Title: Secrets of the Undernet

Chapter 10: The First Move


Part One of the Christmas Present Upload!


Disclaimer: We don't own. Blah

Summary: After agreeing to a trade with a mysterious Navi, Roll finds herself stuck in the Undernet. Can she uncover it's secrets before she's trapped forever? LanMayl, MegaRoll

Warning: Contains insanity. One of the prologue stories for Warp Fusion. Certain couple(s) highly emphasized in some scenes. Some character bashing- usually not intended. Usually.

Re-cap: A little peak at where our favorite blue bomber is being kept. Stuff gets delegated as everyone tries to cope with losing Megaman, the original Navi who started this search. And Lan starts getting a strange pain in his chest- more specifically, his heart.

Spoilers: Gah. Here? Not too much. The only thing it spoils is one of the hints I was gonna use later for something that comes up in the after-Warp Fusion story (still have to come up with a title for that...). Oh, and another little hint for something else. And something else, too. And maybe some other stuff. Lots of stuff, ne?

Rating: PG-13 for references to subjects that some people might find either offensive, stupid, weird, or sacrilegious.

Song: Gundam Seed Ending theme by See-Saw


He groaned, as he straightened up from his position on the hard floor. It felt as though he had slept in a very uncomfortable position, with a heavy weight on his chest- which, now that he thought about his brief moments of consciousness, seemed about right.

Looking around, he realized that he was currently in a dark cave-like place. There seemed to be no end to the cave-tunnel thing, as on his left and right were stone walls, while the tunnel stretched out into darkness both behind and ahead of him.

He shuddered, looking around worriedly. There was something off about this place- something so completely un-natural that he would have preferred the test tube her first awoke in compared to this place.

"Megaman..."

His head whipped around to the wall he had just been facing. Shrugging it off as nothing more than his imagination, he stood up and was about to start walking down the tunnel.

"Come to me, Megaman..."

He blinked, and looked again at the wall.

"Come... Mega..."

Yep, it was definitely coming from the wall. He took a tentative step forward, before taking another few.

"Megaman... I am here..."

He lifted his hand to place it on the wall. As he lowered it, the thought that this was a trap occurred to him. Then again, walking down the tunnels might be a trap, too...

"Do not be afraid... I will guide you..."

He blinked again, before lowering his hand the rest of the way. He was surprised to find that the 'wall' was not so much a wall as an illusion. Feeling slightly better that he wasn't about to get blown from the Cyber Matrix to the moon and back again, he took a confident step inside the illusion wall.

A large chamber, finely furnished with silks, velvet, cashmere, and fleece- or the digital equivalent of what we women would associate with a luxurious room- met his gaze. Through his boots he could feel the wool from a finely crafted rug under his feet, and along the walls were tapestries, paintings, and very expensive- and fragile- looking objects on pedestals.

A large couch was against the wall to the left, an even larger sheer curtain hung over it in many layers, making it nearly impossible to see whatever- or whoever- was on the couch.

"Come to me, Megaman... I am right here..."

His attention was suddenly locked on the couch, as he began moving towards it. As he walked, he noticed that there appeared to be more than one shape on the couch, and that the couch was actually tiered. On the first three levels were approximately three figures- two on either side of the next tier up, one in the middle. On the fourth tier was only two figures- one on each side- and on the fifth appeared only one figure.

"I am right here..."

The curtain was hung from a circular bar, letting there be about three feet from the foot of the couch to the first layer of the curtains, and about twenty feet from the couch to the last layer, or the layer that was closest to him. He slowly made his way through all the layers- there seemed to be hundreds, although there was really only twelve- before he passed the first layer, and stood at the foot of the couch, staring up into shocking green eyes, completely ignoring the other eleven in front of him.

"Leave us, my Ladies..."

The eleven obediently stood up and walked away, through the doorway from which he had come from.

"Come to me, Megaman..."

He walked up the tiers, in an almost trance-like state, before stopping on the tier just below the green eyes.

"Who are you? What am I doing here? Why-"

"Sh. Quiet, Mega. You have far too many questions to be answered at once."

"But you will answer them?"

"Only if you come to sit by me."

He apprehensively made his way up the last tier to sit beside the green eyes on the most comfortable cushion he had ever felt.

"Well?"

"Do you not think I should introduce myself?"

He shrugged. "It would be nice."

"My name is Eria. And you are Megaman. Am I correct?"

"Yes." He answered her coldly, not letting himself warm up to her kind, yet distant, and slightly familiar attitude.

"You have many questions. Start asking, or we will never get through all the answers."

"Where am I?"

"A special section of the Undernet, created from excess data floating around, specifically created for myself and the other female members of the URAUN- Undernet Resistance Against Upper Navis- to hide out when he need a break from all the males."

"Who brought me here?"

"One of my Ladies- Rouge, and you were lured by Sunset."

"How long have I been here?"

She thought for a moment, before answering. "Nearly five hours, now."

"Why am I here?"

She grinned. "Ah. I was wondering when we would get around to this one."

"Well?"

"It seems that the rest of the URAUN thinks that Upper Navis have been constantly destroying the Undernet for no reason whatsoever. Of course, they decided to keep tabs on two Navis who would pose the most threat- you, and another Navi named Tialsia."

