FicWad

Chapter 2: The Prophecy
Roll finished the cleaning of the drawing room and moved into the next. This room was similar to the drawing room, but in here there was a large monitor in the wall for the Hypernet, successor to the Internet, where one could access all sorts of entertainment and information through linked computer networks.
Apparently, Dr. Light had left the monitor on the news page. It was currently showing a streaming video of an anchorwoman giving the top news stories of the day.
"...And the fifth meeting of the United Nations Confederation convened in order to discuss possible revisions to the Laws of Robotics.
"The revisions would allow for the selective editing of the first law so that robots may do work that has a low probability of possible harm to humans. Several nations believe certain provisions must be made to the statutes to allow for robots to do work that may cause harm to humans, no matter how low probability. General-in-Chief Rutger Gomez is meeting with the Secretary of Technology today in the White House in order to formulate a presentation to the United Nations Council."
"In a related story, Dr. Albert Wily, the leader behind the Robot Revolutions, is now being moved to a maximum security penitentiary in Siberia."
Roll's interest was peaked now. Dr. Wily had been Dr. Light's assistant many years ago before Roll was made. He helped design Roll as well as another robot, her brother Rock. After these two successes the genius duo created six more robots that were designed for various industrial work such as tree-felling and waste-disposal. Unfortunately, Dr. Wily went insane for some reason and reprogrammed all six robots to attack and take over various sects of the world. Wily attempted five more times and after the sixth Robot Revolution, Mega Man succeeded in capturing him and putting him behind bars.
As the news story about the doctor finished, Roll shut off the Net monitor and realized she had not seen her brother in a while. Perhaps he'd like to know about this piece of news. Roll decided that her duties could wait for a little time while she checked in on Mega Man.
After a time of searching through the manor, she finally came to the white laboratory room where she saw her brother sitting before a large terminal with his back to her. He often spent his free time in the computer labs rather than the house, because this was where he felt the most comfortable. Before his transformation he wore normal clothes, but now he wore a blue titanium armor skin. When in battle he wore a helmet, but now his unruly brown hair was free. Two jacks were plugged into either side of his head, in his ears, and he seemed to be staring up at the terminal's monitor, but the screen was completely blank.
Roll strided over to him and looked into his face. She saw that he had his eyes closed and was lying back in his chair, totally still.
"Rock?" she said as she shook his shoulder. "Rock, are you okay?" Roll grabbed the two jacks and yanked them out of his head. Rock jumped up with a start, waving his arms around and shouting excitedly.
"Aaaaaah! What, what?" he yelled and looked up at Roll. "What are you doing? You could have short circuited me."
"I wouldn't have short circuited you," she replied in a satiric tone. "What are you doing hooked up to the computer anyway?"
"I was listening to some music, if you don't mind."
"What kind? More rock & roll?" Roll asked. Dr. Light, in his youth, was heavily into all kinds of music and so he had a habit of naming his robotic creations after musical terms.
"No, Dr. Light suggested I try something else. Something called 'Heavy Metal'."
"'Heavy metal'? What does that sound like?"
"It's sort of like rock & roll, only with a lot more electric instruments and bass."
"Really."
"Yeah. Here, listen," Mega Man picked up the two jacks and handed them to Roll. She carefully injected them into her ears. The bits of information flowed into her CPU, letting her listen to the lugubrious tunes.
"It seems depressing, too." Roll commented, although she didn't have emotions she had enough artificial intelligence to react in an emotional way.
"True," Mega Man replied, "A lot of songwriters and musicians into this type of music took illegal drugs and often died."
"That's terrible," Roll said horrified.
"I know, but that's human nature for you. I'm glad we made it past all that nonsense."
The monitor flashed with an incoming transmission. "Wha?" Rock commented.
He accessed the communication terminal to open the connection. A police officer came on the screen.
"Mega Man, good to talk to you."
"The same, officer. What can I do for you?"
"I have bad news. Dr. Wily escaped from prison this morning."
"What?"
"Oh, for cryin' out loud!" Roll put a hand to her forehead in exasperation.
"I'm afraid it's true. We were moving him from the Siberian CF, but he busted out during the transfer using some sort of explosive device. We have no knowledge of his location or intentions."
