Sorry, I'm a bit late XS
I kinda forgot to post the chapter yesterday, since I was working for my exams... By the way, even though I tried to correct the mistakes in it, I had less time to do it so there may be a lot of them left. I'll try to correct them Wednesday, once I'm finally done with my exams, but I won't update the chapter until Saturday (when the next one will be posted). It's funny though, because I've finished the story about a month ago and I still find mistakes when I check the chapters before posting them XD
By the way, thank you MysteriousClue for your reviews (I don't know if you checked your inbox so I leave a word here). I corrected the mistake of "the" in the previous chapter (and the other ones too), though I'm not sure of how it works so maybe it's still not that ^^" Anyway, it shouldn't be in this one :)
2.
As weeks go by...
About two weeks had passed since the truth had been reveal to Netto and, even if he and his brother were still slightly in bad terms with their father, Yuuichiro had had a chance to explain himself. Actually, he had found a way to make sure they would have to talk to him by asking for the cache data as he knew Saito wouldn't be able to leave the PET before he gave him the backup program of his obsolete navi frame. He could have given it to him by USB, of course, but then again it had been a great excuse to see them. Haruka had told him they would eventually understand by themselves when given some time, but he knew what she meant by time. It wasn't only time they needed, it was the secrets which were still kept from them; secrets they would learn once Yuuichiro would be sure it was the right time to tell them.
Enzan had been strangely supportive of his sons, more than Yuuichiro would have expected, but he had also been a great mediator between them and their father. The teenager had tried to understand the situation objectively, and hadn't hesitate to ask questions to which Yuuichiro knew it would be better to answer if he wanted to keep his help. In fact, Yuuichiro was almost sure it was as much because he wanted to help as he wanted to understand for himself. Even though his help was unexpected—a part of him still couldn't believe Enzan, a teenager, could put so much in understanding him when countless adults wouldn't have tried in the first place—it wasn't unwelcomed and Yuuichiro was glad to have it. Blues had been extremely useful too, as he had been the one who had managed to convince his elder to stay out of trouble as long as the rockman program hadn't been rewritten. It was reassuring to have the two on his side, as well as Meijin to whom he had explained everything so he could have some help with the second project. Of course, the young scientist had been suspicious at first and he couldn't blame him: the idea was completely insane! However, he had shown him the results so far and it had triggered something in his cadet. The doctor Cossak sure had helped to give clear explanations, especially since it was the domain in which he had decided to reinvent himself after the failure of the navi project.
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Nevertheless, it was getting more and more of a problem to hide what had happened to Rockman and his sons' friends were getting suspicious. He had thought he would be able to rebuild the last version of the rockman program quite easily as he was used to work with it, but it had turned out to be a true obstacle course, especially since he had to find and recreate all the modifications Saito's adaptive program had done. Even with the help of Meijin, there was no way to be done by the end of the month. Instead, he figured out he could make a transitional frame, in other words a simplified version of the final program, so Saito would be able to be Rockman without having to wait for the full frame to be completed. Both of his sons hadn't been happy to learn that the moment they would get the program back was delayed, but he swore he had seen them smile when he had told them that the transisional version would be ready before the little outing they had planed with their friends. However, a more immediate solution was needed to cover the deletion of the rockman program, a solution professor Hikari was quite reluctant to try. Still, tough times call for more risky measures, and it truly was the only way to hide the current situation.
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'Netto, Saito, there is something I need to give you.' As he said this, the scientist handed a small USB to Netto. 'The navi inside it is named Axl, he is a prototype able to copy the appearance and abilities of other navis. He will cover for you, Saito.'
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His sons shared a look, wondering why their father hadn't talked of this Axl before, and then gladly accepted the USB. Before their father could pursue further explanations, Netto had disappeared, taking his brother and the copynavi with him. With a sigh, the scientist wondered who of his children or him would be confronted to the fact that Axl wasn't Saito by Haruka. It would probably be him, as his wife would probably wait for him to be home to approach the subject. He smiled, he knew she was already aware the truth had been revealed to their sons. He would have to tell her what she still didn't know about the second project soon, as he knew she was waiting for him to tell her more so she could be prepared or she would try to find what it was for herself for sure. He loved his wife, really, but he also knew how much of a pain it could be when she had decided she would get to the bottom of something. Well, the twins had to take it from someone...
