Chapter 2: Tournament Testing

"Just a few more viruses Megaman." Lan ordered as he was looking down at the PET, he and Megaman were trying to get rid of the viruses that were in the oven of the kitchen. "Just a few more buster shots."

"A bit too easy don't you think?" Megaman asked as he shot a beam through a Swordy Virus. Just before he put his buster down a giant wolf like virus appeared. "This must be the one that caused this." The virus opened its mouth as it fired a giant fireball.

"Don't worry, I got this, Long Sword, download." Lan slotted his Long Sword as Megaman's hand turned into a longer variation of the Sword chip, he charged forward as he slashed through both the fireball and the Virus. A picture of the virus appeared in the PET with the words "data obtained" on it. "Awesome, a new chip data, good thing I always carry this around." Lan took out a battle chip, but it didn't have any pictures on it. He put it in the PET as the picture of the wolf materialized. "And we have a Flamethrower, and the oven's good."

Lan heard someone knocking the door as he walked over to open it. "Morning." Mayl giggled after Lan opened the door.

"This is not good is it?" Lan sighed. "What do you want?" he asked with an annoyed look on his face.

"Come with me to Den City." Mayl requested as the two ten year olds just stayed look at each other. Lan's mom looked over the door as she started walking towards them.

"No way." Lan answered considering there was no way he would be going…or so he thought.

Lan and Mayl were walking around Den City, a week after the incident with WWW and Fireman they decided they needed a small break from all the ruckus in ACDC. "It's too bad Yai didn't wanna come, she would've have fun." Mayl turned to Lan who was looking away. "You're not paying attention."

"Oh you just noticed, I'm not fund of people taking my afternoon away by asking me to go with them and do boring stuff, so sorry." Lan barked as he looked away again; since Yai couldn't go with Mayl she took the liberty of getting Lan out of his house for the day, since his mom would be calm knowing that he's with Mayl instead of NetBattling she practically begged him to go.

"Oh shut it you, without me you'll be bored all day in your room so shut it." Mayl frowned.

"You guys just can't have a day worth of not fighting." Megaman shook his head as he saw the two supposed friends fight. "I thought after the incident with Fireman you guys changed."

"She makes it really hard." Lan whispered, unfortunately Mayl heard him as she put him in a chokehold.

"Say it again." Mayl said with an angry tone on her voice.

"Wow, you guys sure are friendly." The two fifth graders turned to see a young woman standing a few meters from them, she had long green hair and was wearing a blue dress with long white sleeves, a pair of brown pants and a pair of brown shoes, although the shoes and the pants seemed to be worn out and ripped off, since some of the parts were sewn back together.

"Oh, hi Sal." Mayl waved as she let Lan go to catch his breath again. Sal walked over to the two. "Lan say hi."

"Hi, do you know her?" Lan asked Mayl as he managed to get back on his feet.

"Sal has a lunchbox shop a few blocks from here, I go there all the time to eat." Mayl answered as she turned to Sal.

"So, what are you two doing?" Sal asked.

"Just getting bore out of my damn mind." Lan put his hands behind his head and sighed. Mayl nudged him so that he wouldn't be so rude.

Sal giggled as she turned around. "Well, if you're not doing anything, how about you come to my shop and eat, my treat."

"Great free food, I'm there." Lan started to follow her.

"Sometimes, I just think he's a lost cause." Mayl sighed as she followed the two from behind.

Lan and Mayl were sitting inside Sal's shop eating some sandwiches. "These are delicious." Lan said while stuffing his face with food. He started choking so he grabbed a glass of tea and started drinking it.

"Lan, you need to learn to eat better." Megaman laughed.

"Or just choke to death," Mayl took a sip from her tea as she glared at Lan. "You eat like a pig."

"Now Mayl, don't be so rude." Sal said as she walked over to the two tenth graders as she pulled out another chair and sat down. "By looking at you Lan, I can tell you're a NetBattler."

"Yep, not just any NetBattler, the best of them all too," Lan nodded his head while eating another sandwich.

"Yeah, but without a license, you can't fight legally." Mayl exclaimed as she looked at Sal. "And that's the reason why gets in trouble." Mayl nodded her head as she put down her cup of tea. "Just fighting viruses is too much for his overconfident little brain."

"If you weren't a girl I'll hit you." Lan put his cup down as well. "Anyways, sorry she behaves this badly Sal." Lan bowed after getting up from the desk.

"Me?" Mayl barked as she got up.

