New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 3: The Dimensional Core


Chapter 8: Recovery

Lan sat numbly on the bench in his father's office, staring endlessly into the screen of his PET. He couldn't remember the last time the screen was unoccupied, without a Navi there to greet him with a smile. There was a small part of him that expected Megaman to walk onto the screen, apologizing for being late and maybe cracking a joke. The screen remained empty.

For days now, Lan had been deeply concerned with the safety of his friends, his family, and himself. The stress of it all had affected his sleep, his health, and his attitude. The one person he had never paid any consideration to was his Navi. He had taken Megaman for granted, seeing him not as a partner but as a tool, as an extension of himself. Now he was gone, and Lan felt he had nobody but himself to blame. He had let his partner down.

He was completely oblivious to the goings-on around him as he sat. His father was typing frivolously at a computer with one hand, while holding his PET phone with the other, issuing orders into it. Mayl, feeling fresh from several hours of sleep, was mimicking Lan's actions from earlier, pre-loading Battlechips into her PET in anticipation. Chaud was standing next to Yuichiro, eyes running over the information on the monitor, familiarizing himself with the task that lay ahead. Lan was an island of inactivity and depression, in a sea of anticipation and action.

"Well, I've gotten who I can to help out," Yuichiro commented. "Two Officials on late-night duty. They'll be here in just a few minutes."

"What we need is someone who can navigate these areas," Chaud contributed, pointing to various spots on a digitized map. "They're looking even worse than the Undernet at this point."

"Way ahead of you," Yuichiro responded. "She'll be here soon as well, and she should be able to get us through some of these locks, at least. Against all the viruses, though, we're going to need all the help we can get."

He stood up, pushing his chair back with his legs. "Meanwhile, we should get ready. We don't have a lot of time." He walked away from his computer and toward the hallway, causing Mayl to look up from her seat.

"Is this it? We're going?" she asked. Yuichiro nodded, and she hopped up, eager to get to work. "Um, Dr. Hikari, do you think you could take a look at Roll later? I've never been able to back her up right, either... I might be doing it wrong."

"Huh? Oh, uh… yeah, sure thing." The group walked toward the door, while Lan stayed put, still feeling hollow.

"Lan, come on!" his father encouraged. "Do you want to see us get Megaman back or not?" Lan sat still for a second before answering.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm coming." He slowly got to his feet and walked after the others, trying to find the strength he had held during Frostman's attack. Mayl followed him out, rubbing his shoulder gently, as the foursome headed downstairs, to another part of SciLab.


The instant Yuichiro learned that Megaman had been deleted, he had leaped into action, surprising both Lan and Chaud. According to him, all SciLab networks were equipped with failsafes for deleted materials, in case critical data was accidentally disposed of. If anything was deleted on a SciLab network, a copy of it was moved to another location, so that researchers would have an opportunity to retrieve it. Megaman, being an extremely complex Navi, would not be preserved in his entirety, but enough of him would remain to restore him from the data Yuichiro had from his creation. Unfortunately, it turned out to be more complicated than that.

"Normally, we'd be able to go right in and retrieve the data," Dr. Hikari recapped for the group, as they walked into another room; to Mayl and Lan, it looked almost like any other room in SciLab, and they wondered how he managed to keep them all straight. "The problem is that a few months back, World Three started encroaching on SciLab territory, sort of annexing it for their own purposes."

"They took it over?" Lan clarified.

"Yeah, pretty much." His father sat down at a chair in front of a large computer terminal. "They set up a number of locks to block off parts of the Net, and now it's plagued with viruses to boot. Powerful ones. So we need a crew of skilled Netbattlers to fight them off, and we need it right away."

"Search and rescue... Dex would have loved to be part of this, I bet," Lan spoke, rubbing some sleep out of his eye. Dex had been forced home by his very worried father several hours before.

"Why do we need to rush?" Mayl asked, as she double-checked Roll and her PET.

"The backup data doesn't stick around forever," Chaud answered. "It's deleted once a week, and the next scheduled cleanup is in about two hours. And with all these World Three barriers in place, we can't stop it."

