A New Danger
Will
It didn't take me long to get up. I was wobbling badly, though.
When morning arrived, Avatar directed me to an airport, where some kids were seeing each other off. They all seemed familiar…
"Hey, guys!" Avatar called from my hip.
They all turned around. I wasn't sure what to say. "Um…hi?"
"Will! Nice to see you up and about!" the boy with a blue headband waved at me. Then he suddenly looked nervous. "You…do remember me, right?"
I cocked my head and studied him. "Your name…" I touched my head carefully, "…is escaping me, but I remember your face."
He nodded. "I'm Lan."
Lan. That fit right!
Everyone else re-introduced themselves to me, and we got into Higsby's car to head back.
While riding in the back of the car, I felt a frustration at hitting a slow spot in traffic. Then Higsby and Tory started arguing. I held my head between my hands and groaned.
Avatar was frustrated, too. "Maybe I can come to the real world and throw the car!"
Then Megaman said something about a virus, and something outside caused the ground to shake!
I was shocked when it came into sight: a gigantic Meto virus!
"Avatar, when you keep saying come to the real world, do you mean like that?"
"Uh…yeah."
"You going to do so now?"
"I think I'd better…and that I need to be out of the car."
That wasn't a problem. We all had to bail out of the car when the Meto virus blasted an attack down our street. The shock wave knocked us all down!
If it hadn't been so dangerous, it would have been funny how idiotic the thing looked.
Avatar screamed, and the light shot out of my PET and condensed into a ten-foot-tall navi! "That's still extremely hard without Rush."
"Rush?" That triggered a memory. "The little dog that could hop between the real world and the cyber world?"
"Yeah, a solo navi had taken his data apart to get to the real world himself, and I'd swiped a tiny bit of data so that I could follow him. It's hard."
The thing was following us! Then a limo pulled up in front of us, and a boy with mostly-white hair ordered us in! Lan called him Chaud.
We narrowly managed to escape, and I don't know where Avatar went. Somewhere safer than we were, I suppose.
Then a voice called from Chaud's waist. He looked at his PET. So did I. The figure standing in the screen triggered a lot of memories, all disconnected and frightening. Protoman!
We were basically told that we had to delay the guy so that a Dimensional Area could be set up around him. Lan, Chaud and I ran out of the limo when we found a suitable spot for such a trap. I held my PET to my ear like it was a phone. "Avatar? Can you hear me? …Does this even work?"
"Yes, it works. What's up?"
"We've got a plan for delaying and trapping that virus. Care to help?"
"Just say the word, Will!"
The sing-songy way that the Meto virus was saying its name was like it was saying "Yoo-hoo…"
Still looking for us, are you? Well, you won't find us until we're ready!
Lan and Chaud – excuse me, Megaman and Protoman – started playing with cranes and first banged the Meto on its helmet, and then succeeded in hooking the guy's helmet and lifting him off the ground!
"Me-me-me-me-me-tooo!" the big guy stuttered. I could almost hear him whining: "I don't wanna be off the ground!"
Ah, but Lan and Chaud wanted you off the ground! I thought evilly, grinning.
Then the Dimensional Area generators were in place, and the two cranes dropped the virus.
He won't be getting up quickly from that.
The sky went all flashy. Then Lan and Chaud fused with their navis!
Avatar leaped up to join us around then. "I figured I'd see that eventually."
"What is this?" I asked, feeling stunned.
"Cross-Fusion. Cool, isn't it? Give me some battle chips."
The three fought the Meto virus, and actually deleted it! Then the Dimensional Area went down and the Cross-Fusions came undone.
But something was wrong: Megaman was missing!
Protoman went to search the net for Megaman. Then Lan's PET got a map for where Megaman was!
When we got to the place – Avatar carried me, because I was tired from all the running I'd had to do before – we found a creepy old guy with a can-collecting machine. He seemed to know Lan and Chaud. He knew my name, too, and Avatar's, and he knew I had amnesia.
"Should I recognize you?" I asked.
