Chapter 1
Discoveries
"Lan Hikari, Chaud Blaze, and Terra Javedson, what is it that makes you three so special?" Regal asked himself as he looked over the information that he had complied on his greatest enemies, three teenagers to be exact, not much more than children. But these 'children' were turning out to be the most formidable opponents he had ever faced.
"I've tried intimidation, I've tried fear, nothing works, what is it that makes these three netsavers and their netnavi's bonds so strong? If I could just break that then they'd be helpless." As he thought it over he remembered a new piece of information. Lan Hikari and Megaman were brothers, identical twins, that could account for their bond but what about the other two? He pulled up a second window that contained the netsavers and their netnavi's profiles. As he looked on he began to notice that the resemblance between each pair was striking. When you're in the middle of a battle the last thing that you pay attention to is your opponents' appearance, but now he could see it. The resemblance between Lan and Megaman was of no question, but as he looked on he noticed how much Terra and Whisper looked like on another as well as Chaud and Protoman. Although 50 percent of Protoman's face was always hidden the strong set jaw that he had now gave an eerie resemblance to the one that Chaud was beginning to show. Could there be more to these four that met the eye?
"Computer," Regal commanded," pull up all corresponding records on Chaud Blaze, Lan Hikari, and Terra Javedson." When the computer accomplished his task it left three documents on the screen. Regal's eyes widened. No it wasn't possible…
"UUUUUUUUH." Terra groaned as she tossed and turned in her bed.
Dream sequence…
"Araya, Chaud where are you?" a voice called out. A then six year old Terra kneeled behind a wooden swing in her back yard in Metro City.
"Come out come out wherever you are!" the voice called out again as it got closer and closer to her hiding place. Terra was torn, she wanted to stay where she was but that wasn't an option, she would have to run for it and hope she was fast enough to reach base.
"Ha!" the voice called out again when Terra left her hiding spot and started to run around to the front of the house. "I'm ganna get you!" the voice called out behind her.
"No you won't!" Terra said back in a teasing tone looking over her shoulder as she rounded the corner of the house, she was almost to base, Chaud was already there she could see him, if she could just make it then she wouldn't have to be it! Hearing a loud crashing noise she quickly turned around to see a car hit the curb of her street and flip into the air. Within milliseconds all she could see was a pair of bright headlights coming toward her, she was hypnotized, locked in place like a deer would be in the same situation…
"Airie!" the voice yelled out to her, the next thing Terra knew was that she was meting the paved sidewalk, hard. When she picked herself off the ground all she could see was the carnage of a wrecked car and her sister underneath its wheels…
End dream sequence…
"Skyler!" Terra exclaimed as she shot up from her bed in a cold sweat.
"Terra are you ok?" Whisper asked as she materialized in the room.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Terra half lied, " it was just a bad dream that's all."
"You've been having a lot of bad dreams lately, are you sure your ok?" Whisper asked.
"Yes, Whisper," Terra said more strongly this time, "I am a ok, nightmares are normal you know, in fact they're healthy."
"Yes but these are repetitive, and repetitive dreams mean that your unconsciousness is trying to tell you something, remember, the same thing happened to Lan." Whisper said throwing Terra's defense back at her, "Plus you're always screaming out the name Skyler, who is that?"
"I don't know," Terra said fully lying this time and taking hold of the locket that was engraved with Whisper's symbol that she had worn every day for the past year, "she's probably just a figment of my imagination." Then she looked at the clock, "Whisper, it's 7:42, you should have woken me up 12 minutes ago."
Whisper looked back at the clock, "I know, but it's the weekend you should be able to sleep in."
"Whisper you know what that chief's been doing."
"Yeah, working us to death, and don't tell me I already know his motto: "Until Regal's behind bars we're in a constant war between good and evil. And until we know why Regal stole part of your life force and spared your lives we are forever in the dark. Just because he hasn't struck doesn't mean he won't we must not be caught unaware." And honestly that would have to be the longest motto I've ever heard or probably ever will, but in tune with that he works us every day after school and now he's working us on the weekends and personally I'm sick of it! It won't kill anybody if we slept in one Saturday and was late for practice."
"You're right," Terra replied, "and any other day in would agree with you and I would sleep in, but after this nightmare there's no way that I can go back to sleep so I might as well get up." She said getting out of her bed and heading for the shower.
