"Lan? Lan! Are you alright?"
"Huh? Yeah... what happened?"
"There was an error when I went through that link, but I'm alright. I got back safely. Just a few minor injuries."
Lan looked at his PET. MegaMan was there, looking for all the world like he'd been there all along.
For some reason, a name stuck in his mind.
"There wasn't another Navi, was there?" he asked.
"Only ProtoMan, why?"
"I remember one for some reason. I think... he was called Angel."
MegaMan shifted uneasily in the PET. "I uh... think I know why."
"Go on."
"The error... well, it kinda disconnected me from the PET for a bit. Lots of things got changed, it was like an entirely different reality, and you had a different Navi."
"Angel."
"Yeah. I had to make you find out some stuff so things could go back again."
"That sounds kinda crazy, MegaMan."
"I think I've got something that'll convince you otherwise. In that other reality, you recorded a message for me to give to you."
"What's it say?"
"I dunno, I was busy when he recorded it. I'll play it back."
The PET's screen changed, showing Lan with his room behind him. Chaud sat on Lan's bed behind him. He looked different though.
"Hey, me," he said. "I guess reality got put back to normal if you're watching this. I don't know how much MegaMan has told you, about this reality, but you can believe him. Of course, he is our brother – I don't think we've got any reason not to." He appeared to think for a moment, then continued. "Try to be nicer to Chaud, by the way."
"As if!" the real Lan snorted.
"He's nicer than you think, or at least the Chaud I know is. Just try to get along. Oh... and by the way. Keep up that reputation of yours. You and MegaMan are an unstoppable team, I know that from a little experience."
"Time, Lan," the recording's Chaud told him. Lan nodded.
"Well, see you around, Lan. Maybe."
The recording finished, restoring the PET to it's normal view with MegaMan.
"What did he mean by 'a little experience'?"
"Oh, at one point he almost lost Angel, so I stood in for him. He got to operate me like you do."
"Was he better than me?"
"The same as you. You're both Lan, just because he had a different Navi doesn't mean he was any better or worse."
"I wish I could have gone with you on this adventure of yours."
"I'll tell you all about it later. I've got four other people I want to see first though."
"Who?"
"First two are Chaud and ProtoMan. They also recorded messages to themselves. Then there's a Navi in the Undernet who asked me to pay a call on him when I got back, and after that, I want to talk to dad."
"Do we really have to go see Chaud?"
"Yes, we do. I've got to deliver his message."
"Oh, alright then."
Chaud was examining ProtoMan, ensuring the link hadn't damaged him in any way. MegaMan had vanished because of it, and there had been a serious error reported, so it made sense to check.
There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him though, just some extra data that he'd examine later, so he turned to the data on the odd link.
Reports had placed three Navis in the area just after the error, but as no one had been around, there were no details on any of them.
"There's someone to see you," ProtoMan told him.
"Who?"
"Lan."
Chaud nodded, glancing up.
"I'm sorry, Lan. I don't know what's happened to MegaMan."
"That's alright. He told me himself." He showed his PET to Chaud.
"What happened?" Chaud asked MegaMan.
"I'll explain afterwards. I've got a recorded message for you, Chaud."
"From?"
"You."
"What? That's impossible."
"Just watch it," MegaMan sighed.
Chaud insisted on having the message played back on one of the monitors.
MegaMan played the message.
On the monitor appeared Lan's room. Lan was sat on his bed, with Chaud sat in front of Lan's computer, facing them. The recorded Chaud was dressed differently, and his hair wasn't dyed white, but it was unmistakably him.
"You're questioning whether this is real or not," he said. "Don't worry. It is. Well, technically, anyway, it's real to me, but this is a different reality to yours. Anyway, I don't have long, so I'll keep it short. MegaMan told me what you're like. I think you need re-think the way you are. Lan and I are good friends here, and there's no reason you can't be too. Just be glad you had a home for as long as you did, unlike me. You don't want to find out what it was like for me. MegaMan can probably tell you if you really want to know, but I think you'll regret asking just as much as I did when Lan asked him what you were like."
"Time," ProtoMan's voice said.
"Think about it, Chaud," the recorded Chaud continued. "I'm sure you're not as unreasonable as you sound."
The recording ended. Chaud glared at MegaMan.
"What? I had nothing to do with that, I just took his recording and delivered it to you."
"Just what did you tell him?"
"I told him the truth."
"Seriously?"
"Honestly."
"Tell me what he meant by that home bit."
"Oh, in that reality, when you and your father started falling out regularly, you left home and tried to go by yourself for a time. You didn't do very well at it, and ended up being homeless for a long time until I nudged Lan into giving you a hand."
"Is that why I looked different?"
"Yup. It's also why the ProtoMan in that reality was a lot more different too. You programmed him after Lan helped you out."
"What about all the stuff I did here? What happened to that?"
"Lan handled it, with Angel."
"Who?"
"I guess I forgot. Angel was Lan's Navi, because I didn't exist in that one."
"So how do you know about it? How did they know about you?"
"I was... kind of like... well, a bit of a god," MegaMan replied nervously. "I had to influence things from afar instead. I sometimes created a kind of avatar of me in the world to get things moving better."
"You didn't tell me about that," Lan said.
"I was going to tell you about it later. I've got another message, by the way. For ProtoMan."
"From ProtoMan?" Chaud asked.
