Mega Man Battle Network 3.5: New Virus.

Mega Man Battle Network 3.5:The Chromron Virus.
By Sprectra.

Prologue.
After the events of Mega Man Battle Network 3, the world was getting back to normal. Having survived the wrath of the reborn WWW, the supernavi Bass, and Alpha, the prototype internet, Lan Hikari and Megaman.EXE are about to face a new challenge that will be sure to test their skills to the abosoulute breaking point.

It was a bright, sunny day in ACDC (Author's note:It's stereotypical, I know.) People were going around the town each doing their own thing. However, in one house, there was a boy who was asleep. He had a small, blue computer device on a small desk next to his bed. Suddenly, a light started flashing on the computer device. A voice yelled, "Lan! Wake up! It's almost 8!"
"Wha? Huh?" Lan got out of bed.
"Do you always have to sleep in this late?" The voice from the computer said.
"Do you always have to have sarcasm for me?" Lan asked. He got out of bed and darted into his closet and came out with his school clothes on. "Okay, Megaman, I'm ready!" Lan said.
"Good, let's get going then!" Megaman said. Lan grabbed the PET off of the desk and ran downstairs. His mom was busy washing some dishes.
"Morning, mom." Lan said.
"Morning, Lan. Your breakfast is on the table." Mrs. Hikari said.
"Thanks." Lan sat down at the table and ate his breakfast. "Oh, mom, I forgot to tell you. There's a meeting of official netbattlers after school today, so I might not get home 'til later."
"That's fine, just be sure to call when it's over, and say hi to your father for me."
"Okay, see you later." Lan walked toward the door.
"Bye, Lan!" Mrs. Hikari said.

On his way to school, Lan noticed some firemen and what looked like technicians standing in front of a house. It looked like the house had a massive balloon inside it and was pushing against the roof and walls. Lan took one look at it before he turned his attention back toward the school gate.

In the classroom, Lan walked toward Dex and Mayl.
"Morning, Lan." Mayl said.
"How's it going, Lan?" Dex asked.
"Hey, guys. Where's Yai at?" Lan asked.
"I don't know, it's not like her to be late like this." Mayl said. Suddenly, Yai ran into the room and up to them. It looked like she was out of breath.
"Yai, what's wrong?" Lan asked.
"You guys! You're not gonna' believe this!" Yai said.
"What? Tell us." Dex said.
"A girl in our class is trapped in her house because she gained a ton of weight!" Yai yelled. Dex, Lan, and Mayl were absoulutely shocked. Even Megaman, Gutsman, and Roll's jaws droppped.
"How did that happen?" Mayl asked.
"Nobody knows, but there's a ton of investigators trying to find out. They think it might be a disease, so that's why they have the girl quarantined. Her parents are pretty upset."
"Wait a minute, I saw that house on my way here." Lan said.
"Lan, see if they talk about this at the offical netbattler meeting after school. Get us some details." Dex said.
"Okay, I'll try." Lan said.

Later that day, Lan got out of school, hopped on the Metroline and went over to the Sci Lab. In the meeting room, there were several officials in front of the office. Lan walked up to one of them, whose name was Chaud.
"Lan." Chaud said, turning his head toward Lan.
"Chaud, how's it going?" Lan asked.
"Great. I'm guessing you probably already heard about that one girl who got trapped in her house." Chaud said.
"Uh, yeah. I did."
"Huh, supposedly a virus caused it, so they're bringing in a virus expert. Some nerdy guy from England."
"I hope he's netbattler, he might be a greater challenge than you two are." Protoman said.
"Hey! Try saying that to my face!" Lan yelled.
"Lan, chill out." Megaman said.
"I'll take you on right now!" Chaud yelled.
"Calm down, boys. The meeting is about to start." An official said. The door to the meeting room opened and the netbattlers filed in. Lan and Chaud gave each other a dirty look when they sat down in their seats. Lan looked around and noticed that one chair was empty. He wondered about it before having his concentration shattered by one of the head official begin talking. Lan turned his attention to the man.
"Okay, everyone. I'm sure you all know....." The man's speech was interrupted by the sound of a British-accented voice outside the door.
"Wait, wait! I'm almost there, chaps. Wait a moment!" The door to the meeting room opened up and a boy with red hair dressed in a blue jumpsuit came into the room. He had a headband around his hair and sat down in the empty chair.
"And you are?" The man asked.
"My apologies for being late all. That bloody ferry took forever. I am Jamie Precoria, virus expert, and formidable netbattler." The boy said.
"Let's see how formidable he is when he gets beat down by Protoman." Chaud whispered to Lan.
"Well, we're glad you're here, Mr. Precoria." The offical said.
"Please, my good sir, call me Jamie."
"Right, anyway. Let's get on with the meeting. The only new topic we have to discuss is the sudden rash of massive weight gain that has been plaguing the country."
"It wasn't just an isolated incident in ACDC?" Chaud asked.
"No, and we don't even the know the cause yet."
"If I may intervene, I believe that a computer virus may be causing the problem. Possibly something affecting food storage systems." Jamie said.
"Well, that does seem logical, but the CDC isn't letting anyone in the affected houses, so we can't look at that. This is also the reason why all head officials are going to be required to look into this situation, so we have to dismiss the meeting early. Thank you for coming, everyone. Good luck on finding information." The head official then left and it was clear the meeting was over.

