Greetings programs, and welcome to Len, not Lan. For the past year or so I have been revising this story and even though I'm not completely done, I have finished enough to be able to post the first episode. This new version of my will hopefully be much better than the first one and it is also very different. So much so that I will advise any one who read the first version to forget what happened, because this version's plot is completely different. However, before get this thing started, there are a few things that I need to mention about this fanfiction in general.
First of all, I have a request for you readers. Could someone PLEASE suggest a new title for this story? I've changed it so much that the original title just doesn't fit any more. If anyone has any ideas for a new title, feel free to tell me in your reviews. Please note that the title of this fanfic can't refer only to my OC's. The story as a whole doesn't focus on them but instead, centers on Lan, Chaud, my OC, and their netnavis equally. You don't have to suggest a title right away, though. In fact it would probably be easier to come up with one after I post a few more chapters.
Second, like the last version, this one starts after the episode Search Soul. Therefore Episode 1 would technically be Episode 20 if it were part of the actual series and not a fanfic. It also uses the Japanese show for reference, but it uses the English dub names. There are some exceptions such as of the countries of Japan and America, and certain navis whose dub names I absolutely hate.
Another thing to note is that there are going to be lots of obscure references in this story. And by obscure, I mean everything from Monty Python to Broadway musicals. Ironically, there won't be many references to other anime shows. Anyway, I can put in footnotes to explain some of the references if anyone asks me to.
Also, while there will be romance, it's not going to be the main focus of the fanfic. I've read way too many Lan/Megaman-and-Maylu/Roll-finally-admit-their-love-for-each-other or new-net-saver-girl-comes-and-she-and-Chaud-instantly-fall-for-each-other fics in my life and I'm real sick of them. (Not to mention that I can't write that fluffy stuff.) Also there wont be any shonen-ai. I have nothing against those kinds of stories, but I don't feel comfortable with writing them.
And finally the disclaimer: I don't own Rockman/Megaman
So without further ado, I present Len, not Lan.
Episode 1: New AcquaintancesDenTech City was a bustling metropolis at the dawn of the Internet Age. It was clean for a city, it was the home of SciLab, and when the sun peaked over the horizon behind it at dawn, it was beautiful. Or at least that was the case if you asked the children who were currently looking at it.
There were two of them. A boy and a girl. The boy had pale skin, blond hair, and looked to be about 11 years old. He was wearing a blue and gray striped shirt, a pair of brown shorts and sneakers, and a purple cap. He also had a backpack. The girl was tall for a 12-year-old with short blond hair that went down to the base of her neck. She wore a green T-shirt and worn-out blue jeans, both of which were too small for her. Like the boy standing next to her she also had a backpack. Unlike the boy, she carried a green PET and on her face was a pair of large, thick glasses that covered her piercing green eyes. The same piercing green eyes that the boy standing next to her had.
The two of them were hungry, filthy, and exhausted, but at that very moment they didn't care. As they stood on a hill just outside of DenTech City, all they could think about was watching the sunrise.
Finally the girl said, "We should get going."
The boy looked at her sadly. "Can't we stand here a little longer, sis?" he asked. "I want to finish watching the sunrise. It's magnificent."
The girl snorted. "It's just a sunrise. You can see one every morning. It's nothing worth admiring."
"Then why have you been staring at it for the past five minutes?"
The girl was sighed in defeat knowing that her brother had seen right though her. "All right. We'll stay here until the sunrise is done"
They stared at the horizon in silence for a few more minutes before the boy said, "So now what do we do?"
His sister stared at him. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," he answered. "That for the past year or so we've gone almost half-way around the world just to find this place. Now that we're here, where do we go next? We can't go to school, we have no place to stay, we hardly have any money. What are we going to do?"
The girl closed her eyes and thought. "We can start," she said slowly and carefully. "By changing our names."
"Why! What's wrong with our real names?"
"Do you really have to ask that? If anyone found out who we are, we'd attract the same attention we came here to escape."
"I know, it's just…" he looked at his feet sadly "I've lost so much already, I don't want to loose who I am."
"You'll still be the same person, you'll just have a different name." Seeing that this wasn't helping her brother much, she sighed and said, "Tell you what. You can keep you're first name. It's a fairly common American name so people probably won't figure out who you are."
"Thanks sis," the boy said smiling.
"You'll still need a new last name though, and it has to be different from mine."
"And your name is…"
The girl gazed silently back at the almost-finished sunrise, as if she was creating a moment of dramatic suspense, before finally saying, "Len…Len Clark."
Her brother just stared at her. "Len? Isn't that a guy's name?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Why didn't you choose a girl's name?"
