"Mmmmph..." Lan's head was throbbing, he never remembered being beat up so bad as when Magicman came in.

"Lan, you need to get up..." Saito said sweat dropping.

"5 more minutes, nii-san..." Lan said, half-asleep

Saito giggled. "I'm not your nii-san!" he said in a cheerful voice "I am your operator!"

Lan's eyes flew open. 'Ahhhhh! I almost goofed' he thought

"R-right! Of course you are not my nii-san! Heh heh, silly me!"

Saito looked at Lan oddly. "Are you ok?"

Lan giggled again. "Of course! I just made a slip of the tongue. Maybe Magicman hit my circuitry too hard."

"Maybe..." said Saito, though a bit skeptically.

Roll came though the link.

"You two, Higure-san asked us to meet him at the park. Something about Numberman. Meiru-chan sent me to get you two. Wanna come?"

"YES!" said Lan "Let's go!" he grabbed Roll's arm and went through the link calling behind him "Meet you there Saito-kun!"

Saito stood in his room blinking.

"My Numberman... my Numberman!" Higure was sobbing

Meiru tried to comfort him. "I-it's ok. I'm sure we can save him."

"Th-thank yoooooou!" he sobbed

They all stared at the sad little man, wondering why they gave him their help.

Lan and Roll walked in the cyber world looking for Numberman. It wasn't going well but they were having a good conversation.

"The bond that you and Saito seem to share is amazing!" said Roll

Lan rubbed the back of his head "Heh, not really. We just accent each other well."

"No, that's not true. The bond you two have... it's like you are ... family. Like brothers!"

"B-brothers! You don't say! Heh..."

"But that sounds silly." continued Roll

"Silly! Yeup! Definitely, it's silly!"

Roll looked at Lan. "Are you ok?"

"Me? I'm fine!" Lan blushed a deep scarlet as Roll looked at him. Her face was so close...

"What did I say?" said Roll "Did I offend you?" she started to become sulky.

"No! No..." Lan looked at her. "Ummmm..." he looked around "Roll-chan... can you keep a secret?"

In the shadows, Numberman's eyes glowed red.

Higure continued to sob in his little corner of the clubhouse. No one really thought it was necessary to bother him, as he was prone to sudden outbursts. Dekao sat on the sofa, playing with his PET. When Saito asked him what he was doing to Gutsman, the larger boy would only reply with an obnoxious grunt and tell him to mind his own business. Meiru sat on the sofa next to Dekao and glanced at her PET every now and then to see if Roll had found anything.

Saito sighed and leaned back in his chair across from Meiru, mentally wishing Yaito was there to help out. The youngest, and smartest of the group had conveniently decided to go on a business trip with her father that weekend to Jawaii. Naturally, she was only going for the sightseeing. Yaito had been kind enough to give them permission to use the clubhouse, but she was the only one who really knew how to work the machines. So they had to make due with what they had. Which consisted of a building, internet access and their navis.

That thought reminded Saito that it was about time he checked on Lan's status. He didn't want to directly bother Lan by opening a window so he could talk with the navi since his blue companion was with Roll. That would probably only embarrass him.

He pulled up his PET and noted that Lan's HP was at 100. He knew that Lan would tell him if he found anything, so the operator decided to take this time to rest his eyes for a bit...

"Lan, what is it?" Roll asked. Her green eyes bore into his brown. The navi stuttered over his words.

"Saito-kun is... I'm..."

No! His voice screamed at him in his head. Lan froze, his eyes drifted to the ground.

You promised not to tell! You promised YOURSELF not to tell! You can't, no matter what. No one can know. Not even...

"... The ones I love and trust the most..." he finished out loud.

"What?" Roll gently touched his shoulder. "What did you say?"

"I... I said..." Lan smiled at his pink clad companion. "You are one of the people I love and trust the most..."

And that's why you can never know...

Roll blushed. She had never heard Lan speak so openly about anything like that before... It was odd to hear such honest and compassionate words from him. The meaning of what he said sent an electric pulse through her frame. Roll giggled softly.

"What?" Lan pouted. Maybe he said something wrong? Roll was acting funny.

