Defusion - Chapter One
Title: Defusion
Fandom: Rockman.EXE
Rating: PG
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple experiment. Nothing was supposed to go wrong. Unfortunately, it did, and now Enzan, Netto, Rockman, and Blues are finding out first hand what happens when a dimensional area shatters.
Warnings: The chapter is complete. The story is not. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the story, so if you don't want to be holding your breath indefinitely, don't read.
Defusion - Chapter One
Dr. Hikari Yuuichiro looked at the two boys standing on the platform and smiled. "Are you two ready?" he asked as he typed in a few final codes. The boys in question didn't even glance at each other before nodding in unison.
"Ready!"
"Then let's begin." The brown haired scientist reached over and pressed a large square button to activate the program. The effect was immediate. Iridescent panels began to materialize in the air, forming a small dome around the young Net Saviors. Once the dome had completed itself, Dr. Hikari checked the readouts on his monitor, then gave the boys a thumbs up. Everything was working perfectly.
"That's our cue," said the boy wearing the white shirt and orange vest. Hikari Netto flashed a grin at his partner before holding up his PET. "You ready, Rockman?"
The little blue Net navi in the PET nodded once, smiling. "I'm as ready as you are, Netto-kun."
"Enzan?"
"I've been ready since before you were born, Hikari," Ijuuin Enzan scoffed, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips that took the sting out of the insult. He didn't need to ask if his Net navi was ready. Blues was always ready for whenever Enzan needed to call on him.
Netto briefly stuck his tongue out at Enzan, but there was no real irritation behind the gesture. Enzan was Enzan. Besides, Netto figured he was joking more than half the time he said those things. "Then let's do it!"
With the well practiced movements of having done this many times before, both boys pulled out a battle chip and inserted it into their PET. "Synchro chip, slot in!" they shouted. "Cross fusion!" Brilliant white light streamed from the PETs and enveloped the boys. Parts of the light changed color and seemed to harden, coalescing and clinging to their bodies, until the light faded and left them standing in their cross fused forms.
"Okay, we're ready now, papa!" Netto called out.
Dr. Hikari peered through the translucent dome to make certain that the cross fusion had worked as it should, then nodded to himself in satisfaction. Netto's armor had formed as it always did, the pale blue lines unbroken and the blue and yellow helmet looking as sturdy as ever. Enzan's red armor and black body suit were smooth and streamlined, his black and white hair hanging limply behind his back. There was absolutely no hint of instability in either of their forms.
"Good," he said. "Now, you know what's coming next. We're going to start trying to expand the dimensional area. Pay close attention to everything you see, hear, feel, even smell. This is the first time we've had anyone inside the dimensional area when we've expanded it, so we're not certain what to expect. If there's even a hint that something is wrong, say so immediately. I don't want either of you getting hurt."
"We understand," Enzan said solemnly. Netto nodded his agreement.
Dr. Hikari smiled. "All right. Let's begin."
-o-
Enzan stood still as he waited for something to happen, his entire being focused on detecting any kind of change in the dimensional area. He could feel Blues with him, silently noting every iota of information. It was reassuring to know that there was at least one level head in here. He certainly didn't trust Hikari Netto or Rockman to pay attention to everything.
"Relax, Enzan," Netto said, almost as though he could somehow read Enzan's mind. "There've been plenty of tests before this and nothing bad happened in any of them. We'll be just fine." He started walking across the room, heading for the edge of the dimensional area. When he got there, he put his hand on the wall and pushed. He might as well have been pushing against concrete for all it gave.
"There's a first time for everything," Enzan said. "I would rather be prepared in case-"
"Shh!" Netto cut him off. "It's starting!"
Enzan opened his mouth to ask how the other boy could tell, but then he noticed it too. There was a tension in the air, something he couldn't really feel, but that he was aware of. It was almost like standing next to a live wire. It made Enzan's hair stand on end. "The wall is moving."
"I know." Of course Netto would know. He still had his hand on it. Inch by inch, the dimensional area slowly expanded outward. "Papa, it's working!"
