Chapter 3.5

Lan and Dex were approaching the Hikari household while the lovely afternoon sun shone down. The larger boy was in great spirits, and walked with a confident swagger in his step while the smaller had a dreadfully exasperated look on his face.

"Man, I can't WAIT to tell everyone that I actually did it! I finally beat Lan Hikari! I FREAKING BEAT HIM!" Dex whooped while Lan sighed.

"Dex, you do realize that I was using a completely new Navi that hates listening to common sense, right? You know that if I still had MegaMan, GutsMan would have lost!"

Now, it was Dex's turn to feel bummed out as he did a complete 180 from his original upbeat attitude and hung his head down in shame. "Yeah... I know." he sighed, "But can't ya just give me this? Come on Lan, be a pal and gimme credit just this once!" 

Lan closed his eyes, sighed deeply, and looked back at his buddy with a playfully exasperated look in his eyes. "Alright, you know what? Sure, you can party and celebrate over beating me. Tell everyone that for once in his life, Dex Oyama beat ACDC's number one Netbattler!"

"Man, Chisao's gonna FREAK when he hears this!" Dex cackled, giddy with excitement about the thought of his little brother gaining some more respect for him.

"But you know what?" Lan then beckoned for Dex to come closer, which he did. He then leaned over to Dex's ear and whispered delicately "You've got some catching up to do. I've still beat you more than you've beat me!"

"HEY! No fair, man!" Dex whined while Lan cackled with glee.

"Aw, stop whining, Dex! At least you finally beat me for once! That's what counts most, right?"

"Eh... I guess." Dex shrugged. The two then stopped on the steps in front of the Hikari household. "Well anyway, looks like we're here. You think your mom will be cool with me hanging out here for an hour?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she will." Lan opened the door, and the two boys stepped inside where Haruka was seated at the couch, watching a news report.


"Oh, hi Lan!" She turned and waved at her son, who waved back along with Dex. "Oh, and hello to you too, Dex!"

"Nice to see ya too, Mrs. Hikari!" Dex greeted while slamming the door shut behind him. "Hey, do you mind if I crash here for an hour or so?"

"Why of course not!" Haruka said. She then got up from the couch in order to make room for the boys. "The TV's free for you boys to watch whatever you want! If you need anything, I'll be in the kitchen! I'm whipping up some hamburgers for a late lunch!"

"Oh, that's awesome!" Dex cheered while plopping down on the right end of the couch, "Hey, you don't have to get me a bun or anything, just the patty'll do!"

"Only the patty? Well alright then." Haruka noted with a chuckle, "And Lan, I suspect that you want the usual?"

"Double cheeseburger with mushrooms, bacon, onions, and ketchup? Yep, that's it!" Lan noted, his mouth watering just at the thought of chowing down on his mother's delicious homemade burgers.

"Alright then, just give me a bit and they'll be ready!" She then left for the kitchen, leaving Lan and Dex to themselves. Dex glanced over at Lan, and was a bit taken aback by the odd stare he was giving him.

"Hey, Lan? What's with the look?"

"I dunno, I'm just kinda curious. When were you the kind of guy to turn down a huge, greasy burger slathered in all kinds of good stuff in favor of just one patty?" Dex blushed a bit and shifted his glance away from Lan, a bit ashamed of what had to follow.

"Well uh..." he chuckled somewhat nervously, "Man, this is gonna sound so lame... But uh, I'm... I'm...!" he then groaned and buried his face in his hands and proceeded to knead his face with his fingers before finally blurting out "I'm trying to lose weight!" He then fell silent with a single cringe.


"Lose... weight?" Lan was quite surprised. Dex was never the kind of guy to fret over body issues, at least as far as he knew. But then again, he DID react horribly to StoveMan's comments about his weight...

"Yeah," Dex answered. He stared down at his knees and sighed. "It sounds really, really dumb, doesn't it?"

"Dumb? No way!" Lan responded, "Why would I think that's dumb?"

"I dunno, it just sounds so... wimpy to get all upset over my body image. I mean, mom's raised me to be a big, strong guy since I was a baby. I shouldn't be wigging out about it! But man, does it suck to be fat. I get tired all the time, people insult me over it, and I just feel so much uglier!" Dex then glanced over at a mirror and frowned. "Eh, even if I got all skinny, I wouldn't fix all of this." he motioned at his face, "Doesn't matter how much weight I lose, I'm always gonna look like a fish. But hey, at least I won't be fat, ya know?" Dex then sighed and went back to gazing at his knees. "Aw, look at me! I sound like such a wimp right now!"

"Hey man, you're not a wimp!" Lan reassured him, "Dude, you want to make a really big change in your life, that's seriously awesome! There's nothing wimpy about wanting to be healthier!" 