"Don't worry Lan, I don't mind," Sal nodded her head while giggling.

"Don't take his side!" Mayl yelled. "Forget it, thanks for the food Sal." Mayl walked out.

"You better go with her Lan, she has your money." Megaman exclaimed getting Lan to walk out.

Sal looked at the door as it closed. "Lan, let's see how strong he is," Sal turned to her PET. "I'll be the one to make sure if you're ready or not." She had a mischievous grin on her face.

Lan and Mayl walked out of the store. "You were really rude Lan, can't you try and be more nice." Mayl whined with her arms crossed.

"Oh come on, chill out." Lan laughed as he passed Sal's mail box. 'What's this?" he asked himself as he took out the letter that was inside. "Wow, and invitation to a street NetBattling tournament, cool." Lan read.

"Lan, is wrong to read other people's mail." Mayl nagged as she walked back. "Leave that."

"Why, we wouldn't want a person like Sal to get in trouble right." Lan had a mischievous grin on his face as he held the letter out, Mayl tried to get it but Lan just raised his hand and almost made her fall down. "Guess I'll just have to take it home." He chuckled.

"Lan, it could be dangerous." Mayl stopped him. "It isn't just because of the fact that it's a street tournament, but that they would actually send an invitation to it." Mayl exclaimed; it was pretty weird normally street tournaments would be held out in hiding, since most of the participants were younger than eighteen.

"True, but who cares, what matters is, that we'll win and nothing can go wrong." Lan reassured her as he waved the letter on her face.

"Lan I thinks he might have a point." Megaman stated.

"When you're actually on my sight, we'll talk." Lan shut the PET off so that Megaman would stop talking. "Anyways, don't worry mom." Lan turned around and started walking away.

"Oooh, good thing I saw the location, we're going too Roll." Mayl said as she looked at Roll after she took out her PET.

"Didn't you just nag at him for…" Mayl stopped her.

"I'm going to make sure he doesn't get in trouble," Mayl answered with a serious tone as she started walking away. "Wait, but, I have his money." She checked her pockets to see that not only Lan had taken his money but hers too. "That son of a bitch must've taken them when I almost fell!" she yelled and stomped away.

***

"Did you do your homework Lan?" Mrs. Hikari asked from downstairs, Lan had been in his room all morning preparing Megaman for the tournament, but he told his mom he was doing homework so that she wouldn't go in.

"Yeah, almost done." Lan lied as he turned to the laptop. "Ready, I'm about to input the address."

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Megaman asked rather hesitantly.

"Don't worry, the PET is connected to the laptop, if anything happens I'll just jack it out." Lan shrugged as he put the address on both the keyboard of the laptop and the one in the PET. "So, saddle up because we're going to win this thing." Lan cheered, but not too loud so that his mom wouldn't hear.

Once Megaman materialized in the Cyber World he looked around at all the NetNavis that were gathered around the page. "Wow, all these Navis came here for the tournament, maybe it wasn't so secretive after all." Megaman started walking around as a screen appeared in front of him with Lan visible through it.

"Told you so, now let's look around before the tournament starts." Lan reassured him as the two started moving.

"They're here." Roll said as she saw the two of them walking, she was wearing a masquerade mask and her symbol was covered by a black sticker, plus she was wearing a cape. "But this outfit really sucks Mayl." Roll sighed.

"I didn't have time to think of something else, so sorry." Mayl sighed. "But we can't have Lan and Megaman notice us after that lecture we gave them, how I look by the way?" Mayl put on a big pink hat and a pair of round glasses.

"Your disguise sucks too." Roll answered in an honest fashion.

"You know, you can be really cold sometimes Roll," Mayl frowned, she was worrying about Lan but after all she said if he saw her there it would made her sort of a hypocrite.

"Well if it isn't puny Megaman, guts." Megaman and Lan turned around to face, surprisingly Gutsman, with a screen that showed Dex next to him. "Guess word of this tournament got around, guts guts." He nodded his head pridefully.

"You here to see how long it takes for you to lose." Dex laughed, but unfortunately he fell from his computer chair while doing so. Lan tried to hold in the laugh.

"Shouldn't you be saying that, plus how did you know about this tournament, I doubt you have contacts." He said with one eye shut which had a tear of laughter going down through it.

"Okay, I was spying on you and Mayl all day and after you left the invitation on Sal's mailbox I took it and, here I am." Dex answered while sighing.

"Good thing you can hold things in secret, guts." Gutsman said sarcastically while shrugging.

