Disclaimer: All copyrighted characters in Rockman.EXE and its American version, Mega Man Battle Network, are owned by Capcom, the original creators and their distributors. No infringement of any of the rights of the aforementioned creators or distributors is intended. This is a fan-created story for the enjoyment of other fans only, and it may not be distributed for profit in any way. No money is being made by me in any form from this fanfic or any others I have written.

Author's Note: This might best be considered an AU, as I'm probably going to end up taking bits of manga, anime, and game continuity and squishing them together messily. Not to mention that I actually haven't played the games. ^^;; So mails/reviews telling me I messed up the continuity probably won't help, as I already know. ;) Oh yes, and I use the Japanese names for everyone, and the matching honorifics.

Pushing the Limits

a Rockman.EXE fanfic

by Hoshikage

Chapter 2

Rockman's back arched, his body jerking and writhing in its bonds, his eyes wide and sightless in agony as his chest exploded in a a mass of fluttering pixels, bits of glowing blue winking out as they floated free of his body like embers dying as they drifted away from the flame that had created them.
Green light poured down Boneman's arms, catching the fluttering pixels in a web of power that prevented them from drifting away any further. "Can't have you going all to pieces now," the operator chuckled. "Not until I've rearranged your code a bit..."
Rockman thrashed as Boneman's hands dug deeper, a high, thin wail wrenching itself free of his throat. He felt the touch of the operator through his Navi's hands, somehow, a slimy slithering feeling of an outside presence tweaking at the code that made up both his body and his mind. He fought back blindly, his head shifting from side to side as he clenched his eyes shut and tried to ignore the pain and block the intruder.
The operator whistled. "You are a strong one. I've never had a Navi manage to fight me before - even temporarily. But don't try my patience - you don't want me to get angry."
"S-Stop it," Rockman gasped out through the haze of pain. "Stop it..."
His words dissolved into another incoherent shriek as the other Navi pushed his hands even deeper, tearing his entire upper torso into a chaotic, bubbling mess of pixels. His body convulsed, his mind too overwhelmed by the new assault for him to think of any way to fight back. His thoughts scattered, leaving only confusion and pain, his surroundings dimming as he lost his grip on where he was, who he was....
Net...to...ku...n...

-----------

"Netto-kun!"
Rock...
"Netto-kun!"
Rock, where... are you...
"Netto-kun! Are you all right?"
Netto opened his eyes and blinked dazedly up at the concerned faces of his classmates. "Meiru-chan...?" he mumbled, focusing on her face. His chest hurt, but the pain was faint and distant, nothing like the first stab of agony just before he blacked out. Confused, he pushed himself up, rubbing his head. He looked at his PET, and saw only an empty screen dotted with idling windows.
There was no sign of Rockman.
"Netto-kun, what happened? Are you all right?" Meiru-chan asked worriedly. "You just collapsed..."
Netto hardly even heard her. "Rockman..." he breathed, then he snatched up the PET from his desk. "Something's happened to Rockman!"
"What?" Meiru asked.
Netto punched buttons on the PET frantically, but all that appeared were ominous red letters that blinked, [Scanning...]
"Netto, what's going on?" Yaito asked.
Netto shook his head in frustration. "I'll explain later, okay? I've got to find Rockman, I know he's in trouble!"
[Rockman: Not Found] flashed on the PET's screen.
"He never came back from Doctor Hikari's..." Roll said worriedly from Meiru's PET.
Yaito looked down at her own PET. "Glyde, can you retrace the route and look for him?"
"I'll go too," Roll said immediately.
"I'll go with Roll-chan," Gutsman added.
Netto smiled weakly. "Thanks everyone..." he said as he pulled the PET's plug from the desk port. Keeping it plugged in wouldn't do any good now.
Rock... where are you?
It bothered him that he couldn't feel anything but the faint hint of pain. It should have been stronger - not that he wanted it to hurt, but at least that would have given him a direction to go in, some sense of where it was coming from. Like this, he had no way to tell...
"Are you sure you're okay, Netto-kun?" Meiru asked him worriedly. "Mariko-sensei went to get the school nurse, we could wait until she gets back... I'm sure it won't be long now, even though school's out for the day..."
Netto shook his head. "I'm fine! Come on, let's hurry!" He ran for the door.
"Ah! Netto, where are you going?" Meiru cried, hurrying after him.
Even the slight pain was fading now, leaving nothing, nothing at all...
Hold on, Rockman! I'm coming to help!

