Chapter 8

Reality Check

The next morning Lan woke up alone. Megaman was nowhere to be found.

When he checked his PET he noticed that the materialization program hadn't been shut off. So his brother had to be somewhere around the house. As he left his room he began to check upstairs, primarily in the room next to his; the room where Mega had stayed before he was too sick to stay home, but it was empty.

He checked out the rest of the house but came up empty there too, Hub was nowhere to be found. It was early and a weekday so his father had already left for Sci Lab. That meant his mom would have to be in the kitchen. When he walked in the he found his mom over the stove making breakfast and oddly she seamed happier than usual.

Hey Mom, have you seen Mega?" Lan asked when he came up behind her looking over her shoulder and examining what she was cooking.

"Not since earlier dear, maybe he's jacked back into the net."

"He hasn't, I checked, the materialization program is still open."

"I'm sure Hub'll turn up soon dear, you shouldn't worry, in the mean time you need to get dressed and eat if you've taken your shower already, it's a school day." She replied with a smile.

"Hub?" Lan asked.

"Well that is his name dear. I know you found out the truth yesterday; and I'll be honest, it was the happiest day of my life since the two of you were born. I loved seeing the two of you truly together again."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Lan asked.

"I don't know dear, I wanted to, I could see how it was tearing Hub apart and how you were going through so much unnecessary pain; but for some reason your father didn't want to tell you so I abided by his rules. But just so you know I never approved." She said as she bent down and kissed Lan on his forehead. "But I'm glad you know now."

"Thanks," Lan replied as he left the room and headed back up the stairs. His mom was right, Mega probably had a lot on his mind and just needed some air, and he couldn't blame him he had a lot on his mind too.

His mom had called Mega, Hub and so had he the night before but what he couldn't decide was what to really call his brother, Mega or Hub? Technically he was Hub Hikari but for the past three years he had been known as Megaman.

Lan decided to let it go, he would figure it out later, now he needed to finish up that report that he had truly forgotten about the night before.

By the time he had finished with everything and left the house Megaman still hadn't shown up. When he made it to the corner of his street where he usually met Maylu and Terra to walk to school, only Terra was there.

"Where's Maylu?" Lan asked when he met her.

"Oh, she said that she had to get to school earlier today. I don't think she finished typing her report last night. Are you okay?" Terra asked when she noticed the slightly worried look on Lan's face.

"Yeah, I guess, I haven't seen or heard from Megaman since last night, I'm kinda worried." Lan replied.

"You don't need to be," Terra replied, "He probably just has a lot on his mind; he'll turn up soon. Do you know any place he might be?" She asked.

"No, I looked all over the house and I don't know of any place in particular where he would be out here."

"Well like I said before, he'll turn up. But we need to be getting to the school. It starts in half an hour." Terra said checking her watch.

As they walked on in silence Terra started to think of where Mega might be. When she felt she had a pretty good hunch she lagged behind a bit, just to make sure that her whisper would be out of Lan's earshot.

"Hey Whisper." Terra called to her PET.

"Yeah?" She replied.

"I think I might know where Mega is. Can you check it out for me?"

"Sure, but you're being kind of cryptic. Just tell me where to go and I'm there."

"Sorry," Terra apologized, "I want you to check out the graveyard, you know the one on the corner of 63rd and 85th."

For a second Whisper seemed lost, but then she got what Terra was getting at.

"I'm there."

"Hey!" Terra interjected before Whisper left, "You might want to take the fashion chip and the materialization codes with you. If you find Mega there I think you might need them."

"Will do." Whisper said taking the codes and disappearing from the screen in a shower of pixels.

"Hey Terr!" Lan exclaimed from up the street. "You're going to make us late, hurry up!"

"Oh, Lan Hikari actually wants to get to school on time?" Terra replied catching up with her friend.

Whisper followed Net City's links across town through the traffic system until she came to the graveyard and found who she was looking for. Terra's idea was right on target. She opened the codes and walked quietly up to her friend.

"Hey." She said announcing her presence.

"Hey," Mega replied quietly, almost in a whisper. "Lan sent you?"

"No, Terra did, she figured you might be here. He's worried about you though."

"I didn't mean for him to worry. I just needed to come out here."

"Why?" Whisper asked as she gave a quick glance at the headstone that was engraved with Mega's real name.

"To ask myself a question, I've tried to find an answer."

"Well, you can ask me, maybe I can help."

"You'd think it was stupid."

"Mega, there is no such thing as a dumb question."

