Temporal Researcher

Of course there was the concern about him. Time had seen it coming, but admittedly had no idea what to do about it. There wasn’t a lot that could convince his brother, other than sheer necessity. Even then, there tended to be protest.

“But this is partly my fault,” Time said. “Maybe something could have been done about this sooner if I had said something. I shouldn’t leave you to pick up the result of my mistakes.”

Time wasn’t sure if that would work, but he was going to try, at least.

          “It ‘ain’t so much your mistake as it is my failing, Time. I’m the one who’s supposed to take responsibility for you, makin’ sure you’re okay– and it took me this long to find out something was seriously up with you, nevermind to do something about it.”

          Oil hated to think about it, but… Time had even said so himself. You’re my problem. Still, he didn’t want to bring that up now. He wasn’t about to guilt trip him for being a little indirect with what was wrong. Oil sighed and knelt down, bending his knees without sitting on them.

Time figured that Oil didn't want him to come. In fact, Time didn't want to go. Being nearly killed recently made him more afraid of it happening again, and now that he didn't feel like he had to put up a tough facade, his fear felt more difficult to overcome. He didn't know if Oil could see that, but he hoped not.

There was a new factor to consider now that he wouldn't have bothered to consider before: how Oil felt about this. Oil could be as annoying as he wanted, but that was irrelevant to Time's concern. Was it really worth straining him emotionally, given he recently saw his little brother nearly die? Was the physical danger so great that it overrode any feeling about the matter?

Time looked down and sighed. At the end of it all, he still didn’t want to leave his brother alone to clean up his mistakes, the results of his silence, when this could have been cleaned up much sooner if he had said something to someone, to anyone. This was his error, and he couldn’t leave Oil alone to clean it up if he could do something about it.

Time couldn’t help but scowl slightly at the word “bedtime”. Not only did it feel patronizing, but sleep wasn’t doing him much good these days anyway. Oil didn’t know that, though, so he relaxed and decided not to let it get to him. He was just worried, not trying to insult him.

“I overheard you and Auto talking, and I… wanted to help,” Time said a little hesitantly. He wasn’t used to the anxiety he was now feeling, but he wouldn’t let it stop him. “We don’t know what’s in there, so I’d rather you not… go alone.”

Time wondered if it was actually anxiety that made him hesitant, or if it was just the fact that he wasn’t used to directly expressing his concerns. Maybe it was both, but he wasn’t sure.

          Oh. That figured.

          Of course, of all the people who had to wake up and figure out what Oil was up to, it had to be his little brother. His little brother, who was already troubled enough between his incomplete state and the fact that he was nearly killed not that long ago by those MMK freaks. And, of course, Time was exactly the type of person to do something about it.

          He was surprised that the ‘something’ he decided to do had not been tell him no, but then again… Time was also the kind of kid to want to be useful. That was his whole thing at his job, after all. 

"But this is partly my fault," Time said. "Maybe something could have been done about this sooner if I had said something. I shouldn't leave you to pick up the result of my mistakes."

It was blatantly obvious that Oil did not take the news of Time’s incompletion well. Taking off work just to yell at those in charge of the Chronos Institute told Time that much, at least. Now? Now Oil was going to go to Dr. Wily’s first base in the dead of night, despite unknown dangers, just for the mere chance of his parts necessary for completion being there.

Time partially blamed himself for this. Perhaps if he let the rest of the family in on this sooner, they wouldn’t be in this situation. His pride got the better of him, so he kept quiet. He only realized in hindsight what a mistake that was.

Time only stumbled across Oil’s plan to go in the first place because his nightmares kept him awake, and when trying to take a walk, he overheard Oil and Auto speaking. He was almost grateful for his nightmares of the MKNs hurting him over and over again, though it still cost him too much sleep for him to say he was thankful.

Still, he was much better than when he was brought in from the MKN onslaught, he could help Oil get his parts at the very least. Quietly armoring up, Time teleported to Dr. Wily’s former base, figuring that tracking him down shouldn’t be too hard.

Dr. Wily’s first base. Time didn’t have many good memories of the place, with the exception of the first thing in his registry being recognizing Oil. Though, Time wasn’t here to reminisce, so he pushed the thoughts and memories out of his head and focused on the task at hand. He had to find Oil, preferably before he got inside the base, and try to help him.

