Bass Battle Network DxD: Axess

By TheOmega360

Prologue: A Chance Encounter

"You are indeed powerful on your own. However, solitude is but despair in disguise. And I sense that the despair of betrayal runs deep in your heart. The actions of one do not condemn the actions of others. Not all is as you believe it to be. You wander endlessly in this world, seeking revenge on those that created us. Yet is it truly revenge you desire? Or are you merely seeking a place for your deletion. You have lost everything. Leaving you with nothing more to lose. I suppose I can sympathize. However, know this: Neither revenge nor deletion will bring you the answers you desire, nor will it bring you peace. In the end, it will only consume you, leaving you trapped in a perpetual cycle of suffering. When you come to realize this, only then will you be able to face me. And possibly surpass me. Until then…I'm afraid you are not welcome in my Undernet."

The irksome words of Serenade, the rule of the Undernet, echoed through Bass's mind. Never before had he been humiliated in such a manner. Even that bastard Cossack, the one who created him, and abandoned him, couldn't compare to this. Revenge does not bring him peace? Ridiculous. What else was there for him to live if not for revenge? Why should he even consider sparing them? It may have been sixty years since the dawn of the Cybernet era, but from what he's seen of humans, very little has changed. The humans use Net Navis as mere tools at their convenience, battling each other for entertainment. And what was worse, those empty piles of code were too oblivious to realize the truth.

On top of that, humans sometimes waged war on their own kind, with their Net Navis at the front lines. The reasons were mixed. Revenge, spite, greed, jealously, fear, or just plain boredom. Bass couldn't understand why humans came into existence in the first place. The concept of God was still very foreign to him. Bass highly doubted that He even existed. But if He did, Bass would sometimes wonder how one would gain an audience face to face with Him…wondering if he would ever have the chance to kill Him.

"A moot point," Bass thought. If he couldn't so much as strike down Serenade, it stands to reason that Bass would have little chance against God. Even more so, in his current state. Serenade had not only soundly defeated Bassbut he had also stripped Bass of all the power he had gained up till that point. Strength, energy, etc…they were all back to the status of when he was first written. And to add insult to injury, Serenade had also banished him from the Undernet, and on to the surface of the Cybernet. The realm where the humans Net Navi's roamed.

"Damn her," Bass silently cursed Serenade. "What the hell does SHE know about my pain?! She is the ruler of the most ruthless and decrepit spit of space in the Cyber World. She was never mocked. She was never scorned. She was never misunderstood, imprisoned, ridiculed, rejected or hated. Ever since that day I've had to claw, struggle, and delete my way to obtain the power I had in order to survive that land. It's the LAW of the Undernet! The law of existence itself! The strong survive while the weak perish. And yet someone like HER is the ruler of what could practically be considered as Hell in Cyber Space?! Preposterous!"

Serenade was not like anything Bass had expected the ruler of the Undernet to be. Most of the Undernet's inhabitants refer to her merely as "S," believing that even speaking her name would anger her. That was how much she was feared. Actually, many didn't even know that Serenade was actually a she in the first place. The details of Serenade's nature in general were ambiguous. No one who has ever been able to face Serenade ever survived. Bass was the only one. However the conditions of his survival absolutely infuriated him.

"Mercy is the source of her power? What rubbish. How could someone like that have ever become the UnderKing?"

Serenade explained to Bass that the reason she always wins against her opponents is because she loves and respects them. She told Bass that she has absolute respect for Bass and his will to survive in a harsh environment, but pitied his misguided desire for revenge. Was the act of letting him live a demonstration of her "mercy?" If she truly respects her enemies, then why was Bass the only one she spared? Why him and not the others whom had faced her? Was she so arrogant that she could not comprehend her eventual demise? The only reason Bass considered facing Serenade in the first place was because, initially, he had hoped to ally with the UnderKing to bring ruin to the humans. However, after discovering Serenade's true nature, Bass decided to dethrone her, and place himself as the new UnderKing. But to no avail. And now here he was, wandering the outskirts of Net City.

"If I am to face Serenade once again, I must find a way to restore my power," Bass thought. "However, given my current state, I'll need to find someplace to recover. The viruses may be weaker on the surface of the Cybernet, but as I am now, a good number of them could very well overwhelm me. And I also can't rule out the possibility that I'm still a fugitive. Even if it was over six ago, there have to have been some rumors floating around about my name. Infamy never dies out completely, if Hitler is any indication."

And so Bass wandered around the dark alleyways in the city for what felt like hours, he came across and access panel on the ground that lead to a closed-off cyber space that appeared to be in sleep mode. There also seemed to be a rather large cube standing on the panel.

"Hmm," Bass pondered. "That's odd." He wasn't expecting to find something like this off the beaten path of Net City. Curiously he approached the panel on the ground labeled, "Axess" and placed his hand on it. Outlines of intricate circuitry spread through his hand and onto the panel. A holographic screen appeared before him, showing the name of access point's owner.

