New Megaman Battle Network

A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.

Story 1: New Origins


Chapter 6: Practice Makes Perfect

"You think we can pull this off?"

Lan grinned, skating down the street. "How many other Navis have done what you've done? The two of together, we've got a great chance."

"A competition between all the Netbattlers in Den City… or at least the ones who show up," Megaman mused, as his operator headed down toward the local arcade. "I'm sure there are some real strong Navis out there, too. And good Operators. I don't really know what to expect. Someone could easily surpass us."

"Well, it's not all about winning, either," Lan reminded his Navi. "If we can master that Program Advance in battle, we'll have a serious heads up on any other World Three Navis that come our way!"

Three days ago, after the Gospel attack on the Ayanokouji mansion, Yai and the others had told Lan everything that had happened, including Protoman's appearance and use of the Life Sword Program Advance. Immediately after returning home, Megaman had looked up all the information he could on Program Advances, and they had set to practicing. It was much more difficult than they had thought; it required intense concentration on both ends, as well as very specific timing. If Navi and Operator were not highly synchronized, there was no chance of the attack going anywhere.

"It's probably going to be a lot harder in battle." Megaman stretched his virtual arms. "At home we had all the time in the world to prepare the attack."

"That's why we're here! This counts as practice!" Lan replied, as he rounded the corner and saw the bulge of Netbattlers outside. He skated up to the entrance of the arcade, where he tried to look for any sort of person that could sign him up.

"You want in too, huh?" a familiar voice called out; Lan looked over and saw a very smug Dex standing near the front of the bulge. Retracting his shoes' wheels, Lan ran up to his friend.

"Dex! Do you know where we can sign up?"

"Heh! You best not sign up at all, Lan!" Dex replied arrogantly. "It'll save you the humiliation of losing to the new and improved Gutsman!"

"I'll take my chances, Dex. Where do I go?" He chuckled and pointed to a table, where two adults were standing by, one seated at a computer and another holding a clipboard; Lan ran over to them eagerly.

"This is where you sign up for the tournament, right?"

"Name?" one of them asked matter-of-factly. Lan quickly offered all the necessary info about himself and Megaman, which the other man wrote down on a clipboard.

"Alright, now we just need you to deposit your Navi in our database, for our pre-tournament scans."

Lan stopped for a minute, looking down at his PET and thinking for a minute before looking back up. "Um... when does registration end?"

The man holding the clipboard looked at his watch. "In about 30 minutes."

"Can I wait until then to deposit Megaman? We could practice on one of the machines."

The man sitting near the computer shrugged. "Sure, don't see why not. Just make sure you're back in time."

"Thanks," Lan grinned, rushing over to an arcade machine and pulling out his PET. "C'mon, Megaman! We can try practicing for the next half hour!"

"Alright, if you want. Just don't wear me out before the tournament begins, okay?"

Lan nodded, plugging Megaman into the duel machine. "Got it."


Fifteen minutes later, they had tried the Life Sword many more times, with varying degrees of success, before Megaman called it quits.

"If we do any more of these, I'm going to wear myself out. Let's go and get ourselves registered, Lan; everyone else has already."

Lan nodded and jacked his Navi out, heading to the registration table. As he drew closer, he was surprised to find both of the regulators staring at the computer, one of them hammering away on the keys as they muttered between themselves.

"Um..." Lan interjected. "Could we get ourselves registered now?"

"Hold on," one of them muttered, a frustrated look on his face. "We're having some slight technical difficulties..."

An instant later, the lights in the arcade shut themselves off, as everyone gasped. While everyone started talking animatedly amongst themselves, all of the observation screens located on the walls of the arcade turned themselves on, each of them showing the image of a man with long, blonde hair and a sickening grin. Lan tensed himself, not recognizing the man on screen, but certain that he was trouble.

"Greetings, Netbattlers," the face began. "I'm sure you're wondering what the meaning of all this is. Well, to make a long story short, we've taken all of your Navis."

The crowd erupted in anger, everyone yelling at the face in the wall, demanding their Navis be returned with no degree of politeness. The strange man basked in their rage for a moment before continuing, and the crowd quieted down to hear him.

"Oh come now, it's not that bad." He chuckled. "All your Navis will be serving the great Gospel organization, in our quest for total domination of the Net. They are being reprogrammed as we speak, right here in the arcade; soon they will serve in our armies and maintenance crews. Hope you all can afford new ones," he added with a smirk, before the video feed cut out and the room erupted in anger once again.

"Did you hear that, Megaman?" Lan called out to his PET. His Navi nodded in response.

