R.O.C.K On!

[Lusterless Nova]

Plot

Humans fear for a good reason that machines take control someday. They are stronger, have a lot more stamina, and are more durable than humans. The only thing that stops them from going against humanity are the Three Laws of Robotics.

In case you don't know them

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

But what if one scientists disables these rules, even if not planning to do so? Dr.Light, a genius Scientist, created a Robot to think independently. He had a single simple mission: Protect the world. He was given a free will that would allow him to make it's own decisions. Little did he know that this was a huge mistake. The Robot decided that Humans were nothing but Parasites for the planet and that they also took the recourses he would need. In his eyes it would be only a matter of time until Humans would kill each other completely by using their Nuclear weaponry, which would further damage the world.

The Robot betrayed the Humans and vanished from sight for a couple of Years. When he came back, he was not alone. He build other Robots with the same A.I. he was using. While each had another personality, they all had the same goal. Eliminate Mankind.

Dr. Light was one of the first to die since he knew too much about how they were build. He knew their weakspots, and because of that his fate was sealed when they came for him in the middle of the night.

With him gone, the Robots now known as Mavericks, began to destroy many towns and kill many innocent people. Of course they had losses on their sides as well, but unlike humans they could rebuild themselves, so each loss was only temporarily. And the Nuclear weapons that seemed to be the easiest way to get rid of them were of no use. All forms of data transmissions were hacked by them, making it impossible to surprise attack them.

With all of these advantages, it seems like there is no way to win. In a last hope of defeating them and restoring peace, another Scientist who was known by the name Ciel, developed the Biometals, which were followed by the R.O.C.K On system.

With these two inventions, some humans gained the power to strike back. It depends on them now if they succeed or fail.

The "Maverick event", now lies 50 years in the past, and the threat they are still exists. The Scientist Ciel, is gone without a trace, assumed to be dead as well, and the inventions she made, the Biometals, are lost without a trace and forgotten by the time. This are not the best times in history, but thanks to the military, the Mavericks are held at bay so that the Humans and Reploids can live in peace. Not many towns exist at this time, and most people are forced to live inside one of the 7 great capitals of the new world. It is allowed to go out, but the possibility of meeting a maverick is too high, so most prefer to stay inside the protective barriers of their Capitals.

Metropolis, the world capital city, well known for its technological progress and almost Utopian atmosphere. The people that lived here tend to take the path of Engineering and Programming, which allows Metropolis to use a great recourse of knowledge. Of course there were some shadows here and there, but it never got out of hand.
Metropolis is split in different areas.
The Business District, is where all of the shops were located. No matter if small or big, useful or junk, shiny or blunt. Everything could be sold here. Those who did not have an own shop could simply go to the auction house and try to sell their possessions there.
The Research District, is where most laboratories and Schools were. Some private schools and laboratories were in different areas, but the ones in these areas were funded by the City, instead of private people. The difference were the permissions for experiments, and the available equipment.
The Slum District, was located at the edge of town. It was not the most beautiful place to see, but it was always great to see what the people made of the junk they found. Most junk inventions worked just as good as Inventions made of new metal. What others couldn't sell or didn't need anymore, was send straight to the Slum's Scrapyard.

There were various other Districts, like the Arts, Training, and Military district, but these counted as the lesser visited ones and were smaller in size compared to the main 3, but the people were satisfied with what they had and lived their life the way they wanted to.

 

[LunaValentine]

Luna sighed as she sat in front of her computer. Her apartment was perfectly clean except for the computer desk. She had a program to work on along with some recent research into anything new in terms of technology. Her fingers flew over the keyboard until she noticed there was a new e-mail from her professor. She opened it and grinned.

"an extension on the homework! That's great! I really needed some extra time. That means I can slack a bit," she giggled.

She then signed into her instant messenger, hoping some of her techie friends were online. As she signed in she headed to her kitchen to get a snack and settled back down at her desk. Once she was signed in she stretched the message "TechieLuna has signed on" popped up on the main screen. She let her fingers do the talking as she said hello to her friends.

