title: Net Nitro Necromancing
subject: Netto + MegaMan
[ a boy named Netto earns enough money to buy a PET, which turns out to contain a Navi named MegaMan. In Netto's efforts to make his Navi stronger, the two encounter obstacles and more. Can Netto make his Navi stronger than it is? And through it all, the WWW are in hot pursuit of them after MegaMan deleted several of their Navis! ]
Chapter 1; the defective PET
I was really poor with no money of my own to spend. All the kids would laugh at me because I didn't have all the high-tech items they had. I didn't want any of that stuff anyway. Don't get me wrong, my family was rich. My dad worked at Scilab inventing lots of stuff. That was where most of the high-tech stuff was invented. My parents didn't give me an allowance like the other families did with their kids. Anyway. I thought that I'd not wanted any high-tech stuff, but one day, something proved me wrong. I was in class at school when I saw some students take out some kind of handheld device. They were talking to it like it was a person, and to my surprise, the device spoke back and was carrying on a conversation! I couldn't help but be curious, so I took a peek at one of them. There was a computer screen on it, showing a web browser and a human-looking cyber navigator. Someone told me that the navigator was called a NetNavi that could do whatever you wanted it to do. It could talk to you wherever you went and it was like having a friend. I really wanted one, bad! After school, I ran to the shop where they told me I could get a PET, which the device was called. I saw many different ones for sale. But just my luck, a PET device sold for a whopping 76580 dollars!!! Meaning it was $100.00. That was way too much money for me. And I knew that I couldn't ask my parents for the money. I left the shop, sad and disheartened. The one thing that I wanted, and it was far out of my reach. I was about to go home when I saw another shop that sold PETS, and it was closing its doors! I ran to the manager who was closing up shop and he said nothing like he was really angry or something. He was mumbling something about his job with the WWW and then noticed me. He laughed about the question I asked him about the PETs he was selling, and he said that they were for free. My mouth dropped open at my luck! He slipped in under the gates and I heard several doors slam and shelves fall over, much like he was ripping the place apart. I was then handed a blue PET through the gates and the manager told me that it was defective. Then he slammed the door before I could say anything. I looked at the PET in my hands, and frowned at all the scratches and dents scattered all over it. It was all battered like it had been lying in the road getting constantly run over by cars. It looked broken. But I still had a small smile on my face, because I finally had my own PET like everyone else. It wasn't operational now, but I knew that the device was not beyond repair. I tucked my PET inside a pocket on my backpack and headed home. I was already halfway down the block anyway. I greeted my mom who was working in the kitchen when I got home, and told her about my adventures. I told her about the store with the 76580 dollar / $100.00 PETs. I said that I knew the person who gave me the PET, so as not to worry her or get yelled at for accepting things from strangers. She seemed to not believe me because PETs sold for a ton of money, but I showed her the device to prove it to her. She then told me to just throw it out because it was deemed defective. I said no, and went up to my room, sure that I could fix it. I shut the door and dumped the tools out of my box and onto the floor. A small can of scratch repair rub-on and a rubber hammer along with cotton balls. There were other tools too, including test answers and batteries, emergency non-perishable food including twinkies and chocolate bars, water bottles, a flashlight, and a water gun. I packed the tools that I didn't need back in the box and took the PET out of my bookbag. I grabbed the hammer and first lightly banged the dents out of the device, careful not to damage it any further. I then rubbed the scratch repair over the scratches, and used the cotton balls to wipe off the rest that I didn't use. The PET looked about as good as new. I still had to fix whatever 'defect' was in there, because it was not operational. The screen was blank, and I saw no on or off switch. I opened the back of the PET to see if something was wrong on the inside. There were a ton of computer chips in there of many different shapes and sizes. I noticed that one of the chips, a black one with a skull and crossbones, most certainly did not fit in. It looked like it was messing up the other chips, overloading the system and maybe causing it to malfunction. I took that chip out, and put it in my tool box if I needed it for later. Now everything looked like it belonged in there, so I closed the back of the PET and hoped that none of the chips or circuits had fried before I could fix it. A small beeping noise emitted from the device and I turned the PET over to look at the screen. I saw a light grey screen with an all blue Navi lying on the bottom as if it were dead. More trouble. I plugged it into my computer and went to Scilab's webpage. They had a diagnostic program that I could run, so I could find out what the problem was. I ran the program and was shocked to hear the results. The poor Navi had constantly been under attack by viruses, and the black chip that had been in there had been the cause of the massive damage. The viruses had put the Navi right on the brink of death. I put the Navi in the Scilab hospital overnight, and watched on the computer as other Navis that looked like nurses put it on a stretcher. The screen of the PET changed to white with a red cross in the center. I sat on my bed, planning to stay there and wait until the hospital told me any news on the Navi's condition. But mom called me down for dinner, and even though I wanted to stay, I knew that I was hungry and had to eat, having not eaten since 7'o clock that morning. I went downstairs and my mouth dropped open at my dad sitting at the table eating with us! It was on very rare occasions for him to be home like this, if even for a dinner. When I sat down, he told me that he had something important to tell me.
Chapter 2; the NetCrime rise
Mom dished out the steak and peas and dad passed around the mashed potatoes. I couldn't imagine what was so important that dad had come all the way from work to tell me about. I started cutting my meat and put some potatoes and peas in my mouth. I was halfway done eating dinner when I saw dad become serious. "Lan, I came here to tell you about the increase of Net Crime occurring in the world today." he said. I wondered what kind of Net Crime he was talking about, but I didn't ask him. "These are crimes committed by individuals using NetNavis as key weapons in their actions. There's an organization that has committed many NetCrimes known as the WWW. You know that there are many things connected to the internet, almost everything we use. The WWW seeks to destroy mankind." I took all this information in, what my dad was telling me about NetCrime. He went on, telling me what crimes they'd committed so far. I'd never heard of any of this, but dad said that they hadn't hit our town yet. He hoped that they would skip over us. Before dad went back to Scilab, he warned me not to get involved in any danger, like trying to stop the WWW. And what he said about them not coming to our town, I knew that they would come here soon. Why would they not come here? There was all the hype of PETs and online equipment. We had an oven that was online for maintenance reasons. The entire school's network would also be in danger. And what about the Scilab? Then dad would be in danger too. I couldn't stop them, because their crimes were Net-based and I had no NetNavi of my own. The PET I had now might not work, so I didn't count it in just yet. I got up from the table and went up to my room after finishing washing the dishes. I got my homework out of my bookbag and started on it. Math first, and then english. I finished the 10-page assignment on percent ratios and chucked the book back in the bag. I glanced at the clock and it was already 10:00 at night. I still had english to do though, and I had an empty page in my notebook on my lap to fill. The assignment was to write about anything. It could be about your friend, a memory, your pet dog, a current event. I looked up at the ceiling, and thought of --- for some reason. I decided to write about ----. I then closed the notebook with a sigh, but before I put it in back into my bag, I decided that I wasn't satisfied enough. I took my notebook back up and flipped to one of the pages in the middle, and started writing a poem. It was about how I hated not having any friends. My mom opened the bedroom door to find me writing in my notebook. I wondered if she'd seen what I'd just written, and cursed myself silently. I didn't want anyone to find out that I wrote poetry. But she simply smiled and told me to finish up and go to bed. I let out an exhale of breath. How ashamed I would be if someone found one of my crummy poems. No one knew, and no one was going to know. I shut my notebook, put it in my bag, and changed into my pajamas. Climbing into bed, I looked at the PET on my desk plugged into my computer, and the red cross was still on the screen. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep. I dreamed about a knight in shining armor coming to rescue me. I was locked in a dark and lonely tower of a castle.
Chapter 3; Alarm Clock Indigo
"Netto-kun. Netto-kun!" a voice called a sleeping boy's name. The sleeping form simply turned in bed, groaning. "WAKE UP HIKARI NETTO!!!" the voice yelled. A startled and fully awake Netto fell out of bed and onto the floor. He looked around the room, not seeing anyone that could have called his name. Especially -that- name. "Over here!" the voice guided him. Netto looked up in the direction of his desk. What he saw wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting to see.
