Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 9: Spread My Wings

When Megaman opened his eyes his vision was greeted by flames bursting through the ground like erupting volcanoes. “Whoa!”

Tadashi was already by the elevator in the hall waiting for him “Come on!”

With out hesitation Megaman scrambled to his feet and ran out of the main frame, the service elevator was conveniently close, just as soon as he'd walked out of the door he was face to face with a large steel gate. The six deadbolt like locks mounted in pairs of three on both sides where released and all that remained was the door itself, a heavy steel gate that weighed about 450 pounds.

It was usually automatic since it was practically inhuman to lift, but unfortunately the virus had reached it before they did. So they would have to do this the manual way. Tadashi took one end and Megaman took the other end about 7 feet away.

“Ready?” Tadashi asked, he crouched down low and slipped his fingers under the small crack that appeared when the gate was unlocked.

“Yeah.” Megaman nodded.

“Alright, go!”

On those words both of them began lifting, or at lest trying too, they both found it a lot heaver then they first thought it would be.

Another explosion roared beneath them, ripping through the ground just barely behind them in a fissure and burst of heated air. “Just ignore it!” Tadashi called out, easier said then done since in a situation like this people were prone to begin panicking. The door started to lift, slowly but surely they were moving it, much too slowly for their needs. Flames spewed from the fissure that just formed behind them with the next earthshaking explosion.

Megaman winced at the heat, once again starting to feel oddly disoriented from using a higher level of physical capacity. “Uha...No, not now...”

“What's wrong?”

“I'm getting really dizzy... and out of breath.” Megaman dropped his head against the steel gate with the beginnings of sweat grazing his skin. Things started to lose focus, his vision became unsharpened and blurry. Somewhere in that disorientation his hold started to loosen...

“Megaman, Listen to me!” Tadashi shouted firmly in a voice that Megaman's mind immediately focused on, it was so forceful and commanding he couldn't help but do so. “I know this is hard on you, but you have to pay attention.”

Another explosion could be heard loudly from above, bursting through the ceiling in a rush of flames and falling green liquid, if this pattern contemned then the next one would be...

“I...I'm trying!” Megaman nearly screamed it out, clinching on to the bottom of the metal gate tightly as if it was a life line. That slow rate of ascent doubled and with an appropriate amount of teamwork, they were able to lifting the gate off the ground up to about chest level.

Tadashi reached over and abruptly ceased Megaman by the arm, pulling him stumbling into a large elevator used for carrying large and bulky materials. It more closely resembled a lift in it's open design. “Are you ok?” Tadashi pressed the appropriate button on a nearby panel, hearing the flames crash against the gate just as it rolled shut.

Megaman didn't respond right away, he just stared at the floor with a wanton, dazed expression, as if he couldn't see at all. And at that moment he was close to being blind. “This…” He spoke in a stumbling child like voice, his fatigue forced him to do so. “-May be a problem!” Megaman pointing under the lift, visible because of the chain link floors.

He may not have seen it clearly, but he could feel the heat long before Tadashi could. Flames were rushing upward from the shaft below him. “What do we do, there's no way out quick enough.”

“No, just hold on, the cables will break long before it reaches us.” As soon as Tadashi finished speaking as if on que the lift was suddenly sent rushing upward. One of the main cables had burned through, particularly the one used for descending. “We should be fine as long as the counterweight cable holds.” Tadashi said, watching the flames grow farther and farther away with increasing speed. He felt as if he'd be thrown off, though he knew he just had to hold on tightly enough...

“It’s not gonna hold!” The blurriness within Megaman's vision seemed to sharpen just in time, he could sense it happening before Tadashi could. “We have to go!” Hhe could hear the strain on the wire….

“...” Tadashi looked up at the two main cables, one rapidly going down and one pulling them upward. “Megaman, follow me.”

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

“Zero! You have to help me find Lan!” Megaman shouted hastily, just as soon as he got to another control room he Jacked in and found Zero. It was more like Zero had found him, and just in time to.

The system they were in was completely red, it had already been completely infected by the virus. Technically Megaman shouldn't have been able to be in this area, he knew it, he could feel a light pull as if he was being sucked down into the infected data. But something was keeping him stable...

