New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 1: New Origins
Chapter 12: Gospel Chase
Deep in a computer system in Den Net City, a Navi walked through a quiet, unused hallway, surrounded by various kinds of gadgetry. His cloak followed lightly behind him as he moved, looking around occasionally for traces of security.
"One last piece to our puzzle," Bass mused to himself. "If the old man's figurings are correct, that is. Then, finally, the assault on the humans can begin."
He rustled through an older machine, suspecting hidden treasures, before moving on, thinking to himself about the things he had seen earlier that week. "To think there was a creature on the Net so much more powerful than myself... but with the way it took over the test Cyberworld, it could prove rather dangerous indeed. Perhaps I should acquire a piece of it for my own purposes..."
He looked to his left and his eyebrows raised; could this be what he was searching for? After heading over and inspecting it, he was pleased to see that it was the force field generator that he was looking for. He reached down and picked it up off the ground; an instant later, several automated Navis appeared behind him, lasers drawn, as a siren sounded.
"SECU-" was all they managed to get out; a quick blast of energy from Bass's hand silenced them instantly. The security alert ended, and the Navi turned his attention back to the generator. The ability to generate powerful barriers at will could be a particularly useful one to him, especially in light of recent events. He had never truly believed Dr. Wily's explanation of what had happened on the day he fought Megaman, and he was looking to hedge his bets.
He focused himself, and his hand started to glow white. The generator glowed the same color, before both dimmed back to darkness. Holding up his hand, Bass took a second to work out how to use his new power, forming a small but powerful barrier around his hand. He closed his fingers into a fist as the barrier vanished.
"Let's see anyone try to double-cross me now." He turned to leave, holding the generator in his arm.
"Did you hear some sort of alarm?" Megaman wondered, as Lan ran through SciLab, headed for his father's office.
"I thought the same thing, but it only lasted for a second," his operator replied. "Must've been something else." He ran into an open elevator and jammed the button until the door closed, slumping against the wall.
"What is your dad going to do, you think?"
"Not sure," Lan said, catching his breath. "He'll probably send out some Officials to intercept it, something like that... all I know is, he can do more than either of us could." In addition to doing his Net research, Dr. Hikari was in charge of organizing and deploying Official Netbattlers in emergency situations, being an experienced Netbattler himself.
The doors opened again, and Lan dashed out, headed for his father's office. Upon entering, he found Yuichiro walking toward the door, ending a discussion with none other than Eugene Chaud. All three stopped, a but surprised, before Chaud continued forward, brushing past Lan without a word and heading down the hallway. Lan turned to watch him go.
"I thought I'd be seeing you before too long." Lan turned back to see his father standing with his arms folded, not looking pleased. He felt himself growing smaller.
"I guess Chaud told you what happened, huh?"
"I don't know how I can explain this to you any more clearly," Yuichiro replied. "And still you continue getting yourself involved in things you should not be involved in."
Lan sighed. "Dad..."
"Son, I know how you must be feeling after what happened, but you're still just putting yourself and Megaman in danger. Chaud's right; these are problems you should leave to the Officials." His father turned and started walking back into his office. "If I hear any more about you getting involved with Gospel or World Three, I'm taking away your PET, indefinitely. Megaman and all. Is that clear?"
Lan's eyes widened, incredulous, but he quickly backed down, not prepared to challenge his father over this. He let his shoulders fall, resigned. "Alright..."
"I'll think of a suitable punishment for this later." Yuichiro walked over to a large screen, pressing a button and causing a display to come up. "For now, we need to stop this creature before it destroys all of Den Net City." Lan walked over to the screen, and it appeared to be showing a layout of the city's Cyberworld; a large number of dots covered its surface.
"What are those? Navis?"
"Viruses," Yuichiro corrected. "Den's covered with them these days. But we're just looking for one..."
