Fallen Angel of Black:
The Origin of Forte EXE
by Baka-Sama (AKA Fatesmon)
Chapter 1: Elegy To Silenced Peace
Six years ago…
"…And the metroline still continues to speed wildly out of control. Dentown officials are trying their best to get the system back on check and destroy the virus that started all this, but Net Battlers are being tied up with navigating the system itself and deleting all the lesser viruses that have suddenly appeared along the way. It is not confirmed, but most agree that this is definitely the work of the new evil virus organization, the WWW-- …Oh my god… Ladies and gentlemen, I have just received this new update: the metroline has just crashed at Station 5. The people at the station are fine as far as I know, but as for the passengers themselves…."
Station 5 itself was a true definition of Hell on earth. Many people were clinging to the walls and pillars, either breathing heavily in shock and relief or hugging their loved ones that were fortunately left unharmed. The metroline had piled up on itself, obliterating the tunnel and splitting the rails. Sparks flew from the train and the wrecked lights above it, as police and rescuers alike rushed to the wreck and tried to discover survivors. All of them, however, seemed unaware that they all were passing a lone, six year-old boy, lying on the floor and about to awake.
"…Uhhh… H..huh?" The boy slowly opened his green eyes, seeing only the floor, and thus lifted himself with his arms and sat upright, rubbing the side of his forehead. His hair was a thick black, with strands of hair along his head radiating into little points and tilting backward, like a sun design, and along with one long spike of hair coming to a cone point from the back of his head. He wore a light brown, long sleeved shirt and dark gray pants that were are all dusty and torn a tiny bit here and there from whatever caused him to go to the floor like that. His black shoes with white bases and red outlines were dirty as well.
"My head hurts… Where am I? Where's mommy and--!!!!" He turned his head to get a good look at his current place, suddenly noticing the wreck of the metroline that he and his parents were on… "Mommy? Daddy?" The boy slowly stood up and started walking towards the wreck, paying no attention to anything else but it. "MOMMY? DADDY?"
"Huh?" asked a rescue worker with a stubby chin to himself, just to the left of the lad and hearing the plea for his parents and finally noticing the kid. The worker just stared in astonishment at the poor lad, realizing what news the poor boy was about to find out.
"…MOMMY! DADDY!" The helpless child started to rush at the wreckage in hopes of finding his parents, but the rescue worker grabbed him and stopped him from getting any further. "MOMMY! DADDY!"
"Don't go there, son!" pleaded the worker. "It's too dangerous!
"LET ME GO!" demanded the child, struggling to get free and reaching out to the metroline. "I GOTTA FIND MY MOMMY AND DADDY!"
"I'm sorry son, but…you won't find them."
"MOOMMMYY! DAADDYYY!!" His yelling suddenly stopped, and both his free hand and eyes started to quiver. He lowered his eyelids as his eyes started to get watery, and immediately he clanged to the worker's legs and started crying his little heart out. The worker saw nothing else to do but feel sorry and rub the little guy's head.
"Dam--I mean, darn it," the worker stated, trying to not influence the kid's lingo, "why couldn't the Net Battlers have worked faster--HEY!" The kid suddenly pulled away and ran off towards the stairs, still crying. "KID! WAIT! COME BACK HERE!"
***
The child rushed up the stairs and through the white upper floor of the station, trying to find somewhere where he could just be alone for the moment. As he ran across the tiled floor, a tall and gaunt, blonde-haired man in a white overcoat with blue-framed glasses ran by him, going the other way. Just as he passed the kid, the hand closest to the child looked like it was just holding onto something… Either way, both still run on, and the kid rushed up the stairs, past many other city people, and onto the sidewalks of Dentown. Through the bustle and noises of the big city, the black-haired runt dashed down the streets, until he was far away from the station. He stopped, catching his breath, and set himself down on a nearby bench. He got back to his weeping over his lost parents.
