Chapter one: The Seemingly Normal Day
One bright Monday morning in ACDC Town, Lan Hikari was at home, doing one of the things he did best.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
While Lan lay in bed, snoring like a car engine, his PET, Megaman, sat on his desk, trying to wake him up.
"Lan, it's time to get up." Megaman said.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..." Lan snored.
"Lan, you have to get to school!" Megaman said, a little louder.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
"GET UP, YOU DENSE DOLT!" Megaman shouted, causing Lan to spring awake into a sitting position.
"Man! What is it?" Lan complained.
"Hurry up and get dressed, Lan. You're going to be late for school again." Megaman replied.
"You know you're starting to sound like mom?" Lan stated as he got out of bed.
Lan quickly got dressed, grabbed Megaman and rushed downstairs. After having a quick breakfast and said goodbye to his mother, Lan rushed out the door. The young boy wasted no time in getting to school.
After Lan burst through the front doors of the school, Lan rushed down the main hallway and ran upstairs. Lan was running so fast that he almost tripped on one of the steps on the way up.
Lan made his way towards the back door of his classroom and ran inside. In the classroom, everyone was sitting at his or her desk, but there was also a boy at the front of the room with Ms. Mari that Lan had never seen before. The boy looked about his age, with blonde hair and a few streaks of red. He wore a blue hooded sweater and black jeans. Lan swiftly moved to his chair as Ms. Mari started speaking.
"Class, as you know, one of our students and his family has moved to Australia on a student exchange program." Ms. Mari said. "Well, this young boy here is the student we exchanged our other student for and has just moved to town from Australia. This is Jake Harrison."
"G'day, mates." Jake said, slightly bowing his head.
After everyone in the class said his or hers hellos, Ms. Mari pointed to an empty desk.
"Jake, you can take that empty seat beside Dex." Ms. Mari said.
After Jake had found his way to the empty chair, Ms. Mari turned to the rest of the class.
"Now, class? Today we're doing a test on what we've been talking about these past few days." Ms. Mari said as a few groans, the loudest ones being from Lan and Dex, arose from the class. "Well, I'm glad to see that you're all ready to take it." She then turned to Jake. "Uh, Jake? You don't have to take this test, as this is you've never come here before, and haven't been around while I was teaching about this stuff."
"Thank you, Ms. Mari." Jake said politely as Ms. Mari again turned to the class.
"Okay class. Please jack in." Ms. Mari instructed.
Because Lan knew almost everything the test asked, the day went by quickly. Afterwards, Lan and his friends in class were talking to each other and looking at each others report cards.
"Man! That day went by well!" Lan exclaimed. "I managed to snag 93%!"
"Well, you did better than I did." Yai said, looking at her report card. "I only got 87%."
"As much as I hate to say it, Lan did better than I did." Dex explained. "I managed an even 90%, surprisingly."
"Well, at least you're doing better than you used to, Dex." Mayl said before looking at her report card.
"What did you get, Mayl?" Lan asked.
"Uh...I don't want to make you guys feel bad but..." Mayl replied before showing everyone her report card.
"99%?!" Dex said. "How can anyone GET that high on a test like this?!"
Just then, everyone noticed Jake walk over to them.
"Hey, Jake." Lan said with a smile. "How do you like ACDC Town?"
"I love it, mate!" Jake replied. "And I'm even surprised that this town actually uses PETS like back in Australia! Did ACDC Town just get these PETS?"
"Are you kidding?" Dex laughed. "Lan's dad INVENTED PETS."
Jake stared at Lan with wide eyes. "Really, mate?!" He asked. "Never in a million YEARS would I have thought that PETS started out here!"
Lan looked at Jake. "Does that mean that you have a PET of your own, Jake?" He asked.
"Sure do, mate." Jake replied, fishing a PET from his pocket. "Wanna Net- Battle?"
"Sure." Lan said as he pulled Megaman from his pocket. "Let's go!"
Megaman suddenly appeared in the familiar battle arena. He waited for his opponent, who appeared by fading into the arena.
Megaman looked at the new navi. He was taller than Megaman, but not as tall as Gutsman. He wore red and orange armour, complete with a red helmet with a green flame sprouting from it. On each of his arms, there was something that looked like a jet fuel tank attached to each elbow. A green flame was sprouting from each. On his face, he wore black shades. His symbol looked like a pair of flames forming a circle.
"Dude, are you like, ready to fight?" The navi asked in a surfer type voice.
