Sean's Zero Transmission(Stream spoilers, complete)

[CrossFusionStarman]

You're doing a really good job with this. Keep writing more so I can read! This is interesting ^^
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SERAS VICTORIA OWNS MY SOUL

[TheWebbuilder]

Elizabeth, thank you!

SearchMan X, it's fairly easy to keep the characters in character, if you overdose on Axess for two hours before writing anything!

I'm still working on that screencap.

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“Sorry.”

Chaud’s shoulder rolled backward from the impact as a short gray-haired kid collided with him. Without offering more apology, the kid brushed past and continued running on his way.

The double-haired Net Op glanced over his shoulder after the squirt, but the kid was already bounding around the next corner and escaping from view.

“Hmm…”A hum slipped from Chaud’s lips as he peered after the kid in thought.

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“Not bad, Shun.” Gregory’s eyes went wide as he thumbed through the billfold in his hands. “Man, you lifted Chaud Blaze‘s wallet!”

“You‘re kidding me.” Slim snatched the billfold and looked through it to make certain it was real. “You aren‘t kidding… This is unbelievable!”

“Look at that ID.” The stocky teen pointed to the identification card residing in the wallet. “There‘s nowhere we couldn‘t go once we rig that!”

Slim whistled in amazement. “Good work, Sean.”

“Yeah…” The gray-haired kid’s voice gave away the fact that he wasn’t listening.

Wondering what had Sean’s attention, the two teens looked over. They saw Sean thumbing through a stack of Battle Chips.

“And what are you going to do with those?” Gregory walked over and squatted down to peer over Sean’s shoulder.

“None of your business!” Sean whipped the Chips away and stuffed them in his pocket.

“As if you‘ve got any use for them.” The stocky tormentor continued, “You don‘t even own a PET, much less a Navi to use them.”

“Wait a moment…” Slim moved over to stand before the gray-haired kid. “Where did you get those?”

“Same place I got that wallet, I lifted them from Blaze.” The boy snapped back. “Now leave me alone!”

“All right, all right.” Gregory took a step back. “Keep your rotten chips for all I care.”

“Come on, we‘d better get rid of that wallet.” The skinny teen started to walk away. “Once Blaze finds it missing, it‘s going to be one hot tamale.”

“Good point, let‘s go Sean.” The stocky teen turned around- and then blinked in surprise.

Sean was nowhere in sight. As usual, he had slipped away while the others weren’t looking.

“Not again!” Gregory hissed in anger.

“How does he do that?” Slim moaned. “Come on, we‘d better find him.”

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“Bingo!”

“What’d you find?” MegaMan peered out of his PET, trying to spot what Lan had spotted.

“Right there!” The brunette pointed through the store window, to the display poster sitting on the other side of the glass.

“Uh… a rock concert?” The Bomber glanced at his Op in complete disbelief. Not even Lan could be that dense. “I don‘t really think that you dad‘s into heavy metal.”

“Not that poster.” Lan shuddered at the mental image of his father decked out in rock and roll garb and waving an electric guitar. “The other poster. The one of Dwayne Jones.”

“The classical pianist?” The Bomber nodded in understanding. “Good idea. I think that that‘s a little bit more their speed-”

MegaMan cut his sentence off an all-too familiar ‘beep’ resounded through his terminal. “Hey, Lan, you‘ve got a message from Famous.”

Instantly, the brunette’s hand had ripped his PET from his belt and raised it to look in the screen.

“What‘s up, Mr. Famous?”

“For the millionth time, it‘s just ‘Famous‘.” The scientist shook his head in frustration. “I don‘t go around calling you ‘Mr. Lan’, do I?”

“Mr. Lan… that‘s got a nice ring to it. Don‘t you think?”

“Oh…” Famous’ head dropped in surrender. “I wanted to let you know that the tech boys have picked up a lead on Gray Hair.”

“You have?”

“Yes, his real name is Sean Obihiro.” Famous glanced over the information on his screen. “His parents died in a car accident when he was very young… He bounced in and out of various foster homes… And then he was reported missing about three years ago; and up to now, we haven‘t seen a trace of him.”

“Now that‘s weird.”

“We haven‘t picked up his trail since.” Famous wrapped up his summary. “And about this morning‘s attack. Did HardMan affiliate himself with any organization?”

“HardMan…? No,” Lan shrugged. “he didn‘t; just tried to flatten MegaMan like a pancake.”

“I see, keep your eyes open. I‘ve got a nasty feeling that something‘s about to break, and it won‘t be pretty when it does.”

“Sure thing, Mr. Famous.”

“It‘s just FAMOUS!”

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“I‘m ready, Sean.”

“Very good, Zero.” Sean looked into his PET Advance.

“I don‘t know about this.” Missy glanced around the Net Arcade nervously. “If Scratch finds out that we‘re here instead of back home, we‘re really going to get it.”

“I don‘t care.” The gray-headed kid frowned defiantly as he remembered his beating. “I‘ve had about enough of that guy…”

“You don‘t mean that and you know it.” The girl shot her companion a reprimanding look. “Where else would you go? Back to the-”

That remark would touch one of the few nerves that could set Sean off, and Missy realized that fact too late to check herself.

“Don‘t go there!” The boy’s voice came out so loud and angrily that several nearby people shot curious looks at him. “If you want to go back, then go. But I‘m staying here.”

Missy stared at the boy for several long moments; her emotions were tearing her apart with indecision. She wanted to stay and watch out for Sean, but her own fear kept tugging at her as well…

There was only one choice, she turned and scurried away.

The boy glared after her for a long moment, then turned back to the business at hand.

“Jack in! Zero!” Sean whipped the PET around his index finger like an old fashioned gun-slinger would with his pistols as he brought the device up above his head. Setting his eyes on the Jack In Sensor on the nearby arcade unit, the boy dropped his arms to chest level and hit the ‘Transmit’ button. “Power up!”

A burst of red light shot out of Sean’s PET and leapt into the sensor. From there, the light raced into the computer Network and shot down into the floor, where it reconstituted itself into the Net Navi Zero.

Zero was a tall Navi, easily matching ProtoMan’s height. His boots and gloves were a medium red and several brown cords were wrapped around the gloves and boots to keep them in place. His bodysuit was a pure white and ran up into his red chest armor. Red, square shoulder pads exploded out of the chest plate, and swept out a good distance from the Navi’s body. Zero’s head was covered by a red helmet, the sides fashioned into long fins that swept from his cheeks out past the back of his head.

“You looking for a Net battle?”

Zero turned to find a bizarre Net Navi standing behind him. The Navi’s nobody was nothing more than a rectangular rocket launching station. It’s head was styled like the tip of a missile, with a single visor acting as eyes. Spindly eyes and legs projected from the launch-pad body, bearing its weight.

“What if I am?” The swordsman turned to face the launch-pad on legs.

“If you‘re looking to brawl, then I can give you a powerhouse match.” The boxy Navi stated. “The name‘s BreakMan. So, you going to battle me?”

“Sean?” Zero checked with his Net Op.

“Go ahead, we have to start somewhere.”

“All right!” BreakMan turned and dashed across the Network to the arena, with a more reserved Zero following at a short distance.

A few minutes later, they had arrived and were prepared to have at it.

BATTLE START!

“Missile attack!” BreakMan’s body tensed as a fleet of missiles left his launcher and shot through space towards Zero.

The swordsman remained mute as the rocket sped at him.

Sean wasn’t even watching the battle, he was too busy thumbing through his Battle Chips.

“Z Saber.” The red Navi clenched his fist, causing his default weapon, a green sword, to appear on his wrist.

The swordsman waited as the rockets whipped towards his body.

Zero lifted his head to stare into his adversary’s attack. A split second later, the missiles hit home; the attacks crashed into the swordsman and exploded into clouds of fire, smoke, and ash.

“Easiest Net battle I‘ve ever won.” BreakMan smirked at his opponent‘s destruction.

“I do not believe that a winner has been determined.”

The rocket Navi glanced up in horror to see Zero exploding out of the dust clouds unharmed.

“I don‘t know how you pulled that off, but it won‘t save you!” BreakMan leveled his body and fired off round after round of his propelled explosives.

The swordsman didn’t even flinch. Without so much as slowing down Zero wove back and forth, slipping away from the missiles and dodging them effortlessly.

“Blast it, he‘s fast!” The bulky Navi thrust out his arms, discharging two larger missiles on the red Navi. “Seeking missiles!”

“Area Steal!” For the first time in the Net battle, Sean came to life. His right hand ripped the aforementioned chip out of his folder and into the air above his head. Bringing his arm down, the boy fed the chip into his waiting PET. “Battle Chip in! Download!”

No sooner had the Terminal registered the chip data, than Zero’s frame turned negative for a split second as he ‘blinked’, vanishing from sight and teleporting somewhere else.

The rockets raced on, passing harmlessly through the air without striking anything.

“Great…” The rocket Navi slowly turned around, wondering where his opponent was going to reappear. “This is just great…”

The soft sound of footsteps caught BreakMan’s attention, causing the bulky Navi to spin around to face the noise. Sure enough, the Navi found Zero racing towards him from behind.

“I‘ve got you now!” The rocket Navi lifted his right arm, apparently waiting for his adversary to reach point-blank range before he attacked.

“And we‘ve got you right where we want you!” Sean selected and slid a chip into his PET. “Samaria Sword, Battle Chip in! Download!”

Almost instantly, Zero’s right hand transformed into a thick, red, oval hilt, with a thin but deadly blade attached.

Zero exploded into even greater speed. His body became nothing more than a red blur as he flew across the arena at his opponent. A second passed, and Zero was standing eye-to-eye with BreakMan, the rocket Navi hadn’t even had time to get a shot off.

“Now a winner has been determined.” Zero smiled grimly. The swordsman snapped his blade up over his opponent’s head- and then brought it down.

BreakMan exploded into a cloud of pixels, before his body transformed into the words ‘Log Out’ and he vanished. The rocket Navi had been defeated.

“All right!” Sean literally jumped in joy as he realized that Zero had won the combat. “We did it, Zero! We won!”

The boy’s enthusiasm was contagious, and before Zero had realized it, he had broken his stone face and was grinning slightly.

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“And that takes care of that.” Lan patted his pocket in satisfaction as he continued down the street.