"Mommy… Daddy… *SNIFF*…" He laid his arms down on the bench, with his right hand beside the side pocket of his pants. The kid noticed something in the pocket that wasn't there before, and reached in and pulled out some peculiar device. He held the thing in his hand while looking down at the small, black rectangular item. It had a metallic spike on the top, like it was to be inserted somewhere, and it looked like a laptop if one ever became handheld. It had a light orange frame, with a thin silver frame just around it in the inside. There was a hole in the upper left of the lid that bordered some big circular shape--a jewel maybe?--that was a shining and reflective purple. He opened the lid to it, and got a better look at what the thing actually was. Dozens of silver buttons were strewn about in an arrangement similar to a keyboard, with an electronic screen in the upper middle.
"Wha… What is it?" asked the boy to himself.
"THERE HE IS! OVER ON THE BENCH!"
The boy looked over to the left and saw the rescue worker and some police behind him, coming from the same walk he ran over from the station.. The lad tucked the device back in his pocket, and just looked down at the ground, not much in care if they get him or not.
***
"He's been identified as Kitzunare Izumi," said a thin police officer, working on the computer at his desk in the police station. Another, pudgier officer, one of the police officers that found Izumi, watched his comrade while leaning on the other side of the desk. Meanwhile Izumi just moped down towards the floor on a bench on the wall. (He likes benches, doesn't he?)
"A rescue worker found him at the site of the accident, then he got away and we found him on a bench just a few feet from the station," claimed the officer not on the computer.
"And did they find his parents'--" The officer at the desk tried to finish his statement, but his comrade raised his hand and nudges his head towards the kid. The other got the idea and stopped in his tracks. "Oh…right…"
"Does he have any relatives, or people he knows somewhere around here?"
"Not really… He and his parents came all the way from Plus-Minus Town. We've tried contacting anyone who might have befriended his folks, but no answers yet. We're gonna wait three more weeks. Otherwise, it's to the orphanage or to someone who's willing to adopt. In the meantime, the rescue worker's willing to deal with him."
Both officers just looked at the poor child, just sitting there and fixating on the floor.
"…Poor kid," expresses the chubby cop. "He's both lucky to be a survivor, but also unlucky to be the only one…"
"He'll be a bit famous because of that, but what's the point?"
Not listening to the cops during their conversation, little Izumi thought about two main things in his head: the device, and why all of this had to happen. How did he get the weird thing? Where are his parents now? What does that thing do? Will he ever see his mother and father again? Many questions were asked, but his brain could not answer them.
***
"Well, here's your room!"
The rescue worker, now out of his uniform and in casual clothes (a green t-shirt and blue jeans), laid down Izumi's bag on the floor in front of the doorway while Izumi just swayed his head back in forth to look at the room. The room had a teal floor, empty teal walls, save for a lone window on the back wall with a view of the city below, a bright red-orange bed in the upper-left, and a desk near the door with a computer on it, with a wooden chair lying in front of it.
"Try your best not to mess it up too much--you're here for only three weeks. I already set up that computer so you can do…whatever you kids do nowadays." The worker grabs hold of the doorknob as he was about to leave.
"Um…thank you, mister…" nervously complemented Izumi, turning his face at his temporary guardian.
"No sweat kid. I know how hard it is for you, believe me. Call me if ya need help unpacking or something.."
