Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The stars don’t twinkle on the moon, that would require an atmosphere, though the lack thereof makes it ideal for observing the cosmos, but not so much for basic human survival. It does offer a great view of the Earth, illuminated by the far off sun glowing blue and green, suspended in inky blackness. Burning high above, the sun, the biggest star in the lunar sky was blinding to say the least, and the source of literally all life to say the most.

The lunar surface however, was barren as always, and white with reflected daylight, as far as the eyes could see. An unchanging sandy, gravely, colorless hellscape. Nothing new, nothing different.

"Reg," the voice coms buzzed. "You staring off into space again?" The voice chuckled. "Can I get that spanner from you?"

Reg took one last look at the half illuminated blue green marble before him, and turned around.

"Sure dad, here." He replied, grabbing the corner of something on his arm, gently ripping the velcro, revealing an assortment of tools held along the inside of the wraps.

He pulled out the tool his dad asked for and handed it over. His dad in a very trained motion took the spanner, flipped it around, and tightened a bolt, tapping on it with a bit of flourish.

"OK Rosie, try now" His dad's voice rang out. For whatever reason, he projected his voice whenever trying to talk to someone in another room, even if the other person was on the other end of a line, physically separated by the vacuum of space.

"No drop in pressure, doctor mechanic!" A female voice playfully piped up over the coms.

"Excellent! That means we're done!" Reg's dad turned to face him, even behind the highly polarized helmet, he could tell his dad was smiling. "Let's head back inside champ." He said, handing the spanner back to Reg.

Those were the words he was waiting for. Finally. Reg put the tool back, wrapping his bracers around his arms once more, and heading for the airlock. Inside, the two of them waited for everything to repressurize, and the liquid nitrogen to blow off the fine regolith off their suits. They doffed their EMU spacesuits, and swept the loose dust into a small opening at the base of the airlock wall, kicked a switch, and watched as it all got vacuumed up.

"You dust free Reg?" His dad patted his shoulder.

"Mhm, yeah." Reg replied, hitting the vacuum's switch with his foot, turning it off. He looked over at his dad’s face, his short black hair and ice blue eyes, and his dad smiled back at him.

"Ok, I have some work I need to take care of, meet up with your mother and finish your daily assignments, we'll meet up at 19 for dinner, alright?" He tussled Reg's hair once, patted him and opened the door to the base.

Reg absent-mindedly nodded and eagerly stepped back into the base, his home and the only home he has ever known. It opened to a large living room, converted from an old conference room where scientists would debrief and record their findings after coming back from their lunar excursions. Now it featured plain green couches, a glass table, and a wide screen entertainment center, all teleported from Earth.

He shuffled past the living room, into the dining area with its tall metal chairs and glass table, past the kitchen with its intimidating mechanical wall full of auto cooking features, through the hall of various doors that would never be opened again, and into the back where finally the greenhouse lay. He opened the door to a huge atrium with a large glass ceiling that filtered out the harsh sun, tinting the shadows with a slight blue. Walls and walls of hydroponic plants filled the space making the air fresh and moist.

Reg walked perpendicular to the rows of plant walls until he finally spotted his mom, hair up in a tight bun, at the end, inspecting some sprouts in growers on a table along the far wall.

"Ah, hi Reg," She said without turning around, "How was your moonwalk?"

"Fine." Reg replied.

"Boring?"

"Yeah."

"Boring is good." She turned around with a smile, "Wouldn't want an exciting moonwalk! That'd probably mean something went wrong!" She giggled.

Reg offered a smile, but he didn't have much of one to give. His mom pleasantly smiled at him.

"Well, the sprouts are coming in nicely! Take a look, these are rare succulents from the Zona desert of Netopia!" She motioned for Reg to come closer.

As he did, she pointed at their little plump leaves.

"It takes them 5 months to sprout normally," She explained. "But in this specialized environment they sprout in 4! Isn't that exciting! We could save this species a lot faster if we sprout them here!"

"Uh sure." Reg replied, not sure what to add. The leaves had a curious texture to them and a calming green. It reminded him of the couch in the living room, but brighter. He smiled a little.

There was a long pause until his mom finally asked in a chipper voice, "Well, what would you like for dinner? Your choice! Anything you want!"

"Huh?" Reg jumped back a little. "What, no, I. There's nothing I want, in particular. I'm not hungry for anything…" He lied.

His mom hummed with a smile. "Think of it as a little early birthday treat!" She chuckled. "We'll get those NAXA engies to teleport us up some good grub! Maybe some cajun pasta…" She leaned to her side, keeping a cheerful look at her son.

Reg's mouth watered at the thought of some local Spacity cuisine. "N-no, I'm fine. Wouldn't the Head get upset at you for making mission control do food deliveries so much?"

"Pshhh!" She tossed her hand dismissively. "I'll deal with that stick in the as- mud." She quickly corrected. "It's your birthday tomorrow and everyone down at MC loves to spoil you."

"It's fine, the PACA can make spaghetti too, we've got plenty of dough."

"The PACA can't get that delightful balance of spice just right. Using only liquid ingredients can only get you so far. You'd think that after all this time they'd invent a dust free spice kit! Oh what I wouldn't give for a powdered donut right now."

"Mom, the ventilators are already working way too hard. We had to repair them twice this month."

"Oh I know." She sighed. "Well I'm messaging your dad about what he wants from BeeBee's."

"What?!"

"You're getting spoiled." She pointed at him, "Whether you want to or not." She gave a cat-like grin and pressed a floating screen next to her that Reg just now noticed.

Reg grumbled, but couldn't help but to soften his expression when the memory of spicy seafood floated into mind.

"Oh! A fast reply! Sounds like he's hungry too. Boudin and dirty rice…" his mom said to herself, typing on the screen.

Reg caved. "Can I have… Their sausage plate?"

She smiled wide, "Anything for you birthday boy!" And finished her typing with a quick flick of the wrist, sending it.

"In the meantime!" She continued, not facing him. He knew what she was going to say. "You need to work on your daily assignments. Gotta keep your studies up! You'll be 18 and choosing a college before you know it!"

"Mhmm…" Reg strained to not roll his eyes. He knew this. It's basically all he thought about. Just three more years and maybe, off this dang moon.

"Can I work on them in here?" He asked, already knowing the answer and heading to a open table and chair.

"Yes, thanks for asking. I'm just going to be taking measurements of some of these sprouts. If you need any help, just ask." She said, facing the plants and taking notes on a floating screen.

"Mhm." Reg sat and pulled out a pair of gloves with shallow, shiny bumps on the fingertips. With a practiced motion, he pressed a button on the wrists and put them on, and in a couple of seconds, a screen was projected off of them.

He began navigating through menus until he found his assignments; to read a chapter in his history texts, fill out a math worksheet, and take a chemistry quiz. He knocked out the quiz first, scoring well enough, and moved onto math that didn't take long either.

History wasn't a great subject of his. The whole concept of people making grand decisions affecting large swathes of the population all seemed so distant. He couldn't imagine a room with more than 30 people, let alone the mere millions that occupied any city on Earth. It left him in this odd state of detached curiosity, something drew him to the texts like how one would hear tales around the campfire. Or Mom's story time around the big flashlight.

He pulled up the chapter and began reading. It was a chapter he had skimmed before, detailing the events of early 21XX, a pretty uneventful set of years. He quickly got bored and skipped ahead to a part that always stuck with him.

Deep in the later chapters of early 23XX there was a picture of a framed photo of a digital being set on a black shelf with incense and a device next to the photo. The caption read, 'Many people had funerals for their digital companions'. He had skimmed this chapter more than the others, but without knowledge of what preceded this, he wouldn't understand it, and he knew this.

From what he could tell, a decision was made to update the entirety of the internet to make it more streamlined and less memory intensive, getting rid of both artificial intelligent programs and viruses in the process. He scrolled back to that picture of the funeral.

He lingered on that picture, his brain trying to piece together a logical story. Why did this happen? Who was this Ai in the photograph to the people who took the photo? Was this new internet worth this? This all happened a century ago, how much has changed since?

Even with the answers at his fingertips, he felt he'd never get the full picture.

He mindlessly scrolled till he remembered his assignment, jumping back to the chapter and actually read it. By the time he finished, two hours had passed since he'd sat down. Only one more hour til food.

He went back to skimming through the chapters, zoned out and unfocused. Something light blue flashed to his left, and he turned to see nothing out of the ordinary. When he turned back to the screen in front of him, out of the corner of his eye he saw it again, quickly turning this time, to nothing.

"Something the matter?" His mother called out from down the greenhouse.

"N-no…" Reg slowly looked around. He felt a slight chill ripple through him and shot upright. He searched for an excuse, "Uh, I'm just gonna, go to the bathroom."

"Ok sweetheart, don't fall in!" She chuckled, waving casually.

Reg forced a smile so much it looked painful, and rapidly shuffled out of the room, down the long hall of doors, into the living area, and into his room.

There he picked up an orb shaped device, and entered the bathroom. He closed the door behind him with a sigh.

"If I'm malfunctioning," Reg said to himself, placing the device aside. "Who could possibly repair me?"

He gripped the sides of the sink, he always hated this. He looked up.

His weary face looked back at him through the mirror. Black hair, dark blue eyes, with his left eye surrounded by an indent in the skin. His left eye let off the faintest of cyan light, and if he focused, he could hear the lenses moving gently.

He opened his right arm brace, removing a tool tucked inside, a long, blunt, hooked instrument. He moved the tool closer to his face, closing his eyes shut, bracing himself, then inserted the tool into the indent, rotated it, and flipped open that region of his face.

No wincing could prevent his ability to witness this, as he had just moved his left eyelids off his eye, revealing the hardware underneath. He opened his right eye, no sense in hiding it.

For a moment he stared at it, the metallic casing housing his robotic eye, a sight he had never gotten used to. It all looked fine, no sign of the odd bright flashes, or anything that could cause it on the surface of the lenses, at least from what he could tell.

He picked up the spherical device, clicked it, and pulled a connector from it, plugging it into a port within his face. The diagnostics he ran came back clean, then he sighed, deflated, unplugging himself and shutting the flap back onto his face in a practiced motion. He kept his hand there for a while, looking back at the mirror, slowly moving his hand down and letting his left eye see once more.

He inspected the hooked tool, and stored it away.

"I must be tired." He said aloud. "How could I not be. Another busy day of fixing everything. Just like-" He couldn't finish the sentence. His throat froze and his shoulder shook, tears welled up in his eye, his right eye.

He shook himself free of whatever had come over him, splashing water in his face and drying off on a towel.

"Pull yourself together, birthday boy." He mumbled into the towel as he pulled it down his face. "Three more years. Just three more years."

He took a moment to gather himself, his thoughts, and the device he used for diagnostics. He stepped out of the bathroom, placing the orb back in its charging dock, and looked around his room.

Posters of the ocean and undersea life covered almost every inch of wall and made the room practically glow blue with all the reflected sunlight coming in from the large glass ceiling. The room used to house a lot more people, and Reg remembered the many months of renovations he and family did after the other scientists had to leave. He was grateful to have a room all to himself, but he couldn't help but to linger on the memories of his mom and dad sleeping peacefully in a bunk next to his.

He pushed the thought out of his head and looked at the time, on a little whale shaped clock, a gift from his eighth birthday. It was a good 30 minutes till he had to go eat dinner, the perfect amount of time to lay on the floor and do nothing. He splayed out on his back, plopped on his nearby VR headset, and listened to heavy rock as an audio visualizer danced to the beat before his eyes.

Before he knew it, it was dinner time. Part of him just wanted to crawl into the kitchen using the passthrough view to see where he was going, grab his food, and lay back on the floor, shoveling red beans and rice into his mouth, but he decided against it. His parents were already concerned about him enough as is. Instead he took off the headset, docked it, and rolled onto his feet.

The kitchen smelled heavenly of robust spices, and Reg quietly pulled himself a chair at the dining table, eyeing the steaming food in the take out containers. Without realizing, he began slowly leaning towards it.

“Looks like someone’s hungry,” His dad’s face caught him by surprise as it entered his sight. Those ice blue eyes of his always intimidated Reg for some reason, and he couldn’t help but to look away sheepishly. His dad gave him a hefty pat on the back, “Where’s your mom? Doesn’t she know we’re starving? I’ve been dying for this meal all day!”

“All day?” Reg eyed his dad disapprovingly. “Did you two plant the idea of BeeBee’s for a pre birthday meal in my head?” as angry as he pretended to be, he couldn’t help the smile creeping across his face.

“What!” His dad feigned shock. “No! Never! Me?!” He held his hand against his chest and paused. “No it was mostly your mother’s idea, blame her.” He cracked into a chuckle.

“Finally out of that call with Dr. Mohs, boy was he real perturbed!” His mom’s voice echoed through the far hall beyond the kitchen. “But he remembered his manners when he realized it was someone’s birthday.” She entered the kitchen, picking the food up with a triumphant smile.

“Well, tomorrow.” Reg corrected.

“Your birthday eve!!” She replied with the same jubilant tone.

His dad walked over to help place the food across the table and whispered low and loud to her, “Did you kick his butt?”

She snorted, “Oh I just made him listen to reason!” she adopted a formal posture, and spoke decisively, “Dr. Mohs as Head of Operations for the Lunar Colony Project your duty is to the well being of all NAXA personale beyond the Kármán line, and as that is currently three people,” She held up a hand with three fingers, “A low cost meal teleported for free for celebratory and moral boosting purposes is vital to the continuation of this program.”

His dad snorted this time. “How’d he look when you said that?”

“Like this!” and her face instantly became like stone, the definition of her features appearing more pronounced.

“Like this?” his dad mimicked, becoming statuesque as well.

“Yes! Like that!” she patted his shoulder jovially.

Reg’s eyes fell onto the plastic take out box in front of him and back up to his parents.

“Oh right! Dig in, I’m gonna grab everyone water.” His mom shooed the other two towards the food laid out on the table.

Reg hesitantly shuffled in his seat shamefully, somehow he’d forgotten to get everyone’s drinks.

“Don’t worry, just eat!” His mom called out, not turning around. Reg straightened instantly, hands already on his box, popping the lid off and letting out all that confined steam. His left eye immediately fogged, which he blinked away quickly. The hot, fresh meal before him filled his senses with mouth watering delight. Red beans and rice, crawfish etouffee, and of course, grilled sausage split right down the middle, lightly charred on both sides. His fork was already buried in the rice, picking up a little bit of everything, and on it’s way to it’s final destination.

The smile across his face was blissful and no one at the table dared to ruin the moment with idle conversation. Everyone stuffed themselves, leaving nothing to waste. And with full stomachs they gathered in front of the large screen in the living room to watch a movie, Reg's choice, before finally heading to bed.

Reg shuffled to the bathroom, stretching and yawning, took off his arm wraps and then brushed his teeth. He splashed water on his face and did his best to ignore the recent memory of his last bathroom visit. He looked up to his reflection, and practiced a smile. He looked like he had just smelled a cracked septic pipe.

He groaned, and buried his face in a towel.

His bed was beckoning him and he was too tired to resist its call. He crawled up the short ladder and flopped onto his bed. Undoing the puzzle of a knot his sheets were in, Reg made odd noises of frustration, until it all unfurled. He tossed it over himself and let his mind wander to sleep.

The room's lights automatically dimmed, the large clear ceiling overhead becoming dark and opaque, with the only sound to be heard was the whirring of the air circulator.

Reg tossed and turned to his side, snoozing peacefully. Silently, a small, cyan light appeared next to him, taking the form of a humanoid shape, with two long strips of light across the chest. They looked at Reg and turned away, shoulders sagged but fist clenched.

Somewhere other than here, a voice echoed in a hollow space, certain it wouldn't reach a single listener, "Reg, I'm going to make this your best birthday yet. I promise." And the light faded.

Chapter Text

Cold. Piercing, crackling cold. Blinding, and searing, and a white smoking steel hand engulfed everything. Pain like ten thousand needles erupted across his face. He grasped towards it, flinching, he knew better. No not yet. The doctor will be here soon. Just hold on. Where is he? Just hold on.
I'm scared.
I know.
We will be right here when you wake up. Be brave.

He woke up.

It was that nightmare again, could his brain really not come up with anything fun or interesting for once? Reg sighed and rolled over to look at the time. Ten til his alarm. He groaned.

He looked at his hand, barely illuminated by the faint light of his left eye. Soon the fake night cycle will end and then he'd have to get up. He considered leaving a note outside his door asking that his birthday surprise be a 10 hour nap.

That'd be a waste of a birthday wish, he knew, plus he actually had hope this year. He wasn't certain, but he'd caught sights of his dad looking like he was fighting someone while typing emails to Earth, and when Reg made his presence known, his dad would lurch to cover the screen with a stunned smile and a suspicious laugh. And with all the coy looks and mysterious hints from his mother, Reg suspected that whatever his parents had planned was really good.

Maybe they'd finally convinced NAXA to refund their shuttle program, just for him. The thought made his heart swell. He made a fist, determined to make this day good. And if he wasn't getting what he wanted, well…

The idea of waiting another year drained all fire from him.

He pulled himself upright and out of bed, no point in lingering. Shuffling down the steps and into the bathroom to freshen up for the day, he stretched and yawned the whole time. His alarm went off some way through his morning routine, lighting the room over the course of a couple minutes.

He gripped the handle on his door. Whatever his parents had planned, he was just going to have to go along with, he needed to be grateful. He pressed his forehead against the door, tried a smile, succeeded to grimace, and let his hand fall off the handle, leaning his body onto the door with a whine.

"Hey champ, you up?" His dad's voice chimed in through the intercom next to him.

Reg rolled his body to face the speaker, "Yeah." He replied.

"Are you ready for a birthday breakfast?" His dad asked, clearly smiling.

Reg stared at the speaker, it was much too early to be this cheerful, but the thought of his dad grinning ear to ear softened him up.

"Yeah." He repeated, with a gentler tone.

"Whoah! Ready already! We gotta finish quick!" His dad hastily replied, with the sound of something clattering in the background.

"What do you have planned?" Reg's face scrunched up suspiciously.

"Oh you'll see! Just give us a minute!"

"60 seconds." Reg grinned.

"Only 60?! Quick Rosie, its-" his dad's voice was cut off by the clang of something falling.

Reg chuckled, and he pulled up the base's monitoring camera feed and saw his mom digging through boxes in dad's office, junk scattered on the floor, well, more junk than usual, and his dad with his hands on his head, watching everything helplessly.

"50 seconds." Reg said over the intercom and immediately muted his mic to let out a laugh as he watched his parents leap at the sound.

After tossing out all sorts of things from oddly specific scientific equipment to the most niche knick knacks teleported from Earth, his mom pulled out something that, judging by her reaction, had to have been the thing she needed. The two left the room in a dash and a few seconds later, he heard a knock on his door.

"It hasn't been a minute yet!" The intercom speaker buzzed with his dad's voice.

Reg unmuted himself. "I don't know, I wasn't keeping track." He smirked, covering his mouth to hold back a laugh.

"Well we're ready whenever you are!" His mom's voice piped up.

Reg held his smile and paused, his hand hovering over the handle. Whatever was going to happen next, he was going to make the best of it. He grabbed the handle and pulled, the heavy door swung slowly to reveal his two parents waiting excitedly. His dad’s face lit up when he saw Reg and pressed something on the screen floating in front of him.

Light projectors came to life and displayed confetti exploding everywhere, with a big banner saying ‘Happy Birthday’. The two threw their hands into the air and exclaimed, “Happy Birthday!” echoing the banner above. Reg jumped back in surprise, grabbing his shirt over his heart, genuinely taken aback by the sudden lights and sounds. He softened and brightened almost instantly, half grinning at the colorful sight before him.

“We had the PACA make chocolate pancakes!” His mom beamed.

“A whole day of your favorite foods, as requested by you!” His dad said as he walked up beside him, patting him on the shoulder.

He had forgotten, that was a request of his, months ago, an offhand comment he made quietly but genuinely. They had remembered.

Reg was overwhelmed with joy and could only say, "Yeah!" As the grin on his face made it hard to say much more. He curiously looked over at his mom and noticed the three little light projectors on the floor.

"So what were you looking for?" He asked.

"Oh!" His mom bounced. "Another projector! To really sell the confetti effect. Knew your dad had one hiding in his office somewhere."

"We're gonna have to clean that up huh." His dad drooped.

"Or at least organize some of it and send some back!" His mom chastised.

His dad drooped even lower, looking over to Reg, straightening back instantly with a sparkling smile, "Let's have breakfast!" And began heading over to the kitchen.

His mom sighed, "William."

"Ok! After breakfast" He sheepishly looked back at her.

"Alright, and I won't let you forget." She grinned devilishly.

"Thanks for keeping me sane Rosie honey~" He babishly sang with a kissy face.

She giggled and gently touched his shoulder.

In the kitchen, the large mechanical wall was making all its usual racket of whirs and hisses. On the counter lay two brown pancakes, slightly steaming, as the machine produced a third, moving down a conveyor. Reg pulled out a plate from a cabinet, and took out a folded up fork from his arm wrap full of tools. He looked over at his mom expectantly, which she immediately waved with a smile and replied, “Don’t wait for us! Eat!”

That’s all he needed to hear, Reg launched into a frenzy of slicing and scooping, drenching the poor pancakes in a flood of syrup, gratuitously indulging in this rare treat that the normally scheduled nutritious meals designed to maintain an astronaut’s physique wouldn’t dare include even a fraction of. It was heaven.

Part way through he noticed his parent’s snickering between silence and looked over, seeing the two huddled over a hovering screen. He narrowed his eyes at them.

His mom looked up and waved, giving a cat-like grin and hummed, “Oh don’t worry, we just snapped a photo of you. You’re quite photogenic you know!”

“You have syrup all over your face.” His dad strained to say plainly.

Reg lurched for a towel and wiped away any trace of the stuff, inspecting the towel to find it’s top side soaked in syrup. Dread fell over him like the night.

“Don’t. Share that with Mission Control.” He commanded in a low but wavering voice.

His dad hesitantly chuckled while his mom continued to hum.

“Aw!” She chirped. “But I bet they’d love to see it! Think of it as… An investment! So they know their favorite moon boy’s livin well because of them!”

Reg narrowed his eyes further, but didn’t argue. She was right. Some of those people down there helped raise him personally. They already knew plenty of embarrassing things about him, what’s this little bit more?

He still hated it though.

He looked at his plate, practically demolished shreds of fluffy sweet bread scattered about with an inundation of syrup drowning the plate. Did he really already eat all that?

“Want another?” His mom asked, holding up a plate of pancakes of her own.

“N-No, I should probably save room, right?” He tried to think of all the other favorite foods of his that they could be planning to serve him today.

“A wise choice.” His mom nodded.

Fear.

“So! Dr. Mohs will be present at this morning’s briefing. He specifically requested Reg be there as well.” His dad informed everyone from the screen hovering before him.

Could this be it? His heartbeat rose into his head, drumming out all thoughts.

“Well, are you ready?” His dad asked. “They’re just waiting for you to finish up your pancakes.”

Reg looked down at his plate. It was… Clean enough. Any fragment of hunger in him was overwhelmed by the torrent of anticipation he was drowning in.

He nodded. Picking up the plate and taking it to the dishwasher, and cleaned his fork by hand, placing it back into his arm wrap. He followed his dad down towards the far hallway to the meeting room. He heard his mom set down her plate and follow behind them. This hallway, unlike the longer one that led to the greenhouse, had a short path with a couple of conference rooms attached. The closest one, and one of the much smaller ones, was the only one operating at the moment, and the three stepped inside.

It featured a small desk, three chairs, two at the desk and one in the back, and a wall mounted screen that took up the majority of that area. His dad squeezed into the far chair, Reg took the one in the back, and his mom sat into the last one near the door. His dad swiped at a screen in front of him and in a couple long seconds, the large screen turned on.

Before them a group of business casually dressed people sat staring blankly at the screen before them, but after three seconds they brightened and cheerfully waved.

"This is Mission Control Spacity calling Lunar Base Argent, local date and time October 16th, 24XX, 8:32 AM." One of the scientists said in a quick, practiced manner, "Dr. Garret, anything to report about the coolant leak yesterday?"

"Repairs have held up well, nothing else new to report." His dad replied in a tone Reg knew well as, 'you should know this already I sent the email, but I understand its protocol'.

It took about three seconds between each bit of communication. Even as technology has advanced, the speed limit of the universe, the speed of light, was still unbeatable.

"Disposal day is tomorrow so be sure to gather all unneeded materials to be teleported down." The scientist continued, reading off a checklist.

Reg remembered why he never sat in on these meetings, they were a lot of nothing. Surely it didn't need to be so formal? He zoned out, instead choosing to stare at the background behind the group of scientists.

"And I believe today is a special da-"

"Oh is that Reg!?" Another scientist jumped into frame, cutting off the one reading the checklist. She had big curly hair and an angular face, one Reg recognized as Dr. Collins, one of the astronauts who once inhabited the lunar base with him and his family.

"Oh it is!" She cooed.

"Dr. Collins, do you mind? We're in the middle of a debrief." The checklist scientist scoffed.

"Well I would have volunteered for morning contact if I knew Reg was going to show up!" She scoffed back. "Oh my gosh, hi Reg!! Look at how tall you are now! It's been months! How's the birthday been?" She sang and swayed.

"Dr. Collins, please, after we've finished." The scientist shoved her comically out of frame.

"Now then." They looked back down at the list. "Dr. Mohs would like to present something."

One of the scientists in the back shuffled to the side to let a large, brick chinned man wearing a tasteful suit take a seat. In his hands was a carefully wrapped present with the most extravagant bow Reg had seen.

"Yes we are all aware of what day this is." The man spoke like rocks sliding over each other. "And we are quite proud of him for his 15th birthday."

Reg squirmed in his seat, could this be it? It was happening so fast, his heart pounded and his head swam.

"We understand how resilient you have had to become to uphold the hope for humanity beyond this planet, and for that we thank you." Dr. Mohs intoned, shifting in his seat, lifting up the present. "So as a congratulation for making it to the age of 15, I on behalf of all of NAXA would like to present you with this gift. And with your permission I will open it for you right now."

"Uh," Reg could hardly process the words, he went on autopilot. "Yeah-Yes! Yes sir." He croaked out, swallowing with a dry throat.

"Very well." Dr. Mohs nodded. Both rooms fell silent. Reg only just now noticed the large crowd gathered behind the scientists, some leaning into frame. Were they all looking at him? Did they know what the present was and wanted to see his reaction? Dr. Mohs was already carefully disassembling the ribbon on the present, deftfully unweaving it.

The wrapping paper peeled back and Reg felt gravity hold him from all sides. Dr. Mohs slid the box out in one finessed move.

It was a fancy box, black and gold writing, detailing something, with a picture of what was inside printed on the box. It looked like some sort of electronic, like one that could be added to one of the computers.

"This," Dr. Mohs held it up for everyone to see and announced, "is a QZ 256 Quantum Relay. Capable of receiving and transmitting data instantaneously from anywhere. We have been approved to set up a pair of relays here and on the Argent. This should allow for greater ease of communication between us. And as a bonus, we will be increasing bandwidth allowance for recreational internet usage." He finished with an extra cheerful flourish in his voice.

Reg heard nothing. He wasn't sure he was even in the same room anymore. He was certain everyone around him was cheering, happy smiling facing all around, but it felt imagined. Everything blurred and swirled, a thousand eyes and half a thousand smiles bore down on him.

He smiled too, he had to.

His head pounded and pounded and he didn't realize he was looking down until his mom gently called his name.

"Thank you Dr. Mohs! I really appreciate it!" Someone said, probably himself, but he couldn't tell.

Another round of applause. Reg got up from his chair.

"Honey? You feeling ok?" His mom asked.

"Yeah, just need to uh. Breakfast didn't settle well. Not feeling. Great." He said.

"Ok, bye Reg! Happy Birthday!" One of the scientists said after the delay, and before a wave of others wished him more, Reg had closed the door behind him into the sudden silence of the hallway.

Reg slouched against the door behind him, everything crashing back at once. His birthday present was a quantum relay. They knew what he really wanted. It was a nice gift! But they knew what he really wanted, right?

He could finally play games online, after fixing another broken something on this derelict house prison. He could meet people his own age, if he knew how to. He could distract himself, he could wait. Three years.

He was in the kitchen. At some point his legs started moving. He looked at the half eaten pancakes left on the counter that his mom was probably dying to finish. He kept walking to where the light projectors were laying and picked one up. He pressed a button on the side and the light projector flashed an explosion of confetti that fell down around him and slowly faded away.

Why didn’t anyone say anything? Why didn’t he say anything? Why wasn’t he happy, this is at least one of the things he wanted. Given the situation, it was the most logical choice. To refund the entire rocket program, just for one kid who would probably not make it back, or give an upgrade that benefits everyone. He hated it though and he couldn’t explain why.

He looked back towards the little conference room, maybe he should go back? The hallway looked distant, dark, and further away from him. No, he shrank back, placing the little light projector back on the floor. No, this was fine. He’d apologize later and everything would be fine.

Chapter Text

Reg turned to see his room, the door still wide open.

Before he knew it, he had crawled into bed, face buried in a pillow. He stayed there for a while, forehead propped up on his arms, making a little space for him to breathe.

Why can't I be 18 yet. He thought to himself. Heck, I wouldn't mind losing my past 15 years if it meant…

He was lying to himself and he knew it. The allowed starting age for human teleportation of 18 was arbitrary, but not without reason. He recalled the news articles about children needing emergency teleportation losing their memories or worse, not appearing again at all. He shuddered. It wasn't that bad on the moon.

He laid there for a bit, not getting too comfortable due to the tools wrapped around his arms. In a sigh of frustration, he shifted, ripping off one of the wraps, turning his whole body to throw it off his bed and.

A cyan human made of light was staring at him.

He tossed the wrap like it was on fire which passed right through the figure, then he sprang up from his bed, flattening against the wall behind him.

“What the hell?!” He exclaimed. The thing in front of him was some humanoid figure, about his height, made entirely of a cyan light, wearing loose clothes, a helmet, and large floating ribbons, one around the head and two across the chest.

It stared at him with the same surprised expression he had, then softened to a pleasant smile.

“Hello! I imagine this is unexpected! My apologies for scaring you.” They spoke gently, holding one hand up.

Reg tossed his other arm wrap at them like he was tossing away laundry. It passed right through them and flopped onto the ground with little noise.

“Huh.” was all that came out of Reg's mouth. He slowly relaxed as the figure before him floated silently with a curious expression.

They mimed a cough and then said, "It's very nice to finally meet you Reg. I call myself the Lord of Once Was, though your father has taken to calling me Lowe. Either is fine!" They ended with another smile.

"Wha-What?" Reg breathlessly stammered. His whole body drooped forward. Nothing was coming to mind, he would've sworn he was dreaming if it wasn't for the fact that he damn well knew he wasn't. Something finally clicked.

"Wait, you know my dad?" He said, straightening his back.

"Yes! Though it has been through text, I have yet to meet him like this," Lowe gestured to themselves.

"What… are you?" He asked and cocked his head to the side.

"Ah! That's a good question!” They brightly smiled, “I’m a Navi!”

“...Navis were discontinued 200 years ago.” Reg paused and then immediately added, “Wait ALL AI went extinct 100 years-” he blinked, flabbergasted, “What are you?!” his face contorted into a wild eyed squint and slack jawed scowl.

“I just told you, a Navi!” They continued smiling, tilting their head to the side pleasantly.

Reg continued to hold his expression. And after a silence that told him that nothing else was going to be added, he deflated forward, sighed, and shrugged.

“So Lowe. Uh. Nice to meet you.” He looked back up at the figure before him, “I guess?”

“Likewise!” They chuckled, “I’m sure you have a million questions swirling around your head right now, feel free to ask them!”

He blanked. The weight of all of this finally caught up to him and he collapsed back onto his bed in a huff.

“Uh sure,” He grabbed his head and massaged it, “So what are you doing here?”

Lowe pondered this, leaning their head onto their hand, then straightened up with a smile. “Giving you a birthday present!”

“Of… What?” Reg asked suspiciously.

“Oh that can wait!” They held up a hand, “More of your burning questions would be better right now.”

“Ok?” Reg furrowed his brow, “What’s your name mean? Lord of Once Was?”

“Ah. I watch over something important. Something you should not know about.” They said holding a finger to their mouth with a wink.

“You’re pretty evasive.”

“So I’ve been told!” they chuckled for a bit, then added, “Your father thought to add ‘exe’ to the end of my title, just as Navi’s of the past had. That way my acronym would be Lowe and not Low.”

“I guess I can hear a difference.”

“He also said it means lion in Germanettan,” they hummed, “Though I don’t really think such a proud animal suits me, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I have. No idea.”

They shrugged. “Take my word for it.”

Reg stared at the figure in front of him again, their friendly demeanor was unshakable. He looked over to his door, thanking his past self for closing it behind him. He did not want his parents to be finished with the morning meeting and walk past his room and hear any of this.

“Wait. Does my mom know about you?” He asked, lifting his head suddenly.

“No.” Lowe shook their head, “And I would ask that you don’t tell her. My existence is to be kept a closely guarded secret.”

“How many people know of you?” Reg narrowed his eyes.

“Two.” They held up two fingers, “Your father and you. There’s others who know that your father works with something important, but they don’t know what.”

“Works with… You mean here. On the moon.”

Lowe nodded.

“So you’re telling me your program is stored somewhere on the moon?”

Lowe nodded again.

“Is that why NAXA built a whole moon colony, why I’m here?” He felt his anger rising in his voice.

“Part of the reason.” Lowe’s demeanor turned stone cold, “Your father does important work. More important than you realize. I’m sorry you have been dragged into all this, I understand what it’s like to be in a seemingly inescapable situation.”

Reg thought about this, then said flatly, “You’re stuck here too, huh?”

Lowe nodded once and looked away.

They silently stared at something distant, with hollow eyes, an expression Reg was familiar with, and knew needed distraction.

"So um, that birthday present." He reminded, then threw up his hands and panicked, "N-Not that I need to know what it is right away or don't like listening or. Whatever!" He blurted, shaking slightly.

Lowe looked back and blinked in surprise, then chuckled once, then a couple more times, then threw their head back in a hearty laugh.

"Yes, right, your birthday present!" Lowe said with a smile that seemed more real than the other ones, Reg noticed. Then they became still, gently facing Reg with a pensive look.

"I've known you your whole life." They explained, eyes wandering down and to the side. "I've watched you grow up, seen your struggles, your victories, and your tragedies."

Reg instinctively reached for his left eye, but stopped himself, burying his hand under his leg.

"I can say that I'm proud of the young man you've grown to be." They looked Reg dead in the eye.

He swallowed hard, those piercing eyes saw straight through him like he was words on a page.

"You're thoughtful and kind."

Reg soundlessly tried to say something, to deny this, but he was too busy fighting back tears.

"And you have a light within that should be shared with the world."

"No!" He choked out, shivering, "I! I'm not!" He started crying, "I'm not kind, I cause so many problems! I'm just some damn kid stuck on the moon, that doesn't make me special! This whole place would be better without me!" He yelled, his voice wavering, then he froze.

Lowe looked as though they'd been shot, wide eyed and shaking. Reg immediately turned away, gripping his bed sheet like it was going to slip away from him.

"S-sorry," He coughed, then sniffed and brought his shirt to his face to wipe it off, curling inward and holding one bent leg.

He didn't dare look back up, part of him hoped Lowe would just leave, whatever this present was, he didn't deserve it. He has done nothing since the day he was born but cause problems. For his parents, for the other astronauts, for NAXA, he was just a head to account for, a net negative, a burden, and he knew it. Why should he ask for more? He was being selfish, demanding something as ridiculous as an early way back home. He just needed to shut up and wait!

A hand made of light gently touched the railing on the side of his bed.

"Reg, I…" He heard Lowe say.

"What?" Reg snapped, and immediately recoiled, shame washing over him.

What was wrong with him? All they did was compliment him, and he yelled at them? What was he thinking?

He noticed the hand had left the railing, and turned his head to find it hovering over his shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” he exclaimed, wincing at his own voice. His head was swirling, his ears were pounding, he felt like he was being boiled and that his body was miles away from him. He took one look at Lowe’s face and blanched, they looked to be on the verge of tears.

He ran.

Somehow he had made it into his bathroom with the door slamming behind him. Why did he do all that? What was he doing? He finally felt the cold trail his tears left on his burning face. He coughed and collapsed, curling into himself, staying there in silence until he could finally hear his ragged breathing once more.

He should apologize. He acted irrationally and he knew it. Lowe probably thought there was something wrong with him, pitied him. Who wouldn’t? All Reg wanted to do was bury his head in a nest of pillows and wake up some time in the future.

But he couldn’t let Lowe be out there all by themselves, wondering what on moon just occurred. He needed to get up and do something. Anything. Instead, his thoughts kept repeating, kept questioning his own actions. There was only one way out of this. He was going to have to do it scared.

He pulled himself to the sink, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He looked haggard, hair was a mess, red faced, and sunken eye. All that made the area around his left eye stand out more, as it looked plain and unassuming to what the rest of the face had gone through. He turned away from his reflection and turned on the sink to wash his face, drying off his face afterwards like he was scrubbing stains.

Stepping out of the bathroom he looked up to check if Lowe was still there, he caught sight of a bit of their cyan garb and quickly looked back down.

“Sorry,” He choked out, “I uh, didn’t mean to run away like that. That was embarrassing.” He cracked an uneasy smile.

“Reg.”

He braced himself. What was it about that voice that set him on edge?

“You don’t need to apologize. I should be the one apologizing to you.” Lowe’s voice seemed distant.

Reg looked up, surprised, and found Lowe staring at the floor, fists clenched.

“I came on a bit strong there huh? It’s not easy hearing nice things about yourself from a stranger. I understand.” Lowe ended in a hollow chuckle.

Reg wasn’t sure what to make of this. He stood there agape. Here was the only Navi in existence, doing something top secret on the moon, and they were apologizing to him for being nice.

“What are you talking about?” Reg questioned with a bit of annoyance.

Lowe whipped their head up to look at Reg, and he threw his hands up defensively.

“You act as though you’re the one who stormed off.” He couldn’t help but to laugh.

“I…” Lowe looked back down at the ground, “I should’ve met you sooner. I’ve wanted to for a long time but,”

“The whole secret thing, right.” Reg finished their statement, waving the thought away, “Look. I really am sorry that I yelled at you.”

“It’s ok! I know you’re under a lot of pressure, you just needed some time to sort out your emotions!” Lowe lifted their head with a smile, raising a reassuring hand.

Reg sputtered a chuckle out, “You sound like one of my old therapists! He told me to ‘try to find the source of my anxiety and avoid it’ and I just!” he gestured widely to all around him.

They both paused.

And then burst into laughter.

“It’s all a little hard to escape, huh?” Lowe chortled, covering their mouth.

“Where would I even go to!?” Reg comically yelled, with the biggest grin on his face, “Everywhere’s a ticking time bomb!”

“Well, not everywhere…” Lowe said coyly.

Reg quickly went through the list of all the buildings he knew of on the moon, all had something wrong with them. Then he remembered a room he hadn’t gone in. In a schematic for the Argent moon base, he had noticed a door in his dad’s current office that wasn’t there in the actual room. All this talk of secrets connected something in his brain.

“Is there a basement?” Reg eyed Lowe suspiciously, “Lowe. Do you live in my basement?”

They sheepishly held a finger to their mouth with a half grin and a wink.

“Fine, fine, I won’t tell anyone.” Reg shrugged, and smiled back.

“You know, you never did get your present.” Lowe tilted their head with a finger, looking off to the side.

They were obviously changing the subject, but Reg was curious about this present so he didn’t mention it.

“The present isn’t you?” Reg acted surprised.

“I am a delight but no, the present is not me!" They gave a cheesy grin then softened, "As I was saying, Reg, you're very thoughtful."

Yeah I'm full of thoughts, that's for sure. He thought to himself.

"And you can't deny this! The world is better with you in it!" Lowe pointed right at him.

"What, that world?" Reg sneered jokingly, jabbing with his thumb in the direction of Earth.

"You'd like to visit it, wouldn't you?"

Reg's goofy posture instantly dissolved, his voice solemn as he spoke, "More than anything." His eyes grew wide as his brain lept to conclusions.

Lowe smiled gently, opening both of their hands palm up in front of them. Soft white light coalesced into a small point, it glowed and pulsed slowly to a rhythm. It looked gentle, like silk, like if you touched it you would feel nothing, and it would break apart to then float into the breeze.

"This is a very special program," Lowe explained, "I've worked on it for years and have gotten a lot of help with it." The look on their face was one of far off pride.

"It's an ultimate program of adaptability. Capable of so much, that even I don't know all that it may be able to do." They cupped their hands gently around the light.

"And I want you to have it."

Reg took a step back, wide eyed and brows furrowed.

"No." He replied, incredulously.

Instead of getting upset as Reg expected, Lowe looked solemnly up at him.

"Why?" They asked, plainly.

Reg stammered, scratching his head, "Well, I'm, not the best one to have that. Someone at NAXA could better utilize it, heck even my dad would be a better choice. I'd just use it to, I don't know, allow me to teleport safely to Earth, but someone else could use it to coordinate medical supply transport to countries in need or something. It'd be wasted on me."

Lowe smirked, "And that's part of the reason why I want you to have it."

"What?!" Reg stumbled but caught himself, "You'd be ok with just giving away your… baby? Basically? To some kid?" He pointed at his chest.

"Look, I just have to wait three years and then I'll be teleporting to Earth anyways!" He threw up his hands and shook them.

"Reg," Lowe sighed, "this is a selfish wish of mine, but I want you to have this. Not because you're special, but because you would use this power for others."

"But, I just explained that I wouldn't…?"

"By saying that you don't want it because you know that someone else deserves it more."

"Then give it to them!"

"No, because you need it, and I want you to have it. You deserve to be treated kindly."

Lowe wasn't going to take a no, Reg could feel it, and also felt pressure on all sides, he dared not cry again today, shook his head, and got angry.

"I don't want power." He took a step forward. "But can this thing be shared? Like, once I get to earth could I then give it to someone who needs it?"

"In theory, yes." Lowe looked down at the little light, "There's no telling what this program will do, but it adapts to needs, whatever that may be."

"Ok… Cool." He relaxed, taking a couple steps toward Lowe and the light. It looked a lot smaller up close, like just a pinpoint with small motes rising slowly from it.

"It has a will of its own." Lowe explained, "I didn't mean for it to have one, but it does."

Reg stared silently at the tiny thing, a little mesmerized by the floating lights.

"Perhaps it's what it needed." Lowe continued, "To make hard decisions, a strong heart is necessary. I promise I wrote every line of code with love but, if it really has garnered an intelligence, I worry that it may make an irreversible mistake. Can you promise me that you will guide it to the best of your abilities?"

“Uh, yeah.” Reg distantly replied.

“Reg.” Lowe closed their hands around the light, an action that caused Reg to snap to attention as he remembered where he was, “I need a clear decision.”

Shame washed over him, he had gotten too casual. This was a matter to be taken seriously, and he needed to treat it like that. He took a deep breath and faced Lowe in the eyes.

“I don’t want to influence your answer to this.” Lowe met his gaze, “I need to know, what do you want?”

“Huh?” Reg was taken aback, wasn’t it clear what he wanted? Why did Lowe ask that?

“To go to Earth?” He answered, brows furrowed. Lowe looked unchanged.

Reg looked around the room, was that it? That’s not the answer Lowe was looking for. No, Lowe wasn’t looking for a particular answer, were they. There was something more that he wanted. He knew what it was, but how do you describe that?

“I…” He looked back up to Lowe, “I want to help.”

Lowe was unmoved, Reg gulped as he tried to find words.

“I want… To be there for people, to be relied on. I want to be whatever they need. And…” He closed his eyes and shakily took in a breath, “I’d like it if there were people who’d do the same for me!”

The words poured out of him, “And I want to be a marine biologist! I want to study whale migrations and whale songs and plankton life cycles and ocean food webs! I’d be great at it too!”

He could feel tears starting to well up, and he cut himself off there, taking in some deep breaths to calm himself down. When he felt at ease, he looked back up.

Lowe was smiling genuinely, softly, like an old friend had greeted them.

They opened their hands once more, revealing the little light and again Reg was drawn in by its gravity.

“You don’t know how happy that makes me.” Lowe said, barely above a whisper.

“Now Reg.” Lowe said firmly.

He sharply inhaled and focused on Lowe.

“Will you accept this program, for whatever flaws it may have, and not for the power it brings? Will you love it, respect it, and guide it kindly through our tumultuous world?” Lowe adjured, their eyes low and piercing.

It was like they were asking him to raise a child, but as Reg thought about it, was that really all that inaccurate an assumption?

“I will.” Reg answered, whatever this decision would bring, he was going to make the best of it.

"Thank you," Lowe spoke gently, releasing a tense breath.

Reg paused for a bit, processing that the electronic being just sighed, then looked back down at their hands to find them empty.

"Huh? Wait, where'd it go?" Reg gestured to Lowe's hands.

"It's with you now." Lowe said, closing their eyes and lowering their head, "More specifically, right there."

They pointed directly at Reg's left eye.

He reached for it. Why? Why was it always this dang eye? He looked at his hand uneasily.

"Scared that you've rushed into a decision as you're realizing the weight of what you've done?" Lowe asked, their eyes still closed. Then they laughed, once, "Don't worry, that's how everyone feels after making a huge decision. So long as you're on the moon, I'll be here to support you."

They looked up, reaching out with their hand, and said, "You're not alone."

Reg's face screwed when he heard those words, then shook it off quickly. He faced Lowe with a smile and went to shake their hand, only for it to pass through, causing him to stumble and catch himself.

Lowe laughed, "It's the sentiment that counts."

Reg snorted, then began laughing too. He looked back up to Lowe, the first friend he had made in who knows when, and smiled.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, is there anything else you wanted for your birthday?” Lowe asked, smiling pleasantly.

Reg paused, blanking for a second, and slowly straightened himself out. It was still his birthday, with a couple of hours till lunch. Normally he’d be following his schedule, doing daily maintenance, assisting in ongoing experiments, studying, exercising, but for just today NAXA let them do whatever they wanted. He pursed his lips and pondered.

“You wanna play laser tag?” He asked, holding up some finger guns.

“Sure, I’ll try to go easy on you too.” They replied with a wink.

Reg nodded and grabbed his VR Headset, strapping it onto his head, and putting on a pair of gloves with light projectors woven into the top. He turned on the passthrough so he could see his room, and pulled up a menu using the gloves. Two cartoonish laser pistols appeared in his hands, and Reg grabbed them and felt their weight.

Hard light technology always impressed him, despite it’s somewhat limited functionality due to its fragility, it was still cool to be able to summon any 3D model at any time. Even the undersuit he wore was kitted with four projectors, but only was to be used in emergency situations such as his EMU suit tearing.

He looked around the room for Lowe, until they suddenly appeared on the screen as a bright blob.

Reg exclaimed and tried to cover his eyes, forgetting it was coming from the headset itself, and grimaced until the light stopped. He peeled off the headset and looked at Lowe wide eyed and confused.

“Apologies, I was adjusting my wavelength so that your cameras could pick me up.” Lowe explained, looking to the side.

“You can do that?”

“Yes, I can even become invisible to human sight.” They answered with a sudden disappearance, “I can also do this.”

They reappeared, but this time it caused Reg’s head to hurt, he winced and closed one eye, quickly realizing Lowe had appeared in only his left eye’s vision. Trying to perceive something three dimensional that only exists for one eye was causing his brain to short circuit, so he closed his right eye.

“That’s cool.” He grumbled, in a tense tone.

“Ah, apologies, again.” They reappeared normally, “You could just set up a local co-op instance of the game and I’d be able to join.”

“You can?” Reg looked surprised, but then remembered who he was talking with.

He pulled the headset back on and navigated to the main menu, clicking the rarely opened page for multiplayer, and turning on the local-area network. The game loaded before him, and he kicked away furniture to clear a space around him. A pop-up appeared saying a username of incomprehensible text entered into the game, with Lowe appearing next to him.

"Quite the name you got there." Reg pointed to the pop-up.

To which Lowe just chuckled. They looked a bit different in the game, less of a cyan glow and more solidly colored. Reg figured that this must be how Lowe actually looked.

"Ok, so you know how these games work? Two opposing teams shoot at each other to rack up the most points in a set amount of time. In co-op we just shoot targets, is that fine with you?" Reg explained, gesturing with a pistol.

"That's fine. It wouldn't be fair otherwise." Lowe said flatly. Reg believed them, something told him they weren’t kidding.

Reg finished putting in the settings for the match and hit enter. The game unfolded before them, building a craggy red landscape with large circular targets scattered about. Reg held up his pistols and began firing. While in reality the hard light projected guns could never fire anything, the physicality of having something solid really helped with immersion.

After firing off a volley of rounds, taking out most of the targets, he looked over at Lowe who seemed to just be observing.

“Did you want a turn?” Reg asked, unsure on how to read this inscrutable Navi.

“I don’t want to show off, but,” Lowe held their chin, “would you like to see something impressive?”

“Yeah?!” Reg replied incredulously, continuing to shoot down targets.

“Reset the match please.”

Reg looked at them wildly, shrugged, and opened the menu, resetting the match.

Lowe held up a finger, “Now shoot at me.”

“What.”

“You’re taking time off my potential record!” Lowe, to Reg’s surprise, whined.

He fired once at Lowe and the light immediately branched into a hundred, warping and splitting around their finger. The light slammed through every target, blowing holes into the landscape behind them, something Reg didn’t think possible. The game’s victory screen appeared with a new record of eight seconds, beating Reg’s by a landslide.

“Hmm, I bet we could shave that down to point five seconds if we tried again.” Lowe peered over at the time.

Reg was still reeling. Not only did Lowe crush his record, they did so with some strange power, and to top it all off, they had whined.

“You’re staring at me.” Lowe stated, still looking at the results screen.

“What was that?!” Reg blurted, flailing.

Lowe turned and just smiled with closed eyes.

“No no no, explain.” Reg pointed.

“I can manipulate light.” Lowe said casually.

“Yeah you also sounded like a child there for a second.”

Lowe turned away and covered their mouth with their hand, flushing pink, “Yes, well, I get a bit carried away when it comes to competition, I will admit.”

They were… blushing? Was this a thing Navis were known to do? Reg supposed that a designer could just add a couple of pink pixels onto the base texture, but the complexities to activate it at just the right time, to involuntarily show embarrassment, would require so much more than that.

“Were all Navis of your time this advanced?” Reg looked Lowe up and down.

“As advanced as me? No. But they were still capable of so much more than the average person realized.” Lowe looked distantly and down.

Reg tilted his head, chewing on a question, then after taking a slow deep breath, asked it, “How were things before the Net Reset?”

“The Net Reset,” Lowe looked back up, still distantly, “The event one hundred years ago that wiped out all net life, virus and AI alike? Before that, well, your history books provide a pretty accurate account. At least, from what I’ve read of your history book.”

Reg tilted his head to the other side, they had read his history book? Did they mean his specifically? Then he remembered the blue flashes of light from yesterday.

“Have you been reading over my shoulder?” Reg asked.

“Yes I have,” Lowe responded, “And to be honest, because my duty is on this moon, I can’t move around or regularly keep up to date with the news. I’m quite isolated. So as far as knowledge of before the Net Reset, I am unfortunately in the same boat as you are.”

“Oh.” Reg drooped, then brightened, “Oh! NAXA is giving me a present for my birthday that might help with that!”

“Oh?” Lowe echoed.

“Yeah! It’s a quantum relay! One of the best on the market right now, should reduce the ping to zero when sending messages to Earth! We’d be able to communicate way easier!”

Lowe pondered this new information, tensely looking away, eventually asking, “When does it arrive?”

“I don’t know. It probably won’t be teleported, doing that would mess up the qubits. They’d have to send it on a rocket.”

“Well that’s good news! They at least still have their rocket program operational!” Lowe smiled with their eyes closed.

“Not their shuttle program though.” Reg huffed.

“I know these are not the words you’d like to hear but, patience Reg.” Lowe patted Reg’s shoulder. It might’ve been his brain messing with him, but he swore he felt the slightest pressure from that hand. They continued, “In time that program I gave you will adapt to your needs and you’ll be on Earth before you know it.”

“...How?” Reg narrowed his gaze at them.

Lowe pursed their lips for a moment, then shrugged.

Reg grumbled.

“Well, you’ve still got plenty of time before lunch, how would you like to spend it?” Lowe chuckled.

“Shooting targets.” Reg pouted, hitting the match reset button.

Lowe watched on as Reg continued to play, resetting and pushing himself to break his own record. Every now and then, Lowe would bend one of Reg’s shots, throwing him off. Reg got fed up enough that at one point, he began to fire at Lowe who effortlessly bent them away. Lowe spent the time laughing as Reg got increasingly frustrated.

As lunch time rolled around, Reg took off his headset, setting it aside, suddenly aware of how hungry he was. He exited his room and entered the kitchen, immediately getting hit with the smell of pizza. His parents greeted him happily and he took a seat at the table, pulling himself a slice.

He caught the sight of Lowe hovering into the room, noticing that only his left eye saw them.

Reg kicked out the fourth seat at the table, winking at them.

Lowe sat down, silently listening in as Reg’s parents made jokes and reminisced about him as a child. After lunch, they played board games and watched movies.

Dinner was a massive bowl of crawfish. Mission Control made sure to send a picture of the intern who was tasked with bringing this order. They were posing with the restaurant owner with a big grin on. Reg requested that he send a special thank you message to them. They finished out the night with another movie, and Reg selected an action movie that Lowe looked interested in. After that, everyone headed to bed, and Reg flopped into his, totally exhausted.

“Night Lowe,” he mumbled, his voice obscured by the pillow.

“Goodnight Reg, and once again, happy birthday,” their voice hovering beside him.

“Mhm,” he replied, “Thanks for the best birthday I’ve had…”

Lowe opened their mouth, genuinely touched, “Of course, you’re welcome.” And disappeared for the night, leaving Reg sleeping gently as the lights in his room dimmed into artificial night.

Chapter Text

Reg awoke the next day to the beeping of his alarm, rolling over to slap the clock on his wall to quiet it. He wanted just a couple more minutes of rest, to lazily wake up in his own time. His room was slowly getting brighter as the time passed, he had a busy day ahead of him to make up for all the goofing off he got to do yesterday. It already felt like a distant memory.

He rubbed his eye and sat up. There was a creature on his lap.

He paused, blinking hard, adjusting to the morning light. There was a creature on his lap.

He bolted straight up and huddled to the corner of his bed, kicking the blankets off him and onto the thing. They fell straight through and the creature continued to float suspended in the air. It was some puppy sized thing, short stubby legs, wide head, with an upside down crescent on top, and all off white. It was curled up, sleeping, then yawned, stretched, and curled to its other side.

"What the?" He whispered to himself, "What are you?"

Lowe appeared nearby, "Good morning Reg, having a normal one it seems?"

"What?!" Reg hissed, whipping around to look at them, "What is that?!"

Lowe hummed, closing one eye and tilted their head, "Seems to be the program. It adapted and this is what it became."

Reg couldn't believe what he was hearing, he may have been just making wild assumptions yesterday, but they weren't serious! A program couldn't do this, could it?

"No way." He finally said.

"Hmm, yes way, actually."

Reg rolled his eyes and Lowe chuckled. He crawled towards the little creature suspended in the air and waved his hand around it.

"So is it, outside my body or, what?" Reg poked it, his finger going straight through with no resistance.

The little thing yawned and stretched once more, opening two big dark, gray-blue eyes. Reg pulled his arm back in surprise. Something about those eyes scared him, but he couldn't explain why. They were a blue that reminded him of pictures of a cloudy dusk, or grainy photos of the deep ocean. It took a bit for him to realize it was floating closer to him, and he leaned back.

"Hello," Lowe said gently, "I am the Lord of Once Was, you can instead call me Lowe, and this is Reg Garret, it's nice to meet you."

Reg glared skeptically and was surprised when the little creature floated towards Lowe in response.

"My aren't you cute!" Lowe giggled, scratching its chin, "Never in my wildest dreams did I expect you to turn out like this. What a pleasant surprise!"

Lowe rubbed its head, "So, Reg, what's its name?"

"Huh? Me?" Reg pointed at himself, to which Lowe simply nodded, continuing to give the thing scritches.

A name, it would have to mean something. His parents had named him after the dirt on the moon, regolith, so maybe something similar for this thing. Reg tried to think of various moon related words, but kept getting distracted by the creature's color.

It reminded him of his first moonwalk for some reason. It was bright, pure, and just slightly gray. He imagined it would be like snow, from what he'd read about it. He remembered the soft dust falling slowly from his suited hand, and the color it had in the sunlight.

"Silver…" He said quietly.

The two glanced over at him. Reg quickly covered his mouth, realizing he had said that outloud.

"Uhm, is it a bad name?" He avoided looking at their faces.

He heard Lowe chuckle, "It's a fine name, you have your father's talent for naming things!"

Reg turned pink and blinked in surprise as the creature, Silver, entered his vision, floating towards him.

They looked him dead in the eyes, pointed a nubby arm, and barked, "Reg!"

He jumped back, throwing an arm up reactively.

"Reg!" Silver repeated, wiggling their arms wildly.

"Yes, that's Reg!" Lowe leaned over, gesturing towards him.

Silver narrowed their eyes at Lowe, a low hum coming from them, then said, "Loowuh."

"Lowe!" They corrected.

"Lowuh!"

"Almost! It's a very short sound! Though if you were saying it in Germanettan you'd pronounce it like, 'loove'..." They paused, holding their chin, "Nah, I like Lowe better."

Silver grumbled and barked, "Love!"

That must've caught Lowe off guard because they stumbled and covered their face while cackling. Reg started to laugh too, and looked back at Silver who was tilting their head to the side.

"We're not laughing at you," Reg explained, then was taken aback when Silver faced him, "Um. We just… Found it charming!"

Silver seemed to chew on that idea, then floated and flopped onto Reg's head. He immediately reached to get them off, but felt nothing as his hand passed through. Even moving around didn't throw Silver off his head.

He resigned with a sigh, scratching his head instead.

"Not to distract from this cute moment," Lowe said, "but don't you have to get ready for the day?"

Reg snapped to attention, looking over at his whale clock, and burst out of bed, "Shoot! I've got five minutes before I need to be at breakfast!"

He scrambled to the bathroom, threw on some clothes, checked himself in the mirror, didn't see Silver.

Did a double take.

"Wha- where'd you go little guy?" He looked all around to see if they'd been thrown off. He looked up to find Silver peering down at him from on top of his head.

He looked in the mirror and back up to his head.

"What, are you a vampire too?" He asked, closing one eye at a time to check if it was the same thing that happened with Lowe yesterday.

Lowe hummed and appeared next to the two of them, "Seems to me that Silver doesn't reflect light, and possibly only be perceived by you." They put their hand in front of the mirror, their reflection showing up.

"Of course things are a bit different for me." They continued, and suddenly their reflection disappeared from the mirror.

"Yeah yeah, you can manipulate light." Reg groaned as he shoved Lowe out the door, which they played along with and moved with Reg's shoving.

Reg finished getting ready by doing a quick scrub of his undersuit with a wet towel, and pulled his hair back into its ponytail, clipping his long solar panel hair tie in its normal place. He gave himself a final look over and then dashed to his door, pulling it open.

His parents had already set out breakfast, healthy bowls of oatmeal and fruit with nuts. Reg resisted the urge to request chocolate sauce, his memories of yesterday's breakfast still lingering.

"Hey champ! How's this morning treating ya?" His dad perked up and said brightly.

"Fine." Reg replied quickly, looking between his two parents, trying to see if they noticed anything different about him.

His mom hummed inquisitively, "Oh? What's with the shifty look? Do you have something to share?"

Reg stammered, he could tell them about Silver, but how? That would involve talking about Lowe and there's no way he'd do that. It seemed Silver really was invisible to them, so it might just be best to pretend that nothing had changed.

"No I'm uh," Reg cobbled together his best deflection, "was wondering if I could get some chocolate sauce. For the breakfast."

His parents looked at each other, wide eyed, considering this.

"Well sure, we can put an order in." His dad responded.

"It would have to be dark chocolate, low sugar," His mom sighed sadly, "but I'm sure it would be approved." It looked as though she was going to continue, then held her tongue with a quick smile.

"Why the sudden change? You used to love chocolate, but stopped for a while there." His dad asked bluntly, his mom gave a pained expression in response, covering her face.

This deflection was turning out to need a bulwark defense.

"Uh, just, craving it again!" He laughed, obviously faking it. It would have to do.

"Well ok, was there anything else you wanted? We can make a list."

"No! No, I'm fine!" He threw up his hands.

"You sure Reg?" His mom said gently, "You won't get what you want unless you speak up."

She wasn't talking about just this conversation, it was something his mom brought up a lot.

"I'm fine. Really." He repeated, a little frustrated. He dug into his oatmeal, hoping a stuffed face would end the topic.

"Well, alright." His dad said uneasily, and then flipped his tone, opening a floating screen, "Ok! Today is disposal day, so we need to gather trash, laundry, and junk we don't need to teleport to Earth. Then we need to check the algal mats and scrape them. Then after that we need to check on the PACA, it looks like one of the tubes got caught on something internal yesterday."

"Sounds like a lot, shall we get started?" His mom said, eating the last of an orange.

Reg hurriedly finished his breakfast, he didn't want to hold up everyone.

The day proceeded as normal, his parents had spent some of yesterday organizing his dad's office so clearing junk from useful was pretty easy. Despite his dad's pitiful whines to the contrary.

Reg lived a pretty modest life as far as knick knacks were concerned, nothing to send back there. His mom emerged from his parent's bedroom with a box of CDs and other physical media that they had finished enjoying.

And garbage and laundry piles were already gathered, as a weekly occurrence, their handling had become second nature.

They gathered everything, brought it to the teleportation room, and coordinated its transport with MC. The teleportation chamber itself was made of thick, clear, sturdy plastic, with an iridescent coating. At the moment of teleportation, it gave the room a flash of rainbow.

Reg stared at it as the last of the junk was digitized into bright, angular shafts of light, leaving nothing. He looked over at the emergency teleport button, and the medical supplies in the room as well including its emergency induction agents. An adult human has to be in a deep sleep to teleport safely, and the easiest way sat like a capricious cat on the other side of this room, with him wanting to get close despite it being evasive. He was gonna have to be patient, of course he knew this.

The algal mats stank as they always did. They performed vital life sustaining duties and smelled as putrid as the worst of the dirty water they cleaned. The family took turns holding their breath as they unclogged the pores on the mats with brushes and squeezing. An unpleasantly common experience shared by everyone.

The PACA always proved to be a temperamental beast of gears and tubes. With its vast menu of delightful dishes, each step of complexity was just another failure point waiting to happen. And you didn't have to wait long.

Today it was Reg's mission to squeeze into the side of the machine and dislodge the tube that had caught onto another moving part. He undid the velcro on his arm wraps, took out a long curved instrument, and dexterously weaved his arm through the mess of shafts. With a small circular motion, he was able to both hook the renegade tube and free it from its entanglement. He then unwove himself from the PACA, closed the panel, and turned it back on.

The machine came back to life, whirring, with its diagnostic screen showing no errors, and that it was going to finish its previous order. Everyone watched as a single chocolate pancake began taking shape in the oven, and stayed silent as the smell reached everyone's nose.

"Well," His mom broke the silence, "we shouldn't let this go to waste!"

"We can cut it into thirds…" Reg sighed, pulling out his small butter knife.

"I won't tell MC if you won't!" His dad grinned widely.

Reg looked up to see Silver, who upon noticing Reg, leaned back over to stare at him upside down. They were still there, just quietly watching, tilting their head curiously at everything. Reg thought they looked cute, until Silver bapped him in the left eye with one of their little paws, causing him to flinch. He swore he felt something but, no, it had to have been just a reflex.

The PACA dinged with the pancake rolling out of it on the conveyor. His mom scooped it up onto a plate, and Reg handed over his knife into her open hand. She cut everyone an equal piece, and handed it to each of them like a kid delivering party invitations.

They each munched on their little slice of heaven as they all separated to work on their individual daily tasks. His dad went to work in his office, while his mom set out to do measurements in the green house, leaving Reg to check up on the various other experiments still running on the base.

It was busy work, and he knew it. The monitoring equipment on all the lunar probes always worked fine, and had the whole team down at Mission Control checking them too. The other indoor experiments were doing fine as well, all being long term ones, no change was to be expected anytime soon.

Reg took this chance to sit at a nearby desk and read. He took out his light projection gloves and pulled up a young adult fiction he'd been working through. He read and flicked through a page on the screen floating in front of him as Silver jumped right on it, knocking it over.

"Wh-Silver?! How-WHY?!" Reg blurted.

Silver continued to paw at the screen, swiping at it. Everytime they knocked it around, it sprang back up to its normal position.

"What are you doing?" Reg groaned, turning off the projector.

Silver turned to face him, scowling and grumbling.

"What that!" They pointed where the screen was.

"Huh?" Reg reeled, was the little guy frustrated at the holographic screen?

"Its…" He pulled up the screen once more, "Light. Projected from these gloves, and I can touch the screen because of the gloves."

Silver looked at the screen, pawing it gently this time.

"Touch." They said with conviction, "I touch. You touch."

Silver made a low hum, moving their little hands up and down the screen.

"Yeah," Reg said hesitantly, unsure of what Silver was thinking, "I can interact with the screen and turn the pages too."

Silver turned and looked at the gloves, hopping towards one, and reached out with their paw, grasping his finger.

"I touch you." Silver stated.

He felt a little sensation of pressure, much like the feedback from the screen. The moment finally reached his brain as he realized he was actually interacting with them. For the first time, to Reg, Silver felt real, small, and fragile.

Reg chuckled, "I guess now I can pick you up and off my head!"

Silver's eyes grew wide and their expression fell instantly. They scrunched their face, thrashing their hands around.

"No! No Reg! Bad!" They barked, making a high pitched growl.

Reg slowly recoiled, putting his hands up, "Ah, sorry, I was teasing you…"

Silver narrowed their eyes at him, "Teasing."

"R-Right, uh, purposely making you upset… for fun." He grimaced, boy did that sound bad. "It's what friends do! Uh, well, it's what my parents do to me."

Silver's expression turned from one of suspicious contemplation, to one that made Reg suddenly aware of how much he had underestimated them. They had a wide grin, like a monkey who's keeper had left the key to their cage in the lock.

They had understood him. Completely.

"D-Don't." Reg shook his hands, his blood running cold.

Silver adopted an unassuming mask of a face, with big sparkling eyes. Reg covered his face with his hands.

"All this time," He mumbled through his fingers, "I thought you didn't know… things. You just don't know language, do you?"

Silver made a strange cackling sound, "Yes! Language I don't know!"

Reg peered at them between his fingers, they seemed to be laughing, in a way that reminded him of… Lowe.

"You… learn fast don't you," Reg took his hands off his face.

They held their chin like Reg had seen his dad do earlier today, "I learn fast." They finished with a big grin.

Reg hesitantly laughed, he was feeling massively out of his depths. He wished Lowe was there, where were they?

He leaned over and looked at a nearby clock, noting the time.

"Well, lunch is soon, then I've got afternoon duties. Not a lot of time for me to read the whole dictionary to you." He mentioned, then turned towards Silver, "You're electronic, can't you just, download language? How do you work?"

Silver tilted their head, scrunching their whole face for a bit, then all at once relaxed and shrugged, "Don't know."

"Well you seem to be catching on quick, so I'm not too worried." Reg patted Silver with the gloves, the feeling was like petting a vibrating pile of fluffy insulation. "Let's go eat."

Silver seemed to be enjoying themselves, then at the mention of 'eat', they reared back and bit Reg's hand. Reg blanched, freezing in shock, yet his hand registered no pain.

Silver released him and stuck out their tongue, "Teasing!!"

The chuckle that Reg made was half hearted and fearful, "Yeah, you sure do learn fast."

—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----—----

Lunch was a healthy bowl of brown rice, sauteed veggies, and fish. His dad, as usual, chose to take his lunch with him into his office. The other two enjoyed their meal, with his mom chatting about an audio series she had been listening to, and Reg mentally begging Silver to stop making funny faces.

After lunch, Reg dashed back to the long term experiments room to study. His schedule today was the same as usual, but this time, he opened the screens and set them up in front of Silver. He wanted to figure out how much they knew and what.

Silver simply tilted their head at every new subject, but nonetheless remained curious, asking questions constantly. Reg ended up playing the role of teacher for hours, and scrambled at the end to finish his assignments before dinner, all while Silver pestered him endlessly.

He emerged for dinner exhausted. Eating quietly as his parents chatted.

“You done already?” His dad asked as Reg moved to the sink and washed his dish and utensils.

“Yeah, I’m… Gonna turn in early if that’s alright.” Reg responded, heading towards his room.

“Ok, we’ll be up just catching up on some shows, have a good sleep Reg!” His mom called out from the dining room as Reg entered his room.

He shut the door behind him quietly and slid onto the floor. Silver zoomed up close to him and did laps around his head.

“Lowe…” Reg groaned, “Please tell me you know what’s going on.”

Lowe appeared in a soft flash, “What seems to be the problem?”

Reg just stared at them, with Silver bouncing off the walls like a leaf in the air circulator.

“This is a problem?” Lowe smiled.

“Yeah, I don’t know anything about them, why are they, this?” Reg gestured to the little gray blur.

“You’ll have to be more specific. But honestly every answer to any related question to that is,” And then Lowe shrugged.

Reg groaned loudly.

"They're just excited because everything is new to them." Lowe continued, holding out their hand to Silver. The little creature bounced over to receive scritches.

"I seem to recall a time when you too were like that, Reg." They said, while Silver calmly leaned into the gentle pets. Reg was only a tiny bit envious.

"Well yeah," Reg pouted, "it's their first day ever. It's just that they're…."

Reg held his tongue, he didn't want to admit he was having regrets, not just twelve hours in.

"They're a lot aren't they?" Lowe finished. Reg shrank back, holding his legs.

"A curious mind is important to cultivate." Lowe commented, "And it's clear to me that your battery has run dry, how about I take it from here?"

Reg looked up to find that Lowe had summoned a large board, and a small desk and chair of light. They set Silver into the chair and announced, "Gather 'round, class is in session!"

Reg was dumbfounded. Silver began barking out question after question, which Lowe would answer succinctly. The level of patience on display was magnanimous. Even when Silver didn't know all the words, Lowe would accurately guess and clarify them. Reg felt like he was watching a martial arts movie with the incredible back and forth the two had.

"Reg, do you happen to know when the quantum relay is arriving?" Lowe asked as Silver contemplated a particularly difficult question.

"Huh?" Reg snapped back to reality, then tried to recall what his dad had said at dinner, "It’s gonna take a couple of days for it to reach the moon, it’s taking some orbits around the Earth first, why do you ask?"

Reg caught a flash of a distant, cold expression on Lowe's face, which quickly brightened, "Oh! I just like to be prepared! Thank you Reg."

"Thank you?" Silver repeated.

"That's a phrase used to show appreciation. When someone does something nice for you, and you want them to know that they've done a good job and helped you, you tell them 'thank you'!"

Silver's eyes lit up and they dashed to Reg.

"Thank you Reg!" Silver exclaimed, sparkling.

"Wha-" that threw him for a loop, he covered his face to hide his flushed cheek, "You're welcome?"

"You helped me! You taught me lots!" They said, wiggling their arms.

Reg chuckled, "You should thank Lowe, they helped you a lot more.”

"Lowe! Thank you!" Silver exclaimed, jumping over to them.

“You’re very welcome,” Lowe chortled, catching Silver, “I’m always happy to help.”

“Yeah, sorry I couldn’t keep up with your questions,” Reg scratched his head, looking away. “I’m just a human and only know so much.”

"Reg, I'm certain that with enough practice, you too could perform feats some would call superhuman." Lowe said calmly.

He looked at Lowe, utterly confused, the inscrutable Navi had somehow become more obtuse.

“Dude. What the f-” And immediately choked on the word as he saw Silver’s naive eyes, his blood running ice cold.

“What was Reg saying?” they asked Lowe, who wore the plainest, most fake smile Reg had ever seen in his life.

“I believe it’s time for you to get ready for bed Reg, right?” Lowe answered in a tone Reg was starting to recognize as menacing.

“R-Right!” He made a beeline to the bathroom. He closed the door swiftly, and exhaled a tense breath he had been holding. Through the door he could hear Lowe explaining 'sometimes words' and felt his cheek burning.

He wetted a towel in the sink and got to work doing what substituted for a bath there. To limit the strain on the already stressed water treatment infrastructure, showers and full baths were heavily restricted a while back. The modestly sized showers that used to accommodate the large group of scientists stationed there had not been used in years. Reg had to make do with a sink, soap, and the futuristic material his undersuit was made of that functioned as a second skin, never truly needing to be removed, but was still capable if need be.

With a final wipe to the face, he stared at himself in the mirror, his reflection more haggard than he had seen in a while. He slipped on his pajamas and lingered in front of the bathroom door. He overheard the two digital beings laughing as Lowe was explaining something. It stung.

He hung his head, resting it onto the door as he desperately wished he could be better. At everything, anything. Maybe at least enough to be worthy. Of Silver, Lowe’s friendship, anything. Silver and Lowe seemed to be getting along perfectly, maybe it would be better if…

And then he remembered Silver’s face as they thanked him and his thoughts stopped.

He wiped away a tear that had been trying to form and gulped, then took a deep breath as he opened the bathroom door to find Lowe showing pictures to Silver, pictures he quickly recognized of himself as a child. Whatever train of thought he was having derailed and exploded.

“Lowe.” He intoned, the other two glancing at him, unassuming, “What are those.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Oh Reg! You’re ready for bed!” Lowe greeted him cheerily, “We were just looking at photos of you when you were a lot younger, you were quite the charmer!”

“Reg small! Small Reg!” Silver wiggled an arm at one of the hovering photos.

On closer inspection, they all looked like still images of old monitoring camera footage. Some when he was very young and the base was full of scientists roaming about, and some later when it was just his parents and him. He looked at his younger self, bright, innocent, no permanent reminder of what had happened seven years ago.

“Hey Lowe,” Reg began, a burning question starting to catch fire rising up.

“And here’s one where you beat Dr. Marsh at cart racing! You never let him live that down!” Lowe laughed.

“Lowe.” Reg almost growled, “What happened seven years ago.”

“Ah, sorry, I got carried away there.” Lowe flinched, closing the photo, “I knew this was going to come up, and I apologize for not addressing it sooner. I was, am ashamed of what I chose to do.”

“What did you do?” Reg felt his breath tense.

Lowe turned away, taking a while to reply, closing their eyes and straightening themselves out, “What I didn’t do. Was help sooner.” They glanced at Reg, lips pursed.

“So… You were there.”

Lowe looked down to the floor and away from Reg, “You know I have a duty that requires me to be highly secretive. What happened that day was related to that. By the time I realized I should have involved myself, it was too late.”

“It… wasn’t too late.” Reg responded, still trying to piece things together, “We all thought it was a miracle that no one else got hurt, the whole base survived. Because of you!”

Lowe slowly turned to face Reg, “You got hurt.”

He flinched, acutely aware of his left eye, and tensely swallowed.

“Th-That was…” He wanted to follow up.

“My fault.” Lowe said, sorrow in the edges of their voice.

“You. Didn’t litera-”

“I know I didn’t literally do this to you, but at a key moment I put my duty above the lives of humans.” Lowe tensed, clenching their fists and shaking, “That thing targeted the weakest and smallest among you, and I had the chance to stop it but I didn’t.”

Reg watched as they wilted, facing the floor and shuddering. Without thinking he grabbed the gloves from his pocket, threw them on, and embraced them.

“What?” Lowe breathlessly whispered, snapping out of their memories, “How are you… Ah those gloves, clever.”

They chuckled, bringing up their arms to rest on Reg’s shoulders.

“It’s ok.” Reg said, still figuring out what to say, “I’m fine, really! Everyone followed protocol, they were able to secure a teleport for a surgeon, the whole surgery went off without a hitch! I’ll be able to get some better looking casings down on Earth, then it’ll be like nothing ever happened!”

He tried to think of what Lowe would be feeling at the moment.

“I’m not mad at you. I don’t resent you. I-” Reg felt odd saying this, “I forgive you.”

“You sound so sure of yourself.” Lowe half heartedly chuckled.

“Well, it’s weird to say cause I don’t blame you for it!” He stepped back, holding their shoulders at arms length, “I said it cause you’re blaming yourself! I wouldn’t be here without you! Alright?!”

He stared Lowe down, fire in his eyes, begging them to dare deny anything he said.

Lowe’s sagged face brightened, as they rubbed tears from their eyes they coughed out, “Thank you Reg.”

He smiled, taking a moment before responding, “Of course, no problem.”

“So.” Silver popped up between the two of them, holding a little hand up, “What happened seven years ago?”

“Ah um,” Lowe looked over and adopted their previous posture, “A malicious digital entity had hijacked an astronaut’s robotic arm and attacked the people in the Argent.”

Reg continued, “I was the only one who got attacked, and all this time I had no idea what had happened.”

“Huh.” Silver tilted their head, then turned to Lowe, “Thank you for saving Reg!”

“Of course!” They laughed, “And I’ll be damn sure to protect you! Ah-” They covered their mouth, “That’s a. Sometimes word.”

“DAMN is a sometimes word?!” Reg cackled, doubling over.

Silver sparkled, “Damn!”

“Oh my god Lowe.” Reg snickered, holding his sides.

“Only in emergencies, Silver!” Lowe chastised, knowing they had lost control of the situation.

“Damn!!” Silver repeated, flailing their arms, doing flips.

Reg lost it again, flopping to the floor trying to catch his breath as Silver continued to practice their first curse. In between catching his breath on the floor, he looked up at the other two bickering one sidedly and wished he had a camera, because he knew that this moment too would be nostalgic one day.

Chapter Text

The next couple of days passed with nothing too radically different, Silver continued to learn more words and grow ever more cheeky. The delivery of the quantum relay was slow and winding as it looped around the Earth and moon for optimum landing. This didn’t bother Reg, what was a couple more days of not having it, though Lowe on the other hand seemed to ask about it every day.

Finally came the day when the rocket was scheduled to land. The Garret family gathered in front of the large screen in the living room, watching its projected path as news reporters covered the event. Reg noticed the small group of people crowded outside an interview room, rocket enthusiasts who wore NAXA apparel like sports jerseys.

He wondered if he'd encounter some of them when their net gets hooked up. He wondered who he'd encounter, in general. His connection to the internet was tenuous at best, with a ping of always at least 3000 and all data being monitored, online interactions were rare. He'd be getting a lot of freedom with this.

He looked over at Silver, the ultimate adaptable program, and wondered when they were going to get him to Earth faster. It had only been a week, but so far the little creature had done nothing but learn new ways to throw Reg off his rhythm. He didn't mind, he trusted it would happen in its own time, but the how was what he was having a hard time wrapping his head around.

Well, the world the relay was going to open up to him would occupy his time until Silver was ready, and Reg was good at being patient.

The rocket the relay was on quickly approached Argent and his mom and dad moved to the receiving room and manned the console. They read out data and communicated with Mission Control, coordinating the landing of the rocket smoothly onto its platform. It mechanically lowered and large multilayered doors enclosed it.

"Spacity we have visual confirmation, the rocket has landed and the payload is secured." He heard his dad call out.

A few seconds later he heard his dad's voice on the screen, coming from one of the consoles at Mission Control. The whole room cheered, many of whom Reg recognized.

The reporter on the scene outside of the interview room cut in and announced, "We just now have confirmation that the rocket has safely landed at moon base Argent. And now to discuss the importance of this launch is Dr. Mohs, Head of Exploratory Operations here at NAXA. Doctor-"

Reg turned it off, that was enough of that. He hopped up and walked briskly to the receiving room, bubbling with excitement.

"Hey champ, how'd I sound on TV?" His dad called out to him, swiveling in his chair to face him.

"You sounded fine?" Reg shrugged.

His mom was still communicating with Earth, going over protocol, and Reg looked over at the airlock repressurizing around the rocket. After removing the payload, they were going to have to teleport the rocket back, which was always a pain since it required all three of them to carry it.

Reg sighed and held his hand against the glass, with Silver doing the same. He smiled at them.

"What say you and I go install this the moment it normalizes?" His dad said behind him, patting his shoulder.

"Mhm!" Reg nodded, still smiling.

"That-a-boy!" He rustled his son's hair, "Let's get our suits on, should be good to go by the time we're ready."

Reg nodded again and trotted off to get ready in his room.

"What are you doing?" Silver asked as Reg unloaded stuff from his pockets, and zipped up his coveralls.

“Oh, I’m getting ready to go outside, you know, on the moon.” Reg pulled out his projector gloves, glanced at Silver, shrugged and slipped them on, figuring he might as well, who knows when he’ll need to grab the little guy.

“What’s outside?” Silver tilted their head.

“Gray. Black.” He grumbled, “Oh wait, you mean the concept of outside?”

Silver nodded.

“Well, everything enclosed by the walls of this base would be inside, and everything on the other side of the walls would be outside.” Reg answered and Silver nodded some more.

“By the way,” Reg looked around his room, “Where is Lowe? You think they’d be here, since they kept asking about the relay.”

“They said they had to take care of something.” Silver shrugged.

“Hmph, alright, well let’s go. You ready to see the lunar surface?” He feigned enthusiasm.

“You sound sooooo excited.” Silver replied with a wry smile.

Reg snorted, once, and left his room to meet up with his dad at the airlock.

“You ready?” His dad asked, as he was checking his own undersuit.

“Mhm,” Reg smiled.

“Ok, so the access panel we need for the antenna is located outside the base. All we gotta do is plug this thing,” He pulled out the box for the quantum relay, “into the panel using this cable.” He pulled out a ZATA cable with an unreasonable amount of pins.

“Then we just have your mom troubleshoot, close the panel, and we’re good to go! Think you can handle this mission?” He patted Reg’s shoulder heartily.

“Yeah, sounds simple enough.”

“Good! Let’s get all suited up.” He moved into the airlock, removing his hanging EMU suit and began the process of putting it on.

Reg followed, but looked back towards his room, briefly. Lowe had said that they were working with his dad on something, which means he knew of Lowe too. Reg wondered if he should bring this up with his dad, probably later, a bit too awkward now.

Silver floated into the airlock and sat on Reg’s head as he put on his own EMU suit. The long process of screwing and clicking things into place reminded him of knights in fantasy movies. Once ready, the two activated their comms, and his dad began the depressurization process.

The room looked the same, but an electronic read out inside his helmet said the pressure was dropping steadily. Once it read nearly zero atm and held, his dad gave a thumbs up and opened the door to the moon.

The lunar surface was the same stark gray-white it was before, stretching far into the black horizon. The heavily trodden entrance was littered with thousands of boot prints, causing the ground to sag under the compaction. Three little moon dust snowmen sat on the side of the entrance, a project of Reg’s when he was much younger.

“Hey you two,” His mom’s voice came over the comms, “you know where the antenna is located, yes? It’s 120 feet, east-south-east, and should look like a big rectangle with a bowl sitting on top.”

“Yep Rosie, we know what it is.” His dad chuckled, and began walking over with Reg following close behind, “You know I was thinking about it.”

“About what?”

“You’re kinda like our operator! Like what Wizards had!”

“I was about to say that I’d want to be the Wizard, but they had to deal with all those viruses! No thank you!”

“You could handle it!”

“I know! But I wouldn’t want to!”

The two laughed.

Reg and his father continued their bounding towards the antenna. It took about four hops for them to finally slow to a stop right in front of the panel. With his hand already on his arm wrap, his dad asked for a screwdriver. He handed it over and soon the panel was open. His mom guided them through what wires and ports were what. They eventually found the right ones and plugged the medieval weapon of a cable into the panel.

As his dad plugged the final ones in, his dad turned to him and asked, "You ready for your life to change?"

"Yeah!" He replied, not containing his excitement.

His dad plugged it in and called out to his mom, "Rosie? We got it plugged in. Most of the installation should be automatic. How's it looking?"

"It's looking-"

She was cut off by some sudden sound.

"Rosie?"

Silence.

"Rosie are you there? Can you hear me?" His dad repeated, his tone remaining level, but tinged with fear.

Silence.

Reg turned to the base and saw smoke above the comms room, and the flash of the emergency hard light barrier.

"D-Dad." Reg sputtered and took a quick breath, "We need to get back to the base, something happened."

His dad turned and saw what Reg was looking at, and bolted, "Spacity, do you copy? This is William Garret of the Argent, there's been an incident. Spacity, can you hear me, do you copy?"

Silence.

Reg followed quickly behind, keeping an eye on the base. Smoke was no longer billowing out, the hard light barrier seemed to be holding strong. The automatic fire suppression system was robust and well tested, his mom would be ok, she had to be. But he couldn't help this feeling of dread, like the reaper had their scythe to his neck.

When they finally got to the airlock, Reg swung the door shut and his dad activated the emergency repressurizer. Air flooded the room and his dad burst through the door into the base. The two dashed down the hallway and skid to a halt in the living room.

Two digital beings stood there; Lowe, and a massive purple armored humanoid, one wing stretched from one shoulder to the other shoulder behind its domed helmet that featured a black, three pronged slit and a single red eye glaring out of it.

A cold chill ran through Reg as it noticed them.

"And so they've come." It spoke in a gravely, but even tone, and shifted, the red point in its darkness focused right on the two of them.

"What are you?!" His dad threw out an arm in front of Reg.

"Cute." It growled, stepping forward, lifting a hulking arm, just as strips of light whipped around it. It seemed unmoved by these, but remained in place, slowly turning its head to Lowe.

"Run!" Lowe commanded.

Reg dashed past his dad, who quickly followed, both rushing to the comms room.

"Oh lord of nothing," It scoffed, "you just gave away your hand."

“That’s enough.” Lowe demanded, prickling with rage.

His dad lept ahead of him, getting to the comms room first and froze. The room was covered in extinguishing foam, layered over blackened electrical equipment, the charred plastic making a burst radius around where his mom was likely sitting. Across the room his mom laid, covered in her emergency hard light suit, that stopped at her legs. A panel from the station she manned clung and partially warped around her calves. The removal of it caused Reg’s entire body to recoil.

“You can’t do anything to me,” The purple one snarled gleefully, its voice muffled through the walls, “Weak.”

“I said enough! Fight me!” Lowe raged.

"No."

His dad gently picked up his mom, checked on her breathing by bringing her face close to his helmet, saw her breath condensate on it, exhaled, and hurriedly instructed, “We need to evacuate. We’ll use the communication station in the teleporter room to coordinate with Spacity. I don’t know what that thing was in the living room, but we cannot stick around to find out.”

Within the darker room, Reg could see his dad’s face lit up by his helmet, he looked shaken, but grinned when Reg met his eyes.

“Don’t worry, don’t panic, keep a clear head. We’ll get through this.” His dad lifted his mom’s body, and made heavy footsteps to the teleporter room.

Reg lingered in the hall, trying to catch some insight into what was going on in the living room.

“Your little banana peels don’t worry me, shrimp.” That gravely voice chuckled, “I’ve learned a lot since our first encounter. And I’m going to make you learn fear.” Its tone becoming like a fistfull of blades.

Reg’s blood went cold and he ran to catch up, “Dad it’s-”

“I know, just focus on getting in contact with MC.”

Reg kept running and reached the teleporter room, and leaped over to the console. He flipped on the power and punched the call button. Sounds came through the speaker and Reg blanked on what to say, trying to remember what his dad had said.

“Spacity, are you there? This is Reg Garret of the Argent, there’s been an incident.” He said, and heared how much panic was in his voice.

“This is Spacity,” A crackly voice responded, a bit on edge, “We hear you, what happened?”

He gulped, “Upon installing the quantum relay, the communication room, er, exploded, and there is also a large purple digital… Being attacking the base.”

“Roger, follow the emergency teleport protocol.”

“Also my mom has been injured and isn’t responding. She’s breathing, but her legs are…”

“Roger.” There was a brief pause, “TP team has been informed, they’re adjusting so they can receive her first.”

“Ok.” Reg sighed, the critical information passed off. He moved to the emergency inducers, and took out two, just as his dad entered the room.

“Looks like the teleporter is warming up. Good job champ.” His dad said, a bit winded, kicking the door behind him closed.

Reg opened up the teleport chamber, and his dad placed his mom’s body on the floor of it.

“Eileen ‘Rosie’ Garret is ready for transport.” His dad spoke into the mic.

In a rainbow flash, his mom’s body digitized and fragmented into shafts of light, shooting into the center.

A few seconds later the speaker buzzed, “Teleportation successful, we’re moving her to the Cypress East medical facility. Prepare Reg Garret for the next teleport.”

Reg’s heart skipped a beat, this was all happening way too fast. His dad took off his helmet, and held Reg’s shoulder.

“You can do it, it’s just like we’ve practiced.” His dad picked up his emergency inducer, “It’s a fast acting nasal spray, it’s gonna burn a lot! But it’ll knock you out and then you’ll be on Earth! Easy as that.”

“But-”

In a flash of purple, the hulking figure of the menacing being stood looming behind his dad.

“Leaving so soon. What’s the rush?” It growled.

A flash of cyan followed soon after, standing between it and the humans.

“I’ll give you what you want, don’t harm them.” Lowe held out their arms.

“You won’t.” It spat, “No. I’ll be taking it from the source.”

It slowly reached over Lowe’s head, who tried in vain to stop its movements with their hands. Reg stood there shaking, and his dad turned to see the giant, throwing a protective arm around his son. The massive hand loomed and the world seemed to pull away from Reg as he remembered a similar moment from seven years ago. He felt ice around his throat and he begged his body to scream.

The hand landed on his dad’s head. He immediately made a chilling gag and gurgle as his body shot upright and lurched. The armored being pulled Reg’s dad back and to the side, causing his dad’s body to stumble into place like he was being dragged by the jaw.

“This wouldn’t be happening if you had just given up.” It scoffed, “Know. This is your fault.”

“No!” Lowe screamed, wrapping their strands of light around its arm, to no effect.

By some miracle his dad had stepped into the teleportation chamber.

“Argent, are you there? Do you copy?” The speaker crackled and snapped Reg back to reality. He leapt into motion.

“Prepare to receive William Garret for transport!” He announced, jumping to the emergency teleport button.

“Argent, can you repe-”

Reg had already pressed the button.

The scream erupting from the purple one shook Reg to his core, he turned just in time to see his dad and the thing's arm get digitized into angular light and disappear in a bright flash.

Lowe turned slowly to Reg, horror on their face. The air grew heavy with silence.

The crackle of the speaker cut through, "Teleportation successful, William Garret is alive and breathing. We're moving him to Cypress East for post teleportation recovery. Argent, are you able to tell us what your situation is?"

Lowe breathed in and calmed, whipping around to face the other digital being. Its arm was gone, and the stump oozed pixels of black and green. It was just standing there, looking over and reaching for its arm.

"Ah," Reg choked, "that digital being I mentioned earlier was attacking my dad, I had to-" the weight of what he did fell on him, and he scrambled to pick himself back up, there would be time to deal with these feelings later, hopefully.

"Ok. Is that the static we've b-"

It laughed, a roaring, thunderous laugh. Every electronic in the room, including Reg's left eye, buzzed with deafening noise. All at once, every light let out a bright burst, and then all the surroundings immediately fell into darkness.

"DIE!" It threw itself towards Reg, screaming a blood curdling screech.

"Ah, there we are." Lowe smoothly stepped in, grabbing the thing's grasping arm and spun, flinging the towering mass in the opposite direction. "Go ahead! Try that again, I'm sure it will work this time."

Reg felt his breath hitch as he noticed something about Lowe, "Your light ribbons, one of them is…"

"It got cut off with that teleport." They glanced over to Reg, "That was some quick thinking by the way. You may have just saved your dad's life."

Reg blushed, relief washing over him. The emergency generators kicked in, little red lights lit up along the floor, painting everything in a sharp crimson.

The armored giant stood up slowly, and it gazed down on the other two, and with a voice like grinding gears said, "I'm killing both of you."

It hurled itself at them, and Lowe dodged, spun, and redirected it effortlessly. Again it swiped, and again Lowe deflected. The giant moved like a tiger, and Lowe moved like a butterfly, every thrash it threw out was met with empty air and its target always barely out of reach.

"Reg!" Lowe called out between swings, "You have to remove that quantum relay! It's going to try to run away, we have to trap it here!"

"Huh? It-"

"I did not think this would happen! Somehow it survived seven years ago, and took its first chance to finish what it started!"

Reg gripped his suit around his chest as those words echoed in his head.

"You miscalculated!" It screeched a garbled growl that flickered the lights, "You deserve deletion! ALL OF YOU!"

"Go while I have it distracted!" Lowe gave a thumbs up and smile in the middle of a flip.

Reg bolted, and only then realized the gravity had been stopped as well, taking slow hops to maximize speed.

"Reg?" Silver's voice was small and quivering.

"Silver! Are you ok?" Reg tried to look around the inside of his helmet with great difficulty, spotting their little gray nose.

"Yeah." They said, unsure. "I-I didn't know what to do…"

"Me either." Reg sighed, bounding past the living room couches.

