Chapter seven: Reveal the Wheel
After realizing that Burner Man was the one to absorb the purple mist, Lan tried his best to explain to Jake what he knew about it. Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake left the mall and walked back into the main area of ACDC Town. Lan turned to his three friends.
"Guys? I'm gonna go back to the Chip Shop and see if Neon is still there." Lan explained. "I have to see if he knows where the last Chaos Drive is."
"Well, I'm gonna head home and unpack my things." Mayl said, clutching all seven bags of the things she bought at the mall.
"I'll go to the Chip Shop as well." Dex stated. "I was going to go there anyway."
"I'll come to, mate." Jake added. "I wanna see if Higsby has any upgrades for Burner Man."
As the three boys walked towards the Chip Shop, Mayl started her trek back to her house.
During her walk home, Mayl didn't have any problems carrying her seven bags of stuff. Mayl approached her house cheerfully and walked towards her front door.
Still carrying her shopping bags, Mayl twisted the doorknob on her door and managed to open it. However, she heard a commotion coming from inside the house. Mayl looked inside and saw a tall man in a cloak, searching through her cabinets, pulling out the different disks that were inside. The man turned to the PET he was clutching.
"You found it yet?" The man asked his PET. A low growl was heard from the PET. "No? Well, keep looking! It HAS to be here somewhere!"
Mayl gasped as she dropped the seven bags she was carrying. The man spun around to stare at her. Mayl gasped louder as the man charged at her. Before Mayl had time to scream, the man clamped a large hand over her small mouth. The man pulled her inside as he shut the door.
Meanwhile, the three boys were approaching Higsby's Chip Shop. They saw Neon stepping outside the shop with Higsby. The two men were talking. Neon heard footsteps and saw the three boys running up to them.
"Ah, Lan!" Neon said. "I found the final Chaos Drive!"
"Really?!" Lan asked. "Where is it?"
"It's in one of those houses over there?" Neon said, pointing at the houses several yards away.
"No kidding?" Dex asked. "Which one is it?"
"I believe it's that pink one down there." Neon replied pointing at one of the far houses.
Lan's, Dex's and Jake's eyes all sprang open.
"That's Mayl's place!!" Lan cried.
"And she just went there!!" Jake added.
"Let's go!" Dex said. Lan and Jake didn't argue, and the three immediately rushed off towards Mayl's house.
With Lan leading the way, the three boys quickly reached Mayl's house, where all seven of her bags were still sitting.
Lan rushed to the front door ad tried to open it. The boy freaked out when he found it locked. Lan started pounding one the front door.
"Mayl! Mayl!" Lan cried, pounding his fists on the door. He heard muffled cries coming from inside. Lan quickly turned to his two companions. "There's someone in there, and he's got Mayl!"
"Let's jack into the door!" Jake quickly suggested. "We HAVE to unlock it to get to Mayl!"
Lan and Dex quickly agreed as they jacked into the door in an attempt to unlock it.
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man all appeared inside Mayl's home network. The trio looked around, trying to find Roll or any WWW navi.
"Roll?" Megaman called out. "Roll? You here?"
"We won't be able to find anything by just standing here." Gutsman said. "Let's start looking."
Gutsman started walking forward, leaving Megaman and Burner Man standing with strange looks on their faces.
"Since when did Gutsman get so smart?" Megaman asked.
"Dex must've bought a rare upgrade, dude." Burner Man said.
The three navis rushed through the network as quick as they could, encountering Large Bombs, Dynawave Metools, Icecubes and Mines.
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man tore through the network for five minutes, trying to find Roll, a WWW navi or the lock program.
The trio of navis eventually came to a platform, which had the lock program on it.
"The lock program!" Megaman cried as he rushed towards the lock program.
When Megaman was just a few mere feet away from the program, a trio of viruses appeared in front of him. Megaman stared at the three viruses.
"Crud!" Megaman said. "Three Woodtowers!"
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with the three Woodtowers on the other side. Megaman thought ahead and pulled out a Dynawave chip. At the same time, he charged his buster.
