Wow. The poll is going to be close! Every single story has been voted for at least once! (I received a pm requesting "The Step Program" and "The Black Dragon" to be added to the poll so know that there are additional votes there). If you have not voted yet, please do! Remember, it's open until this story is done.

And, as always, I don't want to be sued so I don't own . Capcom does and last time I checked I don't even work for them much less have ownership rights.

Chapter 21: An Unpleasant End

Why did bad guys always have to ruin a perfectly good day?—especially when perfectly good days were now far and few between?

Netto looked at the PET screen where Rockman was shooting at several viruses and then at the doors and finally at the panicked patients behind him.

"Don't worry. We almost have the door open," Netto reassured. Just as he finished the sentence, the door opened and the patients fled. Netto helped one elderly man who was having trouble walking.

"Thank you, young man," he said in a raspy voice before beginning to coughing furiously as he breathed in the smoke that was getting in thicker and thicker by the minute.

Netto just smiled. "No problem. It's my job."

Rockman frowned. Here was Netto helping patients who were, in many cases, much healthier than he was; yet with Netto's reassuring and smiling façade, no one had any idea that Netto was not a net saver anymore but a patient just like the rest of them.

It had been a perfect day. Netto had woken up without any tiredness or pain and once the early morning grumpiness had quickly worn off, Netto was the cheery and energetic boy everyone knew him to be before he had gotten sick. It had been everything for Rockman to keep him in the room—and everything to know that Netto was not really cured but that it was just a really good day.

"There are the doors that lead outside!" Netto directed and the other patients gratefully hurried past and into the light and away from the darkening smoke.

But Netto went back in, knowing there were more patients. Rockman wanted to protest loudly and at first he had, but the efforts were fruitless as Netto, being Netto, ignored and disregarded Rockman's worried naggings. In the end, Rockman had to give in because, even if his heart was giving out, Netto's heart was still good.

Netto climbed back up to the third floor where he had heard people beating on the locked doors. "Plug-in! ! Transmission!" Netto yelled out the familiar phrase and Rockman exited the PET in a wave of red. Of course, there were more viruses. "Fire blade! Download!" Netto slotted in the chip and Rockman began to hack at the viruses, feeling somewhat out of practice but knowing that if he failed, Netto-kun and so many others, would die.

"Enzan-sama. It's Meijin," Blues informed his net-op.

"Thank you, Blues," Enzan acknowledged as he pulled out the PET and answered the call.

"Enzan," Meijin began formally, though Enzan noticed the man looked a bit more panicked than usual. "We need you immediately at the hospital. A fire has broken out."

Enzan visibly looked startled. "What! Is Netto okay?"

Meijin sadly shook his head. "All connections in the area have been cut off."

"Okay, I'm on my way," Enzan said, running faster than he ever had toward the door.

Netto was good at ignoring a lot of things. Normally, homework was at the top of that list but the past years of being a net saver had also taught him to ignore other things, such as pain that would stop most other people, that strength was quickly draining away, or that things were progressively getting worse. Netto had learned on focusing on one thing and one thing only: and that was to win, no matter the sacrifice. Irrelevant details that would only cause more panic or distraction became a thing unnoticed thing at the back of the mind.

Then the past month had also taught him to control his breathing, his heart pace and many other things that would have been detrimental to the brunette at the moment had he not learned to control them. These lessons were now vital at the moment because if he did not exercise them now, his calm demeanor would give way to panic and panic would give way to a heart-attack and a heart-attack would most assuredly kill him and if he was killed then the people still trapped would also die and that was not a fact Netto would take. There was one focus: to win.

But even with all his experience and ability, there was a threshold to the ability to ignore certain facts such as pain and a growing inability to breathe and Netto was quickly approaching that threshold.

"Netto-kun, I think we've got everyone out. You need to get out now!" Rockman admonished.

Netto looked around, trying to peer through the tears that were caused by the stinging of thick, black smoke that made everything invisible around him. Netto coughed into the bandana he had been keeping over his nose and mouth and nodded to Rockman. "Okay, let's get out."

Netto began to weakly feel for the stairs. His escapades at the first of his arrival had allowed him to nearly memorize the floor layout but his increasing weakness made it hard to remember. Everything began to spin. It would be so easy to just lie down and rest. In fact, the idea was starting to sound really good. Dang it! Where was all the energy he had this morning? Netto blinked and slowly slid to the ground, unable to see anything.

Then there was a cry somewhere in the hall.

"Sword! Wide sword! Long sword!" Enzan slotted the three chips in.