Dex looked somewhat reassured by Lan's words, "Really? I'm not a wuss after all?"

"Nah! Though I'm pretty curious, when'd you decide to do this?" While he tried not to betray any kind of physical signs of uneasiness, Lan was a bit nervous. Was Dex's sudden desire to lose weight triggered by his Navi's insults? The last thing Lan wanted to be responsible was being partially responsible for a friend's self-esteem issues.

"Oh, don't worry buddy!" Dex reassured Lan, "It's not because of your Navi!"

'Geez, he read me like an open book.' Lan thought exasperatedly.

"Ya see, while you were over in Cyber City, we had this new kid all the way from Netopia transfer into Ms. Mari's class. And let me tell ya, he was a PRICK! He loved making fun of me about my weight and how ugly I was. Man, I wish I could just punch him right in that stupid face of his!" Dex growled while balling his right hand into a meaty fist, "But man, if I did his dad would nail me to the wall. The guy's some kinda big shot, has lots of connections with people involved in Netcrime if you can believe that. No way am I gonna slug him if that means I'm gonna wake up the next day with my feet chained to cinder blocks, ya know?"

"So you say it's this guy's fault, huh?" Lan asked, definitely peeved at whoever this bullying jerk was. If he ever ran into him, he'd be more than happy to set him straight...

"Well, kinda." Dex admitted, "It wasn't just him though, the Phys Ed. teacher we had really took me task. I'm FREAKISHLY overweight for a guy my age according to her!"

"Whoa, hey! That's kinda out of line, isn't it?" Lan asked, shocked that a member of the school's staff would be so blunt as to criticize a child's weight.

"Well, she wasn't insulting me or anything. Just stating the facts." Dex shrugged. "I've gotta really work out and eat healthier, and for the past month I've been doing just that!"

"That's good to know, Dex!" Lan congratulated his buddy, genuinely proud of him, "So how's it been going so far?"

"Well the eating part's been pretty easy," Dex snorted confidently, "I can still eat meat, so that's good! I've just gotta avoid things like fruit, sugar, bread, that kind of stuff." He then frowned a bit while explaining the second part. "But working out... well, it's not hard, but man does it wear a guy out! I wake up at like, five in the morning for a jog, then do a few sets of push ups back at home. In the afternoon, I do sit ups for a bit and do a lot of crunches. And at night? One more trek around the neighborhood!" Dex slumped back against the couch's back cushion and groaned miserably, "I like getting fitter, but I always feel really, really sore! Not to mention that I'm always thirsty." 

"But hey, from the sound of things you're sticking to your routine. And that's what matters, yeah?" Lan sighed and took out his PET. He stared at the blank screen and sighed. "You know, I'm kinda jealous of you. You're right on track with accomplishing something really important to you. But me? MegaMan's being held hostage somewhere by some psycho who's gonna do... who knows what to him. And to make things worse, my replacement Navi's really impulsive and mean, not to mention really disobedient and bad at fighting anything that isn't a Mettaur!" He then sighed again, far louder this time and followed Dex's example by leaning back against his own back cushion. "How am I going to save him?"

This time, it was Dex's time to be the nice, supportive guy. "You know, Lan? I remember you saying that you needed to see if StoveMan was ready to take on the heels down in the Undernet. However, it's pretty obvious that he's nowhere near ready, yeah?"

"Tell me something I don't know!"

"Well man, it's pretty clear that saving MegaMan is gonna be a pretty long work in progress. So how about tomorrow, you take a day off? I mean, it's gonna take a while before you're gonna make any meaningful progress, so why not just have some fun before buckling back down on training StoveMan the next day?"

Lan didn't really know what to make of Dex's proposal. After all, what self-respecting twin would sit around doing nothing while his brother was held captive by a dangerous terrorist? And yet, it wasn't like he was going to get much done for a while anyway...

"You know what? Sure!" Lan shrugged, deciding that at this point, it wasn't like he had a lot to lose by dedicating a day to relaxation. "But I'm not sure what I'm gonna do."

"Well, how about you join me for some mall walking tomorrow?" Dex offered. Lan wasn't protesting, but he was certainly confused.

"Mall walking?"

"Ya see Lan, over in Elec Town, this huge shopping mall called Elec World opened while you were gone. And it's really cool, too! I go over there once a week and spend a few hours walking around. Except for a healthy lunch I don't really buy anything, but it's an AWESOME workout! And with you around, I'd have some company. So what do ya say to that?" 

A new mall in Den City, huh? Considering that it would mean chatting with Dex while taking a nice break from having to deal with StoveMan's crap, Lan was in no position to argue with him. "Sure, I'm up for it!"