Mega hesitated for a second then he spoke. "I came out here to ask myself if I was real."

"Real? I don't understand."

"Real, I mean…, Whisper, we're programs, sure mine is based on my DNA but I'm still data. And so are you. I was talking with Lan last night, talking about all these memories that we had from when we were kids. And thanks to Terra it's possible that I can be in the same world as my family. For a second it felt that I had never been gone. Then I remembered this." He said looking at the headstone. "I'm still dead. I'm unnatural, a freak of nature."

"First off, you're a freak of technology, not nature." Whisper said trying to bring a smile to Mega's face.

It didn't work but she thought she saw a sparkle in his eyes.

"Second as far as being "real" goes it depends on who you talk to. Some people view us a disposable and others don't. Lan, Terra, Chaud and all their friends consider us to be other people and we're their best friends.

I remember once when Terra stuck up for a navi. It was before we moved here, back in our old school in Metro City and this one operator was chewing out his navi because he made some mistakes on his report and he received a lower grade.

She came to the navi's defense and told the operator to lay off, he wasn't perfect and neither was his navi, he was bound to make a few mistakes. Then the operator began to say why should he care if his navi wasn't perfect he was just data and he could be easily replaced. Afterward Terra argued that his navi was a person too and that he deserved respect.

She said that since all navi's had received an AI program that gave them personality and free will that they were just as human if not more than their creators and besides humans were programs too.

Then after she had made her speech she had the support of the entire class, the boy was forced to agree with her and after that the relationship between those two changed, in fact they've been best friends ever since.

That's when I finally understood why Terra treated me the way she did, as her equal, since then I've never looked back and thought of myself as any less. But when it comes down to it all that matters is what Lan thinks, and in his mind's eye you're as real to him as if you never died.

So what if you're materialized pixels now instead of flesh and blood? He doesn't care; neither do your parents and you shouldn't either. The only thing that's in that grave is your body not you, you're still here with us."

By the time Whisper had finished speaking Mega had relaxed and life had returned to his face.

"I can't believe you just made sense of all that, I've been out here for three hours, thanks you're a good friend you know that?"

"Well what kind of person would I be if I couldn't help a friend when they're down, or help them understand the world?"

"Yeah I guess that's true." Mega said with a chuckle.

"We should probably get to school, I bet both Lan and Terra are both worried now."

"Yeah we-" Mega started but was interrupted when an explosion erupted a few blocks away.

"Isn't that the federal district?" Whisper asked looking as smoke started to rise.

"We need to get out of here." Mega said.

Back at school Lan, Maylu, Terra and their other friends (with the exception of Dex) had finished taking a test and were outside talking while the rest of the class finished.

"So Lan did you understand any of the material on the test?" Yia asked who was as usual the first one done.

"Let's just say that this time I listened but there's a big difference between knowing the material and understanding it."

"Well that's one way for your GPA to go up." Tory commented.

"Sure, if answering questions practically blind is a good thing." Terra added.

"Hey!" Lan said starting to defend himself but stopped when Mega suddenly came running up the street yelling out his name with Whisper close behind.

"Lan, Terra," they said, both their voices overlapping.

"What's wrong?" Lan asked with mixed emotions, he was happy that his brother had turned up but concerned seeing that he seemed worried about something.

Lan's friends looked on dumbfound and in disbelief. Sure Terra and Lan had shown them the new PET and told them all about its new functions and had even mentioned the materialization program, but it's one thing to hear about it and something else to actually see it. And here were Mega and Whisper in the flesh or materialized pixels, whatever.

"There was a huge explosion in the federal district, it sounded like a bomb went off." Whisper mentioned.

"OMG! look they're right!" Maylu exclaimed as the smoke rose visibly in the air.

"Do you think it is some kind of terrorism?" Terra asked looking at the rising smoke.

"You mean political terrorism or net terrorism? I have no idea." Mega relied.

But they didn't have to wait long for an answer. A few seconds later Lan and Terra's PET's went off.

"Hey Mr. Famous what's going on?" Lan asked when the scientist appeared on the screen.

"There's been a major security breach at the Embassy in the federal district, I'm pretty sure you heard the explosion?"

"Yeah but I sounded like a car crash from here." Terra said.

"Far from it. That explosion was caused by the security system being blown out. I need you two to get over there right away Chaud's already on his way he'll met you there. Knowing what's been going on lately this is probably Regal's doing."

"Famous, we're at school and although I would love to we can't just get up and leave." Lan pointed out.

"Don't worry about that, we'll tell Miss Mari what's going on." Yai said.

