Chapter 1: Advent of The Black Shadow Part 1

2010 A.D. August 18th. Cherry Dyn Robotics CEO Office.

3:17PM

46 years ago.

Thomas West walked into the office of Albert Wiley. Wiley apparently had already expected a visit from his former colleague, for he was facing the door as Thomas walked in.

"You should be ashamed of yourself, Albert," Thomas said sternly.

"Whatever do you mean?" Wiley replied with a smirk.

"Don't play dumb," Thomas snapped back. "I know you and your company were the ones responsible for planting that spy and ordering him to infect Alpha. That is no way to achieve your goals."

"And what proof do you have of that, hmm?" Wily replied coyly.

"Do you deny it?"

"Of course not. But you can't take me to court like that. I have just as many lawyers as you do, Thomas, and they know how to get me out of such situations. Do you really think I would be stupid enough to try something like this without being able to cover my tracks?"

"But you still failed," Thomas countered. "Bass saw to that."

"Weather I succeeded or failed in the matter is irrelevant," Wily replied, becoming increasingly irritated. "That arrogant pile of data nearly destroyed your company's servers in the process, no?"

"What are you trying to prove?"

"That he is DANGEROUS, Thomas!" Wily yelled. "This whole world you've started is dangerous!"

"And your robot society wasn't?" Thomas said. "You remember why the summit chose to fund my proposal over yours, because its resources were more accessible than yours. They were well aware of the dangers of both of our ideas, but it was irrelevant to them. They chose the one they thought would become a better investment. I had no say in the matter!"

"I DON'T CARE!" Wily shouted. "All of my failures in my career have stemmed from you! You always think that you're better than me, than anyone else in this world. Those that came before you, and perhaps those who will come after! You always got all the recognition! Why can't a brilliant mind like mine be recognized?!"

"I don't do what I do to gloat!" Thomas shouted back. "And neither should you! If notoriety is truly what you seek, than I suppose I really am better than you. Even Bass, misguided as he is sometimes, is better than you. He does what he does because he feels it's the right thing to do! Not to gain attention, and not to prove himself right!"

"So what?! Hitler thought he was just, and look where that got him?"

There was a dead silence in the room. "How…DARE YOU!" Thomas shouted. "How dare you compare the product of my research to that MAD MAN?! Bass is the first Navi of his kind! He's no different than a child learning right from wrong! The power he has may possess limitless dangers, that much is true, but he also possesses limitless potential! He could hold the power to save countless lives in the coming days, yet you and many others would deny him the chance to prove himself just because you fear him?! He has the power to learn, not just from humans, but from himself, from his own mistakes! He has the ability to evolve ethically, to grow responsibly!"

Thomas then moved closer to Wily and stood over him. "I'll warn you once, Albert. If I ever can prove your wrong doings to my company, they'll have no choice but to lock you up for good! Bass stopped you once, and he damn will stop you again."

"Once," Wiley replied. "I'm now fully aware what he's capable of. I won't make that mistake again. And I'll warn YOU, Thomas. Cleaning up your own messes doesn't make you a visionary. I may have been the one responsible for the spy, but you and your world made it possible for me to do it. You got lucky this time, that's all. My robot society might have had problems such as being used for weapons for war, but what you're doing could very well be the beginning of Sky Net. Who can grantee the behavior of artificial intelligences left to their own devices? Evolving on their own? Don't make me laugh. This "Soul Program" of yours and Cossacks is not only unnecessary, it's dangerous. I remain unconvinced."

"That will change," Thomas replied sternly. "I'll prove you wrong about Bass. I'll prove you and everyone else who ever doubted him. So help me God, if it's the last thing I do."

And with that Thomas stormed out. Wily, turned back to his PC and rested his elbows on the desk, folding his hands together. "Then only time will tell…if this independent A.I…this …is either a blessing…or a curse…

...

2056 A.D. March 10th Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Japan. West residence.

8:30AM.

Present day

Ryan awoke to the sound of birds chirping outside his window. Groggily he turned over to his bedside table to look at his clock.

8:30 AM

…

Wait…wasn't his alarm supposed to wake him up at eight?

…

"I'm a dead man!" Ryan shouted, as he jumped out of bed. "I'm a dead man, I'm a dead man!"

Ryan quickly dashed into his closet and began to grab his school uniform that he had washed last night and the rushed out of his room to take a shower.

Nearly running over his mother in the process.

"Ryan!" Meiko shouted, speaking in her native Japanese language. "Did you forget to set your alarm clock again?!" She was already dressed in a white buttoned up shirt wearing khaki's pats and black high heels. She had straight brown hair tied in a pony tail and had matching brown eyes. Though she was in her forties she didn't look a day over thirty. Pretty young for people her age.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry!" Ryan said back in Japanese, clearly panicked. "I'll call my homeroom teacher after my shower, and tell him I'll be late!" After getting read the riot act by both his mother and the principal yesterday, Ryan knew he had to start taking things seriously, especially under the threat of expulsion.

"Well you'll have to skip breakfast," Meiko called back. "The train leaves in fifteen minutes and takes half an hour to get to school. Don't you have that class trip to your father's lab at 9:30?"

"I KNOW, mom! I forgot, I was tired!" Ryan yelled, always sick of having his mother give him reminders on everything. Seriously, it's like she was addicted to it.

All of the commotion had woken Bass from what was probably the best sleep he had gotten in years. Net Navis don't typically need sleep, as they aren't bogged down by immune systems like humans are. However, that doesn't mean that Net Navis don't tire at some point. Take Bass's status since yesterday for example. Excessive battling like his fight against Serenade can really take a toll on a Navi's HP. HP, or Hit Points, are displayed as numbers to a Net Navi's respective NetOp on their PET. If a Net Navi's HP reaches zero, it's deletion. However solo Navi's like Bass and most of the Net Navi's he encountered in the Undernet had no way to keep track of their HP with out a NetOp. All they had was their instinct. And for Bass, instinct came naturally.

Bass yawned, something that seemed out of character for him, but he didn't really care. He was just glad that he was able to rest without having to keep one eye open for once. He looked at the clock to check the time.

"8:35 AM?" Bass wondered aloud. "That's later than when most of the Navis at my former job had to wake up." But what was with all the racket? It sounded like Ryan was in a hurry for something. Sci-Lab? But why, Ryan never gave a time limit.

Pretty soon Bass got his answer. Ryan burst through the door dressed in his school uniform rapidly running a towel through his hair. "C'mon Bass we gotta go! We're late!" Ryan yelled as he grabbed his PET and ran out the door.

"Late?" Bass asked, confused. "Late for what?"

"School!" Ryan yelled as he was running down the stairs. But then…"SHIT! My Battle Chips!" It was a habit for Ryan to take at least ten or so battle chips with him for his Virus Study class, and that was one of the few classes he never skipped. But now that he had an actually Net Navi in his PET, he didn't have to wait around to practice with Training Navis.

"Oh wait…" Ryan then realized that Bass was a temporary arrangement. He was only sticking around until he was fixed. Remembering this made Ryan somewhat disappointed. It was nice to have someone to talk to when no one was around for a change. But a deal was a deal. Bass had made it clear that he did not trust mankind. And while Ryan didn't fully agree with Bass's reasons, it wasn't really his place to change is mind. Ryan found that you could throw every detail to derail someone's opinion on anything, and they would still insist that their opinion is fact. Because the majority of people only see what they want to believe. Defiant until their beliefs are broken. It was like that with his reputation at school. Hell the reputation of most of the male students. Ryan didn't bother changing their minds. He didn't have the power nor the means to do so. As the saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

"WHAT?!" Bass yelled. "School? An education institution for adolescence? You said we we're going to Sci-Lab!"

"We are!" Ryan said as he entered his room again to collect his Battle Chips. "But we have to get there from Kuoh! That place has a crap ton of internships with Sci-Lab, and as such, they sometimes have trips to Sci-Lab. Today's one of those days. And unfortunately, MY class gets to go, solely because I'm my father's son. And if I don't show up to class I'm gonna go deaf from getting my ears screamed out by my parents."

"You never mentioned this last night!" Bass.

"There's a lot of things I didn't say last night," Ryan replied. "Mostly because you showed up in my PC and I spent half the night trying to figure out how to fix you."

"Are you blaming your tardiness on me?"

"Did I say anything like that?"

"No, but you implied it."

"No, that's you assuming things. You remember what I said about that yesterday?"

"RYAN!"

"I'm going, mom, I'm going!"

