Love Is More Dangerous Than Reaverbots

Chapter 5 - We're Never Gonna Survive, Unless We Get A Little Crazy

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Somewhere on Forbidden Island, inside a specially built headquarters, Sera and Yuna were working at a complex computer. As they pushed different buttons, small arms inside a glass chamber moved in and out of a fogged area. Sera squealed with delight.

"They're almost done! They're almost done!" She leaped from her chair and began to dance. She is soon joined by Data. They both continued to dance for a while, until Sera suddenly realized what she was doing. "ARGH! I still can't control my emotional state. I'm acting like a. . . like a . . ."

"Like a carbon child?" Yuna suggested, trying to keep her amusement out of her voice, as she was aware that would offend Sera. "You haven't yet had enough time to adjust to not having the system to regulate your emotional state. Give yourself some time, you'll get it."

"How did you stand it, Yuna? How did you keep from going mad after you cut yourself off from the system?" Sera asked her.

"Not any better then you are." Yuna replied. "In fact, I was convinced I was going to have to reconnect to the system to spare my sanity. But then I merged with Matilda and. . ."

"That's it!" Sera shouted. "Merging with the carbon gave you a carbon's insight into emotions! That's what I need to do!"

"Now Sera, that would be unethical. Besides, I don't think it would work if you forced yourself on a carbon."

"Oh POOH!" Sera replied. Suddenly an alarm began to sound. Sera squealed and jumped on her chair. "What's that?"

"It is an alarm set to go off if Trigger is deactivated." Yuna said, as she studied a panel with a frown on her face.

"He's not dead, is he?" Sera asked.

"No, his self-repair is functioning, but he is not reactivating. How very odd. I suppose we'll have to go investigate. The problem is our airship only seats 2. Sera, would you mind riding back on Megaman's lap?"

"I most certainly will not! I'm a mother unit, not some child, despite how I may appear! You two go, I'll stay here and continue the work on our new shells."

"Alright, I guess that's what we'll have to do. See you later, Sera." Yuna said.

"Good bye." Sera responded, watching as they get into Yuna's small aircraft and fly away. Then she walked out of the lab, and headed toward some odd equipment that looked like it had been built out of odds and ends. Sera pulled a tarp off of something and rubbed her hands together in glee. "Finally get a chance to use this!"

Yuna and Data flew for some time, then landed on a small, unsettled island. They walked until they came to a pile of dirt & a large decorative rock. Yuna frowned as she looked at the device in her hand.

"According to these readings, Megaman should be right here." She said, and pointed to the pile of dirt. "Maybe if I calibrate it for a more detailed results." She pressed some buttons, then frowned at the screen, then looked with disbelief at the pile of dirt. "This says Megaman is right here, six feet down! Why the devil would anyone bury someo. . . Oh, I see. Some kind of carbon death ritual." Yuna looked at the pile of dirt with distaste. "Data. . . please tell me there's some kind of machine aboard the ship that can be used to displace all that dirt."

"Urm, no Mistress Yuna. But I do see. . ." Data replied, then dashed off into some shrubs, returning shortly with an old rusty shovel. "This!" He held it out proudly to Yuna.

"Oh great, I've got to dig him up now." Yuna sighed, then took the shovel and begins to dig. At first she dug in silence, but after she had hit her foot with the shovel she began to curse her frail carbon body, carbon death rituals, and especially whatever carbon had buried Megaman. Finally, after she had dug a hole so deep she can barely throw dirt out of it, her shovel hit something solid. "Oh good." Yuna said, quite out of breath. "They put him into a box."

"I believe the carbons call them 'caskets' Mistress Yuna." Data supplied helpfully

"Great." Yuna replied sarcastically. "Next time I'm definitely bringing Sera." Yuna continued as she slowly shoveled the remaining dirt off the casket. "Her shell is smaller, so she'd fit better into this stupid hole, and she wouldn't get as hot and sweaty as my carbon body has. WHEW!"

"Mistress Yuna, you don't think Sera would really try to join with a carbon, do you?" Data asked her nervously.