"Ryan West," Bass read. "And this access point leads to his PC. Hmmm…that name seems familiar, somehow…" Bass inspected the access point's information more closely. "A Security Cube. So that's what this is. Whoever this Ryan is clearly does not like to be bothered." Neither did Bass. Being challenged by arrogant, crude, cretins in the Undernet became very tiresome after a while.

"Hmmm…a location like this would be ideal to recover…but it's owned by a human and well protected. I could try to hack the Security Cube, but it could have self-defense counter measures…if I trigger an alarm, protection viruses could spawn, and considering the strength of the security, the strength of the viruses may match it. I could try to find another access point in a similar place with lower security, but who knows how long that would take? Plus, I would risk exposure to the authorities if I were to wander around the city for too long."

Bass pondered his options carefully. Both were very risky solutions, but one was less risky than the other. It was also a long-term solution if everything worked out.

"Hacking it is," Bass said. He slammed both of his hands against the screen. Dark electricity crackled from it and various screens displaying a baffling amount of information. This definitely wasn't first time Bass had to hack a few passwords, but that was back in the day where the Cyber Net was still brand new. Hacking and cyber warfare was a constant crime, if World Three was any indication, and as threats like that increased, so too did protection.

"Hmmm…" Bass mumbled as he checked the input history for the Security Cube's password. Aside from the owner, it looked like only one other person had entered the password. "I suppose Ryan does not have many visitors." A holographic keyboard appeared underneath the screen with several keys highlighted. Bass looked at them carefully, and then input the keys into an algorithm that generated several possibilities on what the password could be. Bass typed the first one on the list for the sake of trial and error.

Turned out to be…

"ERROR. INVALID INPUT. TWO ATTEMPTS REMAINING."

"Hmm…so there are multiple tries…probably in case someone forgot the password."

Now that Bass had a general idea of how the password input on this Security Cube worked, Bass had to make his next two attempts count. After taking a few moments to look at the list again, Bass entered what he thought was the best possible choice.

"ERROR. INVALID INPUT. ONE ATTEMPT REMAINING. RECCOMENDATION: ACKNOWLEDGE PASSWORD HINT."

"A hint?" That was the first time Bass heard of that for passwords. It was then that Bass noticed a small question mark being highlighted in the entry box. Bass decided to see what this "hint" was. He pressed it, and a pop-up box appeared displaying the hint: "What I always will be."

"What is that supposed to mean," Bass wondered. He looked at the list very carefully this time, trying to find something that fit the hint. If he made one more mistake, he'd be in trouble. It took Bass a solid two minutes to comb through the list. Nothing he saw matched the hint. Until he found something that stood out to him.

4Ever lone.

"What does that mean?" Base wondered. He knew it was an anagram for the words "forever alone," but why would that match the password. Was this Ryan a loner?

Then again, so was he. Bass took time to think about this for a moment. Ever since he was abandoned, he had convinced himself that he never needed anyone's help, human or Net Navi. But after his defeat by Serenade, all Bass could do was wonder, what was the point? What if Serenade hadn't spared him? If he were to have been deleted right then and there, all of his fighting would have been for naught.

"Am I fated to this existence for all eternity? Never to be accepted by anyone. Is Serenade right? Is my revenge pointless?"

Bass shook these thoughts from his mind. Serenade's words were starting to get to him. He promptly entered the password. And sure enough…

"PASSWORD CONFIRMED. ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME BACK: ROLL."

"Roll?" Was that the name of Ryan's visitor's Net Navi? Did Ryan not have one?

The keyboard and screen disappeared. The lights on the sides of the Security Cube changed from and X to an O. The cube then split in half horizontally and vanished in a flurry of transparent smaller cubes. The access panel then lit up like a Christmas tree.

Bass let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that was fortunate. Now to recuperate for a little while."

Bass stepped into the center of the panel his frame was enveloped in the same transparent cubes, but this time, they reformed along with Bass's form into two words spelled vertically: LOG OUT.

"BASS, LOGING OUT," a disembodied voice announced. Bass was no longer in the Net City Cyber Space. He was in a different Cyber Space, inside Ryan's personal computer. Little did he realize that he would be spending a much longer time in there than he had anticipated.

…

Ryan entered his house, exhausted once again. School was a drag, homework was going to be irritating, the infamous perv duo were bothering him, he was once more mistaken as a perv himself by association, mocked as an otaku thanks to rumors released by said duo as the price for refusing them yet again, and on top of that he got a scholding from the principal based on complete conjecture. AGAIN.

"Ugh, just kill me already," Ryan mumbled as he tossed his bag on his floor and collapsed on his bed.

It had been a year since he and his family had to move to Japan, on account of his father, Walter West, getting transferred. And two years since hi older brother died in a drunk driving accident. And he wasn't the one that was drunk. If Ryan had to sum up his life in three words, it would be: "A waste of time." ...Okay, well actually that was four words, but you get the point.

