Chapter 4 – Sci-Trip

"Lan, wake up! You don't want to be late for the field trip today," Megaman called out from his PET. He would have used the holographic projector and screamed in Lan's ear, but it was still not operable. However, on the plus side, Dr. Hikari was able to fix it. All that needed to be done was wait for the patch program to finish calibrating the device so that Megaman can use it.

"…huh? Megaman…it's too early for all that shouting…" an extremely tired Lan Hikari responded to the nagging voice of Megaman. Lan was never a morning person, and Megaman knew that. But, Megaman needed to wake him up so he wasn't late.

"Lan! Quick! The leftover curry is almost gone," Megaman yelled from the PET, attempting to reach out to Lan's stomach instead of his common sense. It became apparent very quickly that Megaman succeeded in his endeavor.

"What? NOT THE CURRY," Lan yelled as he jumped out of bed, almost falling in the process. It didn't take long for Lan to realize that Megaman had tricked him into getting out of bed. Megaman burst out into laughter at Lan's reaction. Lan, however, did not find it amusing in the least.

"Oh, REAL FUNNY, Megaman!"
"Ha-ha. Well, it did get you up out of bed, didn't it?"
"You can just yell at me like normal."
"When has that ever worked, Lan?"
"It worked yesterday!"
"Well, it doesn't matter how you got up. The point is that you are up. You need to get ready for the field trip today."
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot about that."

From downstairs, a gentle voice could be heard yelling up the stairs. "Lan? Are you up? Breakfast is almost ready. Make sure you get dressed and wash your hands before coming down."

"Hehe. It seems that I'm not the only one that nags you in the morning," Megaman said to Lan, not trying to hide the amusement in his voice. Lan was still trying to get himself organized, as getting up so quickly from sleep left him a little disorientated.

Lan left his PET in his room as he proceeded down the hallway to the bathroom, getting ready to take a shower before he dressed himself and went downstairs for breakfast. He walked through the door, closed and locked it, then started to strip himself of his pajamas. He then began drawing the water for his shower. He stood beside the faucet, completely naked, intermittently putting his hand into the running water, testing it to see when it was warm enough for him to step inside. It took only 20 seconds before he stepped inside and began to cleanse himself.

While in the shower, his minded was flooded with thoughts from the previous day. More or less, they were questions above all else. What would have happened if Chaud didn't act as fast as he did? Would Protoman have been deleted? What if he and Megaman were the first test subjects? Could he have acted like Chaud did in order to save Megaman from some unknown fate?

Then he thought about what if Megaman was the first attempt, and it succeeded. He would be here in the flesh and blood, able to do the same things Lan could do. Lan looked down at himself, and a sheepish grin crossed his face. Another thought then occurred to him…Megaman had never seen someone naked before. 'Oh, I can only imagine how much his face would turn red,' Lan thought. He continued to smile because such a sight for Megaman would probably be more embarrassing for him than the other person.

There were so many thoughts crossing Lan's mind that he lost track of time, and was in the shower for almost 10 minutes. He was brought out of his thoughts with a knock on the bathroom door.

"Lan? Are you ok? You have been in the shower for a while now. Is everything ok," Mrs. Hikari's voice sounded through the door.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Everything's fine."
"Ok. I'm just making sure. Breakfast is ready. Make sure you hurry up."
"Alright. Thanks, Mom."

Lan quickly wrapped things up, washing off what soap and shampoo was left, shut the water off, wrapped himself in a tower, and exited the bathroom. He walked down the hallway to his bedroom. Although he knew where he was going and what he was doing, his mind was still trying to process all of the questions that ran through his head. So many of them were left unanswered, and that bothered Lan a lot. He opened the door to his room, and Megaman took an immediate notice to Lan's changed demeanor.

"Lan, are you ok? You look like something bad just happened to you," an observant Megaman stated as Lan walked into the room.
"Uhh…oh. I'm fine. Just thinking about what happened yesterday, and how Chaud must feel about it."
"Yeah. I can only imagine how he must feel right now."
"I mean…he almost lost Protoman during that experiment. If he didn't act how he did, Protoman might have been deleted."
"Hn. You're probably right, Lan."

