I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.
Reply to Ghost501's review of Chapter 3: Thanks!
Reply to Stardustwarrior's review of Chapter 3: Nice to have your support! I'm not sure how far I'll come or how much people will flock over to my work, but I'll do my best for those who enjoy what I write.
-Chapter 4: What Not To Study For Your Future-
A Week After The Oven Explosions...
The oven accidents have passed and ACDC Town was greeted with a bright, new day. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and-
"AAAAHHH!"
Lan was screaming.
"Man! Why didn't anybody wake me up!"
"I tried to, Lan! You just didn't listen!"
"Urgh... Quiet, Megaman! How much time do I have?"
"You have... Oh no! One minute, Lan!"
"Aah! I better get moving!"
"I'm just putting this out there, Lan. You should get to bed earlier."
"Really, Megaman!? Really!"
Lan rushed through the school gates, ignoring the scoldings some of the teachers passing by gave him. As he entered the building, he took out his PET.
"Man... Looks like I'm late," Lan frowned.
"As always..." Megaman sighed.
"Whatever. Any mail for me?"
"What? At a time like this? Oh, alright... You have two. The first one is from NetNews. It says 'Student net crime on the rise!' The other's from Yai and says 'Are you late again? I called your name for you in homeroom, so you owe me one.' Maybe she wouldn't have had to do that if you went to bed earlier, Lan. That way, you would have gotten up earlier!"
"Must you remind me every few minutes?" Lan groaned. "Whatever. Let's just go."
"Finally..."
Lan walked along the corridors and up the stairs until he came across Class 5-A's back door. Unfortunately, as he peeked through the door, he noticed that everyone was still in homeroom.
"Well, you know what it's time for, Megaman," Lan grinned. "A guy's gotta do it sometime."
"Oh no... You're not gonna..."
"Yep. Sneak time!"
Quietly, Lan stuffed his PET in his backpack. Then, he dropped himself to the floor, closed the door at a snail's pace and crept to his desk. Fortunately for Lan, no one noticed him. Ms Mari was busy scolding a kid who thought it would be funny to shoot spitballs at other classmates. Lan resisted the urge to giggle. In any case, he made it to his seat.
In about a minute, a man in uniform with glasses and fuzzy hair entered the classroom. Ms Mari took notice of him and silenced the class.
"Class, this is Mr Higsby," she introduced the newcomer to them. "He'll my new teaching assistant for the next two weeks."
"Hello, class," Mr Higsby said to the students. "I'm Mr Higsby and I collect rare battle chips. It's my hobby! I'm looking forward to trading with you all! He he he." Afterwards, he snorted.
Meanwhile, Yai whispered to Maylu, "This new guy's kinda... scary..."
"Not really," Tory interjected. "Just sorta... Um..."
"Weird?" Maylu suggested.
"I didn't think teachers had hobbies, too," Dex mused to himself.
"Well, they do say everyone has a hobby," Lan said to him.
Ms Mari ignored all the whispering and giggling and told the class, "Let's make Mr Higsby feel welcome here, alright? That's all for homeroom."
The two teachers left to discuss lesson plans, while all the students mingled with each other until the next bell rang. However, as Lan and the gang were talking, Tory heard something suspicious outside. He didn't want to snoop in on what was going on, but his friends saw in his face that something was wrong.
"What's up, Tory?" Lan asked him. "Did you hear something outside?"
"Well, I thought I did," Tory answered. "Must be my imagination, though..."
A few minutes later, the next bell rang aloud, as scheduled. The teacher that entered the classroom was Mr Higsby himself.
"Um, Mr Higsby? Where's Ms Mari?" Tory asked, raising his hand.
"Huh? Oh, uh... She... uh... She got sick," the teaching assistant stuttered. "And, uh... went to the nurse's office. Yeah, that's it! Anyway, first class will be study hall." Everyone cheered, but Higsby stopped them by adding, "But first, I want you all to do math drills! I'm be checking them later. Now, jack into the blackboard!"
Everyone groaned as they jacked their Navis in, as instructed. As the students were busy on their math drills, the teacher suddenly left the classroom. Tory was the first to notice, for Yai and Maylu were focusing on their math drills, while Lan and Dex struggled with them. His suspicions rose.
But suddenly, an alarm shattered the silence! The word 'ERROR' flashed on the blackboard in green. The class shrieked, screamed and panicked, before they heard an ominous voice speak as a silhouette of a mad scientist appeared over the error message.
"We will now announce the real goal of our plan: to control the net!"
"Lan! This must be a World Three reeducation program!" Megaman said to his NetOp.
"World Three's plan is to start something I like to call 'The EndGame'!" the mysterious voice announced. "We will take control over the entire Net and the only cure for this rotten world is... DELETION!"
Everyone gasped in horror, stuttered in confusion and shook with fear, but the silhouette paid no attention.
"To reach our goals, World Three is hiring new staff members!" he continued. "Starting from now, we will begin a new instruction program! So, children, study well and become good slaves to World Three!"
Everyone continued to panic. Lan rushed for the classroom's front door and pushed it open. But it wouldn't budge!
"Oh no! The door's locked!"
"Everyone stay calm! Gutsman and I will stop this!" Dex declared, stepping up to the blackboard.
"Dex, no!" Lan shouted.
"Lan, I know how you feel, but trust me. I can handle this! Jack in, Gutsman! Execute!"
Everyone gathered round Dex's PET to see how Gutsman did. What they saw was a group of Spookys gang up on the hefty Navi. Gutsman lunged for them and smashed his fists at them, but the Spookys teleported away. After a series of attacks from the viruses, Gutsman could take no longer.
"AAAH!" Dex screamed. "That's it! Jack out, Gutsman, before they get you!"
