Lan's day was getting better and better. Dekao was laying on the sidewalk with not one, but two robotic pets attached to his leg.
"Dekao, are you okay?" Mariko gasped, worried about her student's well being.
"No! It hurts!" the boy whined.
"..." Lan opened his mouth.
"Don't say it," Saito muttered without even looking at his partner. Lan clamped his mouth shut and grinned evilly.
"Eeek!" Mariko cried when the dog robot leapt up and snatched her purse right off her shoulder. "Oh, my stuff...!"
"Saito-kun! After it!" Lan ordered.
"Huh? Oh, okay!" Saito slipped on his skates and took off after the crazy beast.
"I'm coming too!" Meiru called and leapt onto her scooter.
"Meiru-chan, wait for me!" Dekao started to his feet, then was painfully reminded of why he had been in the hospital to begin with. "Nnnnhhh..."
"...GAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Dekao's screams caught up with Saito.
"Ack!" the boy nearly lost his balance from surprise. "Good grief...That had to hurt..." he frowned. "Lan, stop laughing!"
Saito and Meiru chased the mutt all the way into the subway and on to a train. Both humans gasped and tried to regain oxygen to their lungs from the chase.
"We...forgot to...pay...!" Saito gasped.
"I'm sure...they won't...mind..." Meiru said slowly catching her breath. "Look, there it is!" she pointed to the dog who was laying on the floor with the hand bad clutched in it's jaws.
"What are you waiting for?" Lan frowned at his operator. "Go get it!"
"But...it might bite me..." Saito whimpered.
"Well, that's a risk that I'm just going to have to take," Lan nodded to himself. Saito rolled his eyes but reached out to take back the stolen item.
Who's brilliant idea was it to put razor teeth on a child's toy, anyways?
Saito was surprised to find that the dog was quite tame. And he easily received the purse and gave the dog a good pat on the head.
"Strange..." he mused.
"Maybe it was a virus?" Meiru offered.
"Maybe...Ah!" the train gave a nasty jolt. Saito looked up at the speedometer. It was already going over 200 mph and gaining speed.
"Oh, crap..." Lan groaned.
They all watched in horror as the train speedometer started to go out of control. 200, 210, 220, it kept rising at an unnerving rate.
"Wha-whats happening?" asked Saito
"I don't know! Maybe something happened to the conductor." said Meiru
Saito looked into the cockpit and saw that the conductor was knocked out.
"H-he's unconscious." said Saito in a whisper.
Lan gasped and Roll grabbed onto his arm suppressing a small whimper.
"We're in a lot of trouble here." Lan muttered.
He looked at Meiru who was a sickly pale color. He realized that everyone was in danger. He ran to the back of the car and picked up the fire extinguisher. "Get out of the way, please." he yelled as he ran up and threw it with all his strength. Lan cheered as it smashed through the glass. Saito and Meiru walked into the cockpit and got the conductor out with the help of some other passengers. "Ok let's see if I can steer this thing."
Saito reached for the steering mechanisms, and tried to move them. However, they seemed to be frozen in place, and wouldn't budge, even when Meiru tried to help.
When all attempts to steer it failed Lan spoke up. "Plug me in. I might be able to fix it."
"Will you be ok?" asked Saito worriedly.
"Geese, do you have to worry about me all the time?" Truthfully deep down Lan was very touched that he cared so much.
In her PET Roll smiled as she heard Lan's voice waver. A small change undetectable to human ears but she heard it. 'He cares so much.' she thought.
"Ok, Plug-in, Lan.EXE, Transmission!"
Lan went into the computer not knowing what he was going into.
As soon as he went into the computer he was attacked by a barrage of electric type viruses. They came at him on all sides and he was caught off guard.
"AHHHH!" he yelled as one big one hit him.
"Lan! Are you okay?" asked Saito
"Send me a chip!" yelled Lan
"Oh! All right, uhhh, sword battle chip, slot in!"
Lan's arm formed to the shape of the sword and Lan struck out at the viruses mercilessly. "Take that you overgrown lightning bug!"
After Lan had deleted all of the viruses he told all of them to get into the back of the train.
"Ok now undo the cars."
"OK." said Saito worried about the people on the train. He undid the safety lock with the help of the conductor. But as the trains pulled apart he realized that Lan was still on. "Lan." he yelled and jumped on the other train.
"Saito!" yelled Meiru.
"Lan!" yelled Roll.
On the other train the robotic dog had followed Saito's desperate flight and was trying to get him on the train. "Lan." he grunted.