Ryan grabbed the last of his Battle Chips, his roller blades, his favorite black jacket with white wool on the inside, but stopped when he noticed the talisman on his nightstand. He picked it up and studied it for a bit. Before today, he never believed in luck of any kind. But Bass showed up on the night he got this thing on the way from school last night. While Ryan didn't believe in luck, he believed in coincidences less. Things don't just happen. At least not all the time.

"Well, luck or coincidence," Ryan thought. "It can't hurt to keep this thing around." So Ryan quickly put the talisman in his jacket pocket, ran down the stairs, grabbed a breakfast bar to put something in his stomach on the way, said "bye mom, love you, see you later" really fast, strapped on his skates, and then dashed out the door.

Meiko sighed as she packed her things to get ready for another day of English teaching at Kuoh. "He definitely takes after his Uncle Jack."

…

The streets of Akiba were once again bustling with all kinds of people. Tourists, otakus, businessmen, cosplayers, you name it. Just another day of business. Although there was one individual on these streets who was in more of a hurry than most.

"Excuse me, coming through, sorry, in a rush here, gotta go!"

Ryan skated down Akiba, once again in a rush to get to the train station before it left in the next four minutes. As he skated, he blew past a shop he was a regular at.

"Hey, Ryan!" It's owner yelled in American English. "Your order came in last night!"

"Not now, Travis, I got a train to catch!"

Women screamed from the sudden burst of wind. Men shouted at how reckless Ryan was dashing around. Children were shouting "wow" or "cool" or "mommy, mommy, look at how fast that guy's going!"

Fast was an understatement. Kuon was a considerable distance away from Shinjuku. Even when Ryan woke up at an alarm, he still had to beat the people traffic to get to the train. And even then the train could arrive early or late. He could miss it even on a good day.

Unfortunately, this was not a good day.

"Is this how every morning is for you?" Bass asked. "Chaotic?"

"Only on the weekdays," Ryan answered as he looked at the time on his PET. "FUCK! 9:44!"

"Is that bad?"

"Of course it is! The train leaves in ONE MINUTE! I HAVE TO GUN IT!"

Ryan put every ounce of endurance and strength he had in his legs and dashed forward towards the station. He had to quickly stop to take off his skates as soon got there. No skating allowed. But it did help that he didn't need to buy a ticket since he was a student. He just had to wave his student ID program in his PET into the gate, and to the train he went.

And the time remaining?

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

"TOUCHDOOOOOOOOOOOOOWN!" Ryan shouted as he cleared the train doors just as they closed and the train started to move. "YYYYYAS!"

And it was then that all of the passengers in the car turned to look at Ryan.

"Missed it by that much," a passenger stated in Japanese.

"Yeah, I know right?" Ryan replied in the dialect. "Close call."

"I mean your record," the passenger replied, showing a stopwatch function active on his PET to Ryan. "You were seconds away from beating it."

"Oh, don't be such a smart ass, Yuichiro," Ryan chuckled. The rest of the passengers laughed too. Ever since Ryan came to Tokyo, this was a regular thing for them. Some people even took bets to see how long it would take for Ryan to either show late, on time, or early. Rapid Ryan they called him.

"Well," Bass thought to himself. "For however long my time is with him, it looks like it'll be anything but boring."

…

Students in one of the classrooms at Kuon started to finally sit in their seats. Homeroom was starting, and the teacher was about to take roll call. The teacher in charge of homeroom was a man with messy brown hair, wearing glasses, a white buttoned shirt and a red tie with blue jeans and white socks with sandals. Definitely not the Kuon norm for most of the teachers there, but Higure Yamitaro, the person of subject, hated dressing formally on a daily basis.

"Alright everyone," Higure spoke to the class. "Settle down, I'm about to take roll."

The students reluctantly all quieted down as Higure began to call everyone's names.

"Hana Song."

"Here."

"Matsuda Hamada."

"Here."

"Motohama Kakai."

"Maruyama Sakai."

"Here."

"Katase Shigure."

"Here."

"Ryan West."

…

"Ryan West."

SLAM!

The door to the class room suddenly burst open to reveal an exhausted and rather sweaty Ryan, panting hoarsely.

"Pre…present…" Ryan managed to whispered in English between breaths.

"Ryan, normally I would ask you to state why you are late coming to homeroom," Higure said. "But I assume it's because you weren't prepared to make the trip from your home to the school, is that correct?"

"H…hai…Higure-sensei…" Ryan replied.

"Well you're lucky you're only a few seconds late, otherwise you'd be reprimanded again. Not that I believe every word of it, but you have a bad enough reputation already. Now please take your seat."

"Yeah, yeah, don't remind me," Ryan begrudged at the mention of his rep. He hated having that brought up. Even though everything he said to deny it fell upon deaf ears, and he saw no point in proving them wrong, he still disliked it.

Ryan took his seat in the middle of the classroom as Higure continued to take roll. A female student in front of him turned to face Ryan. She had shoulder length brown hair and matching brown eyes. She was rather petite, but her figure was well formed, mostly around her bottom.

"Ryan, you realize you're on the verge of expulsion," the girl said. "You can't keep being late like this."

"Hey, you know living several miles away from a private school was not my choice, Hana," replied Ryan.

Hana Song. Like Ryan, she too was a transfer student, but not from the states. She was from South Korea. She was widely known though the CyberNet a the popular YouTube and Twitch gamer, , along with her Net Navi partner in crime, Roll. Unlike most of the students in Kuon, she knew most of them were false. She had witnessed first hand that Ryan was brilliant, kind, and very, very misunderstood for multiple reasons. She wasn't the kind of person who judged a book by its cover. Hana promised him that she would do everything she could to try to stop the rumors, but with little success. New rumors would take form, and they would spread faster than Hana could keep up with. The only people she had managed to convince, somewhat, were two of the females in her class. Despite Ryan not wanting to do anything with any of the students there, Hana was really the only friend he had at Kuon. A small comfort, but it was still nice, nonetheless.

As for her Net Navi, Roll, she was just as every bit peppy and pretty as her NetOp was. Her design consisted mostly of pink. She wore a body suit with pink around the torso and back area with the upper arms and upper calves descending into pink beyond the lower calves and knees. On her chest was an emblem that consisted of a red circle with a yellow triangle cutting into the red at the top. The emblem was surrounded by a yellow border on the sides. A small magenta triangle pointed down one her body suit from beneath her emblem. She wore pink gauntlets and greaves with rings circling around just below the elbows and knees, and had magenta accents on the shins, toes and heels. Her face was humanoid with deep emerald green eyes. She wore a pink helmet that covered he ears with the same emblem as shown on her chest, two yellow knobs on the front with triangles pointing right and left respectively, and at the end of the nobs, thin transparent yellow ribbons with holes on the ends extended and reached to each other all the way around her helmet. There was also a geometrical shape extending from the back of her helmet and all the way to her bottom that resembled blonde hair with a green ribbon tied near the bottom.

While Hana was really awesome at video games, she was still trying to learn the ropes of Net Battling. It had only been a few months since she transferred, and she didn't get a PET and Roll until after the first few days. Both Hana and Roll were really the only real friends that Ryan actually had.

"Don't you even care about not being able to attend this school anymore?" Roll asked. "Hana would be really sad if she never saw you again."

"R-Roll!" Hana exclaimed, a faint patch of red appearing on her cheeks.

This didn't go unnoticed by Ryan, but he didn't pay it any mind. There was no way someone like Hana could like him in that way. "Look," Ryan continued. "I love Japan and its culture. I love shopping around Akiba and checking out its pop culture. But if I had known that my academic life here was going to be a living hell, I would've stayed in the states with my Uncle Jack. At least he sees me for more than my family name."

"I see you for more than that too," Hana replied.

"And I'm glad you do, really I am. But, no offense, it's just not the same. Ever since Netto died, they've…been really distant. And besides it's not just my parents, it's this school too. My peers, the teachers, the principlal…everyone here only sees me for my family name. They never look at me as just 'Ryan.' Only 'Ryan West.' And then all those damn rumors start flying around that I'm a perverted introvert. It's like everyone here just decides to judge me without wanting to know me."

"You know who you have to blame for that," Roll added.

"Seriously, what is Matsuda and Motohama's problem?" Hana replied looking over at the two students in question.

