Rockman.EXE: Torrent (PG13- AA/Su)- Ch. 8: No Games

[Featherdust]

Mmkay. Because of inspiration, plots, and characters piling up all in my mind for a pretty long time, I’ve finally got something down. I have no idea where this new fic will lead, but hopefully I’ll turn it into something good. Those of you at Fanfiction.net that ever read Nothing Lasts Forever should know that fic has been discontinued, because it’s crap that I wrote two years ago. I can do much better than that. So you could consider this to be a partial rewrite of it. Those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it.

Yes, shut up, I’ll get to the fic in a minute. Just take into account that Netto and co. are around 17-18 years old now, so a lot of things have changed. All introductions will be made and the setting will be determined in this first chapter, so bear with the boringness. I’d really like any comments and reviews on this, and if you want to flame, at least give me some constructive criticism. So I introduce to you the first chapter of Rockman EXE: Torrent.

---

“Netto-kun… Netto-kun, wake up.”
Rockman’s faint voice from the PET was followed by a deep roll of thunder that shook the windows.

“Rain… more stupid rain…” Netto mumbled into his pillow, pulling the covers back over his head. “Why does it always rain on Saturdays…?”

“C’mon, Netto, you know it doesn’t always…”

But Netto talked right over him, as if he hadn’t even heard the cobalt netnavi. “I wonder if mom will make more waffles today…” his voice was rather muffled, for his face was still stuffed into the pillow. “…Dekao stole my ice cream…” he trailed off into other random statements, half of them impossible to understand as he slipped back into his dreamland.

Rockman sighed and glanced at the electronic clock within the PET. Netto had ten minutes. He had to admit it would be funny if Netto was late, as usual, to something as important as this. Another roll of thunder didn’t fail to reach Netto’s ears, despite the covers hunched up over his face. Rain steadily started to tap on the windows.

“Netto,” Rockman repeated.

“Go away,” Netto murmured, taking the pillow out from under him and throwing it at the PET. It fell off the nightstand and landed on the floor with a clatter. Rockman found himself face to face with the dusty floorboards.

“Alright, that’s enough!” he snapped. Growling, he manually turned the volume on the PET all the way up and shouted, “Get your lazy butt out of bed! You’ve got a date with Meiru, dimwit!”

Netto’s eyes popped open. “Oh crud!”

A second later he was struggling to get his clothes on, fix his hair, and brush his teeth all at the same time.

“Rockman, why didn’t you wake me up earlier?” he asked through a mouthful of toothpaste. Rockman didn’t even bother to answer.

Netto spat in the sink and then ran back into the bedroom. He stumbled over the loose sheets on the floor, got back up, stumbled again, and then finally managed to grab the PET and his bandana before running downstairs and jumping over the last three steps. He tied the bandana around his head then made for the front door, yelling a quick goodbye to his mother, who had just finished fixing a good breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast for him.

Haruka sighed and poured the orange juice down the sink. “I swear that boy has never changed.”

---

“How much time do I have, Rockman?” Netto asked urgently as he skated down the sidewalk. The streets were damp and puddle-ridden from the rain, and the sky was a gloomy shade of slate gray.

“Around five minutes. It doesn’t really matter if you’re a minute or two late, I suppose,” Rockman replied.

“I’m intent on being on time for once. We were meeting her at the park, right? Isn’t that what I said?”

“Wow. Late and forgetful,” Rockman muttered.

“Well?” Netto repeated, exasperated.

“The park, yes. Hope she brought an umbrella,” Rockman replied as he glanced again at the weather forecast displayed across the PET screen. “Speaking of which, where’s yours?”

Netto’s skates braked rather harshly. “Crud!”

He turned and skated back through the rain to the house, where his mother stood at the doorway, holding out an umbrella.

“You’ll catch pneumonia out here without a coat,” Haruka fussed at him, handing him a jacket and then the umbrella. “You’ll starve, too. Eat something.” She shoved a small Ziploc bag of toast at him.

“Mom!” Netto wailed, “I just brushed my teeth!”

“Since when were you concerned about hygiene? You need to eat something.”

“I’ll…” Netto stopped to think for a moment. “Meiru and I will get something to eat, I promise.”

Haruka sighed and her hand dropped. “Alright.”

“Thanks mom!” Netto said as he rushed back down the road.

“Couple minutes left,” Rockman muttered.

Netto sped up. “Are there any possible shortcuts?” he asked.

Rockman nodded. “I’ve scanned the map. Take a left at the fence ahead- there should be an alleyway leading alongside it.”

“Hold on, I don’t even see a fence,” Netto interrupted him, braking again and looking around.

“There, you baka!” Rockman snapped, pointing wildly.

“I don’t see it!”

“I’m pointing right at it!”

Netto, confused, squinted in the direction Rockman was pointing out. He spotted the alleyway, but still no fence. “Hum, that’s odd.”

“It’s right there in front of you! Right there! How can you not see it?” Rockman continued to fuss, more out of concern for his brother’s mental health, if anything. Netto poked at the empty space before him and found that there was, indeed, some mass in front of him. And though it existed, it was unperceivable.

“Netto-kun, do you see it now?” Rockman whined quietly, still wondering if Netto had gone temporarily crazy.

“I don’t see it, but I feel it,” Netto muttered, poking at it some more. He grinned sheepishly and skated down the alleyway. “Ah well, perhaps I’m losing my mind, Saito,” he said, fondly using his brother’s original name, “We’ll come back there later and investigate a little bit. Right now I have Meiru to attend to.”

The alleyway gave way to a large intersection, and once he had crossed, the tall trees of ACDC Park loomed up ahead of them, swaying slightly in the wind. As he got closer, it wasn’t hard to spot Meiru, holding her pink umbrella and waving cheerfully to him. She wore a denim jacket over a white t-shirt, a pink skirt, and high-heeled black boots that really weren’t fit for walking through puddles. She looked comfortably dry compared to Netto’s nearly-drenched status, complements to having lost the common sense to at first bring an umbrella.

“Hi Netto!” she greeted him as he skated up onto the sidewalk. He leaned over to catch his breath before straightening up and smiling.

“Hey Meiru.”
“Wow, you look like you’ve been through a hurricane,” Meiru chuckled.
Netto grinned uneasily, carefully fixing the lopsided bandana around his head. “I tried not to be late this time.”

“Well, time doesn’t really matter, especially in your case.” She glanced at her watch, and then said, “But you did make it on time.”

Netto cheered silently and gave Rockman in the PET a thumbs-up. “So, where are we headed?” he asked.

“Any place out of the rain. Doesn’t look like it’ll be letting up anytime soon,” replied Meiru. “How about that new curry place down the street?”
Rockman became bored with Netto and Meiru’s chatter, so he grabbed the special URL he’d been waiting to show someone and logged into Meiru’s PET.

“Rock!” An overexcited squeal came from Roll as she ran over and just about tackle-glomped him.

“Erm… hi, Roll. Hey, guess what?”

Roll’s eyes brightened. “Hmm?”

“I’ve got something really cool to show you,” he said, taking out the URL and opening a link. He took her arm and led her through. Momentarily, colors flashed around them, then faded into nothing but black. Roll looked around. “I don’t see anything.”

“Hold on,” said Rockman. He waited a moment, and then he entered a passcode into a transparent keypad that had appeared. Just as quickly, the pad disappeared when he was done, and the blackness suddenly burst forth with color. Grass bristled beneath their feet and light shone down upon them.

“Look,” he said, pointing up.

“Ohhh! Dr. Hikari finished formatting the sky!” Roll exclaimed, realizing that the empty Net space had been replaced with a blue sky, wispy white clouds, and even a sun.

In the past year, Dr. Yuuichirou Hikari, Netto Hikari’s father, had been working with a team of scientists to make the Net seem more realistic. So far the project had been a success. Their first task had involved programming the grass, trees, and plants. Next had come the various terrains, though at the present time, it wasn’t done quite yet. Just a few months earlier they’d finished a big upgrade to Net City- now the buildings looked extremely realistic, and some greenery had been added as well as a small park.

Rockman smiled and said, “Dad says next they’re going to work on day-and-night cycles, and weather too.”

“That’s so cool!” Roll exclaimed, looking up at the sky in amazement.

“Yeah… I’m glad they’re making our world more like the human world.” He momentarily thought back to the day when he had been activated, when he had been laid with the heavy burden of knowing that he had once been human.

Roll gazed up at the sky a bit more. “That could be a problem.”

“Huh? Why?” Rockman asked.

“Well, I don’t know… all new programs have their bugs,” she said.

“Dad makes sure the new programs are completely functional. Though I guess new programs like that could serve as a source for new virus species,” Rockman explained.

“Won’t be a problem for you,” Roll said with a smile. “You’re good with virus-busting.”

Rockman smiled and nodded. He turned to open a cybernetic window that revealed the video feed of what the PET was seeing. It had, as he expected, been put on mute ad tossed unceremoniously onto the table within the new curry restaurant. Netto and Meiru both seemed to be enjoying their conversation, and Meiru looked unruffled by the fact that Netto was rudely stuffing his face. It could be assumed that Meiru had known Netto long enough to become immune to his greedy- albeit unnatural- obsession for food. Nevertheless, the sight of curry made Rock’s stomach rumble.

“Why don’t we visit Net City?” Roll asked suddenly, as if she too had realized how little food remained in her stomach.
Food wasn’t required for netnavis, but nowadays, the feeling of ‘hunger’ was still mutual. Another project of Dr. Hikari had successfully resulted in newer, even more advanced emotion programmed into netnavis. Cybernetic emotion was hard to explain, as was human emotion. Rockman still didn’t understand half of it, but it did no good to ponder. He opened a link and within moments they stood in the shining utopia of Net City. He was glad that weather effects hadn’t been programmed just yet- there was no doubt that Net City’s weather would eventually be synchronized with Dentech City in the real world. With the development of the Net sky and more advanced emotions came the welcomed development of food. Every navi, Rockman knew, had to be glad for that. He was, at least, as he and Roll headed for a small café at a corner near the new park. As usual, navis of every shape and size bustled through the streets, like a cybernetic replica of New York City. They reached the café quickly, and Rockman picked up a newspaper before they went inside.

“What would you like?” he asked Roll as he looked up at the menus- expensive menus at that. He thought for a moment that he wouldn’t have enough zenny to pay.

“I’ll just get a soda and… a brownie or something,” Roll replied, her nose stuck in a magazine that seemed to be published especially for female navis.

Rockman blinked at her, and then looked back up at the menus. As hot as it was outside, he thought that a café, with its sweets and warm drinks, wasn’t the best place to go. Nevertheless, he ordered her what she’d asked for, and got himself a slice of lemon cake, thankfully still left with some zenny to spare. They took a seat near the window and fell quiet, Roll still reading her otherworldly magazine and Rock distantly flipping through the newspaper for anything interesting. It was funny how much had changed in five years or so. The chances of an evil madman threatening to take over the world had grown slim to none, and things had grown relatively peaceful. If Rock were more observant, he would’ve thought that the lapse in chaos was a bad omen. However, he wasn’t the type to think too deeply about such things, and perhaps that was for the better. Summer would be over soon, and Netto and Meiru would start school again. Dekao and Yaito would be there, too, but none of them were sure about Enzan. Netto, for one, had only seen him once this summer, and that was but a fleeting moment at the Dentech Coliseum. They’d all heard rumors, each as unusual as the next, but Rockman was sure he’d see Enzan and his crimson netnavi sooner or later.
Something from the newspaper caught his eye and pulled him away from his thoughts.

“Hey, look,” he spoke up, reading the small paragraph quickly. “The weather upgrades will be done tonight.”

“Already?” Roll looked up from her magazine, looking a bit ruffled. “They must be overworking themselves. I didn’t expect the weather upgrades to be done until at least next week.”

Rock nodded, looking outside on impulse as the light from the sun suddenly faded. He grinned cheerfully. “A cloud. That’s so cool!”

Had he been in the real world, he would’ve undoubtedly received quite a few odd looks. Roll paid no attention to his comment and instead said, “See? This magazine says female navis like to receive flowers!”

If Rockman could admit he was afraid of the magazine, that reason would be suffice enough. Netto appeared suddenly on a small window that had popped up.

“Rockman!” he whispered, sounding panicked. The background behind him looked to be the boys’ restroom. “Rockman, Jasmine’s here. What do I do?”

“Er…” Rockman shifted a bit. With time also had come Jasmine’s developing infatuation for Netto, but fortunately Medi wasn’t as obsessive over Rockman as she’d been when they had first met.

“Just… see how it goes,” Rock said, undeniably imagining how bad it would get if Meiru and Jasmine got into an argument.

“See how it goes? I brought Meiru here on a date, not for her to fight with Jasmine and cause more tension.” Netto sighed, rubbing his temples. “It’s like she’s stalking me.”

Both Rock and Roll sweatdropped, smiling uneasily. “Netto-kun, you know it’s not like that,” Rock said.

“I know, I know, it just seems everywhere I go with Meiru, Jasmine always has to show up too.”

“Well, you could-"

“Oookay, this is not relationship therapy,” Roll said impatiently from across the table. She turned to Netto. “Meiru-chan doesn’t hate Jasmine. Sure, she does get a little annoyed by her…liking… towards you, but it’s nothing to panic over.”

Netto thought it over, and then nodded. “Okay. Thanks Roll. Oh and… please don’t tell Meiru about this.”

The pink navi rolled her eyes but agreed. The window disappeared, and she turned back to Rockman. “Flowers would help,” she said with a wide grin.

Rockman chuckled.
---

As soon as Netto got back into the dining area, Jasmine waved to him. Netto was surprised to see her sitting by Meiru. Slowly, a tad bit suspiciously, he made his way to the table and sat down.

