What was supposed to be a story concerning the ranking system of the Undernet has become possible one of my most heartbreaking tragedies. Inspired by GAVZILLA's Amnesia and from the movie I Am Legend.
Roll shivered against Megaman as he pulled her closer to him. The poor navi hadn't stopped trembling ever since she had gotten blasted. Megaman reached over her and disconnected her helmet, allowing it to drop onto the ground. Roll's hair shone for a moment before revealing blond hair that only went down to the middle of her back, free of the more metallic look it normally had. Megaman sighed as his girlfriend coughed again. She shouldn't have been hit by that thing. Blasted intern. There was a reason why his father had told the chair that he only wanted certain people working on this project. Even he wasn't allowed to be around the devices in there.
SciLab had recently started a new venture into EM Wave technology. These new devices, or Transers, were going to be able to do twice as much as the current PETs and still be a nice home for Net Navis—they were going to work on the term. The only problem was that Net Navis had a bad reaction to these electromagnetic waves, like fatal reaction. Luckily, they were only working with very small amounts so it didn't affect the population of navis who lived around the SciLab Network. Well, as long as they were nowhere near EM Comp.
To be fair, Roll and Megaman had been on the other side of the Network. Dr. Hikari had forgotten some important pieces of data regarding boosting the interior defenses of EM Comp, more for the safety of the Net Navis rather than the safety of the project. However, he had forgotten it in his computer. Since Megaman had to do the errands for Lan, who was working with his father, the blue navi had asked Roll if she could go back to his house and get the files from the computer at home. When she had come back, they ended up talking for a little longer than expected and had walked far closer than anyone of them would have liked to EM Comp. After realizing where they were, they were going to get back a bit—they were still in the safe zone, but rather be safe than sorry.
However, at the same time, something had happened. A few streams of light flooded onto the area where they were at. Despite trying his best to protect her, Roll had still gotten hit by the light right before Megaman had been able to use his leftover barrier chip that Lan had downloaded from an earlier fight. Apparently, one of the interns had put in the wrong number sequence and, with the defenses still being updated, some of the EM Waves had broken through. Now, she had about the human equivalent to the flu. Lucky for her, it had only been a small amount. She would be fine, but she wouldn't feel like it for a couple hours.
"I hate this…" Roll groaned as she rested her head against Megaman.
"I know, it'll be over in an hour," he reassured her. Of course, he had already called Mayl and told her that the pink navi would be staying at SciLab for a little while due to an accident. The blue navi averted his attention to the small window that should a program how much longer before the virus had been completely removed from her system. Most of her functions had been turned off and she was about as defenseless as a newly created navi with no battle function could be.
Megaman gently brushed a hand through the navi's hair. It always made him wonder why someone just didn't change her code so that it could always look like this.
"Having fun?" the pink navi asked, turning her head up to look at him. Her eyes seemed tired, but then again having most of your resources being dedicated to removing a life threatening virus would do that to you.
"Well, you're not. I might as well," he joked. Roll laughed weakly before pressing herself more into Megaman. The blue navi didn't know how long it was before all the alarms started to go off; but by the time he realized something was wrong, Roll's program was 90% complete.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I don't know," Megaman tried to pull up his window to talk to Lan, but from some reason there was only static, "Whatever's going on is blocking my signal to the PET. I can't get to Lan remotely. I'll just have to go back to where I jacked in and force the connection back through."
Megaman moved to get up, with Roll following, "Whoa, where do you think you're going?"
"With you," the navi responded sheepishly.
"Roll, you're still sick. Plus, it'll be a few minutes before most of your functions come back on line. What if you reboot?" he argued.
"I'm not going to reboot. The program's made just to turn back on my functions after the virus is gone. Plus," she said, pulling up her own window, "I can't get back to my PET anyway. I'd rather not be in a comp space by myself without any help from Mayl."
Megaman sighed. If something happened to her, he'd never forgive himself. But she did have somewhat of a point. He didn't know what was going on. What if leaving her in her was a bad thing. At least if she was with him, he could more easily protect her, "Alright fine. But I want you stuck to me like glue the entire time alright?"
