Back! Back you lynching mobs! I swear I didn't mean to keep this story without an update for almost a year! Too much going on ever since I last updated! Writer's block, the college work, then that winter vacation to Denver, I didn't mean to slack off! But here it is, the ninth chapter! It's another long read to compensate almost a year of no updates. Enjoy!

"Rex!"

Kaden didn't know where he was, but wherever he was he's there with Rex. The young man looked in horror as his NetNavi laid on his hands and knees in front of him, his shoulder pads cracked and broken and the upper left of his head was horribly burned. He was breathing heavily and was in deep pain, he couldn't take such agony.

"Huff…Huff…" Rex breathed heavily from the agony. "It burns…Hurts so much…"

"Don't move, Rex!" Kaden advised to his NetNavi. "I'll get some help and then we'll-" A sudden pain interrupted him. His eyes widened as the pain intensified on the upper left of his head, and soon enough blood started trickling down his head. "Aaah…Aaaagh!" He yelled in agony as he clutched his wound. When did he…?

"It hurts…" Rex winced again, and slowly his body began to disintegrate. He was de-rezzing, another way to refer to deletion.

"Rex!" Kaden shouted in horror as he witnesses his Navi slowly dying. Clutching his wound with one hand he reaches out toward Rex with his others. "Hang in there! Don't go! Rex! Rex!"

But there was nothing that could be done, Rex was gone…

"REEEEEEEEX!"

Kaden woke up in a sweat and sat up, his hand reaching out toward nothing. He stared at nothing until he snapped out of it and realized it was only just a dream. "It was just a dream…"

But something was not right; he couldn't see anything through his right eye. Suddenly he felt a sudden pain to his head and he immediately dropped back on his bed, clutching his head from the huge pain. He rubbed himself and realized he had some bandages around his head and over his right eye. What happened to him…?

""Kaden! Kaden!""

Kaden blinked and smiled. Rex! He looked to his left and beamed to see his PET on the night desk next to his bed, the screen aiming toward him and Rex safe and sound inside looking happily at him. ""Thank goodness you're finally awake! I was worried sick about you!""

Kaden stared at his Navi. Worried about him? Now that he thinks about it, what did happened to him? All he remembered was battling against Kiraa and her Navi, Grayscale. The rest was a blank. "Rex…" Kaden began as he fingered the bandages around his head. "What happened?"

Rex blinked at his Operator. ""You mean you don't remember? Kaden, we were battling against Grayscale and then something happened that made me incredibly powerful! But after the battle was over I couldn't get through to you. They told me you got hurt and passed out. They took you out of SciLab and to the hospital.""

That explains the bandages. "So that's what happened…" Kaden tried to think back, but the farthest he can remember was when Rex was severely damaged by Grayscale, nothing else after that. "But I don't remember much of anything; I don't really remember how I got hurt."

""It's funny."" Kaden looked back to his PET to Rex. The Sharptooth Navi was thinking back and scratching his cheek. ""When I suddenly powered up and defeated Grayscale, I felt something. I don't know from where that extra power came from but I felt like someone was there with me giving me his strength…"" Rex then moved his paw to his chest, feeling his heartbeat. ""I felt like you were there with me, Kaden, helping me fight against Grayscale. Your courage, your spirit, your strength…""

"My…Strength?" How could that be? He's in the real world and Rex's in the Cyber World, how could he have felt him through the PET? "Well, now that you mention it…" Kaden began to remember something. "I kind of felt the same thing before I blacked out."

Rex was surprised upon hearing this. ""You did?""

"Yeah. I know it's silly, but I kind of felt like I was with you too. Like I was standing right next to you and helping you stand up from that heavy damage."

""How weird. Maybe it was just the hype of the battle that made us feel like that.""

"Yeah, that makes sense! I mean, I sure know I was mega hyped during that battle! I mean it was awesome! For a moment there I thought we were going to lose!"

""Still, I can't help but feel what happened was unnatural. You know, the whole spontaneous power up I received.""

"Who cares? We kicked that Grayscale's butt!"

""Kaden…"" Rex was a bit worried about this. To suddenly out of nowhere attain incredible power and defeat Grayscale with one shot, there has to be something more to it. Rex began to think about it until it hit him. Back then, Grayscale underwent through something very similar to what he went through. It was something between her and Kiraa, he remembered how those two concentrated and then…

""Full Synchro…?"" Rex whispered, recalling what Kiraa shouted before Grayscale increased in power.

Hours after waking up the doctors of the Garden City Hospital kept checking Kaden's status and health for any other injuries and keeping tabs on his recovery. He was only there for a few hours before the doctor decided to let him leave, seeing his recovery complete.

Kaden's friends were there ever since he woke up, keeping him company and pulling jokes about Kaden having a thick skull at his injury's expense. Typical, but that's how Kaden loves his friends.

Now, Kaden is sitting on his bed as the doctor began to take off the bandages from around his head. He was unconscious at the hospital for about two days, must've been quite a bruise for him to be out that long. As the bandages came off Kaden slowly opened and blinked his right eye, glad to see he wasn't blind or anything on that eye.

"There you go, Mr. Homari." The doctor began after removing all the bandages. "Good as new."

Kaden smiled and rubbed his head, happy to feel his cranium again. "Everything feels fine."

"Haha, alright!" Stephen exclaimed, happy to see Kaden good as new. It was kind of hard on him to see his friend all hurt in the hospital like this.

Sally smiled and nodded. "I'm so relieved to see that you're alright."

"Heh," Malory remarked as she stood by the door of the room. "Not even a bump to his empty noggin is going to keep him down."

Kaden chuckled as he rubbed his head from Malory's remark. As he rubbed his head he suddenly felt something that he shouldn't have. He looked at himself in the mirror on the wall behind him and realized his hair was shorter; the long hair he had that he used to tie in a ponytail was gone. "D-Did you really have to cut my hair?" Kaden inquired, looking kind of down his long hair was gone.

Silus was the one to answer. "I'm afraid they had to, Kaden. They had to get to the wound somehow to help you."

"Besides, I think you look better with shorter hair." Jason smirked as he teased his old friend.

"But…But…But I liked my hair that way!" Kaden sighed in defeat as he kept on staring at himself in the mirror. He didn't look the same without his long hair, and it was one of those things that gave him his personality. He gave a military salute to himself in the mirror with his right arm over his chest. "Sayonara, my long hair. I salute you."

Rex chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, same ol' Kaden…

"The Mega Virus has been deleted?"

Master Doppler, the professor of the HTTP, stands in front of the leader of the net criminal group. Behind him stand three members of the group: Oda, Netra and Akira, each of their NetNavis are from the Sharptooth Generation, all thanks to the professor.

"Way to go, old man!" Netra barked in anger to Doppler. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted you with this one!"

"Even Netra could've done a better job than you, old timer!" Akira spat out to insult Doppler.

"Silence!" The leader slammed his fist onto the chair's grip. He was clearly angry, and the other fools' outburst and anger aren't making it any better. He sits back in his chair and presses a few buttons on the chair's left grip where the main computer's controller is integrated. From behind him a holographic computer monitor lights up, revealing the orb of data Doppler's Navi scanned out from the lake where the Mega Virus met its end at the hands of Jason and his friends' NetNavis. "If you believe he failed, then what do you think from where he found this?"

"W-What is that?" Oda questions, a bit in awe at the look of the thing.

""Egh, I sense incredible power from that thing…"" Netra's Navi, Drone, comments as he feels the raw power emitting from the orb.

""I've never sensed such a lot of power."" Oda's Navi, Bull, comments with a shudder.

"W-What? That overgrown volleyball?" Netra exclaims after he took out his PET and faced his Navi.

"Hmhm, what idiots…" Doppler insulted the three people standing behind him. He then turned to the three clueless people with a smirk. "This is only one of a few pieces of the puzzle for our goal, gentlemen! This is what gave the Mega Virus its devastating power!" He then turns to the monitor and looks at the orb with great interests. "Look at it…The ultimate power source, a creation from the Sharptooth's Heart Project…With this; we will attain total dominance over the world!"

Oda blinks, realizing what this could mean. "So basically you can create extremely powerful Navis and viruses from it?"

"No, at least not yet." The leader replied. "The Sharptooth Core is only useless by itself. Like this we cannot do anything with it. It's basically nothing more than just paperweight at the moment."

"Then what else do we need?" Akira asks with a shrug.

"Simple," The HTTP leader begins. "Our next step is to steal the remains of the Project from the SciLab Mainframe. However, they have sealed it in an isolated chip in their laboratories, and so a heist like that won't be easy."

"Hmhm, luckily I know a way to gain easy access to it." Doppler chuckled as he gloated. "Please, allow me to arrange a little 'visit' to the laboratories and I will have the rests of the Project."

Akira narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He hated how this professor is the favorite of the group. Just because he's a scientist and can whip up some great programs for the group it doesn't mean he's better than them. "Sir!" Akira barked as he took a step forward. "I volunteer to steal the chip!"

"Pft, you?" Doppler couldn't help but chuckle at the man's preposterous proposal. "Don't make me laugh, how can you possibly steal it, let alone find it."

"Oh just because you were once a part of the Project you think you're so high and mighty, aren't you old man?" Akira spat out, angered by Doppler's arrogance and attitude. "Anyone can hack into the SciLab Mainframe and find that stupid chip! I've hacked into it plenty of times!"

The leader hums to himself as he rests his elbow on his seat's armrest, supporting his head as he rests it on his closed fist, pondering about the idea. On one hand, he has Professor Doppler assuring the theft of the Project remains, gaining him more information and needed tools to further his plans. But on the other he has Akira volunteering for the theft, one of his most successful henchmen despite being a bit on the psychotic side. Akira could do a lot of damage, making another grand net terrorist attack, but he wants that chip intact. And he will not accept failure!

"I have a better idea…" The leader grins.

A few hours later and Kaden was released from the hospital. As he stepped out to the sunshine he shielded his eyes from the scorching sun, his eyes adjusting after being indoors for quite a while. As he looked around he noticed the damage from the Mega Virus, street posts still broken and some glass still littered around the street. That virus did a number on this city, at least it's gone.

"Some sight, huh?"

Kaden turns his left to his friend Jason. "I can't believe a virus was able to make this much damage. It'll take months for Garden City to recover from this."

Kaden nods in agreement. There must be billions of dollars in damages all over the city. So many damages the Officials probably don't know where to start. He looks ahead to see Sally and Stephen standing by the sidewalk and talking to each other, probably about the recent incidents and stuff, we don't know, Kaden isn't listening or focusing on what they're talking about.

"But the Officials took care of them, right?" Kaden inquires; he's still out in the dark about the Mega Virus' whereabouts.

"Littlefoot told me." Jason answered to his best friend, his voice stern and informal. "The Mega Virus was heading toward the Great Valley Square, but Littlefoot and the others put a stop to him."

Kaden jumped and turned to his best friend with widened eyes, shocked and surprised at what he just heard. "What? Really? Your Navis deleted it?"

""Amazing…"" Rex cooes, impressed upon hearing what his friends have done by themselves. ""How did they do it?""

"They lured it to a cyber lake on the Network and managed to push a cyber boulder on top of its head, drowning it in the water." Jason gritted his teeth as a slight pain began to return to his heart, but he pushed it away and remained calm. "I guess I'm happy that they did, they saved the Great Valley Square and the Network from further damage."

"Whoa, amazing." Kaden is in awe. Littlefoot, Cera, Ducky, Spike, Petrie, they all deleted the Mega Virus without their Net Ops and with no Battle Chips. That's so unreal, a victory of epic proportions! And Kaden is hating himself for missing such an event. But then again he was helping the people at SciLab and he was probably unconscious when the whole battle happened. "You must be proud of your Navi!"

""Haha, yeah."" Rex nods in agreement with a smile. ""To delete a virus as powerful as this one was all by themselves, it's proof of how strong they are when together.""

"Yeah, I am, really."

Kaden frowned, Jason sounded a bit spaced out when he spoke just now. He still must be thinking about his mother and everything that has happened lately; that stupid virus, all of these incidents and loss of lives. Garden City will never be the same.

""Jason…"" Littlefoot called out. Jason pulled out his PET from the holster on his waist and looked into the screen toward his Navi. Littlefoot was looking a bit sad, but he tries to be strong for his Operator. ""I don't mean to rush you, but we have someplace we gotta go now.""

"Yeah, okay." With a nod Jason puts his PET away into his holster and turns his head to Kaden. "I…gotta go. Got some things I have to do before tomorrow."

"Oh…Okay." Kaden nods in understanding and waves his goodbye as he watches Jason take his leave. He looks on as Jason bids farewell to the others and walks down the sidewalk to the right, disappearing into the distance.

"It…Makes you feel sorry for him, doesn't it?" Sally asks as she made her way up to Kaden and stands next to him. "Losing his mother, almost losing Littlefoot; it was a tough time for all of us."

""I felt so helpless."" Rex adds with a deep sigh. ""Jason asked me to call for help through his mother's GPS system in her car, but when I jacked in the Network was already destroyed, my calls wouldn't go through.""

""Poor Jason…"" Ducky comments with a sad tone in her voice. ""I have never seen him so sad, no no no…""

"He tries to be brave, but you can tell he's suffering." Sally continues as she lightly grabbed her left arm with her right hand, looking sadly at the direction Jason left. "He always lived with his mother. His father is always traveling on business, he's almost never home."

Kaden nods as his eyes lower to the ground. He knows all of this, he has heard it before. "Yeah, his grandparents also live out of town. They sometimes come to visit but because they're so far away they usually leave their visits for special occasions."

""Do…Do you think Jason will have to move away with his grandparents?"" Ducky asks in a worried tone. Now there's a question Kaden is afraid of knowing the answer to. Jason has been like a brother to him, and the thought of him moving away scares him a lot. He doesn't want to lose him.

Sally shook her head and gave a soft smile. "No, he's staying. But I did hear his grandparents decided to move into Jason's house here in Garden City." She moves her head to Stephen and Silus as they chat with each other by a bench in the front garden lawn of the hospital. "His grandparents know Jason has lived here his whole life, all of his friends live here, everything he cares about. They know they can't let him leave all of this behind, so I heard they decided to move over here instead of having Jason move out."

"Really?" You could tell in Kaden's voice that he was relieved to hear that his friend isn't going anywhere. He took a sigh of relief and smiled a bit. "Well, that's a relief."

Sally smiled and nodded in response at Kaden before moving her eyes back to the boys. She continued as she watched on as Malory walked up to the boys after getting a can of soda from a vending machine. "I couldn't really imagine how things would've been if Jason really had to leave. Things just wouldn't be the same, you know? He's been a good friend to us all, we would really miss him."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean, I knew Jason since we were in Kindergarten together, I really couldn't imagine life without him."

""Considering Jason has been like Kaden's coach."" Rex adds in a teasing manner. ""Kaden would've been obviously lost in life without him all these years.""

Kaden flinches from the teasing and quickly whips out his PET from his holster and glares into his PET at his Net Navi. "Hey, have you been talking to my mom lately? I can take care of myself and be responsible!"

Rex chuckled and continues teasing with a grin. ""That definitely hasn't shown ever since you had me, Kaden.""

