'Please, the virus I was working on finding a solution to, Project Phoenix, has escaped.' Now she had his attention. 'Please. I can't do this alone.'

'And what do you expect me to do about it?' The boy asked. Even through the net his gaze was heavy, she felt trapped by it. The red navi looked across at the girl and then back at his net op.

'Chaud. She has no navi.' He commented. Her heart skipped a beat. She didn't have time for any of this but she did have the cute guy's name now.

'Hmm.' Chaud murmured. This was very strange. Generally everyone had some kind of back up navi they would use if their own became seriously damaged. But this girl had none with her, yet she was still exploring the net as if she was linking through a PET.

'Please. My navi…' Emma pleaded. 'I can't wake her up. She's just laying there on the desktop…'

'Your navi?' Chaud asked.

'She's hurt!' Emma cried. Protoman flinched, there was something odd about this girl, but he would have to tell Chaud later. 'Please. If you wont help me track the virus then please just wake her up.' Protoman looked at his operator, Chaud didn't look impressed.

'I'll wake her up. But that's all.' Protoman said. Chaud stared at Protoman confused. 'We are net saviours. We have a duty to help her.' Chaud sighed. Protoman was right.

'Fine then.' Chaud moaned. 'Open the pathway to your computer.'

It had been a little more difficult than Chaud and Protoman had expected, but only a little. The small blue mettaurs with samurai swords were stubborn things who refused to just simply be deleted. But it had got Emma and Chaud talking. They had to. Emma knew the easy way to defeat them.

'I'm going to have to alter their programming after this…' Emma mumbled to herself.

'Why?' Chaud asked. Emma hadn't realised that he had been listening.

'Because you know how to get past them, you're a security risk.' Emma answered quickly. She didn't like giving out information about her computer or any of her creations. 'She should be somewhere in this folder.' Emma pointed towards a pale blue folder on the desktop. Protoman walked up to it and it opened willingly. Data spilled out and so did the body of Angel X.

'Is that her?' Protoman asked. There was a slight hint of curiosity in his voice. There wasn't a navi like her.

'That's her, Angel X.' Emma said as she looked at the fallen navi with saddened eyes. She was sprawled awkwardly on the floor, laying on her side, and expressionless. 'Please Protoman…' He responded to her words without realising it and carefully rolled Angel X onto her back. She was worse off than she had originally looked.

'Chaud, we can't wake her here, she's disintegrating.' Protoman stated clearly. Emma closed her eyes and thought for a moment as did Chaud. They couldn't take her away…they couldn't…she was all she had.

'We'll have to take her.' Chaud said reluctantly. 'I gave my word that we would we would wake her.'

'No!' Emma yelped. Her eyes filled with tears. 'You can't move her…'

'Then you don't want our help.' Chaud declared. The sooner this ended the better.

'But Chaud…' Protoman started.

'You can't move her…' Emma said blinking back tears. 'But they can.' She signalled to the blue mettaurs with swords drawn that had been slowly creeping up on Protoman. 'It's okay, he won't hurt you.' With her words they calmed down a little.

'Met?' One asked Emma. She smiled back at it and wiped her eyes.

'They can save her.' She replied. Suddenly the blue mettaurs threw aside their swords and scurried over to Angel X. 'Follow Protoman and do as he says.' Chaud was, to some degree, surprised at how the blue mettaurs listened to her. They lifted Angel X onto their heads at looked up at Protoman expectedly. 'I need to be with her while you fix her…' Chaud, surprised, looked across at Emma. 'I…she…she'll expect me to be there when she wakes up. No doubt there'll be something she wants to tell me.'

'Can't you just watch from where you are?' Chaud asked. He didn't want to let anyone into Blaze Quest.

'And you'll just give me access from here? While I can still use my computer?' Emma responded. This was a rare opportunity to access Blaze Quest without hacking into its mainframe, which would be stupid.

'She has a point Chaud.' Protoman remarked. He knew just how much Chaud was against giving anyone free access to the company.

She walked through the automatic doors in awe of the building. It was a huge skyscraper which boasted both the best technological advancement and the combined style of all the ages. She looked around the lobby which was furnished beautifully. Emma continued to marvel at the building even when Chaud appeared from the lift. She span around slowly, admiring the room, until she faced Chaud.

'Oh, thank you for letting me come here.' She said. 'I was hoping to visit Blaze Quest at some point anyway.' She smiled at him and he just brushed her off.

'This way.' He muttered. She followed him into a lift and he pushed the button for the 28th floor. The doors closed and the upwards jerk caused Emma to stumble and grab the rail. Chaud looked at her in an odd fashion. She defiantly wasn't normal.

'I've never been in a building as big as this before.' Emma stated with a smile.

'This isn't the largest building that Blaze Quest owns.' Chaud said. He didn't know why he said it, but he had. The lift stopped and the jerk caused Emma to stumble again, but this time, Chaud steadied her. As the doors opened he relinquished her arm and led her out of the lift.

'Wow.' Emma gasped. 'This is amazing! I can't believe it!' She was completely absorbed by the lab that they had entered. She almost forgot the reason why she had come to this magnificent place. 'So where is she?'

'Over here.' Chaud muttered. She followed him to a console and sat down next to him. She looked at the screen and gasped. Angel X was lying down, covered in cables. Emma swallowed, this wasn't a natural healing process, under normal circumstances she wouldn't let this happen.

'Let's get started.' Emma stated swiftly. Chaud started the restoration program and they both watched Angel X being rebuilt.

'What exactly happened?' Protoman asked. Emma was taken back by his appearance. He was within the healing console.

'Oh…I think it was the Phoenix virus that attacked her when it somehow got free from its cage.' Emma said.

