Title: Secrets of the Undernet

Chapter 11: Not much more

Disclaimer: I do not own, you do not sue. Or, the whole thing starting with 'Kay-fuzz does not own' and ends with, 'Kay-fuzz not a company. Kay-fuzz sad'. 'Cause I am.

Summary: Eria recruits our favorite blue bomber to work for the URAUN- however, not as a member of the URAUN- just a spy. Lan finds out that blue-boy's gone missing, happily freaked out, and Yuuichiro happily let slip a 'clue' (notice the ''s) that he had been trying to say in TNP Parts 1 and 2. Oh, Quersoæn gets the grand tour of Tialsia's HP. Pretty Hp... pretty confusing, really.

Warning: I have no idea what I am going to write in this chapter. Everything comes randomly. Although I asked my friend (after giving her a breif descrip. of what's happened and everyone's pasts... although she somehow found that page on my webbie that explains it all, so I didn't really need to bother... and that's a good song.) what to do next, and she... well, she's a GREAT author... works for the paper, was part of Old Turtle last year (made it all the way to the National finals! ...oh, Old Turtle was a school-wide play that we put on last year, and won a couple awards for), and SHE could only come up with one idea which I was planning to happen now and in the chaps to come, anyways. What have I gotten myself into?

Rating: PG-13 (tho, I'm thinking of lowering the rating... nothing too WOW happens until the end... but it DOES still happen, so what should I do...?)

Song: Tsubasa no Keikaku by Do As Infinity (DAI)


The Undernet. Not a place one would go for a vacation... unless you were evil, a theif, or just on the bad side of the law, then it was more like home, anyways. And certainly not a place where you would expect to find a structure resembling the great City of Troy.

But find it we do, filled with weird-shapped creatures moving around, green things doing things, and a huge colliseum, where a number of those strange creatures were 'training'- aka trying to blow each other up, if the huge explosions and flashes of light were any indication.

But we're not interested in the Troy-look-alike. Nope, we're interested in another part of the Undernet, so far away that no one knows where it is. Not even the author, although it's more because she's too lazy to figure out where. But- that's off-topic. A small mound, not unlike those in the ruins of the old Undernet version of Net City, was the only thing in sight- and even then when I say small, I mean small. Barely big enough for it to be visible, it was there none-the-less. Of course, as small as it was, step on it and-woosh- away you'd be whisked off to another part of the Undernet entirely. This part created by twelve females, all of whom extremely powerful in their own rights. All of whom 'work' for the URAUN, even though it's only out of necessity.

A labarynth of tunnels, after it's creation about... 12 hours ago, many programs, packets of data, and other sorts of life forms moved in, making it one of the safest (for those allowed in there) and dangerous places ever. And, not to mention, the perfect place to hide somethings- and someones.

"Can I go now? Please?"

"Why are you whining? You'll be back before long."

"So why not now?"

"We have to wait, smart one."

"...wait?"

"You dissapear-"

"That's your fault."

"-cause your opperator harm-"

"Also your fault."

"-and then re-appear magically from thin air?"

"Soon also to be because of you."

She rolled her eyes at the male Navi, dressed all in blue armour, in front of her."I'm sorry, as stupid as some of those other Navis under Guinto are, I doubt they'd honestly think that you were with your opperator this whole time."

He rolled his eyes, before glaring at her. "And I now re-iterate: This is all YOUR fault."

"It's my fault that you haven't been deleted?"

He was silent at that, and remained that way until Sunset poked her head back inside the Shaded Navi's chambers. "Eria, we're ready to go.Violet just got back with Sky- she can easily immitate any Net Vehicle. What should we choose?"

Eria shrugged as she stood up with the blue Navi. "Whatever there is that can fit two Navis- no more, no less."

"A Net-bike?"

"That works. Mega?" Eria addressed her blue-armoured companion.

"Why not? But what do you mean... 'immitate'?"

"Net Vehicles can only be downloaded using battlechips, right? But they're really program chips- meaning we solos don't have access to them like we do to other programs."

He nodded, following them out to the hallway again. Violet stood there, leaning against the opposite wall. "Hey- a few enw viruses came in. We've spread them through-out the kid's area."

Eria nodded in acknowledgement. "Good. You can do Net Bikes?"

Violet snorted. "That's what we came back on. You know how to drive one, though? 'Cause, I don't." She asked the question of Megaman, who had walked over to stand beside her.

"Yeah. We're taking Net Bikes all the way back?"

Violet snorted again. "Sorry, nope. Only way out is our way- I hope you don't mind another pit-fall trip like that last one."

The memory coming back to him, Megaman blanched. "About as much as getting stabbed."

