Well, this is all cool . . .

Hello there! Honestly I never thought I'd get into this specific fandom, since I was pretty set on just the classic MegaMan and MegaMan X series, but then I started watching the MegaMan NT Warrior anime and I decided that I wanted to know how different it is to the games themselves, and so I started watching a Let's Play of MegaMan Battle Network 1, Battle Network 2, Network Transmission, and I'm currently going through Battle Network 3.

So, uh, no spoilers please.

But yeah anyway, I didn't expect to get into this, but for some reason this fandom actually appeals to me more than the classic and X series do. Maybe it's because Battle Network is an RPG? I mean, my all-time favourite game series is Pokemon, and that's pretty much one of the most well-known if not well-loved RPG game series on the planet.

Anyway, enough about me not expecting to get so into this series.

Welcome to my first-ever fic for the MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior fandom!

This fic doesn't take place in the anime or game world. Nor does it take place in the manga, mainly because I've never actually read it (I can't find it online, which sucks, cus I wanted to read it). It does, however, take place in a weird mishmash of the anime and game world.

Mishmash because the first thing I found from this series of MegaMan was the anime, and it introduced various characters that never actually showed up in the games - such as the character Tory, who is IceMan's NetOp in the anime, but in the games IceMan's NetOp is Dr. Froid. I like Tory's character and I feel like he kinda adds in a bit of normal to the group of kids we have as main characters (among which is a crazy/lazy kid that gets into far too much trouble, a pink-haired piano girl, a child genuis, a kid who's apparently bigger than most adults, and also a two-toned albino).

So, Tory's in this fic because I like him. He's a cool kid. And not just because he's IceMan's NetOp.

But enough about how I'm adding in an anime-exclusive character, I'm also making the timeframe of this fic extremely vague. Since I can't find anything past Axess online, and I have yet to finish watching Battle Network 3 and onwards, I feel like this is probably the best option.

I won't mention anything that's happened in the anime (unless for a specific purpose, like maybe someone's remembering something or they're making fun of someone else, etc.) or the games (unless for the same reasons mentioned before). The only characters who will show up are Lan, Maylu, Dex, Yai, Tory, Chaud, Dr. Hikari, and their NetNavis (does Lan's dad even have a NetNavi? I have yet to see him with one).

The rest, unless I put them in for a brief period of time (characters such as Masa come to mind, or Ms. Mari), basically won't be main characters. At best they'll be side characters who'll probably just show up once or twice, since the bulk of this fic will take place in a fictional city that I created for the purposes of this fic.

Any other characters will, of course, be OCs - and there are quite a few. The main OCs will be introduced soon after the main canon characters get to my fictional city.

. . . Wow, I ended up monologuing by accident. But yeah anyway those're my plans.

Also, I'm taking some liberties with how NetNavis are made - the driving force of this fic didn't really come into being until I came up with a horrible scenario that pretty much demands the creation of data-bones for Navis, which may or may not be true since hey we don't actually know what they look like under their skin. They could look like robots for all we know.

But yeah, this is not a happy prologue. Get ready for some horrific images, although there's no blood (they're literally data, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for them to bleed, unless they bleed data or something).

I don't own MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior, on with the show!

OOOOOO

Lan and Dex were having a NetBattle, and Lan was, as usual, winning by a landslide.

At this point it wasn't even a trial for Lan to beat Dex, all he had to do was send MegaMan some good battle chips and boom, they pretty much won instantly, but Lan wasn't one to become complacent (MegaMan would probably disagree, but Lan would cheerfully ignore his Navi/twin brother in favour of beating down Dex's oversized ego). It wasn't that Lan was doing this just because it was easy, he just didn't want his skills to get dragged through the mud - a NetBattler's work was never easy, after all!

Lan could practically see MegaMan's disapproving look, but thankfully MegaMan couldn't read his mind, so he could keep his slightly-egotistical thoughts to himself.

Something exploded on the PET's screen, and Lan quickly started paying attention again.

Apparently Dex had sent some Mini Bombs to GutsMan, but MegaMan, being MegaMan, had simply flipped over them and was now hiding on top of one of the floating blocks of data while GutsMan tried to flap away the resulting smoke.

"Hey, c'mon, I don't pay you to be a ninja!" Lan grinned.

