Tifa & Yuffie

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Dr. Hikari didn't know exactly what to say to this, he wasn't sure how he was supposed to answer. Then a voice sounded from Lan's P.E.T
"Luke, explain to me what you consider a Net-Navi to be. are they just a computer program to you? or are they something more important...something much closer to human than that?"[/i] Megaman suddenly asked, the question seemed completely irrelevant to the situation and completely out-of-the-blue, but Megaman knew what he was doing and he knew that he might be able to prove that they only wanted to help. "tell me how important Alphaman and your previous Navi are to you"

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke had always seemed a rather nervous type, but as Mega-man posed his question all sense of security melted away and the boy looked like he might fall apart at any second.
"D-Dragon-man was my b-best friend. An old man gave him to me so i wouldn't have to be alone anymore... h-he said that Dragon-man would always want me, even if no one else in the world did." The hand that clutched his PET began to shake violently, Luke on the verge of hysterics.
"We never battled, i never wanted to be a net-battler... i just wanted Dragon-man to be with me... he was all i had." The tears began to flow now, "But someone hacked into the network of my house, Dragon-man tried to defend me--" The tiny flicker of confidence and strength that had remained in Luke shattered then. He stepped back, looking as if he were about to run, but Chod grabbed him by the shoulder.
"They promised to help me!" Luke cried hysterically, "They said they could give me back my family! I knew it was stupid, trusting those people but... but i didn't want to be alone! Please dont take Alpha-man away from me, i need him and he needs me!"

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Megaman remained silent and Lan suddenly caught on to where this was going.
"Luke," he began, turning to the boy "Dragonman was -and still is- like a brother to you, right?" he asked, his expression now serious "Chod and I feel the same way about Protoman and Megaman, and we know we can trust them, as much as you can trust Alphaman." he stopped, knowing Megaman would continue.
"and both of them have also lost their Navis once before...that makes all of us very much the same."[/i] he said, his voice somewhat sad in a way "Do you think the Darkloids had ever felt something like you have? I wouldn't think so...they don't understand how important Alphaman is to you and wouldn't care about what you think if they took him. But we know how important he is to you and I know Lan is like a brother to me, as I'm sure Dragonman was to you...and Alphaman is just as special to you."[/i]
Dr. Hikari continued "Megaman is right, we aren't the Darkloids...we want to help you"

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke just melted into complete hysterics, his knees sagging as if he'd lost the strength to stand on his own. That's when Chod did the strangest thing. He turned Luke around, hugging the younger boy to his chest, his eyes burning with an assortment of complicated emotion.
Sure, like he'd just said, Lan and Mega-man treated each other like brothers, they were very important to one another. But Chod knew deep down that he was really the only one here who TRUELY understood Luke's feelings towards his Navi.

Chod had been orphaned young, but as the son of a wealthy family he was well looked after by his family's servants, raised to still be the boss of his father's company. It had been a lonely life though, and when he'd finally found Proto-man, it was like having a family again. When he'd lost Proto-man to the darkloids he'd felt cold and alone, like there was no one in the world for him any more.
Lan may have been shaken when Mega-man was deleted in the past, but there was no way he could understand the complete loneliness.
"You're an Orphan... aren't you Luke?" Chod asked, his voice strangely un-readable.
Luke nodded then, still sobbing heavily against Chod's chest, "When i was four my mother died in a car accident... father never wanted me, so the moment she was gone he dumped me in an orphanage." Luke wiped his eyes hurriedly, "No one there ever wanted me either, eventually i was too old to be adopted. But just before i left the orphanage an old man came and gave me Dragon-man." His breathing shuddered heavily, "He was the only family i'd ever had."
"I understand... how you feel, Luke." Chod said, his voice soft, "I lost my parents as a child, and Proto-man became my only friend. I know that losing someone that close to you is the worst pain in the world. You wouldn't want that to happen again would you?" As he spoke one of his hands came to rest on Luke's PET, "But it will, if you don't let Dr. Hikari help Alpha-man."

There were a long moment of silence and hesitation, but finally Luke relinquished his hold of the gold PET, handing the device over to Chod. The man then released Luke and moved to offer the device to the professor.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Lan smiled and Megaman quietly sighed in relief in his P.E.T...Chod really knew how to handle this kid.
Professor Hikari smiled and nodded thanks to Chod, gently taking the P.E.T and moving over to the computer.
"This may take some time, Luke, so you can stay here and wait if you like, though I'd suggest that it's better not to leave Sci-Lab for now, the Darkloids may already be looking for you." He typed something into the keyboard and a small draw just large enough to fit a P.E.T slid out. Professor Hikari placed Luke's P.E.T into the slot and slid it shut, only seconds after an image of Alphaman appeared on the screen, like a blue-print almost in the way the computer pointed out damage and places where the Navi was incomplete.
Professor Hikari got to work right away, pulling his seat over and sitting down to work. He scanned through each individual file first, re-writing and replacing corrupted data and finalizing data on half-done files. The process was slow but slowly each file that was already in Alphaman's systems was repaired and completed. Next up was the part that would take a long time, he had to completely re-make some files and others he had to create from scratch as they had never existed in the first place. Not willing to waste time, he got to work, tapping away at the computer's keys.