"Ok then let's go." Lan said deactivating the materialization program and Terra doing the same.

"We'll se you guys later." Terra said unlocking her skates following Lan down the street.

After about 10 minutes of skating the two started to get tired.

"Hub how far away are we from the Embassy?" Lan asked.

Mega hesitated for a second at hearing his real name, he still hadn't gotten use to being called that again but he recovered and answered the question. "One-hundred blocks."

"Leave it to Regal to attack a place that's at the far end of town. I can't last ten more block much less one-hundred." Terra said breathlessly.

"Thankfully we won't have to." Lan said as he glanced behind him and saw a black limo pull up.

"You need a lift?" Chaud asked opening the door.

"You read our minds." Lan replied as he and Terra got in. Once inside they continued on their way.

"This is unbelievable." Terra said. "This is the fourth time that Regal's attacked or shown his presence in the past two weeks, he just carried out a huge attack yesterday and he's starting a major one today, what's he doing?" Terra asked.

"He's trying to ware is down, exhaust us," Chaud said in an even and level tone, "unlike him we have to battle; he just sits on a thrown somewhere and give out orders."

"Okay but what's he after?" Lan asked, "what could he need from the Embassy?"

"Security codes." Terra mentioned.

"Exactly that's what I thought," Chaud added, "The Embassy has all of Dentech's major codes in their system, and if he could get his hands on those he could override every major building and military base in the country. Everything would be under his control."

"So yesterday's attack at Scilab was just practice?" Whisper asked remembering the previous day.

"Seams so." Chaud answered.

"Yeah but still it's going to take a while for him to break through their defenses. That embassy has three back up security systems and 15 layers of firewalls. That's quite a challenge for any darkloid." Mega added

"That's why Regal copied your data!" Lan exclaimed coming to the conclusion they should have right away. "He knows you contain the Searchsoul program, he needs that if he wants to force his way past those firewalls with the limited time he as before the net police take action.

Chaud and Terra's jaws dropped at Lan's sudden insightfulness.

"Hey, I'm not totally brain-dead." He said.

"Yeah," Terra replied, "you're just clueless in pre-algebra."

When they arrived at the embassy all the people in the building and ones surrounding had been evacuated; and the usually busy area and the multi language music that gave the federal district its special distinction was now gone making the neighborhood have an eerie spine tingling vibe.

"Is Famous sure that Regal's behind this? This could be the work of any radical group, I mean there aren't any darkloids and his booming voice hasn't dropped out of thin air yet." Terra said eyeing the steel building.

For a reason unknown to everyone Chaud happened to glance up in time to catch a certain twinkle as something caught the light from the sun.

"Look out!" he exclaimed as he tackled Terra out of the way as an airborne dimensional area generator injected it's self into the ground right where Terra had been standing seconds earlier. Soon the dimensional area had sealed them inside.

Terra's eyes widened as she raised herself from the ground and stared at the generator, "I take that back, this is Regal's doing."

"Chaud," Protoman called from his PET, "We need to get a move on, the darkloids have hacked through the firewalls. They're working on the encryption codes."

"Are they working from the net side or this one?" Chaud asked.

"They're on our side." Proto replied.

"Well then we should probably crossfuse now just to be safe. Since Regal's is behind this we need all the protection we can get he's not going to play fair." Lan brought up.

After crossfuseing they entered the building. Chaud once again took charge, barking orders.

"Ok, I think we need to split up, since the firewalls are controlled by three separate main computers throughout the building, there's no way just one darkloid could have knocked all of them down this quickly, there has to be more than one. Whisper, Terra do you think you can sense where and who our darkloid friends are? Since Regal's probably using the doubles we don't want to run into ours again."

"We should in a second." They both replied, Terra closing her eyes and concentrating, she smiled when she found who she was looking for. "Ok, the mainframes are at the end of the main halls. Chaud, you need to go to the right, Lan keep straight and I need to go to the left."

"Got it." The two boys replied as they split.

As Terra bolted down the hall to the control room she prepared herself for the battle ahead. She had wanted to know if she could bring this guy down for a while, when she reached the door she found it locked.

"What? did you expect the door to be open?" Whisper asked from her half of the crossfusion.

"Maybe." Terra replied as she summoned a laser blast and blew the door out and locked eyes with her advocacy: Dark Protoman.

"Here we go Hub, " Lan said as he came to the door.

"Just make sure you stay on your toes this time." Mega replied.