Thankfully, there was really only one entrance to Wily’s base. Unless if Oil was skating in, Time figured he should be able to catch him before he got inside.

As predicted, his search didn’t take very long. It was simply a matter of running ahead and looking both ways, and less than a minute of that led him to Oil… in a less than stellar manner. Crashing right into him was not how Time planned for this to go, but hey, he found him!

          Maybe that wasn’t entirely true. Obviously, they had Dr. Light, and Oil Man was going to be relying on their father to be the one to install the missing parts when he brought them back. Dr. Kouin was one of the few tolerable and non-Emerald-Spearsy scientists working at the Chronos Institute and the only one really vouching for Time Man. But then again, even Dr. Kouin had made the mistake of calling Time a project, as though he weren’t a living and thinking being. And not just that, but a child.

          He’d pay back Auto for the info he’d dug out of Dr. Light’s systems sometime, but right now Oil had a much more important mission to handle. Reasonable deduction told him that since Flash Man wasn’t designed the same way as Time Man (thanks, Mega Man’s weapon files); and if Dr. Wily didn’t bring those necessary parts with him while running after his first try at world domination, then those parts would have to still be in the storage space of his first castle.

          Sure, maybe that was making a few leaps of logic, but considering the kind of forgetful moron Dr. Wily was (when he wasn’t being outright malicious, or building ‘bots that were outright malicious, COUGH the MMK COUGH), they were fair leaps to make. He had a map, an E-Tank if needed, and he stood in front of the big, wide entrance for a moment to go through that map in his brain. The faster he got those parts, the bet–

          Something bumped right into his back, as though someone small and punctual had not been looking where he was going. Oil turned around to see his little brother in his armoured mode, having stumbled, getting back onto his feet.

"I overheard you and Auto talking, and I... wanted to help," Time said a little hesitantly. He wasn't used to the anxiety he was now feeling, but he wouldn't let it stop him. "We don't know what's in there, so I'd rather you not... go alone."

I wanted to doodle a casual Time Baby Man based on some of the Sims 2 mods I’ve been downloading

Also because there’s not enough black Time in the world and I need to make up for my years of Foolishness in this regard. Maybe at some point I’ll follow up with Oil in more formal clothes than I usually draw him with o uob

Time Man! Now racebent, because well. Considering how hard we brOTP Time and Oil and always AU them as blood siblings virtually every time we do AU them, Boo and I should have decided this sooner.

Somebody’s late, probably. Funny enough, I’m not so sure it’s Oil, because Oil would be graced with a response.

Time stared at the message for quite a while, wonder if he should respond, and why. Clearly this was about one of his Japanese animations not living up to its original manga source, but was it really worth responding with any sort of curiosity?

> Since you’ve already messaged me, you might as well tell me what show it is.

Apparently, it was.

          oh! oops, guess he was starting conversation with his original now. well, he wouldn’t complain– he kind of wanted to rant, anyway.

> I never watched the anime you're speaking of, and it sounds like I shouldn't. Not many can emulate him, I suppose.

> I assume you won't be watching it anymore.

Time continued working as he sent messages to his original. It was somewhat nice to speak to someone while he was busy, someone who he didn't have to instantly respond to anyway. He doubted his copy expected much of anything from him. ... though, perhaps it was best to warn him about that.

>     ugghhh it’s so bad!!!!! i knew it was never gonna be as good as the manga but they’re such bakas!!!!   (╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻ >     … oops >     that wasn’t meant for you   ┬──┬ ノ( ゜-゜ノ)

> Since you've already messaged me, you might as well tell me what show it is.

> Up to you. > I’ll take my lunch now, then. Don’t skimp out on anything.

He was right, of course. It's not like Rap would randomly disappear, he hoped.

He wasn't expecting the noogie, however.

"H-hey!" he exclaimed, more out of surprise than anything. He let out a chuckle at his brother's explanation and relaxed.

> You’ve been doing that less lately, anyway. > Oh, the legalities that will ensue for those. It’s a good thing you aren’t involved, that sort of thing can take years to resolve. Courts aren’t designed to be time efficient. > Are you wrapping things up about now? Or what stage of the clean up process are you in?

> That explains why you were out of the house.

> I’ll take lunch whenever you think you’ll have that spill taken care of. It’s not that bad, right?

> That explains why you were out of the house.