“You really lucked out.” MegaMan shrugged from his PET. “Not to mention cleaned out. What little savings you had are pretty much shot now.”

“Yeah, but it was worth it.” The brunette stopped at the street corner, as the lights changed to allow the cross traffic to pass. “I think…”

The lights changed again, allowing Lan to cross the street. No sooner had he stepped up to the other side, than his eyes landed on an all-too-familiar head of hair- gray hair.

Lan’s mind instantly matched the face with a name, it was Sean.

“HEY! SEAN!” Acting without thinking, as usual, Lan screamed the boy’s name and broke into a run. He had to get to the boy and find out just what was going on here. “Sean!”

The gray-haired boy looked up, his eyes filling with fright, as he stepped out of the arcade and back to the crowded streets. That voice calling him, it belonged to Lan Hikari. The boy looked over his shoulder, to see the Net Saver rushing towards him.

Fear grabbed him in his iron grip. Sean couldn’t get caught, he wouldn’t get caught, and above all, he was NOT going back, no matter what.

The gray haired boy broke into a run, dashing down the streets away from his brunette pursuer.

“Not again!” Lan groaned as he pumped more speed out of his legs. “Why is it that every time we see this kid, we end up chasing him?”

Unfortunately, he didn’t have an answer to that question, nor did he have a choice. Lan ran on, squeezing between people, ducking through openings in the crowd, and pursuing the fleeing boy with everything he had.

End Chapter!

Next: We're finally ready for some serious plot development.
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[TheWebbuilder]

Here ye go, hot off the Word processor.

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“Sean!” Lan shouted after the fleeing boy. “Sean! Wait! I just want to talk to you!”

The gray-haired boy glanced over his shoulder, but continued to run in the opposite direction. “ Go away! I can‘t talk to you!”

“I suppose the fact that he even spoke to me is an improvement.” The brunette hissed under his breath. The Net Saver glanced up, to see Sean approaching an intersection. Judging from the stale green lights, the signal was about to change. Since Sean had a head start, if Lan didn’t catch him quick, he’d lose him when the lights changed.

“Sean, wait!” Lan shouted again, as he darted around a business man. It was useless, Sean was almost at the intersection, and Lan still had half a block to go.

And then fate intervened- in the form of a Battle Chip.

Lan saw the flying disk come out from behind the corner building of the block and crash into the ‘Walk’ button on the street light. In response, the lights cut immediately jumped to show red a few seconds earlier than normal- and because of that, Sean wouldn’t be able to slip across the street.

Undaunted, however, the boy dashed around the corner and slipped out of Lan’s view.

Determined not the lose the kid a second time, Lan stayed right on the boy’s heels. The brunette whipped around the corner, and stopped in his tracks in surprise.

There, before his eyes, Chaud Blaze was fighting to maintain his grip on a struggling Sean’s shoulders.

“Let- me- go!” The gray-haired boy screamed as he bucked and pulled in an effort to escape his captor.

“That‘s not an option.” The double-haired boy tightened his grip on the squirming Sean. Turning his head, the Net Saver addressed his comrade. “Lan.”

“Chaud.” Lan stepped forward uncertainly. “Why- How‘d you get involved in this?”

“It‘s simple, actually,” Chaud moved his head to one side, allowing Sean’s fist to fly harmlessly by his head. “He picked my pocket and made off with my wallet. I‘d like it back.”

“I don‘t have your lousy wallet!” Sean gave one last twist and then gave up trying to escape. “I don‘t know what you‘re talking about!”

“Yes, you do.” Chaud didn’t release his grip. “Denying it will do no good.”

“I- I didn‘t want to do it!” Tears began forming in Sean’s eyes, while he kept his face pointed to the ground. “They made me. I- I had to!”

“Hey, now,” Lan stepped forward and squatted down next to the crying boy. “There‘s nothing to cry over. If you‘re in some kind of trouble, we‘ll help you get out of it.”

“I- I can‘t!” The gray-haired kid looked up, tears streaming down his face. “They‘ll hurt my sister!”

“What?” Lan scooted an inch closer. “Don‘t worry, we‘ll help you.”

“Really?” Sean looked up, hope shining from behind his tears.

“Really.”

“Thanks.” The boy’s countenance became threatening. “For helping me out!”

Sean’s small, spindly arms suddenly flew forward, slamming into the squatting Lan’s chest. Caught completely by surprise, the brunette lost his balance and tumbled over backward to land hard on his backside.

Acting immediately, in the split second that Chaud’s focus was directed at Lan, the gray-haired boy twisted to one side and broke free of the Net Saver’s grasp. Without a second’s hesitation, the gray-haired kid dashed away and stumbled around a corner into an alleyway.

“Why that-!” Lan threw himself to his feet, and broke into pursuit.

“He‘s certainly an actor.” Chaud nodded as he followed the brunette. "And cunning, odds are that sister line was a bold-faced lie.."

The partners whipped around the corner and slid to a stunned halt- Sean was nowhere in sight.

“What- where‘d he go?” Lan took a few steps into the alleyway

Chaud glanced around, uncertain where his prey had gone. The alleyway was completely empty, except for a few trash cans and a dumpster set alongside the left wall.

Warily, the two Net Savers continued into the alley, their senses on high alert for any more tricks that Sean might have planned for them.

The two reached the center of the alley, when a loud beeping noise caught their attention.

Lan glanced over his shoulder, to see a large dump truck backing into the alley behind them. Evidently, it had come to collect the contents of the dumpster they had passed.

“Chaud, you don‘t suppose that Sean hid in that dumpster do you?” The brunette turned to his companion. “This is a perfect set-up for a rescue-the-kid-from-being-crushed routine.”

“Lan, those kinds of things don‘t happen in normal life.”

“Since when have our lives been normal?”

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Sean breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Net Savers continue down the street, completely unaware of his presence. So the dumpster hadn’t been his first place to hide, but it had proven effective.

The boy closed the lid completely, deciding to wait a few more moments before leaving his haven.

“That was a close one, Zero.” The gray-haired boy panted as he stole a glance at his PET.

“Sean, I‘m detecting a strange presence outside of this… receptacle.” Zero was all business; something about this didn’t feel quite right. “I advise we leave immediately.”

“As soon as those Net Saver’s are gone-” Sean broke his sentence off. Was it his imagination, or was the garbage beneath him… shifting?

The boy’s eyes went wide as he realized what was happening. This was definitely not good. Dumpster diving was a dangerous art, because the trucks used to collect the trash were equipped with compacters to smash the refuse into flat sheets of garbage- and it didn’t take much to realize what that kind of pressure could do to a human. And it looked like this truck's compactor had kicked into gear. The boy screamed in horror as his world dissolved into chaos. His scream was never heard over the roar of machinery.

“NO!” Futilely, Sean clawed at the garbage before him, unable to escape from the mound of trash that was burying him alive- in his own grave.

“I won‘t go like this!” The gray-haired kid gasped as his hand broke through into clear air. The bin was empty, and somehow he had miraculously been buried near the surface. He could escape, if he hurried…

Then he felt it, Sean’s breath stopped as he realized that a familiar bulge was missing from his pocket- his PET was missing- it must have slipped from his pocket when he tumbled into the truck.

“ZERO!” Abandoning his escape for the moment, the gray-haired boy turned and dove back into the truck, his hands digging through the garbage and filth in an effort to locate his Personal Terminal. “Zero! Where are you? ZERO!”

Sean’s hand collided with a familiar object, his fingers instantly recognizing the marred surface of his PET. Hastily, he pulled the device from the rubbish and rushed back for the opening.

Inside of his PET, Zero stood silent in shock. His Net Op had passed up a chance to save himself, and come back to rescue him. Why? This was not the nature of humans… or so he had come to believe…

Sean was oblivious to this; he just continued to claw his way to the exit.

And then the compactor sealed the opening, preparing to start its cycle of destruction. The gray-haired boy was trapped- and about to die.

“This is it, Zero.” Sean looked into his PET. It was only a matter of time before they were squashed flatter than a pancake. “At least… you‘re with me.”

The door of steel began sliding closer, piling the trash along its surface. The door continued it’s advance, preparing to flatten everything in the truck- including Sean.

Zero remained stunned, he’d never expected this kind of devotion. This was a human he could gladly go to deletion with…

And then the answer struck him.

The Navi checked on the position of the door. Already the trash was piling up around Sean and probably cutting painfully into his sides. The door was about halfway into the bin, meaning that they didn’t have much time left. But that time might be enough.

“Sean, the Dimensional Chip. Slot it in!”

“And then you can get us out of here!”

There it was again. Zero stumbled over the word ‘us’, not ‘me’ but ‘us’. Sean truly considered them a team.

“There‘s… just one problem…” The gray-haired boy strained at the garbage slowly burying him. “I… can‘t reach it… Or even… get it to you.”

“Don‘t give up!” Zero shouted without even realizing it. “I‘ll get you out of here! Somehow…”

Sean looked up at the door, by now it was three-fourths of the way into the bin. It wouldn’t be long now…

“Bye, Zero.”

“SEAAAAAAAAN!”

And then it stopped.

Sean and the trash surrounding him jerked, as the door came to an early- yet welcome- stop.

“It- it stopped.” The gray-haired boy glanced up at the door.

“And what‘s more.” Zero’s old stony personality returned, as his voice became deadpan. “It‘s moving back, you‘re going to escape.”

The boy looked up to see the compactor opening as the door opened. Abruptly, the mound of trash pinning him in place broke apart and scattered across the floor. Released from his prison, Sean tumbled forward and landed on the top of the refuse. Slowly the gray-haired boy looked up to see an all-too-familiar brunette looking down at him.

“Let me say this now,” Lan peered back at Sean. “When we get you out of there, you are definitely getting a bath.”

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“Well, what‘s your opinion?”

“You don‘t have opinions in a case like this.” Salvia Nero, Net Saver Counselor, announced as she closed the door behind her. She had just come out of a long session with Sean, and now Keifer, Manuela, Dr. Hikari, Lan and Chaud were all eager to here her results. “You have troubled children.”

“Sean‘s an emotional wreck,” Silvia glanced at each person in turn. “he‘s trying to bury his growing anger underneath a facade of happiness. Needless to say, that‘s not working very well, and it‘s only a matter of time before that anger boils over.”

“Did he say what happened to him over the years?” Keifer voiced the point that foremost on his mind.