Chapter 3.1; My brown hair and his green eyes
"Hi!" the cyber navigator in the PET said cheerfully, waving. "My name's MegaMan, your NetNavi!" Netto blinked his eyes, wiping them of sleep. "You have school in 20 minutes. I thought you'd want to get ready, so I woke you up." MegaMan said. "Oh, thanks." Netto said, groggily, still half-asleep. He was almost out the bedroom door when he stopped in his tracks and raced back in. "Wait, you're MY NetNavi?! For real?! You mean you actually pulled through?!" Netto said excitedly, looking at the blue-and-yellow clad navigator. The NetNavi blinked his vivid green eyes. "Yes, yes, and 100% recovery." MegaMan said, scratching his nose a little. "Lan you're going to be late for school!" Mom's voice yelled down from the kitchen. "Hurry up, Netto-kun!" MegaMan prompted him. Netto blushed red at the '-kun' his NetNavi attached to his name, but couldn't stop to say a comment back. He grabbed his clothes and raced to the bathroom, got in the shower, shampooed and washed and dried and changed in record time. Netto ran back to his room, put his shoes on and stuffed his backpack with anything he needed for school. He tied his bandana on after putting a comb through his brown hair, and dashed down the stairs only to dash right back up again. He grabbed his PET off the desk to take it with him. Mom saw him leave the house with a piece of toast in his mouth, his bookbag in one hand, and something else in his other that she couldn't get a good look at. She frowned at not having said goodbye to her son, but he had left in a hurried blur towards the school. She continued her daily housework.
Chapter 3.2; Serenade 1/3
"Ack I'm going to be late for school again!" Netto said as he ran to school. He didn't even stop to say hi to his childhood friend Mayl, whom he walked with to school almost every morning. She called after him, but Netto was too caught up in an effort to make it to school on time. She huffed, and called him an idiot. Netto was almost through the park, the last stretch before school, when he decided to walk the rest of the way, having seen the clocktower on the school reading 8:25 am, 5 minutes left to get to school. He'd eaten his toast, and was ahead of everybody else. Why not talk to his Navi a bit while walking? He held up his PET and there MegaMan was, as if waiting for him to stop and listen to him, wanting to say something. "Thank you for saving my life, Netto-kun. I thought that you'd have left me to die, since I am a piece of worthless junk afterall..." MegaMan said. "What?? No you're not-" Netto began to say, but MegaMan shook his head. "It's true, I'm useless, a waste, the worst NetNavi ever, I'm no good to anyone. Nothing makes sense..." MegaMan continued. "Mega, stop talking like that. You're not any of that! You're my NetNavi and you're the best!" Netto said, but it seemed to be wasted words. "Why did you save me? I'll only cause you trouble in the long run..." MegaMan inquired. "Because... I..." Netto started, but couldn't get the words he wanted to say out of his mouth. "See? There was no-" "I needed a friend." MegaMan stopped his sentence dead at those words. Netto-kun... needed a friend? A friend?? F-R-I-E-N-D??? "You wanted to... find a friend... in me?" MegaMan stumbled over his words. But Netto couldn't answer him. He was in class, and couldn't talk to his NetNavi while the teacher was giving the lesson, or he'd be in trouble. MegaMan put his head down, and turned Netto's words over in his head. 'you're my netnavi, and you're the best' 'I needed a friend'. The words ran over and over within his mind. 'He wants to find a friend... in me...?' He thought. 'Why? Is he... like me?' His thoughts were interrupted by the teacher's voice yelling at Netto. "Lan Hikari, what in the world is this???" Netto looked up at the teacher, who was holding the page of his notebook up for the class to see. It was the poem he had written last night, about ----. The teacher shook her head as if disappointed in him, handed him the notebook, and ordered him out of class to go to the principal's office. MegaMan didn't know what was going on. Why was Netto getting in trouble, and what for? Was it because of him and the fact that he took him to school? From Netto's face, the guess was wrong. It was something with the notebook, and the teacher certainly didn't like it much at all. MegaMan took a look at the notebook in Netto's hand, and read what was on the open page that the teacher had pointed out. It was a poem.
: This is your wake-up call
your alarm clock is dead
you had no idea
all your friends are your enemies
and they're after you
there's no way to go
no where to run
This is the sum of all your fears
You thought you could trust them
you shared all your dirty little secrets
and depended on them to be around
they never told you lies or tall-tales
always, forever, friends "the oath"
fell apart, bit by bit, all of it, with one mistake
Everyone hates you
you're lost in your own turf
when you move on,,,
who will accept your goodbye
but an empty soul like mine
off to be filled again. :
'This is how... Netto feels?' MegaMan gasped. 'He's like I am...' He turned to look up at Netto's face again. He could see the tears threatening to fall. MegaMan knew that he had to say something. The principal was going to yell at him, call his parents, tell everyone about the poem. It was obvious that Netto never meant to let anyone find out about it. "Netto-kun, don't go. Plug me in and I'll get you out of trouble." MegaMan spoke up. Netto looked down at him with a little bit of hope in his face, much to MegaMan's surprise. "You don't have to get in trouble, Netto-kun." MegaMan said, and Netto connected the PET into the phone in the school lobby and into the school network. MegaMan's figure appeared on the phone screen, and a maze was laid out in front of him. "It's your private work, and no one should do that like hold it up in front of everyone to see! I'm going to protect your work. You don't deserve any of that to happen to you. It's beyond me why you're getting in trouble... but that doesn't matter to me." MegaMan talked to Netto as he navigated his way to the center of the network. He found the database center, where he took Netto's file that the teacher had just put in. The principal would never know. MegaMan glanced at the other files in there too. He saw some of Netto's poems in there that had previously gotten him in trouble. "Shall I remove these too?" MegaMan asked Netto, who gratefully nodded. MegaMan grabbed all of those files, and left the school network to return to his happy owner. "Mega, I can't thank you enough." Netto said. MegaMan laughed. "I owe my life to you, Netto-kun. I'll be here for you whenever you need me to be. Besides, us in depression and despair should stick together." He said. Netto's smile wavered a little. What was his NetNavi depressed about anyway? Did he have to be like this? He already knew that each NetNavi had their own unique personality, but this was ridiculous. "Mega?" Netto said his name aloud. "Yeah, Netto-kun?" Came the answer. "Why do you feel like that?" There was a silence between them. After a while, MegaMan spoke. "I don't know, really... it's probably just the way I was programmed or something. The Battle Network System disapproved of me from the beginning and declared me defective, and stuff... All the other NetNavis were the same, while I wasn't. It's a long story." The NetNavi said. Netto frowned, upset. "That kind of stuff doesn't matter, Mega. You are who you are, and that's that. No one should judge you on anything, anyway. It's not fair." Netto said. "And besides, I've been victim to that kind of treatment too. Those kinds of people never add up to anything." He continued. MegaMan listened to him as he watched him walk out of school, and no one stopped him. "Netto-kun, are you leaving school?" MegaMan asked him out of curiousity. "Yes, I am. They're not going to stop me either." "Why don't you just go back in?" MegaMan said. Netto looked at him, almost out the school doors. "Why would I do that?" Netto questioned him. "Because, you're just running away now. Besides, you left your backpack there in the classroom and there's only an hour left of school." MegaMan convinced Netto to go back in to school. Netto re-entered the classroom and took his usual seat, and neither the students or the teacher looked up. Netto pretended to look very upset like he was in deep trouble, but for real he was really happy. Happy that he had a friend like MegaMan ready to help him out.
Chapter 4; DELETE!!!
