Chapter Text
(More info on Sound Woman can be found here: https://www.tumblr.com/pinkiemeowstic89/643516811889000448/okay-let-me-just-say-a-few-things-first-1-eyes
Also, if this were an actual episode, it would be set between SWISH and Minus Mini)
We open on a robot girl, modeled as a teenager, sitting in a dark alley. She has pale "skin", two long black pigtails curved to resemble music notes spouting out of some kind of helmet, a black crop top with poofy shoulders and a purple music note on the front with a matching short black skirt, exposing something that resembles a belly button, one spiked bracelet on each of her wrists, purple eyes with a single eyelash on each, and buckle-up boots. She's strumming a purple guitar and seems to be looking for a good melody, but she keeps stopping with a grimace when she thinks she's fallen short, at one point mumbling something along the lines of "There's gotta be some new tune I can show off to these people". At least, up until a familiar shadowy figure walks up to her with loud footsteps.
"I can tell you're dedicated to your musical craft," the figure stated with a stern inflection, "Do you see yourself at the top of your game?"
"I dunno," the girl replied, "But I've topped a lot of charts in other towns, so I'm pretty sure I'll be a chart-topper here in Silicon too."
"How about I help you achieve that dream of yours?"
"That's a beat I can rock to!" The girl stood up and strummed her guitar as she spoke this, and she looked to the sky, "Look out, Silicon City. A new star is about to be born."
The next day at Silicon Central, Aki walked right into the gymnasium with a look of confusion on his face, thanks to walking through some loose streamers.
"How come the gym is so fancy?" the Light son asked upon his entrance.
"Remember those posters advertising the school dance from earlier in the week?" his human sister Suna, who helped with the decorating, responded with a question of her own and pointed to one of the aforementioned posters, "That's today."
"Aw bolts, I didn't even pay attention to the date!"
"Did you at least ask Ashley like you were hoping to?"
Aki cringed at the thought of missing a chance to spend time with Ashley Adderley, the apple of his eye, "I was hoping she'd make the first move?"
Mega Mini, the literal voice in his head, was not buying that excuse in the slightest, but he still tried to be kind, "Look Big M, you got until 7 PM to get on your feet and do it, so you'll have to come up with a way to ask her, and quick!"
Suddenly, there was a loud guitar strum that caused the siblings to cover their ears in pain.
"Please tell me you just forgot to turn off your personal playlist," Suna was hoping for something that wouldn't overcomplicate the day.
"Nope, complete radio silence," Mini quickly replied.
"Well, there's only one way to find out what or who's behind it." Aki was able to recognize what to do now that he's had a few adventures under his belt, so he jumped out the gym window, landing on his feet and bolting straight for a secluded location so he could let out his signature, "Mega-nize me!"
One transformation sequence later, we see just what's causing the mayhem in downtown Silicon City, and it turns out to be the girl from the alley, as she's just finished unleashing a powerful flurry of guitar strums. She was rocking out on the stage that previously hosted Drill Man's short-lived DJ career, with a pair of amplifiers and a microphone hooked up for the maximum effect.
"What is up, Silicon City?!" she excitedly yelled into the microphone, "Hope you're not tired, because this rock train ain't stopping until you guys know my name!"
The "audience" she was hoping for has doubled over, covering their ears like Aki and Suna prior, and they were clearly not ready for any encores, as they tried to run away to avoid going completely deaf. The girl was not pleased with these reactions.
"Some people just don't know good music when they hear it," she grabbed the microphone again, "My mistake, folks. I shouldn't have given you a choice." Another song began, and Mega Man was on the scene.
"Hey, don't you realize you're disturbing the peace?"
She turned to look at who was trying to interrupt her concert, and stopped once she got a good look at the blue bomber, "Ooh! Someone's trying to stop me from having fun." Her tone was now more seductive and flirtatious, "I've got good news and bad news for you, copper. The bad news: I ain't a fan of police, too stern on gals trying to make a living. The good news: you're cute enough to become an exception to that little rule of mine. What do you say?"
"I say, one, I'm not an actual Good Guild officer, and two, you're a lunatic. What are you even trying to do?"
The girl swapped back to her energetic voice, "Didn't I tell you? I'm trying to make a name for myself in this city. My dad was a traveling musician during the Hard Age; he taught me everything I know. Thanks to him, many other locales have had their little worlds rocked by the awesome tunes of Sound Woman, and I'm gunning for worldwide fame! Problem is, I can't reach that goal if I leave any stones unturned. So you're gonna have to back off or face the music."
Mega Man stepped back from this Sound Woman, as she called herself moments ago, "I'm glad you've got ambitious goals, Sound Woman," and armed his Buster, "but you'll have to tone those ambitions down unless you wanna fight!"