“Not directly,” The counselor shook her head. “But I‘m gathering that after he vanished from his less-than-caring guardians, some homeless person took him in and has been caring for him. Don‘t mark that as absolute truth, because I don‘t know for sure that that‘s the case.”

“Very strange…” Manuela pondered the fuzzy story they had heard. “I get the feeling that there‘s something more here. Something that‘s lurking beneath the surface of this… case.”

“We can sort that out later.” Dr. Hikari allowed the father in him to come out. “What‘s going to happen to him now?”

“Well,” Calling on her studies, Manuela tried to recall the answer. “If I remember correctly, Sean‘s technically still a ward of the state. Therefore, I assume that he‘ll be placed back in foster care.”

“And that.” Silvia broke into the conversation. “Is the last thing we need. Sean‘s confused, scared, and angry. That‘s a volatile combination. What he needs now is to stay with someone that he knows and relatively trusts, and it wouldn‘t hurt if he looked up to them somehow.”

Lan suddenly became aware of the others looking at him and his father with very thoughtful expressions.

End Chapter!

Next: -sigh- you know.
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[CrossFusionStarman]

Zero, with...EMOTIONS?!? YAY!!! I'd like to say this is a really good fanfiction, but I bet nearly everyone says that so I'm just gonna say I like it and am waiting for more.
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EXEHQ. Click now, I demand it.

NT Champions. Click!

SERAS VICTORIA OWNS MY SOUL

[Wackoguy]

Now just to add some eyecatches in between chapters and some techno music and we'll really have a show! :D

This is a Really good fanfic. The characters (that have been introduced in the Anime) are in-character and I like the whole thing so far!

Anyway,keep it all up! ^_^
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"When it rains,it pours. When it pours,get out of the rain." -quoth me!

Megaman Melee! HUTTAH and HUZZAH!


"I ate your siggy..."

[TheWebbuilder]

Wackoguy, my sig doesn't count as an eyecatch?

I feel like Lan might have gotten a bit out of character in this chapter. If anyone else feels that way, let me know, please?

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“So, Sean, how‘s it going?”

Sean glanced up as Lan entered the ‘Counseling Room’ of the Net Saver’s HQ; although in the boy’s opinion, the Counseling Room was the exact same thing as a prison. He couldn’t leave, and he had no freedom here.

“What do you care?” The gray-haired kid muttered as he tried his best to avoid looking at the brunette.

“Uh,” Knowing full well that reading other people’s emotions was not his strong point, Lan tried his best to say the right thing- and still managed to screw it up completely. “I care a lot.”

“Then why‘d you let that skunk-haired freak bring me here?” Sean spun around to gaze daggers at his only companion. “Huh?”

“If by ‘skunk-haired freak‘ you‘re referring to Chaud,” The brunette dropped all pretence of treading lightly and decided to break Sean’s angry spirit- Lan Hikari style. “then I can agree with that description. But the truth of the matter is that when you dropped into my lap we found out who you were and got worried since no one‘s heard from you in two years. So of course we found you and brought you here so that we could help!”

“If you‘d really cared you‘d have left me alone!” The gray-haired kid was practically screaming now.

“If we didn‘t care, we‘d have just had you arrested for stealing Chaud and my dad‘s wallets!” Lan retorted, not bothering to hide his anger. “Instead of dropping those charges!”

“I didn‘t ask you for help! All I want is to be left alone! Thanks to you, I‘m going to get sent back to those- those jerks. Maybe thing‘s aren‘t easy with Scratch, but anything‘s better than being stuck with those abusers!”

Lan opened his mouth to shout something back, but a quick warning from MegaMan caused him to change his outburst into an attempt at making peace.

“Look, we aren‘t going to send you back.” The brunette stepped closer and laid a gentle hand on the rebellious kid’s shoulder. “My dad and I want you to come and stay with us for a while- as long as you promise not to run away again.”

Sean blinked in amazement, shock, disbelief, and several other emotions. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of that sentence- never before had anyone actually cared for him enough to take him in… It was almost too good to be true.

Which meant that it probably was.

“You‘re lying.” The boy tried unsuccessfully to glare in anger at Lan. “You‘re just going to dump me back in that foster home.”

“I‘m not lying, am I MegaMan?” The brunette turned to his Navi for support.

“He‘s telling you the truth, Sean.” The Blue Bomber called out from his PET. “We‘ll be glad to have you come and stay with us. Besides, I‘ve already e-mailed Lan‘s mother to tell her we‘ve got company coming, and if I know her, she‘s already cooking spaghetti and meatballs for you. Award winning meat sauce included. ”

Sean bit his lip, how in the world did these people know he loved spaghetti?

Although dense, Lan wasn’t oblivious, he could tell that Sean was weakening. Now it was time to seal the deal, so to speak.

“By the way,” The brunette reached into his pocket, “I couldn‘t help but notice that your PET‘s a little… used, so I went ahead and picked this up for you.”

The gray-haired kid gasped in amazement as the Net Saver produced a shiny new Progress PET. It’s color scheme was of simple red and black, and as Lan turned it over in his hands, Sean could see his name etched into the back housing.

“Here.” Lan offered the Terminal to his companion. “It‘s yours.”

“Are- are you serious?”

“Of course I am.”

The boy slowly reached out, and took the offered PET. “Um… thank you.”

“Don‘t mention it.” Lan grinned and then pinched his nose with his thumb and index finger. “Now, let‘s get you home so that you can get that bath!”

And for the first time in many months, Sean dropped his guard- and laughed from the heart.

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“I’ve never seen anyone eat that fast before.” Haruka Hikari struggled to keep from staring across the table at Sean as the boy practically inhaled his food.

“He‘s giving Lan a run for his money,” Yuichirou whispered back.

Indeed, if one didn’t know better, one would have assumed that Sean and Lan were racing each other to see who could consume the most food the faster. Sean was obviously putting away food as if this were his first real meal in ages and relishing every moment of it- all of which caused Haruka to wonder just what the boy’s eating habits had been. Sean was incredibly skinny, and the mother suspected that he hadn’t been eating, or hadn’t been fed, very well recently.

“Seconds, please?” The gray-haired boy sighed with delight as he scarfed down the last bite on his plate.

“More like your seventh.” Lan gave up trying to finish his plate and leaned back in his chair, enjoying the feeling of a full stomach. “I‘m done.”

Instantly, the boy was eyeing Lan’s half-full plate. “Are you going-”

The brunette didn’t wait for him to finish, he merely pushed the plate over to his companion, and then watched in amazement as Sean attacked the leftovers.

“Man, where does it all go?” Lan watched the kid in amazement. “I don‘t see how you can hold so much.”

“Mmm…” Sean hummed with delight and then wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his borrowed clothes. After getting the promised, and he‘d admit, delightful, bath; Lan had dug out some of his old clothes for Sean to wear. Despite the best of the brunette’s efforts, the clothes still hung from Sean’s body as they were much too big for him. “This is delicious.”

“Well, thank you.” Haruka smiled warmly.

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“The old guy‘s really going to have our heads for this.” Slim muttered bitterly. “You saw what he did to Sean last time, what‘s he going to do to us?”

“I‘m not worried about a thing.” Gregory leaned his back against the hallway wall and folded his arms. “He won‘t dare touch us.”

“And what makes you so sure?”

“I‘ve got my resources.”

Before Slim could inquire as to just what that meant- a booming voice called for them.

Slim sighed, then marched forward to meet his destiny- or death as the case may be. Opening the doorway to Scratch’s meeting room, the two teens peered inside to see the shadowy outline of a bulky figure standing in the room.

“Enter.”

Slim and Gregory did as they were told. Together they entered the room and stopped at a very respectful, and healthy, distance from the figure.

“What‘s this I hear about Sean missing?”

“He ran off,” Gregory snapped back, “like he normally does. I didn‘t see any special need to go looking for him since he always turns up here. He‘s only been gone for a couple of hours.”

“Over six hours, which is too long in my book. And do you know where he is?”

“Uh, no.” Slim muttered bitterly.

“Then we have a problem don‘t we?” The figure continued, “And we have a failure. You two have failed, and I do not tolerate failure.”

“I still think that the kid‘s just wandering around out there, he‘ll come back eventually.” The stocky teen grumbled.

“I didn‘t make it this far in life by leaving things to chance.” The figure continued. “And I should punish you both right now, but you‘ve done good work in the past, so I am willing to give you a chance to correct this… oversight.”

Slim breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you-”

“Just get out there, find Sean, and bring him back!” Scratch roared in fury. “And don‘t you dare come back here without him!”

“If you ask me, it was a mistake bringing him here in the first-” Gregory’s statement died in mid-sentence. One moment Scratch had been on one side of the room, and the next he was smacking the stocky teen on the face.

The bulky teen shook his head, stunned both by the pain on his face, and the fact that the old man had moved so fast.

“Don‘t you EVER question my authority.” Scratch glared at the rebellious teen. “I’m giving you a chance to correct your mistake. I suggest that you take it. Dismissed.”

Slim hastily left the room. Gregory slowly walked away- glaring at Scratch the entire time.

End Chapter!
_________________

[Wackoguy]

Oh yeah,that DOES count as an eyecatch... -_-;

Moving right along...there was some good development in this chapter. And Sean's warming up to the Hikaris,too! Something that'd probably be wrecked in the actual Anime...

Very well done! And thanks for listening to my idea of the eyecatch!
_________________
"When it rains,it pours. When it pours,get out of the rain." -quoth me!

Megaman Melee! HUTTAH and HUZZAH!


"I ate your siggy..."

[CrossFusionStarman]

Wow...Sean's eating habits remind me of Goku's from Saiyuki. I like this. All this time I thought Scratch was a teen as well, actually. This fanfic looks promising so far, and I hope it stays that way. Webbuilder, this is awesome.
_________________
EXEHQ. Click now, I demand it.

NT Champions. Click!

SERAS VICTORIA OWNS MY SOUL

[Anime Master ZERO]

You sure know how to please a Sean fan. I like it.
_________________

[TheWebbuilder]

Meh, I hate writer's block.

I'm going to break with the dub names here, since I'd probably get broiled alive if I used the name 'HeavyMetalMan'. So he'll go by his original name: MetalMan.

And there is a point to this chapter, as its setting up the next stage of plot development.

Begin Chapter!

