Mental Trauma

Chapter 6 Stage Processing

Okay! Sorry I'm a day late in updating. My computer got reformatted. I officially have about 50-60 gigs worth of space! Go me! Alrighty, this chapter…. It's…. more humor than the most recent ones. I think you'll sort of like it…. I guess…. OKAY! Have fun…

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"Laika-san…" Searchman was in a hit of miniature panic, as at the moment, he couldn't tell whether Laika had stopped breathing or not. The silence was as good as any death, as he took a shot of pure unmixed vodka, and his head dropped. "Not that I know any better… but I just don't think getting drunk solves anything!" the soldier sighed in annoyance. "Especially in the morning?"

"Searchman… I'm not an idiot, and if you recalled just a few minutes ago I ate something, and I went to the little boy's room. I'm hardly planning on getting drunk. Pissing in a cop car doesn't serve well to ones military reputation." The last phrase he generally said to himself. The Navi had a skeptical look on his face that sang, 'liar, liar pants on fire' all over it. "Searchman, don't give me that look! Seriously, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself! Don't you miss-underestimate me! I'm more than—" Laika clasped a hand over his mouth and twitched. There was a long and painful silence. Searchman put his hands on his sides, and a mocking tap of his foot began. "But I—I just—it was only—"

"'Miss-underestimate', I love the word picking." He raised a hidden eyebrow. Laika continued to stammer for a little while longer, awkwardly and defeated. At last he sighed and gave up.

"Fine… You're driving…" Laika muttered, put down the shot glass and strutted almost naturally out of the bar. Searchman had a pleased look on his face, which meant his inner jackass was satisfied.

"I'm making a difference…" He mused. "Go me." Laika frowned.

"My judgment isn't impaired…" his argument rather futile.

"That may be so…" Searchman interrupted, "but your vocabulary has been tossed into a blender…" Laika shot him another look. "Perhaps your judgment is altered just a little bit too." He said mockingly.

"And what makes you figure that?" Laika said, as his hand reached the door knob of the car. He pulled until he heard the familiar click of an opening door; he slowly slid in, and awaited Searchman's response.

Insert long pause.

"Well for starters…" He made a 'tsk' sound with his tongue, and drew in a toothy breath. "…this isn't your car." He shrugged. Laika blinked as he let the information process through the crevices of his skull. He looked around and saw unfamiliar faces of children looking wide-eyed at him. Still processing, he slowly began to realize something was wrong. Laika's car, plus Laika, plus three little kids probably waiting for their daddy to get their ice cream equals something politically, mentally, virtually, realistically and everything-ally incorrect. Laika felt his face heat up just a smidge, as he slowly trotted out of the car, realizing he'd have his head under a sink for hours the minute he got back home.

He began to speed walk toward his car, kids still staring at him. "You're driving?"

"Definitely." They confirmed.

(Late in the afternoon)

"Papa…" Netto whined. "Have you at all made any progress, or are your 'mm-hmm' and 'huh's used in vain…" His father looked up from the metallic screen that blinked data back and forth. Closed his eyes for a moment as he processed what his son said.

"Oh! Yeah! They're relevant!" The prestigious doctor said rather quickly. He waved Netto over. "Come and take a look at this!" Netto shrugged and strutted over to the table. "See that? This is…" The voice faded out as the professor began to ramble into Netto's ear, the boy looking up at Enzan every few seconds. The boy lay bored and itchy on the comfy chair of leatheriness (no, not a real word). His brain had been scanned one too many times this afternoon, and the only results were "Oh" and "ah" from the people around him. It was awkward and embarrassing. Plus, the last time he checked: Radioactive rays of sorts were no good for the adolescence.

"Anou…" Enzan started. "Hikari-hakase… any chance I can get a straight and not so… general answer? Do I have a tumor? Or have you never looked at the interesting contents of a skull before…" Enzan had a rather bitter tone in his voice, but the father and son paid no mind. They'd be acting the same way if they were him… which they definitely weren't.

"Enzan!" Netto said with a dumbfounded tone. "Ha-ha! Enzan.bat! That's so cool!" Enzan blinked in confusion. Where did the '.BAT' come in?

