Chapter 11
Blaze and a Dad Gone Wrong
"Proto I don't-" Chaud started to say when his head was pulled up, then he stopped, through his tears he could see that Proto was looking directly at him only, not through his shades…
Chaud was stunned; all of a sudden he found that he couldn't breath. Proto and he were truly face to face, Chaud was looking into a pair of eyes that almost mirrored his own. Without the air of mystery that the shades gave all that was left behind was a boy.
If he hadn't known it was Proto in front of him Chaud would have thought he was looking at a complete stranger, and yet he could see the resemblence, he was...family. Chaud also saw something in Proto he hadn't seen before.
Fear.
"Quick give me a piece of paper!" Tasha exclaimed when she saw the weak blip appear on her computer's monitor, repeating the numbers so she wouldn't forget.
"Here," Breeze replied as she grabbed a sheet out of a nearby printer, "are you sure it's them?" she asked.
"Positive," Tasha replied as she scrambled to get the numbers on paper then entering them into the computer's database, as she did so she accidentally hit a key on Breeze's keyboard which updated the profile of her new partners, this time bringing up their navis profiles. Her eyes stopped when they landed on Terra's profile. She noticed resemblance between her and her navi right away.
"Where are they?" Breeze asked unaware that her operator's attention had been diverted to what was now displayed on her screen.
"They're across town," Tasha replied slowly as her mind made it's way back to the present situation, she didn't have time to think about this.
"Are you ok?" Breeze asked not even bothering to look at her computer screen.
"Yeah come on." Tahsa replied as she grabbed Breeze and headed for the door.
Chaud continued to stare into Proto's eyes, or more correctly Emery's, he couldn't move.
"Chaud, the reason I never told you is I was afraid that you wouldn't accept me."
"So you'd rather be alone forever than taking a risk?" Chaud asked. "That doesn't sound like you."
"I'm more human than you give me credit for Chaud." Proto replied.
"Well actually you're more human than I ever thought you were." Chaud added with a smirk, "This changes everything doesn't it?"
"Not really," Proto replied, "it'll just make you look at things differently." Proto replied reflecting Chaud's expression.
Regal looked on with slight disappointment, he had hoped that Chaud and Proto would be at each other's throats by now, things had started out so well! But, the two had proved stronger than he thought, and it really didn't matter, he still had Terra and Whisper to rely on. After all they hadn't faced their father yet, and even though the two had a 'cool' exterior he knew it wasn't going to last. Not only that but he still had phase 3 to rely on, so today wasn't going to be a total loss, he was still going to have his fun…
"So are you ok?" Proto asked after he noticed that it seemed like Chaud had settled.
"Are you?" Chaud asked back.
"I'm fine as a person can be when they just spilled their heart out and they're under the control of a psychopath." Proto replied.
"Yeah, the same goes for me too." Chaud agreed, "You know we should probably get back, I'm pretty sure everyone else is wondering if we're ok."
"You're probably right." Proto said as he slipped his shades back on. When they turned the corner they found everyone else on the back steps right where they left them. When they walked up Terra was the first to speak.
"So are you guys ok?" she asked.
"We're fine as can be expected," Proto replied.
"Well, now that we've finally solved the riddle, you think Regal's going to let us go?" Lan asked.
"Well, Hikari that's actually the first worthwhile question you've asked all day." Regal's voice called out. Terra, Lan, Mega, and Whisper abruptly turned around, when they did they came face to face with him.
"So Regal, now that we've finished your test, which we passed with flying colors I might add, you going to let us go?" Proto asked.
"The test isn't over Emery, believe me, but sure, why not? After all, I'm a man of my word." The scientist replied snapping his fingers.
"Huh," Terra gasped as she shot up. When she took in her surroundings she noticed that she was in a makeshift lab along with Lan and Chaud. Everyone was groggy and the wires that had once been connected to them had fallen to the floor.
"There's nothing like the rejoining of mind and body." Lan stated as he made the joke. Chaud and Terra laughed. Getting up Lan noticed all their PET's pefectly lined up on a table across the room, he quickly retreaved his and handed the other two to his friends.
