Alright, let's see what Ragna and Jinn did. And by the way, I need a name and appearance for Shun's Navi. Got any ideas? Send 'em in and maybe it'll be used next time Shun makes his appearance.
------------------------------------
Renegade Hunter: Song's not going to like that.
TJ and Rikumon: [chuckle] Do you two always argue?
Song: (Z: "Well, looks like you've already got one fan!" Chibi-chan: "^_^ Yay!!")
Armegeddon Blade: Well why didn't you say so?!
Scrambler: Aha. Yeah, but I finished the game within 10 hours, so I should know by now.
Enigma: Oh now I get it! Yeah, I figured as much. But honestly, was Cossack Bass' Operator or his creator?? (or both??)
Sol Sabre: I know. I somehow always make Muramasa's chapters the best there are, or I'm mistaking. o_0 And…ZERO!! GIVE THAT BACK!!! (D. Zero: "Forget it! See ya!! [runs off]" Z: ":( When I get my hands on that guy!! [runs after]")
Pyrogirll23: Sorry girls, I never received an email from you. But anyway, I'm afraid Lan and Mega are already taken. Sorry.
Red Chaos Mage: Well duh, otherwise people would get confused if I scramble up the pattern.
------------------------------------
--
Chapter IV Part 3: Fight Of The Javelins
"Morning."
"G'morning."
"Any new messages?"
"Nothing at the moment."
"Darn. I need something to do."
"So do I."
"Hmmm… how 'bout we try becoming Officials?"
"Suits me."
--
Jinn got out of the metro, and headed up the stairs, before emerging at the exit of the Marine Harbor Metroline. The boy was instantly greeted by the smell of salt water and different kinds of flowers. He walked toward the small garden in front of the Center, noticing that Sunflower, the old lady from MMBN2, was there, along with that old man. Jinn smiled slightly at it, and then headed for the Center.
He was about to enter, when he noticed a familiar face emerge from the lower exit of the Center.
"Yo Lan!!" Jinn shouted, making the other boy stop and look up.
Jinn smiled and waved at him. Lan returned the favor, and hurriedly ran up the stairs.
"Hey, Jinn! What're you doing here?" Lan asked.
"Nothing really," Jinn said. "Just thinking about doing a few requests. I'm kind of bored."
"Ah! Well, there was this really strange request, and I'm suspecting that it's no good. You wanna help?"
"Sure!"
--
"What kind of request is this?" Jinn mumbled, reading it over again. "'If you can make my day, I'll give you a rare chip in return'??"
"I dunno, that's why I thought it was strange," Lan said.
"It's been awhile since we've had a strange request like this," Mega said calmly. "I think it's bizarre."
Ragna was silent for some time, calmly sitting against one of the walls of the PET. He was fiddling a little with his lance, gently spinning it between his fingers.
They were now on the metro, heading for the SciLabs, where they were supposed to meet the poster of this strange request. And while Jinn and Lan were discussing this mystery person, Mega was watching the rather thoughtful Ragna, who seemed completely lost in thought, twirling his lance between his fingers.
"Penny for your thoughts," Mega said calmly.
This startled the other Navi though, who gave a gasp in shock and whipped his head around.
"Huh?! Wha?" he mumbled, until it registered what Mega had said. "Oh. Nah it's nothing. Just thinking…"
"About what?"
"Quite a few things," Ragna said, watching his lance twirl a little. "Those resurrected Navis… what the hell is going on… and a whole lot more I'd rather not mention…"
"Uh-huh…" Mega said quietly, sitting down as well. "I just wonder who resurrected all those Navis, and why. It's like this'll never end."
"Well, those are just things that'll never end," Ragna mumbled.
"Huh? How's that?"
"There can't be light without shadow. No matter how hard you may try, there'll always be a shadow somewhere. But the problem is, if the light dies, the shadow takes over, because shadows can live quite well without light," Ragna said, still mumbling.
