New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 1: New Origins
Chapter 11: Backup Plans
Deep in a computer system somewhere, a Navi walked through a quiet, unused hallway, surrounded by various kinds of gadgetry; his cloak followed lightly behind him as he moved, looking around occasionally for traces of security.
"One last piece to our puzzle," Bass mused to himself. "If the old man's figurings are correct, that is. Then, finally, the assault on the humans can begin."
He rustled through an older machine, suspecting hidden treasures, before moving on. "To think there was a creature on the Net more powerful than myself... but with the way it took over the test Cyberworld, it could prove rather dangerous indeed. Perhaps I should acquire a piece of it for my own purposes..."
He looked to his left and his eyebrows raised; could this be what he was searching for? After heading over and inspecting it, he was pleased to see that it was.
"A force field generator." He reached down and picked it up off the ground; an instant later, several automated Navis appeared behind him, lasers drawn, as a siren sounded.
"SECU-" was all they managed to get out; a quick blast of energy from Bass's hand silenced them instantly. The security alert ended, and Bass turned his attention back to the generator.
He put his hand on top of the device. "This could be particularly useful to me..."
Focusing, his hand started to glow. "Get Ability!"
The generator glowed the same color as Bass's hand, before both dimmed back to darkness. Holding up his hand, Bass tried out his new power, forming a small but powerful barrier around his hand. He closed his fingers into a fist, grinning as the barrier vanished.
"Brilliant." He turned to leave, holding the generator in his arm. "Let's see anyone try to double-cross me now."
"Did you hear some sort of alarm?" Megaman wondered, as Lan ran through SciLab, headed for his father's office.
"I thought the same thing, but it only lasted for a second," Lan replied. "Must've been something else." He ran into an open elevator and jammed the button until the door closed, slumping against the wall.
"What is your dad going to do, you think?"
"Not sure," Lan said, catching his breath. "He'll probably send out some Officials to intercept it, something like that... all I know is, he can do more than either of us could." In addition to doing his Net research, Dr. Hikari was in charge of organizing and deploying Official Netbattlers in emergency situations, having served in the Electopian Armed Forces in his youth and being an experienced Netbattler himself.
The doors opened again, and Lan dashed out, headed for his father's office. Upon entering, he found Yuichiro walking toward the door, ending a discussion with none other than Chaud. All three stopped, a but surprised, before Chaud continued forward, brushing past Lan without a word and heading down the hallway. Lan turned to watch him go.
"I thought I'd be seeing you before too long," his father spoke; Lan turned to see him with his arms folded, not looking entirely pleased.
Lan rubbed the back of his head. "Er... I guess Chaud told you what happened, huh?"
"That he did," Yuichiro replied, walking back into his office. "I thought I told you not to go looking for trouble with Megaman."
Lan sighed, rubbing his forehead and following. "Dad..."
"Son, I know how you must be feeling after what happened, but you're still just putting yourself and Megaman in danger. Chaud's right; these are problems you should leave to the Officials."
Lan let his shoulders fall, resigned. "Alright..."
"I'll think of a suitable punishment later." Yuichiro walked over to a large screen, pressing a button and causing a display to come up. "For now, we need to stop Gospel before it destroys all of Den Net City." Lan walked over to the screen, and it appeared to be showing a layout of Den Net City; a large number of dots covered its surface.
"What are those? Navis?"
"Viruses," Yuichiro corrected. "Den's covered with them these days. But we're just looking for one..."
Lan scanned the street, trying to find anything familiar or outstanding. Before long, he noticed a large clump of viruses traveling as one down one of the main pathways. "Look at that," he said, pointing it out.
Yuichiro nodded, pushing his glasses up. "That's got to be what we're looking for; Gospel's constructed from a large amount of Bug Fragments, that's how they must be detected."
"So what are we going to do to it?"
"I've got some Officials on it now," his father responded. "They're going to lure Gospel here, and we'll encase it in a barrier that it won't be able to escape. Then we'll use another device to overload that portion of the Net, incapacitating it so we can destroy it."
As he finished speaking, four more dots appeared on the screen, each one taking the form of the Official Netbattler symbol. They converged quickly on Gospel's location.
"Ah, here we go." Yuichiro smiled. "They've managed to track his location as well. Now the show will begin."