"Because first of all, Len was part of my original name, and second of all, I want people to have to think twice about who I am when they see me."
"Trust me sis, they always do." He stared back at DenTech City and chuckled to himself. "This sure has been one deep and meaningful conversation. I wonder why Pixel hasn't screamed in frustration yet?"
"She probably would have if she wasn't in sleep mode right now. She spent the past few nights staying up trying to help us find this place." Len smiled as she remembered her navi's frustrated attempts to read Japanese. Then she turned to her brother and said, "The sunrise is over now. We'd better get going."
Her brother nodded. The two siblings took one last look at the city before heading in.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Inside his palace, Shademan sat unhappily on his throne. He had just finished talking with the Mysterious Man and the conversation had left him very annoyed. Shademan had demanded that the Mysterious Man give him more dark chips and, like always, he told Shademan that in order to get more Dark Chips, he had to earn them.
Shademan growled. The whole situation made him sick. Here he was, the most powerful Darkloid in existence, taking orders from a human. He couldn't stop working for the human. If he did, there would be no more dark chips and his followers would rebel, except maybe Bubbleman. He couldn't simply kill the human. He had no idea who or where he was. Plus the Mysterious Man had the power to create Dimensional Areas, which gave him a huge advantage.
"Soon, however, that won't make a difference," thought Shademan with a grin. "As soon as my 'project' is complete, not even those Net Savers will stand against me."
"Starman, Bubbleman."
The two navis materialized before him. Starman spoke first, "We're here, now whadaya want us to do?"
"You should show more respect to Master Shademan, glub!" Bubbleman shouted to Starman.
Starman growled. "And you should get a life."
"I do have a life: serving Master Shademan."
"You are such a suck-up."
"ENOUGH!" shouted Shademan who was already starting to think it was a bad idea to send those two. "I have something for you two to do, so listen closely. Go to the DenTech City power plant network and bring back all of the security codes."
"Why are those codes so important?" questioned Starman.
"That doesn't concern you," Shademan spat. "You have your orders. Now go, and delete anyone who gets in your way, especially if it's Megaman!" Starman and Bubbleman logged out of the area and headed for the power plant.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
On a random street in DenTech, Len and her brother were walking side by side. The younger sibling was looking around at everything as if he was trying to take it all in at once.
"Stop gazing at everything like you've never seen it before," Len whispered to him. "Do you want someone to recognize us?"
"Judging by the looks we're getting those people probably just think we're tourists," her brother remarked.
"Even though we look more like runaways," said Len. As an afterthought she added, "Which, in a way, we really are."
"Yeah…we are, aren't we?" her brother said quietly. Then he perked up and asked, "So, where exactly in this city are we 'running away' to?"
"Somewhere we can hide our stuff."
"I hope we can find it soon. My back is killing me."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Meanwhile on a street that was just around the corner, Lan and Maylu were heading for school. Lan was on his roller skates and Maylu was on her scooter.
"I gotta hand it to you Lan," said Maylu. "For once we're actually going to be on time for school."
"I don't always make us late for school!" Lan protested.
Maylu giggled. "Oh really? When was the last time you were able to get up on time for school on your own?"
"Uh…I did it once last year…or twice…I think."
From inside a blue PET, Megaman laughed. "Face it Lan. It's a good thing I'm here or you'd never wake up until after lunch."
"Oh great, not you too Megaman."
The blue navi continued, "I will give him credit, though. I didn't have to wake him up today."
Lan closed his eyes and said in a matter-of-fact voice, "That's because today we're going on a field trip instead of—"
Maylu gasped. "Lan! Watch where you're—"
WHAM!
"—going."
Lan looked up to see what he had run into. Across from him standing up was a boy with a purple cap and on the ground was a blond-haired girl with a green shirt. She was on her knees feeling around the ground as if she was looking for something she couldn't see.
"Nobody move!" she cried. "Whatever you do, don't take a step!"
Lan froze in fear while thinking, "Oh no! I've just run into a crazy person! Now she's gonna follow me home and kill me in my sleep!"
Maylu, on the other hand acted, much more rationally. Looking on the ground she noticed a pair of large, thick glasses. She picked them up and held them out towards the girl. "Ummmm, is this what you're looking for?" she asked.
The girl squinted at the held-out glasses, trying to make sure that they were indeed her glasses. Once she was, she snatched them out of Maylu's hand and quickly put them on her face. The girl glanced at Maylu before moving on to Lan. She stared at him intently for a few seconds before finally saying, "So you're the moron who wasn't looking where he was going."
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!"
