MegaMan NT Warrior (Rockman) Fan Fiction ❯ Never Ending Summer ❯ Dream ( Chapter 7 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Maki ran into the main hall and started to call out, “Netto-chan!” but only her voice greeted her in return.

Maki ran down the hall and peeked into the empty rooms, “Netto-chan?” she asked to the air.

WWW was not far behind her and ran into the building only minutes after she did. “Where is she?” Madoi asked, almost in a panic.

“Where is anyone?” asked Hinoken, puzzled by the absence of the obvious things like guards and a curator.

“We don't have time to worry about that, we need to find the girl before she gets into trouble,” said Madoi.

“NETTO-CHAN!” they heard a voice scream from the far left of the main room.

“Damn it!” said Madoi and took off after the voice at a sprint.

They ran into the room where they heard Maki's voice come from and stopped dead. Maki was shaking Netto's unmoving body and sobbing. “Netto-chan won't wake up,” she said.

Madoi quickly knelt beside her and places her fingers on the side of Netto's neck. She found a strong pulse and breathed a sigh of relief. “It's okay, he's just unconscious.”

Mahajorama knelt by Enzan's body and felt for his pulse too. “They all are, but there are no signs of a fight. What happened?” he asked.

Hinoken noticed something else odd, “Their PET's don't have their navi's in them. What's going on here?”

Before anyone could answer a pearly mist started to flood the room again. “I'm alone,” a voice said.

They all looked to where the voice came from and saw the same ghostly navi that Netto, Laika and Enzan had.

“W-who's that…” Maki asked in a quivery voice.

“I don't want to be alone,” the girl said and the mist flooded the room.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

Maki woke up to the feeling of grass in between her fingers. She sat up and looked around groggily. She was on a grassy hill that overlooked the perfect bluest lake Maki had ever seen. She yawned and looked around on the ground to see everyone but Netto and Rockman lying sprawled in the grass.

She went over to Enzan and shook his shoulder to get him to wake up. “Enzan-chan?” she asked.

Enzan groaned and pushed himself off the ground. “What the… grass?” he asked himself. “Maki-chan?” he looked at the puzzled five year old.

“Where are we, Enzan-chan?” she asked.

“I… don't know,” Enzan took a pan of his surroundings and what he saw made his blood run cold. “Blues!” he said.

Blues was lying not two feet away from where Enzan was. At the call of his name Blues stirred and groggily pushed himself up. “Enzan-sama?” he asked.

Now that there had been conversation everyone was starting to get up and everyone was very surprised with what they saw. “How could this happen?” asked Elec Hakushaku.

“I have no idea,” said Madoi.

Everyone started to speculate amongst themselves and Maki took another take in of her surroundings. “Where's Netto-chan?” she asked.

Enzan looked around in a slight panic and noticed that neither Netto nor Rockman was with them. “Oh my god,” he said.

Maki drew her arms across her body and started to shiver, “Where is Netto-chan?” she asked again.

No one could answer her and she looked like she was going to sit on the ground and start crying. Madoi noticed and went over to her, putting her arms around the small child. “Shush shush,” she said trying to soothe Maki.

Maki buried her face into Madoi's neck and started to cry. While everyone's attention was focused on Maki a stranger slipped into their midst.

Blues was the first one to notice the alien presence. He turned around to see the small navi child right behind him. Only she was solid and her hair moved with the breeze that flowed through wherever they were. “Why are you and where did you take us?” he asked.

Everyone looked up at Blues and followed his gaze. The small girl looked up at Blues and her blank expression made him shiver. “I am Dream,” she said in a soft voice.

Maki sniffled and broke from Madoi's embrace. She walked right up to the navi and smiled as brightly as she could given the circumstances. “Hi Dream, my name's Maki, nice to meet cha,” she said and extended her hand.

Dream looked at Maki's hand then at Maki, “Nice to meet you,” she said and hesitantly took Maki's hand. Maki gave it a firm five year old shake and dropped Dream's hand. Dream looked surprised but didn't say anything else.

“Dream-chan, can you help us find some people?” Maki asked.

WWW, Enzan and Laika and their navi's watched with wonder as Maki slowly got the child to open up.

Dream nodded slowly, “Who are you looking for?” she asked.

