Hello, and welcome to System Error, AKA the one-shot series that me and a friend, Cinnamononions, came up with.

We kinda started talking about headcanons and shit, and then I brought up this headcanon thing I saw once about ProtoMan being blind and needing his visor thing to see - turns out that was actually Cin's thing, so we got to talking about that, and I wondered whether or not this would have any effect on Chaud while they were Cross Fused.

So, yeah, this fic is essentially a compilation of various headcanons and other things based entirely around Chaud and ProtoMan. I'll be uploading these one-shots in 'parts', so if there's a story (such as this one, called Proto-13) and it comes in several chapters rather than just a single one, I'll upload all the chapters when I'm done and those will be a 'part'.

It's called System Error because of obvious reasons which will become clear as I continue writing the story - the most obvious of which is the reason for Cin and me headcanoning that ProtoMan is blind.

Anywho, I'll probably just upload shit as I go along, since this one-shot series isn't exactly gonna have much of a structure to it unlike my previous MegaMan fic, The Underground NetBattlers. I actually mentioned this fic in the very last chapter of that as a sort of advert for it, but that fic and this one are set in entirely different universes.

System Error is largely based on the anime, since that's my first real experience with the Battle Network series, but depending on what me and Cin come up with, I may also take some elements from the games or manga. One of those being MegaMan originally living as Hub Hikari, so he and Lan are twins here. Because why not.

Now that that explanation's over, let's get into this first 'part'.

I don't own MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior, on with the show!

OOOOOO

There were thirty of them. Thirty NetNavis - all of them prototypes - in a single, isolated Area, kept almost hidden away in the network of a company by the name of Zephyram.

These prototypes were the result of a recent project. This project would never have existed had it not been for the public's demands of more advanced Navis, essentially more 'human' Navis, and the thirty Navis that were kept inside of the isolated net Area of Zephyram were going to be the prototypes of future Navis.

Unfortunately, as prototypes, they all had their fair share of . . . errors. Some of the prototype Navis had strange glitches in their systems, a few of them minor, while others were so obviously glitched it was difficult to tell why their creator had yet to delete them.

One of these prototypes was a Navi by the name of Proto-13.

Proto-13 was one of the more 'successful' prototypes. He - for that was his assigned 'gender' - could say this without a hint of arrogance, as the prototypes' creator had said it on various occasions, but there was just one fatal flaw in his 'success' as a prototype NetNavi. His system error, if you would.

But it wasn't too much of a problem, he thought. Unlike some of the others - such as Proto-8 or even Proto-23 - his errors were low in number. He only had a couple of serious glitches and a few minor ones, while other prototypes had as many as fifty-four major glitches (Proto-3 was the unlucky prototype Navi with that many glitches). Proto-13 had often heard his creator and other humans say how ironic it was that a Navi with such an unlucky number was potentially the luckiest one of all, but Proto-13 was uncertain as to why his number would be unlucky.

However, while he was uncertain as to the reason behind his 'unlucky' number, Proto-13 did know that his major glitch, his error, was probably one of the strangest out of all of the prototype Navis.

" . . . just prototypes, of course they have errors and glitches. You can't expect us to get them perfect the first time around."

"But as I understand it, you've created thirty of these 'prototypes' - that suggests you should have seen some improvement, yet you continue to have problems."

Proto-13 perked up. The first voice he'd heard was his creator, but he didn't know the second voice. It certainly didn't sound like any of the other people who worked with his creator on the prototype Navi project. Perhaps this was his creator's superior?

"We're trying different methods and various system changes. Each one of these Navis have vastly different systems, and some of these are more successful than others."

"They all look very similar, though. Is there any particular reason?"

"Well, we're just trying to figure out how to make them more advanced first. Design can come later. Besides, I don't think we need to show the public our prototypes, just the finished version."

The second voice suddenly became sharp. "And the finished version may not even be shown to the public, the way you and your team are working. You said you'd have one good prototype ready to show us. You have thirty, and none of them are anywhere near complete enough to show anyone."