"I guess that stupid-looking bandana of yours limits your peripheral vision."
"It does not limit my per-if-e…it's not stupid-looking!"
The girl rolled her eyes and started to leave. "Later."
"Who do you think you—HEY! Could you at least look at me when I'm taking to you!"
"No."
Lan was furious. He turned back to Maylu. "Who does she think she is calling me a moron!"
"I'll say," Maylu said in agreement. "She was almost as bad as Chaud used to be."
A quiet voice spoke up. "Sorry about that." Lan and Maylu turned to see that the boy in the purple hat had spoken. "My sister, well, she's not very good with people." He turned to leave.
"Wait!" Lan called after him. "What's your name?"
The boy stopped and seemed a little taken aback by the question. "What?"
"I'm Lan Hikari and this is my friend Maylu Sakurai," said Lan instantly forgetting about the rude girl who had just insulted him.
"I'm Alan. Alan, uh…Wryde," the boy said looking a bit nervous.
"Nice to meet you," said Lan. "I've never seen you before. Do you go to our school?"
Alan looked very nervous now. "No, I don't," he said as quickly as he could before running away towards his sister.
Lan stared at the spot where Alan had been. "Well that was weird, don't cha
think, Maylu?"
"I think we're going to be late for school again."
"Aw man! You're right!" Lan cried as he skated off. "I sure hope they haven't left without us!" Maylu sighed and followed after him.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
"Tory Froid?"
"Here!"
"Lan Hikari?"
Silence. Ms. Mari shook her head. Once again, Lan was late for school, only this time he was late on the day of their field trip to the DenTech City hot springs. Usually he was on time for that sort of thing since it didn't involve sitting in class.
Ms. Mari sighed. "I'll mark him down as late. Shuko Kido?"
"Here!"
Ms. Mari called out a few other irrelevant names of kids on the bus before calling out, "Maylu Sakurai?"
"I'm here!" said a voice that didn't come from the bus. Ms. Mari looked in the direction it came from. Skating towards the bus was Maylu and Lan. As Lan neared his teacher he desperately tried to stop, however at the speed he was going, that proved to be impossible.
"Ahhh!" Ms. Mari cried out as Lan slammed into her. A few snickers could be heard form the bus in the aftermath of the collision. Ms. Mari got up and dusted herself off. She stared at Lan, who was still on the ground.
He rubbed the back of his head. "Heh, heh, sorry Ms. Mari," he said sheepishly.
"That's alright Lan. Just be more careful next time. Now please get on the bus."
Lan set one foot on the bus's steps and immediately came crashing down, triggering more snickers. Ms. Mari let out another sigh. "Take off your roller blades first, Lan. You may discover that you have an easier time getting on the bus."
"Oh right."
Lan took a seat next to Maylu, who had already entered the bus. In the seat in front of them were their friends Tory and Shuko. As the bus drove away from the school the four of them talked about various things from the newest ride that was coming to the amusement park that summer, to the latest movie that had come out. Eventually their conversation turned to the current issues report that they had to do for class.
"My report is about that big organ cloning controversy going on right now," Tory said. "I personally think it's a good idea because it could help all of the people who need organs but can't find a donor."
Lan was disgusted. "Well I think it's a terrible idea."
"Really? Why is that?" Maylu asked curiously.
"Because the cloned organs come from human clones."
"Well actually, Lan, that's not true," Tory said.
"Yeah it is!" Lan insisted. "The clones are kept in a government facility for all their lives until the person they were cloned from needs an organ. Then they're told that they have been selected to go to a place of paradise, when instead they are taken to a lab to have their organs harvested. I saw a documentary on it last week."
The other three kids were stunned at what their friend had just said. "Uh, Lan. Are you absolutely sure it was a documentary that you were watching?" Tory asked.
"Pretty sure, why?"
"Ummmm, no reason."
Maylu shook her head at her best friend's 'explanation'. Then she turned to Shuko, who had been mostly quiet so far, and asked, "So what's your report on?"
"Illegally downloading books from the net. What about yours?"
"Mine's on homelessness. What's your topic, Lan?"
Lan went pale and pretended like he hadn't heard her question. "Uhhh…homelessness? As in, people with nowhere to live? I didn't know that was still a problem these days."
"Of course it's still a problem A lot of the world's population are homeless," Maylu replied.
"It's hard to imagine for us," Tory said. "Ever since we were little we've had a place to live so we've never though about it as a luxury. But there are a lot of people in the world who would give anything just to have a home."
