Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 5: His name was Zero

After the first 2 minutes of being stuck in a cramped space he could hardly breath in, Lan had fallen asleep.

He woke up 40 minutes later when the box started shaking violently and from what he could tell by what he felt, landed on the ground, hard. Lan almost yelled after he slammed his head against the cover, but remembered where he was and managed to kept quiet with a few soft moans.

This position was really starting to hurt.

“Zero? Are you there?” Lan whispered, he heard no answer. It was resting on his lap pressed directly against his head so he could easily see it. It was read ’201102’, which could only mean Zero was gone for the moment. Lan decided to wait until he came back before doing anything ...where was he anyway?

I can picture us in the living room by the mantle piece

Besides, Zero had the map, and Lan had no idea where he was going.

“Lan?” Zero had returned quicker then expected.

“Where are we?”

“The cost is clear, go look. I took out the security cameras.”

Lan nodded, wondering how Zero managed to do that, and slowly climbed out his position with his hands pressed against the box‘s roof. He was standing in a large cargo room with a dock at the head separated by a slowly closing gate. On the opposite side was another large gate, a lift leading to other floors, sealed by a metal shutter, and a door on the left side of it. The large room was full of steel boxes, some large, some smaller, all in different shapes.

and you’re tellin me you’re lovin me

put your hands on my thigh

The concrete walls, the ceilings, and the tiled floor, all of them were white. This had to be apart of the bio-android lab if he remembered those files right, it was luck that he‘d been brought to this one, the other cargo bay was on the other side of the island. For all he knew that was an impossibly long trip.

“I ’fixed’ the security cameras, I think the place your looking for is about 4 hallways down.” Zero told him.

“Thanks.” Lan stretched his arms with a small yawn, shaking a few Styrofoam balls out of his hair. “Are you ok... I mean doing all of this?”

Zero nodded with a strait face, he didn’t like it, but he could tolerate it to help Lan. “Forget about that, hurry while the coast is still clear.”

With Zero on look out, he could make it just about anywhere.

! - ! - !

while I’m starin in your brown eyes

and the expression on your face

Lan opened the door slowly, peaking his head out just enough to look down both sides of the corridor. ’All clear...’ He saw nothing but white tiled floors and florescent lights. Behind him was a large gate, he could hear the sound of machinery emitting.

“Know what’s in there?” Lan asked.

One step ahead Zero was already patched halfway into the security camera, when he succeeded he used it to look past the other side of the door. “Servers for this floor, probably what that shipment was, a few are missing.”

“What would that--” It took only a few seconds for Lan to figure out why. When they first started on Zero Divide project (which turned out badly of course) Those missing servers were what it was originally created over. When the ’201102 virus’ came about, and since there was no way to stop it, they had to remove and destroy where it was quarantined to stop the virus at it‘s source before it spread.

is tellin me you want my better taste

so tonight we’re goin all the way

we’ll be lovin till the break of day

Well clearly it didn’t work.

With quiet steps, Lan made his way down the corridor, coming to a split in the path that headed in two opposing directions. “Which way?”

“Turn left.” Zero instructed.

The boy complied and turned left, at the moment wondering why no one was on this level. “Where is everyone?”

“This is the basement, I guess no one comes down here.” No one really had a need to.

“Guess not.” Lan came to a stop at the end of the path where an elevator was mounted in the wall. It was locked by a fingerprint reader and a keypad. ’No way...’ “Zero, can you do anything about this?”

With out a word Zero left the PET again.

201102 began flashing across the LCD screen across the keypad, and a green light appeared on the fingerprint reader. The sound of a bell rung as the elevator doors rolled open, it was large, maybe for heavy cargo.

There’s nothin in this world I wouldn’t do for you boy

I don’t care what the others say

now that I got you

Lan stepped into the elevator, watching as the doors closed behind him. There was only three buttons, one labeled ’A’, another labeled ’B’, and the last labeled ’C’. ‘C’ was the floor they were on now. “Where do I go?” Lan asked.

