Chapter three: A Bright Mind
After Lan, Dr. Froid, Sal, Masa and the rest of the complex workers watched the police take away Dr. Grimsby, Lan looked up at Dr. Froid.
"Dr. Froid? You wouldn't happen to have any spare WWW Passes hanging around, would you?" Lan asked. "Grimsby said that mine was removed from my house during the ransacking."
"Sorry, Lan." Dr. Froid replied. "After I quit the WWW, I destroyed every WWW Pass I had."
"Hmm...That means that I'll have to fight my way through the rest of the WWW lackeys until I find my Pass." Lan said, scratching his chin.
Suddenly, Iceman's voice came through Dr. Froid's PET.
"Dr. Froid! Dr. Froid!" Iceman shouted. Dr. Froid looked at his PET.
"What is it, Iceman?" Dr. Froid replied.
"I forgot to tell you earlier. I don't even think Megaman noticed this, but after I deleted Flame Man with an icicle, a nearly-invisible purple mist few from his body and transferred into me!" Iceman replied.
"A nearly-invisible purple mist erupting from a navi and merging with Iceman?" Masa, having heard Iceman's speech, thought out loud.
"What could this mean?" Sal asked.
"I don't know." Dr. Froid replied. "But I'm sure that Higsby could find out quickly. He WAS the computer geek of the WWW before defecting."
"I'll go talk to him, then." Lan replied. He bid farewell to Dr. Froid, Sal and Masa as he rushed back towards the subway.
After a quick ride, Lan emerged from the subway and into ACDC Town.
When Lan ran into the streets of his hometown, he quickly saw everyone in the town rushing towards the school.
"Wha?" Lan asked himself. He looked ahead and saw Dex emerge from his house.
Lan rushed over to his friend, who had just noticed the crowd rushing towards the school.
"What's going on?" Dex asked.
"I don't know." Lan replied. "Let's check it out."
The duo rushed towards the school, and soon found themselves standing outside the large building. Lan noticed Ribbita doing a report, so he decided to listen in.
"You've heard me right, ACDC Town!" Ribbita said into her microphone. "There is what seems to be a terrorist inside the school! One of the students who escaped claims that all the students made it out, but there was still one teacher absent from the group when they got outside!"
Lan's eyes widened. A terrorist? In his school?! Holding one of the teachers hostage?!?! Leaving Dex's side, Lan rushed closer to the school, praying that the teacher still inside the school wasn't Ms. Mari. Lan spotted Ms. Yuri, the teacher of the Dentown school, standing closer to the front of the crowd. When she saw Lan coming, Ms. Yuri grasped his shoulders and stared at him, crying tears of fear.
"Lan!" Ms. Yuri cried. "Mari's in there!"
"What?!" Lan cried. Without a seconds waste, Lan rushed towards the school door and barged in.
Inside, Lan was faced with two doors. One led to all the different classrooms and the other led to the Teacher's Lounge. Lan decided to try the door that led to the Teacher's Lounge, but when he tried to open it, he found it locked.
"Lan! Jack me in and I'll unlock the door!" Megaman stated.
"You got it!" Lan replied as he jacked Megaman into the school network via jack-in port on the door.
Inside the network, Megaman materialized. Megaman wandered around the network, trying to find the door lock, which wouldn't be so hard considering the fact that Megaman had done this before.
Suddenly, while Megaman was wandering down a narrow path, two viruses attacked. Megaman wasn't surprised at the green Dash that attacked, but it was the second virus that caught his attention.
"A Hi-Cannon?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! NO Hi-Cannons have been able to infect the schools network!"
Megaman focused his attacks on the Dash first, as he would be safe from the Hi-Cannon as long as he didn't walk in its way.
After delivering a few shots to the Dash, the bird-like virus charged at Megaman, who swiftly got out of the way. Once the Dash came back, Megaman delivered a few more shots, which brought down the virus' HP. After dodging one more charge from the Dash, Megaman deleted the virus.
Now all Megaman had to worry about was the Hi-Cannon. It didn't take long to wipe it out considering the fact that it never moved.
