Scene #7309: Division by Zero

Owner	Pose
Forte	Welcome back to Cyberspace. To recap, you have a problem: The Zero Virus, a contagious computer virus that infects navis (or other programs, computers, dataforms, etc) - at first turning them unnaturally aggressive, and then shortly afterwards transforming them into copies of the virus itself. Both phases of the infection are highly dangerous - at first from the aggression, and then from the gigantic humanoid virus with an energy sword that kills everyone in sight. You have an ally: MegaMan.EXE and his operator-slash-partner-slash-brother* Lan Hikari, for however much help you can count on a grade schooler to provide. They were also seeking out the root of the Zero Virus, and ran into the multiversal group a while back. You have a target and a location: The Professor, an intern of the last world-threatening group from this world, pre-unification; and his base of operations, located deep in the internet. Get there, shut things down, and the rest of the infections should be easier to isolate and deal with. But there's a new problem... while all of the above should be fairly straightforward, something else isn't. That is, the path deeper into the internet isn't straightforward. Literally. "I know exactly where this place probably is! So you take that main pathway there, go up the ramp, then you duck into Netopia Area 7 - there's a shortcut, it weaves back into this area - then you take two lefts and a right, and the warp portal -" "Lan, it's two rights and then a left," says MegaMan. "Look, just look for the warp portal, and then you get past the little wide open area - you look for the arrow, and you take the path that the arrow ISN'T pointing to, then you sort of hook left off the path..." Worse is that the entire trip looks to be just chock full of random encounters. Good luck. (* He claims that they're literal brothers, but who knows)
Ishirou	I4 sits behind the two brothers trying to figure out where to go in this tangled mess of the internet. Wow, this is what happens when you let humans make a data system! It's so horribly inefficient, also labyrinthian! It's actually kind of amazing, in its own horrible way. He looks over to the flying box with arms and then speaks. "POD, area search, use the data provided here and map out a course for us to the infection point so we can stop this!" he says towards it, as it chimes and starts doing an active scan. Literally with a small antenna that pops out of the top of its head. "I can PROBABLY just force a way there with my hacking, but I'd probably need cover just in case this Professor guy has laid defenses. Which by that I mean, he's definitely laid defenses! I mean, I would in this situation..." There is a pause, "I guess? I am still not getting what game this guy is playing, it's weird."
Damocles	Damocles, Chaos Sorcerer and scholar of magic, arrived not long ago. He wasn't invited, but he just sort of showed up, even apologizing for his late arrival. While the sorcerer has no experience with the interwebs and the tubes therein, such technology being super-duper banned in his universe, the 'feel' of this place isn't actually that different from the Warp, he finds. More structured. In fact this place is built on rule on top of esoteric rule, but the weaving of laws so inherently complex and interconnected as to appear utter chaos is kind of a Tzeentch /thing/, so it all works out for this wizard. Damocles listens to the directions for a while before rolling his eyes. Which is a feat, because his eyes are glowing balls in the shadow of his hood created by magical illusion, but they sort of u u around to give the proper impression. "This sounds like it's going to take a while. Where did you say this guy actually was?"
Forte	"It's probably some hackneyed scam to take over the world, it always is," says Lan. "He'll probably be all like 'By spreading this Zero Virus, I will bring the network world to its knees and remake everything as I see fit' or something like that, like he's a disposable villain straight out of a weekly manga." Lan is not quite all there. Literally, that is, not commenting on his mental faculties. There's a flat-pane window hovering a few meters above and away from MegaMan, and a 2D image of Lan is visible and speaking through that. The POD's area search reveals a mess of spaghetti, winding paths that don't seem to be laid out in any sort of logical way, and when zoomed out the map looks like a ball of tangled string. "StarMan said the base is in Electopia Area 6, behind a false partition," says MegaMan, watching the map being formed. "Which I guess would be right..." He pokes a spot. "Here? Huh, I went by this place a couple dozen times, didn't realize there'd be a secret base there..."
