New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 3: The Dimensional Core
Chapter 6: Cross Fusion
On the eighth and topmost floor of SciLab, two standard-issue black Navis were standing guard, extremely bored, their attention wandering.
"Hm?" One turned to the other.
"What?" the other Navi replied.
"You say something?"
"Why would I say anything?" The other Navi looked over.
"I don't know. I heard a noise that sounded like you saying something."
"I didn't say anything. Why would I say something? We're supposed to be standing guard for intruders, not chatting." The Navi rolled his eyes. "Now shut up and pay attention."
Both Navis returned to staring at opposite sides of the room. In a conveniently unguarded corner far from the two guards, two young children sat crouched behind a desk, having gotten off the elevator in an adjacent area.
"Two Navis keeping guard... not very well, though," Lan muttered to himself, as Mayl listened. "That ice Navi isn't alone... damn it, I should have sent us to the second floor."
"The second floor? With the generators?" Mayl asked; she had regained some measure of composure after her short breakdown in the elevator.
He nodded in response. "Right. If we can get them turned off, that'll take care of all of this."
"Maybe..." She sat back and took a deep breath, trying to think as clearly as Lan was, a task she found to be difficult. "But... there are going to be Navis guarding them, too, don't you think? If they're that important?"
"Yeah, probably…" Lan rubbed his head. "Maybe if we create some sort of diversion, or something... ugh, why is it always me being put in these situations?"
"Lan, how are you not freaking out right now?" Mayl marveled. "I mean, we're trapped alone in this building, and there are viruses and Navis everywhere, and you're just... you don't look scared at all..." She looked over at him, holding a newfound respect and admiration for her friend, as he sat back and sighed.
"I don't really know," he spoke. "I mean, I am scared, but I don't really think about it. My mind just sort of blocks it out, like... like there isn't time to be afraid, I guess."
She smiled gently, despite the situation. "Well, at least one of us has a cool head right now."
"Yeah… I just wish it would work right." He looked down at the strange chip he was holding between his fingers. "Darn it, Dad, why did you give me this..."
She leaned in for a closer look. "Should you try using it with your PET?"
Lan's face turned skeptical. "Well, if it's a Battlechip, it would only work if Megaman was on the Net... but if it's not... but what else could it even be?"
"It couldn't hurt to try, could it?"
"I suppose not." Lan put the mystery chip up to the slot on his PET. "Alright, here we go, I guess." He started to insert it into the device, when another hand intervened, grabbing him by the shirt and pulling him up. Mayl shrieked and scrambled backward as she saw one of the guard Navis apprehend Lan, not noticing that another was waiting right behind her.
"Look what we got here!" the second Navi said aloud, causing her to whirl around. "A couple of little brats snooping around!"
"Let me go!" Lan exclaimed, kicking at the Navi that was holding him, as the other reached down and grabbed Mayl by the wrist.
Lan's Navi laughed. "Sure thing, kid!" He handily threw Lan across the room, where he rolled across the floor a few times before hitting the opposite wall.
"What do you think we should do with 'em?" the second Navi asked, keeping a tight grip on Mayl's wrist as she struggled to get away.
"We're supposed to keep all humans away from the second floor and below. Those are all the instructions we got," his comrade replied. "No one said we couldn't use them for target practice." He advanced on Lan, who slowly got to his feet. As he stood up, he accidentally brushed his PET against his hip, inserting the mystery chip the rest of the way into the chip slot.
Instantly, a powerfully bright light emitted from the device, one that quickly encompassed Lan's body and blinded everyone in the room, forcing them to shield their eyes with their arms. As Lan squinted and looked away, he could feel his PET start to grow and expand, as if it was emitting a strange substance that threatened to consume his entire body. As the substance expanded and enveloped him, he could feel a strong energy growing inside him, from his core, as if he was being charged with electricity.
When the light faded a moment later, the others in the room carefully uncovered their eyes, gaping in unison at what they saw. Lan had been covered head-to-toe with a dark blue bodysuit, with white stripes running down his back and around his legs. His head, hands and feet were covered in armor of a lighter blue color, with a green visor covering his eyes. The sudden change of appearance made him look very much like another person they all knew.
"What the hell? Isn't that Megaman?" one Navi asked, as the other inadvertently loosened his grip on Mayl. Seizing the opportunity, she tried to scramble away.
