New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 2: The Sun And The Moon


Chapter 4: Unorthodox Investigation

"Man... he said he'd be done like ten minutes ago..." Lan fidgeted on a bench, waiting impatiently.

"Are you always this antsy, Lan?" Megaman wondered aloud.

"No, I'm just hungry! And I'm getting bored waiting in Dad's office, there's nothing to do here." It was the Tuesday after the Den City Tournament, and Lan's father had suggested the family go out for dinner, to celebrate Lan's victory. After spending the afternoon downtown, he had proceeded to his father's SciLab office to wait out the remaining minutes.

"Give him some time, Lan, you know he's busy..." No sooner had Megaman said this than a nearby door opened, and Yuichiro Hikari walked out, accompanied by another scientist, with long black hair, a monocle, and a goatee.

"That should cover just about everything," Yuichiro said, shaking hands with the scientist. "A pleasure as always, Lucius. Good to have you back."

"Same to you, Yuichiro." As Lucius shook his partner's hand, he saw Lan out of the corner of his eye, walking over. "Well, hello there. Lan, right? I haven't seen you since you were a toddler." He extended his hand once again.

"Er... hi." Lan accepted his hand, shaking it. "Sorry, I don't think I remember you, Mr…"

"No worries. Lucius Regal. I'm a colleague of your father's." He stood up straight. "I saw your performance at the tournament this weekend. You've become quite the Netbattler. I think we can expect great things from you, Lan." Regal gave him a smile before heading out, as Lan's eyes followed him.

"Am I supposed to know him, Dad?"

"Eh." Yuichiro shrugged. "I'm not surprised you don't recognize him. It's been years since he was last in the country. He's been doing research for one of our top-secret SciLab projects."

"Really?" Lan wondered, looking back at his father. "What is it?"

His father laughed. "What part of 'top-secret' didn't you get? Now come on, your mother's probably waiting for us to get home." He put his hand on Lan's head, mussing his hair. "Ready to go, champ?"

"You bet!" Lan answered, grinning, eager to finally get out of here.

"Ahem." Both Hikaris looked over, to see Chaud standing in the doorway, much to Lan's surprise. "Dr. Hikari, I believe we were supposed to discuss something..." He looked over at Lan, not expecting him to be present, and clearly not wanting him to hear.

"Right, right..." Dr. Hikari motioned Chaud over into the room he had just left, much to Lan's chagrin. "Sorry, Lan, I'll be just another five minutes." The two of them entered the room and closed the door, before Lan had a chance to protest.

"Oh, come on! What is Chaud doing here? Why does he need to talk to my dad?" Lan groaned, sitting back down on the bench, irritated and hungry.

"Must be something pretty important," Megaman mused. "Chaud did seem pretty distracted after the Den City Tournament, didn't he? Maybe this is related to that."

"Maybe..." Lan looked around the room, bored, until his eyes came to rest on a drinking glass sitting near his father's desk. He grinned, getting an idea. "Only one way to find out!" He walked over to it and picked it up, heading to the door.

"Lan, this not a good idea…" his Navi warned.

"Oh come on, what harm could it do?" Lan put the glass on the door, and his ear against the glass, listening in as Chaud and Dr. Hikari spoke.

"...So Nebula is operating in Electopia now..." Yuichiro muttered. "Looks like they won't stop until they're feared all over the world."

"The culprit's being questioned right now, but he's not exactly cooperative," Chaud continued. "Though he's not exactly bright, either. He's let slip that Electopia is holding onto something that Nebula wants... something they want to control, I guess."

"Control, huh?" Yuichiro mused. "Interesting word choice… he hasn't mentioned the Cybeasts, has he?"

Cybeasts? Lan wondered, as Chaud answered.

"That's what I thought at first, too, but he hasn't let slip anything about that." Lan heard Chaud pace across the floor. "He could be referring to the Mother Computer for all we know. I don't think he's going to let himself give up any more information."

