![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Lan Hikari
CHARACTER AGE: 12
SERIES: Mega Man Battle Network
CHRONOLOGY: just after leaving the WWW base at the end of the third game
CLASS: Hero
BACKGROUND: It's the year 20XX, in an alternate universe where technology has progressed to the point that it is a vital part of life, and where everything electronic, from computer networks to security systems to household appliances has the capability to access the Internet.
However, not all these things have a monitor or easy way to access said Internet, so also present are AI programs called Internet Navigators (NetNavis or just Navis for short), which allow humans (Network Operators, NetOps, or just Operators) to browse the web, send messages to one another, and troubleshoot issues like viruses (which manifest as monster-like entities that vary in size and 'strength' that the Navis must battle). Navis can also battle one another, though the practice is viewed somewhat like street fighting and is generally not allowed in many areas. The most common are the commercially-produced, basic 'off the shelf' Navis with very little in terms of personality and function, while independently programmed and customized Navis are far rarer.
Lan Hikari is one such Operator. His Navi (and very best friend), Megaman.exe, is one of the rarer models, programmed specially by Lan's father, a scientist/researcher by the name of Yuichiro Hikari. At his introduction, Lan is a fifth grader at the local elementary school, where he does abysmally in almost every academic area but is considered top of his class when it comes to net battling. His life is fairly normal for an 11-year-old: going to school, hanging out with friends, hanging out online, sleeping in on the weekends.
The first sign that something is about to make things far less normal for Lan is a remark by his friend Mayl saying that people's ovens have started spitting fire. A rumor that a terrorist group called WWW is behind it, planting viruses in the ovens, but no one knows for sure. The Hikari family's oven is checked and declared safe by a technician...just before it catches on fire and the technician calls to claim credit for it, having planted his own Navi into the appliance. The fire gets put out without damage to the rest of the house, and all is well again. Until a strange substitute teacher comes to Lan's school and tries to brainwash the student population into joining WWW, forcing Lan and Megaman to force their way through the school while it's on lockdown and stop said teacher and his Navi. Back to normal, right?
Nope. A visit to Dr. Hikari's lab turns into a job to fix the subway system after another WWW member attempts to disable it, and then another WWW member targets the local water supply, completely shutting down the plant that manages it. Lan decides he isn't going to let someone else deal with the problem, considering what he's helped with or done so far. He gets an lecture from a kid about his age--Eugene Chaud, an Official dispatched along with his Navi Protoman to check out the situation--about how he's just a kid and to leave virus elimination to the professionals. Lan doesn't listen--marking the beginning of a pretty intense rivalry with Chaud--and decides hide and wait at his father's lab until after hours so he can work without interruption. Fortunately the lab and the water management plant are connected. With Megaman's help, power is restored to the water pumps. Too bad that turning said pumps on only made the problem worse--there's still a problem, and it's with the filtration system. More lecture from Chaud, this time about how he's a giant screwup and why didn't he stay out of the way?. The water management plant fiasco is solved eventually, just in time for WWW to target the traffic lights in the city, causing some intersections to display red lights on all four sides and some to display all green lights. The way the system is set up also restricts movement through the crosswalks through a sort of laser system that prevents pedestrian movement across a street that has a green light. To make things worse, a they've also jacked a bus and set it to explode, along with Mayl and other passengers. Once again, Lan manages to fix the traffic lights AND prevent his friend and some strangers from death by exploding bus.
One of the last attacks by WWW is on the science lab itself. During a party, one of the members shuts down the power to the entire building, both plunging the entire place into darkness and shutting down the ventilation system providing air to those attending the party. A trek through a mostly-broken network in a blackout with a rapidly dwindling PET battery follows, but again things are fixed by an 11-year-old and his Navi.
It comes to light that most of the WWW's attacks were part of a plan by a Dr. Wily to create a super strong virus called the Life Virus, designed to destroy the cyberworld. The creation required four elemental programs, all of which were hidden in various areas that were attacked. Destroying the cyberworld would create havoc in the world, as tech-dependent as it is, so allowing the Life Virus to be released is a Very Bad Thing. So of course, Lan and Megaman go to stop that from happening, locating and storming Wily's hideout. Well, Lan did the physical storming, Megaman did the network storming. Inside the hideout, they face one more WWW Navi, called Magicman. Megaman appears to have the upper hand on Magicman in their battle, until Magicman borrows some power from the Life Virus and uses it to attack, nearly killing Megaman.
He doesn't die, in part because of Chaud suddenly showing up to deliver a program called 'hub.bat', helpfully explained by Lan's father to be a program that will strengthen Megaman but also potentially hurt Lan. A burst of exposition follows where he also admits that Megaman is created from the digital DNA of Lan's older twin brother--Hub--who died ten years prior. 99.999% of it, anyway, as he put 0.001% of the DNA data into the hub.bat file to prevent 'Full Synchro', a state that would cause any damage Megaman sustained in the cyberworld to backlash onto Lan. Lan decides this isn't enough of a deterrent to not run the program and does that, reviving Megaman and sends him after the Life Virus again, this time succeeding. The base begins self-destructing but everyone manages to escape, except Wily.
It takes a few weeks for things to die down, but they do, and life returns to normal for everyone.
Just in time for a new Internet terrorist to pop up. How exciting! It's not WWW, this one being a completely different group that operates from the shadier part of the Internet, called Gospel. Like WWW, Gospel announces its presence with attacks on the real and cyber worlds, but unlike the previous attacks Gospel's aim seems to be general chaos and destruction rather than working towards any purpose. One member goes after another of Lan's friends, Yai, holding her hostage in her home to get a ransom from her rich parents and another plans to blow up a dam situated above not only a popular campsite but one filled with innocent people. These attacks are stopped before they have any fatal consequences, the latter coming with another dose of Chaud's attitude. After these events, Lan and Megaman decide to try taking the test to become Official Netbattlers...or at least low-ranking ones, so at least they can do their heroing properly. Said license allows civilians to act as NetBattlers when an actual one isn't present, and has different tiers: Z, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS.