Gutsman did as told and returned to the PET, as Dex unplugged it.
"Lan, I think I'll leave this to you," he said.
"Well, we won't know if we can do it unless we try, right, Megaman?"
"Yeah!" Megaman responded. "Let's do this, Lan!"
"You got it! Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"
In The ACDC Elementary Network...
The school's different blackboards were connected together to form the 'ACDC Elementary Network'. Megaman arrived at Class 5-A's area to find it looking different than before. He and Lan assumed that World three did this, but they knew that they had to find the programs locking the classrooms' doors first.
Megaman made his way along the pale yellow cyber ground and kept his eye on any viruses that would pop up from the math themed cyber sky. Any that he came across were deleted easily with the Mega Buster. After weaving through the paths that branched out over and under each other, the blue Navi eventually came face to face with a teal set of bars. He saw a set of buttons, which he assumed were used to enter a code.
"ENTER THE CODE TO GO THROUGH," a computerized voice announced. "CODE HINT: THE NUMBER OF STUDENTS IN CLASS 5-A."
"There's twenty!" Lan told Megaman.
"Alright. I'll punch in the code."
Megaman pressed '2', which appeared in front of the bars. After pressing '0', the digit appeared to the right of it. Megaman pressed the 'CONFIRM' button and the bars faded away. After Lan escorted everyone in his class outside the classroom, he continued to operate Megaman, who had come across a Beetank. A Cyber Sword slash was all that was needed to delete the virus.
Megaman continued to make his way through the school network until he arrived at the Library Area, where he came across a Mr Prog, who was badly damaged.
"Hey, are you okay?" Megaman asked him.
"Urgh... I've been badly damaged by World Three, but I'll be fine," the Mr Prog assured him. "After all, I control the very important library book loan data and I'm supposed to be able to handle anything, right?"
"You shouldn't push yourself too hard. Don't worry. I'll take care of things."
"You will? But you'll need a code to get through here. It's the number of volumes on 'The History of the World'."
"Thanks. Lan, could you check for me?"
"I'm already on it!" Lan said as he made his way to the library.
After checking and returning, Lan told Megaman that there were 30 volumes. Megaman punched in the code and he was allowed through. As he about to take a step, the Mr Prog from earlier stopped him. He was told to remember the number 'seven'. At first, it confused Megaman, but he promised to keep it in mind. After continuing along a straight path, he came across another set of bars. He knew he needed to punch in the correct code, but this time, there was no hint given.
"Hmm... Hey, Lan. Remember what that Mr Prog told us to remember?" Megaman asked him.
"Seven... Do you think this could be the code for this door?"
"I'll give it a try."
To the Navi's surprise, the way was open after he inputted '07'.
"Wow! That really worked, Lan!"
"Great! Now, let's keep going!"
"Roger."
In this part of the school network, most of the paths looked like the flat ends of pencils joined together. But what to do was still the same: bust viruses and find the cause of the problem. At the end of a long path of pencils, there was another set of bars that got in Megaman's way. The hint this time was 'the number of flower pots just outside the school building'.
"Man..." Lan sighed. "I'll be right back, Megaman."
In The Real World...
Lan rushed outside he school building, to where the flower pots were, and was baffled at the sight of them. There were too many to count! But Lan couldn't give up. Not if he didn't want to become a World Three slave. So Lan started with 'one'.
After he got to the twenties, he heard someone say to him, "There are ninety nine."
Lan turned around to see a young woman with green hair, a brown headband with a swirl around it, a blue dress and brown pants and shoes.
"Ninety nine?" Lan repeated.
"Yes. There are ninety nine flower pots here. I know this because I water them everyday."
"Wow... It must be a pain to water all these flowers everyday, Sal! I mean, what if your mind suddenly went off track or something? Come to think of it, your life sounds like a difficult one to live in general! How do you do it?"
"I live as I do for nature," Sal smiled.
"Well, I have to head back now," Lan said, beginning to take off. "But thanks a lot! You've really saved us!"
Sal didn't know what Lan meant, but she paid it no mind and began to water the flowers.
Back with Megaman, Lan told him the code.
"Wow. Sounds pretty high," Megaman said. "You sure about that?"
"Yep."
Megaman punched in the code '99' and hoped his NetOp was correct. His wishes were granted as the way became open to him. Lan watched his Navi rush along the path and delete the viruses easily. He was near the AV Room, when suddenly, Megaman felt unsure of himself.
"Lan, I have a bad feeling about this..." he told his NetOp as he slowed his pace.
"What's wrong, Megaman?"
"I feel unstable energy near the AV Room. I think- Gaaaah!"
"Megaman! What's wrong!?"
Megaman was paralyzed by a trap. The unstable energy Megaman warned Lan of must have caused it, or so Lan thought. He assured his Navi that he would check out the AV Room and dashed out of the classroom once again. The AV Room was on the ground floor, so Lan also had to rush down some stairs. Just as he was about to enter the AV Room, he was bumped by someone making his way out.
"Sorry!" the man apologized, who followed it up by snorting. Lan could tell who it was by the sound in his voice.
"Higsby! Wait! What's going on!?" Lan called out, but Higsby sped up and got away. "What's with this teacher? First he ditches us while we do math drills, he didn't even try to help us when we were locked in and now this! Something's up... But now, I've gotta help Megaman!"
Virus Log-
Spookys: evasive, ghost like viruses that attack by licking and slowly recover damage over time if not deleted quickly
Beetanks: beetle like viruses that shoot bombs with their cannons
And that'll be a wrap.
Sal helping out Lan is my little nod to the anime. I wanted to include her somehow, so I gave her that little appearance. Who knows? Maybe we'll see her again, along with two certain other characters...
-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-