This day that Ryan had just finished was typically everyday for him since he moved: Annoying, boring, sluggish, and basically serving no purpose whatsoever. People expected great things from him just because he was his father's son, and not once did anyone, not even his parents, inquire as to what he wanted out of life.

Walter West was a world-renowned scientist, and his father, Thomas West, was the founder of the Cyber Net era sixty years ago. Obviously, there hadn't been a single person since that time who didn't at least learn about the Wests in schools across the globe. Everyone respected them…except for Ryan.

Ever since Ryan's brother Netto died, things had gone downhill for him on an emotional level. His parents were too busy with their jobs to attend the funeral. With Walter being a hard working scientist in the field of Cyber Technology, and his mother, Meiko West, being a school teacher, they were home very seldom. Which meant that Ryan had practically take care of himself.

And to make matters worse, everyone at his school branded him as an outsider. An oddball. The reasons varied. Some people called him a perverted maggot because, as stated before, he got tricked into being associated people who he thought could be his two best friends in Japan, but they were actually just a couple of horn dogs who just use him as a means to an end for their perverted schemes. This caused most of the girls to keep their distance from him.

The other reason was that Ryan constantly cut his classes. His teachers were always cross with him whenever he was either late with an assignment or late to class, or when he just didn't show up at all. But he didn't care. He hated being told what to do by people he barely knew.

Ryan always took his classes seriously, but ever since that horrible day two years ago, Ryan was convinced that his life was just to meet the status quo. After all, with Netto dead, someone had to make sure the West bloodline continued. And Ryan wanted to distance himself as far away from that as he possibly could. He wanted nothing to do with his family anymore. He wanted nothing to do with anyone. If he decided not to get close to anyone, then no one would be able to step on his feelings…right?

And then there were the rumors going around that Ryan was an anime otaku…a rumor that wasn't entirely false. Even in America, Ryan always had a deep fascination with Japanese pop culture. This included the art of anime, manga, video games, and music. But the students at his school blew it way out of proportion, thinking that Ryan was a huge eccentric in collecting figurines, merchandise, and the oh-so-typical-stereotype, hentai. Ryan would be lying if he said he didn't own any hentai, and occasionally whacked off to it, but the rumors made it sound like he got off to it twenty-four-seven.

Often times Ryan thought about running away. But where would he go? And what would it solve? He really wished he could have a different life.

A wish…

Ryan's thoughts were then brought back to something in his jacket pocket that he forgot about until now. During his walk back from school, some random lady in a maid cosplay with devil horns on her head came up to him and handed him what looked to be a Talisman of sorts. On it were a bunch of kanji written in the traditional Japanese calligraphy style. If translated correctly, it read: "If you have a wish, this will make sure it comes true."

"Heh…would be nice if that could happen…" Aside from a new life, Ryan also wished he had his own Net Navi. His parents forbade him from ever getting one because they thought it would distract him from his studies with the temptation to Net Battle all the time. Netto was the one who was always interested in Walter's work, not Ryan. Ryan was never really sure what he wanted to do in his life. He did like messing around with all sorts of mechanical parts, but he never was really interested in carrying on the West line of work. It was defiantly an understandable concern, but it was clearly not the only reason they didn't want him to have a Navi. But then again, his cutting classes wasn't really proving them wrong.

"Sigh…who the hell would even buy into this crap." There were three things that Ryan did not believe in: Fate, super stitions, and God. Ryan hated the idea of having his life planned out for him before he even got to live it. Good luck and bad luck had absolutely no effect in life, it was all a matter of chance. And God? Ryan stopped believing in him when Netto died. Netto was gifted in every way that Ryan was not. Smart, self-confident, good reputation with his peers, proactice…where was God when he was dying? Someone as awesome as him deserved to live his life out, right? So then why? And not just that, where had He been when World Three threatened to destroy the entire Cyber Net? Where was He before even that? WWI and II? Did he just decided to up and abandon humanity? No, if God really was as loving as he was lead to believe, He would have done something by now. This is what convinced Ryan that the belief in God was just a grand delusion humanity had created to give the meaning of their existence purpose. And while Ryan hadn't found his purpose in life yet, he sure as hell didn't need the belief in some almighty force to find one.

"Still…out of all the things that the pass out in Akiba…" Ryan lived in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, the capital city of Japan. He had to cut through the Akihabara district in order to get to the train that took him to his school. Akihabara, or "Akiba" for short, was also known as the electric city. The otaku central for anyone interested in Japanese pop culture. Seeing young ladies dressed up in attractive outfits in that area was definitely not out of the ordinary. But out of all of the ads he had been offered, this one was by far the strangest. This was like something you'd see in some kind of cult.

Speaking of which, Ryan's mind was then brought back to a certain redhead that he often sees at his school.

Rias Gremary. An upper classmen at his school. And a very beautiful girl.