Bass flew through the air over Den Net City, scanning the streets to make sure he wasn't being detected as he delivered the force field generator to World Three. He mused over backup plans to himself, never one to trust anybody, when a sight made him stop dead and do a double take.
"What on Earth...?" He flew forward to get a better look. A gigantic, dog-like virus was sauntering through the Cyberworld, roaring and swiping at something that was causing bright flashes of light. Looking closer, he could see a number of Official Navis surrounding the beast, one of them firing laser blasts at it from the front. Eventually, the dog virus roared mightily and started running, as all four Navis chased after it, or were chased, depending on their position.
Bass shook his head. "No concern of mine." He sped off again, as the Navis led the virus toward the place from which Bass had come.
"They're almost here," Yuichiro reported, as he and Lan watched the display; the Official Navis had very nearly gotten Gospel to the target area. Lan watched patiently, wanting to see the plan in action. A few seconds later, the large virus clump had wandered over a large red X displayed near the SciLabs cyber building.
"Perfect." Yuichiro reached down, flipping a couple of switches, cueing some humming sounds from all around. "They just need to keep it stalled for a few seconds longer..."
Lan looked at another nearby monitor, which was showing the Cyberworld immediately outside. The four Navis had surrounded Gospel and were frustrating it indeed; they took turns firing Cannons directly at Gospel from various angles, and Gospel was turning around in circles miserably, unsure of who to attack first.
"I think they've got it, Dad!" Lan reported. Yuichiro nodded, putting his finger over a different button.
"Now! Activate force field!"
As Dr. Hikari pressed the button, Lan looked at his monitor again. Expecting to see a circular barrier appear, he was surprised when electric shocks started shooting through Gospel, causing it to howl in pain.
"What's going on?" inquired a curious Lan. "Why is it getting electrocuted?"
"Wait, what?!" Yuichiro ran over to see what Lan was seeing, just as the electric shocks came to a close. Yuichiro slammed his fist on the panel, causing Lan to jump. "Damn it! What happened?! Why isn't the force field working?!"
The other Navis also came to the quick realization that something was wrong. Gospel quickly turned around toward the Navis behind him, presuming a sneak attack had occurred, and opened his mouth. A massive, powerful laser beam shot forth, consuming both Navis and tearing through the structure of the Cyberworld. Closing its mouth, it began to turn again, as the two other Navis prepared to defend themselves; instead of attacking, Gospel let out a massive roar and took off, running away from SciLab.
"Damn... this isn't good." Yuichiro quickly turned and headed for another part of the room.
"What do we do now?" Lan asked, as his dad started flipping several more switches, concentrating hard.
"We have to stop Gospel before it escapes Den Net City." Frustrated with the switches, he reached over to a nearby shelf and grabbed what seemed to be a manual of sorts. "So I need to remember how to use this..."
Lan leaned in, trying to see what it was his dad was looking at, but the page was utterly incomprehensible to him; he leaned back out. "What are we going to do to it?"
"We'll never be able to corner it again, not after what happened to it; it may be a virus, but it's not completely stupid." Yuichiro set the book down, open to a certain page, and started flipping switches again. "So we're going to have to overload all of Den Net City in order to stop it."
"Say what?" Lan replied, a little panicked at the severe-sounding plan.
"It's like a viral EMP of sorts," his father exclaimed, as a panel opened up, revealing a large, sinister-looking switch. "It activates a beacon that sends a high-energy frequency wave through the real world, affecting all electronic devices it encounters. They'll all light up with energy, incapacitating any Navis, and viruses, residing in their Cyberworlds."
Lan looked over at a window, looking at Den City and imagining everything glowing a bright white, giving off radiation. "That sounds... dangerous..."
"It is a little dangerous," Yuichiro admitted. "The energy wave can be a little unstable at its core, but as long as there's no major interference, there shouldn't be any lasting damage. What's more dangerous is letting Gospel escape onto the greater Net. Is Megaman jacked into anything?"
Lan pulled out his PET and looked at Megaman. "No, he's right here."
"Good." Yuichiro put his hand on the switch, ready to pull. "Then brace yourselves."
"I see you've returned."
Bass nodded, acknowledging Wily's presence, as he entered the World Three Cyberworld, quickly heading toward the core control room. "I've got what you requested; it was like taking candy from a baby." Walking into the large, circular room, he flew upward and placed the small generator into a small hole in the ceiling; the system quickly acknowledged its presence, humming and beeping.