"I beg your gracious pardon… but how'd I become a bat?" Enzan made a face; the way that sounded just didn't seem grammatically correct… nor was it logical.

"What Netto means is that… well… how do I put it to not make this sound absolutely funky?" There was a pause as the man thought up an explanation. "Well… I put some research into that Emotionman Net Navi. Apparently, it was a typical security guard Navi. It started off that way anyhow." He mused. Netto and Enzan looked at each other, and back at the older man. "Well, by some turn of luck there'd been a research project going on, that was meant to mangle around with the emotional subroutines of your typical Net Navi. As what happened with… well you know." Enzan closed his eyes and sighed, and made a face to urge the continuation of the story.

"It was called operation 'brain wave'. Uh, well they tested it out on a supposedly 'clean' Navi, almost like he volunteered! Apparently, he'd been infected with a virus already, which lay dormant until new data is input. I really don't want to give you all the technical detail, so I'll just say it went on a rampage, and just so happened to attack what you now call Emotionman." Netto nodded stupidly. Though the information was cut down to size it was still an earful. He glanced quickly at Enzan, to see the boy standing up, tearing the lead apron off his crushed chest. There came the humongous thud on the ground. Enzan sighed rather heavily.

"That doesn't explain why Netto used .bat at the end of my name…" Enzan shot a radical look at Netto, who had the most intriguing look on his face. As Enzan slowly got up, he hid his face beneath his messy white bangs, hiding a small look of embarrassment.

"I'm getting there." Hikari-hakase waved a reassuring hand at the boy. "Well, the Brain Wave became this security Navi's automatic attack, shortly after alternating its Emotional Subroutines, by some fluke it spread to the general attack." Enzan nodded, still getting everything to slowly process, weary from the radiation (Sorry Enzan!). "Well, when it hit you and Blues in the back of the head, obviously no virus is ready to infect a living, breathing flesh and blood." Enzan felt like grinning proudly at his fleshy victory, but shrugged it off. "By some turn of events, the electrical current of the data had made it into your spinal column, and into that noggin of yours." Enzan and Netto looked rather curiously at the interesting choice of words. Doctor Hikari paid no mind, and continued on his presentation. "Shortly after you parted cross fusion, I'm sure you can hardly forget the nasty jolt you received?" He saw Enzan shudder at the thought and almost smiled. "It formed a really unusual emotional link between you two… Here's where it gets a little weird." The younger boys sighed heavily.

"I thought that was the weird part…." Netto groaned. His father gave him a gracious pat on the head.

"I thought I gave you a summary!" the boy pouted. "Anyway, until the rain came along this data had unusually flooded its way into… well… Your imagination of Blues." Enzan stumbled for a moment, and caught himself on some scanners idly sitting where they were. "Well, so to speak; it read ideas of your basic emotional responses to imaginative emotional rolls Blues could take part in that you most commonly thought up." Yet again came the processing for the two young boys. Enzan nodded as he slowly adapted to it. "Well, it's safe to say that you wondered if Blues would ever ignore you. (The phase that I didn't show and skipped) The very first stage of emotional exaggeration was the paranoia." Enzan had a thoughtful look on his face for a moment.

"Well, Blues was never paranoid, so I dwelled on what it'd be like… Can you blame me?"

"And then the… perverted stage?" Netto twitched.

"Well… that thought came after a bunch of girls started hitting on me at the—you know what? Never mind."

"WHAT ABOUT THE KAWAII FANGIRL STAGE?" The boy interrogated.

"You thought it was cute?" Enzan raised an eyebrow. That shut Netto up. There was a long pause until the professor cut into all of it.

"Well, it's pretty obvious that you thought of a comical Blues as amusing…" Enzan nodded rather shyly. He smiled and continued, "Well, I think that explains why he called you Enzan.BAT." He nodded.

"Yeah… a text file with a series of commands intended to be executed by the command interpreter…" Enzan looked out into a slight distance and shrugged. "Cool… I'm a .bat…"

"As for Blues… from the other Net Navi's infections, I'd say that the next emotion Blues gets is the last one." Enzan gulped, and walked toward the two.

"What happens after the final stage?" He began to panic.

