Chapter 6
Extant
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" the cackling continued, not only from Dark Protoman but from all three navis. Then another voice joined the group, that of Dr. Regal. It filled the entire room and seemed to have no point of origin.
"You really didn't think that this was over did you? Nebula lives on my young netsavers and it's stronger now than ever. When I realized just how difficult it was going to be to destroy you I realized the best way would be to have you do it to yourselves. Now my dark minions destroy them."
"Yes master." The navis replied drawing swords and charging their counter parts forcing the trio to split.
"So, it seems that Regal still has some surprises up his sleeve I thought you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks." Terra said as she drew her sword just in time to deflect the dark doppleganger's attack.
The Whisper clone wasn't playing around as she viciously brought on her attack. "Dr. Regal's genius should never be underestimated, it seems that I haven't introduced myself though," the navi said, "the name's Dark Whisper." She said as she tried to catch Terra of guard and deliver a blow but Terra easily sidestepped her.
"Dark Whisper? How generic." Terra replied, when she saw Dark Whisper's face fault she didn't wait another second for an opening. "Geyser battlechip in" she cried as her attack threw Dark Whisper across the room.
"You're going to pay for that."
"I'm right here."
"Who are you?" Lan asked as he dodged attack after attack from the navi that was battling him.
"Name's Dark Megaman," he replied, "dark megabuster!"
"Wow, that's original." Lan replied curtly. This only led to another attack headed his way that came frighteningly close, and Lan only managed to miss it by a hair this time. As hard as he tried to keep his mind on the battle at hand, he couldn't. All he could think about was his brother. He had told Terra that he thought about him all the time, and he did, but lately Hub had been forgotten about, and that made Lan feel guilty. I mean how could you just forget about your twin brother? Megaman sensed Lan's mental battle and decided to speak up before he got himself hurt.
"Lan I think we need to switch for defense to offense." He said.
"I think you're right." Lan replied shaking his mind clear, "widesword battlechip in." when he attacked the darkloid brought up one to match. The two were in dead lock and they weren't going anywhere.
By now Chaud was facing problems of his own. He thought that he had gotten over the memories of Dark Protoman and even though he wasn't facing his navi in battle this time it still brought all those memories flooding back.
"You're a weakling you know that?" Dark Protoman stated as he grabbed Chaud by the wrists and slammed him against the wall.
Chaud felt his anger against Regal flooding back. "I've defeated you once. I can do it again." He said as he pulled his legs together and slammed them into Dark Protoman's stomach causing him to let him go. "Sonic boom!" he exclaimed as he delivered another attack to the enemy, one that blasted him point blank in the chest.
"Oh, that moves going to cost you." Dark Protoman replied as he erected himself reveling that the attack hadn't left a scratch. "AAAHHHHHHRRRRRRRHHHHHH" he roared as he started another attack.
As Lan continually clashed his sword with the darkloid he started to become bored, he was tired of being in gridlock.
"AAAARRRRRRRR, steal toe battlechip in." he yelled as he kicked his navi's darkened double and he vaulted across the room. "Guy's this is getting us nowhere," he called to his friends, "we need to call in reinforcements!"
"Couldn't agree with you more." Terra replied as she and Chaud mirrored Lan's motion getting the darkloids off their backs.
"Jack in, Megaman, Whisper, Protoman, power up!" the three netsavers said as their voices overlapped.
When their navis appeared the darkloids just laughed.
"Wow, looks like you the netsavers have a new trick up your sleeve. It's just too bad they're not the only ones who've upgraded." Dark Whisper said as she and her partners seemed to split and make copies of themselves.
"They can do that?" Lan asked dumbfounded.
"Oh, didn't Dr. Regal mention? We can do that." The replicated Dark Whisper said as she shot toward Whisper and her team following suit leaving Lan Chaud and Terra to battle the previous set.
"You traitor!" Dark Protoman exclaimed as he lunged at Protoman, "how could you have turned your back on Nebula?"
"I was never a part of Nebula, I had no control, or opinion when I was under the dark chips influence." Protoman replied as he dodged the attack.
