Bass.EXE

Bass.EXE (Forte.EXE in Japan) is a specially designed Solo NetNavi and a villain from the Megaman Battle Network series, as well as Megaman NT warrior.

Past
Bass was designed and created by Dr. Cossack in a SciLab project to develop to create a new breed of NetNavi. They would be independent, with no need for an operator, and possess the ability to take the abilities of viruses and other Navis. As such, Bass became one of the most powerful NetNavis ever. After Alpha disrupted the Net, Bass was blamed for it and found himself under attack by officials. He found himself betrayed by Dr. Cossack, the only human he’d ever trusted, and managed to use his Get Ability program to survive. Bass also worked to become stronger, so that he could take vengeance on the humans, whom he had hated ever since.

Battle Network
Bass eventually stole the data for the Life Aura, but was confronted and defeated by MegaMan.

Battle Network 2
However the NetMafia group, Gospel, took an interest in Bass and planned to use the BugFrags to create a SuperNetNavi by cloning him. With an army of Bass clones, they planned to take over the world. But the first perfected clone Gospel created mutated into a super Multi-bug Organism that was destroyed by Megaman and Lan. Bass was seen destroying some of the clones, voicing his anger towards Sean Obihiro, the leader of Gospel, for cloning him, before he swore to have revenge on humans.

Battle Network 3
It was revealed that Wily was the mastermind behind Gospel’s cloning, hoping to copy Bass in an attempt to free Alpha. However Wily managed to win the allegiance of the real Bass, who aided him in stealing Alpha’s data and the TetraCodes. As Megaman and Lan went to stop Wily’s plans, Bass challenged them, swatting FlameMan.EXE, their previous opponent, aside to fight them. Megaman proved helpless against Bass, who prepared to finish him off, but an Official NetNavi showed up with the Dark Aura, protecting him. Bass, provoked by the Navi’s boasts of its power, attacked and the Dark Aura barely stopped his attack. However at that moment, Wily called Bass away and later, he helped to free Alpha. Megaman tried to use the GigaFreeze program, but Bass stopped it, revealing he could control it. Eventually he revealed his past, how he was left to wander the Undernet, left with a scarred body and hatred towards humans. Bass proceeded to smash and absorb the Guardian program, the last thing that was keeping Alpha subdued. Bass fought Megaman once again, but this time he was defeated and Wily allowed Alpha to devour him. After Alpha was destroyed, Bass was left on the verge of destruction, but a remnant of the Gospel Multibug Organism came across him. He merged with it, restoring himself and becoming Bass GS and eventually consumed 300 BugFrags, which he managed to obtain thanks to Megaman. To take his new power for a test drive, Bass attacked Megaman, but lost again in a very close battle. It was then revealed he had lost much of his memory after he fused with Gospel.

Battle Network 4
Bass reappeared once again in the Undernet, where Megaman faced him once again, now fueled by the power of the Dark Chips. He was defeated again, fleeing to Black Earth. There, Megaman confronted and beat Bass once again after the Dark Soul Navis were defeated.

Battle Network 5
After Megaman gained the ability to use Bass’ power in the form of the Bass Cross form. Bass sensed this and challenged Megaman in a secret part of the Net, but lost, retreating to the Nebula Area. Eventually his soul was consumed by darkness, transforming into Bass Alpha, and fought Megaman again, but was defeated again. Finally Bass became a part of Chaos Lord, a fusion of the Dark Power within the deepest part of the Nebula Area, but with no dark power within. After being defeated in this form, Bass could be fought randomly as Bass XX, but when he was beaten again, he admitted to being too weak, leaving to become stronger.

Battle Network 6
Bass returned to challenge MegaMan once again, fighting him in the Undernet and the Graveyard zone. He lost both times and went to the Underground, which had been previously used as a prison for the Cyber Beasts. Bass absorbed their data fragments to gain the power of one of them (depending on the version of the game). He sent a Beast-Out Megaman clone to fight Megaman, before Bass went attacking his enemy himself, but lost yet again. It appeared that he might have been destroyed, but Lan remarked that “Bass is Bass” and it turned out that he was still alive.