"Terra, you're sure you're ok?" Whisper asked as she watched her op leave.
"For the last time Whisper I'm fine." Terra replied closing her bathroom door.
Whisper stared at the closed door for a couple of seconds. She knew her op, and as much as she tried to ignore it there was something wrong…
"Knight sword, battlechip in!" Lan exclaimed.
"Hero sword, battlechip in!" Chaud counteracted, Terra hearing their exclamations as she made her way to the observation deck of the practice arena. When she made it she found Mega and Proto materialized looking over the computers that were monitoring the power levels and improvements of Lan and Chaud's skills.
"So is Lan's swordmenship getting any better?" Terra asked announcing her presence as Whisper materialized behind her.
"Oh hey Terra," Mega said as he turned around to face her, "yeah, his sparring speed is looking better."
"So I'm guessing that you decided to sleep in?" Proto asked commenting on her tardiness.
"Well hello Protoman it's nice to see you too." Terra said in reply to Proto's frankness. "Yeah I decided to sleep in a little. I've almost had enough of this insane schedule." Terra said sitting on one of the chairs.
"Yeah I know what you mean." Mega replied.
"Yield," Lan suddenly called out. When everyone glanced down they noticed that Lan held up his sword underneath Chaud's throat forcing him to surrender.
"Wow he really is getting better." Whisper commented on the scene.
"OMG, I can't believe I just beat you!" Lan exclaimed when they came back in the room.
"You got fortunate that's all." Chaud replied as he came in behind him.
"Hey I'll take what I can get, oh hey Terra when did you get here?" Lan asked noticing her there.
"Just a few seconds ago, and congratulations, it looks like at least someone's benefiting from this workaholics' schedule that the chief has us on," she replied, "and don't be too sore Chaud, Lan was bound to beat you sooner or later."
Chaud replied with a scoff, his pride temporally wounded.
"Thank you." Lan replied.
"So what dose the chief have in store for me today?" Terra asked.
"Well," Lan said as he looked over the schedule that his father and the chief had left behind, "the chief has you pared with Mega, he says you need to work on your swordmenship too, your sparring speeds fine but your footwork's getting lax. And Hub he has you working on your defense, he thinks if we come up against Dark Whisper again or a similar navi that they'll find too many openings."
You guys want to ditch?" Terra asked suddenly.
"What?" Proto asked.
"Ditch, you know like skip?" she replied.
"I know what it means, but I never thought of putting you and the word ditch in the same sentence." Proto replied. "That's more like Lan's thing."
"Well I hate to break your heart, but I have skipped before." Terra said. "It wasn't anything big," Terra said when she stated getting weird looks, "It was Art 1 and I was three days ahead of everybody in the class it's not like I missed anything."
"Did you get caught?" Mega asked.
"No," Terra replied, "it was the first class I had, I just said I was tardy, which I was."
"Well I can tell you that I would like to skip and I would do it if both my dad and the chief were out of town, but they're not." Lan said.
"Well can't say I didn't try," Terra replied taking out her PET while Mega switched from his human look back to the naiv, "hey where's your dad and the chief anyway?" she asked noticing their absence.
"Dad's somewhere in one of the labs, he and Famous are working on something. I don't know where the chief is." Mega commented.
"I would count that a blessing if I were you, at least you don't have the chief looking over your shoulder analyzing your every move making you repeat the same skill over and over until you have it perfect, perfect in his eyes anyway." Whisper added taking Mega's seat at one of the monitors.
"I think I will, thanks" Terra replied making her way out of the room.
"Yeah," Mega replied agreeing with her as he followed her out.
"Ok get ready." Proto said as he pulled up the dimensional area with Chaud beginning the count down with Mega and Terra taking defensive positions across from one another.
"3,2,1, now!" Chaud called finishing the countdown.
Terra stood facing her opponent, she was going to let Mega make the first move, this had always been her philosophy, that way she would always know what to expect. Mega knew this to and decided to do what she wanted, after all he didn't want to be here all day.
"Step sword, battlechip in." he called out as he began to advance on her.
"Cyber sword, battlechip in." Terra counteracted as he came at her…
After a few minuets of sparring Terra lost her concentration, sounds of laughter filled her mind along with screams of sorrow, skidding tires, and those spinning wheels…
"Whoa!" she yelled out as she found herself losing her balance. When her mind had begun to drift Mega had found an opening and swung his right leg out knocking Terra's feet out from under her making her fall forward. Her reflexes kicked in leaving her in a push up position almost kissing the floor.