"Well..." She began slowly.

"RAWR!" A tall, lean figure suddenly jumped at them from behind a collection of data, forcing Roll and Lan to flee.

"Numberman!" Roll gasped when she regained her footing. "What are you doing?"

"Nahahahaha!" The insane navi cackled. "You all must BOW to me!"

"Say what?" Lan didn't seem to take Numberman seriously at all. The blue navi folded his arms across his chest and gave his former ally a sarcastic glare. "Who do you think you are?"

"You may call me Numberman-SAMA!" The crazed one threw his arms up and cackled some more.

"Geez, you're really annoying..." Lan sweat dropped. Numberman was just as eccentric as his operator and his faulty upgrade was not helping.

"Numberman--"

"--sama!--"

"... Right..." Roll was taken a bit off guard by the outburst but quickly recovered. "Higure-san is very worried about you. We want to take you back so he can fix the damage done to your CPU..."

"You'll never take me alive!" Numberman tried to bolt for the nearest network system, the next thing he knew he was slammed into the ground and was in a rather painful headlock.

"Your stupid antics are messing up our training! Me and Saito-kun have to be ready for the N1 tomorrow!" Lan growled as he tightened his hold. "So you are going back to your nice little PET where your operator can fix you."

"N-Never!" In a burst of strength that Lan didn't know Numberman possessed, the rebel threw him off and chucked several dice bombs his way. Roll flinched when the die hit their target.

"Nahahahaha! Later, losers!" Numberman jetted into the data stream for areas unknown.

"Did he just say... 'Later, losers'?" Lan's eyelid twitched at the cliché. He didn't even bother to move from his position, sprawled out on the ground.

"Yes. He got away, too," Roll pulled Lan to his feet.

"That little...!" Lan simmered for a moment. "Saito-kun! Saito-kun, answer!"

"W-What is it Lan?" Saito blinked at his navi owlishly.

"...Were you sleeping?" Lan pouted. "Saito-kun...!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" The human blushed. "It isn't that I forgot you, I just... was sleepy?" Lan's expression softened a little. Only a little.

"Um... Did something happen?" Saito frowned when he noticed that Lan's HP had gone down a little.

"Yes! Numberman attacked us!" Lan huffed.

"What! Are you two okay?" The operator looked from Lan to Roll and back.

"Yeah... No thanks to you!" Saito flinched at Lan's words.

"I'm really sorry, okay?" He sighed. Lan eyed him for a moment, as if he was checking to see if his operator was lying or not. "Aw, come on, don't you trust me?"

"I... O-Of course I do, you're my operator..." Lan was taken back by the sudden accusation.

"That doesn't really mean you trust me..." Saito frowned.

"I do!" The blue navi pouted and folded his arms stubbornly.

"Saito..." Meiru put her hand on Saito's shoulder. "Lets plug them out. I bet Lan and Roll are just tired." She gave her friend a reassuring smile and plugged out her navi.

"Okay. You're probably right," Saito turned to his pixilated friend. "Sorry for accusing you like that."

"Whatever," Lan shrugged and returned to his PET.

"Did you find Numberman?" Higure asked from over Saito's shoulder.

"Um... Sort of ." The boy shifted, unsure of how the chip otaku would take the news of his navi's latest assault. "He attacked Lan and Roll then fled."

"They didn't hurt him, did they!" Higure's eyes widened with horror.

"Um..." Saito glanced down at Lan.

"I only wish..." The blue navi grumbled.

"No," Saito announced. If Numberman had been hurt, Lan wouldn't have been in such a bad mood.

"Hey, everybody!" a familiar voice announced its arrival. The little mob of net battlers turned to see Yaito walk through the door. "Papa decided he didn't like that company after all, so we came back early. Miss me?" She smirked.

"Yaito-chan! Thank goodness!" Saito sighed. Hopefully Yaito could come up with a plan to get to Numberman.

"Boy, have we got a lot to tell you!" Dekao grinned. As the group of battlers explained their situation, Lan fiddled absently with some spare data he found. Eventually, he managed to turn the data into a small program. What it did, he wasn't sure, even though he was the one that made it. It blinked up at him owlishly.

