A/N: Hello everybody! Wow, it's been so long since my last update... I'm really sorry for that. I had all this schoolwork and mid-terms that I had to take, and I just recently moved to a new house too, so that throws things off a bit. (I had a bit of trouble finding the wires that connected my computer... >.>;;) At least I got medium to high A's on all of my mid-terms! (It was my first time taking them...) I also had a bit of trouble with this chapter... but anyways, I finally finished it! This was my first battle sequence that I've ever written, so I'd like to know how I did.

Oh, and special thanks to grandmaster p, FMA Chiberz Rocz, and RandomRathFan for their help! It really means a lot to me!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to Rockman.exe or Megaman: NT Warrior. Rockman.exe is the property of CAPCOM.

Chapter 3

Back in the real world, Blues called out from his PET. "Enzan-sama," he said, getting his operator's attention. Enzan looked back at the PET. "Oh, you're back," he said, picking up the PET for better viewing. "Is something wrong?"

Blues shook his head. After a moment of hesitation, he proceeded. "Chang-san's navi has agreed to a netbattle. However, Chang-san's navi doubts that her Net-Op has any battlechips. Perhaps you could be of assistance somehow?" he asked.

"Blues, we need approval from her first to see if she wants to netbattle."

"Of course, Enzan-sama."

Enzan turned to Akari. "What do you think? Do you want to netbattle?" Akari winced slightly.

"I don't know… I haven't netbattled in... a long time. I can't even remember if I've ever netbattled at all…" she answered in her hushed voice. Multi had come back into her PET as well.

"Come on, Akari. I guess I'll netbattle Blues. Besides," Multi lowered her voice. "I want to see if my abilities make me any good at netbattling." she said, flashing a grin.

"Are you sure?" Akari asked uncertainly. Multi nodded. Akari had a dubious expression cross her face as she said, "Well, okay…" Akari lowered her voice. "...I guess I'm a little curious as well," she whispered, suppressing a small smile. Multi laughed out loud.

"So, do you agree?" Enzan asked. Hesitating for a while, she finally nodded her head.

"Yeah. I think it'll be a good experience for Multi..."

"Okay, then. Do you have any battlechips with you?" he questioned.

"Um, I-I don't think so…" she answered.

"That's fine." Enzan said. He was about to lend her some of his own battlechips when an idea hit him.

"How about—we don't use battlechips? The navis will have to rely only on their own instincts and default weapons. This way, they can test their own hand-to-hand combat as well," he said. "What do you think, Blues? You can handle it, right?"

"Yes, Enzan-sama."

"How about you, Akari?" Multi asked. Akari seemed rather undecided.

"I really don't know. It might be hard for you…"

Multi let out a long sigh. "Come on Akari." she stressed. Her voice softened. "I'll be fine. You don't need to worry…" After a moment, Akari replied. "Okay... But if you get hurt, promise you'll log out immediately."

Multi grinned widely. "Great! I will Akari," she promised. Akari smiled gently.

"You can jack her in now." Enzan spoke up. Akari jacked her in, the infrared beam striking the port again.

In the Net, Multi met Blues once more. Multi frowned at the fact that Blues still had his arms crossed.

"You know, you should try loosening up sometime," she said to him.

Blues merely shrugged.

"Also, I heard you calling me, 'Chang-san's navi'," she said. A small smile graced her lips. "You do know you can call me 'Multi'."

Blues was about to explain that he called her that because it was polite, and that they barely knew each other, but all that came out was, "Fine then… whatever..." His eyes widened behind his visor.

'Why... did I just do that...?' he wondered mentally.

Multi smiled. "Thanks," she said simply. "You can call my Net-Op 'Akari', too. 'Chang-san' just… sounds weird." she said, shuddering.

Blues had to bite back a small chuckle and keep his deadpan expression.

"Hn... I'll… do that."

Multi smiled again. "See? There you go. You're loosening up already!" she said cheerfully. Blues, for the first time since he could remember, could not come up with anything to say to that. Instead, he just seemingly stared intently at the ground. Only when Enzan's voice spoke up did he snap out of his gaze.

"Blues, you ready to start?" came the slightly amused voice.

Blues coughed once, then stood up straight, his arms at his sides.

"Yes, Enzan-sama. Sorry…" he mumbled. Enzan raised an eyebrow, resisting the urge to snicker at his navi. "It's fine, Blues. Tell Multi to get ready…" and with that, Enzan closed the link. Blues turned to Multi. Just as he was about to speak, she interrupted.

"It's fine; I heard him." Multi said, grinning. He nodded.

The both of them immediately got into fighting stances. Blues was still vaguely wondering why he was doing this in the first place. Multi, who had a blank look on her face, again interrupted his thoughts.

"Um, when do we start?" she asked skeptically, with that same blank look still on her face.

Blues nearly let a smirk form on his lips, but instead spoke with a cool voice, "Enzan-sama will count us off."

