Megaman Battle Network - New Generation
Book 2 - Black History
By Zelloss
Author's Note: Hmm... Another dark chapter. I don't intend to ever make this story cheery, except for mabye a couple parts.
WARNING: This story is dark. As in very, very, VERY dark. If you don't like stories of abuse, violence, murder, and overall sadness, do not read. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, and don't you forget it!
Chapter 2 - Hired Assasin
"Eh... Comeon! Wakeup, kiddo!" Jerill shook me. I nearly fell off the boat.
"We there yet?" I mumbled out.
"Yeah" he smiled. "Welcome to Marine Harbor!"
I stood up and stepped off the boat, and onto the dock. "Beautiful" I gaped. The skies were clear, the sun shone, the grasses grew. No sun anywhere.
I heard the motor restart behind me. "See you sometime! Soon, I expect!" Jerill called out. "If you ever wanna come back, you know where to meet me! Remember this spot!"
With that, he dissapeared from view. I sighed.
"Excuse me..." said a young, energetic voice from behind me. I turned and stared.
The small, silver-haired child from my dream on the boat.
At the same time as I realized this, I realized something else.
What had he said? I had heard the sounds, but understood nothing.
"What?" I asked. The boy gave me a strange look.
"You speak Electopian?" he asked. I recognized the word, and shook my head no. The boy backed off a couple steps, turned and ran off somewhere.
I sighed. I had totally forgotten that I didn't know how to speak Electopian!
"Come back!" I shouted, in Eyodian. It seemed to frighten the kid more. I felt like running, too, across the water and back home where I was understood.
Alas, no, I couldn't go back.
A few men walked along in front of me, muttering something in Electopian. Curious, I followed them.
I barely picked up bits of their conversation, as they led me from the old pier to an amazing sight. A huge city, packed with people. A café and a strange building seemed to be the center of attention.
I followed the men, who entered the large building. I walked through a pair of glass doors behind them.
I heard somebody shout out to me. I turned and looked for the source of the sound. A young woman was calling me over to a large wooden desk.
She spoke clearly, but I didn't understand a thing. So I tried to talk to her. "Can you tell me where this is?" I asked.
The next thing that happened confused me. I heard a weird, mechanical voice. It came from the woman, but her lips didn't move. I heard her voice return to normal as her lips moved again, and she said something, then seemed to shoo me off with a wave of her hand.
Now, I'm guessing it was shooing. Because that certainly wasn't what it meant back in Eyod. I drew my gun.
"I hope you take that back" I snarled. She backed off a couple steps and called something out.
I saw two burly men dressed in black walk towards me. They were large and, most likely, very strong. I turned and dashed out of the building.
I turned the corner and stopped by the glass doors, trying to hear. I could tell they weren't happy.
The woman had made the gesture that, to Eyodians, basically meant "Screw off, you" followed by about every obsanity and insult thinkable.
I wondered if she knew what she had done.
* * *
I shivered, more from hunger and fear then anything else. I was stuck in the back alleys, between houses and shops. No food, no friends, this was a literal nightmare.
I peered into the back window of a shop. The lights were out, but I detected a faint aroma coming from the shop. A rather pleasent one.
I smiled and slid the jeweled dagger through the bottom of the window, opening it up large enough that I could slide the window up and sneak myself in.
Inside, there was a large variety of food. Cakes, muffins, cookies, all kinds of things I considered real treats. I wanted to grab everything, but I knew better. If I had to be a thief, better to only take tiny bits of things. So, I grabbed a muffin from a box-full, a couple cookies from a jar, and a slice of cake, carefully disposing of the dish so I wouldn't be suspected.
Even after eating, I felt weary about sleeping in the alleys. If I had no place to go, what better then here?
I yawned, then curled up on the hard cement, wrapping my cape underneath me, so I could fall asleep.
* * *
Half a year passed like this. It wasn't so bad. The baker hadn't noticed the food was gone at all. Nobody had bothered to check the alleyways.
Still, life wasn't easy. It never had been for me, though.
About two years of this later, when I reached an age of 10, everything was about to change.
* * *
I stepped out of the alleyway and looked around. My appearance, scraggly and messy, made a man look at me strangely as I went by. I was expanding my map of Marine Harbor, trying to memorize every part of town.
I checked carefully, and then dashed across the street. I reached another alleyway and moved into it. I found it easier to move through alleys then streets. People also didn't see you.
I reached the end of the alley. The building beside me nearly touched the road, so at the end of the sidewalk, I dashed.
