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 3
In the early morning hours Mrs. Hikari received earthshattering phone call.
"Mrs. Hikari I'm from the Dentech Department of Transportation Office. I...I regret to inform you that there's been an accident." the representative said trying not to choke on his own tears.
Not wanting to believe where she was afraid this was going she asked, "An accident?" Tears had started to form in her eyes as she found it suddenly difficult to breathe.
He'd made these calls before and knew what kind of reaction he should expect. He really hated having to do this sort of thing, but he would never allow such a burden to fall on any of his co-workers. Trying to keep it together he went on, "Unfortunately so. Late last night a train's navigation system malfunctioned and crashed it into the end of the tunnel." He paused having to force himself to keep his voice even before continuing, "There was an explosion when the transport hit. The tunnel has collapsed and several people were injured."
She gave a sigh of relief and asked him, "How is my son? His name's Netto Hikari." Should her nerves not been soo shot she would've known he already knew her boy's name otherwise he'd never call. She did however know that it couldn't be her husband since he would be at Sci-Labs until later on this morning.
"Mrs. Hikari I hate to be the barer of bad news, but I'm afraid...Netto was in the transport that was involved in the wreck. We know from our records that...your son was there." he felt a sharp pain in his heart as he heard the phone hit the ground and the woman on the other end start crying. He heard her shouting, "No it can't be...Not my little angels!"
He was suprised she'd said angels implying more than one person could have been present. He quickly covered the phone with his hand and demanded a passing accident worker, "Recheck everything again and find out if there is even a slight chance that someone else was on that train. Now!" He was alarmed at the possibility that there might be another fatility he knew nothing about, but he really hoped that he could tell her atleast one of her 'angels' was alright.
The accident worker came back and shook her head before saying, "I've done as you asked and could find no record of another passenger. The only thing I can find is the presence of the victim's navi. Perhaps that is what the next of kin are referring to?" She gave a nod and rushed off to the site where she'd have to write a detailed report.
Feeling a little more secure he spoke to the broken woman, "Mrs. Hikari...I know this is hard for you and I don't want you to get your hopes up for nothing. Between the fires and cavein we don't believe there is any chance your son could have survived. The experts tell me that it's most likely he was killed on impact. I've already notified Dr. Hikari and he should be there soon." He took a deep breath and exhaled feeling the tears falling down his own face. "You have my deepest condalences for your loss. We will inform you as soon as we have recovered a body." He knew there was no point in saying more as he placed the receiver back in it's craddle.
Dr. Hikari was in no shape to drive after the phone he'd received just minutes ago and he really didn't want to go near a train anytime soon. Meijin had to drive after he'd been told what the call was about. He would never allow anything to happen to a friend and knew Yuuichiro needed time to come to grips with this catastrophy. Both men were silent as they rushed towards the Hikari residence where the twin's mothers would soon be if not already receiving the same call.
"How could this happen to them?", asked the heartbroken father to no one in particular. "They were finally getting somewhere with mastering that 'Beast' power. They had such bright futures ahead of them. They've risked their lives some many times for the people of Dentech city and now their lives are destroyed by some 'accident'! The universe it seems has a really sick sense of humor." he said showing signs that he was about to have a complete emotional breakdown.
Meijin did the best he could to comfort his old friend, but in this particular situation he wasn't sure there was much he could do. His heart went out to the other man as he thought about Netto. The kid could be so difficult at times and he could never get him to stop with the Mr., but he loved the boy and his navi just the same. People like them were just too young to have their lives snached away from them so abrutly.
When the car pulled into the driveway Yuuichiro was out of the car in a flash headed straight for the door with his keys ready. The other navi whiz followed him shortly to find Haruka on the ground crying her eyes out while her husband embraced her tightly. He closed the door before moving closer to the grieving parents and bent down near them not really having any idea what he should be doing.
Finally the Hikari's picked themselves up with some help from Meijin and moved to the couch to talk about what had happened. No sooner than they got to the couch the phone rang. "I can't talk to them again...Please handle them?"
