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Fourth Chapter:

Sabata sat in front of the computer of Hikari Netto, his host. He was still growing accustomed to this world’s odd traditions such as stuffing guests full of good food and being nicer to other kids than one’s own. He was still learning how to operate his “navi” correctly and locating things through his PET. Though he enjoyed forcing Django to do everything he desired, he yearned to go outside and mess with Boks’ mental capacity. He did find a replacement for the bumbling undead, but the others did not like the idea of Sabata using his fangirls as target practice. The only exception to “the others” was Ruki. In fact, she wanted to join him, but Roy had to drag his older cousin away.

Now, he was browsing through many sites in languages he couldn’t read. The letters were so foreign to him but with Django’s help, they had rearranged themselves into his native language. He was free to go through web sites with interesting articles and “fascinating” stories involving himself and Django. Out of nine stories on a particular page, two of them placed them in a romantic like situation.

“That is so wrong!” he snorted in laughter.

“What is so wrong, Niichan?” Django piped in, staring at Sabata’s picture in the monitor.

“I don’t think like that!”

The Solar Boy blushed furiously, knowing what his older brother had read.

“I don’t see how people like this kind of material.” He voiced. “But… Would you… try to do that… if you wanted to…?”

Sabata only laughed at Django’s panic.

“Of course not, there’s consequences to every action.”

“Such as?”

“I’d rather not tell you.”

Suddenly, Malik appeared next to Django.

“Hii!” She greeted. She was ready to say something but forgot all about it when she saw where Django (and Sabata’s eyes) were. “…”

Sabata gave the navi a questioning look.

“Why so silent, Malik?” He asked.

“You of all people… at Fanfiction dot Net…?”

She shook her head in disbelief and shock.

“Better yet, reading stories of yourself and your little brother!”

“And?”

Malik remained silent for a bit.

“ONE OF US!” She began to chant. “You’re becoming ONE OF US!”

Sabata sighed. Putting Netto’s speakers to mute to block out the annoying chanting, he went back to the main part of the section concerning his world to find a name rather interesting. Again, he sighed and turned the speakers back on to hear Malik still chanting.

“Malik, shut up.” He murmured. Then, he highlighted a few words on his screen. “And tell me, is this you?”

“’A Mid-boss named Malik’?” She read. She flinched after that. “Erm, no. Malik is a pretty common name. Usually named after a character of an anime. Myself, I was named after a friend of mi—my creators!”

“…”

“Hey Sabata, don’t you have school tomorrow?”

“She’s right, Niichan.”

At that, Netto emerged from the bathroom dressed in his light blue pajamas.

“You’re turn.” He yawned.

“I better go now, see you!” Malik said and ran off.
While chasing a certain thickheaded brunette down the hallway, Sabata noticed a familiar figure walking down the hall. He managed to grab Netto by his backpack, jerking him to a stop. That caused Meiru to bump into him, which sent him sprawling on the floor.

“Roy?” He called out. The boy in the hallway stopped and ran over to him, blinking in confusion.

“Sabata… kun… I wasn’t expecting you here.” Roy said, still slightly bewildered.

“I wasn’t expecting you here either.” Sabata replied. “Where’s Ruki?”

“Ruki has to clean up after school… She got into a horrible debate with someone. It’s best not to talk about it right now.”

The Dark Boy remained silent for a moment, before remembering that Meiru was with them.

“Ah, Meiru, this is Chang Roy. Netto and I met him yesterday with is…?”

“Cousin.”

“Right. With is cousin. Roy, this is Sakurai Meiru. She’s Netto’s childhood friend.”

“Nice to meet you.”

Meiru and Roy exchanged polite bows and pulled Netto back onto his feet.

“Should we go help Ruki?” He asked, blinking at the youngest boy.

“Yeah, I was just on my way to do so myself.” Roy replied with a smile. He led the three over to the high level classrooms where Ruki was lazily leaning on her broom, sobbing dramatically.

“Oh god, I have to finish this or Hikari-hakase will be angry for being late!” She cried, burying her face into her hands. Sabata had to wonder why she was wearing her Sol De Vice at school.

“That’s why we’re here.” Roy sighed, shaking his head slowly at his cousin. She looked up at them with tears of joy.

“Really?”

“Of course, you’d be ridiculed at the labs.”

Ruki wiped her eyes and hit Roy playfully on the arm.

“Thanks… you guys…” She sniffed.

No one seemed to notice the flow of dark energy through Ruki’s broom during the entire cleaning session.
Sabata felt a bit tired when he entered the subway. He was not used to manual labor like cleaning up with such foreign tools. The push broom took some time for him to figure out and some more to get used to it. To his surprise, he had much fun with the mop only because he was able to hit Netto and get away with it as “an accident.” There had also been the entire “dodge that rabid fangirl!” before finally getting into the train, though it did not grant him a sanctuary from the more evil ones. Sabata yelped when he heard his ribs crack from one hugging him much too hard.