“Hi Netto,” said Jasmine cheerfully. “Meiru told me you guys came here to get some curry and whatnot. It’s a pretty dreary day.”

Netto nodded. “Why are you here?” he asked. To him, it seemed he’d put out the question a big forcibly, but Jasmine took no notice.

“I’m here to apply for a job, actually. Seems sort of late, since college is starting soon and it might set back my time for homework, but I need to make some money.”

“Yeah, Netto,” Meiru said teasingly, “It’s about time you get a job, too. You’re not so busy saving the world anymore.”

“Well...” Netto’s mind went through its list of excuses. “I’ve… got to focus on my upcoming schoolwork! College is tough, you know.”

Meiru and Jasmine giggled. “Know what I think?” Meiru said with another laugh. “I think you’re just lazy.”

Netto pouted. “Yeah, well, that’s not anything new, now is it?”

A shrill beeping came from Jasmine’s watch. “Ah, time for the job application. See you two later.” She waved and got up, disappearing through the doors at the back of the restaurant.

“I still think you need to get a job, Netto,” said Meiru, finishing up the last of her curry.

Netto was relieved that the two girls hadn’t argued. He supposed that he had, for the umpteenth time, overreacted. “I’ll get a job soon enough,” he replied.

“And here’s hoping that you won’t lose it to being late all the time,” she said with a grin.

Netto scowled, but couldn’t deny that it was true. He sighed and leaned back against the seat. “I wonder what Enzan’s been up to.”

“Jasmine said that she saw him at SciLabs last week,” said Meiru.

“SciLabs? What for?”

Meiru shrugged. “Maybe to help out or something.”

“Enzan doesn’t do stuff to help out, not unless he has orders. Besides, if he was hanging around SciLabs, dad would’ve told me over the phone last night,” said Netto.

“Well, I don’t know then. Try sending him an email.”

“I have. He hasn’t answered to any of them.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s avoiding you,” said Meiru, taking a sip of her soda.

Netto looked puzzled, staring up at the dimly-lit ceiling in thought. “Why Scilabs…?”

Meiru shook her head. “Don’t let it worry you, Netto.” She looked across the table. “Eat your curry.”

Netto didn’t need to be told twice.

---

Each cell was barricaded with the finest cybersteel, sturdy enough to hold back the Gospel Megavirus itself, and nearly impossible to be broken. It was rare. It took years of programming to perfect, and once it was broken, it could not be regenerated. This cybersteel was only used for the dangerous beings under the heaviest weight of crime, ones who could not be allowed to escape back into the vast Net. This cybersteel was only used for the underground prison, which resided directly under the dirty streets of Net City. It was not the most strategic place to put it if, in fact, a breakout did occur, but the chances were highly unlikely. It was unlikely anyone knew that the prison existed, not including the valiant Net Police who stood guard throughout the system. It was intended to stay that way, to prevent a breakout from an outside source.

It was dark, cold and most likely moldy from floor to ceiling. And yet, despite this, quarreling and roaring laughter came from the locked cells. Several navis had their heads sticking out of the bars and were talking to the newest cellmate. He was rather short, had wild blue hair, and the craziest-colored set of armor any of them had ever seen. His vibrant appearance did not make it seem as if he’d committed any real crime.

“Ey newcomer!” another navi spoke. This one was about the newcomer’s size, but more nimble. He had two sharp blue eyes, matted black hair, and a set of floppy dark blue dog ears emerged from the mess of his hair. Even more unusual, the newcomer noticed that this navi had a fluffy black-blue dog tail curled around his nimble body. “Ey newcomer,” the navi repeated, pointing at his cell, “You’re in real trouble now, ain’t ya? Ain’t he, Ronin?”

Ronin, who sat next to the dog-like navi, grinned wryly. “The pure truth, Crelos.” He and Crelos were the only two cellmates allowed to be in the same cell- they were brothers, and because Crelos was so inconveniently dependent, he could not be separated from his brother. They looked about the same, except Ronin, who was taller and stronger, lacked the dog-like features. “Look behind you, newcomer,” he said gruffly.

The timid navi glanced behind where he sat into the deep darkness towards the corners of his cell. He squinted, but spotted nothing.
Ronin chuckled. “Go on.”

So the navi crawled slowly into the shadows, shivering a bit as his eyes adjusted. There. Right in front of him was a navi, leaned up against the corner of the cell, eyes closed. For a moment he thought the navi might be dead, but as he lightly touched the hand, he found that it was warm. However, what was most intriguing was that the navi wasn’t breathing. The newcomer scrambled away, and looked inquisitively back at Ronin.

“He’s been in a system shutdown for six months. A sort of cyber-coma, if you will,” Ronin explained, glumly scraping dry dirt off his nails. "That cell you’re in… it had to be barricaded not only with those extra bars, but with ten extra barriers as well; all because of that navi in the corner… he was insane as hell itself. He expended all of his energy on all ten, and then collapsed. He’s been in that state ever since.”

“That navi in the corner… he was insane as hell itself.”
“..Expended all of his energy on all ten, and then collapsed…”

Something dark stirred within the sleeping navi. He could feel nothing, he could see nothing, but his hearing slowly started fading back. Words drifted in and out of his hearing range. He had no sense of ‘alive’- at the moment, he had no thought process. But soon, as he continued to concentrate on the conversation at hand, other senses began to flood back to him. After a few moments, he felt a numb sensation all over, and he took a shuddering breath. It faltered away quickly- he tried to cough, but couldn’t. With his greatest effort, he tried to move his hand, and yet it refused to move. His thought processes were recovering quickly, and now he realized that he was extremely weakened. He drew another shuddering breath, and at this, the newcomer suddenly turned and peered into the corner.

“Oooh, are you scared now?” Ronin asked, and the others laughed. “Better watch your back, shorty. Nothin’s safe from that guy.”

However, he failed to realize what the newcomer had- the sleeping navi was breathing. The sleeping navi was awake.

And then two sharp, silver eyes snapped open, pupils contracted. One by one, the other navis finally began to fall quiet. His voice came out in barely a silky whisper. “Where…?”

Crelos became ecstatic, jumping up and down with glee. “Ey Ronin, look! He’s waking up, Ronin! He’s waking up!” Ronin shoved him to the ground to shut him up, peering carefully out through the bars of his cell. The silver-eyed navi had to use all of his strength to even lift his hand. He stared at it, fingers shaking weakly. A bit of dry substance crumbled and fell from them, and as his mind slowly began to register, he recognized it as dry blood. He tried to speak again, voice remaining an exasperated hiss. “Where…” he flinched slightly, as if it hurt for him to speak. “Where…am I…?”

“Look at that,” whispered a voice from the cell next to Crelos and Ronin. “He really has awakened.”

Ronin studied the dark navi before them. “I don’t know, Rail. It looks as if he remembers nothing.”

Rail, a navi with silky white hair and purple tattooing along his face, nodded slowly. “Perhaps you should ask him.” A few murmurs arose from the other jail cells.

The other looked back at the dark navi, who had dropped his hand in pain and was now back to focusing on breathing. Ronin wasn’t too pleased with having to ask the navi anything at all. Despite this, he took a great gulp and asked, “Do you… know where you are? Do you remember anything at all?” He had put out the question quickly, in fear that the navi might suddenly leap up and break out of the cell.

Another shuddering breath echoed through the chamber. “The last thing… I can remember…” he stopped to think for a moment, his piercing eyes of moonlight glow closing for only a moment. Then he continued, “The last thing I remember is being trapped… in…” he looked around. “…This.” He was too weakened to gesture to the bars enclosing him in the cell, but Ronin understood what he meant.

In the cell beside him, Rail nodded. Bravery strengthened by the successful answer Ronin had received; he leaned forward and asked, “Do you remember your name?”

For the first time since he had awoken, the dark navi smirked. “Of all the things… I could forget, insolent one… did you really think I would forget my own name?”

Rail looked away and shook his head.

The navi’s smirk quickly faded as something within him activated. His system recovery process suddenly began to speed up and run much more smoothly. Just a few seconds later he was able to breathe more clearly, and his senses were already more in tune to his surroundings.

“I am assuming that the Net Police scum finally brought me down,” he muttered in disgust, studying each of the navi’s faces. “How long have I been unconscious?”

Ronin did not want to be the one to tell him. Coincidentally, and much to his luck, Crelos jumped up just then. “Six months, silver-eyes! Six months!”

The recovering navi narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “Nonsense,” he hissed dangerously, sending a glare full of venom at the hyperactive navi. Crelos sunk low to the ground after that, and looked away just as Rail had. It was almost a sad sight to see such a blow dealt to silence him.

Ronin, feeling his sibling’s discontent, cleared his throat and explained, “I do not mean to question your reasoning, but I confirm what Crelos said. When you tried to break free of your cell you used up all of your energy in the process. Your systems shut down and you went into some sort of coma for six months. We didn’t think you would wake up.”

The navi scrutinized Ronin from his cell, eyes still narrowed in suspicion. “Six months?” he growled, his mind still trying to register with the truth. It did make sense, though, as he remembered how weakened he was when he had woken up. He made an attempt to stand up; the first time he stumbled and fell, but then he straightened up, slowly walking over to the bars of his cell. As his form was illuminated in the dim light, his features were more noticeable. One red stripe ran from the corner of his left eye, and two stripes ran up from the right side of his face up to his other eye. Long, black bangs fell over his complexion, the left side of it just a bit longer than the other. He looked at each of the navis one by one, finally stopping at Crelos, who still cowered fearfully on the ground.

Ronin eyed his brother hesitantly, and then looked back at the dark navi. “So… you… remember your name, right?”

“The fool over there already asked me,” he said calmly, gesturing towards Rail who was nervously avoiding his icy stare. The dark navi chuckled. He had only just awoken and already they all feared him greatly. His temporary shutdown obviously hadn’t changed their minds about his dangerous demeanor. “I am Vyrus.EXE, living nightmare of the Net. This I could never forget.”

Finally he turned to the navi with the colorful armor within his cell, who was shaking on the ground, unsure of what action to take.

The dark navi scowled. “How did the likes of you get into my cell?” he hissed.

The other cowered and hid his face behind his knees. He didn’t reply. He had seen the evil this navi truly held, and he never wanted to see it again.

Vyrus only held his stare. “A coward like you shouldn’t even be in this prison. What could you have possibly done to be thrown in here, hmm?” Still no reply. “Answer me.”

“I… was wrongly accused,” the frightened navi whispered. “I shouldn’t even be here. I don’t want to be here. I want to go home.”

“Ah yes, I’m sure your concept of ‘home’ is very far from here. It matters not, however… you will not get another chance to see it.” The bloodlust was flooding back to him faster than a bullet from its barrel.

The navi looked at him wide-eyed. “W-What? What do you mean?”

“Oh, you know perfectly well what I mean.” He lifted the cowering navi by his throat, a grin spreading across his face. “Tell me, navi… are you afraid of death?”

The fright-stricken navi took one last look into those piercing silver eyes, and then screamed.

---

The rain had drenched Netto thoroughly by the time he arrived home. Much to Haruka’s discontent, he tracked mud and puddles of water through the living room and up the stairs, leaving a clear path from the front door all the way to his room. He was exhausted- after their curry, he and Meiru had gone to a local party deeper into Dentech, where he had joined a small skating match out of interest. The menial game soon turned into something serious, as he was senseless enough to bet 500 zenny on who would be the victor. His training had paid off, however, for he won- but not without a few bruises and cuts to go along with his victory. Afterwards, despite his minor injuries, he went dancing with Meiru inside the building. The building had been packed with people, air heavy with the frantic movements and music blasting from the many speakers along the walls. After that, along with several rounds of pizza and soda, they had bid each other farewell and gone home. Now here sat Netto, collapsed on his bed with his head stuffed beneath his pillows once again.

Rockman, however, was in a much better shape. He had not gone dancing, or skating, or any of the precarious tasks involving being drenched by rainwater and bruised from head to toe. No, none of such extravagant tasks had been involved. Instead, he and Roll had simply strolled through Net City, taking a look at the new river that ran through the city and under the little system of bridges near the park. It really was a pretty sight, much different from what the city had looked like a year or so back. Their day had consisted of walking, talking, and enjoying the evening.

Netto was rather jealous of navi life at the moment, as he lay on his bruised stomach, shaking with fatigue. “I’m so… tired…” He yawned, eyelids heavy as he slowly got up to slip into his pajamas, then sunk back into the covers, pulling them over his head.

“I told you not to take the skating challenge, Netto-kun. You did way too much tonight- you’ll never be able to get up in the morning.”

Netto remained silent, stuffing his head further under the covers.

“Well, Roll and I had a good time. We just walked around and stuff and we got some lemonade, too.” He waited for a reply from Netto, and then went on. “I really think you wore yourself out, Netto. I mean, me and Roll had a great time, but you-"

Netto grabbed one of the pillows and threw it at the PET, knocking it to the floor. Rockman, realizing he would have a wonderful view of the floorboards the whole night, shut down the PET and settled in for a good night’s sleep.

“Good riddance,” Netto muttered. And with that, he slowly drifted into dreamland, the patter of the rain on the windows slowly fading into nothing.

---


Author’s Notes:

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter. This took awhile to type, as I was constantly editing and changing my mind with certain characters. Yes, there are some unexplained things in this chapter, but they will be revealed in due time. They make way for more plot.

Crelos is not a child, keep that in mind. He’s only a few years younger than Ronin, he just acts very childish and is very hyperactive. XD

I hope that the prison scene didn’t seem out of place. I had to have something to introduce the darker, grim side of the story, and so out it came. I wasn’t too fond of the opening of this chapter, though. I feel that I could’ve done better on it.