"So, let me get this straight," Mega said, starting to understand. "The shadows represents bad guys, and the light represents the good guys?"
"That's one way to put it."
"Man, what a strange way to describe it! But effective nonetheless. How'd you think of that?"
"I didn't. It's something Jinn installed into my systems, and he got it from some sort of action-movie. I dunno which, I hadn't been created back then."
"Oh."
"So, did Lan teach you anything special?"
"Yeah. Never give up, no matter what!"
"Haha! Yeah, that's a real important rule in life. Give up, and you'll never hear the end of it. Seeing as most times, you'll be dead."
The two Navis laughed wholeheartedly about that. But Ragna's laughter was cut off by a yell of pain as he grasped his head in agony.
"Ragna?!?!" Mega asked as Ragna's lance clattered loudly to the ground, followed shortly by the Navi in question.
The Blue Bomber ran toward the Navi, and shook him a little. It didn't help though.
"Lan! Jinn!! Something's wrong with Ragna!!"
"What?!?!"
"Ragna! Ragna!! Wake up!!"
--
"That should do it!"
"Let's get out of here! Every second counts!"
"Right."
--
"How're we supposed to get there?!"
"I can fix that!"
KAZING!!!
"….!!! Whoa! Nice!!"
"Thanks."
"Hey! Let's move!
--
"Ugh!!"
"Aaaagh!!"
"Oh no! Not now!!"
"………"
"W-w-what're you doing here?!"
"Hey! Calm down already!"
"Listen, we don't have time to fight you! So, mind moving?"
"………"
"Oh, so we're being the silent one again, huh? What the fuck're you doing here?!"
"……Is it a crime to try to help?"
"Help!??!"
"You're… helping us…?? Why??"
"…I have my own reasons."
--
"What the fuck!?!?
"What is this?!"
--
"………D…d…d…de…de…de………"
--
"………De…de…de…del…del…del………"
--
"………Del…del…del…dele…dele…dele………"
--
"………Dele…dele…dele…delet…delet…delet………"
--
"………Delet…delet…delet…delete…delete…delete………"
--
"………Delete…delete…delete…Delete! Delete!! DELETE!!!"
--
Ragna was jolted awake the second the last echoes of the last word faded from his head.
"Ragna!! You alright?!" Mega asked.
"…Yeah… I'll be fine," Ragna mumbled, picking up his lance from the ground and standing up rather clumsily.
"What just happened?" Lan asked.
"Nothing," Ragna said. "I probably just caught a bug or something."
Jinn didn't say anything for a moment, then said: "You should take a rest, Ragna."
"Nah, I'll be fine."
Jinn nodded solemnly.
'I hope.'
--
"Well, here we are!" Lan said, as they got out of the metro.
"The building's instantly connected with the metro???" Jinn asked.
"Yep!" Lan said.
"Well, at least the employees here never need umbrellas."
"Not funny Ragna."
--
Mega and Ragna appeared at SciLabSquare at about the same time. They walked away from the warp, and looked around.
"So, where to?" Mega asked of Lan.
"Let me see… it says here, SciLab1."
"Okay! Let's go!!"
Ragna nodded and walked after the blue Navi, heading for the warp that would lead them to SciLab2.
SciLabSquare, unlike most Squares, was more like a lab, with computers chucked in every direction, where Navis were busy with all kinds of stuff. Some were examining the viruses that Operators had managed to capture, while others were busy with some kind of weird project. But there were also a few shops there, selling all kinds of chips and subchips. There were also quite the number of programs buzzing about, doing this or that.
"Busy place," Ragna mumbled.
"You're telling me," Mega said.
They finally reached the warp and headed out of the Square.
--
"Uh… Lan?" Mega asked suddenly as they exited the gate.
"Yeah?" Lan asked.
"The upper area or the lower area?"
Lan blinked and checked the request again.
"It doesn't say."
"How 'bout we split up then?" Jinn offered.
