MMBN RP - Into the blue

There was something on Reg's mind for a while now. As successful as the rescue had been, he was still worried about Triese. He had only briefly talked to her in the chatroom, but even then, he knew she didn't deserve the horrible things that had happened to her. It had been a couple of days since the event, and he hoped that she was feeling recovered enough to chat. He wanted to make sure she was ok, yeah, but she also shared an interest of his. He hadn't ever gotten the chance to chat with anyone about fish, plankton, the whole ocean, and from what little he knew about Triese, she seemed interested as well. Maybe this would be a good distraction from the horrors they all witnessed. He would just have to message her out of the blue and hope this didn't spook her. [MSG

] : Hey! This is

, sorry if this seems sudden. I recently got access to the chatroom again! Are you feeling better? I wanted to check in because I know the rescue was rough. If you are feeling better, did you want to chat about fish? [MSG

] : If not that's ok! [MSG

] : Oh I guess you'd already know this is '

', because that's how the messaging system works. My name is Reg by the way! He sent the messages, and only in hindsight did he realize how embarrassingly he put it. He hoped she could overlook all of that. He set his new PET aside. Any anxious fiddling with it may make him accidentally close the chatroom application and he dare not mess with that after it took so long to get it open in the first place. Instead he got up to make himself a bowl of oatmeal. This would solve things.

Triese was recovering about as well as she could be in the past few days - she was talking in the chatroom again without further incident, and she'd even been able to leave the house lately (wow!). It made her a little sad knowing that these were habits she had to re_learn after being knocked out for so long, but things were. Gradually becoming more normal. At least. ...Her PET lit up, and someone was messaging her again. That was good- any distraction was good. That's what Lurerre told her, and she had to agree. The message was from - it took her a moment, but- oh, she _did remember this person! [MSG:

] oh! hi hi! :O you lost access?? wow i thought it was kind of quiet lately... [MSG:

] i dont know what you mean by the rescue but i am feeling better from this sickness i got ;P [MSG:

] did we want to talk about fish?? i do like fish!! i have a fish tank in my room!! Reg was his name. It was nice to have a name! Part of her worried- if this was someone trying to mess with her again, but she had no reason to distrust this user. The last time she was messaged it was all fine anyway- maybe those weird messages were just. Also a bad dream. (Little did Reg know, Triese was entirely oblivious toward the messages sounding weird or sudden at all. Perhaps sending them to a person who can also be described as "weird and sudden" gave them immunity.)

Reg nearly spilled his oatmeal. A reply so fast! He scrambled over to his PET and- Sickness? Is that what she was calling it? Or perhaps the rescue was too much for her or something. He definitely wasn't interested in pressing further about that. [MSG:

] Yeah! Fish are neat and I thought it would be fun to talk about them! What sort of fish do you have in your fish tank? Personally, I never had pet fish. We did have a tilapia tank at one point in my life but the maintenance of the tank was too much. It was really cool while we had it though! He was not going to mention that the tilapia were there to be eaten. Or that it was on the Moon. Gotta keep the conversation light. And normal.

Admittedly, Triese didn't have a huge tank. Or know that much about specific fish, really- she just thought a lot of sea creatures were really pretty. The ocean was so warm and colorful. Her dad had indulged her in getting a tank for her room, at least. [MSG:

] oh!! um!! well im not a super expert but i do have a decently big tank full of bettas :O [MSG:

] they are tough to take care and very misunderstood >:T of but its about as hard as raising viruses so i have experience :P [MSG:

] i have a couple crabs in the tank too ^o^ i like whirly viruses so i think crabs are cute!!!! Lurerre's attention was drawn to the conversation- she had half a mind to jump into the conversation, given how much she had to teach Triese about these things. At least she could handle her digital tanks fairly well.

[MSG:

] Crabs are really cool! I think a crab tank would be a really cool thing to have. I wonder if I could convince my mom to set one up. We don't really have the space for a proper one though, I'd imagine they'd need a lot of aquatic plants and clean water. Reg also didn't have a lot of space in the apartment. The general idea behind the building was why stuff your apartment with things when the outside world had so much to offer. There was practically everything out there. Including a place that had it's own crab tanks. And fish tanks. And marine mammals... [MSG:

] This may be an odd question but, have you ever been to an aquarium? I've never had the chance, but I've always wanted to go. It's always sounded fun!

[MSG:

] yeah!! it takes a lot of space but i have a pretty big room hehe :p [MSG:

] and WHAT!!! you've never been to an aquarium??? Well- in fairness, it had been quite a long time since she'd been to an aquarium. There was one in Cinquille, but not in ACDC - it wasn't a huge town, to be fair. Oh, she should totally try and convince her dad to take her and Lan and Iris there, but... [MSG:

] thats crazy!! i have not been to one in a long time but they are very cool and awesome places :o [MSG:

] why havent you gone? have u just been too busy? "Is that really an appropriate question to ask...?" Lurerre lectured - the last thing she wanted was for Triese to intrude on other peoples' private lives while she was still... sick. In response, Triese blew a raspberry, insisting that it was fine.

[MSG:

] Due to reasons I've just never gotten the chance to go to one. I've seen videos of them, but it's just not the same. I'd imagine that the fish are more impressive in person. Plus I guess I'd actually be able to interact with the touch tanks! There were plans at some point for him to go to the aquarium with his friends, but ever since the rescue and his resulting hospitalization, things have been a bit more strict around him. If he wanted to visit still he could either go through the proper routes and request an escort, but that would take time. Or he could sneak out. Problem is he might have to disobey orders someday anyways, considering how the chatroom attracted trouble so much. If he needed to leave at some point for whatever reason, he'd need to trick cameras and the only person he knew who could do that was Eni. This was all hypothetical of course. He wouldn't consider doing this yet at all.

[MSG:

] REASONS?? whats that supposed to meannnn lol :P [MSG:

] they better be good reasons and well i bet they actually arent because there is never a good reason to NOT visit an aquarium in person!!! especially if you get to touch the fish!! [MSG:

] we gotta go :O i know an aquarium you could totally come over!! "...We probably shouldn't be taking the train, Triese," Lurerre suggested. "If you... feel sick, then we won't be able to get you home quickly." Triese pouted - she couldn't deny that. But. But! After a brief pause, she had an alternative idea. "W-well! Yeah, but what about those portal thingies?" she suggested. "If I go over there and I get sick, then we can just zip right back home, right?!" "...I... suppose?" [MSG:

] ACTUALLY nvm my navi said it might be better to not take the train :P in case i have to go home early yknow? do you have a cool aquarium nearby? :O

[MSG:

] Yeah, they're good reasons. Oh. Coming to his world and going the aquarium here. That could work? There were things to coordinate but, it could be possible. [MSG:

] There is an aquarium here, it's pretty good too, been meaning to go to it. But we'll need to invite someone else if we go there. Reg winced. He was going to have to explain some things for that to make sense. How would he even begin? How much did she know already? [MSG:

] I don't know if this is common knowledge yet in the chatroom, I for one haven't said anything about this, but you do know my world is in the future right? That if you wanted to come to the aquarium here, it'd be in the future, yeah? "The secret's getting out more~" Silver whispered to Reg. He pursed his lips and sighed, "It was going to happen eventually. I trust Triese at least." "Yeah! She seems energetic!" Very energetic. Like what happened at the rescue hadn't happened at all... That... Worried Reg.

...Triese was a little suspicious of Reg not elaborating on said reasons, but she wouldn't pry. She could trust him, at least- he seemed like a really nice guy in the chatroom. (...For some reason, there was a part of her brain that thought they'd met before, too, but... obviously, that wasn't true.) But- then he dropped an absolute bombshell- [MSG:

] WHAT WHAT WHAT [MSG:

] HUH!!! no i didnt know that! WHAT! no way :o [MSG:

] well then YEAH if you're in the future then you have future animals so the aquarium is just gonna be MORE right :o [MSG:

] i totally forgot this chatroom had time period stuff ..;;; but its cool!! Lurerre was sort of taken aback by the idea, but- this chatroom business had always had a sort of nonsensical element to it, anyway. For... better or for worse. Stranger things had happened to her operator. [MSG: ] wait so you need to invite someone? should i bring someone? i could :O!! "We'd totally have to, right?!" Triese suddenly asked Lurerre, her eyes obviously sparkling. "If we're gonna go to a super-awesome alien future aquarium, then we'd better make it count, right?!" Lurerre sighed. "Well... the bigger the group, the better, I suppose," she relented. "That way, there's... more people keeping an eye on you." "...I'm feeling _fiiiiine today," Triese insisted - the implication made her a little sad, even if she knew Lurerre had a point. "But! You're right, anyway. I should just make sure it's okay with Reg." (edited)

[MSG:

] Yeah the aquarium is pretty big, but I wouldn't say we have future animals? They're the same animals as you guys probably have. It's only been 400 years. You can bring an extra, that's fine. Reg wondered who Triese could be thinking of bringing. Possibly the girl Lan from the rescue? He wasn't sure he knew of anyone else from her world. If it was the girl Lan... He was going to have to explain things to her, he realized, he hadn't had the chance to yet. [MSG:

] If I can make a suggestion, could it be your Lan? I had met them before and I wasn't able to explain things properly. If not, that's ok! Should he even bring up the subject of the rescue at all during this? Images of Triese going through some unimaginable horror, duplicated on several breaking screens, flashed in his memory for a moment. Probably not the best time to do that. He'll have to explain this to Eni. He shot him a quick message and Eni agreed to meet at Reg's apartment. This was beginning to get more complicated than he was initially prepared for, but not in a bad way. He liked making friends! He just hoped these new friends didn't get too weirded out by ~the future~ and. Him. He scratched his head and groaned.

[MSG:

] 400 YEARS??? noooo no WAY there arent any crazy things for you WHAT :o The prospect of visiting a future that far ahead was a little terrifying, but kind of exciting to Triese. Though, she thought on it for a few more seconds and supposed that… well, it probably wasn’t going to be their future, since it was a different world and all, so she wasn’t actually getting that much different of an experience from just visiting a different world. (But it was still cool!) Reg’s request surprised Triese - she definitely hadn’t heard of the two of them meeting before, but… whatever “explaining things properly” meant, and… well, there obviously was something she wasn’t getting. But Lan was cagey with strangers, so maybe it was just about that. [MSG:

] oh yeah :O i was already thinking of her anyway but yeah ill ask her!! [MSG:

] im sure she will want to keep an eye on me anyway ^o^ Triese quickly shot Lan a message asking if she wanted to go to an “alien future aquarium” - and at Lurerre’s behest, she elaborated. Lan was a bit apprehensive - as usual - but seemed to understand after some clarification. “oh you’re just visiting chatroom friends. i mean i’ve done that too. it’s nice,” her message read. “i can come, i’m not really doing anything today…” [MSG:

] ok she said she would come ^_^ this will be so fun!! thank you!!

How'd things end up like this? He only wanted to check up on her. How'd it turn into an entire excursion with four people?? [MSG:

] I'll message you when we're ready to come over. ----------------------------------- Some time later Eni finally arrived, curious about everything. Reg laid out the plan and who was coming. "I'm fine with looping cameras and tricking sensors for a little bit of freedom for you, my concern is..." One explained, eyeing Eni. Reg looked over, his friend had retreated into himself. He sighed, he could guess why. "Sorry, I should've checked if it was ok, but I swear this Lan is cool," Reg consoled, "She's... Different than the other Lan's I've met." Well, different from the one in the history books for certain. This one was pink, and a girl. "She?" Eni replied, cautiously. "Yeah, I didn't really get a chance to talk to her that much during the rescue," Reg noted, "But from what I saw of her, she's quiet and strong willed." "And why didn't you recommend Iris to join?" Eni asked, a tinge of sadness to his voice. Reg jumped, "Ah, I'm sorry. I really wanted to talk to this Lan. I'm sure you two will get along, it'll be fine." A small whine escaped from Eni, "Fine. But next time invite Iris. She's nice." Reg chuffed, "Alright. In any case, are you ready to meet them?" "No," He averted his eyes, "But I don't think I ever will be. Go ahead and call them." Reg nodded, then turned to his PET, inputting a series of button presses. [MSG:

] Ok! I sent you the coordinates, come over whenever you're ready!

Lan had been successfully coerced into coming over and roped into the aquarium trip, though she ended up packing light. She was glad that Triese was getting these travel offers, too. There were a lot of nice people in the chatroom- if it weren't for that, she was unsure if she'd ever stick around in the first place. Triese was waiting for her in her bedroom, as usual, looking about as bright as usual. That was good. "Lan! Hi hi! Are you excited?!" Triese exclaimed the moment Lan had been spotted. Lan was only able to offer a terse nod before Triese dashed across the room and directly in her face, entirely blocking her from getting any further than the doorway. "Triese-" she stammered, backing away. "You're- okay, right? You're feeling okay...?" Triese frowned at Lan. "What? I'm fine! I promise," she insisted. "Hey, by the way, did you ever meet someone named Reg? He mentioned you- uh, he's who invited me, by the way! Maybe I should've mentioned that earlier..." Lan blinked. Reg? Reg was- one of the people at the rescue, wasn't he? Right, he was... the one who turned into something else. Everything had been so chaotic that she'd barely even thought about him. She supposed now would be the time she'd figure out what kind of person she is. Though, she couldn't really tell Triese about that. (Rock also raised an eyebrow- she never got answers with who the hell this Reg guy was, or what he was capable of, either. People didn't just transform like that.) "Oh. Yeah, I remember him," Lan admitted- lying by omission, as usual. "He was... nice. I... did want to talk to him again." Triese beamed. "Well! Then we should get a move on, then!" she exclaimed, swerving away and holding out her PET like it was a magical girl transformation artifact. With a few button presses, she set the coordinates Reg had sent them and opened a portal- there's no way this would ever get old to her. [MSG:

] ok we're coming ^o^ ...She barely waited all of five seconds, though, before she dragged herself and Lan straight through and found themselves in... an apartment. There were... two different people waiting for her...? One with brown hair and one with darker hair- "Hi!!" Triese greeted, the second she locked eyes with them. "Wait- which one of you is Reg? I don't actually-" "...Reg is the boy with darker hair," Lurerre mumbled. Triese now knew who to direct her wave too. "Oh! Okay! Hi, Reg! And other person I don't know!"

Reg startled, jumping and throwing his hands up as their guests burst from the portal suddenly. Eni stood by as if nothing had happened, staring at Reg's exaggerated response. "Uh hi!" Reg greeted, unsure how to welcome them, "Y-Yeah! I'm Reg and this is my friend, Eni! It's nice to meet you!" Eni simply waved when his name was mentioned. His eyes fell onto Lan and lingered there for way too long, before remembering where he was and greeting them both with a singular "Hello". "I think I should explain a couple of things here," Reg brought up sheepishly, "You probably won't be able to connect to the net here, it's been four hundred years and also the entire net got changed massively about one hundred years ago. Oh! And keep your Navis hidden, we don't have those here... Shoot, that makes everything sound gloomy, I promise it's nice here!" Eni just stared at Reg, and then back at Lan. His flat expression revealed nothing as he continued to stare in silence.

Lan looked like she'd been pushed onstage at a large public event with how tense and wide-eyed she is. This was moving pretty quickly- though, she at least knew she could trust Reg. And- what, 400 years, uh- for some reason, that other boy's hairstyle looked familiar...? "U-um. Hi," she greeted sheepishly, holding her PET close. "I'm... Lan, and-" Triese stepped forward, completely interrupting Lan. "Wow! Hi, Eni!! Nice to meetcha!" she beamed, continuing her wild waving. "I'm Triese, and this is my Navi, Lurerre!!" She held up her PET - Lurerre bowed politely. "And- well, duh, I guess it makes sense. Different Nets, different stuff! There was incompatibility stuff with those other Navis too, right, Lan?!" Lan was busy giving the nearest wall a particularly empty stare. "...400 years...?" she muttered to herself. "O-oh. Um. Yeah, there were differences, weren't there...?" Rock gave Reg and Eni a wave from Lan's PET- with Triese dominating the conversation, her introducing herself would have to wait. Such was the life of hanging around this kid. "Luckily, we have quite the experience with hiding our Navis already," Lurerre continued- she noticed Lan's tension, so she might as well try to get the heat off of her. "When Lady Triese takes things seriously, at least. But not having Navis at all...?" "H-hey! I can take this seriously," Triese protested, her face getting a little red as she averted her eyes. "Well- it's not that surprising if there's a world with no Navis. I bet we wouldn't have Navis, either, if things went even more wrong."

"Yeah, four hundred years..." Reg trailed off, a bit overwhelmed by Triese. He could understand that the massive time difference was staggering for most people. It was gonna be like this with everyone he met in the chatroom, Reg figured. It's part of the reason that he never brought up the topic there, it's too much. "Wouldn't have Navis either?" He repeated, remembering suddenly, "Oh! You had mentioned in the chatroom, your net was destroyed by something called 'Autuvera' right?" "That's right, Iris had mentioned that as well," Eni added, "Something similar happened here about a hundred years ago for us. The "Net Reset" as it has become colloquially named is what Reg alluded to earlier. No Navis can connect to the net since then. Although, it'd be more accurate to say Wizards here since no one was using Navis at that time." Reg grimaced, there was a lot to explain, hopefully they didn't ask too many questions, "We don't need to get into that," He chuckled hesitantly.

“Yeah! Stupid Autuvera. Always has to come up,” Triese pouted, nodding in acknowledgement of Reg. “And- hey, you met Iris, too?? Iris is cool!! She’s my friend!!” “…I didn’t know that either,” Lan mumbled to herself. She was beginning to get a little sick of these kinds of explanations, but- well, if they had experienced a “Net Reset”, then it gave them some common ground. The phrase brought back bad memories of… the Angel, however. “I still can’t believe they call Navis Wizards in the future,” Rock muttered to herself. “Couldn’t they have picked something cooler? I dunno, if they made me rename Navis, I’d call ‘em, like… Hackers. Or Slashers. Wait, that’s just a video game genre.” “…Did you not hear Reg, Rock?” Lurerre interjected. “We are ostensibly here to go to an aquarium.” Triese blinked. “Well… but it’s a crazy future aquarium! We need the context, don’t we?!” she protested. “…But I guess Navis don’t have much to do with aquariums…” (edited)

"It's kinda wild, right?" Reg continued his hesitant chuckles, then regained his composure looking at Lan, "Hey, can I talk to you privately, over here?" He beckoned her over to his room with a concerned look on his face. "Wait, what about me?" Eni asked, reaching to Reg like he was his only lifeline. "Uh, answer some questions? This'll be quick I'm sure!" He reassured, offering a thumbs up before he hustled into his room. Eni whined, slowly turning to Triese with her cheery expression on. Meanwhile Reg sighed deeply, fully prepared for the barrage of questions he was going to get. He had left the rescue so suddenly, and wasn't able to explain anything since losing access to the chatroom, but there were also things he needed to know. Something unsettled him as he looked at Triese. His throat echoed in pain around the obvious similarities, but there was something else. He turned to face Lan, she probably had questions for him as well. (edited)

Lan was a little flabbergasted by being pulled aside so quickly - it was painfully awkward and almost suspicious, given how Triese and Eni were looking at her as Reg dragged her away. Triese was also a little confused - there was obviously something someone wasn't telling her, and it was bugging her. "Um! Have fun? I guess?" she called, before turning to Eni and shrugging. (...) "H-hey, what..." Lan mumbled, the moment she was in Reg's room and the door was shut. "What's this about? You're..." Rock was glaring at Reg from Lan's PET. "Hey. You better not be messin' around, kid," she barked, getting close to the PET screen as if she was trying to step in front of Lan. "Aren't you the transforming guy from the rescue?! I thought you weren't answerin' questions, but now you're pullin' us aside with a sigh...?!"

Reg made a sudden noise and a grimace, they had hit right on the mark immediately. "I!" He threw up his hands, "I couldn't say anything because I couldn't go into the chatroom for a bit! Sorry! I didn't think it'd be good to talk about any of this in front of Triese. Something's going on with her, right?" He sighed and scratched his ne- head, "Yes, I'm the 'transforming guy' who fought Laserman during the rescue. I'm sorry I wasn't very talkative aftwards, because, well, you remember what happened, right?" He wasn't mistaken, right? Triese was being so avoidant about what happened, it was like it never occurred. Did Lan think this as well? Did she not try to correct Triese? He desperately hoped this Lan remembered what happened or else something really wrong was going on.

Lan was taken aback by Reg's vaguely frustrated response. "Wh- of course I do!" she hissed right back- if she could read Reg's mind, she'd probably be even more pissed. "Are- are you just asking why she's acting normal? She's- she's still sick, okay? But... but..." She winced, her voice trailing off, forcing Rock to pick up the slack. "The kid's pretending it never happened. Lurerre knows about it better than I do," she explained. "Tryin' to convince herself it was a bad dream, even 'tho she's still having those withdrawls." "...Don't bother her about it. Please," Lan requested, still a little angry. "I don't want her to freak out again. She's... really been sick. Because of what happened. She has medicine, but..." "It's not like we really know what's goin' on," Rock added. "We don't know a damn thing about whatever that dark-stuff was. Or what's goin' on with you." Lan paused. That's right- Reg couldn't talk for a while after being choked by... that clone of Triese. "...I'm sorry you got hurt," she said. "I remember. I just- it's a little too much right now. Okay? I don't know."

"Okay! I wasn't planning on bringing any of that up! I really don't wanna think about it right now either!" Reg sighed in relief, he wasn't mistaken, "I'm sorry about Triese. Hopefully this aquarium trip will distract her enough that she's able to put some distance between her and the event. I dunno. I just hope she has fun today." He crossed his arms and looked down, "And about me... It's a lot. I guess the short version about it is, viruses are back in this time after not being around for a hundred years. I can transform and fight them because of... reasons." He screwed up his face in thought, there was more, but she didn't need to know about Argent, the Moon, his friend's Navis, everyone he's ever fought, "That's about it." He said plainly. "And there's also me!" Silver shifted to the visible spectrum, announcing their arrival with a big smile, "Hi! I'm Silver, Reg's best friend, and you're the pink Lan! I remember you! I saved you from that scary chair!" Reg stumbled in place, "Silver?!" He hissed.

"I hope so too," Lan agreed, averting her eyes. The last thing she'd want is... to go all the way to an aquarium and then watch Triese freak out again. The thought made her wince. -And then a grey thing appeared out of nowhere, just floating right there in front of her face-?! Lan stifled a yelp and stumbled back. "Wh- what? What are you?!" she hissed, before realizing how rude that sounded. "S-sorry. Um. What? I don't understand..." Whatever that thing was, it was freaking her out a little, and she was doing a bad job of hiding it. It... sort of reminded her of that weird cat from the sleepover, but... this one could talk, she supposed. "Oh. Wait, you're... talking about when that cable came loose? Why were you invisible...?" Rock shared in Lan's surprise and confusion, though she was more concerned with Reg's... lack of an explanation. "...For reasons?" she repeated incredulously. She paused- viruses just showing up and a human has to fight them? It sounded ridiculous to her, but then again, she did remember what that other Lan said about that... substantiation stuff. "...I guess I won't pry. I can wager that it has to do with that weird... fuckin' thing, I guess," she continued, before lowering her eyes. "...Uh. But, either way, I don't think I ever thanked ya for saving Lan. So... thanks. Seriously."

