Bonds-Chapter 8: The End of a Long Road *COMPLETE*

[Sol]

Yes, some of you may have seen this up before, but I'm posting it here. >_>

Bonds

“Where am I…?”

Netto looked around the area, confused. There was absolutely nothing…literally! He was floating in an area of space, not moving out of confusion. All he saw was white; above, below, and everywhere within his sight. He frowned; how did he get here?

‘I brought you here.’

Netto head shot up and started to look around frantically. “Who said that!”

The voice chuckled. ‘I did.’

“That doesn’t help much if I can’t see where you are!” Netto growled out.

‘True,’ the voice remarked, ‘but you can’t see me because I’m already around you in the first place.’

Netto held his head in his hands. “You’re not making any sense!” he shouted, exasperated. “Just tell me why you’ve brought me here so I can wake up from this nightmare!”

‘Oh, so you think this is all a dream, don’t you Hikari Netto?' The voice teased, but to Netto it sounded like it was jeering at him. ‘No matter…I am merely curious about the bond between you and your partner.’

“My partner…?” he repeated in a daze. “You mean Rockman! Why are you so curious about him?” he asked nervously. Not many people knew about the bond between him and Saito. But he was willing to bet that this voice knew several things that shouldn’t have been known.

‘Exactly. The bond between you and…what do you humans call them…? Ah yes, your Net Navi has piqued my interest. I have rarely seen a human bond with something that is intangible.’ The voice remarked casually. Netto looked confused for a moment.

“Intangible…? What does that…” He was interrupted by the voice.

‘It means that it isn’t real. Your Net Navi isn’t an intelligent life form, so I naturally assumed it is an object.’ The voice explained condescendingly.

Netto was enraged. “Don’t you dare call Rockman unintelligent! And he isn’t just an object either! He’s my brother!” he yelled, not noticing his slip of the tongue.

‘Your brother?’ The voice sounded surprised. Netto immediately cursed himself for saying something without thinking. ‘It seems that the human race has progressed far more than I expected…perhaps, too much so…’ It remarked, mostly to itself.

“What do you mean?” Netto had heard what the voice said; and it unnerved him to hear that from something he couldn’t see. Was this thing good or evil? And why was he talking to it in the first place?

‘Hmm…this has given me a great idea…’ The voice said a bit maliciously. Netto stiffened upon hearing that.

“What are you planning? This better not involve the destruction of the Net Society!” he growled out. Saving the world several times has given him an instinct about stuff people said. That instinct of his was screaming at him to not trust the voice. He frowned; his so-called instinct only deepened his distrust of the voice.

‘Oh no, it doesn’t involve that…destroying society right now would lead to unimaginable chaos, and that is something that I tend to avoid.’ the voice answered, amused at the boy’s suspicions. Netto let out a sigh of relief. ‘No, this idea of mine involves you.’ He immediately stiffened again.

“Me? What would you want with me?” he questioned again, getting nervous. Sure, he made plenty of enemies out there; but what would an invisible being, one that he had never even met before or done nothing to, want with him?

‘I wonder…’ the voice started. ‘You and your Net Navi are the only ones that share a special bond. Yet…’ the voice trailed off, as if it were unsure, before resuming. ‘I want to see if you can bond with another net navi; one that is…how should I put this…different than your brother. I want to see what makes you so special.’

“What makes me so special?” Netto repeated, nervously looking around the white expanse. “It’s because Rockman and I have gone through everything together, that’s why!”

‘Heh.’ The voice snorted. ‘Is that so? Then its all the more reason for me to see if I am right.’

“And what makes you think that I’ll go along with this?” Netto growled out. This thing was insane if it thought he would be all cooperative!

The voice gave out a shrill laugh that hurt his ears. ‘Silly little one…’ The voice said in a mocking tone, ‘What makes you think I’m giving you a choice in the matter?’

“You coward!” he yelled out, angry. “Show yourself!” There was another shrill laugh, and Netto saw that the white expanse was growing brighter. It was starting to grow so bright that he had to close his eyes. This proved to be a bad idea as he suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to sleep. Rockman…was his last coherent thought before he knew no more.

--

Elsewhere, a certain blue navi was coming out of sleep mode, ready to start another ordinary day...well, as ordinary as it could get for both him and his operator, as the past year and a half had been nothing but chaos. Rockman was counting on today to be at least a normal day. All virus attacks on the net were practically non-existent, and there were no crime syndicates with their insane leaders out there. No, today was going to be a normal day, and Rockman was thankful for it.

But now, he had to overcome his first challenge of the day; waking his operator up.

“Netto-kun, it’s time to get up!” he said softly, knowing his first attempt would be futile. It was a routine that he and his operator would go through every single morning. It usually took him three tries to get Netto up, so his first attempt was always done half-heartedly. As usual, there was no response. Rockman sighed.

“Netto-kun, you have to get up now!” he said again, this time a little louder. Most of the time, it would draw some sort of response from the sleeping boy, letting Rockman know that his attempts to wake him were almost successful. However, there was still no response, which puzzled Rockman. Shrugging, he decided to give it one last try.

“Netto-kun, get up now!” he all but yelled, expecting to hear some sort of crash or a flustered boy waking up. When there was still no response, Rockman finally took a closer look at the bed. He was surprised when Netto wasn’t in it. Rockman was shocked. “Did he actually get up before I did?” Just the thought of that made him shiver. Heck, he was half-expecting the world to end…or have Blues admit that he was inferior to him.

So much for a normal day. he mentally sighed.

Still, Rockman was wary; this was not a normal occurrence. If Netto had gotten up early, then why didn’t he take him with him? Unless he was at the bathroom or something…Rockman shrugged, and decided to wait. However, 10 minutes passed by and Netto was nowhere to be seen. Either he was taking a long time in the bathroom or something happened. It was that moment that Haruka came into the room. “Mama,” he started with a worried expression on his face, “I can’t find Netto anywhere. Is he anywhere else in the house?”

Haruka smiled at him, although Rockman could see a trace of worry etched on her face. “I don’t know, Rockman. You want to go check?” Seeing the blue navi nod, she took the PET from the charger and walked through the house. Unfortunately, the search proved fruitless as they checked all the bedrooms, the bathrooms, and even the closets. Haruka’s smile disappeared as they couldn’t find Netto anywhere inside or outside the house.

“Why don’t you try calling Meiru to see if he’s over there?” Rockman suggested. She nodded and went off to call the Sakurai residence.

Minutes later, she reappeared looking even more worried. “She said Netto wasn’t there, though she sounded surprised that he was up early…Should I try his other friends?” She didn’t have to ask twice as Rockman immediately gave her the numbers for Dekao’s and Yaito’s houses. Unfortunately, they hadn’t seen Netto either. Rockman was worried. He spied Haruka with her face in her hands, in the same state as himself.

“Mama…I think you should phone the police. Netto-kun is obiously missing…” he said softly, as if he didn’t want to believe it either. Haruka shakily nodded and went back to the phone. “What’s going on? Where are you, Netto?” he asked himself as he could do nothing but watch Haruka frantically call the police.

--

Netto awoke with a start, gasping for air. He was sweating profusely, trying to get all the images out of his mind. Calming himself down, he tried to think over what just happened. ‘Was it a dream after all? It sure didn’t feel like one.’ He thought, still shaking from the images. ‘What was up with that voice, though? That laugh was very creepy…’ Sighing, he made a move to get up before he noticed two things.

One, he was lying on the floor, and two, he wasn’t in his room.

Panicking, he jumped up off the floor and looked around. The dull grey color of the walls met his eyes as he quickly surmised that all of the walls were made of stone. He then spied a steel door at the far end of the room. Quickly going over to it, he tried to open it, but to no avail. However, he kept trying out of panic.

“Stupid…door! Open already!” he grunted as he kept tugging. Eventually, he gave up and sat back down on the floor. He then noted that he was already dressed in his usual clothes, which confused him. ‘What’s going on? I could’ve sworn that I was wearing my night-clothes when I went to bed!’ Netto then sighed in frustration. ‘I don’t even have Rockman with me! How much worse can this get?’

However, something lying on the floor piqued his interest. He walked over and picked it up to examine it. To his amazement, it was a PET. Curiously, he looked over it. It was the same as Rockmans; same slot-in port, same screen, same everything! Except for the symbol, it was like Rockman’s pet.

Netto gazed curiously at the symbol, trying to figure out what Navi this was. He had the odd feeling that he saw this symbol somewhere before. It was a black symbol with a purple elongated ‘f’ in it. The symbol also had a white slash through it, like it was a scar or something like that…He couldn’t figure out whose symbol that was-

Wait a minute! His mind screamed. I know that symbol! It’s…it’s…! He looked down at the PET in his now shaking hands.

It was Forte’s.

--

A/N: My first major story in a long time…Really, I need to write more.

Anyway, many thanks go out to Quatre Winner for beta-ing for me. Thanks!

Next chapter may come up in a week, or a few days. I don’t know…

Anyways, constructive criticism needed and appreciated. I'm still evolving as a writer, so any advice is very much appreciated.
_________________


<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Sol]

Yes, some of you may have seen this up before, but I'm posting it here. >_>

Bonds

“Where am I…?”

Netto looked around the area, confused. There was absolutely nothing…literally! He was floating in an area of space, not moving out of confusion. All he saw was white; above, below, and everywhere within his sight. He frowned; how did he get here?

‘I brought you here.’

Netto head shot up and started to look around frantically. “Who said that!”

The voice chuckled. ‘I did.’

“That doesn’t help much if I can’t see where you are!” Netto growled out.

‘True,’ the voice remarked, ‘but you can’t see me because I’m already around you in the first place.’

Netto held his head in his hands. “You’re not making any sense!” he shouted, exasperated. “Just tell me why you’ve brought me here so I can wake up from this nightmare!”

‘Oh, so you think this is all a dream, don’t you Hikari Netto?' The voice teased, but to Netto it sounded like it was jeering at him. ‘No matter…I am merely curious about the bond between you and your partner.’

“My partner…?” he repeated in a daze. “You mean Rockman! Why are you so curious about him?” he asked nervously. Not many people knew about the bond between him and Saito. But he was willing to bet that this voice knew several things that shouldn’t have been known.

‘Exactly. The bond between you and…what do you humans call them…? Ah yes, your Net Navi has piqued my interest. I have rarely seen a human bond with something that is intangible.’ The voice remarked casually. Netto looked confused for a moment.

“Intangible…? What does that…” He was interrupted by the voice.

‘It means that it isn’t real. Your Net Navi isn’t an intelligent life form, so I naturally assumed it is an object.’ The voice explained condescendingly.

Netto was enraged. “Don’t you dare call Rockman unintelligent! And he isn’t just an object either! He’s my brother!” he yelled, not noticing his slip of the tongue.

‘Your brother?’ The voice sounded surprised. Netto immediately cursed himself for saying something without thinking. ‘It seems that the human race has progressed far more than I expected…perhaps, too much so…’ It remarked, mostly to itself.

“What do you mean?” Netto had heard what the voice said; and it unnerved him to hear that from something he couldn’t see. Was this thing good or evil? And why was he talking to it in the first place?

‘Hmm…this has given me a great idea…’ The voice said a bit maliciously. Netto stiffened upon hearing that.

“What are you planning? This better not involve the destruction of the Net Society!” he growled out. Saving the world several times has given him an instinct about stuff people said. That instinct of his was screaming at him to not trust the voice. He frowned; his so-called instinct only deepened his distrust of the voice.

‘Oh no, it doesn’t involve that…destroying society right now would lead to unimaginable chaos, and that is something that I tend to avoid.’ the voice answered, amused at the boy’s suspicions. Netto let out a sigh of relief. ‘No, this idea of mine involves you.’ He immediately stiffened again.

“Me? What would you want with me?” he questioned again, getting nervous. Sure, he made plenty of enemies out there; but what would an invisible being, one that he had never even met before or done nothing to, want with him?

‘I wonder…’ the voice started. ‘You and your Net Navi are the only ones that share a special bond. Yet…’ the voice trailed off, as if it were unsure, before resuming. ‘I want to see if you can bond with another net navi; one that is…how should I put this…different than your brother. I want to see what makes you so special.’

“What makes me so special?” Netto repeated, nervously looking around the white expanse. “It’s because Rockman and I have gone through everything together, that’s why!”

‘Heh.’ The voice snorted. ‘Is that so? Then its all the more reason for me to see if I am right.’

“And what makes you think that I’ll go along with this?” Netto growled out. This thing was insane if it thought he would be all cooperative!

The voice gave out a shrill laugh that hurt his ears. ‘Silly little one…’ The voice said in a mocking tone, ‘What makes you think I’m giving you a choice in the matter?’

“You coward!” he yelled out, angry. “Show yourself!” There was another shrill laugh, and Netto saw that the white expanse was growing brighter. It was starting to grow so bright that he had to close his eyes. This proved to be a bad idea as he suddenly felt an overwhelming desire to sleep. Rockman…was his last coherent thought before he knew no more.

--

Elsewhere, a certain blue navi was coming out of sleep mode, ready to start another ordinary day...well, as ordinary as it could get for both him and his operator, as the past year and a half had been nothing but chaos. Rockman was counting on today to be at least a normal day. All virus attacks on the net were practically non-existent, and there were no crime syndicates with their insane leaders out there. No, today was going to be a normal day, and Rockman was thankful for it.

But now, he had to overcome his first challenge of the day; waking his operator up.

“Netto-kun, it’s time to get up!” he said softly, knowing his first attempt would be futile. It was a routine that he and his operator would go through every single morning. It usually took him three tries to get Netto up, so his first attempt was always done half-heartedly. As usual, there was no response. Rockman sighed.