"SAITO WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" yelled Lan as he saw Saito's desperate flight over the train.
"That depends, it seems he's trying to save you. Pity he can't do much."
Lan spun around to see a very tall navi behind him. He had yellow stripes on his arms and legs and what looked like an electricity conductor on his back.
"Who are you?" he asked
"I'm Elecman, the one who will delete you."
"Yeah, and what makes you say that? Saito knows what he's doing."
"It won't matter, because you'll be deleted before he can get up here!"
Saito grunted as he finally came up onto the train's platform. He lay on the ground panting and the robotic dog gave a whine.
"Lan..." he quickly got up and went over to the computer just in time to see Lan get slammed into the ground by an electric attack.
"LAN!" he yelled.
"Shut up and send me a chip!" panted Lan
"Wha... oh yeah. Battle chip, long sword, slot in!"
Lan charged at Elecman with his sword raised. He managed to slash his side before he got thrown back once again.
"Heh, you're pretty good aren't you?" Lan asked as his hand returned to normal.
Elecman didn't answer. "LIGHTNING!" he yelled as the attack came from nowhere to hit Lan.
Lan screamed with pain and Saito was unable to take his eyes off him. "Lan!"
The attack wore off and Lan slumped to the ground. Elecman went over and his arm formed into an Elecsword.
"Saito, send me a battle chip." said Lan through gritted teeth. Didn't his partner know how to operate?
"Sword battle chip, slot in!"
Elecman brought down his sword and Lan parried it with his own, then he ran forward and struck Elecman through the middle.
"It's not like you'll survive anyway. This train in due for impact in a matter of seconds. Enjoy your last remaining minutes with your operator."
Elecman logging out
Lan rounded on Saito. "What the hell did you put yourself in that kind of danger for?"
"I-I..."
"No I's, you are going to hurt yourself. You promised... Ahhhhh stop the train!"
Wha..." said Saito surprised. Then he realized. "AHHHHHH!"
"Pull on the break, idiot."
Saito stood there petrified at the oncoming wall. Lan rushed over to the program and activated it. He shoved his power into it hoping he would be on time...
The train stopped 3 cm from the oncoming wall. Lan slumped over the controls.
"Owwww..." he groaned.
"Lan, are you, what... Are you okay?" he said finally
Lan nodded.
"Thank goodness." said Saito
Just then the door whooshed open and fireman came in. They turned on the hoses and sprayed the very hot computer with water, getting Saito in the process.
Lan's laughter filled the room.
Outside Meiru rushed over to Saito and hugged him. "Oh my god you're all wet!"
Saito had an flashback of all the firefighters rushing in and turning on their hoses. And Lan's laughter... but it sounded different, not mocking but a weak relived laugh.
In the net Roll had jumped on Lan. "Oh you're ok! Saito said what you did. I am surprised you aren't deleted with how much energy that took."
Lan relaxed in Roll's embrace and then he realized just how tired he really was. "I just wanted to protect my br..." Roll strained to hear the last word but she realized he had collapsed. She smiled at how innocent he was and wondered what he was going to say.
"Lan?" asked Saito worriedly.
Roll smiled at how much like brothers they were.
"Don't worry. He is just tired." said Meiru.
Brothers... thought Roll.
Saito groaned and laid flopped on his bed. His weary eyes drifted to the PET that had the words "recharging" written across it. It had said that for over 28 hours and Lan had yet to even wake up.
The boy stared longingly at the small device, imagining that his little blue friend would pop up any moment now and tell him that he was okay and force Saito to practice net battling. But no figure appeared though.
If only I had just put on the breaks... Lan keeps getting hurt because of me. Tears formed in his soft green eyes. I must be the worst operator ever...
He barried his head into his pillow and sniffled as quiet sobs escaped him. If he were able to net battle and were braver then he could keep this from happening to his Navi.
But to get better...I have to practice... Saito lifted his head and dried his tears. He knew what he had to do. The human settled himself down at his desk and turned on the net battle program that Lan had shown him and pulled out his battle chips.
There was no way he would let something like this ever happen again. It was way into the early hours of the morning before sleep drew him from his training.
Too bad it was a school night.
"Saito-kun! Saito-kun? Wake up!"
"Nnnh..." the sleepy boy muttered. He didn't want to wake up.
"Dude, you've over slept past me! That is not a dork-thing! You're ruining your reputation!"
"...L...L-Lan...?" Saito's eyes snapped open despite how tired they were. "Lan! You're okay!"