"Oh! I didn't know how to be visible yet! And then a bird taught me how to!" Silver rambled, getting way too close to Lan's face. "Silver," Reg cautioned, "Back up from her, you're scaring her." They scrambled about before zooming back and perching on Reg's head, and upon nestling in mumbled, "I'm sorry, I'm just so excited to talk to people." "Yeah, we met up with the blue eyed Lan earlier. He had a support program that was... Basically a ball shaped bird thing," He explained, using his hands to form a sphere in the air that was Beat shaped, "I don't really understand it to be honest. I don't really understand Silver either." "Well, I'm your friend!" They chirped back. "Yeah," He softly smiled up at them, then sighing, continuing to explain, "I really am glad you guys didn't get hurt during all that. I'm pretty lucky that the only major injury I got was-" All thoughts crashed in that moment and a haunted expression burned across his face in an instant. "Oh, I need to tell you about that," He groaned, grabbing the right side of his face and pulling, "Okay, so, no big deal, but I'm being monitored by the Netopian government so they can prevent another major injury to me. We just gotta be smart and sneaky about leaving my apartment, thats all! That's why Eni is here, he's great at that stuff. Just wanted to uh, fully disclose that." He tried to hide his stressed grimace with a smile, knowing full well how insane this all sounded. He already was on such a rocky footing with this Lan. Sweat built on his brow as he was certain that this was going to be the thing to send him careening down a crumbling cliffside.

"...A bird?" Rock grumbled to herself- that still didn't explain what that thing was. Their name was Silver. She supposed she should be calling them Silver. Lan relaxed a little once Silver backed off. "The blue-eyed...? Oh... Oh, you mean him," she repeated- the hacker Lan that she'd become friends with. "He has a bird...? I... and that cat, too...?" Her head was spinning a little - it was really starting to settle in how beyond her a lot of this sci-fi stuff was. At least Reg was sharing in her befuddlement. And then the room went cold. "Wh- what?" Lan froze over the mention of monitoring. "What did you do? Are- are we being monitored??" She clutched her hands to her chest. Rock raised an eyebrow. "The fuck? How'd you get caught like that? Bad luck?" she questioned. "We've managed to hide our side of things. But I ain't got issues with sneakin' out, since we do that all the time." Lan was visibly uncomfortable. She'd clearly stepped into something bigger than she realized. It certainly sounded like a big deal, one that had made her go silent, her eyes drifting away from Reg.

This is what he dreaded. He wanted for this trip to be fun! Lighthearted! Now here he was picking up the pieces to his half said truths, meant to protect, but in their ambiguity, hurt more than helped. "You're not being monitored, just me," Reg explained, unable to look at her in the face, "And it's just the outside cameras and my mobile that I haven't touched all day." His stomach roiled in fears. The only way to fix all this was to come clean, start from the beginning. "I really wanted to avoid talking about this," He started slow, his voice faltering, "There's a lot going on with me, and I'd rather not bother people with all that. I'm sorry." He garnered a little confidence, taking in a quick breath, "But you're cool! I saw how you handled yourself at the rescue, you're strong. You can handle a bit of my nonsense, I'm sure!" He elected to glance at her reaction, then immediately averted his gaze; something about her was extremely intimidating to him. He took a deep breath and explained, "I'm from the moon. The government agency NAXA is in charge of making sure I don't get hurt, I'm not in trouble, they're just concerned. I had to tell them about what happened to me, how I got hurt enough to be hospitalized. I had to." He shook a little. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this," He continued, there was a forlorn tone on the edges of his voice, "I've always wanted to visit this aquarium. It's been a dream of mine since I was a kid so I just, jumped in without thinking. I promise, no one's in any danger here, it's just, my life's messy, and I'm sorry if I scared you while I tried to hide all that mess from you." There was more, it was written all over his face, but he spilled so much out in front of himself all at once, he should maybe let the blood dry before continuing. He half hoped that she, and everyone else would go home, forget the trip in its entirety, and leave him to his solitude. It'd be easier for everyone, especially the two strangers in his apartment he dared to call friends.

...Lan relaxed again. At least they weren't being watched - if they were, then she'd probably want to bolt right away. And then Reg began talking again, and there was this exasperated look in her eyes that Rock couldn't help but share. (There was that being called "cool" again, which she still couldn't really fathom, because by no circumstance did she imagine she was cool.) And then Reg said he was from the moon, what-ever the hell that meant, and all Lan could do is sigh and turn around, taking one step toward the door. "You're messing with me," she muttered angrily. Another step- and then a hologram of Rock appeared on her shoulder to hang in front of her face. "Kid. Stop," Rock ordered, waving her hand in Lan's eyes. (She loved that she could do this, now.) "This would be such a dumb thing to lie about. Just go along with it." Lan paused, and turned back toward Reg, making tepid eye contact. She thought on things for a moment, and she supposed that... it wasn't all that outlandish. Given the transforming, and the 400 years in the future, and whatever Silver was. She just... couldn't think about it too hard. (And... in a way, she supposed she was being slightly hypocritical. He did... say his life was messy. She couldn't just plug her ears and pretend it was all bullshit.) She took a deep breath, her expression some unreadable emotion. "...Sorry," she eventually mumbled. "I- I don't know what to say. I don't really get this, but. Thank you for... telling me, at least?" (It wasn't like she could thank him for being honest, though.) Another long, awkward pause. "...Can we just... go to the aquarium, or," she suggested. "Do you need anything from me?"

Reg's heart broke. Getting called a liar for telling half truths was an unexpected fear for him. Lan's subsequent apology fell on muted ears. "Be nicer to him!" Silver barked out, snapping Reg back into focus. "Silver..." Reg cautioned, "She said sorry." The creature glowered, but fell back, a barely audible growl emanating from them. Reg sighed and finally faced Lan head on, "I really do just want a normal time at the aquarium. I want this to be a nice trip for everybody! No worrying about me and my whole deal, no fighting viruses, and no discussing what happened at the rescue. Just a normal trip with normal people." He was basically asking for the sun to never rise; every aspect about this entire meeting was not normal. "There's nothing else I needed to ask you," He averted his gaze once more, "Let's meet back up with the others." He silently walked past her to open the door to the living room to find Eni leaned back, arms up defensively with Triese rapid firing question after question. He noticed Reg and whimpered quietly, "Help." Reg quickly put on a mask of a smile and trotted over, "Hey! Hi! What were you curious about? I'll help answer!" Silver, still on Reg's head, waved at the two people, a little grin on their face.

Lan flinched at Silver's sudden growl, but- she quieted down, and listened to Reg's plea. Rock stayed materialized on Lan's shoulder and glared at Reg fiercely, but said nothing. She stifled an annoyed laugh at his implication that literally anyone present in the room was "normal". At least Reg wasn't going to try and pry into her life, on top of everything. They silently followed him back into the living room, and- "-about tournaments?! I mean, I know that Reg said that Navis weren't really a thing anymore but you've got like, 400 years of history books so you probably have a bunch of results in recorded history on top of that, right?! And videos, and photos, and big lists to comb through! Oh, how good are your guys' wikis? There's no way they're not like, CRAZY bulky after so much time has passed! I could, like, look up future Battle Chips and then introduce them to my world, couldn't I?! Oh, but that'd be stealing and it'd probably cause a time paradox or something... Wait, but have you guys met aliens yet?! Do you have flying cars-" "Trieeeeeesssseeeeeee," Lan groaned, immediately stepping in front of Reg to yank the girl away from Eni's face. The way that Eni looked, he practically looked like Triese had held a weapon to her face. Lan promptly spun her around and directed her towards Reg, saving Eni from a terrible fate. Triese blinked. "Oh! You're done?" she asked, good-naturedly. "Well, I mean, I was asking about a lot of stuff! This is my first time learning about... y'know.... the fuuuuttuuuuuure," she said in a drawn-out tone, wiggling her hand. "Hey, but really, have you guys met aliens?" "Please be respectful, Triese," Lurerre sighed, now that she could get a word in.

Reg and Eni met gazes. "She needs to meet Ellen," Reg remarked. "I don't want to be in that room," Eni replied quietly. Reg turned to his guests, "Ellen is a good friend of ours. Loves netbattling. You've probably met her in the chatroom." "And aliens?" Silver chirped, "Well Reg is-" "Really excited to go to have a normal time at the aquarium!!" He interjected with an off kilter smile. There was a long enough pause that even the less socially astute would realize something was wrong. "You could just tell them," Eni said. Reg deflated like a wilted flower, sighing out, "I'd really like it if just one hang out with new people didn't include me telling all my secrets." "Hey Reg?" Silver asked sweetly, to which Reg looked up at them, "Tell her." And then bapped Reg in his eye. He startled and jumped to attention, "Okay! Fine! It'd be good to tell you this anyways, just promise not to get too uh, enthused, about it. I'm from the Moon, which technically means I'm an extraterrestrial. Please don't call me that though..." He ended with a cautious smile. Eni kept a steady eye on Lan, watching her reaction warily. Was she really a Lan Hikari? It looked like all she shared was that brown hair and eye color. Not that Eni really knew what constituted a quintessential 'Lan Hikari' trait, he'd rather avoid all of them entirely. Something told him she was different, however. Maybe she would be kinder regarding that shameful legacy of his. He didn't want to find out.

"Ellen? Uhhh! Maybe!" Triese wondered out loud - there were a couple people that came to mind that she got along with, so maybe she was one of them? She was completely clueless at the drawn-out pause, so much so that she truly had no idea what Reg was talking about when he said all your secrets. Her eyes lit up - she did like secrets! And then Reg spoke, and the light in her eyes flickered even brighter. "W-wait, what?! Like, the moon in the sky moon?!" she exclaimed. "Wow!! Wow wow wow!! So you really are an alien!! Just like Megaman! Hey, what's it like in your... world... planet... thing?!" The tone her voice was using was bizarrely a little less shocked than Reg might expect, as if the Moon was just some typical interesting place and not the fucking Moon. Let alone the fact that, for some reason, Triese assumed he was still living on the moon. Lan definitely noticed that Eni was staring at her. It made her a little uncomfortable. Something about him... reminded her of... someone, but she couldn't quite place it. It wasn't like she was going to speak up, anyway. (Rock kept an intent glare at him once she noticed as well, just in case this kid was a threat. She was sitting on Lan's shoulder, looking like she'd punch anyone if they got near her.)

Reg stared incredulously at Triese, all tension he carried at the moment vanished in an instant as he was blindsided by the things Triese was saying. He didn't know where to start. "Yep! Megaman's an alien!" Silver giggled madly. Reg glared at them. "I don't live on the Moon anymore," He sighed, a lingering bitterness made him want to add, 'it blew up', to the end of that. The less explaining he did today, the better though. "We are currently in the city of Spacity," Eni explained, taking his eyes off of Lan for the moment, "You may be familiar since this city is around five hundred years old. It's in the southern region of Netopia." "Ok, enough geography, let me tell you about this aquarium!" Reg raised his hands, energized suddenly, "It's basically this big theme park, a huge garden with three giant pyramids made of glass. It's right next to the bay and has a beach too! It's awesome! We'll take a tram to a train that will get us there in like 15 minutes, you'll get to see the city on the way there!" "I can pay for it all," Eni stated. "No, I can-" Reg started, cutting himself off, "Oh wait I can't for now. Uh, gotta leave my normal mobile here." He apprehensively looked towards his room where he last left the device.

Triese was completely clueless as to what was so funny, but her enthusiasm remained the same. "Oh! Huh! Well, I hope you like Earth more, I guess?!". And- then her eyes drifted and what was that? "Wait, where did- that thing come from? Huh?" she asked in utter befuddlement, pointing in the direction of Silver. Somehow, she wasn't as shocked as one might expect, especially given that she had completely failed to notice their presence just a moment earlier. Lurerre protested to her operator about how rude it was to point. "...Their name's Silver. Reg's best friend. Apparently," Lan mumbled, her eyes shut out of a mild annoyance. "I don't really get it, either." Triese hummed to herself for a moment, observing Silver like it was a strange bug in the backyard, before a metaphorical lightbulb flickered on behind her eyes. "Oh! Ohhhhh!" she exclaimed, startling Lan and Rock. "You're like Reg's Pretty Force companion!! Wait, that's so cool! How are you real?!" "Could be a hologram or something," the extremely hologram-ing Rock observed. Triese found herself perfectly content with this explanation of Silver, so the conversation turned back to the aquarium. "R-really?! You'll pay? That's so nice!!" she exclaimed. "Spacity... Hmmm... Doesn't ring a bell, but we're from Electopia, so I don't really know Netopian cities." (She spoke of this as if this was something she'd ever be expected to know.) "It sounds like a very nice place. I'm quite looking forward to it," Lurerre chimed in. Lan silently nodded in agreement, though her apprehension had yet to fully fade.

"Pretty force again?!" Reg staggered back like he had been shot in the stomach. "Comes with the territory of being this cute," Silver shook their head sagely. The little guy popped off of Reg's head and zoomed up to Triese, extending a little hand., "Yep! I'm Silver! It's nice to meet you Triese!" Reg somehow managed to pull himself together, and explained, "Yeah, we don't know much about them to be honest. They're a program that can project themselves like a hologram. There's nothing quite like them on Earth, so while we're at the aquarium, they're gonna have to hide." He ended with a critical tone, directed at their digital companion. Silver booed, sticking their tongue out, "Looks like this is all you'll see of me. So sad!" "Well, maybe not," Reg pondered, "I wonder if we could get you guys some visualizers! That way you could still see them, if you wanted?" "They probably sell some souvenir quality ones at the aquarium gift shop," Eni speculated. "Maybe? They are pretty much a novelty these days," Reg added, then bounced in place a little, "So! Are you guys ready to head out? I'm really excited to get going!"

Triese's mouth popped open, wowed by Silver's movements and expressions. She extended a hand right back and imitated a handshake, though she was too far away for it to be an actual one - maybe for the best, considering a real handshake might toss them around like they were dirty laundry being aired out. "Aww! Dang, I'm gonna miss you," Triese pouted, even though she'd known them for all of thirty seconds. "But- uh, what's a visualizer...?" Before they could spiral off into another conversation, Lan intervened. "I'm ready to go," she asserted, with Rock agreeing. "We could keep talking on the train, right...?" Triese perked up. "Oh, yeah! C'mon, let's go!" she asserted. Somehow, there had been enough excitement in Reg's apartment to thoroughly enrapture her, but there was a whole future world and a future aquarium outside to see, too...!!

"Yes! Let's go!" Reg cheered, waving them over. He and Eni left the apartment, confident that One would hide their presence. Being monitored was starting to get grating. Plans were canceled left and right, all for the sake of ensuring Reg's safety. He'd been cooped up for too long to let a chance like this slip by him! He practically skipped over to the tram station! The fresh fall breeze and cloudy skies energized him. Eni trailed behind everyone, staying absolutely silent, keeping his eye on Lan. On the way over, Reg explained what a visualizer was, and then began pointing out cool plants. The world outside was colorful, despite the cloudy skies. Tall, sleekly paneled buildings were built along thin roads and a rich variety of vegetation lined their path to the tram station. The blues of solar panels sparkled high above the trees, and huge wind turbine blimps flew among the clouds. The tram and subsequent train were smooth rides, showing more of the city. It was a landscape that would seem surreal to someone unfamiliar with it. Five hundred years worth of culture, told through it's variety of architecture. Advanced buildings towered over older stone ones, that nonetheless had their own charm. Ancient trees grew alongside shorter bushes, all sporting their autumn colors. Despite the questions lingering in his mind, Reg couldn't help staring out the train window, watching the world rush past him. Then he suddenly remembered his manners and pulled himself away from the window, looking attentive for his guests. Eni ceased his staring, and kept his mind and hands busy with a hardlight projection of a cube puzzle.

Both Lan and Triese were pretty dazzled by their surroundings this time, though Lan's reaction was practically mute compared to Triese's overbearing squees and shakes. It absolutely looked the part of a future city - the solar panels and the wind turbines were so striking. Lan in particular always thought ACDC Town felt so miserably boring on a cloudy day, but Spacity was still bursting with life and color in spite of the weather. Triese was smart enough not to speak too loudly on the train, nor say anything that would give away that they were outsiders, and Rock and Lurerre had to stay silent, meaning that they were limited to small talk. That wasn't to say that Triese wasn't immediately enraptured by Eni's hardlight puzzle, however - she was silently eyeing it like it was the greatest thing she'd ever seen in her entire life. Lan, meanwhile, continued to be incessantly bothered by how much Eni was looking at her. Well- obviously he was preoccupied now, but he was staring at her the entire time they were in the apartment and for half the train ride. It was definitely getting weird now- weird enough that she took her PET out to complain to Rock in text. (Oh- she probably needed to hide that. She turned to her side to wedge the device between her and Triese.) [

] why does that eni kid keep staring at me? it's creepy. [

️] maybe hes got beef with you lol [

] he might actually!! we don't know... [

] and something about him is bothering me. he totally looks familiar but i don't know why. [

️] hmmmmm im not seein it [

️] well if hes got beef maybe moon boy standing right next to you has the answers Lan winced. That- probably was the fastest option, wasn't it...? But it felt so awkward to her, to just be upfront about it. Especially when she was barely processing what was up with Reg in the first place - given how awkwardly he explained himself, she had no reason to believe he wouldn't explain Eni just as awkwardly. Thus, all that Lan did for the next few minutes was apprehensively eye Eni over and over, not doing a particularly good job at hiding her own annoyance and confusion.

Eni was too engrossed by his puzzle to notice Triese hovering over him. He flipped and turned the thing around in his hands, with its satisfying clacking sounds coming from the device around his neck. Reg narrowed his eyes, chewing his cheek as he glanced at Lan. He knew why Eni kept staring at her, and it was apparent to him that Eni's gaze hadn't gone unnoticed either. He wasn't about to cause a stir right here, but maybe there was something he could talk to her about... "Hey, Lan," He leaned over, speaking quietly, "how are you liking the future? I think it's pretty neat. I'm still not used to how big everything is around here." He paused, only for a moment, "This is... Something I've thought about a lot since going into the chatroom. That this isn't really any of your futures, it's something else. But this is a future that a lot of people worked hard to make. A lot of people during your time." He suddenly became aware of how odd he sounded, but continued, although hesitantly, "I-I just think it's neat to think about. That... even though things aren't really well, perfect here, that this is still a potential future. If people try their best to build it. Sorry, does that make sense?" This was a weird thing to bring up to her, he realized. But he couldn't help thinking about the one key thing that made this future possible. He mulled over the idea that maybe, she would care about this, relate to this concept, much like her reflection in his history books.

Lan was snapped out of her focus by Reg's comment - she was obviously taken aback by such a comical question. "U-uh? What?" she mumbled, before it clicked for her - yeah, okay, if Reg was from the moon, then this was just as new for him as it was for her. Unless they had moon cities or something. (This was all so stupid...) She struggled to find the words for a moment. "Oh. Um. Yeah, I mean... I don't know if... this has much to do with me," she surmised. "I... oh. I think I get what you're saying. Like... that this... is a future that was worked towards. And protected. And... now it's here...?" Triese was always more vocal about this than her, but she had resolved to protect their futures with Megaman at her side a month ago. But "their future" was just, this ethereal concept, instead of sitting right in front of them. It was difficult to imagine what these colorful cityscapes had to do with what Lan protected, however; this was a sci-fi utopia from a movie, not the... reality they lived, of a world duct-taped together, trying to hide its visible wear. She had a hard time drawing the connection. (And... besides. If Navis no longer existed in this future, then... it'd never be a future she would fight for, right? It was... their power that had saved her; and here, there was an empty void in their place. Or so she had been told.) "I... don't know," she admitted, tensing up slightly. "It's... hard to... feel anything. It's not really... our future."

The light smile faded from Reg's face, "Oh..." He uttered, disheartened. He gathered what little resolve he had left and ventured, "It's a lot isn't it?" He let out an airy chuckle, "I never really gave it much thought. I'd always been too focused on the present." Well, more like the immediate future. Focusing on his present for most of his life was a sure fire way to making himself feel numb. The only relief he felt on the Moon were thoughts of that close future. He needed a pivot, to take the heat off him. He turned to Eni and got his attention, "Hey, what do you think?" Eni paused mid turn on his puzzle, glancing at Reg, "About what?" "About, uh, the future!," Reg faltered, he could sense this going sour, "Because, you know, La-" "Because a Lan Hikari is here, is that it?" Eni finished more sharply than expected, "Reg, if I were you I would drop this conversation." The words cut like a dagger to his throat, shutting him up instantly. Eni, however, resumed his puzzle without another word. Reg was left all alone to save himself from free fall. "S-Sorry, we can talk about something else," He landed on, but worryingly, nothing was coming to mind.

"...It's not really bad to do that," Lan quietly protested. "Sometimes... you have to, if you want to... survive, I guess. But... yeah. I mean, it's... it's pretty." (Triese fervently agreed.) She disliked not having Rock to back her up in conversations like these, since Rock always seemed to be able to word this better than she could. Not like it mattered, though- Lan's heart practically stopped when Eni suddenly rebuked Reg's advances. A message quickly appeared on Lan's PET- [

️] yo that kid DEFINITELY has beef. what the fuck [

️] you gotta ask him because i can't Lan winced, finding herself a lot more annoyed. There was no way she was starting that conversation on public transit. But- what the hell was Eni's problem?? She- she was NOT letting herself get bullied over this. Eni didn't like her, and Reg was clearly trying to imply something, and it all made her want to curl up into a ball. And... that was what she did. She took a seat, hoisted her legs up to her chest, and buried herself inside them, a latent anger still obviously boiling. Triese was thoroughly distracted from staring out the window by now. Lan's reaction did more than enough to clue her in on the tension. She glanced at Eni, then back at Reg. "Uh. Is something wrong?" (edited)

"N-Nothing's wrong?" Reg failed as reassuring. He recognized that reaction; and it tore his insides up knowing he caused that. He gripped his coveralls and curled inward. Every word that came out of his mouth today buried him deeper into some hell and farther away from everywhere else. Maybe it would be better if he wasn't here. Something buzzed within him and he felt bile burn him inside out. "If you really want to know my opinion," Eni sighed, dismissing his puzzle, "There isn't much to say. This isn't your future. And I don't know what your perception of this world is, but underneath this nice facade is a world that is likely more similar to yours than you'd think. People still have issues, there's still plenty of problems and not everything is solved." He directed his next words at Reg, "One person is not responsible for everything you see here. It's the result of generations of people around the world advancing technology and cooperating." "I-I know that," Reg mumbled, unable to pull himself out of head. Did he really know that though? He had fallen into a complacent way of thinking. It was so much easier to think of the present as a result of linear decisions instead of the messy web it really was. And he had placed all that on her shoulders without realizing. "I'm sorry," He muttered, though he will never admit out loud as to why. Eni sighed again, "It's fine. This isn't the Lan Hikari you were thinking of, she's her own person." He knew that. But he still ended up treating her like he knew something about her or something! He wanted to start over, reset it all and never make any mistakes. He hardly knew anything about her! He- He should ask. The words bubbled up quietly, "I uh, I think I got off on the wrong foot. I'm sorry. So um, I guess, what I wanted to ask was... What are you interested in? What do you like to do for fun?" "I like puzzle games," Eni replied idly, despite the question not being directed at him.