"'natchly," MegaMan replied. They looked at him, puzzled. "Oh, forget it," he sighed. "I'll route the message to the monitor."
ProtoMan now appeared on the screen. Unlike the other messages, ProtoMan got straight to the point.
"I'm told you're more independent than me," he said. "You don't need to be. Take a leaf from Lan and MegaMan. If you're friends with Chaud, and let him support you the way Lan does his Navi, you'll do better. I reckon you might even stand a chance against him." He paused, then continued, "Maybe if you can do that, you'll be able to pick up his soul unison. Believe me, if your one is even half as powerful as the one I experienced was, you won't be left disappointed. Oh, by the way... drop the 'Master' bit. See you around, ProtoMan. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"You have a soul unison?" ProtoMan asked MegaMan.
"'natchly," he said again. "Just no one's ever managed to get it before. Maybe you'll be the first. Well... second, since he beat you to it."
"Alright MegaMan," Chaud said in a hard tone. "I think it's time you told us exactly what happened."
MegaMan shifted uneasily. "Do I really have to?"
"Chaud's not the only one who wants to know," Lan said.
"And I want to find out more about my counterpart," ProtoMan added.
MegaMan sighed. "Can it at least wait until I've gone and seen the other two people I want to talk to?" Seeing their looks he added, "It won't take long, really."
"Go on then," Chaud told him. "I'll hold you to that promise."
"Thanks Chaud."
"Why are we even in the Undernet, MegaMan?" Lan asked.
"Because there's someone here I want to see."
"Who?"
"You'll see when I get there. I think I go left here."
"You think?"
"Last time I came here, I had a few advantages."
He continued running along the twisting, winding routes of the Undernet, fighting off the occasional virus. It felt good battling the way he was used to once more, and having his brother operate him again. It had been one of the main reasons he'd let reality go back.
He found the area he was after.
"You made good time," ColourMan greeted him. "Everything went well?"
"Yep. Everything back again. Your friend?"
"He vanished not long ago. I assumed it was because he went back to being himself."
"Am I missing something here?" Lan asked.
"Oh, hello there Lan," ColourMan said. "We're just finishing a discussion we started before he sorted out reality."
"Wait. You weren't affected by it?"
"Oh, something tried to affect me, but I avoided getting modified by it."
"Who was your friend?"
"I don't know for sure," he lied. "He looked like a human, but MegaMan told me he was a Navi. He didn't know who he was or anything, so I looked after him."
"MegaMan?"
"What?"
"Anything else you want to add?"
"Not really. I got ColourMan to lend a hand with a little plot-"
"Little!" ColourMan objected. "You call that little!"
"I admit it did kind of get out of hand."
"Out of hand... you ended up creating an entirely new area on the net, then causing mass panic on the net because things got out of your control, and had to drag in help to fix it again."
"I got it sorted it out, didn't I? It wasn't all that hard."
ColourMan stared at him for a few moments, then threw his hand skyward with a cry of, "Why me?"
"You did agree to help, remember."
"I'm starting to wonder why."
MegaMan chuckled. "I'll stop by again sometime, ColourMan. I've got some other things to do as well."
"Here, take this." ColourMan handed him some data. "Add it to your homepage."
"Another banner."
"It'll get you here quicker."
"Thanks."
Lan and Chaud were waiting for MegaMan to make an appearance. Lan had left his PET with their dad and a copybot. MegaMan had then asked Lan to go back to Chaud and wait, so he could surprise them with what they were up to.
"What's taking him so long?" Lan grumped.
"Why are you asking me?" Chaud answered, not looking up.
"I dunno. What're you working on?"
"Some extra data I found attached to ProtoMan. I'm trying to access it."
"Why not get ProtoMan to do it?"
"I don't know if it's safe or not. It's suspicious enough as it is."
"Why's that?"
"It's got the same signature as data ProtoMan would have created, but he didn't create it."
"Maybe the other ProtoMan did then."
"I didn't think of that." He looked up and grudgingly added, "Thanks."
"Want me to see what I can get from it?" ProtoMan asked.
"Be careful with it," Chaud warned.
"Of course."
He fell silent. Chaud waited with obvious tension.
"Lan was right," ProtoMan announced finally. "But it wasn't left by him. MegaMan borrowed it from the other one and attached it to me."
"What does it contain?"
"A few bits of the other me. Some memories, a few notes. He really was different to me."
"Of course," MegaMan's voice came from the door. "He could hardly not be. I know that better than anyone, I used the unison to fuse with him and found out a lot about him."
They looked over, seeing a human-looking boy, dressed all in blue. He resembled Lan, but had longer hair in a blue-black colour.
He saw their puzzled looks again and laughed.
"I guess it worked then. I got dad to customize my program just a bit. When I use a copybot now, this is what I look like."
"What gave you the idea?" Chaud asked.
"In the other reality, I got to find out what it's like being like you and Lan, a real boy. I kinda missed it here, so I went as close as I can get, which is this."
"What's with the different hair?" Lan asked him.
"I felt like a change. I like it better this way. I wish I could keep it this way when I go back to the PET, but dad got a bit distracted seeing just how far he could push the limits of this sort of thing before we got to it."
"At least we'll be able to tell you apart," ProtoMan remarked.
"I don't think anyone would have had any trouble," Chaud said, shaking his head. "Anyway, you've got an adventure to tell us about."
"Oh, alright then," MegaMan sighed, taking a seat. "I guess I should tell you what I got up to..."