"Oh, I get it, you were jealous because I was spending time with Mayl." This time Lan just let all of the laughter come out, which make Dex blush on the other side of the screen. "If you wanted to I could've sent her to your house, better for me actually." He said between the laughter.

"Shut it you, I'm not jealous, I just wanted to see where I could get you for my revenge." Dex tried to hide the fact Lan was right, but his blushing didn't help much.

"Sure you were," Lan chuckled.

"Attention to all, we will start our tournament." A robotic like NetNavi was standing on a stand nearby. "There are 64 participants, which will be divided into four groups, the winners of those groups will move on to the finals, and the winner will win a rare chip we have prepared for today." The announcer explained as everyone started cheering. "So here they are."

A screen lit up showing all the participants and the group divisions. "Looks like you might get your revenge Dex, we're in the same group, that is if you get that far." Lan chuckled.

"Don't be mean." Megaman said.

"We'll see who wins Lan." Dex nodded his head with a frown.

Mayl and Roll sighed, happy that they were in the same group.

"His friends are here too." Another NetNavi was looking at the three friends he looked like a giant tree and had two extendable arms and short legs, with a belt around its waist that had a wood like mark on it. 'What do we do."

"We proceed Woodman." A screen lit up next to Woodman with Sal behind it. "It's no problem at all." Sal chuckled as Woodman started to get closer to its group.

"Now, the first battle of the first group of this tournament will begin." The announcer started speaking as the screen lit up, showing Megaman's picture and that he was fighting a normal green Navi. "Lan's own Megaman against John's NetNavi."

Megaman walked over to the stage, a normal green colored Navi was on the other side preparing for the fight. "His Navi isn't even customized, this will be easy." Lan grinned confidently as a screen appeared next to the Navi to reveal a black haired kid wearing a white shirt.

"You know, customizing programs don't come cheap," John protested as his face seemed one of rage. "That's why once I win this I'll buy one, besides the chip there's also a 20,000 zenny price money, that's all I'll need to customize it."

"See, that won't happen." Lan nodded his head. "Because that means you'll have to beat me, and that just won't happen." He shrugged and turned to Megaman. "Let's go Megaman."

"Got it." Megaman nodded his head as both Navis started to charge at each other, Megaman's hand turned into his Mega Buster as he started firing a round of bullets. The Navi couldn't dodge the fast strike. "Easy." Just before Megaman started celebrating the Navi fired a Cannon Shot, which hit Megaman and sent him flying a few meters back. "Or not." He grunted.

"I have some tricks up my sleeve too." John chuckled as he looked at the infuriating Lan. "Here's a Trumpet." John slotted in a battle ship as a trumpet virus appeared in front of the Navi and started to make a loud sound, the Navi then started to glow green as it charged.

"Sword, download." Lan put in his own battle ship as Megaman charged, the Navi just let him slash, since nothing happened.

"The trumpet makes me unstoppable." The Navi laughed, but not before the sound stopped. "Or not…" Megaman took his chance to slash again, this time hitting the Navi's mark.

"Mini Boomer, download." Megaman raised his arms as two ball shaped bombs appeared. "Combined with Area Steal, go." Megaman started running as it appeared behind John's Navi as it let out both bombs, which exploded creating a huge cloud of smoke. The Navi jacked out just in time though. "That's a new record."

"We're lucky that trumpet has a time limit." Megaman rubbed his head as he got out of the field.

Meanwhile Roll was fighting against a rabbit looking Navi, it had two long leg that resembled paws and long arms, it also had two long rabbit ears and was pink. "Take this, Bunny viruses." The rabbit let out a barrage of viruses that were round and pink with two electric antennas on their head.

"Roll, Time for Area Steal and Cyclone." Mayl slotted two battle ships as Roll dodged the viruses as she got closer to the rabbit.

"On it." Roll started spinning as she created a strong whirlwind around her body, she let it out as the whirlwind headed toward the Navi, it absorbed it and sent it spinning away. "Now, Roll Arrow." Roll created a pink bow on her hand then she took out a heart shaped arrow and fired it, defeating the Navi.

"Awesome, we won." Mayl cheered.

As the battles went on, Megaman, Roll and Gutsman all did well, till one battle in the first group remained. "Looks like it's use hah Dex, wanna give up." Lan grinned as he and Megaman were facing Dex and Gutsman.

"Not with my new strategy, Gutsman go." Dex commanded.