"But you never forgot their power and yet you didn't come back. You turned your back on Nebula. No one ever walks out on Regal, it will be my pleasure to delete you." Dark Protoman stated as he made another attack. "Laser blast"
Soon though everyone whether on the side of justice or the side of evil had to notice that they were getting nowhere, they were to evenly matched. This only encouraged the darkloids to do what they did best. Fight dirty.
'I think it's time I changed tactics.' Dark Whisper thought as Terra came at her. When Terra came close enough she elbowed her in the stomach and them grabbed her hair and slung her like a lasso. Terra, who wasn't expecting this form of attack had no way to counteract and she went flying across the room…
"Fire tower battlechip in!" Lan exclaimed, and just as he was about to slam his hand into the ground he felt a weight push against him and the next thing he knew was that he was on the floor. Dark Whisper had purposely thrown Terra into him.
"Now that is sad." She said as she stared to two teens down. "And as much as I would like to I honestly I don't have the time to dwell on you incompetence. I have a mission to carry out," she looked out of the corner of her eye and zeroed in on her next target. "Perfect," she whispered, "Z cannon!" she yelled as she turned sharply and fired in the opposite direction.
Terra and Lan followed the shots trajectory, when they both noticed who the shot had been aimed at they yelled "Megaman lookout!" But it was too late; the blast hit him head on and he was instantly thrown to the ground.
"Well this must be my fortunate day." The Dark Megaman commented that Mega had been battling only seconds before as he towered over the injured navi. During his battle with him he had found that Regal was right; he really was a threat to his operation. But seeing him doubled over on the floor he seemed just like anyone else: weak, worthless and totally not worth his time. Picking him up effortlessly of the floor he asked. "Any last words?" as he held Mega in one hand and raised his megabuster with the other.
Mega peered behind his attacker "Yeah," he replied as well as he could with Dark Megaman's hand clamped around his throat. "Duck." He had looked over the darkloids shoulder and noticed that Lan had his ScopeBlaster aimed and ready to fire.
"Lead shot!" he exclaimed as the hot plasma cut through the air and met its target causing the darkloid to fly back and release Mega who dropped to the floor.
"And as for you…" Terra started when she turned her attention back to Dark Whisper who had watched the scene with absolute glee.
"Mega are you ok?" Lan asked as he ran over to his friend.
"Yeah, I'm ok." He replied shortly trying to get up, but when he put pressure on his arm to stand up it gave out from under him sending him back to the ground.
"No you're not, your hurt, let me look at that." Lan said taking a hold of Mega's right arm. He tried to struggle free but Lan's grip was like a vise and he wouldn't let go.
"Lan I'm fine." Mega said, trying in vain to pull himself free from Lan's grip, but it was a lost cause. Lan was determined not to let go.
"No, you're not." Lan repeated. Taking a closer look he noticed that the blast had burned the top layer of data off reveling the skin that always remained hidden underneath the body suit. The burn went deep and was causing some of Mega's data to break up. But that wasn't what Lan noticed, he saw something else.
A mark…
A dark triangular mark on Mega's forearm…
One that eerily matched…
His brothers birthmark...
Lan was paralyzed. "Here," he said almost robotically as he handed Mega a HP recovery chip. Mega took it and within seconds his arm was healed, taking with it any evidence that Mega was really some else.
"Hey," Mega said putting his hands on Lan's shoulder and looking him in the eye bringing him back for a second, "We have work to do right? We can't let those darkloids get their hands on that metal now can we?"
"No." Lan replied, but as soon as Mega turned and left Lan slipped back into the past.
When Mega had looked him straight in the eye he thought that he had seen a familiar spark in his eyes, something that he hadn't seen in Mega before, a spark that belonged to someone else…
Flashback…
"Ok." Mrs. Hikari said as she rushed around the house finally finding her keys. "I am so sorry I have to leave early but your father's convention was rescheduled. The baby-sitter will be here in half an hour and I trust that you can be left alone until then?" she asked addressing her two 5-year-old twin sons. Besides their hair and their eye color the two were identical.
"Of course you can trust us mom, what kind of trouble can we get into anyway?" Lan asked.