"Excellent." Wily grinned evilly. "A device capable of sending energy over a huge distance at a high speed... exactly what we need to enact the final part of our plan."
Bass landed on the floor again, looking up at a screen where Dr. Wily's face resided. "I take it my services are complete, then."
"Not quite," Wily corrected. "There is one last thing I need you to do for me."
Bass sighed in annoyance. "And what exactly would that be?"
Grinning a malicious grin, Wily pressed a button on a control panel in front of him. An instant later, four large metal arms sprang up from either side of Bass; each one grabbed one of his appendages, holding him in place.
"Hold still," Wily ordered, as Bass bared his teeth in anger. Slamming his fist on another part of the control panel, a massive bolt of electricity shot through the center of the Cyberworld control room, spearing Bass through the center. As he screamed in pain, the bolt began to drain him of his energy, as a series of computer systems hummed to life, powered by Bass's massive amounts of energy.
Wily laughed maniacally, looking all around as his work sprang into action for the first and last time; lights flashed, machines turned on, and sirens blared.
"Finally, my work is nearly complete!" He cackled, as he turned on another screen, wanting to watch the drama unfold. "Soon, the world will be just as I envisioned it... all thanks to my greatest creation!"
Lan and Yuichiro both turned their attention back to the screen, having activated the energy wave. As the blue circle expanded, a number of cyber buildings glowed white on the digital map.
"It's working." Yuichiro breathed a sigh of relief. "The Net is overloading with energy... Gospel should become incapacitated pretty quickly at this rate. He can't have gotten away that fast..."
A massive sound rattled the air, like an explosion or a thunderclap, and a strange quaking shook the ground, knocking Lan and Yuichiro over.
"Lan! What's going on out there?" Megaman called out. Lan sat up, rubbing his head, as he looked up at the map. At the edge of it, a number of buildings that were white had turned a rather alarming red, and their number was increasing quickly, in an expanding circle.
Yuichiro looked up at the map, getting to his feet, and cursed loudly. "What's going on? Something's seriously wrong here..." He ran to the panel despite the still-shaking ground, as Lan stood up and looked out the window. At the very edge of his vision, he could see buildings starting to glow a bright white.
"Dad..." he started, before he was suddenly attacked by a powerful wind; he braced himself against it, as Yuichiro did the same. "Gah! What the hell is going on?!"
"Something's gone wrong! There must be interference from something else... this could end in disaster!" Looking up at the map, he could see the circle of red buildings expanding, as the white buildings outside grew in number, getting closer and closer to SciLab.
"Whatever this is, it's about to hit right here." Yuichiro grabbed on to the control panel. "Hold on tight!" Lan tried to move forward and grab something, but he was suddenly hit by a powerful invisible force, which threw him back against the wall and knocked him out.
"Unh..." Lan woke up a minute later and blinked, his vision blurry and his head aching. Thinking this was a fairly familiar sensation, he rubbed his eyes, trying to get things more clear. He could make out the form of his father, who had also fallen over, in front of him.
"Man... are you alright?"
"I... I think so..." Lan blinked; that wasn't the voice he had expected. He rubbed his eyes, to clear up what he saw; when he finally saw it properly, he nearly jumped in shock, backing up against the wall.
"Megaman?! What are you doing here?! Isn't this the real world?"
"Gah! Lan?!" Megaman backed up a bit as well, as if he'd seen a ghost. "What's going on?! I thought this was still the Cyberworld!"
"Wrong," proclaimed another voice that made them both jump. Looking up, they saw Yuichiro standing at the window, nearly white as a ghost and clearly in shock as well. "Have a look for yourselves."
Looking at each other in massive confusion, the two stood up and slowly walked over to the large window, each on either side of Lan's father. For as far as they could see, the city had been thrown into turmoil; humans were running out into the streets, or back into their houses, as numerous Navis and programs populated the streets. The buildings and streets were a splotched mix of normal brick or concrete and the gridded, glowing texture of the Cyberworld. Even the air seemed to have a strange glow about it, in addition to being filled with noise and screaming.
"You mean..." Megaman started. Yuichiro nodded.
"Yes," he replied, pushing his glasses up. "I don't know what could have caused this... but it looks like Den City and Den Net City have merged."
The three of them goggled at the sight outside the window, wondering to themselves how they were ever going to fix this mess.