Chapter six: Clowning Around
Lan spent a good five minutes trying to explain to Donald what the WWW was. After Donald finally got it, the two left the room and went back into the station. Before getting on the train to ACDC Town, Lan looked up at Donald.
"Donald, I need to tell you something." Lan said.
"Shoot." Donald replied.
"Your navi merged with a mysterious purple mist. Until I find out what it does, I need you to STAY in Japan." Lan explained.
"Sure thing." Donald replied. "I'll go take a look around Dentown. I never really got a chance to before."
After Donald walked back up the stairs and into the streets of Dentown, Lan got onto the train as it took off.
Lan arrived in ACDC Town. He got off the train and rushed up the stairs. When he got onto the street, Megaman spoke up.
"Let's go look for Neon." Megaman suggested. "He may give us a lead for the final Chaos Drive."
"You may be right." Lan replied. "He might be in Higsby's Chip Shop."
Lan rushed as quick as he could to the Chip Shop, not stopping until he arrived.
Sure enough, when Lan entered the Chip Shop, he saw Neon. The former WWW lackey was talking with Higsby.
"Hey, Neon." Lan said. Neon turned around.
"Oh, Lan!" Neon said. "I've found out that one of the Chaos Drives is in the Dentown Metroline Station!"
"I know." Lan replied. "I was just there, and the Chaos Drive was stolen." Lan turned away for a few seconds, then turned back. "Have you found out anything about the third one yet?"
"Well, I don't know where it is exactly, but from what I've gathered so far, it's somewhere in ACDC Town."
"Well, that narrows the field quite a bit." Lan said as he scratched his chin.
"Hey, Lan." Higsby said. "If it helps, I've heard that there's a WWW lackey hiding out around the mall."
"Hey, that just might help!" Lan exclaimed. "How do I get there, again?"
"There's a road beside the school." Higsby explained. "Follow that and you should get to ACDC Town's mall."
As soon as Higsby said that, Neon's eyes widened.
"Wait a minute! Lan! I heard a few of your friends talking about going to the mall!" Neon exclaimed.
"What?!" Lan cried. "They could be in danger! Which of my friends are they?"
"I believe it was Mayl, Dex and Jake." Neon explained.
"Thanks, guys!" Lan said as he rushed out the door.
As quickly as he could, Lan rushed down the road beside the school. He ran for about five minutes until he reached a large complex: the ACDC Town Mall. Lan rushed towards the front doors and ran into the mall.
Lan rushed through the mall, keeping a keen eye open for his three friends. The mall was full of people, and there was even a clown standing at a corner, making strange noises with a kazoo he had in his mouth to people walking by.
Lan was about to give up when he suddenly noticed something that caught his eye: A girl about his age walking from store to store, being followed by two boys carrying loads of bags. Lan sighed in relief. Mayl, Dex and Jake. He then snickered, seeing Mayl on one of her little shopping sprees. Lan walked over to his friends, whom had just noticed him.
"Hey, Lan." Mayl said with a grin. "You should see the amazing prices that some of these stores have."
"How can you buy so much stuff, anyway?" Dex asked with a groan as he tried to get a better grip of some of the bags he was carrying.
"Dex is right, Mayl." Jake added. "How can you possibly use all this stuff?"
"You never know when a lot of this stuff would come in handy." Mayl replied brightly. She then turned to Lan. "So, why are you here, Lan?"
"Higsby heard that there's a WWW lackey hanging around here somewhere." Lan replied as he looked around. "But I don't see anything out of order here."
"A WWW lackey?!" Mayl gasped, not wanting to shout and alarm the civilians.
"I'm afraid so." Lan replied.
"What could the WWW want here?" Jake asked.
"I dunno. Could be a Chaos Drive." Lan said.
"A Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "Think, Lan. Why would a Chaos Drive be here?"
"Anything's possible." Lan replied. "The first two were in the school and Dentown metroline station."
"I guess so." Dex stated. "But if it's not here, where else could it be?"
