Lan felt someone shaking him. "W-wha?"
"Come on Lan! Time to get up."
Lan sat up and looked at Roll. "How long have you been here?"
"About 10 minutes. Come on! We need to catch up to Saito and Meiru-chan!"
Lan still dazed nodded and followed the pink navi.
Meiru and Saito raced along the sidewalk, trying to avoid the pedestrians in their path. If they didn't hurry they might miss the show that Dekao had told them about.
It was a yoga show. There was a rumor going around that one of the posses could help you during the N1 Grand Prix, a net battle tournament. Saito really didn't know much about it, but Lan seemed very excited about it. If the little Navi had been anymore enthusiastic, he might of started foaming at the mouth or something. Naturally, Saito agreed to participate. How could he say no?
"Woah! Check that out!" a voice squealed from the arcade. Saito cranked his head to try and get a better look. There was a huge crowd outside of the building. All of the people seemed very excited about something. Curiosity rose in his mind.
"Meiru-chan, how is our time?" he asked.
"If we keep up this pace, we might make it in time to see the end of the opening..." the pink haired girl announced. Her male companion frowned, then speeded up a bit.
"Lets hurry then. I don't want to miss a second!" Meiru nodded then gave her scooter an extra kick to match Saito's speed.
He would just have to hear about the arcade at school.
"Lan, hurry up, would ya?" Roll called back to the blue navi that was lagging behind her.
"Coming..." he muttered and tried to speed up, but that only made him feel even more tired for some reason. Lan decided to slow back down again. For some reason, his systems had been extremely slow. He didn't tell Saito for fear of alarming the boy. But now he was starting to wonder if that had been such a good idea.
"Wha...!" Lan gasped when his vision blurred. He tried to shake it off, but it only got worse. He could no longer move his body, but he didn't comprehend what was going on. Thinking suddenly became very difficult like the thoughts were wearing waited boots while trying to get through the mush and muck that had become his brain.
Roll shrieked when she saw her companion plummet into the data stream below them. She didn't hesitate to dive in and pull him into a nearby server. The pink navi laid Lan out on the ground and clutched his hand tightly.
"Lan! Lan! Can you hear me! Lan?"
"R...l...ch..n..." he blinked up at her dazedly then they closed as he went into an emergency system shut down. Roll waited for him to reboot, but nothing happened. Her gloved hand gently rubbed his cheek in a vain effort to revive him somehow. Tears pooled in her green eyes.
"Lan..." Roll shook her head.
No! I can't wimp out! Lan needs my help. I need to... I need to get him to someone that can help! Dr. Hikari would know what to do! A determined look hardened her soft features and she bent down to lift the unconscious blue navi onto her shoulder.
"Don't worry, everything will be all right..." Whether she was comforting Lan or herself, she wasn't sure. But she quickly logged into the Sci Lab square.
"We're here!" Meiru announced as she and Saito entered the clubhouse. Yaito and Dekao were both in odd animal positions on the ground.
"Did we miss much?" Saito asked when he noticed that the positions were probably some form of yoga. Dekao grinned at the smaller boy.
"Not much, only all the good stuff!" he snickered. "Did that worthless pile of pixels forget to wake you up again?"
"He's not worthless, Dekao..." Saito pouted. Yaito was on Dekao in a flash, she loved any good reason to get into a fight with him.
"Coming from someone who has never defeated him in a match, that's pretty funny!" she snarled.
"Like you have!"
"Glyde isn't a battle type anyway. But I'm sure he's more than enough to take down Gutsman again" Soon, the argument broke into an all out screaming fit between the two. Saito and Meiru decided to take their seats and watch the show above all the noise that the pair was making.
Roll gently placed Lan on the floor of the square. Many navis gave them worried and confused looks. Two navis, a regular standard navi that was red and a yellow custom navi, ran over to see what was wrong.
"Please help me!" Roll begged. "My friend, he collapsed and... I don't know what's wrong with him!"
"Calm down, calm down..." the yellow navi bent down and peeled back one of Lan's eye lids. "Hm... It looks like his systems went off line because of an error in his processor... Might of been caused by his program freezing or stopping..."