"With your amnesia, probably not." Then he introduced himself as Doctor Wily. That meant nothing to me. He explained something of what happened some time ago. He mentioned Duo, and told us that it was a planet-destroying net navi bent on destroying Earth after fifteen years!
Protoman told us that he'd found Megaman's signal, Wily gave us a juice can telling Lan to give the thing to Doctor Hikari, and we all started running again.
Avatar suddenly used her hair to drag me onto her back. "Hang on, Will!" Then she grabbed each boy up under her arms and started running faster than they could.
I could seriously feel the time limit right now.
Well, we got there in time to save Megaman and Protoman both!
The culprit was Bass, and he wanted the Ultimate Program from both of them!
But after a fight, Bass just left.
Later, we were at SciLab, a machine was analyzing the can and we were talking about Doctor Wily. Avatar had returned to the net and was resting.
The can had an idiotic message inside it: something about how World Three would reign.
"That was…anticlimactic," I remarked. I mean, after all that trouble they went to over the possibility of it being a bomb!
Then we went to their conference room to talk about Duo and the comet they were showing us. Avatar was participating in that.
Lan suggested we send our navis to Duo's comet. I thought it mildly cute how the three navis on the screen had turned to look at the picture of the comet. I also mildly wondered what they were thinking.
When we were setting up, Doctor Hikari mentioned the danger. Protoman and Megaman both said they wanted to go along with it.
Avatar changed her mind. "Will…you still need me to help you get your memories back. I can't risk something happening to me. Coming to the real world is one thing, but traveling to a comet with unknown dangers…"
"I understand, Avatar." I really did.
Suddenly we had an intruder, and Lan called him Bass! Apparently, it was a robot that Bass was controlling. He broke a panel, pulled some wires out, and jacked in!
Then a net navi met with Bass halfway to the comet! It looked like a girl!
Apparently her name was Slur, she worked for Duo, and Duo really was going to trash the Earth!
She and Bass ended up fighting, and we got a call on gigantic viruses appearing all over the world!
"Sounds like I'll have to go to the real world again," Avatar sounded resigned.
And…Bass got whipped.
Then a Dimensional Area was set up around SciLab so that we could save the place.
Avatar struggled out of the PET again, the boys Cross-Fused, I hopped onto Avatar's back and we leaped into the fray. How I was downloading battle chips from back there I'm not sure. But it was working! We were whipping the viruses!
Then…something destroyed all the rest of the viruses, and we were in outer space or something, watching a planet getting destroyed!
Then a great voice asked, "What are you? Navi? Human? This is only clear for two of you."
After a bright light, we got to see Duo – the biggest navi I'd ever seen!
He effectively showed us why he was going to destroy Earth. Judging by the way Avatar was twitching below me, she recognized most of it. I was drawing a blank.
Then he asked the boys, "Are you two Net Navis or humans?"
They explained about Cross-Fusion. And effectively told him that if he was going to try to destroy Earth they'd fight him.
Avatar pulled out her bola and pointed it at Duo as well, adding, "It's a fluke that I was able to come to Earth, but as long as I can defend my friend and sister, I will fight alongside these two!"
I couldn't let them take all the fun, so I concluded with, "And even though I can't Cross-Fuse with my friend here," I lightly pounded her back, "I'll help however I can!"
Slur appeared around there. And then Duo told us he wanted to give us a Crest of Duo and that it would be a test for humanity!
After some more bright light, I don't remember what happened.
When I woke up, Avatar was back in her PET and all damage around us had been repaired like it had never happened!
That was weird.
That night, we were all looking up at the stars. The comet had faded, but Lan could still see it even though Chaud and I couldn't. My guess was that Lan was currently the only one with the Crest of Duo.
Lan effectively said that with Cross-Fusion, we could pass this test. Chaud simply smiled at him as if to say, "You're so naïve, even though I agree."
I stared at the sky. "We'd better: I still need my memories back."
"I'd tell you more about yourself, but you prefer finding things out on your own."
"Well, thanks anyway."