"Good idea," Lan said. "Mega, you check the lower area, Ragna, can you check the upper area?"
"Sure," Ragna said with a nod.
--
Mega continued across the Net, searching for whoever had posted that odd request, but found nothing out of place. SciLab1 was quiet, with only a few Navis and programs moving about. Most Navis were also employees of the SciLabs. After some time, he realized that the Navi wasn't here.
"Jinn, did you find anything?" he heard Lan ask.
"Nothing," came Jinn's voice. "Something tells me we're being fooled."
"No kidding," Mega mumbled.
"Should I jack out then?" Ragna's voice asked.
"Yeah, sure."
"Mega, you jack out too, okay?"
"Sure Lan."
They were about to jack out, when Ragna suddenly gave a scream of pain.
"RAGNA!!!" Jinn shouted.
Mega growled, and dashed off, heading back to the lower SciLab2, and heading for the upper SciLab1.
--
Ragna dropped to the ground, holding the gash on his right arm, which also happened to be his good arm. Dark purple cyberblood was pouring through his gloved hand, and slowly slipping across his glove, which was clearly visible even if he'd been human.
He raised his eyes, and had to choke back a gasp.
In front of him, stood a Navi with an armor drenched in oranges, blues, and blacks. His unarmored upperarms and thighs were pitch black, while his boots, armor, shoulder plates, gauntlets and helmet were a pure orange. His gloves (which only covered his hands and vanished in his gauntlets) and the noses and heels of his boots were dark blue. On his helmet, were three spikes, two of them were parallel with his ears, while the third stood upright on his head. His face seemed that of a mere teenager of 14, 15, but his height and expression would suggest 17, 18. In his right hand, he held a gigantic lance, even bigger than Ragna's, and it seemed far more lethal too.
Deep blue eyes burned with a strange gloominess as he scoffed and said with a deep voice: "Hmph. I had actually hoped for that 'MegaMan' to respond to my request, but you'll have to do."
Ragna blinked, standing up and asked: "You're the one who posted that request!?"
The Navi simply said, with no emotion showing on his face: "Quite. I am Enker, the first of Dr. Wily's MegaMan Killer Navis. Though the information won't do you any good."
"WILY?!?!" Ragna demanded. "Isn't he supposed to be in jail?!"
"Bah, I was released onto the Net mere hours before the great Alpha project. If it were to fail, I was to get rid of that 'infamous' blue Navi," Enker said.
"Well… why wait for so long??" Ragna asked, trying to buy time for MegaMan to arrive.
"Oh shut up and die," Enker mumbled and shot at Ragna with his lance drawn.
Ragna anticipated the move, unsheathed his own lance (with much difficulty if I may add) and hastily blocked the swing, much to Enker's surprise.
"You fight with a javelin as well?" he asked, in that strange, gloomy way of his.
Ragna, knowing full too well what a javelin was, answered: "How great of you to notice! What took you so long to find out?!"
Enker furrowed his brows, and lashed out at Ragna's head. Ragna hurriedly ducked underneath the lash, and kicked out Enker's feet from under him.
"I'm no MegaMan, but that doesn't mean I'm a pushover!" he said, shooting out and thrusting his lance down, aiming for Enker's face.
Enker rolled out of the way with a yelp, and jumped up, holding up his lance.
"You're good!" Enker said. "But there's one problem with your skills."
Ragna figured what was coming next, but he asked anyway: "What's that?"
Before he could do anything else, he gasped for air as pain soared through his entire body, his eyes widening at the ferocity. His eyes looked at his abdomen, where Enker's arm and lance were embedded in his body, the Navi's arm becoming drenched in dark purple almost, black cyberblood.
"I'm better," Enker said, and kicked the other Navi away, making the tall Navi crash into the ground.
--
"Oh my God!!" Jinn exclaimed, having witnessed the entire fight. "Lan! Do you have any Recover-chips I can borrow!?"
