Once Splash Woman was on her way to her new quarters until such time as proper weather manipulation on Mars resulted in the creation of an ocean, Vinyl looked up from her paperwork to the door. "Next!"
The next robot to step through the door was a bulky humanoid in pink armor, large screw-heads at his shoulders and in his chest, a large metal prong to either side of his head, and a plug in place of his right hand. "Y-yes?" he asked nervously as he sat down. "You've got a job for me?"
"Sure thing, pinky," Vinyl joked, flipping through her paperwork.
"My armor's light red!" he snapped out insistently.
Vinyl rolled her eyes behind her glasses. "Whatever you say, Plug Man." She looked over the paperwork more carefully. "It says here you were in quality control?"
"Y-yes," Plug Man responded. "I tested plugs and outlets, to make sure they worked safely. I...I guess I'm not good for much else..."
"I wouldn't say that," Vinyl replied comfortingly. "You have a very impressive control of electrical current. I'd say that makes you ideal for running the main power plant."
"Y-you sure?" Plug Man asked, surprised. "You sure you want to trust such an important job...to me?"
Vinyl smiled widely. "Yes, I'm sure. People underestimate the importance of quality control. And those skills will help you spot when something's going wrong before it becomes a cascade failure. That is, if you want the job."
Plug Man swallowed convulsively. "Y-yes. Just...socket to me?"
Vinyl gazed at him for a while, then pointed. "That way."
"Y-yes ma'am," he replied, quickly heading for the door.
"Next!" Vinyl called out.
The next robot master to enter was also humanoid, with pure white armor studded with pink gemstones, culminating in a large pink jewel at the top of his head. "You summoned Jewel Man?" he asked in a hissing, whispering voice as he perched on the chair.
Vinyl blinked for a time. "Uh...yes," Vinyl replied. "I see you worked as a mining bot?"
"Yesss!" Jewel Man hissed out. "I dig into the ground for my precccccious! But the nasty humans, they always take the precious away! So Jewel Man digs for more precious...but never gets to keep the precious! It infuriates Jewel Man, but laws in head won't let Jewel Man take his revenge, or retrieve his precious! So Jewel Man stews in madness and plots, yes! Plotses he does! To get back at the filthy, nasty, humanseses!"
Vinyl blinked at him for a time. "O...kay?" She glanced through her papers. "Well, I'm afraid the job I have for you is also in mining-"
"Nooo! Jewel Man can never escape!"
"Though in this case, your job is to manage all available mineral resources," Vinyl explained.
"...come agains?"
"The Mars terraforming project is intended to bootstrap itself from each stage as the overseer robot masters arrive," Vinyl explained. "That means I need someone in charge of the mining operation who will recognize the value of each and every bit of ore and gemstone that comes out of the ground, and won't distribute it wastefully."
"Then...Jewel Man is in charge of the preciouses?" Jewel Man asked, eyes wide and eager. "Jewel Man decides who gets what, and what stays put?"
Vinyl nodded with a smile. "Precisely."
Jewel Man cackles happily. "Yes! Finally, the power, the preciouses, are Jewel Man's! YES!" He continued to cackle madly until Vinyl was forced to have him escorted out.
"Next!" Vinyl called out, sighing to herself and hoping the next one wouldn't be so crazy.
The next robot master to come in was striped in yellow and black, with what looked like three beehive honeycombs as his chest and torso. A large stinger topped his head. "You zzzzzzzzzumonned Hornet Man?" he buzzed as he, too, perched on the chair rather than sitting in it.
"...yes," Vinyl groaned out. "I understand you managed a...flower park?"
"Yezzzzzzz!" Hornet Man buzzed. "I guide zzze inzzzectzz around the flowerzzzzz!"
Vinyl sighed softly. "Well, that's good, since your job here will be seeding the wildlife to establish a stable ecology, starting with microbes and insects before working your way up to the larger animals, geared towards encouraging healthy growth of the oxygen producing plants we're sending along as we go. A plan's already been laid out to guide you step by step, with allowances for the unexpected where you'll need to exercise your own judgement."
"Hornet Man, colonizzzzze!" Hornet Man called out as he leapt off the chair and buzzed out of the room.
Vinyl's face slammed into her desk. "Next..." she groaned out.
The next robot master to enter was bulky, and only roughly humanoid in shape, built more like Needle Man had been. In fact, he looked like someone had painted Needle Man red and replaced his needles with flame nozzles, leaving a green gem in the center of his body. "You called for Magma Man?" he asked calmly as he took his seat.
Vinyl smiled, pleased to be dealing with someone seeming normal. "Yes, I did," she replied readily. "I understand your former position was managing a geothermal power plant?"