He nodded before walking over to the phone and answering it, "Hikari risidence."
As soon as the programmer finished his greeting a young woman spoke, "Hello Dr. Hikari. My name is Ada Stravos and I'm calling in regards to the 'accident'. Sir I not quite certain, but from what little I can make of some of this data it was a Zoanoroid attack." Ada heard a suprised gasp and knew the father was likely getting very angry on the other end and was glade she wasn't there. "Dr. Hikari we are unable to access a lot of the data and could use your expertise down here right away. I'm sorry to have to ask this of you, but we really need someone of your calibur to gain access to the rest of the data. Will you please come?"
After having heard 'Zoanoroid' he had come dangerously close to completely losing it. He managed to reign in his anger before he acknowledge the rest of what she'd said, "Of course. I'll be there in a few minutes." He didn't bother to say goodbye before hanging up and walking back to his wife to tell her what he now knew. After he had told her of the possibility that it was a murder she demanded that she be there while he worked to find out the truth. He didn't argue with her at all on this one and then turned to only emotionally sound person in the room and asked, "Will you take us to the remains of the station?"
The shade sporting scientist responded, "Of course, you could use the help anyways. Let's go." Everyone quickly loaded up into the car and they were on their way to the crash site.
Once they'd arrived they saw the damage was worse than they'd thought. The firefighters were still having trouble with some of the fires underground and Dentech police had sealed of the scene with yellow tape. Looking around a few people were being treated for injuries in the ambulances while a crowd had formed around the tape perimeter.
The two scientists and young mother were approached by a tall woman wearing a thick brown coat and jeans. She had long black hair tied up in a bun and wore glasses. "You must be Dr. Hikari. I would say it's nice to meet you, but under the circumstances I believe neither of us could see it as such. I am Ada Stravos. This way please." she said motioning for them to follow.
A minute later they reached a black van with D.O.T. on the side. Inside the van was a mobile command setup filled with linked computers and communications equipment. "Is this where I can access the network?" asked Yuuichiro. The woman nodded and stepped aside so that he could go to work. He saw out of the corner of his eyes the other programmer moving to the terminal next to him to begin working as his wife stood with her arms clenched to her chest and watched. The two worked virgorously for two and a half hours before managing to recover most of the corrupted data.
They pulled up the security camera in Netto's car on one monitor and the system records of the transport in the other. All present had their eyes glued to the monitor and were completely silent as they watched the scene unfold. Several gasps were heard when the camera showed a human boy starting to glow and start changing into some kind of monster. They were even more suprised when another creature form next to the boy in ,what they could only describe as, a shimmer of pixels. Shortly after the footage ended when the transport crashed into the wall and the connection to the system severed.
The navi experts looked at each other with a questioning gaze trying to come up with an explanation for what they just saw. A few minutes passed with absolutely silence until another explosion shook the grounds throwing rock and dirt everywhere. Everyone at the crash site looked to where the explosion centered to find two strange creatures barely standing. The two beings were covered in dirt and bleeding in random places, but the odd part is that the blood was accompanied by what appeared to be leaks of data. The crowd quickly moved back and police moved towards the figures to detain them when Yuuichiro yelled, "NO! GET AWAY FROM THEM NOW! YOUR IN DANGER!" Following the warning officers backed away from the things slowly not making any sudden moves.
Haruka grabbed a hold of her husbands arm while keeping her eyes on the two in front of them and asked, "Is that...could that really be...them?" She couldn't hide the hope one could hear in her voice. No sooner had she spoken than the creatures turned to look her straight in the eyes. She could now see the blood red eyes both possessed and for the first time in her life she felt fear of her own children. She refused to give in to her fear and walked slowly towards to two beasts.