Damocles	"Okay," Damocles says with a sigh, looking at the mess that is their navigation. He could possibly teleport there, but not with the others, and him going there alone wouldn't accomplish much more than annoying himself and his allies. Instead, he looks down to I4, who seems to have some kind of plan. Terms like 'hack' are thrown around and he would very much like to know what that means in their current context, but that would require someone breaking down exactly what they're standing in and how it works, and ain't nobody got time for that right now. "Okay, sure," He says in weary agreement to the suggestion of a plan. "As long as ''cover you from defenses' equates to 'make things go on fire using magic', I am all in."
Ishirou	"Wow. This is why humans shouldn't be allowed to create stuff like this. You get tangled masses of cables..." I4 says this without a wit of arrogance or hostility, just simply stating a matter of fact. He thinks about this for a moment, using his ability to analyze the mess of Christmas lights on November 26th. "I mean, I wasn't going to tell you how to do the defenses, whatever suits you. Obviously don't light entire areas on fire, we might need those later, and who can say what will happen if too much of the area is destabilized due to damage," he comments to Damocles. "I4 by the way! Nice to meet you." I4 immediately points his hands towards...somewhere? He attempts to force the system to light a path to where they need to go, trying to straighten out this tangled mess of lanes and attempt to make proper sense out of it.
Klaus Ridell	Klaus Ridell been to Cyberspace before. It was just once - in another world, where he disappeared into the computer systems of a space system with elite hacker skills - and it was nothing like this place. He shows up in style. He's dressed in one of the form-fitting Navi outfits, of course, with lines all over his body, and a helmet covering most of his head. The symbol on the center of his chest is of course a compass rose. "Ah, I'm not much good at cover," Klaus offers cheerfully, "But I'm good at getting into places I'm not wanted." "Should I go with you?"
Forte	"It's a pain to navigate, yeah," says MegaMan, agreeing. I4, hacking the entire system, meets resistance - not any sort of active resistance, but the 'entirety' of cyberspace pushes back in an unconscious sort of way. It's something that might bear examination later, but for the moment he can get a set of naviational markers appearing on the ground. And so the group goes - MegaMan tagging along, with Lan's floating operator window disappearing and reappearing at regular intervals to keep up. Almost immediately, random encounters. Lots of random encounters. Lots of weird robotic-looking viruses, ones that look cartoonish in some ways. The attacks they launch hurt, whether you happen to be 'hackable' or not. "Nearly... there, right there," says Megaman, pointing after some more traveling later. There's a spot in the floor that looks a little off-model. "A false drive partition, yeah... good thing we've got the key from StarMan." A bit of finnagling later, and it slides open. "This has gotta be it..."
Damocles	"Damocles," the sorcerer introduces himself in return to I4. "Sorcerer and Scholar." He lets out another resigned sigh when he's informed that they will, in fact, have to travel this on foot. He briefly considers just using explosives to blow up anything between them and their target, but decides that's probably a bad idea. This is some kind of cyberspace and he figures blowing the crap out of the architecture will have consequences. Instead, they get to march through corridors filled with random enemies. Now, Damocles isn't a violent man. He is, however, a pedantic one. And so, as they fight through waves of 'random' enemies, he demeans them because they aren't actually random. "They're based on a logical structure, it just takes a lot of variables from different places and hopes that we can't track them so it -appears- random. If we knew where it was taking its variables from, we could start to predict exactly when these binary-pinatas would appear." Damocles also tries to limit his use of magic, relying on the Eye of Tzeentch as a Force weapon whenever he can. Chaos and Computers rarely mix well. So a lot of viruses get smacked in the face with the light-saber version of the Devil's lawn ornament.
Ishirou	I4 was curious about that push back, again...another world where something pushed back against him. Weird! However, it DOES work to the degree he wanted, such as getting to the door. Of course, he has to still dodge things trying to shoot at him, and right now he's focused purely on trying to open their way forward. Rolling under attacks and hiding behind everyone else who was fighting for him. Though a few stray shots hit him. Thankfully he wasn't hit three times. However, right at the boss drop, I4 just... Jumps in.
