Chapter 2: Into the Network, PG (Stream and Beast Spoilers)

[Nenji]

Thunder and lighting played in the sky, illuminating the rooms of a house on a city street. Rain drops fell from the storm clouds, playing their dance with gravity as they descended from the heavens and hit the ground. However, in an upstairs room of the house this went unnoticed. Rain sprayed against the window as the storm raged outside, wind howling eerily and forcefully caressing the great oak outside the window.

The room belonged to an average teenager, it was messy with little available floor space and it was poorly illuminated at night. The only light source came from the monitor of the PC the room’s occupant was currently sitting in front of. The images playing across it revealed a Japanese cartoon.

As a rift appeared on screen and swallowed up a cloaked figure holding a small child. Three other figures also were sucked into the swirling vortex, followed by another girl and boy. As the latter two figures were engulfed by the rift, a bolt of lightning stuck a nearby power line, sending a powerful charge down the cables and into the house.

There was a flash as bright as the sun, then the room was empty.


Suddenly the boy was plunged through a world of strange forms and colours, for three seconds he thought he had lost his mind. Suddenly, he picked himself up and realised he’d somehow fallen onto someone.

“I’m terribly sorry!” He said apologetically to the figure on the ground, who was attempting to get up himself.

“Not as sorry as I am…now where did that data go?” The figure said, searching around for something.

The word “Data” hit the boy like a rock and wheeling around, he took his first decent look at where he was. The sight defied description and was completely impossible; somehow he was inside the computer network of the cartoon he had been watching.

“Where am I?” He asked suddenly, frightened and very nervous of what could happen.

“Amerroupe Net Area, North Eastern Coast Segment. Are you a foreign Navi or something?” the Navi asked absently, finding his lost data and picking it up.

Something was wrong though, the boy couldn’t breathe! He gulped a few times but there simply was nothing to breathe in.

“I can’t breathe here!” He cried out desperately to the Navi who had begun to walk away.

“What do you mean you can’t…oh my word! What’s a human doing here?” The Navi cried out in surprise, turning around and seeing the boy.

The boy gasped, trying to breathe in anything, but his lungs were empty and he started to loose consciousness. As his eyesight began to fade and he began to sink into unconsciousness he felt a pull. A force he couldn’t resist was pulling him outside of the network and elsewhere.


“Doctor Hikari, viruses have invaded the Dimensional Converters!” Meijin cried out, running into the doctor’s lab.

“How? The Converters have the most advanced Firewall systems we have ever developed!” Doctor Hikaru asked, confused at the sudden breach of their defences.

“We’re unsure, but the viruses seem so simple that they were ignored by the Firewall.” Meijin said, bringing a display up on the wall displaying the status of the converters. “However, they have brought down the firewall which is allowing normal archetype viruses to invade the systems!”

Suddenly, alarms and sirens went off, with corresponding warnings and alerts from the display on the wall.

“The Converters are activating!” Doctor Hikari said staring at the screen. “This could be bad…”


“Right Papa, I’m nearby so I’ll check it out!” Hikari Netto replied, finishing a call with his father.

“So viruses actually got into the Dimensional Converters?” Rockman wondered, a little puzzled. “But why would they activate the Converters instead of destroying them?”

“Who knows, we just have to make sure they don’t cause trouble in the real world!” Netto said simply, not one to deep thinking on any matter. “Let’s go Rockman!”


“You’re late.” Enzan said as Netto arrived a minute later.

“Cheater!” Netto said, noticing the limousine nearby and poking out his tongue.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Now come on, we have a job to do.” Enzan said slightly irritably, pulling out his Synchro Chip and Cross Fusing. Netto followed his example and both jumped into the middle of the Dimensional Area.

Viruses began to swarm around them, some familiar, some strange and oddly simple.

“What’s up with these Viruses?” Netto asked Rockman and Enzan, bemused at how harmless some of them looked.

“They’re simpler viruses without any self awareness.” Enzan replied, loading a Long Blade Battle Chip into his PET and jumping towards some Mushy viruses.

