A Different Place

Chapter 36 - What's Her Problem?

"Eeep!" The small sound slipped out of Tron as she saw her MegaMan and that little strumpet start to emerge from the library. Tron dashed around the corner, tripping over a small blue-and-yellow obstruction in her path. Tron growled as she picked herself up out of the grass. "Watch where you're going, you---"

"Oh, there you are, Miss Tron! You'll never guess what we did at the bank!" Number Sixteen looked incredibly proud of himself, even from Tron's less than ideal viewing position. He was holding a nondescript briefcase in his hand.

"What are you three doing here?" Tron demanded as she began dusting herself off.

"You told us to meet you here, Miss Tron," Number Three reminded her.

MegaMan and that oafish girl might come around the corner any second. "Wait here a little longer, then, and if anyone asks, I was never here, got it?!"

"Roger!" all three Servbots replied.

Tron ran to the closest building, ducking behind a trash can to observe her quarry unnoticed. MegaMan and the floozy were just rounding the corner. Whew! She had made it. Luckily, this time she could finally hear what those two were talking about!

"So, is this Dantz the one that was flying the ship when it hit the wall?" MegaMan asked.

"That's right," said the girl. Even her voice sounded cheap. "He just turned nineteen, he's pretty tall, and he really likes himself. A lot. He is a pretty good Digger, though."

MegaMan swallowed. "But, are you and he---what I mean is, is he your---"

"Oh, hello, Mister MegaMan, sir!" said Servbot Number Twenty-One, forestalling the answer to the question both Tron and MegaMan wanted to hear. "How are you doing?"

MegaMan looked a little uncomfortable. "Uh, hello, Number Twenty-One. What are you guys doing here?"

Tron was beginning to notice that the particular trash can which she was hiding behind had a singular fragance. In fact, it was beginning to smell as if someone had dumped ten pounds of old, rotten fish directly into the can without any liner or trash bag whatsoever.

"Well," said Number Twenty-One, "we're waiting here for Miss Tr---"

Number Sixteen clapped his free hand over his brother Servbot's mouth. "We're just hanging around," he said quickly.

"That's right," said Number Three, whose stomach was beginning to growl. "Miss Tron wasn't just here talking to us, that's for sure!"

Tron rubbed her head, which was beginning to ache. "Those idiots!" she mourned softly.

"Um, okay," said MegaMan. "This is my new friend, Roll. Say hello to the Servbots!"

The little cow grinned. "Oooooh! You guys are so cute!" She reached down to grip Number Three in a suffocating hug. This, Tron thought, was simply too much. She was already trying to muscle in on her territory with MegaMan, and now she was lavishing her affections on Tron's Servbots, too? And this trash can just smelled horrible! She had expected to get used to the odor as time went by, but it just seemed to be getting more and more pungent.

Number Twenty-One seemed excited. "Guess what we did, Mister MegaMan, sir!"

MegaMan spread his hands. "What?"

"Well," began Twenty-One, "Miss Tron told us to check out the bank here in the city---"

"---so we talked to one of the tellers there," continued Number Three, a little hoarsely due to the fact that Roll was still hugging him tightly and grinning.

"And we got a loan for one million zenny so we could open our own restaurant!" finished Number Sixteen proudly, showing off the nondescript briefcase to MegaMan.

"You did what?!" Tron demanded, stepping out from her concealment. "One million zenny?!! I should have known better than to let you go out on your own! When we get back to the Gesellscheft, all three of you are really gonna get it!"

"Uh, M-Miss Tron," said Number Sixteen, pretending very poorly at being surprised to see her, "w-what are you doing here? I haven't seen you in the last fifteen minutes! I swear!" Even though he was in trouble, the overachieving Servbot was still trying his best to maintain the facade.

"I don't care about that anymore!" Tron shouted. "What did you think you were doing, getting a loan for a million zenny? At what terms? Did you check the percentage rate?"

Number Sixteen looked blankly at Tron. 'Ummmm..."

Tron stomped her right foot. "Ooooh, how did the bank ever loan that much money to you!? I oughta knock all three of you into next week!"

"Who are you?" asked the blond hussy, holding Number Three protectively. "Why are you being so mean to them? What are you, a monster?" The Servbot seemed to be enjoying himself despite the large amount of hot water he was currently in.