NT Warrior
After Wily created Gospel from PharaohMan.EXE’s data, Bass was born from the leftover data he hadn’t used. While PharaohMan’s ultimate programming was born into Gospel, his soul was reincarnated in the form of Bass, but without his memories, since they had been used in Gospel. Bass took to wandering the Net, confused and angry due his lacking any memories, and had a terrible hunger, since he was made from the fragments of another NetNavi. Bass was forced to consume raw data to replenish himself, but didn’t attack other Navi’s, seemingly feeding on instinct. When Gospel attacked the Net, Bass stood in its path, forcing it to retreat, but sensed the connection between himself and the creature. After finding himself drawn to it, Bass captured Megaman to find out more about himself and read his mind, learning about his origins. Bass tried to absorb Gospel so as to gain its powers and make them one again, but Gospel was too strong with Bass’s data getting absorbed instead. However after Gospel’s destruction, Bass was reborn and possessed the Kid Grave robot, saying he’d use it as a means of taking over the Net and the real world. When Lan and his friends had closed in on Allegro, Bass appeared in the body of Kid Grave and revealed that he’d created Allegro. Allegro had been designed to serve the purpose of developing Dimensional Areas to allow Solo NetNavis like Bass to enter the real world. However he was disappointed with the results and destroyed Allegro. Later on, after ShadeMan.EXE was overthrown and imprisoned by LaserMan.EXE, Bass arrived in the pit that served as his prison. He freed ShadeMan and stated that he was a Darkloid and supported the true solo data beings. Bass later watched ShadeMan as he fought Dr. Regal, cross fused with LaserMan, but left when he realized ShadeMan had lost.

Rockman EXE
Seeking power, Bass tried to kidnap Megaman to take his ultimate program, but ProtoMan showed, forcing him to flee. He resurfaced in the Outer Space Development Sentence, attempting to infiltrate Duo.EXE’s comet at the same time Megaman and Protoman were about to do so, planning to take Duo’s power. However Bass was beaten by Slur, ending up banished to the Undernet, but engaged Slur once again (implied to now be empowered by absorbing remnants of Nebula Grey). Bass defeated Slur without any effort, before telling Megaman ‘his’ world was safe for the time being, and logged out. Bass was later manipulated by Dr. Regal into fighting Megaman again, but tried to kill Regal when he realized that he had been manipulated. Bass joined forces with Megaman to defeat Nebula Grey, but were unable to win and Megaman gave him his Ultimate Program. They fused into Bass Cross Megaman, now having great power, and easily defeated Nebula Grey. After this, Dr. Regal opened a portal to try and delete Bass and Megaman, however Bass fired an energy blast that made Megaman jack out. He then absorbed Nebula Grey’s data and disappeared into the vortex, laughing maniacally.

Personality
Bass is very proud, proving shocked and interested when Megaman beat him, and seems to enjoy combat, though only against strong opponents. He hated humans ever since they betrayed him, particularly Dr. Cossack, whom Bass thought of like a father and whose betrayal really made him what he is now. However their relationship made him unable to hurt Dr. Cossack when they had a brief reunion. Bass desires revenge against the humans and has no loyalty to anyone but himself, putting his own survival before anything else. His ego prevents him from using anything other than force to solve his problems, just blasting away anything that bothers him. But if Bass finds it interesting, annoying, or frustrating, because he can’t just destroy it, he’ll keep an eye on that problem.

Abilities
Bass is an extremely powerful NetNavi and has more potential than any other with a large arsenal of attacks and abilities. The most notable of these is Get Ability, which allows Bass to absorb the abilities of those that he defeats. He has also demonstrated the ability to control the Giga Freeze program, having obtained its data with Get Ability, though it is unknown if he still possesses it. Bass uses numerous energy blast attacks in combat, usually from his Bass Busters, cannons that form in place of his hands. He has been further empowered by the powers of Gospel, the Dark Power, and the Cybeast. Bass can use abilities similar to Battle Chips and has used a number of defensive powers. He has even used his cape as a form of a shield. Bass has also gained access to a number of more powerful forms throughout the Battle Network series. These include Bass DX, which gave him usage of the Earth Breaker attack, Bass Omega, which has the special abilities of all his previous forms, Bass GS, which he gained from fusion with Gospel, Bass XX, which is more speedy and defense based, and Bass BX, which he gained from the power of the Cybeast.

Trivia

 * Bass, unlike other NetNavis, is missing his Navi mark, a unique symbol found on Navis’ bodies. He instead has a large scar where it should be and no official mark for him has been shown, but in the manga and Rockman.EXE Official Complete Works, has shown that it is the symbol for “Forte”, which is the musical term for “loud or “strong”.


 * The only boss battle with Bass that is part of the storyline of the game is in MegaMan Battle Network 3 with the others being extra or secret battles.


 * Bass didn’t originally have violet eye streaks and got them later on, which may have been a result of him absorbing abilities (namely some type of dark power from the Undernet).


 * Bass was the first boss of the non-DS MegaMan Battle Network games to use Battle Chip attacks (not counting Area Grab because it has been used extremely often by others).


 * Bass’s clone in MegaMan Battle Network 2 began the tradition of a double final boss battle.


 * His clone makes a reference to his Japanese name in the English version by saying “Battle is my forte.”


 * The first ability Bass took with the Get Ability program was a “Heat Blade” he took from an Elite NetNavi that stayed behind to finish off Bass despite receiving orders to deal with Alpha.