Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 23: Means to an end part 2

*If you look outside there isn't much difference between the forecast last night at 12 and right now at 6am. The storm front that has been hanging over us is finally moving out with the cool air mass and taking this low pressure system with it Temperatures will be rising out of the cool 40s they're in right now because of this high pressure front that has just reached land fall. I think we have a shot with our action news sky cam over the ocean front, you can see all of those dark clouds and more lighting just off the coast. Your forecast for today, a big warm up into the high 60s, but again, expect strong showers. There's already a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for the following counties...*


Tadashi struggled to stand against the harsh winds wiping all around him, seemly changing direction at random intervals. The storm pelt him him with a torrent of rain, far harder then it had been the previous day. The sounds of thunder, the clash of lightning, the roar of the stirring ocean around him was formidably intense, not at all helped by the engine of the helicopter and the winds it created on it's own. Tadashi reached back in and pulled a complacent, completely unaware Megaman out of his seat and on to the helipad. Megaman staggered forward, looking as if bare instincts was the only thing compelling him to put his feet forward when he began to fall. He was like a staggering drunk on the verge of passing out. “Come on Megaman.” Tadashi half shouted, struggling to be heard over rumbling noises. He wrapped his arms around Megaman's waist and pulled him along.

It was 9 am, daylight, though not a single ray could be seen beyond the black clouds. The storm sprang upon them suddenly, about halfway over the ocean, the rains and winds transgressed from a minor annoyance to something a torrent that nearly blew them off course.

Enzan pried open the steel door barring entrance from the helipad, slowly and with visible strain. He was met by the storm and was soaked far faster then he realized. Tadashi curiously carted Megaman inside, and leaned against the wall for a small rest, watching Enzan push the door shut. “What's wrong with the door?”

“It's not the door.” Enzan wiped the water from his face, looking over Megaman for himself with his interest growing. “We are about to have a major problem on our hands.” He said. He felt the inklings of weakness in his leg and immediately pushed himself off the wall and began leading Tadashi before they gave way. Alternating his weight between his legs and forward momentum was enough to keep him going for a while.

“What's wrong?”

“Zero.” He said, and could feel the worried tension rising in Tadashi at the mention of his name. He could picture the expression on his face right now, he didn't have to look. “It was some kind of interference that broke up that call, I sent Blues into find out what it was and I lost contact with him too. That's when the computer I was using suddenly got infected.”

“So that's what was causing the interference?” Tadashi's face narrowed into a concentrated expression and he looked upward habitually. “That doesn't sound right. Nothing like that has ever happened before when we encountered the virus. And to interfere with a wire connection?”

“It wasn't he virus doing it, it was Zero. When Blues got in range of him I lost contact with him, and when Zero disappeared the interference was-”

“Wait, disappeared?” Tadashi interrupted. He shifted one of Megaman's arm over his shoulders and paused to retain his balance, Megaman began leaning towards the right and stumbling more then usual, but Tadashi managed to keep him upright. “Tell me what happened.”

“I'm not completely sure what myself, Blues told me that Zero looked in pretty bad shape and he was losing it, he was in pain too. He was really explicit about Blues saying back, and Blues said when he got close he was attacked by...a ghost or something? Then the second time he was hit by some kind of energy, he couldn't stop Zero from leaving. You ever see Zero attack like that?”

“No.” Tadashi shook his head, his voice was distant and he was lost in a sullen thought.

Enzan glanced back at him, silent, hoping that something would come from those thoughts, some kind of explanation, some kind of plan, an idea even. Regretfully it became clear that it wouldn't happen. “That virus is spreading fast, I tried to contain it in the control room but it just sprang up someplace else, probably by Zero. If he can just pop up anywhere there's really no point in trying to quarantine it to one part of the system, so I cut all land lines, put up a fire wall and everyone's just trying to use what we can.”

“I see.”

“You know...” Enzan paused inauspiciously, keeping his eyes strait ahead and his tempo unbroken. “If Zero really has...you know...and he leaves, there's no way to stop what's going to happen.”

“I know.”

“So...I hate to ask you this, but what kind of measures are we willing to take?” Enzan felt guilty asking such a thing, knowing he was only implying that the the only measure that would be to far is to kill Zero. At least Blues wasn't around to hear him ask this, he knew the navi would protest.

“...I'm not sure.” Tadashi didn't want to think about it, he wasn't one to shy away from the hard subjects, but there were too many issues, too many circumstances to even think about that now, at lest for him it was. “We'll need to see how this plays out, for now the most important thing is to find a way to contain him. Your going to have to shut down the power.”

“The power to what?” Enzan inquired.

“Everything, all the systems infections for sure. At the best we'll catch Zero in one of these systems and he wont be able to do anything, at the least we can box him into a system and deal with him there.” Tadashi placed his foot forward to catch himself when Megaman stumbled and fell forward, “Come on Megaman, you can do this...” He managed to catch Megaman, then he pulled Megaman forward until Megaman managed to grumble and reclaim a bit of footing with sloppy steps. He was obliviously dragged forward. “The infection is the reason the helipad door wasn't working right?”

“There's a lot more doors then that not working.”

“I was afraid of that. You have to get some one down to the fuse boxes to control the power manually, any remote triggers aren't reliable. “

“There's a problem with that.” Enzan finally lead Tadashi down the final corridor, to a door in the middle of the hall. Seeing that Tadashi had his hands full with Megaman, he began prying the door open. “How are we supposed to get in contact with those guys? Whenever Zero's around there's interference, and since he can move wirelessly then he'll effect radios too, and cell phones, there's no way to tell them what to do.”

“I know.” Tadashi staggered into large offices filled with separate rings of connected computers, file cabinets and desks. He sat Megaman down on a chair, happy to be rid of the weight. “Man your heavy.” He mumbled to himself, rubbing his shoulder. “In that case your going to have to be the one to go down there, Blues is the only navi around that his strong enough to stand up to Zero if he comes along. And you both the systems well enough to decide what's important enough to take off line first.... Where is Blues?”