Zero was still out of the PET, but ’B’ was selected on it’s own because of Zero‘s influence. The elevator began to lower just as the Navi returned to the console.

“Zero...”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry about all of this...” Lan shifted his gaze away from Zero, rubbing the back of his head lightly.

“What?”

“I know you don’t like doing things like this, and you wouldn’t have to if it wasn’t for me.”

“Lan...I’m happy to do it for you.”

Lan listen at the soft sound of the descending machine, “Really?”

Zero nodded. “Yeah.”

“But why?” Lan just didn’t see it, Zero barely liked himself, how could he be happy doing things a virus would be doing? “You hate this type of thing.”

Zero shrugged. “Because...I just am.” Because he was half Megaman. “That’s all I can say...”

Lan heard the same bell ring as the elevator slowed to a stop. “...Security is pretty low around here.”

“The security is based on cameras, passwords and motion detectors. I disabled the motion detectors and locks, and put the cameras on a continuous loop.” Zero told him, he was a very efficient virus.

Zero had infected the Motion detectors and password readers, and some how managed to put the cameras on a playback that he found in a memory data bank.

No one can bring me joy like you girl

All the little things you do

“How did you learn to... Never mind.” The elevator came to a complete stop, and unexpectedly a set of doors behind him opened up, “!” he flinched from the unexpected sound and burst of air against his back. “Heh heh….” Lan rubbed his head nervously and stepped through to another white corridor.

At the end of this hallway, which looked identical to the others he’d seen, was another split path. “Zero?”

“Go left.” Zero instructed.

Taking the left path Lan found two doors in opposing walls. The one on the left had the same locks as the elevator had before while the right didn‘t have nearly as much security. “Hmm...” Lan carefully went through the unlocked door on the right.

Its all about you

! - ! - !

“Whoa….” Lan surveyed the area in amazement, this room was covered in red lights shining down from the ceiling giving his own body a red tent as soon as he steeped through the door. Large capsules lined the walls, heavy glass made the body while it was metal with some type of unknown machinery on the top and bottom. It was large enough to fit a person with room to spare, there were about 8 of them, 4 on each side, 7 were filled with green fluid, but empty besides that. One of the was completely empty but had traces of liquid streaming down the sides of the glass as if it had been just drained.

Between each of the capsules lay a console displaying the status of whatever was held in the container. The empty one had ‘complete’ displayed on the screen, seeing the time frame fit this was the one Lan hoped Megaman had been in. But, where was he?

I can picture us runnin in the rain

After a movie then we spark a flame

“Where is he?” Lan said to himself.

“There are other rooms like this, he could be an one of those.” Zero suggested, There were exactly 20 more rooms just like this disbursed along this floor and nearly every other level of this facility, getting to them all would not be an easy task.

“Hmm……What about that other door we passed?”

“There are no cameras online in there, could be anything in there.” Zero said unsurely.

Oh I love it when you scream my name

Goin 60 in a 30 lane

! - ! - !

This door was locked of course as Lan already knew, something important must have been inside. Zero wasted no time entering the system.

But this time it didn‘t happen as quickly as all the others, Zero didn’t return for 5 minutes...

Lan immediately knew something was wrong this time, whatever it was it had to be something big, he could see it by the expression on Zero‘s face. “Zero? What’s wrong?”

Zero had tried to disable the lock... it just didn‘t work out. “Lan... there’s a small problem. There’s an error in the system, it’s corrupt. There’s no way I can open it.” Zero was panting heavily, a small sheen of sweat on his face. His wings were fluttered, damaged in places. He had a hard time just making it back.

We pull over to the parkin lot

In the part that’s my favorite spot

If Zero had this much trouble then it must have been a dead end. “Alright, let’s go try something else.” With a shrug he turned to leave, wondering if there were really rooms like the one he just saw spread across this whole island then which one Megaman was in...