Sound Woman wasn't intimidated at all, "Okay, but be warned, I play rough!" She gave an extremely hard guitar strum, pushing Mega Man back quite a bit, and she kept playing to keep her enemy at a distance. The loud noise made it hard for him to focus on landing a shot, as he had to cover his ears one-handed, so each shot he took was pretty much a leap of faith. Because of this, and Sound Woman's frequent dancing around the stage, the fight on his end was getting nowhere.
"We're gonna need something that can actually hit her without having to aim, Chief!" Mini saw how much of a disadvantage Mega Man was at, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Why wouldn't I be? Replication, activation!" Mega Man snuck his way backstage to grab the robo rock star's power, having to bounce with her to keep a connection for long enough, until the gauge was at 100%.
"Looks like we're ready for a battle of the one-bot bands!"
"Then let's go for it! Activate Sound Woman schematics!" As the powers were activated, Mega Man's color palette went from two shades of blue to black and purple, and his Buster now acted as an amplifier.
"You could've just asked for an autograph, y'know," Sound Woman noticed what Mega Man had done behind her back.
"Autographs are too destructible, but I do like the sound of your powers," Mega Man let loose one of his usual quips, to which Sound Woman replied, "Well, if puns are the name of the game, then I guess I'll have to amp up the volume!" She turned the dial on her guitar up a bit, and resumed playing, this time with Mega Man able to retaliate, as it seems that Sound Woman's powers gave him better resistance to loud noises. Because of this, the battle was more equal, leading to an exchange of sound blasts. That is, until Mega Man saw a clock that hit 7:45.
"Seriously?" he cursed his subpar time management skills, "Look, I've got other plans right now, so mind if we hit pause on this?"
Sound Woman rolled her eyes with a smirk, "Whatever you say, hot stuff. I'll be waiting right here." She shot him a wink and resumed her song as he dashed off.
"Well, that was an... experience," Mini wasn't exactly used to having a foe attempt to flirt with him or the bot he was piloting, "But maybe it'll give you some ideas for solving your Ashley problem. ...Did you get any ideas to solve it?"
Mega Man thought for a bit, and got the usual side effects that come with replicating a Robot Master's powers. This time, the transition was a set of music notes flowing like actual sheet music, and after the transition, the pixelated Mega Man winked at the camera.
"Actually, I believe I did."
Back at the school, Suna had a worried expression on her face, but as she saw her brother... strut (?) over to her, she sighed in relief, "I take it you settled that music issue?"
"Sure did," Aki winked, "And I've also got a plan for the dance."
"That's great! So is that why you're acting like a supermodel?"
"All part of the plan, m'lady."
Now Suna was confused. Did Aki just give her a pet-name? Before she could ask him what that was about, he had already left, leaving Suna's relief to be replaced by the feeling that something was DEFINITELY going to go wrong.
Aki saw his chance when he saw Ashley in their computer class, walking over and tenderly taking her hand in his own, "Nice to see you as always, Ashley."
He hadn't done much to change his appearance, but he did have this aura of charm that piqued the blue-nette's interest, "Same to you, Aki. What's up?"
"You see," he lifted her out of her chair and onto her feet, "I'm certain that a girl as beautiful as you just has to have someone going to tonight's dance with you."
Now Ashley had a slight blush on her face, "N-not really. I actually hadn't put much thought into it at all."
"Well then," he did a little bit of the tango as he continued his question, "do you mind if I have the honor of being your escort?"
This sealed the deal, "Yeah, that would be super cool!" Ashley was close to being head over heels. She may not have known why Aki was being so suave, but she wasn't going to complain any time soon.
"Glad to hear it, beautiful," Aki sat her back down into her chair like a gentleman opening a door for his special lady and whispered into her ear, "I hope you have a great time."
Some of the other students in the class were also enamored with this display of romance, and this was only the beginning.
In art class, Aki was examining his muse, a vase full of flowers, when he was approached by another boy.
"Hey Aki," the boy started, looking shyly at the floor, "I heard about what happened with you asking Ashley out, and..." he held up a painting of Aki, in a tuxedo with a rose in his mouth, and extremely detailed at that, "I made this for you! I really hope you like it!"
Aki was charmed by his classmate's tribute, "This is spectacular! I have to wonder, have you always had such artistic vision?" He was batting his eyes in a flirty way, making the other boy blush just as Ashley had before.
"W-well, I wouldn't say always..."
"But you have so much talent! That's the only way something this gorgeous can be made by someone like you; you're showing your inner beauty, and that's nothing to be ashamed of, my friend."
And just like that, another student had been swayed by Aki's sudden charms, not helped by another rumbling of the earth, plus guitar riff from Sound Woman, causing Aki to catch the other boy on instinct with a wink.