Megaman picked up the zenny that the viruses dropped and continued the trek through the network.
Soon, after fighting off several more viruses, Megaman came across a path that was blocked by several bars of bright energy. Just behind the locked door was the Teacher's Lounge, but it too had a locked door. Megaman looked behind the door he was at, and saw a familiar navi with glowing eyes trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge.
"Hey, Numberman!" Megaman called out. This caught the tall navi's attention.
"Megaman?" Numberman asked. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"
"Nothing doing, pal!" Megaman replied. "I came here to stop this freak and save Ms. Mari! I'm not backing out now!"
Immediately, Megaman got to work on unlocking the first door so he could allow Lan to pass through.
"Hey! This door isn't protected by a code! What gives?!" Megaman said. He then noticed something strange about the energy bars. They didn't look like the energy bars that Numberman was trying to get into. "Hey. These aren't the NORMAL energy bars. They're like neon glo-sticks."
"Try shooting them, Megaman!" Lan suggested.
Megaman did as he was told, and it seemed to work, as the bars exploded like light bulbs.
"I'm through, Lan! You can go through!" Megaman exclaimed.
In the real world, Lan heard Megaman and pushed the door open. When Lan had gone through the door, he spotted a certain tall man with fuzzy, brown hair and glasses standing by the locked door to the Teacher's Lounge.
"Higsby? What're you doing here?" Lan asked. Higsby turned around.
"Once I heard that Mari was in trouble, I immediately came to try and save her." Higsby explained. "But once I passed through that door, it locked behind me. I've got Numberman trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge."
"Ha!" Numberman's voice suddenly came through Higsbys PET. "They haven't created the code I can't crack! It's open, Higsby!"
After jacking their navis out of the network, Lan and Higsby tried to open the door, but it still wouldn't budge.
"What's the deal?" Lan thought out loud. "It won't budge!"
"The freak who took over the school must be using something to barricade the door!" Higsby reasoned. "Stand aside, Lan. I'm gonna break it down!"
Lan quickly stood aside as Higsby stepped back. When he was standing against the other wall, Higsby charged forward and used his shoulder to break the door open. Lan rushed in afterwards.
Inside the Teacher's Lounge, Lan and Higsby looked around. They found that the object that was barricading the door was a desk. They noticed a man with his back turned to them. He was digging his way into one of the main computers. His clothes were neon and flashing, which reminded Lan of Count Zap. Lan and Higsby rushed towards him, only to be shocked back by an invisible field of energy. The man turned around, saw the two on the floor and started laughing maniacally.
"Well, well, well!" The man laughed. "What do we have here?"
"Who are you?! Why did you invade the school like this?! Where's Ms. Mari?!" Lan asked.
"The WWW calls me Neon." The man replied. "I invaded the school because there's something here the WWW needs. As for your third question, your teacher is fine."
Neon stepped aside, showing Lan and Higsby the unconscious form of a woman sprawled out on the floor.
"Mari!" Higsby cried as he shot to his feet and stared at Neon. "What have you DONE to her?!"
"Don't worry." Neon laughed. "She's not harmed." His facial expression turned serious as he pointed an accusing finger at Higsby. "Why? What do YOU care about her, traitor?!"
Lan looked around. He and Higsby would NEVER be able to get to the WWW lackey unless they deactivated the energy shield. Lan spotted a control panel on the wall.
"Higsby! Let's jack into the control panel and see if we can deactivate the energy shield!" Lan suggested as he ran over to the panel and jacked Megaman into it. Higsby immediately followed and jacked Numberman in.
In the network, Megaman and Numberman noticed a new navi standing near the schools main computer. He was about the same size as Cutman, a navi that Megaman had fought in the past, with bright orange armour that occasionally flashed a glowing purple. On his head was a light bulb that lit up whenever he glowed purple. His symbol was an X made out of two glo-sticks. Surrounding him was six energy poles. Megaman would bet that these poles were the source of the energy shield protecting Neon. Megaman and Numberman rushed over to the navi, who saw them coming.
"You're too late!" The navi shouted. "Neon already found the Chaos Drive in the schools computer!"
