Ai Star: Fireman totally deserved it.
Aquila Aqua: Thank you!
AgentChan: Oh, really? I wasn't expecting that my fic would have that much of an influence on you. Though, if you want more Fem!Netto stories, there's 'Cyber Heroine Megamix' by ChibiFoxAI! It's based more on the games, while mine is going by the anime, but it's really interesting! There's a nice mix of Rockman Zero characters in there, too! It was what inspired me to write 'Partner Times Two', so I suggest that you check it out!
duskrider: I don't know much about what junkyards are like, so I was mainly relying on Megamix knowledge. And Forte's reveal is definitely something that I'm looking forward to writing for various reasons!
Editor: kaffinee
I don't own Rockman EXE.
Hypnotism
"Shoot, we're going to be late!" Netto yelled as she skated down the road with Meiru, who followed beside Netto on her scooter.
"It's all your fault, Netto!" Meiru scolded. "You were so focused on that new robot of yours that you lost track of time! Again!"
"Sorry, but the deadline was coming up soon!" Netto explained hastily, panting slightly as they sped up a hill, trying to locate Yaito's residence. "If I don't finish it by this week, the contract's canceled!"
'You should have done most of it yesterday instead of putting it off until now.' Netto cringed at Forte's disapproving tone.
"The tournament is in two weeks, and everyone's focusing on it!" Meiru frowned. "You remembered to register, right?"
"Of course I did!" Netto exclaimed.
'You haven't registered for us yet,' Forte reminded her.
'I'm going to do it today!'
As they drew near Game Soul, the sounds of swords clashing and the gasping of the audience drew Netto's attention. She slowed to a stop in front of the entrance, attempting to see the fight.
"A net battle?" Meiru wondered, having heard the noises as well.
Netto squinted, trying to watch the net battle. Still unable to see it, she entered the arcade, oblivious to Meiru's worried question about where she was going. Finally able to spot the battle, Netto gasped as she saw the combatants. "That's…!"
It was a standard navi against an auto navi, which wouldn't have drawn such a large crowd if the operator of the standard navi wasn't so skilled. The standard navi leaped up, flipping over and spinning. Kicking at the opponent, the navi then landed on the auto navi, jumping away before the auto navi could get a hit in.
"His opponent is level five!" one member of the audience shouted in awe.
A tingling in Netto's right eye informed her that Forte was taking an interest in the battle too. "A standard navi taking on a level five auto-controlled navi…" she murmured as the standard navi fired a Shotgun, forcing the opponent to defend. "I wonder who the operator is…" All she could see was white hair, a red vest, and a hint of blue eyes.
As the auto navi got defeated with a Sword attack, the dome became encased in a bright light, forcing Netto to look away. When the light died down, the operator was gone. She looked around the area, unable to spot them. "Where did that person go?"
"Netto," Meiru said with a blank smile. "Now we're definitely late."
"Eh?" Netto blinked, remembering why the two were in such a hurry. "Shoot, I completely forgot!"
Rockman couldn't help but laugh from within his PET. "Netto-kun, is it alright if Roll-chan and I go on ahead?"
Netto sighed, Meiru already dragging the brunette away from the arcade. "Sure, go ahead."
As the two navis disappeared, Netto and Meiru continued their journey to Yaito's residence.
'To think that someone could be that skilled… I really want to have a fight with them.'
'Being able to skillfully use a standard navi is not that special. In battle, a standard navi is a puppet, at best. Very few are capable of independent thought. You should be able to do it as well.'
'No way. I can't operate Rockman like that at all.'
'You are used to operating me.' If Netto was able to see Forte right now, she bet he would be rolling his eyes. 'My fighting style is different from Rockman's. Not many people are able to operate two navis who have different sets of skills and still churn out a win.'
Netto blushed at the indirect compliment, and focused back on the road. "So what were we going to do at the secret base, again?" she couldn't help but ask.
Meiru clicked her tongue, shooting her friend a look. "We're going to watch a program that will help us train for the N1 Grand Prix!"
Netto blinked. "Oh, right. The yoga show that Dekao was talking about." She paused. "How does that help us?"
"There's a specific pose in the program that's supposed to increase our concentration for the tournament," Meiru explained. "Even if it doesn't help, at least we'll still be getting exercise in."
Entering through the front gate, the two made their way to the treehouse, putting away the skates and scooter before climbing up the ladder.
"Sorry for being late!" Netto called out as she opened the door.
Two angry glares greeted her. Yaito screeched, getting up on all fours, and charged at her. Dekao followed, bellowing. Netto quickly closed the door and jumped down onto the grass.
