New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 2: The Sun And The Moon


Chapter 9: In-Flight Entertainment

Lan finally made his way to his departure gate, after being stopped for a rigorous security check; a random boy traveling alone to another country rose a couple of red flags, especially when he had a first-class ticket. After a bit of investigating, and an early-morning call to a very agitated Dr. Hikari, the security officials were finally convinced he was not a threat, and he was even allowed to keep his PET.

He sat down in the first open seat he saw, setting his bag next to him, and checked the time on his PET, grimacing at how early it was. His flight was supposed to leave in thirty minutes, so they were bound to start boarding anytime. Looking around, he saw a fair amount of other travelers waiting at the same gate; some were foreign, some were Electopian, some were business, some were families, and all of them were tired. As he sat back, he caught a familiar face out of the corner of his eye. Chaud was walking away from a coffee stand and back toward the gate, sipping at a hot beverage.

Lan smirked as he walked by. "You're a bit young to be drinking coffee, aren't you?"

"I don't sleep well," the Official replied simply, sitting across the way.

Lan rubbed his eye, suppressing a yawn. "Why don't you just sleep on the flight? It's going to be a long one. Might as well try."

"I'm the ONB. I can't just fall asleep, I need to stay alert." Chaud took another sip. "Besides, it doesn't look like we can rely on you to stay awake. You were probably up all night partying or something, weren't you?"

"I was not!" Lan lied, indignant. Chaud smirked in response.

"Whatever. Have yourself a nice nap if you want, but I'm going to keep awake. Just remember, we're losing hours since we're traveling east, so you're going to be up all night again. Good luck battling when you're jet-lagged like that."

"Er..." Lan hadn't thought of that.

"Attention everybody at gate B5. We will now begin pre-boarding our flight. We would like to invite our first-class passengers to please line up to board." A female voice rang out over the intercom, and several people stood up and moved toward the gate, including Chaud. Yawning, Lan stood up and grabbed his bag, walking toward the departure door and lining up with everyone else.


Three hours later, the flight had taken off and was moving smoothly through the air toward Creamland. Chaud sat at the front of the first class section, toying with his PET while keeping his eye out for trouble. A few rows back, Lan was snoozing, head tilted and mouth open. He had bought some gum to chew during takeoff, to keep his ears from popping, and during his nap it had rolled out of his mouth and into his hair. Behind him, somebody's watch alarm went off, and he started awake, blinking and sitting up.

He rubbed his eye and looked out the window, seeing nothing below but a large patch of farmland. It didn't look like they were in Creamland yet, but then again, he didn't know what Creamland was supposed to look like. He had done a little bit of research a couple days ago, wanting to know something about the nation he was traveling to. Creamland was a comparatively small country immediately to Electopia's east, and a fraction of its size. It was a minor world power that boasted an economy based mainly on Net development and commerce, and was too small to have its own army. It had formed a pact with Electopia, wherein the larger country would come to Creamland's defense if necessary, in exchange for access to Creamland's Net research and technology. Its government was a constitutional monarchy, presided over by Princess Angelica Pride; she had been forced to take the throne a year ago at age 12, when a smallpox epidemic took the lives of her parents along with a small portion of the population, but she governed well, aided by the parliament and a group of close advisors.

"What time is it..." He reached for his PET and looked into it. "Megaman, time?"

"It's nine... fifteen..." His Navi snickered. "Lan, were you chewing gum earlier?"

"What? Yeah… why do you..." Lan's hand immediately went to his hair, feeling the wad of gum. "Oh, for Pete's sake..."

Megaman laughed. "You should do something about that before you meet the Princess, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah…" Lan stood up, walking toward the bathroom closer to him, groaning when he saw it was occupied. He instead turned around and walked down the aisle toward the end of the plane, entering the vacant bathroom and shutting the door. He inspected the wad of gum and sighed, wondering how he was going to get it out.

