Chapter 9
Netbattling 101
In the darkness Dark Protoman, Dark Megaman, and Dark Whisper looked on as Lan, Chaud, and Terra gaped at their surroundings, they really were pathetic. Soon a voice shattered the silence.
"How are the newest residents of the net doing? I hope no part of them was left behind." The voice said. It was Regal.
"Oh they're doing great, they came through perfectly not one portion of them was left." Dark Protoman replied.
"That's good to hear you know the mission we've led them here to take their power, nothing else." Regal said.
"Oh, come on we can't delete them?" Dark Megaman whined.
"You know sometimes I worry about you, you act more like Lan than you do Mega." Dark Whisper said.
"Enough of your rambling!" Regal exclaimed, "I knew that I shouldn't have copied a teenaged navis data." He said to himself. "But no you can't delete them," he said a loud voice, "I have something far more deadly for them in mind later."
"Excellent." Dark Protoman said.
"Ugh, what was that?" Protoman said when he picked himself off the floor.
"No idea but what ever it was it gave me a headache." Mega replied.
"No kidding," Whisper added, she still felt disoriented.
"Well, well, well, glad to see you're all awake. Took you long enough." Dark Protoman said, his cool voice cutting through the air.
The three navis swung around coming face to face with a net space monitor seeing the three darkloids each with a devious look on their faces holding their operators, sword to throat.
Lan let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah I know this is kinda shocking, but could we have some help here?" he asked.
"How is that…" Proto stared then losing his voice, for the first time in his life he was at a loss.
"Possible." Whisper finished.
"Oh, it wasn't all that." Dark Whisper said. "A little conversation of their physical structure here, a change in their biochemistry translating it to binary there. We even overlayed their frames with your data so it wouldn't be so freaky, it wasn't too hard. Oh wait...yes it was. And BTW you're not crossfused anymore, it's back to basics."
"And capturing them was like taking candy from a baby, these three were in such shock they were almost catatonic." Dark Megaman added.
"What do you want?" Mega demanded.
"What we want," Dark Megaman replied, "is for you to lay off, just turn around, walk away and let us get what we came for. The added bonus is clueing you in to how vulnerable you can be. You aren't as strong as you might think and we just wanted to prove to you how helpless you really are. Especially you Hikari." He said addressing Mega. "You've spent the past three years protecting your brother, how do you feel now that he's so close to death and you can't do anything about it?" Dark Megaman added inching the sword closer to Lan's throat for added emphasis.
Mega clentched his fists. "What gives you the impression that I can't do anything about it?" He asked.
"Because if you guys even think of jacking in here they'll be deleted quicker than you can download."
Lan could feel his brother's anger rising, it felt strange to feel his heightened emotions again but since the truth had come out the day before things had begun to change. Whatever had formed a wall between them had broken and their constant perception of each other returned. Lan fumbled around with the case on his back looking for something his dad had just added it to his brother's programming and if he could get to it he could get free before Mega and the others were forced to compromise.
"Hub, keep your cool I have an idea." Lan said through the link.
"What are you planning on doing." Mega replied.
"You'll see." Lan said back.
"So what it gonna be, the military codes their lives?" Dark Megaman asked.
"How about neither?" Lan said as he found what he was looking for flipping a switch on the case and activating the boosters that it now contained. Using the momentum that they provided he swung his body over Dark Megaman's slamming his feet into his back forcing him to release him. Chaud and Terra didn't waste a second of the now distracted darkloid's attention and broke away for their captors.
"Negations are over darkloids." Protoman stated taking hold of Chaud's PET with Mega and Whisper doing the same, and Lan, Terra and Chaud taking defensive stances in the net.
"Hah," Dark Protoman said with a laugh, "you really think you can win with our abilities against yours?" he asked.
"I don't see why not, you're not invincible." Mega replied.
"Only you would think that." Dark Whisper said. "You're still are way over your heads you know, you can't even netbattle now. You're totally backward."
"Why not?" Whisper replied, "So what if our positions are reversed, netbattling is netbattling whatever side you're on. How could you honestly think that we don't know how to battle from the outside? We're not like some empty-headed netnavi that blindly follows a netop's orders. We listened and learned. Did you really think that we could battle for three years and not pick up a thing or two?" Whisper asked.
"You sure?" Terra whispered. "You guys are going to have to operate us the entire battle, whatever navi signtures we have they're not in the PET's memory, we won't be able to access the chip library ourselves."
