"Boy do I sure love burgers!" Lan said before taking an enormous bite out of one.
"Eat up while you can, you're gonna need the energy for detention," snickered Dex, who towered over the four friends at a height of six feet. His size and notable girth had him pursuing several athletic activities such as basketball and wrestling, hence why he was dressed in a green muscle shirt, blue shorts and wore white sporting tape over his hands.
"Yeah, yeah…"
"It's your fault Lan," Yai said, who was now closer to his height thanks to a recent growth spurt. She wore her long yellow hair back as a pony tail that reached near her hips and a red dress that stopped blow her knees with a pearl encrusted sash across her hips, "Why you even got Mayl in trouble!"
"It's okay Yai, I don't mind," the redhead said with a blush, "We got…distracted."
"Yech…" the blonde snorted while sipping some water.
Dex snickered again, "You knew this was how it was gonna be."
"Doesn't make it less gag worthy."
"What an odd group of people," said the blue haired girl with two braids as a drop of sweat rolled down the back of her head as she stood in line waiting to get her own burger.
"Oh, Lan and his friends? Yeah they're a bit eccentric," said a voice from behind her.
Startled, the girl looked around to see a young man with messy dark blonde hair wearing a white shirt and beige cargo pants, holding a tray with some food on it. She guessed him to be sixteen, a year older than herself.
"Did I startle you? Sorry about that," he said while offering a hand, "Ken Merora."
"Miaka Ryuzaki," the girl said while shaking it before looking back to the group in wonder.
"You must be new around here if watching Lan Hikari eat is fascinating."
Mika looked at him in surprise, "Y-yes. I just transferred a few days ago, but how did you know that?"
"I haven't seen you around before and I know all the faces around here," Ken explained.
"Yeah, he's kinda into the whole ninja thing like that. Believe it," a voice said from his wrist.
"Shaddup, MirrorMan."
"MirrorMan?"
He brought up his PET, "My Net Navi. Say hello."
"Why halo thar toast!" shouted the downscaled hologram of a man wearing full body armour akin to a knight that shimmered with a reflective coating.
"I…see," Miaka said with a blink before bringing up her arm, "Well two can play at this game. Say hi Sakura!"
"Umm…hi," said the Navi that looked like a girl wearing light pink clothing under a dark pink body plate, bracers and greaves along with a pink beret. She had hazel eyes and short brown hair with long bangs that covered the sides of her face.
"Interesting Navi design…does she capture cards by chance?" Ken asked and was promptly given a glare, "Okay…okay…."
The two talked some more while getting their food and Miaka explaining her father's recent transfer to the Scilab in Electopia and that he brought his family with them.
"Ah. It's tough moving to new place but it's pretty fun around here once you get used to the weird stuff," he said as his PET beeped.
"Crap, I'm late for study hall. I have to go. See you around Miaka."
Ken left with a wave before muttering about tests and comparing them to things that the girl took care not to repeat in public.
"Nice guy," Sakura remarked as they walked around in search of a seat.
"What do you mean the ForestNet's under attack!?" Lan shouted while standing up.
Miaka looked at him along with half the students in the cafeteria as he was talking to his Navi with a horrified expression on his face. Curious, she began to sneak over to eavesdrop.
"…several of the trees are gone already, viruses are everywhere and some Navis have been deleted," MegaMan said from inside the PET, "Reports say it's N.O.E.T."
"Are the police on the scene?" Mayl asked.
"Yeah, but the problem is that it's AxeMan."
"Then we've got to do something!" Lan said while putting on his backpack, "Let's go, MegaMan!"
"Lan, wait!" Yai shouted, but to no avail as he ran off, shooting past Miaka.
"Eep!" she shrieked, spinning wildly on her heels.
She came to a stop a moment later, stumbling around as she tried to regain her composure.
"Are you okay?" a voice asked, drawing her attention away from the increasingly appealing floor.