"Hey! No you don't!" the Navi yelled, moving to apprehend her again. Lan's eyes flashed as he saw this, and he promptly dashed forward toward the two of them, with such incredible speed that he was nearly invisible as he moved. He reappeared between Mayl and the astonished Navi, who didn't have time to say a word before Lan's right hand turned into a sword, which he promptly thrust into the Navi's abdomen. The enemy crumpled to the floor as Lan withdrew the blade, lying lifelessly on the ground.
Without pausing, Lan whirled around and fired a Cannon from his left hand at the unsuspecting other Navi, who stumbled backward. He deftly leaped over a shocked Mayl, who yelped and ducked instinctively, and used his sword to cleanly bisect the second Navi, whose two halves collapsed to the ground. Breathing heavily, Lan suddenly became aware of his surroundings again, as he slumped against the desk they had been hiding behind.
"What... just happened…?" he muttered to himself, looking down to inspect the weaponry that had formed on the ends of his arms; moments later, they vanished, and his hands returned. He clenched and unclenched his fists a few times, as Mayl warily got to her feet, not sure if she could get closer. "I can move again…"
"What do you mean…?" Mayl asked quietly, her mind only half-focused on the question as she looked over Lan's mysterious new armor. "That wasn't you moving just now?"
"No, it wasn't… it's like something took control of me…"
I think that might have been me, Megaman's voice rang in Lan's head, causing him to jump. I saw you and Mayl, and those Navis, and I just leaped into action…
"Megaman?" Lan looked around quickly for his Navi, causing Mayl to back away, before realizing the voice was in his head. "Where are you? Are you… in my head or something?"
"In your head…" Mayl took a moment to try and process all the information in front of her, before realization suddenly hit her like a ton of bricks. "Lan, I think I get it! This is that Cross Fusion that your dad was talking about! That chip he gave you, it let you do this!"
"Cross Fusion... hey, you might be right!" Lan stood up again, taking a better look at himself; he definitely looked a great deal like Megaman, and if Megaman was in his head... "We must be sharing the same body or something... but how is that possible?"
Mayl rapped her fist lightly against Lan's head, investigating his helmet. "I don't know... I don't know how any of this is possible. I feel like I'm going to wake up any minute."
Lan brushed her hand away. "It doesn't matter how it's possible. What matters is that we can fight back now. We're not helpless." He looked down at himself again. "I just hope we're strong enough to fight whatever's between us and those generators."
We've got this, Lan, Megaman reassured. You operate, I fight, just like usual. I'm sure it'll work out fine.
Lan nodded and looked around the room, his eyes focusing on the elevator they had departed from earlier. "Come on, we have to get to the second floor." He walked back toward it, motioning for Mayl to follow; she quickly ran after him, prepared to stick to him like glue. Reaching the elevator, Lan pressed the call button, expecting the doors to immediately open. Instead, he heard the car starting to move from the other side, and his eyebrows raised in surprise, wondering who else might be using the elevator. Once the doors opened, he could see a mysterious black device inside, one that he only had an instant to look at, as it emitted a high-pitched beeping sound.
"Look out!" Lan cried, putting his arms up defensively, as Mayl quickly got behind him, shielding herself as best as she could manage. Moments later, the mystery device exploded violently, sending a massive amount of flames and shrapnel in the direction of the two youngsters. The blast subsided quickly as smoke started pouring out of the elevator car, causing the fire alarm to go off and the automatic sprinkler system to activate. The water quickly began to clear the smoke, revealing an unscathed Lan and Mayl hidden behind a translucent green barrier. Lan lowered the barrier and his arms a moment later, taking a look at the elevator, as did Mayl, who had a death grip on Lan's torso and her heart rate around hummingbird pace. The elevator had been reduced to a smoldering piece of wreckage, black and burnt and twisted.
"I guess... we're taking the stairs," he managed.
As Frostman and his three hostages traversed the third floor of SciLab, they felt the building rumble around them, as they heard what sounded like an explosion from above. All of them looked upward toward the sound.
"What was that?!" Dex exclaimed. "Did something blow up?!"
Frostman smirked. "If I had to guess, I'd say the other two children got the present I sent them."
"What?!" Yuichiro responded. "What present?!"
"Just something I sent them in the elevator." Frostman continued leading the group forward. "I imagine they didn't get to enjoy it for long."
Yuichiro gritted his teeth in anger, praying that Lan had figured out to use the Synchro Chip he had given to him. He continued to follow Frostman with his stomach in knots, as did Dr. Regal and Dex, until they all walked into a large office that the two scientists knew well.
