It was an average Friday afternoon in the house that Megaman, Roll, Protoman, Tempo, and Bass called home. Roll was busy searching for loose change. When she found something, she placed it in an open glass jar on the counter. At one point, however, she appeared to have run out of places to look. "Hey, uh… Tempo?" she asked, as the tall, brunette LMN model passed her by. "Can you help me out with something?"
"Sure," Tempo answered. "What do you need?"
"I'm putting together a nest egg so we can save money. You have a built-in metal detector, correct?
"Yes. Do you need me to track down any loose change?"
"Exactly. Tell me if you find anything, OK?"
"OK." Tempo morphed into her Quake Woman armour, and activated her metal detector. It emitted a series of slow beeps as she searched the house. Eventually, as she neared the couch, the beeps started getting faster. She stuck her hand between the cushions, and the beeps got even faster. "Oh! Found something," she announced as she pulled out a handful of loose change.
"What is it?" Roll said, approaching Tempo.
"Hm…" Tempo counted up the money that sat in her hand. "Five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five cents. And a piece of old string that looks like it's been buried in there for who knows how long." She pulled the string out from amidst the coins. "Tango, no!" she scolded the green robotic cat who was attracted to the string.
"That's OK. I'll throw it out," Roll said, taking the string. "You keep searching."
Tempo continued to scan the house for money. "OK… I got two more dimes, but that's it," she said, offering Roll the dimes and morphing out of her armor and into her civilian form.
"That's all right. I'll put it in." Roll went back to the jar, unscrewed the lid, put the money in, and screwed the lid back on. "There. Now, doesn't that look beautiful?" She patted the top of the jar.
"Yeah… Why do we have this jar full of money again?" asked Tempo.
"It's called a nest egg," explained Roll. "We put some money into a jar in case we need it, and until that time, we don't touch any of it."
"What if it was an actual egg instead of a jar, though?" Tempo thought aloud.
"That's not a bad idea, actually. But what would happen if we had to break into it? Then we couldn't put it back together as easily. Maybe that would be for the best, but for now, we've got this nice little jar."
"And how much is in there?"
Suddenly, Roll started acting overprotective. "Why should I tell you? If I say it's a large amount, you might be inclined to take some. If I say it's small, you'll dismiss it as no big deal, and you'll take all of it."
"Relax, Roll. I wasn't going to take any in the first place," Tempo said, defensively raising her hands and barely leaving any space between her words. "I was just curious."
"You say that now, but wait until the temptation comes around," Roll responded, shaking her finger at Tempo.
"Whatever. Forget I said anything," Tempo said, leaving the room.
Suddenly, the three remaining members of the household came downstairs. They were discussing going downtown for a little while. Surprisingly, Bass wasn't making any effort to agonize Megaman and Protoman, despite the fact that he only bought his way into the house for that purpose. All three were in civilian form - which was understandable, considering they were going into a well-populated area where a small yet vocal percentage of the population held a firm distrust of robots.
"Sure. I'm a bit short on money, though," Megaman said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
"How can you say that when there's a conveniently-placed jar full of money right in front of you?" Bass snarked, pointing to the jar of money that Roll and
Tempo had added to.
"Wha… Hey, when did that jar get there?" Megaman asked. He began unscrewing the lid. "Good thing someone noticed it, or else-"
"What are you doing?! Don't touch that!" Roll shouted, shooing Megaman away and snatching the jar.
"Whoa… What gives, Roll?" Megaman asked, startled and confused.
Roll calmed down rather quickly. "That's our nest egg," she began. "I should probably explain. I decided to start up a nest egg just in case we run short on money in an emergency."
"Isn't that what the bank is for, though?" Protoman asked.
"Well, it's always good to have some easily-accessible cash around, though," Roll countered. "What if you can't get to an ATM? What if the power cuts out all over town and the banks are closed because of it?"
"You have a point," Megaman said. "But can we please just take, like, 7 bucks out of the jar? I promise it's not that much."
"And what if we need to use the nest egg, and we come up 7 short?"
"Then I'll pay for the rest of it. Come on, Roll, just let us-"
"No," Roll said firmly. "That nest egg is not to be opened by anyone until I say it's OK."
"Fine," Megaman sighed. He turned to the rest of the group. "Looks like we're gonna have to pony up." He started discussing how they should split up their
money. But it wasn't long before they were interrupted by a knock on the door.
