It's a Navi's World Chapter 39: A Strange Form of Craziness, a mega man fanfic

(sighs) Well, peeps, it's not over yet, but almost... (does salute) And when that happens, remember that you'll be seeing (insert random number here) fanfics by me in this category... And at the last chappie (two installements away) which actually an unofficial part of this fic, you'll find out what RYUUSEI NO ROCKMAN! is among random other things such as lists of fics and the introduction of two new muses. But until then...

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Higsby's POV

"Yay! You guys came!" I cheered as Sal's van pulled up smoothly in front of my Chip Shop. When the came out, everyone looked at me weirdly; I blushed and threw open the door to my humble store.

"OK, OK," I grumbled as everyone emerged from the van – and man, was that vehicle ever big! – and clustered around the shop's entrance. "I'm happy. I'm not normal. Put two and two together and this is what you get."

"It honestly doesn't bother us," Sal chirped as the thick knot of humans and Navis neared the open doors. "It's the same as always, you know."

"That's better, then," I said brightly as we all filed into the Chip Shop. "Come on – there's some stuff I have to show you guys."

We came into my humble shop, but I don't know exactly what happened next – as soon as we passed through the doors, my memory blacks out. (hangs head in shame, wilting like a flower with brown spikes and square glasses instead of petals) I'm a terrible author, I know.

Lan: Can I take it from here?

Higsby: (sighs) Yeah, I suppose so.

Lan: Great! 'Cause, ya know, I think I've gotten addicted to this narrating-thing.

Mega Man: (smacks forehead) Here we go again…

Anyway, now that I've gotten your attention with my superior sociable personality (Mega Man: Lan, cut that out!), I shall now attempt to describe what happened next. Ahem. (clears throat) Basically what happened is this – Higsby got this mad gleam in his shaded eye and proceeded to go crazy. Here we go…

"Chips! BattleChips! I must have more of them!" Higsby cried insanely, randomly reaching out and grabbing a nearby Number Man – like we've already said, ALL the NetNavis appeared in the Real World – and shaking him roughly by his green robotic body. "GOTTA GET 'EM ALL!"

Did I mention he sounded like a Pokémon character (Ash Ketchum, I'm staring you down…)? Anyway, as it was, the next thing we knew Higsby was muahaha-ing like your average, traditional, typical demented evil bad guy at the end of the game/show. Not that Bass does the wild evil-laughter thing… Or does he? Hm, I'm wondering now...

Anyway, to get back to it, I now toss the faithful ropes of fanficcing back to Higsby from where he's now rolling his eyes and smacking his forehead across from me. Speaking of which, don't ask me where we are – which leads me to think of TCF, Pikasqueaks, and the Dark Rush. I can remember Fanficcer and its muse, of course, but for some reason – OK, WHAT DID I JUST SAY?

Higsby: Thanks, Lan, but I get the impression we're not supposed to know more than we can already remember.

Lan: (puzzled) Yeah, I guess so…

Higsby: In that case, let me narrate again.

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When I came to, Maysa had stationed himself next to me and was rolling his eyes. "Otaku!" he muttered to me, proffering one gloved hand to help me up.

"Yeah – you like Mari, too, Maysa," I grunted as I rose to my feet, pulling Number Man along behind me, "but that's not the point. I have BattleChips to show you guys." I paused – even now I can still imagine my eyes glinting. "New ones."

"Really?" an intrigued Yai asked, cocking her head to the side.

I smirked, imagining Lan's reaction. "Yes. New ones."

"Chips!" cried said crazed crimefighter insanely, brown eyes gleaming.

Dr. Hikari's POV

"Mm…"

My assistant Piero Corradi cupped his head thoughtfully in his hands. He's a lot younger than I am – he confided in me that he had been born in 1998 – and was currently musing about his career options.

Technically speaking, Piero was one of my friends, a scientist I'd met seven years ago, when my sons had been five. Back then, at seventeen, he'd been pretty much the same as he was now: hardworking, involved, loved what he did, courageous when those he knew were in danger, thought before he acted, and something of a dreamer. (I'd also heard talk of him and a woman named Elynor Daniels, though I'd never entirely understood it.) Now, a little older and more experienced, he was wondering if he and his NetNavi Petey should become two of the staff of the Grand Tournament, a local NetBattling tourney held at the Netopia Stadium every year.

"I'd also get more of a chance to work on my Navi data and DNA work," my friend went on, his voice gradually strengthening in excitement. "It'd be great for me and the fate of Navis. I'd still get to come here occasionally, though, so I could see all you guys again sometime, Yuuichiro."

