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 14

Inside Enzan's mansion Haruka and Yuuichiro were frantically waiting for Saito to come back and tell them what was going on. They both knew the twins split up on the way back in order to throw anyone following them off, but they didn't really know why the elder twin took off without an explanation. To them Saito taking such action was a very bad omen indeed.

The two parents were walking around the terminal in Enzan's home office that their oldest son had used to enter the cyber world. "It's going to be alright, right? Nothings happened to my babies right?", Haruka grilled her husband hoping that she was just overreacting to a minor problem.

Nearby Iris listened into the Hikari's and knew that she should look into the matter. "I guess it's going to be revealed sooner than I expected...can't be helped." The green-eyed young girl then started searching for a terminal away from the panicking parents so that she wouldn't be distracted by them.


In the cyber world the Falzer beast was staring at the place where he'd last seen his baby brother disappear. "No...No! This can't be happening! You can't just take him away from me again! Not when we've come so far just to...be together again!" The hybrid felt defeated as the tears continued to pour. He was so distracted by his grief that he didn't even notice a mostly yellow navi walk up next to him.

"Rockman?", the navi asked as she placed her hand on his shoulder. She knew that the navi in front of her could tear her to shreds at a moments notice, but she had to find out what was happening. When the bird hybrid look in her eyes it took her by surprise that he'd reacted as he did instead of going out of control again. "Rockman I need you to tell me what happened? Can you do that for me?", she asked in a soothing tone trying to alleviate some of his pain.

Saito looked at Iris' navi and with some effort managed to tell her about how somebody had kidnapped...no navinapped his brother from right in front of him. He was so focused on Netto that he didn't even notice that she wasn't the least bit surprised by him calling Netto his brother.

The navi couldn't really say she knew what he was going through since she never had any siblings and certainly no twin, but she tried to make feel better anyway with comments like "Don't worry.", "It'll be alright.", and "We'll get him back." She led Rockman to a terminal and told him to return to the human world for now and talk to Iris.

After some resistance on his part the hybrid tore himself away from the site and returned to the human world still in Beast form. Rockman then stated looking for Iris, but what he found instead was a copyroid just down the hall from the terminal he'd come through. "Does this belong to the Zoanaroid that took Netto?", he thought before he received an answer to his question.

Out of the infrared port shot a beam of light that struck the Copyroid body. The body started changing for the navi that now occupied the body and Rockman couldn't be happier, "I'll beat this guy senseless and force him to tell me where they took my brother!" Rock started flexing his claws as he watched the light die down, but he was surprised with the appearance of the navi...It was...Iris. "You...Your a...a...navi?", he stuttered feeling shocked that he'd never caught that particular detail.

Iris gasped as she locked eyes with the Beast navi after she'd returned to her copyroid body. "He wasn't supposed to see this yet!", she thought frustrated that she'd been caught after all her secrecy. Deciding that honesty was the best policy she began, "Yes Rockman...or should I say Saito." Iris felt better when she'd rattled the red navi by calling him by his human name, "I am a navi. I have an important mission here and I need to talk with everyone."

"Not so fast! First off how do you know my name? Secondly what mission? And finally why do you need everyone?", he basically demanded of the girl he now knew was actually the navi that had separated Trill from him before returning him to his normal state. "Maybe after I get Netto back she can take the Beasts out of us?", he thought as he continued to glare her down.

Iris wasn't the least bit affected by Rockman's glare and she made sure he was aware of it by, of all things, smirking at his attitude. "Not now. Bring the other Earth Special Ops here and I'll tell you what I can. I don't want to have to repeated this over and over again.", she said in a voice that said that there was no room for argument on this one. She quirked an eyebrow when the hybrid started...growling at her. "What does he think he is? He's a bird hybrid not a dog.", she thought listening to the low growl.

After several minutes of trying to intimidate the Copyroid Rock gave up and did as she asked. About forty minutes later the whole team that had previous been marked with the crests of Duo appeared outside. Enzan, Laika, Yuriko, and Miyabi were partially covered in bandages after their encounters with Shademan.

