Chapter 3- Street Firefighter!
The following is a fan-made work of fiction. Certain original characters made by myself will be claimed under my ownership. However, I do not nor will I ever claim to own Mega Man Battle Network.
Mega Man Battle Network © Capcom
Ripley Marduk and Reddington Bluemann © HatOnFire/Me
"Battle routine, set!"
"Execute!"
The fight started with Mega Man drawing his Mega Buster, getting a few shots on Fire Man. That wouldn't stop him, though.
"Flame Tower!" Fire Man slammed one of his arm cannons on the digital ground, sending a fiery pillar after my Navi. He was barely able to avoid that one, since it came at him so fast.
"It's 'Fire' Tower!" The WWW Operator told his Navi, "Be consistent with the attacks!"
"It was meant to be called 'Flame Tower' in the first place! You be consistent!"
"Are they arguing?" I almost chuckled, "In the middle of a battle?"
"Lan, we do that sometimes, too," Mega Man stated, leaping away from another Fire Arm attack.
"Oh, right!" I meekly agreed, handing Mega two Mini Bombs to use. He threw one, missing Fire Man by a hair. However, he got him the second time around.
"ARGH!" He grunted, retreating to the back.
"Fire Bomb!" He launched bombs from the top of his torch-shaped head, forcing my friend to flee all around. Unfortunately, one managed to catch him and burn him.
"AH!" Mega Man screamed, landing on the ground.
"Fire Arm!" Fire Man readied his flamethrower arms and blasted forward, Mega Man having little time to dodge and flee.
"Mom, you should go!" I suggested that Mom leave, "Warn somebody that someone attempted an arson!"
"What makes you think I'll let you stay by yourself?!" She questioned with a mixture of anger and worry in her voice, "If something happens here, it'll be too dangerous! We both should leave!"
"I had Mega Man get a program to restore control in the Oven Computer's systems. There shouldn't be another fire breaking out for a while."
With the press of a few buttons, I gave Mega some much needed chip data.
"Even so, you can't chase after the one responsible!" Mom shook her head, "You could hurt yourself and him!"
"W-Well…" I don't think I could retort her on that one, in spite of trying. But I just hate feeling helpless to stop the guy. What if he does this again?!
"Guts Punch!" Fire Man made the mistake of getting in front of Mega Man, and paid for it with a blow to his front via an enlarged yellow fist.
"Dash Attack!" My blue counterpart dashed forward with a Fishy virus on his hand, damaging Fire Man further.
"This kid's good," Mr. Match grinned like a Cheshire cat, even though his Navi was on the receiving end of the fight. "Let's see how they fare in a more dangerous condition. Battle Chip! Lava Stage! Slot in!"
Before any of us knew it, the battleground became nothing but molten lava, instantly damaging Mega Man!
"AAAAAAAAHHHH!" Mega screamed from the damage to his legs. Being distracted, he was hit by a Fire Arm from Fire Man!
"Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!" The red and gray Navi laughed at his pain, "I don't think you'll last much longer now!"
"Don't delay, Fire Man!" Match ordered, sending some chip data to him. "Finish him quick before he recovers!"
"Lan!" My mother handed me a few chips, "Use these, quickly!"
"A-Alright!" I needed to act wisely with this. Mega received so much damage, any attack could be the finishing blow.
"Area Grab and Fire Sword!" Fire Man took a piece of Mega's area, moving right in front of him to swipe with an orange sword.
"Battle Chip! Invisible 2!" Mega Man narrowly avoided a flaming sweep that would have cut him in half, his whole being turning transparent as the attack went through him.
"N-No!" Fire Man saw in shock, unable to stop what came next.
"Grab Revenge!" I inserted another chip, allowing Mega to reclaim his area and punish our foe for taking it.
"Get outta here!" Mega Man kicked Fire Man in his face, sending him away from our field.
Three orbs flew up from the panels the WWW Navi took, striking him thrice in his torso.