"Chaos Drive?" Megaman asked.
"Bright Man, you idiot!" Neon shouted at his navi. "You just told them what I was looking for!"
Megaman looked at Numberman.
"I'll take him on while you deactivate those six energy poles." Megaman said.
"I'm on it." Numberman replied as he rushed over to one of the poles and started decoding. Megaman faced Bright Man.
"You're willing to take me on?" Bright Man taunted. "I'll make this quick."
"Not if I pulverize you first." Megaman grinned as he and Bright Man vanished.
Megaman, as usual, materialized first. Bright Man appeared on the other side of the field, with a glowing tower at each side. Megaman cocked an eyebrow, as a navi from the past, Elecman, also had towers at each side.
Megaman wondered if these towers made Bright Man invincible, so he decided to try and unleash his attacks on the navi. Megaman realized that this was actually doing damage, so he continued to pelt Bright Man with buster shots.
Bright Man grinned as he placed a hand to one of the towers. The panel that Megaman was standing on suddenly started to glow. Megaman quickly stepped aside as the glowing panel exploded.
Megaman figured that he should take out the towers before taking on Bright Man. Megaman moved up a panel and opened fire on the tower to Bright Man's right. After several quick shots, the tower exploded. Megaman moved to line up with the other tower and destroyed it, but not before losing another panel on his own side.
Megaman continued firing his buster shots at Bright Man. Bright Man stuck his hands into the ground and pulled out two fresh towers to stand by his side.
"What?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! Not even ELECMAN could regenerate his own towers!"
"Bah! I'm FAR more superior than that failure Elecman!" Bright Man said. By the time he finished saying this, Megaman had already destroyed one of the towers.
After losing another panel and destroying the second tower, Megaman focused his attention on Bright Man again.
Instead of pulling two towers from the ground, Bright Man stuck his hand into the ground in front of him and pulled a single tower up. Rather than stay still, this tower moved up and down Bright Man's side of the arena. Once the tower was lined up with Megaman, a beam of bright purple energy fired from it and sailed across the battlefield towards Megaman. Megaman dodged it, but not before taking a little bit of damage. The tower disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
Megaman fired as many shots as he could at Bright Man before the two towers regenerated. He had a little trick up his sleeve this time.
As soon as the two towers regenerated, Megaman pulled a Shark Man 3 chip out and used it. Within seconds, Shark Man, Masa's navi, had appeared on the field. Shark Man and his two decoys tore across the arena at an alarming rate, severely injuring Bright Man and utterly destroying the two towers.
"You're good." Bright Man said. "But I've yet to play my trump card!"
Bright Man grasped hold of both towers, which had just regenerated, and focused hard. Suddenly, three panels on Megaman's side glowed, and exploded.
"Hoo boy." Megaman said. "I've gotta take this guy out fast!"
The blue navi continued the onslaught of buster attacks. Quickly wearing down Bright Man's HP to less than fifty. Megaman charged up his buster as Bright Man charged up for another shot at destroying three panels.
Just as Bright Man fired another shot and destroyed three more panels, Megaman fired the fully charged buster, wiping out what HP Bright Man had left. The WWW navi was defeated.
Megaman appeared inside the schools network again, standing in front of a defeated Bright man.
"Man! I never realized that you were so good!" Bright man complimented. "Now I understand why it was YOU who foiled the WWW's last plan."
"Thank you. Now tell me what was that 'Chaos Drive' you were talking about." Megaman said.
"I'm sorry, but I have no clue what they are or what Wily wants with them. All I know is that there are three of them." Bright Man explained.
"What about you?" Lan asked Neon. "What do you know about all this?"
"I don't know anything about this." Neon replied. "I'm just doing what I'm being ordered to do."
"Well?" Bright Man asked Megaman. "Aren't you going to delete me?"
"No." Megaman replied. "You've been kind enough to tell me what you know, even though it didn't help much. I'll spare you."
Bright Man looked at Megaman with an odd glare.
"How can you be so kind as to spare me after what I've done?" Bright Man asked.
