Hello everyone! This is just a quick forward for this story. I originally started this story back when I was in high school! I was so excited to be able to publish something that I had in my head for so long that I rushed all the existing chapters and the story, in my opinion, became a hot mess. Well, it being my most popular story I have decided to rewrite it and update all the chapters in the original story. Most of it is just going to be grammar and spelling fixes, but there will be a few small plot changes, added content in the chapters and expansion on details. I hope you can all bear with me as I rework the 21 chapters of this story with the ultimate goal of finishing it (this will also give me a chance to make the story my own again so I can finish it). I will be uploading five chapters at a time though so sit tight! So please enjoy! And please let me know how I'm doing!

ACDC Town

"Achoo!" A young teen sneezed. He was lying across a couch reading a comic book; a bored look written all over his face.

"Bless you. That cold is getting worse." A little blue netnavi said from inside a blue PET. The navi, Megaman, looked like any other custom navi at first glance. Lan had had him since he was ten years old, but it wasn't until a few years later that he learned that Megaman housed the soul of his twin brother, Hub.

"No surprise there, it's been so cold out lately. I can't figure out how Raika can live like this year round." Lan replied with a bored tone. He was seventeen years old now, but other than being taller he still looked mostly the same. His hair was still a spikey brown mess held together by a blue bandana with his insignia on it. He was wearing blue jeans and a red t-shirt under a black sweatshirt today. It was late February and he wasn't enjoying his mid-winter break; he had been sick since last week and every day he felt worse.

Before Megaman could say anything else on the matter, the PET started to beep signaling an incoming call. Lan picked the devise up off the table and an image of a man with spiky brown hair and glasses appeared. Excitement shone in Lan's eyes when he saw who had called him. It was his team leader Famous. He was sporting a tan t-shirt under an unbuttoned brown dress shirt, his lab coat was missing though; Lan rarely saw him without it. He looked tired, Lan could see the shadows under his glasses, but that was nothing new; the guy never slept it seemed. He was in his mid to late thirties, but at times he acted like an old man and at other times acted like he was Lan's age. Lan had a lot of respect for him, but he would never tell him to his face; he enjoyed messing with him too much.

"Hey Mr. Famous, where you sending me off to this time?" Lan asked excitedly, almost forgetting that he had been sick all day.

"I need you to come in to SciLab right away." Famous replied ignoring the use of formalities. But Lan saw his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

"Has something happened?" Lan asked a little worried. They were enjoying a long stretch of peace after the Cyberbeast incident three years ago; no one wanted to think about what would happen when it ended.

"I'll fill you in when you arrive. It's too sensitive to discuss on the phone." Famous said before he cut off communication.

'I can't believe he's still this paranoid. Hardly anything has happened in three years.'

"I think I'll take the train in today, driving seems like a bad idea and I can get some shut eye on the ride over." Lan said out loud as he walked over to the door to throw his coat and shoes on. He called out to his mom who was somewhere in the house that he would be back latter before running out into the cold. He didn't realize that his life would never be the same from that moment on.

SciLab

Famous was walking through the halls of SciLab, buttoning up his shirt over his t-shirt, looking to see who was around at the moment. He was a little bored, he was Dr. Hikari's assistant and the leader of a netsavior team; he wasn't used to having free time. But what with the long stretch of peace he found himself spending more time as the assistant. It wasn't a bad set up; he had been an assistant his entire career at SciLab. The only thing that got on his nerves was having to dress appropriately; after a year and a half without big netcrime Yuichiro said that he had to start dressing better. Naturally he argued about it for a couple of months until he made his situation worse; now Yuichrio made him wear a tan shirt with the Hikari insignia on it. He pushed the annoyance out of his mind; it was nice that that was the worst thing going on in his life. He stopped at a set of windows and looked down into the lab below; empty. Everything always slowed down in the winter; all the big projects started up in the spring and finished around the fall. This was usually when he started to get in trouble with Yuichiro; it wasn't his fault though that some of the command consoles didn't quite go back together the way he thought they did. He wandered into the breakroom and found Yuichiro staring out a window. Snow was slowly falling from the sky. Famous took a few slow steps into the room to see if he would be noticed; he wasn't.

"Worst season for your kind right?" Famous asked Yuichiro; startling him. He turned around and shot Famous a warm smile. Followed by a small smirk, still enjoying his victory.

"Unfortunately, but it's not unbearable." He replied, turning back to look out the window. Yuichiro Hikari was a man in his early forties, but you would never know it looking at him. He was tall and slim with an angular face and looked like he was thirty. He was considered to be one of the greatest scientists in the world. The two of them had been friends since they were kids; even though at times Famous drove him up a wall. He was probably the only person who Famous trusted completely.

