Chapter Two: The truth of Rare Metal
More terms:
Rare metal: The metal that Synchrochips and Dark Chips are made from
No one told me any more, and this was all I could think of.
Lan was suddenly thrust forward. He'd let his guard down staring at the ring.
"All right!" he yelled. "Electrosword!" he shouted as his right arm transformed into a blue glowing sword that was sparking.
Suddenly Gateman struck again. Lan just now took note of the strange symbols covering him. They appeared on the strange ring also.
"Vortex attack!" he shouted, firing a white ring at Lan. The ring spread into a cage that entrapped Lan.
Suddenly he heard a shout. "Heatshot!" the voice said. The woman, just now coming into the room sent fire at Gateman. Before he could recover, the woman called out a second Battlechip. "Cybersword!" She attacked again. "Miniboomers!" she added in, but she didn't throw them at Gateman. She threw them at Lan, who attempted to shield himself.
But the mini-boomers didn't reach him. They just shattered the cage.
Who is that? he thought. Chaud and I are the only ones who can crossfuse with our Netnavis, right?
"All right, Siler, he's weakened! Do it now!" the woman called.
Gateman suddenly disappeared into a vortex. With him went the dimensional area.
Lan's crossfusion with Megaman terminated as a result of no longer being in a dimensional area. The woman's crossfusion also terminated.
"Who is that?" he asked, not quite realizing that he was speaking out loud.
She went over to him. "Colonel Samantha Carter of the United States Air Force," she said. "You must be Lan Hikari. You're legendary among Net-savers."
"Uh, pleased to meet you too?" Lan said. "So what's going on? What's so special about this place? What do those symbols mean? How do…" Colonel Carter cut him off.
"I'll explain it all. Don't worry. First, I'm a Net-saver like you, but I mostly work here. My Netnavi is named Starway. This is the SGC. Stargate command. Those symbols are star constellations. All except for one. That one is the same as Gateman's main symbol. When six of the constellations are in sequence with the last symbol, the point of origin, input into the ring behind you…" Lan glanced behind him. "… they track a course to another one, a Stargate, just like it, excepting for the different Points of Origin."
"Why was Gateman's symbol the same as this, Point of Origin?"
"Gateman normally works with us to operate the Stargate. He got corrupted by a Darkchip though. We've been doing research on Naquadah to see if we can reverse the effects."
"Naquadah?"
"Oh, you probably know it as Rare Metal. The terms are synonyms, though."
"Why haven't I heard of it as Naquadah before?"
"That name is disclosed only to those with clearance. Naquadah isn't found on this planet."
"What planet then, Mars?" Lan asked.
"No. Planets much farther away. Much farther than any astronaut could hope to go."
"Yeah, so how do you get there?"
"The Stargate."
"Wait a minute, if this all requires clearance, why tell me?"
"Famous said you could be trusted to keep a secret this big."
"Wait a minute, so he knows? Why didn't he tell me?"
"He doesn't know. He didn't specifically mention the Stargate, just casually mentioned that you could keep a secret."
"Oh, right."
I know I know, Naquadah is a mineral not a metal. What do you want from me?