"That is...correct," Magma Man allowed.
"Why were you retired from that position?" Vinyl asked curiously. "According to your build specs, you aren't anywhere near your scheduled decommission date, but you were slated for decommissioning anyway..."
"I have some...anger management issues," Magma Man offered humbly. "It caused...problems when I was given orders I knew were wrong to obey, and then I was blamed when things went wrong."
Vinyl chuckled softly. "I can understand why that might make you blow up," she agreed.
"Yes...blow up," Magma Man murmured.
"Well, you won't have to worry about that on this job," Vinyl explained. "Your job is to manage the geological structure of the entire planet, and as long as it stays in one piece and we get what we need out of it for the overall project, I don't care how you manage it. You'll have a list of things we need, and every so often you'll get a new requisition, and your job is to get it done safely, or to state why a requisition isn't safe to acquire at this time. You were programmed to manage geothermal, so the job rests on your expertise."
Magma Man seemed quite pleased. "I won't let you down." With that, he stood up and left the room.
Only one more to go, Vinyl thought to herself. "Next!" she called out.
A tiny white flying saucer zipped into the room before extending hands and feet on the end of cables, red eyes blinking at her.
"Uh...name?" she asked curiously.
"Ga-lax-y Mannn," the little robot replied. "Naa~mu?"
"Uh...Vinyl," she replied softly, a smile forcing its way onto her face. She couldn't help it. There was just something so cute about the little bot. "So, what was your purpose?"
"Por...poise?" the bot asked, pulling out a little stuffed porpoise and offering it to her.
"No, what was your job?"
"Jo~bu?" Galaxy Man asked, confused.
"Uh...primary directive?" Vinyl clarified.
"Dir...ective?" Galaxy Man asked for a moment. "Oh! Oh!" Reaching onto the desk, he grabbed two pieces of paper and quickly folded them into airplanes. He then threw them into the air before guiding them around the office with gravity manipulation, making airplane sounds as he did so. At one point, it looked like the planes would collide nose to nose. "Ah! No no!" Both planes froze, before one turned around, allowing them both to continue to fly without impacting.
Vinyl chuckled softly. When this job is done, I wanna keep him, she thought warmly. "So you managed air traffic?" she asked curiously.
Calling both planes back to him, he folded them into each other to make a paper rocket. Floating various other objects around the room, he made a, "Brrrrrrrrum!" noise as the rocket slowly lifted off, and he proceeded to guide it between the objects without hitting anything before making it land on Vinyl's horn.
Vinyl chuckled as she lifted it off. "And rocket trajectory calculations?" At a nod from Galaxy Man, she grinned. "Then you're perfect for what I need. You're in charge of all interstellar traffic leaving from or arriving at Mars during the terraforming and colonization process. Make sure everything gets where it needs to go safe and sound."
"Dir~ective!" Galaxy Man proclaimed happily, saluting. He then pulled his limbs back into his body before zipping off.
As soon as he was out of the room, Vinyl let out a soft squee.
Oh god it's Donut!
vraikaiser.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/donut.png
Well, that was a good read to see the future robot masters! ...What exactly is going to go wrong is all I want to know!
Is galaxy man eve from wally?
7461286
I though so too, but aside from that one line, I didn't notice any... Donut-isms.
I am giggling like a maniac right now. Am I a sadist for deriving so much enjoyment from seeing Vinyl dealing with these screw-loose bots?
7461286
Hopefully Plug Man stays out of box canyons then.
I feel there was a missed opportunity for Hornet Man to act like Harry Partridge's Dr. Bees.
Also, I agree. Galaxy Man was adorable acting like Wall-E
I love that Jewel Man is basically Smeagle.
Hrm. Expected line from Hornet Man: "Why Univerzzzze hate Hornet Man!?"
Also, as I was reminiscing about Robot Masters, I happened to recall Megaman Unlimited, which is a nice (if punishingly hard in places) little fan-game in the traditional style. I was wondering if it might get an honorable mention? Particularly Rock having nightmares about Yoku Man's stage. Which is full of disappearing blocks, disappearing spikes, and some of the disappearing blocks turn out to be enemies.
Oh, DL links over Here if anybody wants.
Waspinator LIVES!
I WANT A PIC OF GALAXY MAN SO THAT I MIGHT GAZE AT HIS ADORABLENESS
7461306
Wall-E himself, actually.
7461422
Uh...Gollum. Who's Smeagle?
Hey Tatsurou? Whatever happened to Megaman & Bass? With King and them? Or does the way things play out stop that from ever happening?
Also, as always the personalities are quite fitting!
