(Chapter 9)
'That Baka, when I get my hands on him he's not going to live very long' Saratu's side of R-Pyra thought as she ran in the direction where she had heard the scream.
R-Pyra stopped and looked around. She was now where she and Ademu had run into Netto and Kurisutaru. She looked behind her and R-Rockman was following her. "What do you want Hikari?" she questioned.
"I'm sure it was your sister that screamed, and I don't want to see her hurt, maybe not as much as you, but I've become friends with her pretty quickly. Your partner might go after Meiru and Dekao too" Netto answered.
"Look, for Kuri-chan, I don't want, or need your help. I can take care of Dragoman without trouble, even if he is Cross Fused with Ademu. Go find your friends, I don't want you in my way" Saratu told him as she set off again.
R-Rockman looked around, and noticed something on the ground. Neta's PET. Her picked it up and looked at the screen.
"Neta, what happened? Where's Kuri-chan?" Netto asked, but got no response.
"She's not in sleep mode, but I'm still not sure if she can hear us Netto-kun. It might be a virus" Rockman told his other.
"I'll take her to Papa once this is over" Netto replied. He made a hole appear in his armor, and pocketed the PET, then closed it again. Then headed off in the opposite direction to where R-Pyra had gone.
(Meanwhile...)
R-Pyra managed to catch up with R-Dragoman. Heart was still with him, the two had her sister backed into a corner.
R-Dragoman noticed her, and tossed Umi's icon to Heart. "Transform her and take her to the net, I'll handle this" Ademu told her, she nodded. He then turned to face R-Pyra.
"Leave my sister out of this, she hasn't done anything to our cause" Saratu's side of R-Pyra told him.
"But she has Saratu, your feelings are getting in the way and it's because of her" Ademu replied.
Upon hearing this, Saratu snapped. R-Pyra still had her sword formed from earlier, she leapt torwards R-Dragoman. Her sword was now glowing a crimson color
R-Dragoman went into a fighting stance, with his sword forward. When R-Pyra reached him, he attempted to slash her, but she slashed at his sword, it snapped in two. Then her blade sliced through his armor, he yelped in pain from it. She had barely missed Dragoman's icon. A clear wound had been left in his chest after R-Pyra removed her blade. He put an arm over his chest to try and prevent any blood from escaping, and he fell to one knee.
R-Pyra put her blade to his throat "I should kill you, but you have saved my life more than once. I'll let you live this time Ademu, Dragoman. I won't think twice next time" she told the two coldly "Now, where is Heart taking Kuri-chan?" she asked, noticing the absence of her sister and the Navi.
"Sorry Saratu, don't know. Heart could be taking her anywhere, I can't predict her moves, especially since I haven't seen her for a while" Ademu answered.
(Elsewhere...)
"Wait, what?" R-Rockman asked. Meiru and Dekao had returned to their human forms and had Crossed Out. Both of them had their PETs in hand.
"We're fine Netto, what's going on? What's with all the noise?" Meiru questioned.
"Saratu's loose, her partner showed up, looks like he might've turned on her by doing something to Kuri-chan, and she's gone off looking for him" Rockman answered.
"Is Papa around? I need to take Neta to him" Netto asked.
"I think he went to shut down the Dimensional Area now that Meiru and me are human again, to try and stop what's going on" Dekao told him.
"Might be too late, knowing Saratu, she'll have probably caught up with her partner and they'll have moved to the internet" Rockman said.
"Give Neta's PET here then Netto, I'll Cross Fuse again and take her to him for you. You go find Saratu and see what's happening" Meiru replied, holding out her hand to recieve Neta's PET.
"I don't think Saratu's in a good mood, be careful" Netto told her as he got out the PET handed it to her, she nodded as she put it down so she could Cross Fuse.
(Minutes later...)
R-Rockman had his buster at the ready as he came around the corner. He saw a black haired boy lying on the ground, seemingly not moving. Both sides of R-Rockman guessed he was Dragoman's operator.
R-Rockman ran over to him and crouched down next to him. He managed to turn him over before Crossing Out. Their father had taken the dimensional area down. Netto gasped at seeing the wound after he caught Rockman's PET. He immediately called his father.
(On the internet...)
"Where are you taking me?" Kurisutaru asked. She mostly looked like her Navi, Umi, even down to the blue hair and eyes. The only difference was she still had her own face, despite the change in eye color.
"Somewhere, you'll see when we get there" Heart answered as she dragged the mermaid navi by the rope chip she had tied around her.
With the Rope Chip keeping her restrained, Kurisutaru could only wait until they arrived at where ever Heart was taking her. "What did you do to Mama?" she questioned.
"That's a surprise" Heart said and giggled to herself.
(Back at the Science Labs, later...)
"Still at the Science Labs Ademu, I guess that they didn't want you to bleed to death" Dragoman answered his operator, whom had just woke up.
