Protoman

>I realized that our lives are like, super long, cause we aren’t made of meat. So you gotta find that special bot to watch your back. 

>Ever since I got this upgrade and my cores been sorta normal, its given me alotta time to reflect on the future. Which is weird, cause I hate thinking about the future. 

>Do you think we’re gonna live a long time? I mean I don’t want to die, but don’t we only last as long as humans let us? That’s why I hate thinking about the future too. But I’m glad your core’s normal, we need you around.

>Man, saying this out loud to anyone other then Light is weird...

>But yeah we can live for as long as we want, and it never has to be determined by anyone but you. Now that I’m Doctor Lights lab assistant again, I’ve actually been re uploading the manuals on maintenance and all that jazz. I zipped it all when I gave up...well more like abandoned my life in a fit on unsure confusion. Never thought I’d need it again really, but never wanted to delete it. 

>I can tell you, its surreal as heck to be holding up flashlights or doing calculations for Doctor Light like I used to when I was young. Mostly he has me do all the stuff he can’t, like crawl under stuff, pick things up and put the little screws back in the right order. 

>But hey man, Lights bad at left overs, so if you can get to it before Con does, help yourself. B) 

>It’s just if you start letting more and more DWNs in, the next thing you know we’ll have another house burned down. Can’t let them think it’s this easy to barge in!

>BLUES, you better not have Bass up in your room! I’ll shoo him out with Roll’s broom! 

>Alright, but seriously, if you have someone over just keep them out of Dad’s sight. 

>I realized that our lives are like, super long, cause we aren’t made of meat. So you gotta find that special bot to watch your back. 

>Ever since I got this upgrade and my cores been sorta normal, its given me alotta time to reflect on the future. Which is weird, cause I hate thinking about the future. 

What are 5th gens even doing in the city? The RPD might track you down.

It’s Christmas, Dad’s up and about and what do you think he’s gonna do if he sees a Wilybot in our kitchen making cookies or whatever stupid thing Star asked Roll?

>It’s just if you start letting more and more DWNs in, the next thing you know we’ll have another house burned down. Can’t let them think it’s this easy to barge in!

>BLUES, you better not have Bass up in your room! I’ll shoo him out with Roll’s broom! 

>Alright, but seriously, if you have someone over just keep them out of Dad’s sight. 

What are 5th gens even doing in the city? The RPD might track you down.

It’s Christmas, Dad’s up and about and what do you think he’s gonna do if he sees a Wilybot in our kitchen making cookies or whatever stupid thing Star asked Roll?

“Boo!” Blues drops down behind the ninja bot, covering his eyes with his hands, at the fortress after he’d made sure his network was paired with the wifi on the island. He was free now, he could go leave the Labs, and his first stop was Shadow. 

“Hey handsome, now that your boss is back, you still spying on everyone?” He whispers against the others earcap. Sneaking into Shadows little man hut was easy, the bot liked to make his house as authentically japanese as he could for being a robot made by a german. And that meant raised floors, crawling under the house was easy as cake. 

Both eyelids cracking open behind the DLN’s hands, Shadow quickly reached up to grab both of Blues’ wrists, ready to defend himself until the familiar voice rang through his audio receptors.

Blues.

His grip loosened, to now just barely holding him, and Shadow for a moment swore that he’d almost felt his core ache with gladness.

Their time at the prom last year had been tense, Blues finding that he’d given up on something important. In the hopes of chasing an impossible goal for no reason other then...well, Blues knew it had something to do with what he was compared to the other bots. But Shadow wasn’t like the other bots, he had always been something different.

“To be honest, its probably not the ideal situation, Light says I could pretty much explode and take out a few city blocks at any time. But, I couldn’t stand being in that house trapped for another minute.” He rubs at his elbow as he sits down in front of Shadow with a thud. 

“But I didn’t come here to bore you with my own personal problems, I missed you and wanted to make sure the other robots are treating you alright. I know Flash has monopolized the top of the food chain around here with the 2nd gens. Heats shown back up, and its that time of year where Percy sends dick pics to all the robots he thinks are girls. And I know the 3rd gens are a little fractured, and I just..wanted to make sure you were...safe.” He looks away, hiding his blush. 

