-Mega Man Battle Network

--Shadows of the Past

---Chapter 7: The Electopian Job, Part 2

It didn't take long before we were in a high speed chase with the Officials patrol cars. But Heat Man was just down right reckless running cars off the road and trashing light poles and everything! I wanted to jack Shadow Man out of the truck systems, but Mr. Match told me to hold on. Why? They weren't going to get into the truck system as we ran everything off the road.

I cringed watching the patrol cars get up along side us, because Heat Man promptly rammed them from the side with the massive truck and nearly crushed them between the buildings and the trailer. The worst was when one got to our left and the truck just swerved back from hitting another car. When the car on the left was crunched, it was driven up the wall and was flipped.

"Heh heh! The WWW isn't going soft anytime soon!" Mr. Match laughed.

He then looked down to his PET.

"Hey Burnside! Get your suicide vehicles out here! We need help!"

As far as I could tell, we were just rampaging around Dencity while being chased. We would only really disappear when all the patrol cars were scrapped. This was out of control, if only... if only Miyu kept her mouth shut! A terrible screech snapped me out of my daze as a couple expensive looking cars started heading right toward us. I didn't have to see what happened to know what did. Needless to say, there was no one following us after a horrible crunching of metal.

Mr. Match was laughing hysterically. Even more so when I thought WWW stood for World Wide Watchers. But he soon stopped when another car pulled up to our side. We both looked out to see a grayish car pull up, it was them. Lan, Dex, Mayl, and this semi white haired guy. I looked away from the window in order to avoid my making eye contact and instead looked to Mr. Match.

"Please, don't!" I demanded.

"Too bad your friends had to get involved." He answered simply. "Heat Man! Turn them into scrap metal!"

"I can't!" Heat Man whinnied. "We have company!"

We both looked down at our PETs to see that Mega Man, Roll, Guts Man, and this red Navi had somehow made it into the truck network... But how? There was no way they were in there all ready... Mr. Match promptly answered the question.

"Damn! They have a wireless! Probably threw it onto the back of the truck. Well, no matter, delete them all!"

"Shadow Man... There's no way we can get caught... There's too much at risk here!" I told him.

I tightened my grip on the PET watching the whole thing unfold as it was now two on four. Shadow Man and Heat Man against all. Mega Man was there and simply raised his arm cannon at Shadow Man.

"I can't believe I fell for it. Your using Rio aren't you!" Mega Man demanded.

"I can only do... What my operator tells me too." He answered slowly.

"Humph." The red Navi's operator spoke up. "I knew it was a waste of time reformatting your PET. Mr. Dark was as ruthless as they come. Your no different. To think you could lead a legal life is laughable."

"I'm with Chaud." Guts agreed.

"Shut up!" I yelled out at all of them. "Your ruining everything! Everything! You don't know what's involved. If you just jack-out and quit following us, it would all work out!"

You couldn't believe how angry I was. I was nearly screaming at the top of my lungs. Mr. Match gave an encouraging laugh.

"Yeah, you might never know what will happen should this truck not arrive at a certain destination at a certain time." Mr. Match told them. "Now, back off!"

They didn't and instead got into a fighting stance. I didn't care anymore. I had to delete them all. Every last one of them. Heat Man couldn't be touched, I made that perfectly clear to Shadow Man.

"Shadow Man! Take them all out! Don't let them get a step near Heat Man!"

He paused and shook his head. I soon yelled out again.

"Did you hear what I said!"

"Yes... Master Rio."

There wasn't anything you could have done at that point to hit me harder than that right there. Now I just sat back in the seat and watched, I was dumbstruck and Mr. Match had begun to concentrate on the road taking control of the truck as Heat Man was going to be fighting most likely.

"You can give up." Proto Man said flatly.

"I have to protect my operator." Shadow Man told them slowly drawing his sword.

"Proto Man, Guts Man. You got Heat Man... Roll and I will get Shadow Man." Mega Man told them all.

"Fine with me."

"YEEHHHAAAA! Let's go stop this rolling wreck, Dex!" Guts Man declared before charging off.

But before they knew it, Shadow Blades landed at their feet and they went nowhere. To make things even, Shadow Man did his split technique and now things were a little bit more even. Mega Man opened fire but hit air as the three darted from side to side, pouncing from here to there, making their way closer to their targets. Roll was one, and I really didn't see any fighting material within her. But she raised her hand and shouted something out. The whole network was blinded by a flash and soon the real Shadow Man was easily picked out between the two copies.