Kaden fumes a bit and begins telling off his Net Navi, leaving Sally to laugh at the situation Kaden's laziness has gotten him into now. Even Ducky finds some laughter in this situation as she stands close to Rex in their PET's Friend Link Room. Now this is the kind of friendship they're made of, banding together and sticking close to each other when the going gets tough and finding happy times during the worse situations.

"Hee hee, oh you boys." Sally giggles.

"Hey!" Malory's loud shouts startle Kaden and Sally. They look at Malory as she finishes her soda and throws the can into a nearby trash bin; man does her voice travels when she screams. "Are you two ever going to move from there? I thought we agreed to help my dad with the repairs and clean-up of his shop after getting that knuckle-head standing next to you out of the hospital!"

Sally giggles and waves at Malory. "Okay! We're going!"

Kaden blinks after hearing that certain word Malory used to refer to him. "K-Knuckle-head? Does she mean me?"

"Hee hee, oh you know Malory. Come on, let's go."

Kaden smiles and nods at Sally as he puts away his PET. As he took a few steps with her down to the sidewalk toward the others he suddenly remembered something and stopped in his tracks, digging into his pockets and pulling out one of his Battle Chips; His Ducky chip. "Oh, Sally." He called out, making Sally stop walking and turn toward him. "Um, I wanna thank you again for giving me this Battle Chip."

Sally saw the Battle Chip in Kaden's hand and she smiled upon seeing it, she didn't think Kaden was going to use it. After all, Kaden always talks about powerful Battle Chips; she didn't think he would've been interested in using it. "Oh, that. Hee hee, don't mention it."

"I gotta say I'm very impressed with it." Kaden continued as he held out the Battle Chip to look at it. "I never thought a Battle Chip like this could be homebrewed, how did you do it?"

Sally smiled to herself upon seeing Kaden taking an interest to her work on the chip. "It wasn't easy. I made it with a program my father gave me from his work."

"Oh yeah, your father's a programmer, isn't he?"

Sally nods. "That's right. He writes programs for a company here on Garden City. You know the one, where they develop and sell security programs for Battle Chips, servers, personal computers."

Kaden thinks for a few seconds before answering with a nod. "Oh yeah, the North Star Antivirus and Security Company. I heard they're top rated for their antivirus and firewall products." He looks at the Battle Chip Sally gave him and thinks for a moment. "So your dad wrote a program to make a Battle Chip like this one? Hey, maybe you could give me a copy of that program; I would really like to try my hand at making a Rex Battle Chip."

"A Rex Battle Chip?" Rex mutters to himself as he scratches his cheek in the PET. He lowers his head a bit as he thinks about a copy image of himself being summoned from a Battle Chip and chuckles to himself, finding the idea a bit awkward for Kaden to use the chip and having to fight alongside a copy of himself.

Sally giggled at Kaden's request, how could she refuse? "Well, it might take time. But I guess I can burn a copy of the program on a minidisk and give it to you."

"Oh sweet! Thanks Sally!"

"Hey!" Malory hollered out to them again. "Sometime today!"

Kaden and Sally looked over at Malory, seeing the patience draining out from her. They giggled a bit, finding it a bit humorous. After a little of laughter Kaden turned to Sally and pointed his thumb out to the others. "All right, let's go, Sally. Before Malory blows a gasket."

Sally nods in response and the two of them start out on a run toward Malory and the others. The group of friends together hurried down the sidewalks to the Shopping District where Haruko's shop resides. The shop was a mess due to the disaster, but with good teamwork and a little elbow grease the shop can be returned back to tip-top shape. It might take a good while, but Garden City will soon be brought back to normal. Already the streets are filled with cars and trucks full of people willing to help to restore the city. Technicians are coming in and out of stores and homes to begin repairs on servers and networks, Net Police are guiding traffic and making sure computers and other machines are free of viruses. It's proving to be a long and agonizing process of scanning and moving debris and piling up the broken pieces of electronics, but the citizens of Garden City are doing their best to bring their beloved city back to its prime.

That's all Jason sees as he continues his walk down the sidewalk, his head turning left and right seeing the willing citizens working together to build the city back to normal. But he knows no matter how much work they put into it, the city will never be the same again. Never…

""Jason…"" Littlefoot begins to speak out from his PET. ""I'm sorry about…Well, you know. I should've been there for you…""

Jason sighs and reaches down to his PET. "It's…It's okay, Littlefoot." He held up his PET to look at the screen to his Net Navi. "You were stranded in the Network; there was nothing you could have done…"

""Still I…I can't help but feel horrible…"" Littlefoot bowed his head down in sadness, his eyes shut as he tries to keep the tears from getting out. ""I'm a Net Navi, one of my functions is to keep my Operator and any human I can safe from harm, yet I couldn't do anything to save my own Net Navi mother…If only I were stronger to stop that Sharptooth virus when I had the chance before it made even more damage…""

"Stop it, Littlefoot!" Jason almost shouted as he stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, gritting his teeth as the memories are coming back to him. "There was nothing you could do, you hear me? Even if you were with me, even if you were strong enough to take out the Sharptooth virus, the damage was already done. It was…Just a load of bad luck…"

Littlefoot was slightly shocked at Jason's outburst; it wasn't like him to lash out like that. But then again he had just lost his mother, so it's understandable he's stressed like this. Littlefoot sighed and nodded. ""I'm sorry…I guess you're right, there was nothing we could've done…"" He rubbed his arm and turned his head to his Operator before continuing. ""A-Anyway, we better get going. Your grandparents are due to arrive in a few hours and we still have a few things to do before they arrive.""

Jason nods and puts away his PET. His grandparents. He hasn't seen them for more than two years now. He always had a good time whenever they came for a visit, always with gifts and just going out having a good time. And this time, they're not coming for just a visit. They decided to move in with Jason. His father is always out of town, and with this arrangement Jason wouldn't have to join his father in all his travels, much less having to force his father to resign his position for a more comfortable one that always has him in Garden City.

""I…Gotta admit, Jason. I'm rather excited about seeing our grandparents again."" Littlefoot comments with a hint of happiness in his tone.

"Yeah, me too…"

""…I just wish it was under better circumstances.""

As Jason resumes his way things in the Network are slowly being worked on. It'll take weeks, maybe even months to repair the huge crack on the ground that was formed by the Mega Virus. Along the crack worker Net Navis, Spiketails, are currently at work to commence the repair of the Network.

"All right, Spiketails!" A larger Net Navi Spiketail, the one leading the group of repairers, shouts out to his crew. "The damage is extensive and we're a little bit behind schedule. I want everyone to share their workload to finish this section a bit sooner."

The crew called out in agreement as they continue their work without interruption, but as they're busy with their work someone is standing not too far from the crew watching on. The watcher's eyes glare a little at the workers with a soft growl. The watcher is a Sharptooth Generation Net Navi, an edition from the Sickleclaw series. He's brown with a light-brown color from his lower jaw down to his stomach all the way to the tip of his tail.

On both his arms he dons dark-brown gauntlet-like accessories with razor sharp claws at the tip of his three fingers. On both his legs he dons dark-brown leg armors from the knee down to the ankle, his feet exposed with razor sharp talons on the tip of his four toes. He also dons black spiky shoulder pads and a thick black line from his forehead down behind his head and down his back and tail, where stripes arch horizontally half a foot long at one foot apart between them, each stripe with a sharp spike protruding from them. His chest dons a crest with a Z mark with two lines over the letter over his left pectoral.

"That virus did a pretty good job ruining the Network…" The Sickleclaw Navi speaks, his voice intimidating, low and a bit on the raspy side. "Look at them…Trying to repair this mess…" He sighs and looks up, addressing to his Operator. "How much longer am I supposed to stand here?"

""Until we get that darn signal to start the operation. I really can't believe it. Why do I have to listen to that old bag? Sometimes I can't believe our boss.""

"You're as ticked off about it as I am." The Sickleclaw comments as he crosses his arms. "I can't wait until I get in there and delete those pathetic Navis."

""All in due time.""

In the technician rooms and corridors of SciLab the employees are moving as fast as they can. Their job schedules are extremely busy thanks to the Mega Virus. Between restoring backups, repairing machines and inspecting cables and connections, there's no time for rest.

In the conference room in the middle of SciLab a group of scientists are in a meeting discussing about the restoration of the Network. The top scientists of the business are there. There's Dr. Raine, one of the top scientists who contributed to the development of Net Navis. Professor Robert, one of the main developers of the third version of the PET, the current version. Scientist Rodriguez, an elderly man who supervised the maturity of the Network and helped in developing the Network into a free-roaming environment for Net Navis. He was due to retire fifteen years ago, but he persisted in staying on the supervisor's desk to lead the new generations of scientists.

Also present is Roc, a high-ranking officer of Net Savior and the one keeping things in check in the most important operations related to the restoration of the Network. Included in the team as well is none other than Dr. Homari, developer of the new generation Battle Chips and supervisor of the development of the upcoming fourth version of the PET, and Kaden's father.

The group of scientists is sitting around a large table with a huge monitor in the middle. In the monitor displays a live feed of the Network's condition. They can see all the damage the Mega Virus has done, and they will do everything in their power to heal the wounds of the Network.

"This is definitely a Class AA disaster." Dr. Raine declares as she witnesses the damage. "It's going to take a lot more than our entire Repairing Unit to repair the damage within two weeks."

"We cannot possibly take longer than two weeks." Professor Robert informs to the people present. "Garden City's economy relies too much on the Network to have it down for too long. We're lucky our satellite systems are in working order, but even that isn't enough. If this goes on for much longer, we could be facing financial disaster."

"What about deploying a Flight Unit to cover the transfers over the rip in the Network?" Roc suggests. "At least until that huge gap has been repaired."

Dr. Raine replies with a shake of her head. "Negative. The rip almost acts like a black hole. The flying Navis can only fly so far over it before the strain of the destroyed data in that gap will pull them in and delete them as well."

"That's true." Dr. Homari affirms as he thinks on the situation. "The gap between one section of the Network with the other still has electrical magnetism reacting in the deeper section. Even though the activity is in the deeper part of the crevasse the further away you get from the ledge the more intense you feel that electrical pull. Eventually the Navi's frame and structure can't ignore the electrical pull at that intensity and it will suck them in to the bottom and, finally, deletion."

"Dr. Homari is right." Dr. Rodriguez comments with a nod. "It is impossible and far too dangerous to send any flying Navis over the crevasse to deliver errands. We'll just have to make do with the satellite links until the Network is operational again."

"But what can we do?" Dr. Robert inquires to Dr. Rodriguez. "You know the structure of the Network more than anyone, Dr. Robert. The damage at this magnitude simply can't be repaired within two weeks at this rate before we start suffering a financial crisis."

"Yes, I know." Dr. Rodriguez scratches his chin as he thinks. He spent his youthful years watching the Network grow and contributing to make it better and more resourceful. Now he sees what he has helped create in ruins thanks to a Mega Virus that came from who knows where. "We just need to find a way to increase our own resources." Dr. Rodriguez lifted his head and turns to his right. "Dr. Homari, how goes the progress of the fourth version PET?"

Dr. Homari looks at Dr. Rodriguez and gulps a bit. He really wasn't expecting a progress report on Project Advance, especially now of all times. "W-Well, the construction and QA of the device is still in progress. There are a few bugs to work out on the product and some more fine tunings on the Battle Chips and the device's BC Gate, but we should be seeing the alpha product within a few days if there aren't any delays."

Dr. Rodriguez nods at the report. "Hm, the sooner Project Advance is finished the better." He took a seat and referred to the group. "Now, this is how we're going to assert this massive problem. Dr. Raine, we'll need you to tune up our Net Navi forces, upgrade them to be able to perform more tasks and work on the repairs with more efficiency and speed."

Dr. Raine nods. "Understood. I'll try my best to upgrade our Repairing and Rescue Navi Units."

"Dr. Homari." Dr. Rodriguez continues. "The completion of Project Advance is very important; we need you to finish it as soon as possible. Therefore I will try my best to order as much assistant and resources as possible for your work and will prohibit anyone from interrupting you over this disaster."

Dr. Homari nods. "Y-Yes, of course. I'll do whatever it takes to finish Project Advance as soon as possible."

"Sir," Dr. Robert turns to Dr. Rodriguez with a question. "With all due respect, even with upgrades to the Repairing and Rescue Navi Units, it'll still be an almost impossible task to get the Network fully working again in two weeks time."

Dr. Rodriguez nods in understanding and turns to Dr. Robert. "I'm aware of that, professor Robert. That is why I called in at Advance Technology Incorporated in our neighboring city to send us their most brilliant scientist to aid us in the recovery of the Network." Just then the door to the conference room opens and in walks a tall male.

This man wears a grey lab coat with a red shirt underneath. He wears a pair of formal black pants and shoes. His hair as white as snow, he has a long chin and a large pointed nose. He has a friendly smile and look on his face, happy to be walking through the halls of SciLab again. "Greetings, Professor Rodriguez. It's been a while now."

"Ah, right on schedule, my friend." Dr. Rodriguez comments as he walks up to the professor and gives him a good handshake before turning to the other scientists. "This is Professor Isaac, one of our most brilliant minds in the Network Technology field. He's stationed in our neighboring city and has agreed to come lend us a hand in the recovery of the Garden City Network."

"Professor Isaac." Dr. Raine starts with admiration in her voice. "It's an honor to meet you. I'm Professor Raine. I've read so much about you and I'm a big fan of your work."

Dr. Isaac chuckles. "Why thank you, Professor Raine. It's always nice to hear admiration to my life's work from other fellow scientists." He then turns to Dr. Rodriguez with a smile. "I must say that I am honored to be requested to aid you in the restoration of the Garden City's Network. It's quite a disaster this problem of yours is."

"Professor Isaac will help us in restoring the Network with a new generation of Net Navis he has been working on for the past few years." Dr. Rodriguez briefs the other scientists on Doppler's presence. "I'm sure his newest work will help us greatly."

"Ah yes, I heard about it." Dr. Robert chimes in. "I believe it's a brand new approach to the project from ten years ago. The top scientists from our branch worked on a way to perfect the project while Professor Isaac's branch worked on another way to perfect it. If I remember correctly a fellow scientist of ours from this branch found a way to adapt to the data without having it go berserk, wasn't it?"

Isaac's eyes shone a bit upon hearing this information. He knows his branch back at his home town was working on ways to perfect the data to implement it without trouble. He wasn't directly aware that they have already found a way to stable the data and prevent it from corrupting. "I see. And have you already integrated the data into a working Navi?"

"Dr. Homari is pretty much supervising the development of the Net Navi prototype in social everyday life. Dr. Homari?"

Dr. Homari cleared his throat and stood up. "Well, our prototype Net Navi is a brand new series for the Sharptooth Generation. The Navi is in beta being tested in an everyday ordinary life as we speak, often being monitored by our computers. In fact I'm expected to call in the Net Navi today for some testing and modifications to its frame and data."

"Impressive. I won't be surprised if this branch of laboratories surpasses the other branches with its promising scientists. If you don't mind I would like to pass by your office sometime later to see this prototype of yours."