"Repair!" Another chip I used turned our part of the stage back to normal, forcing the lava out.
"I thought most of my chips were taken…?" I turned to Mom, unable to help myself from pointing out that little fact.
"Those were support chips," For a second, I would've noticed a brief smug smirk on her face. "Technically, they're not meant for combat, but 'support.' I would have given them back to you after your grounding was over."
"Are you serious?" I was genuinely surprised that she held onto some chips. "I didn't think-"
"Shouldn't you be focusing on your fight?"
"Oh, right!" I returned to the Net Battle, seeing Fire Man was predictably going to torch Mega again. "Bubble Spread! Slot in!"
Mega Man shot a sphere of blue liquid that hit Fire Man, spraying him and his lava stage. Steam flew out of the floor, blocking the view of the enemy.
"Lan, I could use something that could help me end this…" He said to me, quietly charging his Mega Buster and training it on the uprising curtain. He was glowing a brighter shade of blue, and a pink ring spun around him like a hula hoop.
"Sure thing," I nodded, entering the Custom Screen. I wasn't sure what I saw, but I didn't care. I was ending this. Seeing what I was looking for, I selected these three chips.
"Wish I could've gotten the other Program Advance, but this will do just as well," I muttered.
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Cannon A
Cannon B
Cannon C
The screen showed me words and letters, with Cannon A, B, and C flashing quickly. They disappeared when another word came on below the Program Advance line.
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Zeta Cannon 1
Perfect.
"Ready for this, Mega Man?!" I grinned, knowing that the battle was very much over.
"Ready, Lan!" Mega Man returned the grin, firing into the smoke.
"Cross Bomb!" Fire Man came out, launching a bomb from the top of his head. My Navi dodged as the bomb blew up in a plus sign.
"Quake 3!" A light blue orb flew from his torch head, with the orb turning into a yellow virus called Flappy. This virus flapped its arms, becoming a hulking weight with arms! It dropped behind Mega, but he moved anyway, knowing that these variants of viruses can cause explosions just by landing on the ground!
"Fire Tower! Triple Slot in!" Match handed Fire Man some more power to attempt to win, having his Navi corner us in the middle by lighting up the rows to limit where Mega Man could go.
"Now be deleted!" The blazing Navi tried to end Mega Man with his last Fire Tower, but he never got the chance to use it.
"Fire!" I commanded, and my ally sent his payload out.
"Zeta Cannon 1!" Mega Man blasted Fire Man many times, taking apart pieces of his data with only a few shots.
"AAAAGGGGGHHHH!" Fire Man's temporary invisibility from damage saved him from being deleted, but it wouldn't be long before he would fall. He tried to stand and attack for the last time, but then…
"Escape!" He was pulled out of the fight, taken away in a blip. One minute, he was here. The next, gone without a trace.
"Jacking out now!"
Mega Man looked to his side, staring at Fire Man, who was on his knees, several cyber yards from the area. He was logged out in a beam of light shooting up to the sky.
"I should've known Fire Man would lose to you…" Mr. Match whispered, "Lan Hikari."
"How did you know who I am?" I questioned, watching the internal network turn calm. The fire completely ceased, with the ground turning cool and the sky reverting to black with green lines doing indescribable things. Networks are just that random, even when things go right.
"You're the kid who's been going around town being a do-gooder," Match scoffed, "How could I not? 'Course, kinda hard to tell if beating up some weak crook counts as justice."
"Why did you try to burn my home down?!" I angrily changed the subject, having enough of hearing that.
"It wasn't me being creative with the whole thing as it was sticking to the plan. But I guess it would've been a failure, even if you didn't get in the way."
"Huh?"
"Forget it, junior," The red-haired man mockingly yawned, "You win. Game's over. I'm burned out. There's nothing left for me to do but leave. Bye-bye."
The link cut off before I could ask him about what he was saying.
"His plan involved causing arsons just to get something in this oven?"
