Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Rockman.exe or any of its characters.

Mark of the Beasts

Netto's telepathic communication 'blah'

Saito's telepathic communication "blah"

Chapter 2

As Netto opened the door to his home he was greeted by a smiling Haruka. "Your father called and told me you'd be late getting home, so I fixed all your favorites. Just for my growing little boy."

He looked at her and raised a single brow. "Papa still won't tell you what we've been doing will will he?" It wasn't really a question and all present knew it.

The always supportive woman sighed before she looked saddly at her boys and said, "No he won't. I just want to know what's going on with you two and your father, but none of you are willing to tell me anything." She paused for a moment and then continued, "I'm your mother Netto and Saito. I worry about you two and one day you'll understand."

The twins felt each others guilt as well as their own when she turned away and walked back into the kitchen.

"Netto we can't just let her worry like this."

'I agree, but if we tell her it will just make her worry more.'

"True...who would've thought you could be the level headed for a change?"

'I heard that!'

"Mama I promise you both of us are fine. If we ever got into any real trouble papa would've told you, right?" He smiled when he seemed to have pacified he mother's concern. "Now about that food..." he said when his stomach started talking.

"Of course Netto...it's in the kitchen. Lets go eat." and with that she dropped the topic for the rest of the night, but let it be known that Haruka Hikari would not allow anyone to deny her information on the well being of her boys. She knew the brothers would not crack easily, so she'd turn her attention back to her dear husband. Being his wife, she could find interesting ways to break him if need be.

After Netto gorged himself on the huge feast that had been prepared he took Rockman and Trill to his room and set the PET on the charger. Haruka made sure her sons were in bed before walking to the cloest in the hall and pulling out a few items. She smiled at herself and set the items on the couch along with a note, then she herself went to bed.


Yuuichiro arrived home late at night as usual and walked into the living room. Once there he found a note written by his wife:

Yuuichiro

I know you and the boys are hiding something very important from me. Something that obviously concerns the safety of both of our boys and you are going to tell me what. I'm their mother and I have just as much right as you to know what is going on. So here is how it's going to work you can come to our room and tell me everything or you can keep it to yourself and use what I left on the couch. Your choice, but one way or another I WILL find out what is going on with them.

Haruka

The scientist paled knowing he was caught between a rock and a hard place. He knew better than to mess with a worried mother, especially when that mother happened to be his wife. On one hand his boys trusted him not to tell her until they were ready and on the other he'd always confided in his wife with everything. Now he had to either break his promise to his sons or feel the wrath of an upset mother. He knew he could never betray the twin's trust, but both boys were putting him in a very akward position with his wife. "Guess it's me and you again old friend", he said to the couch.


The next morning Rockman had tried for two hours to wake his brother up with no success. "Maybe I can try that..." he thought to himself. Quickly deciding to give it a shot he closed his eyes and reached out for their 'link'. Using what he'd learned over the past few months he managed to establish a powerful connectionwith Netto. He concentrated harder and in his mind he pictured his brothers' arm moving. Taking the opportunity to open one eye he saw his brother's arm move in the exact manner he imagined. He then poured all of his concentration on moving the sleeping teen's body out of bed.

"Rock!" shouted the recently awakened infant navi. Rockman was startled by the younger navi and lost control of the connection causing the other boy to fall face first into the floor.

"What! What happened!" came an alarmed voice from the crumpled heap on the floor. He looked up at his desk to see Saito frozen in shock while Trill was clapping and laughing. "Huh? Saito what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost." he said joking around. He watched as his sibling snapped out of it and turned his attention to him.

Saito was not amused seeing as how his brother knew how freaked out he became at the mention of ghosts. "That's not funny Netto!" He regretted the harsh tone he used, but thanks to the 'link' both of them knew they were sorry and didn't mean anything by it. He knew his brother suspected something more happened as he felt him explore deeper into their bond. He stopped him and said, "Netto let me explain it to you first. Please?" His sibiling nodded and wait patiently for him to explain. "I tried using the 'link' to get you up earlier, but Trill suprised me and I dropped you."

Netto looked at him in confusion and then felt Saito release the memory of what just happened moments ago. It felt like it was his own memory, but he knew that it wasn't. As the memory ended he looked at his navi and said, "Cool! You were able to do that. Then we must be getting close to controlling your 'Beast' power, right?"