Lan got home at about 4:30, well before he was going to be. His mom was out, so he decided to get online and head to ACDC square to get more information on the situation.
"Jack in, Megaman.EXE transmit!" Lan said. Megaman jacked into the internet and made his way to the square.
"Hmmmm, this is unusual." Megaman said.
"What's wrong Megaman?" Lan asked.
"There aren't any viruses around."
"Well, the last time we were on, I used a SneakRun subchip, maybe that's still in effect."
"No, it isn't. I wonder what's going on?" Megaman said. Megaman took a warp pad and reached the square. As he walked toward the message boards, he noticed a large Navi standing next to one of the netdealers. This Navi looked like a fire dragon. He had sharp claws on his wrists along with cannons on his arms. He looked like he was very dangerous. The netdealer was very frightened.
"I'd better take care of this." Megaman walked forward toward the Navi. "Hey, is there a problem over here?" The Navi turned toward Megaman. Lan got some battle chips ready. Then, something surprising happened.
"Not at all." The Navi said with a smile. He had a British accent to his voice.
"Huh?" Megaman was confused. "I thought you were..."
"No need to explain, most people are afraid of me the first time because of my imposing appearance." The Navi said.
"You mean, you aren't going to delete me?" The netdealer asked.
"Of course not!," the navi said with a laugh, "When I asked you for information about strange viruses, I wasn't going to delete you after you said anything." In the real world, Lan got a connection image from anothe person, the virus expert.
"Hello, guvnor! Weren't you that one person at the meeting?" Jamie asked.
"Uh, yeah. That's me, and my Navi that's next to yours is Megaman." Lan said.
"Well, glad to meet you. I'm Jamie, and this is my Navi, Mattrex.EXE. But he prefers to be called Mattrex."
"Thanks, so, you're a virus expert?" Lan asked.
"Yes, and I'm glad I've been called in. It was getting very boring over in London. I'm the youngest offical netbattler over there."
"Really? So am I!" Lan said.
"Wonderful! Say, you live ACDC town, right?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I'm over at the center right now, maybe we could meet somewhere and discuss this situation."
"Okay, tomorrow's a Saturday, and I don't have school. I'll e-mail some people and we can meet up at the addresss I give."
"Brilliant! I'll do some more work here, I'll be waiting your e-mail. Goodbye for now, Lan." Jamie said.
"Twas an honor to meet you, Megaman. I'll see you later." Mattrex then left through a portal at the end of the square.

The next day, Lan was over at Mayl's house, the place of the meeting. He had sent e-mails to all of his friends in ACDC, Tora (a netbattler who had a Navi known as Kingman in MMBN3), and Chaud, who he wasn't expecting to come. Mayl was getting some sandwiches ready for eveyone.
"I'm glad that someone decided to do something about this virus thing, Lan." Mayl said.
"It was actually Jamie's suggestion to have the meeting, I'm just hoping that enough people come so we can get the word around." Lan said. The door opened. Dex, Tora, and Yai entered inside.
"Hey, Lan. Haven't seen ya for a long time." Tora said.
"Same with you." Lan said.
"So, this meeting's about that girl who got stuck in her house, right?" Dex said.
"Actually, it's been happening all over the country." Yai said.
"I'm glad someone's been paying attention to the news." Jamie walked in behind them. "Hello all, I have arrived."
"Glad you could make it, Jamie." Lan said.
"Wow, he's so handsome." Mayl and Yai said, with hearts in their eyes.
"Huh, never seen a meeting like this before." Everyone turned around and looked at the doorway. Chaud was standing in the doorway.
"Chaud? What are you doing here?" Lan asked.
"You invited me, didn't you?" Chaud asked. He walked inside.
"But I thought you...." Lan started.
"Wouldn't show up? That's the thing with me, Lan. I can't be figured out so easily."
"Ah, yes. The famous Eugene Chaud. The youngest Official in Japan. An honor to meet you." Jamie walked up to Chaud.
"Yeah, and I'm quite a formidable netbattler too." Chaud said.
"Well then, I'd like to take you on sometime."
"You? Your Navi would get deleted so fast it would make your head spin."
"Hmmmm, if you are such a great netbattler, then how come Lan is the one who has saved the world three times?"
"Uh, Jamie you forgot Network Transmission on the GCN." Lan said.
"Right, sorry. Anyway, Chaud, if you try to school me, you may find out that I am the one who is the teacher." Jamie said.
"Okay, that's enough." Mayl stepped in between Jamie and Chaud and pushed them away from each other. "We came here to talk about the situation with this new virus, so let's start talking about it." She said.