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'Have children, they said. It's wonderful, they said…'
'You signed for this, professor,' Meijin said with a laugh as he entered the room.
'I signed for an only child, not troublemaking twins with an amazing ability to get in trouble with every crime syndicates in town…'
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Then again, those two were the lights of his life.
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The professor knew Axl was in good hands, if it was earlier than he had expected. The copynavi was supposed to stay with him for at least another year before being given to his sons, but he thought it wouldn't cause any problem to precipitate things a little. After all, he could still do the updates when needed to complete Axl's programming and it would only be small details anyway. At the time being, he had given him all the data he needed to mimic Rockman and it would do the trick. Of course, he was looking forward for the moment he would finally find a way to give Axl the ability to get those data by himself, but he wanted to make him capable of storing more than one mimic at a time first. Professor Hikari smiled, his sons would be so surprised once the copynavi would be installed in the PET.
However, he had the feeling he'd better finish a certain other navi first… At the rate things were going, he might not have two years left to work on his project. Her frame wouldn't be hard to perfect, but her code was another story. Hopefully, with Meijin by his side, he was confident: she would be made in time.
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oOo
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'Get up everyone! Rise and shine!'
'Rockman!' a muffled voice moaned from under the bed sheets. 'What the heck?!'
'What? A navi must wake up his operator if he's late!'
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Late for what? Netto might not be fully awake, but he was almost sure it was Saturday… Which meant no school, nothing special before the afternoon unless some maverick navis decided to wreak havoc somewhere…
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'Wait, no. Go back to sleep, it's saturday.'
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Although his mind was still confused, Netto knew it wasn't Rockman. A look at the PET confirmed this when he saw a perfect imitation of the full rockman program instead of the obsolete version his brother had been using for the past week. Rubbing his eyes, he sat on his bed with a yawn.
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'You're Axl, the copynavi, right?'
'Himself!' The navi gave the boy a big smile while he was detailing him with eyes full of wonders. 'Impressive, uh?'
'You look just like Rockman! That awesome!'
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Indeed, the more Netto looked at him, the more convinced he was that Axl truly had the ability to perfectly copy his brother's appearance. Of course, the personality would probably be another story, but Saito would be able to guide him using the internal channel of the PET. It was easy to see Axl was rather proud of himself when he quickly explained how professor Hikari had programmed him and that he would soon be able to copy more than just Rockman. However, after a while, he started to look around as if he was seeking for something.
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'Uh… Speaking of Rockman, he should be in the PET, no?' He turned his back to Netto to look behind him. 'Because the thing's quite empty.'
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Far from being worried about his brother, Netto barely shrugged while taking the PET from its charging station. Saito was probably spending some time with their mother since it should have been too early in the morning for Netto to be awake. Since their father had explained to her everything the evening before so she would not confront him later, his brother was surely back to his old habits. It was confirmed when he joined Haruka in the kitchen where she was happily talking with her elder son through the screen of her naviless PET. When they saw him coming in, they were quite surprised and automatically checked what time it was before even greeting him. Axl then decided to appear on Netto's shoulder so he could take part in the conversation, so Saito did the same though he stayed on the table on which his mother's PET was. Seeing this, the copynavi jumped next to him while carefully staying in the limited area in which his binding PET could maintain the hologram. Once there, he looked at Saito, then at his brother, and at Saito again.
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'Aw come on! You can't be serious! You two really had to be identical! You couldn't be fraternal twins instead?!'
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As the twins looked at each other in surprise, Haruka muffled a laugh. She remembered how many times people had gotten her sons mixed up when they were young, and how she could herself mix them up too when she wasn't paying enough attention. Of course, she had her ways to know who was who, little details she probably was the only one to notice, but Yuuichiro had much more trouble to be sure of which twin it was when they were afar and sometimes had to ask her. She sighed: it was back when they were still a perfect little family, with no huge secret as they had now.
