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

Mark of the Beasts

Nettos telepathic communication 'blah'

Saitos telepathic communication "blah"

Chapter 7

In the early morning hours before the rest of the Hikari family awoke, Saito was searching out the source of an annoying thumping sound. Whatever it was, it was close and was hitting the floor every so often. It couldn't be Netto because Saito could see both of his arms enclosing a pillow. "What could have slipped in here so easily?", he thought. Finally he had had enough so he climbed out of his bed and turned on the light to their room. He quickly spotted the culprit, that seemed to be mocking him as it caused another thump.

The older twin walked over to his brother's bed ready to attack. Once the green-eyed teen reached the bed he snatched his brother's pillow and pounded into the sleeping teen's head with it.

"Wha! What's going on! Are the beast navi's attacks! Did Blues turn evil again!...Did the world's supply of curry dry up!", he shouted once the pillow was pulled back after the third time. Looking up he found his twin holding his pillow and with a look that clearly said 'I'm pissed with you', "Brother what's wrong?"

The old twin's eyebrow twitched rapidly and he stated through gritted teeth, "What's wrong is an irritating thumping sound woke me up at 4 AM in the morning." He watched his sibling as he waited for the rest, "And do you know what made the aggrivating sound that woke me from a peaceful night's sleep?" He crossed his arms and watched his former NetOp shake his head, "IT WAS YOUR TAIL HITTING THE FLOOR NETTO!"

The younger blue-haired youthlooked down and saw his tail hanging out from under the covers still hitting the floor every so often. He winced as he realized the rest of his body was still in human form, "Sorry Saito...uh...I didn't realize I was doing that...I guess I won't be able to go to school today since my navi features are showing."

The other boy caught something in that tone...,"Oh...Nice try Netto. You intentionally let that happen during the night, didn't you? Just so you could avoid school for just one more day. Your going to have to try harder than that to fool me little brother." The older boy was shaking his head and then started scolding with his finger, "Don't forget little bro our minds are connected, so I know when your trying to pull something."

Knowing he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar Netto conceded defeat, "Alright you got me. I figured out how to make programs in my mind, so I made one to start with the tail-thing early in the morning so maybe papa would hear it and look over the program. Of course that would mean, as you said, avoiding school for another day." He was quite proud of his half-baked plan that had backfired on him.

The more mature teen shook his head wondering how his twin missed an obvious problem, "Did you think about how good papa is? He would quickly find the traces of your program and that would get you into trouble." He then sat back on his bed and stared into the other set of green eyes. He knew he'd just punched a big hole in the other boy's plan, so to stop him from feeling like a failure he sent a wave of comfort to Netto. Seeing his twin acknowledge his feelings he said, "You can't put this off any longer.

Knowing there was no way to win when one's brother could read your mind, Netto went back to bed hoping to get a few more hours sleep. "God help me. Today I have to face Meriu Sakurai...and she's going to be vicious. I just know it.", he thought to himself. With that the twins resumed their slumber and the moment of dread continued to approach.


Later that morning Haruka entered the twin's shared room and woke her boys for school. As usual Netto fought tooth and nail to gain a few more minutes sleep, but he was unable as Trill entered the room and pounced on him. "What the! Oh, it's you Trill. Go away. Just five more minutes, please?", grumbled the sleep deprived teen.

The innocent yellow navi looked towards Rockman for confirmation. He saw Rock...no Saito shake his head and motion for him to continue. "Nope! Can't do that. You've got school today, Netto.", chirped the young navi. The hybrid teen would not give it to Trill, so Saito joined into the mix. Both grabbed the stubbornteen and pushed him out of the bed.

"Alright. I'm up.", the NetSavior fumed. He wasn't really hurt, but thanks to the other two he was wide awake. Taking a quickly glance out the window revealed solid black clouds and strong winds. It seemed kinda ominous to the teen and he was certain that something bad was going to happen today. His attention then refocus on his two siblings and he found that they too appeared to be feeling the same thing he was.