"You're right, that is hard to imagine." Lan looked out the window as the bus went over a bridge. "I wonder what it must be like for them."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Little did Lan realize that the very kind of people he was talking about were much closer than he knew. Underneath the bridge, where it met the ground, were the very same siblings that had made Lan and Maylu late for school.
"I hate this," said Alan. "You promised that we wouldn't have to live under a bridge once we got here?"
Len took off her backpack and set it down on the ground. "We're not living here. This is just a place to store our stuff for now."
"Then where are we going to live?" Len was silent. Alan crossed his arms frowning. "You don't know, do you?"
"You're right. I don't know, not yet anyway. But I NEVER break a promise," Len replied flatly. "I'll find a place for us to stay."
"In that case, why don't you head for the supplies store? I hear they have a great sale on cardboard boxes," her brother said bitterly.
"Alan…"
Alan ignored her, talking even more venomously than before. "But wait! We don't have any money, do we? I guess you'll just have to steal one then."
"Alan."
"Maybe you'll get caught and thrown in jail!" He was starting to yell now. "Then you'll get a nice place to sleep and food and—"
"Alan!"
Alan stopped ranting as tears started to form in his eyes. Len sat down next to him and wrapped her arm around him pulling him into a close embrace. "It's not gonna be like that, okay?"
"I miss Mom and Dad."
"I know. I miss them too."
"If they saw us now, would they be mad that we're running away?"
"I don't think so."
"Then what would they think?"
Len looked away from her brother and stared at the ground. "I think…they'd understand…why we left."
They sat there in silence for a few minutes comforting each other before…
"Sis."
"Yeah brother?"
"I'm hungry."
Len smiled and let go of him. "You stay here and I'll go get you something to eat." Her stomach growled. "Heh, maybe I'll get myself something too." She got up to leave.
Alan stood up. "Wait. I'll go with you. It'll be better if we stick together."
"Uh…no," Len said quickly. "You should stay here and watch our stuff."
"But…"
Len smiled. "Don't worry, I can take care of myself. You know that. I'll be back before noon, okay?" and with that she headed towards the main part of the city.
Alan sat down and sighed. "I'm not worried that your going to get hurt, Sis," he thought to himself. "I'm worried that you're going to do something illegal. That's why you didn't want me to come."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Alan was absolutely right.
"Hey, kid! Come back here now!"
Len ignored the store clerk and kept running.
"Stop her! That girl is a thief!"
Customers stared in shock at the girl sprinting by them, but still did nothing. "Thank you inner city apathy," Len thought with a smile as she ran out of the store. She ran across the street narrowly avoiding the cars that were crossing it. On the other side of the street she could hear the store clerk shouting multiple curses at her, though she couldn't make out what exactly they were.
Smiling to herself, Len stopped running and turned a corner into an alley. She pulled out her PET. "Another perfect crime, huh Pixel?"
The navi that stared back at her was a teenage girl with short, brown hair. She had a green bodysuit with black and gray stripes. She wore gloves and boots, both of which were black. On her face was a clear visor that covered her smart, brown eyes. At her waist was a glass-like disk. Most notable about her, however, was the pair of dragonfly-like wings that sprouted from her back.
Pixel snorted. "A bit too easy if you ask me. The guy didn't even notice I had broken in until after I already left."
Once she was sure the coast was clear, Len left the alleyway. She kept talking to her navi as she headed back towards the bridge where her brother was. "At least he did notice, unlike the past six people. Although I do admit that we could have used more of a challenge, just to keep us in shape. Anyway how much did you get?"
"I took about 5,000 zenny."
Len combined that with the zenny they had stolen form the last seven stores. It added up to be enough to get new clothes for her and her brother and, more importantly, food. Plus, because she and Pixel had stolen random amounts from average places like department stores, the police weren't likely to find them.
"That should give us plenty for a day or two," Len said. "Tomorrow I'll take Alan shopping for new clothes."
Pixel gave her operator a suspicious look. "Shopping? Who are you and what have you done with Len?"
"Very funny Pixel. I'm not going to a mall, just one of those low-price clothing stores."
"That's a relief. By the way, where are you going to tell Alan the money came from?"
"Begging on the streets?"
"That's not like you."
"I got it as a reward for returning someone's wallet?"
"That's defiantly not like you."
"Aliens?"
"Sounds promising!"
Len chuckled at her navi's warped sense of logic. The truth was that no matter what reason she gave for how they came up with the zenny, Alan would still know that they stole it. It wasn't that she and Pixel liked stealing (even though they sort of did, especially when it involved hacking), they did it because they had to. Both she and Alan were too young to earn enough to live on and there was no way she was going to live in an orphanage. As much as Alan hated it, stealing was the only way she saw for them to survive.