Unfortunately, heroing must take a backseat to schooling, and Lan scrambles to think of a topic for a research project he has to do. A note he finds back at the dam site--a request from a person looking for a penpal in whoever finds the note--inspires him to do his research on different foods around the world, starting in Yumland, the origin of the note. As much as he'd love to go to Yumland, he can't physically, so he sends Megaman to the country's main website instead. Unfortunately, all the Navis and programs that would normally be on the website have been deleted in a Gospel attack, leaving the site completely empty. Apparently the next target for deletion is Lan's country (Electopia/Japan). This is in the cyberworld, of course, but here we go back to how important technology is to daily life and wiping out a digital version of a country is about the same as nuking the country in real life.
Anyway, Dr. Hikari is as worried as everyone else but offers an upgrade for Megaman that'll allow him to stand a better chance against Gospel's Navis and thus help prevent deletion and chaos. The upgrade requires a trek back to the barren Yumland site to acquire a program that turns out to be extremely valuable to Yumland and sets a security force after Megaman. He and Lan do get back and back to the lab in one piece, giving Dr. Hikari the chance to install the upgrade just before Gospel launches their attack. Lan, Chaud, and some other Official Netbattlers fight to protect their cyberspace, their numbers gradually diminishing until it's just Megaman versus a Navi called Shadowman.
Megaman wins, of course. And that victory attracts Lan enough attention to be invited to an Official Netbattlers' Conference, to represent his country. The conference is to be held in a country across the world, which means a plane ride for Team Hikari.
And a chance for things to go horribly wrong. Airport security won't even let Lan onto the plane without confiscating his PET (along with Megaman), though Chaud--also attending the conference--gets it back. While they're separated, Lan manages to get robbed of all his money, and not too long after reclaiming the funds, ends up getting robbed of his battle chips. By the time the two arrive at Lan's hotel room, they're stressed and irritated and end up getting into an argument that ends with Lan abandoning the PET and storming off. Eventually, he returns to apologize, discovering that during his absence, someone had broken in, attacked Megaman, and stole Lan's passport data off of the PET. They don't continue their argument; Lan repairs his friend and they set out to go find the data and battle chips.
The conference also turns out to be terrible as well. Turns out a Gospel agent is among those attending, but no one knows who it actually is, leading to confusion as everyone tries to figure out who they can and can't trust (including Chaud and Lan, who each decide at one point that the other is the agent and end up in a battle to the death). Another Gospel agent hijacks the return flight, and yet another hijacks the world's environmental control systems, causing them to go haywire and cause natural disasters on a massive scale. The source turns out to be multicolored cyber-ice coating the entire Net, courtesy of a navi called Freezeman. Freezeman threatens Electopia with a magnitude 10 earthquake, forcing Megaman to defeat him as quickly as possible.
It would be great if this were the last thing that the pair had to deal with, but it is unfortunately not. Gospel is still around, despite many of the major agents out of commission, and cybercrime increases dramatically after the environmental crisis. Fortunately, the headquarters of Gospel is easy to find, in part because it suddenly begins emitting high levels of electromagnetic radiation, enough to pinpoint its exact location (as well as make anyone around the building sick).
After some whining, Lan manages to get permission to go check out the irradiated building, armed with a suit to protect him from the radiation. At one point, Lan's friends also show up to help, also with radiation suits, but clear off fairly quickly due to said suits not being rated high enough for the amount of radiation present (then come back briefly). Which turns out to be blending the real and cyber worlds, having submerged the topmost floors of the building entirely in the cyberworld and causing computers to grow from the floor. This is a Bad Thing, of course, so Megaman and Lan work their way upwards through the real and cyber areas of the base and manage to find Gospel's leader, a kid by the name of Sean, and a supernavi called Bass. They defeat Bass, who then mutates into a giant Multibug Organism--a mass of glitches given shape--and proceeds to jack the local radiation levels 500k times their previous level, knocking Sean and Lan out.
Also a Bad Thing. Fortunately for everyone, Megaman manages to mentally contact Lan and activate a weaker version of Full Synchro, allowing them to take out the Multibug Organism and end Gospel's bid for power.
Just in time for Lan to realize that he never did his summer homework and it is now due.
The next exciting thing to happen doesn't have anything to do with cyberterrorism or crime; it's a netbattle tournament called the N1 Grand Prix. Lan finds out about it along with his friends, from a TV producer in a local park. They enter, of course, and pass the preliminaries with no problems.
Not long after this, the gang gets together to sneak into their school to retrieve a homework disk Dex left in the classroom. Despite being kind of a bad idea, everything goes fairly well, until they bump into a thief also inside the school. Said thief uses his Navi to hypnotize Lan's friends (with humorous results). Lan escapes hypnotism and sends Megaman into the network to find and defeat the Navi. He does, though the Navi seemingly ends the fight with a (apparently weak) kamikaze attack, and the thief manages to get away with a 'Tetracode'.
Fast forward a few days. Lan's PET starts malfunctioning, the audio and connection cutting out at random intervals. Dr. Hikari turns out to be too busy to truly fix the problem at that moment, leaving the boys to settle for a temporary fix, just in time for the next round of N1 prelims to start. Again, no problem. Though soon afterwards the temporary fix on the PET fails and Lan and Megaman are cut off completely from one another for a while.
Until Dr. Hikari develops and sends them a patch, just in time for them to deal with an issue at a local zoo where Lan's class is on a field trip. All the animals in the zoo are implanted with chips that allow the zookeepers to monitor their health, but someone had tampered with the chips, causing the animals to turn hostile and attack visitors. Megaman goes online to try to disable the chips and runs into the Navi responsible, who like the previous thief, manages to steal a Tetracode and escape with his operator. This thief claims to be a member of WWW, an unusual claim since WWW was supposedly disbanded. Hmm. Either way, WWW doesn't do anything immediately concerning for nearly a month and the incident is mostly shrugged off.