“Netto-kun, you have to get up now!” he said again, this time a little louder. Most of the time, it would draw some sort of response from the sleeping boy, letting Rockman know that his attempts to wake him were almost successful. However, there was still no response, which puzzled Rockman. Shrugging, he decided to give it one last try.

“Netto-kun, get up now!” he all but yelled, expecting to hear some sort of crash or a flustered boy waking up. When there was still no response, Rockman finally took a closer look at the bed. He was surprised when Netto wasn’t in it. Rockman was shocked. “Did he actually get up before I did?” Just the thought of that made him shiver. Heck, he was half-expecting the world to end…or have Blues admit that he was inferior to him.

So much for a normal day. he mentally sighed.

Still, Rockman was wary; this was not a normal occurrence. If Netto had gotten up early, then why didn’t he take him with him? Unless he was at the bathroom or something…Rockman shrugged, and decided to wait. However, 10 minutes passed by and Netto was nowhere to be seen. Either he was taking a long time in the bathroom or something happened. It was that moment that Haruka came into the room. “Mama,” he started with a worried expression on his face, “I can’t find Netto anywhere. Is he anywhere else in the house?”

Haruka smiled at him, although Rockman could see a trace of worry etched on her face. “I don’t know, Rockman. You want to go check?” Seeing the blue navi nod, she took the PET from the charger and walked through the house. Unfortunately, the search proved fruitless as they checked all the bedrooms, the bathrooms, and even the closets. Haruka’s smile disappeared as they couldn’t find Netto anywhere inside or outside the house.

“Why don’t you try calling Meiru to see if he’s over there?” Rockman suggested. She nodded and went off to call the Sakurai residence.

Minutes later, she reappeared looking even more worried. “She said Netto wasn’t there, though she sounded surprised that he was up early…Should I try his other friends?” She didn’t have to ask twice as Rockman immediately gave her the numbers for Dekao’s and Yaito’s houses. Unfortunately, they hadn’t seen Netto either. Rockman was worried. He spied Haruka with her face in her hands, in the same state as himself.

“Mama…I think you should phone the police. Netto-kun is obiously missing…” he said softly, as if he didn’t want to believe it either. Haruka shakily nodded and went back to the phone. “What’s going on? Where are you, Netto?” he asked himself as he could do nothing but watch Haruka frantically call the police.

--

Netto awoke with a start, gasping for air. He was sweating profusely, trying to get all the images out of his mind. Calming himself down, he tried to think over what just happened. ‘Was it a dream after all? It sure didn’t feel like one.’ He thought, still shaking from the images. ‘What was up with that voice, though? That laugh was very creepy…’ Sighing, he made a move to get up before he noticed two things.

One, he was lying on the floor, and two, he wasn’t in his room.

Panicking, he jumped up off the floor and looked around. The dull grey color of the walls met his eyes as he quickly surmised that all of the walls were made of stone. He then spied a steel door at the far end of the room. Quickly going over to it, he tried to open it, but to no avail. However, he kept trying out of panic.

“Stupid…door! Open already!” he grunted as he kept tugging. Eventually, he gave up and sat back down on the floor. He then noted that he was already dressed in his usual clothes, which confused him. ‘What’s going on? I could’ve sworn that I was wearing my night-clothes when I went to bed!’ Netto then sighed in frustration. ‘I don’t even have Rockman with me! How much worse can this get?’

However, something lying on the floor piqued his interest. He walked over and picked it up to examine it. To his amazement, it was a PET. Curiously, he looked over it. It was the same as Rockmans; same slot-in port, same screen, same everything! Except for the symbol, it was like Rockman’s pet.

Netto gazed curiously at the symbol, trying to figure out what Navi this was. He had the odd feeling that he saw this symbol somewhere before. It was a black symbol with a purple elongated ‘f’ in it. The symbol also had a white slash through it, like it was a scar or something like that…He couldn’t figure out whose symbol that was-

Wait a minute! His mind screamed. I know that symbol! It’s…it’s…! He looked down at the PET in his now shaking hands.

It was Forte’s.

--

A/N: My first major story in a long time…Really, I need to write more.

Anyway, many thanks go out to Quatre Winner for beta-ing for me. Thanks!

Next chapter may come up in a week, or a few days. I don’t know…

Anyways, constructive criticism needed and appreciated. I'm still evolving as a writer, so any advice is very much appreciated.
_________________


<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Sol]

Chapter 2-Unlikely Duo

Netto didn’t know what to do. In his hands was the PET of someone he would rather not want to see again. He wondered why Forte’s PET was there with him at all, since Forte was an independent Navi…

That’s right. He thought. Why does Forte have a PET? After all, he hates humans…This isn’t making any sense at all!

Sighing in frustration, Netto got back up from his position on the floor and decided to try and find a way out. He decided to kick and punch at random places on the wall to see if there were any weak spots or hidden switches. He had no such luck, however, as the walls were too solid for him to break through.

Netto looked back at the door. He decided to observe it again to see if there was anything he missed in his panic to get out of the room. Walking over, his eyes scanned the rusty exterior of it before he spotted something.

“An electronic lock!” he exclaimed. “Alright! I can get out of here if I can plug in Rockman and…” he immediately cut off as he remembered his current predicament. Netto’s face paled.

He didn’t have Rockman. Checking his form over once more, he found that he didn’t even have his battlechips with him either. No, the only thing he had on him was Forte’s PET, and he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to turn it on. On one hand, he would be able to escape the room and find out where the heck he was. On the other hand, however, Forte wouldn’t be so cooperative with him.

He again looked at the lock. He wanted to make sure it was working before he made a decision. If it was off and the door was just stuck, he would be able to open the door by himself eventually. However, if it was on…Netto leaned in to look at it.

“It’s working…” he muttered. “Damn.” That only left one choice.

Stepping away from the door, Netto looked back down at the black PET. What would happen once he turned it on? He then quickly reminded himself that if he didn’t turn it on, then he would be stuck in the room until god knows when. Steeling himself, he brought his hand over the ON switch.

However, before he turned it on, he hesitated once again as his hands hovered over the switch. How was he going to deal with Forte? The navi absolutely despised humans, and he was quite sure that he wouldn’t listen to him at all. He wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to put up with him for a while.

Well, I’ve taken huge risks before this, so what’s another one? Netto thought as he made his decision.

He turned the PET on.

--

Rockman didn’t know what to do. Haruka was in the living room sobbing uncontrollably and the Police were doing nothing! He sighed as he buried his face in his hands. For once in his life he felt useless; Netto was in trouble and he couldn’t do a thing! What could he do?

Over the course of the last hour, he received no less then thirty e-mails from concerned friends. However, the most frantic one came from Meiru herself; she was apparently freaking out over Netto’s disappearance. Rockman couldn’t blame her, as most of everyone in Akihara was troubled about this too. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear the door open and slam close.

“Haruka! I came as fast I could…” Rockman looked up as he saw the visage of his father, Yuuichirou. Haruka immediately ran over to him and hugged him as she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Oh honey, I don’t know what happened! Last night, Netto was here, but now…!” she choked out, gasping for the words to explain the situation. “He wasn’t here this morning…Rockman was there, and he didn’t see Netto at all…”

“Shh…Dear, it’ll be alright. We’ll find him.” Yuuichirou said in a soothing voice, trying to calm her down. It seemed to work, as Haruka’s sobbing subsided. He looked up at the PET on the kitchen counter as he stroked her hair. “Rockman, I need to talk to you later. I need to know what fully happened.

The blue navi was about to point out that he didn’t know any more than Haruka did, but he was silenced by the pleading stare that his father gave him. “Yes, papa.” he answered reluctantly. Talking about it just made him more depressed.

Netto-kun…Wherever you are, I hope you are safe.

--

Netto was holding his breath as the PET started up. Everything now counted on Forte’s cooperation with him, which he wasn’t sure on. He was still thinking on how to talk to him when the PET was finished loading up. Anxiously, he looked downward at the screen.

Sure enough, there was the cloaked navi on the screen. However, he noticed that the navi wasn’t moving at all…Taking a closer look, he saw that the navi was unconscious. Netto released the breath he had been holding, somewhat relieved. Now he had time to think of a way to appeal to the navi.

He first thought of threatening to break his PET. It would scare Forte into working with him, mainly because the black navi was vulnerable and wouldn't like it. However, he quickly squelched that idea. That would only fuel Forte's hatred of humans and it would make it harder to deal with him. Besides, Netto didn't think that he had the guts to do it.

The second one was to tell him of the situation and hope that he would help. It was a long shot, but it seemed to be the more appealing of the two options available to him. However, Netto didn't dare get his hopes up, seeing as how it all depended on the navi's reaction.

Netto sat down, trying to think of more ideas. Unfortunately, all of them lead back to the main two he had come up with. He resolved that if the second idea didn't work, he would have to resort to the first one. That was something he didn't want to do.

However, he had no more time to think as he heard Forte start to wake up.

"Urgh..." Netto heard the navi moan as he awoke. He subconciously held his breath, waiting for the inevitable.

The cloaked navi finally got up to look at his surroundings. Looking around wildly, he saw that he was trapped inside some sort of area. "Where the HELL am I?!" he roared out, dashing to and fro to find a way out like a caged animal. Netto sighed again; he expected this.

"That's what I would like to know too." he muttered loud enough for the navi to hear him. It had the desired effect as Forte looked up to see his face through the screen.

"YOU!"

--

"Alright Rockman..." Yuuichirou started, "I need you to tell me everything you remember before you shut down for the night. And please," he said while holding up a hand to keep Rockman from speaking, "Even if the details are the same from Haruka's story, I still need you to tell me. The more we know, the better."

Rockman sighed. "Yes, papa." He then proceeded to tell Yuuichirou everything from yesterday; everything from Netto waking up until him going to bed. When he finished, the scientist sighed.

"Well, we know he didn't run away." he stated plainly. From what Rockman had told him, there had been no odd behavior problems from his son over the past couple of days. Besides that, he would have taken Rockman with him too.

"But he wasn't kidnapped either, papa! If he was, the house's alarm system would have gone off!" Rockman protested. This didn't make any sense at all!

"True..." he sighed. "However, we can't leave out that possibility. If Netto was kidnapped, then we must assume that the kidnapper was either highly skilled or was able to temporarily disable the house's network." Yuuichirou remarked before burying his face into his hands. "Believe me Rockman, this is as hard for me to deal with as it is with you."

The navi slowly nodded. "I know, papa..."

--

Netto sighed for the umpteenth time. Forte was...being hard to deal with right now. He couldn't even get a word in because the navi had started ranting at him. Deciding he had enough, he turned his attention to the screen. "Forte, be quiet for a second!" he said sharply. He needed his full attention.

Unfortunately, it somewhat backfired. "And why should I listen to you, human?" he sneered. Right now, he was in a bad mood. He wakes up in some sort of prison, and now he had that stupid operator of his nemesis, Rockman, as the only company he had. He still wondered how he got there in the first place, though.

Netto was not in the mood to play around. "If you want to find out where we are right now, you will listen to me!" he stated fiercely. "We've been in here for who knows how long and I need your help!"

"Me? Help you? Very amusing, but I won't." Forte snarled. Netto sighed yet again. He knew it would come to this.

"Listen to me for one second!" He growled out. Forte huffed, but he kept his eyes on him to show that he was paying attention. "We'll both be stuck here unless we do something. That's why I propose a truce."

Forte narrowed his eyes. "A truce? What for?" Netto allowed himself a small smile. The difficult part was over, at least.

"Exactly what I said. I need you, and you need me for as long as we are stuck here. So until we can find our way home, we should work together." Netto stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The navi snorted. "Feh. Work with you? Like I would ever lower myself to do that." he scoffed.

Netto decided it was time to pull out his trump card. "Fine then. However, you'll be stuck in that tiny little PET forever then." he stated. "Look at me! I'm the all powerful Forte! Yet, I can't seem to get out of this PET! What should I do!" Netto mocked. He hoped it would get through to Forte.

Meanwhile, the black navi was looking at the human with a growing visage of anger. Even though he tried to deny it, he knew the human was right. If he didn't accept his help, then he'd be forever stuck in this miserable excuse of a prison. He grudgingly accepted that he had no choice. "Fine. I'll help. However, once we get back, we go our separate ways again." he stated with finality. Netto nodded.

"Alright, now that that is settled...I need you to open the lock on the door so we can get out of here." he said as he stood up and walked to the door. "You ready, Forte?" he asked as he gripped the PET in his hand.

"Yeah." Forte grumbled.

This is going to be weird. Netto thought as he brought the PET up. "Plug in! Forte, Transmission!" he said as he fired the beam into the lock. Seconds later, he heard a click as the door opened. He blinked. "That was fast."

"Done. Let's go already, human!" Forte growled. The human frowned.

"Fine, fine. I'm coming fin-head." he remarked as he plugged Forte out. However, that seemed to rile the navi up.

"Fin-head? FIN-HEAD! How dare you, you disgusting human!" he raged. Netto smirked. It seemed he had a sensitive side after all.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think you'd be so sensitive. Let's see what's out here..." He put the PET back on his waist clip and headed out into the hallway. Everything looked the same as it did inside the room they had been trapped in. There were no windows either, so they couldn't see very well. Netto spent the next five minutes bumping into random walls and cursing. Forte, although amused, eventually grew tired of it.

"Human, try going out to the left. I think the exit is over there." he stated, not at all hiding the amusement he had at Netto's predictament.

Netto grumbled but did as he was told. Sure enough, he found a door. "Finally." he murmured as he opened the door. He quickly brought up his hands as light flooded into the room, temporarily blinded. When it died down, he opened his eyes. "Well, at least we'll finally know where we are at." he remarked to himself more than to Forte. Taking a deep breath, he walked outside.

"Wha...What! Where the hell are we!" Netto screamed out, disbelieving.

In front of him, everything was in ruin. Streets, cars, and even buildings.

