Vinyl frowned as she heard Mega Man's full report once he arrived in Sky Lagoon. "This is concerning," she mumbled softly.
"That's an understatement," Mega Man mused idly. "Someone out there sabotaged your mission, and tried to make it into a frame-up of Wily making another world takeover attempt."
"While that's true, that's a minor concern at best," Vinyl countered. "The bigger concern in this case is how they went about doing it."
"Why is that so concerning?" Mega Man asked curiously. "Didn't they just use the same cookies you used to flip the Robot Masters going after the Energy Ore back before you built Doc Robot?"
Vinyl's glasses slid down her muzzle, revealing her wide, startled eyes. "H...how did you know about that?"
"I put together some details a while back," Mega Man explained. "Specifically around the time 'Breakman' 'kidnapped' Dr. Light." The air quotes in his voice were plainly audible. "During the incident, I started thinking in terms of who had the capability to do various things at various times. The only ones with the resources to manipulate the Robot Masters back then - or build Doc Robot - were Dr. Light, Dr. Wily, and you. If Dr. Light wanted to get ahold of the Energy Ore to make Gamma his weapon, he would have just altered Gamma's control circuitry to only respond to him. And Dr. Wily at that point had put his full priority on being a good father to you before any world takeover attempts." He smiled impishly. "Which, of course, also explained why he took credit for it all once he figured it all out. To keep you from getting a juvey record for world terrorism."
Vinyl shook her head as she chuckled ruefully. "It's real easy to forget you've got a super computer for a brain," she commented idly. "And yes, the cookies are the exact same tactic I used then." She wasn't worried about Mega Man trying to arrest her for that, or even making an official action about it. He wouldn't have brought it up casually if he was going to. "In fact, they might as well have been the same batch. It was certainly the same recipe. But again, that's not the issue."
"Then...what is?" Mega Man asked curiously.
"According to Splash Woman's report, they were given the cookies at the shuttle launch," Vinyl explained. "That's the concerning issue. The shuttle was launched from here after all. The sabotage was initiated...from within Sky Lagoon." She steepled her hooves and stared at Mega Man. "We don't have a tourism industry up here, and we're in control of all transit to and from here as well. We know every name and face that arrives here - or at least we should - and we're close knit. Since we're all scientists with similar ideals - and the families thereof - we don't even have any crime up here. Nobody even locks their doors, we trust each other so much."
She leaned back with a sigh. "So...somehow, a saboteur made it here where he had no business being...and I can't even investigate too deeply or openly, or that trust we've built up here - an example meant to show the world below how much better things are following our ideals - will fall apart. And if I do investigate secretly, it's betraying that trust on my part!" She stared up at the ceiling sorrowfully.
Mega Man nodded understandingly. "Yeah...I guess I can see where that's a problem. But that's not the only problem, now that I think about it..."
"What do you mean?" Vinyl asked curiously, rolling over in her chair to lay on her back, her glasses sliding back to brace against her horn. Her chair lifted up so she was still looking over her desk at Mega Man.
"The tech of that Copy Bot," Mega Man spoke up. "I've only seen tech that could let a robot restructure itself to imitate another entity - robot or otherwise - to that level in one place."
"What place?" Vinyl asked. "Couldn't they have found it there, then?"
"Impossible," Mega Man insisted. "I've only even spoken of the concept. The specs never left the lab where he's being built."
"He?" Vinyl asked curiously.
"Anton."
Vinyl froze for a time, then let out a curse. "They got into that lab? But...that's impossible!"
"It should be," Mega Man confirmed. "And yet...somehow it's happened."
Vinyl frowned as she rolled back to her hooves. "Unfortunately...there's one way I can think of that this might have happened...but it'd be opening Pandora's Box even trying to investigate it, and even the idea of it strikes at the core of everything we've built here. If it's true...everything could fall apart."
Mega Man's eyes closed as he reached the same conclusion. "A sleeper agent...who doesn't know that they're sleeping. A robot who came up here as part of the immigration groups to settle...with a program inside that causes them to unknowingly send information back to someone below."
"Occam's Razor says that's what's going on," Vinyl murmured. "As well as what would happen if it got out. So...what do I do?"
Mega Man stared up at the ceiling. "Well, for now...I'd suggest doing nothing."
"Nothing?" Vinyl asked, stunned.
"Nothing official, anyway," Mega Man explained. "After all, there's been no official incident here. However...whoever tried this obviously isn't going to be happy that it didn't work. Guard against a similar assault, and keep an eye out for others."
"And if this continues?" Vinyl demanded coldly, her eyes calculating.
"Well...I'd suggest being prepared for something to ensure they can't try a third time," Mega Man offered thoughtfully. "I'm sure you'll figure something out."
Vinyl stared after Mega Man as he turned to leave. I think I might have an idea, she thought to herself.
Eesh... sleeper agents. That's one thing in fiction that will genuinely give me the willies every time. Nothing terrifies me more like not being in control of myself. That's why I don't do drugs, or drink to excess.
