Arriving at the hospital the group of friends and the new comer were greeted by loud complaints coming from a navi recovery room. Sam and Steve went in to see what was going on while Megaman made sure that the rest stayed out side the room.
"Come on, Lets us in." Whined Maylu, still annoyed that she was being kept in the dark about Steve's navi.
"Nope." Said a smug Megaman. "They should be out in a minute and then you can get the answers to your questions." This avoidance was finally getting on Maylu's last nerves, thankfully Lan took action before she could attack Megaman.
Leading Maylu away, Lan attempted to calm her down. The rest of the group just moved away from the door seeing that Megaman would not allow anyone to enter. After a few minutes wait Sam and Steve walked out of the room with a third figure behind them, obscured from view. "Guys, I would like to introduce you to my NetNavi. Zero." Said Steve moving out of the way of the figure behind him. Zero has a black bodysuit as the base of his armour. On his legs are red, knee high armoured boots with yellow rings around them above the ankles. Around his midsection he has a white section of armour with what looks like a handle attached to it. On his forearms there is red armour with attached armoured gloves and yellow rings around the wrist.
On his upper body he has red chest armour with a yellow collar. On the right of his chest armour his navi symbol, a green Z in a black circle, is clearly visible. His helmet is mainly black with red stripes running across the helmet from just above the nose round to the back protruding from the helmet. Over the ears there are red circles with white triangles of armour covering the edge of the jaw and a second pair of them in the opposite direction like wings. On the front of the helmet there is a green gem. (Think Zero from Megaman Zero.)
After a couple of seconds digesting the appearance of the Zero, Ciel was the first to react. She sprinted from the group and lunged at him shouting "ZERO!" This action seemed to confuse Zero, as he made no movements to start with. Slowly his arms moved to comfort the crying navi, still unsure of what was happening.
As the others began to think about whom they were seeing, most just stood there with shocked expressions on their faces. Megaman however was grinning at them, now knowing what their reaction to Zero's appearance was. Steve was feeling happy for his friend who, it seemed, was among his friends since before they met. Glancing at Zero's face he saw the expression on his face change from confused to a blank stare. He noticed Zero's lip's move but couldn't hear the words he whispered.
At that time Zero was confused but the feeling suddenly vanished and his vision blurred. In his mind data became uncorrupted and he remembered a few moments from his past. He was in the same position with the same female navi latched to him. A feeling of caring washed over him as he remembered the navi's name and said it under his breath. "Ciel." When his vision cleared and he was reminded of the navi squeezing him he returned the hug and said "It's alright Ciel. I'm here and I'll never leave you again."
This seemed to calm Ciel down as she stopped crying, but continued to hold him as if her life depended on it. As the others started to get over the shock of Zero's appearance they all greeted him warmly. While this was happening, Steve moved away from the group and slipped into the next room with a grin on his face. 'Good for you Zero' he thought, 'You have found your past.'
Sam was the first to finish her welcome as she had a chance before the others to get to grips with Zero's appearance. Looking around the group she noticed that Steve was nowhere to be seen. Looking around the room she saw the door to the room closing and decided to see if Steve had gone that way. Leaving the rest to continue their conversation Sam walked over to the door and stepped through. Looking down the corridor she saw the normal sights of the hospital, doctors and technicians moving from room to room to check up on the patients and equipment, people visiting ill or injured friends, but no sign of the large figure she was looking for.
Turning to open the door again, she was stopped by a voice saying "Hey Sam." Looking to the right of the door she saw Steve leaning against the wall with the grin still on his face.
"Hey," replied Sam, "I was just looking for you, why did you take off like that?"
"I didn't want to spoil the moment for Zero. He is with his old friends and I think he is starting to remember his past." said Steve
"Remember his past? What do you mean?" questioned Sam.
"Ever since the day I met Zero he hasn't been able to remember anything before that day. As far as we have been able to work out some of his memory data has been corrupted." Sighed Steve, losing the grin for a second.