He blinked. "Me? Wait... so this is my prison?"

She laughed. "No, no, no... weren't you listening? This is a hide-away. When we found out, we brought you here, so that you couldn't be followed and observed."

"And why did I need to be protected of that?"

"Because we don't trust Guinto- the leader of the URAUN- nor do we trust any Navis on the job. If you're listed as one of those on the 'super-powerful' list, don't you think they would try to off you?"

"And you won't?"

"No."

"Why? Why should I trust you, or-"

"Because we're the only ones who know how to get out of here. We're the only contacts you have in the Undernet to tell you if they mean to wage a full-out war on the Cyber Matrix. And we're currently the ones who decide whether you live or die."

He gulped, and nodded. "Fine. Reason enough. But there's something else..."

"How do you know that?"

"...there's always something else. Another motive, reason, reaction... always."

"I'm glad you're not as stupid as Guinto thought you were. But yes, there is something I want you to do for me, in return of letting you go free, having constant protection, and having contacts in the Undernet."

"Dare I ask?"

"I want you, in return for us being spies for you, for you to be spies for us."

"WHA-?"

"Now now, no screaming. Whatever information we discuss, it stays here. Unless it is a plan to throw everyone off...?"

He glared at her. "Why do you want me to be a spy? Why not someone else?"

"Because you're closest to many of the humans and Navis who would likely be in charge of an army or force in the Cyber Matrix. You ask questions, anyways- asking a few more wouldn't be suspicious."

Grumbling, he turned his head away from her. "Is there anything else you would like, your Majesty?"

She smirked at his sarcasm. "Why yes. You."

He quickly turned back to face her, only to see her smiling at her joke. He glared. "That was NOT funny."

"No, but your reaction was."

He rolled his eyes. "This doesn't mean I'll be a permanent spy."

"Don't worry- I just want to know if the Upper Navis are planning anything against the Undernet. Although, if all Upper Navis are like you, I'm not sure I could fight against them. But... this is my home, and I'll protect it, no matter who I have to go against."

He nodded in understanding. "I would do the same thing. However... if someone is being controlled, then I would first try to knock them out of it."

"Really? But if they're able to be controlled once, wouldn't they be able to be controlled again?"

"But everyone deserves a second chance, especially if it is a life and death situation!"

She glanced at him. "...you really feel strongly about that, don't you?"

"Let's just say I've had some personal experience with getting second chances... and thirds, for that matter."

"I've had a number of chances myself. However, the situations haven't always been friendly."

"...I guess we're just lucky, then."

"What do you mean?"

"That we have second and third, and maybe fourth and fifth and sixth chances to redeem ourselves. We might have done horrible things in the past, but at least we can try to do things that work to better ourselves and others around us, instead of just doing things for our own personal, selfish gain."

"...."

"I don't care if you don't understand, but-"

He was cut off as she leaned her head against his chest, her hands holding onto his shoulders. "Wha-?"

She sighed. "I'm glad that you can understand me. But the position that I'm in- it's currently be... 'evil', per say, or get deleted. I can't do anything in between."

"...but you just did."

"How?"

"But not letting this Guinto person have a chance at killing me."

"You referred to it as killing, not deleting."

"Force of habit."

"You know, we really are two of a kind... and I would gladly protect you from Guinto, Mega. But would you-"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because. You protected- protect- me. So you can't be all bad."

She grinned, before sitting up straight again. "So you will tell me if the Upper Navis decide to try to invade- or even come- to the Undernet?"

"Of course. And you'll do the same for me?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything else..."

"If things get too rough between me and Guinto, and he finds out, we'd have to convince him that you're on our side, even though you have an operator and friends in the Cyber Matrix."

"How so?"

"A blood- or data- pact."

"...then I hope things never get too rough."

"As do I."

"...can I go now?"

"Aw, scared of me?"

He grinned. "No, but I'm worried about La- er, my operator."

She grinned, and looked at him evilly. "Still don't trust me?"

He sighed. "Not as much as I would like to."

"Then you're smart. I'll pretend that I didn't hear you start to say the name of your operator, and you'll pretend that we never had this conversation, that you're still completely, totally, and only loyal to the Upper Navis."

"Same goes for you."

"Deal?"

"Deal."


In front of her was the strangest looking homepage she had ever seen. A line of what looked like doors ran all along one wall, each marked off with different symbols. A carpet, with other symbols, ran the length of the hallway, and small pictures were in front of each of the doors. The carpet itself was a plush red, with jewel blue, yellow and green creating the shapes, designs, symbols and pictures. The carpet covered what appeared to be a black, marble floor, as was the walls and the roof.

Turning around, she noticed that the door they had just come from was intricately carved, a double-door, and was currently closed, and locked tight by the look of the chains, bolts, and locks on the doors.

"Wha... what is this place?"

Tialsia gently patted Quersoæn on her head. "This, my dear," she said as she gestured with her entire left arm, while draping her right arm over Quersoæn's shoulders, "Is my home page."

"But, Tialsia... this looks like the real world, not the Cyber Matrix."

"Because it's based on the real world, and isn't part of the Cyber Matrix."

"...I don't get it."

Tialsia sighed. "What don't you get?"

"Everything you just said. And WHY ARE WE NOT WEARING OUR ARMOR?!"

