Megaman Live

"Daniel, are you really still here?"

Dan's body visibly shuddered at the voice, as its owner sauntered through his open apartment door.

"I would have figured one of you would have had the will to rush headlong into this situation by now," she implied with some venom, her Dublonian accent curving around every word.

She was taller than Celia, though just a bit shorter than Dan, though her hair closed the height gap, and then some. She wore a black pinstripe business vest with a matching miniskirt. She jutted one side of her hips up to meet her hand in a defiant stance.

"Honey," the black woman looked at Celia with soft eyes, "You're going to have to jab him a bit harder. I do believe Daniel's in a bit of a slump."

Fan Man's jaw had dropped as she entered, though it now returned to its correct position as he asked the question on everyone's mind, "Lady, who the fuck are you?"

"Who are you and, what are you doing barging in to people's apartments!" Celia demanded.

Moon joined her "Unauthorized entry is prohibited. Vacate the premises immediately." Dirge was himself a bit too confused to react. "Do we know her?" He asked plainly.

((BGM: The Base)))

"Oh, Daniel, you didn't tell them about me?" the woman held her hand over her chest, her body language showing emotional pain, but her eyes staring slyly at Dan.

"Go on, tell them who I am..." she smoothly ordered.

Dan felt a buzz from his PET, and glanced down at it in his hand for a quick moment without making much movement.

He returned his eyes to the woman, his stare stone cold into her warm, knowing gaze.

"She's..." Dan began, his eye twitching slightly, as though he were contemplating the consequences of his next action, "My girlfriend. This is my girlfriend," Dan said weakly, barely raising his arm to present her. His eyes shot back to the screen of his PET for a split second. "Patricia Sweetwater."

As Patricia walked over into Dan's arm, placing it behind her lower back, and herself against Dan, Fan Man blurted out, "No fucking way."

"Yes, Jet; I have a girlfriend. Is that so hard to believe?" Dan shot back at Fan Man, returning slowly to his normal tempo.

"It was supposed to be Leprechauns, then the robot apocalypse, then you getting a girlfriend...probably because you were the last two humans on earth after the robot apocalypse," Fan Man counted off three strange events, seemingly at random to himself. "You just lost me three bets, Dan. Thanks."

"Oh, you two always make me laugh!" Patricia said with a giggle, "But there are thousands of people screaming in the streets. Perhaps the matter at hand should be G.R.A.V.E.?" She suggested, leaning her head on Dan's shoulder, giving him a face full of afro in the process.

She slid the PET from Dan's hand, and bumped him away with her hip. After a few button presses and corresponding beeps, she displayed the screen for all to see. Something called "Satellite Struggle" appeared on the screen.

"You'll all be going here. These satellites need decommissioning. Now," Patricia ordered sternly, tossing the PET back at Dan.

Dan snatched his PET out of the air, pulling it against his side, and resting his elbow on that hand as he rubbed the bridge of his nose with the other hand.

As Patricia sauntered back to the apartment door, she turned back to Fan Man, "Oh, and by the way, try to avoid getting a quick burn in the atmosphere this time. You got lucky last time with Mister Magnet up there..."

And with that, she whisked herself around the doorframe and disappeared.

"Dan has a girlfriend? I guess I haven't been paying attention to him." Celia said. It was true that she barely noticed him, until now, but that was beside the point, she'd never seen that woman come or leave the apartments before.

"So I guess you're going into space then." Celia said to Fanman. Moon stepped forward. "This unit would also like to volunteer." He said standing beside Fanman. "Wait, isn't this dangerous? What if they retaliate?" Celia began. Moon however interjected. "This course of action seems to be the best method of denying the enemy the capacity to retaliate. It is risky, however an elite maverick hunter unit should be able to eliminate the enemy weapons before they can present a threat....unit Fan Man will provide backup as well."

"'Unit Fan Man will meh-meh-meh-meh-meh,'" Fan Man mocked, "Listen, shorty, I know how insane criminal robot masterminds work a little bit better than you, and I also happen to have a little thing called 'tact,'"

"That is a total, and utter lie," Dan glowered at his robot.

"You shut yer mouth," Fan Man shot back. "Look, we have a very serious and important job ahead of us; we're going to be protecting a lot of innocent people, like Celia," Fan Man noted, putting his arm around the girl's shoulders, "but more importantly, we're going to be blowing up a lot of guilty satellites, so we need to work together here. Can I expect the same level of professionalism I saw from Dirge on our last mission, little guy?"

Dan ignored this opportunity to have another back-and-forth with his robot, and instead, looked intently at the screen of his PET, having the same look on his face as when Patricia entered the apartment.

"The mission is top priority. This unit will not faulter in..." Moon was interrupted when Celia glanced at her own PET. "HOLY..." She shouted and began gibbering something about "too many zeroes."

"The reward for this mission is.... it's..." She stuttered.

Dirge glanced over. "Is that a lot?" He asked

Moon joined in. "That amount is drastically in excess of amount necessary to purchase maximum grade prosthetic lungs."

Celia stopped and immediately placed both hands over Moon's mouth. "Your brain must still be damaged, Moon. Why would you go blurting out something as random as that? You might as well say how many sandwiches you could buy with it, or how much motor oil." She said faking a chuckle.