"Um… They revert back to normal." He sighed in relief, wiping a tear out of his eyes. "However…" Here came the twist. "Well, with this condition being different, it may have mangled with the time limit… um that makes the possibility of the final personality being… ahem… permanent…" The boy's eyes widened in horror. Blues? Weird? Forever?

"What." Enzan said rather bluntly.

"Oh! Well! Look at the time! I think I have some research to do! Uh!" The professor in a rather amusing panic speed walked his way through an automatic sliding door. "I'll leave you guys to… plan his… return! Yeah! Bye!" The door slid shut; the two stood a little dumbfounded, but excused it. They'd find him eventually.

"Okay…"

"But then…" Netto started, "What do you think that stage in your head was? The one that drove you up the wall…" He said rather bluntly.

"Before my emotional link with him was severed… I felt…" His voice deviated as he appraised his thoughts, and his eyes widened in a blue horror. "Blues… My… my nightmare… my fear…" his hands clasped tightly and dangerously over his face, as his breath quickened, he grabbed hold of Netto's arriving arm. He muttered syllables under his breath, which they couldn't make out. "How… How could I… I can't lose him again…" he began "No! Not possible!" Netto put an arm around Enzan, which he quickly rejected and stormed forward, hands slamming against a table in front of him. "NO!" He gritted his teeth, and a callous dark feeling began to circle him. His woebegone face mirrored him against the metallic surface he leaned against. Netto walked toward Enzan rather cautiously.

"What is it?" Netto looked fretful, with a face that predicted the worst of occurrences. There was a long pause as Enzan's short quick breaths emit the dismal sound of fear. They slowly came to a breath taking halt as he took a heavy breath, and a heavy sigh.

"Netto…" Enzan's voice had become subdued and bleak, and his head hung low, with his fingernails plunged into the metal. With a hoarse voice and quivering turn, "This possible final stage…" his face flushed, his eyes leaked of saltwater. "Is Dark Soul Blues…" Enzan stumbled to the floor in a heap, bit his lip, and dragged his fingers down against the surface of the table. His body was capitulating, and his eyes were bleak. "Or… at least it's what he's going to portray…" he obscured a horrid scream he felt need to unleash, with a slight wail of near complaint. It was less than a percent of what he wanted to scream. He had the selfish thought of tearing things apart, and lashing out to kick and scream. All these selfish thoughts he scolded himself for, and restrained it with clawing his nails into his arms beneath his sleeve. A dark red fluid began to leak from his arm, and dribble to the floor. Netto grabbed the stabbing hand and pulled it away from the masochist child. "Let GO of me Netto!" The boy struggled furious with himself and generally anything that obstructed his path.

"Enzan! Stop! You're scaring me shitless!" He scolded with a trembling voice. "We don't even know where he is right now!" Enzan's shoulders shook in fury. "It'll be—" The boy turned sharply and glared Netto in the eyes.

"YEAH? WELL IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYMORE! Because Blues is out there somewhere! Telling himself how much he despises me! And how much he'd like to tear me limb from limb! I couldn't stop it! You know what I just did? I just sent Blues to hell in a hand basket full of COOKIES! AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I CAN SAVE HIM THIS TIME!" Enzan had a look on his face that Netto could only identify as 'stark staring mad'. He was mad alright. However, it changed into blameworthy and tainted; he turned away and scolded himself.

"I… I don't even think he'd want me to save him… this time…" his eyes shut tight, and he bit his bloody lips again, and didn't even flinch as he continued to pierce through the flesh. He felt the metallic tasting fluid fall freely down his pale chin. "Blues…" He whined between bared teeth. He felt something graze his jaw line, and slowly slide upwards where the blood had dribbled. His eyes opened, and he saw Netto up close. He backed up in surprise, but his heart eased as he saw the lamenting smile gracing the other boy's face.

"Baka…" Netto said almost bluntly. "Didn't I tell you? We're saving Blues…" Enzan blinked, as in the corner of his eye Netto wrapped his thumb over his blood-soaked index finger, and wiped the liquid away. Though some of it dripped off of his hand, most of it slid into his palm, making a slight mess of things. "Now say it with me… 'We…'" There was a Pause as Enzan was almost blank minded.

