New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Side Story: The History of Forte
Chapter 2: Acquisition
The black Navi sat on the floor of the Cyberworld, deep in thought like every other day. He had occupied himself with a very difficult task: speculating on his own past, when he had no memories to work with. The present and future were of little interest to him; he knew what the present held, and the future that Dr. Cossack had detailed him was perfectly agreeable. The only things he wondered about were his origins, and so he focused on them every moment of his spare time.
Could he really just be the anomalous creation of an unrelated laboratory experiment? In an instant, he had come into this world, with a fully-formed body and mind. He was anything but a child; he had an extensive knowledge of the natural world, including physical laws and how computer systems operated, and he was quite mature on an intellectual level even for a human, let alone a Navi. The one thing he didn't have was any personal experience with any of these things, a rather peculiar gap. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed as though his memories had somehow been erased. That didn't make much sense either, but none of his theories were all that credible.
"Any luck, Bass?"
The black Navi looked up, seeing a screen in front of him, through which Dr. Cossack's face looked back at him curiously.
"None, as usual." He stood up. "No memories at all, not even the faintest inkling. Theories are all I have to go on, and those won't do me much good."
"Well, don't let it get to you," Cossack offered. "I've got a different kind of experiment today." Before Bass could ask what it was, a small, glowing sphere appeared in front of him.
"What is this?" he wondered, looking down at it curiously.
"Touch it and find out," the doctor replied. Bass shrugged and reached out, putting his hand on the glowing sphere. In a flash of light, the sphere vanished into thin air, and Bass felt a strange warmth and presence inside him for a second.
He looked down at his hands. "What's happened? Was I just upgraded?"
Cossack nodded. "I want to see how you'll use it in demanding situations."
The Navi's eyebrows raised. "Demanding?" Hearing the sound of metal against metal behind him, he turned around and was met with a large, metallic, spider-like virus. It had four long, thin legs supporting its torso, and its arms each ended in some sort of laser cannon. The virus started advancing and firing on Bass, sending out thin, purple laser beams; he moved quickly to dodge the attacks, able to sense their immense power.
"Cossack, how am I supposed to use this upgrade? I don't even know what it is!"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out," was the reply. He grumbled under his breath, powering up an energy blast and flinging it at the virus. It bounced right off the virus's metallic frame, not doing any damage whatsoever, and the virus continued its advance, firing more lasers. Bass quickly backed off and began thinking to himself.
Okay, I need to think here... He kept his eyes on the virus. My attacks just bounce right off of it. What is that thing made of? I need to get a better look before I proceed... He dashed forward, avoiding more lasers as he moved to get up right next to the virus. One of them passed right next to his head, nearly taking out one of his fins.
Damn... need to be more careful with those lasers, he thought to himself, as he put his hand on the virus, trying to get a sense of its construction. That'd be a useful attack to have...
Immediately upon thinking this, Bass felt a familiar sensation, a strange warmth and presence suddenly occurring inside him. The virus went quiet and docile for a second, then immediately turned toward around, on the warpath once again. The Navi jumped backward and swung his hand in the virus's direction, his mind once again focused on the lasers. Immediately, a thin, purple laser, exactly like what the virus was firing, emitted from the tips of his fingers, flying over the head of his foe. He jumped and looked down at his hand, startled, before he came to an understanding.
"So this was the upgrade you gave me, was it?"
"Well done," Cossack congratulated him. "Now put that beam to good use, hm?" Bass smirked and pointed his fingers directly at the virus, firing a laser that pierced directly through the creature's torso. It stalled for a second before collapsing and disintegrating, its remains flying away.
"That's my Get Ability program," the scientist explained, his screen popping up once again. "It allows you to copy and acquire most abilities from viruses, Navis, other devices... I thought it would encourage your problem-solving skills."
"Impressive," Bass commented, looking at his hand. "This could be extremely useful to have. Not just attacks, but defense, support abilities..."
"That's the kind of thinking I'm hoping to encourage." Cossack had difficulty hiding the pride in his voice. "The ability to solve problems without violence."
The Navi looked back up, lowering his hand. "For someone who abhors violence as you do, you spend a lot of time testing my strength."
"Yes, well…" The scientist scratched the side of his head. "Those are orders from above me. My hands are tied, I'm afraid."
"Hmph." Bass didn't care much for the SciLab executives above Cossack, a contempt he had frequently made clear. "Is that all for today?"
"No, that's not all," Cossack replied. "I've got some other things to try as well. More standard experiments as usual. We can get started whenever you're ready."
His subject nodded. "Let's get started, then."
Day 71: Bass is finally beginning to show serious progress regarding his moral compass. His Get Ability program has allowed him to acquire a number of different abilities, both offensive and defensive, and he is now regularly using them to seek out less destructive means of ending battles. Five days ago, as previously noted, he was faced with a battle situation in which he elected to disable his opponents rather than destroy them. Today, however, he expressed for the first time a desire to cease the combat tests entirely, and to move to experiments that were more intellectually stimulating.
As such, I am officially declaring his strength tests complete. In addition to the subject's lack of desire to continue, I have exhausted my resources and creativity, and I feel my data is as robust as it is ever going to be. His abilities are superlative in every way; he is to SciLab's best efforts as an elephant is to an insect. With his permission, I have conducted a number of analyses on his structure, and I have offered this data to two SciLab protegés, Lucius Regal and Yuichiro Hikari, who are working with SciLab in conjunction with their graduate research. Given their past successes, I expect them to do great things with this information.
