Chapter Thirteen:

Too Late

Suffering through another day of school, Chaud walked sub-consciously to the hospital. Every step reminded him of the rest of the school, buzzing about the N1. About Nami and Terry, who had told everyone that, quite simply, they were not going out.

Yet.

It was late. Would Terry go through?

"Idiot," Chaud scoffed. "He doesn't know what happened yesterday..." To his shock, he saw Terry on the other side of the beach, staring at the waves.

As if struck by lightning, Chaud remembered his promise. He'd promised to forgive Terry... if Nami came out in one piece. Looking up to the third floor windows, he saw one with a light on. Mamoru's shadow was clearly visible in the light. He appeared to be talking to someone. Laughing.

I doubt he'd do that if Nami wasn't ok... Resignedly, he walked towards Terry, staring at the ground, wondering what on earth he was supposed to say.

They literally ran into each other. Terry had been looking up at the clouds, and Chaud had been staring at the sand, so neither of them had noticed the other coming the same way.

"Oh... hey, Terry," Chaud sighed.

"Hey..." They didn't look at each other, both uncomfortably aware that they were having a conversation for the first time since their brief ten second one at the N1.

Finally, both of them said, "I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Chaud looked at Terry, who sighed.

"She asked you to apologize, too, huh?" he asked.

"Yeah..."

"Well... I guess we have," Terry pointed out.

"Guess so." Chaud extended his hand, Terry momentarily shook it, also looking at the third floor window. The light had gone out.

"Hey, wasn't Mamoru in there a second ago?" Terry asked.

"Yeah..."

"HEY! TERRY! CHAUD!" Mamoru's voice finally reached them, he was at the doors of the hospital, running towards them. Nami was far in front of him, also running, running towards them. "HEADS UP!"

"Nami!"

She smiled as she reached them, throwing her arms around both of them.

"I'm so proud of you two," she said, still beaming, absolutely breathless.

"Should you really be running?" Chaud asked her concernedly.

"Probably not," she admitted. "But... do you see anyone caring?"

"Yeah, your brother." Nami flinched, turning around.

"I'm... in trouble... huh?" she asked warily. Mamoru sighed, folding his arms.

"Look... as long as you're out here... you may as well tell them what you told me."

Nami smiled a sort of nervous half-smile. "Do I...?"

"Yes. You have to."

"But—"

"Now. You came out here. You should tell them." Mamoru turned around and left.

Nami bit her lip, dropping to the ground.

"Nami?" Both boys dropped beside her, alarmed. She was still conscious, but was drawing something in the sand.

"What... are you doing?" Terry asked.

She said nothing, yet continued drawing. Finally, she looked at Chaud.

"You should remember this." She moved away from her drawing, and Chaud recognized it. Drawn in the wet sand was the TetraCode picture she and Sen had found.

"Yeah... what about it?" he asked.

"Haven't you thought about it at all?" she asked him.

"Not... really," he admitted. She shook her head.

"I think I've figured it out."

She pointed to each of the letters.

"These all stand for something. We know that," she said. "But look... 'Sch' must mean 'School'..."

"The first place something was stolen," Chaud said.

"Right. Then this 'Z' must mean 'Zoo', and then..."

"DNN TV S must be the DNN TV Station," Chaud sighed. "We should've had that one pinned from the start."

"I know, really... and then this 'H' must be the hospital, so..."

"If there really are four TetraCodes like you said," Chaud continued, horrified, "then the World Three has all four!"

"Which means we're in trouble."

"No kidding."

"What's going on?" Terry asked, confused.

"Long story short, the World Three stole stuff that could give them power over god-knows-what," Nami said, standing up.

"So... what are we going to do about it?"

"That's the problem..."

"We should ask someone," Chaud proposed. "Since obviously none of us know, someone else must, right?"

"Yeah... so who do we ask?" Nami pointed out.

"Why not Mamoru?" Terry suggested. "He might know..."

"Not Mamoru, I already asked him," Nami sighed. "Hey! I know!"