"Good." Dr. Hikari's voice came in through speakers that had been set into the floor. "Does anything feel different?"
Netto looked at Enzan, then shrugged before answering for both of them. "Not really. I just feel excited, like something really big is about to happen. But it's not me. It's in the air and it's making me feel that way."
"It's like listening to music and knowing what the next note will be before it's played," Enzan added. "It's hard to describe."
"I think I understand. It doesn't sound like it's anything to worry about, but let me know if that feeling changes at all. It might mean something."
"Right." Enzan finally moved from his position, heading toward the opposite side of the dimensional area. Everything seemed normal, not counting the fact that the iridescent walls were still creeping along, laying claim to more and more of the platform they were standing on. Another few feet and the entire platform would be part of the dimensional area. He placed both hands against the wall, not pushing, but just feeling it. It was vibrating. No, wait. It wasn't just the wall. The floor was vibrating, too. It was-
"Enzan!"
Enzan whipped around in time to see Netto crash into the floor as the platform literally buckled beneath his feet. "Hikari!" Enzan swore and started sprinting across the stage. "Dr. Hikari, shut the area down! Something's going wrong!" He nearly lost his footing a couple of times as the floor started breaking apart, but somehow he managed to reach his friend's side. He reached down to clasp the Netto's blue-gloved hand, trying to pull him to his feet.
As though that were some kind of signal, the ground went still. Netto and Enzan straightened up and looked around at the devastation. The floor was cracked and warped and broken tiles poking up everywhere. Enzan's eyes went to the speakers, wondering why Dr. Hikari wasn't asking them questions or telling them what to do. It didn't take long to figure out the reason for his silence. The speakers were a shattered mess of plastic and wires.
"It's like we got hit by an earthquake," Netto said shakily.
"Except that the only place that was affected was inside this dimensional area," Enzan said grimly. "At least we weren't hurt." On the other side of the shimmering walls, he could just barely make out the forms of the scientists, all of them caught up in a flurry of activity. No doubt they were all trying to figure out what went wrong, but what puzzled Enzan was why hadn't the dimensional area been turned off yet?
"Uh, Enzan?"
Still distracted by what the scientists were doing, Enzan didn't bother to look at Netto when he responded. "What?"
Netto licked his lips nervously. "I don't think it's over yet."
That got Enzan's attention. His eyes locked with Netto's, demanding answers. "What do you mean?"
"Can't you feel it?" Netto asked anxiously. "It's that feeling from before. It's getting stronger!"
Indeed, now that his attention had been drawn to it, Enzan could feel it, too. The air was practically humming with tension, like a taut string that was about to snap. "We have to get out of here," he said. "We have to get out of here now!" He did not want to be here when that 'string' broke apart.
"But how?"
"The dimensional converters." Enzan let go of Netto and started running toward the edge of the dimensional area. "We can't wait for Dr. Hikari to shut it down. Something's gone wrong and we don't even know if he can. If we can take out the converters, the area will collapse on its own. Come on, we don't have much time!"
The younger Net Savior needed no second prompting, which was a good thing in Enzan's mind. It was their best chance to escape from this place - maybe their only chance. The dimensional area converters were difficult to damage, but they weren't invincible.
"If we work together, we have a better chance of destroying them," Netto called out as he raced after Enzan. Somehow, he arrived at the shining blue pillar first.
The ground for several feet around the converter was miraculously unbroken. Maybe the dimensional area was most stable around the converters. Enzan didn't know, and right now he didn't care. He took up a position next to the blue and black armored boy, raising his hand into the same position Netto's was in. "Ready?"
"Whenever you are!" Netto's hand morphed into a blue buster and he took aim.
"On the count of three. One." In a motion that was almost instinct now, Enzan's hand became a blazing blue sword. "Two." He brought his arm back, ready to strike. "Three!" He swung his sword at the same time that a glowing ball of pure energy left Netto's buster, the two attacks crashing into the blue pillar simultaneously. It should have taken a lot more to do it, but the glass cracked under the first impact - and all hell broke loose.