Netto was suddenly very scared.

--

Next Chapter: In this God-Forsaken Land...: Netto and Forte now find themselves in a world of ruin. Looking for any signs of life, Netto eventually runs across several survivors from the ruined city. To find their way home, the two must now try and work together to find out what happened. Will it be possible for the two, with Netto's headstrong nature and Forte's hatred of humans?

--

Author's Notes:

Blame the crappy formatting for this chapter on WordPad, since I am unable to use Word currently.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the later than planned update. I am preparing for college and I also have several things to do outside of writing. Rest assure, I will do my utmost to write this fic, but it has to take the backseat in order for some other things before I can get to it. This means updates may be slow, so be patient until I write a new chapter.

Special thanks to JK and Quatre for betaing again. Give them thanks!

As before, please leave Constructive Criticism. I need to know if I'm doing anything wrong, so don't hesitate to point things out, no matter how miniscule they are!


Blargh. I had to go and insert the tags in there manually...>_>
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<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Sol]

Chapter 2-Unlikely Duo

Netto didn’t know what to do. In his hands was the PET of someone he would rather not want to see again. He wondered why Forte’s PET was there with him at all, since Forte was an independent Navi…

That’s right. He thought. Why does Forte have a PET? After all, he hates humans…This isn’t making any sense at all!

Sighing in frustration, Netto got back up from his position on the floor and decided to try and find a way out. He decided to kick and punch at random places on the wall to see if there were any weak spots or hidden switches. He had no such luck, however, as the walls were too solid for him to break through.

Netto looked back at the door. He decided to observe it again to see if there was anything he missed in his panic to get out of the room. Walking over, his eyes scanned the rusty exterior of it before he spotted something.

“An electronic lock!” he exclaimed. “Alright! I can get out of here if I can plug in Rockman and…” he immediately cut off as he remembered his current predicament. Netto’s face paled.

He didn’t have Rockman. Checking his form over once more, he found that he didn’t even have his battlechips with him either. No, the only thing he had on him was Forte’s PET, and he wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to turn it on. On one hand, he would be able to escape the room and find out where the heck he was. On the other hand, however, Forte wouldn’t be so cooperative with him.

He again looked at the lock. He wanted to make sure it was working before he made a decision. If it was off and the door was just stuck, he would be able to open the door by himself eventually. However, if it was on…Netto leaned in to look at it.

“It’s working…” he muttered. “Damn.” That only left one choice.

Stepping away from the door, Netto looked back down at the black PET. What would happen once he turned it on? He then quickly reminded himself that if he didn’t turn it on, then he would be stuck in the room until god knows when. Steeling himself, he brought his hand over the ON switch.

However, before he turned it on, he hesitated once again as his hands hovered over the switch. How was he going to deal with Forte? The navi absolutely despised humans, and he was quite sure that he wouldn’t listen to him at all. He wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to put up with him for a while.

Well, I’ve taken huge risks before this, so what’s another one? Netto thought as he made his decision.

He turned the PET on.

--

Rockman didn’t know what to do. Haruka was in the living room sobbing uncontrollably and the Police were doing nothing! He sighed as he buried his face in his hands. For once in his life he felt useless; Netto was in trouble and he couldn’t do a thing! What could he do?

Over the course of the last hour, he received no less then thirty e-mails from concerned friends. However, the most frantic one came from Meiru herself; she was apparently freaking out over Netto’s disappearance. Rockman couldn’t blame her, as most of everyone in Akihara was troubled about this too. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear the door open and slam close.

“Haruka! I came as fast I could…” Rockman looked up as he saw the visage of his father, Yuuichirou. Haruka immediately ran over to him and hugged him as she sobbed into his shoulder.

“Oh honey, I don’t know what happened! Last night, Netto was here, but now…!” she choked out, gasping for the words to explain the situation. “He wasn’t here this morning…Rockman was there, and he didn’t see Netto at all…”

“Shh…Dear, it’ll be alright. We’ll find him.” Yuuichirou said in a soothing voice, trying to calm her down. It seemed to work, as Haruka’s sobbing subsided. He looked up at the PET on the kitchen counter as he stroked her hair. “Rockman, I need to talk to you later. I need to know what fully happened.

The blue navi was about to point out that he didn’t know any more than Haruka did, but he was silenced by the pleading stare that his father gave him. “Yes, papa.” he answered reluctantly. Talking about it just made him more depressed.

Netto-kun…Wherever you are, I hope you are safe.

--

Netto was holding his breath as the PET started up. Everything now counted on Forte’s cooperation with him, which he wasn’t sure on. He was still thinking on how to talk to him when the PET was finished loading up. Anxiously, he looked downward at the screen.

Sure enough, there was the cloaked navi on the screen. However, he noticed that the navi wasn’t moving at all…Taking a closer look, he saw that the navi was unconscious. Netto released the breath he had been holding, somewhat relieved. Now he had time to think of a way to appeal to the navi.

He first thought of threatening to break his PET. It would scare Forte into working with him, mainly because the black navi was vulnerable and wouldn't like it. However, he quickly squelched that idea. That would only fuel Forte's hatred of humans and it would make it harder to deal with him. Besides, Netto didn't think that he had the guts to do it.

The second one was to tell him of the situation and hope that he would help. It was a long shot, but it seemed to be the more appealing of the two options available to him. However, Netto didn't dare get his hopes up, seeing as how it all depended on the navi's reaction.

Netto sat down, trying to think of more ideas. Unfortunately, all of them lead back to the main two he had come up with. He resolved that if the second idea didn't work, he would have to resort to the first one. That was something he didn't want to do.

However, he had no more time to think as he heard Forte start to wake up.

"Urgh..." Netto heard the navi moan as he awoke. He subconciously held his breath, waiting for the inevitable.

The cloaked navi finally got up to look at his surroundings. Looking around wildly, he saw that he was trapped inside some sort of area. "Where the HELL am I?!" he roared out, dashing to and fro to find a way out like a caged animal. Netto sighed again; he expected this.

"That's what I would like to know too." he muttered loud enough for the navi to hear him. It had the desired effect as Forte looked up to see his face through the screen.

"YOU!"

--

"Alright Rockman..." Yuuichirou started, "I need you to tell me everything you remember before you shut down for the night. And please," he said while holding up a hand to keep Rockman from speaking, "Even if the details are the same from Haruka's story, I still need you to tell me. The more we know, the better."

Rockman sighed. "Yes, papa." He then proceeded to tell Yuuichirou everything from yesterday; everything from Netto waking up until him going to bed. When he finished, the scientist sighed.

"Well, we know he didn't run away." he stated plainly. From what Rockman had told him, there had been no odd behavior problems from his son over the past couple of days. Besides that, he would have taken Rockman with him too.

"But he wasn't kidnapped either, papa! If he was, the house's alarm system would have gone off!" Rockman protested. This didn't make any sense at all!

"True..." he sighed. "However, we can't leave out that possibility. If Netto was kidnapped, then we must assume that the kidnapper was either highly skilled or was able to temporarily disable the house's network." Yuuichirou remarked before burying his face into his hands. "Believe me Rockman, this is as hard for me to deal with as it is with you."

The navi slowly nodded. "I know, papa..."

--

Netto sighed for the umpteenth time. Forte was...being hard to deal with right now. He couldn't even get a word in because the navi had started ranting at him. Deciding he had enough, he turned his attention to the screen. "Forte, be quiet for a second!" he said sharply. He needed his full attention.

Unfortunately, it somewhat backfired. "And why should I listen to you, human?" he sneered. Right now, he was in a bad mood. He wakes up in some sort of prison, and now he had that stupid operator of his nemesis, Rockman, as the only company he had. He still wondered how he got there in the first place, though.

Netto was not in the mood to play around. "If you want to find out where we are right now, you will listen to me!" he stated fiercely. "We've been in here for who knows how long and I need your help!"

"Me? Help you? Very amusing, but I won't." Forte snarled. Netto sighed yet again. He knew it would come to this.

"Listen to me for one second!" He growled out. Forte huffed, but he kept his eyes on him to show that he was paying attention. "We'll both be stuck here unless we do something. That's why I propose a truce."

Forte narrowed his eyes. "A truce? What for?" Netto allowed himself a small smile. The difficult part was over, at least.

"Exactly what I said. I need you, and you need me for as long as we are stuck here. So until we can find our way home, we should work together." Netto stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The navi snorted. "Feh. Work with you? Like I would ever lower myself to do that." he scoffed.

Netto decided it was time to pull out his trump card. "Fine then. However, you'll be stuck in that tiny little PET forever then." he stated. "Look at me! I'm the all powerful Forte! Yet, I can't seem to get out of this PET! What should I do!" Netto mocked. He hoped it would get through to Forte.

Meanwhile, the black navi was looking at the human with a growing visage of anger. Even though he tried to deny it, he knew the human was right. If he didn't accept his help, then he'd be forever stuck in this miserable excuse of a prison. He grudgingly accepted that he had no choice. "Fine. I'll help. However, once we get back, we go our separate ways again." he stated with finality. Netto nodded.

"Alright, now that that is settled...I need you to open the lock on the door so we can get out of here." he said as he stood up and walked to the door. "You ready, Forte?" he asked as he gripped the PET in his hand.

"Yeah." Forte grumbled.

This is going to be weird. Netto thought as he brought the PET up. "Plug in! Forte, Transmission!" he said as he fired the beam into the lock. Seconds later, he heard a click as the door opened. He blinked. "That was fast."

"Done. Let's go already, human!" Forte growled. The human frowned.

"Fine, fine. I'm coming fin-head." he remarked as he plugged Forte out. However, that seemed to rile the navi up.

"Fin-head? FIN-HEAD! How dare you, you disgusting human!" he raged. Netto smirked. It seemed he had a sensitive side after all.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think you'd be so sensitive. Let's see what's out here..." He put the PET back on his waist clip and headed out into the hallway. Everything looked the same as it did inside the room they had been trapped in. There were no windows either, so they couldn't see very well. Netto spent the next five minutes bumping into random walls and cursing. Forte, although amused, eventually grew tired of it.

"Human, try going out to the left. I think the exit is over there." he stated, not at all hiding the amusement he had at Netto's predictament.

Netto grumbled but did as he was told. Sure enough, he found a door. "Finally." he murmured as he opened the door. He quickly brought up his hands as light flooded into the room, temporarily blinded. When it died down, he opened his eyes. "Well, at least we'll finally know where we are at." he remarked to himself more than to Forte. Taking a deep breath, he walked outside.

"Wha...What! Where the hell are we!" Netto screamed out, disbelieving.

In front of him, everything was in ruin. Streets, cars, and even buildings.

Netto was suddenly very scared.

--

Next Chapter: In this God-Forsaken Land...: Netto and Forte now find themselves in a world of ruin. Looking for any signs of life, Netto eventually runs across several survivors from the ruined city. To find their way home, the two must now try and work together to find out what happened. Will it be possible for the two, with Netto's headstrong nature and Forte's hatred of humans?

--

Author's Notes:

Blame the crappy formatting for this chapter on WordPad, since I am unable to use Word currently.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the later than planned update. I am preparing for college and I also have several things to do outside of writing. Rest assure, I will do my utmost to write this fic, but it has to take the backseat in order for some other things before I can get to it. This means updates may be slow, so be patient until I write a new chapter.

Special thanks to JK and Quatre for betaing again. Give them thanks!

As before, please leave Constructive Criticism. I need to know if I'm doing anything wrong, so don't hesitate to point things out, no matter how miniscule they are!


Blargh. I had to go and insert the tags in there manually...>_>
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<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Revenant]

....Wow. Where did THIS come from? This is an Excellent peice. *stamps enthusiastically*

...Well, it's an interesting pair. You've pulled off an excellent and interesting and, well.... legit start.

Gyahaha. The plot is building. I'm suprised no one got to this yet. Very good.
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[CrossFusionStarman]

This is an awesome story! At first, I thought it was Forte speaking to Netto in the white space, but apparently I was wrong. You started this fic off perfectly, and you made Netto and Forte's reaction to cooperation seem like it would be in the anime/manga/games. Like Revenant said, I'm surprised no one else has read this. This is beautiful, Sol. Please, keep writing more!
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[Aria]

This looks quite fascinating. Hehehe, Forte and Netto trying to get along. XD Continue, please!
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That which does not kill me... shall be the basis for my revenge.

[Neko]

I already told you my thoughts on FF.net.

Very interesting, but still too early to really give any difinitive musings. Though I love Netto and Forte's interactions with one another. Very amusing.
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[Rockie]

Looks good so far. Seems like Forte and Netto will have to supress the urge to bite each other's heads off.
Only [teeny tiny] correction I've got is that "police" in "...and the Police were doing nothing!" shouldn't be capitalized.

[YaminoMiko]

So far so good. Keep it up!!! ^.^ Fin-head, nice one.
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I wanna sleep, but I don't wanna sleep at the same time. @_@.
Repetition(RnREXE)

[Kitty-Chan]

This is quite intriguing; I shall eagerly await the continuation.
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Need more Zero/X, Netto/Rock, Rock/Netto, Forte/Netto, & Blues/Netto. PLEASE!
Ano sa...could someone please make me a Zero/X, Blues/Netto, or Forte/Netto avatar/banner? I would greatly appreciate it...
Thanks for the avatar, Mandi!
People! We need more Blues/Netto & Forte/Netto on the net. Come on; help me out here! *gives everyone her Super-Adorable Irrisistable Sad Kitty Eyes(TM)*

[Elizabeth]

Very nice! Of course, I like just about anything Forte-related, but this is also very well written. Please continue!

[Megawoman.EXE]

This storyline is cute so far. I can't wait for the next chapter to come around.
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[Mari]

Well, just a few nitpickings that are entirely my opinion.