Megaman raised an eyebrow. "What a strange navi." He thought to himself. "I don't think I've seen HIM before."
"Burner Man! You ready, mate?" Jake asked.
"As ready as I'll like, ever be, man!" Burner Man replied.
Megaman stared opening fire on Burner Man, who stood there while charging up the two fuel tanks he had attached to his arms. Suddenly, a continues stream of fire erupted from the tanks, sending out three waves of fire at Megaman, who barely managed to dodge them without getting hurt.
Megaman retaliated by charging up his buster and fired it when fully charged, hitting Burner Man square in the chest.
Burner Man struck a different pose, and all three of the flames, the two fuel tanks and the one on his head, started charging up. Burner Man fired three beams of fire into the air, causing several fireballs to fall onto the arena one at a time. Megaman quickly avoided them, having to run extremely fast to do so.
After about a minute of attacking and counter attacking, both fighters' HP was down pretty low. Burner Man started laughing.
"You're good, dude." Burner Man complimented. "But you have yet to see my TOTALLY cool final move!"
Burner Man leapt into the air and came down. Hard. So hard that he destroyed a full column of tiles on Megeman's side of the arena. Megaman realized that if he didn't act fast, there wouldn't be any tiles for him to fight on. Megaman rapidly fired his buster at Burner Man, eventually wearing him down.
The red and orange navi managed to destroy on more column of tiles before Megaman charged up his buster one last time. Just as Burner Man leapt into the air for the final kill, Megaman fired the buster, which caught Burner Man by the feet, deleting him.
Back in the real world, Lan sighed in relief as Jake stared at his navi with disbelief.
"Y-You actually succeeded in defeating Burner Man, mate!" Jake stated. "Amazing! And my navi held the number one position in a tournament back in Australia! You're unreal, mate!"
Lan jacked Megaman out as he looked at Jake. "Thanks. I've had practice." Lan looked at the clock. It was about three thirty by now. "I'd better get back home before my mom starts worrying about me."
After Mayl, Dex and Yai all said goodbye, Lan turned around and started walking out the door to the classroom. However, he was stopped by Jake's voice.
"Mate, you've got serious skill." Jake complimented. "Let's get together sometime and we'll net-battle again."
"Thanks for the challenge." Lan said. "I'll accept one anytime!"
Lan continued walking until he was off the school property. During his walk home, Lan noticed a TV van parked outside of Higsby's Chip Shop. Lan looked at what was written on the side of the van.
"Ribbita?" Lan asked himself. "What's SHE doing here?"
Lan walked closer to the van and found Ribbita doing an interview with a strangely tall man wearing a red, white and blue jacket, pants and cap.
"I'm here with the well-known stuntman, Super Dave Osborne." Ribbita said into her microphone while looking at the camera. "Who, as I remember, retired several years ago."
"Well, I DID retire." Super Dave replied. "But when I heard that the money being raised to see me do one last, big stunt was going to a special charity, I just couldn't pass up."
While Ribbita continued her interview, Lan noticed a couple a men standing aside. One was American and the other was Japanese. They were both looking at what looked like a PET. Lan walked over to them.
"I'm telling you, Fuji! These 'PET' things are amazing!" The American exclaimed.
"Oh, really Donald?" The Japanese asked.
"Yeah! In his town, you can send these things into the internet and wipe out viruses, you can send them into instruments and make them work properly, you can even send them into a car and give it a tune-up! I think that these things would REALLY catch on back home!"
"You're REALLY serious?" Fuji asked.
"Of course!" Donald replied. "I'd like to shake hands with the genius who invented these things!"
Lan smiled as he walked past them and continued towards his house.
As Lan approached his house, his eyebrow cocked. The front door was wide open.
"What the?" Lan thought out loud. "What's the door to my house doing open?"
"Let's go check it out." Megaman suggested.
Lan entered the house, and his eyes sprang open. The whole house looked like a storm had blown through! Furniture was overturned, pots and pans were lying on the counter and sheets of paper were all over the floor.
"Mom?" Lan called out. "Mom! Are you here?"
Suddenly, Lan heard a bleeping noise coming from his PET.
"Lan, you've got mail." Megaman said.
Lan opened up his new e-mail. He read it aloud.
"Lan Hikari, if you're at your home, you'll notice that your mother isn't there." Lan read. "Don't bother looking for her in the town. I've got her with me as I write you this letter. Don't try going to your father for help. I have him too. If you want to see them again, don't try to stop me this time. Signed, Wily."