"Um, hi?" the navi offered.

"Hello," the program responded.

"What do you do?"

"I have no function specified."

"Then how can you be a program?"

"I don't know. You're the one that made me."

"Oh... Okay... Umm... I know! Why don't you help remind me of stuff? Like when to wake up, and other things that I forget I'm supposed to do."

"You must be a very lazy or useless navi."

"S-Shut up!" Lan frowned. "You shouldn't say things like that to the person that created you!"

"I don't mind keeping up with things. I should be capable of it." The program shrugged off Lan's last comment as if it never happened.

"You've got some attitude for a simple program..." Lan frowned, a thought suddenly struck him. "Saito-kun might be mad that I made a program without telling him..."

"Oh, I see I'm unneeded?" The program cocked its head to the side.

"Er... Sorry..." Lan shifted. The program just nodded.

"I will break down my data then..." Lan watched in slight horror as the program basically deleted itself, then reformed into junk data, without a mind and without a purpose.

Lan shivered. That's what a program was; something that could easily be deleted and recreated. It was nothing more, and nothing less. Just data. Lan was a very advanced program, but still a program. It unnerved him to see data be... destroyed like that. None of the other navis seemed to care. Perhaps it was because of Netto? Lan mentally smacked himself and shook his head. Thoughts like that would only cause him more trouble.

"Lan?" Saito's face appeared on the monitor.

"Huh?" The navi straightened himself up and turned to his operator. "What is it?"

"We've come up with a plan to stop Numberman, are you up to it?"

"Of course! It's time to make that freak pay!" Lan grinned with anticipation.

After Saito had told Lan the plan Lan had started to grin with excitement. When Saito asked if it was really ok he was shocked. His friend was worried that he the daredevil Lan was scared. He scoffed and told him that he would be okay. Only Roll noticed the lines of worry on Saito's face.

The first part of the plan was to get Numberman in the right area, specifically an area where there were no other navis to get hurt. This part was tricky because the deranged navi was very upset and not easily maneuvered without his knowledge.

"Glyde, make sure that he does not see you." Said Yaito in her best bossy voice

"Yes, Yaito-Sama." He said and went back to scouting the area.

He was flying over the area that Numberman was last seen. He knew that he could not let the navi see him so he flew very low to the ground. But he was still high enough to see quite a distance in front of him. As he flew the dim outline of Numberman came into view and he landed.

"Yaito-sama, I have found him."

Lan smiled as he heard Glyde's voice come over the incom.

"Come on Roll!" he said grabbing her hand. "Time to get him!"

Roll smiled and nodded. She had never seen this side of him. He seemed like an excited little boy more than anything.

Lan sneaked over to the coordinates that Glyde had given them. "Okay he should be here." Whispered Lan

"Just make sure he doesn't see you." Said Meiru urgently

"Got it." Said Lan and Roll together

They saw his outline and started to sneak up. They both had numbers made out of binary in their arm, hoping that it would lure him to the area he wanted. But when they got close enough, Lan could tell something was wrong.

"Roll-chan, I don't think.."

"BOO!" said a voice behind them. Both navi's jumped a foot in the air.

"Ha ha! You think you could sneak up on me! The great Numberman-sama! Think again!"

He threw some dice out and Lan and Roll jumped away with ease.

"Well so much for sneaking." Said Lan

Roll nodded.

"So time to do this my way!"

"Wait, Lan what do you mean your wa-" But Roll was cut off as Lan jumped in front of the rampaging Numberman.

"Oy, stupid! What do you mean 'Numberman-sama' did you get elevated to royalty on your little trip? Because you sure aren't a 'sama' in strength comparison."

Numberman started to get angry and turned red. You could almost hear his data start to simmer.

"Baka! If you think you are so great come and face me!" said the little brown haired navi

"Lan..." Saito groaned as he heard his headstrong navi's voice over the incom.

To put the frosting on the cake Lan stuck his tongue out at the navi.

That did it! Numberman flew in a rage at the small navi. Lan just grinned, turned around and ran. He continued to run and got on the one site that was safe.