Matsuda Hamada and Motohama Kakai were two of the biggest pervs in the entire school. Matsuda had a grey bald cut that borderlined on him being entirely bald and had grey eyes to match. Motohama had well combed brown hair and glasses that usually covered his eyes completely, combined with the glare of any light source. The real reason they transferred to Kuon, like the majority of male students there, was because of the attractive females from various countries across the globe. They dreamed of getting their own respective harems, and when they learned the son of a world famous scientist would be transferring here, they tried to get Ryan to help them with their antics. He did agree, but only once. And the condition was that they help him track down a rare chip dealer in Akiba.

At first Ryan thought they were just a bunch of harmless horny teens, and they pretty much were. Unfortunately, his first excapade with them on trying to spy on the swim team with hidden cameras that Ryan had programed himself ended in a miserable failure. Miserable, because when Ryan got caught, Matsuda and Motohama bailed on him, their inevitable failure coming a mile away. And Ryan was their scapegoat. And to make matters worse, the Hentai Duo never honored their end of the agreement. From that day forward, Ryan refused to do anything they asked.

But the damage had already been done. Because Matsuda and Motohama's reputation was pretty crappy, the majority of the female students labeled Ryan as a perv by association. It was only a few weeks after that started that Hana started to befriend Ryan. Through constant interaction with him, she learned that there was much more to him than the rumors believed. Unfortunately, being friends with a cute girl came with a trade off.

When Matsuda and Motohama learned of Hana and Ryan being friends, they were instantly jealous. They begged and pleaded once more to try to get Ryan to help them score some girls, but once again Ryan made it clear that he wanted nothing to do with the Hentai Duo. That, unfortunately, pissed them off a lot.

They started spreading rumors around the school that Ryan had blackmailed Hana into being her friend somehow, and performing lewd acts with her. That infuriated both Ryan and Hana. Hana was then driven to prove the entire school wrong about Ryan and did everything she could to help.

However that was easier said than done.

"Even if Matsuda and Motohama were responsible for the majority of those rumors," another female voice spoke up. "They only share half of the blame."

"Yeah, most of the girls are to blame for believing them," yet another female voice said.

Ryan turned around to face the people speaking to him. Behind him was a girl with shoulder length brunette hair tied into two twin tails on the sides of her head with two red ribbons. She had hazel eyes and a very athletic body. This was Maruyama Sakai.

The girl next to Maruyama had short, light pink hair with that was pulled back with a white headband on top. She had brown eyes and a well toned figure like Maruyama as well. This was Katase Shigure. Both Maruyama and Katase were members of the Kendo Club in Kuon, the former of which was the captain.

"Well you still sorta believe them, despite what Hana told you," Ryan countered with indifference in his voice.

"That's really only because there's no evidence to prove that you didn't do anything those guys said," Maruyama replied.

"But I told you guys the stuff about him and me was BS," Hana complained.

"And we believe you about that," answered Maruyama. "But it's only that. We may not have caught Ryan peeping in on us and other girls in the locker rooms like we have with the Hentai Duo over there, but that doesn't mean he doesn't do things on his own."

"Like the Swimming Club incident," Katase added.

"Only because Matsuda and Motohama tricked him into doing that when he didn't know any better," Hana protested.

"You guys realize that I'm sitting right in front of you, and that I can hear every word you're saying?" Ryan said to the Kendo Girls. "C'mon, at least attempt to give me the benefit of the doubt."

Maruyama sighed. "I want to, Ryan…we want to, we really do…but…they way most of the females here oust you by association with Matsuda and Motohama…we've got our own rep to consider…no offense…"

"No, no, it's fine, I get it," Ryan conceded reluctantly. "Just…in the future, try not to let people misguided preconceptions influence what you believe, okay? That's all I ask."

Maruyama gave solemn look, while Katase leaned over and whispered to her friend. "Maru-chan, maybe that wasn't the right thing to say to cheer him up."

"I'm not going to lie to him, Kat-chan," Maruyama replied. "It wouldn't be fair if he didn't know where we stood on this. If I told him we believe him, it might make him happy, but then if we continued to distance ourselves from him, that'd be going against what we said. In a way, that's worse than what the Hentai Duo do to him. We'd be betraying Ryan's trust, and by extension, Hana's trust as well."

"Why Hana?" Katase asked.

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed how she looks at Ryan," Maruyama pointed out. "She totally has the hots for him, just like how almost every girl in school has the hots for Kiba-kun."

"Eh? Hontoni? (Seriously?)"

"…okay, well, maybe not the same extent as Kiba-kun, but you get the idea. She would be really upset."

Katase looked over at Hana. Now that she mentioned it, she did see a look of growing concern on her face as Hana continued to look at how glum Ryan was.

While the Kendo Girls were having their chat, Ryan and Hana had their own.

"Seriously, your mother is a teacher here, for Christ's sake," Hana complained. "Can't she just, I dunno, get the principal to come down on those two?"

"You really think the principal's gonna give a shit about dudes smearing the images of other dudes, and most of the girls here believing practically anything negative about men?" Ryan asked rhetorically. "You know as well as I do that the principal is completely sexist against men. She was dead set against the board on making Kuon co-ed, but she got out-voted. Can you imagine how infuriating that must have been for her?"

Indeed. Kuoh, until recently, was a private girls only school. Shortly after Ryan had graduated middle school, the board of education in Tokyo had out voted Kuoh's current principle into making the school still private, but co-ed for both males and females. The idea was to increase the efficiency and availability of private education in Tokyo.

"Trust me, you should see Hana when she got utterly destroyed trying to play the first part of Final Fantasy XII," Roll said. "She was REALLY pissed."

"Hey, I'm not good at JRPGs okay?!" Hana protested. "And the combat system for that game is a complete train wreck!"

"It really is," Ryan agreed.

"Ahem," Higure cleared his throat to gain the attention of the two. "Ryan, Hana, if the two of you are finished, we have an important event today that we must be getting to."

Ryan grumbled, knowing full well what his homeroom teacher was talking about. The trip to Sci-Lab. If it weren't for Bass showing up, and his parents watching over him like a hawk, Ryan would have just skipped today altogether.

"Now," Higure began. "As all of you remember, today we're going on a special trip to Sci-Lab to learn about the current advancements in today's cyber technology and how it affects us in our society. We'll also be looking at a new invention that Ryan's father, Walter West, has been working on for the past year."

The class then started to murmur words of excitement and curiosity.

"Wait, Ryan's father is a scientist?"

"Duh! Don't you pay attention to history class?"

"Wasn't his grandfather the founding father of the Cyber Net?"

"Kind of ironic that a perv like him is related to such a great man."

"With the way he skips classes, who would have guessed that he's the successor of his father's work?"

"He certainly doesn't act like he's part of the Wests."

"You think maybe he was adopted?"

Ryan heard most of these and tightly clenched his hands into fists on the desk.

"Just ignore them," Hana said, placing a hand on once of Ryan's fists. "They're all ignorant. They don't know you like I do."

Ryan was slightly relieved at Hana's gesture, but he was still furious inside.

"Alright class, settle down," Higure said. "The next train to Sci-Lab leaves in fifteen minutes, so we have no time to spare. Ryan, since this is your family's work, would you please lead the class out of the building and to the station?"

Ryan sighed. "Sure," he said reluctantly and stood up. "C'mon guys, let's get this over with." He made no effort to hide that he was not excited about this.

As the classroom got up out of their seats, Roll initiated a conversation with her NetOp that they have had several times before.

"Hana, seriously, when are you going to tell him," Roll asked.

"Roll, we've been over this," Hana said. "It's too soon. As much as I want to, I just can't. Even if he said yes, if Matsuda and Motohama found out, and let's be honest, it's more of matter of when than if, they'd make his life a living hell. And probably mine too. I just…can't, not until things calm down."

"That might be longer than you think," Roll added. "Who cares what other people think? You know the truth."

"But he would be getting hurt because of me," Hana countered. "I can't live with that kind of guilt."

"It wouldn't be your fault."

"It would still feel like it was. And Ryan would be even more miserable, not happy."

"Do you really think he would even care about what people say, as long as he has you?"

"I…I don't know…I don't know if he even likes me that way…"

…

The same beautiful redhead from last night watched from the old school building as Ryan and his homeroom class walked to the entrance of the campus. "Akeno, do you know where they're all going?" She asked.

"Hmm," the raven haired girl, now identified as Akeno thought for a bit. "I heard that Ryan's class had a trip somewhere scheduled. I didn't realize it was today. I think they're going to…Sci-Lab I think it's called?"

"Wait, you mean the place where they do all that Net Navi research?" The blonde male asked.

