New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 4: Defiance of Fate
Chapter 6: Breaking and Entering
Megaman rested in his PET, stressed out from the day and doing his best to let his mind wander. He had just gotten settled in, used to the quiet hum of the machine he was resting in, when a voice nearly made him jump out of his frame.
"Psst! Megaman!" He turned around quickly, on alert, and his eyes focused on the connection out to Lan's computer. He was surprised to see Roll there, waving to him.
"Roll? What are you doing here?" He stepped out of his PET and into the home page of Lan's computer, where Roll was waiting. The home page was the barrier between the computer or PET and the rest of the Net; only permitted Navis were allowed to directly enter it, like Gutsman or Roll, and only Megaman was allowed to go through into the computer itself.
"I couldn't rest… I'm too worried about Mayl," she answered, sounding more motivated than upset.
"Yeah…" Megaman nodded, understanding. "You want to talk about it?"
Roll shook her head. "No. I want to do something about it."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Well…" She put her hands behind her back, rocking back and forth a bit, making Megaman immediately suspicious of what she was about to say. "Mayl and Lan can't investigate properly unless they know more about what actually happened, right?"
"Right…" He cocked his head. "Please tell me you aren't planning what I think you're planning."
"It wouldn't be that bad," she insisted. "We'll just get the police report and leave…"
"That is that bad!" he shot back. "This is a really bad idea, Roll. What happens if we get caught?"
"What, you think we're going to get caught?"
He sighed, and she continued. "We'll just make a quick copy and leave. If there's nothing interesting in it, we'll destroy it and forget it ever happened. Can you help me?"
"Well, I'm clearly not stopping you," he responded, partly annoyed and partly amused. "Fine, I'll go along. But I'm going to complain about it."
Roll grinned wide in response. "Well, that will give us something to talk about on the way there." She turned and headed out to the wider Net, as Megaman followed.
A little less than an hour later, the two of them were sneaking through the network of the Den City police station. They had carefully made their way through the main entrance using a combination of hacking and Invisible chips, and they were hanging on to a couple more for the trip out.
"Not very good security here," Megaman whispered. "SciLab security is a thousand times better."
"You've tried to sneak into SciLab?" Roll responded, finding the police report repository and starting to rifle through it, her fingers flicking over folders in a giant file cabinet.
"Um… no comment."
She smirked knowingly. "Uh huh… well, maybe you can comment some other time." She continued to pore over the files, as he kept an eye out for other Navis on patrol. A few minutes later, she reached in and pulled something out triumphantly.
"This is it!" Megaman turned around, seeing her hold onto the rectangular data file in both hands, focusing. Seconds later, her hands separated, one copy of the file in each hand, and she stuffed one back into the file repository. "Alright, we have what we need. Let's get out of here."
The two of them started tiptoeing back toward the entrance, eager to get out of here and out of danger. As they approached the entrance, both of them used their remaining Invisible chips, disappearing from sight. Megaman reached out and slowly pushed the door open, just enough for the two of them to sneak out, and they slipped through as quickly as they could. Once they were safely outside, they both sighed in relief and reappeared, thankful that the police station only cared about unauthorized entry and not unauthorized exit.
"Thank goodness that's over." Megaman exhaled. "I hope I never have to do something like that again."
"That makes two of us." Roll stood up straight, holding out the hand with the file in it. As she focused on it, it changed form, twisting into a band and wrapping around her wrist, in order to keep it more secure. "Let's get out of here before someone sees us."
The two of them started walking through the Net, back toward their homes, trying not to hurry and draw suspicion. Once they got a block away, however, Megaman noticed a large shadow suddenly appear on top of Roll, fuzzy at first but quickly growing sharper, forming a humanoid shape.
"Look out!" He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back toward him, jumping back as a large red Navi smashed into the ground, where Roll had been just moments before. She leaped back as well, quickly taking a defensive stance as the Navi stood as fully as he could, turning toward the pair. He was a tall and large Navi, with both his head and his torso made out of large magnets. The Navi was leaning a bit to one side, as if he had been injured.