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As her sons talked with Axl, she took some time to observe them. It was obvious the copynavi wasn't Rockman to her, and he wouldn't have been able to trick her: the way he moved and talk, his reactions… She couldn't see her son in them. However, it would have to be enough to trick everyone else. A glimmer of sadness passed in her eyes as she thought of the consequences it would have on her sons if the truth about Saito ever came to be discovered. She knew how cautious her husband had been, how he had prepared everything to prevent this from happening; still, it scared her that things might not go as well as they should. Everything had been made so it would be impossible to find out Saito had officially died without having witnessed it, the program was ready to create him a whole life if needed, but it was all so insane. Could such a plan even work?
Haruka looked at her elder, thinking about how strange it was to finally see him as he should really look instead the simplified appearance of his navi frame. He seemed perfectly human, and to her he was. Where navis' skins were without any imperfection unless they had been programmed to be there, she could see the variations in the color of the one of her son, the veins under it. His body was the perfect replica of the one he should have had, on all possible levels, and no navi would ever have an appearance so detailed. Sadly, it was partially why her husband had to cover it so their son would be thought to be a navi, instead of just giving him the abilities he needed to survive in the cyberworld; the second reason simply being that it was too detailed for many parts of the cyberworld and asked for too much power to function properly. Even the last generation of PET was barely powerful enough to let Saito wander freely inside it without a navi frame, and that was only if he was alone. She wasn't an expert, but she recalled the explanation given by her husband was that their graphic boards weren't powerful enough so the mainboard also had to be used, even if he could probably upgrade Netto PET so it wouldn't be the case with his anymore.
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After a while, Netto had taken his breakfast and left for the bathroom, leaving both Saito and Axl with her. She smiled as she heard her elder talking of the fact they would go see their friends in the afternoon to the copynavi, before asking them to make sure Netto wouldn't forget to clean his room before leaving the house.
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oOo
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After two weeks of Netto systematically refusing going out with them, Meiru had finally convinced her childhood friend to come to the mall with her and their friends. She suspected something to have happened to Rockman, as almost every time he had been avoiding them so much before was because of this, but he had never responded to her questions. Strangely enough, Roll still received emails written by Rockman when she sent one to him, and the pink navi was sure it was his writing and not the one of anyone else. Nonetheless, both were worried as they knew of the maverick virus spreading through the net. As it had happened when Cache had created his phantom navis, trust wasn't at its top in the cyberworld. Hopefully, a new scan made especially for the virus was on the market, and it had become widely used. Since IPC was the company which distributed them, Enzan had gotten some for all of them before everyone else, but he had disappeared as soon as he had given them and Meiru hadn't been able to ask him questions about what had happened on his last mission with Netto. Obviously, he wanted to avoid the subject as much as all the ones who might know something about it.
As she arrived at the mall, she saw Yaito and Dekao waving at her from a bench. With a smile, she quickly joined them as Roll appeared on her shoulder to say hello too. Not even a minute later, Netto was finally in sight and the small group went on for an afternoon together.
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However, neither Meiru or Roll could get rid of the feeling that something was off. Of course, Netto had assured them Rockman had only been slightly damaged two weeks ago when Blues and he had been attacked by infected navis in the undernet and that his father had kept him at SciLab only to be sure he wasn't infected himself. Still, if it could be true, professor Hikari would never have kept Rockman for so long without it being a necessity. There was something her friend refused to tell her, and she knew Roll felt that way too. Even though their time together was fun, the feeling wouldn't go away. Instead, it got stronger and stronger until her navi asked her to get somewhere none of their friends would hear what she had to say. At the time, the corridor near the restroom had seemed to be a good idea, but now Meiru wondered why she hadn't choose a place with less passerbys. Anyway, it would have to be enough!
Once she saw Meiru was waiting for her to talk, Roll appeared in front of her. Immediately, her operator noticed the frown on her face and asked her what was wrong. The pink navi was hesitant, and truly hoped to be wrong, but…
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'Meiru, I don't think this is Rockman.'
'So you got that feeling too?' the red‑haired girl asked.
'He's been acting strangely, and Netto too… I mean, it's like he tries to act like Rockman, but it doesn't work.'
