Alright, chapter nine: completed. :D Yay! This didn't necessarily take as long to write as it did to type up, but, eh. Who's complainin'? I really don't have much to say other than:
grandmaster p: Ohmigosh, I didn't notice that! How perceptive of you! I totally forgot about that plot. Silly 'ol me, but that just furthers the whole 'alternate universe thing' in the story. :3
And, fwee! Cliffhanger! Enjoy! Oh, and there may be mistakes, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix them. So, I apologize for that.
-
Chapter Nine: Disturbance in the Horizon
Haruka stood, bundled up in a green wool blanket. Two police cars were parked in front of the house, and she watched the two men as they trudged their way up to her.
The sky above was stormy and bleak, the clouds appeared heavy, and the air tasted of cold water. Beside her stood her husband; Yuuichirou had an arm across her shoulders, and he was frowning in thought.
"Well, there's no sign of break in and no remains of a bomb." One of the officers claimed—whose name will be Joe for this occasion—taking off his cap and scratching at his hairline.
"The Navis didn't find any evidence that someone had tampered with the wires. So we don't know what could have caused it." The other policeman, Takashi, nodded, peering around the rather ordinary-looking neighborhood.
"Well, thank you for checking anyway." Yuuichirou thanked, though he seemed somewhat distracted while saying it.
"No prob, only doin' our job. You stay safe now, ma'am, be on the lookout for explodin' television sets." Joe placed his cap back on his head and tipped it slightly in farewell.
"Goodbye." Takashi waved, and the two headed towards their separate cars. (8D But they're so totally a couple—hah hah, just kiddin'.)
Yuuichirou hugged Haruka closer.
"Yuu-chan…" she began slowly, although she did not get a chance to voice her train of thought as her husband murmured, "Of course they wouldn't find any evidence, it most likely blew up with the television."
Haruka looked up at him, and he glanced at her.
"What's going on, Yuuichirou? What's happening?" She asked, pleading to understand the occurrences, the reasons for them, why her son and his Navi had disappeared so suddenly.
Yuuichirou squeezed her shoulder, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
--
He found Netto at the farthest corner of the campground, standing with his back turned to the world and completely silent.
Rockman took a hesitant step forward. What could he possibly say? Nothing. There was nothing that could be said.
Classic materialized on Netto's shoulder, scowl on his face.
"Can't you respect someone's privacy? Leave!" Classic shooed, waving his hand in a dismissing gesture.
Rockman ignored this—he very much disliked his silver replacement in this alternate universe—and walked closer.
The boy didn't seem to notice his presence, and if he did, he pretended not to.
"Netto-kun?" Rockman whispered softly, hoping to grab the boy's attention. It worked.
Netto swung around, automatically jumping to the defense. He relaxed when he realized it was his brother.
"Are you…do you…" Rockman was at a loss for words. He usually knew what exactly to say to get Netto hyper and optimistic again, but this time he had nothing. No words of comfort came to mind so he just stood there, looking and feeling awkward.
"Let's go back, Meiru-chan and Dekao and me were supposed to go scouting." Netto's expression was by the shadow of his headband as he stared down at the ground.
Rockman merely nodded, not knowing what else to say.
The brown haired boy shuffled by, not looking up, and Classic watching Rockman haughtily as they passed.
-
Alternate Hikari Yuuichirou paced the computer room. The loud yells of the other scientists around him could not be dimmed by even the depths of his own mind.
He would not let his son be used like a mouse in a maze. Just because Saito was special… his thoughts trailed off as he heard a door open.
Ijuuin Enzan stood in the doorway, his mouth set in a straight line. Nobody seemed to notice his entrance, and so the white haired boy made his way over.
"I'm guessing that a decision hasn't been made." Enzan remarked, shoving his hands into his pockets and looking around the room.
"No, it seems our opinions are divided." Yuuichirou sighed, slipping off his glasses and rubbing them against his sleeve.
"The government is a powerful contender indeed. I understand their concerns."
Those that didn't wish to go against the government's wishes stood on the other side of the room. They were scruffy and grumpy-looking, all of them. These scientists were mostly against confronting the government because they funded their research. A most selfish action, but nothing was honorable when it came to politics.
"Dr. Hikari, if I'm not being too inquisitive, what are they exactly planning to do to Saito-kun?" Enzan asked after a pause.
Yuuichirou slid his glass back onto his nose and sighed once more.
"They are supposedly researching Saito's biological structure, the way his DNA is different than everyone else's. Saito has always had something odd about him, how his molecules react to high voltage electricity, and how Netbattling weakens him greatly." The scientist gave Enzan a meaningful look, and the boy understood.
When Saito had been five years old and Netto four, (Eh, I can't remember if they were twins or not but in this universe, they're a year apart) Yuuichirou brought them to work for the very first time.
He showed them all sorts of technological objects, from computers to the early revisions of the hologram. Yuuichirou had been holding up little Netto to see into a glass encased testing room when young Saito's eyes had drifted towards the gargantuan computer in the middle of the room. He'd inched his way forward, and he was immediately drawn to the wires in the back. Little Saito began to play with them, and Yuuichirou ended up being too late as the child bit into them.
