealed the lab up after I emptied it out. I haven't thought of it in years."
"There's your answer. Have new equipment sent to the lab and Roll will go along to make sure that it gets set up properly, so you have a back-up lab. The Japanese movement has already got some common scientific equipment ready to be installed. That should be a reasonable cover for Dr. Wily and MegaMan. No offense to MegaMan, but he does seem to be a slight bit of male chauvinist. I'll send you what they have gotten ready and the problem that they want Roll to investigate. Speaking of which, if you do go this route, you'll have to buy the equipment. The transport and installation is free"
Dr. Light winced but nodded. "I'll make the preparations."
Dr. Light hung up the phone and checked through some of his files. He nodded when he saw that he did have a pair of large hover trucks filled with all the equipment need to get an emergency lab running. Combining the equipment on one of the trucks to what the Japanese government would have ready would make the basis for an excellent back-up lab. He looked over what Roll would be investigating and grimaced.
'Roll will find out after she arrives in Japan,' Dr. Light thought and scribbled a note down on a daily planner. 'I'll look over that footage MegaMan took later.'
===/\===
The humanoid robot known as Roll frowned, as she hunted for Dr. Light. He was not in his lab like usual and there wasn't a peep out of Dr. Wily. She went down to the garage to get the Sky Cycle to search the city, but was a bit surprised to see Dr. Light having one of the non-sentient robots to shove the Sky Cycle onto one of the two largest hover-trucks.
"Dr. Light? What are you up to?" Roll asked.
Dr. Light turned and waved Roll over. "I'm getting things ready to have a back-up lab equipped. We might need it if this lab gets destroyed again and Wily is attacking. If I or Mega went to get the lab set up, Dr. Wily would attack and there is a good chance the lab would be destroyed."
"I see. You want me to set it up?" Roll asked.
"Right. Dr. Wily is just going to ignore you, since he believes that I don't send you out on important missions," Dr. Light replied.
'You don't,' Roll thought, but didn't vocalize it. "Very well Doctor Light, I'll get on it."
Dr. Light handed Roll a small folder with some papers inside it. "This will have all you need to find where the lab is. There is also a microchip with further instructions when you get to the lab. Oh, Roll?"
"Yes."
"This is an important mission that MegaMan can't do, so don't doubt yourself," Dr. Light said.
"Huh?" Roll said in confusion. 'Setting up a lab is easy. I think Dr. Light is just trying to make me feel better.'
Roll looked through the folder and saw the lab was in Japan. Roll called up her Japanese language program and shook her head. She got into the truck and took off for the country of Japan. Back at Light Laboratories, MegaMan found Dr. Light going over the footage from yesterday.
"Dr. Light, have you seen Roll?" MegaMan asked.
"I sent her to Japan to set up a back-up laboratory," Dr. Light replied absently.
"Oh. Well at least she won't be throwing herself in danger while doing that," MegaMan replied.
'That's what you think Mega,' Dr. Light thought, worried about his creation. 'I hope that dossier is right and that Roll can do the job on her own.'
===/\===
Once she reached Japan, Roll contacted an airport tower and explained what she was doing in Japan. She quickly got the permission to land the hover-truck at Dr. Light's old abandoned lab. Stepping out f the truck, Roll looked at the weathered old building in distaste. It looked like a large warehouse with two skylights. The original paint was probably white, but it was hard to tell with all the dirt and grime over it.
"I can't believe Dr. Light would let this place get so bad," Roll muttered. "Oh well, it's time to get this lab set up."
Roll soon saw some ordinary trucks pull up and human men using tow motors and forklifts started working on unloading the trucks. Roll turned and started using some of Dr. Light's work saving inventions to unload the hover-truck. After a few hours, everything was unloaded from the trucks and Roll looked over everything. She made the appropriate good-byes to the human workers, as they left. The first thing Roll did was getting a recharge bed set up and activated.
"It should take about three days to get this set up, but I'd better see what the specific instructions are from Dr. Light," Roll said, as her left arm turned itself into a data reader.
Roll inserted the data chip and waited for Dr. Light's message to play out.
Dr. Light's voice echoed in Roll's mind.
"Roll, I'm afraid I haven't been entirely honest with you. The lab was a cover to send you to Japan without Dr. Wily suspecting anything. The Japanese government wants you to investigate some strange happenings. To this end, there has been some work to allow you to pass for a transfer student."
'I'm a robot, I don't need to go to school. I'm programmed with the skills needed to work,' Roll thought.
"MegaMan could not handle this job, due to his fame. There is something you need to know. You might not be able to lie, but you don't have to answer a question. As to what the Japanese government wants you to investigate..."
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(Posted Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:58)
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