“Control room.” Enzan said, watching Megaman's lethargic drifting being constantly interrupted by something enough to keep the former navi at lest partly awake. “Come on, there are some hard copies there that you might need, and you might as well explain the plan to him too.” Enzan, grudgingly, didn't bring any along because he wasn't sure what Tadashi could use, and because he wouldn't have been able to carry the load anyway.

It wasn't more then a moment after the two of them had left the lab and reached the control room, Tadashi had been rushing for a more expedient return, that one of what would be many instances of Zero took place. The dormant doors revved back to life, they slid shut and locked with a loud click, every last one of them that were operational had been sealed. “What the hell?” Enzan ran to the door and tried to pry it open, he had no luck, every time he attempted to unlock it, it was just locked again before he could finish, it was endless.

“What is it?” Tadashi asked, still combing through one of many stacks of binders, folders and books around the station Enzan had been working at for the last two days.

“The doors, they won't open.” Enzan wasn't slow in devising a cause, his mind immediately jumped to one thing. “Zero, he must be messing with the automated systems. We're stuck!” He growled.

“You can't be serious.” Blues snorted. He was frustrated, he was angry, and this didn't help. “So how are we gonna get down the fuse boxes? As a matter of fact, what about Megaman?”

Tadashi lifted his head. “He is still back in that room isn't he...Blues, is there anything you can do?”

“Not from here with everything infected, I'm not sure if I can get to a place where I can do something...You guys should probably start looking for another way out.” Blues advised before he left his PET.

Tadashi cursed to himself, this was going to be more trouble then he had anticipated. “At the lest I have to get back to Megaman...” He sighed, adjusting his glasses without realizing he was doing anything at all.

! - ! - !

Red...

Megaman stared blankly with half lidded eyes, so tired he couldn't hope to move if he wanted too.

Red...everywhere, a strange red glow surrounded him, he couldn't see past it.

He was so sleepy he couldn't tell the waking world from the one beyond consciousness, even when Tadashi had dragged him along, even when he felt the torrent of wind and rain soaking him out side, even when Lan had been screaming for him to wake up. The world was simply one large hallucination, all of it was simply red...red... “...”

Even as he was over taken with this new lethargy, not even realizing that he was sleepy or anything existed beyond this red. The only thing he knew was the familiar feeling of emptiness, of being incomplete, of missing something, of needing that something on a deeper level then he could control consciously.

Red...Red...numbers.

He squinted, he could just make out numbers, lines and lines of revolving numbers . What did they say?...201102?

Megaman drew in a gasping choking breath, his eyes widened, and he sat upright as if a jolt of electricity had run through his body.”!!” He heaved in air, looking around frantically, trying to figure out where he was, and why he was here. It was frightening, leaving him nearly panic stricken. Logic took over and rationale thought returned. “Where am I...” Megaman stood up slowly, and surveyed the room cautiously. His first move was logically to investigate beyond the confines of this room and check the door.

Locked.

Where was Lan?

“This place...” He spoke aloud, wondering around the room . “It looks like something that would be where Tadashi works, or Enzan's island.” Of those options he believed the only place he could have been was somewhere in the building where Tadashi's lab resided. But why was the door locked?...He decided to wait for a moment, maybe then things would become clearer, maybe Tadashi would come in or something.

! - ! - !

“Blues is right, you can't do anything from here. We have to find some place else.” Tadashi said.

“What do you mean some place else?” Enzan grunted with frustration. “There are two doors in and out, and they're both locked down.”

Tadashi folded his arms and looked up thoughtfully. He felt nervous, his stomach churned and his throat became dry. Zero...what was happening to him? He need to see him, he needed just to be able to speak to him, he couldn't be gone, he couldn't...”What about that vent?” Tadashi pointed up to the ceiling where the metal shutter barred aces to the metal passage way, “Is there anymore of those in this room?”

“...” Enzan looked up, his frustration dissipating a bit at the thought of a new found hope. “Yeah there is.” He nodded, pointing to the far side of the room where one lay near a corner against the floor, it didn't push air in, it circulated it out. “Since it's so small I guess I'm the only one who can go through. Doesn't matter though, Blues should be able to open the doors from the outside.”

“Perfect.”

Blues returned to the P.E.T with no luck, and he hadn't expected any. “I couldn't do anything, everything is blocked off and-”

“Yeah I know.” Enzan interrupted. “New plan, were going through the vent, you should be able to do it from the outside right?”

“Yeah sure.”

Tadashi had already begun prying away the shutter and then wrenching away the filter. This was gonna be a long day, he could feel it like a wave of fatigue after a long shift of work. He hadn't felt this nervous in longer then he could remember, it was so strong, it felt a lot like fear only he wasn't afraid...well, maybe a little, not for himself anyway. “Are you gonna be alright?”

“Yeah sure.” Enzan dropped down to his knees, putting his P.E.T on his waist and crawled into the ventilation shaft. It was a tight fit, Enzan barely had enough room to move his arms let alone pull himself forward, but he managed to reach a divide and pull forward, gripping whatever he could slip his fingers into until he reached another gate. And with a strong amount of pushing he managed to remove the gate and pull his way out into the hallway. Immediately afterwords he moved to the nearest door and connected to a port. It took less then a minute before he heard the click of a control room door unlocking under Blues' administration.

“I couldn't unlock all of them.” Blues told him, “Too many broken paths, but I did managed to get the stairs and the room Megaman is in.”

Tadashi pushed the door open halfway and slipped through, a folder in hand and a glowering look in his eyes. “This doesn't feel right.” He announced, looking around the ominously empty and silent halls. “I feel like I should be trying to find Zero, but at the same time I feel like I should be doing something about Megaman.”