"Well, that's it. I'm never taking a job from him again" Ademu replied.
"What are you going to do when you heal up then Ademu? We do need the money to live on" Dragoman questioned.
"I have enough to last me a good while Dragoman, or at least I should have. Then I don't know, I'll have to think about it when the time comes" Ademu answered. The something came to mind "Any word from Heart?" he asked.
"None, it's either Saratu found her already, or she got back to the server with Saratu's sister, and she hasn't had the chance to email us yet" Dragoman told him.
"Does Heart even know her way back to the Nebula server?" Ademu questioned.
The door then opened, and Meijin walked in. "Oh, you're awake Ademu" he said.
"How'd you...?" Ademu questioned, then turned to Dragoman.
"I'm sorry Ademu, you'd be surprised how good he is with PETs" Dragoman replied.
"My Navis were listening to the two of you, since Ademu woke up. If you're not going to work for Regal, will you help us stop him?" Meijin asked.
"I don't know, I don't want to hurt Saratu. I know I probably stepped over the line when I followed Regal's orders this time, but I still consider Saratu a friend" Ademu answered.
"I thought you did regular checks on the server here. How did our friend reform in the server, appear in the Dimensional area that was surrounding the building, twice, go back into the server both times, and not be detected?" Dragoman asked, Meijin looked at him.
"Your friend? You mean Heart? We found out she was there, and my Navis don't usually take too kindly to intruders to the server, but I convinced them to spare her, and then convinced her to help me. I think that she will take Saratu's sister to the Nebula server, like you told her to, but I think that with that, she'll find out how to release the kidnapped people, and do it for us" Meijin explained.
"Well, that'll be a start to stopping Regal, but I'm sure he has other tricks that he's going to pull on us" Ademu replied.
"Oh? So you told Heart to swipe one of the viruses we were studying, and infect Neta with it?" Yuuichiro questioned at the door.
"She did what? I never told her to do that..." Meijin told him.
"Heart's always been resourceful, knowing her, she just said that she'd help you to get away. Or of course, she did it to fool Regal that she was still completely loyal to him" Dragoman said.
"Yeah, ever since she was a baby..." Ademu added.
"A baby? You mean she was human?" Yuuichiro questioned, surprised. Ademu nodded sadly.
"She's my little sister, Osaka Michirure. Our parents were killed years ago, and we've been working on jobs to get money to live on ever since. Sometime after we eventually came to Regal, Michirure screwed up on one of her missions, and Regal had just recently found some plans for equipment to somehow turn people into Navis by using their brain waves. I don't know how it worked exactly, I never looked into it. Once he'd been able to build all of the equipment, he tested it on Michirure to make sure it worked. Once he had turned her into Heart, he put limitors on her frame so that she wouldn't be able to use all of her powers" Ademu explained.
"Is it possible to deactivate them so that Heart can use all of her powers?" Meijin questioned.
"Believe me, I've tried, and I can't do it. I bet both of you are experienced with this sort of thing so you might be able to do it. But the problem is getting Heart back here right now to do it" Ademu replied.
"Wait, if Regal used that method to turn her into a Navi, then would her body still be at the Nebula base?" Yuuichiro asked.
"As far as I know, it is. Her body is on life support while her mind is away. Michirure used to have Heart as her own Navi, our father made her before he died. One of the blocked programs she has is one that can let her release her AI and let her take control of any program or Navi that she wishes. Kinda like releasing her spirit from Heart's frame. If Heart's limitors could be deactivated, I could return her to her body." Ademu answered.
"You might be able to do that Ademu, but would she want you to if you could?" Meijin questioned.
"She never wanted to be a Navi in the first place, and she's been a Navi for about a year now" Ademu replied.
"If you can get her to come back here, then we might be able to help you return her to her body" Yuuichiro told him.
Ademu got another red PET out of his pocket, and entered a couple of commands "Heart, where are you?" he asked.
"You tell me Ademu-niisan, you're the one with the PET" Heart replied. Looking on the PET screen, it looked like Umi was still with her.
"No time for that, can you get back to the Science Labs from where you are? I explained our story, and two of the scientists there want to help us, I think one of them is Netto's father" Ademu explained.
"It'll be easier if you can just find a plug-in port and then just plug me out" Heart answered.
"Since Umi is still with you, not a chance. Saratu already injured me once, she'd kill me if Umi got lost on the net" Ademu told her.
"Where's her PET? Heart asked, pointing a finger at Umi.
"Good question" Ademu replied.
"I think it's inside me, I had it in my pocket before I got turned into a Navi" Umi answered.
(Elsewhere...)
"Please, Meijin asked us to keep you from touching her while this virus is developing. He tried having some standard navis touching her, and they were infected too" Kendoman told Roll, Rockman and Gutsman were also logged on.