“Lan’s gone? What happened?” Zero asked frantically. He dropped down from the sky and landed in front of Megaman, the two toned wings stretched fully.

“I don’t know, maybe you can get in to a security camera and look or something.” Megaman said hopefully. From what Lan had told him about Zero he knew that it was simple task for the virus.

Zero shook his head disappointedly, “That- That thing has control of all of them. And the ones that it doesn’t are down completely.” He told him regretfully.

He wondered how Zero knew all of this, but he did see him come out of that monstrosity in question, he probably boar some kind of connection with it. “So, if that virus is deleted then… you can used the cameras to find Lan…?” Megaman asked.

“Yes.” Zero agreed. “I'm pretty sure, but we're gonna have to hurry because if those fires take out the Cameras then we're just wasting time.”

“But….can we stop it?” Megaman asked unsurely, “It‘s so powerful… I can feel it, it's really creepy.” He could feel it even now, just as when he heard it screaming and felt that strange and odd desire to assimilate himself with it, he felt like he'd been a severed body part.

When he thought about it, it was strange he didn't feel like that anymore. As soon as Zero came out of it then...

“I’m sure of it, we can because we have to.” Zero drew the hilt of a sword strapped on to his waist and with a clinch of his fist a streak of light came forth and formed the blade.

'Hmm... that's a weird weapon.' Megaman nodded agreeingly while forcing that stray thought from his mind.

He didn’t know what he would do.

If he had a PET, he was sure Lan’s father could help him out with a few chips. His chances were slim to none now that he didn’t couldn’t use any, how could he fight with nothing to fight with. The best he could do was to act as a decoy, and he would of he had to be. 'I wonder if Zero knows any attacks that would be useful.'

On to their next problem.

“How do we get to it?”

Zero smirked, shaking the wings on his back lightly just to barely to acknowledge their presence, “I’ll take you.”

! - ! - !

Tadashi was quick to see the problem, if Megaman had no weapons, he was little more then useless.

He now sat in another control room on the opposite side of the island then they entered into before. It was similar in design so he didn't have to search to find his way around it. It seemed, though, that he'd be pined here for the duration of his stay on the island. Most other routes were blocked except for a nearby Emergency Exit, so he had to depend on Megaman and Zero to find Lan for him.

They couldn't do that with that virus controlling everything.

Speaking of which, didn't Zero come out of that virus? Lan had given him the full details of what had happened the previous day, details of Zero and all. If Zero came out of that larger virus, then maybe it could have unfortunate side effects. For all he knew it might be able to manipulate him, considering Zero seemed to be a piece of it. 'I wonder about this Zero... hmm...' While he was thinking about Zero anyway, the question came up in his mind... What happened to Megaman? When Megaman first came face to face with the Virus he about ready to dive in to it.

Could he really trust them to do this?

He looked at Megaman’s body sitting dormant on the ground against the node he was currently in front of, then down at one of the only screens that remained functional. ‘There has to be something I can do from here.’ He thought to himself, maybe there was another way, port or something so that he could plug in to Megaman?

'If the cord is here then...' Tadashi checked around Megaman’s neck where there would most likely be one. His search was futile and he found none, leaving him with no alternatives. They were his only hope of finding Lan right now, if the virus wasn’t deleted, there was no way he would be able to hope to make it anywhere near where Lan and Enzan were, mainly because he didn't know where they were.

Dr. Tadashi wasn’t a leader in his field for nothing, an idea quickly came in to his mind as something always did in a tight situation. It came with out fail. ’The only way to connect Megaman is that cable, so maybe if I connect a divider to it… I can use some chips to help him out.’

A divider wouldn’t be that hard to find in this place, and he if he couldn’t find one he would make one.

But there was only one problem with that plan, he didn’t have any battle chips. “…” 'Damn.'

The virus hadn’t completely effected this place, it would be a challenge in this particular room, but in a place like this he could create his own program that would mimic the battle chips.

! - ! - !

“This is amazing!”

Megaman looked around in astonishment at this new world. It was blurred severely, all he could see clearly where light sources, were they were and where they weren’t. This place didn’t seem real, just white light and shadow mixed together in distortions surrounding him.