Triese wanted to inquire further, since there was obvious tension and it felt like she could defuse it, but... then Eni started talking, and she immediately backed off. She'd clearly tuned out something pretty serious. After a brief pause, she nodded slowly and spoke. "W-well, yeah. The world's... never gonna be perfect." Lan curled up tighter into herself before she relaxed. She hated Eni's tone of voice as he went on this tangent, like that wasn't obvious enough. There weren't any perfect worlds, or utopias, that would be goddamn stupid- there was always rot to fight and she was the one that had to fight that rot because everyone was looking at her and Reg was obviously expecting something out of her and- She's her own person. Huh? Lan uncurled herself and glanced at Eni with a look of confusion and... a strange, sad gratitude. There was no venom to the way he said that, so- clearly she and Rock were barking up the wrong tree...? [

️] ok now i'm just more confused. [

️] at least that kid knows whats up. you probably should talk to him later And... well, now Reg was bothering her again, but he at least apologized, so- she could try. "Um. I... I NetBattle. I guess," she murmured. "And skate. And... uh... I guess I've been looking at... modding stuff recently. Because of a friend..." (How much else could she say, really...? Without giving away too much about herself?) "I like NetBattling, but more than her!" Triese perked up. "Oh, but you probably knew that already..."

"Netbattling?" Reg perked up, "Man, you guys really do need to meet Ellen, she loves that!" "Even though we've all but confirmed that this time's version of netbattling is vastly different," Eni remarked. Reg shrugged, "I don't know honestly! Ellen loves talking about attack combos and chips, so it can't really be all that different?" He turned to Triese, a smile finally warming up his face, "Netbattling at this time is simulated with a game called Netken. I don't have a lot of experience with it, but from what I've seen, it's a lot of fun! It's really complicated too. I can see how someone could get really into it." "I prefer slower games," Eni commented, "Something that requires thinking and taking your time is preferable. You also mentioned modding. Are there particular games that you are interested in modding? Or is this a different type of modding you are talking about?"

"So it's a video game...? Huhhhh," Triese said. She supposed that made... enough sense. "Oh, wait, I think I remember this one person from the chat mentioning that they couldn't NetBattle with anyone even though they liked it!! Was that Ellen? Huhh, okay!! Wild. You should show us sometime!!!" Lan shuffled in her seat. "Oh, I... don't really play video games," she admitted. "I meant, like... hardware. We modded this... scope thingy, to let my PET project a hologram..." "And I'm sooooo insanely jealous of it, sob, sob, SOB," Triese interrupted, feigning tears and fanning herself. "You totally could've called me, y'know! But... I guess I'm not really a super-hacker like your friend..." "...It wasn't a good time," Lan responded, averting her eyes. "But- um, I just meant that I was. Learning it. I know more about... battling, and stuff. But I don't really... have a lot to say." (She didn't really want to admit in front of these people that she had no real idea of her biggest interest, considering Reg's... apparent high expectations of her.)

"A hologram projection..." Eni echoed, tapping his leg with his hand, "I wonder how compatible that technology is with our hardlight tech is. If possible, you would then be able to interact with whatever your PET projected. It would be like this." He activated his puzzle cube projection again, rotating it around in his hands. "The device around my neck tracks where my hands are using the gloves I'm wearing, allowing me to interact with the projection like it's a physical object," He explained, "You can try if you'd like." He dismissed the puzzle and took off his gloves and projector around his neck, holding it out in front of him. Reg stepped back from the conversation, he felt like he said enough words and needed the time to recover. He was glad that it looked like Eni was getting along well, however.

Lan raised an eyebrow. They were supposed to be hiding their Navis, weren't they...? It wasn't like Triese cared, though, since she was far too invested in the mysteries of the cube to let this opportunity pass up. Triese motioned towards Rock. "Oh my gosh, you should totally try it, right?!" she exclaimed. "And the cube would be like, twice your size, wouldn't it? It'd be like you're playing with one of those giant ones!!" Rock was far too entertained by the idea to give up on it. She sent Lan one more message to huddle up to cover the hologram, to which she reluctantly agreed; and the three were soon scootched up to perform their impromptu science experiment. Triese put the gloves on to hold the cube, and she might as well have been holding a kitten in her hands with how much she lit up over it. Rock projected herself and hopped onto Lan's legs, then to Triese's hands from there- and sure enough, the cube was solid for her! She spent a moment leaning against it and feeling it like it was a weird doll, before she tried to turn it. "Damn, this is heavy," Rock muttered as quietly as she possibly could as she struggled to move a single row. After a second of pushing, it finally turned and clicked into the next place, leaving it at an awkward diagonal. "Well. Shit. I don't think I can play it like this," Rock complained, hopping off the newly created step and onto the cube to sit on its edge. "Guess it makes for a cool seat." (edited)

"There's other things it can project," Eni explained, "You have to pull up the menu by making three fingers and brushing down. Then from there press main menu and-" He paused suddenly, almost freezing in place, then seemed to mull something over. "There might be an easier way to do this, but," He leaned his head over into the aisle, checking up and down, "We should be ok to do this." "Do what?" Reg asked. Just then the cube turned into a ball, making Rock fall suddenly, and then bounce off the new projection. "Oh! My mistake, I didn't realize someone was using that cube!" A cheery voice came from the projector's speakers, and a floating holoscreen appeared before the two girls, featuring a red and black Navi, "Hello!" "Oh, One!" Reg greeted. "I figured I would introduce myself now before we get to the aquarium," He nodded, "I'm One! Eni's partner, it's nice to meet you."

Rock caught herself before she faceplanted, and it really took some mental strength not to yelp at this random other Navi showing up on a screen in front of her. "H-hey, watch it," she complained, rubbing the back of her helmet. "O-One? What kind of a name is One...?" Lan averted her eyes. Half of her wanted to protest and chastise Rock for being rude, but... well, she was kind of right. What did that name even mean? Rock realized her mistake on her own, however. "Er- sorry," she apologized, extending a hand toward the screen to mimic a handshake. He did have a pretty striking appearance, as befuddling as his name was. "Nice to meet'cha. Least we're not totally alone." Triese had half a mind to ask about why Eni had a Navi when there supposedly were none, but she supposed the world was filled with many beautiful exceptions to its own rules. She glanced at the Navi with an innocent curiosity, also ruminating on the name. "Your Navi's cool!" she said, keeping her voice down and locking eyes with Eni. "Ohhh, is his name One 'cuz he's like, number one? Like, the best? I respect the confidence!"

"Why does everyone always say that when they meet One?" Eni murmured. "It's good to see another Navi as well," One extended a hand, mirroring the impossible handshake, "I'm sure my existence brings many questions to mind so I'll knock the obvious ones out now. "I am one of two Navis that are known to exist right now, the other being in the care of Ellen, the girl Reg keeps mentioning. My whole story is Eni found old data and repaired it, making me. And the name One suits me well; I do excell in many things!" Reg couldn't help glancing at Lan again. The mistakes he made and said weighed on him. It's not that he needed to be friends with everyone, just that... It'd be nice to have them. He glanced at the girl who met Reg's oddness with bright enthusiasm, maybe she would have some advice. The train intercom pinged, indicating that it would be arriving at their stop soon. "Oh, looks like we're running short on time," One glanced at Rock, "Do you have any burning questions that I can answer quickly before we arrive at the aquarium?"

Rock got the feeling that One had to explain this a lot - she supposed that was a natural consequence of the chatroom. She knew that Triese hated having to explain Autuvera to everyone - so she could only imagine how these people must feel. (But... what did that mean for Reg?) "Old data, huh? Cool," she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "That kid must know a lot if he's, like, one of two people who can fix up a Navi." Triese's eyes lit up at the idea. "W-wow! That is cool," she repeated, clasping her hands together and staring at Eni with admiration. "Gosh! You guys still have that old data, don't you?! We sure don't." There was a hint of jealousy in her eyes, though it was more playful than hateful. The intercom put an end to their conversation, and after thinking on it, neither Rock nor Triese could think of anything immediately pressing. (It didn't help that Triese was clueless to... the issues at hand, and Rock knew that if she asked anything about Reg herself, she'd only get babbling in return.) "Um! I don't thiiiiiink so," Triese replied, tapping her chin. "Maybe I'll think of something later, but now, it's aquarium time!" She beamed, readying herself to giddily skip out of the vehicle.

The train chimed once more and slowed to a stop. The doors opened wide to a lovely glass encased stop, surrounded by greenery on all sides. A hardlight projection of a penguin greeted visitors with a plain, unassuming wave. A sign beside it read, "Welcome to Penguin Gardens!" They walked out of the small building into a lush, open air garden, with plants of all variety as far as the eye could see, but most striking was the massive blue glass pyramid rising through the green like a fin among kelp. Parents walked around with rambunctious kids with themed merch. Outdoor food stalls enticed guests with fragrant wafts of kettle corn and hot dogs. Even with the cloudy skies, everyone looked energized and interested in the sights around them. A directory sat square in the center of the circular entryway, and Reg and Eni gave it a brief look over. "Looks like the gift shop is this way," Reg pointed down a path that ran alongside the pyramid and not directly towards it, "We need to get you guys a pair of visualizers if you wanna see Silver, plus they make great souvenirs!" They began their walk over, with surprisingly, Reg of all people, trailing behind. Eni led the group, elucidating the other two about the state of data preservation in the days post the Net Reset, mostly focusing on the efforts to read old data formats and use the space freed up by the Reset to make redundant copies of important files. Reg gently got Triese's attention and whispered to her, "Hey, can I ask you some questions about Lan? Off to the side? If that's alright?"

The aquarium was definitely nothing like either Lan or Triese had ever seen before. The pyramid was a striking visual, and a textbook example of "futuristic" - to Triese, at least. It took a lot of self-control not to dart after every little thing that was catching her attention, lest she give away that she might be weird and not from here. This was normal, and also the best thing ever at the same time! "Oh! Yeah, we should totally get those," Triese suggested fervently, wondering how she could possibly visualize said visualizer. "I thought that gift shops were usually the place to go on the way out, but I guess we've got unique circumstances!" Lan listened to Eni's ramble intently. She still wasn't sure what her read on this person was; he was obviously smart, and knew... things about her, but he at least didn't seem to hate her like she feared. Triese was enamored by the explanation, though her attention was split between the technical details and the surrounding displays - so, really, she was just nodding along whenever Eni said something that sounded vaguely intelligent. And then another distraction strolled on up to her. Triese was lagging behind Lan slightly with how much she was stopping to ooo and aaa at everything briefly, so they were thankfully out of earshot of Lan. "H-huh? Um? Okay," she agreed, her enthusiasm turning to a little bit of confusion. What kind of questions would he even want to ask...? (...PET audio inputs were more sensitive than the human ear. Rock heard.)

Eni continued his very one sided conversation, continuing to expand upon his explanation of data storage, briefly mentioning the recent rise in virus attacks, glossing over their fighting of them in favor of explaining how people are handling defending and recovering from them. "Y-Yeah, I uh," Reg gulped, looking hesitantly at the other two walking ahead of them, "I wanted to ask some stuff about her, stuff hopefully you'd know about..." He turned his attention to Triese, her cheerful face should've put him at ease, but, he fretted a little as he explained, "It's about her... I... I don't think I can be friends with her. She's too... Different. I'm too different. We're just..." He glanced ahead and back, unsure where to set his eyes, "I messed up immediately when talking to her. I guess I expected something different... It's not like I've got a lot of experience with talking to people my age to begin with, but I feel like every time I say anything she sees how weird I am and..." He met Triese's gaze and whispered as best he could, "What I'm trying to ask is, how did you become friends with her? What's the best way to approach her? I don't want to mess up anymore, so maybe, an expert on Lan like you would know best? How can I make her feel comfortable here?"

Somehow, Lan was too distracted to notice Triese being pulled aside, but Rock glared in the general direction of the two, listening intently to figure out whatever that kid could possibly be pulling Triese aside for about her own operator. Triese listened before saying anything, and as soon as Reg finished, she gave him a wide stare of complete befuddlement. After a long pause, she finally spoke. "I'm sorry, what are you talking about...?" She waved her hands in panic when she realized how rude that sounded. "U-uh! Sorry, it's just, um, what do you mean...?" she asked. "How did you mess things up? S-since when am I an expert on Lan...?" Lurerre crossed her arms, motioning for Triese to lean in closer such that her Navi wouldn't be overheard. "You're coming to a destitute conclusion awfully quickly," she pointed out. "I don't want to make assumptions, but perhaps that whole... haven't interacted much with people your age thing is an obstacle." Meanwhile, Triese was off in her own bubble coming up with another response entirely. "I mean, okay, if you want me to be a Lan expert," she began, tapping her chin. "Well, she's kinda weird. But in a good way! But she doesn't like it when people get too in her face. Oh, man, didja do that? 'Cuz I did, too, and we weren't friends for a while, but-" She stopped herself to blink and take a breath. "Uh! Well, we kinda became friends 'cuz a lot of stuff happened, and I realized I had to back off. Does that make sense?" "I'm... unsure what you could do to make her feel comfortable," Lurerre added. "She's a rather hard person to read..."

"I-I'm sorry!" Reg hissed as quietly as he could, "It was a weird thing to ask wasn't it? Your Navi is right though. I'm still figuring Earth things out." He sighed, then his gaze landed on the two walking in front of them, "Eni and Lan seem to be getting along well. In a weird way, that's not that surprising..." He pursed his lips like he ate a lemon, then stammered, "Uh! Because they're both hard to read kind of people!" Slowly, he regained his composure, "You know, I don't think I would've become friends with Eni if there wasn't a whole incident involved when we met. I still think it's luck that I've gotten this far and met as many people as I have, in and out of the chatroom, that aren't weirded out by my Moon stuff. I was bound to have someone think I'm weird eventually." He took a beat, pausing to take in the peacefulness of the moment; Eni rambling, Lan quietly listening, the guests running around, and the greenery surrounding them. "I think I was too 'in her face'," He murmured, "I expected something else." He chuckled, "If it's space she needs, I'm an expert on that. Lived it my whole life!" He finished with a cheesy grin. Silver giggled, even if only Reg could hear them.

Even Triese wasn't clueless enough to overlook Reg's lack of composure, but there were more pressing questions at hand. "Well, I mean, the chat's got weird other worlds and time travelling, right?" she asked, keeping her voice low. "I mean, I'm standing here right now! That's pretty weird! Weird as a Moon alien, I guess..." She flashed an awkward smile at Reg's joke - this conversation was half going over her head, because the incident with the Destroying Angel made all of this seem so simple in her head. She was friends with Lan because she was, and it sounded like it was similar with Reg an Eni. "Huh, well... I guess we have that in common! Fire-forged friends with, um..." She paused, trying to think of a similarity between Lan and Eni. "...Uh... Cool people! Yeah." Triese was a little jealous that she was missing part of Eni's ramble, but Reg's distraction had her captivated enough. There was an obvious question on her mind, but Lurerre ended up beating her to the punch. "Is there something more to this whole... situation?" the Navi asked. "You say you... expected something out of Lan. What is that supposed to mean...?" (Rock grimaced.)

"Thanks," Reg muttered back. Good lord this girl needed to meet Ellen. 'Fire-forged' was the way she described their friendship too. He had to wonder though, if there wasn't that incident at the park, would they had been friends to begin with? Why did all of his friendships need to be almost forced upon him to happen? Surely he could make friends normally, right? The chatroom was proof of that, he hoped. He stared ahead at Lan. She was just a few steps ahead, and yet seemed distant, like a chasm opened between them. She was lonely too, wasn't she? Too? What was he thinking, he had friends, he wasn't lonely, right? He had friends now. He's not lonely. What was this crawling feeling deep within...? Luerre's words snapped him back to reality, making him jump. He had hoped they were going to ignore that. "I-!" He swallowed his tongue, then sighed, "Ok, so... In this future and this world, Lan Hikari was this great scientist. Changed the world for the better. And I had thought that maybe, your Lan would've been similar. And then we could've had something to talk about and relate to. I was wrong, obviously." He sighed again, straightening out, "It's as Eni said, she's her own person." Her own person, different and lone- Where was her Megaman? A cold sweat crossed his forehead. He was not going to ask.

It took a solid few seconds for Triese or Lurerre to show any reaction at all to that bombshell. Finally, she blinked and tilted her head hard to the side. "L-Lan, a scientist...?" she wondered out loud in utter bafflement. "Oh..." Lurerre was a little uncomfortable with the assertion, especially given that her own operator was the one who had been told that she had a future as a scientist. And that ended... poorly. "She... doesn't strike me as the type," Lurerre admitted tentatively. "I... I don't think you should bring that up to her. Certain... events happened, and... you didn't... actually tell her that, did you...?" "I mean, duh, she's her own person. She's like... I mean, we're all our own people, so why would we all be the same?" Triese rambled, making this sound way simpler than it actually was - and sort of missing the point. "Um... so, wait, if you want to relate, does that mean you wanna be a scientist? I don't get it... she's not really, like, a scientist-y kind of person, like... at all..." There were certain words that Triese was withholding, partially because she couldn't figure out how to say them, and partially because she was confused at why... Reg would have ever thought this. Lan wasn't super interested in her own programming endeavors, and with how much she hated her dad, that made things even more complicated. The idea that Reg had went in with preconceived notions of "Lan" was... strange, to her.

"No! No, I didn't mention that," Reg stammered, "It'd be weird!" Triese didn't seem to be getting things, but it was fine, maybe the less she knew the better. "I uh, I do wanna be a scientist but that's not why I brought it up," He mumbled. If this Lan wasn't much of a scientist, then something must have drastically changed for her in the past. Maybe she was a Lan in name only? Not really a problem in the grand scheme of things, and if he was being honest with himself, this whole idea of someone being destined to be a certain way or how things should be was starting to unnerve him. "Let's talk about something else," He spoke clearly, glancing at the massive pyramid beside them, just barely able to see some of the exhibits inside through the blue glass. "You know, I didn't just bring us here cause you like fish and I happen to like fish," He explained, looking back at Triese, "It's also cause I wanna go into Marine Biology. And I've never gotten to take a look at any sea life up close! This'll be my first chance. I've read a lot about it, but now that I'll finally be able to see them in person. I might end up talking your ear off about them! If that's alright?" The group had reached the gift shop doors at this point, inconveniently placed near the end of the walk through the aquarium, but nonetheless extremely accessible to the public. Eni had continued his exposition by going into a one sided discussion about data recovery techniques. Reg smiled a little, at least Eni was enjoying himself.

Triese was content to go along with things - Reg seemed nice, so she wasn't sure why he kept pulling people aside. There was probably something she wasn't getting - maybe it had to do with their previous meeting...? (Someone was really gonna have to explain that to her later...!) At least the exhibits and the approaching gift shop was a cool distraction. She was particularly enamored with Reg's admission of intent. "W-wow, really? That's... really admirable!!" she beamed. "I... wow, I dunno what I really wanna do yet... 'cuz the stuff I like is... um, weird..." "It's not weird," Lurerre corrected. "Just... complicated. I suppose it'd be like if you said you, Reg, wanted to major in NetNavi development." Triese nodded sagely, then perked up, giving Reg a cartoonishly wide smile. "If this is really your first time, then I hope you'll enjoy it!! Aquariums are awesome, not biased!" she beamed. "And you can totally talk as much as you want! I love talking and I love listening! And I love fish, too! So really, I just can't stop winning!!" Lan, meanwhile, was feeling a little overwhelmed by Eni's tirade, but experience with Triese at least gave her some poison immunity to these kinds of tangents. And after her experience with the hologram scope, she figured she should listen more intently than she was otherwise - maybe there'd be a nugget of info that'd come in handy. (Rock was stewing on what she had overheard. So Reg had expectations of her operator, and now he was all fucking plussed about it? Because she wasn't a scientist? The fuck was wrong with this kid? ...She'd had to think of some way to bring this up to Lan. Of course, him being weird about it probably had a lot to do with the rescue and his... transforming shit, and weird companion. But he clearly had his head up his ass about the kid. And there was something about him and Eni she wasn't getting. She hated it.)

"NetNavi development...? Do you mean to say what you're trying to do is considered impossible?" Reg wondered, "Well, I bet you could do it though! There's gotta be some way, whatever it is, right?" He smiled wide as he opened the door to the gift shop, "I hope you're ready to see lots of cool fish! Hopefully I can remember all the cool facts about them that I can!" The gift shop felt massive. It was inside a giant rock that sat around the corner of the pyramid and featured a waterfall that split, flowing down along the rock outside, and a stream that fell inside into a wishing fountain pool in the center. Plushies, games, shirts, candy, and toys filled every wall and shelf. It was nerd heaven and Reg felt a need to kneel and worship. He didn't. But he did look at Eni and pray. "I am buying, but please be mindful," Eni replied, "I can't buy everything." Reg couldn't contain his excitement and dashed off to the first thing he spied, rows of T-Shirts that said 'I had a Whale of a time at Penguin Gardens' with a charming whale printed across it. He giddily bounced to another shirt, and then another. "I don't really see the point in everything here. You can get higher quality equivalents at much cheaper prices elsewhere. There isn't much here besides the visualizers for sale that I would describe as practical," Eni remarked, "What about you, Lan? Anything here interest you?"

"Not impossible," Triese clarified, although there was a sad look in her eyes that betrayed how she actually felt. "Just... really, really hard. It's an uphill battle..." She had to imagine Eni felt similarly, given how long he'd been on this tangent about data preservation. Maybe they'd get to have a chat about it at one point - but for now, there was a sparkly future-world gift shop to snatch her attention away. It was a really cool place - it was hard not to eye their stocks of candy - but what stuck out to Triese the most was that Reg's enthusiasm was far exceeding hers. He was bouncing around the store before Triese even finished looking around...! Man, he's acting like this is his first time in a gift shop or something, she joked to herself. Wait. It could be! Maybe they don't have gift shops on the moon... Lan wasn't as enamored; it was certainly interesting, but she was inclined to agree with Eni. "Um. Not... really?" she tentatively agreed, speaking her first words to Eni in... what felt like ten whole minutes. "I'm not really a... gift shop kind of person. I kind of don't get it. Maybe it's because I don't travel much..." "Well, you gotta start decoratin' your room somehow," Rock added quietly. Her eyes were still half-spaced out, ruminating on what she had overheard. "Though, this kind of fishy business is more Triese's thing. You're more of a dark and brooding type."

"How do I know what size shirt I wear?" Reg asked, rummaging around, "Oh! This mirror can help size you!" He continued his fashion adventure, using the holotech to see how he'd look in the clothes. Once he realized the staggering variety available for him to pick out, he was stuck in a choice paralysis loop. "Should I get 'shrimply glad to be here' or 'I love this tuna' or...." Reg mumbled. He was hopelessly engrossed. Eni pondered for a moment, then glanced at an inventory search kiosk. He made his way over and typed in 'dark and brooding', yielding no results. He tried again with just 'dark', pulling up a list that included games that you play in the dark, dark chocolate, flashlights, glow in the dark posters, and dark colored souvenirs of every type. Eni stepped back and offered the terminal to her to look.

Triese accompanied Reg on his fashion journey, and was really impressed by the holotech previews. She had half a mind to try them out herself, but she quickly became absorbed in the idea that she'd cause some sort of insane time paradox by trying on or buying future clothes when she didn't belong here. What if those clothes looked weird in the past other world place, or glitched out, or shocked her with a million volts of electricity or something?! "I think if I had to pick something out, it'd just be like, a cool pattern or a logo or something," she thought out loud, creeping up behind Reg. "It's about style, y'know?! I can make corny jokes myself, I don't need a shirt to repeat the same one over and over." Meanwhile, Lan took one long look at Eni's own terminal. "U-uh. I don't think they'd. Have. What she meant," she responded awkwardly. "B-but. Thanks for trying...?" "Hey, I mean, maybe something in here'll satiate ya," Rock said. "You like dark chocolate, right? That's one-half of what I said! Very literally what I said, but it's still what I said!" Lan clamped her hands behind her back and averted her eyes. "...Well, I- I guess, but it's like Eni said, it'll be way more expensive," she protested. She kind of did want that dark chocolate, but that'd have to wait - no unnecessary expenses on their weird interdimensional trip. (The concert shirt was a necessary expense.) "...So... I mean... we're here for visualizers, right," she continued, trying to change the subject. "What do they... look... like? Where are we getting them...?"

