Disclaimer: I do not own the Ranma 1/2 series or the Megaman: Battle Network series.
"Dialogue"
((Thought))
Attention: This fic will ignore most of the stuff that happened in MMBN4 and will skip straight ahead to MMBN5. Don't worry about spoilers except for the names of characters that appear.
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A week has passed since Requiem met his operator Lan. School had been pretty boring for him, the only exception were the lessons in virus busting. At first the red Navi was a little reserved about hitting those small cute beings, with their helmets and pickaxes. This changed pretty fast when they literary started picking on him.
He also got to know the Navis of Lan's friends a little closer. The most talkative of them all was Roll; she bombarded Requiem with dozens of questions when they first met on her operator's homepage. It was also a relief that she didn't seem to show any romantic interest in him.
Gutsman, the giant Navi he fought before, was also quite a surprise. Requiem expected that he earned himself another foe out for his life, like he did when he was still human but no such thing happened. The huge fighter actually congratulated him for his victory.
The only one he didn't get to know very much was Glide, who seemed to have a full schedule thanks to his rich operator. Most of the time, he only saw him during school hours.
At the moment, Requiem was back at home and tried to tell his friend something, "Hey! Listen to me, Lan! You've got a mail!"
"Huh?"
"Finally! I've tried to tell you this for almost half an hour but you wouldn't listen..."
"So what is it about?" replied Lan hastily, today he was going to shop along with his father in Electown and he didn't want to let him wait. Shopping with his father was a very rare occurrence, since Dr. Hikari was usually too caught up in his work at SciLab.
"It's from Den News, it goes like this, 'Is everyone performing regular viruses scans? If not, your electric devices may suddenly break down. Try to check for viruses once everyday'."
"Don't worry, they send these mails once every month."
"Oh..."
"Anyway, I'm ready now. Let's go!" Lan picked up his PET and hung it around his neck
The boy left his room and went down the stairs, where he could see his dad watching TV and his mother looking worriedly at their new stove.
"Good morning, everyone!" greeted Lan cheerfully, drawing the attention of his father
"Good morning, I hope you slept well." said Dr. Hikari
"Yeah, I did. Say, dad... what's up with mom?"
"Huh?" questioned the man and turned around to look at his wife, he scratched his head, "I don't know... maybe something's wrong with the stove. Why don't you ask her?"
"Okay." Lan walked over to the kitchen, "Morning, mom! Do you have some kind of problem?"
She turned her head and smiled when she saw her son, "Good morning. The stove doesn't work; I think it's a virus..."
"Really? Hmmm... step aside, Requiem and I are going to check it out."
The woman complied and watched as Lan went up to the broken device, "Good luck."
"Thanks, mom! Requiem, are you ready? Jack in!" exclaimed Lan and connected his PET with the stove
Inside the Personal Terminal, Requiem felt the usual sense of displacement as he was warped out of the device he lived in. Once he reached his destination he looked around the new place, again only colorful squares and a vibrant wallpaper. The Navi quickly found the source of the problem; eight yellow-helmed viruses were attacking the Program of the stove.
He quickly dashed towards them and pulled his saber out, activating it in the process. The little critters seemed to have noticed and jumped to the side. One of them was too slow though and was sliced in half by Requiem. The two pieces promptly vanished in a small explosion.
The Navi formerly known as Ranma now slowly faced the remaining viruses, "I'll give you a choice, go away and never come back or join your friend."
The little viruses squeaked angrily and raised their pickaxes as menacingly, it goes without saying that they failed miserably at that. Only slightly bothered by this, they brought their weapons back down and once they hit the ground, small waves of energy shot through the ground straight at the offending Navi.
"Oh well... I warned you..." replied the pigtailed fighter and smashed his blade into the ground, creating an explosion of green energy that disrupted his opponents' attacks and engulfed three of the mettaurs.
The four remaining viruses were only slightly bothered by their comrades' deaths and continued with their attacks. Requiem shook his head in dismay and destroyed his opponents with a burst of speed and four quick strokes of his sword.
Once the battle or one-sided slaughter was finished closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He didn't like it at all to kill someone, who he knew had no chance of winning against him. But it had to be done, if greater damage to the Internet and the real world was to be avoided.
