Ah…yeah. Just a little bit late, like, a day. Sorry 'bout that. I got a book in the mail I'd been waiting for and instead of writing the rest of this like I should have been doing, I was reading. So, yeah, my only excuse. And although this is longer than the previous…two, three?--I will tell you now that it is not of the utmost quality. I just kinda wanted to get it out. Hated this sucker, so, it's long, stuff happens, and the little errors you see are there on account of generallaziness.
All right! Enough of this chit-chatter! Onward, brave travelers! To the depths of not-so-very-good-chapters!
-
Chapter Six: Awake Anew
Haruka threw herself to the floor, listening to the pieces of the TV shatter against the walls and even through a few windows. And although the crisis had calmed down a few minutes later, she continued to lie there, lying on her stomach.
What should she do? Call the police? But what could she possibly say? Sorry to bother you but my TV suddenly exploded? No, her story sounded too unbelievable.
She slowly craned her head up to peer at the television set, or what was left of it. The screen had fell face first onto the ground, and only the foundation for it stood, albeit very charred.
She slowly, shakily, pushed herself off the ground and looked around the room.
There was nothing else to do. She would have to call Yuuichirou.
Haruka headed towards the kitchen and picked up the phone, quickly dialing the number that was her husband's cell phone.
--
Netto frowned at the red door in front of him, the words Ijuuin Enzan scrawled on the surface. He looked down at the envelope in his hand, wondering if he should really give it to the white haired boy.
It wasn't that Netto wanted to disobey his father; on the contrary, he would have normally just walked in if this had been anybody else.
But Ijuuin Enzan.
The two weren't exactly friends, merely allies forged by the onset destruction of their homeland. They could not get along at all, their views very different from the other.
Saito was the one that normally kept peace between them, as Enzan seemed to respect his older brother a lot more for reasons unknown, but this time he was entering forbidden territory alone.
But as he raised his fist to knock, the door slid open, and Netto found himself staring into the narrow, ocean blue eyes of Ijuuin Enzan.
"What?" he asked rather bitterly, frowning at the sight of the boy he found but a nuisance.
"Papa wanted me to give this to you, it's from Laika. He said it's important." Netto explained just as sourly, stretching out the hand the envelope was in. Enzan stared down at it before snatching it from Netto's tan hands.
"How's Saito?" Enzan asked, clenching the envelope slightly in his hands.
"Fine, he's awake." Netto answered tersely. They both looked as though they wished to be anywhere but where they were at that moment.
"Good, I'll come and see him later then," was Enzan's only response as he turned around, intent on closing the door in Netto's face.
But Netto held out a hand to stop him from doing so.
"What's it say?" he asked pithily.
"If you were supposed to know, I would have already told you." Enzan said, frowning, and trying to move Netto's hand away.
"I'm part of the resistance; I should be allowed to know what's important and what's not." Netto persisted, determined to know what was in the envelope.
Enzan sighed, "Fine. Just don't tell anybody else."
Netto grinned, feeling triumphant.
Enzan spun around and half led the boy into the room, bringing the envelope to attention and starting to tear it open.
"H-Hey! Don't open it yet!" Netto exclaimed, hurrying in and watching the door slide shut behind him.
"I'm not waiting for you." Enzan answered simply, his voice low and soft. He had already torn open the top of the envelope and was now pulling out the letter inside.
"Well, what's it say?" Netto asked after a minute, studying Enzan's accommodations. It was plain and nothing stood out to the messy haired boy, just a regular-looking bed and a few shelves littered with only a few objects. Netto could tell Enzan was very much the thrifty type.
Enzan glanced up at the boy and very reluctantly began to read.
--
"Saito-sama! Why do we do this? We're going to get in trouble!" Gabba.EXE whined as Rockman snuck behind another corner, tense and alert for any being's presence.
"Shh!" Rockman hushed, jerking his head around to make sure no one heard. The hall was deserted, and Rockman sighed in relief.
