A/N: Well, people, you asked for it, I felt that I needed to go for it, and so, lo and behold, here is the second chapter of "Unwilling Partners". Might I remind you that I haven't planned anything for this story beside having Netto and Forte stuck together in a Cross Fusion, so you might find out some weirdness in the future. Also, I might insert some elements coming from the game, but it depends on where this story takes me.

Also, Rockman and everything related to it belongs to Capcom. I own only the plot. Cheers!

Az

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I can't believe you slept for three days. Three days! I thought we were supposed to look for a way to undo this Cross Fusion…

Forte's voice was calm and collected, but Netto felt that the navi was seething in anger just under the surface. He couldn't blame him, though. Almost three days of sleep had put a huge delay in their progress to return to their own separate existences.

"I told you, I'm sorry. It's not like I planned it…" Netto replied tiredly. He was currently sitting on the edge of the bed, had his right elbow propped on his knee and was using his hand to keep his head up while a floating screen weakly illuminated his features. During the three days of his coma-like sleep, Forte had discovered that he could create pop-up screens in the air where he could display a variety of things. One of them being a memory that he was sure was related to the incident that had forcefully brought them together.

And no amount of yelling can wake you up, Forte continued in his rant, ignoring his host's words. What are you, anyway? Some kind of… of selective deaf?

Netto sighed again and let the black navi rant while he focused his attention back to the video he was watching. So far, there was nothing interesting. Well, Forte was apparently fighting something, but the images were too confused and broken to make out who or what it was.

Seriously, why of all the humans in the world I had to end up being stuck with you? A stupid, ignorant and useless kid? Your white haired friend, although as despicable as you and the rest of your race, looks to be more intelligent than you…

"Hey, lay off the insults already!" Netto straightened his stance and frowned. "I told you. Try to be at least civil until--- wait, go back with that video of yours."

Muttering something less than pleasant under his breath about the human race and in particular about his host, Forte brought the memory file to a point a few seconds before Netto had asked for it, and not wanting to repeat the process several times, he set it to run at a slow speed.

"I think I saw something I recognized…" The boy commented as he watched the images with renewed attention. "There. Stop."

The image stilled and Netto brought his hand up to point at the left side of the image. There was a stack of crates hidden in the shadows and the noise of a corrupted file, but the symbol painted on one of them was intact enough to be seen. It was a white fist holding what appeared to be some sort of light source.

"I know I've seen that symbol before, but I can't remember where…" he paused for a moment and frowned. "And I think that this memory is after the incident that got us like this…"

What makes you believe that, human?

"Well, first those crates…" Netto explained as he pointed at said objects in the image floating in front of him. "They are obviously real stuff. But more than that there is the fact that your upper arm has a purple line running down it. Something that you normally don't have, if I remember correctly."

Forte grumbled and the boy felt that the navi had also narrowed his eyes at the revelation. It looks like I was in control back then…

Netto nodded. "Yeah, you were…" he conceded as he returned his gaze back to the symbol and tried to remember where he had seen it. He knew that he had seen that somewhere else beside the place recorded in Forte's memory…

Letting the video resume playing, both kid and navi remained in silence until the end of the display. The hovering screen disappeared with a blip, darkening the room, and Netto sighed in deject. "It looks like that symbol is our only lead for now… nothing much to go on with…"

Several more seconds passed before the boy stood up and stretched. He was still sore and weak, but after being in a near-coma for nearly three days, moving wasn't such a problem anymore. "Well, better get going," he paused and turned to look outside the open window, frowning in annoyance. "Sure, I have a helmet and the suit is waterproof… but I don't really feel like walking under heavy rain…"

I am not going to wait for the rain to stop. I want out of here as soon as possible, so you better start walking.

The boy raised his hands into the air to placate his companion's ire. "Ok, ok," he said, chuckling despite the hissed threat coming from Forte. "I got it. I'm going."

The navi growled at Netto's chuckle and wished he could curl his hands around the boy's neck and just squeeze until the bones broke in thousands little pieces. What was that, human?

Netto rolled his eyes as he walked out of the room and down the stairs. "Geez, Forte… relax! It appears that we're going to be stuck together for a long while so you might as well calm down a bit. Unless you want to develop an ulcer," he paused and slightly tilted his head to the side. "Or a navi version of it, anyway…"

Then don't mock me, human.

Jumping the last four steps, Netto landed on the floor with a fluid movement and barely a sound. He reached the door and moved it aside, idly wondering what he had thought when he put it back up after breaking it.

Outside, the rain was falling in a downpour, further darkening the night with its misty veil. Luckily there was an old road that started from the house and followed the river in its usually calm course towards the valley bottom and possibly some form of civilization.

Netto groaned lightly and walked out of the house, following the road. The rain patted angrily against his helmeted head, but the sound was oddly soothing his troubled mind and, quite amazingly, he felt that even Forte enjoyed it to some extents.

Now, if only he had the comforting embrace of a cloak…

"I think that you're rubbing onto me, Forte," the boy suddenly spoke after realizing how unprotected he felt without the navi's trademark cape. "I need a cloak…"

Forte frowned as he felt the same discomfort the human boy was currently feeling. This is not a good thing. You should not feel what I feel, and I sure as hell know that I do not want to feel what you feel, measly human.

