New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 3: The Dimensional Core
Chapter 11: The Greatest Battle Never Fought
One week later, the stadium at DenDome was abuzz. Children from all over the city had crammed themselves into the high-tech amphitheater, some accompanied by parents, most accompanied by other children. Many were talking animatedly with their friends, while others were checking and re-checking their Navis and their folders, trying to be as ready for battle as possible.
"Dex, stop checking your folder over and over." Halfway up the audience, Yai was mildly berating Dex, who was compulsively analyzing every single chip he had. "It's not like you're going to beat Mr. Famous."
"How would you know?" Dex shot back. "Me and Gutsman have been training nonstop! I bet I've worked harder than anyone else here!"
"So? Mr. Famous works hard, too! And he's been doing it a lot longer than you, that's for sure." Yai smirked and looked down at her chip folder. "I'm going to win, because I've got chips that I bet not even HE can afford. Let's see him try and work his way around a..." She picked out a random chip and squinted at it, trying to discern its function. "...whatever this is."
Mayl grinned, looking down at her PET, where Roll was stretching. "I don't really expect to win... I mean, he's the most famous Netbattler in Electopia. He's got a TV show, his own Battlechips... doesn't he have a breakfast cereal, too?"
"Don't put yourself down, Mayl," Yai advised, putting the Battlechip back into her folder. "You almost won that Den City Tournament this summer, remember?"
"Yeah, almost..." Mayl smiled and put her PET aside. "Then again, my last opponent was Lan… so it's not like I had that much of a chance."
"Where is he, anyway?" Dex glanced toward the entrances, as if Lan was about to walk in at that very moment. "I thought there was no way he would miss this."
"He's been sick all week," Mayl answered. "Like, really sick. He's barely been out of bed. He told me he probably isn't going to make it here. He sounded really upset about it, too."
"Wow, really? Talk about bad timing." Yai sounded more surprised than upset at Lan's absence. "Lan would have been one of the only people I thought could win against Mr. Famous. Him or Eugene."
"Huh?" Mayl cocked her head. "Who's Eugene?"
Yai whirled around, an incredulous expression on her face. "What do you mean, who's Eugene? You know who he is! He beat both Dex and me at the Den City Tournament, remember?"
"Who…?" It took Mayl a minute to realize who Yai was referring to. "Oh, right. Chaud." Yai sighed and rolled her eyes, looking back at her chip folder.
"Why do you call him Eugene?" Dex asked curiously. "That's weird."
"What are you talking about?" Yai shot back. "That's his name. That's his actual name. You all are the weird ones for calling him by his last name all the time." Both Dex and Mayl were about to speak up to defend themselves, but neither one had an adequate retort for that.
"There he is!" a voice cried out, and the stadium erupted in cheers. In the very center of the stadium-like room, a man wearing sunglasses and a white trench coat was walking in, waving at his numerous idolizers in the crowd. Mr. Famous was used to this kind of treatment, nearly everywhere he went. After a minute, he raised his hands to call for silence.
"I tell you what, it's good to be back in Electopia again," he began nonchalantly, "looking at all of these aspiring young Operators. Which one of you is going to be the next celebrity Netbattler superstar, I wonder?"
He grinned as the children cheered again, loving the attention. "Alright, let's get down to business. You all remember my old Navi, Dynamoman... well, he's gone into retirement. But I've got a newer and better model this time around, and you lucky kids are the first people to see. Take a look!"
He pressed a button on the three-dimensional screen in front of him, displaying his new Navi for all to see. It was humanoid, colored mostly brown, standing tall and thin. It had a yellow, metallic casing where long blonde hair should have been, and in its chest was what appeared to be a metal door.
"This is my new Navi, Gateman!" Famous announced. "Stronger and faster than Dynamoman, and the gate in his chest holds a number of fun surprises, which you'll all be seeing soon enough. Who's ready to try and take us down?"