"I was just at Higsby's Chip Shop and Neon tells me that it's somewhere in ACDC Town." Lan said.
There was silence for a few seconds, then Lan spoke up again.
"Guys, just to be safe, I think we should jack into the mall's network and see if the Chaos Drive is in the mall." Lan said.
"Lan's right, mates!" Jake exclaimed. "Let's find a jack-in port and search the network!"
As quick as they could, Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake rushed to the nearest jack- in port, which happened to be hanging on the wall near a security guard. As the four kids rushed over to the jack-in port, the guard stopped them.
"And just what do you kids think you're doing?" The guard asked sternly.
"Mister, we think there might be something of high importance inside the mall's network that the WWW is after." Lan explained.
"How can you prove this?" The guard asked.
"He's Lan Hikari!" Mayl explained. "Do you REALLY think Lan Hikari would lie about something like this?!"
The guard seemed shocked at Mayl's statement, and turned to Lan. He appeared to be studying the small boy over. After a few seconds, the guard's eyes widened.
"Oh, man! You ARE Lan Hikari!" The guard exclaimed. "Well, if that's the case, then go ahead and jack in. Your friends can too."
"Thanks, mister!" Lan thanked as he and his three friends rushed to the jack-in port and jacked his or her navi into the network.
Megaman, Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man materialized inside the mall's network. The four navis looked around, but all they saw was the programs for the different stores.
"Well, nothing seems to be out of order here." Roll stated.
"But viruses could still be anywhere, dudes." Burner Man said. "Best keep out groovy eyes open."
"Why do you keep saying things like that?" Gutsman asked the 'groovy' navi.
"Like what, dude?" Burner Man asked. Gutsman rolled his eyes. The way Burner Man was talking, it almost made Gutsman look like a genius.
The four navis went through the malls network, fighting off Snake Eggs, Woodtowers, Dynawave Metools and even a few Ironbodys and Drain2s.
After travelling through the network for about five minutes, each of the navis, even Gutsman, had fought off quite a few viruses and had each gained a lot of zenny. However, they didn't find anything that might've passed as the third Chaos Drive.
"We've searched the network top to bottom." Megaman said in defeat. "And still no Chaos Drive."
"We might as well have out operators jack us out." Gutsman suggested.
The other three navis were about to agree, when they suddenly heard a high- pitched, squeaky laugh coming from above. The four navis looked up, and saw a new navi falling from above. The new navi landed on its feet and looked at the group of friends.
This new navi, which had now been identified as a male, was a strange- looking one. He wore a red and purple jester suit which was red on one half and purple on the other, and had long, ape-like arms that reached the floor. His jester hat had the same colours as his suit, only they were inverted. His wide, cheeky grin was enough to make the four friends wonder why the heck they were even in the same area with this freak. His symbol was a question mark inside a red circle.
"Who the hey are you?" Roll asked.
The new navi merely squeaked his response. The four navis continued to stare oddly at him.
"Can't talk, huh?" Megaman asked. The navi quickly nodded his head.
"Where'd this guy come from?" Gutsman asked, looking up into the air where this navi had mysteriously appeared.
The navi pulled out what looked like a piece of paper and started writing on it with his finger. When he was finished, the navi showed the paper to the other navis.
"He says that his name is Clown Man." Megaman read. His eyes widened at the next sentence. "And he's a navi for the WWW!"
"What?!" the other three said at once. Clown Man slowly nodded his head while grinning evilly.
Megaman quickly turned to the others. "You guys back me up. I'll take him on."
Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man agreed as Megaman and Clown Man vanished.
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with Clown Man on the other side. The battle started, and Megaman quickly started to unload his buster.
After managing to do quite a bit of damage to the WWW navi, Megaman noticed Clown Man getting ready to attack. The blue navi got ready for the atack, but was surprised when Clown Man made a giant beach ball appear on Megaman's side of the arena and it started to bounce around. Megaman easily avoided this and continued to unload his buster.
After Megaman brought Clown Man's HP down some more, Clown Man rushed to the edge of his side of the arena and brought his extra-long arms to the ground with such great impact that all of the panels on Megaman's side became cracked.