To be continued...
One bright Monday morning in ACDC Town, Lan Hikari was at home, doing one of the things he did best.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
While Lan lay in bed, snoring like a car engine, his PET, Megaman, sat on his desk, trying to wake him up.
"Lan, it's time to get up." Megaman said.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..." Lan snored.
"Lan, you have to get to school!" Megaman said, a little louder.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..."
"GET UP, YOU DENSE DOLT!" Megaman shouted, causing Lan to spring awake into a sitting position.
"Man! What is it?" Lan complained.
"Hurry up and get dressed, Lan. You're going to be late for school again." Megaman replied.
"You know you're starting to sound like mom?" Lan stated as he got out of bed.
Lan quickly got dressed, grabbed Megaman and rushed downstairs. After having a quick breakfast and said goodbye to his mother, Lan rushed out the door. The young boy wasted no time in getting to school.
After Lan burst through the front doors of the school, Lan rushed down the main hallway and ran upstairs. Lan was running so fast that he almost tripped on one of the steps on the way up.
Lan made his way towards the back door of his classroom and ran inside. In the classroom, everyone was sitting at his or her desk, but there was also a boy at the front of the room with Ms. Mari that Lan had never seen before. The boy looked about his age, with blonde hair and a few streaks of red. He wore a blue hooded sweater and black jeans. Lan swiftly moved to his chair as Ms. Mari started speaking.
"Class, as you know, one of our students and his family has moved to Australia on a student exchange program." Ms. Mari said. "Well, this young boy here is the student we exchanged our other student for and has just moved to town from Australia. This is Jake Harrison."
"G'day, mates." Jake said, slightly bowing his head.
After everyone in the class said his or hers hellos, Ms. Mari pointed to an empty desk.
"Jake, you can take that empty seat beside Dex." Ms. Mari said.
After Jake had found his way to the empty chair, Ms. Mari turned to the rest of the class.
"Now, class? Today we're doing a test on what we've been talking about these past few days." Ms. Mari said as a few groans, the loudest ones being from Lan and Dex, arose from the class. "Well, I'm glad to see that you're all ready to take it." She then turned to Jake. "Uh, Jake? You don't have to take this test, as this is you've never come here before, and haven't been around while I was teaching about this stuff."
"Thank you, Ms. Mari." Jake said politely as Ms. Mari again turned to the class.
"Okay class. Please jack in." Ms. Mari instructed.
Because Lan knew almost everything the test asked, the day went by quickly. Afterwards, Lan and his friends in class were talking to each other and looking at each others report cards.
"Man! That day went by well!" Lan exclaimed. "I managed to snag 93%!"
"Well, you did better than I did." Yai said, looking at her report card. "I only got 87%."
"As much as I hate to say it, Lan did better than I did." Dex explained. "I managed an even 90%, surprisingly."
"Well, at least you're doing better than you used to, Dex." Mayl said before looking at her report card.
"What did you get, Mayl?" Lan asked.
"Uh...I don't want to make you guys feel bad but..." Mayl replied before showing everyone her report card.
"99%?!" Dex said. "How can anyone GET that high on a test like this?!"
Just then, everyone noticed Jake walk over to them.
"Hey, Jake." Lan said with a smile. "How do you like ACDC Town?"
"I love it, mate!" Jake replied. "And I'm even surprised that this town actually uses PETS like back in Australia! Did ACDC Town just get these PETS?"
"Are you kidding?" Dex laughed. "Lan's dad INVENTED PETS."
Jake stared at Lan with wide eyes. "Really, mate?!" He asked. "Never in a million YEARS would I have thought that PETS started out here!"
Lan looked at Jake. "Does that mean that you have a PET of your own, Jake?" He asked.
"Sure do, mate." Jake replied, fishing a PET from his pocket. "Wanna Net- Battle?"
"Sure." Lan said as he pulled Megaman from his pocket. "Let's go!"
Megaman suddenly appeared in the familiar battle arena. He waited for his opponent, who appeared by fading into the arena.
Megaman looked at the new navi. He was taller than Megaman, but not as tall as Gutsman. He wore red and orange armour, complete with a red helmet with a green flame sprouting from it. On each of his arms, there was something that looked like a jet fuel tank attached to each elbow. A green flame was sprouting from each. On his face, he wore black shades. His symbol looked like a pair of flames forming a circle.
"Dude, are you like, ready to fight?" The navi asked in a surfer type voice.
