Chapter 28- Hotheaded Battles
The following is a fan-made work of fiction. Certain original characters made by myself will be claimed under my ownership. However, I do not, nor will I ever claim to own Mega Man Battle Network. I also do not own any characters from the MegaMan NT Warrior/RockmanEXE anime.
Mega Man Battle Network © Capcom
Reddington Bluemann, Phyllis Tina, Ripley Marduk, Myth Man, Bobby and Helena Crosby, Desiree Domin, and Castiel Lex-Ordo © HatOnFire/Me
Anyone in the same shoes as Mega Man or I would've had the foresight to have made a last will, but not me. Even after having my life in danger, this idea that I could die never really stuck with me. Or maybe it's that I can't let myself think about it.
I couldn't mull over it, not with Mr. Match, or rather, C. F. Fire Man right in front of me, goading me to attack him. He looked identical to his Navi, with certain exceptions that made him look like his Navi on steroids!
His boots were gray, only there were three rectangular gaps at the blue front of the boots, as well as one gap at each of his heels, allowing small-scale flames to erupt from them. His legs and abdomen were red, a gray belt went around his waist, and his chest plate armor was just like Fire Man's torso, red underneath and gray above. His Navi's emblem design and position remained unchanged, to say the least.
His back had a vent that couldn't be seen due to his blazing plume of hair, colored as a fiery yellow. Red rectangular pauldrons concealed his shoulders as gray plates partially covered the top and sides of the guards, just like with Fire Man's shoulders.
Match's biceps were red, and two gray cannons covered his forearms, having blue flame patterns wrapped close to the cannons' bases. The nozzles were golden with oblong gaps, like usual. However, Match's red hands stuck out of the cannons, and they looked like a knight's gloves.
His head strongly resembled a red skull, with black outlines overlapping his orange sclera, vaguely resembling a skull's orbits. His white-colored eyes had thin irises like a cat. A gray and black shape behind his skull, which looked like a rocket's nozzle, was how his ponytail ignited.
Under his grinning mouth was a gray prism protecting his goatee, and the lower area of his skull was protected by neck armor that resembled a torch, connecting to his gray armor and letting fire stream around his head. It also created a heat shield that could withstand some degree of EM energy.
To me, his transformation signaled that he was going to be my hardest foe yet, and I hadn't even met Yahoot yet.
[BGM: Exploratory Laboratory Track 3 (Middle Action), Lego Marvel Super Heroes]
"Take this!" I answered him with the Mega Buster, reaching the max charge level. All it did was negate the heat shield protecting him.
"Fire Arm!" With only one hand extended, fire blasted out from around his wrist, and it would've cooked me if I hadn't dodged it.
"Whoa!"
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" Match laughed, "This is great! I'm using energy to exactly mimic the sensation of fire!"
"Great, you're a microwave oven!" I snapped at him, "Just stop this or you'll bring the building down on everyone!"
"That's not possible, Lan," Mega Man said, "His fire is like noise pollution, but he can still leave burn marks everywhere. He'll also cause electrical fires if he applies his powers to technological devices."
"Thanks for making me feel better, Mega!" I yelled at my brother next, avoiding another wave of fire by circling the hothead. "It feels just like the first time we fought Fire Man!"
"Flame Circle!" Match created a blaze that started to follow me in a spiral, making me eat my words. I stayed right in the middle to save myself, but he was getting ready to burn me again.
"Double Bubbler!" Mega Man selected a pair of Aqua chips, granting me two Aqua Busters to shoot bubble shots through the inferno, decreasing Match's hit points by a good deal. The shots even snuffed out his fire, except for his blazing hair.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh…" He chuckled, "You're naïve if you think that will stop me…"
I went right in, throwing three punches at him. He took the first two to the torch covering, but caught the third one with his hand, pulling me in so he could kick me in my abdomen.
"UGH!" I grunted, trying to pull myself out of his grip.
"RAAAAAAAGH!" With an energized shout, he reignited his flames, manipulating some to envelop his fist as he thumped my face with it twice.
I managed to catch his forearm and yank it away for a second, quickly jumping to wrap my legs around his right thigh. I started to pull myself to the floor with a backflip, bringing him down headfirst, rattling him.
"PHEW!" I only exhaled for a moment, but…
"Flame Body!" I got blasted into a wall because C. F. Fire Man used his flames to combust, unleashing a shock wave of his own.
