Colonel.EXE

"Lan, please tell Baryl, "I was deleted along with the Cybeast. But, it's not "fate". It's of my own "will".""

- Colonel.EXE

Colonel.EXE is the NetNavi of Baryl in the Mega Man Battle Network series. A strong silent type, Colonel is an efficient and skilled Navi who follows Baryl's orders without question.

Overview
Colonel is the second of three Navis based on a Mega Man X character, after Zero.

Mostly keeping to himself, Colonel follows Baryl's orders and rarely questions him, much like the relationship Eugene Chaud shares with ProtoMan. The two are quite formidable together, and in Mega Man Battle Network 5: Team Colonel forms Team Colonel alongside Lan Hikari and MegaMan to liberate the world from Nebula. Though Colonel fights for justice, he will not disobey Baryl, and when Lord Wily calls for a new WWW to cause chaos for society and awaken the Cybeasts, Colonel joins his operator in fighting his former allies Lan and MegaMan for the organization.

Colonel opens up to his beliefs of fighting for good when he sacrifices himself to stop the Cybeasts, telling Lan to tell Baryl that he chose to accept deletion to stop them of his own free will, not because he was fated to do so.

Mega Man Battle Network 5
Colonel is the leader of Team Colonel. He and Baryl test Lan and MegaMan and ask them to join the team. After that they fight against Nebula and recruit new members. In the Team Protoman version of the game, Colonel has a minor role, appearing with Meddy towards the end of the game to purify Dark ProtoMan.EXE and later to assist in defeating Nebula Grey.

Mega Man Battle Network 6
Colonel was revealed to be working for WWW. Colonel's personality dramatically changed, and all he cared about was doing his job, even if it meant having to delete anyone in his path. After losing to Lan and MegaMan, Baryl decided to help them stop Dr. Wily. It was later revealed that Dr. Wily created Colonel as the perfect Navi (strong, smart, fast, and kind; in addition, Colonel possessed a weapons control program). When Baryl's father went to war, he left Baryl in Wily's care. Wily soon forgot about his thoughts for revenge and raised Baryl as his own. But, Wily's revenge against net society returned when he learned that Baryl's father was killed in battle. Wily then removed Colonel's kindness and weapon control program, making him a military Navi and used the programs to create Iris, Colonel's younger sister. Wily soon made a program that would cause Colonel and Iris to explode if they were to ever merge again.

Wily's plan was to build two giant CopyBots in order to contain the Cybeasts, Gregar and Falzar. Iris decides to help MegaMan and Colonel to defeat the two Cybeasts. After a very intense battle, Colonel and Iris defeat one of the Cybeasts, but the other Cybeast took over MegaMan again. Colonel and Iris were still injured from their last battle, so in desperation, Colonel and Iris fused together and separated the Cybeast from MegaMan's body. With parting words, Colonel self-destructed, destroying the Cybeast at the cost of their own lives. This caused Wily's kindness to return. 20 years later, Wily created two incarnations of Colonel and Iris. Colonel is a system that finds and deletes viruses and criminals on the net. Iris is a system that finds and repairs any damage done to the net. With these two systems, the net was able to grow in leaps and bounds.

Manga History
Colonel first appear in volume 9 along with TomahawkMan after MegaMan, SearchMan, and ProtoMan defeated MegaMan DS. He uses Giga Freeze to destroy all Darkloids along with the Dark Space in a swift second. He then visits MegaMan and ProtoMan, who were in the middle of a check-up, so that he could order MegaMan to fight TomahawkMan so he could witness the power of Double Soul. After MegaMan easily defeated TomahawkMan, Colonel tells MegaMan that he will be imprisoned in Netopia prison, but MegaMan escaped with ProtoMan's help. He is seen again discussing with the higher-ups of Netopia, fearing that MegaMan's Double Soul ability may lead to a fusion with Bass which could become a greater threat to the world and therefore, MegaMan must not be allowed to have a contact with Bass, while realizing that something has happened between MegaMan and Bass to make them more than just common enemies.

