In the living room of the Flutter, time passed awkwardly as Roll Caskett and her grandfather Barrell talked in low voices, scribbling on a piece of paper on the table. Megaman sat on the couch across from them, absent his usual armor in favor of the apron that he'd worn for making breakfast. After a few minutes of this, Barrell took a seat in his chair while Roll prepared to give Megaman the bad news.
"We're… broke. So broke that we can't afford to go on a dig to fix the problem."
Megaman heaved a sigh. He'd kind of expected it, honestly, due to the last few ruins they visited being busts. "Well, what can we do then?"
Barrell scratched his white beard as he grabbed the newspaper next to him and began to search through it. "The only thing for it is for us to get some jobs around the island for a while. I must say that I feel responsible for this since I chose the last two locations."
"Oh, Gramps, please don't beat yourself up." Roll tried to smile as she put a hand on his shoulder. "You've told us before that being a Digger comes with ups and downs. We've just hit one of the downs, that's all."
"Right, it'll be okay," Megaman said as he nodded. "This island isn't that small; there's bound to be somebody who needs some part-time help."
The island in question was Jekyll Island, a relatively bustling city. It was split into two halves; the East Side was largely residential, and the West Business/Industrial. Since the split was due to a river that ran between them, a multitude of bridges connected them so that the commute on any route would be simple.
Finding what he was looking for, Barrell separated one sheet of paper and laid it flat for all to read. "So, here are the advertised job postings. Do you see anything you feel comfortable with?"
Leaning over the page, Roll scanned each section carefully. "I don't suppose anyone would be looking for a temporary mechanic?"
"Here," answered Megaman as he pointed. "Repairman needed for house calls. Paid weekly based on the number of completed jobs."
"Weekly?" Roll scratched the back of her red cap as she thought about it. "We might have to be here for a few weeks to make the money we need, so that's okay. What about you, Megaman?"
Data chose that moment to hop onto the table, tapping the bottom of the page with its foot. "Ee-eek!"
Megaman examined the job his monkey companion had pointed at. "'Need assistance rearranging our warehouse and moving materials. Report to this address Tuesday morning at eight, work for two days. Paid after the second day.' Are you sure about this one, Data?"
Data scanned the other jobs while he did; unfortunately, most of them were asking for long-term workers, not people who would be leaving the island as soon as possible. "Well, it's somewhere to start. Since it begins tomorrow morning, I'll go ahead and check out the address now so I don't get lost."
"Okay, Megaman, and I'll go see about that repairman job. We'll see you in a little bit!"
After taking off his apron and putting on his usual armor, Megaman climbed the exit ladder of the Flutter and touched down on the ground. They'd been allowed to park the ship along the north side of the residential zone, along with a few other small airships. It was a nice day, and he took a deep breath of air to soak in the atmosphere before making the trip towards the industrial area with a simple map in hand.
As he was crossing the nearest pedestrian bridge, he saw two little boys- no, robots? They had identical yellow heads and blue bodies, and they were pushing a large cart of groceries as they walked the same direction he was going. It must have been quite heavy, as the bots seemed to be pushing with all their might. Unfortunately, they failed to see the small pothole they were approaching.
Crash!
The moment a front wheel went into the hole the cart toppled, sending all of the products inside rolling starboard and one of the robots onto the ground from the jerking motion. He heard one say "Oh, no!", so he ran to catch up to them as he called out, "Hey, are you okay?"
Both of them flinched at the sound of his voice, but the fallen one quickly stood up and answered, "I'm okay, but we really need to get all of this up! I hope none of it broke…"
"I'll help." Megaman scrambled to get the larger foods while the tiny bots got the small fruits and vegetables. Once they had all of the groceries in the cart again he gave it a light push to test it. "It all looks okay, but this is pretty heavy. I've got some free time, so how about I push it and you two lead the way?"
"Oh, thank you mister Blue Guy!" One robot gave a hearty bow while the other smiled widely. "We've got a bit to go, but we'll make it in good time with you here!"
"No problem." They all started to walk, the bots a few paces ahead. Unable to stop his curiosity, he asked, "So, did you guys get all of this to last you a while?"
"No, this won't last that long, really." He really needed a way to tell them apart besides 'the one on the left.' "This is food for fourty-four people, so it'll probably just be two days worth."
"Fourty-four?!" He almost stumbled at the thought. "I can't believe there are fourty-two more of you guys."
The same robot was about to chime in again, but the other tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. He seemed to realize something, and so settled for responding with, "Well, it's complicated."