“Don't worry about it right now.” Enzan said, attempting to reassure him. “Fix Megaman, we'll handle Zero the time being.” He replaced the P.E.T on his waist and leaned against the wall, the strain in his legs were growing noticeable. He wasn't sure if he could make it that far. He'd have to check the doors, let out as many people as he was able find on his way. “...Where's Lan?” He finally asked.

“I made him go back to the hospital.” Tadashi said.

“Is he-”

“Don't worry.” Tadashi pushed off the wall and began to backtrack “He's alright... be careful.”

“You too.”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

“Tadashi?” Megaman lept to his feet when the previously locked door suddenly was pried open and Tadashi appeared there, just as he anticipated.

“Megaman?” Tadashi froze with a split second of disbelief, but he quickly stirred himself out of it with instant curiosity. “Are you ...alright?” He reached out and cuffed Megaman's chin, leaning in closely enough to study his face. Then he pulled down Megaman's bottom eye lids lightly with his thumb and peered into the blue orbs, finding complete, though questioning, focus where there had been complacent lifelessness.

“Uh...yeah.” Megaman nodded, his eyes shifted nervously from side to side. “Where are we? What happened?”

“This is Enzan's island...Do you remember anything from the last few hours?”

“Umm...not really...am I suppose to?”

Tadashi wasn't sure if should have been alarmed at this, to Megaman's credit he had been just about sleep through the entire ordeal. “Is there anything you can tell me, anything you heard, anything you felt?”

“...” Megaman sat down again, he head slowly fell and he stared at the ground, searching through the reaches of his rather inconsistent memory. “Where's Lan?”

“The hospital, don't worry about him.” No, Lan wasn't the one that he needed to worry about as of yet. “Megaman.”

“Yeah, I'm still thinking...” Megaman was silent for a few seconds, then he spoke again, his voice soft and still distant in his thoughts.”I remember a lot of red...I saw red...maybe the whole time....and I also remember I stared seeing those virus numbers...I remember feeling that weird empty feeling, that I remember well.”

“Hmm...” Tadashi lifted his hand to his chin and looked up thoughtfully in his usual habit. Then he began to explain all of the glitches Megaman had had from when Lan had brought him to him until their trip to here, none of which peeked any memory of it from Megaman. Then he asked Megaman something completely different. “What about Zero? Do you feel anything about him?”

“Huh?” Megaman didn't understand the question, or why it was a question at all. “What do you mean?”

“Any where during the course of those hallucinations did you happen to see anything vaguely referencing to Zero?”

“Besides the numbers...no...I guess the red could be.” Megaman tilted his head questioningly, having had the feeling for quite a while something was off with Tadashi, that he was distracted. Now he was sure. “Why?”

Tadashi, with much regret, explained everything that happened with Zero. Much to Megaman's horror. With a burst of worried energy he exclaimed that he had to help, Tadashi however... “Don't be so hasty, I need to do something about you first?”

“But Zero-”

“How could you possibility help Zero if you can't help yourself? What if something...no, I mean, *when* another glitch comes up what good will you be to him then?” Tadashi took hold of Megaman's shoulders and pushed him back down. “Besides, we have to work fast, we don't know how long we''ll have access to this data, the key to fixing you for good could be in this room. And if I figure out what's causing your problem I'm sure I'll find Zero's problem.”

“But...” Megaman looked in to Tadashi's eyes and saw the futility of his argument...Then he looked away with anger and frustration. “Fine.” He scoffed.

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

“Damnit...I can't go any farther.” Enzan announced, with much resentment, he couldn't push himself to take another step. Enzan caved and he stumbled forward down the stairs. He reached out and grabbed onto the railing to catch himself, managing to ease himself down to the landing. He leaned back against the wall and pulled his knees in close to his chest, trying ease away the pain sapping his strength. “Damn it hurts...” He hissed in pain, cursing countless obscenities to himself, he was keenly aware of their time constraints with each profanity.

“You alright?” Blues asked.

“Sorry about this.” He said softly. Above all else he felt guilty, knowing just how badly Blues wanted to, at the very lest, do something to effect the situation, but mainly he wanted to out trying to find Zero. And Enzan, incapacitated as he was to begin with, had given out on the stairs between floors B1 and B2.

“Don't apologize to me, wait as long as you need to.”

Even under these circumstances he would have been able to make it alright had he not taken so many detours. He couldn't simply leave his staff locked in their respective areas, if something happened, say a fire, then they would have been stuck. Most of them anyway, there were a notable few who hadn't been in places utilizing such tough doors, or had managed to unlock the doors on their own. Enzan released a few people he'd come across, charging them with the task of releasing everyone else and spreading the word of the virus infection, as well as relaying that he wanted them to make sure all connections outside this island, land or otherwise, should be cut of blocked immediately if not already done so.

So it wasn't a complete waste of diminished stamina. “Damn, we are at such a disadvantage here. Maybe if this place wasn't still so messed up from before, or at least if we had our entire network we could do more then this.”

“At least there are less places he can go.” Blues said. With a sizable portion of the island had been charred beyond use or sunken at the bottom of the ocean, mainly one of two production sights, that would be one less place to worry about. “The fuse boxes, they're all scattered around aren't they? I mean they're under each wing right?” That meant to reach them all Enzan would have to circle around half the island from underneath, a very daunting task.

Enzan sighed and nodded. “Yeah...” And then began feeling throughly worth less. He wasn't sure if he could make a lap around this entire building. Damnit, He should have told someone else to do this, but he'd been so focused on rescue and damage control he'd completely forgotten. “I'll make it.” His eyes narrowed and he reached up and took hold of the metal railing, pulling himself up shakily to his feet.

“Enzan, maybe it's too soon for you to-”

“I'll make it.” Enzan, with a tight hold on the railing, descended the stairs in a short burst of speed and pushing through the door, and nearly stumbling down a second set of metal stars beyond. He grabbed the railing to stop himself before he tumbled into the 2 feet of water that had somehow pooled over the concrete floor “What the hell?”