“I have to admit, those look good on you.” Lan studied the gray-haired kid Sean stepped out of their shared room in his new clothes.

Sean bit his lip to keep from loosing control over his emotions. After supper last night, the Hikari’s had taken him out shopping for clothes that fit- and they had paid for everything without expecting him to pay them back. After a lot of hesitation, Sean had chosen a pair of black slacks, a ‘hoody’ sweatshirt, and a pair of tennis shoes.

But all that had been yesterday, and Sean was bracing himself for something, anything, to happen and ruin things. After all, if it was too good to be true...

“All right then,” Lan nodded his approval. “Are you ready to go?”

“Uh, go where?”

“Didn‘t I tell you?” The brunette blinked in surprise, before realizing that he had in fact forgotten to let Sean in on the plans for the day. “I guess that I didn‘t. Maylu wanted to meet you. So I arranged for us to meet them at the park today.”

“Are- are you sure that she want to meet… me?”

“Of course I‘m sure.” The brunette grabbed his PET, slid it into his belt holster and then tossed Sean his terminal. “You’re my friend, and any friend of mine is a friend of hers. Let‘s go.”

“If you say so.” Sean slowly pocketed his PET and then followed Lan out the door.

1010101010101010101010101010

“Hey, Lan!” Maylu caught sight of the brunette and his companion coming down the path. “Over here!”

Lan shouted back a reply, and then broke into a run. Sean struggled to keep up, his shorter legs making it difficult for him to maintain Lan’s breakneck pace.

A few seconds later, the brunette Net Saver came to a stop in front of his friends. Several seconds later, Sean managed to catch up to them.

“Hey,.” Lan cast a blanket greeting over to Maylu. Then he quickly turned and put his hand on Sean’s shoulder to begin the round of introductions.

“Sean, this is Maylu.” The brunette coordinated a handshake between the girl and the boy, before turning to point out his other two friends. “ Maylu, Sean.”

“Hello, Sean.” The redhead greeted the boy and held out her hand.

“Hi.” Although the gray-haired kid’s eyes flicked about to indicate his uneasiness, he did shake the girl’s hand.

“By the way.” Maylu pulled out her PET and raised it so that Sean could look inside. “This is Roll.”

“Hi, Sean.” The pink Navi called out cheerfully, “It‘s nice to meet you.”

“Uh,” Sean pulled out his PET and raised it. “This is Zero.”

The red Navi nodded curtly, but didn’t say anything.

With that, silence descended on the group. For the next several moments, there was an awkward pause as everyone tried to figure out where to take the conversation next.

Minutes passed before Maylu found a way to end the embarrassing silence.

“I heard that there was some kind of new shop opening up on Beach Street today.” The redhead said. “I was planning on dropping by sometime, would you two like to come with me?”

“Sure,” Lan shrugged and cast a glance at his gray-haired friend. “What do you say, Sean?”

The boy shrugged uneasily and muttered something to the effect of: “Why not?”

The brunette cast a wary glance at Sean, what was his problem? Last night he had been laughing and really enjoying himself, now he seemed withdrawn and terrified.

“I guess that‘s a ‘yes’ then.”

“It’s this way.” Maylu gestured to her right, “I‘ll show you how to get there.”

101010101010101010101010101

Lan, Maylu, and Sean slowed to a stop in front of the shiny new building. The design of the building didn’t really fit the Den Tech City architecture, because of that fact, the store stood out from the surrounding area and drew wanted attention to itself.

Lan stared at the building for several seconds. He’d seen that design somewhere before, but where?

With a start, the brunette realized that while he had been meditating on the store’s familiarity, Maylu and Sean were entering the shop and leaving him behind.

“Hey, wait for me!” The Net Saver hastily scrambled through the doorway and caught up with his friends.

Almost as soon as he exploded into the store, Lan stopped dead in his tracks as a familiar voice called out to him.

“If it isn‘t Lan Hikari!”

“Wait a minute.” The brunette’s eyes slid over to see a raven-haired girl wearing sandals, jeans, a tank top, and a ridiculous-looking robe standing behind the front counter of the store. Lan blinked, thinking that perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him. However, when he opened his eyes, she was still there. “Tamako!”

“The one and only!” The raven-haired girl vaulted over the counter, hit the floor on the other side, and took off down the aisle to greet her friends.

“I can‘t believe that it‘s really you!” A huge grin plastered itself over Lan’s face. “Man, how‘s it going?”

“Terrific.” Tamako slid to a stop before the trio of friends. “I‘ve finally scratched together enough funds to branch out and open up a shop here in Den Tech. Since I haven‘t had a decent Net battle in forever, I figured that I‘d open up shop down here and hope that I‘d run into you, and I did. By the way, who‘s shorty?”

“’Shorty?’” Lan glanced over his shoulder, trying to make sense of Tamako’s reference.

Sean frowned as he realized that Tamako was referring to him.

“This is Sean.” Maylu came to the rescue by introducing the gray-haired kid. “He‘s staying with Lan.”

Lan immediately recognized the smirk creeping over Tamako’s face- he’d only seen it about a hundred times in his life. From the looks of things, the raven-haired woman was about to challenge Sean to a Net battle on her usual terms.

“So, Sean, how about a Net battle?”

Yep, Tamako had issued her usual challenge.

The gray-haired boy’s eyes narrowed as he considered the option.

“Be careful, Sean.” Maylu hastily whispered into Sean’s ear. “Whenever Tamako battles, there‘s always some kind of bet in play.”

Sean nodded briefly and then looked up at his challenger. “Don‘t call me ‘shorty‘, and I accept.”

“Since I‘m in a good mood today, I‘ll even out the odds.” Tamako grinned in anticipation of an easy victory. “I‘ll take you and Lan on at once.”

“I‘m in.” Lan nodded. “All right, what‘s the stakes? If I know you, Tamako, you‘ve got a wager in mind.”

“You know me too well.” The raven-haired girl nodded and pointed to an ancient lamp standing on the display case. “Three Metal Cracker Fudge cookies for that lamp.”

Lan shot a look at Sean, who nodded his approval.

“You‘re on!” The brunette and gray-haired kid accepted the invitation in unison.

“Then get ready, because I‘m going to leave you begging for mercy!” Tamako whipped out her Progress PET, attached her Custom Grip and then leveled the device at a nearby computer system. “Jack in, MetalMan, Power up!”

“All right!” Lan attached his own Custom Grip and then snapped his right arm, bearing the PET, out to his side before raising the device overhead. In one swift motion he dropped the terminal to chest level and hit the ‘transmit’ button. “Jack in, MegaMan, Power up! Let‘s get some free samples!”

Sean nodded as he whipped out his PET. Deftly, the boy spun the device on his palm and tossed it into the air. The spinning Personal Terminal sailed up over Sean’s head, where he caught it with his left hand and snapped the PET to chest level. “Jack in… Zero! Power up!”

Three beams of laser lights shot out of the individual PET’s and sped into the jack-in sensor of the computer.

With the required burst of light, the three Navi’s materialized in the computer system.

“Hey, MetalMan.” MegaMan grinned at his longtime friend. “Nice to see you again.”

The metallic Navi nodded back, a slight grin tracing his lips. “Great to see you too. I‘m looking forward to a decent Net battle.”

“If it‘s a Net battle you want,” Zero clenched his right hand, causing his right forearm to transform into a long green blade. “It‘s a Net battle I‘ll give you.”

“MetalMan, this is Zero.” The Bomber made the quick round of introductions. “Zero, MetalMan.”

Zero nodded in recognition at his opponent, while MetalMan expressed his greetings.

“Now, ” The sword-wielding Navi raised his blade defensively. “Let the battle begin.”

End Chapter!
_________________

[Anime Master ZERO]

Short, but very much enjoyable.

A bit of a subtle Edward Elric reference (whether unintentional or not) which I found slightly amusing. But it fits.

I like how you wrote about Sean's reaction to meeting new people. It works for him considering his background.

Out of curiosity, will you have Lan take Sean to Higsby's chip shop sometime in the future?
_________________

[TheWebbuilder]

AMZ, *double checks* there IS a reference in there, I think it's safe to say that it was unintentional. And strangely enough...

Begin Chapter!

“Maybe with Tamako hanging around here.” Lan glanced over his shoulder at the store as they trotted off down the sidewalk. “Things will liven up.”

“If things got any livelier, I don‘t know if we could handle it.” Maylu shrugged.

An unintelligible mumble came from Sean, as he hastily devoured the cookie he had won in their Net battle with Tamako. He had to admit, the crazy woman wasn’t that bad- and she made an amazing fudge cookie.

“So, where to next?” The brunette paused and waited on a red light. “We still have some daylight left to burn.”

“Maybe we should check up on Higsby.” Maylu pondered over the various options they had at their disposal. “I‘ve heard that some strange things were going on over at his shop.”

“What kind of things?”

“According to Catherine, Higsby let her brother walk out of his shop with a level five Break Hammer- at twenty-five percent off.”

“Twenty-five percent off?” Lan repeated in bewilderment. “You mean that Higsby‘s having a… a sale? A sale on his Battle Chips?”

Maylu nodded, then checked to make sure that Sean was still with them. Sure enough, the gray-haired kid was just a few steps behind them.

“I guess… that‘s unusual?” Sean hesitantly entered into the conversation.

“Unusual?” The brunette repeated, surprise still infecting his voice. “Higsby having a sale on his Chips is like Tamako Net battling with nothing at stake. It‘s unheard of! What could drive him to do something like this?”

Maylu nodded. “You‘re right, let‘s go check up on him.”

101010101010101010101010101

The door to Higsby’s Chip Shop flew open, allowing Lan, Maylu and Sean to enter the store. No sooner had they taken two steps into the small shop than they stopped dead in their tracks in shock.

Higsby was dancing around the front register with two packs of Zenny in his hands.

The three friends just stood there in shocked awe as Higsby gyrated back and forth screaming something that vaguely resembled ‘Oney’.

“Is anyone else really, really scared right now?” Lan unsuccessfully tried to pry his eyes away from the horrible sight.

“I‘m more or less terrified right now.” Maylu nodded slowly.

“Is he- always like this?” Sean unconsciously stepped closer to Lan as he observed the lunatic before him.

“He‘s always been crazy,” The brunette replied, “Just not… this crazy.”

