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Rollblast
A Hot Day at the Fair
"Roll, the fair is tomorrow!"
Maylu ran to her PET and picked it up. "That's right. I almost forgot! Should we invite Lan and Mega Man?"
"Why not?" Roll replied. "I haven't seen Mega Man in a while. He's always gone on his fancy Net Saver missions."
"Yeah." Maylu sighed, recalling the last time they had tried to get together. All the plans had been made, and everything was going well until Lan was ready to leave his house. Then he'd gotten a Net Saver call and had to leave. "I only get to see him at school. It's about time we hung out."
Just then the PET began to beep.
"Mail!" Roll said. "I'll read it. It says, 'Hi, Maylu! It's Lan. We haven't been able to do much lately, so I wanted to know if you'd want to go to the fair tomorrow. Mega Man misses Roll. Tell me as soon as you get my message.'" She smiled. "Neat! It looks like he already invited you. Do you want me to tell him you'll meet him there?"
"All right!" Maylu said. "I need to get my pajamas on. If we're going to the fair, I need to have lots of energy for all the rides. See you in the morning!"
Roll paused from her typing and said without thinking, "Do you think maybe it'll turn into a date?"
Maylu climbed into her bed and said, not seemingly in surprise, "I don't know. Maybe. If you want it to."
Roll released her breath. "Then maybe it will."
--
Meanwhile, Lan and Mega Man were in their room, with Lan getting into his night clothes and Mega Man reading Roll's reply.
"They're going to the fair, Lan," Mega Man said. "They said they'll meet you at the hot dog stand at the gate. You'd better not eat too many hot dogs, or you'll get sick on the rides!"
"Yeah, whatever." Lan frowned at his Navi. "We probably won't go on many rides. There are a lot of shows, and Maylu's going to want to go to every one of them. It'll be hard to fit a roller coaster into our schedule."
"Oh, you'll manage," Mega Man said. "I hope Roll is okay with me sticking in a few Net Battles here and there. They have special tournaments during the fair."
"Are you going to need me?" Lan asked. "I could stick a few Battle Chips in the PET for you to use, and maybe I'll operate you on a few, but I don't want to ignore Maylu."
"That's fine," Mega Man replied.
Lan picked up his Battle Chip collection and said, "Which ones? How about AreaSteal, Electrosword, Yo-Yo, Heat Shot, and Bubbler?"
"Those are good," Mega Man said. "Thanks. Now, go to bed. You and I have got a big day tomorrow."
"Yeah, in a minute." Lan pulled out a comic book that had slid under his bed. "Let me finish this. It's good."
"Whatever."
--
Maylu and Roll waited at the hot dog stand, occasionally checking the time.
"Shouldn't they be here by now?" Maylu said to Roll. "They're late. Again."
"Yeah, by ten minutes," Roll said. "Lan probably just got up. They'll be here soon."
"I sure hope so."
Lan arrived a minute later, looking tired as ever. "I stayed up 'til nearly midnight!" he panted. "Man, am I tired."
"Told ya so," said the voice from Lan's pocket.
"Oh, be quiet!" Lan said, pulling out his PET. "You said to go to bed whenever."
"I did not," his Navi argued. "I told you to get some sleep. And you said, 'Oh, I'm almost done,' and then it was eleven 'o clock and you were still reading."
Lan frowned and turned to Maylu. "So, where do you want to go first?"
"Wherever's fine," Maylu said. "Let's jack Roll and Mega Man onto the Net, and then we can go have fun."
"Okay."
Together the friends jacked their Navis into the hot dog stand. Roll and Mega Man appeared in the Net, and Roll immediately ran to Mega Man.
"I haven't seen you in forever!" Roll cried, happy to finally throw her arms around him. "How are your missions? Are they fun?"
"Well, they're okay. I'd much rather hang out with you, of course." Mega Man smiled.
"Oh, you're so sweet." She stopped hugging him and stepped back. "What do you want to do?"
Mega Man shrugged and said, "We can find some shows to watch."
"I love shows!" Roll smiled. "Do you know when any of them are?"
"No," Mega Man replied, "but I'll bet we can find out over there." He pointed to a booth that said Cyber Fair.
"I'll get one!" Roll ran and asked for a map. The Navi behind the counter gave her a piece of paper. She thanked him, and came back to Mega Man. "There's a gymnastics show getting ready to start. Do you want to go to that?"
"Sure," Mega Man said. "It looks like we need to go here." He pointed to a picture of a stage on the map.
"Let's get going, then!"
--
"I don't know what I want to do!" Lan cried.
"You have to want to do something," Maylu said. "You invited me."
"I thought you would have the whole day planned out!" Lan dropped onto a nearby bench. "I guess we can find a roller coaster or a Ferris wheel to ride or something."