“I'm assuming the drains on the surface were damaged too.” Blues suggested “All of that rain must be gathering here instead.”

“Why the hell didn't anyone tell me about this!” He shouted, the annoyed, frustrated anger that so often plagued him returning.

“You don't have anyone down here.”

“Great...” Enzan sighed and stepped into the water, shuttering at the frozen chill that now surrounded his shins. It wasn't all bad though, it dulled some of the pain away. “There has to be a hole or something, there's no way just the drains alone could fill this floor with water. How far is the first box?”

“Not very, just keep going down this hall.”

The halls on floor B2 were more like wide tunnels, the only use for this floor was storage and maintenance, pipes lined the ceiling, thick wires with metal casing along the walls. There were a few steel boxes along the walls, all of which far to heavy to float in the water. There were multiple fuse boxes for each wing, for the control room and surrounding offices there were about 4 lined up in a neat row.

“En...zan...”

“?” Enzan heard the static in Blues' voice and immediately pried the P.E.T off of his waist. “Blues?”

Blues' voice was a little clearer this time. “That had to be Zero.”

“Yeah, I know.” Enzan pried open the box and skimmed through the rows of switches until he found a small port. There was one even here, but of course there would be with the remote systems embedded inside, this would be so much easier if he could just do this from the control room. “Why would he be here?” He wondered, plugging the P.E.T into the port.

“I'm not sure it means anything, he might just be moving randomly.” Blues said, before he left the P.E.T and was immediately lost in interference.

“Good luck...” Enzan sighed and leaned against the wall, listening to the sound of the water sloshing all around him, he could hear the distant sound of rain echoing through the tunnels, solidifying his clams of a hole. Standing there alone, surrounded it cold water, he began to realize how creepy this place was. 'Damn I should have found someone else.. '

! - ! - !

The system was a far cry from normalcy, Blues had never been to this particular part of the network, even though it connected directly into the control room, but he knew it wasn't suppose to look like this. Many parts of the ground, the walls, many surrounding structures were glowing a hellish red, slowly being swallowed by the glow as the virus progressed. Many parts of the ground were spotted with a red so bright it seemed that there was a burning flame underneath them about to explode or eat through. He looked up and he saw that same red glow covering the sky, pulsing like a living heart, inching closer with every beat. The sky was literally falling, no matter how slowly, it was a terrifying to watch and the sight filled Blues with an anxious, ominous dread, he felt the constraints of time much more strongly then they actually where.

This subdirectory was being infected.

Blues shuttered and bolted forward, running as fast as he could, searching for Zero at a frantic pace. It was hot, it made him feel as if hell was raining down on him slowly. “Zero!” He called out. “Zero! I know your here somewhere!”

The virus wasn't really red, it had no color. It's appearance came from the antivirus programs that had copy protected every file, access was given based on the individual credentials of the user identified by their password. The passwords Zero had gained access to that worked, the files formally write protected were infected immediately, the rest took far longer, in constant conflict with the antivirus program. But the program had few effective ways to combat the '201102' virus, current versions had no way to stop or even defend against it. The best it could do was write-protect it's files, and even that was slowly being over written. Unless a program could be device to stop such a virus, it was all only a matter of time.

This system would crash soon, and all of it's redundancies would topple soon after.

“Zero! Come on dammit, talk to me, attack me, do something! Just get here!” Blues shouted out to the red sky and listened to his voice echo. He had one and only one advantage of Zero, the fact that he caused interference when he was near, anything that transmitted wirelessly even on a basic level bombarded everything else, scrambling signals. Blues felt a sudden reduction in the heat being emitted all around by a spot of shade that seemed to simply appear and immediately dived forward away from the spot where he stood. Blues rolled and quickly pivoted back with his own sword drawn just in time to see a ghostly image of a diving Zero slashing at the spot where he had stood, before disappearing in blur of static. “What the hell?”

Blues looked around nervously, trying to determine whatever that could have been. He saw it much more clearly this time, aside from the transparency it had been like Zero in every way, except for the face, the eyes more accurately. The face had been blank, but the eyes had been wide and unfocused with the most haunting look. It had appeared from nowhere, and disappeared just as quickly. “It came from that way...” Blues peered back towards the way he had come, the path was bare and empty, but he kept going despite that, running as fast as he could.

He got about a hundred feet from where he began from, evading red spots and impassable ways, when he witnessed a small spot of static appear before him. The space around it seemed to bend in towards it as if it was a vacuum drawing in reality and then it another ghostly likeness of Zero shot towards him full speed. “!!” Blues lifted his sword defensively to block, the inevitable slash passed right threw his sword with no problem and sliced painfully into the armor around his collar bone. 'What is that...' A shaken and startled, Blues looked around uneasily, waiting to see if another attack would come, for a ghost it certainly carried all of Zero's strength.

Blues persisted, running along the broken direction that was fading away more and more, he feared that he'd have no way back at this rate. At a random interval the static reappeared and the haunting projection shot towards him and attacked. “The hell with this!” Blues' growled, he didn't shy away from it this time, with his reflexes taunt he drew his sword and thrust it into ghost. Only to find his sword simply passed right through doing no harm, the ghost's sword had far more effect on him, slashing his hard across the chest and sending him stumbling backward with pain. “Damnit!” He growled in frustration , what was going on!

Angrier still, Blues ran on, coming upon a place where the path was nearly depleted. The red glow was like a wall of fog that crept slowly, erasing everything it swallowed up. His heart began to pound particularly hard then, the uneasiness made him fearful to go past it at all. He assumed the interference was growing worse as he went because he felt the heat growing with every step forward. The temperature leveled off at one point and Blues stopped instinctively, “He's gotta be close...” He mumbled to himself, and his thoughts were correct, with a simple glance he finally found Zero. The seemly fully bore virus stood with his blade plunged into the ground, the air around him wavering intensely from the heat being generated, Blues could feel the hot air blowing past him from where he stood. He could tell immediately that he in the process of infecting “Stop that!” He shouted, spanning the few feet between them with a quick burst of speed with his fist drawn back and throwing a heavy blow to the side of his face. Zero fell backwards away from the sword and hit the ground, the wavering heat ceased.