For a moment, it felt like the air had solidified, the tension so thick that the boys literally could not move. Enzan struggled to move, but his muscles refused to respond. Then, like a giant glass bubble hit by an invisible hammer, the dimensional area shattered. That was the only word he could come up with to describe what he was seeing. Shimmering hexagons rained down all around them as Enzan and Netto stumbled, finally free to move. Enzan instinctively hurled himself to one side to avoid a large cluster of hexagons, only to be caught by several smaller ones. He hissed in pain as they sliced through his body suit, cutting into the less protected areas of his arms and legs. He opened his mouth to tell Netto to run-
-and was cut off by a throat-wrenching scream of pure agony. Netto had not been so lucky in dodging the broken pieces of the dimensional area. Enzan could only watch in horror as his best friend was buried under a shower of glittering rainbow debris. "Hikari!" Without a second thought, he darted through the still-falling debris and dropped to his knees next to where he'd seen Netto disappear. He dismissed his sword and started digging, ignoring the impossibility of there even being a pile of broken dimensional area to dig through. However it had happened, it had obviously happened, and he had no idea what it would do to Netto to be trapped under all those shards. He could only hope that Netto's armor would protect him from the worst of the damage.
The layer of debris covering Netto actually wasn't that thick, so it wasn't long before Enzan had brushed aside enough of it to be able to grab hold of him and pull him out. Unfortunately, he was out cold. "Hikari, wake up!" Enzan shook him roughly. Something told him they needed to get out of there now, the faster, the better. "Hikari!"
The only response he got was a groan.
Enzan swore and started gathering the younger boy into his arms. "I swear," he grunted as he staggered upright. "Life would be so much easier if I just left you here." Not that he would ever follow through on that threat, but it felt good to vent. He promised himself that once this was over, he was never going to let Netto live this down. "You owe me for this, Hikari."
Thankfully, the top of the dimensional area had already caved in completely, so nothing else was falling on their heads. The walls were still there, but they were quickly disintegrating. It wouldn't be long before they were low enough for Enzan to leap over them, even with Netto's added weight. As quickly as he could, he started jogging toward the wall, heedless of the crunching sounds his boots made whenever he stepped on pieces of the dimensional area. When he got to the wall, he stood there and waited. Any second now...
That was when he noticed that the dimensional area was moving. Every piece that wasn't still attached to what was left of the original dome was starting to slide toward the center of the stage. The pieces that continued to break off of the walls didn't just fall - they flew through the air as though magnetically drawn to the same destination as all the other pieces. It started off slowly, but within seconds, the pieces were moving too fast for Enzan to see, too fast for him to dodge. He yelped as several more shards pelted his body, and he winced to think of the damage being done to Netto, who didn't have the thick chest armor or the protective shades that Enzan did. That didn't matter now, though. The wall was low enough that they could escape. Enzan tensed, preparing to leap.
The whole world turned white as the dimensional area imploded.
-o-
Dr. Hikari stared at the devastation numbly. Gone. It was all gone. The dimensional area had disappeared. Every fragment, every shard - even the dimensional converters. It was as though they had never existed, if not for the utterly ruined platform they had left behind. There was no sign of Enzan or Netto.
"I want to know what went wrong," he said shakily. He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself. Breaking down now wouldn't help anyone. "I want to know what happened. Thomson, Suzuki, I want you to search the rubble for anything that might give us a clue. Sato, check the Net. There's a slight chance that Rockman or Blues ended up there when the dimensional area collapsed. I'll go over all the data and compare it to the previous runs to try to find out where the data diverges. Maybe that'll tell us what happened. Tanaka, help me with that. The moment anyone finds something, let the others know immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
"Right, then. Let's get to work." As determined as he was to stay calm, Dr. Hikari couldn't help but notice that his hands were shaking as he typed in commands on his keyboard. Two boys were missing, possibly dead, and one of them was his son. What am I going to tell Haruka?