They clammed up after that, so the group walked in silence while they made a few turns. Megaman took that time to examine his surroundings, and noted that a majority of the buildings were in good shape, even the ones that didn't seem to be occupied. Maybe the city was focused on keeping things looking nice so people would want to stay?
Eventually, the two robots stopped at a rather large, green warehouse and knocked on the front door. An identical robot opened it and beckoned them in, so Megaman let go of the cart for them to grab it. "Thanks again, mister Blue Guy! We appreciate the help!"
"No problem, have a good day!" He waved to the bots as they disappeared inside, then took a look around. "Okay, so to get to that address I need to go…"
He glanced at the map, then back around, then back at the map. He'd forgotten the route taken to this point and didn't have a clear reference point visible from here. There was only one thing to do now.
"Well, good thing I gave myself time to explore today…"
-Legends-
Megaman eventually found the warehouse posted in the ad; but nobody answered the door when he knocked, so he just had to hope the job was still happening the next day. He wound up making it back to the Flutter just after lunch, but the only person there to greet him was Data, who was busy reading the comics in the newspaper.
Not having eaten yet, he decided to make food for the entire family so they could eat it whenever they returned. Putting his apron on over his armor, he grabbed some pork from the fridge and set the rice cooker up. Idly, he wondered if they'd have to move onto much cheaper foods for a while. At least they had supplies to last them a few days.
He was still in the middle of cooking when he heard the Flutter's main entrance open and a familiar voice call out. "Megaman? Is that your cooking I'm smelling?"
"It sure is, Roll. Come in."
She walked into the kitchen and sat on the closest free chair. "Thanks for making food, Megaman. I'm starving!"
He smiled but kept his eyes on the pan where he was stirring the sauce. "Me too. Where's Barrell?"
"Gramps said he was going to the library today. He wants to do some hard research into where we should go once we've fixed our money problem." She sank into the chair just a little. "I just hope he's having an easier time than I did."
Megaman turned his head to look at her as he turned off the burner; the sauce was about finished anyways and ready to serve with the rest. "Is everything okay?"
"Well, yes, but I feel so tired right now. After I got to the repairs office I had to wait almost twenty minutes to get taken to the manager's room. When I got there he said-"
Roll sat up firmly and impersonated the manager, hands clasped in front of herself like she was sitting at a desk. "'Ordinarily, we wouldn't want to hire someone as a temp; but we're short on hands at the moment, so would you consider taking a couple of tests to verify your knowledge and us moving on from there?' Of course I said yes, because I know they want to make sure I won't waste any of their time. There were two parts: a written test, and an evaluation in the garage afterwards. The paper test was perfectly fine, no problems, but…"
"But?" Megaman set the plate of pork cutlets and rice on the table in front of Roll, who put her face into her hands as she answered.
"It was so frustrating, Megaman! Mister Beard was the normal kind of strict; but Buttersworth just kept asking questions while I was in the middle of doing the work, and the questions never had anything to do with the work I was on!"
He rubbed her back to console her before sitting down to eat from his own plate. "Maybe it was a, uh, being able to work under pressure thing?"
"I don't think so…" She lifted her head to look at him. "He didn't start pestering me until Beard mentioned that I aced the written test while only being fourteen. His eyes went cold, and it all went downhill from there. But on the bright side, I got the job!"
"See? It worked out." Sharing a smile, they both settled into their seats for lunch.
The evening passed, dawn of the next day came and Megaman was ready first thing to start working. Arriving at the warehouse ten minutes before eight, he knocked twice on the front door and waited.
After a minute a slim man in a rather nice, indigo suit opened it and stared down at him. "And you are?"
"Megaman, sir. I'm here about the warehouse rearranging?"
"Oh right, the labor. Inside, come on." Following the man inside, Megaman took a look around and noticed that the warehouse was absolutely packed with all manner of boxes. Small to large, cardboard to plastic tubs, and all kinds of colors to them. He noted that there weren't any loose items; everything was in boxes, and the boxes sealed with tape. "My name is Suede, and that's all you need to know. Your job will be to load up the truck that comes, multiple times until all of this product is gone. Everything inside the boxes are already sorted, so just pick a color and load the truck up with that."
"Yes s-"
But Suede continued, heedless of him speaking. "When the truck isn't here, I want you separating the containers so the next load will happen faster. Stack them neatly, and if I see you damage anything you can forget being paid. As I said in the ad, this will probably take through tomorrow with the truck's travel time. Am I clear?"
"Yes sir."
