Mega Man's POV

I was following Lan, not really knowing what else to do, and man! The way that guy weaved his way through crowds of people and cute-faced his way out of sticky situations was incredible! I mean, it was like, well, he was born to do it, as if it were is thing - alongside Netbattling, that is.

Well, not-so-carefully following Yai's directions, Lan and I soon ended up in front of a dark metal door. We were in a dark, shaded hallway, empty except for this single door, this pathway to other places, other things, and possibly our future. Then my Net Op typed in the code.

This was where Lan hesitated. He paused for a minute, like he was wondering what to do, glancing at me. I nodded again, but I was as sure as the next guy. What if things went wrong and I was gone forever, tumbled into the chasm that was the barrier between living as a human and total obliteration?

"Lan?" I said, suddenly getting scared. "What if something bad happens?"

"It'll be alright," said Lan, grinning. Then seeing my worried face, he said, "If not you can get to live as a human."

And we went in.

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The room was empty except for a man in a corner, hunched over a compact laptop. The room had only one window and was bathed in dark gray light, like the hallway we'd come in from.

The man looked up from his typing. I could tell it was Lan's father, but his brown hair was unusually messy and his glasses were lopsided.

"Lan?" he said amazedly. "Mega Man?"

"Uh, Dad?" said Lan, shifting slightly. "We have something to tell you."

So we told him the story. At least, Lan did. I just nodded now and then, feeling incredibly awkward.

When we had finished, Dr. Hikari didn't say anything for a while, his brow furrowed and concentrated. Just when I was about to ask if he was alright, he bean to speak.

"I knew this was going to happen one day," he muttered. He didn't seem to see us.

I plucked up my courage enough to say, "What?"

He looked up at us. "When Navis were invented seventeen years ago (yay! 2006!), it was said that one day a human and his Navi would defy many odds against the makeup of the NetNavigator." He paused, looking up at us. "And it was said that one day Navis would learn the true benefit of being human."

"That's it?" Lan asked. To tell you the truth, he seemed kind of shocked that there wasn't more. In that case, guess who the Operator and his Navi would be. That's right. Us.

Dr. Hikari nodded. "Yeah. But no one actually said what would happen when it did happen, so I'm going to have to do some tests." He straightened his glasses. "Mega Man, hold out your arm."

"Why?" I asked, rolling up my sleeve and sticking out my arm.

"I need some DNA for now," Dr. Hikari informed me, opening a drawer of his desk with one hand and fumbling with its contents. "Later we might get blood tests and stuff." His search proved a small syringe filled with a clear liquid. "DNA-absorbing liquid," he said when he saw us looking at it, sticking the needle in my outstretched arm. He shook out the syringe, squeezing a single drop into a silvery see-through basin on his desk. "I have to analyze this DNA, see if it's human DNA or not."

Something about his words made my stomach lurch and fill up with butterflies. The others, however, didn't seem to notice.

"We'll be gone now," said Lan, grabbing my arm hard. "See you in a bit."

Dr. Hikari nodded, apparently not realizing that his son and his Navi had disappeared. Off to have some (more) crazy adventures.

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My thoughts were racing in realization of what we had just heard as we made our way out of the lab. Lan glanced at me, seeming amazed.

"Whoa, Mega, you okay?" He waved his hand in front of my face. "Earth to Mega Man."

I looked at him, my heart pounding. "Did you hear him, Lan?" I told him, keeping my voice low. "I could get deleted or worse."

"He said he didn't know what would happen." He looked at me again. "Come on, Mega Man, no need to worry."

"All right, but where are we going to go now?" I asked, rubbing my stomach. "Shouldn't we tell your mother?"

He shook his head, a mischievous look that I had seen all too often in his eyes. "It's always funner if they don't know," he said, his brown eyes gleaming. "Come on!"

Ever felt like you've had too many crazy adventures?

First we went over to Lan's house, a small blue and white building on the horizon. "Mom won't know," said Lan, skating ahead of me and zipping through the front door, which he easily opened at the same time. "She's out shopping."

I followed Lan up to his room, a little uncertainly, not sure of what I was supposed to be doing. But my Net Op was cool as a cucumber, and bounded up the stairs, casual as anything. I could just imagine him waiting for me, one hand on the dresser, his eyes half-closed in that expression he had when (wink wink) he was trying to impress his friend Mayl.

Indeed, when I got there, he was doing exactly that, but his hand was on his closet and he seemed more excited than anything, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"If you're gonna be a human, Mega Man, you have to look it too," said Lan smartly, tapping his hand on the door of the dresser. And then he went into a frenzy, whipping around and flicking open the twin doors with a spread of his hands.

"And now we play the waiting game," I joked as I watched my crazy Operator, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

Assorted items flew past my head: various clothes, of course, T-shirts and shorts and sweaters that I had never even known Lan owned, along with some other stuff: a binder full of BattleChips, for example, and a bunch of outdated-looking Navi power-ups.

I watched the stream of assorted articles for a while until Lan had finally found what he was looking for. Holding it in his hands, he muttered a silent "Aha!" before tossing it to me.

I caught the bundle in my hands, looking at it. "What's this for?" I asked, starting to unfold it.

"It's a sweater," said my Net Op, and I could see that expression on his face that only Lan Hikari can have. "It has a hood so you can hide your face."

I shook out the dark green sweater and glanced at the red Adidas logo splashed on the chest. Shrugging nonchalantly, I tossed it over my head, zipping up the hood.

"Oh! And the last touch," Lan said eagerly, running over to his desk and slowly, carefully, pulling a small hidden drawer out. I leaned closer unconsciously as I watched to see the contents of the secret drawer. Lan gave me a mischievous look, put a finger to his lips, and took out what looked like two transparent blue ovals.

"Here." Lan handed the transparent ovals to me. "Try them on."

"What are they?" I asked, turning them over in my hands.

"Contact lens. They were my mother's. Go on, try them."

I carefully lifted one of the lens to my eye, opening it wide and poking the glass oval up between my eyelids. "What, your mother wears contacts?" I asked, amazed.

"Yeah, but they're brown like her eyes," said Lan, and the way he was shiftily looking form side to side gave me the impression that he was up to something. "She was trying to try out another colour, I guess."

As soon as I had poked the other lens up my eye, Lan grinned almost evilly. "Take a look," he breathed, pointing to the bathroom attached to his room.

Wondering at what I looked like dressed in human clothes and almost laughing at the thought, I made my way over to the bathroom door, which was slightly ajar. I swung it open wide and gazed out at myself through the mirror.

Mega Man EXE stared back out at me, same as always, except now, instead of in the normal Navi tightsuit, I was dressed in a green Adidas sweatshirt and jeans. My eyes were blue-not dark blue like Chaud's, Lan's mortal enemy, but sky-blue, an almost cerulean colour that sort of suited me.

I glanced back at my Operator, my heart beating in my rib cage. He was leaning against the bathroom door, his eyes gleaming in a way that only Lan's could.

"What you think, Mega Man the human?" Lan asked, with that casual look, his eyes half-closed. He stared at me intently through the cool-kid barrier that was forming an aura around him.

I grinned. I couldn't help it. "It's perfect," I said.