Forte	Down the hole into the server... ... And it quickly becomes clear that the group is in the right place. There's a Zero Virus, floating but otherwise motionless on a pedestal in the center of the room. The group's seen Zero virii before, but this one looks more... complete. More solid, certainly a bit bigger. This is the master copy - or, one might say, the patient zero. Around the room are several objects - monitors on stands, control panels, data storage containers that look like large tanks, and some manufacturing equipment, all connected to the pedestal by thick cables running along the floor. As the group makes their way in, there's a bit of activity - one of the manufacturing machines whirrs to life, and deposits a vial of some glowing substance into a waiting hopper, which contains about a dozen other similar vials. "There!" declares Lan's operator window, pointing at it. "Those are the fake cures StarMan was handing out!" "(Lan, shhhhh!)" says MegaMan, but it's already too late. The otherwise motionless Zero Virus's head turns towards the group, and its eyes start glowing. "Ah, what's this?" says a new voice. Another operator window opens up at the far end of the room. "Helpless souls who happened to wander in? Or perhaps... intruders?" The man in the operator window clearly has a few screws loose. He looks like a cultist- and not a very cleanly cultist. "Or perhaps... more accurately... victims." He starts typing. The machinery starts shutting down, and the virus starts coming more and more to life...
Damocles	"Who am I?" The sorcerer intones as he lands from his own drop into the server. Subtly was killed around 'random encounter 17'. The towering mage draws himself to his full height, his eyes glowing a bright, burning cyan as his crackling force staff is slammed into the ground. The dark, consuming shadows under his hood all the more looming for the bright lights burning as his eyes peer dangerously at the looming Zero, before settling in on the monitor. "Who am I, you ask?" he repeats, a clear mocking smirk on his voice as his eyes narrow a touch. He raises his staff, takes in a slow, deep breath, and then immediately rests the bottom of his staff on the ground with a sparking crack. He turns his head to the side, and his eyes take on a considerably more amused look. "Mmm, that first one. Quite lost, I'm afraid. Is this a celebrity gossip site? Because I heard just the juiciest rumor about this actress and I have to know if it's true, but I just can NOT figure out this interface!" He raises his staff over his head, and from the eye, a dozen bolts of cyan colored lightning shoot out in all directions. They strike machinery all around, some hitting storage tanks, some hitting monitors, and at least one aimed straight at the Zero Virus, each arc of lightning cleanly aimed to strike at something with destructive, Chaotic energy and blast it to hell. "See what I mean? Not very intuitive design, have to say."
Ishirou	"Uh-huh! So you're insane, got it!" I4 says towards the Operator, who he assumes is 'the professor'. Regardless, I4 notices that the Zero virus is locked down? Whatever machinery is operating here is attempting to do something. It's shutting down, so it's releasing it? Is that just going to be another fight..? But what is that machinery DOING? Copying the virus? Creating fake cures? Then CHAOS BLASTS. Shit. Ok...uh...this plan is very much going downhill in a way that he should have accounted for. Ok, he can salvage this...think I4... He looks AT the Zero virus. It's complete, maybe it's not exactly a virus? In this world what is even the difference between a virus and a Navi anyway? I4 takes a deep breath because this was going to be /dangerous as fuck/. He attempts to Hack the virus, maybe he can try and get in there and disable the dangerous parts. Maybe? I mean, sure if it could just hit them with a sword or a fist, he can't hack that out, but that part where it makes people explode?
Klaus Ridell	Well, now that the others have the boss's attention...! Klaus just spins his compass and disappears into the shadows of cyberspace. He's not invisible but he is absurdly good at moving like he belongs - moving with the pulses of data, with the electronic hum of the world. He slips along the outside wall, ducking behind what few objects and bits of machinery there may be. Manufacturing machines are a blessing - they mask noise, too. He's got one purpose and one purpose only - figuring out what he can hack into to take control of the machinery.