"So, do you think he's going to let us out of here?" Whisper asked.
"Well there's only one way to find out." Mega replied as he gestured over to the closed door. Everyone looked at it for a second. Nobody moved.
After a few seconds Chaud moved from his place and slowly turned the knob of the door opening it. When nothing exploded everyone else moved from their places.
"Looks clear." Proto commented.
"Well there's only one way to test if it is." Lan added as he took the fist step through the threshold and to the other side. When everything seemed like it was ok everyone else followed.
"What do you know, Regal actually played semi fair for once," Whisper stated, but as soon as the words left her mouth the door slammed behind them and the sound of numerous distant locks being simultaneously turned could be heard.
"You just had to say something didn't you?" Terra asked as she glared at her sister.
"Oh don't blame your sister Terra, this was my idea," a familiar voice called out. When everyone turned to the source Regal stepped out of the shadows.
"You can never keep your word can you Regal?" Mega asked.
"My word?" Regal asked. "Boy, if you haven't noticed I'm evil, since when should my word be worth anything? Besides haven't your parents ever told you not to make deals with psychopaths?"
"Like we had a choice!" Lan exclaimed as he lunged at Regal only to have Chaud hold him back.
"Tsk, tsk, temper, temper," Regal said as he addressed Lan. "You certainly have a job on your hands." Regal stated as he redirected his speech to Mega.
"Tell me something I don't know." Mega replied, "So now what are you planning to do?"
"Give you another test of course, I want to see if you can still survive in the real world. After all I needed to find someone to test my new and improved darkloids."
"And after that you'll let us go?" Terra asked.
"If you win." Regal replied.
"And if we loose?"
"If you loose, you loose."
"And how do we know that you'll let us go after this?" Whisper asked.
"You don't. But it's not like you have a choice in the matter, you're not getting out of here other wise." He said as his thrown descended from the ceiling and then taking him to his elevated region. "Let the battle begin."
As he spoke the kids attention was turned toward three doors that were opening around them, when the darkloids stepped out their navis simultaneously materialized. The six could tell they were going to have their work cut out for them…
"How close are we?" Tasha asked as she took a sharp turn around a curve almost becoming one with the pavement. She and Breeze were currently on her Vespa and they were heading toward the dead end of town.
"A few blocks." Breeze replied as she braced herself for the next turn.
"Did you send out the e-mails?"
"Written and sent," but I don't know if everyone is going to get here in time to be able to help." Breeze said. "They were further out than we thought, it's going to take them forever to get back here."
"Ok," Tahsa replied, "I just hope they can get here. And I hope we can get there in time." Tasha though to herself."I have a bad feeling about this."
Mega, Lan, Proto, Chaud, Terra, and Whisper all stared at the darkloids that were steadily making their way towards them, Burnerman, Savageman, and Flashman, all glowing and pulsing in the darkness as multitudes of energy flowed through their bodies. It was then that Terra noticed that something was wrong.
"What..." She stated as she trailed off glancing from one darkloid to the other then to their surroundings. There were no rainbows on the walls, and yet the darkloids were there big as day. "Guys there's no dimentional area!" She exclaimed.
"So glad you noticed!" Regal replied. "Rush and Shademan's failed assination attempt may have inspired you but you're talking to the creator of the dimensional area. I debuted them on a large scale it's true, but shrinking them for a darkloids personal use isn't beyond me. I figured it was time to gift my loyal warriors with spontaneous materailzation."
Terra glared back.
"Besides you and your friends have to be itching to use your double-crossfusion in tandum with the materization program. This will be your first time really using it, would it not?"
Terra didn't answer, she didn't need too, instead she turned her attention to her sister.
"I'm just going to throw this out there as a guess, but those are some of the guys that have been reinforced with our power aren't they?" Terra asked.
"Yep." Whisper replied.
"So this is double bad."
"Yep."
"Guys there's nothing to worry about, we've taken down these clowns before, we can do it again." Proto said as he prepared for the coming battle, drawing his sword.
