Well, I would like to thank all two of you people that read and reviewed my story for reviewing. If you read it, why can't you take the extra five seconds to just type a review like "It's good, write more, faster." That just took me about seven seconds to type. That's all I want, not an elaborate analytical review.
Anyways, that rant aside, thank you for reading my fic, at least. I have also decided to give anyone who wants (within a reasonable number, about 5 to 8) to have a permanent spot (s) in the fic. Whether it's one of Sean's teachers to one of his new friends to a shady guy who hangs around the entrance to the school for no real reason, to one of the bad guys. I have some problems with creating original characters (actually, most that I will introduce that are my own are based off of people I know), and would like help populating the fic. Also, things in are authors notes, usually put there by me for clarification for you, the reader.
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Megaman Franchise, and I would also like to give credit to Anime Master Zero for the Axl as Sean's navi idea. This story is completely fictional. Any relation to any places, people (aside from my friends, who have ok'd it) and locations are entirely coincidental.
What… Where am I? Nick tries looks around. He can barely move his head, because it seems to be held in place in the same chair that his hands are restrained in by something that felt like a helmet. Oh, please no, please, please no! He couldn't have been serious! It can't happen to me! It CAN'T! He hears footsteps…
"Ah, I see that you have awakened,"
"Why are you doing this to me! It won't work!"
"But I must try, you see, because otherwise I wouldn't be sure…"
"But you'll kill me!"
"Not quite."
"Please, don't! Pl-AAAHHHH" Mind numbing pain raced through his body,
"HA HA HA HA HA HA" cackled the man, watching computer screens beside the chair.
Nick's eyes snapped open with the maniacal laughter still echoing in his head. He glanced at the clock on the desk beside his desk. 4:27. He got up, walked to the closet, and slowly pulled on his school clothes, which was a green oxford shirt and kaki pants, setting a gold tie on his desk before pulling his PET out of it's dock charger putting on his modified watch, and walking out of the room to his bathroom next to his dorm room.
"Good morning, Nick!" His navi said cheerfully, after Nick had set it down on the bathroom counter. His body was covered in a dark green body suit with gold boots and gold lines running all over him in random paths Think Bug style Megaman from MBN3 and a computer keyboard just the letters and numbers over the letter keys, not the directional keys or numpad attached over his right forearm, placed to cover the back of his hand until it reached his knuckles. He did not have an insignia on him. He had a helmet that was similar to a Rebel pilot's Just to clarify, the helmet that Luke Skywalker wears in his X-wing in Star Wars, but green, with a removable gold mouth guard, with a small screen positioned just over his right eye. He had brown hair, and looked similar to his operator.
"Says who, Modman?"
"The dream again?" his navi said, quickly recognizing Nick's mood.
"Yup," said Nick, opening the medicine cabinet and grabbing two pills from his auto-dispenser, quickly popping them in his mouth, swallowing them with a sip of water.
"You really can't let that start your day off this bad."
"I know, it's just-"
"Talking about it only makes it worse."
"I know." Nick stared at himself in the mirror. Why me? Why not someone else? Why not him? He wiped his face with a damp washcloth, and walked back to his and Sean's room, glancing at his watch. 5:00. Why can't I have the dream later, like at five thirty, so I'll have at least another hour of sleep. He sat down at his desk and jacked his navi into the computer.
"Can you do me a favor?" he asked his navi.
"Sure. What do you want?"
"I need you to do a background check on him," Nick said, aiming the webcam clipped to the top of his computer, getting a good angle of a sleeping Sean.
"Why?"
"I have a hunch…"
"Where do you want me to check? You realize the school database just has medical information."
"Well, he seems to be connected with the Officials…"
"You realize one of these days one of your 'hunches' is going to get me in trouble for hacking into restricted databases." His navi sighed, and started to head towards the exit link.
"Hey, be careful…"
"I always am."
Nick glanced at his watch. 5:59. He was sitting on his bed, waiting for Jeeves (the school's butler navi/semi-mascot) to bring him his schedule. He turned to Sean, and glanced at his watch. Ten… Nine… Eight… he started to count.
The first thing Sean woke to was a very loud, obnoxious bell. He jumped up, shouting, "Where's the fire!"
"You… are an… idiot," said Nick, between loud bursts of laughter.