-o-
Pain. Everything hurt. Enzan groaned and tried to pick himself up off the ground, but the best he could do was roll over onto his back. He stared up at the sky for a long time before what he was seeing registered in his brain. Sky. Blue sky, with little white clouds. He was outside, lying in a tall patch of grass or weeds. But how? The dimensional area experiment had taken place inside a building. If the accident had been bad enough to destroy the entire building, why was he still alive?
Actually, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that 'alive' was a relative term. He wasn't certain he wanted to look down at himself to find out how badly he was injured. With the way he felt, he wouldn't be surprised if he was five minutes away from bleeding to death. Still, he'd never been one to hide from reality, nor was he one to just lay down and die when there was a chance of survival. With another groan, he forced himself to sit up and take stock of his situation.
To his surprise, there wasn't a cut or bruise to be seen. He was no longer cross fused with Blues, but that didn't explain the lack of injuries. He distinctly remembered feeling those pieces of dimensional area cutting into his flesh. Maybe it was all in my head. It doesn't make sense, but neither does a shattering dimensional area. He should probably be grateful that he was alive and, apparently, uninjured, but right now he just wanted to know where he was and how he'd gotten there.
"En...zan?"
Enzan turned toward the source of the voice - and promptly did a double take. "Rockman?"
The two stared at each other in shock, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. A human and a Net navi, existing in the same world and without a dimensional area or any other kind of technology anywhere near them. They both opened their mouths at the same time to ask the same question. "What are you doing here?"
-End Chapter One-
Ready for the next chapter?
So, there you have it. My first official foray into writing for the Rockman.EXE fandom. Technically, this is still in rough draft form, as I haven't had anyone beta read it. So! If you see something wrong, be it spelling, grammar, punctuation, or something bigger like a plothole, continuity error, OOCness, whatever - PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
If you have anything nice to say, I'd be just as happy to hear that, too. ^_^
Fandom: Rockman.EXE
Rating: PG
Summary: It was supposed to be a simple experiment. Nothing was supposed to go wrong. Unfortunately, it did, and now Enzan, Netto, Rockman, and Blues are finding out first hand what happens when a dimensional area shatters.
Warnings: The chapter is complete. The story is not. I have no idea how long it will take me to finish the story, so if you don't want to be holding your breath indefinitely, don't read.
Defusion - Chapter One
Dr. Hikari Yuuichiro looked at the two boys standing on the platform and smiled. "Are you two ready?" he asked as he typed in a few final codes. The boys in question didn't even glance at each other before nodding in unison.
"Ready!"
"Then let's begin." The brown haired scientist reached over and pressed a large square button to activate the program. The effect was immediate. Iridescent panels began to materialize in the air, forming a small dome around the young Net Saviors. Once the dome had completed itself, Dr. Hikari checked the readouts on his monitor, then gave the boys a thumbs up. Everything was working perfectly.
"That's our cue," said the boy wearing the white shirt and orange vest. Hikari Netto flashed a grin at his partner before holding up his PET. "You ready, Rockman?"
The little blue Net navi in the PET nodded once, smiling. "I'm as ready as you are, Netto-kun."
"Enzan?"
"I've been ready since before you were born, Hikari," Ijuuin Enzan scoffed, but there was a hint of a smile on his lips that took the sting out of the insult. He didn't need to ask if his Net navi was ready. Blues was always ready for whenever Enzan needed to call on him.
Netto briefly stuck his tongue out at Enzan, but there was no real irritation behind the gesture. Enzan was Enzan. Besides, Netto figured he was joking more than half the time he said those things. "Then let's do it!"
With the well practiced movements of having done this many times before, both boys pulled out a battle chip and inserted it into their PET. "Synchro chip, slot in!" they shouted. "Cross fusion!" Brilliant white light streamed from the PETs and enveloped the boys. Parts of the light changed color and seemed to harden, coalescing and clinging to their bodies, until the light faded and left them standing in their cross fused forms.