"So, Netto-kun, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?" MegaMan asked as Netto was walking out of school down the sidewalk. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... what do you want to do?" Netto asked him. MegaMan scratched his head, trying to think of something fun or interesting to do. He came up with one thing. "How about we, um, go internet surfing?" He offered. The idea sounded exciting for Netto. "Sounds great! Let's go have some fun." He said, and MegaMan smiled. This would be the first time that Netto would experience the net with his NetNavi guide and new best friend. Netto ran to his room and set up his computer, tossing his bookbag in the corner, wanting to forget about work until their fun was over. "Almost there, it'll be up in a second." Netto said as he waited for his computer to boot up. "I meant to ask you, do you have any more poems that you wrote?" MegaMan decided to start a conversation while they were waiting. Netto looked at him, with a little fear in his eyes. "You mean you saw that one in the notebook today in school? Oh yeah, you did..." Netto said. MegaMan guessed from his tone of voice that the poems were meant to be kept a secret, And not only from the teacher and those people in school, but from everyone including friends and family. "Do you mean to keep your writings a secret? And me, as well? You haven't talked to anyone about me or shown me to your parents yet." MegaMan asked. "I'd want to hide everything personal from my parents. It'd be embarrassing if they ever found out about my poems. They'd probably throw all of them out. And about telling my friends anything, I don't have any friends. My parents wouldn't be too thrilled if they found out about you either." Netto said. MegaMan sighed. "You don't know that, Netto-kun. Maybe they'd be happy to meet me." He said. Netto looked at his NetNavi on the computer screen, browsing the net for someplace fun to go to. "And you do have at least one friend, you've got me. That's what I'm here for, unless you want me here for more than that." MegaMan said, and opened the page to the Scilab Square, which was where a lot of NetNavis hung out. Netto wondered where he was taking him, but wanted to wait to be surprised. "I thought you'd want to visit your dad here, this is where he works, right?" MegaMan said. Netto's smile widened. "Yeah! How'd you know I wanted to see him?" He said excitedly. He wanted to see his dad and tell him about his NetNavi. "I just knew, I guess... you don't see him a lot, do you?" MegaMan asked. Netto shook his head no. "He's always stuck at work... it'd be nice to see him, but I guess it's okay this way too." Netto said as his NetNavi browsed the offices on the internet. He couldn't find him too easily, but eventually he found his desk and the caretaker program. They found out he was in a meeting, and wouldn't be coming back for at least 6 hours! "He's got a really busy job, doesn't he?" MegaMan laughed softly. He looked at Netto and saw that he looked unhappy. "I know, how about we leave a message for him saying that we were here?" He suggested. Netto's smile took back its place on his face. " 'Dear dad, we came to see you today but you were busy! Love Netto' is that message okay?" MegaMan showed him the message he had written. Netto nodded, and his NetNavi gave the caretaker program the message. It said it would deliver it to him as soon as he came into the office. MegaMan left the office and was about to ask Netto what he wanted to do now that this task was over, but his attention was grabbed by the sound of startled and frightened NetNavis in the Scilab lobby. Netto followed MegaMan as his NetNavi peeked from where he was hidden behind the doorway of the elevator, so he wouldn't be seen but would be able to see what was going on. A light blue NetNavi that was dressed like an eskimo was blowing ice out of his mouth, freezing everything and everyone that got hit with his icy breath. "Mega, what's going on?" MegaMan heard Netto asking him in a whisper, not wanting the other NetNavi to hear. "It's one of World Three's NetNavis, a takeover of the Scilab. It's a Navi named IceMan." MegaMan answered back softly. Netto was shocked, having heard his father talk about them just the day before. "Something's not right, though. Oh, Iceman's operator is being made to do this to get his son back, who is being held captive by World Three!" MegaMan realized. Netto held his breath. World Three didn't even hold back on holding children hostage! He was angry, and wasn't about to let what his dad told him hold him back from fighting World Three. IceMan was headed MegaMan's way, and there was no way for him to run anywhere and not be seen. "MegaMan, we have to stop them." Netto said to his NetNavi, who looked at him and into his brave face. "It's the right thing to do, Netto-kun!" He said, and lunged at IceMan, alerting his operator Dr. Froid in the process. Netto ran out of the house, on the trail of Dr. Froid's lost son. He had to hurry, he felt very insecure and worried without being with MegaMan on the computer. What if he got frozen like the other Scilab NetNavis? What did World Three want with the Scilab? He ran down the sidewalk to the store he had gotten his PET at, and saw a parked car right next to it, half hidden by bushes. It looked too suspicious to be just someone's car parked illegally. Netto opened the door, and out tumbled a young boy from the 4th grader class in his school, Dr. Froid's son. "Please stop my dad! Tell him I'm okay!" He gave Netto a message saying he was okay and Netto ran back home and back up to his computer to tell MegaMan the good news. He stopped in his tracks when he saw what had been going on while he had been gone. MegaMan's feet were frozen to the floor and he was being assualted by IceMan, kicking up iceballs that he was making and throwing the hard pieces at him. MegaMan couldn't fight back because he couldn't move to attack. "Mega!!!!" Netto cried out, grabbing hold of the controls again. In doing so, the ice around MegaMan's feet melted, and Iceman was thrown back with shock that he had gotten free so easily from the ice. The other NetNavis he had frozen were still stuck in place, no matter what their operators or themselves were doing. That was what IceMan's job had been, to get everyone trapped so he could bring the Aquaprogram to World Three. Only then would they let his operator's son go. "MegaMan!" Netto said. MegaMan nodded, and weakened IceMan enough to stop him but not enough to kill him. "Your son is alright. Please stop doing this." MegaMan said to IceMan, and gave him the message that Netto had transferred to him. IceMan immediately informed his operator of the news and he stopped the destruction that he was causing. IceMan took back all the ice that was trapping the NetNavis, and apologized for his actions. Father was reunited with son, and everything was alright. MegaMan returned to Netto, who told his NetNavi that he was going to put a stop to World Three. "I don't want that to happen again. I want to stop them from trying to take over the world, or whatever they're doing." Netto said. MegaMan agreed with him. "I'll be right there beside you, Netto-kun!" MegaMan smiled, holding up a fist towards the sky as he was walking down the Cyber Square's internet sidewalk tracking down something fun again. "As will I, Mega." Netto whispered so that his NetNavi wouldn't hear him. somewhere else, in a dark lab located in the mountains, a mad scientist plots his next move : A meddling kid and his Navi dares to tangle with the WWW?! DELETE!!!
Chapter 4.5; Knowing
= Netto-kun was in Dencity when it happened. It was World Three again, another attempt at taking over a city. They almost came close, you know. If I hadn't screwed up, everything would have been fine. Nothing would have gone wrong, no one would have gotten hurt. Instead, I made a wrong decision, and I could have cost thousands of lives. Including the person I cared about most. It feels like he died, because of me. =
Netto ran to the Metroline to take the train down to Dencity, where his NetNavi MegaMan was already fighting off World Three's attacks. Grabbing his ticket, Netto caught the train headed to the destination. He kept a close eye on his PET in his hands, following MegaMan's every move. There were dozens, no, hundreds of viruses attacking the city, and surrounding him. He was blasting them away as much as he could. "I have to stop who ever is operating the Navi responsible for this..." Netto muttered to himself. ''Dencity, Dencity, arrived'' the train announcement rang throughout the metro car. Netto dashed out as soon as the doors opened. As soon as he got out of the Metroline, there was a car crash right on the road in front of him! He looked at the traffic lights, and they were all messed up, changing from green to red and red to green, and the cars couldn't stop! Netto looked down at the PET's screen just as MegaMan got blasted by a NetNavi that looked like a clown. MegaMan could only hold on for so long... Netto ran to find who was causing all of this. He crossed many streets and ran down along many blocks, and finally found a large crowd of angry and panicked people huddled in a corner as if surrounding somebody. As Netto drew closer, he could hear some of what they were saying. "If I buy this program, my car will be accident-free! And it's cheap too, only 100,000,000 dollars!" One of the men said. "Stop! It's all a trick played by World Three to get your money!" Netto announced so all the people could hear him. All the people looked up, and realized that it was indeed a cheap trick. "Thanks, kid!" A woman said to him as the crowd dispersed. An angry looking girl with pigtails remained, growling at him. "You dare foil in my plans?!" She said angrilly, staring down at Netto. She then pushed him into the road, and Netto was sent sprawling right in the middle of the intersection, the traffic lights going haywire. Meanwhile, in the net, MegaMan was finished with the clown Navi named Colorman, and was staring puzzled and confused at the device before him. It had two levers, one green, and one red. These levers controlled the traffic lights. But which one should he pull down, and which one should he leave up? Something caused him to look at the screen that showed him what was happening on Netto's side, and he saw Netto was right in the middle of the road with two cars coming right his way! "Netto-kun!!!!" Panicking, MegaMan pulled down the green lever in a blur. He didn't mean to do that, but couldn't change it until 5 seconds later! "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan cried out. Netto was scared out of his mind at the two cars speeding head on towards him, headed straight for him! The lights changed suddenly, and the cars stopped, but not before hitting Netto, giving him a nasty gash across his chest and a twisted ankle from scrambling out of the way at the last possible second. MegaMan lay on the ground in the cyber-world, trembling, his hand still clutching the red lever on the device. "Netto-kun... I screwed up... he's... dead..." MegaMan muttered softly. A single teardrop fell at his knees. Netto forced himself to sit up on the sidewalk, clutching his chest, some blood coming down out of the rip in his clothes. But he was alive. If the lights hadn't changed, he might have been... MegaMan had saved him! He must have been stopped by the clown NetNavi, and needed time to get the lights back working. Holding up the PET in his hands, he said MegaMan's name. "Mega!" He said. MegaMan's head shot up, his eyes immediately going to the screen. When he saw Netto's face, he was both relieved and confused. "Netto-kun! You're alive!?" He said. Netto nodded in answer. "All thanks to you!! I thought I was going to die! That clown Navi really must have given you a hard time!" Netto said, calming himself down from the trauma he'd just gone through. MegaMan stood up, and nodded his head slowly. 'Netto-kun doesn't think I screwed up... I should tell him the truth, but... it seems okay this way too...' MegaMan thought in his mind. Netto nodded. "I'm hurt, but I can make it home in one piece." Netto said, catching MegaMan's immediate attention. "Mom's going to be a nervous wreck..." He muttered as he got up off the sidewalk, forcing himself up onto his ankle. It really hurt to walk, putting strain on the twisted ankle. "Netto-kun, I'm sorry... you got hurt because of me..." MegaMan started saying. "I could have gotten you killed because I screwed up!!" He cried. He hung his head in shame, and guilt. Netto blinked his eyes, already down two blocks on his way to the Metroline. "I panicked and pulled the wrong lever! I screwed up!!" He continued to say. Netto understood, a small smile on his face to make sure MegaMan knew that. "It's OK. It was just a little mistake, Mega. You saved me actually, you pulled the right lever a little late, but that's okay. I'm still breathing, right?" Netto laughed, trying to cheer his NetNavi up a bit. MegaMan looked up at him, and slowly nodded his head. There was a lot of guilt still within him, but he tried to ignore it for now.