What the hell was this? Now the real Shadow Man was marked and the other two were given no attention. But the two copies could be easily used as shields and took hits as Guts Man smacked the floor with his fists creating a shockwave. Proto Man was at a slight disadvantage having no projectile attacks, but had a really durable shield to use though. Shadow Blades flew in every direction. One clipped Guts Man in the arm slicing it off and soon he ran towards Roll. Oh yes, I remember what she did best now.

Apparently Shadow Man did as well and soon threw something to the ground. It looked like a wick was burning as it snaked along the ground closing in on Guts Man and soon connected. An explosion sent Guts Man tumbling head over heels into Roll and he was soon jacked out. Now there was only three left. But it was then Mega Man managed to nail Shadow with a charged shot sending him rolling backwards.

But he recovered quickly leaping up nimbly and soon putting his hands together. That was when two copies appeared, but they were ghost white and easily to pick out. What was this now? What ever it was, they were apparently indestructible and took shot after shot from Mega Man's arm cannon. Roll tried to defend herself with bomb battle chips, but the phantasms were unaffected and soon one lashed out with as sword getting Roll across the face.

I didn't look away for some reason and watched as she crumbled to the ground in a heap. I couldn't tell if she was deleted or jacked out but it apparently gave Mega Man new incentive to fight and he was all over Shadow Man, breaking away from the phantasms and firing away. This kind of reckless behavior was the kind of behavior my Navi thrived on. He was better off firing blindfolded. Shadow Man closed in on Mega Man leaping behind him and bringing his sword up to drive it down for a final blow.

But he didn't. Instead he just stood there as if frozen and then I saw why. Proto Man had begun to drive his sword into him and soon he arched back in pain yelling out in agony. He fell to his knees but kept himself up with his sword glaring angrily at Mega Man who now pointed a cannon in his face. Battle chips. Damn, I had still not been able to get any of those.

"How did... you beat my... Phantasms?" Shadow Man choked out.

"Swords, or have you forgotten?" Proto Man explained.

"I don't remember you... That's why... I underestimated you..." He groaned painfully. "Why... Mega Man... Did you hold back? Little bits of memory the reformatting couldn't cover brought back memories of you... Vicious, unstoppable fighting spirit..."

Mega Man lowered his cannon and kneeled down to get eye level with Shadow Man. Proto Man soon walked up next to him and looked down at them both with his sword at the ready

"Because Miyu told Lan that your operator was troubled. Proto Man didn't care, but we didn't want to delete you if there was something at stake other than the chips."

My stomach dropped and I felt sick. They were trying to help me... And I didn't even see it. I thought they were trying to... Ah... I felt so sick...

"Well Rio... I hope your happy... I did my best... Repeated my past for you... And it's gotten me the same result." He took a deep painful breath. "Rio... This is mortifying."

This was deja vu for me as Shadow Man began to explode into deleted data and faded away from the screen. Well... I deserved it... Mr. Match glared at me angrily and looked down at his PET before jacking Heat Man out of the system and opening the passenger door.

"What are you doing?" I asked him silently.

"Your plan is going up in smoke, so you can burn along with it!" He yelled over the roaring wind.

Soon I could hear a car roar up next to us on Match's side. It was a convertible and Burnside was driving with Madd in the passenger seat. In a near suicidal move, Match jumped out and into the back seat as the convertible began to roar away from the truck. It wasn't long till we stopped now as the truck was pulled to the side of the road by the autopilot. When it came to a complete stop, I opened the door and got out before collapsing next to the front tire.

In a twist of irony, we had circled back around to the front of the museum and all the students from our class could see me from across the street. Yes, Shadow Man, this is mortifying. If only I had listened to you. The first person to walk up to me was Chaud. He looked down at me in an emotionless expression and simply shook his head.

"Give me your PET kid." He ordered me.

Without saying a word I handed to him slowly and kept my head directed at the ground. I could hear some buttons clicking and soon a chip sliding into something. Eventually Chaud dropped it at my feet and moved toward the back of the truck. I didn't even pick it up but I could near more footsteps. I didn't want to look up at them and I didn't have to, their shadows told me everything I needed to see.