Tialsia winced, poked a finger in her ear, turned the finger a few times, pulled it out, and glanced idly at Quersoæn. "Because we don't need to be. And could you please speak a little bit quieter?"

"But... then what's up with..."

"Well, you can always put your armor back on- but I find it much more comfortable and easier to work in this."

Quersoæn, for the first time, took a proper look at Tialsia. Instead of the red, white, gold, silver, yellow and ruby armor she usually wore, she wore very human-ish clothing: a black, long-sleeved shirt, ripped artfully in quite a few places, white, slightly baggy pants, red boots, wrist guards, a black leather choker and a large ribbon, keeping her light brown hair in place at the base on her neck in a bun.

"Well... I guess..."

"You can try your armor if you want- but, personally, I would rather work in what you're wearing right now than your armor."

Quersoæn blinked, before looking herself over. When she wasn't able to properly see everything, Tialsia sighed, snapped her fingers, and data pixels- proving they were still at least connected to the net- swarmed together to form a mirror.

What Quersoæn saw in it stunned her.

Someone who could be no more than 17 years old- human age- stood in the mirror. Her dark brown hair, normally not a problem, hung down her back to her waist, where it was tied with an orange ribbon. A thin, green mesh shirt hung on her shoulders, under which was a purple camisole. A short green skirt hung from her waist, over which was a purple mesh skirt, hanging down to just below her knees. Green and purple high-heeled sandals, with straps which wrapped up her legs, adorned her feet.

"Wow... it's... I'm..."

"Beautiful?"

"Yeah... but... the whole skirt thing... it just doesn't work for me."

Tialsia thought a moment. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Try... THIS!"

Another pixel swarm saw Quersoæn's clothing change rapidly. She still wore the green mesh shirt, with the purple camisole underneath. However, they were longer, and tied into a knot to her right, exposing from just above her belly button down to nearly four inches below it. From this spot, green-and-purple stripped, ridiculously baggy jeans covered her legs, hiding her green-and-purple running shoes. Her hair was no longer long and loose- underneath an orange, purple and green baseball hat (which was on backwards), two braided pigtails came from either side of her head. Still just as long, and tied with orange ribbons.

Quersoæn grinned. "Now this I can stand."

Tialsia imitated her. "Good. Now come on- I have to show you around."

Quersoæn rolled her eyes, thinking that nothing behind the hundreds of doors in front of her could surprise her.

Until Tialsia opened the door marked with a circle, inside of which was a square with a triangle on top.

Inside was what appeared to be a foyer, complete with coat rack, hat stand, and shoe box. A slightly raised area just inside the door was made out of wood, and just beyond this was a sliding door with white, paper material on it. The walls were white-washed, and the wood was stained a dark brown, almost black color. Just past the coat rack, hat stand and shoe box, on ether side of the small hall-ish area, were two tapestries, each depicting great battles.

"Er...?" Quersoæn wasn't sure what to say.

"Ah, the results of technology. Everything in the human world- or real world," she hurried to correct herself as Quersoæn looked at her, confused, "is recreated perfectly here."

Quersoæn nodded, before walking over to the door at the end of the hall. "Where does this go?"

"To the courtyard."

"The what?"

"Go see for yourself."

Shrugging, Quersoæn did as she was bid- and stopped to gasp at the sight.

She now stood on a deck made of wood stained the same color as that in the foyer. Another white-washed walled building stood in front of her, across a small grassy area and a Japanese Maple and beautiful flowers. Two more buildings were on the left and right, leaving about four feet between the corners, so that each building was separate, not connected to any others. Through the gaps between the buildings, Quersoæn could see more, arranged in the same style.

The deck itself was the same color the whole way through. It wrapped right around the small courtyard, making a square shape, connecting all the doors to each other. Steps led down from the deck to the grassy area. The deck filled up the spaces between the buildings, and continued on, connecting all the courtyards and buildings together. However, from what Quersoæn could see of the other courtyards, they were not all grass.

The two that she was able to see were filled with water, like giant ponds that the buildings sat on top of. Flashes of water showed fish and other water animals- or the digital equivalent, anyways. Lilly pads, cat tails, bull rushes, and many other types of water plant floated and lined the ponds.

The roofs of the buildings looked like traditional Japanese architecture, with the slanted roofs with the up-and-down ripples- not that Quersoæn knew that this was traditional Japanese architecture.

"Wow... Tialsia... what is this place?"

Tialsia's eye twitched. "You've already asked that. This is my homepage."

"I know... but it seems more like a home than a homepage..."

Tialsia shrugged. "Yeah, well, ya know..."

Quersoæn was about to step down onto the grassy part of the courtyard, when Tialsia pulled her back by the pig tails.

"Wha-"

"Lesson one. Never step into this courtyard. You will not like the consequences." Tialsia, still dagging Quersoæn by the pig tails, walked around to the first building/room on their right. "This is the sitting room. If guests come, they wait here. Then I- or we- come, and show them around."

Inside another sliding door was a very formal room, with seats, couches, chairs, and decorations from all different cultures- but mainly Japanese and Egyptian. Quersoæn looked at the Sphinx models, before following Tialsia as she felt a strong tug on her pig tails.