Lan scanned the street, trying to find anything familiar or outstanding. Before long, he noticed a large clump of viruses traveling as one down one of the main pathways. "Look at that," he said, pointing it out.
Yuichiro nodded, pushing his glasses up. "That's got to be what we're looking for; Gospel's constructed from a large amount of Bug Fragments, so that must be how they show up."
"So what are we going to do to it?"
"I've got some Officials on it now," his father responded. "They're going to lure Gospel here, and we'll encase it in a barrier that it won't be able to escape. Then we'll use another device to overload that portion of the Net, incapacitating it so we can destroy it."
As he finished speaking, four more dots appeared on the screen, each one taking the form of the Official Netbattler symbol. They converged quickly on Gospel's location.
"Here we go." Yuichiro stood closer, putting his hands on the console. "They've managed to track his location as well. Now the show will begin."
Bass flew through the air over Den Net City, scanning the streets to make sure he wasn't being detected as he delivered the force field generator to World Three. He mused over backup plans to himself, never one to trust anybody, when a sight made him stop dead and do a double take.
"What on Earth...?" He flew forward to get a better look. A gigantic, dog-like virus was sauntering through the Cyberworld, roaring and swiping at something that was causing bright flashes of light. Looking closer, he could see a number of Official Navis surrounding the beast, one of them firing laser blasts at it from the front. Eventually, the dog virus roared mightily and started running, as all four Navis chased after it, or were chased, depending on their position.
He contemplated stepping in, recognizing the beast from plans that had been stolen from Gospel HQ, before shaking his head. "No concern of mine. This is Wily's mess to deal with." He sped off again, as the Navis led the virus toward the place from which Bass had come.
In another part of Den City, someone else was quite concerned with what was going on. Seated at her computer terminal, Maddy Iroaya was tapped in to a number of cameras on the Net, watching the messy scene play out. She bore a concerned, even nervous expression as she saw Gospel being led close to the SciLab cyber building.
"Watching the mess you made?" She jumped, turning around and glaring at Kenichi Match, who was standing behind her with a less-than-amused expression on his face.
"Excuse me? How is this my fault, exactly?"
"You had your task. You needed to keep that Hikari boy from reaching that server, and you failed." His eyes flicked up toward her monitors. "Now look what we have to deal with."
She grumbled and turned back toward her terminal. "I didn't see you faring any better against him when we were dealing with the LifeVirus fiasco, Ken."
Match gritted his teeth but didn't respond; she had a point, but he didn't want to admit it by acknowledging her statement. She continued, not looking back at him. "This will all still work out fine. This dog thing wasn't even in the original plan. Who cares if anything happens to it?"
"Evidently, you care, since you're watching."
She shot him a glance. "Don't you have anything better to do right now?"
"I already did it," he responded. "I was just going over Colorman's records from your battle with Megaman."
Her eyes went wide, and she quickly stood up and whirled around to face him, instantly furious. "You're spying on me?!"
Match continued on, not responding to her question. "Your battle wasn't even close to over. You could have stalled Megaman enough to ensure that the two buses collided. And yet you jacked out anyway, giving that brat just enough time to stop the bus."
She glared at him hard enough to bore a hole through his head. "Maybe I didn't want the blood of an eleven-year-old on my hands."
"Maybe you're not as dedicated to this cause as the rest of us are."
Maddy continued to glare for a few moments before walking forward, stepping past him, not wanting to be in his presence any longer. "Maybe I'm not."
He turned and watched her go, as she wandered down the hallway and turned a corner, disappearing from his sight. He sighed, disappointed, wondering if he was going to have to do something about her.
"They're almost at the target," Dr. Hikari reported, as he and Lan watched the display a bit impatiently. A few seconds later, the large virus clump had wandered over a large red X displayed near the SciLab Cyberworld building.
"Perfect." Yuichiro reached down, flipping a couple of switches, cueing some humming sounds from all around. "They just need to keep it stalled for a few seconds longer..."