"I think so," Akeno replied. "Hold on…isn't Ryan's father one of the lead scientists there?"

"Hmmm…" The red head pondered for a bit, a concerned look on her face.

"This is vexing," said the petite white hared girl.

"Koneko's right," agreed the Red Head. "We can't observe him if he's leaving the campus during school hours. If a fallen angel attacks, we won't be able to intervene, not without exposing ourselves. Too many witnesses. The media would be all over it. Not even memory wiping them would be able to cover it up."

"But the fallen angels wouldn't risk exposing themselves either," the blonde male countered. "They'd wait until he was alone."

"While that may be true…" the redhead agreed. "I just…I just can't shake this feeling…something bad is going to happen today…"

…

With everyone on the train and having their own conversations, Bass decided now would be appropriate to speak to Ryan some more.

"Was every word you conversed with those females true?" Bass asked, curious.

"Yup," Ryan said.

"So you too were betrayed by people you thought you could trust."

"Well…not to the same extent as you, but, yeah, I guess I kinda was."

"…At least you have that female to confide in…"

"Hana? Yeah, she's really great. But…" Ryan sighed. "It's just…I want people in the school to give me some fucking respect, just for one day. Not to be judged by my reputation or my family name. It just…it just sucks…"

"But at least you have someone," Bass emphasized.

"What, you didn't?" Ryan asked skeptically. "C'mon, you had to have had a comrade or two in the Undernet."

"…I didn't."

…

"Oh," Ryan realized his mistake. "I…I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Don't apologize," Bass interrupted. "There's no need for it."

There was a moment of silence before Ryan spoke again.

"The Undernet…what's it like?"

"What?"

"Your travels through the Undernet."

Bass eyed Ryan through the PET with a confused look. "Why do you want to know?"

"Hey, you heard a bit of my sob story in the classroom," Ryan replied. "It's only fair you share yours."

"And what if I don't want to talk about it?"

"Then I won't ask you anymore," Ryan said.

"If you are to give up so easily on making a request, why even bother?"

"Because I wanted to hear your response first. I can't make you talk if you don't want to Bass. It wouldn't be nice."

Bass continued to look at Ryan puzzlingly. "You are a very confusing human."

"Humans in general are confusing, Bass. That's just a fact of life."

"Hmmm…I suppose that's true…"

Their conversation however, did not go unnoticed by Hanna who was sitting a few seats down from him. Initially she had wanted to sit with Ryan, but after this morning, she could tell that Ryan wanted to be alone for a bit. However, she had never seen Ryan so focused on he PET before, and he was clearly talking to someone through it. But the only question was…

"Who is he talking to?" Hana thought to herself.

…

Sci-Lab wasn't just one building. It was several. There was the main building which consisted of three floors. The design didn't look like anything special. In fact, it looked rather plain. Then there were four cylindrical structures. These were the energy plants that supplied energy to the main building. Researching cyber technology required the best internet speed in the entire world, which meant a LOT of electrical power. So it only made sense that Sci-Lab had their own power suppliers rather than use an outside source.

When the students from Kuoh entered the main building, there was immediately a whole bunch of "wows" spoken by the students. For Ryan, this was nothing new. He had been to Sci-Lab several times before, usually to run errands for his father. While he wasn't too fond of his family name, he did have to admit, the work they did here was pretty cool. He also had to admit that he was a bit curious about this "new invention" that his father was doing. It certainly was the first time he heard about it.

"I assume these are the young minds from Kuoh?" a young male voice asked. The class turned to see a young adult in his early thirties wearing a white lab coat that was torn a bit on the tail end. He wore an orange t-shirt underneath the coat, with a lop-sided brown belt with a blue pouch on his left side. He also had blue jeans and green sneakers with yellow accents. He had green eyes and his hair was brown and fashioned in a gigantic messy afford.

"Yes, this is everyone," Higure replied. "I'm Higure Yamitaro, the homeroom teacher of class 5-A at Kuoh High." He held out his hand towards the scientist, the latter of whom took it in a firm handshake. "Thank you for having us visit for the day."

"Hey, Kuoh has done a lot for Sci-Lab with their intership programs here," the scientist replied. "It's no big deal." He then looked at the class. "Everyone, my name is Dr. William White. I'm one of the researchers and engineers here at Sci-Lab and today, I'll be giving you the tour of the facility." He then saw Ryan standing in the group. Immediately his eyes shot up. "Holy cow!" he exclaimed. "I had no idea Walter's kid was in your class! Hey, Ryan!" He switched over to English. "What's up?"

Ryan gave a small smile, and waved towards William. "Hey, Will," he replied, slightly embarrassed that one of the employees had called Ryan by name.

"Ryan, you know this guy?" Hanna asked.

"A little," Ryan replied. "William was part of my dad's team back in the states, and a really good friend of his too. They work really well together. So well, that when dad got transferred, Will volunteered to tag along for the trip. He's really the only person in Sci-Lab that I'm friends with and understands my frustrations. He told me he went through something similar as kid himself."

"Oh," Hana replied in understanding. Well…sort of…she never really lived a life full of expectations. She had always been free to do what she wanted to do. Her parents were very free spirited. But Ryan…the daily expression on his face spelled only one word: "trapped." Hana never knew how to make him feel free.

"Alright everyone," William then gained the attention of the entire class. "Follow me please."

…

The class walked into a large room filled with various computers with lots of scientists in white lab coats working at them.

"This is the Tech Research Lab," William explained. "This is where we develop all of hardware that's used in todays society, such as the PETs that most people carry nowadays."

"Whoa, cool!" a student said. "So this is where you make all the stuff for the PETs? Like Net Navis and stuff?"

William chuckled. "Well, only the hardware that's used to construct the PETs are made here, like circuit boards and whatnot. The software like apps and such are all developed by separate companies. Same with Net Navis too, although we do develop our own too. But that's in a different room. We'll get there eventually. But for now, let's move on."

…

The next stop the class made was at another large room filled with computers. But they were organized differently than the Tech Research Lab. There were also a lot of blank chips kept in a glass case.

"This place is the Chip Research Room," William explained to the class. "A large variety of Battle Chips and Sub Chips are programed here at Sci-Lab, but we need data from both Net Navis and viruses in order to program them properly."

"Wait," Hana said. "You mean you make all the Battle Chips here in the world?"

"Well, almost all of them," William smiled. "Really, anyone can program their own battle chips with the right knowledge, software, data, and of course, lots of blank chips. But we do provide the basic ones like Cannons and Cyber Swords. Other ones like Super Vulcans and Slashers are very rare and can usually only be found in the deepest parts of the Cyber Net, sometimes dangerously close to the Undernet. Usually, people like Net Savers are the only people who are authorized to travers such dangerous places, but even then, its still risky. Any one who does collect rare chip data, or even data from a new virus is encouraged to forward the data to Sci-Lab for study. Which brings us to our next stop."

…

"This is the Virus Research Center," William explained to the class, as they entered a larger room with about four computers on each ends of the walls, and a massive holographic projector in the center. A common virus known as a Mettaur was displayed on the projector. "This is where we research the virus data that is brought to us. From here we can analyze the virus data that forwarded to us."

"How does studying viruses help anything?" a student ask. "I thought the idea was to get rid of them, not make more."

"Don't you remember anything from our virus busting class?" Maruyama said. "The Battle Chip data that we download to our Navis originate from the data of deleted viruses. Cannons are derived from Cannodum viruses and Met Gaurds and Shockwaves are derived from Mettaur viruses like the one up there." She pointed to the hologram.

"Correct," William replied. "But we do more here than just convert virus data into Battle Chip data. We can also learn how viruses act, both independently and in groups. For example, as I'm sure you've learned in your Virus Busting class, Mettaurs are the most common types of viruses that appear on the net. They're also the weakest viruses out there. Alone, they're not much of a threat. A simple Cannon or Cyber Sword, any chip that does damage above forty HP, or ten or twenty in rapid succession per hit like Vulcan1 can take care of them pretty quickly. However, in greater numbers, they can be quite the nuisance. A Mettaur's method of attack is quite simple. They wield pickaxes that they slam into the ground to perform the Shockwave attack, sending a wave of energy across the ground. They can also block attacks coming at them by ducking underneath their helmet. When we analyze the data from a virus, we are also able to analyze what that virus is capable of, how dangerous it is, and how to defeat it effectively. We then update the Sci-Lab Virus Database with the knowledge we obtain for the public to see."

