Dr. Regal

Dr. Regal (Dr.リーガル) is a human antagonist appearing in the Mega Man Battle Network series of video games and the MegaMan NT Warrior anime and manga. He is the operator of LaserMan.EXE.

Personality
Prior to being revealed as the true leader of Nebula and responsible for other crimes, he appeared to be a scientist wanting to help save the world from an asteroid.

However, in reality, Regal is an utterly remorseless man who exploits the darkness within humankind while he weaponizes them into Dark Chips, and has shown to be genuinely uncaring of those who used them who suffered corruption due to his actions. Also, he uses the SoulNet in an attempt to create a truly evil world by using Nebula Gray, with neither respect nor care for anyone, human or NetNavi.

Unlike Dr. Wily, Regal is truly and purely evil to the point that even Wily was disgusted of his character, and forces him to redeem himself by using the SoulNet to erase his memories of a decade or longer, rather than by Regal's choice of becoming a good person.

Background
Dr. Regal is the son of Dr. Wily and Baryl's adopted brother. It is suggested that Regal was raised in a rather normal way and was in fact a good person for most of his life until his father turned evil. As hinted in later games, near 10 or so years before the main setting, is where Regal changed for the worse (interestingly enough this is close to the time Lan and Hub were born). As this happened he began making preparations to turn the world into one of pure evil.

Video games
In the games he is the leader of the Dark Chip Syndicate Nebula. In Mega Man Battle Network 4, he is introduced as one of the world's top scientists, yet hailing from the world's most unruly and authoritarian country, Nation Z. He is reluctantly suggested and hired by Yuichiro Hikari to prevent the advent of an asteroid headed for Earth. He reveals, however, that he is actually the criminal mastermind behind Nebula and the spread of the Dark Chips, addictive Battle Chips that provide NetNavis with extreme augmentation in strength, but at the cost of their personality data, and walks out on the project shortly thereafter. Regal's plan was to alert the program Duo of the evil that existed on Earth and then stop the program with his Navi, LaserMan, to look like a hero. When Lan Hikari and his partner MegaMan successively eliminate the threat of the asteroid, Regal attempts to commit suicide in order to avoid arrest, but ultimately survives the ordeal.

In Mega Man Battle Network 5, He has taken the helm at Nebula once more, Regal returns and kidnaps Dr. Hikari with the intent of setting up the SoulNet as Regal had inherited the SoulNet's design, but lacked the records necessary to complete it found on the Hikari Report. He creates a program known as Nebula Gray, and begins corrupting the net through the actions of his Darkloid servants. As his plans draw closer to a close, Regal activates the server to feed Nebula Gray the dark thoughts of humans, and explains that the creature originated from the dark soul of humankind, which he placed into the computer system as data. It was through this process that the Dark Chips were made; aspects of Nebula Gray's programming were grafted onto them, resulting in an amplification of the darkness within the Navis that use them. Again, his machinations are foiled by Lan and MegaMan when Megaman reverts to human form as Hub and releases a blast, destroying Nebula Gray and the Dark Chips for good. At the end of Battle Network 5, Regal has his memories of the last ten years erased by his father Wily with the help of the SoulNet's power, and he begins a new life as a genuinely law-abiding individual working for Science Labs.

Anime
In the MegaMan NT Warrior anime series, Dr. Regal is a scientist from Kingland and a worldwide authority in the field of "Super Energy". In the past, he was rescued from a plane crash by Duo, who selected him as a probe to monitor life on Earth, and was adopted by Wily. At that time, he was experimented with and subjected to an intense brainwashing procedure, and isolated within Wily's island research facility. Years later, while snooping around Dr. Wily's computers, he found out the data of Baryl's Crest of Duo that Wily had discovered and stored. He robbed that data along with copies of Wily's Dimensional Converter research and ran off with Ms. Yuri eleven years prior to Stream.

In Axess, he is requested by Dr. Hikari to look over a Dimensional Converter used by the Darkloids to substantiate in the real world which the Science Labs had managed to capture. He and Dr. Hikari knew each other since time ago, and Dr. Regal had built the energy system of the Dimensional Converters that SciLabs were experimenting with.