"Well, to tell you the truth," Numberman, who had finished deactivating the last tower, said. "I did something similar to this quite a while ago. Lan and Megaman forgave Higsby and I, so I can understand why he's sparing you."
Bright Man was silent. He quickly turned on his communicator and silently talked with the master. After a few seconds, Bright Man looked back at Megaman.
"Neon and I have come to a decision." Bright Man said. "You've just showed me compassion that I've never seen as a member of the WWW. Your master, Lan, doesn't even want to attack Neon now that the force field is down. We know how we can make all this up to you."
"How?" Megaman asked.
"By reforming." Neon explained for Bright Man. "By quitting the WWW. We'll even try to fit back in with society around here."
"That shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that I'VE done just that." Higsby said. "But I think the person you owe the biggest apology to is Mari."
"Yes. Yes. Of course." Neon replied. "I'll apologize as soon as she wakes up here."
Back in the network, Megaman turned his attention to Bright Man.
"Hey, Bright Man. Do you remember being injected with anything by any chance? Something nearly-invisible and purple?" Megaman asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Bright Man replied. "Nowadays, every WWW navi is injected with the stuff. I don't know what it's for, though. But I'd do anything to get rid of it now that I no longer work for the WWW."
Megaman looked over at Numberman, who seemed to know what he was about to ask. The tall navi nodded as Megaman looked back at Bright Man.
"Can you transmit your energy into Numberman here?" Megaman asked.
"If it would help, I'll do it gladly." Bright Man grinned as he pulled open a panel on his stomach.
A purple, mist-like substance flew from the circuit box and floated in midair. Suddenly, it flew towards Numberman and merged with him. When it was over, the navi didn't look any different.
"Great! Now Higsby can study the stuff to see what it is!" Megaman exclaimed as he, Numberman and Bright Man jacked out.
In the real world, Lan, Higsby and Neon were standing overtop of Ms. Mari, who was slowly regaining consciousness.
"H-Higsby?" Mari asked, trying to make out the figure in front of her.
"It's alright, Mari." Higsby assured. "It's all over."
While Higsby was comforting Mari, Neon took Lan aside and looked at him with worried eyes.
"I'm sorry, Lan." Neon apologized. "But before our navis clashed, I sent the Chaos Drive to the WWW."
"It's alright, Neon." Lan assured. "I just have to get to the other two drives before the WWW does. Do you have any idea where these other two might be?"
"I've got no clue." Neon replied. "But I'll help out however I can by trying to locate them via the internet."
"Thanks, Neon." Lan smirked. "I really appreciate it."
Meanwhile, Dr. and Mrs. Hikari sat in their cell in an embrace, worrying about Lan. It had been well more than a half an hour since they heard that Dr. Grimsby was arrested, and were now hoping for an update in their sons quest to save them.
"WHAT?!" Dr. Wily's voice shouted out from a nearby room. Dr. Hikari quickly got over to the door to the cell and pressed his ear against it, hoping to listen in. "You mean to tell me that the Hikari kid not only defeated Neon, but REFORMED him?!"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, boss." A male voice replied. "The good news is that before Neon reformed, he sent us the first Chaos Drive."
"That IS a relief." Wily sighed. "Now tell me...Where is the NEXT Chaos Drive?"
"That I'm not sure of, sir." The henchman replied. "We might have to send out a decoy while we search for the next one."
"Hey, that's an idea!" Wily complimented. "Okay. Send out the girl next. If she defeats Lan, then we'll have no problem. If she LOSES to Lan, then at least we've been given enough time to find the next Chaos Drive."
Dr. Hikari figured that he'd heard enough. He went back over to his wife and sat down beside her.
"How's Lan doing, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked.
"He's coming along fine." Dr. Hikari assured. "He's got a WWW lackey to reform, and he's one step closer to finding us."
"Oh, I sure hope Lan's careful out there." Mrs Hikari said.
"So do I." Dr. Hikari added. He then thought the rest of his sentence without saying it.
"But I wish I knew what these 'Chaos Drives' are."
To be continued...
After Lan, Dr. Froid, Sal, Masa and the rest of the complex workers watched the police take away Dr. Grimsby, Lan looked up at Dr. Froid.
