ZERO NETWORK TRANSMISSION
Rockman Zero/Rockman Battle Network
Chapter 1: Zero. EXE... Jack In!
Authored By The Several
Author's Notes: The idea of this story's probably been done (you know… the "Battle Network being replaced with the X or Zero Series" thing). But let's face it… this is a fanfiction! And as a fan, I have the right to write what I want. If there's anyone out there reading this right now and have done an idea similar to this, I'd like to read your version and see the difference in our ideas. Remember that I'm not trying to plagiarize; it's just that it's both a coincidence and a generally easy idea to think about.
THE YEAR IS 23XX. Everything is connected.
Armred with hundreds of years of scientific advancement, the modern world and all its aspects of everyday life can now be dictated by science and technology. From the cars people drove to the very homes they lived in, everything had become interconnected by a vast and ever-expanding cyberspace that was once the Internet. This cyberspace, now a central hub for everything and anything digital, can be easily seen, heard, and sometimes felt. Public and private data, from our lives to our possible futures, all sharing the same space.
This was our future.
NETNAVIS – a shorthand term for 'NETwork NAVIgational System'. Created when artificial intelligence research had reached its peak, netnavis are AI-driven humanoid data that can interact with humans as if they were living beings.
These netnavis - each with a unique personality, design, strength, and other characteristics – are key in the safety and security of both the Internet and their human users. Netops, their operators, use these netnavis in their everyday lives, living in portable 'PErsonal Terminals' or PETs, that have replaced the cellular phone for their personal use. Although most netnavis can only operate at the discretion of a netop, there are certain exceptions of solo netnavis that move and act on their own - sometimes not for the good of all.
Because of such cases and the rampant increase of 'evolving' viruses since the advent of cyberspace, netops have been given key accesses to certain fighting abilities in order to protect themselves and others from harm while surfing the digital environment. This particular function of netnavis became popular around the world, now a sport where netnavis in a friendly competition can fight against one another to see who would reign victorious.
This began the contests known now as a NETBATTLE!
"Dad! Dad!" a voice exclaimed as a little girl burst through the front door to her own home.
The father, sitting by the dinner table, looked up from his paper and saw his daughter's distressed face, offering a mechanical device on her hands. Though she had just come from school, he could already guess what the problem was. "Ciel, my dear, what seems to be the problem?"
"Oh, dad... That kid from school broke my netnavi again!" complained Ciel, tears ready to well from her eyes, and yet with enough strength to fill her face with an angry pout
"Oh honey, not again," her father said, scratching his head as he looked at the damage from Ciel's personal portable. "Why do you keep challenging this kid? I paid it no mind when you brought it back a mess the first time and mentioned you got into a netbattle, but six times now?"
"I-It's not like that," Ciel said, shaking her head. "I was just trying to teach him a lesson! He keeps picking on those other kids..."
"Ha, well that certainly sounds like you," the father nodded proudly, patting his daughter on the head. He knew she didn't like having her hair ruffled that way, but she used to enjoy it when she was younger. It was the usual way he showed how proud he is of her - how even when she was young, she had spunk and spirit, and always played fair while expecting others to do the same. Unfortunately, it seems this child she netbattled with, like so many others, did not play by those rules.
"Hmmm," Ciel's dad said to himself with a deep thought as he carefully looked over the PET. "I'd like to dig a little deeper if you don't mind. Can I ask you to open it up?"
Ciel nodded and took the device back from him. Turning it on, she opened the password-protected device and handed it back just as quickly.
"Yeah, lots of damaged data on this one... That kid is one good netbattler."
"Yeah, oodles of money spent on customization can do that," Ciel remarked sarcastically, rather miffed knowing the kid liked to brag about being wealthy enough to do such extensive upgrades.
"...Of course, customization through publicly-accessible software can only do so much, compared to what I can do," Cerveau smiled as he connected his own portable device to Ciel's PET.
"Huh?"
"Oh, nothing," Cerveau smiled before handing Ciel's PET back to her. "I'm going to keep your netnavi's data for a while. Don't worry, I'll fix him up good as new. Just keep your PET connected as always, and be ready by the time you wake up tomorrow."
Ciel jumped with joy. "Thanks, dad!" she exclaimed as she ran off to her room upstairs to get changed.