I heard a loud screech, and I felt a tremendous thump. My body flew quite a distance. Must have been, at least, 10 feet.
My body ached. People crowded around me, but my vision blured. What had happened?
"Get help!" I heard somebody shout. I tried to stand, but every bone felt like it was broken. I groaned out in pain.
"I know him!" I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn't tell what he was saying to me, aside from the sounds. I lifted my head and tried to focus my vision.
The silver-haired boy was looking down at me. His words sounded like he was trying to comfort me.
Was he trying to help me?
I groaned again, and blacked out.
* * *
"Huh?" I woke up and sat up instantly. Nothing was wrong. I was in a hospital room, covered in white sheets. The doctor walked over to me, holding something in his hand, which he dropped instantly.
"Hey, we're trying to help you! Lie down!" the doctor commanded.
"I'm fine" I said back to him.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes, quite" I said, before I realized something. "Err... What language am I speaking right now, just out of curiosity?"
"Electopian" the doctor replied. He swung what appeared to be a giant camera off the wall and pointed it at me.
"I'm fine, I don't need a scan" I assured him. I tried to act as normal as possible, but inside, I was purely shocked. How could I be speaking Electopian and understanding it?
The camera flashed. I got up and walked around. My bones were all there, all in perfect shape.
"Incredible..." the doctor said. "You were hit by a car only half an hour ago, and now you're in perfect condition! What's your name, youngster?"
I paused for a moment. Was it safe to say my name? "Ze... Zelloss Grausherra."
The man paused for a moment, before turning to a small blue device on his arm. He spoke to it.
"Know him?" he asked. A strange, slightly kind voice responded.
"'Fraid not" the voice said. "No record with the ONBA. You said he didn't even have a navi!"
"Huh?" I demanded. "ONBA? Navi?"
The doctor stared. "You don't know? Are you not from around here or something?"
"No" I said. "From... somewhere else."
There was a knock at the door of the hospital room. The doctor smiled. "I think this kid can explain... he says he knows you."
The small, silver-haired child walked in, as the doctor walked out, leaving us alone. I noticed he had one of the strange blue devices as well.
"Who are you?" I asked the kid. "I remember you... I don't know your name."
The kid was astonished. "Hold it, when could you speak Electopian?"
"Since about 2 minutes ago" I responded. "Don't ask."
"I won't, don't worry" the kid said, confounded. "Anyway, my name is Matson. What about you?"
"Zelloss" I responded, taking a seat on the confortable bed.
"Hmm..." Matson pondered. "Not from around here?"
"A frozen island called Eyod is my home" I smiled, then my lips turned down into a frown. "I left my best friend behind..."
"Well" Matson began. "I've been watching you more then you think."
My eyes opened wide. "What?" I shouted, standing and drawing my knife. Matson smirked, a blade of silver streaking by my left side and making a small tear in my cape.
I looked at the wall behind me. A knife had imbedded itself in the wall.
"Holy..." I breathed out. "Bazarko..."
"Mmm?" Matson wondered. "Bazarko?"
"Err... curse word from where I come from" I started to smile again. "How did you do that?"
"I'm not alone" Matson smiled back, and I noticed another kid, who's age I couldn't tell, standing in the doorway.
"Morpheus" Matson smiled without turning. "Meet Zelloss here."
I stepped towards him as he did the same. I extended my hand, my ring and middle fingers extending forward, inside up. He looked confused.
I sighed, withdrawing my hand. "I apparently have a lot to learn about Electopian customs..."
"Yes" Morpheus said. His voice was a bit eerie, it sounded somewhat powerfull. He extended his full hand out, so I did the same. He gripped it and shook, then released.
I looked to him. "Why are you both here? There's definatly some reason."
"Well..." Matson looked at me. "We've noticed your talent for thievery. We want you to join Dark Blade."
"Dark... Blade?" I asked slowly. "What is that?"
"A group for the elite" Morpheus smiled. "Assasins, felons, and thieves for hire. We're small in numbers but big in effect."
My eyes opened wide. "You serious?"
"Yes. You've got incredible skill with a knife, and that gun is a deadly weapon in your hands, I hear."
I blushed a bit. "Err... Alright, I guess..."
"Then let's leave!" Matson stood up suddenly, grabbing my arm and pulling me out.
"Dark Blade never rests in any place for too long!" a mechanical voice called back from Matson's other arm. "The ONBA wants us gone, you know!"
"ONBA?" I asked as I was dragged along at decent speeds, Morpheus following behind.
