The next morning was clear, with a mild breeze. The temperature was nearly perfect - neither too hot nor too cold. There was relatively little traffic on the streets. Several birds and squirrels could be heard and seen scampering around the trees and fences. It was a good day to be outside and doing some work. That was exactly what Megaman was out to do, walking down the sidewalk to meet Mr. Pendergraft, with Rush at his heels. "Morning, Mr. Pendergraft," he said as soon as Mr. Pendergraft came into view.
"Morning!" Mr. Pendergraft answered. "So, that's your dog, huh?" he asked, gesturing to Rush.
"Mm-hm. This is Rush, canine support unit extraordinaire."
"He's a mighty fine specimen," Mr. Pendergraft said, scratching Rush behind the ear. "Now, these papers need to be delivered to every house on all 16 blocks in the square formed by 12th, Chaucer, 14th, and Jackson." He pointed to a drawn-out area on a map of the suburb. "See on the map? I'll tackle one side of the street, you take the other. Got that?"
"Yup!"
"OK, let's go." Mr. Pendergraft handed Megaman a stack of papers, and the two set off to hand them out to every house on the map.
"I'm gonna be going out for a while," Bass announced as he made his way to the front door with Treble at his side. "Don't follow me!"
"You know Megaman's out helping Pendergraft," said Roll. "I hope you're not gonna try to bug him."
"What do I care about his stupid little errand?" scoffed Bass. "I'm not interested in what he's doing, especially when it concerns Pendergraft. I'm using my day off to get away from this place and the people in it, including your stupid brother."
"Fine. Just don't cause any trouble."
"OK, I've got about half of the papers handed out," Megaman said, meeting Mr. Pendergraft at a nearby bench.
"Great job," Mr. Pendergraft said, sitting down on the bench. "I think we can afford to take a little break. Just set the papers down beside you. It's a bit gusty out, though, so you might wanna weigh 'em down. Got anything?"
"Rush can probably sit on them to weigh them down." Megaman called Rush and ordered him to sit on the rest of the papers.
"So what're the others doin' today?" Mr. Pendergraft asked, curious about what everyone else's plans were.
"I don't know… Today seems like a pretty easy day back home. All that's going on is probably just documentation."
"Oh, yeah, that experiment thing. What's it for again? I forget."
"Dr. Light wants to research the capacity for artificial intelligences to live among themselves, with minimal human contact," Megaman explained. "Obviously, you're an exception because you're our landlord, but other than that, there are no human beings living in the house. Apparently, he's using the research in this experiment for further A.I. development. But even so, it's kind of nice to have a life of my own." He sighed, with a smile on his face.
"That's understandable. Second Law can be a bit of a pain sometimes, hm?" Mr. Pendergraft noted.
"Well, actually, for us, the Second Law is a bit more downplayed than for others. After all, we weren't created entirely for labour purposes. We're like a family of sorts to Dr. Light."
"OK, I see," Mr. Pendergraft said. "But what about that Tempo girl? You told me that she wasn't created by Light."
"She wasn't," answered Megaman. "One of Dr. Light's colleagues, Dr. Lalinde, was the one who created her. Lalinde thought it would be a good idea for Tempo to participate in the experiment so she could perhaps gain more social skills than what she would back home."
"Hm. Interesting," Mr. Pendergraft mused. "And I've only heard part of the story about that Bass fella. Where's he from, and why do you have such a beef with him?"
"Well, uh… you see, he was created by Wily. You know, that guy responsible for the forced reprogramming of some of Dr. Light's other creations, creating a decoy of Protoman to fool us into thinking he'd gone bad, the whole world championship fiasco, stuff like that?"
"...Hm. Maybe you were right about not lettin' him stay with the rest of you," Mr. Pendergraft told Megaman. "After all, being created by a madman of that caliber…"
"Well, the thing is, Bass hates Wily just as much as the rest of us," Megaman continued. "The only thing he's concerned about is taking me down, which is what he was built for. But that eventually made him hate Wily's guts. Case of objective overriding programming, y'know? And I guess his second law kinda kicked in when you threatened eviction, so I guess we're stuck with him for now. I mean, we were trying to find ways to get him out, but he figured it out and, uh… let's just say it started to get ugly." He looked back at Mr. Pendergraft. "But if you think about it, his directive is pretty much his only flaw. I mean, he might be kind of a jerk to almost everybody, but if there's some way to curb his programming a bit, then maybe he could live here. I mean, life with Wily doesn't seem all that good, so I kinda wanna cut him a bit of slack. But knowing him, that's probably not going to happen, so I think it'd be easier if he just leaves us alone."
