Chapter 10: Secrets
"Finally," Bass said, "I can annihilate everything the humans have created!"
"You're wrong Bass," Drew said, "That sort of thing won't happen for another thousand years."
"Drew," Lan said, "how would you know that?"
"That is something I cannot tell you Lan," Drew said, "I'm sorry for deleting Megaman, but you need to get out of here! Now!"
"But why make him leave before you tell him about your past?" Bass asked, "Why not tell him how you used to be the Hero of Ages?"
"Hero of Ages?" Lan asked, "what does that mean?"
"That's it Bass," Drew said, "no one should know of my past, and you won't be around long enough to leak any more information!" Drew looked Bass right in the eyes, "You think Solarman and I were tough to beat before? Imagine how hard I'll be to beat when I have both cybeasts!" Drew sprouted wings, and he gained claws, and his armor got an upgrade, looking more powerful. "Now you will pay for all those things you have done, you've ruined my life, so now, I'll ruin whatever is left of yours; if I don't kill you first!"
"Wha?" Bass asked as he saw what Drew had become, "How? You must be able to tap into that data you absorbed!"
"Exactly," Drew said, "and now you die!" He took off, flying full-speed at Bass. But Bass quickly moved to the side. Then Drew started to split into three identical copies. The two on the right and left went around to his sides, trying the same thing Drew had done, as the middle one rushed in from the front. Bass tried blasting the two on the sides, but they disappeared on contact. The final one struck, his claws stabbed into Bass.
"You," Bass said, "too powerful." Then Bass disappeared.
"Dang," Drew muttered, "I let him get away."
Drew slowly fell to the ground, and he returned to his normal self. He turned around and walked home. When he reached his house, he fell on his bed, wondering how long it would be before Solarman could absorb enough data to regenerate fully.
"Due to the fact that everyone's navi has been deleted, all net battling classes have been cancelled," The loudspeakers from all over the school said. At every moment, someone was glaring angrily at Drew, the one who had to delete every navi in town. Lan couldn't even look at Drew though.
'Great,' Drew thought, 'just because I did my job, everyone hates me.'
After class, Drew was walking through the hallway when two boys at least two years older than him stopped him.
"You little punk," one said, "You ruined everyone's happiness."
"Well," The other one said, "get ready for a beating."
"Out of my way," Drew said, "I don't have time for you two."
"Not a chance." One said as he punched Drew in the face. The other one punched him afterwards, and soon enough there was a crowd of students watching Drew get punched over and over again.
"That's enough," Drew said finally.
"You think we're done?" the first one asked as he threw another punch. Drew caught his fist before it hit.
"I said that's enough." Drew repeated. The other one tried to punch Drew, but he was also stopped. Drew twisted their hands around, almost breaking their wrists. He let go of them. "I already have enough on my conscience; I don't need to add your deaths to that weight." Drew walked passed them, only to be stopped by Lan.
"Drew," he said, "Why did you have to delete Megaman? And how much haven't you told me about yourself?"
"I had to delete him because if I didn't, Bass would have gotten his powers, along with Solarman's." Drew said, "and I am already trying to bring him back, along with some of the others, but I can't do anything until Solarman recovers."
"Recovers?" Lan asked.
"Yes," Drew replied, "Solarman can't be deleted, only injured. And his recovery program allows him to recover using data bits from deleted programs, viruses, and navis. Just give me some time." Drew started to walk away, but Lan asked one more question.
"Just who are you?" He asked.
"You'll find out. Eventually," then Drew walked away.
During the classes, Lan actually listened, Mayl tried to keep from crying over Roll, and Dex was cursing Drew under his breath. But Drew was messing with his PET and his desk computer.
'Let's see,' Drew thought, 'I have done all I can until Solarman recovers, but I wonder, How did those navis come to the real world?' Then Drew's PET made a noise. Drew looked at it to find Solarman in standby mode. 'I think I can scan his memory to find out how he got into the real world,' Drew tapped the clock on his PET, and he closed his eyes.