The battle started. One of the Woodtowers came from the sky, and the second one followed shortly. Luckily, they were on the same row. Megaman quickly used the Dynawave chip, which sent a shock wave piercing through both Woodtowers. One shot from the fully charged buster and one of the Woodtowers was deleted instantly. However, towers of wood came straight at Megaman, not giving him a chance to avoid. A hunk of energy was taken from Megaman's HP.
Megaman pulled out an Elecman3 chip and waited until both remaining Woodtowers were in view. Once they were, Megaman used the chip. Elecman, a WWW navi from the past, appeared and summoned two lightning bolts, which struck both viruses. The Woodtower that Megaman had attacked before was deleted as the third one was drained of most of its HP.
After avoiding the tower of wood, the Woodtower vanished back into the sky. Megaman knew that once the Woodtower came back down, it would refill its energy. Megaman charged up his buster, preparing for the Woodtower. As soon as the Woodtower came down, Megaman fired his buster, deleting the virus.
Megaman re-appeared in the network, and noticed Gutsman and Burner Man attempting to destroy the lock program. No matter how much the two navis threw at it, the lock program wouldn't explode.
"What's going on?" Megaman asked. Burner Man turned to his blue friend.
"Dude, the lock program won't explode!" Burner Man stated. The sounds of Gutsman shouting 'GUTSPUNCH' were heard. "No matter how much Gutsman and I throw at it, it won't do anything!"
"Maybe if we all attack it at the same time, it will work." Megaman suggested.
Burner Man and Gutsman agreed as the three navis lined up beside each other.
"Mega Buster!"
"Guts Punch!"
"Burner Wave!"
The combined force from all three navis was enough to destroy the lock program.
"Yeah, dude!" Burner Man shouted. He then turned to his operator. "Jake, dude! We've destroyed the bogus lock program!"
Back in the real world, Jake had heard his navi.
"Mates!" Jake told Lan and Dex. "Let's go in!"
The trio tried to open the door, but were still unable to do so.
"Déjà vu." Lan said. "This same thing happened in the school." He then turned to his large friend. "C'mon, Dex! Let's break it down!"
Lan and Dex lined up and charged forward. The two boys plowed through the door, pushing the desk that was blocking it away. Jake ran in after them.
The three boys looked around Mayl's house. They saw a tall man in a cloak searching through Mayl's cabinets, pulling out whatever disks he could find. Mayl was lying on her couch, bound hand and foot with rope. A handkerchief was clenched tightly in her teeth and was tied around the back of her head. The three boys rushed into the house. While Jake attended to Mayl, Lan and Dex charged towards the intruder.
Jake pulled the gag from Mayl's mouth, and right after he did so, Mayl screamed out to Lan and Dex.
"GUYS! LOOK OUT!" Mayl screamed. "IT'S A TRAP!"
Immediately, the intruder spun around, holding a knife. While turning around, the man attempted a slash at the two boys. Luckily, because of Mayl's warning, Lan and Dex had slowed down enough to avoid the attempted attack. Immediately after the man took the slash, Lan and Dex continued charged towards the man and knocked him down. Or at least tried. To the boys amazement, the man suddenly vanished in a cloud of purple smoke just as Lan and Dex were about to knock him over. The two boys were now on the floor.
"What the?!" Dex exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"
"Over here." The man's voice replied. Lan and Dex looked up and saw the intruder standing behind them.
"What are you?" Lan asked. He saw Jake attempting to cut through Mayl's bonds with his pocketknife.
"The WWW calls me 'Portal'." The intruder replied. "I've been keeping an eye on you, boy. I have the ability to warp in and out of reality, and have been reporting you to Wily. I'm here because I've found out that the third and final Chaos Drive is somewhere in this house, weather it be the real world of the network."
"Who's your navi?" Jake asked, still trying to cut through Mayl's ropes.
"Your navis will find out soon enough." Portal laughed.
Inside the network, Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man were running down a narrow pathway, which had appeared after the lock program was destroyed. They still hadn't found either Roll or the WWW navi, but they weren't going to give up hope.
The trio reached the end of the pathway and walked onto a platform. They quickly saw the pink, female navi lying on the ground, unconscious and beaten.
"Roll!" Megaman cried as he rushed over to his friends side. Gutsman and Burner Man followed. As soon as he was at Roll's side, Megaman dropped to his knees, grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. "Roll? You alright?"