The odd part was that Ms. Mariko was there fighting with her twin sister in a vain attempt to keep her bandages on. "Look I'm not wearing those. I look like a freaking mummy with those on!"

Yuuichiro cleared his throat and asked them to focus on the issues at hand as they entered the mansion. Once everybody had arrived they all noticed a kid that looked almost identical to Netto except that he had dark blue hair and emerald green eyes. They gathered in Enzan's dinning room since there was lots of space there for them to all talk. After everyone was seated Dingo couldn't contain his curiosity anymore and blurted out, "Who are you?"

The teen whom Dingo was pointing at glared at him for a second before relaxing. Then he answered as politely as he could given recent events, "I'm Saito Hikari. Now start talking Iris!" His tone told everyone he was currently under a lot of stress and that something was horribly wrong. The other team members started looking around the table for Netto before Saito said, "Don't bother. He's been kidnapped and Iris here knows something."

All attention turned to the mysterious youth and she looked at the hybrid annoyed by his antics, but she wasn't about to let him know that he was really starting to get to her. Clearing her throat she began her story, "Netto and Saito are indeed twins, but more than that they are navi-human hybrids."

Other than those that already knew the rest gasped in total surprise that the news report had actually been the truth though Yuriko kinda suspected a coverup as soon as she saw Saito.

Pride was the next to speak, "So who took Netto? And why?" She was really worried about the young NetSavior that had always been so nice to her and treated her as a human being instead of royalty all the time.

Iris smiled at the princess and answered, "It was one of the Cyber Beasts that have invaded this world. Which one I cannot say, but this goes way beyond a simple kidnapping."

"Explain what you mean by that.", Laika immediately demanded. Sharo's NetSavior didn't feel like being jerked around with puzzles and riddles right now. He just wanted answers though not as badly as Saito judging by the fact his eyes kept flashing red and reverting back to their green color.

The young girl looked around and crossed her arms thinking about how she should explain this. Finally after a minute of internal debate she began, "The reason why the Beast's went after Trill was to prevent destiny from running it's course. And now that it's started they feel that the only way to stay in control is to destroy the twins who are the primary focus of fate right now."

Before anyone could bark at her for speaking so cryptically she held up a hand and said, "To understand you must first know the history of Beyondard." Leaning back in her seat she resumed, "Thousands of years ago in Beyondard there was a terrible war between the different nations using navis. The continuous fighting wiped out entire civilizations and annihilated most of the people of our world."

"You mean your from that place?", Yuuichiro asked. "Things are starting to make sense now.", the scientist thought as Iris continued paying him no mind.

"In a final effort to bring an end to the ceaseless fighting that was ravaging our planet we asked a being much like Duo to give us aid. That being was Trill's ancestor and I'm afraid that he never told us his name. The Great Spirit sent to us two 'Guardians' to quell the fighting and restore order to our world.", she locked eyes with Yuuichiro and said, "Those 'Guardians' were Greiga and Falzer."

Immediately the scientist stood up knocking his chair backwards and demanded, "You mean the same beings that invaded our world!"

Everyone was thinking that if something like Duo created these two Beasts then they were going to be hard pressed to defeat such powerful foes. To add to their problems the enemy was breaking through into their world at increasing intervals.

Iris shook her head and replied, "In a way yes and no."

"What does that mean?", Meiru questioned.

The green-eyed girl took a deep breath before answering, "The Greiga and Falzer that exist today are not the same as the ones from thousands of years ago." She saw the confused expressions and elaborated further, "The original Beasts died long ago, but they left their power in statues of themselves and had them buried in two of the lost temples from that time period. Whenever our world was in peril the Beasts would grant their power and form to worthy humans or navis so that they could defend Beyondard from another cataclysm."

