Chapter 2

Friend From the Other Side

"Well sure I can Mega, why do you keep asking me…that?" Maylu asked as she paused noticing something in Mega's eyes that she hadn't seen before. That spark, "OMG," she breathed.

"What?" Mega asked when Maylu paused.

"You're alive?" Maylu asked.

Mega didn't answer.

"Hub?" Maylu asked again.

A slow smile spread across Mega's face, "Yeah, Mail it's me."

Maylu's face was lost in a sea of confusion, "But how is this possible?" she asked, "I thought you were dead."

"It's a long complicated technical story," Mega replied.

"Well it is summer," Maylu said, "we have time."

Mega smiled, as a huge weight seemed to be lifting from his shoulders, "Ok," he replied

"Where is it? Where are you at?" Terra asked, she was on her hands and knees rummaging through her basement.

"What are you doing down here?" Whisper asked as she came down the stairs.

"AHHH! Ow!" Terra exclaimed as she hit her head on a water pipe that was above her after Whisper spooked her, "Sky you scared me." Terra called out as she came up with a headache and what she had been looking for which happened to be two water guns.

"Sorry," Whisper replied as she got down into basement, "What are you going to do with those?" Whisper asked as she took notice of what Terra had in her hands.

"What our old multi barrel automatic water guns? Revenge, what else?" Terra simply asked, "look even after all these years the stop and soak feature still works," Terra commented as she spun the barrels in a clockwise motion pulling the trigger and having it automatically stop.

"I'm guessing this pay back is out on Lan and Mega?" Whisper asked.

"Yeah," Terra replied as she passed her sister and headed for stairs before turning around, "them and Chaud."

"Chaud? What did he do?" Whisper asked.

"Oh, come on Sky, he was in on it, how else would Lan know to spray me with Black Cherry Vanilla Coke?"

"Um… coincidence?" Whisper asked.

"I seriously doubt it," Terra replied, "it's to much of a coincidence to be a coincidence, I mean why would they use such a unique kind of soda? Why not some generic cola? Heck why not water? It doesn't make any sense."

"Lan doesn't make sense." Whisper said.

"Yeah," Terra agreed, "But Chaud's the only one who knows how much I hate everything cherry."

"True," Whisper replied, "So does this mean this mean you need to break out the candy corn?"

A slow seductive smile spread across Terra's face, "You read my mind."

Lan was out in his driveway shooting some hoops when Mega and Maylu made it back home. He watched them as they hugged and Maylu walk off heading to her house next door. Both he and Hub stayed in the same place until she was out of sight behind her door.

"So how did she take it?" Lan asked once Mega came out of the street and headed up their drive toward him. Lan took another shot only to have this one spin out of the rim.

"Fairly well for someone who just learned that their long lost best friend came back from the dead. She didn't freak out if that's what you're asking." Mega replied as he caught the ball and tossed it back to Lan.

"Did you expect her to?" Lan asked.

"I really don't know what I expected," Mega replied as he thought about it. Sure Maylu wasn't freaking out now but that didn't meant that she wouldn't. After all somethings you don't freak out about until you have time to think about it. (A/N: like having Chemistry, Algebra 2, American history, and Spanish 2 all in the same semester.) Lan could sense his brother's worries and thought it would be best to help take his mind off things.

"You want to play a game? One on one?" he asked as he tossed the ball back to Mega.

"Sure," Mega replied grateful for the distraction, "I guess we'll see if I can still whip you."

'I don't think you can." Lan replied, "I've gotten better in the past eight years, you've been out of practice."

"And I guess I'll be the one to test that theory," Mega replied as he began to dribble.

Maylu look out her window as the boys started to play, she couldn't believe it, Hub was alive, everything almost seemed like a dream but here he was not 50 feet from her. All those years she had missed him and he had never been that far away. And he had changed, matured, he had come a long way from that trouble making prankster of a five year old, but of course by the prank that he had just helped pull he showed he could go either way. Maylu watched the two play for a while until he heard a knock at her door, when she opened it she saw it was Terra.

"Hey," Terra stared when Maylu opened the door, "You left pretty abruptly earlier, I wanted to see if you were okay."

"I'm ok Terra," Maylu replied, "and you don't have to beat around the bush, Hub told me everything."

"Everything?" Terra asked, wondering how far Mega had gone.

"Yeah, coming back from the dead, everything. He even mentioned how you helped Lan figure out how he was. I asked him how you did, especially since you're not from around here. He stared to explain and then stopped, said it wasn't his place to go any further.