"Positive." Whisper replied.
"And if you think that we're going to let you waltz right outta here because we may be slightly screwed you've got another thing coming." Protoman added.
"Well I for one am tired of hearing your babble, how about you prove you can walk the walk. You've already proved to can talk the talk, it's time to settle this." The Dark Megaman said as he drew another sword.
"Yes let's." Terra said forgetting for a second the predicament she was in.
"Oh we'll see about that, areasteal!" He shouted out as he disappeared and reappeared behind Terra grabbing her and taking him with her with him.
"Terra!" Lan and Chaud exclaimed as they called after her and when they started to act to help her two swords appeared in front of their necks stopping them in their tracks.
"Let's see if your friend can survive first." Dark Protoman and Dark Whisper said together.
"Uhh," Terra groaned as she suddenly hit the floor, as soon as she took in her surroundings she noticed that she was at the far end of the room totally put on display for Dark Protoman and Dark Whisper, as well for Lan and Chaud and she quickly got back to her feet.
"Well let's see what you've got." Dark Megaman said as he took his place across from her.
"Bring it on." Terra replied.
"Well you asked for it, long sword!" he changed his arsenal and flew toward Terra.
Terra glared as Dark Megaman came at her as she backed away. Even though she had a determined look on her face she really hoped that Whisper did know how to battle from the outside or she was going to be in deep trouble. Without the power to control battlechips from the outside the only abilities that she had were the defaults and as handy as they were they wouldn't stand a chance against Dark Megaman. Plus even though she trusted Whisper just the fact that she wasn't in control made her slightly nervous, but soon as those feelings surfaced they were put aside.
"Murrassa, battlechip in, download!" Whisper's voice rang out. Terra received the electrified neon glowing sword just in time to deflect Dark Megaman's.
"Well it seems like your friends can handle themselves, for now at least." Dark Protoman said as he saw Terra block Dark Megaman's strike.
"Seems so." Dark Whisper said as she traded her sword in for a more deadly looking one.
"The question is can you?" they asked together.
"AAGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH" they reared as they stared another attack.
With her confidence returned Terra was back to being her old self, which included irking her enemy.
"Well, well, well." Terra said as their swords clashed, "Seems like you finally figured out that you can't get anything done if you go against your counter part, congratulations."
"Yeah thanks", the other navi replied trying to use Terra's tactic of talking to distract her, but she was one step ahead. She used her strength to push them apart.
"Hi-cannon battlechip in." Whisper said again as Terra jumped back from Dark Megaman and raised her arm and took her shot, which blasted Dark Megaman point-blank in the chest.
"AAAGGGGHHHRRRRAAAA," he groaned as he skidded across the floor. Terra used the opening to a look over her shoulder and noticed that she wasn't the only one battling. But as she did she stated to feel funny, like something had been pulled out of her. And as she watched Dark Megaman pick himself up from the floor damage free he didn't seem phased. What was going on?
"Sonicboom!" the Dark Protoman exclaimed as he directed his attack at Lan.
"Mirror, battlechip in," Mega said not needing anymore incentive to act and downloaded the defensive device.
"Mirror!" Lan called out when received it and used it like a tennis racket and backhanded the attack back to its sender.
"You're getting on my nerves kid," Dark Protoman stated as he barely managed not to be clipped by his own attack.
"Glad to hear it." Lan replied as he waited for his brother to make another move.
"Long sword, battlechip in." Mega called out as he sent his brother the offensive tool.
"Long sword," Lan called out as he came at Dark Protoman forcing him to activate his default sword to block the attack, he pushed with the sword but Lan pushed back with equal pressure. They were in deadlock and neither of them moved.
"Looks like someone's been working out, " Dark Protoman commented, "to bad the rules of nature don't apply here in the net.
All of a sudden Lan's arms started to go limp it was like the energy was literally being pulled out of his body. He couldn't hold Dark Protoman back any longer and was forced to pull back.
Dark Protoman wasted no time taking advantage of Lan's sudden weakness. "YYYYYYYAAAAAAHHHHHRRRRRRGGGG " Dark Protoman roared as he kicked Lan's feet out from under him causing him to hit the floor.