Until surprise! An evil plot. Taking the form of terrorizing people via bubbles. Specifically bubbles created by a new dishwasher line, and that are made of an explosive substance designed to blow up after a certain amount of time has passed. This is bad news since the bubbles are capable of getting large enough to trap people in them, then...yeah. This plot is interesting because the Navi responsible this time around is about the least threatening thing around, put in charge of something capable of killing thousands without much effort at all. And that's nearly what happens, as the brothers fail to take the whole thing seriously until Chaud comes in to save the day and give another lecture about Lan's inability to do things effectively.
Fast forward again, to the actual N1 Grand Prix tournament proper. Chaud is apparently participating and he and Lan cannot help strengthening their rivalry by harassing one another, and as they move up the bracket it looks like they'll end up going against one another in the final match. However, Chaud's opponent in his semi-final match (a mystery up until now), reveals himself as the same producer running the show and that the whole thing was a plot to announce WWW's triumphant return by defeating the Navis that brought it down in the first place, Megaman and Protoman. He tries to assure his victory by kidnapping Chaud's father and forcing Chaud to give him Protoman in exchange for his release, but Lan bursts in and provides the best distraction by chucking his PET at the producer's head. It works, both because it's unexpected and because it knocks the guy out. The tournament ends up a wash and the criminal is arrested.
With no netcriminals to go after and nothing better to do, a visit to the hospital is in order, after one of Lan's friends ends up there after being injured during the tournament. They end up making a new friend, a young boy named Mamoru, who turns out to suffer from HBD, the same thing that had ended Megaman's life as Hub. A life-saving surgical procedure has recently been developed specifically for those suffering from the condition, and the brothers (most especially Megaman) encourage Mamoru to go through with the operation. Because nothing can go right for too long, a WWW agent targets the hospital in search of a third Tetracode, sending the equipment involved in Mamoru's surgery offline. It ends up getting away with the Tetracode, but less of a deal than getting the equipment working again and Megaman does just that, jump-starting it with...himself. Crisis averted!
And more attention for Team Megaman, because they saved a hospital and that's a pretty good thing. So a commendation is in order, which would normally not be a bad thing if it weren't for Lan's ego easily being inflated. After a mini-lecture from Megaman, Lan goes on to bump into the technician (named Hinoken/Mr. Match) who jacked Lan's oven and made it spit fire. He claims to be a good guy and not part of WWW anymore, also claiming to be employed at SciLab, where Dr. Hikari works. Lan is suspicious and remains so even when Hinoken helps battle an attack by WWW Navis on SciLab. Hinoken insists he's changed and Lan slowly starts to believe it, eventually agreeing to help Hinoken when he requests assistance installing a program into SciLab's servers.
Turns out they couldn't trust him, as the program causes the heating system to go haywire, sending the indoor lab temperature into the triple digits and starting fires in the cyber world. Hinoken takes advantage of the chaos to take the last Tetracode and gloats about how he manipulated the kids into doing his work for him. Lan's dad ends up hospitalized and his ego takes a blow, but they don't have much time to dwell on either. The Tetracodes are crucial to a plan that involves releasing a sentient prototype of the Internet called Alpha into the world to wreck havoc, and only a program called Gigafreeze can stop it.
Obtaining Gigafreeze entails a trek through the Undernet, Megaman going through the Undernet's ranking system to make his way to the Navi that knows where Gigafreeze is kept. He manages to obtain Gigafreeze--freaking out Lan first by making him think Megaman got frozen by the program first--only to lose it trying to stop Bass from showing up and stealing Alpha. Bass takes both Gigafreeze and Alpha and disappears.
Alpha ends up getting released and starts going nuts on the military networks. Dr. Hikari once again manages to track down the hideout and Lan goes to go take it down. Unfortunately, there initially doesn't seem to be a way to get at Alpha, aside from a Pulse Transmission chair. With the safety of the world at stake, Lan uses the chair, sending his consciousness into the cyberworld. This is very exciting for the boys, as it marks the very few times they've been able to interact face-to-face. It allows them to use Full Synchro for real, this state giving them the power to defeat both Bass and Alpha.
After the fight with Alpha, Lan and Megaman end up in a simulation of one of SciLab's laboratories, populated by an AI based off of their grandfather, Tadashi Hikari. Tadashi hands over a file intended for Yuichiro and tells them to leave as quickly as they can because Alpha isn't fully gone. He's entirely correct, as a remnant of the program attacks before they can get out of the computer, attempting to absorb the two, who are still synced. Megaman's more worried about getting Lan out safely and plans to disengage the synchronization and self-destruct, taking the Alpha remnant with him.
Lan vehemently objects to this plan, trying to convince Megaman to try something, anything else, to no avail. Megaman thanks him for all the time they'd spent together and for letting him be part of his life, preemptively scolds him for oversleeping and not doing homework, and then disengages the synchro.
Lan is in shock for a while, both because he's lost a brother (for a second time), a friend, and a big part of his life. And he can't even reduce the sting the tiniest bit by 'resurrecting' Megaman via backup.
PERSONALITY: In simplest terms, Lan is a large ball of energy, enthusiasm, and cheerfulness bordering on obnoxious. His approach to life is very optimistic and relaxed but, assuring everyone that whatever needs to get done will get done somehow, no matter the method.
Unfortunately, 'relaxed' also means 'slightly lazy' and 'lacking motivation'. He's not inclined to do anything he doesn't have much of an interest in or that isn't interesting, such as homework or obligations that are particularly boring, and can be somewhat bratty when confronted about it. However, once he does express an interest in something, you're very hard-pressed to get his attention away from it. Netbattling and rollerblading are his most favorite things, and those take priority over aaall other things. This is especially true when it comes to things he isn't supposed to be in, or doing, or involved with.
