Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ The Upgrades ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Copyright 2013 by Eric J. Juneau. All rights reserved.

This story is in no way intended to infringe on the established copyrights and trademarks of Capcom Co., Ltd. It is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended for sale. It may be freely distributed providing that no alterations to the story are made.

This story contains crude indecent language, intensely suggestive dialogue, and explicit sexual activity. It is not intended for readers under the age of 18. Reader discretion is advised.

The characters and incidents portrayed and the names in this story used herein are fictitious and any similarity to the name, character, or history of any person, living, dead, or otherwise, is purely coincidental and unintentional.


 

The Upgrades
by Eric J. Juneau

 

CHAPTER 1

"Doctor Light?" Mega Man said.

Thomas Light was stooped under a computer tower, fiddling with cords snaking out of an open panel. "Yes, Rock?"

"I'd like to be anatomically correct."

Light jerked and banged his head on the top of the console. "What-?"

Warning klaxons burst out of the machine. Light grabbed his fallen screw-pincer and reconnected the offending wires. Another few seconds and the motherboard would have burnt out.

Light wriggled out from under the apparatus and dusted himself off. "Rock, what in the world did you say?"

Rock was not in his battle armor, but a plain white shirt. "I said I'd like to be anatomically correct. For my gender."

"I understand that part, just... Why?"

"I think gender identity is an important part of understanding humanity. Roll and I have heterogynous appearances, but no genitalia."

"Because you have no need. You don't procreate. In fact, you can't procreate. It's illegal for robots to create other robots."

Mega Man held up his hand. "I understand that. I'm not asking for permission to procreate. Just to resemble humans a little better."

Light put his hand on his hip. "And how will having... stuff... help you understand humanity? That's only a small part of it." Light immediately regretted his pun.

"There are countless psychology papers and books demonstrating how important sexuality is in decision-making, self-image, behavior, social stratification-"

"Okay, okay," Light held up his hand. "But your 'behavior' isn't based on that. It's based on amalgamated human cognition. That's how AI works. And your personal identity is already formed. You're a tool-user. And sometimes warrior for justice. You don't need sexuality in the mix. That could be a distraction."

"I'm not asking for an identity change, just a change to my physical structure. You don't need to add any additional software to my matrix."

"So... you just want the hardware?" Light scratched his head. "That makes even less sense. It wouldn't add anything."

Mega Man shrugged. "I feel like I'm missing something. I suppose it's an unspoken part of culture. Right now, I'm little better than a doll. Being a robot makes it difficult enough to fit in with humans."

"But you... I mean, I'm sorry, Rock," Light put his hand on Mega Man's shoulder. He could feel his creation's solid titanium endoskeleton under his spongy synthetic skin. "But by definition, you're not human. You never can be human."

"I know. But I would like to improve public perception of me. I am a figurehead of robot-human relations," Rock continued. "Like it or not."

Dr. Light thought back to the recent backlash. National sentiment of independently-operating automated coadjutants -- also known as robots and robot masters -- was at an all-time low.

Dr. Wily's warfare was bad enough. Most recently, he had framed Dr. Light for his trademark robotic riots. Then he created a virus for robots all over the world, causing them to go berserk. But the issues had gone beyond simple rebellions.

With more than fifteen attacks, people were wondering whether robots were worth the trouble, whether they were more hazardous than helpful. There needed to be either a significant increase in AI advancement or the prohibition of all but the most primitive automatons.

Light nodded. "I suppose you are a bit of a beacon. At least I couldn't have asked for a better man for the job. All right." Light patted Mega Man's shoulder. "I'll do it. I suppose you have a point. I'll hash up some blueprints and get back to you." Light held up his finger. "Nothing fancy."

"I understand. Thank you."


Designing robotic private parts was not as easy as Light first thought, even as an external supplement. For one thing, he never designed any humanoids with the notion of sex organs. His robots were his children, and only a depraved father would want to think of his children as sexual.