Len was interrupted from her thoughts by a loud crack that sounded above her. With cat-like reflexes she jumped back just as the power line above her came crashing down.
"Len!" Pixel shouted from her PET. "I heard a crash! Are you okay!"
"Y-yeah," Len stuttered before quickly composing herself. She stared at the broken cable that lay in front of her. It was still crackling with electricity. Len narrowed her eyes, something she often did when she was thinking hard about something. "That was defiantly not normal," she muttered.
"Yeah," said Pixel. "An average person would have been killed by a falling power line. You on the other hand—"
"I mean this wasn't an accident. Power plants have surges all the time, but I've never seen one completely blow out a power line before. Something's up."
"Maybe it's a virus attack. I heard this city gets quite a bit of them."
Len shook her head. "The security network of stuff like power plants is fairly strong. It would take a lot of viruses to break through and they don't work together in big groups unless—"
Pixel saw where her operator was going with this. "—they were being directed by something else. Should we check it out?"
Len sighed. "Well let's see, we've already done a fair amount of hacking today, and I don't think the workers at the plant would be too happy with us if we broke into the system."
"So we're going?"
"Hell yeah."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Meanwhile at another part of DenTech City, the Net Savers had also noticed that something was going wrong at the power plant. In response, they had called in one of their best Net Savers, Chaud Blaze, to handle the problem.
"So what's the situation?" Chaud asked Mr. Famous who was briefing him on the incident.
"The Darkloids have broken into the DenTech City power plant and are currently causing mass power surges." Mr. Famous replied. "There have been nine accidents involving overloaded power lines already. Thankfully, no one had been seriously hurt yet, but it's only a matter of time."
"Do you know which Darkloid it is?"
"No, the power plant's intruder detection systems were knocked out. We don't even know how many Darkloids there are."
The dual-haired boy nodded. "I see. I'll head out for the power plant immediately. When Lan will be there?"
Mr. Famous shook his head. "Unfortunately, Lan is on a field trip and will not be able to assist you."
"That wont be a problem. Protoman and I are completely capable of handling it ourselves."
Chaud ran out the door of Net Saver HQ. When he reached his private limo, he got in the back seat and told the driver to take him to the power plant as fast as possible. As the black vehicle sped towards the site of the attack, Chaud kept thinking on what the Darkloid's goal was. "If the Darkloids have taken control of the power plant, wouldn't they do more than just blow out a few power lines?" he thought. "It doesn't make any sense."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Pixel stared at what was left of the power plant's outer firewall. "Well, this is either the world's most poorly funded power plant, or someone else was here first," she said.
"Which probably means that most of the security inside will be gone too," Len's voice sounded from the real world. "I'm kind of disappointed, stuff like power plants and water treatment plants are supposed to have a different kind of protection than other places. They're designed to mainly stop waves of strong viruses rather than hackers. I would have liked to try it out."
"You and me both, Len. Anyway, should I let myself in?"
"Be my guest. Just remember to cloak yourself first. The security may be gone, but whoever broke it is probably still there."
Pixel nodded in agreement as her body faded away. The now-invisible navi floated through the power plant network. "You were right, Len," she said as looked around the empty area. "The security navis have been deleted, the firewalls are destroyed, even the intruder detection system is disabled."
"Sounds like a hacker's navi broke into the system."
"Normally I'd agree with you, but…" Pixel glanced at the remains of one of the security navis. "A normal hacker would try to cover their tracks. Whoever did this isn't trying to be discrete at all. They don't care if someone finds out they broke in. This is more like something a solo—" She stopped suddenly and hovered in the air with all her senses fully alert.
"Pixel?" asked Len in a slightly worried tone.
"I heard something," Pixel said quietly. "It sounded like someone talking. I'm gonna see who it is."
"Be careful, Pixel," warned Len. "If it's the same navi who deleted all those security navis then they might be able to sense you even though your data signature is masked."
Pixel rolled her eyes. "If the navi is really that strong, would she or he really be hacking into a power plant of all things?"
"Probably not, but be careful anyway, okay? Don't reveal yourself unless you absolutely have to."
Pixel nodded and flew towards the direction of the noise. As she drew closer she could hear the navi's voice getting louder and louder. "This is it," she thought as she reached the final firewall. As she flew through the hole that had been blasted through it she was fully prepared to see a huge, sinister-looking navi tearing the place apart.
What she saw, though, was totally different.
On the other side of the firewall was a fat, blue navi that was about half Pixel's height. He had what looked like a super soaker tank on his back that was currently spewing out bubbles at the control panel. He was also complaining very loudly in a whiny voice.
