Reviewer reply!

Jhvh777: Nah, Mega can take care of himself, of course. (grins evilly) As for the name, you can keep guessing – it's totally insane the way this fic has turned out. You won't find out just yet, though.

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Mega Man's POV

I stared back at my Operator as he skated away in to the distance. As soon as the speck of orange and white that I knew was Lan had disappeared, I turned to the one and only Dex Ogreon.

Dex grinned suddenly. Oh, so that's why Roll is always saying Dex and Lan are alike. And the way he was grinning at me now made me think, He's up to something. Which he was, of course.

"I'm going to do you in tonight," he declared, an evil glint in his slitted eyes as he crossed his arms and did that evil-grin thing again. He towered up over me; he was so tall. "Human versus Navi. One on one. We'll see who wins this time Bet you anything I can beat you with my hands tied behind my back."

"Good one, Dex," I joked as I made my way past his blocking figure, punching him as I did so. The former bully's face contorted and twisted in pain, but I only grinned and moved on. "I beat Guts Man the first day that I met him. Like I can't beat you."

Dex actually seemed angry; he lunged, as if to punish me for my rude words. I laughed and shoved him into a nearby wall – purposefully, of course, but not too hard.

"You-you-" He wriggled furiously as I effortlessly lifted him from the wall and grabbed him by the wrist. "You'll pay for this!"

I shrugged and let him back down. In a few seconds, however, he had cooled off, decently enough.

"So," was Dex's new choice of story starter. He crossed his arms and looked at me. I gave him an oh-really kind of look back. "What's it like being a Navi in the Real World?"

"It's great," I answered, grinning, but it was a smile of pure exhilaration and excitement, not that crazy sort of look Lan always gets on his face when he's up to something. "You guys have all sorts of stuff that us Navis don't have."

"Like what?" asked Dex, opening the door to the living room and motioning for me to follow him. "The Real World's not that great."

"That's because you guys take it for granted," I replied, making my way around the cluttered kitchen as I followed my Net Op's best friend to the second floor.

"You think?" Dex answered skeptically, jumping the last three steps as he bounded to the above landing.

"Well, yeah," I answered, secretly shocked that Dex could have all this stuff and still not know it.

He paused thoughtfully for a second. "Good point." Then, as if he didn't know what else to talk about, he said, "This is my room."

I poked my head through the doorway. Dex's room was basically the same as Lan's, except there was a table in the right-hand corner of the room. There was a purple Gameboy Advance on it, with a cartridge called Mega Man Battle Network 2 in the slot. (Hah, Mega doesn't even know he's in a video game.)

"You can sleep in this," Dex informed me, walking over to his closet, which was set into the wall at the end of the room. He threw open the door and started to pull out an ancient blue sleeping bag.

"It's big. We can both use it," I told Dex, sitting down on the bed and watching him. It was the first time I'd seen him up close before, and I took stock of his looks. He was a little taller than Lan, and chubby. He was African-American, mulatto by the looks of it, with a spiky brown mohawk perched on his otherwise bald head. He was wearing his traditional green T-shirt and blue shorts and big sneakers. Splashed on his chest was his and Guts Man's crest, a green cross encircled by a silver band. And, finally, tied around Dex's neck and hanging down to his chest, was his pale-blue PET, with his and Guts Man's emblem on one corner.

"You think?" asked Dex, and I watched in amazement as he wrestled with the dusty blue sleeping bag, coughing, before finally managing to toss it back into his closet and slamming the door. "I've been alone for almost as long as I can remember. I don't even remember sleeping with my parents as a little kid."

"Hey," I said, yawning suddenly, "Why not?" And without further notice, I lay down and fell asleep.

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Well, there you have it. Chapter 9. I think Dex is mulatto, but I'm not sure. If he isn't, tell me in your review… You will review, right? (puppy-dog eyes)