The yellow creature I saw came back out of the main computer room, moving down the stairs in a puddle of its own substance, reshaping into a muscular athlete when it got close to me. It started to create an enlarged mallet with one of its hands.
"Bumooooo…!" It softly echoed, almost communicating me in a taunt.
"No!" C. F. Fire Man shot fire at it to force it away from me, making him lose control over his hammer. "He's mine!"
The shapeshifting machine retaliated with an enlarged fist, smacking the WWW agent away.
"Lan, the cyclops doesn't seem to respond well to Match's fire!" Mega Man noticed the way it reacted with the secret camera.
"It's a robot, huh?" I took cover behind a computer terminal ripped off from its place across the room. I used the time to remember what my partner said about the energy C. F. Fire Man produced in our battle. "And Match's power destroys tech with his energy, right? What can our chip attacks do?"
"We've never tried anything yet," Mega pointed out, "But if the robot has a brain-computer interface…"
"Hey, if it was sent here," I realized an important factor, "Then does it have the Fire Program?"
The robot in the yellow substance turned to me, honing its red light on me like a laser pointer.
"We've got to get it back from this thing!" Mega stated the obvious, and I got into fighting position again. "Battle routine, set!"
"Execute!" I replied, "Whatever it takes to end WWW's plans!"
[BGM: Dance-Macabre, Mega Man ZX Tunes]
"BUMOOOO!" It split apart its arms to turn into twelve fluttering limbs with arrowheads, coming together in one motion to try and stab us!
I jumped to the left, just when the solidified yellow rods made several cracks in the walls.
"I don't like where this is going!" I joked, if only to take my mind off how close they were to my head.
"Try to keep it busy!" Mega advised me, "I don't know if our chips will do anything, but I'll see what I can give you!"
I blasted at the robot, but the Mega Buster didn't have much effect on the body. The shots just made the robot's yellow mass splatter on the floor.
Its blank face pretty much said how unimpressed it was, swiftly moving towards me to strike with spikes at the end of its knuckles.
I dodged it, ready with some chips to use against it.
"Fire Sword!" My right hand created a hilt for the scorching blade, and I immediately swiped across its neck, making the blade rush right through it. The robot's goo quickly reconnected, but the sword clearly broke apart after the attack.
"Huh?!" I glanced at the shattered base of the sword, jumping over the robot when it threw another punch at me. "How about Heater?!"
Once I landed and got distant, I morphed my hand into a Heat Buster, launching a fiery spread shot at this thing. The robot inflated and absorbed the blast, causing it to blow up in a swarm of yellow!
"Yeah!" I cheered too soon, since this robot's yellow stuff returned to this yellow sphere the size of a beach ball. "Shoot!"
"I guess only Match's flames can harm this beast," Mega Man thought, "But we have Aqua chips!"
"Aqua Tower!" Taking a page from Roll, I summoned a travelling stream of water that drenched the robot. Even though it solidified itself, it must've been tricked into thinking it was real water, because it started to go down into a puddle.
"Lan, I see something!" My partner chimed in, catching a small black shape that stood out to him. "It's a drive!"
"The Fire Program!" I shouted out loud, causing the monster to realize what it was doing, reconstituting itself and absorbing the drive into its body again!
"BUMO!" It stood on one leg and twirled with the other leg really stretching out, trying to knock me down.
So, I used the wall to leap off it to avoid the attack, trying to get over the thing's head again.
"BUMO BUMO!" The robot shifted its mass from its back to create a rising palm that clobbered me in the face midair! It also used its left hand to grab my leg and slam my back into the ground and wall a few times, until it tossed me across the room, making me hit the reception desk.
It shapeshifted again, creating a large fork from its stomach and thrusting it forward! But I wasn't done yet!
"YAH!" I rolled out of the way, aiming with my buster, and firing a Bubbler right in its only eye!
"BUUUMOOOOOO!" The robot cried out, seemingly blinded by my shot.
"Go!" Mega Man beckoned and I answered with an Elec Blade he gave me, trying to skewer the robot's eye. It missed its mark, but the electricity coursed through the eye, putting it in a scramble to retreat, releasing the drive in the process!
"If anyone asks, say nobody did it!" I cracked another joke, taken straight from the Odyssey. I was having too much fun fighting this thing, even after it tried to kill me.
"R codes are the best," Mega Man enjoyed the fight a little, too.