"Hold on!" Lan said, quickly rummaging through his folder, and producing a Recover300. "Don't bother returning it! I've got plenty more!"
"Thank you, Lan!"
--
"Recover300!! Slot in!!"
--
The wound shut quickly, and Ragna shot up before Enker could get to him.
"Hmph. That won't help you. You're as good as dead."
Ragna panicked for a short second, when he suddenly noticed something over Enker's shoulder.
Mega was hiding behind a rock, quietly charging his Buster. He made a hushing motion while winking at Ragna.
Ragna gave a miniscule nod and aimed his gaze back to Enker.
"Not really," Ragna said, completely intent on buying Mega some time. "You just caught me off guard."
"Oh really?" Enker questioned sarcastically, before he shot at the taller Navi.
Ragna jumped back to avoid a hack at the Navi-Symbol spread across his chest, and lashed out as well. Enker blocked and lashed out again. Ragna blocked, with a lot of difficulty, and continued lashing out and blocking if necessary, trying not to injure himself anymore.
Enker suddenly managed to trip Ragna, sending the Navi down to the ground.
"You die NOW!!!" Enker screamed, sending his lance down at Ragna.
--
"Barrier!! Slot in!!"
--
The lance crashed into the barrier, temporarily scattering the energy that formed the edge of the lance.
"Huh?!?!" Enker said, confused.
"RAGNA!! GET OUTTA THERE!!!" Mega's voice screamed, causing Enker to whirl around.
Ragna scrambled to his feet and jumped out of range, just as Mega released his giant burst of plasma. Enker frowned angrily, and jumped up, somehow keeping afloat in the air.
"Huh!?! How'd he do that?!?!" Mega wondered.
"AirShoes?" Ragna offered.
"Mega!! Look out!!" Lan shouted, and Mega yelped as he avoided a pelt of plasma sent his way.
Ragna too had to jump aside to avoid the pellets sent his way.
"Damnit!!" Mega cursed. "WAAH!!"
Mega jumped away from another blast, and growled.
"We gotta get up to him somehow!!"
That gave the taller Navi an idea. He quickly calculated the distance between the ground and Enker, then turned to Mega.
"Mega! Charge your Buster to the max!"
"What?!?!"
"Just do it!!"
Mega shrugged his shoulders, and started charging, avoiding pellets every now and then.
"STAND STILL ALREADY!!!" Enker shouted, still having the same gloominess to his voice.
"Yeah right, like I would," Mega mumbled.
The two Navis kept on dodging, until Mega shouted to Ragna: "I'm done!!"
"Good! Then get over here!!"
Mega (somehow) managed to get to Ragna.
"Hold on to my lance and hurry!!" Ragna said, not giving Mega a chance to question him.
Mega nodded and quickly grabbed a hold of it. He gave a startled yelp as Ragna easily raised the lance, taking Mega with it, and finally extending the lance to about four times its usual size, bringing Mega awfully close to the quite startled Enker.
The Blue Bomber smirked and quickly fired the plasma he'd charged up, making Enker scream as he was shot back.
"Gotcha!!" Mega said with a whoop, accidentally releasing the lance. "…Uh-oh…"
He was instantly sent crashing down to Earth, and quite fast too. Lucky for Mega, Ragna managed to catch him, and quite easily.
Mega looked up in confusion, blinking, until he smiled and said in a feminine voice: "My hero!"
Ragna blinked, then rolled his eyes and said: "Oh, knock it off!" right before dropping the Blue Bomber on his ass.
"OW!!!"
--
Meanwhile, Lan and Jinn were laughing their heads off at the quite hilarious scene, making everyone in the lab look at them, which the boys didn't seem to notice.
Jinn wiped the tears away and said through his chuckle: "Man, this seems like some cheap story on FanFiction.Net!"
Lan had either not heard him, or he wasn't paying attention, seeing as he was still laughing.
