The funny thing about Fireman calling Roll a shrimp is that she's the same height as Rockman. Or he could be commenting on her antennae. Either one works.

Aliesterus: There really was no way I could make the grandpa be too mysterious, since I could probably count the number of old people with names in Rockman EXE on one hand.

Duskrider: Haha, thank you!

Ai Star: And now it's easy to realize why Netto is skilled in robotics. Oh, Forte's definitely protective of Netto, it's just that he often doesn't tell her things that aren't necessary for her to know. Even if he told her that the necklace has a tracking device on it, she's not going to throw it away. So he doesn't tell her. Forte's not using Netto, but if you're wondering if Wily's using her… well, you'll find out eventually.

Editor: kaffinee

I don't own Rockman EXE.

Worth

Netto blinked groggily, weary from spending the entire day either doing errands for Wily or working on her projects. Rubbing her eyes, she tried her best to pay attention to whatever her foster grandfather was saying.

"—you do it?" he finished, waiting for an answer.

'… What did he say?'

'Something about joining his organization,' Forte replied with disinterest. 'It's going to be full of weaklings, anyway, so it's up to you whether you want to join.'

'Oh…' Netto stifled a yawn, then nodded. "Sure, I'll do it."

"Very well." Wily looked pleased. "The next meeting is tomorrow morning. Get some rest before then."

"Okay… 'night, Grandpa." Netto yawned, leaving through the nearest door and heading for her room.

Flopping down onto her bed and half-listening to Allegro playing games on Netto's computer, she was just about to fall asleep when she suddenly thought of something: 'Hey, Foru?'

'Hmm?'

'What's Grandpa's organization called?'

'Oh, that? Forte sounded bored at the mention of the group. 'It's WWW.'

'Okay.'

"Forte?" Netto began as she changed clothes the next day: long black pants and sneakers, as well as a purple hoodie and a pair of fingerless gloves that she had found, which happened to still fit her.

"What?" The navi watched as Netto put on her favorite blue baseball hat, the bandana with the Hikari emblem having been carefully tucked away in her backpack ever since she had left Akihara Town.

"Last night I had a dream that I joined WWW." Saying goodbye to Allegro, who was drawing on a piece of paper, Netto closed her bedroom door.

"That wasn't a dream," Forte deadpanned. "You were officially part of WWW as of yesterday."

"Oh." Netto stopped in the middle of the hallway. "So Grandpa's the leader of WWW?"

"Yes."

"Huh." She tilted her head. "That's a lot less surprising than I thought it would be."

"Because you've heard it before?" Forte raised an eyebrow.

"No, I don't think that's why." Netto continued walking. "Maybe it's because of all the missions that he gave us."

"Yes, that could be it," the navi agreed.

Netto frowned, a question popping up in her mind: "How come you aren't surprised? It's kind of like you already knew who Grandpa is."

"I had my suspicions." Forte shrugged. "He's the only one I know who's crazy enough to lead WWW."

"Don't call Grandpa crazy." Netto pouted, turning a corner to the area where the meeting should be, and—oh, should she really go there?

'If WWW fails as often as we've seen so far, he has very good reason to berate them like that.'

Netto watched from the shadow of the doorway as Wily paused in his tirade. He took a deep breath, then happened to notice her.

He smirked. "Oh, good—you've arrived. Come over here."

Almost timidly, Netto stepped forward, walking toward the elder. Stopping a few feet away from him, she took a look at the other WWW members.

'… Why are there only four other people besides me and Grandpa?'

'If that's all the members available, no wonder the old man decided to recruit us.' Forte glanced at each of the members, noticing the emblems on their clothes. 'That woman must be Coloredman's operator.'

'Didn't I see her that time when Coloredman hijacked the traffic lights?'

"What's a kid doing here?" the red-haired man—who must've been Fireman's operator, since he was the only one she hasn't recognized—questioned. "What can she even do?"

Wily slammed the tip of his cane against the floor, effectively putting a stop to any side conversations. "Tell me; have any of you brainless fools heard of the Black Shadow?"

