Reviewer replies:

Rose Kitsune.EXE: Ergh, poor Morgan… Wait a minute, did you say I have to put in more detail in or that it was good that there was detail? Ah, whatever… Thanks for reviewing!

Jhvh777: Originally, Lan was supposed to raise his eyebrows and his mom was supposed to give him a look. But I changed it. (grins evilly) As for the name, it finally gets revealed in this chapter! Yay! Finally!

PS: Thanks for the review!

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Mega Man's POV

I followed Dex uncertainly the next morning into his basement. "Come on, MM!" he called over to where I had paused, hesitantly, halfway down the steps.

"What are you doing?" I called down, gripping the railing tighter as I climbed down the staircase.

The shadows dispersed as Dex came into view, and what he was doing made my jaw drop open in amazement, horror and shock. But mostly amazement.

Dex was standing in the middle of his basement, among all the clutter, but what had me really shocked was the fact that a bass guitar was hanging from Dex's back.

No joke, seriously. A large purple bass was hanging from Dex's broad backside. It was so big that I could see it poking out from the sides of his rib cage and above his head, but I guess all that weight is useful for something. In one hand, he carried a small green amp, which he carelessly dropped down on the floor I watched.

"Dex - what are you doing?" I asked, my eyes so wide that I could almost feel the contact lenses popping off.

"Well, I figured if there's someone else in the house besides me, we might as well have some fun together, right?" Dex replied, thrusting a guitar in my direction. "Well, that's if you won't NetBattle." He shook a fist in my direction, and I rolled my eyes.

"I don't have a Navi, Dex, remember?" I asked as I held the guitar at arm's length, surveying it with a confused eye. "You want me to play with you?" I asked skeptically.

"Well yeah. Here, take a pick." Dex tossed me one at the same time as he reached down and flicked the on switch on the amp, but I could almost see the pleading in his eyes.

I gave him a look, but then-

All of a sudden, heavy metal rock flowed out through the amp's speakers, nearly bursting my eardrums. "Hold on, Dex. Stop." I clamped my hands onto my ears and glared as Lan's best friend looked up at me curiously.

"What?" he asked. "Should I lower the volume or something?"

"Yeah," I answered gratefully, nodding. "That's exactly it."

Dex shrugged and twiddled the volume knob a little bit so that when he pushed back the on switch again, the music had been reduced to something that at least didn't burst my eardrums. Geez, that would be horrible. A Navi couldn't do much good in the Real World if they were deaf. The good thing was, Dex seemed to have forgotten his previous anger, which was a good thing. Dex must be like, what, a hundred and twenty pounds, you know – imagining him going for me. I'm not elaborating.

Anyway, as soon as the music issue had been properly solved, I watched in total and complete amazement as Dex prepared to strum his own guitar, his body twisting and gyrating smoothly to the tunes of AC/DC. He was actually good, too! I mean, you wouldn't even expect a guy like that to like rock music, but he did it like a natural.

"Rock on, Mega buddy!" Dex called out as he now proceeded to do the grand finale, incredibly loud and well, awesome, all the while turned up to the light so that he looked like a pro. And…. Here it comes… (Beethoven music playing)… He was playing like a pro, too!

I suddenly remembered the guitar in my fist and swung it gingerly into my open palms. Well, who'd a thunk it? It actually felt good, and I wasn't even playing yet! For the first time in my life - the first time! - I was in the Real World, and on top of it all I was about to belt out rock tunes on a guitar that wasn't even my own, and I was actually enjoying it! Either I was crazy, or the world had flipped over, which wasn't a nearly as good alternative at the time.

We played until the album ended and prepared to play the next one; then Dex grabbed my wrist and yanked me down into a bow. When we surfaced, he waved his guitar above his head, lifting my own arm up like a referee in a boxing match. Then he struck one last chord, so loud that the sound resonated in the room for minutes afterward, before chucking his guitar across the room and into the case, where the top half slammed down shut over it, the clasps buckling themselves as if by magic.

Dex and I stuffed my guitar and the other ones lying around the room back in the cases, which was when the big guy swung back up onto his feet so he could face me. "Well, little buddy, how did you like your first time as a rock star?" he asked me, grinning so wide I could see all of his not-so-white teeth.

