PoeticFire: And we're back with another exciting chapter of Megaman BNR: Chaos Cosmos.

Lan: BNR? What does that mean?

PF: Battle Network Revisited. Weren't you paying attention in the last chapter?

Lan: Sorry, I was too busy trying to get on the metro.

PF: You haven't changed a bit.

Megaman: You got that right. He's still the same idiot from all those years ago.

Lan: Mega, if you don't back off, I'll put in an outfit program in the NaviCust that'll make you wear a skirt.

Mega: You wouldn't dare.

Lan: You wanna bet? Just try me.

PF: Both of you shut up and read the disclaimer, before I have you get humiliated by a Mettaur.

Lan: Fine. PoeticFire doesn't own us.

Mega: Capcom has those rights.

PF: That's better. Before I forget, for the people that have previously read the first chapter when it came out, I went back and made quite a few adjustments, like adding an unnecessarily dramatic jack-in sequence (When has Lan ever quietly jacked-in?) You're really not missing anything crucial, but reread it anyway (if you do, let me know if it was better in the review) Anyway, onto the story!

Magnetic Mishap on the Metro, 1.1

Megaman entered the MaintenanceComp2, feeling increasingly uneasy. He'd managed to make it through the magnetic mess easy enough; once he figured out that there were gaps in the magnetic roads, he was able to quickly jump to each one. However, there had been no sign of any viruses. Usually you'd find at least a few skulking around. Lan was getting worried too. "What's going on?" he asked in confusion. "How come this place is deserted?"

"Don't know Lan," Megaman said jumping to the next non-magnetized area. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this. How is it on your end?" Lan looked around about the Metro car. The lights had turned off a couple minutes back, but he could see the people's uneasy faces looking at each other.

"Let's speed things up. Looks like things could get real ugly soon if we don't eliminate the threat before it has time to cause some damage."

"Got it. I'm almost at the front." Megaman landed in front of the transfer point to the engine comp. "Ready Lan?" His operator grinned.

"Always pal, always." Megaman nodded and entered the transfer point.

MaintenanceComp1 seemed to be as empty as the other comps. All that was there were the main controls for the Metro. Megaman stepped forward and looked around at the vacant comp. "Here too?" he wondered. "Why's this place so deserted? There should at least be some conductor Navis here." Suddenly Lan gave a warning.

"Mega, above you!" Megaman instinctively jumped back as a dark magnetic blast penetrated the spot he'd been standing before. He looked up to find the attacker and his eyes widened. Before him was a giant virus, one unlike any other he'd ever seen before, even with all his trips to the Undernet. The virus was composed of a number jet black chrome pieces, with red and blue stripes running down the sides, giving it a robotic appearance. It had two large pincers that clattered menacingly. Yellow glowing eyes were locked on to him. The virus hovered above the ground, looking at Navi before it, buzzing. Megaman quickly got into a battle stance.

"What the hell is that thing?" Megaman asked. "I've never seen a virus like this one."

"Me neither," Lan agreed. "But it appears to be what's causing the magnetic fluxes." He frowned. "I never expected a single virus to have that kind of ability. At least it's only one though." As if in response, the mysterious virus suddenly made a strange noise and immediately caused a virus to materialize on each side of it. Megaman recognized these viruses though.

"Two MagTechX. You just had to open your big mouth Lan."

"Come on, how was I supposed to know that it could create viruses? That's pretty neat though. I'd like to see how it managed to do that."

"Focus Lan," Megaman snapped. "We've gotta take these guys out."

"Right! Battle routine set!"

"Execute!" Megaman wasted no time and went for the MagTechX on the left, while Lan uploaded the first chip.

"LongBlade! Download!" Megaman swung the blade at the virus while it was still lined up with him. Before he could follow through though, he was thrown back by another magnetic flux. Megaman glared at the black virus.

"That thing is going to be a pain," he said getting back on his feet.

"Megaman, incoming!" Lan called out. Megaman quickly brought up a shield, barely blocking a blast from the black virus. "We should probably take out the other viruses before taking out the black one. Those are just going to be annoying."

"Agreed." Suddenly Megaman felt himself getting pulled towards the front by the MagTechX. "Lan, another sword!" he asked.