"Yeah" Matson puffed. "Official Netbattlers Association. They've wanted us gone because we've killed many of their people."
"Netbattlers?" I wondered, then realized something else. "Nothing to do with navis, does it?"
"Everything to do with navis!" Morpheus called forward as we turned a corner and out the doors of the hospital. "Err... You do know what a navi is, right?"
"Afraid not" I sighed, as we came to a stop an alley down. Matson let go, and I leaned against a wall to catch my breath.
"Net Navigational Program; Netnavi or Navi for short. They're specific to each person, and they work as computerized buddies for a person. Their commander is called a netbattler, because they send those Netnavi into computer systems to fight viri that infect the systems, or other navis" Morpheus explained. "They do this by using battle chips... kinda like this!" he smiled, tossing me one.
The picture on it looked simple, a blue orb with an explosion. I tossed it back. "What's that one?"
"Minibomb" Morpheus explained. "One of many types of chips. They go into the chip slot of the PET... That's Personal Terminal in other words. It's where the navi's data is stored."
I let it all sink in, and a tinge of recognition sank in.
"My mother worked on customized netnavi" I remembered. "She used to be payed a fair amount for that work."
"Oh really?" Matson wondered. "What was her name?"
"Ayoia Amerias" I replied.
"I know her!" he perked up. My eyes opened wide. "She was reported dead two years ago or something... people say she worked on some kind of super-secret project that went wrong."
"How strange..." I muttered under my breath. Matson stood up. "Well, Zel, welcome to Dark Blade!"
I suddenly became aware of movement. About three or four more scraggly-looking kids crawled out from places I never dreamed you could hide behind. "Dark Blade, meet our replacement, Zelloss"
"Replacement?" I demanded to him.
"Yes" said one of the three kids. "You're replacing a member who was... disposed of by the ONBA. Permanently."
"Killed?" I asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah" another kid sighed. "Looks like you're better for us then him!"
"Your first task..." Matson smiled, "Is to get us something to eat!"
* * *
You know, I felt oddly calm during the next year or so. I was constantly on the edge, running from danger and getting myself into it. It was rare we had assasin work, which I was sent on most of the time. Despite this constant action and thrill, I felt at peace because I finally had something to do and friends I had made.
I had to admit, I grew to care for Matson, and he cared for me too. Like a brother. I got along with him incredibly well, unlike the other 4. In total, Dark Blade was a team of 6, all of whom I had met.
"You know, that was kinda fun" I smiled, twirling around my blood- stained dagger. "Haven't used this thing in quite a while!"
"You know, Zel" Matson laughed, "if I didn't know better, I'd say you were heartless!"
* * *
"Wakeup! Moveit!" Matson shook me hard.
"Huh?" I snapped up suddenly. I was just slightly tired, but my body was ready to move. We had to constantly be moving, not staying in one place for too long.
"ONBA. Assasin. No time, just move it!" Matson warned me, moving off to awaken the last of the six of us. I looked around. Everybody was up.
"Listen, we have to move" Matson gave a low growl. "The ONBA wants us gone, now. Keep running and don't look back. We've got trained assasins on our tail, way out of our league!"
"There he is!" one of the kids shouted, as a bang rocked the streets. Yells came from passerbys. The kid that had shouted fell down, a bullet wound through his chest. Crimson blood flowed like roots over and through the box that he had landed on. He was dead.
A black caped man was standing at the end of the alley. "Time to die, Dark Blade!"
We scattered, dashing away until we could find a good spot. Another gunshot.
Another assassin fell forward, a yell of sheer agony coming from him before he was silenced forever.
The dark man followed us. We reached the end of the alley, where there were two paths.
"We'll have to split up!" I called over to Matson.
"I'll take Jare here!" he smiled. "You go with Morpheus!"
"No!" I insisted. "Let me go with you!"
"Just do it!" Matson commanded as we came close to the end of the alley. "Listen, he can only follow one of us. This way, one of us will live, no matter what. Do it, Zel, because I care for you!"
I was touched, but I had not time to think about this setiment. I turned left, Morpheus by my side, as Jare and Matson turned right.
Me and Morpheus dashed down the road and out into the streets. We crossed quickly into another alleyway and hid ourselves.
We heard the gunshots slowly move farther and farther away. Then a hoarse, muffled yell of pain.
"Jare's gone" Morpheus groaned. Another couple gunshots. Then nothing.
"I hope he's out of bullets..." I hoped dearly. Morpheus nodded, but his face seemed sterner.