"Black Shadow?" the pink-haired woman repeated. "Sounds like a tasteless name, if you ask me."

'Not my fault the Net Police are absolutely terrible with names.'

Forte snickered.

Mahajarama frowned thoughtfully, regarding Netto with suspicion. "The Black Shadow is an infamous criminal who's been active for over five years. Their last hit was about two weeks ago, at Rensan Museum." His eyes… narrowed? Netto couldn't really tell, since his eyes seem to be constantly closed. "You mean to tell us that that child is the Black Shadow?"

Netto briefly glanced at Wily, exhaling softly in nervousness when she received a small nod. "Yep, that's me!" She grinned widely. "Officially part of WWW as of yesterday! Nice to meet you all!"

'Can you stop with the mental screaming? I'm going to get a headache.'

'But navis can't get headaches?'

'Your point being?'

Netto did her best to tone down the screaming.

"Kid, you know that names are supposed to go along with the introduction, right?" Coloredman's operator asked sarcastically. "I don't like the idea of constantly calling a fellow WWW member 'kid' or 'Black Shadow'."

Netto chuckled awkwardly. "Oh, right. I'm—"

'Let's fight first. I want to compare their strength with mine.'

She raised her PET up and looked at Forte. He stared steadily back. "Okay, change of plans." She shrugged. "Face me in a netbattle first, and then I'll tell you my name."

"Why you little—" Count Elec began, but was interrupted by Mahajarama.

"Very well." The Namastean man took a step forward. "I'll go first, then."

Netto frowned. While she doubted that the fight would take long, having to face all four navis one at a time sounded tedious and boring. "How about a four-on-one battle?" she suggested. "Your navis versus mine." She looked over to Wily for confirmation.

"That would balance the scales slightly," he agreed.

Netto wasn't sure if the other WWW members would be able to work well together, but at least it would be more of a challenge. Or not, if none of them knew the concept of teamwork. "How about I don't use any battle chips and abilities? I'll even give you guys a three-second head start." 'Full Synchro?'

Forte nodded, smirking. 'Full Synchro.'

"Overconfidence will be your downfall," Fireman's operator declared angrily, PET out.

Wily pressed a button on his cane, causing a part of the floor to open itself up. A netbattle table rose from the gap, stopping with a loud thud once it had ascended to its full height.

The five operators walked toward the table, arranging themselves in a way so that Netto was on one side while the other WWW members were on the other side.

"Full Synchro," Netto and Forte whispered in unison under their breaths, feeling the familiar sensation of their minds merging together—but not too much that they were unable to distinguish themselves from each other.

"What was that?" Count Elec asked, unable to make out the phrase. "A plea for forgiveness?"

"As if," they scoffed. "Let's get this over with already. Plug in, Forte, transmission!"

The others followed suit. "Plug in, Fireman, transmission!"

"Plug in, Elecman, transmission!"

"Plug in, Coloredman, transmission!"

"Plug in, Magicman, transmission!"

As the five navis appeared in the server, Coloredman's operator took one look at Forte and laughed. "Really? That shorty's your navi? This will be easy!"

"You weaklings have a head start, remember?" Netto and Forte grinned. "Hit us with your best shot!"

Three.

Magicman began summoning Biri viruses, which all began to march steadily toward Forte. Likewise, Coloredman summoned two clones that were slightly smaller than him, but had pink hair and polka-dots instead. Fireman pointed his arms at Forte, fire flickering along the busters as they charged up into a powerful attack. Elecman raised his arms up, uttering a battle cry as electricity began forming between his hands.

Two.

Forte remained motionless, calmly watching as the Biri viruses slowly closed in on them. One of the Coloredman clones began attacking with an Aqua Tower, while the other did the same with a Fire Tower. Fireman and Elecman let loose their charged attacks, and Magicman brought forth his Magic Fire.

One.

Fireman's attack flew straight into the Aqua Tower, the two canceling each other out. He turned toward Coloredman, and Forte and Netto could tell that an argument was about to start. The tip of the Biri viruses' lance-like arms crackled with electricity, which streamed toward the cloaked navi.