Multi flashed her cheerful grin. "All right, then…" she said.

In the real world, Enzan held his PET out in front of him while Akari did the same.

"All right, are both of you ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"Sure, I guess…"

Akari became worried by that tone of voice, but Multi turned her head and flashed a thumbs-up sign at her Net-Op. Akari smiled and said in a low voice, "Good luck, Multi." Multi returned the smile and turned back to find Blues with his eyes set firmly on her. She swallowed nervously.

"Okay then," Enzan replied. "Three… two… one… start!"

Almost instantly, Blues loaded his default sword onto his right arm and began charging towards her. After a moment of hesitation, Multi brought a hand up and touched the side of her helmet. A clear blue visor came down over her eyes.

Right as Blues started to bring his sword down, something came up and blocked him. He blinked, somewhat startled. It turned out that Multi had come up with a sword of her own, and had cleanly come up to block her from his attack. Blues jumped back and started coming in from a different angle, but Multi was ready. A bunch of statistics came up on her visor as she started scanning the situation.

"Attack coming forty-five degrees to the left; possible attack power, 80 percent; maximum chance of dodging, 10 percent… huh… looks like I'll have to attack head on," Multi said as she grinned slightly. "After all, a good offense is just as good as a good defense from what I've heard."

Blues blinked as he started to run once more. "...Hn... why do I feel... as if I'm going up against... myself...?" he wondered vaguely. He brushed the thought aside. Now was not the time to be thinking about such things.

Multi ran and brought her sword up just as Blues was bringing his sword down again. They held their swords together in that position for a while, each putting as much force as possible on their sword. They broke off at the same time, and sparred each other again. It continued, with Blues striking in different directions, but Multi being there to counter it. Blues had managed to hit her a couple times, but she recovered somewhat after each hit taken. Finally, they both jumped back, panting slightly. Blues was the first to speak.

"You're not bad for not battling in a while…" he growled. Multi grinned.

"Well, I have to practice sometimes. After all, who else is going to do the virus-busting around the house?" she said as she laughed lightly. His eyes widened slightly due to her easy-going manner even during a battle, but he quickly brushed it off.

"Time to finish this…" he muttered. A competitive look crossed Multi's face. Her eyes narrowed as she started scanning again. Blues jumped from place to place so fast that it seemed as if he teleported himself the entire time. The target on Multi's visor gradually shifted around so that it continually moved left.

'Wow, he's so fast…' Multi thought in frustration. Blues finally ended up right behind her and slashed his sword down. Multi sensed his presence and whirled around at the last moment, but she wasn't fast enough to block. She flew back, hitting the ground hard. Akari gasped as she saw this happen.

"Multi! Are you okay?" Akari shouted.

Multi grimaced as she got back up. "I'm fine, Akari…" she said as she forced a smile. "Blues just caught me off-guard." This did nothing to calm Akari down.

'Please be careful, Multi…' she thought anxiously. Multi seemed to read her mind as she turned around and winked at Akari. Then she turned her head back and started to run towards Blues, as he began to run as well. Their swords clashed together one more time. Multi was running out of ideas as to what to do, since Blues was quickly overpowering her. Her eyes widened as an idea suddenly struck her mind. She ducked down abruptly, causing Blues to stumble, and kicked out her leg a bit clumsily, yet it managed to strike him from behind. He stumbled further, but managed to stay upright. He turned around sharply with a scowl, and was about to attack, when yet another voice stopped him.

"Hey, Blues!" came a cheery voice. Blues immediately looked over his shoulder to see whom the voice belonged to. Once he did, however, he let out a sigh and his sword disappeared to become replaced by the rest of his arm.

Rockman, Roll, and Glyde walked up to them. Rockman raised an eyebrow. "Blues," he said slowly. "What were you just doing?"

"And who's she?" Roll chimed in. Multi laughed in embarrassment as she picked herself up off the ground, rubbing the arm which she had fallen on.

Blues crossed his arms again and walked over to the side. He leaned on a cyber-wall. "We had a netbattle," he said shortly. Rockman snickered as he nudged him in the ribs. "So what happened? I thought you didn't do favors for anyone. She didn't beat you did she?" he teased.

Blues ignored him. "No." was all that he said. Multi giggled. "No, I didn't beat him, but he didn't exactly beat me either. When you guys came, we stopped." she said cheerily.

Everyone turned to her. Multi blinked from the sudden attention, but quickly shook herself out of her reverie. "Oh, I'm sorry… I didn't introduce myself, did I? Hi, I'm Multi; it's a pleasure to meet all of you. Are you all of Blues' friends?" she asked.

Roll was the first to say anything back. "Hi, Multi! I'm Roll. The pleasure's all mine!" she replied, shaking Multi's hand. Rockman laughed. "Hey, my name's Rockman. And I'm pretty sure we can call ourselves 'Blues' friends'…" he said as he laughed again. Off to the side, Blues scoffed.