I don't particularly see Netto saying “This better not involve the destruction of the Net Society!”. Dunno. The "Net Society" bit unnerves me, but then again, he's heard that sentence multiple times, so it wouldn't be too farfetched for Netto to say it... or maybe I'm being silly.

I don't recall Forte's emblem having an f in it... it's just black, with the scar in the middle.

Other than that, I like what I've seen so far. Keep going.
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Currently fangirling Edgy Eft and mplayer1.0RC1 -- firefox 2 is just okay, those are pure awesome.

[Mari]

Well, just a few nitpickings that are entirely my opinion.

I don't particularly see Netto saying “This better not involve the destruction of the Net Society!”. Dunno. The "Net Society" bit unnerves me, but then again, he's heard that sentence multiple times, so it wouldn't be too farfetched for Netto to say it... or maybe I'm being silly.

I don't recall Forte's emblem having an f in it... it's just black, with the scar in the middle.

Other than that, I like what I've seen so far. Keep going.
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Currently fangirling Edgy Eft and mplayer1.0RC1 -- firefox 2 is just okay, those are pure awesome.

[Neko]

Actually, if I recall right Forte's emblem has a stilized "S" on it with the slash running through it the other way, as he was once a sci lab net navi.
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[Mari]

http://www.kishuku.com/reo/viewtopic.php?p=35929#35929

There's the sprite of his symbol. Of course, it's too small to tell anything else apart, but there it is. XD
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Currently fangirling Edgy Eft and mplayer1.0RC1 -- firefox 2 is just okay, those are pure awesome.

[Mari]

http://www.kishuku.com/reo/viewtopic.php?p=35929#35929

There's the sprite of his symbol. Of course, it's too small to tell anything else apart, but there it is. XD
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Currently fangirling Edgy Eft and mplayer1.0RC1 -- firefox 2 is just okay, those are pure awesome.

[HubHikari]

I think Sol ment Forte's Icon from the manga it has a oddly shaped F in his icon possible calligraphy ? Ill search for a Pic I have seen it somewhere.

[Sol]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

The next chapter will be in the works sometime this weekend or next week, depending on when I can reload my Microsoft Word...>_>

Anyway, let me clear some things up:

[Sol]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

The next chapter will be in the works sometime this weekend or next week, depending on when I can reload my Microsoft Word...>_>

Anyway, let me clear some things up:

[kuro-kitsune]

wasn't forte's symbol the symbol used for...

forte....? you know, the musical term meaning "LOUD?" it's like.... the 'f' you see in calligraphy. At least it was before he got slashed (right through the line in the 'f' no less -.-; ) by those security navis.

what? O_o i'll just shut up now. oh, and good job on your fanfic, update soon.

~kuro-kitsune~

[feepitsrule]

This is a great fanfic. I wonder how forte and netto'll become friends?(If they do) Anyway, why use FORTE? And does he really talk like that, degrading humans? Sorry for so many questions. Anyway, it is great!Keep up the good work!
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[Sol]

Chapter 2: In this God-Forsaken Land...

Netto couldn’t believe the sight that was in front of him. Everything was, for a lack of a better term, utterly destroyed.

The streets were cracked and fragmented as far as his eyes could see. The few cars that were on the streets were rusted and broken down. The few buildings he saw were in ruin; if they weren’t totally destroyed, they were falling apart. The sky was very dull orange, almost brownish.

“Oh my god…” Netto gasped, trying to make sense of the ruined world before him; “Where the hell are we?” He rubbed his temples to try and ward off the oncoming headache.

Alright, he thought, what is going on? I wake up in some room with no idea how I got there, I somehow have Forte, of all navis, with me, and everything is demolished out here… Looking around again, he saw no one outside. What if we are the only ones here?

“Human!” Forte growled out at last. The brunette snapped out of his daze and took a look at his PET and the snarling navi inside it. “Don’t just stand there! Look around!”

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he complied. “Never thought you would be the helpful type…” he muttered lowly so Forte wouldn’t hear him. He briefly thought about using his skates, but decided against it; the numerous cracks and fissures in the ground would trip him up. Tentatively, he started walking down the street, looking for any signs of life.

He was unsuccessful. From what he could see, many homes, shops, and other such areas were decimated. Frowning, Netto sat down on a nearby rock to assess his options. “What am I going to do? I don’t know where I am, everything out here is messed up, and most of all…” he clutched his stomach, “I’m getting hungry!”

“Typical.” Forte snorted. “Yet another human weakness.”

Netto growled. “Shut it, fin-head.” Forte visibly fumed, but said nothing. “There has to be someone around here...a huge city like this can’t be completely deserted, even if it is almost totally destroyed.” he muttered.

“Then stop talking and go look already!” the navi yelled out. Netto sighed as he realized that Forte was right.

“Alright then…” Netto murmured as he got up from the rock, “Let’s go then!” he exclaimed as he continued down the street. He hoped that someone, or something, would turn up soon.

After what seemed like hours, he had no luck. There just weren’t any people around. Netto groaned as he clutched his stomach, his hunger evident. “It’s no use…” he muttered in defeat, “We’ll never find anyone at this rate.” Dropping to his knees, Netto took a good look at the soil underneath him. “Huh? Why is the ground all discolored?” Scooping some of the dirt into his hands, he brought it up to his face for further examination. “The soil…it’s all reddish-orange…why?”

Forte chose that moment to cut into his thoughts. “Human!” he snarled, not at all happy at what Netto was currently doing. “We do not have time for you to admire the ground! We have to search for the way to get back! Now get up and start moving!” he all but yelled, very annoyed that he had to temporarily team up with an incompetent fool.

Netto’s was about to retort when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he ignored Forte’s ranting to take a closer look. Something was moving around the corner… “Someone is here…” he lightly breathed out. Staying quiet, he smothered the PET into his clothes to keep it quiet, much to Forte’s indignation. He then heard a squeak and someone running away from the area; his cue for him to follow.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Forte snapped at him when Netto reattached the PET to his clip. The brunette didn’t even bother looking at him.

“I just found someone, fin-head!” he replied while running after the figure, all vestiges of hunger forgotten. “I had to shut you up somehow, since you would have scared them off.” The navi huffed at the remark, but didn’t say anything. “This is our chance to find out what’s going on!”

“Then why didn’t you just say so?” the navi grumbled before falling silent. Netto continued following the footsteps that the figure had left, determined to know what had happened. Eventually, the footsteps ended a short distance away from a dirty looking building.

“They must be in there…” he muttered. He started to walk towards the building when Forte caught his attention.

“Hold on, human. It’s possible that it could be a trap.” he stated. Netto smirked at the PET.

“And here I thought you didn’t care about me.”

Forte growled. “Idiot! Do you think I care even one bit about your well being?” he snarled. “The only reason I am even pointing this out to your thick head is that if something happens to you, I won’t be able to get back to where I belong. You got that?!”

Sighing, he nodded. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Forte was right. It could be a trap…but something told him that he should go in there. “Then what do you think we should do? In case you haven’t noticed, this has been the only lead we’ve had all day! If we don’t take this chance now, then it’ll be forever before we get back home!” Forte said nothing, but he continued unhindered. “Look Forte, all I’m saying is to trust me on this one. I have a feeling that this isn’t a trap.”

“And just exactly why should I trust this feeling of yours?” he scoffed. Netto frowned.

“Well, it’s either this, or I wander around aimlessly for the next few days until I die of starvation. Then you wouldn’t be able to get back to the net, huh?” Forte just scowled in retaliation.

“Fine then, human. Go ahead and get killed for all I care.” he growled, turning his back to Netto.

Taking a deep breath, Netto tentatively entered the run-down building. At first, there wasn’t anything of interest that he immediately saw. However, just by looking around, he could tell people were here from the sight of footprints. “Alright then, there should still be people here. All I have to do now is find them…” Netto murmured, finally thinking that something has gone right for once.

He spotted a stairway near the back of the room leading to the basement. Silently, he walked over to the stairway, only to pause when he heard a loud slam come from below. Staying still for a few moments, he heard some voices from the bottom of the stairway.

“-I saw…-“

“…What? How-“

“It is possible-“

Unfortunately, he could only hear garbled pieces of the conversation, but it was enough for him to rethink his current plan of action. Was Forte actually right? he thought, his confident mood dampened, Whoever is down there may already be expecting me. As far as I know, they may not be really friendly…what should I do?

The people down there were possibly the only ones left in this vicinity. If anyone could help him and Forte, it would probably be the people down below. However, Forte’s warning was still clear in his head. Could he really expect them to help him? They could be setting up a trap for him down the stairwell for all he knew. Assessing his options, Netto reluctantly saw that the bad scenario outweighed the good one and turned around to leave.

Forte took this time to snicker, taking in Netto’s expression with delight. “Heh…not willing to admit that I might be right, are you?” The brunette glared at the screen.

“Shut up, fin-head.” The navi ignored the insult, still preferring to snicker at him, much to Netto’s annoyance.
As he was leaving, he suddenly heard someone squeak behind him. Turning around, he saw a little girl staring at him, her eyes wide. She looked no older than 10, and had messy brown hair cascading down her back. Surprised, Netto just stood there; waiting to see who would initiate conversation first. However, the girl immediately got scared and took flight down the stairway.

“Hey, wait!” All fears of a trap forgotten, Netto followed her down into the basement, determined to get some answers. He quickly ran down the hallway, trying to see where the little girl went. Eventually, he found a large steel door somewhere near the middle of the hallway. His breath hitching in his chest, he slowly grabbed the handle and turned it. He then pushed open the door and entered the room, looking for any sign of the girl.

“Who are you, mister?” spoke a sudden voice to his right. Netto jumped up in surprise before turning to face the person who startled him. It was the same little girl from earlier.

“Uh…maybe I should be the one asking that question.” he replied. The girl still kept staring at him, making him uncomfortable. He jerked when he heard another voice come out of another part of the room.

“Michiru, what are you…” Netto saw a plump looking woman enter the room, who trailed off when she caught sight of him. He stiffened; what was she going to do to him?

Much to his shock, the woman smiled. “Ah, so you’re the one that Michiru told me about! Come on in!”

“What?” he questioned plainly, disbelieving. Forte seemed a bit taken aback as well. The woman ushered them in and closed the door. Netto was stunned; out of all possible outcomes, this was the least expected. “W-wait! Who are you?”

The woman still kept on smiling. “I’m Karin. Nice to meet you, young man.” She said as she shook his hand. Netto and Forte blinked in unison.

She’s really…Polite. he thought, dumbstruck. Well, he might as well return the courtesy. “Well…I’m Hikari Netto. Pleased to meet you.” he said as he shook her hand. If possible, Karin’s smile widened even more.

“Oh, you’re such a polite young man!” she squealed, much to Netto’s growing confusion. “Go ahead and make yourself at home, Netto-kun! I’ll go whip us up a meal real quickly!” With that, she raced off to the kitchen. Netto and Forte just stared after her.

“What…was that?” Netto slowly questioned, his mind still reeling from just meeting Karin.

Forte shrugged. “Don’t ask me, human.”

The little girl, Michiru, cleared her throat. “Sorry about that…mama is a little…excited about meeting new people.” Netto’s gazed at her, still somewhat stunned. “Anyway…I’m Michiru. Pleased to meet you, Netto.” she said while smiling.

Netto shook out of his stupor. “Not to be rude or anything…but what exactly is going on here?” he asked. Michiru sighed.

“I’m sorry for not talking to you earlier…but I wanted to tell mama that there was a stranger that needed help.” she replied while staring at the ground. “Mama likes helping strangers. She says that she gets joy out of helping people that are lost. She says it’s all she can do for some reason…”

Netto’s eyes widened but he said nothing. Before he could ask another question, Michiru took his hand and guided him to a wooden table. “Please, take a seat! Mama will be done soon, and then we can talk.” she stated, which seemed to relieve Netto in a small way. Sitting down, he nodded at Michiru, who smiled and left for the same room Karin was in.

“I don’t like this. They’re far too nice.” Forte muttered finally. To his slight surprise, Netto nodded.

“I know…” he agreed, “but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they’re just really nice people after all? Besides that, this is our chance to find out what is up. However, I’ll be ready if something is up.” Forte reluctantly agreed.

Soon enough, Karin came out of the kitchen carrying a huge pot and some utensils for Netto. “Now dear…” she began as she set up a bowl and spoon in front of him. “Eat up! It’s my special soup!” Karin beamed as she lifted the pot cover, showing the contents inside. She scooped some of soup inside the bowl and handed it to Netto.

Taking a spoonful of the soup, Netto eyed it carefully. I hope it isn’t poisoned. he thought warily before taking a sip of it. It tasted somewhat sweet, and it had some sort of odd flavor in there that Netto couldn’t explain. He liked it though, so he couldn’t complain. “It’s good.” he finally said.

Karin beamed even more. “Wonderful! Help yourself!” she said before heading back towards the kitchen, presumably to get even more bowls. Netto continued to slowly eat the soup, helping himself to a second bowl when Karin returned with Michiru and a dark-haired man about Karin’s height a few minutes later.

“Oh, is this the boy, Karin?” the man questioned. The woman nodded, and the man smiled. “Hello there, young man. I’m Shinta, it’s nice to meet you.” He said while bowing. Netto just stared at him with the soup spoon still stuck in his mouth.

They’re all so polite, it’s freaky… he thought while wrenching the spoon from his mouth. Gulping down the soup, he proceeded to introduce himself. “I’m Hikari Netto, sir. Thank you for having me.” he said as he got up and bowed. Forte scoffed silently, saying something about stupid human traditions.

Shinta smiled at him. “You are a polite young man…it’s rare to see someone like yourself around these parts.” he sighed and sat down in the chair opposite of Netto. The other two family members sat next to him as they helped themselves to the soup. The three of them started chatting idly while eating, leaving Netto to his thoughts.

