-Mega Man Battle Network
--Shadows of the Past
---Chapter 4: Sudden Overdrive
There was a lot to discuss after everyone evacuated the building and stood out in the parking lot. Firefighters arrived and began to put out the blaze as I fought my way through crowds trying to reach Lan and the rest of them. When I did find them, I explained everything about the e-mail I got and how I got Shadow Man in the first place. Boy, you'd think I stole a truck full of gold when I told everything that happened at the auction.
"...and that's why, I guess." I finished after my story. "I knew it would be pretty difficult running in to people who knew him from before. But it was the only PET I could find."
Lan kept a steady gaze on my PET.
"It's like he gets a second chance at life." He told me.
I don't know if anyone else could tell, but I knew Lan probably knew all there was to tell about what Shadow Man did when he was still the mercenary's Navi. Mr. Dark I think that Fire Man guy called him? But I didn't really want to hear it, I didn't want to think about it. Like Shadow Man said before, the past was in the past and that's all there is to it.
"So this address is from World Wide Watchers Inc.? I've never heard of a company like that and my father knows all the major corporations of the world." Yai stated.
"Maybe they're new?" Mayl suggested. "You should take a look in to it. Try to find out who's trying to get rid of Lan."
"Well who ever it is better watch out! No one's getting rid of Lan until I beat him with Guts man!" Dex declared.
Well Dex sounded pretty concerned for Lan's life. Now I had a problem taking my eyes off of him. What if that Mr... what ever his name was tries to get Lan again? I couldn't let him get knocked off. I just got to know the guy under extreme circumstances, not to mention all the hard work it took to save him. Soon an announcement from the school filled the air.
"Attention students and staff! Due to the recent fires, an inspection of the schools network is presently underway. Classes for the rest of the day are canceled."
A cheer escaped from the younger students who had no idea what was going on.
"Well, that wraps up a stressful day." Mayl said breaking the silence. "We should go home and get some rest."
The rest agreed with a nod and began to move off toward their houses. I could only look at Lan trying to choke some words out about all the concern I had for him now. I guess it was easy to see this cause he gave a cheerful smile and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Hey Rio, don't worry. Now that Mega Man and I know what's going on. We'll keep a look out for anything suspicious."
As he began to move away, he turned back toward me and snapped his fingers in realization of something.
"Hey! I know what you should do. You should go see Mr. Higsby for some battle chips. They're real handy in a tight spot."
Oh yeah, I saw that shop when I came off the bus the day I got Shadow Man. Quickly, before he was out of sight I yelled thanks and watched as he waved back. I moved back to the open gates as people began to leave the school parking lot and began heading home. That would be a good way to spend the rest of the day. Dex and Lan used some and they did some pretty cool stuff, that would be great for Shadow Man. Suddenly I noticed a red car pull up and it stopped in front of me. It was my dad. His car was really small, just a step up from a golf cart size but still pretty roomy. I think it was a company car too.
"Rio! I saw the smoke and knew it was the school. What's going on?" He asked me frantically.
"Oh, there was just a little fire..."
There was no way I was going to explain to him what really went on. That I stumbled upon a murder plot and got caught up in the mess as well. He did a really long hug and soon turned back toward the car.
"Here, I'll take you home before I go to work. You can tell me all about it."
Seemed fair enough, I would just have to make my lie bigger as I went along. That was about the time I realized that Shadow Man had been completely silent this whole time. Something was wrong. When I slipped into the passenger seat I picked up the PET and looked at the screen. Shadow Man was there, but he was sitting down cross legged and looking away from me. I remember my dad getting in and then pausing to check for something before getting back out.
"Hold on son, I dropped my pen outside."
That was one thing I knew about my dad. Rule number one, don't touch the pen. A silver sleek writing utensil that my dad carried around for as long as I remembered. He didn't need it as much out here with all the present technology, so now it was his good luck charm. Now was my time to see what was going on with Shadow Man.
"Shadow Man, what's going on? You haven't said a word since I've jacked you out of the alarm system."
"I've failed you Rio... I'm terribly sorry... I had no idea what Fire Man was capable of."
Jeez, is that what he's so crushed about? I'm just glad he didn't get deleted or anything. I thought it was stupid, but maybe he had some code of honor business going on. That would explain why he's always so serious and unwilling to joke around.