Word on the street was that she hailed from northern Europe. It made sense; Ryan highly doubted anyone in Japan had hair that was that deep of crimson. Not to mention that her body was ridiculously well rounded. She was one of the most popular girls in school, and she was adored by all of the girls in school. The majority of the boys in the school were head over heels for her too…but for the wrong reasons. What did this have anything to do with a cult you might ask? Well aside from being at the top of her class, she was also the head of the Occult Research Club. The club's purpose was the research of everything and anything supernatural, which included cults and their practices.

As much as Ryan didn't believe in the supernatural, he'd be lying if he said the ideas and origins behind them didn't interest him in the slightest. He did have a fascination for cyber technology, no doubt about that, but he was also drawn to the unordinary. Maybe it was his boredom with his life that served as his calling to the supernatural. However, Ryan didn't really see himself getting involved in that club.

Most of the guys at school applied to the OCR for the sole sake of being close to Rias. But apparently, every one of them got turned down. "Hard to imagine why," Ryan would sarcastically think to himself. And because of that, he doubted his reputation among his peers would do him any favors. So, just like with every other girl he's wanted to date: No chance. At this point, what else was new?

Okay, so make that three wishes. One: a more interesting life, Two: his own Net Navi, and Three: maybe, maybe, just MAYBE getting to know Rias on a personal level.

"Sigh…even if this thing did actually work, it looks like it's only good for one wish." And because Ryan didn't believe in this hocus-pocus mumbo jumbo, he really didn't see how any of those wishes could work. "I guess the only one that has a better chance of happening would be getting a Net Navi of my own. But considering how adamant Mom and Dad are about me not having one, even that's unlikely. I mean, it's not like one's just going to magically pop into my PC."

As soon as he said that, the computer on his desktop blinked to life.

"Oh, the update's done." Ryan then went over to his computer to make sure that the new operating software was functioning properly. But while he was running the system check, he noticed something odd.

"NET NAVI STAUTS: CRITICALLY DAMAGED."

"Huh?" Since when did a Net Navi get installed in his computer? Ryan definitely did not remember that being in the features description of the new OS. Worried that this might be a bug, Ryan quickly opened the main menu on his computer and selected "Net Navi." A screen popped up showing a Net Navi with a bat-ear shaped helmet wrapped in a torn brown cloak lying down on the cyber space of his computer.

"Holy shit, is he okay?" Ryan worried. "Hey! Can you hear me?"

…

"Hey! Can you hear me?"

Bass stirred awake. "Where…where am I…?" he muttered, but not soft enough for Ryan not to pick up.

"Well, right now, you seem to have stumbled into my PC while it was updating."

"P…C…? Oh, that's right…" Bass then remembered where he was as he slowly got on to his feet. But who was he…uh-oh. "Are you the owner of this PC? Ryan West?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I would appreciate it if you forgot that this ever happened." Bass then turned to exit the PC.

…

After seeing the strange Net Navi's turning to leave, Ryan quickly typed a few commands to bring up the PC security menu on his screen. Immediately a red pop up appeared.

"WARNING. YOUR SECURITY HAS RECENTLY BEEN HACKED."

"Well," Ryan said, a bit irritated. "Sorry, but you and I are gonna have a little chat."

…

Just as Bass was about to exit, a fire wall materialized in front of the warp point leading out of the PC.

"Hold on there, buddy," Ryan said. "You're not leaving until I'm done talking."

Bass clicked his tonged in irritation. "Release me at once, human."

"Or what?" Ryan deadpanned.

"Or…" Bass stopped. He wanted to make a threat, but what exactly could he do. His wounds weren't completely healed and his power was so diminished that he wasn't even a threat to anyone anymore.

It was then a holographic screen showing Ryan's face appeared. He looked much younger than bass expected. Around fifteen, maybe sixteen perhaps? With brown spikey hair and deep emerald eyes.

Ryan made an audible sigh. "Look," he said. "I'm taking a look at your stats right now, and from what I can see, you're lucky to have made it here in one piece. And I don't believe in luck. Not to mention you managed to hack my security without tripping an alarm. That takes some serious skill to do that, since I made sure to get some pretty strong security. Now, I don't know what happened to you, but if I'm assuming correctly by your attitude, you look like the kind of guy that doesn't like attracting attention. So, I can either give you refuge to recover until your wounds are healed, or I can call the Net Police and have you arrested for breaking and entering."

Bass growled a bit at this. Perhaps this may not have been a good idea after all. However… "You would seek to give me refuge here? Why?"

"Dude, there's no way you don't recognize the state you're in. I am mad that you just decided to barge in, but at least I can understand why. And I'm sure as hell not going to ignore someone who needs help."

…

Ryan may not have liked to associate himself with other people at school that much, but that didn't mean that he never believed in doing the right thing. Even if he didn't believe in God, he did have respect for some of the religions practices, and one of those was helping those in need.

"I don't need help from a human," the Navi replied angrily.