At that exact moment, the chip nerd stopped his dance with one foot still in the air, finally noticing the trio watching him in horror.

Visibly embarrassed, Higsby hastily snapped his Zenny-bearing hands behind his back in an attempt to regain some of his lost dignity.

“Oh, hi, Lan… Maylu… Other guy…” The chip nerd’s face turned beet red. “I was just… uh… exercising! It‘s part of my new way of life, and… uh… you aren‘t buying that explanation are you?”

“Nope.” Lan shook his head. “All right, Higsby, what gives? You‘ve been acting incredibly strange recently.”

“Uh…” The brunette chip lover studied the trio for a moment and then snatched a newspaper off of the front register and help it up for all to see. “There! Do you see that? It‘s the best news I‘ve had all year!”

Maylu stepped forward and read the headline. “Chip Line Announces Bankruptcy: business will close it‘s doors in one week.”

“The Chip Line?” Sean’s eyes widened in surprise. “Aren‘t they the biggest retail supplier of Battle Chips?”

“And most of my competition.” Higsby nodded eagerly. “They‘re no longer going to be in Den Tech selling their chips! Which of course means that my business is finally picking up steam-”

“In other words, you‘re in the black ink for the first time in your business life.” Lan interjected.

“Exactly…” The brunette nerd blinked as he realized what he had just agreed with. “… Anyway, things have been going so well that it‘s put me in such a good mood that I can‘t help myself, I‘m giving away Battle Chips at twenty-five percent off!”

Lan gaped in open astonishment. “Who are you and what have you done to Higsby?”

“I‘m serious.” Higsby nodded eagerly. “I‘m in such a good mood that I‘ll let you have any Chip for a discount.”

A smirk played across Lan’s lips. “Including that North Wind?”

“I‘m not in that good of a mood.”

Losing interest in the conversation, Sean slipped away from the others and began browsing through the aisles of Battle Chips. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of Higsby. Everything about the man screamed: NERD, but there was something likable about the guy…

But there would be time to worry about that later. Sean shoved the thoughts out of his mind as he began looking over the rows and rows of Battle Chips. He’d actually been this close to so many Battle Chips before. Swords, Blasters, Bombs, Viruses, it was all there.

And then he saw it. There, sitting on the top left shelf was the Chip Lan had referred to back during his talk with Higsby: the North Wind.

Sean stepped closer, his eyes scanning over the properties of that particular chip. The North Wind was capable of blowing away any barrier or aura, even Dark Auras.

The gray-haired boy could see why Lan would want that chip. It could be very useful, especially against Darkloids.

Sean stared at the chip, mixed feeling running through his mind. He owed Lan and his family for what they had done for him. That Chip wouldn’t be very much, but at least it would be some kind of repayment…

The problem was, Sean didn’t have a dime to his name.

But that had never stopped him before… Before he’d always taken whatever it was that he needed or wanted. The gray-haired kid’s hand started to rise, instinctively wanting to pluck that chip from the rack.

The memory of Lan chasing after him over his father’s wallet exploded into his mind. Lan would never accept a stolen gift… but if he didn’t know that it was stolen… Sean could always just say that he had found it… That he’d been holding onto it and that he had heard Lan mention it to Higsby and…

Sean’s eyes flicked over to the others, they were still chatting and paying no attention to him at all.

The boy nodded, his mind was made up.

101010101010101010101010

“I guess we should be on our way, it’s about time for you to close for lunch.” Lan closed the conversation and realized that one member of their clan was missing. “Sean? Sean!”

“Over here!” The gray-haired kid called out, as he stepped out of one of the aisles and into view once more.

“Are you ready? We‘re about ready to leave.” Maylu glanced at the boy, indicating that she was talking to him.

“I guess so.” Sean shrugged and headed over to his friends. As he did so, a loud gurgling sound exploded from the boy’s stomach. The boy’s face turned a deep shade of crimson as he realized that his stomach was growling-indicating that he was hungry. “Uh… sorry…”

“Don‘t worry about it.” The brunette Net saver grinned slightly, “I‘m getting kind of hungry myself.”

“It is getting late, we should probably head for lunch soon.” Maylu stole a look at her PET and noted the time.

“I‘ll tell you what,” Higsby motioned towards to the side exit. “To celebrate, I‘ll take you out to lunch.”

This time Lan and Maylu gaped at the chip nerd in open amazement. Higsby offering to take someone, aside from Ms. Mari, out to lunch was downright unheard of.

“Are you serious?” The brunette regained control of himself. “You‘re going to take us out to eat?”

“Sure, but I’m only driving.” Higsby grinned mischievously.

“What? You‘re not buying?”

“I‘m not in that good of mood.”

Admitting defeat in that aspect, the trio decided to take the nerd up on his offer- and then try to weasel a meal out of him once they arrived.

Following the adult brunette’s lead, Lan, Maylu, and Sean left the building and piled into the back of an ancient brown and white clunker that just barely passed for a car.

“Ugh,” Lan shoved himself into the far left seat to make room for his other two friends. A quick examination of the car revealed that it had definitely seen better days. “Maybe we‘d be better off on the bus.”

“Quit your whining and be glad that I‘m even driving you there.” Higsby slid behind the driver’s seat and put his key in the ignition.

“Even when he‘s generous, Higsby‘s a cheapskate.” The brunette Net Saver muttered as Sean squeezed himself into the back seat.

As Maylu started to enter the vehicle, Higsby turned the key to start the car. No sooner had the engine fired to life than the car exploded into motion. Without warning or time for the others to realize what was happening, the car took off and began tearing down the street.

“Maylu!”

Completely off-guard at the car’s sudden motion, Maylu was caught half-in and half-outside the vehicle. Despite a desperate attempt by Lan and Sean to catch her, the redhead was hurled from the vehicle and sent tumbling to the ground.

The brunette’s chest tightened as Maylu’s head struck the pavement with a sickening thud; Lan tried to leap out of the vehicle to go to her aid. Unfortunately, the door slammed shut on his attempt to bail-out and locked itself tight. There was nothing he could do as the car raced on leaving her behind.

“Higsby!” Barely attempting to keep his anger under control, Lan whirled around to glare at the chip nerd. “What do you think you‘re doing?”

“It‘s not me!” The brunette adult threw his hands up to emphasize that he wasn’t in control of the vehicle. “The car‘s driving itself! It‘s out of control!”

Lan wormed his way up to peer into the front seats, as Higsby had claimed, the steering wheel and pedals were working themselves without any human intervention.

“The car‘s Network is out of control!”

Sean leaned forward and peered down the road… they were approaching an intersection at what had to be twenty miles over the speed limit- meaning that if they actually entered the intersection at this speed, the medics would be picking them up with spoons.

“Then we‘ll just have to fix it.” Lan pulled his PET off of his belt. “Because we‘ve got to get back there and make sure that Maylu‘s OK.”

“I‘m with you, Lan.” Sean whipped out his Progress PET. “Let‘s do it!”

“Jack in, MegaMan, Power Up! Time for a crash course in auto repair!”

“Jack in, Zero! Power Up! Did you have to say ‘crash’?”

Two beams of light exploded out of the PET’s and raced through the air into the car’s Jack in sensor as MegaMan and Zero entered the car‘s network.

A split second later and the two Navi’s had rematerialized inside of the car’s computer. One quick look around and MegaMan and Zero were struggling to keep their jaws from dropping to the floor.

“I‘ve never seen this many viruses before…” The Bomber looked around in shocked disbelief.

MegaMan and Zero glanced around, taking in the sight before them. Sure enough, a literal flood of viruses were roaming about the Network, causing glitches and destruction everywhere.

“This is strange.” The Blue Bomber glanced around at the various viruses, they all appeared to be of the fire variety.

“Strange or not,” Zero’s words were just barely above an unintelligible growl. “We have to take them out. Z Saber!”

The red Navi clenched his fist, causing his right forearm to transform into his default green sword. With a battle cry, the swordsman leapt at the nearest candle, his blade singing through the air.

“Right behind you. Mega Buster!” MegaMan held his right hand out as it changed into his blaster. Instantly he had leveled his weapon at a random Met and cut loose, his firepower filling the air.

Their attack did not go unnoticed, however. Quickly a group of Spikeys gathered and launched a counterattack at the invading Navis.

With a very high-pitched squeal, that vaguely sounded like ‘Wild Rush’, a Spikey suddenly shot through the air, intending to head butt Zero. The swordsman saw the move coming in plenty of time, and leapt forward to delete his opponent. Zero’s sword shot through the virus, impaling it.

Nearby, MegaMan had found himself surrounded by a group of Candles. The creatures had circled him in a ring formation and were preparing to incinerate him.

The Bomber studied his situation, trying to figure a way out of this mess.

“Hang on!” Lan whipped a couple of chips out of his folder and shoved it into his PET. “Barrier, Aqua Sword, Battle Chips in! Download!”

MegaMan dropped to a crouch as the Barrier chip took effect, creating a field of energy around him. His move was just in time as the viruses unleashed their fire attacks on him. However, due to the Barrier, the flames struck the field of energy and fizzled out of existence without harming the Bomber.

Unfortunately, now it was MegaMan’s turn to attack. The blue Navi thrust out his arm as a water tank materialized on his wrist, which grew a blue blade. With a shout, the Bomber slammed his sword into the floor, sending a powerful tidal wave racing across the Network and wiping out the Candles.

Sean glanced out the front windshield and realized that they were drawing close to the intersection. “Hurry, Zero! Variable Sword, Battle Chip in! Download!”

Zero summoned the arrow-shaped sword and ducked his head to avoid a blast of flame from a Spikey. Instantly the swordsman had reared himself up to his full height and had swept his blade through the air, a curved arc of energy erupted from his sword and cleaved through the air- and the virus.

“Almost done!” MegaMan spun around, his Aqua Sword slicing through an Met that had been creeping up on him. Next, the blue Navi slammed his blade into the floor, unleashing a flood of water on an approaching Spikey.

“Their numbers are dwindling.” Zero caught sight of a fireball flying towards him. With a sweep of his sword he cleaved the explosive projectile in two. The two halves of the blast disintegrated, clearing the way for the swordsman to rush in and destroy the virus targeting him. “We‘ll have this finished before long.”

Lan’s eyes slid up to look out the window, they were within two blocks of the intersection- and he really didn’t want to wind up as someone’s hood ornament.