"Which they can then use in order to combat against the viruses should they and their Navis ever encounter them in the Cyber World," Ryan finished.

"Exactly," William said in English.

Ryan smiled a little bit. Virus Busting was always his favorite class. He was the best in it. Even though he didn't have a Navi, he used one of the school's training Navis. It wasn't the best Navis made, but Ryan operated like a pro when he got into it. No one in his class could ever beat him. And unfortunately, that was just one more reason for the students to be jealous/hate him.

"And that will lead us to our next place of interest," William continued.

…

"Our next stop is the Virtual Practice Room," William spoke as he lead the class into another room. This one was not as tall as the other rooms but it was definitely wider. In the room were five table-like structures each with a clear glass dome over them. "This is where we put all of our research into practice. These Training Computers are able to simulate the virus data we collect and test to see if the Battle Chip data we collect works properly. We also check to see how any Net Navis we make and repair are able to defend themselves in combat effectively and can utilize the Battle Chip data without error. A lot of times, Net Savors and their Net Navis come here to train or volunteer to help experiments, as we have lent our services to some of their investigations."

"Okay, that's pretty cool," Matsuda said. "Betcha my Punk could beat your Number Man in one of those sims, Motohama."

"Brains can outsmart brawn any day, Matsuda," Motohama replied adjusting his glasses. "Strong Battle Chips is one thing, but knowing how to use them effectively is another."

"Even the best equipment is useless in the hands of an armature," Ryan said in English.

The class turned to look at him, wondering where that came from, and what it meant.

"It's just something my Uncle Jack used to tell me back when I was in the States," Ryan explained. "It basically means just understanding how to do something, and actually doing it are two entirely different concepts."

"Ryan's correct," William said. "Theory and practice are polar opposites of each other. That's why experiments exist, to test and see if what we think we know is accurate. And speaking of experiments, I think now is the best time to show you our latest 'attraction,' so to speak."

…

The class was now standing in some sort of observation room with a row of large windows. The room outside was bigger than any of the rooms anyone had ever been in, even bigger than the Virus Research Lab. The room was mostly empty in the area around, but in the center, there was a large glass container that was braced with small beams of grey metal. A person was standing inside the container, wearing a strange black jumpsuit with red accents, broad shoulder casings, and an army green helmet with various grey tubes sticking out of it.

Ryan didn't recognize the person in the suit, but he did recognize the person standing next to him helping the person adjust the suit. He had black mullet, eyeglasses over his brown eyes. He wore a lab coat like everyone else, and had a tan polo shirt on underneath. He wore brown khakis, and brown shoes to match. This was Walter West, Ryan West's father.

"This is our newest addition to Sci-Lab," William spoke. "The Dimensional Research Facility."

"Dimension what-now?" a female student asked. "What's that?"

"It's where we're about to perform our latest experiment," William said. "Fusing a NetOp with a Net Navi."

"EEEEEHHHHHH?!" The entire class exclaimed.

"Whoa, wait what?!" Ryan exclaimed. "How the hell does that work? And why did dad never tell me about this?"

William laughed. "Well you know how your father hates spoilers. So it's no surprise why Walter didn't tell his family about his latest project. But to get you all up to speed, a few years ago, Walter was able to successfully materialize a digital copy of a tree in his lab back in the States. I was there when the experiment. The tree had all of the exact same functions as a real tree, such as absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen. And now, he wishes to take it to the next level with a process that he has coined as Cross Fusion."

The entire class gave out sounds of awe. Everyone except Ryan. He was absolutely irritated how it looked like his father was more interested in his work than his family. Still…

"As much as he grinds my gears," he thought. "The guy does come up with some pretty interesting stuff."

In the room below, one of the scientists, a rather fat one at that, walked over to a tray of strange looking chips. They were covered in a sky blue metal with a circular green crystal in the middle. The crystal had a lot if intricate circular lines spreading out around it. Strangely, there was a small black circle on the bottom left of the crystal, just beginning to eclipse it.

"What's that thing," Ryan asked. "I've never seen a chip like that before."

"That my friend," William spoke to both Ryan and the entire class. "Is part one of two components that make Cross Fusion possible. It's called the Synchro Chip."

"Wait," Katase spoke, still mind blown by this revelation. "So, basically, if a NetOp downloads that chip into their PET, then…they can…Cross Fuse…I guess…is that right?"

William chuckled at the young kendo student's state of awe. "Well, yes and no. As I said the Scynchro Chip is only one part of what makes Cross Fusion possible. The second, is that the NetOp needs to be in a special area called a Dimensional Area."

"What's that?" Ryan asked.

"In laymen terms, it's basically a point of convergence between the Cyber World and Real World. You see those three cylinders over there?"

William pointed to three sky blue glass cylinders that were in grey casings. The insides of them looked like blue circuit boards with lots of lights slowly moving around in random zigzagging patterns. "Those are Dimensional Area Generators, or DAGs as we call them for short. Right now those are the only things in the world that can create a Dimensional Area. But we can only do so in a confined area like that." William then pointed to the glass container. "Cross Fusion is after all still in the experimental stage, so there's a lot that could happen that we don't know."

"Who's the guy in the fancy suit," Ryan asked.

"That's Misaki," William replied. "He and his Net Navi, Prism Man are Net Savers that volunteered to participate in this experiment."

In the room below, the experiment was beginning.

"Alright," Walter spoke. "Everything's ready. Initiate the Dimensional Area."

"Understood," one of the scientists replied. "Initiating Dimensional Area now." The scientist then pushed a lever on one of the computers upwards. As soon as he did, the DAGs lit up like a Christmas tree, followed by a bunch of multicolored octagons appearing in the glass case.

"The Dimensional Area has been formed," Walter announced. "Okay, Misaki, we're ready for the next phase. Go ahead and insert the Synchro Chip."

"Roger that," Misaki replied. "Synchro Chip In! Download!" he announced as he inserted the Scynchro Chip into his PET. There was a sudden burst of bright light that completely enveloped Misaki.

The Kuon students had to shield their eyes from the luminance. Ryan however, did the best he could to still see the process. In a matter of seconds the light died down. The students uncovered their eyes, and what they saw in front of them, they had to blink several times to make sure they weren't seeing things.

In Misaki's place stood a man wearing a white body suit. He had black greaves covering the entirety of his feet, shins, and right up to the kneecaps. The greaves were adorned with purple accents on his feet that converged into a three-inch line running up his shins. The top of the gauntlets had narrow purple hexagons sticking straight up past his kneecaps. On his lower arms he bore purple gauntlets and black gloves. His upper torso was covered in purple armor that extended onto his shoulders. On the sides of his shoulders were large spike looking objects. Prism Man's default weapons no doubt. On the center of the armor was Prism Man's emblem. It was surrounded by a grey border. The background was white. An equilateral triangle that was flipped on its side was displayed on the left, pointing to the right. Two lines of color, one red and one blue, were passing through the triangle diagonally to the right on the top and diagonally left on the bottom. It easily spoke of Prism Man's namesake. And as for the head, Misaki's face was entirely covered by a helmet that had red gem-like eyes and purple armor surrounding the head. On the sides were exact copies of Prism Man's emblem. On top were three grey lines extending out from the helmet, two surrounding the upper sides, and one between them going across ending at both the back of the head and in between Misaki's eyes. His mouth and nose were covered by white plating.

"Is…is that...still Misaki…?" Maruyama asked, entirely bewildered.

"Yup," replied William, grinning ear to ear, pleased to see that all seemed to be going well. "Though in this state, I suppose he would be known as Cross Fusion Prism Man."

"Okay," Ryan said, not noticing how big he was smiling. "Now that's awesome!"

Hana looked over at Ryan. This was the first time she had ever seen Ryan smiled like that before. She smiled softly. "I really want to see more of that side of him. For him to be happy like that…"

"Hmmm…" Bass watched the entire event unfold. As he distrusted humans, he had mixed feelings about the physical union of a human and Net Navi. But he'd be lying if he said such a phenomenon didn't pique his interest.

"Congratulations Dr. West!" one of the scientists. "Looks like the experiment was a complete success!"

Walter nodded, smiling that his latest creations was working.

However…

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Alarms started blaring in both the Dimension Research Facility and the Observation Deck. The students gave out cries of surprise and started to have worried looks on their faces.

"Will, what's going on?!" Ryan exclaimed, getting worried.

"I…I-I don't know…" William said, equally worried.

"Misaki!" Walter shouted. "Misaki, what's happening?! Are you alright?!"