"I don't know what you're worried about, there are no carbons on Forbidden Island and she can't get to. . ." Yuna cut herself off and glanced at Data. From her place in the hole, they could look at each other eye to eye. "She doesn't have a way off Forbidden Island, does she Data?"

"Well, she might have built something. . . I think the carbons call them jet boats, or something. . ."

"Oh no! Well, we've got to activate Megaman and get to Yosyonke Island fast! That's the first island she'd encounter. . ." Yuna reached down with the shovel and pried the lid of the casket open. "No wonder he didn't reactivate, he didn't have any air." She tapped him on the head with the shovel. "Hey! Megaman! Wake up!"

"Huh, what? Tron!! Are you OK?" Megaman sat up quickly and glanced around crazily, looking for Tron. He looked at Yuna in confusion. "Yuna? What happened?"

"You got deactivated, and your carbon friends thought you were dead and buried you." Yuna replied, sounding exasperated. "Megaman, if you're going to hang around carbons, do me a favor and explain to them that when you shut down, you aren't dead, your self-repair units are just engaged! Because next time I'm not going to dig you up!! Now hurry, because we have to get out of here quick!" Yuna leaped out of the hole and started toward her ship.

Megaman followed, but stopped to look at the engraving on his tombstone. 'Beloved Friend', it said. "Beloved." Megaman thought, a smile on his face as he gets into the ship with Yuna. "Beloved."

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"Roll? Wake up! Please wake up, Roll!"

Roll slowly awoke, feeling sore and dizzy. She looked at the girl speaking, and suddenly everything came rushing back to her. "Adriana!!" Roll yelled as she rushed at her "You killed her, you crazy ..."

Roll is cut off as Adriana slammed her back down and then sat on her. "Listen you! All Tron did to you was steal a boyfriend! She stole my entire life from me! Back when I was nine or ten, my family were air-pirates. We were just starting to make a name for ourselves when the Bonnes came calling! They wrecked our ship and stole everything. Tron herself came into my room and stole. . . she stole. . ."

"This is a very moving story," Roll said, her voice sounding as crushed as her body was, "But could you please tell it when you aren't sitting on me?"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Adriana responded, stepping off Roll.

"So what did Tron steal from you?"

"SHE STOLE MY TEDDY, KOKO!!!!"

"Let me get this straight. . . you've spent your life persuing Tron because . . . because . . . she took your teddy?" Roll asked, unable to help herself, she began to laugh. "OW! Ugh, it hurts to laugh."

"Shut up! A my Koko is every bit as important as your stupid boyfriend! Anyhow, I'm going to go find him. Koko, I mean, not your boyfriend." Adriana announced, then began to march to the elevator.

Roll slowly got to her feet, moaning in pain. She had a black eye, and a number of scratches and bruises on her face. She yelled "Wait up." and joined Adriana in the elevator. The two made their way to Tron's room, and entered. Adriana immediatly began to search, tossing things about in her quest for Koko. Roll, on the other hand, sat on the bed, a sad look on her face. Suddenly, she stood up and reached under the mattress, finding a small black book. She looked at it in amazement, it was Tron's diary. She opened it to the first page. Tron's Diary, Volume 8 it said.

"She must make a new book for each year. What a good idea." Roll thought. She scanned through it, reading Tron's thoughts on various subjects. Tron's thoughts on Roll started to make her angry again, until she remembered that most of the drying blood on her blouse was Tron's. Tron's thoughts on Megaman, which started out confused, and then turned gushy enough to shock Roll, as she'd always thought of Tron as rather cold and emotionless. Toward the end she had even pledged to apologize to Roll for the pranks she had pulled in her Roll disguise.

Megaman was very angry with me today. I guess I've always been jealous of his relationship with Roll, and recently I've been downright nasty about it. Megaman told me Roll was his best friend, and he hated to see her hurt, even by me. So I'm going to do my best to be nice to Roll the next time I see her. Maybe we can even become friends. It would be nice to have a girl friend, someone I could confide in. Plus she could give me the dirt on all Megaman's bad habits!

