New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 3: The Dimensional Core
Chapter 2: Forte's Shadow
Dr. Hikari walked into his large SciLab office, a mug of hot coffee in his hand, which he took small sips from as he proceeded toward his computer. He pulled out his chair and took a seat, typing away expertly with one hand as he held his mug in the other. With a little time to spare before he had to start working, he was doing the same thing he had done each morning for the past three weeks: try to find out what had happened. More specifically, he was trying to find out why nothing had happened.
As soon as Lan returned from Creamland, he had gone to SciLab to see what was being done in anticipation of Forte's arrival. Den Net City had been evacuated, under the guise of emergency maintenance, and a number of security measures had been introduced to try and detect, or stall, Forte's arrival. SciLab had developed devices that they had hoped would neutralize his black aura once he arrived, leaving him vulnerable to attack. Lan and Megaman had been prepared to step in and assist around the time of his arrival, after going home to get a good night's sleep.
After all their preparation, they set their traps and lay patiently in wait for Forte's assault; by the end of the day, however, nothing had come at all. They waited for another day, and another, but after nearly a week of "emergency maintenance", there hadn't been the slightest disruption in Den Net City, or anywhere in Electopia that they could detect. After all of Forte's talk, he was nowhere to be found. They had no choice except to reopen the cyber metropolis, while still keeping a number of the security measures in place.
For the next few weeks, all remained calm, and life returned to normal for the most part. Lan recovered from his injuries and began the sixth grade with his friends, and celebrated his twelfth birthday shortly thereafter. Dr. Lucius Regal had spent several weeks being treated for physical and psychological damage; after being a prisoner in his own body for fifteen years, adjusting to a normal life had been more difficult than he anticipated. He freely divulged all of the information that he had on Nebula, as well, which had been a substantial boon to Electopia's cybercrime prevention efforts. Finally, a mere two days ago, he had returned to work at SciLab with his old colleague.
While most of the people he knew had regained their calm, Dr. Hikari had not. Rather than relax, he had merely grown more cautious, and had been spending a portion of his time looking for answers. For weeks, he had been scoping out various parts of Electopia's network, trying to locate any damage Forte may have inflicted, any traps he may have set; every time, he had come up clean. Thus, unable to find any clues in the present, he decided to look for them in the past.
He skillfully navigated a SciLab database as he drank his coffee, looking for what information he could find on his new adversary. Before too long, he managed to find the file he was looking for and opened it, the word "Bass" showed up on his screen in large letters above the text. He looked at it and thought to himself for a second, before leaning forward and typing away; when he was done, the file read "Bass/Forte". Satisfied, he leaned back again and began to read.
"Ugh..." Lan groaned and rolled over in his bed, exhausted but unable to sleep, the sunlight shining through his blinds not helping. He curled up in the blankets, his stomach upset and his head pounding. "Gah, it's no use. I can't sleep..."
"I'm sorry, Lan," Megaman offered from the PET on the bedside table. "If a human virus is anything like a computer virus, that must be pretty rough."
Lan chuckled. "Yeah, feels like I've got Mettools digging in my stomach. Urgh..." He rolled over on his back again, trying to get comfortable. "Of all the days to get sick, it had to be a day where I actually wanted to be at school."
"What were you guys supposed to be doing? You certainly seemed excited yesterday."
"It was a field trip to SciLab," he answered. "We were gonna go and take a look at all the new technology they're allowed to show us."
"That does sound fun," his Navi responded. "Your dad can tell you all about it, though, can't he?"
"Dad's always wrapped up in his own work. He doesn't pay attention to all the other things going on there."
Megaman shrugged. "Well, I'm sure Mayl or Dex will tell you about it once school lets out."
"Yeah, and they're probably going to brag about it or something." Lan thought to himself for a minute. "Though maybe there's a way I can find out earlier..." He reached over and grabbed his PET, as Megaman smirked.
"Let me guess, you want me to get into the SciLab network and show you what they're doing?" Lan nodded, and his Navi smiled. "Sure, why not. I was starting to get bored, anyway."
Lan stood up and walked over to his computer, pulling out his PET's jack-in cable and plugging it in; he walked backward from there, running the cable back over to his bed and lying down. "Be careful getting in there, okay?"
Megaman laughed. "I'll be fine. It's not like this is the first time you've had me sneak into SciLab." He grinned as he left Lan's PET, heading into the wider Net.
Bass originally came into existence under unusual circumstances. His complete frame was synthesized during a SciLab experiment that took place on September 5, 2069, regarding the combination of EM waves and normal network structures. Upon his arrival, the Navi had no data regarding his past or his identity, as if his memory had been erased. His sudden creation remains a mystery, as all scientists involved in the experiment concluded that his frame could not have been constructed from any combination of elements that were used in the original experiment.