Roll collected her helmet from the ground and linked her arm around his, "Promise."
As soon as they left the Infirmary Comp, Megaman was extremely glad he had taken Roll with him. As they touched down into the SciLab Comp 2, the link to their previous location went dead.
The two navis stared at the now darkened warp panel. Megaman grimaced, "That's not good."
"Well, at least I'm not stuck in there…" Roll said, happy on the inside.
"Maybe it would have been better if you had. Something bad is happening if they're shutting down the links. Whatever is causing us to loose connection to our NetOps must also be affecting this Net Area. SciLab must be trying to contain it by shutting down its access to the Net," Megaman explained, really wishing that Lan had put in a few more chips into the PET.
"When you add that part…" Roll frowned.
The two navis continued walking around, trying to at least come into contact with someone. There weren't too many navis walking around. Had there been an emergency jack out? No, not possible. Lan would have jacked him and Roll out already if there was. So then why was this whole area a ghost town? Megaman turned to his side as he felt Roll grip his arm.
"What's wrong?" Megaman asked.
"I don't know. I feel like someone's following us. But every time I turn around no one is there," Roll said nervously. She sounded pretty spooked.
"Okay, I'll keep an eye out," Megaman said turning his head to look behind them, "How's the program?"
"I think it's almost finished. I've been getting more alert. Though my battle routine hasn't come back online yet, but I'm not sure how helpful my bow would be right now."
"Roll, your bow breaks the connection between the PET and Net Navi to force all the chips someone downloads to act like they've been used already. I'm pretty sure that if someone is trying to take over SciLab your bow would be more useful than my buster right now. Plus, you have other attacks too." Megaman said, still scanning around for navis. It made no sense to use a port anymore back into the PET since all of them were dead.
"Mega…no Hub. In case you don't remember, you destroyed Nebula Gray with a single flick of your hand," Roll countered.
"Certain circumstances, my dear. Certain circumstances," Megaman rebutted.
Roll scoffed and rolled her eyes, "Yeah yeah yeah." She knew he was being serious, but it was still funny that one if not the most powerful navi on the Net was actually trying to tell her that her weapon would be more useful than his.
"De…de…delete."
The eerie voice sent shivers throughout Megaman's body. Roll gripped his arm in a death grip as the two navis turned around. Somehow, a badly bugged Zero. EXE had been following them the whole time. His saber dragged on the ground creepily. His robotic face, as normally, showed no expression. But the extremely weird part was that his redish color had begun to gray out. He reminded Megaman of a zombie. A zombie navi…really really really creepy. Megaman put an arm out and pushed Roll back behind it, "Zero? You okay?"
Megaman knew that he was not okay. Any navi looking this bad normally would be checked for a couple of days rather than the normally two to ten minutes.
"Delete…" Zero said again.
"Mega…the other navis…" Roll whispered fearfully behind him.
Megaman gritted his teeth. Why would Zero start deleting navis? He hadn't done anything bad for thirteen years! It made no sense! He had talked to Zero. He was a rational navi. He didn't just start doing things without some kind of reasoning.
"Delete…" Zero continued to advance slowly upon them.
Megaman started moving backwards, Roll behind him, "No, Zero. No one needs to be deleted. You're just bugged. How about you shut down for a couple minutes? SciLab contains and debugs you and we go on with our normal day lives."
"Delete. Delete. Phantom Saber!" the navi fired a sonic boom from his sword. Megaman pushed Roll and himself out of the line of fire just as the navi started charging.
"Stay down!" Megaman said as he ran away from Roll, trying to get the delusional navi's attention. He even took a few puck shots at Zero. The only problem was that he was going to need battlechips in order to finish this effectively. Some part of Zero was still somewhat active since he was beginning to deflect his shots with surprising accuracy.
"Whoa!" Megaman yelled, catching his balance. He had almost walked off the edge of the road. Great, now he had nowhere to go!
"Delete! Z—" the navi cocked his head as something landed with a harsh thud against his head. Both navis turned to see Roll, still armed with one more bug frag she had found, "Leave him alone!"