Then as he came in through the link Lan raised his hand. Then flew towards as Numberman put a blaster in his back.

But then a bright colored net flew over him pinning him to the ground.

Lan walked over to the trapped navi.

"Was that supposed to hurt?"

Numberman thrashed against the bonds holding him down. "Let me go! I, the great Numberman-sama shall make you rue the day you were created, I..."

"Can someone shut him up PLEASE?" yelled Lan

"Thank you, demasu!" said Higure rushing over to the computer.

"Can you uninstall the upgrade?" asked Saito.

Higure nodded and took the now captured navi into his PET. "Thank you very much." he said again

"Don't mention it." said Meiru

"I don't mean to be the one to bring bad news, but isn't the N1 Grand Prix starting in like, 10 minutes?" asked Lan

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'm going to miss my battle!" yelled Dekao. "You little punk, you waited to say something on purpose didn't you!"

"Shut up, blubber butt, at least I did remember!" Lan shouted back

"Why you..."

"Will both of you stop bickering?" said Yaito. "I can get you there in no time at all!"

"What? How?" asked Dekao, who was beginning to get desperate.

"Everyone sit down." Yaito instructed. She turned around and sat in her own seat motioning for everyone to follow her example.

Saito plugged out Lan and sat on the couch. Meiru and Dekao did the same.

Yaito picked up her remote and pressed a few buttons. "Gate three open!"

Then her seat lifted up and a seatbelt strapped her to it, then it zoomed down a hole. Saito and his friends watched in amazement as Yaito disappeared.

"What the hell is this?" asked Lan

Just then seatbelts strapped Meiru, Saito and Dekao to the couch and they went down too.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Saito was not happy with this new surprise.

The couch came to a sudden halt.

"Thank good..." said Saito, only to be rushed sideways at the same speed. The piece of furniture came to rest inside a giant... airplane.

"Well, that was certainly weird." said Lan "Let's never do that again."

"Agreed!" said Saito

Dekao could only nod, his hand still clutching the arm rest.

Yaito came in and had her seat put down right in front of her friends. "To the N 1 Grand Prix, pronto!" she said

"Yes, Yaito-sama." said a lady, wearing what looked like a maid outfit at the controls.
"The first match might just be a default win!" said Kero yelling into her mike loudly. "Dekao and his navi Gutsman are nowhere to be seen! What will happen in the next minute, what a way to start the competition!"

"Heyyyyyy! Don't start without meeeee!" Dekao hung from a rope above the stadium with his PET strapped around his neck.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Look at that, Dekao has make quite an entrance here for the first battle of the N 1 Grand Prix main dome!"

Dekao let go of the rope and fell to the ground. "Ooof"

Lan saw this up in the plane. "Heh..."

"Lan, don't." Saito warned.

Dekao quickly got up and walked up to the simulator. "Plug in, Gutsman, transmission!"

Gutsman came in to see a very generic navi standing in front of him.

"Ready and, BATTLE START!" yelled Kero

"Guts hammer chip, slot in!"

"Guts hammer!" Gutsman slammed the weapon into the ground. But the small lithe navi jumped up.

"Sword, slot in." said his operator.

"Mega guts punch, slot in!"

"Guts PUNCH!" Gutsman threw all he had into the blow, making the poor navi log out immediately.

"AND THE FIRST BATTLE GOES TO DEKAO AND GUTSMAN! SETTING A NEW RECORD LOGOUT TIME OF 17 SECONDS!" Kero was in hysterics.

"Yay Dekao!" said Meiru

Just them Kero was handed a paper. "Wait ladies and gentlemen! A NEW record was just set by Enzan Ijuuin, and his navi Blues, with a log out time of 3 seconds!"

"This just keeps getting better and better." said Lan

"Welcome to the N1 Grand Prix, everyone!" Kero's voice boomed over the loud speakers for, what Lan thought, was the one-hundredth time. "Now we're ready to continue with the first round battles! We'll have the next match line ups in just a few moments."

The crowd boomed with excitement, fans cheering and raising their voices to cheer for the competitors. Loud people, pushy crowds and close seats; everything a good tournament needed. And everything that Saito hated.