The more mature Hikari felt doubtful that they were ready for that yet, but even he wanted control and he knew Netto could feel exactly what he was thinking. "I promise you when I'm convinced we when both of us are ready we will do this and we will succeed." The human boy smiled and nodded after which he picked up the PET and left his room.


The Hikari twins were suprised when they walked into the living room and found their father on the couch.

'I wonder why papa didn't sleep in his bed? It has to be more comfortable than the couch.'

"Well wake him and lets find out."

'But shouldn't we let him sleep? He hardly gets enough as is.'

"True, but imagine how sore he's going to feel the longer he sleeps there."

'Point taken.'

"Papa...Papa...wake up. It's morning." young NetSavior said while gently shaking his father.

He groaned a little before opening his eyes to see three faces staring at him. "Hello boys." He rubbed his eyes before asking, "Is your mother up yet?" The three heads all shook causing him to groan again.

"Uh...why did you sleep on the couch? Wouldn't it be better to use your bed?" he asked. The navi noticed his father chuckle nervously while scatching the back of his head. "What happened?"

"Well your mother has renewed her efforts to find out what is going on with you two." he said. "Since I've been keeping secrets from her she's decided to play hard ball...she made me sleep on the couch since I wouldn't talk." he finished.

The twins felt sympathy and guilt for letting this happen. Saito looked to Netto and asked, "Perhaps now is a good time to come clean...just with her of course?" Through the 'link' he felt his brother agree before walking to their parents room and knocking on the door.

Yuuichiro and the twins had Haruka sit down on the couch between them. They explained the situation to her while leaving not a single detail out including the possibility of the Commissioner being forced to delete Rockman should he go out of control again. After they finished the Hikari men waited for Haruka to speak while giving her as much room as she needed.

When she finally spoke they could hear the venom in her voice. "THEY WILL NOT LAY ONE HAND ON MY LITTLE BOYS AND GOD HELP THEM IF THEY TRY!" she said through gritted teeth. The entire family understood how she felt and knew that they'd probably just dug the Commissioner a very deep hole.

Knowing exactly how she felt he tried to calm his angered wife, "That's why I've had the boys so much lately. We're trying to make sure nothing ever happens to them." He wanted to be anywhere but here when she looked at his with her cold, brown eyes. He managed to summon enough courage to speak once more while looking something worse than death right in the face, "I promise you I will never allow anyone to harm our kids. You know that."

Their fearful mother started crying and hugged both human Hikari's. She kissed Netto on the head and buried her face in his hair. "Nothing's going to happen to us mama. We've worked too hard to let ourselves fall now." the NetOp said trying to comfort her.

She looked towards the hologram of Saito and kissed where his holographic form is. "I know you two will lookout for each other and I'm sorry for taking out my frustration on your father. I just can't lose any of you. I couldn't handle losing you again or your brother."


Over the next three months Netto and Saito continued their training and meditation. The two of them had stregthened their bond to the point where they could always feel everything the other was thinking. To them their improved connection had become second nature leaving both convinced that they were finally ready.

"Absolultely Not!" The Yoga master shouted at the two NetSaviors. "You are NOT ready. True you have made your bond stronger, but it's not strong enough to overpower Rockman's beast instincts. For that you have to become much stronger than both of you are now." The rest of the session went by quieter as the boys sulked.

'I know we can do this now.'

"Agreed...I believe that too, but we have to remember he has far more experience at this sort of thing than we do."

'Exerperience! He's never had to fight with a beast inside of you.'

"That's not what I mean and you know. Besides even papa doesn't believe we're ready yet."

'-Sigh- Then when will we be ready? One year from? Two? Three? WHEN!'

"When we are given the ok to try Netto. Then we will be ready. Getting angry about it won't help the situation any. Just be patient, Please Netto?"

'Alright...but that doesn't mean I have to like it.'


The twins were taking the usual train home tonight. The entire train was completely empty this late at night except for the three occupants, the onboard control system and the management navis. Netto was staring out the windows when he thought the train started to speeding up. "Rockman aren't we going too fast?" he asked his navi.

"Yeah. I think so. Quick jack me in!" he navi said to the NetOp.

"Right. Rockman.EXE Jack In! Power up!" saying his customary opening before asking, "Well Rockman what's going on in there?"