"hey, uh, Lan?"[/i] Megaman piped up.
"what?" Lan looked at the screen of his P.E.T where Megaman stood.
"maybe we should go off and find something to do...I think Luke could use a bit of time-out, he looks kinda' stressed out to me"[/i] He pointed out, nodding in the direction of Luke.
"yeah, good idea, I don't really get how to talk with this Kid very well" Lan agreed turning to leave the room.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke had found himself a seat at Chod's urging and was sitting watching the screen that bore Alpha-man's image. He was nervous and fidgety, but he wanted to trust that this professor would help Alpha-man and end the poor Net-Navi's pain.

Chod departed fairly quickly after Lan, he couldn't hang around all day after all. He had a company to run and as that previous phone call had indicated, being away for more than five minutes was a long enough interval for things to start falling apart.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

The day went by quite slowly, Lan had gone home a long time ago with his mother and was now snoring on his bed with his P.E.T on charge.

It was at least midnight, if not later and Dr Hikari was still working on Alphaman, though he was nearing being finished. Technically speaking Alphaman could function perfectly without these final packets of data, but although not compulsory, the last pieces of data weren't a hassle to put in to make sure the systems were flawless and well-protected.
Alphaman had been altered slightly, appearance-wise but was mostly the same. Instead of the visor remaining permanently down, and being only on one side, it was now a full-visor and could be activated and de-activated as was necessary. His chest-armour was completed and all the exposed 'wires' were now not to be seen.
and instead of have a murky red-ish tinge to his eyes, they now showed no signs of any corruption and were showing their bright sky-blue. Other than that, he was hardly any different.
Behind the Professor, Luke appeared to have fallen asleep on his seat. As much as Dr. Hikari always hated pulling all-nighters it was necessary this time, and so he fought off the sleep that tugged at him, were it not for the bright computer screen he would have long fallen asleep on the keyboard, but at last the work was finally finished and so, he finalized all the files and dis-connected the P.E.T from the computer, slipping it out of the drawer and carrying it over to place it on the table in front of where Luke slept. He then wandered off to his own room across the hall and contemplated whether it was worth trying to get to sleep considering how close to morning it was.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke stirred slowly, being in the heart of a laboratory meant there was no light, so the sun was not there to wake him up when morning came Once he'd stirred he noticed the PET sitting beside him on the table. It took all his energy not to scream for joy. The professor was no where to be seen, but it appeared he'd made good on his promise.
Luke scooped up the PET and fearfully turned his eyes to the screen, almost afraid he would see no one there. He WAS surprised by what he saw. It was definitely Alpha-man, but he seemed different, the one-sided visor was gone he had more armour plating and the horrible wirey look was gone. The most amazing thing he noted, was that the eyes that peered up at him, were now a brilliant blue.
"Goodmorning... Luke."[/i] Alpha-man said, his voice different as well. It was no longer the slightly robotic mimic of Mega-man's voice, but now much more like he had his own. It was deep and strong, but it still sounded a little like Mega-man's.
"H-How do you feel, Alpha-man?" Luke asked nervously.
"A... little woozy. But Dr. Hikari said it would be a while before my systems reloaded entirely, apparently there were a few things the darkloids did that he cant reverse yet.... he's looking into them for us though."[/i] Alpha-man retained the slight emotionless edge to his voice, but his expressions were colourful and expressive, even if he did seem a little overwhelmed by the new emotions he was experiencing.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Meanwhile back at Lan's place:

"Lan..."[/i] The sleeping boy didn't stir.
"hey Lan..."[/i] still no reaction.
"Lan! Hey!"[/i] a stir, but still not awake.
"FOR GOODNESS' SAKE LAN!"[/i] Lan jerked awake and toppled off his bed, as was the usual in the morning. Luckily, he didn't land on his still-broken arm.
"oww...what's the racket for, Megaman?" he asked his Net-Navi, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"jeez, do you know how hard it is to wake you up in the morning? I should be getting paid for this, it's like a full-time JOB"[/i] Megaman remarked, shaking his head. "well, now that you're FINALLY awake; I believe your father said he wanted you to be at Sci-lab in...oh...15 minutes!"[/i] it had taken Megaman that long to wake Lan that he was now late...again
"crap! why didn't you wake me earlier, Megaman?!" Lan complained, jumping to his feet to get dressed.
"I've been trying to wake you for half an hour!"[/i] Megaman retorted, folding his arms and scowling. "maybe if you would actually wake up for once, you might be on-time!"[/i]
Lan snatched up his P.E.T and placed it into its holster then ran down the stairs and had a rushed breakfast, before pulling on his roller-blades and dashing off to Sci-Lab.