Following that, as Aki and Suna were eating their lunches, a girl walked over to their table with something behind her back.
"A-Aki, I know you're already t-taking Ashley to the dance," the girl stammered, just as nervously as the artist boy, before presenting a bag of cookies, "but I hope you'll still want to eat these. They're all chocolate chip, and I helped my mom make them last weekend, so they're really yummy!"
Aki took the bag and opened it, and tried one of the cookies for himself. When the treat met his taste receptors, his eyes lit up, "You weren't lying at all! These are absolutely delicious!"
The girl started to blush, "T-thank you! I was kinda worried about how you'd like them, and I was kinda scared that I'd end up being a bad chef--"
Aki stood up and took her into his arms, "Nonsense, dear. I could taste the love you poured into every morsel, and it made your confection all the sweeter."
This made the girl's knees tremble, with another Sound Woman guitar strum making her lose balance completely. Once again, Aki caught his classmate with a wink, and having bore witness to this, Suna let out a sigh upon figuring out for certain that something was clearly wrong.
As the siblings walked through the halls after the school day had come to an end, many of the students were waving at Aki in a lovestruck manner, hoping to get his attention. Aki took notice of this sudden spike in popularity, and waved back at the crowd, winking and blowing the occasional kiss.
"Okay, we need to have a talk," Suna grabbed her brother's arm and led him to the janitor's closet, not that Aki really noticed. Once inside, she held Aki by the shoulders, "What is up with the Casanova act? Don't get me wrong, this whole flirting thing isn't really dangerous or immoral or debatably annoying, but I'm pretty sure this is definitely going to get in the way of your hero biz."
"Whoa whoa whoa," Aki removed his sister's hands, "is that really something that such a pretty--"
"If the way you finish that is romantic, I will tear out your voice-box," if Suna wasn't angry before, she definitely was now. "Anyway, I know you heard those guitar strums throughout the day, so it seems like the problem from this morning has either come back or not really been dealt with."
Aki snapped his fingers, remembering something, "Oh yeah, she said she'd be waiting."
"She? Who's 'she'?" Suna's curiosity prompted Mini to leap out of Aki's head, "Long story short, the philhar-monstrosity from this morning was caused by a musician that calls herself Sound Woman, and when Big Blue here copied her powers, he also got a hold of her crazy flirting skills."
"I really need to start expecting something like this," Suna muttered under her breath, "Well, then you should meet up with her and try to finish what you started!"
"Done and done," Aki winked, giving his sister double finger-guns, and ran off.
Back at the stage, Sound Woman was rocking out like nobody was watching, which was actually the case because everyone was scared of what might happen if they began hearing, until Mega Man leaped back into action.
"Well well well, guess you weren't gonna stand me up after all," Sound Woman stopped the song she was playing to tease our hero.
"Try as I might, I couldn't keep myself away from your enchanting melody," Mega Man, still under the influence of her schematics, ended up returning the flirt as he made his way right up to the stage, much to Sound Woman's surprise.
"Ooh! Looks like someone picked up a few love lessons since the last time we met."
"What can I say? You inspired me, and not just musically. What say you and I..." he grabbed her hand gingerly, "get to know each other just a touch more?"
"Dear Kitamura, he's serious," Mega Mini sighed as he watched what was happening.
"I say," Sound Woman grabbed his Buster, which instinctively turned to hand mode, "hope you're wearing your dancing shoes."
Meanwhile, Lord Obsidian was watching the performance, though he cared more for the mission Sound Woman was assigned than he did the music she played, and he had a similar reaction to Mini, "Dear Kitamura, she's serious."
The two robots began dancing the waltz, their eyes locked passionately. One two step, one two turn, one two step, one two dip.
"Hey, you're pretty good," Sound Woman batted her eyes as Mega Man dipped her.
"You're not so bad yourself," Mega Man returned the compliment and pulled back up, "Going nice and slow isn't so bad every now and then, is it?"
"You've got a point, but you oughta let the lady lead." Sound Woman quickly took the opportunity to toss Mega Man off the stage, where he was met with concrete and a light concussion.
"Ugh... what was that?" This seemed to be just what Mega Man needed to get himself back in control, "Is heartbreak supposed to make you dizzy?"
"Depends on whether or not you were even starting to go steady with her," Mini responded, "But now that you're back to normal, you'll need a way to make sure you don't go back to square one."
Mega Man took a look at the stage where Sound Woman got right back to performing, and took notice of the amplifiers. When it clicked, a lightbulb literally went off in his head, startling Mini.
"I got it! Activate Elec Man schematics!" On cue, Mega Man gained the usual yellow-and-black color scheme and plug Buster that came with Elec Man's powers, and made his way back to the stage.
"Hm, never would've taken you for the clingy type," Sound Woman snarked, "but all the best musicians have these types of fans."