"Right, then." Frostman turned around, facing the others. "This is your office, Dr. Hikari, I believe?"
Lan's father glared back at the Navi. "Do I want to know how you knew that?"
"Master Forte provided me with a highly detailed map of this whole complex. He knows the layout like the back of his hand."
"What are we doing here?" Dr. Regal asked. He was suddenly deeply concerned with the level of SciLab knowledge that Forte possessed, but knew there were more pressing matters at hand.
Frostman kept his gaze on Dr. Hikari. "You are going to retrieve the missing data for the Cross Fusion project, and give it to me."
"Missing data?" Yuichiro put on his best poker face, cocking his head. "What missing data?"
"Don't bother playing dumb," the Navi warned. "All of the research data on Cross Fusion is present in the SciLab database, except for one critical chunk that has been conspicuously cut out. Master Forte has deduced that this data is being kept somewhere in SciLab. I thought we could start our search here, in this office."
Dr. Hikari didn't respond, trying to figure out some other way of stalling, as his coworker spoke up next to him. "What does he need that data for, anyway? Clearly he can make a Dimensional Area without it."
"Of course he can," Frostman replied. "He is one of the greatest geniuses of our time. But that missing data will greatly speed up the process of creating the world's first Dimensional Core."
Both scientists froze at the mention of the core, shocked, causing the Navi to laugh. "Seems as though you both know what I'm talking about, so let's drop the charade. Get me that missing data."
Dr. Regal eventually set his face and glared back at the Navi in front of him. "Forget it. We're not giving you anything, ever."
"Are you sure about that?" Frostman raised his arm into the air, gathering a large number of ice particles above it, which eventually formed into a rotary saw that began to spin at a high speed. He pointed the blade in Regal's direction, one eyebrow raised.
Regal nodded, determination on his face. "I've faced far more terrifying things than you. Do your worst."
"Alright, if you insist." The Navi turned and lunged forward quickly, grabbing Dex by the wrist and pulling him away from the other two. The scientists gasped as Dex yelped, struggling to get free, but he abruptly stopped as Frostman slowly brought the whirling blade closer to his neck.
"Stop that!" Regal demanded, panicked. "Let him go!"
"You're the one who told me to do my worst, Regal." Frostman brought the blade closer and closer. Dex started to panic and sweat bullets, but dared not move a muscle as the saw came within mere centimeters of his neck.
"Alright, stop! You win!" Yuichiro shouted. "Just let him go!"
Frostman smirked and looked over at Dr. Hikari. "I knew you'd see sense eventually." The blade disappeared and he let go of Dex, who sank to the floor, breathing heavily and holding his neck. "Now then, if you please."
Dr. Hikari's hands were tightly clenched into fists as he turned and walked toward one of the back corners of the room, where a small refrigerator sat next to a table with a coffee pot. He grabbed the refrigerator and dragged it forward a few feet, before kneeling down and lifting a loose floor tile that had been previously covered up. Everyone watched as he reached inside the hole in the floor, pulling out a small flash drive.
Frostman's eyes lit up. "So that's it, then?"
"This is half of it," Yuichiro clarified, standing. "The other half is in the Cross Fusion experiment lab." He started to walk toward the door of the office, but Frostman quickly glided in front of him.
"I'll lead the way there, if you don't mind. I'll make sure we don't take the scenic route." He looked back toward Dex and Dr. Regal. "Come along, everyone." Everyone began following the Navi out of the room, with Dex still lightly holding his neck, as if he was forcibly keeping it attached to the rest of him. As the three of them walked down the hallway, a device on Frostman's side started beeping quietly; he grabbed it and brought it to his mouth.
"I thought I told you cretins not to contact me," he began sharply. The voice on the other end spoke something that the others couldn't understand, but whatever it was incensed Frostman greatly.
"Is this some sort of joke?! Two guards?! You people are pathetic!" he yelled. "Get more Navis on it, then! They're two children, this shouldn't be difficult!"
He slammed the device back onto his hip, grumbling, as Yuichiro smirked, thankful that Lan had figured out the Synchro Chip after all. If he knew his son, Frostman was going to have much more difficulty than he anticipated.