"What do you mean?" said Sean, still slightly startled.
"Yeah, what do you mean," echoed his navi peeved at having his operator insulted in the first sentence out of Nick's mouth that he heard.
"That's just the wakeup bell."
"What?" said Sean, confused and a little amazed.
"The Greene School used to be a military training facility, so they had a bell schedule. When it was turned into a school, after it was a hotel, it was reused for separating periods. Unfortunately, the bell schedule was hardwired into the system, every single day, except for the weekends, thank goodness, the first bell at 6:00 is a wakeup call."
"You've got to be kidding me."
"What, that you get woken up two hours and forty-five minutes before school starts?"
"No, that this dump used to be a hotel."
After Sean got dressed and Jeeves had delivered both Nick's and Sean's class scheduled (as well as sharing a laugh with Nick when he was told about Sean's first "alarm"), Nick sat down on his bed and looked at his schedule.
"Hmm… World History 1st, then Literature, then Biology, then Sharian, lunch, study hall, geometry, then virus busting 101 8th." The teen mumbled to himself.
"Um… Nick, could you explain the schedule to me?" asked Sean, bewildered by the format.
"Sure. There are 8 forty-five class periods a day, starting at 8:30. Between each class there are five minutes, so you can get to your next class. Between second and third period, though, there is a half hour "activities" period. Also, your lunch is either fourth or fifth period. Here, let me see your schedule." Sean handed over the schedule, and Nick started looking at it, "Okay, Literature 1st, then calculus (you're taking calculus?), then Biology… sweet, we have the same teacher… then drama, then lunch 5th period (same as me), then World History, study hall, then virus busting 101."
"Cool."
"Yeah. Also, so you don't lose money over this, boarders (like you and me) don't have to pay for any food sold on campus, with a few exceptions, most of which are fund-raisers."
"Sweet. We have Virus busting together."
"Yeah."
"I thought you didn't delete viruses."
"Just because I don't like to hunt down and delete viruses, I still want to be able to defend myself."
"Oh, okay."
"Well, I'm going to make breakfast. You want anything?"
"Uh… What are you having?"
"I'm going to the dorm kitchen, and probably make an omelet, or something."
"I'll take one of those."
Nick walked out of the room, and Sean started to get dressed. He had learned that the school had a dress code, so he put on a blue oxford shirt, a red tie, and some dark gray pants.
"Hey, Axl, what time is it in Netopia right now?"
"Well, it's 6:30 here, so it's between 9:00 and 11:00 right about now, depending on where it is in Netopia."
"That's good. Can you call Chaud, please?"
"Umm… Why?"
"I just need to talk to him."
Chaud was sitting at his desk. He had recently been promoted to vice CEO of IPC, as well as becoming one of the head officials. He usually got his work done quickly and early. Right now, he had finished most of the paper pushing his father had thought he could handle, which wasn't a lot, so he was trying to look busy. What he really was doing was playing Halo on his computer against Protoman. He had discovered video games around the time that he had been assigned to observe Mayor Cain, and had become a fairly good gamer. He was just about to snipe Protoman from behind when his phone started ringing.
"Protoman, put the game on hold."
"Yes, sir."
"This is Chaud."
"Hey Chaud, this is Sean."
"What do you want, convict." Chaud had never really forgiven Sean about Gospel, and was mildly annoyed that he was the official assigned to aid Sean, in case he needed a different foster family, money, wanted to report suspicious activity (A.K.A. fanatics bent on reviving Gospel).
"I'm not a convict anymore. Anyway, I need you to run an I.D. on this guy," said Sean, pulling up a picture of Nick that he had had Axl take when Nick wasn't looking, "His name is Nick Amend."
"And why exactly do you think I would do this, convict?"
"It's your job, and stop calling me convict."
"Fine, I'll do it. And besides, once a convict, always a convict." Chaud hung up, and turned back to his game. "You heard what he said."
"I'll get right on it," said Protoman, preparing to leave.
"Wait," said Chaud, shooting Protoman square in the back of the neck, winning the game, "Now go."
Sean breathed deeply and counted to ten before going on a very long and explicit rant about Chaud and his mother. Then started walking down the hall, towards the kitchen
"You realize he just does that because he knows it pisses you off, and because he can," said Axl
"Yeah, I know. I wonder how long it takes Nick to cook just two omelets?" said Sean, sitting down at the table.
