Chapter four: Astronomical Terror
Lan, Higsby, Neon and Ms. Mari exited the school, where all of ACDC Town was standing. Higsby had a comforting arm around Mari, who was still very shaken up from the whole ordeal with Neon. Seeing that she was alright, all of Ms. Mari's class and Ms. Yuri rushed over to Mari. Yuri was the first to reach her sister and threw her arms around her. The rest of the class crowded around them and started talking at different times.
It took awhile for Lan to convince the police that Neon had reformed, but eventually, everyone had believed him. People started leaving the scene, and soon, the only people left in the school's area were Lan, Mayl, Dex, Ribbita and her crew. Higsby had taken a shaken Ms. Mari home and Neon had gone with them to try and apologize to Mari.
"What would the WWW want from inside the school?" Mayl asked.
"The main computer had something the WWW wanted. It was something called a 'Chaos Drive'." Lan replied.
"Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "What're THOSE?"
"I honestly don't know." Lan replied. "All I know is that there are three of them."
"I wonder what the WWW needs them for?" Mayl thought out loud.
"It must be something BIG." Dex stated.
"Hey, Lan!" Ribbita called out. Lan went over to her.
"What is it, Ribbita?" Lan asked.
"I've just received word that the doors to the city hall in Dentown have been mysteriously locked. There were more than thirty people inside when the doors locked!" Ribbita said.
"Really?" Lan asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because there's a force field blocking the lock program on the network that is so unusual that only a WWW navi could create it." Ribbita replied "I thought that the famous net-battler would like to know that a WWW lackey is somewhere in Dentown."
"Thanks, Ribbita!" Lan said. "I need to get down there!"
With that, Lan rushed off towards the subway.
Later, Lan emerged from the subway and into the streets of Dentown. Lan had forgotten where City Hall was, so it took him a little longer than he hoped to get there. But when he DID arrive, there were many people crowded around City Hall. Lan rushed towards one of the kids in the group, who happened to be one of the kids in Ms. Yuri's class.
"What's going on?" Lan asked.
"There seems to be a strange force field on the network." The kid replied. "It's blocking the lock program and now the doors can't be opened."
Lan walked past the crowd and towards a jack-in port beside the front doors. One of the policemen stopped hm when Lan approached it.
"What are you doing, young man?" The policeman asked.
"I'm gonna jack in and see what I can do about the lock program." Lan explained.
The policeman let Lan through and Lan jacked into the building.
Inside the network, Megaman materialized on a narrow walkway. Megaman ran along the walkway until he reached a wider section of path. Megaman looked around, and his eyes widened. Two Aquatowers and a Mine were coming straight at him!
The battle started. Megaman decided to take out one of the Aquatowers first. He unloaded his buster into the virus while the other Aquatower got ready to attack and the Mine stood there like nothing was happening.
When both Aquatowers looked like they were going to attack, Megaman quickly got out of the way. Two streams of water went across the battlefield at a semi-slow pace, but since there were two of them, Megaman had a little more trouble dodging them.
While this was happening, the Mine went under the ground and placed a mine of Megaman's side of the arena. Luckily, it was placed on the back row, and Megaman didn't need the back row for this fight.
Megaman used a Skull Man 3 chip. Skull Man, Miyu's navi, appeared on the field and launched his head into the air. The skull enlarged to ten times its original size and crushed the Aquatower Megaman hadn't touched yet, deleting it in a flash. Megaman continued pelting the other Aquatower until it was deleted.
Megaman focused his attention on the Mine. The Mine went under the ground again, so Megaman took this opportunity to charge up his buster until the Mine's mine was placed and the Mine re-surfaced. Megaman fired his charged- up buster and drained almost half of the Mine's health.
Figuring he wouldn't need anything big, Megaman pull out a Hi-Cannon chip and used it. The power from the Hi-Cannon was enough to wipe out the Mine. Megaman picked up the Aquatower chip that the virus dropped and continued on.