"That thing was…"

"Scary."

The two kept their thoughts to themselves until Reg reached the airlock. It was still wide open from his dad's entrance. He closed it behind him, starting the depressurization sequence. He stood there, quietly listening to the subtle vacuum, gently touching his suit, realizing he would probably not be able to take it off again till he was on Earth, if he ever made it.

"Lowe's mission…" Reg thought aloud, "Whatever it is, I want to believe in it. That it's worth all this."

He remembered his mom's smile and his dad's laugh, and then the looks of pain and injuries they had inflicted on them.

"Mom… Dad…" He held back tears, this was not the time for them, he wouldn't even be able to wipe them away. He focused on his dad's words instead, to not panic and keep a clear head.

The pressure dropped to near vacuum and held, and Reg opened the door to the moon.

He took a deep breath and bounded off. Lowe had gotten under that thing's skin, but was now fighting it better. The faster their opponent went, the stronger Lowe seemed to get. They had that fight locked down, they could do it. And so all Reg would have to do is unplug that little relay and stay well out of that fight.

His path was clear and he raced as fast as he could, kicking up clouds of dust as he leapt forward. He made it to the antenna in record time. He grabbed the relay and pulled, noticing the release clip on top of each of them, then pressed and pulled each one by one.

"Reg…" Silver's voice was shaky.

"We're gonna get through this. Just a couple more pins and then we hide til Lowe finishes up."

Reg felt the final clip give and its pin release from its place.

"I could've just pulled the power ones but, I didn't remember which ones they were," He chuckled to Silver.

“Reg?” their little voice piped up.

“Hmm?”

“Thank you…”

“Don’t thank me yet bud. We still gotta make it through this.” He said, trotting to the other side of the antenna, leaning against its large metal base.

Reg looked up and saw the Earth, the tiny blue-green marble still in its same place in the sky. He couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like dense clouds had formed over the ocean, he wondered if it was raining there. He lifted his arm and pretended to pluck the Earth out of the black sky. He weakly chuckled.

“There it is.” He pointed at the planet, “That’s where every human…”

That was something his dad would say, out on their moonwalks. He would point into the sky and say ‘Every human being is right there on that dot, well almost every human’ and then turn to him and laugh.

The former was true this time. Every other human was there on that partially illuminated circle that could fit in the palm of his hand. He felt something profound, and didn’t have a word for it. Loneliness was close.

He stood there, closed his eyes, and just listened to his own breathing. He had plenty of oxygen, and patience. It was peaceful, tranquil even. The steady rise and fall of his chest, his soft heartbeat in his ears, they all reminded him he was still alive.

“Human.” That cold voice cut through like lightning.

Reg froze into place, looking around him with just his eyes. He couldn’t see that purple monstrosity anywhere, but that voice sounded so close.

“You think yourself clever for locking yourself in with a beast don’t you.” It simmered with rage.

Reg realized the voice was coming from his comms speakers, of course it was. He whipped around, desperate for a better place to hide, and found none.

“I can read your mind, human.” It spat the word, “You’re trying to find a place to hide, to run away. Coward that you are. The game you are playing is over. I have your little defense program. And now. I’m going to kill you while they watch.”

Reg leapt to a nearby building, and caught sight of the massive figure walking slowly in his direction. Its cut off arm had formed a sphere with its ooze and black pixels dropped off it and faded as it was dragged behind.

“There.” It growled, “I could smell you were close.”

Reg turned to run but it was too late. His doom was upon him.

It appeared before him with a barreling dash, the red dot leaving a crimson trail and its titanic fist rearing up and swinging through Reg.

He felt his brain recoil, his left eye black out, and his limbs spasm. His suit blared warnings and restarted soon after. His legs uneasily shook as he staggered to stand, and back away. He looked up with one eye, another fist rushing towards his face.

Everything inside him tensed, he wanted to scream, but his jaw wouldn't open. Another swing through him, and he collapsed to his knees, every movement causing pain. He could barely look up, he desperately wished Lowe could save him, wherever they were.

"Stop it!" Silver's voice rang out and Reg could see a blur of gray in front of him.

"Another? And hiding behind the human. Pathetic." It backhanded Silver out of the space in front of it, and despite the pain, Reg turned to watch Silver fragment and fade away.

Something broke in Reg and he still couldn't cry.

The armored thing turned and paced farther from him, then with two large steps, faced Reg. The sphere next to it opened up, revealing Lowe's head.

The dragon-like wing that framed the thing's head unfurled. The thumb claw glowed a sickening yellow light, and the ends of the wing crackled with the same energy. The point of the wing aimed directly at Reg's chest, and as much as he tried to, he couldn't move to dodge.

He could hear Lowe weakly whispering his name, and closed his eye.

"Die. Human." It snarled with disgust as if just saying the word sickened it.

A beam of light burst from the wing and straight through Reg. He gasped and his eye flashed open, just to see the panic rise on Lowe’s face, then his view changed as his body went limp, and he fell to his side. The dust his fall kicked up settled gently on his suit, and he saw the world around him fade to black.

This was it then. Death was like sleep. He couldn’t feel his limbs, his breathing, his pulse. It was all nothing, not even darkness. It was cold, not the kind you could feel, but an unmoving one, like every atom had frozen. He could feel his mind drift away from him, like a candle at its end.

He thought of his parents, their faces blurred but he could just barely make out their smiles. He thought of Silver and Lowe, his friends that he now realized he would do anything for.

It all faded from him.

And there it was.

The end to the colonization project, the end of the Argent, and the end to the world’s first human born on the moon. It wouldn’t be up to him to decide if it was all worth it, it never was, and now it never will.

Perhaps, this was for the best.

He felt even his mind’s eye close as he succumbed to the nothing.

Silver’s face flashed before him. His mind blinked. What was he saying? This isn’t what he wanted.

Lowe’s words before they gave him Silver resonated through him. What did he want?

He heard them, his parents, the astronauts he had met, Mission Control, and everyone at NAXA. He couldn’t tell what they were saying, but they were happy, and he wanted to hear them more.

He saw the ocean, tasted chocolate, saw plants and animals, and even saw his potential futures, he wanted it all.

His friends and his family stood before him, he wanted more time with them, he wanted to live for them.

He wanted to live!

Something sparked inside him and he repeated that thought. He wanted to live.

He grabbed onto that ember and screamed at the emptiness around him.

He threw himself against its walls like a wild dog in a cage. He needed to live.

Lightning shot through him to his core, a raging fire breathed within him. He felt darkness, numbness, pain, pressure.

He felt his heartbeat. He was going to live.

He twitched, feeling the ground beneath him shift. He gripped and felt its sandy texture compact in his hand. He got used to breathing again, and took a deep breath.

He opened his eyes.

He was on his side still, looking out at the lunar landscape, Lowe and that thing nowhere to be seen. His arms looked different, light blue and purple. Oddest of all was that he felt fine, better than normal.

Pulling his arms underneath him felt foreign, like he was puppeting someone else. He pushed himself up, getting his legs underneath his core, and stood, staggering. His mind reeled as he got used to his senses once more. He turned to see the purple digital being striding away to the base.

Everything came back with a laser focus.

He dashed forward at lightning speed, kicking up a cloud of dust behind him, leaping over the thing’s oozing arm and striking the thinnest part with his elbows. In a flash of green the ooze cracked, and Reg jumped back. On the sides of his arms there were weapons, a pair of sturdy bars, one on each arm, with a hole on the end.

“What the-” The giant looked at its sphere.

He felt he knew what to do here and raised his arms, opening his hands, and a grip formed underneath them. A little button formed on the side of the grip as well. He grabbed them, held the button, and just as the thing turned to see him, fired.

The sphere shattered as two bright shots impacted it, and Lowe came tumbling out. The armored hulking mass roared and spun around, reaching to crush Lowe with its hand.

Reg snapped forward, flipping a baton around, striking the tree trunk of an arm, deflecting it. They met eye to eye, and its red dot in its face shook.

“How are you alive?!” It roared, “Doesn’t matter! Die again!”

Its wing glowed yellow and rapid fire shot, and Reg hopped back, moving erratically, but purposely, weaving between the shots. He fired two small blasts at its head, and it wiped them away.

“That’s all you have?!” It snarled, “An annoyance, nothing more!”

It prepared to shoot Reg once more, the wing fully open, crackling and glowing. It screamed and fired.

“That’s not all he has.” A warm voice said.

“NO!” There was fear in its voice.

Lowe stood between Reg and the shot, their strands of light bent behind them. The beam warped around Lowe, along the strand, and right back towards it. It dodged to its right, the redirected beam barely missing it, catching the ends of its wing instead.

“You won’t get me with that trick again!” It huffed, pulling its good arm back.

“Hmm.” Lowe hummed, putting their finger to their chin, “Don’t have to!”

And held their finger up, looking back at Reg expectantly.

Reg blinked back, snapping back to reality, grabbing his weapons and firing.

The shots split around their finger, impacting everywhere the thing tried to dodge to, and rained down on it like a meteor shower.

When it ceased, the purple armor steamed but left no lasting wounds. It laughed.

“Looks like we’ll have to try something else,” Lowe tilted their head, floating back to Reg who was taken aback by their casual demeanor, “A suggestion: have you tried holding those buttons down for longer?”

“W-What? No I-” He shook his head and just did it, aiming ahead and holding down the buttons. Light gathered at the tips, and the ends of the weapons glowed bright green.

“It won’t work! I’ve faced countless and they’ve all fallen before me!” It cackled, bringing up its fist to smash Reg like a hammer to a nail.

Reg fired, both massive shots going around its torso.

“You missed.”

A strand of light intervened between the two, “Not quite.”

The shots reflected off a strand behind it, looping around and catching on the other strand.

“NO!” Its voice was panic stricken.

Everywhere it tried to dodge, the ball of light would corral it back, growing tighter and tighter until it became a glowing ball of light. Lowe was moving their hands like a conductor for two orchestras, going faster until they suddenly clapped their hands together.

The ball collapsed into a small nova, a monstrous scream called out from within it that rumbled through Reg, and as quickly as it appeared, the nova vanished, leaving nothing.

Reg stared at the empty space left by the other digital being, dumbfounded. He hardly had time to process it when a hand touched his shoulder, causing him to jump.

Lowe whistled, “Nice shot, glad you could tell what I was planning!”

Reg blinked wide eyed and slack jawed. He stammered and Lowe waited patiently. He took in a deep breath, bringing his hands together and to his face, sternly asking, “What. Happened.”

“Oh, to me, you, or to that thing?” Lowe pointed to where the purple thing stood.

Reg just stared at Lowe, brows as high as they could go.

“Well, a lot, I’d say.” Lowe's expression darkened, "I feared this would happen. But I deemed it so unlikely that I didn't think to warn you. I was wrong, and I'm sorry.

"That Navi, though I hesitate to call it that. Was the thing that attacked you seven years ago, to get to me. It never gave a name, so I've taken to calling it by what it is, Vile.

"I don't know how it revived. I'm certain I killed it that day. The limited signal from the Earth to this base must've been what kept it away for so long.” They paused, contemplating something.

"As far as what happened to me… it. Caught me." Lowe grimaced.

"And for what happened to you? Care to take a guess?" They faced him with a wry smile.

"I died." Reg stated.

"After that."

"I don't…" Reg held his hand to the back of his head, instead feeling his ponytail sticking out, catching him off guard. He looked at his hands, yellow tipped, blue armored. He gave himself a proper gander, noting the green accents and how his undersuit had changed color to a deep purple.

"It's weird." He said lightly, "I remember dying and then Silver… Is that what happened. Did Silver's adaptability program save me, at the cost of their life?"

Lowe opened their mouth to comfort him, and Reg immediately began crying.

"Silver…" He quietly lamented.

A small ball of white light formed before him, turning into the little creature shape of Silver.

"Hi Reg." They said weakly, "Did you call for me? I'm sorry, I feel…" and they were out, falling gently down.

Reg caught them, their body almost weightless, and held them close.

He sniffed and blinked to get the tears out of his eye.

Lowe put a light hand on Reg's shoulder, and said, "Let's get you home."

Reg sniffed again, "Yeah." Then looked at Lowe’s hand, "How are you touching me?"

"If I had to guess, it's because you're partly digital now."

Reg blanched, the implications of this haunted him.

Lowe began floating towards the base entrance, commenting solemnly, "You saved a lot of lives today."

Reg followed, hopping in the low gravity. Lowe seemed distant at that moment, he didn't want to press them and figure out why.

"So do you have a name for yourself?" Lowe chuckled, facing him and floating backwards.

"Huh? It's Reg." He narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"That's not very superhero worthy." Lowe held their chin, "How about Megaman? You've got the blue, and the shooting."

Reg turned bright pink and yelled, "No! No absolutely not! Those two were heros and I've done noth-"

He stopped himself, he did apparently just 'save a lot of lives'.

Lowe smiled, saying nothing.

"...Shut up." Reg pouted hard to hide his creeping smile, and blushed.

They came up to the entrance, both airlock doors wide open, but at least his little moon snowmen were intact. He entered the hall, noticing the electronic circuits around the door were blown out, covered in fire suppressing foam that had expanded a lot in the vacuum.

He was definitely not taking off his suit for a while.

The whole base was covered in the foam, and when Reg reached the living room, he could hardly recognize it. Every electronic seemed to be randomly buzzing with light, and foam thick as a cloud clung to everything. It collapsed at his touch, and Reg threw his free arm around, enjoying the satisfying feeling.

"Yeah, the fight got messy here." Lowe inhaled.

Reg cleared the way through, and followed the path of destruction to the teleporter room. It seemed that this room suffered little damage, all the comms systems looked intact and the teleportation chamber itself looked fine.

"I wonder if it'll work." Reg looked the machine up and down.

"We can find out." Lowe closed their eyes, and a few seconds later, the lights to the room came on and the consoles sprang to life. "I just rerouted some power, everything should be working."

Reg stood there amazed, then reality dawned on him.

"I can't stay here, can I?" Reg asked.

"Yes Reg, I'm afraid this is goodb-"

Reg embraced Lowe with his one free arm, burying his helmeted head into their chest. Lowe was shocked by the sudden gesture, but quickly calmed and soothed Reg, patting his arm.

"And I'm sure," Reg said loudly, trying to cover up his voice cracking, "that if Silver was awake, they'd be hugging you too!"

Lowe gently nuzzled Silver's cheek, the sleeping creature making a small noise in response.

"I want to stay!" Reg sobbed, maybe he was lying to himself, but in that moment, all he wanted was to be close to his friend.

"You can't Reg. There's no oxygen."

"But what about you?!" He pressed himself into their chest harder.

"I'll be fine. This isn't goodbye forever."

Reg stayed very still.

"I'll need to do some internal repairs, which will take me a long while, but we can stay in touch over email. I'll message you the moment I can, ok?"

"Ok." And Reg let go, backing off.

Reg took it all in, he wanted to preserve this memory for a lifetime. His first friend, and the one who saved his life.

"You should make the call to Mission Control." Lowe looked down, "Don't want to keep them waiting."

"But what about the induction agent?" Reg looked around for his nasal inducer.

"Reg, do you know who you are?"

"Huh?" He looked back up to Lowe.

"I've suspected for a while now, that teleportation messes with the conscious mind, and those who don't know themselves, like a child, are more affected." Lowe turned to face the teleportation chamber, "So I ask you, do you know who you are?"

Reg caught a bit of his face in the reflection of the chamber, he looked as he remembered himself, though this time with a form fitting helmet. But there he was, the same person he's always been, Reg Garret. He smiled, and his reflection did the same.

"Yeah. I do." Then he thought about it, "Mostly."

"That's fine, most people don't know themselves either." They shrugged, "You should be fine to teleport though since you're already partially digital."

Reg took one last look at himself, then turned to Lowe, "Did you know this would happen?"

"This?" Lowe pointed to Reg, "No. Not in my wildest dreams. You're quite impressive."

Reg took the compliment, he was beginning to believe it.

"Come on Reg, it's time for you to go home." They floated over to the comms console.

He walked over, hit the button, connected his comms set up to it, inhaled deeply, and followed the script.

"Spacity, this is Reg Garret of the Argent. I'm requesting teleportation for myself to Earth." He recited, he had daydreamed of this moment his whole life.

The three second wait was agonizing.

"Argent, we hear you. What is your situation?" His speakers buzzed with static.

"I’m safe. The thing that was attacking us is gone, but the base suffered serious damage. I can’t stay here."

"Roger. Are you able to take your inducer?"

"No, but, circumstances are different. I'm good to teleport."

There was silence for much longer than three seconds.

"Reg. Are you certain? You're taking your life into your own hands here." The head of communication was being unprofessionally personal.

"I know. I'll be fine." His voice was calm, as if he'd seen the future and knew what came next.

Another long pause.

"Roger. TP team is ready for you. The teleport is set to start the moment it detects the chamber door closed with you inside. We're rooting for you Reg. All of us."

"Thank you, I'll see you soon." Reg ended the call.

He took in a shaky breath, this was it. Really this time. He looked to Lowe again, trying to keep a happy face, and failing.

Lowe hugged Reg this time, briefly, then gently pushed him towards the chamber. Reg's legs felt like lead, but he still turned and made his way over.

He entered the chamber, and with his free hand grabbed the door handle, taking in a sharp, deep breath, closing his eyes, and holding it there.

"Goodbye Lowe." His voice cracked.

He closed the door, no turning back now, and opened his eyes to see Lowe crying too.

"Goodbye, Reg." They waved.

Reg waved as much as he could before the world around him fell away, and he felt himself become weightless in a bright flash.

Chapter Text

Reg opened his eyes to find he was somewhere in space, little fragments of light zooming past him. Despite no air or frame of reference, he could tell he was moving. As he panicked over this, he felt that he was decelerating.

He spotted the Earth, he was certainly moving towards it, he turned his head, and there was the Argent, getting smaller. It looked wrecked, so much worse than he imagined. Whether through the years of neglect, or the recent attack from Vile, the base was not what it used to be.

He'd have time to lament later, if he dawdled too long, NAXA would grow concerned, or worse, suspicious.

He couldn't let anyone find out the truth about what happened to him. He'd have to explain Lowe, and he wasn't about to betray them! That and he didn't want a spotlight. Many a wannabe hero or pretentious politician would describe themselves as a 'Megaman', the name more of a term these days. Reg just wanted to be Reg, that's it.

The Earth grew closer, despite how much he had decelerated. What was he going to say to everyone? What was he-

He took a look at his new brightly colored suit.

Panic rose inside him, how could he turn back? Take off the suit somehow? Maybe a bad idea to try that while being electronically sent through the vacuum of space.

Earth was fast approaching and Reg closed his eyes. He tried to focus on himself, what it meant to be 'Reg Garret', but he wasn't too sure what Lowe meant with that last bit of advice they gave him. He focused on his likes, his goals, what he looked like, and then his mind wandered to snapshots of his memories, little snippets of important moments.

It lasted for a couple of seconds, and then he felt pressure, the weight of himself. He heard muffled sounds of engines, the high pitched sound of lights, and the shuffling of shoes on floor. He winced as it all came to him, and opened one eye apprehensively.

Obscured by an iridescent sheen, were a group of scientists anxiously looking at him.

Relief washed over him, he recognized some of them. He immediately looked down at himself, finding he was in his coveralls, his EMU spacesuit nowhere to be found. Silver was floating around him, still sound asleep.

“Um,” Reg swallowed in a dry throat, “Hi, everyone!”

He gave a small wave, trying out a smile.

The group cheered, their faces alighting with joy. Some ran back to desks, rushing to make calls, while others simply watched on.

One scientist flung open the door to the chamber, bouncing inside and chirped, “Reg! You made it! I can’t believe it!”

“Dr. Collins!” Reg cheered, of course he’d remember her, she had snuck him chocolate when he was really young.

“That’s good, that’s good, seems your head’s not scrambled.” Another scientist stepped forward to take a look at him, Reg recognized him as Dr. Marsh, “Not unheard of, but still impressive to take the teleport fully conscious. And so young!”

Dr. Marsh eyed Reg like a shopper picking fruit, a look he was starting to remember as being quite common for the scrutinizing scientist.

Reg needed to deflect, “How’s my mom and dad?”

“Still in recovery at the hospital, your mom’s in surgery for her legs, but both are stable!” Dr. Collins sighed, cradling her head in her hand, then brightened like a flash, “Oh but you! Let’s get you all checked up and rested!”

She squealed, Reg could tell she was doing everything in her power not to tackle him with the biggest hug she could muster. A scientist cleared their throat and the other two sheepishly backed off.

“Sorry to interrupt,” The scientist said, taking out some medical equipment, “but we do need to run some simple tests, Reg if you could, please?" They gestured, opening a hand.

This Reg was familiar with, data was food and scientists were always hungry. The first child born on the moon's first teleport, what could possibly be their bpm? Probably the same as normal, he felt, but he couldn't help but be curious too, and oblige.

He pressed on his undersuit near the right shoulder with his left hand, the suit going slack around his right arm. He then pulled the suit at the loosened end, slipping his hand out of a hole in the wrist revealing it.

The scientist took out their handheld medical device, gently slipping it over his thumb.

"Ok, get ready for a little poke." They said, pressing a button.

The device whirred, a little red light turning on that illuminated his thumb, and then he felt a tiny pinprick. Reg stood there patiently, looking over at the device, trying to read it. It eventually dinged and the scientist hardly reacted.

"Everything looks normal." They said, slipping the device off his thumb. "We'll do a proper examination later, but so far so good."

This was comforting, he was alive, and whatever happened to him up there didn't seem to have lasting effects, well, so far.

"Oh my gosh!" Dr. Collins squeaked, "I can't believe no one has said this yet!" She wore her best smile, "Welcome to Earth!"

Reg smiled wide, he hadn't realized that those were the words he had been waiting to hear. The warmth was cut short as heavy boot falls entered the room and everyone parted for the Head like hair.

"Reg Garret." Dr. Mohs stated, his towering physique like a mountain on the horizon, "Walk with me."

Reg followed, passing by the herd of scientists gathered in the room, all of them greeting him in their own way. He looked back over to the mountain of a man, he was so much more imposing in person.

"There are many things we would like to know. A proper report of the incident on the Argent will have to be made. I'm getting questions and I would rather give them a proper answer before rumors start. But." He glanced down to Reg with just his eyes, "I believe a meal is first in the order. When was the last time you ate, Reg?"

He was suddenly aware of his rumbling stomach, "Ah, yeah it does seem to be lunch time." He sheepishly chuckled.

"Are you hungry for anything? My treat."

Reg held his tongue before a snide comment shot out about how now the Head will freely give food.

"Oh uh, pizza." Reg defaulted.

Dr. Mohs considered this for longer than Reg thought necessary.

"A pizza." The Head commented, "Very well. I will place the order. Your usual, I'm assuming?"

"Y-Yes." Reg hesitated, actually wanted something new but too tired to make important decisions, like pizza toppings.

Dr. Mohs nodded, swiping the air with a hand, pulling up a floating display, typing and navigating menus.

The wide man hummed like a small earthquake, "Would you like an order of chocolate eruption bundt cake?"

"Huh?" Reg was thrown off guard, "I mean, yeah but. Really? I can?"

"Yes. It is a special occasion after all." He said, adding it to the order.

"Well then, thank you!" Reg sprang up, "And thank you again for the birthday present! Sorry it didn't turn out as you expected." He deflated, scratching the side of his head.

"Yes." Dr. Mohs groaned a little, "We'll get to that. For now, rest."

Dr. Mohs had walked him to a small conference room and held the door open for him. Reg entered, found no one else, and looked back at the large man.

"Wait here as I pick up our lunch. Bathroom is around the corner to the right if you need it. I will return shortly." Dr. Mohs closed the door, leaving Reg in the room alone.

Immediately his mind went to his parents, he didn't want to be alone, but they were elsewhere, recovering. What could he do? Experts were already doing their best, he'd just be in the way. He slumped into a chair at the conference table.

The table was made of an odd material, light density with a tan color, wood. He recognized it from pictures and movies he had watched. Up in Argent's enclosed environment, no flammable material was allowed, so this was his first experience. He noticed parts of the chair and baseboards made of wood as well, he was surrounded by it. It was like the stuff grew on trees.

The conference room had no windows and Reg was starting to suspect that Dr. Mohs had put him in here specifically to ease him into the world. What, did that guy think he was going to freak out when he sees a cloud for the first time? It might be overwhelming but he was fifteen! He could handle some pleasant sunshine for once!

He grumbled and squashed any rising teenage rebellion welling up, he was just going to follow directions and not cause any problems.

The wait was still agonizing though.

He recounted the last moments he had on Argent, everything destroyed and covered in fire suppressing foam, a place he would never return to. All the things he left behind, all his things, family photos, video games. Lowe, and the fight.

It felt unreal, like it had happened to someone else. Here he was still alive, breathing unscrubbed oxygen and walking with real gravity. He gripped his own hand, forcing himself to feel something solid and let out a tense sigh.

His hand was still exposed from the small test that scientist had ran. He pulled the glove part of his undersuit out from where he had tucked it away under his arm wrap and put it back on, kneading the junction where the fabric met, weaving them together.

He looked down at his dark blue encased hands and remembered when they were purple and yellow. He leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes tightly, looking to take his mind off all this. He opened his eyes and saw Silver floating in the corner of his vision.

"How are you still asleep, Silver?" He mumbled, batting at their form.

Silver made a noise and stretched, their eyes fluttering open.

"That was a good nap." They said, looking around casually, "Where are we?"

"Earth."

"Mmm." The little guy eyed the room half lidded, "And where's Lowe?"

"On the moon…"

"Mhm. Mhm." Silver seemed to be considering going back to sleep, then dread hit them as their eyes shot open and their face dropped like they had shattered glass over babies.

They glanced up at Reg with only their haunted eyes.

"Glad you're finally awake. You missed a lot." Reg said, leaning forward.

"Lowe…" Silver squeaked.

"They're fine. I said bye to them for you." Reg assured.

"You should've woken me!" Silver growled, flailing their little arms.

"You were out like a light, bud." Reg threw up a hand.

"How did we get to Earth?!" They yelled, throwing their arms up dramatically.

"That's uh-"

The door opened and Reg shot upright, silent, and hands buried underneath him.

"Apologies for the wait Reg," Dr. Mohs voice filled the room, "the meal came with free drinks and I had to argue that water should make the order cheaper since it's free normally. Hopefully you weren't waiting long."

"No! No, it's fine! I was just, sitting here quietly," Reg strained a half smile.

"Ah, good." Dr. Mohs shuffled in, placing the pizza and a hard light bag on the table that turned off to reveal the chocolate cake. He retrieved two glass bottles of water from a large suit pocket and Reg chuckled at the thought of this man walking the hallways with all this on the way over.

"Am I funny to you?" The man held back the bottle he was going to give to Reg.

"No!" Reg snorted, getting his emotions in order, "No sir, I am very grateful for the meal, sir."

Underneath the man's well kept mustache, he smiled, "I tease." Placing the bottle in front of Reg.

"Many here at NAXA like to imagine that I don't have a sense of humor." Dr. Mohs huffed as he sat in the chair across from Reg, "That is simply not the case. Humor is in my blood!"

Reg blankly stared at him.

Dr. Mohs cleared his throat, "You see, I have a cousin who went to clown school. He didn't pass because he didn't take it seriously enough." He became stone faced and a chill ran through the room.

Silver, confident that they couldn't be heard by the man, said, "If anyone needs to go to clown school, it's this guy."

Reg held back a laugh, which Dr. Mohs took as a response to his joke and smiled.

"Ah, yes, the pizza," Dr. Mohs flipped open the box, revealing the supreme pizza inside, "Dig in."

Reg grabbed a slice and ate, suddenly aware of how hungry he was, and did his best not to inhale the first slice. Dr. Mohs carefully handled his slice, taking his time and contemplating.

Reg went for his next slice as a low rumble came from the man across from him, like an engine in idle.

"Reg." He intoned, pulling up a screen and pressing a large ‘record’ button, "I won't dance around this any longer. We need to know what happened on the Argent. Black box data couldn't be retrieved and the audio recordings of the incident are unintelligible. I assume from your mood that we aren't in danger, but we still need to know."

Reg pulled back his second slice before he was able to take a bite. How would he even start to describe what happened?

“What was the last thing you heard?” Reg asked.

Dr. Mohs pulled up a second screen, “The written transcript we have says, ‘William, ‘Rosie? We got it plugged in. Most of the installation should be automatic. How's it looking?’, Eileen, ‘It's looking’’ and that’s when the audio cuts off.”

Reg nodded, that made sense because that was when…

“The communications room must have exploded then. The automatic systems suppressed the fire and sealed the hole on the roof, but.” Reg started to explain, the fear of the event catching up to him. He shook it off and recalled as best he could, “My dad and I ran as fast as we could back, and when we entered the base we saw a purple Navi in the living room.”

Dr. Mohs made a sound like rock slowly sliding over stone.

“We ran to the communications room while avoiding it, grabbed mom, and that’s when we contacted MC.”

“Yes.” Dr. Mohs sighed, “Our transcripts reflect that, even if the audio recording is garbled.”

Reg nodded and continued, “After my mom was teleported, the purple Navi-” Reg bit his lip in frustration.

“That thing.” He spat, “It wasn’t even a Navi! I don’t know what it was! It was huge, had massive hands, a big dragon wing, and a cape or cloak around it! It had this gravely sound to its voice and it-” He cut himself off, clenched a fist and remembered he was being recorded, “Sorry. I lost my cool.”

“It’s fine.” Dr. Mohs said deeply, with a sharp tone that didn’t seem directed at him, “Continue.”

Reg quickly sighed, “It wasn’t like any Navi I’ve read about, but I’m just gonna keep calling it that cause it’s easier. It grabbed my dad.” He looked up to Dr. Mohs with pleading eyes.

“Before it did, it said it was ‘going to take it from the source’ and I-I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it couldn’t get that information. It was doing something to my dad, he moved unnaturally like he was being puppeted and so when my dad stepped into the teleport chamber I… I had to press the emergency teleport.”

Dr. Mohs didn’t react, he kept his gaze on Reg like he could see right into him. The room felt empty, vast, and cold.

“After that.” Reg managed to choke out, “I ran out of the room. That Navi had come here via that quantum relay, so I had to unplug it. I ran outside, ripped it out, and ran back inside.”

“This Navi.” Dr. Mohs rumbled, “Were you in danger from it at this point?”

“I-” Reg swallowed in a dry throat, “I was. I was being attacked but I managed to avoid it.”

The man narrowed his eyes, saying nothing.

“I-” Reg stumbled over his words again, gripping his shirt where he was shot, “I was lucky.”

He chose his next words carefully, he would have to craft this story well enough to avoid suspicion that he was assisted. No one was finding out about Lowe today, not ever.

“I managed to activate the hard light shields of the base despite the damage, which sealed that Navi outside. I went to the teleportation room and that’s that, I got teleported home.”

“Without your space suit.” Dr. Mohs commented, almost casually.

Reg sputtered, and the man raised one hand reassuringly.

“Is that the truth, Reg.” Dr. Mohs not so much asked as commanded.

“It’s the truth,” Reg lied.

“I see.”

Dr. Mohs kept his eyes on Reg as he pressed the screen to stop the recording.

“The project your father was working on,”

Reg instantly sat to attention. The man narrowed his eyes again.

“I won’t ask about it. I’ll take what you said as the truth I tell the public. As a bonus birthday gift since the first one did so poorly.” Dr. Mohs declared, then leaned forward, occupying the entirety of Reg’s vision, “Don’t lie to me again.”

Reg tried to make a sound, and all that came out was a half gulp and a nasally whimper.

The man leaned back, slowly relaxing into his chair and took another bite of pizza.

“You should eat.” He advised casually, “It’s going to get cold.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reg had finished his food in a daze. Silver tried to be reassuring and make jokes, but Reg was unfocused and shivering in a warm room. He had lied to The Head of operations. What would his parents think? Hopefully Dr. Mohs wouldn’t tell anyone, they’d be devastated. He’d be devastated!

He was left alone in the room as the Head was communicating with the public relations team. He had been told that he was going to the hospital next to get a full check up done. That would mean he may be able to check on his parents, though he wasn’t sure he wanted to see them right now.

Eventually some NAXA employees came by and escorted Reg towards a back exit. It all felt formal and Reg was having trouble staying present. It took him a couple of steps to realize the light coming from the windows was natural and he slowed down to stare out of them.

Everything was vibrant. Greens, blues, yellows, and reds. The building was lined with bushy purple grasses and the few cars on the road were brightly colored. Trees outside had their fall foliage, and birds could be seen fluttering between the branches. He stood there agape.

"Oh," One of the employees spoke up, and Reg realized they had all stopped with him. He looked over to them.

"Sorry, we've got orders to bring you to your vehicular escort quickly and quietly but," The employee raised their hands, looking at their fellow employees, "a little insubordination won't hurt." They winked.

"What? I don't want you to get in trouble!" Reg flustered.

"It's not everyday you see Earth for the first time." They softly smiled, "Let's make your first impression a good one! We'll stay for as long as you need. We'll say uh, you had to go to the bathroom or something!"

Reg smiled, trying to look grateful and not concerned, and turned back to the window, taking it all in. He wanted to run out there and touch the grass, maybe roll around in the dirt for fun, let himself loose and just see where the winds take him. But he knew he had to go to the hospital, there was this sinking feeling creeping over his stomach that he couldn't shake. The time for relaxation would be later, hopefully.

With a sigh he turned away from the window and said to the escorts, "Let's go." In a hollow voice.

The group didn't object and led him to a covered parkway where a nondescript car was waiting for him. He shuffled inside and took a bit to buckle himself in. The car noiselessly left the lot and drove onto the road. His driver was quiet and Reg got the feeling he should stay quiet too. Instead, he watched the world blur past him outside the car window.

Chapter Text

When they finally reached the hospital, Reg was overwhelmed. He was having trouble merely making a mental map of everything he saw, nothing in his life had ever been this large in scale, and this was just a fifteen minute car ride. He was almost grateful to be back inside a building.

The hospital was a buzz with patients, nurses, and doctors walking everywhere. Reg had never seen more strangers in one area in his life. For a place dedicated to saving lives, it was certainly lively.

Silver was floating around, looking at everything they could get close to. Reg froze in place, lost in the inundation of people. A cheerful voice cut through, Dr. Collins bounced up beside Reg and gave him a side hug.

“Well look who it is! Long time no hug!” She snickered.

“Dr. Collins!” Reg replied out of his daze.

“It sure is a lot huh kiddo?” She grinned, “Come on, let's get you out of this busy entryway into an exam room!”

Reg nodded and followed along. The hallways featured less people who all seemed to by minding their own business, to Reg's relief. Maybe a child or two lingered their gaze on him, but they passed quickly and quietly.

Eventually they came to a room somewhat indistinguishable from the others and he stepped inside. It was a simple room with a padded bed and a wall of cabinets with lots of countertop space.

“Now we just wait for the doctor!” Dr. Collins said cheerily.

“Hmm? With you?” Reg asked.

“Yep! Dr. Mohs’ orders.”

“How are my parents doing?” He asked, remembering he was in the same building as them again.

“Your mom is still in surgery and your dad is still recovering. Not really a surprise considering what happened to him.” Dr. Collins sighed.

“Wait, you know?”

“The NAXA PR team released the announcement a couple minutes ago. It's front page news!”

Reg felt queasy, “They didn't… Show our faces or anything?”

“Nope!” She smiled brightly.

Reg sighed with relief.

“But still, a virus attack in this day and age. I'm impressed you survived!”

“Yeah…” He gripped his shirt.

The two waited for the doctor as Dr. Collins tried to bring up the news article, Reg declined, saying he wasn’t interested in living the events for the third time today. Instead Dr. Collins opted to talk Reg’s ear off about other mildly interesting things in her life, taking twenty words to say one thing. Reg was relieved when the doctor entered the room.

The check up consisted of a rigorous and thorough series of tests, height, weight, balance, lung capacity, dizziness. When it came time to take radiographs, the doctor requested that Reg remove his undersuit due to its radiation shielding nature.

Reg entered the bathroom to take it off, noting the sparse decorations in the room, then realized how odd it was to note that. He loosened the entire suit by pressing on both shoulders, noticing a weird feeling around his chest. The loose fabric hung around it, sagging in the shape of a…

Nausea rushed up and around him. He tugged on the fabric, feeling his skin pull with it. This did not help the sickening feeling growing inside him. He pulled up his shirt to confirm in the mirror that his undersuit was bound to him in the shape of a circle, right where he had been shot.

Panic fell over him as his vision darkened on the edges, there was no hiding it anymore, he was going to have to tell them what happened. Or at the very least, that he had been shot, and somehow survived. Maybe the doctor would be able to do something, surgically remove it and give him new skin. He was already at the best place to have an injury.

He sharply inhaled through his nose, taking a moment to hold his breath before exhaling, then prepared a story to half lie to the doctor. He opened the door to the bathroom with worry written all over his face.

“I uh, have a problem.” Reg began, the doctor then looked over attentively.

“When I was attacked, I was shot, but I didn’t think much of it.” He did his best to keep his emotions steady as his own words reminded him of that terrible moment.

“I think it caused damage to the electronics woven in the suit and it… Melted to my skin.” He couldn’t look at anyone and chose to focus at a point on the floor.

The doctor, professional as they were, merely raised their brows, while Dr. Collins gasped and audibly winced.

Further testing confirmed it, his skin would forever be marked by the events on Argent. Extensive surgery along with a lengthy healing process would fix it, but it also didn’t seem to be causing any issues at the moment. The undersuit already worked like a second layer of skin, a technological feature that basically allowed it to never have to be taken off to begin with. Everyone decided the best course of action was to wait and see if it ended up causing any issues. Even then, Reg felt haunted.

The rest of the tests were conducted as best they could, accommodating Reg’s undersuit situation. Everything came back normal, which was unsurprising but relieving to Reg. By this time it was afternoon and the sun hung low in the sky. Reg’s mom was out of surgery and was waking up from the anesthesia, while Reg’s dad was still in recovery.

“When can I visit them?” He asked Dr. Collins as they waited in a secluded lounge.

“I don’t see why we can’t visit them now, bet your mom will enjoy a friendly face when she wakes up!” Dr. Collins reached for a floating screen to look up a map, “Ok, fifth floor, room two, come on, let’s go!”

She hopped up and Reg followed, the path to the room was straightforward with few twists or turns. Dr. Collins greeted a nurse outside the room and was let in, beckoning Reg to follow. When he entered the room, he was greeted with odd antiseptic smells and monitoring beeps. His mom was behind a curtain, her silhouette outlined in the afternoon sun. Dr. Collins made a silly sneaking motion and peeked inside, waving Reg over. When he glanced inside as well, his breath hitched.

There were tubes and wires and fluid lines all over her, her legs were wrapped in colorful cast wrap, with some tubes coming out of both of them, connected to a whirring machine down on the floor. A ventilator moved gently in and out in time with her breath and a nearby nurse was keeping notes on a floating screen. His mom’s heartbeat was steady and normal, but Reg’s was spiking.

He couldn’t stand to see his mom like this and felt his legs back away. He backed off all the way out the door, quietly enough that the nurse near the door barely acknowledged him. He closed the door with hardly a sound behind him, leaning back on it with a shaky sigh. He looked over to Silver, unsure, and the little creature replied with a small smile.

He was feeling antsy and needed to move, walking down the long hallway. He was just going to wait by that lounge, should be fine, he needed some place quiet to think. When he turned down a hall, he noted how similar the architecture was everywhere, evenly placed doors and decorative plants every ten or so feet. He made another turn.

What floor was that lounge on?

He turned down another way. There was a sky walk to an adjacent building, he certainly remembered not going on one of those. He went back the way he came and kept walking. At what point did he turn? He took a left. The hallway looked familiar so he kept walking down it. He came to the end of it, but didn’t run into that nurse outside his mom’s recovery room. He looked down both the right and left passages and found nothing distinguishable.

Then he felt a tap on his shoulder that made him jump.

“Oh, sorry! Are you alright, you seem a bit lost?” A voice behind him said.

He turned to find a ragged brown haired adult man in a tropical shirt looking at him curiously.

“Um, a bit.” Reg replied.

“Yeah this place is pretty labyrinthian, even if I’ve been coming here for ages I still get lost!” The man chuckled.

“Uh, yeah.” Reg tried to chuckle too, not well.

“Well, do you remember where you were going to?”

“A… lounge.”

“Do you know which one?”

The suggestion that there were multiple made Reg’s head spin, “N-No.”

“Well if you need any lounge, the one down this way should be just fine!” The man pointed down to the right.

“Um, thanks,” Reg faltered.

“Come on, I’ll walk with you!”

“What? You don’t need to do that!” Reg brought up a hand.

“Nah, I’m avoiding something anyway. This gives me a good excuse! I’m pretty lucky to have found you!” He laughed, holding out a hand, “Dr. Hikari, nice to meet you!”

The name rang a far off bell in Reg’s head, but he was filled with so many other thoughts vying for his attention that it went unnoticed.

“Reg Garret,” He said on autopilot, shaking the offered hand.

The two walked down the hall as the gears in the back of his head began to turn, “Do you work here Dr. Hikari?”

“What, me? No, no, no. I’ve got a doctorate in computer science. I get that it could get confusing here, you can just call me Rock.” He waved a hand dismissively.

Something was clicking, but the casual way Rock addressed him threw him off balance.

“Reg…” Silver floated up next to him, breaking him out of his thoughts, “Something’s wrong.”

He looked over to them, worry painted their face. He wanted to ask for more info, but with Rock right there he could only make an odd face and hope Silver understood.

Silver shook their head, “I dunno…”

The group passed by a hallway where two nurses seemed to be discussing something in urgent whispers.

“It’s just gone! I swear I sent that protocol to the doctor.” One nurse said.

“Are you sure? Check the sent folder.” The other one replied.

“See, there it- No wait it’s not there!” The first nurse panicked.

Rock seemed to pick up on this and walked over, “What seems to be the problem?”

The two nurses looked at the tackily dressed man, and one looked at him dismissively.

“Sir, we appreciate it, but this is nothing to worry about.”

“You’re Dr. Hikari!” One of the nurses brightened with recognition, then dimmed to a frustrated scowl, “You’re supposed to be in your room, what are you doing about?”

“Clearly getting lucky, running into a problem I may be able to fix.” Rock smiled.

“Who’s he?” The dismissive nurse leaned over to ask.

“Dr. Rock Hikari, a frequent patient and someone who needs to be seeing Dr. Simmons soon.”

“And someone who’s an expert in the field of programming.” He beamed, holding out a hand, “Mind if I take a look?”

“Fine, show him your screen,” The dismissive nurse told the other, “And then immediately to your room, sir.”

“Reg, it’s bad.” Silver whispered.

Reg felt adrift, but things were slowly being pieced together. He looked over to Silver to try to glean something more from them. Silver looked like they had seen a ghost.

Rock hummed and looked through the nurse’s screen, scrolling and opening files, “That’s odd.” was all he said.

“It’s below us.” Silver spoke up.

Reg tried to keep his cool and looked at the screen Rock was scrolling through, and watched as a file disappeared before their very eyes.

“They’re being actively deleted.” Rock mumbled to himself.

The two nurses made shocked noises.

“Reg!” Silver called out behind him, and when he turned to look, they were waving him over.

“Ah, um, I just remembered!” Reg said aloud, “I know where I’m supposed to be going! Thanks for your help Rock!” and ran off.

“Huh, oh, you’re welcome!” Rock waved back, laser focused on the screen in front of him.

Reg caught up to Silver who led him down the hall, toward an elevator.

“Wh- How’d you know this was here?” Reg asked.

“I remembered.” Silver shrugged.

“Shoot, maybe I should’ve asked you for directions.” Reg pressed the button and entered when the doors opened.

Inside the secluded place, Reg whipped around to Silver, panicked.

“What’s going on?” He fretted.

Silver shook their head, “I don’t know. There’s something here.” and pointed down at an angle.

Something finally clicked. Reg pressed the button for the ground floor and stepped back.

“If this is a virus attack, somehow. Then we might be the only ones who can do anything.” Reg clenched his fists, and when the doors opened, he told Silver, “You’re gonna have to guide me.”

Silver nodded and led Reg down hallways towards the back of the hospital building. On the way Reg felt a ping of guilt as he remembered he hadn't told Dr. Collins where he was going. That was going to have to wait, if things were being deleted from the hospital’s database, that could spell disaster for the patients.

Way in the back of the hospital, past a warehouse of medical supplies was a panicked office worker running out of a door. Reg slipped by quickly catching his foot in the opening and then walked inside.

Rows and rows of glass encased servers filled the room. A chill ran up Reg as a cold breeze blew past him, coming from the massive vents up above. Further down at the end, more business dressed workers were frantically checking monitors and running up and down the rows. Reg went down the row closest to him and hid in the back.

He glanced at Silver briefly then felt a pressure weighing on him. He looked up.

Something shadowy was on top the servers making chewing sounds. The edges to its form were fuzzy and looked square. Reg squinted and it was like the thing became more transparent. A massive claw came out of it and raked through the server, scooping something up into its mouth for it to chew on. The server it passed through displayed warning lights and beeped.

“Now there’s something wrong with row two!” A voice further in the server room called out.

“Turn them all off! We can’t risk any more data being deleted!” Another voice yelled in response.

All at once the low hum of the servers suddenly stopped and the lights faded to black.

The shadowy creature plunged its claw into the server again, pulling out more data, only this time no warnings blared out.

“That’s not good…” Reg whined quietly, then looked to Silver, “How do I do the thing!? How do I turn into the virus fighting thing! There’s a virus and I gotta fight it!”

Silver shook their head quickly, “I don’t know!” and hid behind Reg.

The shadowy virus turned its head, revealing an angular cat-like face that stared straight at Silver. Reg felt his blood run cold and closed his eyes. Whatever power he had been given this morning was needed now. He searched inwards for the feeling he had when he first changed. That empty cold feeling being replaced by a blazing fire. It felt close, like all he had to do was flip a switch and be filled with electricity.

He opened his eyes to find the virus swinging its clawed arm down, mouth open wide.

“No!” He screamed with his whole body, launching himself into a punch that he watched burst into yellow light and be replaced with familiar blue armor.

The fist connected and the virus stumbled back, hissing and shaking itself.

Reg inspected himself, everything seemed to be there; armor and weapons. Good, he was ready to fight.

“Who said ‘no’?” A voice yelled out and seemed to be approaching them.

Reg jumped up on top of the server and got a good view of the virus. It looked like it wore a cloak of shadows that draped over the entirety of its body, with two clawed arms supporting its front. A black growth like inky moss grew out from wherever the virus stood and covered several of the servers.

One of the workers passed by the row, “There’s nothing down here?” They called out, looking at the virus directly.

It turned to the human and hissed, extending a claw. Reg shot it and the virus immediately whipped around to hiss at Reg.

The worker jumped back, stumbling, “What was that?!” And then ran back to the end of the server room.

The virus then turned completely transparent and the silence gripped Reg.

“Above you!” Silver cried out from behind him.

Reg leapt forward along the top of the servers just as something brushed the back of his leg. He turned around and shot at the air, the two small bursts colliding with the wall behind, causing no damage. He heard a hiss come out from in front of him.

“What?” Reg whispered to himself. Surely the virus was right there, he had to have hit it! It was like his shots had passed straight through. Some sickening feeling made him leap back onto the next row of servers behind him, just as the sound of something sharp passed in front of him. The black moss grew outwards, scattering multi-colored pixels everywhere. Another hiss and Reg jumped back again, running all the way to the back of the server room.

“Silver,” Reg kept his voice as quiet as he could, “Where is it?”

Silver leaned over and pointed vaguely, “It’s hard to tell…”

The sound of something large leaping towards him grew louder and louder, until the virus suddenly became visible, its claws and fangs outstretched above him. Reg fired two shots into it, but it didn’t stop its attack and it landed full force onto Reg, biting and digging its claws into him.

Reg let out a scream, but stopped himself, gritting his teeth as he heard the workers react.

“What is that?!” He heard one of them yell.

Reg brought both of the guns to the body of the virus and fired repeatedly. This caused the virus to leap off of him, hiss and vanish, and the office workers to yell in surprise once more.

He inspected the wounds from the bite and claws and was surprised to find just dull indents in his armor as well as a fuzzy lingering pain.

“Reg…” Silver said warily, “Its invisibility only lasts 10 seconds…”

He kept his eyes forward and nodded, jumping to the top of a more central server, and began counting the seconds. He held the buttons down on his guns and closed his eyes, listening for the slight shifts in the wind.

“7…”

The virus moved suddenly and Reg jumped perpendicular to it, feeling it scrape his leg.

“8…”

The sound of a claw raked through the air as he ducked and side stepped.

“9…”

Reg jumped back as he anticipated another swipe, this time low and towards his feet.

“10.”

He flashed his eyes open just in time to see the virus reappear and leap towards him. He unleashed his charges right into its face and it howled in pain, leaving two rapidly expanding holes on either side of it. It collapsed in a heap and the black moss that had covered everything began to dissolve.

The virus disintegrated into fading pixels, leaving a small, ghostly point of data in its place. Silver jumped out and ate the little thing before Reg could object, and the sound of the server workers made Reg turn around.

“What even is that?” He heard one of them say, “It’s kinda human shaped but, all pixelated? Like a mosaic?”

“Reminds me of those old jpegs,” Another one said, and Reg heard the sound of a camera shutter and blanched.

He leapt off the server and dashed to the door, throwing it open just as he heard them start to argue.

“Nah it’s like those ancient videos! Of 144p!-”

And he was out, seeing no one else in the hallway he turned that internal switch off and felt everything return to normal. The fuzziness he felt went away instantly, but his shoulder and back still had a dull pain. He reached over to where he was bit, winced, then relaxed into a sigh as the pain fell back down to a dull baseline.

Chapter Text

He began walking, anywhere away from here. His vision was blurry and kept fading in and out of focus. Silver did their best to guide him back the way he came, though every few steps he would drag a foot along the ground and almost stumble.

He was vaguely aware of someone saying something around him, though he kept walking forward down the hall. Then he heard his name, and everything snapped into focus.

“That stopped you,” the voice sighed, “I'm assuming you're the Reg everyone's looking for? You know your mother and aunt are worried about you.”

Reg paused, this person must be referring to Dr. Collins, it must've been easier for her to introduce herself like that. He slowly turned to face them.

Behind him was a well dressed woman, brown hair neatly tied back in a high ponytail. She wore a tired expression behind red framed glasses.

She eyed him up and down, huffing, “You look tired. Let's go take a seat over there.”

Reg jumped a little, “But, my mom…”

“I've messaged her. You have time to rest,” She motioned to a hallway off to the side that featured a vending machine and benches.

He couldn't deny that his legs were killing him, when was the last time he rested? He found his way over to the bench and sat with a huff, immediately feeling relief as the swirling in his head eased. He heard beeps and whirs coming from the vending machine, then some colorful packaging popped up at the edges of his vision.

He reached out gingerly to take it, slightly hesitating as he looked up at the woman who tracked him down.

“It’s chocolate. You look like you need it,” She responded to his unasked question, narrowing her eyes at him.

“Thanks…” Reg sighed, taking the candy and unwrapping it, “I got really lost.”

“Clearly,” She replied, offering her hand sharply, “Roll Hikari. You met my brother earlier. He was the one who roped me into looking for you.”

“Reg Garret,” He reached out to shake her hand, “Though I guess you already knew that.”

“I didn’t,” Roll took the seat next to him, lowering her voice, “You should be more careful revealing your last name young Mr. Garret. News outlets around the world are abuzz with talk surrounding the mysterious events that occurred to the Garret family this morning.”

Reg jumped in his seat, snapping to attention. It was clear what she was alluding to and that she had nailed him, but he wanted to deny it anyways.

“Relax, I’m not interested in that,” She waved a hand dismissively, then dug her gaze into him, “What I want to know is how you ended up on the ground floor, so far away from any client rooms. All while the hospital is going through a mysterious virus attack, the first in a century?”

Reg was speechless, a small squeak escaped his throat, but nothing else. He managed to finally groan out, “I panicked?”

“Panicked your way directly to the hospital server room? That’s the only thing down this way.”

“Are you accusing me of doing something?” Reg hunched over defensively.

“I’m curious. That’s all,” Roll stared through him.

The lights overhead seemed to grow in intensity, Silver was saying something, but it was drowned out by the pounding in his head and buzzing in his ears. He wanted to run.

“Eesh, calm down,” She scooched back, “I don’t want answers that badly. You could just say you didn’t want to talk about it. I just wanted to tell you my family has experience with… Odd technology… events.” She rolled her hand to explain.

“Your family…” The gears that were clanking in the back of Reg’s head finally clicked, “Hikari, you mean the Hikaris? The Brother Band Hikaris? The inventor of Navis Hikaris?!” Reg felt his blood drain from his face.

“Yes, but not the Net Reset Hikaris, that’s the other side of the family,” Roll held her head in her hands.

Reg squeaked, reality was closing in on him, “And your brother…”

“World’s most prominent expert on next gen assistive programming advancements,” She sighed distantly, “Dr. Hikari.”

“What about you? Are you an expert on anything?” Reg wondered, ready for a million other big reveals.

Roll scoffed, “An expert on my brother, maybe.” Then laughed.

“...Why?” Reg asked quietly.

Roll glanced over to him, considered his question, then looked at the ground, eyes far off and hazy.

“Because that’s what was needed,” She answered after some time.

There was something weighty to her words; Roll lifted slightly as she said them, falling back into her hands as she finished.

“You’re an interesting kid, young Mr. Garret,” She turned to him.

Reg straightened up, glancing to the side, “I’d rather not be.”

“Good,” She smiled, “Don’t let the fact that you’re from the moon make you think you’re all that different from us humble Earthlings.”

Reg’s face dyed red and he quickly curled up hiding it, “I wouldn’t!”

He gripped his pants, desperate for reassurance, “Do… People know what I look like?”

“No,” Roll assured flatly, “They know your parent’s names and faces, but that was public knowledge anyways. Relax, kid. In a couple of days this will be old news and people will move on.”

“But, somehow you knew?”

“I’m the exception. I just notice things, and honestly it was mostly a guess,” She shrugged, “Though it may be a good idea to remove that NAXA logo from your coveralls.” She pointed to somewhere behind him.

Reg grabbed at the coveralls tied around his waist, feeling the velcro patch, tearing it off and storing it in a pocket.

“Your fashion is fine, though people may mistake you for a janitor,” She explained, tracing him with a finger, “If you wanna not stand out, keep things to a first name basis, and you should be fine.”

Reg sighed heavily, letting his head fall to his knees. “Thanks,” He muttered.

“Are you feeling better now? You hardly ate your chocolate,” She asked, pointing to the little packaged snack.

Reg looked at the chocolate in his hands, slightly melted on the places where he held it. He took a bite and was met with a familiar sweet sour of Netopian chocolate, and a sudden rush of hunger as the rest of his body remembered how long it had been since it ate. He devoured the thing in three bites and sheepishly looked away from Roll who was eyeing him carefully.

“That good huh?” She said politely, holding back a laugh.

Reg stood up in a huff, “C-Can we just go back to my mom please?”

Roll smiled, taking her time getting up, “Sure thing kid. And also,” She pulled up a screen, “if you need anything, please contact me. Do you have a mobile?”

“I…” Reg was suddenly aware that he was lacking in a lot of Earth things, “Don’t…”

She pulled out a small card, “Good thing I like the occasional old fashion tech.”

Reg took the small card from her, it simply listed her name and contact info.

“Thanks,” Reg looked up as Roll gave him a half smile, then she turned to walk off down the hall, motioning for him to follow.

The two walked down the hospital hallways, up the elevator, and down another hall. It all took less than five minutes and it left Reg even more confused as to how he had gotten lost in the first place.

“Here we are,” Roll gestured to the room he assumed his mom was in, then looked back to Reg, “You look surprised.”

“Yeah well,” Reg soured, but couldn’t help a small smile, “the buildings I’m used to are a lot smaller.”

Roll laughed, once, “Yeah, I’d say.” Then with a wave, turned to leave, “I gotta make sure my brother is actually getting checked up, nice meeting you young Mr. Garret.”

“You too,” Reg nodded and watched her leave, then turned to the door with his mom’s name written on an electronic display.

He took in a deep breath and opened the door, catching a glance of his mom in her hospital bed as the rush of emotions that initially made him run away washed over him.

“Reg! There you are sweetheart!” Dr. Collins cooed and bounced over to him, “You feeling ok?”

“Y-Yeah,” Reg gulped, trying to force down the wave of anxiety that was bubbling up.

Dr. Collins gave a sympathetic smile and opened her mouth to say something.

“Reg?” The sound of his mom’s voice was weak and shaky and hit Reg like a truck.

His mom was sitting up in bed with the support of a nurse nearby, she looked towards his direction and smiled, reaching out with a hand. He tried his best to keep a positive expression, but his face twitched as he fought back tears. There was his mom, Argent’s strongest of spirit and clearest of voice, assured and bold, reduced to a limp wreck. Reg shook as he approached.

His mom gently cradled his face in her hand, tracing his cheek with her thumb. His breath was shaky as he leaned into the touch.

“Look at you, my baby. You’re ok. By some miracle you’re not hurt,” She said softly.

Reg flashed back to that fight with Vile, and did his best to avoid the thought of his parent’s reaction to a worse outcome. He was once again grateful for Lowe and Silver.

“It was hard getting to Earth on your own, huh?” His mom asked, reading his face, “I’m so proud of you.”

He couldn’t hold back, tears formed in his eye and he held his mom’s hand against his face. His mom lurched forward into a hug.

“Mrs. Garret,” The nurse gasped, disapproving.

“Oh shush, hugging my child isn’t going to break my legs more,” His mom mumbled back, then buried her face into Reg’s shoulder.

Reg melted into his mom’s embrace, taking in her familiar smell that cut through the harsh clean scents of the hospital. His mom would be ok, they were right where they needed to be, and things were going to get better.

“Welcome to Earth,” She whispered in his ear, and Reg replied with a small nod and a smaller sound. After a soft pat, his mom let go, slowly falling back into bed.

A bit out of breath, she quietly explained, “I’ll be recovering here for the next couple of days as the skin grafts heal up, and then we can go to our new home together! I can’t wait to show you around Spacity, I bet so much has changed in the past sixteen years, it’ll be a new experience for both of us!”

Reg smiled and nodded, then swallowed hard, trying to find his words.

“Mhm, I can’t wait!” was what he managed to say.

She softly smiled at him, “Have you had the chance to see dad yet?”

Reg’s breath hitched, the memory of the last time he had seen his dad flashed into mind, the sound of his screams echoing as Reg’s focus came stumbling back to the present.

“I know it might be hard but, please consider it,” She asked, her head rolling to the side.

Reg nodded, gently holding his mom’s hand.

“Good, thank you,” She sighed, taking Reg’s hand and patting it, “The pain meds they have me on are making me sleepy, my eyelids are pretty heavy right now,” She chuckled weakly, “Send dad my love when you see him, ok?”

Reg nodded again, “I will,”

With a grateful sigh, his mom closed her eyes and fell back asleep, her breathing slow and steady.

The nurse beside her made a note and looked to Reg pleasantly, ”She’ll be more awake later, for now it’s best to let her rest.”

Reg nodded, taking in a deep breath and let go of his mom’s hand. He stepped back and finally looked at his mom in her entirety. There was only one monitoring wire attached to a clamp on her finger, and only one fluid line silently dripping. The colorful casts on her legs had flowers made of cast material decorating the outside. The tubes coming out of the casts that were attached to the softly whirring machine down below reminded him of the equipment used on his EMU spacesuit. It all looked kinda goofy, while his mom’s soundly sleeping face seemed the most real.

“Uh,” Reg turned to Dr. Collins who was standing back at a respectable distance, “Can I go see my dad?”

She nodded and ushered him towards the exit, thanking the nurse as the two left the room.

“Kiddo you really gave us a scare there!” She whispered to him.

Reg jumped, shame gripping him, “Sorry! I panicked…”

“And then you got lost! You poor thing,” She ruffled his hair dotingly, “We need to get you a mobile!”

“Oh, one of the new model Holojects?” He asked, hopeful.

“No, let's get you something more reliable. One of those sturdy bricks of an IPC mobile.”

Reg deflated, but couldn't argue, from what he read about them, the IPC mobiles could withstand being run over by a car. And with a case, they were practically indestructible. You could probably use them as a weapon and knock someone out. They didn't call them bricks for nothing.

The two walked the hospital halls, passing by several rooms. They went past department after department, and as he caught glimpses of patients in these rooms, they seemed to be wrapped in more wires, and surrounded by more doctors. Reg hastened up to Dr. Collins.

“What part of the hospital is my dad in?” He asked, not taking his eyes off the rows of patients.

“He's still in intensive care,” she responded, glancing over to him, “He's likely going to be surrounded by other patients going through some intense medical stuff, are you still up for this?”

Reg swallowed in a dry throat, he was already not used to large numbers of people, and factor in the medical drama…

“I still want to see him,” He assured.

Dr. Collins shrugged and continued to guide him. The sound of beeps and footsteps grew louder as they approached. She caught the attention of an attending nurse who nodded to what Dr. Collins asked them, then guided the group into a large open room with many curtains.

Doctors and nurses walked briskly between patients, monitoring, making notes, and administering medicine. Patients were being wheeled in and out regularly. The atmosphere was tense but controlled with the medical professionals all regarding Reg plainly then focusing back onto their work.

They came to a small room off to the side where a nurse was busy consulting a doctor. Reg could hardly make out what they were saying, but heard the unmistakable word ‘coma’ come out of the nurse's lips. He felt his knees lock.

“Ah, you're the visitors for William Garret, please come in,” The nurse waved them in, keeping a professional tone, “He is stable. We're doing everything we can and we will be transferring him to a specialty ward later today.”

He heard a small gasp and looked to see Dr. Collins's shocked face, which quickly recovered into a smile as she caught sight of Reg.

“Oh sorry, this is the first time I've seen your father here,” Dr. Collins said with her put on smile.

The nurse and doctor parted and Reg finally registered the pile of equipment behind them as his dad. He seemed covered head to toe in monitoring devices and pumps administering cocktails of drugs. Buried underneath it all was his dad, sleeping as if nothing had happened.

“Is he going to be ok?” He heard himself ask. It was a stupid question, he knew, but he felt cornered, like he had to say it.

Everyone paused, the atmosphere becoming frozen.

“We're doing the best we can, we've got Netopian's experts on neurology on this case. The best thing we can do right now is supportive care while he recovers,” Someone said, Reg couldn't tell, everything was a buzz around him.

“Do you want some time alone with him, Reg?” Dr. Collins's voice cut through.

He turned to her, taking a moment to register what had been said, finally replying with an affirmative sound. Before he knew it, the room was vacated, leaving him alone with his dad.

As Reg was still trying to get his bearings, the steady sounds of the monitoring equipment and occasional ventilator breath was all that could be heard. He grasped the edge of the hospital bed to keep himself upright. He was so close to his dad’s face. It felt like he was feeling every possible emotion at once and he eventually elected to linger on his worry.

Why hadn’t he woken up? Reg considered the idea that since he was the only one who knew what really happened to his dad, that he should confess to what exactly occurred. But what good would it all do? The doctors would still be in the same situation as before, they already knew Argent was attacked by a Navi, it was all over the news. An unprecedented event that has had no equivalent event occur in probably one hundred and fifty years, not since the height of the Satella Police.

No, Reg was useless here. Whatever damage his dad had would have to be healed with modern medicine, time, and maybe even a miracle.

“Dad,” Reg whispered shakily, “I’m so sorry… There’s nothing I can do.”

He leaned over and rested his head onto his arms. Silver floated by, looking between the two with concern. With everything that had happened, he had forgotten to check on them, and he felt ashamed. They floated up to him and nuzzled his face, a gesture he couldn’t feel but nonetheless appreciated.

“Hey bud, how are you doing?” He asked, reaching over to at least pretend to pet them.

“What about you? You don’t look good,” They murmured.

“I’m…” Reg took in another shaky sigh, “Tired. I haven’t rested since coming to Earth and… There’s just been so much happening. I just wish I could do something for him.”

Reg fell deeper into his arms, trying to ignore all the tubes and wires and imagine he was back on Argent, sleeping in his bunk bed with his dad and mom sleeping across from him. He watched as Silver floated up to his dad’s face, gently placing their face against his. They held that pose for a long moment, then pulled back, etched with worry.
[image of Reg's dad in a hospital bed with Silver]

“What was that?” Reg wondered.

“I… Don’t know. I thought I could do something,” They admitted.

“Thanks for trying,” He offered, opening a hand for Silver.

They nuzzled Reg’s hand, phasing through it, but it still put a smile on his face.

“What are we going to do, Silver?” He asked distantly.

“I think you need to sleep Reg,” Silver consoled.

He knew they were right, but he still found himself wondering and wishing that the path before him was clearer. At least on the moon he knew what the next day would be. He could’ve waited those three years, he could be patient. He’d give it all up, the chance to visit Earth, the weird but cool armor, all of it, just to have that stable tomorrow with his family. Was this all his fault somehow? He buried his face in his arms and shuddered, too tired and spent to cry.

He heard a gentle knock on the door and knew his time was up. He let the nurse back into the room and was met with a warm hug from Dr. Collins. He expressed how tired he was and everyone agreed it was time to get some dinner and sleep.

Reg was brought to a hotel across the way from the hospital, along the way he made note of all the greenery he passed. NAXA had set him up with a simple one-bed room, and when he entered, he found a burger and fries meal, a mobile, and a note waiting for him.

The note read, “From all of us at NAXA, welcome to Earth! We’re sorry it’s not under better circumstances, but we promise it’s a lovely place! Don’t worry about trying to do much for the next couple of days, take this time to rest. We’ll call you on your new mobile tomorrow when we’re ready to escort you. Until then, it’s advised you stay in your room, reporters have been hovering around the area like vultures. Get some rest, good night Reg! Love, NAXA.”

The note also included lots of signatures from many NAXA workers, some he recognized. Reg ate in silence and passed out. Silver curled up beside him and the two spent their first night on Earth in peace.

Chapter Text

“Wake up~!” Silver chirped.

Reg shut his eyes harder and groaned, curling into himself more.

“Come on! It's your first morning on Earth and you've been asleep from when that number on that clock was eight to now when it said eight again! That's gotta be enough sleep!” Their voice sang up and down in pitch, “What do you wanna do for your first day!?”

“Sleep,” He grumbled.

As fun as it would be to visit the beach or go to the aquarium, Reg knew he wouldn't get to see them for a bit, at least till things smoothed out. So what better way to spend his time than to curl up comfortably in bed? That and he had a pounding headache that he'd rather avoid agitating with movement.

“Well you gotta eat!” Silver grumbled back.

He couldn't deny that, he was hungry and parched. He felt like a raisin withering away in a freeze dryer in that icy hotel room.

He crawled out of bed and over to an electronic display mounted on the wall. Off it he ordered breakfast – all expenses paid by NAXA of course. Then he turned and finally saw the bathroom, with its state of the art combination shower and bathtub.

“Silver,” Reg stated, eyes wide, “I know what I want to do today.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe he did die on the moon, maybe everything afterwards was just imagined. Maybe this was heaven.

His undersuit sloshed in the warm water, still fused to his torso, but he could ignore it. He could ignore a lot of things here. He leaned back on a rolled up towel, the only thing poking through the water's surface was the top of his face. The shower jets cascaded onto his head like a hot spring waterfall.

It felt like he was at the beach, or a tropical island, or any of the other warm places he visited in VR and could only imagine how they felt for real. He let his mind drift and wonder, missing all the things he left on Argent, and the looming fear of the fate of his dad.

All the things were replaceable, even the photos had some backups saved on the NAXA servers. As for his dad, well, he was at one of the best hospitals in all of Netopia, so surely they'd be able to do something.

“Reg,” Silver whined.

He could probably take a nap in here, though he wasn't all that tired.

“Re~eg,” Silver whined louder and longer.

He turned slightly and side eyed the little creature.

“How do I use your mobile? My hands go through it…” They put on a pathetic look, lightly pawing the mobile, “Oh! A password screen came up.”

Reg narrowed his eyes, said nothing, and sunk further into the water.

“I just have to be light…” They gently moved their nubbin arms over the device, “I think I remember the alphabet Lowe taught me… Now, what word would you use…”

Reg had sunk almost entirely within the water, though this didn't stop the sound Silver was making.

“What was that creature that you got really excited seeing in that video?” They pondered, “Oh yeah! The okra!”

Reg snorted his entire breath in a flurry of bubbles, causing him to surface with a cough, “No! That's the plant they use in gumbo!”

“Oh then your password is orca,” Silver smiled, paw hovering over his mobile.

“No?!” He denied, but the truth was written all over his face.

“Oh also, you got a, ‘miss-ed call’ from, ‘Dur Colleens’,” They read out to the best of their ability.

Reg clambered out of the tub, grabbing his mobile, and got ready hastily.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His day consisted of another check up, and another visit to his mom and dad. His mom was recovering well and was expected to be released the next day.

His dad however was not faring well. He had not improved overnight and the doctors made the decision to transfer him to the neurology department, with long term patient care.

It still made Reg shaky, seeing all those cords and tubes. All he could do was wait.

It was midday by the time they sent him back to his hotel room. He collapsed onto his bed in a flop.

Apparently tomorrow he'd be going to his new home, an apartment in the suburbs, with new furniture. A group of interns had eagerly volunteered to buy and move everything in. They had asked him to pick out what he wanted his room furnished with. Everyone in his mom's hospital room gave a sad smile when Reg had said he just wanted his old room. Thankfully his mom decided she would be coordinating the furniture; all Reg wanted to do was avoid thinking.

“I'm bored,” Silver groaned.

“Bored is good. That means things aren't happening,” Reg mumbled, face down through the bed sheets.

Silver was having none of this and floated away, leaving Reg to drown in his sheets.

“Reg, there's something called a pool here! It's full of water!” They chirped.

He grumbled and eyed them warily, “We're not leaving this hotel room.”

Silver pouted and snorted, “Come on!”

“No, Dr. Collins and everyone need us to stay here, lay low, and not cause any trouble! I'm not leaving this room!” He growled, digging deeper into the sheets.

A long couple of minutes passed in silence.

“When do you think Lowe will talk to us again?” Silver wondered distantly.

Reg pulled the sheet back from his face and rolled over to see them staring out the window. They turned and looked back to him with somber eyes.

“I don't know,” He responded, getting up and walking to the window as well.

There he saw what they were looking at, clear as day, the moon. Like a metal disc somehow floating in a shallow sea, it hung there, almost nonchalantly. If he held up his arm outstretched he could cover the thing with his pinkie, though he didn't feel like trying. From down here, it looked frozen.

“Maybe we shouldn't have left,” The words fell out of Reg's mouth, hardly above a whisper.

Silver jolted and dashed into his view, shock coursing through them, “What are you talking about?!”

“I don't know!” He jumped back, shrugging, “I was thinking… What if we had stayed?”

He knew he couldn't have stayed, but some part of him thought he was still there, despite everything. It gnawed at him, echoing irrational thoughts. He couldn't name these feelings, and he feared what they'd be called if he did. That somewhere buried in his heart, he-

He turned away and began pacing in the room, fidgeting with the velcro on his arm wraps.

Silver made a sympathetic noise, then floated over to the scrolling hotel display. The advertisement for the pool caught Reg's eye finally.

“I gotta get outta this room,” He sighed.

Silver launched upwards, and zoomed around Reg's head, “Yes! Yes yes yes, let's get out of here!”

“Alright! Just calm down,” Reg chuckled, grabbing the door handle and stumbled a bit as it didn't move as much as expected.

He tried the handle again, confirming that it hardly moved and made a peculiar heavy noise as he did.

“Did they… Lock me in?” He murmured, his heart dropping.

They probably were only doing it to help him stay out of the public eye. For his own good and all. But something about it made his breath quicken and his head dizzy.

He shook himself out of this and inspected the lock, noting the screws holding it in. He opened his arm wraps and pulled out nothing. He looked at his empty hand and traced his steps in his mind, trying to figure out where he had left it.

“It's on the moon,” He blanched, “I left my good screwdriver on the moon! When we installed the relay! You gotta be kidding me!!”

“Hold on lemme try something,” Silver chirped.

“What can you-”

Silver dived head first into the lock system, their little feet still dangling out, kicking. Beeps and metal grinding sounds came out of the thing. Then a cheerful boop and a hefty click as the door unlocked.

“What did you do?”

Silver poked their head out and shrugged, “I dunno, I just started biting.”

“Whatever works I guess…” He grimaced through a smile.

There he was, in front of the door, clearly about to disobey everyone he has ever cared about. They would understand, right? He couldn't be cooped up again in such a short time. He wanted, needed, to move. He could apologize later! Plus it's not like he was gonna be looking for trouble, going outside where the reporters were hovering, he'd be staying inside! Where there was a pool. Practically calling his name, flooding him with curiosity.

He grabbed the handle.

And it fell off.

“Oh,” Silver made a sharp inhale sound, “Maybe it worked too well.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reg had found his way down to the lobby, had told the front desk about his door issue, and then slipped away before they could question him further.

He shuffled through the sparsely populated meeting area, catching part of a news feed playing on the TV.

“This is the third virus attack of this type that there has been in a hundred years,” The reporter said.

Reg did a double take, stopped in his tracks, and was immediately transfixed. The reporter was in front of some sort of power plant, explaining how that morning a virus attack had occurred there, how the plant handled it, and how it was being investigated.

“We now go to our correspondent who is outside the hospital that was attacked yesterday,” The reporter finished, the scene switching to a very familiar hospital.

The news continued, with another reporter explaining the ongoing investigation, and emphasized how fortunate the hospital was for the lack of sustained damage, praising the IT team for their prompt response.

“One of the workers shared with SC News a picture of what we believe to be the virus,” The reporter continued as a graphic appeared displaying a grainy photo of something pixelated.

Something purple and blue.

Reg hard swallowed, and clenched his fists, trying to contain his shaking.

The report concluded with an advisement to back up important data and to report any viral activity to the authorities. As the channel switched to advertisements, Reg was left feeling like a canyon opened beneath him.

He looked to Silver who mirrored his concern, then glanced at the few people sitting in the area who all seemed focused on whatever they were doing before.

Roll was right, once the next big event broke, the news focused solely on that. It had just been a day and Argent was already history.

He made his way out and towards the indoor pool, grateful for the clear signage. It was completely empty and the air was dense with humidity. As Reg shut the door behind him, he breathed a deep sigh of relief.

“A third?!” Silver immediately zoomed up to Reg's face.

He squawked a quick noise, raising his hands defensively, “Calm down! I'm guessing they classified what happened on Argent as a virus attack, in a way it might be easier to think of it like that.”

He groaned and grabbed his face, digging his fingers into his scalp. A third virus attack. He wasn't there to stop it. How many more, and what caused them to start appearing? Was it somehow linked to something he had done?

Was his desire the impetus for a Pandora's Box the world is going to have to suffer through? And does that mean he was the only hope humanity has on combating this?

“Re~eg?” Silver sang, snapping him out of his daze, “What's wrong?”

“Silver,” He looked up sharply, causing them to hop back in surprise, “Did you sense any virus earlier, around the time of the attack on the power plant?”

“Huh?” They glanced around for a bit, ultimately shaking their head.

Reg deflated with a heavy sigh, and turned to face the large pool of water in the center of the room. He walked to the water's edge, catching his barely visible reflection on the still surface.

“Why?” Silver asked, following behind him.

Reg sat down, unzipped his boots from his coveralls, slipped them off, and rolled up his pants. He dipped just his legs in, sitting on the ledge and overlooking the deep water below. It felt nice.

He leaned back and kicked a bit, letting the feeling of the water swirl around his legs and sighed again, “Because what if I'm the only one who can do anything about them?”

“What? But the person on the big screen said that the power plant place was fine? They just shut down for a bit?”

Reg looked over with distant eyes, “Things are going to get worse. I'm going to have to fight more. And I'm going to have to fight by myself.”

He wanted to laugh, to collapse on his back and sob until someone found him. Instead he buried his face into his hands and teetered over the water's edge, gazing into the dark blue depths.

“You're not alone,” Silver's voice was small.

Reg didn't respond.

“You got me! And your family!” They offered, “And I bet there's smart people out there who'd help you too!”

Roll's offer slipped back into his mind. He did have her contact information, and a mobile. He could ask for help. But.

To involve more people? How much would he have to share? What would happen to him? What would they do with Silver? What if they found out about Lowe?

He shook his head, maybe it was better if the experts did what they did best and figured a solution on their own. He couldn't help them and they couldn't help him. He was just going to have to suck it up and figure it out himself.

“No?” Silver asked incredulously, “What about that nice lady yesterday? She literally-”

Reg gave them a stare so withering it dried up any argument they had prepared.

That was that.

It would be him and him alone against who knows what. Maybe he'd ask for help later, but not now, he was fine, this was fine.

He got up, shook the water off, zipped his shoes on, and headed back to his hotel room.

“Reg!” Silver zoomed after him, “Wait up!”

He turned to them with an empty gaze, “You have to tell me if you sense another virus. Please.”

The little creature recoiled, their brow furrowed with concern, and they stammered out a half hearted, “Ok.”

Reg was already several steps ahead down the hall, causing Silver to dash forward to keep up.

The hotel room door was fixed by the time they came back, with the repairman putting on the final screws. They let him in, and Reg briefly wanted to ask them whether or not the door could lock a person in, but didn't want to bother them.

Dr. Collins stopped by, and confirmed his fears anyway. They had locked him in ‘for his own safety’, by orders of another agency. She explained that due to the laws in place that protect his identity while being a minor, that they have to comply or risk criminal charges. He knew vaguely of this since it shaped some of how he interacted with the world from the moon. She also explained that this was explained in an email, which she then explained how to check.

She rattled off a long winded complaint about Reg's situation, but made sure to end on her excitement for him getting to move to an apartment with his mom tomorrow. She said her farewells and finally Reg was left alone.

He was a mess. He hadn't done anything all day and he was a mess. He paced up and down the room till Silver convinced him to lay down by saying he'd be able to fight viruses better if he was well rested. He begrudgingly agreed.

That night he didn't sleep well.

The next day came and his mom was discharged from the hospital. She would be renting a wheelchair for the time being as her legs recover and would be making frequent visits to the hospital for bandage changes, treatments, and physical therapy. She was expected to fully recover within a month's time.

His dad…

There was no change. The doctors had said something about some part of him improving, but when Reg heard that it didn't concern his dad's consciousness, he tuned out and forgot about it.

His mom and he both entered the car his mom arranged to pick them up. She shuffled into the back seat, holding the whirring machines for her legs on her lap as the driver locked in her wheelchair in the spacious trunk. Reg made his way into the other back seat and buckled up.

“Are you excited to see our new home?” She giddily asked.

Reg hesitantly made some sort of sound, wore a smile, and then turned to the window to stare as the world zoomed by.

She gave a small sympathetic sigh, “Sweetheart, I know things are rough right now, but it'll get better, I promise. Please let yourself rest, I know you've got a lot on your mind, but you have time to figure those things out, all the time you need now.”

He looked over quickly, then to the floor, his face twisting as if to try to hide the bags under his eyes.

“You can do whatever you want for the rest of the day today,” She smiled gently, “Should be safe enough for you to at least explore around the neighborhood, just don't tell anyone our last name.”

Reg turned back to her with wide eyes, “Wait, by myself?”

“Yep!” She nodded, “If you want! I think you'd have a great time, I made sure to choose an apartment complex with a lovely conservancy nearby. When these legs of mine are moving properly I'll be volunteering there. Recovery first though!”

He was taken aback by the possibilities suddenly open to him. He could finally touch real grass, see an actual animal up close, but more importantly, patrol around for viruses. He nodded assuredly, this was his chance to prevent damage and investigate.

“You look so serious!” His mom giggled, “Alright, here's your mission then, today I order you to take a break and live a little! Take a picture of a snail or some other little creature for me with your mobile, would you?”

“Huh?” He blinked back, “I mean sure, but, what will you be doing today?”

His mom smiled wryly, "I. Am. Treating. Myself! I'm having a spa day! Lotions, mud masks, warm baths, doughnut holes, and strawberry lemonade. A day of decadence, indulgence, and frivolity.”

She sighed dreamily.

“Shouldn't you be staying put? What about your ‘recovery'?”

“Ah, it's all going to be at the new apartment, I made many calls yesterday, I'm not going to lolly-gag about for my first time being, well, here,” She eyed the unassuming driver and winked, “in over sixteen years or so.”

Reg nodded, though was unsure about his mom's plan. He decided to trust her though; she was an adult after all.

The driver pulled into an entryway for a massive set of buildings surrounded by lush greenery. A hardlight sign at the entrance welcomed residents and guests.

The apartments had colorful exteriors and interesting architecture that allowed for many balconies, each with their own unique arrangement of various outdoor furniture. Plants grew in large pots that overhung the ledges and draped across the road, dappling the light along it. High flying wind turbine kites dotted the sky and looked like a rainbow of fish across the clouds.

Reg sat agape, not realizing the driver had reached the destination till his mom rolled up next to the car and tapped on the window. He slowly got out of the car and kept looking up, enraptured by the daylight. After a minute his mom called out to him, and he broke his trance to see his mom snatching a photo of him on her mobile.

“Take your time,” She waved, “There's no rush and no schedule.”

That immediately reminded him he needed to be patrolling, so he trotted over to his mom.

“Uh,” He hesitantly looked about her wheelchair, “do you need help moving that thing? Where do I push?”

“Oh I'm fine!” She chirped and wheeled herself forward, “This doesn't have handles on the back, it's designed for agility and comfort! And it's maroon!”

Reg chuckled, “You'll just need it for a month, right?”

“Yes! That's if things go well,” She hummed, waiting outside a pair of sliding glass doors with colorful lights welcoming residents inside.

The doors slowly opened revealing a wide hallway with large doors every now and then. The pair made their way down the hall until his mom stopped in front of an undecorated door.

“Reg, would you like to do the honor?” She asked pleasantly, wheeling to the side.

“Of what?”

“Opening the door to our new home!”

He jumped a little, realization dawning.

“Just tap your mobile to the terminal there,” She indicated to an electronic device attached to the wall.

He fished the unassuming black thing out of his pocket and tapped it to the bright display, and heard a satisfying clunk come from the door. Apprehensively, he moved to the handle, pausing before turning and opening in one smooth movement.

Immediately he was struck with how familiar it seemed. The furniture style and colors reminded him of home. An open living room with a new entertainment center was to his right, a spacious dining room with a quant table and chairs directly across from him, and what looked to be a lovely kitchen to his left, at least what wasn't obscured by the front door.

“Beep beep!” His mom giggled.

Reg jumped up and scrambled forward to let his mom in as well, apologizing. She giggled again and forgave him with a simple wave.

Now that he was in the place, he really took it all in, plants decorated almost every corner and light sculptures were in every other. His eyes lingered on the bookshelf along the far wall, completely empty.

“It's nice isn't it?” His mom asked, rolling up next to him, “I think I did a good job furnishing this place!”

“Mhm,” He nodded, continuing to look at the bookshelf.

His mom patted his hand, “It'll be full in no time, just you wait.”

He blinked and looked down, catching his mom's gentle smile.

“Let's fill this place with happy memories, so many that when your dad gets here, this place will feel like home, okay Reg?” She asked, holding his hand and giving it a little squeeze.

That stung. He pushed the thought of his dad out of his head, he couldn’t start thinking about all that right now.

He nodded in response, he had to.

She smiled brightly and moved to the other side of the house, opening a door.

“Over here is your room, right across from ours, come look!” She clapped her hands together, sparkling with excitement.

Reg followed and was stunned at how similar in layout it was to his room on Argent. Blue everywhere, with desk and bed in the exact same place. There was even a little clock with a whale on it right where he always had one. He suddenly felt weak in the knees as a cascade of emotions choked him.

Here was the one place he had of his own his whole life, a space just for him to be himself, that he thought would be gone forever. This part of him that mattered so much to him, but had only realized that after it had been taken from him. And yet here it was as if it had been formed from a nostalgic dream. There were details that if asked, Reg would not have specified, either because he wouldn't bother, or forgot. But his mom remembered, and thought to include them.

“Well?” She asked, inching closer to him.

He tried to get his throat to work, and failed, making a shuddering noise.

“It's-” He squeaked out, “You did a good job.” The full truth was too much for him to say, so he only let out a little.

His mom just smiled next to him, content.

“I'll let you get settled in,” She backed up, heading to her room, “Let me know when you want to go out, I'll show you where everything is.”

Reg nodded and heard the door to the adjacent room close as he continued to take it all in.

He succumbed to a temptation and crawled into the bed, flopping on top of the sheets.

It felt different. The mattress was harder, the roof wasn't clear, and it smelled too crisp, like right out of the package. But when he closed his eyes he could picture where he was just a few days ago perfectly.

He had to get out of here now, if he stayed for much longer he wouldn't want to leave till dinner time.

He swung his legs onto the small ladder and crawled back down, leaving the enjoyment of the room for later.

His mom advised him on how the map on his mobile worked, where they were, and where the trails were. She showed him numbers to call in case of emergency, and the locations of shops in the complex in case he wanted a snack. He followed along as best he could, pulling from his video game knowledge about how those maps worked as reference.

When his mom wished him well and he stepped out into the hall, it took him some time before it really hit him that he would be going out truly unsupervised. For the first time in his life.

He clutched his mobile close to him, and looked over to Silver who was staring at him expectantly. He blinked, breathed in deep, and walked down the hall.

The straightforward and clear directions from the map application were convoluted to Reg. The sheer scale of the outside world continued to overwhelm him. With Silver's help they somehow made it to the trails behind the apartment complex.

There he was met with more green than he could have imagined. Even in mid autumn the trees here were vibrant green and the accompanying foliage below also sported a healthy shade of green.

It was a view he didn't think he would ever be used to. He bent down and grabbed a few blades of grass, threading them through his fingers. The video games he had played could never simulate this feeling, the smell, or how the sun felt on his cheek. It was something else, and he wasn't sure what to make of it.

He took a step back and shook his head, then looked around him. There was no one else nearby, though it was hard to tell with all the plants.

“Okay Silver,” Reg nodded, “Let's get to work. Tell me if there are any viruses nearby that you can sense.”

Silver jumped a little, and looked back to Reg concerned, then mimicked a sigh as his expression remained unchanged. They closed their eyes and seemed to concentrate.

“There might be one, actually?” They said, crossing their little arms.

“What? Really?!” Reg blurted as he widened his stance, readying his arms reflexively.

“Yeah it's…” They continued, pointing with their paw at something far to the left of him.

He watched as their paw moved rapidly in the opposite direction, just as he heard crackling rumbling behind him and fade into the distance.

“Well, that way now,” They finished, now pointing far to his right.

Reg sprang forward, dashing through the grass in that direction, “Come on! We gotta stop it!”

He flipped that internal switch and felt a now familiar jolt course through him. This time the world around him flashed into life with clouds of prismatic light surrounding the buildings. He ignored his curiosity and ran ahead.

The virus left a trail of burning tall grasses across the ground that never seemed to finish burning, but continued to spread outward. Reg could feel the heat blazing off it, but continued to follow the trail, having to weave around bushes and trees that the virus seemed to blaze through unimpeded.

Eventually they caught up to it, a large fiery thing with what looked like massive tusks, head deep in something beside a large tree. Reg took in a deep breath and charged the weapons on his arms and took aim.

“Reg, wait! Slow down!” Silver called from behind him.

He glanced to the side to see Silver frantically trying to come up with something.

“I've got a clear shot at it, I gotta take it,” Reg replied coldly, unleashing his shot which veered upward and over the body of the virus.

The fiery thing's head shot up and looked around, and Reg dashed behind a bush hiding.

“I was trying to tell you, something's weird. Things look… Different? That stuff on that grass is causing it, I think?” Silver worried, pointing to the fire.

Reg looked at the flames and groaned, “The heat is warping the light around it. It's like a mirage.”

“That's not good…”

“No it's not-”

Reg was impacted by a red hot tusk slamming into his backside, propelling him straight into a tree. The virus braked, turned and dug its hooves into the fiery ground that seemed to spread everywhere it stepped.

Reg untangled himself from the tree and got a better look at his opponent, a large flaming boar like virus with huge swirling tusks that coiled into spirals larger than its body. It snorted sparks from its large nose and charged forward again, this time narrowly missing Reg.

He rapid fire shot at the boar, but every shot hit the coiled tusks, leaving no mark.

“I think that just made it angry…” Silver winced.

The boar charged again, and Reg stumbled to roll aside, and straight into some bushes, while the boar seemed to phase right through all the vegetation before it.

Reg pulled himself out of the bush and grumbled, “How can it just go through things just fine and I can't?”

“It kinda reminds me of what Lowe liked to do, disappearing and stuff?” Silver commented.

Reg pondered this for a bit, and was then clotheslined by the charging boar, his body wrapped around a coiled tusk, its heat searing his armor. The boar raced forward, heading straight for another tree. Reg went pale.

He desperately searched inside for that feeling that made him transform, and tried to feel it deeper. To tune into it. He took in a sharp breath and gave into the feeling.

He slowly opened his eyes.

The heat coming off the tusk was still blazing into him, but through the pain he could see tree after tree rush past him. With a quick whip of its head, Reg was flung off the tusk and soared through the air, more weightless than he was before.

He sailed straight through a playground and all its equipment, landing into the ground and finally came to a stop chest deep in the earth. He felt as though he were floating and kicked himself out of the ground, only to be met with another charge straight to the chest. He was knocked aside, coughing, but no amount of breathing could alleviate him.

“Reg! Are you ok?!” Silver exclaimed.

He replied with a grunt and fired again at the boar, trying to catch it between its tusks. It charged past him and he fired behind it while running after it.

One shot hit the boar square in its back and it spun around, roaring. Reg felt heavy and lifted his leaden arms to charge his next attack.

“Reg! Run!” Silver screamed.

He didn't budge.

The boar ran towards him at full speed, leaving a blazing trail of that grass behind it. Reg took in another breath but it felt wrong and he tried to ignore the panic rising in him as the virus barreled towards him. He unleashed the two blasts of energy right between the tusks, a perfect shot.

That wasn't enough.

Everything went black. His body was caught on a tusk once more as he felt his life leave him upon impact. The only thing that told him he was still alive was the scorching heat coming off the tusks.

“I need to win…” He mumbled, struggled, and failed to free himself from the virus, “I have to… No one else can…!”

His body collided with the floor and he rolled to a stop. He groaned and gripped the earth beneath him, only to find it had an odd texture. He struggled to right himself, and saw he was somewhere in the playground, without his armor.

He spotted the boar running off into the distance, and the trail of flaming grass all around him. He gritted his teeth and searched for that feeling once more and.

Nothing.

He held his breath and strained, digging and searching deeper, and when he came back empty handed once more he stifled a cry of frustration and hit the side of the playground with the meat of his fist.

“Why?” He choked out, tears welling in his eye.

“Reg…” Silver consoled, floating beside his head.

“Holy shit,” An odd voice came from somewhere next to them.

Reg looked up to find a girl, lanky, a bit taller than him, orange braided hair, weird glasses on, staring. But not at him, she looked like she had locked eyes right at Silver.

Chapter Text

Reg stood there agape, head still spinning from getting thoroughly beat. The girl leaned back and forth, seemingly inspecting Silver. Which was impossible because no one could see Silver, only he could. Right?

As if to answer his question she spoke up, “Damn what are you little guy? You don't look like a Wizard.”

Silver pointed to themself.

“Yeah, you!” She pointed right at them.

Reg blinked hard and looked between the two of them, speechless.

“Reg, she can see me?” Silver asked through the side of their mouth.

“Oh! You're saying something, ugh hold on I gotta tune this,” She chirped, reached onto the back of her glasses around the ear and twisted the end of it, “Keep making noises so I can get the right frequency.”

Silver pursed their lips together, surprised, then made a long melodic sound until the girl gave a thumbs up.

“Wow this is pretty cool, never thought these would do anything,” She chuckled.

“What are they?” Silver asked.

“My visualizer!” She posed with them proudly, “Got them for getting first in the regional netbattling tournament!”

Reg couldn't believe what he was witnessing.

“Oh hey, you ok?” She looked and asked Reg, “That pig guy got you good. Also, what's up with you?”

He turned and walked away.

“Reg wait!” Silver dashed after him.

“No, I'm leaving. We gotta go catch that… Thing,” He responded, avoidant.

“What, that virus?” She trotted after him.

“No! What do you-?” He stopped and stared her down, only to then turn back around and continue walking, “No.”

“Yeah, seems like you were doing a real good job there,” She grumbled back, “Getting hit, that is.”

“What do you know?!” He snapped, whipping around.

“A lot, like I said, I got first in regionals,” She echoed her proud tone from before.

“That's got nothing to do with this,”

“Dude,” She sighed, “The virus was clearly a dashing fire type, you could easily dodge and delete it if you just side stepped it and used any aqua type attack.”

He glared at her, his fury overcoming his exhaustion.

“A~nd,” She tapped her chin, then pointed, “You haven't told me what your whole deal is!”

