Megaman Battle Network – Sibling Rivalry

Chapter 7 – Double Devil

It was a few days later that Mayl talked to Sarah about the Empress Style Chip again. Something had been bugging her about it.

"Sarah, why did you make it so it would only work on my PET anyway?" asked Mayl.

"Imagine if the WWW got hold of that chip and it worked on their PETs. You saw what Scyler did that day at school. Empress Style has similar abilities offering more control over viruses than any other style or navi," replied Sarah.

"But still..." Mayl started to say.

"Hey, I just realised. I haven't seen Higsby's Shop yet. Want to go there after school?" interrupted Sarah.

"Uh, sure. But about..." Mayl started again.

"I'll meet you outside school after the lesson then. I've got that work from the other day to catch up on at the moment," said Sarah running down the corridor, "See you in class."

Mayl realised then that she had forgotten what she was going to say. "Forget it," she thought, "It probably wasn't important."

Mayl headed to the cafeteria for her dinner then realised something else. Apart from Saturday in the city when they stopped at a restaurant she had never seen Sarah eat. She sat down next to Lan who was sitting and eating whilst waiting for the others and asked him about it.

"You say she eats a lot. Why doesn't she eat here?" asked Mayl.

"Mum gives her a packed lunch," he said between mouthfuls, "Apparently she needs a strict diet and the school can't provide it."

"Oh right," said Mayl. At that Dex sat down at the table which stopped the conversation. Or should have.

"Where's Sarah?" asked Yai as she sat down.

Lan nearly banged his head on the table out of frustration just as his PET started beeping.

"Lan phone call from dad," said Megaman.

Lan answered it to hear his Dad's voice.

"Lan, I forgot to mention it this morning but I'm going to pick Sarah up at dinnertime today as she as a hospital appointment."

"Dad. It is dinnertime," replied Lan.

"What!? I'd best get moving!" said his Dad in a panic.

Lan put his PET on the table where it had been.

"Sarah has to go to the hospital this afternoon for a check-up," he said, "From the looks of things she won't be back for the rest of school."

Dr. Hikari and Sarah walked into SciLab. Dr. Hikari showed the security guard his pass. The guard nodded and let them through. The two of them went up to Dr. Hikari's lab.

After school Lan and Megaman ended up on Mayl's Homepage talking to Roll and Mayl about Sarah.

"Sarah is weird Lan. I mean rushed to hospital like that," said Mayl.

"Mayl, Dr. Hikari is a little forgetful about things if it isn't related to navis you know," said Roll.

"But still. Hey is it me or is it cold in here?"

"It is cold Mayl, hang on I'll nip over to the thermostat to check it out," said Roll heading to the thermostat.

"Roll!" screamed Mayl a few minutes later.

"Lan, there's loads of water viruses in my thermostat," she said to Lan opening up a window on the computer.

"Megaman head over there now," said Lan.

"On it already bro," came Megaman's reply.

A few minutes later in SciLab.

"There, your condition is still getting worse but at a slower rate," said Dr. Hikari, "I estimate you have a year left if you follow my advice."

Beep beep, beep beep.

"E – mail from Lan, Sarah. It's marked urgent, shall I open it?" said Scyler.

"Yes."

"Sarah, if you can get at a computer head to Mayl's house and into the thermostat. There's a powerful water navi there and it's almost taken Megaman and Roll out," read Scyler, "We may need some help with this one Sarah."

"Your own son's life is on the line Dad. Will you let him die now?"

"Go. Do it."

In the thermostat the Navi laughed over the almost broken bodies of Megaman and Roll.

"So this is the great and all powerful Megaman? You're nothing to me! I am the powerful Poseidman, god of water," said the Navi.

"I think your toast," said Scyler who had just jacked in.

"Megaman Jack out. I only have one SubEnergy chip and Roll can help me more now," said Scyler.

"You can't take him on your own," said Megaman.

"Help is on the way Mega," said Scyler.

Megaman struggled to get up

"Stick around if you want just don't get in the way."

Scyler threw the SubEnergy chip over to Roll who recovered HP. Then another navi jacked in.

"1.5! So you made it," said Scyler.

"5.0, I had a feeling it was you two," said the new addition.

"Roll, Megaman, this is Scyler Version 1.5. It was developed to remove the need to absorb data but for some reason her data started to slowly degrade. She now attempts to destroy 1.0 before her death. She and Sarah are good 'friends' for want of a better word," said Scyler.

(A/N: Scyler V5.0 will be referred to as Scyler and V1.5 will be referred too as V1.5).

"A Roll, did you perfect it then?"

Scyler nodded.

"Good, get rid of the blue one if he's a friend."

"You heard her Mega," said Scyler.

"No."

"It's going to be too dangerous in here in a moment for you. Leave now!" said V1.5

"Mayl, Sarah's sending BattleChip Data over to you. It's special elemental data allowing you to change the alignment of your navi if it's a neutral one."

"Got it."

"How long have you two got for style change?" asked V1.5

"30 seconds."

"Log Out after 30 seconds then."

Scyler and V1.5 changed to Roll style.

"BattleChip In, Download, Empress Style Power Up!" said Mayl.

Roll braced herself for the pain that had come with the Devil Chip transformation. It didn't come. Instead she felt herself change and realised something.

"This time I'm in control. The Devil Chip told me what my data must be, this time it's telling my data what it can be. I can go as far as I want or not go at all."

Poseidman watched as the three navis all changed to look like each other.

"BattleChip In, Element Change, Lighting Power Up!" said Mayl and with a shock Poseidman realised that all three of them were lighting element now.

"Empress Whip," yelled the middle one as it went to attack. Poseidman jumped back only to be hit by another from behind.

The attack paralysed him and he fell to the floor as they all attacked again. Unfortunately then, the 30 seconds wore out.