Roll sighed and closed Tron's diary. Life had certainly been easier when Tron had just been this anonymous enemy. But now that she knew more about her, about her feelings. . . It just made everything hurt more.

"Where is it!? Where is my KOKO!!?" Adriana yelled, still tearing through Tron's things. She crawled under the bed and began throwing things out. Eight identical diaries appeared on the bed, along with various other items, none of them interesting.

Roll shook her head, winced in pain from that, then picked up one of the other diaries and opened it. Tron's Diary, Volume 1 "This must be her very first diary." Roll thought. She opened it, and began to read.

Teisel says that we are going to become famous air pirates, so I have decided to keep a diary, so that after I'm a famous air pirate, there will be a record of my exploits! Today Teisel, Bonne and I went on our very first vengeance raid! We finally caught up with those mean pirates who made mommy and daddy go away. We trashed their ship, and I even got a real pirate treasure, a bear! I took it myself, and I'm gonna keep it forever! We took all those pirate's stuff, and Teisel says those rotten Everwinters will never hurt anyone again.

Roll dropped the diary and gasped in surprise. Adriana was going through Tron's closet, and finally came out with a raggedy old teddy bear in her hands.

"I found him! I found Koko!" Adriana yelled triumphantly. She looked at Roll, then asked "What's the matter with you?"

"Adriana. . . Your parents . . . Tron thought your parents killed her parents. That's why the Bonnes attacked them." Roll said.

"No! That can't be!! You're lying!!" Adriana said angrily.

"She wrote it in her diary years ago. Why would she lie in her diary?"

Adriana snatched the book away from Roll, and read it. "It can't be!! It's some kind of trick! I'll find out the truth! I'll ask my parents!!" Adriana yelled, then rushed out of the room, still carrying her bear. Roll sighed and decided to go back to the Flutter.

Roll arrived at the Flutter and went straight to the bathroom, meaning to have a long hot soak. She sighed as she lowered herself into the hot soapy water. Soon she had fallen asleep.

"Roll! Wake up, Roll."

"Hmm. OH!" Roll woke up, to find someone in the bathroom with her, she quickly pulled the curtain around her. "MEGAMAN! What have I told you about coming in here without knocking?"

"Well apparently he forgot, but we've been looking all over for you, Roll."

"Huh?" Roll realized that it wasn't Megaman's voice, so she looked around the curtain to see Yuna. "Oh, it's you."

"We were looking all over for you, and Megaman looked in here, then turned red and dashed out."

"Hey! You didn't have to tell her about that!" Megaman's voice came from the living room.

Yuna chuckled, then continued to speak to Roll. "We've been all through the Flutter and the Gesellschaft II. Megaman was really worried about you. Maybe you should get dressed?"

"Uh, right. Do you mind?" Roll gestured at the door.

"Oh! Sorry about that." Yuna said, then exited.

Roll slowly got dressed and went into the living room. Megaman was sitting on the couch, still red with embarrassment from catching her in the bath again.

"Well, you're alive I see. Been having fun with Tron, making me look like an ass?" Roll asked Megaman, although not as angrily as she might have. The days events had taken too much out of her.

"Roll, I'm sorry about all that happened. I guess I should have made more of an effort to settle this thing." He noticed her black eye and the scratches and bruises on her face. "What happened to you? Were you in a fight or something?"

"Yes, Megaman, I was in a fight." Roll said, sounding exasperated with him. "A fight with your girlfriend because she thought I'd killed you. Except you aren't dead, and she. . . she. . . oh Megaman! I think she might be dead!"

"Dead!?" Megaman yelled, the color draining from his face. "You killed her?"

"No! We were fighting and Adriana, that's this pirate I met, who hates Tron, hit Tron in the back of the head with a club. Then the servbots carried her off."

"Where'd they take her?"

"I don't know. They said something about a healer in the woods or something. It didn't make much sense."

Yuna and Megaman looked at each other. It made sense to them.

"We've got to find her!" Megaman announced, standing up rapidly.

"Well, if you go down into my development room, there's a device that can track the servbots. Each one gives off a unique signal, I guess so Tron can find them when they get lost. That's how we led Glyde to you." Roll said.