"Saito-sama…" Gabba whimpered.
"Look…I've gotta—Papa—I've got to talk to Papa." Rockman explained breathlessly. If anyone knew how to help him, and would understand and not completely laugh at his plea, it was Hikari Yuuichirou.
"Oh," Gabba replied, looking down at the nonexistent floor of his PET. Rockman felt so weird, was this what it felt like to hold and look into a PET from the outside. Was he really that small to Netto?
He began to inch across the hallway, wary of possible bystanders or even people he knew wandering by and spotting him. Even though he had a human body, his reflexes in this one were just as good, albeit a little slower due to the heavier mass.
He continued to shuffle along, avoiding the middle of the hallway at all costs and rounding constant corners in this maze of teal carpet and white walls.
After minutes of his venturing he came upon a sole mirror leaning against a wall. It stood across from a room that appeared to be empty. Rockman inhaled deeply, he was torn between wanting to see what he looked like and not, as if it would tarnish what he thought his appearance to be for the rest of his existence.
"Saito-sama? Do you not remember what you look like?" Gabba asked from the PET, looking worried as that seemed to be his main expression.
Rockman shook his head and quickly leaped in front of the mirror, his eyes shut.
He stood there for a moment then opened them.
His green eyes, for they were still the same color, widened.
The first thing that came to his attention was his hair, black as it always looked by the spikes sticking out of the back of his helmet. Although as he twisted to his left, he could see them reaching just below his neck and two locks, hanging down his face like bangs, of the same color touching his cheekbones. The gloves were the same though they weren't as big as the ones he usually wore while existing as a Navi, and his clothes were tarnished and ragged, he could see his stomach through the long slash mark across his dark blue shirt.
Rockman gasped and reached to touch his neck, for flesh was there instead of fabric, and he ran a hand through his hair.
He could feel it.
Actually feel it.
"Saito-sama…what are you…?"
But the little Navi was cut off as a loud yell sounded from nowhere. Rockman ducked and rolled, swerving to the wall and slamming his body against it, lying flat so as not to be seen. He could hear Gabba's muffled screams as he was thrown about in the PET.
"Hikari! Calm down!" another yell, this time of a different, much calmer, pitch.
Rockman scooted past the door and stopped at the corner, peering around, intrigued.
There was no one in the hallway—reminiscent of the previous one—and the noise seemed to be coming from a solitary, red door. Rockman slowly stood up and began tip-toeing towards it, careful not to make a sound lest he be discovered so soon.
There was another yell, but quieter this time, and someone argued back. The conversation sounded heated. Rockman kneeled back down and leaned his newly discovered ear against the door.
"Look, I don't care about what the government plans to do with that chip or whatever, but when my brother's supposed to be used as a TEST SUBJECT—"
"YOU look, Hikari. It wasn't my idea, if you want to complain, take it to the government board. They're merely informing me!"
Enzan. Netto. Rockman frowned, why were they arguing? They hadn't done this…since…well…a while now. It was odd to hear their voices this loud and this angry.
Rockman pressed his ear closer.
"Yeah, well, since you seem to know them, I'm telling you to talk to them!"
"Hikari…" Enzan sighed.
Rockman stopped listening and leaned against the door. He'd heard enough. He was going to be used as a test subject, his grip tightened on the PET.
"Oh no! Saito-sama, did you hear that?" Gabba began tearing up again, "You're doomed! We're doomed! You're going to be floating in a vat of goo where you'll live the rest of your life as an almost dead guinea pig!"
Rockman raised an eyebrow.
How could he have—no matter if this was an alternate dimension or not—possibly created a Navi with such a runaway imagination?
The once-Navi looked up at the ceiling.
He gulped silently.
Gabba was probably right.
Shooting off the ground, Rockman did not get far. The cuff of his jeans caught itself in the crack of the door, and he fell face forward, for the door had been pushed open from behind him. His PET went skidding across the floor and gently tapped the mirror. Rockman twisted his head around, laughing sheepishly as he came face-to-face with Netto and Enzan.
