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 16
Iris and the NetSaviors were approaching the village at a faster pace then she had predicted. "At least somethings going our way for a change.", the green eyed girl thought as they made their way through the sands.
As the small group approached the village many of it's occupants rushed inside their homes while others picked up weapons proudly displaying them for the 'visitors' to see. "Do not provoke any of them. They won't attack unless you force their hand.", Iris address the NetSaviors.
They all quickly nodded understanding how explosive the situation could become.
At this point Saito was really glad that he'd stayed in his human form. "No doubt someone here would recognize Falzer's symbol on my helmet and attack us. How could the Cyber Beasts do this to the people they were meant to protect?", he thought walking towards a woman with three knives sticking out of a red headband. She had short purple hair and purple eyes which showed that she had experienced a great tragedy in her life. "Excuse, but...", he began not really knowing what to say, "Have you seen somebody that looks exactly like me? My height and has in insatiable appetite for any kind of food."
The woman spoke softly, "No I'm afraid not. Is he someone important to you?"
Saito's face expressed his concern and growing fears. "Yes, he's my twin brother and one of the Cyber Beasts kidnapped him." Iris and the NetSaviors were surprised at how forthcoming this Hikari was.
It was obvious just how much the newcomer care for his sibling and the fact that he seemed willing to fight against the Cyber Beasts earned him the lady's respect. "I'm Phakchi, the village cook by the way.", she said offering her hand.
"I'm Saito Hikari.", the hybrid said reaching for the hand. When his hand met Phakchi's he found that the woman had a very strong grip and was soon nursing a bruised hand and ego.
At Greiga's stronghold he was was still rubbing the child's back. The dog navi knew that Netto didn't want to kill him especially after he'd learned just a little bit about Greiga. Of course the Beast knew that as the boy was now he had no chance at victory, but maybe with a little help he could reach his potential and succeed where the Beast himself had failed. "Young one...look at me.", he whispered softly.
The hybrid was curious what his host could be wanting now. He'd just been told that the Cyber Beasts had once been close, they started the war in Beyondard, and now that it was their 'Destiny' to be killed by himself and his twin brother. "What have we gotten ourselves into Saito?", he thought reflecting on recent revelations. He looked up at the powerful dog navi and waited for him to continue.
"How would you like me to train you?", he asked sincerely. Of course he expected Netto to be suspicious and definitely surprised with his offer. "I'd like to know that I'm leaving Beyondard in strong capable hands. That's not to say that when we face each other in the final battle that I'll go easy on you, but...maybe with my guidance you can avoid making the same error that I did. My great mistake..."
Netto was considering the offer carefully but he really wanted to know what error Greiga was talking about. "If you don't mind...what mistake are you talking about?", he asked timidly.
While he couldn't remember what had actually started the war the dog navi was fully aware of which emotion had given birth to the senseless violence. He answered, "The worst one. The one from which all other mistake proceed...the error of PRIDE." He tried so many times to place the event that started the fighting, but always came up with nothing. "It was my pride and Falzer's the began this reign of terror and it's our pride that prevents it from ending. Netto...don't allow the power to consume you as I have. You'll regret it for the rest of your existence.", he continued his voice full of sadness.
Netto nodded remembering a few times when his own pride had caused trouble. There have been numerous times, but the first one he thought of was when he'd received the new PET 2 during Nebula's reign. It had taken Enzan, Raoul, and Thunderman feigning a Darkloid attack to get through to him. "I promise I'll be careful.", he answered truthfully.
Greiga tried to smile and said, "Good. Now the first thing we need to work on is your control of your instincts."
"What's he talking about? We've got that under control.", the teen thought. "But we've already taken care of that problem."
The Beast's smile showed that he wasn't convinced, "No you haven't. Drugging yourself up doesn't count as 'controlling your instincts'. That is just a temporary solution." He knew that the Tretonin was only going to suppress the full strength of their instincts for so long before their bodies adapted to the drug and it became completely useless.
"Temporary? What do you mean?", Netto asked confused. He'd thought for sure that his Meijin's solution had been effective and hadn't really thought about anymore since then.