“Human!” Forte quietly hissed, finally having enough of getting nowhere. “Just ask them already!” Netto shot a glare at the PET.

“I know! I’m going to, fin-head! Just give me a minute!” he retorted. Luckily, the family was too distracted by their chatting to notice the bickering between the two. Finally, Netto was able to catch a break in the conversation. “Um…excuse me, Shinta? Can I ask you some questions?”

Shinta looked up, his eyebrows raised. “Sure, go ahead.”

Netto fidgeted in his seat, somewhat nervous. “This may sound strange, but…what happened to this city?”

The three family members seemed to freeze. “You don’t know?” Michiru asked, disbelieving. When Netto shook his head, the three traded looks with each other.

Shinta leaned down and put his chin in his hands, his eyes slightly narrowed. “Where do you come from, boy?” he asked, his polite demeanor vanishing in an instant. Karin looked worriedly over at him.

Netto visibly stiffened. Quick, make up a lie! MAKE UP A LIE! his mind screamed at him. “Well sir…I come from very far away. I was…for lack of a better term, kidnapped, and I’m now wandering aimlessly.” he lied, hoping that they would accept it as truth.

It had its desired effect on both Karin and Michiru, as the woman gasped. “Oh, you poor dear! This must be a terrible experience for you!” Meanwhile, Shinta frowned for a bit before he sat up.

“Alright, I’ll take your word for it.” he said while smiling. “The truth is…we don’t know much about what happened ourselves. It’s been like this for as long as we’ve been alive, probably.” Seeing Netto’s horrified face, he paused briefly before continuing. “We’ve also been underground as long as I can remember…so have all the other people of the planet. I suppose whatever catastrophe had happened forced all human beings underground. Maybe it was from too much pollution, or something else. I’m not entirely sure…This is why our skin is so pale.” After that remark, Netto took a closer look at the family. Now that he got good look at them, their skin was really pale…like a ghost’s. Shinta continued on, uninterrupted.

“Whatever the reason, everyone lives underground. Thankfully, someone managed to find a way to channel electricity underground, so we don’t all live in the dark. Eventually, it became safe once again for us to live above ground. However, everyone was so used to living underground at this time that they just stayed there. People nowadays only go up to the surface to either look around or work in specialized areas.” Shinta finished his explanation and took a sip of water, his throat dry from the long explanation.

Netto was dumbstruck. “So…the city has always been like this, basically?” Seeing the man nod, he slumped in his chair. “Oh man…this isn’t getting me anywhere.” he muttered quietly. However, he then had an idea. “Hey, Shinta? Do you know where any kinds of records are stored?”

Shinta frowned again. “Unfortunately, all documents regarding what happened have been destroyed as far as I know.” Netto’s face fell visibly. “However…” he started, which got his attention, “I think that the old building near the destroyed tower may have some information.” Netto visibly brightened up.

“Really?” he asked. Shinta nodded.

“It’s possible. Many people believe that place is cursed, which is why no one will get near it. I’m fairly certain it hasn’t been looted yet, either. I guess not many people are desperate enough to try…” he stopped talking when he saw the boy get up.

“May I ask where the destroyed tower is, sir?” he questioned, his face serious. Shinta seemed to recognize this and decided to truthfully answer.

“So, you would go anyway, not caring about if there was any danger involved?” he asked. When he saw Netto nod, he closed his eyes and sighed. “Alright then. The destroyed tower is about two hours north of here. However, I would be careful out there. No telling what may happen nowadays.” He warned before falling silent.

“When do you plan to leave, Netto?” Michiru shyly asked. Netto smiled in her direction.

“Probably in a few minutes. I want to get going as soon as possible.” he answered calmly, even though he was still unnerved by what he had been told. Michiru squeaked and ran from her chair to somewhere else in the underground house. Karin also proceeded to get up.

“I’m going to go pack you some canteens of water and some soup. It’s a long trip, so you need all that you can get!” she said cheerfully as she made her way out of the room. Netto looked down at Shinta, slightly exasperated.

“She’s very overbearing, isn’t she?” Shina nodded.

“Yes, at times she is…” he agreed. Suddenly, his face hardened and he stood up, slightly scaring Netto. “Now Netto, it’s time for you to tell me the truth. Why are you here?”

His eyes went wide. “H-how did you…?”

Shinta snorted. “It was easy enough. The discrepancies within your story were very easy to spot, and anyone who is anyone would know that no one asks what happened to this place. Now, out with it.” he said, the last part coming out as a growl.

Netto saw no other choice. He proceeded to tell Shinta everything; from when he woke up in a strange room to the time he saw Michiru and followed her. He left out the part involving Forte, seeing as he wasn’t sure about how they would react. At the end, Shinta nodded. “Alright, so you’re a far ways from home and have no idea where you are…” he sighed. “At this point, I guess your only choice at this moment is to go to the building I mentioned. I see no other way than that.”

Netto sighed in relief. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.” Shinta smiled.

“Don’t get me wrong, boy. I’m very protective about my family. Just be thankful that I was the only one who caught on to your lie. Had it been anyone else…” he trailed off to drive the point in. Netto gulped and nodded hastily.

At this moment, Karin came back into the room with a bag. “Here you go dear! Three canteens of water and a thermos of soup! Take care out there, Netto-kun!” she smiled cheerfully and handed him the bag before heading back into the other room. Shinta sighed again.

“Alright then, be careful. You don’t know what may happen, especially around here. And…” he trailed off, as if reluctant. “If you can, get back here as soon as you can. You can rest if you need to afterwards.” he stated with a smile.

Netto smiled back at him. “Don’t worry, I will.” Netto turned to leave out the door. However, before he could, Michiru came running up to him.

“Wait…please. Take this…” she said as quietly as she could. She handed him a wrapped bundle of cloth, with numerous things inside it. “Open it when you really need to…” Michiru blushed and ran back the way she came, leaving a confused Netto.

Shaking his head, Netto decided it was time to go. “I’ll be back as soon as possible, Shinta…I promise.” With that, he opened the door that led to the murky hallway and left towards the stairwell leading to the surface.

--

“Great job, human.” Netto jumped; he forgot Forte had not spoken in some time. It was hard to tell if the navi’s voice was either praising him or mocking him, though. “We didn’t really learn much at all! Now we’re going to some abandoned place for some information which may not even be true!”

“Well, it’s better than nothing fin-head!” he growled as he made his way out of the building and into the outside world. “At least we have a lead on somewhere to go. If he really wanted to, he could’ve withheld the information from us. Then where would we be?” he questioned, already annoyed with Forte.

“I suppose…” Forte huffed. The human had a point. “But nevertheless, this can be an elaborate trap set up to kill you. He knew you were lying the minute you said something, so it’s highly possible. I’m surprised those females ate that lie up! I hope you don’t think you’re such a smooth talker, human, because you’re not.”

Netto frowned as he walked along. Forte had just hit upon all the points he was worried about. Shinta was a smart person; he knew that just by speaking with him. It probably wouldn’t be out of his league to do something like this. However, on the other hand, he wasn’t about to get suspicious of a person he just met. Shinta was friendly enough when he felt unthreatened, after all. And even when he knew he was lying, he still gave out the location of where he could find out some information.

Netto sighed. I’ll decide what to do when I get there. he resolved, and continued on the long path leading to the tower. “Fin-head, we’re going anyway. We’ll take a look, and then decide on what to do.”

Forte fumed. “Stop calling me that accursed name!” Netto chuckled at the navi’s reaction. The next two hours of walking were going to be fun…

--


Well, I wasn’t expecting the walk to be that boring. Netto thought as he finally got to the destroyed tower a few hours later. Indeed, it was a very boring walk, since Forte didn’t want to talk unless Netto provoked him. The majority of the time was spent in silence, with Netto trying to make idle chat as he walked, but Forte would not even talk to him.

They had arrived at the site fairly early, since Netto only took two rests from walking so long. Even now his legs hurt, but he had something more important to do than sit around. Looking around, he spotted the building Shinta talked about; it was the only one even near the tower.

“Well, there it is…” he stated tiredly. “All we have to do is to get the information from there and get back to Shinta’s place.” Forte grunted.

“Do I even have to remind you it could be a trap?” the navi remarked. Netto shook his head.

“No, you don’t. I’ve already decided that we’re going in there. I don’t care if it’s a trap or not, we really need to see if there is something inside that could help us.” Forte said nothing.

A few minutes later found Netto at the entrance to the ruined building. Looking around the doorway, he found a ruined plaque to the right of it. Leaning in to get a closer look, Netto found it had some discernable words on it. “I can’t read this first word…it’s far too ruined. But this second one…” Netto gazed even closer to look at the word. “…Labs? Then this building is…!” he gasped, looking through the entryway.

“What are you so excited about, human?” Forte sneered. Netto stared back down at the PET, slightly breathless.

“Don’t you get it, fin-head? This place used to be a lab! Labs usually have computers, which is perfect! Maybe the information is stored somewhere in the computers…” he trailed off, looking at Forte.

The navi blinked. “What are you…” Realization dawned on him as he immediately growled. “So, you’ll have me do it? Typical…Humans never do anything for themselves.” Netto frowned.

“You have to understand, Forte…You can get into a computer system or server easily. I can’t. And even if I could access a working computer, if there is no monitor, I’m stuck.” he reasoned. Forte narrowed his eyes.

“Fine then.” he spat. “But this is only because we have made an agreement, understood? Even when I am in the system, you can’t help me anyway.” Forte scoffed.

Netto was about to retort to that, but then winced as he remembered that he didn’t have any battle chips on him. “You’re right…” he muttered softly. “Let’s keep going.”

Netto warily made his way into the lab, keeping a lookout for anything of interest. After a few minutes of wandering around the dark place, he found his way to a room in the back. Taking a look around, it seemed that everything was destroyed. Scanning the room, he found a large computer with a large wall screen near the back. He ran over to the computer, his heart racing. Netto quickly found the power switch, his fingers ghosting over the button.

Please turn on, please turn on… he chanted in his head as he pressed the button. At first, there was no response. Then, just as Netto’s patience was about to give way, the machine gave a loud hum and turned on. “Yes!” he crowed in triumph; something actually went his way for once! Immediately, he started searching for any plug-in ports that he could use.

After a few minutes of searching, he finally found one near the front end of the server. “Alright,” he breathed, “Let’s do this. You ready, Forte?” He heard a grunt from the navi, signifying that he was ready. Netto unhooked the PET from its clip and brought it in front of him.

“Plug in! Forte, Transmission!” he yelled as he shot the infrared beam at the port. After a few seconds of inactivity, Forte appeared on the screen. “Forte! Can you read me loud and clear?” he asked a bit loudly.

“Yes, I can. You don’t have to be so loud, human.” he replied back with a slight sneer. Netto just let that pass since it wasn’t the time for it.

“Good…” he sighed in relief. “Now, we have to find any sort of data that can help us…I really hope there is some inside this computer. Forte, could you…”

“I’ll find them.” Forte cut in before Netto could finish, “I don’t need orders from you.” he said before floating through the computer pathways. The brunette just sighed again.

After about a half hour of searching, the black navi still couldn’t find anything. “There’s nothing around here!” he said in frustration, “We are wasting our time in here! Human, get me out of here!” Netto was just about to plug-out Forte when he noticed something on the screen.

“Hey, Forte…did you check over that way?” he questioned, curious as how that path got there. The navi looked over to where Netto was pointing and narrowed his eyes.

“That path wasn’t there before…” he said, annoyed. Nevertheless, he floated along the new path, searching for anything of relevance. Eventually, he stopped on a wide platform when he finally saw what he was looking for.

“Ah…that’s some documented data! I think that’s what we were looking for!” Netto said, excited.

Forte snorted. “Finally, we can get out of this dark place.” he started to head towards the data when Netto’s voice rang out.

“Forte, behind you!” his voice screamed out, obviously startled by something appearing. The navi immediately turned around and was greeting with the sight of a large black…thing.

‘Thing’ was too kind, as it was in the shape of a large, black, and horribly ugly wolf virus. It had two heads; both of them staring down Forte and their mouths were slobbering all over the place. Its fur was unruly and spiked; its paws large with wicked looking claws. To top it all off, its tail was long and sharp; almost like a sword’s.

Forte smirked. He had been waiting for a chance to destroy something, and this beast was his lucky victim. This would be fun…

The wolf took first initiative by pouncing towards the navi. Forte quickly dodged out of the way, and started to prepare his Shooting Buster. However, he wasn’t expecting the virus to recover so quickly and pounce at him again. He was able to dodge again, but he lost the charge on his Shooting Buster and had to start over. Growling, he charged it once again and fired it at the wolf virus multiple times. However, to both his and Netto’s shock, the virus merely shrugged it off and charged at Forte again. This time, it was able to land a direct hit with its paw, sending Forte careening back.

Fortunately, he was able to recover quickly. “Forte, this isn’t a normal virus! If it was able to shrug off your Shooting Buster so easily, then you have to be careful!” came Netto’s voice from a pop-up screen. “This thing is possibly on par with the Dream Virus and Gospel!”

“Gee, thanks for pointing that out! I didn’t notice!” he shot back sarcastically. Deciding to use a different method, Forte prepared another Shooting Buster and charged right at the virus. Just as the he got near the wolf, he jumped up towards one of its heads and let the buster off right between the eyes.

The virus howled in pain as one of the head’s eyes became useless. Forte landed right behind the virus, smirking. Unfortunately, that was a bad move as the virus now saw red. Swishing its tail, the wolf suddenly came down in Forte’s direction. Surprised, he managed to dodge just in time, but not before it caught and tore off part of his cloak.