After school the next day, everything was normal as if nothing had happened. None of the teachers had talked about what had happened in Dencity, but some students talked about it amongst themselves. Netto was catching up to his old childhood friend Mayl, to ask her out to the movies that night, since it was Friday. "Hey Mayl? Do you... want to go to see a movie with me tonight?" Netto asked her. Mayl looked at him with an especially mean look on her face. "I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan." And she walked away, leaving Netto completely stunned. Those words hurt deeply. MegaMan had also been stunned by her words, he hadn't been expecting them either. She'd put him down so brutally, completely crushing him... as if for no reason at all. 'What did Netto-kun ever do to her?' MegaMan huffed, and looked up at his operator. He had a dark look on his face, and looked incredibly sad and depressed. MegaMan couldn't think of anything helpful to say. 'Poor Netto-kun... it took him a while to gather up the courage to ask her, and now this happens... and now I don't know what to say...' MegaMan thought to himself. When Netto arrived home, he barely ate his dinner. His mom was worried but he lied and told her that he ate a big lunch at school. He then went up to his room and tried to get through his nightly homework assignment. "Lan, I'm going out with the neighbors, bye sweety!" Mom yelled up the stairs. "OK." Netto replied. He heard the front door shutting and sighed. He said nothing after a while. "Mega, I can't take it anymore." MegaMan barely heard the soft mutter. Before he could say anything in reply, Netto got up abruptly from his desk chair and ran out the door, letting the bedroom door slam behind him. "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan called after him, but was unsuccessful in getting Netto back or getting an explanation from him about where he was going. He knew something was wrong when he heard the front door slam, and Netto hadn't taken him with him like always. He had a -very- bad feeling that Netto was going to do something bad. To himself.
Netto ran where his feet led him. He clutched his heart, it hurt so much, Mayl's words were cutting into him like daggers and swords. The whole scene was repeating in his mind, like a broken record. 'I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan.' And that mean look she gave him... combined with the loneliness and depression within himself, it was all too much. No one liked him, no one paid attention to him, his parents couldn't understand him... What else was there to live for? He had nobody... Running as tears blinded him, he found himself in a park near a high bridge. Without thinking he got up on the ledge of the bridge, and wiped the stinging tears from his eyes. And then, he jumped, falling down into the water underneath the bridge. He let himself just stay under the water, letting his air supply dwindle. It really wasn't worth living anymore... Everything was getting dark, and the water surrounding him and smothering him was all fuzzy dark blue. He thought he was in a dream when he heard a splash like something entering the water, and then someone swimming towards him. Netto smiled faintly, in a dream, not comprehending much in the state he was in without much air. The person took his hand and lifted him to the surface, where they resurfaced and Netto was put on the grassy riverbank, coughing the water out of his lungs harshly. When his vision cleared a little, he saw the knight in shining armor from his dreams. He then lost consciousness, his drenched and weak body falling limply into the knight's arms.
...................................................
Chapter 4.7; Guilt Trip
Netto woke up in his bed under the covers, in his pajamas. He thought it had been just a dream, because he'd been saved by the shining armor knight from the river under the bridge. That he'd simply dreamed it, and he'd been in bed asleep the whole time. But taking a glance at the floor, he saw the clothes he'd been wearing yesterday in a sopping wet heap. He'd jumped in the river alright, but how could a figment of his imagination save him? Netto jumped nearly ten feet out of his bed when he heard someone snoring softly right next to him. Looking towards his right on the other side of the bed, he saw MegaMan sleeping on his bed with him! Netto blinked his eyes, but he wasn't dreaming. MegaMan must have been the knight in shining armor... because MegaMan was drenched too. If this was so, how is he here in the real world with him? He was a NetNavi that couldn't live outside the internet or the PET... "Mega?" Netto put his hand lightly on MegaMan's shoulder. He was real, it wasn't a dream. The touch was so warm... MegaMan stirred out of sleep, and opened his eyes. When he saw Netto, he gave a warm smile. "Netto-kun..." He yawned, stretching his arms and legs. "DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!!!!" MegaMan shook Netto silly by his shoulders. "Ack OK OK I'm sorry!!" Netto said so MegaMan would stop shaking him. He fell on the floor, dizzy. MegaMan sat down on the bed, and looked angrilly at him. "I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me why you did what you did last night. Or what you tried to do." Netto looked down at the floor, depressed, and feeling guilty too. How could he forget about MegaMan? He was his best friend... he'd have helped him through it. "Depression. Loneliness. Anger. Confusion. Hatred." Netto stated. "And Guilt." MegaMan said of himself, hanging his head even lower than Netto's. "Mayl can go to Hell, Netto-kun, but don't let her bring you down with her." MegaMan said, startling Netto at his choice of words. Netto thought about it. Mayl really wasn't worth dying over. Just, all the emotions drove him over the edge. He wanted to die. But now that the emotion overload was over, he didn't want to die at all. It was all because Mayl pushed him over the edge. "You're right, Mega. I was stupid..." Netto confessed. MegaMan nodded. "I don't even know why you would even think about taking that sort of action. You have a lot to live for, you have a person who cares for yoU, you've got this whole world." MegaMan said. Netto frowned sadly. "I don't have anyone who cares about me, Mega, my parents aren't around much and everyone I know either wants to get me in trouble or use me for their own benefit." Netto said. "And if you'd died, there'd be no one left who'd miss you, right?" MegaMan questioned. Netto nodded his head. MegaMan put a hand on Netto's shoulder. "Netto-kun, listen to me. Taking your own life is a bad idea, why didn't you take me too? I probably couldn't live without you anyway." MegaMan said. Netto was stunned by his words. Really? "Never mind that. You're going to be late for school if you don't go now, you know." MegaMan pointed to the clock hanging on the wall. It was 8 AM and class started at 8:30. Netto nodded his head and put clean clothes on. He went to the bathroom the brush his teeth and when he got back he saw that MegaMan was in his PET now, waiting for him. Netto tied his bandana on, which was still wet by the way, and took MegaMan with him this time. He ran down the stairs with his backpack and books, and grabbed the usual piece of toast and ran out the door on his way to school. Now it was 8:12, with a good chunk of time to spare. Netto thought to himself as he walked down the sidewalk towards school. Mega... really felt that way? He actually said that? What the heck? He had no idea that NetNavis could get so attached to their operators... did all Navis act this way? And he'd never heard of a NetNavi coming alive out of their PETs, let alone save their operator from jumping into a river or something. But he didn't know all that there was to know about
subject: Netto + MegaMan
[ a boy named Netto earns enough money to buy a PET, which turns out to contain a Navi named MegaMan. In Netto's efforts to make his Navi stronger, the two encounter obstacles and more. Can Netto make his Navi stronger than it is? And through it all, the WWW are in hot pursuit of them after MegaMan deleted several of their Navis! ]
Chapter 1; the defective PET