Megaman raised an eyebrow. "What a strange navi." He thought to himself. "I don't think I've seen HIM before."
"Burner Man! You ready, mate?" Jake asked.
"As ready as I'll like, ever be, man!" Burner Man replied.
Megaman stared opening fire on Burner Man, who stood there while charging up the two fuel tanks he had attached to his arms. Suddenly, a continues stream of fire erupted from the tanks, sending out three waves of fire at Megaman, who barely managed to dodge them without getting hurt.
Megaman retaliated by charging up his buster and fired it when fully charged, hitting Burner Man square in the chest.
Burner Man struck a different pose, and all three of the flames, the two fuel tanks and the one on his head, started charging up. Burner Man fired three beams of fire into the air, causing several fireballs to fall onto the arena one at a time. Megaman quickly avoided them, having to run extremely fast to do so.
After about a minute of attacking and counter attacking, both fighters' HP was down pretty low. Burner Man started laughing.
"You're good, dude." Burner Man complimented. "But you have yet to see my TOTALLY cool final move!"
Burner Man leapt into the air and came down. Hard. So hard that he destroyed a full column of tiles on Megeman's side of the arena. Megaman realized that if he didn't act fast, there wouldn't be any tiles for him to fight on. Megaman rapidly fired his buster at Burner Man, eventually wearing him down.
The red and orange navi managed to destroy on more column of tiles before Megaman charged up his buster one last time. Just as Burner Man leapt into the air for the final kill, Megaman fired the buster, which caught Burner Man by the feet, deleting him.
Back in the real world, Lan sighed in relief as Jake stared at his navi with disbelief.
"Y-You actually succeeded in defeating Burner Man, mate!" Jake stated. "Amazing! And my navi held the number one position in a tournament back in Australia! You're unreal, mate!"
Lan jacked Megaman out as he looked at Jake. "Thanks. I've had practice." Lan looked at the clock. It was about three thirty by now. "I'd better get back home before my mom starts worrying about me."
After Mayl, Dex and Yai all said goodbye, Lan turned around and started walking out the door to the classroom. However, he was stopped by Jake's voice.
"Mate, you've got serious skill." Jake complimented. "Let's get together sometime and we'll net-battle again."
"Thanks for the challenge." Lan said. "I'll accept one anytime!"
Lan continued walking until he was off the school property. During his walk home, Lan noticed a TV van parked outside of Higsby's Chip Shop. Lan looked at what was written on the side of the van.
"Ribbita?" Lan asked himself. "What's SHE doing here?"
Lan walked closer to the van and found Ribbita doing an interview with a strangely tall man wearing a red, white and blue jacket, pants and cap.
"I'm here with the well-known stuntman, Super Dave Osborne." Ribbita said into her microphone while looking at the camera. "Who, as I remember, retired several years ago."
"Well, I DID retire." Super Dave replied. "But when I heard that the money being raised to see me do one last, big stunt was going to a special charity, I just couldn't pass up."
While Ribbita continued her interview, Lan noticed a couple a men standing aside. One was American and the other was Japanese. They were both looking at what looked like a PET. Lan walked over to them.
"I'm telling you, Fuji! These 'PET' things are amazing!" The American exclaimed.
"Oh, really Donald?" The Japanese asked.
"Yeah! In his town, you can send these things into the internet and wipe out viruses, you can send them into instruments and make them work properly, you can even send them into a car and give it a tune-up! I think that these things would REALLY catch on back home!"
"You're REALLY serious?" Fuji asked.
"Of course!" Donald replied. "I'd like to shake hands with the genius who invented these things!"
Lan smiled as he walked past them and continued towards his house.
As Lan approached his house, his eyebrow cocked. The front door was wide open.
"What the?" Lan thought out loud. "What's the door to my house doing open?"
"Let's go check it out." Megaman suggested.
Lan entered the house, and his eyes sprang open. The whole house looked like a storm had blown through! Furniture was overturned, pots and pans were lying on the counter and sheets of paper were all over the floor.
"Mom?" Lan called out. "Mom! Are you here?"
Suddenly, Lan heard a bleeping noise coming from his PET.
"Lan, you've got mail." Megaman said.
Lan opened up his new e-mail. He read it aloud.
"Lan Hikari, if you're at your home, you'll notice that your mother isn't there." Lan read. "Don't bother looking for her in the town. I've got her with me as I write you this letter. Don't try going to your father for help. I have him too. If you want to see them again, don't try to stop me this time. Signed, Wily."
To be continued...