“No, He’s definitely in there.” Zero said. “At first I didn’t think there was a camera inside, I had to infect the system to get a signal, but that’s him.” Zero didn’t know exactly how he knew what Megaman looked like, something in his memory file he figured.

‘No…..these aren't my files, these are his….most of me is.’ Zero reminded himself.

It was strange how some rather interesting thoughts came up in a situation like this, when he knew what he would end up doing.

Doing just about anything

We’ll be goin til the birds sing

“Is there anyway to get the door open from the outside?” Lan asked. Maybe he could break it down some how.

“Nah, It’s reinforced.”

Things just seemed to be get worse now, to come this far and be stopped by a single door. “You can’t get in, I can’t get in., what’s wrong with this thing?”

“Something damaged this system, it must be a hardware problem... I don’t think anyone knows it though.” Zero there was a small hint of sadness in his voice when he spoke now, Lan didn‘t understand what brought it on.

There’s nothin in this world I wouldn’t do for you boy

I don’t care what the others say now that I got you

No one can bring me joy like you girl

“What’s wrong?” Lan noticed it right away.

A lot of different thoughts always came up in situations like these, Zero wondered why that was. Was it normal? He wasn’t sure since he’d never been in circumstances like these... ‘That’s why I remind him of Megaman, part of me is him…’ “I know a way to get the door open.” Zero’s voice was even more disheartened then before.

“Then why do you sound so sad?”

“Whatever system controlling the components this room has been corrupted, probably some type of hardware problem causing some data go missing. If I infect it, I may be able to get the door open, I‘m not sure I can do it though. But even if I do manage to get this open…”

Ok, something really was wrong. “What will happen?”

All the little things you do

Its all about you boo

“Well... If I try to infect corrupt data it will most likely cause an error in my programming….”

Being the ’201102 Virus’ was a binary code converter that mindlessly changed any data thrown at it, even programs trying to discontinue it. It couldn’t stop since that was all it had been programmed to do, that’s how it infected. But if the data was corrupted and he tried to infect it. It would cause a serous error in his programming, which would be continuously made worse when the virus in side of him continually tried to infect corrupted data, that would be painful for Zero.

“What will happen to you?”

I think its bout time that I make your mine

Oh what your saying to me boy come on break it down

Zero sighed. “My data will eventually corrupt, and when that happens I’m as good as deleted.”

“What?” But he couldn’t just let this happen... “But… you can’t….” Lan now had a real a dilemma on his hands. Should he sacrifice a new friend to save an old one? He liked Zero, but he had to save Megaman. But…..could he sacrifice Zero to do it? Zero was so much like Megaman that it hurt to even think about doing something like this. “Zero, no.”

“I have to!” Zero spoke almost angrily, it was bad enough he had to do this in the first place, the last thing he wanted to do was see Lan so sad about it. He just wanted to get this over with, do it for Lan and be done with it.

“There has to be another way…..”

“There isn’t, this is the only way in to the room, this is your only chance.” Zero said pleadingly. He wanted to help Lan more then he wanted to exist, this was Lan’s whole reason for coming out here. He couldn't let himself get in the way of that.

“You can't say that!” Lan shouted. “You don't really mean this... I know you hate yourself for being a virus, but you can't do something like this just because of that.”

“Lan, you don't have the--”

Lan shook his head frantically. “Your just doing it because you hate yourself!”

“So what if I am?” Zero shot back. “It doesn't matter.”

“It dose mater!” Lan knew he shouldn't have been yelling like this but he couldn't help himself, he didn't want to let Zero do something like this.

“It doesn't, this is your only chance at saving Megaman.”

The thing Lan hate most about this was that he was right. “I can't let you do this if the only reason you are is because you don't like being a virus.”

“I'm not...” Zero said. “I'm doing this for you.” He knew he was a a dangerous virus. If someone found away to use him or his worst fear happened and he lost control of himself it would be a disaster, nothing would be able to stop him.