Misaki's only response was to yell in pain as he clutched his head and dropped to the ground on his knees.

"What's happening?!" Walter asked the scientists.

"Heart rate is irregular!" one of the scientists yelled, quite scared. "Blood pressure is rising! If this keeps up, Agent Misaki could go into cardiac arrest!"

"Shut down the Dimensional Area! NOW!" Walter ordered.

"Roger! Terminating Dimensional Area!"

The scientist at the computer quickly shut down the DAGs, causing the Dimensional Area to fade. Misaki's Cross Fusion form burst into a swarm of light blue digital cubes that swirled from his body and in front of him, reforming his PET, leaving him in the same suit he was in before Cross Fusion. His PET dropped to the ground, with scorch marks all over it, and the Synchro Chip was ejected, bearing scorch marks of its own.

The door to the container slid open and Walter quickly ran inside. "Get the medical team here, stat!" Walter yelled.

"Hai, Hakase!"

"Tch," Ryan let out a grunt of irritation. "So the only time he decides to act like a human is when someone that's beneficial to his experiments are in danger?" he muttered under his breath. "Asshole."

However, Ryan's perception of events from above, did not match what actually was happening below.

"Misaki, are you okay?!" Walter asked Misaki.

"Ugh…yeah…yeah, I'm fine…" Misaki replied, rather weakly. "But…Prism Man…it was pretty intense…I tried to stay synch with him, but…I dunno…having someone else's mind in my head…it was…I don't really know how to describe it…Prism Man just…kinda went a little nuts there, I guess…not really sure what happened…I'm sorry, Hakase…I guess I wasn't a good enough test subject."

"It's okay, Misaki," Walter said with a soft smile. "Just take it easy for a bit, okay? If anything, you proved that Cross Fusion is possible. But…" Walter took a look at Misaki's PET and the Synchro Chip. "If this is what could happen to the NetOp…maybe this just isn't ready for testing yet…"

…

Despite the shocking mishap, the students were still bursting with excitement, as they discussed all the possibilities that Cross Fusion could provide while they were in the mess hall during lunch time.

"That was SO COOL!" Matsuda shouted. "I can't wait to do that with Punk! Oh man, Net Battles in the real world while wearing the armor of Net Navis and gaining their powers would be awesome! I wonder if you could use Battle Chips while your Cross Fused. Shit like that's WAY much better than porn!"

"As much as I agree whole heartedly," Motohama said, getting into his rare serious moments. "There are some serious risk factors to consider. You saw what happened to Misaki. What would happen if a NetOp were to become seriously injured during Cross Fusion? How would HP apply to a human while Cross Fused?"

"I really, really, REALLY hate to say this," Maruyama started. "But Motohama is right."

Katase looked at Maruyama, astonished. "Maru-chan?"

"Holy shit, did you actually agree with someone you hate?" Motohama said.

"Hate is a strong word," Maruyama said. "I prefer the term 'dislike,' thank you. But admittedly the words do taste like vinegar coming out of my mouth."

"Heh." Motohama grinned devilishly. "Does that mean deep down you respect me for my smarts and are willing to take our relation ship to the next-"

"If you finish that sentence," Maruyama warned with a death glare at Motohama. "I'm going fling my mashed potatoes and gravy in your face, and mind you, they're still hot."

Motohama immediately shut up.

"As I was saying, Motohama does have a point," the kendo captain continued. "And as much as I would love to see how my kendo skills would be affected if Kendo Woman and I were Cross Fused, there are a lot of dangers that this fusion possesses. Not just to the health and safety for a NetOp, but what if someone got their hands on this technology and started to misuse it? Remember World Three?"

Everyone went silent at that. It had only been ten years since the theorist organization known as World Three had been quelled, but the threat they posed to the world, to bring the Cyber Net Era to its knees by destroying it, was very real.

"That's…definitely a scary thought…" Hana agreed.

"Hold on…" Katase had an even more disturbing thought. "Dr. White said that a Dimensional Area was like a convergence between the Real World and Cyber World, right? So…does that mean…viruses could appear in a Dimensional Area?"

There was another moment of silence.

"The theory…is not completely unfeasible…" a robotic and well informed voice came from Motohama's PET. "The definition of convergence refers to the state in which two things come together. Therefore, it stands to reason that anything in the Cyber World could appear in the Real World while in a Dimensional Area."

"Net Navis could probably do the same, even outside of Cross Fusion, kero," A high-pitched female voice spoke from Katase's PET.

"And let's not forget," an authoritive voice from Maruyama's PET said. "Dr. Wily, the former leader of World Three, still holds a deep hatred towards Ryan's family. His main goal was to take revenge on his late grandfather, Thomas West, by using the very tools created by today's society to destroy it. For a mad man like him, it would be considered as poetic irony. Someone like him would definitely misuse both the Synchro Chips and the DAGs."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a sec," a gruff voice spoke from Matsuda's PET. "World Three's gone, done, finito. Wily's locked up and out of the picture remember? There's no way he's getting out of there anytime soon, so it's all good, yeah? What's with all the serious biz?"

"Wily may be in prison," Roll countered. "But who's to say someone won't take his place?"

"Huh?" the gruff voice replied.

"Roll is correct," the authorative voice spoke again. "The annals of human history have many infamous figures to serve as examples. Alexander The Great, Napoleon, Hitler…the list is endless. People like Wily will always exist."

"Kendo Woman's right," Maruyama agreed. "For now, Cross Fusion still being in the beta stages should be considered a blessing in disguise."

"Well…what do you think about all this, Ryan?" Hana asked…to no one in particular.

Ryan was nowhere to be seen.

"Uhh…where'd Ryan-san go?" Katase asked curiously.

Maruyama shot a glare at the Hentai Duo.

"Hey don't look at us!" Matsuda exclaimed. "We take no responsibility for his actions!"

"We haven't seen him since the Cross Fusion experiment," Motohama answered. "I don't think he even entered the mess hall. Maybe he talking with his dad about the whole Cross Fusion thing?"

"I doubt that…" Hana said with a solemn look on her face.

The group of students turned to look at her.

"What makes you say that, Hana-chan?" Katase asked.

"Ryan…he's really not fond of his father…"

…

Ryan knew Sci-Lab inside and out like the back of his hand. Which did include that one scar he got from accidentally burning himself with a soddering iron, but that's irrelevant. Although he had to admit, if you told him that he would be sneaking around his father's work place to help an over fifty-year-old fugitive Navi, he would have laughed and said "that sounds like something straight out of a shonen manga!" Shonen were always Ryan's favorite genres when it came to manga. He always felt inspired by stories of average joes taking on the challenges that go beyond everyday life and discover values that are bigger than themselves.

In a way, Ryan sort of felt like this was the beginning of his own adventure. And that got him excited. As well as supper nevous.

"You realize if you get caught, I get caught along with you," Bass said.

"Don't remind me," Ryan said. "My dad's rep would pretty much cave in on itself if it were to be known that his son were conspiring with a fugitive. That's enough to earn me at least two or three years in prison, you, either imprisonment with no chance of parole, or more likely, deletion. And as for my family, worst case scenario, both of them get fired from their jobs and have to move back to the States. They'd blame it on me, and my life would be more of a living hell than it is now."

"…I suppose in some way…" Bass said. "That's worse…than deletion…"

Ryan was silent for a moment, as he peeked around a corner making sure no one was coming. "Why do you say that?"

"…Well…I suppose part of me…wanted to be deleted…after losing everything…"

Ryan wanted to inquire what Bass meant by that, but then he remembered his hesitation to talk about his days in the Undernet. So he decided not to press Bass for further details. If Bass didn't want to talk about his time in what was rumored to be Cyber Hell, then he probably didn't want to talk about his own suicidal thoughts.

Soon enough, Ryan reached his father's private office. There was a scanning pad next to the door. This was used to scan the IDs of the Sci-Lab employees in order for them to access certain areas. For Walter's office, only a few scientists other than Walter himself were able access his office with their IDs. These individuals were, at least whom Ryan could remember off the top of his head, William White and that one fat scientist that Ryan saw in the Dimension Research Lab earlier. What was his name again? Soichiro Sanda?

But since Ryan was Walter's son, he had an ID pass in his PET that allowed him to get pretty much anywhere in Sci-Lab. His father's office being one of them. But just as Ryan was about to have his ID scanned, he heard voices on the other side of the door.

"All that work, and I'm still no closer to figuring out Cross Fusion," one voice said in English. Ryan immediately recognized the voice as his father's.