"I don't know but you usually find something." His mother replied eyeing her sons in worry. Not for them but for the baby-sitter.
"Don't worry mom I'll keep him out of trouble." Lan's brother, Hub, replied his green eyes full of innocence. "We'll be nothing but sweet to our baby-sitter."
"I hope so." His mother replied ruffling his blue-black hair. "Ok, I'll see tonight." She said as she kissed both boys on the forehead and headed out the door. When she left both boys ran to the window and watched their mother drive off down the street. When he were sure that she was gone Hub turned to his brother.
"Come on we have work to do." He said as his jade eyes glowing with a certain mischievous and determined spark.
Half an hour later both boys were back in the room that they shared with each other.
"Is she coming yet?" Hub asked, busy with the project that he was working on. He was filling up two water guns, only not with water, he was filling them with chocolate pudding.
"No, I don't see her." Lan replied as he leaned as far over the balcony railing as it would let him.
"You guys are nothing but trouble." A voice stated as someone else entered to room.
"Maylu what are you doing here?" Hub asked the girl as she walked up to him.
"I got bored at my house so I thought that I would see what you were up to. What are you doing? Preparing to torture your baby-sitter again?" the red haired girl asked.
"Exactly." The two boys replied.
Lan once again glanced down the street and noticed that this time the baby-sitter was headed toward their house. "Hey, here she comes!" he exclaimed.
"Right on schedule" Hub replied handing Lan a water gun. "You ready?" he asked.
"As always." He replied.
Even thought Maylu knew that the two bays were nothing but trouble she couldn't help but join the two to see how that prank would play out. There was just something about them that attracted you. Something that made life fun.
"Ok, here she comes 3…2…1…" Hub said as he stared the count down and watched as the girl come closer and closer to the front door. "Now!" he yelled as he squeezed the trigger on the water gun and Lan following suit.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" the girl screamed as she was covered from head to toe in chocolate. She looked up to see who had attacked her, like it was a surprise anyway, both Hub and Lan were looking at her, their eyes sparkling with absolute glee. This was the last straw, she had had enough. "That's it I quit! I can't put up with you little monsters any more!" She exclaimed as she wiped the chocolate out of her eyes glaring at the three children that were beside themselves with laughter and turning heel to head home and take a shower.
"You guys are horrible." Maylu managed to say while still giggling.
"And we always will be." Hub replied.
End flashback…
But the prank filled days were short-lived. Three months after that Hub had gotten sick and was diagnosed with HBD and six months later he died.
Flashback…
Lan lay awake in his bed as he looked across the room at the empty bed his brother should be in. He knew in heart that he was never going to come home. He had been sick so long and he hadn't gotten any better. As much as his parents tried to convince him otherwise he knew he was going to die. And it was going to happen soon, he could feel it. It was like a piece of himself was slipping away; disappearing. He opened his door to make sure his parents were asleep. When he heard his father snoring he knew the coast was clear. Going back into his room he opened the French doors that led to the balcony and slid down the drain pipe. When he made it to the hospital he slipped past the nurses' station and went to his brother's room. When he saw him he could hardly recognize him. The HBD had reduced his lively twin into a pale and weak stranger. He pulled up a chair and sat down by him. After a few minuets Hub woke up.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey yourself." Lan replied.
Hub gave him a weak smile, "You still can't make a joke, you know that right?"
"Well I have to learn from the master first."
"Humph, I wish I could stick around to teach you."
"What do you mean by that?" Lan asked.
"Lan, there's no use in us trying to avoid the truth. I'm ganna die. I can feel it. And I know you can feel it too. There's no reason that you'd sneak out of the house after midnight if you didn't."
"Hub, I don't want you to leave me." Lan said with tears beginning to stream down his cheeks.
"I don't either." Hub replied, "But don't worry we'll see each other again."
Lan was fixing to ask what he meant by that when he noticed something slightly sticking out from underneath Hub's hair. "What's that?" he asked when he pushed it back reveling a small device that was attached to his temple.
"I don't know really, it's something that dad gave me." Hub replied. When Lan looked to him him he could see his brother was exhausted.