“My cousin Netto-chan and his navi. He's missing and I want to find him,” said Maki her sniffles returning.

Long dormant emotions rose in Dream's chest as she saw Maki start to cry. “Are they the brown haired one's that look alike?” she asked.

Maki gave her a puzzled look, “Netto-chan has brown hair, but not Rockman. Rockman has blue hair.”

It was Dream's turn to look puzzled. Searchman seemed to finally realize what was going on, “Wait, you mean that you've seen twins here?” he asked quickly.

Dream nodded, “Yes, two brown haired ones, they're over there,” she motioned to a hill behind her.

“Twins?” Maki asked and Enzan nodded.

“For now just go with it,” he said. “We'll explain things after we find Netto and Rockman.”

Maki was very confused but she showed a rare moment of maturity for a five year old and went with it. Anything to get her back with Netto-chan.

Dream led them to the far hill and they walked inside of a large thick forest that seemingly came out of nowhere. They came into a small clearing and everyone stopped dead.

“What the hell?” Hinoken said.

“I've come to the strong conclusion that we're not on earth anymore,” murmured Enzan in an almost state of shock.

“I second that,” said Laika.

“Netto-chan,” Maki breathed.

In front of them was a mass of thorns and vines that created an almost cylinder running horizontally through the forest. In the middle, tied together and seemingly unconscious was Netto and Rockman. Or more correctly, Netto and Saito.

Rockman's appearance took on one identical to Netto's in the world that they were in. He was dressed in a dark blue vest where as Netto's was still orange but aside from that they could have been twins.

They were twins.

“You friends are caught inside their own link,” Dream said.

Enzan looked back to Netto and Rockman then looked at Dream. “Wait, that thing is their link? You trapped them inside their own link?” he asked, enraged.

Everyone but Maki knew what he was talking about, and Maki wasn't listening. She ran towards the cylinder of thorns and tried to get inside. They twisted and blocked her way, but never hurt her in the process, yet she still persistently tried while Dream talked to everyone else.

“No, I did not trap them there. I was told to bring you here to my world but I did not have a hand in what happened after wards. I just didn't want to be alone,” she said her voice breaking and starting to show emotion. “I was alone,” she whispered.

“Who, who told you to bring us here?” asked Enzan.

“A tall dark woman who came to me. She said I didn't deserve to be alone and gave me one chance to project myself in the real world,” Dream started to cry. It was an odd thing, to see a navi cry.

Maki would have been there to comfort her but she was too busy trying to save Netto and who she understood to be Rockman. “Netto-chan!” she yelled.

Enzan stopped interrogating Dream and looked at Maki. “Maki-chan, I don't think they can hear you,” he said.

Maki shook her head violently. “No! He can, he can hear me. Netto-chan!” she yelled.

Dream watched Maki call out to her cousin with a stunned expression. Her mind didn't even register until that moment that what she had done was wrong.

“Netto-chan!” Maki screamed again.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

Netto was sure where he was or why he was there. The only thing he knew was that he couldn't sense Rockman and that terrified him. /Rockman?/ he called out but there was no answer.

No he couldn't be… there was no way.

/Rockman?/ he called again.

The only possible way he couldn't feel Rockman was if he was deleted. But if that was so then he must be…

Netto shook his head, no that wasn't possible. /Rockman!/ he screamed as loud as he could.

“Netto-chan,” a faint voice reached his ears.

/Rockman?/ he called desperately.

“Netto-chan!” no the voice wasn't Rockman's.

/Who?/ he asked.

“Netto-chan, please answer!”

Wait, that voice was familiar. “M-maki-chan?” he said groggily.

Maki saw Netto open his eyes. “Netto-chan! Oh my gosh, Netto-chan is awake!” Maki said.

Everyone got as close as they could to the thorn vines. “Netto-kun!” said Madoi. “Wake up!”

Netto jerked awake and found he was tied by his arms to another person. “Wha?” he asked. But before he could struggle the vines uncoiled themselves from Netto's arms. He stood up shakily, “What happened?”

He felt a weight against his legs and looked down. No one blamed him for freaking out and he did just that. Netto yelled in surprise as he looked at what could have been his clone. The person groaned and Netto came to grips with his now seriously messed up reality. “Rockman?” he asked and helped his brother up.