"That's terrible" gasped Sam. "That must have been so hard on him."
"We survived, it was lucky that we got on so well otherwise it would have been a hard 7 years. I just hope his memory will return in full now he is home." Steve's eyes closed.
"This isn't exactly his home, when we first met him he was a solo navi living in net city. It took the six months we knew him for him to start hanging around rather than taking off at every chance." Sam sighed. "He seemed protective about his past before meeting us and would always change the subject when we asked."
"Probably means something bad happened if he could keep it from people who seem to have been close friends. It seems he was somewhat closer than that with Ciel if her reaction was anything to go by." Said Steve trying to lighten the mood.
"Yes." Sam almost groaned out. "She fell in love with him. He was all she would talk about close to when we thought Zero was deleted. After that however she became depressed, and as you saw at the gate earlier she never really got over him. Anyway, enough sad stuff. How did you meet Zero anyway?"
"As far as I can tell it was an accident. I was helping test an experimental new form or network link that allowed data to travel to any computer instantaneously, and through further development we made it possible to transfer navis to computers that were not even connected to the internet." Steve paused, gauging Sam's reaction. It seemed that she understood what he was talking about. Smiling he continued. "During in our one of out first tests of the link there was an energy spike in the system. Instead of receiving the test data, Zero was fired out of the link close to deletion. When we revived him however, we couldn't understand him as he was speaking Netopian. Once we had set up a translation program we learnt that he had lost all of his memories. The only information we could find on him was his name."
"Do you by any chance remember the date when the experiment occurred?" asked Sam, attempting to make sense of the events.
"Not really, but if you hang on a sec I can find out." Before Sam could reply Steve had whipped out a Blue device and opened it up. Taking out a Stylus (pen for writing on touch screens) concealed in the device and after a few quick movements he spoke again. "There we go, the 12th June 200XIII."
"That makes sense, that's the same day that we believed Zero was deleted." Sam stated. "Is that a custom P.E.T?"
"Yea, designed so I can use it without a Navi." Said Steve handing the P.E.T to Sam. The P.E.T itself flips open to reveal two screens, one of which is a touch screen. On the right hand side are 2 slots for battlechips. On the top cover of the P.E.T is a black circle with a red Ω filling it.
"Why would you need a P.E.T that can be operated without a navi." Questioned Sam, almost knowing the answer.
"About 6 months before I met Zero my navi, Eclipse, was deleted in an accident. A glitch occurred when we were performing a program advance and the resulting energy blast deleted the whole server he was in, nothing remained." Said Steve swallowing down the lump forming in his throat.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pushed." Apologised Sam. "Here you go." As Sam handed Steve back his P.E.T the sound of voices grew behind the door to where they had left the others.
"I wonder where they went to?" came Roll's voice as the door opened.
"As long as he isn't moving on my Sam then I don't care." Dex growled as he left the room. The rest of the group left the room with Zero and Ciel bringing up the rear. Before Sam could make a move towards them Zero stopped.
"Come on Steve, they are all looking for you." Said Zero without turning round.
"Observant as ever Zero." Chuckled Steve. "We had better catch up with them, I promised them a story about our battle with the Alliance, and in return they will tell us about yours." At this Steve pushed off the wall and motioned for Sam to follow. Once they caught up with Zero and Ciel the four of them headed out of the hospital to meet up with the rest of the gang and head to the park.
Once they had settled in the park the story of Lan's first meeting with Zero and their struggle against the alliance. Once this hit the point of Zero's 'deletion' Steve took over explaining his meeting with Zero and their adventure pursuing the Alliance across the globe. After an hour of story telling Steve and Zero were taken to the Town Guard head quarters and made to recount his story and provide any information on the Alliance troops in the area. After the interrogation Steve and Zero stayed Yai's mansion until further arrangements could be made.
Another chapter finished and I hope you enjoyed it. Again thanks to everyone who has reviewed, its nice to know there are people out there interested in this story.