Just when Lan was preparing to kick the door in it seemed to fizzle and he fell straight through flat on his face. When he went to kick it he had found out that it had no substance.

"So much for staying on my toes." He muttered to himself under his breath.

When he looked up he noticed what had caused his clumsiness. Dark Whisper had her hand pressed against the door frame transferring her phasing ability.

"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in." She said looking down at him with a smirk on her face, "You have a problem staying on your feet don't you?"

As Chaud neared his destination he began to be counseled by his navi.

"Ok Chaud you need to get your game face on you're going to be up against one of two doubles, either Dark Megaman or Dark Whisper."

"Right," Chaud replied summoning something neutral that would work on both, a cyber sword.

Chaud wasn't even going to bother checking to see whether the door was locked or not, he was just going to cut it down. But he was in for a surprise, just as he got near the door it blew open and he was thrown back by the blast. When he looked up he was looking into the eyes of Dark Megaman, but he wasn't the only one…

"Long sword battlechip in, download." Terra exclaimed as she lunged at Dark Protoman. She knew that when Protoman had been under the influence of the darkchips that he hadn't ever given anyone the first strike and as this guy was a remake of him she expected nothing less. So she wasn't going to give him an opening, and her impulsive move worked, she clipped him on the leg.

"Ugh," Dark Protoman groaned as the sword sliced through his leg. This girl was good if not a little headstrong but he didn't have time to deal with her.

Terra was waiting for Dark Protoman to make his move but when he did it was something she didn't expect. Using the back of his hand he slapped her knocking he off her feet and causing her to drop to the floor.

"Sorry," he said, "but I don't have time for you, but someone else might." He said as he walked back toward the computer and another pixel shower appeared in front of Terra coming together and forming Burnerman.

"Should we pick this up where we left off?" he asked.

"Dark spritshock," Dark Whisper called out as she released her attack. Lan quickly threw up and shield and was about to deliver his own attack when she used her phasing ability and caused him to fall through her.

"As much as I would love to kick your butt, I don't have time, Gravityman take care of this pest." She said walking away.

"With pleasue. " Gravityman replied in his deep monotonous robotic voice when he appeared. "It would be my pleasure to delete you Lan and Megaman or more correctly Lan Hikari and Hub Hikari."

"WHAT?" both brothers exclaimed.

"Spikeman," Chaud stated as he looked at the other navi, "what are you doing here?" he asked demanding a reply.

"Well we knew that you no good netsavers would try to stop us. And if we were going to be able to break through those firewalls and encryption codes we wouldn't be able to deal with you, so we called in some back up." Dark Megaman commented.

"And it would be my greatest pleasure to dispose of you Blaze," Spikeman declared as he released his attack, "Spikevolly!"

"Burning jet!" Burnerman yelled out as flames erupted from his hands.

"How close is Dark Protoman from cracking the encryption codes?" Terra asked her navi as she sidestepped the attack.

"He's getting there, if we're going to stop him we don't have time to play tag with Burnerman." Whisper replied.

"You just read my mind," Terra said, "Whisper jack in and power up!" she called as Whisper materialized. When she appeared Burnerman looked slightly impressed.

"So this is what the next generation of PET can do, to bad it's not enough to stop me!"

"Oh please, "Whisper said, "how do you think you can bring the two of us down?"

"Like this, flame thrower!" he exclaimed as he shot off an attack that the girls both easily dodged but became unnerved when the attack hit the wall behind them and the fire almost seemed to denigrate what it licked. "Let's just say I've had an upgrade." Burnerman stated. "And it's time for you to say goodbye, flame arm!" he shouted again as his arms stretched out and fire encircling them as he tried to grab hold of the two netsavers.

"I think not." Terra said as he twisted her body and flipped over him, "Geyser, battlechip in, download."

"I would have to agree with her." Whisper added as she ducked down to avoid Burnerman's flame, "Bubbleshot, battlechip in", she said as her buster charged and she aimed her shot and fired.

"You think that little splash'll hurt me?" Burnerman asked as he stayed still letting the attacks hit him full on. When the digital smoke dissipated both girls saw that their attack had left little damage unlike before. "Just admit it I'm too hot to handle!"

By now Terra was really disgusted with this guy. "If you think we're going to roll over and play dead think again indiancandle, tittle wave, battlechip in!" she cried as she slammed her hands into the floor.

"That little splash isn't going to hurt me!" Burnerman said full of himself.