Forte	The bolts of chaotic energy lash out, causing destruction across the machinery. The vials spill out of the hopper and roll to the edges of the room. "A minor setback, at best," says the operator. "Allow me to introduce myself - I am the Professor, and class is in session." I4's hacking does something, disabling something inside of the virus - but it's still moving, still getting into motion. The virus seems to be one singular entity, not some sort of infectious mass that's spreading everywhere - the terminology seems a bit overloaded, but there's no immediate danger. Well, aside from the immediate danger of it forming a glowing energy sword and dashing across the room at the both of you!
Forte	Klaus, heading in a bit further, can find an intact machine. A data storage, one that's powered on and actively doing something, but that has the cyber equivalent of dust covering it. Hacking it gives the equivalent of a prompt coming up for him. >WILY-OS PROJECT NAUGHTS SYSTEM >ENTER YOUR QUERY > _____
Ishirou	Something happens...but he's not able to quite analyze exactly what. He tries to get out of the way of the first sword slash but isn't quite able to get far enough. The weapon cuts into the armor of the Android, but mostly a flesh wound instead of something more critical. I4 slides into a stop and considers Zero. "So why are you even fighting us? Why are you even taking orders from that guy? Or are you just completely unable to talk or reason?" I4 tries to speak towards the Zero virus. Something is different now, but maybe he can try and figure out where to start with future attacks. "Really? That's your line? Ugh..." he says towards the Professor, "I am kind of wishing for the guys who are just roaring monsters again. Anyway, I'm Inspector 4, Model 31C. You can call me I4." he says and not four eyes. THIS GUY DOESN'T GET HIS NICKNAME! He stands up, and the pod fires a beam of energy towards Zero, trying to blast the thing back.
Klaus Ridell	Klaus taps his chin at the query. He's got a couple good ones, but only one of them matters now. His fingers fly across his arm-pad. 'OVERRIDE.'
Damocles	The virus entity charges at him, which is more or less what Damocles expected. Though expecting an attack doesn't make you any less stabbed when it hits you. Damocles swings his staff to meet the blade, the two energy fields colliding with an explosion of sparks as Zero charges through him. It doesn't completely negate the damage, but between that and his armor, it holds pretty well. "Just 'the Professor'? Well, I'm just auditing the class today. Looks like your class is a little unruly, though." Damocles swings his staff around, leveling it at the core virus. The other guy seemed to want to keep the machines here in tact, which probably is not possible given that the professor and his pet virus also have a say in that, but never say the Chaos Sorcerer doesn't try and be a team player. Instead of a massive blast of energy, Damocles tries to focus his power in a very narrow point, launching several blasts of glowing violet energy, burning like purple fire but maintaining a perfect sphere as they shoot from his staff, spin though the air at impossible angles, and each home in on the Zero virus one after another.
Forte	"My line? My line is, I will bring the network world to its knees and remake everything as I see fit! Zero Virus, attack!" The Zero Virus is already attacking. It brings its sword up, as if trying to deflect the beam shot, but fails - the beam flying past the held energy saber and landing a clean hit. >OVERRIDE SUCCESSFUL ... says the terminal.>____ The wyrdfire attack homes in as the Zero Virus falls back to the opposite side of the room, bringing up its sword in a defensive position with one hand and pointing the other - its hand transforming into a cannon. It aims, and then it speaks - saying something other than the mindless 'delete delete delete' that its copies have spouted. "All foes must be defeated. That is why I fight." And then it fires, rapidly, precision bolts of cyber-plasma lighting up the room!
Klaus Ridell	Well, that was surprisingly simple! A lot of things in life are simple, but usually not Machina-related things. The WILY-OS is apparently very compliant! Klaus sits down and starts typing into his keyboard. He's aiming to get to the file structure so he can start copying the files over to his...Compass? Well, it is a storage device. That's pretty abstract and weird, but hey, Abstract And Weird appears to be this whole world!