“They’re actually very close to viruses that used to be around while the Internet was much more primitive.” Rockman said to Netto through the Cross Fusion. “But I doubt they’ll even have any attack data.”

”Battle Chip, Yoyo! Slot in!” Netto cried out as the Chip downloaded from his PET and into the Cross Fusion. He span around once and then unleashed the Yoyo while he kept spinning, resulting in any viruses approaching getting deleted. Enzan was making quick work of those around him as well, when suddenly a figure substantiated into the Dimensional Area.

“Help me…I can’t breathe in there!” The boy cried out in English, before one of the Lark viruses turned and attacked him. Netto gasped as the Wide Shot flew at the boy, who held out his hands to block it in a futile attempt at self defense. Incredibly as the attack hit the adolescent, where it made contact with his body weirdly distorted cubes of data blocked the wave and reflected it.

“Netto, we’ve isolated the Dimensional Converters and are shutting them down.” Came a call from his father, which was transmitted through the PET into the Cross Fusion.

“Wait, Papa!” Netto cried, but the Dimensional Area had already begun to collapse.

“No, please! There’s no air in the Internet!” Cried out the boy, panic in his eyes as he dematerialised and was pulled back into the network.

“PAPA!” Netto screamed into his PET, “Activate the Dimensional Area in the test lab now!”

”What are you saying?” Yuuichiro asked, confused with his anxious child.

“There’s someone in the network!” Netto yelled back at his father.

“Netto, that’s impossible…” Enzan started as he walked over to Netto. He’d been busy battling viruses and hadn’t seen the boy.

”Activate the test Dimensional Area!” Yuuichiro could be heard yelling, over the PET. After a few seconds his face turned white and he replied. “Netto, you’re right but this is…impossible. Humans can enter Cyberspace via the Pulse Transmission System, but his entire body is somehow digitised!”

“We’d better go to Sci-Lab and see what’s going on.” Blues said from Enzan’s PET who nodded in agreement.

“A Human in Cyberspace…” Rockman said in wonder as the pair of humans ran to the limo.


Netto and Enzan stared at the boy, who was shivering a little as he sat in the test Dimensional Area.

“Do you think I could have a coat, or at least something warm to eat?” The boy asked nervously, looking up at the two similarly aged boys looking down at him intently.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Netto asked, confused as he couldn’t understand the boy.

“Netto…you really don’t pay any attention in class do you?” Enzan quipped dryly, earning him a disgruntled glare from Netto. At that moment Yuuichiro walked in carrying a tray with a meal on it. Accompanying him was Chief Kifune, with Manabe as always and a third man walking behind who wore a visitor’s ID.

“So, this is our mysterious child is it?” Kifune asked intently, looking at the boy who was positively shaking from fear now, as well as the cold.

”That’s right, his body is the same as ours in every way biologically, except it’s somehow being expressed as data.” Yuuichiro replied, setting down the tray of food and sliding it into the Dimensional Area carefully, so that it didn’t oppose the field as it went in. The adolescent looked at the food, which consisted of steamed rice, some chicken, some noodles and a cup of green tea. He picked up the chopsticks and nervously inspected them; soon it was apparent to everyone he didn’t have a clue how to use them.

“Go and fetch him a fork or something!” Kifune said to one of the assistants, smiling as the boy skewered one of the pieces of chicken on a chopstick and devoured it.

“Now, can you understand me?” Manabe asked, kneeling down so she was level with the boy.

“You can speak English!” He exclaimed, looking up from his meal.

“Yes, we also have an interpreter here to make sure that we can talk to you.” She said gently, trying not to startle the nervous child too much. “Can you tell us who you are?”

“Well…” The boy started, suddenly looking nervous and apprehensive. “My name is Steve…Steve Canwell.”

“Can you tell us how you ended up in the digital world, Steve?” Manabe asked, satisfied she at least had a name to check up.

