This story takes place sometime after Rockman EXE – The Program of Light and Darkness.
"GYAAH!" rang through the house as Netto Hikari screamed; having just received news about a term paper his class had to write that was due tomorrow. "Whose bright idea was this?! Why didn't you tell me I had homework, Rockman?!" the boy yelled in distress.
Off to the side, his computer screen lit up to reveal his navi partner. "I wasn't aware of it either. It was probably one of those days you decided to leave me home" Rockman replied, but was completely ignored as his friend ran around his room searching for his back pack and writing materials.
"Yes!" came a triumphant cry from the closet as Netto emerged with his backpack in hand. He quickly plopped on the floor and began shifting through his school material, unaware that the computer screen had shut off behind him.
While Netto worked frantically against the clock, Rockman decided on a calming walk through the net to pass time.
"Netto is really lucky to have Meiru as a friend" Rockman thought to himself with a small sigh "How else would he remember to do his homework" he continued to walk down the path, letting his thoughts stray to more pleasant things, until something odd caught his attention.
The path ahead branched off to the side, but the path leading away was missing a good portion of itself. Curiosity got the better of the blue navi and he moved to investigate. He stopped once he reached the end and bent down to study the flacking bridge data.
"There's a strong energy residue here" he stood up and glanced around hastily in all directions "It doesn't look like the Net police have been here either and nobody's around. Good" he nodded his approval and then backed away from the damaged area. Once he was comfortable with the distance, he took a deep breath and sprinted towards the destroyed area and leapt over the gap, clearing it by a good foot. He glanced back at the gap and couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face "Good thing Netto wasn't here to see me do that. He probably would have even encouraged it" he shrugged and continue walking, noting how the damage extended beyond the destroyed path and only seemed to get worse as he continued.
All humor had drained from him by the time he reached an open gathering area. A spot that was normally full of Navis conversing and trading goods was now desolate and dark The once solid ground was riddled with harsh cracks and any machinery that had been in the area looked to have been forcibly torn from its rooted spot, leaving the roots to wave in the air as they slowly vanished into nothing. Rockman did his best to ignore the sickening feeling he felt and continued to survey the area until he spotted something laying in the center of the chard floor.
He began walking over to the form, trying to stay aware of his surroundings while hope surged through him proved to be too much for him as he broke into a run and dropped to his knees the second he reached the form. Nothing happened, it didn't even twitch as Rockman checked for corrupt areas or corroding data.
He stopped his search and froze at the site of purple and gold fins. "No way" he whispered as he looked at the form more carefully. The arm he was holding that held a lot of still open cuts, the tattered brown cloak he had to move check the power cells on its back and the calm face with purple cheeks and a jewel at the center of its forehead all pointed to the same conclusion.
"F-Forte?!" Rockman blurted in disbelief, mentally smacking himself for not noticing IMEDIATELY.
Forte didn't respond to his name and Rockman continued to stare until he was able to calm down and continue his checkup. He checked every inch of the navi, even daring to open his eyes, but only found minor injuries.
Rockman leaned back on his heels and sighed with relief "Well, he's not de-rezzing, so I guess he's okay" he glanced down at his rival and frowned "Still, there's not enough damage to render him unconscious and I doubt he'd choose such an open area to rest…" he trailed off, thinking back to the last time he had seen his rival and how they had temporarily joined forces to stop Dr. Regal. He subconsciously ran his hand over the deep cut in Forte's Navi symbol and his sympathy won out "I can't leave him here like this"
Without another thought, he lifted Forte onto his shoulder and stood up. He saw something flittering in his peripheral and turned to see Forte's cloak lying on the ground.
"That's not important right now" he muttered to himself before walking away and once he was far enough away, the cloak burst into tiny bits of data and vanished.
Later at the Hikari residence, Netto was still trying to finish his term paper.
He laid on his back, running his fingers through his already disheveled hair in frustration. "Homework, I hate homework! Why can't they just give us time to do it in school, so we don't have to worry about it later?!"
Rockman appeared on Netto's computer screen, temporarily hiding all the files the pre-teen had open. "Hey Netto, are you done yet?" he ask with a small knowing smile.
Netto ignored his cheerful navis' taunting in favor of continuing his paper "Not now Rockman. I need to concentrate"
"Uh, ok" was Rockman's quick reply before he vanished.
Netto paused for a moment and looked over at the screen in surprise. Sure, his brother wasn't big on taunting, but he had expected a little more before Rockman agreed to leave him alone. Maybe, something was wrong? He shook his head to dispel the thought and continued working. The navi would surely tell him if something was bothering him.
In the computer, Rockman waited for the holo-screen before him to vanish before sighing in relief. "Good, he'll be busy for a while"
Now reassured, he walked into the little brick house amongst all of Netto's files. Inside the house was a fridge, small counter top, a table with two chairs and a bed. Not glamorous; just enough for him to be comfortable. Rockman walked past the small kitchen and through a doorway, hidden by the fridge, leading to a room with a large repair system. Forte laid on the examination table heavily de-rezzing, but remained unconscious.
"How could he be de-rezzing now?!" he thought as he rushed over to the control panel, clicking a few buttons to bring up the deep scan results. It took a second that Rockman could have sworn were hours before the status bar appeared. 729 errors and it was steadily rising. Shocked turned into panic as Rockman fumbled with the controls "At this rate, he'll break himself apart" with unsteady hands, he managed to set the machine to full repair and turned to watch as the machine came alive.
Mechanical arms popped out of the surrounding walls and ceiling, all reaching towards Forte. Some stuck into his body while others hovered around him performing other tasks.
Seeing the machine at work on his rival eased Rockman's stress levels some and he yawned. "I better leave it running…" he mumbled as he left the room, throwing one last glance over his shoulder before heading off to bed.
Meanwhile, Slur looked down at earth from Duo's comet, completely unmoved by that site that had left so many others in awe. She concentrated, her frown deepened and eyes narrowed at the small planet "I sense a tremendous power. I must find the source"
Ok, nothing new, just finally sorted my time enough to start redoing the chapters.