Yush, chapter 8 ist here! We'll start...right after this:

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! (While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)

NOW we shall begin the craziness!


Several weeks passed since Zeke and Zero revealed the pictures of Irene and Iris, and summer vacation has arrived for the group of sophomores, and their families decided to have all their families go to Beach Street and stay in a hotel, all paid by the Ayanokojis' large income. The group goes ahead of their families to the rooms, Zeke armed with all the keys as him deemed the 'most mature' of all the group by the parents. Lan got to the boys' suite first, naturally.

"Zeke, you slowpoke!" Lan shouted, "get us in here!" Maylu walked up and smacked him on the back of the head.

"C'mon, Lan!" she scolded, "we're all as excited as you are but please…"

"Okay…" Lan surrendered as Zeke came up with the key, "we're gonna have fun though!"

"That is true, Lan," Maylu agreed with Lan.

"Very," Zeke concurred as he inserted the key and unlocked the door, "I just wish Irene could share in this fun…" Maylu laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Zeke," she said comfortingly, "we'll find her, and I'm sure she'd want you to be having fun despite not having her around."

"Yeah…" Zeke sighed as he gave Maylu the key to the girls' suite, which was next door. The parents' stayed in the two rooms across from the kids' suites, the Hikaris' and the Sakurai's mainly, since the Ayanokoji parents were obviously busy with running Gabcom. Dex rushed into the boys' suite with a bound, toppling Zeke and Lan with the large mound of blubber landing on them shortly after.

"Aw, Dex!" Lan cried, "Can we NOT crash into people please?"

"Dex!" Zeke shouted as he tried to push Dex, "Would you mind getting off!"

"Whoap, sorry," Dex said apologetically as he got up, Zeke and Lan getting up afterwards.

"I hear you guys are having fun," Megaman commented.

"Agreed," Zero also commented, "but that aside, is there a server we can jack into?"

"Yeah!" Gutsman suddenly shouted, "I wanna Net-battle someone already! Guts!" Zeke facepalmed at this.

"Ugh…no comments from this side of the peanut gallery," Zeke groaned.

"What's that supposed to mean!" Dex roared. Zeke ignored the question and found a PC with a jack-in port, and jacked Zero in. Dex did likewise, and so was Lan, but he stopped when he found that he had a phone call.

"Chaud?" Lan asked, and a familiar voice came from the other side of the line.

"Lan, I got a hit about that Irene character," Chaud said, "It appears she's on the Netopian-Sharo border. I'll be sending a photo shortly."

"Alright, that's great!" Lan said excitedly.

"Irene?" Zeke asked bewildered.

"There's more," Chaud quickly said, continuing, "I've found that she isn't alone, would you know of this?" Lan looked to Zeke for the answer.

"I'd assume that'd be Alex," Zeke reasoned, "after all, they DID fall in the same direction."

"I see," Chaud continued, "anyways, the trail's rather fresh, so I think I'll be able to find them and send them over there."

"Alright, that's cool," Lan acknowlaged.

"Lan, I hope you know that I'm not going to just send them to you immediately," Chaud warned. Lan paused for a minute.

"…Do what you need to do," Lan finally replied, and Chaud closed the link, and a file appeared on Lan's PET. Lan sent the file onto the PC with Megaman, to display the photo. It showed an old, apparently forgotten town with dark dirt roads. Irene is seen in her the attire that she had in the recent photo that Zeke showed, and confirmed that she wore a lavender skirt along with black boots that came a about four centimeters past her ankles. She appeared to have dirt upon her, most likely due to the fall that Zeke described, she was seen with a man that looked similar to Zeke. The man had red shoes, black jeans, a read hooded sweater zipped up half way to reveal a white T-shirt. He had blond hair that was longer and wilder than Zeke's, and brown eyes. He looked equally as dirty as Irene had, if not more so.

"Ah, that would be Alex," Zeke said.

"You ain't worried that that guy's with your crush?" Dex asked.

"Not really, he's already got a girlfriend, and so does his Navi," Zeke replied.

