While the room warmed up and while she waited for the rest of the gang to return, Pyp began to look through the man's pockets in hopes of finding something that would be able to identify him, like his Pet. She found battle chips in his pocket, but surprisingly there was no Pet! Sighing, Pyp guessed he had lost it in the snow when he'd fallen down. She'd have to go look for it after the others returned. She didn't want to leave this stranger alone when he was hurt, and she had a feeling Sketch, the gang's leader, would be happy if she left a complete stranger alone in their home either. Who knew what he'd get into if he woke up, and some of the stuff they had in the house wasn't exactly...safe in the hands of someone who didn't know what they were doing.
Through the window Pyp caught sight of a few lanterns bobbing in the air and the outlines of about ten people. The gang had returned, and were laughing and joking cheerfully despite the cold weather. They all burst into the room, loud as ever, not noticing Pyp or the stranger at first. Most of them were carrying bags of food, which gave Pyp her answer as to where they had gone. It wasn't until they had set everything down that they noticed that Pyp had brought something very interesting in from her trip.
"Pyp! What is that!?" Sketch exclaimed, pointing to the white-haired man lying on a small matress in front of the wood stove.
"Its a person, duh," Pyp replied, finding a more comfortable position to sit in. "I found him in the snow on the way home. He was unconscious and half frozen, so I couldn't just leave him there, could I?"
"No, I suppose not," Sketch replied, kneeling down to get a better look at the stranger. "He looks familiar though. I think I've seen him hanging out near the SciLabs."
"Maybe he's one of those NetSaviors?" one of the gang members suggested.
"That could be trouble if he is, Sketch," Naomi said. "Some of us don't exactly have legal jobs here."
"We can't just toss him out into the snow either," Sketch replied. "He stays for now. Pyp, did you find any identification on him?"
"No, just some battle chips. I figure his Pet must had fallen into the snow before I found him because I would have noticed it if it had fallen out on the way here. Twenty-six and I can go back to the spot and look for it," Pyp said, taking out her own Pet to look at the gold and blue navi.
"Fine. The more we know about this fella, the better off we are. Dress warm, its pretty cold out."
Pyp nodded and pulled on her heavy coat and boots, then her hat which looked like a musketeer hat, feather and all (think Puss in Boots hat those of you who have seen Shrek 2 ). A moment later she was out the door and on her way back into the downtown area of the city. The stranger was safe for now, she knew Sketch wouldn't toss him out, and he wouldn't let any of the others hurt him. There were a few who hated all cops in general, and even if the stranger turned out to be a nice person they wouldn't give him a chance. There wasn't much Pyp could do about that but hope that Sketch and his navi would be able to keep things in order.
It took about 15 minutes to reach the spot where she had found the man, and already the falling snow was covering the depression where he had been lying. Ice and slush were everywhere, since that was one of the places where the water pipes had been broken. It had taken awhile for the city officials to turn the water off, and the Net Officials and Net Police were still trying to find out what had happened. If the stranger was a cop, it was msot likely that he had been investigating the water break when he'd fallen and knocked himself out.
"You sense anything, Twenty-six?" Pyp asked as she began to dig through the snow, slush and ice.
"Its hard to say with all of this stuff in the way," the small navi replied. "Its interfering with my scanners. But I think there might be something over that way."
Pyp looked over in the direction that Twenty-six was pointing to. There was a wide line of slush and ice from the path the water had taken. Pyp walked along the path, poking into the slush every few feet when she thought she saw something, but so far her search had turned up nothing. Her hands were beginning to get numb from the cold, and her feet felt like blocks of ice when she began to think about giving up and coming back later on to try again.
"Pyp! My scanners are detecting a very low power source a few feet from where your standing! Its very distorted though."
"What? Is it the Pet?"
"It could be. Lets find it and see."
Pyp moved foreward a few feet and began digging at the snow until her hand connected with something hard. It felt like a block of ice, and when she brushed the snow away she found just that, but frozen inside was a dark green Pet. The screen was flashing, but Pyp couldn't see more than that. Moving quickly Pyp found a medium sized rock and began to chip at the ice until the Pet came free. The Pet looked undamaged, but there was no navi that she could see. Chances were though, that the Pet's internal systems were damaged, and she'd gave to get it back to Sketch to take a look at it.
"This must be the right one, the symbol flashing on the screen is the same as the one on that guy's coat," Pyp observed.
"Lets get back to the house and see if Sketch can fix it."
The Pet went into Pyp's pocket as the little girl turned and ran back the way she had come. She was eager to get out of the cold as well as to see what answers they could get from the Pet.
Kichi sat in the hospital next to Netto, watching the news with him. Every so often there was an update on the incident of the exploding water pipes, but so far nothing more was known other than that it had been cause by a virus. None of the news personel (sp?) had any idea where the virus had come from, but Netto and Kichi, and the Net Saviors of course, knew that the Dark loids had been behind it. The only question was why.