"I just hope Matson is alright..."
* * *
We waited probably for half an hour before moving. We headed toward the direction of the shots, trying to find any sign of Matson or the man. I drew my gun, ready to fire if I had to.
We crossed a couple of alleys, before a sound made us stop.
The sound of a step on the ground.
"Shh..." Morpheus cautioned. A long shadow came around a bend in the alley. I readied the gun and leaned back, taking an aiming position.
As the figure rounded the corner, I fired. A woman's yell rocked the town. I had killed an innocent bystander.
Crimson blood flowed from her side. I stood, gaping, for a moment, before I heard another deep footstep.
I turned, seeing the black caped man behind me. Me and Morpheus dashed. We were, possibly, the last of Dark Blade.
The sound of a gunshot followed us as we turned a corner. We ran down the street, made our way across the road without a care, and down another alley. Another shot ran over our heads.
We turned again and again and again. I lost track, but this guy must have had tons of guns to keep firing for that long. I felt my legs starting to give out, but I noticed I was somewhere I had never been before.
I stumbled over my feet, falling down. Morpheus helped me up. We turned a corner and nearly shouted out.
Matson lay at our feet, dead. Blood from his back had covered him in a life colored blanket, and spread out upon the floor. A tear came up in my eye.
"No..." I whispered silently, and swore revenge.
I would have my revenge against the ONBA, somehow.
"Move it!" Morpheus urged, but I could tell he was sad about this. We were the last of Dark Blade, now.
I realized something as I kept running. One of four people from my vision, as I had begun to call it, was now gone.
What of the other three?
We turned through another alley, and everything became dark.
"Where... Where are we?" I asked Morpheus.
"I don't know" he said curiously. "I've never been here before. Let's see... there has to be a light switch somewhere around here."
It took a few moments of fumbling, but I managed to find one. I flicked it on, and a small stem of electricity ran through the room, lighting up some lightbulbs on the ceiling, although not that well.
The room we had found ourselves in was well made for hiding. Computer servers, wiring, tubing, and strange devices were everywhere. We hid ourselves behind a computer.
"Where are you?" demanded a deep voice. I didn't risk a look, but I waited, holding my breath and staying perfectly still. Morpheus was doing the same.
After a few moments of silence, the man turned and walked out. I waited for a few seconds before taking a deep gasp of breath.
"He's gone..." I prayed silently. "Matson..." I sniffled.
"He's gone too..." Morpheus sighed deeply.
"He... he did it to protect me..." my tears came back. I didn't fight them. "He did it to save me... he sacrificed himself... all because of me..."
"You" Morpheus forced my head up to look at his. "You had nothing to do with it! You aren't the cause, but you are the effect. Because Matson did this, you're alive. You shouldn't be sad. He wanted you to live, but he didn't die because of this!"
I paused for a moment, trying to make sense of Morpheus. "I..."
I heard a crackling from beside me. I looked at the floor.
A PET, disactivated but working, and two program disks.
"Huh?" I wondered, picking them up. To my surprise, the PET activated when I picked it up.
The screen was still a bit black, a menu appeared on it. Something seemed wrong. The navi on the screen was blocky and weird.
It spoke, quite strangely. It's voice changed from high to low pitches, from slow to rather fast speeds.
"Project Dynast" it began. "Uncompleted navi design. Please turn the PET off unless completion is being done."
I paused for a moment. "I'm completing you here, Dynast."
"Very well" the navi responded.
Morpheus stood up and left. "I'm going someplace far away, to who knows where, to search for some answers and some revenge."
I stood up with him, the half-activated PET in my hand. I switched it to my other hand, and extended my right hand. "Listen..." I began, stepping towards him. "If either of us finds a way to get revenge, and we meet again, we join forces."
"Deal" Morpheus smiled at me, an unexpected look. He shook my hand, then turned and left.
I waited for a few seconds, before I heard the beep of the PET again.
I sat back down, looking at the screen. I began to fiddle with the buttons, in what seemed to be a useless combination, but the navi began to form as I did.
It seemed to come naturally to me.
The first thing that formed was the navi's head. Short, blue hair and a stern face. I smiled at it's appearance.
Next came the torso. It was armored in leather, and rather muscular- looking.
Then, the arms. Leather-covered as well, they finished in perfect blue fists.
Next up, the waist. Instead of an open body, a long robe extended from around the leather armor down to the feet of the navi, covered in leather shoes.
The navi's eyes opened, revealing light blue eyes. "Greetings, Zelloss. It's nice to finally meet you."