--
It was so terribly dusty. Yuuichirou sneezed; the dust was starting to clog his nose.
"Dr. Hikari! What should I do with this?" Dekao questioned, holding up a rotten shoe. Yuuichirou scrunched up his nose at the smell it wafted, "Put it with the rest of the trash." Dekao did as he was told, and the shoe ended up in a pile almost a mile high.
The group had been cleaning for hours and still could see no visible fruits for their labors. Yuuichirou was tired, hungry, and guilty. He still hadn't called his wife, too busy with everything that had happened recently.
"Dr. Hikari? Are you all right?" Meiru asked, walking over to him carrying with her a bag of trash.
"Oh no, everything's fine. Don't worry about it." Yuuichirou reassured her, smiling cheerfully.
"Okay…" But Meiru was unconvinced.
They continued working for another twenty minutes or so when the sudden echo of a tune bounced into the silence. Yuuichirou looked down at his pocket, realizing it was his own cell phone. He quickly grabbed it and flipped it open, placing the receiver to his ear.
The four drew their attentions to the doctor, glad to have something to take their minds off of the boringness that was trash, and watched as he face changed from relief to nervousness to calm fear.
Yuuichirou quickly snapped the cell phone closed and ran towards the counter, grabbing his lab coat as he did so.
"Where are you going?" Dekao asked, surprised by the sudden action.
"Home, something happened," was the scientist's only answer as he darted out of the room and they could hear the door of the house slamming shut behind him.
--
Koruku watched the screen impatiently, looking over his Navi's features for what felt like the fiftieth time. Beside him, Ultimate was hooking gazillions of wires of all different colors to his PET. The whir of the computer was drilling in his ears, he had taken the job. Now he wanted his Navi back.
"All programs are working properly, Ultimate-sama. We are ready to begin the process." A Robot Navi with a dull, monotone voice reported, standing ramrod straight and blank eyes faithfully boring into its master's.
"Good, begin then." Ultimate nodded, satisfied. The Robot Navi scurried back to the desks piled with twenty or more computers, conversing with ones identical to it. They, all at once, began pushing buttons and pulling levers, bringing up windows and murmuring intelligible things aloud.
Koruku's eyes widened as Cyber disappeared from the screen as small boxes replaced him, piling on top of each other. Koruku did not know what to do so he just waited for a sign from Ultimate.
The boxes' data started to dissipate and clutch onto one another, forming into what looked akin to Cyber's long body shape.
Color came first, pixels and pixels of common shades suddenly clinging onto the newly formed body shape, and then features shifted to familiar ones. It didn't take more than five minutes and when that had passed, Koruku found himself staring at what he had before, just less beat up.
"Navi Data Reformation: Complete. Cyber.EXE should be online within an hour." One of the clones explained and Ultimate smiled smugly.
"There, he's back. I have restored your beloved associate to his rightful form. Now, go on. I want you well rested before you must begin my…special assignment." Ultimate ordered, spinning around and hovering over to the collection of computers.
Koruku stood up and shuffled dazedly out the door. Once in the hallway, he peered down at his Navi.
Was this really Cyber?
The screen shifted, like the wind dragging a sole strip of water across your clear windshield just with added static, and Cyber looked as though he was beginning to stir.
What? But hadn't the Robot Navis said that he would be online within an hour…?
Cyber's eyes slowly slid open.
Well, guess not.
"Cyber…?" Koruku began hesitantly. He paused, why was he hesitating?
The orange Navi blinked at him a couple of times, chocolate brown eyes wide and extremely confused.
"What…?" He murmured. His voice was thick with sleep.
What's going on…? Was what Hikari Netto wondered as he stared up into orange eyes, just able to see the green locks on the side of his face.
"Cyber…?" the man asked again.
Cyber…? Who's Cyber?