"You're right." Terra replied as she mimicked his action along with everyone else; she, Lan and Chaud activating the double crossfussion.
"Yeah," Lan added, "it's time to take out the trash!"
"Yeah you! Burning jet!" Burnerman exclaimed as he sent out his inferno toward the group, he had grown impatient with no one making a move.
"So what's the plan?" Mega asked as he and everyone else dodged the firecrackers attack.
"Chaud and me can handle this yahoo, you guys take the other two." Proto stated.
"Got it," the other four replied as they took off. As Chaud watched them go he noticed that each pair's glow was increasing, their synchro levels were obviously skyrocketing. He looked at the aura that surrounded him and his brother, although it wasn't dull by any means it wasn't as luminous as Lan and Mega's or Whisper and Terra's, compared to the four of them he and Proto were disconnected.
"Jumping claw! Neon lights!" The individual attacks from the darkloids overlapping as they made them.
"Mega buster! Whispershock!" the four net savers replied sending out their own attacks making sure to divide their counterparts. After all isn't there a rule that says to divide and conquer? Once they succeeded in making the split Mega and Lan were squaring off with Flashman and Terra and Whisper had Savageman.
"Looks like you made the wrong choice." Savageman said as he squared off with the two girls remembering the fact that he was the one darkloid that could rattle Whisper. "It'll be a piece of cake taking you out."
"I'd rework that statement if I were you," Whisper replied taking her stance. "You see I'm not afraid of you anymore. I just realized that you're not a monster, you're just a hideous freak."
"Tough words, lets see if you mean them Skyler!" Savageman exclaimed as he charged the metallic navi.
"Wide sword!" Whisper called out as she received the blade and put it up for defense blocking Savageman's claws as he made his attack. Terra just stood back, she obviously wasn't going to be a part of this battle, whatever was going on it was between her sister and the darkloid.
"Burning Jet!" Burnerman exclaimed as he sent his inferno toward Proto and Chaud.
"Sonic Boom!" they both replied sending out the multi wave response hitting the fiery blaze and causing it to fizzle out.
"Pretty good, looks like you've been working out, but so have I!" Burnerman said as he started another attack. "Fire sword!" He called as he sped toward Proto knocking Chaud aside in the process. "Step aside little bro and let the big boys play," Burnerman continued as he started to parry with Proto.
"So you know?" Proto asked.
"Sure do Emery." Burnerman smirked as he made an impromptu slash, one which Protoman easily dodged, and only barely bringing his own sword up in time to miss Proto's strike. "I want to see if the elder Blaze is really worth his family name." He said as he made another move.
"Chaud you might want to stay out of this, I can handle this clown." Proto said as he brought up is sword in defense.
"Stay out?" Chaud asked, "What am I suppose to do?"
"Anything you want shrimp just stay out of the fight." Burnerman said as he struck Proto. "You might want to pay attention, mustn't get distracted."
"I know." Proto replied when Burnerman went in for another strike and ended up being struck instead.
Chaud watched the older two in disbelief, while Proto defended his ego what was he suppose to do? Just stand there? He stayed in that state until he noticed Terra sitting on some crates above him.
"What are you doing here?" he asked as he approached her.
"Sitting." Terra replied. "What are you doing here?"
"Obviously joining you." Chaud said as he sat next to the girl. "I just got kicked out of my first battle."
"Me too." Terra replied. "Whisper didn't tell me to my face but I could kinda tell she wanted to do it alone. Unknown to me she and Savageman have something going on. So why'd you get the boot?"
"Pride." Chaud replied. "Burnerman insulted Proto, at least Lan and Mega have some partnership going." Chaud observed as he watched the other two teens.
"Neon lights!" Flashman shouted as he sent his electrified attack toward the two boys.
"Ready for some serious action Mega?" Lan asked.
"You know it."
"Then lets go." Lan replied. "Hero sword!" he exclaimed, when he received the blade he slashed the attack in half allowing Mega to jump up from behind coming down unexpectedly on the darkloid.