The supervising scientists decided to run experiments on the Navi to determine its origin and construction, but attempts to collect him for this purpose proved disastrous, as he dispatched a squad of Official Navis with little to no difficulty before retreating deeper into the SciLab computers. After an emergency meeting to determine what course of action to take, Dr. Mikhail Sergeyevich Cossack, director of the Navigator Research Lab, agreed to take Bass into his charge; further experiments involving EM waves were put on hold indefinitely awaiting the full results of Cossack's analysis.
Over the next 71 days, Dr. Cossack conducted a series of experiments designed to measure Bass's capabilities, with extraordinary results. His strength was leaps and bounds above any Navi SciLab had managed to produce, but more impressive was its cognitive abilities and artificial intelligence, which seemed to be roughly equivalent to that of the human brain. Both of these factors were studied vigorously by Dr. Cossack, and the results of his analyses were applied to future generations of Navis, improving their strength and autonomy. With the influence of Bass, Navi research expanded greatly during this period, notably the research of Dr. Yuichiro Hikari and Dr. Lucius Regal. Net technology was put on hold at this time, and EM wave research was scrapped entirely for the next 13 years.
Dr. Cossack devoted his research to developing Bass's cognitive abilities to their fullest. He worked to develop Bass's moral compass, wanting to observe the extent of his mental faculties; continual reports suggested that Bass's intelligence was equivalent to a human's, though he had a naturally violent disposition. 33 days into his observations, Cossack created a mechanism which allowed Bass to acquire and duplicate the abilities of Navis or other machines that he came into contact with, named the "Get Ability" program. Cossack felt that this would encourage Bass to develop his problem-solving skills.
After 71 days, the experiment stage ended abruptly when Dr. Cossack suddenly handed Bass over to the Electopian military, for the purpose of weapons testing and simulation. Cossack left SciLab shortly thereafter, and would later develop Navi Customizer technology for the IPC Corporation. Bass would remain with the military for the next three months, until the appearance of the two Cybeasts, Gregar and Falzar.
"Nearly through… and… there, I'm in."
Several minutes later, Megaman had managed to negotiate his way into the SciLab network, through a back door he and Lan had found months ago. Lan insisted that he would tell his father about the security hole soon, but he had failed to do so thus far, part of him not wanting it to be patched.
Lan grinned, watching from his PET. "Good work, Mega."
His Navi took a few steps forward. "Now let's see if we can-"
His thought was interrupted by the piercing sound of an alarm, seeming to surround him. He jumped, reflexively brandishing his Mega Buster before realizing it was a bad idea to be armed when security arrived, putting it away again.
"We have an intruder in the SciLab network," a female voice spoke, coming from all around. "Engaging security protocols."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Lan exclaimed, panicking a bit. "What's going on?! Why is there an alarm all of a sudden?!"
Megaman groaned, recognizing the voice, as the alarm started to fade. "I know exactly what's going on…" He kept his eyes forward, as a figure began to appear in front of him, from the ground up. He watched as a pair of feet formed out of nowhere, followed by a corresponding pair of legs. A couple of seconds later, he was face-to-face with a familiar female Navi, with long brown hair and a flowing pink dress.
"We'll have to notify Dr. Hikari about this intrusion, I think," the girl spoke.
Megaman was unfazed by the empty threat. "Hello, Iris."
"Why are you sneaking into SciLab through back doors, Megaman?" Iris stepped closer. "Does it have anything to do with the schoolchildren they're leading through the halls right now?"
"Those are Lan's classmates. He was supposed to go with them on a field trip, but he got sick, so…"
"So he sent you to see what they were up to." She gave a slightly amused smirk. "And here I thought you might have come to visit me. It's been almost a week and a half, you know."
"I know, I know…" He rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry… it gets harder to stop by with school in session and all that. Lan needs me around more."
She nodded back. "Yes, I understand. It just gets tiresome interacting with nobody but scientists all the time. They're all so stuffy."
He grinned a bit. "I'll tell Lan to have us come by this weekend, I promise."
"Good." She smiled back at him, before starting to turn away. "Follow me. I'll show you where the children are now."
"Thanks, Iris." He started to follow her, both of them moving at a brisk pace. "So… you're probably going to tell the security team about that back door we used, huh…?"
She glanced back at him. "I wouldn't be a very good security system if I didn't."
Megaman nodded, smiling, as the two of them traveled through the SciLab network. Over the past month since the defeat of the Cybeasts, he had watched Iris slowly come out of her shell as she took over more functions of the SciLab OS, interacting with the scientists on a daily basis. She was still soft-spoken and not very energetic, but she had turned out to be quite friendly and outgoing with nearly everyone, Megaman especially. He didn't say it out loud, but he was proud of her for the progress she had made.
