Disclaimer:
Refer to the earlier chapters.
...
FINE! I OWN NOTHING! NOTHING
DANG IT! NOTHING!
Author's Note:
Hrmph. I've blocked the only singe person
who continued posting bull in my reviews,
but because of this whole confusion, I don't
think the pairing will be Serenade/Forte. There
are unfortunately few females in this game, so
it will be difficult to make this a romance now
thanks to certain imbeciles filling my head with
disturbing images. I think the Captain Leecher is
still reviewing with unsigned aliases... Sad. But
all of you people who like this story, thanks for
the good reviews. This story would have been scrapped
out of aggrivation if not for you guys. So to
all who review; Don't expect any more rants. I've said
it enough times, and like some of the more intelligent
reviewers have said. It's a Fanfiction for crying out
loud. Serenade is a girl in this tale. SO GET OVER
IT ALREADY! Thanks to all you great people who gave
good reviews, ye saved this little tale.
Instead of writing a new fic now, I'm going to
just change my plans around a bit just in case. You
never can be too sure in this sick world. S will
still be a female, however, and anyone who argues this
point via Reviews will be ridiculed. Some criticism, eh, that's OK, really.
Sometimes it helps. Good reviews, those always rock,
even with improper grammer. Sad, illiterate flames that
make no good points whatsoever .. well, heck, even
those are fun to mock and laugh at. To put this note short,
the pairing will be changed. Hmm. Maybe Forte could
hook up with a human. That'd be funny. Forte/Mayl ... heh.
This chapter will have probably one of the better fighting
scenes in the tale. And, well, I decided to mix it up a bit...
No clue if I'll have good or evil triumph, however either
way, you can be guarenteed this if nothing else. Forte IS
a force to be reckoned with, and the heroes won't have a
pathetically easy time with him. He just keeps coming and
coming, eh? And uh, any Forte sightings in MMBN4 ... well,
I sought help on message boards. I detest
MMBN4. The battle system, while still similar, is just pathetic
in my opinion - I hate the soul system replacing style change.
And due to lack of gameshark, I did not feel like obsessing over
a game I barely could stand the first time through. So, his
role in Black Earth may be inaccurate to the way it really happens.
Please, just fill the plotholes on your own. I do not want to
have to rewrite this chapter just because of one little scene.
Also, this story's Title might change if I can think of
a different one ... so, uh, just keep watch on it. Sorry it's
taking so long. I've HAD IT with this bloody friggin laptop,
it was in for repairs. I swear, this laptop's good as gone soon
as I get a replacement and backup all my files!
Chapter Four
Rebirth
Deep in the heart of the Undernet, all was beginning
to return to normal. The server damage had mostly been
fixed, and the battle for Rankings had resumed. And in
the most dangerous parts of the net where even the most
vicious of Net criminals feared to tread, the remaints of
a black-armoured Navi wearing a tattered cloak could be
seen slowly falling down at a large platform below.
Unfortunately for the CLoaked One, his attempt to hack
through the Net into Serenade's Palace failed due to his
lack of energy, and he ended up drifting into the endless
void of the Undernet once more. The lower half of his body,
and his lower left arm were all missing, and as he landed
onto the platform below, after a while viruses began to
warily come closer.
A strong, dormant power could be sensed within this injured
Navi nearing deletion, however they realized soon that this
creature was unconcious, and slowly began building up courage
to go delete him, as all were mere Mettaurs. One of the short,
round helmeted Viruses waddled up to the cloaked Navi, somehow
pulling out a pickaxe despite its lack of arms and poking the
Navi with it.
The viruses began to mutter in their own language among eachother.
"Does it live?" said one of them. "Poke it again!"
"No, smash the head!" called another one. These two began arguing
at this point, as the third one whom had actually poked the Navi
waddled up to them. "I say we leave it alone..."
"No, poke it!"
"Smash it!"
"Leave it be!"
"Poke!"
"Smash!"
"Leave!"
A growl emitted from nearby, and all three viruses became
dead silent as they slowly turned around, feeling the hot breath
of a virus behind them ...