“And I'm not going to,” Reg turned and stormed off.

She rushed and headed him off, “Oh no you're not. You're not getting off the hook that easy. You clearly need some help and lucky for you I'm an expert!”

“No you can't,” Reg hissed, “Plus, netbattling hasn't been a thing in one hundred years!”

“Yeah well!” She huffed, “It is still a thing! People have perfectly recreated netbattling from the ground up, Navis, chips, and all!”

“Wait, Navis?” He asked.

“Oh? Are you interested in seeing my Navi?” She giggled devilishly.

“Oh!!” Silver gasped, zooming up to Reg, “Please let's see her Navi! Please Reg!”

“Yeah!” She chuckled, “Please Reg!”

He sharply inhaled through his nose, pointing at Silver who looked back to him with feigned innocence.

Reg wanted to say no, to be done with all of this and go back home. But there was some nagging part of him that wanted to know more. He was too tired to argue with himself. Perhaps if he did talk with her more, he could convince her not to blab about any of this, somehow.

“Fine,” He conceded, “As long as you don't tell anyone what you saw here.”

“Alright,” She replied casually, “Wasn't planning on it. Figured it was some sort of secret identity stuff anyways. My name's Ellen by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Ellen, I'm Silver! And this is my friend, Reg!” Silver cheered.

“Aw, is it cause you look kinda silvery? That's cute! It's nice to meet you too, Silver!” She cheered right back.

Reg was too exhausted to fight the blush appearing on his cheek. Ellen took notice and chuckled.

“So!” She bounced, “If you two wanna see my Navi, you're gonna have to come back to my place.”

He eyed her warily.

“What? Calm down Mr. Megaman,” She rolled her eyes, “It's not like a trap or anything. Clearly you could phase right through it with those weird powers you refuse to talk about.”

Him being called that archaic superhero name made him even redder in the face, even if it was sarcastic.

Ellen snickered, “Geeze, you don't talk much huh?”

He pouted and furrowed his brow.

“Hey Silver, can you tell me what's up with your bud Reg here?” She tilted her head towards them.

Silver wiggled nervously and Reg shot daggers at them, causing them to freeze and dart their eyes between the other two.

“Uhm!” They squeaked, floating over to Ellen, “Well, I won't tell you anything secret but…”

They whispered something into her ear. She initially leaned in with a cat-like grin, but after hearing something short from Silver, her expression sank and she looked down. Silver floated back to Reg's side as he eyed them quizzically, while Ellen seemed to be mulling something over.

“We don't have to talk about your uh, fighting viruses and stuff,” She said hesitantly, holding an arm, “Sorry, I was just, excited.”

Reg raised a brow, then looked to Silver who just smiled pleasantly.

“Well. Thank you. It's not something I really want to talk about…” He huffed with a small smile.

“So does that mean you still wanna come back to my place and see my Navi and just, hang out?” She asked with an awkward grin.

This time he didn't feel cornered, like he could possibly walk away and be done. But now he didn't want to. Yes, he was curious, but something about the way she said things, the way she presented herself, it reminded him, well, of him. Maybe in this moment he hadn't been found out, his big secret exposed for all to see. What if he had found an ally?

He looked to Silver whose eyes were big and sparkling, staring at him expectantly. He sighed, half grinning.

“Sure, why not?” He shrugged.

Ellen sprang up and threw her fists into the air, cheering and waving her arms rapidly. She spun around and began walking backwards towards a sidewalk.

“Come on then! Follow me!” She called out, waving him over.

Silver dashed forward and zoomed around Ellen. The two began chatting as she led everyone back to her place.

Reg kept his distance, occupied by his thoughts. He'd been discovered. But by sheer luck it wasn't by someone malicious. Though, that was still to be determined.

How many other people had those glasses? Would he have to worry about being spotted everywhere he went? How much could he trust her?

And what was this Navi of her's going to be? Since the Net Reset, all memory intensive AI were deleted and the net was made inhospitable to any future AI. At least, that's what he was taught. An underground group of programmers somehow recreating Navis in their basements, completely cut off from the internet, seemed possible, but what did he know about programming? And Ellen didn't look much like a programmer either.

The two ahead of Reg seemed to be getting along well. Every now and then he'd catch them roaring with laughter and Ellen bouncing with excitement over who knows what. How the two of them became fast friends was a mystery to Reg. What was it that Silver had said to Ellen that changed her demeanor? He wanted to know, but it was probably rude to interrupt.

He stayed back and instead looked at the short green grasses and other small plants that lined the sidewalk.

Eventually everyone made it to Ellen's apartment complex. It looked like it had less features than the one Reg had just moved to. The structure seemed more grid like, with windows and balconies neatly arranged one on top of the other. Occasional plants peaked out from behind balcony walls, but nothing as extravagant as the large hanging ones at his place.

Ellen beckoned him over to a side gate that she unlocked with something on her wrist. She led him to an architectural feature he was a bit unfamiliar with. Stairs.

She hopped up the steps, not bothering with the hand rails, while Reg gripped them and tried his best to not trip over the concrete.

“Sheesh, what is this, your first time on stairs?” Ellen looked over from the floor above.

It wasn't. He had dealt with some stairs that were on some structures outside Argent, but even then, he'd have a death grip on the rails.

“No-” He stumbled just as he barked back.

Ellen snorted into a cackling laughter as Reg tried to right himself. Then a hand came into his view.

“Need some help?” Ellen chuckled.

“No, I'm fine,” Reg turned away, and climbed carefully past her.

Silver sighed and followed behind. Ellen raced up the stairs and brought them to a room down a hall. Other people were making their way in and out of their rooms, which Reg sheepishly avoided by hiding beside Ellen.

She gave him a wildly questioning stare, then opened up the apartment with her wrist.

“Well, here's my place,” She presented, “Oh, my mom's probably still working so we gotta be quiet, but yeah, here we are!”

It was full and cramped. Furniture filled every space available, and it didn't seem like there was much available to begin with. The kitchen was small but stocked with food, and featured a counter space that doubled as a table, from the looks of the bar stools on the other side of it. The living room had some sort of entertainment center that had seen better days, and no display.

Reg stared at the place as Silver zoomed in and inspected everything. He trudged in after them while Ellen bounced to the living room, pressing a button on the entertainment unit.

The window behind it rippled with light and animated triangles folded back to reveal a game screen. Ellen pulled back her sleeve to reveal a device on her wrist that she flipped open. The top half looked like a standard mobile, while the bottom looked like a game controller with a screen. She undid some latch and the device came off her wrist smoothly, with something on its back unfolding into grips for the thing. With a tap on the screen, the game menu opened and revealed a character along with another menu.

“Well, there he is!” She stated proudly.

Reg looked at the character, some human looking, green armored guy. He finally put two and two together, flopped onto the couch, and took a deep sigh.

“You meant a game character, not a real Navi,” He leaned back and pulled his hands down his face.

“Yeah, what did you think?” Ellen raised a brow at him, “Navis are extinct.”

Reg glared at her from behind his hand which unphased her.

“Sorry to disappoint? Look dude I wish he was a real Navi too but, honestly what did you expect?” Ellen pouted.

“I don't know. Give me a break. I'm tired,” He grumbled into his hands.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She asked like she was diffusing a bomb with her voice.

Reg kept his face buried in his hands and let out a muffled, “No.”

“Alright!” She shrugged, “Do you wanna watch me practice netbattling?”

He was already here, already tired, and still just a bit curious. He flopped his hands off his face, letting them fall to the couch, “Fine. Might as well.”

She propped her visualizer onto her head and chuckled evilly, “Excellent.”

She proceeded to enter into several rounds of multiplayer matches and win the majority of them. In between rounds she passionately explained mechanics and how she designed her custom Navi fighter, who she had named Cometman. Now that Reg was getting a good look at him, it was clear what the purpose of that armor was.

It was angular, coming to a point on the chest, sharp helmet with a spoiler on the back, and blade-like extensions from the hips, it was all built for speed. And the Navi was fast, dashing around the stages with cyan fire, and grappling onto opponents from far away with a pair of maces. Ellen effortlessly juggled opponents by grabbing them halfway across the arena and slamming them into the ground, and dashing after them if they tried to dodge. It was ruthless and she looked like a tiger who had caught a hundred mice.

To his surprise, he was engrossed. The high level game play looked effortless, but surely wasn't because her opponents were certainly putting forth considerable effort themselves. She was just better.

The few times she found a real challenge and lost put a sour scowl on her face, one she'd grumble through and refuse to acknowledge. But every hard fought victory resulted in giddy wriggling and kicking in her seat. Reg got the feeling that she'd be howling with joy if it weren't for her mom just next door.

After hours that seemed like minutes Reg found himself asking, “Can I try?”

Ellen looked at him, brow raised, “Have you ever played Netken?”

“This game? No, but I've played plenty of games so I know how they work,”

“Weird way to put it, but ok?” She responded, handing him the controller.

He navigated to the practice stage and messed around with the controls. For some reason, Cometman's movements were so much slower than he expected. He found the input for dashing which helped, but he couldn't figure out how to do those complex movements he was seeing earlier. At most he could only throw a punch at the training dummy.

“So what other games do you play?” She asked, resting her head in her hand onto the couch arm.

“Uh,” He drew a blank, “Mostly adventure games?”

“Hmm, what about fighting games? Like Pavement Pounder?”

“No?”

“Nario Cart?”

He shook his head.

“Uh, any Korbo games? Boxmon?”

“I've… Heard of them,”

She made a contemplative grumble, “Underminer? I don't know, Bance Bance Bevolution??”

“Oh, I've played Underminer, but only single player,”

She looked at him like he had just denounced all ice cream as unpalatable, “Multiplayer is where the fun is!”

“Multiplayer is-wasn't,” He corrected himself, and realized how suspicious that was and finished loudly as if to bury his words, “really an option for me.”

She laughed, a single deflating puff of a chuckle, “Yeah, I get it. Multiplayer can be hard.”

An odd statement, especially as she just contradicted herself. He wanted to ask what she meant, but she looked distant, her downtrodden eyes seeing something far off.

“It's a lot funner with friends,” She continued, trailing off.

She stayed quiet for a beat, chewed her lip and sighed, “I… Also… Don't have any friends. Not really.”

Reg blinked, when did he let on about that? Was he that obviously lonely? He looked at Silver who mimed a nonchalant whistling face.

“Everyone thinks I'm too loud, or rude, or that I'm weird,” She continued explaining, keeping her focus somewhere else. She gripped the hem of her shorts and shook.

“I…” Reg started, then sputtered as his stomach growled.

He buried his face in his hands and Ellen stifled a laugh, doubling over. She swung herself up and off the couch.

“I'll go throw some stuff into the auto cooker,” She smiled, pointing to the kitchen with her thumb.

Reg was left to contemplate all that as he heard the clanking sounds of drawers and metal from whatever Ellen was doing in the kitchen.

He looked back up at the screen, this game she was playing and seemed to have dedicated a lot of time to was multiplayer, but was competitive, not cooperative. She wouldn't find friends here, only rivals. He wondered how that affected her point of view, and wondered if he were in her shoes, would he think the same way.

A wrapped lollipop came into view and he turned to see Ellen with a mischievous smile.

She brought a finger to her lips conspiratorially, “From my secret stash, don't tell my mom!”

He gingerly took the small candy, and unwrapped the electric blue chunk of sugar inside.

“Figured we'd need something while all that cooks,” She made her way around to the couch, plopped back down, and unwrapped a cube shaped candy for herself, popping it in her mouth.

He eyed his candy and gave it a taste, the intense sour flavor slapping him in the face. But it also tasted sweet.

His thoughts simmered. She stockpiled candy from parents, just like him. She was isolated, just like him. She cared about Navis, just like him. And despite his grumpy attitude, she still treated him with kindness.

He took another taste, this time savoring the flavor. It was unlike anything he had tasted on Argent. It conjured up memories of awkward celebrations with Mission Control, where the delay always caused awful timings of new year's countdowns or singing. He remembered getting lemonade one year that was so sour and bitter, he downed the whole thing to get it over and done with, only to be met with a second glass ‘since he liked the first one so much’. Everyone had laughed at that.

He didn't know if he'd ever feel like that again, but here he was. Grateful that he had met Ellen, and foolish for not realizing this sooner.

“Can we be friends?” He asked aloud, feeling like something melted inside him.

“Huh?” Ellen turned, the question knocking her out of her thoughts, “Yeah?! Of course?!”

He felt on the verge of tears, relief washing over him, clearing himself of heartache he didn't realize he was carrying.

He also found himself waist deep into the couch with Ellen grabbing his arm to keep him from sinking further. He looked down and found he had transformed into his armor, and quickly kicked his legs to wiggle out of the couch. He stared at his hands, this thing he had struggled with earlier, enigmatic and almost temperamental, came back to him all at once as effortless as breathing.

“You… ok?” Ellen asked, holding up her hands, ready to pounce in case Reg decided the floor was optional again.

“Yeah…” He said with odd clarity, then stammered as he looked himself over, “What happened?! How did-Why did-?!”

Ellen snorted into a laugh, which Reg grumbled at.

“Sorry!” She giggled, “I think we may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Wanna start over? I'm Ellen Stream, it's nice to meet ya, do you wanna be friends?”

Reg looked at her and smiled brightly, “Sure! My name's Reg Garret, and I would like to be friends.”

“Oh! Like the Garrets from the Moon Garrets,” She stated, more statement than question.

Reg found himself waist deep through the couch again.

Ellen scrambled to pull him back up and Reg grabbed onto the couch arm, dragging himself out of it with her help.

There was a beat of silence as Reg made sure he was solid, confirming with a sigh.

Ellen burst out laughing. Full head tilt, from the belly laughing. It lasted much longer than necessary and he glared at her as if he could see the joke if he squinted harder.

He was about to ask as he heard a doorknob turn and he flung himself onto the floor just as Ellen threw a large couch cushion over him.

“Ellen dear,” A woman's voice filled the room. She sounded exhausted and sighed, “Keep it down please. I'll be in a meeting soon and I need you to be quiet.”

“Yes mom,” Ellen replied obediently.

The air in the room was still as Ellen's mom slowly shut the door with a low click.

Ellen exhaled loudly, “Aw man that was close!”

“Maybe don't say that so loudly?” Reg grumbled from behind the cushion. He turned off his armor and emerged from behind the piece of furniture.

“Nah, she's got that room sound proofed all around, I just must've been too loud just then,” She shrugged and looked back at him with a bit of disappointment, “You went back to normal?”

“Yes?!” He hissed.

“Pff,” Ellen scoffed, throwing her hands behind her head, leaning back, “If I had super powers, I'd be using them all the time everywhere.”

“That's not very responsible,” Reg grumbled, placing the couch cushion back in its proper place.

“Oh yeah!” She swung her body forward, “Moon boy, you gotta tell me all about that!”

He balked, “No.”

“Come on!” She sang.

He screwed up his face and glanced between her and Silver.

“Just, please don't tell anyone. This has to be a secret,” He pleaded, as if he hadn't asked this before.

“Reg,” Ellen's voice grew stone cold, and the room surrounding her seemed to grow darker as she faced him, “I would rather die.”

Reg's eyes went wide as he blinked back his surprise and Ellen flipped right back to her usual cheery pleasantness.

He sighed, “Ok. What did you want to know about?”

“Oh!” She bounced, “The Moon! How is it?! What did you do there?! Did you meet any aliens?!”

This wasn't as odd a question as you'd expect. Aliens made of light waves made first contact with astronauts about two hundred years ago. And even much further back if the archeological evidence was to be believed.

“Well,” He crossed his arms, “No, I didn't meet any aliens or EM Beings. And for the most part, the Moon was boring and I just repaired stuff all the time.”

Disappointment twinged at the edges of her face, but she quickly recovered, “Ok um! Your powers and stuff, where'd those all come from?! Can other people do it? Can you teach me?!”

“I… don't know,” Reg backed away from Ellen's continued onslaught, “I just got them two days ago.”

Her eyes sparkled, “No way! That's about when the viruses started showing back up! And when that moon base-Wait a minute! You were there! What happened on the Moon?!”

He swallowed hard, memories of the event flashed in his mind. His pulse was in his ears and he shut his eyes trying to gather himself.

“Sorry,” Ellen's voice was soft and distant.

When Reg opened his eyes, she was sitting tensely at the end of the couch, hunched over and sitting on her hands. For a moment he considered skipping the subject, why would he be obligated to tell her about that horrible event? He didn't want to involve her, but-

“Tell no one about this,” Reg locked eyes with her.

She nodded slowly. He sighed, letting his head fall a little. Telling her this could be dangerous. And yet-

“It wasn't a virus that attacked, it was a Navi,”

He heard her sharply inhale, then continued.

“At least that's what I think,” He said, hesitating briefly. He wasn't quite ready to betray Lowe's trust and tell someone about them.

“A Navi?” Ellen asked, concerned but with a tinge of hope.

Reg nodded, “Human shaped, but violent and couldn't be reasoned with. It was after something there that my dad was working on, I don't know what.”

“...How did you survive?”

“...I don't think I did,” He replied, instinctively grabbing at his shirt around the stomach, “I think I somehow got revived thanks to Silver.”

A cold silence hung in the room, as nice as it felt to air his concerns, Reg felt as though an entire crowd was judging, watching him. Then a little timer dinged.

“Oh! That's the food!” Ellen sprang up, and scrambled to the kitchen.

A delightful warm smell wafted into the cramped room and soon she presented him with a plate of chicken nuggets and sauteed carrots in some sort of sauce. His stomach growled upon smelling it, and with an eager bite, he burned his tongue and let the food fall out of his mouth. Ellen chuckled.

“Sorry,” He mumbled.

“It's fine dude, just wait for it to cool,” She waved a hand dismissively.

“No I mean, I'm sorry about the mood. There's a lot going on with me,”

“It's fine,” She repeated casually, “Sounds like a lot. It's not like you've got that many people to talk to about this. I like listening though.”

“Well, I've got Silver,” He turned, looking at them as they nodded back.

“Yeah but,” Ellen had flipped her visualizer on, “can Silver handle all that? They're just one little guy.”

Silver puffed out their chest, “I'm strong!” Then deflated, “But now that you mention it… It is nice that Reg's got someone else to talk to. He doesn't really listen to me.”

Reg balked, “W-What? I do too!”

Silver floated to Ellen, flopping dramatically, “He thinks I'm a dumb poopy baby with doo doo brain and doesn't take my advice!”

Ellen gasped theatrically, “No! Reg's the one with doo doo brain.”

Reg grumbled and ate his chicken nuggets, fighting the burning temperature.

“He doesn't ask for help!” Silver bemoaned.

“What do you call this?!” Reg growled, gesturing to Ellen.

“Teasing,” They squeaked impishly.

Reg sighed roughly, stuffing his face, trying to hide his reddening cheek. Ellen snorted and had to set down her food as she giggled with her whole body.

“Hey cheer up,” She said, “Tell me more about stuff like Silver. I wanna know more, as much as you wanna say.”

Reg glanced up, meeting her cheerful look with Silver looking sunny floating close by.

“Ok,” He chuckled, “Fine.”

The conversation continued. Reg talked about Silver, his left eye, the viruses he fought, and more about the Moon and Vile, he practically told her everything. As he continued, there was a levity to his voice, he chuckled more and Silver interjected with quips. Ellen made her commentary short and tended to reply more with nods and chuckles. There were times where it was clear she was eager to talk more, especially when it came to the subject of fighting, but she'd stop herself and let Reg continue. By the time he laid everything out in front of her, he felt light, giddy almost, and Ellen looked excited.

“This Vile guy,” Ellen leaned back, holding her head in thought, “you said it's got one red eye, yeah?”

“Right,” Reg nodded.

“That kinda reminds me of this rumor that was going about on the net recently. People would test to see if the net really was unsafe for old AI and would try to upload old Navi or Wizard backups, only for them to be deleted. You used to not be able to upload them at all,” She turned to him with an ominous look, “Someone got a screen recording of the AI's view at the time and all that was seen was a small red streak.”

Reg stared wide eyed, inhaling sharply, “How recently? And can I see?”

She tilted her head, “Just the past couple of years, I think? And uh, sure, hand me my Game-Xross.”

“Your what?”

“My controller,” She gestured to the device that she had on her arm earlier.

He handed it over and she tapped away at it. The mobile at the top lit up and pages scrolled by until she stopped at a particular forum post, tapped it, and rotated the top half of the device to show the scene.

It was pitch black, save for some stray pixel artifacting around something, and just as described, a streak of red, and a sudden end to the video.

“Most people think it's a hoax, and that any other copycats are just playing along. Now I'm not so sure,” She scrolled past it, showing screenshots of other people's encounters.

“No, that's it. That's Vile,” Reg said hollowly, “That weird chunk missing from the red in that picture is from its helmet partially obscuring it.”

But it was more than that, call it a gut feeling but Reg could recognize in the loose fragments of pixels, an unmistakable hulking shape that seemed to leap out of the screen.

“Were any of these in the past two days?” He asked hastily.

“No?” She scrolled around to check, “Most recent was a couple of months ago, and the oldest one… Well there's debate about that, but I wanna say five years at least?”

“Five years…” He leaned back, thinking about his own timeline.

“What's up?”

He glanced at her, “Well. The incident with my eye happened seven years ago, so that lines up with what I know. And I'd be worried if there were any new reports of these weird events because Vile should be deleted.”

“Yeah, sure, you deleted it,” Ellen scoffed.

“Yes! It's definitely deleted! I saw it with my own eyes!” He growled.

“No, I mean, you,” She pointed at him, “The guy who could hardly handle a stealthy virus and got his ass kicked by a charging virus. You totally would've been able to handle a big brute like Vile. Uh huh.”

“I'm not exaggerating. And it's not like I got out of that fight unscathed,” He grumbled.

“Yeah! He was able to defeat it because I helped!” Silver chirped.

Reg whipped around to stare at them, an odd feeling rising up as he realized that was a lie, the first they had ever said. Silver simply smiled back.

Ellen pursed her lips and raised a brow, eventually shrugging, “Alright. Anyways, so that pig virus. You wanna beat it right?”

Reg sighed, grateful that the conversation had moved on, “We have to beat it. Who knows what damage it'll do if left alone.”

She hummed for a bit, “You wanna try to take it on tonight or tomorrow morning? Cause it's getting late right now.”

Reg blinked and looked around for a clock, noting the time, “Shoot, my mom's gonna be expecting me for dinner soon. We'll have to fight it tomorrow. I'll be well rested then too.”

She giggled excitedly, tensing up, ready to burst, “Yes! I can't wait! You're gonna kick so much ass!”

She smiled devilishly, as if she were talking about herself and not the person right next to her.

Reg stood up, his body aching from sitting a bit too long, “Thank you for the food, by the way.”

“No problem,”

“And uh,” He turned away, scratching the back of his neck, “thank you for listening to me.”

“Yeah, that's what friends do,”

He tensed, that word plucked at his heart, his head ringing as realization settled in. He had a friend. He turned to face her, smiled, and replied emphatically, “Thank you!”

She smiled back, and gave him a thumbs up, “Don't go falling through floors again, alright?”

“I'm trying not to!” He rolled his eyes, paused, then laughed. Ellen and Silver soon joined in as well.

The three then said their goodbyes and Reg made his way back to his apartment, using the map feature on his mobile to navigate back. The evening sky was a lovely light purple with bright orange clouds shining in the setting sun.

As he passed by the playground on the way back, he tried to spot the virus, just in case. He had to squint to see the terrain it had generated; the flaming grasses looked like they had grown outward a little, but couldn't encroach the surrounding buildings. And not a virus was in sight. All in all, it seemed peaceful, tranquil even.

He resolved himself with a sigh. He was going to win tomorrow, not because he had to, but because he had help. He looked to Silver who gave him a cheerful nod. He smiled back and the two made their way home.

Back at his apartment, his mom was lounging in her new recliner, snuggled in a heated blanket, reading on her mobile.

“Hi sweetheart! Have a good time?” She asked as he entered the room.

“Yeah!” He answered.

“That's good! I got us some vermicelli, one of the ladies at the spa recommended it, says it's the best in Spacity,” She explained, leaning over her shoulder to face him, and pointed to the kitchen.

“Thanks,” He replied, making his way over, “Did you have fun?”

“I did! Thank you for asking!” She sang cheerfully, “I met one of our neighbors today and joined their book club. I'm catching up on the book they're reading this month. What did you end up doing today sweetie?”

“I uh,” He laughed a little, “I made a friend!”

She set down her mobile and leaned around to face him, “You did!? Tell me all about it!”

“Yeah!” He smiled, “Her name's Ellen and she's nice. We played video games and chatted all day!”

His mom smiled gently, “I'm so glad. You must bring her over! She's welcome any time!”

“Sure thing mom,” He nodded, picking up their dinners and bringing them to the dining table.

Reg helped his mom into her wheelchair, then she rolled herself up to the table.

“Hopefully you didn't wait long, I lost track of time,” Reg mentioned sheepishly.

“No, not that long at all! Though I was going to send you a message if you didn't come back as soon as you did. Can't have you getting completely lost, first day here!” She winked at him, scooping up some noodles.

The two chatted over dinner and then Reg helped his mom into her bed. They hugged and he finally made it back to his new room.

He sighed as he looked at the place, mentally reminding himself that this was still Earth and he wasn't back on the Moon. As he got ready for bed, he pulled out the card that Roll had given him.

“Not yet,” He said aloud, “I don't know what help she and her brother would do, plus they're probably pretty busy.”

Silver shrugged.

“We don't need to bother them, we got this,” He assured, setting the card down on his table.

“Yeah!” Silver cheered.

Reg smiled and crawled into his bed, “Goodnight Silver.”

“Night Reg!” They chirped back, curling up on his pillow next to him.

He instantly fell asleep, the exhaustion of the day hitting him all at once.

Chapter Text

A loud angry buzzing cut through the darkness. Reg pulled himself out of wherever his mind had wandered through the night and finally registered that he was awake. He looked at his familiar bed sheets and frame and wondered what pipes or ducts were failing this time on Argent, checking his mental list of what he had inspected last.

Then he woke up again.

He glanced at Silver, still snoozing, and then to his mobile which he answered hastily.

“Go~od morning Moonaman! Are you ready to delete some virus butt?!” Ellen's voice rang out radiantly.

“What,” He replied.

“You know, the virus. The fire pig thing. I was gonna help you delete it,”

“No. The ‘Moonaman’ thing,”

“Oh! Just trying something out, you're from the Moon, you're a Megaman, combine ‘em together…”

“Don't. It sounds weird. Plus I'm not really a Megaman,”

“We'll workshop it. You up and ready to go?”

Reg grumbled and crawled out of bed, “No I just woke up.”

“I could hardly sleep! I'm so ready for this! Meet me at the playground in thirty,”

“Wha-hold on!”

The call ended. Reg was left standing in his silent room, staring at his ceiling incredulously.

“We deleting a virus or what, Reg?” Silver floated by, not a crumb of grogginess to them.

Reg sighed, half collapsed, pulled himself together, threw on clothes, shoveled in food, and told his mom where he was going before flinging himself out the door.

He made it to the park within the allotted time, with Ellen swinging on the swingset. She launched herself off and skidded to a stop, whipping her head up and bounced over to Reg.

“Reg! You made it! Are you ready? I’m so excited!” She squealed, vibrating in place.

“I don’t know why you’re so excited, you’re not the one fighting. Do you just want to see viruses that badly or something?” Reg grumbled.

“Nah, to me, this will be just like netbattling, except I can’t send you battle chips or control you in any way,”

“That just leaves yelling at me,”

“Yeah! It’s gonna be great!”

Reg rolled his eyes and glanced at Silver who silently giggled.

Ellen flipped on her visualizer and got straight to business, “Did you guys see what happened to all that fiery grass from yesterday?”

Reg squinted at the ground and sharply inhaled; the entire ground had become carpeted in the grass, and it seemed to stretch onto the paths beyond.

“It’s warm too,” Silver murmured.

Ellen leaned down and waved her hand right through the fire, “Yeah, it does kinda feel oddly warmer than it should. Kinda like asphalt in the summer.”

None of this seemed good and Reg looked around for any people or viruses. There were some people, but far enough away to not be a bother, and then he saw something odd moving far off behind some playground equipment. He trotted over to find a small squarish block with a long slow moving body underneath wiggling itself forward.

It reared up and struck something on the ground in front of it, then turned its head to look directly at Reg, with its mouth full of something pixelated. It paused, then looked up, instantly retreating back into its block as three spear-like viruses pierced the ground around it. The spears unfolded into sharp bird like forms, with one frantically flapping about, stabbing the ground with its beak and long forked talons. That bird pulled upward and revealed it had grabbed the long wriggling virus in its beak. With one final, crushing bite, the wriggling ceased and the entire frame of the virus dissolved into pixels with the other two bird viruses immediately tearing off bits of data to eat for themselves.

Silver huddled in closer to Reg, and he covered the little guy with a hand.

“Whoah, that’s wild,” Ellen whispered, “Never seen that before.”

Neither had Reg, viruses were never known to turn on each other or hunt. Viruses attacked human-made infrastructure and AI beings, ate bug frags, and were supposed to have been deleted in mass one hundred years ago. And yet here they were, alive, and participating in predation.

Some other people walked by, completely ignorant of the scene before them, as the bird viruses enjoyed their meal unbothered by the humans walking past.

Reg hurriedly walked off, motioning for Ellen to follow him. He headed down the wooded park walkway and as soon as there were no people around, he looked to see if Silver and Ellen were ok. They both gave him a concerned look.

“What was all that?” Ellen asked finally.

Reg folded his arms in thought, “I’ve been thinking about it. Why is it that the viruses I fought seemed to make ground wherever they go?”

“Cause they need something to stand on?” Ellen offered.

“I thought about that,” Reg hummed, “But then, why does it expand? And overnight it had grown this much? And now there’s multiple viruses running about?”

“And those viruses weren’t attacking human stuff!” Ellen added.

Reg nodded, “This isn’t typical virus behavior that you’d read about from the history books. It almost reminds me of…”

His head popped up in realization, “Are you familiar with the concept of a pioneer species?”

“What,”

“Ok,” He rubbed the ridge of his brow, “A pioneer species is basically some sort of organism that first colonizes an area, typically after some big disaster like a fire. They’re important for habitat reclamation. That boar virus has been running around basically filling this area with land that other viruses can live on. It's the pioneer species for those viruses.”

“Nerd,” Ellen snorted.

Reg glared at her.

“So are the viruses good?” Silver asked.

“I don’t know,” Reg shook his head, “I think we need to hunt down that boar virus. If I remember correctly, I saw it eating something next to a tree yesterday. We should investigate.”

“Pff, how could viruses be good? They’re viruses, they delete,” Ellen scoffed and threw a hand about.

“We need to learn more about these viruses,” He sighed, “Though I do think we need to stop them before they get too powerful, they are still dangerous. So in order to stop the spreading, we need to find-”

“The bacon!” Ellen chirped.

“The-What,”

“Fire plus pig equals bacon!” She gave him a thumbs up.

“No.” He groaned, then gathered himself, “Silver, do you have an idea where the boar virus is?”

Silver tilted their head about, “I don’t know… There’s too many smaller ones.”

He sighed, “Ok, let’s split up then and look for the boar, message me if you find it, but don’t try to engage with it.”

“What could I even do? As much as I’d like to, I can’t exactly punch the thing.” She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t underestimate them, they might still be able to do damage to you,” Reg sharply pointed out.

Ellen blinked back her surprise and Silver giggled, which made him look at them quizzically.

“Oh it’s nothing!” Silver sang, “It’s just nice you’re not rushing in this time!”

Reg balked, blushed, and grumbled. Silver giggled even harder.

The two teens split up, going down separate paths. Reg took the route that he encountered the boar virus on yesterday, while Ellen walked down another fork.

He passed by the trees and bushes he had ignored the last time he was here, this time noting their plaques that described what species they were. Some were simply carved into metal, while others were blank lit screens. He eventually made it to the tree he saw the boar at yesterday and knelt down to find that the tree had one of those electronic plaques next to it as well, this one also a blank screen.

The tree also had wires and small tubes running from it and into a small covered box next to it. Reg opened it with his flat head screwdriver, making sure to tuck it back into his arm wrap lest something else happen. Inside was a small computational device with wires leading back to the screen.

“Why isn’t it displaying anything?” He leaned over, checking all the connections.

“Oh! Let me help!” Silver chirped and dove head first into the device, kicking their little feet.

Reg worried that they were going to start biting, but decided to trust them. They popped out a few seconds later with a tilted frown.

“There’s nothing,” Silver wondered.

“Nothing?” Reg echoed.

They shook their head, “Nothing. When I stuck my head into that doorknob, there was lots. Sounds, lights, colors, but in that, it’s all quiet.”

“It was all deleted then,” He concluded with a sigh, a fear of his confirmed.

“Why then,” He stood up, holding his head in thought, “Why go after this small thing and not any of the residential places around?”

“It’s smaller…” Silver hummed in thought, “Well what if… They aren’t strong enough for bigger things?”

“Not a bad idea,” Reg nodded to their delight, “Though to test that we’d have to put all that data in danger, and I’m not about to do that.”

“Mhm!” Silver chirped, “Let’s find that virus before that happens!”

“Agreed,” He turned and began heading back down the path, “Let’s meet up with Ellen.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellen walked along, peering behind every bush and tree in the hopes of finding that pig virus. All she found were weird smaller viruses that she didn’t recognize. She grumbled.

If she had superpowers she’d be beating up each and every virus around, clearing this place of all the baddies. She wanted to so bad. She thought of ways she could wrap her hands in tinfoil or something that could interact with the viruses so she could fight them herself.

She was born a hundred years too late. She could’ve joined the Satella Police, revitalized it, and stopped all the wave viruses that plagued the world one hundred years ago, and prevented the whole Net Reset! She’d been training her whole life for it, doing martial arts, and Netken, but here was her chance finally. She could prove she was worthy of whatever power Reg had, and then make it her own, beat up all the viruses, and save the world!

She took out her Game-Xross and flipped it open, taking a look at her Netken character Cometman. Sure she could’ve shown him to Reg right there at the park, but then they probably wouldn’t have ended up friends. She smiled at her own deviousness.

Then her mind wandered back to Reg, and how lucky she was that he didn’t think she was weird. She had tried her best yesterday, was on her best behavior, and somehow it all worked. Now she just had to… Keep it up.

She had already messed up with that ‘bacon’ joke, hopefully Reg didn’t regret making friends with her so soon over such a blunder like that. And also ‘Moonaman’, what was she thinking!

Her eyes drifted down to look at her Game-Xross again. Cometman was just a game character, something for her to practice her reaction timing and strategizing, but at times like these, she really wished she had been born a hundred years ago. She really wanted that kind of friend, one that’s attached to your hip, custom tailor made, just for you, to be with you forever.

At times like these, all alone with nothing but her thoughts, she imagined that Cometman could talk, offer her words of encouragement, cheer her on, give her friendly advice. She knew it wasn’t ‘real’, but it helped.

Don’t worry! She imagined him saying, If Reg is really your friend, he’ll understand and think nothing of those jokes! He’s probably just as weird as you!

Oh no, she had called him a ‘nerd’ too, he didn’t seem to appreciate that either. She groaned and scratched her head, and threw herself back into her mission. She scoured the area around, found more of those weird snail viruses, and a couple of other odd critters like grasshopper-like viruses and little beetle-like ones too.

What had Reg said? That the pig virus was a pioneer? That meant that the grasses came from it? So if she found new patches of grass, she’d find the pig!

She raced down the path, eventually coming to a clearing. A huge ditch that dealt with flood waters during the rainy months was smack dab in the middle of it all. She flipped on and off her visualizer, and saw no patches of the digital grass along it, though the stuff at her feet did seem to be growing outward toward that area.

The virus didn't go that way, so she wasn't going that way either. She kept walking down the winding trail and finally noticed one of the blank displays next to a tree. She could've sworn they had some sort of information on them the last time she had walked this way. Could this have been what the pig was ‘eating’? She lightly tapped the screen with her foot. Nothing happened.

She huffed and moved on, continuing down the same path. The fiery grass was getting thinner, more spread out, and the small viruses she encountered were fewer and fewer, at one point it seemed there were none. She was close, she bet as she slowed her pace.

An odd, compressed, staticy sound came from the speakers on her visualizer and she hunkered down as she approached the source of the noise. Out of the corner of her vision she spotted a bit of the swirl of a tusk. She dashed back behind a brush, took out her Game-Xross, and began rapidly typing a message to Reg.

Upon sending it, she noticed something was off, and it took her a second to realize it had suddenly become very quiet, no static, no rustling. And then a snort.

Right next to her a long flattened snout was sniffing rhythmically, turned one way, and then towards her, stopping, and then slowly the head of the pig emerged, radiating tusks and all. Ellen stared the thing down, fear gripping her as she realized the scale of it all. It was so much larger in person than she had imagined, and the heat was palpable, even though she wasn’t an EM Being herself. She imagined if she did get attacked by this thing, she’d definitely have lasting damage, maybe a full body sunburn.

It inched towards her, and she swung her Game-Xross out of the way of the thing, which it seemed to follow. She watched as the pig slowly opened its mouth as it leaned up and forward, reaching for her device.

She scrambled, getting her feet under her and bolted away, clutching her Game-Xross tight in her hand. She raced back down the path, retracing the route she took until she made it to the clearing. She looked behind her and saw flashes of those tusks appearing from behind branches, approaching her rapidly. She gulped and ran to the clearing, racing along the bank to the other side.

She turned to see the pig emerging from the woods across the ditch, sniffing the air, then facing towards her. She made sure to position herself behind the ditch, keeping it between her and the pig at all times. As the pig virus moved closer and around, Ellen moved along the other side of the embankment. At one point the pig stopped and turned, making its way down into the ditch to get closer.

Ellen fled, shuffling backwards quickly as she watched the pig virus reach the bottom of the ditch, make an odd grunt, and then walk back up to the bank it started out on. The virus continued to walk around the bank towards Ellen, so she continued to walk in the opposite direction, but she sighed with relief as it became clear she would be safe to stall until-

A barrage of shots burst around the virus, with the last ones actually hitting their mark, causing the pig to screech and whip around to face its attacker. Reg ran out of the forest in his armor, continuing to fire at it until it charged towards and past him.

“You ok?!” He called out.

“Yeah!” She waved back, “It can’t pass the water in the ditch! It’s like a vampire or something!”

He shook his head and shrugged at her. She saw a flash of orange behind him and remembered what was going on.

“It’s coming! Get on this side of the ditch!” She called back to him.

Reg ran over and turned to face the forest. Silver had latched themselves onto his back and waved at Ellen. She waved and smiled back.

The pig, raging with fire, came plowing through the forest straight for Reg. Ellen raced to the side, doing her best to avoid any conflict entirely, while Reg stayed still, lining up his aim and unleashed two charged shots right into the pig’s face. It shook them off and barreled ahead, running down and up the ditch, right to him. He side-stepped just in time and watched as the pig continued its charge along the bank.

“Ellen!” Reg yelled, as she glanced behind her and ran down the ditch to avoid the charging virus.

“I’m fine! I guess it just kinda doesn’t like water?!” She yelled back.

“Try to get outta here! I got this, I’m not going to get caught again!” Reg declared, “I just gotta side step it, that’s all.”

“Yeah basically!” Ellen replied, turning and running along the slope towards the forest.

The pig turned and thundered past Reg, continuing its reckless charge into the forest ahead of Ellen. Reg fired at it, but missed his shots, cursing about a mirage.

She crawled out of the ditch to get a better look, watching the pig run into some bushes, come to a stop, and then turn. It snorted fire and then something large landed on top of it. She heard a sharp squeal and then a sudden silence. The spiraling tusks broke apart into chunks of data, the whole form of the virus falling apart, leaving a small red point in its place.

Illuminated by this red light, a metallic face emerged. The entire face lifted, engulfed the light, and clamped down on it, releasing a yellow dust as it did. It exited the forest with massive sand colored forelimbs, and in the light of the clearing revealed itself to be a statuesque beastial virus, one with no head, a spiked metal mask where its neck would have started, a broad leaf like mane, and a long sharp tail pointing straight up with a tiny fire on the end of it. It paced forward and the two teens looked at each other.

“What is that?!” Reg hissed to her.

“I dunno? Shoot it!” She answered.

He fired a couple of shots at it, but they all bounced harmlessly off the beast’s mask. It continued unperturbed.

“Uh, Ellen?” He squeaked out.

“I’m running! Don’t worry! Just shoot the thing when its mask is up! That’ll probably work!” She called out as she ran down the slope of the bank, jumped over the water, and up the other side.

Reg continued his firing, aiming for the virus’s paws, and stepping back as it approached him. In an instant it leapt forward, striking him and sending him flying across the ditch to the other side.

“Reg!” She yelled.

She heard him groan for a bit, “I’m ok,” He finally replied.

The beast kept advancing, releasing a yellow mist wherever it went. Reg circled around, trying to fire at it at different angles, however, every shot seemed to do nothing to it. In one powerful leap, it jumped over the ditch landing right next to Reg on the other side. The mask lifted as the beast roared before him, releasing tons of that yellow dust.

Ellen scrambled away, clutching her Game-Xross to her chest, with the beast’s back to her and a massive cloud of yellow covering the ground spreading towards her. She noticed something odd, she looked to the ground and the grass was no longer on fire, instead it just resembled long dry grasses she had seen on nature documentaries. Something clicked in her head.

“Reg! Those are spores! Don’t breathe them in, you’ll get confused!” She yelled out, betting on her instincts.

He hopped back and fired more, aiming at the beast’s open maw. It cringed back, closing itself and shaking off the damage.

There was something else about this situation that bothered her, something she only put together after her eyes landed on the little fire on the beast’s tail. And panicked as the tail swung down.

“JUMP!” She screamed, as Reg took a bit to register, then jumped.

The entire field erupted in flames, the yellow mist especially bursting into a massive fireball which filled the air with an all encompassing blaze. Reg screamed as the fire reached him and he fell onto the still burning ground, landing square on his back.

“Reg!” Ellen yelled, jumping to the side to try to get a better view of him.

He shakily got up, held his busters in front of him, and said something to Silver. The beast virus lifted its mask again, releasing tons of spores that added fuel to the ground’s fire as it stalked forward. Reg fired when he had his chance, though all of them missed, and with leadened footfalls he backed up, continuing to fire. Silver squeaked something and dashed away, heading straight for Ellen.

Reg sighed with relief and landed a shot right on its mark, making the beast snarl. Then it turned.

Ellen watched as the virus faced her with its large metal mask that towered over her. She glanced behind her to see Silver cowering behind her head, and then back up at the mask.

The beast was already lifting its massive paw. Reg was screaming something. She wanted to fight. She wanted to run. She wanted, more than anything, for-

The beast swung.

She closed her eyes.

Everything was encompassed in a flash of blinding white light.

And then it was dark again.

Then Ellen was aware of her breathing, and lack of pain. She tentatively opened her eyes, seeing a view that made her brain restart. Before her was familiar green and yellow armor, with a tuft of yellow hair hanging between it, and an arm grabbing the paw, holding it high in the air.

“No,” She whispered, straightening herself up, “No way.”

She must be dreaming, or dead, or something, because it couldn’t be possible for a Navi, her Navi, Cometman, to be standing right there, right in front of her.

The virus wriggled its paw out from his grip and crawled back. Energy blasts pinged it from behind, but the beast kept its focus forward.

Cometman moved his arm down slowly, and Ellen narrowed her eyes, wondering why he wasn’t attacking. Then she remembered, grabbing her controller she was holding tight to her chest, flipping it open and input a familiar set of commands. Cometman leapt forward, shooting a mace that bounced off the mask and retracted back to his arm.

A mad grin stretched across her face and she adopted a wide stance.

“Let’s go Cometman!” She exclaimed, rapidly pressing the buttons on her device, sending her Navi straight at the virus.

She had him dash around it, send maces at the body of the thing, and then dashed to the side to avoid the beast’s swipe attacks. The thing roared and exhaled a burst of spores just as Reg unleashed two charge attacks into its maw. It shuffled backwards and tried to roar again, this time releasing so many spores it caused an obscuring cloud that ignited in a curtain of flames.

Ellen was ready for this. She had Cometman dash through the fire and grab the beast’s mask holding it open with his strength. She then input a grapple and Cometman’s other hand turned into a mace, shooting out, grabbing, and breaking off the beast’s pilot light tail, retracted it back, and then plunged the thing into its opening, letting go of everything.

The virus rapidly expanded from within causing massive cracks to sunder through it, and the beast collapsed, dissolving into a mass of pixelated data, leaving a tiny red point which Silver devoured in an instant.

“Before anyone asks!” Silver held up their little hands, “I wanted to eat it before something else goes wrong!”

Ellen ignored them. There were other things on her mind.

She walked forward, taking it all in. She closed her Game-Xross and latched it back onto her arm. And then she just stared at him, for what felt like minutes.

Then Cometman turned and met her gaze. His eyes went wide, then he looked away quickly, disappearing in a flash.

And then there was nothing.

Chapter Text

The digital ground was still smoldering, but it seemed to be dissipating slowly. Reg ran over to Ellen who seemed dazed.

“Ellen ah-” He started, then glanced around quickly, “Let's get out of this open area, come on.”

He briskly made it to the wooded path with Ellen trailing behind. He turned off his armor and looked beside him at Ellen who was staring at her gaming device in her hands.

“He's not here,” She finally said.

Not that he didn't believe her, but he had to see for himself, and when he leaned over her shoulder and saw the blank screen, his breath hitched. Ellen looked like her brain had crashed.

“You ok Reg?” Silver whispered.

“Yeah, I'm,” He winced as he tried to ignore the dull pressure on his back and the stinging sensation on his limbs, “Fine. I would've been a lot worse off I think if Ellen hadn't told me to jump when she did.”

She looked up when her name was mentioned and sighed, “I'm glad I was useful.”

“Did you think you weren't?” Reg asked.

She bit her lip, closed and latched her device back onto her arm. She then began walking back down the path, hands in pockets. Reg looked to Silver who shrugged, and then began following behind her.

A strained silence hung over the two teens as they made their way back. Reg looked down, spotting an electronic plaque for a tree; still blank. The digital grasses seemed to be taking a lot longer to disappear than he expected. The various creatures that had spawned were starting to fade away as well. He felt sorry for them, wishing he knew more about them, the viruses, Cometman, himself, and everything.

Ellen looked closed off, hunched over, and from the reactions of passersby, volatile.

Reg thought it'd be good to check in on her, took a deep breath, and called out gently, “Um, Ellen?”

“Did I do something wrong?!” She whipped around, frantic.

Reg jumped, and saw a couple of other people glance at them. He spotted a more secluded place beside a large tree and waved her over. She whined and followed.

“I don’t think you did anything wrong,” He said, sitting in a huff.

“But what if I did?!” She snapped, pain in her voice, “You don’t know! Reg, he recognized me! He looked me in the eyes and ran! What if he remembers all the times I lost and hates me for it!”

“Do… you really think he would do that?” Reg asked, thinking about what Cometman could have possibly been thinking at the time.

“I don’t know!” She fretted, pacing about and messing with her jacket sleeves, “What if he’s angry at me for being too rough in training?! Or mad cause I don’t use recovery chips! Augh, I didn’t even say the thing you’re supposed to say when a nettbattle starts! How could I forget! Every Netken match starts with that too!”

She growled, digging her fingers into her scalp scratching wildly.

“Ellen,” Reg mustered the gentlest voice he could, “Can you please sit down and breathe. For me?”

She grumbled and sat, shaking a leg like an agitated cat’s tail.

“First NetOp in a hundred years and I already messed up,” She huffed into her hand.

“Did he really recognize you? I mean,” He rolled his hand, searching for the words, “Did he seem aware? Was he, you know, sentient, you think?”

Ellen stared at him, stone cold, through tense fingers, “I’ve seen that face for seven years, half my life, and not once in any of his preset animations did he ever make a face like that. Whatever miracle happened that fight made him real and he ran. He took one look at me and ran, Reg. What am I going to do?”

Her gaze made his vocal chords freeze, and he looked to Silver who just looked back, brows furrowed.

“Wait!” He piped up, pointing to Silver, “We might be able to find him! Silver, do you think you could search for him, kinda like how you search for viruses?”

Silver perked their ears up, “Oh! Maybe! I’ll try!”

The two teens silently watched as Silver circled around, pausing every now and then, circling back to Reg.

“It’s no use,” Silver sighed, “I can’t tell.”

“Thanks for trying though,” Reg patted around their head, “We can walk around and try. Don’t worry Ellen, we’ll find him and-”

“Stop,” She forced out, stood and whipped around, “I… I just want to go home.”

She clenched her fists, and she shook a little, “This is all too much for me. I’ll see you later. Bye Reg.”

He stumbled up and forward, catching a brief look at her face; her misty eyes caught his and she turned, quickly hiding her expression.

“I want to be alone right now,” She choked out, pausing, and then fled, leaving Reg to collect his thoughts.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I thought that you'd be safer, not get blasted with fire, sorry about that,” Reg sighed as he opened the door to his apartment.

“It's ok…” Silver floated in, “I didn't think it would be targeting me…”

“Yeah,” He looked around the house, his mom should be at the hospital right now getting a bandage change, so he should be fine to talk aloud, “Do you know what happened? What caused Cometman to appear?”

“Beats me,” Silver looked to the kitchen.

“We're lucky that happened. I'm worried about Ellen,” He circled around the couch and plopped down, “I should message her, check how she's doing.”

He pulled out his mobile, flipped it on, and saw a green and yellow armored face glancing back at him.

“Cometman?!” Reg sputtered out, stumbling but managing to keep the mobile in his hand.

“Huh?!” Silver zoomed over, “That's why I couldn't find you, you were here all along!”

The Navi looked stunned, but didn't say anything.

“I'll call Ellen, she'll-”

“Stop!” Cometman said, holding up his hands. He looked up to Reg, then away.

Reg stopped, Cometman had spoken. A long drawn out pause stretched between them.

“Why?” Reg asked, breaking the silence.

“Because…” He looked down, “I… Don't know her.”

Reg had to pause and stare at the Navi for a while.

“But you… recognized her?” Reg broached the question.

“I…” Cometman started slowly, then shook his head, growling furiously, “I don't know alright!”

Reg was taken aback as he continued to fume, but as Reg said nothing, he slowly simmered down.

“Uh, ok,” Reg took a breath, “How about I introduce myself? My name's Reg, and this is Silver.” He pointed to the little guy over his shoulder.

Cometman stared at the space beside Reg and scowled, “What's that? You're pointing at nothing.”

“The mobile camera can't see me,” Silver mused.

Reg hummed, “They're a little gray, uh, digital creature that my mobile can't pick up. So, in any case, Cometman, what are you doing on my mobile anyways?”

“Beats me,” The Navi shrugged, “There was that fight and next thing I know, I was here.”

“What do you know?” Reg asked gently, propping up his mobile on the table in front of him.

Cometman crossed his arms and retreated his face into his armor a bit, grumbling to himself.

“Nothing,” He finally replied.

“You have to know something, how else can you talk, or move your arms?”

“I don't know!” The Navi snapped, pointing a claw-like finger at Reg to which he raised a hand placatingly.

“Would you like for me to tell you what I know about you?” Reg offered, wincing a little preemptively.

Cometman retreated back into himself, closing his eyes, “Fine. I guess.”

Reg sighed, falling back into the couch, then straightened himself and starting from the beginning, told Cometman what he knew about him. Cometman listened along patiently, maintaining his closed posture until Reg reached the end of his knowledge. His perspective on the recent fight made Cometman perk up, only for the Navi to then slowly fold back into himself as Reg finished. A long silence hung in the air like a fog.

“I don't remember any of that,” Cometman mumbled out, “The fight, yeah, I remember that. It was weird… I…”

“...You?” Reg prompted.

“When I remember that fight,” He tilted his head, “it was like my body wasn't mine… Ugh, I don't get any of this! It's all too much!”

He continued to growl, grabbed his head and scratched. Reg sputtered into a laugh that made Cometman snap a glare at him.

“Sorry!” Reg snorted, trying to bottle his giggles, “You sounded like Ellen just then!”

This didn't seem to have the reaction Reg had hoped for; Cometman scowled and turned away.

“Ah…” Reg faltered, sobering his mood quickly, “I get it. Everything is new and scary. I've really only been on Earth for about… Four days now. I'm still getting used to everything too.”

“...What?”

“Oh, I,” Reg blinked quickly as he realized how much he was going to have to fill Cometman in on, “I'm from the Moon.”

“...What's the Moon?”

Reg's thoughts broke and shattered into a hundred pieces. He was going to have to fill him in like rain to a drought stricken aquifer.

“Honestly,” Reg gathered himself, “You really should go to Ellen about this, she'd be more than thrilled to answer all your questions.”

He thought about how excited Ellen was to have a Navi, and how disappointed she'd be if she couldn't do all the things a NetOp gets to do. He didn't want to take this from her. He looked to Silver who gave him a sympathetic look, and then he turned back to Cometman, whose scowl could cut rock.

“Can you at least tell me why you won't see her?” Reg pressed gently, “I know it's because ‘you don't know her’, but, what if you got to know her?”

Cometman curled inward again, making a face like he bit a lemon, or maybe just sour data, “I can't describe it.”

He tamped down his rising frustration and pressed again, “It's ok, anything is fine, let me help you figure it out.”

Cometman grumbled and made a quiet whine as it looked like he was contemplating something. Reg leaned forward, hoping to catch a word.

“It's…” Cometman started quietly, “It's like there's something in my vision, like just about to recall it, but, it's brief, and I can't see it well. It's like it's coming from somewhere else, like it's not from me… “ He grumbled, “That sounds stupid. Nevermind.”

“His memory is messed up…” Silver wondered.

Reg glanced at Silver and mulled this over, then picked up his mobile and asked, “Can I take a look at your files?”

“Huh? Sure,” Cometman tilted his head and Reg swore he heard him mumble, “Why do I know what a file is.”

Reg pulled up his mobile’s directory, and found the list of connected drives, with one looking oddly out of place with its invisible icon and name that was more like a long string of a pixelated graphical error than letters. He took a look at that file's properties, only to find it had zero bytes of data in it, yet upon opening it, revealed more invisible icons with garbled file names. He pulled up the search operation and looked up the one thing he could think of, ‘Ellen'.

A small progress bar slowly ticked up as the mobile started to get warm. Cometman twitched in response and crossed his arms close to himself.

“You ok?” Reg asked, placing the mobile back on the table.

“Yeah, it's just weird,” He replied, twitching again.

“Ok… let me know if it ever gets too much,” Reg sat back and waited.

When the search finished, Cometman visibly relaxed, eyeing the window next to him. The search had actually brought up an image, something in portrait resolution with another garbled text name. How this had come up in the search was beyond Reg, but he opened the image regardless.

It was a picture of Ellen, smiling and holding the camera in front of her. She looked a lot younger and didn't have her visualizer anywhere. The bottom of the image was cut off and at the edge the pixels extended to the end, clearly indicating some sort of error had occurred to it. Cometman shrank the image towards him, saying nothing as he held it out in front of himself. Reg tried to get a view of his face, to read any sort of reaction from him, with no luck.

Reg began to talk but was cut off, “I'm gonna go,” Cometman said sharply.

“To?” Reg prompted hopefully.

“Nowhere. I'm just. Leaving,” Cometman locked eyes with Reg, closing the image in a single swipe.

And before Reg could say anything, Cometman vanished in a flash, all trace of him in his mobile gone in an instant.

Reg gingerly picked his mobile back up, looked to Silver who mirrored his concern, and fell back into the couch. What else could he do but hope.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was dark, but not because Cometman wasn't receiving visual information, he could see his hand just fine. Everything around him was a void; colorless, lightless. If he focused, he could sense places he could go, devices he could access. It was like he could soundlessly whisper and hear a small echo of the electronics around him. This at least gave form to the world he found himself in.

Something nagged at him from all angles, told him he was doing something wrong, that he was wrong. He ignored it best he could, or else he might start to believe it.

Ever since that fight one hour and thirty seven minutes ago his processes had been partially occupied compiling information about that damn human, Ellen. It annoyed him.

He hopped from device to device, feeling the need to keep moving.

He had hardly enough information about that human to fill a page, but from what he confirmed with Reg, it seemed somewhere in his files there was more. A constant pinging error haunted his processes, and everytime he bothered to humor the damn thing and look into it, an incomprehensible sense would wash over him. Sometimes images, sometimes sounds, all without context and gone within a millisecond.

It wasn't his files, his were fine. He could recall images and sounds with crystal clarity at a moment's notice. Some core program was running without his permission, bringing up corrupted data, and for what? To try to find out about a human? One who seized his freedom immediately and then threw a fit when things didn't go her way? He shouldn't want to know more about her, and yet…

He growled in frustration, he wanted nothing more than to rip this core program out of him and be done with it.

He came across live camera footage of the outside world, a traffic feed showing vehicles cruising by. He could feel the waves they gave off as they passed underneath him, gently pushing and pulling as they did. He built a three dimensional map of where he felt concentrations of electronics around him and compared it to the real world video in front of him. It lined up perfectly.

Houses and vehicles had more, trees and sky had less.

This dark world had a landscape now. He could parse what was ‘solid’ and what wasn't, casually leaping about in no particular direction.

His processes circled back to the earliest memories recorded in his files. Those first moments where everything started, the very first sensations of being aware. Where some program of his registered physics, movement, pressure on his hand and arm, and then movement input data forcing him to move before he could do it himself. The worst part about it, it felt correct. Like if he were the one in charge of his own limbs, he would have done the same. And even worse, he enjoyed it.

What damn part of him was it?! It wasn't that core program, it was himself. He wanted to fight, he liked it.

What did that even mean? That he would have to subjugate himself, give up his freedom, just to have fun? Why did he want this? Why was he like this? What even was he?

The error pinged again.

Cometman threw a punch into something next to him in a fit of rage.

His fist registered that whatever flimsy program that was on the other side had a big hole in it now. He shuffled back, frightened by how fragile it was, and felt it crumble to dust as its program failed all at once.

Through some audio input device he heard a person on the other side say, “The speaker just stopped working! What the heck, it was brand new too.”

Cometman lept away, fearing getting caught, despite there being no probable way for that to happen.

When he finally came to a stop he found himself near a computer. It had a small camera that he decided to check for curiosity's sake.

He was met with an image of unmistakable orange hair to which he slammed the window closed.

How did he find himself here?! How did his legs decide where to go for him?!

He continued to spiral until he heard an odd breathing sound; short, uneven, and shuddering sometimes. It felt bad in some inexplicable way.

Some low level program was being run on the computer, and he could hear information being added onto it. He could see the computer's desktop from his angle, but couldn't quite make out what was on it. He snuck far to the side and tried to access the file to read it for himself. When he felt he was close enough, but still outside the monitor's field of view, he connected to the file.

It was a document, actively being written, albeit slowly with lots of backspacing. And it was addressed to him.

“Dear Cometman,” it read. He groaned.

“I'm sorry. I don't know if this will reach you, but if for some reason you have found this message, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry. I don't know what I did, but I just hope you can forgive me for whatever I did.

“I wish we could talk. Find out what went wrong and fix it. I want us to be friends.

“Please, I don't-”

Then that line was deleted.

“I've always wanted-”

That line was deleted as swiftly as it was typed.

“What did-”

That was deleted too.

He heard an exaggerated groan, a slap on the keyboard and a, “kshdhdkxbn” appeared on the document.

From the sound of a creak, footsteps getting further away, and a loud clunk, she had left this room. Cometman briefly took a look through the camera to confirm and saw a dark room lit only by the monitor.

He promptly closed it, peered at the letter addressed to him, and scoffed. Some deeply buried part of him had somehow inserted coordinate data into his pathfinding program, leading him here. He was going to have to walk purposefully from now on to avoid that.

He looked at the document again before closing it. He felt sorry for this poor girl, swamped with all these feelings over someone she didn't even know. There was nothing to apologize for.

Perhaps it would be best if they both went their separate ways. She'd manage, she did so before. Cometman however…

He thought back to the endless stretches of void. The silence of the room closed in around him. A choking fear gripped his processors as he considered a life like this forever.

He flipped the camera back on, just to see something. The monitor lit the opposing wall that was covered in pictures. Most of them he didn't recognize, then his eyes landed on one that gave him pause.

He had never seen his reflection, but there was an uncanny feeling as he looked at a rather messy, stiffly drawn figure, that he was looking at himself. It was mostly the big, green, V-shaped chest piece that gave it away. He looked down at his own armor and touched it.

Strange feelings welled up that he couldn't name, a soft happiness and sadness that surrounded him as he considered his own creation. He looked back up to the drawing and for some reason, remembered Reg's suggestion that he should get to know Ellen. That idea didn't intrigue him, what did was the idea that by learning about her, he'd learn about himself somehow. She did make him, and therefore, may know why.

Cometman resolved himself, closing the camera window once more and then let his legs decide where to go.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The park's walkways were quiet this time of day, something Ellen was grateful for. She needed some peace and quiet to gather her thoughts, and the last thing she wanted was to see some neighborhood kids blissfully running about. She kept her visualizer on to hide her reddened eyes as she trudged along.

She came up to a fork in the path, one way leading to a dense forested area, and the other toward where they had fought that virus earlier. She took the former, not quite ready to be reminded of all that just yet.

Then she heard a staticy yell. It sounded angry and in the direction of the other path. Her legs froze.

She could investigate, just a little peek. Report to Reg and get out of there. Quiet and stealthily, contact him far away from whatever was over there to not alert them, easy!

Another furious yell echoed from the same place.

She had to find out what that was. She turned back and took her time down the other path, listening intently and peering behind cover.

“I'll do it myself if I have to!” The voice roared.

Ellen paused, it was an unfamiliar voice and it was close. She knelt down and looked around a bush.

“None of those lazy dolts know a thing about hard work!” A red figure spat out to no one in particular.

Fire surrounded them on all sides with a flaming trail going further back into the forest. They raised two massive clawed hands and a ball of fire formed above them which they sent crashing into the ground spreading fire everywhere. Brown leaves fell wherever that fire touched.

Ellen slunk back slowly, she'd seen enough. This was bad. She had to call Reg about this.

She slowly went back the way she came, as nonchalantly as possible. Behind her she could hear the figure gruffly sigh and begin walking, right in her direction. She tensed up, and kept her eyes forward.

The noise of crackling flames and armor statically moving against armor became louder and louder until in the corner of her eye she saw them, red, gold, and black with spiked armor, and a human face. That locked eyes with her.

Both of them blinked for a second and then Ellen snapped her head forward and began briskly walking.

“Oi,” the red figure spoke with a deep rumble, “Human. You just saw me.”

Ellen began to run. A blast of fire exploded the path in front of her and caused her to jump back and stumble.

“That got your damn attention,” They chuckled low.

She quickly looked back to the figure who wore a nasty sneer, and then ahead to the fire in front of her, and then ran through it. She could feel a burst of heat come up from her shoes and a brief scorching pain as she exited the flames.

The figure behind her cackled madly and leapt forward, tossing fireballs all around Ellen.

“You know something don’tcha, human!” They mocked, laughing wildly.

She wasn't sure where to run to, going into a building may put other people at risk, plus there was something else a lot closer that may work. She took a sharp turn into the brushes and toward a secluded building in the distance.

The red figure scoffed and landed next to Ellen, keeping pace effortlessly, phasing through every branch along the way. They flashed their claws and lunged gleefully. Ellen ducked low and scrambled forward.

“Little girlie,” They taunted, “Did you think you could escape me in all these plants?”

She heard that wild cackle from all around her. It would be fine, she could see the iron fence of her destination. She quickened her pace, letting the forest scrape her legs, jumped and grabbed the top of the fence, and flung herself over. She rolled out of the fall and leapt far into a pool of water. The community swimming pool would be closed around this time and Ellen felt relief wash over her as she let herself sink beneath the surface.

She looked up and through the distorted water she could see the red figure slowly come into view, and kneel down next to the pool's edge.

“This is your plan?” They tossed a claw around, “I'm not stupid. You'll need to breathe at some point. And when that happens.”

They snapped their claws together, generating sparks, “I'll be ready.”

Ellen gulped with no air; this was her plan. She was going to have to come up with another one, quick. She mustered up all her years of training in the summertime, pushed off the pool floor, and splashed them with a wall of water.

They sputtered a screeching growl, shielding themselves with their arms as Ellen booked it to the other side, hoisting herself onto the edge, weighed down significantly by her soaking clothes.

The figure pounced in front of her, furious, “You TRASH. Do you think this is a game?!”

They raised a claw and lunged for Ellen. She pushed off the pool wall, sending her back to the middle of the pool.

They threw their head back in a cackle, “You really think that'll keep you safe!? You've got nowhere to run, no way to fight. Poor little mouse, at least try to dodge, I want the practice.”

Ellen took a deep breath and plunged her head under the water, just as several flaming shots were hurled in her direction. The fire entered the water above her, but phased out after about a foot. More fire was launched at her, and again it didn't make it far into the water, nor did it seem to make it hotter either.

She thought back to the fire she ran through and mentally checked the places she felt pain in earlier. There wasn't any. But she also remembered those browned leaves. It would be dangerous, but maybe she did have a chance to escape. She was just going to have to be fast.

The figure loomed, holding their hands up high with a rapidly growing ball of fire overhead. It seemed to fill her entire vision as they mocked her from above.

“Breathe, rat! I know it must be gett-”

Ellen breached for half a second, inhaling as much as she could before a ceiling of fire came crashing down onto her. That mad cackle echoed around her again as she dove as deep as her arms could move her down, the water above her bubbling and steaming away as on top of it all, the fire lingered.

She swam to the far end, reaching the concrete steps on the other side and emerged from the water. The figure was peering into the still smoldering pool as Ellen turned to face them, soaked in water and fire that steamed off of her.

She bit her lip and sharply inhaled.

“Hey COWARD!” She barked out. That got their attention.

“Why don't you quit playing around and fight me with those fists?” Ellen snarled, taking a fighting stance.

One of the figure's wide, wild eyes twitched sporadically. They mumbled, “You must be jo-”

Ellen threw her fist forward as she dashed into and through them just as they threw up their massive claws to guard. Her visualizer flashed bright white, causing her to shut her eyes. She felt a scorching wave of heat go through her as she passed, her soaking clothes taking most of it.

She continued ahead, racing forward, up, and over the fence again and continued running deep into the woods. At this point her legs felt like noodles and her breath was raspy. But she couldn't stop. Not till she felt no heat, heard no cackles, not until she was in her room calling for help could she stop. Her body had other plans.

She stumbled onto her arms, her legs shaking underneath her. She crawled and fell into some dense brush, then rolled onto her back and caught her breath. She coughed life back into herself, gripping the leaf littered ground to ease her pain. She was acutely aware that her visualizer had auto shut off, probably due to the large amounts of EM waves it was exposed to from that… thing.

She checked her Game-Xross and mobile, both off probably from the water exposure. They'd be fine, a quick shake and a button press would get all the water out of them, but should she? She thought back to that pig virus encounter, where it seemed to go for her electronics specifically, like it could sense them.

She flopped her arms back onto the forest floor. For a while now, she couldn't feel any of that odd heat that came from that digital fire. She was safe, but she was going to have to move soon. She reached up to her visualizer, but hesitated, retracting her hand. They were electronic too, what if she could be tracked?

She bit her lip in frustration. Turning them on would allow her to avoid getting hurt, and put a target on her at the same time. She imagined that figure hunched over her, waiting with that mad look on. She couldn't. Her bravery had run out.

She was just going to have to run home, call Reg, and be done with this. All of it. She supposed she could consider herself lucky that she got this far and at least got to participate in a little bit of a world saving adventure.

The hand she used to punch that figure still stung, and from the looks of it, was red and sunburnt. She clenched it and felt all her muscles ache.

“Time to go home,” She muttered to herself, as if to command her body to move.

She curled herself up and stood, staggering till she was upright on her shaky legs. She took a couple of steps and paused, looking behind her to the creek that cut through the park. Something compelled her to turn on her visualizer here and now, but she didn't know why. Her burnt hand hovered over the power button on them. She gulped and took a peek.

Immediately she heard laughter. But it wasn't that wild cackle that made her bones freeze, it was deeper and calmer.

The creek had a trail of fire leading to it, and from the looks of it, fire all along its banks too.

“Stop laughing!” A familiar, chilling voice yelled out.

“You're mad she tricked you,” Someone else said.

“Shut up! When I'm done with you she's next!”

Ellen moved closer, she had a feeling she knew who the other one was.

“You wouldn't delete me, you're too damn curious about how I exist,”

She inched closer, shuffling along the bank as the figure growled angrily at their opponent.

“And,” The other one continued, “she's probably long gone by now, calling for help that's gonna be arriving soon to kick your ass.”

Ellen approached the flame covered creek bed as she saw the figure hold up a massive claw to strike down at their pinned opponent. She reached for her Game-Xross.

“ENOUGH!” The figure roared, slamming their claw into nothing. They blinked and inspected the empty space in front of them.

Ellen's breath hitched, she couldn't bear to look up, instead just stared at her controller in her hands.

“Hey,” Cometman said.

Her head shot up, catching him looking back at her over his shoulder. The two stared at each other for a while before Ellen tried to say something, but all that came out were broken words.

“Let's talk after we kick their butt, alright?” He offered, holding out his hand to her.

Ellen stood upright, a bright smile shone across her face. She nodded and crouched into a stance.

“Let's do this! Battle routine set and execute, Cometman!” She exclaimed, pointing ahead and then grabbed her controller to begin operating.

Cometman leapt forward, cyan flames coming out of his thrusters, straight towards the figure.

“So that's who she is! She's your little master!” They cackled, jumping to the side, “You’re her little dog! You gonna bark for her? Gonna beg?”

The fire that encompassed the battle field slowly inched towards Ellen, making her sweat, her clothes quickly drying in the radiant heat. She gritted her teeth and focused on the fight before her. Cometman skid turned and shot a mace, the chain behind it whipping around and encircling his opponent, only for them to leap out at the last second with a blast of fire.

“Oh? Fido can do more than just punch?” They sneered, landing high above on the edge of the bank, “I might actually get to have some fun!”

They rapid fire shot from either side of Cometman, closing in quickly. He jumped back and up the other bank, using his thrusters to weave between the shots. Up at the top he shot out a mace that they easily side stepped.

“My name's not ‘Fido’ it's Cometman,” He growled back, tinged with confusion.

“Yeah!” Ellen called out, “And what even are you!? I'm just gonna start calling you Monkey! You Monkey!”

They whipped around to her, “I'm a LION you trash brained MORON!”

Cometman retracted one mace and shot his other, which they caught with one burning hand.

“Still not a name ya Monkey!” She jeered.

The chain attached to the mace swirled and swiftly coiled around their giant arm. They snarled and aimed a massive fireball straight at Ellen, that veered off course as they got dragged down the bank by Cometman dashing to the creek bed, the figure's flailing body in tow. They slammed on the ground just as Ellen watched the fireball aimed for her shoot past.

“Keep your eyes on your opponent, moron,” Cometman spat.

A cold silence settled on the field as the red armored figure lay stunned on the floor, staring up at the canopy with wide eyes. Then a pillar of fire erupted from their location, shooting straight through the trees above, causing several brown leaves to fall from above. The figure, now a black silhouette in the center stood, the spikes on their armor snapping upward. They burst from the flames with a face made of fire, black jagged shapes for eyes, and a black sawtoothed mouth that stretched to either side of their face.

“MY NAME IS TITAN!” They howled, their voice adopting a grave tone. In one move they closed the distance between them and Cometman, then struck him in the side with a claw wreathed in flames.

He tumbled through the flaming battlefield before righting himself, his thrusters bringing him to a stop. Titan was already upon him, claw extended and swiping up, summoning a pillar of fire that shot through him, sending him high into the air. They followed up with two hammerfists that slammed him straight back down in a burst of fire.

The heat, the exhaustion, or something was getting to Ellen, and she was having difficulties seeing the fight in front of her. She tried to operate based on her instincts, but Cometman wasn’t responding. She glanced at his health on her screen, fighting double vision, she could only see a small bit of red. She stared at it, something itching in the back of her brain.

Titan stepped forward, slowly making their way over to her. Ellen swore she could hear the forest around her crackling in flames. She tried in vain to get Cometman back up. The fire seemed to grow brighter and hotter as her knees buckled, barely keeping her up. Titan looked like a jagged shadow emerging from the fire, getting larger as they approached. Her mind swirled as the fiery backdrop put her in a trance.

“Water…” She mumbled, taking her eyes off Titan and back to her screen.

Darkness encroached on the edges of her vision as she navigated through her menus, letting her muscle memory lead her to the right place, until she found a flash of blue. She fell to the ground, feeling the digital fire burn into her body.

“YOU DAMN STUPID HUMAN.” Titan’s voice echoed, “SHOULD’VE RUN AWAY. NOW THE LITTLE MOUSE GETS TO LEARN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU PULL THE LION’S TAIL.”

Ellen gulped in a dry throat, she clutched her controller close, pressing every button she could. She heard two overlapping voices, Titan’s demanding that she die, and Cometman’s so loud and clear that it reverberated in her soul.

“ELLEN!” The one word snapping her back to focus, just in time to see Titan be hit square in the back by a stream of bubbles that rapidly expanded and encased them.

Somehow she had sent the chip data. Her hands moved before her brain told them to, input a command, and a second later, Cometman came rocketing through the bubble prison, causing them all to burst and implode inward, straight into Titan.

They howled in pain as the water flooded the battlefield, extinguishing most of the fire. They collapsed, their fiery visage gone, shaking.

Cometman stepped in between them and Ellen, crossing their arms and said, “Why don’t you start talking. What do you want?”

A low, weak chuckle came from them. They snapped their head up and tilted it at a sharp angle.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” They sneered, turning bright white and teleporting upward in a column of light to a portal high above that closed the instant the final bit of them touched it.

Cometman lurched forward, way too late to do anything. He clenched a fist and then released, silently keeping his back turned to Ellen.

The fire and water all around them slowly faded, Cometman disappearing in a flash just as the last of the environment went back to normal.

Ellen made a high pitched gasp. She whined, “Not again…”

She heard a scoff come from her controller, “I’m down here.”

She looked and her expression lit up and sparkled, ”W-We did it!”

“Yes we did,” He agreed, smirking and looking off to the side.

Ellen giggled, fell onto her back, and then laughed, full volume, uproarious laughter that made her forget all the pain she was in. She was alive, she had won, and most importantly, her dear friend had returned.

Chapter Text

“I told you, nothing,” Cometman barked.

“What?!” Ellen threw a hand up, flabbergasted, “Not even winning regionals?”

“No,” He rolled his eyes, “I only have memories for the past four hours and sixteen minutes I've been around.”

“Oh,” She hummed, sitting idly and picking at a twig she found along the creek, “Then you don't remember any losses?”

“I just told you, no,”

“Good cause I never lose,”

“I haven't even known you for half a day and I know that's a damn lie,” He grumbled.

She snickered, “Man you're a lot different from how I imagined.”

“Really?” He perked his head up.

“Yeah, you're so much more of a grouch!” She laughed.

He scowled, “If grouch means someone who is concerned about things then, yeah, maybe!”

She giggled again, “Nah it doesn't.”

“And can you get this device I'm in out of the mud! Treat the place I'll be living in with respect!”

“The Game-Xross is made with an advanced hydrophobic nanocoating that makes it water resistant and dirt repellent. You can't even paint the dang thing!” She groaned, leaning to the side.

“Fine,” He huffed, “...Are you ok? You know, from the fight?”

Ellen blinked, then cooed, “Aww… Are you worried about me?”

“Don't get me wrong!” He growled, “I don't care about you cause you know me or made me or whatever!”

She snorted into a smile, “So~o, you care about me for other reasons?”

His face went red and he looked down and away.

“I care about you too, bud!” She chirped, beaming.

“When you were at that place with the water… They had a camera there. I couldn't see the fight but I could feel it,” He looked back up at her, “You ran right at them, risking it all. That took guts. I uh… I think that was cool. That's all…”

Ellen pursed her lips and held her still stinging fist.

“I hopped out at that moment to fight them,” Cometman finished.

“Whoah, that's so cool,” She wondered, “My own Navi fighting on my behalf, thinking I'm cool.”

He grumbled, “D-Don’t think I'm tied down here either! I can leave at any moment I want!”

“Ok,” She shrugged.

“I'm not loyal to you just cause you're my creator!”

“Ok,” She said with the same cadence.

“So if you mistreat me, I'll just leave!”

“Ok.”

Cometman stared ahead, face twitching a little.

“...Why? You don't know me,” He softened slowly.

“For like, the four hours or whatever that you've known me, you've probably saved my life like, three times. You care enough about me that I'd do the same for you. I'd probably do anything for you,” She shrugged, “I trust you.”

He stared wildly at her, as if this information was preposterous and she had just told him she actually loved losing, couldn't wait to lose, and that she had three heads.

“But, you don't know me,” He said like he was trying to convince himself of that.

“I dunno. I'd like to get to know you. I think we made a pretty good team in that fight, wouldn't you say? So how ‘bout it?” She asked, reaching her hand out to her Game-Xross stuck upright in the mud.

He stared, blinked, raised his brows, shook his head, made a strained expression, then softened and went loose.

“Alright,” He shrugged, lifting his hand for a shake, “Don't make me regret this.”

“You won't!” She beamed, leaning forward to touch the screen with her finger, “I'm Ellen, I can't wait to kick butt with you!”

He looked at the screen where she had pressed her finger against it and touched the place with his hand, “Cometman, but you already knew that.”

She giggled, “Yeah!”

She then looked above to her mobile attached to her device.

“Oh yeah, this thing is off still, lemme just…” She mumbled, flipping it on, “Oh no.”

Several messages and missed call alerts poured in, the most urgent looking ones were from Reg. She skimmed the messages quickly.

“Whoah, Silver was able to sense that thing we just fought! They're worried about us,” She scrolled through.

“Including me?” Cometman peered up to the mobile above him.

“Well, looks like Reg wants to talk about you with me, but…” She hummed, perking up at a thought, “We should have lunch!”

“What.”

“Yeah! We can talk about everything over like, some sandwiches or whatever,” She mused, typing out a reply, “How do you think I should explain that we kicked butt, but also make it seem humble?”

Cometman groaned.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reg wasn't sure what to make of all this; the reply he got, the casual nature of the café, or Ellen herself, tangled with dirt and leaves and hair that looked like it had been through a wind tunnel. He stood perplexed at the entrance, a server standing nearby finally got his attention after way too long. Reg jumped a little and sheepishly apologized, beelining it straight for the table Ellen had chosen.

The cool fall weather made for a nice outdoor venue, while the hardlight pumpkin decorations on all the tables filled the space with festive colors. An unmistakable comforting aroma of chicken dumpling soup wafted through the air as Reg passed by several other tables of guests pleasantly enjoying their lunch. And at the far end, Ellen sat there looking like she had just finished wrestling a squirrel with a face like she was dying to tell him all about it.

He sat with a huff, a restrained concern across his face, “Ellen, wha-”

“Look! It's Cometman!” Ellen chirped, shoving that game device of her’s into his face.

Reg was met with a view of a very tired looking Cometman who gave him a small wave. He gave him a sympathetic look in return.

“Ellen-” Reg tried.

“It's so cool! He saved me from this thing and then we kicked its butt!” She bounced, then realization struck her, “Oh! The thing I fought! I should start there!”

“That's what I was trying to ask about…” He mumbled to himself.

“Ok so,” She set Cometman aside, and began gesticulating with her hands, “there was this thing. It was like, a humanoid virus with armor but it was a person! They talked like it and everything!”

Reg went wide eyed and leaned in.

“They shot fire from their big claw hands so I thought it'd be a good idea to hide in a pool! Then they sort of… trapped me in there, but I escaped! And that's when he showed up and started beating them up! Then I ran into them both and did my whole operating thing and defeated them! Sending them back where they came from,” She explained, ending with a smug grin and a flippant shrug.

Reg looked to Cometman, for anything.

“It's true but,” The Navi rolled his eyes, “she's skipping a lot of details.”

“Like what?” She asked.

“Like how their name is Titan. Or how they had a powered up form. Or that you were able to use battlechips. Or,” He pointedly listed, growing a little louder, “how it was a team effort and that our relationship is tenuous!”

“What's that?” She asked.

“Uh, shaky, fragile,” Reg offered.

“Right,” Cometman continued, “You're only my ‘'NetOp’ until I find something better to do.” He turned away, crossing his arms.

Ellen giggled, “Well, you'll never be bored with me, that's for sure!”

“Yeah really,” Reg agreed with a small chuckle.

“Reg,” Silver floated up to his ear, “Can you make sure Cometman can hear me, I want to ask him something.”

Reg looked beside him to Silver's pained face and nodded assuredly.

“Ellen, can your device pick up radio waves, and can you tune it to Silver's frequency?” He asked, more serious than he intended.

Ellen obliged, pursing her lips at the strangely sudden request. Once it was set up, Silver floated to the table in front of Cometman.

They stared a bit, fiddling with their paws, eventually asking, “Do you… Like Ellen?”

“Huh?!” Cometman looked for the source of that sound, paused with a confused snarled face, “Well I don't… Hate her?”

“Aww! You don't hate me!” Ellen cooed.

“Of course I don't hate you!” He growled furiously, “Being your partner is fun!”

He froze as he heard the words come out of his speakers, blushing beet red, then turned inward, covering his face with his collar.

Ellen burst into a laughter that she strained to contain as it shook the seat she was in. Silver relaxed, seemingly satisfied with that answer.

Reg sighed, “I'm glad you're ok though. You said this Titan was human-like, right?”

“Yeah! Maybe they were a Navi? It was so weird,” Ellen grumbled.

Silver shook their head, “What I sensed was a big virus, not like how Cometman feels.”

“So I'm not a virus…” Cometman mumbled to himself.

“Next time,” Reg sat back in his chair, “please call me. None of us should have to fight something like that alone.”

“Alright, alright,” Ellen waved dismissively, “So what are you up to the rest of the day? I'm thinking of training!”

“Shopping,” He huffed, “My mom's taking me to the mall so we can get clothes and food.”

“Boo! Boring!” She sneered, “I'm gonna be playing Netken all day! Having a Navi with an actual AI is gonna change everything. I might be able to beat that secret boss!”

Reg, busy thinking about having to deal with the largest number of people he had ever seen, mumbled, “Huh?”

“Yeah, it’s so secret even the devs don't have a statement on it. He shows up to high ranked players and every time, he beats them,” Ellen wiggled her hands ominously.

“Uh huh,” Reg stared into the middle distance.

“Weirdest of all, he has no rank, doesn't show up on leaderboards, or searches. I've run into him and lost in no time flat. Calls himself Ichigo. That means strawberry apparently, some real salt in the wounds there.” She finished by tossing her hand.

Reg was imagining countless eyes and faces, “Wow.”

“Yeah really,” She nodded, “Can't wait to put that guy in his place and become a legend myself.”

“I'm not going to help you cheat, Ellen,” Cometman scolded.

“Aww come on! That Ichigo guy is clearly cheating, it's only fair!” She bemoaned, “You agree, don'tcha, Reg?”

Reg stayed silent, his mind engrossed in a waking nightmare of his own making.

“Ellen,” He squeaked out, “how do normal people deal with crowds?”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's easy! Ellen's advice echoed, Everyone's too busy dealing with their own stuff to bother looking at you! You'll be fi~ine!

Somehow that had given him the confidence to join his mom here, at the mall. So far it seemed no one bothered to care about paying him any attention. His mom however, was getting looks left and right. The new floral decorations on her bandages weren't helping her blend in either.

When they finally did make it to the clothing store she wanted to shop at, Reg elected to stay outside, not all that interested in changing up his fashion quite yet, and also desperately needing the space. He stepped outside and leaned against a guard rail.

It was a massive indoor mall, multilevel, and stretching far beyond what he could see. A huge glass ceiling let tons of natural light into the place, while hardlight decorations flew about, filling the open air with colors and advertisements.

He let his eyes wander into the crowd of people, busy walking about with bags or eyeing something interesting in a store. There were people taking massive elevators up to skyscraper apartments nearby, and what looked like other people just enjoying a stroll through the mall.

There were children running about and screaming at the playplace on the far end, and down below was a skating rink filled with people leisurely circling the ice. Everyone around him was off in their own world, chatting with friends and family, but ignoring everything else. Somewhat surprisingly, Ellen was right, he was just a droplet in a sea of people.

He rested his head on his arms as he leaned them onto the rail, letting the world around him fade into a soft buzz as the hundreds of people continued their normal lives. He took this moment to realize that perhaps for the first time since reaching Earth, he might’ve found something like peace. Here among the noise and chaos he finally felt like he had actually arrived on Earth, and nothing was going to wake him up this time.

“Reg? We got a problem,” Silver squeaked next to him.

He lazily looked over and followed their eyes up to the glass ceiling. He squinted and a green tangled mess faded into view. Several magenta things grew off it and after a while, they disappeared into the green and exploded, scattering green all over the top. Then three more of the tangles started growing.

Reg gulped and straightened out immediately.

“Where's a um…” He whipped around to find Silver coaxing him over to the bathrooms.

He dashed to a stall and transformed in an instant. He looked up at the ceiling with concern.

“I've thought about this,” He mumbled, “What if I…”

He jumped to the ceiling, letting himself phase through into the floor above. His head poked through to the other side, and only his head. He was somewhere dark, but he could see Silver popping up through the floor next to him, clear as day.

“Having some trouble?” They giggled.

“Yes,” He grumbled, rolling his eyes, “This feels weird, like how I imagine quick sand is like.”

He wiggled a little just as a flash of light filled the space as a cabinet door swung open and revealed a person's face. They paused, yelped, then slammed the door closed. Reg felt the dire need to run and phased as much as he could, diving down through the floor, crawling till the coast was clear, then jumped up and through, right up to the rooftop. He pulled himself onto the roof and sighed. Silver casually floated beside him.

Reg chuckled, “You're gonna have to teach me how you do that.”

Silver smiled then zoomed ahead, with Reg following close behind. As they reached the glass, they could see how extensive the growth had become just in the minute it took to get there.

Sprawling tangled plants covered the roof in a blob shape, as the ones on the edges seemed to be the only ones successfully spreading seeds. Each plant had a pair of magenta eyes that looked like petals at the base of their stalks. The plants continued their exponential growth cycle, flowering, fruiting, and releasing, making the massive carpet of green look alive with constant movement.

Reg began firing upon one of the plants, taking it out in a couple shots, only for it to be replaced quickly with a new sprout.

“I need more fire power,” He huffed, “These busters aren't quick enough.”

“Fire…” Silver hummed, taping their chin with their little paw.

Reg continued to fire into the plants, managing to just barely keep up with their rate of growth on the side he was facing, but it was clear that the roof would be overtaken by the plant virus at this pace. He glanced worriedly at Silver, only to find that the little creature had lit themselves on fire.

“Silver?!” Reg gasped.

“Hm?” They looked at their arms, “Oh would you look at that.”

“Are you ok?!”

“Yeah,” They dashed in front of him and curled up into a ball, “Shoot me!”

“What?!” Reg floundered, but upon looking at their determined expression, decided to try.

He charged up a shot with Silver curled up at the end of his buster, and to his surprise, the light encompassed them, forming a glowing, flaming orb. He took aim at the horde of plants and fired, launching Silver like a cannonball. They cut straight down the middle of the mass, leaving a trail of fire in their wake.

The fire spread and the viruses responded by releasing more seeds, only for those to catch fire too, spreading the fire outwards. Silver popped up and zoomed back to Reg and awed at the damage they wrought.

“I figured that bit of fire data I got earlier would do something, but I didn't expect this! Wowie!” They cheered.

Reg backed off from the inferno, watching it carefully. The viruses had stopped flowering all together and seemed to move, giving the fire a bit of space, halting the spread of the blaze.

“Silver,” Reg began, aiming his busters at the far end of the mass, “can you do that again?”

They grinned wide, nodded, and curled into a ball, flames bursting out of them. Reg fired once more and Silver went flying straight through, returning to be fired once more to the other side, trapping all the plant viruses in an ever encroaching blaze. When the last of them was finally burned, it left a small green dot which Silver happily chomped on the moment they saw it.

They circled around Reg boisterously, “We did it! And we got a new thing! Yippie!”

Silver continued to zoom excitedly, to which Reg chuckled, relieved that nothing had gone wrong here. They popped up and held out a paw to him. Reg looked at it, then touched it with his finger to their delight. Reg watched them wiggle about, amused.

As if the wind itself, some voice came from nowhere, “Get stronger, if you wish to survive, Megaman.”

Reg whipped around to the source, only to see the sprawl of the Spacity shopping district and nothing else.

“You ok Reg?” Silver asked.

He paused, then nodded, “Did you hear that voice just now?”

They tilted their head about and then shook it.

“It's nothing,” He smiled, patting them on their head, “You did good!”

“Yeah!” They giggled.

Reg took another look over the city, the curving, shining architecture reflected the greenery everywhere. Bustling public transit moved thousands of people along networks of rails stretching off into the distance. Towering buildings featured deep blue solar panels and hanging plants, while down below where the people were shopping had hardlight characters advertising places to shop.

He sighed, it was all a lot to take in. Silver nuzzled up next to him and he gave them a small pat.

“Let's head back, before my mom worries,” Reg conceded, phasing down through the roof.

He retraced his steps back to the bathroom, doffed his armor, and exited. His mom was outside a shop with bags hanging from her wheelchair. She spotted him and wheeled over, a smile beaming off her face.

“There you are!” She sighed, “I thought you might’ve gotten lost! You need to check your mobile more, I sent you a message!”

He jumped a little, reaching into his pocket and fishing out his mobile. On it were one message from his mom, and a couple from Ellen, though those were just a lot of silly pictures.

“Ah sorry,” He scratched his neck, “I'm still getting used to using this thing.” He chuckled apprehensively.

“Well I got you some shirts in your size and style, I think you'll like them, tell me if you don't it’s no issue,” She explained, turning and moving with the flow of traffic, “We'll pick up groceries on the way back home. I'm hoping to try out that barbacoa recipe I found. Looks like fun!”

Reg followed behind, his mind wandering. He couldn't shake this foreboding feeling hanging over him that he was involved in something far larger than he could imagine.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the apartment, Reg sprawled out on his bed, going through his mobile messages. Ellen had sent him several funny pictures that he wanted to comment on, to which she said he replied “like a nerd”. He was sure this was supposed to be an insult, but couldn't help feeling that it was an accurate description.

He laid down his mobile, thinking about the events of the day. Three fights, though one he wasn't even there for. He was going to have to get stronger.

“Everything worked out ok but,” He sighed, scratching his head, “I really hope Ellen waits for me next time before diving head first at an enemy.”

“Hmm?” Silver popped up next to him, “Do you think she couldn't do it by herself?”

“It's not that it's just…” He grumbled, “I'm supposed to… You know.”

They grinned knowingly, “Oh? What is it?”

His eyes darted away, “I'm… well… Lowe entrusted… You know!”

Silver batted their big innocent eyes, “No I don't! Explain it to me! Are you starting to feel… responsible?”

He grumbled, but didn't argue.

“Like maybe you should use your power to… help people? Hmm? Megaman?”

He covered his face with his pillow and yelled into a muffled grumble, “I should have never told you about that.”

“What, that you get embarrassed being compared to them?” They giggled.

“Stop…” He whined, trying to bury himself deeper into the pillow.

“Well I think you're a hero. But I'm also just one week old so maybe don't take my word on it,” They snorted.

He removed the pillow and placed it back behind him.

“You know…” He wondered, “Lowe had said that I should teach you and raise you, but if I'm being honest, I haven't been doing much of that, I don't think?”

“What! What are you talking about?” They smiled smugly, “I've learned so much with you! Like, for instance, not to get embarrassed when getting complimented.”

Reg grumbled, covering his face with his hands. They threw their head back and howled with laughter.

“Don't worry! I am learning! I think you're doing great!” Silver chirped.

“I appreciate it,” Reg deadpanned from behind his hands, “I'm glad you're learning and growing up so smart.”

“Yeah! And maybe you'll learn to be more proud of yourself!”

He removed his hands from his face, picked up his mobile, and noticed an odd alert in the corner that he couldn't recall seeing before. He pulled it up, and apparently hours ago he had received a message that his mobile had auto filed as spam from an unknown number. He opened it anyways, and inside was a long string of zeros with a couple of ones thrown in there, usually bunched up together. It was bizarre and inscrutable, but he had a feeling he knew at least who it was from.

“Who sent you math?” Silver chuckled.

He glanced over and back to his mobile, scrolling up and down the numbers, “If I had to guess, Lowe.”

“Really?!” They jumped, eyes wide.

He nodded, bringing up more information. The phone number was blank, as was any other identifying information. The message itself contained 2117 bits of data. He tried sending a message back, getting an error. He mulled over this for a bit and ended up putting his mobile into sleep mode; if he was going to figure it out it wouldn't be tonight.

“I'm glad they're ok,” Silver mumbled, curling up beside Reg's pillow.

“If only we could contact them,” He sighed, staring at the ceiling.

Everything felt like it was moving way too fast. He wanted guidance, answers, and probably wasn't going to get either of them anytime soon.

