Categories > Games > Mega Man > Enigma
Enigma
Puzzle 02: Equal
The sound of an unfamiliar voice calling your name woke you up. You examined your surroundings ignoring the knocking on the door. The room was unfamiliar. A flood of memories came to you as you finally replied with a sleepy, "coming," and stumbled over to the door.
You opened the door a few inches to see an orange and gray robot with a big scissor on his head, "Cutman?" you yawned, "good morning." That's right; you were now the assistant and apprentice of Dr. Wily. You lived in his secret island laboratory along with his robots. You hoped Cutman was as easy to get along with as Gutsman.
"Good morning," Cutman seemed a bit surprised at the greeting, as if he had received mixed opinions about you and didn't know what to expect, bracing himself for the worse. "Dr. Wily wants you to be ready for work in thirty minutes."
"Oh..." you were still sleepy, "okay, I'll be ready soon, thank you," you smiled, watching as Cutman nodded. His orange face wasn't built to bee too expressive either, though it was a little more flexible than Gutsman's big yellow jaw. For those two you relied on their eyes to interpret the AI's reaction. He seemed to have reacted positively.
Cutman left, muttering something along the lines of, "maybe she's really not so bad."
You closed your room's door locking it and stretched. The room was rather small after you took a better look at it. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of metal. There was a small closet and a simple wooden dresser with some empty drawers. Aside from that, the bed, a desk and a chair were the only other pieces of furniture. The air vents on the ceiling kept oxygen and fresh air circulating through the room, while regulating its temperature. There were no windows and the overhead lights were the only illumination. The plain room would look exactly the same during the day or night.
You decided to think about how to make the room more comfortable later. For the time being you explored the only other door connecting to the room and was pleased to find an adjacent bathroom. It was small, but at least you had your own bathroom. The bathroom had no tub, only a small shower with a glass door. There was a white sink with a mirror hanging over and a white toilet in the corner. The scent of detergent was strong in the bathroom; Wily must have sent his robots to clean up the place for you. For that you were grateful.
There wasn't much to be found in that bathroom. A single white towel hung in a towel holder between the shower and sink in the small space of the bathroom. The floor, walls and ceiling were just the same as the room, made of silvery metal. You had a feeling that if you wanted a rug and extra towels you would have to get them yourself. You made a mental note of the supplies you would need to buy, it felt like moving into a dorm for the first time all over again.
You let your clothes fall to the floor adding a laundry basket to the list of things you needed. The soap holder inside the shower had a little cardboard box containing a white bar of unscented soap. There was no shampoo anywhere to be seen. It didn't matter; you had washed your hair early yesterday anyway. Besides, Wily wouldn't know what shampoo to get for a girl. He no longer had any need for it himself, as he had finally gone bald over the years. The list of things you needed to buy continued to grow.
You took a quick shower, dried yourself off and wrapped the towel around your body. You exited the bathroom and started to rummage through your luggage, looking for something to wear. Then suddenly the door flew open. You let out a high pitched, "eep" and clutched your towel. You frowned seeing who it was that invaded your personal space. It was Protoman, that same jerky robot from last night. "I locked that door."
"And I unlocked it," Protoman gave you a cocky smirk that you longed to wipe off his face. Why would anyone program such a jerk? "Dr. Wily is waiting for you and he's getting impatient."
"Cutman said I had thirty minutes!" You defended.
The cocky smirk never left Protoman's face, the rest of his features hidden by his helmet and dark visor. "Is that so? I guess he must have misheard me when I asked him to deliver the message that you were expected in ten minutes."
You glared, it was as clear as day what had happened. Protoman lied to Cutman so he would give you the wrong message. You mentally counted to ten and decided it was of no use getting angry with a robot. If it was malfunctioning or simply built to be obnoxious, it was not its fault, but an error of the one who made it. "Fine, I'm coming, go away so I can get dressed."
"Whatever," shrugging with disinterest, Protoman left the room, closing the door behind him.
Your glare came quite close to burning a hole through the door. You were really vexed by his attitude. Furthermore, why in the world were you so flustered? It wasn't like a person had seen you clad only in a towel. He was just a robot and he didn't seem to care anyway, for some reason that bothered you more. Pushing your thoughts away, you quickly got dressed and headed out of your room.
