Working with Dr. Light was an assistant named Dr. Wily. Basing their work off Dr. Light’s first success, the two began to design a series of industrial humanoid robots, known as “Robot Masters,” that would oversee tasks too dangerous for human beings. Each of these robots was given a “Man” designation. It was thus decided to give Dr. Light’s first creation such a name as well. Dr. Wily dubbed him “Protoman” since he was the prototype, and this name was used for some time. Dr. Light, however, decided he really didn’t like the name and thus changed it to Break Man.
Break Man was equipped with two plasma welding torches, one built into each arm. He also had a visored helmet and a welding shield made of a rare new material Dr. Light had developed. Break Man helped around at the lab, although mostly giving aid to his creator Dr. Light; he tended to avoid Dr. Wily when possible and the attitude was mutual.
The Robot Master plans were still in their development phase when something went wrong. An accident in the lab resulted in a terrible explosion of light and energy. Break Man shielded his creator from the blast and protected him. When Dr. Light could see again, Break Man was gone.
Dr. Light searched but could not locate to where his robot had been teleported off. Finally, the scientist constructed another one. This one he called Rock.
Rock was identical to Break Man in almost every way except he did not have the welding torches built into his arms, and thus he also lacked the special helmet and shield as he had no need of them. Rock was designed to be a tool-user; he could use any tool placed into his hands with extreme effeciency. Additionally, Dr. Light, saddened by his loss of Break Man, decided to continue to treat Rock something like his family rather than letting him become a lab tool as Dr. Wily seemed so wont to do. Thus, Rock did not officially receive a “Man” designation; although Dr. Wily often called him “Rock Man,” to Dr. Light he remained just plain “Rock.” A short while later Dr. Light rounded out his personal little family with a female housekeeping robot named Roll, and for a while things were peaceful.
Construction on the six Robot Masters began soon thereafter. As each was finished it was added to the log and given a numeral designation. After a while, with Rock helping cheerfully, the two scientists finally completed the final Robot Master.
And that was when things went south.
Dr. Light was never sure what exactly had happened. Dr. Wily apparently had a mishap in the lab resulting in a good bit of damage, but the scientist himself disappeared. Not long thereafter, Dr. Light was surprised to find that the six Robot Masters had vanished as well. A couple of hours later they turned up in a horrible way: they were using the worker robots they were supposed to supervise to take over key areas by force. Rock then further shocked the good-natured scientist when he told his creator that Dr. Wily had reprogrammed the six Robot Masters and had tried to take Rock Man as well. But luckily Rock had been able to resist the reprogramming long enough to save him.
Stunned that his former companion would do something of this scale, Dr. Light was lost for ideas for a moment. That’s when Rock suggested he try to free the land from the grips of the Robot Masters. Dr. Light frowned at the idea for a second—after all, Rock was only a small tool-user!—but soon he agreed to the proposal. The scientist remodified his robot a little, adding the same sort of plasma cannons he’d given Break Man, except altered so that they could fire plasma as pulse shots rather than merely cutting with it. He also gave Rock a helmet and some armor and altered Rock’s tool-using capabilities to extend to all existing and imaginable weapons. Finally, he renamed him “Mega Man” and sent him after Dr. Wily.
Mega Man’s quest proved successful and he stopped Dr. Wily’s short crusade. However, somehow the scientist was able to create eight more Robot Masters, these designed with only the intent to take over everything. (Rumor has it Wily was pardoned from jail.) When Dr. Light found out, he knew Mega Man would have to go back to battle again, but there were eight Robot Masters this time, and they were all designed to fight! Mega Man would need an edge. Building another robot would take much too much time, but luckily Dr. Light had recently completed his experimental Transometer machine. He attempted to clone Mega Man so that there would be two robots to do battle instead of one.
Of course something went wrong.