"WideBlade, download!" Megaman jumped to the right and slashed the virus as it was attacking. This time the attack went through taking a considerable amount of the MagTechX's HP with it. Megaman grinned "Got him La-" Suddenly the black virus appeared in front of him and trapped him between its pincers, creating a magnetic flux on each side. Megaman felt the two fields crushing his body with incredible force. The virus's attack only lasted for a couple seconds, after which it moved back again.

"Grah!" Megaman fell to his knee, his entire body throbbing with pain. "Damn, that move hurt!" Megaman managed to get back up quickly, gritting his teeth.

"Megaman, you alright?" Lan asked. Megaman snorted and rolled his eyes

"Yeah, Lan, I'm just peachy," Megaman replied, punctuating each word with sarcasm. Lan grimaced.

"Guess I deserved that. Recovery150, download!" Megaman felt his life return, though it only covered around two-thirds of the damage he took from the viruses attack. Still, it was better than nothing.

"Thanks Lan. Damn, that crushing attack was unreal."

"That black virus seems to be coordinating its attacks with the MagTechX it created," Lan noted. "I've never seen a virus work in tandem with other viruses this well." Megaman blocked another magnetic blast with his Shield.

"You're right," he said charging his MegaBuster. "It's definitely not going be easy taking them down one-by-one. Right now we can only whittle them down." He saw a MagTechX warp in front of him and quickly moved out of the way before it could reel him in. "Any ideas?" he asked his Operator while continuing to dodge. Lan looked around at the other passengers and could see the fear starting to set into their features. It was becoming obvious that whatever was going wrong wasn't just a minor issue. The train seemed to be gaining speed as well.

"Dammit, the magnetic fluxes are getting worse by the minute. It looks like the drivers have already started losing control. We don't have the luxury of a drawn out battle." He turned his attention back at the PET screen.

"We need to nip this right here, right now Megaman; with the fluctuations growing stronger, it will only be a matter of time before this train collides with something." Megaman nodded.

"So what's the plan, Lan?" he asked. "We're going to need something big like a Program Advance to speed things up." Lan looked at his chip selection. Unfortunately none of the P.A. chips in the folder were available.

"Doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon," Suddenly he grinned as something did come to mind.

"If we need something big, let's bust out the good old AST." Megaman had a blank look for a second before he realized what Lan was referring to.

"Oh yeah, it's been a while since we used it." He burst into a big smile as well. "Ready when you are, Lan!"

"I'm on it. We're going to use Sharp Shot since it'll be easier to attack from long-distance. Now let me work my magic." Lan's fingers quickly slid across the PET and traced the Megaman crest design, triggering the appearance of several new screens on the monitor. He began imputing the complex programming sequences needed at an intense speed.

"Activating the A.S.T. system…"

"Downloading 'BlastBullet Ammunition Charge'…"

"Coding 'TwinRevolvers' into MegaBuster…"

"Installing 'Pierce,' 'ShotPlus,' and 'TargetLine' into HyperCust…"

"Accessing 'Artillery Swap' sub-Folder from the Custom Chip Archive…"

"Loading all command sequences into Megaman…Arma Specialization Transmission complete, 'Sharp Shot' Override, online!"

A white ring appeared above Megaman's head and started moving downward. Megaman felt a high pulse of energy seem to burst from his body as the changes took place. Faint lines appeared and overlapped his vision, locking on to anything in their path with a target marker. Two sleek, black revolvers appeared in each hand. "Now this is more like it," he said with a smile. "Time for some serious virus busting." Lan saw five new chips come up at the bottom of his screen. A counter appeared in the bottom left corner as well, showing the current level of ammunition at 100.

"We don't have ammo to waste here Mega. Make every shot count." Megaman chuckled a bit.

"Remember who you're talking to, Lan." Megaman jumped to the left and started firing at the two MagTechX as they entered his lines of vision with his revolvers, nailing them each several times with condensed blasts, which were more than twice as strong as his normal MegaBuster. With each shot the counter decreased. The black virus tried to push Megaman back again. "Lan the MagTechX on the other side is almost done, let's use one of the chips!"