Rock and Roll, his first successful and stable humanoid robots, were both genderless (except for their hairstyles). Besides that, they were identical. Their experiences shaped their personalities because of the way people interacted with them. That was a feature of the learning algorithm -- Roll became feminine because people treated her that way, and Rock adopted masculine qualities because people expected those from him.

The other problem, despite Rock's reassurance, was changing the software to compensate for the new appendage. For one thing, he was going to have to downgrade the firmware (Light rubbed his face again at the pun) for it to work with Rock's older design.

Plus all the other little details. Should he be circumcised or not? What length? What girth? What shape? None of these were things Light wanted to think about, let alone design. Where was Dr. Wily when you needed him? His specialty was always hardware, although chances were slim he'd ever made modifications like this. He would have been more concerned about where to place a plasma cannon or a drill.

Light drew up working templates on his CAD-CAM profiler. While waiting for code to compile, he spent the idle time wondering about the moral implications of his actions. All robots that passed a Turing intelligence test had to be programmed with the three Asimovian rules for robots:

1. A robot must never harm a human or allow a human to come to harm.
2. A robot must always follow a human's orders, unless that action conflicts with the first rule.
3. A robot must always work to preserve its existence, unless that action conflicts with the first two rules.

After refining the design, Light couldn't perceive where contradictions might occur. But when the work was complete, how would its mere presence affect Rock's personality?

A beeping signal interrupted his deductions. Light thumbed the monitor and saw the words "INCOMING COMMUNICATION: Dr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack, Ph. D. Moscow, Russia." He smirked and acknowledged the comm channel – audio only.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Light? Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time," Cossack said with a thick Eastern European accent.

"Not at all. Just working on some designs," Light said as he stared at a giant CG-rendered penis.

"Designs, hm? You never stop working, do you?"

"Is that what you're expecting at the conference? Announcing my retirement?" Light laughed.

"I'd prefer that over what you're going to say. Unless you've changed your mind."

"I have not," Light said with a flippant authoritarian air. "I haven't even deviated from the outline I showed you."

Cossack sighed. "I don't suppose there's any way I'm going to convince you that this is a bad idea."

"Bad idea? You know me, Mikhail. I intend to support the Asimov Accord to its letter. I even helped draft some of the articles in it."

"You do know what's going to happen if it passes?"

"When it passes," Light said. Authorizing the Asimov Accord was only a formality at this point. Conference leaders already had the charter written, framed, approved, and all but signed.

The accord would serve as a Geneva Convention for robotics, rectifying some throwbacks and reforming it to accept new, expanding technology. The most controversial subject was that the amendments essentially repealed the existing Laws of Robotics.

And this couldn't have made Dr. Light happier. He knew the struggles of not only programming AI to adhere to the three laws (and all their loopholes), but advancing technology in the face of such archaic rules. In short, this would give Dr. Light the chance to see something he never thought he would in his lifetime -- robots with free will.

"So why would I change my mind?" Light asked.

"I thought you'd maybe recanted," Cossack said. "Because I heard you have an interview with Lonney Kenyon in a few days."

"That's a standard news journal. Nothing new there. I doubt they'll be asking anything I don't already have an answer for. All they'd need to do is cut and paste from past interviews."

"You know they're going to play devil's advocate. Worldline always does. They have a very conservative view."

"And I'll be glad to defend my position."

Cossack laughed. "That's what I thought. Stubborn old Light with the heart of gold. I'll see you at the conference."

Light poised his finger over the END button. "I'll be sure to look for you."

They said their goodbyes and disconnected. Light didn't realize how thankful he was for the distraction until he turned back, saw the images, and remembered what he was working on.


Roll yanked the vacuum rod cord from under the door and asked herself if she should add a humming subroutine to her voice. She enjoyed her work. She derived pleasure from it. And humming was one of the things humans did when they enjoyed menial work.

But was that appropriate for a robot? Would it annoy anyone? No one was around, so no. But did it excise unnecessary energy? And would that violate the Third Law?

