Netto didn't know what to do. In his hands was the PET of someone he would rather not want to see again. He wondered why Forte's PET was there with him at all, since Forte was an independent Navi…

That's right. He thought. Why does Forte have a PET? After all, he hates humans…This isn't making any sense at all!

Sighing in frustration, Netto got back up from his position on the floor and decided to try and find a way out. He decided to kick and punch at random places on the wall to see if there were any weak spots or hidden switches. He had no such luck, however, as the walls were too solid for him to break through.

Netto looked back at the door. He decided to observe it again to see if there was anything he missed in his panic to get out of the room. Walking over, his eyes scanned the rusty exterior of it before he spotted something.

"An electronic lock!" he exclaimed. "Alright! I can get out of here if I can plug in Rockman and…" he immediately cut off as he remembered his current predicament. Netto's face paled.

He didn't have Rockman. Checking his form over once more, he found that he didn't even have his battlechips with him either. No, the only thing he had on him was Forte's PET, and he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to turn it on. On one hand, he would be able to escape the room and find out where the heck he was. On the other hand, however, Forte wouldn't be so cooperative with him.

He again looked at the lock. He wanted to make sure it was working before he made a decision. If it was off and the door was just stuck, he would be able to open the door by himself eventually. However, if it was on…Netto leaned in to look at it.

"It's working…" he muttered. "Damn." That only left one choice.

Stepping away from the door, Netto looked back down at the black PET. What would happen once he turned it on? He then quickly reminded himself that if he didn't turn it on, then he would be stuck in the room until god knows when. Steeling himself, he brought his hand over the ON switch.

However, before he turned it on, he hesitated once again as his hands hovered over the switch. How was he going to deal with Forte? The navi absolutely despised humans, and he was quite sure that he wouldn't listen to him at all. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to put up with him for a while.

Well, I've taken huge risks before this, so what's another one? Netto thought as he made his decision.

He turned the PET on.

--

Rockman didn't know what to do. Haruka was in the living room sobbing uncontrollably and the Police were doing nothing! He sighed as he buried his face in his hands. For once in his life he felt useless; Netto was in trouble and he couldn't do a thing! What could he do?

Over the course of the last hour, he received no less then thirty e-mails from concerned friends. However, the most frantic one came from Meiru herself; she was apparently freaking out over Netto's disappearance. Rockman couldn't blame her, as most of everyone in Akihara was troubled about this too. He was so lost in thought that he didn't hear the door open and slam close.

"Haruka! I came as fast I could…" Rockman looked up as he saw the visage of his father, Yuuichirou. Haruka immediately ran over to him and hugged him as she sobbed into his shoulder.

"Oh honey, I don't know what happened! Last night, Netto was here, but now…!" she choked out, gasping for the words to explain the situation. "He wasn't here this morning…Rockman was there, and he didn't see Netto at all…"

"Shh…Dear, it'll be alright. We'll find him." Yuuichirou said in a soothing voice, trying to calm her down. It seemed to work, as Haruka's sobbing subsided. He looked up at the PET on the kitchen counter as he stroked her hair. "Rockman, I need to talk to you later. I need to know what fully happened.

The blue navi was about to point out that he didn't know any more than Haruka did, but he was silenced by the pleading stare that his father gave him. "Yes, papa." he answered reluctantly. Talking about it just made him more depressed.

Netto-kun…Wherever you are, I hope you are safe.

--

Netto was holding his breath as the PET started up. Everything now counted on Forte's cooperation with him, which he wasn't sure on. He was still thinking on how to talk to him when the PET was finished loading up. Anxiously, he looked downward at the screen.

Sure enough, there was the cloaked navi on the screen. However, he notice that the navi wasn't moving at all…Taking a closer look, he saw that the navi was unconscious. Netto released the breath he had been holding, somewhat relieved. Now he had time to think of a way to appeal to the navi.

He first thought of threatening to break his PET. It would scare Forte into working with him, mainly because the black navi was vulnerable and wouldn't like it. However, he quickly squelched that idea. That would only fuel Forte's hatred of humans and it would make it harder to deal with him. Besides, Netto didn't think that he had the guts to do it.

The second one was to tell him of the situation and hope that he would help. It was a long shot, but it seemed to be the more appealing of the two options available to him. However, Netto didn't dare get his hopes up, seeing as how it all depended on the navi's reaction.

Netto sat down, trying to think of more ideas. Unfortunately, all of them lead back to the main two he had come up with. He resolved that if the second idea didn't work, he would have to resort to the first one. That was something he didn't want to do.

However, he had no more time to think as he heard Forte start to wake up.

"Urgh..." Netto heard the navi moan as he awoke. He subconciously held his breath, waiting for the inevitable.

The cloaked navi finally got up to look at his surroundings. Looking around wildly, he saw that he was trapped inside some sort of area. "Where the HELL am I!" he roared out, dashing to and fro to find a way out like a caged animal. Netto sighed again; he expected this.

"That's what I would like to know too." he muttered loud enough for the navi to hear him. It had the desired effect as Forte looked up to see his face through the screen.

"YOU!"

--

"Alright Rockman..." Yuuichirou started, "I need you to tell me everything you remember before you shut down for the night. And please," he said while holding up a hand to keep Rockman from speaking, "Even if the details are the same from Haruka's story, I still need you to tell me. The more we know, the better."