Clearing his mind from these thoughts, the Navi turned around to face the program, "Hey, are you okay?"
"YES, THANKS FOR SAVING ME! THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE!" the green being floated towards him excitedly but then suddenly stopped, "OUCH!"
"What's wrong?" asked Requiem concerned
"I THINK MY IGNITION SYSTEM IS BROKEN! I WON'T BE ABLE TO HEAT ANYTHING..."
"Well, then I can't make any breakfast." stated Lan's mother in the real world, "What can we do?"
"Oh no! Dad, can't you do anything?" asked the brown-haired boy
Yuuichirou rubbed his chin in thought, "Let's see... I could fix him if I could get my hands on a Recovery patch."
"Where can we get one of those?" questioned Lan
"Lan, I think I heard one of the Navis in school say that there is a merchant in the Net that sells them."
"Right then! I'll go for one. I can't take this hunger!" exclaimed Lan, "Requiem, let's access the Net from my PC... Oh yeah! Dad, I'll need some money!"
Dr. Hikari laughed, "Hah hah hah! I know, I know. But you have to jack out Requiem first."
"Okay! Requiem, jack out."
"Understood!" replied the red-armored Navi and then said to the program before he disappeared, "Hang in there a bit longer!"
Once back in his PET, Requiem heard Yuuichirou say, "I think they sell Recovery Patch in ACDC 3. This should be enough money."
The man handed Lan 500 Zenny, which were promptly put into the pocket of his pants.
"Thanks, dad! I'll be going now!" this said, Lan ran back up to his room and went straight to his PC, "Ready, Requiem?"
"Yup." answered the Navi with a nod
"Good. Jack in! Requiem, Execute!"
Like the many times before in the last week, Requiem was sent to the homepage of his operator, which had a soccer design.
"It was ACDC area 3, wasn't it?" asked the red-armored fighter
"Yeah, you know the way?"
"Of course I do. I just have to follow the blue road."
"True enough." responded Lan
Requiem nodded and walked to the warp point at the other end of the page and once he stepped onto it he was teleported away.
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ACDC Net...
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Requiem arrived in the cyber city and was quite surprised by the commotion in the streets. NetNavis and programs alike were fleeing from something and from the way some of them looked that 'something' must have been very brutal. Without much thinking the pigtailed martial artist grabbed one of the Navis that ran by and stopped him in his tracks.
"What the hell is happening here!" asked Requiem forcefully
The green standard navi was shaking as he replied, "You don't know! A gigantic virus appeared in the square of the city and destroys everything!"
"Then why is no one fighting it?"
"We tried! But that thing has an aura surrounding it and nothing could pierce it! The Officials that were fighting it were ripped to shreds!"
"Why not just jack out?" continued the black and red navi
"We're being blocked! Just try it yourself!"
Requiem blinked and did as he was told, but nothing happened. He repeated the command to jack out several times but failed to do so. He sighed, "Okay, go and get yourself to safety."
The other Navi didn't even answer and started running again as soon as Requiem released his hold on his shoulder. Furrowing his brow, Requiem contacted his operator,
"Lan, did you hear that?"
"Yeah, I saw everything..."
"What do you want me to do?"
Lan closed his eyes in thought and after some seconds opened them again, "You want to fight that virus, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. But I won't, if you don't want me to."
"Okay..."
Requiem nodded and was about to step onto the warp point to Lan's homepage again, when his operator continued, "...we'll fight it together."
"You mean it?"
"Yeah!" answered Lan firmly
The navi smirked and dashed down the street in the direction all the Navis were coming from, "That's what I wanted to hear!"
It took him almost fifteen minutes to reach his destination and as Requiem ran there he noticed that the amount of destruction that surrounded him grew the nearer he got to that virus. Some buildings had holes in them, while others were completely decimated to piles of rubble. The streets were cracked up and he could see the remains of Navis that dissolved into nothingness.
Now he was at the square and he knew why that navi from before was shaking like a leaf. The virus he saw was huge, unbelievably so. It was at least eight or nine meters tall and five or six meters wide. It had six spider or bug like legs, its hands were big enough to envelope a Navi completely and at the center of its lower body there was a large red crystal lens. The virus also had two, two meter long blades on each shoulder. It also didn't help that it just threw a purple bat-like Navi through the walls of a building, like it was nothing.