Multi smiled. "Nice to meet you, Rockman."

Glyde came up to her and shook her hand politely. "Hello, Multi. I'm Glyde, Miss Yaito's navi. It's a pleasure to meet you, too," he said. Multi simply grinned at him.

"Hey, Glyde." she said brightly.

Rockman cocked his head. "How did you guys meet in the first place?" he asked skeptically. "I don't exactly think Blues is someone that just goes around netbattling everyone that he sees."

Multi glanced at Blues. "Um, well… long story short, he saved me from... deletion one day..." she trailed off. Everyone stared at her.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?" Roll asked, her eyes wide. Multi laughed uneasily.

"Well, it really wasn't that serious. My Net-Op accidentally dropped her PET, and the screen cracked. Since the PET was slightly broken, I lost some of my data too. Blues and his Net-Op helped us though, and Blues was netbattling me since I never really had before."

Rockman smirked. "Blues is such a nice guy, isn't he?" he teased. Multi laughed softly. Roll turned to her. "I'd be glad to netbattle you anytime if you want, since you've said you never had before." she said.

"Thank you, but you really don't need to. My Net-Op isn't much of a netbattling kind of person." Multi replied.

"Well, I'm always available if you ever feel like it."

"Thanks, Roll." she responded, smiling.

Netto, Meiru, and Yaito walked up to the two sitting on the bench. "Hey, Enzan!" Netto shouted.

Enzan looked up, but he soon regretted it. "What do you want now, Hikari?" he said rather irritably. Netto either didn't hear the irritation at all, or just chose to ignore it. Then, he finally realized that there was another person there.

"Hey… who's—," he started, until he saw a picture in the sketchbook. His eyes bugged out. "Oh my God, someone actually drew that! It's not just a photo!" he shouted loudly as he reached out his hand to touch the charcoal sketch, as if that alone could prove him right. Akari gasped in surprise. Meiru sighed exasperatedly as she yanked him back by the collar of his vest. She turned to Akari apologetically.

"I'm sorry about that," she said as she turned a withering look towards Netto. "That's just how he is, I guess." she added with a giggle. Akari smiled gently, looking down at her sketch to make sure nothing had happened to it.

"Netto, you can't do that to people. First off, it's rude, and second of all, you'll end up sending people to the hospital because of heart attacks." Enzan said, annoyed. Netto scowled as he tried to think up a retort. Eventually, he just gave up and plopped down on the soft grass, as everyone but Akari rolled their eyes. Meiru turned to Akari.

"Hi, I'm Meiru. What's your name?"

"Oh… I-I, uh…" she said, looking down, but she was cut short.

"Her name is... Akari Chang..." Enzan replied for her, obviously sensing that she was uncomfortable. She turned and looked at him questioningly, her eyes a mixture between curiosity and bewilderment. Meiru looked at him as well.

"Akari, huh?" Meiru asked, turning back to her. "It's nice to meet you," she said with a smile. Akari looked down shyly.

"You too…"

Meiru gestured to her right. "This here is my friend, Yaito, and him over there…" she pointed to a nearby tree where Netto was currently under. "That's Netto." Akari nodded, showing that she had heard.

"What are you guys doing here anyways?" Enzan inquired. "Is there something that Scilab needs me for or something?" Meiru shook her head.

"No, we just decided we'd go for a walk in the park. That's all," she responded. "What are you doing here?"

Enzan thought for a while before saying, "I... came here to meet someone." Meiru raised an eyebrow. "Really? Were you coming to meet Akari?" She looked at the said girl. "Can I ask why?"

Enzan sighed. "Yes, I was coming to meet her, and currently we are late for something, so if you'll excuse us…" He rose from his seat and gestured for Akari to follow him. Akari looked at her PET uncertainly. When Multi nodded frantically for her to follow him, she hurriedly put her sketchbook back into her bag, bid a "good-bye" to Meiru by bowing slightly to her, and walked after him.

"Let's get to know each other better sometime, okay…?" Meiru trailed off as Akari walked on, but she turned her head back and smiled slightly, showing she had heard. Meiru smiled back. When Enzan and Akari were gone, Meiru turned to Netto and Yaito, who had suspicious looks on their faces. Netto spoke up.

"…There's something weird about them…" he stated. Meiru rolled her eyes.

"I think all of us can see that, Netto-kun…"

End chapter...

A/N: Heh, I had a little trouble with where to end this chapter... I'm not sure I did too well on the battle. In my opinion, it seemed a little rushed... and I think I made Multi seem a little too experienced since this was her first battle... Anyways, I'd like to know if I kept everyone fairly in character, and if you like the length of my chapters. Hopefully they aren't too long or short... >.>;; Oh, and I realized while writing this chapter that Akari's PET had a crack in it, and I never said anything about how it got fixed. >.>;; oops... Let's just say that Enzan gave her a new one...? Oh well, reviews and suggestions are always welcome!