A grey-skinned, cracked, wolf-like virus stood before the viruses,
glaring at them with shining red eyes. One of them ran as fast as
it could, tripping over the cloaked one as the other two were devoured by
the wolf. The little tripped Mettaur looked up at the Navi's face,
gasping as his eyes slowly opened to glare at him.
The CLoaked Navi grabbed the virus with his only hand, the little
creature screaming in agony and flailing around as its body began to
merge into the cloaked one's, being consumed one bit at a time. "I TOLD
YOU GUYS WE SHOULD HAVE LEEeeeeff...t..." were its last words.
The cloaked Navi felt a rush of energy flow through his form as he
looked around, his mind fuzzy. "W... Where... am I...?" he muttered,
turning to face the wolf as it growled at him, though not threateningly.
"... What do .. you want...? ... You wish .. to help me..?" he muttered,
before the dog roared and pounced him.
The cloaked Navi yelled out as he was tackled onto the ground, and the dog
shattered into fifty small fragments, all of which dove into
the Navi's form, merging with his body. When it was done, the Navi hovered
into the air, an arm created of bug fragments materializing where his old
arm was missing. The Navi looked at his arm and stretched it out, flexing
its fingers, before grinning wickedly.
"This power ... it's coming back to me now." he said with a laugh. "The
humans ... this world ... they all must suffer. And with this power,
none will stand to defy me..."
The cloaked Navi, Forte, looked at his arm as its hand morphed into the
head of the wolf. It began growling and barking at him, and somehow, he
could understand it now. "... there is another ... who can still defeat
me..?" Forte said, scowling. "Impossible! ... but if what you say is
true ..."
He ran a hand along his arm, the wolf's head vanishing as the arm was
covered up with black armor to look just like his old arm. "This part
of me was restored by a mere fifty bug fragments... and this power that
came with it... If my body was fully restored, nothing could defeat me!"
Forte reached down and picked up the shattered remaints of one of the
viruses, absorbing the fragments and sighing deeply, looking around the
Undernet with a newfound hunger in his eyes. Before now, he had craved
power more than any Navi ever created. But now that he had been bested
in combat, found an equal in power... Now that he had but a taste of
what he could become with his new form, his desire for it grew stronger than ever.
The cloaked navi began floating off along a long pathway leading through
the depths of the Undernet, his cape fully reformed due to the consumed
bug fragments to hide the fact that half of his body was still missing. He
heard a soft humming in the distance, and looked down the pathway, noticing
a young Navi coming down the path.
"... Is that another virus?" he muttered, floating towards it as he noticed
the feline ears protruding from its head. "Perhaps it could aid me ... Let
us delete it.."
As he drew near however, the other young cloaked Navi turned around, her
soft feminine features looking at him with surprise, her yellow catlike
eyes widening. "Forte!" shouted the feline Navi.
Forte stopped, and stared at her oddly. "Who ... Who are you...?" he asked,
and though something told him absorbing her would make him a lot stronger,
for some reason, something inside of him kept him from laying harm upon this
creature.
"Who am I? Some way to greet your apprentice." said the girl with a scowl,
crossing her black-and-pink-armoured arms. She had grown fast, as most Navis
are programmed to, and currently looked to be a teenager. Once she reached
the age range of somewhere between twenty and thirty, however, her programming
would likely allow her to age no longer. For the sake of not complicating this
story any longer, let's end the explination there.
"My... apprentice..?" Forte said, his head beginning to hurt a bit as
images of old memories he shared with this girl began flashing through his
mind. "... I .. had an apprentice.. ?"
"Yeah, remember? Mia?" she said. "If this is a joke, it isn't very
funny..."
"... I'm ... sorry.." he muttered, words he never thought would ever
escape his lips. "... I cannot remember anything ..."
"What're you talking about?" Mia said, tilting her head, her feline
tail curling into a question mark.
"I ... I just can't. Though I vaguely recognize you ... perhaps
when I find enough bug fragments, and if I stay near you a while,
it will come back to me ..." muttered Forte.
"Bug frags? Why would those help?" said Mia. Forte held part of his cloak
up, revealing his lower half that wasn't there. Mia gasped. "Eek! Are
you alright?"
