Ah, reviewer replies... yet again.
Star Holder Commander: Ah, yes... What now? You'll have to read and see.
Rose Kistune.EXE: You know, Rose, I actually never thought about that. Probably because it was Takeo and Beast Man originally, but still - it's an awesome thought. I'll have to incorporate it somehwere. As for Proto, well - he and Chaud appear (Bad Enzan! Bad! Remember, it's pre-Axess, so he's like Lan's rival. Sadly.) - and every Navi... No. Can't tell you that. Sorry. :-)
Jhvh777: Yay, you're now my oldest beta! Yay! Yeah, it was them fighting. I made a mistake, though - you said Mega was going to get pissed off, but I put Lan's name in the last reviewer reply. :-)
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Mega Man's POV
"They know," Lan whispered, shocked, his brown eyes glazed over, but still looking into my green ones. His hand involuntarily clenched his PET. "How could they?"
"Lan! Lan Hikari!" I said impatiently, shaking my Net Op's shoulder. He looked up at me, but he still looked shocked. "Look, Lan," I told him, trying to be reasonable, "A) We won second place in the Grand Prix, and B) How could five unofficial NetBattlers go all around the country fighting crime without anyone knowing?"
"Yeah, but still..." He leaned back in the train seat and closed his eyes, rubbing his forehead. "I mean, they know so much about us..."
"Look at it this way," I went on, rolling my eyes, "What do they know, exactly? They know your names, of course, and they know about your lives, but it's not like we're going to get caught by the police or anything, is it?"
Lan nodded glumly. Seeing that it was a lost cause, I sighed and looked out the window. Since had boarded a small city bus, we were above ground. We were passing the outskirts of DenTech City now; instead of the usual bustling city background that we were used to, there were now a few ranches dotted her and there, and from my vantage point I could even see some of their horses and cows grazing peacefully as we passed them on the way to SciLabs.
Soon the Government Complex came into sight. It was a metropolis, bigger than DenTech, and it reflected silver and bright white in the eleven o'clock sunlight. I caught the bus's reflection in the mirror, and grinned in spite of myself. The vehicle was going faster now, even faster than a Ratty virus after cyber-cheese, and I couldn't help but roll down the window and put my head out, even if the only scenery was like a sheet of infinite steel and platic.
"Woo!" I cried out suddenly, closing my eyes and letting the momentum whip my spiky black hair in the wind. Across from me, Lan groaned.
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As we got out from the metro about half an hour later, I held my stomach and moaned. "My stomach hurts so much."
Lan groaned loudly again. "That's because you were actually sticking your head out the window in a valiant effort to experience a bus ride for the first and last time," he replied sarcastically.
"Weren't you excited the first time you went on the bus, way back when you were a little kid?" I asked as we made our way over to SciLabs again, me shaking my hair back from the pain like a wet dog.
"No, why would I be?" Lan replied. "It's just a bus through the countryside."
"If you ask me, you humans take stuff for granted," I informed him. "You ought to enjoy life more."
"Well, you'd better get used to, 'cause you're one now," Lan answered with an evil grin.
Anyway, we soon made our way over to SciLabs. Same thing would have happened as before, I supposed, except for the fact that Lan got this incredibly crazy gleam in his wide brown eyes and somehow had the urge to grab me by the wrist and pound up the stairway, forsaking the elevator entirely. And, if you happen to personally know Lan Hikari (Well, I am his Navi, buds), you'll know that that is a rare event indeed.
Lan quickly glanced at either sides of the hallway before yanking me along with him to the room where his father worked. He quickly typed the code in, turned around and winked at me, and we were in.
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A/N: In the game, you can get to SciLabs via the subway, but this fic you can do it either way.