New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 2: The Sun And The Moon
Chapter 11: Servir
In the corner of a dark, secluded room in the Cyberworld, a female Navi sat holding herself, disoriented and fearful for her life. She had been trapped there for several hours; though she may have been able to escape, she didn't even try.
"Good to see you again, Iris." She looked up at the mention of her name, as a taller Navi walked up to her.
"What... what do you want with me?" Iris held herself tighter. The other Navi chuckled, walking forward and rubbing her head, which caused her to shrink down in fear.
"Why so tense? I don't have any intention of hurting you, my dear." He smiled, failing to completely conceal an evil grin. "I just have something I'd like to ask of you."
Iris nodded. "I know... what you want me to do..."
"Good, that saves us a bit of time." The Navi chuckled again. "As I said, I don't intend to hurt you. If you can do this for me when the time is right, I will set you free. You won't be hurt by me or Nebula ever again, you have my word."
Iris looked up, the tiniest hint of hope in her eyes. "Free? But... how can I trust you?"
The figure laughed. "My dear Iris... do you really think you have a choice?"
He laughed, walking away and leaving Iris in the dark again. Iris looked down, shaking, wanting nothing more than to be back at SciLab, with people she felt she could maybe trust.
Rounding another corner, Chaud managed to find his way back to familiar territory: the tournament room, where the challengers had met. He noticed the trapdoors had sealed themselves again, but other than that, there was nothing of interest to be found here.
"Damn... I know I heard a gunshot from somewhere nearby." He looked around, stepping forward cautiously. "It must have been Regal..."
"Very astute." Chaud wheeled around, to see Dr. Regal standing once again in the balcony, a handgun pointed directly at Chaud. "It was indeed me who fired that gunshot; I used that bullet to take care of Dr. Hikari's boy."
"No!" Chaud steeled himself, gritting his teeth. "You bastard, Regal..."
"Call me what you like. I never claimed to be anything special." Regal smirked. "I just do what it takes to get the job done."
Regal cocked the gun he was holding, as Chaud racked his brains for a plan. "Once you're out of the way, no one else will be able to stop me; you two were the only competent Netbattlers here. Creamland will soon be ours! All hail Nebula!"
"No way!" Regal's eyebrows raised as he heard a voice behind him, and he quickly turned around; he had no time to react before a powerful bodycheck sent him over the edge of the balcony. His gun went off as he fell, firing into the ceiling, before he landed hard on the floor.
"Ugh... what?! Who..." Both Regal and Chaud looked up, to see Lan looking over the edge of the balcony.
"What?!" Regal growled and stood up. "Impossible! I shot you! How are you still alive?!"
Lan smirked, holding his chest and breathing somewhat heavily. "Guess I got lucky."
Regal bared his teeth, standing up and aiming his handgun again. "Well, your luck just ran out!" He pointed it right at Lan, fumbling to fire the gun, when Chaud smashed his PET into Regal's head from behind.
"Ow!" Regal grabbed his head and turned to look at a very surprised Chaud, who quickly jammed the taser ends of his PET into the man's body; a few painful seconds later, he slumped over, unconscious.
"Huh," Chaud remarked, putting away the sparking taser tips. "That usually works in the movies."
"Chaud! Are you alright?" Lan climbed onto the outside of the balcony, hanging from the edge before dropping to the lower floor; he fell over, holding his side again and groaning in pain.
"I'm fine," Chaud replied, walking over to Lan, who was slowly standing. "You look a little worse for wear, though..."
Both of them walked to Regal's unconscious body. Chaud took another look at Lan, and did a double take when he saw a clear bullet hole in Lan's vest. "What the... he... but how did you..."
Lan grinned, reaching into the pocket that displayed the bullet hole; he pulled out a blue diamond charm, with a bullet fimrly lodged in its center. "It's a good luck charm I got at the airport. Pretty ironic, huh?"
Chaud smirked, reaching down and grabbing Regal's body. "That's not what 'ironic' means."
Lan reached down to help pick him up, but fell over as he tried to lift. "Dammit..." He grabbed his side again. "Feels like my rib is broken or something..."
"It probably is," Chaud replied, sitting Regal upright against the table. "Don't strain yourself."
