New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 2: The Sun And The Moon


Chapter 1: Registration

"Lan, I'm telling you we're going the wrong way!"

Lan stared down into his PET as he skated down the street as fast as he could. "We don't have time to argue about this! The deadline is coming up soon!"

"'When the lights go out, the show begins!'" Megaman recited, recalling the clue his operator had been given. "It's the movie theater, it's got to be! That's where the shows are played!"

"But that's too obvious!" Lan responded. "Everyone's going to go there! If they're trying to weed people out, they're going to put it somewhere else!"

He groaned and stopped on the sidewalk, checking the time on his PET. "Alright, this ends in thirty minutes. We've got just enough time to check both."

Megaman nodded. "The movie theater's closest. Let's check that first."

Lan nodded in response, taking off at high speed down the sidewalk, not noticing the silver-and-black-haired boy watching him from another street.


Two months had passed since Alpha's attack on Den City. The world had not seen hide nor hair of Dr. Albert Wily since that time, despite an intense manhunt conducted by the government of Electopia. Another search, performed by SciLab on the Net, found no trace of the Viral Beast Gospel, or the independent Navi Bass; both were presumed destroyed, completely absorbed by Alpha, and their data lost. Nobody had thought to look for Kid Grave.

Aside from Wily, several World Three operators were eventually uncovered. Kenichi Match was found guilty of conspiracy to commit acts of terror, and sentenced to ten years in prison. Maddy Iroaya received a similar sentence, but reduced it severely by divulging all she knew about World Three and her uncle, Dr. Wily. Count Zapp, Elecman's operator, had fled to his native country of Ameroupe and claimed amnesty, while Takeo Inukai, operator of Beastman, was quickly found and imprisoned. Various other low-level members of World Three and Gospel were found. Some were imprisoned, while others claimed to have been brainwashed, complicating matters. The assets of both groups were seized and given to the Electopian government, who distributed it to homes and businesses harmed by the terrorist actions.

Life had mostly returned to normal for Lan Hikari, though his new custom Navi certainly made things more exciting. School had let out for the summer one month after Alpha was defeated, and Lan and Megaman garnered a reputation as a highly skilled operator/Navi team. His father, Yuichiro, found himself at home with his family much more often, his workload having dropped after the dissolving of World Three. When Lan wasn't with his father, he often found himself out with his friends in downtown Den City or elsewhere.

It was on one such excursion that Lan, Mayl, Dex and Yai passed a large, conspicuous, colorful poster on the window of the arcade. Dex ran to it immediately, and quickly motioned for the others to take a look. Everyone crowded around to read:

The International Netbattle Coalition, in cooperation with the governments of the world, are proud to host the international

Red Sun/Blue Moon Netbattle Tournament

Compete to be the world's greatest Netbattler!

Grand Prize: 10,000,000 Zennys

1st Prize: 5,000,000 Zennys

2nd Prize: 2,000,000 Zennys

3rd Prize: 1,000,000 Zennys

Other local prizes also available

Den City tournament organizer: Higsby's Chip Shop

Registration: 9:00 - 11:00 am, Saturday, July 13

"Whoa! The greatest Netbattler in the world!" Lan's eyes lit up at the thought.

"Ten million Zennys!" Dex goggled, reading the prizes over again. "Think of all I could buy with money like that!" Yai rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

"July 13... that's a week from today," Mayl observed. "That's pretty quick." She pulled out her PET, looking into the screen at her Navi. "What do you think, Roll? Sounds like it could be pretty fun!"

"It sure does!" Roll responded, cheerful and excited. "Let's go for it, Mayl!"

"You'll have to get past me if you want to win!" Dex gestured to himself. "Me and Gutsman have been training for months! Not even an Official Navi can beat us now!"

"Really? You've fought Official Navis?" Yai asked, as the four started walking down the sidewalk.

"Well, no, but I bet we could beat one!" he responded, triggering a brief argument between the two. Mayl giggled as the two bickered back and forth, which was their natural state, while Lan pulled out his PET.

"What do you think, Mega?" he asked, grinning. "You want to try battling against some of the best Netbattlers in the world?" He was only asking as a formality, as he knew what his Navi's response would be.

"Sounds great to me!" Megaman answered. "I'd love to see how we measure up. Plus, it's been months since we had a really good battle."

Mayl grinned, looking on. "Sounds like you actually liked fighting World Three, Megaman!" Megaman shrugged, as Lan laughed.

"Me and Megaman were made for Netbattling!" Lan punched at the air, mock fighting, and Mayl grinned again, as the four continued down the street, all of them looking forward to the event one week later.


The next Saturday, Lan was roused from his sleep by his alarm clock, grumbling as he reached out and slapped it to stop the noise. He squinted at it, his tired brain taking a minute to register that it was 9:00 a.m. He yawned as he forced his covers off, sliding to the edge of the bed, still exhausted as he grabbed his PET, looking down at the screen, and the Navi inside.

"Morning, Lan," Megaman commented, cocking his head at the appearance of his operator. "You look… still asleep."

"I'm fine," Lan replied. "All I need to do is head down to the shop and register. Don't need to be wide awake for that."