When he opened them, he saw Solarman running, but then suddenly, Solarman was enveloped in darkness, and his vision went dark. When he was able to see again, he saw Bass trying to turn all the navis into vampires, apparently Shademan had bitten every navi in ACDC, except Solarman and Megaman. Then Drew saw Solarman fall and clench his head as Bass tried to awake the Vampire influence, and wings started to form on Solarman. Then Solarman warped away. Drew closed his eyes, and then he opened them again. He was back in his class. Drew got up and darted out of the classroom. He didn't care if the teacher gave him a detention or something like that. He needed to check something. He ran to his house, and he found a clock. He traced the clock counterclockwise, and he closed his eyes. He opened them again, and he was once again in the house, but people lived inside it. He walked out, and he walked to ACDC park, where he saw a familiar face.
"Lan," Drew said, "As a very little kid. He looks so sad, I wonder what happened?"
Drew tried to reach out and put his hand on Lan's shoulder, but he just faded through Lan. 'That's right,' Drew thought, 'sometimes I forget I can only see these things, not interact with them.'
Then, a little girl walked up to Lan. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"M-My brother died," Lan said, wiping tears from his eyes, "Who are you?"
"My name is Mayl," the little girl said, "Would you like to play with me?"
"S-Sure," Lan said, "I-I'm Lan."
"Ugh," Drew groaned, "I'd better get out of here, my energy doesn't last long when my power is halved." Drew closed his eyes, and he opened them again. He was back in his room.
"Well," Drew said, "It looks like I've still got some of my powers."
Drew walked back to school, where he found everyone leaving.
"Heh," Drew laughed, "time flies when you're messing with it."
"Drew!" Lan yelled, Drew looked around until he located him, "Where'd you go?"
"Uh," Drew said, "Home."
"Why?" Lan asked.
'Shut up Lan,' Drew thought, 'you're not gonna get an answer out of me,' "Forgot my homework."
"Really?" Lan asked, "Well you missed most of school."
"I noticed," Drew said, "Man, I'm not feeling so-" Drew fell over, unconscious.
"Drew!" Lan said, "I'll call an ambulance, maybe they'll know what happened."
"Uhh," Drew groaned, before even opening his eyes, he recognized the sounds of the room. "Am I in the hospital?" Drew asked.
"Yeah," Lan said, "You passed out, the doctor said it was just an extreme lack of energy in your body. You used up so much energy, you passed out. You've been out for a whole day."
"Really?" Drew asked, "I didn't think that was possible for me."
"The doctor couldn't understand it either. They had to scan your mind and your body until they figured that out."
"S-scan?" Drew asked, Listening carefully.
"Yeah, the doctor even said you had extreme abnormalities within your mind and your DNA structure." Lan said, "He said that you learned faster than any supercomputer, you could translate almost any language within an instant, and that you were smarter than any human, or computer. They also said that your body was also strange. They said you were so strong, you could lift a car, or more, even if you don't look like it; and you had a very high level of recovery, and that your body could any beating without much damage done to it, and your bones were so strong, almost nothing could break them."
"Uh," Drew said, "yeah, strange."
"Stop lying Drew," Lan said, "That sort of thing isn't natural, how is it that you are like this?"
"Look," Drew said, "you can't tell anyone this, but I was genetically altered before I was born."
"Really?" Lan asked, "then how would you explain the huge amount of energy that you gained as soon as we opened the blinds?"
"Look Lan," Drew said, "I can't tell you everything, yet, but I will let you know eventually."
"Well that time might be soon, the doctors are going to run a bunch of tests on you to figure out your origin, who your parents were, and things like that. They are also going to scan your memory."
"Really?" Drew asked, "Do they have to?"
"Yeah Drew, It's true." A new voice said.
"Ah," Drew said, "Solarman, you're awake."
"Yeah," Solarman said, "anyway, you have four new e-mails."
"Let me see 'em." Drew said, holding his PET.
"Oh, and Drew," Lan said, "there was an announcement today at school."
"Tell me after I finish with the E-mails," Drew said, "Get-Well soon! Sincerely, Mayl. Get better or else! From Dex. Get better so you can get Megaman back! From Lan. And, well this one is different. As soon as you get better, I need to ask you something. From Paige."
"Oh," Lan said, "she's probably gonna ask you to the school dance."
"Dance!" Drew asked.
"Yeah," Lan said, "That was the announcement."
"Aw crap," Drew said.
"What, you can't dance?" Lan asked laughing.
"Can you?" Drew asked.
"No," Lan said, stopping the laughter.