--
"Well, that's over and done with!" Mega finally said, not spotting Enker anywhere.
Ragna nodded, until he spotted something else.
"Hey Mega! Check this out!" he said, picking up three pieces of data.
Two of them appeared to be chip data, while the other seemed to be a message.
"What does it say?" Mega asked as Ragna temporarily handed him the chips.
"'I might be a World 3 member, but I'm a Navi of my word'," Ragna read aloud.
The two Navis looked at each other in confusion, blinking, twice, before examining the data.
"Wow! These are rare chips!!" Ragna exclaimed.
"Higsby would kill to get his hands on these!"
"That Enker was tough! I hope he was the only MegaMan Killer Navi around!" Lan said.
"Yeah, I don't like to have to fight a whole army of Navis intent on deleting me."
"Hey Mega, did you notice that Enker said 'die', and not 'delete'?"
"……He did… didn't he?"
"Something fishy's going on around here…" Lan mumbled. "And I don't like it."
"You know, we should inform your father about this, Lan," Jinn said.
"Tell me about what?" a voice said behind the boys, making them whirl around with a yelp.
"Dad!"
"Dr. Hikari!"
"What's wrong boys?" Yuuichiro asked, confused.
"Dad, what're you doing here?" Lan asked.
"The SciLab needed me here for a while. Now, what is it that you needed to tell me?"
"Uh, one second!" Jinn said. "Ragna! Jack out!"
"Mega, you too!"
"Roger!"
--
"He said he was a World 3 member, and that he was designed by Wily to delete Mega," Lan said, sitting in front of his father in his office.
"Hmm… we should ask Wily about this, though I doubt he'll answer," Yuuichiro said.
"If I may speak up," Jinn said, sitting backwards on a chair, leaning on his folded arms, "Enker told Ragna that he was programmed by Wily when he thought Ragna was as good as deleted. So it's most likely that he was telling the truth."
Lan turned to Jinn and asked: "By the way, how come you show up whenever we need you?"
"Call it a stroke of luck!" Jinn said, smiling. "I don't really believe in fate or stuff like that, but I think that a lot of stuff happen for a special reason. I mean, how was I supposed to know Lan took that request from Enker?"
"You're right! There was no way you could've known!" Mega said. "Still, thanks for the help!"
"Don't bother, Mega!" Ragna said. "That's what friends are for, right?"
Lan smiled at the other duo, until--
"Hey Lan! You've got mail from Chaud!"
"Huh?? From Chaud??"
"Yeah, it says: "There's a new NetCrime-Organization at work, and I'm only telling you once this time; leave it to the Officials for once. You've done more than enough already. And we don't need a repeat of what happened with Alpha, do we? So, once more, stay out of it!" ……He'll never change, huh?"
"Most likely not," Lan said. "And this won't be a repeat of Alpha! No way!"
"Don't speak too soon, Lan," Jinn said, making Lan look at him. "Life sometimes gets the urgency to repeat itself. So stay on your toes, okay?"
Lan nodded, and was about to open his mouth---
"Huh? It's a mail form Shine!" Mega said, catching Jinn and Ragna off guard.
"What does it say?" Lan asked.
"Let's see. "Hi Lan, I don't know if you received Chaud's mail, but there's a new NetCrime-Organization on the loose. You might have noticed one way or another already, but this is just in case you haven't. Chaud doesn't want you involved, but he's just worried about you. I can read most people like an open book, but Chaud doesn't know, so don't tell him, okay? Anyway, Muramasa's being re-uploaded, seeing as she got mangled up pretty badly during the last fight. Oh, the Organization's name is 'Zahler'. Well, see you later Lan!""
"Chaud??? Worried??" Lan wondered aloud, confused.
Mega was just as confused. Why would Chaud be worried? He didn't have a reason to. Did he??
"You never said you knew Shine!!" Jinn interrupted.
Lan and Mega were even more confused about that.
"Say what?"
"You heard me! You never said you knew Shine!"
