Another update! I'm on a roll! Hope I can keep it going. Thank you to all those who have reviewed, including: Firehedgehog, redharuka96, Yuki's Little Girl, jhvh777, Rikku Highwind20, miforever29, and Marshmellow Dragon. It's because of your reviews I'm able to keep going, even despite writer's block and busy times! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

And so now I'm ready to present Chapter 8: "Roll's Strategy"! Hope you enjoy. Oh, and by the way, this is picking up chapter 6 with Lightman.

And last but not least: I do not own . Capcom and those guys do. (Lucky ducks. But I guess I should thank them too for their obvious inspiration. Hehe).

Chapter 8: Roll's Strategy

Both Roll and Meiru were surprised that the other was already up at 5:00 in the morning. They had both planned to let the other sleep in until the normal time while they accomplished what each had set out to do that morning. Meiru, however, had a much more legitimate excuse than her partner for the early rising.

"Homework," she simply said when the pink navi had inquired why see was up so early. "I didn't finish last night," Meiru explained further; then, curious, asked, "Why are you up?"

"To see if I can finally catch Rockman and this Lightman," she answered.

Meiru looked at Roll doubtfully. "I don't think you should sneak up on them like that," she said cautiously.

"Well, I'm tired of waiting," Roll countered. "I've been looking for them for the past four days and haven't seen a sign of them. So this time, I've got to sneak up on them."

Meiru still looked doubtful, but didn't protest as the navi went through the link, letting her own curiosity about Lightman get the best of her. The screen went blank as Roll went through the link, and Meiru almost panicked until she realized that the homepage Roll was on was simply dark. Roll hoped the site was dark because the two were sleeping and not because they were gone.

Roll looked around cautiously, letting her eyes slowly adjust to the dark. Even so, she could hardly make anything out.

Suddenly the lights went on, causing both Roll and her observing netop to jump. She looked behind her, where she saw Rush, who had apparently just turned on the light switch.

"Mou, Rush! Why did you do that?" Roll demanded angrily. Rush bowed his head in shame and all Roll could do was sigh. "We need to be quiet," she admonished.

"Roll-chan?"

The voice caught the female navi off guard. She whirled around, ready to defend herself, until she realized who had addressed her. A few feet away Rockman sat up, rubbing his eyes like he had just been awakened (which he had). Near him laid a navi that looked exactly like him, except lighter, still sound asleep.

"Oh. Rockman, sorry," she said, blushing wildly from embarrassment,

"What are you doing here? And at 5:00 in the morning?" Rockman asked, getting up and approaching Roll.

Roll blushed an even deeper red. "I wanted to see you," she said. "I've been looking for you for the past four days."

"Oh," was all Rockman could say.

Roll looked over Rockman's shoulder at Lightman. "Is that Lightman?" she asked. Rockman joined her gaze at his brother and nodded.

"Yeah, that's him," he said.

Rush walked over and looked curiously at the Rockman look-alike. He then barked loudly at the sleeping figure.

"Rush!" Roll scolded.

"Hmmn. Too early," Lightman moaned, rolling over.

Rockman rolled his eyes.

"Why does he look like you?" Roll asked after a few moments of awkward silence.

"Er, well, Papa…" Rockman fidgeted uncomfortably as he struggled for an answer.

He was saved by a groggy voice asking, "What's wrong, Rockman?" Both navis looked at Lightman, Rockman surprised he was actually awake this early. He then realized it was he who had probably awaken him by unintentionally sending nervous feelings through their link.

Lightman looked at the pair, trying to figure out what the heck was going on this early. He was also having a hard placing what the pink blur beside the blue one he understood was his brother was. His eyes suddenly snapped open as his mind registered what that pink blur was.

"Roll!" he exclaimed.

"Hello," Roll returned slowly, confused at Lightman's sudden perplexed and nervous expression on his face.

"Wh…what are you doing here?" Lightman asked nervously.

"You're not one much for introductions, are you?" Roll asked.

"Uh…" Lightman was at a loss for words, afraid that if he said anything more, he might set himself up for a complete disaster.

He was grateful when Rockman took up the reins. "Roll-chan, this is Lightman. Lightman, this is Roll-chan," he introduced, feeling rather awkward at introducing two people he knew already knew each other, even if one side had no idea that she already knew the other.

"Uh…nice to meet you," Lightman said, still rather nervous at the events unfolding.

"You too," Roll returned. She could not help but feel the tension in the air that emitted from both Rockman and Lightman. After a moments pause, Roll broke the silence by asking, "Umm, Rockman. Do you and Lightman," she glanced nervously at Lightman when she mentioned him, "want to meet us at Maha Ichiban after school? Everyone's been wanting to meet Lightman."

Both Rockman and Roll looked startled at Lightman when they heard him mumble something grumpily about "Enzan and his big mouth". Roll was perplexed at the weird response, but Rockman just gave a weary sigh.

"It's really up to Lightman," Rockman finally answered Roll. "He's been kind of nervous about meeting everyone. Enzan…didn't receive him too well," Rockman explained.

"Why?" Meiru asked, her face appearing beside Roll on a pop-up screen. Rockman felt Lightman tense up as he saw his friend's face. Rockman couldn't help but feel that it must be unsettling for him to see her face after so long and then to see it through a screen. And probably even harder was the fact that she had no idea who he really was.

"Well?' Roll demanded, breaking the twins from their pause.

"Er, well, how should we know?" Lightman said. "But he wasn't happy at all."

"Weird," Meiru said. All three navis nodded in agreement.

"Maybe it's 'cause we wounded his pride by saving his butt," Lightman mused jokingly, putting his hands behind his head.

"I doubt that's it," Rockman said under his breath.

"What was that, Rock?" Lightman said.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter," Rockman returned. Lightman looked doubtful, but let it pass.

"So, are you going to meet us or not?" Roll demanded impatiently, getting the boys back on track.

Rockman looked at his brother: "Light?"

"Err, I guess," he said slowly. He personally did not want to but he knew Rockman did. And in the end, he would have to meet them all eventually and it did no good to wait—especially since they were apparently hunting him.

"After you guys get out of school?" Rockman asked.

Roll nodded. "At Maha-Ichiban," she said.

"How about we meet you at the park in Internet City?" Rockman suggested, afraid Lightman would make a slip up if he went to the curry restaurant. And even if he didn't, he thought it might be too painful for Lightman to be surrounded by his love food and then not being able to eat it.

Of course, Roll did not know these reasons and thought the request odd. "Sure. But why?" she asked.

"Um, well Lightman and I were going to go anyway, so…"

"We were?" Lightman cut in, surprised. He had thought they were going to SciLab.

"Yes. I was going to show you something," Rockman answered, hoping his brother would catch on and play along.

"Okay," Lightman answered slowly, confused and totally missing Rockman's point.

"Well, then, we'll see you at the park," Roll finally said.

"Okay. See you later, Roll-chan," Rockman waved good-bye.

Roll waved back as she disappeared through the link.

"So what are you going to show me?" Lightman asked as Rockman sat back down next to him.

Rockman sighed at his twin's clueless nature. "I was making an excuse because I figured it'd be hard for you to go to Maha-Ichiban," he explained.

The whole thing finally clicked in Lightman's mind as he said, "Oh, I get it."

Rockman shook his head. "You're hopeless, Lightman."

"It's 5:30 in the morning, nii-san," Lightman pointed out, thinking it was a good excuse.

"Completely hopeless," Rockman repeated before turning back to go back to sleep.

Lightman looked at his older brother, trying to decide if he should be offended or not, but decided he was too tired to care and let himself slip back into his sleep mode.