"Save the happy reunion for later. It's past 9 o'clock! Meiru just sent an E-mail and they say there is a new student today! I wanna' see if they net battle," Lan ranted on as Saito threw on his clothes. For once he didn't yell at the program for waking him up late.
"Lan..." the operator interrupted.
"Yeah?"
"Thanks...I owe you a lot."
"..." Lan blushed and looked away. "Y-You haven't listened to a thing I've said have you! YOU ARE LATE!"
Saito smiled widely for the first time since the subway incident the and skated toward the school taking his time.
"Hikari Saito!" Mariko yelled angrily. "This is the third time in a row that you have been late for school! One more time and I'm calling your parents."
"Yes, sensei..." Saito blushed as several of the students burst into laughter. The boy slowly took his place at his desk.
"Plug me in!" Lan whispered just loud enough for Saito to here. Without a word Saito did as he was told.
"Lan!" Roll hugged the male navi. "I was so worried! Are you okay?" She looked him over for any sign of injury or fatigue.
"I'm fine, Roll-chan," he shrugged her off blushing like crazy. "You're worse than Saito-kun..."
"Guts! Guts!" a giant fist rapped itself around Lan's neck and hoisted it's unsuspecting prey to eyelevel. "Big mouth navi stay away from Roll-chan!"
"Hope you didn't kill any I.Q. points coming up with that little speech..." Lan snarled back at the enraged Gutsman.
"Gutsman, put Lan down!" Roll ordered. "He has been through a lot lately and you aren't helping!"
"Ha! I can take this guy anytime!" Lan announced. Gutsman's eyes narrowed dangerously but that didn't faze the blue navi in the least.
"Gutsman...!" Roll warned getting into a fighting position. The giant looked from the pink beauty to the little smart alec and back.
"Ahem, pardon my intrusion, but I do believe that one should respect a lady's request..." a polite voice announced the arrival of a tall brown and gold navi. "Oh, where are my manners? I am Glyde, Yaito-sama's Net Navi." He bowed slightly.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Roll," the pink navi offered to shake his hand. Being the gentleman type, Glyde reached down and took her hand and falling to one knee, gave it a soft kiss.
"A pleasure to meet you." Roll blushed deeply.
"Guuutssss!" the barbaric navi growled and dropped Lan. He had a new target to take care of. Lan glared from Gutsman to Glyde, a little unsure of which one he would rather beat into the dirt...
Saito starred in awe with the rest of the class as a short girl in a red dress and long braids wrote across the board with record speed. He wasn't sure if even Mariko-sensei could answer the math problem...
"V-Very good, Yiato-chan!" the young teacher cheered.
BRING!
"Oh, that's the lunch bell! Lunch break everyone!" she announced. Everyone put away their books and got out their lunch money.
"Lan, I'm going to get something to eat...Uh, what are you doing?" Saito quirked an eyebrow at his navi who had Gutsman in some sort of leg hold bending it back just enough to give his victim pain. A new navi lay unconscious a few feet away.
"Nothing," Lan looked up at his operator innocently a sweet smile that would put a baby to shame spread across his face. Saito groaned and shook his head.
"Where did Roll go? She was supposed to keep an eye on you..."
"She went with Meiru-chan to get some lunch!" his smile widened. "Oh, look! It's The Cow!"
"That's DEKAO...!" a menacing voice growled dangerously from behind Saito. The human jumped and felt certain doom press down on him. "What the hell is your crazy ass navi doing to my Gutsman?"
"Crazy and powerful!" Lan announced proudly. Dekao howled with rage and hoisted Saito up by his shirt.
"You and that waste of pixels are dead meet after school today...!" he hissed. He would of continued his threat if not for Gutsman's scream of pain. Both operators turned to see Lan squeezing the life out of his victim's leg. But the navi didn't even seem to notice his captive.
He was watching Dekao and Saito.
"L-Lan...let go before you really hurt him..." Saito said. Lan dropped the leg and looked at Gutsman like it was the first time he had ever seen the large navi.
"Oops..." he muttered and blushed a little. Gutsman glared daggers and nursed his sore leg. "Sorry, 'bout that."
"I'm back!" Roll announced then noticed the unconscious Glyde. "Oh! What happened here?" She quickly used one of her hearts to heal the navi butler.
"Uhg...My head..." Glyde groaned.
"What happened?" she asked.
"I-I'm not sure..." the navi held his head. Saito eyed Lan suspiciously but the navi avoided his gaze.