"Got it!" I smirked with the face plate down, holding the drive in my hand. Conveniently, there was a hidden slot on my chest, which allowed me to download the contents of the drive into the PET, which was part of the armor.
"Give it to me!" C. F. Fire Man suddenly shouted, running up to me and going off in his assault!
I slapped his fists away and sidestepped his kicks, blasting his face with a charged shot and punching his gut twice before literally kicking him in his butt.
"Roll V3!" I brought in a copy of Roll, who smacked Match around with her antennae and healed me.
To finish this, I used Dyna Wave, the last chip in the combo, with a pickaxe that made a piercing wave that kept my enemy on his knees.
"AGH!" He grunted, staying on all fours and catching his breath. "I forgot you spent your time on the street… Of course you'd attack someone who's already down…"
"Cope with my style," I responded, "And know that you've just lost. The Fire Program is out of your reach."
"We might have something to say about that," A calm and sensible voice interjected, leading me to look in that direction. It was all of the WWW Navis and agents Mega Man and I faced, except for the blue magician with the eyes on his shoulders and hat.
"We're here!" C. F. Color Woman gleefully sang, showing her claws and baring her teeth in a menacing manner.
"Did you forget about us, little boys?!" Stone Man bellowed, "I didn't!"
"Everyone in WWW is here?!" I gasped.
"Except for Noble," Mega Man stated, "Yahoot's Navi is Magic Man, so this must be him in Cross Fusion."
"Nice to meet you at last, Mega Man," Magic Man's voice resonated from his Operator's being, "If only through your counterpart?"
"They must be the ones who attacked us with Zap the other day…!" I whispered to myself, wearing my frown. I was even more troubled since the right hand man knew Mega Man and my brother were the same.
"We know how to provide shock value," C. F. Elec Man chuckled, "I mean, look at us! Me, especially!"
"What are you freaks doing here?!" Match scowled, "I'm handling Lan here!"
"You were handling him yourself," C. F. Magic Man corrected Match like he was talking to a child, "But this is taking too long."
"So here we all are!" Cut Man threw his arms out in a gesture, "Ready and willing to finish the mission!"
"Just as long as we make this twerp melt down!" Bomb Man added, "I want to stick it to his friends!"
"I see the Fire Program's in you, kid," Zap's yellow lightning flickered in his hands and from his four arresters, "How do you want us to extract it? Painfully or agonizingly?"
"Great…" Hub muttered, "What do we do, Lan?"
"Tag, everyone's it!" I took my cue to get the heck out of there, running at Maddy.
[BGM: Gauntlet, Mega Man ZX Tunes]
"HAH!" She brought her claws forward, and I jumped over them, running on top of her long arms and leaping off of her face with enough force to get me out of the building! And to send her to the floor.
"After him, you fools!" Match shouted, propelling himself his flamethrowers as Zap and Yahoot flew alongside the ground. Cut Man's blades on his head morphed to act like helicopter blades, assisting him in taking flight.
"I'll have that little punk's body mangled!" Maddy furiously declared, slamming her hands on the ground like feet to chase after her group.
"Lan, we don't have the energy to fight all of them!" Hub yelled at me, "Try and spread them out!"
"Right now, I want to get them as far from Dad and Dex as possible!" I said, stopping short of the entrance when another Dimensional Area popped up, trapping me in the area with WWW after me. "Oh, cripes! Why?!"
"The signal's coming from inside SciLab…" My partner told me, "WWW must've turned on a spare generator."
"Famous, how many of these things did you make?!" I seethed, taking note of what was behind me.
"Now I got you!" C. F. Fire Man dropped down on the sidewalk with C. F. Elec Man flying above, shooting their elemental attacks at me in unison!
I evaded the blasts and ran right at them, with C. F. Magic Man sending his orbs to unleash blue flames.
"Gotcha!" I caught Zap by his leg and pulled him down, using his body as a shield against the flames from Yahoot and Match.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" He screamed in pain, muttering when I kicked him to the ground. "Ow."
"Idiots, both of you," Yahoot made white, blue, and black Cloudy viruses materialize to create several clouds that dispensed deadly raindrops.
I must've been crazy to run right under those clouds, and I would if I didn't have an Invis 3 chip.
"Hey, where are you?!" Match called me out, and I shoved him as I got close, right into the path of the rain. "GRRRR!"
"Invisible chips can negate virus damage to you," Yahoot stated with his arms extended and orbs hovering behind him, dispensing his ghostly flames in three directions. "But I can see where you are when my flames pass around you!"
