"We shouldn't be surprised." ProtoMan agreed, dryly.
The duel-haired kid shook his head as he swept his gaze across the Blaze Quest cafeteria. Lan was supposed to have been here so that they could discuss the recent events and clues about the appearance of those two digital beasts in the real world and in Net City.
But as usual, if you told Lan to be there be twelve-thirty, he'd show up sometime about one-fifteen- on a day when he was feeling punctual.
All of which, of course, annoyed Chaud no end. But there was nothing that he could do about it except sit and wait for Lan to get his lazy self over here.
Chaud walked over to the service counter, selected a barstool, and seated himself a safe distance from any other human being. After a virtually non-existent moment of hesitation, the duel-haired boy placed his Link PET on the counter.
ProtoMan immediately responded by appearing in the real world- in his six-inch holographic form of course. It was one of the Link PET's newest and most popular features. A holographic projection of the person's Navi could be made by the PET… of course the holograms were so lifelike and allowed the Navi's so many liberties, that sometimes it was hard to remember that they were just holograms.
ProtoMan just stood to one side, knowing that if Chaud wanted to talk, then he would. If not… it wouldn't be the first time that they had spent time in silence. The raider cast his gaze across the room, checking to see if Lan had finally shown up.
He was nowhere in sight.
ProtoMan's gaze swept up to study the human that had just sat down about two seats away from Chaud. She was about Lan's age, and judging from her clothing it was easy to see that she kept up with the current fashions. Her brown hair dangled down to the top of her purple poncho, which in turn was draped over a sleeveless blue blouse. Her skirt was the same blue color as her shirt. The Raider wasn't sure from his current angle, but he thought that they were a dark blue-ish color.
Although Chaud wasn't showing any interest in the newcomer, ProtoMan watched the girl place her new Link PET on the counter and activated the holograph feature.
ProtoMan's breath stopped as the new Navi materialized.
The Navi was perched on the top of a salt shaker, her legs dangling over the side. She wore light teal boots, a light gray bodysuit under a teal skirt and top, as well as blue gloves with gold and purple ornaments on the sides. He had seen her months ago- right after the N1.
The Navi glanced over and her eyes widened in disbelief when her gaze met ProtoMan's.
"It's YOU!" The two shouted in complete and utter disbelief.
This outburst, of course, caused the two Net Ops to stare at their Navi's in bewilderment… and then to look up and study each other.
"Chaud… Blaze…" The brunette girl muttered in complete disbelief.
"And you are?"
"Melody, Melody Makoto" The girl extended her hand, offering a handshake.
Chaud turned his attention back to the two Navis on the table.
Melody paused a moment, and then took her hand back.
"I don't believe it," The teal Navi pushed herself off of her salt shaker and started walking over to ProtoMan. "I never thought that I'd see you again."
"Neither did I." ProtoMan replied. Of all the places to run into her at… I just hope that Chaud takes this well…
"I guess that it really is a small world," The Navi smiled softly.
"ProtoMan, who's your friend?" Chaud's words were somewhat lacking in the warm and friendly department.
"Er, Chaud, this is…" ProtoMan forced himself to maintain a deadpan expression, despite the fact that he had absolutely no idea what his Navi's name was. "This is…"
What was her name? The Red Raider frantically racked his mind, trying to recall the name she had given the last and only time they had met. It started with an 'R'… Rhonda? No, it was musical… Rhyme?
"This is… Rhyme?" ProtoMan couldn't help it, he sweat dropped, causing the Navi and her Op to face fault as well.
The teal Navi and her Op traded looks.
"I don't suppose that we can hold it against him." The Navi commented. "He's probably saved countless damsels in distress."
"And if he spends time flirting with each one afterwards, it would be hard to keep them all straight."
"Flirting?" Chaud looked at his Navi in disbelief. What in the world was going on here?
"That's an over-" The Red Navi's words were cut off by Melody's next round of comments.
"Plus you have to take into account the fact that he's a world famous celebrity." The brunette girl commented.
"Which means that he'd have his choice of multitudes of fan girls." The Navi nodded. "I can't image the number of dates he's probably had."
"Dates?" ProtoMan and Chaud's eyes exploded open.
"What have you been up to?" The duel-haired kid shot a withering look at his Navi.
"So it's actually fairly plausible that he forgot my name." The teal Navi grinned, watching as the Raider's face slowly turned the same shade of crimson as his armor.
Chaud shook his head in completely bewilderment. His Navi had been dating and flirting? How was that possible?
ProtoMan became very self-conscious as all eyes drifted to him. All he could think of to do was to cough nervously.
"Owned!" The teal Navi and her operator high-fived one another and simultaneously erupted into a storm of laughter over the Raider's predicament.
Chaud and ProtoMan just stared at the two in complete disbelief as the torrents of laughter continued.
Slowly, the two managed to bring their laughter under control. About a minute later, the Navi and her Op were slumped against the counter, struggling to catch their breath.
"My name's Rhythm…" The teal Navi weakly lifted her hand in greeting. "Pleased to remake your acquaintance."
"I don't have to put up with this." Chaud stood up and slid his PET into it's pouch.
Melody looked up at the duel-haired kid and arched an eyebrow in surprise. "We were only joking with you, Chaud… I guess we did carry it a little far, but there's nothing to get upset about."
"Yeah," Rhythm piped up. "ProtoMan never flirted with me, all he did was help me fight my way out of getting mugged. We chatted for a minute and then we went our separate ways."
"I'm honestly sorry," The girl continued. "I meant to upset you."
Chaud stood there for a moment, eyeing the two girls.
Melody and Rhythm eyed him back.
Finally, Chaud sat back down. It wasn't as if he could go anywhere anyway, what with Lan supposed to show up at any moment.
"Apology accepted?" Melody asked.
"If it makes you feel better." Chaud replied, not bothering to look at his companion.
The quartet sat there for a long moment in silence, while Rhythm and ProtoMan traded not-so-secret looks with each other…
"Chaud! Sorry I'm late!"
The duel-haired kid turned around to find a frantic Lan racing towards him. The brunette slid to a hasty stop in front of the counter, and mumbled something about atwo for one sale on curryat Fifth Avenue.
"I should be used to it by now." Chaud replied as he got to his feet, quickly he started walking towards the rear exit. "Come on, let's take this someplace that's more private."
While Chaud's attention was focused on Lan, ProtoMan exchanged a quick wave with Rhythm and then ducked back into his PET.
Melody and Rhythm watched as Lan followed Chaud out of the cafeteria and into the hallway. Then the two looked at each other and shrugged.
"Fate has a rotten sense of humor." The girl sighed.
Rhythm just shrugged again, and curled up by a stray coffee cup.
They sat in silence for several minutes, until a man walked into the cafeteria and homed in on Melody and her Navi.
Quickly the adult slipped up behind Melody, making frantic gestures for Rhythm to stay silent, and slapped his right hand over the brunette girl's eyes.
"Guess who?" The adult grinned mischievously.
"Dad, that wasn't funny the first thirty times you did it," Melody couldn't help grinning as she batted the hand aside. "why would it be now?"
The man just smiled. "Anything interesting happen today?"
"Nope, nothing at all." The girl grinned.