"Custom sword!" The blue navi called out as he came down hitting his mark shattering the shield on Flashman's right arm.
"Nice job ghost boy." Flashman replied as he slid back, "Let's see if you can keep it up, headlights!"
"Jumping claws!" Savageman exclaimed again as he flew toward Whisper.
"Knight sword!" Whisper counteracted as she flipped over the beast and cracking her blade down on Savageman shattering the claws on both hands.
"You're going to pay for that girl." Savageman stated as he turned around.
"Make me big bad and ugly" Whisper replied.
"RRRHAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Savageman roared as he speed toward Whisper readying himself to make his attack.
"Phaser!" Whisper called out once Savageman reached her causing him to pass cleanly through, materializing her sword she sliced and diced him.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Savageman screamed out in surprise, "How could you do that?" he started to say as he was engulfed by his own power that was now flowing from within him. When he came to his climax it was like a supernova, sending his massive energy expanding outward as he was deleted. It was enough force to slam Whisper into the closest wall. Once it was all over though a familiar dark cackling could be heard.
"Thought you could get rid of me that easily did you?" the voice asked, "Well think again!" when the voice's silhouette emerged from the smoke Whisper could see it was Spikeman. "You have to love Regal." Spikeman continued, "This emulating program is great it's like having nine lives! And as for you, your life is looking incredibly short." Spikeman said as he stiffened his glare, trading out his right hand for one of his spikes electrifying it until it crackled and popped.
Whisper tried to get up and get into her battle stance but she found that she couldn't move.
"Oh what's the matter?" Spikeman asked, "Did that little bump jar your programming? Oh well to bad and so sad!" he continued as he raised his arm to make his move…
"Don't think so bozo! Whispershock!" Terra replied as her attack suddenly came out of nowhere.
"And take this, Sonicboom!" Chaud added as his attack did the same as Terra's hitting their mark knocking Spikeman back giving Whisper time to recover.
"Thanks," she replied as she got back to her feet when Chaud and Terra landed beside her.
"No problem." Terra replied, "What good would I be if I couldn't dive in and rescue you at the last second?"
"Oh that's so sweet, a tinder moment between sisters, that makes me sick!" Spikeman spat out as he rose once more. "Hummmmmm..." he said as he observed his current situation. "Three against one is hardly fair, lets see if I can level the playing field, shadowmaker!" the darkloid exclaimed as he shined the light on himself making a copy. "Take care of the red one for me will ya?" he asked as his shadowy double came into focus. The shadow nodded in reply before shooting toward Chaud forcing him to break from the two girls. "Well I hope he's not afraid of shadows." Spikeman stated.
"Oh what's it going to take to put you guys down and make you stay there?" Terra asked as she activated a wide sword.
"Well bring it on and lets see." Spikeman replied.
"We're here, hit the breaks!" Breeze exclaimed once she noticed that they were right on top of where the team's signal had last come from.
"The old subway?" Tasha asked as she observed where they were. "Regal's done something different. I was expecting a warehouse." She said as she killed the engine.
"Well Regal may be old, but it think this dog has some new tricks." Breeze said as she got off the scooter.
"Ok this place would have to be on my top ten list of everything creepy." Breeze commented once they were inside the old underground station.
"You're telling me." Tasha agreed when she heard a distant thundering. "Did you hear that?" she asked.
"Yeah." Breeze replied. "Kinda sounded like a omega spread coming down."
"We must be getting close then, come on." Tasha said as she turned down the hall that the echo came from.
"OMEGA ARROW!" Spikeman called out as he received the large bow and arrow and released the attack.
"Oh I hate it when darkliods get their hands on new toys!" Terra exclaimed as she watched the shot coming right at her.
"You're telling me, life aura battle chip in!" Whisper agreed throwing up the barrier to block the attack, but the omega spread was much more potent than expected and although the life aura shielded the energy it wasn't enough to keep it back, once it broke through the blast sent Terra and Whisper flying…
"So how dose it feel that your dad didn't find you worthy enough to carry on his family name?" Burnerman asked as he kept up the fight as well as the taunting.
