I hope that this chapter will bring more action into the story, while still retaining its major story developments.

Secrets Revealed

Chapter 3: Exposed

"Dr. Hikari, your son has arrived," Dr. Hikari's assistant said over the speaker.

Dr. Hikari took his eyes off his monitor and said, "Send him in, please."

Lan walked through the door, a look of bewilderment on his face. "You wanted to see me?" he asked.

"Yes. I would like to talk to you about Drew."

"Drew? Wait, how do you know Drew? He just entered my class today."

"Yes, I know Drew."

"So, what do you want to tell me about him?"

"Well, let me start by saying that Drew is not a normal child. Much like Megaman is not a normal navi. A few-" Dr. Hikari was cut off by the ring of his emergency phone on his desk. He pressed the speaker button on his phone. "Dr. Hikari. What is it?"

"Dr. Hikari, I need your help," Drew's voice gasped over the phone.

"Drew! What is it?" he asked, alarmed.

"I got a message from a group called Neo Gospel. They threatened me to get me to join. They know what I am!"

"Come to Scilab as quickly as possible. We can analyze your PET to find out who sent you the email."

"I'm already on my way."

Dr. Hikari pressed the button again to hang up the phone. "Lan, this will have to wait. I have something important I need to take care of."

"I'm coming with." Dr. Hikari only sighed in response, knowing that his son would only argue if he didn't let him come.

Dr. Hikari and Lan rushed out of his office and towards the elevator. Dr. Hikari pressed the elevator button and entered as soon as the doors opened. When both of them in, they chose floor One and the elevator descended. They walked out of the elevator and towards the front door, where they waited for Drew to arrive. In only a few minutes, they noticed the familiar green haired boy rush out towards the doors, out of breathe.

"Drew, follow me. Let's go to the analysis room," Dr. Hikari commanded and rushed down the hallway. They stopped at the elevator and took it to floor seven, which held, just like every other floor of Scilab, many high-tech computers. "This way." And Dr. Hikari rushed off in another direction, this time stopping in front of a large computer and monitor. "Hand me your PET." Drew did as he was told and Dr. Hikari plugged it into the computer. He inputted a few commands on the keyboard and a picture of his PET and a large status bar reading 0 appeared on the monitor. "It should only take a few minutes. This should tell us who sent the email to you, and where they sent it from. This Neo Gospel sounds like just the crime organization that has been terrorizing the net. This could be a huge break in the case."

Drew, having regained his cool composer, chucked a little and said, "And to think, earlier today I was trying to find a way I could help you out."

They stood in silence for a few minutes and watched the bar increase slowly from 0 to 23. Drew began to explain the man on the train and the email he received after talking to Dr. Hikari only a few hours before at Scilab. Then he began to notice something. It was very subtle at first, but soon it became more apparent, and Drew noticed a change in color of the monitor. The background that had once been blue had turned to a sea green. He looked away from the monitor and gasped in shock as he saw that the same color distortion had effected the rest of the room.

"No!" he shouted and rushed toward the elevator. Dr. Hikari swore under his breath and he and his son followed Drew. They took the elevator to the first floor and rushed out the large double doors at Scilab's entrance. "Damn it!" Drew yelled as he found his suspicion had been correct. A dimensional area was beginning to form, and it was almost complete. The color distortion became fully apparent as the dome of the dimensional area connected at the top.

Lan nearly doubled over at the sight in front of him. Where Drew had been standing seconds before, something that resembled a netnavi now stood. The navy blue from his shirt had overtaken his hands, his pants, and his shoes, forming a body suit. A blue similar to his pants made designs on his gloves and boots, and covered the palm of his hand. Purple armor matching that of his open shirt had connected to form armor. The light blue outlined his armor and ran down the sides of his arms and legs, stopping at his gloves and boots. His green hair was now mostly covered in a navy blue and purple helmet. His mouth and nose were covered by a navy blue mouth guard and his green eyes and bangs were covered by a light blue visor, sealing off the gaps between his helmet and his mouth guard. His insignia, the same that was on Legato, lay on his ears and in the center of his armor. "What the..." Lan gasped.

"Whoever is responsible for this, show yourself!" Drew shouted.

Digital data began to collect and the silhouette of Freezeman began to form. The data disappeared and only Freezeman remained.

"You should not have opposed us. We could have made you something great," Freezeman said.

"I don't care about your or your organization," Drew responded, his voice shaky. "Leave me alone." He raised his right hand and it morphed into an arm cannon. He fired a single shot, showing Freezeman that he meant business. He easily dodged the shot and, smirking, fired an icicle at Drew. He leapt the ice and landed several feet away.

It's been awhile, I can't even remember what battle chips I have, he thought to himself. Let's see...Spreader, Step Sword, Area Steal, Wide Sword, Barrier, Hi Cannon, Sword, Long Sword...not bad.