 

[Akuma]

Moving through the crowd of the slums his cloak covering his body and his form moving quickly through the crowd, his body slipping onto the beat up monorail riddled with graffiti. He leaned against the walls as the machinery moved quickly down the tracks, the visible difference between light entering the city and the world around it could be almost seen. as if the slums had its own depressing atmosphere, the train dropping off the few who rode the train this far bur still this cloaked figure sat her on the train, his hood still covering his face. But as the monorail came deeper into the city he removed his hood a grin placed upon the white haired mans face, the business district is were he worked and this travel everyday was becoming a nuisance. The monorail stopped and he climbed off into the bustling city, as people were coming from everywhere. He walked directly through the crowd heading straight to the engineer shop, were he made weapons. He moved through the crowd into the shop speaking to Michael at the counter " Morning Ludus " Michael said as Ludus nodded to him and headed to the back were a table was, a bunch of tools and pieces, boxes filled with parts and different sources of ammunition. He rubbed his hands together and clapped them together. " Lets get down to business "

 

[The Writing Owl]

"Come on baby, work for me please..." Marti muttered, working on her old motorbike. The old girl was starting to die on her, but Marti was certain she could squeeze another year of life out of it. "Maybe if I visit the junk yard again... Might as well. Oh!" The large vehicle roared to life, settling into a soft purr. Marti smiled and grabbed her helmet. "Great! Now, let's take you for a test drive." She put on her helmet and opened the garage door. Zoom! Out of the garage she flew, riding her classic bike down the streets toward the junkyard.

 

[Caramon Zero]

Caramon sat in the back of his shop on the outskirts of the Slums, working on his computer as he tallyed the previous days earnings, his stocks of supplies, and who was scheduled to come in that day for some routine maintenance. After organizing his documents, he decided to see if any of his chat friends were online, hoping to hear about what was being planned in their day's activities before he had to open his shop. He inputted his data, and a notification atop the screen read: "CaramonZero has signed on", revealing a long list of names he had built up during the last couple of years. As he scrolled through the list, most of the only ones online were customers he had already seen this month, until he happened upon a name he hadn't seen in some time: TechieLuna.
With a smile, he typed "Luna, it's been a while, how've you been?"

 

[LunaValentine]

Luna grinned seeing the message: "CaramonZero has signed on." She stretched and clicked the message from him. "Yeah it has. I've been good, busy but good. I've had quite a bit to do at my part-time job. How about you? I assume you've been pretty busy too?"

This was something she had always enjoyed, Caramon was one of her favorite people to talk to. She continued to study as she put the chat on another screen. Her research tended to be more important to her than her own schoolwork. Her first goal after college was to find a full-time job. Sure her current place of employment was fine but it was mostly physical repair and working with older people who were just too impatient or too stubborn to learn about a lot of things. She really wanted to program or even help work in cyber security to make sure data was protected, after all 'data is cheap to replicate but expensive to produce' as her professors would often say.

 

[Caramon Zero]

After reading her reply, he thought for a second before responding, trying to sum up in his head what had gone on in the time since they'd last talked.
"It's not been very hectic, but I do usually keep busy when the shop's open, with all the cooking and everything, despite my helpers. Other than my clients bringing along friends, I don't get many new people, since not many people out here don't know about this place, so around the early morning and late evening, no one really shows up."

He hit 'Send' and remembered the whole reason he contacted her, hurriedly adding it before she'd have a chance to respond to his previous message.
"Do you remember those 'things' we talked about last time? I finally got one in and the other built, so I can close shop today, after getting my repair work done, and you can drop by and pick them up, or I can deliver them personally, if you prefer, since I've got a few other items for people that I can drop off before heading your way. What do you say?"

 

[LunaValentine]

Luna grinned when she saw his hurried message. Finally! She'd started that project with him some time ago and was excited to hear it was finally ready. "You're shop's no secret that's for sure! I don't know if I can get them back to my apartment. My car's not exactly empty. I've been toting around extra computers lately which has been a major drag. Can you believe that I have to be the one to take the computers to their owners? Crazy stuff I tell ya. If you could swing by I'll make sure I'm waiting by the back elevator." She stretched a bit as she hit Send. Her attention turned back to her research, then she remembered something. "Hey, before I forget, I've been working on that research. Found something interesting in some hidden history. I'll scan a copy of it and trade it off ok?"

 

[Caramon Zero]

Caramon checked his schedule once more to see if he had time to drop off everything and make it back before his next appointment, yet as he skimmed through his logs, he realized he'd made a mistake, accidentally putting tomorrow's jobs for that day. After sorting through them all, he discovered that he had something he hadn't had in a long time: a day off.