I was really poor with no money of my own to spend. All the kids would laugh at me because I didn't have all the high-tech items they had. I didn't want any of that stuff anyway. Don't get me wrong, my family was rich. My dad worked at Scilab inventing lots of stuff. That was where most of the high-tech stuff was invented. My parents didn't give me an allowance like the other families did with their kids. Anyway. I thought that I'd not wanted any high-tech stuff, but one day, something proved me wrong. I was in class at school when I saw some students take out some kind of handheld device. They were talking to it like it was a person, and to my surprise, the device spoke back and was carrying on a conversation! I couldn't help but be curious, so I took a peek at one of them. There was a computer screen on it, showing a web browser and a human-looking cyber navigator. Someone told me that the navigator was called a NetNavi that could do whatever you wanted it to do. It could talk to you wherever you went and it was like having a friend. I really wanted one, bad! After school, I ran to the shop where they told me I could get a PET, which the device was called. I saw many different ones for sale. But just my luck, a PET device sold for a whopping 76580 dollars!!! Meaning it was $100.00. That was way too much money for me. And I knew that I couldn't ask my parents for the money. I left the shop, sad and disheartened. The one thing that I wanted, and it was far out of my reach. I was about to go home when I saw another shop that sold PETS, and it was closing its doors! I ran to the manager who was closing up shop and he said nothing like he was really angry or something. He was mumbling something about his job with the WWW and then noticed me. He laughed about the question I asked him about the PETs he was selling, and he said that they were for free. My mouth dropped open at my luck! He slipped in under the gates and I heard several doors slam and shelves fall over, much like he was ripping the place apart. I was then handed a blue PET through the gates and the manager told me that it was defective. Then he slammed the door before I could say anything. I looked at the PET in my hands, and frowned at all the scratches and dents scattered all over it. It was all battered like it had been lying in the road getting constantly run over by cars. It looked broken. But I still had a small smile on my face, because I finally had my own PET like everyone else. It wasn't operational now, but I knew that the device was not beyond repair. I tucked my PET inside a pocket on my backpack and headed home. I was already halfway down the block anyway. I greeted my mom who was working in the kitchen when I got home, and told her about my adventures. I told her about the store with the 76580 dollar / $100.00 PETs. I said that I knew the person who gave me the PET, so as not to worry her or get yelled at for accepting things from strangers. She seemed to not believe me because PETs sold for a ton of money, but I showed her the device to prove it to her. She then told me to just throw it out because it was deemed defective. I said no, and went up to my room, sure that I could fix it. I shut the door and dumped the tools out of my box and onto the floor. A small can of scratch repair rub-on and a rubber hammer along with cotton balls. There were other tools too, including test answers and batteries, emergency non-perishable food including twinkies and chocolate bars, water bottles, a flashlight, and a water gun. I packed the tools that I didn't need back in the box and took the PET out of my bookbag. I grabbed the hammer and first lightly banged the dents out of the device, careful not to damage it any further. I then rubbed the scratch repair over the scratches, and used the cotton balls to wipe off the rest that I didn't use. The PET looked about as good as new. I still had to fix whatever 'defect' was in there, because it was not operational. The screen was blank, and I saw no on or off switch. I opened the back of the PET to see if something was wrong on the inside. There were a ton of computer chips in there of many different shapes and sizes. I noticed that one of the chips, a black one with a skull and crossbones, most certainly did not fit in. It looked like it was messing up the other chips, overloading the system and maybe causing it to malfunction. I took that chip out, and put it in my tool box if I needed it for later. Now everything looked like it belonged in there, so I closed the back of the PET and hoped that none of the chips or circuits had fried before I could fix it. A small beeping noise emitted from the device and I turned the PET over to look at the screen. I saw a light grey screen with an all blue Navi lying on the bottom as if it were dead. More trouble. I plugged it into my computer and went to Scilab's webpage. They had a diagnostic program that I could run, so I could find out what the problem was. I ran the program and was shocked to hear the results. The poor Navi had constantly been under attack by viruses, and the black chip that had been in there had been the cause of the massive damage. The viruses had put the Navi right on the brink of death. I put the Navi in the Scilab hospital overnight, and watched on the computer as other Navis that looked like nurses put it on a stretcher. The screen of the PET changed to white with a red cross in the center. I sat on my bed, planning to stay there and wait until the hospital told me any news on the Navi's condition. But mom called me down for dinner, and even though I wanted to stay, I knew that I was hungry and had to eat, having not eaten since 7'o clock that morning. I went downstairs and my mouth dropped open at my dad sitting at the table eating with us! It was on very rare occasions for him to be home like this, if even for a dinner. When I sat down, he told me that he had something important to tell me.
Chapter 2; the NetCrime rise
Mom dished out the steak and peas and dad passed around the mashed potatoes. I couldn't imagine what was so important that dad had come all the way from work to tell me about. I started cutting my meat and put some potatoes and peas in my mouth. I was halfway done eating dinner when I saw dad become serious. "Lan, I came here to tell you about the increase of Net Crime occurring in the world today." he said. I wondered what kind of Net Crime he was talking about, but I didn't ask him. "These are crimes committed by individuals using NetNavis as key weapons in their actions. There's an organization that has committed many NetCrimes known as the WWW. You know that there are many things connected to the internet, almost everything we use. The WWW seeks to destroy mankind." I took all this information in, what my dad was telling me about NetCrime. He went on, telling me what crimes they'd committed so far. I'd never heard of any of this, but dad said that they hadn't hit our town yet. He hoped that they would skip over us. Before dad went back to Scilab, he warned me not to get involved in any danger, like trying to stop the WWW. And what he said about them not coming to our town, I knew that they would come here soon. Why would they not come here? There was all the hype of PETs and online equipment. We had an oven that was online for maintenance reasons. The entire school's network would also be in danger. And what about the Scilab? Then dad would be in danger too. I couldn't stop them, because their crimes were Net-based and I had no NetNavi of my own. The PET I had now might not work, so I didn't count it in just yet. I got up from the table and went up to my room after finishing washing the dishes. I got my homework out of my bookbag and started on it. Math first, and then english. I finished the 10-page assignment on percent ratios and chucked the book back in the bag. I glanced at the clock and it was already 10:00 at night. I still had english to do though, and I had an empty page in my notebook on my lap to fill. The assignment was to write about anything. It could be about your friend, a memory, your pet dog, a current event. I looked up at the ceiling, and thought of --- for some reason. I decided to write about ----. I then closed the notebook with a sigh, but before I put it in back into my bag, I decided that I wasn't satisfied enough. I took my notebook back up and flipped to one of the pages in the middle, and started writing a poem. It was about how I hated not having any friends. My mom opened the bedroom door to find me writing in my notebook. I wondered if she'd seen what I'd just written, and cursed myself silently. I didn't want anyone to find out that I wrote poetry. But she simply smiled and told me to finish up and go to bed. I let out an exhale of breath. How ashamed I would be if someone found one of my crummy poems. No one knew, and no one was going to know. I shut my notebook, put it in my bag, and changed into my pajamas. Climbing into bed, I looked at the PET on my desk plugged into my computer, and the red cross was still on the screen. I closed my eyes, and fell asleep. I dreamed about a knight in shining armor coming to rescue me. I was locked in a dark and lonely tower of a castle.
Chapter 3; Alarm Clock Indigo
"Netto-kun. Netto-kun!" a voice called a sleeping boy's name. The sleeping form simply turned in bed, groaning. "WAKE UP HIKARI NETTO!!!" the voice yelled. A startled and fully awake Netto fell out of bed and onto the floor. He looked around the room, not seeing anyone that could have called his name. Especially -that- name. "Over here!" the voice guided him. Netto looked up in the direction of his desk. What he saw wasn't exactly what he'd been expecting to see.