Yuichiro nodded. "Exactly. We were working on clearing it out ourselves, but everything has been a mess for ages." He rubbed his temple with two fingers. "Creating a new OS, dealing with Cybeasts, Forte... I hate my job sometimes."

"So, these World Three locks, how are we supposed to get through them? Do we hack our way in?" Lan wondered. Having started to put aside his disappointment in himself, he was feeling more hopeful about this endeavor.

"No, we won't need to do that." Yuichiro pulled up a map of the network where they would be going. "I've called in somebody who knows how to get through them, someone who's... ah, speak of the devil." He looked toward the hallway, followed by everyone else, as the sound of footsteps became audible. "That should be them now."

Lan watched as several figures came into view. First through the door was a tall, female Official with brown pigtails, who looked like she was built for business, anything but frail. The next person was a man wearing his own Official jacket, blond hair and blue eyes, looking less like a fighter and more like a bookworm. Lan didn't pay attention to either, however, once the third person walked in; he instantly recognized her face, and her red puffball hair.

"You!" Lan exclaimed, standing up. "What are you doing here?!"

Maddy Iroaya started a bit at the sudden shout, her eyes quickly focusing on Lan, freezing in place as she remembered who he was. "Oh… so it's your Navi…" She glanced around the room, taking stock of who else was there. "Well, this is awkward."

"Dad, why is she here?!" Lan demanded as he turned toward his father, incensed.

"She's here to get us through the World Three locks," Chaud jumped in, trying to take the focus off of an already embattled Dr. Hikari. "It's the fastest way to get to Megaman, and we need all the time we can get."

Lan turned back toward Maddy. "We don't need your help! We can get Megaman back ourselves!"

She took a step forward, not one to back down from a confrontation, even one with a child. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do-"

"You tried to kill me!" he screamed, his clenched fingers digging into his palms.

"It wasn't personal!" she insisted.

"Lan, enough." His father rested his hand firmly on his shoulder, his voice taking on a commanding tone. "We don't have a choice in the matter. We can't get through those locks without her help. This is the only way we get Megaman back." Lan continued glaring at her for a moment before turning away, walking toward a nearby table surrounded by jack-in ports, with a holographic display on top. Maddy followed after him, ignoring the death stare she was getting from Mayl.

"Everyone, jack in," Yuichiro commanded. "We've got a lot of work to do, and we don't have long to do it." The other Netbattlers crowded around and plugged in their PETs one by one, sending themselves into the SciLab Cyberworld. Lan squeezed in between Mayl and Chaud, wanting to watch the action. Inside the Cyberworld, Roll, Protoman, Colorman, and three Official Navis were standing in front of a large, orange, translucent wall, marked with the W3 symbol of the World Three organization. An avatar of Iris hovered off to the side, ready to guide the group to their destination.

"All yours, Colorman," one of the Official Navis spoke. Maddy's Navi rolled forward and put his hands on the wall, as she entered a passcode into her PET.

"Piece of cake!" Colorman spoke happily, as the wall began to dissolve. As the barrier withered away, a small, lightning-fast Ratton 3 virus scurried out, winding its way among the Navis' feet and rolling right up to Colorman, where it exploded violently in an enormous blast.

"No! Colorman!" Maddy cried out, shocked, as the rest of the group shielded their eyes. When the smoke cleared, Colorman was lying on the ground, unconscious and severely damaged. His body was mostly intact, but severely scarred from the blast.

"Damn..." Yuichiro muttered, as Maddy searched desperately for a recovery chip. "They've gotten even worse, these viruses..."

"Hold on!" Roll called out, pushing her way toward the fallen Navi. She knelt down next to him and put her hands on his torso, focusing herself. A second later, the Navi's body began to glow with a warm, bright, pink light; a moment later, when the light faded, Colorman's frame was completely repaired.

"Wha...?" Lan turned toward Mayl, followed by everyone else, as she ejected a used-up Recovery chip from her PET. She looked up to see everyone's faces pointed in her direction.

