New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 1: New Origins


Chapter 13: When Worlds Collide

Back in his dimly lit office, Dr. Wily groaned in pain as he lay on his side, having been knocked off of his feet by a powerful shockwave. He forced himself up onto his hands and knees, looking and feeling around for his cane, his head spinning a bit.

"What in the devil…?" He managed to find his cane and grasped the handle, his other hand grabbing at his desk so he could pull himself up. As he came to his senses, he could hear panicked screams coming from other parts of the facility, and possibly outside as well. He half-shuffled, half-staggered to his computer console, which was thankfully still working, and he pressed a series of buttons. The screen powered on and quickly shifted to an outdoor view of Den City.

His eyes went wide as he took in the view in front of him. People were running outside in a panic, but there were more than just people in the streets now; there were entities that looked an awful lot like Navis, and others that were unmistakably viruses. The buildings themselves were a mesh of concrete and Cyberworld structure. It took a moment for him to realize what had happened, partly because he had trouble believing it.

"This… this wasn't supposed to happen…" he muttered to himself, in shock. "This is…" He grinned maniacally. "So much better than I had imagined…"

He stood up fully, mind racing with new possibilities. His previous plan to conquer the Cyberworld seemed so short-sighted now. Now, the entire world was his for the taking, and he alone had the cunning and brilliance to take advantage of this opportunity. He quickly turned back to his desk, walking over and repeatedly jamming the intercom button. After a minute, a voice answered on the other end, clearly panicked.

"Lord Wily!" the voice spoke. "Are you alright? Are you hurt? I'm sending someone in to get you out of here right now! We're all starting evacuation procedures!"

"Never mind me! Cancel the evacuation immediately!" Wily responded. "Everything is going exactly as it should. This is perfect for us."

"It… what?! Lord Wily, this wasn't part of the plan! This is crazy!"

"Do not talk back to me!" the old man retorted, trying to mask his giddiness with stern anger. "Nobody is to leave until I say so! I will not let this opportunity pass me by!"

The voice on the other line went quiet for a moment, both fearful and confused. "Y-yes, sir…"

Wily took a seat. "Get as many people back to their positions as you can. You all have new orders from me, so listen carefully."


"How could this happen..."

Lan, Megaman and Dr. Hikari all looked out the SciLab window at the chaos that had overtaken Den City. Buildings and streets were now a mix of concrete and digital foundation, and confused Navis were running about amidst the humans. Panic had quickly broken out, and showed no signs of slowing.

"Dad, what happened? How did… how is this even possible?" Lan looked up at his father, who shook his head.

"I don't know," he replied. "I don't… I don't know what could have…" He stopped himself and took a deep breath, needing a clear mind. "It was some other sort of radiation that headed this way, I could tell that much... clearly it doesn't mesh well with what we did. But this… I could never have imagined this."

Megaman pressed his hands against the glass, getting a better look at Den City, seeing it for the first time. "I bet World Three or Gospel has something to do with this..."

"Oh, no doubt about that," Yuichiro responded. "No normal frequencies could have had this sort of reaction, no chance. Something equally dangerous had to be coming this way, and that could only come from one of those two groups. The question is, which one..."

He turned and headed back to the main computer terminal, pushing a few buttons and watching the screen change repeatedly. "Can't believe this thing still works..."

Lan walked over to his father, as Megaman kept looking out the window in wonderment. "So what do we do? Try to take them both out?"

"There's no point in that right now." His father finally settled on one screen, showing off a map of Den City with random areas lit various colors, with more writing Lan couldn't understand. "We need to figure out what the hell that strange radiation was. That's our only hope of undoing this… but who even knows how long that could take. It could be days, weeks…" He held his head with one hand, trying not to lose his composure. "Why can't this sort of stuff happen in our lab, where it would be cool instead of terrifying?"

Lan held his tongue for a moment, worried that speaking again would stress him out more, until the man started typing again. "How do we find where it came from?"

"That won't be too difficult, thankfully. Tracking radiation is easy. We locate where it's strongest, and we send people there to get information. With any luck, we can have more info in a couple of-"

His speech was interrupted by an explosion from a ways off; Lan dashed back to the window, seeing smoke rising from another part of downtown, and Yuichiro followed. Looking closely, they could see a small group of Navis running down a cross street.

Megaman slammed his fist against the glass. "Damn it! The World Three Navis are in the real world as well!"

"What?!" Lan leaned in for a closer look. "But we can't just leave them loose!"

Megaman nodded, moving away from the window. "I'm going out there! I'm going to take care of them!"

"Wait! It's not safe out there!" Yuichiro called out, turning toward the Navi, but it was too late; he had already made his way out the door.

"Wait for me!" Lan called out as well, running after Megaman. His father started running after him.

"Lan! Why the hell are you going too?!" Ignoring him, Lan ran out the door and down the stairs after his Navi, faster than Yuichiro was moving.

"Ah, damn it all, they're both gone." He stopped running, rubbing his forehead with his fingers. "Charging headfirst into battle... they should have been girls, both of them."