Author's Note: Hmm... Another dark chapter. I don't intend to ever make this story cheery, except for mabye a couple parts.
WARNING: This story is dark. As in very, very, VERY dark. If you don't like stories of abuse, violence, murder, and overall sadness, do not read. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, and don't you forget it!
Chapter 2 - Hired Assasin
"Eh... Comeon! Wakeup, kiddo!" Jerill shook me. I nearly fell off the boat.
"We there yet?" I mumbled out.
"Yeah" he smiled. "Welcome to Marine Harbor!"
I stood up and stepped off the boat, and onto the dock. "Beautiful" I gaped. The skies were clear, the sun shone, the grasses grew. No sun anywhere.
I heard the motor restart behind me. "See you sometime! Soon, I expect!" Jerill called out. "If you ever wanna come back, you know where to meet me! Remember this spot!"
With that, he dissapeared from view. I sighed.
"Excuse me..." said a young, energetic voice from behind me. I turned and stared.
The small, silver-haired child from my dream on the boat.
At the same time as I realized this, I realized something else.
What had he said? I had heard the sounds, but understood nothing.
"What?" I asked. The boy gave me a strange look.
"You speak Electopian?" he asked. I recognized the word, and shook my head no. The boy backed off a couple steps, turned and ran off somewhere.
I sighed. I had totally forgotten that I didn't know how to speak Electopian!
"Come back!" I shouted, in Eyodian. It seemed to frighten the kid more. I felt like running, too, across the water and back home where I was understood.
Alas, no, I couldn't go back.
A few men walked along in front of me, muttering something in Electopian. Curious, I followed them.
I barely picked up bits of their conversation, as they led me from the old pier to an amazing sight. A huge city, packed with people. A café and a strange building seemed to be the center of attention.
I followed the men, who entered the large building. I walked through a pair of glass doors behind them.
I heard somebody shout out to me. I turned and looked for the source of the sound. A young woman was calling me over to a large wooden desk.
She spoke clearly, but I didn't understand a thing. So I tried to talk to her. "Can you tell me where this is?" I asked.
The next thing that happened confused me. I heard a weird, mechanical voice. It came from the woman, but her lips didn't move. I heard her voice return to normal as her lips moved again, and she said something, then seemed to shoo me off with a wave of her hand.
Now, I'm guessing it was shooing. Because that certainly wasn't what it meant back in Eyod. I drew my gun.
"I hope you take that back" I snarled. She backed off a couple steps and called something out.
I saw two burly men dressed in black walk towards me. They were large and, most likely, very strong. I turned and dashed out of the building.
I turned the corner and stopped by the glass doors, trying to hear. I could tell they weren't happy.
The woman had made the gesture that, to Eyodians, basically meant "Screw off, you" followed by about every obsanity and insult thinkable.
I wondered if she knew what she had done.
* * *
I shivered, more from hunger and fear then anything else. I was stuck in the back alleys, between houses and shops. No food, no friends, this was a literal nightmare.
I peered into the back window of a shop. The lights were out, but I detected a faint aroma coming from the shop. A rather pleasent one.
I smiled and slid the jeweled dagger through the bottom of the window, opening it up large enough that I could slide the window up and sneak myself in.
Inside, there was a large variety of food. Cakes, muffins, cookies, all kinds of things I considered real treats. I wanted to grab everything, but I knew better. If I had to be a thief, better to only take tiny bits of things. So, I grabbed a muffin from a box-full, a couple cookies from a jar, and a slice of cake, carefully disposing of the dish so I wouldn't be suspected.
Even after eating, I felt weary about sleeping in the alleys. If I had no place to go, what better then here?
I yawned, then curled up on the hard cement, wrapping my cape underneath me, so I could fall asleep.
* * *
Half a year passed like this. It wasn't so bad. The baker hadn't noticed the food was gone at all. Nobody had bothered to check the alleyways.
Still, life wasn't easy. It never had been for me, though.
About two years of this later, when I reached an age of 10, everything was about to change.
* * *
I stepped out of the alleyway and looked around. My appearance, scraggly and messy, made a man look at me strangely as I went by. I was expanding my map of Marine Harbor, trying to memorize every part of town.
I checked carefully, and then dashed across the street. I reached another alleyway and moved into it. I found it easier to move through alleys then streets. People also didn't see you.
I reached the end of the alley. The building beside me nearly touched the road, so at the end of the sidewalk, I dashed.
I heard a loud screech, and I felt a tremendous thump. My body flew quite a distance. Must have been, at least, 10 feet.