Professor Hikari, somehow managing to NOT look sleepy at all, hadn't really noted Lan's absence and walked out of his room, cleaning off his glasses with a bright green cloth...which had a big, happy yellow smiley-face on it...obviously one of his little chill-out things when work got too stressing...he walked into the main Laboratory, where Luke was sitting, now talking with Alphaman.
"Good-morning you two, sleep well?" he asked, slipping his now-clean glasses back on.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke looked up as Doctor Hikari entered the lab and asked how they'd slept.
"Um..." Luke began nervously, obviously still slightly unsure about these people, "I slept well enough Professor." He shifted a little in his chair.
"I too." Alpha-man's voice said from the PET, as short and too the point as all his statements the previous day had been.
Both of them still seemed a little uneasy, though more relaxed than they had been the day before. After all, Dr. Hikari had made good on his promise to repair Alpha-man.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Professor Hikari smiled.
"that's good" he glanced at the P.E.T in Luke's hands "I suppose you have already noticed the minor changes to Alphaman?" he asked, walking over and standing next to Luke.

Lan finally found himself at the doors of Sci-Lab.
"yes! I made it!" he panted, checking his watch "and with 2 minutes to spare too! YEAH!"
"okay, Lan, chill!"[/i] Megaman said from his P.E.T "hooray, you're on-time! now shall we go in and find your Dad?"[/i]
"right! good idea!" he took off his roller-blades and put on his sneakers before heading on inside, back-pack on his back and P.E.T in hand.
"I still can't believe I got all the way here in just 6 minutes! *huff* that's a new record for me!" He remarked, still trying to catch his breath.
"I've gotten from your house to here in just 3 minutes before"[/i] Megaman challenged, grinning smugly.
"aww, shut it! you're a net-navi! you can get here by the computer lines! I have to get here by car or on foot!" Lan retaliated, continuing through the corridors to Silver tower, the centre of Sci-Lab...now he just had 50-odd floors' worth of elevator ride left before he got to his dad's Lab.

((yes, Silver tower is real, it's in the manga and his dad's lab is 50th floor block-E in Silver tower))

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke nodded as the professor asked his question and came to stand beside him.
"They look good." He said, trying to offer the scientist a nervous smile, "Thankyou, Doctor Hikari."

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Dr Hikari nodded "of course" he checked his watch, it was 7:07am. 'late...as usual' he thought to himself, frowning slightly. Lan was practically NEVER on-time and if he was, Professor Hikari never heard about it. Why? usually because he was either out of the country or extremely busy.

As Professor Hikari was about to go and wait for his son at the entrance to Sci-Lab, Lan arrived in the room.
"Oh! Lan, I was actually about to go down to the entrance to wait for you!" Dr. Hikari remarked. Judging from the lift's speed, Lan had actually gotten to Sci-Lab on-time even if not to his father's Lab.
"hey Dad!" he grinned. "you know, that elevator could speed up a little...it takes like 10 minutes just to get up here!"
"that's faster than most lifts, Lan, you do realize that?"[/i] Megaman said, shaking his head."Any ordinary elevator would take at least half an hour to get up to level 50!"[/i], that elevator was already extremely fast...and surprisingly sturdy.
"yeah, whatever!" Lan said, grinning. He spotted Luke seated on the other side of the room and waved "heya, Luke! so how's Alphaman?" he asked, pointing to the P.E.T that Luke held.

[Tifa Lockhart]

Luke flinched slightly as Lan arrived, still finding the boy's energy a little overwhelming.
"We're alright." He replied, offering Lan a somewhat nervous smile "Your father fixed him perfectly." Despite his nerves he seemed over joyed by the news.

[Yuffie Kisaragi]

Lan smiled "great to hear! my Dad's the best there is, I bet Alphaman's a strong as ever now!" Lan's confidence in his father's abilities was definitely second to none. He always believed that his Dad could fix anything, and that if he couldn't fix it then it clearly wasn't broken...clearly that had no thanks to him re-building Megaman when he was deleted once. Lan honoured him like a god since that time.
"anyway, so you wanted to see us, Dr. Hikari?"[/i] Megaman asked, not-so-subtly changing the subject so that Lan would be quiet. Unlike Lan, Megaman could quite obviously see how nervous Luke was still, and knew that he probably wasn't too fond of Lan's Hyper-activity.
"yes, I wanted to check Megaman over for any damage. I never got the chance to check him yesterday." Dr. Hikari replied.
"oh, sure! here" Lan passed his P.E.T to his father, knowing he would take good care of him. Professor Hikari wandered over to the computer and slotted the P.E.T into the computer, he then began to thoroughly check each file for any damage or corrupt data.
"...so~!" Lan began turning to Luke "what are you going to do today?" clearly Lan was bored of standing around already...so little patience. At least he had decided just to talk this time rather than fiddle with things he shouldn't. Last time he had gotten in big trouble with his father and Mr. Famus for toying with one of the computers.