I own no Megaman characters, any familiar dialogue or the main plot. Credits to Capcom.
Reply to Ghost501's review of Chapter 13: Kan? Oh, Lan! XD
When I originally wrote it, the school year was starting again. I figured that I would write it to relate Lan to the several people that just can't do their homework on their own!
-Chapter 14: Power Problems-
"Mom! Are you done yet?"
"Not yet, Lan!" she replied from her room.
"Well, since you always take so long, I'll go on ahead!"
"Okay, but be careful, sweetie!"
"I know, mom!" As Lan left the house and headed for the Metroline, he sighed to himself, "If I just wait for mom, I'll never get to eat..."
"C'mon, Lan," Megaman spoke up. "I know you just can't wait to see your dad!"
After a safe train ride to Marine Harbor and a little walk to SciLab, all Lan had to do was wait for his dad at the designated location, the TV in the waiting lobby. With nothing else to do, he decided to take a seat in front of the TV and watch the rather boring program that flashed on, little did he know that a certain someone in the corner of the lobby.
"You again... What are you doing in SciLab?"
Lan turned around to find Chaud standing in front of him, with his hands in his pockets and an irritated look on his face.
"And why should I tell you?" Lan scowled.
"This is no place for little boys to play games, so get lost, would you?"
"You can't push me around!" Lan slammed his fist on the couch, gaining attention from the passersby.
"Noisy little brat..." Chaud muttered under his breath.
"I heard that!"
"Whatever," the older boy replied nonchalantly. "I don't have time to deal with you, anyway." With his hands still in his pockets, he turned away from the brat and walked away.
"I really hate that guy," Lan growled behind Chaud's back.
"Now's not the time for that," Megaman told him. "You don't wanna look stressed out a party, after all, do you?"
"Sigh... I guess not..."
Some time passed by and Lan grew tired of waiting for his father. He couldn't take the droning sounds of that program he was watching, so he hopped on his feet and and paced back and forth, wondering where he could be. He knew the old saying 'good things come to those who wait', but his patience was running dry.
Eventually, though, Yuichiro Hikari made it. Lan rushed to him the moment he saw him.
"Lan, did you wait long?" he smiled to his son. "You're looking fit as a fiddle!"
"Ha ha... Hey, dad."
"But where's mom? Isn't she coming with you?"
"She's coming, dad," Lan said. "She's just taking way too long to get ready! Can you believe that she started at half past three!?"
"Oh my... But you know what they say, Lan: it takes time for a girl to look her best!"
"Not that again..." Lan groaned.
"Ha ha. You'll understand why someday," Yuichiro chuckled.
"Ugh, mom said that, too."
Surprise, surprise, in about ten minutes' time, Lan's mother finally made it. Instead of the clothes she was wearing earlier, she wore a violet one piece dress and maroon high heels. Her hair flowed down elegantly and was combed perfectly.
"Sorry for the wait, boys! Here I am!" Haruka smiled, gesturing to her matching earrings. She was unable to contain her excitement at seeing her husband next to their son, so she stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him. "Oh, honey! How have you been? Are you keeping well?"
"I'm doing fine, dear," Yuichiro smiled also. "Well, now that we're all here, let's go downstairs!"
"Downstairs?" Lan repeated.
"You mean I haven't told you yet? Oh, I'm sorry! You see, they built a restaurant underground below SciLab. When you look out the windows, you'll see water!"
"Cool," Lan mused. "I wonder if there's fish swimming under there."
"Maybe you'll be eating them at the party!" Megaman chuckled slightly, gaining laughs from the Hikari family.
"Anyway, to continue, underneath the restaurant is a power plant," Lan's father continued to explain, as the family stepped in the elevator and went down. "It supplies energy to all of DenTech City!"
"Why did people think that building a power plant there was a good idea?" Lan asked.
"I'm not so sure of that myself, unfortunately," his father admitted, taking a pause afterwards. By then, the elevator had stopped and the family made it to the hallway which led to the actual restaurant.
The hallway had a vending machine and a dust chute. As the family headed down, they saw potted plants, all in front of windows, from which underwater life could be seen. Luckily, all the fish were tame and there were no sharks or piranhas about! There was a set of green double doors which led to the actual restaurant, with two smartly dressed waiters standing by, to prevent anyone without permission from entering. They knew who Yuichiro Hikari was and recognized him and the rest of the family, so they were let through.
The restaurant had a quite a number of round tables evenly spread out across the checkered floor, each with a clean white table cloth over it. There were trolley carts, some used for collecting finished tableware and others used for delivering ordered food and drinks. On the left was a set of doors, which restaurant staff used to enter the kitchen.
At the front of the room was a display of PETs, which were said to be made from recycled plastic bottles. Needless to say, this was evident from the plastic bottles to the side of them. Behind the displays was a stage, with a curtain covering it.
Dotted around the room were SciLab scientists and related guests, satisfied with the high quality food and drinks served. They were all here for a special announcement.
After the Hikari family took their seats and received the food they ordered, they began to eat away.
"It's been a while since we've talked, Lan," Yuichiro stated after swallowing a piece of meat. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you for a while, too."
"And what's that?" Lan asked with his mouth stuffed, before getting scolded by his mother to not talk with a full mouth.
"It's... about my research," his father continued, ignoring the little comment from Haruka. "You see, I made your PET."
