Hello! This is my third stab at fanfiction, and seeing as how my other stories seems to be doing well so far, I decided, "What the heck, I'll do another one." I hope you enjoy it, so lets get started with the story! Points over that way

Disclaimer: I do NOT own anything related to Megaman (well…. Do the games count?). Anything in here that wasn't made up by me is either a) a coincidence, or b) a desperate cry for attention. If you have any complaints, please send a message and I'll fix the problem to the best of my ability. I'm too lazy to stick this up in any later chapters, so if I get sued I'll go on a camping trip and use the summons as a fire starter.

Initializing program…activating…an

Running DX.EXE…Lan-running systems check

Lan all -ikari-systems nominal. Initializing sequence…

"LAN HIKARI! WAKE UP!"

"Huh? Whuzzat?"

Chapter 1: Something funny that gets less and less witty each time you hear it

Sometime later…

The streets of Dentech city were as crowded as ever, bustling with life and activity. People were shopping, selling, strolling, and just basically hanging out. The only thing that would stand out between this scene and any other was a streak of orange moving through the crowd recklessly. "I told you to stay awake in class, Lan. But you HAD to go and get detention. Now you're going to be late meeting everyone."

"Would you be quiet?" Lan yelled at his PET, receiving the glances and the occasional stare from the crowd. Lan suddenly pulled up at the entrance to an alley. "I'll just take this shortcut then."

"Uhh, Lan? I don't think that's…"

30 minutes later…

A figure covered in nets, seaweed, and some unknown material emerged from the other end of the alley. He shook himself and managed to remove himself of all the things on him, except for a stench of dead and rotting fish that clung to him like a wet rag. A faint chuckling came from his PET. Lan pulled it out and glared at it, saying, "Don't even THINK about gloating." He put it away and skated off, trying to make up for lost time.

Meanwhile, at the arcade, everyone had gotten bored and tired of waiting for Lan to show up. Everyone except Dex, that is, who was determined to beat Lan's insanely high records at the arcade if it cost him his life. The rest of the group was sitting at a table watching him before Yai stood up. "Well, if Lan is so rude that he isn't going to show up, then I'm gone!" She huffed as she turned towards the entrance. It was at that time that everyone, whose attention had been focused mainly on Dex, now noticed an orange blur moving towards the arcade. Maylu smiled. "See? I knew he would show up eventually." Then the lights went out.

Lan was rushing to the arcade. He could see everyone waiting inside, Yai already prepared to leave because he was late. He put his head down and started to move faster. "Lan…"

"What now, Megaman? I've got to be in there now!"

"Then I think you need to look up."

"Huh?" And with that, Lan crashed into the unresponsive, indestructible glass door. A few moments passed as his head swam, then he staggered away from the door holding his nose. "What happened?" He said to himself, before noticing that the lights were also off. "Did it close?"

"Lan! Look inside!"

"What…?"

Inside, everyone had attempted to get out through the door as soon as the lights went out, but had started panicking once they realized that the doors had been disconnected. The only ones who had remained calm were Lan's friends, who had gotten so used to this kind of thing that it was more startling to them if something DIDN'T happen. They had jacked in to try and remedy the problem, but had triggered a trap, sending knockout gas into the room.

Lan looked in horror as he watched people slowly collapse to the floor. "Lan!" Megaman called out, "Don't worry! They're just knocked out!"

"All right! Let's go! Jack- huh?" Lan broke off, as he saw a brief flash of red out of the corner of his eye. He looked for the source, but couldn't see anyone. "What's up?" Megaman asked. "Nothing. Anyway, Jack in!"

Insert uber-kool special jack-in effects here

Megaman appeared in the computer system of the arcade and immediately ran into problems. "Lan! It's swarming with viruses in here!"

"Don't worry, I've got it covered. Panel Out chip in, download!" Immediately, a hole opened up in cyberspace and Megaman jumped through to a less crowded area. As soon as he had cleared out the nearby viruses, Lan asked Megaman, "Can you find the main control switch?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute." Megaman replied, before setting off across the expansive network. Finally he entered the main area, and encountered a large open expanse to the main control switch. He looked around cautiously before setting off and whispering to Lan. "Something's wrong here."

"Huh?"

"We're in the main area. We should be swarmed by viruses right now. But there isn't a single one here. Something's wrong."

"It's probably nothing. Right now's our chance, so keep going."

"…" Megaman headed toward the control, and had almost reached it when a giant whirling wheel of metal spun right by his face, carving a giant line into the ground. It stopped, then arced high over head and onto the top of a virus. The virus was large, bigger than even Gutsman, and had four limbs that were attached to two giant wheels.

The metal wheel was actually a single, almost straight piece that had been rotating so fast that it would have cut him in two. The majority of it was purple, but the face and inside of the arms was silver, giving the effect of a machine designed to crush and rip things. Its eyes flashed a bright yellow for a moment, then it flew up into the air and attempted to land on Megaman.

He was barely able to get out of the way before it came down, sending him flying onto the floor. He tried to get up, but the virus's eyes flashed yellow again, and the blade flew down towards him…

…And never hit. Megaman, who had closed his eyes in anticipation of the strike, waited for it to come. When nothing happened, he opened his eyes and was surprised to see that the virus had disappeared entirely. The scar in the ground, which had marked the blade's progress, had mysteriously vanished a few inches away from his prone body. "Megaman! Are you all right? I couldn't see what happened for a minute… Megaman?" Megaman looked up. "It's okay. Is everyone else all right?"

"Yeah. Jack out."

Megaman gave one last look around the area before logging out. Once he was gone, the figure behind the control relaxed slightly and let out a sigh of relief. "Did you get the data?"

"Yeah"

"Alright, let's go."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Far away, a dark figure was sitting in a tall chair (evil chair-o-doom™ brand tall chair), surrounded by screens displaying massive amounts of information. The figure was wearing a long dark lab coat, and its face was covered by a black shadow-o-doom™. Another figure entered, and placed some papers next to the chair.

"The observation team has completed its report, sir."

"Excellent." The figure hissed, its voice barely audible.

"And I assume the preliminary test was successful?"

"Of course."

"Very good. You may take your leave." The figure turned its chair around to look at the information that it was now receiving on the screens. "And one more thing."

"Yes, sir?"

"Have the members of the research team reprimanded. It appears that they were barely over par for the first run."

"Yes, sir." The second figure said, bowing and turning to leave.

"Oh, and one last thing."

"Sir?"

"Get someone to fix this bloody light, would you?"

11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

As soon as the doors opened, Lan rushed inside despite the various protests he received from Megaman about lingering gas. He moved directly to his group of friends, and knelt down beside them. "Is everyone all right?" Everyone started to stir and opened their eyes slowly.

In a darkened corner of the arcade, a figure watched his movements almost amusedly. "Have fun with your friends now, Lan Hikari," the figure murmured to themself, before backing farther into the shadows and disappearing.

"Because soon, it will all end."

Annnddd… Done! I apologize for any OCness with the main characters (and for using the English names), but it's hard to keep them in character. This was a LOT darker than I meant it to be, but I think it'll all work out. Please leave a review!