Basically, if you give him the choice, he'll choose 'fun but not obligatory' over 'boring but must be done'. And will probably complain about the latter if not given the choice.
Along with lazy, Lan also gives the appearance of not being the most intelligent. Going back to the homework example, he leaves schoolwork to the last minute and often asks his classmates (especially Mayl) for help or to copy off of them. In the anime, he states that his favorite subjects are art and netbattling and his worst subject is math. In the games, however, it's implied that he's very capable of programming even at 11, as he can repair and modify Megaman's data very quickly, and in even later games he follows in his father's scientific footsteps. The anime differs from the game very heavily in timeline, but also in the anime, Lan is shown to be working on a prototype wireless version of the PET, getting it to operate successfully on the first try.
In this same vein, he also tends towards painfully oblivious and painfully impulsive. Nuances of any sort go right over his head, he misses crucial details most others catch right away and when faced with a problem, he tends to go with the first solution that pops into his head with the information he has available. He usually trusts people quickly if they're good at acting trustworthy, unless he has a good reason not to. Even then, he'll only be inwardly skeptical until something happens to change his opinion. Romance is a foreign concept to him (on par with mathematics), to the point where the girl that has a crush on him pretty much has to state exactly that to get him to realize it.
Lan's also pretty easy to trick. Due to his lack of attention, he often doesn't notice signs that point out that he's heading for a trap or that something isn't quite right. One instance that also plays on his ability to trust people is when he accidentally ends up compromising SciLab's security by installing Hinoken's program. While he was skeptical of Hinoken at first, he didn't stay that way for very long due to an apparent lack of evidence that Hinoken hadn't changed and so he changed his mind. When WWW targeted the water plant, he wasn't necessarily tricked directly, but he did accidentally help the enemy's cause by mistakenly letting poisoned water be pumped into the city.
Still, he's optimistic. There's always a way out or a way in or a way to fix whatever's broken, no matter what the damage. He bounces back fairly quickly from most things, but he's not immune to bouts of depression or low feeling. He's also much more likely to try to cheer up those around him before himself, especially his friends, and reassure them everything'll be fine. As long as he can have a try at fixing it, that is. World might end? Nah, he's gonna go in and kick the ass of whatever is threatening it.
Lan's optimism and drive sometimes combine with a huge reckless streak and determination lead to extremely stupid things that somehow work. Go into the irradiated building to beat up the badguy? Sure. Run the program that has a chance of seriously injuring and/or killing you? Sure. Jump out a second-story window to get to the ground? Yep! Jump out of a moving helicopter and/or bus to go save your friend? Yep!
The last two are actually not canon to the games, but given the chances, he would do them.
Speaking of friends, Lan values his friends and friendship very much. All of his friends are equally important to him and he feels obligated to save each of them if they happen to be in trouble. Megaman is his closest friend--'brother' is more of a very close second--and a big enough part of Lan's life that he has a hard time imagining even a few hours, let alone life, without Megaman. He freaks out if he loses contact with the Navi, pleading with the security guard and very nearly crying when his PET is confiscated at the airport and frequently checking on Megaman in any situation that seems dangerous or potentially so. His parents get this treatment to a lesser extent, as they're adults and can (usually) take care of themselves, but Lan won't ever hesitate to help them with anything ever either.
POWERS:
Pulse Transmission [semi-canon] - Normally, Pulse Transmission involves sending someone’s brainwaves into the cyberworld using a chair-like device ala the Matrix, creating a digital avatar from said brainwaves. In this world, Lan wouldn’t need the device, being able to transport himself mentally into a device he happens to be near enough to.
This power is similar to Megaman and Magicman’s Data Transfer powers in a loose sense, but it’s much more restrictive. Lan can’t move as freely around a cyberscape as native programs--he can interact with objects and humans, but he doesn’t have any inherent means to defend himself from anything and he can only leave through the same device he entered from.
PT also renders his body in the real world unconscious upon use. Like in canon, injuries sustained by Lan's digital avatar will cause brain damage, but only if they're very severe.
Security Manipulation [non-canon] - Basically a power that gives Lan the ability to identify a network or device's security measures and partially the means to get through or around it. This ability changes slightly depending on whether he's used Pulse Transmission or not--if so, said security measures manifest physically, such as a door with a passcode lock or a literal wall of encryption.
The higher the level of security, the more difficult it becomes for Lan to get through it. A simple password-protected file would provide a hint if asked, something lightly encrypted would appear as a durable wall or ask for an encryption code, and something heavily encrypted might be an unbreakable wall or a password hint that's completely false or a password that changes constantly.
This power does not come with the inherent ability to modify all data, nor to copy it in any way, but Lan can view most files. It does come with, along with the ability to hack through other people's security to create security of his own, of varying levels. This is also subject to the 'higher the level, the more difficult it is to do it'.
Synchro(nization) [canon]:
Basically a mental merge between a human Operator and a Navi, partially combining their consciousnesses (think 'two souls one body') and shortening the delay between a battle command and action taken. It's not difficult to achieve a high synchro level--simply by working together in battle, having a similar goal, following a planned strategy--but the closer you get to 100%, the more dangerous it becomes. Mainly, the more in-sync a Navi and Operator are, the more damage 'bleeds' through to the human (e.g. a blade injury to the arm would result in an impressive bruise at about 80%, and an actual laceration around 97%)
Due to the unique relationship between Lan and Megaman, it's a passive and uncontrollable ability, mostly inactive due to the Hub.bat safeguard. However, in MoM, it would be passive and active and work across the real world as well, instead of just real-to-cyberworld.
There are technically three levels of Synchro, the other two being Full and Perfect. Full is just a really high level of synchronization and Perfect is a complete consciousness merge. Perfect Synchro has the downside of maxing out Lan's vitals and effectively putting him in a coma for the duration.