"I thought I might find you two here," he muttered to himself, barely loud enough for the others to hear. "This time will turn out differently…"
"What are you talking about?" Megaman demanded, forming his Mega Buster on his hand. "Who are you?"
"My name is Magnetman," he replied, in a louder voice. "I know what you two are doing here. You won't be leaving with that file… or at all."
Before his opponents could ask how he could possibly know, he outstretched his arms, shooting what looked like more magnets at the both of them. They both dodged out of the way as the magnets shot past, and Megaman quickly stood up to fire his buster at his enemy. Before he could get a shot off, however, he turned his head to see that the magnet had quickly done a U-turn and was shooting back at him again. He didn't have time to get out of the way before it ran into his side, exploding and knocking him away.
"Mega!" Roll cried out, before she too was knocked away by the magnet missile. They both scrambled to their feet, sore, as Magnetman started firing more missiles after them. They both started running away, firing buster shots and arrows in Magnetman's direction as they tried to outrun the pursuing missiles. Some of their hits managed to connect, due to their foe's injury, but he was able to get away without much damage.
"Why are you here?!" Megaman shouted as he charged toward Magnetman, the missiles following. "How do you know what we're doing? Why do you care?!"
Magnetman refused to answer, leaping away as best he could. "Trying to lure me into my own attack? You insult my intelligence." He turned and swung his fist into Megaman's gut, sending the blue Navi flying. He landed hard on the ground, skidding to a stop, watching the other magnet missiles flying in his direction.
"Grr…" He grabbed a Long Sword from his preset folder, sitting up and stabbing into the air with the blade. He managed to hook the U-shaped magnet between its poles, swinging the sword and flinging it a good distance away. He stood up, watching the missile eventually turn around and fly back toward him, followed by several others.
Glancing back toward his opponent, who wasn't too far away, an idea popped into his mind. As the first missile approached, he reached out and hooked it again, turning and flinging it toward the unsuspecting Magnetman. His foe didn't have time to react before the missile exploded against his body, and Megaman grinned, reaching out for another.
"Roll!" He called out, catching her attention, and she watched as he started flinging other missiles in Magnetman's direction. Grinning and nodding, she summoned a Sword and started doing the same thing. Magnetman tried to escape, but due to his injured side he wasn't capable of moving fast enough, and he was bombarded by about a dozen missiles. When the smoke cleared, he was on one knee, clearly in bad shape.
He looked up to see Megaman and Roll advancing on him, swords drawn, ready to put an early end to this fight. He gritted his teeth as he watched them walk, seeing their opposed pink and blue colors, and he smirked as he got an idea. He held out his hand, and the pair held up their blades, expecting more missiles to appear. A second later, the two of them started glowing bright red and blue, and before they could figure out what happening they were lifted off their feet, pulled toward each other and slamming hard against each other's frames, painfully.
Magnetman laughed as the two of them struggled to get to their feet, magnetically bound to each other, unable to separate. "Surprised, hm? Lucky for me there's two of you idiots here." He lowered his hand, and Megaman and Roll felt themselves separate from each other. They scrambled to get away from each other, back toward their feet, but Magnetman raised his hand again, and the two slammed painfully back into each other.
Megaman tried to sit up, annoyed, firing some buster shots at his advancing foe. "How are we supposed to fight like this? He can slam us together anytime he wants."
"Well, it seems obvious to me," Roll responded, as they felt themselves separate again. "We'll just have to stick together." She stood up and pulled Megaman to his feet, then linked her arm in his, holding him close.
"Huh…" He grinned at her, impressed with her thinking, before turning back to Magnetman. "You can run faster than me, so follow my lead." She nodded, and the two of them leaped at their opponent as one, swinging their blades. He jumped away, groaning a bit in pain, but still keeping a satisfied smirk on his face. They continued their pursuit as he ran away, the two of them slowly getting closer and closer, inching closer to the fatal blow.