A large part of Lan didn't believe him, he couldn't let him do this, not just out of self-loathing.“But--”

To find another like you will be a lifetime

I think I see where you’re going baby let it out

let it out

“Lan, it’s better this way, I’m still a virus remember?” Zero regained himself, making his voice normal again. ’I’m the reason all of this is happening to him, I‘m the reason this happened to Megaman. I….wouldn‘t exist with out him…I may have even killed him….It’s only right.’

Even with that and his strong self-loathing, that didn’t change the fact that deep down he didn’t want to die, he was a fighter by nature. ’By Megaman’s nature…everything I am came from him.’ Zero thought, sighing a little, even more of a reason he had to save Megaman.

“I...” Lan dropped his head as his voice trailed off, this was useless...”--can’t stop you can I?”

Zero was silent, his blue eyes looking anywhere but at Lan. It hurt to see him like this “It’s for the best, I know you want to see your friend. You should be happy I’m gone, I am the one who almost killed him.”

Lan shook his head. “No!” he shouted, loud enough to make Zero flinch and force him to look up. “Don’t believe that, it wasn’t your fault, that was something completely different. It’s not you.” He said kindly, this almost felt like losing Megaman again. In a way it was, maybe that's why it hurt so much.

“But--”

“No, that wasn’t you. That was a mindless thing, you….your much more than that. That was not you, and... I’m not mad…” Lan hung his head down again, a small sniffle forcing it's way out of his now calm demeanor. No, he couldn't cry, that would only make Zero feel worse... this was just like losing Megaman, or at lest it felt as bad.

“Thank you Lan…for everything…” Zero said solemnly, managing to smile at Lan though as he looked up in to his sad brown eyes, this really hurt now. Now he just wanted to get out of here, anything to not see this anymore.

Listen to me baby got something to say

Is it really what I think don’t take all day

“Well, Thanks Zero…” Lan shifted his eyes away from the screen, staring at the door in front of him. “Goodbye…”

‘It’s for the best….He’ll be happy later…I couldn’t stay, he's gonna be happier then he would have been if I had stayed.’ “Goodbye Lan.” Zero sighed, right before leaving the PET with no trace of him left behind but ’201102’.

! - ! - !

‘I wonder…What would have happened if I had stayed….What if this had worked out…I would have liked to meet him…..I guess, it just wasn’t meant to be… It doesn’t matter, I didn’t know who I was, I didn't have a past so how could I do anything in the future?….Nah… It didn’t matter….Well…I guess this is it… Well Lan, thank you…and good luck. I did what I could, I hope it’s enough.’

Forever is what I wanna give to you

so what do you say

Baby I do

! - !- !

The door began to make a denying buzz that usually sounded when the an incorrect password was entered. But the buzzing didn’t stop as it should have, it continued for another thirty seconds before the whole system went off line.

The automatic door opened a little at about a crack's length before then halting, that's all that would happen with the system shut down. For security reasons, this system was independent from any other systems and networks in a the building so no disruption would be caused.

'It's open?' Lan pressed his fingers into the small crack and pried open the door the rest of the way. It was thick, completely reinforced as Zero had told him, there really was no way to break in.

'Hmm...' Lan curiously walked inside of the room, the regular lights were off, and the emergency lights were on, giving barely enough light to see in the red tented room.

There’s nothin in this world I wouldn’t do for you boy

I don’t care what the others say now that I got you

There were 8 capsule laying on the ground horizontally in 4 rows of 2, it was a metal bed with a glass case over them, the device served as incubators for the biological parts of a Bio-androids. Each one of them had a bright red light shining on a screen displaying the status of what was inside positioned on the head of the capsule, except for one in the far corner. All he could see of it was a green light shining from the boarder of the screen.