"You can tell all that from just looking in his eye?" Roll's eyes widened in amazement.
"Call it a gift. People around here know me as Doc, but there's no time for chit chat, if your friend's processor becomes corrupt, then he might get deleted or worse..." Doc said nonchalantly. This did not settle the pink navi's nerves one little bit.
"Deleted?" she nearly chocked on the word as tears brimmed her eyes. "Please, do something!"
"Geez, I thought I asked you to calm down..." the yellow navi got a mischievous look in his eyes. "He must be pretty important to you. Your boyfriend or something?"
"What...?" Roll was slightly taken off guard by that question. She blushed deeply. "N-No, just friends... I don't see what this has to do with anything! Lan's in trouble!"
"Oh, that's right, that's right..." Doc chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of his head. He then turned back to the unconscious blue navi and concentrated on his work. There were a few audible clicking noises. "Good thing that it is just his processor, if it was his programming I don't think there would of been anything I could do!"
"Will he be okay?" Roll whimpered as she fidgeted with her hands to try and relieve some tension.
"Umm... Yup!" The yellow navi stood up and turned to Roll. "That should do it. Now all we have to do is wake him up and see what happens..." Doc calmly leaned over Lan as if to say something, then just as calmly booted the tiny navi in the side. "Wake up boy! You're girl is about to have a melt down if you don't tell her you're okay!"
"Ack!" Lan sputtered and rolled over on his other side. "Owww..." It took him a few moments to realize what was going on. "Hey, you kicked me! I'll kill yo--mrff!" Lan's threats were cut short when Roll glomped onto him.
"Thank goodness you're alright!" she nuzzled into his chest. Whatever negative thoughts he had before, he completely forgot when the warm and fuzzy feeling spread threw his entire body.
"Aw, that's cute!" Doc chuckled. "I guess I better be on my way then..." Without so much as a good-bye, Doc disappeared into the mass of navis that populated the Sci Lab.
"I never thanked him..." Roll muttered, still attached to Lan's arm as if she thought that letting go would make him disappear.
"Thank him for what?" the blue navi gave her a confused look.
"Oh, it's not important anymore..." she giggled. "We better go catch up with Meiru-chan and Saito, they must be worried about us."
"Huh? Weren't we..." Lan tried to search his memory for how he got here.
"Don't worry about it!" Roll dragged him over to the warp point. "Let's just go to the clubhouse! Dekao and Gutsman are there if you want to net battle them..." That hit the button right on the nose.
"What? That fat freak had better not be picking on Saito-kun!" Lan snarled. "Let's go, Roll-chan!" The pink navi giggled and followed her blue companion to Yaito's server. It was good to have the old Lan back.
Roll and Lan were instantly greeted by Glyde and Gutsman, but to their surprise, it wasn't a heartfelt greeting at all.
"P-Please, listen..." Glyde shifted and eyed Lan nervously. "There has been a small accident and, um..." Lan's eyes narrowed.
"Where is Saito-kun?" It was more a demand than a question. The two larger navis exchanged nervous glances.
"Try to stay calm, I guarantee you won't like what you are about to see..." Glyde brought up the monitor.
Lan's eyes widened and his face was covered with shock. After a few moments he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"What..." he started calmly. "...the hell..." his voice grew a bit louder. "...HAVE YOU DONE TO SAITO-KUN?" Lan whirled around and lunged at the two larger navis. Gutsman and Glyde squealed and ran for their lives in circles with Lan hot on their trail. Roll didn't move an inch and continued to stare at the monitor.
"M-Meiru-chan...?" her voice sounded far away. Meiru stared at her from the other end, on her arms and legs, crawling around on the floor.
"Chu?" Meiru squeaked. A small red blur suddenly lunged out of nowhere and tackled the young girl.
"Meoooow!" Yaito hissed at her prey. Meiru Mouse made a high pitched noise then scurried around the table a few times with Yaito chasing her before she hid herself behind Saito who was curled up in a little ball on the floor. He opened one lazy eye. He perked up when he saw Yaito. The cat-like human hissed at him.