As you feared, Dr. Wily spent a good ten minutes complaining about your tardiness before sending Protoman to give you a tour of the lab. Apparently the old fossil wasn't up for walking all around his large underground laboratory. You were certainly not in the mood to be in Protoman's presence and if the scowl on his face was any indication, he wasn't fond of his assigned chore as your tour guide either.
Protoman walked through the lab swiftly, pointing to doors and hallways, stating where they led. You took his words with a grain of salt, not sure if he was giving you truthful information or not. It didn't matter, you would figure out your way around the lab on your own. During most of the tour you glared at Protoman hoping he would spontaneously combust. His movements were detailed and precise; he was certainly not one of those blocky, clumsy robots.
Protoman was an android at the top of technology. You were sure he must have been upgraded over the years. If you didn't know he was a robot you might assume he was a man in a tight gray bodysuit and red armor; a man who worked out a lot... Lost in your thoughts, he stopped and you walked right into him.
"Clumsy girl," he grumbled in annoyance. He turned his head towards you and you were sure he was glaring under his dark visor. He observed the red tint in your face. "Are you sick or something? You are just a fragile human girls after all. Did the night air give you a cold?" He mocked.
You glared even harder if that was possible, "I'm in perfect health thank you very much."
"I'm not stupid," he scowled, "people don't have such red faces when they're in good health. Earlier it was the same." He seemed to be unaware that your face was red out of a strange sense of embarrassment in both occasions somehow caused by him. "I'll be much more peaceful around here when you kick the bucket." With a mocking laugh, he turned away and left.
"It'll be much more peaceful around here when I turn you into a vacuum cleaner!" You screamed back, disassembling him was looking quite tempting. He only looked back at you for a moment, no doubt giving you a murderous glare under his visor, then he threw his head back in superiority and stomped away.
You went back to talk to Wily about the usage of the lab, information that Protoman didn't care to give you. Once you knew what you needed to know, you started on your daily chores. The mornings were for working on Wily's projects, but in the afternoons you could work on your own things. In the evenings you could rest, but you would probably get caught up in your projects and continue until the late hours of the night.
xoxox xox xoxox
That evening you were itching to keep working on detailed designs of the combat robot you planned to build. However, you had a shopping list to take care of and you knew you would regret it if you needed any of those items and didn't have them. Other than a few things for your room you also needed to buy groceries since you didn't share Wily's taste in food and wanted to add something more appetizing to the refrigerator.
Until you got the hang of sneaking in and out, you wondered if you should request someone's assistance. Gutsman or Cutman would listen to your request, definitely not Protoman. You thought about that as you went through your mental shopping list. Then you ran into him, quite literally. You back away and looked at the person you had collided with on the sandy beach of the deserted little island.
He was a very handsome man, brown hair, blue eyes, well built, gray pants, red shirt and a yellow scarf that was blowing in the breeze. The scarf would look out of place on anyone else, but somehow for him it worked. He was indeed very good looking, even if he looked like he wanted to rip your head off, "sorry."
He raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "you're apologizing to me?"
"Well yes, I mean, I was the one who ran into you," his anger slowly, ever so slowly melted into puzzlement as you went on. "So, do you work here?" You stopped cold. What if he's some random guy who got shipwrecked on that island and wasn't supposed to know about the hidden lab.
"Yes," he finally replied, giving you a scrutinizing glare, "I work for Wily, you already knew that."
"Oh, was I supposed to?" Maybe you should have reached that conclusion. "I guess it is pretty obvious, I mean, why else would you be here. I'm name," you introduced yourself.
The handsome man gave you another puzzling look, then he came to a conclusion, "you don't know who I am..." He laughed and when he stopped he had a cocky smirk plastered on his face. "Nice to meet you, name. I'm... Blues." You had to admit, he looked really good standing there at the beach, scarf blowing in the wind, the sun setting in the background. "Were you on your way out?"
You nodded, wordless, your breath had been taken away and you couldn't find your voice. You tried hard to make your throat produce some sounds. "Shopping... I need to buy some things in the city."
He had just gone to the city to look around, clear his head, get away from the antics of Wily, Gutsman, Cutman and especially to get away from the new girl. Yet, the new girl was acting so differently all of a sudden, it puzzled him. "Want me to go with you?"