"O-Of course. I'd be honored."

Dr. Isaac nods to Dr. Homari with a smile before turning to Dr. Rodriguez. "Well, professor, shall we?"

Dr. Rodriguez nods. "Of course." He turns to the door and leaves with Dr. Isaac, but not before turning his head to Roc to let him know a little something. "Oh, before I forget. I believe there's a new report for you to look over at your desk, Roc. It's from your daughter."

"Kiraa?" Roc blinks. A report from her? That's odd, she never files a report him by herself. She usually leaves the other lower ranking Net Saviors to do the filing. Nonetheless, Roc knows. "I'll take a look at it as soon as I can."

Dr. Rodriguez nods and then he's out the door with Dr. Isaac.

""That lady better not have gotten into trouble again."" A low Net Navi voice speaks from Roc's green PET.

"Nnnngh! Grrrgh…Heavy…" Kaden grunts as he drags a huge bag of broken appliances and scrap down a sidewalk. He grunts and pulls at the bag with all his might as he intends on taking the bag to the Garden City Dumping Grounds, a place where its employees recycle parts and destroy anything useless. Garden City tries to be very eco-friendly and recycle anything they can.

""Kaden…"" Rex sighs with a bit of worry. ""You shouldn't drag the bag like that; you'll damage the plastic covering.""

"Nnngh…If I had the Hulk's strength I would carry this no problem." Kaden grunts between his teeth as he struggles to get the bag moving. "If you think…I'm going to break my back carrying this…You're…Mistaking…Grugh…Besides…You're more worried about the bag than my back…?"

""I'm just worried about…"" In a sudden sound of a rip, the bag's underside rips from all the dragging and out from the hole falls out a few pieces and appliances the bag was holding in. ""That…""

Kaden turns his head to the sound of the rip and couldn't believe at what he's seeing. "Awww maaaaaan!" He groans and drops to his hands and knees collecting together all of the parts and pieces that have fallen out, gritting his teeth in a little frustration. "Dang it! Now how am I going to get all of this to the dumps now? Why didn't you say anything, Rex?"

""I did say something about it, but you just brushed me off.""

"How was I supposed to know when you said plastic covering you meant the bag might rip?"

""It's common sense that when you drag bags you should suspect the bottom is going to rip eventually.""

"That's beside the point!"

""Don't get mad at me; use your head a little more. I can't always be there to think for you.""

"But it's your job as my Net Navi!"

""Hey, I'm here to help you with some things whether it'd be your homework or network purposes, I'm not your butler or slave.""

"Agh! What's the point of having a Net Navi if he can't even stick by you and help you remember and think of these things…?"

""To help their Operators grow mentally and independent with responsibility instead of having them being lazy by depending on their Net Navis all the time! I just don't want you to continue being lazy!""

Getting angered by their argument Kaden grips a piece of metal he just picked up and chucks it to the ground as he stood up and grabbed his PET with great force. In an outraged manner he pulled it out from his holster and glares into the screen to his Net Navi. "Good lord, you're so annoying with all your nagging! Who programmed you anyway? Jo Frost?"

In an angered rage Rex screamed so loudly that his head would've practically popped out from the PET screen. ""Your father, that's who!""

Kaden's eyes widened in surprise, in shock about what he just heard. His father? He programmed Rex? Kaden suspected he just supervised on the basic programming on Rex's features considering the branch he's in focuses on upgrades and basic programming. He had no idea his father was given the privilege of programming Rex's main core and basic personalities. That's quite a chore to do and only handled to the skilled professors and scientists. He had no idea his father took part in Navi programming. "My…My dad?" Instead of softening up Kaden's glare went a bit narrower and shouted something harsh. "Yeah well I wish he would've programmed you better and with a different personality!"

Rex gasped at the insult but glared back at his Operator. It was the last straw. "Fine! Let's see how you do without me!"

"Fine! I will!"

"Fine!" With that Rex himself turned off the Navi screen, leaving Kaden behind with an empty screen of his PET desktop. Fine, if Kaden is so tired of him trying to mean well, let's see how far he'll get without him.

Kaden scoffs in anger and puts away his PET back into his holster and goes back to gathering the mess he made. The hole is big enough for the little parts to fall out, but if he keeps dragging it like this it'll get bigger. What to do…If he only had a wagon or something…

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…

"Hm?" Kaden looks around at the sound of the beeps. Was there a working device in the bag mixed up with the broken ones? Kaden presses his ear against the bag to try to hear if it is coming from the bag. Nothing…

BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…BEEP BEEP…

Kaden shakes his head. Duh; his PET. So stupid…Wait, why didn't Rex let him know? Oh, right. They're not speaking to each other.

Kaden takes out his PET and looks at the top right corner of the screen to see a little envelope icon flashing. Looks like someone sent him an email. Usually this is where Kaden would expect Rex to show him what the email contains, but considering they're not speaking Kaden manually goes through the menus and opens his inbox. "Dad…?" Another email from his father? This is his second email in two days. Opening it, he reads what the email says…

SUB: Hello, Kaden

FROM: Dr. Homari

Hello, Kaden. I'm happy to hear from the Net Police that you and your mother are all right. I was so worried ever since the Network Disaster. I heard you helped with some of the nuclear plants outside of SciLab. I'm proud of you, Kaden, but please do not try to put yourself in danger like that again. Please leave the dangerous events to the professionals.

Anyway, on topic about this email. Are you free today? Could you come over to SciLab? I want to look over your PET and Navi to make sure everything's all right.

"Hm…" Kaden hums to himself. To look over his PET and Rex? How lucky, he can talk to him to edit his personality so he can stop being so naggy. But hey, a free visit to see his father! He doesn't have that kind of opportunity every day!

"All right!" With an excited grin Kaden puts away his PET and takes off in a dash toward the direction of SciLab, completely forgetting the bag and leaving it behind in the middle of the sidewalk. Rex almost stood up from sitting in his PET room to tell Kaden about the bag he forgot, but he stopped and shrugged it off, sitting back down on the ground where he was. Kaden doesn't want to hear him, doesn't want him to nag him again, so leave him alone. Anything that happens is not his problem.

Kaden rushed as fast as his legs could carry him, excited that he'll see his father again after so many months. His friends know how much he misses him, how he would sometimes find himself on Christmas mornings with his father absent because of work. How much would he want to come home more often, to see his face and talk to him about school and his friends. But he understands his excuse, after all SciLab scientists have pretty tight schedules.

But then Kaden wondered. What does he want with Rex exactly? Maybe it's to check for bugs like the email said. After all, the letter that came with the PET said he was a new series that was created. But then again, what's so different about him from other Meat-Eater Generation Navis that were created with Leaf-Eater data? Maybe it has to do with that black scar over Rex's right eye? Or maybe it's about that Custom program Rex has? Chip Memory, was it? Whatever the reason, Rex is basically his free pass to visit his dad!

It didn't take him more than twenty minutes to get to SciLab on foot. He looked at the building and smiled a bit, getting excited to be able to see his dad again after so long. "SciLab…" Kaden muttered; the building where Battle Chips and PETs are researched and developed. He smiled widely and made his way to the front doors of the building, the automatic doors sliding open just for him as he steps foot into the building.

It's still the same building as it was a few months ago; the reception desk to his left just as he entered, to the waiting corner full of comfortable seats and cushions to his right; although this place has seen better days. A lot of employees and scientists are moving at fast paces in the hallways with paperwork and equipment, most probably to restore the Network after that disaster yesterday. He wonders if it's such a good idea to come here when everyone's so busy. But then again, it was his father that called him to SciLab. Now if he could get someone to help him find his laboratory…

"Kaden Homari?"

Kaden turned his head to his left and spots a young man standing a few feet from him looking at his direction. That's odd; he doesn't know this man, much less given him his name. "Um, yeah that's me. And you are?"

"I was told that you'd be here." The young man explained himself. "I was given the order to lead you to the test labs by Dr. Homari."

"Homari? You mean my dad?"

"Yes. Please, this way."

The young man turns and walks down a hall into the building, his lab coat trailing back from the sudden turn. Kaden quickly follows behind, eager to see his father again. As the two men walk down the hallways it was very evident SciLab was heavily damaged as well. You could see boxes outside the doors full of broken computer parts and monitors, evidence of small fires and smokes. It was quite disturbing to see once an advance building demolished into ruins with broken computer parts everywhere. Kaden would every once in a while catch glimpses in rooms with open doors to spot Operators with their PETs out working in the internal networks of computers and servers that survived.

As they made their way to the testing labs Kaden could feel his heart pounding. He's nervous; so nervous about seeing his father again after so many months. But why would he be nervous about seeing his own father again? Is it because he's six months older? Or is it because he's going to show him Rex, his new Net Navi? Is it because he's worried if his father doesn't think he's old enough or good enough to have his own Net Navi if he sees something wrong with him?

He looks down at his PET and goes to grab it but soon takes his hand back. Rex probably still doesn't want to talk to him after that argument back at the alley, and to be honest Kaden is still a bit sour at his Navi's attitude of trying to make him into a perfect kid or something to do everything right. They haven't even been together for a week and they're already at each other's throat.

After a walk down the hallway and up a flight of stairs later, the young man stopped by a door, prompting Kaden to stop as well. "Will you please excuse me, Mr. Homari?" The man excuses himself as he opens the door to walk inside. "I just need to drop a folder here for a moment; it'll only take a second."

Kaden nods in response as he watches the man walk into the room and closing the door behind him. The silence was a bit awkward, with everyone working on the repairs and maintenance there's not a soul in the hallway. Well yeah, you can hear some chatter from the people in the rooms, but nothing interesting. He idly takes a few steps down the hallway to hear the mutters of the building to have something to do. But then…

"What's the diagnosis on that one, Asho?"

That voice simply made Kaden stop cold in his tracks. It was too familiar. And it made his blood run cold and the hair on the back of his neck stand. He recognizes that voice anywhere.

"It's pretty bad, this system is done for. Booster can't even get through to the main components of its network."

Kaden follows the voices to a door and takes a peak into the room. He sees a young man wearing some black clothing, probably around his 20s. Next to him though was standing someone Kaden recognizes all too well. Kiraa.

Asho sighs as he unplugs his PET. "No doubt, this one is busted too. This is really bad, Kiraa. We're losing a lot of money as we keep finding busted computers."

Kiraa didn't seem faced from the news. "It's a loss, I know. But there's nothing else we can do. We just got to keep checking the remaining computers and hope we don't find too many of them."

Asho nods as he moves away the computer he was diagnosing. He was right; this disaster is definitely going to cost SciLab a pretty penny. They own so many servers and top-quality computers to keep the Network of Garden City in check and connected to the other cities, it's always extremely painful to the budget whenever a mass of computers are destroyed like what happened yesterday. But one thing they should be thankful for, at least they backed up anything important before the Network Disaster, thus saving them from an even bigger catastrophe.

As Asho got the computer out of the way he walked to a big server that's sitting on top of a table. He looked at it and gave a big sigh, cursing at the assignment he was given for today. Diagnosing computers and separating the functioning units from the destroyed ones. Asho hates this kind of work; he never liked diagnosing these things.

"Sighing will not get the work done, Asho." Kiraa told her partner without even taking her eyes off of her PET screen as she tapped away at the buttons. She knows all too well how Asho hates diagnosing computers, especially when they have to go through all of these.

"I know, I know…"

Asho's Navi, Booster, couldn't help but giggle a bit at his Operator's expense. ""Aw, don't worry, Asho. We're almost done anyway. Just this one server and a few more desktops, we'll be finished in no time!""

"Hehe, yeah. I guess so." Without another word Asho plugs his PET into the server, transferring Booster to the internal network of the system to commence the diagnostic. As he did so he moved his eyes toward Kiraa, seeing her into her work with the other computers. There's something he's been meaning to talk to her about. "Um…Kiraa?"

"Yeah?"

"There's…Something that I've wanted to ask you about…"

"I thought we talked about this. I never attend those annual SciLab crew parties."

"N-No, it's not about that. It's about…Well…" Asho gulps before continuing, knowing this might not be a good thing to talk about to her. "Sometimes Booster and I…Well, see you on edge whenever we work on rescue missions or anything that involves Navis from the Leaf-Eater Generation…"

Kiraa stopped her working as she listens, knowing where this is heading to. Kaden, who's still by the door listening in, gets his attention grabbed by this turn of events to their conversation. He recalls when Kiraa explained this to him, that deep hatred she has to the Leaf-Eater Navis. It's a concept he still can't grasp; how can a group of Leaf-Eater Net Criminals change her opinions on the Leaf-Eater types so profoundly?

"It's none of your concern." Kiraa simply responded with, resuming on her work. "Some things you'll never understand…"

Asho wasn't surprised by her response. In fact he was going to press further but he held back, not wanting to agitate Kiraa. He knows how badly things can get when she's in a bad mood. And by the way she's glaring at her PET and tapping away at the buttons, the computer she's working on is giving her a hard time and doing just that. But instead of blowing up she sighs heavily and unplugs her PET, turning her back on the machine. "Well, this one is out of commission as well." She moves her eyes to the door, at which point Kaden quickly stepped back from the door as to avoid being seen. Whether or not he was seen he didn't know, but Kiraa saw the movement but brushed it off as an employee walking down the hall.

As he took a few steps away from the door Kaden sighed in relief, but then a hand on his shoulder made him jump out of his skin and instantly turned around. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." The man that was leading Kaden apologized. "I'm sorry that took longer than I thought. Come, I'll show you to the lab."

Kaden nodded and followed the guy down the hallway, his eyes following the door he was eavesdropping on as he walked past it. The walk took three more minutes as they turned a corner in the hallway and followed the hallway down to a big double-door with the letters "C-12" on a metallic plate above the entrance. "Please, this way." The man instructed as he entered through the doors.

Kaden followed the man through the doors and gasped in awe at the laboratory he sees. The room was enormous. It's a test lab all right. Look at all the different equipment. They all look so advanced, so complicated. He can see PET simulators, machines that show holograms of Net Navis to have a closer look at them. You name it, they got it.

"Oh wow!" Kaden exclaimed as he began to take a look around at the room excitedly. "This is like something out of one of those tech magazines! Hey! I've seen that machine on pictures on the internet! Oh wow! Are those holographic machines? I read those things can show life-size holographic images of Net Navis to have closer examinations on them! Oh! Battle simulators! I heard these babies can make any NetBattle thirty times more awesome than the dinky little ones the stores have! Oh wow! The Dimensional Area Bubble! I read that according to theory we can bring Net Navis to the real world in these areas! I can't believe I'm seeing one in person!"

Kaden felt like a child during Christmas morning as he continued zooming from machine to machine looking and drooling about them. In fact he was making such a racket most of the scientists in the room couldn't focus on their work. There's a reason why they only allow employees in here.

And then there's one machine in particular that caught Kaden's eyes. The moment he saw it he ran toward it with widened eyes. "Oh my gosh! Are these seats the Virtual Pulse Reactors I read so much about? I thought these were just theories and our technology wasn't advance enough to make these things! With these babies it's possible to bring humans into the Network and work together with the Net Navis! Oh my god, think of all the virtual reality games people can come up with with these seats mass produced!"