He masquerades under this false identity for some time, but is eventually recognized as the leader of Nebula, who has been collaborating with the Darkloids to cause terror and fear across the world and spread Dark Chips alongside his second-in-command, Ms. Yuri (Ozono Yuriko). Partway through the series, Regal's Navi, LaserMan, usurps the Darkloid throne and disposes of the former leader, ShadeMan, as he had become too distrustful of his pact with the human.

Nearing the end of Axess, Regal comes out of hiding in outer space while Ms. Yuri completes the final tasks required for his plan to be put into motion. He abducts Navis from NetCities across the world for use as fuel for his Dimensional Converters, and unveils Regal Tower, a skyscraper-like contraption that initiates a globe-wide Dimensional Area. Using a Dark Synchro Chip, he performs Cross Fusion and brutally deletes ShadeMan, who had returned to exact revenge on the treacherous human. With several regular Synchro Chips stolen from SciLabs at the beginning of Axess, Regal then grows in size and attacks major cities around the world. He sets his sights on destroying SciLab, but is defeated by Lan and MegaMan in their Full Synchro formation and disappears (though it is implied that he dies in the Japanese version).

Regal resurfaces in the movie, Rockman.EXE: Hikari to Yami no Program. After his defeat in Axess, Regal was thrown into the Undernet along with LaserMan, his body fragmented into bits of data. While there, he discovered the dormant Wily Program and merged with it to become Nebula Gray. As a side effect of the transformation, Regal gained the ability to secrete protoplasmic humanoids as his soldiers, but could no longer exist in the real world without a Dimensional Area present, though Dimensional Converters remain freely accessible to him. He captures Bass and manipulates him to do his bidding, hoping to acquire the Tadashi Hikari Program from the Trinity Brain corporation, which would allow him to reach his final evolution. At this time, Regal also unleashes the Spectrum phenomenon to invert the real world and Cyber World, with his goal being world destruction. He is again confronted by his foes and defeated, though they narrowly escape a black hole summoned by the villain in a last ditch effort to do away with them.

Regal emerges alive in the Past Tunnel during the second half of Stream and separates MegaMan's Dark Soul from him to create Dark MegaMan. He commands his new subordinate and Darkloid followers to obtain the Crest of Duo from the thirteen Cross Fusion members, and uses them in the final episode of Stream to gain access to Duo's comet, despite Dark MegaMan's deletion at the hands of Slur. With Duo's great technology finally in reach, Regal briefly takes on a serpent-like appearance and god-like powers, then attempts to destroy a CrossFused Mayl. However, he is killed by Duo by having his energy depleted.

Manga
Dr. Regal first appears in volume 10 of the Mega Man NT Warrior manga as the weapon development director for the country, Netopia. Later on it is discovered that Dr. Regal is behind the Darkloids in the Netopia Net Army and he desire to have MegaMan's power Double Soul ability to fuse with Bass, so that Nebula Gray can gain their power and become unstoppable. After Nebula Gray is defeated by Bass Cross MegaMan, it fuses with CosmoMan and started to consume Bass to regain its power. MegaMan, in an attempt to save Bass, calls forth a new power with his Double Soul ability, Beast Out (which is coincidently almost identical to Double Soul) MegaMan, and deletes Nebula Gray. After Nebula Gray's defeat, Bass shows up on the computer of Dr. Regal's submarine and blows up the submarine, killing Dr. Regal in the process.

Trivia

 * While Dr. Regal achieved redemption and remained alive in the games, his vile ways led to his demise in the anime and manga adaptations.


 * Dr. Regal's pose in his official artwork is very similar to Zero.EXE's.
 * The way his country is referred as an infamously unruly and authoritarian country, Nation Z might stand for the game's version of North Korea.
 * It is unknown if there is a counterpart of him in the timeline of classic Mega Man series. Because it is unknown if the Dr. Wily of this timeline possesses sons.
 * Due to the publishing rights for Rockman.EXE being held by another company, Regal did not appear in the Mega Man series from Archie Comics. However, a silhouetted figure with a head shaped roughly like Regal's and wearing his signature monocle is present in the Short Circuits for Issue 55 in a shot with several other prominent villains from various Mega Man franchises.