Lan looked at another nearby monitor, which was showing a video feed of the Cyberworld immediately outside. The four Navis had surrounded Gospel and were doing their best to stall it and keep it in place. They took turns firing Cannons directly at Gospel from various angles, and Gospel was turning around in circles miserably, unsure of who to attack first.
"I think they've got it, Dad!" Lan reported. Yuichiro nodded, putting his finger over a different button.
"Good. Activating the barrier… now."
As his father pressed the button, Lan looked at his monitor again. Expecting to see a circular barrier appear, he was surprised when electric shocks started shooting through Gospel, causing it to howl in pain.
"What's going on?" he inquired, confused. "Why is it getting electrocuted?"
"Wait, it's what?!" Yuichiro ran over to see what Lan was seeing, just as the electric shocks came to an end. He slammed his fist on the panel, causing his son to jump. "Damn it! What happened?! Why isn't the force field working?!"
The other Navis also came to the quick realization that something was wrong. Gospel quickly turned around toward the Navis behind him, presuming a sneak attack had occurred, and opened his mouth. A massive, powerful laser beam shot forth, consuming both Navis and tearing through the structure of the Cyberworld. Closing its mouth, it began to turn again, as the two other Navis prepared to defend themselves; instead of attacking, Gospel let out a massive roar and took off, running away from SciLab.
"I don't believe this…" Yuichiro quickly turned and headed for another part of the room. "How many things are going to go wrong today?"
"What do we do now?" Lan asked, as his dad started flipping several more switches, concentrating hard.
"We have to stop Gospel before it escapes Den Net City." Frustrated with the switches, he reached over to a nearby shelf and grabbed what seemed to be a manual of sorts. "So I need to remember how to use this..."
Lan leaned in, trying to see what it was his dad was looking at, but the page was utterly incomprehensible to him; he leaned back out. "What are we going to do to it?"
"We'll never be able to corner it again, not after what happened to it. It may technically be a virus, but it's not completely stupid." His father set the book down, open to a certain page, and started flipping switches again. "So we're going to have to overload all of Den Net City in order to stop it."
"Say what?!" Lan replied, a little panicked at the severe-sounding plan.
"It's like a viral EMP of sorts," his father exclaimed, as a panel opened up, revealing a large, sinister-looking switch. "It activates a beacon that sends a high-energy frequency wave through the real world, affecting all electronic devices it encounters. They'll all light up with energy, incapacitating any Navis, and viruses, residing in their Cyberworlds."
Lan looked over at a window, looking at Den City and imagining everything glowing a bright white, giving off radiation. "That sounds... dangerous..."
"All of our options right now are dangerous," Yuichiro replied. "The energy wave can be a little unstable at its core, but as long as there's no major interference, there shouldn't be any lasting damage. What's more dangerous is letting Gospel escape onto the greater Net. Is Megaman jacked into anything?"
Lan pulled out his PET and looked at Megaman, who was stationed safely inside. "No, he's right here."
"Good." His father put his hand on the switch, ready to pull. "Then brace yourselves."
"I see you've returned."
Bass nodded, acknowledging Wily's presence, as he entered the World Three Cyberworld, quickly heading toward the core control room. "I've got what you requested."
"Did you have any trouble getting it?"
"Of course not. I know the SciLab security systems like the back of my hand. It was like taking candy from a baby." Walking into the large, circular room, he flew upward and placed the small generator into a small hole in the ceiling; the system quickly acknowledged its presence, humming and beeping.
"Excellent." Wily grinned, pleased and excited, a rarity for him. "A device capable of sending energy over a huge distance at a high speed... exactly what we need to enact the final part of our plan."
Bass landed on the floor again, looking up at a screen where Dr. Wily's face resided. "I take it my services are complete, then."
"Not quite," Wily corrected. "There is one last thing I need you to do for me."
The Navi sighed in annoyance. "And what exactly would that be?"