Several floors above, Lan and Mayl were cautiously descending a flight of metallic stairs reminiscent of a fire escape, similar to the ones that had been destroyed by viruses minutes ago. Lan led the way, constantly looking over the railing for any signs of trouble; Mayl followed behind, once again scared out of her wits. The elevator bomb had completely eliminated the hopefulness she felt after seeing Lan's transformation, and she was nearly shaking with terror as she followed behind him.
"I think we got lucky," Lan commented. "They probably think we're dead from that bomb. No one's even looking for us right now."
"Oh yes, great," Mayl replied sarcastically. "Everyone thinks we're dead, that's just fantastic!"
"Mayl, please calm down." Lan glanced back at her.
"I can't, Lan, I can't!" she cried out, starting to break down again. "We're going to die here, I know it! We're going to..." A sob escaped her lips.
He turned around and walked back up to her, grasping her arm lightly and looking her in the eyes. "Mayl, listen to me. Nobody is going to be dying here, not if I have anything to say about it. I'm not going to let anything happen to you, I promise. Okay?"
She looked back at him, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, and nodded slowly, unable to speak. Lan nodded back and continued down the stairs, holding her gently by the wrist; she followed, appreciating his touch and trying to place her confidence in him. They continued down another flight, not far now from the second floor, when Lan noticed something coming up from below.
"Mettools... lots of them, walking up the stairs," he observed. He formed a buster on his left hand and started firing, deleting the viruses one by one. "Not exactly a major threat, thankfully…" As he fired at the marching line of viruses, he was taken by surprise when a round of ammunition blew past his head.
"Whoa!" He backed away from the ledge, quickly pulling Mayl behind him to keep her out of the line of fire. He looked down the stairs and saw two black Navis firing High Cannons in his direction from three floors below.
"Damn, they're organizing. This is going to be tricky..." Lan formed a Vulcan Cannon on his wrist and aimed downward, firing the machine gun upon the two Navis, who took light damage but continued to attack regardless. Cursing, Lan summoned a few Minibombs and flung them toward his opponents; they both jumped backward into the room behind them, but still were caught in the explosions, receiving some more damage.
"That'll show them." He turned his attention back to the viruses, and the color promptly drained from his face. During his brief skirmish with the Navis, the Mettool army had made their way right up to the step where Lan and Mayl were, and they were starting to crackle dangerously with electricity. He quickly aimed and fired his buster, taking out as many of the near ones as he could, before the Mettools all self-destructed at once.
Instantly, the stairwell was turned into flaming chaos, as the metal stairs twisted and cracked in many areas, and fell right apart in several others. The step that the two children were on quickly bent under their weight, pitching them forward, screaming, toward the ground several floors below. Thinking quickly, Lan summoned an Air Shot chip and fired a blast of air down at the ground, slowing his descent and allowing him to land himself on the only steady stairs he could find. He instantly whirled around and caught a terrified Mayl in his arms, then ducked backward into the adjacent room to avoid the fall of flaming wreckage.
"Are you alright?" he asked, worried, as he set her down, hearing yet another fire alarm and sprinkler system activate. She nodded wordlessly, breathing heavily and holding one hand over her heart, the other hand clasped tight around Lan's.
"They're down here!" Lan heard a voice call out from further inside the large room, which was filled with a number of test tubes and other materials. He looked toward the source of the noise, and saw a large number of black Navis, around two dozen, pouring into the room from another door. "Get everyone in here! He can't take on all of us!" He gritted his teeth and flattened the two of them against the wall, as Navis started firing light arms in his direction.
"Looks like this is it," he commented. "This is all of them. I take them out, there's nothing between us and the generators."
"You're going to fight all of them?!" Mayl exclaimed, as Lan formed a sword on his arm. "Are you crazy?!"
"Probably!" he responded, running out into the room and forming another sword. She started to race after him, wanting to grab him and pull him back, only to run into the Barrier that had just been erected around her. She watched, horrified, as Lan dashed right into the fray, seemingly to his doom.
"Let's see how you guys like this!" he yelled, putting his two swords together and swinging horizontally with all his might. The resulting Life Sword was truly enormous, far greater than anything Lan and Megaman had generated before. It swept through the room, smashing equipment and slicing through every single Navi present before hitting the back wall and cracking it. He screeched to a halt, staring in shock at his handiwork, not having expected the fight to end so quickly.
"Holy cow... was that me?" he wondered aloud.
I've never seen anything like that, Megaman contributed. Why was it so powerful? Do you think it was the Cross Fusion?
