Netto woke up suddenly, feeling very disoriented and very alarmed. He had been plagued by a nightmare of some sort, only now that he was awake he couldn't really remember what it had been about, only that it had somehow involved his cousin. Shaking his head to clear it Netto peered over at the clock on the wall and saw that it was close to noon. It certainly didn't look like it, not with the sky covered in such dark clouds. There was no snow falling that the boy could see, which wasn't an entirely bad thing. The city had more than enough snow at the moment.

"Are you alright, Netto-kun? You were tossing in your sleep pretty badly," Rockman said, his tone worried.

"I'm fine, I think," Netto replied softly. "Just had another bad dream. I seem to be having a lot of those lately."

"I don't think that's surprising, considering what you went through.... Netto-kun! What are you doing?!" the blue navi shouted as Netto flung the blankets on the floor and jumped out of the bed. He went over to the other chair where the clothes his mother had brought him were and quickly changed into them.

Again Rockman asked, "What are you doing, Netto-kun?!"

"Getting out of here," Netto replied. "I can't sit around anymore doing absolutely nothing. Don't you want to help Enzan and Blues?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"But what? I'm as healed as I'll ever get in this place, and you know it. So I'm going, and I'm asking you not to try and stop me."

Rockman looked very unsure. While he could understand Netto's desire to actually do something instead of lying in the hospital he was torn between keeping Netto safe and going to fight the Dark Loids. Somehow though he doubted that he was going to be able to persuade his brother to stay in the hospital, so he would just have to go along with it and try to keep Netto from getting into to much trouble.

"Alright, Netto-kun. I won't try to stop you. But you have to promise that you'll leave the fighting to the other Net Saviors if things get to rough, alright?"

"You worry too much, Rockman," Netto snorted, pulling his coat on. Kichi had left it in the room in case the power had gone out due to the storms.

"Promise me, Netto, or I'll tell the doctors your trying to leave!"

"Okay! Okay! I promise!"

Rockman sighed as Netto picked up his Pet and placed it in its holder. Making sure that he had his battle chips as well, Netto peered out into the hall to make sure that none of the nurses were around before slipping out of the room. The elevators were down the hall, just past the nurses' station, but luck was with them it seemed, as none of the nurses were there at the moment. Hurrying down the hall before his luck ran out Netto reached the elevators without incident and pushed the button, then waited for the elevator to arrive.

After what seemed an unusually long wait, the doors finally opened and Netto jumped inside, quickly hitting the down button and closing the doors. The elevator began to go down, but then luck seemed to run out on them. Without warning the elevator lurched to a sudden stop, sending Netto to the floor. Groaning, the boy sat up and rubbed his head where it had hit the ground.

"Netto-kun! Are you okay?" Rockman asked.

"Yeah, just bumped my head. I think the elevator is stuck."

"I think the power just went out all over the hospital."

Netto groaned and rose to his feet. The emergency lights had come on in the elevator, but the elevator itself was completely stuck. The only way out was through the emergency door in the elevator ceiling. The strain on his arms was a bit painful, and he felt it all the way down through his chest, but Netto managed to pull himself through the emergency door and out into the elevator shaft. The shaft was dimly lit by emergency lights, so at least Netto wouldn't walk into the walls.

"Netto-kun, we should wait in the elevator until the power returns," Rockman said sternly. "You'll hurt yourself trying to climb up the shaft."

"Don't be silly, Rockman. I'm fine, and besides, it could be hours before the power comes back on, and that would be as pointless as me staying in my room to begin with."

"If we had stayed in the room we wouldn't be stuck in the elevator shaft."

Netto growled and refused to reply. Instead he walked across the elevator to the small ladder that ran up the side of the shaft, all the way to the top and began to climb. Rockman sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get his brother to listen to him.

The climb was a bit of a long one, but eventually they reached the top of the shaft, where there was a door to the roof. Netto opened it, bracing himself agains the cold wind that hit him as soon as he did so. The snow crunched beneath his shoes, and the overcast sky was growing steadly darker. Having gotten out of the shaft, Netto headed towards the emergency stairwell so that he could get down to the ground and go find Enzan.

