Chapter 4
Netto was surprised when Mama called the school and told them that she would be keeping Netto at home for the day.
"I'm not sick," he said.
"I didn't say you were. Let them assume what they will," she responded, grabbing her bag and keys. "Now, let's go."
She didn't tell Netto where they were going but it was easy enough to figure out from the tickets Mama bought at the station. They got off the metro at the stop closest to SciLab.
"I thought Papa was overseas," Netto mused as he walked with his mother into the lobby of the big building.
"He is. However, this is the fastest way to contact him."
Netto watched in surprise as Mama revealed that she had access to Dr Hikari's lab. It was only his lab though and they were escorted up by security, who watched as she walked in and turned on the small computer at Dr Hikari's desk. Sitting on the desk was a photo of them from just over a year ago with Rockman visible on the screen of the PET Netto was holding, and a photo of the two boys on the day their parents had brought them home from the hospital.
Netto hummed, "do you think Papa will answer?"
"He will," she responded. Or someone else would. There was a reason she had come to SciLab instead of calling over the phone. Said reason linked in a moment later, appearing on the warp space on the computer's homepage.
"Mama! Netto!" Rockman greeted them, waving and smiling. Netto instantly smiled back and called a greeting to Rockman.
"Rockman, Netto's broken the standard navi in his PET," Mama explained. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind reinstalling yourself onto it."
Rockman's grin faded and he looked around. "But, Papa-"
A window opened up behind him, Dr Hikari's face filling it.
"What happened to the navi?" he asked.
Haruka gave her husband a 'do not argue with us' look before telling Netto to plug the navi into the computer.
Rockman screamed as the navi moved and its face glitched, causing Netto to laugh and their parents to smile. Dr Hikari started typing, pulling up the navi's status and looking at the coding. He gave a low whistle.
"Netto, while this is impressive, you can't do this kind of stuff to Rockman, okay?"
"Yeah, I know that," Netto responded. "Besides, I wouldn't need to do this kind of stuff to Rockman. He would beat Gutsman easily!"
Dr Hikari had no idea who 'Gutsman' was but he decided to question that later. "Although, for the stats on a standard navi to be so high and for it to still be functional is impressive."
"That's functional?" Rockman questioned with a shudder.
"Mostly," Netto said. "Netbattling is probably out which makes this a complete waste."
"Netto," Rockman groaned. He leaves his brother for a year and this is what happens? "You're not allowed to touch my programming."
"Aw come on, we've already been over this. I get it."
Rockman motioned towards the glitched navi as a counter-argument. Netto glared at him.
"Are you sure you two want to be together?" Dr Hikari questioned, a little worried about an argument breaking out.
"They'll be fine, Dear," Haruka said to her husband. "Let Rockman come home, okay?"
Dr Hikari sighed and then typed away, downloading the glitched navi from Netto's PET and uploading Rockman. He wouldn't be deleting the navi as there were some tests he could conduct on it and it would be good evidence for why customised navis needed to be more accessible.
"Welcome back, Rockman," Haruka said, once the download was completed. Rockman jumped out of the computer and into the PET with a grin. "Now, if you could remind Netto to do his homework, that would be very helpful."
"Mama!"
"Of course, Mama!" Rockman chirped, savouring the glare his little brother sent him. "Now, who's Gutsman?"
Netto returned to school with a smile on his face and Rockman groaning from the PET. It had been a while since he had been subjected to his brother's skating. Netto was a good skater and it was one of the reasons he went so fast but, he went fast and did tricks on his way to school. The world spun around the PET, throwing Rockman's calibration of the gyroscope and accelerometer out and making him the navi equivalent of dizzy.
Netto had told him about the new navis in the class, sometimes knowing more about the navi than the operator. Rockman quickly figured out that his brother was friendly to everyone and had friends but no 'best friends' who he count on to hang out with outside of school. He didn't call his brother out on it but he was going to help. Somehow. Maybe these other customised navis would help.
"I hope they're nice," he mumbled to himself as Netto threw open the door of the classroom.
Netto introduced him to Meiru and Rockman bowed as his screen was held up for her to see.