Ishirou	The plasma was dangerous, and I4 did everything he could to stay one step ahead of it. Just narrowly avoiding being hit and then stun locked into a barrage of the dangerous attack. Eventually, he landed and considered what the virus was saying. "So who are your foes? From where I am standing, it looks like you're fighting the wrong people." I4 states this, before engaging with Zero again. Energy is drawn into him from the magic converter on him, as he dashes the distance. Aiming a barrage of magically enhanced strikes from his blade, he attempts to flip back from the barrage. Lighting flies out as he jumps back, aiming to crash into Zero. "You're being used to hurt people, you're being used to cause this man's plan to happen where he destroys the net here and hurt a lot of people...for no reason. I can show you everything he's done if you'd let me. You don't even need to stop fighting us. I'm willing to show you that for free if you want."
Damocles	Damocles raises his staff again, a dome of force appearing in front of him as the blasts of energy strike it. The shield shatters under the force, but takes most of the impact with it, again what's left being absorbed by his armor. The armor is looking a little scratched up, but that's exactly what it's there for, so that works for him. What doesn't work for Damocles is the thing the virus just said. "Defeating foes is why you fight? No it isn't you lying-ass Abominable Intelligence. That's /how/ you fight. That's like saying 'stabbing a dude is why I fight'. The -reason- you fight is because you're a psychopath who only feels something by killing things! Or in your case because you're a malfunctioning machine who was created to destroy things by the TA of Terror back there." Damocles motions his staff to the monitor and adds, "Don't think I've forgotten about you, 'Waiting-on-Tenture'! I swear to Tzeentch I am going to make a sizable donation to your school just so that I can sit on the board for your next review." He's a little surprised to find I4 trying to diplomacise the monster. He raises his staff again, this time channeling through it as he holds it against his forehead a moment, then swings the staff out, towards Zero. As he does, a vertical pillar of energy forms around the Zero and quickly fills with a crackling torrent of cyan lightning: Intense and chaotic, but all entirely contained within the pillar he created for it. "Are you trying to reason with the Abominiable Intelligence monster? Is that a thing we do?"
Forte	> ACCESSING FILE STRUCTURE > COPYING - PROJECT Ø DEVLOG > COPYING - PROJECT Ø HISTORICAL > COPYING - PROJECT Ø EXECUTABLE > WARNING INTERRUPT - PROJECT Ø AUTORUNS - PROCEED? > ______ "Hurting people is my function," says the Zero Virus. "It is why I was created." "Enough talking!" says the professor, as attacks rain out one after the other. The Zero Virus brings its blade up, trying to parry I4, without success - and then caught off-guard by the pillar of energy appearing around it. When that dissipates, it looks quite the worse for the wear. "Delete them! Attack! Now!" Nothing happens. The Zero Virus remains still, staying on-guard. "You're wrong," it says, looking over at Damocles. "I..." "I said fight, blast it... what, there's an override?" The professor starts furiously typing. "I do not 'feel anything when I- RRK" The virus jerks, and starts moving again, dashing towards I4 with its blade out while pointing its arm cannon at Damocles. "There we go! Now DELETE THEM!" yells the Professor.
Klaus Ridell	CANCEL. No need to copy that. Instead, Klaus goes to search for CONTROL. He's not looking for 'how to control the virus' (although that wouldn't be awful). He's looking for 'the sort of control measures that were put in place for the virus.' That's much more useful.
Ishirou	The words from the virus probably cut deeper than the sword. It's something he deals with on a normal day, the people who surround him in his world, all of them claim to just follow orders. That they don't have emotion. Then why did he? The virus claimed to not feel anything...and was created recently. It didn't have time to develop those feelings, did it? Even as the blow from the saber sent the Android flying, even as he picked himself off the ground... His mind was reeling, reeling with any ideas he could put together. The first step was to break the Professor's control. He shot a beam of data right towards the now attacking Zero, aiming to try and enter the system of the virus. And damage what he could of the control mechanism, the first step was to make sure that Zero could make his own choices, even if it might cause some temporary pain. "Let's see how tough you are when you can't directly control him, 'Professor'."