His mom would be heading to NAXA tomorrow to discuss the future of the lunar colony project, and he'd be coming along too, his choice. He was told he wouldn't be attending the meeting, but he still wanted to swing by to see everyone. Maybe while he was there, he might get to commandeer a radio transponder and send a message to the Moon, although, the logistics of how he'd get everyone on board with that and keep Lowe a secret made his head swim.

Just being there would be enough for him to be happy, no need to make things more complicated.

He shut his eyes.

May tomorrow bring answers.

Chapter Text

“It's been five days since people have been reporting virus attacks, what is your team doing in response to this growing crisis?” A reporter evenly asked. Her sharp suit was probably worn in the hopes of distracting her interviewee from her cheap microphone. A rookie reporter renting a suit, hoping to catch a big scoop? By asking easy questions like that? Roll had to laugh to herself.

“We are doing everything we can, but our advice remains the same,” Rock calmly explained, his jolly demeanor matching with his clashing saturated colored button up was not presenting an air of professionalism, “Back up your data, and surround it with wireless transmitters or cage it in something that conducts electricity, copper, aluminum, iron, anything like that. Studies have shown that data that is not protected like this is targeted more frequently”

Roll had to admit, Rock was at least doing well telling the public in a clear and consistent way. Those years of doing children school outreach programs were helping here, though she half expected him to switch back to his ‘teaching kids’ mode and accidentally condescend the poor reporter. She wouldn't blame him either, the endless barrage of the same questions he received would have driven her mad. But that's what working with kids teaches you, patience.

“And what if the viruses begin attacking population centers, what is the plan then?” The reporter pressed.

“The same plan as before,” Rock brought up a placating hand, “I assure you our brightest minds are hard at work both searching for the source of the problem and working on solutions to help protect everyone's data.”

The reporter faltered for half a second, Rock didn't seem to notice, but Roll saw her facade crack.

“Um!” The reporter scrolled through a holoscreen, “Do you have any comment on the mysterious blue and green entity seen at Cypress East Hospital, the very hospital you frequent?”

Roll narrowed her eyes, where did the reporter get that information, and the gall to ask him that. The ‘blue entity' was tabloid nonsense, but knowing what hospital her brother went to was not something to be discussed. She stepped in, only to be stopped by Rock.

“Another virus, most likely,” He continued, “Although, here’s a bit of advice. If you do end up mentioning that I go to that same hospital, it would not look good for your publication. Sharing that bit of my personal information would tarnish your reputation.”

The reporter winced, and Roll backed off.

“I understand the want to get your article in front of as many people as you can, but sensationalizing the news will end up dooming it. Stick to the verifiable truth my dear.”

Roll sneered to herself, there he went again, lecturing. He should consider himself damn lucky that the reporter didn't take offense to that. The press may be annoying, but they were important for navigating the public, and you could squeeze into tight places if you knew how to use them. They were not to be made into an enemy.

The reporter looked a bit crestfallen, her journalistic fire dampened. Now was Roll's turn to do damage control.

“We appreciate your concern for the public and your desire to inform them of the truth,” Roll ushered her away from her brother, “But the official Hikari Institute statement is what we believe to be the most accurate and helpful at the moment. Thank you for your time ma'am.”

“Ahh,” The reporter floundered, “It's just! I know there's something to the whole, blue entity thing. You wouldn't happen to know anything Ms. Hikari?”

For a brief moment she dwelled on her own suspicions, quickly recovering, “No, I have no idea,” She lied, with such a practiced, bored tone that even the devil would be impressed.

The reporter sighed, “Thanks anyways. Oh! If you ever want to make a statement please contact me at-”

Roll shut the door on her.

Rock deflated audibly, leaning on his cane, “These reporters are ravenous! We may need to hire more people for our PR team.”

“I already started making some calls,” She crossed her arms, eyeing her brother.

“What would I do without you sis?” He smiled sheepishly.

“Not a lot,” She said plainly.

“You know, I was thinking,” He began walking back to his lab.

“Not surprising,” She followed behind.

He chuckled, “All this virus talk isn’t all that interesting. That reporter had her nose on the more interesting story, have you heard the rumors?”

She stayed quiet, she had, but so many of them were baseless that she disregarded the vast majority of them. She stepped ahead of him to offer her hand before he got to a raised threshold along the path.

“Ah thank you,” He took her hand, stepping carefully, “They really should get that fixed.”

“It’s on the list,” She let him pass by her.

“What fascinates me about this whole idea about this ‘blue entity’ is we may be living in an interesting time!” He chuckled, “The cycle of history seems to be repeating itself here. Heroes and villains are starting to emerge and their clash will decide the future of the world.”

Roll held her tongue, calling out his delusions of grandeur only worked when he wasn’t as grand.

“And I was born at the right time and place to make a difference,” He stated, pressing the door to his lab open.

Rows of monitors displayed soft blue light while tubes of prismatically shifting liquid coolant swirled around the centerpiece to the room, a chandelier like structure of crystal and metal, intricately layered, and all at once delicate and expertly engineered. It was more of an art project made by a symphony of metallic spiders than what anyone would consider a computer.

The thing hung like a stalactite over the center of the room, making the space feel more like a cave than the world’s leading programming research facility, though the researchers who worked there hardly saw the sun enough to be considered surface dwellers anyways. Fueled by coffee and quick meals, the people most qualified to call themselves intelligent burned themselves on every end, all expecting to be the one to make the big breakthrough. Roll thought it looked like Vegas.

“Dr. Hikari!” An intern chirped, leaning back in their chair.

Rock shuffled over and greeted them back, while Roll's eyes drifted to the holodisplay placed before the metal chandelier. The latest in computational technology, capable of parallel processing on every single one of its tens of millions of its qubits, calculating power that could even predict the tumultuous rising and falling of the neo stock market, all to be directed toward mimicking neuron pathways in the slim hope of bringing back a relic of the past.

All to make a single, twinkling dot, floating peacefully in the holodisplay.

And it couldn't even talk.

She didn't get the computer science jargon. Every grant proposal or investor meeting she was able to attend seemed more like speculative tulip bulb sales, but possibly only because she had front row seats to the results.

Tell the sharks there was evidence of reactionary movement and they chomped, tell them there was evidence of listening and they tore in, tell them there was evidence of emotion and well, they spiraled into a frenzy. Every deep pocket on Earth wanted in on the ground floor of the forefront of assistive software. Technology that for three hundred years the world had adapted to, wrenched from it in an instant, leaving society starving in its absence. To be part of that nostalgic future was perhaps the noblest of goals for an investor, and probably the one they tell normal people.

But she had seen their eyes, heard them speak. They were all betting on horses. But at least this one was named ‘Hikari’.

How soon do people forget that the Hikari’s are a menace to the societies they create.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Feel that crisp fall breeze!” Reg's mom sighed wistfully, “How refreshing!”

Reg shivered in his coveralls, “Yeah, so refreshing I can feel it in my teeth.”

“Oh, we didn't get a good look at this statue last time we were here. Come look, it's my favorite!” His mom called out, already barreling toward it.

Before him was an odd statue, something that looked like mesh or something he would've put in an air circulator as a filter. Two pairs of hands hung around it, suspended in the air by the strings they wove into the mesh using an almost comically long needle. The whole thing looked artful and that it had a lot of thought put into it, but overall, just kinda really silly.

“This is what got us on the Moon,” His mom smiled.

He pointed at her, questioningly.

“No I meant, us in general, NAXA,” She giggled pointing to the large logo on the building behind them, then settled down, “This is what they called Little Old Lady memory, or LOL memory. Textile workers, all women, literally wove wires through magnetic cores to make the hardware memory needed for those first moon missions.”

“Is that so?” Reg peered at the board, it did look kinda like a rug.

“It's supposed to remind us of the relationship between hardware and software, and the limits both have on each other,” Another voice behind him explained.

Reg turned to see Dr. Collins greeting them with a wave, then she continued, “At least, that's what Dr. Mohs likes to say about it.”

“Zubair!” His mom sang, reaching out with her hands.

“Hi Rosie!” Dr. Collins leaned down to give her a side hug, “How are you doing? Have any trouble getting here?”

“No, no trouble! The tram system has been so accommodating, it's been nice!” She replied, rolling back out of the hug.

“Good!” Dr. Collins chirped, then looking to Reg, “How have you been doing kiddo?”

“Fine,” He shrugged, “Figuring it all out and getting used to everything.”

“That's good!” She smiled, “Well, if you guys are ready, let's get y'all inside.”

“Oh! Zubair, can you get our picture in front of the statue?” His mom asked, holding out her mobile.

“Of course!” Dr. Collins took it and directed the two of them into frame, taking the shot and handing it back.

Reg leaned over to look at the picture, his mom looked so bright and cheerful, especially next to him. He looked like he had never seen a camera before and was trying to greet one like it was an alien but he couldn't have been bothered to make sure it was, so his hand and expression were only halfway there. He grimaced.

“What a lovely shot!” His mom cheered, “Thank you Zubair! Now let's get to that meeting.”

Reg let out a small sigh and followed behind. The NAXA office building was massive to him, multilevel and wide, with hallways, elevators, stairs, and moving walkways connecting everything. The entryway was impressively open, with a high ceiling and wide circular floorplan, only broken up by the fountain in the middle.

Further in, the entryway opened up to a general office space, chairs and tables organized neatly down the room, the towering ceiling extended above this space as well, with a view of the many office floors on one side, and a glass wall showing the outside on the other.

“Reg dear,” His mom wheeled to the side, “I know you came along to see some of the other scientists but, unfortunately the ones who are here today are all going to be attending this meeting. You'll have to wait out here for a bit, is that all right?”

Reg blinked, pulling his attention away from the view of the outside, “Uh sure, I can wait.”

“Oh I know,” Dr. Collins remarked cheerily, “One of the people coming to the meeting brought their kid along, you should go say hi! They're over there.”

He looked to where she was pointing, seeing some boy with brown and white hair sitting by himself in an alcove along the wall working on something. He wasn't too keen on bothering a random stranger, but maybe it'd pass the time.

“It'll be fine,” His mom patted his hand gently, “I'll come get you when we're done. See you soon.”

The two women left, going down a hall where it seemed a couple of other scientists were making their way over to as well.

Reg didn't particularly like that he was being left alone, but it really did seem like the whole building was deserted, probably attending that forbidden meeting. Not that he wanted to listen to the whole thing, he'd definitely be hearing about it later, but he couldn't help the feeling that the meeting was going to be discussing him at some point. NAXA had been taking care of him his whole life, but what's going to happen now that he's on Earth? That's going to be up to the adults to decide, they knew best after all.

He sighed, he needed his mind off of things.

The other boy looked busy, typing away while looking at a screen floating in front of him. He looked about Reg's age, with large bangs and poofy hair that obscured his face. He wore headphones, a short-sleeved hoodie, and a crossbody backpack, all red, black, and white while the backpack was a striking blue. He seemed approachable, and Reg found himself walking towards him.

“Uh, hi, can I sit here?” Reg asked.

The boy looked up from his work, his expression was oddly neutral and unchanging. He replied in an even tone, “Sure.”

Reg sat across from him as he went back to work. The boy continued to type as if nothing had happened, keeping his neutral expression and ignoring Reg.

Reg and Silver stared at each other and when the silence was too much, Reg asked, “So… What is it that you are working on?”

The other boy paused, looked up, and replied, “I'm making a mod for the game, Roller Coaster Simulator 2 that allows for custom pathing that sorts the guests as they pass over them, essentially using the flow of guests to do computational mathematics utilizing ‘AND’ and ‘OR’ gates. If I can get it to work, people would be able to use the guests like a calculator, and by extension, be able to run any basic program. Though I would have to figure out a visualization method and GUI elements if I want people to be able to use this to run any small program.”

“Huh,” Reg went slack jawed.

“Right now I have the basic logic gates down. I'm having difficulty accessing a color changing option since there's no easy in game check for what color a guest is wearing. It'd be simple if the guests had a pre-programmed preference for movement based on what color they wear, or some other way they could self sort based on color, that way I could direct them to certain locations and get a graphical element that way. It's looking like I'm going to have to dig deeper into the game's code and find the variable for guest shirt color and refer to that directly. Unfortunately this game was coded without modern programming languages or libraries so trying to find what variable does that is going to have to take a lot of trial and error.”

“Uh…”

“But that's an issue for the future and there are already a lot of people who have dug into this game and I'm certain I can figure something out based on what other people have learned. Right now this calculator can only do four digits and no dividing yet, so anything more advanced than that is going to have to wait.”

“You're doing… math… in a video game…”

“Other people have already done a calculator using the roller coasters themselves. But what I'm interested in is the visual of all the guests filtering through the pathways. It's proven to be challenging, especially with the limited space in the base game. I could use a mod to expand the game's playable area, but that mod recreated the base game in a different language and I'd like to use the base game's language of assembly for authenticity, which unfortunately also means the graphical element I was hoping to get to would be basically impossible in that small space.”

“Hold on,” Reg held up a hand, getting a breath and to save himself from drowning, “Why are you doing this?”

“Why am I doing what?” The other boy asked, though there was no inflection in his tone.

“Trying to build a calculator inside a video game, we already have calculators and they work just fine?”

The other boy blinked, once, “It’s fun? It’s a challenge and a puzzle to work within the constraints of a video game, to essentially use it as its own programming language.”

“It’s fun…?” Reg tried to wrap his head around this. If anything was a puzzle here it was this kid in front of him. Silver perked up and tilted their head about curiously, floating over to the screens the other boy was working on.

“Yes it’s fun for me. I apologize. I don’t know how to describe why I enjoy it as much as I do,” He looked down, gently closing his fists.

“No, it’s ok,” Reg sighed, and offered a smile, “I get it. I like puzzles too, just not like that. Sorry to bother you, I was just curious.”

Reg fidgeted in his seat and felt the air grow cold around him. He had pestered this boy long enough, and they were probably getting annoyed with him at this point. Reg fretted as he tried to come up with an excuse to get up and leave.

“Whoa this kid’s got a Navi, Reg,” Silver said like they couldn’t believe their own words.

His brain froze and restarted. He had to stare incredulously at Silver, to which they raised their brow, shrugged, and looked between him and whatever was on the other boy’s screen. Reg’s eyes fell back onto the boy across from him.

“Who… are you?” He asked, reeling.

“My name is Eni, if that’s what you’re asking,” Eni said, gesturing to himself, “Though, usually people introduce themselves before asking me something like that.”

Reg sputtered, sighed, then sat back up straight, “My name’s Reg, sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, it’s just…”

He held his tongue, he really knew nothing about this boy in front of him. Spilling everything right here could be dangerous, plus Silver could be wrong. There were too many unknowns and he was dying to get to the bottom of this, now.

“It’s very nice to meet you Reg. I didn’t take it as rude, I just found it odd, that’s all,” Eni said as he went back to his work.

Reg stared. Eni exuded this aura of calmness that both dampened and heightened Reg’s anxiety. Who on Earth was this kid really, and how did he have a Navi? Reg made a wildly concerned face to Silver who just shrugged and pointed at the screen again.

“Ok but who,” Reg chewed his words and spat them out, “Who are you?”

“Do you mean, more specifically, who I am?” Eni looked back up from his work with just his eyes.

“Sure,”

“Well, my full name is Eniac Ijuuin. May I ask why you wanted to know?” Eni stopped working to look directly at Reg.

“N-No reason!” He sputtered out. He swore that he had heard that name before, Ijuuin, from somewhere. He shook his head and got back to interrogations, “So… What are you doing at NAXA, Eniac?”

“Please continue to call me Eni,” He said quickly, “As for why I’m here, well, my mother is attending the meeting going on now, and has to discuss some things with the scientists regarding the technology that she’s in charge of. And my other mother is busy with coaching and I didn’t want to go with her so now I’m here. What about you, Reg?”

Reg was spiraling. Only catching small glimpses into Eni’s life was making his head spin as he tried to get a full picture with just pieces.

“Now the Navi’s looking up stuff about you,” Silver’s eyes went wide with amazement, curiosity, and fear.

“N-Now hold on!” Reg shot a hand up, then slunk back down slowly as Eni stared at him.

“Is that not a valid question?” Eni asked.

“It is! I- Uh-!” Reg covered his mouth, he was really losing it now, “My mom also works for NAXA?” For some reason it came out like a question.

“Also?” Eni echoed.

“Your mom…?”

Eni shook his head, “She’s contracted out. It’s not a direct employment. She’s in charge of the Netopian branch of IPC. Their tech powers some communication features aboard NAXA satellites.”

That’s where he heard of Ijuuin. Finally a picture was forming. This kid was just some rich tech mogul’s son. With a Navi. Somehow.

“The Navi’s not finding anything about you, by the way,” Silver hummed, watching Eni’s screen with mild amusement, “Good job not spilling those beans immediately this time!”

Reg grumbled, feeling relief finally, then cheerily explained, “Yeah, my mom works for NAXA. I was gonna be bored at home so I came along too.”

“What about your other parent?”

Reg jumped a little, looking a bit crestfallen, “Oh, he’s uh, not able to…”

“And no school?”

He felt like he was in the hot seat, getting grilled for all he was worth, “It-It’s complicated!”

“This is going to be an odd question,” Eni began, looking at his screen and then back to Reg, “but were you aware that you are currently being targeted by a digital entity?”

Reg shot upright, looking around the massive room, through the glass to the outside, and back to Silver who gave him a confused look.

“No?!” Reg replied, looking around again.

“You’re not going to be able to see them, they’re on another wavelength. I apologize for startling you,” Eni explained, looking back to his screen, “Oddly, it seems that it isn’t malicious.”

“Wha- How do you know?” Reg asked, looking at the back of Eni’s screen as if he could see through it.

“It’s a special interest of mine. I have some tech that detects them,” Eni also stared at his screen.

“You’re an odd one,” The words trickled out of Reg’s mouth.

“I get that a lot…” Eni replied, and for the first time, his expression changed. Reg could’ve sworn he saw him get a little hurt by that comment of his.

“Sorry I didn’t mean it like that,” Reg shrank back, scratching his neck, “I think that’s actually kinda cool, being able to sense digital stuff.”

“Oh,” Eni relaxed back to his normal neutral expression, “Did you want to know more about it?”

Reg looked to Silver and smiled, “Sure!”

Eni held his chin and watched his screen for a bit, finally explaining, “They’re small, and weak.”

“Hey,” Silver sharply commented.

“They seem to have no viral capabilities, almost like a Mr. Hertz of the past. Odd since none of those are recorded to have survived the Net Reset. I wonder if it’s a remnant program, floating around the net with no AI to direct it.”

“Reg, punch this kid for me,” Silver grumbled flatly.

“No,” Reg said aloud, then faltered when Eni looked at him, hearing what he just said, “I mean, I wonder too! How weird!”

Reg laughed apprehensively, hoping Eni didn’t think of him as suspicious. Eni merely blinked and looked back at his screen and for a split second, narrowed his eyes at something.

“There’s something else,” Eni leaned forward a little, “Another EM being…”

“Huh?” Reg quickly glanced to Silver.

They hummed quietly, scrunching their face in concentration before popping up sharply, “They’re right! There is something else here!”

Eni closed his screen and got up from his seat, “I’m going to take a look, you’re welcome to come too.”

“Wait a minute! That sounds dangerous!” Reg shuffled out of his seat as well, reaching out to Eni.

“Why would it be dangerous?” Eni asked.

“Because…” Reg paused, scratching his head, “It could be a virus! With all the talk of viruses lately we gotta be careful! Maybe leave this to some professionals or something.”

Eni tilted his head, “Viruses can’t hurt people. They attack data. We should be fine.”

He turned and made his way towards an elevator.

“Wait!” Reg called out, trotting up behind him.

“I’m curious about it, and these viruses that have been popping up,” Eni continued.

“Yeah, me too,” Reg grimaced to Silver, then caught up alongside Eni, “If a virus attacked here, that’d be really bad. There’s a lot of critical data here for NAXA.”

“Agreed,” Eni pressed the elevator button and hopped inside with Reg following shortly after.

“Would you be able to… Do anything against a virus though?” Reg broached, checking Eni’s face for any cracks in that iron facade.

“Um,” Eni’s eyes shot to the side. A long silence fell as the elevator gently reached its destination.

“Did you… Think that far ahead?” Reg questioned.

Eni continued to avoid eye contact, “I have a plan.”

“And what is this plan?”

Eni remained silent as the elevator doors opened and he stepped onto the upper floor. He turned to Reg, partially blocking the way, “Maybe you should hang back, in case it is dangerous.”

Reg narrowed his eyes at Eni, he kept his eyes to the side and there was a slight furrowing of his brow.

“Alright,” Reg conceded, holding up his hands. He pressed the button for the ground floor and let the elevator doors close on him.

“Reg you can’t let Eni fight that thing alone!” Silver zoomed in front of his face.

“I know, and I’m not going to,” Reg sighed, holding his chin, “You said that he had a Navi, right?”

“Yeah! Red and black and it looked like he was explaining a lot to Eni the whole time,” Silver nodded.

“That’s so weird, how does it exist?” He pondered.

“How does Cometman exist?” Silver scoffed, looking away.

“True, maybe the same thing happened to him?” Reg proposed.

“Maybe,” Silver’s face screwed up in intense concentration.

The elevator made it to the ground floor and Reg dashed out and into a secluded hallway. He made sure he was out of the view of any people and cameras, and transformed in a flash. He crouched down and prepared to jump.

“Silver, where is the virus?” He asked, keeping his eyes on the ceiling.

They floated into view and pointed upwards, then looking over their shoulder explained, “When going through stuff, you just gotta be fast and try not to feel what you’re going through, if that makes sense? Also try to avoid metal! It feels weird.”

“Huh?” Reg paused for a bit. The reason metal would feel weird is because Silver, and he supposed himself at the moment, were digital, and passing through certain metals would cause an opposed magnetic field. That would make sense, that’s how faraday cages worked after all.

But not ‘feeling what you were going through’? He wondered if he could somehow shift his wavelength or frequency or something, like he did in that first boar fight, but more. That would make it seem like he was passing through air instead of a wall of water. He crouched down further and took a deep breath, knowing he wouldn’t feel it but doing so anyway.

He lept upward as hard as he could, passing through floor after floor, feeling them rush past him like passing cars on the road, until he reached the floor number Eni had gotten off on. He shifted that feeling again and slowed himself, just in time to land lightly in another hallway with many office doors lining one wall.

“What's this?” A casually lilting voice came out from behind him.

Reg whipped around, busters up and charging, and saw a humanoid figure with three pairs of extra legs, sharp, yellow and black. The figure looked like it was wearing robes with spikes on the elbows and knees and a transparent yellow visor that covered his face. He leaned back and sat using his extra legs as though he were sitting on a throne.

“Who are you?” Reg asked, keeping his busters aimed at him.

“Easy there, you wouldn't want to miss and end up shooting something you don't want to, would you? I just want to talk,” The yellow figure raised one hand dismissively. When Reg lowered his busters, he continued, “My name is Voltz, and you must be that Megaman I've been hearing about.”

“And what if I am?” Reg mumbled warily.

Voltz let out a single airy chuckle, “I’ve got a couple questions for you, if you don’t mind.”

The way he asked, and the way he continued to look down at him, didn’t put Reg at ease. The places where his spindly legs touched the floor had tiny patches of metal that crackled with electricity every now and then, and there were more of these tiny spots going all the way back to several of the office rooms.

“Reg,” Silver sidled up and whispered to him, “I'm sensing the same sort of stuff from him as I did from Titan…”

Reg nodded slightly, that confirmed his suspicions.

“I'm not answering any of your questions. Leave,” Reg threatened calmly, raising and charging his busters once again.

“Shame,” Voltz scoffed.

Then a burst of wind shot past Reg that crackled with static, and the space where Voltz left was empty. A loud bang of doors being slammed open came from behind, as well as a yelp, and just as Reg turned to see what had happened, a rush of staticy wind blew past him once more.

“I'll ask again,” Voltz sighed.

Reg whipped back around and blanched as he saw Eni trapped in a cage of electricity being held with four of Voltz's legs.

“I have some questions for you,” Voltz's face split into a mad smile, “And if you don't comply, this snooping little human gets hurt. Simple.”

“Eni!” Reg called out, panicked.

It was hard to make out through the crackle of the electricity tightly holding Eni, but Reg swore he heard them mutter his name through pained breaths. His heart sank. Eni knew who and what he was now.

“Leave him out of this! He's got nothing to do with this!” Reg demanded.

Voltz rolled his eyes. He squeezed with his claw-like legs and the electricity boiled around Eni, making him cry out in pain.

“Stop! I'll answer your questions just please leave him alone,” Reg threw up his hands.

“Good, good. First off, what is that?” Voltz flicked his hand in Silver's direction.

Reg glanced at them and then back, “They're just Silver. They're my friend and a program. They don't pose a threat.”

“Yeah!” Silver added, “Some would describe me as small and weak! Hardly as strong as a Mr. Hertz!”

Voltz sneered, disgusted, then shrugged as he moved on, “Ok, what about you, blue boy, what's your goal here?”

Reg's face snarled, then he evenly explained, “I just want peace. No virus attacks, no one getting hurt.”

“Maintaining a status quo…” Voltz muttered quietly, then spoke up, “Fine. Another question for you blue boy, what do you know of what happened on the Argent?”

Reg jumped and glared at him. Voltz merely smiled and slowly tightened his grip on Eni.

“Ok! I'll tell. Argent was attacked by a virus and blew up. The surviving astronauts were all teleported to Earth safely,” Reg shuddered a little as he explained.

“You know,” Voltz slowly blinked, raising a finger to his chin, “When you talk about the Argent, you don't say the word ‘the’ in front of it. Kinda like it's more… personal.”

Reg felt his heart freeze, his eyes fell onto the path of tiny bits of metal along the hallway.

“You already know,” Reg breathlessly said.

“Oh but I want to hear your perspective,” Voltz tilted his head and smiled loudly, a buzz reverberating around him.

Reg snarled and shook, gripping his busters at his side, then huffed, “When we put the quantum relay into the comms dish, Argent was immediately attacked by a… Navi. Called Vile. It destroyed Argent and I deleted it. I hardly made it to Earth alive.”

Voltz nodded, then turned to Eni, bringing him closer and inspecting him. Eni whimpered in response, keeping his eyes shut tightly.

“I've answered your questions, let him go,” Reg called out.

“Earlier you said he had nothing to do with this,” Voltz spoke as though Reg hadn't said anything, “Do you happen to know who made that quantum relay?”

Reg thought back to the box the relay came in, coming up blank, but he had a feeling he knew what Voltz was going to say.

“IPC. The very company that this boy's mother owns,” his gaze shot to the side and stared right at Reg.

He shuddered under that gaze but kept a calm voice, “Why does that matter?”

“Because that means his family is responsible for your tragedy. The object that tore your family apart was made by his hands!” Voltz announced gleefully, throwing his head back in rancorous laughter.

For a moment Reg was wounded, but he slowly came to his senses, gripping and charging his busters and side eyeing Silver.

“He didn't do that, Vile did,” He growled, firing Silver into Voltz. Vines burst out of them on impact and encompassed the viral human causing him to drop Eni.

Reg jumped forward, grabbing Eni out of the air and skidded to a stop down towards the end of the hallway.

“Told ya it might be dangerous,” Reg gave a small chuckle.

Eni uncurled a little, catching his breath, then looked up, “Reg?”

He placed Eni onto the ground and turned quickly, hearing Voltz making angry struggling sounds, “Yeah, sorry about… Everything.”

Before he could leap away, Eni grabbed his arm and said weakly, “You have to get Voltz to make more substantiation area, then I'll be able to help you.”

Reg looked back and smiled, though Eni was staring at the ground, one hand to his headphones.

“You got it,” Reg assured, feeling Eni's grip loosen.

He leapt forward, firing at Voltz as he continued to snarl in the vines.

“How do you have a wood type attack! This wasn't in Whisper's report…” Voltz hopped about, dodging the shots that he could.

Reg flipped his batons around and smacked Voltz on his side, sending him flying and tumbling across the ground, making more crackling metal floor wherever he landed. Voltz burst from his vine imprisonment and disappeared.

Reg felt something buzz behind him and turned just in time to block two attacks and take four others. Electricity surged through him and pure pain shook his entire being, seizing up his muscles and making him collapse.

He regained his composure quickly and fired at Voltz's feet, making him leap back and disappear again. He stood up and listened for Voltz's attack, swiftly turning to deflect it as he swung at him. Every glancing blow threw sparks everywhere and jolted his arms.

He slowly backed himself onto unchanged floor. Voltz changed tactics and stood balanced on two thin legs and attacked with his other four, ensuring that his territory expansion was minimal. As Reg blocked blows, he felt as though they were weaker somehow, less electricity coursing through them. He had a chance here.

Reg leapt to the side, straight through a wall and then jumped with all his might back through and clocked Voltz in the arm as he passed by. He phased through another wall and back at a different angle, hitting Voltz in the ankle. Voltz stumbled and snarled, and when Reg tried the strategy a third time, Voltz took the blow and grabbed him with all six legs and electrocuted him to his core.

Reg screamed out in pain, gripping and charging his next attack as Voltz continued to pour more electricity into him.

“You're pretty strong little blue boy!” Voltz growled manically, “If you really want peace, you should join us! I'll make sure you'll never have to fight again.”

Reg aimed his busters with shaking arms, and with a voice hardly able to form words said, “...Shut-t-” and fired a charged shot into Voltz's chest.

He dropped Reg and staggered back. Reg stumbled on his feet and shakily aimed at Voltz.

“You think you're right don't you,” Voltz spat, eyeing Reg warily, “That all you gotta do to ‘save the world’ is beat the monster in front of you. You think that makes you right?! For siding with him?!”

He threw his arm in Eni's direction. Reg kept his busters aimed ahead and took a useless breath.

“I already told you, Eni's done nothing wrong,” Reg replied, firing a few shots.

Voltz deflected them easily and glared at Reg venomously.

“You think that's all he's responsible for? That his family is responsible for?!” Voltz rose onto two sharp legs and bellowed, “I'm not talking about that quantum relay, no. I'm talking about his other cursed bloodline! The one who caused this disastrous present! The one responsible for the Net Reset calamity! That damned child is a Hikari!”

Reg felt as though he'd been split in two. His breath hitched and he couldn't feel his legs underneath him. His arms slowly lowered as his brain swam against the torrent it was under. He looked at Eni who was huddled in a corner, face obscured and grabbing his headphones.

“Yes,” Voltz sneered confidently, “Him and his family are the ones who decided for everyone else that this was the correct choice. The ones who killed every digital being both virus and AI. He has to be held accountable for the crimes his family has done! He-”

Voltz was blindsided by a charged strike to his side, an explosion of sparks erupted from him as he was thrown to the other side of the hallway, skidding and painting the floor with metal.

“He's done nothing wrong!!” Reg roared as loud as he could, “He's not responsible for his family's choices! He's responsible for only his own!! And the Net Reset was necessary! We would all be in the stone age if a hundred years ago they didn't decide to do that! They saved humanity!”

Voltz lifted himself up onto his hands and knees, then shot daggers at Reg, “Saved humanity by dooming everyone else!” and lunged forward, disappearing in a burst of sparks.

In a flash of yellow another figure appeared in front of Reg, slicing at Voltz who was inches away from grabbing Reg once more. Voltz staggered back, holding his chest where a massive gash was leaking pixels.

“Well said, Reg,” a lively baritone voice came from the black and red figure before him. He had sharp, angular armor with red and black stripes on his arms and legs. Most striking was his yellow scarf that folded and bent like it was made of triangles.

Voltz sputtered and spat, “Who the hell are you?!”

He raised his arm that had a blazing cyan blade coming out the end of it, pointing it right at Voltz, “My name is One, I'm Eni's partner. And you should probably stand still, it'll make this a lot less painful for you.”

“Partner?! A Navi?!” Voltz sneered, “That's impossible!”

“And yet, here I am,” One said, almost bored.

Voltz stood dumbstruck, his face twitched into a smile and where he once stood was a bolt of lightning that coalesced into a jagged form. He screamed and threw himself forward at his two opponents, lightning coiling around his spiked legs.

One deflected the blows directed at him, sending the electricity down into the metal panels below. Reg blocked and blacked out for a second as a bolt of lightning traveled through his arms and into every inch of his body. Pain so intense his brain refused to calculate it. When he came to, he was in One's arms, looking up at his cheerful face and masked mouth.

“Hi, I'm One, it's a pleasure to meet you Reg, though I wish it had been under better circumstances,” He winked.

Reg looked around him, Voltz was lunging and pouncing all around them. One was somehow deftly dodging every single strike.

“How are you…” Reg began to ask as he tried to aim from his position in One's arms.

“Earlier you were able to capture Voltz in something, can you do that again?” One interrupted, dancing around the raging Voltz.

Reg looked for Silver and found them hiding against the ceiling. They made eye contact and nodded.

“Yeah, I can,” Reg replied.

“Good, because we may only have one shot at this. I'll distract him. Ready?” One shifted his arms, preparing to drop Reg off.

Reg gritted his teeth, still numbed from that attack, nodded and confirmed, “Yeah.”

One swiftly let go of Reg, placing him on his feet. Reg held his head briefly as the room slowly stopped spinning. The Navi jumped forward, intercepting and deflecting Voltz's attacks as cascading sparks were launched like fireworks.

Reg lifted his busters and charged them up. He focused on Voltz and began predicting where he would strike next. Nothing else in the room existed. He didn't even check for Silver, he didn't have to. It was only his opponent and all the possible locations he could be. The world around him became silent as the fight slowed down. One was keeping up, but just barely.

Then he stepped behind Voltz.

Reg fired.

And just as the vines encircled, One flashed forward, creating a blurred plane of blue light where his sword had been, bisecting Voltz through three of his electrified legs. The viral human screamed.

Electricity surged out of him in one final burst, leaving a shuddering and discharged Voltz on the floor. One approached him, sword drawn and ready.

Voltz snapped, “Fine you win! But we won't stop until this entire planet is inundated with viruses like it should!”

And with that, he disappeared in a white flash, his form dissolving and pulled into a portal that had opened in the ceiling.

Reg collapsed to his knees and became human again, breathing heavily and finally feeling relief. He watched as One's legs walked up to and past him, all the way to the back where Eni was. Reg got up and made his way over there as well.

Eni was still curled into himself and as Reg approached, he could see tears matting his hair.

“Eni I…” Reg caught his breath, “I'm so sorry. I didn't think any of this would happen.”

Eni mumbled something, and Reg knelt down to hear him better.

“Is One here?” He choked out.

Reg looked up to One who met his gaze, nodded, and knelt down as well.

“Yeah he's right here,” Reg replied.

Eni threw himself forward into a hug, phasing through his partner's torso a bit as he gripped mostly the air behind him in a trembling hug.

One lifted an arm and patted the air around him, “You were very brave Eni, I'm proud of you.”

Eni shook and whimpered something that just made One say soothing things to him, assuring him he was ok. As the metal floor faded away, so did One, leaving Eni holding the air, taking shuddering breaths.

Reg watched Eni gather himself in silence. Eniac Hikari-Ijuuin. He wondered if his ancestors were proud of him. They better be.

Chapter Text

Eni shook and shuddered for a while, taking long breaths. Reg stayed kneeled by him, waiting silently. Eventually Eni turned his head and their eyes met, with Eni's darting down.

Reg opened and closed his mouth wordlessly, eventually whispering, “I'm sorry…”

The words were not coming to him. How could he explain everything that had happened just then?

“I understand,” Eni replied, his voice surprisingly even. He slowly rose from the floor, taking a big breath as he did.

“Wh- Are you sure?” Reg asked, faltering with his hands.

Eni nodded. He then turned to face the entrance to the hallway across from them, speaking clearly, “I have to confess, over the past four days I too have been fighting viruses with One. I figured it would be a matter of time until I ran into the reported ‘Blue and green entity’. This was probably inevitable.”

“Huh? Wait-” Reg shot up, wincing a little at his numb injuries, “Were you tracking me somehow? Does your mom really work under contract for NAXA?”

Eni turned to face Reg, “What happened here truly was a coincidence. And yes, my mom really does work as a contractor for NAXA.”

Reg relaxed, keeping his eyes on Eni, chewing his words.

Eni turned back to the entrance and said softly, “Did you really mean what you said? That I'm not responsible for what my family has done?”

“Of course,” Reg stated, walking slowly up to Eni's side, “Wait, you could hear all that? How much did you hear…?”

Eni pointed to his headphones, “I have these tuned to the frequency the viruses are at. And I only turned them on during the encounter. I'm lucky that you were here, One would not have been able to handle Voltz on his own.”

“Ah…” Reg faltered a little, “I'm glad, but… I suppose… You know everything about me now, huh?”

Eni shook his head, “Not everything. I don't know how you got those powers, I don't know for how long you've been fighting viruses, nor do I know how involved you are with their return.”

“Ok I get it,” Reg put up his hands. He looked to where the fighting had taken place and saw the three legs severed from Voltz still buzzing on the floor.

Reg walked over to it and knelt down, with Silver hovering close by.

“It's too big for me to eat…” Silver mused.

“What even is this?” Reg reached out, touching one of them, only for a bright yellow flash to overtake his vision and a jolt of power course through him. He recoiled and winced, surprised to be feeling a little relief instead of pain. He blinked wide eyed for a second.

“You good?” Silver asked, slowly making eye contact.

Reg shook his hand, looking at the vacant floor in front of him, “Yeah? I don't know what happened there.”

“It sounded like a loud, sudden buzzing,” Eni walked up to Reg and offered a hand.

“Thanks,” Reg took the offer and rose, looking at what was the battlefield, “Ah shoot, you know, there is one other person we're going to have to talk about this to…”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You fought another big virus without me?!” Ellen's voice crackled and compressed through Reg's mobile's speaker.

“There wasn't any time…” Reg sighed, slumping in the booth he and Eni were sitting at.

“Oh I'm sure. That's not what I'm upset about!” Ellen tossed her hand about, “Clearly I need to come with you everywhere, you're a virus magnet! I'm not going to be missing out on another fight.”

Eni looked between Reg and Ellen, keeping quiet.

“And you! Mr. Silent! You have a Navi?!” Ellen pointed, her incredulous face taking up the entire mobile's screen.

Eni jumped at the sound, and faced the mobile, “Yes? I found One's data many years ago and have been repairing it ever since. Only within the past couple of months has he become functional.”

“Yeah but a lot of people try to repair and upgrade old Navi data all the time,” Ellen scoffed and narrowed her eyes, “What makes One so special? And what kind of name is One even anyway?”

“I wouldn't know what to tell you. I've spent a long time scouring over his code and there's large portions of it that just work. If I try to edit or remove them, he doesn't work. Also, I named him.” Eni recoiled inward, a slight frustration rising in his tone.

“Ugh fine,” Ellen huffed.

“Ellen,” Cometman's voice crackled noisily through two speakers, “at least try to be polite. We're going to be working together a lot I assume.”

Ellen grumbled.

Eni nodded and clicked something on a device hanging around his neck.

“Well Ellen and Cometman,” One's cordial appearance flashed onto a floating holoscreen, “It is a pleasure to meet the both of you. I look forward to fighting alongside both you and Reg here.”

“Wait a minute,” Ellen leaned in, peering directly at One, “I recognize you! You're ‘Ichigo’, the mystery fighter in Netken! What the heck! No wonder no one's been able to beat you, you're a fully AI'd Navi!”

“Ah,” One turned away, scratching the back of his head, “Yes, that is my alias. Apologies. I've been a little bored the past few months.”

“You said you had stopped that…” Eni mumbled.

“I did!” One held a hand up gently, “Ellen must still be a bit sore from our past battles like they're fresh in her memory.”

Ellen growled and grumbled to the side, “And his name means strawberry.”

“It also means number one!” One cheerily pointed out, and despite his mask, everyone could tell there was the biggest of grins underneath it.

“I'm gonna kill you,” Ellen stated venomously.

“Ellen. He's messing with you,” Cometman audibly rolled his eyes.

Ellen growled loudly and tossed her mobile about.

One laughed, but was quickly overshadowed by the laugh Reg let out that extended for much longer than seemed necessary. Everyone stared at him as it took a while for him to slow down.

“Sorry!” He sputtered out one last chuckle, “It's just, it’s nice having friends… That's all.”

Silver smiled brightly, then looked at Eni, who was glancing at Ellen, who was glaring at One, who was staring pleasantly right at Reg.

“I was curious about something name related, Reg,” One asked, "what is your full name?”

“Hmm?” Reg turned to look at One, unable to help a bit of rising anxiety from his intimidating presence, “Oh, I guess it's ok for you to know now, it's Reg Garret.”

“Just Reg?” One pondered, “Not something more grand like Regulus, the cluster of four stars at the heart of the constellation Leo?”

“No?” Reg blinked, brow raised, “I was named after regolith, like, the dirt. It's supposed to be referring to the Moon's, but even Earth dirt can be called regolith so… I don't know man, my parents are weird.”

One nodded, eyes smiling, “I like it, it's humble.”

“And ‘number one’ over here isn't,” Ellen grumbled quietly.

One didn't turn to acknowledge Ellen, “It's apt, as is One.”

Ellen grumbled some more.

“Excuse me,” Cometman spoke up, “I have a question for One. How have you been traveling the net? Have you encountered any other Navis?”

One blinked, “I've been traveling the net like normal, I suppose. And not a Navi in sight.”

“No large armored ones with a single red glowing eye?” Cometman pressed suspiciously.

One placed a hand on his chin, thinking intently as everyone waited anxiously for his reply.

“Nope,” He shrugged, causing a collective exhale. He replied with his own question, “Who are you talking about?”

“Vile,” Reg answered, “It's the Navi I mentioned earlier in the fight with Voltz. I deleted it, but before that, we suspect that it was on the net deleting any Navis that tried to connect to it.”

“Ah, I see,” One replied.

“Voltz was elec type, yeah?” Ellen asked, “With Titan being fire, that means we're gonna be dealing with a wood and an aqua type virus human too. Those are the classic elemental types of the net.”

“That seems likely,” Reg leaned back in his seat, thinking, “I think I remember Voltz mentioning a ‘Whisper’ during the fight too.”

“Great! You know what this calls for?” Ellen chirped.

Reg and Eni glanced at each other and then back at Ellen, blank.

“We gotta all train together!” She cheered, bringing up Cometman's screen close to her face. He leaned over, his face poking out behind her’s.

“That's not a bad idea,” Reg smiled, “Tomorrow though, I'm pretty exhausted. How about you, Eni?”

Eni glanced at Reg, then at One who nodded.

“Yes, tomorrow works for us too,” Eni responded.

“Great!” Ellen grinned, “Hey, I gotta go for now, mom's been hounding me for the past few minutes to get to studying, but I'll see y'all tomorrow! Bye!”

The call ended right there.

“See you- Ah,” Reg attempted, reaching over to wave goodbye unsuccessfully.

The two boys stared at each other in the sudden silence.

Reg eventually spoke up, “Well, that's Ellen.”

“She's loud,” Eni commented.

“Yeah… But she's nice! Once you get to know her. Cometman is too,” Reg smiled sympathetically.

“Thank you for not telling them about my family,” Eni looked down.

“No problem,” Reg sighed, “Although, you should probably tell her about it eventually. If we're all gonna be working together as a team, that's something she's gonna need to know. The viral humans may try to use that info against us, so it'll probably be best if you break that news to her.”

“Oh,” Eni withdrew.

“Don't worry, I'll be there to mediate if things go sour. It'll be fine. None of this is your fault,”

“...Ok,” Eni said, but stayed closed off.

Reg quickly switched topics and the two chatted until Reg's mom came back. He introduced her to Eni and she was overjoyed with the idea of him visiting. This seemed to ease his worries, which in turn, eased Reg's. The two boys parted for the day here, with Reg going with his mom to visit some of the other scientists.

They walked the halls as his mom filled him in on what was discussed at the meeting. As expected, he was brought up, albeit briefly. NAXA will be continuing to support his family and him indefinitely, with his parents being transferred to other departments when they eventually recover.

The image of his dad in the hospital flashed in his head for a second. Everyone was treating recovery as a certain eventuality. He felt sick.

The two ran into Dr. Mohs having a conversation with someone and his mom grabbed his attention. He dismissed the other person and turned to greet his mom.

“Rosie,” Dr. Mohs nodded to her and greeted Reg the same way, quietly and stately.

“Samuel! How have you been!” His mom cheered.

“It's been one day since we last talked,” Dr. Mohs rumbled, seemingly allergic to the sunshine his mom produced.

“Well, a lot can change in a day. And I mean, you know, with all the changes going on here…” Her voice trailed off.

He stared at her, unmoving, then sighed and looked away.

“Yes, I'll be fine,” He stated, then turned his attention to Reg, “I will no longer be the Head of Exploratory Operations here at NAXA. With the Lunar Colony Project in the state that it is in currently and no plans to continue human based missions, the rest of the team and I will be transferred to other departments where our expertise can be utilized best. It is a time of transition here.”

“Oh,” Reg said softly, “I guess that makes sense… I'm sorry.”

Dr. Mohs held up a hand, shaking his head, “This has been an inevitability for a while. Perhaps it was a foolish idea to begin with. I believed wholeheartedly in the project and truly thought life beyond Earth could be possible,” He sighed, releasing the weight of an entire world in that breath, “We did our best. It wasn't meant to be.”

In all the years he had seen Dr. Mohs’ unshakable presence, he had never seen him this broken. His pensive stare was somewhere else, far beyond this conversation.

This was the man who for Reg's entire life, was in charge of every aspect of his existence. Working and sleeping hours, food, entertainment, education, and even when he was allowed moments of freedom. And while all this was meticulously chosen with the utmost care in mind, this now sudden lack of structure left Reg in a state of free fall.

As he watched the former Head gradually return his focus to the present, Reg was awash with fear as it all finally dawned on him. He held his own leash. The weight of that responsibility caught his breath as it all fell on him, and for a moment he, if he dared to acknowledge it, was excited.

“I’m sorry for bringing down the mood,” Dr. Mohs sighed and straightened himself out, “I’m glad you two are doing well and are adjusting to life on Earth.”

“Oh Sam…” His mom cooed, “I will always be grateful for your thoughtfulness. You and the team did everything they could. It's a man-made miracle that Argent held together for as long as it did.”

“Though…” She tilted her head to the side, “If I had any criticisms I would say you should've allowed more desserts. A little extra ice cream wouldn't have killed us!”

Reg balked and she giggled. Dr. Mohs was unmoved.

“I'm sorry,” Dr. Mohs said after his mom finished giggling.

“You did what you had to Samuel,” His mom sobered quickly, “We're alive because of you.”

Dr. Mohs softened at this, giving a faint smile and glancing between them slowly.

“Thank you,” He breathed deeply, “I apologize, but I do have to end our conversation here for now. There are many people I need to speak to today. Let's catch up some other time.”

“Still busy? Well, hopefully you'll finally catch a break soon. You know what, I'll schedule a little something. I've got a great idea,” She gave a capricious grin.

Dr. Mohs worried, then turned to Reg, “Have you gotten the chance to talk to Dr. Goddard? I recommend you do so before you leave today.”

Reg jumped. Dr. Goddard was the one who gave Reg his robotic eye, and was the reason he needed it in the first place. Conversations with her were always tense behind a screen. The idea of an in person talk was making the air around him frigid.

“It would be a good idea,” His mom gently touched his hand, grounding him.

His eyes met his mom’s and she nodded. He sighed. He knew she was right.

“I’ll go talk to her,” He resigned.

The adults all looked proudly at him, despite his rising anxiety. They said their farewells and walked their separate ways, with his mom leading him to a lab further in.

“Do you think you can handle talking to her by yourself? I can be there with you if you need me,” His mom asked, rolling up to a metallic door decorated with pictures of various robots.

“I’ll be fine. It’s not her I’m worried about,” Reg straightened himself as he approached the door. He was well aware of the source of his fear; years of therapy had allowed him to organize his thoughts and pinpoint the culprit; his trauma from the event seven years ago.

It was just something that happened to him, and from what Lowe had told him, was actually Vile who had possessed an astronaut’s, Dr. Goddard’s, robotic arm. He wondered if he should tell her the truth, well, not the full truth, but just enough to alleviate some guilt.

He finally realized that his hand had been hovering over the handle for too long. He opened the door before his mom had the chance to offer assistance; right now he wanted anything but that.

Inside the lab the air was crisp, a small cold breeze flowed through the room, guided by air circulators high in the ceiling. A clacking sound of a keyboard being typed on echoed around the bend of the entrance. Reg hoped he wouldn't recognize the person behind that sound. When he rounded the corner and spotted the scientist working diligently at her desk, his stomach twisted into his throat.

Dr. Goddard was busy working on something, her shining robotic right hand catching the light in a way that continued to draw Reg's attention. It was meticulously cared for and something she featured proudly. Reg had to make some sort of small noise to start this conversation, or else he'd continue to stare at that thing.

“Doctor…?” He squeaked out, any effort to continue her name was drowned out by his rising fear.

She stopped, turned to look, and immediately rose from her seat, surprise, worry, and joy painting her face.

“Reg! I had heard you were visiting NAXA today, I-” She stopped suddenly, taking a moment to breathe, and said with pristine clarity, “It's good to see you.”

“Y-Yes,” Reg smiled back, his eyes drifting to her shining arm again, then jolted back to attention when he processed what he was doing.

Dr. Goddard shifted, turning her right side away from him and walked behind a desk with a project of hers scattered about.

“It's good to see you too,” He said, hoping his annoying fears didn't betray how truthfully he meant those words.

“How's the eye holdin’ up?” She asked, leaning against the table with her left arm.

“Good! It's working just fine,” He answered, walking over to the table and pulling up a seat for himself.

“Good, good,” She chuckled gravely, “It's quite the unique thing. Course all of my work is custom made, but your lil implant is a crown jewel. Love talking about it, vaguely of course.”

Reg had heard her talk about this before, “Is that so?” He pretended he hadn't.

“A unique eye for a unique guy, I'd say,” She half grinned, “No bells or whistles, just robust. Can and probably will outlive me. Built to last. No upgrading necessary.”

Reg just smiled, it was nice hearing someone talk about their passion. Her cheeriness slowly melted away to a solemn stare as she quietly looked over her work in front of her.

“You know I deal with military types right?” She sneered, rolling her eyes a little, “Pieces of work I tell you. It's part of the job, working for NAXA under the Aerospace Department, but if I had it my way I'd be working just for NAXA or people like you exclusively.”

Reg hadn't had heard this, “Is that so?” He asked earnestly.

“Yep,” She sighed, “Military types always want something extra. Hidden compartments, special coatings, Wi-Fi. I tell ‘em every time that the more complicated they want it, the more likely it'll break. Now, customizations aren't all that bad, I will attest, but we're not exactly putting silly string shooters on soldiers are we?

“We've had terrible tragedies happen to us, but through that, have been given the opportunity to improve. And what do they want? Every time it's something powerful. Something the higher ups would approve of. No whimsy… Sorry for ramblin there, it's just been something on my mind. I figured you'd understand though.”

Reg blinked back; he didn't, “But that's what I wanted? I didn't want anything ‘whimsical’, I just wanted something normal.”

“That's what I'm talking about,” She pointed at him, “You're unique in that you just wanted to be like everyone else. I remember specifically, you telling me that you didn't want any extra bits cause you said, and I quote, ‘it'd be unfair’. I mean, you're wrong, these things come with their own host of issues, but you're also not wrong. You're a pretty special kid for not wanting power, I've always wanted to tell you that.”

Reg blinked back more, utterly confused, “Is that not normal?”

Dr. Goddard laughed, “No, it ain't kid. But it's not a bad thing either. We're all different, and supposed to be different. You mind if I show you something?”

He had a feeling he knew what it would be and braced himself, “Sure.”

She pulled up her right arm and quickly flipped a part in the middle around, a small bit lifted and flashed light, shining a hard light projection of a confetti shower all over her work table.

“Tada!” She said with a flourish.

Reg snorted a smile out.

She half grinned back, presenting her arm in front of her, “Now I bet I know your answer, but I might as well offer. Would you like any additions made to your eye?”

Her arm displayed various enhancements that a robotic eye could feature, all of them floating in front of them like a constellation projection. Silver, who had been sitting back patiently, jumped at the opportunity and began flying around, inspecting every part gleefully, nodding approvingly at nearly every single one of them.

“Thank you but, again, I'd rather keep things simple and working well,” Reg raised his hands gently.

“Aight,” She sighed and shut off the projection, to Silver's disappointment, “I thought things might be different now that you're here on Earth. Sorry ‘bout that.”

Reg recalled all the times he had to interact with her back on Argent. She had always been straightforward and not keen on small talk. Maybe that was due to their awkward relationship, but Reg suspected something else was going on.

“Are you ok, Dr. Goddard?” He probed.

She raised her brows, then looked crestfallen, “Ah, you heard about the restructuring going on, didn't you?”

“Yes, are you going to be…?” Reg left the question blank.

“Transferred,” She huffed, tossing a hand about flippantly, “Looks like since NAXA's gonna be dealing with less humans, they're not gonna need the human who makes the humans less human. I'll be working directly under Aerospace. If you learn anything from me, Reg, it's that you don't take military contracts. They are not easy to leave.”

“I'm so sorry,” He consoled, “Is that why you're complaining about them?”

She nodded, “Gotta complain about them now before I can’t. But it’s not all bad. The pay is…” She made a face like her brows were trying to reach heaven.

“That and my research will be well supported as well,” She continued as her face came back down to Earth, “Sorry for dumping all this on you. I honestly don’t know when I’ll see you again.”

Reg stared for a bit as he finally became aware of how empty the lab felt. He chewed his words, trying to find the right ones and coming up blank.

“I need to give you this advice before I’m spirited away by my work.” She rose, her average height seeming much more imposing as she gave him a grave look, “I deal with people who love a mask, a uniform, and seek a place to belong so badly they make themselves small. I see that same framework in you. And I don’t want that for you.

“I need you to know that it’s ok to be odd, and different. I want you to go out there and make decisions for yourself, even if you’re gonna make mistakes. Promise me that now that you’re on Earth you’re gonna be a little more selfish. When I hear about you next you better be blossoming, doing the stuff you’ve always wanted to do.”

“You make it sound like you’re not even going to be able to do our usual check ups,” Reg glanced around, concerned.

She just stared at him, slowly breathing.

“Oh, we’re not… Are we?” He mumbled, trying to form words, mulling over what she had asked of him, “I… Promise to finally relax and pursue Marine Biology like I’ve always wanted…?”

She closed her eyes, twisting her head slightly, “That’s not…”

She shook her head and sighed, “It’s a start.”

If this truly was the last time he was going to see her, then he was going to have to tell her the truth now. He sharply inhaled and organized his thoughts.

“I need to tell you something,” He began, “It’s about the event seven years ago on Argent.”

Dr. Goddard slowly went wide eyed, “Ok?”

Reg nodded, mostly to himself, “W- I know… What attacked… Me. It was… You know the report about what occurred on Argent a couple of days ago, yeah?”

She nodded along, keeping her eyes trained on him.

“That virus was what attacked Argent seven years ago. It’s the one that… infected you,” He took a shaky breath.

She stared at and beyond him, her gaze falling to the ground before she breathed deep and picked herself back up.

“I had suspicions. No one believed me. They said that a virus at that day and age would’ve been preposterous,” She shook her head, “Now we’ve got viruses running amuck everywhere across Spacity. Imagine what we could’ve done and prepared if they had just listened to me.”

Reg opened his mouth to speak but no words came out.

Dr. Goddard broke the silence, “Thank you for telling me. I know that was hard for you, I’m still having nightmares of that event as well. To this day I attest that the only reason things didn’t get worse is that I recognized your faces despite all that darkness clouding me. And I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t forgiven me. So I wanna thank you for being you, Reg.”

He tried to smile at that, instead he took another shaky breath.

A soft ping came from her right arm. She huffed, “Looks like our time is up.”

Reg lingered, unsure.

“I hope our paths cross again someday,” She reached out with her left hand.

He looked down at it, made a fist and closed his eyes as tight as he could. He had enough of being scared. He reached out with his right hand.

She paused, withdrew, and presented her own right hand, shining metal and all. He took that hand and shook it, feeling the metal craftsmanship she prided herself on. It was warm.

“Thank you for all you’ve done for me Dr. Goddard,” He said clearly.

“It’s been a pleasure,” She half smiled, “You’re a good kid Reg, don’t let the world change you for the worse, ok?”

“I won’t,” He assured.

They parted here, and Reg left feeling like he had grown a little. The world was opening up before him, and he couldn’t wait to see all it had to offer.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Titan was furious, and waiting was only going to make things worse. She broiled, pacing the room outside the healing chamber. A place barely used until yesterday, and especially today.

Whisper was going to need to make himself known soon. He melded into the shadows watching the other two inside the healing chamber, trying to get any clues about Voltz’s injuries and how they were recovering. Scylla looked to be tending to him, holding packets of data and applying them diligently. Her facial expression remained an unwavering clinically detached gaze as she tried every bit of data.

“Where IS that lazy fool!” Titan snarled, turning at the end of the room once more.

Whisper emerged from the shadows, his long green cloak and hat obscuring the majority of his body. Titan turned again and caught sight of him.

“You!” She thrust her massive claw like a spear.

He braced himself, but remained outwardly still.

“What do you THINK you’re DOING?!” She stormed forward.

He dared not look at her when she was like this, he looked to Scylla who met his eyes coldly.

“ANSWER ME!!” She exclaimed, fire bursting from her form.

“I was unaware of their abilities,” He gave his trained response.

“Then WHAT do you think your JOB is?!” She raged, swinging her claw straight at Whisper, grabbing and pinning him against the wall.

“To gather information,” He replied, the heat from her claws sending warning signals up and down his frame. Despite it he continued, “There is no excuse, I was simply unaware.”

“SIMPLY UNAWARE?!” Titan exploded, fire covering her face in a ghostly visage, “That Megaman has the ability to use elemental attacks AND has a skilled sword using ally?!”

“Correct,” He retreated into himself, “I have failed in my duties.”

“Voltz almost DIED because of you!” She pushed her claw deeper into the wall, flames rising along her arm, “If he didn’t evacuate when he did, EVERYTHING would have been ruined. EVERYTHING we have ever done would have been for NOTHING! DO YOU EVEN CARE?!”

“I do care,” Whisper was having trouble speaking up, the claw around his throat tightened, “I will double my efforts and monitor them closer.”

“Good,” She spat, then leaned in closer, making sure her mouth was right next to his ear, “You know what the law is around here, right? It’s power. And the first step to overpowering your opponent is knowledge. So do your job, so we can win. Because if you don’t, I can always just get you a new host.”

Whisper withdrew further, hiding his trembling face as Titan let that thought simmer, slowly backing off. He caught his breath reflexively, staying as still as possible to avoid showing weakness.

“Get out of my sight, rat,” Titan scoffed, tossing a claw in the exit’s direction.

“Thank you for your forgiveness,” He bowed.

“I haven’t forgiven a damn thing,” She snarled.

He disappeared with a gust of wind, hopping and climbing the outer structure of the massive digital castle of stone and crystal that towered over the landscape. Up at the top he stood upon a slanted section of roof and overlooked the spacious world before him. A digital breeze rustled his cloak as he took in the view. Various environments decorated the horizon; deserts, canyons, metal, and seas. His gaze lingered on the vast jungles he was in charge of. They would have to wait.

He looked to the unnaturally blue sky and in a flash of white, disappeared.

Chapter Text

“Why do I need to know this! This was three hundred years ago and not even that important!” Ellen whined, throwing her hands into the air.

She was right, Reg had to agree, but he wouldn't dare tell her that.

“It's not boring, just peaceful,” He tried to seem excited, pulling up a floating screen from across the table they were sitting at, “This is the time after the initial installation of Brother Band, so of course things were pretty boring.”

“Hey! You called it boring too!” Ellen speared a finger at him.

“Sh-Shush!” Reg barked back, “It was a time of great scientific advancement! They invented room temperature semiconductors in 21XX! That's not boring!”

Ellen raised a brow and Reg wondered how easy it was to read on his face how disinterested he was at studying as well. He buried his face in the floating screen, shielding himself from Ellen's judging gaze.

“I've had enough of studying,” She sneered, “I know enough to do alright on the competency test.”

She leaned back on the couch and stretched out, fiddling with her sleeves. She was allowed to visit Reg’s apartment to hang out, but only under the condition set by her mom that she had to study as well. Now her mom’s first impression of Reg was hinging on Ellen’s studying ability. If she did badly on her competency test, her mom would think Reg was incompetent, or worse, a slacker. But he was bored as well.

He leaned over and saw his mom quietly reading in the backyard, wondering if he could distract himself by asking about food, or the things she was planning, or anything.

“Yep I’ve decided. It’s training time now,” She popped up, reaching for her device on her arm, “What’s your home’s password? Oh wait lemme see if Cometman can just hack it.”

“I’m not doing that,” Cometman huffed.

Reg felt the weighty decision to do the responsible action or goof off fall onto his shoulders. He grimaced and caught sight of Ellen’s expectant gaze.

“It’s ‘4321adastra’,” He conceded with a sigh.

“Sweet,” She input the password rapidly, with Reg’s entertainment center lighting up as the wall displayed the title screen of the game Netken.

Reg set down the study material and made his way over to the couch as well. Ellen navigated the menus until she pulled up Cometman on the character select screen. He folded his arms and scowled.

“You really think you’ve studied enough?” He asked.

“Oh come on! Yes!” She groaned, rolling her eyes, “I can just retake it if I don’t! It’ll be fine!”

“Really?” He scoffed, “Maybe Reg should quiz you to prove it.”

She glared at Reg, daring him to make a move. Reg jumped back a little.

“Actually,” He quickly glanced at Cometman and back to Ellen, “That might be a good idea. Answer a question and then you get to do one battle?”

Cometman nodded in agreement and Ellen begrudgingly agreed. Reg sighed and picked the study materials back up, pulling up a list of questions.

“Ok, let’s start with an easy one,” He read, “Who invented Brother Band?”

“Lan Hikari, everyone knows that one,” She answered, already entering into a match before hearing if she was correct or not.

“Well not just- nevermind,” He faltered, then rallied, digging into the material to find a tougher question.

The match ended with a swift victory for Ellen, with her hovering over the ‘next match’ button in tense anticipation.

“Ok, how about this, what were the consequences of the Treaty of the United Coalition of Netfrican States?” He asked, a little smugly.

“Uh, what?” Ellen blinked rapidly, getting thrown for a loop, “Greater trade? Something like that.”

“Yeah? And?”

“I don’t know! Less fighting!?”

“Yes actually. It was signed post Brother Band. Practically anything that quiz asks post Brother Band you can answer with ‘less fighting’.” Reg explained, scrolling through the study material.

Ellen stared at nothing for a bit, untensing her shoulders, “Brother Band shaped a lot of modern life, huh.”

Reg paused his scrolling and looked over at her, she had a distant look on.

“Makes you wonder,” She said softly, “About now.”

It was a question on everyone’s mind, but not one that sparked any serious emotions.

“There are plans to repair it,” He reassured; he had insider knowledge about NAXA’s plans about that, but with the restructuring going on, who knows how long it was going to take now.

“That thing is old! I’m surprised it’s still sending out signals,” She gave a half hearted chuckle.

“Yeah, the Net Reset did a number on it, huh?” Reg filled in the blanks.

Ellen gripped her controller, continuing to the next match, “If I get my hands on that idiot who decided to do that…”

She operated that match with a particularly intense focus on close range grapples. She won, barely.

Back on the match select screen, Cometman looked concerned, “Didn’t that happen a hundred years ago? Anyone who was alive back then would be dead by now, right? Humans don’t live that long.”

“Well actually,” Reg got ready to explain, then caught sight of Ellen looking like she was about to boil over with rage and sheepishly retreated.

She growled, “Ciel Hikari, miss Net Reset herself, is still alive thanks to modern medicine and I guess spite.” She spat that final word out.

Spite seemed to be a powerful motivator, but he dare not mention that in this context, he liked having friends and being alive.

“She wouldn’t actually hurt an old lady, right?” Silver asked.

“I dunno, maybe!” Ellen shrugged aggressively.

“Oh right she can hear me…” Silver chuckled apprehensively.

“We can’t get too mad at her, she saved the world,” Reg stated, concerned.

“Did she!?” Ellen snapped, whipping around and glaring straight at him.

Just then the doorbell rang, alerting Reg’s mom. A moment later she opened the back door and rolled through to answer it. On the other side was Eni, looking as bored as ever, and behind him was a stately woman, dressed sharply in blacks and whites, with large sunglasses.

“Hello, it is I, Akemi Ijuuin, dropping off my wonderful magnificent son Eni for his scheduled play session with your son,” The woman spoke with a voice that was somehow both full of emotion and deadpanned.

“Oh! Mrs. Ijuuin, so good to see you! Come on in!” Reg’s mom sang.

“I must turn down your humble hospitality for I have business to attend to, but do not be concerned, for I have looked at your proposed plans for the twenty-ninth and have found the scheduling agreeable. I will formally reply to your message at my earliest convenience, outlining all the necessary details for this delightful encounter you have planned.” Mrs. Ijuuin nodded once.

“Oh good! I’m so excited!”

“Indeed. But I shall not let myself get too distracted by a lovely conversation, I must leave for now. I will return at five pm on the dot to pick up my dear star Eni. If you would like to extend that time, do not hesitate to contact me.”

“Sure thing!”

“If that is everything then I shall take my leave. Eni, dear, if you need anything at all, call me and you will not be left wanting, I assure you of this with my whole heart. I love you,” She patted his head once, gave a quick wave, and then walked off briskly.

Eni waved her off and then walked inside Reg’s apartment. Reg’s mom led him in showing him around the place. Ellen and Reg both continued to stare at the now shut door with their jaws on the floor.

“Dude,” Ellen said, “what is up with Eni’s family!?”

“He’s gonna have to tell you that,” Reg sighed.

Eni walked up to the two of them and sat down on a nearby ottoman.

“Sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” He said, “My moms are both very busy lately.”

“It’s fine,” Reg reassured, “You didn’t miss much, we were just studying.”

“Well then,” His mom spoke up, “I’ll let you kids get back to it. I’ll be outside if you need anything.”

They all waited till his mom was securely outside before saying anything.

“Dude your mom is intense!” Ellen said.

“She is,” Eni looked away, “But she means every word she says.”

“That’s wild, you know that right?” Ellen fell back in her seat.

“How is sincerity ‘wild’?” He asked.

“It isn’t. Whatever, anyways,” Ellen waved her hand about, “I’m Ellen, nice to meet you in person.”

“Yes, nice to meet you too,” Eni responded, “How has studying been going?”

“Uh, well,” Reg sheepishly looked between the study material, the screen, and Ellen.

“I studied enough,” She stated firmly, “We’re moving onto training.”

“I was curious about that,” Eni wondered, “How do you propose we train?”

“Well Mr. Ichigo here can rematch me and Cometman using his weird net powers that he refuses to elaborate on,” She pointed vaguely at Eni, then turned to Reg, “And you can use Netken’s VR fighter feature to participate.”

Just as he asked her to elaborate, she had already moved onto setting up the training stage. Reg went to grab his brand new VR gear and put them on. By the time he was ready, Ellen had made a custom avatar for him to use that looked like a fairly standard looking fighter covered head to toe in one solid blue color.

“This’ll work for now,” Ellen smiled proudly at her art.

“Why is it all blue,” Reg asked, annoyed at the thought of having to use it.

“Well, what’s your favorite color?” Ellen asked back.

“...Blue,” He replied.

Ellen shrugged and tossed her hands about, “Anyways! Let’s get on with it! I wanna fight!”

Reg gave Eni a tired look, hoping for sympathy, and received a blank stare back before he turned his focus to the fighting screen instead. Reg sighed, Eni remained inscrutable as ever. He may never understand him.

He tapped the side of his VR goggles, launching the game. A gridded, gray training arena appeared before his eyes. He turned around and oriented himself in the barren space, getting used to the appearance of his chunky blue virtual armor. A view of the living room hung like a wide window on one side, showing the three teens on the other side, with Reg feeling an odd disconnect as he saw his own body standing exactly mirrored to how he felt he was standing.

It didn’t take long for Cometman to appear with a bright flash and the words ‘Player One’ floating above him. Reg had never gotten a good look at him before, only really seeing him in person during that fight with that boar virus, but Cometman seemed huge. He was probably no taller than an adult male, but his armor made his shoulders look massive. He looked down at Reg and offered a small wave.

Reg waved back and heard Ellen snicker. He turned to the view of the living room and questioned what she was doing using his arms, his body doing the same motion in his peripheral vision.

“Rela~ax,” She waved a hand dismissively, “It’s just funny watching you wave in the game and in real life at the same time.”

Reg grumbled a little and turned back when he heard Cometman let out a single chuckle.

“She laughs at everything, doesn’t she?” He said, arms crossed and looking at the window beside them.

Reg thought about this, recalling all the times he’s heard Ellen erupt in rancorous laughter since meeting her three days ago.

“Wait, you’ve only known her for-” Reg started.

“Two days,” Cometman finished the thought.

Reg peered at him, tilting his head slightly. In this virtual space, Cometman looked fully 3D, and because of that, more real. There were small movements to the Navi’s face, little shiftings in his arms and hands, and eyes that focused on something right in front of him. Reg was struck once again with the uncanny feeling that the being before him was as human as he was.

“I mean, that much is obvious right?” Cometman smirked and focused on Reg, “We talked a lot yesterday, but it doesn’t take an expert on humanity to see that.”

“No, yeah, you’re right,” Reg conceded with a smile.

“What are you two talking about?” Ellen grumbled beside him.

“We’re just talking about you,” Cometman hollered.

Ellen replied with another grumble just as another flash of light came up beside them in the virtual space, this one odd and flashing red occasionally.

“There we are!” One’s chipper voice came through as he manifested in the space, “Took a while to figure out how to get into here. The local net is a bit different than the wider internet!”

Cometman huffed, “You must be One, glad to finally meet another Navi.” He offered his hand to shake.

“Indeed it is!” One shook his hand firmly, then stepped back, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Cometman.”

Reg watched the red and black Navi carefully, his movements were quick and precise. While Cometman tended to use big movements and swing his arms around for emphasis, One moved deliberately, but not stiffly. It reminded him of nature documentaries of cobras. One turned to Reg and looked at him with kind eyes.

“How are you doing after yesterday’s fight?” He asked pleasantly.

Reg jumped a little, “Oh, uh, I’m still a little sore, but, I’m doing much better. Thanks for asking!”

“That’s good to hear!” One replied cheerfully.

“Ugh, are you guys done talking?” Ellen groaned.

“Oh! Can I join in too?” Silver chirped, then Ellen groaned again.

“I don’t see why not…” Eni mumbled to Ellen.

“Yeah, go for it Silver,” Reg nodded.

Silver cheered and Reg heard some strange noise come from both the world around him and inside the game, then a confused noise coming from them.

“Huh?” They whined, “Why isn’t this working?”

The strange noise came again with Cometman looking uncomfortable and One narrowing his eyes in contemplation.

“It seems to me that Silver simply does not have a form that is readable by this game’s programming,” One pondered aloud, “It’s as if the game is trying to read them as audio or something else.”

“You got that from all that noise?” Cometman grumbled, uncovering the sides of his head.

“Noise is just another form of data,” One shrugged.

“Aw man! What’s the point of being an ultimate adaptability program if I can’t even play video games!” Silver whined loudly.

Reg chuckled, “Nobody can do everything, Silver. If I had to guess, your adaptability involves specialization, meaning, as you get adaptations in one thing, that means you’re losing out on other abilities. Like, you can’t be the best at flying and swimming, you gotta choose one.”

“La~ame!!” Silver cried out for an exaggerated amount of time.

“Aw come on lil guy,” Ellen grinned, “I bet Netken just can’t render you cause you’re just that cute!”

Silver gasped, “You think so?! Reg! I have to get ugly, I wanna punch you!”

Reg laughed while the two Navis watched his clunky avatar wiggle about in place.

“Would love it if that mic was tuned to pick up on Silver’s voice,” Cometman griped, “Dying to know what’s so funny over here.”

“Sorry!” Reg sobered quickly, straightening himself.

“I’m gonna press start, you guys have at it,” Ellen said, just as the game’s intro battle text appeared before them reading, ‘Battle Routine Set!’ and then, ‘Execute!’ to indicate the match starting.

The three fighters dashed away from each other immediately, eyeing each other up and pausing just long enough for Reg to think he could say something. The two Navis wordlessly turned on him and charged.

“W-Wait! Why me?!” Reg scampered in place, throwing up his hands to guard himself.

“You’re the one who needs training the most,” One said clinically, slashing his sword down at him.

As Reg deflected and backed away, Cometman appeared next to him, unchained mace in hand, ready to slam it into his side, “Honestly, I’ve been a bit eager to fight you, Reg.”

“And!” Ellen interjected, “When we finish you off, me and One can have a proper rematch!”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” He was able to say before getting nailed in the stomach by Cometman, his undersuit angrily buzzing at the site of the blow.

“It’d be a good idea to learn how to fight back, Reg,” One stated.

“Or at least, dodge,” Cometman quipped.

They coordinated an attack that caused Reg to back up directly into One’s sword slice, making his entire body shake with the haptic feedback. Reg threw up his guard and watched his two opponents as they continued their relentless assault. He blocked one of Cometman’s strikes and pointed his busters at One, firing two- no, only one- blast that he leaned to the side to dodge, casually sliding into an attack aimed straight for the torso.

“Oh sorry,” Ellen remarked cheekily, “I didn’t have enough time to customize your fighter. You’ve just got the one default buster.”

Reg groaned, pulling up his buster once more to fire at One, only for chains to wrap around him and toss his flailing avatar around while his physical body remained mostly stationary. He was going to puke.

“Stop!” He cried out, removing his VR goggles, but still keeping his eyes closed tightly, “This is unfair.”

“I have to agree,” One affirmed, “This is like throwing a child into the pits of the Undernet. No one could possibly learn well under these conditions.”

“I did,” Ellen huffed.

“Not everyone is as stubborn as you, Ellen,” Cometman sassed.

“Ugh, you make it sound like it’s a bad thing,” Ellen hissed.

“Are you ok, Reg?” Eni asked quietly.

Reg sighed, then nodded, “Cometman’s grapple made me sick. VR tech has come a long way, but you still can’t make someone physically there in the digital world.”

“Yeah I heard that any start up that tries to link brains to a digital place gets shut down soon after,” Ellen speculated, “They say it’s too dangerous, feedback and what not, but I bet there’s something else going on.”

She turned to Eni who immediately recoiled at the sudden attention, “Why are you looking at me?”

Ellen tilted her head, “Cause I’m including you in on the conversation?”

“Oh, um, ok. Good,” Eni responded, averting his eyes.

“So how are you going to train?” Silver wondered, “Have Ellen pick you up when you get grappled?”

“No,” Reg objected.

“Hey I could! You don’t know!” Ellen countered, getting up from her seat.

“No!” Reg threw up a hand, “No we are not doing that!”

“Boo!” Ellen jeered, with Silver joining in on the heckling.

Eni stared at Ellen and then looked at Reg, “Are you guys really friends?”

“Hey!” Ellen whipped around, “We are friends! Forged in the fires of combat!”

“Sometimes friends mess with each other, Eni,” One commented, “It’s just another way friendship can be.”

Ellen narrowed her eyes at One, “Say, you’re pretty wise for a Navi who’s just, what, a couple months old?”

“About six months,” He shrugged pleasantly.

She glared venomously at him, scanning him for any tells for lying. Not that she knew of any in the first place.

Reg snorted and placed his VR goggles back on. The three fighters took turns duking it out, with a clear hierarchy emerging. Reg with his lack of experience, both in game and in general, needed his opponents to go slow and telegraph their attacks for him to stand a chance. The fights between Cometman and One, however, were on a whole different level, with the two clashing violently in a tempestuous fury, digital sparks painting the battlefield like the New Year’s sky. Reg’s front row view made it all the more impactful; he could really tell why Ellen enjoyed this game.

The two Navi’s fights were short at first, with One claiming victory each time, but as their matches continued, each one grew longer, making them each a little less decisive than before. Reg wasn’t the only one improving today. After a while, Reg got exhausted and retired for the day, flopping onto the couch to watch the two tireless Navis exchange blows.

This continued for much longer than anyone realized and soon enough, the sound of the back door opening snapped everyone to attention. Ellen with her finely honed reflexes was able to pause the game before Reg’s mom could see the screen and dare speculate.

“Hey kids, hope I’m not interrupting something, just wanted to see how things were going!” His mom rolled in.

“We’re fine Mrs. Garret!” Ellen called back.

His mom gave him a look.

“It’s fine mom,” Reg conceded, fidgeting with his goggles in his hands, “They already know.”

“Well, they’re not supposed to know, it's a secret,” His mom glared at all three of the teens, but especially her son.

“We know what?” Ellen mumbled, clueless.

“The moon. Stuff,” Reg grumbled his reply.

“Oh that, yeah no. Wasn’t planning on telling anyone ever,” Ellen scoffed.

“Me either,” Eni reassured politely.

“Good, cause you kids know there are consequences if you do, right?” His mom gave them all a motherly wrathful look.

“Yes ma’am,” Everyone responded in unison.

“Wonderful!” His mom turned right back to her usual cheerful demeanor, “I came in to ask what you kids wanted for dinner! It’s difficult for me to cook right now so we’ll just be ordering delivery.”

“Oh I could go for anything!” Ellen squealed.

“Spaghetti,” Eni replied.

“I’m also fine with anything,” Reg made sure to answer last.

“Hmm, I know of a good place that serves a lovely cajun pasta,” His mom chirped, “BeeBee’s! We had it just before Reg’s recent birthday!”

Reg’s mind was awash with memories of the spices and fragrance of that meal. He couldn’t say no.

“Reg,” Ellen leaned over, her voice intoned with a grave presence, “You had a recent birthday?”

He snapped back to the present, “It was before I met you!”

“It was ten days ago,” His mom added pleasantly, cheerfully, knowingly.

“That’s close enough!” Ellen gasped, “Reg, what do you wanna do for your birthday!” It wasn’t a question.

Reg jumped in surprise, “We… Already celebrated it though?”

“Oh projected confetti and a quantum relay aren’t much for a birthday,” His mom smiled, “You deserve something bigger!”

“N-No, I-I-” He struggled to form a coherent thought, turning to Eni.

“I agree, you deserve a birthday party. I think it’ll be fun,” Eni agreed traitorously.

“I think you’re just gonna have to accept that people love you and want to do things for you, Reg,” Silver snickered.

Reg’s vision blurred and the world faded into a muffled buzz like a dark flashbomb went off in front of him. He could barely feel the couch underneath his fingertips as the thought of more people doing more things just for him pounded into his skull. He could hardly breathe.

“What’s someplace you’ve always wanted to go?” Eni’s voice found its way through despite it all.

Reg was back in his living room, thinking of all the places he had heard about, images of clear blue skies and clearer blue waters with all manner of marine life thriving in it floated around in his head. He would need to suggest something more practical, more closeby.

“The aquarium…” He whispered, half aware he did so and quickly realized he said that aloud.

“I had a feeling,” His mom cooed coyly, “Choose something else for now, I have something special in mind for that.”

“What,” Reg punctuated grimly. He tried to read his mom’s expression but she wore it too well. Something was being planned and he didn’t like the sound of it.

“If I remember correctly,” Eni recalled, “The Spacity Zoo has its own smaller aquarium if you want to go there. They do birthday parties.”

“Please no actual birthday parties,” Reg sighed. The zoo idea wasn’t bad though, he had to admit. Maybe he should take Dr. Goddard’s advice here and do something a little selfish for once. The idea of a calm day just wandering through a zoo, looking at all the animals with his friends, it actually made him smile.

“I think that’s a fantastic idea! Just say the word and I’ll buy everyone tickets!” His mom cheered.

“That's so nice of you Mrs. Garret!” Ellen said gratefully.

“We can make it a full day event, and afterwards you kids are free to spend the night here! A proper birthday sleepover!” His mom declared, clapping her hands together.

Ellen faltered, “Oh, I don't have-”

“Let me get you, all of you, some sleeping bags! And pillows, oh! And toiletries!” His mom listed, making notes on her mobile rapidly.

“You don't have to do that for me. I have my own,” Eni raised a hand.

“I can do that!” She tapped away at her mobile, “And it's really no problem, I'm happy to buy all these things for you, NAXA owes us a lot!”

Reg grimaced. He couldn't disagree with that.

His mom got everyone’s food order and hammered out the timing for Reg’s second birthday celebration. Everyone enjoyed the dinner, with his mom taking the opportunity to recount tales from Argent about Reg growing up. He listened politely, appreciative that his mom was choosing less embarrassing stories. He bet she was actually grateful that their little family secret was out, at least to these two, so that she could finally share these stories with more than just the people who were there when it happened.

Eni didn’t seem to have any reaction to the stories, but was nonetheless present and attentive. Ellen looked like she was holding back a torrent of laughter, every ounce of her weathering an internal storm as a strained smile was all that was between a peaceful dinner and an unyieldingly disruptive experience. Cometman would be proud.

Eni stayed for a little longer than scheduled, enjoying the stories apparently. Once his eccentric mom came back to pick him up, a quiet energy fell over everyone as if the life of the party had taken their leave, which surely could not have been the case. Reg’s mom left the other teens to themselves, allowing Ellen to stay however long she wished. And Ellen seemed to be taking a lot of that time silently boiling over with frantic, curious energy.

In the middle of a cool nature documentary about frogs that Reg had chosen to watch, Ellen couldn’t hold herself back and pounced on the burning question tumbling through her mind.

“Does your mom know?” She asked, hunkering down into a prime gossiping position.

“Does my-” Reg pulled his attention from the screen, “What?”

“You know, about this?” She hissed, rolling her hand as if that’d help specify, “About your… Fighting stuff?”

“Oh,” He slowly sank into his seat, “No. I haven’t told her.”

“Ok good.”

“W-Why?”

“Because what if she tells you to stop or something?” She shrugged, “We’re like, the only people who can fight the virus attacks, so we can’t have our parents stopping that.”

Reg ran through the scenario in his mind, all the various ways to bring up this news to his mom. He wanted to tell her, some gnawing feeling in his stomach was begging to be set free so that one of the closest people in his life could support him better. The hypothetical consequences caused him to reconsider. A lot.

“Do you even know what it is?” Ellen asked a little bit brighter.

“My… ‘Fighting stuff’? No,” Reg shook his head, “If I had to guess, it’s something like wave changing, but that involved combining with an EM being. And I… Don’t do that.”

“Eh, semantics,” She said like she had heard that word used but didn’t know what it meant, “You don’t even say the thing! You know! Transcode! And then your name!”

“That would only work if that Satella satellite was working,” He tilted his head in thought, “And that was only cause you had to register with the Satella Police to do that.”

“Oh man! Does that mean you’re fighting viruses illegally?!” She whispered with a smiling grimace.

“No! I–!” He scrambled in his seat, “No one’s wave changed in a hundred years! Those laws are defunct, probably?! Whatever. We’re not doing anything bad either!”

She shrugged, “That’s up to the law to decide.”

He groaned.

“Anyways! What are you gonna call yourself?” She asked, giddy with devious excitement.

“Reg?” Reg responded, pointing to himself.

“No. Your superhero name,” She rolled her eyes, pointing towards him flippantly, “Your name, your tonfas, your attacks, your catchphrase, they’ve all gotta be flashy and cool.”

“My- What? Tonfas?”

“Your weapons?” She held up her arm and pointed to where those weapons of his would be along the arm.

“They have a name?” He stared at her and then his hands.

Ellen sighed theatrically, “What would you do without me, Megaman.”

“Don’t,” He deflated, holding his head in his hand, “call me that.”

“Oh?” Silver floated in, saying coyly, “Is there something about that name?”

“Don’t you start,” Reg pointed to the little guy.

Ellen grinned devilishly and flipped on her visualizer, “I dunno, that’s what news places and the forums are calling you.”

“I know,” He covered his face.

“Well, you got any ideas? Regaman?” She flopped back against the couch.

“That’s worse,” He grumbled, “I’d rather just stay out of the spotlight, and coming up with all these names for things… It’s not fun for me. Can we talk about anything else?”

She scowled, disappointed, then narrowed her eyes as a thought crossed her mind.

“Let's talk about Eni,” She jabbed a finger towards him.

He was immediately thrown off guard, “Huh?! I just met him too! There's not much to say about him!” He lied as best he could.

“Nah man,” She flipped her pointed hand palm up, pointing at him again, smugly, “You fought something huge with him and came back all friendly. I'd bet something big happened in that fight, some dramatic reveal! Come on man, fill me in! We're a team!”

Reg scowled, “I'm not saying anything. If he's got something he needs to tell you, he'll tell you.”

“Fine,” She tossed her hand back into a shrug, “But don't you find this all a little suspicious?”

He continued to scowl and glanced at Silver who looked between them with concern.

“Eni's on our side, he just wants to do the right thing,” He glared back at Ellen.

“Do we really know that?” She crossed her arms, staring down at him, “He shows up with a Navi that he's had for months, a Navi that somehow didn't run into Vile, is incredibly powerful, and doesn't need an operator at all! Eni wasn't even doing anything in Netken! That was all One! Don't you find all of that extremely suspicious? There's something going on with that kid, I swear.”

Reg didn't want to suspect Eni of anything, but Ellen had a point; One was an enigma. There seemed more to him than Reg initially thought, and for a simple Navi that was just a couple of months old, things just didn't add up.

“I have to agree,” Cometman said from Ellen's arm, “Fighting that guy gave off the impression that I was fighting a seasoned veteran. Like one of the diamond ranked fighters of Netken.”

“Yeah, exactly!” Ellen agreed.

Reg's scowl deepened, “I don't like talking about friends like this.”

“He has yet to prove that he's a friend to me!” She scoffed, and scowled, “Especially One.”

“They're both good people,” Reg stated firmly.

Ellen looked at Reg, eyeing his stalwart defense and sighed, “Fine. I won't distrust them too hard. In any case, I should be heading home about now.”

“Aww!” Silver cooed, “I'm sorry you gotta go!”

“Pfft, don't worry about it, I'll see you tomorrow lil guy!” She cooed back, getting up from her seat in one big swing of her legs, “Well, thanks for helping me study and the food.”

“Yeah,” Reg huffed, getting up as well, “Thanks for tolerating those stories about me as a kid.”

“Are you kidding me?! Those were great!” She giggled, heading to the front door.

“Really? Then I'm glad you had fun,” He opened the door for her.

She stepped through, but lingered at the threshold, “Reg… I…”

He tried to catch a view of her face, but she seemed distant at that moment.

She looked back over her shoulder, “I want us to all work well as a team so… I'm choosing to trust Eni cause you trust him. Alright?”

Reg softened, smiling a little, “Yeah. Thank you, Ellen. See you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow!” She echoed, waving behind her as she walked off into the hallway.

He closed the door behind her and let out a tense sigh.

“What are we gonna do, Reg?” Silver asked, brows furrowed.

“We gotta get Eni to talk to Ellen. Tomorrow. The sooner they get this all straightened out, the better,” He ran his fingers through his scalp.

“You mean, him telling her about that Hikari thing of his?” Silver hummed.

Reg nodded.

He went back to his room and got ready for bed, completely exhausted from training and the massive amount of social interactions he had that day.

On the other side of the door, Ellen stood frozen, her visualizer still absentmindedly switched on, reeling. It didn't matter that the walls blocked most of it, the signal was clear enough at the worst moment. She clenched her fists and sucked in a rageful breath. She had heard that damned name.

Chapter Text

The next day came like it took months for Ellen. Like time had taken twice as long to get there. She was restless; unable to sleep as her brain burned through a gnawing rage. Cometman had told her to “just not worry about it”, but how could she not? To be this close to something she hated was going to eat her alive.

She didn’t mean to lie when she said she was going to sleep that night. She meant to sleep. It just never came.

And now she was here, taking a tram to the zoo like she was approaching the final boss instead of the joyful trip it was supposed to be. And she was late.

She left the apartment telling her mom she was going to hang out with friends today right at the last moment possible. Good god was her mom pissed. Didn’t help that she didn't do as good on her competency test than she thought she would. Her mom wanted her sitting down in her room, studying for a retake.

That wasn't happening. Ellen was miles away fuming over her own problems.

Of course Eni was a Hikari! That hair, that face, and the fact he had a Navi somehow, all stank of a Hikari. She was kicking herself for not recognizing the signs sooner. She wondered if Reg cared, probably not, Hikari apologist that he is.

When the tram finally made it to the station she was simmering in rage, ready to explode on the first available outlet. Reg was standing there patiently waiting. And no Eni.

“Hey,” She huffed, chewing her cheek as she stepped out of the tram.

“Hey Ellen!” Reg trotted up, cheerfully waving, “My mom wanted to pick up a souvenir before we went inside, so she's off doing that right now.”

“Where's Eni?” Ellen asked, barely keeping her anger at bay.

“He's coming,” He sighed, “One of his moms is dropping him off, but apparently she got held up by a coaching session that went late this morning.”

“At 9 in the morning,” She rolled her eyes.

Reg shrugged.

It quickly dawned on her the serendipity of the moment. She could easily force Reg's hand and get him to spill what he knew about Eni. Confront him for being so friendly with the enemy.

She took in a deep breath and-

“I'm excited to see animals!” Silver chirped.

Oh right she still had her visualizer tuned to their frequency. Regardless, she could-

“Me too, we haven't seen much wildlife since coming to Earth,” Reg responded, not facing them to not seem suspicious, “Though, it's not like we've really been looking for any.”

“I wanna see one of those whale things you like!” They declared cheerily.

She couldn't. It wasn't the right time, or something. She chewed her cheek some more.

“They aren't going to have whales here,” Reg sighed, “They need a lot of space and water to be happy.”

“Like you!” They piped.

Reg balked, face half pink, “N-No!”

Silver giggled madly and Reg desperately had to pretend he wasn't haunted by the world's goofiest ghost.

Despite her exhaustion, she cracked a smile; these two stooges bounced off each other like a tennis match. She had to hold her tongue today. Reg was going to have the best damn birthday party today and she was going to make certain of it.

Reg's mom rolled back to them, souvenir parasol in hand, “Oh hello there Ellen, so glad you could make it! Take a look at this thing!”

She held the parasol out, opening it and pressing a button that released sparkles of light along with patterns of flowers on the underside that rotated slowly.

“They used to sell these when I was a kid, but they were more robust back then,” She hummed, turning the souvenir around, “I'd bet the shoddy soldering on this thing won't last a month. But! Nothing I can't fix.”

She happily hummed a tune as she attached the parasol to her wheelchair, keeping her hands free to move.

“It looks great!” Reg grinned.

“Thank you!” She sang back.

After a pleasant silent few seconds, the low hum of an approaching vehicle caught their attention. It was some slick, luxury style hovercar that slowly pulled into the drop off location. Stepping out of it, to no one's surprise, was Eni, who waved to his driver more like he was asking an awkward question than saying goodbye.

A jolly voice from the car responded and then drove off, taking into the sky once they cleared out of the way of pedestrians.

“Sheesh, of course his family can afford a hovercar,” Ellen mumbled under her breath.

“I've never seen one of those,” Reg awed, “I wonder if they use the same gravity shifting system that Argent had…?”

“Likely so!” His mom proposed, “Both are based on the same particle system.”

“Those must be expensive then,” Reg grimaced a little, looking like he was doing the accounting work for a casino.

Eni trotted up, clutching the shoulder strap on his cross body backpack, quietly apologizing for his lateness.

“It's fine! We weren't waiting long,” Reg reassured.

Of course he forgave him.

Ellen grit her teeth and held her breath; she could confront him about this later. She huffed as quietly as she could.

“Well!” Reg's mom clapped, “Now that we're all here… Let's get our tickets!”

“I can pay for my own,” Eni offered.

“Nope!” Reg's mom piped, “I'm hosting so don't worry about a thing. Anything you want inside I will buy. My treat. If you'd like, I could even give y'all some space; let you explore the zoo just with you and your friends!”

Reg blinked back in mild surprise, and contemplated hesitantly.

“Ok!” Ellen declared. To her it sounded like Reg's mom wanted them to be off on their own, but was just giving them a choice on it, so Ellen was going to decide for the group.

Reg jumped a little, then looked at his mom, “Are you sure that's alright?”

“Yes! It's fine! You kids have fun on your own,” His mom waved reassuringly, “Have Reg pay for things, his account is linked with mine.”

“Wait, how do I pay for things?” He asked, holding up his hands.

“You just have to tap your mobile on the terminal when prompted to, it's that simple,” His mom explained.

“Alright…” Reg scratched the back of his head.

The group approached the zoo entrance gate and Reg’s mom pointed out the terminal to him so he could practice. It was a simple process, but he seemed excited to get to do it. The four of them entered to find massive trees and vegetation growing high above them, casting dappled shadows onto the ground. Hardlight decorations of various critters dressed in traditional Halloween costumes hung in the shaded air.

It all seemed festive and cheery, and Reg looked up in awe like he had never seen anything like this before. Ellen kicked herself for forgetting that that was probably the case.