Reg glanced at Triese, arms full of shirts, "Huh. Maybe..." He set all the shirts down and shuffled through them, pulling out a blue tie dye style print with a large shark with sunglasses on top. It glowed in the dark apparently. "Yeah this one works just fine," He nodded to himself, putting the rest of the T-Shirts back, "Pretty sure this one's based off of a virus from... I wanna say one hundred and fifty years ago? Some viruses just went extinct. Kinda wild since real sharks are like, two hundred million years old and still around." Eni, meanwhile, glanced between Lan and the gift shop around them. "Dark chocolate isn't that expensive. I can get you some," He replied, and before Lan could say anything in response, he already walked off and picked up a bar, "A visualizer is a pair of glasses that allows someone to see beyond the visible spectrum of light. We'll likely find them in the accessory displays near the clothing racks." He walked off, not waiting for Lan. Again.

"Wow. Wow wow wow, I didn't even think about that! Viruses extinct for hundreds of years... that's crazy," Triese began muttering to herself, trying to visualize what this virus looked like based off of the T-shirt. (She was probably imagining something cuter than the real deal.) She hummed to herself. "I wonder how many viruses you guys have seen that you'll never see again," she said, before a wire finally connected in her head . "Wait. That'd be... all... of them. Wouldn't it?" Eni was moving a little too fast for Lan, though she was feeling way too awkward in this situation to do anything about it. She simply let Eni snatch the chocolate up - prompting a laugh from Rock - and scuttled behind them as they set off to find themselves a visualizer. She idly wondered to herself why something like that would exist for any reason other than Silver. (Were there more Silvers?? That seemed like... a weird idea.) In the meantime, Triese noticed Eni wandering off to another side of the store. "H-hey, Reg, should we join up back with them?" she suggested. "We were here for those visualizer thingies anyways, right? Even if that shirt is cool..."

"Yeah," Reg frowned, clutching the shirt in close, "It was all of them." He couldn't mention the new wave of viruses. If he did he may have to talk about fighting them. If he talked about fighting them he may have to talk about his whole, everything. And then maybe the rescue. He held his tongue. "Oh right! The visualizers! Yes, sorry I got so excited about everything else here! Yeah, let's meet back up with them," Reg flustered, trotting over to the other two with a quick wave. Eni was picking up various pairs of visualizers, each with their own unique quirkiness to them. Some had fish themed rims, while others had unbelievably colorful tints. "Honestly, these are too tacky for me," Eni held up a pair that looked like two inner tubes for lenses, "And any of the cooler ones will make me look like my mom." Reg chuckled, "Hey, your mom's pretty cool though!" He turned and opened his mouth to explain, then clammed up immediately, coughing and sheepishly said, "Oh, well Eni's gonna have to explain that." Eni stared at him, "She's just passionate." Then went back to looking at the rack. He paused on a particularly dark pair and handed them over to Lan, "Try these. The red tint doesn't match your outfit, but it might be what you're looking for."

Lan's impression of Reg was absolutely not being fixed by him immediately waltzing up to her and Eni and saying yet another extremely suspicious thing. What would he even have to explain about her mom being cool? W-whatever. At least the pair that Eni handed her looked... actually pretty cool? She put the visualizer on, and... well, there was no Silver in sight, but... she wasn't hating it. Rock, too, found it pretty cool. "Hey, that doesn't look half bad," she complimented. "Goes well with your vibe! Like sunglasses but more stylish." Triese was ogling the display with a little more skepticism. "Hey, wait, if they're glasses, I already wear glasses," she pointed out. "No way they make prescription lenses, right...? Um! Well, I can deal! Double glasses power. Or something." She definitely was eyeing the more themed visualizers - in particular, a scallop themed one (though the one outfitted with pufferfish spikes on the rims was pretty cute, too). "You think I could get away with that?" she asked, scanning the shelves up and down. Lan took the glasses off - she was definitely satisfied with Eni's pick. "Um. I guess we pay for them, and then... make them be able to see Silver...? I don't know how this works..."

"I like the pufferfish ones!" Reg smiled, "Although, I'd be worried about the pointy bits poking my face. Oh wait it's got a little guard ring around it! Those are really cute then!" "You can get prescription lenses, if I remember correctly," Eni stated, "That's not really an option for you though. You'll have to deal with using two glasses at the same time." Eni caught Lan's gaze and locked eyes with her, and intoned "I will pay for it." Reg popped up beside them cheerily, "Oh! You just have to tune them to Silver's frequency! Was there anything else you guys wanted to look at here? We can always swing back through once we're done with walking through the aquarium!" (edited)

"Hehe, really? I guess they'd go well with my real glasses!" Triese giggled, grabbing the pufferfish lenses and testing out how ridiculous they looked stacked on top of her actual glasses. "Well, I'll deal. Hey, hey, maybe I could stack the glasses on top of each other and make a stupid face, and then I'm 80% of the way there to being a real pufferfish!" Lan was taken aback by how insistent Eni was, but it wasn't like she could complain. Now that she was thinking about it, it was probably better off that she wasn't using any of her own savings in another world, anyway - who knows what kind of suspicion could arise, if their... bills were different, or something like that. (But this was the third time someone had bought gifts for her on a visit. Why were people so insistent on doing this for her...?) "U-uh. No, I don't think so," Lan answered, backing away from Reg ever so slightly. (Oh. Right, she also had this random dark chocolate now...?) Triese nodded fervently. "Yeah! I think if I want anything, I'll know after we see all the cool fu... uh, I mean, normal and real and present fish," she said, gradually shifting from a normal to a hushed tone the further in the sentence she got. "So!! Um! Let's go!!"

Eni paid for everyone's souvenirs at a terminal near an entrance. Reg stuffed his new T-Shit into a deep pocket on his coveralls, making an awkward lump stick out of the side of it. "Oh, I see why people buy stuff after going through the aquarium," Reg chuckled sheepishly. They were at a far end of the aquarium with an intended exit marked nearby. There were kiosks and a straight forward path to the front clearly indicated when they walked past that. Eni wasted no time and approached a kiosk, buying four tickets swiftly, before anyone else could consider buying one for themselves. Reg was taken aback by a small display of tiny tropical fish near an outside entrance, presumably a teaser exhibit; a sample for what was further inside. He was mesmerized by the colors and plants waving in the circulating water. He needed extra prodding from Eni to break him out of his trance. He floundered about and refocused back to the people around him. He remembered to show how to tune their guests new visualizers to Silver's frequency, which involved the little EM being holding a note till they could hear it. Reg couldn't help an electric energy jittering through him as he realized he was just a few steps away from seeing something he had dreamed about his whole life. He took off, only slowing down to look back and keep pace with everyone else behind him. Eni flashed his tickets on his mobile and let everyone in, and Reg raced to the first tank he could see. Little jellyfish swirled in circular tanks, looking like blobs of living plastic, slowly undulating in the artificial current. Once Triese caught up, he began his infodumping. "So these guy's bodies are mostly water right?" He explained, "Like 95 percent or something like that! I'd be able to look all this up if I had my mobile on me... But this is fine! Uh, other facts... They've got these specialized cells called nematocysts that inject venom!" He continued rambling like a snowball rolling down a mountain slope. Eni glanced over to Lan, watching her reaction carefully. She was odd. So much quieter than any Lan he could've imagined. The visualizer he picked out for her reminded him of a video game character he was fond of, and One, but perhaps only in aesthetic. He wanted to know more about her. Something about her was different in some hard to explain way. He figured that this would be usually when people say something and start a conversation. "Do you like fish?" Eni asked, it was the first thing he could think of. It was a nothing question, but maybe it would get things started.

Triese was excited to be able to see Silver again, though she ultimately decided she wasn’t brave enough to be wearing the Visualizer all of the time. Reg’s enthusiasm was infectious, though, and considering how Triese was by default and where they were, she was vividly experiencing a Category 5 Giddy Event. She already liked jellyfish quite a bit, so as soon as Reg began his tirade, she zoomed right up to the tank to get a closer look. (Thank goodness, jellyfish still exist 400 years in the future!) She nodded fervently along, having approximately a 50% success rate on whether or not she knew what Reg was talking about. “They’re cute, right?! I just love how squishy they look,” she interjected the moment Reg took a breath. Her observations were considerably less scientific than her compatriot’s. “And their little heads, they’re like natural lamps, or shower caps, but way more elegant!!” Lan was keeping her distance from the tank, since the jellyfish were admittedly a little more unnerving in person. Even if they were behind glass. Fortunately, she was provided with a brief distraction. She turned to face Eni maybe a little too suddenly. “U-uh. Sure,” she answered tentatively. “I mean… they’re not really my thing, like they are for Triese… but, uh, I don’t have anything against them…” (She silently hoped that Eni wasn’t also going to go on a jellyfish rant right in front of her. Now that they had been ticketed inside, there was no escape.)

Reg laughed, "A shower cap? They would sting you so much though! Oh! Did you know that leatherback sea turtles love to eat all sorts of jellyfish? They have these specialized hooks in their throat so they digest them easier!" His eyes were sparkling and wide. There was so much to say about this one exhibit! The only thing that pulled him away was the fact that there were more fish tanks nearby. The next one featured a coral reef with small tropical fish swimming around it. The exhibit itself focused its descriptions on the variety of coral on display, detailing their species classifications and distinguishing characteristics. "There's so many!" He awed, "Triese did you know that these guys are living animals with photosynthetic algae within them and they're related to jellyfish?!" He was gone. Completely lost in his own aquatic world. The girl that may or may not hate him might as well not exist in this moment. It was coral time now. Of course he continued his infodumping. "I have no particular opinions on fish," Eni stated. He watched Reg move on to another tank finally, letting out a small sigh. "He's going to be like this the entire time," He explained, "We went to a zoo and I had to stop him from looking everything up just so we could see more animals." He pulled up a map of the aquarium on a floating screen and asked, "Would you like to go sit down on a bench further ahead? Those two will catch up with us... Eventually."

"I don't think she meant that literally, dear," Lurerre quietly added. (It was probably safe to talk. No one was listening, most likely. If anything, eavesdroppers would be met with Reg's rambling instead of a Navi's voice.) Triese's mouth went agape, her brain endlessly pleased by the colors and shapes of the coral. "W-wait, they're related to jellyfish?!" she exclaimed, holding her hands together tightly out of pure excitement. "I mean, I knew coral were alive, but I just thought they were like, water plants!! I guess both coral and jellyfish are pretty wiggly..." She excitedly followed Reg from tank to tank, completely sucked into said aquatic world like this was the absolute peak of her entire life. As such, Lan was left completely in the dust, abandoned to be besieged by her cold anxiety and the colder air conditioning. Eni's offer almost flew over her head with how scrambled her brain was. "U-uh? Um. Sure," she complied, clutching the straps of her bag. "I-I guess the quiet would be nice." (Anything to give herself a second. She was better off being stuck with Eni than with Reg, anyways.)

"I mean, they are kinda like plants?" Reg pondered, "Growing and branching to try and outcompete other nearby corals for sunlight, being food and home to a lot of animals on the reef... A third thing." He continued to explain everything he could think of, only changing subject when he spotted another creature to tell facts about. Silver joined the fun in the tanks; floating around and pretending to swim alongside them. Reg got a kick out of that. "If only you showed up in pictures," He said to them, then suddenly stood upright in realization, "Triese! Can I borrow your new visualizer for a second? I have an idea!" Meanwhile, Eni nodded at Lan's request and began walking further into the aquarium. They passed their friends and several more popular exhibits on their way into the pyramid. Following the map, he eventually found a split in the path that lead to a secluded resting location where one wall was entirely taken up by a view of a rocky reef with scattered sea plants, giant eels in tiny caves, and various ocean fish slowly swimming around. Eni sat at a bench, resting his tired, out of shape legs. There was no one else in this small area and Eni felt like he could finally relax. He looked at Lan and burning questions threatened to be voiced. Would she want to know about him? Does she care about the legacy of her family? She was so quiet, was she expecting him to say something? Was he being rude by not engaging with his guest? He opened his mouth to speak, but caught her gaze, clamming up and diverting his attention to the tank in front of him. He imagined the possible vitriol she had for him, for his side of the family staining her good name, for his great great grandma destroying her father's hard work. He dare not speak of any of this. He wanted nothing more than for this to be a peaceful visit. He was not going to ruin this by speaking idiotic things. Silence was safe. Silence was correct.

Triese held her Visualizer up to her face once she realized Silver was messing around, and she, too, was sent into quite the giggle fit over it. "Gosh, you're so cute," she muttered to herself, waving to both Silver and the fish as they swam along - man, Triese was a little jealous! She'd totally have to ask Reg how he met Silver later - she'd totally kill to have her own Pretty Force fairy. (Wait, can Reg transform?? Is this literal?? Oh my gosh, are magical girls real???) She perked up at Reg's question, her fantasy daze being briefly shattered. "H-huh? Oh, yeah, sure!" she responded, handing over the Visualizer without a second thought. The spot that Lan and Eni stopped at was thankfully pretty soothing - Lan found the eels a little weird-looking, but with no one around, it was easy enough to breathe in and out and take in the ambience of the tanks. Both her and Rock's eyes were captured by the colorful fish darting around - it was like the wallpaper in Triese's room had come to life. It was... interesting. Eni was dead silent. This confused Lan - she'd been pulled aside before, so she was... sort of expecting Eni to say something. But it seemed he really did want to just... relax, and wait for Reg and Triese to wear themselves out. Half a minute passed, before Lan's PET lit up with a message. [

️] hey we were talkin about interrogating this kid right? [

️] well hes sitting right next to you and no ones around. nows the time Lan hesitated. Eni did... defend her, even after giving her those cold stares the whole time it took for them to get to the aquarium. And there was still an odd feeling bothering her, as if she'd seen someone that looked like Eni before, but nothing was really lining up. Finally, she decided to speak up. Her voice was painfully quiet, and painfully awkward, strained as if her saying the wrong words would cause the tanks to burst and all the fish to mercilessly attack her. "Do I... know you, from somewhere?" Pause. Oh no that sounded weird. "Um! Er- uh, I mean, that wouldn't make sense, this is, like... the future, or something," she quickly appended, clutching her fists close to her chest. "But... you look familiar. I don't know why. Uh. Sorry."

"Yeah, check this out!" Reg held the visualizer to the camera on his PET, "The visualizer just works as a filter! So I should be able to..." He took the shot, and flipped it around to show Triese, "See! A picture of Silver!" He handed the visualizer back to her, and held up the display to Silver inside the tank. "Oh look at that! That is me!" Silver chirped. Reg flipped the PET back around, looking at the photo with a gentle smile on, "I'm really glad Lan and Megaman helped me set this up." And then startled. "The uh, short... er Lan! Have you met him? Wears a blue hoodie all the time?" He asked, "I met them earlier! They're really nice." Of course Lan was catching on, she was smart. All this served to do was to make Eni retreat into himself more. He wanted desperately to out of this conversation and yet at the same time, wanted to have it. "Familiar..." Eni mumbled, his bangs obscuring his face. "This is something you're going to need to talk about sooner rather than later," One's calming voice came through his headphones. "I..." His voice sounded like it was being stretched, broken apart and thin at the edges, "I don't know how your life is like. As a Hikari... But..." He took a slow, deep breath, and turned to meet Lan's gaze. She really was different. He gathered every scrap of courage he had left in him and held it in his throat. If this came out wrong, he could just run, like always. "I'm," His words shook and he gripped his hand as if it would stabilize them, "I'm a descendent of a Lan Hikari, another you... That's probably why..." His voice breathlessly trailed off, becoming too small and quiet to continue. Bile rose up as he heard the words echo in his head. Like he had been lying to her this entire time and that the truth was going to burn him alive. He couldn't look at her anymore. He stared at the floor as his heart pounded in his ears; this silent, small space was quickly becoming suffocating. He might as well be the one in the tank drowning for all to see. The moment she made any noise, his eyes were immediately on her once more. Even through the fear, he needed to know her thoughts.

Triese was honestly shocked that the trick with the Visualizer even worked - she internally chalked it up to future tech making it all possible. "Wow!! That's so cool," she exclaimed, getting uncomfortably close to the PET screen. She started to fan herself dramatically. "I can't believe it... the one weakness of a fairy's cloaking device... We ought to keep that trick a secret, huh?!" She snatched the visualizer back up to give Silver a big, dumb grin - she was endlessly entertained by this thing's existence. Reg's question drew her attention back in, however. "Uh... Lan with a blue hoodie..." she repeated, rolling her eyes up to the ceiling. "I... um, I don't thiiiiiink so? Are they from the chatroom? I haven't met with anyone besides this one other Lan, but he sure as heck wasn't short or wearing a hoodie!"

Lan immediately felt like she had made a bad decision once Eni curled into himself. A sort of crackling silence cut between them, like a glass vase had shattered on the floor and shut everyone up. As a Hikari, he said. Her chest stung, and she visibly tensed up as Eni spoke. This was- this was something different, he wasn't mocking her but he was- afraid? And then the payload hit, and both Lan and Rock fell silent. Was- was that why? Lan thought on it more, and- the hair, it was almost styled like her brother's. He was a descendant? N-not, of her, obviously, this wasn't her future, but this was someone else's future, where... he was scared of her, why was he scared of her, as a Hikari, was that bad, was it still bad here, did they hate him like they hated her or did he hate her because she, or, as a Hikari- "Lan," Rock whispered harshly, snapping her operator out of that glassy, vaguely terrified look she was wearing. She was gripping the seat hard, her back rigid with how much emotion flooded into her at once. "U-uh," Lan stammered, composing herself and forcing herself to make eye contact with Eni. He was staring at her again. "I... I'm sorry. I..." She was on the spot, now. The way Eni was staring at her, she had become the judge of someone else. She... she couldn't let this chasm stay open, or she'd just be doing the same thing everyone else did to her- She gulped. "Sorry. I'm, I didn't mean to... put you on the spot," he stammered. "I didn't... expect that, uh, but I... don't... really..." Lan completely lost her train of thought, leaving Rock to swoop in. "She's not judging you," she quietly insisted. "Believe me." Lan's eyes darted back and forth, taking another pause, before she nodded fervently at Rock's assertion. "It's... we don't... have to talk about this," she insisted. "If you hate it. Then it's fine. I... um, I... understand... I... think..." Idiot idiot idiot why would you admit that-

"Don't want another Ellen incident do ya?" Silver smirked. "Yeah," Reg sighed, "We've been lucky in that no one has noticed you despite Visualizer sales increasing." "Don't worry~" They scoffed, tossing a tiny hand about, "I've got my eyes open for any of those glasses and I'll hide so good." Reg let out a single chuckle, looking back at Triese, "Oh, a taller Lan... That must be the one from the-" He paused, dread flashing, "Uh, that one guy! Yeah. I haven't met him yet! Is he nice?" Silver gave him a narrow stare, but shrugged it off and went back to playing with the fish. ----------------- She didn't deserve this torment. To sit and try to console a stranger she was barely connected to. Eni retreated, hunching over and staring into and through the floor. "I apologize," He uttered, voice so distant it sounded like it came from another room, "I shouldn't have brought this up. You don't need to worry about it." He had failed. Any words that could salvage this had faded into the darkness. He did hate this. He ruined this pleasant outing with his existence. He should have stayed home where it was safe. The only thing preventing him from up and leaving was the fact his legs felt invisible to him. "Eni please," One soothed, "Listen to what they're saying. I don't think she hates you." Eni froze, One had pulled him out of the fog. He stayed silent, hardly breathing as he tried his best to hear her in a better light.

"Oh! Yeah, yeah, he was super nice!" Triese excitedly recounted, still giggling to herself over Silver's blase attitude. (Couldn't they just like, hide inside the ground or something, if they could float through stuff? Much to ponder.) "We went out to a cool meet, and I got a bunch of chips, and... oh, I could show you!!" Triese kneeled down to dig through her bag, and procured a small chip displaying a trio of Jelly viruses. "Look!! It's a chip from something called a Virus Breeder," she exclaimed. "It actually summons a facsimile of the virus, it's so cool! Though I guess it means I can't use it for a virtual exhibit, hehe." (She was entirely clueless as to what Reg had interrupted himself for. Lurerre knew, though, and grimaced. He was not a good liar - he was lucky that Triese was too excited to care.)

He was... apologizing? For... oh, oh. Oh. This isn't the Lan Hikari you were thinking of, she's her own person. The assumption that he hated her, and how he stood up for her, and his own... shame, it spoke so much louder than he could know. "I... I don't hate you," she protested, trying to raise her voice but still remain quiet at the same time. "Why... why would I? That doesn't..." Rock had had enough, and activated her hologram to hop onto Lan's shoulder and stare at Eni directly. She gave him a fierce glare, but one less of hatred and more... simple firmness. "Alright, kid, your attitude's been bothering me," she began. "You know more than you're lettin' on. Defending the kid, and thinkin' being kinda-sorta related to her is something to be ashamed of." Rock's ranting was enough to get Lan to make... the obvious point. "Do... they hate you? For that?" she mumbled, twitching as soon as the words came out, chastising herself for even saying anything. But what else was she going to say? "I- um. I just, mean. The way you... talked about it, it sounded... like you were upset about it." She gripped the bench. She had to bridge this chasm, as terribly awkward as this was. "I... I don't hate you, because they hate me for it too," she finally forced out, speaking so quickly that it was almost like she was trying to hide her own feelings.

"That's! That's incredible!" Reg beamed, looking at the little Jellys on the chip, "That's like uh, Cretaceous Park! You know, cause you're reviving old, ancient viruses! I wonder if you could use the data on that chip to bring them back?" "Reg you gotta be kidding me, you want more stuff to be destroyed? Cause that's what viruses do," Silver snarked. "No! I mean like, maybe in a specialized containment unit or something," He stumbled, "I just think... Viruses are neat, kinda." Silver looked incredulously at Reg, and then looked at Triese as if he could not believe the words coming out of his partner's mouth. ------------- Eni found himself relaxing as he carefully digested Lan's words. He met her eyes once more, only for Rock to appear and chastise him. He recoiled but, there wasn't that overwhelming fear from before to his eyes. "What do you mean they hate you too?" He asked, letting the only thing on his mind fill in the blanks, "For being a Hikari?" What had happened to her? Had she done something wrong? She was too young to have done anything, much like him. It had to have been someone else in that family. "Eni," One caught his attention, "Now might be a good time to explain the Net Reset." He averted his gaze and took in a deep breath, "Yes... They... Hate me. I don't think it's as much hate that my mother or grandmother received, but yes... I had to drop out of public school when it got too much for me." He blinked his attention back to Lan, "I'm explaining the events backwards. I should start at the beginning." He sighed, "The Net Reset one hundred years ago for us was spearheaded by a Hikari, my great great grandmother. It both saved the world from a relentless onslaught of viruses, and to some people, removed half the population. Our side of the family has been dealing with the repercussions of that ever since. They want to blame her for what she's done, and want to blame all her descendants for not trying to fix it." For me not trying to fix it. He left his final words blank. He had a feeling she could hear them anyways.