"One more…!" Megaman and Roll prepared to slash one more time, ready to end this fight, but before they leaped they realized that both of them were glowing blue. Seconds later, their arms were forcibly separated as they flew violently apart, skidding along the ground, taken completely by surprise.
"Magnets don't just attract, you know… they also repel!" Magnetman grinned, keeping his hand held out, changing Roll's colors and having the two Navis slam into each other again. He continued to constantly alternate colors, having his opponents fly apart and slam back together at high speeds, doing progressively more damage to them with each collision.
After about a half-dozen repetitions of this, both Megaman and Roll lay painfully on the ground, separated from each other by about a dozen yards. They tried to sit up, but their bodies were bruised and nearly broken from inadvertently pummeling each other, and they lay on the ground as their enemy walked closer.
"Like I said, this won't end like it did last time," he commented. "My master's integrity will stay safe, now."
"Who… who is…" Megaman managed, sitting up, as Roll was getting to one knee. Magnetman brushed the comment off, not answering.
"Time to finish the two of you off." He held up his hand again, ready to slam the two of them together until they were deleted. As his two opponents started to glow, Roll suddenly leaped forward, traveling a good distance before the two Navis started being pulled toward each other.
Magnetman watched her curiously as she moved and started to glow red, not sure what she was doing. His eyes went wide, however, when he saw the pink Navi barreling toward him at a high speed. He turned around and saw Megaman doing the same, realizing that after the female Navi's leap, he was exactly in the middle of the two of them. He didn't have any time to move or cancel the attack before they both extended their swords and slammed into him, both blades piercing right through his torso.
He gasped for air as the blades sliced through him, the strength leaving his frame, his eyes wide. Moments later, both Megaman and Roll fell to the ground as their colors returned to normal, and Magnetman's frame dissolved away into deletion.
Megaman rolled onto his back, groaning in pain. "That… really sucked. Great move at the end, though…" He glanced over at her as she lay back, seeing the file still safely bound around her wrist, and he sighed in relief.
"Thanks…" Roll looked up at the sky of the Cyberworld. "Who was that guy? He acted like he knew the two of us…" She glanced over at him. "You have any other enemies I should know about?"
"I've got plenty, but he's not one of them." He shook his head. "We should get back before anyone else tries to delete us."
Roll tried to sit up, but groaned in pain and lay back down. "You first." The two of them lay next to each other in the middle of the Den Net City street, trying to muster the strength to get back up.
Mayl was roused out of sleep by her alarm the next morning, reaching over and shutting it off, not in any hurry to get out of bed. She usually set her alarm even on the weekends, as she preferred being active in the mornings, but she didn't find herself with much energy today. A few minutes later, she tossed her blanket aside and slid out of bed, sitting up and stretching her arms, not sure what she was going to do today.
"I don't suppose there was any interesting news last night, was there, Roll?" she asked, not glancing toward the PET docked on her computer desk.
"Well, you could say that…" Mayl's eyes opened wider, surprised not just at Roll's choice of words, but at how tired and pained her voice was. She hopped out of bed and walked toward her computer, picking up her PET and glancing at the screen, gasping.
"Roll! You're hurt!" Her Navi had spent several hours recovering, but was still in rough shape from the battle with Magnetman. "What happened?!"
"I… went out last night. Looking for things." Roll chose her words carefully, not wanting to get into too much detail. "Take a look!" She brought up the file that she had pilfered with Megaman, and Mayl's eyes went wide as she realized what she was looking at.
"This… this is the police report for Papa…" Her eyes drank it in quickly, in disbelief, before she tore them away to look back at her Navi. "How did you get this?!"
"I…" Roll rubbed her sore arm. "I don't think you want to ask me that, Mayl."
Her operator looked back down into the PET screen, an avalanche of conflicting emotions cascading through her. Her excitement about getting the report was tempered by her fears that Roll had done something very wrong and very dangerous in pursuit of it.
"Roll…" After a lot of consideration, she decided that she didn't want to worry herself about it just yet. "Thank you, thank you so much for this. Get some rest." Roll nodded and went back into recovery mode, as Mayl activated her phone, giving Lan an immediate call.