After fifteen minutes of running, Megaman and Lan had reached the source of the explosion. As they ran, the real world and the Cyberworld were appearing to merge even more closely; instead of highly distinct sections of dark concrete and bright Cyberworld, everything was slowly congealing into a bright but bland orange. The streets had become significantly more crowded; everyone, for some reason, felt the urge to leave their houses, possibly under the notion that outdoors, where there were fewer dangerous electronics, was safer.

Megaman stopped running and looked up at a somewhat tall office building, the side of which was smoking. He quickly looked around, the shrieking happening all around not helping his focus at all.

"Shoot... I think we missed them..." He looked upward at the tops of the nearby buildings, where he saw a large ball of electricity flying directly at him.

"Gah!" He quickly leaped to the side, turning and watching the electric attack impact the ground, where it quickly dissipated. Lan ran closer to him looked up toward the rooftop, to see Elecman grinning maliciously down at them, his arm pointed in their direction.

"Isn't it fantastic?" he called out. "Chaos everywhere you look! People panicking in the streets! And where disorder reigns, World Three will step in to create order!"

"Create order... what a complete load!" Megaman aimed his buster at the enemy Navi. "This is probably all your fault in the first place!"

Elecman smirked. "Details, details... before long, you'll see the true genius of Lord Wily's work!"

"We'll just see!" Megaman fired his buster toward the distant foe, who dodged his shots with ease. As his Navi fired, Lan noticed something approaching from the corner of his eye; looking over, he saw a black helicopter approaching quickly, with the symbol of the Electopian military emblazoned on the side. As it approached and started kicking up plumes of air, everyone started to look toward it, including Elecman.

"Hmph." He stood up fully, looking disappointed. "Seems that our fun is going to be cut short." He looked down toward the ground, grinning wide. "Looks like the real fun is about to begin, anyhow!" He laughed as he turned and ran toward the back edge of the rooftop, leaping away and quickly out of sight. The helicopter started to descend, and Lan and Megaman watched as Yuichiro leaned out of the open side door, a megaphone in his hand.

"Lan! Megaman! You have to get in here right away!" he yelled out, the megaphone to his mouth. Before either of them could ask why, they heard a shriek from behind them. Turning around, they saw a young twenty-something girl screaming and sinking; the lower half of her body had, inexplicably, found itself stuck in the orange ground. As she tried to claw her way out, Megaman raced over to grab her hand, but he wasn't quite fast enough; the orange ground continued sucking her in, until even her fingers had been pulled underneath. Mass panic ensued, as everyone started screaming and running back indoors; several more people found themselves stuck in the orange mass that had become the street, slowly becoming buried.

"Come on!" Yuichiro yelled again. Megaman and Lan looked at each other and nodded, running for the chopper. Megaman got there first, and started to climb in when he heard a shout from behind; turning around, he saw his operator struggling to move, one leg buried in the ground up to his knee.

"Megaman! Help!"

"Lan!" Megaman wasted no time in sprinting over toward the boy, whose other leg began sinking into the orange mass as well. Reaching out, Megaman grabbed Lan's hand to try and pull him out; both of them glowed a bright white, and an instant later, the Navi found himself flung back, landing on his seat. Looking around, Lan was nowhere to be found.

"Lan? Lan!" Megaman called out, standing up. "Where are you?"

I'm right here! Where are you?! He jumped, hearing a voice from inside his head.

"Lan! Are you in my head?! What happened?!" Before Lan's voice could respond, he felt a tug down near his foot; looking down, he saw himself also about to be eaten up. Getting out his buster, he fired down toward his foot; the ground recoiled and let his foot go as the blast hit. Not thinking twice, Megaman turned around and leaped into his father's helicopter, which quickly took off, as he and Yuichiro watched the inhabitants of Den City get swallowed by the mysterious substance.

"Are you alright?" Yuichiro asked, as the helicopter turned around and sped off.

"I think so..." Megaman rubbed his head, sitting down in a seat. "But Lan... he... I'm not sure..."

"All I saw was you grabbing his hand, then there was a bright light and Lan was gone..."

Megaman nodded. "But now his voice is in my head... or at least it was, it hasn't said anything in a minute..."

No, I'm still here, Lan answered; the Navi nodded in response.

Yuichiro pushed his glasses up. "I think I get it... your body must have merged with Lan's, somehow."

Megaman blinked. "What, really?"

"Given your construction, it's not all that surprising, especially now. All sorts of real world items are merging with their Cyberworld counterparts, and you and Lan are extremely similar, as you know..."

Megaman nodded again. "So, how are we going to… un-merge?"

"You should… not do that," Dr. Hikari responded. "Lan's basically defenseless, especially with people getting absorbed left and right by who knows what. It's best he stays in there for now; you're much better equipped to defend yourself."

I'm not that weak... Megaman heard Lan respond.

Don't worry about it, Lan, you know what he meant, the Navi responded silently, looking forward toward the windshield. "Where are we going? Back to SciLab?"