Also, the chapter title... I have no idea how I came up with it. I thought of rain, which was certainly abound in this chapter, but the title itself makes no sense. XD;

Anyway, those are my views. Any comments/reviews would be greatly appreciated, as well as any critique you have in mind. I’m not sure when I’ll put the next chapter up- it may take awhile to type. But look out for it! ^^
_________________

[Jenova Spawn]

This is very good! I like the atmosphere you've set up with the prison scene. The story starts off a little gloomy with Netto complaining about the rain and such. But when Vyrus awakens, it turns it into something dark and creepy. I can't wait to read the rest of this!
_________________

Thanks to Xhunter17 for the sig.
http://othertendency.proboards57.com/index.cgi
- An awesome free-form RPG by our very own member, Featherdust. Go join!
Avatar from Gloriosa.

[Midnight]

Hmm. I'm quite impressed.

I do believe I've never read your writing before, and this is quite well done for a first job. The plot flowed rather smoothly along, and your descriptions were quite adequate and thorough. I must admit, I do not see a lot of NettoxMeiru nor RockxRoll fics posted here, and reading this one puts a smile on my face.

I felt that the prison scene did seem to be a bit out of place, but it was alright, since it served to introduce the new characters a bit. I was slightly confused while reading through that portion of the chapter, but perhaps that was because I was a bit inattentive while reading that.

Nevertheless, I think you have done an excellent first job. I look forward to seeing how this fic develops.
_________________
Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

The Kingdom of Loathing: An Adventurer is You! // I ♣ Seals

Avatar by Spork. I very much appreciate it! <3

[Featherdust]

Okay, here comes Chapter Two. Sorry it took so long- again- but I’ve been really busy with school and such. I’ll try to update more quickly, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep my word on that. XD; I’m really critical when it comes to my writing, so it always takes me a long time to type it up, edit it, edit again, edit it for a third time, then finally submit it. But I’ll try. ^^

So, without further adieu, here’s the next chapter.

---

It wasn’t until late in the morning when Netto finally awoke. Splashes of sunlight were scattered upon the floor, filtering through the half-open blinds hanging in front of the windowpanes. As soon as his eyelids fluttered open, they quickly closed as he was blinded with sunlight. He halfway turned over, and only realized too late that he was on the edge of the bed. He fell to the floor with a crash, hitting his forehead fairly painfully on the hardwood floor. There was a moment of silence, then he groaned and rolled over, right onto the PET he had knocked down the previous night. He rolled over a second time, this time fully irritated, and grabbed the PET. Turning it on, he grumbled, “Rockman, what time is it?”

Rockman rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked at the PET’s internal clock. “It’s nearly 12:30. You’ve slept awhile.”

Netto groaned again and sat up slowly, rubbing his head. “Well… you did, too.” He blinked blindly, his eyes still adjusting to the bright light. “I’m so sore…”

“I told you! You shouldn’t have-“

"I get it, jeez,” Netto mumbled, rubbing his head again. He stood up and pushed his messy hair away from his eyes, then stumbled to the restroom. A minute later, Rockman heard Netto wail, “Oh god! Look at the size of this bruise! Ow, my back hurts like no one’s business…” He stepped out of the restroom, rubbing his back, and then rubbing the lump on his head again. “I’m so glad I don’t have to go to school tomorrow.”

“Netto-kun, are you going to be okay?” Rockman asked in concern.

Netto stretched his arms, winced in pain, then nodded. “I’ll be fine.” His stomach grumbled and he smiled sheepishly. “I think I’m up for a bit of breakfast. I’m starved.”

Downstairs was fairly quiet- he wondered why that was so until he found the note left by Haruka. She’d gone to the grocery store. Netto downed two bowls of cereal and several slices of toast before limping upstairs, getting dressed, and limping back downstairs.

“Where are we going?” Rockman asked.

“Nowhere. If you may recall, I’m somewhat sore,” Netto scowled, plopping down on the couch in the living room and looking around wearily. Though the house had fair air conditioning, he knew that the summer heat had descended upon Dentech, and he could hear the dull chirping of the cicadas nesting in the trees outside. He turned on the TV, flipping through the channels idly while Rockman went through Netto’s new emails.

Netto settled on a channel that showed a Netbattle Tournament taking place, then asked Rockman, “Any sign of Enzan?”

Rockman shook his head, deleting several spam emails. “Perhaps he’s just busy, Netto-kun. And, like Meiru said, probably with Scilabs.”

Netto sighed. “But he would reply to my emails… and he hasn’t.”

Rockman shrugged. “We could go to Scilabs and find out… but then again, they’ll probably kick us out again. Sundays are their busiest days.”

“And unfortunately, ours are quite boring,” Netto muttered, hitting the back of his head against the couch restlessly. “I should go skating or something, but jeez, I’m sore!” He stood up, turning the TV off, and soon opening the front door. A blast of hot summer air greeted him, and he stepped out of the house, limping down the sidewalk in search of something to do. Several kids were skateboarding down the street, even a few younger amateurs who continuously fell over after attempting to imitate the more skillful jumps and tricks. Netto chuckled as he continued onward, waving to one of the guys he’d made a slight acquaintance with. As he went over the previous day’s events, he suddenly remembered the “invisible” gate they’d encountered on their way to meet Meiru.

He lifted up his PET and said, “Rockman, remember that shortcut you mentioned yesterday?”

Rockman nodded as he came to the same realization. “Right… let’s go check it out.”

Netto agreed as he skated forward, and it wasn’t long until he reached the shortcut. He nearly slammed into the fence itself before Rockman gave a warning, and he swerved away just in time. He retracted his skates and turned to look at the empty space in front of him.

“Hmm, you can see it, can’t you Rockman?”

Rockman slowly nodded, glancing at the fence segment again in confusion. “But you can’t. I’ll assume it’s only visible to navis, but why?”

Netto shook his head, but then his face brightened. “Who cares? I think this serves a great prank…”

“Netto-kun, don’t get any ideas,” Rockman said, showing just a bit of worry.

Netto smiled and sat down on the nearest porch, with no regard as to who’s it was or who lived there. He was there for awhile, sitting out in the scorching heat, paying no acknowledgement to the sunburn that had started reaching from his shoulders down his arms. There was not a cloud to be seen in the sky- only the vast expanse of endless blue, and only the sun to distort it. He wiped his forehead of the growing perspiration and then sighed, scooting back into the shade of the porch just a little.

Rockman became impatient and asked, “What are you doing?”

Netto smiled again and said, “You’ll see.” He then got out the PET and asked Rockman to call Meiru. Once she picked up, Netto asked her if she’d like to come outside, and he timidly asked her to bring either water or lemonade as well. Surprisingly she agreed, and was soon on her way down the road. She was not on the side so that she’d crash into the fence- Netto would be cruel to play such a prank on her. Thankfully she had come the opposite way, and she had brought lemonade with her. As she sat down beside him, he gratefully accepted a cup of the icy liquid and gulped it down.

“So what’d you call me out here for?” Meiru asked curiously.

“Oh, not much... I’m sure a couple of the others will come by here soon enough. How much lemonade did you bring?”

“Quite a bit,” she said with a smile.

After a bit of chatter, Netto lifted his PET up again, this time sending an email to all of his other friends to come and have some lemonade. Little did they know that this invitation was simply a lure to draw them to humiliating themselves at the invisible gate. Meiru knew nothing of it, even though Netto’s more prankster-like attitude was obviously showing.
Dekao was the one to show up first, lumbering along the sidewalk with Chisao tagging along behind him. As they both neared the fence, Netto knew he had to do something to distract Meiru so that she wouldn’t see the prank- he wanted it to work on everyone else as well.

Rockman thought this was simply beyond the definition of a prank- he thought it was downright mean. But Netto thought differently. He dropped his cup of lemonade just as Dekao was about to encounter his dastardly impact with the fence, and Meiru turned to pick up- it was then that Dekao ran into the thin air in front of him and stumbled backwards, ending up falling on his behind onto the dusty ground and blinking rather confusedly around.

Netto burst out laughing. “Dekao, I can’t believe it! You fell for it!”

Dekao blinked again. “Wha…? What did I run into?”

Netto got up and walked over, carefully guided by Rockman’s warnings. “See, look,” he said, kneeling down beside Dekao. “Feel the space in front of you.”

Dekao reached his hand out, and his confusion took on a look of surprise. He looked back at Netto, puzzled.

Netto grinned cheerfully and laughed again. “There’s something there. We just can’t see it.”

Dekao felt around the fence, still extremely puzzled. “Uh… how does that work out?”

Netto shrugged. “Dunno. But it’s great for a prank, isn’t it?”

Dekao suddenly remembered that this was Netto’s fault, and turned on him angrily. “Hey!”

Chisao ran over. “Nii-san, are you okay?”

“As a matter of fact, I am!” Dekao huffed, crossing his arms grumpily, “That baka might’ve played another prank on me, but it didn’t cause any harm to me, not one bit!” He pointed to Netto with a stubby finger, looking away and trying to look as tough as possible. Netto just smiled back at him. Dekao growled and said, “We’ll see who’s smiling! We’ll play it on someone else- like…like… Yaito!”

Meiru gave them both a scolding look. Jeez, what idiots.

Netto looked back at her, curious. “Meiru…?”

Meiru sighed and decided against snapping at him. It seemed nothing could discourage his playful nature. “Alright, go on with your little joke, but I’m having nothing to do with this. And I hope no one gets hurt.”

“Honestly, Meiru, it’s a fence. I doubt anyone could get seriously injured. I mean, take a look at Dekao- all he got was a bunch of dirt all over his ass.”

Dekao growled again and held up a fist. “You want a pummeling?”

Netto laughed. “You can barely touch me, and you know it. I’m too fast,” he said confidently, pointing to his feet.

Dekao huffed again. “Fine, whatever.” He came over and sat on the porch, with Chisao and Netto following after. Soon they were all sipping on lemonade again, and as Netto told Dekao the plan he’d come up with, soon Yaito came walking down the street, looking quite grumpy. Her appearance had changed since they were younger- her hair was no longer braided, but instead let down, and so her forehead had its brilliant shine no longer. She checked her watch as she came closer, rolling her eyes slightly as she took sight of the small group.

“I really don’t know why you called me out here, Netto! It’s too hot and dry and sweaty out here, and much too unpleasant, even if…”-She eyed the lemonade- “…Even if you are having a nice time drinking that out here. But please, can’t we drink it inside? Inside is so much-"

Her ranting came to an abrupt halt as she made the same mistake Dekao had. The group burst into laughter, except Meiru, who stood there and scowled at the boys. Yaito became quite upset at having landed right in the dirt; she jumped up and shrieked, frantically trying to brush the dust off of her skirt. Then she began to look about in a panic, searching for the unseen object she’d run into. Netto quickly repeated to her what he’d said to Dekao, and soon Yaito was trying to leap on him in a fury.

“Let- me- go!” Yaito said angrily, trying to break free of Meiru’s grasp. “I’ll show him! I’ll show him what the ‘snooty little girl’ can do!”

“Oh, come off it, Yaito. It’s not all that bad,” Netto said, still laughing like a hyena at his cunning trickery.

“Yes it is! He got dirt on my skirt! My new skirt!”

It was awhile before she finally calmed down, and by then she had lost the murderous motivation to get back at Netto. They settled down and sat upon the porch steps, each sipping on lemonade again. Rockman wished he could join in the fun, but he knew it wasn’t very possible. He sighed and looked out from his PET.

“Netto, I really want to know what that gate’s actual purpose is. It can’t just sit there for nothing- it’s making me worrisome,” he said.

“C’mon, Rockman, it’s nothing to be nervous about. I bet you it’s been there for a long time.”

“Actually,” said Roll, finishing up a scan, “It looks quite new- in fact, the material is metallic. I think there’s some kind of electronic activity within it, but there looks to be some kind of defense barrier, and it’s too thick to really tell anything.”

Netto yawned, his enthusiasm not sparked in the slightest. This was unusual, for Rockman would expect an excited reaction from him. He guessed it must be the heat. He’d observed that heat made humans very lazy and tired.

“Hm, sounds a little interesting,” Netto said blandly, stealing a glance at the empty space, “Maybe we’ll check it out later. Right now I’m waiting for someone, though.”

“Who else could possibly be out here on such a dry day?” Yaito asked.

“Trinitus,” answered Netto.

“Who’s he? Certainly an odd name, that’s for sure.”

“He’s the new kid, Yaito. The one who’s always out here skateboarding or playing basketball, and waking up the neighborhood late at night when he brings his stereo outside,” Netto said with a grin.

“Oh God, not him,” Yaito muttered, turning away.

“Hey, he’s not so bad,” Meiru argued, “He’s just a year older than Netto, and he’s been really kind to him. He’s even traded a couple of rare battlechips.”

“Really now? I still don’t think he’s all that great, eavesdropping on everyone else’s business, huh, what a really kind guy indeed.”

Meiru frowned, but didn’t have much of an answer. Yaito’s mind was hard to change when she had a bad impression of someone. There wasn’t much conversation after that. They all sat relaxing in the shade of the porch, listening to the shrill chirping of the cicadas. They hadn’t had a day like this, just to sit out together, for a long time. Netto leaned back against one of the columns holding up the porch ceiling and sighed. He pointed out to the street.

“I remember last summer when we splashed blue paint all over Enzan by accident,” he said with a grin. “He was so mad at us.”

Meiru giggled. “I can still play the scene in my mind. I can’t believe you didn’t know the top was off of it… he sure got his share of embarrassment.”

Netto nodded. “Guy needs to lighten up, really.”

“Say, have you heard from him lately?” Yaito asked.

Netto shook his head. “Nothing. Have no clue where he his, but I’m pretty sure he’ll turn up sooner or later.”