"WOAH!" the rest of the classroom gasped. The two humans turned just in time to see three butlers enter the room and spread out a gourmet meal in front of Yaito. The sweet smell wafted across the room and Dekao forgot all about his little feud with Saito.
"That smells great!" he cheered.
"Yeah..." Saito agreed.
"I'll say!" Mariko sighed.
"Oh, brother..." Meiru groaned from her seat and buried her hands with embarrassment. It was just an average day at Densan Academy.
"Umm, Lan where are we?"
"The shortcut to the arcade is through the park."
"I don't think this is the park."
"Well it's full of trees so it looks like the park."
"You brought me her cause there were trees?"
"Oh, your precious grammar is slipping." said Lan laughing.
"Lan!" Saito was actually getting angry.
"What are you doing here!" said an angry voice.
"I-i'm sorry. I got lost."
"Nuh-uh we are in the park... you said the park was a place full of trees."
"Lan hush."
The lady eyed the boy. "Hmmm, well please come with me. Yaito-sama is the one who deals with trespassers."
"Trespassers!" Said both.
"Did it ever occur to you we were on private property!" said Saito getting very annoyed.
"What I thought it was a park, next time give me a better definition."
"Ok how about the place that is labeled "park" on the map."
"What map!"
"There is a map in every PET!"
"How was I supposed to know that!"
"How, Lan do you..."
Both stopped bickering under the evil eye of the maid. She led them to a big pink door. "Yaito-sama, the intruders are here."
"Thank-you please resume your post."
"Hai." The maid left.
Yaito looked at Saito severely. "So what should I do with you. I could send you to the police since you were on my property."
"Please, I just got lost because of my navi."
"Your navi got you lost? He's not very good is he."
"Wha- say that again you..."
Saito had hit the mute button before his curses could be heard. Unfortunately Glyde still had heard them.
"He's very rude isn't he?"
"He is, but he saved my life and he is my best friend."
"Really? Interesting. Ok how about this. If you beat me in a net battle I will let you go without any punishment. Let's see how well you can control him."
"Ummmm... ok."
Yaito snapped her fingers and a huge arena came down.
"A top of the line life-sized battle arena."
Both Saito and Lan were speechless.
"Ok, Plug-in, Lan.EXE, Transmission!"
"Plug-in, Glyde, Transmission!"
Both appeared. "You will regret for insulting Yatio-sama." said Glyde.
"We'll see."
"Go Glyde, Paladin-sword!" A huge beam of light came toward Lan.
"Barrier-slot-in!" Lan felt nothing.
He grinned "Oh you can net battle now!"
"Yeup, practiced all night. I won't repeat the same mistake twice!"
"Good to know, stopping that train hurt like hell."
Saito laughed. He felt alive. He loved this feeling. "Sword slot-in!"
Lan took charge with the sword and ran at Glyde. Glyde lifted his sword and... "area-steal slot-in" Lan disappeared.
"Behind you, pansy!" Lan slashed and hit Glyde straight on.
GLYDE LOGGING OUT
"Yesssssssssssssss" Both boys pumped their fists in the air.
"Humph, well I am true to my word you can go."
"Thanks. Oh Yaito you are a good net battler. This was good practice. I needed to know I could help Lan."
Yaito looked into Saito's smiling face and blushed "You're welcome." she said softly.
"Yes you are, you have good timing, but you might want to use a stronger navi." Said Lan.
"Excuse me!" A voice came from her PET.
Yaito giggled. "He isn't a battle navi, but I have rare chips so I didn't expect you two to fight so well since you argue so much. Kinda like brothers."
"Brothers.. ha ha ha." Laughed Lan nervously.
"Well see you tomorrow, Yaito-chan."
"Ok, see ya!." 'chan, I like it.' she thought.
As Saito walked home he didn't notice the stoplights blink ominously.
Saito smiled happily as he skated to school. Since the net battle with Yaito Lan had seemed to be giving his operator a little more respect. A little being the keyword in that sentence. Lan had been nice enough to actually wake Saito up on time!
"Saito-kun, why aren't you walking with Meiru-chan today?" Lan asked. "She is your girlfriend after all..."
"Wha-?" the human tripped over his skates and hit the side walk.
"HAHAHAHA!" Lan laughed loudly.
"Th-That's not funny! And Meiru-chan is just a friend, okay?" Saito growled.
"Then why are you blushing so much?"
"..." Saito turned away from Lan and turned a deeper shade of red. Lan said nothing, but he smirked. He knew when he was right.