"Oh, guess you trust him then?" Dex guessed.

"He helped Irene and I get away from the Duke of Darkness," Zeke replied, "He's also a friend."

"Remember what Maylu said Zeke?" Lan said, "She said it'll be alright, and look, Chaud found her, and now we'll wait a month at most 'til we meet her, and you'll see her again!" Zeke looked out the window, visible tears in his eyes.

"Yes…" Zeke said and raised his head slightly, "…Finally…"

"Heh, just makes me wonder," Dex commented, "if I'll find someone…"

"Dex, there's someone for everyone," Lan said in a comforting tone, "I'm sure you'll find your girl!"

"Yeah yeah," Dex said dismissively and the group put away their belongings, namely copies of their usual attire. Lan saw his swimming trunks and got an idea.

"Now, I donno about you, but I think we should get ready to hit the beach!" Lan declared.

"Bingo," Zeke agreed, "Your woman must be waiting for you Lan!"

"Har har," Lan said sarcastically, "she probably is."

"That's bad Lan," Zeke said in a joking 'matter-of-fact'-ly manner, "your woman shouldn't wait for you, you should wait for her!"

"Yeah yeah, shut up," Lan said dismissively as he went to change into his swimming trunks.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Dex stammered excitedly.

"That'd be a monkey," Zeke joked at the sound Dex was making.

"Shut up!" Dex shouted, "I'm going to do, 'The Forbidden Art'!"

"Oh GOSH Dex!" Lan shouted, "DON'T for the love of PETE no!"

"Sorry bro, but I'm doing it!" Dex shouted as he readied his swimming trunks.

"You KNOW the girls are next door!" Lan argued, "That sound'll make 'em freak!"

"Your point?" Dex said, as he performed the technique, resulting in a loud ripping sound that tore through the hallway of the floor, followed by the screeching of screaming girls.

"So THAT'S what 'The Forbidden Art' is!" Zeke said, making no attempt to show the disdain in his voice.

"Yeah, which is usually a VERY bad idea!" Lan said, all too familiar with the technique.

"DEX!" Maylu's voice boomed from the other room, "I KNOW that was you who ripped his underpants!" Zeke and Lan, who already changed and knew what would be coming when a girl screamed like that, quickly slipped out of the room thus leaving Dex to face Maylu and Yai by himself.

"Wait guys!" Dex hollered, "Bros before hoes, right?" Zeke and Lan headed to the beach.

"You think Dex'll come back alive?" Zeke asked.

"He'll be alive," Lan replied, "he'll only be extremely quiet for the rest of the day."

"True true," Zeke said and looked out to the sea and sighed, "Glad Irene's alive…" Lan smiled and looked out to the sea himself.

"We found her," Lan said triumphantly, "and we'll meet her as soon as this Zeta virus crap is all over with. Speaking of which I believe they are nearing their final stages for the weapon as well as a device to lure the virus from aboad, and perhaps Zeta himself."

"Yeah…" Zeke said absentmindedly, "I'll delete Zeta…the remains of Delta…for Irene…and Zero will delete Zeta…for Iris…" His eyes began to fill with water, then he pumped his fist to the sky in a fighting stance, "Irene Kasumi! I'm gonna delete this jerk, then I'm gonna come for you! Just you wait! I'll see you again if it's the last thing I'll do!" Just then, Maylu walked up, changed into her bikini, hearing the commotion, smiled and hugged Lan.

"It'll be fun having two pairs around," Maylu commented.

"No doubt," Lan agreed, "we'd finally be able to double-date!" Zeke chuckled.

"Double-dating sounds fun," Zeke commented as he fell silent staring out to the sea. Lan and Maylu smiled at each other and looked out themselves.

Irene… Zeke thought, I like you very much… and I hope we'll be able to spend a lot of time together… I want us to be together…because without you…I'm just not exactly the same, even with good friends… I…I…I want you…


Yes, I decided to toss humor, and yes, Zeke's a crybaby when it comes to Irene... (Zeke: SHUT UP ZS!) lol... Next chapter: Fun in the sun and final preparations