War of the Heart

Part Six: Dual Battle

Napalmman wasted no time in launching an attack, firing a barrage of bombs toward the two heroes. Both of them were able to get out of the way, but Napalmman continued in a relentless assault against them, firing even more bombs and summoning two guns out from the ground, which also proceeded to fire at them. Both Megaman and Protoman could barely stay ahead of the attack.

Pharoman also began to attack, using his two coffins to fire off deadly lasers. Megaman caught one directly in the chest and flew halfway across the battlefield. Protoman managed to dodge a fair bit and ran up to Pharoman, slicing him with his sword.

Protoman tried to slice again, but Pharoman blocked his attack with his coffins acting as a shield. While still in the defensive position, both coffins fired a dual laser burst, slamming him just as far as Megaman.

Megaman, however, had pulled himself back up and was firing several Buster Gun shots at Napalmman. Napalmman retaliated with some of his bombs, but Megaman dashed through them and headed straight for him.

Lan wasted no time. He quickly sent through a Fireblade, Aquablade and Elecblade to Megaman, forming the Lifesword 3 attack. Megaman ran forward and struck Napalmman with the sword attack.

Napalmman reeled back in pain, but summoned his guns to retaliate, striking Megaman with their rapid fire shots. Megaman was forced back, but struck back with his Shadowman V3 chip. All the while, Napalmman continued to fire his bombs.

Pharoman and Protoman were still dueling. Pharoman was using his wind attack from one coffin to hold off Protoman while he launched Rattons from the other coffin. Protoman fought back by using his sword to launch energy swipes to both damage Pharoman and destroy the Rattons.

Megaman fired at Napalmman with the Dynawave, but Napalmman leaped to the side. Megaman used that time to launch another attack using his Stepsword, slicing Napalaman with it, then running back to where he was instantly. Napalmman fired with his bombs, but Megaman was just able to evade them.

"AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" screamed Napalmman. "I'VE HAD ENOUGH! YOU'RE ALL GOING DOWN!"

Napalmman went into a frenzy, launching bombs in every way possible! The bombs struck everywhere, including Pharoman, who got struck on the back of the neck with one. Protoman and Megaman were also struck by this vicious attack, getting blown away. Even Napalmman was clobbered by his own move, getting struck by a bomb that he launched straight upwards that landed on his own head, which stopped his inane attack.

"Geez, destroy the whole planet while you're at it, why don't you?" griped Pharoman, who wasn't happy about the beating on the back of the head.

The attack had left the area in ruins. Every panel was either cracked or destroyed, leaving the entire place like a large gapping hole. Only a few panels remained, and they were the ones the four Navis were standing on and Pharoman's coffins.

"I've got an idea!" exclaimed Lan. "Quick, take this chip, Chaud!"

"What is it?" asked Chaud.

"Just try it," said Lan. "It'll be a big help!"

"Okay, here goes," said Chaud.

Protoman received the chip, which contained Airshoes. Protoman looked down at his feet with a somewhat upset reaction.

"What do these do?" he asked.

"They let you walk on air," explained Lan. "Try it out!"

Protoman got an almost evil smile on his face as he looked Pharoman. Pharoman's coffins were stuck off to the side, separated by the holes that had been created. Without them, Pharoman was practically helpless.

Using this to his advantage, Protoman made a dash at Pharoman, running fearlessly over the empty spaces. Pharoman gulped in fear and could only watch as Protoman ran toward him. Protoman ran up, leaped into the air and came down with a piercing blow on Pharoman's head, practically cutting him in two.

"It's not possible…" he murmured as he was deleted.

Napalmman continued his reckless assault of bombs, but since there were very few panels left, he had no place to summon his guns from. Protoman tried to dash across the empty panels at him, but the Airshoes ran out of power along the way. Protoman began to fall, but managed to catch one of the undamaged panels with his non-sword hand. Unfortunately, it happened to be the panel where Napalmman was standing. If Napalmman had a face, there would've been a big, evil grin on it.