"Good. You don't mind it then."

His eye twitched, but he said nothing, before turning to Eria as Violet looked about ready to go. "Eria?"

"Yes, Megaman?"

"Say bye to everyone for me?"

She grinned. "Of course. You take care- and the moment anything happens, you know what to do."

"Same to you."

"Naw... I'll just get one of these girls to go and get you again." He blanched again, not liking the chosen way of traveling. Eria's grin changed into a smirk. "Now now- you'll get used to it eventually."

"Gee- just what I always wanted..." He muttered, bowing to both Eria and Sunset before turning to Violet. She, although normally quite serrious, suddenly had a small smile on her face. He knew instinctively that all eleven Navis who served as Eria's Court were really good- just put in a difficult situation, as was their mistress. And it seemed that they knew that he could be trusted- even though he had a Net Op.

"Let's go." She stated, before he felt himself falling through another one of those stupid portals- well, before he blacked out, anyways.


Dinner was... uneventful to say the least. Well, maybe more than just uneventful. Silent, quiet, no noise- and whatever other words are out there that can be used to mean the word "silent". No one spoke, which was weird in itself, as Yuucihiro would normally be pronouncing his appreciation for the food (no matter how... unappetizing it looked), but he refrained from speaking, regardless.

After dinner, Lan retreated to his room, Mayl, after helping to bring the dishes to the sink, dashed up the stairs after him. Haruka looked at Yuucihiro, before sitting beside him on the couch and allowing him to pull her into his arms.

"What should do? This... I couldn't stand it... if we lost Hub again..."

Yuucihiro tightened his hold on her, before relaxing. "If there's one thing I- we- know about those two, it's that they're both able to take care of themselves. Hub- Megeman- will be back tomorrow morning, Lan will be okay, and everything will be alright once we get Roll back."

"And Mayl will be there, always?"

Yuucihiro nodded. "It's not like she has a choice, I hate to say."

Haruka immitated her husband. "True... we need to tell them, and soon."

"They'll find out soon enough. We should tell them when Mayl's parents are here, though. Afterall, it was their decision as well."

"I know. But I'm worried- how will they react to this?"

"For the better, knowing them. But still..."

"Still..."


Both the redhead and the burnet sat in silence, unsure of what to say. After the... episode before dinner, both were feeling slightly uncomfortable around the other, and instead, did the one thing that they could do without seeming too nervous.

They stared at the blank screens of their PETs, wondering if they would be getting any new information from the troups soon- Lan, sitting on the edge of his bed, Mayl, on the computer chair.

Until Lan decided that staring at inanimate objects could hurt your eyes, your back, your neck, your head, and your hands, wrists, and arms. So saying, he lent back on his bed against the wall, eyes turned to the sliding doors onto the balcony. Mayl watched him out of the corner of her eye, wondering what he was thinking about. After all, Lan thinking (usually) meant stupid plan, stupid saying, stupid... something.

"Mayl?"

She blinked, and turned to completely look at him, standing up. "Yes, Lan?"

He remained silent again, before reaching forward and pulling her down beside him, anarm around her waist, her head on his chest. She was surprised by this, but decided not to question his actions. Slowly, she relaxed into the position, and felt him relax as well- apparently, he was just as nervous as herself. She finally let her head rest all it's weight on his chest, closing her eyes, PET on the bed in front of her.

She could have fallen asleep if a warm, gentle hand hadn't begun to... well, it seemed like he was almost petting her head. She felt his fingers weave in and out of her hair, looping it around his fingers, tangling them up in the red strands. Although startled at first, she found this to be a pleasant sensation, and quickly relaxed under his touch.

Her hands somehow found their way up to his bandana, and gently tugged that off, raising her head to look at him. Following the messy, now-unbound strands of hair, she found his eyes- and wished she hadn't.

A deep well of emotions lay there, anger, frustration, annoyance, pain, but also something that made her heart stop before rappidly speeding up, her gut clench, her breath catch in her throat. An unbrideled caring, kindness, love lay there, easily the deepest, and yet most obvious emotion.

Not daring to ruin the closeless, she instead let her hands trail down from his hair to his face. She gently traced his lips, his cheeks, his eyes, his nose- any part of his face that she could reach. Her hands then slowly lowered down to his chest, where she gave a contented sigh as she balled her fists in his vest. His other arm snaked around her waist as he continued to play with her hair.

Silence reigned again- this time, however, it was not uncomfortable. If anything, any noise would have easily broken the mood, and both were far too relaxed for that to happen.

Eventually, his hand stopped playing with her hair, and joined his other hand around her waist. However, the movement caused the area that had been nice and warm on her back (which was under his arm) to suddenly get a bit colder, and she pulled herself tighter to him.

