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"It sure is weird..."
"What's wrong, Lan?" Maylu turned to look at her companion, as they headed home from school.
"Yesterday I went out to stop SavageMan- again." Lan made his reply as he continued to walk along the street. "And this kid was there and almost got himself killed. After I rescued him, he wouldn't talk to me, and disappeared without a trace while I was crossing out."
"He did?" Maylu pondered the puzzling story, trying to come up with a possible solution for it. "Maybe he was just scared. If I had just gotten involved in an Asteroid Navi fight and didn't know anything about it, I'd be terrified."
"He might have been," The brunette shrugged, "But I get the feeling that there's something else involved… Kind of like… he was in trouble."
Meanwhile within MegaMan's PET, the Bomber and Roll were discussing that very subject.
"It was strange." MegaMan shrugged, "He just clammed up as soon as we rescued him. I don't know what it was, but there was something about him that-"
The Blue Bomber broke off his sentence, as a familiar beep echoed through his helmet. Immediately, he activated his PET's vibrate and blink features, since that sound meant that Lan had a new E-mail.
"Lan! Mail!"
"Huh? What is it?" The Bomber pulled his PET out of its belt clip and glanced into the screen.
"It's from your mom." MegaMan hastily scanned the message. "It's a reminder to take that Custom Disk over to your dad at SciLab."
"Yikes!" The Op's eyes went wide. "I almost forgot!"
"News flash: You did forget." The Blue Navi quipped, "You just now remembered because of the E-mail that your Mom sent. Really, Lan, you have to start being more dependable-"
"Yeah, yeah, we can discuss the details later." Lan slid his Terminal back into its pouch to halt the lecture. That done, he bid a hasty farewell to Maylu and set off for SciLab.
Fortunately for Lan, the trip was pretty much uneventful, and so he managed to reach SciLab with minimal delay. And so roughly fifteen minutes later he arrived at the giant complex.
Hastily entering the lab and bypassing security, the brunette worked his way up to the top floor of the complex where his father's office was located.
Upon reaching the office door, Lan pulled out the disk so that he was ready turn it over to his father.
"Knock, knock!" The brunette called out as he pushed the door open and entered the office.
"Oh?" Dr. Hikari looked up, a bewildered expression on his face over seeing his son entering the room. "Hi, Lan. What brings you here?"
"You forgot this at home," The Op held up the computer disk, "And Mom asked me to bring it to you after school."
"And he almost forgot about it himself." MegaMan spoke up from his PET. "Luckily he had me along to remind him."
"I was getting around to it," Lan defended himself from the accusation.
"Sure you were."
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"Hey, Shun, will you get your head out of the clouds and back down here to earth? We don't have time to daydream about PETs and the N1!"
The gray-haired kid shot the older teen an angry look, but reluctantly turned away from the store window.
"We'd better come back with something." Slim muttered between his two companions, Gregory and Sean, "Or Scratch'll have our heads for two days in a row. Yesterday he was lenient, today he'll be downright angry."
"If you can call his reaction 'lenient'." Gregory seethed bitterly. "I don't understand that guy. We do all the work and take the risks, but if we come back empty handed from a rough day, he hit's the ceiling. It ain't right."
"Just be glad that he took you in," Slim snapped back, "Otherwise, who knows where you'd have ended up. But enough of this, we need to make a hit, and it needs to be a big one."
"How about we try up that way?" The stocky teen pointed up the street, "it's the better side of town, someone up there should have plenty of money."
"I suppose we could try, its better than nothing." Slim shrugged and glanced over at Sean to get his approval- or where Sean should have been. The kid was gone, vanished from sight.
"Not again!" Gregory clenched his fists in frustration, "I don't know why we put up with that twerp, we should let him starve for leaving us in the lurch all the time."
"Oh, shut up. You know as well as I do where he is." The rail-thin teen turned and set off down the streets.
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"Ah, I did forget about it." Yuichirou quickly filed the disk away in his computer system. "Thanks, Lan."
"Not a problem," The brunette gave a 'thumbs-up', "Anytime, Dad."
"Speaking of which, I was thinking about packing it in and leaving early today." Dr. Hikari stood up and closed down his computer system. "Care to join me as I head home?"
"Sure."
A few minutes later, the pair had left the office and were exiting SciLab.
"So, what's the special occasion?" Lan asked as they pushed open the doors and left the building.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean why are you leaving SciLab early?" The brunette pushed the topic, "Normally, you work late, so why are you leaving early tonight?"
"Well…" Yuichirou grinned uneasily. "I have my reasons."
Lan just shrugged and dropped the subject, he wasn't about to force the issue any more than he already had. But still, it was strange that his father would just take off and leave at 5:00 PM, regular time, instead of working late like usual.
"Hey, watch where you're going, pal!"
Lan blinked and looked up to see his father stepping back from a large stocky teenager. Apparently, his father and the teen had bumped into each other.
"Eh, my apologies." Yuichirou blinked and stepped back in confusion. Where had this kid come from? It was like the teen had come out of nowhere and walked into him on purpose. "I didn't see you standing there."