Rockman had been silently studying the gate up until this point, and he suddenly piped up, “Netto-kun, the gate has a plug-in port!”

“I thought we’d dropped that topic… but, that does make it a little suspicious. Makes sense, anyway,” he said thoughtfully, standing up and stretching his arms. “Hmm, I guess it wouldn’t do any harm to check it out. At least you’ll stop complaining about it.” He stepped off the porch, but Meiru and the others remained behind, seemingly not very into the idea. With Rockman’s guidance, he finally kneeled down before the gate. With a little feeling around, he found the plug-in port easily.

“Netto, don’t let your guard down,” Rockman warned him, “We don’t know what’s in there, if anything at all. Roll said it had a heavy security barrier- it may not even let me jack in.”

“Huh,” Netto chuckled, “You know that nothing can keep us from accomplishing what we need to do. If there’s anyone who can break such a heavy defense, it’s us.”

“I hope so,” said Rockman, taking a deep breath. “Ready?”

Meiru jumped up and ran over to help, but she found that there was only one plug-in port. Netto frowned. “It’s alright, Meiru- I think it’d be best if Roll stayed out of it. We don’t know what’s in there.”

Meiru nodded. “Alright. Just be careful.”

“Ah, hell. There’s nothing to be afraid of. It’s the object of a prank, for pete’s sake,” Netto assured her. He turned back to Rockman and nodded. “Well, it’s about time we have some excitement for a change.”

“Let’s hope it won’t result in anything too bad. I’m ready when you are.”

“Always ready for anything,” Netto said with a smile. “Rockman.EXE, plug in! Transmission!”

He flew through a warp tunnel of spinning colors, and appeared within complete gloom. The first thing Rockman saw was spiny, sharp-toothed viruses, almost reptilian-looking. They were everywhere; eating at the walls, crawling on the ground beneath him, and infecting the circuitry surrounding the area. It was extremely dark and dreary, similar to a deep cave in the human world. To add to that, the walls were jagged and rocky, with piles of rubble strewn about, most likely proof that the place was falling apart.

“Netto…” Rockman whispered, trying to stay still. “Can you see them? They look threatening, but they’re not trying to attack me, nor are they showing any signs of it. I don’t know if I should continue.”

“You didn’t go in there for nothing. Keep going, just be careful.”

Rockman nodded silently and continued, shoving a few viruses gently out of the way with his foot. They still made no move to attack him- they seemed much more occupied with eating and gnawing at the walls. He guessed they were here to destroy an abandoned area, but something told him it wasn’t abandoned just yet. A rather large one snapped at him as he pushed it out of the way, but once he had passed, the creature went back to what it was doing. Rockman had to squint to really see anything, but as he moved deeper into the darkness, he saw a large, bulky form looming up ahead of him. The mass seemed to stretch as far as 50 feet, and as he moved closer, he could make out about five sets of long, torn wings, a thick, spiny neck, and a long, heavy muzzle with several sharp fangs jutting out. A tail covered in sharp protrusions curled around the rocks, and it was so long that it nearly reached where Rockman had first appeared. It was lucky that Rockman was able to spot the monster- it seemed the thing was covered in rock-like protrusions similar to the walls of the cyber cave, so that it blended completely in with the surroundings.

He stood frozen still, in fear that it would wake at any moment. Carefully, with such precision that he shuddered, he moved his foot forward and successfully had moved a step closer. This was when he saw the eyes- about 40 of them scattered across the creature’s body- snap open, each and every one of them locked on the cobalt navi. His heart leapt into his throat and he caught his breath; then the great beast opened its jaws and let out a huge screech so high-pitched that his hands flew up to his ear guards, trying to block out the horrible noise. Its claws unlatched from the ceiling and it jumped to the ground with a hollow crash, the impact making deep indentations in the ground. It let out another deafening screech and then snarled, advancing on Rockman with all of its 40 eyes still focused on just him. Rockman turned and fled for his life.

“Netto! It’s huge! It’s not even a virus- I don’t know what it is!” Rockman cried as he narrowly dodged a quick snap from the creature’s jaws.

“Shoot at it!” Netto said quickly, but then he thought it over. He tried to study the creature on the PET screen as Rockman tried to escape. Within an instance he said, “Look, stab it in one of the eyes. It looks like its greatest weakness at this point.”

Rockman quickly activated a StepSword Netto had slotted in earlier. He disappeared for only a moment, and then reappeared right at the creature’s side. With a shout, he thrust his arm forward and straight into its largest eye. The creature halted to a stop, rocks churning up from under its feet. Its eyes widened, and then a horrible shriek echoed throughout the cave, even worse than the first it had made. The walls, the rocks, everything started glowing, until a blinding light engulfed them both.

“Netto! I can’t see anything! What’s happening?” Rockman shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. “Netto-kun!”

Netto watched in horror as the light shone brightly from the screen. A screech came from the creature again from within the blinding light, long and dismal and ending in a ferocious snarl. Netto desperately tried to jack Rockman out, but to add to his horror, he then realized that the defense barrier had not been made to keep Rockman out. It had been made to keep him in.

Author’s Notes:

Ahahahah, cliffhanger. XP

Most of this chapter was somewhat of a filler, but again, I wanted to introduce more of the characters’ personalities and what’s going on with their world. My goal was to pretty much thoroughly describe the lifestyle of Netto and the gang, kind of give you all a feel for the environment of the story.

After typing this, I think I got all of my ideas a little more sorted out, which makes me feel a bit more relaxed about writing the story. That’s a good thing.

Anyway, critique/reviews would be greatly appreciated, of course. Next chapter will be here soon.
_________________

[Jenova Spawn]

Wh-ho-hoa! That was cool! The beast is such an imaginative and strange creature, yet you delivered it's image with ease. You're a master of creative writing, you know that?
I'd like to see you draw the monster! Nice work!
_________________

Thanks to Xhunter17 for the sig.
http://othertendency.proboards57.com/index.cgi
- An awesome free-form RPG by our very own member, Featherdust. Go join!
Avatar from Gloriosa.

[Midnight]

Impressive.

Although it was a bit on the filler side, you did a good job in establishing the characters of the protagonists that you decided to use in this chapter. The concept of an invisible wall is something that I haven't seen done much, and you seem to do it quite well. Dialogue and scenery were excellent and served to aid the scene come to life. Netto's persona from the manga was a welcome addition to the chapter, and it's not often I see writers dipping into the mange universe for basis in their fics.

I have one small nitpick, and that would have to be that you did use terms from both the dub and the original at the same time. It would probably be better, for the sake of consistency, to use either all of one or all of the other.

Other than that, this was an excellent chapter. Good work.
_________________
Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

The Kingdom of Loathing: An Adventurer is You! // I ♣ Seals

Avatar by Spork. I very much appreciate it! <3

[Featherdust]

[Featherdust]

To spare you from the agony of the cliffhanger, I’ll go ahead and get on with Chapter Three.

---

Netto couldn’t see anything on the screen at this point. There was simply too much light, so bright that it had drawn the whole group over to see what was happening.

“Rockman! Rockman, say something!”

The sound emitting from the PET was cut up and lacked any quality whatsoever- it was so static-filled that even he had to cover his ears. He could somewhat hear Rockman’s voice, but barely, and the rest of it was covered by both the static and the unbearable shrieking coming from the 40-eyed monster. Finally the light let up a bit, and as it slowly faded back to darkness, Netto’s eyes widened at the sight. The eye in the monster’s side had been terribly wounded, as he could see from the gash straight through the pupil and the blood trickling down from it, but Rockman was in a much worse condition, trapped directly beneath the creature’s pointed claws. He was struggling to lift the claws up off of himself, but the ferocious creature was much too powerful. It raised its heavy jaws and shrieked again, both in pain and in rage. Its wounded eye twitched and tried to blink, as if it would automatically clear its injury, but of course this wouldn’t happen. Its tail thrashed to and fro, crushing the sides of the walls and throwing several of the reptilian viruses flying. It raised its paw to crush Rockman once and for all, but he took his chances and fled as fast as he could, narrowly avoiding a painful fate.

“N-Netto, I’m okay. Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I hear you. You gave me a scare for a minute. It turns out that I can’t plug you out.”

Rockman sighed, jumping out of the way from another smashing blow. “Wonderful,” he muttered. “If I don’t find some way to get out of here, I’m gonna end up being digested in that thing’s stomach.”

“Details aren’t necessary, thank you. Look, I’ll try to find a way to get you out,” said Netto, slotting in a few chips for safety measures. “Can you hold out on your own?”

“I’ll certainly try.”

Netto nodded and unplugged the PET, then knelt down and felt around the plug-in port for anything else that could be contributing to the system’s security wall. He ended up empty-handed. “This is hopeless!”

He felt a hand on his shoulder as Meiru knelt down beside him. “Roll, tell me if you see anything,” she said, holding the PET in front of the gate.

Roll studied it for a moment and ran another scan. “Nothing, Meiru-chan. There’s nothing that we can do from the outside; it’s all up to Rockman now, I’m afraid.”

Netto looked back at the screen in desperation and saw that Rockman and the huge monster were nearing what seemed like the very back of the cave. Rocks tumbled from the ceiling and a handful of the reptilian viruses had been crushed beneath the huge creature’s feet. Its rage had reached such a point that it didn’t care the damage it was inflicting upon itself- it was focused on completely obliterating the opposing target. All that Netto could do was slot-in more chips for Rockman to use, but none of them served much damage against the large creature. He was thinking that if they weaken the creature enough, with the proper chips and just enough damage, they could knock it out somehow. The upper hand precariously switched between the navi and the monster, and surprisingly, it had only been about ten minutes since the incident began. It would be over soon, but the winner was undetermined. With borrowed recovery chips from Meiru, Rockman was able to keep his stamina and health up at good levels. Meanwhile, the creature did not have such abilities, and soon began to falter in its ferocity. Rockman had been cornered at the back of the cave by now, but the creature’s movements were becoming sluggish, and so it became easier to dodge its blows.

“I think one more LongSword will do,” said Rockman, looking up at the creature’s hazing eyes.

“You got it.” Netto slotted in the next chip and watched nervously as Rockman looked straight into the beast’s two main eyes at the front of its head. It leaned down to look at him as well, which was somewhat odd, as his tail stopped thrashing and everything became absolutely still. The tip of its snout was nearly touching the tip of Rockman’s sword, but not even a growl escaped.

“You guard this place. Why?”

The beast remained silent, piercing eyes still locked on Rockman.

Rockman nodded, looked away, and thrust the sword just below the creature’s jaw line, straight into its throat. The screech that followed was deafening, yet slowly faded as the creature could no longer find the strength to emit any kind of sound. Rockman jumped out of the way as it stumbled forward, then backward, shaking its head in apparent confusion and dizziness. Then it collapsed to the ground with such an impact that the walls shook and the other reptilian viruses became unsettled, starting to swarm in blind panic. He waited a moment until the viruses had settled down, then he slid down the cave wall and sat, breathing out a sigh of relief.

“Netto… I did it.”

Netto let out a sigh of relief as well, leaning over the console before he fell over from all the previous stress. “Right. Good job Rockman. Now we just have to find a way out of there for you. Those viruses won’t attack, right?”

Rockman shook his head. “No, it doesn’t look like they will. They look kind of dangerous, but they seem to be pretty peaceful. I think all they’re focused on is eating away this place. It’s falling apart,” he said, picking up a rock and letting it crumble through his fingers. He turned to Meiru, who was also relieved that no one had gotten hurt.

“Thanks for lending your recovery chips, Meiru. I owe you one,” he said with a smile.

Meiru smiled back. “No problem. It’s lucky that Netto had us with him.”

“Hey! What about us?” Dekao said, slightly offended. “Me and Yaito helped too! We lent you chips!”

Rockman laughed. “Yes, you did. Thank you both.”

Netto still looked concerned. “We have to get you out of there, Rockman. Who knows what else lives in there?”

“Don’t worry about it, Netto-kun. I have an idea. How about I put a tracker in here- that way, if you go onto another part of the Net, perhaps it could lead you to where this place is.”

“But I thought this area was isolated,” Netto said with a frown.

“I thought it was, but now I’m not so sure of that. It looks like there used to be a portal here,” Rockman explained, pointing to an empty and cracked space before him. “I’m not sure what happened to it, but I do believe it used to be right here. That means that there has to be someplace that led to here, right?”

“But if the portal is broken, how are we going to get to you?” Meiru piped up.

Rockman thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. You think using a recovery chip on it would revive it?”

Meiru shrugged and turned to Netto, who seemed to be thinking into it. “Well, if it’s a cave… there’s a got to be an entrance, right? I’m sure it collapsed, as I’m sure you would’ve found the entrance by now, but perhaps…” He looked up, “If we did place a tracker in there, I think we’d be able to find you. Caves are underground. You’ve got to be in some kind of Net Area, but underground- if the tracker can lead us to there, we might be able to dig under somehow and get you out.”

Rockman’s eyes lit up. “That sounds like a good idea. We’ll try it- it seems like the only choice we have right now.”

Netto nodded. “I’ve got three trackers stored in the PET.” He opened it up and transferred it to Rockman, who embedded it in his programming. Soon a radar of sorts appeared in the corner of Netto’s PET.

“Success,” he said with a grin. “Okay, hang in there Rockman. We’ll try to find you as soon as we can.”

Rockman nodded. “Take your time, you guys. I don’t want you getting into danger or anything.”

“We’ll be fine,” Meiru assured him. “C’mon Netto, we’ll start from Net City.” She took his arm and both ran off, Dekao and Yaito attempting to follow.

“Dekao, Yaito, you go back home- We don’t want to cause a scene,” Netto called back. He and Meiru turned the corner and were gone.