'The Phoenix virus…what's that?' Chaud asked. Emma hung her head in her hands and laughed gently.

'One of the biggest mistakes of my life.' She yelped. 'There is nothing quite like it in the world. And I haven't found the solution yet.'

'I doubt it could stand up to Protoman and myself in full-synchro.' Chaud smirked.

'It can. From what I have been able to determine, it has to be destroyed from the inside. Someone has to force a full-synchro with it. But right now, that isn't possible so I've been restraining it.' Emma said without breathing.

'Sounds like a challenge Chaud.' Protoman said boastingly. Chaud let out a rare smile.

'So where is this Phoenix virus?' Chaud asked seriously.

'Like I'd tell you.' Emma answered spitefully. The console beeped, the repairs were finished. Emma jacked her PET into the console and inserted a chip.

'Ughhh…' Angel X groaned as she righted herself. 'Wha…what…where am I?'

'If you're not going to tell me where this virus is, then you're done here.' Chaud stated.

'Wait…' Angel X muttered. She grabbed Protoman's hand and pulled herself up using him to steady herself. 'The virus didn't attack me, someone released it.'

'Who?' Emma questioned. Chaud went to interrupt but was cut off by something in Emma's pocket beeping. 'Found it. We'll talk about this later. Lets' go.'

'Thank you Protoman for helping me.' Angel X smiled just before she was jacked out of the console. Emma removed the jack in cable and turned to Chaud.

'Thank you for your help. But now that this has happened, I won't allow it to happen again.' Emma smirked. 'Next time, I'll be the one helping you.' She went over to the lift and waited.

'We could just follow you.' Chaud muttered.

'No one can follow me.' Emma grinned. 'I'd love to see you try, but there's a good chance that you'd never make it back.' The lift doors opened, she walked inside and hit the button for the lobby. 'Goodbye.' The lift doors shut and Chaud looked down at Protoman.

'That was a little ominous.' He said off-hand. Protoman looked aside.

'Was it right to let them go?' Protoman asked.

'If she wants to get herself destroyed then it's her own problem.'

'But the virus…'

'If she goes down then I guess we'll have to step in.'

'So we are going to follow her.'

'You don't think I'd repair a navi and not make it so that I could track it?'

Emma was walking down the street, following the signal from her PET. She was getting closer, the beeping was becoming more continuous, and it shouldn't take too much longer. The Phoenix virus hadn't been given a specific goal and so would have found a secure place to hide itself. The self-preservation program would have seen to that. If you don't know what to do, then hide, unless confronted. She looked down at her PET again and enlarged the map. It was in a small building in the next block.

'Hey Emma, we're being followed.' Angel X said calmly. 'You want me to blow the tracker yet?' Emma kept walking without responding. 'I guess not.' Emma turned the corner and looked at a small shop and then at the PET and then back at the shop.

'I can't believe it.' She whispered. Angel X pulled the map down in front of her and laughed softly.

'A battle chip shop?' She giggled.

'Now's not the time. Protoman and Chaud will be here as soon as you're in the network.' Emma remarked. 'We won't have much time before they come to fight the virus.'

'I guess. But they're both nice guys, it wouldn't hurt to have a little help would it.' Angel X commented.

'Both of them?' Emma asked, confused. 'Sure the navi is helpful but the operator could do with some people skills. I would like to meet Protoman though.'

'If you survive this then I'm sure that you'll be able to.' Angel X sighed. 'You do realise that this is practically a suicide mission?' Emma hung her head down.

'This is my problem. I have to fix it.' She muttered. Emma looked back up at the shop and smiled. 'Let's do this.' She strode into the shop and looked around quickly, there was a group of kids standing around a battle stadium that would do for a point of entry. She lent against the wall and watched them battle for a while.

'We don't have time for this!' Angel X hissed.

'Just a little longer. They're almost done.' Emma whispered back.

'Alright Megaman!' The boy with the blue headband cried joyfully. He was obviously the winner of the battle. 'Better luck next time Dex.' The large boy with the foul hair cut and green tee shirt looked like he was going to cry.

'I thought we had him this time Gutsman.' Dex sniffed.

'Don't worry Dex, Megaman is way stronger than Gutsman right now.' The girl with the pink hair and skirt said reassuringly. The little blond girl snapped a mobile phone shut and sighed.

'Father's sending the limo again. He said he would take me out for dinner but he's going to be late again.' She complained. 'How about you come to dinner Maylu?'

'Sure.' The pink haired girl, Maylu answered. Emma walked up to the battle stadium.

'Nice battle, shame about your opponent.' Emma said to the boy with the headband. 'But it was unfair to unleash full-synchro on him.'

'Lan, do you know her?' Maylu asked.

'Lan?' Emma asked. 'The net-battler Lan Hikari? What a find.'

'Are you looking for a net battle?' He jumped in.

'Maybe, but first there's something I need to do.' She replied. 'So I need to use this terminal for a few minutes, but I promise you I will battle you once I'm done.'

'O…okay.' Lan said quietly. Emma jacked her PET into the terminal and Angel X appeared in the centre of the stadium.

'Hey! I saw you yesterday in the city!' Megaman exclaimed.

'I thought I was being watched…' Angel X commented. 'Could you do me a favour?' Megaman nodded, there was something odd about this navi. 'If Protoman turns up, could you keep him busy till I'm done?' Angel X closed her eyes and the area around her melted into the internet, Megaman went with her.

'What's happening?' Lan asked.

'Nothing yet.' Emma said calmly. 'But keep out of our way. You wouldn't want your navi to get deleted would you?'

There was a deep rumbling and a black shadow covered both Angel X and Megaman. A deafening screech echoed through the shadow and Emma smiled. 'Let's see if the insertion program works…'