Gutsman got down on the opposite side of Roll and started examining her. "Look at this, Mega." The large navi stated. "Roll's got bite marks on her arms and legs."
"Bite marks?" Megaman asked. "What kind of navi could-"
An Earth-shaking, reptilian roar interrupted Megaman. The heroes spun around and found themselves staring at a tall, thin, alligator navi. Its torso was the only spot the navi had armour, and the armour was red and brown. On each of its green, scaly arms, there was a spiked wheel on the shoulder. The navis eyes were pitch black. The navi had no symbol.
"Hehehehe." Portal laughed. "Meet the WWW prototype navi!" He then called to the navi. "Get'em, Wheel Gator!"
(Author's note: I figured that since all navis in the Battle Network series are based off of characters from the original series, the characters from the X series would be prototypes, am I right?)
Megaman slowly stood up and walked towards Wheel Gator, a furious look in his eyes.
"You hurt my friend." Megaman stated. "Oooooh. You're in for it now!" Megaman and Wheel Gator vanished.
Megaman materialized on the battlefield first, with Wheel Gator on the other side.
The blue navi started firing his buster at Wheel Gator, who zipped around his side of the arena with ease. After taking of a little energy, Megaman saw Wheel Gator approach his side of the arena. The alligator navi lashed out both arms sending two rows of spikes at Megaman in the style of a fire tower or wood tower.
Now, if it was ONE spike tower, Megaman could've avoided it easily. But since there were two, he had a little more difficulty. Megaman was hit by one of the spike towers, taking quite a bit of energy.
Megaman looked at his chip inventory, and frowned. The only good chip he had ready was a Woodman3. Megaman decided to use it anyway. The giant Woodman appeared on the arena, jumped, and sent three rows of wood towers at Wheel Gator, which took a hundred HP from the WWW navis energy meter.
After taking a few more buster shots, Wheel Gator started growling. Megaman was starting to wonder what the WWW navi was thinking of doing, but he quickly found out, as Wheel Gator zomed out of his area, into Megaman's area, and stopped right in front of Megaman. Before Megaman had time to react, Wheel Gator had taken a bite out of him. This took a healthy hunk out of Megaman's HP.
The fight continued until Megaman had 70 HP and Wheel Gator had 50 HP. Megaman had avoided the rest of Wheel Gator's bites, and more than half of his spike towers, and had managed to dish out enough battle chips to put him in the lead. But even after all this, Wheel Gator had yet to dish out his final move.
Wheel Gator suddenly let out an Earth-shaking roar, suddenly, all of the panels on Megaman's side of the arena started flashing. Well, all except one. As quickly as he could, Megaman tried to rush to that panel, but he wasn't quick enough. Spikes erupted from all eight flashing panels, one of which took whatever energy Megaman had left.
As Megaman materialized back inside Mayl's home network, he felt a searing pain flood through his body. Wheel Gator stood over him, snarling.
Megaman couldn't believe it. He actually lost to a WWW navi. Wheel Gator opened his mouth, baring his razor sharp teeth, and raised it above Megaman's head. Megaman closed his eyes, waiting for the end.
"MEGAMAN!" He heard Roll scream. Suddenly, he heard a second voice.
"GUTS PUNCH!"
Megaman opened his eyes, and looked up. Gutsman was plowing his fist into Wheel Gator's stomach. Suddenly, Wheel Gator, as some would say, spontaneously combusted. Parts flew everywhere, and soon, all that was left of the WWW prototype was the purple mist.
Megaman was in shock. Gutsman, who had been known to lose almost every fight that was tossed at him, had just deleted a WWW navi prototype that even Megaman couldn't defeat. Maybe they had a new Gutsman...
As expected, the purple mist merged with Gutsman. While this was happening, Megaman looked at where Roll was found lying on the ground. Roll was now fully awake, and attempting to stand upright, with Burner Man supporting her with his arm.
In the real world, Portal stared at his PET in shock while Lan, Dex, Jake and a now-freed Mayl stared at him.
"Impossible!" Portal cried. "My navi had yours defeated!"
"What?!" All four kids replied.
"If that stupid large navi hadn't deleted him, that stupid blue navi would be out of the WWW's way!" Portal stated in frustration.