"It might have been." Lan looked down at his hand. "It was a lot easier to pull off, too. Maybe it's because we're really synchronized right now..."
"Lan, that was incredible!" Mayl exclaimed, running up to him as the Barrier disappeared. "I've never seen anything like that before!"
He grinned at her. "I told you I'd take care of things, didn't I?" He reached down and clasped her wrist again. "Come on, we have to keep moving. We're almost there." Mayl nodded, feeling better about the situation after witnessing Lan's capabilities, and they both ran out of the room, looking for another set of stairs, ready for this insanity to end.
On the second floor of SciLab, Yuichiro was walking around the outside of a large open room, his hand on the wall, feeling for something. The others watched as he searched, eventually stopping and pushing his hand against the wall; it shifted and opened the tiniest bit, and he reached his hand inside the newly created crevice, pulling something out.
"This is it." He closed the wall again, walking back over to Frostman, another flash drive enclosed in his hand. "All of the missing data on Cross Fusion, which we hid away specifically to avoid things like this."
"Too bad it didn't work out," Frostman apologized mockingly, taking the second drive from Dr. Hikari. Holding one drive in each hand, he closed his eyes and focused quietly for about thirty seconds, as the other three watched with increasing discomfort.
The Navi soon opened his eyes again, smirking. "There. I have now completely absorbed the contents of these drives. Once I return to Master Forte, my knowledge will become his." He clenched both of his fists tightly, crushing the drives into small pieces before letting them drop to the floor. "You've been most helpful, Dr. Hikari."
"Yeah, that's me," Yuichiro answered bitterly. "Are you done here?"
"Almost. There's only one thing left for me to take care of." He stretched out his right arm, forming a Long Sword, causing the three humans to reflexively step back. "I just need to ensure that Master Forte is the only one with the knowledge to create a Dimensional Core."
"Whoa, wait a minute here! Hold on!" Yuichiro exclaimed, starting to quickly run backwards with the other two, but an icy blast of air from Frostman knocked him into his back. He tried to scramble away as the Navi advanced on him.
"If it helps, Master Forte always spoke of you as a genius. He even referred to you as his intellectual rival." Frostman put his foot on Yuichiro's abdomen and raised his sword. "Let that be some comfort to you as you move on to your next life." He brought his sword down, and the two others turned their heads, unable to watch.
Expecting to hear Frostman's sword cut through flesh, they were surprised to hear instead a clash of metal on metal. Dr. Regal and Dex looked back, to find what appeared to be Megaman standing over Dr. Hikari, blocking Frostman's blade with one of his own.
"Megaman? What the?!" Dex exclaimed.
"Lan! You're alright!" Yuichiro looked up at his son, relieved and immensely proud, as Lan kept his focus on the opposing Navi in front of him.
"Dad! Get back!" he ordered, elbowing Frostman in the gut and knocking the Navi away from his father. He leaped after his foe, swinging his blade, but Frostman quickly moved backward to dodge. Yuichiro took the opportunity to scramble away, and Regal and Dex followed him.
"How are you still alive?!" Frostman demanded. "I sent dozens of viruses and Navis after you!"
"You should have sent better ones!" Lan taunted, swinging his sword again. The enemy Navi vanished, reappearing far above Lan, in the center of the room.
"Pah! It matters not!" he retorted. "This is as far as you go, Megaman! Allow me to introduce you to the ninth circle of Hell!"
As Frostman outstretched his arms, a cold blue mist began to spread from his body and expand and throughout the room; everything it touched quickly turned to crystal and ice, and as it accumulated it turned into an icy fog, becoming hard to see through. Regal, Yuichiro and Dex all looked around for some sort of escape, when they heard a voice calling out to them.
"Guys! Over here!" Looking toward the source of the voice, the three of them saw Mayl beckoning them into an open door. They quickly piled in through the opening and slammed the door shut, just before the icy mist frosted it over.
"Damn, that was close... thanks, Mayl," Yuichiro acknowledged. Mayl nodded in response, moving toward a nearby window that looked into the research-lab-come-arena; it was frosted over, but still mostly transparent. The others quickly followed to watch the action, but found it hard to see anything that wasn't close, due to the obscuring mist.
"What's going on?" Dex tried to find either the two figures in the fog. "Isn't that Megaman in there?"
"That's Lan and Megaman, Cross Fused," Dr. Regal replied. "Yuichiro must have handed him a Synchro Chip somehow, right?"