'Something bad is going to happen today. I can feel it.'

"I know what you mean. I've got the same feeling, like something life changing is coming."

'What do we do? If we tell mama and papa they will just think it's nervousness about school or 'The Talk' with Meiru.'

"We'll have to keep it to ourselves for now. Be on your guard thoughlittle brother. I don't want anything to happen to anyone I care about."

'You know I will. I not completely dependent on you ya know.'

"I'll believe that the day you wake up on your own."

'Hey! I'm not that bad...ok maybe...just maybe I am...a little.'

While the twins carried on the mental conversation Trill became annoyed that the two older boys were ignoring him. So doing what any child his apparent age would do he ran up to what he believed was the source of the problem and kicked Netto hard in the lower portion of his leg.

"OW! THAT HURT TRILL!WHY DID YOU DO THAT!", the Greiga beast shouted at the young navi.

Saito had witnessed Trill's attack and was suprised, but what really gothis attention was his brother's eyes reverting to a dark red color and his teeth becoming fangs again. "Netto calm down. Your disrupting your disguise program.", heinformed the other hybrid. He was relieved when his twin took a deep breathe and relaxed.


After the three boys settled down they went to the kitchen where Haruka had already prepared a much larger breakfast than she was used to preparing. She had plenty of experience cooking large amounts of food quickly thanks to the youngest twin, so it wasn't that difficult for her to pull off. "Morning boys.", she greeted as they entered the kitchen.

The twins sat down and Trill ploped himself down in between then at the table. "Morning mama", both teen responded. Neither of the hybrids looked her in the eye knowing that if they did she would know something was wrong.

The little yellow navi played with the food in front of him before he stuck the first piece in his mouth. He chewed for a bit, knowing Mrs. Hikari was watching for his approval. After he finally swallowed he broke out with a huge grin on his face and proceeded to inhale his food like his 'older brother' was now doing.

"Trill don't eat like that.", scolded the bird hybrid.

The digital child pointed in Netto's direction and asked, "Why not? He's eating the same way."

Seeing what the young navi was talking about Saito sighed before he answered, "That's my brother for you. No manners at all." He noticed his twin had stopped eating and was now glaring at him, "What? It's true. Try eating like a civilized person please?"

Netto tried to appease his older brother by following his eating habits for the rest of the meal, but to him it was just too slow.

Finally after all three were done Dr. Hikari walked in with a hot mug of coffee and announced, "Trill won't be going to school with you two. Atleast not until I've finished with my tests on him. Afterwards we will see about it..."


When the twins were ready to go they walked out of the door with a note from Yuuichiro explaining that Saito had been attending private school and wanted to change over to a public school. They had no intentin of taking the train because of past experience, they chose to walkto school...or as Netto was putting it "TO MY EXECUTION!"

"Just take it easy bro. She's not going to kill you...atleast not until after you've explained everything to her...then maybe."

'Thanks Saito. You know just what to say to scare someone witless.'

"Netto she loves...and DON'T you dare say you don't love her too. Because if you do I'll show her some of those poems you wrote."

'That's Blackmail!'

"Whatever works I say."

'Seriously though, do you think she's going to accept the truth about you? How will she react knowing what happened to me? Then there's also how I kept rubbing up against her and all that when my beast nature had total control over me.'

"She'll understand. She's put up with you this long and...if it makes you feel any better Roll told me yesterday that she still cares about you. You haven't lost her yet bro."

'Thanks. I'll try to keep everything right.'

"Don't worry. Neither she nor I would expect anything less of you. You will be get this right little bro."


Finally they reached the school and they saw Yaito and Dekao waiting at the main gate. "Hey guys! What's up?", greeted the youngest of the twins. His two friends however only stared at him and his brother switching their attention back and forth.