The moment Netto opened the door though, something hard connected with his stomach, knocking the air out of him and sending him too his knees! As he gasped for breath he looked up to see a woman dressed in winter gear staring down at him coldly. In one hand she held a Pet, in the other a gun.

"So this is the brat that that navi wants? Looks rather pathetic to me. You're certainly more trouble than you're worth, kid. Get up!"

"W-who are you?" Netto asked, groaning as he got to his feet.

"That's none of your concern. Just be glad that my boss wants you alive."

"Your boss can go to hell!" Netto shouted, charging the woman, trying to get past her.

"Stupid brat!" the woman growled, dropping her Pet to grab Netto and pull him back. The boy stuggled to break away, so the woman simply hit him over the head with her gun, knocking him out cold.

"Netto-kun! Netto-kun! Wake up!" Rockman shouted, trying to wake his brother up, but to no avail.

The woman picked up her own Pet and put in back in its holder, then fished Netto's Pet out of its holder. The look she gave Rockman was one of both scorn and amusement.

"Sorry, but my boss only wants the brat, which makes you worthless. So its time to say good-bye to your NetOp, because its the last time you'll see him...ever."

Ignoring Rockman's angry shouts, the woman put her gun up to the Pet and pulled the trigger.

Laika slowly came awake, becoming aware of his surroundings bit by bit. His entire body ached so bad that he didn't even want to consider moving. So he just layed where he was and listened to the sounds around him, which was mainly the sounds of footsteps coming and going around him.

It was warm, wherever he was, though Laika felt that it was a bit too warm. He heard footsteps coming closer to him, then felt something cool being pressed against his forehead. He groaned and tried to roll over onto his side, but failed in doing so.

"Hey, you're awake?" a young voice asked. "Here, try to drink some of this tea."

A cup was held to Laika's lip as a stong arm lifted his head up so that he didn't choke. The tea was luke warm, and tasted bitter, but surprisingly it eased the pain in Laika's body enough that he could open his eyes. For a moment his vision was blurry, but when his sight came into focus he found himself looking up at a young girl with spikey black hair and dark eyes. She smiled when she saw that his eyes were open.

"Good, the tea helped. Searchman will be glad to know you're awake," the girl said.

"W-who?" Laika asked as the girl laid his head back down on a pillow. "Who is that?"

The girl looked at Laika, half-confused, half-alarmed. She looked over at a small computer monitor where a soldier-like navi was listening. His expression was both startled and worried. Laika looked over at the navi, but there was no spark of recognition. Like everything else, he didn't remember any of it, if he had ever known it at all.

"Tell me," the girl said softly, "do you know what your name is?"

"Laika. What's yours?"

"Pyp. Its short for Pyper, but no one ever calls me that. So, where are you from, Laika?"

Laika was silent for a moment as he tried to search his memory, but after a few minutes, he came up with nothing. He had no idea where he was from, like just about everything else, it was a blank.

"I have no idea..." He said, his voice trailing off. "I feel really tired, though..."

"Oh, go ahead and go to sleep then. You were in pretty bad shape when we found you."

There was no reply from Laika, he had already fallen back to sleep. Sighing, Pyp looked over to see if there was anything she could do to help Searchman, but he had already vanished into the Net. Foxman would do his best to help him out though, so there wasn't much for Pyp to worry about there. She just worried about Laika instead. It was hard not having any memories other than the name you had. Pyp knew this all to well, because when she had showed up on Sketch's doorstep a month earlier the only thing she could remember was her own name, and that just barely.

"So, how is he?" Sketch asked, walking into the room.

"He has amnesia," Pyp said. "He doesn't remember anything but his name. What are we gonna do, Sketch?"

"Nothing, at the moment. He isn't strong enough to be moving anywhere yet, and there's to much snow anyways. And I have a strong feeling that something bad is about to happen, so for now its best to just stay put, and do what we can for him. What's his navi have to say?"

"Searchman disappeared into the Net before I could talk to him, but I think Foxman can handle him. Foxman can handle just about anyone."