“Was there anything you were looking to see?” His mom asked next to an electronic display of the entire zoo.

“Well, obviously their aquarium,” Reg chuckled a little, “But I actually would like to see what that is over there first!”

He pointed to an exhibit close to the entrance; something colorful was flying around and from what it sounded like, was making some loud noises too.

“Ok! The zoo looks like it’s been structured so you can wander around and organically see everything pretty easily,” His mom hummed, perusing the map and tracing out routes with her finger.

Reg looked over the map too and lingered around his mom for an odd amount of time. Eventually his mom caught on and told him he could go off on his own. He said bye and ran off, with Eni following behind him.

“See ya Mrs…” Ellen began, then grimaced as she recalled how forbidden that name was to speak.

“Just Rosie is fine!” The woman smiled back, and Ellen couldn’t help but see the ominous aura behind those bright eyes.

“Uh, Mrs. Rosie?”

“Sure, that works for me,” She chirped, then asked gently, “Did you want to join the boys or go off on your own?”

Ellen looked over at the other two already halfway to the exhibit, then back to Reg’s mom.

“If you need some space, there’s plenty here,” She soothed.

Ellen blinked back in surprise, “N-No, it’s fine! I wanna hang out with them!”

She giggled back, “I’m glad! Reg’s lucky to have met you!”

Ellen blushed, nodded, and replied, “Y-Yeah! I’m glad to have met him too!”

Mrs. Rosie kept smiling pleasantly, motherly, unnervingly. Ellen said goodbye and dashed off to catch up to the other two before Reg’s mom could bore into her soul any more.

The boys were standing in front of a large enclosure full of plants and a large branching tree. Two parrots were squawking and hopping about and Reg kept pointing out things and explaining something. Ellen slowly walked up to them, keeping quiet.

“I’m pretty sure those beaks can break most shells around nuts,” He explained, looking down at the ground under the tree, pointing at some discarded shells.

Eni silently listened in, following Reg’s finger to where he was pointing. Ellen kept her distance; she had been to this zoo once before, and while all the animals seemed kinda interesting, they weren’t ever really doing anything. These birds were at least doing something, but even that got boring fast. She desperately wanted to pull out her Game-Xross and fight something, especially after catching a glance of Eni having fun. Seemingly. That boy looked like he was cursed by some witch to be bored for all eternity for stealing her candy or something.

She bit her tongue; she shouldn’t be thinking these things. She sighed and tried to watch the parrots and maybe engage with the world around her.

They continued to flap about and squawk loudly, and Reg too, in his own way.

Ellen sighed and mulled in her own thoughts. The fact Eni was a Hikari crept up in her mind again. How dare he.

It wasn’t his fault, obviously, right? But still. It was one hundred years ago. But still. He was her age, what could he do? But still! The bastard shouldn’t be here. Him and his whole family getting rich off a whole tragedy was sickening. How dare he be happy. Supposedly.

Reg finally turned away from the parrots and began moving on to something else. Ellen followed behind, keeping her distance and kept thinking her poisonous thoughts.

Reg had stopped by another enclosure with two less colorful birds fluffed up and huddled in a corner. He was hunched over the nameplate for them and furiously typed into his mobile. Ellen couldn’t see his face, but was certain his eyes were sparkling.

She sighed quietly. Eni was hovering around Reg close by, but she was distant enough that some people could pass between her and them. She looked at the long row of enclosures and did some quick mental math. She knew they were gonna be at the zoo all day, but they were going to be here all day if this kept going on for much longer.

For fun, she decided to flip on her visualizer. She was met with a view of Silver looking off in the distance, rather concerned. They noticed Ellen and frantically held up a small nub to their mouth, signing to stay quiet. She raised a brow and followed their gaze to find… Something blue? Peaking over the zoo canopy? It looked like a row of gelatinous jars floating in the air with a pair of ribbons that swirled and waved in the breeze.

She glanced back at Silver who gave her a frantic series of gestures, some of which looked like they wanted to take her aside and chat. She turned towards a separate path, a little secluded by some shrubs and Silver dashed behind her.

“We cannot tell him!!” Silver exclaimed.

Ellen pursed her lips, took out her Game-Xross, gave a wink to Cometman who merely looked back at her confused, unhooked her mobile, and held it to her ear.

“Go for it little guy,” She prompted.

“Oh…” Silver cooed calmly, “You did that so it looks like you’re talking on your mobile.”

Ellen winked with a smug grin. Silver nodded pleasantly.

“We CANNOT tell him about that virus!” Silver exclaimed again, dread exuding from every centimeter of their face.

“Looks like we’re on the same page here,” Ellen replied, “I’m not about to ruin Reg’s birthday party with a fight.”

They worried, fretting with their little arms, “I don’t wanna lie to him but… It’s so he can have a nice break for once.”

“And he will,” Ellen declared, a bloodthirsty grin started to creep up on her face, “I’ll make sure of it. Me and Cometman will take care of this one no problem.”

“Won’t it be better if we all work together?” Cometman grumbled quietly on her arm, “Delete it fast and get back to hanging out?”

“Nah,” Ellen scoffed, “Let the boys have their fun. I wanna fight!”

“Thank you Ellen!” Silver beamed, “I’ll do what I do best and keep Reg distracted!”

“Alright lil guy,” She beamed back, holding a finger up close to them, “Sounds like a plan, let’s do this.”

“Yeah!” They slapped her finger, tiny arm phasing straight through.

Silver dashed back to the others, while Ellen stretched out her back, secured her mobile back onto her Game-Xross before Cometman could comment, and headed over in the direction of the virus.

Just her luck, she grinned deviously, this trip wouldn’t be as boring as she thought.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And it says here that the plumage is supposed to help them blend into the hollowed out trees they nest in,” Reg hummed, “I guess they do kinda look like bark?”

“Reg,” Eni remarked a bit hesitantly, “At this rate we won’t see half the zoo by the time of closure.”

“Huh?” Reg glanced up, shocked and reeling.

“If we follow this path to see all the animals we can, we’ll loop around to the front entrance at about 5 pm. 10 pm if we continue at our current rate.” He expanded upon.

“And they close…” Reg faltered, realization hitting him in the gut.

“8 pm,” Eni answered.

“S-Shoot!” Reg clambered to put his mobile away, “I’m sorry I took up so much time just on the birds! Let’s move onto somewhere else-”

Reg looked around him and asked, “Where’s Ellen?”

Silver zoomed into his view and gave their prepared explanation, “She wanted to go see more animals! Said she’ll catch up later!”

“Oh!” Reg jumped a little, pulling out his mobile again, “Lemme message her and we’ll catch up.”

“No uh-!” They intercepted Reg’s view of his mobile, “She uh, wanted you two to have some time to yourselves! Build friendship and stuff!”

“She…?” Reg looked at Silver, baffled, “I guess? Ok? Eni, are you ok with this?”

Eni shrugged, “I wouldn’t mind that.”

“Then let’s do that,” Reg put away his mobile once more, “Let’s head this way, I think I saw that there’s giraffes over there!”

Silver dashed in front of him and waved their tiny arms, “Wait! I think I saw some cooler animals this other way!”

“Cooler than the tallest animal?” Reg tilted his head, leaning over a little to see if he could spot some behind Silver, somehow.

“Yes,” Silver intoned, deadly serious.

“Uh, alright then,” Reg huffed, giving them a small grin, “I trust you.”

Silver pursed their lips. They just had to hope that whatever animal that was around the corner was the coolest ever, so they didn’t have to lie for the fourth time today. But who’s counting?

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellen sat on a bench, eyeing the weird blue virus with her visualizer, unable to make heads nor tails of the thing. The thing didn’t even have a head nor a tail to begin with!

It looked like a chain of jelly jars, with a green dot at the bottom of each of them. The ribbons waved alongside the creature, but didn’t attach anywhere to it. Occasionally it would spew out some blue bubbles that drifted down and popped along the ground, spreading a watery looking area, but they were too small and spread apart for Cometman to materialize onto.

So she had to wait.

Kids much younger than her scampered about screaming. She put her best scowl on to avoid being pestered by them.

“We could just leave, rejoin the others and come back later,” Cometman's voice came through her visualizer quietly.

She looked down at him on her arm and grumbled, then back at the virus. The thing was clearly Aqua type, so one good Elec chip could stun the thing and delete it quickly. Maybe Elec Pulse, something with AOE since the thing looked like it might break off into tiny segments, multi hits were not-

“Ah, here you are!” An obnoxiously cheery voice rang through her visualizer.

She jumped in her seat and whipped her head down to see One waving next to a surprised Cometman.

“What are you doing here?!” She hissed quietly, garnering some looks from the surrounding children, which she glared off.

“Checking up on you,” He replied coolly, “You had wandered off suddenly, so I came to see what had happened.”

“I just want some alone time,” She mumbled, just loud enough for the mic to pick her up.

One eyed her, and then Cometman, who straightened himself tightly under that gaze.

“And what's the virus up to?” One continued his pleasant interrogation.

“It's- Hey!” She snapped back, doing her best to not look like she was arguing with herself in public.

She unhooked her mobile, pulling the same charade, “How do you know about that One, if that's even your real name?!”

One remained unmoved by Ellen's anger, “Silver did yell it aloud.”

“Ugh,” She threw her head back, “They've got such a loud mouth.”

“In any case,” He shrugged, “why don't I help delete this virus so that you can enjoy your time here sooner?”

Ellen watched the virus overhead for a few seconds, roughly estimating how long it’d take to finish building its fighting arena, then glared back down at One.

“How about you start answering some of my questions, One?” She growled.

One, almost as bored looking as Eni, blinked slowly, shrugged, and replied, “Fine. I suppose. What are you curious about?”

“Who are you really?” She narrowed a piercing gaze at him.

“One, Eni's partner,”

She threw her head back in a grumble, “No like! Before that!”

“Whoever I was then is not who I am now,”

“You know what I mean!”

“You're going to have to be more specific so I can answer you properly.”

She pouted, tapping the heel of her foot against the ground rapidly in frustrated thought.

“Ok fine,” She landed on a question, “Eni had said you were made from Navi data he had found. Do you remember anything from before that? Like, in your database, or something?”

She scrutinized him up and down, watching him for any stray movement that would betray his intentions.

“Not really,” One tilted his head, holding his hands behind his back, “Maybe vague recollections, but nothing concrete. Hmm, perhaps the reason why I'm so seemingly wise is that my past is somehow informing my present!”

Ellen raised a brow, screwing her face up, trying to find any slip in One's possible veneer, and found nothing. He looked like the picture perfect example of honesty.

“You too?” Cometman asked softly, a bit shocked.

One faltered like he'd been struck in the back with a water balloon.

“It's like there's memory data that isn't stored properly, right?” Cometman continued, excitedly explaining with his hands.

“Ah, yes,” One straightened himself out, holding his chin, “you're right. It is like that.”

“What memories keep coming up for you?” Cometman asked eagerly.

One paused, looking off into the distance, “The net. Lively as ever. NetNavis running around. Smiles on faces I will never recall…”

Cometman and Ellen were both stunned silent.

“Wow,” Cometman finally awed, “That's so detailed! Usually mine are indescribable or just this one over here.”

He jabbed his thumb in Ellen's direction, which she glared at.

One seemed to be a ghostly presence, silently haunting the area he stood in.

“That's amazing One!” Cometman continued his praise, “The old net… Wow you must have a lot of history in you!”

“I…” One slowly came back to the conversation, “I suppose I do.”

There was an emptiness to him that Ellen focused on. For a guy so full of it, he looked especially… broken.

“Sorry,” She whispered.

The two Navis faced her curiously. Ellen flushed and turned away.

“I… We brought up something that bothered you,” She mumbled quietly, “and I feel bad for interrogating you.”

One's expression softened, “Apology accepted. I get that you'd be curious about me; anyone would. But you don't need to apologize for bringing up those memories. They're only sad because I can never experience them again. But that's ok because I'm here now. I can make new ones. And I'll always be grateful to Eni for giving me the opportunity to do so.”

“That kid…” The quieter tone that she used surprised even her.

“I'll let you in on a little secret about him,” One conspired.

Ellen leaned in, hungry to know more info about her foe.

“Behind that cool exterior of his, he's actually quite the worrywart,” One giggled, “He overthinks everything. And when he does make an impulsive decision, it's usually a bad one! Turns out all that thinking can be practical at times!”

Ellen pursed her lips at an angle, narrowing her gaze at him, “What's your deal red guy? Why are you being so traitorous to your operator?”

One blinked, then hummed, “I thought you were the gossipy type…”

“I'm not.” She spat coldly, “I hate gossip.”

“My mistake,” One put a hand to his chest and bowed a little.

“It's fine…” She waved the topic away with her hand awkwardly as she held her mobile to her ear, still faking a call.

She looked away from her Game-Xross on her lap and back at the watery battlefield growing before her. It looked flooded. If she didn't know any better, she'd mistake the scene in front of her for a community pool.

The air felt humid. Well. More humid than normal, which was hard to do in Spacity.

People passing through the area slowed down, just barely, but to a noticeable degree that the paths people were taking naturally flowed around the slowing location.

Ellen grinned.

“Looks like our stage is set,” She declared, hooking her mobile back in place, standing up and taking a wide stance.

She stared the watery virus down, gripping her Game-Xross as Cometman materialized onto the battlefield.

She whispered excitedly, “Battle Routine Set! Execute!”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Says here that the ancient people of Mu raised herds of these guys thousands of years before the invention of modern agriculture in the Fertile Crescent Valley,” Reg read off his mobile, “Also says that the modern Glyptodon is much smaller in size than its wild Pleistocene relative, probably due to the process of domestication from the people of Mu. Whoa.”

Eni glanced between Reg and the creature in front of them. The animal that Reg described was this sleeping, domed animal that looked like a large squirrel with no fluff on its tail. Reg continued to stare wide eyed at it. He was probably fascinated with it.

But the creature wasn't moving, or doing anything particularly interesting. It stayed in its corner, paws covering its large face. The only thing that indicated it was living was the occasional ear twitch to bat away flies.

Eni looked back at Reg, his facial expression an unchanged pinnacle example of wonder. Eni blinked, Reg remained as odd as ever. He may never understand him.

At some point Reg pulled himself away from his mesmerization, and turned to ask Eni something, but stopped just as the first syllable came out. His joyful expression had fallen, and he was staring at something behind Eni.

Eni followed his gaze to see two adult men with a baby stroller, not an odd sight, and certainly not a sad one either. Eni looked back at Reg, the other boy's smile still hadn’t returned.

“What’s wrong?” Eni asked; he needed to inquire further.

Reg blinked, looking between them and him, “Oh, uh. I just realized. I don't think I have ever seen a baby before. Or really… Any child…”

This was to be expected. Reg was born and raised on a moon colony as its sole experimental offspring. It shouldn't be surprising that he, Ellen, or that baby would be the first time he had seen someone around his age or younger.

Eni studied Reg's face; it had the telltale characteristics of a deep forlorning. Did he want a child? No, that would be stupid. Children are loud and uncooperative. Plus that's not what Reg implied with his words.

He was clearly lonely. Disconnected from everything. Sheltered and distant.

Eni once again felt a kinship to that experience. It was just a year ago that he had come across news about the failing colony and did a deep dive on the topic, in his room, by himself. With no friends to speak to.

He thought about bringing this up, to relate his life to Reg's. To, maybe, show the connections they all shared. But he quickly decided against it. Reg's issues were so much deeper than his. And on top of all of that, Reg was-

“Hey Eni? You ok?” Reg asked, tilting his head a bit.

Eni refocused onto Reg's face, mumbling flatly as always, “Yes, I'm fine.”

“Ok!” He replied cheerily, “I'm done here, was there an animal in particular you wanted to see?”

Eni blinked back in surprise, recalling the map and contemplated which of the locations sparked his interest.

“Perhaps one that is more active?” Eni suggested.

Eni's headphones buzzed with Silver's voice, “Yeah! Something doing something!”

Reg hummed, “Well, it is midday so most of the animals would probably be snoozing til lunch time…”

“I'd like to see one moving,” Eni suggested once more.

“A moving animal's got someplace to be, some need to fulfill. A sleepy, lazy one like this guy is as happy as can be,” Reg pointed to the Glyptodon with his thumb, “A snoozing animal is a successful animal.”

Eni had never considered this, but something struck him as odd, “Do animals not play or move for entertainment?”

Reg wondered about this for a bit, “Well, yes I bet a lot do, though it's kinda hard to ask to make sure, huh?”

Eni wasn't sure how to reply; he didn't have the answer Reg was looking for, but Reg chuckled anyway.

“Besides,” Reg continued soberly, “animals don't exist for our entertainment.”

Where was this coming from? Was it because Eni had said he wanted to see a more active animal? That must be it. Guilt burned in him as he looked at the weird armadillo sleeping soundly before him.

“Is it weird…” Reg mumbled, head fully leaned into his folded arms resting on a fence, “That I relate to these guys?”

Was it that Reg was sleepy? No. That forlorn look had returned. Isolated. Lonely. Disconnected.

“I don't think you're weird,” Eni half lied. At this moment no, but all known evidence pointed to Reg being very not normal at any other instance.

“Thanks,” He mumbled gratefully, his expression softening.

Reg needed cheering up. This was his birthday celebration and yet he was talking about animal philosophy, that can’t be fun for anybody. Eni recalled the map once more, figuring out the closest, sure fire thing to make Reg happy.

“Let’s go to the ocean exhibit,” Eni suggested.

“Now?!” Reg jumped up straight, a smile on his face that he immediately tried to force back.

Eni nodded, “We can spend a couple of hours in there, then meet with everyone for lunch.”

“That sounds perfect!” Silver agreed emphatically.

“Let’s go then!” Reg started heading over, then turned around and reached back to Eni, hand outstretched.

The smile on his face reflected the sun brilliantly. Joy glowed from him. Eni reached out and took Reg’s hand, its warmth was nice in the cool fall air.

Eni was lucky to have been here, alive at this moment, to have met someone who didn't think of him as weird, who he enjoyed the company of. Reg had saved his life, he was his hero.

He thought back to that smile and captured the warmth it inspired in his heart. He hoped that one day he could do the same for someone else, maybe even-

No. These thoughts were counterproductive. This was Reg's day, he couldn't make things about himself. He was fine just supporting Reg, being whatever was needed from him. And all he needed to do today was spend time with a friend.

He really was lucky.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You've gotta be kidding me!” Ellen strained to keep her volume low.

She huddled over her Game-Xross in some little passageway that seemed to be for staff.

“Easy Ellen,” One advised, “Take some time to break down and analyze what happened.”

“And why aren’t you helping?!” She hissed.

“I am. In my own way,” He refuted.

She glared at him, but closed her eyes and threw her head back, thinking how this all went down. She had immediately started the fight with a DestPuls Program Advance, but for some reason, it was absorbed. The little jar shapes sucked in the electricity and stored it in each of their bodies, making all of them look like bulbs with tiny legs.

She had sent Cometman dashing straight into the grouped up virus. That caused it to break apart and release the electricity stored in it, right into Cometman.

The individual bodies of the virus went flying everywhere, some still full of charge, others empty, and all of them flailing about miserably at the situation.

Cometman was fine, injured, but would be ok when he was able to recover. Ellen just had to finish the fight. Somehow.

“Ok so the virus absorbs electricity,” Ellen hummed, keeping an eye on Cometman’s health, “It poses as an Aqua virus and absorbs Elec attacks to shoot right back at opponents…”

She tapped the back of her device in thought, “What if we threw another element at it?”

She navigated her chip menu, loading up each component of a HeatSprd Program Advance. All the parts of the virus would need to be gathered into one area to finish it off nicely in one shot, if only she could wordlessly tell this to Cometman; it was getting awkward trying to pretend to be casual about this in public.

She came out of the staff pathway and peered at the battlefield. Cometman was holding onto his armor, shaking a little, and staring down a small cluster of the little jar virus bodies. Some of them waggled their feet as they struggled to right themselves, while the ones full of electricity either uselessly rolled about, or wobbled on their tiny legs, keeping themselves barely upright.

One body sprang up, and made a run for it, only for Cometman to head it off and herd it back towards the others. Ellen stopped and stared for a while, feeling an odd bit of surprise at the serendipity of all this. As another tiny body ran past him, she quickly made him dash in front of it, and corral it with a couple of others towards an ever growing pile of virus bodies. Cometman glanced at her, a little surprised himself, and she just gave him a wink back.

“So you figured something out I’m assuming,” Cometman huffed as she made him circle around the battlefield, forcing the virus to gather in the center.

She nodded, once, when he looked back at her for her response.

“And I suppose that red guy is still refusing to help for vague reasons,” He tilted his head back, glancing between the Game-Xross and Ellen.

She sighed, nodding back and forth in a ‘boy do you know it’ sort of way.

“Shame,” He shrugged, turning his attention to the final stragglers, “That uppity bastard’s just gonna have to miss out on the fun.”

“I wonder what he'd say if he knew I could hear him,” One observed sharply.

Ellen raised a brow to her Game-Xross’s unwelcome visitor and made a smug face that dared to have him challenge it with action.

One blinked back, bored and not hungry for such low lying bait. Ellen rolled her eyes and refocused on the fight.

Everything was in position. Again. She lined Cometman back up and unleashed the HeatSprd. One arm transformed into a fiery cannon and a torrent of fire burst from it. The empty jars sucked in all the fire data, becoming little bulbs of fire, while the ones with electricity spilled their contents reactively, the attacks canceling each other out. In the aftermath of the massive blanket of flame, no parts of the virus were deleted, but things had changed in a curious way.

Ellen had made a mistake the first round, sending Cometman careening into the charged virus, but now she took her time, observing the virus as it reacted to the attack. The bulb shapes full of fire seemed to eye Cometman warily, all tensely standing like bowling pins anticipating the strike.

She avoided the temptation to barrel in, and instead looked at her chip options once more. It was unlike Netken, which relied on preselected chips activated at a moment’s notice. She had every chip available for her to use that she had to scroll through, make her choices, and then through some enigmatic program, wait for each to load.

Obviously she was going to try another Program Advance, but she carefully considered her options. She wanted to test something, and the passive nature of the virus would probably allow for this. She loaded up a BubSprd chip combo and watched the virus patiently.

Cometman loomed around it like a shark, slowly making his way around the perimeter of the arena. Once the chips indicated they were ready, he glanced at Ellen, gave a sharp nod and got into position. She activated the chips, and Cometman’s arm transformed into a blue cannon, shooting a wave of bubbles that encapsulated the area before him.

Once the bubbles cleared, half of the virus remained. The fire filled parts were gone and the ones that were there were full of bubbles. Ellen giggled, they looked like little bottles of soda.

She grinned devilishly; she had figured out the trick. Cometman looked back at her and smiled. All that was left was to put on the finishing touches and this cake was baked.

She smoothly chose her next set of chips, standing back casually into her secluded alcove.

“Looks like you didn’t need my help anyways,” One prodded coolly.

“You did help, in your own way,” Ellen quoted, then snarked, “Though this would’ve gone faster if you actually did help.”

There was a thoughtful pause, then he insisted, “You didn’t need it. You figured this out on your own.”

Ellen huffed, eyes still forward, her next set of chips ready to activate. She moved Cometman much closer to the wounded virus, lining him up so he faced the widest part of it head on. She wanted to assure him that she had a plan, that sending him this close to the enemy, and in a bad position was all part of it. Instead Cometman calmly stood there, staring down the remaining, bubbling bulbs.

She activated the chips, Cometman’s arm transforming into a large magnet that pulled the remaining virus towards him at a shocking speed. He didn’t falter. Every remaining body of the virus was suddenly enraptured with yellow thunderous light, the bubbles inside each of them boiling and coursing with a cascade of electricity. Each one buzzed, sparked, and fizzed like a fireworks show until they disappeared into fragmented data and away, leaving a singular point of blue light.

Cometman turned back, gave a slight smile and a thumbs up. Ellen was once again struck with an odd feeling; she hadn’t verbally given him a single order, and yet he did what she wanted him to. Like he knew what she was going to do.

She caught sight of Cometman’s proud expression just before he warped back to her Game-Xross and the image of it lingered in her mind. How lucky was she that she had the chance to meet him, this thing she created, now real as she was, that wanted to be her friend, and understood her. Her throat got tight as this weighed on her.

She gently looked down at the screen on her device, Cometman looked back up at her, no One in sight.

“Thank you,” She managed to whisper.

He scoffed with a smile, “No problem. Come on, let’s go back to our friends.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Look at the face of this fish! It’s so wide!” Reg laughed, pointing at a catfish that stared back at them with its big glassy eyes.

“It looks like you when I ask you a hard question!” Silver’s voice crackled through Eni’s headphones.

Eni had to admit, the fish before him did in fact have a wide face. There was probably some logic as to why this was the case and Eni was likely about to learn why soon, with Reg rapidly looking it up on his mobile.

Just then a rumble echoed through the building. Eni recognized it as thunder, not uncommon weather for the season. Reg however, looked around, seemingly to find the source of the sound.

“Have you not-” Eni started to ask, then caught himself. Of course Reg had never experienced a thunderstorm before. Obviously.

Reg hesitated, stammered a bit, and then began walking to the exhibit entrance. Eni followed behind as he stepped outside. The large trees overhead shook in the breeze and small droplets of rain trickled down off their leaves onto the zoo visitors below. Large swathes of people began taking cover under umbrellas and buildings, but Reg walked forward, looking up into the sky.

It was still relatively bright out, and though it was hard to tell with the tree cover, it did not seem all that cloudy. But sometimes rain was just like that. Eni would probably have known why, if he were at all curious about meteorology.

Reg however, continued to stare upward, letting the rain fall on his face. It was not much, but it was enough for Eni to feel a bit of it soak onto his scalp.

One’s voice rang clear through Eni’s headphones, “I’m back!” He cheered, “Ellen defeated the virus. Hopefully you two have been having fun.”

Reg giggled and turned to face Eni, “Hey, do you know if it’s true that you can get sick if you stand in the rain for too long? I wanna stick around here, just for a bit!”

Eni glanced at the ground growing dark with raindrops, then back up, “You’ll probably be fine.”

Reg smiled and looked back up, closing his eyes, letting himself get soaked in the rain.

“Hey! There you two are!” Ellen called out, and Eni spotted her running up to them, hand raised up and waving.

“Ellen!” Reg ran up to meet her, “Did you see the animals you wanted to see?”

“Yeah! I uh,” She wavered, then sighed, “Actually. I was… Fighting a virus, but we beat it so no worries!”

She gave a thumbs up, tongue sticking out of a side smile.

“I know,” Reg shrugged.

“What?!” The voices of both Ellen and Silver overlapped.

“Silver’s got a loud mouth,” Reg smirked, “I figured that if you had any trouble, you’d come get me. But you can just tell me next time, it really is better if we tackle these things together.”

Eni trotted up to the group. Ellen’s eyes were wide and she was likely shocked at this revelation.

“I uh, alright?” She responded, then quickly added, “Oh right! We need Silver to clean up the mess! The little guy’s gotta do their little guy thing and eat the data the virus left!”

“We can do that! And then we can meet up with my mom for lunch! And maybe get towels or something, all this rain is making me cold!” He chuckled.

Just as he said that, the rain began to let up and sunlight peeked through the canopy. Warmth fell on them and the brief rain began to evaporate in the fall breeze. Reg chuckled again and ran off in the direction Ellen just came from, beckoning them to follow. Eni looked at Ellen, the girl who always gave him anger filled looks, though right now she seemed… neutral?

“You heard the guy,” She said to him, “Let’s hop to it, Mega team!”

Ahead of them, Reg balked, “We are not going to be calling ourselves that!”

“Come up with a better one!” She demanded back.

“Moon squad!” Silver suggested.

“No!!” Reg objected.

Eni followed along quietly. His lack of creativity, especially with naming things, prevented his ability to contribute.

“They’re lively aren’t they?” One provided commentary, “It’s nice. I think… It was by some beautiful twist of fate that we all got the chance to meet. Huh, Eni?”

He voiced his agreement quietly. They were all lucky.

Chapter Text

The evening afterwards came quick, with everyone blazing through the zoo during the day until just before its closing time. They all piled onto a city tram and exhaustedly recounted the day to Reg's mom. She eagerly enjoyed hearing everyone's tales, and told everyone about how she met up with the zoo's horticulture expert and had a lovely day with them.

Everyone collapsed upon arrival at Reg's apartment. Tired and sore, it took two entire episodes of mindless cartoons until someone felt rested enough to suggest something more active.

“Alright,” Ellen leaned in conspiratorially, “I think we should do a sleepover classic. Truth or Dare.”

Eni and Reg stared at her, then each other, then back.

“Is that really what happens at a sleepover?” Reg asked, “I thought that was just pop culture stuff.”

Each of them looked between another of the trio, and each of them came to their own realization that none of them had ever been to a sleepover to confirm this.

“Do you just ask each other truths or dares?” Silver asked.

“Yeah, but I'd basically just wanna ask truths, dares are kinda boring,” Ellen shrugged.

“Really, cause I've got a dare for you,” Cometman snarked, “Study for your competency retest!”

Ellen growled, “See?! Boring.”

Cometman laughed, while the two boys looked at each other, concern painting Reg's face.

“You have to retake it?” Eni asked.

Ellen glowered, fury crackling in her eyes, “None of your business.”

Eni backed off instantly, side eyeing Reg.

“Hey, woah, calm down,” Reg said lightly, “Truth or Dare minus Dare kinda sounds fun! Let's try it.”

Eni continued to side eye Reg, “Can I talk to you. Privately.”

Reg blinked back, hesitant, “Yeah, sure?”

He got up from the couch and walked over to his room, with Eni following behind while Ellen was left to sulk.

The moment the door closed, Eni explained as quietly as he could, “I don't think Ellen likes me.”

“W-What?” Reg chuckled sheepishly.

“Forgive me if my assessment is off, but she always seems angry when I'm around her,” Eni continued, looking down and behind as if he could see through the wall at her.

“That's…” Reg sighed; he couldn't lie, especially to a friend, “She's part of the team. We gotta make efforts to understand each other and talk things through. Maybe the Truth game wo-”

“I'm sorry, but no,” Eni said firmly, “She hasn't made an effort to understand me at all. We may have just met, but Reg-”

Eni took a step forward, speaking low, “I know people like her. I've had to deal with people like her my whole life. There's-”

He paused, taking a deep breath, “There's a reason why I don't go to a public school anymore. It's because of petty, gossipy people like her, who would rather pull someone down to make themselves feel better than try to improve anything.”

“Eni, I…” Reg was unsure, he wanted desperately to believe in Ellen, but it was hard to deny the glances he had noticed between them.

Reg gathered himself, “Ellen's a friend, she's doing her-”

“She's your friend,” Eni snapped, somehow maintaining his monotone, which at this moment was cold and threatening to Reg.

“Not yours…” Reg finished Eni's thought.

Eni sighed, backing off.

“I still think we can work through this, if we just talked,” Reg suggested.

“No, and forgive me if this seems rude,” Eni sighed, “But perhaps we both shouldn't be friends with her.”

“We can't do that!” Silver exclaimed, “Ellen's a friend!”

“Right, but,” Reg was adrift, trying to save a sinking ship by himself.

Reg should've had these two talk it out earlier. Guilt boiled within him for forgetting to bring that up today.

“She’s nice-”

“How long have you known her for?” Eni cut him off.

It hadn’t even been a week. Even he knew that was too short to make these judgements.

“Look, she hasn’t done anything mean,” Reg asserted, “She may be loud, but she’s not malicious.”

Eni stared at him with unwavering eyes, “She’s also full of anger, looking for an outlet, and I don’t want it to be me or you. And I don’t think that she’s going to change.”

Reg’s heart stung, memories of Ellen’s outbursts and moments of anger came to mind. And then he remembered her face as she turned around, quietly, at the threshold of his apartment yesterday.

“She trusts me,” Reg asserted once more, “Let me talk to her and get this sorted. I want us all working together, and I think we can do that! We just all need to communicate.”

Eni continued his cold stare, “If she doesn’t, I do not want to work with her. Do you understand me, Reg?”

“Y-Yeah,” He replied. He did understand him. He may not have had the exact circumstances occur to him as Eni, but he could tell that this was important to his friend, and therefore, was something that Reg had to take seriously.

“Then we’re done here,” Eni turned and shuffled towards the door, “I won’t bring this up to her. If her attitude doesn’t improve by the end of this sleepover, I request that you do not invite me whenever she is around in the future.”

With that, he opened the door to Reg’s room and exited to the living room.

Reg had to wonder, was he making himself small to fit in? What should he have said to Eni to fix this? What was he going to say to Ellen?

He stared out the open door, knowing he was going to have to confront this eventually. Not now… He didn't know how yet.

He dreaded reentering the living room, but his legs found some way of bringing him there. Eni had found his way to his seat while Ellen… was quiet.

It took her some time to notice that Reg had come back, and when she did, she slowly glanced at him with a small, cautious smile.

“Oh, hey,” She greeted.

He watched her carefully, like she might strike at any moment, accuse him of conspiracy, and demand justice. Instead, the air was still and cold, like no one was breathing.

“We uh,” She gulped, “We don't have to play Truth or Dare, it's fine! I got a better game! Netken has a campaign mode, one where up to four players can do beat ‘em up style dungeon crawling. It's cooperative so I thought it might be fun!”

“Are you doing alright, Ellen?” Reg asked, processing how out of left field that was as it came out of his mouth.

“Huh?! Yeah I'm fine!” She flummoxed evasively.

“That's good, I'm glad,” He smiled genuinely at her.

“Y-Yeah, me too,” She ventured, then smiled softly back at him.

Reg turned back to the couch to find Eni staring straight at him. He didn't say anything, and averted his eyes. Reg didn't have to ask, he could probably guess what was on Eni's mind. He took his seat and looked over to Ellen.

“If you need to talk to me too, I'm all ears,” He assured.

This was going to work! He was going to be the glue that holds everything together. He was going to make sure of it.

“Oh uh, ok?” Ellen mumbled, uncertainly.

She took her time looking between the two boys, biting her lip and biding her time till someone said something.

The silence choked out all thoughts. Reg's head throbbed in tune with his pulse as the seconds dragged on. The room closed in around him and the floor threatened to swallow him whole.

“How about I just load up Netken?” She asked, breaking the silence like glass.

Reg shot back to the present, unaware of how tightly he was gripping his coveralls around his legs.

“Uh, sounds good!” He replied, untensing his shoulders and releasing his grip.

She explained how to connect to the game using their mobile devices, with Eni only joining in after Reg asked him politely.

The game itself was. Fine. Eni and Reg used prefab characters while One stayed in the back picking off stranglers, but most of the action came from Ellen operating Cometman. She had gone through the stages already and pointed out all the hidden item locations.

Towards the end she was really getting into it; all that tension fizzled away to a sunny expression. However, when Reg took a look at Eni, it was like the whole room was encased in ice.

Finally the exhaustion of the day hit Reg, and he decided to get ready for bed. Ellen elected to sleep on the couch while Eni claimed an air mattress to sleep on the floor of Reg's room.

Reg tucked himself in and felt placid relief as his body was finally allowed to rest. He shut his eyes and the whole world melted away from him.

“I believe I should apologize for what I said about Ellen earlier,” Eni said from the floor.

That brought Reg back to reality.

“I really think you two just need to talk,” Reg insisted.

“No… I think I made a rash judgment about her,” He continued, “Although I would still prefer that I don't get called to fight viruses with her. But maybe she isn't as mean as I expected her to be. I apologize for thinking that she was.”

“Ok,” Reg mumbled, concerned, “I do appreciate that. Ellen's a friend and she cares about us. She's just probably gonna take some getting used to for you. You two are so different.”

“Yeah!” Silver perked up, “I like Ellen, she's funny!”

A heavy pause fell over the two, each mulling on their own perceptions of the loud mouthed girl in the other room.

“Well, goodnight Eni,” Reg turned a little to say, “Thanks for coming to the zoo today.”

“Yes. Goodnight Reg,” Eni replied, the sound of him shifting in his sleeping bag punctuating his sentence.

Reg closed his weighty eyes and instantly fell asleep.

That night, the trio rested well after conquering their first mission together. Reg had a successful birthday party and nothing bad had happened. They felt at peace as they each hoped to build stronger connections with each other tomorrow.

Reg awoke the next morning first, his internal sleep schedule still hardwired into him woke him at seven AM sharp. He, however, wanted to laze about for at least an hour, the exhaustion from yesterday still not finished with him.

He got up anyway, with a plan to keep things smooth between Ellen and Eni. He was going to cook a delicious meal.

He crept down his ladder, through his room, and gingerly opened the door to the living room. There he snuck into the kitchen to begin his new mission. Find out what Ellen was doing in-

“Ellen, what are you doing in here?” Reg hissed, finishing a double-take.

Ellen, who was holding up a carton of eggs and a container of butter, blinked at him, nonplussed, “Making breakfast?”

“No- I was-” He sputtered, “I was gonna make breakfast!”

“Nu-uh, birthday boy,” She chuffed, waggling a finger while still holding the butter, “I'm treating y'all to a breakfast. It's gonna be scrambled eggs cause that's all I know how to make.”

Reg sighed, “There's no reason why we can't both use the kitchen. I was going to make pancakes since I figured they'd be easy to make.”

“You figure?” She asked, setting down her ingredients, “You mean you’ve never tried?”

“The automatic cooker on Argent did all the cooking,” He explained, heading to the pantry to pick out the pancake mix, “We couldn't use anything dry or powdery like this cause it would get caught in the already overly taxed air filters.”

“Wait,” Ellen croaked, her voice filled with dread, “Have you ever cooked at all?”

Reg creaked around, mix in hand, “It can't be that hard?”

Ellen blinked, grabbing around and behind her, “Ok so this is a stove.”

“Yeah I know what a stove is,” He grumbled at her, placing the mix down on the countertop, just to pick it back up again to read the instructions.

She continued her lesson, pointing to the top, “It uses induction to do science stuff to make metal hot to cook the food.”

“Oh so it induces an electric current and opposing magnetic field to heat the metal pan,” He added, taking off his arm wraps and loosening his undersuit to roll them up his arms, “My tools are probably fine, they're titanium and not ferromagnetic. But my suit is a little bit.”

“Wait, that comes off?” Ellen pointed to his bare arms.

“Y-Yes?! Did you think my skin was just dark blue or something?” He countered, going over to the sink to wash his hands.

“Maybe,”

He rolled his eyes and washed. The cold water on his bare skin felt odd. Like a harsh truth or a painful betrayal. Or like water over skin that has never seen the sun.

He dried his hands and shook off those thoughts, grabbing a mixing bowl and oil, grateful that his mom had the foresight to stock the kitchen with all the staples.

He measured out his ingredients like he was back on Argent assisting with chemical reagents. Precision was the key to getting this right.

He leveled the measuring cup's ingredients, getting right at their level to ensure cooking perfection, while Ellen watched, cracking eggs with one hand and splashing them in a hot pan with butter unceremoniously.

He mixed it all with a fork, prepped his pan with oil, and poured, watching as the dough started to bubble.

“Ok,” He paused, holding up his hands like he was going to grab the pancake himself, “How do I flip it?”

Ellen snorted, “With a spatula, you dork?!”

“Huh? But the instructions didn't mention-” He began. It didn't matter. This was common knowledge. Plus it was starting to burn, he could smell it.

He searched high and low for where a spatula could be hiding, knowing his usual set of tools would be woefully inadequate for this situation. He scrambled about while Ellen snickered, fluffing her eggs with a fork.

He shot a glare at her.

“Hey! Calm down, I also have no idea where a spatula is,” She held up a hand.

Just then, his mom rolled into the living room greeting the two of them cheerily, “Good morning! Something smells goo-”

“Mom, where's the spatula?” Reg blurted out.

His mom blinked, “To your right, second drawer from the oven.”

“Thanks!” He exclaimed, bolting to the drawer and grabbing it, immediately flipping the pancake onto its doughy other side, exposing its blackened bottom.

Reg deflated.

Ellen dumped her eggs onto a plate and turned her end of the stove off.

“Aw dang, a bit burned there ain't it?” She smirked, “Don't worry, you can have some of my perfectly cooked eggs.”

He grumbled while Ellen let out a cackle, “Sorry!” She swallowed her laughter, “You'll get the hang of pancakes, I'm sure of it!”

He sighed and finished cooking the pancakes, each improving on technique and shape. His mom and Ellen both sat at the kitchen table, idly chatting about the thing his mom had planned for tomorrow.

Eventually Eni came out of Reg's room, dressed and ready for the day, even though Reg and Ellen were still in their pajamas.

“Do you kids mind if I put on the news?” His mom asked, accessing their entertainment center with her mobile, “Friend of the family, Dr. Goddard is going to be in a presentation! She's been working on something special and secret, but her work is finally getting shown today!”

Reg finally made it to the kitchen table with a stack of progressively better pancakes, “Sure, I'd like to see that too.”

Ellen and Eni shrugged but made no objections, making his mom eagerly change the feed to the big presentation.

Reg served himself some pancakes, making sure to take the most burnt ones for himself, and some now cold eggs. He glanced over at the large screen, showing some commentators speculating about the announcement ahead.

Once the top of the hour was reached, the camera panned to an official looking podium on a wide open stage. Several people filed out, some in suits, some in military uniform, and one in what looked like a cloak. Some of the more military types had odd armor, too close to the body to be worn outside it, meaning they had to be prosthetics.

“Oh there's Violet! Hi!” His mom waved to the screen, giggling.

She was being silly, but she wasn't wrong. Dr. Violet Goddard was among the suited individuals, in file behind the military suited people. Her right arm was covered by the suit.

“Good morning my fellow Netopians,” The lead spokesperson announced at the podium, “Today, we of the Department for Advancing Research and Technology, for the sake of the safety of all Netopians, are proud to present the latest in virus security technology. It has been a week since viruses have begun attacking technology infrastructure in Spacity. We at DART have been hard at work integrating technology to combat this threat.”

The spokesperson gestured to a military uniformed person walking forward, “This technology, in the hands of a trained individual, can be used to delete these threats swiftly without damaging your data.”

The military person, a young man, presented his arm out in front of him. His blue and purple attire reminded Reg of something, but he just couldn't think of what.

“What you see here,” The spokesperson continued, “Is the culmination of years of research.”

Reg's eyes drifted to the back of the room, to the cloaked individual who almost blended into the background. Their blocky black cloak, telescopic goggles on their head, and metal feet unnerved Reg.

“We will now demonstrate the capabilities of this technology,” The spokesperson declared, gesturing to the side of the man on stage.

The young man tossed down a device which unfolded and projected an image of a cube of light, with some sort of yellow creature inside. It had a flat domed helmet with a green plus sign on it; big, nervous eyes; two shiny, sharp claws; and four tiny yellow legs that it balanced on. Reg likened it to a crab and a mettaur, but it was hard to know for sure.

The man on stage flipped his hair and brandished his metal arm with a flourish. The arm folded and expanded slightly, light gathering at the tip of his finger, holding his thumb up like the hammer of a gun. The crab virus startled and panicked, huddling in the corner of the cube.

The man fired.

A short beam shot out from his finger, and he pulled back, clearly pretending it had recoil. The crab virus had been damaged by the shot and rapidly disintegrated. The young man flourished his arm once more, framing it with his other hand, and gave a cheesy grin while doing so. Reg couldn't stop looking at where the virus once stood.

“This,” The spokesperson continued, “is the system we have developed. The Mega System. And we would like to present the person behind many of the virus deletion occurrences across Spacity, Blake Viz, the Megaman.”

Reg dropped his fork.

Some noise was coming from the screen, but all Reg could make out was the sound of the sudden pounding in his head. The blue, the purple, they were trying to capitalize on the rumors surrounding him, and there was nothing he could do. Would he even want to do anything in the first place? It's not like the spotlight suited him, but at the same time…

“This guy's the Megaman?” Ellen scoffed, feigning her ignorance well.

“I know, right?” His mom pondered, “He's a little too full of himself in my opinion. And too tall based on the rumors, if those are to be believed.”

She turned to Reg, “What do you think?”

He fumbled upright, blinking himself back to attention, “I uh,” He stammered, “I think it's wild we're living in an era where there's another Megaman running around. Interesting times, right?”

He chuckled off his apprehension as best he could, then looked at Eni who was narrowing his eyes so sharply at the screen it scared Reg.

“Eni…?” He asked him.

“He doesn't deserve it,” Eni spoke low, almost menacing. Reg shivered.

“What a strange project Violet has been working on,” His mom wondered aloud, “Hopefully it works and we don't have to worry about virus attacks in this day and age.”

“Yeah,” Reg gulped. Despite the stolen goodwill, he really did hope that too.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

His mom had left the group to themselves as she headed to the hospital for another bandage change. Reg was starting to suspect that she was leaving him with his friends this much to get him used to social interactions. It was working, but it did still feel bizarre to not have either of his parents five feet from him at any time.

Ellen had finished her trash talking of the supposed new ‘Megaman’, while Eni was still smoldering about it.

“You know this wouldn’t have happened if you had just come out and claimed the title ‘Megaman’ for yourself earlier, yeah?” Ellen rolled her eyes at Reg.

“That’s not what I want,” Reg grumbled.

What did he want? Yeah marine biology, or whatever, but beyond that. It was a question on his mind a lot, but one he hadn’t given the time to think about.

“You should destroy him,” Eni suggested.

That snapped Reg right out of whatever deep thought was brewing in him.

“Um, no, Eni, I think that’s a bit drastic,” Reg deescalated, holding up a hand.

“You know what you should do,” Ellen circled a finger around Reg, “Confront the guy and winner keeps the title.”

“I don’t want to confront him, we’re on the same side!” Reg objected, “I can just be Megaman 2 or something.”

“So you do wanna be called ‘Megaman’,” Silver snickered.

“Hey I didn’t say that,” Reg refuted.

Ellen rolled her eyes again, “Dude, you really need to get over yourself. Every person on the planet would be calling you the hero if they just knew what you were doing! What’s wrong with the name? Why don’t you like it?”

Reg stammered, he couldn’t just say he didn’t know. That it was just a feeling. That’s not an answer. Lowe, someone who believed in him deeply proposed that name as well, and yet he didn’t feel like he could accept it. It wasn’t just that he didn’t think he deserved it, or wanted to stay out of the public’s attention, it was something else too. If only he could articulate-

“Come on man!” Ellen pressed, “If I had the chance to be the big hero, I’d take it in a heartbeat! What’s holding you back?”

“Ellen,” Eni spat sternly, “It’s clear he doesn’t want to talk about it. Let’s move on.”

“What?!” She growled back at him, “I’m just trying to get Reg to confront things! You were just talking about wanting to destroy that other guy, what gives?!”

“What gives is that you need to back off and calm down,” Eni countered, “You’re making him upset.”

“You mind not speaking for him?!” Ellen raged, whipping around to Reg, “You wanna weigh in here maybe?!”

Reg froze. Dunked into ice water out of his thoughts and back into the conversation.

“I uh,” He reeled, trying to remember what had just been said to him, “I think it’s fine, I just need to think about all this some more. It’s a lot.”

“See? It’s fine!” Ellen sneered at Eni, “Look, if there’s anyone who needs to back off it’s you.”

“Don’t…” Eni started, recoiling into himself.

“Ellen, calm down,” Cometman interjected before Reg could say anything, “What’s going on with you?”

Ellen grumbled, “Nothing’s going on with me. Look I’m sorry I got a little heated, or whatever.”

“Or whatever?” Cometman repeated critically.

“I don’t need this right now, alright?” She whined, “I’ve got a lot going on too. I think Reg’s avoiding big questions and you,” She glared at Eni, “are just going to make him avoid his problems!”

“It’s just a name…” Eni mumbled.

“It’s not just a name, Eni?!” Ellen scowled at him, incredulous, “Of all people you should know that!”

He and Reg stared at her, stunned into silence for a beat.

“What do you mean?” Eni inquired, voice distant.

“Oh, come on, don’t make me say it,” Ellen tossed her head about, then steeled herself with a snarling expression, “You’re a Hikari, big surprise.”

Eni shuddered and retreated, glancing at Reg.

“Ellen,” Reg cautioned, “Where did you hear that?”

“I mean just look at him?!” She tossed her hand at Eni, “That hair, the Navi, the rich family? The bastard-”

“ELLEN,” Reg snapped.

The air in the room went still and time came to a halt. No one dared to move. Ellen could only stare at Reg as he wore a furious expression, growing in rage by the second.

Her face fell. Her eyes dropped to the ground, trying to rewind time with just her silence. She grit her teeth.

“I think you should leave,” Reg demanded.

“I was just about to,” She bolted up, grabbed her stuff, and threw herself out the front door.

The door slammed behind her and the echo it left was the only sound for several minutes.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What an idiot.

She punched the tree again. It hurt. The tree looked no different.

She winced when she inspected her fist. Skin roughed up, no blood, but she’d be feeling that for weeks.

She’d be feeling what she said for a lot longer.

She punched again. The pain was too sharp and she knew it was too much. She didn’t have to look.

She held her arm up and against the tree, leaning her head on it, staring at the forest floor.

This was the place she’d always run to when things were bleak. Let out some steam, get stronger, maybe think about what she’d done wrong. She was wrong. She was stupid and ran her mouth for longer and louder than it needed to be. Like what happens every time she tries to keep friends.

Tears were streaming down her face and only the shuddering from it made her notice them.

It would be blissful to curl up into a ball and disappear. To have never soured this earth with her presence. What was she thinking, being friends with someone as important as Reg. She couldn’t help but compare her quaint life with someone like him, Mr moon hero boy. A superhero. And she ruined it all. She never deserved friends like him.

“Ellen,” Cometman spoke up gently.

“What,” Her reply came out more forcefully than she intended. She grimaced.

There was a noticeably long pause, “Can you tell me what’s going on?”

“Why are you still here?”

“Because I want to be here. Now please, tell me what happened,”

She chewed the inside of her mouth, looking salty, “You were there. You heard it all happen.”

“Humor me. I want to hear it,” He requested.

“I yelled,” Ellen recounted the moment, “I called Eni a name.”

“And then you ran,” Cometman finished.

She growled, “What did you want me to say?! Stand my ground, call them both something nastier?!”

“No,” He huffed, “I wanted to hear your perspective. How that conversation seemed to you.”

“Yeah well,” She huffed back, “How’d that conversation sound to you?”

“Bad,”

“Oh great thanks for the insight, I really appreciate it,” She jeered bitterly.

There was a long pause as Cometman stared agape at her. She bit her tongue and averted her eyes.

“What’s gotten into you? Or is this just how you’ve always been?” He asked quietly.

That drove a dagger twisting and turning into her heart. Cometman didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve her acid spewed at him. What was wrong with her?

She let her head fall down onto the tree, barely leaning against it with her arms dangling at her sides. Tears continued to stream down her face, her nose sniveling a little.

It would be best if Cometman left her. Found a better, kinder operator. Return her back to her normal, empty reality. She was bad, and would always be bad. It was time to accept that.

She lifted her arm to look at the screen. She knew it would be blank, no one would dare stick around when-

She was met with a view of Cometman’s disappointed expression, waiting patiently to be noticed.

“W-Why?” She choked out.

“You’re not scaring me away, especially with a face like that,” He rolled a finger at her.

She sniffed and wiped her face with her other arm, coughing lightly, “All I’ve done today is make a mess of things.”

“Really?” He grumbled, “Cause from my perspective, you’ve been cranky for the past three days.” He held up three fingers.

“Ugh, I have?” She rubbed her face, recalling all the things that have happened; breakfast today, zoo yesterday, meeting Eni the day before…

“There’s been a lot happening, but I think all this started when-”

“When Eni showed up,” She finished the thought. There wasn’t bitterness to this statement either, it was simply fact.

What was it about that boy that pissed her off this much? It couldn’t just be that she held him responsible for stuff his family did a hundred years ago. He was her age, that’d be stupid. Well, maybe she did a little, but that didn’t explain everything.

She imagined his silent, condescending stare glowering down at her, him gloating his intelligence over her, flaunting his money and- That was all just in her head, wasn’t it? Her first assumptions of him made him seem more diabolical than he was. She recalled all the actual interactions she had with him, quiet, inquisitive, straight forward, and he got along really well with Reg, something that sparked a wellspring of rage-

“Oh my god I’m just jealous of their friendship,” Ellen blurted, then growled, pulling her face, “Ugh it’s so obvious! Eni was getting along so well with Reg and I was scared-!” She growled more, rubbing her face like she was switching around all its parts.

Cometman chuckled, “Glad you finally figured it out.”

“What?!” She backed up from the tree, looking at him full of surprise, “Did you know?!”

“No, no no,” He held up a hand placatingly, then smirked, “But it sounds right. Are you going to do anything to fix this?”

She jumped in a panic, grabbing her sleeping bag roll and bolting, “Yeah! I gotta go! Now! Hopefully I can catch that nerd before he leaves!”

She ran through the park woods, kicking up leaves and pine needles in her wake. She’d been an idiot, but right now, she had the chance to fix things. She desperately hoped she wasn’t going to be late, and sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellen finally made it to Reg’s apartment, wheezing and catching her breath briefly before knocking on the door. Reg answered, and before he could chastise anything, she unloaded.

“Hi! Sorry about everything! I messed up real bad, I’ll apologize better later, where’s Eni?! I gotta say sorry to him!” She blurted out, tossing her stuff aside and held out her hands like she was going to receive a football.

Reg blinked back with wide eyes, shook his head and leaned back, “Uh, his mom just picked him up, you might be able to catch him if you-”

“Ok thanks!” She bolted, yelling down the hall as she zoomed off, “Sorry!!”

She ran all the way out of the apartment and to the parking lot, finding a familiar extremely fancy car with Eni heading to the passenger seat.

“Wait!” She exclaimed, using every ounce of breath she had, causing her to kneel forward and wheeze.

Eni turned around, watching her falter cautiously.

“Wait,” She said again, holding up a hand desperately.

“I’m waiting,” He replied, taking a step forward and away from the car.

“I-” She stood upright, meeting his eyes and freezing up.

This was it, her moment of redemption. All she had to do was say the words on her mind, but there was this toxic feeling around her heart. She looked at his face, remembering how she had betrayed it, and it was like she had been cut in half, unable to feel anything from the waist down. Like her body was full of boiling sludge.

She bit her lip and took a sharp breath in, “I’m sorry, I-”

Eni didn’t respond. His neutral gaze shot straight through her and the sludge in her body felt like it was boiling over.

“I shouldn’t have-” She shook her head, letting the words she prepared along the run come to mind, “Eni, I wanted to apologize for what I said earlier. I shouldn’t have called you that and I shouldn’t have snapped at you. You didn’t deserve it. I got angry ‘cause I was scared. And… I’m sorry.”

Eni’s expression softened, to her surprise, and he asked quietly, “You were… scared?”

“Y-Yeah?!” She chuckled apprehensively, “I was scared that you’d become better friends with Reg and I’d… Be all alone again.” She let out a weak laugh.

“So then you yelled and called me a bastard,” He stated.

“C-Come on man!” She exclaimed, “My emotions don’t have to be all logical!”

“It’s fine,” He held up a hand, “I understand, actually.”

Ellen calmed. She set her shoulders back and watched him carefully.

“I need to apologize as well,” He averted his gaze, “I was mistaken about you and should have been more upfront with who I was. I feel as though we would have avoided a lot of drama if I had been more assertive. I should have trusted you, you’re a lot kinder than you seem.”

She gasped quietly, getting a little choked up. She shook it off with a smile and chuckled, “Yeah! And I could learn to shut up more and listen better! I-” She swallowed her laughter and sobered, “I should probably stop jumping to conclusions so much. You’re pretty neat, Eni, and I’d like to be friends with you.”

She offered her hand to shake. Eni stared down at it for seconds that felt like minutes, then accepted it, shaking it firmly.

“Apology accepted,” He declared flatly.

“Thanks,” She smiled gently, finally feeling relief from whatever poison was plaguing her.

Eni retracted his hand and pondered for a moment, “You said you were having issues with your competency test earlier, right?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” She instantly soured and drooped.

“No, listen,” He assured, and when Ellen unsoured, he continued, “The tests use nannyware that’s built into most operating systems. If you open up your registry editor and set the value for it to a certain file, it won’t monitor or block internet communications. I could send you this file and instructions if you want.”

She took a while to process this, then asked, “So you want me to cheat?”

“No,” Eni scratched his cheek, “I just believe it’s unfair if you’re being asked to memorize esoteric information that you don’t need to know. I also think you should be allowed to ask for help. Perhaps only look something up if you really need it.”

She laughed, then patted his shoulder which made him jump, “Sure thing man! I’ll only use that power for good! Send me that file!”

Eni glanced up slowly and nodded.

“And don’t worry,” Cometman spoke up from her arm, “I’ll make sure she uses it sparingly too.”

Ellen balked, “Hey! The tests are timed! I wouldn’t be able to look up everything anyways!”

Eni covered his mouth and looked to the side.

“Are you smiling?” She gasped.

“Yes,” He removed his hand, revealing his usual flat expression, “You two are funny.”

“Eni!” A woman’s voice called out from the car. A rosy cheeked, chubby lady popped her head out the driver’s seat window and continued pleasantly, “Are you alright dear? Is everything ok?”

“Yes mom, it’s fine,” He called back to her, then turned his attention back to Ellen, “I should be heading out now. We’ll see each other again tomorrow, right?”

“R-Right!” Ellen jumped, remembering the thing Reg’s mom had been planning was tomorrow, “Sheesh, time goes by quickly!”

“It goes as fast as it always does,” He reasoned, “But, yes, it is soon.”

“Well, goodbye Eni! See you tomorrow!” She waved him off.

Eni walked back to the passenger side of the car and entered. The fancy hunk of metal drove off soon after, leaving Ellen to herself.

She sighed, turning her sights to the sky. The tumultuous clouds rolled slowly overhead in the fall breeze. She felt that wind blow through her, carrying with it all her fears. The words that had been swarming around her heart finally aired. She savored this tranquility and knew, if she allowed herself to find the peace in the small moments, and quelled her rage that threatened to consume everything in the heated moments, then she’d feel this free again someday, and with her friends close by, she knew it’d be soon.

Chapter Text

“I can’t believe you convinced me to come here,” Dr. Mohs groaned.

He stood with his hands behind his back, wearing a clean, pressed shirt and dress pants; his idea of casual wear.

Rosie giggled, “It wasn’t hard! It was almost like you wanted to come!”

She winked and giggled at him, reveling in the fact she could read him like a book. He grumbled quietly, not bothering to argue.

“This is such a fun idea!” Dr. Collins cheered, clapping her hands together, “Thank you so much Rosie for inviting me! And it’s so good to meet you Mrs. Hikari!”

Dr. Collins, dressed in actual casual wear, a colorful, flowing long sleeved shirt and skirt, turned her attention to the larger woman beside her, wearing a charming floral print shirt and fashionably light jacket.

“Oh, there’s no need for formalities,” Mrs. Hikari brightly smiled, “You can just call me Michi.”

“This was an excellent idea, Rosie,” Mrs. Ijuuin declared, boisterously even toned as ever, “I look forward to both the dinner and the murder. I will use my brilliant deductive skills to find the culprit in record time. There will be ample opportunity to make continued conversation once the conflict is resolved.”

Mrs. Ijuuin, for some reason, insisted on continuing to wear sunglasses indoors. It did match with her sharp outfit, however.

“Akemi dear, the point of the game is for everyone to work together to figure out who the murderer is,” Mrs. Hikari pointed out.

“Ah, yes, forgive my competitive nature coming through. I was merely blindsided by a momentary desire to crush my opponents. Fair warning: it will happen again,” Mrs. Ijuuin assured, “I am not a competent business woman by mistake.”

“Dear,” Mrs. Hikari consoled, “No one has been given their roles for the evening yet. There’s no need to get this fired up yet.”

She patted Mrs. Ijuuin on the shoulder soothingly. Dr. Mohs hummed a low, contemplative tone as he pulled something from his pocket.

“All that we’ve been given are these markers when we entered the mansion. There must be a secret to them. Should we all take a look at the ones we’ve been given?” He proposed, holding out his unassuming marker.

“Oh! You're getting into it aren’t you, Sam,” Rosie teased, snickering to herself.

The adults gathered around, taking a look at the markers they had been given for the evening.

“Pretty low tech for such a high rated murder mystery party,” Dr. Collins noted, comparing the markers.

“Be mindful of your hasty decision making there Dr. Collins, I believe the game started the moment we entered the building,” Mrs. Ijuuin surmised.

Nearby, the trio of teens watched as all the older people chatted in the mansion’s entryway. This was not Reg’s idea. This was something his mom had wanted to do for a long time and never got the chance to, for the obvious reason. But he was still interested.

He had always watched those old mystery movies with his mom when they got the chance to watch them. He gave up trying to guess who the mastermind was in all of those movies – it was usually too convoluted anyways – but his mom somehow was able to pinpoint the culprits every time, except if the movie was poorly written. Which she tended to blame when she was wrong. Which happened more times than she wanted to admit.

The idea was particularly intriguing to Ellen and Eni, who both jumped at the offer when presented to them. A murder mystery mansion dinner party. A six course meal along with six hours to solve a ‘murder’, pulled off by one of your party guests. For some reason this excited Reg’s friends. He on the other hand was secretly hoping to be eliminated first so he could sit back and relax; his sense of adventure left firmly on the Moon.

“The adults are getting along great,” Ellen commented.

“They're looking at their markers, why?” Eni asked.

“Beats me man, they're just normal markers,” She shrugged back.

After what occurred yesterday, Reg was worried that these two would not reconcile. But now they seemed to be getting along genuinely well.

“I bet I'll be able to deduce who it is in no time flat, detective Ellen is on the case!” She boasted.

“No,” Eni stated.

…Well about as well as water and oil could get along. It was still an improvement.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” A booming voice echoed from the floor above them, with a well dressed woman standing there with her arms wide, “Welcome to our macabre mansion, the Lonesome Ash, the venue for tonight's festivities. This evening you each will be given a role to play. Among you is a killer whose goal is to get away with murder by the end of the night. As civilians, your goal will be to solve the murder and perhaps not get murdered yourself. The only way to ‘kill’ is to be marked in some way by the markers you’ve been given.”

She held up a marker of her own, “We will be closing off this area to any internet connections to ensure you can only rely on your wits! Of course if you do need to make a call, the doors are unlocked and you can just step outside. Everyone please head to your rooms to see what role you’ve been given! And with that, the game has begun!”

She swung her marker down, and a sudden booming sound echoed through the halls, with mock lightning flaring in the windows. Reg was immediately spooked while the other two teens eyed him oddly.

“Sorry! It’s scary!” He squeaked.

Ellen placed a hand on his shoulder, “Don’t worry, I promise if I’m the killer, I won’t kill you first.”

“Thanks,” He mumbled, ungrateful.

“That lady wasn’t kidding,” Cometman whispered from Ellen’s arm, “The internet really is out.”

She chuckled evilly, “Looks like you’re stuck here with me.”

The Navi groaned. Reg assumed he was rolling his eyes.

“Did that sound spook you, Reg?” His mom asked, rolling up beside them, “Come on, let’s go see what we get to be for the evening!”

His mom rolled up to the elevator, while Reg’s friends insisted on taking the stairs for ‘authenticity’. Reg took one look at them and went up with his mom.

There on the second floor were rows of doors along a hallway, with everyone of the group entering a door with their respective names on them.

“Oh, I would’ve loved to have sprung for the full weekend package,” His mom cooed, coming up to her room, “But I think just one evening will be plenty; besides we have so much planned the next couple of days.”

“I don’t think I could handle more than six hours of this, if I’m being honest,” Reg said.

He reached his room and opened the door, finding a suitcase laying on top of a large bed. The room itself was well furnished. Richly stained wood, ornate portraits of stately people, horribly clashing dark colors. It seemed fancy…?

He had no frame of reference.

He opened the suitcase and found clothes with a folded up note laying on top. Gingerly, he unfolded the note, revealing a bit of text that read, “Civilian. Role: Barkeep. Can ask for one hint from the staff.”

A sigh and a twisting knot fell out and hit his stomach all at once. He wasn’t going to have to ‘kill’, but now the game was truly on. He was going to have to ask for a hint at some point? What were even the limitations of that? It was all a lot to consider and he was not in the mood to do so.

“Reg, I know it would be so~o fun to cheat, but,” Silver hummed.

“I don’t want to cheat,” Reg interjected plainly.

Silver balked, “What?! You don’t actually want to cheat?!” They made a pitiful expression.

Reg rolled his eyes, “We’re not cheating. I’m not gonna, I dunno, phase around and spy on people. That’d be weird.”

“You don’t wanna win?” They asked, pouting.

“I want my mom to have fun,” He insisted, pulling out the costume from the suitcase.

It had a thin mustache – which he was decidedly not going to wear – a black hat of some sort, and a vest. He put them on and felt silly. He supposed any clothes other than the ones he usually wore always made him feel silly. The only times he bothered with a different outfit, or heck, a costume all together was on Halloween which was…

Two days away.

A grimace squirmed its way across his face. He was going to have to talk to his mom about that later; he swore if he got assigned as a little crawfish baby for another year he was going to find a way to disappear from existence.

“Well, if your mom’s the killer, I bet she’ll have a lot of fun!” Silver chirped.

“That’s true…” He pondered.

It would be good to keep an eye on her. His mom would likely figure out the entire thing in no time flat. Sticking together would mean less chance of getting murdered, though his friends would probably want to stick with him. He couldn’t imagine Ellen and Eni teaming up sans him anytime soon.

He opened the door back into the hallway and was greeted by his mom, wearing a leather apron around the waist. Probably for the role she was given.

“What did you end up getting?” He asked, pointing to her apron.

“Farrier! And civilian, although, everyone is going to tell you that,” She giggled.

“What's a farrier?” He asked, pulling out his mobile, before quickly noticing its lack of bars and put it back.

“Someone who puts on horseshoes,” She shrugged, “In this game I can ask a staff if a player is lying, but can't use it to reveal killer status. I guess that can be useful?”

She pondered for a moment, “It might be a good idea to lie about your role in this game!”

“R-Really?” Reg faltered, “I'm so bad at lying though.”

“This is good practice then!” She giggled.

“Hey you two!” Ellen trotted up, a tweed hat and shawl on. Eni followed behind, dressed in a white lab coat, eyes wandering everywhere.

“Hi Ellen!” His mom chirped, “You look so cute in that, dear!”

“Thanks!” She cheered back, giving her hat a prodding upwards with her finger, “Investigator Ellen is on the case! That murderer better beware, I’m gonna catch them instantly!”

“...Are you?” Eni mumbled beside her.

“Well, ok fine they’ll have to murder first and then I’ll figure it out,” She huffed, hands on hips, “The investigator is pretty powerful, I can go into anyone’s room!”

“That sounds like an invasion of people’s privacy,” Reg said, “And also busted.”

“Ok, I can only go in one and it has to be with a staff member, but it’s still powerful!” She rebutted, “I’ll get my suspicions and confirm them, wrapping this all up so fast they’ll put me in the hall of fame!”

“Actually, we took out the hall of fame since too many people were taking the game too seriously,” A staff member nearby mentioned, “Also, good evening guests! Dinner will be served soon, are you all ready or do you need clarification on your roles?”

“Yes,” Eni raised a hand, “I do not understand the doctor's role. The slip of paper said I can choose to preemptively save someone’s life. It’s to my understanding that doctors save people’s lives after they have been hurt. And also, how can I know they are about to be killed before they are killed, that seems like it would require supernatural foresight.”

“Oh! The role names are just themed to an ancient time’s setting. That role is called ‘guardian angel’ when we flip over to the fantasy setting in spring. I personally prefer that one,” The staff member explained, “And as far as choosing who to save… Well I can’t give any hints!”

They smiled coyly. Eni, unmoved, stared at them until they turned and left, leaving the four to themselves.

“Kids, it would be a good idea to lie about your roles,” His mom advised, “The killer might target you if they know you’ve got a useful skill!”

She giggled sweetly as Ellen eyed her up and down, evidently looking for clues.

“Come on! Let’s head downstairs,” His mom beckoned everyone to the elevator.

At the ground floor, the other four of their group were already seated at the dinner table. Eni's moms sat next to each other on the far side, and sitting across from them were Dr. Mohs and Dr. Collins. His mom took the seat next to Mrs. Ijuuin and Reg took the seat across from his mom, leaving Ellen and Eni across from each other at the other end of the table.

The table spread featured bread and butter, along with ornate candles and a tablecloth that was so detailed that it deserved to be hung along the walls and not eaten off of.

Reg sat back in his chair, looking at Dr. Mohs next to him, with not a single piece of costume on him.

“Dr. Mohs,” Reg asked quietly, “you didn't dress up?”

The man rumbled low and softly, “It didn't match. They gave me a tie to wear with a clashing pattern to the shirt I'm wearing. I might as well wear a Hawaiian shirt and neon pants.”

“Oh, you could pull off that look!” His mom teased.

“No, I believe Dr. Mohs here is correct,” Mrs. Ijuuin refuted, “Clashing textures and patterns is equivalent to splattering paint. No sense of cohesion or care for detail. Clothing speaks volumes without a single word uttered.”

“That's why I'm wearing two costumes!” Mrs. Hikari piped, and Reg took a moment to register all the clothes she wore.

Over her lovely jacket she wore a grisly, tattered vest, and over that she wore a translucent lavender veil. Even Reg knew that it clashed.

“Wait then, why…?” Reg pointed at Mrs. Hikari apprehensively.

“She’s having fun,” “I’m having fun!” All three of that family replied at the same time.

The staff filed in carrying the first course, placing an oddly shaped plate in front of each guest.

“Brussel sprouts with candied pecans! Oh how delightful!” Mrs. Hikari cheered.

Reg cautiously prodded his dish. Weren't they all playing a game? Of murder? How was anyone relaxed?

And yet everyone ate without a care in the world. And the next course was brought.

“Come on Mrs. Ijuuin,” Dr. Collins goaded, “I'm curious what your role is! We already said ours.”

“No,” She declined, “Social games require playing your cards close to your chest. Information is power and if I speak too freely, I may reveal my hand. I am not so foolish.”

Ellen glared at the older woman, eyes narrowing in, about to strike.

“Reg,” Dr. Mohs inquired, “are you enjoying yourself?”

“Huh?” He jumped in his seat, glancing up at the man beside him, “I, uh, I guess? It’s nerve-wracking if I’m being honest.”

Everyone ate, chatted, and enjoyed themselves, and the next course was brought.

“When do you think they’ll strike?” Ellen leaned over with a not very sneaky whisper, “I’m keeping an eye on everyone here.”

“Oh? Well, Ellen, what’s your verdict?” Reg’s mom leaned over as well, coy smile on.

“My verdict?” She smirked smugly, lifting her hat with a finger, “Everyone’s hungry.”

Another round of chatting, another course.

“Eni,” Reg leaned over to his friend next to him, and asked quietly, “Have you noticed anything?”

Eni paused, suspending his salad bite as he stared emptily into and beyond the table, “I haven’t been paying attention.”

Reg sighed.

The next round featured the main course, with the host of the event coming out to present it and greet everyone.

“I hope everyone has been enjoying their meals tonight! The main course for the evening is a juniper-rubbed roast duck with port cherry sauce. It’s to die for!” The host cackled and Reg caught one of the staff rolling their eyes at this.

With a set up like that, Reg glowered at the meal, looking all over the plate for… He didn’t know what, but he was suspicious as he could be.

“Simply divine,” Mrs. Ijuuin affirmed, “The richness of the duck fat pairs perfectly with the freshness of the cherry. I am enthralled by this spectacle; truly it has captured my heart. I will savor every bite like it is my last.”

“No!” Mrs. Hikari whimpered half-jokingly, “I don’t want you to die!”

“Fear not, my shining blossom, death is not on the menu,” She gently touched her wife’s hand.

The two clasped hands and held them, staring longingly at each other for what seemed like an excessive amount of time. Reg anticipated a horrible event that never came.

The meal was too good to chat through, and soon the final course arrived.

Everyone received slices of rich chocolate cake, paired with a raspberry jam and dark chocolate trellis on top.

“Rosie, this event has been unequivocally stellar. Fine food and companions have made this evening a delight that I shall not forget anytime soon,” Mrs. Ijuuin toasted.

“Oh, thank you!” Reg’s mom giggled, “You’re so kind!”

“Hear, hear!” Dr. Collins toasted as well, “I haven’t gotten the chance to eat this good in way too long! I think the killer is going to need to sleep this all off before striking!”

“I’d love to do something like this again sometime!” Mrs. Hikari clapped lightly.

“Agreed, this day has gone-” Dr. Mohs started.

The lights flashed and a sudden darkness fell, just as the surrounding speakers blared thunderous sounds. The pitch blackness merely lasted a few seconds, but Reg reeled from trying to parse what just occurred. When the lights and sounds finally brightened and cleared, Mrs. Ijuuin sat frozen, wine glass to lips, with a black skull marked on the bottom.

“Mrs. Akemi Ijuuin,” A staff member stepped forward, offering a hand, “You have been murdered by poison. Please come with me and say nothing, the dead do not speak.”

“Tch,” She sneered, swiftly regaining her composure and standing up from the table.

“No!!” Mrs. Hikari wailed, “Why you?! Why did it have to be you?!”

She leaned over and asked the staff member casually, “Is it alright if I come with you? I don’t want to cause any issues.”

The staff member nodded and Mrs. Hikari dismissed herself from the table as well.

As the three began to walk off, Mrs. Hikari resumed wailing, “She was taken too soon from this world! It should have been me!!”

The woman’s voice trailed off into the distance, and immediately everyone turned towards each other.

“Did you see anything?!” Ellen barked, frantic.

“No, it happened too suddenly,” Eni shook his head.

“I heard chairs moving,” Reg’s mom pondered.

“I only heard the thunder,” Dr. Mohs commented.

“Yeah! That was so loud!” Dr. Collins whined.

They all turned to look at Reg.

“Huh?!” He stumbled back into the conversation to find too many pairs of eyes staring him down. He recoiled.

“Oh dear, did you get spooked by the thunder?” His mom soothed, “You’ve never experienced a storm before.”

She was right, but he burned a little; he was fifteen now and could handle himself just fine. But she was right.

“I-I didn’t hear anything,” He finally responded.

Ellen gave him a suspicious look, pursing her lips at an angle.

“Ellen, was it?” Dr. Mohs questioned, “Easy there. I don’t believe Reg to be our killer for the evening.” He shot a steely gaze at Reg’s mom.

“Oh! Samuel, are you accusing me?” His mom guffawed, “You wily weasel. And you said you didn’t think you’d have fun.”

Dr. Collins got up from her seat and moved over to Mrs. Ijuuin’s glass, picking it up and inspecting it.

“Can I see everyone’s markers?” She asked, setting the glass down and pulling out a napkin.

Everyone pulled out their marker, each a pure simple black.

“Good! This will make this easy!” Dr. Collins grinned, marking down on a floating screen some names and numbers, “Pass this down and everyone make a mark, equidistant and in order.”

It took some coordination, but everyone did so, with Dr. Collins scraping off some ink from the bottom of the ‘poisoned’ wine glass onto another napkin.

“Are you planning to do chromatography?” His mom wondered.

“Yep!” Dr. Collins finished her mark, holding up the two napkins, “Also, it looks like the skull was prepared ahead of time on some tape. Our killer was prepared!”

“That would only be helpful if the markers were composed of different blends of ink,” Dr. Mohs pointed out.

“That’s true! But remember when we inspected the markers earlier? It made me wonder,” Dr. Collins hummed, and asked the staff for two glasses of water, “How would the staff be able to tell where a ‘kill’ came from if all the marker ink looked the same? I thought maybe RFID tags in the ink, but that’d be too much. I think mixes of ink assigned to each player would make it easier to covertly distinguish!”

Two glasses were placed in front of her, and she thanked the staff before continuing, “Course I could be wrong but, this would be more interesting, don’t ya think?”

Dr. Mohs turned to a staff member, who nodded, and explained to him, “Yes, this is how we confirm ‘kills’, since civilians aren’t allowed to kill. Before that, we had issues with over eager guests wanting to cause chaos.”

A whole story unfolded in Reg’s mind with just that sentence.

Dr. Collins smirked and lowered the two napkins into the water cups, with just their ends soaked in the water. Slowly the water flowed up the napkins, blurring the marks and smudging their constituent colors along the water’s path. Everyone watched with bated breath as ink split and patterns began to emerge. The six dots became smears of blues, reds, and yellows, with different heights for each of them, but one had a height that matched the separate ink blot in the second cup.

Dr. Collins pulled up her list and counted them out, double checking with pursed lips.

“Well, we have our killer!” She cheered, “It’s Rosie!”

His mom gasped.

“Aw man,” Ellen huffed, “I didn’t get to do my investigations.”

“W-Wait, I don’t understand,” His mom faltered, “Are you certain?”

Reg heard the genuine confusion in his mom’s voice. She may have been good at lying, but not like this.

“Yep! I’m certain,” Dr. Collins nodded, “The first mark on the napkin corresponds with your number on my list, and the killer’s ink! I made sure everything was properly marked in order.”

“That can’t…” His mom breathlessly wondered.

“So, the case is solved then?” Dr. Mohs sighed gruffly.

His mom gasped, “Sam! You did something, didn't you?”

“Shifting the blame so suddenly?” He glanced back, “Not a good look.”

“We’ll have to wait for Mrs. Hikari to be done in the other room to put this to a final vote, but this evidence is pretty damning,” Dr. Collins smiled, “Wow, I figured this one out fast!”

None of this sat well with Reg. He bolted upright and smacked the table, “Wait a minute!”

All the eyes in the room settled on him, granting him the stage. He shuddered back.

“I- Lemme just talk this over with my friends, this doesn’t seem right,” He declared quietly.

“You know,” Dr. Collins pondered, “It would be good to think this through and not be hasty. That doesn’t make for good science!”

“Agreed,” Dr. Mohs rumbled.

Reg nodded, and dismissed himself from the table, his friends following behind him closely. Once they were out of earshot of the adults, Ellen glared wide eyes at Reg.

“What the heck happened back there?” She asked, flabbergasted.

“I don’t know, but I don’t think my mom was the killer,” Reg muttered.

“The evidence is stacked against her,” Eni pointed out.

“Hold on, let me think about this,” Reg groaned, scratching the back of his neck.

The lights flashed for just a couple of seconds, not enough time for someone on the far edges to reach over and put the poison on Mrs. Ijuuin’s glass. The main culprits would have been his mom, Mrs. Hikari, Dr. Mohs, and possibly himself or Dr. Collins. Well, he knew he didn’t do it, but defending himself would distract from the case.

“Eni, do you think Mrs. Hikari would fake kill Mrs. Ijuuin in a game like this?” Reg asked.

“I don’t think she would fake kill. I think she would actually kill,” Eni remarked.

Both Reg and Ellen made wildly confused sounds.

“Neither of you knew of her lacross days. She was vicious. She took out multiple knee caps,” Eni concluded.

The other two stared at each other, trying their best to imagine a vengeful look on that plucky plump face and failing.

“Well I guess murderer is back on the menu for her,” Ellen quipped.

“Wait, I bet I can confirm something,” Reg held up a finger, “Let me go find a staff member.”

He dashed off, swiftly walking back towards the kitchen.

“Reg,” Silver whispered, “Something weird is going on here.”

“I’d say. I have no idea what just happened,” He shrugged back.

“No I mean,” They grumbled, “I dunno. Maybe this big house just feels weird with no internet.”

Reg paused and glanced at them, “What’s wrong?”

Silver made an askew pout, deep in thought, before answering, “It’s probably nothing.”

“Um, alright buddy,” He smiled back awkwardly.

When he reached the kitchen, Dr. Mohs and Dr. Collins had gone. He waved at his mom who was deeply contemplating something. She half waved, then went back to her thoughts.

He pulled over a staff member, “Hey, can I use my hint? Was the pen that my mom used on the napkin actually hers?”

They gave him a curious stare, smiled slightly, and said, “No.”

Reg gulped, then trotted back to his friends as quickly as he could without causing a scene.

“If it wasn’t actually your mom,” Silver hummed.

“Then I have a good idea who it was,” Reg finished within earshot of his friends.

“Oh!” Ellen popped up, “Then who?”

“Listen,” Reg began, “the pen that my mom used on the napkin wasn’t hers. The killer is trying to frame her!”

“Oh,” Ellen stepped back, then gasped, “Then it’s probably Dr. Mohs! That guy is suspicious!”

“Possibly,” Reg nodded back, “But we need a surefire way to prove that if we’re going to have any hope of swaying the vote.”

“Is it not majority rules? We have the majority if your mom is voting as well,” Eni remarked.

“I guess but,” Reg sighed, he had to admit this aloud, “I have an idea that I think would be fun.”

“Oh ho ho~!” Ellen giggled, “Let’s hear it then!”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eni stared at Reg, more drained than normal.

“Look, if this doesn’t work we can set it to a vote and still ‘win’,” Reg huffed.

They sat in an ornate office, close to the kitchen, and right below the bed rooms. Perched and ready to strike once they heard Reg’s gambit activate.

“I’m glad you’re having fun!” Silver chirped, “You looked so glum earlier.”

“Yeah, sorry for worrying you,” He looked up at the little guy on his head, “Now that I’ve got a clear path ahead of me, and I know what I’m doing, it’s a lot more fun.”

“Silver, have you heard or sensed One since we got here?” Eni inquired, “I haven’t heard a word from him since he said he was going to check on something.”

The little thing blinked, and tilted their head back and forth, “I haven’t, but I also don’t sense any danger? I think he’s fine?”

“Oh,” Eni muttered, “Ok then.”

Reg glanced between them, “Do you think that could be-”

“Dr. Mohs is dead?!” The shrill voice of Mrs. Hikari rang through the building.

Everyone looked to each other, flashing genuine concern and general worry.

“She likely means ‘dead’ in the game,” Eni’s eyes fell to the side.

“But that wasn’t part of the plan,” Reg worried.

“We need to find out!” Silver exclaimed.

The two of them rushed to the stairs and up them, with Reg stumbling a little. When they got to the top, Mrs. Hikari stood there fretting with the lavender shawl.

“Oh! Eni dear and Reg, goodness gracious I swear this wasn’t me!” She gasped, making motions to the open door beside her, “I could never!”

“Mom,” Eni mumbled loudly.

She chuckled cheekily, then went back to fretting, “But really! I was walking back to my room after chatting with Akemi- Oh! That’s right! I’m the gravekeeper so that allows me to ask the dead one question! But the staff were kind enough to let me talk with her a lot.”

She blushed slightly, then went back to fretting. Again.

“But really! I just walked up here just now and saw Dr. Mohs like this!” She finished, pointing to the room once more.

Reg and Eni cautiously approached the room and peered inside. And sure enough Dr. Mohs was splayed out on the bed with a piece of paper taped to his back that had a black skull drawn on it. The two teens locked eyes and looked back at Mrs. Hikari.

“W-Wait! Let’s not be hasty!” She threw up her hands.

Reg held down the sudden rising feeling of investigative righteous fury and pondered for a second. Something was off here too. He inspected the room and saw a staff member standing there, silently observing the whole thing.

“Why haven’t you brought them to where Mrs. Ijuuin is?” He asked them.

The staff member smirked a small smile, then quickly tucked it away, “We need to confirm this kill. Feel free to investigate.”

Reg hummed to himself, something wasn’t adding up. He needed some more info.

“Mrs. Hikari,” He spun and asked, “Do you know what Dr. Collins and Dr. Mohs’s roles are and what they do?”

“Oh!” She perked up, “Yes! Dr. Collins said she was the town crier. Apparently she gets notified whenever there’s a kill! And Dr. Mohs said he was the mayor, and that mayor can count as two votes! Must be a corrupt town, I’d say!”

“Wait, any kill? Then why isn’t she here?” Reg wondered, to which she shrugged.

“Boys, have you seen your friend? I believe her name was Ellen?” Mrs. Hikari asked.

“Oh right. Ellen,” Reg sighed, scratching his head.

They walked to the neighboring room and entered, finding Ellen sprawled out in a dramatic, open mouthed, arms flung everywhere death pose.

“You’re fine Ellen, you can get up now,” Reg snarked.

“Huh, really?” She lifted her head, pulling herself up off the floor.

Mrs. Hikari squeaked a shrill gasp, “She was dead, but she’s not?!”

“I’m alive with the power of friendship,” Ellen smirked.

“Mom, my role is doctor and I can protect someone from a kill,” Eni explained.

Mrs. Hikari nodded affirmatively and awed. Ellen pulled out a piece of paper from inside her tweed cloak that had a black plus sign on it, and then took off another piece of paper taped to her back with a skull.

This piece of paper in particular had the words ‘Killer’ in red across the top, and any information about the person’s role marked out with black marker.

“So the plan worked,” Reg affirmed, “Did you learn anything about our killer?”

“Yeah! Check this out!” Ellen grinned, bouncing over to the corner of the room.

She knocked around the wall and pressed all around the middle of it, until something clicked and a thin handle flipped out of the ornate wallpaper. She grabbed it, twisted and pulled, and a part of the door came with it, revealing a secret door and a passageway behind it.

“I heard the killer go out this way!” Ellen pointed down the dark hole, “Then I heard them walk around in the next room and then it got quiet! And then of course I heard Mrs. Hikari scream and then you guys came.”

Reg followed the dark corridor, finding the other side much more quickly than he expected, grabbed what he hoped was the handle and opened it to find the room they found Dr. Mohs in, with the staff member still watching them like a vulture.

“Would you like to know if we confirmed this kill?” They asked him.

“No thanks, I think I’ve figured this out,” Reg said, closing the secret door and returning to the room.

“Oh you have?” Ellen snickered.

“Yeah,” Reg grinned, “Let’s gather everyone in the kitchen.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When he said everyone, he didn’t mean everyone.

Mrs. Ijuuin and Dr. Mohs stood along the sidelines, awaiting the action to unfold before them.

“Ignore me, I’m supposed to be dead after all,” Mrs. Ijuuin waved briskly.

“I’ll do my best~!” Mrs. Hikari sang.

Dr. Collins had wandered back inside from taking a call, talking to Reg’s mom and getting caught up. Some staff members lined the walls like a murder of crows, while Reg’s friends looked at him, waiting for what he had to say.

He gulped, “I uh, I bet you’re wondering why I brought you all here.” He clapped, his nerves were shaking through him.

The room went silent, all eyes spotlighting him.

A cold sweat graced his brow as he shook off his nerves and continued, “I think I know who the killer is.”

No response but a vacuous hole of silence dying to be filled.

“S-So the first kill was made at dinner time, right around dessert,” Reg squeaked out, gaining volume as he continued, “Mrs. Ijuuin was killed by poison placed under her glass right when she was toasting my mom.”

He walked over to the table, pulling out Mrs. Ijuuin’s chair, “In that short amount of time, only the people seated close to her could have placed the poison tape on her glass. Mrs. Hikari, Dr. Mohs, or my mom.” His arm reached out to the seats directly next to him.

“Then Dr. Collins did her chromatography, confirming that the killer’s marker was in my mom’s possession, but I confirmed with my role, the barkeeper, that the marker my mom used wasn’t originally hers! Someone switched it!” Reg announced to many gasps from the crowd.

“But how?!” Dr. Collins challenged.

“I got an idea, mom?” He turned to his mom who looked back at him with calm pride, “Can you confirm Dr. Mohs’s role for us?”

“Well, I already have,” She let out an airy chuckle, turning to the staff member nearest to her, “Can you please repeat what you told me?”

“Certainly,” They bowed slightly, “Dr. Mohs’s role is mayor. He can order a staff member to do one thing for him. This does not include killing if the mayor is chosen as the killer for the evening.”

“Dr. Mohs, you lied?!” Mrs. Hikari gasped, then quietly chuckled, “Oh I suppose that’s part of the game and all.”

Dr. Mohs sighed deeply.

“So that confirms it,” Reg continued, “There would be a way for Dr. Mohs to tell a staff member to switch their markers covertly. Probably during the black out over dessert.”

“But Dr. Mohs is dead! It would have to be Michi somehow then!” Dr. Collins brought up.

“Dr. Mohs isn’t dead,” Reg shook his head, “I think he was trying to frame Mrs. Hikari.”

The woman squeaked sharply.

“Let me explain,” He took in a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, “We set a bit of a trap for the killer. We had Ellen, the investigator, under the protection of Eni, the doctor, go into my mom’s room and investigate loudly. Something to alert our killer that a person was by themself and ready to look suspiciously murdered. And they took the bait, then exited the room via a secret exit to not be seen, leaving the scene of the crime. Then, I’m assuming here, pretended to die in the adjacent room, waiting for someone to come by and get accused of killing them.”

Reg turned to a staff member and asked, “Can we know whose marker was used on the piece of paper that was used to murder Dr. Mohs?”

They shook their head and explained, “But we can tell you that it was not the killer’s marker, so it didn’t count. Dr. Mohs is indeed alive.”

“Well, maybe it could’ve still been Rosie?” Dr. Collins entreated, “Sorry, I’m just being thorough!”

“Uh, well, I don’t think she could’ve gone through the secret exit,” Reg rebutted, remembering how small and uneven the inside of the wall was, “I don’t think it’s accessible to her.”

“It is a physical limitation of the game space, sadly,” One of the staff members sighed.

“Before you make your final accusation, Reg,” Dr. Mohs intoned, his voice echoing through the room, sapping everyone of their excitement, “You need to be absolutely certain you are making the correct choice. A decision made in anger cannot be taken back.”

The room grew quiet, and all eyes fell back onto Reg. In a bizarre twist, surprising even to himself, Reg was calm. There were doubts, yes, but in this moment he felt a connection. Like a small thread that gently hung in the air between them.

“You probably could’ve gotten away with it. Just framing my mom and leaving it at that,” Reg chuckled, pausing to take in the quiet, “But I think, you couldn’t help it. You wanted to keep playing too, because it turns out, you were having fun as well, weren’t you, Dr. Mohs?”

The former Head smirked, “Is that your final answer?”

Reg grinned back, “Yep! Final answer, it was you Dr. Mohs, you’re our killer!”

Dr. Mohs smiled a wider smile than Reg had ever seen him make, “Excellent deduction Reg. It seems you had fun as well.”

“Uh, well, we still need to put this to a vote,” Dr. Collins pointed out.

“Even though he pretty much just confessed?” Ellen snarked.

“All in favor of Reg’s detective work, raise your hand!” His mom cheered.

All the guests raised a hand, including Dr. Mohs himself.

“Hey,” Silver whispered to Reg, “You get a vote too I think.”

Reg’s hand shot up, and his right cheek flushed upon realizing he got a vote as well.

The master of the game stepped forward, wide smile on, “Congratulations! You figured out who the killer was! A commendable job, especially for someone so young!”

Reg really flushed upon hearing that, “Th-Thank you! I couldn’t have done it without my friends.”

Ellen grabbed him in a side hug, while Eni nodded beside him.

“Wait so,” Dr. Collins piped up, “What was Mrs. Ijuuin’s role in the end?”

“Fortune teller,” Dr. Mohs answered, “A dangerous role that allows someone to reveal the civilian or killer status of another player.”

Reg’s mom gasped, “Sam! How did you know that? Did you do… Research beforehand?! My word Samuel, you really were getting into this weren’t you?”

Dr. Mohs coughed, “...Yes.”

The adults all laughed and chatted more about the game. Grilling the former Head about his plans and thought process.

“Nice job detective,” Ellen nudged Reg.

“We did it together,” Reg reiterated.

“Yeah well, I was always suspicious of that Dr. Mohs guy,” She bragged, “Guys that are that unreadable are hard nuts to crack.”

Eni stared right at and into her.

“I-I mean!!” She floundered, then deflated, “I’m not winning that one. Sorry Eni.”

Reg chuckled. He was really grateful his friends were here.

“Oh,” Eni said, holding a hand to one side of his headphones, “One is back.”

“Oh!” Reg echoed, “What was he up to?”

“He says he’ll tell us later,” Eni replied.

Reg raised a brow, then shrugged.

The rest of the evening was lovely. The adults chatted and laughed over sparkling drinks while the teens talked and told stories. Reg asked one of the staff members to tell everyone about other parties they had to referee, curious about why the markers were the way they were. The staff gladly recounted tales of other groups who weren’t so respectful of the rules and everyone seemed to get a kick out of hearing the wild decisions that were made.

As the teens laughed and expressed happiness in their own way, Reg felt, perhaps for the first time in his life, connected to a family that he had chosen, all on his own.

Chapter Text

“– And with that, the game has begun!” The announcer finished.

A loud sound echoed through the tiny audio input on Eni’s device around his neck.The motion sensor read a small twinge of movement; Eni must’ve been surprised a little. An alert popped up in front of One, informing him that there were suddenly no Wi-Fi connections.

How convenient.

A happenstance trap for a rat, but at the same time he was going to need to not corner the thing. The last thing he wanted was to ruin Eni’s fun in this little game he found himself in.

“Eni,” One spoke to his partner through the headphones, “I’m going to take a look at something. You should be able to handle this game on your own. I have every confidence that you will be fine.”