As her father watched his daughter disappear from his sight with a smile, his face was all of a sudden replaced with an intense stare as he then looked to his own device with the data inside. Instantly, he was filled with both pride and dread.
Fixing his daughter's netnavi was a small task for one such as him. Though their house was but a small one, a fair distance away from the city, it was still equipped with the latest technology the modern day world had to offer, and perhaps more.
Cerveau was a scientist. a top researcher for SCILab Technologies for as long as anyone could remember. For years, as part of his research, he was experimenting on - by coincidence or otherwise - netnavis. He believed that whenever a netbattle occurs, a delay between the netop's 'order' and the netnavi's 'action' upon receiving that order creates a delay that could mean the difference between life and death. This delay removed both an efficiency and a possible synchronization of actions between even skilled netops and netnavis both.
Of course, there are combat netnavis that could already break this law, ones that could already minimize this boundary between netop and netnavi to the smallest level. He stood at the top of this research, of course he already knew.
But what he was about to unleash now... was leagues above that level. A standard so above it that it would not only just be considered breaking that boundary... but redefine it and netbattling in its entirety.
"The question is: will this be a sword to thrust us into the truth of a brighter future," Cerveau told himself as he moved into his lab downstrairs, "or a shield against it? Will I be judged for making the saviour of mankind... or the devil itself? I suppose only you, netnavi, will be able to answer that..."
He put his personal back in his pocket, as one word bleeped into the screen that echoed throughout the room.
Zero.
That night, Ciel had an unusual dream. She stood upon a field of flowers, a bright blue sky in her background and bluebirds happily sang to her her mother's song. In the middle of the field stood two doors with no room behind them. One blue, the other red. As she stood there looking at them, the blue door cracked and broke into pieces, and the red one soon followed. However, as if time itself had reversed, the red one soon stood there upright once again, as if nothing had happened.
And as she slept and dreamed, her PET tweaked with a confirming beep - signifying a complete download of data. A symbol came up on her PET screen, and several pop-ups with the same message appeared over and over again, blank red, spreading a popup on the main screen like a virus.
The term [Zero] coined over and over again…
The next morning, she woke up and got changed for school. Still half asleep, she took her PET without even looking at it, and came down for breakfast.
"Dad's already left," she said to herself. She sighed, and took a bowl of cereal and ate before she left to catch the bus to school.
As the bus drove to school, she thought to herself, 'I wonder if dad finished fixing my PET?' She took one look at her device where the netnavi icon was active and nodded in acknowledgment. With the PET's automatic system check, Ciel was reassured that everything in her PET was running normal. She was about to activate the netnavi when the bus came to a sudden halt as it arrived at the school gates, and Ciel realized it could wait until after classes were over.
After five hours and a lunch break, the final school bell rang. After placing some books in her locker, she decided to go out to the indoor gym where most netbattlers normally gathered in her campus. The indoor gym, an area at the back of the school, was an open session for netbattlers of all types to come and challenge one another. It was also the only place around the school to hold a device appropriately called a battletop - computers containing a digital environment for netnavi simulations, training, and battle.
'Ah! There he is,' Ciel thought, seeing the kid from yesterday who defeated her. She would have come closer, when she realized there were so many nettbattlers gathering in the area around him.
"Excuse me, but is something going in there?" she asked one of the gathering students with a tap on the shoulder.
"More than that! Some solo netnavi came in and started harassing and beating all the school netbattlers... including the school champion!"
'The school champ… the jerk who keeps beating me!' she thought loudly. She never thought there was anyone better than the school netbattling champ among her peers, even she had to admit. 'Whoever it is must be really good!'
"And you know what's worse?" the nameless kid continued.
"What?"
"The netnavi that's beating all the netbattlers is a girl!"
Right then and there, POW! The kid she was just talking to gets a huge lump on the head made by Ciel herself for that chauvinistic remark. "Hmmph!" she pouted, stomping away from the guy and closer to the action.
Going through the crowd of netbattlers, she viewed the female netnavi in the battletop's digital display screen. With a single view, she was mesmerized and surprised at her design. She was different somehow, definitely not an off-the-shelf netnavi. Her body was sleek in different shades of blue from head to toe, with a single glowing red crystal on her forehead. She had a confident, arrogant pose that surprisingly fit her smug uncaring face, as she carried a large heavy-looking harpoon in one hand.