"I'll deal with you later, you little tart!" Tron snapped. Then, turning her attention to Number Three, she threatened, "You'd better hope that you can just take the money back today or I'll have to---"

"Stop it!" hollered Roll. "Just stop it! What is your problem?"

"Aren't you a little too...heavy to be wearing that outfit?" Tron asked slyly, looking at Roll's bare midriff and tight shorts. "If I had your frame, I wouldn't be comfortable wearing clothes that revealing until I'd lost, oh, fifteen or twenty pounds."

This taunt made the cheap little number lose her temper, and she flung away Number Three, launching herself at Tron. Tron laughed as she caught the girl's arms. She was a little strong, it was true, but surely she didn't work out as much as Tron did! Still, the girl was really mad, and that gave her a certain strength. It was too bad that she couldn't control her temper like Tron.

"Both of you, cut it out!" MegaMan called, interspersing himself between the combatants. "I think you're both overreacting. Tron, I'm sure the Servbots can pay back their loan if they need to. Roll, Tron doesn't really want to hurt them. She's just a little peeved, that's all."

"Overreacting!?" Tron screamed at the same time Roll yelled, "A little PEEVED?!" Then each looked at the other. "Slut!" they both shouted.

MegaMan had to use all of his massive might to hold the two apart. "Listen, you both need to take a time---"

A huge black shadow draped itself across the library, the three buildings surrounding it, and, basically, over the entire southern half of the downtown area. The chugging of a powerful engine was heard as one of the ugliest, largest weapons any of the three had even seen climbed over the city wall.

"---out," finished MegaMan as he, Tron, and Roll stared in fascination at the huge combat vehicle.

"I think something might be happening downtown, Dantz---errrerrrggh!" Quackard said as he and Dantz made their way toward the Kattleox Island police station. They heard a huge crash coming from the area of the city they had just left.

"That's not important right now," Dantz said as they climbed the hill that led to the city's administrative district. "We've got to get Barrel out of jail so we can leave this crazy island. We'll pick up Roll on the way out, run back to the Flutter, and take off. We can do our repairs somewhere else."

Quackard had heard Dantz's tale of how twenty police cruisers had driven up to the Flutter, then a group of black-uniformed officers had attacked the ship, dragging Barrel away in nothing but his bathrobe. Dantz had said the officers promised that the old Digger would be spending the rest of his life in the deepest, darkest corner of their prison for ramming his skyship into their city wall. The Birdbot wasn't sure whether Dantz was telling him all the facts correctly, though.

Still, better safe than sorry, Quackard figured. He and Dantz had loaded up with weapons and made for the police building with all haste. Quackard only hoped they wouldn't be getting themselves into even more trouble. He saw Dantz heading for the ornately decorated building in the center of the upper level.

"Keh! Hey, isn't that the police station over there?" He pointed to the large, tall, square building marked "Police" with several police cars parked around it.

"No," said Dantz as though Quackard had just suggested the stupidest idea he'd ever heard. "There are two police officers in front of this building; therefore it must be the police station."

"Yeah, I don't think that that's true," Quackard said as the two warriors of justice neared the building's entrance.

"Have a nice afternoon," one of the uniformed policemen said, tipping his hat as Dantz and Quackard burst through the double doors. Dantz turned around quickly, clocking the officer in the back of his head. The policeman collapsed, unconscious. Then, Dantz repeated the process with the other police officer guarding the door, who had just looked on ineffectively while his partner had been knocked out.

"All right," Dantz said as he entered the building, pointing his Dantz Blaster threateningly, "where is Barrel Caskett? He'd better be released right away, or I'll have to---"

"Dantz, what do you think you're doing?"

Dantz's eyes widened. "Barrel! You're okay!"

"Of course I'm okay, you dolt!" Barrel was sitting next to a pretty older lady on a bench in what Quackard had correctly assumed was not the police station at all. And of course, the old Digger was still wearing his mauve bathrobe. "Did you think they were going to torture me or something?"

"Well," Dantz said, "yeah, sort of."

"Amelia," said Barrel, "let me introduce Dantz. He's a bit of a doofus, but he's quite a good Digger."

"Hey!"

"Keh-keh!" Quackard squawked as a reminder of his presence.

"And this is my good friend, Quackard." Quackard bowed to the woman gracefully. "He's a Birdbot," Barrel explained unnecessarily. "Boys, this is Mayor Amelia Davis."