Lan heard the two walk toward the door, and he dashed away, placing the glass back and hopping back onto the bench. A second later, the door opened as the two emerged.

"Well, if you find anything else out, let us know immediately," Yuichiro commanded.

"Of course." Chaud nodded and took his leave, walking out of the office. Lan stood up, as his father stretched his back.

"Finally... now I'm done. Ready to eat?"

Lan nodded. "I've been ready! Let's go!" The two of them walked out into the hallway of SciLab's second floor.

"Oh, and if you ever listen in on my private conversations again, you're grounded. Understand?"

Lan faltered. "Er..."

Yuichiro smirked, pressing the elevator button. "You're not half as stealthy as you think you are, Snake Pliskin." Lan looked down, embarrassed, as the both of them got in the elevator.


"Find anything, Megaman?"

Megaman shook his head, as he explored another page of the Net. "No, still nothing. I've tried looking for like seven different spellings."

Lan rubbed his forehead, frustrated, as he sat in his computer chair at home. After eating a meal out with his parents, he had come back home and gotten on the Net, hoping to find information about the Cybeasts, but he was turning up completely empty-handed.

"I don't think we're going to find anything, Lan," Megaman suggested. "This is stuff your dad didn't want us to hear. It's probably top-secret. Let's just forget about it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right..." Lan started to jack his Navi out, when a beeping sound came from his PET.

"Huh, you just got some mail, from an unknown address." Megaman opened it and read it aloud. "'If you're looking for information about the Cybeasts, come to the enclosed IP address. Don't bring anyone else.'"

"Wha… really?" Lan's eyebrows raised. "Who would send us something like that?"

Megaman closed the email. "There's no way this isn't a trap, Lan."

"Maybe... but maybe it's not..." Lan sat back, considering the proposal.

"No, Lan, it is absolutely a trap. Going there is a bad idea."

"Is it, though?" he wondered aloud. "Even if we don't learn anything about the Cybeasts, now we know there's someone out there who knows about them. Dad would want to know about that."

Megaman sighed, knowing that his operator was already sold on this terrible idea. "And when he finds out you were doing this, he's going to flay you alive."

"Well, it's still better that he knows, isn't it?" Lan sat up. "We could be extra careful... if there are any signs of trouble, I could jack you out right away. What do you think, Megaman?"

"You know what I think, Lan." Megaman rubbed his head. "I guess I am curious about the Cybeasts... fine, let's check it out. But if it looks even a little bit cagey, we need to get out of there right away, got it?"

"Of course," Lan replied. "Let's get going, before whoever's waiting for us decides to leave." Megaman nodded and headed back into the Net, moving toward the specified location.


Shortly after, Megaman came to a rather shady-looking portion of the Net. He looked around, making sure he was in the right place.

"Here it is, Lan... but I don't see anybody around here."

Lan frowned. "Well, keep looking around, he may be hiding somewhere. But be careful, we don't want-"

With a sudden flash, a wall of light appeared and formed a wide circle around Megaman; he jumped and whirled around, looking at it, eyes wide.

"Damn it! I knew this was a trap!" Megaman gritted his teeth, running up to the wall and pounding on it, wondering if there was any way to break through. "Lan! Jack me out, quick!"

"I'm trying!" Lan replied, fiddling with his PET, seeing errors pop up on his screen. "My connection's messed up! If I unplug, we might just lose the connection!"

"Gah, seriously?" Megaman walked toward the wall. "This isn't good..."

"You don't know the half of it!" He turned around to find himself faced with a dozen dark Navis, all of them with weapons out, as one of them spoke. "You should never have tried to mess with Nebula, idiot!"

The Navis all clamored toward him, ready to strike, as he jumped out of the way. "What? Nebula? I was just trying to find something out about the Cybeasts!"

"Don't play dumb!" Two Navis swiped at him with swords simultaneously; Megaman barely dodged, gritting his teeth again.