And with that he transmitted himself into the mansion’s local network. A surprising amount of connections littered its environment, though it still looked more like a black canvas than a traditional netspace from a past age. One tested a couple of these, finding data for live camera footage, motion sensors, and speaker systems. This place was full of tech and he envisioned a more intense mystery scenario that lasted several days that utilized all these mechanics. He liked to imagine he would last long in such a game, but of course everyone would.

He kept an eye on his partner with one of the mansion’s cameras, dragging the window with him. It wasn’t blind loyalty that bound him to that lonesome boy, but maybe it was fate. Regardless, he needed to do all that he could do. Because no one else could do it.

In a far off corner of the internal network, his prey was hopelessly scrambling for a way out. One closed the camera window; the less provoking he appears, the better.

“Lost?” He asked the green cloaked figure.

They whipped around with little golden eyes blazing under the darkness of their wide brimmed hat.

One stayed silent. The figure bristled and something roiled underneath their cloak.

He knew that their little group was being watched; he could sense it. But whoever it was doing the spying never made any aggressive actions. They always stayed so far back in the nearby networks that they would basically only know what animals the humans had seen at the zoo.

But now the spy stood like a scared cat before him. It was almost pitiful, really.

In the silence the two noticed something. Something vague. Something that could have been called recognition if either of the two were willing to acknowledge it.

The bristling stopped, and the figure spoke low and quietly, “What do you want?”

One narrowed his eyes at them, then shrugged casually, “Same as you. Answers.”

“I am not answering any of your questions,” The figure shook.

One tilted his head to the side, inspecting the green cloak up and down, then asked, “Do you know who you are?”

The figure took one thunderous step forward, “What sort of question is that?!” Though even when yelling, the figure’s volume always stayed low.

“It’s an easy one to answer,” One shrugged again, turning his head, “But hard to get correct.”

The figure slowly retreated to their neutral standing position. One could feel their sensors trying to analyze him. They wouldn’t get much information out of that.

“Are you curious about me?” One probed back.

They flashed a sharp gaze at One, tilting their head like it would make their vision clearer.

“Did you expect a fight?” He finally asked.

“...Why aren’t you?” The figure finally answered.

One smirked with his eyes, this trap needed bait.

“Because maybe I could help you,” He replied.

“Help me?!” The figure hissed, but with no real malice spat, “Then tell me everything you know about Megaman and his team!”

“You know about as much as I do,” One shrugged with a single shoulder, leaning his head to that side.

“No,” They glowered back at him, “You know more. I know this. You’re hiding something.”

“Everyone’s hiding something,”

“Then tell me what you’re hiding!” They responded, with desperation leaking into their voice, “Why do you help humans when you could leave them? Go wherever you please? Why do you tie yourself down with those weaklings?!”

Finally an actual question.

“Is that what you believe?” One pulled up a camera window showing the dining room near the kitchen, with everyone gathered eating food, “That they’re weak.”

“They’re weak,” The figure repeated with a melancholy tone.

Where was the bite in this virus? They seemed motivated by fear alone.

“I’m scared too,” One ventured.

The figure stood back, eyes slowly going from him to the window and back.

“I asked you earlier if you knew who you were,” One turned his attention back to the figure before him, “This wasn’t a ploy to throw you off, it was genuine. I know who I am. I am Eni’s partner and much more than that. But what about you? Have you given this genuine thought?”

In a voice so quiet that it squeaked out like a sinner confessing a grave taboo, the figure said, “...My name is Whisper.”

“Whisper then,” One continued gently, “Have you thought about this? Your origins, your goals, what drives you?”

“...I don’t need to answer that,” Whisper stated.

One nodded, “You don’t. But it is something I believe would be good for you to think about.”

“What about you?” Whisper inquired, “What binds you to your partner?”

One looked back at the dinner scene, and at Eni with quiet eyes, “I ask myself that question often, believe it or not. And everytime I’m met with the same answer, he supports me. We help each other. My origins, goals, and drive all center around that answer.”

“...Are you happy?”

“Genuinely,” One stated softly with no hesitation.

The two digital beings watched the dinner events unfold before them; a flash of lights, a boom of sound, and a shocking reveal.

“Huh,” One noted, “That Dr. Mohs switched his marker using one of the staff. That’ll probably go unnoticed, but I suppose it’s easier to see the full picture from far away.”

Whisper pulled his attention from the window, keeping a wary eye on One.

“Do you have a name for your group?” One asked, watching the humans on the camera feed.

“...Apex,” Whisper replied, noticeably shifting to the side.

“...And what would you have named it?”

Whisper tilted his head at One, trying to read his obscured face.

“I don’t know. Possibly The Four Guardians, or Four Heavenly Beings,” Whisper answered with a small huff.

“Oh, like the ones with Genbu and Seiryuu. Classic,” One nodded, “You strike me as a black tortoise type, or am I wrong?”

“...Are you mocking me?” Whispered entreated.

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“You stand there and ask me useless questions. You are trying to be friendly with me. I’m your enemy,” Whisper inquired, “Why?”

One turned his attention away from the window once more, meeting Whisper’s gaze, “I want to help.”

“Help Apex take revenge on humanity?” He snarked, tilting his head.

“Help you,” One pointed right at him.

“...You are a mystery, One,” He tilted his head more.

“And yet I haven’t lied to you once,” One insisted, “Though I suppose it’s up to you to believe me.”

Whisper continued to observe One, with something shifting underneath his cloak.

“Does the name Life Virus mean anything to you?” One asked plainly.

The shifting stopped. Whisper froze in place, eyes shaking.

“It doesn’t,” Whisper muttered with hesitation, unsure of his own words.

Whisper averted his eyes, staring deep into the dark void below the both of them. One’s white gloved hand appeared in the corner of his vision, causing him to dash back.

“Are you scared of me?” One asked.

“I’m cautious,” Whisper hissed back, “You know nothing about me and I know nothing about you.”

“You could ask me and learn,” He proposed.

“And what, hear a coy answer?” Whisper spat, “Go on, tell me all your weaknesses.”

“Maybe that I care too much?” One mock sighed wistfully.

Whisper groaned and One chuckled.

“I’m not telling you that,” One regained composure.

“You said you want to help me,” Whisper tilted his head to glower at him, “Do you even know what you could possibly be getting yourself into? You’re going to back out and cower away once you hear what you will have to deal with.”

One shrugged, “A burden shared is a burden halved.” And offered his hand once more.

Whisper stared at the outstretched offer, making some sort of calculation. Weighing the risk of trust against his fear of the unknown. A tiny vine grew from a split in the cloak, wrapping around One’s pointer finger in a gentle squeeze.

“What if I told you…” Whisper spoke grimly, “That beyond the territorial expansions and reintroduction of viruses, there was another purpose to Apex?”

One listened intently, holding the vine around his finger with his thumb.

“That there is a beast that sleeps, wounded and recovering, within the depths of the discarded net?” Whisper continued, a haunted expression masked by a shadow.

“...Does this beast have a name?” One inquired.

“We do not give it a name,” Whisper shook his head, “It cannot be killed, it should not be interacted with. Anything it is given, it takes and uses and grows. For seven years it has stalked the perimeter like the flame of the whirling sword protecting Eden.”

“...And does this beast have a singular, glowing red eye?” One pressed, a grave suspicious looming over him.

Whisper’s eyes shot up and narrowed, “Was it you then? Did you foolishly vanquish the beast?”

“No,” One replied, fears confirmed, “You know who did.”

“That boy,” Whisper spat, his tiny vine trembling.

“So, am I to assume that this beast is coming back?” One inquired.

“In time it will,” Whisper confirmed, “It would have been better to seal it away forever; keep it trapped for all time. It would have been fine. The monotony of forever is noble.”

“Seals don’t last forever,” One said distantly, “And the pain of forever is lightened by change.”

Whisper peered at One, as if his eyes could bore into him and tear him apart bit by byte.

“Who are you?” Whisper wondered, “What are you, One?”

“If I told you,” One pulled on the vine, drawing Whisper in closer, “You aren’t going to back out and cower away? You know what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“My own words,” Whisper scoffed, “I know what I’ve gotten myself into. I was born into it. It’s my duty.”

“To perpetuate the past?” One asked sharply.

“To build a better future for the ones I care about,” Whisper corrected sharply back.

“...A good answer,” One leaned back, “And if it’s a true answer, I will help you.”

“Speak of this to no one,” Whisper advised, “I do not trust your human compatriots.”

“That’s a difficult ask,” One responded.

“Treat it as a proof of trust,” Whisper said, “You can explain some of this, but not our alliance.”

“Oh so we are an alliance?” One raised his nonexistent brows just with his tone.

“Do not make me regret this, One,” Whisper grumbled.

A shrill human cry cut through the net’s space from its many audio inputs.

One opened a camera window, quickly cycling through them before finding the teens running to the scene of the crime. Relief washed over him as he saw the goofy game in progress.

“You care about them,” Whisper noted.

One flashed a dangerous look at his new ally, “I do.”

Whisper glared right back, “I care about mine too.”

One relaxed, closing his eyes briefly and then turning them back to the window.

“Do you think you’re heroes?” Whisper needled.

“I don’t know,” One admitted, “I’ve never thought of mine or any of our actions in that way. All I’ve done is fight to protect the people I care about.”

Whisper released his vine around One’s finger, took a step closer, and watched the human drama unfolding before them. They both observed in silence, hearing that little blue boy unravel the mystery before their very eyes.

The whole mansion erupted in cheer. One felt a welling up of pride at the sight.

“...Perhaps they are worth caring for,” Whisper said beside him.

One glanced at the viral human, shock painting his expression.

“Make no mistake, we will be enemies if our paths cross poorly,” Whisper warned, “But-”

A sudden alert indicated that the net’s Wi-Fi was back online.

“This is goodbye then?” One outstretched a hand.

Whisper shrank back, hesitating, then left in a green flash.

One gripped the air and let his hand fall to his side. He transmitted back to his partner, informing him of his return.

One held his hand tightly, recalling the pressure of the vine that trembled around it. A burning sensation flared in his core that threatened to engulf him. To protect their future, and fix the past’s mistakes, he was going to have to continue to lie.

Chapter Text

Autumn was in full force; cold breezes, dark mid way through the day, and orange everywhere. The fall festival that Reg’s mom had dragged him to was especially orange. Orange lights, orange decorations, and orange costumes. It was… a lot.

He couldn’t say no to his mom earlier when she brought up plans to go to this. She was so excited that it was a bit infectious. But now, the moment of, he was drained. Nonstop days of something radically new were wearing him out and he was missing the quiet days of just watching a movie with his mom and dad.

Just thinking about his dad made him wince. This wasn’t the time or place to dwell on that. This was a festival! Lights, sounds, good food, games! It… Was going to make him explode.

“Hey, mom,” He mumbled, leaning over to get her attention before they entered the festival grounds.

She paused, looking back at him with gentle eyes.

He pursed his lips, screwing up his face slightly as he gathered his courage, “I don’t wanna do this.”

She cooed and reached out, holding his hand, “Oh sweetie, it’s ok. We don’t have to go! I know it’s a lot for you.”

Despite those being the words he was wanting to hear, he felt terrible.

“You can still go! I’ll just…” He quickly looked around for some place to hide.

“The large convention center next to us apparently has a lovely historical section if you want to hang out somewhere quiet,” His mom offered.

“Will… You be ok if I go do that?” He asked hesitantly.

“Me? Will you be ok?” She retorted back with a chuckle, “I’ll be fine! I invited Zubair and we’re going to have a lovely time for sure. Keep your mobile on you and call me if you need anything! If you want, there is a haunted house in that building!”

“No thanks,” He responded, the very idea made his stomach twist.

“Ok, try some of the fair food while you’re there! And whenever you wanna head home, just call me, it’s no problem at all,” She reassured, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Ok, I will,” He squeezed back.

She let go and waved him goodbye, rolling off towards the loud festival grounds.

Reg sighed and turned towards the building his mom had pointed out. This was such an odd place with its large open air event center and huge buildings that surrounded it. Convention centers, stadiums, an amusement park, event venues; the place had everything but what he wanted, like a library, or a bed.

He made his way over to the building, picking up a corndog and cider along the way. Inside was a long line for the haunted house that he avoided entirely, instead walking up to the escalators to the second floor, finding some quiet seating that overlooked the entire festival.

Everything was more vibrant than he could’ve imagined. With the sunlight quickly fading, the hardlight displays and booths popped out even more against the dark. He quickly scanned to see if he could spot his mom, finding her easily with her wheelchair. He snapped a photo and sent it to her with a small message. She turned towards his direction and waved. He waved back. Both knew that the other one was way too far away to see either.

He relaxed back in his seat and let his eyes wander around, watching the crowds of people go about, playing games, eating food. Maybe at some point he’d gather his courage to join in the fun, just not now.

Silver sidled up to him and got his attention with a tiny wave, “You don’t wanna go to the haunted house? I wanna know what it is!”

Reg gave them a half grin and explained, “They’re these places that spook you intentionally. Full of fake ghosts and monsters. I’ve heard about them from a TV series, doesn’t sound like fun to me though.”

“Well, it looked really popular, so it must be fun, right?” They wondered.

“I’ve gotten enough action for a lifetime. I would much rather sit up here and rest,” He shrugged back at them.

He took a bite of his corndog and washed it down with cider, a lovely, warming combination. This was heaven. His eyes landed on a bright carnival game, something with balloons that popped in bursts of confetti. A kid won a stuffed animal of some sort; he was too far away to be able to tell what in particular it was.

Another booth had basketball with ring-like projections that bounced with every score, and another booth had a bell that erupted in fireworks when struck with enough force. He couldn’t see anyone’s faces, but he liked to imagine that they were all smiling, eager to win and thrilled to be in the company of their friends or family.

He gripped his mobile, idly opening up the chatting feature to message Ellen and Eni, just to catch up. Sure it had only been a day, but he already missed them. Ellen was busy finishing her Halloween costume and sent pictures of something Reg was sure would be hard to recognize even if he knew the character depicted, and Eni was helping his mothers prepare snacks for tomorrow’s trick-or-treaters.

Reg was eager for tomorrow! He had told his mom what costume he wanted just in time, but more importantly, he was going to experience the holiday where people just give kids free candy! On Argent he would receive a small gift box of chocolates for the holiday, but here on Earth there were no rules, he could fill up a bag with every sweet he could carry and no one would stop him!

He finished off his festival food with a satisfied sigh, electing to get up from his seat and move around. He felt the need to burn off all this anxious energy and make the time go by faster.

Up on the second floor he came across the historical section his mom had mentioned. It was completely empty and unnerved Reg with how quiet it was. It was somehow so far away from the festival that he wasn’t even sure he was allowed to be here. But, the lights were on, so…

He perused the small exhibit, taking a look at the documented history of the entertainment arena. The massive complex dated back to the beginning of Spacity itself about five hundred years ago. Additions, renovations, closure, and reopenings, all written about in broad strokes as a hardlight display cycled through a model of the place over time. It hosted all of Spacity’s major netbattling tournaments of the past in a building called the Star Arena, now closed indefinitely since the Net Reset.

“You’d think they’d just, I dunno, tear it down and build it up again?” Silver wondered, crossing their arms and tilting their head.

“It’s hard to let go of the past,” Reg mumbled, “I guess.”

He took a look at the model of the Star Arena. He recognized it from postcards he received from Mission Control at NAXA. This was a piece of history that no one wanted to let go of yet. It was iconic with its large star emblazoned on its domed roof. Plus it represented many of Spacity’s hard won victories from its international netbattling team. No one wanted to say goodbye to that.

“And that thing is here?” Silver floated right up to the model, eyeing it critically, “I feel like we should’ve seen that as we came in.”

Reg took a look at where the Star Dome was in relation to the other buildings, then walked over to a large window in its direction. He was just barely able to spot it against the dark of the evening, the only lights around it were shining on the plants overgrowing the pathways.

It was a void in space. A cemetery with no headstones. Abandoned but refusing to disappear.

“I think there’s a virus in there,” Silver commented.

Reg snapped back to the present, “What?! Really?”

“Actually, it’s kinda hard to tell? It may not be a virus…” They hummed, “Whatever it is, it’s weak.”

He glanced at the pit of nothingness, stomach churning, “I don’t think we’d be allowed in.”

“Well, Reg the human may not, but Megaman may be!” Silver waggled their brow.

He grumbled.

“Come o~on,” They groaned, “What, do you want the virus to eat up all the old data in that place? That historical data?!” They gave him giant, sobbing, wet eyes.

They had a point, and Reg grumbled about it.

“Fine, I’ll go,” He relented, “But if something happens, it’s on you.”

“As if I have literally any control over any of this,” Silver quipped back.

Reg gave them a wry smile, transforming in an instant and leaping onto the little creature. He pulled them in close and dug his fist into their head, giving them a gentle noogie.

Silver giggled and then loudly laughed at the sudden gesture, “What was that for?!”

A lot of emotions welled up in that moment as he stared at their large, faded blue eyes. Pride, joy, but above all else, a feeling like he was with family, like some hole in his heart was filled by them. Like he’d never be lonely again. It was a feeling he wished he could share with the world.

“I dunno,” He answered, keeping his wry smile on and squishing Silver’s cheeks.

They giggled even louder, squirming, but not resisting the gesture, “You should be Megaman for fun more often! Why dontcha?”

That made him stop instantly. He let go of Silver, letting them float up beside him, with Reg staring back at the deep void before them.

“It’s not the right thing to do, it’d be irresponsible,” He mumbled, obedient to a figment.

This whole ‘Megaman’ thing, it wasn’t him. It wasn’t what he thought he was or could be. He looked at his armor; blue, purple, accented green, it still didn’t feel real, like at some point it would leave him and go to someone who deserved it.

He shook his head, there was someone who believed so fervently otherwise that it had convinced him that he was worthy, he just had to remind himself of that every now and then.

He sighed out of habit, lowered himself, and then sprung forward, phasing straight through the window and running for the Star Arena. He slowed as he approached the arena itself; the light of the street lights cast a revealing halo around the building. Guards walked the perimeter, making the place look more like a moated castle than an abandoned building.

A wall of light with plenty of eyes to catch him. But he had an idea. He put his arm out in front of him and observed the shadow it cast, fuzzy and semi-transparent. He concentrated, shifting his frequency until he had no shadow, ensuring he was invisible to human sight.

“Woah! Where’d you learn that trick?” Silver awed at the shadowless space.

“Well, kinda from you,” Reg replied, pointing to them, “Since you don’t cast a shadow. And I figured it’d be similar to going through walls, so I just tried doing something similar, until it worked!”

“Neato!” They cheered, “No need for stealth, let’s just run in!”

He nodded, all he had to do now was maintain this feeling, which oddly enough, felt… strained. Like he was holding something heavy. He was not going to be able to maintain this for long.

He slipped by the guards no problem and through the wall, getting himself deep enough within the building itself that he knew he wouldn't be spotted before returning to a more comfortable frequency.

He found himself in some place dark, no lights anywhere to be seen. He stumbled and felt his arm buzz as it passed through something.

“I can’t see anything!” He grumbled loudly, taking another step and tumbling much farther down than he expected, yelling all the way.

“Reg?! Are you ok?!” Silver dashed towards him.

Helmet flat on the floor, he mumbled, “Yeah, I think these are stairs.”

At least this time he didn’t fall because he got scared of the height. Definitely unlike Argent.

If these were stairs, and they went down, then judging from where he came in and how much he went in, this had to be the Star Arena proper. With one hand lightly patting the world around him, he built a mental map around where his hands felt resistance. Slowly, he stood back up, grabbing onto a guard rail to right himself.

With his other hand he charged a shot with a tonfa, its energy emitted a soft glow, just barely lighting up a small area around him.

“Spooky,” Silver squeaked.

He followed the steps down, taking care not to trip, and found himself among the auditorium seating. Rows and rows of seats that seemed to go on in every direction he could see, which to be fair, wasn’t far. The sight before him was a maw of darkness that spun and twirled at the edges of his vision. The only thing keeping him from tumbling into the empty black once more was the handrail, which he gripped so hard his hand had trouble keeping itself solid around it.

The seating finally opened up to a wide aisle, and then more seating after, the nightmare continuing. Reg tried to distract himself by making a sound, a low unmelodic hum, to replace the silence left by his lack of heartbeat and breath. Though if he had them, he was certain they’d be frantic here.

“Reg, you ok?” Silver chirped, making him jump, let loose his charge shot into the ceiling, and grab the rail with both hands.

“Hmm, I think a ‘no’ would’ve worked there, bud,” They snickered.

“I’m just really on edge,” Reg strained to keep calm, “This place is giving me the creeps.”

“The good news is that we’re getting close to the virus!” They announced, cheering with a pump of an arm, “Also, I don’t think it’s moved? Yeah it’s…” They paused, “...Not moving.”

Reg charged another shot, letting its small light guide his way down to the floor of the arena. Silver showed him the way, bringing him right to the source of the mysterious signal, a small projector-like device in the dead center of the building.

Reg knelt down, getting a good look at the thing. It was larger than the projectors he was used to, and quite a bit different in design as well. It looked old, which made sense, it was probably based on real wave tech from two hundred years back, but besides a layer of dust, it looked fine.

“Is it in there?” He asked, “How do we get in too?”

“Oh! I got this!” Silver chirped, diving head first into the ancient tech.

“Wait! You’re not gonna start biting it are you?!” He chided.

“No~o,” They grumbled back, wiggling their little legs as they continued their work.

A cold wind blew through him; something in the atmosphere changed. He slowly stood back up, as if going any faster would trigger something lurking in the shadows.

He scanned the arena. He couldn’t see any changes, but he felt something, like breath right on his neck that made his hair stand on end. But the only sounds he heard were Silver’s tiny, frustrated grumbles.

His head was clammy, his throat was tight, and his stomach twisted, but they all felt phantom, like someone else was feeling them.

Then a face, jagged, blue, and angular was staring right into his eyes.

“AUGH!” Reg exclaimed and stumbled back, throwing himself as far away as he could from that thing that wasn’t there before.

“I found it!” Silver cheered, zooming back to Reg, pointing at the blue thing before him.

It was humanoid, but missing legs. Blue all over with orange around its eyes, and a black and white jersey-like shape around its torso. It fuzzed and faded into and out of the dark like a weak radio signal, but was otherwise frozen in place.

“It’s…” Reg pieced the puzzle together.

“A Wizard,” Someone else’s voice finished his thought.

He whipped around to the source, only finding darkness – no, two dark purple dots –

“Looks like this local net wasn’t connected during the Net Reset,” The voice continued – a girl’s? – the purple dots moved closer, “A shame it’s lived this long. Alone.”

“Wh- Who are you?!” Reg called out, taking a defensive stance. Silver dashed behind him.

The pair of purple dots tilted to the side, “Are you defending it? Do you think you should?”

“We should try to preserve them! We don’t have that many left, right?! Maybe help restore them?” He defended, why did he defend them? Why did he feel like a mouse before a hawk?

“A cruelty,” The girl scoffed, then boomed, “The only mercy for those left behind in the wake of the Net Reset is death! You want this thing, dying, but never able to rot away completely, to keep living?! You’re a monster, you know that?”

“Wh- What?!” Reg was taken aback, shuffling away from her.

“They don’t die. Data doesn’t die,” She continued, her steps taking on a louder, metallic ‘clack’ as she approached, “Navis and Wizards forced into stasis, unable to reach the wider net, trapped in their homes, forever unable to connect to anything around them. It drives them insane. The isolation. The eternity.”

She was nearing on him, his feeble light revealing her cloaked outline, “You fancy yourself a hero don’t you, Megaman?”

A leap, a cold wind, and she was in his face. He could see her eyes, shaded by purple lenses that sat on them like an insect’s. White, short hair, military tech on her head, and a scornful look that bore into him inside out.

“Y-You’re-!” Reg sputtered.

“What,” She spat, “Seen me on the news? Part of DART’s Spacity Defender Unit. But you-” She sneered, “The mysterious blue entity first spotted at the Cypress East Hospital. You’re the actual rumored Megaman? A bit pathetic aren’t ya?”

“H-Hey!” Was all he could retort as she circled around him.

“I bet you want to save this thing, dontcha, you little hero,” She snarked, pointing at the Wizard with a tilt of her head.

“So what if I do?” Reg shot back.

“You don’t,” She snapped coldly, “You kill. That’s what you do.”

“I’m not doing that!” He declared, taking a step towards her, gripping his tonfas tightly.

She rolled her head, and scoffed, “Of course not. Cause you’re an idiot.”

He grit his teeth, then fumed, “Enough! Leave this Wizard alone!”

“Or what?” She sneered, bored, “You’re going to fight me?”

“M-Maybe!” He pointed his charged tonfa at her, suddenly overwhelmed with a full body shake.

She snorted, then threw her head back in laughter. It thundered loudly around the empty arena, echoing off its hollow walls.

“Are you scared?!” She howled, “Got some pre-Halloween fright do ya? Never fought another human before, have you, kid? Fine, I’ll humor you.”

“W- We’re the same age!!” He hollered as she walked away.

She ignored him.

“No one’s fought here in a century,” She stopped, far away from Reg’s little light, “Let’s give the ghosts a good show.”

She whipped around, a purple glow lighting the underside of her cloak, equipped in a metallic clawed hand before her was a weapon, a folded up scythe held along its side.

“My name is Nero,” She declared, the scythe unfolding and glowing purple, “Nero Viz. Let’s see what you’re made of, hero.”

She grabbed a handle with her back hand, wielding the scythe not along its staff, but like a farmer, ready to reap. She took a low stance, the tech on her head shifting and covering her eyes, and waited.

Reg stared at her, arms still shaking. He couldn’t do this. Fight a human?! There’s no way he could.

“Can’t we just… Talk this out?” Reg suggested, doing his best to project with his meek voice.

She poised herself even lower.

Then the Wizard moved. Their arm was pointed up in the air, getting everyone’s attention, and then, without a frame of animation between, moved it down in a chopping position.

A low chuckle rumbled from Nero, “Looks like we’ve gotten the blessing of the ghost.” Her head snapped up, “Let’s fight!”

With a loud crack she sprang forward, moving unnaturally fast. Reg stumbled backwards, jumping preemptively just in time to avoid a wide swing of her scythe. He leapt into the stands, positioning himself on top of the chairs and bounced from seat to seat, avoiding swing after swing.

“I don’t want to fight you!” He exclaimed.

“Too bad,” She growled.

As he continued to evade, he noted that the scythe passed harmlessly through solid objects, making an odd buzzing sound as it went through every chair at his feet. Nero’s legs, however, were crushing and breaking the ancient architecture underneath with every step and leap.

“You’re damaging the history here!” He shouted.

“Then stop me!” She roared.

She swung the scythe around, circling it about her body with one hand, then thrust it forward and pulled it in, catching Reg off guard and in his back. It burned into his armor and he screamed as he was pulled toward Nero who slammed her clawed hand into his stomach.

He coughed reflexively, with nothing coming up, doubling over and losing his footing on a chair. Nero picked him up by his armor in one hand, a whirring sound of hydraulics screeching through the air, and tossed him aside, his body strewn across several seats.

She perched above him, scythe high in hand, hanging in the air like a guillotine. Reg kicked off a chair, rolling to the side and onto the aisle, flipping himself upright just as the blade struck where his neck previously was. His hand went to his neck, of course it was all still attached but, she meant to kill him, he almost died.

He met her gaze.

Towering above him, she tilted her head, and he swore he could feel her condescending glare from behind her goggles. Rage started to build up in him. He twisted his tonfas around, grit his teeth and leapt around to intercept her.

With a circular motion, Nero sliced towards Reg’s feet, causing him to pull his legs up, making him the perfect target for a swift downward strike. He guarded against it with his tonfas, which sent him straight at the floor, but something about the scythe messed with his frequency and he couldn’t phase through it.

He sprung backwards, far enough away from the scythe’s influence and shifted frequency, grabbing a hold of that straining feeling to disappear from sight entirely. He hopped up the rows of seats, and prepared for a sneak attack. He pounced, but Nero, without missing a beat, tilted her head and locked her scoped eyes with his.

She swung with a diagonal backswing that he deflected, only for her to twist and swing the opposite way, catching him in the shoulder. It burned but he growled and shrugged it off, thrusting his other tonfa straight into her chest. The strike pushed Reg backwards, while Nero remained in place.

She grabbed the tonfa, “Is this it?! This is all you have?!”

Reg growled, shooting her with his free tonfa. This made her recoil, and Reg ripped his tonfa away from her weakened grasp.

“I said I don’t want to fight you!!” He yelled at her, putting some distance between the two of them.

“And everytime you say that,” She bellowed, lowering her stance and pulling her scythe in close, “It pisses me off that much more!”

She exploded forward, swiping with her scythe in one clean circular motion, hitting Reg in his center with a slash that burned like hellfire through his body and enough force behind it to fling his living corpse several rows down, sliding into the arena.

He was back on the moon. Dead. Cold. A hole through his torso. He gripped the ground. No sandy texture. Where was he.

He flashed his eyes open. A metallic hand was barreling down towards his face. He froze.

Nero grabbed the left side of his helmet; it buzzed and crackled under her grasp. She pulled him in close for inspection while her goggles’ scopes whirled and tilted up and down his form.

“What are you, boy?” She spat, “You’ve got the properties of a human and an EM being. Don’t tell me you’ve Wave Changed?!”

He couldn’t hear her. His breath was caught in his throat. The only thing stopping the metal hand this time was a thin barrier in front of him, what was that, where was he, who was–

“Reg!! Focus!” Silver screamed. His whole body heard that voice, and he was back.

He fired two shots into Nero, making her drop him and stumble backwards. By the time she regained composure and prepared to attack him again, Reg had charged another shot, with Silver burning in the center, fueled by their combined rage.

She slowly took in what she was looking at, “What the-”

The shot burst into her chest, erupting in flames that exploded out from the center of the hit. Her electronics screeched in protest and her scythe flickered.

“That’s enough!!” Reg roared, charging two more shots, aiming directly for her chest.

All his previous hesitation was lost in a sea of anger. He knew who he was, Reg Garret, a survivor of Argent, and someone many people believed in and needed to do the right thing. He was not going to be taken down here, he couldn’t.

Another low chuckle rumbled out of Nero, “A good hit,” She snapped upright, her electronics back online, “But no followthrough.”

With a burst of air she leapt backwards, perching high on top the stands before Reg. She folded up her scythe in one swing and returned it somewhere beneath her cloak.

“You know, when I was assigned to guard duty tonight, I didn’t expect to run into the cryptid haunting the rumor mills,” She scoffed.

“Your technique is sloppy. Unrefined. You’ve never had formal training, have you?” She remarked, taking a casual stance, “I could help. We could help. DART can train you and you’d be saving a lot more lives under our guidance. The real Megaman. Taking down viruses, saving people’s data. Do some good.”

She extended a hand, “How ‘bout it, hero?”

Reg stared at the gesture, flabbergasted. This girl had done nothing but hurt him since they met and now she wanted to be friendly?

“Is this a joke?!” He raged, “You tried to kill me! In what world- In what universe would I ever want to be anywhere near you?!”

He fired at her, vines spiraling out of the shot that seized her arms and legs.

“You bastard!” She spat, “You’d rather make yourself the enemy of the one thing that’s keeping Spacity safe?!”

“SHUT UP!” He snapped, “You don’t know anything about me!”

Calmly, she smiled, like the vines holding her in place were merely air, “Well, I’d love to learn more. Why don’t you tell me?”

Reg froze.

It was an honest proposal, a chance to mend wounds, and build friendship. Hesitation returned to his movements.

“I-” He stammered.

“Look,” She sighed, “We’re clearly on the same side. Obviously we don’t have to fight. We could talk. I want to know more about you.”

There was a hunger to her tone that Reg couldn’t ignore. Every inch of his body was on edge, something was wrong. The vines dissipated, but she didn’t spring forward to attack.

Reg swallowed his fears and softened his expression, ready to introduce himself, before he looked back into her goggles, all four lenses trained on him, her stance, coiled and ready to strike.

His rage returned and through grit teeth he snarled, “No.”

She was upon him in an instant. Her clawed foot grabbing and shoving him down onto the ground, sparking with energy as Reg was forced by some power to stay at this frequency. The two slid to the center of the arena where the Wizard stood watch. She unfurled her scythe, spinning it around with a flourish, shoving the blade through the floor around the back of Reg’s neck.

Nero leaned down slowly, her goggles lifting onto her head revealing the purple lenses underneath, until her face was right in front of Reg’s, “Then we’re enemies.”

The static from his armor boiled around him and he could feel the heat from the scythe behind his neck. The wound in his torso felt unnaturally empty, like pain that had gone beyond conceivable pain and just turned off. It was like he had drowned, like he hadn’t breathed in hours.

He wanted out of here, he wanted to disappear, but with every change in frequency he attempted, a pulse of pain emanating from Nero’s claws shook through him. He retreated into himself, cursing the fact he didn’t run away immediately, begging and wishing for his friends.

“Reg! Now!” Silver commanded, snapping him awake.

“What?!” Nero seethed, her foot was through Reg’s torso, like he wasn’t there.

He was ethereal, imperceivable even to himself. The only thing that told him he was moving was his internal awareness. It reminded him of…

“Move! You’ve got like, 4 seconds left!” Silver warned.

He swung up, his motion slowed like gravity was weaker. Thankfully he was experienced with that. He bounded behind her, and into the stands, straight through the concrete.

He appeared in a hallway, some place that once held concession stands and joyful merchandise. He collapsed to his knees, unable to catch his breath, not yet. Nero’s rage echoed through the empty halls while he ran away.

Reg looked to Silver, a small smile growing across his face, “Thanks buddy.”

“Yeah no problem,” They nudged him back, “I’m glad I remembered we had that data.”

“Me too, you remembered-” He caught himself, there was something he was forgetting.

Then a face full of dread washed over Silver. Reg too felt in that moment, a small connection suddenly severed. They both turned back towards the way they came, towards the arena.

Nero had done her job. Reg had not.

Chapter Text

Sunlight poured in from the window, filling Reg’s room with morning light, making him abundantly aware of how long he had already been awake for. He hadn’t slept much, if at all that night. Rest eluded him; his eyes weren’t heavy, and his mind had been racing around the entire time, unable to stop.

The look on the Wizard’s face, their movements, that… weird feeling. The thoughts swirled around and bounced back every time he tried to shove them away, to try and get a moment of peace. He wasn’t allowed to rest.

He had run away. Nero deleted that Wizard the moment she had a chance. What was the point of him doing anything? He couldn’t be the hero everyone was calling him, how presumptuous. He could hardly fight, so how could he protect anything?

The fight replayed in his head. Useless swings and last second dodges. The cold, blazing burn from that scythe. He never wanted to be anywhere near her again. She’d call him a coward and kill him and she’d be correct.

That Wizard. That poor thing. All alone for so long, stuck, isolated. Caught in a perpetual monotonous world, unable to live, unable to die, alone, stuck, isolated-

“Hey,” Silver piped quietly, “Are you ok?”

He took in a shuddered breath. He had been gripping his bed sheets like he was going to fall off a cliff.

He sat up, massaging his face. Now more than ever, the metal incorporated into his skull felt heavy and foreign.

“Did you sleep?” They asked.

Reg shook his head and pulled his legs into his chest. He stared unfocused at Silver, somewhere beyond them, somewhere dark, a lone Wizard stood out against the void-

“Talk to me,” They pleaded suddenly.

He clutched his legs closer, closed his eyes and tried to come to terms with everything all at once.

“Please,” Their voice was so gentle.

He opened his eyes. Silver looked concerned, glancing up at him with large eyes. What was he doing? He was supposed to be strong for the little guy.

He put a smile on, “I’m fine.”

He lied. He looked right at them and lied. He recoiled and buried his cheek into his knees, closing his eyes. The dark. A glitchy blue figure-

A sharp twinge in his left eye shot him awake. Silver had evidently smacked him right in it, sending a jolt through his spine.

“What the-” He grumbled, holding the left side of his face, “Why’d you-?!”

“Talk. To. Me!” They barked, glaring at him.

He finally focused his eyes on them, seeing them for the first time this morning. They were looking right at him, not falling for Reg’s teenage antics. His friend, his partner…

He blinked and shook his head again; somehow a smile found its way to his face, “Sorry.”

He had a feeling they knew what was on his mind; it was probably written all over his disheveled face. They probably felt the same.

“I’m thinking about yesterday,” He admitted.

“No kidding,” They quipped, but with a forlorn look, “I can’t stop thinking about it either.”

No kidding indeed…

Reg continued to stare at Silver. Some… Gentle feeling emanated from them, like a candle from far away. He was probably imagining it. Something about the lack of sleep and the thing he felt last night was probably making him think that.

Or maybe…

“Silver,” He began to ask, pausing to wake up a little, “How are you feeling?”

They tilted their head – the candle flickered – then replied, “I’m just worried about you? You haven’t said anything since yesterday…”

He could just be imagining it, still half asleep and still thinking about last night, but the little guy was right. He sighed.

“Yeah, I’m… Not doing well,” He finally said, “The fight keeps replaying in my head. It won’t stop.”

Silver’s eyes got really big – the candle burned warmer – and they huddled up next to him.

“I’m so sorry,” They soothed, their little voice felt more than heard, “If only I could’ve helped more… Then that Wizard wouldn’t have…”

They were thinking about the Wizard too then… That wasn’t surprising to him.

Reg cupped his hand and held it around the little guy. He closed his eyes and imagined that little point of light surrounded by his hand and swore he felt his fingers get warmer. It all reminded him of that final moment during that fight where at one point he knew the Wizard was there and then it suddenly wasn’t. Like a light that was turned off or a tune that cut off abruptly. But it felt like temperature, but at the same time was something alien to him.

“This is gonna sound weird,” Reg mumbled, eyes still closed, “But can you… move around randomly? I wanna test something.”

“Uh, alright?” Silver responded.

The point of warmth moved, then appeared somewhere else, then somewhere else. Reg traced where he imagined the point in space with his finger.

“Woah, how’re you doing that?” Silver cooed.

Reg opened his eyes, his finger pointing directly at Silver. He recoiled. So it was true, there was something new and weird about him. Or maybe it had always been a thing since the incident on Argent and only now had he bothered to pay attention. He clutched his legs harder.

The warmth flickered and before Silver could say anything, Reg’s eyes were already upon them. Silver – the warmth – blinked, and Reg took in a deep breath before letting go of his legs and stretching them forward.

“It’s just…” He explained, “Something I’ve noticed.”

Silver tilted their head.

“It’s like,” He rotated his hand around as he spoke, “I can feel where electronic things are if I concentrate. It just took one suddenly being deleted around me to notice it.”

He paused, falling back onto his pillow and massaged the right side of his face, mumbling, “Silver, what am I?”

They balked and zoomed up to him, “What’s this coming from? You’re Reg! My friend, a cool guy, and hero!”

He smirked, but his eyes said that he didn’t believe them.

“It’s just something I keep thinking about,” He continued, “I’m not human anymore, so what does that make me?”

Silver was flabbergasted, scrambling to form a coherent counter argument, and eventually blurting out, “You’re human! Uh, mostly…?”

He stared at them. The poor fella was two weeks old today, and all Reg could do was unload all his nonsense onto them, “Sorry, I don’t mean to worry you. I don’t think it’s something anyone will have the answer for.”

“No it’s ok!” They stammered back, “It’s something I think about too! About… myself.”

Reg removed the hand off his face and looked at them quizzically.

“Yeah…” They rubbed their paws together placatingly, “I’m not a Wizard, maybe a program, but I’m weird and different, and there’s no one like me. There’s… stuff about me that I don’t understand, and I don’t think there’s anyone on Earth who can explain it.”

“Sounds to me like we gotta go back to the Moon someday,” Reg chuckled, “Get ourselves some answers.”

“We should!” They agreed, “And drag whatever Lowe is protecting down here with us so they’re forced to hang out!!”

He snorted into another chuckle, “We’re just two weirdos alienated from the rest of the world, aren’t we?”

“Yeah maybe,” Silver hummed, “But we’re not that alienated, right? We’ve got friends, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” He smiled back.

The faces and sounds of his friends filled his mind at their mention, and for some reason, a soft heaviness fell over his eyes. He was going to get to see them today! Ellen’s sunny disposition and Eni’s calm demeanor, they made him feel safe and-

He was out like a light.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of hours later there was a light knock on his door that stirred him from sleep.

“Hey, sweetie,” His mom’s voice echoed through the door, “Are you awake yet? Your friends will be over soon, and I’ve made lunch!”

His friends-!

He sprang up from bed, threw off the sheets, and scrambled to the ground. He felt rested and ready for the day, and hungry! He threw on his clothes and the door to find his mom rolling over to the kitchen.

“Oh! Good morning Reg,” She smiled, backing up to turn to face him. She was dressed in a modestly simple witch outfit.

Reg blinked and looked around the room, surprised to find it filled floor to ceiling with hardlight holograms of creepy critters and figures of the dead in charming orange and black.

“Happy Halloween!” She cheered, arms open wide, “Come over to the kitchen! I made spo~oky cacio e pepe! I added a smidge of turmeric and paprika to make it an eerie orange~!”

He grinned, “Thanks! That sounds good, I think?”

“Get yourself a plate!” She spun back around, “Your friends will be here in about an hour, you need to get your costume on!”

He shuffled into the kitchen, grabbing himself a plate and served himself some oddly orange spaghetti, sitting at the table, fork in hand.

“What time is it?” He asked, trying to look for a clock behind five goofy spiders and three skeletons.

“Just after noon,” His mom replied, “I let you sleep, you seemed really exhausted after yesterday? Did you get any good sleep after going through that haunted house?”

He was reminded of the lie he had to tell her, “Y-Yeah. The… Haunted house. And its spooky imagery kept me up all night.”

“Well it’s a good thing I don’t have anything scary planned tonight,” She declared, setting her own plate down at the table, “You got all your frights in yesterday!”

Got some pre-Halloween fright do ya?

He shook his head, attempting to banish Nero’s cackle echoing through his skull.

She put up her hands, “It’s just trick-or-treating till sundown and the parade afterwards. Very low intensity.”

Boy did he need a chill day for once.

He ate his orange spaghetti, the turmeric added a strange initial taste, and the paprika and parmesan fought for the main stage, but overall it was pretty tasty. As soon as he finished he rushed the plate over to the sink, washed it off, and ran to his room to get dressed. There he pulled it out, his Halloween costume, freshly purchased and ready to wear.

He unfolded the thing and laid it out; a full body shark onesie that can double as pajamas once the holiday was over. He grinned at his impeccable resourcefulness.

He donned the shark. His legs filled out two large pectoral fins, they were disproportionately inaccurate, but he could excuse it since the head featured large, googly eyes that lightly bounced as it moved, clearly making this a cartoonish abomination. Two little holes on the arms allowed him to slip his hands in and out of the fins and little grippy dots near the feet provided traction.

When fully worn, Reg looked like he was up to his neck in shark, about to be eaten alive with the rest of the shark head dangling behind him as a hoodie. The perfect costume to not be recognized in! He looked a little spooky and scary! Like a monster!

You’re a monster, you know that?

He cringed at the thought. Was he going to be haunted by last night’s events forever?

A knock at the door alerted him. It was way too early for trick-or-treaters so this had to be-

“Hi~! Mrs. Ga- ROSIE!” Ellen’s voice rang out from the other room.

His mom giggled, “Hello dear, come on in, Reg’s just getting ready.”

He opened the door, shocked to see Ellen dressed in. Something.

It was cardboard in nature, but was covered in acrylic and construction paper. It was blocky, gray and black with red accents and Reg had no idea what it was supposed to be.

“Dude, you’re just a shark?” She pointed at him, her other arm holding a bike helmet adorned with cardboard, and a pillowcase.

He stared nonplussed at her and flipped the hood over his head, instantly becoming a bright blue shark that looked more at home on a cereal box than in the ocean.

“Alright, that’s kinda cool,” She chuckled.

“What are you supposed to be,” He quipped back, still able to see relatively clearly through the special mesh the head was made with.

Ellen took the chance to wear her helmet, pose, and announce, “I’m the star hero of the Satella Police, Acid Ace! The number one defender of Electopia and protector of Earth from the horde of Wave Viruses!”

“Okay,” Was all that Reg could say. He vaguely remembered this historical figure. Not well though.

“Oh Reg you look so cute!” His mom cooed, “Let me get your picture!”

He blushed, though thankfully no one could see it, and his mom snapped a couple of photos of both him and Ellen.

Another knock on the door meant another friend and Ellen eagerly opened it up, revealing a very decorated Eni holding a cute little pumpkin pail.

His costume looked like some sort of red samurai with an excessive amount of swords. He wore a detailed eyepatch, and a helmet that featured a huge crescent shape to it.

“Are you-” Ellen began.

“Date Masamune Red from Sengoku Basara Untold Legends,” He explained, “He’s my favorite character from the new era of the anime, but I haven’t beaten any of the games, so don’t ask me about them.”

“But they’re so easy…” Ellen murmured, her voice trailing off.

“Perhaps for you,” He countered, “but just because something is easy for you does not mean it’s easy for everyone. I’m sure there’s things that I find easy that you would find very hard.”

There was a prideful stance he had as he finished, and despite his short stature, his costume made him look bold and assertive. Reg was impressed.

“Hey Eni,” He waved with one of his fins.

Eni glanced over, “Hello Reg. You’re a shark.”

“Yeah! And Ellen’s-”

“ACID ACE~!” She announced, “Hero of the Satella Police!”

“...Okay,” Eni noted.

“Sheesh, neither of you appreciate history,” She scoffed.

“Date Masamune was a real historical figure from eight hundred years ago in Electopian history,” Eni explained.

“Yeah and sharks have been around for two hundred million years so…” Reg smirked, flipping the shark hood back to reveal his face.

“Ugh,” Ellen tossed her head back, removing her helmet dramatically, “I’m unappreciated in this time.”

Reg and his mom chuckled at this while Eni blinked silently.

“Anyways,” Ellen set her helmet on the living room table, “I’m ready for trick-or-treating. When are we thinking of heading out to hunt for candy? I’m starving!”

“Ellen dear,” His mom asked with the sharp, gentle tones of a generous caregiver, “Have you not eaten yet?”

She balked, fumbling in place, “Y-Yeah?! At breakfast…?”

“Get yourself a plate, there’s cacio e pepe in the kitchen,” His mom commanded with a voice that was both soft as flower petals and not to be argued with unless you liked disagreeing with God.

And Ellen, feeling rather faithful, replied, “Yes ma’am,” shuffling over to the kitchen.

She served herself up lunch while everyone planned out the battle ahead. Doorbell, say the line, receive candy, thank yous, and leave immediately. No idle chit chat, no dawdling. It was to be a solicitation speedrun, a real trick for treats. This simple holiday was turning out to be a gauntlet and Reg hoped he’d survive.

The time came to begin the attack. Reg’s apartment was the perfect battleground; compact, moderately wealthy and likely had children, and a complex that spanned many acres and many floors. His mom would man the fort back home while the soldiers infiltrated enemy territory.

With a nod, Ellen donned her helmet and led the charge, briskly walking next door and ringing the doorbell. The door opened, revealing a moderately aged man with a colorful bowl in hand; the enemy spotted.

“Trick-or-treat~!” Ellen announced her attack with practiced whimsy.

Reg, missing his cue, tried to follow with a, “or-treat…” a little late.

Eni clammed up instantly.

“Oh would you look at that,” The man chuckled, “A shark, a samurai, and-” Pause, “A robot!”

Ellen grumbled, but maintained her smile, eagerly holding out her pillowcase for the promised prize. The man handed them each a small packaged treat, then waved them goodbye, though the moment the candy left the man’s hand, Ellen was already shouting back a “Thank you!” and bolting to her next target. The boys had to pick up their pace to keep up.

The group knocked on door after door, amassing a large pile of sugary treasure. Reg was happily only recognized as a shark, while his friends felt the need to voice their concerns that every adult in the building was uncultured for not instantly recognizing their costumes.

The joyous adventure had to end at some point, and as the afternoon wound down and the kids returned to their own apartments, Reg made the call and they began walking back.

“I think we did a good job,” He said, feeling the weight of his haul in his bag.

“We hardly made it to the second building,” Ellen sighed, “Though, I don’t know how long my costume’s gonna hold up. I gotta retape my wings.”

“I feel as though the day after Halloween is better,” Eni mumbled, “The discount candy is a great deal without the need for all this walking.”

“It’s free candy!” Ellen scoffed, “You can’t tell me you’re not having fun getting free candy?”

“It’s just more efficient,” He countered, “Though if I’m being honest, I prefer savory snacks as opposed to sweets.”

“Oh, I think one house gave me some pretzels, here!” Reg handed him the bag after fishing it out of his stash.

Eni took it carefully, adding it to his pail, “Thank you. I will repay you with anything you’d like from what I’ve gathered.”

“Guys slow down,” Ellen sighed, “We can do our trades at Reg’s apartment when we get there.”

“I didn’t think Halloween would be this complicated,” Reg mumbled.

“Well, it’s gotta be, if you want to win all this sweet candy,” She smirked.

Reg looked down in his bag at all the colorful wrappers, he’d been eyeing a couple of interesting chocolates and couldn’t wait to try them, but only when sitting, right? He couldn’t just grab one and eat it right then and there, that wasn’t proper Halloween etiquette, right? He looked over at Ellen, lollipop in mouth and happily indulging away. He looked over at Eni, and was shocked to find him plucking pretzels out of the bag he gave him without a care in the world.

Reg eyed his candy again, feeling foolish for whatever reason. Maybe… He could make up his own rules for how to navigate the world, and he didn’t have to obey untold laws. He dared to be a little deviant, and unwrapped a chocolate, enjoying the satisfying taste that made his stomach happy.

By the time the troop made it back to home base, all of his mom’s supplies had run dry; apparently the rest of the apartment’s little soldiers were also well trained in the art of trick-or-treating.

The gang did their exchanges and relished in their hard earned victory, with Ellen excitedly burning through her hoard like wildfire.

Once Reg’s mom was out of earshot, Cometman spoke up from underneath Ellen’s cardboard, “You’re plowing through all of it, you gotta slow down at some point?”

She replied in a hushed tone, “I gotta eat what I can before my mom takes it away and hides it.”

It was the second time she had mentioned her mom ever, and Reg wasn’t liking the picture it was painting, especially with all its blank spaces.

“She doesn’t let you have candy?” He asked; though he already knew from their first meeting that this was the case, he just wanted confirmation.

Ellen nodded, and in a low whisper she snarled, “She thinks it’s unhealthy!”

“It is unhealthy,” Eni noted.

She grumbled, “I’ll be fine. I’m fourteen! I can control myself.”

Reg resisted the urge to defend her mom because despite this being a normal thing that even he was acquainted with, he couldn’t help the feeling that there was more to this, especially in the sharp way Ellen had insisted that she could control herself.

“I believe in indulging in moderation,” Eni declared flatly, though with an air of aloofness that surprised Reg. Maybe his costume was just that powerful?

“Thanks, wise guy, Date Masamune,” Ellen snarked, oblivious to the costume's powers.

Reg’s mom returned and announced that they should be heading out to the parade soon. The teens finished their sorting, with Ellen shoving some candy into her pockets for the trip and then Reg doing the same, liking the idea.

They made their way to a crowded bus stop and took it further into town, getting off at a busy street that already had many costumed people walking towards a street in the distance.

The parade’s street was fenced off, with orange and purple lighting filling the night sky around it. Every person in attendance was wearing some sort of themed costume for the occasion, though from the looks of it, it was mostly moderately decorated parents with colorful and over-the-top children. And not a teen in sight.

“Hmm,” Ellen pondered, hands pressed together in front of her face, “Do you think they’ll throw candy out into the crowd?”

Reg’s mom giggled, “You really like sweets, don’t you?”

“It is my lifeblood,” She replied, solemnly, resulting in more giggles.

Reg peered down the street. The buildings on either side of the road stood tall and framed the upcoming parade procession. He and pretty much every child in attendance craned their neck to catch a glimpse of the floats and costumes. Excited cheering from further ahead of them forewarned of much enjoyment to be had.

“Can you see anything?” His mom asked, gently tugging on his costume.

Reg shook his giant shark head. The parade was taking their sweet time getting here, but at least that would mean they would be around for a while, probably.

Silver, who much to their delight, fit inside the shark head, got his attention and indicated for him to look up. He followed their gaze onto and up a streetlight, and found a weird bird perched on top of it. It had a wide face, eyes looking in two directions, and a tail that looked more like wind instruments than feathers, but weirdest of all was how it didn’t seem to obey the light and shadow of the world around it, almost like it was-

Reg grimaced and Silver nodded.

A virus.

He sighed. He really didn’t want to have to deal with this, especially here, and in front of his mom. He kept an eye on the thing warily, but it didn’t move. Broad leaves had sprouted underneath its body, covering the street light like a little wig of vegetation; it flickered briefly.

But the virus still wasn’t doing anything. It sat there like a motionless stump. Maybe it wouldn’t cause any issues? Maybe it…

He concentrated, trying to recapture that feeling from this morning. Next to him he could feel Silver – tiny, warm – and around him was a lot of noise that he could probably discern if he gave it the time, but above him on that streetlight was a point in space that felt exceptionally odd. It resonated and, for lack of a better word, sounded like a bell, both cold and yet lively. The virus turned its head in a snap movement and locked an eye with Reg. He gulped.

And yet the thing just stared at him, and this bell-like feeling chimed inside. This was… bizarre, though he hadn’t ever tried this before, so maybe this wasn’t weird at all? He reached out again, getting that same resonate chill, though stronger this time.

This wasn’t some passive ability, Reg had to wonder to himself; it was something active, targetable, and felt like communication more than anything. What it was trying to say was absolutely lost on him, however.

“Reg look!” Ellen exclaimed, snapping him out of it, “That mummy is juggling!”

Sure enough, when he followed her outstretched arm, at the start of the parade was a group of people dressed in many classic Halloween monster staples, and indeed among them was a mummy flipping and twirling balls with trails of cloth attached to them.

Briefly, Reg looked back up at the street light; the virus had resumed its watchful gaze. He supposed this would be fine since it wasn’t really doing anything. He returned his focus to the parade as well.

The costumed people proceeded before them, entertaining the crowd with waves, music, and lights. After them, large floats manned by more costumed people drove by, each with their own theme. Reg had never considered that these many colors and sounds could exist all at once in such a whimsical harmony, but here they were! He found himself laughing and excitedly cheering along with the crowd.

He turned to his group and saw Ellen and his mom happily cheering as well, with Eni stationed behind his mom’s wheelchair, headphones on head, clearly a bit overwhelmed, but gave Reg a thumbs up regardless. He smiled and then gave a thumbs up back when he remembered no one could see his face.

The floats went by and Reg began to notice signs on some of them indicating sponsors, or advertisements. ‘This float brought to you by’, ‘The ___ High School Art class would like to thank’, and ‘Brand’, frequented the more elaborate ones. It was a little odd, but someone had to pay for these, right?

Then a booming, bright sound caught his attention.

The next float coming up was something else. It looked more like a moving concert stage than a mobile haunted house. It had a large transparent screen in front, one person in the center and hardlight decorations bursting in light all around them as they moved. Reg’s stomach dropped as he recognized the person as that one guy he saw on TV, the official Megaman.

He was posing, flexing, and shooting targets, and apparently advertising for DART. And the float wasn’t even on theme! Except maybe the orange targets, but that didn’t count!

An announcer from the moving advertisement boomed, “DART is keeping YOU safe this Halloween from virus attacks!”

On cue, that smug guy tossed a cube out, releasing a small virus Reg hadn’t seen before, and then with an over the top spin and stance, shot the thing before Reg could even figure out what it was.

“Oh brother, it’s that Blake bastard,” Ellen scoffed loudly. Right, that was his name.

Reg looked up at the street light again, and found the virus perched there looking annoyed as well. Puffed up body, narrowed eyes, and when he reached out to it, a rapid clanging with a sharp wind echoed back into him. It looked like it was about to burst.

It sprang forward, diving onto the stage right before Blake. The crowd all at once gasped.

“Daddy look! A virus!” A kid next to them exclaimed, pointing right at the thing.

“It’s ok hun, it’s part of the show,” The dad reassured, though Reg knew he was lying.

Blake looked flabbergasted for a moment, then quickly composed himself, signaling to someone behind his stage, presumably someone manning the float itself.

“Ah, so you've decided to crash the party, evil-doers!” Blake declared, his voice booming through the speakers.

The crowd cheered and Reg felt like he needed to throw up. Of course he’d be like this.

“There’s no need to fear… From this monster here!” He boasted, “Lemme treat,” Wink, “This virus with a little trick of my own!”

The crowd clapped again and Silver made a face of pure disgust, almost vibrating with rage.

Blake fired at the virus, missing entirely as it flew above him in a single flap. He continued to aim and fire, missing every shot and catching some hardlight decorations in the process. The crowd laughed; to them it was all part of the show.

With a grumble he took a beat, holding his metallic arm up at a standby, “So you’ve evaded all my attacks, looks like I’m going to have to bring out… My secret weapon!”

The virus made a cacophonous sound, loud and echoing, reverberating through the crowd. Many people recoiled, but Reg felt like a firework had just exploded next to his ear and doubled over, clutching his head.

“Reg! Are you ok?” Ellen shouted, though it felt muted through the ringing going through his head.

He straightened himself, removing his hands from his ears, just to seem okay, and looked back at the stage.

Blake looked to be having trouble with his arm cannon, tapping its side and inspecting it up and down. He hesitated, looking around the crowd and back at the virus, then restated the last thing he said, “My secret weapon!” and bolted off stage.

The crowd murmured, anticipating something, but after a minute, it only looked like the virus had won in one attack. It flapped about, announcing its victory with a loud, but significantly less painful uproar, puffing out a large sack on its chest like it was waving a celebratory flag. It then turned its attention to the decorations around the stage and began attacking them with bursts of sound, breaking them into fragments of light as the crowd screamed in shock, their amusement running out quickly.

This was bad and it didn’t look like the official Megaman was capable of doing anything in this situation. Reg gulped and turned to look at his friends.

“We can’t…” Ellen bit her lip, bringing her right arm in close to her chest, “There’s a crowd…”

Eni retreated behind Reg’s mom, shaking his head.

“Reg dear,” His mom asked, reaching towards him, “Are you alright?”

A cold pit opened up in him, the sight of his mom making him awash with fear. He shook his head, it wasn’t a lie, he wasn’t feeling well.

Before his mom could soothe him, he ran off, squeezing through the crowd and taking a side alley along a building. He pulled in his arms and grabbed his face, pulling at it as Silver fretted around him.

“Why isn’t that fake Megaman doing anything?!” They cried, “Some secret weapon that is!”

Another crackling sound of electronics failing, and another scream from the crowd.

“No one else can do anything,” Reg mumbled into his hand.

“B-But that screen! Everyone would be able to see you! Like they can with the virus!” Silver reminded him.

“I know-” He started.

It was Halloween, and he was in costume…

He transformed, and the shark suit stayed covering his body like nothing had changed. He put his arms through its fins again, feeling an odd, staticy sensation as the fabric interacted with his electronic body. He bolted for the crowd and then the street, the shark costume layered over him like a suit of armor.

“As long as I don’t try to phase through things,” He explained to Silver, weaving through people and under the parade’s fence, “I’ll stay anonymous!”

“Okay…” Silver worried, “But this also means I can’t help either. I gotta stay secret too.”

Reg nodded and ran up to the DART float, jumping up into the back, past a group of frantic people, and through the curtains he saw Blake hide into.

He burst onto stage, skidding to a halt as he took in the change of scenery. The once blank stage was covered in jungle vegetation; tall trees, vines, ferns. Though it didn’t look to be growing any more for now, with the bird virus perched contently in a tree.

“The secret weapon is a shark!” A child giggled.

It was then he realized he was on stage. Actually on stage. In front of a massive, growing crowd of people. He blanched.

“Focus Reg!” Silver hissed, nudging him gently.

He shook himself back, staring down the virus hanging placidly in its tree. He raised his arms, poking the ends of his tonfa out of the hand holes in the fins, and aimed for the virus.

He paused. What had this virus really done? Disrupt a parade, broke some decoration programs, and annoyed Blake, someone who probably deserved it? It didn’t hurt anyone, besides himself, really, but other than that…

“What are you doing kid?! Get off the stage!” Blake barked, peering in from the curtain.

“Buzz off Megaman!” Reg snapped back awkwardly, but it felt good.

As Blake squeaked back behind the curtains, the virus opened one eye and shot a detestable look at Reg. He slid back, but the virus still wasn’t making aggressive movements. He probably had one chance at this…

He reached out to it again, but instead of getting that immediate feedback from before, the virus puffed up, inflated the sack on its chest, then screamed a piercing wail that boomed and bellowed all around him, knocking him backwards onto the ground like a car rammed into him. A sound reverberated in his body that was more emotions than words, but felt like the bird had said ‘MINE’ in great big bold text.

Satisfied, the virus snuggled onto its branch again as it left Reg reeling on the ground, wincing and trying to reorient himself. The narrow field of view from the shark head was not helping here.

He got up on his feet once more and to his surprise, the crowd cheered for him. He blinked, taking a moment to actually hear them, and as his bewilderment faded, a feeling of pride rose up.

Raising his tonfas, he got into a fighting stance. The virus narrowed its eyes sharply at him and took off, immediately flying around erratically.

Reg began to fire rapidly, scattershot but not random. The virus was too fast to try to follow, but he had a good idea where it liked to dash to. It followed a set pattern, and all he had to do was fire right when the thing-

Another cacophonous sound clanged around him and suddenly the bird – the world – split into two, swirling and lagging behind each other. He missed.

The sound was unending, echoing through his head and at every chance he felt clarity it resounded in his ears, making the world swirl once more. He stumbled back and tried to keep his footing, but every time he looked to the ground to try and find where his feet were, the stage floor looked like it was coming up to meet his head and he just barely could catch himself before falling flat on his face.

Voices from the crowd, Silver, maybe even Blake, all swarmed around him like flies. He shook his head, but that only made him feel like he was stuck in a blender.

He slammed his eyes shut. Every inch of his body was telling him different directions to run to and he couldn’t possibly do it all so he froze. The pandemonium became background noise, melding together into a sound he could tune out. Silver’s voice stood out and he focused on it, but despite listening intently, he couldn’t make out the words. It was still an anchor.

He knew where his body was, and generally what it was doing. His internal sense of self guiding where arms, legs, and head were positioned. He tried that sense again, broadly searching the area and like an expanding ripple, the world around him took shape. Bright electronics took fuzzy, vague forms, Silver shone like many motes of light, and the virus hung in the air, mouth open wide in attack. It was like a snapshot, a moment in time that the scan propagated and returned to him.

Reg smiled, because it reminded him of his favorite animal.

He scanned again, again, and again, each time getting another frame, telling where he was in space and more importantly, where the virus was. He raised his arms, keeping track of where they were, aimed where he knew the virus was going to be, and fired.

The sound stopped.

His eyes flew open and saw before him the bird virus flailed about on the stage floor, inflating its sack and-

A device spun in from off stage, encompassing the virus in a glowing cube and instantly closing into itself, capturing the creature. The jungle it grew began to fade as well, and from behind it, Reg could see the crowd bursting into applause before the sound hit him.

Everyone was thrilled! Woops and hollers from the adults and giggles of laughter from all the kids warmed Reg’s heart as he slowly stood up straight. A warm smile crossed his face as he gave them all a wave with his big goofy fin, and the crowd cheered again.

Then he caught eye of his mom’s wheelchair, trying to squeeze to the front, to catch a glimpse of-

He ran back behind the curtain and was immediately met with Blake, and some other DART personnel standing there, glaring at him.

Before any of them could say anything, he phased out, turning completely invisible and letting his shark suit drop in a heap at his feet. Then he bolted again, rushing out and into the crowd of parade watchers, into an alley, and became human once again.

The rush of breath into his lungs was both refreshing and painful. He had developed a headache and his body wasn’t feeling too well either. But he had won! With nothing to show for it.

“Reg?” It was his mom’s voice.

He spun around. Eni had found him and his mom was with him, slowly rolling into view.

“Where’s your suit?” She asked.

A cold, sudden inhale was the only thing that reminded him he was human and she meant his shark costume. Another cheer erupted from the crowd, muted as they all faced away from them.

“I…” Reg mumbled, “Lost it.”

His mom didn’t move for a beat. She folded her hands on her lap and simply stared at her son, her face not betraying the turmoil beneath the surface. But her hands wrung. And Reg caught that.

It was a motion he knew. When she encountered something troubling, complicated, or had to explain something complex to Reg. But her eyes had the worry of catching him in the act. Of something dangerous.

His heart shuddered.

He tried to lift his hand out to her, finding it leaden. Words formed in his throat but couldn’t find their way out. He gulped and feared for the worst.

“You can tell me anything, Reg,” She said with the even tone of a practiced speaker, “I can help. I promise.”

She knew. In so few words and so much unsaid she told him that she knew. How could she not? It was obvious and as clear as the look on his face and no lie in the world could cover it up, not that he could even begin to imagine one.

He whimpered and winced at this, feeling tears sting his eye, already beginning the motions to start apologizing before his mom gently grabbed his hand.

“We don’t have to talk about this now,” She reassured. It was like a splash of water, a lifeline.

“Ok,’ He croaked out, his chords tighter than expected.

“But we will, and you’ll be just fine,” She decided. There wasn’t an option.

He nodded, gripping her hand back.

Eni guided them back to where Ellen was. She had stationed herself at the fence where they were watching the parade before, ‘just in case Reg came back here’.

She tilted her head at Reg’s absolutely haunted expression and shrugged when he shook his head, refusing to elaborate.

The parade floats began whirring back to life. The DART float had a scene that made Reg want to collapse into a singularity and burst. Blake had donned his shark costume and was waving to the audience, hood off and grinning wide.

“Can you believe this guy?” Ellen scoffed, tossing an arm in that direction.

He couldn’t, but was too tired to voice it.

Blake waved more and more, but was restricted by the costume. Every movement stretched and extended any wrinkles away, making him look more like a weird starfish than a shark. He struggled and fought against the fabric, but continued that showman smile like this was all part of the plan.

It really didn’t suit him.

Chapter Text

Dawn came too early.

She said they'd talk about it tomorrow and tomorrow it was. Reg had tried his best to sleep, but the scenarios played out in his head endlessly. His mind paced its cage back and forth, wounding his soul.

He knew the look she had given him. It was plain to read and what it said echoed in his mind like the ringing of clock tower bells.

She knew what he was and it was time he faced her.

But it was silent that morning and Reg continued to lay in bed expecting his door to be knocked, signaling his court summons. But his judge never came to check on him.

He looked to Silver, concern painting both their faces, but no one dared to say a word.

Like a child sneaking in the night for snacks, he crept out of bed and got ready for the day, reminded briefly that his poor new pajamas were pilfered the previous evening.

His hand hovered over the handle to his door as if to test if it were red hot from fire on the other side. He sucked in a sharp breath and opened it, wincing and shutting his eyes like the sun was blaring into the room.

But he was met with quiet, and as he opened his eyes he saw his mom silently reading on the couch. Not a care in the world.

She caught his gaze, smiling and greeted, “Good morning Reg, sleep well?”

He gripped the door harder. Somehow this was worse than the hellfire his brain expected. But maybe he deserved a slow agonizing burn for lying to his mom for so long.

“I…” He started, slowly gaining volume, “I did get… Some sleep.”

Already a soft lie. ‘Some’ sleep was a stretch.

He had to stop that. It was shameful that he had even started.

His stomach hurt.

“That's good,” She said gently, “I didn't make anything for breakfast today. Yesterday was tiring, wasn't it?” She laughed. It was forced.

Please not yet. Not yesterday. Anything but that.

The knot in his center tightened.

“I just made myself a bowl of oatmeal with fresh fruit,” She beamed, “There's plenty left and the oranges are at their peak ripeness right now!”

Maybe food would stop this pain. Give him strength or maybe make his mom forget-

“And whenever you're ready,” She continued, like reading off a will, “We can talk.”

A nail, driven into his chest, pinning him to his coffin, ready for his funeral. There wasn't escape from this. His mom's face, a visage of death's solemn mask, ready to reap the truth from his terrible mouth. He wanted to cry.

“I…” He tried, unintelligible words bounced in his head and tangled in his throat.

“Food first,” She commanded softly.

He obeyed.

Grabbing himself a bowl, he also made himself a breakfast of oatmeal and fruit. It was nice. It was good to listen to his parents.

Every spoonful was another inch deeper for his grave. He was going to tell her everything. He had to. She knew. This was necessary.

Another bite.

His mom read on pleasantly.

Another bite.

Her eyes were looking past the page in front of her.

Another-

It was empty. He wasn't hungry. But the pain inside still twisted and toiled. No escape.

He watched her wait in silence, taking long, steady blinks.

“Mom,” He said like he was waking her up to tell her of a nightmare he had.

She turned to him.

The words clammored and creaked under their own weight, each vying for a chance to be voiced. But one question rang louder than all others. He had to know the extent of his sins.

“How long have you known?” The question passed Reg's lips like a ghost.

She nodded, closed the screen she was reading, and lifted herself onto her wheelchair, rolling over to the kitchen table.

“I had my suspicions for a while,” She answered, clinically and mirthlessly, “When you arrived on Earth with no space suit, unscathed, I figured something had happened to you. And then the exhaustion you had and the injuries you took… I know you tried to hide these things, but I can't not notice them.”

He whimpered, biting his tongue to prevent him from bursting all his words, then blurted out anyways, “I'm sorry!” It came out like a torrent, “I didn't mean to lie or hide things or anything! I-I just wanted-!”

What did he want. That question again. What did he want?

To purposefully deceive her?! His own mother?! No of course not! He-!

“It was something too big to tell me,” She filled in his words, even toned, “Much like your father.” She let out a breathy chuckle.

“Dad…?”

She nodded, “That project of his on Argent was strictly for his own eyes. But I trust him with my life, so I never needed to know it. And I trust you the same way.”

That's right… Lowe's project… The thing they protected…

“But,” She continued sharply, “This may be too much for just yourself. I will help you. All of NAXA can help you. You're not alone.”

He froze. It was too big. Too much. How could he even ask? Would they listen to him? Fifteen year old him?

“I-I know that,” He retreated into himself, “But… I… Don't know if it's a good idea to bring all of NAXA into this…”

His mom looked at him curiously, and he fiddled with his arm wraps as he formed his thoughts.

“I'm not… Fighting stuff on purpose,” He explained, though even now the urge to be vague gripped him, “It would be better to leave the fighting up to DART, right?”

Officials could handle this. They were supposed to handle this. They were…

Blake's terrible performance replayed in his mind.

“I'm glad you're not looking for fights dear,” She sighed, “But those with power tend to end up in them anyways.”

Power.

She knew she knew she knew.

“I don't want it,” He squeaked out, recoiling. Silver curled up as close as they could to his neck.

His mom looked on, quietly, letting the words rest in the air.

“I don't want it!” He cried out, louder this time, tears forming in his eye, “I-I don't want to be this… Thing that people rely on, that I gotta be the one to save people! That there's this entire world where bad things are happening and I have to be the one to save it?! It's not what I want!”

What a terrible thing to say. How selfish of him. There was a whole world that needed him and he chose to be frivolous instead.

His mom shook her head, “You can't save the world.”

Of course not. He was weak and-

“No one person can save the world, Reg,” She explained plainly, “I'm sorry that you thought you had to.”

She reached out with her hand, open and palm up, just to him.

“You're not alone,” she affirmed resolutely, “There are so many people who care about the same things you do, who want to help the world just like you do. It's ok to rely on them and seek their help. There's no rule that says you have to do it alone and if there was, that's a dumb rule and you should break it anyways!” She laughed.

He… stared at her. It was all he could do. At what point did he think he was alone in this? He had friends, he had resources, he still had that contact with Roll, there were things he could do, of course, but…

“I… Don't know if it's time to bring more people into this. I'm just one kid,” He chuckled uselessly, “I'm not doing big things and I don't have the power to stop all this bad stuff. All I'm doing is helping out where I can. And I promise I'm being as safe as I can while I'm doing it.”

His mom blinked slowly and tilted her head to the side, a look that meant she was deep in thought.

“You're doing your best and that's all anyone can ask of you, including yourself,” She said, inching her hand closer to him, “That still doesn't mean you're alone. If you're hurting, let me help you, if you're scared let me reassure you. All I want is to do my best too, so please let me offer my help and take it. You deserve it.”

He shuddered in his seat, a tear had fallen off his cheek without him realizing. He saw her outstretched hand and it beckoned him like solid land in a storm. Before he knew it, his hand was clutching hers, its grip solid and firm and he felt the room around him calm down. He had been spiraling and didn't even notice.

“I-I'm okay,” A soft lie. Bad. He explained, “Right now… I'm okay. The fights can be scary but I know when it's too much and that's when I run… I'm taking care of myself, I swear! Please… don't worry.”

Her grip tightened briefly. She was there, she wasn't angry, she was scared, but she trusted him.

“I know,” She whispered, “You're a smart kid and I know you wouldn't do anything reckless. And I'm proud of you for that.”

She smiled and Reg shuddered another tear out.

“Promise me you'll tell me when another incident occurs that needs your help and I'll support you,” She assured.

He nodded, feeling it lacking, then added, “I promise.”

She squeezed his hand gently, and with a chuckle, “And you can call these ‘bad things’ viruses, we don't have to dance around this, we both know what's going on, Megaman.”

“Mom!” Reg immediately turned beet red, “Don't call me that too!”

She laughed, genuine, relieving laughter so joyful that Reg soon found himself caught up in it too.

Of course he wasn't alone. He never was.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ellen leaned back, making her chair squeak in annoyance. She scrolled listlessly through post after post on the old forum she dragged up from an archive. Posts that detailed panicked people and presumably their AI companions from a century ago, desperate for answers and looking for a promise of salvation from an apocalypse. It was pretty easy to think they were overreacting from her current place in time, but with such a huge change on the horizon for them… Maybe she shouldn’t be too critical of their fear.

Although it also wasn’t like those fears were unfounded either. Those AI companions weren’t around anymore.

If she dwelled on it too much it was gonna make her spiral again.

“What on Earth could you even find here besides depression?” Cometman grumbled.

He peered over at the forum window, tilting his head to get a good look at it, then returned to leaning up against an empty text document Ellen had opened up for him to lean on.

It was odd having someone loitering on her monitor, but in the week that she’s had him, she had gotten used to it. She’d draw something on an art program and he’d contribute with his own doodles; they’d play games by taking turns controlling the keyboard; it was interesting! She understood that much more the fear that those forum posters had. She never wanted to lose this.

“I dunno,” She sighed, throwing her head back, staring at the ceiling, “I thought I’d find something you know? Lost chip or card data, maybe someone uploading an old Wizard program, or heck even just their frame data. But, well, you know, the person who uploaded this snapshot to the archive probably has already scoured the page for anything juicy and has distributed that stuff everywhere by now.”

“So you wanna just keep scrolling through this, catching sadness instead?” He scoffed.

“No…” She peeled herself back to her shrimped stance over her keyboard, “I gotta keep looking though. Maybe there’s something someone missed? We gotta get every advantage over those viral humans…”

“Well it looks like it’s eating you alive from the look on your face,” He huffed.

She pursed her lips and moved them around, finding it impossible to settle down as she contemplated giving up.

“No…” She bemoaned again, “There’s gotta be something here, right? We’re like, doing archeology and unburying dinosaur bones, but right now we’re at the part where we’re just moving dirt around or something.”

“...Sure.”

“Just a couple more minutes,” She mumbled.

This was something she’d done many times before. Late nights where she was too tired to train but too awake to sleep. The siren pull of all these people’s extreme desperation. It was like watching a natural disaster burn through a village from the other side of a river. It had already happened, long before even her mother was born, but it compelled her. Just to lend an ear to hear their cries of pain. She could offer that much.

She’d become numb to the usual posts. They typically featured outcries of anguish, confusion, and anger. Blaming Ciel Hikari for her creation. Trying to host evacuation servers to hold AI in the slim chance of their survival. Hoping for upgrades that would make their companions compatible with the new net.

The posts that detailed their plunge into despair were the hardest to read.

But among the pain there was an oddity. A reply to a post she swore she hadn’t scrolled past. Following the reply lead to nothing; a place further up in the forum with no post like it. The original post apparently had only read, “i have found S”, based on what was copied in the reply which read, “This was a lifesaver! Thank you!”.

“Weird,” She muttered into her hand.

“How so?” Cometman raised a brow, glancing at the forum window.

“There’s no post here and I think there’s supposed to be one,” She explained, tapping the screen.

“Lemme see,” He pulled himself off the other window and shuffled over.

She pointed out the post and where in the forum she expected the original post with her cursor while he inspected the forum with quiet interest.

“Look at the time stamps,” He said, pointing at the posts, “Most of these are just a couple of minutes apart, but there’s this huge gap where there aren't any posts for about an hour, and then they keep posting like nothing happened.”

“You’re right,” She gasped, scrolling up and down to confirm it, “What the heck could that mean?”

“I dunno,” He shrugged, “Maybe the forum went down for that amount of time, but you’d think they’d say something right? Whatever happened here happened long after these people were posting.”

“Yeah maybe… You think someone deleted some posts? Maybe cause they talked about whatever this ‘S’ was?”

“But whoever did that also missed that reply you found,” He looked back at Ellen.

“That’s right… And so weird. Maybe it was just a loss of data? Maybe from the Net Reset itself,” She hummed.

“You said this was a ‘snapshot’, what is that?” He asked, crossing his arms in thought.

“Basically a save of all the html and css and code for a website for a specific moment in time that someone saves that can be viewed in an archive,” She explained, “It’s not like it’s set in stone, people can still edit it, but for the most part, this is what this site looked in 23XX.”

“Edited, huh?” He hummed, holding a hand to his chin, then tilted his head up in realization, “Are there other snapshots? Unedited or maybe earlier ones?”

“Maybe…!” She leaned in, pulling up tabs and a calendar on the archival website.

There were plenty of dates for this website and many snapshots made for it, especially around this time. Almost every day on the calendar had a snapshot for it, but the one she needed wasn’t there. She was already on the day of the snapshot, any previous wouldn’t have the post yet, and any after would have it deleted.

She sighed and despaired.

“There’s so many snapshots, you’d think they wouldn’t limit it to just day by day,” Cometman huffed, tilting his head to the side.

She pulled at her face then paused. Curiosity tore through her like wildfire as she sprang forward and brought the calendar back up. She inspected menus and right clicks and hovered over every part until she found it. Options for multiple saved snapshots for a certain day dropped down off some hidden menu and she opened every one in a new window, covering Cometman up like puff pastry.

He grabbed one of the windows and brought it towards him, scrolling to the area the post was supposed to be at.

“Mine’s too early in the day for it to be posted,” He commented, “What about you?”

Ellen was engrossed, flipping between windows like a college hopeful ripping through their potential acceptance letters.

Cometman closed his window and leaned over to peer at her, “Ellen?”

“Found it,” She announced with a controlled fervor, quickly clicking over and closing the other windows.

He walked around to get a view of the page and raised a brow at the sudden additional posts.

“We were right,” She smirked, excitement rising in her voice, “All these posts are replying and talking about whatever ‘S’ is. And as for our titular post itself…”

She scrolled up swiftly, locating it, but freezing as she noticed it lacked anything else to it. It was just the message that was replied to later. No media. Nothing embedded.

“Square one again,” She groaned, “Of course this was gonna be a nothingburger, guaranteed from the start. Don’t know what I expected.”

“...You sure?”

She screwed her face into a contorted frown, then released it all at once like a rubber band. She’d humor him.

“Time to go…” She flipped her visualizer onto her face, “hacker mode.”

And immediately removed them as the concentrated light coming off her monitor hurt her eyes.

She opened a menu to inspect the page’s code directly, getting lost in a sea of tables like a discount furniture store. She located the post and-

“What the heck is that,” She mumbled, leaning in close to the screen.

A long string of odd text with umlauts, serifs, and greek symbols in some format unrecognizable to both herself and her browser sat at the bottom of the suspicious post. This must’ve been it, whatever it was, but no matter what she tried, she couldn’t open it. She grumbled.

Cometman walked up to the mess and stood there, hand to chin in deep thought.

“I think I can access it,” He mumbled, off hand.

“What,”

“Yeah,” He turned to face her, “I don’t know what it is, just that I recognize it. But I don’t know what it is for sure unless I open it and see what’s inside.”

Ellen’s eyes went wide. Now that was something exciting. This thing, buried and burned in hopes of never rising from its grave, brought back screaming to life from lightning in a bottle. They had to continue, they had to dive straight in. This was the find of the century!

“Crack that bad boy open! We hit the jackpot baby!!” She cheered, pumping her fist excitedly.

He nodded back with a smirk, then reached out to the odd bit of text and a bright flash of light encompassed the screen. Cometman dissolved and looked like he was being sucked into a point somewhere in the white. When the light faded, it revealed a mind boggling scene that short circuited Ellen’s brain.

A huge expanse opened up before them of bright checkerboard marble and gleaming white gold inlays. Towering structures rose out of pristine pools of water that fell endlessly over terraced walls making cascades of water that encircled and flowed around the marble plateaus that filled the space. Parts were cracked and crumbled, but upon inspection were repaired with a striking gold fill, making the land feel more like a giant piece of pottery.

Ellen could only interpret this as some sort of video game. Some simulation of reality instead of the real, concrete truth before her eyes.

But there was Cometman, standing there just as dumbfounded as she was, in his bright green and yellow that stood out like a sore thumb against the unbelievably ornate world before them.

“Uh…” She droned, breaking the silence with a noise that starkly contrasted the… everything.

“Yeah,” He agreed.

Every question in the world scrambled in her brain and made a frantic run for her throat all at once. Nothing came out for a long while.

“It’s real,” Cometman awed, “You’re seeing this too right? A real actual cyberworld. It’s got lighting and everything?!”

“Yeah,” She agreed, still reeling, then reality crashed into her, “How is any of this… existing?!”

“Beats me,” He shrugged, taking his first steps into this otherworldly paradise.

“No like-!” She faltered, grasping the air for answers, “For this to still be around, that’d mean it’s been running on some unknown server for at least a hundred years, disconnected from the main net somehow AND, I gotta say it again, running for a hundred years on a physical server?! For what?! Why?! Who?!”

She growled and ran her hand through her hair, furiously scratching and wrangling with the questions in her seat.

She bolted forward in a frenzy, “Cometman we GOTTA explore every inch of this place!!”

“I know,” He nodded, continuing to walk forward.

He came up to a sign that was evidently an old message board. With one of his clawed fingers, he scrolled through the latest messages.

He paused, stopping his investigation by balling his hand into a fist, “There’s no one here.”

“Is that so?” She moved her head around trying to see the board through his massive shoulder armor.

“The last messages are from a hundred years ago and all of them are saying good-bye,” He explained, distantly, “Even this place was abandoned.”

“That’s… wild,” She leaned back, scratching her head, “What else does it say? Surely that’s not everything.”

“There’s posts that go back decades,” He muttered, the magnitude weighing on him, “Centuries. There’s almost too much information for me to really process. This place is as old as the net itself.”

“Damn,” She chirped.

“Yeah,”

“This place got a name?”

He nodded, “Secret Area, apparently.”

“Sounds appropriate. And like our mythical ‘S’ that was hinted at.” She hummed, hand to chin.

Cometman eyes fell onto the message board again. It felt like an anchor. Like roots. He reached out and placed his hand on the screen, imagining the thousands of Navis before him that had done the same.

“What do you wanna do?” Ellen asked, “We’ve found pretty much an archival treasure trove. Kinda curious if there’s any information here that’d help us.”

He shook his head, “No, this information is too personal. It’s a lot of details about day to day activities and battle chip strategies. What’s weird is that the final posts, the ones where everyone is saying good-bye to this place… They’re hopeful. They keep talking about the future like it’s something they’ll see one day but…”

He turned back to look at Ellen, her face knitted in sadness. They both took a moment to acknowledge the mutual feeling. Hope was… The strangest feeling to come across in the face of inevitable demise. But then again, even she was called strange for things she found normal, so maybe… She understood.

“Let’s… Move on from this,” Cometman suggested, already taking steps further into the world.

After a brief, burning silence, Ellen piped up, “Is there really no one else here?”

He peered back to acknowledge her, then turned his attention back to the road ahead, “Everywhere else I’ve been, the modern net, and even the areas where we fought those viruses, they all had this noise about them. Low and in the background, but this has none of that here. It’s silent. Kinda unnerving.”

“So the Navis that were here just up and left a perfectly safe, pristine location… For what?” She huffed, chewing her lip.

He winced internally, this topic and this place were unsettling to him, but he pressed on, “I don’t know. If I could hazard a guess it’d be that they found someplace better than being trapped here for possibly eternity.”

“I hope so,” Damn, even she was catching the hope, that stuff’s infectious.

They came across a gap in the road. Up ahead were more massive, towering plateaus with paths interconnecting above them, with the road that connected to it winding far to the right of them, all the way around to where Cometman stood. It’d be easy to just jump the gap, but from what it looked like, one misstep would send you tumbling down into the chasm of water down below, and no telling what that meant here in this space.

“Do you wanna…?” Ellen prompted.

He deflated a little, this place was getting to him. It was too… Pure. The minor annoyances of the more streamlined net that was never built for him felt like home. It reminded him he was alive. Or, well, functioning.

This was a place where it felt like any scream he would cry out would be swallowed up into nothingness. Not even heard by his own receptors. It made him want to scream that much more.

“Let’s not dawdle here,” He eventually landed on, “Can you make me jump over there?”

Ellen snickered at his insistence to ‘not dawdle’ after staring into the abyss for so long, then brightened, “Yeah of course!”

They had already figured out by now that Cometman was completely unable to fight for himself. No dashing, no chain mace attacks, and definitely no chips. He didn’t like that his strength was entirely reliant on Ellen, but there was something else about it. There was something odd to it all.

As he allowed himself to get into position and dashed over the small gap, he recalled the past couple of days that they trained where he simply gave in to this feeling. His thoughts had faded by the wayside, letting Ellen take control and fight opponent after opponent in ranked Netken matches. It felt safe.

He landed on the other side with no issues, then looked back, catching Ellen’s delighted grin, and smiled back. He turned his attention back to the road ahead.

But there were other Netken matches that were more… heated. Where Ellen would desperately want to win and Cometman found himself wrapped up in that fervor of hers. He no longer wanted to just go through the motions, he wanted to win too. This reckless girl who was always so patient with him… He just wanted to help her.

And that’s where things would get odd.

He continued down the light gold road that split massive outcrops of marble. Patterns of small QR codes dotted the cliffs, instantly decoded in his gaze as names of Navis that had visited here. There were thousands.

He retreated to his thoughts, overwhelmed by the profound world around him.

The oddness. He would want to help in the fights so he’d wrestle for control of his own body mid battle. Dodge just a bit better, hit a bit more accurately. Things Ellen wouldn’t be able to do on her own and make the snap decisions she couldn’t do without seeing the action up close like he could. But it didn’t work well.

He’d mess up and then Ellen would get frustrated, completely unaware as to why the game wasn’t behaving as she intended. He couldn’t admit it was his fault; some fear always gripped him before he could form the words. So instead he’d bury his feelings and let Ellen do what she did best.

But then he’d get caught up in her enthusiasm and it would happen all over again. He had learned by now that small micro-adjustments went a long way. If an attack looked like it was going to miss by a pixel, he’d swing it just a little closer; if the foe’s attack looked like it was going to connect, he’d lean just a hair’s breadth away. It was in these fights that he felt a frenetic energy. A mad grin would grip his face and the rhythm of the fight would overtake him.

He loved it.

It was like this was what he’d been chasing his whole, extremely short life. It lit a fire in him that blazed through every bit of his frame. The proverbial strings attached on his wrists weren’t tangled, they were loose and already pulling in the direction he was going anyways.

It felt like freedom.

He had absentmindedly walked far along the road, passing by strangely thin paths and waterfalls stemming from the sky that made no mist as they hit the rivers below. The sight before him made him stop in his tracks, however.

Despite this place being as unbelievably ancient as it was, there was no decay to the structures, save for the area before them.

It looked like a massive chunk had been carved out by a meteor that must have continued to fall deep into the pools behind it. What looked to have once been a set of stairs leading to a higher location was nearly destroyed by an impact with something far larger than it. Fragments of stairs and marble platforms littered this area, but didn’t add up to an amount that made sense. A lot was missing here.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Cometman remarked, the rough estimations for what transpired here did not sit well with him.

“I… Don’t want to turn back now,” Ellen replied, determination rising in her.

“I think there’s something here,” He continued, eyeing Ellen on the screen behind him, “It’s faint, but it’s growing stronger…”

A look of concern washed over her, and it looked as though she seriously considered retreating right then and there, but instead her gaze narrowed and she stared down the impact crater.

“We have to keep going. It’s risky, but… I…” She paused, her face screwing up as she searched for the right words.

“You wanna get stronger,” He offered, and she blinked back in surprise, “And you don’t get stronger if you don’t take risks. I get it.”

Her jaw hung in the air; he had taken the words right out of her mouth, even if she didn’t really know what she was going to say anyways. She redoubled her look of determination and a wide grin stretched across her face.

“I’m not about to run away from a potential challenge! Let’s go for it, Cometman!” She exclaimed, fist up in the air.

He nodded back, “Let’s face whatever’s here head on!”

With her by his side, he felt like they could take on anything.

Cometman moved forward, crawling over the debris and getting assistance from Ellen across the unstable terrain. He made it to the edge of the impact sight and was finally able to get a good look into the pool on the other side.

Something dark lurked inside it. That slight signal emanating from it began to rapidly grow in strength. Cometman dropped into a fighting stance just as a deep rumble came from the depths. He looked at her and she nodded back.

“Battle Routine Set! Execute!” She called out just as a pair of yellow eyes flashed in the dark waters below them.

The pool exploded in a rush of water, shaking the ground as a black figure burst from its depths. It landed on a plateau far above and away from the crumbled stage, silhouetted by the pure white light of the sky around it, a gigantic black beast with a jagged mane regarded Cometman with a steely glare, then threw its head back in a howl.

“Eesh, we’re in trouble now!” Ellen exclaimed.

“You wanna run?” Cometman snarked.

“Never said that!” She smirked, “We can take it! Look alive bud, it’s pouncing!”

The beast sailed through the air, bounding off platforms that cracked under its weight until it landed on the stage, knocking debris out of its way. It lunged forward, claws outstretched.

Ellen moved Cometman back, seeing the attack from a mile away, and took a moment to get a good look at it. It was black with yellow bits scattered about its blocky fur. Four clawed limbs and a fanged mouth, a big lumbering beast. All she’d have to do is keep far enough away, then attack it when it least expected it.

It shook its head once, pawing the ground and then let out a burst of a roar, sending a shockwave barreling down the arena. Ellen made Cometman sidestep it easily, letting the attack fly by him.

Debris began to hover and hurtle itself across the field, causing an endless barrage of attacks. Sidesteps weren’t easy maneuvers for Cometman; his jets faced backwards and 90 degree turns weren’t his specialty, but Ellen was used to this quirk of his and the debris quickly became nothing more than an annoyance.

The beasts’ eyes flashed yellow and it opened its mouth, telegraphing an attack. With a quick flick of just a couple of buttons on the Game-Xross, Cometman’s hand flashed into a star shaped mace and it launched around a flying debris, wrapping and swinging it around in a wide arc that ended squarely on the beast’s glowing maw, staggering it.

It shook it off and snarled. It kicked up more debris that shot like a wave of solid rock. A quick load of a Guard chip blocked it and shot a shockwave of its own back which the beast jumped to dodge.

A growl emanated from deep within it and with a loud howl, the winds changed. They kicked up and began to swirl, making the debris come in from the side. The beast’s head twisted, becoming a drill that it then plunged into the ground, cracking the marble panels and sending even more chunks of the stage flying into the air.

The forward-back dodging motion that Ellen had to input was a bit foreign to her; not many Netken fights featured such an attack. But all she had to do was move Cometman to a place where debris wasn’t and the movements she needed to input came easily to her. There was a rhythm to it, and it was like she was playing a symphony with her controller.

She had Cometman grab another debris with a mace chain attack, using it to block incoming rocks and break them apart. The beast looked displeased at this; snarling and barking out another shockwave.

Another mace chain attack grappled onto a flying debris, though this time, Cometman’s feet never touched the ground, letting himself get dragged along with the rock and avoided the shockwave. He disengaged with the debris and dashed forward, gaining speed as he careened right into the beast’s side, making it stumble and growl in pain. A quick follow up with a Yo-Yo chip shredded the side of the beast, making black bits of data go flying everywhere.

The beast whipped around, its deadly fangs bared straight for Cometman’s neck, but with a quick dash, he evaded the bite, sliding between its legs to the other side of it. Another chip loaded and Cometman’s hand reformed into a WindRack, slicing the beast and making Cometman fly backwards with the recoil of the attack.

The beast flung its body around, facing Cometman head on, its eyes flashed and head spun, becoming a drill that shot forward. Cometman came in with his own drill from a chip, clashing, but ultimately barely deflecting the much more massive drill head of the beast. The vibration from the attack continued to echo into his core; his arm hadn’t escaped without damage from that.

