"It?" Netto asked incredulously, "It what?"
"Netto-kun, hush," Rockman said softly. "What happened?" he asked again.
Searchman sighed, "I woke up at 6 am like I always do. I tried to wake Laika-san up but he didn't respond. I thought something had happened so I went into the main control unit computer to see if it was something detectible on radar. There were two navi's there, one dressed in black and another one in grey and blue, the one in blue was small, about three years younger then Laika-san.
"The one in black was ridiculously strong. It… looked at the main control unit and it just disintegrated. The smaller one saw me and attacked with some kind of malleable data. She made it into various shapes and weapons at her will until the one in black was done destroying the computer. Then it turned around and attacked me with some kind of attack, I have no idea what kind of data it was though. It just seemed to," Searchman's face contorted into a grimace of pain, "melt through anything it touched. I managed to link out and scatter my trail to get away but I was still damaged," he looked at his scarred armor. "Laika-san didn't even answer my e-mail for help."
Blues looked at Searchman with an almost pity like look. "Laika-san isn't responsive, none of the humans are." He looked up at Netto, "Except for Netto-san."
Searchman eyed Netto with a pain filled gaze and then collapsed. "Searchman!" Rockman cried out and knelt quickly to support his friend.
"He's gonna log out," Netto said quickly. "Re-route his log out point to the main computer."
Rockman nodded and changed the coordinates just as Searchman pixilated. "Well?" Rockman asked.
Netto sighed, "Papa has taught me a lot on how to fix navi's in case you ever got hurt Rockman. But Searchman is a military navi; I have no idea what kind of codes the military uses in navi data."
Blues looked at Netto, "You know how to fix navis?" he asked.
Netto nodded and started to walk to the room with the main computer in it.
"Because of our link if I ever get hurt badly enough that Netto-kun's life is in danger it's very important that Netto-kun is able to fix me so nothing happens," Rockman explained. "Papa taught him a lot on how to fix and program data."
Netto gave them a small smile, "Probably the only thing I like being taught. Sure beats math!" he said in a fake happy voice.
Blues and Enzan exchanged looks but didn't say anything.
The trio continued down the empty halls of sci-lab until they reached the room that Searchman's data had been deposited in. Netto went into the room and downloaded Searchman into the holographic tube he had seen Rockman in so many times before. He looked at the rather complicated controls and took in a nervous gulp of air.
Rockman smiled and patted Netto's shoulder. "It's all right; we're not asking you to pull of a miracle here. Just make sure Searchman is okay."
Netto smiled, "Right, I can do that!" he said with an air of confidence he didn't feel. He opened the first program to tell him where exactly the damage was inflicted. Almost all of Searchman's defense files were shown in red. A few executable files were shown in red but thankfully the main core of the program known as Searchman.exe was left completely unharmed. Netto let out a sigh of relief. "I can fix this," he said with a little more confidence.
"Really?" Blues asked while looking at the screen. To him there was an awful lot of red being shown.
Netto shrugged and started to type on the computer, "Heh, nothing worse then what Rockman's gotten."
Rockman crossed his arms but continued to look at the screen instead of retorting. Netto worked on the executable files first as they were the most important. The first one he regenerated was the one that forced Searchman off line. He pressed the okay icon and it blinked in red several times before the file's icon turned blue. There were a few tense moments before Searchman opened his eyes. "Searchman!" Rockman said happily.
Netto let out a huge breath of air that he didn't even know he was holding. "Nervous?" Blues asked.
Netto gave him a small smile with an emotion Blues couldn't identify, "I'm not exactly the programmer my father is. I know how to fix navi's but that was an important file I just fixed, I was a little…" Netto paused, "scared," he admitted.
Rockman gave him a broad grin that put him at ease. "Don't worry Netto-kun, the hard part is over," he said softly.
Netto nodded and started to type on the computer, slowly repairing all of the other files. It wasn't too hard; Rockman certainly had been dealt worse extensive damage then that. He stopped a few times to remake a file because he didn't know what type it was. His guess about the military using different file types was correct, but there weren't many of them.
After about a half an hour Netto managed to fix everything to some degree. It wasn't a fix up like his father could do, but Searchman could at least move and fight for himself. Searchman exited the glass holo tube without a word and appeared at the end of the hall.