'How kind of Magicman to give us a meal.'

'Not very filling, but it'll do.'

Zero.

As the attacks reached their destination, Forte quickly dodged most of them, charging at the Biri viruses and ignoring the gashes that appeared on his body. With their bare hands, the Full Synchroed navi tore the viruses apart into scrap data, absorbing the leftovers into their body. With a great leap, they closed the distance between Elecman and themselves, plunging their right hand into his torso and forcing a logout.

A crouch to the ground at Magicman's next attack, and the two picked the wizard-like navi as their next target. They dashed right up to him, giving him no chance to summon more viruses or to use his Magic Fire, and struck his abnormally thin waist, breaking the navi into two pieces.

Two down, two to go.

'Gotta remember to not delete them.'

'Right.'

Diving forward, they managed to evade the ball that was flying toward them, but the Fire Tower that followed grazed their arm.

'Fireman or Coloredman?' The two gazed at the remaining navis, wondering which one would be easier to defeat.

'Clones first. I wonder if Coloredman can freely respawn that ball of his like you can with your cloak.'

They grinned. 'Let's find out.'

As they sprinted toward Coloredman, the clown navi's clones moved to stand in front of him as a shield. Perfect. A brief mental conversation with each other, and then Forte headed to the clone on their right, ruthlessly tearing apart its arms and destroying it. As they were about to attack the remaining clone, Netto's sudden alarm alerted Forte to Fireman's incoming attack, which they barely managed to avoid.

'They knew they had underestimated us before.'

'A tactic change is not going to grant them victory.'

'We need to finish this quickly before they actually manage to cooperate with each other.'

Looking down, they idly observed the platform they were on.

'Think Grandpa will get mad if we tear up the server?'

'We're here to prove a point, not to keep that old man happy.'

With that, Forte tore off a piece of the platform, throwing it in the direction of their opponents. And another, and another, sending data-dust up from the collisions. Taking advantage of the makeshift smokescreen, they took off their cloak, dashing forward as they threw it up into the air. Like they had hoped, Coloredman and Fireman mistook that for Forte, attacking the cloth as Forte headed toward Coloredman, the closest navi, and quickly defeated him. As a result, the remaining clone disappeared.

Fireman was the last one, so the two walked slowly toward the now-paranoid navi, their footsteps echoing loudly and their form hidden by the dust. Arm shifting into a standard buster, they stopped, took aim, and fired.

Log out.

The two exhaled in unison, slipping out of Full Synchro. Netto blinked, feeling a dull throbbing on her arms and legs, then looked down at her right sleeve, where a dark spot was slowly forming. She tugged the sleeve lightly, keeping the cloth off the injury before the blood solidified and stuck to it. "Grandpa, can I go now? My clothes got dirty."

Wily nodded, so she plugged Forte out, beaming at their victory.

"Wait…" Fireman's operator gaped. "Did you just call Wily-sama 'Grandpa'?"

Netto blinked in surprise. "Oh, right. I promised to introduce myself after the battle." She swept into a theatrical bow, all precious nervousness having disappeared due to the victory high. "I'm Wily Netto, but you can just call me Netto. I hope we get along!" She turned around and walked off to her room, not noticing the WWW members' shocked looks, nor did she notice Wily returning to his rant about the uselessness of the members.

Forte, however, did.

"I don't want you to goooo!" Allegro cried, clutching onto Netto as if she was going to disappear on him.

Which wasn't actually that far off the mark.

"But Allegro," Netto tried, "my vacation is over and I need to go back to where I was before." Not to mention that she had left Rockman back with her birth family, and they needed to train together before the N1 Grand Prix. "I'll be here again as soon as I have time."

"Noooo!" the robot whined.

She sighed, crouching down to gently pry his arms off her. "I promise I'll be back, okay? Would Big Sis ever break an important promise?"

Slowly, Allegro shook his head.

