Yay! One review! Thank you Arak Blazer. This chapter I made in a slight rush.
Chapter 2: Absorption
Disclaimer: Capcom owns MegaMan et. al. I only own this story.
Saturday morning, in a certain area of ACDC Town, DenCity, – Electopia, passes slowly, especially in the Hikari residence. A certain Lan Hikari, in particular, had trouble getting up, especially since quite an important meeting was due in some time.
"LAN! GET – UP!" bellowed MegaMan for the umpteenth time that morning. In any case, nothing now could distract Lan from oversleeping, ever since MegaMan had run out of ideas, spanning a record 6 years, for waking Lan up. These devices were either immune to Lan, were too destructive, or caused Lan to take out MegaMan's batteries for the rest of the day.
"Lan. LAN! WE – HAVE – AN – IM – PORT – TANT – ME – TING TO – DAY!"
"Ungh… Oh Maylu… Maylu… Uh, MegaMan, What did you say?"
"Err… rightio. Were you just dreaming about May…"
"Eh, shut up MegaMan! I remember that there was something on today, but…"
"WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT MEETING REGARDING THE NETSAVIORS IN TWENTY MINUTES, IN THE ARCHIVES SECTION OF DAD'S LAB! HURRY UP ALREADY!"
"Wha… Ohgodohgodohgodohgod!"
It was quite an amusing sight, MegaMan thought, to watch Lan frantically dress himself up every third morning or so: the previous evening he had been netbattling with Tora, Raoul, and other such people around the world until around 2am that morning.
What really astonished MegaMan was that Lan could take a shower, brush his teeth, AND comb his hair at the same time. How, he would never understand, even though he had helped beat 6 NetTerrorist groups in a row.
"OhmygodMaylu'sgonnakillmeifIamlateandsowillalltheothers…"
"Relax, Lan. Relax!" exclaimed a now slightly anxious MegaMan, who was also afraid he would just collapse under the sheer weight of the task that faced Lan, which was to put on all his clothes at the same time in under a minute. He wasn't even completely dry yet.
"Okay, I'm finally ready, now let's go!" said Lan, who was now practically leaping downstairs.
"…but haven't you forgotten something?" said a fading voice.
"Oh sorry MegaMan!" said Lan, as he rushed back to pick up his P.E.T. and scrambled all the way downstairs. Now he realised, with only five minutes left, and with little breath remaining, that he hadn't had any food since midday yesterday.
"Lan, just take this and RUN!" screamed Haruka.
Lan rollerskated all the way to the MetroLine, where he hurriedly displayed his NetSavior's I.D. He was still very fidgety as he entered the train. When it landed at SciLab station, Lan scrambled all the way up to SciLab, where his peers were patiently waiting for him.
"Hmph. Not bad. You're only four minutes late." growled an impatient voice behind him.
"Chaud!"
"Later, Lan Hikari. We have got a very important – no, make that THREE important issues to discuss."
As Lan entered the top-security room that adjoined his father's lab, the others shifted attention to Mr. Famous, who was about to talk.
"Attention please everyone."
"From yesterday evening, we have had two major events occurring. One good, one bad."
"Start with the bad one. Get it over with, laddie," said Mr. Match, in his recognisable Scottish accent.
"Ok. At approximately 9:30pm yesterday evening, Bass attempted to hack himself into Level 22 security, presumably to access the Code Dolphin Files. He managed to get into Level 20 before the combined efforts of ProtoMan, QuickMan and GateMan managed to stop him. At this point, after analysing his data tracks, we now know that he is now planning to discover..."
Lan suddenly sunk back into his past memories. "I remember now…"
Flashback
"Oi, KingMan, would you mind telling ShadowMan to come back? We need some backup here."
"Aragoma, I will."