CHARACTER NAME: Lan Hikari
CHARACTER AGE: 12
SERIES: Mega Man Battle Network
CHRONOLOGY: just after leaving the WWW base at the end of the third game
CLASS: Hero
BACKGROUND: It's the year 20XX, in an alternate universe where technology has progressed to the point that it is a vital part of life, and where everything electronic, from computer networks to security systems to household appliances has the capability to access the Internet.
However, not all these things have a monitor or easy way to access said Internet, so also present are AI programs called Internet Navigators (NetNavis or just Navis for short), which allow humans (Network Operators, NetOps, or just Operators) to browse the web, send messages to one another, and troubleshoot issues like viruses (which manifest as monster-like entities that vary in size and 'strength' that the Navis must battle). Navis can also battle one another, though the practice is viewed somewhat like street fighting and is generally not allowed in many areas. The most common are the commercially-produced, basic 'off the shelf' Navis with very little in terms of personality and function, while independently programmed and customized Navis are far rarer.
Lan Hikari is one such Operator. His Navi (and very best friend), Megaman.exe, is one of the rarer models, programmed specially by Lan's father, a scientist/researcher by the name of Yuichiro Hikari. At his introduction, Lan is a fifth grader at the local elementary school, where he does abysmally in almost every academic area but is considered top of his class when it comes to net battling. His life is fairly normal for an 11-year-old: going to school, hanging out with friends, hanging out online, sleeping in on the weekends.
The first sign that something is about to make things far less normal for Lan is a remark by his friend Mayl saying that people's ovens have started spitting fire. A rumor that a terrorist group called WWW is behind it, planting viruses in the ovens, but no one knows for sure. The Hikari family's oven is checked and declared safe by a technician...just before it catches on fire and the technician calls to claim credit for it, having planted his own Navi into the appliance. The fire gets put out without damage to the rest of the house, and all is well again. Until a strange substitute teacher comes to Lan's school and tries to brainwash the student population into joining WWW, forcing Lan and Megaman to force their way through the school while it's on lockdown and stop said teacher and his Navi. Back to normal, right?
Nope. A visit to Dr. Hikari's lab turns into a job to fix the subway system after another WWW member attempts to disable it, and then another WWW member targets the local water supply, completely shutting down the plant that manages it. Lan decides he isn't going to let someone else deal with the problem, considering what he's helped with or done so far. He gets an lecture from a kid about his age--Eugene Chaud, an Official dispatched along with his Navi Protoman to check out the situation--about how he's just a kid and to leave virus elimination to the professionals. Lan doesn't listen--marking the beginning of a pretty intense rivalry with Chaud--and decides hide and wait at his father's lab until after hours so he can work without interruption. Fortunately the lab and the water management plant are connected. With Megaman's help, power is restored to the water pumps. Too bad that turning said pumps on only made the problem worse--there's still a problem, and it's with the filtration system. More lecture from Chaud, this time about how he's a giant screwup and why didn't he stay out of the way?. The water management plant fiasco is solved eventually, just in time for WWW to target the traffic lights in the city, causing some intersections to display red lights on all four sides and some to display all green lights. The way the system is set up also restricts movement through the crosswalks through a sort of laser system that prevents pedestrian movement across a street that has a green light. To make things worse, a they've also jacked a bus and set it to explode, along with Mayl and other passengers. Once again, Lan manages to fix the traffic lights AND prevent his friend and some strangers from death by exploding bus.
One of the last attacks by WWW is on the science lab itself. During a party, one of the members shuts down the power to the entire building, both plunging the entire place into darkness and shutting down the ventilation system providing air to those attending the party. A trek through a mostly-broken network in a blackout with a rapidly dwindling PET battery follows, but again things are fixed by an 11-year-old and his Navi.
It comes to light that most of the WWW's attacks were part of a plan by a Dr. Wily to create a super strong virus called the Life Virus, designed to destroy the cyberworld. The creation required four elemental programs, all of which were hidden in various areas that were attacked. Destroying the cyberworld would create havoc in the world, as tech-dependent as it is, so allowing the Life Virus to be released is a Very Bad Thing. So of course, Lan and Megaman go to stop that from happening, locating and storming Wily's hideout. Well, Lan did the physical storming, Megaman did the network storming. Inside the hideout, they face one more WWW Navi, called Magicman. Megaman appears to have the upper hand on Magicman in their battle, until Magicman borrows some power from the Life Virus and uses it to attack, nearly killing Megaman.
He doesn't die, in part because of Chaud suddenly showing up to deliver a program called 'hub.bat', helpfully explained by Lan's father to be a program that will strengthen Megaman but also potentially hurt Lan. A burst of exposition follows where he also admits that Megaman is created from the digital DNA of Lan's older twin brother--Hub--who died ten years prior. 99.999% of it, anyway, as he put 0.001% of the DNA data into the hub.bat file to prevent 'Full Synchro', a state that would cause any damage Megaman sustained in the cyberworld to backlash onto Lan. Lan decides this isn't enough of a deterrent to not run the program and does that, reviving Megaman and sends him after the Life Virus again, this time succeeding. The base begins self-destructing but everyone manages to escape, except Wily.
It takes a few weeks for things to die down, but they do, and life returns to normal for everyone.
Just in time for a new Internet terrorist to pop up. How exciting! It's not WWW, this one being a completely different group that operates from the shadier part of the Internet, called Gospel. Like WWW, Gospel announces its presence with attacks on the real and cyber worlds, but unlike the previous attacks Gospel's aim seems to be general chaos and destruction rather than working towards any purpose. One member goes after another of Lan's friends, Yai, holding her hostage in her home to get a ransom from her rich parents and another plans to blow up a dam situated above not only a popular campsite but one filled with innocent people. These attacks are stopped before they have any fatal consequences, the latter coming with another dose of Chaud's attitude. After these events, Lan and Megaman decide to try taking the test to become Official Netbattlers...or at least low-ranking ones, so at least they can do their heroing properly. Said license allows civilians to act as NetBattlers when an actual one isn't present, and has different tiers: Z, D, C, B, A, S, SS, and SSS.