"Dr. Froid? You wouldn't happen to have any spare WWW Passes hanging around, would you?" Lan asked. "Grimsby said that mine was removed from my house during the ransacking."
"Sorry, Lan." Dr. Froid replied. "After I quit the WWW, I destroyed every WWW Pass I had."
"Hmm...That means that I'll have to fight my way through the rest of the WWW lackeys until I find my Pass." Lan said, scratching his chin.
Suddenly, Iceman's voice came through Dr. Froid's PET.
"Dr. Froid! Dr. Froid!" Iceman shouted. Dr. Froid looked at his PET.
"What is it, Iceman?" Dr. Froid replied.
"I forgot to tell you earlier. I don't even think Megaman noticed this, but after I deleted Flame Man with an icicle, a nearly-invisible purple mist few from his body and transferred into me!" Iceman replied.
"A nearly-invisible purple mist erupting from a navi and merging with Iceman?" Masa, having heard Iceman's speech, thought out loud.
"What could this mean?" Sal asked.
"I don't know." Dr. Froid replied. "But I'm sure that Higsby could find out quickly. He WAS the computer geek of the WWW before defecting."
"I'll go talk to him, then." Lan replied. He bid farewell to Dr. Froid, Sal and Masa as he rushed back towards the subway.
After a quick ride, Lan emerged from the subway and into ACDC Town.
When Lan ran into the streets of his hometown, he quickly saw everyone in the town rushing towards the school.
"Wha?" Lan asked himself. He looked ahead and saw Dex emerge from his house.
Lan rushed over to his friend, who had just noticed the crowd rushing towards the school.
"What's going on?" Dex asked.
"I don't know." Lan replied. "Let's check it out."
The duo rushed towards the school, and soon found themselves standing outside the large building. Lan noticed Ribbita doing a report, so he decided to listen in.
"You've heard me right, ACDC Town!" Ribbita said into her microphone. "There is what seems to be a terrorist inside the school! One of the students who escaped claims that all the students made it out, but there was still one teacher absent from the group when they got outside!"
Lan's eyes widened. A terrorist? In his school?! Holding one of the teachers hostage?!?! Leaving Dex's side, Lan rushed closer to the school, praying that the teacher still inside the school wasn't Ms. Mari. Lan spotted Ms. Yuri, the teacher of the Dentown school, standing closer to the front of the crowd. When she saw Lan coming, Ms. Yuri grasped his shoulders and stared at him, crying tears of fear.
"Lan!" Ms. Yuri cried. "Mari's in there!"
"What?!" Lan cried. Without a seconds waste, Lan rushed towards the school door and barged in.
Inside, Lan was faced with two doors. One led to all the different classrooms and the other led to the Teacher's Lounge. Lan decided to try the door that led to the Teacher's Lounge, but when he tried to open it, he found it locked.
"Lan! Jack me in and I'll unlock the door!" Megaman stated.
"You got it!" Lan replied as he jacked Megaman into the school network via jack-in port on the door.
Inside the network, Megaman materialized. Megaman wandered around the network, trying to find the door lock, which wouldn't be so hard considering the fact that Megaman had done this before.
Suddenly, while Megaman was wandering down a narrow path, two viruses attacked. Megaman wasn't surprised at the green Dash that attacked, but it was the second virus that caught his attention.
"A Hi-Cannon?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! NO Hi-Cannons have been able to infect the schools network!"
Megaman focused his attacks on the Dash first, as he would be safe from the Hi-Cannon as long as he didn't walk in its way.
After delivering a few shots to the Dash, the bird-like virus charged at Megaman, who swiftly got out of the way. Once the Dash came back, Megaman delivered a few more shots, which brought down the virus' HP. After dodging one more charge from the Dash, Megaman deleted the virus.
Now all Megaman had to worry about was the Hi-Cannon. It didn't take long to wipe it out considering the fact that it never moved.
Megaman picked up the zenny that the viruses dropped and continued the trek through the network.