"Arf!" he jumped to his hands and feet and started galloping after her. Yaito wisely leapt on top of the nearby table. Saito looked a bit disappointed and curled up under the table. She had to come down sometime, and he would be there waiting.
Out of the corner of the screen, Roll could see Dekao eating all of the fruit out of the refrigerator while making some "Ooh Oohs" and "Ahh Ahhs."
Roll had seen all she wanted. She turned back toward her companions and was mildly surprised to see that Lan had, for some reason, decided to use a nearby program to replace a sword and was beating Glyde and Gutsman silly.
"Lan!" she scolded. Lan froze and pulled the program behind his back.
"Yes, Roll-chan?" he asked innocently. The pink navi shook her head. Lan hadn't really hurt Glyde or Gutsman, but he certainly scared them to death.
"We need to find a way to change our operators back. Glyde, can you tell us what happened?" She asked sweetly. The brown navi nodded.
"While we were watching the show, the yoga master's navi took over the airways and hypnotized them or something... And, well, you can see for yourselves the effects..." He motioned sadly at the monitor. Lan smirked.
"Don't worry about it! I'll just go down to the TV station and beat some since into that freak! Then I'll make him change them all back to normal!" he announced.
"It might be dangerous for you to go by yourself without Saito... I'll assist you. I may not be very strong but I can hack threw any system that gets in your way," Glyde offered. Lan paused for a moment before nodding in agreement.
"Gutsman go too! Degutsu!" the barbaric navi stepped forward and pounded his chest. Lan wasn't too pleased by this, but nodded reluctantly. Gutsman could get in the way sometimes, but he was far more tolerable than his operator.
"Me too!" Roll announced.
"No," Lan said quickly. Before Roll could protest he raised his hand to silence her. "I need someone to stay here and take care of Saito-kun..." He looked away with a small blush. "You should wait here..." Roll was silent for a moment.
"All right. But promise that you won't do anything to reckless and get hurt!" she said with a determined expression.
"I promise," both Lan and Gutsman said at the same time. They froze then whirled around to face the other with dirty looks. Now Lan remembered why he didn't like Gutsman.
"We should depart now..." Glyde motioned to the warp point. "After you two?"
"Whatever!" Lan smirked and jumped on the gate and was gone in a flash, quickly followed by Gutsman and Glyde. Roll watched the gate for a few minutes then looked back at the operators.
"... I know!" the pink navi opened the security system and had the base go on lock down so that no one could get in or out. "Heehee! Now I can help Lan too!" She grinned and followed after her friends.
The humans saw the windows and doors shut and all at once there was panic!
They all ran every which way trying to find an opening.
Deako howled his rage as he punched at the metal covering the window.
Yaito scratched at the door howling.
Saito ran around barking trying to get attention.
Meiru just sat in the middle of the room saying "Chu..."
No one was sure of what to make of their predicament...
Roll sneakily followed Lan and the other two as they got to the TV station. She hid behind a program and listened to Lan talk.
"Ok the fastest was to save Saito-kun and the others is to go separately after Glyde gets up in. The faster we find out what happened the faster they become normal."
Gutsman and Glyde nodded. Then Lan and Gutsman stood back as Glyde proceeded to hack into the firewalls.
After the last one was gone the navi's went through and went their separate ways.
And so did Roll...
Lan had felt a shadow behind him for awhile but didn't say anything of it lest to alarm it. But his sense of urgency grew and he tried to see what it was.
It was Roll.
"ROLL!" he yelled
The pink navi blushed at getting caught and looked down at the floor.
"WHY AREN'T YOU WATCHING SAITO-KUN!"
"I..I... wanted to help. They can't get out..."
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Lan was getting angrier and angrier
"I...I...I'm...sorry..."
Lan opened his mouth to respond but he didn't get the chance.
"Magic fire!"
A blue flame came at the two navis. Lan quickly picked up Roll and jumped to safety.
"Who are you?" he yelled at the shadows.
A voice came all around them. Roll hid behind Lan's back as the unknown navi talked.