“Get it off! Get it off!” He hissed, trying his best to pry off the clinging brunette. She only clung harder. Netto joined in to help pull the girl off, but he had failed as well.

“Never get in between a fangirl and the object of her lust.” Ruki laughed. “Isn’t that right, Rosemary?”

“That’s right, Ruki-chan!” the girl answered. She adjusted her multi-colored hat and blue rim glasses before rubbing her face against Sabata again.

“How do you two know each other!” Sabata cried out while pushing the girl away. For a moment, she and Ruki paused and dug out shiny badges that read “League of Rabid Boktai Fangirls.” Their male companions (and Meiru) nearly fell over.

“Anyways, I’m Goldenrod Rosemary!” The girl introduced. “I already know Ruki-chan, Roy-kun, and Sabataaa!” With her last word, she hugged the poor Dark Boy harder.

“I’m Hikari Netto.” Netto chirped.

“I’m Sakurai Meiru. Nice to meet you!”

“Sure, nice to—“

Sabata was cut off when the train suddenly jerked to a stop. Everyone standing up roughly fell to the floor, except for Sabata, whom was cushioned by Rosemary.

“Finally, a use for fangirls!” He grunted and stood up. Rosemary wasn’t sure if she should be sighing dreamily or groaning in pain. Netto quickly rose to his feet, looking around in the stopped train. The lights flickered off when he felt something fly by him. A few screams followed when the lights flickered back on.

“My necklace!” a woman screamed.

More claims of missing jewelry were screeched before a teenage girl confronted them. She has somewhat long pink hair with a matching pink outfit. Sabata nearly died from the brightness of her pink skirt. Needless to say, this girl was very pink. Ruki growled at her.

“Go away, Asuka!” She glowered. Netto, Meiru, and Sabata all looked over at Roy and Rosemary.

“And this is?” Netto whispered in question.

“Ruki’s proclaimed rival, Tenshi Asuka.” Roy answered in a hushed voice. “They’ve been quarreling for… some time.”

The girl, Asuka Tenshi, scoffed that comment.

“Like she can ever match up to me!” she declared. “I just came over here to flirt with the cute boys, that’s all.” With that statement, Meiru held onto Netto’s arm while Rosemary took it more personally and clung to Sabata’s leg.

“They already have someone, now go away!”

“I doubt that little brat would be appealing to the great Dark Boy.”

Rosemary only glared at Asuka.

“Please just go away.” Roy suddenly said. “You’re starting up trouble that is unnecessary. Please leave us alone and go on with your own business!”

“What do you know, you’re just that half-rate’s little twerp cousin!”

In a flash, Roy was on Asuka, thrashing wildly at her. He was biting on her arm when Ruki touched his shoulders lightly.

“Roy.” She said in a warning voice. “Normally I’d like Asuka get hurt, but you’re creating unwanted attention. Niisan would have just walked away, right?”

The small boy spit out the rude girl’s arm and hugged his dear cousin.

“That’s right…” He sobbed. “I’m sorry.” Once the train started moving once again, Ruki moved along with Roy away from Asuka. Without another word, Sabata whipped out the Gun Del Hel and pointed it at the blindingly pink girl.

“I trust you won’t cause anymore trouble?” He growled. With a smirk, he placed the gun on his belt and pushed Netto, Meiru, and Rosemary after the Chinese duo. He heard Asuka huff in frustration. He had embarrassed her in public as well as ignored her good looks. Of course, anything that pink should be ignored, by his philosophy. He laughed to himself as pushed his way out of the train and to the Science Laboratories. The group wound through the empty streets and through the doors of the main building. Sabata soon grew tired of Ruki’s continuous ranting about how much she hated Asuka.

“…And then she stole my boy—“

Again, he plugged his ears to drown out the noise. She soon shut herself up once the elevator had reached their destination.

“Oh hello Hikari-hakase!” Ruki greeted with fake cheer.

Yuuichirou quickly wrapped up his current conversation with another rather young worker before rushing off to his son and his friends.

"Hello!" He greeted. "Ruki-chan, I'm sorry, but the tests aren't in yet. There seems to be a problem..."

Ruki frowned slightly.

"What kind of problem?"

"Your chip... Someone has stolen it..."

Eyes widened in surprise, accompanied by a collective gasp (none were from Sabata though. He really didn't give a damn).

"This lab is heavily protected...!" Roy stuttered. "It'd be nearly impossible to get in... right?"

