A/N: Don't say anything. I already know everything that has to be said.

Anyway, this is a trade. A long waited trade I might add. Feel bad about not doing this before, but I got my inspiration for it only now (which makes me wonder, where the heck was it before now?). Mostly Netto-centric with a bit of Rockman in it because, really, you can't separate those two.

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Down the Drain

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In that precise moment, Netto decided that he was not going to like the rest of the day. It was strange, though, because his morning hadn't been bad at all.

Waking up refreshed, eating the delicious breakfast his mom cooked and then stopping a nasty virus attack from burning down his school.

On second thought, maybe letting the viruses burn down his school would have been a better outcome than the one he was currently experiencing. After all, spending the rest of the day stuck in an office explaining to the Officials why he skirted is duty of defending the society from the evilness of WWW was far much better than getting showed to the ground and hopelessly stare as Rockman's PET balanced precariously on a couple of pipes down in a drain.

Netto, still laying flat on his stomach, rested his forehead against the bars of the drain and sighed deeply. Getting the PET back by hand was impossible. Even if the bars were wide enough to let his hand pass, his arm got stuck at a certain point and he was able to only brush his fingers against the cool surface of the device housing his best friend.

The boy cast a saddened glance at Rockman and was glad to notice that he was taking it slightly better than he was. The navi wasn't yelling at him to get him out of that hole, which was a bonus since doing just that would make him more frustrated than he already was.

"So..." Netto eventually spoke, his fingers clutching at the slightly rusted bars of the drain's lid. "Any idea? I'm seriously coming up blank here..."

Rockman gave a tired smile at his operator. "Do you want me to call dad?" he asked, hoping that it could be the solution they were looking for. He wasn't ready to spend an entire day balancing on a pipe down in a drain, nor ready to fall down into the water. As much as the PET was waterproofed and durable, he didn't want to travel through the sewers and end up who knows where and wait even more to be found and saved.

"I don't know..." Netto replied, frowning as he thought about it. "It's not like he can do something. I mean, he could come up with some ideas, or not..."

Rockman bit his lip, but momentarily set aside the idea of calling his operator's father. He had to admit that Netto had a good point there. Even Yuichiro might come up blank on this situation, and Rockman didn't want to have him reprimanded, "What about lifting off the drain's grate?"

Netto shook his head, but tugged at the bars halfheartedly for a second time that day. Just like the first time he had tried it, the grate didn't even move. Ignoring the crowd slowly forming around him and the whispers of 'let it go kid', 'it's just a PET...' and 'you can buy another one', the boy leaned his forehead against the bars and took a deep breath to calm down. It was weird how cool he could act during a battle in the middle of a dangerous situation, but would be a wreck if he was separated from his best friend.

"Ok, ok," Rockman gave a smile to his operator. Even if it was forced, Netto seemed to slightly be relieved by it. "First thing, you need a way to secure the PET so it won't fall down."

With a new task on his hands, Netto lost his hopeless look and frowned in concentration. "A way to stop you from falling..." he muttered to himself. He sat up and crossed his legs, one hand holding up his chin as his elbow was propped on his knee. "I'd need something thin enough to get past the bars, and long enough to reach you..."

Looking around, Netto glared at the staring crowd, silently daring them to say something else, before he moved past them. From where he was sitting, he couldn't see much. The street on one side, shrubs on the other.

Shrubs... nicely lining up alongside the sidewalk with their thin branches.

Netto stared at them for a moment, still busy with connecting shrubs to thin branches to the tool needed to stop the PET's fall. And while his mind was in this limbo that seemed to stretch on forever, it felt like the shrubs were showered in a golden light and a soft chanting of 'come, Netto. Come' came from their general direction.

The boy rubbed his eyes and shook his head. This was not the time to let weird visions invade his mind. He stood up and reached for the first shrub, tearing away a long, thin, half-dead branch from the plant. He felt a bit guilty about doing that, but if that was the price to pay to get back his PET, he would gladly tear down an entire tree if it was necessary.

After collecting five branches, telling the crowd to halt stares, and asking an officer to clear the area, Netto was back to the drain and carefully moving the branches into position.

It took him a few minutes, but he eventually got the sprigs lodged in a way that they were keeping Rockman's PET from falling down into the muddy water.

"Now, phase two," the boy muttered to himself again, leaning back and staring at his handy work. "Get you back... but how to get you back?"

Netto knew he was muttering to himself, but he really didn't care. The crowd was gone, thanks to that nice policeman, and it, now that he realized it, it hadn't been too long since Rockman had ended up where he was now. Perhaps it was half an hour, maybe even a bit less than that. It made him happier to think that he was not going to spend the rest of the day there and he hadn't forced his dad away from his job. Just getting him there would take over half an hour...

"Maybe a hook? But I'd need a thread too..." he continued, eyes slightly unfocused as he stared ahead at nothing. "Where do I get a thread? And a hook?"

Netto wondered if the city's cleaning service was doing its job or not because as his eyes returned to the line of shrubs, they caught something shiny and red. It was long, snaking its way through the branches and leaves. And again there was that golden light and the chanting, beckoning him to reach for the new tool.

"Well," Netto muttered as he untangled the thread from the branches and tested its strength. It was one of those used to tie a flying balloon somewhere, made of nylon that made it strong despite being so thin. "Better than nothing."

The boy spent the next few minutes trying to figure out how to do a loop at one end of the thread. He made it only when Rockman was forced to explain the procedure step by step.

Once he had a working loop, he enlarged it enough and removed one of the branches at one end of the PET. If he was careful enough, he would be able to slip the loop around it, have it fasten under the buttons so that the PET would not slip away and then be able to lift his friend to safety.

Said procedure took longer than he had thought because the loop wouldn't, well... loop around the PET. A couple of times he even did it, only to have the thread slip away much to his frustration, and when that frustration became too much he had to take a small pause and regain his composure and focus.

He had to suppress a chuckle, though. Not even fighting against Forte made him sweat so much, or feel so scared, desperate and with a thundering heartbeat in his ears. It took him several more tries before he successfully secured the PET in the loop and started to lift it. He made it carefully, knowing that he was too fast the PET might swing too much or hit something and slip.

Even if it was just a bunch of seconds before the PET was back into his hands, Netto felt like it had been an eternity as each motion slowed down to a crawl and each wrong movement made an icy feeling run down his spine, threatening to make him lose his control.

But once his friend was back with him, Netto felt like the world had returned moving in its rightful direction. The day was bright, birds were chirping in the trees, his mind returned to register the occasional staring person and he was ready to tackle any attack WWW was planning. He rubbed his eyes and released a long breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Good job, Netto-kun."

Netto looked down at his best friend, a wide smile appearing on his face. "Let's go to the park with the others," he said. He stood up, collected his bag and secured Rockman's PET at his belt. There was no way he was going to have a repeat of the recent scare. "I can't wait to tell them how we took down the latest virus attack!"

Yes, Netto was all too ready to forget seeing Rockman down in a drain.

What he couldn't make heads or tails of it, though, was the weird golden light and heavenly chorus that appeared twice.

Perhaps it was time to quit eating before going to bed...