Sighing at his replacement's lack of understanding Greiga decided it best to break this one to him now, "Temporary as in the Tretonin is only going to repress your instincts for so long. Your body is already developing an immunity to the drug and eventually it will no longer affect you." Grabbing the teenager's arm he lead the boy to the training room he'd had constructed for himself a long time ago. "Besides allowing yourself to have a dependency on that stuff puts you at a disadvantage. It's a weakness that could be easily exploited by your enemies and yes you are going to have enemies once you've taken my place as a Guardian."
Greiga's words made sense to him and he had to admit to himself that he hated the idea of having a dependency on anything other than his own strengths. "Is there a way to actually do that? I mean control myself without the risk of hurting someone that I care about?", he asked with eyes full of hope.
The Beast answered, "Of course. How do you think I manage? Once you've learned control you eye color will revert back to normal...I believe your eyes are green now."
"Why exactly are my eyes crimson red right now then?", asked Netto curious about that little fact.
The dog navi smiled and replied, "At present it is...an indicator of sorts. It shows that your new to your power and that you've yet to tame the beast within. Later on it'll give others an idea of your current mood. In other words when your pissed your eyes will turn red and for rest they'll remain green."
Netto absorbed this new information and was eager to begin learning how to tame his own inner beast. "When do we start?", he asked.
Not at all surprised by the teen's eagerness to learn control he replied, "First we must wait for the Tretonin to wear off, then we can begin that part of your training. In the meantime we can work on your combat moves." He knew that Netto was happy as soon as he mentioned fighting due to the cocky grin that appeared on the boy's face. "Ha ha ha...I'm not surprised that he's that eager to spar. I guess some things are truly universal."
The first thing Netto was told was to come at Greiga using whatever tactics and attacks he wanted. Being the teenager that he is the boy needed no further encouragement to attack and even though his attacks didn't connect they did give the Cyber Beast a good idea of what he had to work with. "Hmm...He's a fast learner. Flexible. That's good, I can work with this.", Greiga thought as he continued to analyze Netto's unique fighting style.
Just outside of the fishing village one of Greiga's Generals had spotted Saito and his group. He instantly became aware of Saito's presence the moment he got close to the village because the teen carried the aura of the Falzer beast. "Master Greiga will be most displeased that they have arrived so soon. I'll send word and deal with them myself before they can cause us any trouble.", the General thought as he watched from a distance.
The villagers all started looking up into the sky for several minutes before they all started panicking. "He's coming! Take cover!", were heard coming from the villagers. The General reached out with his senses and located the reason for their fears. Heading straight towards the human community was none of than Falzer himself. The giant red bird appeared just over the village with a small army of beastized Mettaur viruses. He began he decent into the village cutting off Phakchi who was trying to get the newcomers into her place to hide them.
"Now where do you think your going?", asked Falzer as he assumed a more humanoid form.
Saito noticed the Beast had blue eyes and that they were focused upon him. "Wonderful. First Greiga kidnaps Netto and now I've got to deal with Falzer coming to kill me. I should touched...", he thought sarcastically. "What do you want?", he demanded even though at the moment he was terrified and certain that the beast knew it.
The bird navi resembled Saito's beast form without the red eyes and Hikari emblem on his chest. He glared at Saito causing everyone to take several steps back. They would've run if they hadn't been blocked in by the viruses and Falzer himself. "What do I want? Well let's think on that one shall we.", he replied sarcastically as he started circling the group. "By now you must know that you that are destined to destroy me and become my replacement as a Guardian. So what could I possibly want with you...Saito Hikari? Come on now, I know your not as dense as that little bro-"
Falzer was cutoff when the hybrid launched himself as the Cyber Beast. His fist connected with with the current Guardian's face sending him flying backwards. "Don't you ever talk about my brother like that! At least he isn't a heartless bastard that terrorizes innocent people for his own sick amusement.", the teen shouted his fist still shaking with barely contained fury.