"I've… we've been practicing..." she spoke, a bit pink in the face, the collective attention making her a little sheepish. "Me and Roll learned how to control her healing... thing. I still don't know how she does it, but…"

"Like at the Electopian tournament," Lan recalled, grinning. "That's awesome, Mayl!"

She looked down, smiling, as Yuichiro pushed his glasses up. "It sure is. I'd love to take a look at that later… how many recovery chips do you have with you?"

"Um…" Mayl rifled through her chip folder. "A couple dozen?"

"Perfect. If you and Roll can play the support role, the rest of us can focus on heavy offense. We'll mow through those viruses."

Mayl nodded, and the group once again turned their attention back toward the Cyberworld, where Colorman was dusting himself off. As he did, they heard the howling of a large number of Spiky viruses in the distance.

"I have mapped out the newly unlocked region," Iris spoke. "There are thirty-three viruses between us and the next door."

"Looks like we'll have a fight on our hands. Come on, guys, let's move!" the female Official spoke. The group of Navis quickly took off toward their destination, with Iris leading the charge.


Reaching the backup data took longer than they had planned, as they fought their way through an army of powerful viruses, as well as World Three doors that occasionally had to be hacked through, as some of the passwords had been changed. Finally, after a great deal of effort, they had reached the final barrier, which Colorman quickly got to deconstructing, as the other five worked on eliminating the numerous viruses that were attacking.

"Whee! We did it, Maddy!" Colorman called out, as the wall disappeared to reveal their destination. A large pit, filled about three-fourths of the way with assorted junk data, came into view.

"Great work!" Maddy responded, as the group dashed forward and dived, in unison, into the pit, digging through and looking for Megaman's frame.

"Geez, look at all of this!" Roll exclaimed, darting about the surface of the data. "How are we supposed to find Megaman in all of this garbage?"

"Just dig!" Yuichiro's Navi responded. "We only have about seven minutes! It can't be too far from the top, it was only deleted a few hours ago!"

Roll started digging carefully through the data, looking for a blue body, a hand, anything. "Well, it's not like we have a lot of tiEEK!" Everyone whirled around as she shrieked, to see her being pulled under the surface by some mysterious force.

"What?!" Protoman ran over to where she was pulled under, followed by the other Navis, and they all looked down at the data below their feet; all of them were a bit hesitant to dig, not wanting the same fate to befall themslves. Two seconds later, a mild explosion sent bits of data flying, and Roll's hands could be seen reaching for the surface.

"What happened?" Colorman inquired, as the Officials reached their hands down to pull Roll out.

"There's something down there... something huge, something powerful," Roll answered, catching her breath, as the others continued to look downward for any sign of movement.

"Something's definitely moving..." the female Official commented, watching as bits of data on the surface shifted ever so slightly, marking a sort of trail. As they watched, the disruption in the data got larger and larger; whatever was down there was about to surface.

"Look out!" Protoman called out, as a huge, monstrous creature burst out of the sea of junk. It seemed to have the body of a lion, along with a red mane, but it was accompanied by two deformed humanoid hands, one of them much larger than the other. Its body was malformed and discontinuous, as if its parts had been haphazardly fused together, and its yellow, glowing eyes were shining out of its jagged mouth.

"Oh God, what is that?!" Roll exclaimed, as the creature's eyes swept over the six Navis. "Is it a virus?"

"I'm not sure," Yuichiro replied from the real world. "It could be a Navi… but where did it come from? Did it just form here spontaneously?"

"You... cannot be here," the junk Navi spoke, with a voice that sounded like metal scraping against a chalkboard. "My home... you leave... now!" It lifted up its arms and slammed them downward, trying to squish the Navis below his deformed fists, as they all dived out of the way.

"We don't have time for this!" Protoman turned toward Roll and Colorman, forming a High Cannon on his arm. "You two, keep looking for Megaman! We'll take care of this!" The two Navis nodded, and Roll dove underneath the data, digging through as fast as she could manage, as Colorman split himself into two.