When MegaMan reached Netopia and went in hiding, Colonel and Baryl are ordered to stand by and instead, the operation to capture MegaMan is handed to Dr. Regal and his group. Realizing that Regal is a traitor and has added Darkloids within the Netopia Navies, Colonel orders TomahawkMan, who was with MegaMan, to protect him from CloudMan who intends to capture him. After defeating CloudMan, MegaMan is taken to Netopia base and is imprisoned. Bass frees MegaMan from his prison, which Colonel has expected and attacks Bass to avenge Serenade. It is revealed that Colonel was good friends with Serenade, which explains why Colonel is unable to trust MegaMan who has formed a bond with Bass, since Bass was the Navi who had killed Serenade. However, MegaMan helps Colonel, due to realizing that he is not the real Bass, but an impostor. Chasing CosmoMan away, MegaMan finally earned Colonel's trust and is allowed to take part on the battle against Nebula.

Colonel briefly became Lan's bodyguard when Lan entered the Cyberworld to retrieve MegaMan who had been consumed by the darkness. When the Netopia finally finds the core base of Nebula, Colonel is the only one to survive and reached the front line facing against Nebula Grey, while the others are destroyed or retreated. Bass unexpectedly appears and attacks Nebula Grey. Colonel intended to avenge Serenade, but Baryl reminds him that defeating Nebula Grey comes first. Reluctantly, Colonel, followed by MegaMan and the others, join forces with Bass to fight Nebula Grey, but Nebula Grey has grown too powerful for them, leaving only himself, MegaMan, and Bass to fight. He prevents MegaMan from persuing Double Soul with Bass, warning him of the danger while ignoring MegaMan's protest. This eventually fails when MegaMan sacrificed himself to save Bass, prompting Bass to absorb him to prevent deletion. Once realizing that he could trust Bass Cross MegaMan to defeat Nebula Grey after witnessing him holding his attack to avoid killing ProtoMan and the others, he defends and open a path for Bass Cross MegaMan to finish Nebula Grey. After Nebula Grey is defeated, he and Baryl discuss that MegaMan's Double Soul has awakened a dangerous beast, starting their true mission.

He, and some of the Netopia Navis under him, participates in the battle initiated by Iris to determine who is the strongest Navi that will be entrusted with the legendary program. He and his three Navi subordinates defeated the other Navis and then confronts MegaMan, the only Navi left that they have not defeated. MegaMan easily defeated them with the help of the souls of ProtoMan, SearchMan, and TomahawkMan inside him. Colonel gives MegaMan his Navi Mark and reveals that Iris is his sister and the legendary program itself. He and Iris used to be one program that split into two; while Iris stayed in the Underground to watch over the Cyber Beasts, Colonel searches for the strongest Navi that could be entrusted with the legendary program. After entrusting MegaMan with his sister, Colonel lost his power and remained in Underground until MegaMan defeats the Cyber Beasts.

Attacks
Colonel has several very effective attacks available in Mega Man Battle Network 5 and 6. He is also one of the most powerful NetNavis in the Mega Man Battle Network series.
 * Screen Divide: Colonel uses his Screen Divide, a powerful diagonal slash usually cutting across the centre of the players area.


 * Screen Divide -V-: Colonel uses his Screen Divide in a powerful V-form centred at the centre of the players area.
 * Crack Out: Colonel will break one of the players panels (or crack it, if the player is currently standing on it).
 * Colonel Army: Colonel drops a few Rock Cubes. If the player moves in front of the Cube, a soldier appears and either uses a sword or fires a gun. In BN6, Colonel summons the gun soldiers only; one in Basic and SP versions and two in RV version. In BN5, later versions may try to trick the player using damaging obstacles like TimeBomb, Vdoll, and Guardian.

MMBN 5 Exclusive

 * Colonel Cannon: Colonel will pull out his cannon and fire it. If it connects, it will push the player to the back of your area; if it doesn't, it will hit the back row in a wide sword-esque range.
 * Blind Rain Shower: Colonel will throw his cape at the player. If it connects, he will move up and slash four times.

MMBN 6 Exclusive

 * Neo Screen Divide: Colonel uses his Screen Divide this time in a much more powerful Z-formation (an obvious tribute to his original rival, Zero) centered at the center of the players area.