“We‘re running out of time!” The brunette fished three chips out of his folder. “We have to put a stop to this now!”

“I hear you, Lan.” The Bomber deactivated his Aqua Sword and waited for the combo he knew was coming.

“Cannon, Battle Chip in! Hi Cannon, Battle Chip in!” Lan shoved the three Battle Chips into his PET, watching as the device registered the approaching upgrade. “Mega Cannon, Battle Chip In! Program Advance Activated!”

The Bomber snapped his arms out wide, as two blasters appeared on his wrists. Then, MegaMan raised the cannons above his head as the three chips began to fuse into one more powerful weapon. A glow of light built up around the cannons, as they combined into one more powerful red and blue weapon.

Dropping his arms to chest level, MegaMan set his sights on the remaining viruses and fired. A blast of plasma energy exploded out of his cannon and swept through the air, and the hostile programs. An explosion rocked the area as the energy slammed into the viruses and detonated.

“And that takes care of that!” The brunette Net Op smirked in satisfaction as a cloud of digital smoke covered the display of his PET screen.

“No, it didn‘t!” Higsby grabbed the steering wheel and tried to apply the breaks. The car was unresponsive, refusing to slow down or allow the chip nerd to change it’s direction.

“What?” Lan shot a look out the window, they were right on top of the intersection. “There must still be a glitch in the system! MegaMan, see if you can track it down!”

“We‘re out of time!” Sean eye’s widened in horror as the car exploded into the intersection. The gray-haired kid looked out his window and closed his eyes tight.

Lan looked out his window to see a semi bearing down on them. There was no way the huge truck would be able to stop in time, it was all but guaranteed that it would hit them.

Lan closed his eyes and braced himself for the deadly impact.

End Chapter!
_________________

[CrossFusionStarman]

Cliffhangers! Yay! ...sorry. The characters all do seem really like their anime/game counterparts in this.
_________________
EXEHQ. Click now, I demand it.

NT Champions. Click!

SERAS VICTORIA OWNS MY SOUL

[Wackoguy]

Imminent doom! (well not really,but yeah...)

This is just like an actual episode,keep it up!

And Sean actually swiped that Northwind chip,he's gonna be in trouble for that.
_________________
"When it rains,it pours. When it pours,get out of the rain." -quoth me!

Megaman Melee! HUTTAH and HUZZAH!


"I ate your siggy..."

[TheWebbuilder]

Sorry this took so long.

Begin Chapter!

And then a miracle happened- or at least an event which resembled one. A burst of speed exploded through Higsby’s jalopy, allowing them to just barely squeak past the semi and fly through the intersection unharmed.

“Whew…” Lan breathed a quick sigh of relief, before sobering. They were still trapped in an out-of-control vehicle that was sure to crash sooner or later- the only question was when. “MegaMan, have you found the glitch yet?”

“Yeah.” The Bomber’s voice came out as a rough grunt. “Or rather, he found us.”

The brunette and his companion looked into their PET’s, to see MegaMan and Zero ducking past a ball of flame.

And then Lan spotted the other Net Navi in the Network. The rogue Navi was black and red, and more or less skeletal. It’s body was nothing but a red ball with spindly back arms and legs shooting out of it’s body, round disks were set every so far apart on its limbs. And the Navi slumped forward, it’s posture vaguely resembling that of an ape.

“He claims to be FlameMan.” The Blue Bomber filled his op in, “And that he‘s the one behind this mayhem.”

“Then we‘ll just have to douse this fire.” The brunette glanced at Sean, who nodded in support. “Here we go. Aqua Sword, Battle Chip in! Download!”

“Aqua Blade,” Sean whipped the proper chip out of his folder and spun it around on his finger before inserting it into his terminal. “Battle Chip in, Download!”

MegaMan clenched his fist as his forearm transformed into a water tank with a glowing blue blade projecting from the tank. Zero mimicked the motion, but his weapon was a standard hilt with a swept blue blade.

The Bomber and Swordsman leapt in separate directions, dividing the number of targets that their opponent would have to aim for.

“I‘ll fry you!” FlameMan dropped his jaw, as a spark of flame appeared in the back of his throat. A split second later, a blast of flame had exploded from his mouth and was shooting through the air towards Zero. “Flame Breath!”

The red Navi hit the ground and looked up to see the swirling mass of flame barreling towards him. There wasn’t time to avoid the attack, Zero braced himself for impact.

“Burn!” The fiery Navi screeched.

"Water Line!" Sean sprang into action. "Download!"

Instantly, a wall of water exploded out of the ground in front of Zero. Shielded by the Water Line chip, the swordsman was able to escape unharmed.

The Flame Breath slammed into the wall of water, both water and fire exploded into a cloud of steam that blanketed the area.

FlameMan glanced about warily, trying to discern where his opponents were.

On his left, the mist parted. Zero exploded from the cloud of water vapor, his sword slicing at his opponent.

A gasp slipped from the swordsman’s lips as his blade crashed against FlameMan’s arm- and stopped without even scratching his opponent.

“This is impossible.” The red Navi blinked in veiled surprise.

“I can redefine ‘impossible‘.” The fire Navi growled as he snapped his arm around, sending Zero flying backward through the air.

“All right, let‘s smother this candle.” Lan jammed a chip into his PET. “Time Bomb, Battle Chip in! Download!”

The Bomber held out his right hand as the cylindrical explosive appeared in his palm. Snapping his arm around in a tight arc, MegaMan hurled the bomb through the air at the renegade.

The fiery Navi didn’t even flinch, hastily he parted his jaws and dispelled a fireball. His attack shot through the air and collided with the Time Bomb, destroying it with ease.

MegaMan’s eyes widened in horror as the fireball burst through the explosion and continued on its course towards him. There wasn’t time to dodge, the Navi didn’t have a choice but to throw his arms over his head and brace himself for impact.

The fireball rammed into him, hurling the Bomber backward through the air for a few seconds before dropping him to the floor.

“Hurry, Zero!” Sean glanced out the window to the next rapidly approaching intersection. “Wide Sword, Battle Chip in! Download”

The swordsman clenched his wrist as the aforementioned blade appeared around his wrist. Launching himself through the air, Zero flew at his opponent and prepared to strike.

“BURN!” FlameMan turned to counter his opponent’s attack. With another blast of flame, the fire Navi blew Zero backward.

“Uh,” MegaMan forced himself to his feet- that fireball packed a punch. “Lan, this isn‘t working. We can‘t even get close to FlameMan… working separately…”

The brunette glanced at Sean, who looked his partner and nodded slightly.

“Then we‘ll have to work together.” The gray-haired kid agreed as he looked into his PET. “Zero, cooperate with MegaMan.”

“As you wish, Sean.” The Swordsman nodded with barely detectable hint of reluctance.

“All right then, let‘s take him down!” Lan snapped another chip into his terminal. “Ice Ball, Battle Chip in!”

Instantly a spherical blue ball appeared in MegaMan’s free hand. With a snap of his wrist the blue Navi sent the projectile spinning through the air at his opponent.

FlameMan hauled himself back onto his two back legs and hauled his fist backward in preparation to strike. When the Ice Ball came in range, the fire Navi sent his arm ramming into the projectile, which immediately detonated on contact, covering the Navi’s arm with a thick sheet of ice.

The fire Navi growled in annoyance and shook his hand fiercely in an effort to free it.

“Now!” Sean slammed another chip into his terminal. “Samurai Sword, Battle Chip in!”

Zero’s right arm snapped back as the lethal blade formed about his wrist. The swordsman exploded into the air, leaping through space towards his immobilized opponent.

Unfortunately, the red Navi picked that exact moment to unleash a blast of flame on his frozen body. The fire instantly melted away the ice, freeing FlameMan to turn and counter his opponent’s attack.

FlameMan snapped his head up and sent a breath of fire racing up at Zero.

“Watch out!” Sean screamed in warning.

“Gotcha covered. Area Steal, Cold Body, Battle Chips in!” Lan inserted the cartridge. “Download!”

Zero glanced over his shoulder to see MegaMan materializing behind his back.

“Hope you don‘t mind the assist.” The Bomber tensed his body for a moment then snapped his limbs out spread-eagle as he activated the Cold Body. A blast of icy wind exploded from the Navi’s body and swept around Zero to demolish the fireball targeting the red Navi.

“At the moment, I am willing to accept your assistance.” Zero turned and resumed his downward lunge at his opponent. The Navi’s arm struck out, gunning for the hostile Net Navi.

The deadly blade cut through the air, and FlameMan’s right arm.

FlameMan hauled onto his back legs and roared in pain as he gripped his wounded arm. Just as Zero had hoped, the fiery Navi had forgotten all about defending himself from their attacks and was focusing intently on nursing his wounds.

“MegaMan, now!”

“We‘ll take it from here!” Lan inserted two new battle Chips into his PET. “Aqua Soul Battle Chip in! Bubble Shot, Battle Chip in!”

As soon as the Chip data was registered in the Personal Terminal, MegaMan’s armor transformed into it’s Aqua Soul state. Clear water tanks appeared around his forearms and forelegs, with pads projecting out of the said tanks to cover his knees and elbows. His helmet also transformed into a domed water tank.

Quickly the Bomber raised his right arm to bear at his opponent, as a gray and purple water cannon locked into place about his wrist.

Lan looked out the front window. They were coming to another intersection, and since the lights were already switching to yellow, there was no possible way they’d survive this crossing.

“Time to end this.” MegaMan looked down his cannon’s barrel as he steadied his aim. With a cry of ’Bubble Shot!’ he fired. A bubble of water exploded out of his cannon and sped through the air towards his opponent.

His shot hit home. The bubble rammed into FlameMan and exploded into a mass of watery liquid that washed over his opponent. The fiery Navi howled in fury and pain as he took the brunt of the attack.

Sean glanced out the window, they were closing in way too fast on this intersection for his liking.

“We don‘t have time for this!” The brunette slammed another chip into his terminal. “Bubble Side, Battle Chip in! Download!”

Instantly MegaMan’s tapered cannon was replaced with a round Buster-like weapon. Without delay, the Bomber snapped his weapon up and fired. “Bubble Side!”

Another bubble sped out of the Blue Navi’s cannon and sped through the air before erupting into four streams of water that shot through the air and crashed into FlameMan.