"It's ok you can you go to sleep. I'll be right here." To weak to make a reply Hub closed is eyes and drifted off. Soon Lan found that his eyes were heavy as well and it wasn't long before he fell asleep too. The little boy didn't know how long he had been out, but suddenly he was awakened by a sickening sound. A flat line.
"..."
"Hub?!" Lan managed to choke out before the nurses came in and removed him from the room; tears streaming down his face.
End flashback…
Lan never thought that he could be whole again after that, it was like part of him was missing. Then Megaman had come along and he quickly filled that void, but as Lan looked back he wondered: could there have been an underlining reason as to why he had done that so easily?
'Don't worry we'll see each other again.' 'We have work to do.' Hub and Mega's words echoed in Lan's mind.
"Hub?" Lan whispered to himself; understanding for the first time what his brother's last words had meant and putting together the mystery that had always surrounded his navi. Something that he should have figured out a long time ago.
"What are they doing?" one of the two Dark Megamen asked commenting on the odd exchange between operator and navi.
"I don't know," the other replied as he watched Mega leave and Lan stay stock still like he was frozen place, "but in a second it won't matter." He said as he brought up his buster. "Chargeshot!" he said as he aimed and fired.
Hearing the shot being fired Lan was pulled out of his daydream. The plasma passed right by him, coming so close that he could feel it's heat, when it passed he noticed where it was headed and without thinking he yelled…
"Hub look out!"
Mega turned sharply around and locked eyes with Lan for a split second, this left him no time to dodge the coming attack and before long he was looking into its fiery depths…
"Megaman logging out." The flat computer voice stated.
Lan felt anger bubbling up inside him. It was like he had lost his brother all over again.
"Scopeblaster, stepcross, battlechips in." he called as he swiftly appeared before the two Dark Megamen and pinned them down with the gun. But since he was acting on blind rage and it was two against one he was quickly overpowered and the two Megamen soon had him pinned.
"You net savers are so dumb you know that? You never see the big picture before it's to late." they said together, "This was all a distraction."
That's when Lan noticed for the first time that menture viruses were busy at work collecting the refined metal bars. And Lan wasn't the only one that noticed either, Chaud as well as Terra, Whisper and Protoman had noticed it too. They all saw the viruses busy at work and knew they had to be stopped. A few more minuets and they would be done. But they were all to busy fighting off the darkloids to do anything about it. As Chaud looked on it became clear that this time they might actually loose. Regal might just get his way. That made his anger flare up once more. Regal wasn't going to win. Not again, he was going to delete those viruses no matter what it took, but he had to get Dark Protoman out of the way first.
"Chaud, we have to do something they almost have all the metal in place for transport". Protoman thought addressing his operator through their crossfusion link.
"I know that, but it's not all that easy." Chaud exclaimed as he nearly missed one of Dark Protoman strikes.
"Think about it Chaud, he's been copied from my data, that means that he and I have the same weaknesses all you have to do is exploit them." Protoman brought up.
"Oh, right, thanks." Chaud replied wondering why he hadn't thought of that himself.
"Your welcome." Protoman replied although he thought that should be fairly obvious.
"Elecblade, battlechip, in." he called as he switched the sword from his right hand to his left, forcing Dark Protoman to do the same to better to defend Chaud's attacks; however this put Dark Protoman in a tight spot, while Chaud was left-handed Dark Protoman wasn't.
"AAAAAAAARRRRRRR" Chaud roared and he was able to strike his advocacy.
"UHH" Dark Protoman groaned as he felt the blow. He tried to strike back but Chaud was too fast. And he soon felt another blow and another, and another, it was too much.
"Dark Protoman logging out."
"Nebula is going to be back on top again. And Regal is going to have his revenge." One of the Megamen stated still having Lan pinned to the ground.
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that." Chaud replied, now that he had Dark Protoman out-of-the-way he was free to get rid of the viruses. "Spreader, battlechip in." he called out as he deleted the viruses.
"No matter," the other Dark Megaman said watching some data stream from the wounds Chaud had received from Dark Protoman, "We've accomplished our mission we'll be in touch."
"Dark Megaman logging out."
"Dark Megaman logging out."
"Dark Whisper logging out."
