I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.
Reply to Ghost501's review of Chapter 5: Well, you know what they say - love comes in many forms.
The thing about the anime, NT Warrior, is that the execution is kinda like Sonic X's (censorship, not so great dubbing and all...). They sorta follow the games' plots, but not as closely as some people would like. However, they did do a few things right. A couple of them will be applied to this novelization.
-Chapter 6: No Train, No Gain, Pain-
After School...
"Rough day today, huh?" Megaman smiled to Lan.
"Yeah," Lan sighed, relieved that the day was done. "And I didn't even deserve it! I save the school and this is my reward?" Megaman couldn't help but laugh at that statement. "Anyway, Megaman, what do you wanna do now?"
"Well, the Metroline's opening today. Maybe we could surprise your dad down at SciLab!"
"Good idea! Let's go!"
The Metroline was just near Dex's yellow house. There was an entrance to the underground service with a picture of a train speeding by on top. Lan couldn't wait to see his dad at work in SciLab. However, just as he was about to take a step down the staircase, Tory came speeding up. He, too, was headed for the Metroline to help out his father at the Waterworks, but just got word that the public transport system was having problems. He found out why and rushed home in a hurry.
"Tory! What's wrong?" Lan asked him.
"Apparently, there's been a landslide that's stopping the trains from running," he answered. "I'm gonna jack Iceman into the Net to check things out."
"The Net?"
"I asked one of the guys who works at the Metroline and they told me that the train system's run by a computer," Tory told Lan. "And when there's an accident, the safety program should stop the trains. But the program was hit by a virus!"
"What!? Did someone get in from the control room?"
"It didn't look that way, so they must have got in through the Net."
"We've gotta find out who's causing this," Lan said. "I'll jack in, too."
"Great!" Tory responded. "Let's get moving!"
Lan and Tory immediately rushed to their homes and jacked their Navis into the Net.
On The Net...
In no time, Megaman and Iceman arrived in the ACDC Area and regrouped with each other. The two Navis overheard what had happened to the Metroline, so by their NetOps' orders, they began to search for the cause of the problem. They began their search in the 'Metroline Area', west of the ACDC Area. It was a round path that encircled an entire other network area, making it the longest area in the entire DenTech Area. Around the path were branches of other paths, which led to other parts of the area.
Megaman and Iceman searched around, only to find a boulder ahead. Then, they heard cries for help. They assumed that it was the safety program.
"What happened!?" Megaman shouted to him.
"I... I don't know!" the Mr Prog answered fearfully. "I was just doing my job, when all of a sudden, this stone like Navi came in and smashed the cyber ground! Then, boulders fell down and trapped me here! What should I do!? If they find that I'm not doing my job, I'll be deleted! I'm too young to be deleted!"
"Hey, cool it," Iceman said to him. "We'll get you out."
"Yeah!" Megaman smiled. "All we need to do is get rid of the boulders and you'll be-"
A rumble interrupted Megaman. He and Iceman frantically turned around. Then, a shadow of a boulder appeared. A boulder crashed on the cyber ground, trapping Megaman and Iceman! From a blue light, a stone like Navi emerged. The shadow of his stature alone would have been enough to scare away some Navis away, but Megaman and Iceman stood strong.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Megaman demanded to know.
"Blocking the Metroline safety program!" the Navi boomed. "So the Metroline won't open!"
"Why would you do such a thing!?"
"To control the Net, of course!"
"Another one of World Three's cronies... You're not having control of anything! Get those rocks out of there!"
"Ha ha ha! Never! I, Stoneman, will delete all programs and Navis that interfere!"
"Not if we're the ones interfering, Rocky!" Megaman shouted. "Iceman! You ready?"
"Let's freeze this guy!" Iceman grinned. "Got our chips ready, Tory?"
"You bet, Iceman! You ready, too, Lan?"
"Yeah! Let's go!"
Megaman and Iceman jumped into action. Megaman fired his Mega Buster at Stoneman, while Iceman breathed his trademark Cyber Blizzard. Unfortunately, the combined attacks left no effect on Stoneman. He laughed at them tauntingly before slamming his round arms on the cyber ground, sending a wave of stones raining down at his enemies. Megaman and Iceman jumped about and narrowly dodged the rocks that came their way and attempted to damage him again, still to no effect.
Stoneman roared and towers of stone blocks formed around Megaman and Iceman, confining them to one square. Slamming his arms down once more, he summoned more rocks down and they began to crash down at the two.
"What do we do now?" Megaman groaned.
"Tory! Do you have that Ice Punch chip with you?" Iceman asked his NetOp.
Flashing the battle chip out, Tory called out, "Here it is! Ice Punch! Battle chip in! Download!"
Iceman's right hand morphed into a giant, blue fist. After awaiting the rocks to fall closer, he raised it up, blocking the rocks that came and fell. After Stoneman shouted in shock, Iceman began to smash the stone cubes that encased him and Megaman. With rapid speed, the towers were crushed and the two Navis were free.
"Wow, Iceman! That was cool!" Megaman grinned.
"Heh heh..."
"Is that the best you can do!?" Stoneman boomed, his yellow eyes turning red. "Take this!"