He looked down at her, before shifting his body so that her head was nearer his shoulder, before leaning his own head ontop of hers gently.

Both basked in the warmth from the other- well, until that always dredded beeping sound alerted them to an e-mail.

After beeping a few times (and neither Lan nor Mayl moving), Haruka and Yuucihiro poked their heads in the door, curious as to what would be keeping the two from seeing if there was any new information on their missing partners. Both froze at the position the two were in, a gentle grin playing on both their faces.

Slowly, Mayl reached out and picked up the PET laying beside her on the bed, before pressing the button to see the mail. Yai's voice filled the room.

"Mayl? Are you there?"

Haruka had to stiffle her giggles and Yuucihiro his chuckle as everyone in the vicinity realized that it was not an e-mail: it was a video confrence.

"Er, yes, Yai?" Mayl quickly said, sitting up straight as Lan fell over, his head floping on his pillow, trying to make it look like he had been like that the whole time.

A small silence was heard as Yai obviously tried to figure out what was going on, before shurgging and seemigly giving up (also known, in Yai-speak, as "I'll figure it out later") and continuing on with what she was going to say.

"The amount of info isstill pretty low on Roll, but Quersoæn just left with the reports to givetoTialsia. And Megaman's basically disappeared. But, knews is that a strange line of Net Bikes have been traveling around the net, in the general direction of ACDC."

Lanblinked. "What aboutNet Bikes?"

A groan was heard from the other side of the communications. "Lan's there too? Now I'm going to have to explain this in stupid." Lan growled lightly at that comment and Mayl giggled, before turning back to Yai.

"But, really Yai, what does this Net Bike and Navis have to do with anything?"

"Mayl, the Net Bikesare unregistered, and it's a model unlike any we've ever seen. I don't know why, but Chaud thinks that it might have something to do with this, and the Navis on them, too. As much as I don't like trusting his judgement-" A noise that sounded like someone arguing was heard in the background- "I have to say that he might be right about this one. Keep on your toes, okay?"

Mayl blinked, and nodded, just before she looked over at Lan and noticed something: his face was slowly contorting into a grimace, and it looked like the situation from earlier was repeating itself. Her face contorted in worry seeing this, and Yai was qick to pick up on the look.

"Mayl? What's wr-"

"Yai, I'll talk to you later, okay?" Mayl finished off, before ending the communication. She dropped her PET, and let her entire attention focus on Lan. By now, his face was filled with pain, nearly as bad as it was that afternoon.Mayl, gasped as she felt his forehead, and quickly made him lay down fully on the bed.

Haruka, in the doorway, nearly gasped and ran into the room, but Yuuichiro stopped her- to his eyes, it looked like Lan and Mayl had been through one of these weird... instances before, while the others- or Yai, at least, had probably no idea of them. He took Haruka by the wrist and led her down stairs, away from Lan's room.

When they were both seated on the couch, Haruka turned to the stairs, looking at them worriedly. Yuucihiro kept his hand on her wrist, holding her to the seat.

"Haruka... they've been through this before, whatever this is. They know what to do, and we'd probably just hinder them." He explained as patiently as possible to his wife who was now struggling to get out of his grasp.

"You don't know that! And Lan looked like he was in pain! I need to go see Lan, I need to help him, I need to-"

"Calm down and stop worrying. If it was really serrious, Lan, or at least Mayl, would have already told us about it."

"How do you-"

"I don't know. But I trust them- if Mayl needs help, she knows we're here."

"For me?"

"...fine. But don't think that this gets you out of doing the dishes!"


Back up in Lan's room, Mayl had quickly went to work taking offLan's vest and shirt the moment she heard the door close. His bandana was now wrapped around her hand, his vest and shirt on the computer chair and floor (having missed the computer chair), and as the main wave finished, he was left gasping on the bed, sweat trickling down his face. His eyes were still closed, trying to block out the pain.

Mayl watched helplessly as he fought this internal battle. She had done all she could for him, including holding his hand tightly, and now she had time to think. What was this illness? Was it an illness at all, or something else? And-

'I hate to say it, but either Lan should get more of these attacks or we should go swimming more. Wait... don't tell I just though what I think I just though... oh God... kill me now.'

Her internal struggle prevented her from truly trying to help Lan, which was made even more obvious by his sudden cry of pain.