Back at his seat, Chaud's meager focus was interrupted as he became aware of some people whispering nearby. Looking backwards, he noticed a young couple at the front of the coach section, looking and pointing at him as they whispered excitedly; upon noticing they were being watched, they quickly quieted down and looked away. He sighed and turned back to his PET, fiddling with it until a voice caught his attention a few seconds later.

"Um... excuse me..." Chaud turned his eye to the aisle, to see that the young woman had walked up to him; she was standing in a way that was making her look rather small, and he could see her long brown hair without even looking up toward her face. "Are you... Eugene Chaud?"

"That's me," he replied, looking back at his PET.

"The champion Netbattler from the Red Sun Tournament?" She sounded rather nervous, as though she were meeting a movie star. He nodded without looking up, grunting affirmatively.

The woman grinned, standing up fully. "Perfect." Chaud raised an eyebrow, wondering what she meant, when he suddenly felt a cold, steel barrel being pressed against the side of his head. "Hand over your PET, right now."

Several others on the plane shrieked and quickly got out of their seats, trying to run away, when the girl's companion stood up and pulled out a gun of his own, bellowing orders to the other passengers. "Stay where you are, all of you! Anyone who tries to leave their seat is going to regret it!" More screams erupted, but quickly quieted down out of fear, as everyone either huddled together with their loved ones or moved toward the windows, not wanting to be too close.

Chaud kept looking downward, his demeanor the same as always, as if nothing was happening. "How did you get those past security?"

"Less talking and more handing over, pal. You're not in a position to negotiate, here."

Without another word, Chaud handed over his PET, as the girl grinned. "Much better." She turned to her companion and beckoned him forward. "Alright, into the cockpit. Get on the radio and tell them what we want." The man nodded, heading forward into the cockpit and demanding the door be opened, which it quickly was.

The girl smirked, looking back toward the other end of the plane to ensure there were no other dangers. She blinked and took a closer look, thinking she had seen something near the bathroom, but everything looked normal. She shrugged and turned back toward an annoyingly nonchalant Chaud, making sure he didn't try anything.

Back in the bathroom, Lan was flattening himself against the wall, breathing hard; his exhaustion was gone, immediately replaced with nerves and adrenaline, and he had managed to painfully remove the chewing gum from his hair. "I don't think she saw me looking... I hope not, anyway…"

"Lan! Who didn't see you? What was with the screaming?" Megaman inquired from his belt.

"Plane's been hijacked." He rubbed his head, trying to think. "Two of them, one boy, one girl... both of them have guns. One of them took Chaud's PET, it looks like..."

"Holy… what do they want? What do we do?"

"I don't know, and… I don't know," Lan responded. "We have to disarm them somehow, but how are we going to do that?"

He carefully opened the door the tiniest bit, taking a peek. The male hijacker had entered the cockpit and shut the door tight behind him, while the girl stood watch over Chaud, holding a gun in one hand and the stolen PET in the other. He quickly and quietly closed the door again.

"One of them went into the cockpit, but the other one's still there, and she's still got a gun on her." Lan took a deep breath, trying to think.

"Maybe if we distract her…" Megaman mused. "You could jack me into the plane and I could mess with something, then… I don't know, what can we do then?"

"We… we could…" Lan looked around the bathroom for a second, as if he might find an Emergency Disarming Kit. Instead, his eyes settled on the bottle of sanitizer, and he reached out and grabbed it, removing the pump on top of it. "We blind her with this, then we get the gun away from her."

His Navi nodded. "That could work. It's dangerous, but it's not like we have many better options."

"Right… okay, I'm going to jack you in and…" He looked around again, groaning when he realized there was a hole in his plan. "Damn it, there are no jack-in spots in here. If I leave and they see me, we're screwed."

"Why not use the wireless?" Megaman offered. "It's not like you're going to need to operate me, so it should be okay."