"No, but this might, Elect blade!" Whisper added as she summoned the sword and joined it with the power of the tittle wave, turning the wall of water electric. By the time Burnerman figured out what they were up to he didn't have time to get out of the way so he was over come by the attack. Once he was down Whisper didn't give him a chance to get up and he delivered a strike with her blade again.

"You think you can handle him alone?" Terra asked.

"Positive." She replied.

"How do you know about me being Hub?" Mega demanded. Since Gravityman had uttered the statement Mega had activated the double crossfusion program and was now facing the enormous robot.

"Please," he replied in his expressionless voice, "master Regal knows everything about you, how do you think he's managed to stay one step ahead of you? But enough talking it's time I deleted you gravitydirve." He stated as he sent the attack forcing the twins in two different directions to avoid it.

"Remember," Mega said addressing his brother, "we have to hit him with something with more destiny than his gravity wave if we want to do any damage."

"On it," Lan replied, "rockcube battlechip in" he stated as he threw his arms to direct the path of the cube.

As soon as the rockcube made contact Mega wasted no time to make his move. "Long sword battlechip in," he called as he leaped in the air and sliced Gravityman down the middle.

"Spike volley!" Spikeman called out as he shot his spikes at Chaud.

Chaud manaded to dodge them barely avoiding getting clipped or impaled. He had to get rid of this guy, the Megaman double was getting closer and closer to cracking the encryption codes and he had to do something fast, he didn't have time to play pin the spike on the netsaver. Then he thought of something, it was risky but it was the only thing he could think of, and he couldn't do it alone.

"Protoman!" Chaud said calling his navi.

"Yes, Chaud?" Proto replied.

"I have a plan on how to get pincushion off our back, but I'll need your help. When I give the signal I need you to separate from me and once you do you'll know what to do."

"Right." the navi replied.

"Hey Spiky!" Chaud said trying to tick the darkloid off. "I think you missed."

"Oh we'll se about that, splinter storm!" he shouted as he released a very powerful attack.

Chaud began to run and zigzag again, when he came to the wall he used his momentum and weight to push himself horizontally into the air, now facing the attack he was better able to avoid it. "Now!" he exclaimed. Taking his cue Protoman separated himself from Chaud. "Wide sword, battlechip in, download', Chaud called as he brought up the weapon shattering Spikeman's jamming his hands and rendering them useless. Then it was Protoman's turn.

Custom sword, battlechip in", he said as he delivered a blow.

"Hey Proto boy!" Terra called out to the darkened navi as she passed Burnerman.

"Huh," Dark Protoman scoffed as he continued cracking the encryption codes. "So you managed to get past Burnerman but you don't think that you can actually win here do you?" he asked.

"I don't see why not." Terra replied.

"Well let's look at something for a second. Sure you've managed to get past Burnerman, but what makes you think that Whisper can handle him alone? And just think since I've had back up Chaud and Lan are up against the same thing, you may be good but you're not that good."

"Well let me let you in on a little secret," Terra said matching him in inflection and wit, "I love to be underestimated, and as far as Lan and Chaud they can handle any darkloid you toss at them and far as Whisper goes she can handle that burnout."

And seeming to prove with Terra's statement Burnerman came skidding across the floor heavily damaged before that familiar computer voice said: "Burnerman deleted." And that wasn't all both Spikeman and Gravityman came crashing through the wall before meeting the same fate followed by Chaud, Protoman, Lan and Megaman who took a stand along Whisper and Terra. In the next second Dark Whisper and Dark Megaman pixelated beside Dark Protoman too.

"Seams we've underestimated them." Dark Whisper stated.

"Well they won't be so dangerous for long," Dark Protoman said as he struck the emblem on his chest. All of a sudden a hot bright blinding light seamed to engulf the entire room swallowing everyone in it. Afterward a strange tingling feeling came over the young netsavers before they felt indescribable pain, the only relief they felt was when they blacked out. The last thing that Terra heard before she lost consciousness was a puzzling statement uttered by Dark Protoman.

"See you on the other side."

Terra's eyes fluttered open minuets later. The pain was gone and she has regained consciousness, but something didn't feel right. When she got her eye to stay open and focus she was shocked at what she saw, or what she didn't see.

Everything was blue, the floor the walls, even the ceiling. For a second she was paralyzed with fear of the unknown, then she noticed who sitting along side her. Chaud and Lan were there too both their faces looked like they were set in stone, their eyes were wide and dilated and their mouths were open. If it were possible for their jaws to drop to the floor they would have been there. As the three friends looked at their surroundings the same thought was running through each of their minds:

"We're… in… the…Internet?"

TBC