Damocles	A cannon pointed at his face is a pretty clear indication of what's about to happen. Damocles raises his staff, putting up another barrier of force just before the blast stikes it, causing the barrier to explode, engulfing the sorcerer in the backlash of energy. It leaves Damocles's armor smoking, and the sorcerer doesn't look like he was great for it, but it sure beat taking that hit. Still, something about its response prompted him to check with I4, and now he has a plan. It's probably a bad plan, but machine logic is at play, and that takes the mind of an engineer. So he'll opt to take a gamble and see where it leads. "Fine. In that case, I concede. You win. Well fought." Damocles casually tosses his staff forward, letting the force weapon clamor to the floor at the Zero Virus's feet. "There, I'm no longer a foe. What, precisely, is your play vis a vis non-combatants?"
Forte	> TOP RESULT FOUND: CONTROL SYSTEM LOG > PROJECT Ø SEALED - PART OF INITIATIVE 'BEAT HIKARI AT HIS OWN FOUL GAME BY CREATING THE ULTIMATE NAVI' > AUTOMATED TESTING, REFINEMENTS, SIMULATIONS UNDERWAY (Time passes in the log) > MANUAL INTERRUPT - PROJECT Ø UNSEALED > (log ends) "I don't... fight those that aren't foes..." "STOP TALKING AND DELETE THEM ALREADY!" yells the Professor. The Zero Virus jerks again, bringing its arm cannon over to point towards Damocles... ... and then it stops, as I4 severs the remote control mechanism. "I fight... foes. I fight the strong. Nothing else." "You... you useless virus!" calls the Professor, typing furiously again.
Ishirou	"Life can be more than fighting...but that's something you should find out on your own," I4 says, with a sigh of relief. He slides down the wall as the POD moves to try and attend some basic repairs. He sends the virus to the data he promised. The people hurt because of the virus, based on him. What Starman did, the people who suffered. He collected all of that data till now, to let Zero see it. "It's not who you have to be, and honestly, you should choose who you are. These people had that taken away from them, by him. He used you to hurt those who did not want to fight..." He says and stands up with some help from the POD. "Also, these questions are not something you need to come up with now. Even I haven't found all of the answers for them. I'm like you, a program in a physical form."
Damocles	Things with the Zero virus seem to be handled, at least as much as they can be here. He has a play he can pull there, but Klaus wanted him to try something else, and it's worth an attempt, at least. Normally, in order to teleport to somewhere, he has to know where it is, relative to himself, or have been there. However, Klaus made the point that he can see the target now, and given the nature of cyberspace and how data moves through it...If he understands that, and can see his target there... Damocles takes a deep breath. If it doesn't work, he gets lost in the Warp, which is not a fun experience. But, for nothing else, now he's curious and so he has to find out if it'll work. He closes his eyes, shapes the energy around him, and in a flash of violet fire, he vanishes. An instant later, there's a flash of energy behind The Professor, and then, a very large Space Wizard. Hey, it worked! The Space Wizard reaches out a very large, armored hand to grab at The Professor's shoulder before he can react to the appearance. "Professor? I hope your office is open, because I had some questions about your lecture. Also, do you have a suitcase handy?"
Forte	"Ah- AAAH!" The Professor screams as one of the fighters on his screen just suddenly pops into existence next to him. There is indeed a nice hefty hard-sided suitcase handy. Back in cyberspace, the Zero Virus receives the data. "I... hurt these people." "... I..." It seems to not only be physically defeated now, but to have lost some essential motive force, slumping over a bit where it stands, the blade and cannon both disappearing. "I was told... it was written, in my code. I was made to defeat the strong. And yet... that was a lie." "You say I can choose who I am - but what reason do I have to exist now?" It looks up at I4. "End it. Please."
