Light, Shadow, & Dark

By: K. L. Douglas

"Protoman, have you found the data yet?" Chaud asked from screen above.

"Not yet Chaud, sir." Said Protoman.

Chaud Blaze was having Protoman search the web for information on a small company that IPC was sponsoring. Apparently they had the technology needed to create the latest P.E.T programming system. Protoman was searching their website to see what kind of reputation the small organization had with other companies when making business deals. Chaud's father wanted him to do as much research as possible to make sure that this deal didn't blow up in their faces. It wasn't a very important deal but Chaud's father didn't tolerate failure. It made his company look bad.

Just then, Protoman heard something. It sounded like someone screaming. "Chuad sir, did you hear that?" Protoman asked.

"Yes Protoman, I did. You should go check it out." Chaud said calmly.

Protoman rushed to the source of the screaming. There was a blonde cat like navi being attacked by several Mettaurs.

"Help!" The poor girl screamed.

Protoman jumped over the viruses and grabbed the girl before deleting the viruses. He held the girl in his arms and looked her over. She had burns and a large gash across her leg. There was no way she could have taken all this damage from a couple of minor viruses. She let out a soft whimper before passing out.

When the girl awoke she was in a strange home page. It looked like it was designed for business. She didn't know where she was or what she was doing there, she just needed to leave. She tried to get up but pain shot up her leg and she fell to her knees. Then, a silver haired navi logged on to the home page. She was scared even more. Protoman approached the shaking girl and knelt down so that he was at her level. "Good, your awake." He said firmly.

His harsh tone scared her even more and he realized he should try to keep his voice in a kind, caring tone. Something he wasn't used to doing. "Errr...sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you," He said in a gentler tone, "Are you feeling any better?"

The girl didn't know what to say. She was still very confused. Protoman let out a sigh, "Let's try something simpler, like your name."

"My name?" She asked.

She went deep into thought, but couldn't remember anything. "I can't remember," She stammered, "I...I can't remember anything."

"That's strange," Protoman said in a concerned tone.

"Protoman."

Protoman looked up. Chaud was on the screen above. "Have you found out anything?"

"Chaud sir, yes! It seems that she has lost her memory." He said quickly.

"I see," Chaud said, "Here, apply this to her wounds. I'm going to see if I can get someone over here to help."

He inserted a navi heal program into the P.E.T "Wait!" The girl said, "Who are you? Where am I?"

She looked like she was about to cry. "It's okay, I'm Protoman And that was my operator, Chaud Blaze. You are on his home page."

"Oh," She said."Then who am I?"

"We don't know," Protoman said truthfully, looking her over. She was slender with light pink and black stripes on her arms and legs. She had cream colored paws and face. And she was wearing a light pink sleeveless body suit. She had blonde hair that was put into pig tails, bright blue eyes, and a smooth pink nose with whiskers. Sticking out of her hair was two brown and pink ears. She even had a smooth brown and pink striped tail.

"Here, let me take care of those burns." Protoman said.

He applied the program and the burns disappeared. The gash however, did not. The program he had used was only designed for minor injuries. The gash would have to heal on it's own. He then slowly wrapped a large Band-Aid to protect it. She studied him closely. He seemed to be a nice guy, but they had only just met, so she would judge him later. For now she would trust this Protoman guy. When he finished she thanked him and tried to stand. She was on her feet but as soon as she thought that she could stand she collapsed. Protoman caught her just in time. There noses were so close that they almost touched. The cat like navi let out a purr. Protoman blushed, which surprised him. He usually was very careful about showing any emotion. He cleared his throat and laid her down carefully. "Well you should get some rest," the confused red navi said, "You seemed to be through a lot today."

She smiled at him. He was right and she was tired. She laid down and closed her eyes. She was asleep in no time at all. Chaud appeared on the screen above. "How is she." he asked.

"She is doing much better Chaud Blaze sir. She is resting now." He replied.

"That's good, but I can't help wondering who she is and how she got this way." Chaud said with a pondering look on his face.

"Chaud sir, were you able to find anyone willing to help?" Protoman asked.

"Yes, but its only Hikari. I doubt he'll be able to do much." Chaud said frowning.

"Oh well," Protoman said. "We have another problem as well. We have no way of identifying the girl. She has no name that we know of."