The crowd cheered a third time, a captivated and obedient audience, as Mr. Famous transported Gateman to the DenDome Netbattle arena, along with the first competitor. Mayl, Dex and Yai watched intently as the battle began, and a highly customized, red-colored Navi tried in vain to land a hit on its opponent.
"Man, this guy doesn't look so tough!" Dex proclaimed. "Look at him! I bet Gutsman could flatten him, no problem!"
"Well, Megaman didn't look so tough either," Mayl reminded him, smirking. Dex snorted.
"Bah! You won't be smirking like that once I beat Gateman's head in!" The three of them continued to bicker and laugh, as each child waited eagerly for their turn to battle.
Back at his home, Lan was tiredly buttering a piece of toast in his kitchen before taking a bite, thankful that he was finally able to keep food down without his stomach throwing a fit. He'd had a rough week ever since his attempt to use Megaman's HubStyle ability, but he was finally starting to recover. As he took a bite of his extremely late breakfast, he turned toward the front door as he heard the doorknob rattle and turn, and he watched with surprise as his father stepped inside.
Dr. Hikari's eyes quickly found his son, eyebrows raising. "Oh good, you're up. How are you feeling?"
Lan quickly chewed and swallowed. "Hey. Better, sort of. My stomach's better now, anyway."
Yuichiro nodded, closing the door behind him. "Geez, poor kid. I'm sorry about that. I had no idea HubStyle would make you this sick for this long."
"It's not your fault," the boy answered, his reply more true than Yuichiro realized. In truth, Lan had recovered from the attempted synchronization by the next day, and had used this time to reach out to a proficient hacker at his school, several grades above him. After agreeing to take on the older boy's school chores for the remainder of the semester, he had granted the hacker access to his PET and gotten the HubStyle lock removed. Lan and Megaman then spent the next week attempting to utilize HubStyle at least twice a day, for as long as they could handle it, greatly extending the length of Lan's illness. After days of near-endless misery, he had finally gotten to the point where full synchronization didn't immediately cause him to fall ill, though he couldn't maintain it for long.
"Well, I'm glad you're on the mend," his father offered. "Where's your mother?"
"She's out running a bunch of errands today. She won't be back for a while."
"Got it," came Yuichiro's reply. "Do you think you're well enough to travel downtown?"
"Downtown?" Lan raised an eyebrow. "Probably, but why? What's downtown?" He took another bite of his toast.
"SciLab's downtown," Yuichiro answered. "There's someone there right now who might be able to help Megaman become stronger, without risking your health in the process."
"Really?" Lan's eyebrows shot up, surprised that his father was still pursuing this course of action. "What is it?"
"You'll see when we get there." His father stepped back toward the door, inviting Lan to come along. "And not a word of this to your mother. She won't understand."
"Right." Lan followed his father to the entrance of the house, holding his toast in his mouth as he kneeled down to put his shoes on. He didn't like lying to his parents, but he had to do whatever he could in order to stop Forte, no matter what that meant. He and Megaman were likely the only ones who could do the job.
The two boys walked outside, getting into Yuichiro's car and driving off toward SciLab.
"And another one falls!" An announcer's voice boomed over the loudspeaker at DenDome, as hundreds of children cheered in support of Mr. Famous, with a handful cheering for his opponent.
"It's almost our turn!" Mayl exclaimed excitedly. "Are you guys ready?" Yai and Dex both nodded, as they counted off one, two, three other children who were in line to battle.
"Close, but not quite!" Mr. Famous declared, as another Navi vanished from the DenDome Cyber arena, and he fed Gateman a collection of recovery chips. "We've seen some good matches so far, but nobody's been able to best me yet! Who's going to try their hand next?"
"I am!" a female voice called out, echoing through the stadium as it was broadcast over the speakers. Everyone started looking around, wondering who was talking, including Mr. Famous and his Navi. Their question was answered a moment later, as a gold beam of light shot down from the sky onto the floor of the Cyber arena, taking the form of a dark-skinned Navi with long, blond hair and a pillowy, white-and-black outfit.