These were the sorts of things Roll thought about while housekeeping, and she often had time to think. Her personality matrix predisposed itself to internalizing, analyzation, and deduction -- to improve efficiency in her housekeeping duties.

This room complete, she entered the adjacent room -- a small conference center. Rock sat on a chair, his back turned to her.

"Good morning," she said.

"Morning," Rock said.

He sounded distracted. What was he so interested in? Roll walked around his chair, and found her brother doing something she'd never seen before. His pants were down and he was holding something in his lap.

"What is that?"

Rock looked up into her blue eyes. "It's new. Dr. Light made it for me."

Roll bent down to get a closer look. "When?"

"He finished the molds yesterday, installed it in the night. I've been experimenting with it since. Feeling what it's like to have one."

It was a curious thing. She'd seen anatomy charts and art, but never one in person. A smooth fleshy tube with a darker mushroom-head on top.

"No hair?"

"Too time-consuming," Mega Man said. "Each individual filament needed to be added into the pores, and I told him I didn't feel it necessary. Most humans keep well-groomed anyway."

"And these are the testicles?" she pointed.

"Yes. Dr. Light's original design didn't include them, since they'd be non-functional. But after seeing a rendering, he thought their absence looked strange. Sensation-wise, they provide the same effect."

"Sensation-wise? So you mean, there's actual function behind it?"

"Function, behavior, modularity. It has everything."

Roll leaned in closer. The smell of the moisture on his synthoskin created a musky, stimulating scent. It made her cognition routines slow and speed at the same time with dual processes of desire and revulsion.

"It's not very big," Roll said.

"It gets bigger. Do you want to see?"

"Sure," she said enthusiastically.

Following his knowledge of biology, he caressed himself at a rhythmic pace to create arousal.

"What does it feel like?" Roll asked.

"I don't know. Good and bad at the same time. Hot. Achy."

Her bright eyes gave him an encouraging look. Rock continued sliding his fingers up and down, up and down. Despite the mild sensations, he realized there was something missing.

Mega Man stroked and stroked. He tickled under the head, brushed lengthwise up and down, from the base to the tip. But it did not erect. Something about the new software wasn't triggering the stiffening.

"Is that how it works?" Roll asked.

"It's supposed to," Mega Man said.

"Maybe the self-stimulation subprocess isn't as effective as it should be. What if I helped?" Roll asked. She moved her head close to his groin.

Rock tensed. "Are you sure? I mean-"

"I'm simply assisting you with part of your development, your evolution."

"Quality assurance."

"Right. Besides, I've never touched one before." Roll thought of the robots working in sex shops and brothels in seedier parts of the city. Their intelligence was low -- barely enough to be called sentient. But Roll wondered what the difference between them and her was -- if she could do what they did.

Rock nodded.

Roll wrapped her slender fingers around his floppy member, and repeated the same action her brother had. She started with long smooth strokes, pulling all the way to the tip, then back down.

Searing heat ran through him. Everything he felt before was doubled. Delicious tremors ran up and down his body.

The tip of his cock nosed through her fist. Roll had an urge to kiss it, like the sex robots did. She bent down and enclosed her warm lips over his member. Sucking pressure engaged around her mouth, gently at first, then more intensely. In her mouth, she could feel tumescence building inside -- fluid pumped in at steady intervals -- until it felt like a wet sausage in her mouth.

Roll pulled her hair back and continued sliding his erect cock past her lips. She wrapped her tongue around his little head, exploring the crevices underneath with her rough taste buds. Mega Man leaned back his head and moaned.

Roll grinned. "Are you really getting pleasure from this?" she asked.

Mega Man froze, then turned back to her. "Actually, no. I just did that because I thought that's what you're supposed to do. I'm not getting any neural feedback."

"You're clearly stimulated."

"Yes, but from here... I'm not sure what's supposed to happen. It feels empty. Like no build-up leading to something."

"Is there supposed to be?"

Rock stiffened his lip. "I think so."