He'd be right, except I already ran back to the SciLab building by then. I stood still as C. F. Color Woman and Cut Man zoomed past me, then dashed up the stairs to the entrance where Stone Man and Bomb Man were waiting.
With my invisibility wearing off, I acted quickly by shooting Stone Man's head.
"AAAGGGHHH!" The gray tinted Navi cried out, "Human gnats!"
"There!" Bomb Man had a bomb materialize at his right foot and kicked it, "Now go BOOM!"
I destroyed the bomb with a charged shot before it reached me, darting to the left when tried using a Super Vulcan on me.
"Try these," Mega Man suggested, granting me a Program Advance, complete with flashing letters.
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Guts Punch B
Cold Punch B
Dash Attack B
Attack+10
"It worked last time," I mumbled, "Might as well."
PROGRAM ADVANCE
Machine Gun Punch
Attack+10
"Take this!" I unleashed six rocket fists at Stone Man, but he disappeared, leaving a black hole in the ground.
"FRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!" But I did catch Bomb Man by surprise, laying into him.
"Fall!" Stone Man rose up from the hole with his arms having turned into totems, spitting lasers out from their mouths.
I dove for the floor, riling him up by chipping away his hit points with the buster. Quickly getting up, I jumped over another volley of lasers and got on top of his body, stomping on his head and blasting part of his back off.
"HAH!" Bomb Man kicked another explosive at me in a stupid move, so I jumped off of the rock golem to let him fend for himself.
"RAAAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" It would be an understatement to say he didn't like that.
"Out of the blast zone, you idiot!" The Mohawk Navi even had the gall to insult him and throw another bomb!
I didn't even bother thinking with this one, leaping with my back turned to him to make a bicycle kick, returning it to sender!
"NOOOOOO!" He screamed as his attack backfired, sending him flying a good distance from the building.
"Let's try and get the emergency system running again!" Mega suggested while I tried to get inside, but the yellow robot shot up in a liquid-like spurt in front of me, reverting to its athletic shape.
"BUMOOOO!" It bellowed, having its hands morph into spinning blades, blocking me off from getting inside.
"Color Crossroads!" C. F. Color Woman summoned Fire and Aqua Towers in diagonal pattern that attempted to intersect with me in the middle, only I leapt back to dodge them.
I also tilted to the left side, letting Cut Man's boomerang soar past me and come right back to him.
"Lightning Blaze!" C. F. Elec Man made lighting fall on the area around me, boxing me in as all of WWW surrounded me!
"You can't escape now, boy," Yahoot raised his voice with his clasped hands, standing on Maddy and Zap's right. "Like a bird in a gilded cage, you are trapped."
"And hunting season is early this year!" Zap chuckled, holding a finger up to generate some electricity.
"Well, crud," I sighed, "Any ideas, Mega Man?"
"You're the Mega Man right now," Hub said, "You were making all the decisions!"
"I made it up as I was going," I told him, "You're supposed to be the smart one!"
"How about you two act like a team and give us the Fire Program?" Match interrupted us, "It was a great fight you put up, but the boss is getting impatient."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I talked down to him, "You have a schedule to keep? I didn't know."
"We can pry the data out of your PET if we must," Yahoot asserted, "Ms. Madd?"
"Fu-fu-fu-fu-fu…" She scraped the sidewalk with her claws in anticipation, "Struggle, kid. Make me enjoy this…!"
"It won't work," Mega Man revealed, "The Fire Program isn't in the PET, it's in me."
"What are you doing?" I questioned him.
"And if you dare to delete me, you lose the program," He added, "If you harm Lan or my friends and family again, I'll delete the program."
"Hardcore," Maddy ground her teeth together, "But annoying."
01001101 01001101 01000010 01001110
"Uhh…" Dex stirred awake with Dad attempting to awaken the other man on the floor.
"Cossack," He lightly slapped his face, getting a reaction from him.
"W-What?!" The blonde man with the beard blinked, getting his glasses returned to him. "Yuichiro?"
"We were knocked unconscious," Dad explained.
"No, that thing tried to suffocate us," Dex corrected, "We just passed out."
"Dex, Mega Man gave me a message," Guts Man raised his voice, "It said, 'Backup lockdown switch.' What's that mean?"
"He wants us to lock SciLab down again?" Cossack stated the intention of the message, "Why?