"Yeah, good idea." Lan reached into his pocket, pulling out the antenna and plugging it into his PET. He then pulled out several Battlechips and slotted them in, one after the other: a Long Sword, an Energy Bomb, and an Area Steal.

"You can use those if you run into any problems." He turned on the wireless and found a single available jack-in point, near the front of the plane. "Be careful out there."

"You too, Lan," his Navi replied, before jumping into the airplane's network.


Upon arriving in the plane's Cyberworld, Megaman took a look around; in the cockpit, he could see numerous programs scuttling about busily, but no signs of damage or foul play could be found. He quickly left the cockpit and headed into the area for coach class, wondering what he could do to get the girl's attention.

"Lan, I can't see the real world from here. What is that girl up to?"

"One second…" Lan reached over to the door and opened it just a tiny crack, looking at the hallway by using the reflection in his PET's screen. The girl was wandering about the cabin, keeping an eye out for trouble, continually looking back at Chaud to make sure he was staying in place.

"She's wandering the hallways, it looks like. How are you going to get her attention?"

"Something small, I think... we need to get her curious, not make her panic." Megaman ran along, looking at various programs, until something near the back of the Cyberworld caught his eye.

Back in the cabin, the female hijacker was walking backward down the hallway, looking at Chaud continually with a frequency that bordered on paranoia. After a few seconds of this, she took a deep breath, reassuring herself that he would be no trouble and remembering where his PET was. Feeling a little more confident, she turned around to face the back of the plane and did a double take; in the very back row, there was a light that was curiously flashing on and off, at a regular interval of about once per second.

"What the heck...?" She slowly walked toward the back of the plane, taking her gun out of her pocket and turning the safety off. Nobody was in that seat, touching the button or anything like that, but the light was flickering with a very precise rhythm. This couldn't be just a malfunction.

Megaman watched through Lan's PET screen as the girl inched closer and closer, staring at the light, and at the seat nearby. He took a deep breath and crossed his fingers. Soon she would be in a good position for Lan to blind her; he hoped that Lan knew how to do that effectively, since they would only get one shot at this.

As the girl walked toward the rear of the cabin, something else entirely caught her attention. She looked over at the bathroom door, which was open the tiniest bit, and thought she saw something inside. Inching closer and taking a better look, she saw the tiniest sliver of a blue PET, which someone's fingers were wrapped around. She smirked, immediately putting the pieces together, and started moving quietly, but a bit more quickly, toward Lan's location.

Megaman's eyes widened in horror, as he saw the girl change her direction ever so slightly. "Lan, she can see you!" he whispered. Lan quickly drew back and out of sight, suddenly panicked, as Megaman racked his brain, knowing what was about to happen. He looked around the Cyberworld, needing a plan and not having much time.

The girl grinned as she saw the PET withdraw from sight, certain now that its owner was the source of the distraction. She walked up to the slightly ajar door and grasped the side lightly, prepared to wrench it open.

"I don't know what you're planning, whoever you are, but it's over now," she muttered.

Bang! She jumped and quickly turned around as a loud sound went off behind her; she reflexively fired her pistol, causing a number of passengers to scream, and the bullet buried itself in the seat in front of her. She took a second to process what had just happened, seeing two oxygen masks dangling down, connecting them to the loud sound that had startled her. Just as she was regaining her bearings, the bathroom door slammed open, pushing her forward, as Lan charged into her with every ounce of force he could muster. She tripped over the single seat in front of her and smashed her head against the window, dropping both objects in her hand.

As she quickly turned herself around, she was greeted with an entire bottle's worth of hand sanitizer directly into her face, soaking her eyes. She screamed in pain, covering her burning eyes with her hands and trying to wipe the liquid away, as Lan reached down and grabbed Chaud's red PET, kicking the gun into the bathroom at the same time. Hearing the commotion, Chaud had quickly stood up and was standing in the aisle, as many passengers turned around and looked on.

"What the hell's going on back there?!" he demanded.