Rockman stood up as shakily as Netto had and put a hand on his head, “Oooh, I don't feel so good,” he said. He felt his hair and his now brown eyes widened. “Oh my god,” he said.

“Yeah,” whispered Netto, “You look like you would if you were human, just a fair warning.”

“Some warning,” Rockman whispered back.

Netto helped him out of the clearing and the thorns separated to let them pass. Once they were out in the open and Netto had released Rockman he was attacked by Maki.

“Netto-chan!” she squealed and jumped on him.

Netto laughed and held her, “Maki-chan, are you…wait…” he paused. “What are you doing here?” he said.

Maki winced, “I uhhh… got worried about you?”

Netto narrowed his eyes, “I told you to stay at home! I said this would get dangerous and it has! Why did you follow me?”

Maki started to sniffle again, “I-I'm sorry,” she said.

Netto's angry gaze softened, “It's okay. Just listen to me next time, all right? And NEVER tell mom or Aunt Sakura what happens here and you won't get into trouble. Deal?” he held out his pinky.

Maki nodded happily and took it. “Yeup,” she said.

Rockman stood up and said, “Okay, now that that's all worked out, where are we?” he asked.

“You are in the world between the Net and the real world. It's a purgatory of sorts,” said Dream. “I was caught here when I was almost completely deleted but my personality data sustained its self. When I couldn't hold a form in the net I came here, and I've been alone ever since,” she said.

Maki jumped down from Netto's arms and went over to Dream. “Well you're not alone any more. When we get out of here you will too! Cause Netto-chan is a super hero, right Netto-chan?” Maki asked.

Netto turned a bright shade of red but no one laughed, he sighed and looked at Rockman who nodded. He turned to Maki and Dream, “Right.”

Dream smiled hugged Netto around his knees. “Thank you,” she said.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

“So, what do we do first?” Madoi asked.

“Well, let's recap, we were brought into a weird world in between the net and the real world by a half deleted navi. Now, we don't know how to get out or even where to go. Any suggestions?” Enzan asked.

Dream whimpered and clung to Netto's leg. “I-I'm sorry,” she whispered.

“Don't be!” said Maki. “Netto-chan says he's always like that.”

Netto turned red as Enzan glared at him. “Ah, well, ummmm, I'm not sure, Rockman any suggestions?” he asked his flustered navi.

“Eh? You're asking me? I have no idea,” he said.

Blues looked at Rockman's new appearance. “Why do you look like that?” he asked.

Rockman blinked and looked at Blues, surprised by the sudden question. “What do you mean?” he asked.

“Why do you look human?” asked Blues.

Rockman opened his mouth then closed it, unsure of how to answer the question. “I have no idea…” he said.

“Could it have something to do with the fact that our data is resynced?” asked Netto.

Rockman's eyes widened, “Of course! I think I get it now,” he said.

“Get what?” asked Searchman.

“First of all, are we still in the net?” asked Rockman.

Dream nodded, “Yes, you are in a world between the net and the real world.”

Rockman nodded, “Okay, I understand. What probably happened was when I was brought here and `downloaded' into this new place, what ever it was that made our bodies able to exist here must have read my current DNA. When Papa made me the first time, my DNA data was De-synced from Netto's by 0.001 percent. Now it's the same!”

“I get it,” said Blues. “So, the blueprints to your program was changed because of the DNA link, but your program didn't change last time because it was still data. If this really if an in between world then essentially data and flesh are the same thing.”

“This is making my head hurt,” said Netto.

Enzan smiled, “It is so weird seeing your face think, Netto.”

“Hey!” Netto said, but before he could retaliate Maki pulled on his sleeve.

“Netto-chan, what does DNA mean?” she asked.

Netto blinked at a loss for words, “Ummmm…” he looked around. “Any help guys?”

“How do you explain that to a five year old?” Madoi whispered to Hinoken. All she got in return was a shrug.

“Well, do you know what codes are?” asked Rockman.

Maki nodded, “I think so. Like the directions that make up computer programs?”

Netto saw where his brother was going, “Exactly!” he said. “DNA is the code for humans.”

“Human directions?” Maki asked.

“Yes!” Rockman said.

“Clever,” Enzan muttered to Rockman.

“So, why do Netto and Rockman have the same directions?” Maki asked.

“You take over,” Netto said quickly.