"Sorry, it took longer than I thought to get the bacon right," said Nick, carrying two large plates over.
"I thought you were just going to make an omelet!" Sean said, looking at his plate. I had a large amount of bacon, some sausages, a half a grapefruit, and also a cheese and mushroom omelet.
"I cook," said Nick, looking embarrassed, "and sometimes I get… carried away…"
"That's fine," said Sean, through a mouthful of sausage, "This is great!"
"I made it myself."
"When did you have the time?"
"I got here a couple of weeks earlier, because I have friends that live here."
"Then why did you just get your luggage yesterday?"
"I had it shipped."
"Ok."
After breakfast, it was time to go to class. Literature was fun, and calculus was, well, calculus. Unfortunately, there was a school wide assembly to welcome new students during activities, so Sean didn't see Nick until biology. Biology was pretty easy for Sean, since he had taken it last year, because of the difference in schools. As he was leaving, Nick walked up to him.
"You know where the cafeteria is, right?"
"Yeah, it's part of the main hall, right?"
"Yeah. I sit at the first round table to the left, with my friends. Come and sit with us."
"Okay."
Sean went to drama, which was fun. He had always enjoyed acting, and was really good at it. At his old school, he had played Marc Antony last year in Julius Cesar. Apparently he was so good at it that people actually went to it two times, just to see his famous funeral speech. He felt natural acting out others people's lives, maybe because he just wanted to escape from the attention of his own. He also liked to produce plays, but normally he would rather act. He got there and met everyone. He already has determined that his competition for the lead roles would be Garret, a quiet kid, but only until he had to act. When he acted it was marvelous, almost as good as Sean.
After drama, Sean made his way from the auditorium to the main hall. He had left Drama a couple of minutes before the bell. He went, grabbed a burger and some fries, as well as a soda, and sat down at the first round table to the left, closest to the entrance. He was eating when a guy his age and an older, probably a senior, girl walked by. The girl set her backpack down, and then walked to the lunch line, after glancing at him for a second. They returned in about five minutes, accompanied by another boy about Sean's age and two girls, one Sean's age and one that seemed to be about the age of the older girl.
"Who's the new kid?" said one of the boys, a blond about 5'7" with freckles all over his face.
"How should I know, he wasn't in any of my classes." said the brunet boy, who was about two or three inches under six feet, with a mild case of acne.
"He wasn't in any of mine and Liz's classes, so we don't know him" said one of the senior girls. She had brown hair, was skinny but well built, and had a clear, but slightly pale complexion.
"Hey, kid, who are you, and why are you sitting here?" said the other senior, who was also brunette, who was slightly heavier than normal, and rather top-heavy too, rather loud and directly.
"Well… my name's Sean, and I live in-"
"Sorry I'm late guys. Sean, starting from the left of you, going clockwise, this is Julie the pale girl, Marco the blond with freckles Lisa loud brunette, Emerson brunet with acne, and Holly, and me."
"Hi," said Holly, smiling at him. She was also a brunette. She had long, radiant, strait hair that fell an inch past her shoulders. She was about five feet three inches tall, had blue eyes, a perfect complexion, and an extremely well sculpted body. Sean had to admit she was one of the best looking girls he had ever seen.
"Uh… Hi everyone," said Sean, looking at all of them.
"So, how was everyone's first day of school?"
"Same as last year" said Julie.
"Hard" said Marco.
"Boring!" Liz half yelled, half pouted.
"I don't care." was all Emerson would say.
"Easy," said Holly, still looking at Sean.
"By the way, Nick, How was your date on Friday?" asked Julie
Nick went bright red and quietly mumbled something about getting stood up.
"What was that, Nick? You got stood up?" yelled Marco, causing a small amount of people to turn and look, much to Nick's dismay.
"Marco, be quiet. You know how Nick has self-esteem issues." said Julie, holding Marco's hand. They were obviously dating.
"Ha Ha" said Liz, not laughing, but really mocking him.
"You shouldn't get all depressed and sad about one date." Said Emerson, a little pissed off at Nick.
"Aww, that's so sad, who was it?" asked Holly "Does she go to Greene?"