"Delete?" Zero said, beginning to take some kind of interest in the pink navi. The red-gray navi turned quickly to Megaman and fired another Phantom Saber. The blue navi fell of the road, barely catching it with one of his hands. The blue navi struggled to pull himself back up as Roll herself was beginning a game of cat and mouse with Zero.
Roll turned around and fired her last bug frag. Unfortunately a bad move. "Step Shield," Zero said as he blocked the attack and speed right in front of her. Zero grabbed the pink navi by her throat. Roll tried to claw at his hand to make him let go, but the grip around her neck was too tight.
"Mega…help…" she wheezed as Zero analyzed her.
"Get away from her!" Megaman yelled, who had finally managed to grab the road with two hands and began to heave himself back onto the road.
"1% infection. Insufficient," Zero said as both his and Roll's navi symbols glowed for a moment. As the light faded, Roll felt herself becoming sick again. However, she also felt one more thing. Her battle function had come back.
"So…rr…y" Roll said, as her right hand turned into her bow and she fired a Roll arrow directly into Zero's navi symbol. The navi howled as he dropped Roll and staggered back. Zero tore out the arrow; his data beginning to come out of his icon. Before he could retaliate, several buster shots hit him dead on. Megaman had gotten back up and was at Roll's side in minutes. Zero looked back at the two of them for just a brief moment before falling to his knees. The damage was done. His data soon collapsed and he was deleted.
Roll breathed heavily as she gripped onto Megaman. She had never deleted anyone before. Especially not on purpose. She felt sicker and she knew part of it wasn't the fault of whatever Zero had introduced into her. He didn't seem like he deserved it. He wasn't evil. His data was probably just corrupted…oh no.
Roll looked down to see her own bodysuit beginning to become grayer. No, no, no, he did not download his virus into her! Roll's eyes widened as she realized a couple things. One, whatever had gotten Zero had already sunk its teeth into her. He had only really become interested in her after he realized that she was already infected. Two, she was entirely too close to Megaman. She pushed the blue navi away. However, before she could sprint off, he caught her by her wrist.
"Let me go!" Roll yelled, tears in her eyes. She didn't want to hurt him.
"No! What is going on, Roll?" Megaman said, keeping a firm grip on her. He pulled back towards him, despite her best efforts to get away. He was too strong. She couldn't run from him. She didn't want to run from him. But she had to.
"Let me go. Hub! Let me go!" she screamed as he pulled her into his chest, trying to calm her down. Roll struggled with emotions no navi ever really did, it all came with the package of dating a human. She wanted to stay with him, to be in his arms. But she couldn't. She was a danger to him and every navi out there. Eventually, she gave in and just cried.
"Roll?" Megaman asked, trying to console her.
"He restarted it…" she murmured.
"What?"
"That virus I had earlier. He said I was 1% infected and that that was insufficient. He restarted that virus, Mega. And I think he made it worse…" she said quietly.
If Megaman still had an actually heart, it would have stopped right there. If Zero had what Roll did, that meant he too had been hit by the EM Wave leak. Although he wasn't seen too often, Zero did frequently walk around different layers of SciLab's network. But what could make her feel… Shoot, the Zero Virus! Despite still being a navi, Zero still had control of his Zero Virus. He just never used it anymore. What if the EM Waves had messed with it and caused him to go around deleting everything that wasn't like him. That wasn't some strange form of navi and EM Wave.
Roll had a Zero Wave Virus. Now he understood why she wanted to run. Megaman tightened his grip around her. No… This…this couldn't be possible. No, this wasn't supposed to happen!
"You're…you're going to have to delete me," she whispered.
Megaman's eyes flicked for a tiny moment in rage, "No. Absolutely not. I refuse to ever do that to you."
"You have to Mega. Otherwise…" Roll shivered. If he didn't delete her, she would become just like Zero, deleting every navi until someone deleted her, "Please, Hub. I don't want to be like him. I want to be Roll."
"And you are and always will be. Come on, they've got to unlock SciLab know that Zero's off the network."