Zero was holding him firmly by the waist and was carrying him. This did raise another question, how was Zero able to take Megaman with him? It technically shouldn't have been able to happen...

'I can't believe he can do something like this?' Megaman almost felt like a child because of how amazing he thought this was, he could barely contain his excitement. He'd never felt such a feeling of freedom, it was something just as surreal as being in a real body for the first time. Only this was something completely different, like he didn't have any type of body at all, digital or physical. This was so...“How can you see where your going?”


“I don’t know.” Zero shrugged, he never really thought about it. It just came natural to him. “I guess I’ve gotten use to this by now.” He descended sharply enough to make Megaman let out a cry of surprise. “...Are you... ok?”

Megaman shifted his eyes away in embarrassment. “Just wasn't expecting it.”

“Sorry, I'll try to give you a warning next time.” Zero told him, and contradictory to his statement he quickly veered to the left with out a word or warning other wise.

“Whoa!” Megaman clasped his hands over his mouth to repress any farther noise but by then it was too late. A deep blush crept across his face when he heard Zero laughing at him, “You did that on purpose!”

Zero shifted one hand from around Megaman's waist and patted him on the helmet protected head. “That's for laughing at me when that thing stole my armor.”

Megaman shook Zero's hand from his head. “This is not funny-”

Before Megaman could even finish his sentence Zero pulled him backwards and began another sharp decent downwards, this time faster then the one's before it. It came so fast and so suddenly that again Megaman let out a startled shout, but quickly clinched his jaw and stopped. Zero was already laughing again by then. “I'm glad your enjoying this!” Now that he was practically laying on top of the virus because of Zero's choice of decent, it was fairly easy for him to send a sharp elbow to Zero's side.

It was hard enough to be felt even through the armor, but Zero just took it deservingly. “Yeah, I am.” He couldn't help but thoroughly enjoy the reactions he was getting. Feeling still a bit impishly, he removed his hand from Megaman's head and wrapped it tightly around his chest. Then tilted backwards heavily, much to Megaman's dismay, until they were completely up side down taking a sharp dive.

“!” Megaman tensed uneasily at the tilting and drew in a sharp breath when he found himself in a complete free fall. “ZERO!”

Zero burst out laughing, serving to deepen the blush spread across Megaman's cheeks. “What's wrong?” He asked with an almost gloating sarcasm. He pulled back slightly and with a swift flap of his wings he brought the both of them right side up again.

Megaman snorted and looked away again in embarrassment. “What happened to you was still funnier.” He muttered.

Zero narrowed his eyes in his own embarrassment at the situation in question. “Just get ready, we're here.”

As if falling in to water, they dropped through an indistinguishable deviser and the swirling blur of light and shadow began to sharpen into a distinct setting. By the time it all came into focus they were back in level 4's independent server. Right beneath them was the virus, only it had become much bigger and more wide spread.

With no other place to go, Zero was forced to land on the mass of out ward spreading flesh that sprawled out virus's body like a pool of water. It wasn't the most stable place to be, it was soft and it twitched, every once and a while it everything would violently pulse once like a heartbeat.

(Megaman?)

“Huh?” Megaman nearly flinched when he heard a voice in his ear unexpectedly. “Is that you mister Haikari?” Megaman, though surprised by the voice, was sure of who he'd heard, or he was just hallucinating.

(Listen, I’m going to try and upload a new program into the system for you, I’m not sure if it will work correctly but you’ll just have to work with it.)

Tadashi had read his mind, he wasn't sure what he was suppose to do in this situation with out anything to at lest defend himself. “What is it?”

Zero suddenly called out warningly, snapping Megaman back into attention. “Megaman, move!”

“?” Megaman looked up just in time to see a large hand slamming down on him, “!” He dived to the side, narrowly escaping the blow as the hand stuck the ground. The shock wave from the blow sent a strong burst of air outward that knocked him off balance and sent him falling face first, he barely had time to realize before another fist came pounding down on to him.

