Author's Note: Hey everyone! This took awhile longer than I expected, I caught a cold so it's been slowing me down. Nonetheless, I'll try to keep going when I find inspiration! So anyway, reviews are very much appreciated, and it may even help me feel inspired! So please, if you have time, have a say! I take nothing with offense!
Chapter 4 – Intruder Alert and the Unbeatable Four
They played at the beach for hours having a blast, especially the Navis. Before they knew it, night had come, and they decided it was about time to head back to the hotel. They gathered at the dinner table to think of what to do next.
"I don't wanna go to bed yet! I haven't had this much fun in ages!" Netto said enthusiastically. The others nodded in agreement.
"Hey, I've got a great idea!" Meiru gathered everyone's attention. "Why don't we have a party? We can play games, tell scary stories, it'll be great!"
"That sounds fun!" Roll said. "I've always wanted to have slumber parties like the ones you had with Yaito, Meiru!"
"And I just happened to bring loads of snacks too!" Dekao said. Everyone cheered.
"Then it's settled! Let's go wash up and meet in the lobby in say, one hour?" Everyone agreed to Meiru's time, and they headed up to take showers.
Rockman had just finished having his first shower, being told about shampoo, soap, and the like by Netto beforehand. Netto jumped up and went in to take his shower.
"Sure took your time, Rockman!"
"I'm sorry, Netto! I forgot what shampoo did for a moment!" He was still drying off his hair. "How come it takes so long for my hair to dry?" He said to himself, and Netto wouldn't have heard if he was asking him anyway. Rockman only wore a pair of clean, blue pants, another loaner from Netto. He waited for his hair to dry before putting on the plain, white shirt that Netto had given him along with the pants.
Rockman looked at his arm. 'Wonder if my buster still works…' Rockman tried calling on his weapon.
"Rock buster!" He yelled, and as usual, his arm was encased with his favorite, trusty sidearm. "Nice!" He reverted it back to his arm, rubbing it with his left. He didn't notice anything buggy in the process, and decided to share this info with the other Navis to see if they could still do it as well. Rockman lay on the bed waiting for Netto to finish.
"The real world… It's almost too good to be true!" He stretched his arms and grinned to himself. "Now I can finally hang out with Netto like a normal guy!"
Finally, Netto got out of the shower. Rockman sat up. Netto wore virtually the same clothes he had given Rockman, except they were blue shorts. He had already put his shirt on, not being the kind of person to wait for his hair to dry.
"You ready, buddy? It's almost time to head down." Netto said, cleaning his ear with his pinky.
"I was ready a long time ago! And you say I take a long time in the shower!" Rockman laughed and put on his shirt, and the two headed back down to the lobby.
On first inspection, it seemed that Rockman and Netto were the first one's down. Then they noticed Enzan and Protoman standing by the corner, not doing anything in particular.
"The other guys here yet?" Netto asked Enzan. Protoman answered, seeing as how Enzan seemed deep in thought about something.
"So far, it appears no one has arrived yet." Rockman looked around the room to be sure.
"I dunno, something doesn't seem right…" Rockman was right. Netto being able to get down SECOND rather than last is something wrong in itself. Little did he know the others had planned to come down early and play a little prank on Netto and Rockman.
"Damn! Enzan came down before we could tell him the plan!" Yaito whispered slightly louder than she meant to. They were all hiding behind the doorway between the lobby and the dining room. "Looks like we'll have to change the plan a bit." Behind her were Glyde, Meiru, Roll, Dekao, and Gutsman.
"Dekao, Gutsman, you know what to do, right?" Dekao and Gutsman nodded in confirmation. "Go get ready and wait where I told you to." They crept off as quietly as they could. Yaito turned to Glyde. "Head for the suite, and prepare all the traps. I'll take care of the hallway." Glyde left and went upstairs to the top floor suite.
"Okay, but what do we do now?" Meiru asked silently. Yaito gave them a wink.
"You two have very important roles! Here, take these." She handed each of them a little device, similar to a transistor radio. She whispered into Meiru's ear, who giggled, before leaving for the stairs, taking Roll with her. "This is gonna be great!" Yaito grinned menacingly, then left for the stairs herself, but not before laying a note on the ground and throwing a rock.
