DISLCAIMER: Okay, this time I actually have a good reason for throwing in a disclaimer, so please excuse me for a moment while I legally cover my sorry hide. First and foremost, I do not own Mega-Man NT Warrior. I also don't own the mini-skirt comment--so if you're a Roy Mustang from FMA fan, please don't gouge my eyes out. I just thought I'd throw it in since I saw the YouTube video and I thought it was funny. I also don't own the song Ironman by Black Sabbath--no, I this isn't a song-fic, but one of my characters is HEAVILY based on the song.

A/N: There are pairings in this, but it will mainly be Rockman (Mega-Man) and Roll. However, it is heavily hinted that Meiru and Netto have become very close. Just how close hasn't been decided, and anyway this is more of an adventure angst fic. It was inspired by my basic observations about how people are constantly scrambling to get their hands over the latest gadgets and treating them like fashion accessories, and replacing them every year or so. And then after spying a NT warrior clip on YouTube, I had a happy nostalgia moment and thought to myself, "Huh...I wonder what would happen to the Mega-Man world if the NetNavi's became obsolete." And so the story began.

Read and Review.

Prologue:

Today was April 17th, and it was Hiroshi's twelfth birthday. The day had started off well—it was a crisp blue sky smiling overhead, and there wasn't even a hint of snow. There had been a freak blizzard in the late March that dampened his spirits a bit, but it wasn't long before the snow had started to melt, and the warm spring rain washed the rest of it away.

He smirked to himself as he sauntered into the kitchen for breakfast. Sure enough, he managed to capture that faint aroma of a home-made cake—chocolate raspberry, his personal favorite—baking in the oven. He was wearing his favorite shirt—the green one with the blue and red vertical stripe. Nothing could possibly go wrong today.

"Mom," Hiroshi yelled towards the door. "What time is everyone coming over?"

"Well, I know your cousin said he'd drop by around noon, but your friends probably won't get here until one thirty-ish," a woman's voice echoed out of the upstairs bathroom. There was the sound of a toilet flushing, and then the sink running as she watched her hands. Within a minute the door opened, and a plump middle-aged woman made her way down the stairs and strode into the kitchen.

Before she could so much as take two steps towards the cutting board, however, Hiroshi grabbed the cuff of her sleeve.

"You're sure Netto-kun said he'd come, mom?"

The woman smiled, albeit a bit confused. "I wasn't aware that you were so fond of your cousin, Hiroshi."

"I'm not," he replied frankly. "But if he comes, he's bound to bring Meiru-chan…" a blush rose unabashedly to his freckled cheeks. He grinned like a Cheshire cat. "She's dead sexy in a mini-skirt."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," his mother replied. "Now if you excuse me, I have a cake that needs rescuing…unless you'd prefer to eat charcoal."

Hiroshi immediately let go of his mother and went to sit down at the kitchen table. With nothing better to do, he watched his mother bustling around with the cake. He closed his eyes and breathed in the smell, savoring the moment.

The hours didn't pass any more eventfully until Yuichi knocked at the door. Hiroshi jumped out of his chair as though it had burned him and pelted towards the foyer. Pulling open the door, the two friends regarded each other.

Yuichi was taller than Hiroshi by a couple of inches, and had a head full of wiry, unruly black hair. A trendy pair of glasses rested on the bridge of his nose, drawing attention to his aqua-colored eyes. He was dressed casually in a blue t-shirt, a grey short-sleeved shirt over it and left unbuttoned, and a pair of jeans with a gnarly grass stain over the left knee. It contrasted to his sneakers, which were brand new and recently appeared in an advertisement on television.

"Ohaiyo, Hiro-kun," Yuichi chimed, tossing a gift-wrapped package at him. Hiroshi caught it clumsily, staring blankly at it before coming to a realization.

"A present?"

"No, it's porn. What do you think it is, dinkus?" Yuichi sounded amused, shaking his head remorsefully at his friend. "Happy Birthday, by the way."

"Thanks," said Hiroshi, eying the present in his hands with obvious interest. "But seriously, what is it?"