"Haha, I'm impressed, Kaden."

Upon hearing that familiar voice Kaden swung around and beamed happily. There he was, standing in front of him was none other than his own father. An adult in his late 30s, his hair dark brown, his pair of glasses well worn, a gentle and familiar smile on his face. "Dad!" Kaden cried as he ran toward him and pounced him, giving him a great big hug, extremely happy to see his father again after so many months.

"Whoa, hey!" His father laughed as he got the hug, barely managing to stay standing from his son's sudden jump. He hugged his son back, happy as well to see him. "Been a long time, Kaden. I'm glad to see you again too."

"You jerk!" Kaden cried with a happy grin to his father. "I missed you so much! You should visit home more often!"

Dr. Homari laughed, patting his son on the head as they released their embrace. "I'm sorry I haven't visited or called much, Kaden. I've just been so busy lately with work and all." He paused as he looked at Kaden's shorter hair and chuckled. "New haircut?"

Kaden blinks and gives a little chuckle. "Oh yeah, hehe, it's nothing really."

Dr. Homari chuckled at his son's response. "So," His father began as he leads Kaden to the back of the lab. "How's the new PET and Navi?"

"Oh, I'm loving it! You really saved my skin, dad. Dr. Inari told me that if I didn't have a PET of my own by the following week I would've automatically had to repeat the class."

"Wow, talk about a close call. I had a teacher like that once, except the threat came from as early as the first grade."

"Yeah, you told that one before, dad."

"I did? When?"

"About a year ago last Thanksgiving."

"Oh, right. Haha. I forgot."

As the two of them stopped walking Kaden wanted to get straight to the point. "Oh, hey dad." He began as he reached down to his PET and holds it out to his father. "About that email…"

"Oh, right!" Dr. Homari softly palms his face with a chuckle, nearly forgetting about the email he himself sent. "Thank you for reminding me, Kaden. I've been so swamped with work I almost forgot."

"You mentioned something about looking over my PET and Navi?"

"Yes, that's right." Dr. Homari nodded as he adjusted his glasses before holding out his hand. "It's nothing serious, just a normal scan and diagnostic to see if everything's going well. May I please see it?"

Kaden nods and hands over his PET to his father. Dr. Homari turned it over to look at the screen and blinked, noticing a rather strange absence of a Net Navi. "Kaden…Where's your Navi?"

"Oh." Kaden scratches the back of his head, not sure of what to say; wouldn't want to worry his dad or anything about him having an argument with Rex already. "He's in there, probably in sleep mode or something."

Pressing a few buttons on the PET Dr. Homari manages to dig out the Navi program from wherever he was hiding in. "Ah, there he is."

""Yaaaaawn…"" Rex rubs his eyes groggily; he must've fallen asleep for a moment there, hence sleep mode. He blinks a few times and sees Dr. Homari. "Oh, Dr. Homari. It's good to see you again.""

"It's good to see you again, too." Dr. Homari replies with a smile. He walks over to one of the machines and motions Kaden to follow him. "These tests shouldn't take too long. It's basically a thorough scan of your Navi's BIOS and data to make sure everything's in working order and nothing has been corrupted." Stopping in front of the machine Dr. Homari extends out the PET's plug-in cable and connects it into the port, jacking Rex into the machine. "Jack in."

The machine begins to hum to life, a few parts in the machine move and from the top a few parts move open like petals on a flower. Along these parts small lights begin to turn on and rotate in a slow matter. As they pick up speed the lights get brighter and create a circular holographic picture over the machine and expand, creating a 3D image in front of them. As the machine finishes warming up the 3D image takes shape into a Net Navi. The feet and legs are made first, followed by a torso and arms, soon enough wings and a head and the feathers on its head.

" Whoa…" Kaden was amazed by the technology. It looks as if Rex was brought to life right in front of him!

"This is the Net Navi 3D Simulator Projector." Dr. Homari explained to his son as he presses a few buttons on the machine's terminal. "It allows us to take a closer look at the Navi's structure and database. It's sort of like the monthly diagnostic tests you perform on your PET, but much more advance and more interactive."

To Rex it looks like he's standing in some sort of capsule with a live feed of the real world. He can see Dr. Homari and Kaden in front of him and the whole laboratory room around him. He blinks as he sees a blue ring surrounding him and starts moving up and down his form, scanning him for any problems.

Dr. Homari presses a few more buttons and some 3D pop-ups show up around Rex, each one showing different data and results from the scans from different part of Rex's body. It was impressive technology, and Kaden would love to toy with these machines.

One thing surprised Kaden about this machine as he saw his father walk closer to the machine while putting on a sort of purple gloves with a glossy-looking texture on the palm. With the glove on Dr. Homari reached out and actually grabbed one of the pop-ups. "Amazing…" Kaden whispered to himself in awe.

Dr. Homari read the things on the pop-up and read the results, tapping at it with his other gloved hand to scroll down the results. "Everything seems to be fine with your Navi." He reached a button to the terminal and the pop-up windows disappeared

Now came the interesting part. Dr. Homari took hold of a small device and walked up a couple of steps at the side of the machine and walked closer to the holographic projector of Rex. With his gloved hand he reached out and did something Kaden thought was impossible. He actually grabbed Rex's hand.

Both Kaden and Rex were surprised. They both thought Rex was just a holographic image, how could Dr. Homari physically touch him?

"How…How could you…?" Kaden tried to ask, but was still surprised to speak properly.

"This machine uses the technology being used for the Dimensional Area project." Dr. Homari happily explained to his son while examining Rex's hand and arm, much to Rex's shock. "The technology isn't fully perfected, so for now we can only call up holographic third dimensional images of Net Navis. However, we're aiming to bring the interactivity to real time in the form that Navis and humans can interact with each other as if they were real physical beings." He stops the examination and looks at Kaden while holding up a gloved hand. "But for the mean time, these dimensional gloves allow us to physically touch any Navi and data projected out with the Dimensional Area technology, but that's as far as we can get right now."

Kaden was amazed. He knew they were researching and developing with the technology of the Dimensional Area, but he had no idea they had made it this far with the gloves and all. Sure it's not full time interaction, but it's something, right? The future is looking incredible with these advances.

"Now," Dr. Homari began as he turned his head back to Rex. "This might sting a little." With the small device Dr. Homari pushed a button on it and from it extends a small sarp-looking antenna. Rex gulped from the look of the thing, and when Dr. Homari placed the tip of it on Rex's hand the Navi grunted as a shock of bolts surged from his hand up his arm and through his whole body, feeling his data structure being jolted, as if he just got struck by a lightning-based attack.

"Easy there." Dr. Homari spoke to Rex.

"What is that thing?" Kaden inquired.

"It's a data reading device that allows developers and technicians to have a much better accurate reading of data and BIOS signature. It's still in alpha stages but it's scheduled to be done shortly after the Dimensional Area project is finished. They're planned to be much more reliable than the handheld palm devices that are currently in use by 60."

"It looks like it sort of hurts the Navi."

"Unfortunately that's the only side-effect the developers just can't seem to fix." Dr. Homari presses the button on the device and retracts the antenna, much to Rex's relief as the pain subsides.

He looks into the device's screen to read the results and smiles. "Looks like everything's working perfectly, no corrupted data or BIOS, you have a healthy Navi." Despite the good news Dr. Homari's smile fades and turns his head to Rex. He reaches out his hand and lightly grabs Rex's chin, lowering his head down a bit to look at the black scar that snakes down over his right eyes. With a sigh Dr. Homari comments in a low voice, "I really hate seeing that program there…"

Rex blinked. Program? Does he mean the scar? So the scar is a program that's installed in him. That would explain the scar being of a different color. After all it's known that some programs tend to modify the physical appearance of Navis, like underwater breathing programs where it would add an oxygen mask and tank to the Navi's outer look and fire resistance programs where their feet would change color and exterior to allow them to walk over fire. But what kind of program would just add a black scar? What could this program do to him? Whatever it is, it must be something pretty big to have Dr. Homari wish it wasn't added to him.

"All right," Dr. Homari released his grip on Rex and descended down the machine while removing his gloves. "Jack out to the PET, there's one more test I want to perform."

"Ah, Dr. Homari, there you are."

Kaden and his father both turned to the source of the voice to find a fellow scientist walking up to them. Kaden was sort of taken back at how this man looked; it felt like he was looking at some kind of deranged scientist from those old monster movies where a mad scientist is bent on freaky experiments, like Frankenstein. It's the chin and the nose; they look so…So pointy and long…

"Oh, D-Dr. Isaac." Dr. Homari stammered a bit. To be in the presence of such a brilliant scientist in a dump like this to his standards. "I-I'm sorry, it must've slipped my mind that you were coming."

"Don't worry about it, my friend." Dr. Isaac turned his head to Kaden, looking at him with a friendly smile. Kaden couldn't help but feel a bit creeped out by it. That with the chin and the nose…You could land a plane on that chin and the nose could be the control tower…

"Kaden," Dr. Homari began as he walked to his son and introduced him to the scientist. "This is Dr. Isaac; he'll be helping SciLab in repairing the network." He looked at Dr. Isaac and motioned to his son. "Dr. Isaac, this is Kaden Homari, my son."

Dr. Isaac looked at Kaden and gave a nodding smile. "A pleasure to meet you, Homari. It always does my heart good to see young people such as yourself roaming the laboratories of SciLab looking and learning, so eager for the future."

"Um, yeah, likewise." Kaden turned his head a bit away, a bit shy of being in front of a stranger such as this Dr. Isaac. He must be pretty good to be sent here to help with the repairs of the Network. Must be a pretty brilliant scientist, but geez couldn't he do something about that nose and chin? Like maybe surgery or something. It's kind of…Well, creepy.

Dr. Isaac turned to his left and stopped midway, his eyes setting upon the 3D image of a Sharptooth Generation Net Navi. The Navi's form intrigued him; the look, the dangerous yet gentle appearance, it's like a perfect mixture of the Leaf-Eater and Sharptooth Generation. It was sort of an awkward moment for Rex as a renowned scientist such as Dr. Isaac is staring at him like this, fascinated by him. Rex gulps as he turns his eyes away, he expects any moment now that Dr. Isaac will take the dimensional gloves and begin poking and prodding him and his programming.

Dr. Homari, seeing Dr. Isaac examining Rex with his eyes, clears his throat. "Ahem…Dr. Isaac, this is the Net Navi you've been briefed on. It's the newest series for the Sharptooth Generation of Navis."

"Impressive." Dr. Isaac muttered.

Kaden blinked and turned his head to his father. "Newest species?"

"Yes," Dr. Homari nodded as he turned off the machine, transferring Rex back into the PET before moving on. "I'm sorry I never told you this on the emails, I guess it slipped my mind."

"Hehe, don't worry about it, dad. I kind of figured it out when I didn't recognize him from any of the Navi series."

"Hehe." Dr. Homari chuckled. He figured his own son would keep up with the latest Navi series and would recognize a new one when he'd see it. As he walked to another machine he turned his head to before looking back at Kaden. "Kaden, could I have a moment alone with Dr. Isaac? Some matters to discuss." He then pointed a door not far from them. "You can wait for me in that room over there."

Kaden shrugged and nodded. Again with his business, he should've expected he was going to be pushed aside for business. Even though it might be for a few minutes, it still kind of stinks to be robbed of such sweet little minutes of father and son time. But still, he can't blame his father for doing his job. As Kaden walked toward the door his father told him of he couldn't help but look over his shoulder to his father, like a child who's being separated from his parent. But he digresses as he opens the door and steps inside the room, spotting inside a few tables and chairs. One of which he picks and sits on a chair and taps his fingers on the table, waiting for his father.

"So, that Navi…" Dr. Isaac begins as he follows Dr. Homari.

"Yes, this is him." Dr. Homari reports as he turns to Dr. Homari and hands him the PET. " is the prototype chosen for the test of the new ST Program that was extracted from the information that was collected a decade ago from the project."

"Yes, so I see." Dr. Isaac pressed buttons on the PET, going through the status and data of the Navi structure and version as curiosity and admiration shone in his eyes. He couldn't believe the structure of the Navi as he began the debug mode and looked over the construction. "I must say, this is quite impressive…The way he's programmed…How did you ever managed to stabilize the Sharptooth data core?"

"Well, it was a huge cooperation with a number of SciLab's branches." Dr. Homari reports as he walks over to his table and show some documents about the project. "We had a dedicated group of scientists to study the Sharptooth data core and to figure out what it is about it that drives Sharptooth-based Navis to go berserk. It took them years to figure out the problem, but they figured out that the Navi's bio frame capacity was too small to be able to handle such a potent data core. From the ninety-eight percent of the data core they used in the project a decade ago, they were able to reduce it to ten perfect, roughly nine perfect more than the Sharptooth Generation Navis we equipped the Net Police with."

"Fascinating." Dr. Isaac was in awe. It was proven that it was impossible to apply more than one percent of the Sharptooth data core to a Navi without having it go berserk, but with their advances and dedication their team managed to increase the potency to ten percent without losing the Navi. "How did your team managed to attain such a result without any technicalities?"

"Well, please follow me." Dr. Homari made his way to a computer terminal as Dr. Isaac followed him. Turning on the monitor and clicking through the documents and pages Dr. Homari opens a program that shows blueprints of a new Navi design, complete with details and scans of the project. "According to what we know both Leaf-Eater Frames and Sharptooth Frames each have different properties and elements. Leaf-Eater Frames are easier to customize and maintain, but it's been proven their structure doesn't allow the Sharptooth data core to grow at all, just suppressing it to absolute zero. This results at a disadvantage when a Leaf-Eater Navi has to face viruses, since viruses are pure Sharptooth data and as such are more powerful than Leaf-Eater Navis, so they almost always require an Operator with Battle Chips to aid them in battle to survive unless they've been heavily customized with Navi Custom Programs."

Dr. Isaac nods in understanding as he rubbed his chin in thought. "Yes, that theory has been proven for years now."

"Now," Dr. Homari opens a different blueprint and continues explaining. "Sharptooth Frames are a bit different. They're often very difficult to customize and the maintenance process are very complex. However, the Sharptooth data core is attracted to this frame, leading to the data core to grow and eventually corrupt the entire Navi's Frame and state of mind. This is quite a problem when it comes to figuring out a way to strengthen the people's defenses. Like a powerful Antivirus destroying a virus, a Sharptooth data core can easily dismantle and absorb a Leaf-Eater data core. When it comes to the Sharptooth viruses on the Network, they can absorb any Navis they delete, thus resulting in an even more powerful virus over time."

Dr. Isaac looks at Dr. Homari and clears his throat. "So in theory, the Mega Virus that attacked the Garden Network must've been plenty of years old and have absorbed data worth hundreds of deleted Navis over the years to be able to destroy the Network with little effort."

Dr. Homari nods with grim. "According to studies of traces of deleted data we've found on the Network. It's deduced that the Mega Virus was around a decade old…We believe the Mega Virus was part of the Project."

