Author's Note: I've truly been on a writer's flyaway period recently, and have been neglecting some important projects. As promised, here is a new story. Some of you all have been waiting for this pairing. This'll probably be long so…be scared! And prepared!

I would really appreciate feedback and reviews. Be as harsh or as gentle as you'd like. Flames are also acceptable as long as they are constructive and have some kind of basis and truth to them.

Disclaimer: I do not own Megaman NT Warrior or the characters.

Warnings: Fluff, shounen-ai, deaths (as for major ones…we'll see as we go. Not sure yet.)

Pairing: Chaud (Enzan)xLan (Netto). For this fic, they will be called Chaud and Lan.

Fic Note: People have seem to forgotten this pairing, I just want to add this fic up for the sake of it. Oneshot. Everyone is a bit ooc and scene is a bit AU.

Special Dedications:To all the people who reviewed my "Only Beautiful." You thought that was a fun ride, let's try something a bit more planned out. That one was about a half an hour exercise. This is something special.

To Comtess-You know why. Stay beautiful. (Hard to do when you beta for me all the time, eh? Hahaha.)

Final Note: The real fun begins Ch. 1. This is just background to set the mood for the story. Please bear with.

Sweet Strain

Prologue

Both teens find themselves heavily breathing, running a dizzy maze of seemingly endless spirals of brick wall after brick wall. Chaud, in particular, feels sick from seeing all the brick. In the back of his mind, he makes a mental note to himself to move to the countryside or someplace different after this particular mission. He continues to give chase. He will not let this person escape-not even if his life depended on it. He had dedicated too many years to this mission to let the kingpin, of all people, go. By chance and dumb luck he had stumbled upon the younger teen, and to his surprise it had been a young teen hidden under hooded garments.

The younger halts suddenly. Skillfully, Chaud dodges as soon as he sees the other boy turn swiftly aiming straight for his face without much hesitation between beats. The bullets ring out, Chaud barely escaping the wrath of the hooded figure's rapid fire. A bullet scrapes his cheek, but Chaud's has too high an adrenaline level to feel much more than a mere sting. Chaud hides behind some trashcans and fires a couple shots before hearing the other boy's gruff voice curse and toss the large gun on the ground. Chaud smirked. The boy must have run out of bullets after all this chasing. It wouldn't be long now.

Gun abandoned, the younger lad takes off once again, Chaud in tight pursuit. He will find out the identity of this master criminal. The two boys rush off into the night, never once taunting or speaking to one another-rather, each have a mission to either escape or capture the other, simple as that and no gray area in between.

After what seems like hours of running, the hooded figure makes a fatal turn. The two end up at a dead end with a very high brick wall that the hooded figure could never manage to climb over. Chaud could, given some time-with the help of advanced resources.

The hooded figure jumps onto a pile of crates and seems to look around helplessly for an exit; he freezes his movements only when he hears the smug click of Chaud's revolver.

Heavy breathing, slightly shaking hands holding up a gun to the head of his target. "Freeze! Show your face, you coward!"

Chaud takes a sharp intake of breath in anticipation as he waits. The hooded figure hunches over slightly and laughs a dry laugh before slowly turning, taking off the dark poncho. Chaud knew whom to expect, and yet, he still didn't want to believe it. He felt his jaw drop as he became face to face with the kingpin of the Net Trojans.

Eyes slightly widened in shock. "You…"

"Lord Chaud…there is someone who wishes to see you…"

"I wish to see no one," Chaud snapped, he was busy working on a recent project for his business.

"Lord Chaud…" Protoman repeated as respectfully as possible, "This matter seems a bit important, and needs your atten-"

"Did I just not say that I wish to see no one?" Chaud snapped.

Protoman paused for a moment and watched Chaud work, from his position in the PET holder on Chaud's work desk. After a few moments, when he was sure Chaud had forgotten his earlier comment, tried again. "Lord Chaud…"

"What! What, what, what!" Chaud responded, exasperated. He looked away from his computer and shot a frustrated glance at Protoman.

On any other day, Protoman would have taken a personal sadistic amusement from his master suffering from procrastination; however, today did not seem to be the right time for that particular mood. "Lord Chaud…if I may…now that I have your attention…it's that young master Lan…"

Now Protoman had his net-op's full attention. Chaud raised an eyebrow. "Lan? What is it? What does he need?"

