So it's been a little while since I've updated this.
I have my reasons, everything from school to being distracted by other projects but when I finally came back to this I came to a startling discovery.
It needed to be majorly edited. I'm not sure why any of you kept reading honestly because I may be a bit too critical on myself but I was actually flinching while rereading chapters two and three.
So I'm completely revamping chapters two and three and changing some of the original plot I had planned. Other parts will stay the same.
Chapter one is virtually identical to the way it was before, I did make several edits though and added numerous details.
Basically just sit back and enjoy.
Rewritten as of July 1st, 2017
General POV, Rockman and Lightman's Homepage, July 22, 20XX…
"Lightman, come on, you need to get up."
"I need ten more minutes."
"You know it's funny, you said the exact same thing ten minutes ago." Rockman narrowed his eyes at his brother who still attempted to remain in sleep mode despite his efforts.
When Lightman made no signs of getting up on his own, Rockman sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine be that way, but remember this is on you. OKITE." He said the command loudly.
Lightman suddenly jumped up straight, now wide awake, completely against his own will. He shook himself and glared at Rockman. "Was that really necessary?"
"I tried to do it the nice way." Rockman shrugged sourly. "Besides we have plans remember."
"Of course, I do!" His twin defended, "we were going to hang out with the gang, right?"
"Yeah and we're supposed to meet up with them in ten minutes so we need to get moving now." He explained patiently.
"Oh shoot, let's get going then." Lightman realized, now appearing ready to go.
"Honestly you have a clock program why don't you use it?" Rockman asked shaking his head.
"Because that's what I have you for." Lightman teased his brother as the pair vanished from the page.
In the years since the defeat of Myst the net and furthermore the world had been at relative peace. There were still viruses and a few navis who still caused trouble but there had been no major catastrophes. It had actually been somewhat boring for official net battlers but no one was complaining.
Besides even if there were no catastrophes that led to exciting combat there was always the Coliseum in net city. At least if you were to net battle there you did not have to feel worried about getting deleted.
Their friends from the Eon Net; Rei and Beam, had conveyed to them that repairs were going well. Even after everything Echo had managed to hold her people together and begun to rebuild their home. Lightman and Rockman had been quite surprised at its appearance. It looked like some sort of victorian style-net city hybrid.
In fact the most recent major event (for the twins anyway) was when Laika, Enzan, Blues and Searchman had discovered the truth behind their identities. The secret had been kept for multiple reasons ranging from ethical to personal, but thankfully it seemed to be taken fairly well. That didn't mean they were going to start broadcasting it to everyone though.
Their other friends both navi and human had no clue about the truth and there was worry that revealing it would cause some rifts in some of their friendships. So the truth about Hikari Netto and Saito stayed hidden to all but a few.
As the twins walked through internet city Lightman seemed to be uncharacteristically quiet. Rockman looked at him curiously. "Hey what's up?"
"Huh?" Lightman started as he was brought out of his thoughts, "Just thinking."
"Really? That's a first." Rockman joked.
"Ha ha. You're very funny." Lightman rolled his eyes, "I was just thinking it's weird how calm things have been. Think about it, we dealt with one threat after another and then nothing happens for years. I mean, not that I'm complaining about this, but when was the last time we saw Forte?" He questioned seriously.
"I guess it is a bit strange but should we really be complaining about that?" Rockman countered his argument. "Not fighting to save the world, our friends, the net, or all of the above is a good thing." He said the last part as if talking to a child.
"I know it is, like I said it's just weird now that I really think about the whole thing." Lightman shrugged.
"The fact that things have been peaceful for a while is weird? We both died and came back as net navis thanks to our scientist father and you think that things being overall calm is weird?" Rockman scoffed at his brother.
"Well when you put it like that…" Lightman rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.
"Come on let's hurry up. We're already a bit late." Rockman said speeding up.
The navis in the twins friend group had not really changed over the years. Neither had the twins themselves for that matter. That just came with being a computer program. The human operators however had grown up quite a bit since their schooldays.
Yaito had managed to reach five and a half feet thanks to a growth spurt. Her hairstyle was more or less the same but was now significantly longer. Meiru had grown into a young woman. She wore her hair longer now but her personality had not changed too much. Dekao wasn't quite as round as before but he wasn't exactly skinny either. At least now he was taller so his weight fit his form better. Tohru had grown as well and now stood at a fair six feet. Dingo too, had grown and was roughly the same height as Tohru.
Their friends greeted them and the navis decided to head to the Net CIty coliseum for some fun and amusement via net battling (of course).
"Hey TomahawkMan," Lightman started, turning to his friend. "You up for a net battle?"
"Sure, but don't come crying to me when you lose." The other navi smirked.
"Oh, I won't." Lightman smirked back before his eyes widened comically as he realized his mistake, "Lose. I won't lose!" He quickly tried to backtrack and correct his mistake.
The other navi's and their watching net-ops sweat dropped at the seen as TomahawkMan laughed while Lightman insisted that the other navi knew what he had meant. Rockman let out a small laugh. Despite their rivalry they were still friends. Even if it wasn't completely obvious to a passerby.
The group soon got settled in to watch their friends' net battle. As they waited for their names to be called. They chatted about current events. One important one being that Meiru had got a new job.