"Glub, Starman is so mean. Why do I have to stay here being the distraction while he gets all the credit for taking the security codes? It's not fair, glub. I'm just as good as he is."
"What the…" Pixel started to say before remembering that she was invisible. The ridiculous looking navi heard her and turned around.
"Glub, who's there!" he shouted pulling out a mini-harpoon gun.
Figuring that there was no point in staying invisible, Pixel flew down to nearer to the ground and reappeared in front of him. The navi was just about as stunned to see her appear out of nowhere as she was when she first saw him. "Who—who are you? Glub, are you a Net Saver?" he asked.
"Um…yes." said Pixel who still didn't know what to make of the shrimpy navi. "Note to self:" she thought. "Find out what a 'Net Saver' is."
The little navi gasped. "I bet you were sent here to stop me from creating bubbly terror, glub!"
Pixel bit her lip in a desperate attempt to stay calm. However, she still couldn't stop her body from shaking.
"You Net Savers are so mean! Always messing up our plans, making it hard for us to spread Dark Chips, defeating us in battle. Well, glub, you'll regret the day you messed with Bubbleman!"
Pixel couldn't take it any longer. She cracked up.
"Ah ha ha! BUBBLEMAN! That's the dumbest name I've ever heard! Ha ha ha!"
This made Bubbleman mad. "Ohhhh, I'll show you! Bubble Parade!" A bunch of bubbles came out of the nozzle on his helmet and flew at Pixel.
"Ha ha! Even your attacks are lame! HA HA HA HA!" she laughed while effortlessly dodging the bubbles. Seeing that his bubbles were not working, Bubbleman switched to firing several Aqua Shots at her, all of which missed by a mile.
"Glub, stop dodging my attacks!" he shouted.
Pixel, who had finally gotten control of her laughter, snorted. "If you say so," she said with a laugh. A green-tinted dagger formed in each of her hands as she flew straight towards Bubbleman. Before he could even blink, she had slashed right through him.
BUBBLEMAN LOGGING OUTPixel stared at the spot where Bubbleman had been and shrugged. "That was, by far, the lamest navi I had ever seen."
"Look on the bright side, Pixel. It's not every day that you get to meet a talking Happy Meal toy," her operator said from the real world.
"You always find the bright side, don't you Len?" chuckled Pixel. Her hand started to shimmer like an opal and she placed it on the control panel. As soon as she touched it streams of information flowed across her visor. "Anyway I might as well see what he was doing."
"Good idea, but don't change anything yet until you know what it is he was doing."
"Don't worry I—uh oh."
"What is it?"
"According to the control panel, another navi just logged in near the outer part of the system and is making it's way here," Pixel said in a serious tone. "Len, do you see anyone on your side?"
In the real world Len looked around at the entrance to the power plant. She had avoided actually entering the place figuring that it would be harder to make a quick escape with all the workers there. Instead, she had jacked Pixel into a nearby port and had her enter from the net. "I don't see anyone—wait," she said as she spotted a black limousine. "There's a black limo that I'm sure wasn't here before. I bet it belongs to the net op of that navi."
"We'd better stop talking. I'm about to meet whoever it is." Even as she was talking, she heard the navi's voice behind her.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
"Chaud, I'm at the source of the electric disturbances. This is it," said a red navi with long white hair who was running through the hole in the final firewall. He stopped short when he saw Pixel. "What the—"
Removing her hand from the control panel, Pixel turned her body so she could see the navi face to face. It only took one look for her to figure out that this guy was definitely stronger then Bubbleman.
"Protoman, what is it? What's wrong?" said a disembodied voice that Pixel guessed was the red navi's operator.
"It's…a girl," Protoman said in surprise.
Pixel rolled her eyes. "Please tell me that isn't the only thing that surprised him. What's so unusual about a girl doing something illegal? I swear, if he gives me that, 'I don't want to hurt you' crap, I'll—"
"Who are you! What are you doing here!" Protoman said to her interrupting her thoughts and catching her off guard.
"Uhhhh…" She franticly searched for a convincing lie. "Come on Pixel," she thought to herself. "Think of something, anything! As long as it's not the truth."
He continued, "Are you a Darkloid?"
"Why…yes, yes I am," said Pixel who was glad to finally have an answer. "Note to self: Find out what a 'Darkloid' is as well."
Protoman's hand morphed in to a sword. "Then I have no choice but to delete you," and with that he charged at Pixel with his sword ready to cut her in half. With lighting-quick speed, she jumped up, narrowly avoiding the blade, and flew over his head coming to a halt in the air behind him. "Sonic Boom!" Protoman shouted turning around and launching the attack at the hovering navi. Pixel darted to the left so the wave of energy didn't hit her. It smashed into the firewall behind her leaving a nice sized dent.
