Tron Bonne considered herself a cautious person. If something seemed suspicious, she would do her due diligence to make sure it wouldn't bite her in the butt. A strange boy in blue armor, helping out her children with their groceries for no reason? Very suspicious.
The moment Megaman was out of earshot, Tron got the attention of all six Servbots with a snap of her fingers. "Listen up: I need two of you to follow him without being seen. Find out where he's staying, we're gonna set up a mini stake-out."
This clearly alarmed them. "What's wrong, Miss Tron?"
"What's wrong is that we don't need other people trying to leech off of our heist." She put her hands on her hips firmly. "He's too young to be part of the police, but we need to find out who he works with. If they try to hit the bank before we do, there'll be trouble."
The Riverside Bank. One of two on Jekyll Island, it was honestly smaller than the far east branch on the island; but they didn't want what was going to be in their vault, at least not primarily. "Those special jewels are going to be moved off-island by the end of the month. This will be our best chance before they get taken to some high-security site."
#1 raised his hand. "And you're worried that Mister Megaman is part of another pirate crew. I really hope he's not."
She sighed. Of course her Servbots would get attached to the tutor. "If he's not, then everything will be fine; but we can't leave anything to chance, so get going! Find his place, get a tail on him. I want pictures and audio recordings, if you can get close enough."
"Roger!" They moved out quickly, some to return to the Gesellschaft to grab their supplies.
Before long, she was handed a picture of Megaman stepping into an airship. It was pretty small, with no visible weapons attached to the outside. That fact didn't reduce her suspicion, but at least they'd be able to take them down if it came to an armed stand-off. She received confirmation that the Servbot crew had long-range microphones aimed at the ship, and later there were pictures of a blonde girl Megaman's age and some old man getting into the same ship, but that seemed to be it for occupants.
It wasn't long before she let herself relax enough to get ready for bed. Leaving instructions that she wanted any available audio first thing in the morning, she wound down and drifted off to sleep in the Gesellschaft.
"...ron."
Hm? A bit groggy, she began to stir in her bed.
"Miss Tron, it's morning. Good morning!"
Tron opened her eyes to see Servbot #20 greeting her. Stifling a yawn, she answered back, "Morning. Any news?"
#20 held up a tape. "This is from the stake-out. #25 said that there was no talking at all after ten PM, so they must've all gone to bed."
"Thanks," she mumbled as she took it. "Once I get dressed I'll give it a listen right away. Tell them to pull back now to avoid people getting suspicious of them."
After she got ready for the day and put on her normal attire, she went to the equipment room and threw on a set of headphones. Sitting at her work desk, the already prepared playback machine popped open and she slid in the tape.
Click.
Silence greeted her for a bit, so she pressed down the fast-forward until she heard talking.
"-lcome back, Roll. How was work?"
"Good! Things are still going really well. Did the tutoring go okay?"
'Roll' must be the blonde girl. Easy enough, just leaves the old man nameless. "The tutoring was awesome, actually. I taught some of those small robots I told you about, it turns out they don't have names outside of their numbers. I think you'd like them."
"I hope I get to meet them soon."
"Maybe, maybe not," said Tron under her voice.
"Ee-eek?"
What in the world? Was that a monkey?
"Yeah, the whole family has been nice, Data."
Wait, 'ee-eek' was a question? That was a big answer to give to some kind of monkey.
Tron spent two hours going over the recording, making judicious use of the fast-forward button, but nothing incriminating came up. They talked about what to eat, how 'Gramps' research into some ruins was going, the money needed to do repairs to their ship, the Flutter, the monkey(?) Data almost spilled a drink… All of it felt so normal. Just a family going about their lives.
She heard a knock on the wall near her, and she looked up to see Teisel glancing down at her. Taking off her headset, she asked, "Hey, what's up Teisel?"
"Just checking on you, Tron. The Servbots told me that you had them checking out Blue Boy's place." He was smiling, not in a bad mood at all. "Anything I need to know?"
"It might've just been me jumping at shadows." She stretched a bit as she stood up. "If they're a pirate group, they're darn good at hiding it. I'll be seeing Megaman for a grocery trip later, so I'm gonna ask him some questions and make sure everything adds up. The good news is that it seems like they won't be a problem."
"Wonderful, and don't worry about feeling jumpy. You've got great intuition, and anyways it's always good to be careful." Teisel gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Being worrywarts is kind of an occupational hazard, if you think about it."
"Yeah, you're right." Tron smiled back at him. "At least the Servbots will be happy to still have a tutor."