The four kids, Dex most of all, were in total shock. Gutsman, of all navis, deleted the WWW navi? Portal suddenly grinned evilly.
"Well, at least I got what I came for." Portal said. "Wheel Gator found the Chaos Drive after dealing what that pathetic pink navi." He then looked down at Lan. "The WWW now has all three Chaos Drives! Try and stop us now!"
Suddenly, Portal disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving nothing but a card on the floor. Lan picked up the card and looked at it.
"Hey! My WWW Pass!" Lan exclaimed.
"Why does it always have to be the LAST lackey that has vital things like that?" Dex asked.
Meanwhile,
Dr. Hikari continued pacing in the cell, while his wife was still sitting against the wall. It had been a while since they heard of their sons encounter at the mall, and Dr. Hikari hoped that Lan would get the last Chaos Drive before the WWW did.
Suddenly, the husband and wife heard the cell door unlocking. Both looked in the direction of the door and saw Dr. Wily enter the cell along with Portal. The mad doctor grinned at Dr. Hikari, who stood firm and calm.
"What do YOU want?" Dr. Hikari demanded.
"Guess what, my friend." Dr. Wily quizzed. "We've found all three Chaos Drives."
"'Chaos Drives'?" Mrs. Hikari asked. "What're you talking about?"
"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you." Dr. Wily replied. "You see, the WWW has built a wonderful machine, and has just finished work on it. All we need is a guinea pig to test it."
Dr. Hikari stood firm. "I won't let you use me for such experiments."
"You?" Dr. Wily asked. "Who said that I wanted you?"
Dr. Hikari froze, and looked over his shoulder at his wife, who looked more scared than she ever was before. He looked back at Dr. Wily.
"Keep your hands away from her!" Dr. Hikari said.
Dr. Hikari advanced on Dr. Wily, but the mad doctor struck him on the side of the head with the end of the gun he was carrying. The good doctor fell on his side, quickly losing consciousness. The last thing he saw before blacking out completely was Dr. Wily and Portal approaching his wife.
To be continued...
After realizing that Burner Man was the one to absorb the purple mist, Lan tried his best to explain to Jake what he knew about it. Lan, Mayl, Dex and Jake left the mall and walked back into the main area of ACDC Town. Lan turned to his three friends.
"Guys? I'm gonna go back to the Chip Shop and see if Neon is still there." Lan explained. "I have to see if he knows where the last Chaos Drive is."
"Well, I'm gonna head home and unpack my things." Mayl said, clutching all seven bags of the things she bought at the mall.
"I'll go to the Chip Shop as well." Dex stated. "I was going to go there anyway."
"I'll come to, mate." Jake added. "I wanna see if Higsby has any upgrades for Burner Man."
As the three boys walked towards the Chip Shop, Mayl started her trek back to her house.
During her walk home, Mayl didn't have any problems carrying her seven bags of stuff. Mayl approached her house cheerfully and walked towards her front door.
Still carrying her shopping bags, Mayl twisted the doorknob on her door and managed to open it. However, she heard a commotion coming from inside the house. Mayl looked inside and saw a tall man in a cloak, searching through her cabinets, pulling out the different disks that were inside. The man turned to the PET he was clutching.
"You found it yet?" The man asked his PET. A low growl was heard from the PET. "No? Well, keep looking! It HAS to be here somewhere!"
Mayl gasped as she dropped the seven bags she was carrying. The man spun around to stare at her. Mayl gasped louder as the man charged at her. Before Mayl had time to scream, the man clamped a large hand over her small mouth. The man pulled her inside as he shut the door.
Meanwhile, the three boys were approaching Higsby's Chip Shop. They saw Neon stepping outside the shop with Higsby. The two men were talking. Neon heard footsteps and saw the three boys running up to them.
"Ah, Lan!" Neon said. "I found the final Chaos Drive!"
"Really?!" Lan asked. "Where is it?"
"It's in one of those houses over there?" Neon said, pointing at the houses several yards away.
"No kidding?" Dex asked. "Which one is it?"
"I believe it's that pink one down there." Neon replied pointing at one of the far houses.
Lan's, Dex's and Jake's eyes all sprang open.