Yuichiro nodded. "At the time, I thought it was our only chance to get him out of here in one piece. Then he ends up saving all of us... bless that kid, he can certainly keep his head in situations like this."
Mayl nodded in agreement, as Dr. Regal spoke again. "I can't believe it actually worked. Only one other person has ever been able to Cross Fuse for more than five seconds."
"It's all about synchronization," Yuichiro responded. "And you know that you can't find an operator and Navi more in sync than Lan and Megaman." They watched as Lan approached the window, looking around cautiously, before quickly turning to block one of Frostman's attacks. The two battlers quickly disappeared again.
"Isn't there something we can do, Dr. Hikari?" Mayl asked, feeling guilty that Lan was continually being forced to do all the hard and dangerous work. "Do we just have to let them fight?"
"Yes, there is. We can still get those generators shut down," Regal answered for his partner, turning around.
"You do that." Dr. Hikari glanced over at his partner. "I'm going to stay here, in case anything goes wrong." Regal nodded and dashed off to another room, as Lan's father stayed by the window with the other two children, hoping to get a glimpse of the action.
"Gah, I'm getting nowhere like this," Lan muttered to himself, looking around. "I can't even see him 90% of the time..."
The mist definitely has to go, Megaman agreed, a statement that was hardly necessary to make, as the two of them were operating in near-perfect tandem as it was. What's your plan?
"Air Shot's the fastest way," Lan commented, raising his left arm and focusing; a few seconds later, his Air Shot gun still hadn't appeared.
Huh? Why isn't it working?
"I don't know... I don't know how these stupid Battlechips work like this." Lan shook his head, listening for Frostman and trying to come up with a new plan, which he soon formulated. He pointed his hand up at the ceiling, where a Fan appeared and immediately began operating; it started to suck in the icy mist and expel normal cold air in its stead, and visibility in the room soon started to return to normal.
"Did it!" Lan looked around and quickly found his opponent fifteen feet away, firing off a series of buster shots that were easily dodged. He immediately used an Area Steal, dashing with blinding speed up to his opponent and swinging a Long Sword at Frostman's body. Frostman focused himself for an instant before the blade connected, upon touching the Navi's body, the sword shattered into dozens of pieces.
"What?!" Lan looked down at the broken blade, shocked. His foe smirked, before delivering a powerful kick to his jaw and knocking him back.
"You think such simple weapons are going to work on me?" Frostman taunted. "The air immediately surrounding my body is cold enough to freeze your swords instantly. You'll have to do better than that!"
Lan quickly got back up, rubbing his chin, and jumped to avoid an ice boulder flung in his direction. He extended his arm and tried to produce a Fire Sword, pleased to see that it managed to appear despite the icy surroundings. He landed on his feet and quickly swung at a number of icicles that Frostman had thrown in his direction; they melted upon contact with the aura of the sword, and the water splashed harmlessly around Lan's feet.
"Hmph!" Frostman smirked, hovering several meters in the air, and aimed his hands at Lan, forming hundreds of pointing icicles and shooting them toward his opponent. Lan skillfully swung his Fire Sword around at all of them, melting every last one. They kept this act up for nearly a full minute before Frostman finally relented, grinning.
"What's he up to?" Lan wondered, as he tried to take a step forward, nearly stumbling as his feet refused to cooperate. Looking down, he was horrified to see that the water from the icicles had fallen and re-frozen around his feet, burying them under several inches from ice, far too much to cut through in a short amount of time.
"You fool!" Frostman called out, extending his right arm and producing a massive, dual-ended ice scythe. "Too late do you realize your mistake! And now your life comes to a close!" The three observers panicked, as they saw the icy Navi speed toward the immobile Lan, ready to deliver the final blow.
"No! Lan!" Mayl cried out, as Yuichiro started slamming his fist on the glass in anger.
"Come on, Lan, you can think of something!" Dex said tensely, as if Lan was able to hear him there. Frostman approached with impressive speed, holding the scythe, as Lan gritted his teeth, not from frustration, but from focus.
"Come on, just a little closer, you arrogant bastard..." he muttered under his breath, his mind focused on something he had never tried before; Megaman was focused as well, attempting to be as in-sync with his operator as possible. Frostman was blissfully unaware of Lan's concentration, wrapped up in the heat of the moment.
