Well…this is my first one. Criticism is always welcome.
Disclaimer: This story is my own work and effort. The characters, besides fictional ones, belong to Capcom.
Memnarch: Well, another year comes to a close tonight. As it should, I would begin the work here and now. What do you think, Master?
Karn: Nothing much more than what I expect of you.
Memnarch: Excellent.
Time Period: This story takes place in the middle of Battle Network 4.
Insubordination of Evil
Chapter 1-A Nebula Setback
The sun shined brightly down upon the young teenager's face. He left his bench in the park and walked over to the nearby chip shop. He figured he could use some new chips to add to his already diverse collection. His brown hair was unkempt and he looked exhausted, but he was always ready for anything Net-Battle related.
Pushing the door open, the bell rang cheerfully. The man behind the counter, a tall man with brown hair, a white shirt with a red tie, and blue jeans, waved at him.
"Hey, Lan."
"How's it going, Higsby?"
"I'm alright, huh. So what do you need today?" asked the shopkeeper.
"What's in stock?" replied Lan.
Higsby pressed a button, and a hologram was activated, revealing a list of chips at the buyer's disposal.
"What do you need from here, huh?"
Lan scanned the stock. He looked past the Spreader L, PnlRetrn , LifeSync Q, and the Geddon2 N. He noted the HiCannon C, and realized he could afford it. Continuing to peruse the list, he passed up a Recov120 J. He wanted the LongBlde G, but realized that the 12000 zenny cost was beyond his spending limits.
"Give me a HiCannon C." said Lan.
Higsby removed a single chip from under the counter.
"That'll be 8400 zennys."
"Just a second."
Lan dug into his pocket and procured his PET. On the screen was a boy dressed in blue. It was his navi, MegaMan.
"Hey, Lan. What do you need me for?" asked MegaMan.
"Need to buy a new chip." Lan replied.
"OK."
Lan handed the PET over to Higsby, who ran a scanning device over, which deducted the cost from his zenny inventory.
"Have a good day, huh."
Lan exited the store, and wondered to himself: "Now what?" The boy knew that the final Tournament in Netopia wasn't due for another week. He sat himself down on the bench, and put on a pair of roller skates. He skated out of the park and towards Dex's house. Dex was always due for a good Net-Battle.
Lan passed the subway station and then went to Dex's house. Dex had moved back from Netopia a couple of months prior to the end of fifth grade. Lan rang the doorbell, and a rather stout boy poked his head out, wearing blue shorts and a green t-shirt.
"Hey, Lan."
"Hey, Dex. Interested in a Net-Battle?"
"You know I am!"
Both ran inside his house and went over to Dex's computer.
"Jack in! MegaMan, Transmission!"
"Jack in! GutsMan, Transmission!"
The two navis appeared inside Dex's computer. MegaMan stood at one end against a bulky, strong-looking navi.
"Ready to battle, guts!" shouted GutsMan.
"I'm ready when you are!" replied MegaMan.
Then, they began. In the heat of battle, no one noticed the shady navi sitting in the shadows, observing every move…
In the covert Cyberworld base laid some of the strongest navis from the internet crime syndicate, Nebula. Situated deep in the wretches of the Undernet, ShadeMan arose from his rest.
"Time to begin…"
A loud noise came from behind him. ShadeMan turned around abruptly, only to find two HealNavis arguing amongst each other.
"Tut, tut, what is it now, you two?" asked ShadeMan briskly.
One of the HealNavis looked afraid to approach. He deftly pushed the other in front of him.
"Speak now!" demanded ShadeMan.
"Well—," stuttered the HealNavi
"Well what?!"
"You see—ahh!!!"
In the brief seconds between the navi's hesitation and his stammering talk, ShadeMan deleted him with his CrshNoise attack.
"Now…let that be an example. TALK!"
"Alright. Another of our bases in the normal net has been demolished. Sixty-two navis deleted. Two hundred and forty-one navis injured and needing time to regenerate."
"Who did this?!"
"Unknown, sir. All we know is that this was our base for a planned assault on the Officials. And the Officials would never know of our movements here, we've been operating covertly for the past two weeks. However, one of the injured commanders saw a navi disappear into the shadows, and we suspect it was him who assaulted the base."
ShadeMan looked angrier than ever. "Does LaserMan know of this development?"
"Not yet, sir."
"Inform him. And it better be you, or you know what will happen."
The HealNavi gulped, and warped out, searching for LaserMan.
ShadeMan turned around, and muttered. This development made his rest for nothing. "Damn! The third base taken out in the last month. Who's undermining the great Nebula?!"
"GutsMan, logging out." spoke a mechanical voice.
"Yeah! I win again!" Lan cried out.
"C'mon, Lan. Just because you won the last seven Net-Battles, doesn't mean I won't win." Dex pleaded.
"I don't think GutsMan is ready for anymore today. All the regeneration you tried to give him was exhausted." noted MegaMan.
"Fine." Dex grumbled.
Lan smiled, and left Dex to sulk. The sun had become a bright orange, as the day had gone by simply by Net-Battling. He figured that he had a couple of hours before dinner, and his mom wasn't expecting him. He then resolved on skating over to Mayl's house, and she was always a welcoming face.
Taking a new path, he cut across a couple of gardens, leaped over his mother's vegetable patch, and landed successfully on the pavement near his doghouse. He took off his roller skates and walked up to Mayl's house. He rang the doorbell.
Mayl poked her head out of the second floor window and saw Lan below.
"Hey, Lan. I'll be right down!"