"Dark Whisper logging out."
"Dark Protoman logging out."
"What did he mean by that?" Lan asked when Chaud helped him up from the floor looking at the metal that had been left in its entirety.
"I have no idea." Chaud replied.
"This is unbelievable!" the chief yelled as he slammed his hands against the top of his desk making both of Terra and Chaud jump. They had promptly made their way to the chief's office to report what happened,but now really wished they hadn't. They had no idea that the chief had this explosive temper. "And where's Lan?" he demanded when he noticed that he was missing."
"He's at Scilab. Megaman was damaged during the battle." Terra replied hesitantly not knowing what to expect from the angry man.
"That's no excuse." The chief said.
"With all due respect sir I think that Lan has every right…" Chaud started coming to Lan's defense remembering how he had stayed by Protoman's side when he was recovering from the damage the darkchips had created, but was cut off when the chief shot him a deathly glare.
"I think that you two can leave." Manuela said as she entered the room. "That is if the chief hasn't anything more he needs to say." She said coming to Chaud and Terra's rescue.
The Chief didn't make any answer and with that Chaud and Terra scrambled from their seats.
Once the two were into the hall they both let out a sight of relief and shared a look that said the same thing.
"Thank you Manuela!"
"Don't worry Lan, Megaman will be ok" Dr. Hikari said as he looked at Lan' s worried expression, "He sustained some damage but it's nothing that the reconstruction program won't cure."
It was about an hour after the battle and Dr. Hikari and his crew had returned from Sharro only to find out that Regal had attacked. Everyone was concerned. And the chief was not a happy man. As Terra and Chaud had already found out.
"Thanks Dad." Lan said.
"You're welcome son." His father replied leaving the room while Terra and Chaud came in.
"Is he going to be ok?" they asked as they looked at Megaman who was still blacked out on the bed surrounded by a containment field.
"Dad said that the repairs wouldn't take long; there wasn't much damage." Lan replied. "How'd the chief take the news?"
"Don't ask." Chaud said.
"That bad?"
"Yeah." Terra said agreeing with Chaud.
"Well anyway," Lan said turning his attention back to Mega, "Terra you were right you know, I don't know how you saw it but there really is more to Mega than meets the eye."
Chaud who wasn't present during the conversation between the two was confused.
"What were you right about?" Chaud asked.
Terra looked to Mega. "If he means what I think he means it's not my place to say."
Lan laughed at bit but it was a sad sound. "You can tell Chaud if you want. Given the circumstances I don't think Hub would mind. Plus I've kinda let the cat out of the bag."
"Hub?" Chaud questioned.
Terra ignored the inquiry.
"You sure?"
The brunette kept his eyes on his navi; his brother.
"Yeah, I'm sure."
Once they were gone Lan pulled up a chair and sat down next to Mega. He couldn't believe it. Mega was his brother. He knew this was true with no doubt in his mind. He could see it in Mega's eyes before he logged out. He was such an idiot! How could he not see this before!
There had been too many coincidences, to many unanswered questions all starting with his brothers funereal. His parents hadn't grieved. Sure they cried but they really never grieved. Not like he had. There were so many signs that he could see looking back. Why hadn't he noticed?
Now he knew why Mega and he had such a strong bond, they were siblings. When they were little they had use to finish each others sentences, they had a deep conection, a link, no wonder they seemed to naturally fall in synch when they battled.
Lan was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that Mega had woken up and had been watching him. The navi knew that Lan had figured out who he truly was. When they younger boy had yelled out his real name it wasn't a slip, it was a realization. Mega could even see the gears turning in his brother's head which was something that didn't happen very often.
"Lan?" he asked breaking the silence. When Lan looked to him with nothing but pain in his eyes Mega could see he was hurt. "You know don't you?"
As the brunette caught his brother's gaze he could see that Hub's eyes were full of fear and apprehension but he didn't care. Suddenly Lan had eight years worth of anger and he wasn't about to cap it now.
"What? Me screaming out your name wasn't proof enough for you?" He asked. "I must be galacticly stupid. Eleven years old, and when my dad gives me a navi that looks like my dead brother I let his lame excuses pacify me. Then again why would I ever think Dad would turn you into pixels and lie to my face, or that you would go along with it?"