"Wow! Your dad finally got you a customised navi! He's adorable!" Meiru said.
Rockman's cheeks went red however, he gave Netto a confused look as his brother extracted himself to go to his desk.
"Don't they know about me?"
"I think they believed that I was waiting for Papa to make me a customised navi," Netto responded with a shrug. "I said you were with Papa and they assumed I hadn't received you yet."
"Strange."
"I got tired of correcting people so I just didn't bring it up," Netto said, plugging the PET into his desk. Rockman jumped onto the school network, having a look around the digital version of the classroom. There were other navis walking around, except for a pink navi who was looking right at him.
She smiled and waved, bouncing over to him. With her yellow ribbons hovering around her head, she kind of reminded him of a big pink bunny.
"Hi! You're Rockman, right?" Rockman nodded. "I'm Roll, Meiru's navi!"
"Nice to meet you," Rockman said shyly. It was strange to meet navis built around his age and height. There hadn't been many until recently as the first customised navis were closer to adults in age and mentality.
Roll cupped her hands around his and pulled them up between them. "It's nice to meet you too! I hope we can be friends!"
"O-Of course!" Rockman responded quickly. It was a shock to hear his thoughts reflected in her words but not a bad shock.
"Who's this, Roll?" a gentlemanly voice said. A tall yellow and gold navi walked over to them. This was more the mentality Rockman was used to seeing in navis.
"I'm Rockman."
"He's Netto's new navi!"
The navi nodded and gave a small bow. "I am Glyde, netnavi to Yaito Ayanokoji."
"Yaito's really smart," Roll told him. "She skipped two grades to be in this class."
"Oh."
While all the navis so far were humanoid, the one who appeared a moment later was not. He still had a head, two arms and two legs but he looked more like a bulky machine turned humanoid than a digital person like Rockman.
"That's Gutsman," Roll told him before calling the navi over. Gutsman had a stilted way of talking and seemed friendly enough.
"That's your navi?" Dekao questioned with a laugh as he looked over Rockman. Rockman narrowed his eyes as the person on the screen. "He looks tiny and weak."
"Rockman can beat Gutsman with one hand tied behind his back!" Netto said.
Rockman nodded in agreement. Gutsman might be okay but his operator needed to be taken down a few pegs.
"Netbattle?" Gutsman asked hopefully.
"Yeah!" Netto responded, challenging Dekao.
"Really?" Yaito questioned, her face appearing behind Glyde. Her forehead took up most of the screen, her blond hair pulled away from it and into the two braids poking out the sides of her head. "They do this every day."
"Today's a little different though," Meiru said, face appearing behind Roll as she spoke. "After all, Netto has Rockman this time."
"Good luck," Glyde said to him.
After class, the two kids met outside the school. There was a statue near the gate which had a security camera in it. The camera created a cyberspace which was perfect for battling since it was almost self-contained and the camera couldn't monitor itself.
Rockman knew he had been built with speed in mind but he couldn't help taking Gutsman's first punch with his hand, showing off his power. He held the bigger navi's fist and grinned, hearing Netto whoop and cheer him on from the physical world. Rockman shoved Gutsman back and showed him what one could do with a quick attack speed, throwing multiple punches and hitting the big navi multiple times before he could even process what was happening. Rockman finished it with a kick, throwing Gutsman across the space and forcibly logging him out.
Dekao gasped and recoiled in shock, crying out.
Rockman giggled as he transmitted himself back into Netto's PET. Netto tried to placate Dekao but he was happy from his win. In the end, they just left him to his decrees of working harder and beating them next time.
"That was fun!" Netto said, grinning down at him.
Rockman's grin was just as wide. Netbattling was so much fun! "We'll have to do that again!"
"I'm sure we will." They were both thinking about Dekao challenging them as they were leaving. They could probably fight him as much as they wanted.
"But first we need to get your homework done," Rockman pointed out.
"Rockman!" Netto groaned while his navi laughed at him.
Author's Note: Thank goodness this didn't become some epic adventure. I'm ending it here, with the twins reunited, kicking butt and taking names and leading right into the games/anime storylines. Thanks for reading!