A/N: Ahem, moment of insanity over, let's go back to being serious. Somewhat.

Also, if you're reading this, be warned that Forte will be a bit more quiet and to himself. Why? Well, someone left me a review that made me think and realize that Forte was being a bit… off, I suppose. I'll try to correct the past mistakes without upsetting the story (after all, this is still an experiment and I never aimed to be perfect. I'm aiming to improve and get a better grasp on the characters' real personality).

Also, the "Forte's chattiness with Netto" thing. There is a reason behind it that I'll explain later in the fic.

And yeah, I don't regret writing the Lawnmowers of DOOM idea. It is something Netto would do and enjoy watching (dragging Forte along since they are stuck together) and the show actually showed Netto and Dekao being followed by one once, and I'm trying to go along with the anime's example of having serious episodes broken up with funny and rather insensate ones. So yeah, this chapter will be a serious one, but in the future there will be lighter chapters again.

Also, thanks to Mistrevar (DA)/Zephyra Cobalt () for helping me through the block I encountered in this chapter and letting me have a better insight on Forte than I already had

Anyway, I do not own Rockman and anything coming from Capcom. I do own the plot idea, though. And the writing. Yep. Writing's mine.

Az.

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The next night, Netto was standing on top of one of the circular buildings in front of SciLabs and, as always, his father was still in his lab doing who-knows-what work or research. Probably something about the recent materialization of viruses and hostile NetNavis.

All the other scientists had left for home a long time ago, leaving the structure empty save for the occasional guard and those who had to tend to experiments that couldn't be stopped. It was the perfect time to enter and have a talk to his father without being shot on sight.

Forte had started to be uncharacteristically on edge since they had reached the labs, but for the life of him, the black navi was being tight lipped on the reasons for his reluctance to be there. Still, Netto had caught wisps of confused emotions that had held him where he was. He wanted to go inside and talk to his father so much and reassure him that he was alive and well, but at the same time he wanted to respect his grouchy partner's feelings. Whatever they were.

"I want to go," he said after a while and knowing that Forte was silently wondering why he hadn't moved. "But we're stuck together and I just can't ignore you. And you know what? I know that you don't want to go there."

Forte didn't reply at first, but the boy felt the navi's presence shift in uncertainty. Why?

The simple question he was asked made Netto frown. "Why I'm not ignoring you?" he paused and shrugged. "It doesn't feel right… especially since we share the same body. You feel what I feel and I feel what you feel, remember? To some extent, anyway…"

The black navi didn't reply. He actually seemed to not even pay too much attention to him or the world that was around them and that made Netto straighten his stance and deepen his frown. "Forte?" he asked, trying to regain his partner's full attention. "Hey, Forte? Are you still here with me?"

He could faintly feel that the navi's emotions were in turmoil and it confused him because, beside showing anger and hate, Forte had always been calm and collected in his own way, even if a bit more talkative than usual. Now, amid the edginess, he could feel impatience, reluctance and several other emotions that were too fleeting to be understood.

What are you doing, human? Forte eventually hissed. Just go in already and be done with this.

For a moment Netto had the impression that the navi was feeling like a cornered animal and the 'buzz' he was receiving from him wasn't helping matters at all. Rubbing a hand to his forehead right under the helmet, he jumped from the structure and landed onto the ground below. "Alright, alright! I'm going!"

Still rubbing his forehead to ward off an incoming headache, the boy started to walk towards the main building of SciLabs while muttering to himself at how life was unfair to him. He was almost to the glass doors of the entrance when colors suddenly shifted from normal to psychedelic.

Stopping and looking up at the sky, Netto gritted his teeth as the characteristic dome of the Dimensional Area enveloped the entire building complex where his father worked. "We've been caught…" he muttered. He had been stupid, he realized, to walk towards SciLabs in the open and not expect to alert security. Especially since he was looking like Forte…

Turning his eyes downwards again, he watched as several showers of data came together to form dozens upon dozens of official navis and Elite guards. They were armed to the teeth and looked like they weren't there to talk with him.

"It's been over ten years, Forte," one of them said raising his electric sword. "But you finally came back for your revenge…"

Netto paused and observed the navis through his fingers while a sudden dread filled his mind. He watched them surround him, weapons raised and trained at him and ready to attack. Forte, not sneering and insulting for once, was emanating a strong vibe of what he could describe as "fight to survive and then go as far away as possible".

A vibe so strong that further distracted and confused him, forcing him to take a step backwards and wince at the mental pain. Struggling to maintain his eyes on the navis surrounding him, Netto raised a hand into the air with the intent of showing that he meant no harm.

The gesture, however, was interpreted in the wrong way. "He's going to attack!" one to his left shouted, jumping towards him with his electric sword in front of him. "Quick! Delete him! We can't let him destroy SciLabs!"

Still holding his head with a hand, Netto sidestepped to the left to avoid being cut by the sword, and then jumped above the path of a cannon's shot. "W…wait!"