"Only the coolest thing on the market," he replied vaguely. Considering all of the new fads that had recently appeared, however, there was one that stood out above all others. Yuichi glanced at Hiroshi and realized that his curiosity was getting the better of him again.

Smiling ruefully at him, he said, "Go ahead and open it before you start drooling. Don't worry, I won't rat you out to your mom."

Hiroshi grinned. "You know me way too well, man."

"That I do. Now open it already."

He didn't need telling a third time. Hiroshi eagerly tore into the package, sending golden bits of confetti wrapping paper flying, clumps of it trapped in his fists. His eyes widened.

"Baka…" he murmured, looking happier than he felt when he got his first NetNavi PET for Christmas three years back. He lifted his gaze away from the brightly colored box and back up to Yuichi, who was looking as cool as a glacier. "You didn't…!"

"What do you take me for?" he replied with a satisfied smirk.

"But, Yuichi! This is a friggin' JET-TECH!" He held the box in his trembling hands, unable to hide his mirth. "Do you know how expensive these are???"

"Only the best for my bud," said Yuichi. "Besides, I owed you big time after that time Yamezeki-sensei almost caught me hacking into the online grading system. I could have gotten expelled."

Hiroshi blushed. "It was nothing." But then, something occurred to him. "Ironman…" he said quietly, slapping a hand to his forehead.

"What about him?"

"Well, what am I supposed to do with him now that I have a JET?" he asked, taking out the purple PET resting in a pouch on his belt. "Is there any way I can transfer his data onto it?"

Yuichi frowned. "I don't see why it matters. It's just data. It's not like he's real or anything. Just shut him down or something."

Hiroshi paused. He didn't like the idea of simply deleting a friend who had stood by him for three years, even if all he consisted of was data. "I don't know…" he said softly. "We've been a team for three years."

"Look," Yuichi reasoned. "There's no way you can upgrade him since he's already as good as a plain old NetNavi is going to get. Maybe if you had an older version of the Jet you'd be able to transfer his data, but they don't sell those anymore. And the 2.0 version is completely incompatible with the NetNavi."

Hiroshi looked torn. The Jet was pretty tempting. It was tinted silver with black accents. Not to mention how versatile the system was…

"But what should I tell Ironman?" he asked finally, unable to resist any longer.

Yuichi sighed. "You don't have to tell it anything. It's just data. I already told you that."

"But…"

"Look, if you want I'll delete him for you. It's no big deal."

But it was a big deal—at least, to Hiroshi .

He didn't realize that his NetNavi PET wasn't in sleep mode like he thought, and that Ironman was currently listening to their conversation. The mauve-armored warrior was trying to resist the urge to simply leave for one of the inter-cities. But no…Hiroshi wouldn't do that to him. Their friendship meant more than a flashy new toy.

"All…all right…" Hiroshi said in resignation.

Ironman's violent pupils contracted in shock. Not wasting another nanosecond, he teleported away from his PET. He wouldn't even bother trying to dissuade the impressionable boy from destroying his hard-drive.

There was nothing to say. Hiroshi had made his decision and now he would have to live with it.

Ten or fifteen minutes later, the two were sitting in Hiroshi's bedroom. Yuichi sat at the desk fiddling around with the PET while Hiroshi thumbed through the owner's manual of the JET. Yes, he is one of the losers who actually reads the computer manual.

"Hey, where is he?" Yuichi suddenly complained, pushing the buttons of the NetNavi and looking irritated. "Hiro, he isn't in here."

This certainly surprised Hiroshi. "Wait, what?" he blurted. He quickly racked his mind and knew that Ironman had no reason to leave, nor did he have any errands to run. There was no way he could not be there. "Of course he's there," he told Yuichi. "Check again."

"I'm telling you," Yuichi protested, shoving the Navi into his hands. "Take a look for yourself."

Hiroshi typed in a few buttons and frowned. Ironman had left. That was odd.

"I can't delete his data if he's in someone else's PET," Yuichi pointed out. This made Hiroshi feel a little better.

"Maybe I won't have to delete him at all. I mean, why can't I have both a NetNavi and a JET?"