“There was a lightning storm while I was watching…” The boy suddenly trailed off, not sure of what to say.

“What were you watching? Tell us everything you can remember.” Kifune interjected, which made the boy sweat.

“Ah…I was watching….Rockman EXE…Beast.” He said ackwardly, as the faces around him except for Netto, who was oblivious to what he said, went slack jawed.

“You were watching…Rockman?” Manabe asked sharply.

”Not Rockman himself…just the cartoon.” Steve said quietly, quivering under the stares of those in the lab.

“There’s a Cartoon of me?” Rockman asked incredulously which made Netto jump in surprise.

“Well, I come from a different world, or at least time.” Steve said, looking at Yuuichiro and said, “I think it has to do with…Foassa….Ambient?”

“Fossa Ambience…” Yuuichiro said, thinking hard for a moment. “We only know of Beyondard through Fossa Ambience but theoretically, it’s possible that there are other worlds out there as well.”

“I thought that was the result of Willy, the Dennoujyuu and the Synchroniser.” Kifune mused, also thinking for a moment as the attendant returned and handed Steve a fork.

“It could go someway to explaining why his Data cannot interact with ours, but not why he seems to be pulled to and fro by Dimensional Areas. Nor why he is even able to substantiate in them.” Yuuichiro replied, smiling a little as he watched the enigmatic boy eat the food ravenously.

“Excuse me, can someone explain what’s going on?” Netto asked, a little bewildered and everyone else, especially Enzan, sighed and looked at him.

“At any rate, we can’t say how long he will stay in the Dimensional Area.” Manabe said and turned to Steve. “We may not be able to keep you in here for long, so please try to co-operate with us as much as possible.”

“I can’t breathe in there! There’s no air!” He replied earnestly while blanching at the suggestion he’d have to return to Cyberspace.

“I hadn’t thought of that!” Yuuichiro replied, slightly surprised by the revelation. “Navis don’t breathe so it was never engineered into the environment data…”

“It’s too difficult to integrate an atmosphere into Cyber Space now, but maybe we can develop an autonomous program to follow the child and provide the area around him with an atmosphere?” Meijin suggested to Yuuichiro, who nodded and walked over to a nearby screen.

“Aside from programming in the Atmospheric Data, creating a small satellite to duplicate it shouldn’t be hard.” Makoto said, having walked in when no one was noticing.

“Makoto-kun…” Meijin said, softly and slightly exasperated at her comings and goings.

“Shall we get started then?” She asked, taking Meijin by the arm and almost dragging him off to some computers.

“Excuse me, but I’m a little cold, do you think I could have a jacket?” Steve asked, still shivering and having finished his meal. He had left the tea though, instead using the cup to warm his hands.

“But, it’s not cold at all…” Enzan said, a little confused at Steve’s request. There was no doubting the boy was cold, as he was shivering now and goose bumps had appeared on his arms, but there was no reason he should be cold.

“Again, we don’t know how Steve interacts with our world and our Cyber World…but I don’t know if it’d help in this case.” Yuuichiro turned to Steve and smiled kindly at him, hoping he looked reassuring. “Don’t worry Steve, we’ll try to help you if we can.”

“Thankyou Doctor Hikari.” Steve said and finally took a sip of his tea.


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Fossa Ambience is such a great invention for Cross Overs. But, this won't turn the way you may expect so be patient and keep an open mind.

Yes, I will work on my other fictions as well.
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Previously known as "HiKaizer"

[Midnight]

Oh dear.

A crossover, you say?

Anyway...this was intriguing. You do a good job in your imagery and descriptions, and it helps the reader see the situations a lot more clearly. I'll admit, when I was first reading through the initial portions, I feared that this would be a self-insertion. As the excerpt wore on, I noted that I was merely being paranoid about it.