"But if it's not here, then he went through so much trouble for nothing," Mega Man concluded, catching his breath.
"Bet the WWW won't be happy about that!" I chuckled, giving the order to jack out. Once Mega came back in my PET, I proceeded to go outside.
"Lan, where are you going?" Mom followed me out, wondering what I was planning to do.
"Checking to see if he's still around here," I spoke, remembering Mom was unable to call for anyone. "You couldn't call the Fire Department, right?"
"No, but what does that have to do with this?" She queried.
"The guy had to use some kind of a signal jammer," Mega Man explained, "And some jammers are either connected to the net or traceable via GPS signal. We find that signal, we find him."
"Or at least his car," I finished, "We can't contact the police until we get rid of that signal."
As I just made that clear, I could see a white van parked next to our house. It wasn't ours.
"That's the repairman's car!" Mom suddenly livened up, "I saw it pull up a while ago while you were in school!"
"Well, alright!" I shrugged, "That makes this easier! Mega Man, I'll jack you into the jammer if I can't take it apart! But I'll jump in the van and take that Match guy down!"
"Wait, Lan!" Mom stopped me for a moment, "You don't know what's in there! He could be dangerous!"
"I'm dangerous, too!" I couldn't just stop now. If he gets away, I may never know what he was after. But what came next was just unexpected, even for me.
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"I can do it, Match!" Fire Man shouted in his PET, "Just let me go and-"
"You already lost once," Mr. Match glared, sitting in the driver's seat in the van. "You'll be deleted if I send you back in. Besides, we won't return empty-handed, since we got an added bonus."
"This is disgraceful!" Fire Man temper was apparent, "We can't lose to some teenager and his small Navi!"
"At least he wasn't a grade school kid," Match quipped, "We'd never hear the end of from the others!"
"How can you joke about this?! I want to get even now! I'll do anything to teach that kid what happens when he messes with us and the WWW!"
In succession with his words, Fire Man was no longer in the PET, having sent himself into another network in the van.
"Fire Man?" The redheaded man inquired, "Where did you go?"
"I'm activating it right now," The Navi growled as a machine started up with a hum, "I'll use it to blow off some steam and teach that brat some manners!"
"Oh no, you won't! Jack out!"
"I disabled the jack out feature on your PET. I'll jack out when I want to!"
"You stupid, walking, castle decoration of an A.I. program!" Match saw a robot remove a large sheet from its body, showing itself as a whitish yellow robot with a blank face. There was a blue circle on the face, similar to a camera, along with a blue circle on its chest. "You're jeopardizing everything!"
"Relax!" The robot soon had its appearance remade in a few flashes, and before the WWW operative knew it, Fire Man's appearance overshadowed the entire robot. "I'll take the Copy Bot, and I'll burn down the home and put the punk in his place. Then, we can leave."
"Fire Man!" Match was having none of it, "I command you to jack out now!"
"I'll be back. Just gotta show him not to mess with the WWW."
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Someone kicked the van doors open and hopped out of the vehicle, looking straight at me. That someone was not who I was expecting.
"Fire Man?!" I questioned, seeing the Navi right in front of me. He was tall and beginning to shoot fire from his head.
"In the flesh, so to speak," Fire Man chuckled, running up to me before kicking me in the stomach!
"UGH!" I was sent flying past Mom and right onto the grass of my front yard.
"LAN!" Mom screamed, running to me and helping me up. To say that didn't hurt would be an understatement.
"T-That guy hits like a truck…" I mumbled, having the wind taken out of my sails. "How did… Why is he here?"
"Lan, what's going on?" Mega Man asked.
"It's Fire Man!" I told Mega, "He's in the real world!"
"What?!" Mega Man exclaimed, "That's not possible!"
"With next gen tech, anything's possible," Fire Man interrupted, strutting toward us. "I lost to you in a Net Battle, but I won't lose in a real physical fight. It'll be like how humans settle things."