Hub shuddered, Lan never spoke this way; his voice was hollow, cold and empty. Even his body language seamed like it belonged to someone else; the boy was being two things he never was: quiet and still. However Hub could sense the anger seething just underneath the surface and with no one else around there was only one person for it to be directed at; him.
This was what he had been afraid of. Hub had equally hoped for and dreaded this moment for years. In the beginning he had begged their father to let him tell Lan the truth but Dr. Hikari hadn't relented, he was determined to wait until they were fifteen. But as time went on he had grown fearful, he and Lan had been separated by lies for so long; and what if his brother wouldn't accept him this way? He was a navi now. Hub was usually good at calming Lan down when he was upset but he didn't know what to say this time so he just decided to let his side be heard. After all Lan wasn't the only one who had been in pain all these years.
"You don't think it tore me up inside every day I had to lie to you?" he asked. "I've watched you cry every birthday, our birthday, and there wasn't a single thing I could do to make you feel any better, not really. Dad made me swear."
Lan's eyes narrowed. "You could have told me the truth. What exactly would Dad have done? Grounded you for not lying? How long exactly was this meant to go on for?"
"He wanted to wait until we were fifteen, then he was going to tell you."
"FIFTEEN?!" Lan asked incredulously. "This was going to go on for another year? We've saved the world two times already and we're working on number three, how can Dad think I couldn't handle this?" Lan was screaming and his stone façade broke; tears began to steam down his face. But his tears were for himself not his brother.
Hub hadn't had much composure but the little he have fled when Lan broke down. He hadn't realized it but behind his fear he was just as angry.
"You are really vain sometimes you know that?!" Hub exclaimed as he logged back into his PET and activated the materialization program so he could better face Lan. He even downloaded the fashion chips so that he could look completely human. If Lan was going to continue to yell at him he was going to do it to Hub Hikari not Megaman EXE. Hub Hikari had been hidden away long enough. "It wasn't about you. I was about me. Dad was lying to protect me."
"From what?" Lan asked a little shaken. This was a lot to take in in such a limited amount of time, all of a sudden Hub was in front him. An hour ago Hub had been dead. Lan's last memory of him had been as a six year old first grader now a thirteen year old was in his face.
"Do the names Pharaohman or Bass mean anything to you? Anytime any navi has been created that was deemed too powerful the higher ups have gotten nervous. Pharaohman went out of control and got locked in a floppy disk. Bass had too big of an ego and was targeted for deletion. If anyone knew what I really am I'd be next on the list; it wouldn't matter that I was a kid. Before I got sick Dad was trying to create a better netnavi by using human DNA but all that would have done would have made navis more aware and equip them to better interact with people. What he did with me was different; when he used my consciousness he put a living human in the net. If any of his bosses had known that I doubt I'd be around now; they would have seen me as too much of a risk to give me a chance. Bass had already gone haywire they wouldn't have put up with me." Hub let out a breath as he calmed down a bit.
"Look Lan I know you're angry and I'm sorry, but you're not the only one who's been hurt by this. Besides it wasn't just the danger of being found out that made me not go behind Dad's back and tell you the truth. There was something else too."
"And what was that?" Lan asked still annoyed, but less angry.
"You." Hub replied as his voice broke.
When Lan heard that he froze and the last of his anger evaporated being replaced by confusion.
"What?" He asked. "What did I ever do?"
"Nothing. But that hasn't stop me form being afraid that you wouldn't accept me if I told you."
"Why would I ever do that?"
"Because I'm not human anymore! I'm a computer program! I'm zeros and ones and that's it. I'm not..." Hub paused, he didn't know if this was accurate. "I'm not real."
Lan shook his head. Suddenly he felt very guilty for loosing his temper. How could he have been so selfish to think that he was the only one these lies had damaged and that Hub had come out unscathed? After all Hub was the one who had been trapped on the other side of the looking glass. Literally.
The only thing Lan could think to do was to hug his brother. "That's not true." He said. "Navi, human, it makes no difference; not to me. You're alive that's what matters. And if you ask me 'real' is a pretty relative term."
