New Megaman Battle Network
A complete reimagining of the universe and stories of Megaman Battle Network.
Story 5: A World Outside of Time
Chapter 7: What Lies Beyond the End of the World
It took the children thirty minutes longer than usual to reach downtown. Out of an abundance of caution, they had moved very slowly, avoiding major streets and sneaking through backyards, trying to stay as far away from the deadly parade of Copybots as they could. Navigating through downtown was even more intimidating, as all of the Copybots from all of the homes in Den City seemed to be converging there, in one of the city's larger parks. On the plus side, there were no cars for them to contend with.
"Look!" Dex eventually spoke, pointing toward one of the buildings in the middle distance. "That's the factory, right?"
"Looks like it to me," Mayl confirmed. "I bet it's teeming with those things…"
"Let's get closer and find out," Lan suggested. "Let's see how close we can get before we have to stop." The others nodded, and the trio continued their slow and cautious approach. As they moved from one block to the next, they had expected the density of Copybots to grow, and were surprised to find that it did not. Even when they were a block away, they couldn't see any robots that appeared to be leaving the factory. None of them took the time to praise their good luck, not wanting to jinx it.
They eventually made it to the outer wall of the factory without incident, surprised to hear no machinery running. They all tried to find windows to peer inside, but there were none at ground level.
"The factory's… shut down?" Lan wondered aloud. "But it's a work day, isn't it?"
"I bet the city shut the factory down," Mayl surmised. "The Copybots have been going rogue for over a week, haven't they?"
"Yeah, that's a good point…" Lan agreed.
"So does that mean we can get inside?" Dex started walking around the block, trying to find an accessible door. "Maybe we can turn them all off somehow!"
"If we could press a button and turn all the Copybots off, somebody would have done it by now," Mayl responded. Still, she followed Dex in search of a door, as did Lan. They were too close to turn back without at least trying to get inside.
After turning two corners, they eventually managed to find a small door, next to an "Employees Only" sign. Dex reflexively grabbed the handle and pushed, but the door wouldn't budge an inch.
"Hngh… locked…" he muttered, before stepping back. "Is there a jack-in port anywhere?" The three scoured the wall around the door carefully, looking for any sort of hidden panel that might conceal a port. Despite a careful search, they were unable to find anything.
"Guess we're not getting in here," Lan commented, starting to walk away. "Maybe there's another-"
A sound from the other side of the door caused everyone to freeze in their tracks. All three of them turned to face the door, fear rising in them as they heard the unmistakable sound of metallic footsteps. Before any of them could turn and flee, the handle of the door turned on its own, and the door swung open into the facility. All three of them gasped as the human-like face of a familiar blue Navi emerged from the other side.
"It's you!" Lan exclaimed in shock. "What are you doing here?!"
"I've been waiting for you," the Navi replied, his face beaming with immense pride. "I knew you'd come, Lan. I knew you'd step up."
"Huh?" Mayl's eyes darted back and forth between Lan and the Navi. "Lan, do you two know each other?"
"Um… sort of…" Lan admitted, not looking in her direction, eyes locked on the occupied Copybot inside the building.
"We can explain later," the Navi continued. "You all want to stop those Copybots, don't you?"
"Y… yeah!" Dex shook himself out of his stunned stupor. "Do you know how?"
"I sure do." The Navi turned back toward the factory. "Come on, follow me." He started walking further into the building, and the children watched him go for a moment. Lan was the first to step inside, an unfamiliar confidence filling his chest. He never questioned whether or not to trust this Navi; he knew, on some deep level, that he could, and he would. The other two quickly followed after him, with Mayl slamming the door shut behind them.
Roll finally emerged from the forest after running for miles, and was greeted by the impossibly large rock wall that had haunted her for weeks. She had never seen the End of the World with her own eyes, only having gotten a view of it through the screen of Mayl's PET. Despite its enormity, the wall was much less imposing in person - because Roll knew she was about to break through it.
She ran up to the wall, rearing her arm back, and slammed her fist into the wall as hard as she could, crying out furiously as she did so. The wall, showing almost unnatural strength, did not budge. She punched at it over and over, with strength that could shatter bones and dent metal, but she was unable to dislodge even the tiniest pebble.