The joy undeniably appeared in your face. "If you want to," you smiled.
"Let's go," he led you towards the hidden boats and you both got on one, quietly leaving the island towards the larger portion of land in the distance.
xoxox xox xoxox
It was a Friday night and the city was lit up and active. You walked through the crowds with Blues, trying to make conversation. All in all, so far you had only managed to ramble about yourself. Occasionally you would ask Blues something, what kind of music he likes, what was his favorite movie, what did he like to eat. He would give you an answer and leave it at that with no elaboration. You had started to feel uncomfortable wondering if your ramblings were bothering him and looked away displeased.
He observed your face with a very analytical expression, "you're displeased," he concluded after his observation as you two walked through the streets towards the mall.
"I was just wondering if you're bored. I don't want to bore you," you admitted.
He grinned as if perceiving a hidden irony, "I didn't think you would be this concerned about what I felt."
"Why wouldn't I be? I want you to feel comfortable. I mean, it's natural, right?" You insisted.
"I'm not like you," his statement was left to interpretation.
You looked at him with many theories swimming in your head. You haven't seen him in any wanted posters. Maybe his job was less open and more underground. Maybe he was a real criminal. Maybe you were sheltered compared to him. "I don't care where you came from," you finally spoke, "I don't care how you came to be. You're a person, just like me, we're the same, equals." You had a knack for intimidating men with your knowledge; you certainly didn't want to drive this one away so soon.
It sunk in that your dating pool just shrunk. Before you were too busy and men didn't dare approach you anyway. Now you were working for a criminal and needed to keep a low profile. He worked for Wily too so you didn't need to be too guarded with him. Plus he didn't jump off the boat and swim away as you imagine most men would do when you started rambling about your adoration for robots. He did look a little odd though, as if he couldn't decide if he should feel complimented or offended.
"Equals, huh?" He seemed to be contemplating your words. He also looked confused, as if you were the biggest enigma on the planet.
"Yeah!" You insisted with a smile.
"Alright then, equals it is," he gave you that cocky grin that was becoming familiar, the grin you were starting to adore.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Megaman.
Puzzle 02: Equal
The sound of an unfamiliar voice calling your name woke you up. You examined your surroundings ignoring the knocking on the door. The room was unfamiliar. A flood of memories came to you as you finally replied with a sleepy, "coming," and stumbled over to the door.
You opened the door a few inches to see an orange and gray robot with a big scissor on his head, "Cutman?" you yawned, "good morning." That's right; you were now the assistant and apprentice of Dr. Wily. You lived in his secret island laboratory along with his robots. You hoped Cutman was as easy to get along with as Gutsman.
"Good morning," Cutman seemed a bit surprised at the greeting, as if he had received mixed opinions about you and didn't know what to expect, bracing himself for the worse. "Dr. Wily wants you to be ready for work in thirty minutes."
"Oh..." you were still sleepy, "okay, I'll be ready soon, thank you," you smiled, watching as Cutman nodded. His orange face wasn't built to bee too expressive either, though it was a little more flexible than Gutsman's big yellow jaw. For those two you relied on their eyes to interpret the AI's reaction. He seemed to have reacted positively.
Cutman left, muttering something along the lines of, "maybe she's really not so bad."
You closed your room's door locking it and stretched. The room was rather small after you took a better look at it. The floor, walls and ceiling were made of metal. There was a small closet and a simple wooden dresser with some empty drawers. Aside from that, the bed, a desk and a chair were the only other pieces of furniture. The air vents on the ceiling kept oxygen and fresh air circulating through the room, while regulating its temperature. There were no windows and the overhead lights were the only illumination. The plain room would look exactly the same during the day or night.
You decided to think about how to make the room more comfortable later. For the time being you explored the only other door connecting to the room and was pleased to find an adjacent bathroom. It was small, but at least you had your own bathroom. The bathroom had no tub, only a small shower with a glass door. There was a white sink with a mirror hanging over and a white toilet in the corner. The scent of detergent was strong in the bathroom; Wily must have sent his robots to clean up the place for you. For that you were grateful.