"That's Mayl's place!!" Lan cried.
"And she just went there!!" Jake added.
"Let's go!" Dex said. Lan and Jake didn't argue, and the three immediately rushed off towards Mayl's house.
With Lan leading the way, the three boys quickly reached Mayl's house, where all seven of her bags were still sitting.
Lan rushed to the front door ad tried to open it. The boy freaked out when he found it locked. Lan started pounding one the front door.
"Mayl! Mayl!" Lan cried, pounding his fists on the door. He heard muffled cries coming from inside. Lan quickly turned to his two companions. "There's someone in there, and he's got Mayl!"
"Let's jack into the door!" Jake quickly suggested. "We HAVE to unlock it to get to Mayl!"
Lan and Dex quickly agreed as they jacked into the door in an attempt to unlock it.
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man all appeared inside Mayl's home network. The trio looked around, trying to find Roll or any WWW navi.
"Roll?" Megaman called out. "Roll? You here?"
"We won't be able to find anything by just standing here." Gutsman said. "Let's start looking."
Gutsman started walking forward, leaving Megaman and Burner Man standing with strange looks on their faces.
"Since when did Gutsman get so smart?" Megaman asked.
"Dex must've bought a rare upgrade, dude." Burner Man said.
The three navis rushed through the network as quick as they could, encountering Large Bombs, Dynawave Metools, Icecubes and Mines.
Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man tore through the network for five minutes, trying to find Roll, a WWW navi or the lock program.
The trio of navis eventually came to a platform, which had the lock program on it.
"The lock program!" Megaman cried as he rushed towards the lock program.
When Megaman was just a few mere feet away from the program, a trio of viruses appeared in front of him. Megaman stared at the three viruses.
"Crud!" Megaman said. "Three Woodtowers!"
Megaman appeared on the battlefield, with the three Woodtowers on the other side. Megaman thought ahead and pulled out a Dynawave chip. At the same time, he charged his buster.
The battle started. One of the Woodtowers came from the sky, and the second one followed shortly. Luckily, they were on the same row. Megaman quickly used the Dynawave chip, which sent a shock wave piercing through both Woodtowers. One shot from the fully charged buster and one of the Woodtowers was deleted instantly. However, towers of wood came straight at Megaman, not giving him a chance to avoid. A hunk of energy was taken from Megaman's HP.
Megaman pulled out an Elecman3 chip and waited until both remaining Woodtowers were in view. Once they were, Megaman used the chip. Elecman, a WWW navi from the past, appeared and summoned two lightning bolts, which struck both viruses. The Woodtower that Megaman had attacked before was deleted as the third one was drained of most of its HP.
After avoiding the tower of wood, the Woodtower vanished back into the sky. Megaman knew that once the Woodtower came back down, it would refill its energy. Megaman charged up his buster, preparing for the Woodtower. As soon as the Woodtower came down, Megaman fired his buster, deleting the virus.
Megaman re-appeared in the network, and noticed Gutsman and Burner Man attempting to destroy the lock program. No matter how much the two navis threw at it, the lock program wouldn't explode.
"What's going on?" Megaman asked. Burner Man turned to his blue friend.
"Dude, the lock program won't explode!" Burner Man stated. The sounds of Gutsman shouting 'GUTSPUNCH' were heard. "No matter how much Gutsman and I throw at it, it won't do anything!"
"Maybe if we all attack it at the same time, it will work." Megaman suggested.
Burner Man and Gutsman agreed as the three navis lined up beside each other.
"Mega Buster!"
"Guts Punch!"
"Burner Wave!"
The combined force from all three navis was enough to destroy the lock program.
"Yeah, dude!" Burner Man shouted. He then turned to his operator. "Jake, dude! We've destroyed the bogus lock program!"
Back in the real world, Jake had heard his navi.
"Mates!" Jake told Lan and Dex. "Let's go in!"
The trio tried to open the door, but were still unable to do so.
"Déjà vu." Lan said. "This same thing happened in the school." He then turned to his large friend. "C'mon, Dex! Let's break it down!"
Lan and Dex lined up and charged forward. The two boys plowed through the door, pushing the desk that was blocking it away. Jake ran in after them.