The NetSaviors and Iris were caught completely off guard by their friend's sudden aggressive behavior, but Iris herself quickly understood the 'real' reason behind the assault. If only having his brother insulted then Saito was fine, but it was clear that the Tretonin was starting to wear off and his instincts to dominate were surfacing. "This isn't good. Not now of all times when we don't have more of the drug with us. To make matters worse I can't separate the beast from Saito this time around.", thought the young girl.
Falzer's minions were surrounding the humans preparing to attack when their master picked himself up. He laughed at his replacement and said, "I guess I struck a nerve." The bird navi then quirked a brow and asked, "You do want your brother back right?". The Beast watched Saito nod and then said, "Then come with me...alone."
Enzan broke into the conversation shouting, "Why would we let him go with you when we all know you have every intention of killing him just as Greiga is planning to kill Netto, assuming he hasn't already!" For the businessman there was no doubt of the Beast's intentions and he was not about to let Falzer kill one of his friends. "You just want to get Saito alone where you can take your time killing him!" he accused.
Falzer's blue eyes narrowed on Enzan and then softened, "That was true. I did want to kill him, but there's been a change of plans. I want to see if he can do 'it'." He dismissed his army and walked towards the hybrid, "This is your only chance to save Netto. True it is a gamble, but you'll never get to him on your own in time." When neither the boy or his friends made any movements the beast sighed and spoke, "I give you my word that I won't kill you...at least not anytime soon."
"Why should I even consider trusting you!", demanded the elder Hikari twin.
The bird navi locked eyes with him and replied casually, "Because you can sense that I'm telling you the truth." He watched as the young man thought about what had just been said and then decided to take the chance if only for Netto. Falzer smiled and called out, "Sleep Aura, battlechip in, Download."
A blue mist surrounded Saito's friends leaving him just outside the small field. Within seconds all of his friends hit the ground and he raced towards them. He turned to their attacker, "What did you do to them!"
The Cyber Beast held up both hands urging the boy to calm down and spoke, "I merely put them to sleep. They don't need to be here for this...they do however need to get back to your world. Zoanoroids from both myself and Greiga are currently running loose. Neither of us have any intentions of calling them back, so I'll just send your friends back to deal with them...it's either that or they get to admire the scenery inside one of my lovely prison cells." Falzer took to the air calling back, "Come along Saito. Your friends are not in any immediate danger, but for how long that remains so depends on you."
"Forgive me guys.", Saito thought as he followed the Cyber Beast. As the beast had said he could sense the honesty coming from the Guardian, but he still didn't like the idea of trusting him.
As they left the village one of the viruses opened a tear back to Earth and tossed the unconcious humans into the rift. Iris on the other hand was taken elsewhere, not to be killed, but for another purpose.
Back on Earth Zoanoroids had begun appearing more frequently either fighting or kidnapping other navis forcibly recruiting them for their respective sides. Yuuichiro was still holed up at Enzan's mansion with his wife and Trill. Commissioner Kifune had all of his agents out in the field trying to hold the line against the continuous attacks, but they were far less capable of stopping the Zoanoroids than the NetSavior Special Ops.
"We are running out of options Manabe. We've got to get Dr. Hikari to help us or we are finished.", the Commissioner addressed his secretary. He sighed and then spoke quietly, "Maybe with Yuuichiro back on our side his sons will rejoin the fight against these monsters from Beyondard."
The brunette responded with concern, "Given the assault on his family from the people of this city I seriously doubt we'll be able to re-enlist his help. And even if we did his fellow scientists are not likely to be willing to accept him back into their folds. Let's not even think about the kind of psychological damage we've already inflicted upon that family...the future looks bleak for us all."
"Never the less we must try. I want you my dear to find Dr. Hikari and ask for his assistance. Be discreet, I don't want reporters crawling all over him after the horrible ordeal they've gone through.", said Kifune.
Under the NetSavior building was none other than Eugene Hughes himself. "That was a stroke of brilliance bugging the old man's office. Now I just have to wait and let Manabe lead me straight to my prize. After all where there's one Hikari the others are never far behind. Those little shits will be cornered and I can...benefit from them in more ways then one." The twisted reporter started searching his pockets for something and pulled out a piece of paper with a phone number on it. "This will kill two birds with one stone.", he said as the phone rang.