 * Induct Missile: Colonel fires three missiles into the air, and they rain down onto the players area, cracking the panels they hit. This attack is fire-attributed.


 * Aspire Break: Colonel will throw his cape at the player. If it connects, the screen will go black, and Colonel pulls off a slash across the screen. While it appears to instantly kill, in reality it does a fixed amount of damage, just that the AI is programmed to only use the attack when the player's HP is lower than the damage it can do. Barriers can block this attack, and Undershirt allows the player to survive it.

Double Soul
MegaMan receives the Colonel Soul after Colonel is rescued from his Dark Soul. MegaMan must sacrifice an obstacle chip in order to perform Colonel Soul. With Colonel Soul, MegaMan's MegaBuster is replaced with a sword and his charged shot becomes ScreenDivide. Any obstacle chip used becomes a ColonelArmy soldier that attacks any nearby enemies. MegaMan can replace his sword with any non-elemental attack chips that doesn't freeze time and can be used as a charged shot. Once a non-elemental chip is equipped to MegaMan as a permanent charge shot, it cannot be used again until the end of the battle.

Battle Chips
Colonel is a Navi Chip that summons Colonel to attack.

Colonel Force (カーネルフォース, ColForce) summons soldiers from the Colonel Army attack in open panels.

Cross Divide (クロスディバイド, CrossDiv) performs a cross shaped slice.

Leaders Raid (リーダーズレイド, LeaderR) is a Battle Chip from Mega Man Battle Network 5 Double Team DS that summons both ProtoMan and Colonel. ProtoMan moves to the closest enemy to attack and is followed by Colonel attacking with Cross Divide.

Mega Man Battle Network 5
Team Colonel only. Secret class in Team ProtoMan.

Mega Man Battle Network 6
* 200 initially, 300 is the max power achieved by S-ranking ColonelSP in under 10 seconds.

Trivia

 * Colonel's role in Battle Network 5: Team Colonel shows hints of what is to come in Battle Network 6:
 * His first encounter as a mysterious character can parallel their reunion in JudgeComp where the mechanics and the attack are somewhat identical even when they communicate to him via mic as an unknown speaker before appearing in person.
 * When Megaman was captured by Cloudman did show his concern calling back to when he showed some kindness during their time spent.
 * When borrowed from Baryl to Lan did indicate how identical Lan and Megaman's interactions with Iris are since Iris split from Colonel as emotionless Navis who were the husk of their former self.
 * Defeating Dark Megaman with his anti Nebula team parallel how his iteration of WWW in 6 will come into with Lan and Megaman. Only difference is that Megaman was rescued while attempting to capture resulted in failures until Iris forced the Cybeast into the CopyBot.
 * After sacrificing himself to save Toadman paralleled to how he sacrificed himself after merging with Iris to defeat the surviving Cybeast.
 * Once becoming Dark Colonel showed how purely evil he was and did not listen to any of his team's pleading to go back to normal until Toadman, Megaman, and Protoman reverted him to normal showing his inner turmoil in 6 after drastically changing his personality.
 * Saving the world from Nebula Gray attempting on Megaman's life after becoming Hub for once was paralleled to how he merged with Iris to save Megaman and the world from the Cybeast.
 * Colonel went through the cycles of being normal to Dark to normal again then as a foe to being an ally again until his deletion allowed his new incarnation as an anti virus program allowing Net to leap bounds.
 * Almost all of the members of his team are former WWW and Gospel members signaling his joining of WWW in 6 and unlike his time spent in 5, he drastically changed in 6.
 * Upon defeating Tomahawkman who was his former teammate and Killerman, his member's apprentice did somehow play a role in his memory not shown turning his emotions to a constant struggle of bad vs good.
 * His conversation with Lan when teaming up once again goes back to 5 when they spent their time during Team Colonel but this time with Iris on their side.
 * Like Zero.EXE, he was a Navi created from Navi with a mysterious tie to another program (MystData for Zero and Iris for Colonel). At some point they operated as WWW members and began to feel emotionless tools of destruction only to result in becoming emotional Navis. Where Zero intervened in Professor's arrest, Colonel sacrificed himself after merging with Iris allowed the end of the Cybeast and Wily's evil within him securing Lan and Megaman's future to safety.