Again, any other day Protoman would have either become rather amused at the fact that his net-op was at the poor clueless Hikari's mercy, or he would have teased his master about the situation. Once again, the matters were too pressing and left no room for such jest. "Well…?" Chaud pressed impatiently, now curious, "What is it?"

"Erm…it appears the young master is very upset and wishes to see you right away…"

A momentary pause. Protoman sighed and immediately commanded the PET to do a temporary mute function of any outer worldly sounds as he watched his master's mouth move, face sculpted to show anger. He didn't need to hear to know the words by heart.

"Well then why didn't you just send him in! How many times do I have to tell you, Lan can come in any time he wants!" During this time, Protoman simply just sighed and nodded, tapping his foot slightly and waiting for the small storm to pass over.

Protoman took off the mute command and gave his reply, "On a usual basis, the young master is not in tears. And on the usual basis, his visits normally mean that you tend not to get your work completed, and hence-you become busy like so…"

Chaud growled angrily. "Enough! I don't have time for your lectures. If he's crying, grant him access already!"

Protoman blinked. It was unusual for Chaud to lose his composure so easily. Perhaps it was the stress. "As you command…"

It took only a blink second. One minute there was some sort of peace, the next minute, Lan was crying a waterfall at Chaud's feet, Chaud consoling the poor boy all the while. Lan, not being a very good speaker during tearful moments, could offer Chaud no more than confusing blurbs of information for him to decipher. Protoman rolled his eyes as his master gave him a look of helplessness.

Protoman decided now was the time to fish for answers. He jacked into Megaman's PET, only to find a very depressed navi. Protoman walked over to Megaman's side. Unsure whether to shake the dazed navi or not, Protoman decided to leave Lan's navi alone. Awkward silence was between them only a moment before Protoman was surprised with the tearful eyes of a normally strong and optimistic navi. Protoman found himself frowning in concern. "Is there something the matter…?"

Megaman opened his mouth to speak, unfortunately letting out a hiccup. The navi shook a bit and Protoman put a hand to the shorter navi's shoulder to steady him. "Have some self control, Megaman. What has happened?"

Megaman sighed and leaned against the wall of his PET room, looking into Protoman's eyes through the taller navi's dark shades. "I-it's h-horrible, Protoman…"

"What! What is it!" Protoman blushed slightly at his outburst, but now he was beyond impatient, "If neither of you state a problem, neither my master nor I can provide a remedy!"

"It's Dr. Hikari…Protoman…"

Protoman raised an eyebrow. "Your father?"

Megaman nodded slowly. Protoman felt a bit uneasy, and he felt a strange dropping feeling in his stomach. "So…what seems to be the problem?"

Megaman gave his reply. Protoman and Chaud's eyes simultaneously widened in shock as the sobs of Lan began to soar beyond painful.

"Yes, Mrs. Hikari, Lan is right here with me. Yes. Yes, ma'am-he will be spending the night here. Yes ma'am. If you can remember anything else in the morning, please have the information sent to me right away. Yes. Yes, Lan will be coming home at a later time."

Chaud sighed as he twirled his pen with his left hand, staring at a passed out Lan on his bed in his home. The glare of his home computer and his PET made him seem even more worn out than he already was. Staring at Lan a moment longer, Chaud then returned his attention to Protoman. "It seems we have a new mission."

"Yes…" came the equally tired and business-like reply.

Chaud sighed. Taking the PET out of its holder, he turned it so it would point to the computer. "Jack in then, Protoman-execute."

Protoman beamed into the network. "What shall I do first, Chaud?"

"Assemble notices and forms. We have investigation work to do. Our pre-reasearch and Mrs. Hikari have informed us that Dr. Hikari was not the only one taken in the SciLab infiltration. There are others."

"Yes."

"After that, we must assemble our search and recovery team. We disassembled our last team after a different net mission, did we not?"

"We did."

"Well, it's time to start recruiting again."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Email them all and make sure they are all ready by tomorrow, nine in the morning sharp. Stragglers will be dealt with. Tell them they will be reporting as part of the Blaze Quest Search & Rescue Team division for the next few months or so, depending on how long it takes to recover all those taken."

"Very well, master."

"Do we know our target?"

"Yes, master. They call themselves the Net Trojans."