The Darkloid base was being destroyed. No, annihilated was a more accurate word, as the secret base, previously standing so threateningly and imposingly to anyone who dared enter it, was being blown into oblivion by the Special Forces Unit of Electopia. MegaMan, ProtoMan, Roll, GutsMan, IceMan, SharkMan, WoodMan, SkullMan, among many others, were destroying enemy programs, Navis, and pretty much anything that stood between them and ShadeMan, the solo net-navi and the leader of the Darkloids.
"Guts need some help here, guts."
"Heart Slash!"
"ShadowMan is present." said KingMan to his operator.
"I am here, my friend."
"Hey, ShadowMan, think you can blow up that barrier over there?"
"Not to worry. Triple Team!"
ShadowMan moved at an amazing speed, creating perfect illusionary copies of himself.
"GrassStage battlechip, download!" bellowed a deep voice, as the earth beneath them instantly changed into grass.
"Triple Fire Blast!"
"BigRedWave battlechip, download!" said Lan.
As three fiery fireballs connected with the barrier, a smouldering red wave burnt out what was left of the ruins that were protecting the Darkloid base.
"Hey everyone!" MegaMan shouted. "Over here!"
"I'll scout ahead," announced ProtoMan. "I'll have a look at what's up ahead." Immediately following those words the Red Raider darted inside the final area, ShadeMan's lair.
The group encountered almost no resistance as many Protector towers fell victim to the many tactics from the Electopian forces.
"Checkmate!" KingMan declared, as he hit three towers at the same time, which exploded instantly.
"Lilbomb, CrosBomb, BigBomb, download! Program Advance: UltraBomb!" shouted Maylu, as more defenses crumbled away to the onslaught.
However, deep into ShadeMan's lair, a surprise awaited the group, where Bass and ShadeMan were slugging out a ferocious battle.
"EarthBreaker!"
"Crash Noise!"
"You insolent NetNavi… You really think I can believe you, that I am incomplete? You think that I need that pathetic personality data you speak of, hidden in SciLab?" spat out Bass as he launched forwards black wheels of maths instruction (okay, that was lame).
"Wh-wh-whee! Of course! Just talk to them back there! Wh-wh-whee!"
"Bass!" exclaimed MegaMan.
No-one had expected for him to come out of hiding, least of all in the Darkloid secret base.
"So is this true? A part of myself had been ruptured by PharaohMan? And what has this to do with the destruction of my faithful companion, Gospel, a month or two ago? Did your wretched human operators do it? And what am I to do? These NetSaviors intend to destroy me next! Well..."
"Stop it, Bass. We destroy ShadeMan, then talk. Understood?"
"Understood. Dark Slice!" shouted Bass, who sliced up ShadeMan several times, forcing him to split into different bats.
"SonicBoom!"
"HubBuster!"
"Glyde Cannon!"
"Blizzard!"
"Roll Flash!" Viruses appeared, with the help of Rush, and attacked the bat in the far back of the bunch.
"Guts would like to throw something, guts."
"Sure. DashAtk, Guard, download! MegaMan, get into position!" exclaimed Lan.
"GutsShot!" GutsMan threw MegaMan at incredible speed onto ShadeMan, who screamed, and was blown into bits before he could say anything else.
"Well?" asked Bass.
"Firstly, what would you like to know?" asked Glide, who had flown in.
"Ahem. Now that this base is destroyed, I assume my duties are over-?" said ShadowMan.
"Ah, yes. Here -" Glide handed over a decent sum of Zennys to the ninja navi.
"Thank you very much. Do not hestiate to call upon my services in the future. Dark, I'm logging out.."
"Anyway-?" continued Glide.
"Ah, yes. So what is this 'part' of me that was taken by - you know -"
"During the very first battle you had, many many years ago, even before the Alpha incident, when you lost and had to retreat, your data was intercepted by PharaohMan. During the battle, he used a special ability: he ruptured all possible emotions out of you, leaving you with spite, malice and revenge, with traces of other 'everyday' elements that prevented you from tearing everything up you saw at once." answered ProtoMan.
"Where is this data?" spat Bass.
"Next question."
"Why was Gospel destroyed-"
"I'm afraid that I can't answer that at the moment."
