Archive of Our Own ^beta

The updated Mega City Junior High was more than a building; it was a statement. The rebuilt structure of steel and glass was threaded with the most advanced security systems Light Labs could design, and today, it was the site of the first annual "Festival of Unity."

Roll Light, headset on and datapad in hand, was a blur of cheerful, stressed-out energy. "Alan, I need sensor readings from the west quad, now! Chelsea, is the 'Unity Bridge' booth ready for the broadcast? The global feed goes live in ten!"

"We're set, Roll!" Chelsea called back, straightening a banner. She looked less like a nervous student and more like a confident event coordinator.

At the "Unity Bridge" booth, Aki Light was nervously demonstrating his powers under the watchful eye of his sister, Suna. He aimed his hand at a small, inert solar panel. His buster formed—sleek and controlled—and released a tiny, perfectly contained pulse of energy. The panel lit up, powering a small water fountain. The kids watching cheered.

"See?" Suna beamed, patting his back. "Controlled. Safe. You're a natural."

"I'm... trying," Aki mumbled, retracting the weapon.

Nearby, Rock was trying—and failing—to be interviewed by Chelsea for the school's live feed.

"And what does it mean to you," Chelsea asked, "to be here today, not just as a hero, but as a symbol of this new unity?"

Rock shifted, his smile strained. "Uh... it's great, Chelsea. Really. The turnout is fantastic." He leaned closer. "Honestly? I wish I could just be here as 'Rock.' The 'symbol' part... it's a lot of pressure."

"That's because you're not just a symbol, Rock," she said gently, turning off her mic for a second. "You're the proof. You show them it's possible."

While the festival buzzed with optimism, the perimeter was defined by paranoia. Blues and Tempo moved silently along the rooftops, scanning the crowds.

"It's too open," Blues muttered, his visor sweeping the entrance. "Too many people. Too... happy. They're practically begging for a fight."

"Or maybe they're just... healing, Blues," Tempo replied, her own sensors running deep scans. "The security grid is solid. Light, Cossack, Mom, Astil, and Inafune all co-signed the firewalls. Nothing's getting in."

"Something always gets in," Blues said.

He was right. At that exact moment, in the school's A/V closet, a student named Leo was proving him right. Leo, a gifted-but-arrogant new member of the "Unity Bridge," was determined to "test" the new security. He'd been chatting for weeks with an online activist—"Spearhead1776"—who'd been encouraging him to expose the system's flaws.

*Spearhead1776: They won't listen unless you show them. Bet you can't even access the main broadcast feed.*

*Leo: Bet I can. I found a construction backdoor. I could flicker the lights from here. Watch.*

With a few keystrokes, Leo uploaded a small file, thinking it was a harmless prank.

*Spearhead1776: Impressive. Now, let's see what it can really do.*

The file uploaded. The festival's network security, designed to stop a frontal assault, didn't even register the "authorized" code. The backdoor was open.

---

The main event began an hour later. Dr. Light stood on the main stage, ready to unveil the new memorial statue. The global broadcast was live, feeds running to news stations worldwide.

"Today," Dr. Light began, his voice echoing with emotion, "we show the world that we are not defined by our scars, but by our capacity to—"

The massive screen behind him flickered. Dr. Light's face vanished, replaced by the red, jagged emblem of the Emerald Spears. A synthesized voice boomed over the speakers, cold and full of hate.

"Citizens of the world. You celebrate a lie. You call them 'heroes.' We call them 'weapons.' And today, we will show you how easily your precious 'unity' corrodes."

Chaos erupted.

"It's a hijack!" Roll yelled into her headset. "Cut the feed! Cut the—!"

It was too late. From alcoves and maintenance panels, Emerald Spears squads emerged, not in bulky armor, but in sleek, black infiltration gear. They didn't fire into the crowd.

They aimed at the robots.

"Rock! Blues! Hostiles at the main stage!" Roll screamed.

Rock was already moving. He saw a Spears unit level a strange, green-barreled rifle at a group of civilian-bots. Rock shoved them aside and raised his buster. "Get back! That's—"

The unit fired. Rock took the blast on his shoulder.

He screamed.

It wasn't a concussive blast. It was a hissing, viridian-green beam. Where it struck, his blue armor didn't just spark—it sizzled. Acrid smoke poured from his shoulder as the ceratanium alloy began to *dissolve*, melting like wax.

"Rock!" Roll cried, seeing the wound.

"It's acid!" Rock yelled, clutching his rapidly-corroding arm. "They're using acid! All robots, fall back! They're targeting us!"

The attack was brutally efficient. The Spears ignored the humans, focusing their acid-lasers on any mechanical target, sending robots screaming in agony as their chassis began to fail.

"This is my fault," Roll whispered, her face pale with horror. "I organized this. I... I brought them all here to be slaughtered."

"Roll, no!" Rock grunted, firing a wild, one-armed shot. "Get the humans to safety! Create a perimeter!"

His words snapped her out of it. Her guilt turned to resolve. "Alan! Chelsea! Get everyone inside the gymnasium! Seal the doors! Now!"

In the quad, another unit targeted the "Unity Bridge" booth. "Aki! Suna! Get out of there!"

Aki didn't run. He shoved Suna behind him as his armor flared to life. The unit fired. Aki didn't block—he scanned. His armor's adaptive programming flared, analyzing the energy. A hexagonal shield formed, but it wasn't solid—it was a shimmering, refractive field. The acid-laser hit it and splattered, deflecting harmlessly.

"It's... it's working..." Aki panted, the effort draining him. "But I... I can't hold it long!"