"Alright, let's take this thing out as quickly as we can!" the male Official called out, as the four remaining Navis charged the junk monster.


Five minutes later, Roll was still swimming through the sea of data, trying to locate Megaman's frame. She was deep now, close to the bottom, and the battle above her had become completely inaudible. She searched progressively faster, with an increasing sense of urgency; she knew that she had very little time left before everything in the pit was deleted permanently.

"Hm?" Digging a little further forward, she saw a portion of a blue foot in front of her, her eyes lighting up. She grabbed it and pulled hard, but shrieked when the foot separated completely from whatever it was attached to.

"Omigosh! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, flustered, before taking another look at the object she held in her hand. While it was definitely a Navi's foot, she decided it probably wasn't Megaman's after all. Sighing, she tossed it aside and continued digging, only to encounter the bottom corner of the data pit.

"Huh?" She felt the edge of the pit carefully with her hands, confirming that she had indeed hit a corner. This meant she had gone through the entire pit of data without finding any hint of Megaman's frame. She thought back, wondering what she could possibly have missed, when the junk creature roared loudly, just barely loud enough for Roll to hear.

Roll's eyes went wide with understanding. The only junk data that she hadn't checked was currently engaged in battle with Protoman and the others. If they destroyed it...

"No!" She started swimming upward, trying to get to the surface and warn the others of what was about to happen.

Back on the surface, the three Official Navis were distracting the creature, whom they were referring to as "Junkman", with a variety of light arms. Junkman, in turn, was picking up data from all around him, flinging it at the Navis and trying to knock them away. Protoman had managed to get behind his foe, and had his arms outstretched in front of him, preparing a Hyper Burst Program Advance.

"Ready," he commented under his breath, only loud enough for his operator to hear, as he aimed the powerful cannon at Junkman's back. Right as he fired, he was knocked away by a quick mass of pink, and the Hyper Burst blasts only grazed Junkman's shoulder. The creature roared and turned around, angered.

"Roll!" Protoman exclaimed, pushing her off of him. "What do you think you doing?!"

"You can't destroy him!" Roll managed, a bit out of breath from climbing out of the pit. "Megaman... he's..."

Roll didn't get a chance to finish her sentence, as a bright light started to shine through the data they were standing on. It glowed with a threatening glow, and Roll got a sick feeling that she knew what was happening.

"The data's being destroyed!" Yuichiro's Navi called out, running toward the edge. "Everybody get out now!"

"But we can't! Megaman!" Roll cried out, desperate. Protoman quickly stood up and grabbed her by the wrist, running toward the edge and jumping out of the data pit, pulling her behind him. They got out just in time, as the entire data pile went up in digitized flame. Junkman's pained roars rent the air, and the group of Navis watched, dismayed, as the entire pile of data was turned to ash and deleted. The flames soon faded, and not a scrap of data remained.

"No... Mega..." Roll felt her frame going weak, as her heart sank inside it. Back in SciLab, all of the operators sat in stunned silence, their stomachs turning, even Maddy's. They turned one by one to look at Lan, whose face wore an expression of numb despair.

"Ahem." The Navis and operators all jumped at once, as a throat cleared itself from inside the Cyberworld. The Navis turned to find a Navi standing behind them, decked out in blue samurai armor and holding a long spear in his left hand. They stared at him for a confused moment, not noticing the blue frame he gripped in his right hand, until he threw the limp body forward at their feet.

"Megaman!" several Navis exclaimed at once, as Roll bent down next to his head, inspecting him for damage. Yuichiro's Navi stood over them both, taking out a strange tool and holding it above Megaman's frame, inspecting it.

"Why do you have his frame?" Protoman demanded, stepping forward. "Who are you?"

The Navi bowed slightly to Chaud's Navi. "I am Yamatoman, a humble servant of the queen of the Undernet."

"Queen of the Undernet...?" Lan wondered to himself, never having heard the name before.

"Why did she send you here?" Yuichiro demanded, clearly recognizing the title, trying to sound authoritative despite the relief that was flooding his mind. "What is she doing, getting herself involved in this?"