"Chaud, catch!" Lan wound up and flung Chaud's PET as hard as he could down the aisle, sliding it along the floor, ignoring a sharp pain in his shoulder as he did so. Chaud reached out and grabbed it as it skidded up to him, just as the cockpit door opened and the other hijacker ran out.

"I heard a shot! What-" was all he managed to get out, before Chaud whirled around and slammed the taser end of his PET into the man's chest. His body convulsed for a couple seconds before he slumped to the floor, unconscious.

"Yes!" Lan cried out, followed shortly by "Agh!" as he received a strong blow to the back of his neck. He fell forward, in a fair amount of pain, as the girl growled down at him, squinting through the pain and the tears. She raised her foot to stomp on him, wanting to inflict as much pain on him as he had on her.

"Freeze!" She looked down the aisle to see Chaud staring her way, holding his PET in one hand, the other pointing the man's pistol at the girl. "Hands in the air, now!"

The girl glared at him for a second, cursing under her breath, before she reluctantly raised her hands. He quickly walked forward, producing a set of four cuffs from somewhere on his belt and handing them to Lan, keeping the gun trained on the girl.

"Get her arms behind her back and cuff them to her ankles," he commanded. Lan nodded, grabbing her wrists and pulling them downward, being far less than gentle as he applied the handcuffs.

"I don't know what you two wanted here, but this hijacking is over," Chaud continued, lowering the gun now that she was somewhat secured.

The girl let out a derisive laugh. "You think it's that easy, do you, you little brat?"

"Hm?" Chaud raised an eyebrow, as Lan stood up. "What are you talking about?"

"The two of us, we were just a means to an end," she explained, looking as confident and menacing as she could while squinting. "The real threat is already aboard this plane, in its Cyberworld, and this vessel is still under our complete control. Nebula doesn't like to take chances."

"Nebula?!" Lan exclaimed, instantly worried once again. He quickly looked around for his PET and grabbed it, as Chaud kept his eye on the hijacker. "Megaman, be careful! There's something else in there with you!" He stood up and ran toward the cockpit.

"Don't bother jacking in!" the girl taunted, causing Lan to come screeching to a halt and turn back toward her. "There's only one port on this whole plane, and my partner's destroyed it! Your meddlesome Navi's all on his lonesome in there!" She turned her attention back toward Chaud, smirking. "If you want these passengers to stay alive, you'll take me back up there and let us keep making our demands."

Her captor smirked. "No chance, lady. I don't know who you think Lan is, but I guarantee he's faced far worse than whatever you've got."

Lan paused for a second, not used to hearing words of praise from Chaud, before glancing back down at his PET, where Megaman was looking around for any signs of trouble. A moment later, a large, circular projectile flew toward him, which he barely managed to dodge. Looking back at it, it seemed to be a giant shuriken.

"Who's there?!" he called out, looking around quickly.

"Nice move," a voice responded. A tall Navi suddenly appeared in front of him, dressed in full ninja garb, wielding a number of kunai and shurikens. "I can see why you've been giving this Nebula group trouble."

"Who are you? Aren't you with Nebula?" Megaman demanded, getting into an attack position and wondering how to make the best use of the three Battlechips he had.

"My name is Shadowman," the ninja Navi replied. "A mercenary for hire. Nebula is offering me a very large sum of money if I can keep this plane under their control. Seems like somebody doesn't want you to make it to Creamland."

He drew a kunai knife from his belt. "Though, to be honest, a battle with one of Electopia's best Navis would also suffice for me. I live for greater and greater challenges, and defeating you will be a feather in my cap."

Megaman glared, forming a Long Sword. "I'm glad you're enjoying this so much, pal." He dashed forward and sliced at his, who backed off in the blink of an eye. Shadowman quickly produced and threw a number of kunai in Megaman's directiion, which he quickly deflected with his sword.