"Actually," Mega Man retorted, "I was hoping to supply you with some extra power!" He launched a lightning bolt at one of the amps and caused it to overload, which distorted the notes Sound Woman was playing, and she gasped.
"What in the-?!"
Before she could finish, the other amp was also zapped, and now her sound blasts were just ordinary strums. She ran over to the first amp.
"I can't believe you would do something like this!" Sound Woman was starting to get choked up, "These amps were the best on the market, they cost a fortune!"
Mega Man looked a little hesitant, feeling bad for tearing down another Robot Master's musical dreams, even if it was to keep the city safe.
"You like breaking people's stuff, huh?" Sound Woman started to stand up, and she went from grieving to angry, "Fine. I'm okay with breaking people's stuff."
With the amps out of commission, Sound Woman quickly found a new use for her guitar; she leaped off the stage, bolted toward Mega Man, and swung it right at him like she was carrying an axe. Luckily, Mega Man was able to jump out of the way, and kept up the narrow dodges as she kept swinging.
"Hold still, you equipment-wrecking poser!"
Mega Man stayed on his toes, looking for anything that could stop Sound Woman's rampage. Unfortunately, the area was barren in terms of both people and conveniently placed items, so he had to settle for stalling her with a lightning bolt to the feet and hightailing it until he found an alley to hide in.
"Mega Man, where are you?" Sound Woman called out to him as if they were playing regular hide-and-seek, "Don't think you can hide from me forever. Did you forget that I play rough?"
As he was hiding, Mega Man took some breaths; he wasn't as frightened as he was against Lord Obsidian or his right-hand bot, but he still felt there was a chance he wouldn't make it out in one piece, "Whoever said breaking up is hard to do definitely had the right idea."
"Again, not sure that was an actual breakup, but wise move on the retreat," Mini shared the temporary relief, "No fury like a woman scorned, y'know."
"There's gotta be a way to get her off my back..."
"Maybe if you treat her like she's just another amp..." Mini ducked, anticipating another lightbulb going off, which ended up being the right call.
"That's it! Activate Air Man schematics!" Mega Man's color palette now shifted to white with gold accents, and his Buster now had the functionality of a fan. He leaped out of his hiding space and called Sound Woman over with a whistle.
"Thanks for the cue," Sound Woman giggled in an unstable manner before charging at Mega Man, who used his air powers to jump out of the way, and incredibly high at that, surrounding the female bot in a powerful tornado.
"Quick switch: Elec Man!" Mega Man swapped over to Elec Man's powers just before landing, firing a few zaps to electrify the tornado. When Sound Woman tried busting out, the force of the electric barrier blew her backwards, resulting in her stumbling dizzily toward Mega Man, with the occasional tingling in her body, once the storm dissipated, still trying to attack him.
"Now I g-g-gotcha," her voice glitched as she swung her guitar once more, but she couldn't put as much power into it and she ended up succumbing to her fatigue, with Mega Man catching her and escorting her to a nearby Good Guild station where the officers standing guard took her off the Blue Bomber's hands.
"Lesson learned, Mini," Mega Man expounded as Sound Woman was brought into the station, "dancing with danger is like riding a bike: you gotta wear a helmet."
"The mind boggles," Mini replied, not really getting the intention of the lesson, while Mega Man spotted a flower stand, "And speaking of dances..."
Back at Silicon Central, during the dance, Aki, dressed in a set that included a plain white dress shirt, light brown khakis, and a cyan sweater vest, had finished apologizing to the students he had charmed before, not wanting them to feel led on by his sudden flirtatious streak. After he confirmed that there were no hard feelings, he walked over to Suna, wearing a dress that resembled a mixture of pastel Lolita fashion and a tuxedo dress, with her headband and pink heels having yellow bows on them that matched the one on the top of the dress's corset.
"Feeling any better?" Suna asked as Aki rubbed the back of his head.
"Yeah. I'm sorry that I let all that love fever go to my head."
"I'm just glad that you didn't seriously hurt anyone."
"Same here," Aki could still feel the concussion that snapped him back to normal, "but I still have a promise to make good on."
He made his way over to Ashley, who was wearing a sparkly galaxy-colored dress, similarly sparkly cream-colored leggings, black Mary Janes, and cyan fingerless gloves.
"Aki!" she exclaimed, "Nice outfit."
Aki blushed, "Right back at ya," and extended his hand, "Shall we?"
Ashley accepted the offer, and the two began a soft waltz.
"I'm glad we're having the dance inside," Aki commented.
"Yeah, the decorations look great," Ashley agreed.
"Well, that and there's no street for me to get thrown into."
Ashley was stunned for a bit, but quickly laughed it off as the dance continued and the story comes to a close.