"Security's not perfect." The girl Yuuichirou had early conversed with stated. "There are loopholes in every system." She pushed up her blue-rimmed glasses back onto the bridge of her nose, giving her brown eyes a glassy shade. Her black hair was held back by a royal blue bandana while her long bangs constantly swayed in front of her eyes.

"It's unfortunate that your chip was stolen, but we were lucky that the thief didn't damage the system." Yuuichirou sighed.

"I understand..."

"But if you can make the chip again, I can test it out right away!"

Ruki immediately brightened.

"Oh thank you, Hikari-hakase!"

With a gleeful giggly, she literally skipped off to her assigned workstation. They could only stare at her as she skipped back and dragged Roy over, chattering like a chipmunk along the way. There was an awkward moment of silence that was murdered violently by a loud scream followed by a set of banging noises. Yuuichirou, along with his son and his friends, ran over to the Chang's work area. Roy immediately blocked the door, his arms and legs stretched across the frame.

"Ahaha... Nothing's wrong!" He nervously exclaimed. "Ruki just flipped out when she saw... a spider! Yeah, she's deathly afraid of spiders. Especially really big ones!"

"Then what's she hammering?" Netto pointed out.

"...She's making sure it's dead. By pounding it over and over with a mallet."

"No, Roy." Ruki's voice rang. She appeared a moment afterwards, mallet in hand. "Tell them the truth. No wait, I'll tell them."

"What's wrong, Ruki-chan?" Yuuichirou inquired.

"...I've appeared to have accidentally made a dark chip. I've tried to destroy it, honestly! But..."

"Let me see the Sol De Vice you made" Sabata commanded. She reluctantly removed the metal glove. Instead of the warm golden glow in the lines, the artificial solar machine emitted a cold red and black energy. "Just as I thought..."

"What's going on?"

"A long time ago, there were several solar machine parts, most being the Gun Del Sol frames. When most of the Sol Cities fell to the earth, only a few of these parts managed to survive the crash. I would suppose there were about ten Sol De Vices left, five pairs in all for ultimate combat. However, Hel had all but two destroyed. A tricky immortal stole those two, giving one to the residents of San Miguel and the other..."

"...Landed here somehow?"

"Precisely."

"Why would it change elements then?"

"Magic doesn't exist here the way it does back in San Miguel. Technology reigns supreme over this world. Perhaps only a few people still have ancient magic flowing in their veins and the ability to change a solar machine's element." Suddenly, Sabata threw the Sol De Vice at Netto. The object lightly hit his face and was caught in the boy’s hand before it fell to the floor. The black and red flicked out and melted into a golden shade of honey.

"Netto..."

"Papa... Does this make..."

"I don't know, Netto." the older man said, cutting off his son before he could finish his question. "This makes very little sense at all. But with the recent events, it's the only logical thing we have so far."

"Oh yes, professor!" Ruki exclaimed loudly. "Would it be fine if your son stays here to help me? It's Saturday, I'll probably need more help, and I can help him with his homework a bit!"

Yuuichirou was not easily persuaded by this simple explanation.

"I swear, I'll take him to my home right afterwards too! I'll even force him to sleep if he stayed up too late!"

"Alright, but he needs to let his mother know as well as do his own math homework."

"Excellent... I mean, thank you, Hikari-hakase." She bowed politely and turned over to her fellow fangirl. "Rosemary?"

"Sorry, the league meeting's tonight. I should be there so you know what's going on."

"True..."

Once everything was settled, Ruki gathered Netto and Sabata to her work area.

"Now, here's the plan..."
Sabata sighed. He was stuck in some science laboratory with his brother in a small device and a bouncing Netto. He also had English and math homework forced upon him, the latter of which giving him difficulties. He was fine with English grammar and structure, some of the vampires spoke it rather eloquently. It was the arithmetic that was never his forte. Django giggled as he helped his brother through problems. Sabata only muttered darkly each time Django giggled at his math trouble.

"Niichan, that's the wrong formula!" He would exclaim occasionally after checking over some of Sabata's answers. Suddenly, the lights in the lab sparked and exploded, showering all the occupants with shards of glass. As most took cover from the dangers of being imbedded with glass, a mysterious navi appeared in the main computer. He was mostly black in color, decorated with yellow lightning stripes and purple and gray armor. Thin black "hair" waved from the back of his helmet while small tuffs stuck out in front. The navi symbol on his chest featured two thunderbolts. The boyish features on his face grinned as he disappeared in a flash of pixels. When the rain of glass was over, Netto and Sabata carefully ran across the area to plug a navi and a brother in the computer.

"Out of my way!" a young voice screamed. The navi flashed in front of Rockman, fist sparking with electricity. "Thunder punch!" He struck the blue navi in the stomache, electricity lighting up the area. Rockman was pushed back from the shear force of the attack and cried as he landed, sparking all over.

