It seems kinda early for the next chap, but oh well. I don't really care – and I want 2 finish this… methinks it'll only take 1 more chap after this 1. And I think that the Chronicles are well on their way…
I own Calculus. As of this chapter, I lose property of Dana and Tyro… Why? Aw, heck. Isn't it obvious enough as it is?
Chapter 7: Truths, Mistakes, and RealityLan walked up to the houses door, only to find that it was… busted open?
"Looks like either this door is like this normally, or somebody beat us here…" Lan said, voice trailing off.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Start looking for clues!"
"What? Megaman, do I hear some nosiness in your voice? You want to search though someone else's house?"
"Just shut up and get in there." Lan entered the house, and noticed…
"It's kinda like those rooms with all the boxes in Dana's house." Hardly noticing what he was going, Lan kicked one of the boxes to the other corner of the room. There wasn't even anything in it. Lan kicked a couple more boxes with the same results.
"They're like helium filled!" By now Lan was kicking boxes like crazy, and was having fun too. Until he decided to kick one of the larger boxes to the side of the room.
"OWWWW!" Lan yelled, landing on his rear and holding his foot in pain, "That one's filled with concrete or something! But why?"
"Maybe to stop people who go into a box kicking frenzy."
"Very funny. I'm serious here, MegaMan." Lan got up and inspected the box. "I wonder if there's anything special about it." He walked around the box looking at it. When he got back around to the side that he had kicked, he noticed something he hadn't noticed before.
"A crack in the floor? Hmm…" Lan pushed the box as hard as he could. When the box had fully moved, there was an open, square hole in the floor with a ladder. Without thinking, Lan went down it, and into a strange room. It was like the room above, only this room had steel-like walls, and a corridor that led out. Lan followed it, and saw four options to go available to him (including the way he came) He picked the right path, and walked a bit. It wasn't long until another intersection like the one he had seen before, was in front of him. He went left this time.
"I hope that this isn't one of those giant mazes like in the cartoons…" Lan said quietly
"You mean those ruins?"
"Yeah. Those things. But would those robots really exist?"
"I doubt that, Lan. I doubt that."
-*~*~*-
An hour laterAs it turned out, the place Lan was now was, truly, a giant maze (minus the reaverbots) Lan couldn't remember what way he went or came from, or what paths he didn't use. He felt like he was standing in the middle of nowhere. But nowhere is actually somewhere. So Lan was standing in the middle of somewhere he thought was nowhere. He just kept walking…
"Hey! Megaman. Did you hear that?" Lan asked quietly, slowing to a stop. Another mechanical sound came from in front of him, somewhere along the corridor
"I don't know…" The sound came closer. Lan involuntarily stepped back. He saw what looked like a patch of grey metal coming around the corner, when suddenly, somebody from the intersection behind Lan grabbed him, and jumped back into hiding, holding Lan's moth so he couldn't speak, and his chest so he couldn't move, let alone get away. He groaned in protest of is capturer.
"MMMMPH!" Lan tried to yell and get away, but his capturer had a firm hold on him.
"Quiet, kid. And unless you want to get us both caught, I suggest you shut up and stand still." A somehow-familiar voice growled quietly at him.
"Mph?" Lan asked, voice hardly there at all. Was this a friend or foe from his past? What seemed to be forever later, after the mechanical sounds stopped. His male capturer spoke again.
"Ok, I'm gonna let you go now. Just don't be too loud. Those drones are attracted to sound, and home in on it twice as fast." Suddenly, the person's grip on Lan's mouth and chest were gone, Lan jumped to the opposite side of the corridor as soon as he was free. He turned around and looked at the person that had him caught.
"Tyro?" Lan asked, vaguely remembering Dana's friend's name.
"That would be me… I guess." He added quietly
"But what are you doing down here?"
"I could ask you the same question… Lan was it?"
"Yeah. Well, if I take a wild guess, I'd say we're both here for the same reason."
Tyro nodded. "Most likely. But anyways, I've got to go. Busy, busy, rush, rush. You know how it is." He said, and started heading down the corridor Lan had been going earlier, and looked like he had suddenly disappeared. Lan ran after him… but he was no longer there. He heard another noise behind him.
"Come on, this way!" yet another familiar voice came from behind. Lan turned around just in time to be run into by Dex. Both friends fell backwards.
"Ow! Lan?"