Dekao crossed his arms and huffed. “Well that’s great. We don’t get to help?”

“All for the better,” Yaito sighed, beginning to walk away, “It’s too hot out here anyway.”

At this, Dekao wiped the sweat off his face and sulked.

-

The silence had lasted for a long, long time. No one in the prison dared to move, in fear that they would somehow instantly die. The smell of blood was growing steadily stronger. Some felt sick. Some felt afraid. Some felt both. And some didn’t give a care in the world, the ones who had seen too much of it already. There came a delighted, twisted chuckle, and soon after, the iron bars of the cell fell to the floor with a heavy metallic clatter, completely sliced in half. Footsteps echoed through the stone hallway as the silver-eyed figure walked out, looking unimpressed as the voices of the other navis slowly arose, pleading for him to break open their cells as well. It at first started out only as a small outcry, and as he walked further and further down the hallway, the sound grew to an uproar, several navis yelling to him, revolted, claiming it unfair to escape and not free them all. Vyrus’ eyes narrowed as the uproar grew even louder. Some were even sticking their arms out between the bars, their desperate urge to escape overcoming their sense of fear. His patience was short-lived; he suddenly grabbed one of the navi’s arms, twisting it the other way nearly to breaking point.

“Silence, all of you!” he snarled, keeping his grip on the navi’s arm. “You forget who I am, you insolent weaklings. I am not one to have mercy. You think I would free you? You are sadly mistaken.”

The navi in his grip was shivering uncontrollably, whimpering and trying to pull his arm away. Vyrus took one look at him and snapped the bone with a sickening crack, watching contentedly as the navi pulled his arm back in and screamed, clutching at his arm wide-eyed and somehow thinking that it would stop the pain that had seized him.

Vyrus merely smiled darkly and turned to the rest of them. “One more word out of any of you and you’ll end up like the one who was unfortunate enough to be thrown into my cell,” he gestured towards the cell he’d broken out of, and though it was dark in that corner, one would be able to tell that blood now covered most of it, both by the crimson liquid that seeped across the hallway and the overwhelming copper-like smell of it. He turned back to the navi who was kneeling down on the ground, still crying out in pain.

Vyrus leaned in closer, eyes gleaming, and hissed, “I should’ve sliced it clean off.”

The navi quickly fell backwards and crawled away from him.

Vyrus chuckled again and moved onward down the hallway. No one spoke a word. Even with their never-ending need to escape, they didn’t dare risk their own life in the presence of such an unstable navi. As he neared the exit, a voice broke the silence.

“Vyrus-sama.”

Vyrus quickly turned, having never been addressed in such a way.

“I ask that you release me and my brother from our cell.”

There was no cringe of fear, no faltered speech like Vyrus expected. And, somehow, he began to laugh. It was an amused, slightly chilling laugh, echoing off the stone walls and through the gaping space of the ceiling. As soon as it began, it was quickly cut off, and his eyes narrowed dangerously, as if it had all been an act of sarcasm.

“No.” He turned and was gone up the stone stairwell.

Ronin sighed and sank to the floor again. “Well, it was worth a try.”

Crelos peeked out from his curled up position, crawled over to his brother, and hid his face in his arm. “It didn’t work, Ronin. It didn’t work.” He was still downcast from Vyrus’ severe rejection of him; Crelos’ feelings were sensitive, no matter who he faced.

Ronin sighed. “We’ll find a way out, Crelos. I promise, no matter what it takes, we’ll find a way out.”

Crelos looked up at him. “And then we can go home? We can go home, brother?”

Ronin nodded. “And then we can go home.”

-

He took out the guards silently and swiftly, all six of them ending up with their throats brutally torn out. No one knew he’d even escaped yet, and this was what he loved about the prison authorities’ stupidity- it took them forever to realize something was wrong. He leaped from shadow to shadow, killing any who stood in his way, and he continued on like this through several hallways and chambers. The prison was like an oversized underground labyrinth. If one didn’t know their way around, they could easily become lost. However, his senses, quite a bit more sharpened than the average navi, led him further and further upward, eventually reaching the huge iron doors that towered about 50 feet to the ceiling. Talk about tight security. The prison guards may have been stupid, but the doors served quite a nuisance to him. He’d have to wait until they were opened- if he caused too much of a racket, he was quite sure he could take the law enforcement out easily, but he didn’t want to risk his chances. He scaled the side of the wall, still hidden in the shadow of the corner where the two walls met. He reached the ceiling, where strong steel banisters reached across from end to end. Here he would wait, until the perfect moment came to speed out the iron doors. He settled down in the heavy shadows and waited patiently, all through the hours thinking delightedly of how much fun he would have when he could finally escape from the wretched labyrinth of iron and steel.

-

“Alright, Roll,” said Netto, transferring the radar to Meiru’s PET, where it was soon programmed into Roll’s memory. “This should allow you to know exactly where to go. Now all you have to do is follow it.”

Roll nodded. “Sounds easy enough.”

Meiru sighed. “I hope this is a good idea, Netto. We don’t know where this could lead Roll.”

“Don’t worry, Meiru-chan, I can hold off on my own. Besides, we’ve got Netto’s chips we can use, and we’ve got plenty of recovery chips. Nothing should serve too large of a problem,” said Roll, entering a portal that lead into another area. She smiled as she saw the grass beneath her feet and trees reaching up into the sky. “Netto, your father really has done our race justice.”

Netto smiled slightly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, I guess so. I wouldn’t be surprised if they made netnavi clothes next.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” said Roll.

“Well of course you wouldn’t mind. You’d be shopping like mad.”

Roll grinned. “Of course. And so would Meiru. In fact, I think I should send an email to SciLabs and suggest it to them. Maybe I could make a clothing line of my own,” she said with a playful grin.

“Oh, I’m sure all the female navis would love it. I don’t think the males would be as happy,” Netto muttered.

Meiru spoke up at this moment. “Boys just don’t like shopping, that’s all. All they want to do is sit around and make fun of each other, stuff their faces, leave toilet seats up, and watch sports.”

Roll deleted several viruses with ease, making her way to what looked like a small forest. “Alright Meiru, this is just the beginning. I’m not sure what’s in there; the trees don’t look too thick, but you can never be too careful.” She had her buster at the ready. “We’ve got to get Rock-kun back. I’m going in.”

Meiru looked at the radar. “Looks like you’ve still got a long way to go, Roll. This is gonna take all night,” she muttered, looking out Netto’s bedroom window. The sun was low in the sky, coloring it a golden-red color; pink highlights illuminated the bottoms of the clouds.

“Well, I’ve got plenty of caffeine!” Netto piped up, grinning sheepishly.

“If anything, I’ll probably collapse asleep on your floor before it’s even midnight,” Meiru sighed.

“Anything to get Rock back, Meiru,” said Roll, continuing on her way through the trees.

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Let’s just hope you find him without running into too much trouble.”

The sun was setting in the virtual world as well, casting long shadows across the ground. As with the real world, the sky was slowly fading into a golden-red, and the leaves shown around her like illuminated daggers against the darkening sky. She felt her heart flutter as she stared at the beautiful scene before her. She reached out to touch one of the leaves, just to make sure it was all really there. Trees, sunlight, color- life. Netto’s father really had done the netnavi world justice.

-

Rockman sighed and looked up at the dark and hollow ceiling, stalagmites hanging down almost threateningly with their sharp and deathly demeanor. The reptilian viruses had not even stopped to take a second look at him. Whatever this place was, it must have had to be really unstable for these viruses to be eating it up like this. With the giant monster dead, there was really nothing else to live here. Bored, he stood and walked over towards the creature. All of its eyes were staring blankly in random directions, no longer full of rage or even pain. There was no life left to power them. Slowly, he looked over the massive form; whoever- or whatever- had created this, it must have taken a lot of programming and experience. It couldn’t be classified as a virus. It was huge, much too huge. Its jaws were at least two times his height alone. Its appearance still caused quite a shock, even after it was dead- it was simply an anomaly. It wasn’t right. It was hard to comprehend what kind of power had made such a vicious being.

Something caught his eye beneath the creature’s massive head. He got on his hands and knees and squinted, trying to see what lay under. It looked flat and square, something probably unimportant, but nonetheless he tried to move the creature’s head. It took all of his effort to move it merely an inch, but he managed to move it up just enough to kick the item out of the way and let the jaws fall back down. He sighed and kneeled down to pick up the object. To his surprise, it was a chip. And to his even greater surprise, it was one that his system did not recognize at all. The chip seemed foreign and abnormal- intricate letters ran along the edges of it, and the main panel depicted a large white feathered wing on the left side, and a torn bat-like wing on the right side. He’d never seen anything like it before, but somehow he could feel some kind of power pulsing from within it through his fingertips.

Slowly, he looked back at the lifeless beast. “This… is this what you were guarding?”

But of course, there was no resounding growl to answer him.

---

Author’s Notes:

*points to the scenes with Vyrus* It’s rated PG-13 for a reason, idiots. If you can’t take violence… uh… don’t read it.

So, I got to introduce even more of the plot in this. I swear there are so many ideas and scenes in my head that sometimes I don’t know where to start. Have no fear, for the next chapter will hopefully come soon. But you know that’s not going to happen. XD Edit, edit, edit. Edit, I say. Please comment/review/critique/whatever. At least say something if you’re reading this. Reviews and critique make this little psycho very happy. *nodnod* :D

EDIT: I was reading over and realized that I used Dekao's American name a couple of times by accident. *slaps self* It's fixed now. XD;
_________________

[Midnight]

Again I am quite impressed with your work.

Your methods of combat are quite lucid, and you do not rush through it as I've seen many authors do in their works. Even after the comb at is finished, you do not stop with your methods--I found that the non-combat adventures that you have our protagonists embark on done to the same degree as the combat.

I admit I am quite intrigued as to how your story ties itself together. As I see it now there seem to be two disjoint stories--the one with familiar characters, and Vyrus's tale. They don't seem to have anything to do with each other yet, but I'm sure that that will change quite soon.

Anyway, I look forward to what you turn out. This is certainly indicative of a bright writing future should you decide to become a more prolific author. Good work.
_________________
Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

The Kingdom of Loathing: An Adventurer is You! // I ♣ Seals

Avatar by Spork. I very much appreciate it! <3

[Featherdust]

Waha.

I’m so sorry this chapter is so late! e.e I had it done like a month ago, but when my computer got wiped, the chapter went along with it. Luckily, my friend had the only printed out copy of it, but it wasn’t returned until tonight. Again, sorry for the lateness.

I’m hitting just a bit of a writer’s block once again, not to mention my carpel tunnel is getting worse. x.x I can’t open my right hand all the way anymore. Sucks pretty bad. But anyway, I’ve been planning out all of the chapters on paper, so my ideas are a bit more organized. Organization is good for an ADD child like me. XD

Btw, this is NOT chapter three. Since the edit button was disabled here, I PMed Planty to change it, so it should be changed when she has the time.

---

Only a sliver of sunlight was peeking out from the line of the horizon when Roll reached the edge of the forest. She stood at the rim of a crumbling hillside, and below her lay a vast, misty area of ridges and barren hills. The sight didn’t fail to take her breath away; the Net’s technology was quickly enhancing the Cyberworld’s appearance and terrain with each passing day, it seemed. SciLabs must have been hard at work for the past few months, for her current surroundings were realistically astounding.

The tracker in her programming told her that Rock was somewhere down in the rugged hills below her, perhaps even further towards the mountains in the distance. Mountains! Never had the concept of mountains in the Cyberworld even been visibly possible in her mind.

“Roll, are you going to continue?” Meiru asked, noticing the navi’s silence.

Roll nodded her head vigorously. “Of course I am. We aren’t just going to leave Rockman in that cave all night.” She turned backwards to check the area behind her. The forest she’d just left looked dark as ever. She was glad she’d gotten through before visibility had dropped to zero. Looking at it, however, still spooked her, so she turned away again and began her trek further down the hillside.

“I hope I’ll be able to see when night completely falls. This place is way too rocky to be walking upon in pitch darkness. Plus…” she looked up at the sky. “…It’s gotten rather cloudy. Any hope of moonlight to guide the way is probably null and void.”

“Hm,” Netto said from across the room, eyes glued to the TV. “It says there are storms building up. Think they’ve synchronized the Cyberworld with the real world yet?”

Meiru shook her head. “It’s not supposed to be… not unless they’ve got another surprise update up their sleeves.” She turned to Roll. “See any lightning?”

“No, not at all.” She looked up at the sky, reaching her hand into the air. “It feels humid, though. Perhaps lightning will be a good thing- it may serve to light my way.”

She whipped around suddenly as a snap echoed behind her. Hastily, she raised her buster and pointed it towards the trees, where she could hear quick but heavy footsteps falling upon the litter. Whatever it was, it was advancing much too swiftly. It couldn’t be a netnavi. She took a step back as the footsteps fell closer.

“What is it, Roll?”

“Shh, Meiru-chan. I think it may be a virus.” The arm that hosted the buster was slightly shaking, and she had to hold it to keep it steady. Fighting viruses in the dark was not a situation she wanted to be in. It was but a moment before the silhouette of a towering form cane crashing out through the forest, bounding on four dog-like legs and a long, black pelt flowing from its skeletal form. She only caught a glimpse of the narrowed, glowing yellow eye as it leaped and soared directly over her, before the creature was already galloping down the hillside and gone through the ridge. Roll blinked and lowered her weapon.

“That was the strangest virus I’ve ever seen… if I could call it a virus. That thing was huge,” she muttered, staring at the large path of debris where the creature had broken through the trees. “It didn’t even try to attack me. It was like it was running from something.”

“Then stay on your guard, Roll. I’m sure that whatever it was running from could still be heading your way.”