Megaman did his best to ignore how rude the man was and focused on the task at hand while Suede stepped away. As he waited for the truck to arrive, he kneeled down and gave one of the green containers a test lift; he could pick them up, but the weight had him straining. What's in these things, pure metal?!
The garage door opened a couple of minutes later and a pickup truck backed in. Once it was parked the driver got out, face unreadable behind a pair of sunshades, flipped down the hatch gate and waved Megaman over. He said with a deep voice, "Come on kid, start loading."
Hoping to get the most difficult work out of the way early in the day, Megaman opted to load the truck with as many green containers as would fit. The process took several minutes, as there weren't any carts sitting around to expedite the process; it was go to a corner of the warehouse, grab a heavy box, slowly make his way to the truck to load it, slide box on, and repeat.
Fifteen minutes or so later, the truck was closed back up and ready to go. Without a single word of thanks (or helping, for that matter) the driver got back into the vehicle and pulled off. The door closed behind him, so he must have had some type of remote. As the cargo left, Megaman analyzed the room once more as he felt some ache begin to settle in and remembered he would have to be rearranging while he waited for the truck's return.
All of this? By himself? There had to be better way to make the money his family needed, or at least a way that wouldn't involve throwing his back out.
-Legend-
"So? How bad are the repairs going to be?"
Looking up from her papers, Tron turned her head to respond to Teisel. "Not as expensive as we thought, thankfully. But it is going to take some time."
The repairs being discussed were in regards to the Gesellschaft, the Bonne family's colossal pride and joy. Parked off of the coast of Jekyll Island, it contained all of the many machines they'd be using for their future pirate ventures, however…
Teisel sighed. "That Servbot really screwed up our schedule. It's not like we can rob the island's bank and then just sit around in this warehouse for the fixing to wrap up."
"Oh trust me, Teisel, he's going to get all of what's coming to him." Her anger came out as a growl, but she had to settle for echoing her brother's sigh. "In the meantime, we'll just have to get comfortable. There's nothing for it."
"Babuu?"
The older Bonne siblings shifted towards the door to see Bon, their large and yellow youngest who was waving for them to follow him. Teisel was confused for a moment, but then put his hands together in understanding. "Ah, is dinner ready? You didn't have to come get us yourself, Bon; you could've just sent a Servbot! But thank you."
"Babuu!" Bon seemed to say 'don't worry!', so they all began to walk together. They crossed paths with several of the Servbots walking around, who either waved at them or were tied up in small jobs around the warehouse.
Tron cupped her chin with her hands as she tried to recall something. "Is tonight's meal… curry rice?"
"No, it's pizza," answered Teisel. "I've been in the mood for it, so I slipped it into the schedule. Is that alright?"
"Sure, it's fine but…" Tron stopped walking, causing the two others to follow suit and turn to her. "Do you two ever feel like our meals have gotten, I dunno, repetitive?"
Teisel started using his fingers to count backwards, in a sense. "Uh, pizza, hamburgers, curry, curry, leftover spaghetti, hamburgers, the original spaghetti- Hmm, maybe so, Tron. But none of us are great cooks, so it isn't as if we can teach the Servbots much that's new. Does it bother you?"
"A little," she admitted. "Maybe we should get some cookbooks while we're here, since we aren't doing anything else."
"That's one option, but most books aren't going to include portion sizes for all of these mouths. I'm worried about how many mistakes the Servbots will make trying to figure things out as they go to feed our family."
"Um," came a voice from below them, which was revealed to be one of the forty-one Servbots in said family. The little guy seemed apprehensive as he put his idea out into the open. "What if we hired somebody to teach us? Uh, have them explain things in ways that the books wouldn't. Maybe."
Teisel was actually impressed, and gave a thumbs up to the Servbot. "You know, that's actually not a bad idea. We'll consider this a little learning vacation until the Gesellschaft is ready to go! Go put a little notice on some billboards around town, let the chefs on the island come to us. Maybe a bunch of broke cooks will show up, and we'll have them compete to make us food!"
Tron giggled a bit at her brother's enthusiasm. It was so very natural for him to see things like that, and he could even be right! It's not like there were a lack of wannabe chefs on most residential islands. With any luck, they'd be able to hook some idiot to teach the Servbots for cheap. She gave instructions to the now proud-looking bot for him to go with some of the others and post¹ bulletins that they would make.
Glad that she spoke up about the meal situation, Tron was satisfied that variety and change would be introduced into their lives.
Oh how right she would be.
There isn't a set release schedule for this due to work, but I've made getting back into writing a priority so I'll be doing my best. I'll see you all in the next one!