There wasn't much to be found in that bathroom. A single white towel hung in a towel holder between the shower and sink in the small space of the bathroom. The floor, walls and ceiling were just the same as the room, made of silvery metal. You had a feeling that if you wanted a rug and extra towels you would have to get them yourself. You made a mental note of the supplies you would need to buy, it felt like moving into a dorm for the first time all over again.
You let your clothes fall to the floor adding a laundry basket to the list of things you needed. The soap holder inside the shower had a little cardboard box containing a white bar of unscented soap. There was no shampoo anywhere to be seen. It didn't matter; you had washed your hair early yesterday anyway. Besides, Wily wouldn't know what shampoo to get for a girl. He no longer had any need for it himself, as he had finally gone bald over the years. The list of things you needed to buy continued to grow.
You took a quick shower, dried yourself off and wrapped the towel around your body. You exited the bathroom and started to rummage through your luggage, looking for something to wear. Then suddenly the door flew open. You let out a high pitched, "eep" and clutched your towel. You frowned seeing who it was that invaded your personal space. It was Protoman, that same jerky robot from last night. "I locked that door."
"And I unlocked it," Protoman gave you a cocky smirk that you longed to wipe off his face. Why would anyone program such a jerk? "Dr. Wily is waiting for you and he's getting impatient."
"Cutman said I had thirty minutes!" You defended.
The cocky smirk never left Protoman's face, the rest of his features hidden by his helmet and dark visor. "Is that so? I guess he must have misheard me when I asked him to deliver the message that you were expected in ten minutes."
You glared, it was as clear as day what had happened. Protoman lied to Cutman so he would give you the wrong message. You mentally counted to ten and decided it was of no use getting angry with a robot. If it was malfunctioning or simply built to be obnoxious, it was not its fault, but an error of the one who made it. "Fine, I'm coming, go away so I can get dressed."
"Whatever," shrugging with disinterest, Protoman left the room, closing the door behind him.
Your glare came quite close to burning a hole through the door. You were really vexed by his attitude. Furthermore, why in the world were you so flustered? It wasn't like a person had seen you clad only in a towel. He was just a robot and he didn't seem to care anyway, for some reason that bothered you more. Pushing your thoughts away, you quickly got dressed and headed out of your room.
As you feared, Dr. Wily spent a good ten minutes complaining about your tardiness before sending Protoman to give you a tour of the lab. Apparently the old fossil wasn't up for walking all around his large underground laboratory. You were certainly not in the mood to be in Protoman's presence and if the scowl on his face was any indication, he wasn't fond of his assigned chore as your tour guide either.
Protoman walked through the lab swiftly, pointing to doors and hallways, stating where they led. You took his words with a grain of salt, not sure if he was giving you truthful information or not. It didn't matter, you would figure out your way around the lab on your own. During most of the tour you glared at Protoman hoping he would spontaneously combust. His movements were detailed and precise; he was certainly not one of those blocky, clumsy robots.
Protoman was an android at the top of technology. You were sure he must have been upgraded over the years. If you didn't know he was a robot you might assume he was a man in a tight gray bodysuit and red armor; a man who worked out a lot... Lost in your thoughts, he stopped and you walked right into him.
"Clumsy girl," he grumbled in annoyance. He turned his head towards you and you were sure he was glaring under his dark visor. He observed the red tint in your face. "Are you sick or something? You are just a fragile human girls after all. Did the night air give you a cold?" He mocked.
You glared even harder if that was possible, "I'm in perfect health thank you very much."
"I'm not stupid," he scowled, "people don't have such red faces when they're in good health. Earlier it was the same." He seemed to be unaware that your face was red out of a strange sense of embarrassment in both occasions somehow caused by him. "I'll be much more peaceful around here when you kick the bucket." With a mocking laugh, he turned away and left.
"It'll be much more peaceful around here when I turn you into a vacuum cleaner!" You screamed back, disassembling him was looking quite tempting. He only looked back at you for a moment, no doubt giving you a murderous glare under his visor, then he threw his head back in superiority and stomped away.
You went back to talk to Wily about the usage of the lab, information that Protoman didn't care to give you. Once you knew what you needed to know, you started on your daily chores. The mornings were for working on Wily's projects, but in the afternoons you could work on your own things. In the evenings you could rest, but you would probably get caught up in your projects and continue until the late hours of the night.
xoxox xox xoxox
That evening you were itching to keep working on detailed designs of the combat robot you planned to build. However, you had a shopping list to take care of and you knew you would regret it if you needed any of those items and didn't have them. Other than a few things for your room you also needed to buy groceries since you didn't share Wily's taste in food and wanted to add something more appetizing to the refrigerator.