The man closed the door behind him, leaving the kid to his work. Izumu crouched down and unzipped his bag, reaching and taking out his items: some preschool books, a light purple blanket with some Hsien-Ko chibi-heads and some of her projectiles, a pull-and-talk Kobun doll ("MISS TROOOONNN!!"), a coloring book (with a half-colored image of X, Zero, and the Repliforce of X4 as the cover…), and some stuffed animals (a bear, a parrot, a monkey--no cameos this time). As he's about to take out his clothes, he just stared and blinks for a moment, then reaching for the thing in his pocket again. He looked at it a little further, trying to find out but still not knowing what it is. Lowering his brow in frustration, he reached and tried setting the thing on the desk next to the computer. The child noticed in the corner of his eye some round hole in the bottom-right corner of the monitor, a hole that looks like something should go in. His hand was still on the rectangular contraption, so he took it off the desk and looked at it again. He fixated on the little spike on top, then looked back at the monitor hole. He looked back and forth twice, before coming to a conclusion. He grabbed the chair and laid himself down in it, and turned on the computer. After the activation sequence, he took the device and inserted the spike into the hole. Suddenly, something glowed from under its lid as well as the jewel-like thing, so he lifted it up and saw that the screen was on. Looking back at the computer monitor, he noticed a new icon of some small face that was flashing. It said, "PET". Izumi simply clicked on it with curiosity.
***
*blink blink*
"……Hmmm…… Well finally I'm activated!"
The world suddenly shifted from the real one to the computer world, with green-bordered sky blue tiles and an animated wallpaper of some violet-haired girl in a red bikini, crouching down and blowing a kiss (hey, it wasn't the kid's computer). In the middle of the floor sat a peculiar-looking person wearing a dusty brown poncho and a black helmet with two mohawks on the sides (orange on the outer sides of the mohawks) that hid all of his hair, and a blue jewel on the forehead area. The person himself seemed to be between his late teens to his early adulthood, with crimson eyes and purple stripes on each side from across his cheeks to his eyes. He stood up on his black boots and looked left and right at his surroundings.
"…Must say, this guy's got some…nice tastes (HEHEHE…)" remarked the young man, snickering devilishly at the wallpaper choice.
"WOW! You can talk?"
"Hm? ….What in the….?"
The young man shifted his eyes at the source of the noise, and sees as the back wall a monitor that shows the six year-old Izumi looking back at him, his mouth wide open in amazement and glee.
"…This is the computer of a little kid?" asked the young digital man.
"Oh, it's not mine," answered Izumi. "It's the nice man's who's letting me stay here!"
"I was about to say… So what's your name, kid?"
"Um, my name is Izumi!"
"Izumi, huh? …Not bad, not bad."
"So who are you? And, why are you wearing a dress? Aren't you a boy?"
The digital man lowers his brow in discontempt from the kid's ignorance.
"First of all, it's not a dress, it's a poncho. And second, I'm part of your PET, Izumi."
"…Pet? But, you don't look cuddly…"
"Not that kind of pet… 'Personal Exploration Terminal.'"
"….Huh?" Izumu tilts his head and scratches in his hair with his index finger.
"…Well, to be more precise, I'm your Net Navi."
"Oh! What's the ocean like? Can you tell me?"
Izumu smiled, anxiously awaiting a description, while a sweatdrop slid down the back of the Navi's head. The Navi turned away and shaked his fist with annoyance.
"SHIMATTA… It HAD to be a little kid, it HAD to be a little kid…" thought the Navi to himself. He turns back to the little kid.
"OK, I'm not from the Navy, just to point that out I'm like a…um… friend inside of your computer!"
"Really?! I could use a friend right now…"
"…Something wrong?"
"I'm really sad right now… Me and my mommy and daddy were on a train, but they…."
Izumi looked away and replaced his smile with a frown.
"…And who's this 'nice man'?"
"He's giving me a home until I have a better one, because my mommy and daddy…."
"…Man, that must really suck--I mean, stink," replied the young man, cautious of his tone in front of the young one. Izumi turns his attention back at the screen.
"Hey, what's your name?" asks Izumi.
"…My name? Well, that's for you to decide! Except, it hast to have 'EXE' at the end of it."
"Really? Why's that?"
"Dunno, it's always like that for all Net Navis."
"Hmmm…" Izumi closes his eyes and rubs his chin, deeply thinking on what to title his new Net Navi. "…I know! Postullio!"
"…WHAT?"