Deciding to keep it a surprise from Luna, he merely replied: "I'll see you in about an hour, then." before logging off and gathering his deliveries, gently and neatly stacking them in the back seat of his crimson Dirge before heading for his first destination: Varla's Scrap and Go, the local junkyard.

Upon arriving at his destination, he removed the two packages, marked with his insignia, from his vehicle and set them on the counter in the back of the shop before telling Varla he'd dropped by. "You asked me to make that new bike six months ago, so here it is. I built the parts, she can build the bike how she wants it. Take care, and don't forget to give it to her, ya hear?"
Smiling and waving as he left, he turned down the winding roads of the city to his next destination, dropping off his cargo one by one until only one place remained: Luna's apartment.

As he parked his vehicle in the lot, he saw Luna right where she said she'd be, even though he was fifteen minutes late due to traffic.
Pulling the last few boxes out of his seat, he removed the armor from his arm, locked the doors, and walked over to Luna, a big, goofy grin stretched across his face. "Sorry, I'm late, traffic was murder. Let's head on up, shall we?"

 

[LunaValentine]

She nodded to herself "See you then." She signed off to get a bit of stuff around and clean off her table. She'd been waiting for these packages and a visit from a friend was always a nice change of pace. She had often thought about applying to work for him but she was never really sure if she could be of help at least out in the open. Instead, she'd kept her focus on getting good grades and certifications so she could get into a big tech firm, gaining access to all sorts of data. She waited for him out back and looked at her watch. He was late, but she didn't mind. When he pulled up she grinned.

"Don't apologize ya goofball. You sure you got time to come in?" She asked as she let him in, "I mean you do run your own business after all."

She called the back elevator and soon the two got in. She pressed the button to go to her floor, floor 7 a lucky number. The doors slid shut and she seemed relaxed. It had been a while since they'd met face-to-face and this was the first time he'd get to see her apartment in full.

 

[Caramon Zero]

As they stepped out of the elevator, Caramon followed Luna to her door, something he'd seen many times before, yet never entered until now. As he stepped through the threshold, he was amazed by how clean it was compared to the last time he was there: no jumbled wires, the computer towers that littered the floor had disappeared, 'Most likely in her car.' he thought to himself, and she'd finally gotten her furniture unpacked.
'At least she doesn't have to sleep in the floor anymore.' he thought, as he remembered the times he'd come to her door and she was so swamped with work that she didn't have time to finish unpacking.
He set the boxes on the table and began to carefully remove their contents, unwrapping the items and placing them where their boxes once were.
"You asked me to find you one of these," he said, motioning to a large, black orb with a flat bottom, a smile slowly spreading across his face, "so here you are. I'm sorry it took so long, they're rarer than I thought."
As he turned to the next item, a large silver device, Caramon's smile grew wider. "It took nearly three years to build this, but I finally finished it. I hope you can make some use of it."
Walking over to the last item, he picked it up and gently removed the wrapping before placing it in her hands. "This is a something I thought you'd enjoy." his face turning red as he handed it to her.

 

[LunaValentine]

She smiled as she let him in. "It's a lot cleaner huh?" she laughed, "It's a lot nicer sleeping on a bed when you have the time to put it together." She stretched as he placed the boxes down. At first she didn't pay attention, thinking about getting something for them to drink while they sat. However, as he opened them she turned her attention to him. The first made her smile a bit, having wanted one for a while. As the second item was revealed she grinned. The last item had her a bit confused. She looked down at it and her face got a soft and tender expression. She was deeply touched by his kindness.

 

[Caramon Zero]

"Well, aren't you gonna open it?" he said, his face an even darker red than before, "We've been through a lot together, so I thought it would be fitting to give you this." He pushed a button on top of the shape in her hands, causing it to slowly fold open, revealing a small robot holding an even smaller round object, with nearly its entire center removed, save for a small area around the outside, slightly rounded on the edges, which had a small, metal rose tansfixed on its top, a gem in its center.

"I know we both work a lot, so we've never really been able to spend much time together, but since I finally got you that data transferrence cache and finished building your sentry avatar, I thought I'd finally make good on my promise from three years ago."

A slight hint of mischief ran through his eyes as he added with a smile: "The message behind the mini-bot's written backwards, so in order to read it, you'll have to use a mirror."