"I guess not." His Navi sighed. "That's what you get for staying up until four in the morning."

"I was too excited to sleep…" Lan turned around and walked toward his dresser, intending to get some clothes to change into before he hopped into the shower. Instead, he found himself walking back toward his bed, on autopilot, lying on it heavily.

"Lan! What are you doing?"

"Just resting my eyes… couple seconds…" Lan closed his eyes, his PET slipping from his hand and landing screen-side down, and speaker-side down, on his mattress. He fully intended to get up again after a minute, but within seconds, he was fast asleep again. The shouts of his Navi, muted by the mattress, did nothing to rouse him from his sleep.

Ninety minutes later, Lan was still sleeping heavily on his bed, with only thirty minutes left before registration closed. Megaman had eventually relented and let him sleep a bit longer, as he clearly needed it, but at this point he was starting to panic. He had practically shouted himself hoarse trying to reawaken his operator, to no avail.

He groaned, lightly cursing in his mind, as he tried to figure out some other way to get Lan out of bed. There was no other way for the PET to make any sort of noise, so he would have to find something else. He scanned the local network for any connected devices, hoping that one could do the trick; after a few seconds of looking, he grinned, locating one that couldn't possibly fail. He hopped out of the PET through the local wireless network.

Seconds later, the high-pitched, piercing sound of the smoke detector had Lan awake in an instant, as he fell off his bed and onto the floor, tangled up in his sheets. The alarm turned itself back off as he managed to extricate himself, standing and looking around for a moment before he realized what happened. His eyes snapped to his alarm clock, then went wide when he saw what time it was.

"Oh crap! Crap, crap, crap!" He quickly spotted his PET on his bed, grabbing it and looking at the screen. "Megaman! I overslept!"

"You think?!" his Navi responded, a mix of relieved and frustrated. "Do you have any idea how much I tried to wake you up?!"

Lan quickly put his PET back down on his dresser, rifling through and grabbing some clothes. He didn't have time to shower or eat breakfast; he needed to get out the door as quickly as possible. His Navi groaned, holding his face in his hands, as Lan got himself changed at the speed of sound.


Ten minutes later, Lan flew out the door, his PET in the holster at his hip, and skated downtown toward Higsby's. Upon arriving, Lan was not surprised to find the store completely rammed with customers; even at the tail end of registration, there were dozens and dozens of people there. He managed to squeeze his way in, looking around for the owner, making his way slowly toward the front. He tried to spot the tall owner of the store, but didn't see him behind the counter as he normally was.

"Lan!" Lan turned quickly at the sound of his name being called; he saw Yai beckoning him over, along with Mayl and Dex. He ran over to them quickly.

"Guys! Where's Higsby? Isn't he doing the registration thingy?"

Mayl nodded, pointing Lan in the right direction. "You better hurry!"

"What? Don't I still have twenty minutes?"

She shook her head. "There's this thing... a scavenger hunt, like... look, just go! Higsby will tell you!" Lan nodded, slowly making his way closer to the back of the shop. It wasn't long before he heard a familiar voice.

"Grr... all these people getting their hands all over my chips, huh..."

Lan stood on his toes, looking over the crowd, shortly finding the bespectacled, wild-haired Higsby, an avid chip collector and the owner of the store. Waving at him, he finally got the attention of the man, who motioned him over, recognizing the young boy.

"Lan! Thought you wouldn't make it!"

"Am I still in time to register?" Lan squeezed through, finally getting to the counter. Higsby reached under the counter and pulled out a slip of paper.

"Hold on. It's not that easy, huh." He handed Lan the slip of paper. "You've gotta pass the preliminary qualifier, first. The tournament guys put special stands around town, and you gotta jack in and defeat all the viruses if you wanna register."

Lan looked down at the paper he'd just been given, which had a rather cryptic message: Where science gives life. "How am I supposed to find them?"

"You gotta interpret the clues, huh." Higsby adjusted his glasses. "Each stand will lead you to the next one. Once you find the last one, you'll get a special chip, and you use that to register. But you gotta get back here before noon!"

Lan nodded. "Got it!" He turned quickly and carefully made his way out of the shop, as his friends watched, relieved that he had made it in time.

"He better finish the qualifier in time!" Dex declared. "I can't call myself champ unless Gutsman beats up Megaman!"

Yai smirked. "Dream on, Dex. Every time you two-" She stopped herself as she saw a familiar face entering the store; the others stopped and watched as well, curious.

"Huh? What's he doing here? Is he entering this tournament, too?" Mayl watched as the boy walked up toward the counter, unconcerned with the other customers in his way. Higsby's eyebrows raised as he approached.

"Chaud! What are you doing back? You're all registered already."

He walked up to the counter and muttered something the other three couldn't hear. Higsby listened intently and nodded, frowning.

"Is that so, huh... well, if anyone else comes in to register, I'll let them know." Chaud nodded and turned, when Higsby suddenly jumped.

"Wait! Lan Hikari doesn't know! He just came in and ran off to find the clues!"