Unfortunately, heroing must take a backseat to schooling, and Lan scrambles to think of a topic for a research project he has to do. A note he finds back at the dam site--a request from a person looking for a penpal in whoever finds the note--inspires him to do his research on different foods around the world, starting in Yumland, the origin of the note. As much as he'd love to go to Yumland, he can't physically, so he sends Megaman to the country's main website instead. Unfortunately, all the Navis and programs that would normally be on the website have been deleted in a Gospel attack, leaving the site completely empty. Apparently the next target for deletion is Lan's country (Electopia/Japan). This is in the cyberworld, of course, but here we go back to how important technology is to daily life and wiping out a digital version of a country is about the same as nuking the country in real life.
Anyway, Dr. Hikari is as worried as everyone else but offers an upgrade for Megaman that'll allow him to stand a better chance against Gospel's Navis and thus help prevent deletion and chaos. The upgrade requires a trek back to the barren Yumland site to acquire a program that turns out to be extremely valuable to Yumland and sets a security force after Megaman. He and Lan do get back and back to the lab in one piece, giving Dr. Hikari the chance to install the upgrade just before Gospel launches their attack. Lan, Chaud, and some other Official Netbattlers fight to protect their cyberspace, their numbers gradually diminishing until it's just Megaman versus a Navi called Shadowman.
Megaman wins, of course. And that victory attracts Lan enough attention to be invited to an Official Netbattlers' Conference, to represent his country. The conference is to be held in a country across the world, which means a plane ride for Team Hikari.
And a chance for things to go horribly wrong. Airport security won't even let Lan onto the plane without confiscating his PET (along with Megaman), though Chaud--also attending the conference--gets it back. While they're separated, Lan manages to get robbed of all his money, and not too long after reclaiming the funds, ends up getting robbed of his battle chips. By the time the two arrive at Lan's hotel room, they're stressed and irritated and end up getting into an argument that ends with Lan abandoning the PET and storming off. Eventually, he returns to apologize, discovering that during his absence, someone had broken in, attacked Megaman, and stole Lan's passport data off of the PET. They don't continue their argument; Lan repairs his friend and they set out to go find the data and battle chips.
The conference also turns out to be terrible as well. Turns out a Gospel agent is among those attending, but no one knows who it actually is, leading to confusion as everyone tries to figure out who they can and can't trust (including Chaud and Lan, who each decide at one point that the other is the agent and end up in a battle to the death). Another Gospel agent hijacks the return flight, and yet another hijacks the world's environmental control systems, causing them to go haywire and cause natural disasters on a massive scale. The source turns out to be multicolored cyber-ice coating the entire Net, courtesy of a navi called Freezeman. Freezeman threatens Electopia with a magnitude 10 earthquake, forcing Megaman to defeat him as quickly as possible.
It would be great if this were the last thing that the pair had to deal with, but it is unfortunately not. Gospel is still around, despite many of the major agents out of commission, and cybercrime increases dramatically after the environmental crisis. Fortunately, the headquarters of Gospel is easy to find, in part because it suddenly begins emitting high levels of electromagnetic radiation, enough to pinpoint its exact location (as well as make anyone around the building sick).
After some whining, Lan manages to get permission to go check out the irradiated building, armed with a suit to protect him from the radiation. At one point, Lan's friends also show up to help, also with radiation suits, but clear off fairly quickly due to said suits not being rated high enough for the amount of radiation present (then come back briefly). Which turns out to be blending the real and cyber worlds, having submerged the topmost floors of the building entirely in the cyberworld and causing computers to grow from the floor. This is a Bad Thing, of course, so Megaman and Lan work their way upwards through the real and cyber areas of the base and manage to find Gospel's leader, a kid by the name of Sean, and a supernavi called Bass. They defeat Bass, who then mutates into a giant Multibug Organism--a mass of glitches given shape--and proceeds to jack the local radiation levels 500k times their previous level, knocking Sean and Lan out.
Also a Bad Thing. Fortunately for everyone, Megaman manages to mentally contact Lan and activate a weaker version of Full Synchro, allowing them to take out the Multibug Organism and end Gospel's bid for power.
Just in time for Lan to realize that he never did his summer homework and it is now due.
The next exciting thing to happen doesn't have anything to do with cyberterrorism or crime; it's a netbattle tournament called the N1 Grand Prix. Lan finds out about it along with his friends, from a TV producer in a local park. They enter, of course, and pass the preliminaries with no problems.
Not long after this, the gang gets together to sneak into their school to retrieve a homework disk Dex left in the classroom. Despite being kind of a bad idea, everything goes fairly well, until they bump into a thief also inside the school. Said thief uses his Navi to hypnotize Lan's friends (with humorous results). Lan escapes hypnotism and sends Megaman into the network to find and defeat the Navi. He does, though the Navi seemingly ends the fight with a (apparently weak) kamikaze attack, and the thief manages to get away with a 'Tetracode'.
Fast forward a few days. Lan's PET starts malfunctioning, the audio and connection cutting out at random intervals. Dr. Hikari turns out to be too busy to truly fix the problem at that moment, leaving the boys to settle for a temporary fix, just in time for the next round of N1 prelims to start. Again, no problem. Though soon afterwards the temporary fix on the PET fails and Lan and Megaman are cut off completely from one another for a while.
Until Dr. Hikari develops and sends them a patch, just in time for them to deal with an issue at a local zoo where Lan's class is on a field trip. All the animals in the zoo are implanted with chips that allow the zookeepers to monitor their health, but someone had tampered with the chips, causing the animals to turn hostile and attack visitors. Megaman goes online to try to disable the chips and runs into the Navi responsible, who like the previous thief, manages to steal a Tetracode and escape with his operator. This thief claims to be a member of WWW, an unusual claim since WWW was supposedly disbanded. Hmm. Either way, WWW doesn't do anything immediately concerning for nearly a month and the incident is mostly shrugged off.