My body ached. People crowded around me, but my vision blured. What had happened?
"Get help!" I heard somebody shout. I tried to stand, but every bone felt like it was broken. I groaned out in pain.
"I know him!" I heard a familiar voice, but I couldn't tell what he was saying to me, aside from the sounds. I lifted my head and tried to focus my vision.
The silver-haired boy was looking down at me. His words sounded like he was trying to comfort me.
Was he trying to help me?
I groaned again, and blacked out.
* * *
"Huh?" I woke up and sat up instantly. Nothing was wrong. I was in a hospital room, covered in white sheets. The doctor walked over to me, holding something in his hand, which he dropped instantly.
"Hey, we're trying to help you! Lie down!" the doctor commanded.
"I'm fine" I said back to him.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Yes, quite" I said, before I realized something. "Err... What language am I speaking right now, just out of curiosity?"
"Electopian" the doctor replied. He swung what appeared to be a giant camera off the wall and pointed it at me.
"I'm fine, I don't need a scan" I assured him. I tried to act as normal as possible, but inside, I was purely shocked. How could I be speaking Electopian and understanding it?
The camera flashed. I got up and walked around. My bones were all there, all in perfect shape.
"Incredible..." the doctor said. "You were hit by a car only half an hour ago, and now you're in perfect condition! What's your name, youngster?"
I paused for a moment. Was it safe to say my name? "Ze... Zelloss Grausherra."
The man paused for a moment, before turning to a small blue device on his arm. He spoke to it.
"Know him?" he asked. A strange, slightly kind voice responded.
"'Fraid not" the voice said. "No record with the ONBA. You said he didn't even have a navi!"
"Huh?" I demanded. "ONBA? Navi?"
The doctor stared. "You don't know? Are you not from around here or something?"
"No" I said. "From... somewhere else."
There was a knock at the door of the hospital room. The doctor smiled. "I think this kid can explain... he says he knows you."
The small, silver-haired child walked in, as the doctor walked out, leaving us alone. I noticed he had one of the strange blue devices as well.
"Who are you?" I asked the kid. "I remember you... I don't know your name."
The kid was astonished. "Hold it, when could you speak Electopian?"
"Since about 2 minutes ago" I responded. "Don't ask."
"I won't, don't worry" the kid said, confounded. "Anyway, my name is Matson. What about you?"
"Zelloss" I responded, taking a seat on the confortable bed.
"Hmm..." Matson pondered. "Not from around here?"
"A frozen island called Eyod is my home" I smiled, then my lips turned down into a frown. "I left my best friend behind..."
"Well" Matson began. "I've been watching you more then you think."
My eyes opened wide. "What?" I shouted, standing and drawing my knife. Matson smirked, a blade of silver streaking by my left side and making a small tear in my cape.
I looked at the wall behind me. A knife had imbedded itself in the wall.
"Holy..." I breathed out. "Bazarko..."
"Mmm?" Matson wondered. "Bazarko?"
"Err... curse word from where I come from" I started to smile again. "How did you do that?"
"I'm not alone" Matson smiled back, and I noticed another kid, who's age I couldn't tell, standing in the doorway.
"Morpheus" Matson smiled without turning. "Meet Zelloss here."
I stepped towards him as he did the same. I extended my hand, my ring and middle fingers extending forward, inside up. He looked confused.
I sighed, withdrawing my hand. "I apparently have a lot to learn about Electopian customs..."
"Yes" Morpheus said. His voice was a bit eerie, it sounded somewhat powerfull. He extended his full hand out, so I did the same. He gripped it and shook, then released.
I looked to him. "Why are you both here? There's definatly some reason."
"Well..." Matson looked at me. "We've noticed your talent for thievery. We want you to join Dark Blade."
"Dark... Blade?" I asked slowly. "What is that?"
"A group for the elite" Morpheus smiled. "Assasins, felons, and thieves for hire. We're small in numbers but big in effect."
My eyes opened wide. "You serious?"
"Yes. You've got incredible skill with a knife, and that gun is a deadly weapon in your hands, I hear."
I blushed a bit. "Err... Alright, I guess..."
"Then let's leave!" Matson stood up suddenly, grabbing my arm and pulling me out.
"Dark Blade never rests in any place for too long!" a mechanical voice called back from Matson's other arm. "The ONBA wants us gone, you know!"
"ONBA?" I asked as I was dragged along at decent speeds, Morpheus following behind.