"Wow, the mayor?" said Dantz in disbelief.

"You're a Digger, eh?" said Amelia. "You were obviously very determined, if you were going to attack City Hall to rescue Professor Barrel."

"He thought we were attacking the police station---errerrrrlllh!"

"Shut up!" Dantz told Quackard.

Amelia looked thoughtful. "It's that type of determination I want to see in the eyes of the Digger who finally goes to explore the Sub-Gates..." The mayor's thought was interrupted by a noisy explosion coming from outside.

"Mayor!" called a policeman, clearly not one of the ones Dantz had knocked out earlier, as he rushed into City Hall, "There's a huge robot downtown, and it looks like it may be attacking!"

"Pirates?" Amelia said.

"That's bad news," said Barrel.

Dantz raised the Dantz Blaster in a heroic pose. "Maybe we should go check it out!"

"Hee hee!" Glyde cackled from the cockpit of the Enarban Fell as the war machine skittered over the ancient walls of Kattleox City. "Now that we've finally gotten the Enarban Fell out of the ocean, this island is OURS!"

Birdbots were scattered around the inside and outside of the vehicle. Those that were in the Enarban Fell's interior were busying themselves with the minute-by-minute maintenance the giant mechanical conveyance would need to continue its operation, while the others had armed themselves with whatever weapons had been left from the I.A.S. Glyde's fateful crash.

"Give me all your valuables!" Glyde called through the public address system. "Maybe I won't destroy your entire city if there's enough booty! Haaaa Hah!"

"Sir, look at the screen---keh keh!"

"Hm?" Glyde pulled his attention to the three figures huddled on the viewscreen. "Oh, my! Is that little Miss Tron Bonne? And the delightful Roll Caskett with her?" He peered a little more closely. That taller one wasn't a Servbot, it was... "Oh, and Teisel's cute friend, too! Looks like it's time for a little payback, my dears!" Glyde stood up, raising his fist dramatically. "Ready the Force Cannon!"

"Keh-keh, sir!" answered a Birdbot affirmatively, pulling three switches, pushing two buttons, and turning one crank three-quarters of a complete circle. "Ready to fire!"

"On my command," Glyde said, keeping the delicious tension going for a few more seconds. "And....FIRE!"

The Birdbot pressed the firing stud, but instead of seeing a beautiful, bright, blue ray that would turn all of Glyde's enemies into squishy paste, the pirate heard a sputtering sound, then a crackling, and the all of the lights in the Enarban Fell's cockpit went dark.

"What happened?!" Glyde asked angrily.

"We've lost power, sir!"

"I know that, you moron! What specifically happened?"

Suddenly some of the display lights, including the Enarban Fell's viewscreen, flickered back to life. One of the Birdbots, after checking his readings, called out, "Sir, it looks like two of the anterior gyroscopic devices have---errrk---been flooded with seawater!"

"Have the Birdbots outside get to work on repairing it," Glyde ordered. "In the meantime, can we move or attack?"

"Ummm, keh! It would appear not."

Glyde groaned. "So it looks like we're stuck here until---"

"Sir, the viewscreen!"

The tall pirate turned his attention to the screen, where a blond woman and a familiar-looking old Digger in a bathrobe were waving at him. "Hello, there, Glyde!" the old man called.

Glyde picked up the public address microphone. "Why, if it isn't Barrel Casket!" Bluffing, he added, "Tell me why I shouldn't pound you into a pulp right now, old man!"

"We have a proposition you might be interested in!" said the old Digger.

"Really?" Glyde sounded interested, but the only thing he was actually interested in was buying time for the Birdbots to repair the Enarban Fell so he could get back to the business of laying waste to the town. "What is it?"

"I assume you're interested in Digging in the closed-off Ruins on this island," said the blond woman. "Isn't that why you're attacking the city? So we'll grant you access to the Sub-Gates?"

"Err...yes," said Glyde over the public address. Clicking it off, he spread his hands and cast an inquisitive glance at the Birdbots, who apparently also knew nothing of these particular Ruins. Glyde shrugged and got back on the PA speaker, lying through his teeth. "Looks like you've seen through my plans yet again, Barrel. Yes, I do want to Dig in these...um, Sub-Grates...I mean, Gates. What's it to you?"

"We have a idea you might find interesting and lucrative," said the blond woman.