"I am fine ... and I need the fragments to restore myself, and aquire
the power I need ..." he said, as he began floating away, covering himself
up with his cloak once again.
"Wait for me! I have an idea!" shouted the girl, skipping after Forte. He
turned to stare at the young Navi.
"Why would you go out of your way to help me?" Forte asked. "Even if you
were my apprentice... I couldn't even remember your name, why should you
be so eager to assist me?"
"Because, all my life, since a month after I was created, I've been alone.
My human operator abandoned me, and I've had no friends or family
ever since." said Mia. More memories threatened to flood Forte's mind as
he recalled vague images of an old man, who he seemed to feel a deep
loathing for. "You were the only person who ever even liked me, even though
you tried not to show it... And, I haven't seen you in ages, but I figured
you had a good reason for it... by the looks of things, I think you have
a valid excuse."
"... how would you suggest we acquire enough bug fragments, then?" Forte
said. Mia grinned.
"Thought you'd never ask! See, I've been stealing a lot of battlechips
lately to sell back in the Undernet, but since we're in need of frags,
we can create a machine for others to put Bugfrags in and get chips
out of!" she said with a proud grin.
"... a waste of time, isn't it?" Forte said, giving a blow to Mia's
pride by accident.
"If nothing else, your personality's coming back." she said with a
sigh. "Look, you need time to recover from your amnesia before you're
fully restored. Besides, how else would you get them?"
"By crushing navis and viruses, and taking whatever fragments they
posess." Forte said. "That would be a uch faster method."
"In your condition? You could get hurt, or worse, deleted!" Mia said.
"And with no Operator, I highly doubt you have a backup file."
"Nothing could delete me, even in my current state." Forte said. "If you
know me so well, why would you doubt that?"
"Because .. I'd rather be safe than sorry." said Mia.
"Well, I'd rather be restored as soon as I can! And I don't have the
patience to wait for some pitiful Navi slaves to blindly hand over their
bugfrags when we could just take them all at once!" said Forte, a bit
annoyed. "No Navi could stand a chance against my might as it is!"
He began to fly away, but before he could get very far, Mia teleported
herself through hacking and appeared in front of Forte, pouncing him
onto the platform below and pinning him down, somehow able eto keep him
pinned. "I've been training a lot in your absense... and I'm not about
to let you go get yourself deleted." she said, a grim look of determination
crossing her features.
Forte growled as a thin aura began to form around him, readying himself
to throw Mia off of his form and delete the feline Navi. He stared up at
the Navi atop him, and became confused. Despite the power he was emitting
already, this creature was still trying to keep him down. Most of the time,
he would have just found this obnoxious, but for some reason he felt more
lenient towards his apprentice.
"... Fine." he said, his aura fading once more. "We'll do whatever it
was you said."
"Yay!" said Mia, hugging Forte's half-bodied self, her look of determination
replaced by a joyous grin.
"... you can let go of me now..." Forte said after a good ten seconds.
"So?" Mia said, standing up and carrying Forte off. He sighed. "This is
humiliating. Let go of me!" he said, pushing away from Mia so he could
float alongside her.
"Fine, I was going to carry you the whole way." she said, sticking her
tongue out at him as she led Forte back towards the Undersquare. An
awkward silence prevailed for a while before they drew near.
"... just where are we going?" Forte asked, the large statue in front of
him giving him a feeling of deja vu.
"Well, there's a Blue navi with many bugfrags who's Operator seems to love
chip traders, he haunts an area near here quite frequently." Mia said,
teleporting herself and Forte to the other side of the statue and near a
giant transportation pad. They leapt into it and were transferred into
Serenade's pink palace once more.
"If we put a BugFrag trader here, he won't be able to resist spending every
frag he has to obsessively collcet chips." said Mia with a grin. "You'll
be restored in no time, sensai."
"... interesting idea... and what untill then?" Forte said as Mia dragged
his floating self into and across the crystal clear pool of water that
surrounded the no-walled palace as far as the eye could see.
"A while ago, I created myself a little fortress when S had attempted
to ... how did she put it ... 'show me the error of my ways.'" Mia said
with a laugh. "That's one thing I always liked about you, you're one of
the only other people I know who atually hates humans as much as I." It
seems Mia had become more like Forte despite his absence.