Gateman dropped into a defensive stance. "Who are you?"
The new arrival gestured toward herself with her thumb, grinning confidently. "The name's Serenade! They call me the Queen of the Undernet. I'm one of the most powerful Navis in the world, and I've never lost a battle." She flexed her right bicep, showing off. "Defeating one of the most famous heroes on the Net will be a feather in my cap."
Both Gateman and his operator sized up this new challenger, as they took in the confused but excited murmuring from the crowd. They were able to recognize an overacting villain when they saw one, but neither of them had been briefed on any show battles happening during this exhibition. The two Navis stared each other down for several seconds.
"Queen of the Undernet, huh?" Mr. Famous moved quickly into playing the hero role, not about to let slip to the audience that something was amiss. "Is that supposed to scare me?"
"If you're not scared now, you will be." Serenade smirked. "So what's it going to be? Are you going to fight, or are you going to chicken out?"
"We never run away from a challenge!" the operator retorted, striking his trademarked Famous Pose that caused the crowd to cheer uproariously. "You had better prepare yourself, Undernet Queen!"
Inside the Cyberworld, Gateman formed a blaster on the end of his arm, firing off a quick shot at his opponent. Serenade easily danced out of the way, dashing forward and swinging a fist toward Gateman's head, which he caught handily.
"So, who are you really, and what is this about?" Mr. Famous demanded, speaking quietly through his Navi as the two of them pretended to struggle against each other.
"I told you exactly who I am," she responded. "And this could be nothing. Or it could be the most important show of your entire life." She took a step back, forming a Sword on her right arm. "So keep quiet and play your role." She made a long and slow overhead swing, which her opponent easily blocked with a blade of his own.
"And what if I don't want to do that?"
"Then the two of us fight for real," she answered bluntly. "And you're going to want that even less."
Serenade stepped away, taking a weak blast to her face, brushing it off along with the cheers that she could hear from the real world. She fired off with a retaliatory blast of her own, and Gateman continued to grudgingly play along as the two clashed in a boastful and showy manner.
Lan followed his father up to the man's office, keeping his eyes forward, not well enough to curiously take in his surroundings as he usually did. As they walked in, his eyes snapped to his father's computer chair, which was currently occupied by a middle-aged man with a short beard, graying blond hair, and a green suit. As the two Hikaris walked in, he looked up from his PET and took in the sight of the young boy.
"So this is the lad, is he?" the man asked. "The one hoping to defeat Bass?"
"Hoping to, yes," Yuichiro answered, as Lan studied this other man. "We don't have many options left. I told you about how well HubStyle worked."
"Yes, you did. Graduate school all over again, eh, Yuichiro?" The man smirked at Dr. Hikari, who gave a contrite smile in return.
"Um… sorry, but who are you, sir?" Lan asked politely, still not sure what was happening.
"My name is Dr. Mikhail Cossack," the older scientist answered. "Your father worked under me at SciLab for several years. I was the lead scientist studying Bass, at the time."
The boy nodded. "Are you going to help make Megaman stronger?"
"In a sense," Cossack replied. "One of Bass's most powerful tools is his Get Ability program. It allows him to acquire abilities from viruses and other Navis, and use them for himself. I'm going to upgrade Megaman with the same program."
Lan's eyes slowly widened as he realized the implications of this. "Megaman's going to be able to get new powers? Without Battlechips?!"
"That's right," his father chimed in. "There will probably be some limitations, but it will make Megaman much more capable than he was before. He'll be better able to protect everyone."
Lan quickly reached down and pulled out his PET, looking into the screen. "Mega, are you hearing this? What do you think?"
"It sounds great to me!" his Navi replied excitedly. "Even without Forte in the picture, that's one of the most useful upgrades I can think of! Count me in!"