Rockman sighed. "Yes, papa." He then proceeded to tell Yuuichirou everything from yesterday; everything from Netto waking up until him going to bed. When he finished, the scientist sighed.

"Well, we know he didn't run away." he stated plainly. From what Rockman had told him, there had been no odd behavior problems from his son over the past couple of days. Besides that, he would have taken Rockman with him too.

"But he wasn't kidnapped either, papa! If he was, the house's alarm system would have gone off!" Rockman protested. This didn't make any sense at all!

"True..." he sighed. "However, we can't leave out that possibility. If Netto was kidnapped, then we must assume that the kidnapper was either highly skilled or was able to temporarily disable the house's network." Yuuichirou remarked before burying his face into his hands. "Believe me Rockman, this is as hard for me to deal with as it is with you."

The navi slowly nodded. "I know, papa..."

--

Netto sighed for the umpteenth time. Forte was...being hard to deal with right now. He couldn't even get a word in because the navi had started ranting at him. Deciding he had enough, he turned his attention to the screen. "Forte, be quiet for a second!" he said sharply. He needed his full attention.

Unfortunately, it somewhat backfired. "And why should I listen to you, human?" he sneered. Right now, he was in a bad mood. He wakes up in some sort of prison, and now he had that stupid operator of his nemesis, Rockman, as the only company he had. He still wondered how he got there in the first place, though.

Netto was not in the mood to play around. "If you want to find out where we are right now, you will listen to me!" he stated fiercely. "We've been in here for who knows how long and I need your help!"

"Me? Help you? Very amusing, but I won't." Forte snarled. Netto sighed yet again. He knew it would come to this.

"Listen to me for one second!" He growled out. Forte huffed, but he kept his eyes on him to show that he was paying attention. "We'll both be stuck here unless we do something. That's why I propose a truce."

Forte narrowed his eyes. "A truce? What for?" Netto allowed himself a small smile. The difficult part was over, at least.

"Exactly what I said. I need you, and you need me for as long as we are stuck here. So until we can find our way home, we should work together." Netto stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

The navi snorted. "Feh. Work with you? Like I would ever lower myself to do that." he scoffed.

Netto decided it was time to pull out his trump card. "Fine then. However, you'll be stuck in that tiny little PET forever then." he stated. "Look at me! I'm the all powerful Forte! Yet, I can't seem to get out of this PET! What should I do!" Netto mocked. He hoped it would get through to Forte.

Meanwhile, the black navi was looking at the human with a growing visage of anger. Even though he tried to deny it, he knew the human was right. If he didn't accept his help, then he'd be forever stuck in this miserable excuse of a prison. He grudgingly accepted that he had no choice. "Fine. I'll help. However, once we get back, we go our separate ways again." he stated with finality. Netto nodded.

"Alright, now that that is settled...I need you to open the lock on the door so we can get out of here." he said as he stood up and walked to the door. "You ready, Forte?" he asked as he gripped the PET in his hand.

"Yeah." Forte grumbled.

This is going to be weird. Netto thought as he brought the PET up. "Plug in! Forte, Transmission!" he said as he fired the beam into the lock. Seconds later, he heard a click as the door opened. He blinked. "That was fast."

"Done. Let's go already, human!" Forte growled. The human frowned.

"Fine, fine. I'm coming fin-head." he remarked as he plugged Forte out. However, that seemed to rile the navi up.

"Fin-head? FIN-HEAD! How dare you, you disgusting human!" he raged. Netto smirked. It seemed he had a sensitive side after all.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't think you'd be so sensitive. Let's see what's out here..." He put the PET back on his waist clip and headed out into the hallway. Everything looked the same as it did inside the room they had been trapped in. There were no windows either, so they couldn't see very well. Netto spent the next five minutes bumping into random walls and cursing. Forte, although amused, eventually grew tired of it.

"Human, try going out to the left. I think the exit is over there." he stated, not at all hiding the amusement he had at Netto's predictament3.

Netto grumbled but did as he was told. Sure enough, he found a door. "Finally." he murmured as he opened the door. He quickly brought up his hands as light flooded into the room, temporarily blinded. When it died down, he opened his eyes. "Well, at least we'll finally know where we are at." he remarked to himself more than to Forte. Taking a deep breath, he walked outside.

"Wha...What! Where the hell are we!" Netto screamed out, disbelieving.

In front of him, everything was in ruin. Streets, cars, and even buildings.

Netto was suddenly very scared.

--

Next Chapter: In this God-Forsaken Land...: Netto and Forte now find themselves in a world of ruin. Looking for any signs of life, Netto eventually runs across several survivors from the ruined city. To find their way home, the two must now try and work together to find out what happened. Will it be possible for the two, with Netto's headstrong nature and Forte's hatred of humans?

--

Author's Notes:

Blame the crappy formatting for this chapter on WordPad, since I am unable to use Word currently.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the later than planned update. I am preparing for college and I also have several things to do outside of writing. Rest assure, I will do my utmost to write this fic, but it has to take the backseat in order for some other things before I can get to it. This means updates may be slow, so be patient until I write a new chapter.

Special thanks to JK and Quatre for betaing again. Give them thanks!

As before, please leave Constructive Criticism. I need to know if I'm doing anything wrong, so don't hesitate to point things out, no matter how miniscule they are!