"Okay, we're ready now, papa!" Netto called out.
Dr. Hikari peered through the translucent dome to make certain that the cross fusion had worked as it should, then nodded to himself in satisfaction. Netto's armor had formed as it always did, the pale blue lines unbroken and the blue and yellow helmet looking as sturdy as ever. Enzan's red armor and black body suit were smooth and streamlined, his black and white hair hanging limply behind his back. There was absolutely no hint of instability in either of their forms.
"Good," he said. "Now, you know what's coming next. We're going to start trying to expand the dimensional area. Pay close attention to everything you see, hear, feel, even smell. This is the first time we've had anyone inside the dimensional area when we've expanded it, so we're not certain what to expect. If there's even a hint that something is wrong, say so immediately. I don't want either of you getting hurt."
"We understand," Enzan said solemnly. Netto nodded his agreement.
Dr. Hikari smiled. "All right. Let's begin."
-o-
Enzan stood still as he waited for something to happen, his entire being focused on detecting any kind of change in the dimensional area. He could feel Blues with him, silently noting every iota of information. It was reassuring to know that there was at least one level head in here. He certainly didn't trust Hikari Netto or Rockman to pay attention to everything.
"Relax, Enzan," Netto said, almost as though he could somehow read Enzan's mind. "There've been plenty of tests before this and nothing bad happened in any of them. We'll be just fine." He started walking across the room, heading for the edge of the dimensional area. When he got there, he put his hand on the wall and pushed. He might as well have been pushing against concrete for all it gave.
"There's a first time for everything," Enzan said. "I would rather be prepared in case-"
"Shh!" Netto cut him off. "It's starting!"
Enzan opened his mouth to ask how the other boy could tell, but then he noticed it too. There was a tension in the air, something he couldn't really feel, but that he was aware of. It was almost like standing next to a live wire. It made Enzan's hair stand on end. "The wall is moving."
"I know." Of course Netto would know. He still had his hand on it. Inch by inch, the dimensional area slowly expanded outward. "Papa, it's working!"
"Good." Dr. Hikari's voice came in through speakers that had been set into the floor. "Does anything feel different?"
Netto looked at Enzan, then shrugged before answering for both of them. "Not really. I just feel excited, like something really big is about to happen. But it's not me. It's in the air and it's making me feel that way."
"It's like listening to music and knowing what the next note will be before it's played," Enzan added. "It's hard to describe."
"I think I understand. It doesn't sound like it's anything to worry about, but let me know if that feeling changes at all. It might mean something."
"Right." Enzan finally moved from his position, heading toward the opposite side of the dimensional area. Everything seemed normal, not counting the fact that the iridescent walls were still creeping along, laying claim to more and more of the platform they were standing on. Another few feet and the entire platform would be part of the dimensional area. He placed both hands against the wall, not pushing, but just feeling it. It was vibrating. No, wait. It wasn't just the wall. The floor was vibrating, too. It was-
"Enzan!"
Enzan whipped around in time to see Netto crash into the floor as the platform literally buckled beneath his feet. "Hikari!" Enzan swore and started sprinting across the stage. "Dr. Hikari, shut the area down! Something's going wrong!" He nearly lost his footing a couple of times as the floor started breaking apart, but somehow he managed to reach his friend's side. He reached down to clasp the Netto's blue-gloved hand, trying to pull him to his feet.
As though that were some kind of signal, the ground went still. Netto and Enzan straightened up and looked around at the devastation. The floor was cracked and warped and broken tiles poking up everywhere. Enzan's eyes went to the speakers, wondering why Dr. Hikari wasn't asking them questions or telling them what to do. It didn't take long to figure out the reason for his silence. The speakers were a shattered mess of plastic and wires.
"It's like we got hit by an earthquake," Netto said shakily.
"Except that the only place that was affected was inside this dimensional area," Enzan said grimly. "At least we weren't hurt." On the other side of the shimmering walls, he could just barely make out the forms of the scientists, all of them caught up in a flurry of activity. No doubt they were all trying to figure out what went wrong, but what puzzled Enzan was why hadn't the dimensional area been turned off yet?
