New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 1: New Origins
Chapter 12: The Ensuing Havoc
"How could this happen..."
Lan, Megaman and Dr. Hikari all looked out the SciLab window at the chaos that had overtaken Den City. Buildings and streets were now a mix of concrete and digital foundation, and confused Navis were running about amidst the humans. Panic was starting to break out.
"You're not sure what did this?" Lan looked up at his father, who shook his head.
"Not exactly, no," he replied. "But it was some other sort of radiation that headed this way, I could tell that much... clearly they don't mesh well."
Megaman pressed his hands against the glass, getting a better look at Den City, seeing it for the first time. "Maybe World Three or Gospel has something to do with this..."
"Oh, no doubt about that." Megaman looked up at Dr. Hikari in surprise. "No normal frequencies could have had this sort of reaction, no chance. Something equally dangerous had to be coming this way, and that could only come from one of those two groups. The question is, which one..."
He turned and headed back to the main compter terminal, pushing a few buttons and watching the screen change repeatedly. "Can't believe this thing still works..."
Lan walked over to his dad, as Megaman kept looking out the window in wonderment. "So what do we do? Try to take them both out?"
"That's an option." Yuichiro finally settled on one screen, showing off a map of Den City with random areas lit various colors, with more writing Lan couldn't understand. "Both of them have it coming anyhow... the question is, how do we find them?"
Lan's eyes lit up. "Wait... what about that web address they got from Bass?"
"Ah, there's a start!" Yuichiro started typing rather quickly. "Chaud told me it earlier, let's see if I got it right..." Hitting the enter key, the screen changed, switching over to a single spot on the map; unlike most of the map, it was completely black, the screen's default.
"This should be it... but it's emitting no frequencies at all. No activity whatsoever."
"Huh?" Lan looked a little closer, in the vain hopes that he'd gain a deeper understanding by doing so. "I thought that Gospel would be doing a lot of operating there or something..."
"Well, it's worth investigating anyway." Yuichiro stood up and stretched his arms. "It'll probably be easier to do so now, since we can check the Net space physically-"
His speech was interrupted by an explosion from a ways off; Lan dashed back to the window, to see smoke rising from another part of downtown. Looking closely, they could see a small group of operators and Navis running down a cross street; Megaman slammed his fist against the glass.
"Dammit! I can't believe we overlooked this! The World Three Navis are in the real world as well!"
"What?!" Lan leaned in for a closer look. "But we can't just leave them loose!"
Megaman nodded, moving away from the window. "I'm going out there! I'm going to take care of them!"
"Wait!" Yuichiro called out, turning toward Megaman, but it was too late; he had already made his way out the door.
"Wait for me!" Lan called out as well, running after Megamanl Yuichiro started moving toward him.
"Lan! Why the hell are you going too?!" Ignoring him, Lan ran out the door and down the stairs after Megaman, faster than Yuichiro was moving.
"Ah, goddammit, they're both gone." He stopped running, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. "Charging headfirst into battle... they should have been girls, both of them."
After ten minutes of running, Megaman and Lan had reached the source of the explosion. As they ran, the real world and the Cyberworld had merged more; instead of highly distinct sections of dark concrete and bright Cyberworld, everything was slowly congealing into a bright but bland orange. The streets had become significantly more crowded; everyone, for some reason, felt the urge to leave their houses, possibly under a guise that outdoors, where there were fewer dangerous electronics, was safer.
Megaman stopped running and looked up at a somewhat tall office building, the side of which was smoking. Many around the two of them were shrieking; Megaman quickly looked around.
"Shoot... I think we missed them..." Megaman looked upward at some of the building tops, to be greeted with a rather familiar sight.
"Agh!" Megaman was knocked backward by a giant, spotted ball, falling onto his back, though getting up quickly.
"Megaman!" Lan looked up toward the rooftop, to see Maddy Iroaya standing next to Colorman, whose ball returned to him quickly.
"Ahahahaha! Isn't it fantastic?" Maddy called out, as Colorman stuck his tongue out at Megaman. "Chaos everywhere you look! People panicking in the streets! And where disorder reigns, World Three will step in to create order!"
"Create order... what a complete load!" Megaman aimed his buster at Colorman. "This is probably all your fault in the first place!"
She smirked. "Details, details... before long, you'll see the true genius of Lord Wily's work!"