"Damned if they aren't trying to cause us more trouble than usual," Kichi cursed softly as the news switched to another weather report. There were more of those than there were updates on the broken water pipes, as there was a rather nasty looking blizzard moving closer and closer to the city.
"Huh? I don't get it?" Netto complained.
"Well, think about it. With the weather as cold as it is, and getting colder yet, breaking all those pipes would flood the streets, and the water would freeze very quickly. And having all of the streets frozen over will make it both difficult and dangerous to get around."
"Especially if they drive like you do," Netto teased.
"Shut up," Kichi snorted.
Netto sighed and leaned back in his chair. He felt so useless being stuck in the hospital. The wound had healed over, but the doctors still hadn't let him go. Netto was half tempted to just sneak out when no one was looking, but he had a feeling that Rockman would have a fit if he tried it.
Echoing his sigh, Kichi stretched and stood up, then tossed Netto the remote.
"Where are you going?" Netto asked.
"To do a bit more snooping around. Maybe I can find something your Net Saviors might have missed. See ya later."
Netto watched Kichi leave the room, then turned the tv off and got up himself. He was tired of sitting or lying in bed for such a long time. He felt like moving around for a change.
"Come on, Rockman, lets go for a walk. I need to burn off some energy."
"Alright, Netto-kun."
Netto stepped out into the hallway, and found it completely empty save for a single nurse sitting at the aid station. Given the bad weather that was coming in Netto had to wonder just how long it would stay that way. The nurse in the aid station smiled as Netto passed her but otherwise said nothing else. Netto walked down to the end of the hall, coming up to the window, which he stopped to look out of. The skies were surprisingly clear, despite the fact that the news called for heavy snow. There was frost on the window though, so there was no doubt that it was cold. Netto wiped the frost away so he could see better, but there wasn't much to see. The streets below were empty, though he could see the fresh tracks where Kichi's truck had been. Netto stood at the window for a few more minutes, then sighed and went back the way he had come.
"Netto-kun, lets go see if there's anything new on the news. If not, we can always call Enzan and find out what's going on," Rockman suggested.
Netto's face brightened at that suggestion. He'd only gotten to see Enzan for a few minutes earlier on, since Enzan had been called out to investigate the city water plant for any sign of who'd released the virus. Calling him sounded like a very good idea indeed.
"Alright. That sounds like a good plan to me."
Sketch sat at the small desk with a screwdriver in one hand and a small flashlight in the other. He had very carefully fixed the internal structure of the Pet Pyp had brought back, and he had finally finished it. The stranger was still unconscious, and while he was no longer frozen, his temperature had decided to keep rising, and now he had a fever. That wasn't to surprising, given the weather he'd collapsed in. Pyp and Naomi were looking after him at the moment, and the rest of the gang had scattered below into the old tunnel system that ran through the city to see what they could get into. One thing was certain, the tunnels were much easier to travel through than the now ice covered streets were. Sketch could only hope that the weather improved, though that didn't seem too likely at the moment.
"There, all finished," Sketch said, putting the screwdriver and flashlight down. "Now to see if the repairs worked."
Sketch turned the Pet over and turned it on, waiting with baited breath to see if it had worked. The screen flashed for a moment, then a soldier type navi appeared. The repairs had worked!
"W-who are you?!" the navi demanded. "Where is my NetOp?"
"Take it easy," Sketch said. "First things first, is that your operator?" Sketch turned the Pet towards the stranger so that the navi could see him.
"Laika-sama!" the navi cried out. "What happened to him?!"
"Pyp, the little girl with the feather in her hat, found him collapsed in a snow drift," Sketch explained. "She brought him back here where he wouldn't freeze to death, then went back to find you buried in a chunk of ice. You were then brought back and repaired by me. My name is Sketch, and the other person you see is Naomi. The rest of the gang is out an about. And what name do you go by?"
"I'm Searchman.EXE. And that is my operator, Laika. We're Net Saviors from Sharo."
"I thought so. We've seen you hanging around the SciLabs. Word of advice, though. There are a few people in the gang that don't take kindly to cops, so you might want to keep that bit a little quiet. Naomi, Pyp and I won't say anything, and right now...Laika, was it? is in no condition to being talking at all."
Searchman nodded, ever so slightly. The navi was in no place to argue as it was, so Sketch doubted he would get any trouble from him. And if he did try to cause trouble...well, Foxman would deal with him. Sketch's navi didn't take to well to troublemakers.
"Laika-sama..."
"He'll be fine," Sketch said reassuringly. "Pyp will see to that. She's been the one who's kept us all alive since she showed up on our doorstep a little over a month ago. Don't worry."
"He better be..." Searchman said softly. Not much of a threat, but there was nothing else he could say.
"He will be. You'll see."