"Postullio! It's from a funny cartoon with a green alien!"
"….No."
"But, Postullio's a fun name to say!"
"NO."
"…Please?"
"NO!"
"…You're mean…" Izumi pouts and crosses his arms.
"….*AHEM* So, what do ya wanna do, Izumi? I'm not gonna just stand here and waste away, am I?"
"Huh? Well, mommy and daddy were taking me to go see the zoo… Can you take me to the zoo?"
"Which one?"
"Um… Dentown Zoo?"
"Hmmm…" The Navi looked down and rubbed his chin. "I can't really take you there…. But I could find the web site!"
"Web site?"
"Yeah, the web site! It should have pictures and info on the animals you wanna see."
"When can you go?"
"Right now, if ya like."
"YIPPEE!"
"Just watch me on the PET's monitor when I get out of the computer's space."
"The what?"
"…That thing that you put into the computer."
"Oh! OK!"
While Izumi turned away and looked at the PET's screen, the male Navi walked away and disappeared through some violet teleporter. Izumi stared at the blank screen, suddenly seeing his new friend inside the Internet on top of an access terminal, along with some other icons, a health bar on the left among things. Forte walked off it and looked around.
"Hey Izumi," spoke the Navi, where he was heard through the PET's speaker by the child, "can ya hear me?"
"Yup!"
"Good, good. Hey, do ya know what town or city you're in now?"
"Um, I'm still in Dentown I think."
"Good, that should help. I'll try finding a Navi to give me directions. Izumi, tell me if something odd starts to happen on the screen, all right?"
"Okay."
The Net Navi rushed down the info highway south of the terminal, proceeding through a right turn and a zig-zagish pathway. He looked left and right again, then noticed not too far away a gaunt green robot with yellow stripes, with his limbs and areas black where the armor didn't go over--a basic Navi. He rushed up to the Navi.
"'Scuse me, but could ya tell me where I find the Dentown Zoo's web site?"
"Hm?" The Navi turns his head towards the Navi. "Dentown Zoo… I know!" The Navi pointed west, towards a corner turning up. "Go down there, left at the three-way, down the next turn, straight down the next turn's path without going down the other paths attached to it, and just turn left again at the next three-way. Entrance should be right there."
"Thanks!" The Navi bows his head in respect.
"No problem." The un-named Navi went down the corner and up, left at the intersection, and up again at the next corner. While Izumi watched, a red icon in the bottom right of the screen suddenly started flashing. Izumi noticed it immediately.
"Hey Navi?" The Navi halted.
"What is it?"
"There's this red flashing thing on the screen… What's it mean?" The Navi suddenly got serious and lowered his brow to add to the mood.
"A virus is coming…"
"A what?"
Before he could answer, the floor suddenly changed from orange to three columns of gray tiles. The floor split in front of the Navi, with a blue frame around the tiles of the Navi's area, and a red border around the tiles of the other side. The Navi just stared on as some creature stared fading in three rows down from where he stood, while another energy bar appeared on the right side of the screen. The creature was some sort of silver knight without legs, with a red long diamond on the top of his helmet and a flaming sword in its hand. It's face, though not covered with a visor, was pitch black save for the red glowing eyes.
"W-what…is it?" asks Izumi nervously.
"A virus, Izumi. They're…like monsters that appear suddenly in the Internet. You have to fight them to get rid of them."
"M-M-MONSTERS?!"
"…This is so EMBARASSING, talking to a kid like THIS!" thought the Navi to himself. But he focused back to the task at hand, staring down the knight virus. He brushed his poncho out of the way with his right arm to get it out, showing his arm all black and his hand all white. His hand somewhat retreated into his gauntlet wrist, opening a hole for some sort of blaster which he pointed at his foe. The knight warped and reappeared in the row in front of it, and then warped again to the row in front of the male Navi. The virus swiped his sword through the entire row, but the Navi ducked down and avoided the blade. The digital man leaped back two rows and shot a large yellow blast from his weapon, which hit the virus and caused it to fade out a little. Izumi noticed the right bar lowering down a fourth.