-----------

Glyde, Roll, and Gutsman soared through the Net.
"I don't see any sign of Rockman, Yaito-sama..." Glyde said, his eyes glancing in all directions through the streaming data.
"Maybe we should ask Doctor Hikari if he even arrived," Roll said worriedly.
"That's a good idea, Roll. Can you go ahead? I'll keep searching along the path," Glyde said, and Roll nodded and streaked ahead.
Gutsman looked around. "Don't get it," he said slowly. "Where'd he go?"
Glyde shook his head. "I don't know. He can't have just disappeared..."
Gutsman pointed up. "Hey, look."
Glyde turned and saw blackened bits of partially-corrupted data floating in the air around a data stream that had stopped in mid-transmission, floating still and lifeless. "Now that's strange," he said, observing the frozen data stream. "It looks like this download got disrupted by something..."
Roll reappeared as he studied the data stream, looking for clues. "Doctor Hikari said he left a while ago," she said, clutching her hands together. "Where could he be?"
"I think this might be a clue," Glyde said, pointing to the data stream. "If Navis were fighting here, that would explain this kind of data damage. Let's look around and see if we can find any more clues."
"Okay," Roll said, starting in one direction.
"Guts," Gutsman agreed, and followed her.
Glyde started in the other direction, carefully looking around for more damaged data or other such clues.
Behind him, a tiny hole in the wall of the Net shrank to the size of a speck of dust, and then disappeared completely.

-----------

"Netto, slow down!" Dekao complained, huffing as he tried to keep up.
"Netto-kun... Dekao-kun's right," Meiru said. "You don't even know where you're going!"
Netto stopped, slamming his fist against the wall of the store they were passing as he swore in frustration. "Damn it! I've got to find him! I just know he's in trouble!"
"Glyde will find him," Yaito said confidently. "He's got all kinds of search functions."
Netto sat down against the wall, burying his face in his arms as he saw once again the empty screen of his PET. Rockman, don't go... we promised, we'd always be together...
"Netto-kun... I'm sure he's okay," Meiru said, trying to cheer him up. "We'll find him, and then we'll all help him together!"
Netto lifted his head. "Thanks, Meiru-chan," he said, and stood up again. "You're right. Let's plug in at the next terminal and ask Glyde how it's going."
The small band of children hurried down the street.