“Uh! Um! Maybe??” Triese stammered, already finding herself getting swept up by the idea. Having a virus breed so familiar to her being referred to as ancient was tickling her. Though it confused her to witness Silver’s reaction- did they… not like them? “H-hey! I think they’re neat, too,” she excitedly agreed, holding her fists together. “I mean, yeah, they can be real nasty, but there are good pens for them, and if you feed them well they’re basically pets!” She spun around, seizing the opportunity to gas herself up. “They’re not all bad! I keep some at home! They’re just cuties that’ll bite at intruders,” she said giddily. “You just gotta know what the real nasties are. I guess it’s kinda like sea life, in a way!! And. Well. Animals. In general.”

Lan and Rock fell silent after confirming Enj’s first question, with the former listening intently, her expression becoming graver the further Eni went on. Rock couldn’t quite drop the firm look she had - after Reg impressed shit on her operator, she had to keep her guard up - but nodded along all the same. “I… noooo, no,” Lan eventually let out, once Eni had finished talking. Her denial sounded… almost despairing, like she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. For a brief moment, she stared at the fish swimming by, but when they failed to provide her comfort, she put her head in her hands for a few long, awkward seconds. There was a familiar stinging in her heart. She… had a lot in common with some of the other people she met, but. Lan had convinced herself that this was her weight; and yet, here was someone else who shared in that… exact same pain. “I’m. I’m sorry,” she stammered, finally glancing at Eni again. “That’s. What you meant, by Navis not… existing anymore, right? They all…” “Died,” Rock finished, crossing her arms. Her eyes were shut - she was obviously deep in thought. “Like the Angel went off.” Lan nodded sadly. “I can’t believe… you had to drop out of school,” she continued. “I’m. Really sorry.” …She was reminded of the days where she wanted to run away from her elementary school, so that she didn’t have to look at anyone else around her anymore. But she knew there would be consequences, and so she never did it. She simply bore the onslaught. “Why is… why is everyone so awful? You don’t… you don’t deserve any of that,” she said, a quiet anger raising in her tone. “Your great great grandmother?! That’s… so horrible…” The hate and pity she received seemed trivial, now, imagining those same emotions drawn out for literal generations. The thought made her nauseous. “They’re all awful. They don’t care about you as a person. Just the idea of you,” she continued, sounding even angrier. “Like we’re supposed to follow up on some stupid legacy. But I hate it! I… don’t want to be a part of it. It’s not fair to me, or to you.”

"Exactly! Well, I mean, that's how old viruses always were described like," Reg nodded along, "And like animals you can tame them, it's just dangerous if they're especially strong! I'd want a virus pet, I think it'd be fun!" "Oh really?" Silver questioned, "Could any virus compete with my charm?" Reg chuckled, "I can have two! I'd want an Octo Ninja virus, they were these funny octopus looking viruses that shot ink like smoke bombs!" "I wanna shoot ink like smoke bombs..." They pouted. Reg offered a small pat on their head, which they took, of course, then he directed his attention back to Triese, "It's really cool that you're taking care of viruses. Your world had to deal with something that nearly wiped them all out right? So you're basically doing conservation work. That's really cool!" He looked back at the tank they ended up at. A tide pool themed one with sea slugs roaming about eating algae. He got pensive in that moment and began to explain, "This was something I had heard from a documentary about parasites, where the professor who was studying them said that they had to be their strongest advocate. That even the smallest and grossest creatures deserved to be understood and live. That trying to make other people see these creatures the same way they did was the hardest part of their work. I dunno, it's just, always stuck with me. You get me, right?" ---------------- Eni wore a devastated expression, the most emotion he had on display the whole trip. This Lan had to deal with something horrible like he had, burdened by expectations to fit a mold not shaped for them. Was this just the fate of everyone in this family? To try and fail to outshine the past? Or to burn so brightly that any mistakes are hidden in brilliance? He had heard tales of his mother trying to distance herself from the family at some point, only to come back when the world refused to accept her. He felt the eyes of the public burn into him as well. Lan was right, this wasn't fair. "I was worried," Eni stated, his normal monotone cracking as something tight gripped his throat, "that if I were to meet any Hikari of the past, that they would hate what they saw. That they-" Something caught and he choked. He bent down and buried his face in his hands, grabbing his hair and shuddering. "I-I- You-" He stammered, vocal chords tied in knots. It wasn't fair, why didn't anyone understand that? Because no one else had lived it. But this Lan had. Some sick twist of fate caused history to repeat across realities. But at least he knew he wasn't alone. Years of emotions that were buried and burdened came forth all at once, finally finding an echo that resonated with them. He wept.

Triese's eyes sparkled. "An Octo Ninja?! I've never heard of those," she exclaimed. "Oh, but I bet you guys have all those future viruses!! Like those cute crabs, or those Mets with antennas!" She put her thumb to her cheek, absorbed in thoughts about viruses for a brief moment - oh yeah, they were called Mettennas, I guess that's because they're Mets with antennas!

before turning to Silver.

"Hey, but Silver's right! Viruses can't talk, or... be real, like that, I guess," she continued oh so thoughtfully. "What you can't do in smoke bombs, you make up for in being stupidly cute!" She paused, gazing at the sea slugs with a warm smile as she listened to Reg's recounting. That explanation... really resonated with her. Viruses didn't necessarily go... extinct, but so much data and evolution was lost through Autuvera. It was harrowing to know that small comps and efforts like hers were the only reasons some virus types were spared. "Y-yeah. Autuvera did a big number on them," she answered. "I, um, it kind of is like preservation, isn't it? 'Cuz a lot of them don't exist on the main Net anymore, but... I get you! They deserve to! That's unique data! If we don't protect it, then... it's just gonna go away, and we'll never learn anything good from it. Right?"

Lan immediately flinched as soon as Eni began to cry. Her chest ached as she reflexively reached for him - she felt awful, _watching him break down like this, and after Rock snapped her head to look at her, Lan scooched over to close the gap between them. "I- I, sorry, um, don't... cry," she mumbled, barely sounding confident in herself. "S-sorry, I didn't mean to..." She was freezing up watching Eni get like this - especially when this was... all over pain that she didn't _let herself cry over, but- he was here, sharing her pain, and... she had to help, she couldn't just not say anything... "Hey. Kid. You've got nothin' to worry about," Rock interjected, jumping off of Lan's shoulder to look up at Eni. "Dunno about other Hikaris, but we're dealin' with the same shit here, it sounds like. I thought you had some beef with us, but... just a misunderstandin', I guess." "U-um. Yeah," Lan agreed, clutching her knees tightly. She was leaning over slightly; there was no way she was gong to try and hug Eni - that would've been painfully awkward - but she really wanted to feel like she could cheer him up. "I-I don't... um, I thought... you were expecting something out of me," she stammered, her body language absolutely rigid. "But. Um. No. It's... fine, just... don't... cry, please..."

"My cuteness is my horrible burden to bare," Silver declared, stalwart faced with gigantic, sparkling eyes. Reg giggled. "Yeah," Reg said, rather content, "I've wondered if viruses served some sort of purpose, like animals. Not that animals have a purpose, but that they eat plants. Kinda like how viruses eat data, yeah? It's probably not that simple, but I like to think about it." Reg showed her to more places around the aquarium and they landed at a touch tank where all sorts of weird marine creatures sat, ready to be interacted with. He poked at a crab and was startled when it recoiled at his touch. They also had scallops that squirted water when picked up and sea urchins that wore hats to protect them from UV radiation! Silver had found a hardlight display of a manta ray near the touch tank and jumped on top of it, slapping it happily and causing slight ripples in its form. Reg looked at that with the biggest smile on, needless to say, he was having a great time. --------------- Eni winced and shuddered, trying to get himself under control and presentable. One advised softly through his headphones, "Let it all out Eni. You can keep crying for as long as you need to." He screwed his face in, taking broken breaths and releasing more tears. One's words only helped to increase the amount he cried. But soon he slowed. He took in deeper, more steady breaths until he sat upright in one long inhale, holding it there for while. When he finally exhaled, he flipped around his backpack, grabbed a handkerchief from his bag, and wiped his face with it. He looked back at Lan, his normal expression on, though a bit redder around the eyes. "Sorry about that," He spoke in his usual tone, "I did not expect to have been affected as deeply as I was by what you said. It... Really isn't fair what's being asked of us." He gripped his handkerchief and wrung it slightly in his hands, "The only expectation I had of you... Was that you would hate me. I'm sorry. Perhaps I should have had more faith in you." One appeared in a floating screen next to him, "You don't need to apologize, Eni. Everyone reacts to large emotions differently." He looked to Lan, "I'm glad we found someone for you to commiserate with. You're very strong to have dealt with these pressures for so long. Both of you."

"Viruses serving a purpose, huh," Triese wondered, pondering her knowledge as she flashed another bright smile at Silver. "Well... I mean, they were made to destroy in the first place, right? By weirdos with vendettas. But they grew beyond that purpose, didn't they?" She stopped for a moment. She couldn't resist a few moments of interacting with the touch tank, though her poking of the sea urchins was carried through with a thoughtful expression and a curled lip. "Sometimes I wonder, 'tho," she finally muttered, once Reg was done with his own crab-poking. "There's a lot of viruses, and they seem pretty alive all the time. There's no way there's some weirdo making all of those, right?" Triese was a little surprised by the hardlight display interacting with Silver, but the gesture was funny regardless. She giggled, then continued her train of thought. "But, um, yeah. I know that there's some research on viruses _evolving, but... I wonder how far it really goes."

Lan tensed up, grimacing at Eni's renewed flow of tears in spite of her protests, but... finally, he was able to calm himself down. His apology was... awkward, but Lan nodded along carefully. There was comfort to be had in it all just being... a misunderstanding. That in reality, they were more similar than either of them expected. "U-um. It's okay. I didn't... really even... know, something like this would happen," Lan stammered, averting her eyes. "But. It's okay. I... really... understand." Rock nodded and hopped back onto Lan's shoulder, eyeing One with a neutral expression on her face. "Same for us, I guess," she responded, crossing her arms. "I'm tellin' her, she's strong for that, but she doesn't listen to me." Lan blushed. "H-hey. Shush," she retorted, before looking back to One. "But. Um. Thanks... I think. I hate that... we keep being associated with things that aren't even our fault. It sucks."

Reg watched the sea urchins movements thoughtfully. Their slow, methodical crawl reminded him of many facts about their biology (like their tube feet or their relation to sea stars!), but that all fell my the wayside as he thought about viruses and their evolution. "Maybe at first they were man made, but once they got onto the wider net they found a lot of places to live and evolved a lot," He pondered, "Like a Cambrian explosion for them." He had to wonder though, since all viruses ate data that humans would rather be left uneaten, it'd be like if cows ate... buildings. Or books. Maybe the similarities between viruses and animals stopped a couple comparisons back. It's a lot harder to advocate for virus's right to exist if all they actually do is destroy. "Anything that can change, will probably change, and anything that survives despite those changes, will be the starting point for the next round of changes. That's evolution, basically. And I bet that applies to viruses too," He explained, "I wonder if viruses could evolve beyond their 'purpose' again, and be something regular people could like." His mind wandered to today, where viruses roamed the Earth once more after being extinct for a century. Reg was also uniquely positioned to study these viruses up close... That's an... interesting thought... For later though. He looked back at Triese and silently hoped he could actually show her his weird ability. She would probably get a real kick out of it... If it didn't accidentally remind her of her rescue... ---------------- One nodded back solemnly, "No one can choose the circumstances they are put in." Eni listened along quietly, gently kneading his handkerchief. Things that aren't their fault... He had to hope. "We don't have to talk about this," He suggested, looking back at the tank before them. He still didn't know what had happened to her. Her Navi had mentioned an 'Angel' of some sort. He wondered if that was related to... Probably not. A change of subject was likely needed, "Are you at least having fun? I could explain more about data recovery if you would like to talk about something else." "Or!" One brought up brightly, "You two could watch the fish swim by and enjoy the quiet?" He winked at Lan. "That's also fine with me," Eni replied.

"Oh! That's a good comparison," Triese perked up, recalling the ghosts of memories from her biology textbooks. "Like, maybe all the viruses that existed branched off from the first few man-made ones? That'd totally make sense!" She pondered Reg's words for a moment, lamenting that so many only viewed viruses for their surface level purpose and not much more. "I think they could! You just need to treat them nicely, and care for them. Maybe that's what they really want, and they just destroy because they're... hurting...?" The idea made her a little sad. It's not like she could really communicate with them and get confirmation, but it certainly was something she wanted to believe. But... this also was a crazy future world, so a lot was up in the air. "I dunno what viruses really entail here, but if little guys like Silver exist, maybe people would want their own pets! More than in my world, for sure..."

Lan remained silent. She hardly took any joy in telling ghost stories, so she decided to take the out that Eni was giving her. Though, given that what was being offered was more of an infodump she'd be hopelessly lost in, she wasn't sure what was the greater evil. "I guess some... quiet, would be nice," she agreed. Rock, too, thought it was probably for the better, since emotions were already running high as is. And so the two were perfectly content to sit and watch the tropical fish swim by, the ambience of the tank drowning out the aching in her heart. Meeting someone with the same struggle as her wasn't exactly something she expected out of today, much less after that bizarre conversation with Reg, but at least it provided her with a little comfort.

"Hey! I'm not a virus! I'm..." Silver barked, then steamed for a bit, "Something. I don't know what." Reg chuckled, "It'd be nice! Viruses, Navis, and people all living harmoniously. I don't really know what that would look like, maybe viruses can be tamed with food like data." When did he tell her that this future had viruses? Well, she wasn't wrong so correcting her would be weird, wouldn't it? It didn't matter. His attention drifted to more tanks nearby, some featuring great big fish like groupers and- "Psst, Reg," Silver whispered, floating right up to his face, "We've got a teensy small problem." He dreaded that he could probably guess what it was, and looked at the little guy expectantly. "We've got creatures," They grimaced. Reg took in a strained breath, of course this was going to happen. He immediately whipped out his PET to contact Eni to make sure they were safe, and then blanched as he remembered his company. "I uh..." He sweat. The lies were just not coming to him, and how could he to that face! Silver rolled their eyes dramatically, "We don't have time for this. Hey Triese! Wanna go see a virus?!" They pumped their little arm in a beckoning motion while Reg was stunned silent. She was gonna say yes. And then. And then!! He hoped that she was recovered, or else, this may hurt. ----------------- The fish in the tank before them swam placidly, always in motion, but no destination in sight. Eni's mind had wondered to Lan's and his first meeting, and how Reg had chosen his words poorly. As his friend, Eni should vouch for him, despite his errors in judgement. That's what friends are supposed to do. "I should apologize on behalf of Reg for the things he said earlier," He began, breaking the silence, "He means well, but he was likely thinking of a different Lan, the Lan Hikari of this world. I won't speak for him, but I believe it was a topic that was going to not be as fun as he expected." He turned to face her, "I'm sorry if that gave you a bad impression of him. He is odd, but there is good reason to trust him. He saved my life when we first met." There wasn't much else he could say. Any extra defense would be speaking too much for him, he felt. And the additional reasons he stuck by Reg were... personal. Too personal to voice. "Eni," One's voice murmured through his headphones, "Reg has messaged us. It seems like there is a virus loose in the aquarium somewhere. I can deal with cameras. Do you want to meet with them?" His eyes darted to the tank and back, then standing up from the bench said, "Lan. There's trouble. You can stay here, One and Reg can handle this." (edited)

Triese was lost in her own fantasy of a world like that; one where people actually realized that the Net was worth something, and that digital life was just as valid...! She had to imagine there was probably a world like that out there somewhere, but... if they couldn't show their Navis, and Reg was fantasizing about this, too, then it probably wasn't this one. At least she and Reg could bond over that kind of lament. But... now Silver and Reg were whispering to each other over something...? Triese tilted her head quizzically, wondering what they were hiding from her, until Silver hit her with the million dollar question. "Huh? What? Yeah, sure!!" she suddenly beamed, though there was still a hint of confusion in her expression. "What for, though? This seems kinda random..." (Lurerre was much better at noticing that something was bothering Reg. She grimaced; for a moment, she wanted to say something about it, but things were moving too quickly for her to find an opportunity. With the way Silver asked the question... were they leading her operator into danger...?)

Lan's shoulders tensed up when Eni even brought up Reg in the first place. Before she could even say anything, though, Rock groaned out loud for her. "Was that really the deal? He should've known better," she complained. "I thought I heard him talkin' about how Lan wasn't what he expected, or something like that. Shitty thing to say." Lan grimaced and put her hands on her knees. It only made sense that Eni would go to bat for him if... they had that kind of connection. Sort of like how she became friends with Triese, but... with considerably higher stakes. Reg had played a part in saving her, too, something that wqas all too easy to forget when he was acting like the most bizarre person possible when he tried to have a normal conversation with her. "I guess," she finally relented, averting her eyes. "I just... I hate that he thinks that. I'm just me..." Her muttering to herself, though, was interrupted by Eni's demeanor suddenly changing. Something was up, and... why was he telling her to stay out of it?! "Wh... what do you mean, there's trouble?" she hissed, trying not to raise her voice too much. "Hey, what? Who do you think I am? I'm not just staying here..." Rock retreated back into the PET once Lan had stood up, but she was just as, if not more annoyed than Lan was. "What, you think the kid can't handle some trouble? She's known plenty of it," she bragged, shooting a glare at Eni from the screen even though he probably wasn't heard of it. "We're practically made of trouble."

"Alright!!" Silver cheered, zipping up and around, "Follow me!" They immediately floated ahead, with Reg trailing behind, then briskly walking to catch up. "Silver," He whispered as inconspicuously as he could, "What are we dealing with? Anything dangerous?" Silver hummed briefly, then flipped around to respond, "Nothing out of the ordinary! Just some typical viruses." Reg let out a sigh of relief, then turned his attention to Triese, "It'll be safe to watch then, at the very least. But you should let me handle this. It'll be fine!" It'll be fine It was more to assuage his own fears. Triese was probably not conscious enough during that part of her rescue -- she wouldn't recognize him and start remembering... It'll be fine. ------------- "What do you mean? Who do I think you are?" Eni's eyes narrowed, "You're Lan Hikari, a girl who I've only known for about four hours. And you're a guest. I'm not going to ask you to fight our battles, much in the same way I wouldn't ask you to clean your own dishes after dinner. But if you insist, I appreciate the help." Under One's guidance, Eni left the small room and walked, heading towards a deeper part of the aquarium. As they walked, he explained, "The trouble we're dealing with are viruses. I had mentioned them earlier, but viruses have come back after not existing for a hundred years. Because of that, no one's been able to handle them effectively. Thankfully they don't do much damage; typically only deleting some data. It should be safe for us to engage." In this moment Eni couldn't help but take the lead. Instead of the normal rising fear he expected to feel, he felt... protective. It was a foreign feeling.

Triese was still a terrible eavesdropper, and only really heard what Reg directly addressed to her. "Huh? Safe to watch?" she repeated in befuddlement, tilting her head. "Why wouldn't they be...?" Lurerre, again, was far more cautious about what was going on here - enough that she tried to speak up even as Triese happily skipped after Reg. She, of course, had seen what Reg was capable of - she didn't fully understand it, but if the fight with Laserman was a battle he was used to, then that didn't bode well. "Er... is there... a serious problem?" she mumbled, trying to emphasize that last word. "If it's not... something Triese will be able to handle, then..." Triese narrowed her eyes. "What?! What couldn't I handle?" she asked, completely missing the point. "We're NetBattlers! If the viruses get nasty, then we can just handle them, right?!"

Lan balked at Eni's literal interpretation of her question. She wanted to protest, and clarify that no, she just didn't like people making assumptions about her - but Eni relented anyways, so it wasn't like there was really a point... "Just viruses? Then, yeah, why the hell wouldn't be able to help?!" Rock asked incredulously. "I mean, didja get a clear look at me? Do I look like a softie caretaker Navi?" "...But, all the Navis are gone here," Lan protested, glancing at Rock sadly. "If no one knows how to handle them, then... maybe no one really... knows what Netbattling looks like anymore." "Is that an excuse for him to be underestimatin' you?" Rock replied, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, let's get a move on already!"

"Huh?! Oh well. Uh," Reg fumbled, and turned to Silver quickly, "Hey do you think Triese's Navi could even appear in the virus's territory??" "Love that you asked me as if I would have any idea," Silver smirked back. Reg glared with no fire at the little, innocent eyed thing. "Ok Triese," Silver circled around to the front of her, "Lemme catch you up on how viruses work here. They appear like holograms and eat up data. They can't hurt people, and only Navis can hit them!" "Or me," Reg admitted, better now than later, the moment of truth, "I uh, can fight them too. I've got this... Ability that lets me interact with viruses..." He watched her reaction carefully, if there was anything less than surprise, he'd be worried. It wouldn't make sense for her to remember this fact about him to begin with, but if somehow she did, would that mean she remembered more? His stomach curled and twisted at the thought. ------------ "Oh," was all Eni responded with before pausing, turning back briefly look at Lan, then began walking forward once more. "With three Navis and one Megaman, we should be able to handle this round of viruses swiftly," He stated to himself, "Although, One should handle the cameras so we don't have to worry about getting spotted. So that leaves Lurrre and Rock to handle this with Reg." He slowed a little to stand beside Lan and explained, "The viruses expand a territory that allow them to move about. Navis can only materialize in that space once there's enough territory. According to One, a Navi can just tell when they're able to do this." He held his chin in thought, "Did you happen to bring chips? A virus fight would probably be made trivial with those." At this point the groups converged at a path deep within the aquarium. The two boys locked eyes and nodded, ready to continue further, as long as the girls were too.

"Wait, they're different?! They're holograms...? What about the Net...?" Triese asked excitedly. Did that mean that viruses were real?! They were just hanging out in the real world, like they'd hopped into a Copybot or something?! Her eyes were sparkling at the idea - though her enthusiasm was dampened by the realization that she probably wouldn't be able to touch or pet them. She was intensely curious about whatever Reg meant by an ability. Was he really saying that he just had, like, magic powers or something?? "You have an ability?!" she beamed, her eyes so bright that they'd probably reflect light off the tanks if she was facing them. "Sorry, that's like, four questions in a row, but you're just leaving me with a lot of them!!!"

Lan double-taked at the sudden mention of one Megaman, before remembering who they were dealing with. By process of elimination, that made Reg and his transforming schtick the Megaman in the situation. That made her feel a little nauseous; how did he get that name? Why did he think he deserved it? All the Megamans she met weren't judging her like he was- but, right now, that didn't matter. "They materialize?" Rock repeated in surprise. "So, like, in the real world? Like a Copybot? Or that substantiation schtick that hoodie-Lan was talkin' about...?" (She realized Eni might not even know about what she was saying only after she finished her thought.) "Um. Yeah, of course I brought chips," Lan affirmed, adjusting her bag. (There was Reg, and... why did Triese look so... excited- actually, on second thought, there was a pretty obvious reason why.) Rock materialized on Lan's shoulder as soon as the groups had caught up - though she refused to make eye contact with Reg. "Okay, so, what's the plan?" she demanded. "Just point me somewhere and I'll start punching."