THUD.
"What was that?" Netto said with a jump. The others heard it too, and had looked around cautiously.
"We'd better go find out." Enzan said commandingly, and led the four to the area of the sound. They found themselves standing by the staircase, with a note lying on the floor. Protoman picked it up.
'I have your friends. If you wish to find them, then come to the top floor. –The Giant's Ghost.'
"What the hell?" Netto said urgently. "Come on, no time to waste! Let's go!" Netto made to run up the stairs, only to find himself being held in place by Protoman's death grip.
"Don't be so reckless, moron." Enzan scolded. "I don't believe in ghosts, so this must be someone real. They were skilled enough to capture everyone without us even hearing a sound until now, so obviously, this is a trap."
Netto still made to run, but slowly gave in, accepting that Enzan was right. "Fine… But we still have to move fast! Meiru and the others could be in danger!"
"We know how you feel, Netto." Rockman said, slowly heading up the stairs. "But if we get caught now, then we won't be able to help them."
The group headed up the stairs, cautiously heading for the top floor. Luckily, it seemed that nothing was seen to slow down their ascent. They reached the doorway at the top floor.
"What's supposed to be in here? Any idea?" Netto asked Enzan. He looked at him calmly.
"When we first arrived, I did take a look around the place. This is the hotel suite, basically the room reserved in a hotel for the VIPs." He grabbed the doorknob and twisted it. "Anything could be in here, so I'll go in first. Protoman, you got my six."
"Yes sir!" Protoman edged behind him. Netto and Rockman observed as Enzan and Protoman showed a brilliant display of teamwork, much like a special ops team. They entered the hallway, scouting in every direction for the unknown threat.
"Anything?" Rockman and Netto had stood at the doorway, sure to be ready for any attack.
"Clear. Move in." Protoman motioned them in, and they headed in after them, standing behind them.
"Okay, we'll move slow, just to be-" Enzan was cut off by a sudden voice.
"SO! YOU HAVE COME TO SAVE YOUR FRIENDS?" A loud yet eerie voice boomed out. The four boys looked around anxiously, hearts beating faster by the second at the realization that no one was there. "YOU CANNOT HELP THEM! I WILL SLOWLY TORTURE THEM, AND YOU WILL BE NEXT!" They heard screams, very familiar screams.
"That's Meiru!" Netto yelled in despair.
"And Roll too!" Rockman yelled after him.
"How illogical…" Enzan was trying to find an acceptable reason for this, which was even harder due to the pressure of urgency.
"Help us! Netto!" Meiru screamed.
"Rock! Where are you?" Roll followed.
As Yaito had planned, Netto and Rockman couldn't take it anymore.
"GRAH! That's it, I'm going!" Netto burst into a run, followed by Rockman.
"I'm coming Roll!" He yelled, and the two disappeared down the dark corridor. Enzan sighed and ran after them.
The corridor was found to be surprisingly long, with twists and turns galore. Then they reached something they didn't expect.
"What the?" Netto and Rockman stopped running to be confronted by a dead end. "What's this about?"
Enzan and Protoman finally caught up to them.
"Hey Enzan, how do we get to the suite?" Netto asked urgently.
"This… Should've been… The way…" Enzan said, still trying to catch his breath. "I don't know why… This wall's here…"
"ARGH I don't care!" Netto began ramming the wall, in an effort to break it down.
Yaito and Glyde were watching them, inside the ceiling. She and Glyde had went in to put some peepholes while everyone was preparing, as well as setting up the fake wall among other things.
"That's it, step back Netto! Rock Buster!" Rockman pointed his buster arm at the fake wall, intent to blow it to bits. Netto moved aside and let him loose. It only took one shot to take out the wall, and the group had continued down the hallway.
"I didn't know our weapons were still available." Protoman said, keeping a mental note to try out his sword later.
They continued down to reach another roadblock. They came face-to-face with an odd group of people. They looked closer and realized something.
"Those guys are robots!" Netto took a step back. Rockman stepped forward and fired a shot at them, which had no effect on the robots' hard armor.
"My buster didn't work!" Rockman said urgently. The robots then took on a fighting stance and gave out a slightly metallic kind of karate yell. Enzan and Protoman stepped up.