"Ow! Dex? Mayl? Yai? What are you doing here?" Dex stood up and spoke up.
"Helping you. What does it look like?"
"Looks kinda like you're trying to kill me." Lan laughed and Dex helped him up. "But how did you find me here?"
"We spoke to the walls. They said you were down here." Dex responded. Lan thought he was insane.
"You did what?"
"Didn't you know Lan?" Yai told him. "The walls down here are like one huge Jack-In port. You can jack in anywhere and talk with the programs inside on which way is what, without even using your PET's Jack-In cable."
"Seriously?"
"Yep." Mayl responded. "We've been using Gutsman as a guide to which way we need to go to you. Dex insisted." The friends looked at each other. Suddenly, Lan heard the mechanical noise again.
"Drones! Everyone be quiet!" Lan whisper-yelled. Whirring mechanical noise became louder, stayed there for a minute, and then began to fade. When it was gone, Lan gave a sigh of relief.
"What was that Lan?" Yai queried.
"I truthfully don't know, and I really don't want to know. But I do know is that the drones down here are attracted to sound." Lan took out his PET. "So, if what your saying is true… then I can Jack-In even now?"
"Yep."
"Well then," Lan began, "Let's try it
Jack-In!
Megaman, Transmit!"
-*~*~*-
Megaman looked around the walls cyber world. It was all grey, even the programs were grey, except…
"Gutsman!" Mega Man yelled. Gutsman was talking to one of the grey programs
"The bosses quarters are down thataway. Are you a new employee there?" The grey program asked
"Err… yeah. We are." Gutsman said, and then left the grey program to do… whatever it did. "Hey Mega man, what's shakin?"
"Gutsman!" Dex commanded from the real world, "What way to we go?"
"Thataway." Gutsman responded. The red navigation arrow on Dex's PET pointed 'thataway' so the group went 'thataway.'
-*~*~*-
A lot of 'thataways' and a bunch of unlockable locked doors later"The group finally came to a big locked door.
"These WWW jerks thought that they could keep the four of us out with another silly locked door. MegaMan! Scrap the lock program!"
"Right." Mega man transferred from the walls into the door. Running about, he came across the glowing lock program, and started shooting at it.
"That's enough there now!" A voice called out of nowhere an orange Navi warped into the lock program area. An orange Navi that looked like a… top?
"I am TopMan.EXE! Guardian of these corridors! You cannot pass without my permission!"
"You've gotta be kidding me…" Mega Man said – half in confusion, half in hysterics.
"It doesn't look like you're passing through here anytime soon. I don't like it when people laugh at me, so you're not going through!"
"I'm sorry TopMan. But would you like to bet?" Another Navi voice came from nowhere. Protoman dashed in, and sliced TopMan in half.
"UGGGH!" TopMan yelled before he blew up into digital ashes. This wasn't Topman's original fate here… but I didn't want to fit a fight scene in here now. On with the story!
"Well now. That was stupidly simple." Protoman said obviously. Megaman took care of the lock program.
"Chaud." Lan spoke, "You didn't need to be here."
"This is Netcrime. The WWW is back? Then I have to be on it. It's my job. It's all my business, unlike yours."
"Give it up. I don't need to hear your degrading, antagonizing lectures now. We've got an organization to stop, so, let's get on it." The door swung open.
"I got the lock, Lan! But we can't stayed Jacked-In the wall anymore past this door. We need to Jack-Out."
"Ok, rodger. Jack-Out!" The five of them walked into a big empty room (like the first one) but this one had an elevation in the floor on the opposite side of the room.
"The son of Hikari. And his little friends. How unexpected, and yet… very much expected." The speaker stepped out of the shadows on his podium.
"Wily!" Lan yelled.
"Yes… unluckily for you. I almost have my precious virus back… and I find it hard to believe that you helped with it." He laughed his normal, evil laugh. "I also have two of three keys I need to make myself even richer than before! To make technology to revive any virus that I want… under my complete and total command! Then… then this cursed world that Hikari built… will be… DELETED!"
"Keys? Virus? What?" Lan questioned.
"It doesn't matter what he means. Wily, as an official NetBattler, I herby arrest you for your netcrime!" Chaud charged.
"And how can you do that, my little friend? I haven't done anything wrong… yet."
"It doesn't matter! I have the proof enough that you're a threat to society."
"How so?"