"Don't look at it that way. You kept a lot of people from being smothered by smoke. We'll be prepared next time, I'm gonna go to the battle chips store."
This seemed to cheer him up just a bit and I was feeling a little better too. Dad was just about to get back into the car when the seatbelt tightened up around me causing me to drop my PET in shock. The doors slammed shut and the windows rolled up as I heard a squeal roar from the tires of the car. Next thing I knew the car was rocketing along, building speed and leaving my dad in the dust. The seat belt was so tight, I could hardly breathe and I tried desperately to free myself from the death grip of the seat belt.
You should have saw my eyes bulge when I spotted a truck backing out of a garage ahead of us. I couldn't reach the wheel. The car was going to turn into a mangled wreck, and me as the bloody pulp in-between the metal. Then the wheel turned and caused the car to swerve out of the way. The wheel turned again making the car swing in the opposite direction and sped down one of the streets of ACDC town.
"Welcome race fans to! World Wide Watchers Inc. sponsored, RACE OF DEATH!" A rapid voice came out of the radio. "Our contestant today is some kid who spoiled our plans! How does it feel to be at the mercy of a mad virus?"
Even if I wanted to talk, the seat belt was suffocating me. I would die of lack of oxygen before the car hit anything.
"Yes well, it's hard to talk when your body is being crushed like an aluminum can! You see kid, we're not to be messed with." The voice turned cold and cruel. "Hasn't your mom ever told you? Don't mess with dangerous people!"
Slowly, I was working the seatbelt over my head and behind me so I could take a breath in. Soon as I did that, the car sped right through someone's yard smashing through picketed fences and flattening rose bushes. Dirt flew up into the windshield and the wipers activated immediately. Now the car was heading toward a white house with a blue roof and I could see Lan heading toward it. It was going to be a hit and run!
I wrestled with the safety buckle and climbed into the drivers seat before fastening the seat belt again for my own protection should the virus decide to crash the car. Hesitantly I grabbed the wheel and yanked it to the left barely missing Lan and rocketing down another street. In the rear view mirrors, I could see him look on with a shocked face.
"Ohhh... So you want to do the driving eh? Well fine with me. You provide the steering, and I'll provide the SPEED!"
I could see the speedometer jump up to a 110 miles per hour and I desperately tried to find some place where I could just go straight or something. No dice. The bus was coming in and I was heading straight for it. When I went to turn the wheel it didn't budge. I tried harder and the twisted voice came out again.
"Well, you can't steer if you can't turn it. Forgot to mention that little detail."
Then as if to play with my head, the virus released the lock on the wheel and I turned it hard sending the car spinning around like a top. I missed the bus and tore through the yard of a yellow looking house. When the car straightened out it ceased to move and I suddenly realized why. The car was now sitting on above ground metro line tracks.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, our poor, poor hero has mere minutes before the two-seventeen splits his car like a Ginsu knife through a potato!"
As bad as his announcing was, he wasn't kidding. It was now 2:15! I tried the doors desperately and in my rush to save myself I nearly forgot about my PET and Shadow Man. Once the doors refused to budge, I scooped the PET up and looked down desperately at him.
"Shadow Man! The cars going nuts! The same people who tried to get Lan are after me!"
"Jack me in!" He demanded.
I stretched the cord out and looked around for a port. But before I could locate one the car took off down the tracks and toward the oncoming train which blew it's horn in warning. The car swereved and began to head toward a tunnel chasing after a metro train. As soon as that train stopped we'd slam right into the back of it!
"Your cheating!" The voice sang from the radio. "We have a way with dealing with cheaters... Instant death!"
Eventually I slammed the chord into the port and jacked Shadow Man into the car network. Revving engines and tail pipe exhaust made up the background as every place of the car looked like some twisted race track. Virus reformatting obviously. I never saw Shadow Man move so fast before, he blazed past the little virus cannon fodder trying to find the wheel controls. We were getting close to the tunnel, if the car went in there, we were gone for sure. I looked down to make a quick check on Shadow Man's progress when he yelled out to me.
"Turn the wheel, now!"