"I think she's a freshman this year." mumbled Nick, extremely interested at staring at his plate of fish, blushing even more.
"I'm so sorry, Nick. Maybe you should ask her out again, or make sure she didn't get the wrong directions." Holly said, looking at Nick, truly looking empathetic.
"I don't really want to…" said Nick, "Besides, she'll just stand me up again."
"Dude, stop beating yourself up. You are a good-looking guy. You don't have acne, you always have a tan, and al you need to do is lose five pounds and you'd be fine," said Emerson, looking slightly irritated.
"Whatever…"
"Well, Marco and I really hope that you find that special someone," said Julie.
"Even though you- mph!" started Marco, only to have his mouth covered by Julie's hand.
"Honey, I think it would be best if you kept your mouth shut."
"But why, Nick does OUCH!" Marco jerked as if he was kicked from under the table.
"Yes, Marco, keep your mouth shut."
Lunch after that was just the normal high school talk, who has what when, who's "with" who, why is she wearing that. At 1:15, the second bell rang. On his way to class, Sean pulled out his PET. "Axl, have you got anything from Chaud?"
"Well…"
"What is it?"
"Chaud sent you an e-mail. He wants you to call him at your earliest convenience. He says that he's up until midnight, so call him before eight, our time. Oh, and he also says 'don't be around people when you call'."
"And…"
"He managed to write a five hundred word e-mail, only using the word convict in relation to you thirty times."
"Hm… I think he's getting soft…"
Nick was walking to class with Holly.
"The new kid's hot," said Holly, "What's his story?"
"I'm not really sure…"
"Well, okay."
"So… What's up with you?"
"Nothing really. By the way, dibs."
"Dibs?"
"On Sean."
"But you can't call dibs on a person"
"Yeah, I can. Dibs. There, I just did it again. Dibs."
"But…"
"Dibs."
"Look, he probably…"
Before he could finish, Holly walked into her class, leaving Nick standing there dumbfounded. "Whatever," he said, looking down at his PET. Modman was still not there. "I wish he'd get back soon…"
Modman was wandering around the Undernet, looking for his normal informant on the location of the link into the Official's net headquarters, who was missing. Where can he be? The navi thought to himself, He's never done this before. I wonder if his operator was fired. He continued to look around, until finally he thought he heard something. He was in the back of the Undernet, when he thought he heard a large explosion coming from the Graveyard. I wonder… The navi quickly opened a connection to his PET, calling Nick.
Nick was just about to fall asleep in study hall when his PET started to beep quickly. He quickly pulled out his chips, and accepted the connection to Modman. His teacher looked up at him.
"This had better be homework, or an emergency…" The teacher started.
"It is, Ma'am, I'm sure of it." He quickly put on a headphone, one that he had designed to allow him to communicate subvocally.
"Nick, I need a weapon, or some defense"
"Why?"
"I'm heading into the Graveyard. There seems to be a large battle happening, and I want to investigate."
"You think our contact is involved?"
"I think so."
"Here, try this," Nick said, slotting in a Lifeaura chip in. The faintly visible aura glowed and surrounded Modman, giving him a sturdy piece of protection.
"Thanks. I'm heading into the graveyard. Keep in contact."
"Okay," said Nick, quickly pulling out all of his chips and sorting through them, looking for a strong folder.
Modman walked into the graveyard, slightly nervous. He had never liked the area, what with all the tombstones with names of navis that weren't dead yet. Also, when he was there, he felt a great presence watching him, just out of sight in the cyber-mists around him. He was getting closer to the battle when he heard a tremendous roar that could only be associated with one thing.
"Gregor? It can't be… Nick, I need heavy weapons, now"
"Okay," said Nick, quite shaken at the fact that the cybeast was actually still alive. He had thought that that kid and his navi had deleted it for good. He looked through his chips, and picked out two. He slotted in an Anti-Damage and a Tnkcann3.
"Thanks," said Modman as the cannon formed in front of him. He grabbed it and carried it as one would carry a rocket launcher. He was getting close to the noise when a figure was blown backwards into him.
"Hey, are you okay!" said Modman as he picked himself up. Then he got a good look of the navi he was just knocked over by, and jumped back and almost fired his weapon.
"I'm… fine." Said Bass.
"You… Gregor?"