"The controls have been scrambled. This could take time to fix." he conveyed to the NetSavior while surveying the full extent of the damage to the program. He quickly went to work trying to repair the system when an explosion threw him away from the data stream he was repairing. Looking up he saw an ice-type Zoanoroid with Falzer's symbol on his chest and he seemed to be made entirely of chunks of light blue ice crystals. The unnerving part about him was that his eyes gave off a white glow instead of normal pupils. His wings looked like a bat's wings and were neatly folded behind him.

"Oh, don't worry about fixing the program. You should be more concerned with your own life Rockman." The Zoanoroid walked slowly towards the blue navi with a cocky smirk on his face. "Falzer wants both of you out of the way and if we can't have Trill no one can. You should also know this battle is over before it even began." he said making both NetSaviors think this guy was just overconfident not powerful.

Rock gasped when he felt his left arm and both legs being frozen to the ground of the cyberworld. He then turned back to his enemy and spotted a blue beam of energy leaving the bottom of his foot. "So that's how you got me so quickly."

"Of course" replied the arrogant navi. "Like I said it's over. And as a parting gift to the other side I'll give you my name...it's Articman. Now say goodbye!" said the navi seemingly superior to the blue runt before him.

The ice started to freeze all of Rockman's body to the floor and Netto could feel the cold throughout his own body. "Oh no you don't. I want let you hurt him." he said as he prepared to send his navi battlechips.

The Zoanoroid was too fast for Netto however as he blew the lights inside the train causing the teen to drop his PET. The train's momentum caused the device to slide to the other end of the car with the boy following in hot pursuit. He was about 5ft away from his goal when the cold became too much for him to handle and he collapsed to the ground still trying to reach the PET.

Trill had been watching the entire fight and knew Rockman was going to be deleted if he didn't do something now. True he did promise his blue guardian that he wouldn't get involved in any of his fights until they found a way to control the 'Beast Out' power, but he just couldn't lose someone so important to him. He ran towards the fallen navi and they both started to glow.

"Trill stop! Don't do it!" Rockman managed to shout before he felt the change begin. He quickly reached out to Netto through their connection and both Hikaris opened the 'link' as much as they possibly could. "It's now or never." Rock thought. Immense pain flooded through his body as his back felt as though it were ripping itself apart. He could see two giant red wings growing as he feet turned to razor sharp talons. The navi felt his fingers change into powerful claws and instincts he feared began to resurface. The last part of his transformation was his helmet which turned red as did his eyes. The helmet grew longer in the back while Falzer's symbol formed on the navi's head and a new faceguard appeared.

Netto felt Rockman changing and to his suprise his own body started glowing. He could feel a foreign presence in his mind and body that he had only felt through his sibling when he 'Beast Out' last time. He could feel his senses becoming sharper as he felt his own body start changing. He could only watch in horror as his fingers turned to claws and his shoulders thickened now supporting part of an armor he was familiar with. The NetSavior bent over in pain as a sharp pain erupted from the base of his spine quickly forming into a long tail with a thick arrow shaped tip. His eyes turned red and five yellow spikes outlined with dark blue armor grew out of the top of his head laying back at an angle. A star shaped symbol formed on his head and a new faceguard covered his face as two petrusions grew out of his back right over the spine. He was fighting a losing battle against the alien instincts now present in his mind when the pain finally ceased.

The ice navi was completely dumbfounded after what he just witnessed, but he didn't have time to think on it as the red beast before him flew towards him quicker than his eyes could track. The pathetic scrap of data never knew what had deleted him.

After deleting the weak creature the transformed navi looked around for another enemy to fight. Netto out in the human world sniffed around the car and was disgusted at the scents left behind by all the humans. Rockman appeared next to Netto in a shimmer of pixels and the two stared each other off as the train continued flying down the tunnel. The two assessed each other, but made no further moves towards one another.

They were quickly approaching the end of the line and would soon cause a major disaster if it wasn't stopped, but neither did anything to prevent it. The beasts continued to stare at each other until the train collided with the wall at the end of the tunnel throwing them into the wall of their car. The impact caused a huge explosion that lead to the tunnels in that area collapsing. The train station nearby was mostly destroyed by the explosion and several innocent bystanders were injured with only two needing to be put in ICU. The streets above the impact site caved in causing several cars to fall into the flames.