"Roll, you led Glyde to us? You gave him your protective armor idea? How could you do that?" Megaman asked.

"Because I was mad at you, you big jerk, plus I knew you and Tron could handle Glyde, and that we'd be able to drop the reprogrammed servbots during the battle. Everything went fine, except that stupid Adriana decided to put a bomb on one of the servbots."

"That was a diabolical scheme, Roll. Worthy of Tron." Megaman said softly.

"Don't be insulting." Roll answered.

"Yeah, Megaman, don't be insulting."

Everyone turned, to see Tron entering the living room. She looked completely back to normal, her hair was even back to normal. Megaman gasped and rushed to her.

"Tron! You're alive!" Megaman hugged her tight and kissed her. Roll looked away in disgust. Megaman broke off the kiss and looked at Tron. "Tron? Are you ok?"

"Hmmm Trigger! I think I like this kissing stuff!"

"S. . .S. . . Sera?" Megaman looked at her, shocked.

"Yeah, isn't it great!? Now that I've joined with a carbon, I'll have no problem getting my emotions under control!"

"Sera! That wasn't a nice thing to do, taking over her body like that!" Yuna scolded.

"But her little servbots practically insisted that I fix her up. She was in bad shape you know." Sera responded defensively.

"But Sera, are you sure that's the best choice for controling your emotions?" Megaman asked, sounding a bit worried. "I mean, she isn't exactly the most emotionally stable girl. . ."

"Hey! What do you mean by that!!?" Suddenly Tron was back in control of her body. "Megaman! You're alive!!" She grabbed him and began to kiss him. Then suddenly she pulled away. "Hmmm more kissing. . . HEY! Yuna! This carbon just pushed me aside for a moment! You never told me she'd be able to do that."

"Sera, " Yuna began, "you have to understand that Matilda was about as close to death as a carbon can be without succumbing. Even after I made all the repairs to her body she was still nothing but a collection of memories for the longest time. It has only been in the last few years that I've felt stirrings of her personality within me. When I first saw her father aboard the Sulphur Bottom, she very nearly took control. But later we talked and agreed that she should stay underneath until I could get out of her. But I didn't just cast her aside, Sera. That would be mean."

"I don't want to be mean." Sera said, beginning to cry. "I just want to be in control again, to be myself, how I was when I had the system to support me! What's that? You feel the same way? What do you mean?" Sera sits and closes Tron's eyes.

"What's going on?" Megaman asked, his voice filled with concern.

"I think the two of them are finally talking. I think it will be alright, Megaman." Yuna answered.

Roll walked up to Yuna, and asked shyly. "So . . . my mother is inside you? Could I talk to her, please?"

Yuna smiled and nodded at Roll, and closed her eyes. When they opened, her entire face seemed different, filled with surprise. "Roll! Oh my goodness, you're a grown woman!"

"Mommy!?" Roll said, tearing up.

"Oh Roll, I'm so sorry! Your father and I never should have gone on that dig. Can you forgive me, because it was my idea, and because of it, you've been deprived of your parents."

Roll sniffed back some tears and responded. "Of course I forgive you! Oh mom!" She hugged her mother tightly.

"Roll, I'm going to have to give control back to Yuna again, so she can set things right with Sera, you understand?" Roll nodded at her mother. "But soon I'll be able to be your mom again, full time!" Matilda closed her eyes, and soon she was Yuna again.

"Well, while Sera and Tron are having their discussion, we might as well head for Forbidden Island. Then we can see about getting everyone back into their own bodies." Yuna said.

Roll smiled and walked up to the bridge. Soon they felt the Flutter getting underway.

"So Megaman, how are we going to go about shutting down the ancient's systems?" Yuna asked, turning to Megaman. "So far, I've been unable to detect much activity, but when it does, we need to be ready."

"Well, I was thinking that we could operate out of the Gesellschaft II, with the Bonnes' permission, of course." Megaman said. "Between you and Sera, Roll, Tron and myself, we should have a pretty good team for doing even the toughest digs."