Megaman continued for five minutes, fighting off Metools, Dashs, Aquatowers, Mines and Fireswords. Eventually, he reached a large, square area. Against the edge of the area was a small device, which Megaman figured was the lock program. It was surrounded by a strange, green force field. Lying scattered all over the floor were small circles of puddle-like energy. He saw a swirling portal on its side beside the lock program, and Megaman's eyes widened when he saw a strange figure stepping into the portal and vanishing. Megaman rushed over to the portal and managed to see the network that the navi had vanished to before the portal vanished. He recognized the background of the other network.
"Lan!" Megaman called out to his 'brother'. "The navi responsible for locking the doors has vanished to Miyu's antique shop!"
"Let's get over there!" Lan said. "Jack out!"
After jacking Megaman out, Lan rushed to the right. Soon, Lan was just across the street from Miyu's antique shop.
Lan was about to cross the street when the traffic energy beams suddenly blocked him off. Lan waited for the lights to change, but to his surprise, they never did.
"Something's up." Lan said. "Megaman, I'm jacking you into the light post here. Try to find out why the light's not changing."
"Will do, Lan!" Megaman replied as Lan jacked him in.
Megaman appeared on a red platform. As Megaman raced down the walkways, he realized how similar this was to traveling through the Dentown traffic poles to fight Colourman, a WWW navi from the past.
(Author's note: Yes, I know the game says his name is "Colorman", but what do you expect? I'm Canadian!)
After fighting off a few viruses, Megaman approached another red platform. Like the one at City Hall, this one was covered with puddle-like energy on the floor.
Not wanting to risk the energy being deadly, Megaman tiptoed around the energy and towards the panel on the side. Megaman flipped the switch, and the panel turned blue.
"Lan, I've activated the lights!" Megaman said. Immediately after he said that, Lan jacked him out.
In the real world, Lan rushed across the street and approached Miyu's antique shop. Lan burst through the front door, and looked around. Everything seemed normal. Miyu was standing behind the counter, seeming alert as ever. The antique vase with the jack-in port was sitting against the corner of the wall, and Miyu even had a customer in the shop. It was a young girl about the same age as he was. She had long, chestnut hair that was bundled into a ponytail. She wore a light blue hoody, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers. The thing that caught Lan's eyes the most was the fact that she was in a wheelchair. The girl turned her head around, saw Lan, and smiled slyly.
"I figured that you'd turn up sooner or later." The girl said as she wheeled over to Lan.
"What do you mean?" Lan asked. When he saw the sly look in her eyes, Lan's eyes sprang open. "YOU did this?!"
"What're you talking about, Lan?" Miyu asked.
"The front doors to City Hall have been locked by a mysterious force field on the network." Lan explained, not taking his eyes off the girl. "If my assumptions are correct, this girl works for the WWW!"
Miyu gasped as she cupped her hands over her mouth. The wheelchair-bound girl simply snickered.
"That's right." The girl said. "I'm Kate Allen, a worker for the WWW."
"You work for the WWW?!" Lan asked, still in disbelief.
"Yep." Kate said proudly. "Wily sent me here because he said that you were a terrorist and was attempting to stop him and steal a formula he was working on."
Lan couldn't believe he was hearing. This girl was under the impression that the WWW was good. Wily was using her!
"I don't know what Wily said about me, but none of it is true!" Lan stated. "Wily's the terrorist!"
"Yeah, right!" Kate laughed. "I'm not going to believe such a weak lie! Now, if you want to net-battle, I've jacked my navi into that vase over there."
Lan sighed. If defeating the girl at a net-battled was the only way to get her to listen, he decided to send Megaman into the vase to net-battle with Kate's navi. He walked over to Miyu's vase and jacked Megaman in.
Megaman appeared inside the vase and looked. There was nothing in the area. Well, nothing except for the navi that was standing in front of him. Well, it wasn't really 'standing'. More like 'hovering'. The navi was green, and had no legs. Instead of legs, the navi had a black sphere attached to his body. The navi had a small head, and no eyes. He had two small, yellow eyes. One was in the center of a larger, black circle. On top of his head was two metal wires, generating electricity. His symbol was a few small starts inside a black circle.
"You ready, Astro Man?" Kate asked.
"Uh...Yes, ma'am." The navi replied in a slightly scared voice when he saw Megaman. Both navis vanished.