After about an hour, everyone hadden't gotten any closer to a solid theory. Mayl was sitting on her couch, eating one of the sandwiches she made and talking with Yai, Jamie, Tora, and Chaud were discussing various theories, Lan was looking through his battle chip folder, and Dex was sleeping.
"Okay all, while I am still sticking with my theory about the virus in the food storage systems, I have a theory of the possible culprit." Jamie said.
"Who?" Lan looked up from his PET.
"The WWW."
"You're not serious, are you?" Yai asked.
"The WWW is long gone, their leader was absorbed by the prototype internet thing." Lan said.
"Well, what about the Gospel Netmafia? I heard they stirred up quite a hornet's nest of trouble."
"And their leader is now completely reformed." Chaud said.
"Drat, another dead end." Suddenly, someone's PET began ringing. Everyone looked at them to try and determine who was beeping.
"It's me." Tora said. He answered. "This is Tora, tell me what you need." A faint voice could be heard on the other line. "What? You've gotta' be kidding me! Is she alright? Oh, that's good. I'll be home as soon as I can." Tora hung up his PET.
"What's wrong Tora?" Lan asked.
"My older brother's girlfriend just blimped up like all the others. He said she expanded after eating," Tora paused to look at Mayl, he then got a horrified look on his face before yelling, "a sandwich!!!," and running out the front door of the house.
"What's his problem?" Mayl asked. Suddenly, her entire body began expanding with fat. Her massive stomach spilling out of her shirt.
"Bloddy heck! She's blowing up like a baloon!" Jamie yelled. The entire group ran out, but Lan had to dash back in to awaken the sleeping Dex.

Later that day, the rest of the group was recovering from the incident. Everyone had given a statement to the American CDC agents. Tora had gone home to check on his family, but said he would be back. Lan managed to get the attention of the head agent and was speaking with him.
"Are you goin to try and get her out?" Lan asked.
"Unfortunately, I can't. Because my superiors think this could be because of a disease, we have to wait. I'm sorry." He said.
"It's okay. You don't need to apologize." Lan turned around and walked back over to Jamie, who was looking at his PET.
"Little depressed, aren't you?" Jamie asked.
"Yeah. I can't even talk to her now." Lan said.
Jamie looked up from his PET, "You and Mayl seem to be quite close. Are you two going out with each other?"
"No, uh, we're not!"
"Calm down, I was just asking. Anyway, look at this." Jamie showed Lan his PET. There was lots of random data flowing on it, but Lan couldn't read it.
"What's this?" Lan asked.
"It's data from the ice box in Mayl's house." Jamie said.
"Do you mean her fridge?" Lan asked.
"Uh, yes. If that's what it's called here. Anyway, it means that there is indeed a virus in the food storage system. I don't know how the virus works or even what it looks like yet. All I know is that everyone had better be careful what they eat."
"You're serious? Then we need to....." Lan started.
"Inform the officials? I already have and they have issued a warning not to eat food from the ice box until the problem is solved."
"Meaning that it's gonna' be canned stuff for a while. How did you get it?"
"Wireless PET connection. I put one in the jack-in port on the ice box. I was studying the data the entire time we were talking. If only I could somehow get a better look at one of those viruses, just a way I could capture them and study them." Jamie said.
"The SciLab has a machine. for capturing viruses." Lan said.
"Hmmmm, it appears that I have a wonderful opportunity. I'll see you later, Lan!" Jamie got up and left. Lan was left to wonder who was behind this, and he vowed to find a cure.

About a day passed before Lan found himself in the SciLab going to see Jamie, who had called him to ask for his assistance. Lan figured Jamie might have found a break. It was about 9 P.M. on the Saturday night. Lan walked into the lobby of the SciLab. The lights were still on, but there was only one office that was still open, and that was the virus lab. Lan walked in and noticed Jamie at a computer. His PET was in the jack-in port and he was looking at some data that was appearing on the screen.
"Jamie?" Lan asked.
"Huh? Oh, Lan. You're here. I just wanted to let you know that I've had a breakthrough." Jamie turned around in his chair and looked at Lan.
"What is it?" Lan looked at the computer.
"Well, I found several of the viruses inside the Kotobuki area. They resemble the virus known as the Mettaurs, but they appear to be a green sort of color and they are made of digitized Chromron."
"What's that?"
"It is this unusual material that was discoverd a few years ago. It appears to have a high radiational effect on human molecules causing them to expand outward."
"You mean it makes people fatter?"
"If you want to speak in lamen's terms, then yes." Jamie typed out some commands on the computer. An article appeared on the screen. It was a picture of a group of scientists standing in a lab. "These scientists originally discovered chromron in their laboratory, but didn't really have a use for it. I'll bet they were upset about people not wanting to use Chromron for whatever purposes they wanted, so they made the viruses to get revenge."
"Should we tell the officials?"
"Yes, this might be a good lead."

The next day, a raid was conducted on the scientists' laboratories, numerous amounts of chromron were found, and the scientists were arrested. The almost daily expansions then stopped. Apparently, the culprits of the mysterious outbreak had been found. Lan was over at the lab, where some of the scientists were celebrating.