Chapter 3.1; My brown hair and his green eyes
"Hi!" the cyber navigator in the PET said cheerfully, waving. "My name's MegaMan, your NetNavi!" Netto blinked his eyes, wiping them of sleep. "You have school in 20 minutes. I thought you'd want to get ready, so I woke you up." MegaMan said. "Oh, thanks." Netto said, groggily, still half-asleep. He was almost out the bedroom door when he stopped in his tracks and raced back in. "Wait, you're MY NetNavi?! For real?! You mean you actually pulled through?!" Netto said excitedly, looking at the blue-and-yellow clad navigator. The NetNavi blinked his vivid green eyes. "Yes, yes, and 100% recovery." MegaMan said, scratching his nose a little. "Lan you're going to be late for school!" Mom's voice yelled down from the kitchen. "Hurry up, Netto-kun!" MegaMan prompted him. Netto blushed red at the '-kun' his NetNavi attached to his name, but couldn't stop to say a comment back. He grabbed his clothes and raced to the bathroom, got in the shower, shampooed and washed and dried and changed in record time. Netto ran back to his room, put his shoes on and stuffed his backpack with anything he needed for school. He tied his bandana on after putting a comb through his brown hair, and dashed down the stairs only to dash right back up again. He grabbed his PET off the desk to take it with him. Mom saw him leave the house with a piece of toast in his mouth, his bookbag in one hand, and something else in his other that she couldn't get a good look at. She frowned at not having said goodbye to her son, but he had left in a hurried blur towards the school. She continued her daily housework.
Chapter 3.2; Serenade 1/3
"Ack I'm going to be late for school again!" Netto said as he ran to school. He didn't even stop to say hi to his childhood friend Mayl, whom he walked with to school almost every morning. She called after him, but Netto was too caught up in an effort to make it to school on time. She huffed, and called him an idiot. Netto was almost through the park, the last stretch before school, when he decided to walk the rest of the way, having seen the clocktower on the school reading 8:25 am, 5 minutes left to get to school. He'd eaten his toast, and was ahead of everybody else. Why not talk to his Navi a bit while walking? He held up his PET and there MegaMan was, as if waiting for him to stop and listen to him, wanting to say something. "Thank you for saving my life, Netto-kun. I thought that you'd have left me to die, since I am a piece of worthless junk afterall..." MegaMan said. "What?? No you're not-" Netto began to say, but MegaMan shook his head. "It's true, I'm useless, a waste, the worst NetNavi ever, I'm no good to anyone. Nothing makes sense..." MegaMan continued. "Mega, stop talking like that. You're not any of that! You're my NetNavi and you're the best!" Netto said, but it seemed to be wasted words. "Why did you save me? I'll only cause you trouble in the long run..." MegaMan inquired. "Because... I..." Netto started, but couldn't get the words he wanted to say out of his mouth. "See? There was no-" "I needed a friend." MegaMan stopped his sentence dead at those words. Netto-kun... needed a friend? A friend?? F-R-I-E-N-D??? "You wanted to... find a friend... in me?" MegaMan stumbled over his words. But Netto couldn't answer him. He was in class, and couldn't talk to his NetNavi while the teacher was giving the lesson, or he'd be in trouble. MegaMan put his head down, and turned Netto's words over in his head. 'you're my netnavi, and you're the best' 'I needed a friend'. The words ran over and over within his mind. 'He wants to find a friend... in me...?' He thought. 'Why? Is he... like me?' His thoughts were interrupted by the teacher's voice yelling at Netto. "Lan Hikari, what in the world is this???" Netto looked up at the teacher, who was holding the page of his notebook up for the class to see. It was the poem he had written last night, about ----. The teacher shook her head as if disappointed in him, handed him the notebook, and ordered him out of class to go to the principal's office. MegaMan didn't know what was going on. Why was Netto getting in trouble, and what for? Was it because of him and the fact that he took him to school? From Netto's face, the guess was wrong. It was something with the notebook, and the teacher certainly didn't like it much at all. MegaMan took a look at the notebook in Netto's hand, and read what was on the open page that the teacher had pointed out. It was a poem.
: This is your wake-up call
your alarm clock is dead
you had no idea
all your friends are your enemies
and they're after you
there's no way to go
no where to run
This is the sum of all your fears
You thought you could trust them
you shared all your dirty little secrets
and depended on them to be around
they never told you lies or tall-tales
always, forever, friends "the oath"
fell apart, bit by bit, all of it, with one mistake
Everyone hates you
you're lost in your own turf
when you move on,,,
who will accept your goodbye
but an empty soul like mine
off to be filled again. :
'This is how... Netto feels?' MegaMan gasped. 'He's like I am...' He turned to look up at Netto's face again. He could see the tears threatening to fall. MegaMan knew that he had to say something. The principal was going to yell at him, call his parents, tell everyone about the poem. It was obvious that Netto never meant to let anyone find out about it. "Netto-kun, don't go. Plug me in and I'll get you out of trouble." MegaMan spoke up. Netto looked down at him with a little bit of hope in his face, much to MegaMan's surprise. "You don't have to get in trouble, Netto-kun." MegaMan said, and Netto connected the PET into the phone in the school lobby and into the school network. MegaMan's figure appeared on the phone screen, and a maze was laid out in front of him. "It's your private work, and no one should do that like hold it up in front of everyone to see! I'm going to protect your work. You don't deserve any of that to happen to you. It's beyond me why you're getting in trouble... but that doesn't matter to me." MegaMan talked to Netto as he navigated his way to the center of the network. He found the database center, where he took Netto's file that the teacher had just put in. The principal would never know. MegaMan glanced at the other files in there too. He saw some of Netto's poems in there that had previously gotten him in trouble. "Shall I remove these too?" MegaMan asked Netto, who gratefully nodded. MegaMan grabbed all of those files, and left the school network to return to his happy owner. "Mega, I can't thank you enough." Netto said. MegaMan laughed. "I owe my life to you, Netto-kun. I'll be here for you whenever you need me to be. Besides, us in depression and despair should stick together." He said. Netto's smile wavered a little. What was his NetNavi depressed about anyway? Did he have to be like this? He already knew that each NetNavi had their own unique personality, but this was ridiculous. "Mega?" Netto said his name aloud. "Yeah, Netto-kun?" Came the answer. "Why do you feel like that?" There was a silence between them. After a while, MegaMan spoke. "I don't know, really... it's probably just the way I was programmed or something. The Battle Network System disapproved of me from the beginning and declared me defective, and stuff... All the other NetNavis were the same, while I wasn't. It's a long story." The NetNavi said. Netto frowned, upset. "That kind of stuff doesn't matter, Mega. You are who you are, and that's that. No one should judge you on anything, anyway. It's not fair." Netto said. "And besides, I've been victim to that kind of treatment too. Those kinds of people never add up to anything." He continued. MegaMan listened to him as he watched him walk out of school, and no one stopped him. "Netto-kun, are you leaving school?" MegaMan asked him out of curiousity. "Yes, I am. They're not going to stop me either." "Why don't you just go back in?" MegaMan said. Netto looked at him, almost out the school doors. "Why would I do that?" Netto questioned him. "Because, you're just running away now. Besides, you left your backpack there in the classroom and there's only an hour left of school." MegaMan convinced Netto to go back in to school. Netto re-entered the classroom and took his usual seat, and neither the students or the teacher looked up. Netto pretended to look very upset like he was in deep trouble, but for real he was really happy. Happy that he had a friend like MegaMan ready to help him out.
Chapter 4; DELETE!!!