He looked around absentmindedly as they walked, always curious as to what was happening in SciLab, whether he was supposed to be seeing it or not. Machines hummed and whirred all around them, processing who knows what; each machine had an equal chance of either discovering the newest scientific breakthrough, or processing the thousandth email about proper use of reply-all. As he looked around, he blinked and stopped in his tracks as something caught his eye.
"Huh?" He turned and looked at a large empty space in front of him, as Iris turned around.
"What is it, Megaman?"
"I thought I saw something…" He kept examining the empty space, confused. For a split second, he thought he had seen a large, glowing machine surrounded by Navis all scurrying about, but it had disappeared as soon as he laid eyes on it. Were his eyes playing tricks on him?
"There's nothing in that space," Iris responded. "That's reserved for a future project."
Megaman wasn't convinced. "Just one second, I want to see…" He ran forward toward the strange apparition he had seen, needing to sate his curiosity and wanting to do so quickly. As he ran, he gasped and skidded to a step as the glowing machine appeared in front of him once again, not disappearing this time. It looked like some sort of dome, glowing with a rainbow light from some unknown source, with a handful of Navis working on it near its base; none of them had noticed his arrival, as he was still roughly a hundred meters away.
"What the…" He stared at it for a moment, a bit dumbstruck. "Iris, what is this?" He turned back around to look at her, only to find that she had vanished. He looked around, confused, before realizing that not only was Iris gone, so was the entirety of SciLab. It was as if he had walked through an invisible portal to another location entirely.
"Iris? Are you there?!" he called out, to no answer. He looked upward instead, toward his operator. "Lan?!" Once again, there was no answer. Somehow, when he walked into the vicinity of this strange machine, he had become cut off from the outside world. He turned back toward the machine, more curious than ever, only to be greeted by a hand wrapping tightly around his throat, lifting him off the ground.
"Hurk!" He struggled to get free, kicking his feet and trying to pry away the fingers gripping his neck, before focusing forward toward his assailant. His eyes went wide as he quickly recognized the dark-colored Navi clothed in ninja garb.
"What a coincidence, meeting you again," his assaulter spoke flatly.
"You…!" he managed to exclaim, as the Navi threw him harshly to the ground. He quickly sat up, massaging his throat. "Shadowman! What are you doing here?!"
"I'm providing security," Shadowman replied. "I'm to delete any Navis that learn too much… Navis like you."
"Security for who?!" Megaman demanded, standing up and brandishing his buster. He made a silent request to Lan for a Battlechip, before remembering that his contact with his operator had been severed along with everything else.
"I'm not at liberty to say." His foe reached down and produced several kunai from his belt. "Perhaps you can learn the truth if you defeat me. I've been looking forward to a good rematch from you, Mr. Hero of Creamland." He vanished, reappearing behind Megaman and throwing the blades in his direction; Lan's Navi was barely able to dodge in time, jumping away.
"If you want a fight, you'll get one!" Megaman called out, projecting more confidence than he had. He wasn't sure how he was going to win this fight without Lan's assistance, but he had to do what he could. He ran forward, aiming his blaster and firing, as the battle began.
On February 13, 2070, at 9:30 p.m., the Cybeasts Gregar and Falzar appeared mysteriously in End Net City, and began causing wanton destruction. SciLab's efforts to incapacitate the Cybeasts were fruitless, and they turned to the prototype cybernetic weaponry supplied by the Electopian military. These weapons were effective in stopping the Cybeasts' advances, but failed to sufficiently damage or weaken them, and the two sides eventually found themselves at a standstill in the Sky Town area of Cyber City. At this point, the military decided to send in Bass to tip the scales.
The addition of Bass to the Electopian forces was initially effective, and the Cybeasts were being weakened. After two hours of combat, however, the Cybeasts began cooperating and effectively demolished most of the weaponry used. Minutes later, Bass unleashed an extremely powerful suicide attack that crippled a portion of the Sky Town Net with its strength. Both Cybeasts were heavily incapacitated to the point where they could be captured and placed in stasis. They were relocated to SciLab for storage and further study. No trace of Bass was found after this assault, and SciLab assumed he had been destroyed.
Bass emerged again on October 2, 2080, to assist a small rebel group in the successful assassination of Jakal Nordgen, the Secretary of Justice for the government of Ameroupe. Official Navis were immediately dispatched in great numbers to delete or capture him, but Bass managed to escape while sustaining heavy damage. He continued to elude capture for several months, despite an intense search by Official Netbattlers. His sudden appearance and change in demeanor is currently unexplained.