"We'll ask her about it tomorrow when Hikari gets here. Hopefully he won't bring his friends. For now we should get some sleep."

"Right Chaud sir." Protoman said going into sleep mode. For some reason though he thought about the girl and a faint smile formed on his lips before completely falling asleep.

At eight o'clock exactly he awoke. He woke Chaud up next like he did every morning. As Chaud got up and did his normal everyday routine Protoman thought he should check on the girl. He felt different, almost cheerful. He logged onto the homepage to find the girl sitting on the floor grooming herself like a cat. Licking her paws and rubbing them on her face.

"Good morning." Protoman said almost happily, "I see your feeling better."

She looked up and smiled. "Good morning Protoman." She said, her tail soundly thumping the on floor.

She tried to stand up but couldn't. "I still can't seem to get up on my own." She said sadly.

"Here," He leaned down and carefully helped her to her feet. "Is that better?"

"Yes, thank you." The cat said, happy to be off the ground.

"Today you are going to meet someone new." Protoman said.

"Really? That sounds fun." She said cheerfully.

"Our hope is that he would recognize you, or has seen you around Net City at least." Protoman said truthfully.

"What's he like?" She asked curiously.

"Well..." He thought for a moment. "He's very caring and most navis seem to like him."

"He sounds a lot like you." She said kindly.

"Well...Not really," he said confused.

'Oh come on. You took me in even though you didn't know who I was, you saved me from those viruses and I thank you for all of it. I don't know how anyone couldn't enjoy your company or think that your not a good person." She said, her eyes glowing with happiness.

"Oh," He said taken aback by her words. No one has ever said something that kind about him and he certainly wasn't expecting those words.

"Something wrong?" She asked concerned.

"It's just...oh nothing. The person I talked about should be here soon and he might bring his friends so you get ready." He said, deciding it was best not to tell her what most people actually thought about him.

Lan walked up to Chaud's office door and knocked. It opened automatically. "Hello?" Lan said looking around.

"Come in, Hikari." Chaud said from his seat, set behind the desk.

"What's up? You sounded stressed," Lan asked, scratching his head.

All of a sudden Dex fell into the room followed by the rest of his friends. "Dex, I told you to keep up," Lan said annoyed.

"Sorry." He said, getting up off the ground. Mayl let out a little giggle.

"Chaud, I hope you don't mind, I brought my friends along." He said embarrassed by Dex's entrance.

"Not at all." Chaud said irritably. "I'd hate to admit it, but I'm going to need as much help as I can get."

"With what?" Lan asked confused. Chaud had been a little shaky on the details.

Chaud then explained the whole story from beginning to end. "Wow," Lan said. "That is a problem."

"Yes, and we were hoping that maybe Megaman would recognize her, and I guess bringing your friends along increases our chances." Chaud said deep in thought.

"Alright! Let's jack in and see what we can find out!" Lan said, happy to help out.

"You too Roll,"

"Same for you Gutsman."

All of the operators jacked in they're navis into the computer on Chaud's desk. Standing infront of the navis was the nameless cat navi. "Hello," She said trying to think of what to give as an introduction.

"Hello, my name is Megaman. This is Roll, Gutsman, Glide, and Iceman." The blue navi said kindly.

Protoman walked up from behind them. "Good, your here."

Iceman jumped and whirled around. "Gosh don't do that! You almost gave me a heart attack!" The Eskimo like navi said in a state of panic.

The girl gave out a little giggle. Protoman let a faint smile show on his lips. "Chaud explained the situation I assume."

"Yeah, he did." Megaman replied. "I don't think I've ever met or seen her before..." This thought was unanimous.

The girl sighed. She wanted to have a name so badly. "We also have another problem, She needs a name, so we can identify her." Protoman said, reading her expression.

"How about we ask her what she would like to be called." Roll suggested.

"Good idea!" Megaman said turning to face the cat like navi. "What would you like to be called?"

"I don't know," she said. "I'd like to know what Protoman would like."

They all turned to look at Protoman. "Err... well ... I don't know," Protoman stammered.

"Oh come on, please Protoman?" She said with a mock begging tone in her voice.

"Let me think ..." He pondered for a moment. The name had to be simple and suite her personality. "How about Kitten?" He shocked himself at how childish the name was, but it was the best he could come up with.