Grinning a malicious grin, Wily pressed a button on a control panel in front of him. An instant later, four large metal arms sprang up from either side of Bass; each one grabbed one of his appendages, holding him in place.
"Hold still," Wily ordered, as his captive bared his teeth in anger. Slamming his fist on another part of the control panel, a massive bolt of electricity shot through the center of the Cyberworld control room, spearing Bass through the center. As he screamed in pain, a series of computer systems hummed to life, powered by the massive amount of energy that was being extracted from the Navi.
Wily looked all around as his work sprang into action for the first and last time; lights flashed, machines turned on, and sirens blared. He grinned wide, feeling energy coursing through himself as well.
"Finally, my work is nearly complete!" He cackled, as he turned on another screen, wanting to watch the drama unfold. "Soon, the world will be just as I envisioned it... all thanks to my greatest creation!"
Lan and his father both turned their attention back to the screen, watching as the energy wave swept through Den Net City. As the blue circle expanded, a number of cyber buildings began to glow white on the digital map.
"It's working." Yuichiro breathed a sigh of relief. "The Net is overloading with energy... Gospel should become incapacitated pretty quickly at this rate. He can't have gotten away that fast..."
Just as Lan started to relax, a massive sound rattled the air, like an explosion or a thunderclap, and a strange quake shook the ground, knocking both of them over.
"Lan! What's going on out there?" Megaman called out. Lan sat up, rubbing his head, as he looked up at the map. At the edge of it, a number of buildings that were white had turned a rather alarming red, and their number was increasing quickly, in an expanding circle of its own.
Yuichiro looked up at the map, getting to his feet, and cursed loudly. "What's going on?" He ran to the panel despite the still-shaking ground, as Lan stood up and looked out the window. At the very edge of his vision, he could see buildings starting to glow a bright white.
"Dad-" he started, before he was suddenly attacked by a powerful wind; he braced himself against it, as Yuichiro did the same. "Gah! What the hell is going on?!"
"I have no idea! I didn't expect anything like this!" Looking up at the map, he could see the circle of red buildings expanding, as the white buildings outside grew in number, getting closer and closer to SciLab.
"Whatever this is, it's about to hit right here." Yuichiro grabbed on to the control panel. "Hold on tight!" Lan tried to move forward and grab something, but he was suddenly hit by a powerful invisible force, which threw him back against the wall, knocking him out.
"Unh..." Lan woke up a minute later and blinked, his vision blurry, his head aching, and his back screaming in pain once again. Thinking this was a fairly familiar sensation, he rubbed his eyes, trying to get things more clear. He could make out the form of his father, who had also fallen over, in front of him.
"Geez… are you alright?"
"I... I think so..." Lan blinked; that wasn't the voice he had expected. He rubbed his eyes, to clear up what he saw; when he finally saw it properly, he nearly jumped in shock, backing up against the wall.
"Megaman?! What are you doing here?! How are you here?!"
"Gah! Lan?!" Megaman backed up a bit as well, as if he'd seen a ghost. "What's going on?! Is this your world?! I thought this was still the Cyberworld!"
"Wrong," proclaimed another voice that made them both jump. Looking up, they saw Yuichiro standing at the window, nearly white as a ghost and clearly in shock as well. "Have a look for yourselves."
Looking at each other in massive confusion, the two stood up and slowly walked over to the large window, each on either side of Lan's father. For as far as they could see, the city had been thrown into turmoil; humans were running out into the streets, or back into their houses, as numerous Navis and programs populated the streets. The buildings and streets were a splotched mix of normal brick or concrete, and the gridded, glowing texture of the Cyberworld. Even the air seemed to have a strange glow about it, in addition to being filled with noise and screaming.
Lan felt his stomach sink with the weight of the truth, as it settled in. "It's… both…?"
The three of them goggled at the sight outside the window, wondering to themselves how they were ever going to fix this mess.