"I don't think we need to bother with finding his intentions," Rock mentioned. "Those are pretty common knowledge."
The officer continued. "Let Dr. Light know right away. We'll continue searching on our end."
"Thanks." Rock closed the connection.
"The finest technology in the world and we can't keep one guy locked up," Roll muttered.
"You go find Dr. Light and tell him the bad news. I'm going to make sure the security protocols are set up."
"All right," Roll said and sprinted back to where she was just a few minutes ago.
Rock pulled his chair up to the computer console and accessed the house's security program using the Presspad interface. The first thing he did was change the status to red alert. An escaped Dr. Wily was no blithe matter. The sign on the security gates would display that the mansion was currently at a red level, which meant restricted access to those on the grounds. Laser trip wires were engaged, sonar, anti-trespasser cannons, cameras, and an anti-teleport field. Basically anyone who came in off the beaten path would encounter a nasty surprise. Rock quickly scanned through each of the security cameras to check if there was anything suspicious already in the house. There wasn't. Everything seemed secure for now.
Rock leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. The chances that another Robot Revolution was on the way were incredibly likely. Probably not soon though. Wily would need a chance to build eight new robots like he did every time and send them out across the world's crucial juncture points, like he did every time. It was no wonder Rock could always beat him.
Suddenly the ground vibrated roughly as he heard a muffled explosion. Red lights flashed through the room as a siren erupted in the halls.
"What th'?" Rock yelled.
He pulled up the security cameras to see what was happening. At the front door camera he saw exactly what he didn't want to see.
The entire front wall of the house was destroyed, collapsed into rubble. A gigantic silver round robot-tank was plodding through the living room, breaking up the floor's tiles where it stepped with its huge titanium feet.
On its stomach was a big stylized 'W'.

Zelda looked out of the window, gazing out at the beautiful countryside. It was amazing how much progress had been made since Ganon's coming and his near destruction of their precious land. His soldiers ravaged the landscape, the imbalance of evil and good combined with the disappearance of the Triforce wreaked havoc on the weather, the land, and the animals, making the whole land barely habitable. Thieves ran amok through the country, hiding in caves and forests waiting for an unsuspecting passerby to cross their paths. But now, with the recovery of the Triforce and the return of the king, Hyrule was once again a land of prosperity.
"So what am I going to do, Impa?" she said as she looked out.
A woman with long, white hair and a haggard, kind face replacing Zelda's bed sheets replied. "Oh, my dear, don't ask me. The only things I know how to do are wash socks and cure a fever." Impa had been Zelda's nursemaid ever since the princess was born.
"You know more than that, Impa." Zelda shied away from the windows. "You've helped me through some of my most difficult times when I was growing up."
Impa stopped folding the sheets of the bed for a moment and looked out into space with a dreamy gaze. "Ahh, you were such a precious little thing when you were young. I remember the time you ran around all the castle hallways without any clothes on."
"Impa!" Zelda said, obviously embarrassed.
"You were taking your bath and I turned to get the soap, and you jumped out and-"
"Impa, that's enough!" she exclaimed, smiling.
knock, knock, knock "Princess Zelda, Princess Zelda!" Impa opened the door, a pageboy burst in, looking exasperated. "Princess Zelda, the three pendants are missing!"
"What!"
The three pendants were the key to unlocking the Master Sword, a sacred weapon forged centuries ago to repulse the powers of evil. When Link had vanquished all his foes and restored the land he put the sword back in its secret place in the lost forest, where it would sleep forever.
"Oh my goodness, what shall we do, what shall we do, we're doomed, we're all doom-" Impa threw up her hands and ran around in circles.
"Calm down, Impa," Zelda said. She was worried too, but she composed herself. "Show me."
At the vault, the doors were open and two people were scouting the vault room. One was the royal investigator searching the floor for clues of a physical nature. The other was a magician, detecting traces of magic energy. Ganymede Noktwor, one of the royal advisors, came up to Zelda. He was a foot taller than her and sported clearly defined features and a long thin mustache. "I took the liberty of ordering a full investigation as soon as I heard the news."
"Well done. Have they found anything yet?"
"Ow," the detective said as he bumped his head on the table. The vizier looked with disdain and turned back to Zelda.