The room directly across from the exit turned out to be the formal dining room. One long, low table went from one end of the room to the other, with soft, fluffy, cushiony and beautifully embroidered pillows lined up along it. Quersoæn could see a darker area underneath the table, and pointed it out to Tialsia.

"Under the table was cut out, so that when people sit, they can either fold their legs under them, or let them dangle down."

Once again, Quersoæn noticed strange artifacts and tapestries hanging on the walls, or on pedestals in the corners.

The next, and final room, backing onto the Japanese Maple, or trans-yard, as Tialsia called it, was a room with ridiculously comfortable furnishings. Chairs, tables, couches, love seats, lounges, even the carpet seemed to scream out comfort. Quersoæn desperately wanted to go in and put up her feet, until Tialsia dragged her outside once again.

They proceeded through the gap between the comfort room and foyer, and, as Quersoæn had thought, this courtyard was filled with water.

"This is the pond-yard." Tialsai told her, as she dragged Quersoæn off to see the first building. "All the buildings leading or backing onto the pond-yard have to do with cooking, or making food." Under Quersoæn's questioning gaze, she continued, "completely for aesthetics sake."

Indeed, the first room they came to could only be a modern-day kitchen, with all the stainless steel appliances, special lighting, and obvious positioning. Before Quersoæn could try to open the fridge, Tialsia dragged her onto the next room- the eating room.

"This is just for me, and whoever else is here, when it seems too much trouble to use the formal dining room."

"Which is basically every day?" Quersoæn asked as a joke. Tialsia grinned. "Yeah, pretty much."

After that was the pantry. Digital food lined the walls, and another door hidden behind a shelf lead to the freezing room. "Used to keep food cold, or torture annoying pests."

The last room was simply the other wall of the foyer, engraved with intricate designs, pictures, patterns, and Glyphs of all different languages, the prominent being Egyptian Hieroglyphics and Japanese Kanji.

The next courtyard was another grass courtyard, which Tialsia called the leaf-yard, and allowed Quersoæn to go sit under the shade of the Sakura tree for a bit as she quickly prepared the three new rooms backing onto this yard. Quersoæn looked at the door she knew was the other door to the eating room, before glancing at the corner of the comfort room. Although the deck did go between the comfort room and the other room, a wall blocked the way barely a foot back from the corners of the buildings.

Tialsia reappeared then, and dragged Quersoæn through the living room, which included a TV, VCR and DVD players, as well as a tape/CD/Mp3/radio player. Then they were onto the games room, where another TV, VCR, DVD, tape/CD/Mp3/radio player was, plus about sixteen different game consoles, all hooked up to the TV, as well as some good ol' pinball and Pac-man games. Plus another couch, chair, etc., which were quite comfy as well.

The last room was an exercise room, complete with weights, stationary bikes, pull-down machines, reclining bikes, ab machines, pull-back rowers, and all that other fun stuff you could find in a gym. Under her questioning gaze as they sat under the Sakura tree after a quick demo/lesson of all the machines, Tialsia answer Quersoæn, "simply aesthetics. Although, they are helpful, ne?"

Upon agreeing with Tialsia, Quersoæn was then dragged (still by the pig tails) to the courtyard opposite to the pond-yard. Another water-filled courtyard greeted Quersoæn's eyes, the water-yard.

With one building being the games room, the other three were Tialsia's "work places". Once again, in clockwise order (starting at approximately the nine, as the six was the games room), there was the c-room, where at least 20 flat-screened computers sat on their own, separate desks, then the o-room, aka Tialsia's office, where a large, wooden desk sat in the middle of the room, a spinning chair behind it (which, again, looked ridiculously comfy), and against the back wall was a large book case, with many different files all stacked nicely, almost like an actual book case with books would look.

"Computers are aesthetics, right?" Quersoæn asked Tialsia as they moved onto the last room.

"I certainly don't use them." Was Quersoæn's only reply.

The last room, as both their last room to check out that backed onto the water-yard, and the last room on Quersoæn's tour, was known as only the Hall. High-ceilinged, looking like an old temple, with statues, tapestries, and carvings into the pillars which held up the obviously heavy roof of different gods, goddesses, and images, including one which Quersoæn found "morbidly enlightening"(1) (it was of Jesus Christ on the cross... only colored, and with what looked like real blood coming out of his hands).

Another door to the right led to the area that Quersoæn had found blocked off while sitting under the Sakura tree in the leaf-yard. It was obviously a large courtyard, the walls of the Hall, living room, formal dining room and another room making up the walls of the open-aired area.

Looking far more like a temple than anything else, Quersoæn could only stare in shock. A large area of grass was neatly manicured, with bushes, flowers, trees and statues along the walls. A circular area of the ground had been removed, though, and replaced with what was undoubtably water. A pond was in the center of the yard, mirroring the pond-yard's decorations and contents exactly. However, in the middle of this, a large, perfectly circular mound of black marble, flat on top, rose out of the pond, a perfect cylinder.

Atop the black island was a set up that nearly mirrored Stone Hedge, with the large, rectangular blocks of stone (or, in this case, marble) sticking into the air in a circle formation. However, resting on these large blocks were more of the gigantic rectangular shapes, made this time of a red-colored marble. Onto these blocks were laid layers upon layers of either palm leaves, papyrus rolls or bark- or maybe it was a mixture of many. Either way, Quersoæn couldn't exactly tell what the structure's roof was made of, but it was obviously not the same material as the rest of the roofs.

