MegaMan NT Warrior (Rockman) Fan Fiction ❯ 56k Connection ❯ End Download ( Chapter 2 )

(please note: mild cussing is used in this story. It's limited to "hell" and such, so don't worry about your virgin ears…just know that you've been warned.)

56k Connection

Chapter Two: End Download

Rockman was stranded in another strange system, though this one was a bit more friendly than the other. The "sky" was a pale blue, and the ground a dark purple.

But just like the last system, there was no life whatsoever in here. He could barely even sense some files and programs being used-it was almost as empty as the White. He couldn't allow himself to put down his guard, though. He had to be ready to fight. He'd been in systems like this before, and there was always someone waiting.

######

"Finally!" cheered Alicia. "It took eleven hours, but that episode is MINE!"

Grinning wildly, she clicked "Open File" and settled back into her leather chair.

######

Rock was still warily wandering the system when a giant, grey door popped in front of him and sucked him into the space beyond. He didn't even get a chance to scream before he was on the other side.

######

"What…?"

Alicia stared at her computer monitor. The image on the screen was not the newly subbed episode of Sonic X that she'd waited eleven hours for, but a ten year old kid with green eyes and dressed in a bright blue armor of some sort.

"Huh," she said to herself. "I've seen this guy before…I don't remember where…"

"Where am I?" the little figure snapped. "Where's Netto-kun?!"

"What? 'Netto-kun'?"

"Yes, Hikari Netto, my Operator."

Pause.

"….Where the hell did this come from?" Alicia snarled at the computer screen. "That was supposed to be Sonic X! Not some weirdo virus!"

The figure actually looked affronted. "Virus? Me?! I destroy viruses, for goodness sake! How could you call me one?"

"Good Lord! I think it actually heard me!"

"Of course I did. You're right in front of me, after all. And I'm a 'he', not an 'it.'"

"…My God. It is listening to me," Alicia gasped, astounded. The figure gave her a glare.

"…Um, he's listening to me. Er. You. Er."

The blue figure wasn't even paying attention. "I already asked you, where's Netto-kun?!"

"How should I know?"

"Because you're the one that took me!"

"I didn't take you!"

"Then how did I get here?!"

"How the hell should I know? Ask your precious Netto-kun!"

"I would if I knew where he was!"

"Well then why don't you find him!?"

For a moment the two glared at each other. Then the boy seemed to melt.

"I…I can't…." he said softly, looking down at his blue gloved hands. "I tried."

Even though the figure was just a computer program-that's all he could be, after all-Alicia felt bad for him.

"Um…I'm sorry I can't help you find your friend."

"You could if you wanted to!" snapped the boy, losing his patience again. "You're just playing dumb! Just tell me where he is!"

"How the hell should I know?! I just told you I don't even know who this guy is! ARGH! Stupid, stupid, stupid computer virus thingy!"

"'Computer virus thingy'?! I'm not a thingy, and I'm definitely not a virus!"

"You're impossible, that's what-holy cra…I'm arguing with a computer program. I'm arguing with a bloody computer program. What the hell is wrong with me?!"

"I'm not a computer program. I'm a Net Navi."

"….Net Navi?" That sounded vaguely familiar too. She'd read it in the chatrooms somewhere earlier. Now she was starting to wish she actually participated in those chats instead of just grabbing what she wanted and going-maybe she'd know more about what this weird game was…

Wait a minute!

"Hey, I can call Roadrunner!" she cheered, her face brightening immediately. "He's into this Navi stuff. I bet he'll flip once he sees you. I'll call him and tell him to come over, his mom won't mind."

She grinned, and moved the cursor over to a little icon on the bottom right hand side of the taskbar. Right-clicking on the image of the two connected computers, she disconnected from the web, and began to look for a phone.

#####

Rock felt a strange, horrible feeling in the middle of his chest as soon as the little icon disappeared and a large "Connect" menu popped up. It was like nothing he'd ever felt before-like he was…trapped. Like there was…nothing attached to him, nothing leading him back to the Net…

Panicking, he tried to go back through the connection and back to the White. If nothing else, it would prove he wasn't-

-trapped inside the computer with no access to the Net at all, disconnected from everyone, with a horrible feeling of emptiness in him, just as bad as the emptiness of the White that he'd endured before-

"Yeah, Road, it's really weir-hey, blue guy. Are you all right?"