However, that brought her back to the real world, where she then dutifully used the sky blue bandana to gently mop his fevered brow as the final wave passed over, and he was able to breathe somewhat normally again. She studied his features, trying to discern if he was getting better, or if it was coming back for round... three now, but regardless, her eyes always somehow found their way to his lips and her mind to the incident that-

'Wo. Stop, right there. That NEVER happened, not as long as I'm alive! But still- NO! WHAT AM I DOING THINKING THAT! Get back to Lan... who looks... GRR! JUST. STOP. THINKING!'

Not that that worked. Her mind was continuously brought back to certain thoughts that she would rather be rid of. It continued like this, until Mayl nearly collapsed from all the brain-work she had done.

'Now I know what they mean by "working yourself to death". God, I could die right now and not care... too tired...'

Mayl nearly did fall asleep- until a soft mumbling roused her from her semi-conciousness. Lan was now muttering, whether in sleep (at which thought her eye gave a definate twitch) or in fever (at which she uncounciously stroaked his cheek) she did not know.

Finally, he opened his eyes to see Mayl sitting over him, a worried expression on her face. "M... Mayl?"

She blinked, and her concentration focused on his eyes (he began to wonder what she was looking at before), when her expression changed to one of relief and she basically-

glomped him.

"Lan! Lan, O God, Lan! Don't DO that!"

"I would... if I... Mayl... could... Could you... please... GET OFF OF ME!"

She jumped back in surprise, her face now showing guilt. "Er... sorry, Lan. Should I have not...?"

After a few minutes of hacking and trying to get his breathing pattern back into proper sequence ('Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out.'), he answered her with a small, "Not right then, no. Now, however..."

She rolled her eyes, whacking him lightly over the head. Of course, that was before she noticed how she shuddered, more than likely due to the slightly opened window letting some cool air blast onto his sweat-soaked skin. She grinned gently, about to stand up to get his shirt and vest when he stopped her by his hand. Looking at him questioningly, she sighed, seeing that he would not conceed defeat to the cold air at that moment.

Instead, she lay down beside him, wrapping her arms around his torso and trying to make herself cover as much of his body as possible. He stiffened, before relaxing, and pulling the thin sheet around them. Her only response as exhaustion finally won over worry was to cuddle in closer to him, and, wrapping his arms around her as well, he also gave in to the imaginary land of 'green skies, purple clouds, blue grass and crimson seas' (1).


Yai frowned as she put down her PET. Although Chaud was still glaring at her for her earlier comment, she completely ignored him, and focused on the task at hand.

'What happened? Was Lan in some kind of pain? I've never known Mayl to look that worried...'

So lost in her thoughts did she completely forget that everyone else was by now finsihed trading information, and was waiting for news from the two instigators of this whole mess. It took Chaud, a crack about her company, and some rude noises from Dex and another boy from their class to make Yai realize that there were still other people in the room.

"Er... yes, so... what?"

Chaud rolled his eyes. "You were about to tell us what's up with Hikari and Sakurai."

Cue one BIG glare at Chaud (the comment about her company had finally sunken in), before Yai began. "Well... she was with Lan-" Dex took this moment to growl "-and neither really seemed to be too interestedin any news. Actually, when Mayl finallyopened the line, it was like I was interupting something.

"Then, just before she cut the line, Mayl looked... down, almost, at where Lan probably was, and she looked like he was having a heart attack or something."

Her words created silence inYai's meetingroom, filled with nearly fifty people. Some looked uncertainly at each other, others were deep in thought, and some were even whispering amongst themselves. Chaud, coming to a decision, stood up and drew everyone's attention to the front.

"Alright. Whatever was wrong, it's not our business. We're in this to help find Roll- and now Megaman- not to meddle in their Net-ops personal affairs. Do everyone a favor and ask yourself why you're in this group: whether to help those four, or to snoop around and feel like you're part of something.

"Make your decision- we have so many people that information keeps getting repeated, and we don't need everyone. Now go home, think about it, and if you really want to help still, meet at the Hall tomorrow at nine. Got it?"

A unanimous nod rippled through the room, before someone from the back called out, "Hey! Chaud! Why are you in this?"

Chaud, having turned around to walk out of the room, did not stop walking and instead called over his shoulder, "Because without Megaman and Lan, I have no real opponent. And without Roll and Mayl, they have no real drive to do anything."

With that, he walked out the door, it slamming closed behind him, leaving everyone lots of things to think about.


Quersoæn groaned as she stumbled through the door into Tialsia's HP. The information that she had gathered- and had no time to sort- was a lot, and extremely heavy. And just because that the different viruses that guarded the hidden mansion (as Quersoæn had discovered a number of guest rooms, washrooms, lounges and a HUGE kitchen on the other side of the trans-yard, not to mention the back half of the house where she was not allowed to go) let her through did not mean that the other Navis who wandered the virus-infested area for safety or other reasons were too keen to let her pass.