"I like the Ferris wheel," Maylu said. "Let's find one." Without waiting for Lan to get up, she started in the opposite direction.
Lan jumped up to follow her. "Do you know where you're going?" he asked.
"Nope. I'm just looking for a big, tall, circle thing."
Lan sighed. He turned his head and saw someone he didn't expect to see at a fair.
"Wait, Maylu!" he said. "I see Chaud!"
"Chaud?" Maylu turned around. "Why would he be here?"
"I don't know."
Lan and Maylu walked over to the boy sitting on the bench, eyeing people as they passed by.
"Hey, Chaud!" Lan called. Chaud looked up. "What are you doing here?"
"Net Saver mission," Chaud answered. "There's a Darkloid somewhere on the Net."
"A Darkloid?" Maylu said. "Those guys are irritating. Who is it?"
"We don't know," Chaud said. "But he's disabled the communication between Net Ops and Netnavis."
"I can talk to Mega Man just fine," Lan said. "Watch." He pulled out his PET and said, "Mega Man, are you there?"
There came no response. Then Lan started yelling, "Mega Man! Answer me!"
"Lan he can't hear you," Chaud said. "I don't even know how to get at the Darkloid. I'm just waiting for a Dimensional Area to appear. Then I'll go after it."
"I can't even Crossfuse!" Lan complained. "How are we supposed to defeat the Darkloid without Crossfusion?"
"I've helped stall Nebula without a Navi," Chaud said. He had lost his Navi, Protoman, to the Nebula Syndicate, so many years ago. Now that he was in high school, he had finally gotten used to his empty PET.
"We haven't had a problem with Nebula in a while," Lan pointed out. "This is unusual. I wonder what they're up to now."
"Probably the same thing," Chaud muttered. "Taking over the Net."
"There's got to be some way to get to our Navis!" Maylu said. "What can we do?"
"Nothing yet," Chaud said, "except help me look for Ms. Yuri."
Maylu looked at him. "She's back?"
Chaud nodded.
Lan frowned. "Man. I wish that lady would just fall off a cliff."
--
Roll and Mega Man had just finished watching the show. Seven Navis had danced around the stage doing back flips and forward flips almost too quickly to be seen. Roll and Mega Man clapped through the whole performance.
"That was pretty neat," said Roll.
"Yeah, it was." Mega Man said.
Then Roll turned her head. "Souvenir Shop!" she cried, and took off towards the doors, shouting, "Come on!"
"Huh?" Mega Man looked over to see Roll vanish into the store.
Roll and Mega Man strolled around for fifteen minutes before they came back out. Roll was dressed in a country western outfit. She had on a country style hat, and her pink boots had been decorated to look like that of a cowgirl's.
"The country music concert is next," she said, admiring her outfit. "Wanna go?"
"Okay." Mega Man allowed himself to be pulled into the seat next to Roll's, and they waited for the music to start playing.
They sat for twenty minutes before Roll said, "Maybe the map said the wrong stage?"
"I don't know," Mega Man replied, glancing around at the other Navis in the audience. "I have a feeling something's not right."
"What could be wrong?" Roll asked.
"I don't know. Do you want to try a different stage?"
"I guess so. We can go to something different if you want to."
"No, this is fine. Besides, it's what you want to do." He smiled, and Roll almost melted. Perhaps it could turn into a date.
As they exited the gate to the stage, Mega Man was hit with a blast and thrown against the gates.
"Mega Man!" Roll cried, running over to him. "Are you okay?"
"Ugh," he said. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"You won't be for long!"
Roll and Mega Man looked up to see a red Navi standing over them. He had a blaster aimed at them. "So, you're on a date with your girlfriend, huh? I guess I'll just have to delete both of you!"
"Burnerman!" Mega Man said. Then he quickly added, "And she's not my girlfriend."
Roll grimaced, then got angry. This fire freak was ruining her date.
Mega Man stood up and aimed his Megabuster at Burnerman. "Don't hurt her or I'll hurt you."
"Oh, you'll try to hurt me anyway," Burnerman said. He looked at Roll and said, "So, you picked her?" He laughed. "Too bad she can't help you. She forgot her lasso!"
Roll become self-conscious of her outfit. "I don't need a lasso. I could beat you by myself!"
Burnerman laughed. "That's funny." He ignored Roll's frown and turned back to Mega Man. "So, now that you can't talk to your stupid Net Op, you're all mine."
"What?" Mega Man said. "I can't talk to Lan?"
"Nope!" Burnerman laughed. "You'll be a pile of ashes when I'm through with you!"
"What about Maylu?" Roll said, suddenly worried. "I can't talk to her?"
Burnerman ignored her again. "Fire Sword!" he said, and a sword appeared where his blaster was a minute before.