Dr. Isaac remained silent. He knew which project Dr. Homari was referring to. As for Rex, who's still in his PET listening to all of this, couldn't help but reflect on everything that he heard and slowly clutched his chest. He's a prototype? A guinea pig to an experiment of SciLab's? But…But how different does this make him to every other Navi? And if it's true and he has a data core of the Sharptooth Generation, won't that mean he could eventually go berserk and attack his friends?

Dr. Isaac digresses and inquires what's been nagging at his curiosity. "As for ? What have your fellow scientists have done to reach this breakthrough?"

Dr. Homari taps away at the computer and opens up a new blueprint. "Well, according to their notes and research, they have done the following. As I mentioned earlier Sharptooth Frames attract the growth of the Sharptooth data core and in turn it corrupts the entire Frame, sending the Navi into a rage. And using Leaf-Eater Frames on the Sharptooth data core is out of the question as the data core is suppressed by it and keeps the processing power of the orb to an absolute minimum, making it no stronger than a Leaf-Eater Navi. In the end our scientist discovered and ingenious way."

"Which is…?"

"What they did was to compress a Sharptooth Frame and Leaf-Eater Frame together into one. Naturally, being only Frames they cannot harm one another, but their actions combine so to speak. Using an ingenious method they created a new Frame which consists of layers and layers of Sharptooth and Leaf-Eater Frames. With this method, when installed, the Sharptooth data core is attracted by the layers of data taken from the Leaf-Eater Frames, yet the data core is held back by the layers of data from the Sharptooth Frames in-between. As the Leaf-Eater data attracts it, the Sharptooth data expels it."

"The results are the following." With the press of a button a simulator opens on the monitor, showing a 3D image of what Rex's Frame would look like. Upon zooming in numerous layers can be seen one after another in the Navi's body, green to represent Leaf-Eater Frame data, red representing Sharptooth Frame data. The simulator shows a red orb in the middle of the body, the Sharptooth data core. It expands as the red layers attracting it, but as it expands it starts shrinking as it expands past the green layers. The results show the data orb expands and shrinks, like an oval that expands a few layers before finally stopping its growth.

"It stopped." Dr. Isaac points out, liking what he's seeing.

"Yes." Dr. Homari nods and continues. "With the Leaf-Eater Frame data the Sharptooth data core is attracted by it, but the Sharptooth Frame data in between them acts like a reinforced wall, pushing back the data core from expanding too much and completely corrupt the Frame. The results are a Net Navi Frame capable of equipping the Sharptooth data core without being corrupted or worrying about the data core."

"How ingenious…" Dr. Isaac was in awe. It took them ten years to discover a way to make it possible to use the Sharptooth data core to more heights than the measly one percent. They found a way to make a perfect blend of Sharptooth and Leaf-Eater data, like an omnivore in the real world. It was the perfect solution, and the way they executed it was nothing short of brilliant. "This is certainly a breakthrough on the road to perfect the Sharptooth Generation."

"There's a bit of a problem though." Dr. Homari comments with a grim tone in his voice. "This type of Frame allows us to use the Sharptooth data core up to ten percent of its power, no more than that. Plus, this Frame's memory capacity is too much; it barely fit in the Plug-In PET models." Dr. Homari presses a few keys on the computer to open another blueprints, this one of a PET model. "The Project Advance was founded to resolve this problem. Our goal is to create a brand new PET with at least four times the amount of memory the Plug-In PET is capable of. This way we can compress the Frame even more to allow improving its resistance to the data core. Our aim is at least to reach thirty percent. Not only that, but we also aim to improve the user-friendly interface on the public's everyday PET use and to allow wireless jack-ins for more freedom in case of an emergency."

Dr. Isaac rubbed his chin, intrigued as his eyes study the PET blueprints displaying on the monitors. There's so much SciLab is working on daily to improve technology, how many researches they're doing for a better future. "That's quite a project your division has on their hands."

Dr. Homari nods with a smile, proud of the people who have helped him with the research and development. "Yes, we do. But luckily we have a very dedicated team researching and developing it. We were expected to release an alpha built of the project to the higher ups, but with the Network Disaster, we'll probably be delayed by a few months at most."

Dr. Isaac shakes his head, a shame to see such a potential project that would benefit their future and all of humanity being delayed because of a virus. Fortunately the reason he's here is to help with the recovery of the Network with his new generation of Net Navis he's been working on for years. It was finally time to put his new discoveries to the test today.

Looking at his wrist watch Dr. Isaac goes to turn around. "Please excuse me, Dr. Homari. But it is getting late and I must go back to work."

"Of course." Dr. Homari nods in understanding. Dr. Isaac must be a very busy man since he has arrived, it's a wonder he found time to look at the prototype.

Dr. Isaac turns and begins to leave, but not before saying one last thing. "I look forward to seeing more results of the prototype, Dr. Homari. I wish you luck with Project Advance as well." And with that, Dr. Isaac takes his leave.

Dr. Homari just sighed as he turned his head back to the computer and set his eyes on the blueprints of the new PET in development. He just wished he was sure this project was actually going to succeed. They've been hitting so many bumps with this. He's not sure if the technology they have available is even enough. They've found so many bugs, so many technicalities; it'll be a wonder if they even finish the alpha build in months from now. There's a lot of stress going on, with the Network Disaster and the problems with this…

""Dr. Homari…""

Dr. Homari opens his eyes and looks down to the PET. Of course, he almost forgot about him.

""I don't know what stress all of this brings you, but try to keep your chin up."" Rex tries to give some encouraging words to his creator. ""You're important to SciLab with this project, you can't give in. Just do your best and everything will be fine.""

Dr. Homari smiles and picks up the PET. "Thanks, Rex. I will." He stands up and then turns to the door. "Come on, Kaden is waiting for us in the conference room."

A dark room's door opens. A mysterious man walks inside and closes the door quickly behind him. Everything's going according to plan. The man grins and brings to his mouth a communicator. "Everything's set." He speaks through it.

"Finally. So should I make my big entrance, old man?"

"Of course. Make it snappy. You have one hour."

"That's all I need. Ready, Zill?"

""Finally, I get to shred some Leaf-Eaters! I'm hungry for some good meat.""

"One hour. That's all you get." The mysterious man grins and lowers the communicator. Any moment now…

In the Network outside of SciLab's mainframe a brown Sickle Claw Navi, Zill, watches a heavily guarded firewall port. The port in the network looks like a cave entrance in a large mountain. Four Spike Tail Navis guard the entrance as small Three Horn and Flyer Navis make their way in and out, most probably workers who are helping in restoring the Network. Zill couldn't help but lick his lips and grin. "Paydirt…Feeding time…"

His Operator, Akira, smiles as he stands on the second floor in one of the warehouses housing the nuclear generators, the ones Kaden helped with yesterday. His PET is jacked into a hacked port in one of the offices on the second floor. His PET has a built-in frequency jammer, preventing anyone from tracing his location through the port. It's a perfect way to sneak in.

Scanning the area through his PET Akira smiled devilishly as he digs into his pocket and takes out a Battle Chip; its graphic design in the middle has a photo of an Utahraptor dinosaur. He jams it into his PET and in the Network in front of Zill materializes three viruses. These viruses are about six feet tall and 21 feet long. They're massive! Their feathery hide was sky blue and their eyes a menacing glare and color blue. They make a low purring sound as they bare their teeth and grow menacing. The feathers on their arms are used as projectiles with the Water element, or ice in this case. At the tip of their tail they have longer-looking feathers, which are more powerful than the feathers on their arms but are much slower to shoot. These viruses are known as IceRaptors, and they're fast and deadly despite their size!

Zill chuckles and holds his hand out to the IceRaptors to command them. "Go." He commands as he throws his arm aside to the direction of the firewall port.

With a loud screech the IceRaptors turn and run off at the command of their master. Causing the guarding Spike Tails to jump in terror and look around, still keeping their spot guarding the port. "What the heck was that?" One of them spoke out to his comrades. Soon enough they see three IceRaptors rushing toward them, screeching loudly and hungry for blood!

"IceRaptors!" One of the Spike Tail cries out to his comrades as he puts his arms up in a guard.

"W-Where did they come from?" One of them cries out with a hint of nervousness and fright in his voice. He holds up his arm and his hand changes to his buster cannon, taking aim and opening fire on the incoming viruses.

"Don't let them through!" The bigger Spike Tail calls out to the other three. His left hand grows massive as he's assisted with a MegaFist battle chip, ready to take the fight up close and personal. He charges forward with a cry and throws his left fist, missing as the IceRaptor he was aiming for jumps over him to avoid the punch. The IceRaptor screeches loudly as it runs aside to avoid the shots and hisses at its attackers. It suddenly moves its little arms from left to right in a motion and icy blue feather projectiles fly to its targets.

"Look out!" One of the Spike Tails shouts to his comrades, warning them about the shots. However, he didn't take his own warning and one projectile slams into his body. He suddenly felt an icy chill grabbing him from inside and covering his entire body, and as he cried out in pain from the strike his whole body suddenly froze in place in a block of ice, frozen solid.

"No!" One of the remaining three Spike Tails cries out to his fallen comrade. He grits his teeth and holds out his arm as his hand changes to a HighCannon, a second level Cannon with an attack rate of 80 hit points per hit. He takes aim and shoots to support his other comrade who's returning fire with his buster. Together they manage to give the IceRaptors a good footwork, managing to strike and delete one in the process. One of the IceRaptors jumps to avoid the shots and, upon landing right back on the ground, it horrifies the two Spike Tails as it landed dangerously close to them and shoots more projectiles. Before they could react, the two Spike Tails are frozen solid.

The remaining Spike Tail backs away as the two remaining IceRaptors slowly stalk toward their remaining prey. The Spike Tail glares angrily at them for what they have done to his comrades, but before he could have his revenge he felt a paw on his shoulder. He thought it was back up and couldn't felt any more relieved. However, luck just wasn't on his side. For when he turned around he was met with a rather evil grin from a Sickle Claw Navi.

"Boo."

Before the Spike Tail could react deadly rows of teeth clamped shut tight around the side of his neck, impaling deep into his data structure and frame. Pixels of data flew out from the sudden wound, liquefied data (Can also be identified as digital blood) began to pour out from the wound, and Zill could taste it. After all, to Sharptooth Navis and viruses, Leaf Eater data has a much more delicious taste compared to Sharptooth data. With a powerful yank Zill rips his teeth from the Spike Tail's neck, taking away a chunk of his data frame in his mouth, and he savored it. The Spike Tail fell to the ground soundlessly, and like that he jacked out of the Network back to his PET to avoid deletion.

"Mmm…" Zill licked his lips from the data he just absorbed, thrilled to taste Leaf Eater data again. He could feel his hit points increasing a little bit, but it was an enjoyable little bit. He turned to his IceRaptor viruses as they purr quietly while strafing around their three Spike Tail popsicles. They couldn't wait to sink their teeth into them. But unfortunately for them, that would have to wait.

"Go, my viruses." Zill holds out his hand to them, getting their attention. "Go into SciLab, have fun! Devour and delete anyone who gets into your way! Devour data and multiply, infect their pitiful computers."

The IceRaptors screeched before turning tail and running into the port, ready to wreak havoc in SciLab's network. "Oh, this is going to be so much fun." Zill and his operator, Akira, declared at the same time with grins on their faces.

"This is the last test, and then you and your Navi can go home." Dr. Homari types in a few commands into the computer he's working on. He lifts up his head forward to see another hologram machine humming to life, getting it ready for another performance test.

Kaden sighs and complains. "But dad, can't I hang out around here with you for a little while more? I barely see you enough as it is."

Dr. Homari smiles and looks to his right to his son. "I wish you could. But SciLab regulations prohibit me to have non-employees into the laboratories and testing grounds of SciLab. You've been given special permission to be here while the tests are underway. I'm afraid once I'm done with this one you'd have to leave."

Kaden sighs, disappointed by the news. He was so happy to see his father again, but today was just too short. He just wishes his father would take more vacation time to be with him and his mother. Of all the jobs his father could've taken…

Dr. Homari notices the look of disappointment in his son's face and smiles gently, patting his shoulder to calm him down. "Hey, how about when this is over you and I sneak out and grab a little something to eat? You in the mood for some burgers?"

Kaden beams and looks up at his father. "Really? The old burger joint down at the Shopping District? The Meat Eater Paradise down 10-B street?"

Dr. Homari laughs. The Meat Eater Paradise sounds rather tacky for a burger diner, but they do serve the best burgers in Garden City, albeit a little pricy. But the atmosphere is great, and gotta love the Jurassic setting they have; a jungle theme diner with dinosaur bones decorating the place. "That's the one. My treat."

Kaden grins and pumps his arms. "Yes!"

""But Kaden…"" Uh-oh, nag alert from Rex again. ""What about dinner? You know Mom always has food prepared on the table at 6PM.""

"Really?" Dr. Homari blinks before letting out a short laugh. "I forgot how your mother is always punctual with dinner. She really enjoys being on time with her meals for the family."

Kaden palms his face and curses under his breath. Leave it to Rex to ruin the moment. He couldn't help but feel a little anger toward his Navi. It's already around 5:30PM which means his mother must already be done cooking dinner. Now letting his dad know about it he'll no doubt cancel the plans.

"Well, let's get the test underway." Dr. Homari states as the machine finishes warming up. He takes Kaden's PET and extends the cable and plugs it into the terminal, jacking Rex out of the PET and into the machine. In front of them a holographic 3D image of Rex is materialized along with a 3D holographic room. "This is a machine to simulate training programs for Navis. It's used to diagnose any problems with the Navi's fighting capabilities and any tune-ups he may need."

Rex looks around. To him it looks like he's in a black room with green lines along the walls and floor. He is startled by something showing up in front of him and slashes it in two with his claws. It was nothing but a white cube. But boy did it startle him to attack.

On the monitor to his left Dr. Homari looks at the data being poured him from Rex's battle simulation while Kaden watched his Navi jumping around dodging bullets and slashing and shooting battle cubes. He couldn't help but glare at him, feeling a bit of anger from always nagging and ruining his fun, trying to straighten him into a perfect man and, above all else, possibly ruin a time out with his father. Oh it had to stop. One way or another.

"Um, dad…?"

"Yes?"

"Can I talk to you about something?"

"Sure. What is it?"

"It's about Rex."

"You like him, huh? I knew you'd love him after telling me for years how much you wanted a Net Navi of your own."

"Well…Yes and no…"

As Rex trained he couldn't help but let his hearing wander, listening in on Kaden and Dr. Homari's conversation.

"Yes and no? Is something wrong?"

"Well…Could you reprogram his personality?"

Rex's eyes widen a little bit upon hearing that. He froze in his kneeling stance with his buster trained at one of the cubes.

"Personality? I could. But why?"

"Well…Because he…How can I put this…He's…Well, annoying."

"Are…You sure? Net Navis are as real as you and I. To change his personality it would be like turning him into someone else."

Rex slowly lowered his buster arm as he slowly bowed his head, his eyes almost closing in sadness upon hearing what he just heard. Kaden…Hates him? He was aware he got on his nerves from time to time but…He didn't know it was this…Deep…

Kaden thought about it a little, but before any more can be said a loud emergency alarm broke the silence and interrupting work on the lab.