'I wonder why that's the only that's green.' Lan walked slowly through the dark room, careful not to fall over anything in the red tented darkness. He managed to make it to the capsule without incident, and only when he was finally standing over it could he see that the rim of the glass was lightly illuminated, and through that light he could clearly see Megaman inside, fully clothed in his usual attire though a little wet.

‘Thank you Zero.’ Lan said silently to himself with a strong sense of gratefulness, it was a bittersweet moment.

No one can bring me joy like you girl

All the little things you do

Thanks to him, this turned out even better then it started…Except for Zero’s death…

'At lest I got to meet him...' Lan looked over the screen mounted the capsule serving also as a control panel, he could barley read the words ‘manual open’ in one of the many buttons being displayed. 'This must be it.” Lan pressed the button and with a small rise of greenish steam the glass casing slid open.

He stood there for a moment in complete awe, just staring at the body before him as if he was in a dream, he even started to wonder if this was real. Not at thing was out of place on him. “Megaman...” A shaky hand reached out, slowly grazing over his face with a light touch, the first thing Lan noticed was that he was wet. ’I can touch him…’ He still couldn't believe that he could actually do this, it was amazing.

He shouldn't have been standing around like this, he had to get out of here before the security system Zero had rerouted and in some cases taken down went back online, or worse someone actually came down here. “How can I wake him up…” Lan began looking around the buttons on the screen frantically for something that looked like it would pull Megaman out of the artificial sleep. He saw one labeled ’manual release’, figured it was close enough, and pressed it.

Its all about you

The capsule began vibrated lightly, a low humming sound emitted from someplace in the machinery, then it all ceased in a few seconds. 'Is that it?...--!' Lan flinched and jumped back in surprise when a strong burst of air shot upward, followed by a green tented steam that burst upward. The intense air blew away the wetness that glazed Megaman's skin as well as his clothing, he was completely dry by the time it stopped.

Lan waited for a second for anything else that could surprise him... none came. 'I think it's alright.' When he deemed it safe enough, Lan leaned over the side of the capsule, placed his hands on Megaman's shoulders and then gently shook him. “Megaman, Megaman ...”

“MMmmm…” Megaman shifted around when the familiar voice awakened him, shutting his eyes even tighter, gently clinching and unclinching his fist as well as other parts of his body as if to make sure he was all there. There was a new feeling about him, it was like he had all the same sense but with a different definition to them, even laying against this hard surface felt different then laying against any other hard surfaces.

Finally after his seemingly, confused, fragmented mind came together, he slowly opened his eyes. He was greeted by out of focus but quickly sharpening the vision of Lan standing over him with a worried expression on his face. His gazed steadily fixed upon Lan's face lighting up brilliantly when he moved.

“Lan…?” Megaman placed his fumbling hands behind him and sat up, he felt like an infant first learning to move. Everything felt so new to him, even the simple task of lifting his hands were greatly exaggerated. 'What... what was that?' A sudden twinge came into his head and his mind was flooded with numbers and visions. Words in a layout format... it was a CPU calibrating his arms, his legs, his torso, and every joint for movement. 'Whoa...'

He was quickly surrounded by a warm embrace as Lan hugged him tightly.

“Megaman!” Lan didn’t know what to say, every thing he held back since this all started seemed to be the only thing that surfaced in his racing mind.

He... was in a body, an actual body, with Lan actually touching him, he could feel... Megaman curiously lifted one hand and burred it into the soft brown strands of Lan's hair pressing against his chin... “It worked!” Megaman wrapped his arms around the boy and hugged him back back with an inane since of joy flooding him….

He couldn’t believe it, he was actually touching Lan, he felt the warm body and the pounding heartbeat pressed against his stomach. It was amazing, everything that was happening... “Calm down Lan, your heart's racing.”

Lan wiped his eyes frantically with his arm to clear away the forming tears before Megaman saw them.“I can't help it.”

