Happy New Year, everyone!

I apologize for the lack of updates on this fan fiction. I need to update more often here instead of just submitting the chapters on deviantART. ^^;

I'll post more chapters as time goes on. Currently, there are a total of 10 chapters posted on my deviantART site. I've completed my 11th chapter but will not submit until at a later date. I've started writing chapter 12. Hopefully, I can be more up-to-date in posting in both sites and not just on 1...

I hope you enjoy reading this fan fiction. :)

While Protoman scanned the vast Net City, his target was hiding securely in a dark, narrow alley. The beige cloak veiled the target's face and grim sneer, yet his blood-red eyes were wide with sheer insanity. One side of his face was smeared with black bug data. The glitched blemish was beginning to seep into his left eye.

"...Too much time has passed since I last saw this pitiful world." The black-finned Navi chuckled with a malicious grin. His unstable mind seemed to make him jump from one thought to another. He began to chuckle eerily as he talked to himself.

"I've retrieved what is rightfully mine... My own bugged data... Finally, I'm free... Free from that fool... I hope you're enjoying your prison down in the depths of the Undernet. Hmph, but then again, who cares? The Undernet now has become so unstable to the point it will crash some time soon... Not to mention that Wily's Attack and Healing Units will chip away the remaining data of the Undernet... Either way, you'll be gone. Now... where is that pup of yours...? Surely, he knows where your precious Naomi is... Curse you, Bass, for making her banish us before I could absorb her... I'll beat the answer out of that whelp and then destroy him... Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh..."

NeoForte stumbled as he stepped deeper into the alley. He then snarled in frustration.

"Grrr... I need more data... More energy..."

He crouched to the ground and thrust his hand into it. With his hand buried into the ground, NeoForte then proceeded to absorb the data voraciously, as though he hasn't consumed data for years. The truth was, NeoForte had increasing trouble of maintaining his body ever since his data separated from Bass. He had struggled to prevent his fragmented data from collapsing, but the risks grew ever more apparent with each passing minute...

NeoForte continued absorbing the data. The alley became stripped of data and only black empty data remained. The hungry Navi then heard urgent calls of help and the Net police and uninfected Colonel copies rumbling near NeoForte's location.

"Tch... I barely have enough time to feed on the data and then the fools start showing up... But, not now... I won't show myself yet..."

By the time Protoman, the Net police and the Colonel copies arrived at NeoForte's location, the black-finned Navi was already gone.

"Chaud, a lot of data has been lost here. It looks like something has been consuming data in this area. We need get the Iris Healing Units to come for reparations before the buildings collapse."

"Probably NeoForte's work." Chaud stated. "I've already contacted the units. They should be arriving any minute now. Leave the rest to the others, and let's continue searching on our own. Send the private message to all other Net Officials to be alert and to search for the target. Treat this as a secret mission."

"Yes, sir." Protoman obeyed as he sent the command to other Net Officials near Net City. He then resumed to his duties searching for NeoForte...

Meanwhile, back in SciLabs, Searchman had arrived. He saluted stiffly before everybody before he displayed a more casual and relaxed attitude.

"Pleased to meet you, Searchman... sir..." Baritone greeted, albeit timidly. By now, Baritone was fully restored.

"So, this is Baritone, eh? Well, I'll be." Searchman grinned. "You have your mother's personality. Well, with the casual talk aside, let's get onto business."

The Navis and the scientists then discussed the situation and how they could solve the problem.

"...We have the Colonel Attack and Iris Healing Units, yet even the Attack Units can't find NeoForte? That's kind of sad actually..." Searchman commented.

Lan rolled his eyes. Yuichiro scratched his head in response.

"NeoForte's been roaming around in Net City for weeks, yet nobody has been able to catch him, much less detect him." Megaman explained.

"That would mean he's been destroying the Colonel and Iris units if they saw him. They'd be unable to report to others or send distress signals. Or, in the current case, he has been bugging them so that they would malfunction." Searchman inferred.

"Well..." Baritone spoke. "I saw an infected Colonel copy get deleted today before I could even land an attack. This was before when I met all of you."

"Hm, so then NeoForte's bugs are potent enough to delete the copies..." Searchman mused.

While the Navis were conversing amongst themselves, Lan typed on the keyboard to bring up statistics of the Colonel and Iris copies that were infected. The screen then depicted 2 divided sections that each had 24 figures of the respective copies.

On the right, the 24 Colonel copies were represented as individual figures. Some copies were indicated green while others were red. Almost 1/3 of the 24 Colonel copies were labeled as infected copies.

On the left side, the 24 Iris copies were also represented. There were more infected Iris units than the Colonel units.

"Even the Greek copies are getting infected... Not to mention, Copy Iris Numbers 2610984 and 7895620 are now missing..." Lan sighed.

"Greek copies?" Baritone asked. The young white Navi had much to learn about the world beyond the digital network of his mother's mind. Fortunately, Lan had the patience to explain the hierarchy of the 2 unit systems. The young scientist typed in a protocol that showed a tree-like diagram of the hierarchy.