Good, she was unaware and still cheery. Maybe Reg was worried over nothing? Sounds about right. "I think it'll be easier to understand it all in action," He chuckled, "With you and Rock's help, it'll be a cinch!" He waved at the other two as they caught up alongside them, greeting them, "Speak of the devil! Hey guys! Did you have fun?" "Did we have fun," Eni repeated flatly, "Reg. There's a virus." "I know!" He flushed, "Just trying to be courteous." Silver guided them all further in, and stopped before a massive tank. Reg had to ignore so many interesting creatures along the way that when he made it to their destination, he was more in awe of the unbelievably giant wall of glass that encompassed the roof and floor of the room. He was completely surrounded in water and fish and a weird purple skeleton of a fish- "Augh!" He exclaimed, stumbling back. "And if you use your visualizers you will see to your left, viruses!" Silver cheerily explained. Behind them, hardlights signs flashed on, requesting guests to not enter the area for mantience reasons. "One can handle the logistics of keeping this private," Eni stated. Before them a group of viruses were wondering about. Flat, yellow and black looking crab viruses crawled around the edges of a bubbling territory; purple and cream skeletal fish floated along the bottom, seemingly lifeless; and above them all, a large virus made of many smaller vase like viruses shooting bubbles out of the top of them. The fish in the aquarium swam along unbothered by the viruses, though many of them naturally avoided the expanding territory, somehow sensing the odd area. "Ok, here we go!" Reg announced before transforming in a flash and phasing through the glass. The water didn't seem to effect his movements, though it did feel weird. Once he was inside and adjusted, he gave a thumbs up to the others, indicating it was safe to join.

Lan was irrationally annoyed at how cheery Reg was greeting them - this was a problem they had to fight through, was this really a joke?! Though she supposed Rock sometimes didn't take these things seriously, but... that was because of confidence, not of cluelessness... Triese's Visualizer was still slanted on her face, so she actually heard Silver's joke and excitedly ogled the tanks. The viruses really were real...! And they were pretty cute, even if they were weird...! (Oh, they were here to delete them, though... well, that was okay, that was just how things were with viruses...) Lan followed Triese's lead and put on her own Visualizer just in time to see Reg transform again - and, wow, he looked a lot clearer than what Lan had seen at the rescue. He... did basically transform into a Navi, didn't he...? And then... phased through a wall- "What! What what what what what! WHAT!!!!" Triese exclaimed, immediately running straight for the tank to get a better look at Reg. "That's your ability?! Oh my gosh, that's totally... I guess it's kinda different from Pretty Force, but still....!!" She spun on her heel to try and find Silver, shouting at them instead of addressing the issue at hand. "You didn't tell me you two made a real magical girl!!! I mean, boy!!" she shouted, sliding across the tank like a maniac. "Hey, you guys need to work on your transformation sequence, though, that was way too fast!!" Lan was more just... tentative, than anything. She had to figure out how in the world these weird rules worked, so she looked down at her PET expectedly. "Hey, yeah, how is this...? There's no ports or anything," Rock wondered out loud. "Maybe you just gotta press the button and it works?" "Maybe?" Lan responded, gritting her teeth. She might as well try- so she held the PET out toward the bubbling area inside the tank and pressed the jack-in button. Sure enough, the signal spread apart into a bizarre static-y mess, coalescing into... Rock, in the real world. Rock manifested several feet in the air and immediately plummeted to the bottom of the tank - and she felt that impact? What the hell?! "W-woah," she muttered, gaining her bearings in this decidedly bizarre situation. She glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of Lan, her mouth wide open. (Pause.) (Pause.) (Pause.) Rock turned to her, shrugged, and unclasped a blade, tossing it toward a nearby skeletal fish.

Unfortunately the massive wall of glass couldn't carry Triese's voice. Reg gave her a wave and a smile instead, hopefully that would suffice. "We can't hear you!" Silver called out, waving at the people on the other side. Reg watched as Rock appeared and destroyed a skeletal fish with ease. It alerted the others, making them immediately spring up and whip their tails, shooting purple boomerang projectiles circling towards her. "Watch out!" Reg exclaimed as he dashed towards one boomerang, deflecting it with a tonfa. "It's going to be difficult for you to coordinate with Lan if you can't hear her. Are you gonna be ok?" He asked, and immediately regretted voicing. Something about this Navi screamed 'insatiable bloodlust' and 'if you dare challenge me prepare to die'. Too late to take it back now. Eni watched the action unfold before him, and as always he remained a silent observer. Reg's voice came through his headphones staticy and fuzzy; something in the glass was partially blocking the signal. He looked at Lan, his... family, and made a decision there and now that if something were to happen, he wouldn't stand by and wait, he would protect her. The viruses scrambled about. The Mettaur crabs scattered to the edges and hunkered down in their helmet shells while the skeletal fish returned to their 'playing dead' animation, and floated up into the water like corpses. "We should be careful," Reg advised, "I think if we try to take them on one at a time, we'll just get attacked by them all in retaliation." (edited)

Triese's disappointment that Reg didn't hear a word she said was immediately overridden by watching Rock manifest right in front of her - although she figured that... she couldn't hear Silver very well, either, so Rock probably also wouldn't hear her, so she'd have to question her later, and- man, man, this really was straight out of a dream and it was moving a little too fast...!! But!! But!! That meant... she could help, too!! If Rock was real, then... then that meant...!!! Rock deflected the incoming boomerangs by whirling one of her saws around her body, then took note of Reg's warning and raised an eyebrow. "Of course I'm gonna be okay, kid," she retorted. "It's a little annoying, but nothing we can't work with!" It was a pretty surreal experience for Lan to see her opponents so up close - it definitely would make forming a strategy easier, if it weren't for the auditory barrier. Luckily, Rock had a plan in mind; motioning for her operator's attention, the Navi spun around in place and spread her arms out to try and communicate what kind of trajectory she wanted. Lan got the hint - the choice was obvious, given how the viruses were on the defensive. "Battle Chip, Air Hockey! Slot in!" "Hey, but wouldn't that break the glass?" Triese wondered out loud, sounding strangely nonchalant. "Oh, but I guess it's not a real puck..." Rock reflexively jumped up in the air to try and look cool as she tossed the puck, only to find herself floating. "W-what the hell," she muttered as she floated in place, flapping her arms like a bird. That did make her raise up - wow, the water was actually water! "This is fuckin' weird. Whatever!" From her new, higher vantage point, she tossed the puck toward the edge of the tank, bashing one of the Mettaurs in. The puck rebounded into a Mettaur hiding on the other side, bouncing away into a Mettaur back on the other side - rinse and repeat. The viruses' defense was useless against the chip's breaking property; by the time the hockey puck dissipated, Rock's surroundings were clear of whatever the hell those things were. "Heh! How's that, moon boy?" Rock bragged, before promptly leaning back and accidentally tumbling into a 360 degree spin around in the water. She was, decidedly, not a swimmer.

Reg caught Rock, placing his hand on her back to stabilize her in the water. "First time in the water? Mine too," He smirked, even with the danger present, he was having fun! The Air Hockey had made quick work of the viruses, maybe he could afford to be a little lax here. "I've got an idea. I'm gonna gather some of the viruses together, you take 'em out!" He suggested with a thumbs up. He held up his tonfas and Silver zoomed to the center of the charge shot, turning it a soft green. Reg fired Silver right into the side of a skeletal fish, sending it flying into its neighbor just as vines sprung out from the impact, wrapping the two viruses together and restricting their ability to fight back. "Yeah!!" Silver cheered, unfurling, "Take that! Kick their butts Rock!" He grinned at the clean shot, unaware that the attack had caught the attention of another fish that sent a boomerang right into his backside. It shocked him more than anything, but for a brief moment, his neck buzzed. Reg grimaced. Silver zoomed back to him, fretting about and looking worried. Outside the tank, Eni lurched forward, but then retracted as he remembered how useless he was here. "I'm ok!" He reassured with staticy hum to his voice, "Guess I'm not as recovered as I thought..."

It was real weird to be feeling another person grab onto her - there was a sort of buzzing feeling to it that threw her for a loop, but the kid was able to help her up, at least. "Uh? Well, duh," Rock commented. "Not exactly the kind of person to be goin' for a swim in the cyber-pool or whatever." She nodded along with Reg's plan and dashed toward the two skeletal fish tied together with both of her blades in hand - huh, that fuckin' grey thing is good for something, guess that makes sense - and bisected the tangled viruses with a cross-slash, deleting them both. This time, she actually had a feel for the liquid around her, and was able to stabilize her momentum to float in place - though, focusing on the viruses meant that she couldn't dive in to help out the other kid. Triese squeaked watching Reg get conked in the back, and reflexively reached out her hand, grasping for him. "N-no! Watch out!" she cried, way too little, way too late, and way too useless. That reminded her, though - she could hop in, too, if she just figured out how this transmission stuff worked...! "Lurerre! We should hop in, too!" she said, looking down at her PET with determination. There was a group of those vase-like viruses claiming territory a little further away from Rock and Reg, so that seemed like the perfect place to... want Lurerre to arbitrarily materialize...? "Emerge, Lurerre! Time to make our mark!" Triese said, pointing her PET toward the materialized area and slamming the jack-in button. "Execute!" Lurerre was able to materialize just as Rock would, and unlike the former, the water had virtually no effect on how she moved around; she was basically already swimming, anyway. She was cut off from her operator's commands, now, but they'd work with it - they needed to improve their synchro, anyway. (To help her heal-) Lurerre fired an Ice Arrow at one of the nearby vase viruses as Triese pondered their next move. (Sadly, summoning the giant fish would probably blow up the entire tank. Unfortunate!)

Reg watched as Luerre materialized, thankful that another Navi had stepped in, and one already adapted to water to boot! This will be a cinch! He looked up at the weird virus overhead. It kinda reminded him of an animal he had seen in a book, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what. Maybe a jellyfish? Then Luerre fired her Ice Arrow. One of the viruses jar like bodies opened up, engulfing the attack and swallowed it, filling its wiggling body with a blue water. "Oh shoot," He grimaced, "This must be what Ellen fought at the zoo." He called out to the Navis in the tank with him, "Careful! That virus eats up elemental attacks and then spits them back out! I think you gotta counter it with opposite elements! Though, if I'm being honest, I don't really know what those are." He shot down another skeletal fish, hopping away from their counterattack with a lot more ease thanks to the smaller number of them. "We should be fine though, from what Ellen, uh, my friend, has told me, we just need to take our time and plan ahead with this one," He explained. "There's something else up there, Reg," Silver pointed out. Next to the large colonial virus there was a jellyfish looking one, floating rings, and a multi colored pattern its bulb. It cycled between red, blue, green, and yellow rapidly before landing on red and released a plume of something like red ink into the water, which quickly got sucked up by one of the gelatinous jars. "That can't be good," Reg cautioned.

"Opposite elements? As in, the elemental wheel?" Lurerre asked, observing her attack getting absorbed. "Lady Triese, did you-" She stopped herself when she remembered how the tank was disrupting communication. Triese had noticed that the attack was absorbed, and was clearly trying to puzzle it out based on her expression, but the crucial explanation had been blocked out. In substitution, she turned around and swam toward where Triese was standing, attempting to draw jagged lines with her fins to signal electricity. Triese tilted her head, but after a few more furious attempts at the same telegraph and a motion toward the colored vases, she got the picture. Unfortunately, she did not carry a particularly high amount of Elec chips. "Ummm... uhhhh," she mumbled as she started rummaging through her collection. "Is there... uh... where's the Magnet Bolt..." Rock's attention, meanwhile, was directed toward the jellyfish feeding the vases (and wondering how the hell Reg didn't know how elements worked). "Guess it's feeding the others," she observed. "I'll take care of it!" In that moment, she reflexively activated her visor to get a read on the viruses, only to be hit with a loud static noise that caused her to recoil- >$̶̅͝G̷̊̽X̷̂̐L̸̓̈́|̵͛͗Q̶̛̽ | ??HP >Z̴̛̎ZZAAZZA͉̾A̴̓̀Z̶͛̓ | ??HP >T̶̄̑M̶TRAI̶̋͂N̶̽͐E̷̓R | ??HP "Ah! Rock!" Lan cried, watching her Navi stumble back - the errors had reached her PET screen as well. Thankfully, Rock immediately deactivated the visor, halting the errors, but both were still shaken for a moment. "Whew. Okay. Don't do that," she muttered to herself, clutching her blades tightly. After a brief pause, Lan slotted in a Yo-Yo chip, which Rock took as her cue to try and swim after the jellyfish. Her movements were a little awkward, and she ended up floating to the side of the tank to launch herself off the glass to close in, but she aimed and unleashed the Yo-Yo at the jellyfish.

The Yo-Yo slammed and whirled into the jellyfish virus, causing it to sputter. It spewed multicolor ink into the water, shooting it everywhere around it, growing larger on each hit. The explosion of color startled Eni, making him lurch forward, taking a defensive step forward in front of Lan. Once he became aware of himself, he retreated back to his spot sheepishly. A cloud of swirling colors surrounded the area, obscuring the viruses behind it, until the jars sucked up the ink, filling three of them with green, yellow, and blue energy. And no jellyfish virus. "Well, you got rid of one of them..." Reg grimaced, "Now we've got a bigger problem on our hands." He hopped back to dodge two boomerangs before picking off one of the two other viruses. "I'm not really sure what to do here," He hummed, looking at the multicolored viruses up above, "What do you two think? Should we try a physical attack?"

Lan was perhaps more startled by Eni darting in front of her than the actual explosion of the jellyfish virus. "Uh?" was all she let out before Eni immediately retreated; not understanding why, she simply tilted her head and refocused on the battle at hand. Rock was already patting herself on the back for taking the virus out, safely landing on the floor of the tank as she retracted the Yo-Yo, only to realize with Reg's help that she played right into the viruses' strategy. "Shit," she muttered, backing away from the vase viruses' terror radius. "What do you mean? Like a sword or somethin'?" Unfortunately for their huddling up, Triese had already loaded in her Magnet Bolt chip, having entirely missed the burst of color. "Lurerre, you gotta... um, hey, what happened...?" "I think the viruses are synergizing," Lan observed. "The vase things, they're absorbing... something, and the jellyfish was feeding them it. Is there a way to break the loop...?" Their murmurings fell on deaf ears, though, and Lurerre loaded the Magnet Bolt anyway. Realizing they probably shouldn't hit the vases without a plan, though, Rock dashed toward Lurerre, and, lacking in a better plan, she kicked Lurerre to knock the Magnet Bolt into the remaining skeletal fish. "Sorry! Sorry!" she immediately apologized. "There's something fucked up going on with the vases!" "U-uh, right," Lurerre stammered, doubling over as the Magnet Bolt dissipated. "What are we doing?" "Moon boy here said physical attacks. What do we have? My blades, whatever chips the kid's got," she started recounting. "And we better hurry up. They're probably gettin' ready to attack."

The Magnet Bolt fried the remaining fish; the attack pulled them in close and the electricity was enough to instantly delete them. Now the only virus remaining was the one high overhead. Reg clutched his tonfas in close, anticipating an attack as well, but it never came. The colonial virus wiggled in place, though it calmed down as it seemed like the fighting had paused for the moment. Outside the tank, Eni fretted silently, cursing to himself for not paying closer attention to Ellen's rambling explanation of this virus. "It fights with what it absorbs," He explained, "Sorry, I don't remember much else about this virus. It looks like it absorbed a lot of elemental attacks already. Five of them are full." He watched as Reg jumped up and fired a charge shot at the virus, which it reacted to by releasing a burst of blue energy. The wave hit and knocked Reg back, sending him flying in circles through the water. He gasped, stopping himself from asking if Reg was ok just in time to avoid looking stupid. He burned on the inside, completely unable to assist his friend. Reg felt the pain in his throat return; the wave attack had felt like a gut punch from a gorilla. "May-" He heard his voice, crackly and compressed, winced, then continued, "Maybe a shield would work? Do either of you have something like that?" (edited)

Lan listened and observed as Eni recounted his experience with the virus, only to watch Reg get completely pummeled by a counterattacking wave. Even with the glass blocking the noise out, it was pretty easy to tell that Rock had exclaimed something along the lines of what the hell was that - and she was beginning to feel pretty similarly. But... well, they had a common goal, so now wasn't the time to be petty. Observing that the virus worked in counterattacks, Lan worked out that they needed a defense before Rock could even communicate that. "Battle Chip, Barrier! Slot in!" Both Rock and Lurerre reached for Reg, but he had recovered by the time anything they could do mattered at all. "That didn't look very physical," Rock immediately retorted. "And I don't think either of us're really built for defense-" Her declaration was interrupted by the Barrier loading in. "Oh. Nevermind, that works." With the vases presumably pausing and revelling in their victory against the other kid, Rock once again swam toward the glass and launched off of it, this time throwing both of her blades outward. Lan supplied a third attack by slotting in a Drill Arm, and as Rock approached the vases, her blades curved toward the virus cluster for both to slash straight through the moment Rock unleashed the drill, piercing the virus from three separate directions. Lurerre, meanwhile, swam over to Reg to bodyblock in case of an emergency. "Are you okay?" she asked, hesitant to make contact but still reaching toward him as if that was any sort of helpful gesture. (edited)

Rock's blades sliced through the colony, splitting the thing in a burst, just as the drill arm connected and one of the jars glommed onto the drill, only to be spun around like a fork in a blender. One of the virus bodies that split off fired a bolt in retaliation, only for it to glance off the barrier Rock had set up. The part that took the drill's full attack was spinning around in place, dazed and incapacitated. The rest of the virus uselessly floated in the water, waggling their legs about like helpless overturned turtles. "I'm fine," Reg reassured Lurerre, his voice coming back slowly, "I don't think I'm as recovered from the rescue than I thought." He observed the broken apart virus; even now it didn't want to attack without being provoked. He wondered for a moment if this fight was even necessary. It wasn't aggressive, though it did allow for other viruses to invade. The poor thing could probably, pretty easily, be tamed with- "Wait a minute, Lurerre," He perked up, "How do you and Triese tame viruses? Is there a way you capture them? What if, hear me out, we don't fight this virus?" (edited)

It had been quite some time since the rescue, which was a little worrying. The other Lan received some grievous injuries from the incident, but he had recovered by the time they met him again. Even Triese herself was recovering quite well - that... copy of her operator must have done more damage to Reg than it appeared. Rock backed off from the virus, a little bit confused at what Reg was proposing. She kept her mouth shut, though, since Lurerre was the one being addressed. "I see," Lurerre responded, also backing off. "Er... I'm... well, usually, we bait them out a lot closer to our homepage. Once they're inside, it's easy to feed them to make them docile, but..." She floated toward the vase virus, hesitant to reach out toward it. "We... we don't have BugFrags with us, and... our viruses generally exist in the cyberworld. I'm... not sure I understand..." Rock wasn't as sold on the idea. She kept her blades close to her chest, ready to strike if the virus betrayed them. (It wouldn't be the last time this kid had a stupid, arrogant idea-) Outside the tank, Triese looked onward with confusion, and Lurerre took note of it. Why did they pause like that...? (The way the virus was wiggling was kind of cute, honestly...) ...Lurerre had to at least try, for both Triese and Reg's sake. She reached toward the vase virus, as if to scoop it up with her fins.

The virus Lurerre reached out for thrashed in the water helplessly, slowing down as nothing happened to it. Cautiously, it undulated over to her fins, righting itself and landing softly on them. It paused. For a moment it merely stared at Lurerre. And then it engulfed her head. Reg scrambled forward, grabbing the thing by its little feet, pulling it off Lurerre. He held it out in front of himself at arms length while the virus writhed in protest. "Don't bite her!" He scolded, giving it a disappointed scowl. It blew a bubble into Reg's face. "I don't think this guy's friendly," Silver grumbled. "Well, I wanted to try anyways," Reg sighed back. He tossed the virus back into the water where it shimmied over to its colony. "Alright Rock let's delete these guys," He resigned, "You think we could just toss them into each other and make em counterattack themself?" Outside the tank Eni huffed, "Did he really think that would work...?"

Triese screeched as she watched Lurerre get bitten by the virus, barely understanding what was going on before Reg quickly pulled the virus off of her. Lurerre immediately lurched backward and swam away from the viruses once she was free, her eyes glowing with an uncharacteristic annoyance. Lan, too, glared with significantly more characteristic annoyance, taking Eni's exclamation as vindication. "What was that?" she quietly sneered, her gaze continuing to scrutinize Reg's every move. Shuffling through her pack, she loaded in a chip that she imagined could just finish this. "Battle Chip, Aura Kick! Slot in!" On the other side of the glass, Rock was just as unamused as her operator. "Right. Cool. We're done with the stupid games?" she asked condescendingly. The chip loaded in just as she took a step toward the virus colony - it'd easily do the trick for Reg's plan. "Then let's give this a shot!" Rock twirled toward the virus, her right foot being enveloped in a reddish aura, and roundhouse kicked it through a cluster of the colony to launch the viruses into each other. She then carried the momentum of the kick to plant her foot on the ground and push off of it, launching forward to swim out of range of the presumed counterattack.

The virus slammed together like pool balls, the three who did have something in them attacked each other in the chaos, deleting two of them in the process. The rest of the virus was looking worse for wear; their flailing had slowed and any hope to regroup was dampened, leaving the poor thing floating in the water like discarded plastic bags. "We could keep fighting it but, I do have one more idea..." Reg mumbled, getting quiet and whispered to Silver, "I don't know if I wanna try it. If it doesn't work I'm gonna look stupid again." "Well that's their problem!!" Silver barked loudly, "You should keep trying your ideas, cause if you didn't, you would be you!! Who cares if you look stupid!" They glared at Rock, daring her to say anything. "I care if I look stupid..." Reg grumbled. He folded his arms and watched the virus carefully. It looked defeated, but not to the point of deletion. "Fine. Let me try this one last thing. I don't think it has any fight left in it," He announced, paddling over to the virus, "Hey. You wanna retreat? This would be your only chance to." He cast a scornful gaze at the many bodies of the virus colony, doing his best to look serious on this matter. The virus glanced around, though it was hard to tell where it was looking with its lack of apparent eyes. It contemplated for a moment, and then fragmented into white shafts of light and teleported away, leaving a little blue dot in its place. Reg blinked, "I... Didn't think that would work." "Woah! Nice!" Silver cheered, "I betcha it only worked cause Rock intimidated it so much. She really did a number on it!" "Yeah!" He brightened, turning to Rock, "You were really impressive! You and Lan make a good team!" He quickly turned to Lurerre, "You too! Thank you for trying my idea, sorry it didn't work out."

Rock had no idea why Silver was glaring at her all of a sudden, and she reacted a bit incredulously to Reg trying to scare the viruses away, but... it at least worked? She supposed they had won, though it wasn't exactly a satisfying victory. Outside the tank, Lan was also not quite sure what had happened; without hearing anything, it just looked like Reg couldn't finish them off and decided to shoo them away instead. At the very least, they were recognizing Rock's contributions. "Heh. Thanks, I guess," she said, flicking one of her blades to spin it around. "It was... pretty interesting, fighting like this. Your world's... fuckin' weird, honestly." She wasn't sure what to make of Reg's own battle contributions. The kid got, like, what... one good hit in, and ate shit two separate times? At least they were being a good sport about it, but for them to... expect a lot out of Lan, and then fight like this... it didn't make her feel great. "Ah, it's no problem, really," Lurerre said in the meantime, bowing. "It's too bad that Lady Triese couldn't hear us. Perhaps she would have had some more insight, but... on the other hand, we don't deal with these... manifesting types of viruses... ever, really." Rock jabbed a thumb toward the three humans waiting on the opposite side of the tank. "Should we jack out and rendevouz?" she suggested. "Well. I dunno if it's jacking out for moon boy over here, but you know what I mean."