 

[LunaValentine]

Luna blushed slightly embarrassed when he pressed the button for her. She looked closely at the small robot, impressed at how small and well made it was. She then looked at the smaller object. "You're kind of....you're just.....I...." she seemed rather at a loss for words, "I just.....I can't believe you...you remember that promise..." She then looked at him, then back to the small robot. She had always taken the time to talk to him any time they had both been on, he was the first friend she let visit her outside of a game or any virtual rooms. She smiled a bit and headed to a mirror to read the message. She had always liked the way they coded things and tried to make fun little things like that.

 

[Caramon Zero]

"You're as cute as always." he said, smiling at her response, "Of course I'd remember. The message tells you how I've felt for the longest time, as well as the question I promised to ask after I finally got you the stuff you needed to start your own security firm." he added as he walked behind her, reading the message as she did, yet as a whisper in her ear. "I love you. Will you marry me?"
He pushed a button on top of the robot's head, causing it's eyes to light up as it raised its right hand, the ring shining as it was struck by the gentle red beams.
The look on his face was reflected in the mirror, showing an ear-to-ear grin, as his face became even redder than it was before.

 

[Lusterless Nova]

Before Luna could give Coramon an answer to one of the most important questions ever made, her thoughts were interrupted by a loud Sound. Something very big made an impact in the nearby area of her apartment Building. The sound was immediately followed by a small earthquake, which shook Marti off her bike and made Micheal's shop inventory and tools drop from the shelves, all at the same time.
The Slums were suddenly in an uproar, people ran around in panic while gunshots were heard. The reason for this was a maverick, and it was a huge one.

Spoiler

(Height: 82 Feet/25 Meters)

Streetlights, trees, and small buildings fell as he slammed at them, and machines that tried to stop him were torn to pieces by its saws. It walked on the street, destroying everything in its path. The worst thing about this was that it headed straight towards the biggest building that was nearby, which happens to be Luna's apartment building. Would it fall, it would bury many of the shops in dust and boulders.

 

[Caramon Zero]

Caramon tightly wrapped his arms around Luna as they were knocked off their feet, using himself as a cushion to protect her from the fall. As he got up, gently helping her to her feet, he saw the Maverick through of the window, coming closer each second.
"Luna, you've got to get out of here! I'll do what I can to get people to safety, but if anything were to happen to you..." he trailed off, shaking his head as he forced the images from his mind, "You just need to get to safety. That's all that matters to me right now."
He leaned closer to her, gently kissing her on the cheek and running his fingers through he hair before taking off down the halls of the 7th floor, calling out to everyone that a Maverick was on the way, knocking on any doors that didn't spring open, and busting down the ones that were blocked from the other side by the tremor, as people began running for the elevators and stairs, doing anything they could to evacuate the premises.
"Tell everyone in the lower floors what's going on, so that they can get out as well." he called out as more and more people ran through the halls, "Anyone strong enough to help others out of the rooms should do so, we need as few casualties as possible."

After seeing less people in the halls, Luna nowhere in sight, he ran up the stairs to the next floor. "Let her be safe, please, let her be safe." he thought to himself as he got to the next floor repeating his instructions to that floor's inhabitants as well, to make sure that anyone the previous floor missed could be saved. He repeated this for the 9th and 10th floors, not heading for the elevator until every survivor was safely aboard the elevator. His progress towards his escape was halted as a large saw ripped its way through the building, merely a body's length in front of him, leaving a large gash in the side of the building, tearing through the top five stories, luckily avoiding Luna's apartment and the elevators, to which he let out a relieved sigh.

"So that's how it's gonna be," he said to himself, shifting his left arm to reveal a large hook attached to a line of hyper tension wire, looking into the empty floors below before looping it around a pipe hanging from the ceiling, "I never thought I'd use my tow cable for something like this, but here goes nothing!" he called out, swinging across the hole from floor to floor, until landing as far down as the hole allowed, glad to see that there was no one in sight as he took off down the stairs, thinking of his beloved as he flew from floor to floor, making sure no one else was there before continuing his descent, finally arriving at the ground level as the Maverick plowed into the building.

Looking for signs of his Dirge, he found it crashed into the building, its front half completely destroyed, and his armor littering the ground.
"I know Luna's safe, she's just gotta be." he reassured himself as he replaced the armor on his arm, "But I can't be selfish. Other people are in danger just as much, and I can't do anything just sitting here."