"Hn…Net Trojans…I will remember that."

"Chaud!" Lan burst into the room, catching Chaud off-guard.

Chaud jumped and swirled around, trying to hide all the recent data. "Y-yes, Lan. What is it?"

"Have you found-" Lan looked over Chaud's shoulder, and paled.

Chaud felt a bit uneasy. He tried to catch Lan's eye. "Lan…? Lan…are you all right?"

Catching Chaud by surprise, Lan pounced on the taller boy and shoved him roughly away from the long black table. The brunette seemed to get more and more pale as he leafed through the Polaroid's carelessly sprawled about the table. They were pictures of scientists from SciLab, some of which Lan recognized as his father's coworkers. There were pictures of gunshot wounds, bruises, and cuts. Most of the men in the photo appeared to be dead. There were others where the photo merely only showed injury.

Lan lifted one of the photos and put it to Chaud's face, his hands shaking slightly. "C-chaud…" Lan whispered weakly, "What's all…what's all this?"

Chaud's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish; he was speechless. "I…Lan…Hey! Lan, wait!"

Too late. Lan had stormed out of the room too quickly, riding his roller skates. Chaud cursed under his breath as he did his best to keep up with the boy, but failed. Cursing some more, he went back up to the top floor to grab his things and PET from his office. He left final instructions for his "Blaze SRT" before heading over to Lan's house.

By the time Chaud would get there, however, Lan would have already gone.

If things hadn't gotten so busy for Blaze SRT, Chaud would have dropped everything to search for Lan immediately, but he didn't have the time. Chaud figured Lan was probably hiding out at one of his friends' homes, and they just weren't telling Chaud where he was located. After all, they had had some pretty rough times in the past, so Chaud wasn't too worried. At least, he pretended he wasn't.

Four years flew by, however, without much time for Chaud to breathe in between. Four years into the mission, and Blaze SRT had finally accomplished something. They captured the head kingpin of the Net Trojans, and recovered many of the last remaining scientists-including Dr. Hikari, alive. Most of the Net Trojans had also been taken into custody at this time.

However, the battle was far from over. After a few frustrating interviews, Chaud managed to gather some valuable information from the ex-leader. The syndicate had begun with that same-old, same-old unoriginal notion to take over the world. The senseless killing was a result of scientists that had tried to escape or had refused an order from the leader of the syndicate. The last thing the leader had said, however, remained on Chaud's mind. There was one group of elite that Chaud's team had not managed to capture. The most terrorizing of the Net Trojans. The Trojan Elite. The ex-leader had also smugly not failed to mention that he had foreseen his own capture, and therefore he had already promoted a back-up captain in case such a problem arose.

Chaud would have one more mission. Capture the final team. Thankfully, now he had the best resource available-Dr. Hikari.

The Net Trojans used one main form of terrorism-net viruses. Dr. Hikari's main interest was to capture and analyze each "Trojan." Even after the traumatic events, Chaud was amazed at Dr. Hikari's dedication. Sadly, it almost reminded him of Lan.

During the virus analysis, however, Dr. Hikari made a startling discovery about the viruses. In each viruses data, included was a signature of the creator from navi data.

A very unique signature.

The dark clouds hanging overhead suddenly break and begin pouring out their rain. Lightening and thunder crash and clash. Still, both teens find that they are too engrossed in their own world to care. Where they are, everything is going slow motion.

The poncho falls to the ground. Badump. Chaud rakes his eyes up and down the other boy's body, assessing his target. Green bandana, army outfit, green paint streaked across the lanky boy's face, starting to wash off in the rain. Badump-badump. The gun falls with a light thump to the ground, drowned out by the thunder.

Mouth opened in shock, blinking every-so-often to get rid of the rain from his vision. Chaud stares at the figure before him in disbelief. The kingpin of the Net Trojans.

Chaud shakes his head. "Why…?"

The other teen only shrugs. They stay just like that, frozen in time a while, until sunlight breaks through a bit through the clouds-it's morning. They've been running all night long. Chaud moves closer to the other teen as the rain begins to end.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Well…? How did you like that? Read and review please! After this, it's going to be more ChaudxLan centric from now on. See you all again-real soon! This chapter was done in 3 hours…crazy. 5 ½ page prologue. Who does that? Haha, me, apparently.

-Saikenyuu