"Well, that's settled, then." Dr. Cossack held out his hand. "I'll need your PET."
The boy eagerly handed it over. "Thanks for this! This is going to be great!"
"No need to thank me for anything," the scientist replied, looking over the device. "I'm just an old man trying to atone for old mistakes… maybe if I had chosen a different course of action, we wouldn't all be in this situation right now." He turned to Dr. Hikari's computer, setting Megaman's PET in a terminal beside the keyboard. "Maybe this, maybe that… nothing I can do about it now, except try to rectify my previous errors."
Lan sensed that there was a story there, but now probably wasn't the time to dive further into it. "How long is this going to take?"
"Likely the better part of an hour," Cossack answered. "I have to rewrite parts of this program to interface with your Navi's systems, which is never easy."
"Alright…" Lan looked up toward his father, as Dr. Cossack began working. "Um… is it alright if I lie down for a bit somewhere?"
"Oh! Yeah, yeah, of course." Yuichiro gestured toward the back of the office. "Go ahead and use the bench. I've got a pillow and blanket around here somewhere for my all-nighters. I'll grab them for you." Lan nodded, trudging toward the bench as he remembered how crummy he felt, as his father searched through cabinets for some bedding.
As he walked past the door of his father's office, his eye caught some movement outside, and he turned to see Eugene Chaud rushing past, looking down at his PET. The young Official glanced inside the office as he sped by, and their eyes met for a brief moment. Chaud quickly looked away, not paying Lan any mind, continuing on down the hallway and out of sight.
"Huh… wonder where he's running off to…" Lan wondered aloud, before deciding he was too tired to think about it for long. He continued walking toward the bench, needing a bit of rest while his Navi was upgraded.
A small explosion rang out through the DenDome Cyber arena, as Serenade reeled from one of Gateman's powerful-looking attacks, landing on her back and sliding along the floor. The children in the audience cheered, thrilled to see their hero gain the upper hand against this villain, and hoping he could get back to battling against the spectators soon. Gateman ran forward as he drew his blade, leaping up into the air and swinging down toward his foe; Serenade summoned a sword of her own to block the attack.
Her eyes met his, as they pushed weakly against each other's blades. "So, do you have some signature attack that you can end this battle with?"
"Of course," Gateman answered, as if it were obvious. Any self-respecting hero would have such an attack.
"Good," she replied. "I've got one of my own. When I use it, put your guard up and stand perfectly still." She planted her foot into his stomach and flung him away, getting to her feet and holding her arm, as if she had sustained a major injury to it.
"You're better than I thought…" she seethed. "But you're not nearly good enough." She stood up straighter, extending her outstretched palm at her foe. "This attack will put an end to you!"
Gateman dropped into a defensive stance, bracing himself as a powerful blast of wind slammed into him. He held still as he had been told, leaning into the wind, watching as a large number of electric impulses began to travel along the ground in his direction, exploding all around him. The audience gasped as he vanished behind a large cloud of smoke, fearing the worst.
Serenade eventually lowered her hand, a genuinely pleased smirk crossing her face. She'd put on a good show, but more importantly, she'd also confirmed the presence of her real target, here in DenDome. The tracking technology she had put in place around the Cyberworld had done its job, activating as soon as a certain Navi got close enough to the action, taking the bait that she had dangled in front of him. Once she was "defeated" by Mr. Famous, she would be able to track down her prey and put an end to the threat they posed.
As the smoke cleared, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped as Gateman remained standing, unscathed, still bracing himself. "What… but how?! It's not possible! You should be deleted!"
Mr. Famous laughed confidently, buoyed by the cheers all around him, fully leaning into the show battle at this point. "You're the one who's not good enough, Undernet Queen! You and your Undernet minions are never going to bother anyone again!"
Everyone watched, enraptured, as Gateman reached down and grasped the metal doors installed in his chest. He opened them up as if they were a wardrobe, and a powerful-looking cannon appeared from within, starting to charge up with energy. Serenade watched nervously as the impending blast grew more and more powerful, dutifully standing in place to receive her coup de grace.