Forte snarled; that blow had come too close. “Alright, no more playing around!” he shouted before charging up some energy in his right arm. This time, the virus leaped at him, its claws extended to tear him to shreds. Forte quickly jumped up in the air and struck just as the wolf was recovering. “Earth Breaker!” he shouted, aiming the concentrated energy down at the wolf. However, the virus managed to shift away at the last minute, but not without taking damage.

The Earth Breaker slammed into one of its hind legs, partially destroying it. The wolf let out a howl of great pain, its rear slumping to the ground. This time, Forte didn’t dare take any chances and immediately prepared another Earth Breaker.

However, it seemed the wolf was not out of the fight yet as both mouths opened to breathe fire at the navi. Black fire?! Forte thought, annoyed that his Earth Breaker didn’t even destroy the virus. Forced on the defensive, he immediately leapt back to avoid the flames. However, the virus wasn’t done yet as it began shooting high speed fireballs from its mouths. Forte found himself hard pressed to dodge.

Netto watched the battle in growing concern. It seemed that Forte, one of the most powerful navis ever created, was experiencing growing difficulty against a powerful virus. Forte managed to take out one of its hind legs, bit the virus was not giving him any more chances to strike. What am I going to do?! Forte’s in trouble and I can’t do a damn thing about it! he thought as he started looking for anything to help him. After a few seconds of searching, he pulled out the bundle that Michiru gave to him. She said to open this when I really needed to…which may be right now! Immediately, he opened the cloth bundle to see some various items. Most of them looked useless, however…

“A battle chip!” he gasped, quickly picking it up. How had Michiru known that he would need this? Quickly turning it around, he stared in shock at what chip it was. “No way…” Shaking himself out of his stupor, he turned back to the PET. “Forte! I’m going to help!”

The navi was still dodging the relentless fireball attacks, but it seemed one had grazed his side slightly. “Oh yeah?” he retorted, “What are you going to do? You can’t do anything right now!”

Netto smirked. “I’m going to give you something that will allow you to delete the virus.” Taking the battle chip within his fingers, he brought it up to his PET. “Battle chip! Dream Aura, Slot-In!”

Forte blinked in shock as the familiar purple aura encased his form. His momentary lapse allowed a fireball to strike him. However, he didn’t even feel it as the Dream Aura absorbed the attack. Forte slowly smiled as he now had the means to win the battle. “You’ve given me a lot of trouble, virus…but now, I’ll show you what a true wolf looks like…” he said as he formed a cannon in the shape of Gospel. He was preparing for his Vanishing World attack.

The virus seemed to pick up on what was going on, as it shot even more fireballs at the navi. Thanks to the Dream Aura, however, the attacks didn’t even get through. The virus started to try and run, which was severely hindered with its destroyed hind leg.

“There’s no where to run…” Forte muttered as the Gospel head gathered more energy. “This is the end! VANISHING WORLD!” he cried out as he finally shot the destructive ray of energy at the virus, which could only look at its oncoming death.

The beam hit, and the virus was no more.

Netto sighed in relief. That was a very close battle; he wasn’t entirely sure if Forte was going to win. He picked up his PET and looked at Forte, who also knelt down to rest after using the Vanishing World. “Hey Forte….you alright?”

Forte seemed surprised by the concern Netto was showing towards him. “Yes…I am fine…” he muttered loud enough for the operator to hear. The navi also closed his eyes and sighed. “Also…” he didn’t want to say it, but he forced himself to. “Thank you… Netto.”

Netto allowed himself a smile at that. “You’re welcome. Now, did the data survive?” he asked, suddenly remembering it was on the platform. Somehow, it didn’t seem as important now than with Forte’s survival.

Taking a quick check around, the navi found the data still floating at the edge of the platform. “It seems that the data survived…” Forte took a scan of the data, and scowled at what he found. “It seems most of this data is corrupted…all but two files. What should I do with it?” At this point, Forte was too tired to even argue, so he just decided to ask what he should do.

“Open them.” Netto said quickly. Forte nodded and opened both files.

--

LOG FILE #00489
DATE: UNKNOWN

It…it has happened…the Environmental System has shut down completely…soon, all of this planet’s wrath will fall upon us, destroying civilization. Everything shall fall into chaos. I can’t take this…

What caused the System to shut down in the first place? All witnesses say there was a weird white light all of a sudden, and the next thing they knew, the Environmental System was receiving critical errors…I don’t believe them at the time, but…I’m willing to believe anything now, as long as I can get away from the world…

If anyone finds this log…I shall be long dead…after I write this out, I shall fling myself off the tower. I pray for those souls who survive in the future.

…

END OF LOG

--

Netto felt slightly sick from reading that log, but at least he had a slight understanding of what happened now. So, this world had an Environmental System too? But it failed for some reason…I hope the next log is more informative.

--

LOG FILE #XXXXX
DATE: UNKNOWN

If anyone is reading this log, read carefully about what I’m about to say.

The destruction of the planet was intentional. Someone or something hacked their way into the Environmental System and destroyed it before it could be saved. I was there when the odd white light showed up. I was not blinded like the others. I saw the light quickly head over into the system and do something to it which destroyed it. I do not know what it is at this time, nor will I ever know.

I can imagine that the world is in chaos right now. Whether or not if people have gotten to their feet and are rebuilding their lives…this tragedy will happen again if nothing is done.

That is why I implore the reader of this document to go to the Environmental System and investigate it. I would think there is something there…something we missed.

I will be dead when you read this line, for I made sure this document can only be opened afterwards. Please…go to the Environmental System. The coordinates are locater in an attachment at the bottom…

…stay safe…

…

END OF LOG

ATTCH: ESYSTEM-COORDINATES. DOWNLOAD? Y/N

--

Netto was silent after he read the log. Sighing, he nodded to Forte. “Download the coordinates, Forte. We’ll need them later…right now, we must go back to Shinta’s and tell him what has happened.”

--

Netto had arrived back at Shinta’s before night had fallen. The man wanted to ask him what had happened, but Karin stepped in and demanded that he rest since he looked like he was about to faint. Netto gladly agreed, and fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

The next morning, Karin prepared an in-bed meal for Netto, which he gladly ate. Afterwards, he found Shinta sitting down at the table, apparently thinking. He snapped out of his daze and turned to the boy. “Yes?”

Netto proceeded to explain what happened at the lab, leaving out the virus battle for obvious reasons. Shinta looked at him wide-eyed. “Did those logs really say that?” he asked. When Netto nodded, he ran a hand through his black hair. “Then I guess…you have to go to the Environmental System then, don’t you?” Another nod. “Alright then. I’ll go tell Karin about this. Just stay here for one more night; you look like you need the rest.

“Thank you, Shinta.” Netto replied while bowing. Shinta just smiled at him in return.
Netto then went to look for Michiru, who he found sitting quietly and humming to herself in another room of the house. She squeaked when she noticed him at last. “N-Netto! I…didn’t know you were back!”

“Yeah, I am…” he replied. “Michiru…thank you for the gift. It really helped me.” He then drew her into a hug.

She blushed, but said nothing.

That night, a great dinner was held and the four ate together for the last time. That night, Netto knew he would miss these people, even if only knew them for a day. Smiling, he went to sleep, dreaming of all his friends back home.

The following day, Netto departed from Shinta, Karin, and Michiru after a long good-bye. He sadly smiled, but continued on.

“Well, time to go, eh fin-head?” he smirked down at the PET.

Forte smirked right back at him. “Of course, human.”

Walking into the horizon, Netto began his long journey home.

--

Next Chapter: Interlude I-Intentions: Finally, the identity of the voice is known. However, another figure happens to overhear it's intentions and begins their own preparations to stop them. Meanwhile, Enzan learns of Netto's disappearance and races to the Hikari residence for answers.
--

[b]Author's Notes:[b] Alright, I'm sorry for the long delay...again. I've just started school again and have taken on a job, so this fic unfortunately had to take a backseat while I got my affairs in order.

Chapters will be coming out slowly, depending on my schedule. However, don't think that I have abandoned this fic if there has been no update in some time; it just means that it's taking me sligly longer to update than normal.

Anyways, thanks go to Quatre Winner and JK for betaing.
_________________


<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Sol]

Chapter 2: In this God-Forsaken Land...

Netto couldn’t believe the sight that was in front of him. Everything was, for a lack of a better term, utterly destroyed.

The streets were cracked and fragmented as far as his eyes could see. The few cars that were on the streets were rusted and broken down. The few buildings he saw were in ruin; if they weren’t totally destroyed, they were falling apart. The sky was very dull orange, almost brownish.

“Oh my god…” Netto gasped, trying to make sense of the ruined world before him; “Where the hell are we?” He rubbed his temples to try and ward off the oncoming headache.

Alright, he thought, what is going on? I wake up in some room with no idea how I got there, I somehow have Forte, of all navis, with me, and everything is demolished out here… Looking around again, he saw no one outside. What if we are the only ones here?

“Human!” Forte growled out at last. The brunette snapped out of his daze and took a look at his PET and the snarling navi inside it. “Don’t just stand there! Look around!”

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he complied. “Never thought you would be the helpful type…” he muttered lowly so Forte wouldn’t hear him. He briefly thought about using his skates, but decided against it; the numerous cracks and fissures in the ground would trip him up. Tentatively, he started walking down the street, looking for any signs of life.

He was unsuccessful. From what he could see, many homes, shops, and other such areas were decimated. Frowning, Netto sat down on a nearby rock to assess his options. “What am I going to do? I don’t know where I am, everything out here is messed up, and most of all…” he clutched his stomach, “I’m getting hungry!”

“Typical.” Forte snorted. “Yet another human weakness.”

Netto growled. “Shut it, fin-head.” Forte visibly fumed, but said nothing. “There has to be someone around here...a huge city like this can’t be completely deserted, even if it is almost totally destroyed.” he muttered.

“Then stop talking and go look already!” the navi yelled out. Netto sighed as he realized that Forte was right.

“Alright then…” Netto murmured as he got up from the rock, “Let’s go then!” he exclaimed as he continued down the street. He hoped that someone, or something, would turn up soon.

After what seemed like hours, he had no luck. There just weren’t any people around. Netto groaned as he clutched his stomach, his hunger evident. “It’s no use…” he muttered in defeat, “We’ll never find anyone at this rate.” Dropping to his knees, Netto took a good look at the soil underneath him. “Huh? Why is the ground all discolored?” Scooping some of the dirt into his hands, he brought it up to his face for further examination. “The soil…it’s all reddish-orange…why?”

Forte chose that moment to cut into his thoughts. “Human!” he snarled, not at all happy at what Netto was currently doing. “We do not have time for you to admire the ground! We have to search for the way to get back! Now get up and start moving!” he all but yelled, very annoyed that he had to temporarily team up with an incompetent fool.

Netto’s was about to retort when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Curious, he ignored Forte’s ranting to take a closer look. Something was moving around the corner… “Someone is here…” he lightly breathed out. Staying quiet, he smothered the PET into his clothes to keep it quiet, much to Forte’s indignation. He then heard a squeak and someone running away from the area; his cue for him to follow.

“What the hell are you doing?!” Forte snapped at him when Netto reattached the PET to his clip. The brunette didn’t even bother looking at him.

“I just found someone, fin-head!” he replied while running after the figure, all vestiges of hunger forgotten. “I had to shut you up somehow, since you would have scared them off.” The navi huffed at the remark, but didn’t say anything. “This is our chance to find out what’s going on!”

“Then why didn’t you just say so?” the navi grumbled before falling silent. Netto continued following the footsteps that the figure had left, determined to know what had happened. Eventually, the footsteps ended a short distance away from a dirty looking building.

“They must be in there…” he muttered. He started to walk towards the building when Forte caught his attention.

“Hold on, human. It’s possible that it could be a trap.” he stated. Netto smirked at the PET.

“And here I thought you didn’t care about me.”

Forte growled. “Idiot! Do you think I care even one bit about your well being?” he snarled. “The only reason I am even pointing this out to your thick head is that if something happens to you, I won’t be able to get back to where I belong. You got that?!”

Sighing, he nodded. Although he wouldn’t admit it, Forte was right. It could be a trap…but something told him that he should go in there. “Then what do you think we should do? In case you haven’t noticed, this has been the only lead we’ve had all day! If we don’t take this chance now, then it’ll be forever before we get back home!” Forte said nothing, but he continued unhindered. “Look Forte, all I’m saying is to trust me on this one. I have a feeling that this isn’t a trap.”

“And just exactly why should I trust this feeling of yours?” he scoffed. Netto frowned.

“Well, it’s either this, or I wander around aimlessly for the next few days until I die of starvation. Then you wouldn’t be able to get back to the net, huh?” Forte just scowled in retaliation.

“Fine then, human. Go ahead and get killed for all I care.” he growled, turning his back to Netto.

Taking a deep breath, Netto tentatively entered the run-down building. At first, there wasn’t anything of interest that he immediately saw. However, just by looking around, he could tell people were here from the sight of footprints. “Alright then, there should still be people here. All I have to do now is find them…” Netto murmured, finally thinking that something has gone right for once.

He spotted a stairway near the back of the room leading to the basement. Silently, he walked over to the stairway, only to pause when he heard a loud slam come from below. Staying still for a few moments, he heard some voices from the bottom of the stairway.

“-I saw…-“

“…What? How-“

“It is possible-“

Unfortunately, he could only hear garbled pieces of the conversation, but it was enough for him to rethink his current plan of action. Was Forte actually right? he thought, his confident mood dampened, Whoever is down there may already be expecting me. As far as I know, they may not be really friendly…what should I do?

The people down there were possibly the only ones left in this vicinity. If anyone could help him and Forte, it would probably be the people down below. However, Forte’s warning was still clear in his head. Could he really expect them to help him? They could be setting up a trap for him down the stairwell for all he knew. Assessing his options, Netto reluctantly saw that the bad scenario outweighed the good one and turned around to leave.