-----------

Rockman slowly came back to himself, blinking up at the dark blue clouds overhead that served as an imitation of the real world's sky. He felt disoriented and confused, and for a moment he could only lie still, trying to remember what had happened.
Boneman... and his Operator... They were going to take him away from--
"Netto-kun!" he gasped aloud, instinctively bolting into an upright sitting position. A spasm of pain went through his chest at the movement and he gasped, pressing a hand against his chest as he looked down, half expecting to see a fizzling mess of pixels.
But his chest seemed intact, though sore. He looked around, realizing that the rocks were gone, the desert landscape having been replaced by dim blue pieces of chromed metal that stood in geometric formations, dotted around the steely blue floor. I'm in a different system...
He tried to stand up, but he felt so weak and unbalanced that he toppled right back down. Gritting his teeth, he tried again, and this time he managed to get to his feet, though he wavered uncertainly before regaining his balance. His body ached, and there was a subtle feeling of wrongness underneath it all, something he couldn't quite identify.
He looked down at himself, but he looked just the same.
"Netto-kun?" he asked, but without much hope. Netto-kun, are you there? he added silently, but as before, his thoughts didn't seem to be getting anywhere, just fading into emptiness.
"It's my name you should be calling from now on, you know," a voice said, and Rockman whirled, looking up at the face of Boneman's Operator on the other side of the screen. "Oh, but I suppose I haven't introduced myself yet... how forgetful of me. You can call me Honemura-sama."
Rockman glared at him. "What did you do to me?"
Honemura grinned. "Not too much. Actually, your code is surprisingly unusual for a Navi... a true custom job, huh?"
Rockman just glared and didn't answer. Honemura shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter. Of course I changed your Operator setting, and a few other things. But as long as you do what I say, I'll leave it at that."
"Forget it!" Rockman snapped. "I won't do anything for you!"
"Are you forgetting? You're my Navi now. You have to do what I say."
"I'm not yours!" Rockman shouted in fury.
Honemura shook his head. "Stubborn little thing, aren't you? Not one of the qualities I appreciate." His expression darkened and he made a movement with his hand, outside the limits of the screen. Rock couldn't see what he did, but instantly following the movement pain exploded in his chest, wrenching a startled cry from him before he doubled over, crumpling to the floor.
"Well? Ready to cooperate now?" Honemura's voice chortled.
Rockman choked back a cry of agony as the pain increased. It felt like he was being shredded apart, one pixel at a time, but he wasn't about to give Honemura any satisfaction. "For...get it..." he gasped instead. "You... might... as well... delete me!"
"And waste all that work?" Honemura asked, but the pain stopped as abruptly as it had begun. Rockman went limp, gasping in relief. "No, I've got a better idea..."
Rockman looked up at Honemura's image warily, and found himself frozen before he'd even managed to lift his head completely. Stunned, Rock tried to gasp as he realized that his body wouldn't move, but even that involuntary reaction was prevented. His body was completely rigid and wouldn't move at all.
Honemura grinned at him, and held up something that looked vaguely like a PET, but without the screen and with more buttons. He looked right into Rockman's eyes as he pushed one of the buttons, and to his shock, Rock found himself getting up, his body moving without his conscious direction. Honemura pushed more buttons, and Rockman's body turned, walking smoothly despite the fact that Rock wasn't in control at all.
No... this can't be happening...

-----------

Honemura watched a little inset window on his screen as he idly manipulated the controller in his hand. The smooth waves of the graph in the window turned into sharp spikes, fluctuating wildly as the Navi started to realize just what his situation was. Honemura grinned and let the little Navi fight for a few moments, watching the frantic spikes on the screen. It was the only way Rockman could communicate now, though he was unaware that Honemura could see it.
Then he decided he'd proved his point, and hit the "cancel" button.

-----------

Rockman crumpled again as he was suddenly released. Trembling uncontrollably, he curled into a ball, gasping in quick, sobbing breaths as he tried to recover from his desperate and futile fighting to regain control of his body.
Netto-kun...
"Well, do you understand now?" Honemura gloated. "You can either do what I ask, or I'll just make you. Either way, you have no choice."
Rockman clenched his eyes shut, a stifled whimper escaping him as the hopelessness of the situation crashed down on him like an inescapable weight.
Netto-kun... I'm sorry... I can't fight him...
Honemura just laughed. "I see I've made my point."

-----------

Netto stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, his eyes vacant. Everyone else looked at him worriedly, but he hardly noticed.
His chest tightened and tears welled up in his eyes. He closed them quickly, trying to trace the ghostly feeling of fear and despair that he knew didn't belong to him. Underneath the urge to cry, there was his own feeling, his determination, almost burning through the reflected emotion.
Where are you, Rock? Tell me so I can help you!
But there was no answer, except for the silent cloud of misery that was already fading like mist.
Netto scrubbed the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand and started running again, ignoring the voices of his friends asking him what had happened.