"What an ugly mot..." started Requiem but was interrupted by Lan, who gasped in shock
"This has to be some kinda joke! It's the LifeVirus!"
"Life what?"
"LifeVirus! It is the strongest kind of virus there is and it has an aura that protects it from most attacks!" explained Lan, "It was destroyed by Megaman over a year ago!"
"It seems to be alive and ticking for me..." replied the Navi and pulled his Z-Saber out of its holster, activating it with a thought, "How do I kill it?"
"Your sword won't do it, I think. You need a weapon to break through the aura first."
"Well, then give me one! I think it noticed me!"
"Problem is that I don't have any..." responded Lan
"What!" exclaimed Requiem and stepped backwards as the gigantic monster advanced towards him
"It's not my fault! Mom took away all my Battlechips and my Navi Customizer, since she thought it would be too dangerous if I kept them. All I have left are basic chips!"
"Oh great... well, I'll see what I can do with what I have here." sighed the Navi and ran up to the virus. He brought his sword down on it but was surprised by the sudden flash of purple light. Once it subsided he could see the LifeVirus being surrounded by a violet aura that held his weapon at bay without any trouble.
He screamed in pain as the virus retaliated with punch that sent him flying several meters. Requiem flipped once in the air and landed on his feet, standing now rather shakily.
"That hurt!"
"Requiem, are you okay!" asked Lan concerned
"Yeah, yeah... it just caught me by surprise, that's all." said the Navi, "But we have to think of something or that thing is going to destroy the whole city."
"I might know something that could help..."
"Tell me!"
"It's called Program Advance. If I use certain chips in row they unite to form a very powerful attack."
"Well, you can only use it once per battle and if you miss..."
"No second chances, huh?"
"Exactly."
"Let's try it. It can't get much worse than it is now." responded Requiem, as the LifeVirus was approaching again
"Okay, first Sword." muttered Lan as he used the chip
Requiem watched in surprise as his saber all of a sudden became shorter and more like a broadsword, ((What the...?))
"Wide Sword..."
The Navi raised an eye brow as the tip of his weapon widened slightly
"This is it now... Long Sword." said the boy as he sent the final chip data
Abruptly the blade in Requiem's hand vanished, leaving him with only the hilt. He sweatdropped.
"Lan, are you sure you did everything correctly?"
"Of course I'm sure! It's not the first time I did that!"
"Well, seems that we can forget that P. A... Wha...?"
Just as he said this the hilt started to vibrate in his hand and after a second activated on its own. For a moment there was a blinding flash of light that illuminated the whole square. Requiem had to blink a few times to clear his eyes and gasped when he saw the sword in his hand.
"That's impossible..."
The blade was two times larger than Requiem himself and half as wide. Instead of the usual green, it now had the same purple coloring as the aura of the LifeVirus.
"Lan, what is this?"
"It's the P.A., LifeSword." replied his operator, "Now fast or the energy will vanish."
Requiem nodded and raised his sword above his head, the best stance he could think of while using such a large, weightless weapon. He let out a breath to ready himself for the attack and then sprinted at his opponent at full speed. Once he was around two or three meters away from the LifeVirus, it attacked him again with a swipe of its hand.
The Navi jumped over the claw and swung his saber downwards. It clashed against the aura in an impressive display of light but the protective barrier gave away after a few moments, not strong enough to hold itself against the powerful sword.
Now that the aura was out of the way, the LifeSword continued on its path and slashed right through the arm of the virus, dismembering it. The beast screeched in pain and all of a sudden fired a beam of energy out of its crimson lens and right at Requiem, who just landed on the ground and recovered from his attack.
The powerful blast hit him directly in the chest and sent him flying into and through a wall right across the square. His mouth was opened in a silent scream as the attack sent a wave of agonizing pain through his body. Requiem was buried under the rubble of the wall almost completely, only his head and part of his right leg visible.