"Yeah" Matson puffed. "Official Netbattlers Association. They've wanted us gone because we've killed many of their people."
"Netbattlers?" I wondered, then realized something else. "Nothing to do with navis, does it?"
"Everything to do with navis!" Morpheus called forward as we turned a corner and out the doors of the hospital. "Err... You do know what a navi is, right?"
"Afraid not" I sighed, as we came to a stop an alley down. Matson let go, and I leaned against a wall to catch my breath.
"Net Navigational Program; Netnavi or Navi for short. They're specific to each person, and they work as computerized buddies for a person. Their commander is called a netbattler, because they send those Netnavi into computer systems to fight viri that infect the systems, or other navis" Morpheus explained. "They do this by using battle chips... kinda like this!" he smiled, tossing me one.
The picture on it looked simple, a blue orb with an explosion. I tossed it back. "What's that one?"
"Minibomb" Morpheus explained. "One of many types of chips. They go into the chip slot of the PET... That's Personal Terminal in other words. It's where the navi's data is stored."
I let it all sink in, and a tinge of recognition sank in.
"My mother worked on customized netnavi" I remembered. "She used to be payed a fair amount for that work."
"Oh really?" Matson wondered. "What was her name?"
"Ayoia Amerias" I replied.
"I know her!" he perked up. My eyes opened wide. "She was reported dead two years ago or something... people say she worked on some kind of super-secret project that went wrong."
"How strange..." I muttered under my breath. Matson stood up. "Well, Zel, welcome to Dark Blade!"
I suddenly became aware of movement. About three or four more scraggly-looking kids crawled out from places I never dreamed you could hide behind. "Dark Blade, meet our replacement, Zelloss"
"Replacement?" I demanded to him.
"Yes" said one of the three kids. "You're replacing a member who was... disposed of by the ONBA. Permanently."
"Killed?" I asked, wide-eyed.
"Yeah" another kid sighed. "Looks like you're better for us then him!"
"Your first task..." Matson smiled, "Is to get us something to eat!"
* * *
You know, I felt oddly calm during the next year or so. I was constantly on the edge, running from danger and getting myself into it. It was rare we had assasin work, which I was sent on most of the time. Despite this constant action and thrill, I felt at peace because I finally had something to do and friends I had made.
I had to admit, I grew to care for Matson, and he cared for me too. Like a brother. I got along with him incredibly well, unlike the other 4. In total, Dark Blade was a team of 6, all of whom I had met.
"You know, that was kinda fun" I smiled, twirling around my blood- stained dagger. "Haven't used this thing in quite a while!"
"You know, Zel" Matson laughed, "if I didn't know better, I'd say you were heartless!"
* * *
"Wakeup! Moveit!" Matson shook me hard.
"Huh?" I snapped up suddenly. I was just slightly tired, but my body was ready to move. We had to constantly be moving, not staying in one place for too long.
"ONBA. Assasin. No time, just move it!" Matson warned me, moving off to awaken the last of the six of us. I looked around. Everybody was up.
"Listen, we have to move" Matson gave a low growl. "The ONBA wants us gone, now. Keep running and don't look back. We've got trained assasins on our tail, way out of our league!"
"There he is!" one of the kids shouted, as a bang rocked the streets. Yells came from passerbys. The kid that had shouted fell down, a bullet wound through his chest. Crimson blood flowed like roots over and through the box that he had landed on. He was dead.
A black caped man was standing at the end of the alley. "Time to die, Dark Blade!"
We scattered, dashing away until we could find a good spot. Another gunshot.
Another assassin fell forward, a yell of sheer agony coming from him before he was silenced forever.
The dark man followed us. We reached the end of the alley, where there were two paths.
"We'll have to split up!" I called over to Matson.
"I'll take Jare here!" he smiled. "You go with Morpheus!"
"No!" I insisted. "Let me go with you!"
"Just do it!" Matson commanded as we came close to the end of the alley. "Listen, he can only follow one of us. This way, one of us will live, no matter what. Do it, Zel, because I care for you!"
I was touched, but I had not time to think about this setiment. I turned left, Morpheus by my side, as Jare and Matson turned right.
Me and Morpheus dashed down the road and out into the streets. We crossed quickly into another alleyway and hid ourselves.
We heard the gunshots slowly move farther and farther away. Then a hoarse, muffled yell of pain.
"Jare's gone" Morpheus groaned. Another couple gunshots. Then nothing.
"I hope he's out of bullets..." I hoped dearly. Morpheus nodded, but his face seemed sterner.
"I just hope Matson is alright..."