"You never asked, and how do you know her!?" Lan asked.
"Kindergarten," Jinn said plainly. "I haven't seen her since she left DenCity to study. I've only met her Navi a few weeks ago."
Yuuichiro nodded in understanding and said: "She must've changed a lot in your perspective then."
"I doubt that! Is she still optimistic?" Jinn asked.
"Quite," Mega said.
"Then she's still the same!"
--
Jinn arrived at the hotel a little later that night, his mind boggling with questions.
"Enker… in what games did he appear anyway?" Jinn asked.
"Uh… Mega Man 1, Mega Man 5, Mega Man Soccer, and Rockboard," Ragna answered.
Jinn looked at him a little oddly.
"Enker was in the very first Robot Rebellion??"
Ragna gave him a look that read "are you stupid?" and said: "Gameboy versions."
"Oh."
"Where does 'Enker' come from anyway? I know it has to have something to do with music, seeing as Capcom has to keep the theme alive."
"Yeah. I think I read about it somewhere, but I forgot momentarily. By the way, did you know Lan and Mega knew Shine?"
"Well, Raye--I mean, Muramasa! Damnit! I'll never get this right!--asked if I've already met 'blueberry', so I figured she must've met Mega already."
"Ah. Makes sense."
Jinn made his way into the elevator, heading for his room on the fourth floor. He was leaning against the wall, hands in his pockets thinking things over once or twice.
"Chaud, worried? If Shine says so, he probably is… but… why?"
"Hey, Jinn, you… don't think that he might… you know…"
"Does it bother you?"
"No! No, that's not it! It's just… well… they just…"
"What?"
"Uh… never mind!!"
Ping!
Jinn looked up and noticed this was his floor, and got out of the elevator. He calmly headed for his room, contemplating on what Ragna had been trying to say. It didn't really make sense, but what did make sense in this world?
--
Once in his room, Jinn went out to the balcony, watching the scenery for some time, not really having anything else to do.
"This has been quite an eventful day, eh Ragna?"
"…………"
"Ragna?"
"……………"
"Ragna!"
"Huh? Oh, sorry, didn't hear you. What'd you say?"
"What's up with you? Why are you acting so strange?"
"………………"
"Ragna?"
"It's… not important…"
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"Well, if you ever want to tell what it is, I'll listen, okay?"
"Okay."
Jinn looked up, and noticed that the sun had already set.
"It's getting late. Let's hit the sack!"
"Sure. G'night."
"Goodnight."
--
D. Zero: "Cheap story on FanFiction.Net"?? The hell!?
Z: What?! It is!! I mean, all it takes is Microsoft Word, internet, and that's it!!
D. X: o_0
D. Zero: Uh… okay… but still!!!
D. X: Good question by the way, where did 'Enker' come from?
Z: Meh, I feel like making people guess. But it's one out of these five
1) Italian Opera
2) Group of five musicians
3) Norwegian music style
4) Japanese Opera
5) A musical instrument in Japan
D. Zero: Lot of options.
Z: Quite.
Miri-chan: Sis, what's going to come in the next chapter?
Z: I'm not sure.
D. Zero: Well, how 'bout we take a dip in the pool first? It's friggin' hot in here!!
Z: ………………
D. Zero: o_0 Sis?? You alright?
D. X: Uh… Z??
Z: ………………………:)
D. Zero: O.O
D. X: O_O
Miri-chan: Uh oh……
--
SNEAK-PEAK OF: Pool Fun And New Enemies
"Ugh! There's got to be something in here that looks reasonable."
"Like anything would look reasonable on someone like you."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me! And I'm not going to repeat myself to some brat!"
"Well, for your information, I never asked for your opinion, so sod off!"
"But I gave it anyways. And what are you going to do about it, little pipsqueak?"
"Look, I'm rather busy, so find someone else to bug."
"Why should I? You're an easier target than that other brat with the white hair."