'Good thing that they always stick kind of close to the viruses. One whistle and BAM! No more Net Navi... I feel kinda bad, though...'

Quersoæn then began searching out Tialsia, only to find the other Navi in the middle of one of the ponds- swimming.

"Er... Tialsia?"

The Navi in question looked up, and grinned. "Quersoæn! Would you like to join me?"

Quersoæn sweatdropped. "Er... no... thanks... listen, I have the information for you. But I didn't get the chance to sift through it."

"Of course you didn't- that's my job. Now... do you want some to eat?" Tialsia asked as she stood up and climbed out of the pond. Grabbinga towel that had been thrown on the walk way, she wrapped it around herself and proceeded towards the kitchen.

Quersoæn nodded, and followed Tialsia, careful to stand back when the other Navi switched from bikini to 'normal' clothes. One hour, many mistakes, and a final, delicious batch of spaghetti and meat sauce later, both were sitting around in Tialsia's office, looking at all the info.

"Couldn't you have at least gotten rid of all the duplicates?" Tialsia sighed as she- once again- deleted some information that she could have sworn she'd seen at least six times now.

"I told you- I didn't have- hold up, what's this?"

Tialsia blinked and walked over to where Quersoæn was looking at something that Chaud had sent in.

Day 9

Rumours of a group of Net Navis with strange, unregistered Net Bikes have been spread around (though this will probably be in everyone else's reports).

(Tialsia snorted. "Ya think?")

At about noon today, Megaman.EXE's signal went missing, in about the same fashion as Roll.

("Uh, yeah, we were there.")

Some Navis have also reported strange goings-on in the Undernet. Requesting more information on these movements.

("What, he thinks that I can just dig up info from nowhere?"

"Well, you have to admit, you do have some pretty reliable sources...")

Also reuqesting information on Megaman.EXE and Lan Hikari's connections to each other, and what could possibly be wrong with Lan.

C.B. and Protoman

Tialsia's eye twitched as Quersoæn blinked. "...connections? They're Net Navi and Net op, aren't they?"

Tialsia sighed. "Techinically, yes. However... certain... bonds are formed between people. These bonds can change the way a person sees themselves, the world around them, other people. And the way they feel about these things- both mentally, like love, and physically."

"...physically?"

"Too lazy to explain. Okay, I'm gonna go do the rough draft on this to get Chaud, Protoman and the rest of these no-brained bakas off our tail, and you keep deleting everything that's a duplicate!"

Quersoæn rolled her eyes as Tialsia hopped off to the Temple. "...lucky me..."


Yup, and there's the end of another chapter... which is really, really short. I need to stop being so lazy... and update quicker... well, this one, and at least Running going up together, with maybe another one-shot: my debut in the IY section! Go me! Go me!

Yeah... wrote this during a Comm. Tech class. Bad child.

Notes

(1) This is something that my friend and I painted for one of the very few Art projects in school- we called in "Symphony of Dreams", and had really random colors and absract shapes in it. Based on a dream I had the night before we had to design this. Really fun, though.

2) Yeah... not much more happened... wow, am I a lazy person... right, well... more next chappie! Which will be comming... soon! I think!

And now, an extra little thingy for all of you wonderful people who actually READ this! The message that Tialsia ends up sending to Chaud and Protoman! Why is it here, and not in the next chapter? 'Cause I thought that there just wasn't... ENOUGH, let's say, in this chappie. TA-DAH!


Chaud and Protoman

I have no idea WHY you would need information on Megaman, or Megaman and Lan's connection. Care to explain it to me? I'm coming in later today (Day 14) to see how things are going, so tell me then. Here's the information that you asked for, regardless.

Those two (Megaman and Lan) have an unnaturally strong connection- however, even with my... restrictions, I can tell you that many times, what one experiences the other does also, if only as a head ache. Also pretaining to that, sometimes interference with the connection between them (which hardly ever happens) can cause one or both to feel pain. And there are also some delays between the signals, which means that when one feels the pain, it might have happened to the other seconds, minutes, or years ago- therefore, if something is wrong with Lan (what is wrong, anyways?), it could just as easily be a delayed response to some kind of pain from the past.

Regardless, whenever Lan and Megaman are not together, as long as you keep an eye on one, you should be able to see what the other thinks, feels, or how they're acting by the emotions and feelings of the other.

DONT TELL ANYONE ELSE THIS, OR FEEL MY WRATH! ...and I'm SURE we don't want that now, do we?

Give me more, USEFUL, information next time, guys. Thanks for the three million copies of "random biker gang", though. And "Megaman's gone missing". Just don't do this again.

Tialsia.EXE