"What's going on?" Meiru asked as the door burst open. She shrieked in surprise, hopping off the treehouse platform. Sprinting away with Netto, she glanced behind her. "What's happening!?"
"I don't know, but Yaito's acting like a cat!" Netto shouted, "And it looks like Dekao's a gorilla or something!"
'Netto-kun, a net navi caused this!' Rockman spoke up through the rarely-used bond. 'Someone named Magicman appeared on TV and hypnotized the two of them with a powerful hypnotism beam!'
'What!?' Netto almost tripped when she heard that.
Seeing weakness, Dekao and Yaito began to speed up, prompting Netto and Meiru to run even faster.
"Guys, cut it out!" Meiru yelled.
Passing the front gate, the two turned onto the main street, then stopped in surprise.
"W-why is everyone acting like animals?" Netto stammered. "Did they get hit with the hypnotism beam too?" She walked forward, spotting her school teacher in one of the trees. "Look at the way Mariko-sensei's just hanging there and staring at nothing. She's like a sloth!"
Meiru looked around. "And Saloma-san over there is a kangaroo!"
"What about Higure?" Netto asked, enjoying the abrupt guessing game. "He's a cicada, right?"
Pointing up at the sky, Meiru added, "Miyuki-san's gliding like a flying squirrel!" The redhead paused, registering her own words. "How does she do that?"
Netto shrugged. "The same way how all the bat-people can hang upside-down without any support, I guess." She looked down. "Masa's a snake?"
Meiru crouched, observing the wiggling fisherman. "No, he's an eel! That's just like Masa-san to always have something to do with fish no matter what happens!"
Netto stared at her.
"And this is no time to be commenting on that!" the redhead continued hastily. "What should we do?"
'What did Magicman use to hypnotize people?'
"What did Magicman use?" Netto repeated out loud, confused. "It was the TV, right?" She blinked. "The TV! If Magicman was using that, then he would be at the television station's computer!"
Meiru opened her mouth to reply back, but was interrupted by Yaito's screech of triumph as she saw the two of them. "I'll distract Yaito-chan and Dekao-kun! There should be a port in that restaurant, so use that!" Then she dashed off, yelling at Yaito and Dekao to draw their attention, and ran into the supermarket.
There wasn't much else Netto could do, so she followed Meiru's suggestion. Entering the restaurant, she noticed a port on the cash register, and decided to use it. "Plug in, Rockman, transmission!" Shoving the PET back into its holster, she sighed. "I'll hurry to the television station too, I guess." Walking toward the restaurant door, she suddenly stopped as the feeling of danger crawled up her spine. She spun around.
"Of course there has to be wolves," she muttered, spotting the growling people under the tables.
Hungry wolves too, from the looks of it. And the only 'prey' around was…
Netto cursed quietly, slowly backing away toward the door. "Cannibalism is hopefully not something anyone would enjoy. Please don't give me a reason to use my ray gun." Her back touched the glass door, and she fumbled around for the doorknob.
One of the wolf-people leaped at her, and she dodged to the side, unable to open the door in time. She gritted her teeth, realizing that she was surrounded.
"Oh, for the love of Serenade," she mumbled, "what do I do now?"
'Use the ray gun?'
'I would rather not kill any humans, thank you.'
The door slammed open, and Dekao and Yaito ran inside. The two fought the wolf-people, chasing them out of the restaurant.
Netto gaped, blinking in surprise. "Dekao? Yaito?"
Said people grinned at her, still acting like the animals they had been hypnotized to imitate.
"Netto!" Meiru exclaimed, entering the restaurant. "Thank goodness you're safe!"
"Uh, Meiru…" Netto pointed at Yaito and Dekao. "What's with them?"
"Ah, them?" Meiru giggled. "Look at this." Walking toward the two, she handed Yaito fish and Dekao a banana. "If we give them food they like, they'll remember our strong friendship!"
'Is that… really friendship?'
'Whatever gets them to cooperate.'
Netto stiffened as she heard growling, and spotted a wolf-person peeking out from behind the decorative bushes. They howled, and more wolf-people started down the stairs, growling in response.
"They're calling for reinforcements!" she realized, moving so that she was standing protectively in front of Meiru.
Dekao noticed their predicament and turned around. He gestured at the door, hollering incoherently.
"Dekao just said, 'Hurry along to the television station, leave these guys to us!'" Meiru translated.
The wolf-people charged, howling in unison.
"Let's go, then! We have to help Rockman!" Netto inched away, watching as Dekao and Yaito engaged the wolf-people in battle.
"Right!" The two ran out of the restaurant, Meiru leaving behind a hurried "Thank you!" to the hypnotized friends.