"We'll just see!" Megaman fired his buster toward the distant Colorman, who dodged his shots with ease. As Megaman fired, Lan noticed something approaching from the corner of his eye; looking over, he saw a medium-sized black helicopter approaching quickly, the SciLab logo emblazoned on the side. As it approached and started kicking up plumes of air, everyone started to look toward it, including Maddy and Colorman.
"Oh, darn." Maddy snapped her fingers. "Looks like our funtime is going to be cut short." Hopping onto Colorman's back, she looked down toward the ground and grinned widely. "Looks like the real fun is about to begin, anyhow!" As she laughed, Colorman started bouncing off across the rooftops at a rapid pace, quickly out of sight.
The helicopter started to descend, and Lan and Megaman watched as Lan's father leaned out of the open side door, a megaphone in his hand.
"Lan! Megaman! You have to get in here right away!" he yelled out, the megaphone to his mouth. Before either Lan or Megaman could ask why, they heard a shriek from behind them. Turning around, they saw a young twenty-something girl screaming and reaching her hand up; the lower half of her body had, inexplicably, found itself in the ground. As she tried to claw her way out, the orange ground continued sucking her in, until even her fingers had been pulled underneath.
Mass panic ensued, as everyone started screaming and running indoors; several more people found themselves stuck in the orange mass that had become the street, slowly becoming buried.
"Come on!" Yuichiro yelled again. Megaman and Lan looked at each other and nodded, running for the chopper. Megaman got there first, and started to climb in when he heard a shout from behind; turning around, he saw Lan struggling to move, one leg buried in the ground up to his knee.
"Megaman! Help!"
"Lan!" Megaman wasted no time in sprinting over toward Lan, whose other leg began sinking into the orange mass as well. Reaching out, Megaman grabbed Lan's hand to try and pull him out; both of them glowed a bright white, and an instant later, Megaman found himself flung back, landing on his seat. Looking around, Lan was nowhere to be found.
"Lan? Lan!" Megaman called out, standing up. "Where are you?"
I'm not sure... Megaman jumped, hearing a voice from inside his head.
"Lan! What the heck?! Are you in my head? What happened?!" Before Lan's voice could respond, Megaman felt a tug down near his foot; looking down, he saw himself also about to be eaten up. Getting out his buster, he fired down toward his foot; the ground recoiled and let his foot go. Not thinking twice, Megaman turned around and leapt into his father's helicopter, which quickly took off, as Megaman and Yuichiro watched the inhabitants of Den City get swallowed by the mysterious substance.
"Are you alright?" Yuichiro asked, as the helicopter turned around and sped off.
"I think so..." Megaman rubbed his head, sitting down in a seat. "But Lan... he... I'm not sure..."
"All I saw was you grab his hand, then there was a bright light and Lan was gone..."
Megaman nodded. "But now his voice is in my head... or at least it was, it hasn't said anything in a minute..."
No, I'm still here, Lan answered; Megaman nodded in response.
Yuichiro pushed his glasses up. "I think I get it... your body must have merged with Lan's, somehow."
Megaman blinked. "What, really?"
"Given your construction, it's not all that surprising, especially now. All sorts of real world items are merging with their Cyberworld counterparts, and you and Lan are extremely similar, as you know..."
Megaman nodded again. "So, how are we going to unmerge?"
"I wouldn't recommend it," Yuichiro responded. "Lan, as he is, is practically defenseless, especially with people getting absorbed left and right by who knows what. It's best he stays in there for now; you're much better equipped to defend yourself."
I'm not that weak... Megaman heard Lan respond.
Don't worry about it, Lan, you know what he meant, Megaman responded silently, looking forward toward the windshield. "Where are we going? Back to SciLab?"
"Of course." Yuichiro looked forward as well, trying to see their destination. "It's the safest place we can be right now, unless we decide to go to a military base instead. Plus, we can try and research whatever it is that's taken over the town."
"Did we get any clues from that Gospel base?"
Yuichiro shook his head. "No, not a thing. Just as I had feared, the area had been completely abandoned."
Megaman's eyes widened. "The entire base, deserted? Turned off?"
"Well, that's the thing." Yuichiro leaned back a little in his seat. "There was almost nothing there, to be honest. There was a large room, like what Chaud described, where they were constructing Gospel, but aside from that, nothing. There was no evidence that anything else ever went on there."
Megaman looked forward. "Looks like Gospel played it smart. Their base must be somewhere else entirely..."
"Must be..." Yuichiro sat forward, pushing his glasses up again. "The whole thing seems rather fishy, though, the way Gospel's operating. I can't quite put my finger on it..."