"Sorry, I don't confide in darkloids." Proto said as he swung at Burnerman but missed as the darkloid sidestepped the blow. Quite shockingly Burnerman was pretty skilled.
"Oh but you should it's so rewarding!" Burnerman exclaimed as he made a decisive strike hitting his mark cutting Proto's arm causing him to recoil and at the same time trip over a metal rod that had been left on the abandoned subway floor. "Why don't you let the world see you for who you really are!" Burnerman exclaimed again as he made another articulated slash, this one coming across Proto's face causing the helmet and visor to shatter…
"AAAAAAAAAAHAH" Chaud roared as he and Spikeman's shadowy clone spared and parried. By now Chaud was exasperated. He didn't have time to play with Spikeman's puppet but he was having to duke it out because he couldn't shake him.
"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAH" he yelled out once more as they crashed sword against spike. Chaud mustered up all his strength as he pushed them apart, he being pushed into the darkness of the room and the shadow into one of the few beams of light that were supplied by a few chandeliers. Once it hit the shadow it seemed to begin to melt, unable to move, paralyzed, until it evaporated into nothing.
Chaud at a loss as he walked over to the place where the shadow had been not seconds before. It seemed almost unreal that such a formidable opponent could be taken out so easily. But this shock only lasted until he caught a fluid movement from the corner of his eye. When he turned around he could see Burnerman deal a blow directly to Proto's face…
As Proto fell to the ground the shattered visor and helmet fell around him, that along with his long hair pixelated out within seconds, leaving behind the average upturned snow white hair cut with jet-black streaks that he had in his human form. When Proto looked up Burnerman was met with a pair of flashing azure eyes glaring up at him. A pair identical to Chaud's.
Whisper and Terra who had been sent skidding across the floor witnessed the event too. Coming to a halt they had both caught sight of the same fluid motion Chaud had. Turning around to get a better view everything seemed to happen in slow motion as the helmet that had hidden Proto's identity for so long came crashing down.
"OMG…" Whisper breathed as she took everything in being fully entranced by his flashing azure eyes.
Terra looked on equally captivated, only unlike her sister she wasn't crushing, "Wow." She commented. "He really is a Blaze."
"Oh girls, what's the first rule that a netsaver learns?" Spikeman asked as he came up behind them.
"That you mustn't get distracted." Whisper replied as she leapt up from the ground in a swing kick, kicking Spikeman dead in the crotch.
"Ice ball battle chip in." Terra said as she got to her feet tossing the small bomb up and down in her hand watching Spikeman doubled over.
"And do you know the second rule is?" she asked, when she received no answer she continued. "Don't get cocky." She said as she threw the ice ball instantly freezing Spikeman from head to toe.
"Spikeman logging out."
"Headlights!" Flashman exclaimed as he generated the attack focusing enough light and glare to blind both Lan and Mega, that was until…
"Dark matter, battle chip in!" Two unfamiliar voices called out, dark swirls of matter engulfed Flashman relinquishing his attack, not only that but since he was a navi whose own power had been reflected back to him… well you get the picture.
"Flashman logging out."
When the two strangers landed beside them Lan and Mega recognized one of them right away.
"Tahsa what are you doing here?" Lan asked, Mega kept silent, after all he had a cover to keep.
"Saving your butt what's it look like?" The girl replied. "That, and I've been assigned to your team. Interesting thing you've got going here. No dimentional area and yet - darkloids?"
"Great." Lan replied as he drug out the word, his voice void of any enthusiasm. He was not happy to see her. "It's Regal's newest thing: spontaneous materialzation. So who's your navi?" He asked when he noticed the other girl, Tasha was kinda standing in front of her so he couldn't see.
"Oh this is-" Tasha started as she stepped aside to introduce her.
"Annalynne?" Lan and Mega asked at the same time when they recognized the girl. Mega stepped from behind Lan as he did so.
