Netto himself was very aware of the pain going through his own soul. Even if he didn't have a body he could still feel pain. Specifically his brother's pain.

Netto wasn't aware of much more bedsides his doppelganger laughing at his weakness.

~~~~~~~~

"THAT'S IT!" Roll had finally gotten the navis under control. She took charge and (to the disapproval of Blues and Sharkman) formed two search parties.

"Netto-kun is gone. And it seems that the shadow knows how to manipulate him."

"Thank you captain obvious." said Elecman under his breath.

Roll gave him a glare that even subdued Skullman who was standing next to him.

"We must find him for his and Rockman's sake." she continued.

Rockman and Forte lay on the hard packed ground still unconscious. Blue's did not fail to notice that she omitted Forte's name.

"I want the first search party to go north for two hours. No more no less. I can't risk anyone getting lost."

Coloredman, Glyde and Blues nodded.

"The second team will go south with the same directions."

Iceman, Skullman and Magicman nodded as well.

"Ok, move out!"

Iceman went to the south exit and put his hand on the edge of the door. An ice bridge flew out and went ahead untill they couldn't see it. There was steam as the liquid virus started to eat through the ice.

"Hurry!" said Iceman in his tiny voice.

On the north end Coloredman had his own plan.

"TAMA!" the Ball shot out and landed in the soupy mixture. Coloredman jumped on it. Then he made another one and jumped to that as well. Blues followed landing graceful on each dotted sphere.

Glyde simply took flight.

~~~~~~~~~~

Roll sighed and she saw them go off. She went over to Rockman and took his hand.

"I won't let anything happen to you." she whispered

~~~~~~~

Netto groaned. His head was on fire. Or it would have been, if he had his body. Still the pain was there.

The shadow laughed.

"Amazing, I have never seen a link so strong. The one you two share as brothers is simply the strangest thing I have ever seen. As well as the most pathetic."

Netto shot him a look that rivaled Roll's. "He is my brother! I don't care what you say. I don't care what I might have thought at the beginning. He is family and I care for him as much as I did to begin with! No, Now I care for him even more. And our link proves that!"

"Love!" the laugh was cold "Love, trust, faith, such powerful words. Yet I destroyed it in a matter of seconds! Not to mention the link with Forte. One hit! That's all it took. Don't make me laugh with your speeches. You body is mine to use and manipulate."

Then the shadow disappeared. Netto felt his body get up. Then he heard his voice echo through the dark.

"I own you, Hikari Netto."

~~~~~~~~

Rockman awoke suddenly. He heard the words. His brother was being tortured!

"Ottuo...."

Rockman looked down and saw Roll who had fallen asleep on him. He carefully squirmed out from underneath her and stood up. He started as he saw a hand on his shoulder. He looked into the scarlet eyes of Forte.

"You know where he is?"

Rockman nodded. "I managed to tap into the shadow's binary makeup. I found the coordinates. But he is far away."

Forte nodded. "I expected as much. Do you have both coordinates?"

Rockman looked down. "No, only the longitude."

Forte smiled. "Good, because I have the latitude."

Rockman looked up at Forte and smiled. "Ok let's go."

~~~~~~

They went to the east door and prepared to lave.

"Wait!" a voice traveled down the hall.

Rockman and Forte turned around to see Elecman running towards them.

"Elecman, what are you doing here!" asked Rockman

"Netto saved my life. Now I get to repay that debt. Besides, I've grown more fond of that kid than I'd care to admit."

Rockman allowed himself a soft chuckle. "Ok, you can come. Being in debt to Netto is not good."

Even Forte managed to smile at this.

"Ok time to go!" said Rockman as he opened the doors.

~~~~~~~

Inside of the electric forcefield that Elecman was making to keep the virus out Forte and Rockman worked hard to find the right coordinates.

"I think that it's that way." said Rockman pointing north.

"But my data says it's that way." said Forte pointing west

Elecman sighed and shut his eyes. This could take a while.

~~~~~~~

Netto sighed feeling very bored. Oh sure, he was terrified to be a prisoner in his own mind to begin with but after 3 days of doing nothing but hanging off a non-existent wall he had become very bored.

He was even bored enough to start to annoy the shadow but he still only did that under dire circumstances.

Not like he didn't have every excuse to do so. It seemed all the shadow wanted to do was build whatever it was building and torment Netto.

That's all it did.

And Netto hated it.

He once again tried to find the link but it was useless. The data was completely destroyed by the shadow. Still Netto found bits and pieces of it. He also found out how to manipulate binary, all it was, was zeros and one right?

And so continued Netto's perseverance for three days, while outside the shadow was doing who-knows-what with his body.

~~~~~~

The shadow planned this from the very beginning. Even when he was just another virus looking for a host. Of course the host he came across was Pharohman.

The most powerful navi ever.

And so he took over Pharohman's systems as soon as he was activated. He started on his plan but those damned scientists just HAD to freeze Pharohman's frame.

But it was during the 30 year stasis period that the Shadow had grown. Eliminating all possible traces of personality data or physical data he morphed himself into the perfect being. One that could create, destroy and manipulate anything.

All he needed was a chance....

Then the seal on Pharohman was broken!

But it wasn't meant to be and the shadow had fled as soon as Pharohman's data started to crumble.

And so the shadow wandered the net, ruined and on the verge of pixilation. And he came across a navi just as poor as he.

Forte

The shadow had gone to Forte and coaxed him, not that he needed much persuasion. It turned out humans had almost destroyed him.

Perfect

Thus Forte became his new toy. Destroying the net by turning it back into it's basic binary.

Then the perfect vessel came along.

Rockman, his systems almost destroyed with the bugs that were eating him. But the shadow invaded him and gave him the strength needed to control his new style. Then he took over.

It was quite simple really. Then he used Rockman's frame to destroy the net. And he actually succeeded. But then

Netto Hikari came.

The program in Rockman revolted and kicked him out. And once again the shadow was nothing more than it's name.

So he went back to Forte, and together they fled into the robot and bided their time. And Darkman came. The shadow manipulated him through Forte, finally gaining his trust.

Once Netto was in the net the data transfer overloaded and made the net to destroy itself. Then it was a simple matter of using Forte's body the do what he finished to do. After some revenge of course.

But no. Netto got Forte to kick out the shadow, on his own free will!

The damned Hikari's! Be it Netto, Yuuichirou or Tadashi one or the other was always there to make things worse.

But the tables were turned now. The little brat was putty in his hands. All he needed was to slip in and take over.

But still the brat resisted.

Heh, Netto had an admirable spirit but he was just another stepping stone to the ultimate goal.

The destruction of the net was only the first step. With out the net, the human world would cease to function, the he could write a program to let him control all of the warhead areas. That way he could wipe the sorry human race off the face of the planet.

Then he could recreate the net, making his own utopia with no one being suppressed by humans or any other species.

His utopia.

His

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elecman, Rockman and Forte hid behind a binary shell watching the boy manipulate data.

"There he is." said Rockman

~~~~~~~~~~