"Fool! Never stand still!" Shadowman dashed forward with great speed, wielding a long, thin blade and swiping at his enemy. Looking back a second later, he found that Megaman had vanished, and only an Energy Bomb remained in his place; he barely had time to shield himself before it exploded, doing a minor amount of damage. As the blast cleared, he stood still, dusting himself off, listening carefully to the Cyberworld around him. Three seconds later, he quickly turned around and deflected an attack from Megaman's blade.

"Impressive," Shadowman commented. "But let's see you try and dodge this!" He leaped into the air and waved his arms, spreading a mysterious powder. Instantly, grass sprouted up all around Megaman's feet in response.

"What the...?" Megaman looked down toward his feet, taking a suspicious step back, only to find more grass behind him, surrounding him completely. Looking up, he saw Shadowman throw a piece of paper on the ground; a moment later, it combusted, and the grassy area surrounding him instantly went up in flames.

"Megaman!" Lan cried out, as the fire raged briefly but powerful around his Navi. It quickly burnt itself out, leaving a singed Megaman standing in the center on weak legs, covering himself with his arms.

"Ow… that stings…" He lowered his arms and looked back toward his opponent, who was running quickly at him, blade outstretched. Megaman quickly moved his Long Sword into position to defend, as Shadowman swung; as the two swords made contact, Megaman's heated blade bent slightly, then snapped and shattered, unable to handle the pressure.

"Gah!" Megaman quickly backed off as his blade vanished, not at all liking how this battle was turning out. Lan gritted his teeth and clenched his fist as he watched, realizing that Megaman had already run out of Battlechips. With only a basic weapon at his side, this was going to be an extremely tough fight.

Megaman quickly generated his Mega Buster and started firing shot after shot; Shadowman dodged each one with ease, getting closer with every step. After one such blast, Shadowman appeared right in front of his opponent, kicking him square in the jaw and sending him flying back.

"You're relying on your pea shooter? Please tell me you're not out of tricks already." He jumped in the air again, waving his arms and spreading grass powder throughout a huge portion of the Cyberworld around Megaman, who slowly stood up and looked around, not sure how he was going to escape.

"I suppose the satisfaction of payment will have to suffice for me, this time." He held up another paper bomb between his index and middle fingers. "So long, Megaman." He flung the paper at the ground, and a giant portion of the Cyberworld went up in flames, as a distraught Lan watched helplessly. When the flames subsided, however, Megaman was nowhere to be found.

"What?!" Shadowman and Lan exclaimed at the same time. A second later, Shadowman received a sharp blow to the back of his neck, sending him down to the ground. Lan looked toward Shadowman's assailant, and did a double take. Megaman was floating in the air, starting to fall back down, but his appearance had completely changed. His armor had turned a much lighter shade of blue, and a sort of pack rested on his back, with four long cylinders pointing out of it.

"What happened?" Lan wondered aloud. "Could this be another Style Change?" He watched with rapt attention, eyes widening in shock as Megaman formed two more Energy Bombs in his hands.

"Hyaah!" Megaman began hurling grenade after grenade in his enemy's direction, having a seemingly endless supply. Lan boggled at the sight, as the equally bewildered Shadowman was hit by a number of explosions as he fell. He landed on the ground shortly thereafter, dashing away to avoid more blasts and looking for Megaman. Lan's Navi quickly disappeared from the air and landed on the ground below, then vanished again to reappear in front of Shadowman, his Long Sword mysteriously restored. The mercenary quickly drew his sword and swung at his foe, only to see him vanish again. He turned around, sensing Megaman behind him, but was unable to dodge the entirety of the sword attack, which left a deep wound on his side.

"Gah!" Shadowman jumped back, holding his side, as he took a good look at Megaman's new form. "So... you've transformed again, you trickster." He stood up fully, brandishing his sword. "This is the battle I was looking for... time to take it to the next level."

"Stop right there!" Both looked up as a third Navi jumped into the arena, and both Megaman and Shadowman raised eyebrows in recognition at the tall, black-armored Navi.