"I like it," Roll said, "It's a cute name."

"Me too." Said the girl

"Kitten it is." Megaman said like he was making a declaration.

"Thanks Protoman," Kitten said beaming.

Protoman blushed. "It wasn't that big of a deal." Once again he was acting weird. He was never shy and he was blushing again.

Megaman was watching Protoman. He could tell, something was up. Protoman was never this open at all. Megaman decided he would keep an eye on Protoman to see if he kept up the strange behavior. "Kitten, do you remember Net City?" Roll asked, breaking into Megaman's train of thought.

"No, whats Net City?" Kitten asked.

"We can take you there if you'd like." Protoman said, once again surprising himself with his openness.

"Chaud sir, could we take kitten to Net City? It could jog some of her lost memory." Protoman quickly added.

Chaud looked confused for a moment but hesitantly said, "Ye-yes Protoman you can. Good idea."

The operators logged they're navis into Net City. "What's up with Protoman?" Lan asked when the navis disappeared.

"Yeah," added Mayl, "He's acting kinda funny."

"I don't know," Chaud said with a curios look on his face. His navi's sudden change was...puzzling.

...

"Look at that!" Kitten shouted gleefully running over to a near by shop and peering into the window. "What are those?" She was staring at a bunch of cyber gold fish swimming around in a large tank. Protoman smiled and walked over. "Those are fish." He said, admiring her child like innocence.

"Wow, Protoman really likes Kitten." Roll said, watching the two observe the fish.

"No kidding guts." Gutsman commented.

"It's weird, he seems happy. I didn't know he could be happy." Iceman said with a shudder.

"Hey, that's not nice guys, give him a break." Megaman said, trying to defend his long haired friend.

"It's true," Roll said sadly, "This is the happiest I've ever seen him. I wonder why he can't act like this all the time?"

"I don't know, it must have something to do with that new girl." Megaman said doubting his own words.

"You don't think ..." Roll cut herself off.

"No, couldn't be guts guts." Gutsman said.

"EEEEEK!" Kitten screamed. A large dog was chasing her. She ran up a near by tree and hid from the beast.

"We had better help Protoman get rid of that dog!" Iceman said exasperated.

"Wait," Megaman said.

Protoman scared the dog away with a few slashes of his sword. Megaman and his friends watched Protoman gently help her out of the tree. She looked very embarrassed. Protoman was smiling again.

"Yep that settles it, Protoman is in love." Megaman said with an absolute tone.

"Auhhhh ...that's so sweet, I didn't think it would ever happen. It's just so cute." Roll cooed.

"We had better not bring it up with Protoman though, we may know but I don't think he does yet." Megaman suggested.

"I hope she feels the same way. Having your first love turn you down really hurts." Roll said wisely.

"The really sad thing is she doesn't have any of her memory, so its going to be hard for those two to have a relationship." Iceman said.

"Wait guys, I think we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves. Let's just wait and see what happens before we jump to the conclusion that their soul mates." Megaman said quickly.

"Yeah, your right," Roll said, "But I'd still like to help with this in anyway I can."

"Me too guts guts!" Gutsman cheered, happy to help Roll in anyway possible.

"Hey guys, come on!" Kitten shouted.

"Coming!" Megaman shouted back. "We had better keep up with them."

When they finally did catch up they found Protoman sitting on a bench while Kitten chased a butterfly. "Hey Protoman," Megaman shouted.

Protoman kept his eyes on Kitten the whole time, as if he felt that if he looked away she would vanish.

"Protoman," Megaman said as the others took off to try to catch the butterfly too. "Are you alright? You seem different." He didn't want to give it up that they already knew he liked her.

"To be honest," Protoman said looking over at him, "I don't know." Protoman got up.

"I don't know..." He repeated.

Megaman thought for a moment. He doesn't know what love is, does he? That had never occurred to him.

"Well, describe it." Megaman said, waiting for Protoman's reaction.

"Well ...whenever I'm around her, I act strangely, different. Like another person," He said this realizing how open he was being again. He was getting used to it but it still bothered him.

"You really like her, don't you?" Megaman asked, not expecting Protoman to give him an answer.

"Forget I said anything." Protoman said angrily. Megaman knew something he didn't, and it definitely wasn't making him willing to ask.