Chaud took out a pocket tape recorder. "This." Then he pushed the stop button. "Everything you've said has been recorded. It's all the proof I need to put you behind bars."
"Aha. Interesting. You actually have a brain! Incredible discovery, I must say."
"Stop your taunting! It's game over for you!" Chaud growled.
"Quiet Chaud. There's something that we're missing." Lan turned to Wily. "What do you mean by those 'keys' and this virus? And how did you even survive that lab explosion?"
"My, I thought that it would be easy enough for you to figure you. I guess I misjudged you boy, you're as stupid as the rest! But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to tell you. In fact, I think I shall. You know that five months ago, you're Navi Megaman.EXE squared off against my perfect virus."
"The LifeVirus?"
"Yes. You're Navi also unexpectedly defeated my Virus, and then you left me to die in my lab. However, I was cunning. I made a program that - in the strange case that my Virus would be defeated – I could save it and myself. It was a special fragmented, and when activated, would divide my virus into programs that would scatter across the Net, but would still be easy to find. So when you destroyed – no. Destroyed isn't accurate, - defeated my Virus and ran like the chicken that you Hikaris are, I activated my fragmenter on the LifeVirus data. It worked, as do most my plans, and the mini-programs scattered across the net. I fled my lab, and set-up a new one here. I had no time to re-enlist new cohorts, but I made a simple new Navi… that you've already destroyed. I also still had my two most faithful servants – Yahoot and Mrs. Madd – who did my bidding in the real world. Once my things were set-up again, my servants had reported that my Virus was slowly being re-collected… by someone else. An alien to this world, which did not belong. Five parts on my virus I gathered, but the rest were gone! Stolen… by YOU! LAN HIKARI! My virus… the LifeVirus… you had found out it had been divided over the net by this Alien person… in 20 programs. 5 for each elemental type. You call them DataStrands. I call them Fragments of the LifeVirus! It was then I was somehow contacted by one from the alien person's world… another who had a price on heads. So I worked hard, to capture her… hm. By now I think you have information to piece the rest of this little mystery together? Don't you? As for the 'Keys'… Here comes the last one now…" By another door, further along the wall, Tyro ran in. As he entered, the door slammed shut behind him, as did the door behind Lan & Co. His red eyes aflame with fury, glared at Wily.
"WHERE IS SHE? I KNOW YOU HAVE HER, GIVE HER BACK! NOW!"
"I'm afraid I can't comply with your demands."
"WHY. Why do you want her? TELL ME!"
"There are two reasons for that. One of which I've just explained to the kiddies over there, and I'm not just about to say again. But… I'll ask you… does the name 'Glyde' ring a bell to you, sir?" Wily snickered. Tyro growled and looked like he was going to jump at Wily and rip his head off. Yai just looked confused.
"Glyde is my PET! What could that mean?"
"No, not your silly PET, girl. This is another Glyde." Wily turned back to Tyro. "So, I take it by the way your looking at me… the name does? That's good…"
"There's NOTHING good about that."
"Indeed. It's good for me. I truly didn't want this to turn out this way… but it matters not. Gylde has a price on your heads and I intend to claim it. Will you come quietly?"
The response was expected and obvious: "NOT ON YOUR LIFE!"
"I thought you were smarter than this… TEISEL BONNE!" Suddenly, a burst of flame came out of a nearby pillar in the front, and went after Tyro. He placed his arms up over his face as the blast of flame washed over him, burning his overcoat to the ground. Green digger armour repelled the flames from his face, but a pile of cloth burned at his feet.
"I have NO idea how you figured out about us, but I daresay that you return her to me NOW! Plus, you're going to end up paying for this overcoat of mine you burned! I liked this one!" The five children were just plain shocked. How could this be… real? Wily just laughed in a mockery, and pressed a button on the podium in front of him. A 'KA-CHAT!' came from above, followed by a steel cage.
"MUAHAHAHAHAHA! No, wait. I think I'm overdoing it… aw, who cares? MUAHAHAHAHAHA!" Evil maniacal laughter echoed throughout the room. "Tell me, boy. How does it feel to be caged like the animal you are?" Wily taunted.
"Hey, Lan!" MegaMan called in a whispering tone. "Is that a Jack-In port I see over there in the wall?"
"Hey, yeah. You're right." Lan quietly trod over to the wall, and Jacked-In as quietly as possible.
"Jack-In.
Megaman, Transmit."