Zero sat up, but was immediately forced back down by Blues' weight pinning him to the ground. “Hey! Hey! Listen to me!” He shouted, “I know your in there someone where!” Zero lifted his head and Blues impetuously slammed his own into Zero's, knocking him back off balance at his own expense. “Listen to me!”

He caught a glimpse of his eyes and he'd never forget them, they were a particular focal point now because they always had been. It was so strange to see the blue orbs, usually so full of energy and holding a wide gaze that took in all of the world in one look, now so piercingly cold and focused, though not on him it seemed. Zero looked as if he was completely oblivious to him, his eyes focused but never really on one thing, the only thing Blues was was something that obstructed his view. Blues felt all of Zero's muscles grow tense, and suddenly a burst of energy rushed up from underneath him, swallowing him painfully in the depths of it's torrent until he was forced to the top and flung away. “Uhff!” The air was knocked out of his lungs from the force of his landing, his eyes shot open wide with starving gasps and stinging pain lingering intensely over his entire body. He lifted his head to witness the beam of white energy spring up from underneath Zero like a geyser .
This was all looking very familiar.

“So that's...what you hit me... with before.” Blues coughed out, clinching his chest as he reclaimed his fallen sword and stood to his feet. “I'm gonna...get through to you...if I gotta...break every bone...in your body...” He spat out, his eyes fierce with furry.

Zero reached up and took a hold of his sword, using it to pull himself up, then he slipped it out of the ground and moved forward wordlessly and aggressively. He thrust the sword at Blues and Blues slipped backwards out of reach, watching Zero's every move intently. Zero thrust the sword forward again in another sharp jab and Blues slipped to the side, his sword raised above his head with both hands clinched tightly around it and then slammed the bottom of the hilt down on the back of his head. “!” Zero reeled forward from the sharp blow, staggering a foot or two and quickly pivoting around.

Blues grunted and ran after him, just as he dawned on the virus he veered to the left out of the way of an overhead slash and came to a hard stop at Zero's side. Then he thrust his fist into Zero's stomach, only to feel the sudden buzz of electricity crackling in static streaks over his body. Blues immediately withdrew his fist with a hiss of pain, and reflexively dived backwards, the sudden rush of upward energy he sensed was coming just barely graced his body with a tingling sting. He landed roughly on his back and watched the geyser of white energy shoot into the air defensively swallowing Zero. 'Where the hell is all of this coming from? How is he using it?' Blues began to rethink his tactics, watching the energy disappear. He'd been reluctant about using his sword, despite his words he hadn't wanted to hurt Zero too badly, but if he could use that attack at will he didn't exactly want to touch him directly. He wasn't sure how to win but that was a sure way to lose.

Zero lifted his fist into the air, with a taunt delay to build energy it seemed, and pounded it to the ground in a thunderous strike. With a deafening explosion the ground erupted with a line of geysers, one after another in quick succession. One burst forth in front of Blues, then another shot up right underneath him before he had a chance to flinch from the first. “Uhfff!” He was swallowed in the center of a burning, stinging white energy, feeling the bruising force of it's blast against his body, throwing him backwards out of the energy's mist. Only to be struck by another eruption right behind him and knocked backward again. The hits came quick and hard, about 5 in a row before he hit the ground and slid to a stop.

“Damnit...” Blues clinched his chest and rolled on to his side, writhing in pain. “Where the hell did you learn that!” He shouted, forcing himself to keep from crying out. He forced his eyes open halfway and watched as Zero walked towards him with quick steps, his reserved, devoid demeanor was frightening to Blues, the sight of it threatened his hope that Zero could be saved, and it was weak as it is. “Your really starting to annoy me, you know that?” He got no response, not that he expected was.

Zero stopped a few feet away from Zero, his body crackling with electricity, lifted his foot and stumped down on the ground. Blues, who seemed to be nearly incapacitated before, sprang to his feet with lighting speed, and pushed forward with a speed not yet displayed in any fight with Zero. He easily evaded the attack, by the time the geyser erupted where he had been Blues had already closed the gap. He had a clear opening and took full advantage, slashing Zero across the stomach and causing him to keel forward, then dragged his sword up from the ground and ran it over his body in a fierce uppercut that lifted Zero off of the ground, cutting through his armor with a small spatter of telltale blue blood. Blues lept up after him, raising his blade above his head with both hands and smashing the bottom of the hilt down on to Zero's forehead with all of his strength.

In the end he still had been reluctant to use his sword..

Zero plummeted to the ground with a loud thump and Blues came right after, stumping his foot down hard, Zero quickly rolled over and pushed on to his feet. “Unnnrrrrr!!” He stumbled backwards, merely an inch from falling, he dropped his sword and clinched his head. “Unnnggaaaa!!” He screamed in pain, finally falling to the side and writhing in pain on the ground.

“Z-Zero?” Blues paused in confusion, uncertain... After a few seconds of standing idle he let his sword slip from his hands, not caring what might happen to him if he got close “Zero!” He ran over to him and dropped to his knees above him.

Zero bit down on his lip to quell the cries of pain and pried his eyes open, looking barely up at Blues. “Blues...”

“Zero, are you alright? What's wrong with you?”

“Get away from me.” Zero forced out in a strained tone, curling slowly into a ball and clinching his chest. “You have to...get away from me-”

“Stop saying that Baka!” Blues growled in annoyment. “What the hell are you doing?”