Forte took this time to snicker, taking in Netto’s expression with delight. “Heh…not willing to admit that I might be right, are you?” The brunette glared at the screen.

“Shut up, fin-head.” The navi ignored the insult, still preferring to snicker at him, much to Netto’s annoyance.
As he was leaving, he suddenly heard someone squeak behind him. Turning around, he saw a little girl staring at him, her eyes wide. She looked no older than 10, and had messy brown hair cascading down her back. Surprised, Netto just stood there; waiting to see who would initiate conversation first. However, the girl immediately got scared and took flight down the stairway.

“Hey, wait!” All fears of a trap forgotten, Netto followed her down into the basement, determined to get some answers. He quickly ran down the hallway, trying to see where the little girl went. Eventually, he found a large steel door somewhere near the middle of the hallway. His breath hitching in his chest, he slowly grabbed the handle and turned it. He then pushed open the door and entered the room, looking for any sign of the girl.

“Who are you, mister?” spoke a sudden voice to his right. Netto jumped up in surprise before turning to face the person who startled him. It was the same little girl from earlier.

“Uh…maybe I should be the one asking that question.” he replied. The girl still kept staring at him, making him uncomfortable. He jerked when he heard another voice come out of another part of the room.

“Michiru, what are you…” Netto saw a plump looking woman enter the room, who trailed off when she caught sight of him. He stiffened; what was she going to do to him?

Much to his shock, the woman smiled. “Ah, so you’re the one that Michiru told me about! Come on in!”

“What?” he questioned plainly, disbelieving. Forte seemed a bit taken aback as well. The woman ushered them in and closed the door. Netto was stunned; out of all possible outcomes, this was the least expected. “W-wait! Who are you?”

The woman still kept on smiling. “I’m Karin. Nice to meet you, young man.” She said as she shook his hand. Netto and Forte blinked in unison.

She’s really…Polite. he thought, dumbstruck. Well, he might as well return the courtesy. “Well…I’m Hikari Netto. Pleased to meet you.” he said as he shook her hand. If possible, Karin’s smile widened even more.

“Oh, you’re such a polite young man!” she squealed, much to Netto’s growing confusion. “Go ahead and make yourself at home, Netto-kun! I’ll go whip us up a meal real quickly!” With that, she raced off to the kitchen. Netto and Forte just stared after her.

“What…was that?” Netto slowly questioned, his mind still reeling from just meeting Karin.

Forte shrugged. “Don’t ask me, human.”

The little girl, Michiru, cleared her throat. “Sorry about that…mama is a little…excited about meeting new people.” Netto’s gazed at her, still somewhat stunned. “Anyway…I’m Michiru. Pleased to meet you, Netto.” she said while smiling.

Netto shook out of his stupor. “Not to be rude or anything…but what exactly is going on here?” he asked. Michiru sighed.

“I’m sorry for not talking to you earlier…but I wanted to tell mama that there was a stranger that needed help.” she replied while staring at the ground. “Mama likes helping strangers. She says that she gets joy out of helping people that are lost. She says it’s all she can do for some reason…”

Netto’s eyes widened but he said nothing. Before he could ask another question, Michiru took his hand and guided him to a wooden table. “Please, take a seat! Mama will be done soon, and then we can talk.” she stated, which seemed to relieve Netto in a small way. Sitting down, he nodded at Michiru, who smiled and left for the same room Karin was in.

“I don’t like this. They’re far too nice.” Forte muttered finally. To his slight surprise, Netto nodded.

“I know…” he agreed, “but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they’re just really nice people after all? Besides that, this is our chance to find out what is up. However, I’ll be ready if something is up.” Forte reluctantly agreed.

Soon enough, Karin came out of the kitchen carrying a huge pot and some utensils for Netto. “Now dear…” she began as she set up a bowl and spoon in front of him. “Eat up! It’s my special soup!” Karin beamed as she lifted the pot cover, showing the contents inside. She scooped some of soup inside the bowl and handed it to Netto.

Taking a spoonful of the soup, Netto eyed it carefully. I hope it isn’t poisoned. he thought warily before taking a sip of it. It tasted somewhat sweet, and it had some sort of odd flavor in there that Netto couldn’t explain. He liked it though, so he couldn’t complain. “It’s good.” he finally said.

Karin beamed even more. “Wonderful! Help yourself!” she said before heading back towards the kitchen, presumably to get even more bowls. Netto continued to slowly eat the soup, helping himself to a second bowl when Karin returned with Michiru and a dark-haired man about Karin’s height a few minutes later.

“Oh, is this the boy, Karin?” the man questioned. The woman nodded, and the man smiled. “Hello there, young man. I’m Shinta, it’s nice to meet you.” He said while bowing. Netto just stared at him with the soup spoon still stuck in his mouth.

They’re all so polite, it’s freaky… he thought while wrenching the spoon from his mouth. Gulping down the soup, he proceeded to introduce himself. “I’m Hikari Netto, sir. Thank you for having me.” he said as he got up and bowed. Forte scoffed silently, saying something about stupid human traditions.

Shinta smiled at him. “You are a polite young man…it’s rare to see someone like yourself around these parts.” he sighed and sat down in the chair opposite of Netto. The other two family members sat next to him as they helped themselves to the soup. The three of them started chatting idly while eating, leaving Netto to his thoughts.

“Human!” Forte quietly hissed, finally having enough of getting nowhere. “Just ask them already!” Netto shot a glare at the PET.

“I know! I’m going to, fin-head! Just give me a minute!” he retorted. Luckily, the family was too distracted by their chatting to notice the bickering between the two. Finally, Netto was able to catch a break in the conversation. “Um…excuse me, Shinta? Can I ask you some questions?”

Shinta looked up, his eyebrows raised. “Sure, go ahead.”

Netto fidgeted in his seat, somewhat nervous. “This may sound strange, but…what happened to this city?”

The three family members seemed to freeze. “You don’t know?” Michiru asked, disbelieving. When Netto shook his head, the three traded looks with each other.

Shinta leaned down and put his chin in his hands, his eyes slightly narrowed. “Where do you come from, boy?” he asked, his polite demeanor vanishing in an instant. Karin looked worriedly over at him.

Netto visibly stiffened. Quick, make up a lie! MAKE UP A LIE! his mind screamed at him. “Well sir…I come from very far away. I was…for lack of a better term, kidnapped, and I’m now wandering aimlessly.” he lied, hoping that they would accept it as truth.

It had its desired effect on both Karin and Michiru, as the woman gasped. “Oh, you poor dear! This must be a terrible experience for you!” Meanwhile, Shinta frowned for a bit before he sat up.

“Alright, I’ll take your word for it.” he said while smiling. “The truth is…we don’t know much about what happened ourselves. It’s been like this for as long as we’ve been alive, probably.” Seeing Netto’s horrified face, he paused briefly before continuing. “We’ve also been underground as long as I can remember…so have all the other people of the planet. I suppose whatever catastrophe had happened forced all human beings underground. Maybe it was from too much pollution, or something else. I’m not entirely sure…This is why our skin is so pale.” After that remark, Netto took a closer look at the family. Now that he got good look at them, their skin was really pale…like a ghost’s. Shinta continued on, uninterrupted.

“Whatever the reason, everyone lives underground. Thankfully, someone managed to find a way to channel electricity underground, so we don’t all live in the dark. Eventually, it became safe once again for us to live above ground. However, everyone was so used to living underground at this time that they just stayed there. People nowadays only go up to the surface to either look around or work in specialized areas.” Shinta finished his explanation and took a sip of water, his throat dry from the long explanation.

Netto was dumbstruck. “So…the city has always been like this, basically?” Seeing the man nod, he slumped in his chair. “Oh man…this isn’t getting me anywhere.” he muttered quietly. However, he then had an idea. “Hey, Shinta? Do you know where any kinds of records are stored?”

Shinta frowned again. “Unfortunately, all documents regarding what happened have been destroyed as far as I know.” Netto’s face fell visibly. “However…” he started, which got his attention, “I think that the old building near the destroyed tower may have some information.” Netto visibly brightened up.

“Really?” he asked. Shinta nodded.

“It’s possible. Many people believe that place is cursed, which is why no one will get near it. I’m fairly certain it hasn’t been looted yet, either. I guess not many people are desperate enough to try…” he stopped talking when he saw the boy get up.

“May I ask where the destroyed tower is, sir?” he questioned, his face serious. Shinta seemed to recognize this and decided to truthfully answer.

“So, you would go anyway, not caring about if there was any danger involved?” he asked. When he saw Netto nod, he closed his eyes and sighed. “Alright then. The destroyed tower is about two hours north of here. However, I would be careful out there. No telling what may happen nowadays.” He warned before falling silent.

“When do you plan to leave, Netto?” Michiru shyly asked. Netto smiled in her direction.

“Probably in a few minutes. I want to get going as soon as possible.” he answered calmly, even though he was still unnerved by what he had been told. Michiru squeaked and ran from her chair to somewhere else in the underground house. Karin also proceeded to get up.

“I’m going to go pack you some canteens of water and some soup. It’s a long trip, so you need all that you can get!” she said cheerfully as she made her way out of the room. Netto looked down at Shinta, slightly exasperated.

“She’s very overbearing, isn’t she?” Shina nodded.

“Yes, at times she is…” he agreed. Suddenly, his face hardened and he stood up, slightly scaring Netto. “Now Netto, it’s time for you to tell me the truth. Why are you here?”

His eyes went wide. “H-how did you…?”

Shinta snorted. “It was easy enough. The discrepancies within your story were very easy to spot, and anyone who is anyone would know that no one asks what happened to this place. Now, out with it.” he said, the last part coming out as a growl.

Netto saw no other choice. He proceeded to tell Shinta everything; from when he woke up in a strange room to the time he saw Michiru and followed her. He left out the part involving Forte, seeing as he wasn’t sure about how they would react. At the end, Shinta nodded. “Alright, so you’re a far ways from home and have no idea where you are…” he sighed. “At this point, I guess your only choice at this moment is to go to the building I mentioned. I see no other way than that.”

Netto sighed in relief. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.” Shinta smiled.

“Don’t get me wrong, boy. I’m very protective about my family. Just be thankful that I was the only one who caught on to your lie. Had it been anyone else…” he trailed off to drive the point in. Netto gulped and nodded hastily.

At this moment, Karin came back into the room with a bag. “Here you go dear! Three canteens of water and a thermos of soup! Take care out there, Netto-kun!” she smiled cheerfully and handed him the bag before heading back into the other room. Shinta sighed again.

“Alright then, be careful. You don’t know what may happen, especially around here. And…” he trailed off, as if reluctant. “If you can, get back here as soon as you can. You can rest if you need to afterwards.” he stated with a smile.

Netto smiled back at him. “Don’t worry, I will.” Netto turned to leave out the door. However, before he could, Michiru came running up to him.

“Wait…please. Take this…” she said as quietly as she could. She handed him a wrapped bundle of cloth, with numerous things inside it. “Open it when you really need to…” Michiru blushed and ran back the way she came, leaving a confused Netto.

Shaking his head, Netto decided it was time to go. “I’ll be back as soon as possible, Shinta…I promise.” With that, he opened the door that led to the murky hallway and left towards the stairwell leading to the surface.

--

“Great job, human.” Netto jumped; he forgot Forte had not spoken in some time. It was hard to tell if the navi’s voice was either praising him or mocking him, though. “We didn’t really learn much at all! Now we’re going to some abandoned place for some information which may not even be true!”

“Well, it’s better than nothing fin-head!” he growled as he made his way out of the building and into the outside world. “At least we have a lead on somewhere to go. If he really wanted to, he could’ve withheld the information from us. Then where would we be?” he questioned, already annoyed with Forte.

“I suppose…” Forte huffed. The human had a point. “But nevertheless, this can be an elaborate trap set up to kill you. He knew you were lying the minute you said something, so it’s highly possible. I’m surprised those females ate that lie up! I hope you don’t think you’re such a smooth talker, human, because you’re not.”

Netto frowned as he walked along. Forte had just hit upon all the points he was worried about. Shinta was a smart person; he knew that just by speaking with him. It probably wouldn’t be out of his league to do something like this. However, on the other hand, he wasn’t about to get suspicious of a person he just met. Shinta was friendly enough when he felt unthreatened, after all. And even when he knew he was lying, he still gave out the location of where he could find out some information.

Netto sighed. I’ll decide what to do when I get there. he resolved, and continued on the long path leading to the tower. “Fin-head, we’re going anyway. We’ll take a look, and then decide on what to do.”

Forte fumed. “Stop calling me that accursed name!” Netto chuckled at the navi’s reaction. The next two hours of walking were going to be fun…

--


Well, I wasn’t expecting the walk to be that boring. Netto thought as he finally got to the destroyed tower a few hours later. Indeed, it was a very boring walk, since Forte didn’t want to talk unless Netto provoked him. The majority of the time was spent in silence, with Netto trying to make idle chat as he walked, but Forte would not even talk to him.

They had arrived at the site fairly early, since Netto only took two rests from walking so long. Even now his legs hurt, but he had something more important to do than sit around. Looking around, he spotted the building Shinta talked about; it was the only one even near the tower.

“Well, there it is…” he stated tiredly. “All we have to do is to get the information from there and get back to Shinta’s place.” Forte grunted.

“Do I even have to remind you it could be a trap?” the navi remarked. Netto shook his head.

“No, you don’t. I’ve already decided that we’re going in there. I don’t care if it’s a trap or not, we really need to see if there is something inside that could help us.” Forte said nothing.

A few minutes later found Netto at the entrance to the ruined building. Looking around the doorway, he found a ruined plaque to the right of it. Leaning in to get a closer look, Netto found it had some discernable words on it. “I can’t read this first word…it’s far too ruined. But this second one…” Netto gazed even closer to look at the word. “…Labs? Then this building is…!” he gasped, looking through the entryway.