"Program Advance! Dream sword!" Blues called out, unleashing the devastating attack at the assaulting navi. Because of the damage already done to him at the hands of the crimson navi, Scorchman was unable to block or evade. The attack hit point blank and the navi logged out, but not cursing at his defeators.

"You'll pay for this! Myst's power is so much greater than this!"

"That's what they all say." Enzan said dryly before logging out Blues. The netbattler turned to the fire chief. "Is everyone out?"

The chief nodded: "I think so."

"Good," Enzan said, then went among the masses of escaped patients to find a certain brunette.

Somehow, Netto was able to find the strength and ability to stand back up and head toward the crying voice.

"There…there's some…someone…sti…still here, Ro…Rock…" Netto breathed heavily. Rockman opened his mouth to tell Netto to leave but then closed it, knowing it was pointless to tell him to leave since he heard the voice too. Netto slowly made his way to the lost person. He found the small boy huddled in a corner nearly surrounded by flames.

"Hey, we…we need to…to go," Netto said reaching out a hand and trying to sound a strong as he possibly could.

"I'm scared!" the boy wailed, unmoving.

Netto went to the boy and handed him his bandana and squatted. "Hol…hold this to your…your face and get on," Netto commanded. The boy nodded and climbed on. Netto was barely able to stand but found the strength knowing that this life depended on him. Adrenaline was a wonderful thing even if all it did was let him walk at a slightly faster pace than he had been. The trio mad their way to the stairs, barely dodging the flames and Rockman guiding since the smoke made everything impossible to see and Netto's head was getting much to fuzzy to remember the floor plan anymore. They found the door and Netto began to fumble down the stairs, wanting more than anything to give into the weariness and pain but knowing that if he did, the boy on his back would not make it out. That one fact was the only thing that kept Netto going down the stairs.

"NETTO-KUN!"

Netto barely had time to throw the boy down to the landing and out of the way of the collapsing staircase from above.

"Kee…keep…keep go…going down!" Netto instructed, find it hard to find a breathe and unable to get past the flames that now divided them. "O…one more flight and…and ther…there's a door that…le…leads out…"

"Bu…but…," the boy cried.

"GO!"

The boy took off down the last flight of stairs and out the door at the bottom, letting him out of danger, while his saver finally gave in to his desire for rest even despite his brother's calls to stay awake.

"Ijuuin-san!" Enzan looked up to see a frazzled Dr. Ueda. "Ijuuin-san," he repeated breathlessly. "I…I can't find him. I can't find Netto!"

"What!" Enzan burst out.

The doctor looked downright scared. "I can't find Netto-kun. I looked everywhere and I can't find him! I think he's still trapped inside!"

Without a word, Enzan ran to the burning hospital but was held back by the fire chief. "The building's unstable!" he said.

"But my friend's in there!" Enzan yelled.

"Chief! Look!" a firefighter pointed out to a young boy running toward them from the building. Another firefighter ran to the boy and scooped him up and carried him back to where everyone was. Enzan heart nearly stopped when he saw the blue bandana in the crying boy's hand.

"Where'd you get that bandana!" Enzan demanded.

"The…the boy who carried…carried me out…out!" the boy wailed.

"Where is he now?" Enzan asked, trying his best to stay calm.

"The…the stairs fe..fell," the boy said, still crying. "He's…he's still in there!"

Enzan immediately took off toward the building, ignoring the fire chief's calls to come back. Within moments, a dimensional area appeared and CF Blues burst into the building by the door the boy had come from. He could just barely hear Rockman's pleas for Netto to wake up and jumped up the stairs to where the brunette was laying unconscious and surrounded by flames. CF Blues put the flames out with a bubble-shot and scooped up the boy into his arms, just as the stairs gave way. As they made their exit, Enzan begged Netto to stay alive, unable to hide the severe worry in his voice.

When they were finally out in the sunlight, Ueda-isha whispered a prayer to let the brunette be alive and the fire chief gave a slight sigh of relief. Several firefighters rushed to greet them and to take Netto to give him the much medical attention he needed as soon as the dimensional area disappeared.

A few moments later, Enzan stood by as he watched the nurses and doctors poke his friend with various needles and attack him to some of the limited machines they had. "Netto, you baka," he whispered, "you just have to be the hero don't you? You just have to be a dang hero." Soon a helicopter arrived to take Netto and a couple other critical patients to the next nearest hospital. Enzan could only watch as Netto was taken away.

"Sometimes I wish you weren't such a hero."

So much for a good day.