Megaman smirked as he pulled out a Gutsman3 chip. It was time to fight fire with fire.
"Gutsman! Help me out!" Megaman shouted as he used the chip.
Gutsman appeared on the arena and slammed his fists against the ground. Not only was Clown Man's side cracked, but a shock wave was also sent out, taking off a hundred HP from Clown Man's energy.
After Clown Man's energy was brought down pretty low, the WWW navi wound up for his final attack. Megaman wondered what pathetic attack Clown Man would lash out next.
Megaman sweatdropped when Clown Man started hurling pies all over Megaman's side of the arena. Megaman was hit by one of the pies, and surprisingly, a good hunk of his energy was taken down.
Megaman's eyes widened. Maybe this attack wasn't so pathetic after all. As quickly as he could, Megaman charged up his buster. Once it was fully charged, Megaman unloaded it on Clown Man, wiping the WWW navi out.
Megaman materialized back inside the network, standing over a heavily- breathing Clown Man.
Megaman looked back at his friends. He saw Roll and Gutsman, but Burner Man was nowhere in sight.
"Burner?" Megaman called out.
"WHOO-HOO!!!" A surfer voice screamed.
Megaman looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Burner Man racing towards everyone, riding on a surfboard on top of a giant Burner Wave.
"HANG TWO, DUDES!!!" Burner Man shouted as he hung both his feet over the surfboard. Megaman's eyes widened.
"Scatter!" Megaman cried.
Megaman, Roll and Gutsman got out of the way as Clown Man finally regained his breath. The WWW navi looked up and saw the giant wave coming down on him.
"Crud." Clown Man said flatly as the wave came down on him.
Once the wave shrank, Burner Man jumped off. Megaman, Roll and Gutsman saw that all that was left of Clown Man was the strange, purple mist.
"Man! That was SOOOOO tubular!" Burner Man stated. "Can I do that again?" Megaman, Roll and Gutsman all sweatdropped.
Suddenly, the purple mist shot towards Burner Man, merging with him. Burner Man stared at the mist as it merged. Even after the mist finished merging, Burner Man was still in awe.
"Duuuuuuuuuuuuude..." Burner Man said in awe.
Meanwhile...
Dr. Hikari and his wife sat in their cell, still worrying about Lan. It hadn't been very long since they heard of Lan's adventure in the Metroline Station, so they figured they wouldn't hear from Wily for a while. However, they were wrong.
"WHAT?!" Wily's voice shouted. This got the attention of both Lan's parents.
"Wow. That was fast." Dr. Hikari said as he got up and rushed over to the door. The good doctor placed his ear to the door.
"You say that Lan and his pathetic blue navi has defeated Clown Man?!" Wily demanded.
"Yessir." The henchman replied. "But don't worry. I've located the final Chaos Drive."
"You have? Where is is?" Wily asked.
There was silence for a few seconds. The henchman was obviously talking quiet. Suddenly, Wily started laughing.
"Is THAT where it is?" Wily asked, still laughing. He suddenly stopped laughing. "Well, we don't want Lan stopping us this time. Send out...The prototype."
"The prototype?!" The henchman asked. "But that navis still experimental! It hasn't been tested yet! It'll take the best operator in the WWW to operate that thing!"
"That's why I'm sending YOU out with it." Wily instructed. "You're the best operator I've got, and if we're going to stop Lan, we'll be needing all the strength we can get. You WILL go, won't you?"
"Of course, sir." The henchman replied. "I'll do my best to take down Lan."
Dr. Hikari turned away from the door and went back to his wife.
"How is it, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked, clearly worried.
"Not good. Wily's sending out an untested prototype navi with his best operator." Dr. Hikari replied. Mrs. Hikari gasped and covered her mouth.
"I hope Lan wins. I don't want to never see him again." Mrs. Hikari said.
"Me neither, dear." Dr. Hikari replied. "Me neither."
To be continued...