Because the black island rose nearly seven feet above the grassy area, and nearly eight feet above the water, the bridge built to join the black island to the grassy area had been changed to form steps, made out of the same wood that was found everywhere about the house.

"Well? What do you think?"

Finally registering that someone was talking to her, Quersoæn turned around to face Tialsia. "What... what is that?"

"This room is the Temple of Iraye. It is how I usually speak with my masters, and my Net-op."

"And one of those masters happens to be that woman- Peorth-sama, you called her, right?"

Tialsia nodded. "She is one of four. You saw another of my and my Net-ops masters, Skuld-sama."

"That little girl?"

"Both her sisters are the other masters. Skuld-sama will easily, with some more training, become just as powerful as Belldandy-sama and Urd-sama. And she's really smart, too."

Quersoæn looked at Tialsia. "So... why did you show me this place?"

"Mreh. If I am not in the o-room, or any other rooms I showed you, I would more than likely be here. If not, I am in my chambers- which are sealed off- but I should be out to greet you if I am in my chambers."

"Er...?"

"There's an alarm system, showing who enters and who leaves in my chambers."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"Hey... you wanna go into the comfort room and relax?"

Quersoæn's eyes widened. "Do I ever! Let's go!"


They stared at him for a couple of minutes, trying to figure out what his broken words had said. When neither moved, the cloaked guy growled in his throat. "Oi, it's me! Or are your kilts on too tight to get it?"

The mention of kilts brought both back to reality.

"Mr. Match! Sorry, we didn't realize it was you!" Lan exclaimed, leaning slightly on Mayl as the pain in his chest increased slightly. Match, however, looked too nervous to notice how Lan was standing.

"Oi! Don't just yell it to the whole world!"

"What are you so nervous about, Mr. Match?" Mayl asked politely, trying to move to make herself and Lan more comfortable, as her arm from her shoulder down was beginning to grow numb.

"Follow me, lad, lassie."

They nodded, before following Match back into the trees, and into a clearing about ten feet off the path, through some bushes.

"Alright. You two have got to help me."

They blinked. "With what?"

Match fell onto the floor, his hood coming off his face. "I need to get away from that curry shop! It's driving me insane! Being nice and polite to little 'uns who don't even care about what I do, just about the food! Collecting money, drivin' 'round on that scooter all day... I can't take it any more!"

Lan and Mayl sweat dropped. "Really? I thought you wanted to work there to get WWW back up and running?"

Match sighed. "That dream is long gone now, laddie. After Wily and Grave, it looks like we'll never start up WWW again."

Lan shook his head. "Don't say never. I don't nesseccarily want WWW to start up again, but you shouldn't just give up on your dreams."

Match nodded, before breaking down into tears. "That... that's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard!"

Mayl walked over to Match and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder. "Now now, Mr. Match... Lan's right. Dreams are something you shouldn't give up on, and work to achieve, no matter what."

Another sniff, before the dam broke and tears came running out of Match's eyes constantly. "You're both so nice! But I just can't keep working in that curry shop!"

Lan sighed, as he crouched down beside Match, with a small grimace that Mayl caught easily. "Well, maybe if you expanded..."

"Eh, laddie? What do ya mean?"

"I mean, that if you opened up more shops, some maybe around the world, that instead of being the delivery boy, you might be able to be an actual manager, or at least a cook."

Match's eyes brightened. "Yeah! Then I might be able to get away from everyone, and run #1 Curry my own way!" He turned to them, his eyes bright. "Thank ya both so much!" He enveloped Lan in a rib-cracking hug, which seemed to crack his heart more than his ribs. He gasped, and Match let go of him.

"Sorry, laddie! Didn't know you were so weak!"

Lan, who had his hand over his heart and a grimace on his face, muttered out, "Naw... just some problems I've been having..."

Mayl had wandered over to him, and began supporting him again. Match, looking after them, made his decision.

"Oi! Lan! Mayl! If ye want, I could drive you home! I have an order from ACDC, anyways..."

They looked at each other, before turning back to Match. "But, Mr. Match, there's only room for one other person in that scooter of yours."

Mayl pushed Lan further away from the grove. "Go on, Lan. I'll walk home."

"But-"

"You need it more than me. I'll go back to your house to check and see if you're alright, okay?"

Lan nodded, his thanks, before turning to see Match right behind them. "Come on, then. It's almost dinner time, and I have a batch of curry to deliver!"

They proceeded to march, Match now in the lead, towards one of the exits of the park. After getting Lan settled on the seat, Match quickly sat down, and, with a nod to Mayl who returned with a wave, the scooter took off.

Mayl grinned, as she got out her scooter and proceeded to follow the quickly disappearing scooter. "Well... at least something good came of this day..."


He ran his hands through his hair for the millionth time in the last few minutes, effectively messing his hair enough so that part of it looked grey. A sigh, more out of annoyance than boredom, accompanied this running of his hands, which effectively annoyed at least two other people in the small bedroom.

"Would you stop that?!" Yai nearly screeched from beside him on the bed, extremely close to going cat-ish again and raking his face with her finger nails.

