Begin Chapter!

"Sorry."

Chaud's shoulder rolled backward from the impact as a short gray-haired kid collided with him. Without offering more apology, the kid brushed past and continued running on his way.

The double-haired Net Op glanced over his shoulder after the squirt, but the kid was already bounding around the next corner and escaping from view.

"Hmm…"A hum slipped from Chaud's lips as he peered after the kid in thought.

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"Not bad, Shun." Gregory's eyes went wide as he thumbed through the billfold in his hands. "Man, you lifted Chaud Blaze's wallet!"

"You're kidding me." Slim snatched the billfold and looked through it to make certain it was real. "You aren't kidding… This is unbelievable!"

"Look at that ID." The stocky teen pointed to the identification card residing in the wallet. "There's nowhere we couldn't go once we rig that!"

Slim whistled in amazement. "Good work, Sean."

"Yeah…" The gray-haired kid's voice gave away the fact that he wasn't listening.

Wondering what had Sean's attention, the two teens looked over. They saw Sean thumbing through a stack of Battle Chips.

"And what are you going to do with those?" Gregory walked over and squatted down to peer over Sean's shoulder.

"None of your business!" Sean whipped the Chips away and stuffed them in his pocket.

"As if you've got any use for them." The stocky tormentor continued, "You don't even own a PET, much less a Navi to use them."

"Wait a moment…" Slim moved over to stand before the gray-haired kid. "Where did you get those?"

"Same place I got that wallet, I lifted them from Blaze." The boy snapped back. "Now leave me alone!"

"All right, all right." Gregory took a step back. "Keep your rotten chips for all I care."

"Come on, we'd better get rid of that wallet." The skinny teen started to walk away. "Once Blaze finds it missing, it's going to be one hot tamale."

"Good point, let's go Sean." The stocky teen turned around- and then blinked in surprise.

Sean was nowhere in sight. As usual, he had slipped away while the others weren't looking.

"Not again!" Gregory hissed in anger.

"How does he do that?" Slim moaned. "Come on, we'd better find him."

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"Bingo!"

"What'd you find?" MegaMan peered out of his PET, trying to spot what Lan had spotted.

"Right there!" The brunette pointed through the store window, to the display poster sitting on the other side of the glass.

"Uh… a rock concert?" The Bomber glanced at his Op in complete disbelief. Not even Lan could be that dense. "I don't really think that you dad's into heavy metal."

"Not that poster." Lan shuddered at the mental image of his father decked out in rock and roll garb and waving an electric guitar. "The other poster. The one of Dwayne Jones."

"The classical pianist?" The Bomber nodded in understanding. "Good idea. I think that that's a little bit more their speed-"

MegaMan cut his sentence off an all-too familiar 'beep' resounded through his terminal. "Hey, Lan, you've got a message from Famous."

Instantly, the brunette's hand had ripped his PET from his belt and raised it to look in the screen.

"What's up, Mr. Famous?"

"For the millionth time, it's just 'Famous'." The scientist shook his head in frustration. "I don't go around calling you 'Mr. Lan', do I?"

"Mr. Lan… that's got a nice ring to it. Don't you think?"

"Oh…" Famous' head dropped in surrender. "I wanted to let you know that the tech boys have picked up a lead on Gray Hair."

"You have?"

"Yes, his real name is Sean Obihiro." Famous glanced over the information on his screen. "His parents died in a car accident when he was very young… He bounced in and out of various foster homes… And then he was reported missing about three years ago; and up to now, we haven't seen a trace of him."

"Now that's weird."

"We haven't picked up his trail since." Famous wrapped up his summary. "And about this morning's attack. Did HardMan affiliate himself with any organization?"

"HardMan…? No," Lan shrugged. "he didn't; just tried to flatten MegaMan like a pancake."

"I see, keep your eyes open. I've got a nasty feeling that something's about to break, and it won't be pretty when it does."

"Sure thing, Mr. Famous."

"It's just FAMOUS!"

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"I'm ready, Sean."

"Very good, Zero." Sean looked into his PET Advance.

"I don't know about this." Missy glanced around the Net Arcade nervously. "If Scratch finds out that we're here instead of back home, we're really going to get it."

"I don't care." The gray-headed kid frowned defiantly as he remembered his beating. "I've had about enough of that guy…"

"You don't mean that and you know it." The girl shot her companion a reprimanding look. "Where else would you go? Back to the-"

That remark would touch one of the few nerves that could set Sean off, and Missy realized that fact too late to check herself.

"Don't go there!" The boy's voice came out so loud and angrily that several nearby people shot curious looks at him. "If you want to go back, then go. But I'm staying here."

Missy stared at the boy for several long moments; her emotions were tearing her apart with indecision. She wanted to stay and watch out for Sean, but her own fear kept tugging at her as well…

There was only one choice, she turned and scurried away.

The boy glared after her for a long moment, then turned back to the business at hand.

"Jack in! Zero!" Sean whipped the PET around his index finger like an old fashioned gun-slinger would with his pistols as he brought the device up above his head. Setting his eyes on the Jack In Sensor on the nearby arcade unit, the boy dropped his arms to chest level and hit the 'Transmit' button. "Power up!"

A burst of red light shot out of Sean's PET and leapt into the sensor. From there, the light raced into the computer Network and shot down into the floor, where it reconstituted itself into the Net Navi Zero.