As they entered the television station, Netto noticed with relief that no one was inside. That meant that they were able to wander the place freely. Finding a brightly lit area, she gestured for Meiru to come inside. Shutting the door, she plugged Rockman's PET into a console.
'Is Rockman already about to be deleted by viruses?'
'Hey, I'm trying not to let that happen.' "Battle chip, Area Steal, slot in!"
Just in time, Rockman vanished before the dozens of viruses could attack him.
"He warped!?" A wizard-styled navi—most likely Magicman, since he was the only one in the immediate area—said in disbelief. He looked around frantically. "Where is he!? Where is Rockman hiding!?"
'I can't believe how many people don't bother to look up when they're searching for something.'
'If they don't bother, then we're free to use it to our advantage.'
"Sorry I'm late, Rockman," Netto mumbled quietly.
Rockman shook his head, a relieved smile on his face. 'Thank you for saving me!'
"Now that Magicman has lost track of you, let's strike back!" She grinned.
"You think you can?"
Netto jumped at the sudden voice and glanced around. "Who's there?!" She stepped toward the window, staring through it to the dark studio.
Meiru reach over to the controls, flipping on the lights, and the two saw a pile of chairs stacked messily on top of one another. And at the top, in a strange pose, was…
"Who's that?" Netto asked, pointing at the man.
"He's Mahajarama-san!" Meiru gasped in surprise, "You know, the host of the program we were going to watch?"
"Huh," Netto blinked. "Is he Magicman's operator?"
"Indeed, I am," Mahajarama confirmed. "And we are invincible!"
"We'll see about that!" Netto pulled out all of her battle chips, pausing when she saw the miniscule amount. "… Why do I only have three battle chips?"
'You were late,' Forte reminded her, exasperated. 'You left most of them at home. How did you not notice when you used Area Steal?'
'I… have no idea,' Netto admitted sheepishly. 'Wide Sword, Mini-Bomb, and Barrier. I guess it's time for an all-or-nothing attack again.'
'Again.'
'I'll definitely be more prepared next time, I promise!' She turned her attention back to Rockman's PET. "Battle chip, Mini-Bomb, slot in!"
A blue ball appeared in Rockman's hand, and he threw it at Magicman. It exploded on contact, and the wizard-like navi got covered in gray smoke.
"What?!" Magicman cried out, unable to see past the smoke.
"Battle chip, Wide Sword, slot in!" As Rockman's right arm transformed into the familiar weapon, he swung down at the center of the smoky area, where Magicman should be. It sliced through, cutting deeper—
—and was abruptly stopped when Magicman used both of his arms to keep the blade away from his body.
"Why can't Mini-Bomb smokescreens ever work!?" Netto shouted in frustration.
"Amazing…" Magicman began. "You're the only person to ever come this close to me!"
'What kind of weaklings did he battle?'
'I'm kind of busy here, you know.'
'I'm sure you are. Carry on.'
"It won't move an inch!" Rockman grunted, trying to get past Magicman's defenses.
"Use your Rockbuster!" Netto suggested.
"What? But—"
"You can use Rockbuster with both arms!" she argued. "Recoil doesn't matter if you're only going for one shot!"
"Now it ends," Magicman stated, and laughed as the red jewel on his head flashed and emitted an energy beam, sending Rockman and his now-broken sword flying away in pain.
"Rockman!" Netto yelled in panic, ignoring the faint needle-like feeling she received from the link.
"I'll finish you with my most powerful attack!" Magicman directed his arm at Rockman, a stream of blue pixels blasting toward the blue navi.
"Battle chip, Barrier, slot in!" the brunette exclaimed hastily, hoping that the pale shield wouldn't fail her.
"It's useless!" Magicman said smugly, "That weak barrier is nothing before my Magic Fire!"
A stream of expletives flowed out from Netto, all in different languages. Some mixed together, becoming even more incomprehensive that they already are.
Forte poorly muffled a laugh when he heard her. Meiru just looked confused.
Just as the Magic Fire struck the barrier, the attack was cut off with a gleaming red sword.
Netto blinked, and rubbed her eyes. Yep, the Magic Fire was literally cut into pieces. Rockman wasn't deleted.
"Impossible!" Magicman gasped. "My Magic Fire just got intercepted!" He dropped his guard in surprise, and the remnants of his attack struck the wizard-like navi, burning him. "I-I'll remember this!" he promised as he was forced to log out.
'Do not break the window.'
Netto paused in her search for a good chair to throw. '… I wasn't going to.'
'Liar.'
Netto huffed, choosing instead to use the door that led to the studio. "Mahajarama!"