Megaman rolled out of the way and pushed on to his feet with a few steps forward, only to be stroke by the two large fist cuffed together hammering into his back. “Oooohhfff!” Megaman was sent flying through the air by it’s strength, he ascended upward in a large arc and descended sharply, as soon as he hit the ground he began sliding in a disoriented tumble before he came to a painful stop.

Megaman cringed as he sat up having to force himself to move knowing their was no time to waist, holding his chest with both arms. “Hey... Now would be a good time... for that program.” From his voice he was obviously holding in repressed pain.

(If your ready then alright.)

There was a short reprieve as a stream of code surrounded his left arm in a mosaic blur, then it call came together as his arm changed in to a large, blue gattling gun. It about 3 feet long, a round steel barrel with 8 individual barrels with in, all surrounding his buster in the center. 'Oh man, this thing is heavy.' As soon as it formed, Megaman's arm dropped weakly to his side from the unexpected weight, it was easily heavier then everyone of the attachments he'd equipped before.

He hoped the loss in speed would be worth it, and Tadashi had just created this, it may not even work right.

(How dose it feel?)

“Heavy!”

(Sorry about that, but it was the most powerful thing I could construct. We don't know how strong that thing is.)

“No, it'll be fine.” Megaman just hoped this would be enough power.

The monstrous virus screeched as it sent one of the large fist pounding down on Zero, he jumped back just out of reach as it hit the ground before him and began to attack with his drawn sword. “Megaman!” A fierce yell sounded as he lifted the light saber and pulled it down over his shoulder, slashing across the knuckles and fingers and doing so a second time when he pulled the weapon back it. The fist was pulled back out of range, a large open gash streaming a bluish blood like liquid from the wound. “Are you alright over there?”

“I'm fine.” Megaman looked down at the gattling gun with a nervous reluctance and with a hopeful sigh he lifted it with all of the physical strength he'd gained and started firing. “Huh? What?” He tried to fire at lest, only there was one problem. The barrels on the gun were suppose to spin so that it could fire, but they didn’t spin. “Mister Haikari?”

(I didn't have time to check for errors, you'll just have to go with it.)

He'd just have to work with it though, 'Fine, I can still do this.' Megaman put his opposing hand on the barrel and spun as hard as he could, then he lifted the gun towards the virus and opened fire.

In a loud noise, bullets flew in a furry, pumping in the mass of flesh on the creature's side.

The virus leaned to the side with a loud howl, wading skillfully through the sea of it's own body and moving out of the line of fire. “Hold on!” Zero called out to make sure he wasn't it as he followed up, he ran forward head strong into distracted monstrosity, kicked off of it's torso and leaped a tall bounds up to it's head level. “Die damn you!” The light saber glowed brighter and became longer as infected data from Zero himself poured into it, he lifted the blade above his head and slashed across the side of it’s face with one furious swipe, then skillfully whipping the blade back upward and sliced into the deformed face again. Before he fell, he lifted the blade on to his shoulder, wielding it as if it were a bat and swung it forcefully into the side of it's head.

The creature howled in pain, more of the bluish blood like liquid streaming out of it's badly damaged head like a river. Before Zero could start falling, the virus thrust it's hand out and grabbed him in retaliation. It's hand constricted and squeezed him tightly, drawing a sharp cry of pain from Zero.

“Zero!” Megaman charged at the virus, holding the gattling gun in his hand with a noticeable decrease in speed. He spun the barrel and opened fire, having to stop completely to fire the large weapon that had a lot of recoil. Each shot he fired into it's arm drew a spurt of blue blood but didn’t mange to free Zero from the vengeful virus's hold, Zero was quickly being crushed to death with another scream of pain that came from tightening.

'It's not working!' Megaman stopped firing and dropped the weapon heavily to his sided with dead weight, his arm could barely take the strain. 'It's too heavy, and it's not...' his mind quieted when he looked down at the Buster Cannon in the center of the gun. 'That's it!'

Though he didn't doubt it was probably powerful he was unsure in using it, he still did so, watching it pull in air in visible white streaks and quickly converting to a glowing energy. In a few seconds he had a large ball growing at the end of the cannon that swirled like a whirl pool with the same streaks of white. 'It's... heavy!' Holding it with both hands to compensate the added weight he hastily fired the blast, sending the blue and white orb flying at the Virus’s arm.