“What are you so excited about, human?” Forte sneered. Netto stared back down at the PET, slightly breathless.

“Don’t you get it, fin-head? This place used to be a lab! Labs usually have computers, which is perfect! Maybe the information is stored somewhere in the computers…” he trailed off, looking at Forte.

The navi blinked. “What are you…” Realization dawned on him as he immediately growled. “So, you’ll have me do it? Typical…Humans never do anything for themselves.” Netto frowned.

“You have to understand, Forte…You can get into a computer system or server easily. I can’t. And even if I could access a working computer, if there is no monitor, I’m stuck.” he reasoned. Forte narrowed his eyes.

“Fine then.” he spat. “But this is only because we have made an agreement, understood? Even when I am in the system, you can’t help me anyway.” Forte scoffed.

Netto was about to retort to that, but then winced as he remembered that he didn’t have any battle chips on him. “You’re right…” he muttered softly. “Let’s keep going.”

Netto warily made his way into the lab, keeping a lookout for anything of interest. After a few minutes of wandering around the dark place, he found his way to a room in the back. Taking a look around, it seemed that everything was destroyed. Scanning the room, he found a large computer with a large wall screen near the back. He ran over to the computer, his heart racing. Netto quickly found the power switch, his fingers ghosting over the button.

Please turn on, please turn on… he chanted in his head as he pressed the button. At first, there was no response. Then, just as Netto’s patience was about to give way, the machine gave a loud hum and turned on. “Yes!” he crowed in triumph; something actually went his way for once! Immediately, he started searching for any plug-in ports that he could use.

After a few minutes of searching, he finally found one near the front end of the server. “Alright,” he breathed, “Let’s do this. You ready, Forte?” He heard a grunt from the navi, signifying that he was ready. Netto unhooked the PET from its clip and brought it in front of him.

“Plug in! Forte, Transmission!” he yelled as he shot the infrared beam at the port. After a few seconds of inactivity, Forte appeared on the screen. “Forte! Can you read me loud and clear?” he asked a bit loudly.

“Yes, I can. You don’t have to be so loud, human.” he replied back with a slight sneer. Netto just let that pass since it wasn’t the time for it.

“Good…” he sighed in relief. “Now, we have to find any sort of data that can help us…I really hope there is some inside this computer. Forte, could you…”

“I’ll find them.” Forte cut in before Netto could finish, “I don’t need orders from you.” he said before floating through the computer pathways. The brunette just sighed again.

After about a half hour of searching, the black navi still couldn’t find anything. “There’s nothing around here!” he said in frustration, “We are wasting our time in here! Human, get me out of here!” Netto was just about to plug-out Forte when he noticed something on the screen.

“Hey, Forte…did you check over that way?” he questioned, curious as how that path got there. The navi looked over to where Netto was pointing and narrowed his eyes.

“That path wasn’t there before…” he said, annoyed. Nevertheless, he floated along the new path, searching for anything of relevance. Eventually, he stopped on a wide platform when he finally saw what he was looking for.

“Ah…that’s some documented data! I think that’s what we were looking for!” Netto said, excited.

Forte snorted. “Finally, we can get out of this dark place.” he started to head towards the data when Netto’s voice rang out.

“Forte, behind you!” his voice screamed out, obviously startled by something appearing. The navi immediately turned around and was greeting with the sight of a large black…thing.

‘Thing’ was too kind, as it was in the shape of a large, black, and horribly ugly wolf virus. It had two heads; both of them staring down Forte and their mouths were slobbering all over the place. Its fur was unruly and spiked; its paws large with wicked looking claws. To top it all off, its tail was long and sharp; almost like a sword’s.

Forte smirked. He had been waiting for a chance to destroy something, and this beast was his lucky victim. This would be fun…

The wolf took first initiative by pouncing towards the navi. Forte quickly dodged out of the way, and started to prepare his Shooting Buster. However, he wasn’t expecting the virus to recover so quickly and pounce at him again. He was able to dodge again, but he lost the charge on his Shooting Buster and had to start over. Growling, he charged it once again and fired it at the wolf virus multiple times. However, to both his and Netto’s shock, the virus merely shrugged it off and charged at Forte again. This time, it was able to land a direct hit with its paw, sending Forte careening back.

Fortunately, he was able to recover quickly. “Forte, this isn’t a normal virus! If it was able to shrug off your Shooting Buster so easily, then you have to be careful!” came Netto’s voice from a pop-up screen. “This thing is possibly on par with the Dream Virus and Gospel!”

“Gee, thanks for pointing that out! I didn’t notice!” he shot back sarcastically. Deciding to use a different method, Forte prepared another Shooting Buster and charged right at the virus. Just as the he got near the wolf, he jumped up towards one of its heads and let the buster off right between the eyes.

The virus howled in pain as one of the head’s eyes became useless. Forte landed right behind the virus, smirking. Unfortunately, that was a bad move as the virus now saw red. Swishing its tail, the wolf suddenly came down in Forte’s direction. Surprised, he managed to dodge just in time, but not before it caught and tore off part of his cloak.

Forte snarled; that blow had come too close. “Alright, no more playing around!” he shouted before charging up some energy in his right arm. This time, the virus leaped at him, its claws extended to tear him to shreds. Forte quickly jumped up in the air and struck just as the wolf was recovering. “Earth Breaker!” he shouted, aiming the concentrated energy down at the wolf. However, the virus managed to shift away at the last minute, but not without taking damage.

The Earth Breaker slammed into one of its hind legs, partially destroying it. The wolf let out a howl of great pain, its rear slumping to the ground. This time, Forte didn’t dare take any chances and immediately prepared another Earth Breaker.

However, it seemed the wolf was not out of the fight yet as both mouths opened to breathe fire at the navi. Black fire?! Forte thought, annoyed that his Earth Breaker didn’t even destroy the virus. Forced on the defensive, he immediately leapt back to avoid the flames. However, the virus wasn’t done yet as it began shooting high speed fireballs from its mouths. Forte found himself hard pressed to dodge.

Netto watched the battle in growing concern. It seemed that Forte, one of the most powerful navis ever created, was experiencing growing difficulty against a powerful virus. Forte managed to take out one of its hind legs, bit the virus was not giving him any more chances to strike. What am I going to do?! Forte’s in trouble and I can’t do a damn thing about it! he thought as he started looking for anything to help him. After a few seconds of searching, he pulled out the bundle that Michiru gave to him. She said to open this when I really needed to…which may be right now! Immediately, he opened the cloth bundle to see some various items. Most of them looked useless, however…

“A battle chip!” he gasped, quickly picking it up. How had Michiru known that he would need this? Quickly turning it around, he stared in shock at what chip it was. “No way…” Shaking himself out of his stupor, he turned back to the PET. “Forte! I’m going to help!”

The navi was still dodging the relentless fireball attacks, but it seemed one had grazed his side slightly. “Oh yeah?” he retorted, “What are you going to do? You can’t do anything right now!”

Netto smirked. “I’m going to give you something that will allow you to delete the virus.” Taking the battle chip within his fingers, he brought it up to his PET. “Battle chip! Dream Aura, Slot-In!”

Forte blinked in shock as the familiar purple aura encased his form. His momentary lapse allowed a fireball to strike him. However, he didn’t even feel it as the Dream Aura absorbed the attack. Forte slowly smiled as he now had the means to win the battle. “You’ve given me a lot of trouble, virus…but now, I’ll show you what a true wolf looks like…” he said as he formed a cannon in the shape of Gospel. He was preparing for his Vanishing World attack.

The virus seemed to pick up on what was going on, as it shot even more fireballs at the navi. Thanks to the Dream Aura, however, the attacks didn’t even get through. The virus started to try and run, which was severely hindered with its destroyed hind leg.

“There’s no where to run…” Forte muttered as the Gospel head gathered more energy. “This is the end! VANISHING WORLD!” he cried out as he finally shot the destructive ray of energy at the virus, which could only look at its oncoming death.

The beam hit, and the virus was no more.

Netto sighed in relief. That was a very close battle; he wasn’t entirely sure if Forte was going to win. He picked up his PET and looked at Forte, who also knelt down to rest after using the Vanishing World. “Hey Forte….you alright?”

Forte seemed surprised by the concern Netto was showing towards him. “Yes…I am fine…” he muttered loud enough for the operator to hear. The navi also closed his eyes and sighed. “Also…” he didn’t want to say it, but he forced himself to. “Thank you… Netto.”

Netto allowed himself a smile at that. “You’re welcome. Now, did the data survive?” he asked, suddenly remembering it was on the platform. Somehow, it didn’t seem as important now than with Forte’s survival.

Taking a quick check around, the navi found the data still floating at the edge of the platform. “It seems that the data survived…” Forte took a scan of the data, and scowled at what he found. “It seems most of this data is corrupted…all but two files. What should I do with it?” At this point, Forte was too tired to even argue, so he just decided to ask what he should do.

“Open them.” Netto said quickly. Forte nodded and opened both files.

--

LOG FILE #00489
DATE: UNKNOWN

It…it has happened…the Environmental System has shut down completely…soon, all of this planet’s wrath will fall upon us, destroying civilization. Everything shall fall into chaos. I can’t take this…

What caused the System to shut down in the first place? All witnesses say there was a weird white light all of a sudden, and the next thing they knew, the Environmental System was receiving critical errors…I don’t believe them at the time, but…I’m willing to believe anything now, as long as I can get away from the world…

If anyone finds this log…I shall be long dead…after I write this out, I shall fling myself off the tower. I pray for those souls who survive in the future.

…

END OF LOG

--

Netto felt slightly sick from reading that log, but at least he had a slight understanding of what happened now. So, this world had an Environmental System too? But it failed for some reason…I hope the next log is more informative.

--

LOG FILE #XXXXX
DATE: UNKNOWN

If anyone is reading this log, read carefully about what I’m about to say.

The destruction of the planet was intentional. Someone or something hacked their way into the Environmental System and destroyed it before it could be saved. I was there when the odd white light showed up. I was not blinded like the others. I saw the light quickly head over into the system and do something to it which destroyed it. I do not know what it is at this time, nor will I ever know.

I can imagine that the world is in chaos right now. Whether or not if people have gotten to their feet and are rebuilding their lives…this tragedy will happen again if nothing is done.

That is why I implore the reader of this document to go to the Environmental System and investigate it. I would think there is something there…something we missed.

I will be dead when you read this line, for I made sure this document can only be opened afterwards. Please…go to the Environmental System. The coordinates are locater in an attachment at the bottom…

…stay safe…

…

END OF LOG

ATTCH: ESYSTEM-COORDINATES. DOWNLOAD? Y/N

--

Netto was silent after he read the log. Sighing, he nodded to Forte. “Download the coordinates, Forte. We’ll need them later…right now, we must go back to Shinta’s and tell him what has happened.”

--

Netto had arrived back at Shinta’s before night had fallen. The man wanted to ask him what had happened, but Karin stepped in and demanded that he rest since he looked like he was about to faint. Netto gladly agreed, and fell asleep as soon as he hit the bed.

The next morning, Karin prepared an in-bed meal for Netto, which he gladly ate. Afterwards, he found Shinta sitting down at the table, apparently thinking. He snapped out of his daze and turned to the boy. “Yes?”

Netto proceeded to explain what happened at the lab, leaving out the virus battle for obvious reasons. Shinta looked at him wide-eyed. “Did those logs really say that?” he asked. When Netto nodded, he ran a hand through his black hair. “Then I guess…you have to go to the Environmental System then, don’t you?” Another nod. “Alright then. I’ll go tell Karin about this. Just stay here for one more night; you look like you need the rest.

“Thank you, Shinta.” Netto replied while bowing. Shinta just smiled at him in return.
Netto then went to look for Michiru, who he found sitting quietly and humming to herself in another room of the house. She squeaked when she noticed him at last. “N-Netto! I…didn’t know you were back!”

“Yeah, I am…” he replied. “Michiru…thank you for the gift. It really helped me.” He then drew her into a hug.

She blushed, but said nothing.

That night, a great dinner was held and the four ate together for the last time. That night, Netto knew he would miss these people, even if only knew them for a day. Smiling, he went to sleep, dreaming of all his friends back home.

The following day, Netto departed from Shinta, Karin, and Michiru after a long good-bye. He sadly smiled, but continued on.

“Well, time to go, eh fin-head?” he smirked down at the PET.

Forte smirked right back at him. “Of course, human.”

Walking into the horizon, Netto began his long journey home.

--

Next Chapter: Interlude I-Intentions: Finally, the identity of the voice is known. However, another figure happens to overhear it's intentions and begins their own preparations to stop them. Meanwhile, Enzan learns of Netto's disappearance and races to the Hikari residence for answers.
--

[b]Author's Notes:[b] Alright, I'm sorry for the long delay...again. I've just started school again and have taken on a job, so this fic unfortunately had to take a backseat while I got my affairs in order.

Chapters will be coming out slowly, depending on my schedule. However, don't think that I have abandoned this fic if there has been no update in some time; it just means that it's taking me sligly longer to update than normal.

Anyways, thanks go to Quatre Winner and JK for betaing.
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<3 Planty~
Art in icon done by Raburabbit.

[Kitty-Chan]

This is really quite intriguing. I shall eagerly await the next installment.
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Need more Zero/X, Netto/Rock, Rock/Netto, Forte/Netto, & Blues/Netto. PLEASE!
Ano sa...could someone please make me a Zero/X, Blues/Netto, or Forte/Netto avatar/banner? I would greatly appreciate it...
Thanks for the avatar, Mandi!
People! We need more Blues/Netto & Forte/Netto on the net. Come on; help me out here! *gives everyone her Super-Adorable Irrisistable Sad Kitty Eyes(TM)*