Of all the things she could say, Rock's comment about Reg's world being 'weird' somehow stung the worst. He shook off the feeling and returned his attention to Lurerre. "Yeah..." Reg chuckled apprehensively, "I was hoping we could've become friends with it, but now that I think about it, I wouldn't know what to do with it afterwards." He jolted at Rock's suggested, "Wait! Actually before you do that, come down here." Reg sank to the bottom of the tank, making a tiny splash on the water panels below. He waved to Eni and the other two, and then beckoned the Navis down. "While that little bit of data is still there, the digital space will stay up. You could say hi to your operators like this! Well, you won't be able to say hi cause this glass, but you know what I mean! I don't know if you get that many chances to do that where you're from." How's that for weird Reg smirked to himself. Silver greeted the humans on the other side by making faces and pressing their face against the glass, much like a child would to fish on the other side. The regular fish of the aquarium tank cautiously moved back into the space, sensing that the danger had passed, though still wary of the odd aura radiating from the data left by the virus.

Lurerre definitely sympathized; she was sure that Triese would have tried the same thing, if she was in this kind of situation. But it might have been a lost cause, anyway - were they even really viruses as they understood them if they weren’t a part of the cyberworld? She supposed they were still just data, and they had manifested, too, and were certainly still Navis. It was an odd thought. She followed Reg as they swam toward the operators, with Rock following a few seconds later. “Ah, you’re right!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Well, it’s unfortunate that they can’t hear us, but… I suppose we’re to scale, now!” Triese was very excited to see this greeting go down from the other side, even in the absence of audio. She enthusiastically waved at Silver and then to her own Navi, giggling at the former’s array of faces. The glass made it… not feel too different from the PET, but there was a lot of novelty in the Navi actually being sized how it was supposed to, especially once she took a few steps closer. “Yup, I guess so. You’d need Copybots otherwise, and even then… it’s just a projection,” Rock elaborated once she made it to the bottom of the tank. “But this is real, right? Ugh. All this stuff makes me feel like I’m in over my head, but… might as well enjoy it while it lasts.” Rock waved to Lan, who also chose to step forward like Triese did. Now that she was up close and not NetBattling, the surreality of the situation was settling in; Rock was right in front of her, on the other side of the tank, in the real world. It brought back memories of… her goodbye to Megaman, oddly enough. Lan pressed her hand against the tank, her expression melancholy. Rock wasn’t sure what was up with her operator, so she just smiled and matched. And for a moment, the two of them could have sworn they… felt each other, somehow.

Silver nudged Reg's helmet, getting his attention then gesturing to Rock and Lan. He gave a soft smile at the two sharing a cute moment, then whipped around to Triese with a big grin on. He outlined in the water the shape of her PET, then mimed taking off her visualizer, placing it in front of the PET, and then motioned to take a picture of Lan and Rock. All completely silent in hopes of not interrupting the moment.

Triese followed Silver's gaze enthusiastically and soon realized what they were suggesting; this was a prime photo opportunity! She knew better than anyone that Lan would get all weird if she announced her intent, so now was the best time. Taking off her Visualizer, she slipped it over the lens of the PET, and snapped a picture of the two touching hands against the tank. And another, just in case- and one more, for good measure. Lan was lost in her thought for a solid few seconds before her hand slid down the tank, her expression changing to a more annoyed sadness. "Why can't we hear each other," she mumbled to herself. "So stupid." Rock could tell that Lan was disappointed, so she just gave her the best smile she had, before aside glancing at Lurerre. "See? This is why they gotta let me use a Copybot," she joked. "How else are we gonna high five?"

Eni stood back behind the girls, the significance of the moment a bit lost on him. He recieved a message from One and quickly wrote on a floating screen, showing it to Reg, "We don't have a lot of time to spare here. The general public is getting suspicious. There's a staff room nearby that we can hide in to avoid getting caught that One has unlocked the digital lock on." And then pointed to an inconspicuous door behind him. Reg deflated, "Dang. Alright, I'll wrap it up here." He turned to the Navis, "Sorry you guys, we gotta get moving. I'll take care of the data up there, you guys uh, do whatever you need to to get back." He jumped up, pausing to briefly appreciate the spectacle of the underwater view with all the fish happily swimming about, then threw Silver like a football at the data. They chomped down and the digital territory all began to fade rapidly. Reg sank, jumped out of the tank, and turned back to normal. Eni guided them all to the room in the back, conveniently vacant. They waited briefly as the viewing area filled back up, then exited when the public settled down and surely made inaccurate assumptions about what happened here. "How are you guys feeling after all that?" Reg asked the group. "On edge, but relieved," Eni answered before the girls.

Once Eni had showed off his floating message, Lan and Triese figured out they also needed to get a move on and jacked out their Navis. Fortunately, it worked as expected, Rock and Lurerre's substantiated forms disappearing as they returned to their PETs. With the group being ushered into the staff room to wait out the incident, none of them had a particular chance to ask any questions before they snuck back out; all that Lan and Rock did was exchange confused, apprehensive glances. Some time passed, and finally, they were out of the woods (ocean?). Triese was the first to speak, sprinting and twirling in front of Reg the second Eni's mouth closed. "Oh my gosh, that was soooo cool!!" she exclaimed. "Man, you didn't even hear me, but, like! You didn't tell me you were a real magical boy!! I thought Silver looked like a fairy, but, like, it was all real!!" Lurerre tried to speak up and tell Triese to back off, but it was a complete lost cause. Triese was already up in his face and waving her arms. "You gotta tell me! Is this normal?! This is your ability you were talking about?! How'd you get it? You've really been fighting these real viruses?!" she kept ranting, her eyes sparkling. "Can I be a magical girl?!" Lan remained quiet, averting her eyes. There was something bothering her about that fight, and the whole event in general, but all of the noise that Triese was making wasn't letting her voice them. Rock, too, was... unsatisfied.

"M-Magical boy?!" Reg balked, half his face turning red. Silver cackled loudly, drowning out a lot of the rest of Triese's rambling. Reg tried to get them to calm down with little success. Eventually Silver did stop once everyone was staring at them when Triese stopped. "Yeah this is," Reg shifted his attention back to Triese, "what I was talking about earlier. It's all pretty new for me. Don't know much about it to be honest," He scratched the back of his head, "It's been almost two weeks and as far as I can tell, I'm the only one who can do something like that right now." "Yeah!" Silver chirped, "He's a genuine hero!" Reg gave them an exhausted stare, but didn't argue. "This is true," Eni agreed. Reg stammered, "You too?!" Then countered with, " Well, then you're heroes too cause we've all been fighting viruses." Eni held his chin, "This is also true." Silver mimicked him, "Indubitably, I do concur." "...Are you mocking me?" Eni asked. Reg sighed a long, weak sigh, then turned his attention to Lan, "How are you doing? You guys wanna walk around the aquarium some more, or maybe take a break?"

Triese pouted when she realized that Reg was hardly an expert on his own abilities. "Awwww," she whined. "Well, you gotta keep me in the loop, then, Mr. Hero! You're basically living something straight out of a TV show!! I'm kinda jealous, honestly." She giggled, both at Silver's joke and at how crazy-awesome this whole scenario seemed to be. Lan, meanwhile, cringed outright at the implication that they were heroes. She didn't like that label; it felt wrong, and it just reminded her of the awful things Carme said to her. Maybe they were saving people by fighting those viruses, but... it wasn't like she was owning up to it. She blinked at Reg, taking a moment to respond. "Um. I'm... okay, I guess," she hesitantly answered, her eyes lowering to stare at her PET. Triese, then, jumped in to add her answer even though she wasn't being addressed. "I'm doing great! I mean, we didn't get to really look at the fish during that whole... um, battle, thing, so I'm raring to go!! I bet there's a ton more cool things to see!" A silence fell over the group. Lurerre was a little hesitant over the idea of jumping straight back into the trip, but Triese's current energy was hardly something to argue with - she really was starting to do better. Lan, on the other hand, couldn't get a specific, agonizing thought out of her head. Finally, she breathed in shallowly, staring at Reg with an empty expression. "So," she said, completely emotionlessly. "You're... supposed to be Megaman...?"

Reg blanched, turning practically to a ghost, "Where did-" Silver exclaimed, "Yeah! He's this era's Megaman and-" "Silver," Reg scolded firmly, making them retreat with a sheepish smile. He sighed and withdrew, "Yeah, at least, that's what some people are calling me online." "I would say it's accurate," Eni commented, "You are blue and you do shoot viruses." "That's not-- ugh," Reg pulled at his face, then looked back at Lan. Her distant, quiet expression speaking volumes. He still didn't know what was her history with a 'Megaman', if she had one. But clearly the word meant something to her, like it did with everyone, but maybe more so for her. She almost seemed disappointed in what she saw. What was it that she expected from him? Something better. Something not him. 'Lan's were experts on 'Megaman's, he supposed. Eni was busy explaining the history and cultural significance of the name, getting to 'the second Megaman', before Reg couldn't stand it any longer and raised a hand, "Stop. Please." He stopped and looked at Reg's pale, shaken face. "I don't like the name... for me," Reg took a hesitant breath, "It's just... not who I am. I'm just Reg." He swore he was getting close to figuring out why it bothered him so much. It wasn't accuracy, not anything he could simply logic away, it was a gut feeling. An uncomfortable silence fell between them. "S-Sorry I'm not what you expected," He mumbled, a pained look in his eyes as he gazed at the floor. (edited)

Triese blinked. "Wait, really?! W-wow, that's..." Her voice trailed off as the stars lit up in her eyes all over again, oblivious to how Lan was feeling. "That's... awesome!! You just... you're not even a Navi, you just are Megaman?! That's how you fight?! Wait, that totally makes sense, too, 'cuz both of you are aliens!" But as Triese spoke, a chasm of silence opened in the middle of the group, with Lan intently watching Reg's expression fall apart, his face... turn white, and... he was backing off from her, and why was he looking at her like that, why wasn't he... wasn't... he... Something dropped in Lan's stomach. Her own expression didn't collapse as severely as Reg's, but her empty look shifted to an upset, almost... disturbed reaction instead. I don't like the name, he said. I'm not what you expected. "U-um. That's... not," she stammered, her voice sounding choked up. She clutched her hands against her chest tightly. "No, that's..." Rock was similarly stunned into silence, but upon watching her operator break down, and thinking over what Reg said... all that she could feel was anger. She grit her teeth and immediately appeared on Lan's shoulder, glaring viciously at Reg and pointing straight at him. "Okay! Time out! What the hell is going on here?!" she exclaimed, barely trying to keep her voice down despite being in a public place. "I thought you were the one who had these ridiculous expectations for the fuckin' kid, thinkin' she'd be a damn scientist, and now you're flipping it back on us like we're the ones causing the problem?! You're insane!" She crossed her arms. "God, and you were getting your shit rocked in that fight too, thinkin' your opponents'll just be your friends if you try hard enough, and-" Lan curled inward so jerkily that Rock actually lost her balance and fell over onto her shoulder. "S-stop," she whined. She was so horribly distracted that she was barely processing the bombshell Rock had just dropped. "No, stop. That's not..." Her voice cut off as she whimpered, her eyes painfully wide and injected with fear. The next five seconds of silence felt way longer than they actually were, with the stares of everyone surrounding her cutting into her being- "Stop... making assumptions about me," Lan eventually wailed. "I-I didn't mean... he just wouldn't... he wouldn't do that, but here you are just... saying these things about me, but..." She swallowed. "I'm. I didn't mean it. I... the name isn't..." She had made the exact same mistake without realizing it, didn't she? But... no, it was different, because this was about him being a jerk to her, because he really had expected someone else- one person is not responsible for everything you see here- Lan stumbled backward, causing Triese to reach for her. "Lan! Are you okay?!" she exclaimed, even though the answer was obvious.

Reg was shocked by Lan's reaction and prepared to reach out to reassure her just as Rock snapped. He recoiled like he had touched a hot stove. Every one of her words struck deep into Reg, hitting their mark and stabbing him from the inside out. He fell deeper into himself as she berated him. Because she knows better, she's more experienced. Her and Lan had probably been through a lot together, especially with the skills they had on display. It was stupid that he expected her to be someone else. It was stupid to try and make friends with a virus. It was stupid to make any of this about himself! The spotlight was on him and it burned. Silver growled from their perch on Reg's shoulder, preparing to bark back at Rock until-- Lan whimpered. It snapped Reg back to the conversation. He stared at her dumbfounded as she stumbled through her words. Who was 'he', what did she mean. It was too loud, too fast for him to think. The crowd forming around them was starting to murmur. They- he- needed to get out of there now. He wasn't supposed to be there, what if someone started piecing together what had happened here! Their many eyes pounded against the corners of his vision. His head pulsed and his face boiled. The metal in his skull absorbed that heat like ice. He tried to make some sound but his throat closed, and chocked, and stung. Bile rose and he couldn't feel his limbs. It was painful. Everything hurt. He couldn't be here. He ran. "Reg," Eni called out way too late, reaching out for his friend as Silver chased after him. Eni looked at Lan, recognizing her distress. He took off his headphones and brought them close to her hands. "These are noise canceling. They help me in large crowds. I don't need them right now," He explained, gently inching them towards her, "I think it would be a good idea to find some place private." He glanced at the crowd of mostly parents and children, most of them turning away and whispering at his gaze.

Rock glared right back at Silver, prepared to somehow lash out at this creature if she had to, only for her to realize a crowd was forming around them. "Shit," she muttered, immediately retreating to the PET as Lan shared in her realization. Lan's eyes crept behind her to see... people, watching them, wondering what they were up to- they were looking at her, what were they even going to think...?! Lan breathed heavily, clutching her chest, and.... then, Reg bolted. She would've almost cried out for him if it wasn't for the gaze of the crowd burning into her. It was so distracting and overwhelming to her that she took a few seconds to notice Eni was offering her anything. "Aah, uh, um," she stammered, before nodding and snatching up the headphones to put them on. She whimpered again, pressing the headphones against her ears before taking a deep breath. "I-I messed up. I'm sorry. We should..." Rock hated the insinuation that her operator was the one who messed up and not the kid who ran away, but Eni was right - the more this crowd was staring down Lan, the worse she'd feel. "Right. Let's scram," she whispered to Eni. Triese, who had been watching the entire time with a stunned expression, finally stepped forward. "W-wait, um, should I..." she began awkwardly. "I'll, um, I'll go find Reg. You guys should sit down." She already began walking off in his direction before anyone could protest.

Eni watched as Triese left too, leaving him in the awkward situation of dealing with Lan. He was uncertain if he should help her, or wait for her to move on her own or... He elected to stabilize her, holding her hand to lead her away from this area. "Follow me. I believe I saw a place on the way here that would be quiet and away from people," He directed, standing upright and walking. He hoped the gesture would ground her and not be awkward. He was still basically a stranger to her. He guided her away from the massive enclosure, away from the prying eyes of the crowd, and into a side passageway marked as 'Under Renovation'. It was allegedly going to have a virtual exhibit one day called 'The Wonderful World of Whales', but right now it was vacated and blocked off with a small hardlight ribbon that One easily let them bypass. The exhibit was dark, but not menacing; enough light poured in from the hallway that the cartoon whales that decorated the space could be easily made out. Eni waited a while before checking in with Lan, mostly because he wasn't sure what to say. "How are you doing?" He asked, staring right at her. -------------- Reg slowed down, finding himself in a central part of the aquarium. He grumbled, whined, and bit his lip. He'd messed up. He ran when things got intense. The moment he got too scared, right when he should've... done something else, he ran away! He looked around and found a bathroom. He didn't need to go, but he needed the sink. He entered and immediately began splashing water on his face. He caught his reflection in the mirror and immediately averted his gaze. He couldn't bare to look at himself right now. "Reg!" Silver called out. They'd been trying to get his attention the entire time, but he'd ignored them. "I wanna be left alone," He grumbled. The image of Lan's devastated face crept into his mind again. He buried his face in the sink and filled his cupped hands with water, covering his entire face in it. When he came up for air, another bathroom patron was staring at him. "Mind your own business," He glowered, making them back off. He sighed and grabbed the sides of the sink. He really didn't deserve that name now. Any good feelings he had being praised as a hero were soured. "How're you feelin?" Silver offered quietly. "Like I wanna disappear," He grumbled again. "The faster you-" "I know! I just. Can't," He sighed, "I was so worried about Triese and accidentally reminding her of the incident that I wasn't thinking about Lan, but I thought I had apologized for that, I thought that was all resolved, and I didn't think it was such a big deal and-" He growled and leaned his head over the sink. He looked up, seeing his harrowed face and winced away. He shouldn't have set any of this up, it was all a mistake. The least he could do is apologize before they open a portal back home after witnessing this disaster. He picked himself back up and exited the bathroom. (edited)

Lan went rigid when Eni grabbed onto her hand, but she was so desperate for an out that she didn't really care. Both her and Rock noticed how awkward Eni looked over doing this for her, but... none of that mattered. At least they were safe from the crowd, now, even if this... darkened exhibit was a little unsettling to her. She took a few deep breaths, unable to think clearly until Eni snapped her out of the feeling. "U-um. I'm," she began, her tone wavering. "Terrible. I'm doing terrible. I... messed up-" Rock, who was now (presumably) safe to appear again, wasted no time in materializing on her operator's shoulder to interrupt her. "Hey. Cut it out," she barked. "It's not your fault! It's on the fuckin' moon kid! Stop telling yourself that you-" "B-but that's not true," Lan whimpered. "I-I thought..." She paused for an uncomfortably long time; one tear finally trickled down her face. Rock looked genuinely upset, walking on her shoulders toward her neck in case an emergency hug was necessary. "Megaman. Both of him. They're... so patient, and kind to me," she continued, her tone breaking up. "They... always felt like they had the right thing to say, but... Reg, he... he just judged me, that's... not what he'd do..."

Triese just barely caught sight of Reg ducking into the bathroom as she speed-walked through the aquarium, trying her best not to look suspicious. Following him inside seemed like... a terrible idea, so she just leaned up against the wall and waited. Listening in. "Lady Triese, what are you doing?" Lurerre asked firmly. "What are you... going to say to him?" "I-I don't know, but... I mean, he talked to me before, so," Triese stammered. Her thoughts were interrupted by a slight raising of a voice - presumably Reg, but she couldn't really tell what he was saying, so she curled in herself, worried, and... then, he was right in front of her.

"Both...?" Eni echoed. He was utterly confused. Maybe she meant another Megaman in the chatroom. It must have been a very impactful meeting if she reacted like this. He couldn't say much about this topic, however, due to his lack of knowledge. Though perhaps the same was to be said of his relationship to Reg. He had only known him for about a week and he already considered him someone important to him. "I can't speak for Reg," He said, looking to the side at the lit hallway, "So I don't know if that was a genuine judgement back on the train or a miscommunication. But he is my friend and I trust that he wouldn't say something rude maliciously." He turned back to Lan, "He's not your Megaman, so I'm not sure what the confusion is here. Was he supposed to be something different?" He tilted his head. Laying the facts out in front of her may solve this issue. "Perhaps the reason why he didn't know exactly what to say is because he's a fifteen year old boy whose first experience talking to people his own age was under a month ago. I believe that would contribute to his lack of ability to correctly navigate a conversation," He locked eyes with her, his monotone masked his anger regarding the defense of his friend. He backed off, looking away and feeling the need to defend himself, "I'm sorry. I got a bit heated. Reg was incorrect in his initial assumptions about you and maybe it would be good to talk to him about that, but-" He quickly glanced between her, Rock, and the wall, gathering up a little courage, "Are you not doing the same? Having an idea of what a 'Megaman' should be, and being disappointed when someone doesn't fit that definition." ---------- "Triese!" Reg jumped, grabbing his shirt around his heart, "Uh, hi! How much did you uh, hear about in there...?" He cleared his throat, it stung, but he continued, "Look, I'm sorry I ran, I got a bit overwhelmed there. I um, I gotta go apologize. I messed up. Lan was still upset about the whole," He rolled his hand, "Me assuming she'd be interested in science cause I thought all Lans would be interested in science. Thing. I should've apologized better. I didn't realize how much that had upset her!" He also realized this brought up a question that someone right in front of him could answer, "Is there a reason for this? Look, if it's something I don't need to know, don't tell me, but... I'd like to understand her better. Is there a reason why she doesn't like science?"

Both Lan and Rock remained silent as Eni kept talking; the words weren't quite processing at some times, and cutting straight through them at others. There was a brief silence after Eni talked, before Lan took another deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment. "I-I know that!" she whispered harshly. "I didn't... it isn't that I had an idea about Megaman, it's just... it felt awful to be treated like that. I-I hated it, but..." Her voice trailed off. Rock remained silent, her head low and her own eyes shut as she thought over Eni's words. There was nothing wrong with the kid defending his friend; and it was true that that guy was from the fucking moon in the sky. He had a pretty good excuse to be weird. "I... I barely talked to people, too," Lan eventually admitted, opening her eyes. "I think... you have a point, and... he didn't mean it maliciously, but it still hurts even if it wasn't... on purpose..." Her back slid against the wall before she propped herself up, preventing her head from splattering on the floor. "You're... right. I shouldn't have said that," she continued. "But I still... feel awful, about everything. I'm tired of this... I don't want people to... think these things about me..."

Triese raised an eyebrow when Reg asked how much she heard - what was he even talking about? Did he have something to hide...? Well, it didn't matter. His apology was pretty chaotic, but at least he... sort of seemed to be regaining his bearings, kind of? She followed along with a questioning look on her face, before Reg finally hit her with a question that... well, she sure had an answer for. "Um. I mean, that's kind of a broad question?" she answered, tilting her head. "I mean, science is really broad so it'd be pretty silly to insinuate that someone didn't like science as a whole, I can think of some reasons why Lan wouldn't like that, but like, an entire branch of existence-" "Lady Triese," Lurerre interjected. "You know what he meant." Triese blinked. "Oh. Right. Sorry," she apologized. "Well... I mean, she doesn't really like it when people bring up her family. I had to learn that the hard way." She paused. "Her dad, um... I guess he's a scientist. And he kinda sucks... a lot."

Eni blinked, then nodded, "There's things that I would like to not be associated with too. You're already aware of this. I don't think it's something either of us will ever be able to escape, however." He sighed, "Talking with my mom about it helps. My mother on the Hikari side. She had to go through this as well. For her, people tended to stop bothering her once she became a professional lacrosse player. I don't think that's really an option for me." He held out his scrawny arms. "But Reg genuinely hasn't judged me for that. In fact he actually defended me in one case. He's odd but, once he gets to know you he's a good friend," He continued, then held out his hand, "Do you want to try being his friend again?" ----------- A Dr. Hikari Sr. that sucks... Well there was that one in the chatroom, but that was another Lan's father. But still, the concept wasn't new to him. "I could see that. Having a family that isn't liked by the public could ruin things for you," Reg sighed, "Kinda sounds like Eni actually. I wonder if they could bond over that." He chuckled, then scrambled a little, "Uh! He's gonna have to tell you why that's the case!! That's something for him to bring up." He regained his composure, "I do wanna talk to Lan though. Clear this up and apologize for assuming things. This stuff clearly matters a lot to her, and I'd hate to leave things sour between us. Do you know where she went? I guess we could just message her..." [MSG:

] Hey! Lan, I wanted to apologize for earlier. Where are you guys so I can apologize properly? He sent it, then blanched, "Wait that's not weird, is that?! Just out of the blue asking someone if it's ok to apologize? Triese you gotta tell me if that's weird, I'm trying to look normal here!" (edited)

I don’t think it’s something either of us will ever be able to escape. The declaration only made Lan feel worse; another few tears rolled down her face at the assumption. She didn’t even have anyone to talk to about this; unless her mom got those same looks, but would she even? It was too… recent, but… She didn’t respond for a while, with Rock jumping in in her stead. “Look, kid. I don’t think you’re defending your friend for bad reasons,” she began. “So I trust you on this. And… I’m sorry for barkin’ at him.” She crossed her arms, not maintaining eye contact for long. “It’s my job to protect this kid, so.” Lan hummed to herself, unable to give Eni a good answer. Something about the whole ordeal didn’t feel right, but- then, she got a ding from her PET. She pulled up the chatroom, and saw what was perhaps the absolute last possible message she wanted to see in that moment. “U-uh,” Lan stammered. “I… do we… say anything?”