"Heh... I may not remember a lot, but that much I can still recall." Forte
chuckled dryly.
Mia led Forte across the shallow water surrounding Serenade's palace untill
they stood under a rather large platform. "Stay here, be back in a second."
Mia said, leaping into the air and vanishing. Forte stared around, this place
eerily familiar to him somehow. And for some reason he felt a strong urge
to destroy it...
The cloaked Navi looked down at his reflection in the cyber water below him,
cursing his amnesia. "Perhaps after I'm restored, I'll regain my memory
as well..."
Forte grew tired of waiting and floated up to the platform, silently landing
behind Mia, watching as she pieced together an odd black contraption, well over
halfway done with it by now.
"I cannot recall why I spared you, however..." Forte thought to himself as he
stared at the young teenage Navi. "You irritate me the likes of which no one
even dares to consider... and by your lack of fear, you're either very powerful,
or very stupid..."
Mia put her hands on her hips and let out a happy miow, before opening the
top of it and beginning to place chips inside, completely oblivios to Forte's
presence as he pondered, her feline tail waving back and forth as she worked.
Beyond the confusion of what kept him from killing her, he still wondered why
she wanted to go out of her way to help him.
"There we go, all finished!" Mia exclaimed, closing the top of the chip
trader before turning around. She let out a soft shriek, then a sigh of
relief. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"
"So what do we do now?" Forte said, staring oddly at the dark grey boxlike
contraption.
"Just wait a few minutes ... I heard the Blue Navi enter just now... He'll
be attracted to this like a moth to light." Mia said with a triumphant grin.
She had a cunning mind, somewhat atleast, and she knew it.
And sure enough, as the pair went to hide under the platform once more, the
blue Navi found his way to the trading machine. "What's this ...?" the navi
said, staring at the contraption. "It has something written on it ... Bugfrag
Trader? Awesome!"
The Blue Navi began loading the thing down with bugfrags. "Lan, we finally have
a use for all these things the viruses dropped!" he said, putting in more frags
and collecting the chips that came out of the machine in return. And after a long
while, he finally ran out of frags. "Wow! This is great! Jack me out and back in
so I can heal in the PET and come back to test these chips out!" the Blue Navi said.
"... oh yeah, have to leave this place first. Let's go!"
And with that, the blue navi was gone as swiftly as he came. Mia and Forte hovered
up to the frag trader, and Mia opened up the top of it. Forte looked into the
machine, a cruel smirk crossing his lips. "Yes. .. you have done very well for me..."
he said, reaching a hand into the trader machine right about the time Megaman left.
Forte threw his head back and let out an inhuman growl, bugfrags coursing up his
arm like a stream of water and sliding down to reform his lower body, the rest of
the frags pouring into his chest and being absorbed completely. As the fragments
finished forming the shape of Forte's body, he closed his eyes and the old black and
yellow armor formed itself around himself once more.
"Genius, aren't I? How do you feel?" Mia said with a grin, glancing off into the
distance as Megaman returned from being healed. "Quick, under here, he's back"
"I need no more power." Forte said as Mia grabbed his arm and teleported him back
udner the platform.
"But it's better to be safe than sorry ..." Mia began before Forte interrupted
her.
"I said, I need no more power. Nothing stands a chance against me now!" Forte
said before letting out a quaking roar, his arm shifting into the head of Gospel
for a moment before returning to normal.
"Fine, suit yourself." Mia said with a sigh. "You'll learn the hard way to listen
to me more."
Forte smirked. "And you'll learn the easy way that I am not to be underestimated."
The cloaked Navi looked up as he heard footsteps. He snarled as the wolf head on
his arm began growling, before merging back to his normal arm once more. "Wha..?" came
the familiar voice of the blue navi. "Didn't you hear that, Lan? Like an animal
growling ..."
Forte rose into the air and let out a deafening roar, his voice echoing throughout
the palace as he drew upon every bit of power he'd absorbed, feeling an insane power
coursing through his veins. "I have awakened..."
"I sense a powerful force approaching us..."