"What does it matter, Lan? I am just doing what my operator wanted me to do. And you have gotten in the way of the WWW for the last time!"
Another flame came out and Lan dodged that one too.
"Turn Saito-kun back to normal!" he yelled
"Why? The humans are in chaos. Now the WWW can rule and there is nothing you can do."
Lan brought up his buster and started shooting at random areas.
"Tut, tut. You will never catch me that way."
Then the fire came from all directions. Lan quickly shielded Roll as he felt the real flame on his back.
"Lan, you have messed up too many WWW operations to let you or your operator continue to live."
"What the hell do you want with Saito-kun!"
The navi gave a cruel chuckle and appeared in front of Lan and Roll.
They looked at the oddly navi, wondering who it was.
"I am Magicman! The hypnotizer. Human minds are so easy to mold to your will. How about yours?"
Waves seemed to radiate off of Magicman and Lan once again stood in front of Roll. She hid her eyes behind the navi but Lan couldn't look away.
He felt his mind go numb. He couldn't feel anything. Trying vainly to move he glared at the navi.
"So easy. You should have a stronger defense. But I think it's time to make you pay Lan. Before we delete you we will make you feel pain through your operator. Say goodnight Lan."
Lan felt his systems shut down for the second time that day.
Then Magicman logged out of the building in pursuit of his prey.
Roll bent over Lan's unconscious body. His sleep wasn't natural at all. The normal peaceful look that normally dawned his face when he went through his rest cycle wasn't there. It was totally blank. Tears brimmed her gentle green eyes.
It was all her fault.
Lan could have dodged, or at least put up a better defense against Magicman, but he didn't. He had stayed to protect her. If only she had listened then perhaps Lan could have defeated the WWW agent. If only she wasn't so weak, she could have protected him... Roll clenched her teeth and stood up straight. The pink navi couldn't just let Lan's sacrifice go to waste! As much as she didn't like the thought of leaving him, it was her duty to protect Meiru and the other operators and finish what Lan started.
She would take on Magicman herself!
Roll didn't waste another moment and logged herself out.
Saito whined and pawed the door to the clubhouse. He was bored. The room was too small to run in and they had already destroyed most of the furniture, so there was nothing left to do. He didn't want to stay in the room any longer...
"Hikari Saito, I've finally found you!" A cold voice snickered. Saito spun around when he heard his name. A blue magician stared at him from the monitor. Saito cocked his head to the side. This was interesting.
"Chu!" Meiru squeaked and propped herself up to get a better look at the odd man. Yaito sniffed at it then returned to grooming herself. Dekao was too busy trying to see just how many different ways that one could destroy china plates to care. The magician gave them all funny looks.
"Hey! I'm threatening you all here!" he growled. "Don't you get it? In a few moments, you'll all be dead!" Saito rolled over on his back with a goofy expression. The blue navi groaned and covered his face. "Not "Play dead" "BE dead!"
Saito sniffed then sat up. See if he ever did another trick for that ungrateful little man again... The least he could have done would be to clap. Not everyone was clever enough to play dead, you know.
"Ah... It's no fun to threaten my victim's lives when they don't even know what's going on... Never the less, I, Magicman, will see that you suffer!" A glass wall fell between Saito and the others. The former human yelped with fear and started to try and claw his way through. The others all watched him curiously. "Heh, time to pay for your crimes, Saito!" An electric current started to pulsate at the top of the glass cage.
"... Awwwr..." Saito whimpered and tried to curl up in a little ball.
"Hold it, Magicman!" The magician whirled around and was struck across the face by a heart shaped projectile. Roll didn't waste any time flinging more little hearts at her enemy.
"You...!" Magicman hissed and used his own attack to knock away the rest of Roll's attacks.
"I won't forgive you for what you did to Lan and our operators!" Roll challenged and moved herself into an offensive position. "Fight me, now!"
"Ha! A weak navi with no operator can't defeat me!" Magicman raised his arm and hundreds of viruses surrounded him. "You can play with my minions instead. Go, Virus Army!"