"Y-yeah…just give me a moment to make everything stop moving…" she groaned while holding her head and turning to the voice.
Mayl was standing in front of her, an expression of sadness on her face.
"I'm so sorry, Lan didn't mean to do that."
"Do what?"
The redhead point to Miaka's shirt which was now plastered with ketchup, relish and other food from her tray.
"Oh no…" she said with dot like eyes and a trembling lip, "Mom's gonna kill me…"
"It's okay. We can help," Mayl said as she led the girl out of the cafeteria with Yai following.
"What happened?" one of the students asked Dex who was still sitting at the table.
"Sounds like N.O.E.T. is attacking the ForestNet," he replied while looking at his PET, "AxeMan himself is tearing the place up and he's as strong as ProtoMan was before him and Chaud got promoted to International work."
He glanced to the window where he saw Lan hopping onto the bus, heading over to stop the seeds of chaos that were blooming in the forest.
The skies were dark as BurstMan and MagmaMan stood backs together, shooting down more viruses than they could count. For every Met that was deleted, five more would rush to take its spot.
"This is endless!" BurstMan shouted.
"Then allow me to put you out of your misery," a voice said, belonging to a large figure with an axe in hand.
With a single swing the two were deleted as the Navi rested his weapon on a shoulder.
"Well done, AxeMan," said a deep, rugged voice.
It belonged to a man holding an older style PET in hand, jacked into a tree that was a fusion of machine and plant. He wore a toque over his bushy black hair, had a long beard, and wore a plaid shirt, blue jeans and brown studded boots that made him look like a lumberjack to anyone that saw him.
"Thanks Jack," the Navi said as he walked up to a giant, neon tree that was at the core of ForestNet 2 and readied his axe.
He cleaved through it with one chop, causing it to fly into the air before smashing through the ground, cutting off the flow of data to the tree Jack was plugged into.
"Jack Out. We need to move before the Netbattlers arrive."
The lumberjack walked into a new area, leaving a path of dead foliage in his wake as he found a large tree and plugged into it. AxeMan beamed into ForestNet 3 where trees and bushes could be seen among the grass panels. Further ahead of him was another large neon tree, the source of life to several of the spliced trees that had become a marvel of Electopia, the Techno Forest. Lie the earlier ones he had cut down, removing this one would cause several of the machine/plant hybrids to die.
"Let's begin," Jack said as he fiddled with is PET.
The skies above AxeMan rippled like a pond as pixels of data appeared, taking on the form of Mettaur and Swordy viruses that descended onto various parts of the area, ferociously attacking whatever they could. The Navi sighed as he walked to the data tree.
"Don't you think this has gone too far?" he asked his operator.
"Truthfully? Yes. However they're the ones that have pushed for this and we need them to realize our goal," Jack replied, "So as much as we may hate this, we've got to grin and bear it."
"A terrorist with a conscience? An interesting specimen."
AxeMan whirled around.
"Who said that? Show yourself!"
"Very well," a voice said as leaves, grass and vines started to come together in front of him, taking on a humanoid shape.
"What in the Undernet is that?" Jack asked as a Navi made up of vines wearing leaves for armour, long hair made of grass and thorns around his wrists appeared.
"I am ForestMan, guardian of this Network," it said as it moved aside a giant leaf that was on the front of his helm to show a human face with green eyes, "And I cannot allow you to continue your wanton destruction of this beautiful eco-system."
"That's been sullied by technology? Feh!" AxeMan said as he ran at the Navi with his weapon raised.
"Not sullied, enhanced," ForestMan countered while leaping out of an overhead chop.
He landed on his feet and a hand while throwing his free arm out, lashing at the terrorist with a whip made of vines. AxeMan leapt out of the attack with a flip.
"He's fast!"
"Thought I was a lumbering bruiser, eh?" the Navi said while effortlessly spinning his weapon around with one hand, "Don't feel bad, everyone makes that mistake before I kill them."