"Electrosword!" Mega Man said. "Look out, Roll!"
Roll backed away as the two Navis lunged at each other. Their swords collided, and Mega Man's sword snapped in half. He fell forward, and Burnerman chuckled.
"You can't fight, either!" he said.
"Mega Man!" Roll cried. "Look out!"
Mega Man jumped up and out of the way as Burnerman's sword struck down. Then his broken sword converted to a Bubbler, which fired at the Darkloid.
"You little—" Burnerman started. Then Roll kicked him from behind. He fell forward in front of the two Navis.
"I can't fight, huh?" she asked angrily.
Burnerman turned onto his back and shot flames at Roll. She jumped out of the way and landed next to Mega Man. Her hat flew off as she landed next to him, and he bent to pick it up for her.
"Nice going!" Mega Man said, handing it to her.
"Just helping." Roll turned to put the hat on, hoping he hadn't seen her blush. "Thanks."
"I'll deal with you later," Burnerman growled, "but for now, I'll just have to settle with getting rid of your stupid Net Ops!"
Before either could respond, Burnerman logged out.
"Oh, no!" Roll said. "What about Lan and Maylu?"
"I don't know," Mega Man said. "Let's get back to our PETs."
--
"I don't see her anywhere!" Lan grumbled. "How are we supposed to find one person in this crowd?"
"Stop complaining," Chaud said. "You're getting annoying."
"He's always like that." Maylu smiled. Then she pointed at a woman in a dark outfit. "Who's that?"
"That's her," Chaud said.
Lan, Chaud, and Maylu surrounded Ms. Yuri, and each one sprang forward and caught her by the arms.
"Hey!" Ms. Yuri let out a startled yell. "Oh, it's you. Chaud and Lan. I guessed you would be here. So I came prepared."
She jerked her left arm from Maylu and Lan, but Chaud still held fast to her right. She grinned. "You don't give up easily, do you?"
"You already knew that," Chaud commented. "I've had enough of you. The Net Savers are waiting for you at the entrance."
Ms. Yuri kicked out at Lan and Maylu as they tried to get a second grip. They backed away, not knowing how to help. Lan shouted, "Why can't I talk to my Navi? What'd you do this time?"
"It's for me to know and you to wonder," Ms. Yuri said, still trying to pry Chaud off her arm. "That way, you can't Crossfuse, and I can get rid of you filthy little—" With a final lash at his stomach, Chaud let go of her arm. She started to run.
"After her!" Chaud ordered, recovering quickly.
Lan, Maylu, and Chaud took off after Ms. Yuri, dodging people in the crowds. Lan pulled out his PET and saw that Mega Man was back. "I can still talk to you in my PET, right, Mega Man?" he panted.
"Of course. I hear you loud and clear," Mega Man said. "Why are you running?"
"We're chasing after Ms. Yuri," he replied. "Again."
"Roll and I just chased off Burnerman," Mega Man said. "He's on your way. Try Crossfusion!"
"I don't think it'll work!" Lan said. "If they broke the communication, it was probably to stop Crossfusion. But I can try, I guess, when the Dimensional Area appears."
"Okay."
Finally, Ms. Yuri came to a dead end in a corner of the fairgrounds, where there were no people around.
"Leave her to me," Chaud said, as the Dimensional Area appeared overhead. "You try Crossfusion."
"Good luck," Ms. Yuri said, giving Lan a sinister grin.
Burnerman appeared behind Lan and Maylu. Maylu turned and shrieked, and Lan said, "Get out of the way, Maylu!"
Maylu didn't argue. She pressed herself against the brick wall, heart beating rapidly.
"You can't use Crossfusion!" Burnerman taunted. "Let's see how you survive this! Burning Jet!"
Burnerman lit himself up and flew at Lan.
Lan dove to the right and said, "All right, Mega Man! Here we go! Syncrochip in! Download now!"
Lan waited, and for a moment, and nothing happened.
"Dang it!" he shouted, looking up at Chaud, who was still trying to get at Ms. Yuri. "Now what?"
Chaud opened his mouth to answer, but then the PET started to glow, and Mega Man said, "It's working!"
As Mega Man's suit materialized onto Lan, Chaud yelled, "Maylu! Use mine!" He threw his Syncrochip at her.
Maylu caught the Syncrochip and stared at it. Chaud was offering his Syncrochip to someone else to use. As far as she knew, he didn't loan it to many others.
"Just put it in the PET, quick!" Roll shouted.
"Uh, okay." Maylu pulled her PET out of her pocket and said shakily, "Syncrochip in. Download."
Just like Lan, she waited a moment before the Crossfusion began. Her pink PET began to glow a bright white, and she looked down as she Crossfused.