"Yes, he has returned." Bass said just as the enormous beast landed right in front of them.
"Move!" said Modman, tackling Bass just as Gregor unleashed a massive lightning strike right where Bass had been standing, Modman was hit, but was replaced by a dummy as he appeared above Gregor and threw several shuriken down on it.
"…Thanks…"
"It's not over yet. Here! Recover 300!"
"Let's do this."
Bass then hovered just above Modman, summoning two hells rollers and sending them at Gregor just as Modman unleashed a massive cannon blast. Both attacks made direct contact, and hurt the cybeast moderately. With a massive roar, the beast started to glow, and dashed forwards.
"He'll delete you if you touch him!" shouted Bass, rocketing up to avoid the cybeast. Modman dove to the side and was barely missed by it. They both turned around to face it.
"Bass, we have to finish it off all at once! Use your strongest attack!"
Nick heard this and quickly slotted in a Sanctuary chip and a HolyDream chip.
"CHAOS OVERLOAD!"
"HOLY DREAM!"
Both navis released their attacks at the exact same time, striking Gregor head on. The cybeast roared as it was engulfed in a massive explosion. When it cleared, the cybeast was gone.
"Do you think we got it?" Modman asked.
"Unlikely. It probably was weakened to the point that it decided to escape rather than fight. It will be back, but it will be weakened enough that I can destroy it."
"Destroy it?"
"Absorb its powers."
"Why?"
"Because, my quest is to become the ultimate navi. Unfortunately, since I have no human operator, I must absorb others to gain strength and power."
"Okay… I'm going to go now…" Modman said, slowly backing away.
"Heh, typical. You save my life, and then you think that I am going to delete you. Actually, I think I will reward you."
"With what?"
Bass stopped hovering and stood on the ground. He was about a half a head taller than Modman. He took off his tattered cloak, and folded it nicely with one hand in one smooth motion. Then, he handed it to Modman.
"My power is imbedded in this cloak. Wear it, and your strength will increase tenfold. Unfortunately, it will also cause you to weaken after using the power for long periods of time."
"How do I activate the power in it?"
"You will know," said the master of darkness as he floated away, disappearing in the cyber-mists.
Sean looked lover towards Nick's bed. The rhythmic raising and lowering of his chest deemed that he was asleep. Sean picked up his PET and crept out of the room.
"Do you know where you're going?" Axl said softly.
"Yeah. Nick showed me the way to the roof."
Sean turned to the left, and found a door marked as a fire escape.
"Uh… won't you set off an alarm?"
"Nope. Some boarder disabled it awhile ago, and nobody bothered fixing it"
"Oh, okay."
Sean stepped into the stairway, and climbed to the top. Stepping out on the roof, he sat down.
"Axl, open up a connection to Chaud."
Chaud, unfortunately, was sleeping. He was dreaming that he was just about to completely defeat Lan and Megaman finally, when his PET rang.
"Chaud, it's Sean."
"Put him on the speakerphone," Chaud growled, felling a headache starting.
"So, what did you get on Nick?"
"Well, first I did a full analysis on the photo, which showed that he has had no plastic surgery done on his facial features. Then, I ran his name through several criminal databases, as well as the Official database. Then, going back to the photo, I ran it through an identifier."
"Why are you telling me all this?"
"So that you'll know how hard he worked and so he'll think you mean it when you thank him." Said Protoman.
"Okay… Thanks, Chaud. You are one of the greatest members the Officials have."
"Thanks. Back to the results. According to this, you're friend doesn't exist."
"What?"
"That's what I said. I ran everything twice, even checking anagrams of his name. The Official database doesn't have anything either."
"But don't they have a record of every single net user?"
"We should…"
"Well, thanks, I guess…"
"You're welcome, convict."
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Sean yelled into his PET, his actions were futile, though, as Chaud had already severed the connection.
"Well, this is surprising," said Axl.
"I know."
Oh my GOD! HE DID NOT JUST DO THAT! Yes, I did. I included Bass in only the second chapter of my story, and not as an evil, dangerous character! I may have him appear again in later chapters, but that's only if you guys like it. I NEED reviews. Simple ones that just express your opinion (It was good/ It was horrible) are good, but if you have the time, you can also write a more in depth review. Thanks for the R&R-ing, Nick