"Yield," Mega said as he held out his blade to her.
Terra looked up as a sly smile began to play on her lips, she was just in the right position and his sword was held at just the right angle where she wouldn't have to…
"I don't think so." She replied launching herself from the ground and lifting her body into a handstand position placing her self between Mega's body and his sword and slamming her feet underneath his chin knocking him back.
"Uhh," Mega groaned as he flipped backwards using the momentum that Terra had given him landing back on his feet.
"Areasteal battlechip in!" Terra exclaimed as she shot toward him in a fluid motion of rainbow color and held her sword up to him, "Now that's a proper yield."
"I couldn't agree more. Now that's what I call netbattling." The chief's voice said coming over the intercom, "Great job Terra, Megaman you got her in her footwork but you still need to work on that defense of yours, she got you good there."
"Great," Mega said as he rolled his eyes, "that all I want to do in my spare time, practice defense techniques."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to show you up like that. I didn't break your jaw did I?" Terra asked.
"No," Mega replied with a laugh as he headed back to the deck, "but that was a pretty impressive move back there, I have to say it caught me totally off guard." After a few seconds of silence Mega spoke again his voice changing from a joking tone to one that voiced concern. "Terra are you ok?" he asked.
"Sure why?" Terra asked back slightly startled by his change in tone.
"I don't know, you just seem to be distracted lately even during the battle just now your eyes glazed over like you weren't totally there, the only time I've seen that is when something's really bothering someone. Is there anything you want to talk about?"
"Hub, just like I've told Whisper a million times I'm fine, don't worry." Terra said as she placed her hand on the door handle and turned her back to it.
Mega had known Terra long enough to know that that wasn't true and he gave a look that told her that she was contradicting herself.
"Ok," Terra admitted, "So, I do have something in my mind but it's not that big of a deal, noting I can't handle anyways."
"Ok," Mega replied, "but keep in mind that I do know you well enough to know that that isn't true. If it was nothing you wouldn't have let it encroach on you concentration like that. But since I haven't exactly been the most honest person on the planet I won't press you about it, but if you want to talk about it you know who you can come to." Mega said as he passed her leaving her to follow him through the door.
When they got back to the deck they found Dr. Hikari and Kiefer there.
'Well I guess it's a good thing we didn't skip.' Terra thought.
"Dr. Hikari, I have to commend you, these six netsavers are making remarkable progress, you've done a great job training them."
"Ok, thank you sir, but I think most of the credit should go to them, I haven't been around lately to monitor them firsthand, they've been training themselves and each other for the past couple of weeks."
"Well I guess congratulations are in order all around then. Nothing trains a team more than letting them learn together and it helps form a bond that can never be broken. Speaking of training Protoman, Whisper, you're up next." The chief said addressing the two navis.
"Yes sir," they both replied as they made their way out and their ops taking places at the computers, with Lan and Mega looking over their shoulders.
"But back to what I was saying," the chief said, "I can't get over the remarkable progress that the children have made, especially Lan and Megaman, their synchro level has skyrocketed in the past few weeks. Are you harboring a special training secret that the rest of the organization needs to know about?"
When Chaud and Terra heard this concentration on their navi's battle was broken and they could feel Lan and Mega tense.
"Um, nothing that I know of," Dr. Hikari replied, then all of a sudden the beeper connected to his lab coat went off. "Oh, I'm sorry chief I going to have to duck out, the computers done analyzing the data that Lan and Protoman retrieved from those resurrected darkloids the other day, I need to check this." Dr. Hikari said as he hurried off.
When he left the chief turned his attention to Mega and Lan. "Lan, Megaman, can I speak with you for a moment alone?" when Lan and Mega turned around the chief was taken aback. He had never seen Mega without his navi look and with out it they shared an uncanny resemblance.
"Sure," they replied as they followed the chief into the next room.
After a few seconds Terra slipped a thumb drive onto the USB connection and got up from her computer and slipped over to the door sitting down next to it with her ear pressed against it.
"What are you doing?" Chaud asked in a hushed tone.