"Come on…!" Over and over she assaulted the wall, trying to make some sort of chip, some dent, some hole. After enough fruitless effort, she cried out in frustration and started to shoot upward, propelled by the flight mechanism of the prototype Copybot. She continued to slam her fist against the wall, flying higher and higher, desperate to find some sort of weakness in the barrier that had never been breached before.
Finally, after flying several hundred feet in the air, one of her punches managed to shift the rock every so slightly. Her eyes widened as she felt a tiny bit of wall give way, a small number of pebbles falling toward the ground.
"Here!" She started punching the wall as hard as she could once again, feeling the rock continue to shift and chip and break. The work was slow and laborious, and after dozens of punches with her metallic fists, only a small indentation had been made. She didn't have time to wait. She had to get through this wall.
She closed her eyes and focused hard, rearing both of her arms back as she redirected energy from the Copybot's core into her hands. She siphoned off most of the energy remaining in the prototype body, wanting to put everything she could into one massive strike. After a few moments, her hands were glowing a bright white with the power they now held. She opened her eyes again, focusing on the one area that she had struck repeatedly, the wall's weakest point. She had one good shot, and she didn't want to miss.
"Hahhh!" She thrust her hands forward with all her might, striking the wall with the heels of her hands, as they moved at an immense speed. The wall in front of her practically exploded, with shards of rock flying in all directions, kicking up a large cloud of dust. The sound echoed through the park that surrounded the wall, though there was nobody else there to hear it.
As the dust began to fade, Roll gasped as she saw the results of her desperate assault. A large, semi-spherical chunk had been crudely blasted out of the wall, and at the very tip, there was a small hole, roughly the size of a basketball. Sunlight was pouring out of it, lighting up the miniature crater she had just made. She'd manage to break through the wall, to whatever was waiting on the other side. Her mechanical body had no heart that could pound or race in anxiety, but she was still deathly terrified and insatiably curious as to what was on the other side.
She nervously floated closer and peered through the hole, to find… herself.
On the other side of the hole, she could clearly see a face that looked exactly like hers, in a body identical to her own, obscured by a second cloud of dust. The other version of her was looking away for a moment, shielding her eyes, before looking back and gasping herself. Clearly, Roll wasn't looking in a mirror. There was some other version of her on the other side.
"Who…?" she managed, staring into the other Roll's eyes, as her doppelgänger stared back. Roll raised her hand up toward her face, and the alternate Roll waited a moment before doing the same, confirming that this was not a mirror image.
"What is this?" the other Roll asked, in an identical voice. The two nervously reached out toward each other with their hands, wanting to confirm that they were looking at a real person. Their hands moved more slowly as they got closer, shaking with trepidation, before their fingertips touched.
Roll shrieked as a sudden shock of pain rushed through her. It felt as if pure, white-hot light had entered her body through her fingertips, and was now flooding her frame. The circuits of the Copybot began overloading and popping in an instant, overwhelmed by the immense energy that was coursing through her mechanical body. A parade of images flooded her mind, as if an entire lifetime of information was being crammed into her head in a matter of seconds, until she felt as though she was going to burst.
After several endless seconds, the pain and the visions faded. The Roll on the other side of the wall was gone, and only she remained. She quickly lost consciousness, her vision fading to black as her body fell several hundred feet to the ground below. She hit the ground hard, knocking the wind out of her, and she lay deathly still, her eyes closed. Seconds later, the Copybot she had been occupying crashed onto the ground next to her, its frame twisting and snapping under the impact. The two bodies lay still and undisturbed, framed by the rubble that had fallen from the wall.
"This place is a lot creepier when it's not operating…" Lan remarked, as he followed the blue Navi through the main floor of the silent, abandoned factory. The machinery appeared to have been stopped in mid-production, and there were half-assembled Copybots hanging from conveyor belts attached to the ceiling.
"No kidding," Mayl agreed. "I guess the city shut this place down in the middle of the work day or something."
"The city didn't do anything," the Navi jumped in. "I shut this place down."