The CLoaked Navi's aura surrounded him once more, vanishing into the air as the
server began to tremble at his power. He materialized before Megaman, and glared at
the blue navi. "Forte...!"
"Forte? Who could that be ...?" the cloaked navi said, staring at the Navi with
a lack of interest.
"He.. He doesn't remember? But ... He's far stronger than before ...!" Megaman
said, taking a step back.
"I search only for power. I have no name ... I exist only to battle ... I shall
test the power that the bugs gave me ... On you!"
Megaman took a stance as an elecsword materialized over his arm. "There's no
running from this fight ... You won't be so lucky this time!"
Forte smirked once more and hovered down to Megaman's level. The Blue Navi
instantly rushed in to slash at Forte, his sword bouncing off of Forte's aura and
flickering away. The cloaked Navi laughed dryly, as Megaman began futilly shooting
at the aura. "Give up, fool. No Navi slave stands a chance against me."
"Is that so?" Megaman said with a smirk of his own, as a bomb smashed into
Forte's aura, shattering it. "What the.." Forte said, before he felt an electric
blade stab through his gut. "Gah.. How..?" he growled, Megaman jerking the blade
from Forte's side with a laugh, before being kicked in the gut and slammed backwards
a ways. "Fool." Forte said with a scowl as his aura reformed. "That was nothing
but dumb luck."
"We'll just see about that." coughed Megaman as he stood up, tossing a bomb
up and down. Forte glared at Megaman and held his arm out, his lower arm forming
into Gospel's head again.
".. What the ... Gospel?" Megaman said, before he was consumed in flames.
"Ahhh..!" he yelled, quickly using a recovery chip as his minibomb was
shattered by the attack. As soon as the fire faded, Forte smashed into Megaman,
headbutting him off the platform and into the water below. "Give up, you're only
prolonging your own misery." Forte said, jumping down and landing on top of Megaman,
stomping his chest.
He looked down and glared at Megaman as he stomped him ... only to see a small
plushie of Megaman with poor stitching. "What the.." he said, looking up just in time
to see a shuriken smash into his shield and shatter it once more. Megaman landed on
Forte's chest from his high jump and grinned. "Hello." he said, holding a hand to
Forte's chest as a Hero Sword materialized, piercing through Forte's chest before
the blue navi sliced through Forte's body and did a backflip off of him.
"You'll pay for that.." Forte growled, his sliced up body reforming itself before
it even hit the ground. He heard an inner growling from Gospel as images flashed
through his mind, and he grinned cruelly, standing up straight and pointing a finger
towards Megaman. "So ... you thirst for revenge as much as I ..." Forte said. "Well
then, don't waste any more time. It's your turn."
Megaman blinked. "What the heck are y"
Before he could finish this sentance, however, bugfrags began pouring out of his
chest, forming a pair of large, grey claws, which lunged at Megaman in moments and
began slashing at him wildly, an eerie howl echoing through the void of Serenade's
palace. Megaman jumped back to avoid the fist claw, firing his buster rapidily
at the second, each shot merely bouncing off the hard bugfrag shell. The claw
slammed into Megaman, knocking him back aways, the blue bomber jumping back to his
feet in time to see a claw flying towards him, the other claw coming from the
opposite side. Megaman began charging his buster as he leapt into the air, aiming
it downwards as the claws collided and firing a charged blast onto them, shattering
one into hundreds of frags which quickly reformed into a claw as both turned to
skyrocket towards him once more.
A barrier formed around Megaman as he began his swift descent, pulling out a
sword to slice one of the claws in half as the other one bounced off of his
barrier. The blue Navi landed on the platform below, pulling out a pair of electric
blades and fending off the claws as best as he could. Forte smirked and began
slowly walking towards the Blue Bomber as he fought against Gospel's assault,
Forte's arm cracking and turning grey once more as it morphed into the head of
the wolf-like beast. He held the arm out towards Megaman as the claws shattered
to pieces, each fragment flying into the arm and merging with it.