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Their conversation was interrupted when all the lights started to fry, soon followed by the billboards. Immediately, Meiru went back with her friends as they all decided to check the cyberworld of the mall. Finding the ones responsible for the mess was the easy part, having to delete security navis turned insane by the maverick virus without touching them was tougher. Netto had informed them that their navis would get infected only if their frames were cut, so they should be fine since those security navis only had busters, unless they got really damaged. However, it led to another question: how had they been infected in the first place? The virus had to be transmitted by another navi, one which had a cut type default weapon, or which could access battle chips. Then again, if the navi could access battle chips, was he operated by a human or was he like the Darkloids?
With the help of the few uninfected security navis and those of other people, the infected ones quickly got deleted. Once it was done, most people plug out their navis and returned to their activities, as it wasn't the first time such a thing had happened. Still, the responsible had to be somewhere in the wild, and probably nearby.
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'Arsen blades!'
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A volley of bare blades appeared in the sky of the cyberworld before ripping through the air directly to the remaining navis, heading specifically to the custom ones. If Roll, Gutsman, Glyde, and Axl had successfully avoided the attack, it wasn't the case for all navis and some had been logged out. The battle went on for almost ten minutes before the virus took effect on the ones it had infected, and suddenly they weren't fighting against one enemy but five. Netto had tried to convince his friends to plug out their navis as all those who weren't netsaviors had, but none of them was decided to give up.
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Inside the PET, Saito could only hear what was happening through the radio link he had with Axl while there, but he could easily imagine what the copynavi was seeing. He knew his brother would plug him out immediately if he tried to join the battle, but he had to try. Since asking politely to be plugged in wasn't an option, he decided to use the net to get to the mall's cyberworld. Sure, it wasn't the fastest way, but it would work just the same. Taking advantage of the fact Netto was focused on operating Axl, he left the PET and made his way through the net. When he eventually reached the battlefield, only one of the infected navis had been deleted. He knew he couldn't afford rushing in without his brother having his back, especially with this frame, but he wasn't going to stand there watching either! After a quick analysis of the situation, he equipped his buster; sure, strategy was more Netto's thing than his, but sometimes you have to do the job yourself.
Since he was far enough, nobody had noticed his presence yet. He smiled: he had the element of surprise on his side. Of course, an area steal would have been perfect, but he would have to do without it as he ran toward one of the infected navi. Saito knew he would have to delete him if he refused to log out as the ones he had faced with Blues, and the idea was hardly cheering, but he wanted to try to send him back to his binding PET first. However, his plan changed when he saw Roll threatened by the sword of another navi. Immediately, he changed his course to place himself between her and her opponent, and shot. It was enough to repel the other navi, but far from being harmful; this version of the buster had been made for when he was still learning how to use it, and wasn't powerful at all.
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From Roll's perspective, this blue navi had simply come from nowhere. She could tell he was hardly made for battle, as his buster lacked the power to even do important damage at point blank range, but she wasn't against some help. Ever since Rockman had engaged the fight with the navi which had contaminated the others, she had been somewhat left aside as Meiru had refused to let her go help him, and had ended up facing one of the infected alone. As her operator sent her the boomerang battle chip, she jumped aside to avoid another swinging sword, and so did the navi who had apparently decided to stay by her side. In the blur of the fight, she couldn't really catch a glimpse of his face, but the way he moved was extremely familiar. However, the fact he apparently had no operator to send him battle chips worried her: for what she knew, he didn't stand a chance alone.
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'Battle chip: MetGuard! Slot in!'
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Much to Roll's surprise, the shield appeared around them to protect them from the upcoming attack. Much to her surprise, still, it wasn't a battle chip sent by Meiru; no, it was Netto's. For her defense, she wasn't the only one who was confused by this: both Meiru and the other navi seemed as lost as she were. Actually, Saito wasn't exactly confused: he knew his brother could switch the navi he was operating quite easily. However, if he had done so, it meant that he had figured out what his twin was doing and was probably about to plug him out.
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'Let me fight, Netto!' he yelled to the one he knew would probably not listen anyway.
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Then, Roll understood why the blue navi was familiar. His appearance might be different, and he was certainly weaker than she had ever seen him, but she knew she wasn't mistaken: it was Rockman, the real one.
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oOo
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'What were you thinking?' The young netsavior was gripping his PET, his expression betraying how scared he had been. 'You could have been deleted!'