"Awesome!" Dex whooped with a hearty smack on Lan's back, "I tell ya man, you're gonna love it!"

"Yeah... but where is the mall, anyway?" Lan asked.

"Oh, ya can't miss it! You know that set of stores around where Jomon Electric is? It's right across from there! I'll be waiting for ya at 10:30 in the morning!"

"10:30 AM... hey, StoveMan!" Lan said as he turned the PET on. He regretted doing so immediately when StoveMan appeared on the screen and immediately exploded in a whiny tirade.


"NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR NOT FAIR!" 

'Oh geez!' Lan recoiled in shock and accidentally tossed the PET into the air, only barely catching it after scrambling around while it fell. 'Looks like someone hasn't gotten over losing to GutsMan!'

"THAT'S NOT FAIR! HE CHEATED! HE CHEATED! THAT FAT JERK AND HIS BIG LUG NAVI CHEATED!" Lan was quite surprised to see StoveMan leaning against the PET's "wall" and facing away, slamming his face into the wall repeatedly, exactly like a child throwing a tantrum. There was no hint of a "tough guy" edge to his voice, and speaking of such, judging by his voice the Navi seemed to be on the very verge of tears. While it was good for StoveMan to learn a lesson in humility, Lan was far too embarassed on his Navi's behalf to feel good about him being taken down a notch. "LEMME FIGHT HIM AGAIN! LEMME FIGHT HIM AGAIN!" StoveMan then turned away and projected a holograph of himself that faced Dex. "YOU! FATTY!" he hollered with a shaking finger pointing his way, "FIGHT ME AGAIN! YOU SEND THAT STUPID LUG NAVI OF YOURS OVER TO ME AND I'LL KILL HIM! I'LL BURN THAT CHEATER TO ASHES! YA HEAR ME?! I'LL BURN HIM!"

"StoveMan, calm down, please!" Lan demanded, "Please, man? Please? You look really immature right now!"

"No!" StoveMan whined, "He cheated, I tell you-" StoveMan then cleared his throat and resumed talking in his familiar tougher tone, "I mean that no-good fat piece'a crap CHEATED! I ain't gonna sit around and take that stupid punk cheating ta win!"

"StoveMan, cut it out! Dex and GutsMan beat you fair and square, and you know it! Now calm down, I've got something to ask you?"

"Are ya gonna ask me if I wanna rematch?" StoveMan huffed.

"No, you can forget that." Lan growled, "You'll get a shot at a rematch later. But right now, I need to ask you to do something that's really easy. Okay?" 

StoveMan simply fumed in silence for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and shutting his eyes. "Whatever. Whaddya want?"

"Can you set an alarm for 7:30 tomorrow morning? I'm gonna head over to this mall in Den City with Dex, so it's important that I get up on time!"

"Really?" StoveMan sneered, "You're gonna screw around with Tubbo over there when ya have a brother ta save?"

"Well it's not like I'm going to be able to find him anytime soon!" Lan shot back, "Especially when you proved that you're not ready for combat!"

StoveMan's eyes widened indignantly at the sound of that. He reached for his face dial, but stopped right before touching it. He put it back down and sneered shadily at Lan. "Ya know what? Fine. I ain't gonna waste time fightin' with ya. So anyway, ya said to set the alarm for 7:30?"

"Yeah. Please make sure to do it, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Now get off my back, 'kay?"

"Alright then. See ya later, StoveMan." Lan turned the PET off and placed it back in his pocket, just in time for Haruka to return from the kitchen, toting a plate topped with a burger in each hand.


"Alright boys, they're ready! Here's yours, Lan," Lan wasted no time in tearing into the burger his mother handed to him, mumbling a 'thank you' through bites of greasy, cheesy, meaty goodness. "And here's yours, Dex!" 

"Thanks Mrs. Hikari!" Dex thanked before tearing into his singular patty.

"Hey, mom!" Lan called out when Haruka began to walk away, and made sure to swallow the bit of burger in his mouth before he continued, "Are you okay with me heading out to Elec Town with Dex tomorrow morning? This new mall opened there a while back, and he invited me over for some 'mall walking'."

Haruka simply laughed at her son's question. "Considering that you spent three days in a row cooped up in your room, anything that requires you to go outside is fine by me! Just make sure that you two stay out of trouble!"

"Oh we will, mom!" Lan promised before continuing eating his burger. 

"Good to know, honey!" Haruka then left the boys to finish their burgers in silence. While a small feeling of guilt nagged at the back of his head, Lan ignored it. Considering how stressful things had been lately, it was nice to look forward to a peaceful day of goofing off with one of his best friends. But once that was over, it was back to business...