"Are you so petty you're going to attack me just because you lost?" I spat, staring at him and keeping my Mom away from him.
"If you stayed outta our way like a good brat, this wouldn't happen to you. Now, I'm gonna make you sorry you crossed us!"
"Mom, run!" I rudely pushed her, keeping her in front of me as we ran. The red and gray Navi just continued walking after us, almost indulging in seeing us flee like mice in a maze.
"Lan, we need to do something!" My blue Navi stated.
"I can't take that guy on!" I responded, "He'll pulverize me six ways to Sunday!"
"Unless we use that one thing Ripley gave us…" Mega Man cryptically whispered, "Maybe we'll have a chance."
"I can't risk Mom getting hurt…" My anxiety was taking effect, "What if she gets caught in the crossfire?"
"No, Fire Man has beef with us. He'll go after us."
"I don't know…"
I may have been unsure of that, but Mom's in more danger around me than away from me. In this situation, anyway.
"Mom, he's after me," I calmly told her, in spite of my sweat. "You need to go and run."
"I'm not leaving you, Lan!" She yelled, already hating my idea.
"How long are you going to hide behind your mother?!" Fire Man roared, torching the street with his flamethrower arms. "Face me, cowardly runt!"
"I won't do anything drastic, Mom!" I was partially telling the truth, being indecisive with Mega's suggestion. "I'll just keep running. Get away from here!"
"Enough!"
The WWW Navi charged right at us, shoving Mom away and kicking me down.
"You run when I seek a rematch against you?!" He body slammed my mother, sending her on one side of the road, with me on the other.
"W-Why you…" I growled from the blow and from seeing what just happened, "You're gonna pay for that…!"
Fire Man proceeded to make a line of flames in the road, trapping me with the Navi. Mom was on the other side, and she was stirring, but not able to pick herself up.
"Are you finally going to man up and face me?" My enemy murmured, "Or do I have to set this neighborhood on fire to do it?"
"Mega Man…" I grabbed my PET, which fell from my pocket when I got kicked at, seeing the screen. It spelled out capital letters with a percentage number.
SYNCHRO RATING: 90%.
CLEAR FOR CROSS FUSION.
Pulling out the Synchro Chip Ripley handed me, I turned to Fire Man with a smirk.
"Okay, Mr. Hot Shot," I replied, "Challenge accepted."
"Lan, are you ready?" Mega Man knew exactly what I was about to do. It may seem creepy, but it's nice to have someone know what you're thinking.
"Yes," I placed the Synchro Chip in the PET slot, steeling myself for whatever came next and hoping Ripley was on the level. "Synchro Chip! Slot in!"
The PET screen glowed almost as bright as the sun, with the PET was also coated with the light. Then, the light enveloped me too!
What came after is hard to explain, but I'll do my best.
My jacket fluttered until it tightly wrapped around my torso, with my body glowing brightly with different colors. Blue gloves materialized in fragments, attaching to my hands and forearms piece by piece! There were thin, inverted green trapezoids with cyan outlines on the gloves.
The blue pair of boots came next, coming with inverted light green trapezoids at the front, fusing to my feet. My body stopped glowing, showing an indigo bodysuit similar to Mega Man's, but with more light blue lines on my legs and arms, some in rings and going up my sides.
I also had some form of blue lightweight armor clamp around my chest with gold yellow shoulder guards, Mega Man's emblem at the center of the armor. The blue backpack Mega Man usually had on his back was also attached to me.
A blue helmet formed and fit perfectly around my head, covering up most of my hair, except for four brown spikes of my hair sticking out. The helmet had two slightly pronounced cyan ridges running from the top with golden ends and three inverted chevrons, in order of bright green, gold yellow, and bright red from bottom to top, stacking over each other on the front of the helmet. Lastly, Mega Man's emblem existed on the ear sections.
All in all, my appearance looked similar to Mega Man's! I was almost a different entity of a sort. A human fused with a Net Navi, inheriting said Navi's strength and speed. I felt so alive!