"Requiem! Requiem, do you hear me!" shouted Lan desperately
"I'm... fine. Don't worry... about me..." whispered the Navi and then slipped into unconsciousness.
"Hey, wake up! The LifeVirus is coming at you again!"
There was no reaction from his Navi though, he was completely out cold. Suddenly Lan heard someone shout, "Cross Divide!"
The LifeVirus stopped in its tracks and slowly started to fall apart, having been cut into four pieces. The parts dissolved into data dust and were blown away by the wind. As the virus disappeared, it revealed a large Navi standing behind it.
The Net Navigator was at least two meters tall and completely clad in a black armor and helmet lined with gold, along with an azure cape that almost reached his feet. Instead of a right hand he had a custom sword with a green blade coming out of his forearm.
"Tsss... another one..." mumbled the Navi and then turned to Lan, "You should be able to retrieve your Navi now that I destroyed the virus."
"W-who... are you?" mumbled the boy, he was almost speechless. The power this Navi displayed was frightening.
"You don't need to know that. Not yet, anyway." he replied and jacked out
Unnoticed by both of them the crystal on Requiem's head started to flash and a stylized 'Z' appeared in it. There was also some kind of fine powder being sucked into his body. This whole incident only lasted several moments before everything went back to normal. Just then Lan turned his attention back to him.
"It's time now for you to jack out, too." said the brown-haired Net Battler relieved and recalled his Navi back into his PET.
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The real world...
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"Dad!" shouted Lan as he ran into the living room
"Did you get the..." started Yuuichirou but stopped when he saw the expression on his son's face, "What happened?"
"Requiem was attacked on the cyber square! And he's not waking up even though he's back in the PET!"
"What! Give me your PET for a second."
Lan did just that and handed his father the blue device. After a few moments of checking Requiem's programming and status, Yuuichirou frowned, "This could take a while... I'm sorry Lan, but I think we have to go shopping another day."
The boy shook his head, "I don't care about that! Just help Requiem!"
"Okay then. I'll go to my study and you wait here." replied the man
"Can't I come with you?"
"No, I work best without someone looking over my shoulder the whole time." said Yuuichirou, "By the way, who attacked Requiem? Was it another Navi?"
"I almost forgot! It was a LifeVirus!"
"What! But that's not possible... did Requiem defeat it or is it still out there in the Net?" asked Lan's father concerned
"Another Navi appeared and destroyed the virus; Requiem was knocked out before that."
"Okay... I'll go now and see what I can do." saying this the man walked out of the room, leaving his wife and son behind
Lan blinked when his mother put a hand on his shoulder and looked up at her, "Don't worry. If anyone can help Requiem, it's your father."
"...True." responded the boy after a moment
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Meanwhile in the Undernet...
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A stone statue that stood on a high platform rose into the air and started to crumble, revealing a tall Navi that was clad in a brown cloak that hid his whole body, except for his head and feet. His eyes had a crimson color and there were purple stripes that lined his face. The helmet he was wearing had two huge fins and a dark blue crystal star was inserted were the fins met on his forehead.
The whole area started to shake and was covered in darkness as the being was freed from his self-made prison. The viruses in the vicinity quickly made their escape and those who weren't fast enough were deleted by just getting in the touch with the Navi's aura. Moments later everything was finished and the area calmed down again.
The first independent Navi was floating a few inches over the ground and had a feral smirk on his lips, "Finally it started."
Forte was ready to enter the upcoming war.
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Secret area 3...
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Serenade was the king of the Undernet and one of the most powerful Navis in the Net. At the moment he was kneeling on the floor of his domain and held his head in pain. His mind felt like there were thousands of searing needles pinned into his brain, needles with barbs.
"W...what's happening... in the Net...?"
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Nebula Headquarters, real world...
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Dr. Regal, the founder and leader of the Dark Chip Syndicate Nebula was confused. His creation Nebula Gray was causing havoc in its confinement, the Dark Galaxy. Just as if there was a sudden rise in the evil power in the Undernet. Whatever it was, it must have been very powerful to get such a reaction out of Gray.
After a moment the black-haired, bearded man smiled at the implication this had, "Maybe I can get my plans sooner into motion than I thought. Now I only need to get my hands on the Hikari Report..."
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