Closing her eyes she remembered her friends that she'd lost because of the war. Regaining her emotionless expression she continued, "The last time such a war threatened my home world the current Greiga and Falzer came to power. They both used to be noble navis with excellent fighting and leadership skills...but as fate would have it both were corrupted by their newfound power. Then began the bloody civil war that has engulfed Beyondard and has spilled into your world as well."

Miyabi looked at Trill as he sat in Mrs. Hikari's lap and asked, "If his ancestor created those Beasts then could he destroy them?"

"I'm afraid not. He's too young, but he does play another important role. Trill started a transfer between the current Greiga and Falzer and the twins." She looked at Saito and said, "The young one instinctively chose two with good hearts to wield the power of the Beasts. This is your destiny Saito...and Netto's. You and your brother are the new 'Guardians' or rather you will be once you've defeated the current ones and believe me they will stop at nothing to destroy you now that the process has begun."

Blue spoke up from inside Enzan's PET, "So that explains why Greiga and Falzer were some determined to delete Trill. Even though he's only a child he's still a threat to their positions of power."

Saito had heard enough to form a theory, "So then Greiga is the one that went after Netto?" The teen started picturing all the things that Greiga would do to his twin and he started to panic. "I have to do something now! If I don't then Netto...Netto will...will be killed!" Immediately he stood up and said, "Iris please take me to Beyondard. I need to get to Netto before anything happens to him." The teen's feelings were echoed by everyone in the room especially since Netto had always saved them when they needed it.

Pulling a strange black rod shaped device from her dress Iris started pressing buttons. "Get ready everyone. It'll be ready to open the door in ten minutes, so I suggest that you gather any necessary supplies you might need now." No sooner had she spoke then the Special Ops team went to work gathering essentials from Enzan's mansion.

Saito was ready in under four minutes and spent the rest of the time watching the gage. "I'll protect you little brother. Don't get yourself killed, just wait for me."


In Greiga's domain the Beast was currently looking at his 'replacement' who was currently suspended in his audience chamber by strong metal clamps attached to the ceiling. Chains lowered the boy to eye level with Greiga and the once noble navi stood waiting for the teen to regain consciousness.

"Still out hmm?", called a voice from the shadows.

Growling the great dog navi responded, "Yes Shadowman he is. I believe you overdid it with the dosage." Looking at the spot where he was certain the ninja was watching from he went on, "Perhaps next time you'll use a little less of a drug strong enough to put a whale down with ease."

Shadowman could tell that his master was rather amused with him using overkill like that. "I'll be more careful next time. Though he would been a noisy one if not drugged...not to mention the fact that he could've deleted without even noticing that he'd done it."

Greiga chuckled before saying, "He has the power, but not yet the skill to do so." Turning his dark blue head back to the boy the dog navi studied the boy's features which looked so much like his own at present. "Perhaps you are the one I've been waiting for...If you disappoint me I'll destroy you."


In the outskirts of DenTech city a hooded man entered an abandoned building. Deep inside the figure approached a computer terminal surrounded by maps and pictures of the Hikari twins at the Metroline the morning after the train accident.

The figure removed the hood exposing Eugene to the cold air in the room. He walked over to the computer and punch a button. The speakers came to life broadcasting encrypted NetSavior communications which were now decrypted by a stolen program. "I'll prove that your little brats are freaks Yuuichiro Hikari! And when I do I'll finally have my revenge on you too Jenrya.", he shouted at a picture of his old boss meeting with Meijin.

The reporter looked at the pictures of currently the best NetSavior agents from around the world. As he looked through each profile one in particular stood out to him, "Ah it's been a while since I've seen your face. I wonder what you'd say if you knew the truth? I guess it really doesn't matter since the statute of limitations expired years ago." The former reporter laughed smugly before throw a profile on something that resembled a desk. "Laika. Who would've thought she'd had a little brat. And one that's standing in my way just as you were so long ago. No matter I deal with you when the time comes." He then broke out in menacing laughter as he sat down.


Reviews:

Dark5523: The story starts after episode 12. As for what Greiga wants...well you'll just have to wait and see.