"Damn you! Would you tell those Navis of yours from SciLab to stop chasing me around, so I can piece together what's left! Or I will-"
"It's ok Bass, we've already done that." piped up Roll.
"Until we meet again." said Bass, whowarped backinto the shadows (like he usually does).
"So Bass knows about this already... It cannot be good." muttered Lan.
End Flashback
"...so that's how the secret NetSavior's place came into being. You agree. Lan? LAN?" Maylu screamed. Suddenly, out of control, she climbed on the desk, reached over to Lan, and slapped him hard on the face.
"That must hurt." commented Dex, growing a slight red himself.
"Ow! Maylu! STOP KILLING ME!" screamed Lan, who was being watched by the laughing faces of his comrades.
"Ok, ok. I DID hear that last bit about a new NetSavior. I was just thinking about what happened a long time ago."
"So who IS this person?" asked Chaud.
"I'm afraid that I can't say, but you WILL, however, be able to help create a new customized Navi for him. Who wants to help?"
"Façade, okay, so you sorted out all the contact details for this? Hell, are you even sure this is valid!" I cried. Surely this was too good to be true: my ITGS teacher would immediately dismiss this spam, junk mail, whatever it's called! "James, I've double and triple-checked the mail, checked the data tracks, etc. I've sent a reply, and I've received mail that some agents are coming to town with a curry shop called 'No1 Curry' or something, and you are to meet with them; they know what you look like."
"You… absolutely… sure?"
"Sigh. Look, jack me in into the computer. I'll get into SciLab Security Level 24 via a secret access code."
"I guess that'll convince me."
"Always the sceptic, are you, James."
"Whatever, Façade. Whatever."
I sprinted across to my computer.
"Jack in, Façade! Execute!"
The familiar green light, laser, beam, whatever, shot across and Façade landed himself into the Australian network, which was packed full and busy this afternoon.
"Hey, Façade! Got time for a chat?"
"Nah, sorry, I'm busy."
Link from NSW 3 into Yumland 2... 1... Past the dump... NetPassport... ACDC 2... Hmm... ACDC 3... Hey, I've never been here before, haven't I? I'll check it out later, I guess.
Anyway, back to ACDC 1... CyberMetroLine... Now where's that ticket that 'Famous' or whatever his name was gave me...
"SciLab, please."
Ok. SciLab 1. Where next? If I do this and this...
"Hey! James! A link opened?"
What's this?
"Okay, James. According to my calculations, this is... SciLab 25. Wow."
I took in the surroundings from my P.E.T. The place appeared fairly barren, with a group of weird customised Navis in one corner, and a few programs, presumably patrolling. One of them even looked straight at me! Wait... that's bad, right?
"SECURITY ALERT! SECURITY ALERT!" that frickin' program beeped.
"Help! James! What am I to do!" Façade said, almost comically.
"Don't attack! He is our new Level 25 Code Calcium!" shouted a deep voice from that Navi group.
"OH-" The program suddenly calmed down and continued as if absolutely nothing had happened. Weird.
"So, you must be Façade?" said one of the larger Navis. "I'm Footman, by way. You ready to rumble?"
"Yeah, I suppose." said Façade.
"Hello. I'm GateMan. This is KendoMan, and this is Punk." said a younger-looking Navi. A few standard Navis had also appeared in the distance."
"So," I said to the customised Navis, "who are your operators?"
"We have the same NetOp," answered KendoMan. Seeing the quizzical look on my face, he added, "Mr. Famous."
That just made me more confused.
"He has even more customised Navis that he made, which are presently not available at the moment."
That didn't really help either.
"Mr. Mejin Famous here. As a top-secret NetSavior, you may refer to me as just Famous. Understood?" said a voice.
"Okay, Famous."
"How long have you got?"
"Two hours, minimum. Maybe two and a half. Or three."
"Okay. Your..."
"…thirst for knowledge… stronger… face my judgement… wrath… …"
Anyone, ANYONE out there, please review.