-*~*~*-
"Protoman? What are you doing in here?" Megaman asked. It appeared that they had Jacked-In at the same time
"This is my job too. Lets find that cage program and disable it before Wily notices."
"Roger that. Let's split up, it may make finding the program easier. We can always report to our operators if we find it, and the other can join them afterward." Megaman started to look around the network, "I'll take the left."
"Then I've got the right. Let's go."
-*~*~*-
Ms. Madd was sitting in the employee's lounge while Yahoot watched the brat. She took a drink of coffee, and looked at the clock.
"Switching soon, Madd?" ColorMan asked chipperly.
"Yeah." She took another drink. "I just hope Yahoot doing a good job in there." Suddenly, a loud yawn came from behind her.
"*YAAAAAAAAAAAAAWN* Ah. That was a nice nap… oh, Madd? Is your shift done already?" Madd turned around to see a still half-asleep Yahoot, and was filled with mixed emotions. Anger came through first.
"YOU DOLT! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING THE KID!"
"Was I? No, I think it was your turn…" Madd didn't wait for Yahoot to finish his sentence. She raced over to the room where they were keeping her. After she looked into the room, a yell came out of her that could wake the dead. She spun around with a glare of anger.
"FIND HER!"
-*~*~*-
The WWW's underground network was about as confusing as the maze that they passed through before in the real world. But at long last, both Megaman and Protoman found the cage program at the same time.
"Ready to infiltrate?" Megaman asked. Protoman nodded. As the two Navis rushed in, something happened. Hundreds of back-up Navis from the WWW incident and a few from the Gospel Netmafia incident blocked their path.
"Arrg!" Protoman growled. In the real world, Wily just laughed.
"I hope you didn't think that I had forgotten about you, boys. In truth, I was only waiting to see how long it would take for you to get into the network here and try to play hero again! But not this time, boys. I made sure that Jack-In port was placed there just for you, but do you really think I'd do that for nothing?" He pressed another button on the podium… but nothing happened…
"What! Why won't it work? Oh, no matter, not like I still can't take care of you. ATTACK, MY NAVI ARMY! LEAVE NOT A SCRAP OF PROGRAM REMAIN FROM THE TWO NAVIS IN FRONT OF YOU!"
"None such luck again, old fool," A quiet voice spoke from behind all of them, "I will take you down, and you won't even know what had hit you."
-*~*~*-
The back-up army of Navis charged forward at Protoman and Megaman.
"I guess this is it, old buddy." Megaman said as he braced himself.
"For you perhaps… but you know that I can be recreated – Chaud knows my programming off by heart. I guess it's hard for you… you're part of something else. Life won't be the same without a rival like you."
"Yeah… same. Well Protoman, It was nice knowing you."
"Uh-huh." The Navi army was almost on them… when...
"VIRUS INFERNO!" The mechanical chime with humanic voice rang throughout the network. Those two words had never before sounded so sweet to the two Navis as they did then, when a burning red wave vaporised the entire Navi army.
"Calculus!" Megaman shouted as he looked behind him. The grey humanoid ran up beside them.
"Starting the party without me? That hurts!" The well-blended mech-like voice said with a sarcastic tone.
"Well, not as much as that Navi army would hurt if they had gotten to us!" Protoman chipped in.
-*~*~*-
Everyone turned around and looked behind themselves (except Wily) to see Dana in full pirate uniform.
"HOW ON EARTH DID YOU ESCAPE FROM MY TWO BEST SERVANTS?" Wily shouted in protest.
"Ha. Those two would lose their heads the first day they received them if they had not been securely attached to their shoulders. And even then, it's more than what they can chew from what I've seen." She laughed with a sly look, "And you call those two your very best? Then I'd hate to see your worst… oh, wait. That would be you."
"How dare you make a mockery of me, stupid girl!"
"Hm… stupid. Another groundless insult. Look upon these past weeks and see who is truly the superior."
"Tron!" Teisel/Tyro yelled from his imprisonment, "Get out of here, NOW!"
"Not without you, brother!" She looked back at Wily, and took out an odd-looking BattleChip, and held it up. "Let's see how you handle this." She inserted the chip, and commanded.
"Activate Project Genesis!"
End of Chapter 7!
Whew… that was a long chapter, but t'wasn't the last! I've got 1 more chap to go, then the changing to the Chronicles, with more stories! Hope you've enjoyed it so far!