The older boy laughs, quietly. His brown eyes grow dark as he removes the blue PET from his belt. He casually pulls out his battlechips. The insignia on the box is that of a grey-blue X shape. The ends and center have gold spheres: "So. You came all the way from Japan just to face me, huh."

The other boy, younger, more upbeat, grins and nods. The classic bandana is on his head as he laughs: "Yeah. Me and MegaMan did. Because rumor has it that you're good. Very good." Lan Hikari knew he was the best. He had defeated Wily's WWW, the NetMafia Gospel, Nebula Grey, not to mention all the viruses and NetBattlers. Hearing that this American named Endy from across the world was better at a system his own father had designed had burned him up.

Mayl had, of course, tried to calm him down, but it was no good. He was determined to travel to America that summer, to face Endy and his NetNavi, and walk away the world champion. This was easier said than done. He had the help of everyone he knew, NaviChips, etc. But Lan and Hub knew that the things that made them better were the fact that they were truly brothers, and that they always had the "home-team" advantage. America's Net wasn't so different, but certain things were very foreign. And no one who knew about Endy's Navi said anything but "It's very strong."

Endy smirked across the NetBattle table. He dropped his PET into the active slot, not bothering to make noise. He had to admit, Lan was good. If it hadn't been for him, Regal would have engaged the SoulNet, a system which had barely been engaged in America, occasionally allowing the creation of a Vision Burst. The kid knew his shit and Endy knew it. He had mainly gotten tactical data from Chaud, an Official of his acquaintance. He smiled and whispered into the remote headset: "Leviathan. Jack in." The response came back in a cool female voice: "Yes, dear."

Lan, of course, had made the typical Jap show of Jacking In. Megaman.EXE appeared on the NetBattle screens alongside Leviathan. For a moment, Lan and Mega were taken aback. They hadn't expected to fight a girl! But there she was, spear in hand and ready to go. While Lan and Mega were defeating the Japanese WWW for the Officials in Japan, Endy and Leviathan had defeated Dr. Weiler, whose goal in the World 3 Consortium was rather interesting - he tried to activate the American SoulNet, which was what allowed for Soul Unison, DublSoul, Crosslinking, and also Crossfusion.

Endy had stopped him from overloading it just in time. As Leviathan used her LevSpear special on Weiler's NetNavi, stabbing all the way through the overload program at the same time, Endy punched Weiler out and called the Officials. They had decided against ever involving themselves in Crossfusions - that'd just be too weird. As far as Styles went, they used them too. Leviathan was equipped with a style Endy called "Guardian Style", which changed her Buster into a spear attack and gave a bonus to all spear chips that didn't stop time. He had based it on Protoman's Masamune Style, though he believed his was far superior. The two guys squared off, each with the hopes of a nation behind them. This would be a good battle.