bzarcher | (no subject)

The collective confusion in the room mounted. Enker looked suspiciously over to Ballade.

"Something else you forgot to mention?"

Disappointingly, the normally unflappable Elite looked just as surprised and confused as the rest.

"No. He never discussed it with me, and I never felt it was my place to raise the subject."

Dr. Light nodded, scratching idly at his beard. "I figured as much. It was written back a few years ago." He pointed to Ballade. "When did you go online, son?"

"2216."

"That'd explain it. Al wrote and filed it back in 2213, according to the notarization. I'm not surprised he kept it quiet, but what matters is that it does exist. Apparently he had something set up in your central computer to release it in the event of his confirmed death."

Reaching into his lab coat, Dr. Light pulled out a set of neatly printed pages which he set onto the table, then dug into his breast pocket for a pair of reading glasses.

"Most of it is fairly boring at first, so I'm skipping to the good bit:

Should I die before I conquer the world, I am sure that my creations will be of great concern to the UN. I'm not letting them become lab rats, or worse, torn up by some idiot with a air wrench to see how they work. Accordingly, at the time of my death, I declare any and all Robot Masters I have created to be free and emancipated Artificial Intelligences, and ask that they be provided with the appropriate legal standing. All the technical data on their construction, systems, AI generation, and design that is not already in the public domain (Thanks, Thom.) will be patented and the proceeds, plus my remaining personal wealth, will be used to maintain a trust fund for their upkeep, expenses, and needs.

On the other hand, if I already conquered the world, my will is law ANYWAY! HA! So just take care of my boys, or else."

Despite himself, Light got pretty into the derisive laughter when called for. "So, there's the funny part. You're all now legally free. Nobody owns you, you can't be sold or impounded, and if we tried to shut you off, it's legally murder."

King seemed to grasp the legal details first. "And because previously, while intelligent, we were considered property of our creator, you cannot put us in jail."

Light nodded. "Despite how much some people would prefer to lock you all into storage pods and forget the keys." Taking his glasses off, his expression turned to a wistful smile. "I really have to hand it to him. I don't know if he imagined there'd be so many of you when he wrote this, but he handled it beautifully, all things considered."

Gesturing back at the chair next to him, he turned to Mega Man, who'd been looking a bit annoyed through the reading of the will. "Rock, you -can- sit down, you know."

'Rock' had the grace to look a bit embarrassed. "Ah, yeah...sorry."

"Thank you. I was getting a crick in my back just thinking about you back there!" Then, he turned back to the assembled Masters. "It's really funny, because the laws he's taking advantage of are the ones I helped lobby for back when we had about thirty different countries trying to impound Blues and the original six Masters to 'study' them. Plus some extensions that were later added to deal with my sons occasionally managing to blow up large chunks of the countryside trying to bring Albert in every few years."

Dr. Light may not have meant that for a joke, but it got a chuckle out of the Masters anyhow.

"Which brings us to why I asked to talk to each of you, here."

"We were...confused about that. The current housing arrangements seemed a bit haphazard." Ballade gestured to the room. "Obviously some of us have...had? Command authority before. But I'm not quite sure what you'd ask us to do with it."

"You're partly right. Actually, after talking to Rock and Blues, I asked to speak with you because each of you has, one time or another, not only fought honorably enough, but you all seemed to be able to interact in public at one time or another without it ending on the 11 o'clock news. As far as we can tell, you're the most socially well-adjusted of Al's kids."

Leaning back in his chair, Light began to scratch at his beard again, causing a slight pang of recognition. Their father had done much the same when he was thinking or trying to explain a problem, even if he was mostly just talking to himself. A few couldn't help but wonder which of them picked it up from the other, back in the days when they worked together as friends.

"Obviously, it'd be foolish to just decommission your weapons, put you out onto the street with a bunch of money, and tell you good luck. But at the same time, I'm also not about to start suggesting we start carving up your minds with behavior modification routines. Legality aside, it'd be obscene."

Elec surprised many of them by speaking up. "So...what are our options? You can't just let us go back to the Fortress, either. Aside from the fact we're not great neighbors, that won't help us fit in."

Light smiled so much that Ballade was tempted to refer to him as 'beaming', but the pun was a bit too much.

"You always were a smart one. You're exactly right. So, I wanted to make you an offer, and ask you to consider it. I'd like to ask you, temporarily, to let us put the collective 'you' up at one of the Light Labs complexes in Australia. It's somewhere with a lot of space so you can have a bit of distance from people at first, but easily enough connected to Sydney or Perth by the GNG. As to the specific 'you' in this room...I'd like to ask you to help us by being teachers."

"Teachers?"

"MmmHmm. Whether you realize it or not, each of you is pretty close to being able to go out there and operate independently anyway. I'm hoping that you can help me, and the rest of my family, get your family onto the right track."

Enker frowned. "It's a good idea in theory, but there are several of us who would be...resistant, to say the least." Locking eyes with Rock, he smirked slightly. "I think you and I can think of one right off the bat."

Rock couldn't help but share a smile with the former "Mega Man Killer". "Actually, someone had an idea about him..."

Hope people are still enjoying this. :) Not exactly action packed, but with luck it's hitting a few good notes.