Chaud stopped walking and rubbed his forehead. "Ugh... now I'm going to have to chase him down, aren't I?" He walked up to the counter and received something from Higsby, then continued out of the store, turning the corner and heading off. Yai, Mayl and Dex watched him go.

"Did anyone hear what he said?" Dex wondered aloud. The other two shook their heads.


"Almost... there..."

An hour later, Lan was breathing hard, as he headed toward the outskirts of Den City, trying to get to the observatory as fast as he could. It was in sight now, only a block or so away.

"We're running short on time," Megaman commented. "We've got about fifteen minutes to delete the viruses and get back to Higsby's... I hope this is the last clue." Lan finally got up to the front door of the observatory and moved to wrench it open, but was surprised to find it locked.

"What? It's locked?" He tried peering inside, seeing nobody there. "Is the stand on the outside, then?" He started skating all around the outside of the building, trying to find the yellow, Mettool-topped stand that would contain the viruses.

"Lan, what's wrong? Can you find it?"

"I'm not seeing it…" Lan moved as fast as he could around the building, groaning when he saw the front door again. Frustrated and exhausted, he yanked on the door handle again, banging on it, hoping someone would show up and explain to him what was going on. Nobody did.

"Damn it! We were so close..." Lan rested his head against the door angrily, annoyed with himself for sleeping in, and the challenge for being unclear, and the world for being stupid. He was about to skate around the building again, when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He whirled around quickly in surprise, to see Eugene Chaud holding up a data chip.

"Chaud! What are you…" His eyes quickly honed in on the chip, eyes widening a bit. "Wait, is this your..."

"Don't be stupid, of course it's not mine." Lan held out his hand, and Chaud dropped the chip into it. "Someone's playing dirty. The final virus machine went missing from here about an hour ago."

Lan looked down at the chip in his hand. "So this..."

"That's your ticket to registration," Chaud replied. "Now get moving. You've got 15 minutes." Lan nodded and dashed off, as the young Official followed behind at a more leisurely pace.


Back at Higsby's, Lan's friends were all staring at the clock, counting down the last few minutes and, eventually, the last few seconds.

"Oh God, he's not going to make it..." Mayl clasped her hands over her chest. "Did something go wrong? Is this what Chaud told Higsby about?"

"I don't know, but it looks like it screwed him up pretty bad," Dex commented, as they all watched the second hand count down toward noon. 20... 19... 18...

"Wait! Don't close yet!"

Lan flew through the doors of the shop, forcing his way through the crowd and to the front counter. "Higsby... Chaud... got it..."

"Just in time, huh! You sure know how to make an entrance." Higsby took the chip and inserted it into a nearby machine, quickly entering Lan's personal information. A few seconds later, the machine let out a satisfactory beep.

"Got it! You're in, Lan, just under the wire." Lan sighed in relief, slumping over the counter as he caught his breath, as he felt a heavy hand clap him on the shoulder.

"Nice work, Lan!" Dex declared, grinning. "Good to see you'll be in the tournament, too!"

Lan turned and rested his hands on his knees, breathing heavily, as Mayl let out an annoyed sigh. "Maybe this will teach you to wake up on time."

"Yeah, yeah…" Lan looked up for a minute, and saw Chaud walking past the entrance to the store. His smile faded, as he thought back to the last tournament the two of them participated in, at the arcade; it was impossible for him to forget how Chaud had beaten down first his Navi, and then his pride.

"Hold on..." Lan walked forward and out of the store, turning and spotting the retreating back of the boy he was looking for. "Hey! Chaud!"

Chaud paused without turning around, as Lan came up from behind him. "You... why did you help me? I thought..."

"Thought I hated you?"

He blinked, not expecting a response like that. "Er... yeah… I mean, the last tournament, and Gospel..."

Chaud sighed, turning around and looking his companion in the eye. "I don't like owing debts to anyone."

"What? What do you mean?" Lan asked, as Chaud continued.

"Lan, you're not good at making tough decisions. Decisive action isn't your forte, and you endangered a lot of people because of it. Honestly, you're pretty infuriating to deal with." He slid his hands into his pockets. "But… I owe you my life. You saved me. You saved my father. You saved everyone I know and care about. So consider this my thanks."

Lan was lost for words for a moment, taken aback by Chaud's words, as well as his intense gaze. It was hard to know if he was being thankful, annoyed, or both. "S… sure… no problem…" He found himself looking down, flustered. "Thanks for the chip…"

"Don't thank me yet. I still have no intention of going easy on you in this tournament." Chaud turned around again, heading off, and Lan watched him go for a moment, feeling the heat of what he assumed was embarrassment radiating off his face. After a few seconds, he spoke up again.

"Wait, why are the Officials entering this tournament?"

"The Officials aren't doing anything," Chaud replied. "It's just me."

"Oh." Lan cocked his head. "So... why are you entering the tournament?"

Chaud smirked, glancing back. "Because I'm the best Netbattler in the world."

Lan grinned. "We'll see about that." He watched Chaud leave for a few seconds more, before quickly shaking his head, trying to force himself out of being flustered. He turned around and headed back into Higsby's, where his friends were waiting for him.