Megaman stared at the face of Gospel through his barrier for a second before
it opened its mouth with a roar, flames spraying from its mouth and engulfing
Megaman in a veil of smoke and fire. As the fiery hot stream finally ended,
Forte chuckled darkly as he withdrew the arm with Gospel's head around it, the
arm reforming back to its original black and yellow form. The cloaked Navi
cracked his neck as the smoke slowly faded to reveal Megaman, the blue bomber's
barrier flickering away. "Lan, I need more battlechips, hurry!" Megaman said,
looking up for a moment.
Forte took a step closer to Megaman and chuckled darkly. "You will
suffer for your dependance on humans." he said with a cruel smirk, holding
his twin busters up, beginning to focus his energy into them. "Prepare
to be deleted, blue navi..."
"I hope this works.." Megaman said, turning to look at Forte once
more. Forte aimed his buster cannons at Megaman, and as he was nearly
ready to fire. Megaman held one of his hands out towards Forte with
a smirk of his own. Forte scowled, before hearing something tearing
through the ground behind him...
The cloaked Navi turned around just in time to see a bamboo-like spear
stab through his shield, shattering it like fragile glass before
retreating back into the earth. "A meaningless effort. It takes mere moments
to regenerate my protective aura"
Before he could turn around to face Megaman once more, however, something
sliced through his hip and through his left leg, feeling as if millions of
tiny razor blades were tearing him apart on the inside of the wound. He let out
a gasp, but before he could blink, another blade slashed through his waist,
feeling as if an intense flame was incinerating him from the inside. A split
second later, another blade sliced through his abdomen diagonally, water
splashing all over him as he felt like his body was being frozen solid, before
finally something stabbed through his gut, powerful electricity surging through
his soaked form and draining him of most of his energy.
After the blade assault was finally over, Forte fell to his knees, letting
out a couple of coughs. "How ...?" Forte said in disbelief, his lower body
beginning to lose color and crack up to look like Gospel's skin once more, his
strength nearly drained completely. "It is impossible to defeat me...! I am
destruction incarnate! I have far more power than you!" he yelled, slamming his
fists into the ground. "How...?"
"Because you are fighting alone!" Megaman said with a triumphant grin,
standing tall behind Forte. "As long as Lan is operating me, I have no limits!"
"What do you mean? Strength does not rely on others!" Forte said, turning
to face Megaman with a scowl. He couldn't believe how stupid this navi was. He'd
become the most powerful Navi in the net, and not because of some pathetic human...
"You're wrong! When Navis are able to completely trust their operators,
humans, then they are finally able to realize their power! You, too, once had
a human who you could trust like that!" Megaman said, causing unwanted memories
to begin resurfacing in Forte's mind. "... I trust no one but myself!" Forte
exclaimed.
"Forte, try to remember!"
Forte held his helmet as more memories flooded his mind, of a time when
he was just created, a time where he actually relied on a human, letting out a
short roar. "Who is this man who invades my memory?" he demanded. "What is
this ... feeling? That I ... need him? ... NO! Never!" he snarled. "I trust
no one! Power is all! Dstruction is my purpose!"
The cloaked Navi roared, holding his arm up and beginning to charge the
last of his energy to escape. Somewhere, anywhere, he had to find a place to
rest, to rebuild his strength. He could have sworn he heard a young voice
calling out his name, but before he could worry about it, the world around him
fading as he fell unconscious.
Forte slowly opened his eyes, staring up into a static-filled void
that looked eerily familiar, though still different somehow. "This place
looks like the Undernet ..." He sat up and looked at his arm, which had
transformed back into Gospel's head. The rest of his body still looked
grey and cracked, looking as comprised of bugfrags as it was. "Where have
you taken us, Gospel?"
He stared around as a faint growling emitted from his arm. "... Black
Earth...? And what exactly is that?" he muttered under his breath, before
realizing that some of his strength had returned. Forte stood up tall once
more, his torn cloak waving in the slight unnatural wind that swept by now
and then. He took a deep breath, feeling a dark energy as abundant as the
air around him. "This place will suit me well for the time being ..." he
said, the bugfrag-comprised sections of his body reverting back to his
original black and yellow armor, his aura reforming itself as he already
began to regain his full strength. "Very well, indeed..."
A/N:
Don't kill me. XD I know this took forever, but I went in a huge period
of writer's block. Hope people still read this story. With luck, the fifth
chapter will be up soon.