The last thing he heard was his dad yelling his name as he finally collapsed. Man, was he ever glad to hear his voice again. He hadn't felt this tired from cross-fusion since his first time with Megaman.
Now that he was out cold. They were probably going to strap him to the hospital bed. After all, he's done so many terrible things. He might not even be in the hospital at all. Instead, he'd be in some high-level security prison cell. Probably only getting two bathroom breaks. Who knows?
Unknown to Lan, the exact opposite was happening. After he had collapsed he was immediately taken to a hospital. Dr. Hikari and his wife, Haruka, stood side-by-side with him all night. They almost never left, only to go to the bathroom. They had one of the nurses bring them some food, or Maylu would show up with some already.
Three weeks had passed. Lan was still in a comma. The cross-fusion had taken a heavy toll on his body. Combined with his previous injuries, this was going to have negative effects. He was then brought to Scilabs after it was repaired, and put in a room designed for him. It was built near the main lab and had a glass wall that you could see the entire room from it.
The room was almost like his old one back home. There was a dressing draw, a TV, and a computer. There was also a kitchen installed. Haruka had basically moved in also. She had refused to leave her son's side since he was omitted out of the hospital. Dr, Hikari would also come in after getting off work.
The rest of Lan's friends came by to visit. Even though he couldn't respond back to them, they talked about how their life had been ever since he was gone. Dex had gotten into politics, while also creating more curry dishes. Troy was currently working with his father at Waterworks. And Yai was...well still rich. They stayed around as a group and left one by one.
The various scientists were working around the clock. Mr. Famous was leading them. They were trying to understand the small cube that had the ability to create impenetrable dimensional areas. If they could figure it out then they could use it against other threats.
Meanwhile, Dr. Hikari was working with Soul and Maylu with Lan's old PET. Somehow, despite being an outdated model, was able to connect to Soul. She was able to receive battle chips through it.
"Okay, Soul next it going to be a fire sword," Maylu said holding up the chip between her fingers. They had been testing different types of battle chips. It was discovered that she was able to increase the effect of almost any battle chip. Barrier chips would have increase defense, they could take in more damage. All swords would have increased range and attack power. The only exception was that she couldn't increase the power of already maxed battle-chips.
"Okay, here goes. Fire-sword battle-chip in download." Maylu inserted the chip into the PET. A sword appeared on Souls right arm. She took her stance in front of a dummy.
"Okay, now swing!" Dr. Hikari instructed her.
She swung her blade across the dummy. The swing produced more flames then it would originally give off. The dummy was instantly destroyed by it. The dummy was not just something to throw punches at. It was also able to measure the amount of power it received.
"It looks like it was 4 times the regular attack power of an ordinary flame sword." Dr. Hikari concluded.
"Will that be all?" Maylu asked. Seeing as Soul was going to collapse of exustion. They had been testing all morning and it was almost three in the afternoon. "She looks like she's going to fall over. Roll, can you make sure she doesn't?" But Roll already one step ahead of her.
"How's Lan?" She turned her attention back to him.
"He's probably going to be out for a while longer. After all, the cross-fusion between him and Soul drained him of almost all energy. Not to mention his previous injuries." He said to her understanding where she was coming from. Lan was still asleep. This was almost nothing like the first time when he cross-fused. But after seeing Soul's power first hand. It was hard NOT to expect this.
"How? How could this happen?" Bass-Cross snared.
He was back in the darknet. He could believe he was defeated. Not only by the small child but by his former partner. He didn't understand how they were able to cross-fuse with each other. They had never met before.
Wait...partner?
Did he just call him partner? Why? He was nothing more than a slave. Wasn't he?
Then a shock of pain filled his body and it traveled to his head. Waves of emotions and memories filled his head even more. Memories of both Megaman and Bass crashed right into each other. It was painful. One was filled with gaining power through force and the other earning it.
Power… so much power.
He needed more of it. He was so close to gaining it. He could sense so much power emanating from Soul. It was that same power that stopped him. Those regular attacks shouldn't have done some much damage to him. That same power should have been his.
However, he couldn't just go now. He was far too damaged. He still had the gash to his chest. The blast from the last attack, that destroyed the dimensional area, had also caused him to lose his left arm and right leg. He was repairing himself by absorbing unlucky navies or whatever data he found.
"Why must I be reduced to a scavenger?" He said cursing to himself. "There isn't enough data to absorb." He had only been able to repair about 10% of his damage. He knew if he left the darknet he would certainly be easily found. So, there weren't many options available to him.
"Something wrong?" A voice called out to him. Which caused him to flinch and take a defensive stance. "My bad! It's very hard to track you know." The voice sounded very familiar.
"...You" He said with anger rising in his voice. He was not in the mood for her.
"Oh come on. I've been trying to track you down for the last two weeks. Give me some praise." Of course, Obisdi wasn't going to get any from him.
"Leave me alone." he spat at her.
"Come on just hear me out." she pleads to him, but he just disappeared. "You won't be able to get rid of me that easily." She said as she located him again. He didn't travel very far. But a closer look at him revealed that just traveling through servers caused him great pain.
"I can heal you." She said in a sweet voice.
"I don't need your help."
"Didn't ask."
"Wha-?" he was then paralyzed by something.
"I've got new plans for you. Thanks to Kent… or should I call him, Lan?"
She forced him to a PET. She knew, even in a weakened state, he would quickly retaliate. She hurried to another computer and began to proceed to the next step of her plan.
Bass-Cross screamed in pain. He felt like something was being rewritten. Only one thing came across his mind.
'Lan…"
*GASP*
Lan's eyes shot wide open and he tried to grasp in as much air as possible. He sat strain up, ignoring the pain coming from his ribs. Anyone who noticed that he was moving immediately dropped what they were doing and ran to his side.
His mother, being only a few feet away, ran to him first.
"Lan, my baby, you're awake!." She said in tears as she pulled his face closer to hers.
"Mom I-" He started to say but was cut off by his father.
"We know you didn't mean to do any of this." He said tears also forming in his eyes.
Lan couldn't say much because of his mother repeatedly saying how much she missed him and hugging him. She only stopped when the pain of his ribs started to get to him. She quickly went over to her new kitchen to make some food for him. He was feeling hungry.
Mr. Famous came up and began to speak to him. He informed him of what was going on and that he was probably going to stay in bed for a few more days. Lan wasn't happy about this but had to accept it. Chaud only exchanged a few words and glances, but he could see he was hiding his true feelings. Dex tried to give him a noogie but was stopped by everyone else. Yai seemed to know that he would wake up soon but that didn't stop him from noticing that she was really happy.
He felt strange that all of his friends had grown up. To him, it seemed like only yesterday that they were all thirteen. Now they were all young men and women.
The last person to greet him was…
"Hey" she spoke up.
He turned his head, already knowing who it was.
"Maylu, I-" he started to say but was cut off yet again. She put a finger on his lips. The next thing he felt was her's. He never thought he would feel this ever. When the two broke it up she placed her finger again.
"I know."
The only sound that filled the room was that of Bass-Cross. He was screaming at the pain of these unwanted modifications. When they finally died down, silence returned to the room.
Obsidi looked in admiration at her new creation. She had planned this when she heard that Bass-Cross was separated by his operator.
"Don't worry. You'll be free to do whatever you want."
Next came the sound of a computer exploding.