"Hub, they locked it down because of the virus he had. The virus I have. He's gone, but the virus's signature isn't. They're not going to unlock SciLab until I die!" Roll cried, only causing Megaman to hold her tighter. No, he wasn't going to delete her. Even if it meant that she deleted him in a mindless state. He wouldn't dare touch her, "I don't want to die like he did…" Roll shuddered, trying to catch herself. Even now, she was beginning to feel some of her logic functions shut down.
"I won't do it. You'll have to delete me first." Megaman said firmly.
"No. I can't." Megaman was about to open his mouth but promptly shut it. He couldn't tell her that it wasn't going to be her that would put an arrow through him, "Please. Hub, I begging you. Delete me!" she yelled. Roll could feel herself losing it. What will left that she had over her body was fading. Navis didn't have a method to cause themselves to delete automatically. Those codes lied in their PETs.
"I can't," he reaffirmed as he could feel her squirming. She wrapped her arms around him, but her fingers were beginning to dig into him. She was trying to avoid clawing at his emblem. No matter how hard this virus tried to shut her down, she wouldn't hurt him as long as she could help it.
"ddd…" Roll shut her mouth and started shaking her head. no, no, no, No, NO! She once again tried to move her hands, but apparently she was losing control of those too, "De…le…te…me…" Roll said, gritting her teeth. She didn't want to lose to this thing. But she was going to. Why was he doing this to her? Why was he letting her turn into a monster? Finally, she felt his grip loosen. With what little power she had, she pushed herself away from him and looked at him, her eyes turning more emotionless by the second.
Before she could make one more request for deletion, he kissed her. Despite more and more of her functions turning off, her mind still had that stopping feeling whenever he did this. She had barely gotten enough room to respond back, trying to let him know that she loved him. As he pulled away, she realized that his buster was out. Something clicked. He had waited because he couldn't dare destroy her while she was still Roll. If she went mindless, she would be just another enemy. At least, she hoped that was how he would view it.
"I'm sorry," Megaman said, stepping back.
"Me too," she swallowed, "I know it might be a burden, but can you look after Mayl? At least until she gets a new navi."
"I promise, I will."
"Thank you. I love you, Hub."
"I love you too, Roll."
The now gray-pink navi gave one last smile before her last function cut out. The navi cocked her head for a moment before her eyes went totally dead of emotion. Her right hand became her bow, but Megaman's buster had already reached a max charge. Before he could even hear her give out one damn utterance, he fired. However, he never saw when she fell down and was deleted right before him. His eyes were closed the entire time.
"Megaman? You okay? Where's Roll?" Lan asked, as the communication channel between them finally reactivated. Then the brunette noticed his brother's tears down his face. The young scientist to be did a quick scan of the area and noted that the virus signatures they found were navis.
"Oh no," Lan sucked in a breath as he looked at the new log of deleted navis. Zero. EXE. Roll. EXE, "Hub, I…" he began as his brother waved his hand and jacked out of the Net. Despite being a navi, Hub felt as if his whole world had been destroyed right in front of him. And the worst part? He had been the one to set off the bomb.
Yeah...that one scene with the dog in I Am Legend really did help with the creation of the final scene. The idea of Roll getting a fatal virus that Megaman wasn't going to be able to save her from is from Gav's Amnesia. The rest of the stuff is generated by yours truly. Man...I really can't escape from the tragedy genre can I?
Oh, before I continue, I do have a rectification to make. I jumped the gun on announcing a DNE on Monday. I actually didn't write The End of Net Society as an intention to add it into the DN Series. As so, I know I just said this the other day, but The End of Net Society is no longer part of the DN Series! I repeat! I made a mistake. The End of Net Society is not a DNE. I was working with a concept that I thought I could pull into TEONS in but figured out it would work as well as I thought.
And finally, I will say this. I have selected a writer for the crossover. However, due to the unexpected turn this crossover made, I can't really go into who it is nor can I really talk about what is going to be about. Sorry but conisder this Crossover a TOP SECRET project. Please don't ask me or Gav about it since we're not going to be saying much, especially with this project being so confidential and still very early in its development stage.
Ghost501, logging out!