"She rescued this Navi's frame as soon as it entered this space," Yamatoman continued. "She has had her eye on the workings of Forte for some time, and has grown rather distressed."

He turned away. "She says that the balance has shifted; the situation has turned for the worst. Action will be taken..."

"What are you talking about?" Protoman demanded. Yamatoman didn't respond, vanishing in a beam of light, leaving the remaining Navis dumbfounded. The silence was broken by Dr. Hikari's voice.

"It's all here," he exhaled, slumping forward as all of the tension left his body. "The frame is intact. I can restore him from this." He held his head in his hands, taking in and letting out a long, shaky breath. "Everyone… thank you. You all can leave now."

The other operators nodded and started jacking out, one by one. Most of them stood up and moved to leave, ready to get some sleep, while the two Hikaris remained seated, along with Mayl. Lan's father started the process of bringing Megaman's frame into his PET, while the two youngsters looked on, Mayl resting her hands on Lan's shoulder as she watched the scientist work.

"Hey, Lan." Lan blinked and sat up, looking toward the voice, seeing Maddy looking back at him from the doorway, one Official on either side of her. "When I found out that you had survived that crash… it's probably the most relieved I've ever been in my life." She turned away from his gaze. "So… do what you want with that." Everyone at the table watched as the Officials led her back out.


"How are you feeling, Megaman?" Lan asked eagerly, looking into the screen of his PET. The restoration process had finished only moments ago, and his Navi was once again at his familiar place inside the screen, as Lan's father removed a special cable from the device.

"Fine... I guess..." Megaman rubbed his arm, looking down. "Pride's hurt pretty badly..."

"Well, you're back," Lan reminded him. "That's what's important." His Navi nodded, and the two stood in silence for a moment, as Yuichiro put away the various restoration devices. Mayl was nowhere to be found, as she was waiting for a SciLab car to arrive and take her home.

A moment later, Lan spoke up again. "I'm really sorry, Megaman…"

"Sorry?" His Navi looked up. "What for?"

"Well… I wasn't careful… I wasn't thinking about your safety, and look what happened because of it."

"What were you supposed to do?" Megaman responded, a bit confused by Lan's contrition. "You tried to warn me as soon as you could. He deleted me in one shot." He sighed, his eyes lowering. "I didn't stand a chance. I'm nothing next to him now."

Yuichiro nodded, sitting down. "He's more powerful than I gave him credit for. And astoundingly intelligent, too. I honestly don't know how we're going to stop him from doing whatever he tries to do next."

The room was silent for a minute, before Megaman spoke up. "There is one thing we can do, you know."

"Oh, for Pete's sake," Yuichiro spoke, rubbing his forehead. "I knew this was going to come up eventually..."

"We're running low on options," the Navi replied. "It could give me all the strength I need to finish Forte off for good."

"What?" Lan blinked, having no idea what either of them were talking about. "Megaman could get stronger?"

"No. Absolutely not." His father rested his hands firmly on his knees. "It's too dangerous. Not just for you, but for Lan, too."

"It's no use, Dad," Megaman quickly responded. "Lan and I have already started to synchronize, even without it."

"What?" Yuichiro quickly looked up, his eyebrows raised. "No, you're kidding… when was this?"

"It happened a few days ago, when we were fighting Tenguman," the Navi answered. "And it happened in Forte's lab, just tonight."

"You can't be serious…" Yuichiro slumped forward, holding his face in his hands. "Damn it all… I should have known it would come to this eventually."

"What are you guys talking about?" Lan spoke up, annoyed at how confusing the conversation was getting. "What's this dangerous thing? What do you mean by synchronizing?"

His father sat up again, resigned. "Lan, I've never told you where Megaman came from, have I?"

Lan blinked. "Um... no, I guess not, but..."

"Well, have a seat." Yuichiro pushed a chair toward his son, who caught it with one hand. "You're about to find out."

Lan sat down, curious, as his father began to tell his story.