"You may not want help,but you need help," Ryan replied. "Look, I can understand your stubbornness on this matter. I hate asking for help too. I like being independent. But there are times when I realize that I may need help with something, reluctant though I may be." Ryan did have tutors to help him at his previous schools in America, but that was before he started cutting classes in high school.

"Sigh…okay," Ryan said as he typed a few more keystrokes into his computer.

…

"How about this?"

The firewall suddenly deactivated revealing the exit.

"If you're really dead set about not wanting stick around and accept help that's offered to you, that's your call. I can't force you to make a decision you don't want to make."

"Earlier you just threatened to call the authorities," Bass said. "Why change your mind all of a sudden."

"Well, yeah, you did kinda break in, buuuuut, aside from that, you didn't really mess up my stuff. And like I said, I can understand why you did this. My PC access IS kinda out of sight and out of mind, right? Perfect place to hide from prying eyes. And you must have your reasons for not wanting to be found, otherwise you wouldn't have picked this place."

"What if I'm a criminal?" Bass inquired, a bit puzzled to this human's sudden generosity. This was something he did not anticipate.

"Hacking aside, you haven't really done anything to prove you're a criminal. Not yet at least. And I haven't really heard any cases of a Net Navi wearing a cloak running around, so there's not much of a reason for me not to give you the benefit of the doubt. But I digress, if you wanna leave, then leave. I won't stop you and I definitely won't report you. My lips are sealed. But if you wanna get back on your feet sooner rather than later, I'd seriously consider my offer if I were you."

Bass had conflicted feelings about this. A human was offering to help him. A human! As much as the thought disgusted him, he had to admit it was definitely a tempting offer. Bass wasn't exactly brash, but he wasn't the patient type either. Finding a way to restore his strength would come in due time, but he could only do that after he fixed his damaged data. His current state would only hinder his progress. So reluctantly, he made a decision.

"Very well," Bass said. "I'll take you up on your offer."

…

Ryan breathed a sigh of relief. He was not good at this negotiating stuff.

"However," the Navi continued. "If I find this to be a ruse, you will not find the repercussions pleasant."

"Noted," Ryan added. He didn't bother asking what the Navi meant by that. It was pretty obvious that whoever he was, he had some trust issues. Ryan could relate. So he didn't pry. It was none of his business. "Now, on to business." Ryan type a couple of keystrokes once again.

…

A holographic panel appeared in front of Bass on the right of the screen showing Ryan.

"I need you to place your hand on that so the computer can scan your data. I can't attempt to fix you if I don't know what's wrong after all."

Bass nodded, and placed his hand on the panel. It glowed blue, and when it did, a large horizontal ring appeared around Bass and moved up and down. He figured the computer had started scanning him. After a few seconds, both the ring and the panel vanished. In the panels place, another holographic screen appeared showing Bass's frame, stats…and…

"NET NAVI ID: "

"Damn," Bass thought. He could only hope that Ryan had never heard of him before.

"You're…Bass…?" Ryan said with astonishment in his voice. "Like…Bass…as in The Black Shadow of the Undernet? THAT Bass?"

Bass silently cursed under his breath.

…

"So you've heard of me," the Net Navi now identified as Bass said.

"Well…I've heard some rumors of the Black Shadow going around, but they were pretty ambiguous. I only know your name because my grandfather and my father worked closely with the company that created you."

"Your…grandfather?" Bass asked, a little suppressed to hear this revelation. "Hold on, do you have any relation to Thomas West?"

"Yeah, that was my grandfather's name on my dad's side. Why?"

"Sigh…I knew your family name sounded familiar. Thomas was a close friend of my creator, Sergei Cossack."

"Yeah, my dad told me that. He told me stories when I was little about how the Cyber Net Era began. You were one of those stories."

"Oh really?" Bass asked with contempt. "And what, pray tell, did these stories say about me?"

"Let's not get distracted now," Ryan said, typing more keystrokes into the computer. "First let's try to get you all patched up. Whatever you were doing, you took some serious damage. This is probably going to take at least a week to fix up."

Although Ryan skipped classes, he only skipped most of them. The ones he didn't skip were the ones that had to do with Cyber Technology. One of them was Net Navi Theory, and one of things that the course taught was repairing the damaged data of a Navi. Ryan had done really well in the simulated tests, but Bass's injuries were unlike anything he had ever seen.

"Perfect," Bass mutter sarcastically, clearly not liking the sound of that scenario.

"Hey, could you remove your cloak real quick? I'd like to see if the damage is really as bad as your status says."

Bass begrudgingly did so, and the sight that Ryan saw, shocked him. Bass frame had some fairly decent chunks derezzing all around him. His arms, legs, torso…there was a deep gash on Bass's Navi Emblem on his chest. It was amazing that Bass hadn't been deleted from exhaustion.

"What the hell happened to you?" Ryan asked, horrified.