I yanked it back toward the town and the car did a power slide back onto the asphalt road. We had avoided the train, but were still moving along at insane speeds. I weaved through the light traffic. I couldn't even look down to see what had happened with Shadow Man. Then I noticed an on ramp and rocketed up it heading south. The signs I read said Marine Harbor. Crap, I had never heard of that place, so when I did stop this car, I would be completely lost. The road had straightened out and there wasn't any cars I would ram, so I quickly looked back down at the PET in my lap. Shadow Man had found his way to the accelerator program and found it completely abandoned by viruses.
"Shadow Man! Be careful, the virus is there! I can't slow the car down!"
"Don't worry, I won't fail you this time..." He vowed.
Right now, I wouldn't care if he was the weakest Navi in the world. I just wanted him to stop the car! The green thingy that was identified as the accelerator program was quivering in a corner with its systems at full tilt. That reminded me that the cars speed was still climbing. 125 miles per hour! I don't think this car could take much more punishment. Before Shadow Man could talk the program down from its acceleration spree an Indy car roared onto the scene and nearly flattened him in the process.
With quick reflexes, Shadow Man had avoided the speeding car by leaping up into the air and landed back down on the ground watching as the Indy car soon transformed to a humanoid shape with an engine block in its chest. When it turned around I could see the mirrored shades and racing stripes along the arms and legs with a twin set of huge exhaust pipes jutting from his back. This guy looked hard core. His engine rumbled as he glared at Shadow Man and balled his fists.
"There's no pit stops scheduled here! You interfering with the race!"
"Just what the hell is the race against anyway?" Shadow Man demanded drawing Shadow Blades.
"It's a race against death. It's a race against me, Turbo Man! Ha ha ha!" He laughed maniacally. "If your smart, you should tell your operator to back off before something unfortunate happens to him or his family!"
Without another word, Shadow Man chucked his blades at Turbo Man getting one to stick him in the arm. Flames roared from the exhaust pipes as he darted to the side and pulled the object from his arm. He went back into his Indy car form and revved up as Shadow Man split into three.
"A diversion is no good if they can all be taken out with one shot!"
There was a ear piercing squeal as Turbo Man did a burn out and sped toward the Shadow Men. All three of were ready to jump until a huge fire trial erupted from the exhaust pipes making it impossible to leap over him without getting fried. The two copies didn't move and were incinerated, but the real Shadow Man pounced on Turbo Man grabbing hold of his air intake valves on the top of the engine.
"Hey! There's no free rides!" Turbo Man hissed. "Get your own car!"
He turned back into his robot form during his speeding and launched Shadow Man across the room. Instead of hitting the wall and getting demolished like I expected, he landed on it feet first and pushed off heading back toward Turbo Man. Instantly he drove his sword right through his chest and caused a backfire to erupt within Turbo Man's engine. There was a satisfying slice as Shadow Man yanked his sword out and caused the hotrod Navi to jerk in pain as more backfires went off within his engine. If I didn't know better, it sounded like he was going to explode, but he didn't and soon jacked out, not before giving me a warning.
"No- *Boom* it! *Boom* Time to burn! You enjoy your lengthened life sp- *Boom*. Aw jack- *Boom* ut! We'll be right back at cha!"
Now I could see the speed slowly decrease on the speedometer, but there was still that little issue of getting the car to a complete stop. I had full control now. But there was another issue of never having driven a car before. Soon I was rocketing down the middle of Marine Harbor. People pointed at the car as I went by. Then I could see it, we were running out of road, now there was the open ocean before me. You would never see me hit something with my foot harder than I hit that brake pedal or close my eyes as hard in the face of a horrible crash.
All I was concentrated on was the screech coming from the tires. My back was arched and I was pushing on the wheel like I wanted to break it. My pulse was racing and I was so scared out of my mind that I didn't even recognize the screeching stopped. I heard a car door open and then a voice call out to me.
"Hey kid! Your all right! Kid! Open your eyes!"
When I did, I saw I was a couple inches away from the guard rails. I relaxed and looked over to see a lady wearing a frog hat or something with a microphone in her hand. She looked over the car excitedly and turned to a man with a camera behind her.
"Ribitta here! On the scene with live, thrilling conclusion of the out of control car that just left ACDC Town!"
Then I fainted.