7546737 Just fiction? Sleeper agents exist in real life too, don't they?
By the title:
Oh, gee, I dunno, maybe the fact that you're pretty much responsible for everything.
What, you mean like the Copy Robot?
Oh, well okay then.
I always thought it was suspicious that Dr. Cossack just so happened to greatly respect Dr. Wily's work, even though he was still a terrorist back then. Then again, I always attributed that to the writing.
{Tatsurou: That's because it is the writing.}
Oh... darn it, I thought I was onto something.
Oh, well okay then.
She's going to cause the Cataclysm, isn't she?
Another enjoyable chapter. Good work.
I was expecting X, but ok. Not sure who Anton is.
I must say, I'm having trouble seeing how, based on the title, this chapter and the Dolly Parton song, and perhaps the movie based on the song, fit together.
Having said that, considering your portrayal of Dr. Wily as a scientist minus the instability wanting to take over the world, it makes the question posed in this chapter, who sabotaged the project, really interesting. I'm guessing this is going to tie into the exploration of Megaman 10. And, I look forward to more chapters.
7546883
From a few chapters back, before the MM9 arc happened, robot kid of MM/Kalinka still being created here and assumedly Axl in the X series just based on the name (And now the copy bot thing, almost assuredly him). X was already mentioned as being started on by Doctor Light at this point.
7546762
I should add that song to my playlist at work. Seriously, why haven't I done that yet?
7546747
Technically, but those tend to at least know that they are sleeper agents. The amount of post-hypnotic suggestion needed to create a fiction-level sleeper agent is prohibitive at best, although I have heard of a few cases.
Sleeper Agents... A hero's worst enemy...
7546887
...it was referring to standard job hours (working a 9-5er). I didn't even know about the song.
Why do i have a feeling there is no conspiracy and that kalinka gave them cookies to be nice and accidently grabbed vinyls altered batch by mistake.
Yeah, that's the downside to cold wars. It's rare and extremely hard to do, but it's possible to induce a sort of split personality in someone. It gives the term "Sleeper Agent" a new meaning, as even they don't know they're spies. With robots, I imagine it's easier to do. The only hard part I can see is actually keeping the addition programs and directives hidden even from the robot.
It's stuff like this that breaks communities, as you start questioning everyone you ever knew close to you. Thankfully, Vinyl is smart, and like she said, Rock is basically a mobile super computer. They'll figure something out.
7547050
Yeah like a passive scanning every time a robot goes for repairs. And a Robot Master doesn't even NEED to have a split personality. Just remote control it when is in sleep or recharge mode and jam it so it won't wake up until you want it to. That way the robot won't gave memories of doing anything bad. And the remote control device could be hidden in the emergency remote shutdown system. Something logical for many models of Robot Masters to have considering what Willy did in the past. I mean if the robot is a dangerous model and malfunctions or gets infected by a virus, you want a way to shut it down fast before it causes too much damage.
7547036 As much as I like that theory, and want it to be true, two things.
1: Splash Woman described the person who gave them the cookies, and it doesn't match Kalinka.
2: Even if it was, then who was giving the commands for the RMs to do the things they did? Building a Wily skull fortress wasn't in their job description.
7547807 Your right I forgot she did that.
7546773 Dr. Cossack, a roboticist, has respect for one of the most skilled and important roboticists in the entire world. You're absolutely right that does seem terribly unlikely.
7548602 I'm just saying, would a chef respect one of the greatest chefs in the world if the secret ingredient to all his dishes are humans and baby seals?
Similarly, would a scientist respect one of the greatest scientists in the world if the latter decides that the only way for social reforms to be instated is to rule the world as a dictator?
A person can like another person's abilities all they want. Whether they agree with the latter's ideals and methodologies is an entirely different matter. It just so happens that Cossack respects Wily's due to his own ideals and methodologies.
Sleeper agents are one of the things I hate villains doing the most since one moment they're friends, the next they're enemies.
7548629 And was also initially VERY untrusting of Wily. It was only AFTER learning that Wily wasn't a stark raving mad lunatic out for power that he even respected the man. While it was in part due to Air Man's 'joke', Cosssak first thought that Wily had kidnapped his daughter. And even brought along his strongest combat bot to his first meeting with the man. Cossak respects Albert BECAUSE he knows him, both as a fellow roboticist and as a father.
Honestly just hire bots with the personalities similar to Wood Man and Splash Woman. Ya know; keep the sleeper agents sleeping.
Man, this is certainly going to be a problem long term. The cause of the cataclysm, maybe?
I do have to wonder how they don't have enough surveillance going on that whoever was passing out the "cookies" wouldn't be recognizable. Between the affected robot masters, the unaffected Splash Woman and Galaxy Man, and whatever monitoring systems would have been watching the launches, that's a lot of systems with a potential record of what went down.
Couldn't they just ask Siren Wu-Man what the guy that gave her the cookie looked like?
a sleeper agent, man... things are really starting to fall aprt for the heroes... but... who could make a sleeper agent that could imitate a human like that, or reprogram someone else's bot, it would take a lot of technical knowhow to accomplish such a task