Hub returned the gesture slowly having locked up initially. This was the first time Lan had hugged him since he died. That was the one thing he had missed the most, the physical connection with his family. He had stolen a few precious moments with his parents within the last couple of says but it hadn't been much; with Lan around it was too easy to get caught. But once Hub did return the hug he felt like he would never let go.
"You have no idea how much I've missed this." Hub said.
Lan chuckled. "Not to steal your thunder, but I think I do. You know I was never convinced you were gone. When you died our connection dimmed but it never went away. I couldn't figure that out. Now I know why. You were still here. ... Mom knows about you too doesn't she? That's why she was acting so weird when Dad first activated the materialization program wasn't it?
Hub hesitated to answer, he didn't like admitting that the whole family had been lying to Lan for the past eight years. "Yeah she knows." He replied; Lan began to tear up again. "Hey, it's going to be ok." Hub said as this time it was he who pulled Lan into a hug. After about a minute he felt Lan start to relax. "Are you alright?" he asked when he let Lan go but still found himself caught in his little brother's embrace.
"Yeah, I am now." Lan replied when he finally let go. "But I do need to talk to Dad, alone, if you don't mind."
"That's fine by me, just make sure you don't dump all of your anger on him, I'm not sure that he deserves it. I'll be with Terra and Chaud if you need me." Hub said as he walked toward the door.
"Uh, before you go there's something you need to tell you."
"What's that?"
"Chaud and Terra know." Lan admitted. "Not all the details obviously; but they know who you are. And by natural extension probably Whisper and Proto too."
"You told them?" Hub asked with a sigh; he wasn't upset but he would have preferred to be the one to admit his past.
"Not really..." Lan began as he recounted the earlier events of the day.
Mega walked down Scilab's halls; questions flooding his mind. He wondered; just how had Terra pieced things together but mostly he wondered why he had decided to walk out of the door and not log back into the PET. After debating it for a few minutes he decided to let it go, there was no use dwelling on it anyway. In his heart he knew the answer: he had been born into this world; this is where he was sopose to be. As he continued down the corridor the strange felling of being back in the real world that had crept up on him began to slip away and it just felt natural for him to be there again. Being lost in thought as he was he wasn't looking where he was going, and he ran into Dr. Hikari who wasn't any paying attention either. Like father like son.
"Oh, Hub I'm sorry," Dr. Hikari said before the encounter really sunk in. "Hub?"
It was still a shock to see him in the real world, looking as if he had never died.
"No Dad, I'm sorry. I should have been watching where I was going." Mega said picking up the files that his father had dropped on the floor handing them back. "Here."
"I see the repairs are finished." Dr. Hikari commented awkwardly, noting the fact that Mega was up and walking around.
"Uh, yeah, the damage wasn't that bad."
It was then that the scientist finally noticed that his son was alone. "Hub where's Lan?" he asked.
"Oh, he's looking for you actually, he said that he wanted to talk to you." Mega replied.
"Do you know what about?"
"No," Mega lied, "But it seemed like it was really important. I think he's headed for your office."
"Ok, I'll go and find him."
At that Dr. Hikari leaned down to give his son a hug but when Famous walked by he backtracked, "Thanks Mega," he said before walking off.
Hub's heart dropped. He was grateful for the chance to live his father had given him, but he hated being denied. As he watched his dad disappear down the hall he had half a mind to follow him and listen to what he was going to tell Lan when Lan told him he know the truth; but he decided against it and continued to look for his friends instead. At least now he had someone else besides his family that he could talk to about his past life.
"Wow." Chaud remaked as Terra finished telling the story.
"Wow, is right, what I want to know is how Dr. Hikari pulled it off." Terra replied.
"It doesn't surprise me at all." Protoman said; he and Whisper had materialized and were with Terra and Chaud in the lobby waiting for Lan. "Dr. Hikari is one of the most brilliant scientist on the planet."
"Yeah, but bringing your son back from the dead, that is slightly more impressive than your average Nobel Prize idea." Whisper brought up as she heard someone coming. She put on her biggest smile when she saw it was Mega; wanting to set him at ease if he were nervous. "Hi Hub."