"Are you telling me that you didn't see that look that the chief had on his face when he saw the resemblance between Lan and Mega? Besides what dose it look like I'm doing?" Terra shot back.
"Yeah, I noticed, but it looks like your eavesdropping." Chaud replied. "And don't think that the chief won't notice that you didn't record Whisper's stats and I'm not going to be your partner in crime."
"Well for your information I don't need your help. The thumb drive that I put in the computer opened a program that will record Whisper's stats for me and I'm not eavesdropping," Terra replied, "I'm just trying to see whether Lan and Hub need any help in the field of creative dialogue."
"You mean lying?" Chaud asked.
"No, I mean creative dialogue, there's a difference, now shut up I cant hear what they're saying!"
"You're crazy you know that?" Chaud asked.
"Well that's what they tell me," Terra replied, "besides crazy people have more fun then rigid people like you." She said as she pressed her ear back to the door.
When Chaud went back to monitoring Protoman's stats Terra was able to hear what the chief, Lan and Mega were saying.
"Like I was telling your father earlier Lan, you two have made remarkable progress, I've never seen a pairs synchro level jump so fast, there is definitely something special about you two. And with the situation that we're in you see the importance of being able to improve at a rapid pace. Are you sure you have no idea how your synchro level improved so quickly?"
"Well I really wish I could help you but I can't explain it. I don't know what happened all I know is that it did." Lan replied.
"Yeah, I have no clue how it happened either, Mega added supporting his brother's comment.
The chief was about to say something else when…
"OMG, I almost did it!" Whisper exclaimed as she suddenly rematerialized by Terra making her jump.
Terra quickly drug Whisper away from the door and to the other side of the room. "What?" she asked.
"I almost got Protoman's visor off." Whisper replied with a wide grin.
"How'd you manage that. I thought that he way faster than you? And since when have you wanted to get his visor off?"
"Probably since the first time I met him. There's just this air of mystery that visor creates and you know how I hate a mystery. And it was purely an accident anyway, he caught me on my footwork and tripped me. I used a laser blast to counteract but if I'd used a wide sword I would have been the right distance away to slash that visor into oblivion."
"You like him don't you?" Terra asked.
"What? Who said I liked him?" Whisper asked back.
"No one it's just written all over your face." Terra replied.
"Well I have no comment." Whisper said back.
"So who won?"
"Protoman duh, I don't think Chaud could beat him in a netbattle, how am I suppose to?"
"Well how bad did you lose then?" Terra asked.
"Not that badly, he ended up tripping me again and that time I landed on my back, so it was over then."
"Sounds like you need to work on your footwork more than me." Terra said.
"Maybe," Whisper replied.
"Or, you could ask for a new sparring partner, one that won't capture you with his dark mysterious charm." Terra said suddenly.
Whisper was about to interject when Protoman came in.
"Hey, Whisper where'd you go?" Protoman asked as he came through the door, "One second you were there and the next second you were gone."
"Oh, I uh, used the net to get back." Whisper said.
"And scared the heck out of me in the process." Terra added.
"You were that deep into the stats that you didn't notice her log out?" Proto asked, Terra didn't answer. "You weren't paying attention to the battle were you?"
"No, not exactly, my skills were needed else where." Terra replied.
"And where would that be?" Proto asked.
"That would be there," Terra said as she pointed to the closed door just as the chief, Mega and Lan filled out.
"Thanks again for all your help, maybe we'll figure out this mystery," the chief, said, "Well I guess that you six have done your fair amount of civic duty for a Saturday morning, you're excused to do what ever you young people do in your spare time."
"Thanks," the group replied as the chief disappeared down the hall.
"What was that about?" Whisper and Proto asked once Chief Kiefer was gone.
"Well he noticed how Mega and my synchro level's jacked up so high, and he wanted to know if we knew anything that accounted for that." Lan said.
"What did you tell him." Chaud asked.
"That we had no idea, he has to trust us too much," Mega replied, "because I don't think that I was very convincing."
"Well he has no reason to doubt you. Are you starting to think that it was a bad idea not telling him the truth?" Terra asked.
"No, but it's just starting to make things a little complicated, I mean the only reason that the synchro levels jacked up is because Lan knows the truth, that ended up opening the link that we use to have, which enhanced the link that crossfusion's created."
"You can hear each others thoughts all the time then?" Proto asked.