Bass's intellectual capacities, however, continue to astonish me week after week. He has shown a capacity for reasoning that far exceeds any computer or Navi I have been able to work with, and I see no reason not to speak to him as my intellectual equal. I feel the next step in my research with Bass is to involve him more directly with my work at SciLab. I believe it could be possible, in the span of one or two years, to make him a member of our SciLab research team. My mind is truly reeling with the possibilities.
Cossack sat back, satisfied with his log entry. He looked out the window, taking in the sight of Den City at night; the sun had set about an hour ago, and most other employees had long since departed. He had stayed behind, caught up in his research with Bass, fascinated with his mental capacity. He put his feet up on the desk, planning out the next stage in his research.
"Another late night, Cossack?"
The doctor turned around in his swivel chair, to face the voice that came from behind him. He quickly stood up and saluted, finding himself faced with a three-star general of the Electopian army.
The man laughed. "At ease, Cossack, at ease. How're you? How's the baby?"
"She's fine, thanks. Her mother's staying home with her for a little while before she goes back to work." Cossack lowered his arm and relaxed his stance. "What brings you here, Petros?"
General Petros leaned against the back wall of the offace. "The guys at SciLab have been making quite a bit of buzz about a certain new Navi here. Bass, was it?"
"He's unlike any Navi anyone has ever seen," Cossack responded, his eyes lighting up at the subject. "Talking to him is like talking with a human, an adult human. He's amazingly intelligent."
"Yeah, I heard something about that," the general replied, rather dismissively. "Other people have been talking about how strong he is, though. Powerful like a computerized atom bomb."
The other man shook his head. "Well, that's something we would have achieved before too long. It just takes time. His mind, now that's really amazing. His strength is extraordinary, but not particularly interesting."
Petros smirked. "That depends who you're talking to, Cossack. With a Navi that powerful, imagine the sort of things he could achieve for weapons research. He could work wonders, working with a PMC, or a state military..."
Dr. Cossack glared at his visitor, knowing this was not a simple friendly visit. "What do you want, general?"
"Right to the point, then. I want this Navi." The general stood up fully, trying to appear as imposing as he could manage. "With his strength, we could analyze him and use him to simulate new weaponry. We could make weapons of incredible power. There wouldn't be a nation that would dare challenge us. Total military superiority... think about it."
"Absolutely not." Cossack unfolded his arms. "I'm not going to stop my research because you want to rise in the world ranks. Bass is going to revolutionize the world of Navis and supercomputing. He could be the bridge to the future. And in case you haven't noticed, this is a time of peace. There's no reason to develop weapons."
"Cossack, don't be naive. Don't forget about the ongoing violence in the far North. Not to mention several of our allies are mere economic partners. If they should break off their economic ties with Electopia, the balance of world power would shift drastically."
"You're completely paranoid, Petros," the doctor answered. "But even if you weren't, my answer would still be no. I'm not letting you take him. He means too much for our research."
Petros tutted. "I'm sorry to hear that." He reached into his jacket, pulling out some papers. "I didn't want to have to use these..."
Cossack eyeballed them carefully, trying to read them. "What are those?"
"They're tax forms. More specifically, they're your 2068 tax returns." He pulled out a pair of reading glasses, putting them on and taking a look at the forms. "Would you look at that... ten million Zennys in income from the IPC Corporation, for various research contributions. I wonder where exactly you had the time and resources to do that kind of work?"
He smirked and looked up at Cossack, whose cool demeanor betrayed the panic that had gripped his body. "Come to think of it, there's a lot of computing resources available here in SciLab… and you do spend a lot of time here after hours, I hear?"
The scientist didn't respond, staring down the general and trying to ignore the feeling of his blood turning to ice. Petros brushed this off, continuing on assertively.
"You hand Bass over, and I can make these little discrepancies disappear, and you can continue your little side job with IPC. If you resist, I can't guarantee your job security, I'm afraid."
"You realize blackmail is against the law, general." Cossack finally found his voice, but Petros merely laughed.
"You're going to take me to federal court? Even if you do that, your activity was against the rules as well. You'll be a disgrace in the public eye, and then not even IPC is going to employ you. If you don't hand Bass over, you're going to be delivering pizzas for a living, Mikhail."
Cossack's mind was working overtime. If he refused the general's demands, he could at least ensure that Bass landed in the hands of Hikari or Regal, who would most certainly be able to continue his research. On the other hand, he would be an outcast in the scientific community; no company would allow him to work for them, and his career would be over. No matter what he decided, he would lose something important to him.
He finally sighed and unfolded his arms. "I'll go and get him."
Petros grinned evilly, handing over a spare PET. "Glad you're seeing sense, Cossack. Don't be long, now."
Dr. Cossack took the PET from Petros and walked out of his office, heading down the hall and into the room where he conducted his research. He turned on the lights, looking at the machine where Bass was most likely sitting and thinking, trying to uncover the mysteries of his past. He stood still and stared at the device for a long time, a sick feeling growing in his stomach. This Navi wasn't just a test subject; he was his peer, he was the future of computer research, and though he had never said so out loud, he considered Bass to be a friend. He could scarcely imagine that the Navi wouldn't be there the next day, eager to prove himself to the doctor. These were the consequences of his greed, he supposed.
Forcing himself forward, he finally pulled the cable out of the spare PET and plugged it in.