The boy was, needless to say, miserable with his hands tightly clasped over his ears. He hated crowds, loud noises and tight spaces. But even he had to admit that this was exciting.

"This is going to be great," Lan cheered from his PET, "right, Saito-kun?"

"Oh, yeah, great," Saito said as he smiled at his companion. "Hey, I think the others said they were going to meet just outside of the stadium for some lunch….."

"In an hour," Lan finished, quirking an eyebrow at his operator. "You're not getting cold feet, are you?"

"No, no, nothing like that," Saito said, "I'm just a little... um... I don't like being in places with lots of people."

"Pansy."

"Hey," the human grumbled with a pout. "You'd better be nice, Lan, or I'll take us right back home."

"And pass up a chance to show off to Meiru?" Lan challenged. "This'll be a good time for you to show her that you're a real man!"

Saito couldn't hold back a blush. "R-Real men fight with words, not fists..." he muttered in hopes of curving his navi's violent attitude.

"You know," Lan said after a slight pause, "if I could, I would smack you for that." Saito simply shrugged off the navi's comments and stood up.

"I'm going to head to the meeting spot we chose," he said as he pocketed his PET. "I can't stand all of this shouting anymore."

"Pansy."

"Shut up."

"Saito-kun, we're lost," Lan reported after nearly an hour of hunting for the picnic area.

"This place is so big," Saito sighed and looked down at his PET. "Can't I just plug you in and have you look for a map or something?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't love you enough."

"You're just lazy."

"Your point?"

Saito groaned and slipped the device back into his pocket. Lan was never helpful unless they were fighting. The boy started to complain when he noticed a familiar, black and purple clad figure standing near a balcony with a crystal ball in hand. "Miyuki-san," he called as he ran over to the woman, "what are you doing here?"

The woman said nothing, her cool gaze on the battle arena. Saito paused then followed the direction her attention was focused on. Tohru had just entered the arena and was starting to plug in Iceman as Kero screamed at the audience.

"Alright! Iceman's first fight!" Lan cheered excitedly as he watched the very strange opponent enter from his PET. The navi was definitely odd, his body looking more like a rocket launcher than anything. He thought he heard Kero call him Breakman in between her shrieks. "I wonder if he's strong or not..."

"This match will be over in one minute," Miyuki finally said, taking both operator and navi by surprise, "Tohru will win."

"Are you sure?" Saito asked softly, giving her a strange look. The woman always seemed to take him by surprise.

"Yes, the future has been revealed to me," she said without looking from the battle.

"What a load of bull," Lan snorted, succeeding in getting his operator to put him on mute.

Saito sighed and turned to watch the battle as well. Iceman's opponent was definitely strange, but tough looking. He couldn't help worrying a little for his friend and said friend's navi.

When the buzzer rang, the opponent immediately fired off his missiles, only to be blocked by Tohru's battle chip, Ice Cube. Breakman made some sort of comment to Iceman then fired another missile directly at the warrior Eskimo. Tohru shouted a command and Saito silently cheered as he watched Iceman's Freeze Bubble not only take out the missile, but his opponent as well, turning the navi into an ice sculpture, all in one minute.

"That was amazing," he said as he turned to look at Miyuki, "you were right after all!"

"It's going to rain," Miyuki said bluntly, once again taking Saito slightly off guard. With that she turned and walked away.

"Rain?" Saito muttered to himself before turning his PET off mute.

Lan was fuming and had a few choice words for his operator. "Saito-kun, you as--" But he was stopped short in his sentence when the human switched him on mute once more.

"Oh, well, now for that picnic," Saito said to himself as if nothing had passed between him and his navi before walking out of the arena.

The skies looked clear overhead, but he wondered if there were stormy clouds ahead in the future as Miyuki had predicted.

"Here it is!" said Masa setting down a large wooden box filled with bentou's. "It's Masa's specially filled calcium lunch!"

Saito, Meiru, Yaito, Dekao and Tohru all looked into the box apprehensively. "Well it doesn't look to bad." Said Saito quietly.

Meiru nodded. "Let's try it, if it's too weird we can always pretend we're late for your match against Myuki."