"Ready to see what I'm really made of? Spreader Battlechip!" Drew's cannon morphed into a more powerful one and he shot at Freezeman. He attempted to dodge, but the blast split into nine separate shots that split apart, and Freezeman could not dodge them all.

"Icicle Fall!" Freezeman shouted and a large group of icicles appeared over Drew, dropping down on him.

"Barrier Battlechip!" A crystalline dome appeared around Drew and the icicles fell harmlessly off. "Time to finish this," he said as the barrier disappeared. "Sword, Wide Sword Battlechips!" Drew held out his arms out and they were covered with a flash of light. When the light died down, his arms were replaced by two swords.

"I won't let you activate a Program Advance. Eat icicles!" Freezeman threw more icicles from his hand at the young boy.

"Area Steal Battlechip!" Drew disappeared right as the icicles crashed through where he once stood.

"Where did he go?"

"Over here. Long Sword Battlechip! Program Advance: Life Sword!" Drew raised his arms over his head and the two swords fused into one sword. He grabbed the new blade by the hilt and thrust his arms down, sending a shockwave towards Freezeman.

"Ice Shield!" Freezeman held out his arms and a wall of ice appeared in front of him. The ice stopped some of the attack, but eventually it cracked and the remaining shockwave crashed into Freezeman, sending him sprawling on the floor. He slowly rose to his feet, panting heavily. "I'll leave you for now, but you have not seen the last of Neo Gospel!" And Freezeman disappeared in a shower of pixels.

The dimensional area began to recede and Drew's clothes began to return to their normal two shirts and windbreaker pants. He turned and stared at Lan, tears streaming down his face. The green-haired boy sniffled and, before anyone could speak, ran away.

"Drew, wait!" Lan cried out. "Dad, please tell me about him."

"Okay," his father answered. "As you have just seen, Drew is anything but ordinary. Drew has lived on this planet for twelve years, two more than you, but his body is the same structure as a ten year old. He has not aged for two years, and his body will no longer age. He was in an accident about five years ago, and was in a coma for three years following the accident. Seeing his condition, I agreed to help him. I began working on a cure, something that resembles what I did with Hub, but equally opposite. Instead of putting a human soul in a net navi, I put navi data in a human. His navi body is only visible in a dimensional area - a bug I didn't even think about at the time I made it."

"What happened to him?"

"That's for him to tell you. Now, I have some work to get back to, so I'll see you at home later tonight."

"Bye, Dad. Thanks," Lan said as he walked back toward the metro line.

D;\

"Damn it! Why did he have to see me?" Drew screamed, throwing another item across his room. The familiar ring of the doorbell stopped him. "What does he want now?" Drew walked out of his room and toward the door. He opened it and was anything but surprised at the face that greeted him.

"Hi, Drew," Lan said.

"Get out." Drew tried to close the door, but Lan put his foot in front of the door. "I'm serious. Leave me alone."

"Look, this isn't as weird to me as you might think."

"I don't care what you think! Now get out!"

"I'm sure my dad has talked to you about Megaman. I know he's my brother, I'm used to the idea." Drew stopped pushing against the door. "My brother, Hub, died in infancy from a rare heart disease. My father worked on a way to bring him back, and he found his answer in a navi. I've gotten used to the idea. Integration between humans and netnavis isn't weird to me anymore."

Drew sighed and opened the door. "Come in."

"Thank you," Lan said and walked through. "I'm interested, what kind of accident were you in that made you need the operation?"

"Dr. Hikari didn't tell you?"

"He told me the scientific stuff. He said that you should be the one to tell me about it."

"I'll have to remember to thank him for that. I'll tell you, but not yet. There is someone else who needs to know, and I'll tell you after I tell him. Oh, and please don't tell any of your friends about me, at least not yet. I don't want there to be a chance of word spreading to him."

"I'll hold you to that. And hey, let's netbattle Monday after school. No dimensional areas this time."

"Thanks," Drew said, smiling. "I'll hold you to that too." Lan grinned at Drew and walked out the door, heading back to his house.

D;\

"Sean, wake up!" a navi shouted from inside a dark blue PET connected to a computer. He wore a grey body suit with navy blue armor, gloves, and boots. A crystalline ball sat in the middle of his armor. Red stripes flowed down his body. His helmet was white, red, and blue, with a large crystalline ball at the top. He had black eyes and an innocent face.

"Okay, Axl, no need to yell," Sean groaned, getting out of bed. "I can't believe it's Monday already."

"Uh, Sean, new mail."

"Play it for me, please."

"Okay. 'Hello, Sean. I am Drew, a new kid in town, and would like to get to know my neighbors. Please meet me in the park today at 6:00. I would like to if we could get to know each other.' Wonder who he is."

"Sounds nice, guess we'll just have to wait and see."

D;\

Now, this chapter was fun to write. I was able to get all the story I wanted, while hopefully keeping enough action to where it didn't get boring. Thanks for any reviews, I appreciate them.