Roll looked past him to look at Neta, her face had become paler than usual and red spots were beginning to appear on her cheeks. Most of her body had hardened, and it had been proven that she was unable to move on her own in the slightest, they were still unsure if she was still awake inside her frame. This was because it looked like her eyes had changed to glass.
"Will it become permanent if we don't do something about it soon, like the Neko virus?" Rockman asked.
"We're not sure of anything about the virus, we didn't have much time to study it before it was stolen" Kendoman answered.
"But with what time we did get, we found out that it has been designed very differently from the Neko virus, so it might be possible to cure Neta at any time in the virus' development, possibly even after her transformation is completed" Gateman added.
"But to do that, we need the virus to create a vaccine from" Punk said.
"And this virus is hard to come by? Where did you come across the one you had?" Netto questioned.
"It wasn't us that found the virus, it was one of the Science Labs' Navis" Gateman answered.
Roll walked back over to Rockman and Gutsman, and sat herself down. "It's too bad that we can't go look for it, since we don't know what it looks like. The only ones out of us who've seen it are Kuri-chan and Neta. But Kuri-chan's been kidnapped, and Neta was infected" she said.
"If you found one out on the net, then it would most likely infect you. That's why we're advising you not to go looking" Kendoman replied.
Roll was about to speak up again, but Punk cut her off "They're not very social, even to other viruses, meaning Rush wouldn't be able to go find one for us" he explained.
At that moment, the pack on Neta's back started to glow, and it changed into a large wind-up key.
"Well, speaking of Rush, would he be able to not be infected if he touched Neta since he's a virus?" Rockman questioned.
"It's worth a shot, but I really doubt it Rockman" Kendoman answered.
Roll called Rush, and a hole opened up beside her. Rush popped his head out, and barked. "What do you want Rush to do Rockman?" Roll asked.
"Turn that key, if she's sort of turned into a windup doll, then turning the key might wake her up" Rockman replied.
Rush nodded as he jumped over to Neta, and gripped both paws onto the key. He then turned it a few times, and then let it go. At first, nothing happened, except the key was moving.
Then suddenly "Thanks...Rush" Neta said quietly. Her mouth only moved slightly.
"Neta! Are you okay in there?" Netto asked. Neta tried to speak again, but the key stopped moving, and she went silent.
"It works! Rush, turn the key as far as it'll go, that should give us some time to talk to her" Meiru replied. Rush nodded and began turning the key. Once it wouldn't turn any more, he kept on trying to turn it.
"That's enough Rush, you can stop now" Roll told him, he relunctantly let go, pouting. The key started turning again.
"I'm fine for now, but it's irritating not being able to move. I overheard about Kuri-chan" Neta said.
"There isn't much we can do about it now Neta, some of the Science Labs' Navis are searching the net for her, but they haven't reported back yet" Gateman replied.
"Can you stand?" Rockman asked, Neta was also sat down, stiffly.
Neta attempted to move her legs, but they wouldn't bend. She shook her head "Not while this virus is infecting me" she answered.
"It's good to see you talking again Neta" Yuuichiro said as he appeared on a screen beside her.
Neta smiled slightly "It's good to finally be able to. Um, Yuuichiro-kun? I need a favor. Could you transfer Rush to my PET? We found out that he can touch me without anything happening to him, so if he was in my PET with me, he could turn this key in my back whenever I need him to" she told him.
"Key?" Yuuichiro asked, Rockman then grabbed the screen and moved it around to Neta's back, to let him see the newly formed key "Oh, I see, the virus made another development" he said.
"As far as we can tell, Rush is the only one who can even touch Neta without being infected with the virus" Netto replied.
"Well, he's installed in Meiru's PET, so the decision is down to her and Roll" Yuuichiro answered.
"With this happening, Neta needs him more than we do, so I don't mind" Meiru replied, Roll nodded in agreement.
"Get him to return to your PET and I'll transfer him" Yuuichiro said, Rush nodded and formed a hole, then jumped into it.
"Papa, are you sure it's safe, with Neta being infected with this virus?" Netto questioned.
"Rush has already proven that he's immune to this virus, I don't think there's anything to worry about Netto. Besides, with someone that can interact with Neta, it could make curing her somewhat quicker" Yuuichiro answered as he started the transfer.
"Thank you, Meiru. I'll find someway to repay you both for this when I'm cured" Neta told them both and smiled. Her face then went emotionless again as the key in her back stopped turning.
Once the transfer had finished, Rush appeared again "But Hikari-hasake, if Neta can't speak when the key isn't turning, how can she ask Rush to turn it for her?" Dekao asked.
"That's a good question Dekao. With Rush installed into her PET, she can use her mind to speak directly to Rush's AI, which I made sure could understand anyone talking to him. With this, Rush will be able to speak back to her, I'll teach Roll how to do it when he returns to Meiru's PET" Yuuichiro answered.
(End of Chapter)