MegaMan glanced at him. His faceplate was up and Lan couldn't see the lower half of his face, but his eyes were bright, so Lan was pretty sure he was grinning back. "You don't pay me at all," was the Navi's response.

"I give you battle chips."

"That's not payment, that's warmongering."

Lan had no idea what warmondering meant, but he was pretty sure that was an insult.

And then he didn't have time to respond to that, as GutsMan finally managed to get rid of the smoke and he was now looking around for MegaMan. On the park bench a few feet away from the edge of the fountain Lan was sitting on, Dex shouted encouragement to GutsMan.

They'd decided it was a better idea to keep their distance from each other while their Navis battled, because then neither could accuse the other of peeking at the other's PET and cheating. So far it was working out awesomely, but GutsMan wasn't doing so well now that MegaMan was hiding - which, Lan could tell, Dex was having trouble with as well.

After all, if GutsMan couldn't see MegaMan, then neither could Dex. And hopefully it would stay that way until MegaMan decided to strike, or until Lan came up with some awesome strategy that would take down GutsMan in one final blow.

"Any brilliant plans?" MegaMan asked him quietly. "If not, just send me a Widesword."

"I'll send a Shotgun," Lan decided, "and then a Widesword. Hit him with the Shotgun first and then get onto another data block so Dex and GutsMan don't see you. Then sneak up on him and use the Widesword."

"What if you sent two Shotguns? Then I could snipe him."

"Ooooh, good idea!" Lan agreed. "Okay, here's the first one!"

He downloaded the battle chip and a Shotgun formed on MegaMan's right arm. The Navi shuffled forward until he was peering over the edge of the data block, aimed carefully, and then shot GutsMan when he wasn't looking in his general direction. As GutsMan bellowed in pain, MegaMan used the distraction as a chance to jump from one block to another, and then he jumped onto a third block that was almost on the other side of GutsMan.

"He's up there, get him!" Dex yelled excitedly, misjudging where MegaMan was - sure, he'd figured out where MegaMan had been, but it didn't matter since he wasn't there anymore.

GutsMan threw out his Guts Hammer, hitting the side of the abandoned data block, and it fell to pieces.

"GUTS!" GutsMan shouted triumphantly, only to pause in confusion as he realised MegaMan wasn't in the rubble.

"Where is he!?" Dex yelped.

"I-I don't know!" GutsMan replied, turning around in circles, trying to figure out where the much smaller Navi was hiding. He'd figured out that MegaMan was probably still on a data block, since he obviously wasn't on the ground, but there were so many that there was no way GutsMan could break them all before MegaMan hit him again.

Lan sent MegaMan the second Shotgun chip. "Get ready to aim again," Lan said, fighting the urge to taunt Dex.

"Way ahead of you," MegaMan responded. Indeed, he was already over the edge, and the second Shotgun was now being aimed carefully at GutsMan's back.

MegaMan barely even paused before firing a second time, and once again there was a pained bellow from GutsMan, who spun around to glare in the general direction of where the shot had come from.

Only to yelp in surprise as MegaMan came flying out of his hiding place with a Widesword already formed on his arm.

The smaller Navi slashed at the arm that came up to deflect the attack, and then used that same arm to as a springboard to bounce off and away from GutsMan. The Widesword vanished as he flipped through the air, and he landed on one hand, pushed off, and then lightly bounced to his feet a good distance away from GutsMan. His faceplate flashed and withdrew back into his helmet, revealing the grin on his face.

"Yeah!" Lan cheered.

"No . . ." Dex moaned.

"You're gonna have to give up your dessert, Dex!" Lan called. Well, it was either that or have Dex do his homework for him, but honestly speaking, Dex was actually worse than Lan at homework, so he chose dessert as the prize.

"No way!" Dex snapped back, glaring at Lan. "We're gonna win this!" He looked at his PET and the glare became a determined frown. "GutsMan, my dessert's on the line, don't lemme down!"

"You got it, Dex!" GutsMan agreed. He formed a Guts Hammer on one hand and raised it up, then brought it down so fast that Lan was actually surprised.

MegaMan, on the other hand, apparently couldn't be taken by surprise. He simply jumped before the Guts Hammer connected with the ground and kicked off one data block and jumped onto the top of another while the ground shook below.