"Ugh, they're not going to listen, Lan! We need to fight!"

"Got it!" Lan replied quickly, sending Megaman a Wide Sword. He immediately dashed forward and sliced, cutting through two Navis immediately. The others, however, managed to surround him, firing strange orange beams at him from their weapons. He tried his best to dodge them, but several of them managed to make contact, sticking to his frame like orange paint.

"Gah! What are you doing?!" Megaman looked down, watching as the beams started to encase his torso, solidifying into an orange, crystalline mass, binding his body and arms.

"Megaman! What's going on?" Lan asked, as Megaman backed away from the other Navis, trying to move his arms in any way.

"They've got me... trapped somehow!" He struggled to free himself, trying to run away, but when he turned around he only found himself face-to-face with the light wall keeping him trapped. Hesitating for just a moment, he yelped as he felt more of the crystal mass binding his legs, rendering him immobile. He cursed loudly, as another Navi laughed and kicked him over, knocking him onto his back.

"That was too easy. What kind of moron listens to emails like that from random strangers?" He raised his sword. "Too bad, so sad. End of the line for you!"

Megaman closed his eyes, unable to move and waiting for the Navi to strike. After a few seconds, he felt something hit him, but it was much too large to be a sword; he opened his eyes to see the disembodied head of his captor lying on top of him. He yelped and shook it away, looking up and around for whatever had decapitated the Navi, finding it quickly. Over to his right, wielding a large energy sword, stood a tall, black-armored Navi in a blue cape and black helmet.

"It's you!" one of the Nebula Navis declared. "Everyone, delete that Navi, now!" The Navis quickly swarmed the mysterious stranger, attempting to attack him, as he turned on them. He dashed forward, swiping furiously with his sword, quickly appearing on the other side of the bunch. The Nebula Navis stood still for a moment, before they all exploded one by one, disappearing into deletion.

Megaman watched with wide eyes. "Holy cow... who is this guy..."

The black Navi turned to Megaman, firing a quick shot at his torso and dissolving the orange prison encasing him, as the wall of light surrounding the area disappeared. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, standing up, rubbing his arms. "Yeah, I'm fine... thanks for saving me..."

The Navi nodded, putting his sword away. "A word of advice: if you're looking for the Cybeasts, stop now. You don't know what you're getting yourself into." He turned away. "You should leave." The Navi disappeared in a flash of black light, jacking out.

Megaman stared at where he was, lost in thought, not realizing Lan was calling him. "Megaman! What happened?"

"Uh..." He took a second to come to his senses. "Some mysterious Navi showed up... deleted all of the Nebula Navis like it was nothing..."

"I'm jacking you out, Megaman," Lan responded. "I don't want to know what else is waiting for you there." Megaman nodded, as he exited in a flash of light, returning to Lan's PET. Lan sat back in his chair, relieved, as his Navi restored himself.

"Who was this Navi? Did you catch his name?"

Megaman shook his head. "He didn't say... he just appeared, saved me, and left."

"Weird..." Lan pondered to himself. "How did he know you were there? Was he following you?"

"I don't know, I don't know anything about him... maybe he was nearby, and I was just lucky."

Lan stood up, stretching his arms and looking at the time. "Lucky is right... guess we know what happens if we try to look into the Cybeasts now, huh?"

"Lan, if you have me do anything like this again, I'm going to re-merge the real world and the Cyberworld just so I can punch you."

"Alright, I get it…" Lan walked over to his bed, yawning and setting his PET down on his nightstand. "Let's just focus on the tournament from now on. We need to keep training so we can win, right?"

Megaman nodded. "Right. We're going to be up against some tough competition. We don't need to be getting in more trouble."

"Yeah, I know… no more trouble, promise." Lan changed into his pajamas, turning off the lights and slipping into bed.

"See you tomorrow, Lan."

Lan nodded. "Night," he mumbled before drifting off to sleep.