"Never mind." Tahsa said mostly to herself. How did she think she was going to fool Lan anyway? She then took notice of the boy's netnavi, instantly recognizing him too.
"Hub?" Breeze and Tasha asked in the same way when they saw him.
"But you're dead!" All four teens stated at the same time, one pair referring to Mega and the other to Breeze.
"Oh how nice a little friendly reunion, too bad you won't be able to enjoy each others company, METOR!" a voice exclaimed as an attack suddenly came from nowhere catching all four netsavers off guard. The blast just missed them but they were knocked back by it's sheer force all the same. As Tahsa flew back and hit the ground Terra's locket that she had around her neck came off of her breaking through her crossfusion, its chain snapping from the sudden movement. Not only that but it fell open, when it stopped spinning and came to a stop it was opened directly on Terra's family photo. Tahsa's eyes widened, it all made sense, both she and Breeze had been right…
"Ice ball, battle chip in!" two voices called out that neither Breeze or Tasha recognized, the mini bomb hit Novaman out of the blue.
"AAAAHHHHGGGGRR!" A girl yelled as she came down on the frozen Novaman kicking the ice sickle shattering the ice and Novaman with it. It was Whisper and Terra.
"Novaman logging out." the computer voice called.
"Well that was easy." Whisper said once she came down.
"Yeah, we should do them in that way more often." Terra chucked as she turned around noticing the new comers.
"Hi." Tahsa and Breeze said together.
"Hi." Whisper and Terra replied, confused to see them there.
"Ok, this is a little awkward." One of the girls admitted. "I'm Tasha." The girl said further introducing herself. "Tahsa Vasari. and this is my navi Breeze." She said pointing to the red head. "We're your new partners."
"Yeah, unfortunately." Lan added as he picked himself off the ground.
"You know them?" Terra asked.
"Old friend." Lan replied, "Or rather fiend."
"Fiend?" Whisper whispered as she helped Mega up looking to him for an explanation.
"She was an old childhood friend, goes further back than Maylu." Mega whispered back. "Lets just say that she and Lan were a little competitive. Not to mention they're both the babys in the family. If they did anything together they often needed a referee. Most of the time it was me."
"So she recognize you?" Whisper asked.
"Yep."
"Are you going to have to explain the whole thing over again?"
"I don't think so." Mega replied. "I have a feeling she understands."
Whisper gave Mega a confused look but didn't press any, she figured she'd get the answers soon enough.
"Oh." Terra replied, although she couldn't hear Mega and Whisper's inside conversation she could kinda tell the two must have had something between them. "Well I'm Terra Javedson and this is my navi Whisper."
"Hi." Whisper added with a short wave.
"I know." Tasha replied. "The chief told me all about you guys, they're all looking for you, we were just fortunate to notice your signal, it was pretty faint."
"So we're going to have some backup?" Mega asked.
"We're not sure," Breeze replied, "When we e-mailed everyone else the coordinates they were all pretty far away, and we don't know how far out they were."
"Well in any case it's nice to meet you." Whisper added."You must be pretty smart to get past Regal."
"Maybe, but I have a feeling he let us in. It was too easy getting down here." Tahsa replied.
"Let you in, why?" Lan asked.
"Who knows." Tasha said back.
"You guys ok?" Terra asked as she looked at the four giving them a good look.
"Sure why?" Lan asked.
"I don't know." Terra replied. "It just looks like you've all seen a ghost."
"Well, well, well," Burnerman said, "we finally get to see the man behind the mask, funny though, I never pictured you to look like this."
"Like what?" Proto asked.
"For one thing I pictured you to have darker hair." Burnerman replied as he changed his sword preparing to bring it down on Proto. "But in a second it won't matter."
"I'd disagree." Proto replied as he accessed his default sword bringing it up in defense, but he soon found himself loosing ground, the whole day was taking its toll, the battling and the high stress had drained him more than he thought.
"Well, looks like someone's enery's draining." Burnerman said when he noticed Proto's arms start to give. "Never thought I'd see the day when you would loose a battle and never thought I'd be the one to claim the victory."