Soon, after fighting off several more viruses, Megaman came across a path that was blocked by several bars of bright energy. Just behind the locked door was the Teacher's Lounge, but it too had a locked door. Megaman looked behind the door he was at, and saw a familiar navi with glowing eyes trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge.
"Hey, Numberman!" Megaman called out. This caught the tall navi's attention.
"Megaman?" Numberman asked. "Get out of here! It's too dangerous!"
"Nothing doing, pal!" Megaman replied. "I came here to stop this freak and save Ms. Mari! I'm not backing out now!"
Immediately, Megaman got to work on unlocking the first door so he could allow Lan to pass through.
"Hey! This door isn't protected by a code! What gives?!" Megaman said. He then noticed something strange about the energy bars. They didn't look like the energy bars that Numberman was trying to get into. "Hey. These aren't the NORMAL energy bars. They're like neon glo-sticks."
"Try shooting them, Megaman!" Lan suggested.
Megaman did as he was told, and it seemed to work, as the bars exploded like light bulbs.
"I'm through, Lan! You can go through!" Megaman exclaimed.
In the real world, Lan heard Megaman and pushed the door open. When Lan had gone through the door, he spotted a certain tall man with fuzzy, brown hair and glasses standing by the locked door to the Teacher's Lounge.
"Higsby? What're you doing here?" Lan asked. Higsby turned around.
"Once I heard that Mari was in trouble, I immediately came to try and save her." Higsby explained. "But once I passed through that door, it locked behind me. I've got Numberman trying to unlock the door to the Teacher's Lounge."
"Ha!" Numberman's voice suddenly came through Higsbys PET. "They haven't created the code I can't crack! It's open, Higsby!"
After jacking their navis out of the network, Lan and Higsby tried to open the door, but it still wouldn't budge.
"What's the deal?" Lan thought out loud. "It won't budge!"
"The freak who took over the school must be using something to barricade the door!" Higsby reasoned. "Stand aside, Lan. I'm gonna break it down!"
Lan quickly stood aside as Higsby stepped back. When he was standing against the other wall, Higsby charged forward and used his shoulder to break the door open. Lan rushed in afterwards.
Inside the Teacher's Lounge, Lan and Higsby looked around. They found that the object that was barricading the door was a desk. They noticed a man with his back turned to them. He was digging his way into one of the main computers. His clothes were neon and flashing, which reminded Lan of Count Zap. Lan and Higsby rushed towards him, only to be shocked back by an invisible field of energy. The man turned around, saw the two on the floor and started laughing maniacally.
"Well, well, well!" The man laughed. "What do we have here?"
"Who are you?! Why did you invade the school like this?! Where's Ms. Mari?!" Lan asked.
"The WWW calls me Neon." The man replied. "I invaded the school because there's something here the WWW needs. As for your third question, your teacher is fine."
Neon stepped aside, showing Lan and Higsby the unconscious form of a woman sprawled out on the floor.
"Mari!" Higsby cried as he shot to his feet and stared at Neon. "What have you DONE to her?!"
"Don't worry." Neon laughed. "She's not harmed." His facial expression turned serious as he pointed an accusing finger at Higsby. "Why? What do YOU care about her, traitor?!"
Lan looked around. He and Higsby would NEVER be able to get to the WWW lackey unless they deactivated the energy shield. Lan spotted a control panel on the wall.
"Higsby! Let's jack into the control panel and see if we can deactivate the energy shield!" Lan suggested as he ran over to the panel and jacked Megaman into it. Higsby immediately followed and jacked Numberman in.
In the network, Megaman and Numberman noticed a new navi standing near the schools main computer. He was about the same size as Cutman, a navi that Megaman had fought in the past, with bright orange armour that occasionally flashed a glowing purple. On his head was a light bulb that lit up whenever he glowed purple. His symbol was an X made out of two glo-sticks. Surrounding him was six energy poles. Megaman would bet that these poles were the source of the energy shield protecting Neon. Megaman and Numberman rushed over to the navi, who saw them coming.
"You're too late!" The navi shouted. "Neon already found the Chaos Drive in the schools computer!"
"Chaos Drive?" Megaman asked.