A tail of discharging white energy streaked behind it as it burned through the air, connecting with the Virus's arm in an eruption of smoke and outward thrown flamed, forcing the Virus to release Zero with a high pitched scream.

Zero fell to the ground limply, clinching his chest directly over his heart with both arms, he felt like every bone in his body had been crushed. “Damnit!” he mumbled in pain, staring at the '201102 Virus' with a look of a burning furry that could only come from some deep set hatred.

“Zero.” Megaman was by his side in a second, extending a hand to help him up. “Can you still-”

Zero pushed Megaman's hand away as if it hadn't been there at all, instead he reached for his dropped sword and stumbled to his feet with staggering steps. “Just die already!” With a primal rage he burning through him he charged at the large enemy blindly. He didn't let up for a second, driving his sword into the first thing he could reach. Despite being hit over and over in his near suicidal attempts to attack, he still ran persistently after his enemy, his sense of logic overridden by anger.

“Zero.” Megaman watched him in his attempts with confusion. Why was he so angry, why was he this angry? Despite Megaman's prompting for him to stop Zero just kept going in his own rage. 'What's wrong with him? Why dose he hate this thing so much?' Megaman ran towards Zero, his speed was severely cut by his new weapon. Which proved to be a big weakness, the virus was faster then expected.

Megaman was blind sided by a strong punch from the large virus that sent him in to the ground, pinned there by the clinched hand. The fist lifted, driving down powerfully and pounding in to him hard enough to leave an imprint, lifting again and pounding him again, and again in a succession so rapid that he couldn't draw the strength to move. The virus finally tore a loud cry of pain from the Navi, nearly knocking him unconscious.

Megaman’s vision started fading, dimming into a deep black. 'No!' He managed to stay awake when the attack finally ceased, he forced himself to stand to his feet. This battle was starting to look down and near hopeless, nothing they did really seem to hurt it as much as they need. It seemed with the two of them it would take too long to wear it down.

Zero growled angrily, having some of the rage beaten out of him, a sense of logic returned. “Are you alright?” He asked, quickly dropping into a crouch to avoid another punch from the virus. They both took a step back as the second fist came flying at them.

“I’ll mange.” Megaman told him “Why are you so mad at this thing?”

“Forget it, just keep fighting!”

'Hmm...” With his mind in deeper contemplation then before he spun the barrel, lifted the gattling gun on his arm and opening fire on the virus with a lock on it's neck and head. '...Lan said something about Zero...what did he tell me...' Megaman tried hard to remember as he watched a barrage of bullets burrow into the monstrosity... Now he remembered, Zero had a sense of self-loathing since he was a virus, though Megaman would have never guessed it by looking at him, or even by the way he acted.

Just by thinking about it a little deeper he could figure this whole thing out. Zero's data had been corrupted when trying to help Lan reach him, a day later this horrible virus showed up. And in that time, some how Zero remained in tacked and separated himself from the '201102 Virus.' Just that fact alone meant that Zero was already nothing more then a severed limb from the virus he'd become when he was corrupted. 'Wait...if he's still apart of that thing, what's gonna happen when we beat it?' More importantly, why was Zero fighting so hard to destroy it? He had to know that maybe if it was deleted that their was a very good chance that he'd go down with it.

It was because he hated himself, he was a virus, but he felt like a net navi.

'Zero...'

“Megaman what are you doing? Help me out here.” Zero called out. They both knew they would have to hit harder if they wanted to survive, they could run (maybe), but they would be worn before they made it (hence the maybe).

Megaman looked at him almost fearfully. “It's no use, we'll never beat it at this rate.”

'What's he so...' Zero didn't realize it on first glance, but Megaman wasn't scared for himself, he was scared that if they didn't succeed that they'd never find Lan... 'My sword's not doing it, I have to find a way to hit it harder...'