He grinned awkwardly, he felt like he was being reintroduced. "Hi."
Terra smiled too; well, they all might as well get used to using this vernacular. "Where's your brother?" she asked.
"He went to talk with our dad."
"That ought to be interesting." Chaud remarked.
Lan had walked up and down the hall trying to calm himself down before he talked to his dad. He just couldn't understand why his father wouldn't tell him that Hub still existed threat of danger or no; not after all they had been through recently. After a while he noticed that the pacing wasn't helping so it was now or never.
"Dad can I talk to you?" Lan asked as he waked through the doorway that he had blown up earlier.
"Of course Lan what is it? I saw that Megaman's ok, what's on your mind?" Dr. Hikari asked.
"Nothing really." Lan replied giving a half lie and deciding to get right to the point because making small talk wasn't helping his nerves. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Lan, you don't need my permission to talk to me what is it?" his farther inquired wondering why Lan was acting so strange.
"Ok, um, why didn't you ever tell me that Megaman was Hub?"
When Lan said that Dr. Hikari's face drained of all color. "You know?" he asked.
"During the battle he got a plasma burn to his arm, I saw the birthmark. And after that everything else made sense. You know, all questions I'd ask you that you'd skate around and never answer. He told me everything. Or at least the short version, I have the feeling there was a lot more to it."
"Lan I wanted to tell you…"
"Then why didn't you?" Lan asked cutting him off.
"Because I had to make sure you were at an age where you could handle it. You were only six when he died Lan. Having this knowledge can be very dangerous for your brother. If I told you too young you could innocently slip in front of the wrong person. That's all it would take."
"But I'm almost 14 now, it's been eight years since then. The two of us have been through so much together, and you were still going to wait another year. Even after he got deleted you still didn't tell me. Why?"
Dr. Hikari sighed. "I made the decision to wait until you were fifteen because I knew that you would be mature enough to understand the consequences of being lax by then. It's obvious now that you reached that point a little bit ahead of my schedule but I have to stand by what I planned."
"Dad what makes me feel so bad is I feel like I was taken for a fool. For eight years I thought that Hub was dead. And every year on my birthday I was depressed because he wasn't there, and he was." Lan huffed. "At least I don't have to feel like that anymore."
"Son, I'm sorry you had to go through this but I did what I thought was best for you and your brother; however I am glad that you know now."
Lan was still upset; why was it that adults always made excuses? He knew what he was about to do was wrong but he couldn't help it. "Do you think that Chaud and Terra are mature enough to know?" Lan asked.
"Why?"
"Because they know too. And I'm sure by now so Proto and Whisper." Lan said as he walked out leaving Dr. Hikari to his own thoughts.
"How interesting," Dr. Regal said as he watched Lan leave his father's office. "So that's what makes them so special. I never would have guessed. This will only make my revenge all the more painful when I delete him."
"So you and Lan covered your babysitter in chocolate pudding?" Terra asked.
"Yeah, how old were you when you did that?" Whisper asked.
Mega thought about it. "Five, If I remember correctly."
"Well that's something that I would expect from Lan not from you." Chaud said.
"I'd have to agree with Chaud I always thought that you were the level-headed one, not the instigator." Protoman added.
"What can I say, Lan and I are more alike then you think I just had to fake my nature so that Lan wouldn't catch on, father's orders."
"Well one things for sure," Terra brought up, "All the rules have changed."
"Hey, what's so funny?" Lan asked as he walked into the lobby, clearly in a better mood; noticing that nearly everyone there was all smiles.
"I was just telling them about some of the trouble we caused when we were little." Mega replied. "Babysitter trouble specifically."
"Which incident? We must have gone through like 12 babysitters and each one of them left thinking that we were future serial killers. Hey, you guys still want to go to that tournament?" Lan asked looking at the clock. "We still have time to get there, it starts in half an hour.
Whisper was surprised. "You still want to go?"
"I need the distraction."
"Well I'm still up for it if you are, how about you guys?" Terra said asking everyone else in the room, when no one objected Chaud got out his PET.
"I'll call the car." He said.
TBC