The same gentle voice from downstairs could be heard once more. "Lan, hurry up. You don't want to be late for your field trip," the voice called up. His mom was right. If he didn't hurry, he would be late for the field trip. Lan quickly turned his PET around to make sure Megaman didn't see anything, like he always did (he seemed to be a little insecure about it), dressed himself, put on his headband and PET arm-strap, picked up his PET, and proceeded downstairs to have breakfast.

Lan didn't waste anytime getting his breakfast this morning. Now that he knew he would be late if he didn't hurry, he really didn't eat. He, for lack of a better word, scarfed down his breakfast.

"Well, someone is a little hungry this morning," Mrs. Hikari said, observing how her son was eating. She knew that Lan really loved to eat food, but he normally would take his time to eat breakfast, which was one of the other reasons he was almost always late to class, aside from sleeping late.

"If I don't eat quickly, I am gonna be late for the field trip. So, I gotta eat fast," Lan responded, with a mouth almost completely full of food, naturally. Mrs. Hikari smiled inward at the sight. The last time Lan wanted to get to a place this early was during the first N1 Grand Prix almost 2 years ago.

"Well, just make sure you don't give your father any trouble during the field trip today," Mrs. Hikari told Lan, with a more than noticeable smile on her face. Lan simply nodded his head.

"Alright, mom. No trouble from me today, I promise you that," Lan said, obviously getting a little cocky in his response.

Megaman snickered a little at the comment, but was able to keep it quiet. Lan then left the table, said goodbye to his mother, and went out the front door. 'Wow. I think I am actually on time,' Lan thought. He decided that since he was on time, for once, that he would wait a little bit to put his skates on. As he was walking down the street, he ran into Maylu, Dex, Tory, and Yai. It seemed like they were all waiting for him.

"There you are, Lan. Where were you yesterday? We were worried about you," an obviously worried Maylu said as Lan approached the group. Dex, Tory, and Yai seemed to have the exact same worried expressions on their faces.

"Oh, sorry I made you worry. I had to go to SciLab so that my dad could…" Lan was cut-off by an over-excited Dex. "REALLY? You were at SciLab yesterday? Did you get to see this big project they are working on?"

"Chill out, Dex. At least let Lan finish his sentence before you go and interrupt him," Yai pointed out.
"What do you mean by that? I am totally chilled out right now!"
"Hey, you two. There's no need to argue," Tory stated, trying to breakup the two.

Maylu and Lan just listened to the 3 of them duke it out. They simply looked at each other, smiled, and had a small, shared laugh at the situation. Once the laughter faded, Maylu looked at Lan with a rather curious look in her eyes. Lan wasn't sure what that look was, but he really hated it when she gave him that look. It made him feel uneasy, as though she thought they were boyfriend-girlfriend. He did like Maylu. He liked her as a close friend, But, he didn't like her in the boyfriend-girlfriend sort of way. Still, she persisted in giving Lan that look.

"Just out of curiosity, did you find out what that experiment is," she finally asked, breaking the rather awkward moment between them.

"Yeah, I did see it first hand. I guess being the son of the head scientist has its perks," Lan said, rubbing the back of is head with a sheepish grin on his face.

As though like it was clockwork, Dex, Tory, and Yai stopped fighting when they heard Lan's words. Their attention immediately turned towards what the 11-year old NetBattler had to say next. Lan looked over his shoulders and had a surprised look on his face when he came face-to-face with the three friends that were arguing just a few seconds ago.

"You did? What was it like," Dex asked.
"Was it something really cool," Yai added.
"Are you allowed to tell us about it," Tory said in conclusion.

Lan felt like he was in the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. All of these questions, seemingly out of nowhere. He was taken aback by the sudden change in demeanor of his three friends, and hesitated to reply quickly. He could see the look on their faces; the looks of people who were starving for information that only one person knew, looks that wanted to be able to know what was suppose to be secret, looks that tried their hardest to get what they wanted.