-----------

Roll perched unhappily on a block of data, looking down at her hands where they were folded in her lap. Gutsman stood close by her, looking forlorn, as though he wanted to comfort her but didn't know how. Glyde sighed, and then looked up at the sound of his Operator's voice. "Glyde, have you had any luck?"
He looked up at the window showing her face. "I'm sorry, Yaito-sama. I suspect that Rockman was taken into a private system - but there's no way of telling what system, or where. We've just been waiting for you to plug-in so we could report."
"We could have plugged in sooner," Dekao muttered, "But Netto's been running halfway around the city on some wild goose chase."
"Dekao-kun!" Meiru scolded him. "Wouldn't you be worried if Gutsman disappeared? Apologize!"
"Sorry," Dekao mumbled, dropping his gaze.
"It's okay," Netto's voice said tiredly, though the Navis couldn't see him without his PET connected. "He's right - I shouldn't be running around aimlessly. I just thought, if I got close enough..." His voice trailed off.
"You thought?" Meiru prompted.
"Never mind," Netto started, when suddenly Glyde gasped aloud as his internal senses twanged in warning like a plucked harpstring.
"Glyde?" Roll asked. "What's wrong?"
"Yaito-sama," Glyde said quickly, analyzing the feeling without even having to think about it. "The security system at home just alerted me to an intruder! Someone's trying to break into the Ayano-Kouji computer network!"
"What? How dare they!" Yaito screeched. "How far in are they?"
Glyde reached out to the computer system, and the answer he got shocked him. "Yaito-sama - the intruder has already reached the 5th level! The security system didn't even notice him until just now!"
"That's impossible!" Yaito scoffed. "Nobody's got that kind of clearance but us! It must be a hacker!"
"What do you suppose he wants?" Netto asked, puzzled.
"Who cares!" Yaito fumed. "I'm not going to let him steal any of my Daddy's work! Glyde, come back to the PET. We'll go home and I'll plug you in there!"
"Shouldn't I go ahead and try and stop the intruder, Yaito-sama?" Glyde inquired tentatively.
"We could go too," Roll offered.
"I don't want you going off alone anymore right now," Yaito said, her voice a little softer. "If you ran into him alone, I couldn't send you battle chips or anything to help. And I... I don't want you to disappear too..."
Netto, invisible to the Navis, made a little strangled sound. Roll winced.
Glyde hesitated, but then he nodded. "As you wish, Yaito-sama." He logged himself back into the PET, and as his body dissolved, he just caught sight of Roll and Gutsman doing the same before he reappeared inside the PET.
"Yaito-chan, how are we going to get to your house?" Meiru asked.
In answer, Yaito yanked out a glittering plastic card from her purse and marched up to the curb where a taxi waited at a red light.
"Um, Yaito-chan, he's already got a customer..." Meiru said, pointing at the man in the back seat.
Yaito yanked the door open. Meiru buried her face in her hands. Glyde stayed very quiet.
"Hey you!" Yaito said, flashing her card. "I'll give you 100,000 Zenny if you let us have this taxi and wait for another one!"
The man in the taxi gaped. "It's yours!" he said, grabbed the card, and slid out of the taxi. Yaito immediately climbed in.
"Well? What are you waiting for?" she asked the others archly, and they hurried to follow.
"Man, I guess the daughter of Gabcom's owner really can get whatever she wants..." Dekao muttered.
The taxi driver regarded them all a little dubiously. "Um, my fare..." he started.
"Get us to the Ayano-Kouji mansion in ten minutes, and I'll not only pay his fare and ours, but I'll add a triple bonus," Yaito returned coolly.
The taxi driver pushed hard on the gas as the light turned green, and the taxi leaped ahead. "Yes, Ma'am!"
"You'd better fasten your seatbelts," Yaito said as Netto was practically flung out the window as the taxi swerved around a truck.

-----------

Rockman trudged dispiritedly past the security programs. They hadn't made any attempt to stop him thus far; he was pretty sure that his clearance was one of the reasons why Honemura had decided to use him for this little "job."
He didn't know yet what Honemura wanted him to do inside the Ayano-Kouji computer system, but he wasn't really too eager to find out, either. He had half been hoping that the security system would have decided to do something about him before now, since he was fairly certain he was getting close to the limits of where Navis were allowed to go, even Navis who belonged to Yaito's friends.
Except, of course, that he didn't anymore.
He heard the security programs whispering to each other as he passed, but they still made no attempt to stop him. Apparently his unusual behavior was confusing them. But he couldn't delay any longer; a few more steps, and he was faced with the closed gate to the next level.
"Blow it open," Honemura's voice said.
"Wha--?" All the security programs were briefly startled by the sound of the unfamiliar voice. A couple of them were quick enough to raise their weapons.
Rockman didn't move. Shoot me! he thought desperately, closing his eyes.
"Little brat, I see you still haven't learned your lesson!" Honemura said, and Rockman's body whirled around, buster already forming. Rock struggled to regain control, even for an instant, but his body smoothly fired, blasting every one of the hovering security programs into glittering pixels before they could counterattack.
"Now don't waste any more time!" Honemura ordered, and he released Rockman's body with a sharp jolt that made Rock stagger unsteadily against the gate. Rockman looked back at the empty area and sighed.
"Sorry, Yaito-chan," he mumbled, and then blew the gate open, slipping through the gap into the next security level. If I'm lucky, maybe I won't make it out of here...