"Uh, Enzan?"
Still distracted by what the scientists were doing, Enzan didn't bother to look at Netto when he responded. "What?"
Netto licked his lips nervously. "I don't think it's over yet."
That got Enzan's attention. His eyes locked with Netto's, demanding answers. "What do you mean?"
"Can't you feel it?" Netto asked anxiously. "It's that feeling from before. It's getting stronger!"
Indeed, now that his attention had been drawn to it, Enzan could feel it, too. The air was practically humming with tension, like a taut string that was about to snap. "We have to get out of here," he said. "We have to get out of here now!" He did not want to be here when that 'string' broke apart.
"But how?"
"The dimensional converters." Enzan let go of Netto and started running toward the edge of the dimensional area. "We can't wait for Dr. Hikari to shut it down. Something's gone wrong and we don't even know if he can. If we can take out the converters, the area will collapse on its own. Come on, we don't have much time!"
The younger Net Savior needed no second prompting, which was a good thing in Enzan's mind. It was their best chance to escape from this place - maybe their only chance. The dimensional area converters were difficult to damage, but they weren't invincible.
"If we work together, we have a better chance of destroying them," Netto called out as he raced after Enzan. Somehow, he arrived at the shining blue pillar first.
The ground for several feet around the converter was miraculously unbroken. Maybe the dimensional area was most stable around the converters. Enzan didn't know, and right now he didn't care. He took up a position next to the blue and black armored boy, raising his hand into the same position Netto's was in. "Ready?"
"Whenever you are!" Netto's hand morphed into a blue buster and he took aim.
"On the count of three. One." In a motion that was almost instinct now, Enzan's hand became a blazing blue sword. "Two." He brought his arm back, ready to strike. "Three!" He swung his sword at the same time that a glowing ball of pure energy left Netto's buster, the two attacks crashing into the blue pillar simultaneously. It should have taken a lot more to do it, but the glass cracked under the first impact - and all hell broke loose.
For a moment, it felt like the air had solidified, the tension so thick that the boys literally could not move. Enzan struggled to move, but his muscles refused to respond. Then, like a giant glass bubble hit by an invisible hammer, the dimensional area shattered. That was the only word he could come up with to describe what he was seeing. Shimmering hexagons rained down all around them as Enzan and Netto stumbled, finally free to move. Enzan instinctively hurled himself to one side to avoid a large cluster of hexagons, only to be caught by several smaller ones. He hissed in pain as they sliced through his body suit, cutting into the less protected areas of his arms and legs. He opened his mouth to tell Netto to run-
-and was cut off by a throat-wrenching scream of pure agony. Netto had not been so lucky in dodging the broken pieces of the dimensional area. Enzan could only watch in horror as his best friend was buried under a shower of glittering rainbow debris. "Hikari!" Without a second thought, he darted through the still-falling debris and dropped to his knees next to where he'd seen Netto disappear. He dismissed his sword and started digging, ignoring the impossibility of there even being a pile of broken dimensional area to dig through. However it had happened, it had obviously happened, and he had no idea what it would do to Netto to be trapped under all those shards. He could only hope that Netto's armor would protect him from the worst of the damage.
The layer of debris covering Netto actually wasn't that thick, so it wasn't long before Enzan had brushed aside enough of it to be able to grab hold of him and pull him out. Unfortunately, he was out cold. "Hikari, wake up!" Enzan shook him roughly. Something told him they needed to get out of there now, the faster, the better. "Hikari!"
The only response he got was a groan.
Enzan swore and started gathering the younger boy into his arms. "I swear," he grunted as he staggered upright. "Life would be so much easier if I just left you here." Not that he would ever follow through on that threat, but it felt good to vent. He promised himself that once this was over, he was never going to let Netto live this down. "You owe me for this, Hikari."