After a late breakfast and feeling more comfortable now that the previous day's panic was winding down, she left the Gesellschaft in a Drache and got ready for the afternoon. Only #1 and #14 would be going with her and Megaman to the store, as the rest were continuing the repairs to the Gesellschaft.
Just before one o' clock, Tron was watching the Servbots pull the shopping out of the warehouse's front door when she spotted Megaman coming down the street towards them; he was a punctual guy, at least. Once he was close she said, "Glad you're on time."
"Yeah, I've been told since I was a kid never to be late." He waved at the Servbots as they got the cart set. "Hey guys. Ready to go shopping?"
"Yes sir!" They both answered merrily. "We're going to the grocers back on the residential side, on 2nd street."
"Okay then, let's go." They began to walk as one, Servbots setting the pace while Megaman and Tron walked just behind them.
They were silent for a couple moments, but Tron got the itch to go ahead and ask her questions, if only so she could stop having to think about possible competition. "Hey Megaman, do you mind if I ask you some questions? Just out of curiosity."
"Hm?" Megaman turned his head to look at her. "Sure, go ahead."
"If you don't cook for your normal work, what does your family do?"
"We're Diggers," he answered simply. "I usually explore the ruins while Roll acts as my spotter. Roll's grandpa taught us everything we know, and he still helps us find the next place to go. How about you guys?"
"We dig from time to time, but usually we just do whatever jobs come our way." None of them legal, of course. While they were talking about their families, she decided to see if he recognized their name. "I forgot to tell you before, but we're the Bonne family. You?"
He failed to react in any way to their name, which was good whether he was a civilian or not. "I'm Megaman Volnutt, but Roll and Barrell's last names are Caskett. I'm basically adopted."
"'Basically' adopted? Ha, why not just say you're adopted?"
Megaman scratched his cheek awkwardly. "Well, I didn't come from an orphanage or anything. Gramps found me in a cave when I was really young."
Tron cocked an eyebrow when she heard that. "In a cave? Not gonna lie, that's a weird place to find a kid."
"Right?" He laughed at her tone. "He found me and Data together, who's kind of my pet monkey. We've always been a team since."
"You'll have to introduce me." So she could put her worries aside for good.
They got to the pedestrian bridge and began to cross over. The conversation lulled a bit, which was fine since it let Tron go through a mental list of questions to ask, but as they were walking Servbot #14 turned his head towards a different bridge and said, "Huh? Do you guys hear something?"
"What?" Megaman and Tron both stopped and looked to the right. Now that it was said out loud, they could all hear something.
Rumble-rumble-rumble
Coming from the industrial side of the island, a mech with tank treads began to go over a vehicle bridge. With no cars on the road, the mech began to speed up as it traveled. In its left hand was a gun, but its entire right arm was basically a metal ball attached to its shoulder. Most importantly, and even more apparent than the massive hunk of metal itself somehow, was its obnoxiously loud shade of purple. It seemed to shimmer in the afternoon sun, nearly blinding them all at one angle while it drove.
"Something's wrong."
"Something's wrong." Megaman echoed her thoughts before he began to run. "I've got a bad feeling about this!"
Why was there a mech barreling over the bridge?! Tron's heart began to drum loudly in her ears as she started to sprint. No, there was no way, this couldn't be happening!
The mech spun left the moment it got off the bridge, making a beeline towards a particular building. The moment the tank treads stopped moving-
Whrrrr-WHAM!
The metal ball attached to its right shoulder shot out, crashing right through the front wall of the Riverside Bank.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Tron was beside herself in anger. There was someone going after the Bonne's target after all!
As the group reached the scene, gunfire began to ring out from the security guards; but their bullets merely bounced off of the mech's armor, barely doing scratch damage. The metal ball, attached to the arm by a chain, began to retract as the mech's speakers cracked to life. "I'll make this simple. Give me everything in that vault, starting with the jewels!"
Standing not far from him, Tron witnessed Megaman's left hand disappear into his arm, making a weapon as the boy pointed it at this unknown enemy. Tron was mostly still filled with rage, but incredulity was added when he shouted, "Stop! I don't know what you want, but you won't be getting it, pirate!"
"What?" The mech turned its head just enough to observe the blue boy standing up to it. "Oh, it's the boy. I don't know why you're here, but your help certainly isn't needed."
"Wait," said Megaman slowly. "I know that voice. Suede?"
Megaman knew who this guy was? What in the world was their connection?! The mech's torso turned a bit more fully, raising its gun arm to point it at Megaman. "You're quickly becoming a nuisance. I don't have time to waste with you, so-"
Much to Tron's confusion, the head of the mech shifted and the pilot began to focus exclusively on her. "Hold on, that symbol on your shirt… I'd recognize that anywhere! You, girl! Are you related to Teisel Bonne?"