"Oh come on, Walter," another voice replied in English, this one a bit deeper. "Sure there might have been a bit of a set back, but overall it was a success! You should be proud of yourself!"

"A friend of mine nearly having a heart attack in the process of an experiment?" Walter replied. "That's hardly what I would call a success, Soichiro. I won't have my experiments be the death of someone."

"Oh, so he does care about life," Ryan thought irritably. "Sure as hell doesn't show it with his family."

"And until I fan figure out a way for a Net Navi and NetOp to achieve Cross Fusion without putting them at risk, I'm suspending the project," Walter continued.

"Hmm…well I suppose if that's how you feel, then it's probably for the best," Soichiro agreed. "The last thing we need is the Net Police suing us for harming one of their operatives. And they were quite reluctant with your proposal of Cross Fusion in the first place. Especially Commissioner Oda."

"Oda only acknowledged the dangers," Walter argued. "And a lot of what he said I do agree with. But he never seemed to recognize the potential. And as my father said, great risk also caries great possibilities."

Ah, the West family moto. The only thing that Ryan agreed with his family on these days.

"I'm going to go get some coffee in the in the Break Room," Walter said. Ryan heard his footsteps coming to the door and immediately booked it to the nearest corner in the hallway.

"I might as well too," Soichiro said as he walked out the door with Walter. "I'm sure Will's going to be there."

Ryan watched as both Walter and a very large man walked away. "Huh," Ryan though. "So that's Soichiro Sanda." He had only heard his dad mention him, but he never met him in person. "Wasn't expecting him to be the fat guy…ah, shit! The door!"

Ryan quickly dashed towards Walter's office door as it was sliding to close. He was lucky the doors in the building didn't close too fast, otherwise Ryan wouldn't have made it. It was actually pretty fortunate of him that this opportunity happened. The ID scans at Sci-Lab kept records of who come and go out of the various rooms and offices. So if Ryan didn't need to have his PET scanned he didn't need to explain to his father why he was in there.

"Okay Bass," Ryan said. "We're in my father's office, so let's get you all fixed up."

"Finally."

The room was nothing too flashy. It was a simple four-walled room, pale as a sheet, with a computer right across from the door. It was littered with a whole bunch of books, notes, hardware disks, etc. Ryan also noticed that there was a few pictures of him and his family posted on a cork board next to his computer. However, none of them were recent. All of them contained pictures of the family as a whole back in the States, prior to Netto's death.

Ryan looked at the photos half with scorn because for him, this told Ryan all he needed to know about which son he favored. But the other half was solemn.

"Netto,"Ryan thought. "I really wish you were still here with me. Life has been an uphill battle for me ever since you left." Shaking his head to get his thoughts back on track, Ryan took a seat in Walter's chair, placed his P.E.T in the docking station that was connected to his father's computer, and booted up the Navi Repair program.

…

"Alright class," Higure spoke to his class. "Let's all line up and—"

BWEEEEEN!

BWEEEEEN!

An alarm blared though the mess hall, shocking all of the students once again.

"Oh come on!" Matsuda exclaimed. "Now what's going on?!"

All of the doors in the mess hall closed and locked, trapping the class and anyone else on lunch break.

''That can't be good," Higure thought.

"Hana," Roll spoke. "A Level 1 Virus Alert has just been issued in Sci-Lab!"

"What?!"

…

"Walter!" William ran as fast as he could into the break room where Walter and Soichiro were.

"Will!" Walter exclaimed, concerned. "What's going on?!"

"We've got a problem," Will said, trying to catch his breath. "A virus has just invaded the Sci-Lab mainfraim!"

"What?!" Soichiro shouted in disbelief. "But that's impossible! Our firewalls have the most impenetrable security in the world!"

"We got hacked," Will replied. "Someone managed to break into our system from a remote location and deactivated the fire wall."

"Were you able to trace the hacker's IP address?" Walter asked.

"No, that's the strange part," answered Will. "The are signs of the fire wall settings being tampered with, but as for being broken in prior to the Virus Alert, it's…nothing. There were no signs of an intruder…it's…almost like the hacker…never existed in the first place."

"Someone who can mask their PET's IP address on a perfect scale…" Soichiro thought out loud. "Who could do that?"

"How bad is the virus breach?" Walter asked.

"Level 1," said Will. "But it's a huge army of them. Most of them are Mettaurs and Spikies, but I did see a few Lavagons in there as well. Whoever's spear heading this attack is clearly after something in here."

It hit Walter all of a sudden. "My research!"

"What?!" Soichiro exclaimed. "That's preposterous! Your DAGs and Synchro Chips weren't even public knowledge until today!"

"The hacker must have found out somehow," Walter said. "I don't know how or why, but there's no way this can be a coincidence. We have to get back to the Dimensional Research Facility and secure the DAGs and the Synchro Chips!"

"Hai, Hakase!" Both Will and Soichiro responded. But as soon as they turned to leave, the break room door shut closed and locked itself.

"Oh come on!" Soichiro shouted. "Seriously?!"

"The work of the viruses no doubt," Will hypothesized. "They must be locking everyone in the building."

The ventilation in the break room started all of a sudden.

"Boys," Soichiro said, looking at his PET. "Bad news. The viruses have just accessed the ventilation system. They've begun to evacuate the air in every sealed room."

"What?!" Will shouted in disbelief. "They've already got us trapped! Why would they need to suffocate us?!"

"Because of me," Walter replied. "Whoever is behind this wants to make sure that I'm out of the picture, along with anyone associated with me. Leave no evidence, take no prisoners."

"Jesus," Will said. "This is serious."

Walter then gasped. "Oh no! Ryan!"

…

"Okay, that's weird," Ryan said as he was analyzing Bass's data.

"What?" Bass inquired.

"Take a look at this."

…

From within the Cyber World, a pop up appeared in front of Bass, displaying his frame with various messages point out his status. However, as Ryan described, there was something rather…odd.

"Does that look familiar to you?"

What Ryan was pointing out, was a glowing gold orb imbedded within the area of his scarred emblem.

"No," Bass replied. "No I definitely don't remember that being there. Can you tell what it is?"

…

"I wish I could," Ryan replied. "But the code isn't like anything I've ever seen or studied. If my dad's repair systems can't even identify it, someone must've just created it recently."

"Hmm," Bass pondered. "First my power gets stripped, and then some unknown data appears in my structure. I'm betting zennys to bug frags this is Serenade's handiwork. The timing is too perfect to be coincidental."

"Well, regardless of its origins," Ryan continued. "It…doesn't really seem to be affecting your recovery. At least not in a negative way. How do you feel?"

"Honestly," Bass replied. "Much better."

"Good," Ryan said, making one final check before shutting down the repair program. "Then let's book it. If dad catches us in here we're gonna be in serious shit. As soon as we get back home, I'll jack you in and you can be on your way. I don't want to do it here. Too much of a risk of Sci-Lab tracing my PET's IP address if I did it here." Ryan undocked his PET and turned to walk out the door.

However, no sooner than he left the room, his life changed forever…

BWEEEEEEN!

BWEEEEEEN!

"What the hell?!" Ryan yelled, startled by the sudden alarm. "Agh, what is it this time?!"

"Ryan," Bass said. "There's some sort of…pop-up, I believe, being displayed on your PET."

"What?" Ryan quickly pulled out his PET and sure enough… "A…Level 1 Virus Alert? But…wait, how is that even possible? Sci-Lab can't be broken in like this, it's impossible."

Riiiiiiiing!

Riiiiiiiing!

"A call from dad?" Ryan usually ignored calls from his father, but considering the circumstances, he'd better take it. So he answered the call. "Dad?"

"Ryan! Where are you?!"

"Ow!" Ryan reeled back from the loud shout. "Jesus, dad calm down, I'm fine! I just got out of the rest room."

Walter let out a relieved sigh. "Oh thank God."

"Dad, what's up with the virus alert?"

"Our systems have been hacked."

"What?! How?!"

"We're not sure," Walter gave a disconcerted reply. "But it doesn't matter right now. The viruses have sealed everyone of us in separate rooms; the rest of the staff, you classmates too probably."

"Sealed? Wait, you mean everyone's locked in?"

"Yes. But it gets worse. The viruses have also activated the ventilation system and have begun to evacuate the air in all of the locked rooms."

"What?!" Ryan was in shock. People could…die form that! His classmates! Hana! "Why?!"