"Your intuition was right, you're not, Z cannon!" Chaud's voice rang out as the hot plasma flew through the air striking Burnerman and knocking him into some crates.
"You're going to pay for that!" Burnerman exclaimed once he got to his feet.
"I don't think so." Chaud replied, "I'd look up if I were you."
When Burnerman looked up he noticed that the crates he had slammed into had become unsteady and were going to topple over. Frozen, he didn't move when they fell.
"Burnerman logging out."
"Thanks," Proto stated when Chaud helped him back to his feet.
"Don't mention it." Chaud replied.
The commotion caused by Chaud and Burnerman's confrontation had grabbed the rest of the gang's attention. When they looked Chaud and Proto's way Lan and Mega caught site of Proto for the fist time.
"Whoa." Lan commented when he saw Proto's azure eyes and short white hair.
"Didn't expect him to look like that did you?" Terra asked.
"That would be an understatement." Lan replied as he continued to look.
"Just make sure you don't stare, it's rude." Mega added.
"Bravo, seems like I have some more work to do on my darkloids." Regal's voice commented as his elevated thrown came down and he stepped off.
"Now what do you want?" Mega asked as the whole gang congregated together.
"What? I can't give a complement?" Regal asked as he walked closer.
"No." Terra replied getting right to the point.
"And you're right," Regal replied, "But believe it or not I am giving you a complement, you should take it. I see you've found the fourth soul, or more correctly she found you." Regal said as he looked at both Tasha and Breeze. "I was wondering how long it would take."
"Fourth soul?" Chaud asked, it was then that he noticed the two new girls.
"Yes," Regal continued, "I'd like to introduce you to Tasha Vasari and her cousin Annelynne Vasari, aka Breeze EXE."
"Cousin?" Whisper asked as she glanced at Breeze no wonder Mega said that Tahsa understood his situation.
"Yes," Regal continued, "You're looking at the daughter and niece of Dr. Hikari's high school sweetheart, the name Raeann doesn't ring a bell to you Terra? She was just as much a friend to the good doctor as your father. Terra rolled her eyes at the mention of her father.
"Oh I forgot, you don't want to think of him rite now. But as I was saying, Breeze's family story is quite sad, it may be more of a tear tugger than either of yours. Her parents died in a car crash when she was just 14 months old. After that Tasha's mother took her in and raised her like her own daughter.
Tasha and Breeze grew up like sisters rite here in Dentech, and lived next to the Hikari's until they were of the age of four. Then they moved to Tokyo. Yes, their lives were perfect until six years later when Breeze developed leukemia. When Mrs. Vasari saw that she was going to loose her whose shoulder dose she go to, to cry on other than her good friend Yuuchiro Hikari.
And guess what? Unlike the three of you the fact that Breeze's life had been saved was never hidden from Tasha, she knew from the very start. There were never any lies.
So Breeze how dose it feel to know that you're not the only freak out there? Your new partner's navi's are just like you."
Breeze didn't reply, she was almost in tears and only stared.
"Are you done?" Mega asked through clenched teeth feeling the girl's pain.
"I'll never been done, Hikari, but you can leave at any time." Regal stated as you could hear all the locks opening as well as one of the doors.
"You're free to go." He continued giving the group a challenging look, almost daring them to leave.
"Come on guys, let go," Proto said as he began to walk toward the door. This time there were no tricks. Being the last one out Terra looked back and could just make out Regal's outline in the darkness.
Regal continued to look at the group that had just expanded to eight leave. Everything was going according to plan…
"I can not believe that we just walked out of there and let Regal go!" Lan exclaimed once they were above ground.
"Lan what did you expect us to do? We're all tired, if we got into another confrontation with him he would have won. We're worth nothing right now. I hated to let him go too but we didn't have a choice." Proto commented.
"I know." Lan agreed begrudgingly. "But it still feels like he got off scot-free."
"You're not the only one that feels that way, Lan." Mega added.
"You've got that right." Chaud, Whisper and Terra said together.