Netto smiled, tapping the robot on the head. "See? I made an important promise, didn't I?"

Allegro made a sniffling sound. "Yes, you did… Hurry back, okay?"

Netto nodded, hugging him. "I will!" Standing up, she waved goodbye, and then left her room.

"Netto."

The girl blinked, stopping on her way to the exit, and looked over to Wily. "What is it, Grandpa?"

"Do not forget your mission."

"At the N1 Grand Prix, search for navis who might contain the Ultimate Program," she recited, grinning. "Of course I won't forget!"

"Netto-sama!" Madoi—Coloredman's operator—shouted as she ran in, followed by Count Elec, Hino Ken, and Mahajarama. "We look forward to seeing you at the tournament!"

"Me too—Do your best out there!" Netto agreed cheerfully—though she was sure that both Rockman and Forte would be able to defeat them even with the brief training that Forte would give them when Netto wasn't busy.

"Yes!"

'How touching.'

'Forte, can you not ruin the moment?'

"Mama, I'm back!" Netto said as she entered the Hikari home, back in her white shirt and orange vest, her bandana once again tied around her head.

"Welcome back, Netto!" Haruka greeted. "What good timing; I was just about to cook lunch!"

"Really?" Netto ran into the kitchen, peering at the ingredients out on the counter. "What are you making?"

"It's a secret." The woman smiled, shooing Netto out. "You'll find out once I'm done."

"Oh, okay." Netto prodded at her mental link with Rockman, discovering that he wasn't in the house. "Where did Rockman go?"

"He's at Yaito-chan's house, training for the N1 Grand Prix," Haruka answered. "Could you go and get him?"

She nodded. "Sure, I'll go right now." She turned around, getting her shoes and opening the front door. "I'll be back soon!"

"Come back safely!" Haruka called out as Netto left.

'Yaito's house, huh? I wonder if Meiru and Dekao are there too.'

'It's more than likely that they will.'

Passing the gate, she skated along the 'safe path' that led to the secret base. After climbing up the ladder, Netto knocked on the door, then waited for it to automatically open. Once it did, she peeked inside, spotting Meiru, Dekao, and Yaito focused on the screen where Rockman, Roll, and Gutsman were fighting dozens of practice navis.

Netto waited until all of the practice navis were defeated before she began to speak. 'Hey, Rockman. Mama wants you home for lunch."

The navi blinked, deactivating his buster. "Oh, is it that time already? I should get going, then. Thanks, Netto-kun."

She nodded and smiled, closing the door. Walking to the edge of the platform to hop off, she was startled by the sudden loud shouts from inside the secret base.

The door slammed open and Netto turned to it, seeing three pissed-off teenagers. 'Did I do something wrong?'

'It doesn't hurt to ask.'

"So, uh…" Netto tried, "Why do you guys look so mad?"

"What do you think!?" Dekao yelled. "First you don't tell us that you're leaving for a week, then you suddenly show up again without any warning just to get Rockman? You didn't even greet us or anything!"

Surprised by the outburst, Netto instinctively took a step back…

'Wait, Net, don't—"

… And began to fall backward, having completely forgotten where on the platform she was at.

Meiru's look of outrage quickly changed to shock, and she ran forward, reaching out to grab Netto's hand.

She missed.

Forte quickly took action, a brief memory of a move they had done during training flashing through their link. Entering a pseudo Full Synchro, Netto landed a handstand, elbows bent slightly, and pushed away from the grass to come down on one knee, arms out to the side for balance.

There was a moment of silence as Forte's presence slipped away to the back of Netto's mind. Then she winced. "Ow, my wrists!"

From above her, there were sighs of relief. "Netto, come up here so we can have a practice match!" Meiru suggested. "We'll be quick, and I'm sure that Dekao-kun won't try to startle you again." She nudged at the boy.

"Yeah, check out how powerful Gutsman is now!" Dekao agreed.

Netto did want to find out what events had occurred during her absence. She nodded. "Sure! But only for a little while." She stood up, then stifled a hiss of pain at a sharp sting from her side. 'I think I reopened something.'