"What?"

"Dr. Hikari!"

Chaud and Terry stared at her.

"Lan's dad?"

"Well, yeah," she said. "He's the greatest PET programmer in history, if there's something trying to destroy the Net, he would probably know what it is."

"That's true..."

"But wouldn't he drag Lan into it?" Chaud asked. "I mean, Lan is his son."

"Yeah, but what other choice do we have at this point?"

---

"Dr. Hikari, Agent Chaud would like a word," a SciLab assistant said, poking her head through the door.

"All right," Dr. Hikari said, not really listening. "Look at this, Lan. This is what you need to look out for in the field..."

Lan and MegaMan weren't listening either, they were watching the three people Lan's age coming into the room.

"Nami! You're out of the hospital!" MegaMan noticed. She smiled.

"Released this afternoon," she told them as Dr. Hikari looked up from his work.

"Yeah. You've got three tests to make up, and a whole lot of homework too," Lan told her conversationally. She sighed.

"Thanks, Lan, that's exactly what I want to hear straight out of a hospital visit. I feel so loved now," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry..." She laughed, shaking her head.

"Is there something you need, Chaud?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"Actually, yes," Chaud said, nodding. "Take a look at this picture." Sen wasted no time in uploading the TetraCode picture to the computer screen. "Does this ring any bells?"

Dr. Hikari studied the picture for a moment, deep in thought. "I think I've seen this before. This looks like a Wily operation."

"We know as much," Chaud said, "but we don't know what these TetraCodes do."

"So... TetraCodes, huh...?"

"Correct. Any ideas?" Nami asked.

"First off, where did you find this?" Dr. Hikari asked. "This picture?"

She sighed. "Can I tell you the Jomon Electric banner link does NOT go to the Xenographics site?"

"Oh. UnderNet trick?"

"Yes."

"Hm." Dr. Hikari fell into silence again. "I can't tell you everything you need to know about this, but I can tell you what I do know.

"This picture is the only thing relating to the TetraCodes, right?" Chaud and Nami nodded. "You're sure?"

"Nami and I cross-referenced the word with every single database and search engine on Earth," Sen told him. "This is all we got from a Nation X database."

"Ok... so. Since you're here, I can assume you don't know anything else. Am I right?"

"Yes," Chaud said.

"Well. These TetraCodes, they are complex password programs, each holding the key to a high power barrier in the Internet. There are four barriers, and beyond them is a specially sealed container. In it is the program Dr. Hikari Senior created to be a more advanced internet. But, the program, called Alpha, went haywire, causing all kinds of mayhem and destruction in electric devices connected to it. Eventually, it had to be taken offline and placed in the security container. Wily's plan this time must be to resurrect Alpha, and let it wreak its havoc on the world."

"But why were the TetraCodes in such easily accessed places?" Nami asked. "I would think they would be under official protection 24/7."

"One would think," Dr. Hikari agreed. "The TetraCodes were placed in the most inconspicuous places, places where evidently no one would think to look."

"But there was no security guarding them," Chaud pointed out.

"The TetraCodes were no doubt planted in to computers and servers without the knowledge of the people who worked with them," Dr. Hikari explained.

"Well, why wasn't there a fifth TetraCode in official protection?" Lan asked. "That would've been the smart thing to do..."

"That was controversial at the time," Dr. Hikari sighed. "But eventually, the Officials were so busy with other affairs that they never bothered. Or it could simply have been overconfidence."

"Perhaps. But how do we stop it?" Chaud asked. "By the sound of it, we don't want this Alpha running loose."

"That's the thing," Dr. Hikari said sadly. "Right now, there is no way to stop anything Alpha might do."

"Guys?" Terry asked, edging away from the door. "Do you... hear that?"

"What?" Nami asked, leaning to the side to see out the door. "Oh, my God..."

"What is it?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"I think... it's too late to find a way," she said, looking back at the rest of the group.

"What do you mean?" Chaud looked out the door as well. A military tank was boring through the doors and coming towards them.