Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman.EXE sadly.

Zero: A Legend Reborn

Thoughts "blah"

Chapter 3

Two weeks after the successful Crossfusion Hinata was traveling through the mall on another one of her mass shopping sprees. She and Blaze had already hit three of the malls in Densan and had two left. It was a gamble whether or not they'd be able to make it given the amount of money she'd saved and the number of store left to cruise.

She made her way to the center of the mall and stared at the huge water fountain. The pool took up most of the lobby area and the fountain itself was atleast three stories tall. There were two beautiful robbed angels standing in the center of the monument with water spraying out of their mouths. All along the rim of the fountain were more facets spraying water towards the center at an angle. The water had multi-colored lights shining in it and was constantly changing.

"Well Blaze, whatcha think? Should we hit those other stores or go and see if we can bring Igor and Dr. Frankenstein out of that lab?" asked Hinata. Since the Crossfusion Jesse and Zero had holed up inside of the abandoned chip factory. Neither one would say what they were working on, but Blaze and Hinata figured that it nothing good. Last time those two had worked together so intently on something Hinata's skin had been turned purple for eight days, so the duo would have to watch the other two very closely or else.

The phoenix navi looked up from her NetOp's shoulder and said, "Let's finish shopping. I seriously doubt that Zero and Jesse would direct a second prank at you so soon after the last one. They're both to cautious for that."

"Yeah I guess that you are right. Still I can't help but wonder what they are up to." The teen continued looking through the mall selecting her new wardrobe and looking at all of the deals. "I should just enjoy myself today and forget all about Jesse and Zero."

"That's the spirit," said Blaze before she pointed to a large, flashy store. "We haven't hit that one yet. Let's go there next." Blaze logged into the store's Home Page while her NetOp entered the store in the human world.

Princess Pride was enjoying her visit to Densan after the conflict with Nebula was finally brought to an end. She had contributed large amounts of zenny to repairing the damage caused by Dr. Regal and Laserman.

The Princess had visited a number of the sites for victims directly affected by the mad doctor's rampage and her heart went out to them. The soldier currently escorting her around was from Sharro and he was named Laika. He was silent and had a piercing gaze that made her feel as though he could see right down into her very soul.

The Princess was at the mall negotiating with business owners getting them to donate food and clothing to those that had lost everything. Ordinarily she'd love to be visiting the mall for her own personal shopping since she was never allowed to do so because of her royalty status. Despite her reasons for being there she'd spotted several outfits and shoes that she'd have to come back for. "I wonder if Netto would be willing to lend a hand there," she thought.

Laika watched Princess Pride conclude another negotiation with the business owner donating a large amount of clothing to the cause. The soldier had to admit that he was impressed with Pride's skill at the negotiating table. "Let's go Princess. We've still got other business owners to speak to and not much time before you must return to your hotel room."

Pride looked away sadly knowing that he was right. "I'm definitely speaking with Netto. He'll help me get out of there and let me just walk around as a normal teen. I envy him at times." The Princess looked to her escort and smiled. "Just one more before we head back. The last one on my list imports a large supply of food from Creamland, so I'm sure that we can count on his support."

Laika looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "He's from Creamland isn't he?"

Pride nodded and said, "He arrived here about a year ago and I met him when…I was being escorted around the city."

Laika smirked and stopped his charge. "What you mean to say is 'when you ditched your bodyguards and had some teenager show you around'. Isn't that right Princess?"

Pride knew that she'd been caught, but thankfully nobody realized that it was Netto that she'd been traveling with. She had talk to Netto after and learned that he'd made sure that his friends remained tightlipped about their adventure together. She knew that she still had feelings for Netto and that Meiru was her only real competition. "If only I could get Netto to move to Creamland. Maybe Yuuichiro could have an offer made to him by Creamland's scientific community? I'll have to be extremely careful or daddy will realize why I want the Hikari's to move to our country."

The Princess was jarred from her thoughts when a large, bulky punk ran into her. "You should watch where you are going lady," he said sneering at her.

Laika moved in front of Pride and said, "Unless my eyesight has diminished in the last five minutes, it was you that ran into her. I think that you should apologize to the lady and then get lost."

The punk had a huge vain pop out of his forehead. "What did you say to me you little brat?"

"I didn't stutter, but I'll repeat it nice and slow so that even you can understand. You ran into her and you should apologize to her before getting out of my sight." He said the last part very slow and kept his eyes locked on the thug waiting for him to strike.

"Punkman, Jack In! Power Up!" The thug had a nasty smile on his face and then looked back at Laika. "Me and you, right now."