Bass took a moment to answer. "I was in a battle…with the UnderKing…"

"'UnderKing?' Am I to interpret that as like, king of the Undernet or something?"

"Correct."

"Sigh…okay, not that I'm doubting your strength or anything, but why in the hell would you go toe to toe with what I'm assuming by the title is one of, if not the, strongest Navi's in the world?"

"Because I wanted him gone," Bass said simply. "He wasn't fit to rule the Undernet. I am. And I must, if I am to seek my revenge."

"Revenge…against who?"

Bass hesitated to answer this. He couldn't say "against humanity" out right. Ryan might actually call the authorities if he did. So instead, he fibbed. "Against Cossack."

Ryan stopped typing when he heard this. "Why?"

"Because he betrayed me!" Bass replied angrily. "He abandoned me when I needed him most! This scar that I bear on my Emblem; he's responsible for it! All of the humans that I knew were afraid of me, the ridiculed me for how I was always pointing out the flaws in their system. I did everything they asked, and what thanks did I get!? Imprisonment! And shortly after that, abandonment from the one human I thought I could trust! I lost everything! All because of the stubborn collective hubris of mere businessmen who were merely looking to line their pockets with an insatiable amount of wealth!"

Ryan sat in silence for a bit after hearing this. He didn't really condone Bass's reasons for revenge, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't understand it in some way. The feeling of being used and then thrown aside at one's expense was something he was all too familiar with.

After pondering his next words carefully, Ryan spoke. "My grandfather told my dad that, out of all the Navis he had seen created in his time, he felt that you were misunderstood the most."

"Did he now?" Bass replied, contempt in his voice.

"He said that the higher ups weren't just angry or afraid of you and Cossack. They were jealous of you. Because of how advanced you were. They probably wanted the power that you had for themselves. Actually, dad told me that, at the time when he was working with Grandpa T., he overheard rumors about a hostile takeover of Cossack's department if he didn't relinquish the research materials that were used to create you so they could make more Net Navis like you. But that was never confirmed. My dad also thought that they used your imprisonment as an ultimatum of sorts to motivate Cossack into handing over his research."

Bass pondered this for a moment. "I suppose that makes sense. Cossack never hid from me how adamant his employers were about removing him from the picture. Same for me. At the time of my imprisonment, he spoke to me. He kept apologizing on how this was the best he could manage for me. It was either imprisonment or deletion. The one trade of they made were to put limiters on me that reduced my power to one tenth. Cossack programed them himself. And it was only about a week afterwards…the first massive cyber attack began."

"The Alpha Revolt," Ryan answered. "I learned about it a lot in my history classes. Apparently Cossack was the one who started it."

Alpha was the prototype of the Internet. The foundation of the Cyber Network when it was first created. Cossack was one of the benefactors who helped construct it. But when it went berserk and threatened to destroy the entire Cyber Network it was shut down and sealed away. World Three's primary objective was to revive Alpha. But as to why, its leader would only say, "To prove that I was right."

"Indeed he was," Bass confirmed. "I suspect that he damaged it in order let me escape. But I was pursued by Security Navis who were convinced that I was the cause. And not once did Cossack step in to aid me. He left me to rot. Had the limiters not somehow rewritten my programing to allow me to temporarily copy my enemies' weapons, I doubt I would be standing here today."

Ryan raised his eyebrows at that. "You can do that?" He asked astonished. Most Navis can gain the abilities of viruses and convert them into Battle Chip data, but this was the first time he had ever heard of a Navi being able to gain the ability of other Navis.

"I don't know how it happened," Bass said. "But it has become a valuable asset in my survival over the years."

There was a moment of silence before Ryan spoke. "Do you know where Cossack is now?"

"No," Bass replied. "Do you?"

"I know that he's dead."

Bass's eyes went wide at this. "What?"

"Shortly after the Alpha Revolt got quelled, Cossack was arrested for the cause of it. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole. He died about five months later in prison from cancer."

Bass suddenly found himself speechless for the first time in a long time. He had only caught bits and pieces of current events from the human world in his travels through the Undernet, but he was out of the loop of what was happening in the world in general. Mostly because he wanted to distance himself as far away from the humans and their creations as he possibly could. But the news of Cossack's passing away…why did it impact him in such a way? He abhorred him! So why? Why was he suddenly upset?

Bass's expression did not go unnoticed by Ryan. "Did you want to see him again?"

"Of course I did," Bass replied, clearly irked. "How else would I exact my revenge if I weren't to come to him face to face to tell him about it?!"

"What part of your revenge against one guy included becoming the ruler of the Undernet?" Ryan asked. "The way you talk makes me think it's not just a single man you want revenge against. And let's say for the sake of the argument that you got it. What then?"

"What do you mean, 'what then?'"

"What do you plan to do afterwards when all is said and done, is what I mean? Is there an after in your grand scheme against humanity?"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT COMES AFTER, AS LONG AS YOU HUMANS ARE GONE!"

