MegaMan Battle Network – Memories

Chapter 4 – Wanderer

I trained for nearly a week without seeing or hearing from Sarah, Roll said that she was busy with Yai catching up on the work she'd missed so I didn't worry about her. A week later before Mayl for school, Roll gave me a message from Sarah, after Roll left I read the message.

"Empress," said the message, "Me and Mayl think this would be a good time for you to go onto the net by yourself, I realise I can't force you to go if you don't want to but enclosed in the message is 500Z. If you do go please try and stay out of trouble, I've also enclosed in the message details to contact me, Lan or Mayl as well as a SciLab security pass. The pass is low level but should be able to get you through to my Dad's computer. If you get lost or confused then head to SciLab and he should help you out. If you need immediate help then attempt to contact me, Lan or Mayl.

"P.s. I've also enclosed a map with the message, be back by 4.30 if you can for more training. Lan is MegaMan's op."

As I read the message I realised the burden that Sarah had put on me with her trust, if I betrayed it now then she may delete me. That was my first thought, my second was where do I go to find out who I am?

I headed to SciLab and got hold of some lists of registered navis, I looked under Mayl Sakuri first remembering that Sarah had mentioned I had been connected to her PET, the only navi she had ever registered was Roll. I searched through the records for my own name next but that proved fruitless too.

In the computers of a newspaper office I got hold of some images of me but they came with absurd reports about how I'd attempted to harm MegaMan and was controlled by something called the WWW. It was my most detailed lead of the day but I didn't want to follow it up, if Scyler was right then I didn't want to know.

I wandered around net city visiting shops to see if I could get something for Mayl or Sarah. After getting something to recover what energy I had wasted I looked and realised that most of my money had gone. With it not been an immediate problem I decided to take the opportunity to visit Sarah's Dad.

Sarah's Dad was pretty high up in SciLab I'd found out during the newspaper reports I'd filed through, wondering how I'd get up to him I presented the pass Sarah had given me to the security program. It looked at the pass and me a few times then turned around and walked off down the corridor. I watched as it turned around and beckoned for me to follow it. I ran to it and was led to another program which escorted me to Dr. Hikari's computer.

As I arrived in the computer I realised the security guard had gone, there was a lone navi working on something, I walked up to it and said, "Hello."

The navi didn't jump as I had expected but turned around to face me.

"Hello Empress," said the navi, "I assume you're here to see Dr. Hikari."

"Yes please," I said.

"Hang on a moment," said the navi, "I'll just go to get him."

The navi warped out of the system before I could say anything, it returned a few moments later.

"Come with me," said the navi.

Grabbing the navis arm as it transported I went with it, we eventually landed in a PET.

"Hello Empress," said a voice, I turned to see a face I'd seen staring out of newspapers now staring at me, "Papa, could you go back to the project you were working on for me."

"Yes Dr. Hikari," said the navi going back to the computer were we'd just been.

"Don't mind him," said Dr. Hikari, "He works better than most of the navis here because he can't express emotion."

"Your not in the middle of a major project are you?" I said, "I can always come back later."

"Just a minor trifle," said Dr. Hikari, "It's not going to turn out as I planned anyway."

"What is it?" I asked.

"A support program similar to Rush," said Dr. Hikari, "Youhave met Rush?"

"Yeah," I said remembering the popup virus, it had bowled me over when Roll introduced me and I activated my sword to defend myself thinking he thought I was a threat when he licked me on the face, "I think he likes me."

"Well I originally planned for it to be an upgrade to Rush," said Dr. Hikari, "But it's becoming a new project entirely."

"What would it do?" I asked.

"Allow a navi to upgrade it's abilities by combining with it," said Dr. Hikari, "Not weapons but things like increased speed, and maybe even flight would be possible, want to take a look, it's nearly finished."

"Yeah," I said.

"Go over to the computer then," said Dr. Hikari.

"Umm," I said, "I can't, I have trouble warping like other navis, when I tried it leaving Mayl's, I ended up quite a bit away from where I wanted to be."

Dr. Hikari just burst out laughing. "No wonder you hitched a ride with Papa," he said, "You can't go anywhere but the immediate entry point from a PET, just go."

I warped out of the PET and ended up next to Papa.

"Dr. Hikari," said Papa ignoring me, "It's ready."

I looked down at the program on the table. It looked like a large blue and green mouse about the same size as Rush. It squeaked and scurried towards me. I jumped back a little before extending a shaking hand to touch it. As I began to stroke it, it moved closer and began to nudge me with it's nose. I picked it up and looked it over.

"What do you think?" said Dr. Hikari, "It can't summon viruses like Rush can, but it can combine with navis to increase their abilities, and provide transport as a netmobile."

"It's cute," I said, "What's it called?"

"Squeeze," said Dr. Hikari, "Like Rush she can appear nearly anywhere on the net."

"I like her," I said, "This would make Roll jealous."

"Can you take her to Sarah for me?" said Dr. Hikari, "I need her to test her."

"Can't I test her?" I asked.

"I'm afraid not," said Dr. Hikari, "As a security measure she can only ever fuse with one person, if she fused with you then Sarah couldn't fuse with her."

"I see," I said.

"If it goes well," said Dr. Hikari, "I may consider making you one, if you behave." He glanced at his watch. "You'd best go, it's nearly 4.30, I'll get Papa to take you both."

Papa grabbed me and transported us, we were halfway there when I realised I hadn't asked about getting more money, or how he knew about the deadline Sarah had set.