Dex approached the door, which opened up via a motion sensor. Taking a look at the lobby, he could see a good deal of destruction, along with the yellow figure at the entrance door.
"Uh oh," He also saw some members of the WWW right there, getting back in the room. "Dr. Hikari! WWW's at the door with Lan! I need a Synchro Chip!"
"But the reserves aren't finished yet!" Dad pointed out.
"Dr. Hikari!" Ripley came out from the entrance of Mission Control, "We heard screaming, but we got locked in again!"
"Our Dimensional Area Generator started up," Mr. Famous informed them, "We couldn't shut it off from here!"
"We need to lock the outside down again," Dr. Cossack suggested, "We have to risk WWW beating down your sons."
Dad hustled to the door with worry, seeing the entrance…
01001101 01001101 01000010 01001110
"Stupidly brave or bravely stupid?" Match shook his head, "I know you two are willing to put yourselves at risk, but you can't take all of us on."
"We'll just have to force you to give the program up," Yahoot said to me and Lan, "I wonder if you really will delete the program at Lan's expense?"
"You don't scare me," I defied Yahoot, suddenly finding my arms restrained the yellow robot's big hands.
"BUUUUUMOOOOOOOOO!" The yellow machine roared the loudest it has, almost like the bass dropped to the nth degree. The noise shook up everyone in the beast's presence, even the Navis that were fused with their operators were severely affected.
"RRRGGGHHH!" I grit my teeth in annoyance, trying to cover my ears in my helmet's emblems. But the robot kept my arms apart! "RRRRAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Hub yelled, reeling from the noise, holding himself together. His body was flickering like static, turning transparent for a few seconds!
The sound ended, fortunately, and so did the robot's hold on me. It proceeded to make its foot bigger and stomp on me when I turned to face it!
"AH!" I cried out, finding myself under the heel of the robot that began crushing me! "Get off!"
"BUMO BUMOOOO!" The robot applied more weight, making its leg more solid.
"I said get off!" I screamed, raising my arms up to push back as hard as I could. "HRRRRRRGGGGG!"
The concrete tiles beneath me were somehow cracking under me, and I was reaching the limits of the strength Cross Fusion gave me.
"OFF!" I yelled with closed eyes, finding myself on one knee. "GET OFF!"
"We can do it!" Hub joined in, perfectly syncing up with me from his digital position. "Lift!"
"Unbelievable…" Match muttered in awe, watching me finally stand on my own two legs. Everyone else who was watching were impressed, too.
I don't remember ever applying this much strength to anything. This must've been the first time I've ever lifted something heavier than a car!
"AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" I made a final push, getting the giant foot off me and toppling the shapeshifting robot in one go!
My heart was pounding the hardest and fastest it could've in that time. I was on an adrenaline rush, even though my arms were sore after what I did.
I turned to the WWW with slumped shoulder, exposing my face and baring my teeth. I was filled with new determination…
And then I felt my knees give out. My Cross Fusion form dissipated, too, to the sound of a thunderclap in the sky over the Dimension Area's dome.
"Lan?" Hub called me, but I didn't respond. I just kept my glare on all our enemies, keeping my eye on them.
My wrists jerked around a little while my fingers twitched. I didn't want to let them leave my sight.
But… that's when it happened. This sharp, stinging, excruciating pain swelled up in my chest.
[BGM: Suspicious Mood, Mega Man Battle Network]
"Hwwuuuuuuugh…!" My breathing turned into a rasp, followed by an awful cough as I grasped the area where my heart was.
"No!" Hub screamed, "Lan! Lan!"
"Uuuughhhhh…!" I groaned, struggling to stand up. But by then, my heart was throbbing and beating irregularly, making several pangs that seemed to reverberate in my chest.
There was a reason a teenage boy like me had a pacemaker for my heart. It was there to treat my weak heart in times of stress, but it was failing.
"Oh my…" Count Zap's face didn't show it under his visor and helmet, but he seemed to be disturbed by what he was seeing. The same could be said for Match and Cut Man.
Stone Man, Bomb Man, and the yellow robot had blank or unreadable expressions.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…!" Maddy chortled with wicked glee, "Good."
"Now you realize…" Yahoot whispered, "The danger of opposing the new world of the third millennium."
I continued suffering in this position, crumpling to the floor. This disease that almost killed Hub and took my grandfather's life was giving me unimaginable agony.
It was said that the effects of this disease are similar to a heart attack, and it showed. The name of it was… HBD.
CHAPTER 28 END