Now, time for Blind Panic! Man I've been waiting to write this . . .

But first - responses to reviews.

To blazenight01 - by 'the talking thing', I assume you mean what I wrote about people being unable to hear the Navis (or whoever isn't in control) when they speak unless they're also in Cross Fusion? That's actually a headcanon-type of deal, somewhat based on that one moment when Lan and MegaMan first meet BubbleMan. Basically, Lan and MegaMan are having a conversation/argument while in Cross Fusion, and BubbleMan says something like 'you're the one who's talking to yourself', which implies that he didn't hear the full conversation. Meanwhile, Chaud and ProtoMan were able to respond to both Lan and MegaMan, and all of them were in Cross Fusion, so I basically decided that only people using Cross Fusion can hear whoever isn't in control as well - to anyone else, it just sounds like the person in control is talking to themselves, if they're speaking out loud.

Mari - pfff, I live to confuse! And also terrify. Yeah, TimeMan took a while to write and it ended up being, what, twice as long as I thought it'd be? So I had about eight chapters to upload at once. That's a lot of chapters, for System Error. Also, thank you! Your kind words make me wanna write even more! And also the fact that I managed to surprise you with a massive amount of chapters kinda makes me wanna write like eight chapters for another 'part' purely so I can confuse people. I'm weird like that, lol.

Anyway, onto the first chapter of Blind Panic.

I don't own MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior, on with the show!

OOOOOO

The email had arrived several minutes ago, and ProtoMan, even though he had read it and re-read it and then re-read it again, was unable to understand it.

The only thought in his head was, why? Why me?

" . . . ProtoMan?" Chaud asked tentatively.

"Why?" he finally spoke, echoing his thoughts. He was unable to tear his eyes away from the contents of the email. "Why did they send this to us? Why did they choose us?"

"W-well . . ." Chaud went quiet for a moment. "The commissioner wants us to represent the Net Police in a battle royale tournament-"

"I know what he wants us to do," ProtoMan interrupted, something he rarely ever did. He was too shocked to worry about anything else. "But why us? Why me?"

"We . . . we won't be the only ones there. Lan and Raika-"

"Yes, I know. It says so in the email. It lists all of us. As usual. But why me? And why . . . why that?" ProtoMan gestured towards the end of the email, where the rules and restrictions were listed for the recipients to read.

He hadn't thought much about the email - aside from wondering what sort of strategies he and his teammates would be using in the battle royale - until he had read that one specific line of the restrictions. That was why he was having such a difficult time with it now.

"No Navi attachments of any kind." Chaud read the line so quietly that ProtoMan almost didn't hear him.

"I don't understand," ProtoMan said to him, finally tearing himself away from the email so he could look at Chaud. "What does this mean? Does . . . does it . . . does this include my helmet?"

" . . . You weren't created with it," Chaud said, almost cringing away from ProtoMan.

It was only then that he realised how tense he was, and how his rigid stance must look to Chaud, who had been conditioned to think 'rigidness equals anger'. ProtoMan had to force himself to relax, though it was extremely difficult given the current circumstances.

"So this restriction may include my helmet," ProtoMan summarised.

"Yeah."

"Which I am completely and utterly blind without."

"Yes."

ProtoMan had the overwhelming urge to hit something, or at least shout his frustration, and the only reason he didn't was because he didn't want to scare his operator. Chaud was already wary enough as it was. But maybe later, when he was alone, he could let out his frustrations - never in front of Chaud, though. Never.

For now, he took a deep breath and turned back to the email, re-reading it for the fourth time since they had received it.

"I have not fought blind for years," he said. "I have grown used to sight. I enjoy it."

"Maybe . . . maybe it won't count? I mean, it's a helmet, and no one's ever actually seen you without it . . ."

"You have. Our classmates also. And my creator." He wouldn't say 'your father'. That man barely qualified as a human, nevermind a father.

"No one else, though. But . . ."

ProtoMan looked back at him. Chaud was staring at his desk, like he was avoiding ProtoMan's gaze, but his eyes flickered up to briefly meet ProtoMan's - his broken, blind eyes which only worked because Chaud had given him this wonderful helmet so long ago.

"You've never said anything about this to anyone," Chaud said reluctantly, like he was afraid of angering ProtoMan by saying the wrong thing. "I didn't mention it because you didn't, but I . . . I didn't know this would be so . . ."

"It is not that I want to keep it a secret," ProtoMan said. "It's just . . . I do not want anyone to look at me differently. I do not wish for them to treat me any differently."

"We don't know they won't," Chaud tried to encourage him.