"Are you putting together a dig team, or a personal harem, Megaman?" Tron asked.

"Tron?" Megaman looked at her in astonishment. "Is that you?"

"It sure is. Sera decided to sit in the back of my head and study my superior emotional control." Tron glared at Megaman, as if daring him to correct that last part. "But what's this about turning the Gesellschaft II into your personal harem?"

"Not a harem, Tron. A team for digging." Megaman hastily explained. "If the ancient's systems begin to reactivate, there will be more and more reaverbots and other threats to humanity." He noticed Tron's blank expression. "Plus, we'll be able to find lots and lots of refractors."

"Well I guess that would be OK. You'll have to talk Teisel into it, though."

They felt the Flutter touch down, and realized they had arrived at Yuna's base. Everyone exited the flutter and entered Yuna's base.

"This will take a while, and I'm not sure what condition Matilda or Tron will be in when we're finished. Megaman hugged Tron, then she was led away by Yuna. Roll and Megaman looked at each other, then sat down in the only two chairs in the room.

"So. . ." Megaman found that he had no idea what to say to Roll. "Uh . . . I think I owe you an apology, Roll. For reading your diary and stuff, that was really immature of me. Plus I guess most of the stuff that Tron's done to you has been a result of her jealousy, so I suppose it's kinda my fault too."

Roll sighed. "I'm not even all that mad about all that. It just bothered me the way you just took off with her like that. You didn't even say goodbye."

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice in that." Megaman replied. "Tron drugged me. She said she got the idea from Data, which makes no sense at all."

"It makes perfect sense, Megaman." Roll responded with a chuckle. "I guess being alone just kinda drove me over the edge, you know? It just felt like everyone I'd ever loved was just . . . leaving. Anyhow, I forgive you, Megaman. I guess you'll have to give me your 'let's be friends' speech now?"

"It's not as though you aren't attractive, Roll. . . I can't explain it, I really can't. There's just something about Tron. Maybe it's the danger, I mean, I know I would never dare to walk in on her in the shower. . ."

"OH! So you did do that on purpose!!"

"Well, uh, uhm yeah, but. . ."

"I'll bet you wouldn't have dared read Tron's diary, either?"

"Tron keeps a diary? No, I can't say that I did. . . Hey! You aren't saying that you read Tron's?"

"Turnabout is fair play! But I won't tell you anything she wrote in it, and if you ask me to, I'll tell her you asked me!"

"Fine, I wouldn't anyhow. So who was this pirate girl you were hanging out with, anyway? The one that injured Tron."

"Her name is Adriana Everwinter, and she is probably just one of the many enemies the Bonnes have."

Before Megaman could respond, they heard an air-ship taking off. Then Yuna appeared. She looked very much like a grown up version of her old shell. Spotting them, she shouted, "C'mon! Everything went OK, but Tron and Matilda were badly weakened by the procedure. Sera is rushing them to the nearest hospital. Let's go!"

"Nearest Hospital?" Megaman said, as he and Roll followed Yuna to the Flutter. "But that's on Kattelox Island."

"Well don't worry, I'm sure they'll get them well before they toss them in jail." Yuna said as they entered the Flutter's control room.

"'they'? Why would they arrest Mom?" Roll asked as she activated the Flutter's engines and took it up.

"Well. . ." Yuna began, sounding guilty. "Actually there are several warrants out for me, for my attack on the Sulphur-Bottom, as well as a few other little indiscretions." Yuna noticed that Roll was glaring at her. "Uh. . . Sorry?"

"Let's just get to Kattelox Island and worry about possible arrests later!" Megaman said.

"That airship will get them to Kattelox Island very quickly, by the time we get there, they should be admitted and under care." Yuna said.

"Plus we'll probably have to sneak in." Megaman said glumly.

"Don't worry about it, Megaman. Nothing's going to stop us from seeing my mom! Oh, and Tron too. I guess. If we have to."

"Roll. . ." Megaman began.

"Oh knock it off, you two." Yuna said, sounding exasperated. "I'm not going to spend the rest of the trip listening to the two of you bicker."

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