"Hmm?"
"That's why it's different from the others. That's also why Megaman is different from other Navis, too. Lan-"
Suddenly, a bell interrupted what he was about to say, with a voice calling, "Dr Hikari, please report to the lab immediately."
"I'm sorry, but it looks like my job's calling me again," Yuichiro sighed sadly.
"It's too bad. I really wanted to spend time together as a family again," Haruka frowned.
"So did I, honey," Yuichiro said, giving his wife a kiss on the cheek. Turning to Lan, he said to him, "We'll finish off where we left off next time." Getting up from his seat, he took off for the lab.
"Bummer..." Megaman commented.
"So much for dinner together..." Lan sighed, slouching on his seat.
"Your father's job is very important, Lan," his mother reminded him, though she wished to spend more time with Yuichiro, too.
A few minutes of eating later, the announcement began.
"Everyone, thank you for waiting," a voice, eerily like the one from the month old reeducation program, spoke from a PA system. "We would like to welcome our speaker for this evening."
As the guests of the party clapped in applause, the curtain behind the recycled PETs display rose, revealing a blond man in a rusty yellow suit and brown boots. The outlines frequently flashed a bright yellow. He held two light bulbs, which were somehow still bright. They must have been connected to something inside the suit.
"Ladies and gentlemen," he began. "Thank you for coming here this evening... to the World Three Doom Party!" As gasps of horror sounded, the man flashed his teeth as he grinned. "World Three has taken over the underground power plant! So, let's get thing started with a little, no, a ginormous, blackout!" With the raise of a light bulb, he commanded, "Elecman! Zap to it!"
Before anyone could scream, everything suddenly went black! All that could be seen were the light bulbs and the outlines to the man's suit and shoes. But all they could do was watch him walk away.
"A power outage!?" A cough sounded from the guest. "N-No! The air v-vents have stopped, t-too!"
"No! The generator won't w-work!" a scientist yelled. "S-Someone, check the p-power plant below!"
"Lan, it looks like it's up to us," Megaman told his NetOp under all the screams of fear and desperation for help.
"Easy for you to say!" Lan groaned. "I can't see-" The world and everything around Lan became a little clearer suddenly. "Hang on, my eyes are adjusting. I can see a bit better, Megaman. Let's go!"
All that his mother could hear were footsteps. When she turned around, Lan was gone. All the 'party' guests noticed the figure of a boy running.
What could he possibly do!?
"With no power, the elevators won't work," Megaman said in the hallway.
"Then how the heck are we supposed to get to the elevator!?" Lan yelled.
"Hang on, Lan... Wait a minute. Didn't you see a dust chute earlier?"
"Huh? Oh, maybe that'll take us down to the power plant!" Lan guessed, opening the dust chute for him to crawl in.
"You never know, Lan! It could take us somewhere else!"
"It's the only option we have!"
Crawling in the dust chute was quite uncomfortable for Lan. He could smell the mustiness of the little tunnels and was beginning to develop claustrophobia. However, he could feel himself lower down and down, until he bumped into another wall. It felt like the same material blocking the dust chute upstairs. Feeling across it, he found an handle of sorts. He used it and opened, revealing another hallway.
Lan followed along it until he came across another hallway, this time, with two mechanical doors. By instinct, he barged through the one closer to him, but to no avail. He found that the other door was unlocked and as he went on through, he found a set of monitors and computers, all of which were for the generator. A lone scientist stood in front of one of the monitors, rapidly typing on the keyboard in frustration.
"Um, mister, what are you doing here?" Lan asked him.
"Huh? Oh, I, uh, didn't see you there," the scientist answered, turning to the boy. "We control the power plant from this room, but all the computers and monitors are down! I'm trying to find a way to fix this!"
Lan, noticing jack in ports on all the monitors, stated, "I'll help you out! I'm gonna jack into the monitor now! Ready, Megaman?"
"Let's do this!" Megaman grinned.
"Alright, then. Jack in, Megaman! Exe-"
"Waaait!" the scientist yelled, blocking the jack in port with his hand. "You wanna delete your Navi!? Jacking in now is suicide! If the power's out in the real world, it's out on the Net, too!"
"But what'll happen if I jack in?"
"Your PET's battery will be drained! If the battery's completely out, all the energy sent to your Navi is cut off completely! They won't be able to download battle chip data and it'll be only a matter of time before they get deleted!"
"Ugh... What should I do...?" Lan wondered out loud.
"Lan, let's go in there!" Megaman said.
"Didn't you hear what the guy said, Megaman!? You could get deleted out there!"
"But Lan, you heard the guys back in the room! The air vents have stopped working! If we don't do anything, everyone in there will..." The consequences were too harsh for Megaman to finish his sentence.
"Megaman..."
"And besides, I think you're a good enough operator to do it!"
"Well... You're right, Megaman! Lives are at stake! And I won't let those guys delete you! Let's do it! Jack in, Megaman! Execute!"
Man, I feel tired. I had a pretty busy Saturday, seeing my friends through most of the day. Today's gonna be an even busier Sunday, since I'm seeing my family for a party. That means less time to work on my upcoming novelizations.
Unfortunately, life can never give you what you want all the time. That's why you have to work with what you've got!
-Have a great day, week, month, whatever, and stay upbeat, y'all!-