ProtoMan shook his head. "They would," he sighed. "Besides, I did not mention this because it never came up. What am I meant to say? By the way, I'm an oldgen prototype Navi with an unrepairable glitch in my programming that makes me completely blind. How am I to fit that into any conversation? Aside from my deleted siblings, I'm the only crippled Navi to exist. No one could understand."

"I do," Chaud mumbled.

ProtoMan couldn't hold back a smile. "I know you do," he said gently. "And I thank you for that. But this tournament . . . If my helmet does indeed count for the restriction, then I will be forced to fight blind once again. I . . . I can do that. I know I can. I have done it before and it is not something one forgets easily. But the others will know. I-I know I said I do not actually want to keep my blindness a secret, but . . ."

"You wanna be treated like a normal Navi," Chaud finished. "Not a glitched prototype."

" . . . Yes. It's selfish, I know, but-"

"It isn't." Now it was Chaud's turn to interrupt. "You don't want your friends to treat you like you're different, or weird. That's not selfish, ProtoMan, it's basic human nature. Or, well, basic Navi nature, I guess."

ProtoMan nodded.

Silence fell between them, and during that silence, ProtoMan glanced once more at the email detailing their newest mission - to enter into the DenTech Battle Royale Tournament as a team alongside Lan, MegaMan, Raika and SearchMan to represent the Net Police.

Another line in the restrictions jumped out at him. While the human operators would be on the teams, they would not be allowed to actually operate their Navis - this was, essentially, a basic skills tournament, which meant every single Navi would be forced to fight entirely on their own. It tied in with the 'no Navi attachments of any kind' restriction, because an operator could easily turn the tide of battle in their Navi's favour by downloading battle chips or attachments.

But there was a problem with that restriction also - ProtoMan could fight blind, but he could not fight without Chaud's direction. It was . . . impossible, as far as he was aware. He had never fought solo while he was blind.

It just could not be done.

"We could refuse," Chaud suddenly said. ProtoMan glanced at him, surprised. "I . . . well, I mean, if you really don't want to do it. We could ask Misaki and PrisMan to take our place. Or Manabe and her Navi."

" . . . No," ProtoMan decided, after a moment of consideration. "People will just ask awkward questions if I refuse to take part. I could probably deal with the fallout, but you . . ."

"I can handle a few bullies."

"From school, yes. From the media, no. And, well, I do not think my pride could take it if I stepped down from something like this. I may end up regretting this, but I will do it. I just . . . have to hope that I can keep my helmet."

"If not . . . what do we do? I can't help you at all . . ."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," ProtoMan replied, though it would be more like jumping off it.

OOOOOO

You can probably guess what's gonna happen just from this chapter alone, but here's what you don't know about this 'part' - I've had to put a lot of thought into what style of tournament this would be.

My own restrictions were obviously the ones that ProtoMan's so broken up about in the chapter - whatever style of tournament I went for, two of the rules had to be 'no Navi attachments of any kind' and 'operators are not allowed to assist their Navis in any way'.

Otherwise, how could the plot of Blind Panic be justified? But it does make sense in context.

Basically, I went through a few ideas before deciding on a battle royale-style tournament that would be fought in teams of three. In this case, MegaMan, ProtoMan and SearchMan would be one team. I'll probably explain more about the actual tournament in the next chapter (in the narration or the ANs, whichever), but what ProtoMan means by a 'basic skills tournament' is that the Navis can't use battle chips or attachments. It's all just the Navis going at each other in teams of three with their basic weapons only.

Which kinda means MegaMan might be at a disadvantage as well, since he's only got his Mega Buster - but he isn't blind like ProtoMan, so it's not as bad.

Anyway, while I was writing this chapter, blazenight01 reviewed some more, so I'll just answer those reviews (or the ones that're showing up, cus one or two seem to have turned invisible or whatever for some reason) and then I'll end this chapter.

Blazenight01 - yeah, the Darkloids are pretty much gone by the time we get to Beast+, and maybe BubbleMan is the last one, but I'm kinda taking this whole thing with new Darkloids showing up and basing it sort of on the four Darkloids that showed up during Dark MegaMan's arc. We never saw those four before, so I basically decided to headcanon that there are probably other Darkloids running around, either in hiding or just waiting for their time to shine (or get beaten down, whatever), and TimeMan decided to make his move during the events of the previous 'part'. Darkloids are basically one way for me to get Cross Fusion into the battles, because otherwise I'll end up spamming the CopyBot plot, which is something that I kinda don't wanna do. Plus they're the perfect source for angst and a good excuse to beat up the main characters, cus basically all of them are sadistic assholes (barring BubbleMan, who pretty much just shows up to occasionally annoy people. I guess he's like a neutral nuisance or something).

Pfff. Neutral nuisance. That's gotta be the most accurate description of BubbleMan ever. What do you guys think of it?

Read and review!