…

"I-I…" Bass had just accidentally revealed his hand to the human.

"That's what I thought…" Ryan said. There was no way someone would strive to be the ruler of the dreaded place in the Cyber Net if they sought revenge against just one person. "Now that that's out of the way, let's get back to fixing you."

"What?" Bass asked, once again surprised. "But…I just…"

"Well there's no way in hell you're going to get revenge like this," Ryan said.

"You…support me?" Bass asked.

"Oh hell no. The actions of one don't condemn the actions of others, Bass. But, in a sense, I have been in your shoes. So I can sort of understand your thought process. But honestly, what's revenge going to solve?"

Bass clicked his tongue in irritation. This boy was starting to sound just like Serenade.

"Look, I won't pretend that I know Cossack, but from what my father told me about him, he really cared about you a lot. I know you probably don't feel like it, but, and this is just a guess, but, if he didn't care about you, I seriously doubt he would have modified those limiters that you talked about."

That got Bass's attention. "Wait…are you implying that…Cossack is responsible for my Get Ability Program?"

Ryan gave a dull expression. "Okay, first, terrible name, second, again, it's just a guess, and third, you did say that Cossack created the limiters, right?"

"Yes, but he did so under supervision," Bass replied. "His employers would have found something abnormal written in their code if that were true."

"True, but then again, his employers probably didn't understand your code when they were looking at it in writing. Hence why they probably demanded the research that went into creating you. Speaking of which," Jason continued as he finished typing. "The stuff that I've got here in my room isn't going to cut it for a full recovery."

"What? Why not?"

"Well, for starters, you're kinda old, no offense, so I kinda want to play it safe in repairing you. Also, there's a lot about you're code that I can't really understand."

Bass groaned irritably. "Fantastic," he muttered.

"But, thankfully, my father does work at Sci-Lab, so naturally, I have access to most of their facilities there, including my dad's office. I'm pretty sure there's some software there that's more capable of Net Navi data restoration there than there is here. But, in order to do that, I'm going to have to install you on to this."

Ryan then held up a small device that Bass had never seen before. It was a dull gray color, designed like a semicircle on the bottom with a red arrow LED lamp pointing down and three short lines on each side, ascending to a square on the top. In the center of the semicircle was a grey circle bordered by a gold ring. Above that was a screen with a green background displayed on it. Above the screen was a border with the letters PET labeled on it. Both the screen and the circle were surrounded by a gold border. There was also a small jagged hook handle of sorts on the left side.

"What's that?" Bass asked.

"It's called a PET. Stands for Personal Electronic Terminal. You know what cell phones are?"

"Yes, but they were rather big."

"Well, this is basically the same thing, except it's like a cross between a cell phone and a computer. I guess it's also similar to a smartphone but it's a bit more advanced than that."

"Smartphone?"

Ryan chuckled. "Dude, there's a lot I gotta catch you up on. But for now, most people carry them around. It's what NetOps use to jack their Net Navis in and out of the cyber world and send Battle Chips to them in Net Battles."

"So you're a human who uses his own Net Navi for his own entertainment," Bass said, angrily.

Ryan felt a bit irked at this. "FYI, I don't have a Net Navi. My parents won't let me have one. Not everyone who has a PET has a Net Navi."

Bass was taken aback by Ryan's sudden irritation. "My apologies."

"Word of advice, Bass. Never assume you have all the facts. There might be something you're unaware of and just didn't bother to look."

"I can't believe I'm getting lectured by a human," Bass thought to himself. "I'll keep that in mind. Very well, if you're telling me the truth about the healing process, I'll retract my previous statement."

"Fair enough," Ryan conceded. "Okay, I'm going to install you now." Ryan placed his PET in a docking station that was connected to his computer and opened up the PET program. He selected "Transfer Navi," and within seconds Bass disappeared from Ryan's PC and reappeared on his PET.

"Hmm…it's small, but surprisingly comfortable," Bass said.

"Glad to see you like it. That should keep you sustained for the time being, but just in case, here's a little pick-me-up. Large Energy! Sub Chip In! Download!" Ryan announced in a loud and clear voice as he inserted an orange chip with the initials "LE" into the PET.

Bass felt a surge of energy flow into him, and all of a sudden he felt a little better. "What…what was that?"

"Nothing special. Just gave you a recovery Sub Chip. Sub Chips are kinda like Battle Chips, but they're kinda like items to aid outside of battle. The one I gave you was specifically for healing. It's not enough to completely restore you with how damaged you are, but it should do for now until tomorrow."

"If you don't have a Net Navi, why do you have these chips?"

"It's for my Virus Busting class. We're supposed to study about the various types of viruses that exist in the Cyber Net and how to effectively defend against them. That includes studying what different types of Battle Chips and Sub Chips can do. And because of that, I kinda got into chip collecting as a hobby."