Netto, Rockman and Blues went to go greet him. "Are you okay?" Rockman asked.
Searchman nodded and gave Netto a small smile, "Thanks Netto-san," he said.
Netto nodded happily and smiled. "No problem," he said easily.
/So you say/ Rockman said giving his brother a side long glance.
/So it was a little… nerve-wracking…/ Netto admitted.
/I won't tell anyone/ Rockman said.
"Well, now what should we do?" Blues asked.
Netto yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Well, I, unlike you guys need sleep and after today I think I'm ready to attempt a nap."
"How can you think about sleep?" Blues asked.
Netto raised an eyebrow, "Easily," Netto shrugged. "I'm tired; I have a horrible head ache and after staring at a computer screen for 45 minutes my eyes hurt. I'm still human you know," he said with a small smile.
Rockman laughed and put an arm around Netto's shoulders. "We know," he said. "Don't worry about it Netto-kun, it's not like we can do much anyways."
Blues and Searchman looked at one another and both realized Rockman was right. As far as doing anything besides keeping to themselves at the moment it wasn't just possible. What where they gonna do, go find Lividity and attack?
Netto grabbed Rockman's wrist in a sudden move that made him jump. "Rockman, I just remembered, there's something I wanna show you in Papa's lab!" he said excitedly and pulled Rockman towards the elevator.
"Okay," Rockman said and followed Netto leaving Blues and Searchman alone in the hall. Not that they cared.
They went up three floors and walked right into Yuuichiro Hikari's main lab. It was big and spacious but showed obvious signs of being lived and worked in for years. Netto walked over to a cabinet and pulled out an old photo album. "I just remembered about this thing a few minutes ago," Netto said softly. "Papa showed it too me when I found out about you being Saito and all." Netto thumbed through the pages and stopped about halfway through, "Look," he said pointing at one picture.
Rockman knelt over Netto's shoulder and looked at the picture. It showed a sleepy, year old Netto with his head in Saito's lap. Saito had his hand on Netto's head and was giving a big grin to the camera. The label underneath read "Netto and Saito 1 year."
"Oh my god," Rockman whispered touching the picture with trembling fingers.
Netto smiled, "Papa said this album is full of our first year but this one is my favorite," he said while gazing at the picture.
Rockman giggled, "I can see why. It really captures your personality."
Netto stuck his tongue out at him and Rockman pulled the book from Netto. He set it in his lap and started to thumb through the pages. "Heh, we were so cute," Rockman said while looking at the pictures.
Netto leaned over Rockman's shoulder and they both started pointing at different pictures, laughing and teasing one another.
Blues and Searchman stopped by once but didn't intrude when they saw the two boys hovering over the picture album. Netto and Rockman didn't even notice the navi's appearance or disappearance.
Blues and Searchman walked down the long metallic halls of Sci-Labs together. "What do you think happened?" Searchman asked.
"To the humans? I have no idea. Lividity did it, but as for what it did…" Blues looked at the ceiling. "I have no idea."
"Why isn't Netto-san affected. He's human after all," Searchman mused.
Blues looked to the open door of Yuuichiro's lab. "There could be many reasons for that. My guess is their link."
"You mean the Saito.bat thing we found out about last month?" Searchman asked.
Blues nodded, "Netto-san has…" he paused, "times when he can do things other humans can't. Today, he and Rockman hacked into a computer terminal and opened a fused lock without a PET or any other electrical device to help him. That isn't something a normal human can do."
Searchman turned his red eyes upward, "This just got a whole lot more complicated," he said softly.
Blues nodded. "At least we seem to have some time to sit down and think about it."
After an hour of talking they returned to Yuuichiro's lab. They found Netto asleep on the sofa with his head in Rockman's lap. Rockman had his hand on Netto's head and was also asleep. Blues walked over, his curiosity getting the best of him. He found the picture album at Rockman's feet and looked into it. On the left page was a picture that gave an eerie semblance to the scene before him.
He sighed and shut the book, placing it on Yuuichiro's desk. He nodded at Searchman and they left the room making sure to shut off the lights. It was just the first day of many.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Next chappie :3