"Really? You got a new job?"
Meiru face on the screen looked a little bashful, "It's just an internship."
"You said it was at SkyNet Industries right?" Tohru asked for confirmation.
"They can't be that important. I've never heard of them." Dekao stated. He had made it his business several years prior to know everything he could about things relating to new technologies.
"Well I've heard of it and it is important, right Glyde?" Yaito check with her navi to make sure she was thinking of the right company.
"Indeed Yaito-sama, it is SkyNet Industries your father has been speaking of in high regard as of late." Glyde confirmed for her.
"I've never heard of them either what exactly do they do?"
"They a bit like SciLabs in that they're pushing new technologies but they're newer and more willing to cooperate with corporations. From what daddy told me the man in charge is a bit young and eccentric but he's doing a pretty good job." Yaito explained.
"Huh, I wonder why I'm just hearing about them now." Rockman questioned.
"As Yaito-sama said, they are fairly new. They just started becoming known to the general populace a couple of weeks ago." Glyde explained.
Before discussions could continue an announcement started.
"Next up we have two veteran competitors! On one side we have Tomahawkman and Dingo!" There was a brief pause to allow the cheering to subside somewhat. "And on this side we have solo navi Lightman!"
The pair faced each other down Dingo's voice asked Tomahawk "You ready for this?"
"Do you even have to ask?' The navi asked his net-op rhetorically.
"BEGIN!" The announcing voice declared.
Lightman quickly formed his buster and fired off a series of shots, immediately putting Tomahawkman on the defensive.
As the other navi dodged Dingo slotted in a battle chip for Tomahawkman. The navi's tomahawk glowed and grew bigger. Dingo then slotted in area steel causing Tomahawkman to vanish from Lightman's sight.
Lightman eyes widened and he called out, "Sword!" the data collected and the glowing blade appeared on this hand and he swung it around just in time to meet Tomahawkman's strike.
The two stood in a stalemate for a moment, each straining against the other's' weapon. Tomahawkman however began to lose ground and he jumped backwards before he could lose his balance. He then came in swinging again this time towards Lightman's middle.
The smaller navi moved to parry the blow. This time, instead of straining against one another, the duelists pulled apart and swung in unison only to parry once again in a clash that rang with metallic like sound.
Lightman pulled back this time, he allowed his sword to vanish as he called out a different piece of battle chip data, "Cannon!" The weapon formed and he fired off a shot at Tomahawkman forcing the navi to roll out of the way to avoid being blasted.
Unfortunately for Tomahawkman, Lightman wasn't letting up, "Program Advance! Giga Cannon!" The much larger blast fired just as Tomahawkman was righting himself. Dingo came to his partner's aid slotting in a Guard Battle Chip protecting Tomahawkman from the worst of the attack.
"Tomahawkman, I think he's played offense long enough, let's put him back on the defensive." Dingo said to his navi.
"I agree!" Tomahawkman said and threw his tomahawk which narrowly missed Lightman as he slid to the side to avoid being hit.
As the weapon boomeranged back and Tomahawkman rushed to catch it the navi suddenly froze for half of a second and seemed to phase into and out of focus before he fell to his knees clutching his head in pain.
"Tomahawkman!" Dingo's voice sounded fuzzy, "Wh-*brzzt*-appe-*brzzt*-are yo-*brzzt*" Before his voice cut off completely.
Lightman who had been preparing for another attack froze first wondering if it was some sort of trick before realizing the truth and ran forward to help his friend.
In the stands the audience muttered in confused chatter. The duelers' friends were just as confused. "What just happened-de gutsu?" Gutsman asked in obvious confusion.
Tohru's face popped up on a screen next to Iceman, "We don't know but Dingo just lost connection to Tomahawkman. His PET isn't responding at all."
Something's very wrong with Tomahawkman, Rockman heard Lightman's voice through their link, I think he's been cut off from his PET somehow. I don't know for sure though…
How did that happen? Rockman asked sounding as confused and worried as he could through the strange link he and his brother shared.
I don't know but we should take him to SciLabs, Papa might be able to help.
Rockman nodded momentarily forgetting that Lightman couldn't see him. "Come on." He told his friends who looked over at him, "We should take Tomahawkman to SciLabs, maybe there we can figure out what's wrong." The others voiced their agreement.
Rockman looked back down to the coliseum floor as Lightman helped Tomahawkman back up and some help navis came out to see what they could do. He felt a twinge of melancholy at the fact that Lightman had just been voicing his thoughts on how calm things had been earlier.
Unfortunately, it seems that peace doesn't last forever.
And once again that marks the end of this chapter.
I feel a bit guilty for pulling something like this after being gone for so long but I think I would be feeling considerably worse if I had kept what I had and tried to continue the story. Honestly I don't even know what I was thinking.
Besides, I like to think that I have improved as an author since I started writing this so hopefully I can make it even better than it was before. Not to mention I only had three chapters posted before so I won't really be playing catch up.
So as always if you have any constructive criticism I am open to it. The more I get, the more I will be able to improve my writing style!
One last thing, for the month of July I plan on changing my update schedule. For this month only I will be updating on both Wednesdays and Saturdays. Speaking of which I plan to get the next chapter for this out on Wednesday so look out for that.
Until then, see ya!
~FriTik
R&R