Oh well, so much for that.

And then Dex told GutsMan to start breaking the data blocks.

"Gah," Lan said, stunned for a moment, as GutsMan began directing his Guts Hammers at the blocks.

He started with the one that MegaMan had jumped onto for safety, and then started following MegaMan as he jumped and ran across the different blocks, smashing them to pieces as he went.

A couple of minutes and several dozen smashed blocks later, MegaMan was left stranded on top of a data block with no other blocks nearby to jump onto for safety, and GutsMan reared up for another Guts Hammer.

"Lan, I could do with some help here!" MegaMan yelped.

"I- uh-" Lan had no idea what to do. He'd only had two Shotgun chips and he'd only brought along a bunch of basic Swords, a couple of Wideswords, and a few other battle chips that were good for battling but not so good for getting his Navi out of a situation like this one.

Agh, this was what he got for getting cocky!

GutsMan hit the data block and as it crumbled to pieces under his feet, MegaMan jumped off - but he misjudged his jump because of the crumbling data block pieces, slipped in mid-air, and he landed awkwardly.

Right behind GutsMan.

Who promptly spun around, hand clenched into a fist, and Lan shouted a quick warning before MegaMan got squished. He just barely avoided being hit, and the punch drove through the ground and smashed the floor (Lan shuddered at what could've happened if MegaMan had been hit). GutsMan came after him again with surprising speed, and it was suddenly all MegaMan could do to keep from getting pummeled into the ground.

He managed to deflect a few but mostly just dodged, jumping and ducking and backing away the entire time.

Meanwhile, Lan was going through his chip folder, trying to see if he had anything that could help - a Mini Bomb probably wouldn't be too much help here, since GutsMan was too close for one to work, and a sword would probably just get smashed before MegaMan would get a chance to use it. And going for the basic Mega Buster was practically suicide at this point, since the charged shot would take too long to build up to (and MegaMan needed to concentrate to do it, which he couldn't do with GutsMan raining punches at him) and the standard shots were too weak to do any damage at all at this point.

Ooooh, they were up a creek here. This was not good at all.

Man, and it had all been going so well, too . . . This sucked. Did that mean he'd have to give Dex his dessert? Or, no, wait, Dex would probably make Lan do his homework for him. And he already had MegaMan nagging him to do his own, how bad would he get if he had two sets of homework to do?

. . . Would Ms. Mari notice if he just copy-and-pasted everything?

Why, oh why, did he not bring any better chips?

"LAN!" MegaMan yelped.

Lan looked up from the folder in time to see GutsMan fling a punch that was so powerful it made MegaMan fly away even though it hadn't even connected. He gasped as MegaMan hit the ground hard a few metres away. For a few moments, all MegaMan could do was lay there on his back, gasping for air.

But it was in those few moments that GutsMan closed in, readying another punch that Lan was pretty sure would be just as powerful as the last one.

"Get up!" Lan warned him. "He's coming, get up now, you gotta get up!"

He could see Dex's grin from where he was sitting, but Lan forced himself to ignore his friend - currently his worst enemy, there was no doubt in his mind that Dex was gonna make him do his homework if he won - and he focused on his best friend instead.

"Come on . . ." Lan encouraged him, as MegaMan slowly forced himself to stand up. He stumbled and almost fell over, tensing slightly, but then spotted GutsMan coming for him and straightened up-

-and then GutsMan hit him with an underhook punch that took him right off his feet.

MegaMan went flying, way further than he'd gone before, and when he finally came crashing down, he didn't get back up. But he hadn't been forced to jack out yet, so maybe there was still a chance to fight, if only Lan could figure out whether or not he'd brought some Recover chips.

"MegaMan!" Lan cried, even as he rummaged frantically through his folder. "Hey, you alright? C'mon buddy, speak to me!"

"Kuh . . ."

Lan froze.

That . . . that hadn't sounded good at all. He looked up from his folder, at MegaMan, and he could've sworn at that moment all the blood in his body turned to ice.

MegaMan was still lying on the ground where he'd crashed, and he was trying to get back up, but for some reason he didn't seem to be able to move his legs at all - in fact, the entire lower half of his body seemed to be unresponsive. He was gasping and Lan could've sworn he heard him choke, too.