"Well he was right," Terra replied, "It wasn't his place to explain everything, it's strange, he's tied up with so many people, me, Chaud, even Proto and Whisper. I could tell you some of what he would have said but before long I'd have to stop I'd be encroaching on someone else's territory." Terra looked into Maylu's eyes after she finished, she could see that she would respect her standing but could also tell she wanted to know more.

"Does it have to do with what happened when Regal took you?" Maylu asked, "I noticed that no one's spoken about what happened."

"Relation," Terra said.

"What?" Maylu asked.

"Relation," Terra replied, "that's what happened with Regal. Just like Mega it's not my place to tell you everything that happened and what we found out that day but I've been dying to talk to someone outside the team and my parents, so I'll give you the cliff notes version, if you want to know the rest you'll have to ask either Chaud or Proto. Oh to heck with it all of this is bound to come out sooner of later so I'll just rip the bandage off the wound. I'm babbling I know…" Terra said as she drifted off wondering if either Chaud or Proto would hate her for saying this.

Maylu patiently waited for her to continue, she could tell she needed to vent. "Anyway," Terra said when she continued, "somehow Regal found out some family secrets and he tried to use them to his advantage, oddly enough we all had the same secret, we were all related. Whisper's my sister, Breeze is Tasha's cousin and Proto is Chaud's older brother. Turns out Dr. Hikari was a common link we all had, all our families were tied to him in one way or another. My dad and he were best friends is high school, Tahsa's mom was his high school sweetheart and Lan and Chaud's mothers became close acquaintances when both Hub and Proto were in the hospital. When Proto, Breeze, and Whisper were all near death their parents all called on the Hikari's for comfort, and Dr. Hikari all gave them a second chance at life, he used the same program to save them as he did Hub." Terra said as she finally finished, now feeling relaxed, she never thought she could feel that good about venting.

"Wow," Maylu breathed when Terra finished, "So you knew about Mega because of Whisper?" Maylu asked.

"I guess, I mean I didn't know for sure but the circumstances seemed so similar, it was the first thing that jumped out at me when I saw the birth certificate. Seeing that Lan had a twin that looked exactly like Mega and what I knew about Dr. Hikari, I put two and two together."

"It's kinda ironic isn't it?" Maylu asked, "Everyone owing their life to Mega's death?"

"Yeah it is pretty odd," Terra agreed.

"Is it just me or had my life become more interesting since Lan became a netsaver?"

"Well your life would have been interesting just having Lan for a friend period." Terra replied, "But I'd rather have interesting than boring or normal any day."

"Yeah," Maylu agreed, "You know I sure to have a crush on him."

"Who!" Terra asked incredulously, fully forgetting how tense she had felt earlier.

"Mega," Maylu replied.

"And now?"

"I think I'll just stick with Lan," Maylu replied, "I'd rather not be in competition with Roll."

"Yeah, that would be bad," Terra said thinking how possessive Roll was of Mega when someone else showed interest. "You know you've never said that before." Terra commented.

"What?" Maylu asked.

"You've never said or admitted that you had a crush on Lan, I kinda figured that you did, but if you don't pay attention to the two of you you'd never know, you keep it pretty well hidden, and Lan's clueless that you like him."

"Yeah," Maylu replied trying her best to change the subject, "So," she replied when she found something to say, "did you just come by to see how I was doing or for something else too?"

"Well I did want to see how you were doing, but if you were up to it I wanted to see if you were up for a little payback," Terra said taking two water guns from behind her back dangling them on the tips of her fingers. "Lan and Hub are bound to be getting hot and tired playing basketball don't ya think?"

"And we ought to give them a proper hose down?" Maylu asked.

"Well that would be the courteous thing to do." Terra replied.

"This is so weird," Roll said, she and Whisper were in the kitchen, "I didn't know the heat could get to netnavis."

"What?" Whisper asked totally confused.

"Mega?" Roll asked, "I've never seen him act that way it was like he was a totally different person, I mean come on spraying down people with coke? For a second he looked like Lan in more way than one."

"Well the two of them have been together for three years there's bound to be some rub off somewhere." Whisper replied.

"That much and all of a sudden?" Roll asked. "It was like he was someone else."