"Good thing we hadn't registered ourselves yet," Megaman added. "We've got to jack in and get those Navis back before Gospel gets away with them!"

Lan nodded, looking for a jack-in port and finding one along the back wall, running up to it. "Be careful in there," he mentioned as he sent Megaman into the arcade's Cyberworld.


It didn't take long to find the missing Navis; as soon as Megaman was jacked in, he could see the various Navis being held in tall, thin chambers all around him, in a grid pattern. Each of them looked like they were sleeping in suspended animation, with strange helmets attached to their heads.

"Lan! Are you getting this? The Navis are all over the place!" He whirled around, trying to take measure of how many there were, registering just under sixty.

Lan nodded, back in the real world. "Yeah, I see them. Are they connected to anything? Can you see any way to let them out?"

"I'm taking a look now," his Navi responded, walking up to one of the tubes and circling it slowly, eyes scanning it carefully. He never heard the attack coming from behind him until it collided with his back and exploded, sending him flying forward onto his face.

Groaning and getting up quickly, Megaman turned around to try and find his adversary. "Who's there? Show yourself!"

Seconds after the words left his mouth, he saw several tiny tornadoes moving at him at a high speed. Thinking quickly, he jumped on top of the nearest chamber, the tornadoes flew right past him, having lost their target. Having a higher vantage point, he looked for the source of the tornadoes, finding it quickly among the holding tanks; it was a blue, aerodynamic Navi of average height, a giant fan built right into his chest.

"Found you!" Megaman generated a Wide Sword on his arm and jumped at the assailant for an aerial strike; the Navi dodged out of the way quickly, pointing his arm, which ended in a smaller fan, at his assailant.

"Who are you? I thought I got every Navi here; how did you escape?"

Megaman smirked. "Guess you're just bad at your job, huh?" He dashed forward, swiping at the Navi, who again jumped back. "Now who are you?" He looked over his adversary, eyes quickly settling on a remote control in its left hand.

The Navi chuckled. "I am Airman, of the great and powerful Gospel! And you shall not presume to stand in our way!" He pointed his fan arm at Megaman and it began to spin, quickly producing numerous small tornadoes that started to give chase.

"Run, Megaman!" Lan called out. Megaman turned and ran off, turning corners and trying to evade; rounding one corner, though, he nearly ran face-first into an intercepting tornado that had snuck up on him. Jumping in the air, he barely managed to avoid being hit; the tornado kept going forward and ran into another, causing both of them to explode.

As he came back down to the ground, he looked up to see a massively tall cyclone heading his way. "Too slow!" Airman taunted, as Megaman found himself quickly sucked up into the whirlwind. He was lifted into the air, spinning around at high speed, until he was eventually hurled away, his head colliding hard with one of the Navi containers.

Rubbing his head, he slowly stood up, looking toward Airman, who was on the attack again. "His tornadoes are too fast... I don't even get a chance to attack, let alone use a Program Advance! He's making them track me down and cut off my escape routes!"

Lan bit his lip and flipped through his chip folder for ideas; upon finding an Area Steal chip, he pulled it out and grinned to himself. "Well, he can't do that if he can't find you, can he?"

Megaman grinned back. "I'm ready when you are!"

Lan nodded, slotting in the Area Steal chip, as Megaman started running head-on toward his foe, blade at his side. Airman was undaunted, standing his ground.

"So you welcome your doom, do you?" he taunted, as he turned all of his tornadoes toward his advancing adversary. As they all converged on Megaman, however, he disappeared suddenly, causing all the tornadoes to destroy themselves. Airman's eyebrows raised, as he looked all around for his foe.

"Where did you go? You can't hide from me!" he called out. He walked forward cautiously, looking down the rows and rows of Navis. As he inched forward, Megaman stood atop a chamber behind Airman, grinning. Lan slotted in a Shotgun, which Megaman aimed and fired at his enemy, hitting him in the back and casting a veil of smoke with it.

"Gah! There you are!" Airman called out, whirling around and using the fan in his chest to clear away the smoke. By the time he had a clear view, however, Megaman had vanished once again. Airman barely had time to ponder this before he found himself hit in the head with a trio of Minibombs, causing him to turn around once again.

"Gotcha!" he heard his opponent call out from above; looking up, Airman only had time to move the slightest inch as Megaman came down on him, sword outstretched, chopping off his fan arm and part of his torso.

"Agh!" Airman cried out in great pain, grabbing at the part of him that had just been removed, before a powerful kick from Megaman silenced him and sent him flying back several yards. His left half sparking and incomplete, he roared with rage as he stood up.