"Um...Which one of you is Netto...and WHICH ONE IS AN EVIL CLONE HERE TO ENSLAVE HUMANITY!", shouted Dekao as he completely lost it. The twins watched the large boy have a nervous break down and could only sweat drop as he continued to rant.

The rantings were quickly brought to an end when little Yaito hauled back and elbowed the loud mouth right in thechest knocking all the air out of his lungs. She glared at the teen wondering, "How could anyone be that stupid?". "Alright! Netto which one's you and who is the other one!", she demanded pointing her finger at them.

"I'm Netto...and this is my twin brother Saito Hikari.", he answered still suprised that the short blonde could pack such a punch. "Enzan better watch out.", he privately joked to himself. He felt the other hybrid jab him in the ribs and realized he must have heard his thoughts.

Yaito turned her attention to Saito and found she indeed couldn't tell the two apart, but she also noticed that both boys had deep green eyes and spikey dark blue hair. "What happened Netto? Your eyes and hair are different.", she asked. She knew the hair seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn't place where. "Come on Yai. You have seen hair like that everyday, but where was it?", she puzzled.

Jumping in to save his brother Saito began, "Well little Yaito, you see..." He paused trying to think up a good lie, but he was instead saved by Ms. Mariko. The teacher urged her children into class and started today's lessons.


Meanwhile on the other side of the city at Sci-Labs security and the scientists were doing an inventory of everything at the facility. Enzan and the Commissioner were there overseeing the inventory after a breakin the previous night. The netbattler approached Dr. Hikari and whispered, "The culprit went straight for your labs...by any chance was 'it' stolen."

Yuuichiro smiled saddly and replied, "No thankfully. All that data is in my PET and tripple encrypted, so even if someone did get it they'd need a genius to to decrypt it for them." He was certain that there was something missing, but he couldn't place what.

Enzan looked down at Blue and asked for a report of his findings. The red navi answered immediately, "I can't find anything missing and neither can the worker navis. Regardless of this someone doesn't just break into a high-security facility like this and leave empty-handed."

The searched continued as the Commissioner questioned Yuuirchiro, "Do you have any idea what they might have been after Dr. Hikari?" Even this man knew something about this screamed trouble for his city and he was not about to let a new crime syndicate run loose in his streets.

Mr. Hikari lied with skillful ease, "No. I honestly don't know what they could've been after. We didn't have any special projects going on; just the standard experiments over the last few weeks."

Kifune seemed to accept the doctor's words and began questioning the other workers. He also checked the security cameras and found that they had been expertly disable without setting off the rest of the security systems. To add to that whatever had broke in had quickly hacked into all the building's systems and left a mess making it difficult to determine the intended target.


Back on the other side of Dentech city the twins had been receiving stares since they entered the building. Conversations stopped as everyone wanted to know who the 'Extra Netto' was. At first Saito couldn't help but think it was funny, now however he was getting very annoyed.

When lunch time finally came round Saito and his brother chose to sit away from their friends so that they could talk privately. Yaito and Meiru protested the loudest, but that didn't stop the hybrids. They quickly found an empty table away from all the prying eyes, "This is getting old fast. I mean first Dekao thinks I'm an evil clone, then Jasmine thinks she's got a new boyfriend, and finally Chisao says I'm a shapeshifting alien. I just can't catch a break, can I?"

Netto agreed with his brother that this was getting out of hand. "I would've thought for sure that the letter would've calmed down all the conspiracy theories, but it barely put a dent in them. Nobody, except Meiru, Roll, Glyde, Yaito, and Ms. Mariko, believe that you've been at a private school all this time.", he grumbled. Giving the other teen a sympathetic look he said, "I guess I could sort of understand...I mean I never said anything about you and then suddenly I've got a twin brother."

Before the twins could continue complaining most of the student body started rushing towards the classrooms. Meiru ran up to them and told them that something BIG was on the news. Immediately both Hikaris developed asickening feeling in their stomachs as they too sought out the nearest TV.