"You have to understand, these things take time. NetNavis are far more complex than simple programs, especially these ones - programming their systems takes a very long time and we don't want to rush in case we make any mistakes. The company's reputation is on the line here."

"Fine, fine, just show me the Navis you told me about. I'll discuss it with the rest of the board afterwards, we'll see if your project shows enough promise. If it doesn't, I'm afraid we'll have to cut funding and you'll need to move on to something else, Shuseki."

"Yes, of course, sir. Right this way - I'll just call up the Navis . . ."

Proto-2, Proto-10, Proto-14, Proto-21 and Proto-29 were all called, along with Proto-13 himself.

He stood in line with the others with some difficulty. Proto-2, the second-oldest prototype in the group, helped him as much as she could, but it was very difficult to help him as she had no hands to speak of and could only nudge him in the correct direction.

Their creator started speaking again. "These six are the best ones we've created so far. They're the ones with the fewest glitches and errors, and we believe they show the most promise out of all of the prototypes."

"I'll be the judge of that," the second voice replied. " . . . That one doesn't seem to have any hands."

"Ah, yes, Proto-2. She . . . has a minor glitch that caused her hands to vanish one day, we didn't know about it until she started walking around with those stubs. There are also several other glitches in her systems that somehow cancelled her speech program."

"So the second prototype you created has no hands and no voice?"

"Yes." Their creator sounded slightly awkward.

"And you consider this to be one of your better ones?"

"Compared to some of the others, yes. But Proto-2 isn't the only one, the others are much the same - for example, Proto-10 has a strange glitch that causes his colour to change occasionally. Ah, there you go. Just like that. His colour changes at least three or four times a day, sometimes more if he's particularly . . . stressed."

"Stressed? NetNavis don't get stressed, Shuseki. They're computer programs."

"Yes, but as per their more advanced programming, we've also included something we call an emotion emulator program. It's not perfect, and there are errors that come with it, but our customers wanted more 'human' Navis, and that's what the emotion emulator is for."

"They're computer programs."

"It only emulates emotions, they don't actually feel anything."

The second voice hummed, but didn't sound particularly interested.

Their creator went through each of the prototype Navis, listing their glitches and errors but attempting to highlight their merits as well - although to Proto-13, this seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause as the second voice, who appeared to be someone that their creator wished to impress, was more focused on their flaws.

Proto-13 wanted his creator to do well with his presentation - for this was undoubtably what this was - so when it came to his turn to be presented to the second voice, he stood a little straighter and tried to look more like a proper Navi, although he didn't know exactly what that meant.

"What's wrong this one's eyes?" the second voice asked.

"Proto-13 is completely blind. There was some sort of strange glitch in his sight programming that we didn't notice until we'd booted him up, and by then it was too late to fix it, otherwise we'd risk deleting him - which we didn't want to do, as he's one of the most successful prototypes we've created so far. Aside from a minor balance glitch, there's not much else wrong with him."

"Hm."

The second voice didn't sound very impressed.

Proto-13 was . . . sad at this. He knew that he had let down his creator when he was needed most, and that was something a Navi, even a prototype, was not supposed to do.

"I'm sorry to say that your advanced Navi project doesn't look entirely promising," the second voice said to the prototypes' creator. "If these Navis are your best attempts, then we may have to cancel this project entirely."

Their creator was silent.

"Your idea does have some merits, I'll grant you that," the second voice went on. "The public wants more 'human' NetNavis, as absurd as it sounds. Zephyram needs to keep up with the times, however, so we'll need to produce more advanced Navis at some point. I'll discuss it with the board, like I said, but don't get your hopes up."

" . . . Of course."

Once the second voice was gone, their creator dismissed the six prototype Navis he had called for the presentation. But while the others wandered away, Proto-13 stayed where he was.

It took a while for his creator to notice him.

"What is it?" his creator asked, somewhat harshly. Proto-13 wasn't offended by this - his creator often spoke like this to the prototypes, and after something like that, he couldn't be blamed for being angry.

"I want to apologise," Proto-13 said to his creator. "That presentation didn't go as you planned, and I feel as though it was my fault. For that I apologise."