Rockman looked up, and realized he'd actually fallen to his knees, clutching his chest. "Something's…wrong…I can't…I can't do…I can't go…"

"Road, the program-er, the Navi's-having a heart attack or something. I think it's 'cause I disconnected from the Net. I've gotta go, he actually looks like he's in pain. Yeah, I just said pain, yeah, I just said blue guy, yeah, I just said Navi-listen, I think he's about to puke, can we continue this after you get here? Bye!" She hung up the phone, rolling her eyes. "Geez…Hey, don't you throw up in my computer! I don't care if you're just a program, that's just plain old gross!"

The girl ran to the computer, and clicked the "Connect" option in the menu. Instantly the computer began to make funny sounds, and Rockman could feel tendrils of the web try to connect with the computer itself. Eagerly he helped it along, and in a few seconds was panting in relief.

"That was…terrible…" he whispered, hugging himself for a moment, then letting go to stare at his hands once again. "This whole place is horrible! If it's not empty, it's slow, and if it's not slow, it's not there at all-" the Navi shivered, and hoped he'd never have to go through that ordeal again.

"I'm sorry about that, blue guy," the girl apologized. "I have a dialup connection, so I had to disconnect from the Net to talk to Roadrunner. Another wonderful thing about dialups. Ain't they great?"

"…A dialup? Using the phoneline to connect to the Net? But that's…archaic! No one's used that kind since…"

"Since now?" the girl said dryly, settling back into her chair. "Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to read some fanfiction or something while I wait for Roadrunner. From the sound of it, he'll be here in five minutes, but even Hyper-Boy takes a little bit of time to get here."

Rock watched as the girl moved an oval-shaped device connected to the computer by a cord. A white arrow corresponded with the movement, and Rockman realized that the device controlled the movement of the arrow.

"What is that?" he asked, curious.

"'S called a mouse, techno boy," she said indifferently, clicking on another icon, this one a large, blue 'e'. "And the arrow's a cursor. You're some sort of computer thing-don't you know this stuff?"
"I told you," Rockman grumbled, moving out of the way as a large window appeared, "This is ancient history to me…" Then his words hit him in full force.

"No way," he gasped. "There's…that's impossible!" Fast as lightning he checked the time, date and year-

"The year is 2004?"

"Um…yeah…last time I checked, anyway…Aw, crap, you like you're about to throw up again. Don't you dare, you little Navy thing-I connected you to the Net so you wouldn't, so-oh, Lord, calm down!"

She was right. He had to calm down. It was perfectly normal to be thrown back thirty years or so in time, though. Yep. Perfectly normal…

Before he knew it, he had passed out.

#####

"Oh, crap…" Alicia stared at the crumpled figure, totally unsure of what to do. One minute the boy'd been freaking out about the year, next he was out cold.

Great. Just great.

Now what was she supposed to do?

Fortunately, a ringing on the doorbell saved her the trouble of thinking. She walked over to the front door and yanked it open, nearly getting bowled over by a hyperactive, red-haired teenager in the process.

"Watch where you're going, Roadrunner!" she grumbled, and went back to her bedroom, where said teenager was staring at the screen.

"Why's he lying down?" the boy asked, frowning. Alicia shrugged.

"He found out what year it is and fainted. Don't ask me why. You're the Navi freak." she paused. "Why did they name these guys after that annoying fairy, anyway?"

"They didn't name them after her," he answered absentmindedly as he tapped the screen. The figure stirred in response, surprising the boy even more. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Don't look so amazed, Roadrunner. He talks, walks, and argues like hell. Well, I'm not sure if he walks, but I'm pretty sure he does. He stands up and…"

"Shhh! He's moving! Hey, are you awake?"

"…am…now…" mumbled the little figure, making her friend's eyes widen.

"That's so awesome! Hey, look, he's moving again! Sugoi! Awesome!"

Alicia blinked, and realized that the Navi had stood up and regained his composure.

"I am Rockman," he said formally, bowing at the boy. Alicia raised an eyebrow-he hadn't been nearly so polite to her!-but didn't bother to argue about it.

"I'm Andy," the boy answered. Then he processed what the Navi had just said.

"R-Rockman?! No way! Sugoi!"

"Yeah, we get the bloody point, sugoi, sugoi," she grumbled. "Why do you have to use all that random Japanese? You laugh at the Asian folk when they use random English-don't you think they do the same thing?"

"Yeah, but I use it where it makes sense…Anyway, that doesn't matter. What we have here is a kick-ass program! Where did you find it? How'd you get it? Who'd you download it from?"
"In order: Don't know, don't know, and don't know. Was trying to get the new episode of Sonic X, and instead I get this Rockman guy."