Still, unknown to the boy, the navi set to work on conjuring up his cloak the same way he had created a screen. There was only one thing that he hated almost as much as the human race, and that was the feeling of his back being unprotected. Sure, a cloak was no real barrier against attacks, but it was an useful smokescreen that he could use to conceal a lot of movements.

Moments later, his brown cloak appeared around Netto's body, covering it from his neck to his ankles. It was already getting soaked by all the rain, but the boy instantly felt relieved at the oddly familiar presence around his shoulders and back. "This is much better," he commented happily as he grabbed two long scarf-like strands of tissue hanging from his neck – another variation brought by the Cross Fusion – and tied them behind his back to keep them out of the way.

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Having found out that Forte had deleted any kind of communication program from his persona – something about them being completely useless to him – Netto found himself carefully traipsing through the artificially lightened streets of the rural town located at the end of the valley he had originally woke up into.

Helped by the downpour, he traveled from shadow to shadow and let the sound of his splashing footsteps be hidden by the roar of the falling water. It wouldn't be like that for much longer, though. Dawn was close to breaking and the sky was already less dark than it had been before he walked into the town.

"This would be much easier if you had a mail system," the boy muttered to himself as he peeked behind a corner to see if the next street was empty. "Really, how do you contact someone when you need it?"

It's simple, human. I do not, Forte replied in a snort.

"You must have a really boring life…"

That is not your business, human.

After seeing that the street was deserted, Netto crossed it in a rush and disappeared into the shadows of a narrow alleyway on the other side. The boy was never one for stealth, preferring a more direct approach, but he had to admit that he was starting to enjoy being able to slip around without being noticed. Sure, people were still inside their houses, sleeping or just waking up, but that was beside the point, he decided.

Crossing a few more roads, the boy finally found a train station and examined it from the safety of the darkened alleyway. No one was around. Not even the workers that were supposed to start up the trains and any other system that was needed to run the public transportation.

"I don't like this…" Netto murmured, suddenly feeling paranoid. "Too quiet… where are all the workers?"

Backtracking into the alley, the boy carefully scanned the road and the buildings facing it. He wasn't an expert on ambushes and the finer points of tactics, but after all the fights he had gone through with Rockman, he knew when to listen to his instinct. And right now it was screaming "Traps right ahead!" at him.

"Forte, do you have any kind of radar or scanner available? I think someone is waiting for us out there…"

Silence filled his head for several seconds until the black navi growled under his breath. He didn't like working with the human kid, and much less having to fulfill any request coming from him. If it was for him, he would just barge in there and destroy anything that stood between him and his goal. However, not being in control of their shared body, Forte grudgingly obliged and let the scanner take a sweep of the immediate area, confirming what the boy had suspected.

Nothing I couldn't take care of, human, but there are four interferences coming from the perimeter of the train station, he explained with a frown, not recognizing the kind of energy signal the scanner was picking up. They are evenly spaced, are giving off a steady source of energy and are currently unmoving. Do you need more details, human?

Netto raised an eyebrow in amusement. So far, Forte had barely collaborated with him and had spent a good part of the time spewing insults, so when he was handed such details on whatever was hidden at the station he was left speechless.

"Ah, no. That's enough," he said as he looked up at the buildings surrounding him. Perhaps he could jump on top of one and have a better view of the station. "Anything else worth of mentioning?"

Forte took a few seconds to think as he examined the data he was getting from the scanner. No. Maybe the interference from these four sources, whatever the hell they are, are scrambling up this scanner, but there is nothing worth of further mention. Not even other accursed humans are around.

Deciding that the place wasn't anymore safe, Netto turned around and quickly walked away. Everything Forte had said confirmed his suspicions, and the boy wasn't in the mood to fall into a trap just because he needed to phone home. Not after all the stuff he had gone through already.

"Forte, I know that you detest me asking you to do stuff, but could you keep an eye on that scanner of yours and tell me anything worth of being considered a threat to us?"

As the boy quickly crossed a road and disappeared into the dulled darkness of yet another alley, the navi grunted unhappily but did as he was requested knowing that any trap the human kid walked into, he would unwillingly follow the same fate.

The two then fell into silence once again. Forte kept an eye on the scanner and Netto quickly navigated the still deserted streets until they were enough far away from the train station to be comfortable.

Now the boy was crouching in a tree, hiding. Rain still poured, but the sky had brightened considerably since the last time he had checked, and already people were starting to leave the safety of their houses to go to work. He knew that he had to move soon and find a better shelter, or he would be stuck in that tree until night, and spending over twelve hours perched on a branch was an idea that he didn't like.

And he still needed to contact his father. Yet, after almost walking into a trap, Netto suspected that whoever was trying to capture him had put under surveillance his family and friends. Suddenly, the Cross Fusion incident that he and Forte had found themselves into didn't seem very casual anymore. And he knew the navi with him was probably thinking the same thing.

Lightly thumping his right fist against the bark of the tree, Netto watched the part of the street visible through the foliage. Traffic was still sparse, but it was slowly increasing, a clear sign that he would have to move as soon as possible.