She watched as her entire outfit transformed before her eyes. Then her Net Navi's symbol appeared on her chest, and the Crossfusion was complete.
"Yeah!" she heard Roll say in her ear. "We got it!"
Lan had just finished dodging a blast of fire sent by Burnerman. "Ha! You call that aim?" Lan was saying. Then he turned around and stared at Maylu. "How'd you get hold of a Syncrochip?" he asked.
"It's Chaud's," Maylu replied. "Anyway, this is really cool!"
"Yeah, I know! That's one reason I like Net Saver missions! I get to Crossfuse!"
"Oh, stop bragging!" Burnerman was scowling at them. "How did you Crossfuse anyway? I thought we'd disabled the communication!"
"Looks like he only delayed it," Maylu said, feeling a bit more confident. "Now, let's see if you can win when we work together! Rollblast!"
She threw a blast of hearts at Burnerman, and he crossed his arms over his face to shield himself. Then he dropped his arms, unharmed.
"Well, that was effective," he said mockingly. He exploded into a mass of fire and yelled, "Burning Jet!"
Maylu and Lan jumped out of the way and landed next to each other. Then Lan shouted, "Megabuster!" and Maylu shouted, "Rollblast!"
When Burnerman turned around, he was hit with two attacks at once. The defeated Burnerman let out a cry and quickly logged out.
"Nice aim," Lan said. "Right at his chest. That's the way to do it."
"I know," Maylu said simply, smiling.
The Dimensional Area disappeared from around the fairground, and Lan and Maylu's Crossfusion came undone. They caught their PETs in mid-air.
"Great job!" Lan said. "You're so good!"
"It was nothing," Maylu replied.
While Lan chatted with Maylu, Mega Man talked to Roll. "Awesome!" he said. "Do you think you'll be a Net Saver?"
"I sure hope so!" Roll said, thoughts running through her head. "It would be so much fun!"
"Yeah," Mega Man said. "We could go on missions together!"
"Lan! Maylu!"
The two Navis stopped talking to hear what Chaud had to say.
"Ms. Yuri got away," he told Lan and Maylu. "I turned my head for one second, and she was gone. I couldn't catch her."
"That's okay," Lan said. "We'll get her next time."
"Thanks for the Syncrochip," Maylu said, and handed it back to Chaud. He put it back in his pocket.
Lan's PET began to beep. "E-mail!" Mega Man said. "Um, Lan, maybe you should let Chaud read it."
"Uh, okay." Lan handed his PET to Chaud.
"Why'd he send it to our e-mail?" Mega Man asked Chaud, but he didn't expect an answer. And he didn't get one.
Chaud read it aloud. "'You think that you've spoiled our plans, but you've only helped us to get further. Soon, all you Net Savers will be cowering helpless in fear while we Darkloids rule the earth.'" Chaud grimaced. "It's from Protoman."
Maylu and Lan were silent in sympathy for Chaud. Then Maylu said, "We'll get him back, Chaud. There has to be a way."
"There is no way," Chaud replied. "The Darkchip has completely ruined his Soul Data. There's no getting him back. If there was a way, we'd have done it by now."
With that, Chaud stuck his hands into his pockets and walked away.
"It's so sad," Roll said. "He lost a close friend."
"He lost his best friend," Mega Man corrected.
"Either way, it's horrible," Lan said. "I'm going to stop Nebula, no matter what it takes!"
--
Later, Lan and Maylu met Dr. Hikari in his office. Police Chief Keiffer and Mr. Famous were there, too.
"Maylu," said Mr. Famous, "I would like to have the honor in making you the newest Net Saver. You seem to be up to date in everything, and you helped to defeat Burnerman. Do you accept?"
Maylu smiled from ear to ear and said, "Yes, sir!"
"Then it's settled," Keiffer said. "You are now an official Net Saver!" He paused, then pulled a stack of papers from a drawer. "That is, after you sign these." Everyone laughed.
Dr. Hikari reached into another desk drawer and pulled out a shining Syncrochip.
"Whoa!" Lan shouted. "I didn't think you had anymore!"
"Well, the truth is," Mr. Famous said, "we lied. We had stashed away just enough of the ingredients to make extra Syncrochips for emergencies. The process is longer and more expensive to make them, though. We felt like you were deserving of one."
"Wow," Maylu said, breathless. She took the Syncrochip from Dr. Hikari. "Thank you."
"Now we can go on missions together!" Lan said. "I can't wait!"
Dr. Hikari grinned. "Good luck, you two! I'll be here to help whenever you need me."
"Thanks, dad!" Lan said. "Maylu, let's go to my house. Mega Man and Roll can hang out on the Net."
"Okay." Maylu and Lan waved goodbye to Dr. Hikari and Police Chief Keiffer and headed back home. "Thank you so much!"
The End
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