“I think I should go ahead and get going. The further away I get from this forest, the better,” said Roll.

“Alright, but keep your weapon at the ready. We have no idea what’s out there.”

Roll nodded. “I know.” She reached the bottom of the hillside and continued into the steep area of hills, keeping low at the contours so as not to be spotted.

Netto yawned, stretching his arms. “I’m gonna get a snack. You want anything?”

Meiru scowled. “Netto, this is an important task and you’re sitting there watching…” she stopped and stared at the TV he sat in front of. “…Cartoons.”

“It’s not that bad, Meiru. Rockman’s in no danger. We just gotta find him, that’s all. Anyway, you want anything?”

She sighed. “No, I’m fine.”

Netto shrugged. “Mmkay. I’ll be back in a sec.” He stood and disappeared out of the room, and as Meiru listened to his footsteps as he descended the staircase, she heard him skip at least four steps.

“He really should be more concerned for his own brother,” she muttered.

Roll smiled. “He is, Meiru-chan—he just doesn’t really show it. You know that being carefree is what he’s all about.” She exhaled lightly as she felt a raindrop fall upon her shoulder. She tilted her head and looked up, puzzled. Being a navi, she knew what rain was, but wasn’t exactly sure what it felt like. Her questioning was answered as more raindrops began to fall, and I soon cascaded into a steady downpour. “Meiru-chan, it’s raining! It’s raining in the Cyberworld!” she exclaimed.

Meiru gasped. “No way!” she looked closer at the computer screen. “That’s amazing!”

Roll couldn’t contain her excitement and began giggling. “This is so cool!”

Meiru turned in her chair. “Netto! Netto, come here! It’s raining in the Cyberworld!”

She heard a crash from downstairs, most likely the clumsy boy breaking something. She heard him stumbling up the steps and he came rushing into the room, a glass of lemonade and several chocolate bars stuffed in his arms. He stuck his face so close to the monitor that Roll nearly fell over.

“Sweet!” he exclaimed, grinning happily. “Oh man, I can’t believe Rock is missing this. We need to find him, and quickly.” He accessed his PET and looked over the weather radar. It indicated that it would be quite awhile before the rain let up—perhaps the whole night and into the morning. “I am so giving dad a hug when he comes home tomorrow night. We should give SciLabs a huge party or something.”

“I agree,” said Roll. “I can’t thank them enough for finally bringing this miracle into the Cyberworld. The long wait has been worth the while.” She jumped a bit as a streak of lightning lit up the hills momentarily. She quickly jumped off the top of the hill and crouched low. As long as there was light, it was dangerous to be standing in plain sight.

“Alright, let’s hurry up and get to Rock. We don’t want to waste our time out here any longer,” said Meiru, setting her mind back on task.

“Right.” Roll turned to continue into the hills, when she saw the shadow of something pass to the left of her. She froze and looked around, but there was nothing. It was nearly impossible to see in the darkness of the storm, but she had felt the shadow more than seen it. She felt it a second time, this time to the left; and then, in the light of another vivid flash of lightning, she saw the form leaping at her from the top of the hill. She dodged and rolled out of the way, jumping up quickly and activating her buster. “Meiru, I’m under attack!”

Meiru sat up. “Who is it?”

Roll shook her head. “I don’t know, but I think it’s some kind of netnavi—the figure didn’t look monsteresque.” She couldn’t see the figure’s blows, but she could detect them through movement, and she tried to dodge as best as she could. When she thought she had a good head start, she fled over the hills. The other followed with such speed that it would be nearly impossible to perceive in even plain daylight. Roll stumbled slightly as she came to sharp halt; in front of her lay a large trench that dipped several miles down into the ground. The trench was narrow enough that it could be possible to jump, but she had no time to prepare herself or get a head start. She turned around to take a different route, but she stopped and froze abruptly. The sharp tip of a blade was pointed directly at her throat. “Don’t move,” muttered a low voice. There was a momentary lapse of silence, and the navi activated some kind of luminosity chip, for an orb of light appeared in his other hand. The silence turned from chilling to deeply awkward.

“Blues!” Roll nearly shouted, eyes widening.

“…Roll?” Blues lowered the weapon, looking slightly embarrassed. However, he quickly shook it off, so as not to disfigure his calm composure.

Netto and Meiru looked shocked. “Blues, what are you doing here?” Meiru asked.

Roll scowled and refrained from hitting him. “I can’t believe you!” she snapped. “Why the hell would you come running at me like that trying to slit my own freaking throat?”

Blues cleared his throat uneasily. “I-I’m sorry, Roll, I thought you were someone else.”

“Someone else? Who could I possibly be mistaken as? Jeez.”

“I was assigned to come out here because there’s been a recent escape from the Net City prison. Recent sightings indicated that the escapee headed somewhere out here, so I’ve been on constant patrol. I couldn’t really see you in all of this rain, so I mistook you as him. I meant no offense,” he replied in his most polite way possible.

Roll sighed. “Well, you gave me quite a scare. We all haven’t seen you in months, and our first reunion comes in a death threat. Speaking of which, where have you been?”

“I could ask the same question,” Netto spoke up.

Blues rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, I…” he hesitated, then said, “Enzan-sama doesn’t want me to tell you.”

“Oh come on, Blues!”

Blues sighed. “Well, I suppose I could reveal it to you, since Enzan-sama isn’t here at the moment... though I’d rather not defy his orders. No one likes their secrets told.”

“You need to let yourself go once and awhile,” said Netto, rolling his eyes. “You’re so strictly in tune with Enzan that you can’t do a single thing wrong without worry of defying him.”

“Yes, alright,” said Blues, tired of hearing the same thing. “Listen. Enzan has been involved in a lot of things lately. First off, he’s been hanging out with Jasmine a lot…”

“Jasmine?” Meiru asked, eyebrows rising inquisitively. “That’s great! Do they get along?”

Netto felt a huge wave of relief come over him. So that’s why she didn’t act so obsessed with me back at the curry restaurant.

“Well, I guess they get along, and…”

“So, does that mean you’re with Medi?” Roll asked.

Blues turned away to hide a visible blush. When it came to questions like this, his embarrassment was difficult to hold back. “Well, yes… no… Ah, to hell with it. Yes, I’m with Medi, and Enzan-sama is with Jasmine. There, are you satisfied? Anyway, as I was saying, that’s been going on, and plus Enzan was part of the team that built the base programming for the weather and day-and-night cycles for the Net. And, as of recently, we’re now after the latest escapee from the prison.”

“Hold on a sec,” said Netto, sounding offended. “Enzan gets to work at SciLabs, but I don’t? What’s with that?”

“Ask Enzan-sama. I would say that it’s our reputation in the Net Official ranks.”

Netto groaned. “Why is it always the reputation? Reputation doesn’t always convey everything. Everyone still sees me as a foolish, clumsy kid, just like they thought of me when I was still thirteen.”

“You are clumsy.”

Netto scowled. “Gee, thanks.”

“You’re quite welcome,” said Blues, adding a smirk. He turned to Roll. “Now then, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you out here?”

Roll rubbed her forehead. “It’s a long story. Basically, we found this invisible gate thing in the real world that had a plug-in port to an unknown area. Rock got trapped inside, battled it out with this giant dragon, and now he’s stuck there. Luckily, Netto has a tracker to embed into my programming. It led me here, and should lead me right to Rock.”

“Hm,” Blues grunted, thinking it over. “What did his surroundings look like?”

“He was in a cave, “Roll explained, “And we figured that since most caves lead underground, that’s a likely place to find him. When we reach the spot, all we have to do is dig.”

“And what do you intend to dig with?”

“…Okay, maybe not dig, then. More like blast a hole through,” Roll said with a sheepish smile.

“That’s a bit more logical. Well, since I’m already out here, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to help you find Rockman. I can keep a lookout for the escapee while we’re at it.”

“What about Enzan?” Netto asked.

“Enzan isn’t even here. He’s out with Jasmine somewhere, so I just started investigating without him.”

Roll nodded and they looked back over the edge of the trench. The jump wasn’t too difficult, though Roll nearly fell backwards before Blues pulled her back up. They walked through the rain deeper into the hills, Blues keeping a sharp eye out for the newest escaped convict, and Roll carefully following the map laid out in her mind.

“So who is this prison escapee you keep talking about, anyway?” Roll asked.

“He’s got many names,” explained Blues, sheathing Muramasa at his side. “The Living Nightmare of the Cybernet, they call him; The Berserk Murderer, the Tainted Soul. All of them fit him, really. I’m not sure if you remember or not, or if you even got word of it, but it happened about six months back. He went completely insane- no one is sure of the exact cause, but he killed more than a hundred navis, tortured at least half of them, and when the Net Police finally caught him, it took at least ten extra barriers installed on his prison cell to keep him down. He apparently collapsed into a sort of a coma when he expended too much of his energy. We’re guessing he recovered from it, because he was found missing just earlier this evening. There were also several prison guards found with their throats torn out. Our little ‘Berserk Murderer’ still obviously has his mental issues. It’s extremely dangerous to let him be roaming anywhere in the Net; don’t be surprised if you see double the number of Net Police when you visit Net City again.”

“Actually, I don’t ever remember any of that happening,” said Roll, looking confused.

“The officials pretty much kept it on the low. Only a small population of Net Society had seen this navi’s true motives, and they weren’t pretty. Those who survived were traumatized permanently- even at this point, we still can’t get a word out of them. The point is, the officials didn’t want to frighten the rest of the Net’s population, and so word of it didn’t spread very far. Unfortunately, we’re afraid that Vyrus’ next wave of killings will be worst than his first.”

“So, Vyrus is his real name? Interesting, if anything,” Roll muttered, carefully picked her way over an unstable part of the ridge. “Why do you think this time it will be worse?”

“Well,” said Blues, “It’s just a feeling, but it’s a strong one. Since he escaped prison, he’s already killed six navis. They include his cellmate and several of the prison guards I mentioned earlier.”

Roll grimaced. “Sounds like a pretty screwed up guy.”

Blues laughed grimly. “That’s not even the half of it. Trust me.” He stopped momentarily to survey whatever was visible of their surroundings, then moved on. “Eventually you and Rock will be dealing with this case as well. It’s been issued to all Net Saviors.”

Roll had, in the most recent year, been assigned as a Net Savior for her greatly improved skills in Net Battling. “Great,” Roll sighed, “And with school starting soon, I’m guessing it won’t have a very good affect on Meiru or Netto.”

“I’m starting to wonder if this invisible gate thing you were talking about has anything to do with Vyrus. What was the deal with it, anyway?”

“I’ll explain later—I think we’ve just reached Rock’s location,” said Roll, coming to a stop on a large layer of rock that covered a sloping, crumbly area of land. She turned to Netto and Meiru. “Now would be a good time to go back to the plug-in port at the gate. Bring the PET with you so that Blues and I can speak with him with no problems.”

Netto and Meiru both nodded, sitting up. They slipped into their rain jackets before running outside into the rain, Netto still chomping happily on a chocolate bar. Predictably, he miscalculated his distance and slipped through the mud, slamming smack into the gate and onto his back. Meiru ran over quickly.

“Netto, are you okay?” she asked, kneeling beside him.

Netto blinked stupidly, then his eyes widened. “My chocolate bar!” he cried, reaching for the mud-covered sugar.

Meiru rolled her eyes. “Yeah, you’re fine.” She felt around for the gate in front of her. “Rock, can you hear me?” she asked.

Rock spoke up from the console. “Loud and clear Meiru. Where’s Netto?”

“He’s occupied at the moment.” She raised the PET to the screen.

“Okay, Rock, we’re directly above you,” said Roll, activating her buster. “You’re going to need to move a fairly good distance away from your current position- we’re blasting the roof in.”

Rock backed away against the wall, gently pushing away several of the strange reptilian viruses. “Alright Roll, I’m ready.”

“Program Advance, Giga Cannon! Activate!” The cannon that had formed on her arm began to glow, charging up slowly. The light illuminated the hills around them, shining brightly with immense power. There was a moment where the silence hung upon them, and even the whine of the charging power could not be heard. Then the power was unleashed on the ground below them, and there was an explosion as the roof above Rock’s head caved in. Heavy clouds of dust rose into the air, but were soon quickly washed away by the heavy rain that began to cascade into the darkness. Rock’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Rain?”

Roll looked down into the cave. “Come on, Rock, we don’t have all night. It’s not like this is the safest place in the world,” she shouted over the echo of the rain. She lowered a rope she’d bright from Meiru’s PET, and Rock climbed on, with the strange looking chip in hand. He reached surface ground with no trouble, and Roll sighed with relief. “Well, we’ve finally gotten that over with. You’re not hurt, are you?”

Rock shook his head. “No, I’m fine.” He looked over at Blues and raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

Blues huffed. “What a great way to greet me after such a long time, Rockman.”

“No, seriously, what are you doing here?” Rock asked, tilting his head.

“I’ll explain everything later, or maybe Roll can tell you. Either way, let’s get out of here. It’s not safe.”

Now that Rock was out of the wave, he could plug out with the others was ease. They all ended up on Rock’s homepage within Netto’s PC. They all cheered, excluding Blues, who simply smiled. Meiru and Netto had already arrived back at the house, and they were just coming into the room. Rock instantly collapsed on the floor and curled up, yawning deeply.

Roll nearly fell over. “Oh, come on! Don’t tell me all you want to do is sleep!”

Netto yawned as well, and he flopped onto his bed. “Great idea, Rock…”

Rock was drifting off, the chip he’d found in the cave still clutched tightly within his hands. He planned to show it to them tomorrow, but right now he was too exhausted to do anything further.