"Rockman!" Netto cried out. Before anyone could react, Ruki shrieked in terror.

"Let go!"

The intruder clad in black attempted to pull a chip from her fingers. Roy quickly jumped on her assailant, trying to pull the attacker off of his cousin. Sabata pulled out the Gun Del Hel but froze when he heard Django shout.

"Niichan, don't shoot! You could hit her or Roy-san! And if you do hit him, his soul may become corrupted from contact with this dark energy! It's not like back home, please don't do it!"

Sabata frowned but silently agreed. This was a place very different from Istrakan and San Miguel. He never knew what could happen if he shot someone, the thought sending shivers down his spine since he wanted to use those fangirls as target practices. With a change to Earth element, Django placed his Sol De Vice hand on Rockman and grounded the electricity that held him in place.

"Battle chip, Sword! Slot in!" Netto recited. As Rockman stood up, his right hand formed into a cobalt sword. Sabata quietly inserted a Break Hammer chip into his PET, letting Django carry a large hammer to go smash happy on things. Before either could attack, the navi blinked in and out of existence.

"What are we fighting?" Django cried out, getting frustrated.

"Me? I'm Glitch!"

The navi appeared behind Django for another hit, but the boy was fast enough do dodge and smack Glitch in the back with his hammer. He cried out in pain, most of his static grounded by the earth element flowing through the hammer. In a spark, he disappeared. For Rockman, whatever he hit reappeared right after he slashed through it.

"Glitches are random bugs." Rockman grunted. "You need to find the source before you can wipe out all the minor mistakes in programming. Netto-kun!"

"Right! Battle chip, Suikomi! Slot in!"

The blue fan box appeared and started up, sucking air in. The images of Glitch stayed in place while one came tumbling down. Almost immediately, the extra navis vanished, leaving a single, true navi at the mercy of Rockman and Django.

"I've got one more trick left up my sleeve...!" The boyish navi declared. He sparked away and leaped into the air, glowing a yellowish color. The same aura grabbed Rockman in an invisible grip and released. However, Glitch whined as the aura around Rockman turned green.

"Healing?" The blue navi questioned.

"Sh--Shut up! It's a random glitch!"

The black navi charged up for another attack, but was stopped when Django smacked him with the hammer.

"You be quiet." He snapped.

Outside of the computer, Roy and Ruki had managed to tie up the intruder.

"What do we do with him now?" Roy asked.

"I say we take that hammer over there and smash his brains out!" Sabata roared.

"Eep! I can explain, please don't smash my brains out!"

He wasn't expecting such a feminine voice underneath the mask. Apparently, neither did Ruki.

"Izzy!" She cried in shock. "But... How could you?"

She removed the mask, revealing a young girl her own age with jet-black hair and bangs like Glitch. Her eyes were a sad brown, her lips curving down in a pitiful manner.

"They took Maku!"

"They?"

"I don't know... It was dark and they were dark and..."

"You forgot?"

"Eh heh... Kind of... I don't know why they took him, but they did. I was only trying to steal your chips because maybe I can trade them in for him..."

"You two know each other?" Netto asked, completely confused on the subject.

"Netto-kun, Sabata-kun... This is Aoki Izumi. She's my best friend and we call her Izzy. She has a little brother named Maku, but..."

"We heard." Sabata cut in. "But even if you could trade those chips in, how would you find these kidnappers?"

Izumi opened her mouth to reply, but then paused.

"You know, that's a good point!"

At that point, he wished he did shoot her earlier on.

"What happened that day?" Roy inquired with concern in his voice.

"When I got home, I heard this loud screech. The windows shattered and from what Glitch said in the computer, he saw some bats flying away..."

Sabata and Netto looked at each other and whispered, "Fortissimo" as one.

"There's these two vampire navis, Fortissimo and Pianissimo." Netto explained, seeing the confused expressions on the other three faces. "Fortissimo is a loud, shrieking navi."

"What would vampires want with my brother?" Izumi said, narrowing her eyes at Sabata.

"They're not real vampires, I wouldn't think they're using him as fresh meat. I'm not sure myself."

Izumi looked down and began to sniff.

"Don't worry, we'll find him!" Netto exclaimed happily. She looked at the boy in question, but smiled.

"Thanks..."

"Now, hand over my chip and no one gets hurt with a broom tomorrow."
"Fortissimo, they've identified you." Pianissimo said amusingly.

"Like that could do a thing." Fortissimo retorted. "They don't know what our motives are nor do they know where we are."

"That's true. Why do we even need these humans anyway?"

"Remember that failed experiment?"

"Which one?"

"The conversion one."

"Oh? I see. It would be nice to be outside. Then I can do much more.."