Tasha looked at the group, she knew they probably weren't in the mood to answer any questions but she was curious.
"Um, I hate to interrupt and I know you guys probably don't want to talk about this right now but what did Regal want with you guy's anyway?" Tasha asked.
"In short, head games." Terra replied, "Somehow he found out that we were all like you. Someone who had someone close to them die and then be saved at the last second by being turned into a netnavi.
He was trying to use the circumstances around that against us, trying to distance us from people in the net police organization who each played a role. He wanted to split us up."
"So each of you have an undead sibling?" Breeze asked referring to Chaud and Terra. "I already know about Hub. I remember when he died." Breeze said.
"Yeah, us," Whisper replied pointing to herself and Proto, "Some of us knew about it and some of us didn't. I did in the beginning but Terra never knew I was still alive until she saw me one night. When she did our dad convinced her what she had seen was a dream and then he blocked my memories. A few months ago though Terra was able to truly realize that what she had seen was real. Lan was lied to for eight years and Chaud never knew. That's what made Regal's plan seem like it would so effective."
"Wow, I'm sorry I had no idea." Both Breeze and Tasha replied their voices overlapping.
"Thanks," Whisper replied, "Just be glad your life isn't as complicated, welcome to the team."
"Sky are you ok?" Terra asked her sister mentally. Chaud had called a car and they were now on their way back to Scilab. Everyone wanted to go home, but they had sent everyone e-mails telling that they were ok, and they all knew that the chief would want them to check back in.
"As ok as a girl can be in this situation." Whisper replied. "Why?"
"You're tense."
"Well of course I'm tense, I'm fixing to face my father for the first time in five years, what would you expect?"
"You're not going to go off on him are you?" Terra asked slightly concerned.
"I don't know, I've tried to push this whole thing into the back of my mind, give me time to calm down but I can't. He deserves to have someone go off on him."
"If you do it could compromise everything, especially if Manuela and the Chief are there."
"Well it's not like I'm going to yell and scream at him or anything but if I don't release this stress soon I'm going to explode. Tell you what if either Manuela or the Chief are there I'll keep my mouth shut, internalize my feelings, and get an ulcer the size of Cleveland, that is until I tell Mom."
"You can't get ulcers."
"You get my point."
"What about Famous?"
"Well he's younger than everyone else and less prone to judge. But if he's there I won't say anything either. So do we have a deal?"
"Deal." Terra replied just at the limo came to a stop.
"Master Blaze, we're here." The driver said.
"Thanks John." Chaud replied as he opened the door and everyone got out with Whisper taking the lead once they approached the building.
"Well someone's in a awful hurry." Lan commented when he saw her get inside the door a good five seconds ahead of them.
"Well she should considering she's going to get a few things off her chest." Terra replied.
Whisper steadied her pace as she made her way down the hall. She had tried to calm down, she really did, it just wasn't going to happen. When she came through the automatic doors into the lab she was met with two relieved faces: Dr. Hikari's, and her father's. Her dad was the first to approach her.
"Oh Whisper thank goodness your ok." He said as he trapped her in a huge hug, "Is everyone else all right?" He asked.
"Yeah everyone else is fine." Whisper replied. "I think they're just dragging their feet because they think your going to put us through a lot of tests."
"What wrong?" Dr. Javedson asked as he looked at the girl's face noticing that it seemed like something was bothering her.
"Oh, I was just wondering why it seemed like you cared about me so much just now. I mean I'm just your daughter's netnavi." Whisper replied setting the doctor up.
"Oh, Whisper you're more than that, you're part of the family, you're almost like a second daughter to me, you know that."
"But I'm not your daughter am I?" Whisper asked.
"No of course not-" Dr. Javedson began to say when he stopped, noticing that a scrawl had made it's way across Whisper's face.
"You are such a liar." Whisper said as she dragged out every word.
"What?" Dr. Javedson asked as he started to go pale.
"Dad I know the truth." Whisper replied watching the color drain from her father's face. "What's the matter? Don't remember me?"
TBC