"You're one to talk! What about Roll?" the operator grumbled. Now it was the navi's turn to blush.
"I don't know what you are talking about..." he turned away. "I'm going ahead to the school to see if old Guts-for-brains wants to fight, see ya!" The navi quickly warped out.
"He was in quite a hurry..." Saito smiled knowingly.
The school day went by uneventfully. Mariko-sensei gave her usual lectures, Yaito finished her work first, Saito second, and Dekao didn't even get past question five. In the cyber world, Lan had a hay-day beating the heck out of Gutsman. The barbaric navi just kept coming back for more and Roll kept score of their battles.
"The ending score today is, Lan 53 wins Gutsman 0," the pink navi announced.
"Me get you next time!" Gutsman challenged.
"Miracles do happen..." Lan shrugged.
"Lan, its time to go!" Saito called.
"Okay," the blue navi warped to his PET. The human started to make his way out of the class room and was about to say good bye to Meiru and Yaito when Lan piped up.
"Meiru-chan! You want Saito-kun to walk you home?" Saito turned several shades of red when he realized what his navi was up to.
"Lan...!"
"I'm sorry, but I have to stay behind today to clean the board," Meiru said calmly. "Maybe tomorrow?"
"It's a date!" Lan announced. Meiru giggled as Saito almost fell over from embarrassment.
"Hikari! I thought I told you to stay away from my Meiru-chan!" Dekao hissed and chased the smaller boy out of the class room with Lan flinging insults all the way.
"I can't believe you said that!" Saito groaned.
"You know you want to," Lan seemed very pleased with himself. If Meiru walked with Saito then that meant that Roll would be there too. He grinned even more. Oh, the look on Gutsman's face would be priceless! Not to mention Deako's! And spending time with Roll was another plus.
The loud squeal of tires and a crashing noise snapped him out of his thoughts.
"What was that?" he gasped.
"I don't know! It sounds like there was a car accident..." the younger boy stated nervously.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Lets go check it out!" Saito agreed with his navi and headed towards the street. The wreck didn't seem very serious. But something very disturbing caught Saito's attention.
"Something is wrong with the traffic lights!" he announced.
"What makes you say that?"
"All of them are red! And nobody is moving!"
"Hey, this is serious! If nobody can move then we can't get home! Plug me in so I can fix it." Saito nodded.
"Plug-in, Lan.EXE, transmission!"
Lan wasted no time in deleting all the viruses that stood in his way. He wasn't very surprised to see them there but what did surprise him was a brown and gold navi laying in the middle of the area.
"Glyde!" the blue navi quickly ran to the other's aid. "Hey! What happened? Are you okay?"
"Ungh...L-Lan...watch out for the ball..." Glyde chocked out.
"Ball? What the hell are you--AAAAAAGH!" Lan cried out when something slammed into his back.
"LAN?" Saito gasped. Worry sprang into his mind and he started to panic.
No. Calm down! Lan needs you. You have to stay calm! You can do this... The operator took a deep breath and tried to relax.
"Ow..." the blue navi picked himself off the ground slowly. "What hit me?"
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" a psychotic voice barked with delight. Lan was starting to regret asking. "I'm Coloredman, and I'm going to delete you now!" the clown-like navi announced cheerfully.
"Bring it on Bozzo!" Lan challenged. The odd navi released his ball but it wasn't heading for him...
"Ah! Glyde!" Lan quickly scooped up the bigger navi and leapt to safety seconds before the ball smashed into the ground. "Damn you, you coward!" He quickly formed his buster and shot at the sphere of death only to watch his blasts have no effect on it.
"Uh-oh..." Lan paled. "Saito-kun, I need a little help here!"
"I'm on my way to the traffic station! Just hold on!" his operator responded.
"Easy for you to say...Woah!" Lan grabbed Glyde and moved out of the ball's path again. "Saito-kun hurry!"
Saito quickly skated down the side walk. If he didn't hurry, Lan would be in serious trouble... And there was no way he would let Lan get hurt like he did during the train incident.
"Hey, kid! Get off the car!" a voice yelled loudly.
"Huh?" Saito turned to see Yaito standing on top of her limo looking very nervous and miserable. "Yaito-chan! What are you doing?"
"S-Saito!" she gasped.
"That is dangerous! Get back inside your car!" he yelled.
"...Saito...I-I-I...!" the small girl started to jump from car top to car top towards him. "I have to go to the bathroom right NOW!" she jumped into his arms almost crying.
"O-Oh...!"