"Uhhh…well…it was…"Lan quickly thought of a way out of it. And, what better way to get out of it than to continue with his original plan of getting to SciLab on time.

This was his chance. While they were all waiting for him to spill the beans, he could easily turn around and skate at full speed to his destination. And, after a very quick internal debate with himself, he decided it would be in his best interests.

"It was…actually quite…BYE!"

Lan quickly skated off past his friends. He wanted to move at fast as his legs would take him. He skated so fast and so hard that he felt as though his legs were on fire. His friends, the ones who he just left behind, were not even the slightest amused by his actions. As though their minds were tied into a single being, they all shouted, in unison, "LAN HIKARI! GET BACK HERE!"

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"That wasn't a nice thing to do, Lan. You just ditched your friends, not once, but twice in the past two days," Megaman said, making an observation of the situation. Lan, however, was too busy worrying about what would happen if they caught up to him. 'Oh, man. They would probably skin me alive if they caught me right now. Gotta move fast if I want to get to SciLab safely," Lan thought to himself. Megaman noticed that Lan had ignored his comment, and quickly figured out why.

"Are you even listening to me, Lan?"
"Huh? Did you say something, Megaman?"
"Yeah. I said do you realize that you ditched your friends twice in two days?"
"Oh, that? They'll get over it."
"From the sound of them yelling, I would say it will be a long time before they get over it."
"Megaman, you have to look at it from a different perspective."
"How so?"
"Well, for starters, the experiment was a secret. If I told them, it would spoil the surprise during the tour."
"Hmmm…I guess you're right about that."

This must have been Lan's week. For the second time so far, he was right and Megaman was wrong. This week was just too good to be true. He was going to be on time for the second day in a row, which happened to be a new record for him, and he was right over Megaman not once, but twice.

"Hey, Lan. We will be at SciLab in a few minutes. You don't have to hurry anymore," Megaman called from the PET.
"Yeah, I know. But…Dex, Tory, Maylu, and Yai might still be after me."
"Then you shouldn't have ditched them."
"Hey! I didn't ask for your opinion!"
"Hahahaha."
"What's so funny, Megaman?"
"Hehe. Oh, nothing, really."

Well, Lan knew he could slow down a bit. This was one of those times when he would over-exaggerate the situation. Maylu, Dex, Yai, and Tory had already given up pursuit and could not be seen behind Lan. So, like Megaman suggested, he slowed his pace down a bit. He if kept going at this now slowed pace, he would make it to the SciLab front gate about 5 minutes before 9:00am. Now, another thought crossed Lan's mind. Not only would he be on time, he would actually be early!

-beep, beep, beep, beep-

"Huh? What was that sound, Megaman," Lan asked, a small hint of worry in his voice.

"It seems the patch your father made for the holographic projector is finally complete. Let me see if I can use it," Megaman replied back. Lan heard a few more beeps come from his PET. He still continued to look forward, making sure he didn't hit anyone or anything while on his way to SciLab. The last thing he needed was to have a so far perfect day be ruined by some clumsy mistake.

Lan then heard another noise. But, this time, it didn't come from his PET. The noise sounded very familiar. He instinctively looked at his shoulder to find a translucent holographic image of Megaman standing there.

"Megaman! The projector is working," an overly-excited Lan exclaimed, as his eyes looked at his translucent friend.

"Alright! You're dad's patch did the trick! I just had to run a quick diagnostic to make sure it was working properly, and then I booted it up. It is working like it was just built yesterday," Megaman said, showing nothing but a voice of agreement with Lan.

~~!~~
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"Can you believe that Lan? He was about to tell us, and he runs off," Maylu exclaimed, with a rather annoyed tone in her voice.

"Yeah, and Megaman didn't even say why he ran off. That was just rude," Roll said, with the same annoyed tone in her voice like that of Maylu's

"Well, at least we know that Lan knows something. If he didn't then he wouldn't have run off," Yai pointed out. Tory, Dex, and Maylu all looked at each other and nodded their heads in agreement. They knew Lan wasn't good at keeping stuff secret. It was like a fact of nature, in a way. They knew that he knew what the experiment was, or he wouldn't have just up and run off like he did.