Roll gasped and took a step back. There was no way she could take a whole army and a WWW agent by herself!
But, as a net navi and a friend, it was her duty to fight! Not only to protect the others, but for herself as well. She couldn't expect her hero to show up every time she was in danger. It was time she fought for herself.
"Come and get me!" she challenged and raced head on into battle.
"Lan... Lan...!" a gentle voice called through the dark regions of the navi's mind. What did the voice want? Who would be calling him? Why would they call him? He was so sleepy...
"Lan! Lan! Wake up, Lan!"
Why wouldn't it just give it a rest and shut up!
"Lan! Please, wake up!"
"Lan, wake up! We're late for school again! Unless you want me to use the alarm clock, then at least try be a little responsible!"
... Saito-kun?
"Lan! Lan!"
Okay, Saito-kun, I'll get up for you...
Lan's sleepy brown eyes slowly peeled back into the light. He winced at the sudden brightness, but noticed a shadow leaning over him.
"S-Saito-kun...?" the small navi murmured.
"I'm afraid not," Glyde chuckled. "You certainly had us worried about you!"
"Us...?" Lan's eyes drifted over to Gutsman who looked as though he was about to faint. "Why are you..."
"Er! I-It not that Gutsman like you! Gutsman just like challenge!" the larger navi growled and looked away. "Gutsman beat you one day, so annoying blue navi must stay alive until then!"
Lan smirked half-heartedly. "The day you beat me is when Hell freezes over..." Gutsman snorted.
"Lan, can you stand?" Glyde asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine... Um, what happened?" The blue warrior stood and glanced around the area.
"We were hoping you would tell us... We found you here like this..." Glyde frowned.
"I..." Lan's eyes widened with shock when his memory came back in a rush. "Roll-chan! Saito-kun! All the others...!"
"What?" his companions asked simultaneously.
"N-no time to explain! Glyde, we have to get back to the clubhouse right now!" Lan ordered.
"But what about the TV station?" the butler navi asked.
"Never mind that right now! We have something more important to take care of first!" Gutsman and Glyde nodded mutely and logged themselves out.
"Heart Flash!" Roll growled while she released her attack and was met with the satisfaction of seeing ten viruses bite the dust. She turned around in time to dodge a dash attack virus. The virtual beast was soon disposed of the same way as the others.
Magicman was surprised. The pink navi was able to hold her own pretty well, but he could see that it wouldn't be long before she would use up all of her energy. The girl was a novice battler and didn't even have her operator with her; it was only a matter of time before she would be too weak to even stand. He smirked darkly. The viruses could have their fun, but he wanted to finish her off.
Saito and the other humans could only watch helplessly in confusion while the viruses slowly picked off Roll's HP.
Roll gasped and panted. She knew she was in trouble. Her energy was low and more viruses where coming. Magicman was still quite a force to be reckoned with on his own. It was a hopeless fight. All she could do was take down as many as she could with her.
"Chu?" Roll looked up at her operator. The gentle brown eyes that she had grown to adore stared back at her with confusion and fear. A sad smile formed on Roll's face and she whispered back.
"I will protect you..."
She crouched over and charged all of her power into one final blast. Magicman snorted. Her power was impressive, for a rookie, but to him, it was nothing more than an annoyance. He teleported right in front of her.
"Go ahead and release that suicidal attack, it won't stop me." His voice was cold and hard, but Roll could find no hint of a lie within it. She gulped. "You are a pathetic little thing, aren't you? To think that you thought you could stop me..." he scoffed and bent down so that his face was only inches from hers.
"I will kill Hikari Saito, and make the others into circus puppets! They can perform for all of WWW!" He snickered when he saw Roll's eyes flash with rage.
"The only person who belongs in a circus is you, freak!" A neon blast of plasma slammed Magicman back into the ground.
"Lan!" Roll cheered when she saw the blue navi. Gutsman was soon at her side.
"Roll-chan okay? Degutsu!" he asked.
"I'll be all right..." she smiled up at him.