"Yeah. Come on, Chaud, we're all bored with waiting. We've been here for nearly three hours." Dex put in, a stress sign making it's appearance on his forehead.

Chaud sighed again, making Yai smack him in the head. He glared at her. "Well, at least you haven't been put in charge of this thing, and at least you don't have to tell him that Megaman's gone missing!"

Yai, Dex, and even Tori lowered their heads in shame, understanding that the situation Chaud was in- that they were all in- was not an ideal one.

"So... can we eat?"

"DEX!"

It was about this moment when they heard the sound of an engine, someone talking, then the engine moving away. Barely four seconds later, the door opened, and a voice that they knew quite well called out, "I'm home!"

Their hostess' voice cut through the silence. "Welcome home, Lan! How was your day?"

They heard a sigh. "It was okay..."

"Did you do your homework?"

Everyone in the bedroom could only imagine the look on the other speaker's face as this was said. "Er..."

"Honestly, Lan. I think that you should do your homework first from now on before going off and net battling."

"Hey! I needed to see dad first!"

"About what?"

"Something to do with Megaman... by the way, have you heard from him?"

"Why would I hear from Megaman? Not that it wouldn't be nice, every once in a while..."

"Whatever. If you need me, I'll be in my room."

"Oh, Lan, you have some guests up there."

"Really? How long have they been here?"

"About... oh, I'd say three hours."

"THREE HOURS?!"

"Well, yes. We couldn't find you anywhere, so I let them wait in your room. Oh, when you go up, do you want to invite them all to dinner?"

"Er... sure, why not?"

"Oh, Lan..."

"Yes?"

"Is Mayl coming over tonight?"

"Yeah, she's on her way right now."

"From her house?"

"No, the park. We hung out there all day, and Mr. Match decided to give me a ride home."

"So that was who that was. Well, I'll let her in when she comes. You head on up."

"Thanks, mom."

A few blinks went through the bedroom as the door opened. The brown-haired, blue bandana-ed boy in the doorway blinked.

"Er... hi?"

Yai sighed. "There you are! Do you know how long we're been waiting?"

He glanced around before answering. "Er... long enough for Chaud's hair to go from white-and-black to grey?"

Everyone looked at Chaud then, who went to look in the mirror. As a round of small giggles broke out through the room, he scowled, and quickly smoothed his hair back into his usual style.

"Anyways... why were you guys waiting here for three hours?" Lan asked them, wanting to get this over with and fall asleep. At his words, however, everyone seemed to just grow nervous, and shift uncomfortably where they either sat or stood.

"Er... Lan..." Tori started, unable to finish.

"You see..." Yai continued, before looking to Chaud.

The dual-color haired pre-teen sighed, before looking Lan straight in the eyes, his own holding something that looked like both nervousness and pity.

"Lan... Megaman... he went missing today."

Lan froze for a minute, not sure he had heard properly. 'Megaman... went missing? But how?'

Lan sat down beside Yai on his bed, too stunned to do anything else. The other four in the room looked at him, pity and compassion in their eyes, as they watched Lan slowly seem to loose all connection with the world.

As he drifted off to space-out land, Yai, Chaud, Tori and Dex all shared a look. None wanted to have to answer Lan's questions- after Megaman was deleted by Pharoman and was Navi-napped by Raoul's gang, and after his net chess-battle with Tora, Lan had always been a little touchy when it came to Megaman.

Slowly, Lan pulled himself from his reverie, his eyes dark and foreboding, anger, annoyance, and pain clearly visible. He focused his attention on the first person he saw- Yai.

"Well? What are we supposed to do now?" He ground out, although it was quite hard to hear him, as he barely opened his mouth.

Yai sighed. "We're supposed to wait for Chaud to give us directions."

He jumped up, ready to show Chaud what he thought of that idea, when a voice from the doorway cut him off. "Come on, Lan. Now's not the time to get so up-tight about this. We need to concentrate on our purpose now."

He turned around, and his eyes met not only his mother's worried face in the doorway, but also his father's and Mayl's. Mayl was the one who had spoken.

"When Roll went missing, you helped me find her- or, at least you put everything you had into trying to find her. Now that Megaman's missing, I'm going to do the same for you."

All three proceeded into the room, although Yuucihiro and Haruka didn't go more than a foot into the room. Mayl walked straight up to Lan, and put her hand on his left shoulder. The pain in his chest- which he had effectively blocked out by being so angry and distraught about losing Megaman- came back with a vengence, and he winced, quite obviously. Mayl jerked her hand back, before guiding Lan back to his bed.

"I'm sorry, Lan. Did I-"

"No, s'okay, Mayl. So... what are we supposed to do?" This last part was addressed to everyone, and Yuucihiro started thinking.

"Well... I can go look through Scilab, see if there's anything we can use to track down Megaman. He's a Scilab Navi- there should be some kind of default program that allows us to see where he is at all times."

"But... didn't you program Megaman?" Dex asked, confused.

"Well, yes... me and two others. Each of us had a different part to do, though- aesthetics, programs, and fail-safes. I was lucky enough to work on the actual programming- everything from simply walking to his personality had to be specially programmed. Another one of my colleagues got to work on the aesthetics- how he looks, which is probably the easiest job. And my last partner worked on all the fail-safes, which included the de-bug addition to Bug Style."

