New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Side Story: The History of Forte
Chapter 3: Betrayal
Bass moved forward quickly and silently, on his way toward Sky Town's Net space in Cyber Net City. He rested his hand on the communicator device on his hip; it felt rather dated and overly large, but Petros had assured him that normal communication would be all but impossible when he was battling the Cybeasts. On top of that, the creatures had adverse and abnormal effects on any Navi that approached, and the bulky device would hopefully stop him from transforming. He zipped along, making his way into the Sky Town framework, searching for his opponents. He wasn't sure what sort of monsters could possibly be a match for him, which left him very intrigued by the battle that lay before him.
For the past three months, his life had been a frustrating tedium, as he had been used almost entirely by the military in order to develop and test their weapons. They would be simulated in cyberspace, and Bass would inevitably have to defend against them, or try and destroy them if they were something defensive. He found such mindless exercises to be beneath him. He could have left at any time, but he had other reasons for remaining.
He was working in government Net space, which meant that he was a stone's throw away from the SciLab Net area. Once he had realized what his new life would entail, he had returned to SciLab one night and looked for Dr. Cossack's computer, quickly finding his logs. It was obvious that Cossack had not given up Bass voluntarily, and he surmised that General Petros, the man who currently gave Bass his marching orders, had coerced the doctor into surrendering his project. His suspicions were supported by the fact that Cossack had left SciLab mere days later.
It was only every few days that he would be called upon for weapons testing, which gave the Navi plenty of time for whatever he wished to pursue. Any day that he was not needed was spent in secrecy at SciLab, observing the research teams and learning everything he possibly could about Navis, the Net, and the research going on in these areas. He had read Cossack's comments about him being capable of doing SciLab research on his own, and Bass aimed to prove him right. His nights, however, were spent looking into Petros, trying to find anything he could use to defame the man and get revenge for what he had done. He had remembered well the lesson about victory through non-violent means, but Cossack had never gotten the chance to teach him about turning the other cheek.
Three months on, Bass had surprised even himself with his progress. He had a deep understanding of the framework of the Net, and had managed to solve some problems that left the other researchers scratching their heads. Occasionally, the scientists would find themselves at a complete standstill, and Bass would have to leave them subtle hints in order to help them continue, by modifying their notes, or changing the results of an experiment ever so slightly. Most of his suggestions went to Yuichiro Hikari, who was proving himself to be the most competent and clever researcher among all of them. By working together in this rather unorthodox manner, research at SciLab flourished.
He had made a fair amount of progress with Petros, as well. From what he could find, the man had a history of abusing his power in order to further his goals, which only fueled Bass's suspicions. Delving as deep as he could, he was able to uncover a couple choice pieces of hard evidence, and he knew that, with enough planning, he could use them to expose the general's corruption to the public. Before he could get the chance, however, a couple of obstacles appeared.
Both SciLab and the military were heavily disrupted by the appearance of two incredibly powerful Net-based monsters, which they were referring to as the Cybeasts, Gregar and Falzar. SciLab had found themselves completely helpless in the face of these powerful creatures, and even the weapons Bass had helped develop in Net form could only deter them at best. After days of combat, the military decided to send in the mighty Navi himself to tip the scales. While he was intrigued by the possibility of a good battle, he wanted to get it over and done with, to get back to more productive activities.
Bass eventually found his targets cornered in a portion of the Sky Town Net. Two enormous creatures, a wolf and a falcon, were doing battle with a number of Navis, equipped with powerful military weapons. Each of the Cybeasts seemed to be fending for itself, as if two separate battles were being fought. With Bass added in, the monstrous creatures would most definitely lose this battle.
Moving forward, he saw the falcon, Falzar, extend its wings toward the military Navis, a flurry of razor-sharp feathers flew out toward its opponents. They braced themselves for impact, but it never came; looking forward, they saw the feathers being deflected by some sort of translucent blue shield.
"Looks like you could use a hand," Bass spoke from behind them. He glided forward, past the other Navis, to face the giant falcon. "I'll take this one. You focus your attention on the wolf."
"Are you crazy?! You can't take on one of those by yourself!" one of the Navis exclaimed, as Falzar fired another round of feathers at this new opponent. Bass lowered his arm and fired a strange projectile at the ground, and a tall cyclone sprouted out of it, which caught the feathers in its rotating winds. He pointed his finger toward the Cybeast, and all the feathers flew right back toward their owner, slicing its wings and causing Falzar to shriek in pain.
The head Navi blinked, dumbfounded, before turning to the others. "Everyone, focus all your attention on the wolf! Bass is going to take this one!" The military group rearranged itself, and the battle against the Cybeasts began again.