I couldn't help it. I grinned too. "I like it," I said, and that was that.

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A little while later, when we'd put the amps away, I followed Dex self-consciously as he made his way over to the park where he was going to meet Lan and Arnie. It would be good to see my Operator again, I knew, but still a little freaky considering I was supposed to be in the Cyberworld and not in the Real World with him.

"But how'd you learn to play like that?" I wondered aloud as our feet crunched under the old willow tree at the entrance of the old park. The willow's leaves were always falling down, I recalled-but how?-and I remembered seeing it every time the gang had to go to good old Dentec park.

Dex shrugged, one hand on Guts Man's PET, which was hanging from his neck as always. "When I was a little kid, I played on the electric guitar they had there. I was so famous the salesman actually recognised me." He looked up and gave me the world's most gigantic grin. "My parents decided to get me a bass, and I've been playing ever since."

I paused in my tracks, wondering about it all - at least, that is, until Dex told me that the other two had appeared. I snapped out of my trance and followed him under the shade of the big squirrel slide.

"Here we are," Dex announced, pulling me next to him in a way that was oddly familiar. And yes, Lan Hikari, you know who I'm talking about. (rolls eyes) "Lan and Arnie are coming."

We waited a few seconds before my Net Op, familiar and not so familiar, emerged from the vast pink silhouette of the slide, talking animatedly with a short kid with curly black hair.

"Arn. These are my friends Dex Ogreon and..." He paused suddenly, wondering what my name should be in this Real World of sorts. (A/N: Jhvh! Here it comes!)

"Jack Miller." The words were out of my mouth before I had time to think about them. Both Lan and Dex looked at me funny, but Arnie formally extended his hand with a "How do you do, Jack?"

"Very good, thanks," I replied, shaking Arnie's hand before he moved on to Dex.

"I was wondering, maybe you guys wanted to NetBattle?" Lan's voice was politely curious, but I saw a fiery gleam in his brown eyes that no one else could have (well, excluding Dex and any other crazy anime character there happens to be). I rolled my eyes. Luckily, neither Arnie nor Dex saw me, seeing as they were both gazing over at Lan.

"You know you want to." In a flash, Dex had whipped his PET off his neck, but only resulted in almost strangling himself, his face blue as he practically choked himself.

Lan and I burst out laughing as we tried to aid the struggling NetBattler. Arnie had his hand over his mouth, but I could tell he was laughing too. Dex made a face before sidestepping as he carefully undid the clasps that held his PET on the necklace cord. Grinning sheepishly, he got his PET ready for the battle as he guffawed with the rest of us.

I caught Lan's eye when the other two weren't looking. I looked at him furiously, pointing to myself, mouthing words that just told him not to even think about NetBattling, not with me in a state like this. I mean, the guy's a demon with a Navi. Would he even think about not sending me into battle? But if I knew my Operator, he wouldn't let me down. Hopefully.

Lan tried mouthing something back to me, something that looked like, "Later on," but we were interrupted by the sound of Arnie's voice. We both snapped back to Lan's cousin, who didn't seem to have noticed us mouthing 'secret' messages.

"Come on, guys. Let's go get a drink of water at Lan's house before we battle," Arnie suggested, one hand on Morgan's PET, shoved up his pocket as he gave us time to consider this.

I sighed with relief. Good old Arnie. He'd pitched in just in time, giving me and Lan some time to work out how we could battle - but hopefully not at all; when I was a Navi stuck in the Real World. (Actually, I would have preferred not to, but this is Lan Hikari we're talking about.)

As we walked towards the square blue and white house which reared up at the very edge of town, I turned to Lan. "So what are we gonna do?"

His eyes were lighting up again. "What do you think?"

My own eyes popped. "What, you're gonna try NetBattling with me like this?"

"Of course not, silly," he declared, pushing me forward a little as if telling me to face the music. "We're gonna do something even better."

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So, what did you guys think? The reference to Prison Break was one of the actors on the show, Wentworth Miller. (But I don't watch it either, so I wouldn't know who he plays.) Anyway... I should update soon, so see ya!