"Too easy," he murmured to himself and aimed right at Protoman's face.

"Not yet," replied Protoman.

Protoman stabbed upward with his sword, catching Napalmman right in the gut. Napalmman stumbled backwards for a bit and took more blows from Megaman, who was racing across the gap with his own set of Airshoes and shooting. Napalmman tried to recover in time, but was too late. Megaman had gotten up to him and delivered a right hook with Cold Punch.

Napalmman was forced back and found himself barely balancing on the edge of the panel. He stumbled for a bit, trying to regain balance, but failed and fell down the pit to his inevitable end.

"Yeah, we did it!" exclaimed Megaman.

"That was a good fight," commented Protoman.

"It was," agreed Chaud. "Hey, Lan. Thanks for your help with that chip."

"No problem," replied Lan. "You'd do the same for me. Now, what do you say we go and get those WWW creeps?"

The final room was before them. Lan and Chaud nodded to each other, then dashed into the room. There, the remaining WWW members were waiting for them.

"It's about time you got here," commented Ms. Madd. "We were getting bored."

"Cut the chatter. Where's Mayl?" demanded Lan.

"She's right over there," explained Count Zap, pointing to a nearby room. "If you want to unlock that door, you'll have to beat us in a Netbattle!"

"Fine, we accept your challenge!" exclaimed Chaud.

Soon, Megaman and Protoman had jacked into the server where the battle was supposed to take place. There was really nothing special about it. It was just a large open plain.

Before long, the other three had jacked in as well. Ms. Madd's Navi, Colorman, appeared at the northern end of the arena. Beside him was Elecman, Count Zap's Navi, and Magicman, Yahoot's Navi.

Protoman got himself into a battle stance, while Megaman prepared by performing a Style Change, transforming himself into the AquaGuts style. The enemy Navis flexed for a bit, then readied themselves for a fight. However, just as the fight was about to begin, another Navi appeared.

It was Roll.

"Roll!" exclaimed Megaman. "You're here! You're alright! This is great!"

Roll said nothing.

"Hey, you okay, Roll?" asked Megaman, moving closer to her. "You seem different than usual."

Roll responded by hitting Megaman with a hard kick right to his gut. Megaman doubled over in pain, only to get an uppercut to his jaw and fall over back to Protoman. Protoman was completely surprised.

"What happened to her?" he asked. "She's completely different!"

"Where did Roll come from?" Lan wondered.

"She came from me," came a voice.

Back in the real world, both Lan and Chaud turned their heads in the direction of the voice. It came from the room where Mayl was supposed to have been held captive. The door to that room swung open, revealing Mayl standing in front of a strange looking chair device.

"Mayl?" asked Lan.

"It's me," confirmed Mayl. "Except…I've decided to play with these people now."

"You!" exclaimed Lan, turning to the WWW members. "You've done…something to her!"

"That's right," answered Yahoot. "It's an experimental mind control program. You like?"

"How could you do that?" asked Lan.

"I suspect it wouldn't be that hard to believe," answered Chaud. "The human brain is not entirely unlike a computer. I would guess that while he was still around, Wily found some way to 'reprogram' people's minds."

"That's right, kid," said Yahoot. "It's a little overly simplistic, but it's correct."

"But…how am I supposed to fight them if they're just being controlled?" Lan wondered.

"We're outnumbered!" exclaimed Protoman. "We need a plan!"

"Plan?" asked Megaman. "Just what do intend to do?"

"Jack out!" exclaimed Lan. "We need to think up a strategy!"

"Fine!" agreed Megaman. "Jack-out!"

Nothing happened.

"What's going on? Why isn't it working?" wondered Protoman.

"It's simple. We installed a device that prevents you from jacking-out," explained Elecman. "You're stuck here with us and you can only get out if you can beat us!"

"We don't have any choice," said Megaman. "We have to fight them now!"