"Thank goodness!" Glyde also made himself know as he blasted away some of the viruses. "To think that all the nasty beasts have wormed their way onto Yaito-sama's computer!" he scoffed indignantly.
"W-Why you little brat...!" Magicman growled and pushed himself to his feet. "I'll make you pay dearly for this! MAGIC FIRE!" Lan dodged the first blast and fired off his buster.
"Barrier!" A new voice announced when a wall appeared between Lan's attack and Magicman.
"Damn!" the blue navi hissed. "It's about time that you came out, you false yoga master!"
"False, you say?" the voice chuckled. "I am a yoga master, indeed, I am, but I'm a yoga master of WWW also! Tell me, little navi, what do you intend to do to save your operator and friends, hm?"
Lan's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'll do what ever I must to make you pay for what you did to Roll-chan and Saito-kun!"
"Surely you realize how useless it is without your operator? You're pretty much helpless!" Magicman's operator laughed.
"Then why don't you focus your energy on a more suitable opponent instead of picking on a bunch of kids?" A red navi with long silver hair stepped from the shadows.
"It took us a while to find you, Mahajarama," the navi's operator said smoothly.
"What? Who are-!" Magicman started but was cut off by the red navi's sword.
Magicman, Logging out
"Woah..." Lan muttered and turned to the red navi. "I could of taken him..."
"Whatever..." the red navi muttered and logged out.
"Hey, wait!" Lan pouted. "I don't even know who that guy was..."
"Unnng... L-Lan...?" The navi's attention was drawn to the monitor. Saito blinked back at him with droopy eyes. Lan laughed tiredly from relief.
"Saito-kun, you look horrible!"
"I... Um, what happened?" the human frowned and rubbed his head. "I feel funny..."
"I don't think it really matters anymore..." Lan shrugged.
"Huh?"
"Ahhhh! My club house!" Yaito shrieked. "What happened! It looks like it was torn up by a bunch of wild animals!" The navis chuckled nervously.
"Roll-chan, why are you so damaged?" Meiru gasped.
"Well... I... Um... It was an accident?" Roll bit her lip and smiled weakly.
"Hurry and log out so I can fix you!" Meiru ordered. Roll was all too happy to oblige.
"Heh. Hey, Saito-kun, the show's over, so why don't we head home?" Lan offered. After all the weird stuff that had happened, he was ready for a nice long nap.
"Okay... I'm feeling pretty tired anyway..." Saito nodded.
"Er, one problem, guys..." Dekao whined. "The doors are all locked!"
"Oops! Sorry about that!" Glyde quickly shut off the security system. Yaito gave him an irritated glare.
"I don't know what happened, and right now, I'm too tired to care, but after my nap, I want the whole story from you, Glyde!" she announced.
"Yes, Yaito-sama..." Glyde sighed.
"You ready, Lan?" Saito asked his partner.
"Yup!" the blue navi cheered. "I feel pretty good, but you really do look terrible. Do you realize how mad your mom would be at me if I let something bad happen to you?"
"Don't worry, I trust you..." The young operator said calmly.
Lan smiled as he logged himself out. Despite everything they had gone through, it had been a pretty good day.
If only he had a camera to get Saito running around like a dog on film...
Higure Yamitarou sat in front of his computer for the third straight day. No sleep, food or (baths). He just sat there and watched the little green bar inch painfully across the screen.
"Just a little more..." he whispered
Numberman, who was in stasis mode floated on the screen as the upgrade was downloaded into his system.
His operator stared at the screen, the light reflecting off his glasses. The bar was almost there...
"YES!" Higure danced around in a fit of joy.
Numberman slowly opened his eyes. He didn't feel right...
He saw the man dancing around. The man looked at him. "Numberman, we did it! We will win the N1 Grand Prix for sure!"
"What are you talking about!" he hissed. He didn't want to listen to this babble. He was confused enough as it was.
Higure's face took on a mask on concern. "Numberman are you ok?"
Numberman couldn't stand it! The mans voice was annoying as hell! And the "demasu" at the end of every sentence didn't help. He broke through the link and flew off into the net. Glad to be rid of that annoying voice.