Until surprise! An evil plot. Taking the form of terrorizing people via bubbles. Specifically bubbles created by a new dishwasher line, and that are made of an explosive substance designed to blow up after a certain amount of time has passed. This is bad news since the bubbles are capable of getting large enough to trap people in them, then...yeah. This plot is interesting because the Navi responsible this time around is about the least threatening thing around, put in charge of something capable of killing thousands without much effort at all. And that's nearly what happens, as the brothers fail to take the whole thing seriously until Chaud comes in to save the day and give another lecture about Lan's inability to do things effectively.
Fast forward again, to the actual N1 Grand Prix tournament proper. Chaud is apparently participating and he and Lan cannot help strengthening their rivalry by harassing one another, and as they move up the bracket it looks like they'll end up going against one another in the final match. However, Chaud's opponent in his semi-final match (a mystery up until now), reveals himself as the same producer running the show and that the whole thing was a plot to announce WWW's triumphant return by defeating the Navis that brought it down in the first place, Megaman and Protoman. He tries to assure his victory by kidnapping Chaud's father and forcing Chaud to give him Protoman in exchange for his release, but Lan bursts in and provides the best distraction by chucking his PET at the producer's head. It works, both because it's unexpected and because it knocks the guy out. The tournament ends up a wash and the criminal is arrested.
With no netcriminals to go after and nothing better to do, a visit to the hospital is in order, after one of Lan's friends ends up there after being injured during the tournament. They end up making a new friend, a young boy named Mamoru, who turns out to suffer from HBD, the same thing that had ended Megaman's life as Hub. A life-saving surgical procedure has recently been developed specifically for those suffering from the condition, and the brothers (most especially Megaman) encourage Mamoru to go through with the operation. Because nothing can go right for too long, a WWW agent targets the hospital in search of a third Tetracode, sending the equipment involved in Mamoru's surgery offline. It ends up getting away with the Tetracode, but less of a deal than getting the equipment working again and Megaman does just that, jump-starting it with...himself. Crisis averted!
And more attention for Team Megaman, because they saved a hospital and that's a pretty good thing. So a commendation is in order, which would normally not be a bad thing if it weren't for Lan's ego easily being inflated. After a mini-lecture from Megaman, Lan goes on to bump into the technician (named Hinoken/Mr. Match) who jacked Lan's oven and made it spit fire. He claims to be a good guy and not part of WWW anymore, also claiming to be employed at SciLab, where Dr. Hikari works. Lan is suspicious and remains so even when Hinoken helps battle an attack by WWW Navis on SciLab. Hinoken insists he's changed and Lan slowly starts to believe it, eventually agreeing to help Hinoken when he requests assistance installing a program into SciLab's servers.
Turns out they couldn't trust him, as the program causes the heating system to go haywire, sending the indoor lab temperature into the triple digits and starting fires in the cyber world. Hinoken takes advantage of the chaos to take the last Tetracode and gloats about how he manipulated the kids into doing his work for him. Lan's dad ends up hospitalized and his ego takes a blow, but they don't have much time to dwell on either. The Tetracodes are crucial to a plan that involves releasing a sentient prototype of the Internet called Alpha into the world to wreck havoc, and only a program called Gigafreeze can stop it.
Obtaining Gigafreeze entails a trek through the Undernet, Megaman going through the Undernet's ranking system to make his way to the Navi that knows where Gigafreeze is kept. He manages to obtain Gigafreeze--freaking out Lan first by making him think Megaman got frozen by the program first--only to lose it trying to stop Bass from showing up and stealing Alpha. Bass takes both Gigafreeze and Alpha and disappears.
Alpha ends up getting released and starts going nuts on the military networks. Dr. Hikari once again manages to track down the hideout and Lan goes to go take it down. Unfortunately, there initially doesn't seem to be a way to get at Alpha, aside from a Pulse Transmission chair. With the safety of the world at stake, Lan uses the chair, sending his consciousness into the cyberworld. This is very exciting for the boys, as it marks the very few times they've been able to interact face-to-face. It allows them to use Full Synchro for real, this state giving them the power to defeat both Bass and Alpha.
After the fight with Alpha, Lan and Megaman end up in a simulation of one of SciLab's laboratories, populated by an AI based off of their grandfather, Tadashi Hikari. Tadashi hands over a file intended for Yuichiro and tells them to leave as quickly as they can because Alpha isn't fully gone. He's entirely correct, as a remnant of the program attacks before they can get out of the computer, attempting to absorb the two, who are still synced. Megaman's more worried about getting Lan out safely and plans to disengage the synchronization and self-destruct, taking the Alpha remnant with him.
Lan vehemently objects to this plan, trying to convince Megaman to try something, anything else, to no avail. Megaman thanks him for all the time they'd spent together and for letting him be part of his life, preemptively scolds him for oversleeping and not doing homework, and then disengages the synchro.
Lan is in shock for a while, both because he's lost a brother (for a second time), a friend, and a big part of his life. And he can't even reduce the sting the tiniest bit by 'resurrecting' Megaman via backup.
PERSONALITY: In simplest terms, Lan is a large ball of energy, enthusiasm, and cheerfulness bordering on obnoxious. His approach to life is very optimistic and relaxed but, assuring everyone that whatever needs to get done will get done somehow, no matter the method.
Unfortunately, 'relaxed' also means 'slightly lazy' and 'lacking motivation'. He's not inclined to do anything he doesn't have much of an interest in or that isn't interesting, such as homework or obligations that are particularly boring, and can be somewhat bratty when confronted about it. However, once he does express an interest in something, you're very hard-pressed to get his attention away from it. Netbattling and rollerblading are his most favorite things, and those take priority over aaall other things. This is especially true when it comes to things he isn't supposed to be in, or doing, or involved with.