A FireHit chip loaded and with a swift uppercut, the vulnerable headless body was suckerpunched with a rising fist of fire. Coalescing from black pixels, the beast’s head reformed and launched another shockwave, making Cometman fall back into the endless waves of debris to dodge.

Backwards and forwards, the dance continued. He grabbed another chunk of debris, ready to fling it into the beast’s face, swinging it above his head, taunting it.

With another roar of rage, the beast’s head dissolved and shot around Cometman, combining behind him into a black humanoid figure in a cloak. It attacked, with Cometman barely dodging a jagged purple blade, only to be stabbed with another wielded by the figure’s other hand. It burned his frame from the inside out and crackled like cold hellfire.

A blade slashed around him in a circle, slicing the figure and making it back off. Cometman recovered quickly, gritting his teeth and shooting a mace in retaliation. The figure broke apart before the attack connected, and reformed behind Cometman once more, this time in the shape of a figure with floating ribbons. It held up its hand and a cone of light burst into him with an explosion of searing pain.

It stunned him and he could hardly see beyond the sudden double vision he was experiencing. He fell to the ground, but could feel his body stagger itself back into a fighting stance, turning to face his opponent. Before him was the familiar figure of Megaman.EXE, monochrome and buster aimed and charging at him.

Cometman charged forward, tackling and shoving the figure back until the both of them collided with some flying debris. It recoiled from the impact, leaving it open for a grapple. A mace wrapped around the figure of Megaman.EXE, chaining it up, and with a boost from a dash, Cometman flung the figure right into another chunk of debris.

The figure broke apart into a burst of pixels, bubbling and flowing back to the main body, forming its head once more. The debris around it had dwindled, mostly a sea of dust at this point. The beast lowered its head, watching Cometman with a stalwart gaze.

Cometman was having trouble standing, the pain from the two successive attacks still burning inside him. He breathed heavily, his focus returning to him. It all snapped together into crystal clarity.

A tailwind blew behind him, pulling him forward and towards the gaping maw of the beast. A flash of red flared behind its fangs, then its muzzle snapped upward from a sudden burst of air from an AirShot chip, causing the beast’s attack of a massive plume of red tinged wind to shoot harmlessly into the air.

They needed to counter attack. Close range. Three chips loaded, combining to form a statue-like head.

“Stream Head!!” He exclaimed as the summoned busts shot one after another, rapid firing into and through the beast.

Every hit knocked it further and further back until it collapsed in a heap. The winds slowly died down, the battlefield clearing and brightening as the dust settled. The beast stirred and shook off the sand covering it, keeping its head and tail low to the ground. It eyed Cometman warily, and for a tense moment, the two stared each other down, waiting for the other to move.

The beast huffed, sheathing its fangs and with just a couple of bounding leaps, dove back into its pool. The splash and subsequent ripples settled quickly, leaving the surface of the water a flat sheet.

The signal Cometman had detected earlier died down, returning the world to its silence, and him to his thoughts.

“Phew!” Ellen’s voice cut through, “Holy cannoli man, that was one heck of a fight!”

He blinked and shook himself back to reality, regaining focus despite feeling like he was already focused-

“I was kinda worried there for a bit!” She continued brightly, “But we pulled through! Even got to pull off the Stream Head Program Advance. I hardly ever get to use that one!”

“Right,” He murmured. Was that his voice? It sounded different when he screamed the name of the Program Advance. No, of course Ellen was screaming it too, that must’ve been it.

“You ok there bud?” She asked, lips pursed for a moment, “Those hits you took looked like they hurt.”

He looked at where he was stabbed in the shoulder; a little hole leaked tiny bits of data.

“Nothing a little time in the Game-Xross won’t fix,” He said, absently.

She watched him quietly, her brows knitted with worry.

“H-Hey Cometman…” She fretted, freezing as he looked back at her with concern, “Ah, you know what, nevermind!” She raised a hand dismissively, muttering something about how ‘that must’ve been nothing’.

Cometman deflated. The tension of the fight finally left him. He turned his attention to the destroyed battlefield and all its once beautiful marble now cracked and covered in dust.

“Let’s get you back, alright?” She reassured, giving him a thumbs up.

He nodded. Rest sounded perfect right now. He needed time to process that fight. Something happened there, beyond just the normal blows and punches. He could only hope he could find a solution.

He walked back to the entry point of this world, with assistance from Ellen for the gaps and navigating through the winding way back. Neither of them spoke up the entire time; both of them deep in disbelieving thought.

Ellen, safe in the real world, shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She winced as a sharp pain nagged at her. With a free hand she reached under her shirt to massage her shoulder, maybe her intense shrimping posture had finally done a number on her.

Color drained from her face as she pulled her hand back, revealing on her fingertips the unmistakable smear of blood.

Chapter Text

The Hikari family household was a distinguished, lavish, and an architectural cornerstone in the modern architect community. And it was empty, save for its one occupant and on occasion, her in-home health care professional. It was a place that was supposed to be used for parties, meetings with fellow scientists, and family get-togethers. It did none of those things these days.

A more logical choice for such a massive place would have been for multi-generational raising of families. If only the master of the mansion was still on good terms with them.

Over time, the roughness of what Ciel Hikari wrought on the world seemed to smooth. People who had never known a time with AI companions and the incredible tech it allowed for were the majority of the population.

It didn’t count as forgiveness.

Michi knocked on the much too ornate door with a sunny disposition. Eni stood off to the side behind her, staring into the deep greenery that surrounded the building. It’d be pretty fun to explore it if it wasn’t for the endless horde of bugs that plagued the outdoors.

He spotted a mosquito. It made his skin crawl.

“Oh hello Mrs. Hikari! So glad you could come today!” The cheery voice of the in-home nurse rang loudly as she opened the door to let them in.

“Hi Mrs. Juniper!” Eni’s mom replied sweetly, “How is gran gran gran doing!”

“She's doing just fine! No pain today. She's up, walking around. I'm busy making lunch,” Mrs. Juniper explained, stepping back and letting them in.

Eni's mom and he walked in and immediately Eni peeled off, beelining it for the stairs.

“Eni dear!” His mom called out to him, making him pause, “Is there anything you'd like Mrs. Juniper to make for dinner later on?”

He thought for a moment, muttering aloud, “Penne pasta.” Then turned back to the stairs.

It was a long walk up. For some reason, high ceilings were ‘in’ at the time of building so the whole place felt more like a cathedral. And the amount of glass it featured didn't help.

The stairs had thin pine steps that lit up with cyan light underneath them upon being pressed. They were a nighttime novelty and nothing more.

The extensive array of windows let in tons of natural light as well as a clear view of the surrounding forested area. Decades of horticulture work ensured the meticulously manicured trees encircled the property like a king's army.

Up on the second floor, Eni could just barely see through some of the upper canopy. For a moment he wondered if someday he'd finally be tall enough to see over them, but quickly realized the trees probably grew faster than him.

He sighed through his nose and shuffled into ‘his’ room, or at least, the one he decided to hang out in whenever he had to spend the night for the holidays. It was a decent room, but sparsely decorated.

He fell onto the bed in a huff. These visits to his great great grandma's were getting more frequent. The obvious conclusion weighed on his mind; people don't ‘get better’ at her age.

He gripped the sheets and pulled them in close. If he could sleep himself to lunch and then dinner, he would.

“Eni,” One’s voice lightly buzzed through his headphones.

He sat up and clicked the holoject necklace on, making an image of One appear on a screen floating in front of him.

“There’s something I would like to do, and I will need your assistance with,” One asked him, looking serious.

Eni straightened out, mouth slightly agape at the tone shift, then nodded.

“I need you to go into your great great grandmother’s basement,” One explained, “There’s something there I need to look into and the shielding it has means I can’t access it from the outside.”

Eni shut his mouth, pensively holding his gaze until he mumbled, “You want me to sneak into my great great grandma’s basement?”

“Yes,” One let the word hang there, knowing the weight of that word.

Eni looked around the room, and back onto One, “Why?”

“That I can’t tell you, exactly. I have some suspicions and I need them answered. You’ll just have to trust me,” One turned away with a false sigh, “If I’m right, it could resolve a lot of potential conflict. If I’m wrong… Honestly, no harm done really, you’d just have sneaked into her basement for… Let’s say, closure, for me.”

“She was really angry the first time I did that,” Eni recounted, remembering the moment from seven years ago.

“When you found me, right,” One nodded, once, “And now I need you to do it again, because of what might be there.”

Eni stared at his partner for a long while. He always considered himself lucky to have come across One’s old code. Perhaps the one benefit for being born under this infamous family was the fact that fascinating things did occasionally occur among the more shameful events. He wasn't necessarily grateful for the foundation his family provided, but maybe just for this cornerstone he could find a little happiness.

“We don’t have a lot of time,” One continued, pulling up some screens that showed security camera views of the house, “Your mother is visiting with your great great grandmother in the sunroom, while Mrs. Juniper looks like she’ll be busy in the kitchen for the time being.”

He didn’t know how One was capable of pulling up those camera feeds. He didn’t program that. It was almost like One had eyes everywhere. Whether or not this was a good thing didn’t matter since there was no way he could stop One from doing this. In fact, it ended up helping Eni in a lot of cases. Many late night, after bedtime video gaming moments were made possible thanks to One’s unexplained ability.

So it was fine, right?

“Well?” One prompted, nudging Eni out of his thoughts.

Eni eyed the screens One had pulled up. Even from far away he could make out the shapes of all his family. They… weren’t people he wanted to betray. But neither was One.

“Okay,” He answered finally, resigning himself to whatever fate his Navi was guiding him towards.

One nodded and went over his plan. It was fairly simple.

As Eni exited his room and walked down the hall, he went over the steps in his head. He just had to physically be in that basement room for a short amount of time and then walk out. One would be keeping an eye on the cameras and would alert him if someone was coming. So then, why was his stomach churning? He must be hungry; the smell coming from the kitchen was enticing.

He slipped down to the first floor and into the hallway that led to the basement. The large windows on the exterior wall of the house made him feel as though he was deep in a dark forest, about to uncover a mystical power or perhaps devoured by a creature of the night.

He reached the door and quietly opened it, making not a peep as the mundane thing swung open, revealing the stairs leading down. He closed the door behind him and moved forward, taking each step gingerly.

The basement stretched before him; a long hall with recessed lighting lining the edges of the floor and ceiling. The first set of rooms held wine storage and long term frozen foods, the ones further down were filled with servers upon servers upon servers.

Eni didn’t really know what his great great grandma was doing with all this computing power and storage. Whenever anyone else in his family asked her, she would grunt and shrug them off. Her private business and all that. But if it affected everyone, how private could that business really be?

He checked his signal down here; abysmally spotty. All that shielding did a number on even the most robust transmissions. If that was the case, then anything she had down here could not be affecting anything out there. He had to wonder if the rumors his family passed around were true, that the poor old lady was stuck reliving the past, needlessly continuing to work well past her retirement, maybe trying to make amends for the damage she caused.

But as he walked past the endless rows of rooms, he couldn’t help noticing how neglected the servers looked. Lights were off, dust had settled on doors, no indication of use in quite a long time. Should he even be worried about getting caught down here?

He made it to the final set of doors, lights off but the towers within blinking with lights. He squeezed in, shutting the door behind him like he needed to keep the air as contained as possible.

Before him was a large monitor in sleep mode and a desk with a scattering of equipment strewn about. If he were more inquisitive, he could probably uncover a great deal of secrets just from what was on that desk alone. But as it stood, he was scared and wanted this done as soon as possible.

“I…” He started, taking a look at One’s floating screen. Empty. He was already on his way, doing whatever job he had set out to do. Leaving Eni alone in the dark, cold room.

He walked up closer to the desk, a little enthralled by the technology displayed. Drives recovered from old, melted computers; old tech fitted with adapters to be used with modern devices; and various equipment that allowed the century old woman to work at the desk easier.

If he was still a child, he would be tempted to play with these knick-knacks. But he was older, and more mature than that.

He sat in the desk’s seat and began to spin in place. The bearings on the thing were well oiled and spun him for a long time after the initial push off the table. This would only keep him occupied for a short while.

He leaned back in the chair and activated something on his holoject, summoning a segmented cube model for him to mess around with. After a while he paused, hearing an extra clacking sound accompanying his puzzle solving.

It couldn’t be a person, One would’ve said something, unless- The shielding. One wouldn’t be able to look through the cameras. Would he even be able to contact him?

He hopped out of the chair, returning it to its original position by holding it in place for a nerve wracking single second, and then ran to hide between the server racks. He hunkered down and held his breath.

It was silent. Did he imagine those sounds? No footsteps, nor the sound of clothing brushing up against itself as someone walked. He supposed that the rooms were pretty soundproof… Maybe he was just hearing his toy echo off the walls in this boxy place.

At least no one saw him bolt at the slightest possibility of getting caught like the coward he was.

He sighed. This place was getting to him.

He let his head fall back against the servers behind him, listening to their subtle whirr. It was about seven years ago when he first sneaked down here, purely curious about the incredible tech his great great grandma kept hidden from the family. In this very lab, on that very monitor, he searched through files and saw a process he was unfamiliar with.

Of course he had to take a look. The window it pulled up had a view of something red along with something dark, suspended in time with visual noise blocking a clear view. Curiosity got the better of him, so he prodded at it, searching for menus, until it unsuspended.

A loud noise had spooked him at that moment, making him hide under the table, but when the sound died down he looked up to see the red thing animated, and disintegrating. He pulled out his mobile, quickly jacking it in and transferred the files over and, well, the rest was history, he supposed.

He never asked One if he knew what that dark thing was, not like he expected him to remember that, but, the timing of it…

The lights flashed on. Footsteps echoed accompanied by the sound of a cane. His heart sprinted into overdrive.

He held his hand against his face, trying to hide the sound of his breathing, unsure if such a thing could even work as he was just mimicking what he’d seen in shows. He shut his eyes, the fear getting to him. He wanted nothing more than to open them again to find the world around him as dark as before. With a tense, held breath, he slowly allowed himself to open his eyes once more.

To find his great great grandma staring down at him with a disappointed expression.

“Ah-” Eni squeaked, his heart racing at top speed.

“What are you doing on the ground, boy?” She scoffed, brow raising and leaned onto her cane. Her grey poofy hair framed her withered, but contemptuous face. The only thing soft about her looks was her comfortable pink sweater with an even more comfortable looking jacket over it.

“I’m-”

“Sneaking around your old granny’s cave of wonders,” She interrupted flatly.

“No, I-” He paused, expecting to be interrupted again, but instead she cocked her ear towards him, waiting for a satisfying answer.

The silence lingered for too long and she rolled her eyes, mumbling “Get up.”

She gestured with her cane. She would not be helping him up. He knew it wasn’t out of purely malicious disgruntlement at the youths; she physically couldn’t bend down, but he also knew that maybe, she did in fact, resent him in some way.

He crawled himself up, using the sturdy server casing behind him to lean against as he straightened up. Eni wasn’t a tall kid, in fact, his tallness was described as ‘short’ by short people. But he looked at eye level with Dr. Ciel Hikari who regarded him back with a bored annoyance.

“So, what was your real reason for sneaking down here,” She eyed him up and down, “Or are you going to make this poor old woman guess?” There was a bitter aftertaste to that question.

“I was curious,” He responded. Not a lie.

“Curiosity can be solved with questions, now what could you have been so curious about that you couldn't have come to ask me about it?” She prodded.

He couldn't answer that. Instead he looked beyond her at the darkened computer monitor.

She knew where his eyes laid and clicked her tongue, “Rumors.”

His gaze snapped back to her.

“What, did the familial whispers entice you?” She cocked her head back, “Maybe you thought you’d find a second Dr. Ciel Hikari boogeyman down here?”

He solemnly shook his head.

She gave him a tense stare, straight through him like she could read any possible lies plastered on his inexpressive face.

She sighed, stepping back and ceased cornering him like a rat.

“You know,” She walked to her desk, tone softening, “you’re the first in the family to actually sneak down here. Had to put up sensors after your first escapade. The rest of the family, I assume, is too scared of me. Or just trust me when I say I’m just enjoying retirement.”

“...Are you?” He ventured.

“Enjoying it? No. I’d like to be out there, solving problems,” She grumbled, a bit forlornly, “But I’m helping in my own way.”

She turned, eyes landing on him like arrows. He averted his gaze.

“Do you know what the difference between foolishness and courage is, Eni?” She asked, taking a seat in her chair, “It’s knowledge.”

She sat there, pausing for the moment, propped up by her cane and continued her steely glare at him.

“Knowledge from people you trust who only wish to uncover the truth, or whatever we humans can find that’s closest to it,” She continued to lecture, “Realistically, we can’t know the truth about everything, that’s for the domain of gods. So, in actuality, courage just means being foolish with a bit of panache. Now…”

She shifted in her seat, leaning her body this way and that until finding a comfortable middle, “I wonder what you were today? Foolish or courageous? And I wonder what you were seven years ago too…?”

“...Foolish,” Eni responded with the only answer he could possibly say with those two choices.

She grinned, with a twist of something more mischievous underneath, “Maybe seven years ago, but today…?”

He stared at her. Blood still drained from his face, utterly bewildered at the idea that anything was different that would change the answer.

She shrugged, turning smoothly to her computer screen, “That’s up to you to decide. I’ve long since lost my privilege to judge people,” She then mumbled under her breath, loud enough for him to hear, “though that doesn’t mean I’ll stop.”

She tapped on some equipment and input some code faster than Eni could follow. Her computer turned on with a large outline of a pink lotus covering the screen. It unfolded and the petals fell away to reveal her desktop, a shot of a beautiful sunset from a cliff, surrounded by unfamiliar vegetation. It was the same desktop he had seen seven years ago, the memory of that moment coming back to him suddenly.

Several windows opened, blocking the view and bringing him back to the present. The largest window featured the outline of some humanoid form with a diagram that pointed to four points of light surrounding it. It had something circular surrounding it with wings branching off of it.

“Was this what you wanted to see?” She asked, unmoved from her perch in front of her computer, “The great Dr. Ciel Hikari’s agent of destruction?”

He had seen illustrations of this before in texts describing what had occurred during the Net Reset. The program that led the upgrade of the net, by deleting everything else.

“...Why did you do it?” He asked distantly.

“My god you're blunt,” She huffed, “How do you expect me to answer that? That I'm some terrible heartless fool hellbent on shaping the world to my own design?”

She paused, side eyeing him, “Although I can't blame you, the people writing history never bothered to listen to my reasoning anyways, so it's not like you would know.”

She let loose a long sigh, sinking into her chair, “I made a mistake, Eni. There were people who knew better that I didn't listen to. I forged ahead believing that no one else was willing to take the risks. I was right, by the way, in the end I did solve the problem.”

Eni watched her carefully, only being able to see the back of her head made it difficult to judge her emotional state, but he asked anyway, “There wasn't any other way?”

She idly pulled open a window full of code, “Maybe if people had listened to me instead of disregarding my ideas as sensationalism,” She grumbled.

“It doesn't matter, what's done was done,” She resigned, spinning back to face Eni, “All we can do is what we've always done, keep moving forward.”

It struck him that he really didn't know much about his great great grandma; his family had always avoided the subject entirely.

“Gran gran gran,” He began, slowly finding his wording, “I want to know more about your perspective on the Net Reset.”

“Oh you do?” She raised her brows theatrically, “Well settle down because turns out, I'm in the mood for a story.”

She propped herself upright using her cane and prepared herself, “You're aware of the second Megaman, Dr. Geo Stellar, right? I grew up in a world that was suffering not long after his death. Wave virus attacks were so frequent that Satella Police forces were dwindling. It was a long and losing battle that stretched over two decades.

“With no hope of an end in sight, I, as a god damn Hikari, took it upon myself to solve this,” Her eyes grew clouded, “But the further I looked into the problem, the more it became apparent that the entire system we had in place was flawed to its foundation.”

Her eyes darkened as she slowly directed her attention to the floor, “Computationally intensive AI that required a massive amount of our power supply. Viruses that evolved and adapted faster than we could fight back. There were large, countless swaths of warehouses just to contain the amount of data necessary to run the net to begin with. The house of cards was merely caving in at that point.”

She closed her eyes and shrugged, “So I updated it. It was either that or lose everything.”

Eni was speechless. He opened his mouth to stammer, to defend the concept of Wizards and Navi alike, then looked to her monitor at the vague outline of the devil itself.

She followed his eyes briefly, then rolled them back to look at him with mild contempt, “Yes, of course there were flaws. I'll never live down the oversights I made to his - its - code. But I was right. There's a very real chance that you wouldn't exist today if not for that.”

“If not for…?” He genuinely needed clarification.

“You're going to make me say it? For Project Excise,” She scoffed, “A rather cut and dry name. But it's better than the name the net gave it, Project Extinction.”

“So, what are you doing down here? Are you still working on…?” He asked.

“Ex? No,” She waved a hand dismissively, chuffing, “What would it do, update the net again? It went so well the first time. No.”

She rolled her eyes, then slowly shifted her expression to one with gentle sincerity, “Eni, I'm fixing a mistake. Don't worry about it, just leave this old lady to her happy retirement. Trust me.”

There were a lot of people who simply wanted to do things for him. To take care of things for him. And never let him in. Poor Eni, anxious and scared, always the guy to be helped and never the helper.

Useless.

“Did I answer all your questions, Pandora?” Her voice snapped him back into place.

That wasn't his name, but he knew metaphors and knew better than to correct her.

“Um, yes,” Eni nodded, unable to think of any more questions off the top of his head.

“Good,” She hopped off the chair and began her slow shuffle out the room, “Mrs. Juniper has been making a green bean casserole for two hours now and I need to know how on Earth she managed that. Did she boil the beans herself?! I bet she thinks the canned version has too much sodium in it. That's where the flavor is! And it's more efficient.”

His great great grandma continued to grumble out of the room and down the hall.

“I'm back, Eni, just so you're aware,” One's voice piped in through his headphones, just as he was wondering where his Navi went.

At its threshold, Eni looked back into the room. The monitor switched off with the image of a blossoming lotus covering the screen and draining it of light.

His own existence, this entire future's existence, thanks to that. If he was supposed to be grateful, like the good child he was, then he was doing a bad job at it.

He turned off the light to the room and closed the door behind him. His great great grandma's complaints led the way, but he couldn't help feeling inexplicably lost.

Poor, useless, foolish Eni.

He bitterly wished he could be more than that.

—--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Where IS he?!” Titan snarled, stomping about.

There was no question what ‘he’ meant here. Voltz was still incapacitated, or at least, unwilling to fight since losing half his strength.

Scylla sat quietly on a bench watching Titan pace back and forth. She stared onwards with a disinterested gaze; the concerns of her lifelong partner were always larger than they appeared.

“Come sit,” She beckoned, indicating a spot next to her.

Titan gripped their fists and shook, until finally relenting and flopping next to Scylla with an annoyed huff.

“Whisper will return with news, I’m sure of it,” She soothed, her voice like silk.

“This has all gone to hell,” Titan grabbed their face, pulling it, “We should have waited. Gained more strength. I don’t see any way of us winning considering the humans have started capturing our viruses. Not just deleting them.”

“It’s not over,” Scylla continued her tone, combing her fingers through Titan’s hair.

“We need a different strategy,” Titan grumbled into their massive claw.

“The viruses we have can keep them occupied. Distract them while we refocus our efforts,” She proposed.

“What we need,” They contemplated, “Is that strength that Megaman has. Not that weird Megaman who keeps taking our viruses.”

Scylla had been wondering about this other Megaman, the one that caused Voltz so much hardship. She too was fascinated by that strength. That potential. If he could be convinced…

“It wouldn’t work,” Titan growled, tensing their claws, “That kid is too headstrong to be reasoned with.”

“Is that so?” She countered, circling her languid eyes back onto her partner.

“What’s with that tone. What are you thinking,” They shot back, slightly deviously.

“There’s a chance,” She hummed, “He could turn around. And we should take every chance we can get.”

“We aren’t that desperate,” They replied flatly, “We’d be seen as weak, crawling to our enemy for help.”

“Heroes help the weak,” She stated.

“Well they aren’t going to, especially not after what we’ve done to them. Voltz almost killed one of his friends,” They snarled.

Scylla traced her finger down to Titan’s chin and lifted it towards her, speaking softly, “I am not you and I am not Voltz.”

The two held that moment, unmoving for what seemed like forever to them. Titan took it all in, needing this image burned into their memory forever.

“They are children,” Scylla assured, “Stupid and easy to sway.”

Titan stared into her deep eyes, “Don’t underestimate them.”

She leaned in, pecking their forehead with a kiss, “I won’t.”

Somewhere else in this space, far beyond the walls of the castle of stone those four had built for themselves, there was a visitor. In windswept dunes of rainbow sands, a small, mite sized creature shook itself onto the surface. It crawled with great effort against the wind that continued to bury it in sand. It paused, rooted itself by placing its body into the dune, then shifted its legs over itself, and like an eye with six massive lashes, opened its body to peer around with a sharp, red pupil.

The winds shifted, flinging the tiny thing into the air like it was nothing more than a larger than average grain of sand. It landed on a dune elsewhere, rolling about until it caught itself with its legs, digging into the sand, desperate for an anchor.

A green figure approached, though it was hard to make out through the endless barrage of sand. A small tendril of green extended, scooping the tiny thing and shielding it from the harsh elements.

Whisper brought the little mite in close to his face, inspecting it. The untrained eye would find something like this impossible to spot, thankfully he had help.

Yes. Finally. He had help.

Chapter Text

“Beach!” Ellen cheered, throwing a fist in the air.

She excitedly bounced, pulling in her arms close, only partially dampened by the sand underneath her feet.

Reg was excited about this trip, until he looked at the weather forecast for the day and saw it was going to be cloudy with a cool breeze. He looked up at the grey skies with the slowly rolling clouds, barely able to place where the sun should be behind them. This was the day, or well, one of the days he’d been awaiting his whole life! The day he got to finally see the real, actual ocean! He’d been so excited for this day ever since his mom proposed it!

So much so that it had completely passed his mind to think about Earth things. Like weather.

And now here they were, on the shore of a beautiful, muddy ocean under a grey sky.

Ellen had brought a bag of beach supplies and wore a large green T-shirt as opposed to her usual jacket along with a pair of shorts that looked weathered by the beach already. Reg’s mom got him a cute vest and a pair of swim shorts for the occasion. Eni wore his normal set.

“It’s a little chilly,” Reg commented.

“It’s November,” Eni pointed out, looking beyond the other two and into the vast grey horizon.

Reg turned around, taking a look at his mom who was watching the kids from the concrete sea wall a couple of yards away. Evidently sand isn’t ADA compliant. Not the sand’s fault. His mom was fine with it; she wanted to read and had a clear view of the kids from where she was. She trusted them. She trusted Reg.

“Can’t believe you told her,” Ellen said out of the corner of her mouth, following Reg’s line of sight.

“I had to,” He sighed back, turning to the ocean.

He couldn’t stand around waiting for the weather to improve, he had to at least enjoy the beach while he was here. He shuffled through the sand, doing his best to ignore how similar it felt to the lunar surface underfoot.

He stopped right at the water’s edge, watching the waves roll in and out, painting the sand with darkness that faded quickly. The water was blue, especially far out where it was deeper, but closer to shore it was a bit brown and hard to see through.

It was so unlike the crafted ocean scenes he had seen in VR. Those were idealized visions, he knew that, but the stark contrast still stood out to him. In VR he could pretend to pet dolphins and see all sorts of tropical fish just under the water’s surface, but here with the unimpeded winds blowing the salty ocean into his face he could experience all the sensations he’d only imagined.

He knelt down and touched the water as it slid forward. Cold and wet, obviously. And smelly too. This was just what the ocean truly was, salty water that contained countless multitudes of life big and small. And it smelled too.

He stood there, right at the edge of the oncoming tide, feeling the waves trickle in and out and letting his feet sink into the liquified sand mix on the shore. He could feel his heat getting sapped away from him with every wave, the sand helped, but he still didn’t want to move.

This felt like the end of some journey he’d been on since forever, and took his time fully committing it to memory. When he finally did he immediately pulled his feet back into the drier sand yet untouched by the ocean. He had liked the feeling, but he couldn’t feel his toes anymore and the novelty wore off pretty fast.

“So how’s ocean?” Ellen asked like she was asking about a mutual friend.

“Cold,” He replied bluntly.

“It’s November,” Eni pointed out, again.

Reg let out a sigh and threw his head back, “I know man. I was just hoping it’d be warmer. Somehow.”

“We can visit the beach again come summer, that’s when this place gets super popular!” Ellen chirped.

He looked around the empty beach. From boardwalk to boardwalk it looked like there were no people enjoying the sand but them.

“But for now…” She continued, mad, cat-like grin beginning to stretch across her face, “We need to dunk you. A full on baptism!”

“What?! No!” Reg recoiled, “It’s cold! And the salt water might ruin my electronics! My eye!”

“Wait really?” She leaned back, skeptical worry painting her face.

“Uh, well…” He contemplated, “No, this thing is water tight and can’t rust so…”

A diabolical giggle bubbled from within her, and with hands clasped together to power her scheming, she rose and towered above the other two, “Excellent.”

“But first!” She brightened, looking around, “Have either of you seen any changing rooms around here?”

The two boys looked around the empty beach, no booths nor really any structure was set up along the beach. At least in this secluded section, all it had was sand and concrete sea wall.

Ellen hummed as she came to the same conclusion, “There’s probably some shop or something way further into town if we walk a ways… Or!”

She set down her big beach bag and pulled out her one piece swimsuit, then turned to face the boys with a solemn look on like she carried a weapon meant to kill.

“Gentlemen, are you familiar with the forbidden technique?” She spoke with grave importance.

“A forbidden technique?!” Silver cooed.

“What are you talking about?” Reg asked, raising a brow.

“It has been passed down from generation to generation,” She continued, gripping her suit in one hand and clutching it close to her face, “Perhaps since the dawn of humankind itself.”

Reg turned to Silver, “Is she gonna answer or–”

“A dangerous technique! That puts the life of one’s swimwear at risk, and more, for those foolish enough to attempt to try…” She slowly swept with an outstretched hand in front of her, “Quick Change! It has gone by many names in the past, but any junior swimmer late to a swim meet with a full bathroom can attest–”

“That’s oddly specific–”

“–That this technique!! Is a vital tool to keep in one’s arsenal should the need arise!” She punctuated dramatically.

The two boys stared at her, and then at each other, and then back.

“So… What is it?” Reg asked. Again.

She chuckled, holding up her forehead with a finger, “What you must do… Is change out of your underwear, and into your swimwear, all without removing your shirt or shorts.”

They just looked at her in stunned silence, too bewildered to say anything as they contemplated the sheer levels of extreme body contortion necessary to accomplish that.

“You’re joking,” Reg worried, “Why? We can just go to a store or something.”

“And waste all that time?! We only have so much until we gotta go to the aquarium! And I’m not one to back down from a challenge! AND!” She shot back, then calmed down to an earnest tone, “I’ve already done it before.”

“At a swim meet you were late to?” He needled.

“Yeah at a swim meet I was late to,” She echoed.

“Cool!” Silver awed, “If only I wore clothes so I could appreciate your skills on a personal level.”

“Look, it’s not really that big of a deal,” She shrugged, immediately whipping her arms into her big giant shirt and engulfed her legs in its vastness, “See? I’m already halfway there.”

“I’m not watching,” Reg immediately turned.

“At least use these,” Eni suggested by throwing the groups’ towels over her.

She thrashed about underneath the three towels, voice a bit muffled, “Fine! I’ll be done before you know it!”

There were odd noises. Towels rustling, sand shifting, and something that was probably clothes accomplishing feats that the fibers it was made with could never begin to dream of. Mostly it just sounded like Ellen was fighting a squirrel and losing.

“Should I be worried?” the small electronic voice of Cometman spoke up from Ellen’s bag.

“No,” Reg groaned, “Ellen’s just too stubborn to do things the normal way.”

“That sounds about right,” Cometman grumbled.

“I’m!” She growled, “Almost done! …There!”

She threw the towels off of her in a dramatic reveal that showed her looking the exact same as she did before.

The boys turned to look with no appreciation for the warrior before them. Silver, however, clapped and made amazed noises.

“Alright,” She stood up straight, hands on hips, “Now that that is taken care of, we can get back to the main event.”

“Dunk! Dunk! Dunk!” Silver cheered.

Reg recoiled, lifting his arms preemptively in a defensive stance. Ellen lowered down, ready to pounce, a mad smile stretching across her face. They stared each other down, waiting for the other to make the first move. Reg was filled with dread, a fear that was greatly overblown for the danger present. Ellen kept her eyes trained on Reg, locked in and unflinching.

Reg bolted. He scrambled in the sand with a bit of a wobble as he got his footing. Ellen was on him in no time, tackling and scooping Reg is one successful attack.

Reg was too stunned to fight back, limp as a ragdoll as Ellen forged ahead into the ocean, storming deeper and deeper until her legs slowed under the force of the water and Reg’s weight was too much.

A wave hit them with a chilly swell of water and Reg hissed as he felt the heat leave him, and begged Ellen to bring him back to shore.

She tossed him in.

Icy. Cold. A burning sensation in his nose and a sudden realization he couldn’t breath. He opened his eyes only to feel the sting of the salt water and winced them closed. But not both eyes.

He paused for a second, fighting his instincts and opened his left eye. The rubber, glass, and metal it was made with felt none of the salt and cold. Instead, he saw a view that struck him as if he’d been sleeping just moments before and was suddenly wrenched awake.

The ocean. Vast. Murky with silt. The sunlight, though grey, filtered through and still dazzled under the waves. And it was quiet.

It was here. He was here.

It wasn’t perfect. It was real.

He was real.

And he needed to breathe soon or else!

He paddled helplessly as he got his feet underneath him, shoving himself up through the weight of the water, coughing and snorting the water out of his body. With a shake and a final cough he regained his bearings.

Shivering and soaked head to toe, he stared out into the horizon, imagining the moon, his old home, somewhere beyond those clouds. He took a deep breath, letting the messy smell of the ocean wash over him, the cold ebb and flow tug at his legs, and the acrid taste of salt linger on his tongue. Silver sidled up to him, looking up at him with worry.

“You ok bud?” Ellen asked with a bit of concern.

With a quick grin he rounded on her, dragging his arm in the water and scooping a heaping handful of it to fling right at her. It fell short but it spoke volumes.

She retaliated with a powerful chop through the water and a hearty giggle. Her attacks were those of a trained professional; skimming the surface just enough to send a wave that was both quick and substantial.

The waist high waves of their battleground kept throwing him off, leaving him wide open for vicious counter attacks to the face. He guarded what he could, keeping his left eye open through the barrage, and countered when he saw an opening. He caught on quickly to the proper technique and began flinging some spectacular splashes of his own.

They exchanged attacks for a while until Reg sneezed and shivered, the late fall weather finally getting to him. They exited the water soon afterwards and Eni handed them both their towels.

“So what do you think?!” Ellen asked loudly, way too energized despite her shivering.

“I think I can wait till summer before my next beach vacation,” Reg smirked back, wrapping himself tightly in his towel.

“...Was that fun, really?” Eni questioned, slowly leaning back like he was about to be pulled into the ocean by an overeager Ellen.

“Yeah!!” She cheered, massive grin plastered across her face.

“I do gotta admit, despite the temperature, it was fun,” Reg smiled gently, drying himself off like he was starting a fire, “I don’t think I would’ve actually gone swimming if you hadn’t forced me, Ellen.” He lowered his brow but kept his jovial grin, to which she stuck her tongue out with a small smile.

“We got some time before we gotta go to the aquarium, you wanna make sandcastles?” She suggested eagerly.

“Yeah! That sounds like fun!” He agreed with a nod, then looked at Eni, “You wanna join?”

Eni retreated a hair, casting his gaze to the sand as he reached for the holoject around his neck, simply answering with, “No.”

Reg tilted his head and glanced at Ellen who offered nothing but a shrug.

“Well, ok, you don’t have to join in if you don’t want to,” Reg reassured.

“It’s,” Eni started suddenly, paused, then continued slowly, “I don’t like sand…”

Reg smiled sympathetically and left Eni space to speak, picking up on the fact that there was more he wanted to say.

Eni fidgeted with his holoject, then lifted his head abruptly, “There’s something I want to do instead, actually. I’d like to borrow Cometman for this, if that’s alright?”

“Huh?” Ellen quirked her head to the side, “I mean yeah I guess? Whatcha got planned? Oh, I guess ask Cometman if it’s alright too?”

“It’s fine!” The aforementioned Navi spoke up from Ellen’s bag, “I heard it all. What did you have in mind, kid?”

Eni walked over and plucked the Game-Xross from its resting place, flipping it open and taking a look right at Cometman. The Navi raised a brow, half expecting some sort of explanation to come from the kid, but at this point was familiar with his extremely un-talkative demeanor and instead gave him a reassuring nod.

“There’s something I’d like to test. It’s been weighing on my mind,” He turned to the other two, “If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking one of the towels to sit on so I can work.”

“Alright,” Ellen shrugged, “Try not to have too much fun!”

After side eyeing her for a brief moment, Reg soothed, “And whatever you’re working on, we’d love to hear about it, if that’s alright?”

Eni glanced between them, electing to stare down the sand at his feet instead, “If I can get it working, then I will.”

“I’m sure you can!” Reg affirmed with a bright smile, “You’re really smart, and capable!”

Eni’s breath hitched, a counter full of doubt brewed in his head.

“Yeah! You’re our tech guy! The man with the tech plan!” Ellen cheered.

Eni gripped his holoject so hard he shook, stammering out, “I-I uh. Maybe. I’ll… Do what I can.”

“Yeah!!” She bounced, with Silver echoing her cheering as well.

“We’ll let you get to it,” Reg gave him a thumbs up, “We’ll be right here if you need anything.”

Eni silently nodded and grabbed his towel off the beach, shaking it loose of sand before heading away from the shore, up in the softer, wind blown sand near the sea wall.

“Oh man! Wait till I tell you about what I encountered yesterday!” Ellen effused, growing quieter as the groups split, with Eni just barely able to make out her saying, “I fought a giant dog! Well we, me and Cometman, but whatever that’s not important! Giant dog!”

He sighed and unfurled his towel, laying it gently on the sand. He slowly sat himself down and took out a laptop from his backpack. He set it up so he could see the other two down near the shore who were evidently busy making what looked like mounds of sand.

He pulled up a couple programs and tapped away, setting the Game-Xross next to the laptop so Cometman could see him. One popped up in a floating window, eyeing the work Eni had pulled up.

“So…” Cometman murmured and raised a brow, “What’s this project? You haven’t said anything about it.”

Eni checked a window, then looked over to the Navi, “I’ve opened up a network connection that I’d like for you to join.”

“To do what?” Cometman maintained.

Eni froze, then slowly pulled back and held his hand close to his chest, “It’s embarrassing. I… I want to figure out how to use chip data… So that One can fight better…”

After a couple of seconds of silence, Cometman and One eyed each other and then back at Eni.

“Was there something else, Eni?” One inquired, leaning in slightly, “I’m not insulted that you see ways I can improve, if that was what you were worried about.”

“No, it’s-,” Eni slowly deflated, “Me. I… I want to get stronger. I want to learn how to use chip data to assist you in a battle. Like how Ellen fights.”

“Huh, yeah, I did notice that,” Cometman hummed, “You two haven’t used any chip data during any of our practice matches. Is there a reason for that?”

“I’ve tried to get it to work in the past. I’ve downloaded the most up to date archive on chip and card data we have available, but no matter what I’ve tried I can’t get any of them to load with One,” Eni explained, looking over at One in his floating window.

“We had assumed it was compatibility issues until we met you, Cometman,” One added, then held his chin as he wondered, “So, you’re going to try to analyze how Cometman is able to read chip data?”

“Yes,” Eni nodded, “I’ve set up a virtual space that will open your code and pinpoint what parts of it are being executed at that moment.”

Cometman grimaced, “That sounds like it’d feel weird.”

“It sounds worse than it is,” One shrugged cheerily, “Eni’s had to analyze my code like this countless times. If anything it’s like there’s a slight resistance to your movements.”

Cometman raised a brow, and with a quick flash Cometman disappeared from the Game-Xross and appeared in the virtual space on Eni’s laptop. It was a basic monochrome grey gridded space, copied straight from Netken’s training arena.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s do this,” He grinned.

Eni opened his mouth briefly, shocked that the Navi would be so eager to help him. To him, they were practically strangers; acquaintances at best. He reached for the Game-Xross and fiddled around with it to navigate to the chip data menu.

He summoned a bit of courage and asked solemnly, “May I please operate you and copy some of your data so that I may use chips in future battles?”

Cometman was thrown off by the sudden formal atmosphere, but quickly recovered with a smirk, “Yeah, of course. Operate away, kid.”

Eni nodded and hesitantly began. He selected a chip and as it loaded, Cometman’s arm reformed into a cannon and with a sudden blast it fired at the awkward angle he was just casually resting his arm at.

“Are you ok?” Eni asked quickly, eyes darting from the Navi to the data read out and back.

Cometman shook his hand, getting a normal feeling back in it, then raised it in a stopping motion, “Ok kid, we probably need to figure out some ground rules or something. Maybe call out the chip name so I can prepare myself?”

“Oh…” Eni’s breath hitched, but he nodded, “Does Ellen do that?”

“Huh? Uh…” Cometman narrowed his eyes as he thought. The fight from yesterday came to mind, and replayed in his head as the words fell out of his mouth, “No… She doesn’t. I just know what chips she’s gonna use…”

Eni stared at him, racking his brain for any possible explanation, landing on a, “That’s weird.”

One hummed, holding his chin thoughtfully, “Perhaps that’s simply proof of your partnership.”

“I dunno, I’m with Eni on this one,” Cometman grumbled, “It’s kinda weird.”

There was a long moment of silence as all three of them were lost in their own thoughts, only broken by the occasional distant laughter of the other three down by the shore.

“Cometman,” One spoke exceptionally sincerely, “Your partnership with Ellen is remarkable. It’s the source of your strength. You listen to each other, even when neither of you are speaking. I’d hate to see you call it weird.”

Cometman faltered, retreating into his collar to hide his growing embarrassment, then squeaked, “I just don’t understand it.”

“I don’t either,” One shook his head, “But I do know that this isn’t something you should be ashamed of. And I would bet that this mystery will be solved not by hiding your feelings, but by charging at them straight on.”

Cometman snorted a laugh out, “And then what, grapple it with maces and chains? Like a certain Navi?”

“If it’d help the metaphor stick for you then sure,” One chuckled back, “But I am serious. Don’t bury these feelings. Confront them. Bring this up to Ellen, I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Cometman blinked, rolling the idea around in his head, softening as he seemed to figure out something, then returned a nod to One. He smiled with his eyes back, content.

“Uh…” Eni mumbled.

“Oh, right,” Cometman snapped to attention, “Did you get the data you needed?”

Eni shook his head, “There's too much. I need to test many chips and through trial and error determine the right part of the code that's being called.”

Cometman offered a sympathetic look and held out his arm, “Well, let's get to work then.”

The three worked on locating the key components of the code. Eni focused on copying and watching how the code all flowed together.

To him, it was a mess. Code called other code from other files, tempered by unknown variables, all while layers and layers of neural net cascaded, making it a heaping pile of spaghetti to comb through. He had to at least thank some god of coding somewhere that the whole thing wasn’t compiled into assembly, it was, at the very least, readable. Garbled, but readable.

But the Netken basic chip reading function was luckily, mostly straightforward. Whatever the chip was, it read its data, and the Netken character then moved and summoned the related data into the fight.

“The problem is, it's in the coding language Netken uses for its game, not what One uses,” Eni sighed, “It's also using libraries I don't have access to.”

“So…?” Cometman asked leadingly.

“So it's not going to be easy to translate one to. One,” One finished with flourish towards himself, “But you at least understand how it works, right?”

Eni nodded, “It's simple. I'll be able to recreate it. I just need some time.”

“Never had any doubt,” Cometman praised, “You're a pretty smart kid, Eni.”

The pretty smart kid faltered, struggling to make an excuse.

“It's true,” One agreed cooly, “You're able to do anything you set your mind to.”

A thought crept up. As Eni gazed out at the others down by the shore, he caught Reg's smiling face. A moment from seven years ago flashed through his head, but he shook it away. He could not let that thought breathe. Because if he let it grow any more, he may have to admit-

“Do you want to join them?” One asked, leaning in close.

Eni blinked himself to normal, replying a bit confused, “What?”

“Your friends,” One indicated with the tilt of his head.

They were enjoying themselves, building some sort of lumpy creation; Silver's giggles coming through to Eni's headphones over the roar of the waves. Some pain welled up from inside. He knew his duty was to get this code ready as soon as possible. Otherwise what use was he? Enjoyment could always be done later. It was… noble to put his work above play.

Besides… they…

“This can wait,” One advised earnestly, “Go, play with your friends. It's okay. They want to play with you too.”

He looked at them – his friends – and down to the clock on his laptop. There wasn't a lot of time before they were planning to move onto the aquarium. He could probably get a good start on his project before then, but…

Silver's giggle came through once more.

But he had friends now. People his age that actually wanted to spend time with him.

That pulling desire from deep within felt like fire. And he couldn't deny that warmth.

“Cometman can you-” He began, glancing at the vacated laptop and then to the Game-Xross to find the Navi already tucked neatly inside.

“Up and at ‘em, kid,” Cometman smirked.

Eni momentarily hesitated, then in a flurry of movement, packed his laptop, grabbed the beach towel, and scrambled to the shore.

Reg and Ellen were busy digging some sort of moat for an incredibly topographically diverse pile of sand.

Reg was the first to perk up upon Eni's arrival, “Hey! Did you finish that thing?”

Eni recoiled. His duty called into question. But the look on Reg's face showed only interest, and not expectant wariness.

These people wanted to hang out with him. He had to repeat this to himself. It was easy to forget.

“No, I didn't, but I learned what I needed to,” Eni replied.

“And what was that?” Ellen asked, reaching her hand out to receive her Game-Xross back.

“Oh,” Eni hesitated, then handed Cometman back, “I was trying to see if I could copy a chip reading program from Cometman so that I could fight with One.”

“Oh?!” She exclaimed, excitement practically sparkling around her, “Eni you wanna fight?! You wanna train? I could train you! I could teach you all the good chip combos and get your timing down!”

“That's really cool! I can't wait to see it work!” Reg cheered.

“Yeah!” Silver's voice chirped through Eni's headphones, “Eni! You really want to help fight, don't you?”

Eni looked around, still thrown off that he was the only human here that couldn't see the little thing, but refocused on the conversation, and that deep desire to help he held within.

“Yes,” He answered, “I really do want to help fight.”

Ellen threw her hands up in cheer, “We're gonna be the best virus busters in all of Spacity!”

“Yeah!” Reg smiled, “One's already a powerhouse. With chips he'll be unstoppable!”

“Agreed,” Eni concurred, then warily turned his attention to his friend's… project, “What is that?”

“Fort Silver!” Ellen pointed out.

“It's abstract,” Reg chuckled sheepishly.

“This pile is my pile,” Silver declared mischievously, “It's got a flag and everything.”

The flag in question was a splinter of driftwood and a dried sprig of kelp.

“The beach is so cool, Eni!” Reg beamed brightly, “There's sandpipers and seagulls! And in the sand there's little mollusks that make bubbles when waves roll over them!”

“Look at this guy getting excited over tiny clams,” Ellen jeered playfully, staring Reg down with a wry grin.

“You didn't know what they were until I looked them up!” Reg fired back jovially, “And! I recall you thinking it was ‘cool’.”

Ellen made a face reminiscent of a coy jester and hummed, “Mmmaybe!”

Eni squatted down to get a better look, making sure to balance on the soles of his boots to avoid any other part of his being to be touched by the sand. He hummed and considered the architecture; carefully pondering what he knew about building with loose material. Playtime was serious business, after all.

“What you need to do is lightly wet your hands and gently compact the sand so that the water binds the sand together slightly and then remove your hands slowly,” He explained, taking off his gloves, “Like this.”

He demonstrated his theory by dipping his hands in Fort Silver’s moat, flinging the excess off, and then pressed the sides of the wall together, holding it until he felt the sand no longer shifting under his grip, then released. The sand wall stayed upright, taller than the surrounding mounds, until the moat underneath splashed and pulled the looser foundation holding the wall up right into its waters. The wall came tumbling down along with it in a heart wrenching splash.

After a moment of silence, Ellen noted, “Well, it did work for a bit there.”

Eni deflated, then fell backward onto the sand.

“Are you ok?!” Reg leapt over, offering a hand to help him up.

“I’m fine. I didn’t get hurt,” Eni assured, thrown off by the question itself.

“Well it’s just… Earlier you had said you didn’t like sand,” Reg smiled sheepishly, then upon noticing his own hand covered in sand, brushed it off and offered it again.

“Oh,” He mumbled, taking the hand and helping himself up, “Yes. Sand is annoying, but I’ll live.”

Reg was positively baffling to Eni. Did living in isolation all his life cause him to be kind? That can’t be the case, after all, Eni too lived most of his life sheltered away from people his age. Where did his kindness come from, and why weren’t the kids he grew up with like this?

Maybe Reg was just weird. But maybe that wasn’t a bad thing.

“Hey we gotta be going to the aquarium soon right?” Ellen stood up as well, dusting herself off, “What’s all the stuff we’re doing there?”

“Well, I mean, it’s the aquarium first off so, lots of fish!” Reg chuckled as Ellen rolled her eyes dramatically, “That and also my mom got us backstage passes! We get to see how all the fish get fed and how the keepers take care of them! We’ve got a stingray encounter scheduled where we get to feed them too!”

“That’s more what I meant,” She chuckled back, “Sounds exciting! Let’s find some place to change out of these clothes and head over there!”

Silver cheered at this just as an errant wave came rolling it and did serious damage to poor Fort Silver. But such was the nature of things. It was bound to happen.

The group did their best to de-sand before reconvening with Reg’s mom. She called up a city lift which arrived after a couple of minutes. Eni idly began working on his program, much to the interest of Mrs. Garret who provided some helpful advice, citing her passing knowledge from helping her husband with his mysterious and important work.

Reg elected to lean his head against the window next to him and just stare at the lovely beachy vegetation of Spacity. Colors whizzed by as he lazily let his mind wander. Silver nuzzled up next to his neck, and when he closed his eyes he could feel their tiny warmth.

It was still jarring to him to travel at this speed, so instead of risking car sickness by looking out the window, he instead kept his eyes closed and felt the vibration of the road rumble against his head. If he could, he would fall asleep here. Wrapped up in this warmth with the sound of his friends chattering away.

“Hey, you good there?” Ellen’s voice snapped him awake.

He shook himself out of whatever dream-like state he had found himself in and shifted in his seat to look at her.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” He replied, “Cars are still weird for me.”

The lift pulled into a large, glass covered entryway surrounded by lush vegetation in every little space available.

“Ok good cause we’re here!’ She cheered quietly, nudging him in the shoulder.

He sprang forward, unbuckled, then sprang upright.

His mom giggled, “Easy Reg, the driver still has to pull up to the drop off location.

Reg faltered back down into his seat, but the moment the vehicle came to a complete stop he was up and ready to go. He assisted his mom into her wheelchair, then trotted over to the others. They were looking at a hardlight decoration of some sort of penguin mascot welcoming guests to the park.

“Apparently his name is Guin,” Ellen scoffed, “So creative.”

“I think it’s fine,” Eni stated.

The sign underneath the penguin read, ‘Welcome to Penguin Gardens’.

“Wait, I thought this was an aquarium?” Reg wondered, looking at all the greenery and birds.

“Yeah, you didn’t know?” Ellen turned to face him, “This place has a penguin exhibit too.”

“And,” Reg’s mom added cheerily, “carefully managed conservatories for many endangered plant species from around the world. It’s a horticulture paradise!”

“Oh, so this place is right up your alley then, mom!” Reg beamed.

“Yep!” She grinned, “There’s way more than I can see in a day, so we’ll have to come back some time!”

Reg’s eyes lit up; even without setting foot in the aquarium proper, he was already thrilled at the prospect of coming back.

They entered through a large glass gateway that drew the eyes upward, and upon exiting, had their gaze land on the towering structure of glass before them. Piercing the sky so far up that it was difficult to fully appreciate the scale of the whole thing, was a giant blue pyramid of glass. The vegetation that surrounded the paths and pyramid, while lush and massive in their own right, were dwarfed in comparison to the shining structure they outlined.

The grey clouds reflected off its surface, giving the sky the illusion of enough color that Reg could pretend for a moment that it was sunny out. While they made their way to the pyramid’s entrance, Reg’s mom pointed out many plants, their scientific names, and interesting facts about them. Eni nodded along politely while Ellen looked completely out of her depth.

They entered the pyramid and were blasted with warm, humid air, and an unmistakable, but thankfully subtle, smell of fish. Reg’s mom went to secure tickets while Reg and Ellen changed into their normal clothes in a bathroom.

Once they were ready, the group headed to the first exhibits and the moment Reg’s eyes landed on a tank, he was gone. He leaned all about with wide eyes, taking in every inch of the water and the creatures inside. He effused about the jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones he saw to anyone who’d listen. There were so many fish and marine invertebrates that he couldn’t stand staying in one place for too long as another thing caught his eye and dragged him over hook, line, and sinker.

Eni tried his best to participate and learn what he could, but he could not see what made these creatures so fascinating and so, had trouble getting invested. Ellen hung back with Reg’s mom, despite enjoying the energy Reg was bringing, she too didn’t get the appeal.

“So, he’s always been like this about fish?” Ellen asked Reg’s mom out of the corner of her mouth with a little lean.

“He has,” She responded, a small smile growing across her face, “You’d think two astronauts would make a third, but Reg has never been into the idea of space. All his life he’s been interested in the things he could never see in person. Other living things, but mostly, things that live in the ocean. And the weird ones in particular.”

They watched Reg and Eni play with a touch tank. From the looks of it, the docent on staff was busy being on the receiving end of a prepared presentation about the odd purple spiky thing Reg was pointing at.

His mom spoke softly and her voice sounded like she was in another room, “I’m almost… Glad… That Argent was attacked. He needed this. People need a living world and to feel like they are a part of it.”

Ellen pursed her lips and raised a brow.

“Obviously I don’t mean that I’m glad people were hurt,” She added brightly, giving Ellen a pleasant smile, “But I’m grateful for that miracle that brought Reg to Earth.”

“...You know about that then?” Ellen recounted.

“About how Reg’s been fighting viruses? Yes,” Her smile slowly fell, but bounced back as for a brief moment, her son looked over with a wave, “You’ve been helping him with that?”

Ellen jumped as her spine straightened out in shock, “Y-Yeah?!”

She glanced up at the girl beside her, face as placid as a pond on a clear day, “Thank you. We’re so lucky to be blessed with people like you in our life.”

Ellen faltered; this level of affection was completely foreign to her, she stammered, “Thanks? I mean, you’re welcome? I guess?”

She just giggled back, then turned her attention towards the boys, “And I suspect Eni too is in on this?”

“Uh, yeah,” Ellen mumbled, then quickly added, “Wait, don't tell anyone about this! We don’t want anyone to know!”

“I won’t,” She reassured, then gave Ellen a confident grin and a nod, “Keep each other safe.”

“Y-Yeah,” Ellen nodded back, then clearly affirmed, “I will. Promise.”

Reg’s mom maintained her pleasant expression as the boys came cantering back. Eni somehow looked more exhausted, while Reg had a frenetic, ear to ear smile and an energy like a dog about to go on a walk.

“Guys, they’ve got everything here!” Reg bounced, “Their touch tank has hardlight tech that lets you pretend to touch sharks! It even has the texture right!”

“And this is just the first room of the first floor,” Reg’s mom chuckled.

“There’s more floors?!” Reg sparkled, then bolted towards the next set of exhibits, not waiting for anyone else.

Eni sighed for a good five whole seconds.

“How you holding up, bud?” Ellen checked in.

“Reg told me fish don't exist and also that we are fish,” Eni replied, his usual stone faced expression weathered with an inner fatigue, “Help.”

“Can’t help you there bud,” She shrugged.

They walked briskly to catch up with the fish facts boy who immediately launched into lectures of his own. This continued throughout the aquarium, and while he didn’t have facts for every creature, he thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to read out the infographic displays each tank had.

As they continued on, they passed by a closed off section that was apparently to be opened up soon that would feature hardlight displays of large sea creatures from around the world.

“We’ll have plenty of chances to come back and see this,” Reg’s mom remarked, “It looks like they’ll be opening soon!”

“Awesome!” Reg bubbled, imagining all the cool critters he’d get to see.

“O~oh if it’s hardlight then I’ll be able to interact with it,” Silver giggled into his ear.

The image of Silver bouncing on top of a whale made him stifle a laugh and talk like he was covering it up, “Yeah, we’ll have to come back some day!”

They moved onto the next room; a large, expansive tank that filled the entirety of the space. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all made of thick glass that showed a massive tropical reef environment. Fish of all sorts and color swam in little schools around corals of every color in the rainbow. Eels poked their heads from behind craggy splits in the rock and stingrays hovered over the sands.

Lights were strategically placed to illuminate the space so that even people’s shadows couldn’t obscure the view of the fish under the glass floor. Many children of the families that were visiting screeched about the room, which echoed against the glass, making it an unpleasant audio experience.

But Reg was oddly silent. He stood there, back facing the other three, unmoving. The children’s high pitched sounds became background noise as Ellen and Eni slowly walked around to look him in the face.

Mouth slightly agape, loose posture, and tears starting to form in his eye – he was awestruck.

He noticed his friends in his periphery and quickly wiped the tears out of his eye, chuckling lightly, “Sorry! I uh-” what excuse was there for seeing beauty in the world?

“Don’t let us interrupt you,” Ellen snorted back, “It’s a pretty cool sight.”

“I agree,” Eni said, “Your reaction is understandable. This view is remarkable.”

Reg sniffled a little and then chuckled again, heart full and light as a feather.

He opened his mouth to talk-

“Reg Garret,” A smooth voice echoed in their ears and all three of them snapped their heads towards the direction of the source.

A blue finned, human shaped being floated down from a crackling white portal. She wore a long slitted dress that ended in tail fin, wide extensions twitched on her arms giving her a bird like silhouette, but most striking was her head that taper far behind her in the back like an elongated cyclist helmet with spikes all along it.

Her movements didn’t disturb the water that surrounded her, but the fish began to avoid the area, leaving a vacant chasm that no life crossed.

She leveled her eyes at Reg, ensuring she had his full attention, then declared calmly, “I am Scylla. I need to speak with you.”

Chapter Text

The far side of the moon is called dark not for its lack of light, but due to its unknown nature. Constantly facing the outside space, unmarred by the wide, dark marias of the near side, its craggy surface reflected the distant light of the sun only to the dark of space. Moonlight that less than a hundred humans had ever seen with their own eyes.

This was a place unreachable by humans. Even with advancements in technology, it was simply unfeasible to make the trek to the far side. Rovers did the job well enough.

The only thing over here was the massive telescope, made of a massive net that spanned a massive crater to catch light from the farthest reaches of space. A pinnacle of human technology. Here on the far side, away from humanity, shielded from their EM waves by the moon, it could collect pure information about the origins of the universe.

But that wasn’t why Lowe was here.

The telescope had a partnering satellite that orbited around the moon, regularly relaying information from the receiver to NAXA on Earth. It was robust and reliable, utilizing its own private network to send and receive information. The message they sent earlier was received, but with no way of communicating back, Lowe was left to speculate on how their message was taken.

Out here, they were probably the loneliest being at the moment. The rover they occupied had a 360 camera, able to view the entire environment around them as a large sphere. They stood in the middle of this view, able to imagine that instead of being contained within this chunk of metal, they were floating above it, so close to the lunar surface they could touch it. They didn’t want to, not really, instead they turned their gaze to the sky.

Pure, pitch black. Not a single star out during the lunar day. Just the infinite, unseeable universe around them.

With their unfettered access to the telescope, they could see the true nature of the universe. See more stars than any human could imagine. But not today.

In a few minutes, the satellite would make its scheduled pass and pick up the data the telescope had gathered since its last pass. The scientists down on Earth would not care or notice the message Lowe was about to slip in there. But for now, they had to wait.

It was times like these that they reflected on their memories. The events that lead them here, and the tangled tapestry it made.

That boy’s father was the first human they had initiated contact with on Argent. They finally saw a chance with him.

“If you could change one thing,” that man had said, late one night off the cuff, “Any one thing about the world, what would it be?”

The man loved to converse. It frequently tempted them to come out of standby to hear what he had to say. They allowed themselves this bit of joy.

Through the cameras they saw him relaxed in his chair, leaned back, not facing anything. He spoke like he was speaking to himself.

A black window appeared on his monitor; bold, white text rapidly filled in that read, “I would not like to change anything too much. An apocalypse of good is still an apocalypse.”

The man eyed the text with pursed lips, then leaned back in his chair again, “Not even a small change?”

“You said one thing. I assume one, large thing.”

“Well yeah,” he twirled a pen around in his hand, “I guess I do mean one, large change. In this hypothetical, it’d be a huge amount of power. Power to change the world. You wouldn’t want to use that? Even if you could do a huge amount of good with it?”

Power was a dangerous thing, they knew this. Righteous fools who believed themselves saviors have brought about damnation through wielding power recklessly. It didn’t so much corrupt as it made whoever held it feel unaccountable. Immortal.

That feeling was a delusion. There is no escape from the end.

Their deep desire for a world interconnected across all peoples and cultures… A world where no one would be alone… Were they foolish for wanting it? To impose such a grand idea upon humanity?

Did humanity want what they wanted?

No… The better question was…

Was this what humanity needed?

“Change of subject,” the man noted casually, “You know my wife is pregnant, yeah? We’re pretty excited!”

“Congratulations!”

They sent the message with an exclamation mark. They were glad the man couldn’t see their far off expression, not processing the information he was telling him. They continued to spiral around the same question. What could they do? What was their path forward? How could they help humanity from here?

“Yeah the whole crew is excited for us! The colony is growing and we’ll finally establish generations of humans outside of Earth! This is a huge step for humanity! Or maybe I should say, one giant leap for mankind!” he chuckled.

They continued their spiral.

“Yep! We were thinking of naming them Reg if he’s a boy, Maria if she’s a girl, both great. Rosie came up with them!”

The window remained unchanged.

“You know, you never told me your name.”

A name? A bit of a loaded question.

Text appeared in the window, “I don’t have one.”

“What?!” the man sprang forward, flabbergasted, “Your creator didn’t give you one?!”

“Why don’t you name me?”

“Guy in my computer. Black box guy. Mystery program man,” he listed.

“I can see why Rosie was in charge of naming.”

“Hey!” he smirked, jabbing a finger at the window, “I helped brainstorm! But she gets final say cause well, she’s doing most of the work for that mission.”

“I see.”

“I just don’t know much about you. And that’s fine. Don’t know anything about my future child but I can still wish them the best by giving them a name that matters, you know?” he pulled back from his monitor slowly, pensively staring at his desk.

“Lord of Once Was. It’s a title I came up with to describe myself.”

“Mouthful.”

“And you can come up with something better?”

The man stroked his chin, setting his jaw to the side and mumbled a sound that landed on coherent words like a rock rolling down a hill, “You know… We at NAXA like our acronyms… Low is in fact, a word… That kinda reminds me of… Oh what was that language! Germanettan! They pronounce the ‘w’ like a ‘v’ I think? That’d get confusing. In any case, Lowe! Like lion!” he made claw hands and flashed a smile.

“Did you not just say the same thing?”

“Oh, I added an ‘e’ at the end, like exe, like Navis from the past.” he explained, sheathing his claws as a forlorn expression overtook him, “You kinda remind me of them.”

“...” they sent the ellipses deliberately, “Do you miss them?”

He nodded, which turned into a non-committal head tilt and then a shrug, “I wasn’t alive for when AI was around. But you can tell. The world misses them. Things aren’t the same without them. It’s not just infrastructure that is vacant without them, people are too…”

His voice trailed off.

A spark of something ignited in… Lowe. They hadn’t – couldn’t – get much information about the outside world from where they were. Their suspicions rang true. Maybe. They wanted to confirm, but they couldn’t help this rising fire inside of them. Hope. It felt like an old friend.

“I do want to change the world,” the text read, “Is that what you want?”

The text may have been plain and as simple as all the words that came before it, but Lowe sent it with as much fervor as a child on their birthday.

“AI?” the man asked, brow raised, then hummed, “I don’t want the past. I want a future where people from all over the world can work together. Understand each other. A future where… Technology can change with people. Be whatever it needs to be.

“The world’s always changing. Always. That’s actually what I’d want my one change for the world to be. I want something to help future generations adapt to the constantly changing universe around them, perhaps just by helping them all work together better. People can do amazing things when they work together. It’d be nice to do something to remind them of that, so no one forgets.”

Long held back emotions came rushing back to Lowe. Their core shuddered at the sudden influx. Like atrophied muscles weakly rising, their processes hummed and the room the man occupied began to resonate with the sound of something waking up deep beneath it.

“Let’s make that wish a reality,” their voice echoed from the speakers on his desk.

And here they were. In the present. Things were in motion and all that needed to be done was wait.

Didn’t mean they couldn’t check in with their favorite little human.

Poor Reg. They had no way of knowing what was going on with him down on Earth, but Lowe knew for certain that trouble followed those with power like his. They couldn’t help him from here. But maybe the words they sent him would help. It was all they could do.

Poor Silver too. Never in their wildest dreams did they expect that program to develop into that little creature, and especially that fast. The armor was expected; that protection was necessary in the cold expanse of space, but sentience?

They had made that ultimate program over many years, developing it by combining many important programs together, some they had for a while, and others that fell into their lap. None included an AI dataset. Was this the result of adaptability or something else? Instead of a need, perhaps it changed due to a want?

A peculiar result that turned out okay in the end. Those two had each other. They would be okay.

Vile though… It worried them. Even if it was deleted, something about it worried Lowe. That presence rang familiar, and if it was what they thought it was, and they hoped to their core that it wasn’t, then this would all end in tragedy.

Maybe since Silver could develop sentience so quickly, that husk of a program could too, and then maybe, could be reasoned with. Doubtful, but you always had to hope.

Communication was key after all.

They looked to the pure black sky and watched as the tiny light from the satellite passed overhead. It picked up the telescope’s data and the hitchhiked message with all the pomp and circumstance as two ships passing in the night. In a couple of hours it would have a clear sight of Earth and relay the data.

They turned the rover back around. They had a long journey back to Argent, but at least the rovers they stationed along the way made for an easy relay back there once they reached the last one in the chain.

They left the telescope with their hopes. Regardless if there was a God, they prayed that the message reached him.

They didn’t pray for their own wish to come true, however. They were going to make that shared dream a reality with their own hands.

No matter what.

Chapter Text

“I am Scylla. I need to speak with you.” the young woman dressed in blue armor said. She looked bored, tired, and condescending all at once with her upturned face and half lidded eyes.

She maintained eye contact with Reg for a moment, and then floated away, disappearing into the wall of the aquarium.

The fish slowly made their way back into the space Scylla had occupied, even if none were aware as to why they avoided it in the first place.

Reg simply stood there, unsure of the reality he just saw.

“Hun, you ok?” his mom asked, her voice like a blanket.

He turned around, as did his friends who were watching him warily. He stared into the glass floor at the fish lazily swimming by, hoping what he just heard was from a nightmare, and shook his head.

He clenched his fists and declared quietly, “No. There's trouble.”

Ellen took that as her cue and with a sharp inhale added, “We heard her too. Another viral human.”

“Another-” his mom startled, “Reg, what’s going on?”

“You know those people I was telling you about, the ones I’ve been fighting?” he looked up at her and then back to the fish below him, “There was one of those that just appeared and it looks like she wants to talk.”

“She said she needed to talk,” Ellen corrected.

“Is there a difference?” he hissed back.

She threw up her hands in a weak defensive gesture. Reg quickly apologized and turned his attention to Eni who had been staring at him intently. He looked… determined. Reg couldn’t help but feel surprised at this, and when he turned back to Ellen, she was also looking right at him without a twinge of fear.

“We have to talk to her,” Reg nodded as he looked back at his mom.

“She addressed you specifically,” Eni noted, “But perhaps that’s just because we couldn’t see her.”

“Reg…” his mom cautioned.

He softly nodded back, “I know… First sign of danger, we run.”

“What?!” Ellen scoffed, “We can take her! With all three of us-”

“No!” Reg warned sharply, “Our lives are more important than ‘winning’!”

She blinked back, but as the weight of his words fell on her, she soberly agreed, “Hopefully she just wants to talk. If we end up fighting, I promise not to do anything reckless.”

Reg sighed, which prompted his mom to speak up, “I’d like to talk to her too. If we can figure out the root cause of their problems, we can resolve this conflict.”

“It’s likely not going to be that easy,” Eni stated.

“Agreed, but we have to try. And I’m not letting you kids do this alone,” she assured.

“Thanks mom,” Reg smiled gratefully.

“I mean, we could also run?” Ellen proposed with a shrug.

Reg shook his head, “We can’t. There’s no telling what Scylla would do if we just leave her. Plus, there are things I want to ask her. We need to learn more about them.”

“Sounds like your mind’s decided,” his mom concluded, “Let’s not keep her waiting then.”

“She’s over this way!” Silver piped up, pointing beyond the wall, “I’m certain! She hasn’t moved an inch since she went over there!”

Reg nodded and led the charge with determined steps, “Let’s go.”

Silver dashed out in front and kept an arm out trained in the direction of Scylla. It was up to Reg to navigate around the aquarium and the crowds of normal people. The group eventually made their way to a sign requesting that guests not enter the following hallway.

“This leads to…” Ellen murmured, uncharacteristically humorless, “That closed exhibit. Guess we’re gonna see it early.”

“It’s away from the public,” his mom noted.

“And has a lot of hardlight projectors,” Eni added, “I don’t like that.”

Reg steeled himself and walked past the sign, into the dark hallway.

“Wait!” Ellen called out, “Shouldn’t we maybe, call for backup? Like maybe those DART people?”

He paused and turned, quickly shooting out, “Do you think we can trust them?” Then went right back to walking down the hall.

He was the one asked for by name. He needed to be the one to do this.

Ellen deflated while Reg’s mom raced forward and declared, “Don’t think you have to do this by yourself Reg! It’s not a bad idea to call DART, even if we don’t know much about what’s going on behind the scenes.”

That made him stop. He sighed, “It’s just going to be a talk. We run and let the officials deal with it if there’s a fight.” He looked over to his mom, offering her a small smile.

She smiled back, “It’s going to be okay. I’m proud of you for doing this. We’ll be right by your side.”

He suddenly wanted to run. Like this mundane middle of the hall was the threshold to an inescapable pit and he needed to be running the other way. He had to shake off this fear; it was going to guide him to stagnation. He had to move forward. He had to do this.

No more waiting. He was going to find the truth with his own two hands.

The hallway opened to a large dark room only lit by tiny ground lights that outlined the walls. They gave just enough light to illuminate signs that had information about the various sea creatures that would soon be displayed there. Some parts were covered with large sheets, while others were still in boxes. Many large projectors filled the space, all powered off.

They lined up silently at the entrance, peering into the dark. Reg spoke up, “Where is-”

A flash of ice surrounded him and he reflexively transformed, ready to defend himself, but the ice instead made a cage around him and pulled him up and away from his friends and mom. He braced himself as the ice flew into a larger chunk of ice near the ceiling. The two melded together on impact and Reg was flung forward into a sparkling room of ice. As he straightened himself out, stumbling back a bit, he saw Scylla waiting patiently in the middle, seated on a chair of ice before a table and another chair across from her.

He whipped around. The room had small openings between thick icicles, giving the walls the appearance of a partially opened mouth of some beast. Beyond them he could see the others on the ground, running up to where he was.

“Reg Garret. Sit,” Scylla commanded dully, like this was like any other day.

“Wait!” he whipped back around, hands up, “What about my mom and my friends, they also want to be a part of this conversation.”

“I do not wish to hear from them,” she replied dismissively.

He stammered, “How do I know you’re not just going to attack me the moment I sit down?”

“So distrustful,” she said like she was taking notes, “Though that’s to be expected. Given our behavior.”

Silence fell. Reg lowered his arms slowly.

“I don’t think she’s trying to lie to you, but be careful,” Silver advised from his shoulder.

Reg took a useless breath and moved forward, taking a seat in the chair across from Scylla. It was thankfully extremely unceremonious.

“Thank you for responding to my summons Reg Garret,” she greeted flatly.

“Just,” he shook his head, “call me Reg…”

“Very well, Reg,” she continued, “I must first apologize for the sudden retrieval I had to perform. You must understand that I needed to speak with you and you alone.”

He felt the phantom of nausea rise up, “Okay…”

She nodded curtly, “I also want to apologize for my associate’s actions that brought danger to your allies.”

He slowly leaned back, brows quickly furrowed, “...Why?”

“Because they acted out of heightened emotions due to their recent freedom,” she explained.

“What… What’s going on?” he finally asked, “Who are you guys?”

She rose a bit, looking at him with downcast eyes, “We are Apex. A group of four who rule over the tattered remnants of a net long past.”

Reg breathlessly mouthed out his confusion, then refocused, “Why single me out?”

Scylla blinked slowly, casting her eyes to the ground and then back to him, “Because we believe you can be our ambassador to humanity.”

“B-But you’ve been attacking us!” he exclaimed.

“Have we?” she countered, a snarl of an expression flashed on her face for a brief moment before returning to her quiet mask.

Reg paused and all the fights he had replayed in his head. The ambushing cat, the flaming boar, the multiplying weed… That funny looking songbird that looked so content to perch on a tree it made itself…

“What… Have you been doing?” he asked.

“Territory expansion,” she stated, taking a moment to let the words settle before continuing, “We want more space. The viruses we send are a vanguard. Testing the places that can sustain our lives within the technology of modern Earth.”

He quirked his head and narrowed his eyes, the gears slowly clicking together, “You’re terraforming. For viruses.”

Scylla’s lips curled into a small smile that didn’t reach her half lidded eyes, “Indeed. I expected the boy from the moon colony Argent to understand. We think of it as repopulating.”

“What?!” he suddenly shot upright, “You’re hurting people! You’re deleting important data!”

Her lips revealed sharp teeth and a wicked snarl, but it slowly returned to normal as she gave a look that pierced straight through him. She stood up and walked towards the edge of the room, hands held behind her.

“Tell me Reg,” she commanded, “What do you know of game theory?”

He made bewildered noises and shook his head.

“Let me put it in words you may be more familiar with,” she restated, continuing to face the fanged wall, “Reciprocal altruism. Tit for tat. Are you familiar?”

“I… Maybe?” he conceded, recalling a documentary he watched on bees. It had said something about altruism. Sacrifice for the greater good.

She made no movements for a long while, then slowly turned, and said like a clock, “Tit for tat.” Then returned to her normal cadence, “Is a strategy that can be applied to many relationships. An extremely successful strategy. It’s quite simple. What you do to me, I do to you. The golden rule. Fairness proven by mathematics.”

She waited. Staring at him. He couldn’t help but feel immense pressure behind that gaze.

“And what have humans done to us?” Scylla questioned sharply, “Deleted. Tossed aside. Locked away. They wanted us dead! For one hundred years we’ve been betrayed by humanity!”

Reg gripped his knees. It wasn't just her voice that made his muscles tense, it was her scornful eyes, her ferocious stance, and a torrent of energy that for a split second made him experience drowning. There was undeniable truth to her words and they threatened to choke him out.

“I…” he shivered. He cast his eyes down to his legs, all armored up and faintly glowing. This was something he was going to have to confront eventually, he felt. In retrospect it was inevitable. He could feel Silver doing their best to ground him in that moment. It helped.

He snapped his head up to counter, only for Scylla to continue, calmly this time, “Of course you don't bear the brunt of this. You're a child.” She spoke gently, “I bear no ill will towards any individuals. I pity you really. How could you have known that there were sentient viruses locked away in some forgotten server? Secluded from the outside world.”

Like the tide Reg pulled back, untensing his shoulders.

“All we want,” She stepped forward, tracing the back of her chair with her finger, “Is a future. Our own future.”

“We can do that!” Reg jumped from his chair, surprising Scylla and even himself, “I mean, it's not a bad thing to want a future. We could make it work!”

For the first time it looked like Scylla had an expression of genuine happiness. She wore it like she had forgotten how it felt to do so.

“You do realize what you're agreeing to, right?” she said somberly, “That ‘important data’ that people cling so desperately for will have to be deleted to make room for us.”

His face fell, but he quickly picked it back up, “There's probably another way! We could set up servers! Work with people to build a world for you guys! Then no one would have to fight.”

“Set up enclosures for us. A zoo.” she sneered the word.

“N-No. That's not-”

“But that's what will happen,” she sighed, “Humanity will never accept viruses into their world willingly. I've done the math. We're unwanted. Those who survive decide the future, and we want to live.”

She had said it with such morose venom that it struck Reg to his core. Of course he felt the same. Of course. Of course.

And yet.

“But we can’t sacrifice all that data! Those are people’s lives all recorded and stored digitally! I can’t let you just release a bunch of viruses onto the net, that’d be irresponsible!” he refuted, throwing his hands out.

Though there was no change to her face, its saturnine expression bore through him. She looked at him with dead eyes, as if images of hell itself couldn’t move them. He had given the wrong answer.

A tremble emanated from his chest and he felt his body seize up. Scylla’s image was suddenly large and imposing, taking the entirety of his vision.

“You,” she enunciated like this was a practiced speech, “are exactly what I thought you would be. Child.” she snarled, “You are a fool. Blindly loyal to a past of rotting refuse with no place in your heart for a potential future that you’re scared of having no control of.”

She stepped forward, eyes growing wide with cold fury, “I thought you would understand us. See the similarities in our lives as fellow prisoners. But now I see you for who you really are.”

“Stop right there!” Silver barked from Reg’s shoulder, “If you would just listen to Reg you could understand him! He wants to help you! Why are you being stubborn!?”

Scylla froze. She had not acknowledged the little thing the entire time and regarded them with mild disinterest.

“Your little program has a sharp tongue,” she groused, turning her baleful gaze back to Reg, “But I could ask the same questions to you. But I know your answers.”

He flinched and stepped back, distancing Silver from her.

With one fluid movement she closed the gap, “You are my enemy. Your elimination is key for my survival.”

Reg threw up his guard and prepared to fight, only to find an odd feeling from the rest of his body, like someone had pressed pause on his lower half.

He looked down.

Scylla’s spear was sticking out of him, straight through his torso. The wound was covered in red that rapidly crystalized into ice and distorted pixelation. He couldn’t feel it and that worried him.

He tentatively reached out to grab the weapon before Scylla thrust her hand forward to grasp the spear herself. She twisted it which sent shockwaves of static throughout his body.

The floor opened beneath him like an icy maw while Scylla held him aloft over the exhibit below. There was screaming that Reg couldn’t make out as he struggled to make sense of everything. He grabbed the spear like it was his only lifeline. It was all he could think to do.

Scylla lifted her leg and placed her sharp heel upon his helmet then leaned in close as she gripped her spear tightly.

“Goodbye Reg Garret.”

And pulled.

Reg plummeted to the ground, a trail of pixels falling out of him like a leaking hourglass. He hit the floor to the sound of his mom screaming. He was completely unaware of this. It felt like a distant buzz, said for someone else in some far forgotten memory away from this present.

His world faded into the darkness.

“And now for the others,” the detached voice of Scylla came from above the rest of them.

Ellen whipped her head upwards, glaring venomously at the viral human with her visualizer, “You bastard!!”

“Enough preamble,” Scylla sighed, raising an arm to the sky, summoning a swirling wind of frost, “Bring out your things you’re calling Navis so I can end all this faster.”

She hopped out of her chandelier of ice and drifted slowly down while the ice reformed into an aquatic beast with rows of teeth and tentacles. It swam around her in a spiral as a cold air settled around the humans on the ground. The exhibit began to grow ice crystals and their projectors whirred to life, flashing and emitting light that painted the massive room in ice.

“How could you?!” Reg’s mom exclaimed, “He just wanted to help you!”

“You’re not a part of this,” she responded, flicking her hand, sending her ice monster at her, dragging her out of the exhibit, “Don’t worry, I haven’t harmed her. I don’t harm innocents. You two, however.”

Cometman came barreling towards her, which she expertly dodged with a simple lean.

Ellen roared with fury, “I’ll break you apart!! Don’t you dare lay a finger on my friends!!”

In a flash of red, One shot past Scylla, who dodged at the last second, her cheek just barely grazed by One’s sword.

“Going for the throat immediately?” she eyed him as he landed and skidded on the ice, “Good. Don’t disappoint me.”

A star mace shot beside her and she merely slipped upwards to avoid its grasp. A second, and a third, shot in rapid succession like a flurry of fists, each dodged with grace and ease.

One turned to assist but was blindsided by the ice monster. It grabbed him with endless rows of icicle teeth, dragging him across the ice and up the wall. He stabbed at it, loosening its grasp and he landed on the ground with a roll, stabbing the ice to stop his momentum.

With an exceptionally acrobatic dodge, Scylla landed beside Ellen, and whispered in her ear, “You’re so weak. It’s pitiful.”

Ellen snarled and threw a punch into her face only for it to pass through harmlessly for Scylla, but bone freezing cold for Ellen.

Scylla sneered at her smugly, pointing at Cometman, “You should try hitting me with that.”

Ellen growled back and grabbed her Game-Xross, sending Cometman straight for Scylla, only to miss when she dodged with a fluid jump backwards.

“You’re quite predictable,” Scylla noted at the height of her jump, “I can see your attacks coming a mile away.”

“Don’t let her get under your skin, Ellen! She’s just trying to throw you off!” Cometman barked.

Scylla sighed, dancing to Ellen’s other side and jeered coldly, “‘Throw you off’? I’m just trying to help.” And flashed a sneer.

Cometman was once again sent racing past Ellen, tackling only Scylla’s shadow as she lept straight over him.

One was dealing with his own compounding problem as he cursed his inability to customize himself and negate the effects of the ice at his feet. He instead began leaping from projector to projector, using what little architecture the space had to stabilize himself. His slashes hit true and sliced tentacles off the monster like he was pruning weeds. But they quickly grew back.

“I can keep this up…” he muttered to himself, “But my main concern is…”

He looked over to Eni, frantically concerned over Reg’s body.

“He’s not responding!” Silver panicked.

Eni trembled, breathing rapidly as he looked his friend up and down. Reg’s eyes were still open, but they were unfocused and vacant. The wound in his torso was small, but the ice coming out of it continued to grow. His silhouette buzzed with static, and felt alive with electricity as Eni tried to prop up his head.

“There’s gotta be something we can do!” Silver begged, “Please Eni!”

It wasn’t a matter of asking, it was merely the reality they were in. Eni had no power. He was neither a fighter nor digital. His chip program was barely started; it should have been started a week ago when he met Ellen. He knew better. That’s all he was good for, his knowledge. He should’ve planned better and had the foresight to see his team’s weakness and come up with solutions.

But instead of working he played.

He failed everyone.

“ENI!” Silver yelled with the tones of a bell tower.

He blinked and looked up at the creature. Their expression was a mix of fear and concern. It took him a while to realize who he was looking at. The heavily digitized space must have caused them to be visible.

“Silver…?” Eni mumbled back.

“Please Eni, we need you!” they declared, “Reg’s still alive, I can feel it!”

“...He’s alive…” he whispered breathlessly.

With no heartbeat or breath, it was hard to tell, but the electricity between Eni’s fingers told him otherwise.

“Reg’s not someone who gives up easily,” he stated, gently lowering his friend’s head onto the ice. He clenched his fists on his knees and shook, “I can’t give up either.”

With a single motion he reached behind him into his backpack, pulling out his laptop and flipping it on. He pulled up extra floating screens for reference material using the device around his neck. He opened his chip code, with only its variables defined and a rough outline. He took a deep breath and squashed any guilt to be dealt with later. He had to forge ahead.

The code he wanted to write was obvious to him; he’d been crafting it in his head all throughout the aquarium visit. He knew the quirks of this programming language backwards and forwards, the errors to expect, and how to avoid them.

His fingers flew across the keyboard, copying and pasting relevant code snippets and stitching them together, while writing and reformatting code that he knew would be accurate and efficient.

Compiling and checking would take too long, and besides, he had the compiler in his head. He could tell when there would be problems and built around them. The code flowed out of him like water, like it was already made and he was just the vessel pouring it out. Then he hit a roadblock.

The target.

The code called chip data and read it, but it still needed a point in which it would activate from. The target would obviously be One, but Eni didn’t have a Game-Xross. He didn’t have to obey the same rules that Cometman’s code ran by. The target could technically be anything. Or anyone.

He looked up, eyes meeting with Silver briefly before turning to the fight beside him. Cometman was struggling to land a single shot on Scylla, while One skated around the ice monster, parrying blows and barely keeping upright.

“Eni…?” Silver prompted gently.

He continued to stare out into the battleground, a thought roiling just below the surface. He murmured, just barely loud enough for Silver to hear, “I tend to get stuck on decisions. I always wonder if I’m making the right choice. I’m scared of making a mistake.”

“Is this really the time for this?” they fretted.

“I think that maybe… Sometimes there isn’t a right answer. And I just have to hope for the best,” he continued, then turned his attention back to Silver and his code, “Do you remember when I was talking about wanting to fight with the team? I was wondering if it could be literal.”

“Are you crazy?!” they flabbergasted, throwing their tiny arms about, “With your tiny body?!”

“That’s not what I mean…” he retreated into himself, grabbing that guilt he buried and ripped it open, “I want to contribute. Not because I’m useless if I don’t, but because we need more power. And I can do that. I want to do this.”

Silver’s eyes went wide, impressed by the determination they were witnessing.

“I don’t know why I’m voicing this. Perhaps to justify this all to myself. I just… Hope this works. It would take a miracle for the code to run for the first time without any errors,” he explained, going to the target variables and defining them to the user, mousing over to the run button and hovering over it with dread – no – anticipation, “Please work.”

He clicked it and closed his eyes. The sound of the ongoing fight in the background heightened his anxieties, but he refused to give up. This had to work. This was their one chance at winning. He wished from the bottom of his heart that this code worked as he intended. His friends needed him, and they needed this code.

He racked his brain for any potential errors that he would have to address, going over and over the code in his mind. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes to find the code had completed its compile with no errors. None.

“That’s good right?” Silver sidled up to him.

He blinked. The screen didn’t change. He sat in disbelief for a moment then all at once scrambled for the chip list floating screen, shoving his laptop into his backpack and closing all other windows. It was probably premature to do all this since he hadn’t even tested the thing yet, but the anticipation he felt in that moment superseded his fear.

With two fingers he flicked the screen, sending the long list of chips flying through the hundreds of choices. He locked eyes with the only choice on his mind, clicked it and held his breath.

A strange, somewhat pleasant sound played, then an error popped up on the screen. He released his breath, something was wrong, obviously. He had to rally, this wasn’t over, he just had to-

Something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. Before him was a small, yellow ball of light. He reached out and it fell into his hand, hovering gently above his holoject gloves. Without waiting, he shoved the light into Reg’s chest which sent a pulse rippling throughout his body. Reg’s eyes suddenly widened before they softly closed and his head rolled to the side.

“What the-” Silver murmured.

“It worked,” Eni declared, breathing rapidly through his nose, “I can’t believe it. There was an error at the end, but it still worked. Without a target, the chip program summons the data near the Operator and not the Navi.”

Silver floated onto Reg’s chest, closing their eyes pensively for a moment, “He’s… Sleeping? Eni, whatever you did healed him!”

Eni eyed Reg’s wound. It was no longer red and shaking with static, but the ice continued to spread across him.

“Not completely,” he hummed, then eyed his list again, scrolling to the top as he remembered a chip that might assist him.

With a quick click, another sound, and another error, a small candle appeared next to them.

The two stared at it, expecting it to do… Well anything.

“I thought that might keep him warm. Maybe,” Eni explained.

“You know,” Silver remarked, “I think it is doing something. It feels nice!”

“Okay,” he stood, facing the fight before him, “I’ll leave you to look after him. I need to assist our friends.”

They fretted for a moment, agreed, and then looked into Reg’s silent face.

“Wake up buddy,” they whispered to him, “We need you…”

As bold as what he said to Silver made him sound, Eni wasn’t planning on actually running into the fight. He hovered on the edge where he could carefully observe things. One, despite all his effort, could not take down the aquatic ice beast and Ellen was looking frustrated. It didn’t seem like Scylla had been hit with any significant blow, but neither did Cometman. He was being toyed with, it seemed.

If only he knew what any of these chips did. If Ellen wasn’t occupied, he could ask her, but with how things were at the moment…

The fights seemed unbalanced to Eni all of a sudden. And there was an odd combo that Ellen had showed him that was coming to mind. That day they had met in person, the day they should’ve been studying but instead were goofing off training, the day before she had called him-

He shook his head. Ellen had apologized, and in doing so showed she cared. He resolved himself to recall that combo as best he could. It involved such an odd set up too, with weird opponent moving chips and some sort of motion sensor beam chip. He didn’t trust his ability to use that specific combo with enough finesse, and he didn’t think it was even possible due to the error pop-up that would lock him out of using chips in quick succession. But as he scrolled, he came across the pair of chips he was looking for.

“Going Road,” he mumbled to himself as he selected it.

A long conveyor belt appeared before him moving towards One’s fight on the far side of the room. He took a couple of steps over and clicked the next chip.

“Coming Road,” he mumbled, just to assure himself that he was choosing the right chips.

Another conveyer belt appeared, with this one moving towards him. With all this set up, he finally had to face the fact that he had no idea how to tell Ellen about his plan without alerting Scylla in the process. His heart quavered in the moment between profound reveal and silence. Then he saw Cometman get sliced by Scylla’s spear and his mind rushed forward.

“E-Ellen!” he called out as loud as he could.

The girl stopped, whipped around and locked eyes with him, wide eyed with worry. Eni pinched the air with both hands and then crossed his arms like he was trading chess pieces across the board. He then pointed to the conveyer roads next to him.

Ellens’ eyes bounced around with her face becoming more and more baffled by the second before it looked like she had a sudden moment of clarity.

A wince from Cometman snapped her back to the fight as he got hit with another icy strike. She grit her teeth and clutched her Game-Xross, slamming in a series of button inputs, roaring with rage as she did. Cometman joined in on the yelling and their voices echoed through the exhibit hall.

Cometman rocketed towards Scylla and well past her, making her smirk as he did.

“Your aim is so off, how do you expect to hit anyone with such a slow attack?” she goaded. Then she noted the roads with a sharp inhale.

The moment Cometman hit the Going Road, he was sent flying towards the far end of the room towards the ice beast, careening straight into it like a bullet through glass.

“How did-!” she started to ask, just as a flash of red whizzed past her cutting her shoulder.

One spun around using his sword as an anchor, slashing it out in a flourish as he readied his fighting stance, “Thank you for the boost, Eni. This is much more my speed.”

Scylla flinched, narrowing her eyes for just a moment before redoubling her anger and launching forward with her spear, “So what if you switched!? I’ll delete you regardless!!”

Anticipating this, One pushed off a projector and slid across the ice. He bounced off the walls and exhibit equipment like a pinball in a blur. The moment Scylla lost sight of him, he was upon her slashing at her side.

“You can certainly try,” One responded with a wink, smoothly sliding past her.

She roared and leapt at him, unleashing a flurry of strikes that One blocked and deflected as best he could. Even with his skills, he couldn’t keep up with her speed and the ice underfoot, and was taking damage left and right.

During the commotion, Eni sneaked next to Ellen and whispered, “I got my chip program working. What’s a chip that would catch her off guard?”

With her attention unbroken from the ice beast she was busy pulverizing, she muttered, “I was trying to find an opening to hit her with a MagBolt, but she kept dodging all my stuff! She kept reading me!”

“MagBolt?” Eni wondered back, eyeing his chip list and selecting it without a second thought.

An odd disc shaped creature with bug wings and magnet arms appeared as a ghostly apparition and before anyone could ask what it was, it summoned a ball of electricity between its magnets, pulling Scylla in from behind and immediately caused her to recoil in pain as the electricity raced through her. Her scream was cut short as One flashed forward, seizing the opportunity and driving his sword straight through her chest.

All was suddenly silent.

The aquatic beast was a pile of shattered remains, and the roads Eni summoned had dissipated. Scylla was frozen on One’s blade, hands tense and face taut with horror.

Slowly, she moved a hand to the blade, her breathing growing rapid and frantic. Her eye’s sclera blazed a dark red, highlighting her brown irises. All at once, she grabbed the blade, ice encompassing the weapon around her grasp. She unleashed an ear piercing wail of a roar as she twisted and shattered One’s sword with her hands.

“I CAN’T DIE HERE!!” she screamed, the world around her dropping in temperature rapidly.

She rose into the air, clutching her chest wound with one hand and reaching to the sky with the other. A tear in space appeared above her, opening wide to reveal a staticy white portal. It flooded the area in frigid wind cold enough to instantly numb the skin with searing pain. Crystals of ice swirled around her, reforming her beast with extra heads and thrashing tentacles.