Triese was utterly confused at why Reg backpedaled so hard on Eni’s family, but there were more pressing matters at hand. “Um. Well, we can just retrace our steps, right? I dunno if she went anywhere, but-“ Reg had already sent the message before she could even say anything about it. She tilted her head quizzically and blinked. “Um. I don’t know?” she responded. “…It may come off as insensitive,” Lurerre oh so helpfully added. “You need to be delicate in these situations, Reg.” There was a small glint in her eyes. “If you asked me, I would probably say that you might be trying a little too hard.” “I think Lan would listen to you,” Triese added, though she sounded uncertain. “So… um, c’mon, let’s go back.”

Eni withdrew as Lan cried. It seemed that he too did not know the perfect thing to say in every situation. It could have possibly been due to the rather hopeless statement he made, though that would only make sense if she didn't have anyone in her family to talk about this with. He really wanted One's helpful advice on what to say here. He was concerned as to why she couldn't speak to her father about this. He was about to ask for clarification when he held his tongue at the sight of her telltale distress. To Rock he replied, "You'll have to apologize to him. We'll have to find them first though..." And then Lan got a message. "Say anything... to who?" He asked. He knew this wasn't much of his business, but he couldn't help but be curious. --------- Reg deflated, letting out a tiny pathetic whimper on the way down, "You gotta be kidding me, I'm trying too hard? Shoot, I knew it was reckless to send that message without looking it over. Dang it!" "I think it's time to face the facts that you're a bit weird, buddy," Silver grinned. "I just want to go through life without hurting a single person, is that too much to ask," He snarked, then straightened himself with a sigh, "Let's go back." He nodded and began walking in the direction of the large tank they were at before. He swore he was going to be extremely delicate, and mindful, and understanding! He was going to make things right! Cause if he didn't it was going to eat him alive from the inside out and leave him dissolving in the mud like a rotten, discarded banana peel.

Rock scoffed at the message as Lan pulled herself together and showed the message to Eni. "I-I mean, to Reg," she clarified. "He messaged me." "Man. I guess we should follow up," Rock added, though she didn't sound terribly happy about it. The way the message was worded pissed her off - was this how he was gonna ask to apologize after he bolted from the scene? But they were either going to say yes, or leave this unresolved, and... one of those options sounded better than the other. Lan clearly agreed, because despite her annoyed expression, she sniffled and typed up a response. [MSG:

] we're sitting in an under renovation area. look for eni i guess. She couldn't muster much else, so as soon as she hit send and copied the coordinates, she buried her PET close to her chest. "Ugh. This sucks," she grumbled quietly. "T-this is so stupid..."

Triese was still glancing at Reg like he had just said that apples were a vegetable. "Uhhh... I think it kind of is?" she replied, entirely ignorant to Reg's snark. "I mean, there's no way you're not going to never hurt someone, that's kind of unrealistic." Lurerre sighed. "You're taking this too literally," she said. "But, Reg, she does have a point." "Well, of course I do! I kinda... hurt her, too," Triese elaborated. "I mean, it definitely wasn't as bad as this, but... I was kinda pushy. I wanted to know more about her, but I didn't know what... upset her, until I got to know her better. So, um, I think as long as you're nice to her, it'll be okay."

"I know," Reg said rather level headed, "It would be nice if I just knew the perfect thing to say in any situation. But that's as you said, unrealistic." His head bounced around with all the terrible ways this apology could go. He had to continue to assure himself that things will turn out well or else he knew he would end up faltering apart. He wore a determined expression as he moved back down the hallway, finding the darkened 'Under Renovation' area. And caught sight of Lan. And all that fire within him vanished. He really had hurt her. Twice now. Did he think that a simple apology would fix this? No, he had to stop just assuming things. He was going to lay out his apology as best he could, and whatever happened as a result, was just gonna happen. He had to accept the fact that he was never going to get along perfectly with everyone, and that's fine. He walked up to the hardlight ribbon preventing entry with Eni standing behind it. The ribbon disappeared and let them in as Eni stepped aside. Reg looked at Lan again; her distress even more visible up close. He wanted this to be over quickly, to be done with this, and every fiber of his being shook like if he let go, he would be torn asunder. Instead he took a deep breath and spoke methodically, calmly, and even toned, "Hey, Lan. I wanted to apologize for the things I said and for running away earlier." Slowly, He assured himself, despite every part of him wanting to burst like a broken dam. He needed to give Lan the space she needed.

Triese kept her distance as the two of them crossed through the hardlight banner and caught sight of Lan. Fortunately for Lan, there were no remnants of the tears she shed, though it was obvious that she was still not doing very well - and she could tell that Reg knew it, based on how much he looked like he wanted to run away again. Lan took an awkwardly long time to respond, maintaining a pained eye contact with Reg the entire time. Rock, too, just sat there on Lan's shoulder, arms crossed, until her operator finally spoke up. "U-um," she eloquently began. "I... I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry-" She choked up for a moment, which forced Rock to step in. "Hey. Cut that out," she said, before focusing on Reg. "What she means is that she was upset about the Megaman thing, and how she didn't like you for being... that, when you were judging her." She paused, averting her eyes. "But it's kinda hypocritical to think that way, isn't it?" "Y-yeah," Lan stammered, taking over. "But... l-look, okay, I just don't like it when people think these things about me." Her tone became more fierce as she talked. "S-so, don't... do that. Please."

Think these things about her. Not only did he assume she'd like science, but he also assumed that she expected more from him. Or maybe that was his own fear. If he thought back to that painful moment and stewed on it for a bit... "No, yeah, I get it. Really I do. I'm sorry about the things I said on the train and back at that tank, it was... Unfair to you," Reg spoke as clearly as he could, despite his rising anxiety and beat it back by speaking a little louder, "I promise I won't be so hasty to assume things about you." He couldn't help a small smile as he said cheerily, "You're just you, right?" His voice got quiet as he fiddled with his arm wraps, "What I'm trying to say is, I don't like it when people tell me who I am. And I don't like that I basically did that to you. It sucks. I'm really sorry I hurt you, and I'm gonna do my best to not do that again." Silver watched quietly from their shoulder seat, tucked in neatly next to Reg's neck, smiling gently as he finished speaking.

Lan hated that Reg was trying... to sound hopeful about this, like there wasn't really a problem and this was just a joking conversation between friends. He had no idea what kind of wound he'd stepped onto; one that she had to feel constantly and couldn't do anything about, one that wasn't as simple as...! "Um. I guess you could put it that way," Lan forced out in the middle of her internal monologue, her head spinning. She couldn't bring herself to push Reg away; she still felt like he should have done better, but... she also made a mistake, and it almost sounded like he understood her... almost. "That... puts us on the same page, right...?" Rock was glaring at Reg with an intense skepticism as she talked, as if she was suspicious that there was some hidden meaning to his words. "Right," she began, tapping her fingers. "Look. Eni was willing to vouch for you, so I'm takin' your word. But you oughta fuckin' leave the kid alone with this shit, or we're gonna keep having problems." She paused, opening one eye. "Not that I don't believe you when I say you'll lay off. I'm just outlining this, 'cuz it's why I'm here to begin with." Lan, whose gaze had fallen to the floor as her Navi spoke, looked to Silver and then back to Reg. "I-I'm just me. Okay?" she said. "Nobody else." She stared at Reg for a moment, before she decided she couldn't take it anymore, her eyes squeezing shut as her head leaned sideways against the wall. "S-so stop looking at me like that," she muttered.

Not even his dad's expert crafted apology structure that he trained for many years to master could crack Lan's stalwart teenage guard. Reg sighed with a nonplussed pout. "Alright! Don't worry," He shrugged, looking away, "I promise you're just Lan to me. The girl who likes rollerblading and with her Navi pretty much solo'd a bunch of viruses that would probably have wiped the floor with me. Oh and modding tech stuff! That was the other thing you mentioned." He kept his budding smile under wraps, because it seemed like she was not in the mood to be cheery at the moment. Though now that he was thinking on it, her interests lined up really well with interests he associated with the Lan known from his history... That was a realization that he was going to lock away and obliterate the key for. Not even on his grave would he want to admit that out loud. "Well," He croaked out, a little too loudly to cover up his recent thought, "Lan, what would you like to do? Your choice!" "If I may make a suggestion before everyone else does," One popped up on a floating screen near Eni, "This virtual whale exhibit is mostly ready to be seen. I would just need to flip a switch." "Isn't that... wrong?" Silver asked, glaring curiously at him, "Wouldn't we get caught?" "There's no guards. I checked," One hummed, "Plus I could make it so they only show up in visualizers and keep them extra hidden." He raised his hands in a noncommittal gesture, "Of course we don't have to, but if you were looking for something quiet, private, and... Perhaps a little rebellious..." He shrugged, "Well, there's something right here that fits the bill." "That would also mean Rock would be able to interact with the whales," Eni commented, eyeing the spiky Navi. Reg's eyes were as wide as they could be, staring deep into a point on the floor so he could avoid showing anybody the intense excitement he was holding back with gritted teeth and pursed lips. This was Lan's choice dang it!! He would do anything, heck, even show his baby photos if that's what Lan wanted to do, because he was not going to ruin anything else today. Silver sidled up to Triese and giggled conspiratorially, "I think I know what Reg would want."

Lan glared at Reg in confusion, still put off a little by the way he was talking, but at least it sounded like he wasn't missing the point. As long as he believed what he was saying, then... that was good enough, for now. It took a moment for One's suggestion to settle in for both Lan and Rock. Neither of them were here for the fish, that was more Triese's thing, but... One did raise a good point. If they wanted to make the most of this visit, then they should do something a little out there, shouldn't they? Triese clearly enjoyed the idea, too, even if she was a little worried over breaking the news. (She had "it wasn't my idea" as an alibi, so it was fine.) "...Sure?" Lan tentatively responded, glancing at her Navi. "That seems kinda fun..." Rock shrugged. "I'm down. If I can have some fun, then better some harmless sea creature than a virus tryin' to bite my head off," she commented. There was a comedically obvious chasm of enthusiasm between Lan and Reg over this idea, but after giving it a little more thought, Lan was beginning to find it more entertaining. There was a sly, mild grin forming across her face as she thought over how cool it'd be to hack the system just for them... Triese giggled and tilted her head toward Silver as she observed both her friend getting riled up and Reg trying not to explode into glitter. "He's not very subtle, is he," she whispered.

Reg stopped himself from cheering at Lan's response, though the wide smile stretching across his face was bright enough that everyone could see it for miles. One nodded and swipped at a bit of data in front of him that flashed at the touch. "Should be live," One stated. Reg spun around and audibly gasped. To him, whales of all shapes and sizes lit up the dark space. Motes of light floated about and were 'eaten' by giant Blue Whales and smaller whales predated on virtual fish. There was even a little station for a beluga whale display that encouraged people to touch its squishy head. "There's so many!" Silver cooed, zooming up to the beluga, slapping it to their amusement. Reg ran off with their little companion, awing at everything. Eni, utterly unenthused, asked Lan, "Can I have my headphones back? Unless you still need them."

Triese, with her Visualizer still half-dangling from her face, was beset with awe once the virtual whales filled the space around them. Her eyes immediately glowed with enthusiasm as she chased after Reg to get a closer look at the projections. "W-wow!! This is so cool!" she exclaimed, twirling in place before running up to the beluga to squish it herself. "I can't believe they can just do this. It's so soft, but it's just... light, isn't it?!" She was giggling to himself as she ran circles around the whale displays, sharing gleeful smiles with Silver and Reg as she spun around and dizzied herself. Lurerre couldn't help but smile along as well, overjoyed that Triese was really getting a lot out of this excursion. Lan stood up and put on her own Visualizer to see the projections for herself, though she kept her distance. When Eni suddenly verbally poked her, she was caught a little off guard. "O-oh, yeah, sure," she said, hastily handing the headphones back. "I forgot that I even had them..." Rock waved her arm in front of Lan's face as soon as she handed them back to get her attention. "Hey, kid. I was promised some whales," she said. "So we better head over to the actual displays, yeah?" Lan squinted her eyes. "Um. Yeah, I guess," she said, before glancing toward Eni. "Especially if your Navi set this up for us."

"Yeah!" Reg grinned, "This is hardlight tech! It's still not as tough as real or matter waves of the past, but at least it can do this!" He squeezed both sides of the beluga's head, making its melon flatten and stretch to the limits its frame would allow, then released, letting the ball of simulated fat wobble back and forth like pudding. "I'm really glad you guys came!" Silver chirped. "Me too!" Reg gave a massive smile to Triese, then faltered a tad, "Even if Lan and I got off on the wrong foot." "Pff, don't worry about that," They threw a tiny arm around, "She's no where near as cool as you." "Silver this isn't a competition," He chastised, "And I think you're dead wrong." "Well, if I was a Navi, I'd defend your honor," They papped their chest, "I could kick Rock's butt." "Sure you could buddy," He rolled his eyes, giving them a wry look. The two continued to banter and laugh while the whales danced all around them. Reg considered himself immensely lucky to be sharing this moment with newfound friends. Eni nodded, put his headphones back on, then averted his gaze before taking a deep breath to bring up the topic buried in his fears, "Lan, about my advice from earlier. If you don't have anyone else to talk to about how the public makes you feel then... I can be that person you can talk to. Because..." His voice was hardly above a whisper, "We're family." He said a bit louder, for clarification, "Distant family. I'm aware of this." He retreated a little, "But I would like to be someone you could rely on. Is this alright?"

Triese was endlessly entertained by the bouncing simulation of the whale, taking the opportunity to squash it herself as Reg and Silver talked to each other. As she giggled and ran around the various projections, trying to squish every whale in sight to varying effect, her Navi decided to speak up. "We really do owe you our thanks," she said. "Triese hasn't gotten to get out much lately, but it seems this has worked out well..." Triese spun on her heel again and stuck her tongue out as she re-entered the conversation. "Well, yeah! 'Cuz I was sick and that sucked!" she complained. "But I'm better now, I think. I mean, all this excitement's happened and I didn't feel bad the whole time, so! We're getting somewhere!" She stepped toward Silver and dramatically pointed at the. "I don't knooow, though!" she exclaimed. "I mean, I told you things'd work out for Lan, but you two are like... totally different brands of cool. Rock's preeeetty strong, and Lan takes everything in stride, but you've got your whole transforming schtick..." She lowered her hand, thinking to herself for a moment. "See, if Lan could transform, then it'd be a real competition!" Sparkles formed in her eyes as she clapped her hands - she was clearly very entertained by the idea. "Man! It's no fair that you dunno how you got that ability," she continued, whining in a joking tone. "If both you and Lan could do it, then I bet you guys could totally be rivals!" Lan was thankfully clueless as to whatever the hell her friend was saying, sparing herself the embarrassment. Instead, her attention was drawn by... whatever Eni was... talking about? It took her a long time to find the words for her response - and Rock, too, had no fucking idea what to say. Finally, she took a deep breath, her expression utterly confounded. "Um. I. Guess?" she responded, only barely more audibly than Eni. "I... that's kind of... weird, but I guess I don't... have.... a counterargument?" (She didn't really think of counterparts of herself as "family", which they would be by this logic- but, technically, they probably, somewhat shared a bloodline, it was just... alternate... bloodlines, and... why is he even thinking this way, this is so stupid-) Lan tilted her head. "If you... want to, then... it's okay, I think?" she said, sounding confused but understanding. "I mean. I can take care of myself. If that's what you're worried about." (Rock was not sure how true that actually was, but that was besides the point.)

"I don't need a rival," Reg chuckled sheepishly, blatantly ignoring all the transforming talk, "I really am glad that you're feeling better though, Triese. It was kinda scary there for a bit." He sighed into a smile, taking in her bright face. It was such a contrast to when he first saw her and in that footage. And that dark reflection. He reached for his neck, but winced. He shook it off, "I'm glad everything worked out well!" Eni averted his gaze again, speaking quieter, "I apologize for any confusion. It's not something I brought up because I thought we needed to debate it. It's just... Feelings." He spoke as if Lan wasn't there, like he was speaking to the wind, "I always wanted a sibling. Someone my age that I could relate to. Talking to you reminded me of that." He met her eyes, "This isn't something I'm demanding from you or I am expecting from you. I'm well aware of how odd this is to ask of a stranger you met a few hours ago. These are my honest feelings on the matter. I want to be there for you if you need me. That's all."

"W-what?! You don't need one?!" Triese replied incredulously, balling up her hands into fists and clutching them close to her chest. "But every, like, super-awesome TV hero needs a cool rival!! And then you guys have your differences, but you team up in the end because you're both fighting for good, and... um...!" "I think you're losing the plot here, Lady Triese," Lurerre chuckled. "Either way... how much longer do we plan to stay in here? Before we... risk getting caught, of course." Triese blinked and whirled around, her expression appearing for a moment as if she didn't even know they were breaking the rules - they were just having too much fun...! "Oh. Right. Yeah!" she exclaimed. "Um! I should thank Eni's Navi for setting this up later!" Her eyes wandered over to him and Lan. "I guess they're getting along, too," she observed. "She really likes to act tough, y'know. But she's really nice, when you get to know her." Lan, meanwhile, was only getting more and more baffled as Eni spoke. She really wasn't getting it, and it was very evident in the look on her face. When the silence stretched on for too long, Rock decided to speak up in her stead. "...Right, kid," she offered. "Well, nothing's stopping you from bein' that." It seemed sort of presumptuous for Eni to go as far as to tell her that... he wanted a sibling, when they had just met. "I... think I understand," Lan muttered to herself- she was thinking about her own brother, and... how lost she felt sometimes, until Megaman entered her life. "N-no, yeah, I understand." Another very long, awkward pause. "Still, it's kind of... weird, to me. For you to say that."

"I'm not a TV hero..." Reg mumbled with a raised brow. She was thinking he was someone he was not, but he couldn't correct her with that sparkling expression. "Right, yeah," He nodded to Luerre's question and Triese's comment, "We should wrap up here soon. I'm getting hungry! We could eat here, but the foods kinda expensive. Though that's probably not an issue for Eni." He followed Triese's gaze, "I'm glad they're getting along well too. Maybe one day I'll learn more about Lan, but that's just gonna take time, isn't it?" Eni stared pensively at the two, and after a beat of silence said, "Oh, ok. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." He stated it like it was a mundane occurrence, like mistaking someone's name or favorite color and not... Seeing familial ties where there was hardly anything. He trotted over to the other group, figuring he should enjoy these virtual whales while they lasted. He and One greeted them casually, then looked up at the many bright sea creatures that stood out against the dark like fireworks.

"Weeeeellllll, I mean, it's up to you! This is, like... your future, not ours, so it's not like I know what the good restaurants are," Triese said, raising an undeniably good point. "Just pick something you like, I guess! Or we could just get food on the way out if you need somewhere to be..." Lurerre's eyes widened suddenly. "Ah! Right! Do you not need to be back in your room at some point, Reg?" she exclaimed. "If so, that's even more reason not to dawdle..." "Ohhh yeaaaahh," Triese repeated, wandering off to marvel at another whale projection as she kept eye contact with Reg. "I totally forgot, 'cuz there's been all this excitement, right?!" Lan silently followed Eni as he rejoined with the other group - she kept her distance from Reg and Triese, but she was at least close enough to enjoy the show that One had set up for them. This was kind of cool, now that she was up close and personal - and it was all something they weren't even supposed to be seeing in the first place. It was an exclusive experience...! Rock ran down Lan's shoulder, and her operator let her walk off her hands and onto the whale projections like she was a weird bug; she quite enjoyed using the large, squishy beluga as her own personal water bed. "Man, this is sick!" she shouted, loud enough for Reg and Silver to hear. "This hologram shit will never get old for me, I swear!" Both Triese and Lan smiled watching Rock bounce up and down - Triese, admittedly, was a little jealous that Lurerre couldn't join them. The projections of whales continued to swirl around them, lighting up the dark and embedding themselves as a sparkling memory. Triese practically didn't want to leave, she was having such a great time in this future- -though, she knew that something was lesser. They didn't have Navis; Reg had to hide, just like she did. She suspected that Lan and Eni shared that much in common, too. There was something unbelievably cool about this future, with its endless possibilities (it had real magical girls!!!), but- well. There was also something familiar about it, too. Lan sighed, glancing at Eni again, then at Reg and Silver spiraling around the projections, and... even after all of this, she still... wasn't sure how to feel. Eni understood her, and Reg... tried to understand her, but it was like there was a wound in her that was only... worsened, by coming here. It seemed to have ended well, but... it still felt wrong. Something was wrong. (edited)

The group admired the exclusive show as the whales shined with vibrant hues in their new visualizers. The interactive exhibits provided delightful ways to learn about these fantastic sea creatures, or just ways for Rock and Silver to goof off. Reg began his info dumping once more with added fervor, fueled by a particular specific interest, and also friendship. But the time soon came for them to start winding down. They had been at the aquarium for hours and everyone was getting tired. Even Reg with his seemingly boundless energy in his natural habitat was feeling it. They decided it was then and now that it would be good to say goodbye. Lan and Triese opened a portal back to their world and said their goodbyes. Reg thanked them for coming and made sure to express his gratitude about them all becoming friends. Well, mostly Triese. He was unsure where he stood with Lan, but he wanted to learn more about her! She was worth it. He suggested that they should all hang out again some time in the future, maybe grab a bite to eat or something! Maybe even invite and introduce them to Ellen! Eni agreed, but was sure to add that it should be scheduled clearly and in advanced, nodding to Lan. But they had been kept for long enough, and they let them go. Back to their familiar world, different but similar in odd ways to Reg and Eni's. As the two boys stood in the dark and silent room, they each found themselves pondering their interactions with the people of the past. Reg felt relief and hope, that even though those two weren't what he expected, he knew that what ever future they made would be theirs, made by their own choices and not because of fate. He hoped to one day see that world of theirs and learn all about it. Eni thought about legacy and how it shaped more than he realized. Its roots buried deep into time and built the foundation he stood on now. It decided everything he started with, and so, dictated the few possibilities he could end with. There was a seed of bitter hate about it that he had long kept buried just to survive his daily life, but meeting Lan today reawakened that. He wasn't sure if he wanted to be thankful for that. Regardless, the two found solace in the fact that despite them being from two alien worlds from each other, they found familiar reflections of themselves across the wide chasm of time and space that separated them. Each in their own way, they hoped to see each other again.