And worst of all was the flashing red WARNING message in the corner of the PET's screen, telling Lan that MegaMan's lower half had been severed and that he had to jack out now otherwise he'd get deleted.

But he could see MegaMan's legs, they were right there, why was the PET telling him-

MegaMan tried to heave himself up and he managed to drag his legs along the ground a little, and that simple action tore a raw, horrible scream out of his mouth.

Oh.

Worn out, MegaMan dropped down and that tore another scream out of him. Lan saw GutsMan coming towards him, but he paused when he heard the screams, looking confused and extremely worried.

Dex, on the other hand, didn't appear to think anything had gone wrong. "Yeah!" he cheered, pumping his fist. "I'm not giving up my dessert tonight, woo! Go GutsMan, finish him off!"

"But- but Dex-" GutsMan said, turning to look at his NetOp.

"No buts, c'mon, we finally got a chance to beat these guys and we're gonna take it!"

"Dex!" Lan shouted, standing up. "Call off GutsMan! Something's wrong with MegaMan!"

"Shut up Lan, you're just sore cus we're finally gonna beat-"

"IT'S NOT THAT!" Lan yelled, and Dex jerked back, surprised. "GutsMan's punch did something to him, there's something wrong, he's really hurt, we need to stop-"

"So you're giving up?" Dex grinned triumphantly.

"Dex, this has gone way too far, just call off GutsMan!"

"Say you give up, and I'll call him off. Go on, say it!"

Dex didn't get it. Why didn't he get it? This was about the stupid battle anymore, MegaMan had been hurt really badly, they needed to stop now. Why didn't Dex understand?

"Dex, maybe we should-" GutsMan began hesitantly.

"Hit him with a Guts Hammer," Dex ordered.

"But Dex-"

"Hit him!"

"Dex-"

"HIT HIM!"

GutsMan looked at his NetOp for a moment, and then he nodded reluctantly. He turned to MegaMan, who had raised his head to watch, and formed his fist into a Guts Hammer. The smaller Navi's eyes widened, and he tried to drag himself away, but every movement of his legs caused him extreme pain and he started screaming again.

That finally seemed to make Dex pause.

"What . . . what's the matter with him?" he asked, glancing at Lan.

"I don't know!" Lan burst out angrily. "But if you don't call off GutsMan right now, he'll get hurt even worse! DAMMIT, DEX, THIS ISN'T A BATTLE ANYMORE!"

Dex stared at Lan for what seemed like hours, and then he finally reacted.

"GutsMan, stop!" he exclaimed.

GutsMan got rid of his Hammer in record time, and he hurried over to MegaMan, who panicked and screamed again - but not from pain. GutsMan stepped back like he'd been stung.

But Lan didn't care about that. All he could think as he jacked MegaMan out of the battlefield was - get him to Dad. Dad could help. Dad had always fixed MegaMan before. He could do the same thing now. There was nothing to worry about, MegaMan was in a lot of pain right now but Dad could fix that.

And yet, even as he ran from the park and headed straight for SciLab, there was that nagging fear that Dad wouldn't be able to fix something like this.

OOOOOO

So yeah, those there were the graphic images that I'd warned you guys about.

You'll find out exactly what happened in the next chapter when Lan gets MegaMan to Dr. Hikari, but for now, just live with the knowledge that GutsMan has probably done something utterly terrible to poor little MegaMan.

This is also where the 'taking liberties with how Navis are made' comes into play, since this plot starter here wouldn't be at all possible if MegaMan or any of the other Navis didn't have any bones, or whatever their equivalent of bones would be. Data-bones? Who knows.

But anyway, the only characters who show up in this chapter are Lan, MegaMan, Dex, and GutsMan, obviously. Everyone else'll come into this in the next chapter, so don't worry.

Bit of info here - my absolutely favourite character from this particular series is, of course, MegaMan. And anyone who knows me knows that I have a very bad habit of torturing my favourite characters, so the pain MegaMan is in right now is essentially due to him being my favourite.

Ironically I'm not exactly planning on having MegaMan or Lan be the main canon characters, but MegaMan's horrible injuries are the driving force of the plot, so I guess that counts.

Anyway, I wanna write the next chapter, so I'll end this AN here. Because I wanna write plot.

Read and review!