And yes, you are right. Fossa Ambience is any crossover writer's dream. A glistening portal to other universes...how convenient.
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Today, these three players are after Big Bucks! But they'll have to avoid the Whammy, as they play the most exciting game of their lives! From Television City in Hollywood! It's time to 'Press Your Luck!'--Rod Roddy

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

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

[Nenji]

Steve had gone to sleep by the time the trio of scientists had finished the program. They had made some simple blanket programs and let him rest; they had no idea how tiring being substantiated in a Dimensional Area for that long must be, but Cross Fusion was tiring enough.

“These results!” Yuuichiro said softly, looking at some data from a scan they had just performed. But, he was called over by Manabe and pushed them out of his mind for the moment.

“Steve, please wake up.” The translator said gently, but loudly enough so that Steve wouldn’t sleep through it.

“Hmmm? Is it time for school already?” Steve replied groggily, until he saw where he was again. He sat very upright, suddenly awake from the adrenaline the strange situation caused to course through his body.

“Do you remember where you are?” He asked kindly, as Steve wiped the sleep from his eyes.

“I thought it might have been a dream, but it doesn’t seem like it is.” Steve said softly for although he was wide awake, the truth of his situation was beginning to sink in.

He was in the world of a Japanese Anime, where only a few people spoke English. He supposed he should be thankful for that small mercy, but he didn’t look forward to trying to explain the whole situation to characters that he believed hadn’t existed twenty four hours ago.

“We’ve completed the satellite program that will generate a portable atmosphere.” Meijin began, pointing to the wall where a large screen displayed many graphs and numbers. Also displayed was a strange looking sphere with two pipes on it’s poles, the diagram showed green lines appearing out of the north pipe, and red lines entering the south pipe.

“When we upload it into the Network, it will follow you around generating a small field where it creates conditions similar to the real world in terms of climate and atmosphere.” Yuuichiro added, with Makato looking quizzically at the pair of them. She said something in Japanese to Meijin who nodded, and turned back to Steve.

“However, this program is not very durable if attacked, so it would possibly be best to tuck it into a pocket in your clothes. Since your data structure seems to be unable to interact, in any way except the most basic with our data structures, it would protect the Satellite.” Meijin said, looking very seriously at Steve as he spoke.

Makoto said something in Japanese again, typed a command and suddenly the Satellite appeared in the Dimensional Area. Steve took the small sphere and tucked into a pocket in his trousers. Suddenly he felt that tug from far away again as an alarm went off, causing confusion and alarm with the scientists and others present. Everyone began to speak in Japanese and a second later, the Dimensional Area collapsed, pulling Steve back into the Network.

This time Steve was conscious of the shift between the physical world and the digital world. All his senses faded away as he slipped out of the Dimensional Area and back into the Cyber World. He knew instantly when he’d crossed over as the Satellite in his pocket grew warm and the air around him warmed up.

Steve stood up and looked around for a moment, before he was gagged by a sinister looking Navi. He tried to kick the Navi but it didn’t work, he couldn’t connect his kick as their data structures were incompatible. There was an odd feeling of interference, almost as if there was a layer of solid air between. Suddenly he heard a voice come from the Navi behind him, a deep masculine voice that was rich and refined, yet somewhat intimidating and especially so to a frightened little boy.

“You will need to decide who you stand with, will you side with Japan or with your homeland, Amerroupe?” The Navi asked softly as Steve began to shake in fear. “You’ll understand someday, we have foreseen it. Do not forget us, we shall be here when you need us…seek out Dorian Marcato.”

Suddenly Steve felt the pressure holding him fade, he turned around sharply to see who had spoken but there was no one left. Then he realised with a chill that once again, he was stranded in the strange world of the Cyber World. He counted his blessings that he was at least alive and able to breathe this time. Steve looked around but couldn’t see anything that looked familiar; a world of data surrounded him, forming complex structures that defied belief as the data interacted and intereacted.

Steve walked on, marvelling at the strange and somewhat intimidating beauty of the Cyber World before he met a group of Net Navis talking. He walked up to them nervously and worked up the courage to speak up.