But his voice was weak against the roar of the battle he had unwillingly found himself into and all he could do was to avoid being killed while he continued to deal with the increasing headache and buzzing. "For…te…" he gasped out as he avoided more sword attacks. "What's… happening?"

Realizing that their enemy was distracted and keeping on the defensive, the large group of navis pressed in their collective attack, forcing Netto to materialize a Dark Arm Blade in his free hand and parry any swipes that he could not dodge.

For a while he seemed to be able to keep all the attacks at bay and even land a crippling hit on one of his enemies, but when one of them managed to scrape at his chest, very close to Forte's navi emblem, things just went downhill for him.

Suddenly his vision became blurred and his thoughts became so unclear that he didn't understand anymore where his emotions ended and Forte's started. Panic spread like a plague and Netto found himself attacking back with violence, roaring in anger at each swing aimed to delete instead of wounding.

Fleeting voices and snippets of images crossed his mind and made him stagger in his attack pattern and retreat to a safe distance to grip at his head with both hands. A move that didn't go unnoticed by his opponents, whom only increased their efforts to get rid of him. One of them lunged forwards with his electric sword at the stunned and unmoving enemy and hit him on his right side, tearing a large gash on both flesh and cloak.

The surge of electricity shook Netto out of his stupor and the boy jumped away again, clutching at his side and feeling the loss of data and the blood run past his fingers and down his hip and leg. The cut wasn't deep, just like the one on his arm, but it stung and forced him to slightly lean on his right.

That was when the boundaries of his mind broke and Forte's consciousness became his for a fraction of a second. That, however, was enough to let him feel the black navi's insane amount of anger and hate like it was his. "That's it," he growled as he unconsciously lifted himself into the air and collected a large amount of energy around himself. "Begone."

The following explosion not only blew the front of SciLabs to dust and deleted any navi unfortunate enough to be close enough, but it also took away the overpowering emotions, leaving the confused Netto with a lingering feeling of emotional pain.

Finally separating himself from Forte's consciousness enough to realize what he had done but not enough to discern what his true feelings were, the boy observed all the damage he had done. The front of the building was gone and the few navis that had survived were either laying unconscious or looking at him in pure terror.

"Monster…" one of them whispered loudly enough for Netto to hear. "Cossack should have never created you…"

Netto – or was he Forte? He wasn't sure anymore – felt a cold feeling pervade his body and he reacted to it by raising his right arm and point his open hand towards the navi that had spoken. Wordlessly, he accumulated enough energy to blast the offender to deletion, but when he was ready, he paused and frowned, tilting his head to the side. Part of him wanted to delete the navi in front of him, but another part of him didn't want to.

And then, as suddenly as it came, it ended. Boundaries reformed and Netto was himself again. Gone were the overwhelming emotions and the pain, replaced with the lingering feeling that they were gone only from his mind, but that they still existed somewhere else. He was confused and all he remembered at the moment was that he had been walking towards SciLabs to talk to his father…

Not entirely understanding why he was right in the middle of destruction, he took a step backwards and winced, almost collapsing to the ground before he started to instinctively float to lessen the pain. His confused gaze moved from the navi in front of him to the wound on his right side and some recollection of what had just happened came back to him in a rush.

His memories of the fight were few, blurry and confused, but those were enough to make him sick and scared. Enveloping himself into the feeble safety of his cloak, Netto followed the only clear command his confused mind was telling him to do and turned around to leave.

That was when those green converters appeared out of nowhere. Again.

Tired and wounded, and with Forte strangely absent to tell him that he had picked up their particular signature with his scanner, Netto could do nothing to avoid being caught in the middle of six converters. Energy surged around and through his body, sucking away all the energy he had left in it, leaving him to struggle with only his failing physical strength.

"How lucky…"

Brown eyes narrowed as a figure appeared from the shadows of one of the converters. It was another tall navi, this time a ninja type that had no recognizable features beside the emblem with the symbol of the fist holding a light, which was the same as Paladin's, on his chest. It was dressed in a plain black suit and had his head enveloped in a black cloth, leaving visible only his yellow eyes.

"I have to admit that it was hard to follow you without being caught," he said as he reached the downed navi that had previously insulted Forte and finished him off by stabbing his emblem with a long and thin sword. "I had to keep a good distance from you, or I would have been discovered. Luckily," he motioned to the downed group of law enforcers with a wave of his hand. "These idiots mistook your arrival for an attack. That was my chance to get closer and place another trap for you to walk into."

Netto growled and forced his right arm up, collecting as much energy as he could. "It won't work. These converters have been built to withstand more energy than the last did," 'Ninja' commented, almost bored by the antics of the boy.

What he didn't foresee, however, was that Netto manipulated the last of his energy into a long and thin spear before hurling it at one of the converters. After years of battles, the boy knew that if a blast couldn't take something out, then a slash would do the job, and as he had expected, the spear was only slowed down a fraction before it pierced the green surface and nailed the machine to the ground, dissolving into the air once its task had been carried out.

