A burning pain sprang throughout Netto's face as the sparks hit him. "Aah! Rockman, I can't see…Rockman?"

No answer.

"ROCKMAAAN!" Netto fumbled around, desperately praying he didn't randomly run into a patch of flames. 'It's hot…' He thought, 'So hot…'

Netto nearly fell backwards as he hit something solid… and cool. The window! I found it! His hands found the locks and opened them, and he struggled to pull the window open. 'All right… now or never!'
"BANZAAAIIII!" Netto climbed out the window and dropped.
His last thought before unconsciousness was, "Wow, the ground is harder than I thought… my head hurts…"

-----

Netto.EXE – Chapter 5

By Marisa

----

"Netto?!" Yuuichirou exclaimed, "Enzan, is this some type of joke?!"

"It's not a joke, Dr. Hikari." Enzan turned his head and typed something in on his computer. Two pictures appeared on Yuuichirou's screen.

"The first one, on the right, is Soui."

Yuuichirou sucked in a breath. Oh my god, that poor boy… He thought sympathetically, noting the scarred face. A twang of sadness shot through him as he realized that 'poor boy' might actually be his own son.

"His face is extremely scarred," Enzan continued, "But that's not what I'm telling you to look at. Note his eyes, hair color, and nose. Compare them to the picture on the left, which I'm sure you recognize."

The left picture was Netto, of course. His most recent school picture. Their hair color… Yuuichirou thought, Okay, so it's the same, but that doesn't mean anything. Eyes?

Same color, same size, same angle… so their eyes are the same. Nose… yeah, same shape, same position…

"Netto…" Yuuichirou sighed, burying his face in his hands, "Netto, what could have driven you to do something so cruel?" He sighed, and placed his hands back on the keyboard. With a sigh, he said to the white haired boy, "Enzan. Rockman can not know about this. Do you understand?"

"I understand. Now excuse me, I have a navi to track down."

----

Netto-kun…

It wasn't him.

Netto-kun…

"I miss you, Netto-kun…"

Netto-kun…

"They used you against me, Netto-kun. Can you believe it?"

Rockman was lying on his back, staring up at the endless void of the Net that was programmed to look like a sky. It changed colors with the time of day.

Heaven's in the sky, and Netto's in Heaven…

"They used you as a weapon, Netto-kun. Against me." Rockman blinked back tears. "How dare they… do something so cruel…" He sat up and clenched his hand into a fist. "They'll pay. I swear they will."

"Rockman!" A Navi logged into the site that Rockman was in, gasping for breath. "Rockman, it's an emergency!"

"Roll?" Rock called, "What happened?"

"It…It's Gutsman!" She gasped. "Oh, Rock—he just went crazy! I don't know why…but…"

Rock thought for a moment. "Roll, there's this navi on the rampage—Darkman—that can transform into Navis and such. I think maybe that might be him disguised as Gutsman."

"Transform into Navis?" Roll blinked. "Why would Darkman be after you?"

"Most likely to lure me into a trap. He's been trying to delete me…he even disguised himself as Netto-kun to do it."

Roll gasped. "He didn't! That monster! All right, I'll show you where he is. Be careful."

Rock nodded, took Roll's hand, and they both logged out.

====

"I have a lock on him, Enzan-sama."

"Good. Can you access the website?"

"It's password-protected, but nothing I can't crack."

"All right."

====

"Roll-chan…" Rock murmured, staring at the blank website, "I don't see anyting. Just… white. I don't think Darkman was ever here. Why would he be, anyway?"

"I don't know." Roll murmured. "But if he found a way to lure you here, he'd most likely show up then…"

Rock laughed nervously. "How would he manage to lure me—" He was cut short as something black, tight, and strong wrapped around him. The whip! Rock turned his head and glared at Roll. "You're Darkman, aren't you?"

"When did I say I wasn't?" Darkman teased. "My, my, Rockman—your friends are your greatest weakness. Know what your problem is? Pure heart." With a yank, Darkman tightened the whip. Rockman gasped, and tried to break free.

Darkman's free arm morphed into a sword. "Now, then—time to finish what I started." He pointed the sword at Rockman. "Time to join your operator."

WHAM!

THUD!

With a blow to the head from the flat side of Blues's sword, Darkman was out cold. Blues cut the whip with the blade, setting Rockman free.

"Ah! Thanks, Blues. That hurt."

Blues only shrugged.

"Rockman." Enzan stated simply, his image appearing on a floating screen. "Leave. We need to delete Darkman and have a talk with Soui."

"No. Darkman impersonated Netto-kun—and I'm the one that will make him pay."

"Rockman, no. You don't have the power to delete him—and we have something to say to Soui that I don't think you'll like."

"I'm going to delete him." Rockman's arm formed a buster. "This is for Netto-kun--!"

"Rockman, no!"

"Enzan, I have to do this! I know Darkman and Soui didn't kill him, but…but I feel like this is the only way I can avenge Netto-kun's death!"

Enzan frowned, very annoyed at Rockman's attitude. With a growl, he exclaimed at Rockman, "Netto's not dead!"