"This is incredible…" I gasped, looking at the new form I took on. "I feel powerful. I've got this sense of euphoria in each fiber of my being… I can't begin to imagine feeling like this all the time!"
"My body is one with you, Lan," Mega Man whispered in my ears, giving me a stereo sound effect. "This must be what Cross Fusion is… But how did Dad make this all possible with Mr. Famous and Ripley? And with what technology?"
"We'll have to think about that later," I murmured, seeing our common foe staring at us like zoo animals. "For now, let's beat Fire Man."
"So, you discovered Cross Fusion?" Fire Man scoffed, not hiding his disdain for me. "Big deal. The WWW has been practicing for a while with that! Who cares if you know how to use it? You'll lose!"
I ran up to the WWW Navi and decked him, sending him down the street.
"Hey, that was a strong blow!" I remarked, willing my right hand to turn into the Mega Buster. It did so. "How strong can my shots be?"
"Just be careful, Lan!" Mega warned me, "We don't want to destroy ACDC Town."
"Flame Tower!"
Seeing a blazing pillar come at me, I instinctively leaped to the side, moving faster than normal.
"Mega Buster!" I blasted a few shots, causing the Navi to flinch from pain.
"Ugh!" Fire Man stumbled back, retaliating with a Fire Sword, swiping at us when he got close!
"Woah!" I had to fall to the ground to avoid it, shooting in his face to keep him from succeeding a second time. "He can't use Battle Chips himself!"
"Lan, he was able to do so without an operator!" Mega Man informed me, "Whatever brought Fire Man in the real world also augmented his skill set! Plus, I'm analyzing him to find out what's going on!"
"Whatever the case," I thought to him and myself, keeping my distance. "His attacks are great enough to pass as real fire!"
Just as the flaming Navi threw a Lil Bomb at me, then struck me with a flamethrower when I moved out of the blast range, I had an epiphany.
"W-Wait," I muttered, vainly trying to shrug off the damage. "Shouldn't we be able to use Battle Chips?"
"Here's the Custom Screen now."
In the corner of my left eye, a small screen with a list of Battle Chips in my Folder came up.
"Why didn't you tell me you could access it?!" I questioned with a little bit of rage in my eyes.
"I didn't know I could, Lan!" Mega retorted, "We're trying NOT to die here!"
"Fire Bomb!" I was snapped back to an abnormal reality, dodging bombs raining down on us.
"Guess we're trading roles," Mega Man mused, choosing some chips that I can use. "Battle Chip! Bubbler! Slot in!"
My blue buster changed in design a little, having a hose-like shape with a long silver nozzle at the end of it. With a faceplate closing shut, covering my mouth and nose, I fired a bubble blast that temporarily doused Fire Man.
"That was cool!" I whispered, basking in the exhilaration of living a Net Battle. "Did you feel that, Mega Man?!"
"I think that was more powerful than when I used it!" My digital friend told me, "This Cross Fusion is making us strong, pushing us to a certain point that could fall under superhuman!"
"I'm invincible!" I clenched my left fist, letting the rush of power go to my head. "Let's break this guy!"
"GRRRRAAAAAAAGGHHH!" The WWW Navi lit up again, shooting us with Heat Shot chips.
'T-They're nothing!' He thought, continuing to attack us. If he had teeth, he would be grinding them together in frustration. 'They're only getting lucky, that's all! Match hasn't even customized me to my fullest potential!'
I moved on the offensive, kicking Fire Man in his stomach and punching him repeatedly in his head. The body blows disoriented him until I pulled off an impossible kick while performing a backflip.
"UGH!" He fell to the ground with a thud, landing on his back while I met the road floor with both feet.
"I could never do something like that while still human…" I noted, recalling my past experience in sports. I was in okay athletic shape, but I could never do anything this fancy. In hindsight, I could've been in sports if I didn't want to be a computer scientist or an Official Net Battler.