The three boys looked around Mayl's house. They saw a tall man in a cloak searching through Mayl's cabinets, pulling out whatever disks he could find. Mayl was lying on her couch, bound hand and foot with rope. A handkerchief was clenched tightly in her teeth and was tied around the back of her head. The three boys rushed into the house. While Jake attended to Mayl, Lan and Dex charged towards the intruder.
Jake pulled the gag from Mayl's mouth, and right after he did so, Mayl screamed out to Lan and Dex.
"GUYS! LOOK OUT!" Mayl screamed. "IT'S A TRAP!"
Immediately, the intruder spun around, holding a knife. While turning around, the man attempted a slash at the two boys. Luckily, because of Mayl's warning, Lan and Dex had slowed down enough to avoid the attempted attack. Immediately after the man took the slash, Lan and Dex continued charged towards the man and knocked him down. Or at least tried. To the boys amazement, the man suddenly vanished in a cloud of purple smoke just as Lan and Dex were about to knock him over. The two boys were now on the floor.
"What the?!" Dex exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"
"Over here." The man's voice replied. Lan and Dex looked up and saw the intruder standing behind them.
"What are you?" Lan asked. He saw Jake attempting to cut through Mayl's bonds with his pocketknife.
"The WWW calls me 'Portal'." The intruder replied. "I've been keeping an eye on you, boy. I have the ability to warp in and out of reality, and have been reporting you to Wily. I'm here because I've found out that the third and final Chaos Drive is somewhere in this house, weather it be the real world of the network."
"Who's your navi?" Jake asked, still trying to cut through Mayl's ropes.
"Your navis will find out soon enough." Portal laughed.
Inside the network, Megaman, Gutsman and Burner Man were running down a narrow pathway, which had appeared after the lock program was destroyed. They still hadn't found either Roll or the WWW navi, but they weren't going to give up hope.
The trio reached the end of the pathway and walked onto a platform. They quickly saw the pink, female navi lying on the ground, unconscious and beaten.
"Roll!" Megaman cried as he rushed over to his friends side. Gutsman and Burner Man followed. As soon as he was at Roll's side, Megaman dropped to his knees, grabbed her by the shoulders and started shaking her. "Roll? You alright?"
Gutsman got down on the opposite side of Roll and started examining her. "Look at this, Mega." The large navi stated. "Roll's got bite marks on her arms and legs."
"Bite marks?" Megaman asked. "What kind of navi could-"
An Earth-shaking, reptilian roar interrupted Megaman. The heroes spun around and found themselves staring at a tall, thin, alligator navi. Its torso was the only spot the navi had armour, and the armour was red and brown. On each of its green, scaly arms, there was a spiked wheel on the shoulder. The navis eyes were pitch black. The navi had no symbol.
"Hehehehe." Portal laughed. "Meet the WWW prototype navi!" He then called to the navi. "Get'em, Wheel Gator!"
(Author's note: I figured that since all navis in the Battle Network series are based off of characters from the original series, the characters from the X series would be prototypes, am I right?)
Megaman slowly stood up and walked towards Wheel Gator, a furious look in his eyes.
"You hurt my friend." Megaman stated. "Oooooh. You're in for it now!" Megaman and Wheel Gator vanished.
Megaman materialized on the battlefield first, with Wheel Gator on the other side.
The blue navi started firing his buster at Wheel Gator, who zipped around his side of the arena with ease. After taking of a little energy, Megaman saw Wheel Gator approach his side of the arena. The alligator navi lashed out both arms sending two rows of spikes at Megaman in the style of a fire tower or wood tower.
Now, if it was ONE spike tower, Megaman could've avoided it easily. But since there were two, he had a little more difficulty. Megaman was hit by one of the spike towers, taking quite a bit of energy.
Megaman looked at his chip inventory, and frowned. The only good chip he had ready was a Woodman3. Megaman decided to use it anyway. The giant Woodman appeared on the arena, jumped, and sent three rows of wood towers at Wheel Gator, which took a hundred HP from the WWW navis energy meter.
After taking a few more buster shots, Wheel Gator started growling. Megaman was starting to wonder what the WWW navi was thinking of doing, but he quickly found out, as Wheel Gator zomed out of his area, into Megaman's area, and stopped right in front of Megaman. Before Megaman had time to react, Wheel Gator had taken a bite out of him. This took a healthy hunk out of Megaman's HP.