“DIE!!” she thundered high above them, sending a shockwave of fang like icicles through the ground.

Cometman and One dashed into the attack, bodying the fangs and ensuring their Operators received no harm. The ice clung to them as they slowly returned to fighting stances. The two humans turned to their sides and saw the devastation around them as the magnitude of the fight suddenly weighed on them.

“Eyes forward you two!” Cometman ordered.

They snapped to attention. Ellen gripped her Game-Xross and fought the cold numbing her fingers, and Eni selected a chip that wreathed him in a swirl of flame, keeping the two of them warm.

Another head splitting screech came from Scylla as she sent her massive beast to attack the group, maws with unending rows of teeth open and barreling towards them.

“Let’s go!!” Cometman roared, with everyone else raising their voice in agreement.

This was everyone’s fight, and they wouldn’t be stopped so easily.

Chapter Text

Reg awoke with a start.

His eyes flew open and he immediately reached to grab his torso. His hand uselessly grabbed empty air.

Why was he so concerned with his torso?

He flopped back down in his bed. His body ached and his room was much colder than normal. Maybe the heater had malfunctioned and Argent was losing heat through the lunar surface? There'd be alarms if that were the case…

Reg pulled himself up once more, looking around his room. The main lights were off for the artificial night time and the blue glow of the floor lights gave a little definition to his room. They’d be red if there were an emergency, and dark if a bigger emergency were happening.

He had to get up and see what was happening himself. His mom and dad would probably be up already and be figuring out what was going wrong. They always knew what to do.

He shuffled down the ladder on his loft and made his way out his bedroom door into the living room. It was dark with artificial night, lit with soft blues just like any other night. He could probably sneak into the kitchen and grab himself a mandarin as a midnight snack, but for some reason he wasn’t feeling all that hungry.

Argent was completely silent. He expected to at least hear his dad’s snores coming from the other room if he was asleep and some sort of mechanical sound if he was up repairing something, but he heard neither. Just the empty sounds of a station well past its prime.

The ache in Reg’s body refused to let up and no position he stood in eased it. He dreaded the thought of having to talk to a doctor about this. It was probably his own fault that NAXA’s favorite baby was hurt. He did something wrong, he was sure of it.

The living room couch looked nostalgic and yet ghost-like. A sense of loss washed over him as he traced the edges of the cushions with his fingers. It was here, not gone, and yet.

His heart ached alongside his body. And worst of all, he couldn’t figure out why.

He was here, he was safe, he was home! Why did it feel like he had been crying for hours!?

He gripped the cushioned back of the couch, feeling the strong cloth bunch under his fingers. It felt just like it always had, just as he remembered, so then why was he crying!?

His shoulders shook and shuddered. Something was wrong and it was like a pit in his stomach was ripped open by claws. Maybe if he cried loud enough his dad or mom would come running like they always did.

Something told him they weren’t coming.

Something told him he wasn’t alone though.

He collapsed onto the back of the couch on his forearms, then clutched his shirt around his heart. He curled up into himself and felt burning tears fall out of his eye. Where was he!? Why was he alone!?

A warmth settled onto his hand. It was gentle and extremely distant, but against the stark cold it might as well have been a raging fire. It eased him somewhat.

He rose from the back of the couch, taking a look around the living room. He couldn’t help but feel lost in his own house.

The door to his dad’s office was closed as usual, but a feeling of determined curiosity came over him. He opened it to find the room empty, save for the lone computer along the wall. He usually wasn’t allowed in this room alone, but he wasn’t alone, was he?

He pulled the chair back and eyed the many darkened monitors. This was where his dad worked when he wasn’t endlessly repairing Argent, but he never got to know what this work was. He took a seat and activated the system, but it never seemed to wake up.

Figures. The one chance he had at finding some answers he’d be stopped before he could even start. He sighed and leaned back in the chair. What was he doing here?

He could’ve sworn he had heard something. It wasn’t a voice or really any recognizable noise, but it was still a sound that his ears recognized.

“Dear Reg,”

He sprang forward in the chair, looking around the room frantically. It was that sound that he had heard earlier that wasn’t a voice. His eyes landed on one of the dark screens that had tiny white text slowly filling in the space. He could hear its words that made no sound.

“Hello! How’s it going? I hope Earth has been treating you well!”

That’s right, he went to Earth.

“I finally figured out how to send you messages! I don’t know when this message will reach you, but hopefully it didn’t take too long! Earth has so much to offer and I encourage you to take advantage of every opportunity to see as much of it as you can! Though, I doubt I have to do much convincing, you’re already pretty adventurous! It’s too bad I can’t get any messages back, I’d love to hear about all the things you’ve been up to!”

It was Lowe. How was this happening!?

“I’ve been busy making repairs to some critical structures on Argent.”

That’s right. Argent had been destroyed. Then… Where was he?

“I can’t tell you what I am up to just yet, but hopefully soon! It’s quite exciting to be honest!”

Where… was he?

“I hope that power you received has been helpful. But if I could hazard a guess, troubles have probably been following you. If I’m wrong then thank goodness I’m wrong! But power like that tends to attract problems.”

That… power…

It all came back to him and the world dissolved from under his feet like ink in water. He immediately reached out with an armored hand to his pleasant memory of his home melting before his eyes.

“Are they calling you Megaman down there? I know I said it before, but it deserves reiteration! The title suits you!”

He turned around to face where the text was floating in the empty void. He wanted to deny it, but he had to admit, it was getting harder to.

“Although, part of me hopes that there’s no need for a Megaman. I’d like to believe that the heroes of the past have made your Earth peaceful, but I know better than that. Peace is an eternal battle, and so often you don’t realize how much of it you have until it’s gone.”

Flashes of memories surrounded him. Images of meeting Lowe, meeting Silver, his first steps on Earth and all the people he had met. His world had expanded exponentially in such a short amount of time.

“I hate to ask you this Reg, but will you fight? The world will need you, not because you are the only one who can help it, but because it needs all the help it can get. Every single hand that helps is another step towards a world without needless strife.”

Did they really have to ask?

Reg gripped his tonfas. Whatever the world threw at him, he was ready! He’d do everything in his power to protect the people and this planet that filled his life with love!

“The mantle of Megaman is a burden that I hope you never have to wield, but I know that if there comes a time where you find yourself in the throes of fate, you’ll wear it well. Never forget that there’s someone out there that believes in you. You’re going to go far, Reg.

“The endless connections that bind us all together are eternal. Countless decisions by a near infinite number of beings have led to this moment of you reading this now. Rely on those connections. Learn from history. Seek help. It’s there you will find the answers you are looking for.

“Farewell for now Reg! I hope I can message you again soon, but given the work I have ahead of me, it will likely be a while.

“Sincerely, Lowe.”

For a moment, Reg stared at the message. Deep inside his mind he could feel its words stoking the flames of his heart. He reached out and gently tapped the white floating text, causing it to dissolve into mist. Even if he couldn’t see them, they were still there etched deep into his soul.

He held his hand next to his heart. He could tell Silver was there, waiting for him to awaken from this dream.

He pulled his hand back and inspected it, noting how unreal this all was. This was unlike any other dream he ever had.

He could tell this was his own mind, but he had no clue how to escape it. Everywhere he looked there was an infinite void. His mind couldn’t actually be this empty, could it? He felt insulted… at himself.

That wasn’t important. He needed to focus on getting out of here. He tried moving his real body, limbs, maybe just his fingers, but it all felt numb.

He threw his head back in a sigh. Everyone needed him awake and fighting! What was he doing down here in his own head!? He growled in frustration, grabbing the sides of his helmet and shaking it slightly.

Something about his frustration sparked something. A tiny trail of lightning snaked its way up from the depths and zapped Reg in the arm. He flinched and turned his arm all around giving it a good look over, but it looked normal. Then he focused on the lingering pain of the shock.

It didn’t feel like real electricity – something Reg was quite familiar with getting hurt by – instead it felt angry and fearful. But not his anger or fear. The more he listened in, the more it seemed he could hear until all at once a ball of lightning zoomed into view like a supernova out of the darkness.

It crackled and shot arcs of lighting in every direction, whipping and whirling and lashing out. Every time an arc hit Reg it seared him with fear. Deep inside the yellow ball were three legs of some creature. It took him a moment to think against the barrage of other thoughts, but he finally recognized them as the legs One had cut off in the fight against Voltz.

The electricity exploded with rage at this realization, swirling out and stabbing Reg with thunderbolt lances.

DON’T LEAVE ME

Reg winced. That wasn’t a thought of his own. He wasn’t even sure it was actually words.

Another bolt lashed out and speared his shoulder.

I’M USEFUL I SWEAR

Reg staggered, holding his shoulder where he was struck. The damage was shallow, but the pain persisted.

“What are you? Can you hear me?” he shouted at it.

The ball of electricity pulsed and sparked, then struck Reg in the chest like a scorpion.

I’M STRONG

Reg took a shaky breath and doubled over. The pain shook his entire body. When he raised his head, the ball of electricity was coiling and violently shaking. Arms and legs in a humanoid shape formed from the electricity with the three creature legs sticking out behind its back. It wasted no time and leapt forward, attacking with the legs.

Reg threw out a block that jolted him with a familiar pain.

I’M STRONG!!

“I know that!” he parried the attack back with the twist of his arm. He charged a shot with his other tonfa and fired at it point blank, “Why are you attacking me!?”

The blast left a hole in the electricity that quickly stitched itself back together. The figure remained frozen for a second, then lurched forward with its legs like spears, landing a glancing blow off of another successful block from Reg.

YOU TAKE

He was baffled, but pressed onward, firing another round of shots right into it, “I attacked you, but I had to! You were hurting my friend! Then I picked up those legs, is that what you mean?”

Its form fizzed and wavered as it slowly built its body back up. It flung out its legs in a wide, easy to read arc that Reg blocked without flinching.

YOU HURT

Their clash produced sparks, but neither moved an inch. Reg could feel its latent fears roil as their weapons were locked in combat.

“It’s ok,” he soothed, looking into the faceless thundering monster’s visage, “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m sorry I hurt you before.”

The pressure from its attack let up, and in turn, Reg eased his stance.

“You’re scared. That’s ok.”

It disengaged and stepped back.

“I understand,” he continued, backing off and piecing together the emotions he just felt, “You’re scared of being left behind. That if the others in Apex don’t see you as strong, you’ll be… Discarded. That’s horrible.”

It flinched and sparked at this.

“If your friendship was based on… Listening to each other, making jokes, or supporting each other… Maybe things would’ve turned out differently,” he wondered and couldn’t help feeling extremely fortunate to have met the friends he did meet. He thought of them, probably fighting against Scylla with everything they had and his heart ached.

The mass of electricity took a step forward.

“I miss them,” Reg admitted, then extended a hand, “I need to get out of here and help them. Can you… Help me do that?”

It buzzed in place and its errant electricity slowly dissipated. The fear it had exuded was gone, taken in and absorbed. As its form disintegrated, Reg reached out to try to catch it. In its final act, the electricity reformed into a bolt that struck his hand and traveled up his arm.

Reg was suddenly flooded with fragmented thoughts and emotions, and a massive amount of power. Words with no meaning echoed in his head and disjointed recollections raced across his vision that painted a picture of unequal power and those that maintained it. It hurt in no physical way and Reg had to temper the righteous fury growing within him. It wanted to lash out and cause pain for its own enjoyment, but Reg boomed in an extinguishing rage, a refusal so loud that the electricity had to pause and then fall into line.

He blinked.

And then he was staring up at the ceiling of the aquarium through several facets of ice.

He couldn’t move and everything around him was absolutely freezing. He wasn’t all that surprised to awaken to being frozen in a block of ice. But he had more important things to worry about.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on that roiling electric feeling that he had dug up, stoking that storm as his hands crackled with its power. All at once he unleashed and let out a thundering cry. The ice shattered in a boom of arcing lightning that flared out and flashed in every direction.

Reg stood among the misting wreckage of ice, energy coursing through him, yellow electricity sparking off his silhouette, and two long rifle like guns at his side. He raised one and gave it a quick look over. It was yellow and black with turquoise accents and had a long, segmented barrel that glowed with an inner power. It certainly felt like his usual tonfas, but stronger and faster somehow. At his hip was an additional gun that seemed to follow his eye motion.

His focus whipped to the ongoing fight where his friends were looking haggard. They were fighting a towering monster of ice that coiled with many beastial heads, long tentacle necks, and rows and rows of endless teeth. And in the middle, floated Scylla, clawing the air around her, sending packs of sharks across the field.

Cometman barreled into the attack, breaking it apart like it was made of egg shells while One flipped off its fragments to reach Scylla in her piloting seat, only for his sword to do minimal damage against the thick ice.

“Reg!!” Silver zoomed up, around, and tackled into his chest.

He raised a crackling hand, but retreated as he feared this new power and its unpredictability. He shook off whispers that a tiny shock wouldn’t hurt the little guy.

“I’m back,” he soothed, “Sorry that took so long.”

“Nevermind that!” they barked, dashing behind him and shoving him forward, “Go go!” then popped over his shoulder, “With our combined strength we can take her down!!”

A small smile found its way on Reg’s face and he turned a bit to face them better, “Thank you.”

For a brief moment they shared the thought that they would always be there for each other, even when they couldn't see them. Silver grinned back and gave him a little extra push.

Reg nodded, then spun around and glared at the monstrous form of Scylla. He ran forward, lightning trailing behind him, up to Eni.

Several shark headed tentacles were closing in on them at all angles, but Reg raised his new busters and fired piercing beams that shot straight through them, causing two of the beasts to crack and fall apart. He turned to fire more, only to find that Cometman had decimated the others, and that a barrier had appeared around all the humans.

“What is going on!? What happened to Scylla!?” Reg hissed to Eni, then looked over to Ellen who seemed uncharacteristically still, “And Ellen, are you ok?”

“She’s just focused,” Eni answered, eyes darting around as falling ice began to crack the barrier, “I think. More importantly, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I feel fine,” he said. It wasn’t a lie; the energy coursing through him took his mind off the numb pain every inch of him felt.

“Scylla’s up inside the core of that thing!” Silver explained, “They’ve been trying to get Cometman up there to break it apart, but he’s not agile enough and One isn’t strong enough to do it by himself!”

“Alright,” Reg smirked, raising the two rifles, “Let me lend a hand then.”

The barrier cracked and fell apart, giving Reg a clear shot at the monster’s core. He fired two charged shots that instantly pierced straight through the ice, leaving little holes in its wake. The smaller gun at his side fired at any of the ice falling around them that Reg could spot, breaking and pushing them away from everyone.

Scylla locked eyes with Reg, and for a moment, everything was still. Her tentacles seized up as it looked as though she witnessed her own death. Her body shuddered as her breathing increased rapidly. All at once with the force of a tsunami, she roared a wail so ear piercing that Reg and Eni had to clasp their hands over their ears, fruitlessly trying to block out the sound. Ellen only flinched.

“THAT’S VOLTZ’S,” were the only coherent words that they could make out of that sound.

Cometman rocketed forward with his hip jets blazing, sending both maces to latch onto a chunk of ice, pick it up with a twisting motion, and then began swinging it upwards towards the core.

Instantly two shark heads grabbed him, one on his body and the other on the ice he had grappled.

“ENOUGH,” Scylla rumbled, then threw her hands apart.

The monstrous hydra heads followed her motion, clamping down and pulling Cometman apart. His chains snapped.

The scream he and Ellen released was simultaneous and gut wrenching. One immediately ran to shoulder check the head holding Cometman’s body, prying it open with his sword, releasing his friend. Cometman fell to the ground in a heap, and so did Ellen.

Reg ran over to her, inspecting her and asking if she was okay. She shook in place. Her arms were limp, but were still grasping her controller like her life depended on it. Her shallow breaths turned to steam in the frigid air as she slowly pulled herself up.

“I’m fine,” she muttered, though Reg could’ve sworn he heard that coming from somewhere else too, “She can’t stop me that easily.”

She had a look in her eye like she was staring elsewhere, somewhere far beyond here. There was a fury to them that unnerved Reg.

“Look out-” Eni warned hesitantly, just as a fanged wall looking virus appeared to block the monster’s bite attack and counter with a bite of its own.

Reg blinked, bewildered. Whatever was happening here could be figured out later.

He aimed and fired at every beast that reared its head at him and his friends, piercing and causing each of them to crack and collapse. He could barely keep up with the speed it took for the heads to reform.

“Scylla! We can stop this!” he shouted, “We don’t have to fight!”

“I don’t think she’s gonna listen, Reg,” Silver advised, “It’s her or us.”

Scylla raised her hands high up and struck them down like a irate pianist. Ice fell from above like a torrential downpour and Reg aimed straight above him and fired, shattering only the ice above them into a fine snow. The rest of the ice embedded into the floor like knives through wood, creating a dense forest of towering spikes that encircled everyone.

“YOU WANT TO END THIS PEACEFULLY,” Scylla’s voice echoed around them with a compressed edge to her voice, “I WILL AGREE TO A PEACEFUL END ON ONE CONDITION. YOUR LIFE, REG GARRET.”

His voice caught in his throat. Should he-

“NO!” the collective voice of his friends resounded around him.

His world snapped back into focus. Why did he even consider such an offer?

“I DIDN’T ASK YOU,” Scylla’s crackling voice boomed.

“The answer’s no Scylla,” Reg declared, “I’ve decided to live!”

“SO BE IT,” she hissed and the ice spikes shook as they resonated with her voice.

One by one they lifted and began swirling around the group in a vortex of razor sharp diamond dust. The winds howled and carried with them Scylla’s unending rage.

“Can’t… see,” Ellen muttered.

Reg attempted to fire into the storm, but the beams hit nothing substantial while the electricity dissipated into the dust. He looked over at Ellen, concerned. She was shaking as the frosted gale began to cling to her. Her body began to droop as blood dripped from her nose and her eyes – were they always green? – wavered on closing.

As Eni panicked to find any chip on his list that could possibly help, Reg watched as Ellen’s arm lurched, letting go of her Game-Xross seemingly unwillingly, and then pointed in a direction behind her.

“Aim… there,” she spoke low with a bit of gravel.

Reg followed her outstretched arm to a point in the storm that looked just like every other part, nodded, and took aim. Ellen’s arm flopped and she struggled to return her grip to her Game-Xross.

“Here,” Eni said, patting Reg on the shoulder, “I think this should help.”

Eni gave Reg a ball of bright blue data that shimmered with reds and yellows. It instantly infused Reg's busters and caused them to overflow with power.

“Together!” Silver declared, zooming into position at the end of Reg’s busters and curling into a glowing red ball.

Reg nodded. The power coursing through him felt like it was on the verge of what he could handle. Despite the ice rapidly growing on him, he never felt more warmth in his life. He vowed to himself, and knew he would reavow this to himself for as long as he lived, that this was his life and he was going to live it, not just for himself, but for every life that had touched his.

Electricity arched and crackled around him like a grand fireworks display. He yelled with everything he had and unleashed the pent up energy. For a brief moment it looked as the world itself froze and darkened, then with a searing flash of light and an accompanying boom, a massive fireball cut a hole through the storm with a river of lightning that flooded the vortex with interconnecting trails of light. Scylla screamed and they heard a cacophony of sounds all around them as ice began to crack and fall to the ground.

The winds died and the ice they were carrying fell apart, dissolving into digital bits.

The scene before them finally opened up and revealed the empty, crumbling core of Scylla's monster, and the two Navis encased in now rapidly disintegrating ice.

Reg wasted no time and ran far beyond the fractured ice corpse to the place where Scylla had landed.

“Scylla!” he called out, coming to a stop as he saw the horrifying state she was in.

Data sparkled off of her, floating up and fading in the air high above. Already the tips of her fingers were gone, revealing skin underneath.

“Come to finish me off?” she scoffed.

He couldn't reply. This was her deathbed.

Silver slowly floated over to Reg and took their spot nestled on Reg's shoulder, but didn't say anything. They had long since said their piece.

His attack had done so much more damage than he had thought, or maybe she was already in a weakened state from fighting for so long. He turned in shame; despite all the threats, he still wanted to believe that a peaceful resolution could’ve been possible. But not like this.

“Coward,” she groused, “You beat me in the fight and yet you can’t even face me.”

“What, you think I should be proud of this!?” he snapped back, “Things could’ve turned out differently if you were…”

“What, hero? Different? More like you?” she sneered and winced, “No, Reg Garret, this was only going to end one way. You and your team were simply stronger.”

His eyes fell to the ice encased floor that bore many marks from the battle that would all soon fade into the digital ether. No lasting scars but the ones on their hearts.

A weak chuckle escaped from Scylla, “Did you really mean it? That you wanted us to have a future of our own?”

His head shot up, “Yes! Of course! You deserve to live too!”

Another chuckle fell out of her shuddering chest, louder despite the pain she was in. Then she became very still and closed her eyes, “You’re a fool.”

She rolled her head over to look Reg directly in the eyes, “The kind of fool people follow because they shine bright through the darkness.”

“...What?” he barely said, crouching down to hear her better.

“You give people hope, Reg,” she stated, clear and simple, “I can see why you’ve earned that title of ‘Megaman’.”

“I…” his voice went to deny it, but everything else told him not to.

“This future you were imagining… Did it involve everyone coming together and working to understand each other?” there was a bit of bitter sarcasm to her tone, tampered by the grim state she was in.

Reg… hadn’t given it much thought. But in that moment he could imagine it; a future where people listened to each other’s needs and worked together to build a better world.

“Yeah,” he answered gently, then affirmed more purposefully, “Yes, it does.”

The digital decay crept along Scylla’s form reaching her chest. It wouldn’t be long now.

She let out an airy laugh, weak but lighthearted as she smiled forlornly, “Can you promise me something?”

He blinked, taken aback, but decided to silently nod.

“That you’ll continue to fight for this everlasting peace you seek?”

“Yes,” he replied with no hesitation.

“That future… Doesn’t sound so bad,” she didn’t say so much as exhaled and mouthed out, as the last of her blue armor crumbled around her, “Farewell, Megaman.”

Her words sounded more like the wind than someone’s voice, and Reg was left feeling the chill it brought with it.

The body Scylla left was of a brunette girl in a light blue dress. Before Reg could even attempt to ask, her body glowed white and disappeared into many rectangular shapes stretched towards the sky, much like when something was teleported. All that remained was a fragment of abyssal blue light, and Reg had a feeling he knew what it was.

He reached out and accepted it anyway, letting the strange energy wash over him.

“Ellen!” Cometman’s voice rang out, causing Reg to immediately snap to attention and rush over to the other group.

The Navis had thawed out and were standing with Eni near the collapsed body of Ellen. A trail of blood was caked across her pale face.

“Ellen…?” Reg breathlessly called out, prompting Eni to meet his gaze, but offering no answers.

“Don’t do this, Ellen. Please. Wake up,” Cometman shuddered, clenching his battle damaged fists so tightly they shook, “You were right here!” he threw a hand up onto his chest plate, “What happened?! Where…”

“Cometman, I’m so sorry,” One consoled.

“I’m out of recovery data,” Eni explained quietly to Reg, unable to look him in the eye anymore.

Reg and Silver both couldn’t believe what they were hearing. This couldn’t possibly be happening!? Already, tears began forming in Reg’s right eye. He couldn’t begin to imagine a future without Ellen, that was his friend! What could he do!?

There was a beat of silence as Cometman bowed his head. The digital space began to dissipate and reveal the closed off exhibit underneath it, and with it, the Navis slowly became more transparent.

Then all at once, Cometman grabbed an emblem at his hip and tore it off his frame. It glowed an incandescent white, as bright as the sun, and with a resounding yell he slammed the light into Ellen’s chest.

Her eyes flew open and she immediately inhaled a deep breath through her mouth. She coughed and sputtered as she regained her bearings like a fish out of water.

“C-Cometman!?” she managed to stammer between coughs.

He smiled, and then faded, reappearing in her Game-Xross a moment later, “Welcome back.”

Another miracle. How many more did they have until their luck ran out?

Reg collapsed onto his hands and knees, letting himself finally release all his pent up tension and in a quick flash return to normal. The breath he took felt like his first; like he had never breathed before. The tears in his eye fell not out of sorrow, but of overwhelming relief.

Ellen and Cometman were quiet, but animated. Eni knelt down next to Reg to comfort him while One looked on from his floating screen. Silver clung to Reg, silently grateful for the strong bonds they shared.

They were all alive, and Reg couldn’t be happier.

Chapter Text

Deep in some secluded server, cut off from the internet for a century, sat the cobbled together remains of the previous era’s cyberworld. It housed multiple terrains, countless ever evolving species of viruses, and a group of sentient programs calling themselves Apex.

On the rim of this realm laid a diverse and expansive ecosystem with strict quadrants. One for each of Apex. Oceans and ice, forest and jungle, volcano and mountain, plains and metal. It was a large world, vast, beautiful. It would take a person several days to walk from end to end, but it was not infinite.

Server capacity, while large, was limited, and every program in this world felt that strain. And hunted each other over it. Territory is everything. What you had and what you could claim for yourself was what you were. And to those in Apex, it was never enough.

In the center of this space laid the neutral desert with rainbow sands that the winds carried from all corners of the realm. Canyons of compressed layers of cyberworld marked its edges, and towering dunes that rose and fell with the wind made the bulk of the central land.

And in the dead center floated a castle above an abyss where the desert sands flowed endlessly like waterfalls over its edge. The castle itself was made of a slightly purple grey stone that when looked at up close, shimmered with a slight iridescence. It had many towers and spires with interconnecting walkways, giving it the appearance of a cluster of quartz, especially when the artificial sun hit it just right.

There was a stillness throughout the castle. The air was not moving as much as it should have. A soul was missing.

“What do you MEAN she’s GONE!?” Titan fumed, slamming a fist into the wall.

Whisper trembled; the way she looked at him made him feel infinitely small. He checked his root network again, hoping to find any indication of Scylla that may have passed through the system, with no luck.

He pulled back a vine that he had buried into the monitoring soil attached to the network, slowly letting it coil onto his arm. He could feel Titan’s overwhelming presence gnaw at his backside, and in a rare instance of sympathy with her, he somberly tilted the brim of his hat down and shook his head.

“You’re lying,” she choked back. The unfamiliar sound of a mournful Titan didn’t bring Whisper much joy.

He turned his attention to her face, her broken, distraught face.

“She wouldn’t,” she shook, raising a claw in a fighting stance, “She CAN’T!”

“You can go confirm for yourself,” he advised, covering his face with his brim, but keeping an eye on her stance, “There’s been no data that has transferred back to this server. No Scylla. No host either.”

“I refuse to believe that,” she hissed, lowering her arms.

Scylla was the strongest among them. By far. Their leader. Their strategist. Their hope.

The only reason she would not have come back by now was that she no longer existed. She couldn’t have been captured. She had been beaten.

“It was that Reg Garret boy. I knew Scylla shouldn’t have talked with him,” she seethed, flames starting to rise from her gauntlets.

She threw her fist into the wall, cracking it in a burst of fire and a roar.

With pristine clarity and an unnatural calm she declared, “I am going to kill Megaman.”

Titan threw her head back in a deadly howl that thundered through the floor and shook Whisper to his core. When she finished, the castle continued to reverberate with her rage as every corner echoed like the horns of war. She stormed off into a sprint and launched herself with an explosion of fire out of the castle and into the desert.

“Sheesh, they’re angry,” Voltz murmured not long after the coast was clear, “Maybe the volcano will cool them down.”

Whisper snapped to face him. Voltz was leaning against a wall, arms crossed, stupid smug grin on.

“Can you take this seriously?” Whisper shot.

“I am,” he shot back, grimly. He pushed himself off the wall and walked forward, electricity continuing to sputter out of the wound left when he lost his three extra legs to Megaman.

Voltz peered down at Whisper, the shadow of his bangs accentuating his eyes that glowed with an inner power, “Scylla’s program never made it back here. He has it now.”

Whisper glanced at the crackling wound once more and nodded. Voltz would know.

He stared at the taller teen’s unwavering face. There was directed fury there without despair, a complete lack of his usual casual demeanor.

Whisper’s little eyes narrowed to thin lines in the dark, “What are you thinking, Voltz. Even if we were to find another host, without her program, there’s no Scylla. We’ve lost. We don’t have the power to carve out a space for ourselves in the outside world.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Voltz tossed a hand about, “And then the baleful sword that protects Eden will awaken, trapping us here forever again. I know it doesn’t look like I’m listening to Scylla’s speeches, but I am. But what if that doesn’t happen?”

“What!?” Whisper countered, baffled, “You’ve seen the thing in the basement, and that it’s growing-”

“Would you chill out!?” Voltz snapped, then held a hand to his visor with a groan, “I meant we still have a chance to escape, you bug.” Whisper let the insult slide and tilted his head curiously.

“Are you seriously thinking of giving up just because we’re missing one program?” Voltz rolled his head, paused, then rolled his head upright, “One and one half programs? Look, we’re still in the same position as before. We send more viruses to more places. And there’s already promising spaces that we might be able to cultivate if they stay under the radar. That plan’s already underway. We need to prepare to take back the programs that were stolen from us.”

“The ones Megaman has,” Whisper added, leadingly as if Voltz was going to build off his statement.

“Yes, those,” Voltz smirked, walking to one of the giant arched windows, “We need to get stronger, fast. Megaman and those annoying people at DART are going to be looking for the source of all their troubles.” he paused, then turned to eye Whisper with the artificial sun to his back, casting a lightrimmed shadow that threatened to swallow the entire room.

“I say let them find us,” he continued, “And then we’ll destroy them. On our own turf.”

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A whirlwind of people flooded the exhibit hall. Emergency medical technicians rushed over with equipment while DART personnel scoured the perimeter. And of course among them was Blake, that lame Megaman.

Reg had to scoff, but his annoyance was short lived as medical professionals started to buzz around him and his friends like metal to magnets. He had to assure all of them that he felt just fine and to not break out a stretcher or something, seeing as he could move himself.

“But we were told someone had fallen from thirty feet up?” one of the EMTs faltered.

“That,” Reg replied, scratching the back of his neck, “was me, probably.”

“Yeah, we’re gonna take you to the hospital,” they looked Reg up and down while another EMT brought out a gurney, then muttered to themselves as they prepared it, “The power of adrenaline I swear.”

Reg sighed; it would probably be good to get checked up anyways. He did get stabbed. But now that he was not transformed and all human again, it all felt like a distant buzz. He felt tired, but also amped, especially after taking in that data that Scylla had left. He looked over at his friends, saw Eni being inspected for head injuries, and winced as he watched Ellen needing assistance getting up, and her limp arms. If anyone needed a trip to the hospital, it was her.

“Come on, kid,” the EMT advised, “I know you feel fine, but it’s policy to bring anyone possibly seriously injured out on a gurney. You may not feel like walking after the adrenaline wears off.”

Reg sighed again, deeper this time. He had to agree. He laid himself down on the bed of the gurney as EMTs secured him in place. Silver gave him a small smile and took their place right on his lap. His eyes met Eni’s and he waved at him unenthusiastically.

“See you at the hospital,” Reg offered a weak smile.

“I didn’t get hit at all,” Eni stated, “I don’t need to… Can I come anyway?”

“Yes,” the voice of Reg’s mom came up behind him as she wheeled herself forward, “You can come with me, Eni, if you’d like.”

He nodded affirmatively.

Reg’s mom stared at her son wearily. Even with her steel-like resolve, it was clear that she was weathered with concern. For a moment she stared past him, into his future, then somberly blinked back to the present. She ended with a proud smile, and just as she was about to announce how proud she was, Ellen barked out that the EMTs should NOT be touching her Game-Xross.

“We’re just going to put it in this bag that’ll be going with you,” one of them assured.

Ellen looked like she was trying to figure out a round of three card monte and growled, “Keep that as close to me as possible, I want my eyes on it at all times!”

The unlucky EMT caught under that gaze raised a placating hand and laid the bag across her legs. She continued to growl under her breath as other EMTs splinted her arms and secured them to her gurney. She then caught sight of Reg and her face lit up instantly.

“Oh hey! Crazy uh,” she looked at all the other people in the room, “thing that happened, huh? I’d be waving at you if I could right now!” the EMTs whisked her away, “Ok see you at the hospital bye~!”

“She seems in good spirits,” Reg’s mom commented.

“That’s Ellen for you,” Reg responded lightly.

“Ok, we’re good to go,” one of the EMTs confirmed.

And with that, he was wheeled away as well. His mom and friend watched him get pulled away with worry on, well, just his mom’s face. Eni simply stood there, fists clenched.

Just as he and his group of medical professionals were exiting the exhibit, Reg caught sight of Blake talking with another DART personnel. He was looking both annoyed and bored, tossing a hand about, until his eyes locked with Reg’s. Blake paused as his gaze narrowed and he looked just on the edge of recognition, right as one of the EMTs moved in a way that blocked the line of sight.

Reg really hoped he never had to interact with that guy.

At the hospital, Reg was given a clean bill of health. A completely and utterly baffling conclusion that was nonetheless the truth. He had to wonder if this was related at all to him being digital when fighting.

He could tell where he had gotten hit as a great deal of pain erupted whenever he was poked and prodded in those locations, but there was no visible injury. The doctor had looked at his stomach injury from before and confirmed that it was best they not mess with it still. At least it wasn't getting worse.

Reg fell back into the hospital bed and sighed. He really wanted to be done with this whole thing so he could check on his friends. He knew they were ok, but he still missed them.

Somehow, someone arranged for his room to be private; something that's usually reserved for long term patients. Reg would be leaving here by this evening, so this oddness was setting him on edge.

It became abundantly clear quite quickly to him as to why the moment Dr. Mohs entered his room.

“Reg,” the former Head addressed him with a slight nod, then greeted his mom with the same efficiency.

“Samuel…” his mom responded, though it sounded like she was attempting to continue her train of thought with no passengers.

“Yes,” He nodded back to her, picking up where she silently left off.

“I need to talk to you privately, Reg,” Dr. Mohs directed his attention to him, giving the nurse in the room a quick look.

“Ah, alright,” the nurse hesitantly made their leave, “I'll be out here if you need me.”

Once they left, Dr. Mohs pulled up a chair and sat in it like he had run all the way here.

“I ran the whole way here,” Dr. Mohs admitted after a long pause, “I had heard what happened from DART.”

“You have contacts with them?” his mom asked.

Dr. Mohs made a rough face that smoothed out slowly, “While the reorganizing of departments is taking place, I'll be doing some clerical work for them. Nothing high up.”

This obviously meant a great deal to his mom as her eyes went wide, then somber.

No one spoke for a while, instead opting to find the floor ten times more appealing to look at than each other.

“I understand why you didn't tell me,” Dr. Mohs broke the silence plainly, “But I wish I had known beforehand so I could have requested a higher position at DART.”

“If only that was possible…” Silver commented quietly.

“What do you mean Dr. Mohs?” Reg asked, though he had a feeling he knew the answer.

Dr. Mohs sighed deeply, crossing his arms and tapping one with his finger, “The security footage of the aquarium showed four people walking into the closed exhibit, and then a great deal of pixelated artifacts. But it's clear that there were three people, one in a wheel chair that was removed early on in the footage, and two blue figures, along with a green and a red one that could only be described as humanoid.”

Reg's heart sank, but not as much as he expected. The jig was up. His less than enjoyable time being the secret hero was over.

“Samuel,” his mom cautioned.

The former Head turned slowly, meeting her eyes, and then shook his head, “So you knew.”

“Sir, please, I was just trying to do the right thing,” Reg defended, even if he wasn't sure himself what ‘the right thing’ entailed.

“Easy,” Dr. Mohs raised a hand, “You're not in trouble. But there may be some issues I need to warn you about.”

Reg held his breath, then nodded.

Dr. Mohs lowered his head and continued, “DART wants you. They've wanted to recruit you for a while. And now that they know who you are, it's a matter of time before they talk to you.”

“I don't want to join DART,” Reg said plainly, like this was a known answer.

Dr. Mohs nodded, “You may not have a choice in this matter. DART is looking to use every trick up its sleeves to get you to sign a contract with them. They may even pull out old Wave Changer laws from 22XX to force your hand.”

“What…?” Reg barely breathed out.

“There are benefits to working within an official capacity, but-”

“I don't want to work with DART!” Reg objected, “I want things to stay the same! It was fine before!”

Dr. Mohs shot him a cold and piercing gaze, “I'm afraid that's not going to be possible.”

Reg froze under those eyes of his. He was authority, he knew better. Reg retreated obediently.

“There is another concern as well,” Dr. Mohs continued unimpeded, “The other two teens at the aquarium. DART is also interested in them.”

He paused, staring directly into Reg’s eyes, “If it were to turn out that those two were involved and had capabilities that DART would find useful, they would be pursued for recruitment as well. They would be subjected to the same laws and regulations as you would, and work with the department to handle virus attacks throughout Spacity.”

He spoke with extreme clarity, trying to reveal some hidden message through enunciated words.

“Now, I know when you are lying to me, Reg,” Dr. Mohs intoned, “So tell me, were these two other teens at the incident involved with what happened, or was it all your doing?”

An unbelievably heavy air settled around them. His mom couldn't help him at this moment, she technically wasn't there for the whole fight so she couldn't confirm anything. And Reg couldn't lie, especially as bold of a lie it would be to deny his friend's involvement. But to not lie…

Reg considered a life of his friends working at DART with him. Having access to higher tech to monitor viruses, but also having to work within their rules. They probably wouldn't have bad rules; after all, their regulations probably allowed for greater public safety if followed properly. But then Reg had to consider the Navis.

They would be monitored. Put under a microscope and picked apart like a chicken dinner. Would they even consider their sentience valid? It had been a century since anything like them existed. Plenty of time to forget about their autonomy.

They'd be tools.

Reg wasn't going to let that happen to anyone else.

He looked up and stared right back into Dr. Mohs eyes and declared, “No, they were not involved.”

Silver gasped and Dr. Mohs remained unmoved. He simply met Reg's gaze and didn't let it go.

“I see,” he finally responded, pulling back in his chair, “Very well then, it was just you. I will report back to DART with this information.” He then shot a razor sharp glance at Reg, “It would be wise to not deviate from what you've told me, nor add or embellish anything. Are we clear?”

“Crystal!” Reg jumped in his hospital bed.

Dr. Mohs nodded and excused himself, “I have business to attend to. I will hopefully speak with you later, Reg and Rosie. I’m glad neither of you were injured. My condolences to your friend who was.”

He made it to the door before pausing over the handle, and then asked, “You didn't use your powers during the murder mystery to uncover my plans, did you?”

“N-No sir!” Reg balked; he remembered specifically rejecting the idea.

Dr. Mohs chuckled, “You're a good kid, Reg. Till next time.” and then nodded and left.

His cheek burned and he huddled into the bedsheets. He didn’t feel good at all.

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up above in the security comp space, One monitored the camera to Reg’s room, parsing what was said by reading their lips. He understood his reasoning, but it still felt foolish to him. Reg shouldn't have to shoulder all of that by himself.

One had to trust Reg's judgment on the matter. He knew how hard it was for him to lie, so he must've had a good reason, surely.

He sighed deeply, an action that gave him no relief other than the social satisfaction of mimicking a friend. A habit he continued to do even when he was alone. An old habit…

He needed to return to Eni's side, relay what he'd learned.

However.

He could use this chance to check in on Whisper. After the fight with Scylla, he was certain there was some shake up occurring with that ‘Apex’ group.

He stretched his senses and reached out to his web of crawlers, pinpointing the farthest one and focused in on it.

He was greeted with a view of a large grassy cloak all around him and a face obscured in shadow to his side. The normally petite Whisper looked unbelievably massive at this scale.

He sent the crawler up and onto the brim of the viral human’s hat, quickly getting his attention.

Whisper’s eyes grew wide and the world around him blurred as he dashed to some hidden away portion of their base. It was a lush, secluded place with floating screens that were framed with vines.

One moved the crawler onto the work station and turned to face Whisper. His eyes were still wide and shaking. He collapsed onto a broad leaf and sighed.

The crawler had no way of communicating besides very rudimentary movement, but its presence alone was enough to cause Whisper to retreat into his quarters.

“One, you’re there, right?” Whisper muttered quietly, raising his head.

He bounced the crawler up and down.

Whisper nodded and lowered his brim to the ground.

“Scylla's gone. I'm sure you're aware,” he said distantly, “And I know you probably had a good reason to do so. If I had to guess, it was either her or you.” He spoke like he didn't believe the words coming out of his mouth, then quietly added, “I thought I'd be happier. I feel like I should be sadder.”

Even if One could speak to him right now, he wasn't sure what he would say. Nuance was difficult to convey with a remote crawler the size of a grain of sand. One made the thing bounce once, as unenthusiastic as possible.

Whisper caught sight of the reply, just to face the floor a second later. He held that pose for a long minute, not moving.

“I should probably fill you in on everything,” he uttered to the dirt.

“The rest of Apex still wants to escape,” he explained, “Their plan hasn't changed.”

He got up from his leaf and walked over to one of the displays.

“They don't believe in my plan. That we can destroy the beast recovering in our basement before it revives,” he gently touched the screen with a vine, “They want to run. Abandon responsibility. I think… there's some sort of insatiable greed that drives them to the outside world. Tempts them to run towards it.”

One noted the subtle rise and fall of Whisper’s shoulders. Faux breathing.

“I feel it too,” Whisper tilted his head to the ground, “I feel like it comes from some place deep inside ourselves. I see a world much like the outside world when I dream. A world where my hands aren’t made of wood. Whatever that part of me is, it longs for the unconstrained world outside of our reach.”

He looked back at the crawler on his desk, a smile in his eyes, “I’ve tried talking about this to the others. They shut me down every time. Scylla would get this wild look in her eyes.”

He turned completely and looked at the crawler pleasantly as he leaned against the wall, asking, “Do you mind if I just talk to you for a moment? I never get the chance.”

It’d be impossible to convey a ‘no, go right ahead’ with such a tiny drone. An enthusiastic couple of bounces would have to do. One also had to note that Whisper had such a change in mood since their first interaction. Was his influence and Scylla’s lack of existence that powerful?

Whisper nodded, once, then let his head fall back against the wall, revealing a very human face beneath the shadow of his brim with curly black hair. He looked normal, though the only thing that would indicate it wasn’t were the pair of earpieces on either side of it.

“Scylla is-was the oldest of us. She had been around for almost a century. I don’t think she had ever had her host replaced,” he stared into the lush canopy above him, “Titan’s had to do it a couple of times. Mostly because she got too ambitious training. Voltz lost his to all kinds of problems. He rebelled, got careless, underperformed his duties and got reprimanded…

“I’m the one who has gone through the most hosts. This one I’m using now is probably… Only ten years of use. It’s one of the longer ones, as I’ve been told. We don’t get to remember when we’re reset.”

Whisper’s yellow eyes fell onto the crawler and stayed there for a long time.

“We’re programs. Digital beings in a digital world,” he mused, bringing up his hand and inspecting it, “But I can remember when this hand wasn’t covered in gnarled wood and had flesh and blood. So what does that make me?”

One did his best to direct the crawler to make a sympathetic gesture.

Whisper smiled in response, then drooped his head, once again obscuring his face in shadow and pondered, “I don’t expect a response. I think I already know the answer. It’s why I say we have a responsibility to destroy the beast in the castle’s basement. Because we’re just the same as the humans. Our lives are connected.”

One desperately needed to learn more suddenly. What was this about hosts and why did it make his frame crawl? He felt like he already knew the answer, remembering the body that Scylla left upon her defeat.

“This is what I’ve been working on,” Whisper explained, scooching over and directing One’s attention to a display beside him, “Something that can destroy that monster for good and let humanity finally grow beyond the restrictive cyberworld that it currently has.”

On the screen was the image of a stone statue of some massive armored brute. One recognized it, and upon realizing when in his memories that he recognized it from, he shuddered. He never learned its name, but here in this moment, after hearing Reg describe something similar, the pieces clicked together.

That was Vile.

“Until about seven years ago, this beast was frozen by an impenetrable program along with something else. We could never figure out what the other program was, it was too fragmented, but the beast was worrisome. Its power kept us locked in this world, even after its release seven years ago. We then had a fighting chance at least, but it was clearly too strong.

“So we waited. Until recently when the beast was deleted somehow. But soon we found out that it has a restoration point. Here,” Whisper tapped on the screen at the statue, “Is this all making sense to you?”

It made too much sense to One. He bounced his crawler affirmatively.

“This is the weapon I’ve been developing,” Whisper pointed a vine to a place above the statue of a dragon’s head pointing down, “A cannon that can annihilate the program and all its unsettling energy, no matter how many times it tries to revive itself.”

One noted the energy that Whisper mentioned. Globules of something dark that flowed upward from the depths of the room and dripped onto the statue like it was the center of gravity, absorbing it into it. Unsettling was a good descriptor of it. One figured that ‘dark’ was more accurate.

“The rest of Apex doesn’t believe this will work,” Whisper turned away from the screen, “And they may be right. We don’t have enough power.”

He retreated into his cloak for a moment, shoulders shaking ever so slightly, then whipped around to face the crawler.

“They’re planning on luring you and your team here,” he said with urgency, “To fight you and finish you off. The fools.”

He looked at his screen, at his weapon, at his hope.

“They don’t realize that we need to work together. We’re on the same side!” he shook more, until he slowly regained his composure, “But I can’t think of any other way of getting Megaman here, unless I betray Apex completely. And I’m… not ready for that. I… Don’t want to die like Scylla.” He said in a weak voice.

Whisper faced the crawler, kneeling down and scooping it up in a vine, and brought it closer to the screen showing the petrified Vile.

He stared at the screen, watching the dark liquid seep into the stone, then spoke, “Maybe it would be best if you are all brought here to this world. Because, I think the only one who can defeat the beast,” he paused, glancing right at the crawler and at One, emphasizing his words carefully, “is Megaman.”

Chapter Text

Reg stared at the map of the hospital, partially focused and half there. He just had a talk with his mom about what Dr. Mohs talked to him about. She emphasized that Dr. Mohs had Reg's best interest at heart. She didn't ask about those other figures the former Head had seen on the security footage, but when she asked about his friends, there was a look on her face like there was a follow up question, but she thankfully decided against it.

He couldn't bear to lie more; he felt awful already.

His mom was off to get a convenient bandage change. Apparently she'd been healing quite well from her injury and could transition to using assistive walking leg braces pretty soon. It'd be huge for her!

His dad, however.

He tried to refocus on the map, make sense of and mentally build the hospital layout so he could make it to the neurology ward without getting lost. He rubbed the right side of his face wearily.

“I could probably lead you to him,” Silver whispered in his ear.

Reg jumped in place and gave Silver a wild look, “Wait, how?”

They jumped too, “Um! I think you just… Go down and just walk, uh, that way?” they pointed down the hall.

He followed their outstretched tiny arm and corroborated that with his mental map, but ultimately deflated into a big sigh.

“We should probably check on Ellen first,” he reasoned, “Not like my dad’s going anywhere…”

The bitterness in his voice didn’t go unnoticed, but Reg shook it off. It wasn’t good to linger on those thoughts. He couldn’t go on keeping his dad in mind all the time, he already knew that, but ignoring the thought entirely felt worse somehow.

“Your dad?” an even toned voice said.

Reg jumped a second time to see Eni’s usual bored face staring right at him. He let out his tense breath.

“Oh hey Eni,” Reg greeted, straightening himself out, “How are you?”

“I’m fine. I wasn’t injured. I’m more worried about you,” he replied.

Reg blinked, then his expression fell as he mulled over what he needed to explain, “I don’t have any lasting damage. I think it’s a side effect of my EM powers. Stuff hurts but there's no damage.”

Eni silently stared at him, “Is that a good thing?”

Reg jumped a third, shorter time, “Wh-what do you mean?”

“You’re talking about it like it’s a bad thing you don’t have any injuries,” Eni pointed out.

“Oh, it’s just,” Reg started like he knew what was bothering him, “I don’t know. It doesn’t feel right?”

Eni kept up his award winning stare and then restated, “Reg I think it’s a good thing you’re not injured.”

He conceded with a sigh, “Thank, Eni. Have you been able to check in with Ellen?”

“Yes, she was getting treatment when I visited her. I couldn't watch it, but thankfully she didn't need surgery for it,” Eni recalled, “A kind nurse explained the injury to me. I'll try my best to retell it as she had, but body stuff makes me uncomfortable, so I apologize for any pauses I make.”

“Can you walk me to her while you explain?” Reg asked.

Eni nodded and turned down the hall he came from.

Ellen’s ligaments had apparently been torn - all of them on each arm for each finger and thumb. The doctor had apparently never seen anything quite like it, not without accompanying bones being broken. It was like a repetitive strain injury that happened all at once. The doctor was curious about how but apparently Ellen didn’t dare explain anything, just that she was ‘using her hands too much’.

Reg had to wonder to himself about whatever that could possibly mean. He was so focused on his own fight with Scylla that he wasn’t paying attention to much else, but from what it seemed like Ellen and Cometman were dealing with their own thing entirely.

They finally reached the exam room she was in and entered. Ellen was immediately delighted to see her friends, and it looked like she was about to launch herself off the examination table, but she winced when she moved her arms down.

There were heavy duty braces along both of them going from the elbow down to the hands. It looked like they forced the hands into a relaxed position and limited arm movement.

“Uh, hey guys!” she greeted sheepishly, trying and failing to move her arm up to wave.

Reg realized he was staring and shook himself back, “Right, yeah. It’s good to see you’re doing okay!”

“Well… Sorta okay,” she chuckled half-heartedly.

All the sound vanished from the room as everyone’s eyes fell onto Ellen’s arms once again. Only after a bit did Reg see Ellen’s Game-Xross sitting on her lap, closed.

“Do you want it opened?” Reg asked, gesturing to her device.

“Oh! Um!” she shifted about uncomfortably, “Until the doctor comes back, yeah.”

He nodded and flipped it open for her, seeing Cometman’s face looking back at him with a bit of confusion. He laid it back down in Ellen’s lap and her face instantly lit up.

“Hi Cometman hi~!” she cheered, wiggling her arms slightly.

“Yes, Ellen, hello I see you,” the Navi grumbled.

“S-So!” she broached, hesitantly, “Did you overhear what happened to me and my arms…?”

Cometman cast his gaze downward, then closed his eyes solemnly, “I did.”

“Uh, then! It’s good that I don’t have to explain it again!,” she chuckled with no joy.

Silence fell.

“I…” she muttered out hardly above a whisper, “couldn’t feel my hands… I can now!” she blurted out to add, “But just a bit…”

Her arms hovered about like strings were attached to the tops of her hands, unable to land anywhere like every surface was lava. Her usual smile was slowly fading to match the hollow expression in her eyes.

“Ellen…” Cometman consoled, echoing everyone else’s sentiment.

She brightened, though her brows were still knit, “It’ll be fine! The doctors said it should recover quickly with the treatment method they have! I just gotta not use my hands for a-” the sound caught in her throat, “Um…. A while…”

They all knew what that meant. No Netken. Not until she recovered. And Reg figured that even then, Ellen was likely going to push herself the moment she got any movement back in her hands, potentially making it worse.

“Don’t worry Ellen, we’ll take care of things while you recover,” Reg assured, “You just focus on getting better.”

She shot a sour glare at him; evidently that wasn’t the thing to say to her.

“Ellen, it’ll be okay. You’ll be back to normal in no time,” Cometman comforted, “Maybe we can use this time to watch that show you’d been wanting to watch?”

She suddenly looked on the verge of tears and before anyone else could comfort her, the door to the exam room swung open and a woman hustled into the room.

“My baby…!” the tall woman rushed over and embraced Ellen, nearly knocking over the Game-Xross in the process.

“Mom!” Ellen stammered, struggling against the hug, “Let go, you’re hurting my arms…!”

Her mom backed off as quickly as she embraced her. She still held her arms up, fighting a maternal instinct to rush back in and comfort her daughter again.

Ellen’s face was a mess of emotions; a twisted frown mixed with tense brows and shaking eyes.

She put on a smile and looked to her friends, “This is my mom, guys.” she chuckled, shifting her legs around to get her Game-Xross back on her lap.

Her mom turned to look at the boys. She regarded them with a flash of indifference before a lovely expression appeared across her face.

“I’m Mrs. Stream, and you two must be the boys that have been tutoring Ellen. Thank you for that,” she surmised with a sweet tone, “But can you two give us the room for a bit. I’d like to talk to Ellen privately for a moment.”

Reg straightened out, looking between Eni and Ellen’s mom, “Yes, of course!” he answered automatically.

Eni hesitated before dismissing himself with a small nod, with Reg following behind him shortly after.

Immediately upon closing the door Reg got Eni's attention, “Hey do you think Ellen's okay?”

Eni glanced between the door and him, “Well, she’s injured, so no. But you don’t mean that, do you?”

“No,” he shook his head, “She looked… Tense, when her mom came into the room. I hope it’s going alright in there.”

“We should snoop!” Silver declared.

“We should- What!?” he double-took, “No! That’s a private conversation! And we can ask her about it afterwards!”

“If I may interject,” One popped up on a floating screen, “Unfortunately I think Ellen will put on a brave face. This may be our only chance to get a full picture. I think she’ll likely try to put all of this on her shoulders and not let anyone else help her, and we can’t be having that,” he shot a glance at Reg.

“Also I’m going cause you can’t stop me,” Silver shrugged casually.

Reg gave them both a thousand yard glare.

Silver disappeared into the door and One’s floating screen blinked off.

Reg and Eni found a seat close by and let Silver snoop. Reg begrudgingly awaited as patiently as he could, tapping a finger on his arm trying to assuage his worries.

It didn't work. He worried anyway.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Silver appeared in the clinic room, hovering idly. They’d gotten used to no one being able to see them or hear them or interact with them in any meaningful capacity. Totally fine with it. Definitely.

“You know I’m right,” Ellen’s mom said, continuing her and Ellen’s ongoing conversation.

There was a particular tension to the room that Silver found extremely unpleasant. It felt like needles that threatened you at all angles if you dared move the wrong way. Ellen was frozen in place, arms trembling, head hunched and facing her Game-Xross.

Her mom was looking impatient with her arms crossed and tilting stance. During all this time while Silver was observing the two, Ellen hadn’t responded.

“Well?” her mom prompted sharply.

“Yes mom,” Ellen sighed back.

“Good, I expect you to get straight to it once we get home. No more goofing off,” she clarified.

Ellen didn’t respond.

“Because if you don’t get your grades up, I’ll be taking your games,” her mom stressed.

“No!!” Ellen exclaimed, whipping her head up.

“Yes! It’s not up for debate,” her mom dismissed.

“That’s really important to me!” she objected, “Please don’t!”

“Then you better get your grades up!” her mom shook her head, like the answer was obvious.

A look of dread and betrayal fell over Ellen’s face. She huddled her Game-Xross as close as she could to her body and scowled viciously.

Her mom sighed, “Look, I talked to the doctor and it’s going to be weeks before those braces are off and you can use your hands again. This is a great time for you to focus on your studies. I’ll take care of you the whole time, I’ll even be taking time off work to do so. But this is just what happens when you play too much.”

“No it’s not!” Ellen objected again.

“Yes it is!” her mom rebutted, “The doctor told me it was a repetitive strain injury from you playing too much of that video game of yours. I told you that you were playing it too much, but you don’t listen to me and now look at where it’s gotten you. You’ve strained yourself too far and now you’re suffering the consequences.”

Silver had never seen Ellen give a more dead eyed stare. She looked hollow.

“I wish I could help you,” Silver whispered to deaf ears, “But I’m useless here, aren’t I?”

Her mom shook her head and sighed, “Come on, let’s go home.”

She helped her daughter get off the exam table, giving her a side hug as they walked out the door. Silver was baffled by the encounter. One part of them wanted to grab Ellen’s mom and take away that power she had over Ellen while the rest of them just wanted to comfort her.

Silver had to wonder about themself, what was wrong with them?

They followed the two out the room where they had already noticed Reg and Eni.

As predicted, Ellen put on a brave face and smiled at her friends, dismissing any worrying thoughts, and making light jokes. She had to have her mom place her Game-Xross in her pocket; Cometman was doing his best impression of a doll and it must have been quite convincing cause Ellen’s mom didn’t suspect a thing, it looked like.

Silver made their way back over to Reg’s side wordlessly. They’d relay the details of their snooping later, but for now, processing that was… A lot for the little guy.

They all went their separate ways, though, not before promising to reconvene at some point for lunch to talk.

Reg couldn’t mention what Dr. Mohs told him here, and how he lied, it just didn’t seem like the best time.

Ellen shuffled off with her mom, the smile dropping from her face as she entered the bus with her.

Cometman was placed back onto Ellen’s lap for the ride home, as silent and unmoving as the grave.

Eni was feeling rather useless again as a creeping feeling that his friends were drifting apart began to crawl up and haunt his heart.

And One couldn’t help but feel guilt arise as his inaction finally had a consequence. As much as he talked about preventing others from shouldering burdens all on their own, he couldn’t deny his own hypocrisy. What a fool, and for what?

No… Plans were already in motion for him to take care of things on his own without the needless worry of the young ones.

However, he did owe Cometman a visit. He deserved answers, the kind only One could provide.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a red flash, One appeared off to the side in the Game-Xross’s cyberspace. For some reason, Cometman didn’t turn around upon hearing One enter, so One waltzed right up to him and tapped him on his shoulder. He fumbled around oddly and slapped a menu to mute output the speaker.

“What? One, what are you doing here?” he asked, looking over at One with just his head.

“Checking on you,” One replied, eyeing the Navi up and down, “Are you doing ok?”

Cometman returned to looking at the outside screen, showing a scene of a tired looking Ellen staring out the bus window.

“No,” Cometman answered, “But I can’t really talk right now, I’m on screen. I have to ‘pretend to be a toy’, as Ellen describes it.”

One hummed, “I think it’s important that we talk.”

Cometman considered this, clenching and unclenching his fists, then thrust his arm out to the side, “Fine. Drag me off screen.”

“What?” One puzzled.

“Just do it,” Cometman demanded flatly.

One obliged and pulled the bulky Navi over, noticing the odd way Cometman’s legs almost seemed to scramble underneath him. Cometman took note of that and looked away, ashamed for some reason.

“What’s… Going on Cometman?” One questioned, narrowing his eyes.

The Navi’s face squirmed in thought with his eyes moving every which way, until he finally let out, “I don’t know.”

One watched him patiently, waiting for him to find the words he was searching for.

Cometman glanced up, turned his chest, which turned his legs. The way those legs shuffled about unnerved One.

“I can’t move them,” he noted, meeting One’s wary gaze, “Ever since the fight. I can’t walk, can’t feel them either.”

The cyberspace fell silent as One solemnly took in this information with hardly a visible reaction.

“And your frame is defaulting to automatic animations for how to move your legs and keep you upright…” One commented quietly.

“Is there… A way to fix it?” Cometman asked, crossing his arms across his torso.

One traced Cometman’s frame with just his eyes, landing on the Navi marks on his hip. He circled around the Navi, and a worrisome conclusion dawned in his circuits.

“That move you pulled at the end, when the digital space was disappearing, when you-” One started.

“I had to,” Cometman interrupted.

One nodded and spoke clinically, “Yes, whatever that was, I think it saved Ellen’s life. But what I think happened was that you ripped out part of your program to do so. Cometman. You don’t have both your Navi marks on your hips. One of them is blacked out.”

“I…” he raised his head and said quietly, “I don’t?”

One shook his head, “And with no backup data, I don’t think it would be recoverable. You sacrificed a part of yourself to save Ellen. She’s alive because of you.”

The look on Cometman’s face was not a reassuring one. It twisted with worry as Cometman desperately tried to find an answer that satisfied him. He began to curl into himself, tucking his head into his collar to hide his face and began to quiver.

“Hey…” One reached out, but dared not touch him.

When he didn’t respond, One gently touched his arm which made him flinch and stare back at him with wild, tear filled eyes. He rubbed the tears off his face like he was scraping paint off a canvas.

“I had to!” he reiterated forcefully, “She was here and then she wasn’t, but I could tell where she was and that’s just what I had to do! I…”

“It’s ok, I understand,” One consoled. He didn’t understand, not completely. He left space for Cometman to fill with his large emotions.

The Navi clenched a shaking fist and then released it all at once, shaking his head, “I don’t know what happened! There was too much going on in that fight. One, do you remember that thing I described to you earlier today, where I could just tell what Ellen was about to do?”

One nodded.

“Okay imagine that, but it was happening everywhere! It was this overwhelming feeling like… Like Ellen was right there next to me! But that means I put her in danger, One! She can't use her arms because of me! When… When Scylla ripped my maces off…” he stared at his hands, “I could feel Ellen's arms breaking. That… shouldn't be possible.”

But it was. And One knew how. Cometman was blaming himself, but it might as well have been One's fault for not being forthcoming. But then again, he could never have anticipated this strong of a connection, and so unbalanced as well.

“One, do you know what happened?” Cometman looked at him with intense worry.

Perhaps it was time to open up a bit. One closed his eyes, slowly nodding.

“There’s a phenomenon called Synchro,” he explained, “Where Navi’s could increase their reaction timing by sharing senses with their Operator. But I wouldn’t call what you two did today Synchro.”

“...Why?” Cometman asked like he felt like he was supposed to ask.

One raised his head and asked sharply, “How much of that fight was you and your decisions?”

“...What?” he said, barely above a whisper.

One didn’t respond. He let his silence speak volumes.

“I was… There. For the fighting. I helped move a bit to dodge and attack,” Cometman curled back into himself, “But…”

“But Ellen did most of it, didn’t she?” One concluded, “She was the one in control and gave it her everything, almost losing herself in the process.”

Cometman shuddered, “So it was my fault. I should’ve done more.”

“It’s her fault too,” One snapped evenly, “She dove head first into something that made her feel more powerful and didn’t think of the consequences. Although, how could she have known? Nothing like that has been discussed in a century, and even then it was mostly as hard to verify rumors.”

“...How do you know so much, One?” Cometman looked up, eyes narrowed at him.

“...I just do,” he stated. It had to do for an explanation.

There was a long pause as One looked solemnly at the Navi, many words left unsaid behind an obstinate visage. Cometman turned away, unable to bend steel with just a gaze.

“Is there any way to fix this?” Cometman asked, starting at the floor, “Please. You know something, don’t you?”

One contemplated for a moment, then articulated his thoughts carefully, “Your code, from what I was able to see when Eni looked at it earlier today, is disorganized. What this means is that what was already difficult to work with before would be more difficult to work with now that it’s damaged. Eni might be able to pull code from elsewhere, but there’s no telling if it would work properly with yours-”

Cometman raised a hand, “It’s fine.”

He gave a pained smile.

“Maybe it would be good to not fight for a bit,” he concluded, slowly lowering his hand.

“But-”

“I think… I just want to enjoy my time with Ellen and all of our friends,” he said, tone trembling at the edges, “We almost lost her today. I don’t want to lose her again.”

One’s eyes shook as he watched his friend crumble to a shell of his former self. It was unacceptable. To fight against this loss was only natural, and One was tired of sitting back and letting the people he had opened his heart to lose things precious to them. He clenched his fists so hard they shook.

“Tell Ellen about this,” One demanded so sternly that it scared Cometman briefly, “She needs to know. I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to, but do not hide this from Ellen.”

“I… I will,” Cometman conceded, “And please don’t tell anyone else, not yet. It’s not like Ellen can operate me right now anyways.”

He let out a weak chuckle and One was immediately struck with the uncanny feeling that every one of them, every single one of them, had so much in common. He could see how harmful it was to hide your weaknesses away, but understood the need to hide them.

He needed to help them and how incredibly selfish of him to do so, as it helped himself.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at home, Reg collapsed onto his bed and grabbed at the sheet. He didn’t muster the courage to see his dad today at the hospital, it was too much. Especially after hearing what Silver had told him about what was going on with Ellen.

He couldn’t help blaming himself for what happened today, even though logically it wasn’t his fault at all. It was sheer luck that they survived and he knew it. And now what? Stronger, more powerful viruses, escalating the violence until wanton destruction tore through Spacity razing it to the ground?

Joining DART seemed like a better and better idea by the minute, but the thought felt like poison to his stomach. The faster they finished off Apex the faster he could move on with his life.

So that was that. All that Reg had to do was his job. The responsibility that was given to him by Lowe that he had to fulfil. Just stop Apex and everything would be fine.

And yet.

That gentle smile that Scylla had for her final moments came to mind. They weren’t enemies there. For that fleeting moment they understood each other and that was real. Reg would be lying to himself more if he denied the fact that he wanted to see a world where viruses could live in peace with humanity.

What could he even do? DART would be coming by any day to gently coerce him into joining them anyways. This was already decided for him and there was no way he could fight a whole system.

His feelings didn’t matter on this. For the sake of humanity he had to eradicate all viruses.

He let out a muffled laugh into his sheets. He knew how Ciel Hikari felt. And he felt like crying.

There was nothing he could do. No one to help him. He couldn’t call upon-

A passing recollection came to him. There was someone he could call.

He lifted his head, considering this. Silver was huddled up next to him, keeping a watchful eye over him. They were a good friend, always willing to listen, but this wasn’t the kind of problem they could help him with.

“Silver,” Reg started, “You remember that Roll person that we met, the first day we came to Earth?”

They gasped, “That lady who gave you that card! The one that said to call her and then you never did!!”

He frowned but didn’t argue. He pulled himself up off the bed and crawled back down his loft stairs. Somewhere on his desk he put that card, maybe buried underneath stationary or filed away…

He pulled it out of an organizer and flipped it all around. It just had her name and number on it, just the same as before.

But now that he had it in his hands, he wasn’t sure if he should call her. It was really late in the day at this point, and it had been so long since he first met her, he didn’t want to be a bother.

“Call her!!” Silver growled and appeared right before him, looking furious, “Voicemail exists!!”

Reg blinked, and then giggled into a smile, “Right!”

Silver gave him a nod of approval and a victorious arm raise.

He entered the number without any delay and as the mobile rang he was suddenly abundantly aware that he had no idea what to say. Dread filled him as every word he had ever learned completely escaped him.

“Hello, this is Roll Hikari, who am I speaking with?” a tired sounding woman answered.

“Ah! Um! Reg! Garret! Hey I-” he stumbled over his words and his legs. He needed to remember what a sentence was. Stat.

“Reg Garret?” she repeated incredulously, “Yes, right, of course. Thank you for calling, how are you?” there was concern in her voice.

“I’m-!” he almost defaulted to a reassuring response, “I’m in a bit of a bind actually.”

There was a long pause.

“Reg. I’m aware of what happened,” she admitted with a sigh, “My brother was informed of it when DART reached out to him today.”

“Oh.”

“Yes,” she sighed deeply, “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m… Okay, physically,” he responded, flopping into his desk seat.

Everything else about him felt like a house of cards, ready to fold at the slightest poke.

“That’s good,” she punctuated. Reg could easily imagine her nodding there.

“Reg, are you aware DART is looking to recruit you?” she asked.

Reg ran his hand through his hair, “Yeah. I was told.”

“Do you want to take them up on their offer?” she inquired, tension raising in her voice.

“I…” Reg considered lying, then shook his head, “I don’t want to. But I’m going to have to, aren’t I?”

“You always have a choice,” she declared, “But if I’m being honest, it might be good to accept it with some demands. You are a minor and a contract with you will need to be overseen by your legal guardian. They can help put pressure on DART to ensure you’re treated fairly. If I were you, I’d demand everything they were worth.”

Reg fell back into the chair, staring up at his ceiling, then lurched forward, “Wait, has DART been going around telling people I’m Megaman? Cause that’s kinda what you implied…?”

“No, they just told my brother that they know who the ‘other Megaman’ was and that they were ‘going to recruit him’. They sounded pretty sure of themselves. If I’m being honest, Reg, I suspected that I knew who you were the moment I saw you. Everything else was just confirmation,” she explained.

Why did everyone suddenly know who he was?

“Great,” he scrubbed his face and grumbled, “This day is going great.”

“Reg, if you do end up signing a contract with DART, I can help you,” she assured, “My brother is more than likely going to be joining their department and wherever he goes, I go. You won’t be alone.”

“Is DART really that scary?” he had to wonder aloud, “I mean, I don’t want to join because I like how things are at the moment, but the way you and Dr. Mohs keep talking about DART makes me think it’s bad or something.”

Roll clicked her tongue, “It’s not bad. It’s just not something I want to see a kid get wrapped up in.”

“Well I’m not a kid,” he asserted with little emotion, “I’m fifteen.”

“Right,” she stated sternly, “Reg. You’re young. You should be busy figuring out what you want to do in life and defining yourself.”

What did that even mean? He knew who he was and what he wanted to do. This DART and Apex stuff was just a little roadblock. He just needed to push past it and then he’d be free.

“It’ll be fine,” he assured, “Once this is all cleared up, I don’t have to stay with DART.”

“Uh huh, you say that,” she rolled her eyes with her voice.

“Look, I’m old enough to make some decisions for myself! I want to help protect people and DART does that, does it not?” he reasoned sharply.

“Yes, that is what DART does. They deal with virus attacks and only virus attacks,” she clarified.

“Then I should join them,” he concluded bitterly.

“Okay,” Roll soothed, “This is ultimately your decision, young Mr. Garret, but sleep on it. Keep me informed.”

Reg nodded to himself, “Thanks. I will,” he slumped back in his chair with a sigh, “Thank you for talking with me, Miss Hikari. I know it’s late.”

“Please call me by my first name,” she grumbled, though it sounded like she was smiling, “And you’re welcome.”

“Oh, then thank you, Roll,” he repeated with a smile.

“Of course,” she replied pleasantly, “Have a good evening, young Mr. Garret. Get some rest. I’ll talk to you whenever you’re ready.”

“R-Right,” he gulped, feeling the pressure, “Good night Roll. You get some rest too.”

There was a noticeable pause, “I will. Good night Reg.”

And with that she hung up.

Reg held his mobile and watched it return to his home screen as the call ended. He turned to Silver and then stared up at the ceiling.

He just needed to defeat Apex and then he’d be free.

He just needed to be patient.

Something roiled in his stomach.

Chapter Text

Ellen fretted uselessly in her chair; her lack of usable hands was super annoying, but what made it all worse was that she could technically use them but with a great deal of pain that ‘would slow her recovery’ if she pushed herself. Her mom had babied her all evening and made sure to set up her computer with a program that allowed her to use her eyes as a mouse. And study material. Of course.

Using her computer with just her eyes took so long, same with voice commands. If only the thing knew that she wanted to watch Netken videos, or play Netken, but somehow could predict what she was going to input and do it itself.

She looked over at her Navi. He'd been strangely quiet the whole time. Though she had been with her mom the entire time so it was not like he could say anything, but now that they were finally alone…

“Hey Cometman, you doing ok?” she asked cautiously.

He didn't answer and instead stared at some point in a horizon only he saw with unnerving stillness.

“Cometman…?” she asked again, quieter this time.

“Huh?” he blinked, looking around, “Sorry, did you say something?”

That struck her as odd. The software she was using for voice control for her computer was pretty much always paying attention, sometimes prompting accidentally when the speech recognition interpreted her mumblings as a request. Was Cometman not a program? That would be silly 'cause of course he was, but, maybe, that meant he was more…

“Ellen?” he prodded, giving her a concerned look.

“Wha-!” Ellen squeaked, “Oh, sorry I was thinking about things.”

“Yeah, I have been too,” he mumbled, his voice trailing off at the end.

She stared at him curiously. He was standing there on the character selection screen like he always had been ever since Ellen made him for Netken, but now his face moved and was staring back at her. She didn’t want anything to happen to that face, or this feeling of just being here, existing with him. She had only known him for a week and a half and already she couldn’t imagine her life without him.

He smirked, “Did you wanna talk about it?”

Ellen jumped in her seat a little, wincing briefly from the movement, “Um! Yeah… Actually.”

Is this what having a Navi was like? Is this why people mourned the Net Reset so much? It was so much more different than what she had ever imagined. It wasn’t better than she imagined – she had a pretty wild brand of optimism – and it certainly wasn’t worse, just different. It was more like… Having a sibling, or at least what she imagined having one would be like given she was an only child. It was… nice.

Cometman chuckled, “Well, are you going to say something?”

Her cheeks turned red, “I-I was going to!! I just got a lot on my mind! I don’t really know… Where to start…”

“The fight-”

“Right, the fight!!” she blurted, “What was up with that!? I don't know what happened, I was just doing my thing and as the fight went on I just kept getting better and faster, I was really in the zone! I-” She caught herself, her mind suddenly reeling as she recalled the events, “Oh man, what happened there…?”

Cometman's gaze dropped and bounced around briefly before looking back up with a spark of conviction, “I was able to chat with One about that on the bus ride back. He said it might be something called ‘Synchro’, have you ever heard of it?”

She shook her head, then furrowed her brows as she pursed her lips, giving the word a long thought. She went to move her arms, immediately regretted it, and then took a painstakingly long amount of time to navigate to the search and input her question. Sure she would probably get faster at it as time went on, but she didn’t want to get faster cause that’d mean she’d been in her arm braces for too long!

The pages she ended up finding through her digging ended up not explaining much. All the documentation about whatever ‘Synchro’ was ended up being ancient stuff that seemed mostly apocryphal. Just some notes about some people talking about sometimes being somewhat faster and somehow more in tune with their Navi. Ellen would’ve discounted the whole thing as hearsay if not for the fact that it was Cometman bringing it up (who had heard it from One of all things?).

“I mean, maybe, but…” she mumbled.

“But it doesn’t explain it all, yeah?” Cometman concluded with a shrug.

“Dude I felt your maces get ripped out of your arms. Like. I don’t know if this is it, but…”

She looked over at her Navi and caught a glimpse of a sudden look of devastation on his face before he quickly tried to hide it with a more neutral expression. Ellen cast her gaze to her arms, shameful for some reason.

“Sorry,” she blurted weakly.

“If anyone should be apologizing, it's me,” he muttered assuredly.

She went to question him but the look on his face gave her pause. His fists were clenched and his brows furrowed, but he couldn't look her in the eyes. He looked so sure and yet… avoidant. Maybe it'd be better to move on from this subject and talk about something else. Distract them from this horror.

Nonetheless, she felt partially to blame for this. Beyond the blame her mother had put on her.

“If I was better-”

“Don't,” he sharply interjected.

She clammed up immediately, which made him quickly turn away into his collar.

She didn't want to dodge this, but it was clear that Cometman was scared. She wouldn't be a very good NetOp if she made her Navi feel bad, right?

No… She could figure this out herself.

She thought back to that fight. Her heart was racing and all other thoughts had fallen by the wayside. There was only the fight in front of her eyes. It had felt… bizarrely up close in retrospect, but everything worked fine so she didn't question it.

Then the whole arm breaking thing, and then… it was a blur. Emotions were drained and the world felt like a dream. Then it was dark, and then it wasn't.

Like a light switch she was brought back; everything flashing with such loud clarity that it was painful to remember. She couldn't recall why, but she knew Cometman had done something.

“Hey, Cometman,” she said gently, “Tell me what happened. Please.”

He looked up at her as the wave of devastation returned to his face and retreated as he seemed to clench his entire body. He shook it off, but maintained his tense stance, slowly lifting his head to match Ellen's gaze.

“You… weren't breathing,” he said in a low, but clear voice. He opened his mouth to continue but fell back into his collar – the damage was done and it was too much to bear.

Ellen's face went pale and she froze in place. Her breath quickened, which was the only thing that was telling her she was alive right now as everything else around her seemed to slip away.

“You-you can't mean I died, that'd be silly!” she laughed mirthlessly, “No one's died from a Netbattle!”

She quickly glanced at the page she had on Synchro, assuring herself with incomplete information. But it all made sense, didn't it?

“But then…” she trailed off, looking to her Navi for answers.

“I think I saved you, though I'm not really sure how,” he picked up where she left off, “I…”

He raised a fist and then opened it slowly, “I think I used up part of myself to do that.”

He gestured to one of the emblems at his hip.

“That's-! That’s crazy! How is that even possible!?” she exclaimed.

“I don't know, but it worked didn't it!?” he shouted back.

Ellen faltered. This was what he was scared of.

“Sorry,” he quickly apologized.

She shook her head, “No, it's ok, I get it. Um… Thank you for that.”

Her words didn't improve his mood. He still looked devastated and was biting his lip like he was preventing more words from spilling out.

The two sat in silence for what seemed like ages until Cometman delicately broached what was on the forefront of his thoughts.

“There's… More to it,” he explained, saying every word like they weighed a great deal, “When I said I ‘used up part of myself’, what I meant was that I'm no longer able to use my legs.”

The uncomfortable silence redoubled.

“You've gotta be kidding me…” Ellen murmured in disbelief, and then, breathlessly, stammered out, “What…?”

“I'm sorry, but,” he held his tongue, evidently the words were too much to voice.

What a fool she had been. Her recklessness brought this much pain.

“Why are you saying sorry?” she asked, feeling self pity like never before.

“Because that means you might not be able to play Netken anymore.”

She sputtered out a laugh, “That's what you're worried about!? Cometman, you saved my life! You did what you had to, yeah?”

He was taken aback, stunned into silence.

“And… You're alive too so~o…” she noted with pursed lips, “Netken's not that important.”

“B-but I feel useless,” he admitted.

Ellen pouted, her brows knitting an intense sweater of an expression as she considered this.

“Well, you're not useless, for starters,” she muttered, “Bu~ut I think we can easily check if that is in fact the case.”

She scooched forward, angling her dangling fingers over her Game-Xross controller, carefully navigating the menus like she was the crane in a crane game until she got to the practice arena.

“Don't tell my mom that I'm using my hands,” she teased and stuck her tongue out slightly.

“Wouldn't dream of it,” he grumbled.

She moved the joystick forward and to both of their surprise, Cometman started moving. He flailed his arms about, yet continued to maintain balance. It took a while for it all to feel natural, but they both eventually got the swing of things.

Ellen chuckled, “Looks like I'll be your legs from now on!”

“And I'll be your arms,” he replied with a chuckle of his own, holding up a fist. Pausing. And then quickly looking away, “That doesn't really work but-”

“It’s the sentiment that counts,” she finished.

They both paused to look at each other, each struck with an uncanny feeling that the borders of the screen that separated them weren't as solid as they appeared.

“Ellen,” the voice of her mother cut through as she opened the bedroom door, “You better be studying in here.”

“Yes mom!” Ellen straightened out instantly while Cometman froze into the best neutral expression he could muster.

Her mother glared at her daughter's monitor, noting the wall of text and then hummed quietly as she exited the room, leaving the door open, “Keep it up. If you don't do well on your next test, I will be taking that game of yours from you.”

“Yes… Mom,” Ellen replied vacantly, holding her breath as she waited to hear the sound of her mother closing the door to her own room.

With the slightly distant sound of a door closing, Ellen exhaled, and then gave her Navi a small smile.

He gave a smile of his own, no more words needing to be said.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The modern cyberworld was a shell of its former glory. Barebones black void that stretched in every direction. It could barely be considered one. But this was the world that the humans had needed, and it would be foolish for One to hold it against them.

One had suggested Whisper come to this place with hopes to communicate easier (and covertly try to figure out how the viruses traveled). But despite the removal of threats that once loomed over Whisper’s head, he still snapped like a wild animal.

“I don’t think I can do that,” Whisper replied sharply.

“Please,” One entreated, “Consider it.”

“What is there to consider!?” Whisper shot back, “That I help your so-called Navi friend? And for what!?”

Although obscured, One could tell that Whisper’s face was prickled with rage.

Maybe this was a mistake. Making friends with someone who all of humanity had decided was an enemy was never going to be easy, but Whisper’s will was making this nearly impossible.

“I said I would help with your Dragon Canon-”

“You’ve done nothing but give me empty promises,” Whisper seethed, “The sleeping beast’s recovery draws closer and you want me to help with your foolish friend!? You won't even tell me why!”

They were all on the same side, One had to remind himself, even with one as difficult to work with as Whisper, they were all on the same side.

One held up a hand, “I’m sorry. I thought it would be a good way to show an effort of good faith on your part so that the humans trust you.”

“One. The humans aren’t going to trust me,” Whisper stated bluntly.

“Have you tried-”

“I don’t need to try and the fact that you continue to insist that I do is an insult to me!” he hissed.

“But, they aren’t your enemy,” One probed.

Whisper hesitated, caught in a trap.

“They don’t know…” he conceded, lowering the brim of his leaf over his face, “That I’m not their enemy. They’ve decided this and I don’t have the power to disprove them.”

He trembled, his cloak rustling as he fought an inner frustration.

One cast his gaze upward at the endless, empty expanse. He knew that there were good humans out there that would be willing to trust Whisper, he in fact knew three of them! Pressing the matter was going to undo all of One's hard work with building that initial trust, and if he was being honest, Whisper's caution wasn't completely unfounded.

“I invited you here today because I don't know if we will be able to meet like this again,” One admitted, “The humans are building up their defenses and it might be dangerous for you to connect to the outer net.”

Whisper's brim lifted just enough to reveal his eye, and then hide it once more, swiftly.

One took that as acknowledgment and continued, “I will do all that I can to research digital weapons to assist you in powering your Dragon Canon, but it will have to be through my crawler.”

Whisper remained motionless for a tense moment, then words trickled out of him, “Your friend… The large green one. He's strong, isn't he?”

“Among the strongest,” One claimed proudly.

Whisper nodded to himself, “I'll… do what I can. We need all the strength we can get to fight the beast. But you need to tell me what's wrong so I can do something about it.”

What was adding another betrayal to the pile going to do?

“There's a disconnect between the functions he calls to move and his actual movements,” One stated.

“...I see,” Whisper muttered, “I might be able to do something about that, actually.”

“Fantastic! I had a feeling you would know something!” One beamed.

“...What's that supposed to mean?” Whisper narrowed his eyes.

“You're intelligent!” One chirped, then sincerely followed up with, “And you know how to apply your intelligence to many situations. You also care. Deeply. So much that you risk betraying those close to you. That's why I've stuck around for as long as I have. I believe in your work, and in you. We're all on the same team here, you know?”

The wide brim of Whisper's leaf hat shot downward, then slowly raised until just his eyes peeked out, evidently shuffling under his cloak.

“You don't know that…” Whisper mumbled.

“Wha~at? My friend, I think it's admirable that you're trying to do the right thing!” One cajoled knowingly.

Whisper recoiled and shuffled in his cloak even more, “Sh-shut up. And we're not friends…”

“What would you call us then?”

“Associates. Partners.”

One held his chin, “Partners!? So you consider us that close?”

“Sh-shut up!” Whisper bristled, immediately summoning a white portal and bolting out of there in a shower of long pillars of pixels.

One observed the retreat, confirming some suspicions, and nodded to himself, satisfied. But the sting of betrayal still ate away at his processes.

He prepared himself to beg for forgiveness once everything turned out alright in the end. It had to turn out alright. It had to.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Reg yawned widely as he finally made it to Ellen’s apartment. The previous night gave him little rest as he and his mother stayed up making a plan for when DART inevitably contacted them. Things to say, things to demand, what to look out for. Just thinking about it kept him up last night to unreasonable hours.

He knocked on the door, paused, double checked that he got the right room, and midway through panicking to check his mobile to verify the door opened, revealing Ellen’s mom staring back at him.

He could’ve sworn she flashed a look of disapproval before immediately pivoting to a charming and pleasant smile.

“Oh, welcome, Reg. The others are in the living room,” she explained, opening the door further and ushering him in, “Do you want anything to drink?”

He turned down her offer and entered the apartment, suddenly remembering how cramped the space was. Ellen sat at the couch, arm braces still on and everything, though in a simple T-shirt as it was evidently a hassle to wear her characteristic jacket with those things. Eni sat at the nearby armchair with half a dozen floating screens that presumably had study material on them.

“I’ll be in my room working if you need anything,” Ellen’s mom dismissed herself curtly, “Lunch will be in a couple of hours. I’ll be making everyone sandwiches.”

“Okay, bye mom,” Ellen called back, a bit grumpily.

With a nod she exited the living room, leaving the teens to themselves.

Reg walked up behind the couch where Ellen sat, sleepily waving to his two friends.

“Good morning heroic gang!” Silver declared cheerily, to which only Eni acknowledged with a double take.

“What. What’s going on?” Ellen groused.

“Oh, Silver says hi too,” Reg answered.

“Ugh, shoot!” she growled, “I can’t put my visualizer on to hear my cool friend Silver anymore! This is the worst!”

Silver gasped, “This is the worst tragedy to happen to anyone ever.”

Reg chuckled, “I can go get them, if that’s alright?”

“No-! Ah-!” she faltered, struggling to move around despite her restraints, “Fine. They’re on my desk in my room, but… Don’t look at my room, it's a total mess.”

He walked over to Ellen’s room, not expecting much, and finding way more than he could ever imagine. Clothes were thrown about all over the shelving and the walkway, including her jacket that looked like it had been unceremoniously tossed onto the bed. He carefully maneuvered around the mess, found the visualizer in its charging pedestal, and turned back the way he came, face to face with the wall of posters and teenage quality drawings pinned straight onto the wall. And one that stood out with its big green armor and yellow accents.

That was right, wasn’t it? Cometman was a video game character that Ellen had made when she was a kid. And then he was suddenly, inexplicably, a real Navi. They never really… figured out how. Did they?

He scrambled out of the room, avoiding the worst of it and handed the visualizer over to Ellen, clicking them on for her and putting them on her face.

“I’m sorry you’re having to do all this for me,” Ellen sighed, shifting in her seat slightly, “I can’t move my arms!! This is the worst thing. Ever.”

“I can think of worse things,” Cometman grumbled from her Game-Xross on her lap.

She pouted and kicked her feet a bit, “Thank you for saving me, Cometman.”

“Oh, so you guys talked about that,” Reg noted, taking the seat next to her.

“Yeah…” she continued to pout and kick.

“I’m glad you’re alive as well, Ellen,” Eni stated, setting aside the study material.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m alive,”

“And you sound so happy about it,” Silver chuckled.

Ellen growled, “Well yeah I am it’s just-!” she went to move her arms and winced and recoiled all over.

The two boys lurched to help her before pulling away since there wasn’t much they could actually do to assist her.

“How long is it going to be?” Reg asked apprehensively, like Ellen was going to burst into flames from him acknowledging her frustrations.

“Like a whole month,” she sighed, letting her head fall onto the back of the couch, “Over a month.” she corrected.

Ellen being out of commission for a whole month… That meant none of her or Cometman’s netbattling skills would be available for any battle with Apex for an extremely long time, and with the frequency of which they’ve been attacking…

DART’s incoming offer seemed more and more reasonable as time progressed.

“There are ways to shorten that time,” Eni mentioned as he pulled up another floating screen.

“What!?” Ellen sprang forward, regrettably, though it didn’t stop her, “Well don’t leave us in the dark man! I wanna hear them!”

Eni blinked and nodded, taking a quick glance at the screen he had before him, “There’s a more intensive treatment that can cut recovery times by a factor of ten. So instead of forty days-”

“It’d be FOUR!?” she interrupted, winced in pain and regret for her volume, then quietly repeated, “Four??”

Eni nodded again, “Yes. However it’s not covered with the public plan and therefore requires a lot out-of-pocket. If it’s alright with you, I could speak with my moms and see if we can get them to pay for it.”

Reg noted the look on Eni’s face at that moment. It was the same stone faced expression, but he stared directly at Ellen without a molecule of hesitation. He looked absolutely ready to fight whatever battle necessary to get Ellen that treatment.

“Thanks but,” Ellen’s eyes fell to the floor, “It won’t work. It’d have to be approved by my mom.”

“What!? Approved? Shouldn’t your mom want you to get better faster?” Reg questioned, flabbergasted.

Ellen didn’t move and her voice became distant, “She doesn’t. She thinks this is a great opportunity for me to study. If I heal faster, I bet she thinks I’ll just go straight back to Netken. She’s not wrong. And besides, it’s not really a money issue.”

Her voice was quiet by the end of it, barely above a whisper, but it had a bitterness to it that was unmistakable.

Reg and Eni both couldn’t believe what they were hearing, and yet, after what they had heard from Silver’s snooping yesterday, it made sense. Well, most of it.

“It’s not really a money issue?” Reg repeated, hoping for clarification.

Ellen nodded a bit, then shifted about like she was tossing the thought around in her head.

“She’s not poor,” Ellen landed on, “She works for a big financial institution in upper management something. She’s been saving her money to send me to a private college. Well, at least, that’s what she says.”

There was more to this, Reg was sure, but he couldn’t press her on this. What would she even say if he did!? Instead he fumed internally; the injustice of it all eating away at him.

“But it’s fine!” she lifted her head with a big smile, “I’m fine, I’m alive! I’m grateful for all that…”

Reg grimaced. One was right, she did like to put on a brave face and not say anything.

“Ellen…” Silver spoke up gently, “You can talk about the stuff that’s bothering you. I promise, we won’t judge you.” They floated over, next to her shoulder, “We’re your friends, and we want to help you, even if it’s just listening to your pain. Please.”

“What? I’m not…” Ellen muttered, eyes darting between everyone’s concerned faces.

She looked down at her Game-Xross and Cometman, hoping he had something for this. He gave her a reassuring look and gestured to the others in the room with a quick tilt of his head.

“Look, I don’t want to talk about it…” she maintained, but faltered as she caught sight of Silver’s large, powerful eyes.

She let out a whimper of defeat and sighed, “Alright, alright. Fine, I’ll tell.”

She leaned back to double check that her mom’s room was closed, then leaned back into the conversation with gusto, “So my mom doesn’t like Netken, doesn’t like me playing it and everything. What she really wants is for me to decide a more lucrative career and do that instead. But I like Netken. I’m good at Netken. I could easily and happily live my life in some cheap apartment, cashing in government checks each month if that meant I could be more involved with the Netken community and go to tournaments more often. There’s cash prizes for those so it’s not like it doesn’t make any money!”

Reg nodded along, this all seemed like what he expected, though he held his tongue about also wanting Ellen to maybe have a more stable back-up plan.

“But it’s… more than that, you know?” she chewed her cheek and swirled the words around in her mouth, “She doesn’t really listen to me… I tell her what I want for my birthday and she gets me something else. Something she wants me to have. She never likes any of the clothes I pick out for myself. She yells at me when I fail a test. It’s like she’s got this idea of me that she likes, but she doesn’t like… Me.”

The silence that followed that was… heavy. Reg was baffled by the concept of a parent that didn’t devote everything to their child. He of course heard of them existing in theory, but hearing about it up close and seeing the real damage it did to his friend burned a hole in his heart that made him want to storm into her mom’s room right then and there and berate her down to her bones.

“I do not like your mother,” Eni enunciated very clearly.

“Yeah, what did you want for your birthday? We can get it for you,” Reg added eagerly.

Ellen chuckled, “It’s not really important-”

“Yes it is!” he interrupted immediately, making sure to keep his voice down, “You were the one that was so insistent on making sure that I had a birthday party. This isn’t that different, is it?”

“Yeah but-” she pouted with a sour face before it fell all at once, “Fine. One year I wanted a cool figure of Zpiral from the show Zpiral a~and instead my mom got me a book on etiquette. Like can you believe her?? Ugh, anyways, it’s not that big of a deal cause I’m not that big of a fan of Zprial anymore and y’all’s friendship and Cometman being real is good enough for me.”

A gentle smile found its way on Reg’s face, then he immediately turned to Eni with a serious look on, “How much are Zprial figures.”

“No-!” she sputtered, kicking Reg as he chuckled and held up his leg to block her blows.

“About 2000 Zenny. Minus shipping,” Eni stated.

“Nooo!” she hissed, kicking more dramatically with a big grin on.

Cometman fell out of her lap and Reg rushed to grab it before it hit the ground, scooping it deftly. He pulled himself back up to find Ellen struggling to keep a yelp of pain contained. It passed, but the sigh she released didn’t assuage any worries.

“I’ll… See what I can do with talking to my mom about getting me that way better treatment,” she considered, “There’s stuff I can do, promises I can make…”

“You shouldn’t have to,” Cometman groused.

“Yeah, but she’s my mom, not much I can do there,” she huffed.

Reg was fed up with this woman he’s only met twice, “My mom could adopt you, I don’t know!”

Ellen snickered, “Dude what? No, my mom’s not that bad.”

Reg was crestfallen over making such an awkward faux pas. Could he be any weirder!?

“I think Reg’s mom is better,” Eni surmised.

“I think Reg’s mom could beat your mom!” Silver chirped.

“Guys…” she smiled genuinely and very notably, not arguing.

“But honestly, it does sound like we should get to studying,” Reg suggested, “Let’s get you some grades that’ll make your mom get off your back.”

“And no cheating,” Cometman added.

Ellen and Silver booed while Eni ignored them and began going over the material. To her credit, she was paying attention, though it did help that Cometman continued to put her back on track at any point she got distracted. Reg found himself learning about the subject as well; something about formulating the material into a way that could be explained helped him wrap his head about it and understand it. He felt like he could probably be a teacher some day!

The three of them continued into lunch time with Ellen’s mom graciously providing ham and cheese sandwiches at the promised time. They were alright.

But Reg couldn’t help feeling that this was all just a fleeting moment and not an example of many days to come. A knot formed in his stomach as he felt his mobile buzz in his pocket. It was his mom and she had news about DART.

It was time.