Taking his eyes off his sons he was quickly overcome with fear as his love walked straight to their transformed kids. "NO! DON'T...! THEY WON'T RECOGNIZE YOU!" he shouted, but it was already too late as the Greiga Beast begins to growl and expose his claws to the woman. The Falzer Beast watches as the woman ignores the others warning to stay back and he crouches down into an attack position trying to ward her off.
As the brunette gets closer to the beasts she is able to see that the damage to her sons is worse than originally thought. She looks both dead in the eye and they seem to sense her intentions to help them before giving in the their wounds and collapsing on the ground. She rushes to the injured forms and checks to see that both are still alive. After she's convinced they are still breathing she demands the medical crews present tend to the young ones immediately before she moves aside to allow them to work. While she did move she didn't let either boy leave her sight and she seems oblivious as Yuuichiro moves beside her. "What do you think happened to them?"
The man shakes his head before replying, "I don't really know, but once they are treated I'm going to have them transfered to Sci-Labs medical wing for observation and testing." He sees her tense up and knows what she's thinking. "I won't let anyone perform any experiments on them. I and a few trusted friends will tend to them once we have them there. It's going to be ok. I promise."
True to his word immediately upon the arrival of the altered Hikari twins he went to work examining them with painless tests. He didn't take blood samples from them as they already lost a lot of blood, but instead analyzed the blood on the gause the medics used to clean their wounds. The other scientists present, including Meijin, placed each of the boys underneath advanced scanning equipment and made detailed scans of each.
During the tests Mrs. Hikari kept a watchful eye on the proceedings and noted the presence of armed guards. Each of the twelve guards carried a handgun, two clips, and an air gun. The darts were loaded with a special drug strong enough to drop an elephant which she thought was excessive to say the least. To prevent possible harm to everyone in the vicinity the teens were kept in medically induced comas.
The scientists worked straight through the day eating while working and all refused to take breaks. Everyone was so excited about the data they were collecting on the two young heroes. Those trusted few who worked with Dr. Hikari picked up on some of his habits like sleeping at Sci-Labs and using it's facilities for showering and such. This cycle continued on for several days before the analysts finally found some answers.
"Eureka! Finally we're getting somewhere.", shouted the pleased father. Everyone waited patiently for him to continue and he didn't disappoint. "I've figured out why the boys are both navis and out here in the human world."
Wanting answers now Haruka smacked him in the back of the head and said, "Well? Tell us already?" She couldn't take any more beating around the bush.
"Of course" replied the head scientist. "From the data we've taken on the two of them it seems they've become what we thought could never truely exist. They've become navi-human hyrids." Many of the programmers and physicans present had to gasp at such an incredible possibility. "As everyone here knows by now Netto and Rockman/Saito have a powerful link to one another. A connection that they've worked hard to make even stronger. That bond causes them to feel each others wounds and feelings, so it's not too suprising that the link reacted the way it did."
One of the female programmers asked, "What exactly do you mean Dr. Hikari?" She had a good idea at this point, but still wanted to hear it from him.
"Their link and Rockman using his 'Beast Out' ability together triggered a massive transfer of substance between the two of them. In other words Netto gained data from Rockmans' navi program and Rockman gained organic materials from his brother's body. The two seem to be perfectly balanced between data and flesh and blood." came Yuuichiro's excited response.
Meijin was the next to speak, "Now that we know this. I think there is a way to help them control the beasts within themselves." The attention quickly shifted to him and he couldn't help but notice the eager expression on both parents face. "I should warn you that this medicine is still experimental and was initially designed to deal with people suffering from Multiple Personality Disorders. It may not work, but I think it's the best shot they've got." He took a deep breath and then went on, "The substance is called Tretonin. It was recently developed in Sharo, so it shouldn't take too long to get. I'll go speak with Laika and have him transport some here. Then we can safely wake these two without being torn to shreds."
Everyone went to make preparations for the Tretonin and knew that they couldn't make any mistakes along the way. Yuuichirio and Haruka stood side by side as they just watched the NetSaviors sleep. Soon Dentech's heroes would awaken once more and hopefully with some control over themselves.