"Unfortunately, our investigative team is somewhat lacking."
"What...?"
"These two are only apprentices. Our wizard has Mountain Flu and the investigator general is on sabbatical."
A fine time, Zelda thought. "All right, let's think about this."
"Dear Zelda, perhaps the Seer shall shed some light on our dilemma," Impa piped up.
Zelda thought for a while about this. The Seer was the royal fortune teller. There were several throughout the kingdom, but the Seer was the one who had shown enough accuracy in his prophecies to be appointed to the service of the royal family. Since Zelda had no other ideas, she thought it would be the best thing to do.
"All right. Find Link, wherever he is. Tell him the news and tell him to come to the Seer with me," she said to Noktwor.
The man quickly bowed his head and hustled off to find him.
Zelda started off to where the fortune teller's keep in the palace was. "Fantastic, first we have a group of monsters terrorizing the people and now this."
"Just don't say 'what else can go wrong'," Impa suggested.
Moments later, Link and Zelda met in the Seer's chamber. It was filled with dusty, old, crumbling books on two walls. A ratted, red curtain blocked their view of the back wall. In assorted areas around the room, there were beakers and jars filled with colorful liquids, and in some cases, animal body parts. Link inspected a bottle bubbling with red potion while waiting. In the middle of the room was the Seer's crystal ball, his chief tool of his trade.
All this was quite familiar to Link. In his quest to save the Triforce he visited many of the fortune tellers in Hyrule for suggestions and directions when he was first starting out. All their buildings looked pretty much the same.
"So where is he?" Link asked.
"Right here," a voice behind them said. Zelda jumped a little from the startling words of the Seer.
"There you are," Link said.
"Oh, yes. I am here. You can always find me here. Here is where we are, and here is where we stay," the foreteller said as he scuttled across the room to his crystal ball. He was a small man, wearing a large hooded robe that cloaked his face in shadow. His long train dragged across the floor. When he moved he made little jerky steps like his feet were tied together. "Now, the problem, always a problem when you come to see me, yes, yes, got to go, got to solve the problem. What's the problem?"
Link looked at Zelda and then at the Seer. "The pendants of the Master Sword are missing."
If the Seer's head hadn't obscured their view, Link and Zelda would have seen his face light up.
"Oooooh, the prophecy of the three pendants. The blade of evil's bane. I was hoping this I would see before I passed on. Yes, the three pendants," The Seer jumped up from his crystal ball and scurried over to the bookcase, fingering the ancient library.
"What is the prophecy of the three pendants? I thought all the prophecies were resolved when Link recovered the Triforce," Zelda asked.
"The future, the future is always changing, always forming. Never is it written in stone." He finally found the volume he was looking for and plucked it out of the rack. "A-ha, here it is," he said flipping through the pages. "The prophecy of the pendants of the Master Sword," he read, "And it shall come to pass - the pendants shall vanish from the hands of the good, and he shall quest for them. And it is written, that the Hero of Cataclysm's Eve shall be joined by a man of metal, with an arm of light, and this man shall not be of this world and he will befriend the Hero, and together, the two will face many dangers... yadda, yadda, yadda," the Seer finished as he slammed the book shut, creating a puff of dust. "You get the picture."
"A man of metal with an arm of light," Zelda wondered aloud.
"Sounds like fun. Where do I start?" Link said.
"Start, got to start, every journey begins with a single step, single step. We must use the crystal ball. The ball will tell us, the ball will show us the way," the Seer answered as he scooted over to the central table.
Zelda was beginning to wish she'd appointed a more coherent fortune teller.
"All right," he said as he sat down to the bluish orb resting on a cushion surrounded by candles. "Let's see what we can see," he began to wave his hands over the ball. "I see, I see leaves... and shadows... leaves and shadows, shadows and leaves, grass, logs, trees..."
"The forest," Link said.
"Bingo! You win the jackpot!" the Seer responded.
"So the quest begins in the mysterious forest," Zelda said as she stood.
"I'll begin packing right away," Link said. The two stood up and began to walk out, "Thank you very much for your insight."
"Oh wait," the Seer interrupted, "I will now take fifteen of your rupees."
Next Chapter: Rabbit Hole