“Excuse me, can you tell me where I am?” He asked timidly to the back of a male Navi. He turned around and looked intently at him, but it was the Navi next to him who spoke.

“Oh, you’re modelled on a Human! But you’re just a child, Oh! That’s simply just the cutest thing I’ve ever seen!” She said and reached out to pinch his cheeks, but was repelled by the strange barrier.

“What’s the matter with him? What does he want?” A Navi at the back asked, leaning over to look at him.

“I don’t know! Oh! But there’s something wrong with his Data.” The female Navi said, while moving her hands over his face and being obstructed by the strange wall.

“I’m…I’m…I’m supposed to be with some people but I got lost. Can you tell me where I am?” Steve asked again, shying back a little from the excentric Navi who was trying to touch his face.

“Oh! Of course we can dear, let me see…Oh! We’re in the West Coast Area, aren’t we guys?” The female Navi said kindly, looking at the others who nodded.

“How do I get to the Japanese area from here?” He asked, hoping that he could avoid mentioning his predicament.

“Well, why doesn’t your Op just plug you into an International Hub? Wouldn’t that be the easiest thing to do?” The male Navi he’d first spoken to asked, a little surprised at the question. As Steve had feared it was to them, an obvious and stupid question.

“Um…well…” Steve mumbled for a moment before he felt someone walk up behind him. The Navis in front of him looked a little startled at the figure behind him.

“I’ll be taking care of this child now.” The deep voice that came from the shadow said, and Steve turned around to see to his immense surprise, none other than Colonel. “He’s under the jurisdiction of the Army, so we ask for your discretion in this matter.” The Navis, taken aback wandered off and started whispering to each other.

“But…didn’t you and Barrel Cross Fuse with Duo?” Steve blurted out, causing Colonel to stare sharply at him.

“Colonel Barrel sent me ahead in time, using the Time Tunnel. Although it is being used for the battle against Slur and Duo, I can go to other times with it as well.” Colonel said stiffly and formally, Steve realising that not referring to Barrel by his rank had slightly offended Colonel. He then understood he’d have to be careful with peoples names and titles as well, he couldn’t use the informal names fans of the Anime and Games had adopted.

“Netto, Colonel’s found him!” Rockman said, warping in from somewhere and being closely followed by Blues and Searchman.

“Are you okay?” Netto asked Steve from a window that popped up. Steve jumped at first from the surprise of the window’s appearance. Then he realised he could understand what Netto was saying.

“Uh, yeah I think so. Only there was a strange guy…called Dorian Markan or something.” Steve said to the window, tapping it to see what would happen. It wobbled a bit but Netto didn’t seem to notice, Blues rolled his eyes though and Colonel simply looked stone faced.

“Hey! Why can I understand you now?” Netto said, also surprised by this occurrence but after a voice from the background the window widened; now it included Manabe and Meijin as well.

“It seems that the Cyber World translates all Languages into one single one, presumably dependant on what sub-routines the Navi uses.” Meijin said, before thinking and continuing on. “It’s odd however that it translates it into English, which is what you speak. Perhaps your Data is not as incompatible as we originally thought.” Meijin mused but Manabe took over the conversation.

“Steve, the man you mentioned, was his name Dorian Marcato?” Manabe asked, looking directly at Steve who shifted under her gaze.

“Yeah, that’s right. He asked me if I would side with Japan or with Amerroupe. Is something going to happen?” He asked Manabe who frowned, before replying to the question.

“We don’t know, whenever Dorian is involved things become complicated. Needless to say we need you to come back with us, there’s something Doctor Hikari needs to talk to you about.” Manabe continued, suddenly looking a little worried.

Steve looked around at the Net Navis, but all of them save for Colonel didn’t quite meet his eyes. He felt his stomach fall before he was pulled back into a Dimensional Area to meet the good Doctor.

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Well, a Crossover from our world to the world of EXE, not between two Anime or Game universes.

Next chapter will surprise you all! Prepare for the first major Plot Twist!!!
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Previously known as "HiKaizer"