Zero was a virus and everything was infected with the same data he infected with, this should have been an advantage, so why wasn't it? ‘If I can use the system to attack, I can take this thing out…’ Zero thought to himself, he should have realized this before, he and the virus had marginally the same data. He should be able to do this. Zero jumped in to the air to avoid another punch flying at him. The Virus’s other hand came at him, sweeping across the air about to grab him. “No way!” Zero kicked off the palm, pushing himself into a back flip and avoiding it’s grasp before it closed around him. Then with a feat of agility Zero dragged his sword across it’s open hand on his fall.

Megaman was still firing, taking advantage of Zero’s unintended decoyism.

He noticed that it was doing something strange with it’s mouth... 'What is that?' a red energy was swirling in to a ball just it had done when he was charging his buster cannon, Zero didn’t seem to see it though. Unfortunately that's where it seemed to be aiming.

“Zero! Move!” Megaman shouted desperately, but Zero was still falling, he didn’t know what he was suppose to avoid as if he could in mid air. '!' Megaman jumped towards him fearlessly, the back of his head knew he wouldn’t make it in time, that didn't stop him from trying.

The blood red orb in the virus’s mouth spewed fourth in to a thick ray, it moved fast, almost too fast to recognize until it passed by or hit.

“No!”

A red blur came from Zero’s side, snatching him out of they way in the nick of time.

Megaman watched as the ray passed him, below the red light's surface he could see a stream of ’201102’ while it moved by his face. He wondered would it really hurt Zero until he saw it strike the reddened ground and drill a hole strait through. “Whoa!”

Zero hit the ground, managing to land on his feet and slide to a stop after having been knocked out of the way of that attack, '?” He looked around frantically for whatever had just saved him. “Huh?” Finally after not seeing that red blur on either side of him he turned around.

Behind him he spotted a Navi that was almost similar to him yet completely different, it was none other then Blues, but how he got here was unknown since Enzan was currently missing. “Who are you?”

Blues shook his head. “Not important right now.” he said, indicating the virus that was charging another red beam in it’s open mouth, but this one seemed different. It seemed to be more flat then the rounded ray before it.

The orb burst before it even left it's mouth, shooting out a rain of smaller rays in rapid succession at Megaman. He it quickly pivoted and charged forward in the opposite direction, the line of smaller rays trailing closely behind him in a gun like fashion. Even with the heavy weapon equipped he was still able to out run it, just narrowly though, he could feel the heat from the rays pounding into the ground behind him. He only stopped to look back when the heat faded. 'That was too close...' Nervously he ran over to Blues and Zero.

“What are you doing here?” Megaman asked immediately, he'd realized as soon as he'd seen Blues that this could mean Enzan was nearby, and Lan was with him.

“I’m looking for Enzan, Do you know where he is?” Blues asked.

Unfortunately that's wasn't what it meant at all. “No.” Megaman shook his head in disappointment. “We're looking for Lan, but the only way we’re going find him is if we go through this thing first.”

Blue silently cursed to himself in frustration as he raised his sword, “What are we waiting for then, let’s go!” The Navi shouted angrily, jumping fearlessly at towards the virus. The virus lifted it's large hand and slammed it too the ground trying to smash him, but Blues managed to go under the attack and deliver a sharp slash to the hand with a light sword battle chip, using that blow to push himself up and climb on to the back of large hand. Blues charged up the arm quickly, coming to it’s shoulder before the large virus could even try to get him off. He lifted the sword above his head and plunged the blade in to it’s neck, then pulling back and thrusting in again quickly. With increasing speed he drove the sword into the mutated flesh a about 10 or so times before the virus turn towards him and fired a well aimed red beam from it’s mouth at him. Blue’s jumped to the side, feeling he the beam just barely graze his face.

The force of the closely passing ray knocked him back with out having ever touched him, sending him flying back towards Megaman and Zero, hitting the ground with an audible crash and rolling to a stop. Before he could even think about what had just happened to him, Megaman was there, helping him to his feet.

“He’s weak.” Zero said, watching the virus closely from where he was. He could see it in every movement it made, especially how it was taking more time in between attacks. “I can feel it. If we just give it a few big hits then we can take him down.”

Which brought a thought to the forefront of Megaman's mind. “Wait, if that’s the virus, and you’re the virus, what’s going to happen to you when we delete it?”