“I don't know!” Zero shouted right back, it was all he could do to keep from screaming out at the top of his lungs. His entire body ached and there was a pressure inside of him that made him feel as if he'd burst apart. “I-I can't stop myself!”

“Then let me take you back to-”

“N-no! I can't go to Tadashi!” He adamantly protested. “I'll just infect everything! You have to kill me!” He said, his voice holding a desperation that it never had. There was no depression, there was no self loathing, only fear.

And that made Blues afraid, terrified even, because this time Zero might have actually been right. “No! Just let me help you. Whatever thing inside you is making you do this, we can fight it, if you come with me.”

Zero didn't respond, he only stared up at Blues with tears forming in his eyes and a deeply longing, wishing, though futile look. “You don't understand...” He finally spoke, his voice choking with repressed sobs. “It's me, it's all me... It's like one minute I'm ok, then all of a sudden I'm different, I'm thinking different, I'm acting different, I want to do different things, there's nothing to fight!...Just do it! Just kill me...Damnit! It hurts!” Zero clinched his head again and curled in deeper, his entire body trembling.

“...So what, we can still figure out a way to fix it.” Blues said.

“It's too late...” This time he spoke in depression. “I don't wanna do this anymore! Just kill me.”

“No.” Blues snorted. “What exactly are you tying to do?”

“I don't know...” Zero shook his head. “I just keep feeling the urge to infect stuff, not everything, just certain stuff I come across. I don't know. And I keep thinking...Megaman, some times...it can't be good, please just stop me before I do something to him.”

“If that's what your worried about then your fine, you can't hurt Megaman, he's already half virus anyway, and you can't even get to him.” Blues reassured him.

“No...That's the problem, he's already infected... Please! Just do it!” Zero's eyes widened and the pain increased until it felt as if his very soul was being torn about. “Do it! Do it now!” He shouted frantically, reaching up and grabbing Zero's shoulders. “Do it!”

“Zero! Hey, Hey calm down.” Blues pushed against Zero's chest and pinned him back down to the ground.

Blues could hardly utter another word before the pain of electricity burned through his entire body from his hands and a hot fist slammed into the side of his face. His body convulsed from the shock and he fell backwards off of Zero, immediately he pushed blindly backwards out of the way, “!!” He flinched and drew in a sharp breath when another geyser of white energy surged up from the ground, so close to him he could feel the heat radiating against his face. 'Where is he getting this energy from!' Blues pushed backwards and staggered on to his feet, picking up his sword. With out hesitancy he rushed forward while Zero was blind in the mist of that bright energy and slashed his sword into it, with the intent of striking the virus. It didn't work. He managed to cut about half an inch into the energy before the uprising rush threatened to tear the blade out of his hands and rip it apart. “!!” Luckily the energy ceased before it could.

Zero's wings stretched out full span and he pushed upward with a burst of wind.

“Zero! Hey!” Blues ran towards him, but his words were to no avail, Zero was gone before he could do anything to stop him. “Damnit!” He'd never been so frustrated in his life, he'd found Zero but once again he hadn't been prepared. And what did he mean when he spoke about Megaman? What was causing Zero to act like this? Why was he in so much pain? Blues sighed, letting his sword nearly slip out of his hands, “You just had to be right didn't you Zero? Maybe if you wouldn't have been so hellbent on it...” He sighed.

“Blues?”

Blues lifted his head, Zero must have been completely gone if his reception with Enzan returned. “I'm alright. I didn't get him though.”

“How does it look in there?”

Blues looked up at the falling sky and the fog like red walls sweeping in from the sides and swallowing up everything, including pathways. “Pretty bad.”

“Well hurry up and get out of there, I'm gonna start cutting the power off.”

“Yeah.” Blues paused for a moment, a moment longer then he knew he should have. “Enzan, have you spoke to Tadashi?”

“Not since we left, why?”

“Zero said something strange about Megaman...”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

Tadashi picked Megaman's shirt off of a nearby chair and tossed it to him, “I'm done for now.” He called back on his way to a computer sitting on a counter top next to the door. He finished a complete work up on Megaman as best he could in this room, trying to find any new anomalies that might have caused the very strange string of glitches. Of course, he could find nothing, even with the scanners in this place.

“Did you find anything?” Megaman asked hopefully, he pushed himself off of the desk he'd been sitting on top of and replaced his shirt.

“Nothing.” Tadashi shook his head disappointedly. He leaned on the counter and rested his head on one hand while the other hand ran over the keyboard with quick key strokes. “Not to much I can do in here, I'm gonna need to get to the production room where you were downloaded into that body.”

“What good will that do?”

“Hopefully I can find a log of the transfer and maybe then I can see exactly where the virus is inside of you.“ Tadashi said, pausing to adjusted his glasses. He had once thought that the virus was had affected certain systems in Megaman's body, causing them to malfunction, he now concluded that this was incorrect. The problem was all in Megaman's consciousness, the problems were mental, and were affecting him physically. “I'm not gonna find the problem physically. Maybe if I can see where the virus is in your programing then I can figure it out why it's causing all those problems.” It was better then sitting around waiting for Megaman to have another glitch. He was beginning to think that was the problem, he never had the chance to monitor Megaman while he was having one.

“...I still don't know how this is gonna help Zero.”

“I don't know right now either but your gonna have to trust me, I'm sure of it.”

Megaman looked away with a depressed longing, feeling an indecisiveness, and a guilt for leaving Lan, and for not being able to help Zero...He found it odd that he hadn't felt this guilt before...why hadn't he felt this guilt anyway? There was plenty of opportunity for it... “Um...Tadashi?”

“Yes Megaman?”

“You said the problem isn't my body, it's my head right?...Well, I think I've been feeling strange lately...” Megaman admitted.

Tadashi glanced over his shoulder, Megaman's choice of words peeking his interest. “What do you mean you think? How could you not know?”