"I agree with you, Piero," I said after some thought. "Speaking of which, I really have to thank you for helping me with all the Interworld Connector business."

"You could have done it on your own," Piero complimented me graciously with a dip of his head. "I just sped up the process."

We both laughed at his remark; to my surprise, the same sound – though from different mouths – rebounded back to us from the other side of the lab door. I rose quickly, beckoning for Piero to follow me. "Come on, it must be them," I told him as he trailed faithfully behind, still with a dreamy, musing kind of look on his face.

Unsurprisingly enough, a pull of the doorknob revealed none other than my sons and their friends, humans and Navis, who I call the 'young NetBattlers.' Lan, as it appeared, had peeled off his customary blue headband and was rubbing the thinly bloodied brown spikes that would have normally been hidden underneath. I have to say, without that particular cloth piece of blue headgear Haruka made for him nine years ago, my son looked like a hedgehog, though I don't mean that in a bad way. (chuckles)

"We did it, Dad!" Lan crowed triumphantly as the thicket of beings – Lan, Mega Man, Maylu, Roll, Dex, Guts Man, Yai, Glide, Tory, Ice Man, Chuck, Sal, Mr. Higsby, Number Man, and Maysa – entered the room where all work concerning NetNavis and humans was carried out. "We beat the bad guys and got Mega and co. into the Real World!"

I nodded, becoming excited in spite of myself. "Based on what you guys have done since about maybe a week ago…"

I trailed off as Guts Man made a face, amazedly muttering something like "That's how long it was, guts?"

"Anyway," I went on a little more loudly so that the bulky Navi's vocal stupefaction was cut short, "after all this, I've finally made a way for Navis to coexist in both the Real World and the Cyberworld." I took a second to smile contentedly as shock showed itself on their faces. "With the use of Piero here's Interworld Connector technology, we can now live out some of our wildest dreams."

Piero came up behind me, a fiery gleam in his jaded marsh-turquoise eyes as he took up the narrative. "We've programmed all the data and Navi/Real World stuff into one small handy device." He reached deep into the pockets of his lab coat and pulled out a small device, shaped like a transparent blue-tinged bracelet. "With this, Navis can live in both worlds."

"And vice versa?" queried Maylu, her chocolate-brown eyes bright.

"Not until Fiddling with Destiny, Meiru-chan," Piero laughed as he ruffled her short magenta hair. "Can't you wait until you're seventeen?"

"And then we have The Adventures are Never Over to go through, but TCF has loads of empty Rockman.exe slots," mused Dex thoughtfully – strange for him. "But we'll have loads more NetBattles to um…battle through before then."

"Look, let's keep everything on time, okay?" I cut the conversation short with this statement as I backed up slowly, to where a stock of Interworld Connectors was being held in a storage safe. I rolled my eyes as I backed up; now that I was next to the safe, I skilfully undid the combination lock and let it open. "We can give them out now – though that I know that before six months have passed, we'll have to change the technology again owing to Yai's geniosity."

"That's not a word, Dr. Hikari, the said girl of golden hair quipped brightly, pulling out a small computing pad from a pocket hidden somewhere deep with in her red dress. (Fanficcer, I'm warning you… All these demented, senseless plotholes...) The computing pads were new on the market; much like palm pilots, they were currently nameless. Yai herself had helped create them – as she had said, 'They're better than palm pilots or PETs because they can do anything a computer can on a portable scale. And someday they'll be able to hold Navis, too.'

"Yes, it is," Piero answered for me, his eyes snapping shut as a grin smoothly curled his features. "Yuuichiro here invented it; in a few days, it should be added to the computing pad's dictionary."

"I wonder when we name these things?" he pondered loudly, turning away from us. "Fanficcer?"

And so it appeared.

"In The Adventures are Never Over we have SchoolPads, but since TGT is the next Mega Man fic I plan to write, I could put 'em in there." TCF/Fanficcer – the author of this whole story, if you're confused – was a normal-sized figure completely tossed into shadow. For once it was not accompanied by its Pokémon muse, Pikasqueaks; instead, its luminous lime-green eyes looked glazed over in boredom and strangely hyper thoughts of 'ROCKMAN.EXE!' fanfic-writing. "That good?"

"Fair enough." Piero did the thumbs-up sign as Fanficcer disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I, however was shaking my head. "Rockman.exe's an anime – if you're going to fanfic it, you have to be careful, TCF," I muttered to myself.

"Right, so can we get the thingamajigs already?" Lan cut in suddenly, and I rolled my eyes.