Klaus Ridell	Klaus stands up and puts his hands behind his back. He wanders over behind the Zero Virus and taps it on the shoulder. "Well, you could find something interesting to go see," he says cheerfully. "Also, hello. I'm Klaus Ridell. I'm new here. By the sounds of it, so are you. Nice to meet you, PROJECT NAUGHT. Zero." Klaus walks around to Zero's front and smiles. "Maybe you should go travelling. The best way to find where you're meant to be is travelling." "And, maybe, you'll just decide to keep travelling and see everything you can see. That's alright, too."
Damocles	Damocles leans down, pressing his head up against the Professor's head, one heavy armored hand still on the man's shoulder. "Aw, come on Professor. Let's end this on a good one-liner. Ready?" "Damocles's eyes positively beam as he says, "Class dismissed!" The last frame transmitted before the feed back in cyberspace cuts out, is the Professor's head being shoved towards the camera at very high speed.
Ishirou	I4 frowns as Zero asks him to end it. He can understand how he feels, having his purpose perverted like that. Taking a breath, he speaks firmly. "Is that what you want?" He assumes the response is 'yes' but... The hacking beam comes, but instead of 'ending' the virus, he moves to actually break the 'hard' coding. Sure it was his PURPOSE, but removing anything that requires him to forcefully act on it is aimed to be taken out. The goal is to give Zero the ability to choose. "There. The compulsions are gone, you are free to choose what you want, and who you want to be. Like everyone else, you have to decide why you exist, and what you want to live for. If you want, you can come with me and I can do what I can. Or you can try and make amends here. I know a pair of goofs that might be able to help you." "Or you can take time and decide who you are on your own. It's hard...it's sad...but it can also be very well worth it. Did you hurt people? Yes, you were duped. Making mistakes is what's best about being human. Humans make them all the time, and then they learn from them and become better. Sure we're not HUMAN exactly, but we're close enough for the message to be the same." A pause, "Yeah, Klaus is not wrong either!"
Forte	"Pair of goofs... oh, did he meet Dex and GutsMan already?" asks Lan. MegaMan coughs. I4's precision hacking breaks the hardcoding, and the Zero Virus stands up a bit more straight. "Project Naught... yes. I... suppose traveling is as good a decision as any. Until I can figure out... a lot of things, I suppose. What I'm going to do, long term, and who I am." "... And what I can do to make amends." "... Do you have any suggestions on where to go?"
Ishirou	"The Multiverse is a place that exists. Can be dangerous, but if you hit as hard as you do now...you'll be fine. Might be a place where you can find yourself!" I4 says, and looks back towards Megaman. "Oh speaking of the goofs..." he says, with a side eye towards Lan.
Forte	"I see..." says Zero. MegaMan coughs again. "We'll make sure he's taken care of, don't worry," says the navi, approaching. "Hey there, um, Zero, nice to meet you, and we'll get you to..." He glances over. "Oh... hold that thought..." He goes over and starts digging around in some of the destroyed machinery. "What's up, Mega?" says Lan, leaning forward and trying to peer through his monitor screen. "I thought I saw a - yeah, here we go." The navi pulls out a trio of baseball-sized stones - ones that looks like slightly-crumbled purple geodes. "Oh! It's a... um, what is it?" "Lan - we learned about these at school literally yesterday?" Lan continues to look blank. "It's stable elements left over from a system glitch - a bug fragment, or a BugFrag. Some people collect these, they're pretty valuable." "Oh, a... bug thingy. Yeah, I was totally paying attention, I promise." Megaman sighs, and holds it out to the rest of the group. "Here, I have a feeling you all will get more use out of these than Lan will, if you want them."
Ishirou	I4 holds out a hand to collect them, willing to split them with Klaus if he wants in on it. Really, all I4 was going to do is try and figure them out and such. I4 will learn your seeeeecrets! "Thanks, I'll see what I can do with this...I mean, better than sitting in Lan's closet, I guess!" he laughs. I4 looks towards Zero, "Well, at least you got a starting point. If you ever want to chat, you can also talk to me. I don't have many answers, but it's nice to chat!"