"So all we have to do is find which of the doctors worked on Megaman with you, get him or her to tell us the tracker fail-safe, and then find Megaman." Tori stated, summarizing what he had just taken in.

"Well, that should be easy." Yai exclaimed, ready to call her dad if they needed anything again.

"Should be is the key word. The only problem is- it would be impossible to get ahold of him." Yuucihiro sighed, before leaning against the door frame. Haruka looked on the group of people sitting in the room, worried.

"Why? Is he in jail or something?" Mayl asked, curious.

"No. Both of the other two doctors were killed in a plane accident, on their way to a meeting in Brightland. And we never really told each other what programs we installed in Megaman, or how we did it- we just told each other the basics, just in case."

"In case of what?" Yai quickly jumped in.

"Never mind." Yuucihiro sighed.

Chaud looked thoughtful for a moment, before consulting briefly with Protoman. When he turned to face the rest of the group, his eyes were set- but filled with confusion. "I understand that there's a lot to Megaman's creation you're not telling us, Dr. Hikari. But there's one thing in this story that doesn't make sense, and we need clarification on. The last Scilab doctor to die because of anything other than natural causes died nearly four years ago- on a plane trip to Brightland. Because they were flying in a plane sponsored by the Royal family, it had the Brightland insignia on it, and a Darkland sub shot it down. Am I correct?"

A nod was his only answer.

"Then wouldn't that mean that you spent at least four years creating Megaman?"

Everyone swivelled their heads to look at the head Scilab doctor, who's response was to shake his head. "We spent nearly eight and a half years on Megaman, before I gave him to Lan."

That was a surprising bit of info. Everyone looked shocked for a moment, before a burning smell reached their noses, and Haruka gasped. "Oh no! Dinner's going to be ruined!" She quickly ran down the stairs, Mayl standing up to go help her.

Lan looked about ready to stop Mayl, but stopped at a look that his father gave him. After Mayl and Haruka left, everyone sat or stood quietly for a moment, before Chaud sighed and stood up. "We'll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully Tialsia or Quersoæn or someone will have some info. I have a business meeting in two hours- sorry I can't stay later. And sorry for not looking after Megaman, Lan."

With these parting words, Chaud slowly left the room, soon followed by Yai, Tori and Dex, all saying sorry and promising to help in whatever way they could.

"Dad... why did you stop me from stopping-"

"Because I need to talk to you, Lan."

Lan blinked, and slid over on his bed, making room for his father. "About what?"

"About what that Navi Tialsia tried to talk to me- us- about this morning."

"About... er... Hub?"

"Yes. You know that Megaman used to go by the name Hub, right?"

"Well, yeah, but back to my question from his morning. Whenever I think of the name Hub, I think of a human."

"Then what you're thinking is right."

Yuucihiro and Lan sat together in silence, the older letting the information sink into the younger's head. As this happened, Lan's eyes grew wide, before he quickly turned to his father. "But then, who was-"

"Lan! Dr. Hikari! Dinner has been salvaged!" Mayl burst into the room, a smile on her face. Yuucihiro's face turned from a concentrated look to one of pure delight.

"And it smells delicious, Mayl! Are you coming, Lan?"

"Yeah... I'll be down..." Yuucihiro blinked at his son's unenthusiasm. 'I hope he's not angry with Mayl about interrupting our talk...'

As Yuucihrio's footsteps faded, Mayl looked Lan over. He seemed depressed, saddened, and, still, distraught. Unsure of what else to do, she sat down beside him. "Lan..."

"Mayl... have you ever felt that there's something you should know, and you're really close to figuring it out, and it won't stop bugging you? And there's just one piece that's missing, just one, and then you'd feel as though if you were killed, you would die happy, just knowing you solved the puzzle?"

'Yeah... you.' However, Mayl knew the meaning of the word 'tact', and therefore did not voice her first thoughts. Instead, she took time to collect herself, and turned to Lan. "Something's bothering you that much?"

"So you know what it's like?"

"...yes. Really well, too."

"Did you ever figure out the answer?"

She shook her head. "As much as I try... I can never seem to ever really figure it out. Just when I think I know the answer, something happens, and the answer I used to have just doesn't seem to fit anymore."

Lan nodded. "That's exactly how I feel right now."

"About what?"

"About Roll and Megaman being missing. About what this stupid pain in my chest is. About what those men were talking about in the park. About... about...."

He was unable to finish, as all the events of not just the past day or week or month, but of the past year or so caught up with him, and he broke down. "So... so many things..."

Mayl, wanting dearly to comfort Lan, but not knowing how, wrapped her arms gently around him, and let him cry onto her shoulder as he returned the hug around her middle. He drew himself up so that he was nearly sitting in her lap, drawing as much comfort from her presence as her words.

Mayl, fighting off a heavy blush, gently stroked Lan's hair, before whispering in his ear, "Lan... it's okay... I'm here... we'll make it through this... together...."

Haruka and Yuucihiro, wondering what was taking the two so long, had decided to see. Creeping up to Lan's bedroom, they peeked around the corner and saw Mayl wrap her arms around Lan, and Lan return the hug. They heard her words, and their son's sobs. Haruka, feeling her son's pain, turned to Yuucihiro as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight to his own body.

"Soon, Haruka... it must be soon..."