After waiting a few minutes for the road to be clear of civilians, the boy jumped down from the tree and rushed to the safety of yet another alley. There wasn't much in there, only a dumpster on one side and a fire escape on the other that led up to the roof of the building it was attached to.

Ignoring both potential hiding spots – a roof wasn't the best hiding spot because of the whole open sky thing and he was not going to hide into a stinky dumpster – Netto reached the other end of the hallway and paused. He knew that it would be really easy to leave the city without being noticed, but before that he needed to send a message to his father and at least tell him that he was still alive.

With emails and phone calls out of the question, he was left with the only option of walking all the way back home and tell his family about his current problem face to face, or…

Brown eyes focused on a small souvenir shop on the other side of the street that had just opened. If he could gain access to the store without being seen by the owner, who was inside and moving about, he could grab the necessary stuff to send a letter. It would take longer, but it would be much safer.

The problem of distracting the shopkeeper, however, still remained and Netto sighed in frustration. He needed a distraction, something big enough to draw everyone's attention but nothing too damaging for the town itself. And asking Forte for advice was something he'd rather not do because, if he was lucky, all he would get in answer was to blow up a building with people inside.

"Wait, I know!"

Only partially knowing his host's emotions, Forte raised an eyebrow at him and observed as the boy rushed back into the alleyway and reached the previously ignored dumpster. "This will do," the boy muttered to himself as he grabbed the large american-like trashcan by one side and easily dragged it to the other end of the path, placing it as close to the main street as he could.

With the first step of his plan done, Netto crouched and jumped on top of one of the buildings surrounding him. If he was really being hunted down by whoever had put him and Forte in that situation, then he had to be fast in executing his idea. Running towards the end of the roof, the boy leaped into the air once again, his cloak flapping wildly behind him, and landed on a roof on the other side of the street.

Turning around, Netto focused his attention onto the dumpster. "Now, to set it on fire…" he commented before taking a deep breath and letting his conscience fall in tune with the navi he was stuck with. Forte wasn't particularly happy at that, especially since it felt like the boy was trying to… "snuggle" with him.

However, he was distracted from his disgust for the closeness the human was trying to attain with him when a sudden, violent surge of power pervaded their body, almost overwhelming his consciousness. It was stopped by a mental wall, though, and the raging energy swelling all around him was pushed back where it came from.

Forte wasn't the only one that had been overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught of power, however. Netto, after establishing a deeper connection with the black navi to gain the use of his abilities, was holding his head with a hand and gritting his teeth in pain. "Woah! That was sudden. Too sudden…" he groaned, loosing his concentration and fully returning to reality.

With Rockman, using the Rock Buster and every battle chip loaded into the PET was as easy as breathing, but the Cross Fusion he shared with Forte felt different. There were no battle chips loaded, no programs that automatically took care of loading the navi's standard abilities with a vocal command from him.

"Ok, let's try this again…" Netto murmured as he looked down at his hands. "Slower, this time…"

Closing his eyes he concentrated again, feeling almost like that time he had mastered the "Dream Sword Program Advance" with Rockman. Letting his consciousness slowly near the black navi's, the boy let a small part of the raging energy collect in his hands to form a small, crackling sphere. It was smaller than a golf ball, but it would be far enough to blow up the dumpster.

"I hope I don't have to concentrate this much every time I need to use your abilities, Forte," he muttered as he looked down at the manipulated energy in his hands. "Because if we are in a pinch, well… you can guess it on your own, I suppose."

No reply came from the navi, but Netto knew that he was observing him with a keen eye. He was probably thinking of a way to keep the same energy levels they had now even after separating from each other…

Dismissing the silence from the power hungry navi, Netto hurled the crackling energy at the dumpster and watched it explode with an angry flare and a loud boom, sending trash everywhere. Peeking down at the street from the edge of the roof, he watched as the owner of the souvenir shop came to the door to see what had just happened. The man said something that was muted by the sound of the rain, ran back inside and came out once again after a few seconds carrying an old model PET and a fire extinguisher.

Seeing his window of opportunity as soon as the man rushed to the burning trash, the boy dropped to the ground below and walked inside the unattended shop. His cape dripping water onto the floor, he made his way to a stack of postcards and quickly browsed them, grabbing one depicting a cliff overlooking the sea.

One item down, more to go, and without enough time to be picky, Netto grabbed the first pen he could find – a red one – a bunch of stamps from a drawer and a small plastic bag to protect his "purchase" from getting wet.

Satisfied, he quietly left the souvenir shop and disappeared into the city with a billow of his cape, leaving the group of humans that had collected around the still burning decoy completely unaware of his presence.

I didn't think you could come up with such an effective plan, human.

Netto smiled from behind the rim of his cloak. "Is that a compliment I'm hearing?"

No. I'm just stating that you are stupid and that I would have never thought of you as being capable of coming up with something like that.

The boy's smile widened and his eyes sparkled with amusement. "Uh uh," he said with a nod, not believing a single word the navi was saying. "Sure, Forte. Sure."

Forte hissed in indignation, furious that the human he was stuck with was mocking him again. I hate you.