Lan spent a good five minutes trying to explain to Donald what the WWW was. After Donald finally got it, the two left the room and went back into the station. Before getting on the train to ACDC Town, Lan looked up at Donald.
"Donald, I need to tell you something." Lan said.
"Shoot." Donald replied.
"Your navi merged with a mysterious purple mist. Until I find out what it does, I need you to STAY in Japan." Lan explained.
"Sure thing." Donald replied. "I'll go take a look around Dentown. I never really got a chance to before."
After Donald walked back up the stairs and into the streets of Dentown, Lan got onto the train as it took off.
Lan arrived in ACDC Town. He got off the train and rushed up the stairs. When he got onto the street, Megaman spoke up.
"Let's go look for Neon." Megaman suggested. "He may give us a lead for the final Chaos Drive."
"You may be right." Lan replied. "He might be in Higsby's Chip Shop."
Lan rushed as quick as he could to the Chip Shop, not stopping until he arrived.
Sure enough, when Lan entered the Chip Shop, he saw Neon. The former WWW lackey was talking with Higsby.
"Hey, Neon." Lan said. Neon turned around.
"Oh, Lan!" Neon said. "I've found out that one of the Chaos Drives is in the Dentown Metroline Station!"
"I know." Lan replied. "I was just there, and the Chaos Drive was stolen." Lan turned away for a few seconds, then turned back. "Have you found out anything about the third one yet?"
"Well, I don't know where it is exactly, but from what I've gathered so far, it's somewhere in ACDC Town."
"Well, that narrows the field quite a bit." Lan said as he scratched his chin.
"Hey, Lan." Higsby said. "If it helps, I've heard that there's a WWW lackey hiding out around the mall."
"Hey, that just might help!" Lan exclaimed. "How do I get there, again?"
"There's a road beside the school." Higsby explained. "Follow that and you should get to ACDC Town's mall."
As soon as Higsby said that, Neon's eyes widened.
"Wait a minute! Lan! I heard a few of your friends talking about going to the mall!" Neon exclaimed.
"What?!" Lan cried. "They could be in danger! Which of my friends are they?"
"I believe it was Mayl, Dex and Jake." Neon explained.
"Thanks, guys!" Lan said as he rushed out the door.
As quickly as he could, Lan rushed down the road beside the school. He ran for about five minutes until he reached a large complex: the ACDC Town Mall. Lan rushed towards the front doors and ran into the mall.
Lan rushed through the mall, keeping a keen eye open for his three friends. The mall was full of people, and there was even a clown standing at a corner, making strange noises with a kazoo he had in his mouth to people walking by.
Lan was about to give up when he suddenly noticed something that caught his eye: A girl about his age walking from store to store, being followed by two boys carrying loads of bags. Lan sighed in relief. Mayl, Dex and Jake. He then snickered, seeing Mayl on one of her little shopping sprees. Lan walked over to his friends, whom had just noticed him.
"Hey, Lan." Mayl said with a grin. "You should see the amazing prices that some of these stores have."
"How can you buy so much stuff, anyway?" Dex asked with a groan as he tried to get a better grip of some of the bags he was carrying.
"Dex is right, Mayl." Jake added. "How can you possibly use all this stuff?"
"You never know when a lot of this stuff would come in handy." Mayl replied brightly. She then turned to Lan. "So, why are you here, Lan?"
"Higsby heard that there's a WWW lackey hanging around here somewhere." Lan replied as he looked around. "But I don't see anything out of order here."
"A WWW lackey?!" Mayl gasped, not wanting to shout and alarm the civilians.
"I'm afraid so." Lan replied.
"What could the WWW want here?" Jake asked.
"I dunno. Could be a Chaos Drive." Lan said.
"A Chaos Drive?" Dex asked. "Think, Lan. Why would a Chaos Drive be here?"
"Anything's possible." Lan replied. "The first two were in the school and Dentown metroline station."
"I guess so." Dex stated. "But if it's not here, where else could it be?"
"I was just at Higsby's Chip Shop and Neon tells me that it's somewhere in ACDC Town." Lan said.