Hundreds of miles away, General Petros watched the action unfold on a computer screen, as several SciLab scientists watched as well from behind him. All of them were in awe at the Navi's capabilities, including the general himself, though he didn't let it show on his stony face.
"Amazing... Bass may be even more powerful than Dr. Cossack thought," one scientist commented.
Petros nodded. "With his help, those Cybeasts may end up being defeated after all. Let's hope he keeps it up..."
Another military officer stepped forward. "What happens if Bass ends up not being able to defeat them?"
"I've thought of that," the general answered very quietly, a bit of a smirk crossing his face. "I've got a backup plan in place, in case Bass is unable to continue." The other officer nodded, as his boss continued to smirk.
You think you can snoop around and get away with it, do you, Bass? Petros thought to himself. We'll see who has the last laugh, you meddlesome Navi.
After thirty minutes of battling, it appeared as if the Cybeasts were indeed going to lose. While Bass and Falzar were close to equally matched, the might of the military's cyber-weaponry had Gregar outclassed. Soon, only one Cybeast would remain, and Falzar would fall shortly after that.
Bass swiftly dodged a blast from his, gliding toward the falcon and slamming his body into it, and the beast flew backward and collided with its lupine counterpart. Standing back up, Gregar returned its focus to the Navis, while Falzar took a look at the advancing Bass. After pausing and contemplating for a minute, the Cybeast turned away and joined Gregar in his attack on the other Navis.
Bass's eyes widened. "No, no, no!" He dashed forward, ready to attack Falzar again, but Gregar reared up instead, charging and knocking the unprepared Navi a good distance away. As Bass groaned and stood up, he watched as the two Cybeasts, in almost no time at all, tore a completely unsuspecting military corps to shreds. When only a few Navis and weapons were left, the two creatures turned their attention to the more dangerous threat that remained.
Bass cursed under his breath, knowing he could never take on both Gregar and Falzar in battle. Racking his brain for plans, he found none, but decided to proceed as best he could anyway, having no other recourse.
"Alright, you two," he started, flying toward the two monsters. "Let's see how powerful all of us really are!" He raised his glowing fist and prepared to attack, when he suddenly became aware of a beeping sound from his hip. Looking down quickly, he saw that his overlarge communicator was beeping; a moment later, it started to glow and crackle with energy.
"Petros..." Bass muttered, eyes wide, understanding in an instant. "You..."
As the remaining Navis watched, Bass and the Cybeasts were engulfed in a massive explosion of amazing power. Several of the surviving Navis were caught up in the blast, and the framework of the Net itself was partially torn apart. The devices through which Petros and the others observed the battle were nearly destroyed, overloaded with energy. When the smoke and the light finally faded, the observers saw the crippled, immobile Cybeasts lying on the rent ground, with a very small number of Navis remaining. Bass was nowhere to be found.
Petros stared for a moment, giving an impression of surprise, before leaning in and issuing orders. "All remaining Navis, move in! Use the Petrifier to capture those two Cybeasts, while we have the chance!" The Navis nodded and moved toward the damaged creatures, no one saying a word about Bass's apparent suicide. Petros nodded to himself, smiling inwardly, proud to have killed two birds with one stone.
Far away from the site of the Cybeast battle, a crowd of dark Navis gathered in a circle, as something in the center began to stir. The Navi eventually opened his eyes, blinking and looking around as his vision came back to him.
"Wha..." Bass started. "Where am I? What happened?"
"Oh good, you're finally awake," a female voice commented. He looked toward the voice to find a dark-skinned Navi, dressed in black clothes with large white pants; long, blonde bangs flowed from a golden helmet, and her shoulders, stomach and wrists bore golden armor as well. "I can't believe you weren't deleted. Your pieces were scattered all across the Undernet."
"The Undernet..." He had heard much about this place. It was a portion of the Net to which rogue Navis and dangerous Operators had flocked, and it had been close to forsaken by most, due to the decrepit state of its network. Bass was unsure of how exactly it had gotten into this state, but he put it out of his mind for now.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get up."
He looked up at the Navi. "Excuse me?"
The female Navi smirked. "I want to fight you. It's been ages since I had a good battle."
The other Navis backed away as Bass stood up, somewhat baffled by this strange request. "You don't know what you're talking about. You don't want to battle me."
"Trust me, I do." She cracked her knuckles. "Unless you're afraid you'll be humiliated, of course..."
Bass snorted derisively. He quickly realized that this was the sort of place driven by power and respect, and that backing down from a challenge was of no use to him. "I'm not afraid of any Navi, least of all yourself." He started to power himself up.
"Now that's more like it!" The black and gold Navi dropped into stance. "Alright, show me what you've got!"
Bass fired an energy blast toward his opponent, which she deftly dodged, and the battle began.
