New Megaman Battle Network

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

Story 4: Defiance of Fate


Chapter 7: Ampere

One hour later, Lan was standing behind Mayl as she sat at her computer, the two of them scrolling through the digital pages of the police report. Roll and Megaman were there as well, recovering in their PETs but still paying attention. Megaman's injuries were impossible to hide, and it was easy enough for the two operators to figure out that whatever Roll had been up to last night, Megaman had been up to it as well. They decided to leave it for another time, however.

So far, they had scrolled through a lot of boring procedural stuff, with lengthy descriptions and lots of legal codes. They finally had a list of items that were stolen, which gave them at least something to look into, though they weren't sure how to follow up on it. They were getting close to the end, but nothing significant was jumping out at them. As their spirits started to drop again, they came across a handwritten note, which was a bit of a surprise.

"What does this say?" Lan asked, leaning forward to get a better look at the text, as Mayl read it aloud.

Direct security footage of the incident has not been included, as it was damaged and could not be recovered. We identified the thief through metadata trails, provided by IPC and analyzed by MG. This information is being stored in detail in the evidence database; a summary of this information is provided on the next page. -Nakashima

"So they don't have any video?" Mayl sat back, surprised but relieved. If she had seen video of her father breaking into IPC and stealing items, she would not have been able to handle it. "They just have metadata? That's… vague."

"That could mean anything," Megaman offered. "Or it could mean nothing. That could be the sort of thing you write when you don't have anything to write."

"What's 'MG' supposed to be?" Lan wondered aloud, looking up. "IPC I know, but I've never heard of a company whose letters start with MG."

"Me either," Mayl responded, trying to think of what it could stand for. "Metal Gear… Massive, Major, Meta… Metadata something? Metadata Guessers?"

Lan grabbed his PET, starting to look up possibilities, as Megaman thought to himself, thinking that those initials seemed familiar. A few moments later, he blinked, his eyes widening, as he made a connection. "Magnus Gauss."

"Huh?" Everyone else looked in the blue Navi's direction, as he stood up fully.

"Magnus Gauss. The initials match. And come to think of it, his name is similar to Magnetman as well. That's why Magnetman tried to stop us yesterday. He didn't want us finding out who 'MG' was."

"Tried to stop you?" Lan glanced over Megaman. "So you were in a Netbattle?"

"You think we fell down the stairs?" his Navi responded, gesturing toward his injured frame, losing his patience for maintaining the deception. "He attacked us as soon as we… got the report. And he hit hard."

"Makes sense…" Roll agreed thoughtfully. "Vikos started working for this Gauss guy right around the time the theft happened. No way that's all a coincidence."

Mayl nodded slowly, becoming progressively more convinced that this was the truth, her previous hopelessness starting to be replaced with anger. "It was a frame-up. Gauss stole the stuff and he framed my dad." She stood up. "We need to tell someone."

"Who do we tell?" Megaman answered. "The police? That's who this report came from. They won't help. And even if they would, we don't have enough to convince them. All we have are suspicions. We need proof."

Lan nodded. "Yeah, we do…" He turned toward Mayl. "And I think I know how we can get some."


That afternoon, Lan and Mayl walked into one of the small lounges scattered throughout SciLab. Lan's father had agreed to talk to the two of them, but he had an important meeting with a government official that came first, so he sent them to wait for a few minutes. Lan sat down, looking toward a nearby television, while Mayl paced around anxiously. The room was mostly empty, except for one older-looking scientist who was clearly on a break, and a young girl who looked to be about six years old, holding onto a backpack on her lap and looking bored.

"Who could your dad be meeting with on a Sunday?" Mayl wondered aloud, trying not to be too impatient, but finding it difficult.

"Who knows?" Lan answered, leaning back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling. "He's always doing something. He's the busiest man in Electopia." He tilted his head forward, watching her pace. "We'll see him soon, don't worry."

The two of them waited for a few minutes, Mayl continuing to stand, until Lan spied his father walking down the hallway toward the two of them. He stood up, walking in his direction and waving, as his father waved back. Mayl started to follow, when she felt a gentle tug on her sleeve. She glanced down, surprised and curious, finding the little girl with the backpack looking up at her with innocent eyes.

"You're pretty," the girl stated in a matter-of-fact way. "Will you play with me?"