There was silence for a few seconds, then Lan spoke up again.
"Guys, just to be safe, I think we should jack into the mall's network and see if the Chaos Drive is in the mall." Lan said.
"Lan's right, mates!" Jake exclaimed. "Let's find a jack-in port and search the network!"
As quick as they could, Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake rushed to the nearest jack- in port, which happened to be hanging on the wall near a security guard. As the four kids rushed over to the jack-in port, the guard stopped them.
"And just what do you kids think you're doing?" The guard asked sternly.
"Mister, we think there might be something of high importance inside the mall's network that the WWW is after." Lan explained.
"How can you prove this?" The guard asked.
"He's Lan Hikari!" Mayl explained. "Do you REALLY think Lan Hikari would lie about something like this?!"
The guard seemed shocked at Mayl's statement, and turned to Lan. He appeared to be studying the small boy over. After a few seconds, the guard's eyes widened.
"Oh, man! You ARE Lan Hikari!" The guard exclaimed. "Well, if that's the case, then go ahead and jack in. Your friends can too."
"Thanks, mister!" Lan thanked as he and his three friends rushed to the jack-in port and jacked his or her navi into the network.
Megaman, Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man materialized inside the mall's network. The four navis looked around, but all they saw was the programs for the different stores.
"Well, nothing seems to be out of order here." Roll stated.
"But viruses could still be anywhere, dudes." Burner Man said. "Best keep out groovy eyes open."
"Why do you keep saying things like that?" Gutsman asked the 'groovy' navi.
"Like what, dude?" Burner Man asked. Gutsman rolled his eyes. The way Burner Man was talking, it almost made Gutsman look like a genius.
The four navis went through the malls network, fighting off Snake Eggs, Woodtowers, Dynawave Metools and even a few Ironbodys and Drain2s.
After travelling through the network for about five minutes, each of the navis, even Gutsman, had fought off quite a few viruses and had each gained a lot of zenny. However, they didn't find anything that might've passed as the third Chaos Drive.
"We've searched the network top to bottom." Megaman said in defeat. "And still no Chaos Drive."
"We might as well have out operators jack us out." Gutsman suggested.
The other three navis were about to agree, when they suddenly heard a high- pitched, squeaky laugh coming from above. The four navis looked up, and saw a new navi falling from above. The new navi landed on its feet and looked at the group of friends.
This new navi, which had now been identified as a male, was a strange- looking one. He wore a red and purple jester suit which was red on one half and purple on the other, and had long, ape-like arms that reached the floor. His jester hat had the same colours as his suit, only they were inverted. His wide, cheeky grin was enough to make the four friends wonder why the heck they were even in the same area with this freak. His symbol was a question mark inside a red circle.
"Who the hey are you?" Roll asked.
The new navi merely squeaked his response. The four navis continued to stare oddly at him.
"Can't talk, huh?" Megaman asked. The navi quickly nodded his head.
"Where'd this guy come from?" Gutsman asked, looking up into the air where this navi had mysteriously appeared.
The navi pulled out what looked like a piece of paper and started writing on it with his finger. When he was finished, the navi showed the paper to the other navis.
"He says that his name is Clown Man." Megaman read. His eyes widened at the next sentence. "And he's a navi for the WWW!"
"What?!" the other three said at once. Clown Man slowly nodded his head while grinning evilly.
Megaman quickly turned to the others. "You guys back me up. I'll take him on."
Roll, Gutsman and Burner Man agreed as Megaman and Clown Man vanished.
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with Clown Man on the other side. The battle started, and Megaman quickly started to unload his buster.
After managing to do quite a bit of damage to the WWW navi, Megaman noticed Clown Man getting ready to attack. The blue navi got ready for the atack, but was surprised when Clown Man made a giant beach ball appear on Megaman's side of the arena and it started to bounce around. Megaman easily avoided this and continued to unload his buster.
After Megaman brought Clown Man's HP down some more, Clown Man rushed to the edge of his side of the arena and brought his extra-long arms to the ground with such great impact that all of the panels on Megaman's side became cracked.