"We…"

"'Are getting Blues back'"

"…are getting Blues back…" There arose another long pause, as he looked away. "I hope you're right, Netto…" Enzan closed his eyes. A gentle hand pulled his face forward.

"I AM right. Now there's also something you have to promise me!" Enzan blinked a few times, an almost guiltless look of curious in his eyes. "You're never biting your lip again." He whispered close at Enzan's ear, which made his face heat up. Netto pulled away, and idly walked in circles. "But you're right, we don't know how to get him back, or how he's still alive… We need to figure that part out…" He gave a thoughtful look. Enzan was silent and just looked at Netto curiously; the new hope and confidence was weird.

After a couple seconds, Netto cupped his right elbow in his left hand. The bloody hand now in the brunette's face, the side of his index finger slid halfway into his mouth and touched his two lips. Enzan's eyes widened in slight surprise as he could see the other's tongue poke at the slightly drying liquid. He stammered for a moment. Netto took notice and looked at the other boy. He pulled the finger a distance from his mouth for a moment. "What's the matter?" Netto blinked. Enzan twitched, dumbfounded at how stupid he sounded.

"You do realize that's my blood, not yours right?" Netto's eyes widened for a minute, not from shock, but they just widened. After a few moments' notice he grinned. Enzan gave the boy a gracious frown as he slowly pulled himself up. "What?"

"Yeah, I know." He said almost slyly, and continued to listlessly to spoil his tongue with the iron, salty blood. Enzan twitched, and cleared his mind of lecherous thoughts. Probably just kidding, he mused. Though he had a slight look on his face that had conspicuous written all over it. "Seriously…" Netto said rather muffled. "I'm no vampire." He had a new annoyed look on his face. Enzan smiled. There we go, the regular Netto. He sighed in relief.

Enzan had yet to realize his lip was still bleeding.

Moments later, the door slid open again. The two faced the direction of the door. Netto's face lit up.

"Laika, how'd you know we were here?" The boy childishly took Laika's arm hostage in an unusual greeting. The boy nodded, but didn't return eye contact. He focused more on someone else.

"Laika…" Enzan said rather breathlessly, his focus blinking back and forth between the older boy and the floor. There was an intense awkward, unpleasant distance between the two. Neither had forgotten about his outburst, and the terrifying feeling was more than torture. "Anou… uh…" It took a long moment before either said anything, and much to Enzan's surprise it wasn't him.

Laika was knocked back into his senses as he saw the dulling liquid that decorated Enzan's lips. "E-Enzan! What happened?" The soldier made a quick speed walk toward the younger boy. He quickly took off the white gloves off of his hands, shoved them into his pocket. "Did someone hit you?" Laika said quite awkwardly; he cupped Enzan's jaw-line in his hands and gently stroked the stream of blood with his index finger. Enzan's face turned a healthy shade of red as he shoved the other boy away; he released a sound that almost seemed like a high-pitched wail.

"What—what are you doing?" Enzan shrilled, taking a few steps back. "What is it with you people and my blood!" His delicate, pale hands covered his mouth as his face flushed in embarrassment. The other two blinked, and Laika just stood there awkwardly, rejected. "Damn it!"

"Enzan, it is kind of bleeding badly." Netto cut in. "Why the tantrum?" Enzan froze and felt a bit unusual at the moment. "Anyway," change of topic "We still need to--"

Quickly, he was interrupted.

"Netto-kun!" Rockman called from within the small PET. "You have a message!" Netto quickly pulled out the Blue Piece of machinery.

"Who's it from?" The brunette said haphazardly. Right now wasn't quite the right time to be bothered.

"I… I don't know…" He said, a hint of curiosity ringing in his voice. "It's encrypted."

"Well can you unencrypt it or something?" Netto whined. Rockman shrugged.

"I'll see if I can…" With that, the blue Navi went to work.

"Okay… We need to find out how to locate Blues, and stop whatever might happen. We—"

"Netto-kun," Rockman called again.

"What?"

"I decrypted the ID…" He said with disbelief and shock in his voice. "You… aren't going to believe this…but…" There was a silence, as the other two boys walked toward the youngest Net Savior.

"Enzan…" Rockman started.

The silence other than the little Navi's stammering made his blood thicken.

"Enzan… It's from Blues…"

End Chapter

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