"You'd be the laughing stock of the school, that's why. It's like having two cell phones because you got attached to the old one. Face it, Ironman is obsolete."

"What about Ironman?" came a voice from the doorway.

Hiroshi looked up and sucked in his breath. "Netto-kun!"

Standing in the doorway was Hiroshi's seventeen year old cousin, Hikari Netto. His spiky brown hair was as unruly as ever, and his forehead was still completely hidden behind the light blue headband. However, he had grown over the past six years, and his chocolate brown eyes shone with a new maturity.

Despite their differences in personality, Hiroshi couldn't help but be a bit proud of his older cousin. Netto had certainly made a name for himself—having saved the Net multiple times with his NetNavi, Rockman, it wasn't surprising that he was practically a celebrity.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Netto's ego had no time to inflate past the point that had been deemed acceptable by society. Because barely a year after he had returned from Beyondard, the JET-Tech had entered the market. Within months, everything having to do with NetNavis were almost a distant memory.

Netto was particularly bitter about the whole thing, but Hiroshi had always assumed that it was because his cousin had been denied the fame and notoriety that he felt he deserved. It was one of the reasons why he didn't like him all that much. The fact that Netto stubbornly held onto Rockman for all these years made him almost glad that he had gotten a JET for his birthday.

But then, if Ironman was anywhere near as strong as Rockman, he wouldn't even look at a JET-Tech, no matter how flashy it was.

"Hey, Hiroshi. Happy birthday," said Netto, smiling at him. "Aunt Momo said I could come up."

"Did you bring Meiru-chan with you?" Hiroshi asked, trying to sound innocent. Ironman had instantly been forgotten. Netto inwardly face-palmed.

"It figures," he sighed. "I was wondering why you were so desperate for me to come over today. As a matter of fact, she's downstairs."

"Great!" Hiroshi exclaimed, scrambling off of his bed. "I'll go down and say hello."

Netto put a hand on his shoulder. "You know, she really didn't want to be here today. She's been having some problems lately, so I don't want you pestering her too much, okay, Hiro?"

"You're just worried that she'll realize what a stud I am."

"You're barely twelve years old, and already you're claiming to be a man-whore…" Netto sighed. "I didn't even start liking girls until I was fourteen…"

"…Thus ending everyone's speculations about your sexual orientation," Hiroshi replied, clipping his cousin on shoulder. "Kindly move out of the way. Meiru-chan is waiting for me."

"Dammit, Hiro," Yuichi grumbled, slamming the Navi back on the desk. "I thought you wanted me to set up your JET for you!"

"I do," Hiroshi assured him. "But you know how rude it is to keep a beautiful woman waiting."

"Wait a minute," Netto interjected, frowning at them both. "Since when do you own a JET-Tech?"

"Since half an hour ago," Yuichi told him in an as-a-matter-of-factly tone of voice. "It was my present to him."

The older boy was silent for a moment. "Didn't you say something about Ironman when I came in before?" he asked after a long pause.

"Yeah," Hiroshi said, his smile dropping from his face like a dead weight. "I can't find him anywhere. He won't respond to my calls or anything…I just…" the boy fumbled with his words. He didn't want to admit to his cousin that he had seriously considered deleting Ironman; and he especially didn't want to admit it in front of Rockman, who he admired even more than his cousin. He wasn't just data, that's for sure.

"Netto," said a voice from the pouch hanging at the teenager's hip. Netto pulled out his NetNavi and pushed the button. Rockman's face instantly materialized in front of them. "Should I go look for Ironman?"

"I think that's a good idea," Netto replied.

"Wait!" Hiroshi blurted, turning red. "You can't…!"

Rockman looked over at the young boy, noting the hesitation and worry in his voice. "What's wrong, Hiro-kun?"

The boy couldn't even look at Rockman. He felt ashamed of himself. "I…I think he might have heard me talking to Yuichi about the JET-Tech," he explained in a low voice. He took a deep breath before adding, "I think he heard us talking about…deleting him."

Rockman frowned, his eyes looking sad and disappointed. "I see…" the NetNavi said after a long time. "That's too bad. A lot of people are deleting their NetNavis because they're considered to be obsolete…they don't realize that they're erasing good friends and allies."