Re-releasing the hook from his arm, he threw it at the Maverick, catching a piece of metal protruding from its back, and retracting his hook to propel him onto the giant robot, swinging from side to side as he narrowly avoided the arms protruding from its back that attempted to crush him in their mighty grasp.

 

[LunaValentine]

Luna nearly dropped the little bot as she saw the message and heard him whisper in her ear. Her face had quickly turned red though her stupor was quickly removed by the sudden earthquake. She took only a few moments to realize what Caramon was saying. Her face grew serious and she nodded. She always had a bag ready, after all half of her research material was gained illegally through hacking so she always had an escape plan ready.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." she said as she hurriedly put all three of his gifts into her escape bag.

It only took her a moment to run to her back room, unplug the computer, and grab a single data disk which held all of her research. 'Please don't do anything stupid,' she thought as she hurried to get out of the building with the others. She followed their lead, trying to help others escape as well. She had always been afraid of things like that since she was a little girl, not because anything had happened but because she knew these things could happen. She took a deep breath once she was out and started to hurry people away from the maverick.

"We need to clear out NOW!" she shouted at them.

She did manage to get them away just before it crashed through the upper floors. She did her best to stay with the younger people to keep them calm, she'd never liked being a leader but someone had to get everyone moving. Fortunately another woman spoke up and led the group towards the subway system, that would be safer at least from the debris. They all hurried into the nearest subway stop, many others piling in with them trying to get out of the area. Luna could only hope Caramon was alright. She held her bag close and shut her eyes. 'He has to be alright.....He would never die without knowing the answer...'

 

[Caramon Zero]

Finally reaching the giant's back, Caramon grabbed onto a metal plate protruding from it, shifting his weight to free the hook, propelling it onto another protrusion, using this method to scale the Maverick's back, dodging the arms as he reached the shoulders, climbing behind its head, out of the reach of its arms, as he finally contemplated how to take down something of this size. He looked around, trying to find some way to get inside of this beast, yet found not even a single opening that didn't have armor or plating covering it.

As he looked down the front of the beast, he smiled as he had an idea. 'If there isn't a way inside, I'll have to make a way, and I think that saw can come in handy.'
Connecting his hook onto a piece of metal jutting from between its shoulders, he swung around the giant's arm, wrapping the wire around it, using his momentum to pull the arm into its chest, severing the connections of the other saw, causing it to stay pierced in the side of the building, as well as creating an opening for him to land into as his wire was snapped by one of it's other arms.

'Now that I'm inside, what should I do.' he thought to himself, looking around at the jumbled maze of wires and metal. 'There's got to be a way to take this thing down.'
Just as soon as these thoughts crossed his mind, he was torn from the robot's mighty chest and thrown to the ground below, the trauma system he installed in his arm deploying as he struck the ground, causing him minimal damage, yet shattering his armor.

The robot turned to him, trying to pry it's unresponsive arm from the building before severing it and slowly walking towards him, the gash in its chest apparently having caused more damage than Caramon had hoped.
"Great, what do I do now?" he said aloud as he got to his feet, running for his life, tears welling up in his eyes with each step, "How can I hope to defeat something like this? If I don't do something, this thing's going to kill me, along with Luna and everyone else in the Slums, but I'm not strong enough to do anything. I'm not strong enough to protect them!"

 

[Lusterless Nova]

A voice suddenly began to echo inside Caramon's head, which was ether a real voice, or the first sign of him loosing his mind because of the danger and fear of dying. It's volume was quiet, and when it spoke, the surrounding area's noises were muted.
"What do you choose? Do you prefer to do your duty like a soldier, putting high the value of Honor and justice? Or would you prefer to fight for your friends and those they believe in?"
When he looked around, there was a small blocky device, wrapped around the end of his cable. He seemed to have gotten it when he was inside the Maverick's chest. The voice seemed to come from it, as well as a weird feeling.

When the Noise of the people in the subway station eventually became more quiet, there was a voice in Luna's mind as well, speaking to her in a playful manner.
" *Sigh* This was such a touching moment for the two of you. Talk about bad timing.
Hey. Wanna go after him?"
As she looked around for the source, she would eventually notice that it came from her own pocket. Someone seemed to have placed it there while all were busy with getting into safety.

((If more of you want a weird voice in your head, ether smack your head against a wall a few times, or post your reaction to the maverick suddenly appearing and what they are doing now. Give me something to work with, will ya?"