"We'll take care of this." Enzan stepped forward and pulled out a foldable rod, similar to the ones used by cops. Why he was carrying one was beyond Netto and Rockman.
"Guess I could try this sooner than expected." Protoman brought his sword out, and stood by Enzan. "I'm ready when you are, sir."
Enzan gave a nod, and they dashed in, engaging the karate robots. Enzan made the first swing, hitting one robot across the neck, letting off a spark and shutting down the machine. Enzan's rod had in fact been electrically charged. However, the shutdown was only temporary, as they would get up again, continuing their assault with another metallic scream. Protoman took down another, and they continued like that. No matter how many times they downed them though, they would always get back up.
"There's no end to these!" Protoman said. Enzan wasn't listening, instead noticing something about the robots. He wasn't sure, but he decided now wasn't the time.
"You guys head on without us! We'll take care of this!" Enzan called to Netto and Rockman.
"You sure?" Netto asked, as Enzan slashed wildly at two more bots.
"Just go! The others are in danger!"
Netto and Rockman nodded, then ran past the group of robots, with Protoman and Enzan ensuring they wouldn't get hit. They made it through without a hitch, and continued to the end of the hallway.
"Well, you can end this charade now." Enzan dropped his stance, speaking into the air. The robots instantly went limp, and Protoman's sword disappeared.
Netto and Rockman reached the end of the hallway, noticing a sign saying 'reserved'.
"This is it!" Netto said to his partner. "You ready?"
Rockman nodded, then they threw the door open, and ran in screaming battle cries. They stopped at the center of the room, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. The lights were off, and they had no idea where the switch was. They looked around. Silhouettes of the bed and a few chairs could be seen with the little light coming from the moon through the window. There was however, a closet in the corner of the room completely covered in darkness. Netto pointed at it, and Rockman nodded.
Slowly, they made their way to the closet. The floor was tiled, echoing their footsteps in the otherwise silent room. They stepped up to the closet, grabbed the handles, and slowly made to open it…
"GRAAAAAH!" They jumped and turned around, hearing the growl from behind them. Two immensely large figures were towering over them, growling and raising their hands to attack. Rockman and Netto jumped back in surprise, letting out a yell before falling into the closet, where hands reached out and grabbed them. They yelled again and dashed out, trying to find some clear ground to see their attackers. They made to open the door to get more light, but it burst open with two dark figures standing there holding weapons. The light behind them prevented their faces from being seen, so Rockman and Netto backed off yet again and jumped onto the bed. They stood there, watching all the ghosts closing in. Rockman was just about to pull out his buster when the lights suddenly came on.
"Argh!" Netto and Rockman shielded their eyes, the sudden transition to light blinding them.
"GOTCHA!" The 'ghosts' yelled simultaneously, then broke out in laughter. They didn't have to wait for their eyes to readjust to know who they were. Dekao and Gutsman had been the two big guys dressed in sheets, followed by Meiru and Roll in the closet. Finally Enzan and Protoman had come into the room just as they were about to leave. They imagined they purposely kept their weapons on them to surprise them. They also found that Yaito and Glyde had come in behind Enzan. They were all laughing like crazy.
"Holy crap!" Netto yelled, then sighed and fell onto the bed followed by Rockman. Everyone was still laughing, but stopped when they noticed Netto and Rockman had tears in their eyes.
"Hey… Guys, we're sorry, it was just a joke." Yaito tried to calm them.
"It's not that… It's just…" Netto started. "I was really worried about Meiru. I thought that you…" Meiru turned red, then looked down, feeling guilty.
"Roll… I thought you were… I thought I'd never see you again." Roll went pink, also feeling guilty about what they did.
Everyone went up to the bed to try and comfort them, apologizing over and over.
"It's… It's okay." Rockman said. "The important thing is that everyone is alright!" He wiped his face then gave a smile. Netto had also done the same.
"That's right! So now that we're here, why not have the party!" Everyone was happy to see them back to their cheerful selves. Especially Roll and Meiru, who felt really silly for what they'd done. They promised to each other that they would make it up for them as soon as they could.
Dekao and Gutsman had brought the candy up to the suite, the new spot for their midnight party. Everyone had gotten changed into PJs, and soon, they began the party.
END CHAPTER 4