"This guy means business, and those attacks of his are really powerful." Pixel thought as she dodged another Sonic Boom by sinking closer to the ground. "I guess I'll just have to fix that." She smirked and summoned her daggers, this time with a slight red coloring, to her hands. Protoman dashed towards her with his sword ready to slice her in two. Pixel griped her daggers tightly and she flew straight at Protoman. Instead of trying to parry his attack, however, she twisted to the right at the last minute. As she darted past him, the dagger in her left hand cut into his side leaving a small and shallow wound."Not bad," grunted Protoman as he turned to face Pixel. "But it will take more than a little scratch to stop me."
"Boy, is he in for a shock," she thought grinning. Protoman went on the offensive again and the battle continued.IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
While the two navis were busy fighting each other, the real problem was occurring in a nearby area of the network.
"This is too easy! Net Savers don't even know that I'm here." Starman said to himself as he finished removing the security codes from the system. "Come to think of it, why haven't they shown up yet? It's not like that loser, Bubbleman, has stopped them." He shrugged, "It doesn't matter, anyway. I have what I came for."
STARMAN LOGGING OUT
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
"Sonic Boom!" Protoman gritted his teeth, as the hovering girl dodged yet another one of his attacks. Because of the way her wings were designed, she could dart around in the air so quickly that that even Protoman had a hard time keeping up with her movements, let alone actually hitting her. What was even more frustrating, though, was the way she fought. It made no sense. There was no pattern in the way she moved, so Protoman could never predict where she was going to attack from next. When she did go on the offensive, it was even more confusing. She showed no hesitation in her attacks, yet they could have been a lot more fatal than they were. If it weren't for the fact that she was obviously putting all her effort into their fight, Protoman would have sworn she was toying with him.No doubt about it, this navi was tough.
Of course, he and Chaud hadn't become net battling champions for nothing. They had fought and beaten navis who were a lot stronger (though not nearly as confusing) than Pixel in the past and they didn't do it by being lucky. Despite her immense agility, Pixel was having a harder and harder time dodging Protoman's relentless stream of attacks.Unfortunately for Protoman, the tide of the battle was about to change drastically.
"Neo Variable Sword, battlechip in! Download!" shouted Chaud from the real world. The shimmering blade formed on Protoman's arm as he charged at Pixel, who happened to be near the ground. Crossing her daggers together, Pixel was able to stop Protoman's sword before it came down on top of her.
"What!" said Protoman in shock. "How were you able to stop such a strong battlechip?"
"Because it's not strong, not anymore," she replied with a sinister grin. "And for that matter, neither are you." With the Neo VariableSword still caught by her daggers, Pixel pushed forward causing Protoman to stumble back. Quickly recovering, Protoman shifted to his default sword and got ready to slash at Pixel. Darting towards him, she thrust one of her daggers into his blade, instantly shattering it.
"What the—! When did you get that strong!"
"A better question would be when did you get so weak. Think carefully…"
In the real world, Chaud brought up Protoman's status. His eyes widened when he saw them. "Protoman!" he shouted to his navi. "Your attack power is dropping rapidly. You've got to finish this fight now!"
Protoman glared at Pixel. "You…" An Elec Sword formed on his arm and he dashed at Pixel. "What did you do!"
She smirked. "You're poisoned," she said while easily blocking his attack with a dagger. "The daggers I use are poisonous. This particular kind slowly weakens all your attacks and any battlechips that you use. Of course, if you log our, the poison will go away…" Pixel flew in for another attack; only unlike her past attacks, this one was truly dangerous. By quickly slotting in a Barrier chip, Chaud was just barely able to save his navi form being logged out. He watched as a Sonic Boom launched by his navi hit the flying, green navi dead on and did no damage. "You're not going to win this," she commented as she thrust another stab at Protoman. "You fight way too conventionally."
"We're not finished yet!" Chaud shouted from the real world, but deep down he thought, "At least I hope not. The truth is that unless I think of something fast we really will lose!" He clenched his fist in frustration. "But what can I do? Protoman's attacks are getting lower by the second and even if they weren't, those wings of hers make it almost impossible to hit—wait a minute, that's it!"
"Wind Box, battlechip in! Download!" In the cyberworld, a giant fan appeared in front of Protoman and blew a strong blast of air at Pixel. It sent her flying backwards with a cry of surprise. "Now's your chance, Protoman! Bamboo Sword, battlechip in! Download!"