"So, Netto-kun, what do you want to do with the rest of the day?" MegaMan asked as Netto was walking out of school down the sidewalk. He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know... what do you want to do?" Netto asked him. MegaMan scratched his head, trying to think of something fun or interesting to do. He came up with one thing. "How about we, um, go internet surfing?" He offered. The idea sounded exciting for Netto. "Sounds great! Let's go have some fun." He said, and MegaMan smiled. This would be the first time that Netto would experience the net with his NetNavi guide and new best friend. Netto ran to his room and set up his computer, tossing his bookbag in the corner, wanting to forget about work until their fun was over. "Almost there, it'll be up in a second." Netto said as he waited for his computer to boot up. "I meant to ask you, do you have any more poems that you wrote?" MegaMan decided to start a conversation while they were waiting. Netto looked at him, with a little fear in his eyes. "You mean you saw that one in the notebook today in school? Oh yeah, you did..." Netto said. MegaMan guessed from his tone of voice that the poems were meant to be kept a secret, And not only from the teacher and those people in school, but from everyone including friends and family. "Do you mean to keep your writings a secret? And me, as well? You haven't talked to anyone about me or shown me to your parents yet." MegaMan asked. "I'd want to hide everything personal from my parents. It'd be embarrassing if they ever found out about my poems. They'd probably throw all of them out. And about telling my friends anything, I don't have any friends. My parents wouldn't be too thrilled if they found out about you either." Netto said. MegaMan sighed. "You don't know that, Netto-kun. Maybe they'd be happy to meet me." He said. Netto looked at his NetNavi on the computer screen, browsing the net for someplace fun to go to. "And you do have at least one friend, you've got me. That's what I'm here for, unless you want me here for more than that." MegaMan said, and opened the page to the Scilab Square, which was where a lot of NetNavis hung out. Netto wondered where he was taking him, but wanted to wait to be surprised. "I thought you'd want to visit your dad here, this is where he works, right?" MegaMan said. Netto's smile widened. "Yeah! How'd you know I wanted to see him?" He said excitedly. He wanted to see his dad and tell him about his NetNavi. "I just knew, I guess... you don't see him a lot, do you?" MegaMan asked. Netto shook his head no. "He's always stuck at work... it'd be nice to see him, but I guess it's okay this way too." Netto said as his NetNavi browsed the offices on the internet. He couldn't find him too easily, but eventually he found his desk and the caretaker program. They found out he was in a meeting, and wouldn't be coming back for at least 6 hours! "He's got a really busy job, doesn't he?" MegaMan laughed softly. He looked at Netto and saw that he looked unhappy. "I know, how about we leave a message for him saying that we were here?" He suggested. Netto's smile took back its place on his face. " 'Dear dad, we came to see you today but you were busy! Love Netto' is that message okay?" MegaMan showed him the message he had written. Netto nodded, and his NetNavi gave the caretaker program the message. It said it would deliver it to him as soon as he came into the office. MegaMan left the office and was about to ask Netto what he wanted to do now that this task was over, but his attention was grabbed by the sound of startled and frightened NetNavis in the Scilab lobby. Netto followed MegaMan as his NetNavi peeked from where he was hidden behind the doorway of the elevator, so he wouldn't be seen but would be able to see what was going on. A light blue NetNavi that was dressed like an eskimo was blowing ice out of his mouth, freezing everything and everyone that got hit with his icy breath. "Mega, what's going on?" MegaMan heard Netto asking him in a whisper, not wanting the other NetNavi to hear. "It's one of World Three's NetNavis, a takeover of the Scilab. It's a Navi named IceMan." MegaMan answered back softly. Netto was shocked, having heard his father talk about them just the day before. "Something's not right, though. Oh, Iceman's operator is being made to do this to get his son back, who is being held captive by World Three!" MegaMan realized. Netto held his breath. World Three didn't even hold back on holding children hostage! He was angry, and wasn't about to let what his dad told him hold him back from fighting World Three. IceMan was headed MegaMan's way, and there was no way for him to run anywhere and not be seen. "MegaMan, we have to stop them." Netto said to his NetNavi, who looked at him and into his brave face. "It's the right thing to do, Netto-kun!" He said, and lunged at IceMan, alerting his operator Dr. Froid in the process. Netto ran out of the house, on the trail of Dr. Froid's lost son. He had to hurry, he felt very insecure and worried without being with MegaMan on the computer. What if he got frozen like the other Scilab NetNavis? What did World Three want with the Scilab? He ran down the sidewalk to the store he had gotten his PET at, and saw a parked car right next to it, half hidden by bushes. It looked too suspicious to be just someone's car parked illegally. Netto opened the door, and out tumbled a young boy from the 4th grader class in his school, Dr. Froid's son. "Please stop my dad! Tell him I'm okay!" He gave Netto a message saying he was okay and Netto ran back home and back up to his computer to tell MegaMan the good news. He stopped in his tracks when he saw what had been going on while he had been gone. MegaMan's feet were frozen to the floor and he was being assualted by IceMan, kicking up iceballs that he was making and throwing the hard pieces at him. MegaMan couldn't fight back because he couldn't move to attack. "Mega!!!!" Netto cried out, grabbing hold of the controls again. In doing so, the ice around MegaMan's feet melted, and Iceman was thrown back with shock that he had gotten free so easily from the ice. The other NetNavis he had frozen were still stuck in place, no matter what their operators or themselves were doing. That was what IceMan's job had been, to get everyone trapped so he could bring the Aquaprogram to World Three. Only then would they let his operator's son go. "MegaMan!" Netto said. MegaMan nodded, and weakened IceMan enough to stop him but not enough to kill him. "Your son is alright. Please stop doing this." MegaMan said to IceMan, and gave him the message that Netto had transferred to him. IceMan immediately informed his operator of the news and he stopped the destruction that he was causing. IceMan took back all the ice that was trapping the NetNavis, and apologized for his actions. Father was reunited with son, and everything was alright. MegaMan returned to Netto, who told his NetNavi that he was going to put a stop to World Three. "I don't want that to happen again. I want to stop them from trying to take over the world, or whatever they're doing." Netto said. MegaMan agreed with him. "I'll be right there beside you, Netto-kun!" MegaMan smiled, holding up a fist towards the sky as he was walking down the Cyber Square's internet sidewalk tracking down something fun again. "As will I, Mega." Netto whispered so that his NetNavi wouldn't hear him. somewhere else, in a dark lab located in the mountains, a mad scientist plots his next move : A meddling kid and his Navi dares to tangle with the WWW?! DELETE!!!
Chapter 4.5; Knowing
= Netto-kun was in Dencity when it happened. It was World Three again, another attempt at taking over a city. They almost came close, you know. If I hadn't screwed up, everything would have been fine. Nothing would have gone wrong, no one would have gotten hurt. Instead, I made a wrong decision, and I could have cost thousands of lives. Including the person I cared about most. It feels like he died, because of me. =
Netto ran to the Metroline to take the train down to Dencity, where his NetNavi MegaMan was already fighting off World Three's attacks. Grabbing his ticket, Netto caught the train headed to the destination. He kept a close eye on his PET in his hands, following MegaMan's every move. There were dozens, no, hundreds of viruses attacking the city, and surrounding him. He was blasting them away as much as he could. "I have to stop who ever is operating the Navi responsible for this..." Netto muttered to himself. ''Dencity, Dencity, arrived'' the train announcement rang throughout the metro car. Netto dashed out as soon as the doors opened. As soon as he got out of the Metroline, there was a car crash right on the road in front of him! He looked at the traffic lights, and they were all messed up, changing from green to red and red to green, and the cars couldn't stop! Netto looked down at the PET's screen just as MegaMan got blasted by a NetNavi that looked like a clown. MegaMan could only hold on for so long... Netto ran to find who was causing all of this. He crossed many streets and ran down along many blocks, and finally found a large crowd of angry and panicked people huddled in a corner as if surrounding somebody. As Netto drew closer, he could hear some of what they were saying. "If I buy this program, my car will be accident-free! And it's cheap too, only 100,000,000 dollars!" One of the men said. "Stop! It's all a trick played by World Three to get your money!" Netto announced so all the people could hear him. All the people looked up, and realized that it was indeed a cheap trick. "Thanks, kid!" A woman said to him as the crowd dispersed. An angry looking girl with pigtails remained, growling at him. "You dare foil in my plans?!" She said angrilly, staring down at Netto. She then pushed him into the road, and Netto was sent sprawling right in the middle of the intersection, the traffic lights going haywire. Meanwhile, in the net, MegaMan was finished with the clown Navi named Colorman, and was staring puzzled and confused at the device before him. It had two levers, one green, and one red. These levers controlled the traffic lights. But which one should he pull down, and which one should he leave up? Something caused him to look at the screen that showed him what was happening on Netto's side, and he saw Netto was right in the middle of the road with two cars coming right his way! "Netto-kun!!!!" Panicking, MegaMan pulled down the green lever in a blur. He didn't mean to do that, but couldn't change it until 5 seconds later! "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan cried out. Netto was scared out of his mind at the two cars speeding head on towards him, headed straight for him! The lights changed suddenly, and the cars stopped, but not before hitting Netto, giving him a nasty gash across his chest and a twisted ankle from scrambling out of the way at the last possible second. MegaMan lay on the ground in the cyber-world, trembling, his hand still clutching the red lever on the device. "Netto-kun... I screwed up... he's... dead..." MegaMan muttered softly. A single teardrop fell at his knees. Netto forced himself to sit up on the sidewalk, clutching his chest, some blood coming down out of the rip in his clothes. But he was alive. If the lights hadn't changed, he might have been... MegaMan had saved him! He must have been stopped by the clown NetNavi, and needed time to get the lights back working. Holding up the PET in his hands, he said MegaMan's name. "Mega!" He said. MegaMan's head shot up, his eyes immediately going to the screen. When he saw Netto's face, he was both relieved and confused. "Netto-kun! You're alive!?" He said. Netto nodded in answer. "All thanks to you!! I thought I was going to die! That clown Navi really must have given you a hard time!" Netto said, calming himself down from the trauma he'd just gone through. MegaMan stood up, and nodded his head slowly. 'Netto-kun doesn't think I screwed up... I should tell him the truth, but... it seems okay this way too...' MegaMan thought in his mind. Netto nodded. "I'm hurt, but I can make it home in one piece." Netto said, catching MegaMan's immediate attention. "Mom's going to be a nervous wreck..." He muttered as he got up off the sidewalk, forcing himself up onto his ankle. It really hurt to walk, putting strain on the twisted ankle. "Netto-kun, I'm sorry... you got hurt because of me..." MegaMan started saying. "I could have gotten you killed because I screwed up!!" He cried. He hung his head in shame, and guilt. Netto blinked his eyes, already down two blocks on his way to the Metroline. "I panicked and pulled the wrong lever! I screwed up!!" He continued to say. Netto understood, a small smile on his face to make sure MegaMan knew that. "It's OK. It was just a little mistake, Mega. You saved me actually, you pulled the right lever a little late, but that's okay. I'm still breathing, right?" Netto laughed, trying to cheer his NetNavi up a bit. MegaMan looked up at him, and slowly nodded his head. There was a lot of guilt still within him, but he tried to ignore it for now.