Megaman once again appeared on the battlefield, with Astro Man appearing on the other side. Megaman started the battle by charging up his buster while Astro Man quickly hovered from panel to panel.
Once Megaman was fully charged up, he unloaded his buster at Astro Man, taking down more than 50 HP in one hit.
Astro Man hovered to the edge of his side and fired a shot at the ground. Some kind of strange energy came at Megaman in the patter of an Aquatower or Firetower. Megaman avoided this and continued to pelt Astro Man with buster shots.
After a few more energy waves, Astro Man fired a shot into the air. Megaman looked up and saw several small balls of energy falling towards the ground. Megaman moved as quickly as he could to avoid them, but it wasn't quick enough. He managed to avoid all of them except the last one. The energy ball took away a hefty 50 HP from Megaman's health. Megaman continued the onslaught.
It soon became a close match. Megaman had 80 HP remaining and Astro Man had 70 HP remaining.
"I can't let you win." Astro Man said. "As much as I hate fighting, I am forced to use my final move."
"Bring it!" Megaman taunted.
Astro Man waved his hands, and what looked like a tractor beam appeared above one of the spaces on Megaman's side. Once the beam was over the panel, the panel vanished.
Megaman's eyes widened as the beam moved to another panel. He pulled out a Dynawave chip, stood in front of Astro Man and used it. The force power from the Dynawave was enough to send Astro Man packing.
Both navis appeared back inside Miyu's vase. Astro Man breathed heavily.
"I suppose you're going to delete me now." Astro Man said.
"No. I can't delete you. You've been mislead." Megaman replied.
"W-What do you mean?"
"I'm not the terrorist. Wily tricked Kate."
"How do I know that you're not lying?"
"Look for some old newspaper articles about the WWW."
Astro Man did as he was told, searching through his memory banks for any old news. Astro Man's eyes widened when he came across an old clipping.
"'Boy and blue navi eliminate WWW threat.'?" Astro Man said. "Hoo boy." He then called to his female master. "Miss Kate! Lan and Megaman aren't the terrorists!"
In the real world, Kate had heard what Astro Man had said. Her eyes widened in shock.
"What was that, Astro Man?" Kate asked.
"These two aren't the terrorists!" Astro Man replied. "The WWW is!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Lan said.
Kate surprised Lan and Miyu when she buried her face in her hands and started shaking.
"I-I-I don't believe it." Kate said shakily. "I-I've been working for the bad guy."
"It's not your fault." Lan assured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't know."
Back inside the vase, Megaman looked at Astro Man.
"Astro Man? Do you think you could open up your circuit box for a second?" Megaman asked. "All WWW navis are supposed to have a purple mist attached to their circuts, and I'm wondering if you could give it to me."
"Sure thing." Astro Man said as he opened up his circuit box.
Megaman looked inside Astro Man's open circuit box. The purple mist shot from the circuit box and flew towards Megaman. Megaman felt a tingling sensation when the mist merged with him, but it stopped when it merged completely. When it was finished, he gave a thumbs-up to Astro Man.
"Thanks, buddy." Megaman said.
Meanwhile,
Dr. Hikari was sitting with his wife, whom was starting to get worried. When he heard voices coming from the other room, Dr. Hikari got up and sneaked over to the door. He placed his ear to the door and listened.
"Sir, the girl's found out that WE are the terrorists." Wily's henchman said. "She's befriended Lan now."
"Well, did you find the next Chaos Drive?" Dr. Wily asked.
"Yes sir. It's location is the Dentown Metroline Station."
"Crud. We shouldn't have sent Kate to Dentown. Lan's already really close to it." Wily said. "I know how we can get to it first. Send Speedy."
"Yes sir!"
Dr. Hikari had heard enough. He walked back over to his wife.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Hikari asked.
"Lan's doing fine. He's already got another WWW lackey to reform." Dr. Hikari said with a smile.
"Oh, I hope Lan makes it through all this." Mrs. Hikari. "He's going through so much trouble to find us."
"He's our boy, dear." Dr. Hikari said. "I have a feeling that he can go the distance."
To be continued...