Zero was a tall Navi, easily matching ProtoMan's height. His boots and gloves were a medium red and several brown cords were wrapped around the gloves and boots to keep them in place. His bodysuit was a pure white and ran up into his red chest armor. Red, square shoulder pads exploded out of the chest plate, and swept out a good distance from the Navi's body. Zero's head was covered by a red helmet, the sides fashioned into long fins that swept from his cheeks out past the back of his head.

"You looking for a Net battle?"

Zero turned to find a bizarre Net Navi standing behind him. The Navi's nobody was nothing more than a rectangular rocket launching station. It's head was styled like the tip of a missile, with a single visor acting as eyes. Spindly eyes and legs projected from the launch-pad body, bearing its weight.

"What if I am?" The swordsman turned to face the launch-pad on legs.

"If you're looking to brawl, then I can give you a powerhouse match." The boxy Navi stated. "The name's BreakMan. So, you going to battle me?"

"Sean?" Zero checked with his Net Op.

"Go ahead, we have to start somewhere."

"All right!" BreakMan turned and dashed across the Network to the arena, with a more reserved Zero following at a short distance.

A few minutes later, they had arrived and were prepared to have at it.

BATTLE START!

"Missile attack!" BreakMan's body tensed as a fleet of missiles left his launcher and shot through space towards Zero.

The swordsman remained mute as the rocket sped at him.

Sean wasn't even watching the battle, he was too busy thumbing through his Battle Chips.

"Z Saber." The red Navi clenched his fist, causing his default weapon, a green sword, to appear on his wrist.

The swordsman waited as the rockets whipped towards his body.

Zero lifted his head to stare into his adversary's attack. A split second later, the missiles hit home; the attacks crashed into the swordsman and exploded into clouds of fire, smoke, and ash.

"Easiest Net battle I've ever won." BreakMan smirked at his opponent's destruction.

"I do not believe that a winner has been determined."

The rocket Navi glanced up in horror to see Zero exploding out of the dust clouds unharmed.

"I don't know how you pulled that off, but it won't save you!" BreakMan leveled his body and fired off round after round of his propelled explosives.

The swordsman didn't even flinch. Without so much as slowing down Zero wove back and forth, slipping away from the missiles and dodging them effortlessly.

"Blast it, he's fast!" The bulky Navi thrust out his arms, discharging two larger missiles on the red Navi. "Seeking missiles!"

"Area Steal!" For the first time in the Net battle, Sean came to life. His right hand ripped the aforementioned chip out of his folder and into the air above his head. Bringing his arm down, the boy fed the chip into his waiting PET. "Battle Chip in! Download!"

No sooner had the Terminal registered the chip data, than Zero's frame turned negative for a split second as he 'blinked', vanishing from sight and teleporting somewhere else.

The rockets raced on, passing harmlessly through the air without striking anything.

"Great…" The rocket Navi slowly turned around, wondering where his opponent was going to reappear. "This is just great…"

The soft sound of footsteps caught BreakMan's attention, causing the bulky Navi to spin around to face the noise. Sure enough, the Navi found Zero racing towards him from behind.

"I've got you now!" The rocket Navi lifted his right arm, apparently waiting for his adversary to reach point-blank range before he attacked.

"And we've got you right where we want you!" Sean selected and slid a chip into his PET. "Samaria Sword, Battle Chip in! Download!"

Almost instantly, Zero's right hand transformed into a thick, red, oval hilt, with a thin but deadly blade attached.

Zero exploded into even greater speed. His body became nothing more than a red blur as he flew across the arena at his opponent. A second passed, and Zero was standing eye-to-eye with BreakMan, the rocket Navi hadn't even had time to get a shot off.

"Now a winner has been determined." Zero smiled grimly. The swordsman snapped his blade up over his opponent's head- and then brought it down.

BreakMan exploded into a cloud of pixels, before his body transformed into the words 'Log Out' and he vanished. The rocket Navi had been defeated.

"All right!" Sean literally jumped in joy as he realized that Zero had won the combat. "We did it, Zero! We won!"

The boy's enthusiasm was contagious, and before Zero had realized it, he had broken his stone face and was grinning slightly.

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"And that takes care of that." Lan patted his pocket in satisfaction as he continued down the street.

"You really lucked out." MegaMan shrugged from his PET. "Not to mention cleaned out. What little savings you had are pretty much shot now."

"Yeah, but it was worth it." The brunette stopped at the street corner, as the lights changed to allow the cross traffic to pass. "I think…"

The lights changed again, allowing Lan to cross the street. No sooner had he stepped up to the other side, than his eyes landed on an all-too-familiar head of hair- gray hair.

Lan's mind instantly matched the face with a name, it was Sean.

"HEY! SEAN!" Acting without thinking, as usual, Lan screamed the boy's name and broke into a run. He had to get to the boy and find out just what was going on here. "Sean!"

The gray-haired boy looked up, his eyes filling with fright, as he stepped out of the arcade and back to the crowded streets. That voice calling him, it belonged to Lan Hikari. The boy looked over his shoulder, to see the Net Saver rushing towards him.

Fear grabbed him in his iron grip. Sean couldn't get caught, he wouldn't get caught, and above all, he was NOT going back, no matter what.

The gray haired boy broke into a run, dashing down the streets away from his brunette pursuer.

"Not again!" Lan groaned as he pumped more speed out of his legs. "Why is it that every time we see this kid, we end up chasing him?"

Unfortunately, he didn't have an answer to that question, nor did he have a choice. Lan ran on, squeezing between people, ducking through openings in the crowd, and pursuing the fleeing boy with everything he had.

End Chapter!

Next: Plot development!