"You! I'll kill you for that!" He aimed his remaining arm at his foe, focusing all of his strength and forming an even larger cyclone than before, and Megaman could feel it starting to pull him in. He quickly jumped back several yards, giving himself some space, but the pull of the cyclone continued to test him, and he felt himself sliding along the ground.

Around the Cyberworld, the various capsules containing the Navis were starting to tilt and even detach, as Airman's whirlwind began pulling in everything close to it. Megaman grabbed onto one of them, starting to come up with a plan to overcome this attack, his mind racing through the Battlechips available to him.

Just as he felt his feet start to give, he saw Airman's head pierced by a thin, purple beam of energy. Almost immediately, the cyclone dissipated, and Megaman regained his footing, as Airman collapsed to the ground, motionless.

"What the-?!" Megaman looked around for the source of the laser, finding it up in the sky. Slowly advancing downward toward Airman's frame was a black Navi of moderate height; his frame was wrapped in a tattered brown cloak up to his mouth, and two large fins protruded from his head on either side.

"Don't know what Wily needs with you, pathetic thing," he muttered, landing next to the frame and grabbing it by its remaining hand. "I suppose he knows what he's doing, though..."

"Hey! Who are you?" Megaman called out, aiming his buster. The black Navi quickly looked in his direction, and their eyes met, causing Megaman to pause. He wasn't sure exactly why, but he had an odd feeling that he had seen this Navi before, the intense gaze tugging at his memory. The black Navi stared back at him, eyebrows raised, recognition on his face as well. After a few long seconds, the mysterious interloper came to his senses, jumping to an incredible height before flying up and away, Airman still in his grasp. Megaman ran over to where he was and looked up at his retreating frame.

"What just happened?" Lan called out. "Who was that?"

"I have no idea," Megaman muttered, eyes fixed on the Navi as it slowly flew out of sight. "Something about him is weirdly familiar, though… but I'm sure I've never met him before."

"That's… strange." Lan racked his own memory for any Navi that looked similar to that, but came up with nothing. "Did you hear him say anything?"

"Yeah, I did," his Navi replied, eyes returning to where Airman had been lying, seeing the remote he had been holding and picking it up. "He mentioned Wily... so he's probably connected with World Three somehow, isn't he?"

"World Three?" Lan puzzled. "Does that mean World Three and Gospel are fighting or something?"

"I don't know, but it probably isn't good for us either way." Megaman finally found what he was looking for, a small button labeled Abort. Pressing it caused the numerous chambers surrounding him to simultaneously open, depositing their contents onto the ground in front of them. The Navis collectively sat up, rubbing their heads and blinking while wondering aloud what had just happened.


Ten minutes later in the real world, one of the tournament regulators was standing on the table, holding a megaphone up to his mouth and speaking loudly.

"We apologize for the inconvenience," he stated to the bulging crowd of Netbattlers. "All of your Navis have been recovered, and you're free to take them home. We'll contact you all when a better day to hold the tournament comes about..."

He tried to continue, but the tumultuous uproar from the crowd made him inaudible. Everyone started jeering or yelling angrily, none of them quite ready to leave. The man held up his hand, and the crowd quieted somewhat.

"Seriously? You guys still want to continue on?" The crowd cheered back approvingly, as the regulator chuckled.

"Incredible... if Den City had more Officials like you guys, we wouldn't have ourselves any trouble at all. All right then!" he yelled, raising his fist, as the crowd cheered with approval, including Lan. "Let's get this tournament underway!"


After several minutes of flying, the mysterious black Navi finally came to a stop, landing in a specific Cyberworld server. He dropped his cargo on the ground before walking over to a small interface on a nearby wall; after pushing a handful of keys, the wall next to him turned into a large screen, showing a large office, with a familiar old man sitting behind a desk. The man quickly turned around in his chair.

"One Gospel Navi, disabled but not deleted," the Navi reported. "This is what you needed, wasn't it, Wily?"

"Perfect," Dr. Wily confirmed, grinning widely. "We should be able to mine plenty of useful information on Gospel out of that frame. Good work, as always."

The Navi nodded, not needing the praise, being extremely confident in his own abilities. "Contact me with whatever dirty work you need done next. You know where to find me."

He powered off the screen and turned around, walking deeper into the Cyberworld, to a smaller and more private computer terminal. He reached down to power it on and started typing into it; the screen ran through several pages of text, before the image of a familiar blue Navi appeared on the screen, along with copious amounts of notes.

"So you've inserted yourself into this war, Megaman," he muttered to himself. "I knew we were bound to meet again someday, but I didn't think it would be now..."

He stood back, eyes running over the text on screen, wondering what this interaction would mean going forward.