“I won’t… lose!” FlameMan screamed in pained fury. “I‘ll tear you limb from limb!”

“And I‘ve had enough of this.”

FlameMan screamed in agony one last time, and then exploded into pixels of data as he was forced to log out of the Network.

MegaMan, his Aqua Soul armor dissolving, blinked as he spotted Zero deactivating his green blade. Apparently the swordsman had circled around behind the fire Navi and cleaved him in two while the renegade’s focus was on MegaMan.

“You‘re all clear Lan!” MegaMan shouted back to his Net Op.

“Higsby, you’re back in control! Stop!”

Sean glanced out the front window… the intersection was within two blocks. They were going into this on a wing and a prayer.

A squeal filled the air as Higsby slammed his foot down on the brake pedal- causing the tires to scream in protest as the brakes locked.

“We‘ll never make it!” Sean flattened himself against his seat, there was no way they’d be able to stop in time at this speed.

“Here we go again!” Lan snapped his eyes shut and braced himself for the unavoidable crash.

End Chapter!

I promise, I'll end this next chappie!
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[TheWebbuilder]

If I ever get through all these plot points had have it make sense, it'll be a miracle. XD

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“Higsby, don’t take this personally.” Lan grumbled as he rubbed his sore shoulder, “But I don‘t think I‘ll ever ride with you again.”

“I agree with Lan.” Sean muttered. “No meal is worth what we just went through… Except for maybe Mrs. Hikari‘s spaghetti.”

As near as they could figure out, Higsby had slammed on the brakes as soon as FlameMan had been defeated. Miraculously the cars on the intersecting street had been spaced out just right for them to slip through the red light without causing a wreck and then fishtail to a stop. As a result, they were bruised, battered, weary, but alive; and that was much better than the alternative.

Lan breathed another sigh of relief, he felt like he had exhausted a year’s supply of luck in this little adventure.

And then he remembered- Maylu, she’d been thrown from the car when all this chaos had started. He had to get back there and make sure that she was wasn’t hurt… or even worse…

“Higsby!” The brunette threw his door open and tumbled out of his seat and onto the pavement. “I’m going back for Maylu, stay here until the Police arrive.”

“Err, right….” Higsby nodded uncertainly.

Not wasting another second, Lan leapt into the air and snatched his roller-blade accessories off of his backpack. Snapping his arms down, he clipped the blades onto his shoes and hit the ground skating. “See ya in a few!”

“Whoa.” The gray-haired kid’s eyes went wide. “I‘ve got to learn how to do that!”

The brunette Net battler took off at a fast clip, sailing over the ground and leaving Sean behind.

It was hard for Lan to believe that they had covered so much ground in such a short time. Their little adventure had taken them much farther into Den Tech than he’d realized, and it was making the trip back up to Maylu feel like it was taking forever.

But the brunette kept racing on, sooner or later he’d get back to her. He just had to keep going.

Minutes stretched on, turning into a half-hour.

Finally, the brunette spotted the alleyway next to Higsby’s shop, where this entire mess had originated. As he whizzed around the corner, Lan went into a small hop to remove his roller-blades. The Net Saver’s feet hit the ground, as his eyes spotted Maylu.

The redhead was still lying on the ground and although he couldn’t be sure, Lan didn’t think that she had moved in his absence.

The back of Lan’s mind noted Maylu’s PET laying on the ground a short distance away- the screen was blank, indicating that it had been damaged in the fall. And explaining why Roll hadn’t called an ambulance.

“MegaMan, call an-” The Net Op’s request died in his throat, as his ears detected a slight moan coming from his friend. Forgetting about getting any trained help, the brunette rushed over to the unconscious Maylu and knelt down beside her.

“Maylu?”

“Lan…” The word came haltingly from the redhead’s lips, as her eyes started to flick open. “What happened?”

“In short, the car went haywire and you were on the wrong side of the situation.” The brunette replied, “But that‘s not important, we need to get you to a doctor or something and-”

“I‘m fine.” Maylu brushed off the suggestion and began getting to her feet. “I‘m just a little woozy, but that‘s nothing to be worried about.”

“I‘m not worried about the wooziness, I’m worried about the fact that you hit your head like you did.”

“I‘ll be fine.” The girl stated with determination. “And I had the strangest dream while I was out of it. I went blind and Roll mastered the Double Soul ability. It was strange…”

“That does… sound like one crazy dream.” More than a little bewildered, Lan tried to figure out where this conversation was going and why.

At that moment, Maylu spotted her lifeless PET lying on the ground. “Oh no! Roll!”

The girl rushed past Lan and scooped up the pink Terminal. Maylu desperately tried to get the device restarted, knowing that a damaged PET could mean the end of Roll.

“If you’re sure you’re all right, we’d better get that to SciLab.” The brunette commented.

“I‘m all right, it‘s Roll we need to worry about. Let‘s go.”

“MegaMan, get a hold of Zero and let them know where we‘re going.”

“I‘m on it.” The Bomber locked onto the signal coming from their friend’s PET and hastily dispatched a message to the gray-haired kid and his Net Op.

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“Going somewhere, Sean?”

For a fleeting second, Sean wished that he hadn’t left Higsby and struck out on his own.

The gray-haired kid shuddered as he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder, forcing him to pause in mid-step. Slowly the hands on his back forced him to turn around to face his captor.

To no surprise, Sean found himself staring up into Gregory’s not-so-handsome face.

“We got into a lot of trouble because of you.” The stocky teen seethed. “So now I‘m going to take you back to Scratch to get him off of my back, and you in a position to where you can‘t tell your precious hero a thing about us.”

“I haven‘t told Lan or Chaud a thing!” Sean snapped back, not bothering to hide his annoyance at being manhandled like he was. “They don‘t know anything about the house or Scratch or you. And you know what? I‘m actually happy living with him, so leave me alone!”

“Sure, you can say that and appear to mean it.” Gregory tightened his grip on his captive. “But deep down, we both know that Lan‘s just using you to learn about us. Once you open up to him, he‘ll turn around and dump you back into that foster home… and we both know what that‘s like-”

“Don’t go there!”

“Face it, Sean. You don‘t have a choice. You‘ve got to come back with me.”

“I don‘t have to do anything you want me to!” The boy glared at the teen. A small plan was forming in his mind, he just needed the right opportunity to put it into action. “Scratch said that I could stay and leave as I wanted. So I‘m leaving!”

“That was before you became a threat to us.” The stocky teen made his grip even tighter, causing Sean to wince in discomfort. “Things are different now.”

“They sure are!” Tired of this pointlessness, Sean snapped his foot back and then let it fly forward- straight into his captor’s shin.

As expected, Gregory yelped and released his hold on his captive in pained surprise.

Released from the teen’s hold, Sean slipped away and dashed off as fast as he could down the street. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed the suspicion that Gregory was giving chase, the guy wouldn’t give up at the first obstacle.

Sean bit his lip in thought as he desperately tried to pump more speed out of his short legs. If he could just get to the Hikari’s house, then he’s be safe. Surely Gregory wouldn’t draw that much attention to himself by tried to force his way inside a house in broad daylight.

Would he?

He’d have to worry about that later, right now all he could do was try.

The gray-haired kid rushed onward, his footsteps rising and falling at a fast tempo. His assailant was just a short distance behind him, and it would take everything Sean had to lose his pursuer.

Skidding around a tight corner, Sean changed direction so abruptly that he almost sent himself tumbling over. Regaining his footing, the boy shot up the side street, putting more distance between him and his pursuer.

Gregory was a stocky teen, who prided himself on his stocky build and formidable strength. He’d never been a track star and trying to keep up with the speedy little Sean was proving to be more of a challenge than he’d like it to be.

The boy gathered his bearings, realizing that he was almost to Lan’s house. All he had to do was evade his pursuer for a few more seconds and he’d be safe- he hoped. With Gregory you never knew, he might just break down the door and come charging into the house.

Glancing over his shoulder, Sean realized that the stocky teen had managed to close the gap between them slightly.

Sean sighed slightly as he realized what he had to do- it was risky, but it just might work. He rushed onward for a few more seconds. Then he made his move. Sean’s feet snapped out, bringing his dash to a skidding stop. Instantly Sean was spinning around and rushing back the way he had come- towards Gregory.

The move took the stocky teen completely by surprise, and in his surprise he completely missed his chance to grab his prey.

As Gregory struggled to bring his forward run to a halt, he looked over his shoulder to see Sean flying up another side street. The kid was annoyingly clever, the stocky teen was forced to concede that much.

The boy continued to run. He was close, he just had to reach the end of this street and he’d be safe.

Summoning the last amount of strength he had, Sean put on a burst of speed and flew up the street. He hear the stocky teen’s footsteps behind him, and his back tingled as if expecting his pursuers hands to latch onto him at any moment.

They never did.

The boy ran up the steps to the Hikari’s house and leapt up the steps to the door. A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed that Gregory was barreling up the sidewalk. As fast as he could, Sean pushed the door open and slipped inside. Quickly he spun around, his foot struck out to kick into the door, forcing it closed. Sean turned the lock… bringing him to safety.

A thud broke through the room. Sean’s eyes widened as he realized that Gregory was pounding on the door in an frustrated effort to get inside.

Outside, the stocky teen sent his fist slamming into the door one last time for good measure. He longed to break down the door and charge into the house after that brat- but he knew that that would attract too much unwanted attention. Breaking into any house, even if it weren’t the house of a Net Saver, was just plain stupid at this point.

As Gregory turned and stormed down the steps, a familiar figure appeared at the end of the sidewalk. Slim had found him somehow.

“So this is the kid‘s house,” Slim studied the neighborhood and nodded his approval. “Nice place.”

“I don‘t want to hear it.” Gregory snapped at his companion.

“I wouldn‘t be too upset.” The thin teen replied, “Now that we‘ve found out where the kid‘s staying at, we can make him want to come to us instead of forcing him to come with us.”

“You want to explain that?”

“I‘ll explain later,” Slim glanced up and down the street. “Right now, we need to get a move on. And we found our other target, when she‘s not expecting anything, we‘ll strike and put the plan in motion.”

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Sean held his breath as he risked a peak out the window. From his vantage-point the could see Slim and Gregory heading off down the street, he was safe- for the moment.