Just before the cannon reached its peak charge, Serenade could hear a sound like a laser blast combined with a loud crack, echoing through the Cyber arena. She turned quickly, watching as a thin, purple beam shot toward her from the edges of the Cyberworld. As the energy beam came within inches of her frame, two orange bands flashed into existence behind her, as if forming a small section of a larger, invisible sphere. The beam stopped dead as it hit the edge of this protective barrier, evaporating and vanishing into thin air.
Gateman immediately stopped charging his cannon, realizing that something had drastically changed. He closed his chest again and ran up behind Serenade, following her gaze, trying to see where the last attack had come from.
"Have you had that barrier this entire time?" he inquired under his breath. Serenade gave no reply, still looking for the perpetrator, stunned that he would willingly reveal himself like this. Gateman decided that she was right when she said he didn't want to fight her.
The audience started murmuring in confusion, not sure why the fighting had stopped, starting to get lost in the bizarre plot of this fictional battle. A few moments later, their attention was drawn to another Navi emerging from the shadows of the Cyberworld, floating in the air, sporting large fins on his head and a brown, tattered cloak wrapped around his torso. Only two children recognized the strange new interloper as he appeared. Mayl and Dex gasped and leaned forward, in shock, looking at each other for a moment before turning back toward the screen.
Inside the DenDome Cyberworld, Serenade and Gateman kept their eyes locked on the Navi as he approached, both of them taking defensive stances. The Navi kept his eyes on Serenade until he was within speaking distance.
"You're a terrible actress," Forte spoke nonchalantly.
"So you finally showed up," she responded, ignoring his insult. "You didn't really think you could take me out with one attack, did you?"
"It wouldn't have surprised me if I could," he retorted. "My power outstripped yours ages ago. You're nothing next to me, now. And still, you tried to draw me out, as if you stood a chance against me in battle."
"Don't underestimate me," the female Navi warned. "You've done it before and you've regretted it." She glanced backward, toward the Navi standing behind her. "Plus, you're outnumbered."
Forte smirked confidently and derisively. "You think I'm scared?" He clenched his fists, falling into an offensive stance. "I'll take on the both of you, right here and now!"
"What?!" Serenade exclaimed, along with several other voices from the audience. "Are you out of your mind?!"
Forte grinned maliciously. "Why don't you try me and find out?"
"You…" She growled, standing up straight. "Fine, then! Get ready!" She extended her palm in Forte's direction, firing off a massive energy blast. He easily dodged the projectile and rushed the two Navis, beginning an intense three-way battle.
Yuichiro stood over his son for a few moments, watching him sleep deeply on his office bench, a blanket covering his body and a pillow under his head. He could feel a now-familiar lump of guilt in his throat, reminding him of just who had done this to the young boy, even if it was by accident. He knew that Haruka was right, that twelve-year-old boys should not be risking their lives to save the world, and he wished more than anything that some other hero might emerge to defeat the Navi that was now threatening all of Electopia. If only his family could be so lucky, he thought to himself.
He eventually turned away, walking back toward his computer, where his old mentor was typing away as he rewrote hundreds of lines of code on the fly. "How's it going?"
"It's going well," Dr. Cossack answered. "No major complications. You did a good job creating this Navi."
"Thanks." Yuichiro frowned. "At times like this, I wish I hadn't done such a good job. Maybe then someone else could be the one doing the fighting."
"We don't get to choose the circumstances of our lives," the older scientist replied. "All we can do is make the most of what's laid before us."
"Yeah… I sure hope I'm making the most of this." Dr. Hikari watched Megaman's code flying by on the screen, as the Navi sat in stasis inside his PET. The machine sat quietly in a port on the desk, switched over to a limited debug mode, unable to receive the frantic calls and texts currently being sent from Lan's friends.