"Who knows," Whisper said, "after all you know him better than I do." Knowing in a way that that was a total lie; she had just noticed that Roll was the only person that didn't know who Mega really was except Dex, Gutsman, Tory, Iceman, Yia, and Glide. Not that they needed to know, they never knew Lan had a brother, they all came into his life after Hub's half death. She just didn't want to be the one to spill the truth, that was going to have to be Mega's job, she didn't want the freak out to be on her hands, but it was getting to be pretty hard, Roll was getting awfully close to the truth. And lets just say Whisper was awfully glad to see Terra and Maylu coming down the stairs when it seemed that Roll was fixing to pop another question.

"Hey," Terra said as she and Maylu came in the room, Terra hopping on a stool in the bar and Maylu started rummaging through the cabinets.

"What are you doing?" Roll asked.

"Planning revenge what else," Terra replied when Maylu found what she was looking for bringing up three large cans and setting them on the counter sliding them over to Terra, "Pie filling, classic," she said as she looked at the flavors, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, "we're making a Neapolitan even more classic, you're sure your parents won't mind if we use these?"

"Are you kidding? My mom's been looking for a way to get rid of this stuff for months." Maylu replied.

"You guys do know that if you retaliate this is never going to stop?" Whisper asked, "the four of you will be getting revenge all summer."

"Yeah, probably, but by the look that was on Lan's and Mega's faces earlier I don't think the pranks were going to stop, they were enjoying themselves to much. So I don't think it matters whether we retaliate or not," Terra replied as she poured some of the filling into the guns. And speaking of retaliation think you can nuke these for me?" Terra asked as she pulled a huge bag of candy corn from her bag, "I need them to liquefy."

"Sure," Maylu replied as she took them, "who are you going to use these on?"

A smile spread across Terra's face, "oh you'll see."

"HHOOOOOONNNNN AH!" Lan groaned as he went up to the rim only to have Mega jump up and block his shot and then areasteal to rebound to ball. "That's cheating," Lan commented, he had managed to keep up with Mega in the beginning but was begging to tire and fall behind.

"I can still beat you either way," Mega replied.

"Well lets see," Lan said as he backed up near the hoop.

"Fine," Mega replied as she came at him turning his back and spinning around him making his shot. Lan caught the ball as it came down from the hoop.

"You guys need a referee?" a voice asked, when the two turned around they saw Terra and Maylu coming up the drive.

"Yeah," Lan replied, "you could make sure he doesn't cheat."

"And how could we do that?" Terra asked.

"Count it as a foul," Lan said as he sharply passed the ball to her, instead of catching it she bounced it off her knee and kicked it back.

"Wow someone's testy," Terra commented as she and Maylu sat on the benches that were built onto the house.

"Sore looser," Mega commented, "as always. You guy's aren't mad are you?"

"About what?" Terra asked.

"Earlier?' Mega replied.

"Oh…no," Maylu replied, "we were more caught off guard than anything, it's no big deal."

"Yeah," Terra said as she followed Maylu's statement, "You got caught up in the Whisper of summer, needed to blow off some stream, we understand, you just have to understand the we need to do this." Terra said as she and Maylu took the water guns from behind her back. "You really didn't expect to prank us all summer and us to fight back did you?"

"There is no way you're going to do this." Mega said, more of his past personality coming back, Terra cocked her eyebrows, "Ok maybe you, but there's no way you can." Mega said looking at Maylu, "You were never a prank pulling kinda girl."

"Think again Hub, that was eight years ago," Maylu replied, "You and Lan taught me too well," she said as she pulled the trigger releasing the liquid allowing it to ooze all over Mega. Mega just looked at Maylu, the expression on his face unreadable, "I've always wanted to know what that felt like." Maylu said a wide grin on her face.

"Hub if I were you I'd run." Terra said, "Both of you." Mega and Lan stood still for a few seconds and then bolted for the side of the house with Maylu and Terra right behind them. When the two girls reached the corner Terra stopped, "What were they heading for?" Terra asked as she grabbed Maylu's shoulder.

Maylu thought about it for a second remembering the way Lan and Mega bolted, there was something about the way they did it that signified that they had more than one thing on their mind. "There are hoses on the backside of the house." Maylu replied.

"Ok, you take this side and I'll go around the other," Terra said as she headed for the far side.

"Got it," Maylu replied as she watched Terra walk away and then slowly inched herself along the wall becoming slower and slower as she reached the end. She paused about two feet away from the corner wondering who would be on the other side waiting for her, Lan for Hub? Poised with her gun she rounded the corner pulling the trigger coming face to face with a pair of emerald eyes and something else, "AAHHH!" she shrieked when Mega sprayed her in the face with a garden hose. Barely over her own shock he heard another yell, when the water came out of her eyes and she could see again she saw Terra had met an identical fate, but hey it was just water…..