"Oh! Um…" She glanced down the hallway, then back down at the little girl, not wanting to say no, but not wanting to miss out on this meeting either.

"Go ahead." Lan nudged her a bit with his elbow, smiling a little. "I can talk to my dad, it's fine."

Mayl smiled and nodded back, thanking him, before turning back to the girl. "Alright, let's play." The girl cheered, leading Mayl away back toward where she was sitting, as Lan turned back toward his father.

"Sorry for the wait," Dr. Hikari said as he approached. "What did you want to talk about?"

"Well… we should go into your office to talk about it."

His father nodded, turning around and walking back into the room he came from, with Lan following behind. Soon they were both in Dr. Hikari's office, and the man shut the door behind them, turning back toward his son.

"Alright, shoot. What's up?" He folded his arms.

Lan took a deep breath, deciding to dive right into it. "We need to investigate Mr. Gauss's lab."

"No."

Lan blinked. "Why not?"

"What do you mean, why not?" his father responded, incredulous. "Absolutely not, no. You do not get to randomly explore the labs of our clients. What made you think I would say yes?"

"It's important, though!" Lan insisted. "This isn't just a random thing."

"And why is it important that you go peeking through his lab?" Dr. Hikari didn't sound upset, mostly annoyed and unimpressed.

"Because we think that he's connected to what happened to Mayl's dad!"

Yuichiro cocked his head. "How do you mean?"

"Well…" Lan took a deep breath, trying to keep the various pieces of evidence straight in his head. "Mayl's dad worked for Gauss, and he helped get him set up with the lab. And we found… something… saying that someone with the initials 'MG' might be involved."

"You found 'something'?" Lan's father leaned in questioningly, not liking where this conversation was going. "What have you been doing? Are you already poking around in things you shouldn't be? Don't you lie to me, Lan."

"It wasn't me! It was Megaman and Roll, they… they found it! They got it!"

Yuichiro sighed, rubbing his forehead, sensing that his day was not going to get any better.


Back in the lounge, Mayl and the little girl were kneeling on the floor, playing together with a small stable of toy horses that had come from the girl's backpack. In the past few minutes, they had groomed them all thoroughly, won a race or two, and befriended an angry dragon on a mountaintop.

"This is quite a collection you've got here." Mayl smiled down, counting all of them. "And you take really good care of them, if they're so clean after all the running and jumping they do."

"Thanks! I always take good care of them every day." The girl beamed, looking to be having a great time. "You're fun to play with. Thank you for staying with me."

Mayl nodded. "What's your name?"

"I'm Ammie."

Mayl grinned wide. "That's a cute name."

"Thanks!" Ammie smiled in response, a very cheerful girl. "It's short for Ampere."

Her companion nodded. "I'm Mayl. It's short for Maylumai."

"That's cute, too." The little girl smiled, then leaned in, speaking more quietly, as if she was discussing something top secret. "That other boy you came in with, is he your boyfriend?"

Mayl laughed. "No, he's not. That's Lan. He's my best friend."

"Your best friend is a boy?!" Ammie goggled at her new friend in amazement. "Is that… is that allowed?"

Mayl giggled in response. "Of course it's allowed! Why wouldn't it be?"

"I dunno… all the girls I know, their best friends are other girls." Ammie looked down, contemplative.

"Well, Lan and I have known each other since we were born." Mayl reached down and helped her new playmate to gather all the horses together in the stable.

"So you've been friends your entire lives?" The younger girl arranged the horses in their stalls, each horse having a very specific location where they were supposed to go.

"No, not our entire lives. In fact, when we were a lot younger, we couldn't stand each other."

"Really?" Ammie looked up again, now captivated by the curious mystery of Mayl and Lan's relationship. "How come?"

"Well, we never wanted to do the same things. Whenever one of us went over to the other's house, we'd just argue and be mad at each other. At least, that's what my parents tell me." She sat back a bit, the horses properly arranged, as she continued to recall the early days of Lan and herself. "When we started going to school, though, they would always make us do activities together, and we realized that we actually liked doing stuff with each other, when we weren't arguing over what it was we wanted to do. So that's how we became friends."

"And do you take turns doing things you like now?"