"Wide sword battlechip in." Mega called out as a defensive tactic as Dark Protoman brought his sword toward Lan from above. Lan got the sword just in time to raise it over his head to stop Dark Protoman sword from coming in contact with his skull. He quickly spun his feet around returning Dark Protoman the favor by knocking his feet from under him. Once he was down Lan lost no time putting distance between them.
"Lan what was that?" Mega asked through the link.
"I have no idea it was like my energy was being sapped." Lan replied.
"Lan look out!" Mega called again as he saw Dark Protoman suddenly appear behind Lan. Lan brought up his sword just in time to parry Dark Protoman.
"Here we go again." He thought.
"Areasteal, aqua sword, battlechip in," Protoman called out as Chaud received the sword and disappeared in a glowing neon motion. When he appeared next to Dark Whisper she simply sidestepped him and when he lost his balance she used his own sword to strike him. As Chaud passed her on his way to the floor he could have sworn he felt as if something had been sucked out of him.
"AAAGGGGGGGH" Chaud groaned as he hit the floor. Dark Whisper walked up to him with a coy smile, "Seems like you haven't made the transition yet." She said changing her smile to a sly one.
"We'll se about that, electro sword, step cross battlechip in!" Protoman exclaimed, Chaud received the crackling weapon and flew toward Dark Whisper.
"Phaser!" she called as her body became holographic and Chaud stopped with the sword inside her body.
"You really didn't expect that to work did you?" she asked.
"Oh course not," Chaud replied, "but this will," he said powering up the sword.
"AHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHH" she screamed as the electricity from the sword changed her body back to its normal state causing the attack to intensify, and she only found relief when she threw herself to the floor.
"Looks like you caught on," she said breathing heavily, "to bad you won't have time to celebrate." Dark Whisper said with a glint in her eyes, "Hey Dark Megaman, Dark Protoman I think they're ripe and ready it's time to get what we came for."
With that the darkloids emblems began to glow and a bright light encircled them all forcing Lan, Chaud and Terra to back off. When they regrouped they noticed that they were all starting to look winded, and their eyes looked weak, they were loosing their spark. It seemed that no matter how hard they battled or how much damage the caused the darkloids kept popping back up. What were they immortal?
"Ok," Protoman said over the PET, "This has to end now, you're running out of energy fast, Regal must have programmed them to have an extensive energy supply, they're just sapping yours."
"Wow really?" Lan asked sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."
"Anyway," Mega continued ignoring Lan's comment, "From what I can tell normal netbattling isn't going to do anything. Like Protoman said they must have some major energy reserves, they're gaining as much power as their loosing."
"Exactly," Whisper agreed.
"While we keep getting weaker and weaker." Terra said mostly to herself. "Guys, there's something else going on here. It's not like they just have a ton of energy and they're trying to tire us out, Dark Megaman pulled something out of me." Terra added.
"They're parasitic." Chaud said suddenly.
"What?" Lan asked confused.
"Well think about it, since when have you ever battle a navi and when your energy level went down you hadn't knocked theirs down along with yours? But Protoman was right they do have an extensive power supply and we're it. Hey Protoman check the energy levels from that battle, I want to know if I'm right."
"He is," Protoman commented as he looked over the levels; for every time that Lan, Chaud or Terra lost power their darkened counterparts gained the same amount.
"How right you are." three voices called out as the ball of energy that was encompassing all the darkloids seemed to expand and they sent out electrified tenticals that shot toward the netsavers.
"Lan look out!" Chaud exclaimed as shoved Lan out of the way of one of the arms as it snaked toward him, only to get caught by one that came from behind.
"Chaud!" Lan and Terra exclaimed together only to be snatched up a split second later.
"How smart of you to figure out our tactics." The three darkloids said on unison almost in an echoing voice. "We were planning on stealing your life force little by little and then delete you but this way is so much more fun wouldn't you agree? Especially with your navis forced to look on helplessly as we suck the life out of you."
"This is what it was all about wasn't it?" Terra managed to ask. "You never were after the security codes were you? You were after our power why?"
"Well aren't you a quick." The darkloids stated, "but unfortunately that's for us to know and you to find out." They said as they began to extract the power all the faster. This only led to the three teens to let out deafening screams that slowly began to fade…
Whisper couldn't stand hearing her friends' agonizing screams. "Isn't there something we can do." She asked, she was so horrified that she couldn't think strait and nothing was coming to her mind that could help her friends.