Lan, Higsby, Neon and Ms. Mari exited the school, where all of ACDC Town was standing. Higsby had a comforting arm around Mari, who was still very shaken up from the whole ordeal with Neon. Seeing that she was alright, all of Ms. Mari's class and Ms. Yuri rushed over to Mari. Yuri was the first to reach her sister and threw her arms around her. The rest of the class crowded around them and started talking at different times.
It took awhile for Lan to convince the police that Neon had reformed, but eventually, everyone had believed him. People started leaving the scene, and soon, the only people left in the school's area were Lan, Mayl, Dex, Ribbita and her crew. Higsby had taken a shaken Ms. Mari home and Neon had gone with them to try and apologize to Mari.
"What would the WWW want from inside the school?" Mayl asked.
"The main computer had something the WWW wanted. It was something called a 'Chaos Drive'." Lan replied.
"Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "What're THOSE?"
"I honestly don't know." Lan replied. "All I know is that there are three of them."
"I wonder what the WWW needs them for?" Mayl thought out loud.
"It must be something BIG." Dex stated.
"Hey, Lan!" Ribbita called out. Lan went over to her.
"What is it, Ribbita?" Lan asked.
"I've just received word that the doors to the city hall in Dentown have been mysteriously locked. There were more than thirty people inside when the doors locked!" Ribbita said.
"Really?" Lan asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because there's a force field blocking the lock program on the network that is so unusual that only a WWW navi could create it." Ribbita replied "I thought that the famous net-battler would like to know that a WWW lackey is somewhere in Dentown."
"Thanks, Ribbita!" Lan said. "I need to get down there!"
With that, Lan rushed off towards the subway.
Later, Lan emerged from the subway and into the streets of Dentown. Lan had forgotten where City Hall was, so it took him a little longer than he hoped to get there. But when he DID arrive, there were many people crowded around City Hall. Lan rushed towards one of the kids in the group, who happened to be one of the kids in Ms. Yuri's class.
"What's going on?" Lan asked.
"There seems to be a strange force field on the network." The kid replied. "It's blocking the lock program and now the doors can't be opened."
Lan walked past the crowd and towards a jack-in port beside the front doors. One of the policemen stopped hm when Lan approached it.
"What are you doing, young man?" The policeman asked.
"I'm gonna jack in and see what I can do about the lock program." Lan explained.
The policeman let Lan through and Lan jacked into the building.
Inside the network, Megaman materialized on a narrow walkway. Megaman ran along the walkway until he reached a wider section of path. Megaman looked around, and his eyes widened. Two Aquatowers and a Mine were coming straight at him!
The battle started. Megaman decided to take out one of the Aquatowers first. He unloaded his buster into the virus while the other Aquatower got ready to attack and the Mine stood there like nothing was happening.
When both Aquatowers looked like they were going to attack, Megaman quickly got out of the way. Two streams of water went across the battlefield at a semi-slow pace, but since there were two of them, Megaman had a little more trouble dodging them.
While this was happening, the Mine went under the ground and placed a mine of Megaman's side of the arena. Luckily, it was placed on the back row, and Megaman didn't need the back row for this fight.
Megaman used a Skull Man 3 chip. Skull Man, Miyu's navi, appeared on the field and launched his head into the air. The skull enlarged to ten times its original size and crushed the Aquatower Megaman hadn't touched yet, deleting it in a flash. Megaman continued pelting the other Aquatower until it was deleted.
Megaman focused his attention on the Mine. The Mine went under the ground again, so Megaman took this opportunity to charge up his buster until the Mine's mine was placed and the Mine re-surfaced. Megaman fired his charged- up buster and drained almost half of the Mine's health.
Figuring he wouldn't need anything big, Megaman pull out a Hi-Cannon chip and used it. The power from the Hi-Cannon was enough to wipe out the Mine. Megaman picked up the Aquatower chip that the virus dropped and continued on.