'Is it bleeding?'

Discreetly, she felt the bandages under her shirt. 'No, not yet.' She walked forward, climbing up the ladder again.

'You should be fine for the practice match, but we'll need to check on it once you go back for lunch.'

'Got it.'

The day of the N1 Grand Prix, Netto woke up early. She lifted her head up sleepily, squinting down at the surface of the… "Why am I at my desk instead of in the bed?"

Rockman chuckled awkwardly. "You were trying to figure out strategies with all the battle chips you had and stayed up too late. I tried to wake you, but you were sound asleep."

"Oh." She yawned, stretching her arms. "That makes sense." Picking up the battle chips on the desk and shoving them into her pocket, she stood. "I'm going to wash up. Be back in a bit."

Several minutes later, she was sitting at the dining table, hurriedly chowing down on the breakfast that her mother had cooked.

"There's no need to rush." Haruka smiled, finishing her own meal at a much slower pace. "The Grand Prix won't start until ten."

"But there might be heavy traffic," Netto pointed out, taking a quick glance at the clock. It was almost eight. Her gaze slid to the framed family photo on the counter, a photo that was taken during her first trip to the amusement park. "Where's Papa now?"

"He said he's researching on the mountains of Aralata," Haruka answered cheerfully. The doorbell rang just then, and both family members turned their heads to the door. "Who could that be, so early in the morning?"

"I'll go get it!" Netto set down her empty bowl and stood up. 'Forte, you awake now?'

The ringing sped up. The person who was doing it must've been pretty frantic. '…?'

Netto pressed the answering button, and the screen next to it booted up to show a disheveled-looking Higure. "Ne-Ne-Ne-Netto-kun!" the shop owner shouted in relief.

"Higure?" Netto questioned, recalling a rumor that Dekao had told her about how Higureya was closed so that the chip otaku could give Numberman an upgrade. "What's going on?"

"Help me! I need your help!" he exclaimed hurriedly. "Numberman's in trouble!"

'This is not what I wanted to wake up to.'

'Well you woke up to it anyway, so too bad.'

To be clear, Netto, as she is now, won't actively go against someone unless they did something to the people she cares about, like Haruka and Meiru during the first Fireman incident, Mariko-sensei's bag being stolen during the Pet chapter, or trying to steal the video game that Meiru and the others were looking forward to playing. If someone who's not in that group gets into an incident, she will likely not go to assist them, unless the outcome would be favorable to her. Consider this a result of being raised by Wily.

While Wily taught her to steal and only to help those that she cares for, or whose situation would benefit her in the end, Forte taught her to be honorable. She would never break promises or agreements unless something happens that's not within her power to prevent. She had agreed to join WWW, so she's going to keep to that agreement. Plus, it benefits her in a way because now she has non-deletable punching bags for Forte outside of the Uranet. She also has subordinates who (grudgingly) respect her because of Forte's power.

Netto has a bunch of scars. Some are from the early days of not being fully used to Full Synchro's damage-sharing factor, while others are often from carelessness in the Uranet or real world situations.

A pseudo Full Synchro is just one where, instead of the navi being given a boost, the human is the one who gets a really short term ability boost.

Editing Highlights:

("Sounds like a tasteless name, if you ask me." –Madoi)

Me: Hey this is for you

kaffinee: yay it's me

Me: Yeah it's you

…

("Let's fight first. I want to compare their strength with mine." –Forte)

kaffinee: me

Me: 'Fight me' Forte

kaffinee: fite me u hoe

Me: Alright let's do it right now c'mon

…

("I'll be back soon!" –Netto)

kaffinee: new quest!

Me: Questing, questing!

…

("Got it." –Netto)

kaffinee: oh yay she's gonna die

Me: Oh no. Fic's over pack your bags everyone

kaffinee: adios muchachos

…

("Haruka answered cheerfully.")

kaffinee: why cheerful,,, does she like it when her husband is gone?

Me: No, she's just…always cheerful I don't know why

kaffinee: scary