Lan nodded, standing up. "So what do we do now? Is it over?"
Chaud shook his head. "Regal can't do any more damage himself, but I'm sure that all sorts of things are going down in Cyberworld. Once we get Regal tied up, we'll have to jack in and do our best to..."
Chaud cut himself off, as Lan's PET phone rang; Lan reached for it, looking into the screen to see who was calling. "Colonel!"
"Where is Regal?" Colonel demanded, as Chaud leaned in to see.
"He's right here," Lan answered. "He's knocked out."
"Good," Colonel replied. "You must jack his body into a Pulse Transmission System, right away. There should be plenty in the meeting hall."
"Pulse Transmission System? What?" Lan looked around, seeing a lot of strange chairs, but nothing that seemed like what he was looking for; Chaud, however, started dragging Regal's body over to one of them.
"Here," Chaud commented. "Help me get him into this thing."
"This is what it is?" Lan wondered, as he helped seat Dr. Regal in the chair.
"It's a technology that Creamland developed." Chaud sat Regal upright, putting a headpiece onto Regal. "It allows the user to project his body into the Cyberworld, like a NetNavi."
Lan thought back to twenty minutes ago, when he had seen Regal's body in the Cyberworld. "I see..."
Chaud put Regal's hands onto the arms of the chair. "There, that should do it."
"Good," came Colonel's voice from Lan's PET. "Send him into the Cyberworld, then jack both your Navis in; I'm going to need their help."
"Doing what?" Lan asked, as Chaud turned the machine on.
"You'll see," Colonel answered, ending the call. Lan looked around for a jack-in port, finding several lining the table, and he pulled out his PET's cable, plugging it in and sending Megaman into the Cyberworld.
Megaman found three other bodies waiting for him upon his arrival in the Cyberworld; Protoman, Colonel, and the unconscious body of Dr. Regal. Regal still sported the strange orange glow he had before, as bright as ever.
"What the devil is that?" Protoman inquired, walking over toward Regal. "That strange aura..."
"That," Colonel replied, "is our missing Cybeast."
"What?!" Protoman and Megaman turned toward Colonel, who began walking toward Dr. Regal's limp form.
"It's possessing him somehow." Colonel kneeled next to the body. "Controlling his body and mind, turning him toward evil... who knows how long it's been here..."
"So that's how Regal could command the other two Cybeasts..." Protoman pondered.
"That explains a lot." Megaman walked over. "How are we supposed to get it out?"
"That's what I'm here for." Colonel raised his arm, which glowed a bright white and transformed into what appeared to be a giant syringe. "I'll extract it myself, but it's going to put up quite a fight. I need you two to restrain Dr. Regal while I take Servir."
Megaman nodded and bent down to hold down Regal's left arm, while Protoman took his right; Colonel placed his foot on Regal's chest.
"Ready?" The other two nodded, and Colonel plunged the needle into Regal's chest. Regal instantly awakened, crying out in pain and trying to free himself from his constraints; Megaman held him down with all his strength. A few seconds later, a strange orange substance began to fill Colonel's syringe, and Regal's yells changed to a cross between a shriek and a loud rasp.
Megaman felt a wave of revulsion wash over him, and he suddenly felt weak, falling forward a bit; an instant later the device on his hip flashed, warding off the effects of the Cybeast, and he continued to hold down Regal as best he could. After a minute or so of this, Regal finally fell back, drained of his energy as well as the Cybeast.
Megaman sat back. "Is it over? Is the Cybeast gone?" He looked up at Colonel, whose syringe was now filled to the brim with an orange substance; Megaman could barely believe that the Cybeast would fit, but his arm was now giving off the same orange aura that Regal had been.
Colonel smirked. "Yes, I've got him." He seemed awed by the awesome power in his arm, as it bathed his face in orange light. "Well done, both of you... now I've got other things to take care of, in Mother Computer..."
"What? What do you-" Protoman began, but he stopped himself as Colonel teleported away. Megaman stood up, as well as Protoman.
"Well, never mind him. We need to attend to Dr. Regal." Protoman jacked out, and Megaman quickly followed.