"Candle 2!" A purple candle materialized behind Fire Man, having its flame flare up, undoing some damage done to him.
"Mega Man, I need some better chips," I told my Navi, firing at our enemy. The shots may have missed, but they're distracting him.
"Gotcha!" He was reading my mind, "I'll get an advance ready. Just hold him off, Lan!"
I sent my foot in Fire Man's face, taking him to the ground again. I even stomped on him a little until he tried burning me again.
"Burner!" I jumped away before the enemy was engulfed in flames, taking me out.
"Charge… Shot!" I waited a little before I could be able to retaliate, firing a great blast that made the fire Navi cringe in pain. Of course, I couldn't keep myself steady, so I flew a few yards away from him in the process.
"W-What in the…" He huffed, "What was that…? Fighting dirty…?"
"Like that wasn't what you did to Mega Man in the Oven Computer," I scoffed at him.
"No, I get you needed to do that…" Fire Man got up, the candle renewing his HP, little by little at a fast rate. "In a battle between rough fighters, anything goes. The WWW could use agents like you, kid…"
"I'm never joining you," Responding, I raised my fists. "Not after this."
"Shame. Having the son of Hikari would be a great thing."
My eye twitched at the mention of my heritage being casually thrown around like that. But I saw through it. This was just a ruse to buy time.
With a yell, I charged at Fire Man, leaping over his attempt to strike me. Next thing I knew, I stood in front of the candle, grabbed it with both hands, and tore it in half. It disappeared in my hands soon after.
My buster came out, and I turned to my foe, shooting a small blast that singed his face. Knowing he would try to blast me with his right arm, I shoved it away from my direction, driving him to torch nothing.
"Flame Tower!" A blazing tower was sent at me from close range, though I evaded it by guiding it to a random car on the street. The car soon heated up and began to combust. Long story short, it blew up.
"Aw yeah!" The fiery Navi cheered, "A bonfire! Just what I needed!"
"That was somebody's car," I shook my head, "How are they gonna replace that?"
"We're ending this!" Mega Man's voice echoed throughout my body as I felt something come on. It was a rise in power.
"Oh boy…" I lowered my voice, seeing words flash in the corner of my left eye.
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Sword S
Wide Sword S
Long Sword S
"About time," I grinned.
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Beta Sword
Here we go.
"Remember the candle I took apart?" I questioned Fire Man, looking at him with a smirk. "Well, guess what? You're the candle now."
"Battle Chip! Red Wave!" He got to the ground on bent knees and unleashed a lava wave. It was going to rise and move down the road, eventually hitting a tree or house… or Mom!
I couldn't discard my Program Advance now. I needed it! So, I ran for the wave. I leaped into the waves, willingly taking the damage to make them dissipate.
"AHHHH!" I was wrong about one thing. I was not invincible. Not at all.
"HA!" Fire Man triumphantly uttered, "I knew you would do something like that! You really care about this small town. Pretty predictable!"
"L-Lan…" Mega Man groaned in my ears, sharing my pain.
"You put up a good fight, kid," The WWW Navi moved toward me, training one of his arm cannons on my struggling frame. "I think I'll let you live so we can do something like this again. Though, that's assuming the leader catches wind of you."
"C-Can…" I'm not bulletproof, I'm not waterproof, and I'm not fireproof.
"Can?" He pondered, lowering his weapon. "Care to elaborate on that?"
I know for a fact I'm not resilient to swords, either. But then again, neither is he.
"You're a candle…" I elaborated for Fire Man, just as my hand morphed into a small sword. "Next to the sword!"
"BETA SWORD!" Mega Man was with me, shouting as we ended the fight with six blue slashes. With each swing, the sword varied in range and length, tearing through the enemy like a knife slicing into butter.
"W-What…?" Fire Man fell down again, his body flickering on and off, showing me a robot underneath his appearance. "I-I thought I had the advantage… B-But it was a trick… You clever little… L-Lan… Hikari…"
He disappeared, leaving only the shell he took over. A robot, one with a few cuts at its midsection, electricity sparkling out of them.