“Well that's the thing, I guess it's that I haven't been feeling much of anything lately.” Megaman rubbed the back of his neck and lifted his head, confusion in his eyes. “That's probably why I never noticed it till now...I'm not feeling things when I'm supposed too. It's like I'm not effected by anything anymore, I never cared what happened to me, I did at first, but as everything began to get worse and worse the less and less I cared. Shouldn't I be more worried now then ever? I known how bad it's getting and even now I should be worried about it but I'm not. I don't know if I'm even worried about Zero, I just know I should be.” Megaman looked up thoughtfully, searching himself for something unknown to Tadashi. “I think if it keeps going like this I wont feel anything at all, something's telling me I should be scared but...I'm not...I don't know if that helps or not.”

Tadashi nodded. “It might actually, It think I know where to start looking.” Another similarity between Zero and Megaman, strange moods, one was being brought to an extreme, while the other was being dulled into indifference. “Don't worry Megaman, we'll figure this out yet.”

Tadashi's cell phone rang and he lifted it to his ear. It was Enzan. “Enzan? Did you make it?” He asked, “What's that sound?”

“The whole place is flooded from all the rain, I'm stuck in 2 feet of water.” Enzan responded grudgingly, clearly not happy about his current task. “We found Zero, Blues couldn't catch him, but he did say something strange about Megaman. We don't know what it means though.”

“Well he's fine for the moment. What about Zero, how was he acting?”

“Before he left, Blues said he started acting more like himself. Zero told him one minute he was alright, then he started thinking and feeling differently and began doing all of this. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Yes it does actually, it could help me with Megaman. Is the production wing open? I need to get there.”

“Wait...Your not there?” Enzan asked, a slow concern slipping into his voice.

Tadashi knew immediately when he said that, that something bad would ensue. “No, I'm still in Research, why?”

“I'm looking at the meter under the fuse box and I'm seeing power usage right now. Everything there is shut down because we couldn't possibly be in production right now, no one is in there...Wait a minute, these readings are pretty high...the only way the could be this high is if-”

Tadashi dropped his head and sighed deeply, “The production process is active.” He silently cursed to himself, he didn't think of this! His primary concern had been the virus's spread, he didn't even consider this possibility. “Can't you turn off the power from there and stop it?”

“No I can't, it's a security measure, the damage would be catastrophic to the navis and the bio-androids if the power went out in the middle of production, I can shut off back up generators but the only fuse box to the main power supply is inside the incubation room.”

“Well then how did he managed to do this?”

“I don't know, he probably infected the whole thing system. There's no way to monitor every system with all the damage, the control room's not even working.”

“We can still stop this right?” Tadashi asked. “Blues can go up and open the doors, he might even find Zero again, and I can shut off the power.” With the entire production system possibly infected, that would be the only way to do it.

“Yeah, you better hurry.” Enzan said, Tadashi could hear Enzan sloshing around in the water with each step. “Oh and Tadashi, the meter says this power usage has been sustained since 6, production doesn't take that long, if that's true then the Zero might already be in the incubation stage.”

“I guess we'll figure that out when I get up there.” Tadashi sighed. “You keep working on the power, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. “ Tadashi hung up and returned the phone to his pocket. He was about to relay all of this to Megaman, but it seemed there was no need. “Megaman-”

“I know.” Megaman said “Let's go.”

! - ! - !

Enzan shoved his phone back into his pocket and began pushing forward through the darkness, listening to the sound of water being kicked around with each step. His breathing was labored and his pace slowed, the water seemed to be offering more and more resistance against him. “You know...” He said, pausing to breath. “We could manage to trap Zero there, it's not like he could go anywhere.”

“That can't be true.” Blues said. “I just fought him, how can he been in the production room and down here in the basement at the same time?”

Enzan reached out blindly until he felt the wall against his palm and pushed his way forward toward the dim light ahead, not that any of it helped him navigate around his current position. “I'm sorry to say that we might not be dealing with the same Zero.” Enzan said, and immediately regretted speaking about it in such a curt, hopeless manner, he was still getting used to trying to be optimistic, his naturally pessimistic side slipped out from time to time. “Or rather...” He scrambled to think of another explanation that was a bit more hopeful. “Maybe it's not him in the production room, he's just controlling it remotely. Like he did those cameras.”

“Tch, maybe if we knew what he he would be trying to accomplish in doing that I'd believe it.” Blues snorted. “We're not dealing with that mindless virus anymore, there's something he's trying to do.”

Enzan felt the clatter of his foot hitting against a steel crate and a splash of up turned water soaking his left knee, and he silently cursed to himself for his lack of night vision. “Well...” He took in a deep breath of the cool, moist air and leaned on the steel crate he nearly tripped over, his legs felt weak again, to the point where they trembled under his weight if he stood still. The only thing keeping him upright was the fact he alternated his weight when walking. “I tried.”

“Yeah...” Blues nodded, wordlessly bidding a thanks for the concerned effort. “We don't have a choice in this right?”

“In what?”

“Shutting off the power, if we do that while he's going through production, who knows what it could do to him.” Blues said, speaking in a soft, reluctant tone, it was foreign for him to speak like this, it felt uncomfortable.

“I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but he's probably already gone through production by now, or very close too it. At this point we could corrupt him or do nothing at all.”

“Damn...”

“It's not hopeless.” Enzan pushed off of the box and pushed forward with a burst of speed, slashing loudly through the water with quick steps. “If you drag him out of there before the power goes, no harm done, we can even trap him when the power goes...of course you'd be stuck with him.”

“I'll live.” Blues said discardingly. “That thing he said about Megaman still bothers me, he said the problem is that Megaman is already infected, what is that supposed to mean.”

“He might be able to effect him some how.” Enzan shrugged. “Or he might be overestimating things, Megaman's been fine before, he's probably fine now.”

“Probably.”