"I've noticed that Lan hasn't been well lately, has he been ill at home?" Famous asked carefully. Lan was starting to become a very sensitive topic as of late.

"He's starting to show the early signs of the 'awakening'." Yuichiro replied sadly.

"But he's only seventeen! I thought you said it happened to you when you were close to thirty." Famous said astounded by the disturbing news.

"It doesn't have a set age, some are even born 'awakened' and some die before it ever happens." Yuichiro said turning back around; hanging his head while leaning against the window. His nearly shoulder length hair shifted and revealed pointed ears.

"When are you going to tell him that he's an elf?" Famous asked quietly, "you at least had Tadashi who told you everything years before you changed."

"I don't know; you know how he jumps to conclusions. If I tell him that he's an elf the first thing that's going to pop into his head is a picture of three feet tall things working in a toy shop up in the North Pole!" Yuichiro said menacingly, "those things are an insult to my kind. No, Lan is not mature enough for such knowledge yet."

"But it's already happening to him, he needs to know or he's going to freak out when he sees that his ears have all of a sudden become pointed!" Famous argued, "but the choice is yours. He's going to be here soon, Chaud too if I can get ahold of him."

Yuchiro only nodded to this as he turned to look back out the window. Famous left the room and proceeded toward the main entrance to wait for Lan, his mind still on his discussion with Yuchiro. He got down to the lobby, which was oddly empty for the time of day. With no sign of Lan he pulled himself up onto the receptionist's desk and started up a halfhearted conversation with the woman sitting behind it.

Lan arrived 10 minutes latter; it had seemed that his "cold" had gotten worse since he had left his house. He was shivering uncontrollably and he was very pale. Famous looked him over quickly without moving off the desk. He had no idea that Lan was this sick, he felt guilty for calling him in.

"Maybe you should have stayed home." Megaman noted after a very long fit of coughing from Lan.

"Naw I'll be fine, I really wanted to get out of the house. But maybe I'll go make some soup or something after I see Mr. Famous." Lan said as he walked through the second set of doors into the lobby.

"Would you just call me 'Famous' already Lan? We've known each other for so long; it's starting to get old." Famous said as jumped down from the reception desk he was sitting on. "You look like hell. Are you feeling alright?" Famous asked even though he knew what was truly wrong with him. Lan shrugged it off and shot Famous a grin full of trouble.

"I'm fine I just have a small cold. So what's up?" Lan asked as he and Famous made their way towards one of the many labs in the facility. It was strange seeing Famous in anything other than a t-shirt and jeans; even stranger to see him without his coat. Lan could still feel traces of the bruise he had gotten when he had lost it the first time he saw Famous in his new get up.

"My scanners picked up an anomaly on the net this morning. I've set up a warp to send Megaman and Protoman over to check it out." Famous said, "But I haven't been able to get in touch with Chaud, do you know what's going on with him?"

"Hasn't he been sick for a while?" Lan asked slightly confused. He had seen Chaud last week and noticed that he had dark shadows under his eyes. When he had said something about it, he only said that he had been sick for a while and was finding it hard to sleep.

"Oh, I wasn't aware of that." Famous said quietly, "Lan you ok?"

Famous turned around when he noticed that Lan wasn't next to him and saw him clutching the wall while breathing heavily. A moment later and he fell to the ground unconscious.

"Damn!" Famous yelled as he ran to Lan's limp body," someone call up Dr. Hikari, tell him that there's something wrong with his son!"

"Right away sir." Someone replied to him. He didn't look up to see who; Lan was starting to shake slightly. Moments later Yuichiro arrived and without a word to Famous he bent down and picked his son up and continued down the hall.

Famous followed him back, keeping quiet. He was worried about Lan, but he knew he was in good hands.

'At least Yuichiro is here for him. He had to go through all this alone.'

They reached Yuichiro's office and headed inside; Famous closed the door behind him and locked it. It was a rather large office; befitting his rank as head scientist. Right next to the entrance there was a brown couch with matching chairs around a small coffee table. Further back a wall divider had been set up to separate, or hide as Famous jabbed constantly, Yuichiro's work space. Famous watched as Yuichiro laid Lan down on the couch, worry written all over his face.

"What can I do for you?" Famous asked him cautiously. He was always nervous when something happened to Lan under his watch; he brushed it off as a scar of the past.

"Nothing, just go. Pass around the story that he's really sick." Yuichiro said quietly, not looking up. "I'll let you know if I need anything."

"Alright, I'm sorry Yuichiro." He said quietly, not knowing why he was apologizing but he felt like he had to.

"It's not your fault. Don't worry; he's going to be fine."