This let out a warning shock—created for purposes unknown—and Saito was promptly electrocuted. Oddly enough, however, instead of screaming, Saito's eyes had begun to glow, and he became deathly quiet. The computer started to malfunction, and Yuuichirou was able to get the boy away in time, with the expense of a lasting scar.
After rushing him to the hospital, they discovered that the electricity had set off something in his brain. It did nothing to the child, neither mentally or physically, but his DNA had been altered.
They never found out why.
"The government works fast; they will be here sooner than you think! They've got powerful weapons their side, power! How can we go against that?" One of the scientist who refused to go against the government exclaimed, angry and demanding.
Yuuichirou glanced toward them and looked back at Enzan.
"What can we do?" Yuuichirou shrugged helplessly. Enzan stared at him for a moment before smiling confidently.
"We'll fool them, of course."
-
There was nothing but wasteland. Miles after miles, stretching out like muddied sand paper. Piles of debris lie here and there, old and crumbling and charred.
Rockman could smell the rusted metal in the still air; it felt as if they were miles from the camp even though they'd been walking for but five minutes.
The sky was a half-dried, mud brown, no clouds were visible. The suffocating quiet was almost unbearable although the others did not seem to mind it.
"Where are we going, Netto-kun?" Rockman asked, feeling slightly foolish. He probably should know these things, as far as Netto, Meiru, and Dekao were concerned.
Netto glanced over to him, "To check on the Monitoring Pod."
"The what?"
Dekao, standing beside him, had his beady eyes trained on his black watch, which was beeping ever so softly. Meiru was looking around, searching for something.
"It's a machine that's got cameras and seismographs spread out everywhere. It's watching from Rockman's 'Robot Navis'." Netto halted as Dekao did, and they changed direction. Not a minute later, they paused again, but this time they stayed still.
Rockman watched as his once-operator kneeled down and began knocking against the ground. Dekao silently pulled out a device from his pocket and pushed a button.
A jet of soft blue light burst forth and scanned the barely visible footsteps they left behind. The light quickly disappeared and with it did the footprints. Rockman gasped and gaped. Amazing!
"Dekao, what was that—?"
"Shh!" Dekao shushed, placing a finger to his large lips. Rockman quickly complied.
The large boy pushed another button and a shimmering, transparent shield shot up around them. Rockman stared at it and reached out a hand, the shield was solid.
Dekao winked and flipped the device in the air, catching it with the same and winking.
"ADC: Advanced Cloaking Device. Since you don't remember."
"It's not very new, but it works all the same." Meiru gave Rockman a bright smile. Netto frowned slightly.
Scraping the dirt away a bit, the brown haired boy brought into view what looked like a dark blue switch. He flicked it, and the rest of the mud surrounding it dispersed to show a metal plate with a dark screen.
"On," Netto commanded gruffly, and the screen blinked to life.
"Password, please," the machine requested, its voice obviously mechanical.
Netto's face softened sadly as he spoke, "Rock."
Rockman jerked, surprised at the choice of password. Neither Dekao nor Meiru seemed to notice.
"Password accepted." The voice said, and on the screen appeared a lost of white, blocky text. Netto chose the one that said 'Area Scan'.
The picture blinked and another one replaced it. A colored map with several blinked icons appeared, Netto studied it seriously.
"What's that?" Rockman asked, interested by all this. It seemed that this universe was less Net-advanced and more appliance-advanced. Not saying his world was behind, it was just that they spent most of their time upgrading Navi things.
"Where the surveillance cameras are. Dr. Hikari and Meijin-san placed them in every human occupied place they could." Meiru explained, leaning over Netto's shoulder to watch.
"There hasn't been any attacks lately." Netto murmured, brown creased in thought.
"Odd," Meiru commented.
"Attacks?" Rockman questioned, knowing he was missing something.
"Rockman's Robot Navis have been attacking all the human settlements. He does it constantly and we're deployed to stop him." Netto looked up.
"What are 'Robot Navis'?" Rockman asked, still confused.
"Their mechanical forms of Navis, I guess that's the simplest way to say it. They're just like Navis but, life-sized." Meiru shrugged, scooting over to Rockman and weaving an arm around his waist. Rockman's eyes widened, very startled, and tried to inconspicuously inch away. He could see the scowl grow on Netto's face.
"Oh-oh, th-that must complicated things." Rockman said, trying to look away from both Meiru and Netto. He settled on staring at Dekao.
"Yeah, I guess." Dekao shrugged and pushed a button on the ADC. The film surrounding them faded and they were greeted with a gust of air.
Netto stood up stiffly, and Dekao pocketed the device.
"All right, let's go then!" Meiru cried cheerfully.
Dekao looked up into the horizon and placed a hand over his brow. "Wait…what's that?" he asked suddenly.
Netto turned bitterly from his glowering to look at what Dekao was. Something, several objects actually, seemed to stand still in the distances.
"I dunno." Netto remarked.
Rockman and Meiru stared at it too. For a second, nothing happened. Then, they realized the mysterious beings were heading towards them.
Netto squinted, and then he gasped.
The objects were army tanks.
And it seemed that they were their targets.