"You did?" Dex blinked. "All by yourself?"
"Somebody had to do it," was the Navi's reply, as he led the group up a flight of stairs. "And with nobody here, it wasn't exactly difficult. Not much security." Both Mayl and Dex were intimidated by this, as they realized they might be dealing with a very dangerous Navi who maybe shouldn't be trusted. Lan was undeterred.
"So how are we supposed to stop the Copybots?" he asked, as they stepped onto a walkway on the second floor.
"We take them down from the inside," the Navi answered, pushing open a door that had previously broken open by someone, presumably him. "I've been studying Copybots for a while, and working on something that's going to help us now."
"What's that?" Dex asked, as they all walked into a room that was filled with various desk-sized computer systems. A large window looked out over one of the main streets of downtown, where they all could see the thick mob of Copybots on the march. They had stopped gathering and were now moving once again, in the direction of the forest outside of town.
"A program that will let you take control of Copybots."
"Whoa, really?" Lan's eyes followed the Navi as he walked over to one of the machines. "How does that work?"
"You jack in here." The blue Navi pointed toward an array of ports on one of the machines. "Then your Navi will be placed into one of the Copybots out there. Take out some of them, and when your Copybot is destroyed, your Navi will be sent into another."
"Awesome!" Dex charged forward, already grabbing for his PET. "Those lousy robots won't know what hit them!"
"Wow…" Lan stepped forward as well, grabbing his PET and looking down into the screen. "Sword attacks, right?"
"That's right," the Navi confirmed. "Cannons and other projectiles won't do meaningful damage with a lot of these Copybots."
"I remember that," Mayl added. She started to reach for her PET as well, before remembering that Roll wasn't in it. She felt a fresh pang of guilt as she thought of her Navi trapped in a machine in SciLab.
Lan looked toward the Navi as he sat down, pulling the cable out of his PET. "Will you be jacking into this thing, too?"
The blue Navi shook his head. "I'll be out there fighting in this body. I'm used to it now. Plus I can do more damage than I could in another body."
"Alright." He watched as the Navi started walking toward the door. "Good luck out there… um… do you have a name?"
The Navi stopped and glanced back, meeting Lan's eyes. He didn't speak for a few moments. "Call me Megaman."
"Megaman?" Dex raised an eyebrow. "Pretty big name for such a small Navi."
"Well, I didn't survive this long by being weak." Megaman turned away and ran out of the room, before anyone could ask him how long he had survived.
Dex shrugged and pulled out his PET cable, plugging it into the jack-in port without hesitation. The other two leaned in curiously, watching his screen as it switched to black, with reams of white text writing itself onto the screen. Whatever this program was, it wasn't professionally made. After a few seconds, the screen changed to what looked like a view of the outside, with the camera somewhere in the middle of the Copybot mob.
"Did it work?" Mayl asked. "Is that a Copybot you're in?" She turned and looked out the window, trying to spot something that looked like Gutsman in the crowd.
"Try stabbing something," Lan suggested.
"Don't need to tell me that," Dex replied gruffly, his hand already moving over the buttons. They watched as a sword suddenly jutted out from the Copybot that was being controlled, stabbing through the torso of the Copybot in front of it, before slicing upward through its head. Mayl gasped as she looked out through the window, watching as one yellow-and-red Navi stabbed another, with all of the other Copybots quickly stepping away.
"Hah!" Dex pumped his fist eagerly. "Take that! That's awesome!" Seconds later, four other Copybots turned and stabbed their own swords into Gutsman, disabling the Copybot instantly. Dex's screen turned to static for a moment before the white text returned, and after a few seconds more, he could see his Navi in the body of a new Copybot.
"It works!" Lan exclaimed excitedly. "That's perfect!" He quickly followed Dex's lead and jacked in his own Navi, sending X out into a Copybot of his own. Both of them began attacking once again, recklessly taking out as many Copybots as they could before their own machines were destroyed. As soon as they were, their Navis were sent into a new body, and the process began again.