Enzan stumbled to the stairway that lead upstairs and little more then clasped, feeling the pain starting return to his legs. “You should be able to get to production from this port.” Enzan rolled on to his back and laid a hand on his rapidly rising and falling chest, the port in which he spoke was a port connecting to the automatic lock for this door. Enzan reached up and connected it to his P.E.T

“...Are you sure this is alright?” Seeing Enzan like this made Blues uneasy about leaving him. The slow quell in his stomach had risen to full on fear. “Leaving you here like this?”

“Blues the only thing you can do for me now is to stop Zero.”

“I can't do that if your dead.”

“Tch.” Enzan smirked. “I'll be fine, I'll be damned if I die in a flooded basement.”

“Enzan...”

“Don't worry about me. I'm gonna cut off all the power and I'm gonna isolate this virus, then I'm gonna burn every damn server myself. Alright.”

“I remember *someone* was in a similar state of mind when they left the hospital.” Blues snorted. “It didn't end up so well did it?”

“I can do this Blues, I'm telling you I'll make it. It may take me a little longer then I want, but I can do this.” Enzan said, his voice holding a resolute tone, a small smile remaining on his lips. “You just make sure you get Zero back. You don't need me, you'll be fine on your own. Your strong, you'll make it.”

Blues sighed, he didn't respond immediately, but eventually he nodded. “Good luck Enzan.” And then he left.

Damn it was creepy down here alone.

Enzan grabbed a hold of the railing and pulled himself up right. “1 down, 10 to go.” It looked like he'd be stuck in this basement for a while.

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

'Come on! Don't just leave me here...' Lan groaned, laying stretched horizontally across the bed, his legs hanging over the side and his head cast down over the other. His eyes rolled upward and stared at the phone, wishing that it would ring, wishing that it would be his father, or Megaman, or Enzan on the phone with good news, with bad news, with any news! “Ring! Ring!” He shouted, pausing hopefully, but only gaining silence in return.

There was a knock on the door.

Lan lifted his head and glanced over his shoulder.“Huh?”

Whoever was on the other side took that as a bidding to enter, It was one of the three doctors he'd met since he got here. It was a tall man with a chart under his arm and a pen in his hand. “Lan, how are you doing?”

“Alright I guess.” Lan sighed, he turned away and averted his eyes to the window, watching another seemingly endless storm pass over outside his window with rumbling thunder and heavy rain. '10'clock already? Has it been that late already?' Lan glanced back over to the phone with another sigh, this late and still nothing? What were they doing?

The doctor went about the normal routine of a work up. Checking blood pressure, breathing, asking the normal bout of questions, each one receiving the monotonous response Lan always gave. However, at the end when he checked his breathing with that cold stethoscope around his neck, he had a foreboding look that left Lan with an unsettled feeling. “I've been trying to reach your father all morning and-”

“Don't bother, something came up.” Lan said, sure that if no one had called him then it was only natural that they were also out of reach.

“Everything's ok I hope.”

“Yeah me too.” Lan sighed.

“Well I have good news for you Lan.” The doctor sat on the edge of the bed, sitting the chart on his lap and slipping the pen back into his pocket. “Enzan submitted a sample of what he believed to be the cause of the filmy substance coating your lungs and stomach. It turns out he was right, and now that we have this we were able to synthesize a chemical that should break that film down before it can eat a way at you anymore.”

Lan sat up right with a start, staring at the man with disbelief. “Y-You did?! So...It'll make me better?”

“I have to warn you-” The doctor stated, and Lan's heart sank. “-that this won't help the damage already done, after your finished with the treatment you may need surgery to try and repair some of the blood vessels in your lungs and stomach that may have been ruptured. Have you had trouble breathing at all?”

Lan looked down at his chest timidly, “Well...yeah, kinda.” He began to breath with his mouth more, his breath ran out much faster, the worst of it had to be when he slept and he'd wake up gasping for air every few hours because he didn't breath as much as. But he hadn't really noticed it.

“I have to inform you that if your current state deteriorates any farther you may need a lung transplant.”

“W-what?” Lan stared at him with a speechless awe, he had to force himself to speak. “I-it's that bad?!”

“It's possible, but don't worry, it may not come to that.”

“...” Lan groaned in anxious dread, a new found fear slowly began to flood him that would haunt him indefinitely in every thing he did. He couldn't stop focusing on his breathing, feeling every contraction and expanding of his lungs in a way he never had, now afraid that some how his lungs would collapse and he wouldn't get a breath in other wise, or he'd drown in his own blood. If he had to die, he assumed it would be the latter way.

A nurse entered with a bag of opaque fluid in her hands, a white label was sealed on with handwritten names, dosages and instructions, making it seem as new as the man had said it was. “Now this hasn't exactly been tested, but we have done our best to rule out any drug interactions and external conflicts that may arise.” Lan vaguely heard the man, his eyes were fixed on the nurse, watching her place the bag on the rack next to his bed, watching her connect it to his IV, watching it drip slowly into the clear line and make it's way into his arm with much more expediency then other medicines. He wondered how many times she had done this. “That being said you should anticipate side effects. Nausea, weakness, pain in the chest area mainly the lungs, there may be others, so you should tell the nurse right away if they should show up.”

Lan pried his eyes away from the IV and back on to the doctor with a small nod. “Yeah, ok...can't you do anything about that?”

“We maybe able to manage some of your symptoms, but I'm afraid we can't do much more then that, you'll have to endure it.”

“...”

The man reassured him and left the room, the nurse at his heels, shutting the door behind him. Lan slowly laid back on to the bed, staring out at the rain beyond his window. 'I wonder where Enzan is...' He wondered. 'He probably needs this more then I do...' Lan closed his eyes and laid dormant, wishing Enzan was here. He found himself clinching his pillow with a needy groan, oddly enough he didn't want to talk to anyone, he didn't even have to look at them, he just wanted to wrap his arms around them and hold them tightly to draw some comfort.

With his luck this was probably going to be hell.

! - ! - !