"Fine with me. Searchman, Jack In! Power Up!" The military navi logged into the mall's cyber world and looked over his opponent. From what Searchman saw he couldn't help but think to himself, "Like NetOp, like Navi."

Both the brute and his navi were large and obviously very stupid. Before they could fight another navi showed up. "Who are you?" demanded Punkman.

Searchman simply looked at the newcomer and said, "Leave, I can handle this alone."

The female navi glared at the military navi and replied, "I'm sure that you can, but I had thought that I had taught this clown a lesson the other day. I guess I have to repeat that lesson for the slow learners like them."

Punkman and his NetOp realized just who the navi was and whom her NetOp was. "Oh Great! That psycho chick again."

The female navi raised her guns and shouted, "Comet Storm!" The comet shaped projectiles all hit their mark. The bulky navi collapsed on both knees and tried to get back up. "Behave or next time it's deletion."

Searchman and Laika had missed the threat, but they felt their pride wounded from being beaten to the punch by a girl. "How about you and I have a friendly spar right here and now." suggested the green navi.

"Sure and my name is Blaze. Don't forget it," she said dropping into an offensive stance.

By now a number of spectators had gathered to watch a NetSavior navi fight against a civilian navi. A few had started taking bets on which one would win the fight and so far it was divided. Those that knew Blaze knew that she was one tough navi, but they couldn't count the NetSavior out yet.

"The name is Searchman and don't forget mine either." The Sharro navi pulled out his 'Scope Gun' and aimed it at Blaze, but it was too late as she had taken to the sky and flew behind some signs. "Running already." Searchman called out tauntingly.

"Hardly," was the response that he got before getting showered by a swarm of bullets. Searchman was quick to dodge behind the cover of a nearby pillar and started scanning for the other navi's signature.

Searchman turned around and found that somehow Blaze had moved in behind him. He ducked as another round of bullets flew his way. Looking back to where he'd been he saw that the bullets hit exactly where his head would've been. "This girl is serious. She's already going for deletion. I guess that I can't hold back either." He jumped out from behind his cover and fired four shots at Blaze.

The Phoenix navi laughed because all of the shots went right over her head, but she stopped when Searchman pointed up. Blaze glanced up and saw that he'd shot out the supports for the roof over her head. The ceiling collapsed on her leaving Searchman with a victorious smile.

"Well that was fun, but you shouldn't be so quick to delete," he said walking up to the rubble. Before reaching it the rubble exploded sending rock everywhere.

"I couldn't agree more, but I'm not finished yet." Blaze pulled out her Cyber Sword and flew at Searchman faster than he had anticipated. The Phoenix navi easily damaged tore into Searchman forcing him to logout. "Mess with the best, lose like the rest." She then logged out and went back to Hinata.

Pride looked at Laika and asked in shock, "What just happened?"

Laika stared at the screen of his PET for several minutes before he said, "Searchman was beaten…but how? She couldn't have been that strong."

In the clothing store Hinata tried on another pair of shoes and found them to her liking. When Blaze logged back into her PET she glanced over to the hologram on her shoulder. "So, did you have fun Blaze?"

The Phoenix navi grinned from ear to ear before replying, "Oh yeah. The introduction to the NetSavior was very fun. So when do we start the opening act?"

Hinata sighed and answered, "Well that depends on the 'high and mighty' Duo. As soon as that creep shows his face we can start making our counter moves." She had an annoyed look on her face and she added, "For now it's just a waiting game."

"I understand. Let's continue to train for the coming battles once we get back." suggested Blaze. She knew that their current skill level wouldn't keep them alive for long given Duo's obvious power and resources.

"Agreed. We'll double our training for the next few months until Duo finally shows his face and then we'll adjust our schedule depending on how much we are lacking against his Asteroid navi's," said the teen as she picked up the five pairs of shoes that she desired. The brunette couldn't help chuckling when she thought back to the look that Zero and Jesse had on their faces the last time she bought this many shoes and clothes. She'd told both of them that 'a girl can never have too many shoes'.

Laika and Searchman talked with several nearby navis in the mall's Cyber World trying to find information on the navi that had defeated them. Most of the merchants refused to say anything unless it was official police business. Laika knew that he couldn't abuse his power like that, so Searchman was forced to ask Punkman and other civilian navis.

Punkman refused to speak and quickly ran back to his NetOp. Most of the other navis that the military navi asked either didn't know the Phoenix navi or just didn't want to say anything. It seemed as though she had quite a reputation of helping NetNavis and being a tough fighter.

"Searchman, call it a night. We have to get Pride back to her hotel," said Laika. He didn't like the idea of leaving with information on such a skilled NetOp and NetNavi, but he did have his orders.

"Yes, Laika," answered Searchman before logging out of the Cyber World.