With a large WHAM, something heavily impacted the side of the helicopter, causing it to shake and veer a bit off course.
"What the-?!" Megaman quickly stood, moving carefully to the open side door of the helicopter and looking toward the source of the sound, to find a familiar Navi clinging to the helicopter, its arm wrapped around the tail.
"Fireman!" Megaman exclaimed; an instant later, Fireman flung himself around toward the door and landed inside, causing Dr. Hikari to jump and back away toward a corner. Megaman got himself into a defensive stance, as Fireman chuckled.
"Sorry to cut this flight short, but I can't have any of you messing with Lord Wily's plans." He looked directly into Megaman's eyes. "Especially you, you meddlesome Navi. Your interference will end now!"
Fireman charged forward, slamming his shoulder into Megaman's chest and knocking both of them out of the helicopter, onto a nearby building top.
Groaning, Megaman shifted and kicked Fireman off of him, as he watched the helicopter continue on. Quickly getting to his feet, Megaman started running across the rooftops, blasting backward at Fireman while chasing the helicopter.
"You're not going anywhere!" Fireman started running after Megaman, shooting some fire blasts of his own; Megaman managed to barely dodge while keeping up his pace, and looking forward, he saw the helicopter slow down and come in closer. With a look backward, Megaman saw a fire blast come directly toward his face.
"Gah!" Acting on instinct, Megaman swung at it; his arm suddenly became a Wide Sword, and the shot was deflected back toward Fireman, who barely dodged. Megaman looked down at the sword in surprise.
"Weird... looks like I've got Lan's Battlechips." Looking up, he saw the helicopter slow down and pull up right next to Megaman; Megaman leaped in, rolling and landing safely inside. Quickly turning around, he saw Fireman right behind, ready to jump in; he pulled out his arm, which became a High Cannon, and fired it directly into Fireman's face as he jumped. With no room to dodge, Fireman fell backward heavily onto the neighboring rooftop, as the pilot took off, taking the helicopter up and away from Fireman as fast as he could manage.
"Think you can escape, can you?" Fireman aimed his gun arm toward the helicopter, charging up. "Let's see how you like this!" He fired a series of rounds toward the retreating helicopter; while most of them soared harmlessly into the sky, one scored a direct hit on the tail propellor of the chopper.
Megaman fell forward as the helicopter shook with the explosion; a series of alarms sounded from the pilot's seat, as a plume of smoke and fire erupted from the tail, and the pilot cursed.
"Damn! He got us!" The helicopter started to decline, as the pilot wrestled with the controls. "We're in for a rough landing! Everybody brace yourselves!" Yuichiro clipped his seatbelt on, while Megaman, unable to stand in the shaky craft, grabbed the pilot's seat in front of him.
Coming down quickly, the craft aimed itself for a nearby building top. Despite the pilot controlling the fall as best he could, the helicopter came down hard upon landing; Megaman slid forward into the back of the pilot's seat, while Yuichiro and the pilot found themselves saved by their seatbelts. The chopper slid forward on the rooftop for a short ways, creating horrible crunching and grinding sounds, before coming to a stop. Megaman sat up, rubbing his sore head and looking toward Dr. Hikari.
"Are you alright?"
Yuichiro nodded, sitting back and breathing heavily. "Yea... I'm fine, don't worry." He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up, helping Megaman up and walking out of the helicopter, as the pilot called out after them, "Oh, I'm fine, thanks for asking!"
"Where are we right now?" Megaman wondered.
"Close to SciLab, at least... you can see it over... there..." His voice came to a slow stop as his eyes widened; Megaman followed his finger to a sight he could hardly believe.
Immediately outside of SciLab, snarling and angry, stood the impossibly large Gospel, almost two stories tall; staring it down, between Gospel and SciLab, was a gigantic, spheroid, orange blob. On top of it was what appeared to be a metallic helmet, with horns coming out from either side; hovering near its blob-esque body, on each side, was what appeared to be a orange hand, with long, metallic claws extending from it. Buried in the center of the blob was a giant, ghastly, red eyeball. Overlooking the entire scene, from a giant screen generated on the front of the SciLab building, was the face of an elderly, gray-haired man with an evil grin and a monocle.
As Megaman stared at the scene, agape, the giant face looked toward the building they had landed on; upon seeing its contents more clearly, the face laughed.
"Ah, good, the gang's all here," he commented. "Looks like now the show can begin."
Megaman glared at him, his teeth gritted, as the old man cackled.