Until you got the hang of sneaking in and out, you wondered if you should request someone's assistance. Gutsman or Cutman would listen to your request, definitely not Protoman. You thought about that as you went through your mental shopping list. Then you ran into him, quite literally. You back away and looked at the person you had collided with on the sandy beach of the deserted little island.
He was a very handsome man, brown hair, blue eyes, well built, gray pants, red shirt and a yellow scarf that was blowing in the breeze. The scarf would look out of place on anyone else, but somehow for him it worked. He was indeed very good looking, even if he looked like he wanted to rip your head off, "sorry."
He raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "you're apologizing to me?"
"Well yes, I mean, I was the one who ran into you," his anger slowly, ever so slowly melted into puzzlement as you went on. "So, do you work here?" You stopped cold. What if he's some random guy who got shipwrecked on that island and wasn't supposed to know about the hidden lab.
"Yes," he finally replied, giving you a scrutinizing glare, "I work for Wily, you already knew that."
"Oh, was I supposed to?" Maybe you should have reached that conclusion. "I guess it is pretty obvious, I mean, why else would you be here. I'm name," you introduced yourself.
The handsome man gave you another puzzling look, then he came to a conclusion, "you don't know who I am..." He laughed and when he stopped he had a cocky smirk plastered on his face. "Nice to meet you, name. I'm... Blues." You had to admit, he looked really good standing there at the beach, scarf blowing in the wind, the sun setting in the background. "Were you on your way out?"
You nodded, wordless, your breath had been taken away and you couldn't find your voice. You tried hard to make your throat produce some sounds. "Shopping... I need to buy some things in the city."
He had just gone to the city to look around, clear his head, get away from the antics of Wily, Gutsman, Cutman and especially to get away from the new girl. Yet, the new girl was acting so differently all of a sudden, it puzzled him. "Want me to go with you?"
The joy undeniably appeared in your face. "If you want to," you smiled.
"Let's go," he led you towards the hidden boats and you both got on one, quietly leaving the island towards the larger portion of land in the distance.
xoxox xox xoxox
It was a Friday night and the city was lit up and active. You walked through the crowds with Blues, trying to make conversation. All in all, so far you had only managed to ramble about yourself. Occasionally you would ask Blues something, what kind of music he likes, what was his favorite movie, what did he like to eat. He would give you an answer and leave it at that with no elaboration. You had started to feel uncomfortable wondering if your ramblings were bothering him and looked away displeased.
He observed your face with a very analytical expression, "you're displeased," he concluded after his observation as you two walked through the streets towards the mall.
"I was just wondering if you're bored. I don't want to bore you," you admitted.
He grinned as if perceiving a hidden irony, "I didn't think you would be this concerned about what I felt."
"Why wouldn't I be? I want you to feel comfortable. I mean, it's natural, right?" You insisted.
"I'm not like you," his statement was left to interpretation.
You looked at him with many theories swimming in your head. You haven't seen him in any wanted posters. Maybe his job was less open and more underground. Maybe he was a real criminal. Maybe you were sheltered compared to him. "I don't care where you came from," you finally spoke, "I don't care how you came to be. You're a person, just like me, we're the same, equals." You had a knack for intimidating men with your knowledge; you certainly didn't want to drive this one away so soon.
It sunk in that your dating pool just shrunk. Before you were too busy and men didn't dare approach you anyway. Now you were working for a criminal and needed to keep a low profile. He worked for Wily too so you didn't need to be too guarded with him. Plus he didn't jump off the boat and swim away as you imagine most men would do when you started rambling about your adoration for robots. He did look a little odd though, as if he couldn't decide if he should feel complimented or offended.
"Equals, huh?" He seemed to be contemplating your words. He also looked confused, as if you were the biggest enigma on the planet.
"Yeah!" You insisted with a smile.
"Alright then, equals it is," he gave you that cocky grin that was becoming familiar, the grin you were starting to adore.
To be Continued
Disclaimer, I don't own Megaman.
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