A few minutes later, Regal stirred and opened his eyes, seeing two young boys in front of him. "Unh... what happened..."
"Are you alright, Dr. Regal?" Lan asked.
"Yes... I feel fine." Regal looked down at his hands, and his eyes widened. "How... I'm in control again..."
"Yes," Chaud responded. "With our help, Colonel was able to extract the Cybeast Servir from your body..."
"Colonel?!" Regal's eyes shot open, and he stood up quickly, causing him to lose his balance a bit, still a little unsteady. "No no no... this is bad, this is very bad..."
"Huh?" Lan wondered, walking over to Regal, who was regaining his balance against the table. "Isn't Colonel on our side?"
"Are you mad?!" Regal replied. "Colonel is the one who had that Cybeast attack me, fifteen years ago!"
"What?!"
Regal nodded. "That bastard left me to die in the Cyberworld while I was pulsed in... somehow, that Cybeast must have taken over my body instead." Regal looked around, trying to find where he was. "I don't know what Colonel's aims are, but they're anything but good. And with all three Cybeasts uncovered, who knows what sort of damage he could do... he must be stopped!"
Chaud stepped forward. "Where is Mother Computer? Colonel said he would be there..."
"It's this way!" Regal started running off, with Lan and Chaud following close behind. "I'll have to go in and undo the damage I've done to Creamland's system. You two must stop Colonel!"
"Got it!" The trio continued running through hallways, until they reached a metal, computerized door, which Regal quickly unlocked. Running in, they found themselves in a large room full of computing equipment. Various consoles and screens lined the walls, while in the center stood a tall structure, humming loudly and beeping intermittently; this was the Mother mainframe, which held the critical information and systems for governing Creamland.
Regal ran over to a nearby console and started typing away. "I'll get to work here. You two jack into the Mother mainframe!" Chaud and Lan nodded, running to the mainframe and quickly jacking in their Navis, as Lan continued to hold his side.
Appearing in the Mother Computer, Megaman quickly took a look around. They had landed in the center of a large, empty circle; all around them, a short distance away, was a large number of tall processing towers, all of them working on various jobs.
"I was wondering when you would show up!" Both Navis looked up together and ran over to the edge of the area; Colonel stood high atop one of the towers, grinning evilly, the large needle still on the end of his arm. "Took you long enough to figure it out, didn't you?"
"Colonel! What are you planning?" Protoman barked out, as Megaman assumed a defensive stance.
"What do you think? I'm planning to take Regal's place, as leader of this world!" Colonel laughed. "With the Cybeasts at my side, no one will be able to stop me!"
"You're bluffing!" Megaman yelled out. "If you wanted to take over the world with the Cybeasts, you would have done so fifteen years ago!"
Colonel smirked. "Back then, I ran into some complications; a few unforeseen events got in my way. In order to proceed, I needed two things, and I couldn't get my hands on either one until it was too late."
He grinned evilly, chuckling. "But now all the pieces have fallen into place. Falzar and Gregar have been released from their prisons, and I have both keys to unlocking their true power. One is the final Cybeast, Servir; the other also came into my possession just recently, and will be of great help."
His eyes gleamed. "Come on out..."
Megaman and Protoman watched as a smaller figure walked forward from a ways behind Colonel; Megaman's eyes widened as he recognized the petite white figure, her arms wrapped around herself.
"Iris!" he cried out. "What do you need with her?!"
"Iris is the key to unlocking the true power of the Cybeasts," Colonel explained. "And once she does so, they will wreak havoc on this Net-based world and bring it to its knees!"
"You monster!" Megaman ran forward, as Lan sent him a sword. "You won't get away with this!" As he was about to jump up and attack, a loud roar echoed through the Cyberworld, causing him to stop in his tracks. In a flash, two massive creatures appeared on either side of the two Navis; Gregar and Falzar had arrived. Megaman whirled around and looked at them as the two monsters stared them down, wondering how he was supposed to fight these two and save Iris at the same time.
"Don't worry, they won't hurt you." Colonel smirked. "Not until I tell them to, anyway..."
"How are you controlling them?!" Protoman demanded. "What's your secret?"