As soon as he realized that, a flood of fear and anger broke free and coursed through Sean’s body. He hadn’t had time to actually feel his fear during the chase, and now that he was safe, it was running rampant through his mind.

His limbs quivered as the boy realized just how close he had come to capture. He’d never known anything put a miserable life before the Hikari’s had taken him in, and the last thing that he wanted was to go back to that miserable existence.

But was Gregory right? Was Lan just using him to find out about Scratch? The brunette had just taken off and left him there in the car with Higsby. Maybe he really didn’t care as much as Lan said he did.

“Lan? Sean?” Haruka’s voice preceded her arrival. “Is that you?”

Sean tried to answer, but his voice came out as nothing more than a choked sob.

Mrs. Hikari walked into the room, and stopped short as she spotted the boy. Sean was wreck, he was bruised, maybe hurt, and on the verge of tears.

“Shawn… what happened?” Haruka took another step towards the boy, all of her motherly instincts were kicking in.

“I- he-” The boy’s words refused to come out, as he struggled to gain control of himself.

“It‘s all right, I‘m here.” The woman stepped forward, and knelt down before the boy. “I‘m here for you.”

Haruka blinked in surprise as Sean wrapped his arms around her waist, and then the boy dissolved into frightened tiny child who couldn‘t contain his tears

End Chapter!
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[Anime Master ZERO]

I really liked this chapter, especially Sean's emotional scene.

BTW, you misspelled Sean's name near the end.

[Blue Bommer]

Great story, this reminds me of Oliver Twist! Great job Webbuilder, But, the Shawn, Haruka isn't one to forget these things.
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[TheWebbuilder]

Whoops, that's what I get for working on multiple fics at once.

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“Thanks for your help, Mr. Famous.” Lan scooped up Maylu’s repaired PET and tossed it over to the redhead.

“It‘s just Famous!” The adult brunette shook his head in exasperation. “And I was glad to help.”

“Lan!” MegaMan shouted from his PET, drawing everyone’s attention. “You‘ve got a message!”

The Net Saver unclipped his PET and raised it to look at the screen. “What is it, MegaMan?”

“It‘s from your Mom. Sean showed up at your house, he‘s had a run in with those other two guys that he was with before. And now he‘s safe, at your house, but on the verge of a nervous breakdown. You need to get home, now.”

“Right.” Lan checked with Maylu and received a nod of approval. “I‘m on my way, tell Mom I‘ll be there in about fifteen minutes.”

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“I just can‘t help but worry about him,” Missy slipped back into the closest thing she’d ever had to a home. “He‘s been gone for so long and we have no idea where he is.”

“There‘s nothing you can do,” Red, Missy’s Navi, answered from her PET. “All we can do is sit tight and wait on Gregory or Slim to find him and bring him back.”

“But you know now much Sean distrusts them, he‘d never go with them willingly. In fact, I think that they‘re the ones driving him away.”

“I wouldn‘t be at all surprised,” Red shrugged. “but like I keep telling you there is nothing you can do.”

“I can‘t believe that.” The red-head paused and buried her hands in her pockets as she stared down at the ground. “I don‘t know why I care so much for him… I can‘t abandon him to whatever random chance may throw his way. I just can‘t do it.”

An unexpected voice entered the conversation. “You don‘t have to.”

Instinctively, Missy’s spine tingled and she drew herself to her small height. Looking up, she found Gregory and four other ‘tough’ teens looming over her.

“You weren‘t included in this conversation.” The red-haired girl glared at the unwelcome newcomers. “So scram.”

“You wanted to help Sean; well, here‘s your chance.” Gregory clenched his meaty hand. “We need you to send a message to Sean, one he won‘t quickly dismiss.”

Missy instinctively took several steps back as the stocky teen and his band of thugs closed in on her.

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Higsby groaned as he tumbled out of the taxi and stumbled onto the sidewalk. This entire day had been nothing but one nightmare after another.

And after his ‘accident’ today, the chip nerd had a sudden, almost inexplicable hatred of insurance companies and their little ‘Net Terrorism’ clauses.

But that wasn’t the highest thing on his priority list right now. The next thing that he wanted to do was to get indoors; soak in a long, hot bath; and get some sleep. Sleep, that’s what he needed, a nice long snooze.

A snooze that he wasn’t about to get anytime soon.

As the brunette adult mounted the steps to his apartment, he reflexively reached into his pocket for his key- and realized that he didn’t have it. Higsby grumbled over his Shuko-like bad luck under his breath, annoyed as he realized that he must have lost his keys in the near-crash.

Which, of course, meant that he wasn’t about to get into his apartment anytime soon.

At least, that was what he had thought- until he remembered NumberMan. Jacking his Navi into the Network, the chip nerd instructed his Navi to open the locks and give him access to the house.

No sooner had NumberMan tried to override the computer than he found himself surrounded by a flood of standard Net Police Navis.

One of the NP Navi’s stepped forward, identified himself as the commanding officer and placed the calculating Navi under arrest.

NumberMan’s blubbered attempts to explain went unheeded.

Outside in the real world, Higsby found himself surrounded by Net Savers as well.

It turned out that someone had been robbing houses in the area, and an anonymous tipster had reported someone trying to break into a house on this block…

All of which added up to one major disaster, Higsby was being mistaken for that burglar, and there wasn’t anything he could say to change that.

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[TheWebbuilder]

For some really strange reason, I can't post the entire chapter in one message. So please forgive the double-post. -_-;

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Sean closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to block out the images flooding his brain. Every mistake, every goof he had ever made came back to haunt him over the next several moments as he relived his disastrous life. He was a nervous type of person, and cursed with a memory that refused to leave him in piece. He was a doubter, a person who could relieve the events and conversations of days, months, and years ago- wondering if maybe he had said something different, or taken a different course of action, maybe things would have turned out better. Maybe if he had tried harder, he wouldn’t have had to leave the home, or fall prey to those rotten abusers… or get hooked up with Scratch… and then the ultimate thought that plagued him, maybe he could have saved his parents.

“You O.K., Sean?” Lan exploded into his house and immediately found Sean and his Mother sitting on the living room couch.

The gray-haired boy shook his head silently and curled his legs up against his chest and then wrapped his arms around his legs.

Haruka glanced at Lan. Despite her best efforts, Haruka could easily see that Sean wasn’t allowing himself to be comforted by anyone, including himself.

Lan, realizing that he’d have to proceed with caution, slowly walked over and sat himself down next to the mute boy.

The two just sat there for several seconds, neither one speaking.

Finally, Lan broke the silence.

“Rough day?” It was a lousy phrase, but the best he could come up with.

Amazingly enough, it broke through Sean’s defenses and sparked a response.

“Yeah.”

“You know…” Slightly encouraged by those words, Lan decided to proceed with whatever popped into his mind. “Sometimes when I have a bad day, it helps to talk about it.”

“I can‘t talk. I can‘t say anything.” Sean kept eyeballing the carpet. “I can‘t.”

“O.K…” The brunette Net battler shrugged and decided on a better course of action. Reaching into his folder, Lan retrieved a Battle Chip and held it out to Sean. “While I was out, I picked this up for you… I thought it might come in handy.”

The gray-haired kid slowly removed his right hand from his knees and accepted the chip. His eyes exploded open in disbelief. “Dream Aura… Level 5? But… I can‘t…”

“Yes, you can,” Lan corrected his companion. “because it‘s not the chip that‘s important- it‘s the connection between us. I‘m your friend, I‘ll always be there for you, and this chip is just a little reminder of that.”

“But, I don‘t have anything to give you.” For a brief moment, Sean wished that he had actually gone through with his earlier intent and swiped that North Wind Chip. He still wasn’t sure just why he had refrained from strealing the cartridge, but he had.

“It doesn‘t matter,” Lan replied, keeping his tone light, “I‘ll always stand by you. No matter what.”

Even as he stared at the chip in disbelief, Sean couldn’t keep himself from thinking… “If only you knew.”

“And if you‘re ever in trouble,” Lan mentally held his breath as he spoke his next sentence. “you can come to me and I‘ll stay with you until we get it worked out.”

“You really mean that?”

“I do.” Lan nodded back, “That‘s what friend‘s do. We stick by one another.”

Silence descended upon the two, as they sat there for several more seconds. Neither one was quite sure just where to take the conversation from this point.

Sensing that there was nothing more to be gained, Haruka broke into the conversation. “Now that that‘s settled, why don‘t you two come in and get some supper?”

Sean’s eyes lit up at the word ‘supper’. Forgetting about his troubles, Sean scrambled off of the couch and headed for the kitchen table.

“I still can‘t believe it.” Lan shook his head in disbelief. “He‘s got the biggest appetite I‘ve ever seen.”

“Second only to your own.” MegaMan quipped.

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“See ya, tomorrow, Sean.” Lan propped his arms behind his head and closed his eyes in preparation for the welcome sleep to come.

“’Night, Lan.” The gray-haired boy glanced over at his friend who was sprawled out on the floor.

At the brunette’s insistence, Lan had camped out on the floor in a palette of blankets and pillows while Sean took the bed.

Sean stared up at the ceiling, his mind a jumble of memories and thoughts. The doubts just wouldn’t leave him alone… and he desperately wanted to drop off to sleep so that the memories would leave him alone.

The gray-haired kid didn’t know how much time had passed, he just knew that he definitely hadn’t slept. For all Sean knew, it could be midnight…

And the time of night might have explained why he was the only one that heard the almost silent sounds that were barely hanging in the air.

Sean blinked, not quite sure what he was hearing.

Then it registered- they were sounds he had known for most of his life. The almost silent moan and groans of a person in pain.

The gray-haired kid’s eyes flew completely open as he recognized that voice. Frantically scrambling out of the blankets, Sean bolted off of the bed, his foot accidentally sliding on the floor and striking Lan’s shoulder.

Miraculously, the brunette snapped awake from the blow, and sat up to see his friend exploding out the door and down the hallway.

Wondering what was going on at this time of night, Lan groggily forced himself to his feet to follow the boy.

Sean raced down the stairs and scrambled around the corner. The closer he got to the sounds, the more his hopes faded that he wouldn’t find…

“Sean?” Lan’s voice drifted down the stairs. “What‘s up?”

The gray-haired boy didn’t answer- he was too focused on the task at hand. He reached the front door and clicked the locks open.

The door flew open…

End Chapter!
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