'Sorry, Netto…'
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As soon as he had sent him the battle chip, his brother had plugged Saito out before keeping up with the battle on Axl's side. Now that the last infected navis had run away, he could finally try to understand why his twin had done something so reckless when he wasn't even supposed to show up. Actually, understanding wasn't exactly the right term as Netto had been too afraid by the thought he could have lost his brother again to even try… Saito knew he had messed up by doing this, but he had no regrets: he had tried to help his friends instead of letting them fight while hiding away, and he knew it was the right thing to do. Outside netbattles, he fought to protect others and he wasn't willing to give that up because of an obsolete frame!
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'Uh… Netto?' Meiru tried to get the boy's attention by coming closer, and asked him the fatal question once she knew she had it. 'Who's that navi?'
'He's…' In his precipitation, Axl had forgotten he couldn't give Saito's real name before appearing on Netto's shoulder. He hesitated, before picking the first thing he could think of. 'Hub?'
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Perhaps it wasn't the best name he could come with, but it would have to be this one. If Saito wanted to complain, he would have to wait! Of course, he couldn't let either of the twins talk: they had no idea of the lie he had invented to cover them and he couldn't let them ruin it. Before Netto could open his mouth, the copynavi started to tell the story he had thought of in case Saito couldn't stay quietly in the PET.
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'He's a prototype from SciLab. Dad thought we could take him outside since he never gets to quit the labs' cyberworld, so Netto picked him up yesterday.'
'A prototype?' Axl smiled as Dekao had asked the very question he needed to continue his story as he wished.
'Yeah, though he's an old one. Actually, he's the prototype for my AI so he wasn't really meant for fighting.'
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Axl let a sigh of relief slip when he saw the twins go on with the lie, but he could only hope it would be enough. Of course, he wasn't oblivious; he knew that, although he could perfectly copy Rockman's appearance, the others had noticed he couldn't act the same. Even with Saito's guidance through the radio link, Axl was perfectly aware Roll was suspecting something even if he couldn't know what it was for sure. Now that the elder twin had joined him on the shoulder of their common operator, he could see how she was staring at them and it was making him uneasy.
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'I must say,' started Glyde while looking at them, 'the resemblance is quite striking.'
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Indeed, now that they were side by side, it was impossible to ignore it. Their color patterns were almost the same, except for the golden parts which were missing in the oldest frame, replaced either by gray or blue equivalents. Of course, the main difference probably was the fact that Saito had no helmet, this part of the suit being one the less important, his father had decided it could wait—moreover, Axl had heard one or two stories about Saito hating hats which were probably another reason the previous frames had been lacking a helmet. Besides this, they shared the same green eyes and dark blue hair—though it was mostly hidden under the helmet for Axl— as well as a relatively similar build although Saito seemed younger. Yes, Saito's current frame truly was one of the first drafts of the rockman's one.
Axl smiled, as he saw that almost everyone believed his lie, and gave a look to the elder twin. He could tell how awkward he must feel, especially since professor Hikari had been very specific about the fact that Saito hated lying to people—and in this case, it was to his friends, which made it even worse. At the time, he had thought it wouldn't be much of a problem since he would be the one faking it and Saito was only supposed to keep a few things quiet. Now, however, it would probably make them suspicious.
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Later that day, their PET was back on its charging station: apparently, having two navis inside it emptied the battery much faster than usual. Netto was in the room with them, reading mangas instead of doing his homework, but none of the two navis was willing to remind him to do it—one because he didn't even care, and the other because he was thinking about something else. After several minutes of a heavy silence, Saito decided to finally express his opinion about a certain name chosen by a certain someone.
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'Hub? Really?'
'Do I need to remind you your actual name is Saito? Because it sounds quite the same to me.'
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Their short exchange was interrupted by the arrival of Roll, as both of them had forgotten she had free access to their PET.
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'I want to talk to Rockman.' She looked at Saito, knowing he would understand what she meant. 'The real Rockman.'
I don't like adding new characters to the canon, but apparently 14 year old me didn't think the same... Anyway, Axl is here ^^" I mean, it's not like if he were coming out of nowhere either! Still, I never played the Rockman X games (or any game actually...) so his personality probably is different. Well... I guess it'll have to do.
Have a good week and see you Saturday!