Mayl's gaze moved back and forth between the two boys and the scene outside, which was starting to descend into pandemonium. The mob of Copybots was now dispersing, as most of the machines were trying to avoid being damaged, but didn't know which other Copybots to stay away from. It wasn't long before over a dozen Copybots had fallen, either destroyed or hijacked by Lan or Dex, and the march had come to a complete stop.
Near the edges of the mob, Mayl could see Megaman taking advantage of the confusion to dispatch some Copybots of his own. He moved with amazing speed, and hit with impressive strength. Several of the Copybots close to him were attacking with their own weapons, but none of them could touch him. The machine mob was slowly being destroyed from the inside and out.
"Guys, it's working!" she exclaimed excitedly, her pulse starting to pound. "The Copybots are all panicking and falling apart! We might actually do this!"
"Let's keep going, Gutsman!" Dex declared. "We'll destroy this whole stupid army!"
Lan didn't say anything in response, feeling adrenaline pumping through his veins, certain that his voice would be quaking if he tried to speak. He felt as if he was a completely different person than he was the week before. He was becoming stronger. He was making friends. He was becoming the hero he never thought he could be. The change was terrifying, but exhilarating. Once all this was over, he knew his life would never be the same.
Out in the street, the Copybots were panicking, fleeing, or attacking others at random in an attempt to eliminate this mysterious scourge. In the midst of the chaos, another figure emerged from out of thin air, stepping into existence as if he had walked through a seam in reality. His solid blue eyes scanned the battle occurring in front of him, as he grumbled in annoyance.
"Someone is meddling in my plans…" He turned his head, looking at the surrounding buildings, eyes darting over them as if he could see right through the walls. He turned in the other direction, eyes running over the Copybot factory and quickly coming to a stop. His lips curled into a smirk, as he spotted three young children in a room on the second floor, two of them furiously operating their PETs. "And there they are…"
He reached out and rested a hand on the shoulder of the Copybot closest to him; the machine held out its arm, and in a flash of light, a large, volatile-looking weapon appeared in its hand. The being pointed toward the factory, and the Copybot took aim accordingly, readying its weapon.
Up in the factory, Mayl noticed a strange, bald figure in the crowd, with a red jewel embedded in its forehead, who was now pointing directly up at her. Her heart dropped as she saw a Copybot next to him aiming a large weapon in their direction. Before she could react, the weapon fired, shooting a large, lethal-looking projectile in their direction.
"Guys, run!" she cried out, much too late. She turned and started running toward the door, as Lan and Dex watched her. Not questioning her, they pulled their PET cables out from the wall and stood up to flee, just as the missile made contact.
Back outside, Megaman was blasting away a Copybot in front of him and stabbing another to his right, when a massive explosion rang out and drew his attention. He turned toward the Copybot factory and froze, as he saw the enormous fireball tearing open the side of the factory, shattering the window and blasting away the walls.
"No! Lan!" he screamed in horror, tearing his focus away from the battle. An instant later, a Copybot behind him ran its sword directly through his torso, and two more followed suit from either side of him. All three withdrew their blades at the same time, and Megaman's frame collapsed uselessly to the ground. Seconds later, the blue coloring faded away, as the Copybot reverted to its blank state. The final resisting Copybot had been defeated.
Sigma grinned and watched as the explosion faded, pleased. "Well, that was an irritating distraction, but that takes care of that." He rose up in the air, bellowing his next words to the army in front of him. "Keep moving, all of you! The barrier isn't far now!" The Copybots heeded his words immediately, falling back into formation and marching onward, making their way toward the edge of town, and the prize that awaited them there. Sigma followed, continuing to float in the air, wanting to see his victory unfold with his own two eyes.
Inside the factory, the air was thick with smoke and dust. Mayl coughed and stirred, finding herself on the floor with rubble strewn all around. She'd expected to be in more pain, after being caught up in the explosion. Maybe she had gone into shock.
"Lan…?" she called out weakly, her voice barely issuing from her throat. "Dex?" Her eyes scanned the room around her, widening as she saw Lan's twisted, mangled frame lying fifteen feet away. Dex was farther back, in very much the same state.