From the rooftops, a shimmer of light and the sound of a lute announced the arrival of Ivory, Magic Woman. "Oh, no," she sang, her voice tight with anger. "You do not ruin a party I helped decorate!"

She couldn't fight them—her own body was as vulnerable as Rock's. So she changed the battlefield.

She cast a massive illusion. Suddenly, to the Spears, the retreating crowd of robots looked like a solid, unmoving brick wall. Another squad turned a corner and found themselves face-to-face with a 50-foot, illusory Guts Man. The real heroes were now invisible, hidden by her magic.

"Ivory, this is amazing!" Roll called over the comms.

"I... I can't hold this," Ivory panted, sparks flick-firing from her fingertips. "It's too much data! Too many targets! I'm... I'm risking a core overload...!"

On the roof, Blues and Tempo were fighting a desperate battle at the main broadcast antenna.

"The network is compromised," Blues snarled, his shield—now pockmarked with green, sizzling craters—deflecting another shot. "It's an inside job. They're using our own security protocols against us."

He ripped a panel from the mainframe, his systems scanning the breach code. His processor froze. "No."

"Blues, what is it?" Tempo yelled.

"The breach code. It's... it's Light-based. An algorithm only someone with access to my father's core programming would know."

He stormed from the roof, ignoring Tempo's calls. He found Dr. Light in the underground command center, frantically trying to regain network control.

"You!" Blues shouted, and the entire room went silent.

"Blues? What's wrong? Rock is—"

"The breach code. It's yours." Blues's voice was dangerously low. "One of your robots did this. One of your 'children.' Was it Cut Man? Guts Man? Who's the mole, old man?"

Dr. Light looked stricken, as if Blues had just fired a shot through his chest. "You... you suspect our family?"

"I suspect everyone! You built this network! You're the only one who—"

"You're wrong." Tempo landed behind him, her voice cutting through his rage. "You're blinded by your own paranoia, Blues. Look at the code again." She projected the data from her own sensors. "It's emulating a Light algorithm. But it's sloppy. It's full of human shortcuts and inefficient commands. This wasn't a robot. This was a person. And I have a feeling where they are."

She was already moving, pulling a stunned Blues with her. "The signal's internal. A/V closet, floor three."

They kicked the door open. Inside, they didn't find a terrorist. They found Leo, huddled under a desk, laptop in hand, tears streaming down his face.

"I... I... I didn't know!" he sobbed. "I just wanted to flicker the lights! He... he said... my online friend... 'Spearhead'... he said it was a harmless test! He said it would show them!"

Blues stared, his rage evaporating into cold comprehension. "He's not a mole," Tempo said quietly. "He's a fool."

Blues knelt, his hand grabbing the laptop, not the kid. "Can you trace him?"

"No," Leo wept. "But... the backdoor... I can't close it, but... I think... I think I can reroute their network access. I can... I can trap their comms!"

On the festival grounds, the battle was almost over. Rock was on one knee, his left arm a melted, smoking ruin. He was using his body to shield Chelsea and Alan, who were dragging a wounded civilian-bot. The Spears commander stood over him, rifle aimed.

"This broadcast will show the world how fragile their 'heroes' are," the commander sneered, his own comm-link feeding to the global broadcast. "Time to sign off, 'Mega Man.'"

He was about to fire when his comm-link exploded in static.

"...bzzk...this is a test of the... KRRSSSH... Unity Bridge... pzzk..."

"What?" The commander slammed the side of his helmet. "Comms are down!"

Simultaneously, the broadcast feed that was showing propaganda switched.

It wasn't propaganda. It was Roll.

She was at the emergency broadcast desk, her face set in grim determination. "This is Roll Light. Yes, the festival has been attacked. The Emerald Spears are here."

The Spears' units, now deaf to their commander, looked up at the screens, confused.

"They came here to show you division," Roll's voice boomed across the quad. "But look!" The camera feed switched to a live shot of Aki's shield protecting a human family. It switched to Rock, wounded, still standing guard over Chelsea.

"They came to show you hate!" Roll declared. "But they have failed! Look around you! Humans are shielding robots! Robots are shielding humans! This is not weakness! This is our strength! This is unity! And this is our future!"

The tide turned. With their comms scrambled by Leo, their acid-weapons neutralized by Aki's adaptive shields, and their formations shattered by Ivory's illusions, the Spears were suddenly outmatched. The commander screamed in frustration, detonated a smoke bomb, and ordered the retreat.

The festival was damaged, but it was safe.

Later, as emergency crews tended to the wounded, Chelsea was gently wrapping a bandage around Rock's other hand. His damaged arm was being tended to by Dr. Light.

"You were right," Rock said to her, his voice quiet. "About me being a symbol. I... I hated it. But today..."

"Today, they needed it," Chelsea finished, smiling.

"Yeah." Rock looked over at Roll, who was directing the cleanup. He looked at Aki, who was asleep, leaning against Suna. He looked at Blues, who was standing beside Leo and Dr. Light—not accusing, but... listening.

Dr. Light, his face streaked with soot, walked to the still-covered statue. He grabbed the tarp.

"The Emerald Spears wanted to define this day," he called out, his voice hoarse. "But we will. They wanted to show division. Let us, instead, show them our resolve!"

He pulled the sheet.

It wasn't a statue of Mega Man. It wasn't one hero. It was three figures, abstract but clear: a heavy-duty Light-bot, a sleek Cossack-bot, and a humanoid civilian-bot. They were standing back-to-back, shoulder-to-shoulder, holding up the school's insignia.

The crowd, human and robot, cheered. The broadcast was, in the end, a total success.