"No, the whole natural twin ESP thing is pure fiction, it's the side-effect from the constant crossfusion that bridged our minds; like it did yours." Lan replied.
"The link we had when we were kids was never that strong. We just have the impression that the other is there, like a general emotional imprint. We can tell if each other is happy or sad; but if something leaves a big enough of an impression or is extream enough we might get a flash of what the other is seeing, or hear what's going on, but that's rare. Seriously though Mega I think your taking this 'big brother' thing a little to far though. Ever since the truth came out you've used the link to constantly check up on me. You're only three minuets older than me, its not like it's three years!" Lan said as he turned to his brother.
"Yeah well all things aside dad did tell me to keep an eye on you little bro."
"Yeah well I don't need it 'big bro'." Lan replied, "I'm 14."
Chaud and the others found the scene amusing. Ever since the truth had come out about Mega a 'sibling rivalry' had formed between the two, and it was intriguing to watch.
"You ever think that might change?" Terra asked.
"What?" Lan and Mega asked together.
"The link between you. I mean you don't have "twinsense" in the cinamatic way; you know seeing through each other's eyes or hearing things without it being really extream. But have you ever thought that maybe with you being twins and having nearly idential minds coupled with the side effects from the crossfussion that you've already experenced, that it might continue to link your minds like that? Everytime we crossfuse we share the same body, all the sensory information going into one body but to two minds. It's not that far of a strech when you think about it. You're already on the same waverlength."
"Huh, I've never thought about it." Mega comented.
Lan looked a little distressed. "That seems like a HUGE potential for invasion of privacy."
"Hey what are you guys still doing here? I thought that you all had been dismissed?" Famous said as he passed the room.
"Oh just hanging out." Lan replied.
"Really, after all of you complain about having to practice on the weekend you'd think that you'd shoot out of here as soon as someone gave you the go ahead, but you always end up sticking around. But practice is over get out of here." Famous said pushing them toward the exit.
"Wow never thought I'd ever get kicked out of Scilab." Terra said as Famous shut the door behind them.
"Well I'm glad to get out of there." Lan said.
"So do you have any plans?" Chaud asked Terra as they began to walk down the street into the city.
"Yeah, I do, Maylu and I are going to catch a bus into Tokyo and go shopping." The boys gave her a weird look. "Hey I may be a slight tomboy but I am still a girl guys; I'm more girly than you give me credit for."
But just a Terra reached into her pocket for her PET to call Maylu a strange yet familiar noise could be heard which was followed by a loud impact along with panicked screams.
"Please tell me that I didn't hear what I though I heard." Terra said.
"Ok, so we wont tell you that a dimensional area just covered the entire block." Proto replied.
"Great." Terra simply replied as their PET's started going off.
"Guys," Famous stated as he appeared on their screen. "I'm sorry to bother you, but we've got a problem. A darkloid's broken in to the observatory. We think that it's after the comet fragment that's been brought into the city."
"So it's probably Novaman right?" Mega asked.
"Exactly," Famous replied, "this fragmant's been grabbing a lot of attention since it's been discovered that it's composed of some very volatile elements that aren't found here on Earth. Seems like its gotten Nebula's attention. We need you to protect it. There's no telling what Regal might do if he gets his hands on it, so you need to get to the corner of 32nd and 52nd right away."
"Don't worry doc, we're already there." Lan replied.
"Yeah, Famous don't worry we're on it." Chaud replied.
'Good, we're counting on you." Famous said as he cut the transmission.
"Ok, lets get this over with," Terra said as she and the others crossfused and activated the double crossfusion, "I plan on doing something for myself this weekend and Novaman just picked the wrong day to screw my plans." She said as she began to walk the building.
Once inside they found the building completely empty.
"Where is everybody?" Lan asked.
"They must have all evacuated before the dimensional area sealed them in." Chaud replied.
"Well in any case I don't like this it's too quiet." Protoman added, "If Novaman was going after the fragment we should be hearing something.
"Wow, Protoman how perceptive of you, meteor!" a new voice called out as it joined the rest.
"Life aura 3, battlechip in!" Whisper instinctly called out throwing up the barrier on time to block Novaman's attack.
"Quick reflexes, but I'm faster, light speed!" Novaman exclaimed as he disappeared and reappeared behind her. "Long sword!" he called out as he tried to run her through…
TBC