Basically, if you give him the choice, he'll choose 'fun but not obligatory' over 'boring but must be done'. And will probably complain about the latter if not given the choice.
Along with lazy, Lan also gives the appearance of not being the most intelligent. Going back to the homework example, he leaves schoolwork to the last minute and often asks his classmates (especially Mayl) for help or to copy off of them. In the anime, he states that his favorite subjects are art and netbattling and his worst subject is math. In the games, however, it's implied that he's very capable of programming even at 11, as he can repair and modify Megaman's data very quickly, and in even later games he follows in his father's scientific footsteps. The anime differs from the game very heavily in timeline, but also in the anime, Lan is shown to be working on a prototype wireless version of the PET, getting it to operate successfully on the first try.
In this same vein, he also tends towards painfully oblivious and painfully impulsive. Nuances of any sort go right over his head, he misses crucial details most others catch right away and when faced with a problem, he tends to go with the first solution that pops into his head with the information he has available. He usually trusts people quickly if they're good at acting trustworthy, unless he has a good reason not to. Even then, he'll only be inwardly skeptical until something happens to change his opinion. Romance is a foreign concept to him (on par with mathematics), to the point where the girl that has a crush on him pretty much has to state exactly that to get him to realize it.
Lan's also pretty easy to trick. Due to his lack of attention, he often doesn't notice signs that point out that he's heading for a trap or that something isn't quite right. One instance that also plays on his ability to trust people is when he accidentally ends up compromising SciLab's security by installing Hinoken's program. While he was skeptical of Hinoken at first, he didn't stay that way for very long due to an apparent lack of evidence that Hinoken hadn't changed and so he changed his mind. When WWW targeted the water plant, he wasn't necessarily tricked directly, but he did accidentally help the enemy's cause by mistakenly letting poisoned water be pumped into the city.
Still, he's optimistic. There's always a way out or a way in or a way to fix whatever's broken, no matter what the damage. He bounces back fairly quickly from most things, but he's not immune to bouts of depression or low feeling. He's also much more likely to try to cheer up those around him before himself, especially his friends, and reassure them everything'll be fine. As long as he can have a try at fixing it, that is. World might end? Nah, he's gonna go in and kick the ass of whatever is threatening it.
Lan's optimism and drive sometimes combine with a huge reckless streak and determination lead to extremely stupid things that somehow work. Go into the irradiated building to beat up the badguy? Sure. Run the program that has a chance of seriously injuring and/or killing you? Sure. Jump out a second-story window to get to the ground? Yep! Jump out of a moving helicopter and/or bus to go save your friend? Yep!
The last two are actually not canon to the games, but given the chances, he would do them.
Speaking of friends, Lan values his friends and friendship very much. All of his friends are equally important to him and he feels obligated to save each of them if they happen to be in trouble. Megaman is his closest friend--'brother' is more of a very close second--and a big enough part of Lan's life that he has a hard time imagining even a few hours, let alone life, without Megaman. He freaks out if he loses contact with the Navi, pleading with the security guard and very nearly crying when his PET is confiscated at the airport and frequently checking on Megaman in any situation that seems dangerous or potentially so. His parents get this treatment to a lesser extent, as they're adults and can (usually) take care of themselves, but Lan won't ever hesitate to help them with anything ever either.
POWERS:
Pulse Transmission [semi-canon] - Normally, Pulse Transmission involves sending someone’s brainwaves into the cyberworld using a chair-like device ala the Matrix, creating a digital avatar from said brainwaves. In this world, Lan wouldn’t need the device, being able to transport himself mentally into a device he happens to be near enough to.
This power is similar to Megaman and Magicman’s Data Transfer powers in a loose sense, but it’s much more restrictive. Lan can’t move as freely around a cyberscape as native programs--he can interact with objects and humans, but he doesn’t have any inherent means to defend himself from anything and he can only leave through the same device he entered from.
PT also renders his body in the real world unconscious upon use. Like in canon, injuries sustained by Lan's digital avatar will cause brain damage, but only if they're very severe.
Security Manipulation [non-canon] - Basically a power that gives Lan the ability to identify a network or device's security measures and partially the means to get through or around it. This ability changes slightly depending on whether he's used Pulse Transmission or not--if so, said security measures manifest physically, such as a door with a passcode lock or a literal wall of encryption.
The higher the level of security, the more difficult it becomes for Lan to get through it. A simple password-protected file would provide a hint if asked, something lightly encrypted would appear as a durable wall or ask for an encryption code, and something heavily encrypted might be an unbreakable wall or a password hint that's completely false or a password that changes constantly.
This power does not come with the inherent ability to modify all data, nor to copy it in any way, but Lan can view most files. It does come with, along with the ability to hack through other people's security to create security of his own, of varying levels. This is also subject to the 'higher the level, the more difficult it is to do it'.
Synchro(nization) [canon]:
Basically a mental merge between a human Operator and a Navi, partially combining their consciousnesses (think 'two souls one body') and shortening the delay between a battle command and action taken. It's not difficult to achieve a high synchro level--simply by working together in battle, having a similar goal, following a planned strategy--but the closer you get to 100%, the more dangerous it becomes. Mainly, the more in-sync a Navi and Operator are, the more damage 'bleeds' through to the human (e.g. a blade injury to the arm would result in an impressive bruise at about 80%, and an actual laceration around 97%)
Due to the unique relationship between Lan and Megaman, it's a passive and uncontrollable ability, mostly inactive due to the Hub.bat safeguard. However, in MoM, it would be passive and active and work across the real world as well, instead of just real-to-cyberworld.
There are technically three levels of Synchro, the other two being Full and Perfect. Full is just a really high level of synchronization and Perfect is a complete consciousness merge. Perfect Synchro has the downside of maxing out Lan's vitals and effectively putting him in a coma for the duration.