Mr. Blaze we're almost there," a voice stated; one of Chaud's drivers.

"Thanks John." Chaud replied as he looked up, he had been looking down at his PET clearing out a bunch of junk e-mail.

"So do you think we need to tell everyone how mad the chief was that they skipped practice?" Proto asked.

Chaud thought about it as the memory flashed back…

flashback…

"Don't tell me that this is everyone." The chief said as he looked around the room, the only ones who were there were Chaud and Proto.

"You think they could warn us before they skip." Proto stated mentally to Chaud.

"Knowing Terra she's planned this for weeks, we should have known." Chaud replied.

"Do you know where they are?" the chief asked pulling them from their inner conversation.

"I have no idea," Chaud replied, "I haven't seen them since yesterday."

"Oh all the stupid, idiotic,-" that was the point where Chaud and Proto tuned the chief out and he went on like that for another half hour.

end flashback…

"I don't think so," Chaud replied as he came back to the present, and at the same time arriving at their destination which just happened to be Lan's house, they had checked everywhere else and had come up empty. So either they were or they dropped of the face of the earth. When they got out of the car and heard all the noise they knew they were there, they just didn't know what they were walking into. When they turned to corner it looked as if they had walked into a war zone. All the water had over soaked the ground so mud water was everywhere and an unidentifiable sludge (that was the pie filling). Mega, Maylu, Lan and Terra were all wet from head to toe with mud and grass stains all over, the boys had something extra, it looked as if they had been caramelized, and they were still spraying one another, the boys with hose and the girls with water guns but whatever was coming out of them wasn't water.

"What are you doing?" both boys asked together as they took in the scene. Everyone was so into what they were doing that no one really noticed them at first.

"Hey Chaud, UGGH," Lan groaned when he noticed the duel haired boy first, but then Terra reoozed his hair with some chocolate pie filling, "What did you do that for? That was time!"

"Last time I checked there we no rules in this game, plus all's fair in love and war and you've made this war, AHHH!" Terra yelled in reply as Mega sprayed her down from behind with the water hose, when she turned around she noticed both she and Mega were about the same distance from the faucet and they both had the same idea. Bolting from their standing position they both headed for it, Terra getting just a second ahead of Mega turning it off. Truce?" Terra asked, "we have company."

"Fine," Mega replied, "for now."

Terra mentally cringed Sky was right, she had opened a can of worms, "So," Terra asked directing his questions to Chaud and Proto, "what are you guys doing here?"

"I think the question would be what are you guy's doing here? we had practice." Proto replied.

"So, what? Did the chief send you to track is down and bring us back?" Lan asked.

"No," Chaud replied, "But he did send us with a message, which I'd rather not repeat."

"Why what was so horrible?" Lan asked as he got some of the gunk out of his hair.

"You mean besides him saying that missing one day of practice would set you three days back and then calling your behavior stupid and idiotic, and then swearing in French and German nothing." Proto replied.

"Yeah, it was nothing all right," Chaud added his ears were still ringing. "We all know that the chief's like a volcano that under pressure ready to blow. You could have warned us that you were skipping." Chaud replied.

"Sorry," Terra replied, "But you should have been expecting it, I've been saying I was going to skip for weeks. All of us have needed a break for weeks I just decided to take mine. So besides giving us the chief's message of disappointment are you here for any other reason?"

"Yeah," Chaud replied, "you guys have any plans for the next couple of days?"

"Chaud we just got out of school for the summer two hours ago." Lan replied.

"Well you didn't have to be sarcastic Hikari, you're not the only ones who feels they need a break, I just wanted to know if you had any free time on your hands, thought you might want to go to LA. All of you." Chaud replied causally looking at Maylu as well.

"LA?" Maylu asked, her eyes were already sparkling with the thought of the American fashion style.

"You mean LA as in California?" Terra asked.

"Yeah," Chaud replied, "You want to go?"

"Like our parents are ever going to go for that, they're to busy to take an impromptu vacation, we'd be eight teenagers in another country, alone and unsupervised, besides where'd you find the time?" Terra asked.

"My dad's working on the clauses for his next merger, there won't be any paper work until the negations are over, and as for as you're parents giving permission they said yes, I asked them two days ago."

"And the chief?" Mega asked.