Emergency! Emergency! Viruses have hacked into the main network of SciLab! Immediate action is required! Emergency! Emergency!

"Viruses? Here?" Dr. Homari couldn't believe it. Scientists have formed a level 10 firewall around the SciLab network to avoid any viruses from getting in. How did they get past the firewall's securities? This is bad. The Network is already in bad shape, and with viruses attacking the SciLab's mainframe, it could spell disaster and practically demolish the Garden City Network completely!

Kaden and Rex were just as surprised and a little scared from the turn of events. They know it's another time to go virus busting! "Dad!" Kaden turned to his father to ask back for the PET, but things turned out differently.

"Kaden, I want you to stay here." His father instructed. "It's safe in here; none of these machines in this test room are directly connected to the network, do not go out to the laboratory!" With that he ran out the door and turned to his son. "Understand? Don't leave this room."

"But-" It was too late. Dr. Homari storms out of the room and into the laboratory to help the others. Kaden ran to the door and looked out the window that was next to it. He could see scientists and personnel scrambling to address the situation, turning off and unplugging computers and machines around them to prevent them from being infected. He had to do something; he hates standing around doing nothing.

Outside the laboratory and in the second floor Asho and Kiraa are scrambling to deal with the situation. "How did viruses even get in here?" Asho demanded to know into his PET as he ran alongside Kiraa down the hall. In the network just outside the firewall port their Navis, Booster and Grayscale, were examinating the scene with a few Navis from the Net Police. The three frozen Spike Tails were still there, and members of the Net Police were trying their best to defrost them.

"I don't know, Asho." Booster reported as he looked around, his eyes wandering back to the frozen Navis. "But I'm pretty sure this is a hacker's doing. I don't think viruses are smart enough to pull something like this."

Grayscale pads around one of the frozen Spike Tail, looking up at it and the Navi's expression. She couldn't help but smirk. Whoever did this truly loves his style; to capture the emotion so perfectly like a picture. "Hm?" She looked down to see a feather on the ground glowing blue. She could feel an icy feeling near the feather, and she knew this was used to freeze the Navis. "IceRaptors…" She hissed before turning her head to Booster. "Booster, found an ice feather here."

Booster turned to Grayscale, but something caught his eye and the feeling of one of his toes. Looking down he spots another feather near his foot, glowing an icy blue color as well. "Hacker, definitely." He confirms to Asho. "And he got inside using IceRaptor viruses."

"IceRaptors…" Asho echoes. Where has he heard that name before…?

"They're computer viruses with ice element." Kiraa informs to her partner as they continue down the hall. "Their feathers are thrown as projectiles for attack. Anything that touches those feathers gets frozen to the touch. I thought you went through the virus reports last week."

"Uhhh…" Asho stammers. He slacked off again. "Must have slipped my mind."

"At any rate," Kiraa continues. "A virus like that in the mainframe is bad. Very bad."

Asho nods and turns back to his PET as both he and Kiraa enter the room they were headed. "Booster. You and Grayscale return to the SciLab mainframe and delete the viruses. While you're at it, issue the alarm update."

Booster nods. "Roger." He wags his finger in front of his face and opens a terminal with a phone-like device attached to it. Time to issue the warning to the building.

Warning! Warning! IceRaptor viruses confirmed to roam the mainframe. Immediate action required. Please disconnect any computers attached to the mainframe and keep your distance from network ports and plugs. Effective immediately.

Akira grins. With the viruses in place he has access to every surveillance camera in the building. He watched as people went in and out of doorways, trying to secure every room in the building. This isn't going healthy for their plans. Let's fix that. "Zill…"

"Already got it covered." Zill smirks as he transfers himself in the security network of the mainframe. Immediately he surprises countless Duckbill and Longneck Navis who were working on the security area. Zill calmly lifts both his arms and from his finger tips he shoots out streams of lightning, zapping every Navi in the network and forcing them to jack out. Looks like somebody forgot to mention that Zill is an Elec type Navi. He steps over to the control panel and aims his fingers at it and zaps the panel to oblivion, causing errors to the program.

All around the building every single door shuts, locking everyone inside and keeping those left behind out. Asho and Kiraa were surprised as the door suddenly shuts behind them and the sound of the lock activating only made things worse. Asho rushes back to the door and fights with the knob, but the door refused to open. "Great…" Asho curses as he backs away. "We're locked in."

Kiraa just frowned. How troublesome. Turning her eyes to her holster she takes out her PET and presses a button to open the communication port to her Navi. "Grayscale. The doors were locked. You know where to go."

Grayscale responds with a simple nod and rushes back into the mainframe with Booster close behind. Whoever invaded their mainframe sure has a lot of guts. Guts and a death wish. As they enter back into the SciLab mainframe we can truly see how it looks like. To the Navis it looks like a vast plain with some mountains here and there. The mountains represent servers in the building connected to the network. The big trees in the area represent the big computers connected to the mainframe and the forests strewn across the plains are the networks of numerous computers that are connected to the mainframe. At the bottom of each mountain and tree you'll find small little cave openings, by which you can enter through them and transfer yourself to the mainframe of their respective server and computer. If you didn't own a SciLab KeyCard to see the invisible markings that tells you what directs you to where, you'd spend the entire day going in and out just trying to find your respective computer.

"Whoa!" Booster dives to the ground just in time to avoid a projectile from striking him. Grayscale skids to a halt and turns around to spot a group of about three IceRaptor viruses screeching at them. It was rather intimidating seeing such big viruses here.

The IceRaptors screech once again and launch their projectiles at them, which Booster and Grayscale manage to dodge as well. But they're sitting ducks out here, they need cover. The Alimon Navi looks around and spots a few trees in the area. She could tell by the sealed cave opening that the computers were disconnected, so any damage to the peripheral would be spared. The port on the other hand…

"Booster, quick." Grayscale darted to the tree and hid behind it, managing to barely avoid being struck by a projectile. Booster followed suit and dived behind one of them, he too avoiding at least two shots.

"Agh!" Booster cried as he covered his face as a projectile struck near him and exploded in small data, feeling the cold released from it. He gets on one knee and turned his right arm into his buster, ready to go for the offensive. "I counted three, which means one for you and me and an extra one for us to take out together."

"I wouldn't hold my breath if more show up." Grayscale replies as she peaks out from behind the tree. "There's too much data in this mainframe. They're probably gobbling all of it up and multiplying."

Booster peaks out from behind the tree and returns fire with his buster before covering behind the tree again from more ice projectiles. "What we need are battle chips and some back up. Where are Chomper and Yu?"

"We're trying to contact them, but there's too much static in this room from the equipment to properly contact them wirelessly." Asho looks around the room. Of all rooms to be sent in, it had to be the communication room with all the radar and wireless equipment. Asho spots the terminal of the communication room and saw the jack-in ports. "Hang on, guys. Help is on the way."

Across the network, in fact all of SciLab's mainframe is being invaded by IceRaptor viruses. They gnaw and claw at the power pillars and attacking trees and mountains, the ports that send them to computers and mainframes. Grayscale was right, they are multiplying.

Navis from Net Police and Net Savior are hard at work at deleting these viruses. But no matter how many they delete, more just keep coming. It's like a plague, and the end is nowhere near in sight. One Navi in specific is running across the plain at great speed. Every virus he comes across meets its end with a quick jump and slash from this Navi, his running speed unchanged; a skilled and agile Navi from the Alimon series and an officer of Net Savior.

This Alimon Navi is green with black stripes all over his back, tail and legs while his underbelly and face is of an orange color. On top of his head and down the back of his neck and down his back he dons a gray and yellow armor with three blue spikes with red tips on his head and five of them on the back of his neck. On his tail he has two yellow rings with blue spikes much like the ones on his head. The tip of his tail also has a few of said spikes, and a good strike of his tail with them would definitely lead to agonizing pain. Finally, on his chest he has a crest with an insignia with the symbol SL and a zigzagged line down the middle of it.

His red eyes scan the area as he continues running. He suddenly growls furiously as he spots another virus and in a fast pace darts to it and jumps, doing a front flip in the air and striking the virus' face with his tail, deleting it at once without skipping a beat as he lands gracefully and continues running. "The viruses are still spawning…" The Navi speaks to his operator.

""There must be a mother virus. If we find and delete it, we can slow down the multiplication rate.""

"Any theories on where this mother virus is, though?"

""Scientists are making a scan for it. We can only delete viruses and slow them down until then.""

The Alimon Navi nods and continues on with his mission. "Understood."

While back at the training simulator room Kaden was struggling with the door, trying to get it to open. He doesn't recall his father locking the door behind him. Whatever is happening to SciLab's network, the locking mechanism of the doors has been tampered with, locking everybody in. Kaden cursed under his breath and stepped back, the door is definitely out of the question. But he wasn't going to stay in this room any longer! He looked around and noticed an air duct up on the roof over a table; he could easily stand on the table and pull himself up into it to get out of here.

He walked over to the simulator machine and grabbed his PET. "Rex…"

Rex lifted his head up to listen to his Operator. Although his heart still ached from when he heard Kaden's request to reprogram him, he still couldn't and wouldn't abandon him. "Y-Yeah, Kaden?"

"We're getting out of here." Kaden stated as he plugged out the cable from the port, jacking Rex out into the PET.

""But, your father said-""

"I know what he said, don't start!"

Rex flinched and clamped his mouth shut with his paws. He's just digging himself deeper.

Kaden merely holstered his PET into his holster belt and climbed on top of the table. He raised his hands and grabbed the cover of the air duct, easily opening it and removing the cover. Slowly but surely he pulled himself up into the duct, suddenly grossed out by dead bugs and dirt along the duct. He shook the fear aside; he didn't have time to be grossed out. On his hands and knees he crawled through the duct, following the narrow path and hoping it would take him somewhere good. Eventually he reached another duct cover, his exit. Removing the cover he looks down through the opening, seeing the room empty with a lot of computer terminals and security monitors showing black and white pictures of random areas of the building. This must be the security room. Perfect.

Carefully he dropped himself into the room, the momentum of the drop causing him to drop down on one knee to avoid any injuries. He gets up and walks over to the computer terminals and tries his luck at randomly pressing buttons, but he gets no responses. Little does his know that this terminal's control panels in the network were fried by a certain Navi's electric attacks. "Crud, the controls aren't working."

Rex frowned and took a heavy sigh. He can't stay at mad at him, he has to help him. Now more than ever if he's…Going to be reprogrammed. ""Kaden…Jack me in, I'll try to overwrite the commands through the mainframe and unlock the locking mechanisms.""

Kaden took his time to decide. He was still sore at his Navi, but now's not the time to let his anger keep him from doing what has to be done. "Okay, get ready." Taking out his PET he extends the cable and plugs it into the terminal. "Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

Rex transfers into the mainframe in a blue transport light, materializing from his feet up to his head. Taking a few steps forward he stops and notices the fried terminals in front of him. He looks around to see other damages as well, such as a few frozen areas on the ground and more burn marks. What the heck happened here?

A groan caught Rex's attention. He turns to his right and gasps to see a wounded Longneck Navi on the ground clutching a de-rezzing wound on his thigh. "Hey, are you okay?" Rex inquires as he rushes over to the Navi, kneeling down to check on the wound. "What happened here?"

"Nnngh…A Sharptooth attacked us…Lightning from his…Paws…" The Longneck Navi slowly lifts his head and gasps. He manages to get up to his knees and push Rex away. "Look out!"

As Rex was pushed back he watches as two projectiles zoom past where he was and strike the downed Longneck Navi, freezing him solid in a block of ice in an instant. Horrified, Rex turns his head and spots two viruses screeching at him, their feathers glowing and their claws sizzling with pure cybernetic energy. "W-What are those things?"

Kaden taps a few buttons into his PET, scrolling through some documents until he finds what he's looking for: a Virus Encyclopedia, a program all PETs come with. He scans the viruses in the mainframe and the encyclopedia comes up with information he needed. "IceRaptor viruses." Kaden reads the entry. "They can freeze you solid with its feathers and can tear you apart with their claws."

Rex slowly stands up and jumps to the side, avoiding a sudden shot of their feathers. He winces and rubs his side as he felt the numbness cold as the projectiles flew past him. They're fast shooters, that's for sure. "They're probably the ones who caused all this trouble."

"Then they'll pay…" Kaden's eyes were in a deep glare. No one ruins his day with his father and gets away with it. He takes out a certain giga-class Battle Chip and slots it into the PET, transferring the battle data to Rex.

In turn, Rex's eyes glow red, but instead of issuing the attack Rex sort of hesitates as he looks at his glowing paws. "Um, Kaden? I don't think it's such a good idea to waste the good ones this early."

"Just do it!"

Rex winces, but what else can he do? He's his Net Navi, and he has to do what Kaden says. After all…He's just a program. With a sigh Rex lifts his paw up and slams it down into the ground, cracking it open and erecting a huge flow of lava. The lava flows quickly at the viruses and engulfs them, leaving the viruses to screech out in agony as they melt in the overwhelmingly hot magma. As the lava recedes some small fire remains, but at least no viruses in sight.

"All right, that takes care of that." Kaden comments.

Rex then walks to the terminal and examines it; looks like the terminals are busted here too. But before he could get a chance to manually overwrite the program lightning shoots out of nowhere and strikes Rex in the back, causing the Navi to scream in terrible shock and pain before falling to the ground as the attack stops. The sudden attack surprised Kaden. "Where did that come from?"

"Hmhmhmhm…" A chuckle rang out, and from out of the shadows came out a Fast Biter Navi. Some smoke emanated from his fingers as he blew it away. "I could have sworn I was keeping everyone out with the doors locked. Maybe I should've turned up the heat in the air ducts to fry your Operator as well!"

Rex twitched from the electric shock, but he gritted his teeth as he tried to get up. This Navi…He's the one responsible for this…For ruining his Operator's day with his father…He won't forgive him…

"Oh come on! That wasn't even a powerful lightning!" Zill snarled as he swatted his arm at the downed Navi. But then he held out his paw to the Navi with his fingers aimed at him. "THIS is a powerful lightning!"

Rex's eyes widened and in an instant he jumped from the ground, dodging the attack in a split second. The lightning struck the ground, causing an explosion that picked up smoke and dirt. With a grunt from the earlier shock Rex stood his ground, his eyes set on the Fast Biter Navi. "Well, look who still has energy to stand!" Zill mocked with a grin.

Rex's eyes widened as he laid his eyes on the Fast Biter as the smoke cleared. "Hey! I know you! You're that Fast Biter that attacked me back at the Garden Area 1 network!"

"Isn't that a hoot?" Zill chuckled, now he remembers this Navi. The one his boss mentioned, the only Sharptooth Navi that's been accepted to the public so far. "My boss has a bone to pick with you for some odd reason. Personally I just want to see you suffer and rip you apart."

"You're the one who ruined my day with my dad!" Kaden shouted in a burst of anger, his hand closing in a tight fist. "I won't forgive you! Get him, Rex!"

"Oh, boo-hoo." Zill mocked. Acknowledging his Operator's command Rex changed his paw into his buster and took quick aim, shooting at the opposing force. Zill wasn't amused however, as he dodged the shot with ease. Rex tried to strike Zill with a barrage of buster shots, but Zill proved to be too fast. To him a simple Fire Water chip could stop him right on his tracks, but Kaden used it in a fit against the viruses.