Great, now things were making even less sense. Tron was absolutely on her last nerves. "I don't need to answer anything! Who are you to think you can ask me questions?!"
"That arrogance!" Suede's voice over the speaker began to rise with rage. The security guards of the bank stopped firing, either realizing they weren't accomplishing anything or not wanting to get involved in this new argument. "You, YOUUUU!"
His shouting suddenly stopped. An eerie silence hung in the air, until the head of the machine turned to look at Megaman once more. Suede's voice was sickeningly polite as he said, "On second thought, boy, I need to thank you for bringing me this surprise gift. This has truly become a fantastic day for me."
Whrrrr-
The world seemed to slow down as the ball-and-chain was launched once more… directly at her. Tron's legs felt glued to the pavement as the weapon came rushing at full speed. Her mouth opened in shock, but right at that moment she felt all of her weight be swept out from under her. "Wha-"
WHAM!
The very spot she'd been standing in was smashed in, but Tron found herself staring into Megaman's face as he carried her, sprinting as fast as his legs could take him around the street corner. The look in his emerald eyes was… firm. In her stupor, she had no other way to describe it but enthralling.
Managing to slip into an alley, Megaman crouched a bit to set her down gently in a sitting position. "Tron, are you okay?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Was she though? Her brain was struggling to keep up. Where were the Servbots?
"Miss Trooon!" Oh, there they were, just a moment behind them; thankfully, while they were frantic, they weren't hurt.
Her legs finally found their strength; but as she began to stand up, Megaman was already running out of the alley saying, "Stay here, you three!"
"He's seriously about to take on this Suede guy!" There was a part of Tron that knew that she needed to escape. The other pirate clearly had a bone to pick with her brother, and she had almost been turned into chalk outline not a moment before.
But…
Peeking just her head around the corner, she witnessed the boy in blue stand firm, squaring up against the mech as it stopped at the intersection and aimed its gun at him. The speakers crackled, "That's it! You'll regret getting in my way, boy!"
Megaman and Suede began firing at once, but the former was nimble. He weaved in and out of the gunfire, firing his buster at the machine's body. The shots were hitting, but it was tough to say they were doing that much to him.
With another whrrr, the ball-and-chain shot at Megaman. Rather than dodge to the side, Megaman jumped up.
WHAM! The weapon was lodged into the road and Megaman landed on top of it, taking a moment only to find his footing before aiming directly at the chain connecting the ball. Shot after shot, Megaman fired at the chain with his left hand while holding it with his right. Dislodging from the road, the weapon began to retract to its base. Tron's breath caught as she watched Megaman keep holding on, accelerating in speed as the ball tried to return home.
Then, two things happened at once: Megaman went flying over Suede's shoulder, and the weapon smashed into the arm without stopping.
Megaman landed on the pavement in a skid, thankfully on his armored back instead of his head. As soon as he could look up, he witnessed the metal ball land on the ground completely free of its chain. It looked like Suede tried to throw the mech into reverse to run him over, but the wheel treads had issues getting around where the ball landed.
"You insolent- WHAT?!" Suede interrupted his own line, or at least that's what it sounded like to Tron. The speakers Suede was talking through began to relay one side of a conversation. "No, you said I'd have at least five more minutes! The job isn't done!"
Megaman stood up and aimed his weapon, but held his fire while Suede talked to somebody they couldn't hear. "What have I been doing? Just- Don't worry about that! I'm pulling out."
The machine's head turned just enough to look at Megaman. "It sounds like playtime is over, but I'll be back for you! You've made me your enemy, boy!"
With a loud rumble, the mech began to accelerate into the residential half of the island. Megaman returned his arm to normal, and it was only now that Tron could see how hard he was breathing. The fight and collision had clearly made its impact on him.
Tron finally released the breath she'd been holding. There was a lot to say about the last few minutes, not the least of which was needing to figure out who this Suede guy was, but for now she'd have to settle on the jewels still being in the bank. And Megaman-
Jeez, this guy! Just what was this kid made of that he would (or even could) take on a machine that big by himself and not only survive, but do serious damage to it? And the way he picked her up without hesitation…
"Miss Tron?" She looked down as Servbot #1 spoke. "Do we still think Megaman is suspicious?"
Did they? There was a lot to process now, but as her wits came back together she could firmly say, "No, I don't think so. But…"
She heard the sounds of police sirens, no doubt coming to investigate the destruction. Megaman looked in their direction and smiled, offering a tired wave from afar. "I think I'd like to get to know him more."