'A water-type netnavi... although blue's not really my thing,' she thought, looking at her own dress made of different shades of pink.
'Alright! I guess now would be a good time to test out dad's new navi!' she thought loudly, feeling confident. With a loud confident step, she stomped to the middle of the action and shouts, "Okay, how 'bout me next?"
The netnavi stares at her from the battletop with a strange yet amused look. "You don't look like a netbattler to me, little girl," she taunted. "Are you serious? Go home, kid. I may be a strong netnavi who likes to challenge netbattlers, but I don't like to pick on weaklings!"
Ciel was really miffed, though she had never tried to fight back as much as she should. "Y-You shouldn't say such things until you've actually won!"
"Pfft," the female netnavi rasped at her. "Is that it? That's your comeback?"
At this moment, Ciel wasn't as eager to hold back anymore. Well, sort of. "And… well, the color blue sucks."
"W-WHHHAAAAT?" the netnavi exclaimed, enraged. "You'll pay for that remark, newbie!" she declared angrily as she lifted the gigantic harpoon with one hand and aimed it at Ciel from beyond the battletop. "C'mon, new meat… I'm gonna scrap your pathetic navi to pieces!"
'Uh-oh, maybe making her angry wasn't such a good idea,' she suddenly thought, suddenly regretting her action. Instead however, she shook her head, determined to win. 'It's too late to back down now, though… I HAVE to win this!'
"Jack in your netnavi, netop," the blue netnavi taunted. "I shall show you the full might of a solo navi! I, the Fairy Guardian, Leviathan. EXE!"
"I-I'm Ciel," she greeted back politely but nervously, performing a courteous curtsy in front of the battletop.
"Being polite isn't going to help you here," Leviathan scoffed. "Well, whatever… Just jack it in and let's get this over with!"
"Um… okay," Ciel said. She clenched her fist and gathers all her wits, and jacks in her plug to the battletop.
Data streamed from her PET to the battletop with lightning speed, only to materialize something both Ciel and Leviathan never predicted.
To everyone's surprise, a red chrysalis digitized in the middle of the field, surrounded by cyberchains. The shell was completely dark red, but with much observation one could barely see a netnavi inside it. Its body was cracked, its arms missing, and it had no glow - no signs of life.
Leviathan. EXE got closer to the thing that was supposedly Ciel's netnavi and looked with curiosity. "What the heck is THIS supposed to be?" she asked, tapping the broken navi on the head lightly to see if it was still functional.
'Maybe dad didn't finish my navi yet. I should've checked,' she thought, regretting her sudden impulsiveness. She tries to see what the status was from her own PET's viewing screen, but several pop-ups suddenly showed up, blocking her access to the PET's menu. "What's happening? Oh-no, maybe a bug or a virus got into my PET…"
She viewed the pop-ups clearly this time, showing the same message over and over again, blood red:
[Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [Zero] [ZERO]
"… Z… Zero?"
In that instant, the broken red netnavi she jacked in flashed brightly. Leviathan. EXE took a jump back just in case, and looked in awe as the mysterious broken navi in front of her came to life. The chains that confined the red netnavi broke and split apart, the navi's broken body suddenly repairing itself, as if somehow, it was being reborn anew.
At SCILab, while drinking a cup of coffee on his break, Cerveau suddenly received a mysterious message that came out from his personal lab's computer screen, which he calmly read. The message's words kept blinking repeatedly.
Cerveau calmly closed the message and looked to his coffee, his serious face reflecting upon its waters. "Zero... has returned. No turning back now..."
Ciel looked once again, and saw only a newly repaired red netnavi in front, long blond hair with a jeweled helmet that shone and reflected across the digital environment's watery clearing.
The bright red navi posed valiantly, swinging his arms to his side where a Z-Saber suddenly digitized itself from the ether. Taking the bright green energy saber in hand, he aimed it to his opponent with a clash.
"Zero. EXE… Let's go."
To be continued…
NEXT CHAPTER: Ciel's new netnavi, Zero. EXE has finally been unleashed, ready to battle the powerful Leviathan. EXE! What is the mystery behind Zero and his creation? And can the command/action delay really be erased by Ciel's new navi? The path of Zero had begun, and many who have waited for his return have begun to mobilize...
Author's Notes: How was that for the first chapter? Please read and review!