"It's disgusting," Netto spat, angry at Hiroshi. "I can't believe you would say something like that in front of your NetNavi! What, do you think that Ironman doesn't have any feelings?"

Yuichi looked uncomfortable. "It's just data…" he mumbled, this time uncertainly. Rockman turned his gaze towards him.

"Yuichi-san, how would you feel if someone you cared about had replaced you for someone else just because you weren't popular?"

The boy flushed and fell silent.

"I think the best thing to do would be to find Ironman and tell him that it was all just a misunderstanding," Rockman told Hiroshi. "He might not want to come back right away. I wouldn't be so eager myself if my Net Operator had been hinting that they wanted delete me."

Hiroshi looked miserable. "What if he never comes back?"

"What does it matter?" Netto snapped. "You have your JET-Tech. That should be enough for you."

"Netto…" said Rockman sternly. "Don't you think you're being cruel?" Then, in a quieter voice, he added, "Hiroshi still has a lot of growing to do. Remember what you were like at his age?"

"I would never have deleted you, though!" Netto whispered back harshly. "You're my best friend. Friends don't do that to each other!"

Rockman smiled at Netto. "Sometimes it takes something like this to remind us just who our real friends really are. Hiroshi's really upset, you know."

Netto was quiet for a long time.

"Netto, please…" said Hiroshi, his eyes looking glassy.

His cousin considered it a moment longer before reaching a decision.

"Fine. I'll send Rockman to look for Ironman," he grumbled. He turned his gaze to Rockman again. "But if he doesn't want to come back, we're not going to force him. He has every right to be pissed off, you know."

"Yeah," Rockman sighed. "I know."

"Get going then. I'm hoping you'll be back in time for some cake."

Rockman sweatdropped. "Thanks. You know I just love cake."

"Cake?" Yuichi echoed, surprised. "NetNavi's can eat?"

"He's being sarcastic," Hiroshi told him flatly.

"How do they program a NetNavi to be sarcastic? Or to have any emotions in general?" Yuichi asked, not letting the matter drop. "I always assumed that the NetNavi were designed to mirror the personality of their operator, but…well, I can see some obvious differences between Netto and Rockman. And now that I think about it, Ironman always had a stronger will than you do…"

"People change, you know," Hiroshi pointed out.

"True."

Rockman felt uncomfortable. They were talking about him as though he were a show-dog or something. Needless to say, it really irritated Netto.

"You know, it's not too late for me to change my mind," he said pointedly. The two boys quickly shut up. Rockman, realizing that no one was going to break this awkward silence, spoke up.

"I…guess I should…"

He was interrupted by a shrill cry from downstairs. There was the ominous thud of something falling to the floor followed by a faint muffled noise that sounded suspiciously like…

"Meiru!" Netto and Rockman said in tandem. Not wasting another second, Netto grabbed his NetNavi and bolted from the room. Hiroshi only hesitated for a moment before he grabbed Yuichi by the arm and pulled him along after his cousin.

Within seconds they were in the living room. Meiru was hunched over her NetNavi, her hands trembling as she stared wide-eyed into the screen.

"Roll-chan! Speak to me! Please…!" she urged her NetNavi, clutching the device as though she were trying to crush it in her grasp. "Roll-chan!"

"Meiru-chan! What's wrong?"

She looked up at Netto. "It's Roll. She came back all of a sudden, but she won't talk to me…she's hurt, but she won't tell me what happened, she…I…"

Rockman instantly vanished from Netto's home screen and went to check on Roll. A moment later they could hear his voice from Meiru's NetNavi device, trying to coax Roll to speak.

Hiroshi took that opportunity to get a good look at Meiru. Over the past couple of years she had taken to the notion of growing her crimson hair long. At this point it hung down to her shoulder blades, and the layered trim every month or so ensured so that her spiky bangs nicely shaped her face, which had lost some of its old baby fat. Meiru had abandoned most of her child-like appearance and traded it in for a more womanly figure—and while she wasn't so endowed in the chest area, her long legs and slender torso made up for it and more.