Zill laughed at the thrill of the moment and stood for a moment and held out his paw, shooting lightning at the Navi. In a gasp Rex jumps and rolls out of the way as the lightning strikes the damaged terminal behind him, exploding in a burst of lightning. Back in the real world Kaden was browsing through his chips to figure out what to use, but the terminal exploding in the terminal caused serious damage to the real world terminal, causing a section of it to explode, startling Kaden as he screamed and covered his face.

"Kaden!" Rex cried as he heard his Operator scream, worried that he might've been hurt. "Are you okay?"

Kaden winced as he drops his battle chips, his right hand got slightly burned from the explosion. He closed his eyes in pain as he tried moving his burned hand. It's not serious, but it stings so much. "Just a scratch…"

Rex gritted his teeth; he knows his Operator got hurt, all because of this monster of a Navi terrorist. He glared at Zill with a ferocious look. With a snarl Rex changed his buster back to his paw and activates his Chip Memory custom program, elongating his claws into pure cybernetic energy and charges at his opponent.

"Well, this is new." Zill commented. He stepped back to avoid a slash and sidestepped to avoid another. In an act of confidence he grabs Rex's shoulder and, with a smirk in his face, sends a handful of lighting through his paw and into Rex's body, shocking the Navi with thousands of bolts. The only sound he could hear was Rex's screams of agony as he's electrocuted.

While that's going on in the security mainframe Booster and Grayscale are still struggling against all the IceRaptor viruses in the mainframe. The trees they are hiding behind in are starting to get completely frozen from the IceRaptor viruses' projectiles. A ParaBomb battle chip materializes in Booster's hand and he chucks it at the IceRaptors. With its power rating of 90 it explodes upon hitting the ground, striking in a huge radius and deleting five IceRaptor viruses. Booster pumps his arm from the success, but he quickly cowers and hides behind the tree as more IceRaptor viruses come and shoots him.

Grayscale closes her eyes and opens them once again; in one eye she sees the IceRaptors and a horizontal row of 3 gun sights. With her programming she moves the gun sights to aim at about four IceRaptors and activates her Battle Chip, out of nowhere a powerful blast strikes where she aimed, deleting those four viruses and three more that were close to them. The blast left three holes behind, at least those will slow the others down.

"Whew." Booster whistles in amazement as he witnessed the power. "Isn't that MrkCan3 Battle Chip awesome?"

"Hmph." Grayscale smirked; it's always easy to amuse her partner. She looks back to see more IceRaptors coming their way. "This won't work, there are too many of them."

"Don't give up!" Asho roots for their Navis. "We can do this!"

Booster gulps, he only wish he was that sure. He peaks and shoots with his buster before taking cover from an array of projectiles. They're severely outnumbered; at this rate they'll be overwhelmed in no time. He doesn't think even Grayscale can go up against this number.

"Woo-hoo!" An excited cry rang out from nowhere. A green and blue Fast Biter Navi jumps out from behind a group of trees with his two arms as yellow gatling-guns. From mid-air he opens fire, the gatling-guns' barrels begin to rotate at high speed and peppering the IceRaptor viruses with a massive amount of bullets, striking their bodies and deleting them at a rapid rate. Those buster gatling-guns are known as the Battle Chip Vulcan2 with an attack rate of 20 per hit, and good luck counting the amount of bullets they shoot per second.

The viruses try to scramble away from the bullets, and while some of the succeed they come across another Net Navi, a blue Sharptooth T-Rex type. He stands there with his arms crossed over his chest with a gentle smile on his face yet shooting a glare at them. The viruses screech at him and take a closer to them, an action which the Navi shakes his head at. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." The viruses didn't listen to his warning and as punishment they are blown up to smithereens from a sudden step forward. The Navi giggles as he looks down at the hole on the ground where he hid a couple of mines from the Mine Battle Chip. "I tried to warn them."

After all is said and done the IceRaptor viruses have all been deleted, this section is safe. Booster and Grayscale come out from behind the trees and they walk to the Navis that just helped them. "Thanks a lot, you two!" Booster gives his thanks with a smile and a great big hug to the two Navis. "I knew you'd come help!"

"Aagh…!" Yu yelps as he's being crushed in the hug. "Booster…Crushing me…!"

"Gack…!" Chomper squirms as he tries to get out of the tight hug. "Can't…Breathe…!"

"Oh!" With an embarrassed chuckle Booster puts the two Navis down, grinning sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry."

Grayscale watched as the two young Navis coughed and gasped for breath after such a crushing hug. While she never was a victim to Booster's crushing arms, she must imagine how strong of a squeeze they give out just by seeing these two highly-trained Navis give in to it so easily. After giving them time to recover she steps forward with a stern look. "Where are the others? I was expecting back up from other Net Saviors, not Net Police officers."

Chomper coughs as he rubs his ribs after the painful squeeze. "You're welcome…" He grumbles sarcastically, at least he was expecting a thank you for helping, but then again this was Grayscale.

""We're sorry."" Chomper's Operator speaks through a direct link. ""The other Net Saviors were called to secure the more important servers on the mainframe. We were scrambled to assist you two.""

""Besides,"" Yu's Operator speaks as well. ""Us two is better than nothing, right?""

"That's not the issue at the moment." Kiraa informs them as she presses a few buttons on her PET. "I can't get through to anyone. The malfunctioning wireless equipment here is jamming out wireless communication channel. We need someone to get to the security mainframe to unlock the doors. We're too isolated to effectively address the situation."

"It looks like our only option is to head to the security mainframe from the network." Asho digs into his pocket and takes out a security chip. He slots it into his PET and in the network a think red path starts from Booster's position to the direction of the security mainframe. "Our Navis can get there by following the path."

"Understood." Grayscale nods. She then turns to Chomper and Yu. "Cover our backs."

Yu nods in agreement while Chomper grins and holds up his buster cannon. "Will do!"

"Let's hurry then." Booster mentions to the others and off they go, following the path to the security mainframe. It'll take a while for them to get there, but better late than never. They just hope nothing awful happens before they get there. The Garden City Network doesn't need any more damage to make things worse.

"I hope they make it in time." Asho hopes as he lifts his eyes to Kiraa.

Kiraa on the other hand is just pressing the heck out of her PET's buttons. She was scanning the ports going over ID numbers and the taglines of Net Navis in the SciLab network to try to find their culprit. It takes a while to do, but it's a way to be safe. Her curiosity is caught as she finds two Navis in the network with ID numbers she's not familiar with. One of them seems to have a hacked ID number, while the other's ID number is unknown. And to top it all off, they're in the security mainframe. "Who…?"

"Aagh!" Rex cries in pain as he slams hard on the ground. That's the third time Zill's tackled him. His arms are in a lot of pain, and if you look at his Limb Damage Meter his arms are totally in the red. He's suffering heavy damage, and Kaden has no healing chips of his own to help him.

"Man, you're slow." Zill grins. He holds out his paws and sends another lightning blast at Rex. But he manages to roll out of the way to barely dodge it. He coughs as he covers his nose from the smoke, his lungs lacking oxygen.

"Come on, Rex!" Kaden calls to his Navi. He carefully holds a battle chip in his burnt hand and slots it into his PET. Slowly Rex lifts his aching arm and changes his paw into a Cannon. Despite the ache of holding such a heavy cannon in his arm he takes aim and fires, missing the first shot by miles before slowly getting the right aim. But by the time he did so Zill easily avoids the shots, leaving Rex pitifully without ammo by the time his aim gets decent.

"Oh come on, what the heck was that?" Zill mocks as he holds up his paw, creating a ball of electricity before chucking it at Rex. The Navi manages to roll out of the way but the ball of electricity explodes too close to him, sending Rex flying back from the explosion and feeling the burning agony of being near it, making him scream in agony.

Kaden's PET began to beep wildly, it was indicating that Rex's arms and legs were critical and he needed to be jacked out to avoid deletion. But Kaden wasn't going to let that happen, he had to defeat this bad guy. He wasn't thinking about Rex's well being, he wanted to get back at this Fast Biter for making his day even worse than it already is. He wanted to delete him, and he was actually risking Rex's life to do it. Besides, Rex can be brought back at worst case scenario. He's just a program.

"Hahaha." Zill laughed as he saw Rex getting up. Now this is a pitiful sight. Rex's missing an arm, it completely de-rezzed from the bicep down. "My gosh…Look at you." Zill teased as he walked over to Rex. "Your arm's de-rezzing and who knows how close your other limbs are to do the same. I guess I should spare you the agony and give you a good deletion! But knowing you pathetic Navis you'll just jack out before that happens."

"N-Never…"

Zill stopped. "Hm?"

"I…I won't jack out…" Rex slowly manages to get up to his feet, trembling from the agony of his limbs. "I won't give up…I'm not going to fail my Operator…This day was important to him…I won't forgive anyone who gets in-between him and his father…"

Zill grins, so that's his plan. "That's funny, because as I recall you were doing just that only a few moments ago." Rex flinched upon hearing that, but Zill continues. "Yeah. I was in the security mainframe long before the alarms sounded. I managed to spy through the cameras and heard everything. Sounds like you got on your Operator's nerves to consider reprogramming you. Why go on if he's just going to throw you away like that?"

Rex grits his teeth as he remembers those painful words he heard Kaden say. Kaden was hearing too and was watching how Rex's morale and spirit began to crumble. He wasn't expecting for Rex to take it this badly. After all, he wouldn't remember any of it if he does get reprogrammed, right? What does it matter?

"Because…" Rex was trembling, but he kept his glare at Zill. "Because Kaden is special to me…He's my best friend, my partner…And I'd do anything for him…I just want to see him happy…"

"You just want to see him happy?" Zill smirks and grabs Rex by the neck in a sudden move. With a tight grip he lifts him off his feet and dangles him in the air, choking him to squeeze the life out of him. "Haha! Then I'll do him a favor and delete you!"

"Ack…Gachk…" Rex chokes in the grasp. Despite his left arm de-rezzing he grasps Zill's arm with his right paw, resisting from being deleted by the choke. "Even if he…Reprograms me…I'll still stand by him…I'll never forget him…Despite all the bad things we've gone through…I'll never…Forget when I…Fought with him to get him out of bed…Even if my heart changes…I'll always remember him as I am now…"

Kaden trembles as he watches Rex struggle so strongly. Despite knowing he wanted to reprogram him, he still continues to fight on with such passion and courage. Could it be that he was wrong? Is Rex more than just a program? Is his opinion on all Net Navi being mere programs all just ignorance? To reprogram Rex…That'd be like killing somebody and remaking him again. He was going to basically kill his own Navi. Tear apart his soul…

Does he really want that? Was he going to let a few simple arguments seriously consider in changing Rex? Would he really want to play God with these kinds of programs?

No…Net Navis are more than just programs…They're as real as him…

"Hahah, such dedication!" Zill squeezes tighter around Rex's neck as he just grins away at the Navi's pathetic speech. "We mean nothing to humans! We're just programs! We may love our Operators and they might love us back, but once they find a better Navi they'll throw us away! That's why I dedicate myself to be as strong as I can for my Operator!"

"You're wrong!" Kaden suddenly shouts in anger into his PET. "I wouldn't…No, I would never get rid of my Navi!"

Rex slightly opens his eyes through the pain. "K…Kaden…"

"I…Once thought just like that…That Net Navis were just programs…I always wanted to Net Battle with them…To have them help with my homework, to roam the network with them…Sure, I always felt hurt and pained to see Navis in pain…But I thought they would never be lost forever, you could always back them up and they'll return…" Kaden bites his lower lip as he continues. "But no…That's just too much…I know now that Net Navis are much more than just mere programs…They're living beings too…We program them and give them life…But they're just as real…" Kaden wipes the tears from his eyes and looks back into his PET. "I'm sorry, Rex! I'm sorry I ever considered reprogramming you! I don't want to change you if it means your heart will ache! You're my best friend too and I wouldn't change you for the world!"

"Kaden…I-Gaaah!" Rex was suddenly cut off as Zill crushes his neck in his grip. He can't take this pathetic crying anymore! He was going to silence them!

""This is getting boring, Zill. Finish it!"" Zill's Operator, Akira, commands.

Zill growls furiously. "My pleasure!"

The grip around his neck tightens and Rex is gasping for breath. He tries in vain to break out of the grip, but just struggling is just making it worse as Zill's claws dig deeper into his skin. Kaden coughs and grasps his neck. Despite no one being there in the room with him he could feel his neck being tighten, as if he's being chocked too. What the…?

As Rex is put more through the choke the pain around Kaden's neck intensifies. The more Kaden thinks about a way to help his Navi the more unbearable it gets. Rex's neck is pricked a bit by Zill's claws, and surprisingly a small cut forms on Kaden's neck as a little blood comes out of it.

"R…Rex…" Kaden say in-between breaths. "I know you can do it…" He grits his teeth as something starts to happen. The phenomenon that happened before at the nuclear warehouse is happening again. His clothes began to sway and a faint aura starts to form around him. "Fight him…I'm here for you…"

Rex's eyes grew wider and narrowed into a dangerous slit, he could feel his hit points restoring and his strength growing. This puzzled Zill as he felt the strange power around his victim. "Wha…What's going on here?"

Back at the mainframe the four Navis are running toward the security mainframe. They were soon getting shot at by IceRaptors following them. They knew they couldn't keep running with these viruses in two, so two certain Navis decide to volunteer for the aid.

"You two go on ahead!" Yu cries to Grayscale and Booster. "Chomper and I are going to have some fun back here!"

Booster looks back and nods. "Be careful, okay?"

The two Navis nod before coming to a stop, turning tail and training their buster cannons at the incoming viruses. "So how many do you bet I'll delete by the time this is over?" Yu grins to his T-Rex partner.

Chomper giggles and responds. "Two hundred zenny says less than ten!"

"Two hundred? Man, that's pocket change!" Yu laughs. "You're on!" And with that the two Navis charge to take on the viruses. They jump and roll out of the way of the icy projectiles as they return fire with their busters, buying Grayscale and Booster some time for them to get to the security mainframe. IceRaptor viruses fell like flies from Chomper and Yu's buster shots and their strategically use of battle chips.

"I hope those two will be okay." Booster comments as he still runs alongside Grayscale to the direction of the security mainframe.

"They're trained professionals, Booster. I'm sure they'll survive."

"I hope so…Whoa!" Booster and Grayscale stop in their tracks as IceRaptor viruses are approaching them from up ahead, a large number of them. Looks like whoever hacked into the network knew they would try to stop him at the security mainframe, and he prepared. "Good grief…" Booster sighed. "It can't get any worse than this…" He takes a step back and watches at the viruses carefully as they begin to approach them.

"What do we do now, Kiraa?" Asho asks his partner. He didn't like all these viruses in the network. And he hated the thought of his Navi going up against such an army.

Kiraa closes her eyes and responds calmly. "What we always do in these dire situations." They had no choice, and Kiraa knew it. She concentrated as Grayscale did the same and her clothes then began to sway. Asho gasped and took a step back as a faint aura began to form around her. Soon enough her clothes and hair swayed as if there was wind in the room. The power was overwhelming, and Asho knew what Kiraa just did.