As the sword formed on his hand, Protoman leapt into the air towards Pixel, who's flying was messed up due to the Wind Box chip. With inhuman accuracy, he brought his sword down on her two left wings, easily severing both of them. Pixel let out a cry of surprise as she fell out of the air and hit the ground hard.
"Congratulations," she panted as she got up from the ground; the impact had knocked the wind out of her. "You and your operator must be pretty smart to have stopped me like that."
"Give up," Protoman said. "Seeing as how you no longer have the advantage your wings gave you, I doubt you can win."
Pixel snorted. "News flash, dude: neither can you. I'm outta here."
"Wait!"
PIXEL LOGGING OUTIn the real world, Chaud sighed. "Looks like this mission is over."
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let her get away," Protoman said shamefully.
"That's all right, Protoman. Don't forget, you're still poisoned. You may have been able to slice through her wings, but by this point your sword probably wouldn't have been able to cut through her body at all. The battle would have most likely ended in a stalemate."
"You're right, Chaud. Should I fix the system?"
"No, better leave that to the workers here. We need to report to back to Net Saver HQ."
Despite his uncaring tone, Chaud couldn't help but think about the navi they had just finished fighting. "Who was that navi? She seemed totally different from the other Darkloids we've faced. Come to think of it, she didn't even use one Dark Chip during the fight." He shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Well, no matter what her story is, Protoman and I will definitely defeat her the next time we meet."
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
"You okay, Pixel?" Len asked her navi. She had run away from the power plant immediately after jacking Pixel out and was currently heading back towards the bridge where Alan was.
"I'm fine. He didn't damage me that much."
"Don't even bother lying. He sliced off two of your wings. My guess is that you're hurt pretty badly."
"Nothing that can't be easily fixed, so don't worry, okay?" Len didn't respond and instead hung her head in sadness. "Len?
"I'm sorry."
"…what?"
"If I had used battlechips, you would have had a much easier time against that guy. You probably wouldn't have gotten as hurt."
"If you had used battlechips, the net police would have gone looking for both of us instead of thinking it was just an attack by a human-hating solo navi."
Len sighed. "I know, it's just…standing there and watching you get beat up while not being able to help at all. You have no idea how hard that is.
"Oh yes I do. It's the same feeling I got whenever you got into street fights back in the US. I felt useless because I was stuck here in my PET instead of out there beating up the guy who was hitting you."
"Speaking of guys who hit you, did you catch the name of the red navi who was fighting you?"
"His operator call him Protoman.
"Protoman, huh? I think I've heard that name somewhere before. Not sure where, though. What about his operator?"
"I'm not sure, but I think I heard him call his operator something like Chud."
Len stared at her navi in disbelief. "Did you say Chud? What kind of name is that!"
"I figured it was Japanese. Is it?"
"Nooooooooo."
Pixel shrugged. "Oh well. Like I said, I didn't hear it very well. It could have been Chad. By the way, Len, do you know what 'Net Savers' and 'Darkloids' are?"
"Not a clue, but from what I've seen today. I'm guessing that Bubbleman is a Darkloid, Protoman is a Net Saver, and that the two groups don't like each other very much. I think it would also be safe to say that Darkloids do a lot of negative work, whereas Net Savers do a lot of positive work."
"Brilliant Holmes! Now what do we do? The Darkloids think we're Net Savers and the Net Savers think we're Darkloids."
"The first thing we do is get back to Alan. It's almost noon."
And there you have it: The first chapter of the rewritten version of Len, not Lan. I spent the whole summer figuring out what was going to happen and now that I have it means that updates might come faster. (Key Word: MIGHT)
However, before I do continue, I need someone to be a beta-reader for me. Basically, it just has to be someone who is good at writing, and someone who wouldn't mind the story being spoiled for them, since I'll probably ask for their help on a few sections of the plot that I haven't quite worked out yet.
Next Episode Preview by Lan and Megaman
Lan: Why do we have to preview the next episode? We hardly appeared at all during this one!
Megaman: Because we have a major role in the next one.
Lan: Oh, right. Anyway in the next episode, My class finally arrives at the hot springs, but something's wrong.
Megaman: A Darkloid is causing the whole thing to overheat!
Lan: And what's worse, Spoutman wont let go of Megaman!
Megaman: Hey who's that girl navi fighting Burnerman?
Lan and Megaman: Next time on Len, not Lan: Super-fan Spoutman.
Lan: Why does this plot sound so familiar?
Megaman: Because it's basically just the episodes Red-Hot Magma Fight and Spoutman's New Hero combined. With the author's OC's added into the mix as well.