"Whatever." The teen shrugged, then pushed past the two Hikari's to continue on his way. "Just keep your eyes open next time, old man."
"'Old man'?" Lan repeated, anger seeping into his voice. "Nobody talks to my Dad like that!"
The teen just smirked and continued on, vanishing into the crowd of people milling about the streets.
"That guy's got a lot of nerve." Lan pronounced his analysis of the individual; however, before he could launch into a full-blown tantrum about the teen, MegaMan's voice interrupted his moment.
"Hey, Lan, look there!"
"What?" The Op glanced about, bewildered as to what his Navi was talking about.
"There, straight ahead!" The Bomber screamed, "it's the kid we rescued yesterday, the one with the light gray hair!"
"Where? I don't see-" It was at that exact moment, that Lan's eyes landed on a familiar gray head of hair. It only took a fraction of a second for the Op to realize that his Navi was right- it was the kid they had rescued yesterday. The boy was slipping into the crowd and heading north up the street.
"Hey! You!" The brunette shouted after the boy, "You with the gray hair!"
For one fleeting instant, the boy stole a look over his shoulder. Even with the distance between them, Lan could easily read the emotion in the kid's eyes: fear.
To Lan's surprise, the youth broke into a run, forcing his way through the crowd, away from the brunette Operator.
"Huh?" The Op blinked in amazement as the child dashed away. Overcoming his surprise, Lan burst into a run, giving chase the child.
"I'll be back, Dad!" Lan shouted over his shoulder as he dashed off, "Don't wait up for me!"
"Lan, wait! What's going on?" Yuichirou screamed after his son- but it was too late, the brunette was already out of earshot.
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"What's his problem?" Lan bobbed in and out of the crowd, desperately trying to keep the kid in his sights. The guy was amazingly fast for his physical condition, and giving Lan a run for his money as he struggled to keep up.
Gray Hair dashed about a corner and into a narrow alleyway, temporarily slipping out of Lan's view. Undaunted, the Net Saver whipped around the corner in pursuit.
"Hey!" Lan shouted as he entered the alley. No sooner had he entered the street, than his eyes widened in amazement. Gray Hair was talking to a short thin teen- and the stocky guy who had run into his Dad!
Unfortunately, Lan's shout had alerted the two teens and the boy to Lan's approach. Almost instantly, the group began running towards the other end of the street. Evidently, they didn't want a confrontation.
As he skated past the rows of trash cans down the alleyway, the Net Saver was sure that he heard one of the teens say: "He's onto us!"
Lan pushed himself faster, he had to catch them…
For a brief moment, it looked like fortune was favoring the Net Saver. When Gray Hair turned to run, somehow he tripped over his own feet sending him tumbling to the ground below. The kid hit the ground hard, and Lan spotted a small brown object go flying from the boy's right hand.
"Hey! You okay?" Lan picked up the pace, a few more feet and he'd be able to help the small boy to his feet.
"Stay away from him, Net Saver!"
The brunette's head snapped up, to see the stocky teen snatching the lid off of a trash can. Stocky teen whipped his arm back and then sent the lid spinning through the air, Frisbee style.
The Net Saver saw the rotating disk coming a fraction of a second too late. Just as he reached the gray-haired teen, the trash can lid rammed into his stomach. The force of impact knocked him off of his feet, and sent him crashing to the ground beside Gray Hair.
"Come on, Sean!" Thin Teen rushed over and dragged the boy to his feet. Half-leading, half-dragging Sean, Thin Teen rushed back up the alleyway taking the boy with him.
"We gotta get out of here!" Stocky Teen followed his companion's lead.
Gasping and sputtering, Lan gripped his bruised chest with his left hand. As he worked his way to his knees, the brunette raised his head to see the targets of his search vanish around the street corner. Hastily, the injured Op forced himself to his feet, and walked up to the mouth of the alley.
Lan glanced up and down the various streets, but it was no use. The two teens and Sean were long gone, vanished from sight.
"Well," The brunette groaned and rubbed his chest. "That went well."
"I don't get it." MegaMan shrugged from his PET. "Why'd they take off like that? It was like they were afraid of you because you were a Net Saver… You don't think?"
"Think what?"
"That they were up to something illegal, and so you, as an Official, freaked them out."
"I don't know, it doesn't make any sense." Just then, Lan's mind clicked with an idea. Turning, the Op cast his gaze across the area, and it wasn't long before the brunette's eyes settled on the brown object that Sean had dropped when he had fallen.
The Op walked over to the object and picked it up. As he turned it over to examine his find, his eyes wondered in surprise. It was a wallet, a very familiar wallet-
His father's wallet.
Amazed, Lan flipped the pouch of leather open. Sure enough, the name 'Yuichirou Hikari' stared back at him.
"Oh boy…" The Net Saver groaned. "It's Dad's wallet!"
"Whoa." MegaMan's voice reflected his surprise. "What's it doing- Those kids picked your dad's pocket?"
"That's what it looks like." Lan studied the object, "You don't think that… Sean's a thief do you?"
"I don't have that answer, Lan, but you know what we saw. And it's hard to argue with that."