"Anyway, where are my clothes?" Drew asked, realizing he wasn't in his clothes, but in a hospital robe.
"Over there." Lan said, pointing to a drawer.
"Thanks," Drew said, grabbing his clothes and putting them on.
"What are you doing?" Lan asked.
"Getting out of this place." Drew said, opening the window.
"But they still want to run some tests!" Lan said.
"Yeah," Drew said, "Which is part of the reason I'm leaving!" Drew jumped out of the window, as Lan rushed towards it. Lan looked down to find that Drew had hit the ground running.
"Well, they were right about this," Lan said, "There's definitely something different in Drew's brain."
"Hey Solarman," Drew asked, "Do you have any idea where Paige lives?"
"No," Solarman said, "But I could find out."
"Alright, I'll be waiting in ACDC Park."
"Okay!" Solarman said, disappearing from his PET.
"Well, I might as well try to do something productive." Drew said. He started to scan the area around ACDC Park.
About thirty minutes later, Solarman returned to his PET.
"Drew I've got the direct-" Solarman stopped, "A little crowded in here, don't you think?"
"I don't think we'll need those directions." Drew said.
"Well," Lan said to himself, "No need to wait around here, I should probably head home."
Then Lan's PET made a noise, "L-n, La-, -an, Lan!"
"Megaman?" Lan quickly looked at his PET and what he saw was a barely visible Megaman, who kept losing data, and then regaining it. "Megaman, you're unstable. Hold on! I'll get help, Drew will get you fixed up!" And then, Lan ran off.
Knocking is heard on a door. Someone gets up and opens it.
"Hiya Paige!" Drew said.
"Drew!" Paige said, "You're all better!"
"Well, I wasn't really hurt, just extremely tired." Drew said.
Paige's PET made a noise.
"Oh, I've got an E-mail." Paige said.
"Well, I can wait." Drew said.
The instant Paige opened the e-mail, she heard a voice.
"How've you been without me?"
"Hannah!" She said, recognizing the voice, "But you were deleted!"
"Yeah, but Drew here reconstructed me from bits of data left over!" She said.
"Really?" Paige asked, "Oh, thank you Drew!" She grabbed onto Drew, hugging him tightly.
"Well," Drew said, "I needed to reconstruct at least one navi as a test before trying to reconstruct Megaman, so,"
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Paige said, still hugging Drew.
"I think not trying to crush him would be thanks enough." Hannah said, giggling.
"Oh, uh sorry Drew," Paige said, blushing a little as she let go.
"It's okay," Drew said, "anyway, you wanted to ask me something?"
"Oh, uh well," Paige said, "w-would you like to go to the dance with me?"
"Sure," Drew said, "um, when is the dance anyway?"
"Oh," Paige said, "I forgot, you weren't there today."
"That's not very likely," Hannah said, "You've had a crush on him since the tournament started."
"Quiet!" Paige said, blushing even more.
"Really?" Solarman said, "what a coincidence, Drew has had a-" Drew pressed the mute button on his PET.
"Wow," Drew said, "It's quiet." Drew started chuckling. Solarman just scowled.
"Well the dance is the Saturday after the tournament finals. It's also the awards ceremony." Paige said.
"Well, that's only three Saturdays away." Drew said, "Tomorrow is the quarter finals."
"And the Navis of the school that wins also get to inhabit CopyBots... so," Paige started.
"I'm sure Solarman would love to go with Hannah." Drew said, "We'll win, I just have to get Megaman back."
Drew felt his PET vibrate, so he turned off the Mute, which allowed Solarman to talk again.
"Hello?" Drew said, it was a phone call.
"Yeah, Drew?" The voice on the other side said, "This is Lan,"
"Yeah, what's up?" Drew said.
"Megaman is in my PET!" Lan said.
"Really?" Drew asked.
"Well, sort of," Lan admitted, "He's unstable; he's missing half of his data."
"E-Mail him to me, I'll do my best to stabilize him. Maybe Gregar's power could help prevent his Data from fading away. I think that Solarman has that data in him."
"Good Idea," Lan said, "I'm sending him to you now."
Drew hung up.
"Well, I gotta go," Drew said, "see you tomorrow!"
He ran off towards his house, eager to get there before Megaman reached him.