There’s nothin in this world I wouldn’t do for you boy

I don’t care what the others say now that I got you

Lan let go of Megaman apprehensively, as much as he wanted to stay there, they really had to go. “We have to get out of here.” Lan grabbed Megaman hurriedly by the arm and pulled off the Capsule so forcefully that Megaman nearly fell. He still hadn't gotten completely used to how this body felt and moved.

Lan sprinted towards the door with Megaman silently following with out an understanding of what was actually happening.

The former Navi could tell there was a strength in this body, a physical power, a speed, something that would match what he had when fighting on the net. He just couldn't seem to get a feel for it yet, he could barely move past walking speed and wouldn't have been right now if it wasn't for Lan's corrosion.

It'd take him awhile to get all of this down.

! - ! - !

The hallway was empty just as it was before leaving no obstruction of their path, and since he knew no better path to take he began to backtrack towards the cargo bay with the knowledge that it had it's own internal port that led to the outside. Maybe the cargo ship that brought him here was still there...

Lan, who'd made it back to the elevator, had a serious problem but it was locked “Oh man…”

“What's the problem?” Megaman asked.

“This elevator... oh man we gotta get out of here.” With a sense of urgency Lan ran back down the halls until he reached the path where the door leading to the room where he'd found Megaman resided… Unfortunately it was locked too, the small screen above the key pad only displaying a streaming '201102'. “No way!”

Lan was about to panic, there was no way out! They were trapped! And he was sure the security path wouldn't hold, or worse would be realized by someone. 'What am I gonna--?' Lan's thoughts were interrupted by a strange, and loud static like sound began emitting from his PET with out cause.

He'd already forgotten he still had it.

Megaman peered over his shoulder as Lan lifted the console from where it was mounted on his waist and looked over it. “What's that sound?”

The sound faded and then ceased.

'Huh' Lan could see nothing but red static that had replaced the 201102 that used to stream blankly across the screen, which explained the noise but not where it had come from. But when he looked closely, a faintly visible figure could be seen, but it was so weak and shaky that it could be dismissed as a simple trick on the eyes. Lan, however, didn't believe that. “Zero….. ” He said the name almost in disbelief.

“Who’s Zero?” Megaman asked.

“He's... I’ll tell you later.”

Another loud static sound came from the PET with out cause and the static cleared just enough for words to appear.

’Go to the right path and out the emergency exit….Lan….201102’

Then it faded leaving nothing but a blank screen, as odd as that was Lan didn’t have time to think about it like would have liked to. This was an opportunity and he had to take it.

He abruptly grabbed Megaman’s hand and ran forward abruptly enough to draw a sharp and surprised outcry, he really didn't know what was going on.

Lan ran back to the split in his path, taking the right path this time instead of heading back to the elevator.

No one can bring me joy like you girl

All the little things you do

It lay at the end of the white corridor, made of black steel and labeled E.E, Lan knew this had to be it. 'I hope...' Lan pushed through it, Megaman trailing closely behind with the hope that Lan knew what he was doing.

It lead to a room surrounded by walls of rock, this was a cave inside of the island that must have been converted since it was filled with boats, under each of them was a lift leading down to a harbor sealed by enormous gates. This was the emergency exit.

“Whoa...” Lan had been curious as to how you could have an emergency exit on an island, if there was ever a way to do it then this was it.

Megaman could hear the sound of water below them, even that sounded clearer, calmly beautiful. “Where are we going?”

“This way!” Lan went to the first lift he could reach and pressed the down button on a panel mounted on the ground. It's decent started off slow so Lan and Megaman had time to climbing in side of the small boat while it lowered in to the water a story below.

A large steel gate controlled the exit, usually closed this time it was unlocked, and when unlocked it drifted open just enough for the boat to drift through. Assuming that being dragged this far Lan wanted to leave what ever place they were in, Megaman turned on the small motor and was easily able to steer it forward.

‘Zero….did all of this……’

Its all about you

! - ! - !

Nothing In This World by Keke Wyatt ft. Avant