Disclaimer: I don't own Megaman, it all belongs to Capcom. I do this for fun, not profit, and any original characters belong to me and my friends.

Chapter 3

X sat in his bedroom, his feet propped up on his desk next to his computer. Clad in a blue t-shirt and jeans, along with comfortable shoes, he studied the PET that he had gotten from Phoenix a few days ago. It was exactly how he remembered it. The handheld device was mostly crimson red with black highlights, and the Blaze family symbol below the screen. It fit easily into his hand and, at the moment, was silent. The belt pouch it came in also contained battlechips-all familiar, seeing they all belonged to Chaud.

He still didn't know how Phoenix had found it; by all rights, it shouldn't even exist here, in this world. When he had first awakened, he had looked up the history of this world. Dr. Cain believed that he did it to become used to human society.

This was partially true. At the time, X hadn't wanted to go out with the wrong information—for all he knew, the Darklords might have taken over the world and had all the humans as slaves or something. Thankfully, this wasn't the case. As Lan, he never really bothered with school—he was better at netbattling anyway. Let it be known that Lan wasn't an idiot, even though he acted like one. He could be serious when he needed to be, he just didn't let it show that much.

At home, in Dentec City, he had learned about his grandfather's project on computers had been picked instead of Dr. Wily's project on robotics(1), and Net Navis were created. It was family history, after all. Here, the same contest happened, but Wily's robotics project had been picked over Light's. Because of that, they had worked together to create Blues(2).

X smiled. He had found it a bit amusing that he had two older brothers and an older sister, instead of having a digital twin. X had never met them, of course; he never found out what happened to them. It was like they had dropped off the face of the Earth. Sure, he found the capsules Dr. Light left him, but they never contained any information on his older siblings.

Still grinning, X opened a panel on the back of the PET. Due to recent Maverick activity, he hadn't had the time to look at it.

'Let's see…nothing seems to be wrong with the circuitry…ah. It just needs to be recharged.' he thought. X closed the panel and looked for an adaptor that could work for the PET. Finding one that might work, he plugged one end into his computer and the other slid neatly into the recharge slot. He grinned when a light came on on the side of the PET, telling him it was recharging.

Still grinning, he set it in front of his computer. He suddenly stopped as a thought struck him. 'Is Protoman in there?' he wondered. Protoman was Chaud's navi. It would make sense if he was, but X hoped he wasn't. He hoped that the red navi was safely back with Chaud and not stuck in the PET in front of him.

A loud banging on his door interrupted his thoughts. X sighed, took his feet off the desk, got up and answered the door. It slid open to reveal a familiar face. "Hey Zero. What's up?" X asked warily. Zero was off-duty at the moment, so he was wearing blue jeans, sneakers and a crimson red t-shirt. His ankle-length blonde hair was tied into his usual ponytail and he was wearing a grin that said 'I'm-going-to-make-you-do-something-with-me-and-you're-going-to-hate-me-for-it-tomorrow.' That same grin had before dragged him into situations that X would have rather been watching instead of participating in.

"Oh, nothing much, X. Say, you up to anything tonight?" Zero asked, his infamous grin not changing.

"No, why?" X asked his friend. Privately he braced himself for what was to come. Zero was, unfortunately, using the same tone of voice that guaranteed general loss of sanity later. Namely X's.

Nonetheless, Zero's grin got wider. 'Oh crap. I'm doomed.' "Me, Axl and a few other guys are going to the bar. Wanna join us?" X smiled wryly. He always went with Zero to the bar—when he didn't, MHHQ always got some pretty steep bills the next day.

"Sure, just let me get my coat." He answered, turning around and heading back into his room. Seeing his cot on a nearby chair, he grabbed it and headed out the door, locking it behind him. 'Man, this is going to be a long night.'

(4 hours later)

"I still can't believe you drank that much, Zero. That's gotta be a record, even for you." Axl informed the crimson reploid, supporting him on one side as X helped from the other. It was a little after midnight, and the hallway was thankfully clear of any onlookers.

"Aw, common that's nuthin'." Zero said, his speech a bit slurred. "I can drink a lot more than that." Axl shook his head.

The red-haired reploid was wearing a navy blue t-shirt, blue jeans and black sneakers. His own hair was pulled back into a short ponytail. Axl looked over at X. "Is he usually this bad?" he asked.

X smiled in relief. "That's the beauty of it. He rarely does this anymore. Last time was about a month ago."

Axl sighed in relief. "Thank God." "No kidding."

They arrived at Zero's door. "Think you can take it from here, Zero?" X asked as he entered the pass code. "Yea." The drunk reploid answered, stumbling in as the door opened. "Night."

"Night, Zero." The door hissed shut, and a loud THUD could be heard. The two friends looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Good thing Signas gave our units tomorrow off." Axl said dryly. X nodded. "Night X." Axl said as he headed down to his room. X waved and went back to his own room

Back in his own quarters, he tossed his coat onto a chair and yawned. Glancing at the PET, he noticed it was still recharging. 'Geez, the battery must've run dry.' he thought. X yawned again. 'I wonder how that happened.' The teenaged reploid walked across the room toward the recharge capsule, ignoring the bed. He didn't like using it, but he hadn't been getting much sleep lately, so the capsule was the only choice.

X climbed inside and shut down as the recharge process began. Unknown to him, the little green light on the side of the PET blinked off. The screen came to life as data flew around and solidified into a red-armored, silver-haired being. Said being blinked a couple times behind his visor. "Chaud?" he called out in a rich treble voice, looking around for someone. In doing so, he got a real good look at his surroundings. 'What the…?' The Net Navi known as Protoman blinked again. "Where the hell am I?"

Author Notes:
(1) See Megaman Battle Network 1
(2) To avoid any confusion, Protoman the bioroid will be reffered to as Blues, and Protoman the Net Navi will be reffered to as Protoman.EXE. To answer any questions you might have now, yes, I am planning on bringing Blues into this story. Blues rocks!
And that is the third chapter for all of you readers! Don't kill me for the cliffhanger, or you won't know what happens next. Grins I hope you like it. Thanks to all of the readers who left a review!

Rose Kitsune.EXE: It's tempting, but I don't think I'm gonna do it. Sorry!

So if yor have any suggestions, comments, whatever, either leave a review or email me. My address is on my profile page. Thanks for reading! X)

Later—

Maverick Hunter Phoenix