"On it, guts." Gutsman started charging as its fist grew larger. "Guts Punch." It threw its fist forward but Megaman managed to jump away. His arm turned into the Mega Buster and started firing purple bullets down at Gutsman. "This isn't gonna beat me." Gutsman got out of the way as he extended his arm. "Rocket Punch!" his fist flew off from his hand as it hit Megaman.

"Got him, guess it isn't so easy after all hah Lan." Dex started laughing as he started slotting in more battle ships.

"Not really," Lan took out three battle ships from his pocket. "Okay Megaman, we're…"

"Lan, time for lunch!" his mom yelled from downstairs.

"Sorry dude you're alone." Lan put the chips down as he got up, this got Megaman to turned around surprise.

"What, you're just gonna leave me alone here." Megaman whined getting Lan to stop.

"If I don't go down, mom will suspect." Lan had a frown on his face. "We can't have that now, plus, they're not so strong and I'll be back soon, have fun." Lan smiled as he waved and got out of the room.

"Uh, wittle Megaman wost his mommy." Dex and Gutsman started mocking Megaman as he turned around and started charging with his buster. "He still wants to fight, go."

"Even if I don't have Lan, I can still figure out your weakness." Megaman kept charging, even faster now.

"Guts Tower!" Gutsman hit the floor with a giant hammer as Megaman jumped over and to dodge it. "Oh no,"

"Even with your upgrades, you forget that Guts Tower requires for you to stay in the same spot for some time." Megaman said from above. "So, here." Megaman started shooting as the bullets hit Gutsman multiple times, causing Dex to jack him out.

"Winner Megaman." The announcer cheered.

"I'm back, what I miss?" Lan asked as he sat back on his chair.

"Just the fact that I don't need you to fight." Megaman chuckled, Lan just looked at him with a confused face.

"You know, that was risky Lan, Megaman could've lost or worst gotten deleted." Megaman and Lan turned around to face Mayl and Roll. "It was really irresponsible."

"Mayl, Roll, what are you doing here?" both Lan and Megaman asked at the same time.

Mayl and Roll jumped back. "How did you know it was off?" Mayl asked as she took off her head and the glasses, while Rool took off the sticker and her mask.

"Only one person nags that much." Lan answered, Mayl didn't react to this with more than a frown, considering since Lan wasn't near her she couldn't really do anything to him. "So, after all that lecturing, you came here yourself,"

"I came to make sure you were okay thank you very much." Mayl protested.

"But we started to win, so we decided to stick around and see how far we got." Roll kept going with the sentence.

"Either way we'll win." Lan shrugged.

"We'll just see," Mayl and Lan exchanged glares for a sec.

Both Navis sighed. "What a pain." The both stated as they facepalmed. The battles moved forward to the finals, as even more intense battles followed Megaman and Roll, but they managed to handle it pretty well.

"Wide Sword!" Lan slotted a chip in as a sword with two golden hilts appeared in place of Megaman's right arm, Megaman slashed his opponent in half, but it managed to jack out before it got deleted. "And so we're on to the finals." Lan cheered as he and Megaman moved on to see Mayl and Roll's battle.

"They're fighting Woodman." Megaman looked at Roll's opponent who was indeed Woodman. "I heard he won all of his battle in just one blow, that's impressive."

"Yeah, but we still have to cheer for Mayl and Roll or they'll get mad." Lan shrugged as the battle started.

"Roll, Area Steal." Roll started running as it got in front of Woodman, Roll's plugs that were on her had started to glow as she slashed at Woodman, although he seemed untouched. "That didn't do anything, no matter, Cyclone, download." Roll started spinning as she fired a tornado straight at Woodman, who again just stood there.

"Just let them attack." Sal ordered quietly as she looked down at her PET. "Roll's status is lowering, meaning soon we'll be able to make our move."

"What's with Woodman, it's just standing there." Lan had a bored face, since he really needed to watch some action that wasn't caused by him.

"It's actually a good strategy Lan, look." Magaman pointed at the battle with an alarmed tone.

"Roll you okay?" Mayl asked with an alarmed smile, Roll stopped as she tried to catch her breath, after attack Woodman for five minutes without a single response, she was beat.

"Now, Wood Tower, download." Sal slotted the chip in as Woodman raised its arms.

"Wood Tower!" it yelled, then a wall started to appear, but this one was made from giant three like data as it started to charge at Roll. Roll was hit by the wall as she bounced back towards Mayl. She just stayed down, which was actually better that jacking out.