Bass later encountered former SciLab scientist and World Three leader Dr. Albert Wily, and agreed to lend his assistance in the Alpha Incident of 2084; it is unknown when the two met, but Bass and Wily had been working together for at least 18 months, according to former World Three operative Madeline Iroaya. During this period, Bass was mostly used to infiltrate government Net spaces and steal experimental programs that would eventually create the parasitic Net monster Alpha. After Wily betrayed Bass and used his power to create Alpha, Bass attacked said organism, but was quickly absorbed along with the viral beast Gospel. After Alpha's destruction, neither he nor Gospel resurfaced, and he is currently presumed deleted.
Until now... Dr. Hikari thought, having reached the end of the data entry. If there was anything he was more sure of now, it was how little they truly knew about this mysterious Navi. He had gone from giving his life to save his country, to being hellbent on destroying the human race. What could possibly have happened in the interim?
He sat back and rubbed his forehead. This research had been a complete waste of time; it was clear that there was too much about Forte's past that nobody knew, and he would never be able to deduce what Forte was currently up to. He could chalk it up to poor programming, but he couldn't imagine that to be the case. It was easy to tell that Forte was just as intelligent as a human being, instead of having a pre-programmed personality like most custom Navis, so his programming must have been exceptional, however it had happened. Megaman's intelligence was understandable, given his construction, but Forte was a complete mystery. That seemed to sum Forte up pretty well, he thought to himself.
He sighed and leaned forward, entering edit mode once again and beginning to type: neither he nor Gospel resurfaced until August 7, 2084, in Cream Square…
His writing was quickly interrupted as a shockwave seemed to tear through the air, nearly knocking him off his chair. He grabbed at his desk, quickly standing up as an alarm started to ring out, nearly drowning out the confused voices of his colleagues.
"What the hell was that? What's going on?!" He ran out of his office, needing to investigate.
Not long after their battle had started, Megaman was already in rough shape. Not being able to use Battlechips had left him with a fraction of his normal ability, and Shadowman was not all that interested in a fair fight. He tried to dodge as his opponent dashed forward again, but Shadowman's foot managed to clip his jaw, sending him flying backwards and landing hard on the ground.
"This is an all too familiar sight," his foe remarked, advancing on him. "Separating you from your operator has made this too easy. I had hoped you of all Navis might offer me a challenge." Shadowman stretched out his arm, forming a Long Sword on the end of it. "Oh well. A job is a job."
As he prepared to deliver the final blow, he paused as a bright light entered his peripheral vision. Both he and Megaman turned back toward the strange machine, which was glowing with a bright and dangerous light, sparks flying out of it on all sides. Seconds later, the machine exploded violently, sending shrapnel in every direction, damaging several of the Navis nearby. Along with the shrapnel, a strange shockwave of rainbow energy expanded out in every direction like a sphere; it slammed into both of the battling Navis, knocking them to the ground and sending them rolling away.
When Megaman came back to his senses several seconds later, the first thing he noticed was a piercing alarm ringing throughout the Cyberworld. The second thing he noticed was multiple voices calling out his name; he was able to process Lan's voice first, calling out to him in a panicked tone.
"Megaman! Are you alright?! What happened?! You completely disappeared!"
"Lan!" He sat up, a bit sore. "I'm alright, I think… a bit beat up…"
"Thank goodness," came another voice. Megaman looked forward to see Iris's avatar standing over him, relief all over her face. "You disappeared as soon as you ran far enough toward that machine. It must have been cloaked so nobody could see it." She extended her hand toward him. "What happened in there?"
"I was fighting someone…" Megaman took Iris's hand, standing up fully. "Then the machine exploded, and there was that shockwave…" He paused and took a look around, trying to find Shadowman, but the Navi seemed to have vanished.
"I felt it go through the entire SciLab network," she replied. "I'm not sure yet what it did, if anything."
"All of SciLab? Is everyone alright?" His eyebrows raised as he came to a realization. "Are Lan's classmates alright?"
"I hope so." Iris turned around as a large screen appeared behind her, linked to several security cameras. In one corner of the screen, she could see the schoolchildren standing around in one of the labs, looking confused and scared. Both Iris and Megaman sighed in relief.
"Good, it looks like they're unharmed. That's…" She cut herself off as her eyes moved to another corner of the screen, gasping at what she saw. Megaman quickly scanned the screen, trying to find what she had seen, freezing in fear when he finally found it.
Several rooms away, in an unoccupied conference room, they could clearly see a group of four Mettool viruses on the march. They looked almost like holograms, transparent and only partially there, but the damage they were doing with their pickaxes was very real. The two watched in horror as the viruses slowly made their way through the building, toward Lan's unsuspecting classmates.