Magicman's operator looked up from his PET, still in the same pose that he was in before.
Netto blanked, forgetting what she had wanted to say. "… So how did you managed to keep the chairs from falling while you're on them? How did you even get up there?"
Meiru sighed at her friend's lack of focus and glared at Mahajarama. "Turn everyone back to normal, right now!"
He chuckled. "Sure, why not? In any case, my strategy did not succeed. I'll return everyone to their original state." He stepped backward, disappearing.
"Whoa, Meiru!" Netto exclaimed in excitement, pointing at where Mahajarama had been as the pile of chairs collapsed. "Did you see that? That's amazing! How did he do that?"
Meiru hesitantly shrugged.
"Rumors are so unreliable, aren't they?"
The two girls turned to the unfamiliar speaker. "Oh, you were at the game center!" Netto recognized.
"I wanted to see the famous net battler everyone's been talking about." The boy smirked. "Although I never thought I'd end up saving her navi."
"Then your navi was the one who saved Rockman?" Netto asked, looking down at Rockman's PET.
The first and most important thing she noticed was that the navi had long, silvery, realistic-looking hair—completely unlike Roll's. An accessory like that was usually unnecessary, but quite expensive. The second was that the navi's eyes weren't visible because of a visor, which wasn't very common. Was there something peculiar about the navi's eyes?
"Who are you?" she asked the boy as Rockman and the navi conversed briefly.
"Ijuuin Enzan," he stated.
"Enzan!?" Meiru gasped.
"Ijuuin!?" Netto said at the same time.
The two girls glanced at each other.
"The president of IPC was an Ijuuin," Netto elaborated. "And I heard that his son was the vice-president. That company has branches in Amerope, so that's where I heard it."
"Higure-san talked about you," Meiru told Enzan. "You're the legendary prodigy net battler that's had over five hundred victories!"
Enzan turned around, about to leave, but then stopped. "Hikari Netto, being a champion of justice is fine and all, but do you really intend to appear at that tournament with that kind of skill?" He looked at her, as if he was daring her to do exactly that. "You better not disappoint me or Blues!" With that, he left.
'Rude,' Forte snarled.
"Well, he's certainly strong." Netto grinned. "Much, much stronger than WWW." She paused. "Do people really talk about me like that? Like I'm a champion of justice? I'd much rather be the vigilante. Meiru, what do you think?"
Meiru set a hand on Netto's shoulder, guiding her out of the television station. "I think you can be whatever you want, but we should go check to see if Mahajarama-san kept his word first."
"Oh, yeah, we should," Netto agreed.
Higure whistled happily as he carefully cleaned a battle chip he had collected. Tilting it this way and that to check for scratches, he nearly didn't notice the new customer entering Higureya.
"W-welcome!" he stammered. Taking a quick glance at his watch, he noticed that it was much too early for most people to be awake.
"I would like to register for the N1 Grand Prix," the customer stated, their head tilted down so that the blue hat they wore hid their face.
"Ah, right away!" Hastily booting up his computer, Higure opened up a tournament submission form. "Your name, please."
The customer paused for a second. "Ace," they decided.
"No last name?" It wasn't required, but still recommended.
"None."
Higure didn't push the issue. "Your navi?"
Ace quietly debated with themself, then nodded. "Forte."
Rockman sped through the activated link, landing on his feet as he arrived at the secret base's network.
Roll looked over to him and waved. "Rockman, you're here!" she greeted. "We were just about to train for the tournament."
From the screen beside the pink navi, Meiru sighed. "Is Netto late again?"
"Huh?" Rockman blinked. "No, she's not coming."
"What!?" Dekao shouted. "Didn't she know we're going to be training for the Grand Prix every day!?"
Confused, Rockman answered, "Didn't she tell you?"
"Tell us what?" Yaito asked.
"She's out of town visiting her grandpa. She won't be back until next week." He looked up to an array of stunned faces. Instinct had him covering his ears.
"WHAT!?"
Netto suddenly sneezed, then sniffled, rubbing her nose. "It's colder than I thought up here."
"We're up in the mountains," Forte retorted, his PET gripped tightly in her hand. "And it's wintertime, too. How cold did you think it would be?"
Netto pouted, trekking past trees and shrubbery. She soon stopped at the shore of a lake, the one that always had cold, clear water that she loved swimming in. She doubted that she would be able to do that during the duration of her stay, however.
Walking around the lake, Netto arrived at the side of the skull-like structure that was her childhood home, Spotting a single port hidden in a depression on the wall, she held up Forte's PET. "Plug in, Forte, transmission!" Returning the PET to its holster, Netto patiently waited for Forte to unlock the door.