"You okay Roll." Megaman ran over to make sure his friend wasn't hurt too badly, his question was answered once she got up. Megaman turned to Woodman, because it was big, it strategy of waiting for an opponent to wear itself out was perfect; it could just stand there for hours without doing anything and watching its opponent getting himself tired.

"Looks like it's us in the final Lan." Sal's screen appeared next to Woodman as he walked towards the two Navis and the two screens.

"Sal, you're a NetBattler, and a strong one at that." Lan had a surprised face on as he looked at Sal's screen.

"Yeah, and I'm here to see how strong you really are, so come on." Sal dared, Getting Lan and Megaman to enter the stage in which Woodman was already in.

"Hope you last long enough." Woodman smirked.

"Think they can win?" Roll asked as she turned to face Mayl.

"We'll just have to wait won't we?" Mayl sighed; she really didn't hope Lan got in this kind of trouble, since they didn't know what Woodman was capable of.

"Megaman, go and use Air Shot." Megaman started running as he fired a blast of air straight at Woodman, although it didn't do anything.

"You're falling for her tricks Lan." Mayl warned.

"Am I." Lan smirked as he slotted a High Cannon chip in the PET. "Go Megaman."

"Sure thing." Megaman jumped up as his hand started to change form till it turned into a blue cannon, he started charging his shot and fired a strong pink blast that crashed against Woodman.

"Not bad, but that still isn't enough." Sal responded as she twirled a battle chip on her finger.

"That's not what I was planning. " Megaman ran out of the cloud of smoke holding a Wide Sword as it slashed Woodman across its arm, this made Woodman drop down. "A series of powerful attacks it's just enough."

"Time to get serious then, Seed Shot." Sal put in a battle chip on her PET as Woodman raised its arm and started firing nut like bullets. Megaman was hit on the gut by the bullets, even though they weren't beams they were still strong enough to cause a lot of damage. Megaman bounced on the floor.

"Area Steal, then Vulcan." Lan tried to do a combo as Megaman used a Vulcan wile dodging Woodman's bullets as it fired. Woodman was hit over and over as the Vulcan kept shooting.

"Wood Tower download now." Woodman created a tower of wood as it headed for Megaman. Megaman tried to dodge it, but one of the woods popped out surprisingly and hit him sending him bouncing off.

"There must be something." Lan pulled out a battle chip. "Flamethrower, download." Lan slotted the flamethrower chip as Megaman's arm transformed into a long flamethrower cannon. "Activate Synchro program." Lan enter the code as Megaman's mask appeared. "Now, go."

Megaman started running towards Woodman who sent another Wood Tower towards Megaman. Megaman managed to jump over the Wood Tower. "When they're using the Synchro program Megaman blows from the roof," Mayl said as she looked at Lan who seemed focused on the battle.

"Something else is that Lan is always quiet when is activated," Roll stated, Lan had practiced it in front of them a couple of days ago, but after he activated it, it was as if he was in the battle himself since he couldn't gaze away from it and it seemed he was tired after the program subsided.

Megaman landed in front of Woodman as he held the flamethrower forward. "Oh no." Sal gasped as Megaman fired a strong flamethrower that burned Woodman and completely enveloped his body. "Jack Out now." Sal jacked the PET out from her laptop.

"Looks like his past hah Sal." Sal turned around to face a shadowy figure that was behind her.

"Yep," she giggled as she faced the man.

"Good, but we must still run some more tests, we can't be too sure." The man answered as Sal got up and the two walked out.

"The winner is Megaman and Lan." The announcer announced as Megaman was standing on the winner's podium with all the Navis clapping or some grumbling. "Here's your price, 20,000 zennys and also the M-Cannon."

"Awesome, with this much cash, imagine all the things we can buy." Lan smiled as he looked at the data check Megaman was holding. Once the chip he put finished downloading the M-Cannon's data he grabbed it. "And with this, we're unstoppable." He cheered.

"So, what do you think master?" a red Navi was a few meters away, he was wearing a red armor which covered most of his body except for his legs in which he had a black and blue pair of pants, he also had a pair of red boots and red gloves, he was wearing a pair of sunglasses and had a long silver hair. A screen appeared next to him.

"Do you really need to ask me that Protoman?" the kid that was in the screen said. "They're as weak as weak gets, and soon we'll make them see that."

***

Wow, I think I didn't see how long it was, hope you liked the chapter, sorry if the endings are kind of sudden though, remember to review.