Roll shrugged. “Ah well. Since he’s just all nice and comfy on the floor, at least I get his bed.”

“Where am I supposed to sleep, then?” Blues asked.

“…I didn’t think you’d want to stay, Blues. You’re not really the people type.”

Blues sighed. “Well, like Netto said—I need to let myself go once and awhile, right? Enzan’s not home, anyway,” said Blues. Truthfully, he missed his friends, but he of course would never let them know it.

“There’s a bed in my PET, Blues,” said Meiru, plugging him out before he could protest. Blues looked at the bed and cringed. “It’s… pink.”

“Hey, would you rather sleep on the floor?”

Blues cursed under his breath. He had nothing left to defend himself with. “Alright. But no one hears word of me sleeping under pink sheets, got it?”

Meiru held back a laugh. Instant blackmail. She smiled sweetly. “Of course not, Blues.”

Blues rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m sure I can completely trust you with that. Mercy if Enzan-sama finds out about this.” He yawned not only a moment afterwards.

An hour later, all were asleep, slow breathing drowned out by the steady patter of rain once again.

---

Vyrus snarled audibly, looked around impatiently. “I don’t understand… where the hell is it?” He walked up to the massive unmoving form of the dragon. “Damn lizard. Can’t guard anything worth his life.” He delivered a useless kick to the creature’s side, silver eyes narrowing as he looked up at the blown-in ceiling.

“Someone…else… has been here…” he hissed dangerously, his voice low and full of rage. “I should’ve known I’d be too late. If only this goddamn thing hadn’t been so weak. And they call you a Guardian…” He scowled, subconsciously wiping dry blood off his fingertips. “Well then,” he said, turning to leave, “I’ll just have to track this little bastard down, whoever he is. He couldn’t have gone far. Bet the baka doesn’t even know how to use the damn thing. I have plenty of time…” His scowl abruptly turned into a grin. “Plenty of time to have fun, yes…” He turned and leaped back above into the hills, looking up at the rain falling into his face. “And I will find you, all of you. Especially you…”

“…Mockingbird…”

---

Author’s Notes:

-falls over- MONSTERESQUE IS A WORD. YES. IT IS. SHUTUP. ;-;

Oh yeah, and Vyrus curses a lot, obviously. Duh, dudes, evil people curse. Right? Right. Anyway, now that it’s summer, I’ll probably get chapters written a bit more quickly. But don’t count on it. XD
_________________

[Midnight]

Very nice. Again, this is quite impressive.

It's nice to see the camaraderie between Blues and Roll--it helps to keep the action moving along while the antagonist plans his ulterior motives. The realism employed in the terrain and weather conditions stood out extremely well, and it was as if they were projected into our world.

As for Vyrus, I can see where you got the basis for his character based on the fics that you have read and enjoyed the most. I am looking forward to seeing how you develop him, as I think it's been long overdue that a chapter focused on him was presented.
_________________
Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

The Kingdom of Loathing: An Adventurer is You! // I ♣ Seals

Avatar by Spork. I very much appreciate it! <3

[Kitty-Chan]

This is very interesting. I normally don't go within ten miles of a Netto/Meiru, but I do believe I'll make an exception for this.
_________________
Need more Zero/X, Netto/Rock, Rock/Netto, Forte/Netto, & Blues/Netto. PLEASE!
Ano sa...could someone please make me a Zero/X, Blues/Netto, or Forte/Netto avatar/banner? I would greatly appreciate it...
Thanks for the avatar, Mandi!
People! We need more Blues/Netto & Forte/Netto on the net. Come on; help me out here! *gives everyone her Super-Adorable Irrisistable Sad Kitty Eyes(TM)*

[Featherdust]

[RollSoul]

Any story with Netto/Meiru or Rock/Roll is fine by me, on top of it this one has good action and a great plot and an evil villain with silver eyes.

Silvers my favorite color XD
_________________


NOTICE: This user no longer uses this account, they made a new account cuz they dont like the name of their account anymore =3

[Ginrei]

Ooh pfft, why must everyone go out of their way to dislike official pairings?? (You silly Netto/Enzan, Harry/Hermione, etc people, you make no sense to me! =p)
Aaaaanyhoo. Very good fic! I like this one. It is well written (spelling and grammar), is it LONG (one-page chapters just aren't my thing, sorry), and all the characters seem very spot-on. Netto still seems a bit childish with his chocolate issues, but Meiru reveals that's just a part of who he really is. Very funny.
I like the Navis' reactions to their new surroundings. I can't imagine what it would feel like to feel rain for the first time, but you did a pretty good job with Rock and Roll. I was also VERY suprised to find out the mysterious shadow was Blues! Huzzah, creative.
I very much like this story for all the canon Rockman & co. stuff, and while I'm not a fan of too much original stuff, the Vyrus story is quite interesting! I disliked it at first, mainly for his name. Kind of.... lame, sorry. And nobody seems to question it! When Blues tells Roll about him, I would think she'd inquire if his name is "virus" or Blues is saying he "is a virus". She just kinda adds the y and gets it, which is weird. I also didn't like him at first, because while the prison break-out scene was very cool, he felt like a generic ultra-powerful and crazy Navi. He has since become more than that, but I still feel his nicknames are a little silly. What really turned me around, though, was that he's finally starting to get involved in the plot Rockman & co. are. He rather felt like a side-story, not really important, and I've been waiting for this tie-in for quite a while.
Veeeery nice story. Things are paced well, people/Navis actually spend time GETTING to places, and... I dunno. I like the invisible fence. It has much comedic potential!

I have been meaning to review this one for a while, but the chapters are spread out so far apart, I kinda forget each time... -_-;
(Oh, and before I forget: Who in their bloody mind finds an ultra-rare ominous looking chip and FALLS ASLEEP and FORGETS about it?? Reaaaally now, even tired he coulda mentioned it... Blues is a little funny in the end as well. I suppose beds are supposed to make the Net more realistic, but... it just seems odd for a navi to sleep in a bed... (Why didn't Roll sleep in her own bed and offer Blues Rock's? Gah! Parenthesis in parenthesis!!))

[Featherdust]

Holy crap, that is the longest review I've ever gotten! XD

And wow, you made a lot of sense too XD Now I'm wondering why I didn't make Roll offer Blues Rock's bed... But anyway. I can explain about the whole Vyrus thing. I originally created Vyrus about three years ago, when I was still a little noobish and whatnot and was just getting into the Rockman fandom. Normally, a lot of noobs usually create some super-powerful-ultra-godmoding character and give them a lame name, and unfortunately, Vyrus was the product of that. >_<;

BUT. As time went on, Vyrus became something more, and I developed this big past-story kind of thing for him. Also, there is a reason he is powerful/insane/completely out of his mind ^^; He wasn't just... created that way. That'd just be stupid. XD It also has something to do with the plot, I just haven't gotten there yet. I don't want to get straight into the plot-- I like to make things at a realistically perceivable pace, and like you, I also love long chapters. :D Short chapters make me annoyed.

Thanks so much for the review!
_________________

[Jenova Spawn]

Ooh, that was awesome! I love the concept of the Cyberworld becoming more organic and such, it sounds cool. I love the part where Blues came in, the darkness added a cool feeling of suspense.
More Vyrus, pwease. XD
lolpinkBlues
Oh, and monsteresque isn't a word. XD
_________________

Thanks to Xhunter17 for the sig.
http://othertendency.proboards57.com/index.cgi
- An awesome free-form RPG by our very own member, Featherdust. Go join!
Avatar from Gloriosa.

[Featherdust]

You know what? Never listen to Disturbed when you’re trying to type a chapter. They’re so angry that it makes me want to write something angry XD Anyway, yay chapter five. Woo. Rejoice.

Yeah, okay.

Hey, did it take me less time to type it this time? Or is everyone still annoyed beyond all recognition for my lateness?

---

Rockman woke up spluttering, cold, and covered in water. For a minute he didn’t know where he was, and he looked around sleepily, letting out a loud yawn. He caught sight of a pink blur, and another splash of water hit him in the face. This time he became more awake, and he saw Roll standing over him with a bucket of water.

“Wake up, sleepyhead!” She said, putting her hands on her hips.

“W-Wha?” Rockman stuttered. He looked around a bit more, and then he fell back down.

Roll frowned. “Jeez, that battle with the dragon must’ve really worn you out. I’ve never seen you this exhausted. Nonetheless…” she splashed him with the remainder of the water within the bucket.

Rockman spluttered again and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “Come on, Roll, I’m tired!”

Roll shook her head. “No, you’re not sleeping any more. You’re going to tell me what this is.” She brought her hand forward and right in front of his face, revealing the chip he’d discovered the previous night.

Rockman only realized it was gone from his hands after he saw it held at eye level. His expression took on a panicked look and he tried to grab it from her, but Roll yanked it away.

“Give it back! I found it!”

“Don’t act like a three-year-old, Rock. What is this?”

Rock sighed, yawning again and stretching his arms as he stood up. “There’s no need to worry about it, Roll. I found it after I defeated that dragon last night. Don’t know how it got there, but I have a feeling he was guarding it for some reason.”

“Okay, so what does it do?” Roll asked impatiently, fumbling it around in her hands.

Rock shrugged. “Dunno.”

“You mean it’s not a regular chip?”

“Duh,” Rock muttered, running a hand through his black hair wearily. “Look at the way it’s designed,” he said, pointing at the odd writing along the edges and the two opposite wings on the image panel. “It doesn’t look like a regular chip. And I’m not risking trying it out, because I have no idea what it does.”

Roll handed it back, looking concerned. “If you found a weird chip that you’ve never seen before, and there was a huge angry dragon guarding it, you might want to get it checked out, don’t you think?”

Rock nodded. “Yeah, I’ll do it later. I’m just a little tired. That dragon wasn’t the easiest opponent in the world, you know.” His stomach growled loudly and he patted it gently. “Right now it’s food time. Where are Meiru and Netto?”

“They went downstairs for waffles.”

Rockman’s posture slumped. “Oh man, I want waffles…” he suddenly straightened up and looked around. “Er… where’s Blues?”

“Left,” Roll replied, checking Meiru’s email nonchalantly. “He got a call from Enzan way early in the morning, and he had to leave. If anything, I got to see Blues with bead head.” She snickered slightly and closed the window.

Rockman was disappointed he’d missed it, but he doubted Blues would’ve let him see it without getting a punch to the face. His stomach grumbled again and he looked at Roll.

“Want to go to Net City for some breakfast?” he offered, opening a portal.

Roll’s uneasy expression looked questionable, but Rock dismissed it and took her hand, leading her through.

When they arrived, it was much quieter than usual. Not that there was no one walking the busy streets of Net City, but it seemed… less busy. Roll could assume the reason why, but Rockman hadn’t been informed of the latest prison break, and it seemed he probably wouldn’t be until someone told him, or if he managed to catch a glimpse of the investigation going on near the prison entrance.

Roll turned to look him in the eye. “Rock, remember last night when I told you that I’d tell you all about my run-in with Blues?” she asked.

Rock nodded half-heartedly, too curious about the current situation to really pay attention to her.

“Blues was out last night looking for a murderer on the loose who escaped from the Net City prison last night. That’s when he ran into me.”

Rock looked even more curious at this point. “Well, if Blues is on the case, shouldn’t we be, as well? We are Net Saviors, after all.”

“Yes, well, that’s exactly the point—Meijin hasn’t contacted us yet, and I don’t see any reason why not. I think he thinks we’re too inexperienced for the job.”

“Inexperienced?” Rock retorted. “What is this case about, anyway? I’ll show him inexperienced!”

“Calm down,” Roll muttered. “Look, this is a little more serious than most missions we’re set upon, Rock. This newest escapee is vicious, dangerous, and is obviously a master at hiding. If we aren’t careful, he’ll pick us off one by one. On the contrary, perhaps Meijin doesn’t think we’re inexperienced, he just doesn’t want his best Net Saviors killed at the hands of a psychopath,” she said with a smile.

“I highly doubt that. He would’ve contacted us by now. We don’t need an okay from him—we can investigate this on our own. We have the right to. But…” he rubbed his stomach and eyed the café at the corner. “Food comes first.”

Roll shook her head. “You’re hopeless.”

As they made their way towards the café, Rock spoke up again. “So what’s this about a psychopath? Haven’t run into many of those these days, not even Forte.” He looked away. “Haven’t seen him in two years. Where’s he been?” he wondered out loud.

“One question at a time, Rock. This ‘psychopath’ needs to be taken seriously. Sure, there are a whole lot of missions assigned to us, but not a lot of them have been too difficult these past years. Vyrus is different.”

“Virus? As in a virus-virus?”

“No, you idiot, Vyrus as in Vyrus.”

“I don’t get it. Virus? Like a mettaur? Like the really weak ones that we don’t pay attention to anymore? I highly doubt mettaurs are psychopaths, Roll-chan.”

“VYRUS. V-Y-R-U-S.”

“Oh. Why didn’t you just spell it in the first place?” Rock asked.

“Why are you acting so dumb?” Roll muttered inaudibly. “Anyway, this one’s different. He’s an actual psychopath. Blues told me that half a year ago he killed more than a hundred navis.”

“Bah. Sounds like a huge dramatization to me. You know, rumors go around like that just making people scared.”

“Perhaps,” said Roll, “But he’s still dangerous, because the Net Police are getting edgy.” She gestured around the city. “There are more on guard, if you’ve noticed. And the prison is completely blocked off, under surveillance 24/7.”

They entered the café, both ordered a pastry and a cup of coffee, and then went to sit at a table near the large windows.

“In any case,” Roll continued, “No one knows what his motives are, but it’s important that we take back custody before we find out. I have a feeling there’s something far more important behind this entire ordeal that we’re missing.”