Megaman smirked as he pulled out a Gutsman3 chip. It was time to fight fire with fire.
"Gutsman! Help me out!" Megaman shouted as he used the chip.
Gutsman appeared on the arena and slammed his fists against the ground. Not only was Clown Man's side cracked, but a shock wave was also sent out, taking off a hundred HP from Clown Man's energy.
After Clown Man's energy was brought down pretty low, the WWW navi wound up for his final attack. Megaman wondered what pathetic attack Clown Man would lash out next.
Megaman sweatdropped when Clown Man started hurling pies all over Megaman's side of the arena. Megaman was hit by one of the pies, and surprisingly, a good hunk of his energy was taken down.
Megaman's eyes widened. Maybe this attack wasn't so pathetic after all. As quickly as he could, Megaman charged up his buster. Once it was fully charged, Megaman unloaded it on Clown Man, wiping the WWW navi out.
Megaman materialized back inside the network, standing over a heavily- breathing Clown Man.
Megaman looked back at his friends. He saw Roll and Gutsman, but Burner Man was nowhere in sight.
"Burner?" Megaman called out.
"WHOO-HOO!!!" A surfer voice screamed.
Megaman looked in the direction of the voice, and saw Burner Man racing towards everyone, riding on a surfboard on top of a giant Burner Wave.
"HANG TWO, DUDES!!!" Burner Man shouted as he hung both his feet over the surfboard. Megaman's eyes widened.
"Scatter!" Megaman cried.
Megaman, Roll and Gutsman got out of the way as Clown Man finally regained his breath. The WWW navi looked up and saw the giant wave coming down on him.
"Crud." Clown Man said flatly as the wave came down on him.
Once the wave shrank, Burner Man jumped off. Megaman, Roll and Gutsman saw that all that was left of Clown Man was the strange, purple mist.
"Man! That was SOOOOO tubular!" Burner Man stated. "Can I do that again?" Megaman, Roll and Gutsman all sweatdropped.
Suddenly, the purple mist shot towards Burner Man, merging with him. Burner Man stared at the mist as it merged. Even after the mist finished merging, Burner Man was still in awe.
"Duuuuuuuuuuuuude..." Burner Man said in awe.
Meanwhile...
Dr. Hikari and his wife sat in their cell, still worrying about Lan. It hadn't been very long since they heard of Lan's adventure in the Metroline Station, so they figured they wouldn't hear from Wily for a while. However, they were wrong.
"WHAT?!" Wily's voice shouted. This got the attention of both Lan's parents.
"Wow. That was fast." Dr. Hikari said as he got up and rushed over to the door. The good doctor placed his ear to the door.
"You say that Lan and his pathetic blue navi has defeated Clown Man?!" Wily demanded.
"Yessir." The henchman replied. "But don't worry. I've located the final Chaos Drive."
"You have? Where is is?" Wily asked.
There was silence for a few seconds. The henchman was obviously talking quiet. Suddenly, Wily started laughing.
"Is THAT where it is?" Wily asked, still laughing. He suddenly stopped laughing. "Well, we don't want Lan stopping us this time. Send out...The prototype."
"The prototype?!" The henchman asked. "But that navis still experimental! It hasn't been tested yet! It'll take the best operator in the WWW to operate that thing!"
"That's why I'm sending YOU out with it." Wily instructed. "You're the best operator I've got, and if we're going to stop Lan, we'll be needing all the strength we can get. You WILL go, won't you?"
"Of course, sir." The henchman replied. "I'll do my best to take down Lan."
Dr. Hikari turned away from the door and went back to his wife.
"How is it, dear?" Mrs. Hikari asked, clearly worried.
"Not good. Wily's sending out an untested prototype navi with his best operator." Dr. Hikari replied. Mrs. Hikari gasped and covered her mouth.
"I hope Lan wins. I don't want to never see him again." Mrs. Hikari said.
"Me neither, dear." Dr. Hikari replied. "Me neither."
To be continued...