"You bet we can," Mega replied, the darkloids were stripping Lan, Terra and Chaud's life force away from them, life force was electrically based, all he had to do was reverse the polarity. There was no way he was going to let his brother and friends die. But before he could act the tentacles that were holding the three teens relaxed. The three navis watched as their bodies limply dropped to the floor and a portion of their energy poured back into them, the three navis next gave them recovery data returning them to full strength and they slowly got back the their feet. Soon after the power field that had encompassed the darkloids shattered.
"Thanks." Lan said in gratitude speaking for everyone since he was the only one who could find his voice at the time.
"I wish I could say you're welcome, but I didn't do that, they let you go." Mega replied.
"What?" Lan asked openly shocked, "but why?"
"I don't know but stay sharp this isn't over yet." His brother replied.
"No kidding," Lan replied as he saw three figures emerging from the smoke. "Sorry but I'm no ones back up battery, freaks." Lan said he and the others watched as the darkloids walked out. When they did they saw that they had had a major upgrade.
"Oh I wouldn't ever call you a back up battery," the Dark Megaman stated, "You're more like a power feast, Lan."
This sent chills down Lan's spine hearing his brother's voice in that tone, this took the expression 'evil twin' to a whole new level.
"They changed themselves to fire element navis." Mega said in disbelief as he looked through the PET screen at the darkloids body suits had changed from their respective colors to a scarlet red.
"Oh great," Terra uttered in a whisper as she looked upon the darkloids new forms. When their power had been restored she thought that they might stand a chance but now that the darkloids had received another upgrade and an element one at that their chances of defeating them were looking slim.
"Don't worry. "Whisper replied when she began to feel Terra's apprehension. "No matter how strong any navi seems they all have a weak spot, and once you find it they're done for, plus now that they have an element that just makes it easy."
"Right." Terra replied, shaking the fear that was trying to creep up on her, then she turned to the darkloids, "You know red really isn't your color." She told them.
"Well thanks for noticing," Dark Whisper replied.
"Huh," Dark Protoman grunted. "You think that just because we let you go that you now have a chance against us?" he asked. "I hate to tell you but we absorbed enough of your power to delete you ten times over. You have no idea how powerful you really are."
"Well I guess we're about to find out." Chaud said as he took a battle stance.
"I guess we will, dark fire arm!" Dark Megaman called out making the first move sending twin jets of searing heat directly at the three netsavers.
"Shield, battlechip in!" Mega called as Lan brought it up blocking the fire, even though it didn't cause them any damage the fire still designated the shield.
"They have the same power that Burnerman had." Terra said.
"Mega, you guys have a plan up there?" Lan asked as he and the rest of the group began to back away.
Megaman glanced at his two friends who both gave him a sly smile. "We sure do." He replied, "It's time to pull out all the stops, this ends now! WoodSoul, doublesoul in download, he called as Lan's body suit began to change from blue to brown. As soon as his brother took action Lan wasted no time in making a move, he didn't even need to ask what Hub had in mind, he knew exactly what his brother wanted.
"Twister!" Lan exclaimed when the transformation was completed the aerodynamic attack erupted from his hands encircling the darkloids and lifting them from the ground.
"You really think that a little wind is gonna hurt us?" Dark Megaman asked.
"No, but this might." Lan said as he activated his attacks full potential.
The darkloids kept their heads cool but Lan could see that they were loosing power and could see the beginning of worry in their cold eyes. (Dark Megaman and Dark Whisper's eyes' anyway.) The darkloids knew that in their ignorance they had just let themselves be trapped, but there wasn't much they could do about it. Besides they still had the advantage, if the netsavers deleted them they would be stuck in the net.
As Dark Whisper felt her energy being drained away she started to retaliate. "Scarlet fire arm!" She exclaimed as she sent a super heated stream at Lan but the fire extinguished before it reached him. "How'd you do that?" she demanded.
A cocky smile came over Lan's face, he loved it when his enemy's demanded how he was defeating them.
"It called chemistry 101, see you're a fire based navi now and the vortex that I've formed from the twisters has created a vacume that's sucking all the oxygen out of the air, therefore draining you of all your energy." Lan said smugly. "Considering you're a copy of Whisper I'd expect you'd know that. Dr. Regal didn't take any shortcuts in intellect department did he?"
Chaud, Terra, Mega, Proto and Whisper all looked on in disbelief.