"He doesn't know a thing about it." Proto replied, "Everyone but him seems to know that we need the time off, it's not like he's say yes if we asked."

"Wow, that's a lot of sacrifice," Mega commented thinking what everyone would have to endure if they left, namely the wrath of the chief.

"So is that a yes or a no?" Chaud asked.

"Well I have always wanted to check out their skate parks." Lan said as he thought about it.

"And I've never been out of Japan before, I'd like to see another part of the world." Maylu commented.

"Anything to get out of practice," Terra added, "And I highly doubt Roll and Whisper would be in opposition."

"Where are they anyway?" Chaud asked noticing they weren't there.

"They wanted to stay out of the line of fire, or in this case pie filling." Terra said twirling the gun by its trigger around her finger.

"Do we even want to know why you were showering each other with water and pie filling?" Proto asked.

"No." Lan, Mega, Terra and Maylu replied together, that left everyone looking at Mega.

"I agree, we could all use the time off."

"Well then it's decided," Chaud said, "plane leaves at nine and that's a.m." he said looking at a certain someone. Lan just rolled his eyes, "Better start packing." When Lan heard this he stood at a little more attention and then after a second or two walked into the house. Everyone knew what that meant. Pack now and get an extra five hours sleep. When Lan shut the door Chaud and Proto started down the drive.

"Leaving so soon?" Terra asked.

"Yeah," Chaud replied, "there are some loose ends at the company I still need to tie, might as well get them out of the way early, I'll see you tomorrow." He said as he turned to leave again.

"And he's gone again." Terra commented as she watched him leave, after a few seconds she took notice of the water gun that was still in her hands, "Hey Chaud wait up!" Terra said as she called after him, "I just wanted to apologize."

"What for?" Chaud asked confused.

"For doubting you," Terra replied, "all this time I thought you were to serious to be anything but, but it seams like you've proved me wrong, you're not as serious and rigid as you would have everyone to believe. I just wanted to apologize and thank you for that. You did me a favor and I just wanted to return it." Terra said as she brought up the water gun and squeezed the trigger releasing a light orange ooze.

"GGGGHHHH," Chaud caulked out when Terra coated his hair and then his shirt and jacket which led to the ooze dripping onto his jeans, he had been so caught off guard that he hadn't moved.

Proto looked on speechless.

"If you're wondering it's candy corn, just like my favorite flavor of anything is cherry," Terra said sarcastically bending down and whispering the statement in the boy's ear. "You had to be pretty dense if you thought I wouldn't know that that prank of at least the template came from you. Welcome to summer Chaud."

"I didn't think you were that dense," Chaud replied, "that's why I made it so obvious, and I can't believe you just did that," he said as he rung out some of his hair and jacket, looking at the junk in his hands gave him an idea…

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Terra asked as she watched a glint and smirk creep across Chaud's face and eyes, she quickly got the point when Chaud continued to wring the gook from his hair and jacket and slowly started to reach toward her. "There's not way,' she said, "you're not capable," Chaud kept on coming, "no, no, NO!" Terra yelled she Chaud began to smear her all over her wet hair and clothes, she had been so sure that Chaud was to 'refined' that she didn't move.

In the back ground a surveillance camera meant for the street used to catch speeders and other law breakers is turned from it's position toward the Hikari residence. After recording for a time and snapping some pictures it turns back to it's place. In a darkened room a man is sitting on his thrown going over the feed from this most recent exploit, voices can be heard but they're not loud enough for us to hear, it's Regal. He next pushes a button in his thrown, he only says one word…"

"Come," within a few seconds a figure pixelates into the room, it's Dark Protoman.

"You called Master?" he asked.

"Yes," Regal replied, "get the others and everything ready, it's time to move."

"Yes sir," Dark Protoman replied as he turned around to leave, Regal beckoned him again.

"Dark Protoman you and the others are with me 100 percent are you not?" he asked.

"Of course sir, we work for you, no one else." Dark Protoman replied with out blinking, not that Regal could tell if he did.

"Good," Regal replied, "just checking."

"Noted," Dark Protoman replied as he walked away.

Regal watched him as he left noticing changes in his disposition. His walk was still determined but not as hard, his voice was icy but not as cold, his hair wasn't as wild, to anyone else this wouldn't have been apparent but Regal could see it was clear as day. And Dark Protoman wasn't the only one showing such changes, Dark Megaman and Whisper were too. He was going to have to keep an eye on them…

TBC