"It was your fault, yours and those other failures," his creator muttered. "Why couldn't we create a good prototype?"

That, Proto-13 knew, was a rhetorical question. It was not to be answered, so he kept silent and allowed his creator to take his anger out on him. That was, after all, what a Navi was for - to assist humans. And this was one way of assisting them.

"Master Blaze," he began politely once his creator had fallen silent himself, "who was the man you were speaking with?"

"NetNavis aren't supposed to ask questions," his creator said sharply.

"Of course," Proto-13 said, bowing his head in acknowledgement. "I apologise, I didn't mean to-"

But his creator surprised him by actually answering his question.

"That was one of the board of directors for this company," Proto-13's creator told him. "He wanted to know how the advanced Navi project was coming along, and requested to be shown our best work so far."

Proto-13 was proud to be considered part of his creator's 'best work so far', but the feeling only lasted for a moment as his creator continued.

"Evidently our best wasn't enough," his creator said bitterly. "You all fail to meet the standards that Zephyram demands of all its Navis. And without funding, we can hardly continue the project."

"I'm sorry," Proto-13 said quietly.

"Stop apologising," his creator snapped. Then he sighed irritably. "The way things are going, Zephyram will just be stuck in time, regardless of what the board says. They don't want to change what we already produce, since it works just fine - for now. I may as well just set up my own company, it would be much simpler . . ."

Proto-13 didn't know anything about this, so he offered no opinion - nor was he expected to. Navis weren't supposed to have opinions about anything.

Several days after the presentation, the board of directors reached a decision. Proto-13 knew this because he had been listening quietly to the voices of the humans in the team working on the advanced Navi project with his creator, and it didn't sound very good from what he heard. The board had decided that the advanced Navi project wasn't going anywhere, and had stopped funding it. They had also told Proto-13's creator to shut down the project entirely and delete all of the failed prototype Navis.

So Proto-13, along with all of the other prototypes, was to be deleted.

That made him sad. Proto-13 had been hoping that maybe the board would reach a different decision and that he and all of the other prototypes would be spared, but it made sense.

The project wasn't going anywhere, the youngest of the prototypes - Proto-30 - was evidence enough of that. If, after thirty attempts, the best the project could produce had their fair share of errors (and the most successful being completely blind), it was plain that the project would fail. Their creator would naturally need to delete all of them in order to wipe any existence of the project from Zephyram. Perhaps after this, their creator could start another project, and hopefully it would be more successful than this one.

Proto-13's only regret was that he would not be around to see it.

But he was surprised. When it came to his turn to be deleted - he had been last, for some reason, even though the others had all been deleted in numerical order - his creator did something very strange.

Instead of being deleted, Proto-13 was instead downloaded onto a data storage device with enough memory capacity to hold a NetNavi. There was no explanation for it, and he expected to be given none, but all the same he was curious.

Navis weren't supposed to be curious.

OOOOOO

And that concludes the first chapter of the first 'part' of System Error, Proto-13!

You can probably guess why it's called Proto-13. We'll be getting into different stuff in the next chapter.

Also, yeah, I'm kinda expanding on some of the stuff that Cin headcanoned about. This is my interpretation of the blind headcanon thing that she gave me, and since it's kinda difficult to describe anything from the POV of a blind person (or blind Navi in this case), I've kept this more or less . . . well, non-descriptive.

Keep in mind that this is the anime canon, and according to that canon, Shuseki worked at a Navi-production company by the name of Zephyram. At this point in time, Navis are kinda bland as hell and don't have much personality - hence why Proto-13 is sort of flat at the moment. But since these prototypes are (or were) the forerunners of the Navis we see in present canon, that means there's gonna be a lot of glitches and errors in their systems.

Proto-13's is, obviously, the fact that he's completely blind. But he's also the most successful of all of the prototype Navis, which is why Shuseki (the creator of the prototype Navis, obviously) didn't delete him like the others.

That reason never gets explained in the narration since Proto-13 isn't going to ask about it, and Shuseki isn't about to volunteer the information, so I'm gonna tell you guys right now just in case it never comes up again.

Anywho.

Read and review!