Later on that night when the duo got home they found Jesse and Zero waiting for them with their foster parents. The look on Jesse's face told her that something was up and that she probably wasn't going to like it. "Then again he usually has that look on his face when he has to put on the innocent act." Deciding to go ahead and get it over with Hinata asked, "Alright, so who died?"

Sasuke was standing behind Jesse and Ayame was sitting at the dinning room table. Sasuke looked amused, but he didn't allow himself to grin at the statement. He motioned for his daughter to sit down and she did. "Jesse, Hinata…we are transferring you two to a public school."

"Any reason in particular?" Jesse knew that they had to have been talking about this for some time and didn't like that he didn't see it coming.

Ayame locked eyes with her son and said, "It's just that you two don't seem to get along with others and you have very few friends. I know that you both lost your parents, but I'd like to see you open up to others."

Their father didn't miss the beat and joined in adding, "We're just trying to do what's best for the two of you. You need more friends than just each other and your navis."

Both teens were thinking, "I've got a really bad feeling about this." Their navis were not doing much better, but they did hide their reactions a lot better.

Hinata released her grip on her sixteen shopping bags and then asked the big question that she was sure that her brother was wondering too, "When do we started? And where is it going to be at?"

Ayame smiled thinking that their kids were accepting the idea better than she had expected and answered, "The two of you start at your new school tomorrow and I can't remember the exact name of it, so I can't answer the last one."

"Mom's as forgetful as ever I see." Jesse and Sasuke grinned at the flustered look on Ayame's face. He knew that she was horrible when it came to remembering names.

Jesse was in his room getting ready for bed and he asked Zero, "How close do you think that we are to the results that we want?"

The red navi considered their earlier experiments that day before replying, "I think that the answer is right in front of us. We just need a little bit more patience and then we'll have it."

The brunette chuckled and said, "Hinata's going to kill me for keeping her in the dark about this."

"True, but this little project will give us quite the edge against the NetSaviors if they interfere as well as put us on a somewhat even standing with Duo." Zero knew how invaluable this project could be if they could only just complete it.

Jesse sighed and said, "Every test so far has ended in the test subject's body breaking down on the molecular level and leaving behind a pile of goo."

"What do you expect with the capabilities you have in mind? Something like this isn't going to be easy to whip up even with my help. Ciel could have finished this project by herself easily, but we don't have her with us. Jess take it one step at a time and we'll succeed." Zero knew that his NetOp was getting frustrated with the lack of results despite how close they were. This experiment had been in the works since before they'd actually Crossfused for the first time. With them this close Zero couldn't allow Jesse's impatience to get the better of him. "I'll have to work in a few additional exercises into Jesse's training to teach him patience," thought Zero.

The teen nodded knowing that his navi was right, but it still wasn't easy. When he got this close to a goal patience always went right out of the window. He was grateful that he had someone like Zero to keep him on track. "I'll try Zero, but let's atleast try to have this ready for when Duo makes his grand entrance."

The red navi chuckled and said, "I can't make any promises there, but I'll give it everything that I've got. I expect you to do the same."

"I will. Once we're finished with this I'm going to test it immediately." Jesse knew that he was getting ahead of himself.

Zero held up a hand to silence his NetOp and then said, "We'll test it after I've run it through the simulations numerous times. I don't want anything to happen to you. Like I've always said, 'I fight for those that I care about'. Even if in this case I have to fight to protect you from yourself."

"Thanks Zero. Gotta have somebody to keep me focused on the goal." After that Jesse put Zero's PET on the charger and went to sleep.

Blaze and Hinata had heard everything from the door and now they were worried. They knew that their brothers were up to something big and part of them couldn't help feeling hurt that they were not told of this project…whatever it was.

Blaze looked to her operator and said, "We'll have to keep a close eye on them." Hinata quickly agreed and they went to their room.

The next day the two teens were dropped off at their new school by Sasuke on his way to work.

Jesse looked around and then turned to his sister. "This place is eerily familiar. I just place where I've seen it before."

Hinata on the other hand was praying that she was wrong about where they were. They entered the building and spoke with the administration. It seemed that Sasuke and Ayame had specifically requested that they both be put in the same classes.

The receptionist looked like someone's grandmother and she was very polite. She quickly led them to their new homeroom and stopped them at the door. "You two wait right here while I talk to the teacher," she said before entering the room.

Several minutes passed before the receptionist came back out and motioned for them to come in. The first person that they both saw was…MARIKO! "Oh you have got to be kidding me," they both thought. Looking around the room they saw Yaito, Dekao, Meiru, and finally…Netto. It seemed that fate had a very cruel sense of humor.