"I think you hurt him!" cheers Izumi to his friend.
"Well duh," answers back the Navi sarcastically. The Navi stayed put in the row he was in, while the knight just slashed away to no avail at the row in front of him.
"Hey, why can't he hit you?" asked Izumi.
"The red bordered tiles are his fighting area, as the blue ones are mine," answered the Navi. "He can't go on mine, and I can't go on his. I'll just need to blast him from here and--"
Suddenly, three shots of light rained down from the sky and changed the row the knight was slashing at into red bordered ones. The knight moved forward, and continued slashing away again. The Navi widens his eyes in surprise.
"He must have a 'Steal' ability," said the Navi. "If he hadn't of fought me right on this thin walkway," though the Navi, "I'd have more side room and wouldn't have to worry about this! Oh well, no biggy." He shot at the virus once more, causing more damage and another fourth of the right bar to go down.
"YAY! You're almost there!" proclaimed Izumi with delight.
"Gotta love my fans," thought the Navi with a grin. Suddenly, another "Steal" command occurred, and now the knight moved up and slashed at his row, finally hitting him before he could react. The left bar loses a tiny bit of energy.
"*GASP* OH NO! You're hurt!"
The Navi crouches down and grabs his chest, just below the blade's area. The Navi looked down at the scrape on his poncho from the sword, and then looked up at the knight virus--very pissed I might add.
"…You just damaged me… YOU JUST DAMAGED ME…"
The Navi gritted his teeth hard in a scowl, and pointed his blaster right at the virus' face. The blaster started glowing yellow, and Izumi wondered what caused such a pretty light.
"YOU LOW-GRADE VIRUS SCUM!!" The Navi shot an enormous blast, as big as four tiles, at the virus, which literally lost it's head completely. The virus' bar disappeared completely, and the rest of the virus' body faded out completely. The Navi stood up and put his arm back under his poncho, breathing heavily from his build-up of rage. The Izumi felt a bit frightened from his new friend's sudden change of mood, but was shifted by a new mini-screen that covered up his friend's image. The mini-screen reported of some data coming in, and then showed an image of a yellow coin with a "Z" on it, saying "You got 300 Zenny!".
"Hey! We got some money from the virus!" said Izumi. The tiles morphed back to the normal orange floor.
"Heh… That virus paid for his crime… A low life virus, hurting me! HAH!"
"You were AWESOME!"
"Well, I must say, virus busting's like an instinct to me. I guess you could say…it's my forte."
"Forte… What's that?"
"Huh? Oh, it mean's 'strong point', what you do best."
"Forte… I'll call you that!"
"What?"
"Forte! Your name's Forte EXE!"
"Forte…" muttered the newly-named Navi, taking a moment to think about it. "…I like it. You have good tastes, Izumi."
"Well, it's just that your best at…being my best friend." Izumi grinned and giggled at Forte EXE, while Forte EXE just blinked twice and then grinned himself.
"You're some kid, Izumi… You're some kid…"
***
Eventually, Forte EXE found the website for the zoo and helped Izumi see all the various animals. While Izumi had an obsession for the koalas, Forte had a frightening fixation on the lions and how they ripped their prey apart (must be that fighting spirit of his, I guess…). The rescue worker let them play and didn't bother them much, so the two new pals got well acquainted during the first two weeks. Two weeks and four days later, Izumi was informed that someone was willing to adopt him. The man's name was Derek Rockhard. Izumi and Derek seemed to have gotten along pretty smoothly as adoptive child and parent. …However, for reasons we are not yet aware of, Izumi ran off with Forte's pet two months after his eleventh birthday. As far as we know, he was last seen in Dentown, as it's a good a guess as any that he may still be there today….
To Be Continued….