"No… no, Lan…" Mayl tried and failed to sit up, unable to feel her left arm or leg. She gritted her teeth and started crawling toward him, gasping for pained, hissing breaths as she did so. She soon made it to his side, just as a loud cracking sound rang out overhead. She looked upward to see the concrete ceiling starting to buckle, enormous cracks forming as it sagged more and more. She had no time to panic before it detached entirely, crashing onto the floor and the children below.
Far away from the city, and from the advancing army, Roll lay on the ground beside the End of the World, breathing slowly and deeply. She had been laying motionless since she crashed to the ground, after making contact with the other Roll. The discarded Copybot lay next to her, no longer occupied by her frame. There was no sound other than the breeze whistling through the trees, no movement other than the rustling of leaves.
The instant that the factory ceiling came crashing down, Roll's eyes snapped open.
She held her head as she sat up, needing a moment to recover, still overwhelmed. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, letting her mind settle. Once she had regained her composure, she slowly stood up and started walking toward the city, her wild desperation replaced with firm resolve. She had a big mess to fix, and she wanted to lay eyes on the one responsible before she did.
She looked out toward the city, scanning it as if there were no forest in the way at all. She felt a pang of sadness as she realized her operator was dead. Megaman had also fallen, and even though he wasn't supposed to be in this universe, his demise hurt her as well. Still, both of their actions had bought just enough time for her to recover. Their sacrifices were not in vain.
After years of being plagued by a faulty memory, Roll had finally remembered everything about herself - not just about the Navi she had pretended to be for so long, but the otherworldly being she truly was. She remembered growing up on a distant planet, orbiting a distant star, thousands of years ago. She remembered being taught how to utilize the awesome powers she wielded, allowing her to control time and space in ways unimaginable by humans. She remembered the insurrection that had taken the lives of her family and friends, perpetrated by the monster she had battled and chased across the galaxy, the one who called himself the Grand Elzioth.
Her face was set, her expression resolute, as she marched on through the forest. It was time for her to greet Sigma, for the first time in centuries.
Sigma was almost giddy as his army of Copybots marched past the outskirts of Den City. Centuries of planning were finally about to come to fruition. Once he breached the wall separating the two universes, he would drain this one of all its energy, then escape as the universe was collapsing. With the power of an entire pocket universe at his disposal, nobody would stand in his way, not even the one who had pursued him across the galaxy in order to defeat him.
As the marching Copybots reached the hill leading down to the forest, Sigma's smile fell away in an instant. Something was off. There was an energy emanating from the End of the World that hadn't been there before. He could feel that same energy in the forest, slowly growing closer. Had the wall been breached? Was there some other being who could pass through the barrier?
"Hold it!" he ordered, and his army obeyed immediately. He kept them still, hovering in the air as he felt the energy grow closer, feeling familiar yet alien at the same time. Soon he could hear the faint sound of footsteps on the soft ground. Moments later, the color drained from his face, as the strange creature finally came into view.
"You!" he exclaimed in both rage and fear. "How did you escape?!"
Roll glared up at him as he floated at the top of the hill, a quiet, seething anger coming through her eyes. "That was a clever plan you had, Sigma. Creating this pocket universe… making me lose my memory and think I was just a Navi… it almost worked."
"Almost…" Sigma gritted his teeth. "How did you recover your memory? It shouldn't have been possible!"
"But you overestimated yourself," she continued, ignoring his outburst. "And you underestimated me, and our mutual friend. You made your move, and you failed." She stared into his pure blue eyes, able to see the fear in them. "Now it's my turn."
He pointed his finger toward her. "All of you, attack! Destroy that Navi!" The army began to glow, as one powerful weapon after another appeared in their hands. They quickly took aim and fired, unleashing a wall of missiles and other projectiles that would reduce any target to dust.
Roll watched the assault unfold, all of the weapons trained on her and firing, as if it were happening in slow motion. She paid them no mind. Even before she had finished speaking, she had begun her work of undoing everything that Sigma had put into motion, of restoring the world that should have been before he interfered. The army would destroy her in two seconds. She would only need one.
Roll closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and focused, and everything in the universe came to a stop.