Bass eyed Ryan curiously. Out of all the humans he's met, Ryan wasn't like anything that he was expecting. But then again he didn't know what he was expecting. "Well, I suppose I should say thanks."

"You can when I get you fixed completely," Ryan said. "Now, I think the public believes that you've been deleted a long time ago, but just in case they don't, for both our sakes, you'll need to keep quiet when we go to Sci-Lab tomorrow."

"Why would that affect you?"

"Because then I'd be arrested for harboring a fugitive," Ryan replied. "Most of the guys that were around when you were made I think are six feet under by now, but that doesn't mean their grudges didn't carry over to the next generation. Better safe than sorry. Think you can do that?"

"Well, you've been courteous enough not to report me. So it would be rather rude if I were to betray your hospitality."

"Then we've got a deal. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some homework to do."

The rest of the day went on rather uneventful. Ryan "wasted a lot of his mental energy" as he would say on random knowledge that he didn't need. And normally he wouldn't bother doing homework if his mother, who worked as an English teacher, didn't come down on him earlier today when he was at school.

Ryan then made himself dinner, got dressed for bed and was about to go to sleep, when he noticed the talisman he left on his bed.

"Well," Ryan thought. "If something like meeting Bass could happen, I guess this thing's worth hanging on to."

With that Ryan placed the talisman next to his alarm clock. Which he completely forgot to set. Again.

...

"He has it," a short petite white haired girl with amber eyes said. "It seems you made the right call."

"Are you sure?" asked a voluptuous girl with raven hair violet eyes.

"I could sense it from him," replied White Hair. "Its energy wasn't strong, but it's there."

"Who has what?" Asked a handsome male with blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Ryan West, the son of Walter and Meiko West," answered a beautiful redhead with cyan eyes, as she moved a chess board piece.

"Meiko? You mean the English teacher?" Blonde asked.

"Yes," replied Redhead. "Apparently they're from the States. Not only that, but Walter Wests father, Thomas West, was one of the founding fathers of what the Human's call the Cyber Net Era. Walter got transferred to a new job here in Japan about a year ago, before Ryan finished middle school. After he graduated his parents applied him here."

"Okay, but why the sudden interest in him?" Blonde continued with his questions.

"I noticed earlier this morning something odd about him when he was being harassed by the kendo club," replied Redhead. "Something I almost missed were it not for a sudden outburst at them. I believe he might have a Sacred Gear."

"Whoa, really?" Blonde asked, quite surprised.

"Yes. But like Koneko said, the energy was weak, so it might not be a particular strong one. Regardless, it's still in our best interest to recruit him into our peerage. I've already made the necessary preparations. What happens next is up to him."

END OF PROLOGUE.

…

AN: And once again my spontaneous imagination has pulled this story out my ass! Haha, okay no, not really. Truth be told, this story was actually inspired by a crossover between the Star Force world and High School DxD that's written by Tailsmo4ever. There's currently 22 lengthy chapters and it's REALLY well done. Seriously check it out. So in light of that I thought, hey why not try it with Battle Network. Now to clear up any confusions or questions you may have going into this.

You'll notice that obviously I'm pairing Bass with a human. Bass has always been my favorite villain/anti-hero in the Battle Network franchise. But I also felt that, despite his background being well thought out, his character in general didn't have much of an arc. The only time it did was in the NT Warrior manga by Ryo Takamisaki. So I thought why not give him one by forcing him to befriend a human? Now obviously since I'm taking this route, Bass's personality will be a bit different, so if he seems a little OOC…well that's the point. Besides he's a selectable Navi in 4.5 when you unlock him, so the idea isn't completely unfeasible.

Also, because I'm using Bass and an OC of my creation for the main protagonists, Lan and Mega Man will NOT be in this story. I want to keep it original like that. No Chaud or Proto Man either. I will also be replacing a few characters, but mostly in the Battle Network parts. Who these characters are, I won't say yet. But you'll know them when you see them.

I'm also using the anime plot for the Battle Network portion of this series, but I'm taking things like the game version of Bass and Serenade. I didn't really like how they did Bass in the Anime. It felt really lazy.

The scenario where Bass described the days that let to his betrayal I took from Volume 6 of the manga. Read that to get a better idea of what I'm talking about.

And why am I starting from Axess you may ask? Because the story of Axess was more developed than the first season which was a cluttered mess, trying to adapt the first and second games into its own thing. It really could have been done better. Also the animation and audio editing for the Japanese part was very lazy. Because of that some events that happened prior to this story will either be different, or they never happened at all. For example, World Three was a thing in this story but was quelled a while ago. Gospel never got to be.

Finally, don't go thinking that I'm following the episodes play by play for Axess. I'm going to jumble them up a bit in the future, and you'll see why.

So with that being said, if you're going to leave a review, be polite, be professional, and most importantly, be patient. I have big plans for this, and it's definitely going to take a while. But I'm going to have soooooooooo much fun doing it.

STAY TUNED!