"If Lan had to run off like that, it must be something really important," Dex observed, as him and everyone else continued down the sidewalk to SciLab. Maylu, however, had a different thought in the back of her mind.

'I just hope it isn't anything to dangerous.'

~~!~~
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"What do you suppose this experiment is," Glide asked the other 3 NetNavis standing around him.
"It must be something big, guts guts," Gutsman pointed out.
"I agree. Something that even Lan can keep a secret has to be top notch," Roll said, in agreement with Gutsman.
"Maybe it is something that will help put evil NetNavis on ice," Iceman said, with some amusement in his voice.

The 4 NetNavis, Glide, Roll, Gutsman, and Iceman, all laughed at Iceman's comment. It wasn't the fact that it was humorous is any way, but that it was something Iceman would said. Regardless of the fact that he would say silly puns like that all the time, it was still a little humorous in some form or another. But, they all knew that they shouldn't put such ideas past SciLab.

SciLab, being the place where the current Network was first invented, works almost around the clock to think of and create new ways for people to have better access to the Network, improve virus busting, and even help with the restoration and upgrading of NetNavis. SciLab is short for "Science Laboratories" and also goes by another name: The Ministry of Science. Aside from the Trident Tower, home of the TRINITY Brain computer, SciLab is the leading creator of components for all things that deal with the Cyber world.

"Do you really think that what SciLab is making has something to do with keeping evil NetNavis at bay," Glide said, showing interest in the subject.

"I guess only time will tell. We will find out today, since the field trip is going to be at SciLab," Roll stated, though it was obvious to the other 3 NetNavis. Gutsman, Iceman, and Glide all looked at Roll and nodded in agreement.

"Let's just hope that nothing goes wrong today."

~~!~~
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"We're almost there, Megaman. I can't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when they see what my dad and everyone else at SciLab have created," Lan said, not holding back an ounce of excitement.

"You got that right, Lan. It's gonna be worth the wait to see what Roll and the others think about your dad's project," Megaman said, in total agreement with Lan's previous statement.

"Here we are, Megaman. Good ol' SciLab. Hey, there's Ms. Mari. She is gonna be so surprised to see me here this early," an excited Lan Hikari proclaimed as he approached his teacher. "Good morning, Ms. Mari!"

"Lan? Is that you," Ms. Mari said, surprised to see Lan, not only on time, but early, to boot.

"It sure is, Ms. Mari."
"My, aren't you here early, even for you."
"Yeah, hehe," Lan said. He scratched the back of his head with a sheepish grin on his face. "I wanted to make 100 percent sure that I wasn't late today. So, I got up extra early this morning."
"Well, I hope this will be a continuing trend for you."

Megaman looked at Lan from the boy's shoulder. He snickered to himself, and couldn't help but blurt out the truth, even with Ms. Mari standing right there for her to hear him. "You know that isn't true, Lan. You got here because you had to run away from your friends that you ditched so you didn't have to tell them about yesterday."

"Megaman! Can't you ever keep that mouth of yours closed," Lan said, with a mix of anger and embarrassment in his voice. Megaman only laughed at the comment. Ms Mari, who had heard the past few comments, also laughed a little bit. This caused a slight blush to appear across Lan's face. Not only did he have Megaman laughing at his comment, but now Ms. Mari.

The laughter died down as the rest of the class arrived at the front gate of SciLab. This included several of Lan's classmates, including the four friends he had ditched earlier that morning.

"Alright, now that everyone is here, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Yuichiro Hikari. He is the scientist responsible for setting up this field trip. Now, I want to remind everyone not to touch anything while we are inside. We don't know what the machines and devices in SciLab are for. So, please keep your hands, feet, and PETs to yourselves," Ms. Mari said, giving the standard field trip lecture before letting Dr. Hikari speak to the children.

"Alright, everyone. Let me welcome you to SciLab. Let's begin our tour."