He was right, and if this were another time maybe Cut would have been on his side too. Can’t ever trust DWNs, even when they act friendly. 

But maybe Rock’s too right. 

He shook his sadly head to his big bro’s questions before getting the door.  “She–He? They can’t do anything right now. They couldn’t even hurt me! I trust Jewel, he’s strong. Besides, Dad already knows that Copy’s here. …I think?”

“But… It’s Forte,” He stresses, staring wearily at the politically incorrect chili pepper. “He’s not one of Wily’s pushover Robot Masters or… or Toad Man. There’s no way Jewel could win a fight against him if he had to!” It wasn’t that Rock didn’t think he was weak by any means! The mining robot had given him a good run for his money a few years ago, but Forte was on a different level completely; that, and he didn’t want to come home to a burning house and a glittery smear left on the front walk.

“You know, this place is really racist… maybe that’s got something to do with why it’s Doctor Light’s favorite. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that he was bankrolling this place with his patronage alone.”

Shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket, Rock shrugged. Either way, it seemed like this was a losing battle and putting himself in a bad mood about it wasn’t going to fix anything.

“Alright, alright fine. Let’s just get some tacos.” A smile finally budged on Rock’s face.

He looked really excited, but looked at his little brothers and calmed down, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “But this does not, in no way mean, that I’m ditching you guys again. Okay? I’m here to stay, thick and thin, no more being…a coward.” He says, looking towards Rock. 

But none of that today.

The smile he gave his oldest brother was one of trust. “Yep, got it!” This was the guy that got him to Skull Fortress to extract damaged A.I. programming from his head. How could Cut judge him after that?

Or maybe he just didn’t want another problem.

“Wait a minute…” Rock mutters quietly to himself, hand pressed to his chin in thought before it dawned on him. 

“Was that the Copy robot!? What’s HE doing in the house?” He looks directly at Cut, hopeful for answers. “Tacos can wait. There’s no way I’m letting Copy and Forte just walk through the place like they own it.” Especially not while their maker was sleeping and blissfully unaware of the Wilybots’ presence. 

He looked really excited, but looked at his little brothers and calmed down, putting a hand on each of their shoulders. “But this does not, in no way mean, that I’m ditching you guys again. Okay? I’m here to stay, thick and thin, no more being...a coward.” He says, looking towards Rock. 

Looking toward the small crowd gathered in the doorway, Rock’s smile slowly faded into a look of confusion upon seeing the strange state his sister was in.

“…Roll?” He questioned, hesitating. He barely even noticed Forte announcing his departure.

The home security system not working suddenly made a lot more sense as accidental eye-contact was made with the SWN, and he was acknowledged with a nod. It was strange to see him again, after one night at the ‘prom’ and then entire year of not speaking, but the mining robot smiled politely anyway, offering a little wave.

He gave Rock a friendly nod to acknowledge him and that, yes, they’d return the chair. Then sideglanced Copy’s way, a little too eager to hear her mess up explaining herself.

Leaning back comfortably, it gave Cut the perfect seat to watch what ended as the most boring daytime television he ever seen. And believe him, he had to power through a lot of soaps in his life unwillingly. 

 He wasn’t gonna tell Forte to get the fuck out, as much as he wanted to, but luckily the SWN gtfo’d himself. Trying to read the look on Blues’ and Jewel’s face, he raised a brow.

“I rebooted 4 days ago, and since then I’ve used, on average, 250 GIGABITES of data, every 4 hours. Robots are not cell phones dude, I mean I can work with 8 gigs, and I’m definitely not spitting on your gift. This is amazing, but unless I’m in a wifi hot spot dude, I’ll use my 8gigs of data a month in like 4 minutes if I don’t shut down my personal data and that would leave me blind from most communications other then texting and...well unlimited talk, as well as from accessing the internet. Also the most important question of them all right now, is why in the 9 hecks do you even have a cell phone for?”