The fight continued until Megaman had 70 HP and Wheel Gator had 50 HP. Megaman had avoided the rest of Wheel Gator's bites, and more than half of his spike towers, and had managed to dish out enough battle chips to put him in the lead. But even after all this, Wheel Gator had yet to dish out his final move.
Wheel Gator suddenly let out an Earth-shaking roar, suddenly, all of the panels on Megaman's side of the arena started flashing. Well, all except one. As quickly as he could, Megaman tried to rush to that panel, but he wasn't quick enough. Spikes erupted from all eight flashing panels, one of which took whatever energy Megaman had left.
As Megaman materialized back inside Mayl's home network, he felt a searing pain flood through his body. Wheel Gator stood over him, snarling.
Megaman couldn't believe it. He actually lost to a WWW navi. Wheel Gator opened his mouth, baring his razor sharp teeth, and raised it above Megaman's head. Megaman closed his eyes, waiting for the end.
"MEGAMAN!" He heard Roll scream. Suddenly, he heard a second voice.
"GUTS PUNCH!"
Megaman opened his eyes, and looked up. Gutsman was plowing his fist into Wheel Gator's stomach. Suddenly, Wheel Gator, as some would say, spontaneously combusted. Parts flew everywhere, and soon, all that was left of the WWW prototype was the purple mist.
Megaman was in shock. Gutsman, who had been known to lose almost every fight that was tossed at him, had just deleted a WWW navi prototype that even Megaman couldn't defeat. Maybe they had a new Gutsman...
As expected, the purple mist merged with Gutsman. While this was happening, Megaman looked at where Roll was found lying on the ground. Roll was now fully awake, and attempting to stand upright, with Burner Man supporting her with his arm.
In the real world, Portal stared at his PET in shock while Lan, Dex, Jake and a now-freed Mayl stared at him.
"Impossible!" Portal cried. "My navi had yours defeated!"
"What?!" All four kids replied.
"If that stupid large navi hadn't deleted him, that stupid blue navi would be out of the WWW's way!" Portal stated in frustration.
The four kids, Dex most of all, were in total shock. Gutsman, of all navis, deleted the WWW navi? Portal suddenly grinned evilly.
"Well, at least I got what I came for." Portal said. "Wheel Gator found the Chaos Drive after dealing what that pathetic pink navi." He then looked down at Lan. "The WWW now has all three Chaos Drives! Try and stop us now!"
Suddenly, Portal disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, leaving nothing but a card on the floor. Lan picked up the card and looked at it.
"Hey! My WWW Pass!" Lan exclaimed.
"Why does it always have to be the LAST lackey that has vital things like that?" Dex asked.
Meanwhile,
Dr. Hikari continued pacing in the cell, while his wife was still sitting against the wall. It had been a while since they heard of their sons encounter at the mall, and Dr. Hikari hoped that Lan would get the last Chaos Drive before the WWW did.
Suddenly, the husband and wife heard the cell door unlocking. Both looked in the direction of the door and saw Dr. Wily enter the cell along with Portal. The mad doctor grinned at Dr. Hikari, who stood firm and calm.
"What do YOU want?" Dr. Hikari demanded.
"Guess what, my friend." Dr. Wily quizzed. "We've found all three Chaos Drives."
"'Chaos Drives'?" Mrs. Hikari asked. "What're you talking about?"
"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you." Dr. Wily replied. "You see, the WWW has built a wonderful machine, and has just finished work on it. All we need is a guinea pig to test it."
Dr. Hikari stood firm. "I won't let you use me for such experiments."
"You?" Dr. Wily asked. "Who said that I wanted you?"
Dr. Hikari froze, and looked over his shoulder at his wife, who looked more scared than she ever was before. He looked back at Dr. Wily.
"Keep your hands away from her!" Dr. Hikari said.
Dr. Hikari advanced on Dr. Wily, but the mad doctor struck him on the side of the head with the end of the gun he was carrying. The good doctor fell on his side, quickly losing consciousness. The last thing he saw before blacking out completely was Dr. Wily and Portal approaching his wife.
To be continued...