DCN-008 Skull Man



''When Dr. Wily framed Dr. Cossack, he had the Russian scientist design Skull Man to be the ideal warrior, with evenly balanced defense, offense and speed. Skull Man's inborn knack for battle made him resourceful and cruel. Skull Man's battle-hardened personality makes it possible for him to survive any kind of hardship, though it's said he has a bad taste. He loves horror movies and dislikes fussiness.'' - Robot Master Field Guide

"I've actually published a collection of my favorite death threats. I think I'll use it to beat you to death, for the sake of comedy." - Skull Man

WARNING: The following information is not neccesarily canon.

History
DWN-032 was an original design by Dr. Albert Wily - plans for a well-balanced Robot Master that could adapt to any combat scenario, the newest idea he'd had in his attempt to counter Rock Man's superior versatility and programming. He placed the burden of actually building the machine in the hands of the Russian machinist Mikhail Cossack, whom Wily had employed by kidnapping his young daughter Kalinka and holding her hostage. Out of spite, Dr. Cossack made 032 into everything he hated about modern robotics; it was given a fearsome appearance and an AI that focused almost exclusively on malice and destruction. This suited Wily's needs just fine, however, and the weapon - dubbed Skull Man - was put to work, meant to defend a communications relay that helped Wily send orders to the other Cossack Numbers from his base on the moon.

After Mega Man's eventual conquest of Wily's forces, the Cossack Numbers were all revived and repaired, able to be a family again. With the exception of Skull Man, who was left broken and inactive. Mikhail, too afraid of his own creation to disassemble it, left Skull Man to gather dust in a back room of Cossack Fortress.

A decade passed; Skull Man suddenly woke to the smiling face of a much older Kalinka Cossack, her father at a nearby computer terminal, busily editing his core programming as best he could. Not everything about Skull Man could be changed; there was a malicious program buried deep within him, Death.EXE, that couldn't be removed without destroying his entire personality core. Still, enough was changed that Skull Man as able to slowly come to terms with his new reality. He had become a retired soldier, an errand boy and a farmer, and a bodyguard to the only Cossack heir.

Over much time, Skull Man came to peace with himself, making friends with robots from outside his home. Splash Woman was the first, a robot from similar background, one not used to the brand new world that had been closed off to her all but recently. Galaxy Man was second, a robot that seemed to shut himself off from the outside world by choice. Third was Rock himself, a civilian turned soldier, a path that Skull found himself walking through on the opposite direction. He even made acquaintances with the extraterrestrial entities known as the Stardroids, all-powerful rulers of the galaxy. Predictably, this is where the situation turned south.

Rock Man unwittingly transferred a virus to Skull Man meant to reset personality cores and revert Robot Masters to their original programming. The firewalls held in place protected Skull and kept Death.EXE from becoming active again, but it didn't keep him from spreading the virus; it was passed to the Stardroid Taurus, already weak from another illness. Taurus collapsed, seemingly dead, and Skull fled the scene. Fear consumed him and he allowed the madness to take hold, taking up the mantle of Death once more.

The Stardroid Mars was dispatched to find and subdue Death, aided by Gemini Man. The fight was almost at a standstill, but Mars overwhelmed Death with superior firepower, and Skull Man was brought to trial on Mars for Taurus' murder. The defeat had put Death into stasis, allowing Skull to speak for himself. The situation was uneasy and looked bad for Skull, until a revived Taurus arrived to announce his plans to take over Earth. High Lord Sunstar pardoned Skull Man on the condition he bring Taurus back to his senses. With the aid of Galaxy Man, Commando Man, and Rock Man, Taurus was brought down, Mars striking the finishing blow.

But Death remained, and seemed determined to force Skull to live in fear, a prisoner of his own mind. Flash Man was able to install new firewalls to keep Death in check, but the call of other, more powerful entities, proved too much for it. Mars' long-lost son, hidden in the body of Shadow Man, made his presence known, and a fearsome demon of unknown name but bottomless rage haunted Tengu Man. Skull Man repurposed Death.EXE to act as an antivirus program and 'devoured' the entities into his own body, bringing the three together in one place. He didn't sleep well for a few weeks, until the Stardroid Mars offered him respite.

It became apparent that Mars was not acting of his own accord, but rather haunted by a spirit known as War, much more powerful than the simple virus. War took the demons from Skull's body and brought them together as one, reviving his lost son inside Skull's body, the true Heir of Mars. An arrogant but patient child, the new Death was convinced he would be the end of the universe, and even the end of Sunstar. It was still some relief for Skull, no longer having to worry if he might accidentally slaughter his loved ones.

Using the new Death's power, Skull murdered the current Mercury, Death taking offense at Mercury's lewd behavior, claiming it belittled the Stardroid Empire, of which he was quite proud to be a part of. In a Starscream kind of way. With that task done, Sunstar decided he had little use left for the Horsemen, and set about plans to eradicate them.