* * *
We waited probably for half an hour before moving. We headed toward the direction of the shots, trying to find any sign of Matson or the man. I drew my gun, ready to fire if I had to.
We crossed a couple of alleys, before a sound made us stop.
The sound of a step on the ground.
"Shh..." Morpheus cautioned. A long shadow came around a bend in the alley. I readied the gun and leaned back, taking an aiming position.
As the figure rounded the corner, I fired. A woman's yell rocked the town. I had killed an innocent bystander.
Crimson blood flowed from her side. I stood, gaping, for a moment, before I heard another deep footstep.
I turned, seeing the black caped man behind me. Me and Morpheus dashed. We were, possibly, the last of Dark Blade.
The sound of a gunshot followed us as we turned a corner. We ran down the street, made our way across the road without a care, and down another alley. Another shot ran over our heads.
We turned again and again and again. I lost track, but this guy must have had tons of guns to keep firing for that long. I felt my legs starting to give out, but I noticed I was somewhere I had never been before.
I stumbled over my feet, falling down. Morpheus helped me up. We turned a corner and nearly shouted out.
Matson lay at our feet, dead. Blood from his back had covered him in a life colored blanket, and spread out upon the floor. A tear came up in my eye.
"No..." I whispered silently, and swore revenge.
I would have my revenge against the ONBA, somehow.
"Move it!" Morpheus urged, but I could tell he was sad about this. We were the last of Dark Blade, now.
I realized something as I kept running. One of four people from my vision, as I had begun to call it, was now gone.
What of the other three?
We turned through another alley, and everything became dark.
"Where... Where are we?" I asked Morpheus.
"I don't know" he said curiously. "I've never been here before. Let's see... there has to be a light switch somewhere around here."
It took a few moments of fumbling, but I managed to find one. I flicked it on, and a small stem of electricity ran through the room, lighting up some lightbulbs on the ceiling, although not that well.
The room we had found ourselves in was well made for hiding. Computer servers, wiring, tubing, and strange devices were everywhere. We hid ourselves behind a computer.
"Where are you?" demanded a deep voice. I didn't risk a look, but I waited, holding my breath and staying perfectly still. Morpheus was doing the same.
After a few moments of silence, the man turned and walked out. I waited for a few seconds before taking a deep gasp of breath.
"He's gone..." I prayed silently. "Matson..." I sniffled.
"He's gone too..." Morpheus sighed deeply.
"He... he did it to protect me..." my tears came back. I didn't fight them. "He did it to save me... he sacrificed himself... all because of me..."
"You" Morpheus forced my head up to look at his. "You had nothing to do with it! You aren't the cause, but you are the effect. Because Matson did this, you're alive. You shouldn't be sad. He wanted you to live, but he didn't die because of this!"
I paused for a moment, trying to make sense of Morpheus. "I..."
I heard a crackling from beside me. I looked at the floor.
A PET, disactivated but working, and two program disks.
"Huh?" I wondered, picking them up. To my surprise, the PET activated when I picked it up.
The screen was still a bit black, a menu appeared on it. Something seemed wrong. The navi on the screen was blocky and weird.
It spoke, quite strangely. It's voice changed from high to low pitches, from slow to rather fast speeds.
"Project Dynast" it began. "Uncompleted navi design. Please turn the PET off unless completion is being done."
I paused for a moment. "I'm completing you here, Dynast."
"Very well" the navi responded.
Morpheus stood up and left. "I'm going someplace far away, to who knows where, to search for some answers and some revenge."
I stood up with him, the half-activated PET in my hand. I switched it to my other hand, and extended my right hand. "Listen..." I began, stepping towards him. "If either of us finds a way to get revenge, and we meet again, we join forces."
"Deal" Morpheus smiled at me, an unexpected look. He shook my hand, then turned and left.
I waited for a few seconds, before I heard the beep of the PET again.
I sat back down, looking at the screen. I began to fiddle with the buttons, in what seemed to be a useless combination, but the navi began to form as I did.
It seemed to come naturally to me.
The first thing that formed was the navi's head. Short, blue hair and a stern face. I smiled at it's appearance.
Next came the torso. It was armored in leather, and rather muscular- looking.
Then, the arms. Leather-covered as well, they finished in perfect blue fists.
Next up, the waist. Instead of an open body, a long robe extended from around the leather armor down to the feet of the navi, covered in leather shoes.
The navi's eyes opened, revealing light blue eyes. "Greetings, Zelloss. It's nice to finally meet you."