"Yes... but... how will they take?"

"We'll find out when we tell them. There's far too many secrets being kept from them..."

Haruka nodded, and both then went to sit downstairs, leaving Lan and Mayl to themselves.

'If any of those myths and stories from the Old Times are real, then please, Kami-sama, please let us all get through these times...'


Kay: well, there you have it. Chapter ten- and not much more happened. We like drawing things out...

Shila: Although, based on these notes, with you drawing it out... it's probably going to be another year before you finish this.

Kay: yeah, yeah, yeah... I need to edit those, anyways. I've changed a lot of things, as my stupid brain has decided that certain parts didn't work so well with the rest of the story line. And I've left a lot of random, foreboding sentences in the early chapters of this which I'm probably never going to find a purpose for.

Shila: You really shouldn't have said that... you might find a reason for using them afterwards.

Kay: well, ya know, it's kinda MINUS STUPID outside right now, so anything other than my hands/fingers typing this isn't really working.

Shila: Is that why you haven't gotten sugar-high yet?

Kay: yeah, pretty much. That and we went to see National Treasure with Daddy-fuzz and Mommy-fuzz, and ate three pounds of Cherry Blasters (we went to the Bulk Barn just before the movie). Trust me- eating three pounds of Cherry Blasters makes both your teeth and your stomach hurt...

Notes

1) So, yeah... as you can see, not much was accomplish in this chapter, other than me realizing that doing previews with actual parts of the chapter in it is a pain, cause then when you actually go to write the chapter, things change, but you still have to incorporate what you wrote in the last chapter preview. It's a pain. So now, just wide, big, summary-ish thingys, like those you find in Rockman.EXE- The Collage Years (kudos to Anime Master Zero, for just the whole thing in general. BTW, when Warp Fusion is eventually over, and the Reset happens, I might end up stealing the idea of them going to Collage, and writing about it...)

2) For those of you who are confused, this takes place approx. between EXE 2 (Gospel/Grave Arc) and Axess (Dark Chip Syndicate Nebula Arc). So, they know about Style Changes and PAs, but Dr. Hikari and Meijin (Mr. Famous) are still working on developing Cross Fusion (CF) and Soul Unison (Merge) (SUM). However, for those who know the truth about CF and SUM, it's that the only reason why Lan and Megaman are able to truly access those powers is because that after Megaman used Bug Style to defeat Gospel (well, the Grave Virus Beast... evil pain in the ass to beat, too), and was deleted then re-formatted, he lost the ability to Style Change. So, right now, the only trump card the dynamic duo have are the PAs- and they only know one (LifeSword).

3) I've decided to do two endings (Oh man, this just makes more work for me!). One is the ending I had originally planned out- the other just takes things straight to the story that I'm planning for after Warp Fusion. However, the same major event happens in both scenarios, and that means... oh great. Well, basically, short second-last chapter, probably, and super ridiculously long final chapter. Oh goody. But this should be fun!

4) No one's given a name for the yellow navi. I am very disappointed. Sad sad. Even if it's not her real name, GIVE ME A NAME! ...okay, I'm good.

5) About Tialsia's wonderful HP- my description is nothing compared to the nice, complicated layout I had to draw out to stop myself from being confused. While I did so, I realized that some things wouldn't work in there, so- voila!- lots of changes and evil eraser marks. I'll make a good one and post it on my webbie, for everyone to see. And if there's any question, refer them to me!

6) And about that little (1) thingy beside the words "morbidly enlightening"- sorry, I happened to read the story Sadistic Desire from the Digimon section (ooh, that's weird.. but good), and I was kinda writing this, and... yeah... anyways! Words kinda stolen from that story. Hee hee. Forgive me? Mreh.

Comments

I hail TheWebbuilder. And, if you're taken the time to read this far, TWB, then the epilogish-thingy is, I guess, what you would call a sequel. Only, what I'm trying to say is something that doesn't really have a separate plot, just ties up some loose ends, like that ridiculously sad epilogue at the end of Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small Quartet- Book IV- Lady Knight. Laila-fuzz (a friend) got it for me, even though I had already stolen her copy and read it. It's really sad. I don't like what happens to Haven. Anyways... so, yeah... no real independent plot, or a completely new plot? Or a plot that draws on what happened in the rest of the stories, like they all seem to draw on the whole WWW years. Blah. That was a sad story...but good! ALL HAIL NETTO! But isn't Netto Lan's middle name in the English version? Really, in the episode called "The Good Dog, Rush!", Haruka calls Lan "LAN NETTO HIKARI!" So, yeah...

Anime Master Zero, I gravel at your feet. No, wait, I GROVEL at your feet. There we go. Pretty story... pretty story with rapid updates and 77 chapters now. Pretty story that I couldn't hope to compare with. Pretty. Good plot, too. We love the ending of Fright Fight (I think chap. 71...). That was good, but sad. Brought a tear to my eye, that did. Anyways, I'm going to steal the inscription for use in the second (aka Skip Warp Fusion) ending, and eventually in either Warp Fusion, but definitely in the after Warp Fusion and stuff Stage. With your permission. PLEASE?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

So, yeah... wonderful little rants there. Ignore me. I guess. And I've still to get up THE TRUE CLAUS thingy... we are so lazy....