"Well, mostly." Mayl grinned. "I get my way more often than he does. He's kind of a pushover… but he can be really sweet sometimes. He doesn't mind."

Ammie grinned as well. "I'm glad you came by, Mayl." She took one of the horses out of the stable, in order to save a family from a burning house. "Grandpa's meetings always run too long and I have no one to play with."

"Oh yeah? Do you spend a lot of time with your grandpa?" Mayl smiled at the idea of this young girl being close to her grandfather.

The little girl nodded. "I'm with him all the time now. Ever since Mommy and Daddy died."

Mayl's expression changed in a flash. Her eyes widened in shock, and she nearly dropped the horse she was holding onto. "They… when? When was that?"

"November."

Mayl gasped, raising her hand to cover her mouth. Ammie's parents had died no more than a month ago. "Oh my gosh… Ammie, I… I'm so sorry to hear that."

"It's ok!" The little girl continued playing cheerfully, not looking very bothered by the loss of her parents. "I'll see them again soon."

"W… what?" Mayl stared in confusion. "Why do you say that?"

"Grandpa told me so."

"He… did?" The older girl continued to stare, having no idea what to make of this information.

"There's my little girl!" an older, familiar voice suddenly spoke from behind. Mayl quickly whirled around, her blood turning to ice when she saw who the voice belonged to.

"Yay! Grandpa, you're done!" Ammie cheered, standing up and reaching toward the older man, and she was soon swept up by the strong but gentle arms of Magnus Gauss.

"Sorry I took so long, Ammie." He looked down at Mayl, smiling, as she tried to register any emotion other than shock. "Looks like you found someone to play with, though." He switched to holding Ammie properly in his arms, as Mayl managed to get herself to her feet. "Thank you for keeping my granddaughter occupied while I was busy."

"S… sure, no problem…" she managed.

"Very sorry to hear about what happened to your father," Gauss offered. "I'm sure everything will turn out all right, though."

"Yeah…" She nodded slowly. "We hope they'll figure out it was a big mistake soon." She forced himself to look up into his eyes, not wanting to give away her suspicions, but still thoroughly convinced of them.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." He gave her a smile, before turning his attention back to his granddaughter. "I think it's time for dinner, don't you?"

"Yes! Let's eat!"

He grinned and nodded. "Alright, grilled salmon and pickled caviar it is."

She wrinkled her nose. "Ew, no, that's gross!"

"Oh? What do you think we should get?"

"Chicken and french fries!" she cheered.

Gauss laughed in response. "Alright, chicken and french fries it is." He put Ammie down and she quickly gathered up her toys. Once they were all put away, she slid her backpack onto her back, smiling wide at her new friend.

"Bye, Mayl! Thanks for playing with me!"

"Yeah… sure thing, Ammie," Mayl responded, still not quite having come to her senses. Gauss reached down and gently clasped his granddaughter's hand, and the two of them walked out happily. Mayl watched them go, trying to process everything she had just learned, a sick feeling in her stomach.


"So you think if you search Gauss's lab, you can find some proof that he's the thief, and that Vikos was framed."

Lan nodded. "I'm sure of it." He wasn't as sure as he made it sound, but he needed to be as convincing as he could.

Yuichiro looked down, arms folded, thinking the situation over carefully. His son's evidence was curious, and it seemed like more than a coincidence, but it wasn't anything convincing. If he was wrong, then his investigation could get SciLab in a lot of trouble, both legally and financially. Lan watched his father think, holding his breath a bit, hoping that he could get an encouraging answer.

Eventually, his father sighed and shook his head. "Sorry, Lan. I can't let you in to take a look. It's too risky."

"But…" Lan started to protest again, before sighing and looking down, hearing the finality in his father's voice. He nodded, defeated.

"Furthermore," Yuichiro continued, walking back to his main computer, "if I accidentally send you an email with instructions on how to get into the any external SciLab network, you should definitely not read it. Delete it right away. Understand?"

Lan blinked, then grinned wide, his expression and mood doing a complete 180. "Don't worry, I won't look."

"Good. Now get out of here, I have to finish some things up."

Lan nodded, still grinning, and he turned and walked out of his father's office. For the first time since this whole ordeal had started, he felt excited about what was going to happen next. He walked back toward the lounge, thinking that tomorrow afternoon was going to be very interesting indeed.