Megaman continued for five minutes, fighting off Metools, Dashs, Aquatowers, Mines and Fireswords. Eventually, he reached a large, square area. Against the edge of the area was a small device, which Megaman figured was the lock program. It was surrounded by a strange, green force field. Lying scattered all over the floor were small circles of puddle-like energy. He saw a swirling portal on its side beside the lock program, and Megaman's eyes widened when he saw a strange figure stepping into the portal and vanishing. Megaman rushed over to the portal and managed to see the network that the navi had vanished to before the portal vanished. He recognized the background of the other network.
"Lan!" Megaman called out to his 'brother'. "The navi responsible for locking the doors has vanished to Miyu's antique shop!"
"Let's get over there!" Lan said. "Jack out!"
After jacking Megaman out, Lan rushed to the right. Soon, Lan was just across the street from Miyu's antique shop.
Lan was about to cross the street when the traffic energy beams suddenly blocked him off. Lan waited for the lights to change, but to his surprise, they never did.
"Something's up." Lan said. "Megaman, I'm jacking you into the light post here. Try to find out why the light's not changing."
"Will do, Lan!" Megaman replied as Lan jacked him in.
Megaman appeared on a red platform. As Megaman raced down the walkways, he realized how similar this was to traveling through the Dentown traffic poles to fight Colourman, a WWW navi from the past.
(Author's note: Yes, I know the game says his name is "Colorman", but what do you expect? I'm Canadian!)
After fighting off a few viruses, Megaman approached another red platform. Like the one at City Hall, this one was covered with puddle-like energy on the floor.
Not wanting to risk the energy being deadly, Megaman tiptoed around the energy and towards the panel on the side. Megaman flipped the switch, and the panel turned blue.
"Lan, I've activated the lights!" Megaman said. Immediately after he said that, Lan jacked him out.
In the real world, Lan rushed across the street and approached Miyu's antique shop. Lan burst through the front door, and looked around. Everything seemed normal. Miyu was standing behind the counter, seeming alert as ever. The antique vase with the jack-in port was sitting against the corner of the wall, and Miyu even had a customer in the shop. It was a young girl about the same age as he was. She had long, chestnut hair that was bundled into a ponytail. She wore a light blue hoody, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers. The thing that caught Lan's eyes the most was the fact that she was in a wheelchair. The girl turned her head around, saw Lan, and smiled slyly.
"I figured that you'd turn up sooner or later." The girl said as she wheeled over to Lan.
"What do you mean?" Lan asked. When he saw the sly look in her eyes, Lan's eyes sprang open. "YOU did this?!"
"What're you talking about, Lan?" Miyu asked.
"The front doors to City Hall have been locked by a mysterious force field on the network." Lan explained, not taking his eyes off the girl. "If my assumptions are correct, this girl works for the WWW!"
Miyu gasped as she cupped her hands over her mouth. The wheelchair-bound girl simply snickered.
"That's right." The girl said. "I'm Kate Allen, a worker for the WWW."
"You work for the WWW?!" Lan asked, still in disbelief.
"Yep." Kate said proudly. "Wily sent me here because he said that you were a terrorist and was attempting to stop him and steal a formula he was working on."
Lan couldn't believe he was hearing. This girl was under the impression that the WWW was good. Wily was using her!
"I don't know what Wily said about me, but none of it is true!" Lan stated. "Wily's the terrorist!"
"Yeah, right!" Kate laughed. "I'm not going to believe such a weak lie! Now, if you want to net-battle, I've jacked my navi into that vase over there."
Lan sighed. If defeating the girl at a net-battled was the only way to get her to listen, he decided to send Megaman into the vase to net-battle with Kate's navi. He walked over to Miyu's vase and jacked Megaman in.
Megaman appeared inside the vase and looked. There was nothing in the area. Well, nothing except for the navi that was standing in front of him. Well, it wasn't really 'standing'. More like 'hovering'. The navi was green, and had no legs. Instead of legs, the navi had a black sphere attached to his body. The navi had a small head, and no eyes. He had two small, yellow eyes. One was in the center of a larger, black circle. On top of his head was two metal wires, generating electricity. His symbol was a few small starts inside a black circle.
"You ready, Astro Man?" Kate asked.
"Uh...Yes, ma'am." The navi replied in a slightly scared voice when he saw Megaman. Both navis vanished.