"Bright Man, you idiot!" Neon shouted at his navi. "You just told them what I was looking for!"
Megaman looked at Numberman.
"I'll take him on while you deactivate those six energy poles." Megaman said.
"I'm on it." Numberman replied as he rushed over to one of the poles and started decoding. Megaman faced Bright Man.
"You're willing to take me on?" Bright Man taunted. "I'll make this quick."
"Not if I pulverize you first." Megaman grinned as he and Bright Man vanished.
Megaman, as usual, materialized first. Bright Man appeared on the other side of the field, with a glowing tower at each side. Megaman cocked an eyebrow, as a navi from the past, Elecman, also had towers at each side.
Megaman wondered if these towers made Bright Man invincible, so he decided to try and unleash his attacks on the navi. Megaman realized that this was actually doing damage, so he continued to pelt Bright Man with buster shots.
Bright Man grinned as he placed a hand to one of the towers. The panel that Megaman was standing on suddenly started to glow. Megaman quickly stepped aside as the glowing panel exploded.
Megaman figured that he should take out the towers before taking on Bright Man. Megaman moved up a panel and opened fire on the tower to Bright Man's right. After several quick shots, the tower exploded. Megaman moved to line up with the other tower and destroyed it, but not before losing another panel on his own side.
Megaman continued firing his buster shots at Bright Man. Bright Man stuck his hands into the ground and pulled out two fresh towers to stand by his side.
"What?!" Megaman exclaimed. "Impossible! Not even ELECMAN could regenerate his own towers!"
"Bah! I'm FAR more superior than that failure Elecman!" Bright Man said. By the time he finished saying this, Megaman had already destroyed one of the towers.
After losing another panel and destroying the second tower, Megaman focused his attention on Bright Man again.
Instead of pulling two towers from the ground, Bright Man stuck his hand into the ground in front of him and pulled a single tower up. Rather than stay still, this tower moved up and down Bright Man's side of the arena. Once the tower was lined up with Megaman, a beam of bright purple energy fired from it and sailed across the battlefield towards Megaman. Megaman dodged it, but not before taking a little bit of damage. The tower disappeared as quickly as it appeared.
Megaman fired as many shots as he could at Bright Man before the two towers regenerated. He had a little trick up his sleeve this time.
As soon as the two towers regenerated, Megaman pulled a Shark Man 3 chip out and used it. Within seconds, Shark Man, Masa's navi, had appeared on the field. Shark Man and his two decoys tore across the arena at an alarming rate, severely injuring Bright Man and utterly destroying the two towers.
"You're good." Bright Man said. "But I've yet to play my trump card!"
Bright Man grasped hold of both towers, which had just regenerated, and focused hard. Suddenly, three panels on Megaman's side glowed, and exploded.
"Hoo boy." Megaman said. "I've gotta take this guy out fast!"
The blue navi continued the onslaught of buster attacks. Quickly wearing down Bright Man's HP to less than fifty. Megaman charged up his buster as Bright Man charged up for another shot at destroying three panels.
Just as Bright Man fired another shot and destroyed three more panels, Megaman fired the fully charged buster, wiping out what HP Bright Man had left. The WWW navi was defeated.
Megaman appeared inside the schools network again, standing in front of a defeated Bright man.
"Man! I never realized that you were so good!" Bright man complimented. "Now I understand why it was YOU who foiled the WWW's last plan."
"Thank you. Now tell me what was that 'Chaos Drive' you were talking about." Megaman said.
"I'm sorry, but I have no clue what they are or what Wily wants with them. All I know is that there are three of them." Bright Man explained.
"What about you?" Lan asked Neon. "What do you know about all this?"
"I don't know anything about this." Neon replied. "I'm just doing what I'm being ordered to do."
"Well?" Bright Man asked Megaman. "Aren't you going to delete me?"
"No." Megaman replied. "You've been kind enough to tell me what you know, even though it didn't help much. I'll spare you."
Bright Man looked at Megaman with an odd glare.
"How can you be so kind as to spare me after what I've done?" Bright Man asked.