Death quiet for some time, Skull was able to continue his normal life. He was able to grow closer to Kalinka, who he realized he might love deeper than a guardian loves a charge; her happiness and his desire to see such happiness became his only desire. When he confessed this to her, she refused to accept it, still seeing Skull only a machine, one of her father's creations. She challenged him to prove that he could behave as a human, and he agreed without knowing how to actually do so.

Skull discovered soon after that she was carrying secrets of her own; she was following in her father's footsteps, working to become a genius machinist, though decidedly uninterested in robotics. They struck a deal - Skull would act as the test subject for her mechanical industrial workers, ideal for the task as a Robot Master, and in exchange she would share a few evenings out with him.

As a Christmas gift, Skull constructed a scrapbook of ideas and designs and anecdotes from many famous machinists around the world, including a few he personally knew. A rare photograph slipped into it - the beta program that would eventually become Proto Man, and indeed every Robot Master the proceeded him. Trying to understand it drove her crazy, until she was determined to visit its source: Dr. Albert Wily.

Making a quick excuse to her father of a far-off art camp, Kalinka and Skull made a surprise visit to Skull Fortress, assaulting it with Kalinka's pet mech suit. This didn't do good things for Skull's relationship with Splash Woman, whom he hand-delivered to Skull Fortress several years prior, but seemed to put him on good terms with Forte, who had not met many robots capable of beating him in a fight.

After much squabbling, Kalinka stayed behind at the Fortress, Skull staying behind to safeguard her in a strange and dangerous place. Skull convinced Splash to forgive him, but the mermaid was still cold and bitter towards Kalinka.

And then Sunstar came, issuing a challenge to Death. Within only a few minutes, the fight was over, Skull's body being unable to even get close to Sunstar. Skull was melted, destroyed. Dead. He got better, though. Sunstar rebuilt him with a Stardroid-class body, Skull Man now as close to the humans he seemed to enjoy so much as he could ever be, and without Death to loom over him.

Fully and totally free, Skull Man was able to confess a second time to Kalinka -- keeping Death's existence a secret still -- and she admitted to growing feelings for him as well. Neither of them knew how to proceed from that point, however, and instead decided to focus on Kalinka's studies at the Fortress until they were foced to deal with it.

Personality
Skull Man was designed to intimidate and instill fear; as such, he tends to speak and behave in a very melodramatic way, even when not performing his 'duties.' He's naturally stealthy, able to sneak past most entities without really trying simply by not trying. He also overreacts to most embarrassing situations, death threats coming easily to him, and suicide notes when the situation is particularly 'bad.' The idea of either physical or emotional love are particular weaknesses for him, those ideas not coming to him as easily as others in his new, less-destructive mindset. When confronted with such situations, he will either attempt to flee or simply draw his scythe on the source of the problem, very protective of those he considers a friend or family.

More than anyone or anything else, Skull fears himself, even after Death's defeat. He tends to shy away from others, though isn't unsociable; he'll attend if invited. The second greatest fear is disappointing or upsetting Kalinka, her opinion meaning the world to him.

Normally morbid, this grows exponentially when Skull Man consumes too much alcohol, his morbidity bordering on depression and fatalism.

Relationships

 * Mikhail Cossack - Skull's maker and effectual Father. Skull didn't 'grow up' with him as the other Cossack Numbers did, and was built out of spite, a walking reminder of Dr. Cossack's failure to protect his family from Wily's machinations. This, and his apparent greater loyalty to Kalinka rather than Mikhail, places an unspoken tension between them, though Skull still cares for him greatly.


 * Kalinka Cossack - The most important person in Skull's life, and a decidedly fragile human, though she would claim contrary, and he would still fight anyone who didn't agree with her. She was the true conspirator of his rebirth, and the smile he saw when he first woke up was the first he'd ever seen - that smile is all-important to him.


 * DWN-067 Splash Woman - Skull's oldest friend and typical drinking companion. They helped teach each other about the new world they'd found themselves in, though realized a little too late how compatible they were. By the time the idea of a true relationship between them made itself known, they were already committed to others, and decided to simply remain friends.


 * DLN-072 Galaxy Man - Skull's adventuring buddy and second closest companion. Whenever trouble brewed for either, they always went to each other first for help, with the after-party usually hosted at Galaxy's home and consisting of B-Grade sci-fi and horror film marathons. Skull's realizing of greater inner-peace and Galaxy's slow mental instability setting in, as well as their differing policies regarding the Stardroids on top of busy schedules, has put some distance between them, but nothing another movie night couldn't repair.


 * DWN-014 Flash Man - A Robot Master Skull only begrudgingly admits is a good friend of his. Flash Man started as lewd and unreliable, but he seemed to change over time, his actions deteriorating into playful and mischievous. He's gone out of his way to help Skull in every way he could in the past, forcing Skull to admit he was grateful for the pervert's existence. Flash is actually the only other robot in the fortress he would trust with Kalinka's safety, knowing that Flash had no intention of letting Skull come after him looking for revenge in case something happened to her.

Themes

 * Anvil Chorus - Il Trivatore


 * Wandering Star - Kid Beyond


 * I Shall Be Free - Kid Beyond