"…damn. Maybe you could burn the program for me?"
"You're not burning anyone!" the boy snapped, forming some sort of gun on his right hand. "I get enough of that from Burnerman."

"I don't think I can, anyway," said Alicia, ignoring the little Navi's outburst. "Look at this." She pulled up the control panel and went to the menu that showed where all the programs were kept and how much space they took.

"Look, here's his file, Rockman.EXE-size, two gigabytes."

Then the information processed in her brain.

"TWO GIGABYTES?!" she gasped, making Rockman flinch. "I don't have a single PROGRAM that has that much in one place! …well, at least I have a massive hard drive to store him in…not that I want him in there!"

"I don't want to be here either," Rockman grumbled. "I want to go home!"

"Oh, Lord! Go! Shoo! I'm not gonna-"

"Rockman.EXE, huh?" said Andy to himself, ignoring the two kids going at it so willingly. "They really went all out to make this program. I know I would have heard about it beforehand. There's no way this could have come out so quietly…and why would it come to Alicia? She's barely even heard of EXE. She honestly thought Navi was that fairy in Zelda. So…"

Andy turned over to the arguing pair and pulled them apart-well, pushed Alicia away from the screen and put himself in between their view.

"Take a break for a minute, will you? I want to ask Rock something."

"Be my guest," grumbled Alicia. "He seems to like you. The fact he invaded my computer doesn't mean he has to be nice to me, of course-"

"Just stop it, Ali."

"Oh, shut up, Roadrunner."

Rockman gave them an odd look. "Does she fight with everyone like this?"

"Pretty much."

"You can talk about me as though I'm here, you know," the girl grumbled, but motioned Andy to continue.

"Okay...I know you're going to say I'm nuts and an otaku besides, but I think this might be the actual, real Rockman, and no game or computer program."

Pause.

"You're right. You're nuts," said Alicia flatly, but Rockman nodded.

"I was going to visit Roll-chan-" a slight blush appeared, making Alicia wonder what their relationship was- "and then this explosion sent me flying into…" the blue navi shuddered. "It was this horrible system…it was so empty…" he shook his head and continued, pointing at Alicia. "Then her download pulled me into her system, and I've been stuck here ever since."

For a moment, no one said anything.

"…Sounds like a bad fanfic," Alicia grumbled. "Any day now Mary Sue'll walk along and pull Rockman off his feet."

"Oh, stop being sarcastic. You know this isn't a fanfic."

Rockman looked confused. " 'Fanfic'?"

"Don't ask," said Alicia and Andy at the same time. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Well, since we've decided we're not somehow trapped in some twisted author's imagination-" Here Andy snorted and Rockman looked pained- "We've gotta figure out how to get Rockman home."

######

He smiled slightly, his pointed teeth glinting in the light.

"Shademan-sama…he has been trapped in the past, as you ordered. Hikari Netto and Rockman are threats to us no more."

"No," answered Shademan to the navi kneeling at his feet. "Rockman is still a threat. You must delete him."

The navi's orange eyes widened slightly as he took in a ragged breath. "Sh-Shademan-sama, he has deleted so may others…"

"Do you doubt my judgment?" Shademan murmured, his voice silky-soft and very, very dangerous.

"N-no, Shademan-sama! N-never!"

"Then you know what to do."

The navi's eyes clouded over. "Yes, Shademan-sama," he whispered, and prepared to download himself into the Hikari mainframe and then into the past.

"Timeman."

"Y-yes, my lord?"

"Take this."

Shademan threw a Dark Chip to Timeman, whose face lit up as soon as he caught it.

"Thank you, Shademan-sama! Thank you!"

And with that, the clock-shaped navi disappeared.

~~T1Me_2_D1E wants to send "Timeman.EXE"

Click "OK" to accept

***

Or you guys can once again click "Review" to tell me how much you love/hate my story!

I just wanted to let y'all know that I was joking. I use random Japanese all the time, so I was poking fun at myself, too. (Who else could I poke fun of? I'm the only person in the world I can't insult…)

I hope I didn't come across as too much of a hypocrite. As for the fanfic crack, well…I couldn't resist. I not only have a twisted imagination, but I have a twisted sense of humor.

And of this date I've watched up to Axess 11, and if the plot of Axess dramatically changes for the worse or better in 12 and up this story is staying the same. Why? Because…um…because.

Please review!