Lan snorted. "Are you guys that worried about fish head's cooking?" he said loudly.

"Lan, shhhhh, or I'll press the mute button again." Said Saito, with a warning tone.

Lan shut his mouth and let Saito eat. After a few bites of the lunch Saito looked at Masa. "This isn't that bad Masa-san. Thank-you."

"Well, of course it's not bad! Calcium makes everything taste good!" he said striking another pose.

Everyone laughed nervously and ate the rest of their meal in silence.

"AH! I'm late, I'm going to be late for my match!" Saito was running as quickly as he could to the stadium. "Lan, why didn't you warn me!"

"You told me to be quiet, remember?" came the retort.

"Lan, why on earth are you so mean some…." Saito ran straight into Higure. "Ahhh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean…"

"It's all right Saito-kun." Saito looked up and saw who he had run into. "To tell you the truth I was looking for you."

"Yes, I know I was late, I'm so sorry!" he said

Higure laughed. "No, no. I was looking to give you something." Higure pressed some battlechips into Saito's hand. "Use these to win today's battle for me, huh?"

Saito shook his head. "I can't accept these." He said

"Of course you can." Came Lan's voice. "The man is just trying to help you."

"Yes, now you better hurry along before you're disqualified, huh?" said Higure.

Saito was suddenly reminded of his rampage minutes before. "Ahhh! I'm gonna be late!" he yelled running to the arena.

"Not that way, dork, that's the sub arena! Our battle is in the main arena!" yelled Lan.

"What's the difference?" asked Saito

"Uhhh, the main one is about three times bigger?"

Higure watched Saito run off towards the large center dome. "Good luck, Saito!" called Higure. The Higure felt a drop of rain on his nose. "That's funny, it was clear outside a few minutes ago."

Saito ran inside and took a look at the chips that Higure had given to him while he made his way to the main fighting dome. He had acquired 8 new mini bomb chips.

"That gyp, those chips are some of the weakest chips of all! Win the battle for me, ha! What a joke." Said Lan

In truth, Saito wasn't that happy either, he knew he wasn't good enough to pull a stunning win with strong battle chips. Mini bombs were practically useless to him. "Well, it's the thought that counts." He said, sighing.

"Right, so that reflects how much he thinks or the thought he puts into things. Either way, he can't be too bright."

"Lan!" Saito berated his nave.

"Ahh! Left turn here!" said Lan loudly.

"I thought you weren't giving me directions." Saito teased

"I am when it means I get to battle."

"Some navi you are." Saito scoffed

"Hey, you're the one who is late, not me!" said Lan defensively.

"You were supposed to warn me!" came the exasperated reply.

"Yeah, well it's the principle of the matter." Said Lan

"Saito Hikari and his navi Lan are late to their first match! If he does not get here within the minute he will be disqualified!" boomed Kero's voice over the loud speakers.

"Saito Hikari will be here in thirteen seconds." Said Myuki, her glassy eyes reflecting the stadium light.

"Well, did you hear that folks, Saito is going to be here in under ten seconds! He better hurry up!" this brought a chuckle from the crowd.

Ten seconds later Saito came dashing into the field red faced and panting. "Sorry…. I'm…. late…." He said

Myuki nodded. "I knew you would be. Thank you for making it on time."

Saito blushed, though it was hard to tell as he made his way to the jacking in area.

"Be a good operator, dork. I don't want to get kicked out in the prelims." Said Lan, in an almost quivery voice.

Saito grinned. "I don't plan to."

"You're awfully cocky for someone who just picked up net battling." Said Miyuki in her monotone voice.

The jab she took hurt Saito. "Say's you." He muttered as he jacked in Lan.

"You'll pay for insulting Saito!" said Lan

The area in front of Lan pixilated and fell away to reveal a tall bony navi with a permanent grin etched on his face.

"Then show me." He said in a gravely voice.

Lan laughed. "Bring it on, bonehead!"

Overhead a loud buzzer sounded, the giant screen flashed "Battle Start", and a loud roar rose from the crowd. Saito's and Lan's first N1 battle had just begun.