"Of course." Yuichiro looked forward as well, trying to see their destination. "It's the safest place we can be right now, unless we decide to go to a military base instead. Plus, we can try and research whatever it is that's taken over the town."

"Did you get any information about that radiation?"

Dr. Hikari shook his head. "Not yet. I was able to get on the phone with the governor, and she's sending the National Guard in with some scientists. Hopefully we'll have answers in an hour or two." He pushed his glasses up. "And hopefully we can haul in a bunch of criminals while we're at it, assuming they're even still-"

With a large WHAM, something heavily impacted the side of the helicopter, causing it to shake and veer a bit off course, shaking the occupants inside.

"What the-?!" Megaman unbuckled his seat belt and quickly stood, moving carefully to the open side door of the helicopter and looking toward the source of the sound, to find a familiar red-and-gray Navi clinging to the helicopter, its arm wrapped around the tail.

"Fireman!" he exclaimed. An instant later, Fireman flung himself around toward the door and landed inside, causing the other occupants to jump in surprise. Megaman got himself into a defensive stance.

"Sorry to cut this flight short, but I can't have any of you messing with Lord Wily's plans." Fireman looked directly into Megaman's eyes. "Especially you, you meddlesome Navi. Your interference will end now!" He charged forward, too quickly for his opponent to dodge, slamming his shoulder into Megaman's chest and knocking both of them out of the helicopter, onto a nearby building top.

Groaning, Megaman shifted and kicked Fireman off of him, as he watched the helicopter continue on. Quickly getting to his feet, he started running across the rooftops, blasting backward at Fireman while chasing the helicopter. Dr. Hikari was clinging to the door, watching the fight unfold.

"You're not going anywhere!" Fireman started his pursuit, shooting some fire blasts of his own; Megaman managed to barely dodge while keeping up his pace, and looking forward, he saw the helicopter slow down and come in closer. With a look backward, Megaman saw a fire blast come directly toward his face.

"Gah!" Acting on instinct, he swung at it; his arm suddenly became a Wide Sword, and the shot was deflected back toward Fireman, who barely dodged. He looked down at the sword in surprise; he wasn't sure why he had Battlechips available to use, but he didn't question it, knowing better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Looking up, he saw the helicopter slow down and pull up right next to him; he leaped in, rolling and landing safely inside. Quickly turning around, he saw Fireman right behind, ready to jump in; he straightened out his arm, which became a High Cannon, and fired it directly into Fireman's face as he jumped. With no room to dodge, the enemy took the blast head on, falling backward and landing heavily onto the neighboring rooftop. The pilot took off, taking the helicopter up and away from danger as fast as he could manage, as Dr. Hikari quickly got back into his seat.

"Think you can escape, can you?" Fireman aimed his gun arm toward the helicopter, charging up. He fired a series of rounds toward the retreating helicopter; while most of them soared harmlessly into the sky, one scored a direct hit on the tail propellor of the chopper.

Megaman fell forward as the helicopter shook with the explosion; a series of alarms sounded from the pilot's seat, as a plume of smoke and fire erupted from the tail, and the pilot cursed.

"Damn! He got us!" The helicopter started to decline, as the pilot wrestled with the controls. "We're in for a rough landing! Everybody brace yourselves!" Yuichiro clipped his seatbelt on, while Megaman, unable to stand in the shaky craft, grabbed the pilot's seat in front of him.

Coming down quickly, the craft aimed itself for a nearby rooftop. Despite the pilot controlling the fall as best he could, the helicopter came down hard upon landing; Megaman slid forward into the back of the pilot's seat, while Yuichiro and the pilot found themselves saved by their seatbelts, jostled but unharmed. The chopper slid forward on the rooftop for a short ways, creating horrible crunching and grinding sounds, before coming to a stop. Megaman sat up, rubbing his sore head and looking toward Dr. Hikari.

"Are you alright?"

Yuichiro nodded, sitting back and breathing heavily. "Yeah... I'm fine, don't worry." He unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up, looking over the Navi before turning to check on the pilot, who was shaken but otherwise unharmed. He turned back to help Megaman up, and they both stepped out of the helicopter.

"Where are we right now?" Megaman wondered.

"Close to SciLab, at least... you can see it over..." Yuichiro's voice came to a slow stop as his eyes widened; Megaman followed his finger to a sight he could hardly believe.

Immediately outside of SciLab stood the impossibly large Gospel, almost two stories tall and unusually calm and docile. Staring it down, between Gospel and SciLab, was a gigantic, spherical, orange blob that was attached to the similarly-colored ground. On top of it was what appeared to be a metallic helmet, with horns coming out from either side; hovering near its blob-esque body, on each side, was what appeared to be a orange hand, with long, metallic claws extending from it. Buried in the center of the blob was a giant, ghastly, red eyeball.

Overlooking the entire scene, from a giant screen generated on the front of the SciLab building, was the face of an elderly, gray-haired man with an evil grin and a monocle. As Megaman stared at the scene, agape, the giant face looked toward the building they had landed on; upon seeing its contents more clearly, the face chucked.

"Ah, good, the gang's all here," he commented. "Looks like now the show can begin."