"Is that a robot?" I settled down, keeping myself from getting too excited with my victory. Not that I was concerned with that for now. "One of those Cyber City Copy Bots?"
HONK! HONK! A white van came around the corner of my house, screeching to a halt in front of me and blasting its headlights at me.
"HEY!" I covered my eyes, though it did little good. I couldn't see anyway. All I heard was the sound of doors opening and the sound of footsteps running over to where I was.
"Fire Man, you fool…" I heard the voice of the WWW agent called Match, "Should've known better than to take this with me…"
"Stop!" I ran forward, trying to stop that guy. The problem with that was that I wasn't in any shape to do anything like that. Besides that, I got knocked down easily.
"You better hope we don't meet again, kiddo!" Match smiled in spite of his frustration with me, "I ain't vengeful or a monster, but I'll be back if you get in our way!"
From what I could hear, he got in the van with the robot, and somehow took off. My guess was the van could drive itself.
"M-Mom…" But this wasn't the time to think about that. I ran to where Mom was, seeing that she could breathe.
The fire that was caused by the WWW faded away after I took out Fire Man, though the same couldn't be said for the car that got blown up during the battle.
Suddenly, I began to change. From what I processed, my Cross Fusion with Mega Man has worn off, and I got to the ground on my knees, my PET rematerializing next to me.
"Just what is this?" I murmured, placing the PET in my pocket and carrying my mother back to the house.
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Mom rested on the couch, slowly waking up. The Net Police were finally called, responding to a car fire that some locals were able to put out. She told them about our oven spitting fire, and they investigated the network while I was questioned by Detective Bluemann.
"And then, the Navi appeared in the real world?" The detective was a little skeptical, which I couldn't blame him for.
"It overshadowed a robot of some kind," I answered, "It was probably a Copy Bot from Cyber City."
I've been there once. Cyber City is a large metropolis with several towns, similar to Den Tech City. They have all kinds of innovations in next generation technology, like those Copy Bots. It was created several decades ago after an incident 20 years ago almost ruined the whole country. Nobody needs to know this boring stuff, so back to the third degree.
"And the man ran with the robot after you beat the Navi who took over it?"
"That's right."
"How did you beat the Navi?"
"With Mega Man, how else?"
He wouldn't believe me if I told him how I actually did it. Besides, it was the truth. I beat him with Mega Man, but I don't have to go into the details. Like the fact Match and Fire Man were with the WWW. That's asking for more privacy invasions, I told myself. If only I knew better…
"Got it," Bluemann took the notes on his PET, which was a very old model. I think the dude gets his gear from at a thrift shop because his salary gets cut a few times.
"Um, Detective?" I scratched my head, wanting to ask him something.
"Yes, Lan?" He raised an eyebrow, lifting his blue hat up.
"Is Mayl going to have to know about this?"
"Our house is next door to yours," He shrugged, "You're not asking me to hide the truth from her, are you?"
"I just don't want her to get involved with another one of my messes," I whispered.
"First off, this wasn't your fault, Lan. You were just unlucky enough to be a victim like the others. But you did good defending your home from this 'Mr. Match.' Also, Mayl will find out, no matter what. As her legal guardian, I should know."
"No one in town needs to know this. I don't want any pity from anyone. That, and I don't need any heat coming from the Minister of Justice."
"Right…" He nodded in understanding, "If she heard of this, she'd call it karma for being a vigilante."
"I prefer being called an avenger of a sort," I wasn't doing any favors in saying that, but I retorted all the same.
"I don't see why you'd want to keep Mayl from finding out," Redd fiddled with his black gloves, "You could use the moral support right now."
'The support is what I'm worried about…' I thought, thinking back to Match's statement when he was leaving me in the dust.
"What really happened when you beat Fire Man when he was in the Copy Bot?" He made another inquiry.