In a matter of seconds, she came down, and opened the door. Lan was a bit taken aback by her new outfit.
She normally wore a blue vest with a light-colored shirt beneath it, a pink skirt, and black socks with red shoes. As she was inside her house, she wasn't wearing her shoes. She instead wore a red shirt, no vest, still her pink skirt, and a pair of white socks shorter than her black ones.
"Hey, Mayl. What's with the new get-up?" asked Lan curiously.
"Nothing," she responded quickly, "my other clothes are in the wash."
"That explains a bit. Anyway, I came here 'cause I was bored."
"Well, your timing couldn't have been any better."
"Really?"
"Yeah, Roll wants to adventure outside of ACDC, but she can't seem to unlock the barrier into the ParkArea."
"I thought I unlocked that when-" said Lan, but he suddenly stopped.
"Hmm? What's the matter, Lan?" quipped Mayl.
Lan had now delved back into his thoughts. He still vividly remembered the break-in, his learning of Nebula, and his involvement by picking up the DarkChip. Which he had not used yet. Yet would be the key word here…
"Lan!" shouted Mayl.
Lan quickly awoke from his daze and apologized.
"You seem a bit preoccupied lately." Mayl observed.
"It's nothing!" said Lan quickly. Interjecting Mayl before she could say anything, he said, "I thought you wanted me to get Roll into the ParkArea!"
"Yeah. Roll's already inside."
"Jack in! MegaMan, Transmission!"
MegaMan appeared inside Mayl's PC.
"Hey, Mega!" Roll greeted him.
"Hey, Roll! Um, I seem to have lost the P-Code Mayl gave Lan when I got those passes for Castillo. Think I could get another one?" MegaMan asked a bit uneasily. Lan was usually the one who was irresponsible.
"That's no problem, here." said Roll as she handed MegaMan the P-Code. "Let's go!"
Silence. Pure silence. A figure skulked in the darkness behind him.
"I know you're there."
The skulking figure came out. It was a HealNavi, who walked up timidly to the towering navi.
"What is it?"
"Well, um-" the HealNavi muttered.
"No, wait, let me guess. Another assault."
The HealNavi looked a bit surprised, but LaserMan knew better.
"So…what were our losses?"
"62 enforcers deleted, 241 needing regeneration time. The commander says he saw a shady figure in the aftermath of the explosion."
"I thought," said LaserMan, with a tone of anger, "that you were to double patrols after the first assault."
"Well, we did. Even then, this…thing has been able to get past our defenses each time."
"So why are you standing here telling me this when I could merely be finding some Officials to prey upon?"
The HealNavi was left hushed.
"Leave my presence!" bellowed LaserMan.
The HealNavi dashed off in the fastest time possible.
"Who is doing this?" murmured LaserMan. "Why?"
LaserMan patrolled around the small area he had defined as his personal space. It was null and void, except for a NebulaCd and a recharging station. He pondered the thoughts, wondering who would be so brash and bold to attack the great Nebula!? As he did, he figured it was time for another recharge, so he sent a message to his net-op, informing him of his rest.
As he settled into the recharging station, he could not help but feel that he was being watched. And he was. A stealthy figure, who was camouflaged in the background, was noting every single event. The figure disappeared as mysteriously as he had appeared.
Roll and MegaMan had finally reached the barrier.
"That's odd." remarked MegaMan.
"What's the problem?" Roll replied.
"I unlocked this door earlier. It happened prior to the Eagle Tournament. I even remember the code to unlock the door and that I came back to this area during the tournament. So why did it re-lock itself?"
"Well, if you know the code, put it in!"
MegaMan walked up to the door, and put in the password: RAEJDUK. The door disappeared.
"Nice work." Roll said.
"There isn't much to see out here, though. Unless you're interested in the Castillo BBS."
"Why not? Let's go!"
The two of them set off towards the ramp into the Castillo HP. As they went by, a Moloko virus appeared.
"Not them again." whined MegaMan.
"Hmm?" Roll said.
"These annoying viruses. You need to delete them by removing their fur and then damaging them."
"You ready, MegaMan?" asked Lan.
"You know I am!"
"HiCannon, battle-chip in! Download!"
A Canondumb virus appeared, and MegaMan operated it. He fired a blast at the virus. The fur absorbed the blast and the Moloko continued to charge.
"LongSword, battle-chip in! Download!"
A long, sharp blade extended from where the buster was and MegaMan ran forward, slicing the Moloko in two.
"Good work, MegaMan!"
MegaMan noted something on the ground in the wake of the deleted virus. He grabbed it.
"Hey, some zennys."
The two proceeded into the Castillo HP, a bustling environment full of navis coming and going.
"I'm going to look at the BBS." said Roll.
"I'm going to check out this Program Dealer."
MegaMan wandered over to the navi operating a program shop. However, MegaMan was left sorely disappointed when he found out that his inventory was cleaned out.
A couple hours had passed. MegaMan and Roll were looking at the BBS with interest, and recalling the events that had transpired during the Castillo robot incident. However, Lan checked that it was about 7PM, so the two navis jacked out.
"See you tomorrow, Lan." Mayl said.
"You too."
Lan exited her house, and went home. Despite his worry about Nebula, he felt safe and secure. Little did he know that this feeling would disappear, and that he wouldn't feel it anytime soon.
Memnarch: Took some time…
Karn: Yes, but you did it, didn't you?
Memnarch: Yes, master. Now to submit…
Karn: If you could.
Memnarch: Now I can. It has been three days, you know.
Random Trivia: If you freeze an eraser for a minute in liquid nitrogen, it will explode.