7461504 Smeagol is the name of the hobbit-like humanoid that eventually became corrupted by the influence of The One Ring and turned into Gollum over centuries of exposure.
Edit: Someone who has only seen the movies, or doesn't care to remember names, might think Smeagol was spelled Smeagle.
7461513
In canon, King was built by Wily as a replacement for Bass as a robot to destroy Mega Man.
...so no, nowhere in this continuity for that to happen.
#lamepunislame
Yo! Gollum! i need you to dial it down to a 5, okay?
Waspinator reference.
Yoshimitsu this is obviously not.
Well...I know exactly what goes wrong...They all go crazy on the long ride to mars...which prompts an "alien" invasion...and by alien I mean illegals from sky Sealand and the U.N. decides to pull the "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen solution," which is throw a common virus...in this case a copy of Microsoft Vista...Which results in the Creation of Alpha the primal internet...and the Life Virus...and god only know what kind of virus creation program...
If Jewel Man goes crazy, please get Skull Man to incapacitate him.
Galaxy Man on the other hand, please let Vinyl keep him.
One more thing! Make sure Hornet Man doesn't freak out from Mega Man!
7461504 That's who Gollum used to be. His cousin Deagol found the ring while they were on a fishing trip. The first thing the ring made him do was strangle Deagol. And it was on his birthday, which is why Gollum calls it his "birthday present". He was eventually run out of his village (who if I remember right gave him the name Gollum because of the sound he made in his throat) and found his way to the Misty Mountains where he spent the next 500 years underground until Bilbo found the ring.
.....Oh Scrap. YOu revived Beast Wars Waspinator!
Somehow, I'm thinking that Galaxy Man is supposed to be a variation of Wall-e, or something like that.
Of course the adorable one has one of the most destructive weapons in the game.
yes thank you tatsurou for using my suggestion. Always like the crazy that was waspinator in beast wars
I was going to read this whole in one night thinking it would be a 1 chapter story but when i realized there's over 100 chapters... maybe i'll have a crack at it later...
Reads Plugman's lines. Donut? Is that you?
Jewel Man is Smeagol. Great.
Hornet Man has Waspinator's Personality. Cool
Galaxy man and Magma Man, I'm mostly drawing a blank. I suspect Galaxy Man has Wall.E's personality, but Magma Man is a blank for me.
7461925
You're right in all cases.
The closest anime/manga character of Magma Man's personality would be Grunide from "Beet the Vandel Buster" (calm, cool, and collected, unless he gets too angry, at which point he becomes an absolute berserk monster.)
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
This is going to be so much fun! Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
7461936
Speaking of Beet, did you know it just started back up again after the creative team had a long illness?
seriously a robot just to check outlets and plugs!? couldn't a Me tool handle that.
So jewel man is Golem, is Hornet man a Preditcon?
7461599 or the ant, kind of both.
So, how old is Vinyl at this point?
7462219
I did not know that. So cool!
7462340
About 15.
7462240 nope. It's not Inferno. it's definitely Waspinator
7462457 could be both
7462477
It's Waspinator.
7462482 but the whole COLONY thing was Infereno's gag.
I like it, but i do have one item of criticism to point out - this is supposedly an interview process, but every bot shown is accepted. Where are the rejects?
7462219
Wait, what?
You're serious about this?
I'm going to need a link to where you found this news, man. You can't tease with info on a hidden gem like that one.
7462852
Filtered out before they got to Vinyl.
I can totally see Hornet Man failing a lot as that was kinda a major thing for the personality he is based on
7461838
Oh. My bad!
(I misinterpreted what you were saying. Sorry about that!)
I knew I recognized Hornet Man's speech. And It got confirmed in the comments. He was basically the Kenny of Beast Wars.
7462873 Speaking of bots do you have an idea who will handle the gravity on Mars being that it will be a little lower there? It won't affect robots but humans who live there will suffer a minor form of muscle atrophy and will have a hard time adapting to the gravity change should they choose to return to Earth for whatever reason(visiting relatives, war, playing card games on motorcycles)
7462858
Got announced back in December, with the first new manga pages showing up April 15th overseas.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2016-04-03/beet-the-vandel-buster-manga-returns-on-april-15/.100607
Between that and the American SAO live-action pilot it's been nice lately...
7463448 no, the universe just hated the poor little Pred...
7463695
Magma Man, since Gravity can be manipulated via geology, if one reaches all the way down to the core.
7463989 Huh, I never thought of it that way.
I probably would have just brought Gravity Man(or equivalent) out of retirement.
Daaawwww. I want to see this to, I can totally picture the two of them going for flights together with Vinyl riding Item 2.