With a rumble, a section of the wall rose up, and Netto stepped inside. As the wall closed back down, she blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting and then continued down the hallway.
Entering a large, wide area, she brightened at the sight of Grandpa standing on the steps.
"I'm back, Grandpa!" she called out excitedly, running up the steps to hug him briefly.
"Welcome back," Grandpa said, then stepped back.
Netto barely had time to wonder why before she was tackled and knocked to the ground.
"Welcome back, Big Sis!" her attacker cheered, his short arms not quite managing to reach all the way around her waist. "I missed you a lot!"
"Allegro!" Netto laughed, sitting up. "I missed you too!"
The robot lifted his head up, looking around. "Where's Big Bro? I don't see him anywhere."
"I'm right here." The screen on the wall flickered to life, and Forte showed himself, smiling. "Hello, Allegro. It's been a while."
"Mmhmm!" Allegro nodded.
Grandpa coughed, the sharp sound of the tip of his cane hitting the ground drawing the others' attention. "Allegro, don't you have something to give to Netto?"
Allegro gasped. "Right!" He held out a small jewelry box. "Big Sis, Gramps helped me make this for you!"
Netto took the box, opening it to see a pendant in the shape of Forte's navi emblem. "Thank you, Allegro! It's beautiful!" She held it up to the light, admiring the shine of the colored metals, then put it on, letting the emblem dangle over her shirt. "Oh, Grandpa, I got you something too!" From her backpack, she pulled out several small pouches. "A bunch of Sharoian metal!"
Grandpa smiled. "Why don't you go put that in the laboratory, and play with Allegro for a bit? I have something I need to discuss with Forte."
Netto glanced at Forte, and received a reassuring nod. "Okay! Come on, Allegro. I got some presents for you, too!"
The teenager and robot walked out, chatting with each other about their achievements.
Forte 'placed' a temporary block over his link with Netto, his face now devoid of emotion. "There's a tracking device embedded in that necklace, isn't there?"
"I'm rather surprised you picked up on it," the human chuckled. "The signal is supposed to be nearly undetectable."
Forte snorted. "Have you forgotten my abilities? It was nearly undetectable. However, it still gave off a faint scent; one I would have passed off as a glitch in the network had I not known better." His eyes narrowed. "You know that Netto now lives with the Hikaris."
"And you have just confirmed that for me," the old man said. "It is simply nothing more than a precaution. Allegro really wanted to make that necklace for her, so I merely took the opportunity. By the way, inform her that she has some data to obtain for me. I have some idiots to discipline while she is away."
Forte frowned, already guessing as to who the 'idiots' might be. He nodded, about to head to where Netto and Allegro are.
"We'll be done in a few hours. Goodbye for now, Wily."
Congratulations, the grandpa's identity is finally revealed!
I quite liked Allegro, or Gospel Number Two, as I called him. So I decided to include him as Netto's 'younger brother' since that was what Forte called him in the anime. He was one of Netto's first creations.
Netto trying to break windows with something might be a running gag.
Forte definitely knows more than he lets on to Netto.
The necklace is my version of Forte's emblem: a gold outer rim and a black inner circle. There's the saffron forte music symbol on the circle, but not quite touching the rim. Instead of the small cross on the f, there's a large slash mark that extends a bit beyond the rim on both ends. The emblem itself has a diameter of five centimeters, and a general thickness of two centimeters, though it thins to a single edge on the rim.
Allegro is very proud of his creation. We shall not mention how many tries it took for him to get the emblem exactly how he wanted it to look.
Editing highlights:
("Now we're definitely late." –Meiru)
kaffinee: goddammit
Me: Yup
kaffinee: GODDAMMIT
Me: Thanks Netto.
kaffinee: smh
…
("… hypnotized the two of them with a powerful hypnotism beam!")
kaffinee: wow cheaters. the protagonist is supposed to figure that out herself
Me: Yeah well screw that gotta move the plot along
kaffinee: gross
…
("I'm sure you are. Carry on." –Forte)
kaffinee: sassy
Me: Thank u Forte for giving us the sass
kaffinee: gracias amigo
…
("I-I'll remember this!" –Magicman)
kaffinee: that's what everyone says…
Me: Admit it Magicman you're never gonna win
…
("Netto suddenly sneezed, then sniffled, rubbing her nose. 'It's colder than I thought up here.'")
kaffinee: mhm someone's talking about youu
Me: Shh Netto doesn't know that
…
("Goodbye for now, Wily." –Forte)
Me: Hey yo guess what he's the Big Bad for the season haha
kaffinee: dafaq