Megaman once again appeared on the battlefield, with Astro Man appearing on the other side. Megaman started the battle by charging up his buster while Astro Man quickly hovered from panel to panel.
Once Megaman was fully charged up, he unloaded his buster at Astro Man, taking down more than 50 HP in one hit.
Astro Man hovered to the edge of his side and fired a shot at the ground. Some kind of strange energy came at Megaman in the patter of an Aquatower or Firetower. Megaman avoided this and continued to pelt Astro Man with buster shots.
After a few more energy waves, Astro Man fired a shot into the air. Megaman looked up and saw several small balls of energy falling towards the ground. Megaman moved as quickly as he could to avoid them, but it wasn't quick enough. He managed to avoid all of them except the last one. The energy ball took away a hefty 50 HP from Megaman's health. Megaman continued the onslaught.
It soon became a close match. Megaman had 80 HP remaining and Astro Man had 70 HP remaining.
"I can't let you win." Astro Man said. "As much as I hate fighting, I am forced to use my final move."
"Bring it!" Megaman taunted.
Astro Man waved his hands, and what looked like a tractor beam appeared above one of the spaces on Megaman's side. Once the beam was over the panel, the panel vanished.
Megaman's eyes widened as the beam moved to another panel. He pulled out a Dynawave chip, stood in front of Astro Man and used it. The force power from the Dynawave was enough to send Astro Man packing.
Both navis appeared back inside Miyu's vase. Astro Man breathed heavily.
"I suppose you're going to delete me now." Astro Man said.
"No. I can't delete you. You've been mislead." Megaman replied.
"W-What do you mean?"
"I'm not the terrorist. Wily tricked Kate."
"How do I know that you're not lying?"
"Look for some old newspaper articles about the WWW."
Astro Man did as he was told, searching through his memory banks for any old news. Astro Man's eyes widened when he came across an old clipping.
"'Boy and blue navi eliminate WWW threat.'?" Astro Man said. "Hoo boy." He then called to his female master. "Miss Kate! Lan and Megaman aren't the terrorists!"
In the real world, Kate had heard what Astro Man had said. Her eyes widened in shock.
"What was that, Astro Man?" Kate asked.
"These two aren't the terrorists!" Astro Man replied. "The WWW is!"
"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Lan said.
Kate surprised Lan and Miyu when she buried her face in her hands and started shaking.
"I-I-I don't believe it." Kate said shakily. "I-I've been working for the bad guy."
"It's not your fault." Lan assured, placing a hand on her shoulder. "You didn't know."
Back inside the vase, Megaman looked at Astro Man.
"Astro Man? Do you think you could open up your circuit box for a second?" Megaman asked. "All WWW navis are supposed to have a purple mist attached to their circuts, and I'm wondering if you could give it to me."
"Sure thing." Astro Man said as he opened up his circuit box.
Megaman looked inside Astro Man's open circuit box. The purple mist shot from the circuit box and flew towards Megaman. Megaman felt a tingling sensation when the mist merged with him, but it stopped when it merged completely. When it was finished, he gave a thumbs-up to Astro Man.
"Thanks, buddy." Megaman said.
Meanwhile,
Dr. Hikari was sitting with his wife, whom was starting to get worried. When he heard voices coming from the other room, Dr. Hikari got up and sneaked over to the door. He placed his ear to the door and listened.
"Sir, the girl's found out that WE are the terrorists." Wily's henchman said. "She's befriended Lan now."
"Well, did you find the next Chaos Drive?" Dr. Wily asked.
"Yes sir. It's location is the Dentown Metroline Station."
"Crud. We shouldn't have sent Kate to Dentown. Lan's already really close to it." Wily said. "I know how we can get to it first. Send Speedy."
"Yes sir!"
Dr. Hikari had heard enough. He walked back over to his wife.
"What's going on?" Mrs. Hikari asked.
"Lan's doing fine. He's already got another WWW lackey to reform." Dr. Hikari said with a smile.
"Oh, I hope Lan makes it through all this." Mrs. Hikari. "He's going through so much trouble to find us."
"He's our boy, dear." Dr. Hikari said. "I have a feeling that he can go the distance."
To be continued...