"If only he could do that in school." Terra said.
"Hey, Terra get ready, it'll be your turn next." Whisper said. "But she's going to need a lift." she said looking over at Protoman.
"I'm all over it." he replied. "Condor battlechip in."
"Hold on." Chaud said as the condor materialized beneath his feet and he grabbed Terra and slung her behind him.
"Ok." Whisper said continuing to advise her op. "When you get over the funnel of Lan's twister I want you to jump."
For a second Terra was going to ask 'are you crazy?' but she decided instead to trust her navi. Her surprise however did appear in her face.
"Just trust me Terra, this is going to work, especially when we use that new program that you just finished."
"What program?" Chaud and Protoman asked together.
"It's a surprise." Terra replied hesitantly.
"Ok, NOW!" Whisper called out.
"Well here goes nothing, or everything." Terra said as she jumped into the twisters spinning vortex.
"Ok here we go, air shoes, in and download!" Whisper exclaimed.
"Water whip!" Whisper exclaimed as the sleek weapon formed in Terra's hand and she swiftly slung it around the three darkloids causing them more damage. "Well long time no see." She said as she moved her face only centimeters from Dark Whispers' looking into her dark and unfeeling eyes.
"Just you wait till I get loose, I'm ganna…" Dark Whisper hissed as she struggled to get free.
"Yeah, I'm sure you would." Terra said interrupting her and tighting the water whip more, "To bad you're not going to get loose."
"Go ahead, delete us," Dark Protoman said trying to put Terra between a rock and a hard place, "I just hope you like the net, because if you destroy me you'll be stuck here, I'm the only one here who can send you back."
Terra turned her attention to him. "What do you take me for galacticticly stupid? We figured that out ages ago. And you would have had us in a bind too if I couldn't do this." Terra said as she reached out with her free and took a hold to Dark Protoman's emblem. Once her hand was on it, it began to glow just like it had before.
"What are you doing?" Dark Megaman demanded as he saw Dark Protoman lose control over the dematerialization program.
"Simple." Terra replied. "I'm hacking Dark Protoman here and I reversing the dematerialization program. Hey Chaud can I get a lift out of here?" Terra called as she reached out her hand and not two seconds later Chaud grabbed her and pulled her through the twister. "It's really a shame you darkloids'll never learn." She said as he swung her around again.
"Ok, now it's my turn." Chaud said. "You think you can handle this thing?" he asked Terra over her shoulder.
"Sure can." She replied flipped over him taking over the condor's reigns.
"You ready Protoman?" Chaud asked.
"As always." Protoman replied. "Aqua sword battlechip in, download."
"AAAAAAGGGGGGGRR" Chaud roared as he cut the air and sent the liquid attack through the twister and to the darkloids.
"Lan, come on! You can stop now there's noting more we can do!" Terra called out. Afterwards Lan halted his attack and landed solidly on the condor behind her with the tornado dissipating it reveled the light emanating from Dark Protoman, which was starting to once again consume the entire room.
"AAAAGGGHHHHHHGGGGG," Chaud, Terra and Lan began to groan as the light reached them their cries mixing with that of the darkloids as the energy from the light once again began to change their physical structure. But even though their pain they did here three sets of comforting words before they blacked out.
"Dark Whisper logging out."
"Dark Protoman logging out."
"Dark Megaman logging out."
"Lan, Terra, Chaud, guys wake up!" all the netnavis said, their voices overlapping as they tried to shake their op's awake. When they did regain consciousness they were all relieved.
"Hey we're back!" Lan exclaimed as he took in his surroundings. Mega, Whisper and Protoman all looked like proud parents.
"Of course you are silly." Mega said ruffling his younger brother's hair. "Where'd you expect to be the moon?"
"I don't know." Lan retorted. "Maybe I thought I'd end up in the undernet." Lan said retaliating the hair ruffle by yanking off Mega's helmet which only led to his blue-black hair to fall in a style that eerily mirrored Dr. Hikari's.
"I'm so glad you ok." Whisper said as she hugged her op and best friend.
"I am too." Terra replied returning the gesture. "Maybe now Regal's gotten the point not to mess with us." Terra said uttering the words knowing like everyone else in the room that they were empty.
"Well I don't want to rain on anyone's parade…" Protoman stared.
"But this is far from over." Chaud finished.
"Umm hum." The others replied agreeing.
TBC