"I'll get it," Roll said. She opened the door to see a familiar face. The visitor wore a thin black jacket over a red shirt, black slacks, and tannish-gold loafers. His jet-black hair hung in chin-length strands framing his face, and he wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. Despite his human-like appearance, Roll was able to recognize him as one of her Light-built brethren. "Elecman! I wasn't expecting you. Come on in." She held the door open, inviting Elecman inside. "Hopefully you don't mind if it's a little messy."
"I'll try not to think about it," Elecman said, entering the house and seating himself on a couch.
"Hey, Elecman," greeted Megaman. "How are things back at the lab?"
"Same as always. Now that you guys are out of the lab, Auto's been taking care of a lot more stuff. He's efficient, but a bit scattered. Luckily, the rest of the crew does their bit to pitch in, and that takes care of whatever he misses."
"We were gonna go downtown for a little while. Wanna come with us?" Megaman asked.
"I suppose it couldn't hurt," Elecman replied, before pausing a bit. "Do I have to pay for anything?"
"Hmm… Maybe just a little bit."
"Unfortunately, I don't have any money on me at the moment. Perhaps I could borrow some from the jar I saw on the kitchen counter." Elecman got up and
started going up to the jar, but Megaman stopped him.
"Sorry, bro," Megaman said. "Roll doesn't allow anyone taking money from that jar."
"Yeah," Bass spoke up. "Apparently, it's a 'nest egg', which I think is code for a stash that only she can take from."
"That's not true!" Roll said defensively. "I'm not going to take anything from there. If I did, it wouldn't make much sense for me to enforce the rules."
"She's got a point," Megaman said.
"Don't worry, Elec. I'll pay for you," offered Protoman.
"Thanks, Protoman," said Elecman. "Do I have to pay you back?"
"No. It's not that much money."
"OK, thank you. I would say I've been saving up for something, but it's not in the monetary sense. I'll tell you when we get there."
"Hm… Sounds interesting."
The four eventually arrived downtown. They found an empty table in the square where they could talk without causing that much unwanted attention. Once they sat down, Megaman immediately asked Elecman about what he intended to save up for. Elecman sent an advertisement he found online to everyone else
"Right here," Elecman said, pointing to a picture of an electric guitar. "Gibson Explorer '76. And we're talking actual '76, not the re-releases. Maple body and neck, rosewood fretboard, Duncan pickups…" He sighed. "Looks beautiful, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, and I bet it'd play just as good, too," Protoman agreed. "One would only imagine the cost, though… I mean, authentic '76 Gibson? That's gotta go for at least a thousand."
"That's the thing," continued Elecman. "Apparently the guy who's selling it isn't really selling it so much as swapping it in for something. 200 'somethings', to be precise. Here's what the description says. Will trade for 200 uniform, non-monetary, non-natural items. That means not only no money, but also no leaves, seeds, stuff like that."
"Yeah, well, if somebody will trade 200 compost items for a well-made instrument, you're looking at a screwball for sure," commented Bass.
"I had 200 screws laying around, and I talked to the guy selling it, saying that when I buy stuff from Auto, I pay in screws," Elecman said. "But he vetoed that because since I use them as money in other situations, it automatically counts as a monetary item."
"But the thing is, why is this guy asking for random junk instead of money?" Megaman asked.
"It's the Internet, Megaman. Anything can happen," Protoman answered. "Especially on potentially sketchy shopping sites like this one."
"So if you guys can find any assorted junk items, feel free to bring them over," Elecman said.
"But why?" asked Bass. "You have a job, don't you? Can you not pay for another one with actual money?"
"Do you not know how much these things cost with actual money? Especially vintage models…"
"Or maybe you could trade one of your less-played guitars in," suggested Megaman. "'Cause you do already have four guitars."
"Yeah, well, one's an acoustic, and another's a seven-string, and the other two I use just about equally," Elecman answered. "So I don't know when I'd need one that I may have traded in."
"OK. Well, if we can find anything, then we'll ask if you need it."
"Thank you. Remember, the items have to be non-natural, so no plants or anything like that. Also, screws are out since we use them to pay for Auto's services. And they have to look about the same, too."
"All right. Thanks for the tip."
"You're welcome."