"Whoever's behind this is after my research and wants me out of the picture, along with any witnesses."

"But…but that doesn't make any sense!" Ryan shouted. "The whole Crossfusion thing…no one outside of Sci-Lab is supposed to know about this!"

"I know, and that's what I'm still trying to figure out."

"Walter!" Ryan heard Soichiro speak. "I just got in contact with Seijiro! He's sending Commissioner Oda and a squad to help out. They'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen…they won't make it in time!" Will's voice this time. "We only have ten minutes before the air is completely gone in all the rooms!"

"Damn it!" Walter cursed. "Alright, Ryan I need you to listen to me carefully."

"Okay, what's up?" Ryan rarely ever wanted to hear anything his father had to say. But this time…

"I need you to run as fast as you can to the ventilation control room. See if you can manually override the controls and shut off the air. That should buy us some time until the Net Police get here. You know where it is?"

"Yeah, I think I passed it a few times in the past."

"Alright. We'll do what we can to get out from our end. Now go, Rapid Ryan!"

"You got it dad!" Ryan then hung up and was about to run, but then stopped. "Wait…when did he know that's what everyone in Akiba called me?"

Riiiiiiiiing!

Riiiiiiiing!

"Oh now what does he want?!"

"It's not your father this time," Bass said. "It's from…Hana?"

"Ah crap she must be worried sick. Might as well take it while I'm on the run." Ryan than answered the call and started running. "Hana?"

"RYAN WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"OW! Jesus, Hana, calm down, I'm fine!" Wait, hadn't he already done this a few seconds ago?

"Ryan, what's going on? The entire class is starting to panic! The mess hall is locked down and we can't get it open!"

"Okay, okay, listen alright? I just spoke with my dad. Sci-Lab's been hacked."

"What?! How?!"

"Yeah that was my response too. They don't know how it happened, but right now that's the least of our worries. The viruses have activated the vents and have begun to evacuate the air in every room that's locked."

"WHAT?!" It wasn't just Hana that screamed that.

"Uhhh…Hana…please don't tell me you have this on speaker again?"

Hana blinked. "I…uh…oops."

Ryan let out a sigh. "Okay, so that's out in the wind, no pun intended."

"How much time do we have?" Hana asked.

"According to Will, about ten minutes."

"What about the police?!" Motohama panicked.

"They've already been contacted," Ryan replied. "But they won't get here in time before the air's all gone. So I'm going to buy you some time."

"…How?" Hana asked concerned.

"I'm on my way to the Ventilation Control Room and see if I can override the vents manually. If I can bypass the viruses, then we should be good until the Net Police arrive."

"But…why is this even happening in the first place?"

"Dad thinks that someone is after his research."

"That…that can't be right," Maruyama's voice was heard this time. "This is the first time that Crossfusion—"

"Has been publically announced, yeah I know. But someone found out apparently. Something for the police to figure out when they get here. Right now I've gotta do my part and make sure everyone is okay until help arrives."

…

Hana looked at Ryan's face with worry. The look he had right now…it was determination. She had never seen him like this before. He was…going out of his way to help her. And a whole bunch of people who mistreated him. And what could she do to help him? What would happen if he failed?

"Alright…" Hana said. "Then I'm going to do my part too."

"What?"

"Roll and I will try to get rid of as many viruses as we can. That should help you fix the vents. I don't know much about how all the security works here at Sci-Lab, but if your dad's right, those viruses are here on a mission, and I seriously doubt they're going to make things easy for anyone that tries to interfere."

"Absolutely not!" Higure denied.

"But Sensei!" Hana protested.

"This isn't a class, Hana, this is real! You would be putting both yourself and your Navi at risk!"

"We're already at risk!" Maruyama countered. "If we don't do something, we're all going to kick the bucket. As a practitioner of kendo, if I'm going to die then I'd rather die fighting." She then placed a hand on Hana's sholder. "So you can count me in Hana-chan. You won't be doing this alone."

"Besides," Katase said, joining in. "You're not exactly the best at virus busting. You'll need some backup."

Hana looked more worried by this. "Are you sure guys? You aren't really that good either. Out of all of us, Ryan is really the best, and he was just using a training Navi."

"Doesn't seem to be stopping you," Maruyama countered. "Besides, loathe as I am to admit it, yes, Ryan does have talent for this kind of thing. But he's not here right now. And even if he we're, he doesn't have a Navi."

"I'm still on speaker you guys," Ryan irritably interjected.

Ignoring him, Maruyama continued. "So that being said, we're with you no matter how tough this is."

Katase nodded in agreement.

"Hey!" Matsuda exclaimed.

Maruyama rolled her eyes. "What do you want?"

"What we want is in."

"…Excuse me?"

"What he means is we're in too." Motohama clarified.

"…Why?"

"To show you our stuff!" Matsuda declared. "Three's a crowd, but five's a party!"

"Technically it's ten," Motohama corrected

Maruyama just stared at them.

"Um, Maru-chan?" Katase spoke. "It actually would be a good idea to have as much people on this as possible."

Maruyama thought about this for a bit, but then relented with a sigh eventually. "Fine. Anyone else want to step in and lend a hand?"

The rest of the class went silent. A lot of people were scared and had uncertain looks on their faces.

"That's fine," Maruyama spoke up after a bit. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

…

Ryan sighed, seeing how there was no way to change their minds on this. "Okay look, if you guys are serious about this, I won't bother trying to talk you out of this. But, Hana, please, PLEASE promise me you and the others will pull out if things get too dangerous."

"Only if YOU promise to be careful," Hana countered.

"I can't make that promise," Ryan replied, knowing fully well he would be taking a few risks as well. "But I can promise that I'll try."

"…okay..good luck Ryan."

"Same to you guys." Ryan then hung up. By this time he had already reached the Ventilation Control room. But before he entered, he paused. He was still worried about Hana and the others. This wasn't a simulation. This was real. And what if they bit off more than they could chew? "Hey Bass?"

"What?"

Ryan looked at his temporary partner through the PET.

"I know this is probably asking a lot, but…I need you to go in after Roll and the others."

"Excuse me?"

"Look, I know that helping out humans is the last thing on your mind, and I get that you don't trust us as a whole. But at the very least, you gotta cut me some slack. I helped you when I had no reason too, so…hate to be that kind of guy but…you kinda owe me."

Bass grunted. "Well…it's true that you did help repair me…and you could have turned me in at anytime…alright, I supposed that's fair. But why save them? Hana and Roll I can understand, but the others? Two of them harass you, two of them are skeptical of you, and the rest outright scorn you. Not to mention your father whom you exceedingly distrust. Why put any effort in to helping them when they have mistreated you?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," Ryan replied. "Yeah, I may hate my father's guts, and I may not like the rest of my classmates too much, but that doesn't mean I want them to die. It would make me a shit ton worse than them."

Bass pondered this for a moment. This boy was willing to risk his life for those who outcast him? Noble, but foolish. How could he be so sure that people would treat him different? Or…did he not care if people treated him different? What sense did that make? But…he didn't say that he was doing this for some sort of personal gain. All he said was…"It's the right thing to do." Is that what he believes? How naïve. But…he supposed it wasn't…completely misguided. "Very well…you assisted me, now I will assist you. But afterwards, this alliance is done."

"Fair enough. Alright, here's the plan. I jack you in, and you take out as many viruses as you can while I try to shut off the ventilation. Keep an eye on Roll and the others from a distance, but if things are looking dicey for them, step in."

"Aren't you worried about Sci-Lab tracing your PET's IP address?"

"With all the craziness going down? Doubt they have time for it," Ryan replied. "But I do have an IP masking software installed on my PET so I'll activate it, just in case."

"Why do you have that?"

"Let's just say I'm a bit of a pirate."

"…I'm afraid I don't understand?"

"We'll come back to it later." A message saying "IP Mask Complete" showed up on Ryan's PET. "Alright we're good to go. You ready Bass?"

"Indeed."

Ryan couldn't help but chuckle at what he was about to do next. "I've always wanted to say this."

Ryan pointed his PET at the Vent Control Room lock pad and shouted…

"JACK IN! BASS! POWER UP!"

…

AN: HOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLYYYYYYY HELL! That was a long first part. I had originally intended to make this all one chapter, but that would've taken for friggin ever. So I decided to make it a two parter. I'd say it's turning out pretty well so far. Also…did you see all the different characters from other franchises I added? Expect more of that in the future, but also expect some of them to be a bit OOC. Just a heads up. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter! STAY TUNNED!