Colonel laughed, grabbing Iris by the arm and leaping down to Megaman's level. "You make it sound like I've got some trick up my sleeve; you don't have any idea. To control them is my duty, it's the reason I was created!"
He smirked and walked forward, holding tightly onto a fearful Iris, who dared not try to pull away. "Both my little sister and I are independent Navis, created by higher powers than you fools, specifically to watch over the Cybeasts. I am endowed with the ability to exert control over the Cybeasts, keeping them in line, having them obey my every command. If I am in their presence, they dare not move a muscle unless I give the signal."
He threw Iris forward, and she landed painfully on the ground, crying out. "Little Iris here has a rather special ability as well, one she can use if the Cybeasts ever become separated. In fact, I think she wants to demonstrate it for us now, don't you, Iris?"
"No!" Megaman ran forward. "I won't let you!" Colonel's eyes flashed, and Megaman was knocked away by Gregar's paw, sending him flying to the other end of the makeshift arena. Colonel laughed, and raised his needle arm.
"You think you can stop this, can you? You're a fool! This plan has been in motion for ages, and I won't be thwarted by the likes of you!" The needle started to glow a bright orange, and a flash of light engulfed the Cyberworld, forcing Megaman and Protoman to look away. When Megaman looked back, one more monster had joined the fray; a gigantic, orange cobra was lying next to Colonel and Iris, its forked tongue tasting the air.
"Finally, all three Cybeasts are together again." Colonel walked forward to Iris, who slowly stood up. "I believe it's your turn now, my dear sister."
"Iris, no!" Megaman called out. "Don't listen to him! You don't have to do this!"
Iris looked down, thinking of Megaman's kindness, but also of Colonel's severity, and his promise to set her free. "Megaman... I'm sorry..."
She raised her hand, which generated a light blue aura that slowly began to expand. As Megaman and Protoman watched, the aura spread out over the arena, encasing everyone in its light. The Cybeasts didn't move a muscle as they began to glow as well, and their bodies rose into the air, moving toward each other and meeting at a single point. Their bodies began to distort and merge, transforming into one gigantic, horrid beast.
When the light finally faded, only one gigantic Cybeast remained. Gregar's body rested on bottom, streaked with purple and orange and ending in a short, serpentine tail; from his back grew two large, red wings, each one lined with razor-tipped feathers. Its eyes, large and red, glew as it let out a massive roar, a culmination of the cries of the three original monsters.
"Finally, Gryfon is whole once again!" Colonel grinned, placing his hand on Iris's shoulder. "Well done, sis. I knew you'd be able to help out..."
He clenched her shoulder and lifted her up, flinging her behind him, where she collided heavily with a tower; she fell to the ground, motionless, as Colonel smirked. "You're not needed anymore. You're just in the way now..."
"You monster! You won't get away with this!" Megaman gritted his teeth and ran toward Colonel, brandishing the sword he'd received earlier, when Gryfon leapt from his position and landed in front of Megaman, traveling with incredible speed. Megaman yelped and backed off, as Gryfon roared again.
"I daresay I will get away with it, Megaman... as long as I have Gryfon on my side to take care of pests like you, that is." Colonel grinned evilly. "Gryfon! Destroy this interloper!"
Growling, Gryfon swiped at Megaman with a massive paw; Megaman barely managed to dodge, before a barrage of feathers flew at him, knocking him back. As Megaman fell to the ground, Colonel laughed and turned to leave, only to be met with Protoman's fist. He staggered back, holding his face and growling. "You..."
Protoman raised his Long Sword. "You won't be getting away with this. I'm going to stop you here and now!"
Colonel smirked, creating a sword of his own. "I'd like to see you try, fool! You have no hope of defeating me!"
Protoman and Colonel began to duel, as Megaman slowly stood up, looking upward at the monster standing before him.
"He's fast... and strong..." Megaman commented. "Lan, what do we do?"
"There's only one thing we can do," Lan responded, activating Megaman's HeatGuts style. "We've got to try and destroy that Cybeast!"
Megaman nodded, as his body changed to a bright orange, his Buster powering up. "Let's go!" he cried out, as he dashed at the monstrous Cybeast, ready for battle.