It had been twenty years since the last net-crisis, Lan Hikari and his netnavi Megaman defeated the cybeasts thanks to the sacrifice of Iris and Colonel and peace had reigned since.
The long peace was suddenly broken however, as a powerful organization called Gigavolt emerged and started causing chaos both on the net and in the real world. Lan and Megaman opposed them, but they turned out to be far more dangerous than they had imagined.
Gigavolt had created Navi-hunters, special powerful navi-like programs who specialized in hunting and deleting navis to harvest their data. Each with a unique ability that crippled or weakened their prey.
Many of Lan's friends were defeated and soon he, Chaud and his son Patch was the only ones left standing. They had planned to attack Gigavolt directly, but the group had infested three power-plants and tauntingly informed them they only had a few hours till they went into meltdown. With no other choice the group split up, heading each for a power-plant.
When megaman entered the core program however it had not been damaged, it had been a trap all along. The leader of the navi-hunters Photonman.exe appeared. The hunter was furious that megaman and Lan had defeated most of his subordinates and had come to finish the job himself.
Megaman and Lan prepared to fight when Photonman revealed his hunter ability which cut the connection between Megaman and Lan's PET.
Cut from his operator Megaman was severely at a disadvantage, unable to receive chips or guidance he was overwhelmed quickly, only barely hanging on due to his extensive combat experience.
- - - - -
Megaman desperately dodged another photon-wave, but this time it managed to graze his arm. His body seized up in agony from the energy surge passing through him and he fell to his knees.
"I told you: without your operator the mighty megaman is nothing" Photonman taunted "Photon-wave!" 'is this the end?' Mega man thought as he squeezed his eyes shut awaiting his doom.
A massive explosion shook the network sending up a huge cloud of data obscuring where megaman had been as the beam impacted.
"Is that really the best you could do?" Photonman gawked as the data-cloud drifted away and revealed a black and yellow navi in front of Megaman holding a purple shield.
Opening his eyes Megaman saw a figure he had not seen in twenty years. "Bass?" he whispered in surprise. That massive attack hadn't even scratched Bass' shield.
"I should have guessed there was more of you pests" Photonman activated his hunter ability on Bass "But without your operator, you will be just as helpless as him!"
A wide smirk spread on Bass' face as he dismissed his shield and formed an energyball in his other hand. "That is your special ability?" he chuckled "interesting, but pointless against me"
Photonman barely avoided Bass' energy ball. "how did you do that? Did it not work?" the hunter was shaken by the sudden powerful attack.
"hehehe....I have not had an operator since the net was formed."
Photonman soon found himself in the same situation that Megaman had been in against him. Whatever he threw at the navi was easily blocked or countered if they didn't just harmlessly bounce off the black navi's cape, and he was constantly forced to narrowly dodge his powerful attacks. The black navi had even backhanded one of his energy orbs out of the way like it had been a harmless beach ball.
The hunter jumped back and barely avoided Bass' downward strike which shook the network when it impacted the ground.
Bass' piecing red eyes met his "So you finally figured it out?"
"The black shadow of the undernet, terror-byte, but how? You have not been seen for so many years." the hunter trembled in fear.
Megaman tried to get up while the two were talking, but his body wasn't responding.
"Decided to come back and check what had changed" Bass formed a sword and calmly approached the hunter.
"You should have stayed away like the relic of the past you are!" Photonman charged with two photon swords.
As soon as Photonman was within reach Bass disappeared and reappeared behind him "humph, fool."
"Wha-?" Photonman looked down at the massive slash wound on his chest ranging from his shoulder to his hip.
"PHOTONMAN DELETED" the system called as the hunter dissolved into data.
"Whoa" Megaman whispered in awe. Bass had gotten seriously more powerful. He had taken Photonman down like he was nothing.
"I must say Megaman, I am a bit disappointed that a punk like that almost put you down" Megaman stiffened as Bass addressed him with his back turned. He might just have jumped from out of the frying pan and into the fire.
Bass turned around and held up his hand summoning a green chip which turned into a faint glittering orb that he threw at Megaman. Megaman felt a familiar effect similar to a recovery chip wash over him and in moments he regained full control of his body again.
"you should regain connection to your operator soon" Bass turned and walked away.
"Hey, wait" The caped navi stopped.
"I err, thanks for the save" Bass did not respond before a glitchy voice popped up
"...gaman!" a screen turned up with Lan Hikari on it "oh thank goodness. I finally managed to reestablish connection. Wait, is that?"
Megaman turned to his operator's screen "Yeah, I almost could not believe it myself. He saved me and took down Photonman almost effortlessly."
Bass looked over his shoulder at the operator screen which should have been invisible to all but Megaman.
"So what are you here for Bass?" Lan asked
"I was looking for a rematch against Megaman, but it seems you both have your hands full so I will be on my way."
"Wait" Megaman stopped him. Lan was not sure what Megaman was doing and honestly neither was he, he was just going off a hunch.
Bass looked annoyed at him.
"Maybe you could help? Gigavolt is merging all the navi data they collected together to create something, who knows might be a challenge?" Bass lifted an eyebrow.
"And if you help, we can have our battle much sooner" Megaman nervously added.
A few moments passed in silence when a small smile spread on Bass face "Fine, but you better not hide from our spar afterwards, I want to see how we match up after all this time" Megaman nodded returning his smile.
Bass held out his hand and created a purple rift "I will meet you in Gigavolt.net" he jumped through the rift and it disappeared as sudden as it had been created.
"I can't believe you pulled that off" Lan muttered stunned.
Megaman scratched the back of his head "heh, I just had a hunch"
As he logged out a lot of thoughts ran through Megaman's mind. Where had Bass been all this time? He also seemed a lot different, a lot more collected and calm. Was it linked to the reason he was so powerful? His emblem was also different, but it didn't seem like an injury like it had been before. What had happened?
The navi shook his head, he wasn't getting any answers right now, but perhaps Bass would be willing to divulge some information after they had cleaned up Gigavolt. Right now though he and Lan headed off to rendezvous with Chaud, Protoman, Patch and Mega Junior so they could all team up with Bass and make sure Gigavolt had a very bad day.