"Got it, Arsenal Swap: WideSpread Shot, download!" The revolvers disappeared and were replaced by a large shotgun. Megaman moved to the center of the field and pulled the trigger, sending a wide spray of bullets across the field. Both of the MagTechX and the black virus were hit. Megaman quickly followed up with two more bursts, finally deleting the MagTechX he'd hit with the WideBlade earlier. The shotgun vanished after the third shot, now out of ammo, replaced by his revolvers. Lan glanced at the ammo counter, which had dropped to 68. "Keep going Megaman, MarkCannon3, download!" Megaman's left revolver changed into the MarkCannon. The black virus was caught in its search first and was hit by the blast, which was slightly boosted by the ShotPlus attack bonus. Megaman quickly followed up with a few more shots from his other revolver. Despite the attacks, the black virus still looked like it had quite a bit of life left in it.

"Man, this thing isn't going down easy," Megaman said as he dodged another magnetic blast.

"Then we keep hitting it until it does," Lan replied. "Let's remove the other MagTechX first. Then we can concentrate on bring it down." Megaman nodded and sent another volley of bullets at the MagTechX. The black virus used another magnetic flux to push Megaman and prevent further shots.

"It doesn't look like that virus is going to let me get the MagTechX into my line of sight anymore," Megaman said.

"Then we'll just have to use something else to hit it. Arsenal Swap: Target Shot, download!" Once again the revolvers vanished from Megaman's hands and were replaced this time by a long sniper rifle. Megaman moved back and took aim at the MagTechX, firing two shots in succession. The bullets hit the magnet virus and took away the last of its HP. Like the shotgun, the rifle vanished when it was out of ammo.

"That's two down. How much ammo do we have left?" Megaman asked.

"We're down to 36." Megaman grimaced.

"That's only enough for one more Arsenal Swap and a couple more shots." Lan looked at the chips available and saw a possible solution.

"Megaman, I have a plan. Move up closer and wait for an opening."

"And be in range of its crusher attack? That thing hurt you know. I've already taken some damage here and there."

"Trust me on this," Lan said confidently. Megaman nodded and moved forward without hesitation. He and Lan had been through much worse than this after all, and Lan's Operation skill had always been able to help get them through.

Without the two MagTechX supporting it, the black virus became increasingly erratic, attacking with his magnetic blasts much more often, and moving around a lot. Megaman dodged and attacked where he could, but its sporadic movements made it difficult to target, and he couldn't afford any misses at this point. It seemed like the virus was trying to wear him down rather than attack directly. Eventually one of the magnetic blasts hit Megaman. Though the damage wasn't much, it did create a magnetic field to restrict him from moving around any further. The virus appeared in front of Megaman, ready to strike. Before it could extend its pincers, Megaman heard Lan say, "TankCannon3, download!" Megaman quickly stepped back and took aim with the large, ShotPlus-boosted cannon, "Eat this!" Megaman let the blast fly which hit the black virus dead on, blowing it to the back.

"Lance, download!" From behind the virus, a set of bamboo spears sprung forward and hit the black virus from behind, knocking it forward once more and stunning it a bit. The attack seemed to hurt the virus significantly. "Thought it might be an Elec virus," Lan said with a grin, "Now for the finisher; Arsenal Swap: Barrage Shot, download!" Megaman's revolvers disappeared once again, exchanged for a machine gun with a clip of bullets attached to it. Megaman let all of them loose at once, continuously peppering the virus with the onslaught of shots. Lan watched at the ammo counter reached 0, signaling the Override's termination. Megaman watched the gun vanish, and felt the energy that had been coursing through his body disappear just as quickly, leaving him feeling slightly empty. He looked at the virus, which had gone totally still. Megaman held his breath.

"Come on, that had to take him out," he thought. If it hadn't… Suddenly it let out a strange gurgling sound. One the virus's pincers started to break apart and fragment into nothingness. Megaman let out a sigh of relief that the fight was over and watched the virus be deleted piece by piece. When the main body finally crumbled, a blackish-gray sphere remained. It seemed to pulse with a dark miasma. There was a sigil on the center of the sphere which depicted a strange looking gear that had had a red spiral in its center, and jagged teeth that jutted out in odd directions. Before Megaman could look at it further, the sphere seemed to evaporate, leaving nothing behind.

PF: And...Cut! What'd everyone think of the new battle stuff? Good? Bad? I'm going to try to update this at least once every 10 days. I've got a job and some other projects that I'm working on a review with your comments! Any and all flames will be directed to our specialist, FireMan.