"There are the Colonel Attack Unit and the Iris Healing Unit systems. and are the Navis of the true unit systems that maintain the security of the entire Net. Below them are the Greek 24. They are the top 24 copies that are named after the Greek alphabet, with Alpha being the strongest and Omega being the weakest within that tier. Below the Greek 24 are millions of other copies. These copies are simply called Clones since they only have basic capabilities and can be easily replaced in the event they are deleted. The main purpose of this hierarchy is to protect the real systems from being damaged or deleted. The Greek and Clone copies are dispersed throughout the entire global network to monitor for any potential danger or malfunction. The true Unit Systems are headquartered in our SciLabs."

"W-wow..." Baritone replied in awe.

"Pretty cool, isn't it? And the 2 systems were created by Dr. Wily... Who sadly passed away a couple years after he completed the Unit Systems..." Lan smiled ruefully.

In reality, Baritone was more overwhelmed by Lan's long explanation than being awed by the powerful capabilities of the 2 unit systems.

In the midst of the conversation, Lan's PET started beeping. He whipped out his PET and pressed the button to receive a call from Protoman and Chaud.

"Lan? This is Protoman. Chaud and I have something to show you. Stream this call and the incoming images up onto the main computer's system."

Lan did what Chaud asked him to do. The visual call was projected onto the gigantic computer screen in the lab. A screen then appeared behind Protoman and began a slideshow of images. Lan and Yuichiro then gasped in surprise.

"What happened to the area?" Lan gasped in surprise as he saw the images of the black empty data in the alley where NeoForte was. However, NeoForte was nowhere present in the images. Chaud then jumped into the conversation.

"Ring a bell?" Chaud asked.

"What?" Lan answered.

"Don't you remember what happened over 20 years ago?" Chaud questioned. It took Lan a few seconds to realize what Chaud's question meant.

"The Grave Virus Beast!" Lan exclaimed.

"And history repeats itself." Chaud sighs.

Baritone took note of Chaud's last remark. He recalled how his mother had said the same statement about history repeating itself...

"What happened over 20 years ago?" Baritone, who was not aware of the details, asked curiously.

"It's a long, complicated story." Megaman explained. "Basically, this is what had happened: There was an evil organization that attempted to clone an army of your father through the use of bug fragments. NeoForte was one of these clones. He and the other clones eventually mutated into the Grave Virus Beast, and it ate up the cyberworld's data and the Navis. The Virus Beast almost destroyed the entire Net. NeoForte somehow managed to survive and evolved into the Virus Beast the second time. And now... it looks like he might run havoc again for the third time."

"NeoForte must be behind this," Chaud explained. "He was the Virus Beast, after all."

"And if we don't do something now, who knows when NeoForte will turned into the Virus Beast again?" Searchman said. "Protoman, what's the location of the affected site?"

"Central Block, Sector 50. The Healing Units are repairing the area right now, but they're having a lot of trouble with it." Protoman stated. "NeoForte must have sucked up the data clean."

"Alright, then I'm joining the search party. There should be more results with my search skills." Searchman boasted. Protoman only huffed in reply.

"The Officials and I will continue searching. We'll let you know if anything comes up." Chaud said as he ended the call.

"Well, looks like we'll just have to wait." Lan said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. He then looked around. "Where did Patch go?"

"He said he was going to be near your personal lab, Lan." Yuichiro said. "I'm guessing he's itching to meet Megaman Junior. Hub, why don't you go and watch over Patch while we wait here? We'll call you if we need you."

"Sure, Dad. I'll be in the real world in a few minutes." Megaman said. Baritone overheard and could only stare in confusion. How could a Navi be able to interact in the real world?

"Baritone, would you like to come along with me?" Megaman asked.

"Um, OK." Baritone said with hesitation. He then followed Megaman to a couple portals and found himself to be in the Copybot reservation area. Megaman pointed to a row of specialized portals.

"Step onto one of these portals and you'll jack into a Copybot." Megaman stated.

"What's a Copybot?"

"You'll find out." Megaman smiled as he stepped into one and disappeared. Baritone faced a portal and stared at it thoughtfully.

The real world... Just like in Mother's rooms of memories... Will the real world look the same the way it was in Mother's world?

Baritone's mind wandered into curiosity as he stepped into the portal. His body became engulfed in white light and teleported from the reservation area. He felt the rushing sensation as his body was catapulted into a dark wormhole-like space. Streams of white data past him at the speed of light. He finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and entered into an all-white void.

All was white around him. He couldn't see anything but white. He became anxious and tried to look down, but he couldn't even see his own hands. Baritone panicked and tried to cry out, but no sound came from his mouth. Even his own mouth seemed non-existent at the moment. Baritone felt as though his entire body was breaking down. At this point, he almost believed he was in the process of being deleted, but then the white world began to fade into black as he had reached his destination into the Copybot. He felt his consciousness immediately fall into a slumber.

"What's happening to me...?" Baritone asked himself as the void turned black altogether...