"We're not angry at you Rio." I heard Lan first. "The WWW has made plenty of people do crazy stuff."

How did they know it was the WWW? Anyway, I still wasn't going to say anything.

"You'll feel bad now, but when this is all cleared up you'll be fine." Mayl encouraged.

"Uh... it was a good battle..." Dex told me weakly.

I think Chaud returned and was heading toward me, but Lan moved in front of him and spread his arms. The shadows on the ground continued to show me everything I didn't want to see with my own eyes.

"Hey Chaud! Leave Rio alone, he didn't do anything!" Lan defended.

"Get out of the way Lan, your friend there is going down for sure. That's unquestionable." Chaud demanded. "I'm going to arrest him now."

"But he was threatened!"

"Humph. Where's the proof? Cause it looks clear that he fully cooperated with the hijacking."

Another group of shadows moved into my view, it was Yai and Miyu.

"Does World Wide Watchers Inc. sound familiar to you Chaud?" Yai began. "It's a front for the WWW. My father checked it out himself. And if I'm not mistaken, he pays a lot of taxes that makes up your paycheck."

Chaud kind of mumbled, I didn't really hear him. Yai crossed her arms and moved in front of him adding a person to the barrier protecting me.

"Yeah!" Dex spoke up. "And he was nearly killed in a virus attack! He was definitely threatened for his life. Maybe even his parents life!"

Ok, now something was going on. I couldn't figure it out but there was no way Dex could get that right on a guess in a million years. I don't care how smart you think he is...

"He even confessed to me that if I continued to speak to him in my shop that something... unfortunate might happen to him or his family." Miyu explained calmly.

"Yeah! So back off Chaud!" Lan finished.

Chaud crossed his arms and eventually turned around toward the other NetBattlers that were now coming over the truck to estimate any possible losses.

"Do you want to get up now? Or should we volunteer Dex to help you?" Yai told me roughly.

"Fine." I responded weakly. "I'm getting up."

"That's better. You know you should be a lot more thankful. We just kept you from getting arrested." She continued to badger me.

"Yai!" Mayl snapped. "Be easy on Rio, he's been through a lot lately. I'm sure this is pretty hard on you."

"After that car incident, the next thing I know there's a WWW operator demanding I give him money, or he'll hurt me or my family. We don't have the funds... So I... I cut a deal with him. Anything so we wouldn't be hurt."

"We know." Lan answered simply.

I looked at them dumbfounded. How did they know? Was this all some big sick joke they were all in on to see if I was a criminal or... What the hell was going on! I kind of fell back a little uneasy and looked at them all in shock.

"How did you know? I didn't tell anyone."

"Shadow Man was sending us e-mails as you slept. He tried to get us to help you out. But we were all kind of uneasy toward the idea because of what he did last time." Mayl explained.

"In other words we didn't trust Shadow Man, or you." Yai cut in.

"Yai!" They all shouted at her.

"Well you don't have to sugar coat everything. Tell him the truth. Or I'll tell him my version." She threatened.

"Yeah so. We saw you in the truck and instantly knew the truth then." Lan admitted. "But you took off so quickly... We had to flag down Chaud who was hell bent on taking you down."

I glanced down at my PET on the ground and slowly kneeled to pick it up. It was so lifeless without Shadow Man.

"He... he was helping me... So I... I uh... I deleted him for it." I realized painfully.

"Don't say it like that..." Lan began.

"Like Yai said," I interrupted. "You can't sugar coat everything. With Mr. Dark in prison, there's no way I'll ever get him back... He's the only one who knew how to program him."

But something clicked back on and I finally noticed a little status bar at the bottom of the screen. Back up data? What the hell. I didn't have any back up data... Then I turned back toward Chaud who was nowhere to be seen.

"I don't believe that guy..." I muttered.

"What?" They all seemed pretty confused.

"He took my PET. I assumed he was going to take it, and he threw it back... He's restoring Shadow Man..." I realized.

"Well, Chaud can be like that." Lan explained to me.

Among those streets, with my friends, and my soon to be recovered friend. I felt like everything was going to work out. And I wouldn't have to worry about Mr. Match or the WWW for a long time. I certainly wasn't going to put Shadow Man or myself through anything mortifying again anytime soon.

--End Transmission