Rockman glared at Netto and attempted to explain his story to Maki. “Well, you see. I was born as a human, and then I… died…” Rockman began to realize just how odd the story sounded to a five year old.

Maki, the science fiction lover hung on his every word. “Really?”

Rockman nodded a bit apprehensively and noticed that Dream was watching him with the same wide eyed expression as Maki. “Heh, anyways, Yuuichirou took my DNA and turned it into computer data.”

“So, he took human code and made it navi code?” asked Maki, trying to understand.

Rockman laughed, “Close enough.”

“Wow!” said Maki. “That is so cool!”

“Don't tell aunt Sakura,” Netto said.

“Why not?” Maki asked.

Rockman blinked, but Netto just smiled. “Cause it's a secret,” he said.

Maki looked ecstatic, “Wow!” she said breathlessly. “Okay, I promise. Your secret's safe with me.”

“We're counting on you,” Netto gave her a mock salute.

Maki giggled and saluted back, “Yes sir!”

“You are so good with kids it's scary,” Rockman muttered to Netto.

“I've had practice,” Netto muttered back.

Mahjorama clapped his hands together, “Okay, Dream, Maki why don't you go play for a bit. We need to plan something.”

Maki brightened, “Okay! Come on, Dream. Do you know any fun places to go to?” she asked grabbing Dream's hand.

Dream looked a little scared at first then brightened. “Yeah! It's really close too.”

“Can we go?” Maki asked.

“Stay in view,” said Netto.

“Okay!” they said together and ran off.

“So, what are we planning now?” asked Rockman.

“How we can get out of here without drawing attention to ourselves from the `black lady' that Dream met earlier,” said Mahajorama.

“I bet that was Obsidian,” said Enzan.

“Who is she?” asked Magicman.

“She is the only person we know of that is part of the new net mafia,” Blues said.

“How do you know it's more then one person?” asked Elecman.

“Because, when Blues and I fought in the second location we saw someone else there that was not Obsidian, I'm sure of it,” said Enzan.

“Okay, so trap set by the bad guys, we walk right in. Question now is, what will they do next?” asked Fireman.

“Good question,” Netto and Rockman said at the same time and everyone looked at them. “What?” they said.

“Never mind,” said Madoi sweatdropping slightly.

“Should we just wait?” asked Laika.

“That might be our best plan,” said Searchman.

“Why?” asked Madoi.

“Because we are expecting attack, if we bide our time and let them come to us, we might find out their plan,” he explained.

“Then?” asked Netto. “How do we stay out of trouble then?”

Laika looked a little put out, “Well, let's just try and figure out what exactly our opponents want.”

Netto shrugged, “Fine with me.”

Rockman almost facefaulted but resisted the urge to do so. “Okay, well then I guess we kind of have a plan.”

Maki came out of nowhere and jumped on Netto. “Netto-chan, can you come play?” she asked.

“I don't know…” said Netto, teasing her.

“Netto-chaaaaan,” she whined.

“Why don't you ask Rockman?” asked Netto slyly.

Rockman jumped, “Well, I ummm,” he stuttered.

Maki jumped on the opportunity, “Yeah! Rockman, will you play too?” she asked.

“I… don't think I'll be very fun to play with,” said Rockman.

“Awww, pleaseeeee, Rockman? Play with me?” Maki asked.

“Yeah, play with her,” said Netto.

Everyone else smirked as Rockman was dragged off by the hyper five year old.

“Hey, where is Dream?” Enzan asked.

Everyone looked around but the pale navi was nowhere to be seen. “Oh no…” said Madoi.

Then out of nowhere Dream came and jumped on Netto. Netto was very surprised by the attack and gasped and she grabbed onto him. “Wha?” he asked.

“Netto-san, will you play too?” she asked in her quiet voice.

Netto pulled her from around his neck and set her down in front of him. “What do you want to play?” he asked.

Dream gave him a broad grin, “Can we play tag?” she asked. “I remember playing tag a lot.”

Netto nodded, “Maybe if you ask everyone else they will play too.”

“Please?” she turned her luminescent eyes to everyone else.

“Yeah, please?” asked Netto, laughing a little.

Madoi stood up and nodded, “Sure we will!” she said in a loud voice. “Right?”

“Right…” Enzan said hesitantly.