"Kiraa…" Asho began to speak. "You're…Using Full Synchro!"

Kiraa looked at her partner, the sense of power overwhelming as some of the terminals were beginning to go a little crazy from the sparks and atmosphere. "Any better ideas to power through all those viruses?" Asho slowly shook his head, an action at which Kiraa smiled a bit. "Well? I know you're not going to let me have all of the fun."

Asho slowly nodded, knowing what this meant. He took a deep sigh and he closed his eyes, an action which Booster did the same. They both focused and then they opened their eyes with a sudden cry. "Full Synchro!"

"This…This can't be possible!" Zill shouted in frustration. Rex was getting better instead of getting worse! His left arm was regenerating and his wounds were healing. What in the world is happening to this Navi?

It's as if Rex and Kaden are in the same situation and at the same place at once. Kaden could feel a grip around his neck as if Zill himself was holding him by the throat. In a fit of rage Kaden moved his arm as if to grab his attacker's arm, an action which Rex did the same with both his arms. He squeezed Zill's arm and with his foot he kicked off of his chest, jumping out of his grip and knocking Zill down to the ground.

"Agh! You little…!" Zill was about to insult the Navi but he stopped. He sensed the overwhelming power as Rex stood there in a slight hunched down position, energy surrounding the Navi as a faint aura was around him. Kaden was sort of in the same pose, and he felt his heart beating rapidly. A red mark began to form over Kaden's right eye, but to him it was unnoticeable. There was no pain or anything. Then, he felt another heart, as if he had two of them beating in his chest. He could also hear another person's breathing, as if there was somebody else standing next to him.

This heart beat…Is it…Is it Rex's heart beat?

"This is…" Kaden began.

"This is the same thing that happened to us back at the nuclear warehouse." Rex finished.

"Which means…" Kaden grinned, a sheer overwhelming feeling of confidence filling his body. "Which means we can win this! Let's go, Rex! Battle routine, set!"

Rex grins and nods. "Execute!"

In the network Grayscale and Booster, both of them fully synchronized with their Operators, are making their way toward the security mainframe and fighting their way through the IceRaptor viruses. Booster, with his massive fists and arms, punches and tears through any viruses in his way. He sees a few of them coming toward him and he slams his fist into the ground, creating a fissure that travels toward them and swallows them up, deleting them in place. Such power and speed…Is this the significant power up Navis get from Full Synchro?

"Graaah!" Booster cries as he grabs an IceRaptor and throws it to a group of them, deleting them from the powerful throw. It's incredible, both Asho and Kiraa don't even have use for their PETs to operate their Navis aside from the occasional delivery of Battle Chips.

Grayscale slashes and bites her way through the hordes of viruses. She uses her tail to strike viruses away and her claws to tear through the viruses in front of her. She suddenly stops as her eyes glow red and she sucks in as much breath as she could and, when she was at full capacity, blows it all out in one huge fire breath blast! The breath of fire expands into a huge wall of fire, burning away every single virus in its path by the touch. Such is the power of the FlameBreath Blast mega-class chip.

"Hehe, made a path for us, huh?" Booster comments with a grin after deleting two more viruses.

Grayscale rolls her eyes from the comment. "Let's just hurry before they come back again."

Booster nods in agreement and they both rush through the cleared path. Thanks to their powered up Full Synchro state they rush with extremely impressive speeds. Meanwhile Rex is showing the same power boost as well. He jumps and runs as he easily avoids Zill's electric attacks. He skids to a stop and shoots with his buster cannon, the blast surprisingly fast strikes Zill across the chest and knocks him down to the ground.

"Aaagh!" He grunts in pain. With a snarl he gets up and summons three IceRaptor viruses to back him up. The viruses screech and charge, but Rex wasn't phased. He throws his arm out and his claws become longer and deadlier as he activates his Chip Memory program. He charges forward and leaps in time, slashing through the viruses and landing behind them with ease. Rex lifts his glaring eyes at Zill and charges once again and leaps with a roar, ready to strike him down. Zill tried to defend, but it happened so fast we have to replay everything at slow motion to even see what happened.

Zill tried to lift his paw up to strike Rex down with his lightning attack, but Rex knocked his arm away with his other arm and, upon landing right in front of Zill, he thrusted his arm forward and impaled his claws deep into Zill's chest. If this was a Cyber Sword he would've penetrated the other end through Zill's back.

"Gack…" Zill coughs. Pixels of data come out of the wound and a drop of cybernetic blood drools down from his mouth. He couldn't believe this runt actually got him. "You…" He manages to speak as his eyes are glaring at Rex. "Don't think you…Have won…Because…This is still the beginning…!" And with that, Zill disintegrates into particles of data and jacks out, leaving Rex behind.

Rex watches the Sharptooth leave as he stands up straight. It's over. A sudden pain to his chest causes Rex to gasp in pain and drop to his knees, breathing heavily as he clutches his chest. His power boost, it's gone.

Kaden is in the same position, on his knees and clutching his chest. Whatever happened to Rex and himself is gone now. "That…" Kaden manages to speak between breathes as he slowly manages to stand up. "What…What was that?"

""Full Synchro in a nut-shell.""

Kaden jumped, startled by the voice from out of nowhere. He looked into his PET, wondering if someone jacked the line. In the mainframe Rex slowly backs away, gulping from the frightening ordeal he's in now. "Kaden…There's another Navi here…"

Indeed. In front of him stalks a green and orange Alimon Navi. This one came out of nowhere, Rex didn't even sense him. Friend or foe? Whoever he is he's standing there, and he's scary looking with that armor.

"Don't be afraid, little one." The Alimon Navi speaks. "I mean no harm."

""I must say, I'm surprised."" That same voice spoke out from Kaden's PET, no doubt the Alimon's Operator who joined the frequency channel to speak to Kaden. ""When I read the report that someone like you accomplished Full Synchro I was skeptical. But seeing it first hand, you two truly impress me.""

Kaden blinks. "Full Synchro…?"

Rex takes a step forward, curious to find out what this is. "Tell me, what's Full Synchro?"

The Alimon Navi hesitates to answer the question. He blinks and gives a slow nod, receiving a confirmation from his Operator to go ahead and tell. "Full Synchro is a phenomenon that can only be achieved when the Operator and Net Navi are in complete harmony with one another. When in this state, the Navi's fighting capabilities are significantly increased, in addition the Operator and Navi's wills are fused together, both becoming one consciousness. This in turn demolishes the barrier between the real world and the cyber world, removing the delay between command and reaction, which can make a big difference between life and death."

""However, it does have its dangers."" The Alimon's Operator continues. ""Such as the barrier between the real world and the cyber world is removed, the Operator is at risk to the same danger as the Net Navi.""

As he heard this warning Kaden rubbed his neck, his thumb touching the wound on the side of it. So that pain to his neck…He was feeling the same Rex was feeling; getting chocked by that Navi…And the cut, a wound from Zill's claws. Full Synchro…What power…

But…Was he and Rex really in perfect harmony? Earlier today they were at each other's throats, how could they be in perfect harmony? Could it be…Could it be that Kaden's apology and his complete understandment on Net Navis have caused the two of them to forgive and become perfectly harmonized with one another? There's still so many questions left to answer…

"Now…" The Navi looks at Rex with a stern look. "You have achieved the status by chance, but under no circumstances must you try to emulate the situation to achieve it again! You were lucky your Operator didn't get seriously injured!"

Rex winced from the warning. He could've felt Kaden with him during Full Synchro, and he somehow knew he was getting hurt along with him. It was a frightening power, to fuse consciousness with your Operator but in exchange he is vulnerable to the same damage he gets. What if he gets deleted while in Full Synchro? Would that mean Kaden would…Die?

The Alimon Navi turned his head away, hearing a commotion outside of the security mainframe. Grayscale must be nearby. He turns to Rex and snarls at him. "You should leave. Now!"

"What? Wait a minute, but…!"

""We'll surely meet again."" The Operator commented before jacking his Alimon Navi out and leaving the communication frequency, leaving Kaden and Rex alone.

"…Let's jack out too." Rex speaks out to his Operator.

Kaden nods and presses a button on his PET, jacking his Net Navi out just in time as a few seconds later Grayscale and Booster arrive at the security mainframe. They were puzzled to see the place empty, but it was obvious a fight broke out in here. But now's not the time to ponder. Together, the two Net Savior Navis boot up an emergency program that only they have the keys to and unlock every door in the building. The sounds of locks unlocking could be heard everywhere, and all of the SciLab employees were free to go about once again.

As for Kaden, he stood there looking at his Navi with a smile, who in turn smiled back to his Operator. Everything is well again. But questions were still in Kaden's mind as the boy slowly lowered his PET and stared out in space as he remains alone in the room for a while longer. Full Synchro…The power to fuse an Operator's and Navi's consciousness into one.

"Well played, Akira…" A voice spoke out. The room was a dark one in SciLab's building. The only thing housing this room was a computer chip, almost identical to a Battle Chip. Held in place by a few metallic arms in the middle of a case, it clearly must be something dangerous to be housed this way. What does it contain?

"I gave you one hour, and you clearly used it well." This mysterious intruder opens the case, and with an evil grin he sticks his hand in and grabs the computer chip, removing it out from its position and bringing it closer to his eyes for a closer inspection. The security was still down, so no alarms or anything of the sort to alarm of the robbery.

"I thank you, my friend. The prize is ours…" And with that, the mysterious intruder vanishes without a trace, but not before leaving behind a fake computer chip, identical to the one he just stole. Everything was done before the security mainframe could've been rebooted. A perfect heist…

It was the morning after the SciLab incident, and after a good scolding to Kaden for disappearing on them after they agreed to help in Haruko's shop things went back to normal…Well, there was at least one more thing left to do before everything would turn back to normal…

I always saw Net Navis as incredibly smart AI programs. I never thought of them as equal to us…Where a simple backup could solve everything.

Kaden looked out the window of his mother's car. He was properly dressed in black, which was a rare sight for someone like Kaden to be seen in. But today was special…It was for his friend.

I thought Net Navis were easy to program. I thought reprogramming their personalities was easy and you could've done it whenever you wished without the Navi's care. Yeah, I just saw them as really smart programs.

The car came to a stop and the doors opened. Kaden stepped out of the car with his mother and his father. It was a surprise his father managed to get some time off for this. But like mentioned earlier, today was special.

But then I realized…They were anything but.

They walked together down a sidewalk. Looking around Kaden saw the morbid sight of tomb stones. They were at the Garden City Cemetery. Today was the day that a special someone was going to be put to rest in peace. As they got closer to their desired spot they began seeing a group of people, all dressed in black and together in mourning and prayer.

I learned that Net Navis are much more than just lines of programming. They could feel pain, sorrow. They could share it with us, like any normal human could.

The Homari family made it to the spot and they saw all their friends; Sally and Stephen's family, Silus' family, Malory's family, acquaintances and friends. But most importantly, Jason's family was there. His father made an emergency flight to Garden City for the occasion. And as expected, Jason's grandparents were there.

Net Navis are more than just BIO files and file extensions. They have their own unique personality, quirks and feelings. Special things that even a simple back up can't duplicate.

As Kaden's parents went to give their regards and respects to Jason's family Kaden stepped forward to his group of friends. They said their hellos before Kaden stepped forward to his old friend, Jason. Kaden was feeling awful right then and there. Compared to the others, he was the one who spend the least time with Jason during these hard times. The two longtime friends gave each other a hug.

In their PETs, their Navis are together in their Friend Room, a huge area where Navis can be together if two or more PETs are in each other's Friend List and when they are close by together. Petrie, Spike, Cera, Ducky and Rex were standing in two rows facing each other, two of them on one side and three of them on the other side.

Walking down in the middle was Littlefoot, in his hand holding the TreeStar he found in the Garden Network after the Network Disaster. To him this TreeStar was special. It reminded him of his mother.

But most of all, they all have a heart.

Littlefoot continues walking forward to a pedestal tombstone of sort. A special tombstone Jason programmed especially for Littlefoot, in memory of Jason's mother's Net Navi, a Net Navi that was very much Littlefoot's mother. The Net Navi who sacrificed herself to save Littlefoot.

I should know, because I've felt that heart. I believe they have their own heart.

Just as Littlefoot reaches the tombstone and sets the TreeStar down on the tombstone, Jason is doing the same, a bouquet of flower on his mother's coffin from himself, his grandparents and his father.

"For you, mother." Jason and Littlefoot say at the same time as they set their gifts on their mothers' grave.

The Navis stand in a row in front of the tombstone to pay their respects as in the real world the families stand as the coffin is slowly lowered down into the hole where her grave will be marked. Everyone watched as not one eye is left dry. Kaden glanced over at Jason, his old friend as he sees some tears running down his cheeks.

They are living beings just like you and I. And we can't play God with them whenever we want. We can't go reprogramming them because we dislike their personality, or they have a wea kness we want to change, or just because we want a Net Navi of a different series.

The Navis close their eyes and place their paws together to pray for the peaceful rest of their lost loved ones just as the humans do the same. Today marks the dawn of a brand new day…

We must respect them like any other human, because they are in essence the same as us. They have a heart, a soul, a will, a consciousness.

Littlefoot opens his eyes as tears begin to roll down his eyes. He then finds some comfort as his friends gather around him and they all embrace in a group hug.

And besides, they become our best friends, our partners. And we must work together for a better future, right? A world where both human and Net Navis can co-exist in peace, live together without fear and to work together for a better future.

Jason stands on the freshly marked grave after all is said and done. His mother is now resting in peace. She's now in a better place, and he couldn't feel any more alone…

But then his friends: Sally, Stephen, Silus, Malory and Kaden stand around him, each of them looking at their friend with a smile of confidence. Jason couldn't help but smile back. No, he's never alone, not with these guys around. And with Littlefoot with him as well, he'll never be alone.

We support each other. That's why Rex and I managed Full Synchro. Because we're both living beings and we can pull together and combine as one to become stronger than ever before. Just like how humans work together to become stronger.

I felt his anger, his pain and his sorrows that day. That made me realize just how real he is. I felt his heart, his breathing. I know now Net Navis are as real as we are. I won't forget that, ever. Rex is still with me because he wishes so, not because he's installed to my PET or anything. Only a living being would care for me that much to stick by me despite all our arguments and disagreements…

"On the next chapter of Land Before Time: Battle Network!"

"Man, that Full Synchro is something else! I really want to try it again!"

"But Kaden, didn't that Alimon warned us not to try it again?"

"I know I know, but I can't help it."

"Kaden, I hope you didn't forget about the Great Valley Square's festival today."

"Oh yeah! I can't believe they managed to fix the network in three weeks! Dr. Isaac's experiment was incredible!"

"Trouble, Kaden! Ducky's little sister was kidnapped! And she hasn't even hatched yet!"

" What? That's no good! Jack in! Rex! Power up!"

"Next time! 'An egg'citing adventure! The second arc!'"

"Hey Rex, check this egg'celent email I got from my mom!"

"Ugh…Kaden…"