"Wait… it's you!" Megaman called out. "You're the one who saved me from those Nebula Navis!"

Shadowman furrowed his eyebrows. "Colonel... what are you doing here?"

"My job," the tall Navi replied. "I can't have Nebula interfering however they like with things, especially when the Cybeasts are in their grasp."

"Hmph… I can't win like this." Shadowman threw something at the ground, which exploded in a massive cloud of smoke. Megaman and Colonel quickly dashed through it, trying to clear it out, only to see Shadowman standing back near the cockpit.

"We'll have to finish this another time, Megaman." He took a step back onto the cockpit terminal, turning into a beam of light and flying upward, leaving the Cyberworld entirely.

"What?" Megaman ran forward. "Where did he go?"

"He left," Colonel commented, lowering his blade. "In the same manner I got here, by communicating with the nearest air traffic control tower."

"Damn... oh well..."

Back in the cabin, Chaud was watching the action through Lan's PET. "Colonel... I thought he'd be showing up sooner or later."

"What?! Colonel?!" the female hijacker cried out, recognizing the name, as Chaud smirked.

"Looks like it's all over for the two of you," he commented. He walked over to the cockpit to inform the pilot, leaving the girl handcuffed by the wrists and ankles.

Megaman turned back toward his new companion, his sword disappearing. "Thanks for that. Looks like I owe you another one." He was able to get a better look at the Navi for the first time, taking in his large build, strong jaw, and strange purple eyes.

"You seemed to have the situation under control," Colonel responded. "That was an impressive transformation. What was that?"

"It's a Style Change of some kind, but I'm not sure which." Megaman looked down at himself. "I'll have to ask Dr. Hikari once the plane lands."

"Seems like I wasn't needed after all, then." Colonel walked back toward the cockpit, ready to depart.

"I guess not… still, thanks." He smirked a little. "Heh, at least they didn't bring the two Cybeasts on board, then we'd be in real trouble."

Colonel raised an eyebrow and turned around, somewhat disturbed by the comment. "What?"

Megaman faltered. "Er... you know, the two Cybeasts... the wolf and the falcon, aren't you supposed to know about them? You're…"

"No, not that." Colonel grew more visibly concerned. "You said two Cybeasts, but there aren't two. There are three."

Megaman blinked. "Wait, what? Three?"

Colonel rubbed his forehead, irritated. "I don't believe this… you're telling me SciLab only knows of two of the Cybeasts?"

"Wait, back up." Megaman held out his hands. "SciLab only ever had two Cybeasts imprisoned, how could there be a third?"

Colonel grumbled, the weight of this inconvenient revelation crashing over him as he started to explain. "There are three Cybeasts, and I've seen every one with my own eyes. Gregar the wolf, Falzar the falcon, and Servir the serpent."

"The serpent?" Megaman wondered aloud. "I never saw a Cybeast like that. We just saw Gregar and Falzar." He tried to picture this mysterious third Cybeast in his head.

"Fifteen years ago, when SciLab informed me they had captured the Cybeasts, I presumed they had found all three. If what you're saying is true, though, then it seems Servir has eluded them all this time. Who knows what sort of trouble that monster is causing..."

Colonel walked toward the cockpit again. "Looks like I've got some work to do, tracking down a lost Cybeast. I suggest you tell those morons at SciLab about this as soon as possible." Colonel walked into the transmitter that connected them to the ground and vanished, as Megaman turned back toward Lan, looking upward into the screen as it appeared in front of him.

"Lan! Were you watching all that?"

"Yeah, I was. Three Cybeasts? And that Style Change..." Lan pressed a few buttons on his PET, and Megaman returned to it via the wireless antenna. "This is getting confusing all over again. We need to call Dad as soon as we land and tell him about all this."

"What's going on? What do you mean, three Cybeasts?!" Chaud demanded, walking back from the cockpit. Lan began to explain, as the flight continued on toward the championships in Creamland.