Instead of creating a clone, the machine ended up altering Mega Man by turning him into a living machine. Suddenly the robot could experience many of the emotions that humans take for granted. He could also feel pain, and could think like any other human being. His schematic was also forever changed; his body, though still made of metal, was now operating in a way that was seemingly impossible—it was acting like a human’s body. Even Dr. Light never fully understood it all.
However, the fact remained, and Mega Man insisted on taking on Wily even though he now had several things (like fear!) trying to hold him back. It was definitely an experience for him, but Mega Man was able to stop Dr. Wily despite all of the things that were new and strange to him.
In the days that passed Dr. Light tried to make his living creation more comfortable. He constructed a house for Mega Man and a robot dog he named Rush. Things were looking up. Even Dr. Wily seemed to have changed from his evil ways, and always one to forgive, Dr. Light once again began working with Dr. Wily just like the old days. Together the two began work constructing a giant peace-keeping robot named Gamma. It would (supposively) prevent the events of the past from ever happening again.
However, some of the mining Robot Masters went berserk and began driving out all humans. Since Dr. Light and Dr. Wily needed special crystals from those mines to complete Gamma, Mega Man was sent to retrieve them. As it turned out, Dr. Wily was (of course) behind it all, and as soon as he had all of the crystals he stole Gamma and tried to use it to conquer the land.
Something else entered the picture right then, throwing a curveball on the entire plot. Break Man!
Break Man had been searching for his creator all this time and finally managed to make it back to the proper dimension. However, because he was gone for so long, he was thus behind on events; he didn’t know who Mega Man was and he didn’t realize that Dr. Wily was evil! Both of these almost caused him to join Wily’s side, but then he discovered the truth and turned against the scientist—something he wouldn’t have been able to do except for one small detail—he happened to have accidently turned himself into a living machine along the way. The new freedom that being alive gave him allowed him to make his own decisions even though he didn’t even realize at the time that this is what he was doing.
Mega Man’s victory over Gamma was short-lived; Dr. Wily’s fortress bagan to crumble and both the blue bomber and the evil scientist were buried under the collapsed ceiling. Break Man arrived in time to save Mega Man, but he never saw Dr. Wily and thought the scientist had escaped. It wasn’t until it was too late that they all realized the scientist had been crushed.
Now that Dr. Wily was dead, an entire year was able to pass in peace. Then a message arrived in Dr. Light’s lab—another scientist was angry at Mega Man and his creator and wanted to do away with the blue bomber forever. This new scientist, Dr. Cossack, had perfect timing (not) because Mega Man had only days earlier gotten the wish he’d been wishing for a long time—he was now fully human.
Through a lot of arguing, Mega Man managed to convince his creator to turn him back into a robot so he could go after Dr. Cossack. Dr. Light did so reluctantly, and though he was able to preserve Mega Man’s living status, he still hates himself for agreeing. He would have sent Break Man, but the red-clad robot had left only days earlier to find the Warp of Life that had changed Mega Man into a human. With no other option, Dr. Light agreed.
There is a lot more to Mega Man’s adventures, but I’m not going to much farther here because the books in The Series begin to pick up right about here. The end result is that Dr. Wily was (again) behind it all, and though Break Man wasn’t able to help much in the beginning, he did get back in time to free Dr. Cossack’s daughter (and Dr. Wily’s bargining chip!) before any serious damage was done. The news Break Man brought back with him, though, was grim. The Warp of Life had been mysteriously destroyed.
The rest of the Mega Man games, as well as the books in The Series, follow the saga of the humanoid robot named Mega Man as he battles the wacky creations of Dr. Wily. The fact that Mega Man is a living machine gives him a definite edge—he can think and make decisions and very effectively shake the reprogramming that prevents any other robots from ever trying to defeat Dr. Wily since the scientist is so good at reprogramming. For more information try the Book List, which gives a time line of both the Mega Man games and the books in the series. This enables you to understand when everything happened and provides a few more (or at least different) details.
Read on!