Rock took out the odd chip from the previous night’s incident and examined it as he took a bite out of his cinnamon roll. It seemed like there was something far more important behind the chip, too, if anything. He didn’t want to risk using it, for the effects could be devastating for all he knew. He put it away again and stared out the window, taking another bite out of the cinnamon roll.

“You think Meijin’s okay?” he asked suddenly, looking thoughtfully out the window.

Roll sighed. “Not this Meijin stuff again, Rock. What, you think something happened to him? We would’ve been informed by now. He’s probably just held back by all the work he has to do. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t contacted us about Vyrus.”

Rock shrugged it off. “I guess.” He finished the rest of his cinnamon roll and got up to leave. “Guess I might as well check out the scene if Meijin’s not gonna say anything. You coming?”

Roll smirked. “You think I want to miss out on a case like this?” she left the proper amount of zenny on the table and followed him out the door, towards the yellow net police tape ringing off the large area within the city. Rock ducked under the vividly colored plastic and made his way towards the all too familiar crimson navi standing at the steel entrance to the underground prison. He looked their way—or rather it seemed so, as the ebony shades covering his eyes conveyed no signs of which direction he was looking, nor his expression.

“Back on the scene, eh Blues?” said Rock, approaching the doorway.

Blues raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”

Rock folded his arms. “Mocking me isn’t going to help. Find anything new?”

The crimson navi sighed and shook his head. “Not remotely. Though, while you’re here, it’s best that I show you what we’ve taken note of so far.”

“It’s what we came here for. Roll just told me about the incident last night.”

Blues nodded and led them inside the prison, carefully locking the huge bolts behind them. “The prison security was breached at approximately 9:38 last night. Five prison guards were killed, along with the navi who was thrown into Vyrus’ cell.”

“Why in hell would a convict be thrown into a psychopath’s cell?” Rock muttered.

“Because,” Blues went on, “Vyrus was in a comatose state. He was for around six months. Unfortunately, it happens that he woke up last night—and he was obviously very intent in getting out.” He turned to Roll. “You didn’t tell him very much, did you?”

Roll glared at him. “He was more concentrated on food than anything, Blues. I only gave him the basic information.”

Blues continued further into the prison. “We’re trying to figure out the reasoning behind all the killings he’s done. He’s got to have a reason. There’s got to be something more.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” said Roll.

Rock shook his head. “He’s insane. Insane people don’t need a reason.”

“Once upon a time you said the same thing about Forte—but he had plenty of reasons, now didn’t he?” Eventually Blues stopped at a cell deep within the prison. It was cold, dark, reeked horribly of death, and sent terrible shivers up Rock’s spine. Whether it was simply the cold of the place or the chilling mark Vyrus’ presence had left behind, he was unsure of, but he didn’t like it at all.

“Yet the most unusual evidence left behind is the way he broke out of the cell,” said Blues, pointing out the broken cell bars. “The cell bars were sliced cleanly in half. He didn’t have a sword. He didn’t have any sharp weapon whatsoever. So how did he get it open?”

Rock leaned down and looked closely at the bars on the floor. “And these are steel, correct?”

Blues nodded.

Rock stood back up with a still-puzzled look on his face. “I don’t believe I can figure this one out.”

“Doesn’t matter. No one else can, either. Though, we did get some slight info on Vyrus’ whereabouts from about a year ago. Had something to do with an abandoned syndicate—Herufaia, I think it was. Ever heard mention of it?”

Both Rock and Roll shook their heads.

“Good. That means you two have a job. Try to find your way to this syndicate, if you can—ask around, get some information. It’s the only lead we have right now.”

Roll placed her hands on her hips. “And what are you going to do?”

“I’ve already done what I can. There’s no more info I can pry out of these two,” Blues said, gesturing towards the cell next to them. “Therefore I suppose I’ll be joining you two in looking for this abandoned syndicate.”

Rock peered closely into the cell and saw two navis huddled in the corner, one taller and one shorter, with ornate blue dog-like ears hanging from either side of his head. The taller one had a much more venomous glare, almost a murderous one.

“I could only get the Herufaia hint out of them, but they refuse to tell me anything else unless they’re granted their freedom. No chance. The taller one there is just as much a killer as Vyrus himself. Pity that the Cyberworld is so against the death sentence.”

“Watch your tongue, Blues,” snapped Ronin, holding his younger brother close. “I wouldn’t compare a dangerous convict to such a beast as Vyrus.”

Crelos crawled over to the bars, grinning like a wild idiot. “Net Police don’t have common sense, Net Police don’t have any common sense at all! You’re missing out, Blues, you’re missing out. Give brother his freedom and we’ll gladly tell you all we know—just give brother his freedom.” The repetition of his sentences made him sound like a parrot.

“So what did the shorter one do?” Roll asked, completely ignoring Crelos’ strange way of wording.

“Nothing,” replied Blues. “But he has some kind of emotional attachment to his brother. He can’t do anything on his own without him; he’s extremely dependent on others. So he had to go into the cell with him. And yet even he won’t tell us about Vyrus—not unless we give his brother’s freedom back. But like I said before, no chance. We can’t risk letting a murderer on the loose.”

“I think that’s a little unfair,” Rock said, “Wouldn’t it be much more logical if we let the less dangerous one free and actually raise our chances of capturing an insane psychopath?”

“It’s not my decision,” Blues stated simply.

“Can’t we take it up with Meijin or someone? Who’s in charge of decisions like these?” Rock asked.

Blues turned to face him solemnly. “Rockman… haven’t you heard? Meijin is in the hospital.”

---

“One would have thought that for a navi to attack a human was virtually impossible, not unless the navi themselves had come into reality. This had not been the case with Meijin. He had, most unfortunately, been the only one occupying SciLabs at the time, and happened to be—as Vyrus had so called it in his foreboding message—“meddling” with his plans. Meijin was merely doing his job; trying to find out what the navi was really up to, trying to find old files hidden since Vyrus had first been created. No such luck, however. The console exploded before Meijin accessed the files. It seemed to be the last defense barrier placed on those files after their access was forbidden, and Meijin, sadly, was the victim of it,” Blues explained, as they now sat upon the floor of Netto’s homepage, awaiting the return of the brunette.

“Well, he’s in good condition, right?” Rock asked anxiously.

Blues grimaced. “He’s suffered some serious burns, so I doubt he’ll be up to ordering us around for awhile.”

“I’d rather have him ordering us around than sitting in a hospital all bandaged up,” Roll muttered. Rock grunted in agreement.

“In any case… the files were destroyed along with the console’s explosion. It seemed that whoever attached that mechanism to the files obviously didn’t want them discovered,” said Blues.

“And those were the files containing the information for his genetic programming?” Rock asked.

Blues nodded. “Every file for each navi created is stored in SciLabs, and every file is always scanned for viruses and other dangerous attached data before being stored; except, naturally, the files created by the SciLabs employees themselves, since they know how to virus-proof their navi’s genetic coding. So Vyrus’ creator had to be from SciLabs.”

“Not necessarily. What if a human didn’t create him at all? If you recall the Gospel Megavirus, it was created from the bits and chunks of junk data. Vyrus could have formed from excess floating data,” said Rock.

“Floating data doesn’t just clot together and form something living,” said Blues, rolling his eyes. “Either something dying or barely living had to have absorbed the junk data to regain their structure, or a human themselves had to put together that junk data. Either way, I doubt Vyrus was created that way—he’s too customized, too original-looking to have not had a human creator.”

Rock fell back on the floor and held his head. “This is giving me a headache. Roll and I haven’t even seen a clear picture of him, let alone know anything about him.” He groaned in exasperation and rolled over onto his stomach wearily.

“It’s called being a Net Savior, Rock.”

“I know, but we haven’t had such a complicated case like this in years—not since the Darkloids way back when. I’m not used to not being able to figure stuff out.”

Silence enveloped them as they all fell into thought, each one trying harder than the next to piece together the navi called Vyrus. Rock was beginning to wonder what was taking Netto so long, and was about to call the PET when the security alarm on the homepage went off.

Rock jumped up with the instincts of a true Net Savior, buster already held up to catch the intruder. The blaring siren screamed into his ears like a foghorn magnified by twice its sound, but he couldn’t make the move to turn it off. Roll quickly did this for him and stood by him, while Blues took a stance on the other side, sword at the ready.

“Come out, intruder! Whether you are friend or foe, show yourself!”

There was a whirring from the darker corners of the homepage, and suddenly a surge of power blasted into the ground beside them. Rock jumped backward, barely avoiding the blast, and immediately recognizing the attack. Earthbreaker.

“Forte,” Rock snarled, his grip on his buster instinctively tightening. “What are you doing here?” he shouted out into the building clouds of smoke. The attack increased, as earthbreakers were thrown to the right and left. Rock and the others had to continually dodge the massive attacks while still trying to spot their target. The smoke was unbearably thick now, and Rock dropped to the ground, coughing and holding his arm over his mouth. Forte never attacked without reason, especially not after he’d stated during their fateful fight that he still held honor to a certain amount. Had something happened?

Suddenly there arose laughter through the billowing gray clouds of smoke. But it wasn’t the maniacal laughter Rock expected to hear. It was… cheerful? And the voice sounded unmistakably feminine as well. Rock raised a suspicious eyebrow and activated a wind chip. The smoke was quickly cleared away, revealing the real attacker.

“Nexus?!” all three shouted, lowering their weapons.

The female navi continued to giggle hysterically at her clever prank, but soon straightened up and came over to greet them. “Can’t believe you fell for that one, Rock. Honestly, I expected better from you this time.”

Nexus.EXE and her operator, Koryu Denton, had been long-time acquaintances with Netto and several of the Net Saviors, though only on short business and small run-ins with each other. Even so, Nexus couldn’t seem to ever stop getting kicks out of her shapeshifting ability, which proved to be useful yet ever so annoying at times, especially with now.

“Haven’t seen you three in awhile, have we, Koryu?” asked Nexus, turning to grin at her operator.

Koryu grinned back. “It’s been a couple years, hasn’t it Rockman? Nexus has been itching for a rematch for a good while.”

Rock folded his arms and let out a sigh of relief. “You did a good job that time, Nexus. You’re getting better every time we see you. Just don’t scare me like that again—a run-in with Forte is not what we need right now.”

“It was Koryu’s idea anyway,” said Nexus, snickering a bit. But a look of slight concern crossed her face. “What’s going on, by the way? You three didn’t look too happy when I first got here. In fact, you looked pretty frustrated.”

“Well, we’re sinking into a pretty frustrating Net Savior case at the moment. Can’t seem to get any leads.”

“Ah, I’m guessing it was that convict that escaped last night,” said Nexus.

Rock nodded. “Looks like the news is spreading fast. Unfortunately, we have no clue as to the whereabouts of the navi, except for a tidbit of info on an abandoned syndicate.”

“There are plenty of abandoned syndicates out there. I hope you have a name.”

“Herufaia,” said Blues, sheathing Muramasa. “Ever heard of it?”

Nexus looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Well, it sounds familiar, but I don’t believe I’ve had any associations with it. In any case, Koryu and I just wanted to see what you guys were up to these days. Doesn’t look like anything different from the usual,” she said with a smile. “We’ve been pretty much unoccupied this entire summer. Maybe we could help out?”

Rock huffed. “Your decision. It really isn’t all that exciting at the moment. But, once we get some leads, it’ll probably get a little more interesting.”

Suddenly Netto’s urgent voice echoed over the homepage as his display screen popped up before them. “Rockman, there’s commotion down in Net City—if I’ve been informed correctly, Vyrus is attacking everyone there head-on. This is our chance. We’ve got to get over there, quickly!”

“Isn’t that all exciting, eh?” Nexus asked with a smirk. “I’d say we’re about to have some fun.”

Rockman laughed as he opened up a portal to Net City. “Just don’t let your guard down, Nexus. I have a feeling we’re about to go up against something much more serious than an ordinary netnavi.”

---

Author’s Notes:

I just love making cliffhangers. xD

Before you all start asking questions, Nexus.EXE and Koryu Denton are copyright to DarkNexusAngel over at deviantArt (darknexusangel . deviantart . com, without the spaces, obviously). She requested to be part of the fic, so I put her in. n.n

I’ll admit, this chapter was a little more boring than anything, but the next chapter’s gonna be full of action for all of you action-y fans. Le wewt. As always, reviews and critique are greatly appreciated. And I took Ginrei's advice and actually added in a part where Rock questions Vyrus’ name. Like someone in real life would do. xD *headdesk* Can’t believe I didn’t think of putting it in there before. u.u Thanks for pointing it out, Ginrei!

Next chapter will be here in a month or so, as usual. xD Now everyone go get soda and pour it on your heads. oO’ </random>

Oh, and do take the time to review at FF.net, if you can- click.
_________________

[Midnight]

Hmm.

I liked this fic so far. That's a definite. This chapter is a bit worse than that of the previous few, but only by a little. My two main gripes with this chapter are as follows:

1) You seem to have painted Rock in a slightly out-of-character light. Usually, I'm not so sure that Rock is quite impulsive. Usually, he likes to sit on his hands and think about his next move. You seem to have him like Netto--impulsive and relying on instinct. Though I can see this as something that's somewhat feasible, it's a bit strange to see it in this fic.

2) The introduction of the other character...Nexus, was it? If you wanted to introduce her as a side character, I would have suggested putting her in closer to the beginning of the chapter. That way, there's a bit more time to develop that character's persona. Here, I haven;t seen much depth into her persona, so I can't pass judgment yet.

Still, the chapter was quite good, if not a little dragging. Good job.
_________________
Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

The Kingdom of Loathing: An Adventurer is You! // I ♣ Seals

Avatar by Spork. I very much appreciate it! <3

[Featherdust]