It was true Zero was the virus, he used to be the AI of it, what stopped it from being a mindless worm. He felt like staring up at it was like staring at his true self, it had to be destroyed. “It doesn’t matter, we have to take this thing out now if we want to find Lan.” It wasn't like he hadn't thought about it before now, it was all he could think about.

’If I am destroyed, I should take all of the virus with me.’ Zero thought to himself, that would be a last option. But right now he was concentrating on how he could use all the infected data in the system... That’s when it came to him, the perfect way to do it. “You guys go first.” He smirked to himself as his mind started to formulate it's own plan. “I’ll need a few seconds.”

Blues looked at the two, deciding it would be best to ask what was happening after all of this was over. Now he just had to focus on taking this virus down, and he knew how he was going to do it, then he could find Enzan, that's all that mattered. Blues held up his sword high above his head using a mastered program advance, he no longer needed two more swords to execute it.

A blue energy shined from the blade, shooting up in to the sky in a brilliant light. “It'll be more effective if we do this together!”Blues looked over at Megaman, waiting for him to finish before attacking.

Megaman had already begun to charge up the buster cannon in the center of the gattling gun. “Yeah.” The blue orb at the center of the gun had grown substantially, it was starting to obstruct his vision and he started to wonder if he'd be able to control it. 'Time to find out.' Megaman lifted his hand to the barrel and gave it a hard spin, it created it's on small suction, pulling some energy from the cannon backwards. It traveled in to the barrels, forming orbs of there own.

“Ready?” Blues called out.

“Let's do it!”

Megaman opened fire and Blues attacked with the energy enriched blade. A large swirling blue and white ray came from the cannon, it was larger then Megaman's body and moved a little slower then the previous one, just slow enough to connect just when Blues’s blade came down on the Virus. Both attacks connected and exploded a flare of blinding white light, drawing a loud roar from the virus that could be heard over the ear deafening noise.

“Perfect!” Zero pulled in all of the infected data from system in a stream of binary code from all that directions in red streams, compressing it in to his sword that now glowed in a pulsing yellow and red. “It's my turn now!” He didn’t hesitate at all, watching the stunned creature keeling over, smoldering from the last two attacks. Not even thinking about himself one bit, he pulled his weapon back and threw the sword at the Virus while the explosion still ripped through it’s body and burned away it's fleshy tan body. As soon as it connected Zero fell over. His arms warped around his stomach and he screaming in pain, his cries rang in time with the virus’s pained howls.

Another explosion came from all of the infected data, this one knocked Megaman and Blues to the ground and a large shock wave propagated outward in a red streak. Damaging what was left of system even farther.

Zero screamed louder as his body involuntary spasmed violently, he curled in to a ball from the pain, more sharp convolutions shook his body.

“Zero?” Megaman forced himself off of the ground ran over to him, he nearly fell in his haste as he knelt down beside him and trying to figure out what was wrong. No, that was foolish, he knew that Zero was the virus, and if it was destroyed, it would probably take him with it. “Damnit ...”

“What’s wrong with him?” Blues, shielding his eyes from the intense light coming from the detonating virus, was the next to make it over to Zero.

“He’s... he's connected, somehow, to that virus. I was afraid of this, if it dies then I think... that he goes with it.” Megaman shifted his eyes away from Blues back down at Zero, who after some trouble managed to somehow pry him out of the ball he'd curled himself into and scoped him into his arms.

Just as suddenly as it had started the screaming stopped, and so did Zero's movement.

“Zero...no ...”Megaman winced lightly, he almost dropped Zero. 'My... my chest hurts...'

Like the perfect virus he was, when put in a life threatening position. Zero had to mutate or be deleted.

“Megaman?” Zero's voice called out weakly, his eyes closed tightly and his body became tense.

“Yeah?” Megaman looked down, hoping he didn’t say that was related to his potential death. He could barely focus on it, the pains in his chest had become so intense, so fast. “Ahh...!”

Zero’s body began to glow with a red aura that moved like a low flame, causing Megaman's pain to flare up.

“Move.”

Megaman dropped Zero and fell on to his back, something was happening to him, to both of them…