"You don't believe me," I hastily concluded, crossing my arms and glaring into empty space. "You probably think I caused that car to catch fire."
"I spoke of no such thing!" Bluemann replied, rightfully being persistent. "There's nothing to hide, Lan! What else happened?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I mumbled, "And I'm on the fence about showing you. Is it really relevant to the case?"
"You fought back against the perpetrator. Twice, if we include Fire Man potentially appearing in the real world."
"So you really don't believe me."
"We don't have all the facts, Lan. If there was more information, we could piece it all together. Now, you defeated the Navi twice, once in the virtual world, and once in the real world. The scorch marks on the road that trails to the car proves that there was an altercation here. You know how, who, and why."
"It's not like I'm trying to interfere with the investigation, Redd," I defended myself, "But what happened outside is a lot to process. I'm not even up to show you how I did it."
"How you… 'Did it?'" He repeated, rubbing his index finger against his chin while holding his right arm up with his left. "Will you tell me?"
"I can't right now," I shook my head, looking to Mom, who was tended to by a policewoman. "Mom's been through a lot. Maybe I can show you what happened on the weekend? It sort of ties into the chip you gave me before school today."
"It does?" Now he was getting a little more interested, or I thought he was. It's hard to tell with his poker face. "And you'll tell me this weekend?"
"As long as nothing life-threatening happens, I will," I promised him, "But I need to look after Mom and… Oh crud, my homework!"
"So this was a bad time," The detective pinched his nose and closed his eyes, displeased with himself.
"Look, I'll get back to you," I sweated a little, thinking of my math drills. "But I really don't want Mayl hearing my problems. Not this time."
"If you're ashamed with letting the criminal get away, don't be," Redd insisted, "It happens to the best of us."
"Match said he knows where I live now," I revealed, silencing him in the process. "He may've said that to intimidate me, but I don't want him to try again if I can help it. That's why I don't want her involved."
"I see," Detective Bluemann understood, bobbing his head. "But if she learns of this, it's not my fault."
"Okay," It was as good an answer as I could get. I went upstairs to finish a week's worth of homework for tomorrow, my stomach growling from a lack of dinner.
"Oh well, roast is overrated, even by meat standards."
01101011001101010101110111000100100010011010110100101001
"He failed me..."
"Yes, sir," A calm voice whispered, "The package was damaged and the information, from the start, was lacking."
"Is that Official Net Battler getting wise?" A deep elderly man growled, typing a few buttons on a keyboard.
"We are looking into the matter, my lord," The collected man answered, "This could only be a coincidence."
"No matter. The Fire Program can wait until the end. Right now, we'll focus on the Wood Program. As it will be transported by train, it won't be too hard to claim."
"The decoy sleeper is performing his mission well, recruiting minors for our more sporadic crimes."
"Size him up for a position at ACDC High School," The old man pulled up a picture of the school on the monitor for him to see, "For the later phase of our plan, we'll observe our next target. It will even get us a chance to spy on the Net Battler interfering with some of our smaller scale operations."
"Eliminating our foes now while they aren't a significant threat would be wise," The right hand man of the WWW mused aloud.
"The international Net Battler is famous for many reasons," The WWW's leader stated, "We need not risk several global law enforcement agencies cracking down on us over a reckless endeavor. As for the ACDC Net Battler, we'd only anger the Officials and draw attention to ourselves."
"As you wish. But how will we handle our enemies? They might interfere again."
"Stone Man will have to be ready for them, without the Copy Bot. We'll need the Dimensional Area Generator so he can distract them and the police. Make sure the Professor finishes up with the device before Friday."
"Yes, Lord Wily."
A door opened and closed, indicating the right hand man had left the room.
The old hand of this 'Lord Wily' typed a key command, pulling up two different pictures on his monitor. One of them was of a boy and a girl in their teens.
"You two are catching up," He whispered, "But can you unravel my plans, Chaud? Can you as well, Sakurai?"
CHAPTER 3 END