Sketch nodded and went back to his business of fixing another computer, and left Pyp to keep watch over the injured Laika.

Anuzu yelped and whined as Tainn pushed against Kichi's body, trying vainly to wake their human friend up. They had felt something wrong descend over the area for just a brief moment, and Kichi had collapsed in that time. The feeling had passed, but Kichi had not woken up, and nothing the wolves were doing was helping.

((We need to get help, Tainn!)) Anuzu said. ((We need a human to help her!))

((Then go find one!)) Tainn ordered. ((Go quickly!))

The half-wolf nodded her head and took off through the snow, casting her nose and ears for any signs of humans nearby. It didn't take long before she was out of sight of the rest of the Pack and in the forest surrounding the lighthouse. The snow wasn't as deep here, and she was able to run much faster, but still her senses didn't pick up any signs of humans.

She was afraid that she wouldn't find any at all and that Kichi would die of the cold when her nose picked up the scent of a fire close by, and fire meant people. Changing her direction Anuzu ran towards the smell of the smoke.

Coming to the edge of a clearing Anuzu spotted flames dancing in the air, and standing around the fire two humans, one male, one female. The man was holding a computer and typing something while the woman held a Pet. Neither of them, while Anuzu sensed that they were close to nature, had a receptive mind to which she could speak, which would make things difficult. Oh well, no one had said getting the help to understand her would be easy, which just meant she would have to use other methods of getting them to follow her. The simplest of which was...

Hesitating for only a moment, Anuzu charged out of the trees and knocked the woman over, grabbed her Pet and darted back into the woods, pausing at the tree-line to look back at them. The woman protested loudly and got to her feet, and with the man came running after the half-wolf, which was exactly what Anuzu wanted. She made sure to stay out of their reach, but within sight so that she didn't loose them. The Spirits only knew where she'd find another human to help.

((Brothers! Sisters! Hide, the humans are coming!))

Anuzu dashed into the field where Kichi lay unconscious, and dropped the stolen pet on top of her body, then barked loudly to get the human's attentions. She looked enough like a dog that with the collar Kichi had made her wear she would just look like Kichi's pet instead of a wild animal. None of the other wolves were around, though Tainn was most likely very close by, hidden by the snow he shared color with.

"Daisuke-kun! There's someone lying in the snow!" the woman shouted, kneeling down next to Kichi.

The man, Daisuke, looked down at the woman, just as alarmed as she. "Saloma, I know her. She's helped me a few times when I was in the mountains. Her name is Kichi."

Daisuke placed his head near her mouth to see if she was breathing. She was, but the breaths were shallow. Her lips had already begun to turn blue from the cold, and her body was shivering as well. Saloma took her coat off and placed it over Kichi to try and warm her up. Then she picked up her Pet and said, "Woodman, call for an ambulance."

"Kichi? Kichi, wake up," Daisuke said, shaking her shoulder very gently. "Kichi, can you hear me?"

Kichi had been flying around randomly, unable to ido anything and was feeling quite angry about it as well. She was more than ready to tear something apart if she could actually touch it, but that had not been in her luck. It was then that she had felt a very faint tug from somewhere below her. It was an odd feeling, one that drew her downwards, though she couldn't see where she was going. The further down she went the stronger the tugging became, though, and the further she went the warmer she began to feel.

"Kichi? Kichi, can you hear me?" a familiar voice whispered in the air around her. It was Daisuke!

"I'm here, Daisuke! I'm here!" Kichi screamed back, following the sound of his voice and the tugging sensation, feeling stronger by the second. Then she was in sight of her body, and being able to see it, she was able to return to it.../i

"...Daisuke?" Kichi asked softly, the words barely escaping her trembling lips as her eyes fluttered open. "W-what are you doing here?"

((You're awake! The human did it!)) Anuzu shouted joyfully, licking Kichi's face. ((I am glad. We are all glad!))

"Damn them!" Nomde roared as he felt his spell being broken. The Seer had returned to her body, and the same trick would not work on her twice. Cursed humans, they always interfered with his plans. He would simply have to take his anger out on the boy when Kyan brought him in. That would make the Seer very sorry indeed....