"Well, what I said still stands. If there's too much bickerin' between you, then you're out," Mr. Pendergraft said, getting off the bench. "Now let's get the rest of these handed out." He noticed a strong breeze blowing by. "And you might wanna be careful. The wind's getting gusty."
"OK. C'mon, bud," Megaman said, directing Rush off the stack of papers. But right after Rush jumped to the ground, another breeze came, stirring up the papers and blowing them right towards the uppermost branches of a very slender tree growing on the side of the road. This was obviously not the best thing to happen, as there was no way of getting them back without much assistance. And even if one were to get them back, they would likely have suffered damage from various tree branches. "We've got a problem," Megaman said guiltily, pointing up to the tree where the papers got stuck.
"See what I told ya?" Mr. Pendergraft tut-tutted. "Now you've lost 'em."
"Don't worry. I can get 'em back," Megaman said. "Rush! Fuse!" he commanded Rush. Immediately, the two fused into a red armor with a jet pack on the back. Megaman flew up and set to work trying to get up the tree.
"Well, it's a good thing that you can get that dog to solve a problem that he caused," Mr. Pendergraft said, looking up at Megaman.
"This gonna be tough, though," Megaman called back. "I don't know if I'll be able to fit between these branches. They look pretty unstable to me." He continued to hover below the branches, looking for an opening. But unfortunately, it took too long to look before he began to run out of energy. "And now we're about to run out of energy." He descended, and fused out of the armor.
"Ah, no…" Mr. Pendergraft sighed, face-palming. "You ruined it, I tell ya." He looked down at Megaman and Rush. "Well, you didn't ruin it. It was the dog who ruined it - partly because he ran out of juice, and partly because you and him can't fit in that freakin' tree."
"Well, hey, at least he tried to help me," Megaman said, trying to be optimistic.
"Yeah…" Mr. Pendergraft agreed. "But what else are we gonna do about it? It'll take us too long if we wait for the wind to blow 'em down. And I don't think the landscaping place's gonna be too happy if we ask 'em to cut down branches just so we can get those papers."
Megaman hung his head in disappointment. "All I can think of is if there's someone watching this, they're probably thinking I'm a fool for getting myself into this mess," he said. "I mean, papers getting caught in a tree? Really?"
"Yeah, you're right," Mr. Pendergraft agreed. "Well, that's a lost cause right there. Goin' down to the copy shop will take too much time, and we had to get this done in a day…" He let out a deep sigh. "I guess we'll have to pack it in."
"Sorry, Mr. Pendergraft," Megaman apologized, his head still hanging low.
"Hey! Up here!" A familiar voice could be heard from up above. Megaman and Mr. Pendergraft looked up to see who it was. Sure enough, it was Bass, flying high above them in his Treble Boost armor. "Looks like someone made a stupid mistake," he taunted. "Like, really? Letting a bunch of papers get blown to the top of a tree? I thought you'd have known better." He flew further up in the tree, gathered almost all of the papers, and flew back down, handing them to Mr. Pendergraft.
"Wh- What was that for?" Megaman asked, confused that Bass would want to do something good on his own accord for once.
"Figured it'd be in my best interest to get into Pendergraft's good books if I'm gonna stay with you guys," Bass answered.
"Well, uh... thank you," Megaman said, still confused. "I mean, Mr. Pendergraft probably would've let me off fairly easy, but I guess we can get these papers to people who need them."
"People who need them? Pff. They'll probably end up in the trash the moment people get them."
"Well, uh... Thanks," said Megaman. With that, Bass fused out of the Treble Boost armor and returned home.
"And you said he's been actin' nasty to you ever since you guys met?" Mr. Pendergraft asked once Bass was out of earshot.
"Well, I'm not too sure about his motive," Megaman pointed out. "He said he decided to help because he wanted your approval, but I don't know if that's just so he can further his goal of fighting me without being kicked out."
"What I said before still stands," Mr. Pendergraft said. "There's not gonna be any fightin' around here-"
"Or else we'll get evicted," Megaman finished. "I've practically got that memorized that by now."
"Whatever. Let's finish the job," Mr. Pendergraft said, crossing the street to get the houses on that side. He and Megaman continued to pass out papers, getting at the other side of the map. When they had finished, the sun was beginning to set. This was their cue to head back home and call it a night.