That was all he could do, however, and Netto soon found himself losing consciousness. "That was impressive, kid. The one you named Paladin wasn't kidding when he said that you had a really quick thinking," he heard the ninja navi say before darkness claimed his senses.

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Unable to enter the Dimensional Area in time to do something, Enzan stopped where the wounded security navis were laying and watched as five of the six green converter-like machines floated up into the night sky and disappeared, taking with them an unconscious Forte.

"You must be Enzan Ijuin and Blues…"

Azure eyes hidden by a visor looked away from the now empty sky to gaze upon a ninja-type navi that he had previously missed. "And you are…?" he asked warily, moving into a defensive position. After seeing Forte fight against that other white navi, he wasn't going to underestimate whoever associated themselves with this new terrorist group.

"Our operator never named us, but…" the tall navi paused and chuckled in amusement. "Seeing as your friend named Paladin by his aspect, he would probably call me 'Ninja'. And as much as unoriginal as it sounds, that's what I am and I find myself liking the name."

At the mention of a friend, Enzan straightened a fraction in his stance. "Friend? Are you talking about Netto?" his right hand morphed into a sword and he shifted from a defensive position to one of attack. "Tell me where he is!"

Ninja crossed his arms and leaned onto his right leg. "I wouldn't worry about him if I was in you," he said as he snapped his fingers and several Undernet viruses appeared. "But if you want to know, he's fine. For the moment…"

With a motion of his hand, the viruses attacked anything or anyone that stood in front of them. Mostly it was SciLabs, but some where crawling towards Enzan. "Interesting this Dimensional Area," the black navi said looking up at the dome. "But it is outdated, don't you think? Without it, your Cross Fusion will be cancelled and you will be powerless against even the weakest of viruses…"

Widening his eyes in shock, the boy turned around and watched as two spider viruses climbed the wall towards the four parabolic antennas on the main building of SciLabs. Even if those antennas weren't what powered the Dimensional Area, they were the means to transmit the energy from the generators to the needed location, and if they were destroyed, the dome would not receive the needed energy to maintain itself active.

Giving a brief glance at the black navi, whom saluted him with a wave of his finger and disappeared, Enzan cursed under his breath and jumped after the two spiders, quickly deleting them and saving the machinery on the roof. After securing the location, the boy looked around the building and winced. The place was literally crawling with viruses.

"Blues," he said as he summoned a second sword on his other arm. "Send a message to Dr. Hikari. Tell him to send someone, anyone, up here with a Gate Chip. We'll need all the help we can get if we want to keep these viruses off from the Dimensional Area's transmitters."

Yes, Enzan-sama.

While Blues took a few seconds to send the request to the right person, the boy sliced an Undernet virus in half before it could land its hands on the devices he was protecting. He had no problems in dealing with all these enemies on his own, but if he moved from where he was to go after some other virus, the place would be left unprotected.

Another virus came, this time one of those statues holding a sword, but before he could engage the enemy, it was blasted to deletion by a purple shot. Glancing up, Enzan found himself raising an eyebrow as Rockman landed next to him.

"I'll keep the antennas safe," he said as he readied his Rock Buster and deleted another virus that attempted a sneak attack on him. "You go and take care of the others. Even if I'm not with Netto, I can still deal with these."

The smile was fake, the white haired boy noticed, but he nodded nonetheless and jumped back onto the ground below, starting to delete any virus that crossed his path. Although he knew that Rockman wasn't as strong as he would be while in a Cross Fusion, he firmly believed that the blue navi could take care of anything the viruses threw at him.

Taking a sharp turn to the right, he ran after the closest bunch of viruses and dedicated his next ten minutes or so in deleting any virus he met. Halfway through his deleting spree, he had seen that the help Blues had called for had arrived and the bunch of sleep deprived scientists and guards had taken a stance either on top of SciLabs to help Rockman or in front of the gaping hole in the main building that Forte had caused to fend off any digital creature that tried to gain access.

When he and Blues were done, Enzan jumped back on top of the main building and watched as the tired men and women trudged back inside to either collapse on the first available soft surface or to go back to tending their experiments. Rockman walked up to him and greeted him with a smile, his Rock Buster morphing back to his hand.

"You ok?"

Enzan nodded and dismissed a faint scratch on his right arm as a mere itch. "Yes. Bad news is," he paused and frowned, glancing up at the dome as it started to disappear. "They have Netto too."

Rockman's face darkened into a mask of determination and his hands curled into fists. "Then we'll have to get him back," he commented before he was forced to go back to SciLabs' net at the same time Enzan's Cross Fusion was cancelled.

"Question is," the boy said to the air. "Where do they keep him?"

"Enzan-sama," Blues called from his PET, which was brought up so that navi and operator could see each other face to face. "I have the suspicion that if we find Forte, we find Netto."

The boy hummed as he followed the last of the scientists back inside SciLabs. Blue's idea made sense because malevolent organizations had a tendency to keep all their prized 'possessions' in one place for an easier access, and from what Ninja had told him, Netto had encountered them more than once and had been at least in one place where they had tried to capture the infamous 'Black Shadow'.

"It's possible."