"I don't know what's wrong…" she murmured, angrily blinking back tears. Netto immediately sat down next to her on the sofa, taking her hand and giving it a hearty squeeze.

"Don't cry," he told her sincerely. "My dad still has all that old technology to fix NetNavi's, remember? We can fix Roll easily."

"You haven't seen her, she's…she's really confused…"

Netto frowned before he turned to look down at her PET. "Rockman, has Roll said anything to you?"

Rockkman looked up at Netto, shaking his head. "I'm going to try to talk to Roll alone. I'll let you know if something comes up."

Before anyone could reply, the screen went blank. Rockman and Roll had descended into sleep mode so that they couldn't be overheard. Whatever happened now depended entirely on the two Navis. Needless to say, the thought certainly made Yuichi shift nervously in his seat.

"Just leave it to Rockman," Netto told Meiru confidently. "He'll help Roll. I know he will."

Rockman turned away from the blank screen and looked down at his battle partner. Roll had slumped down into a kneeling position, unable to hold her own weight any longer. Her costume was torn in the shoulder, and Rockman could see deep scratches running along her collar bone. Her arm hung at an odd angle, and the male NetNavi got a nasty feeling that it had been broken. Roll held it close to her, trembling in fear that something else would attack. Her green eyes were blankly staring ahead of her.

Kneeling down beside her, Rock tentatively laid a hand on the shoulder that wasn't injured. Roll flinched and tried to lurch him off.

"Don't…!" she gasped, her wild gaze flickering to him fearfully.

"Roll, it's me," said Rockman, controlling his tone so that he sounded calm. But even he had been freaked out by her alarming condition. He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to compose himself before speaking again. "It's Rockman," he tried again, "I'm not going to hurt you…"

Roll didn't move, but her face had scrunched up as if she was trying very hard not to cry. "R-Rock…" she hiccupped, shutting her eyes.

The frown seemed carved on his face. Cautiously, he reached around her waist and scooped her up into his arms. He felt her stiffen at his touch, but after a minute she relaxed her shoulder muscles and timidly looked up into his face.

Rockman couldn't even say anything for a second. Roll wasn't acting like herself at all—she was jumpy and frightened. The sight made his stomach turn over.

"What happened?" he asked her in a low voice.

Roll shook her head, struggling to regain control over herself. Swallowing the lump in the back of her throat, she whispered, "I…I don't know…"

"You do know. Try to remember. What happened to you?"

The pink warrior shut her eyes again. "I can't…it all happened so fast, I…I can't believe that I didn't get deleted…"

It was very clear how close she had come to the point of no return. Data was starting to spill out of her cuts, but the flow wasn't so intense that she was in immediate danger.

"Seven files have been lost," Roll murmured, eyes fluttering as she struggled to recover the missing data. "Oh, no…" she groaned. "Meiru's essay! She…she worked so hard on it, Rock…"

Rockman's face softened, but he didn't back down. He couldn't. "Who did this?" he pressed.

"I can't remember…!" she snarled. Rockman recoiled in shock.

"Okay, okay," he said hastily. "It's okay...! Just tell me what you know. What do you remember?"

Roll sniffed, wiping the stray tear away from her cheek. Her eyes quickly resumed the determined scowl that Rockman knew very well. "Don't baby me so much," she said with too much of an edge to her voice to be sincere. "I'm fine." She took a deep breath for composure. "I remember that I had to run an errand for Meiru…"

And so the story begins.

A/N: There. Basic introduction of characters. I introduced two major OC's in this chapter and one minor OC. Hiroshi and Ironman will be heavily tied in with the plot while Yuichi will only show up occassionally where his cold logic could potentially come in handy. I think out of all three of them, Ironman will be the most important (and he only has a paragraph from his own perspective...oops!).

Yeah, I know Roll seems to be flying off the handle a lot. I tried to have her come off as trying to appear tough for toughness's sake. The whole point is that she almost got deleted, and Rockman is determined to find out why. Oh, and I hope the fluff wasn't too strong this early on.

Okay, that's all for now. I hope you liked, so go review already. Later.