-----------

Netto hurried to follow Yaito as she ran for the nearest terminal in the huge mansion. The servants looked at the band of running children in surprise, but apparently they were too used to their mistress' habits to say anything. Yaito flung open the door into what looked like a sitting room and hastily plugged her PET into a terminal on the table. "Glyde, plug-in, transmission!"
Glyde's image fizzled into pixels and disappeared from the screen of her PET. Yaito demanded immediately, "Where's the intruder now?"
"Level 6, Yaito-sama." Glyde sounded a bit puzzled. "I expected him to be deeper by now..."
"Hah! Daddy's security system must be harder to get through than he thought!" Yaito said proudly. "Go get him, Glyde!"
"Right away, Yaito-sama," Glyde said.
"Yaito-chan, we can help too," Meiru said, pulling out the cord from her PET. "Roll, plug-in, transmission!"
Netto sat down on the nearest couch with a sigh, looking at the empty screen of his own PET. Rock... I wish you were here with me...
Curiosity got the better of him, though, and he stood up again after only a moment, moving so he could watch Meiru's screen over her shoulder. Glyde and the others seemed to have gotten to the end of the 5th level, thanks to Glyde's identification. The last room was empty, patches on the wall still smoldering from energy shots.
"How awful," Roll gasped. "They've all been deleted."
"He went that way!" Glyde said, pointing to a blasted hole through the gate into the next level. Then he gasped. "I just felt the alarm in Level 7! He's got access to the data storage area!"
"Let's hurry!" Roll urged, and the Navis increased their pace.

-----------

Rockman sighed. "What exactly am I looking for, here?"
"I'll tell you when you find it. Just keep looking," Honemura replied, and Rockman rolled his eyes but kept going, walking slowly along the shelves of data. At least he had an excuse to move slowly, since Honemura needed to read all the shelves' contents to find what he wanted, and apparently like any other Operator he needed a Navi present to actually see what was going on inside the cyber world. And even if Rockman did have to follow his orders, he wasn't about to be good about it.
"That's it," Honemura said suddenly, and Rockman stopped in his tracks.
"What?" he asked, deliberately playing dumb. After all, there was a lot of data on those shelves...
"That one. Right in front of you." Rockman reached up. "No, not that one, you idiot! Don't try my patience!"
"Well, be more specific," Rockman replied innocently.
"The one labeled C-44A," Honemura growled.
Rockman sighed to himself and reached out, pulling the block of data off the shelf. "What is it, anyway?"
"Just something to make my life a little easier," Honemura replied smugly. Rockman got a sinking feeling that he was going to find out what the data was supposed to do firsthand, by having it used on him. He closed his eyes, for one wretched moment wishing he could somehow delete himself on the spot, before he was forced to steal from one of his friends, before Honemura had the chance to do anything else to him...
"He's in here!" a familiar voice shouted, and Rockman's eyes snapped open. Frozen in shock, he just stood and stared helplessly as Glyde, Roll, and Gutsman charged into the data storage area and then stopped dead as they saw him standing there, data cube in hand.
Rock had thought he couldn't possibly feel any worse than he already did, but as he saw Roll's expression of horrified disbelief, he discovered he was wrong.
And then the voice he'd been longing to hear spoke, and Rockman's heart fell into his boots.
"Rockman?" Netto's voice asked numbly, transmitted over Meiru's PET. "What... what are you doing?"

--To Be Continued--