The stone Navi's arms broke down into pieces of data. They floated around for a while and disappeared into the cyber ground. From where they crashed, Stoneman's arms began to rise up. After a second, they opened up, revealing two blasters. The arms rotated to turn to Megaman and Iceman and the blasters glowed green. After blinking, two lasers were shot out, which Megaman and Iceman barely dodged.
Stoneman roared, spawning more stone cubes to block his enemies' way. Megaman's Mega Buster destroyed them with charged shots, for Iceman's Ice Punch fist morphed back into his regular hand. He shot at the stone cubes and Stoneman with Ice Slashers, shards of ice which Iceman could summon and fire at will. The two continually fired at Stoneman, while dodging the lasers the rock Navi's arms fired and destroying the cubes that Stoneman spawned. Apparently, Stoneman's defenses were lowered when his arms are off. This was exploited in the battle. With each powerful chip used, Stoneman's body began to crumble. Eventually, all that was left was his head. As the last of the stone body crumbled away, Stoneman's head fell down to the cyber ground. Megaman pointed his Mega Buster at him.
"Now, get rid of those rocks," he commanded Stoneman.
"Fine. You've proved your worth," Stoneman growled, hopping over to one of the boulders that trapped the Mr Prog. He stopped suddenly.
Then, he cackled.
"You fool! This is what you get for showing mercy to World Three!"
Stoneman jumped in the air and attempted to warp away, but Iceman quickly leaped forwards and shot an Ice Slasher, destroying what was left of the World Three Navi and deleting him.
Turning to Megaman, Iceman asked him, "Hey, you okay?"
"... Yeah. Let's get this thing back up and running!"
Megaman rapidly fired at one boulder until it crumbled away. Then, Iceman fired Ice Slashers the other boulder blocking the Mr Prog from the other side. The Mr Prog leaped with joy.
"Thank you ever so much! Thank you, you two!" he chanted. "Now I can do my job again!"
"Heh heh. No prob," Megaman and Iceman responded before they jacked out.
In The Real World...
"Alright, Megaman! Now we can see my dad!" Lan grinned.
"And I can go help out my father, Iceman!" Tory smiled.
The two friends regrouped at the Metroline. The people were overjoyed to hear that everything was up and running again and immediately rushed in line to buy their tickets. Children in eighth grade or below, however, didn't have to pay for theirs, so Lan and Tory waited until they received their tickets and boarded the next train.
After only twenty minutes of train travel, the two got off at their stop and exited the Metroline. There were three big buildings in sight: the Center, the Waterworks to the left and SciLab to the right. These three buildings stood on top of one man made island: Marine Harbor, an island south of ACDC Town and at the south east corner of DenTech City.
After Lan and Tory said their goodbyes and split up, Lan entered SciLab, to be greeted with a main office like front room. He saw a receptionist next to the elevator with red doors and asked her where his father was. After being told to check out his lab upstairs, Lan waited for the elevator and stepped in when it came. He punched in the floor number, the doors closed and the elevator want up, stopping at the appointed floor.
There was a corridor before Yuichiro Hikari's lab, but it wasn't a long one and Lan walked on by in no time. There was a computer area tucked in the far right corner of the salmon floored room. On the left hand side of the room was a monitor for jack in tests. But what was missing? Of course! Lan's dad!
"Don't tell me we came all this way for nothing!" Lan groaned.
"C'mon, Lan. Dad's probably just busy," Megaman assured him.
"As usual..." his NetOp couldn't help but sigh. Situations like this made him whether he liked the scientist side to his father or not...
"Hey, we could leave him a message on his computer," Megaman suggested. "Why don't you jack me into it?"
"Well... Alright. Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"
After jacking Megaman in, Lan typed up a message for his Navi to give to a caretaker Mr Prog and, after having the message received, jacked him out. By Megaman's suggestion, he headed for home.
On his way, the PET bleeped. Megaman told Lan that he had new mail. Wondering who it was from, he opened it up.
"Hey, it's from dad!" the boy beamed. "Let's see what it says, Megaman!"
"'Sorry I was too busy when you came to visit.'" the Navi read out. "'To make up for it, here's some battle chip data for you. Enjoy!'"
"Oh, man. I hope it's something cool!"
After Lan arrived back home, he went to his room and downloaded the battle chip data. The picture on the blank space was a Normal Navi with what looked like a Cyber Sword, but electric sparks in a similar color to the sword encircling it.
"Ooh, this might come in handy," Lan mused.
"It might just be the weakness of the next World Three Navi we fight!" Megaman spoke up.
"Maybe," Lan said in response, switching on his computer. "But enough talk about battle strategies! Let's explore the Net!"
"Lan, don't you have to do that homework Ms Mari set?" Megaman half sighed half scolded Lan.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to that in a bit."
"And this is why you never..." the blue Navi began to mumble under his breath. However, he didn't know where he was going with it, so he stopped midway.
Bah, the Stoneman scenario never added anything to the plot of the game. When I first wrote this, I considered skipping it out! However, I pushed on and what you've read was the fruit of my efforts. Regardless of how you thought it went, I hope to see you guys in the next chapter!
-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-