AFTER SCHOOL

The late afternoon sun shone down on the white linoleum floor Megaman was walking on to get to the gymnasium. Behind him, a black Navi with a black cape fell into step with the blue Navi. The hallway broke off into a T, where on the T pathway was a presumed couple kissing, both leaning against the wall. The male Navi was yellow with protruding helicopter blades attached to his back. The female Navi had shiny light brown hair that ran all the way down her back. She was wearing a purple shirt with a white furry collar and a gray skirt with black boots. When Megaman and the black Navi were about to pass the couple, the caped stranger went towards the pair. "Gyroman! What did I tell you about my younger sister?" The black Navi hissed.

"Colonel!" Gyroman shouted in recognition. "Well, I...um, uh,"

"Colonel, leave him alone! Why can't you leave us be?" The girl argued, green eyes blazing with anger.

"Because this scumbag doesn't deserve you, Iris!" Colonel contradicted.

"I have to go to cross country anyway. Bye Iris!" Gyroman said hurriedly. He gave Iris a rushed kiss. "Gyro Air Form!" Gyroman jumped into the air. His arms, which had helicopter landing skis on them transformed into the helicopter's landing skis, his feet merging to form the tail, and the helicopter blades on his back spinning to complete the quickly formed helicopter. Gyroman flew away down the hall, Colonel's serious gray eyes following him.

"You are the worst!" Iris shouted, then stormed off. Colonel's black wild hair swayed as he turned to face Megaman, whom had seen the whole thing.

"Sorry about that. Are you trying out for the Net Battle Team?"

"Yeah." Megaman answered, still recovering from the incident.

"Then you must be Megaman. I'm Colonel, the co-captain." Colonel said.

"If you're the co-captain, who's the captain?" Megaman asked.

"Someone vile, and who doesn't deserve it. I can tell you that."

"Oh, okay..." Megaman trailed off. He was wondering who this "vile" person is who "doesn't deserve it." That reminded him of Protoman's tormenting from before. Leftover anger swelled in Megaman's chest, exciting him for the tryout. "Let's go Colonel."

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The high school gymnasium was an empty blue field of highly polished wood, light shining off of it. The bleachers were tucked in at the ends of the gym, with a table at the front. Colonel walked up to the table and sat in a seat to the left of a red Net Navi reclining on his folding chair.

"When Colonel said the captain was something vile, he wasn't kidding." The blue Navi whispered to himself as he recognized him as Protoman.

"Look who decided to show up," Protoman hollered from across the gym, his words echoing across the room. "And the rest are here too." Several Navis, as if right on cue, rolled into the gymnasium. A blue Heal Navi walked up to Megaman, a nervous demeanor radiating from him.

"Hi, my n-name is Steve." Steve stammered. "I'm not good with the whole...social thing."

"Well, I'm Megaman. Nice to meet you, Steve." A red Heal Navi waltzed in right after Steve.

"The name's Tony. I'm the best attacker around, so you'd better not mess with me." Tony said. Two encounters with green and Purple Heal Navis named Bruce and Clint respectiveley introduced themselves to Megaman. After all of the candidates got acquainted with one another, Protoman claimed everyone's attention. Colonel had walked off to the side to a closet.

"Listen up! Now, as we know, all of you want to become not losers. But only a few of you can. So you'd better shape up, or ship out and regret it for the rest of your life." Colonel came back with a net type bag with various weapons visible, such as swords and green cannons.

"Each of you will be tested in three categories. Offense, defense, and center speed," Colonel started. "We will be starting with close range offense." He untied the top of the black bag he was holding and selected a sword with a blue hilt. As he held it, it's light blue blade seemed to have the crowd, including Megaman, mesmerized. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will, thank you very much!" A slightly robotic voice ringed out from the back of the crowd. A light green Navi made his way to the front to face Colonel, who held out the sword for him to take. Protoman was suppressing a laugh.

"What's your name?" Colonel asked.

"Numberman." Numberman responded. Protoman wrote something on a paper which was attached to a clipboard on the table. Numberman accepted the sword from Colonel's outstretched hand and walked to the right, which was a makeshift training area consisting of a blue mat and regular Navi equipped with protective armor. Numberman walked towards the setup and took a battle stance on the blue mat.

"Whenever you're ready," Colonel said, picking up a gray stopwatch from the table. Numberman charged at the Navi while Colonel clicked the stopwatch.

" 8 seconds step here, with a 87.5% chance of success," Numberman murmured to himself. However, the number crazed Navi got too wrapped up in it and missed the opponent Navi sidestepping his attempted sword slash and lost his balance. The light green Navi fell flat on his face, with Protoman ready to burst out laughing, but his humor was silenced by a stern look from his co captain. "I'll get you this time!" Numberman got back up and proceeded to try again, but his attack got evaded again, sending him into a clumsy spin. The rest of the trying out Navis were also stifling laughs of their own along with the captain.

"I think we've seen enough." Colonel said, looking disappointed. He clicked his stopwatch off.

"Beat it, geek!" Protoman taunted. He then made another scribble on his clipboard while catching his breath from his laughter. "He wasn't even good enough to try out for any other category." Numberman, however, didn't look disappointed when he left.

"I'll get you soon, my precious Ring." He said to no one in particular. All of the other Navis tried out for their categories. Tony, as promised, excelled in close range offense, Clint in long range offense, and Steve and Bruce in defense.

"Is anyone else left?" Colonel asked.

"We still have that loser." Protoman said, pointing at Megaman." "You, you're up!"