Thankfully, the top of the dimensional area had already caved in completely, so nothing else was falling on their heads. The walls were still there, but they were quickly disintegrating. It wouldn't be long before they were low enough for Enzan to leap over them, even with Netto's added weight. As quickly as he could, he started jogging toward the wall, heedless of the crunching sounds his boots made whenever he stepped on pieces of the dimensional area. When he got to the wall, he stood there and waited. Any second now...
That was when he noticed that the dimensional area was moving. Every piece that wasn't still attached to what was left of the original dome was starting to slide toward the center of the stage. The pieces that continued to break off of the walls didn't just fall - they flew through the air as though magnetically drawn to the same destination as all the other pieces. It started off slowly, but within seconds, the pieces were moving too fast for Enzan to see, too fast for him to dodge. He yelped as several more shards pelted his body, and he winced to think of the damage being done to Netto, who didn't have the thick chest armor or the protective shades that Enzan did. That didn't matter now, though. The wall was low enough that they could escape. Enzan tensed, preparing to leap.
The whole world turned white as the dimensional area imploded.
-o-
Dr. Hikari stared at the devastation numbly. Gone. It was all gone. The dimensional area had disappeared. Every fragment, every shard - even the dimensional converters. It was as though they had never existed, if not for the utterly ruined platform they had left behind. There was no sign of Enzan or Netto.
"I want to know what went wrong," he said shakily. He took a deep breath, trying to collect himself. Breaking down now wouldn't help anyone. "I want to know what happened. Thomson, Suzuki, I want you to search the rubble for anything that might give us a clue. Sato, check the Net. There's a slight chance that Rockman or Blues ended up there when the dimensional area collapsed. I'll go over all the data and compare it to the previous runs to try to find out where the data diverges. Maybe that'll tell us what happened. Tanaka, help me with that. The moment anyone finds something, let the others know immediately."
"Yes, sir!"
"Right, then. Let's get to work." As determined as he was to stay calm, Dr. Hikari couldn't help but notice that his hands were shaking as he typed in commands on his keyboard. Two boys were missing, possibly dead, and one of them was his son. What am I going to tell Haruka?
-o-
Pain. Everything hurt. Enzan groaned and tried to pick himself up off the ground, but the best he could do was roll over onto his back. He stared up at the sky for a long time before what he was seeing registered in his brain. Sky. Blue sky, with little white clouds. He was outside, lying in a tall patch of grass or weeds. But how? The dimensional area experiment had taken place inside a building. If the accident had been bad enough to destroy the entire building, why was he still alive?
Actually, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that 'alive' was a relative term. He wasn't certain he wanted to look down at himself to find out how badly he was injured. With the way he felt, he wouldn't be surprised if he was five minutes away from bleeding to death. Still, he'd never been one to hide from reality, nor was he one to just lay down and die when there was a chance of survival. With another groan, he forced himself to sit up and take stock of his situation.
To his surprise, there wasn't a cut or bruise to be seen. He was no longer cross fused with Blues, but that didn't explain the lack of injuries. He distinctly remembered feeling those pieces of dimensional area cutting into his flesh. Maybe it was all in my head. It doesn't make sense, but neither does a shattering dimensional area. He should probably be grateful that he was alive and, apparently, uninjured, but right now he just wanted to know where he was and how he'd gotten there.
"En...zan?"
Enzan turned toward the source of the voice - and promptly did a double take. "Rockman?"
The two stared at each other in shock, unable to comprehend what they were seeing. A human and a Net navi, existing in the same world and without a dimensional area or any other kind of technology anywhere near them. They both opened their mouths at the same time to ask the same question. "What are you doing here?"
-End Chapter One-
Ready for the next chapter?
So, there you have it. My first official foray into writing for the Rockman.EXE fandom. Technically, this is still in rough draft form, as I haven't had anyone beta read it. So! If you see something wrong, be it spelling, grammar, punctuation, or something bigger like a plothole, continuity error, OOCness, whatever - PLEASE LET ME KNOW!
If you have anything nice to say, I'd be just as happy to hear that, too. ^_^