He slammed the butt end of his weapon into the ground, causing spikes of wood to shoot up all around the battlefield, forcing ForestMan to leap into the air to avoid getting skewered.
"Gotcha."
The Navi twisted around to see the enemy behind him, chopping down with his axe.
"Timber!" AxeMan shouted as he cleaved off an arm and kicked ForestMa in the chest, sending him crashing into the ground.
"This is the end," Jack said as his Navi spun around and threw his axe at his opponent like a boomerang.
"Mega Buster!" a voice cried out as a beam of pink light struck the weapon, sending it flying back.
Jack, AxeMan and ForestMan all looked over to the entrance of the area where they saw a blue Navi holding up an arm cannon.
"Is that who I think it is?" the operator said as he got a look at the Navi who wore light blue gloves, boots and body plate.
"Yeah, it is. Though he looks a bit older than I remember…" AxeMan said as he noticed gold shoulder pads and a dark blue helmet with ridges along the side, a yellow line running along the top and a red jewel in the center, "…that's most definitely the Blue Bomber, MegaMan."
"Phew, looks like we got here in time," Lan said as he stood near a cyber-tree in a different part of the forest.
"I'll say," MegaMan remarked as he ran over to ForestMan, "Hey, are you okay?"
"I'll manage," the Navi replied while holding his stump of a right shoulder as the duo faced AxeMan.
"This is getting complicated," he said with a glance to the now cloudy skies as he raised his arm, "Come! Viruses!"
"Not more of them!" ForestMan shouted as extra Mettaur, Swordy and now Fishy viruses descended.
"Let's go. We have to get to the Heart," Jack stated.
"Agreed," AxeMan replied as he left for the next area.
MegaMan fired at him as he escaped, "Get back here!"
"Never mind him, the Forest Heart is not so easily destroyed," ForestMan said as he pointed to the neon tree in the distance, "See that? We must protect it. If we leave these viruses unchecked they'll destroy it."
"Then let's get virus busting!" Lan said while slotting in chips, "No time for tutorials, let's go MegaMan!"
"Big Bomb!" the blue shouted with a toss of his arm.
"Razor Leaf!"
A loud rumble shook the ground as line of explosions appeared while viruses fell by the dozens, but were replaced by more. The two continued to shoot and hack their way through the horde as minutes passed, but to no end in sight as lightning flashed in the skies.
"This is crazy!" MegaMan shouted as the viruses edged closer to the tree.
"We're not going to make it at this rate!" ForestMan shouted as lightning flashed followed by a loud roar of thunder shook the land, causing him to look up.
"Something wrong with the weather?" the blue asked.
"Yeah, we don't have weather!"
"MegaMan I'm picking up high energy readings from above, watch out!"
Large bolts of lightning came down, lashing at the ground like whips that tore through the viruses and cleaved up the earth. Several explosions appeared more electricity rained upon the battlefield, shaking the area and stumbling the Navis as groups of viruses were deleted.
"MegaMan, are you okay!?" Lan shouted while squinting at his PET.
"Yeah, just a bit surprised," the blue said as he looked up at the skies, "I wonder what caused that?"
"Over there!" ForestMan shouted, pointing.
High above the battlefield was a green Navi with its arms placed forward, lightning dancing between its palms.
"Today's forecast? Thunder storms. And lots of them."
A/N: Remember how I've mentioned that this story is a write up of campaigns from an RP board? This is where it starts to become evident as we have the introduction of several OCs in Jack/AxeMan, Miaka/Sakura and Ken/MirrorMan, the later two being members ended up becoming Staff due to their talents. They're also fun as hell to write with so they'll be appearing on a semi-regular basis. ForestMan, who is a boss from the fan game Rokko Chan appears here in place of Chaud and ProtoMan as rather than have them fight AxeMan then never be seen again like in the original BNU, I'd rather have them be already absent and appear later in a badass manner.