After school the next day, everything was normal as if nothing had happened. None of the teachers had talked about what had happened in Dencity, but some students talked about it amongst themselves. Netto was catching up to his old childhood friend Mayl, to ask her out to the movies that night, since it was Friday. "Hey Mayl? Do you... want to go to see a movie with me tonight?" Netto asked her. Mayl looked at him with an especially mean look on her face. "I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan." And she walked away, leaving Netto completely stunned. Those words hurt deeply. MegaMan had also been stunned by her words, he hadn't been expecting them either. She'd put him down so brutally, completely crushing him... as if for no reason at all. 'What did Netto-kun ever do to her?' MegaMan huffed, and looked up at his operator. He had a dark look on his face, and looked incredibly sad and depressed. MegaMan couldn't think of anything helpful to say. 'Poor Netto-kun... it took him a while to gather up the courage to ask her, and now this happens... and now I don't know what to say...' MegaMan thought to himself. When Netto arrived home, he barely ate his dinner. His mom was worried but he lied and told her that he ate a big lunch at school. He then went up to his room and tried to get through his nightly homework assignment. "Lan, I'm going out with the neighbors, bye sweety!" Mom yelled up the stairs. "OK." Netto replied. He heard the front door shutting and sighed. He said nothing after a while. "Mega, I can't take it anymore." MegaMan barely heard the soft mutter. Before he could say anything in reply, Netto got up abruptly from his desk chair and ran out the door, letting the bedroom door slam behind him. "Netto-kun!!" MegaMan called after him, but was unsuccessful in getting Netto back or getting an explanation from him about where he was going. He knew something was wrong when he heard the front door slam, and Netto hadn't taken him with him like always. He had a -very- bad feeling that Netto was going to do something bad. To himself.
Netto ran where his feet led him. He clutched his heart, it hurt so much, Mayl's words were cutting into him like daggers and swords. The whole scene was repeating in his mind, like a broken record. 'I'd NEVER go out with you, of all people, Lan.' And that mean look she gave him... combined with the loneliness and depression within himself, it was all too much. No one liked him, no one paid attention to him, his parents couldn't understand him... What else was there to live for? He had nobody... Running as tears blinded him, he found himself in a park near a high bridge. Without thinking he got up on the ledge of the bridge, and wiped the stinging tears from his eyes. And then, he jumped, falling down into the water underneath the bridge. He let himself just stay under the water, letting his air supply dwindle. It really wasn't worth living anymore... Everything was getting dark, and the water surrounding him and smothering him was all fuzzy dark blue. He thought he was in a dream when he heard a splash like something entering the water, and then someone swimming towards him. Netto smiled faintly, in a dream, not comprehending much in the state he was in without much air. The person took his hand and lifted him to the surface, where they resurfaced and Netto was put on the grassy riverbank, coughing the water out of his lungs harshly. When his vision cleared a little, he saw the knight in shining armor from his dreams. He then lost consciousness, his drenched and weak body falling limply into the knight's arms.
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Chapter 4.7; Guilt Trip
Netto woke up in his bed under the covers, in his pajamas. He thought it had been just a dream, because he'd been saved by the shining armor knight from the river under the bridge. That he'd simply dreamed it, and he'd been in bed asleep the whole time. But taking a glance at the floor, he saw the clothes he'd been wearing yesterday in a sopping wet heap. He'd jumped in the river alright, but how could a figment of his imagination save him? Netto jumped nearly ten feet out of his bed when he heard someone snoring softly right next to him. Looking towards his right on the other side of the bed, he saw MegaMan sleeping on his bed with him! Netto blinked his eyes, but he wasn't dreaming. MegaMan must have been the knight in shining armor... because MegaMan was drenched too. If this was so, how is he here in the real world with him? He was a NetNavi that couldn't live outside the internet or the PET... "Mega?" Netto put his hand lightly on MegaMan's shoulder. He was real, it wasn't a dream. The touch was so warm... MegaMan stirred out of sleep, and opened his eyes. When he saw Netto, he gave a warm smile. "Netto-kun..." He yawned, stretching his arms and legs. "DON'T EVER DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!!!!!" MegaMan shook Netto silly by his shoulders. "Ack OK OK I'm sorry!!" Netto said so MegaMan would stop shaking him. He fell on the floor, dizzy. MegaMan sat down on the bed, and looked angrilly at him. "I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me why you did what you did last night. Or what you tried to do." Netto looked down at the floor, depressed, and feeling guilty too. How could he forget about MegaMan? He was his best friend... he'd have helped him through it. "Depression. Loneliness. Anger. Confusion. Hatred." Netto stated. "And Guilt." MegaMan said of himself, hanging his head even lower than Netto's. "Mayl can go to Hell, Netto-kun, but don't let her bring you down with her." MegaMan said, startling Netto at his choice of words. Netto thought about it. Mayl really wasn't worth dying over. Just, all the emotions drove him over the edge. He wanted to die. But now that the emotion overload was over, he didn't want to die at all. It was all because Mayl pushed him over the edge. "You're right, Mega. I was stupid..." Netto confessed. MegaMan nodded. "I don't even know why you would even think about taking that sort of action. You have a lot to live for, you have a person who cares for yoU, you've got this whole world." MegaMan said. Netto frowned sadly. "I don't have anyone who cares about me, Mega, my parents aren't around much and everyone I know either wants to get me in trouble or use me for their own benefit." Netto said. "And if you'd died, there'd be no one left who'd miss you, right?" MegaMan questioned. Netto nodded his head. MegaMan put a hand on Netto's shoulder. "Netto-kun, listen to me. Taking your own life is a bad idea, why didn't you take me too? I probably couldn't live without you anyway." MegaMan said. Netto was stunned by his words. Really? "Never mind that. You're going to be late for school if you don't go now, you know." MegaMan pointed to the clock hanging on the wall. It was 8 AM and class started at 8:30. Netto nodded his head and put clean clothes on. He went to the bathroom the brush his teeth and when he got back he saw that MegaMan was in his PET now, waiting for him. Netto tied his bandana on, which was still wet by the way, and took MegaMan with him this time. He ran down the stairs with his backpack and books, and grabbed the usual piece of toast and ran out the door on his way to school. Now it was 8:12, with a good chunk of time to spare. Netto thought to himself as he walked down the sidewalk towards school. Mega... really felt that way? He actually said that? What the heck? He had no idea that NetNavis could get so attached to their operators... did all Navis act this way? And he'd never heard of a NetNavi coming alive out of their PETs, let alone save their operator from jumping into a river or something. But he didn't know all that there was to know about