"Well, to tell you the truth," Numberman, who had finished deactivating the last tower, said. "I did something similar to this quite a while ago. Lan and Megaman forgave Higsby and I, so I can understand why he's sparing you."
Bright Man was silent. He quickly turned on his communicator and silently talked with the master. After a few seconds, Bright Man looked back at Megaman.
"Neon and I have come to a decision." Bright Man said. "You've just showed me compassion that I've never seen as a member of the WWW. Your master, Lan, doesn't even want to attack Neon now that the force field is down. We know how we can make all this up to you."
"How?" Megaman asked.
"By reforming." Neon explained for Bright Man. "By quitting the WWW. We'll even try to fit back in with society around here."
"That shouldn't be too hard considering the fact that I'VE done just that." Higsby said. "But I think the person you owe the biggest apology to is Mari."
"Yes. Yes. Of course." Neon replied. "I'll apologize as soon as she wakes up here."
Back in the network, Megaman turned his attention to Bright Man.
"Hey, Bright Man. Do you remember being injected with anything by any chance? Something nearly-invisible and purple?" Megaman asked.
"Oh, yeah!" Bright Man replied. "Nowadays, every WWW navi is injected with the stuff. I don't know what it's for, though. But I'd do anything to get rid of it now that I no longer work for the WWW."
Megaman looked over at Numberman, who seemed to know what he was about to ask. The tall navi nodded as Megaman looked back at Bright Man.
"Can you transmit your energy into Numberman here?" Megaman asked.
"If it would help, I'll do it gladly." Bright Man grinned as he pulled open a panel on his stomach.
A purple, mist-like substance flew from the circuit box and floated in midair. Suddenly, it flew towards Numberman and merged with him. When it was over, the navi didn't look any different.
"Great! Now Higsby can study the stuff to see what it is!" Megaman exclaimed as he, Numberman and Bright Man jacked out.
In the real world, Lan, Higsby and Neon were standing overtop of Ms. Mari, who was slowly regaining consciousness.
"H-Higsby?" Mari asked, trying to make out the figure in front of her.
"It's alright, Mari." Higsby assured. "It's all over."
While Higsby was comforting Mari, Neon took Lan aside and looked at him with worried eyes.
"I'm sorry, Lan." Neon apologized. "But before our navis clashed, I sent the Chaos Drive to the WWW."
"It's alright, Neon." Lan assured. "I just have to get to the other two drives before the WWW does. Do you have any idea where these other two might be?"
"I've got no clue." Neon replied. "But I'll help out however I can by trying to locate them via the internet."
"Thanks, Neon." Lan smirked. "I really appreciate it."
Meanwhile, Dr. and Mrs. Hikari sat in their cell in an embrace, worrying about Lan. It had been well more than a half an hour since they heard that Dr. Grimsby was arrested, and were now hoping for an update in their sons quest to save them.
"WHAT?!" Dr. Wily's voice shouted out from a nearby room. Dr. Hikari quickly got over to the door to the cell and pressed his ear against it, hoping to listen in. "You mean to tell me that the Hikari kid not only defeated Neon, but REFORMED him?!"
"That's what I'm trying to tell you, boss." A male voice replied. "The good news is that before Neon reformed, he sent us the first Chaos Drive."
"That IS a relief." Wily sighed. "Now tell me...Where is the NEXT Chaos Drive?"
"That I'm not sure of, sir." The henchman replied. "We might have to send out a decoy while we search for the next one."
"Hey, that's an idea!" Wily complimented. "Okay. Send out the girl next. If she defeats Lan, then we'll have no problem. If she LOSES to Lan, then at least we've been given enough time to find the next Chaos Drive."
Dr. Hikari figured that he'd heard enough. He went back over to his wife and sat down beside her.
"How's Lan doing, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked.
"He's coming along fine." Dr. Hikari assured. "He's got a WWW lackey to reform, and he's one step closer to finding us."
"Oh, I sure hope Lan's careful out there." Mrs Hikari said.
"So do I." Dr. Hikari added. He then thought the rest of his sentence without saying it.
"But I wish I knew what these 'Chaos Drives' are."
To be continued...