"Now!" Lan cried out, holding his arms above his head. Almost immediately, from the single Fire Sword he was holding, two more swords quickly appeared and vanished just as fast, forming a giant red pillar of energy. He grasped the Life Sword 2 by its base and hurled it like a javelin with all his might.
Frostman saw the attack coming too late, as Lan had conceived it much too quickly for him. He put up his best defenses, unable to dodge, but the Life Sword 2 shattered them as if they were nothing, and embedded itself deeply in Frostman's torso. The Navi's eyes went wide as he felt his energy evaporate, stolen away by the powerful attack piercing his body, and he collapsed to the ground a few yards in front of Lan, his scythe vanishing. The blade vanished in a massive energy blast, tearing up Frostman's insides, sweeping across the room and cracking the ice that lined the ground. The Navi groaned in intense pain and humiliation, trying to catch his breath.
"For... forgive me, Forte... I failed..." Frostman closed his eyes and breathed his last, his body slumping against the ground. Lan sighed in relief, looking down at the cracked ice around his feet; a single buster shot was enough to shatter it completely, and he stepped away.
"Lan!" He looked over to see Mayl running at him, and she threw his arms around his neck, hugging him tight. "Thank goodness! You're alright!"
Lan nodded and held her with one arm, as the other two also left their safe haven and approached Lan. A moment later, they jumped back as a bright, purple light appeared next to Frostman's fallen corpse. When the light faded, a rather sinister-looking Navi was standing in its place, colored purple and black, with claws and pointed, overlarge ears, looking like a cross between a human and a bat.
"Pathetic... we expected more from you, Frostman," the Navi spoke in a raspy voice, as he reached down and grabbed the fallen Navi's frame by the arm.
"Hold it! Who are you?" Lan demanded, pointing his buster at the Navi with one arm and holding protectively onto Mayl with the other. The Navi cackled in response.
"I'm just here to pick up some damaged goods," he replied. "Lucky for us, Frostman's memory banks should be able to provide us with the information we need to get that Dimensional Core up and running."
"No!" Lan cried out, firing several buster shots at the Navi, who vanished with Frostman in a similar flash of light. Seconds later, everyone noticed a low-level humming sound around them starting to fade, and the ice in the room cleared away. Mayl yelped and jumped back as Lan's body glowed, only to see it return to normal, his PET attached to his hip as usual. He blinked and looked down at himself, surprised, as Dr. Regal came running the room.
"Finally got the generators off," he commented. "What happened?"
"Are you crazy?!" Yuichiro exclaimed. "Absolutely not! Out of the question!"
"We don't have any choice, Dad!" Lan responded. "If that weird Navi was right, then Forte can create a Dimensional Core soon! We can't just let him do that, can we?"
"No, of course we can't." His father rubbed his forehead. "But sending you into that research lab all by yourself? That's far too dangerous, Lan, even for you."
"He's right, Lan. Listen to him, please," Mayl urged, one of a few people on the sidelines of this argument. Lan shook his head.
"What's dangerous is letting Forte get his hands on something like that!" he retorted. "If he creates and absorbs a core, there's not going to be anybody who can stop him! We have to do something, and this is the only thing we can do right now. You know it is, Dad."
He looked up at his father, seeing the conflicted look on his face, knowing he had nearly won the argument. "I know you don't want me getting hurt, but there's nothing else we can do. I can take care of myself, I just proved that, didn't I?"
Yuichiro let out a deep sigh. "Lan... alright. You may be right. We don't have a lot of options right now."
"What?!" Mayl and Regal exclaimed at once, incredulous and angry, as Dr. Hikari turned to the two of them. Dex stood by himself elsewhere, not sure which side to take.
"Lan's right. Something has to be done. All we can do is send a small number of people into that Dimensional Area, and we're going to need people who can Cross Fuse. A Navi is more powerful and useful than any weaponry we could obtain." Yuichiro turned back toward his son. "But you aren't going to be going alone."
"Huh?" Lan blinked, as his father started to walk into another area. "Who else is going to be there?"
"The only other person who's been able to successfully Cross Fuse," his father commented, as Regal joined the three of them. "Eugene Chaud."
"Chaud?!" Lan exclaimed angrily, as the three walked into another room.
"But... wait! Hold on!" Mayl called out, starting to walk after them. The trio, either ignoring her or unable to hear her, didn't respond, and she stood and sadly watched them go. Dex walked over to her, feeling like he should say something but not knowing what, as she looked down at the floor.
"Lan..." she muttered to herself, confused and upset.
