Serenade.EXE

Serenade.EXE (セレナード), also known as "S" and "UnderKing", is a NetNavi from Mega Man Battle Network 3, and the ruler of the Undernet.

Mega Man Battle Network 3
When Lan Hikari is asked to obtain the Forbidden Program called "GigaFreeze", which is able to freeze Alpha in case it awakens, MegaMan travels to the Undernet and has to defeat several ranked Navis to reach "S", the Rank 1 Navi that protects the program. After defeating Rank 2, MistMan (White version) or BowlMan (Blue version), he discovers the Navi is called Serenade and is located in the server of the Undernet. MegaMan finds the server in the Ura Inn, where Serenade's voice can be heard and says that if he wants the Forbidden Program, he must be a "Chosen One" to hold it, or the program would freeze him forever. MegaMan is able to take it and leaves, and Serenade is surprised to see that another Navi is able to hold it. Later, MegaMan tries to use the program against Bass while he was taking Alpha after DrillMan's defeat, but it sees him as the other "Chosen One" mentioned by Serenade and Bass is able to stop the program.

After completing the game and completing other quests (like defeating Beta Navis and collecting all normal Battle Chips), the player can enter the Secret Area deep within the Undernet server, where they can fight against DarkMan and JapanMan before meeting Serenade. Serenade recognizes MegaMan's power for being able to defeat JapanMan and DarkMan, and says the source of his power is mercy, and he wins because he loves and respect his enemies. After defeat, Serenade reveals he fought against Bass in the past, winning after a battle that lasted days. MegaMan receives Rank 1 and a side-quest will be available after logging out and then returning to the Secret Area, a time attack against several Alpha NetNavis with an Extra Folder. The player can obtain the Battle Chip Serenade S (White version) or DarkAura A (Blue version) if a new record is set for all Navis.

MegaMan NT Warrior
Years before the start of the series, Serenade appears before Bass after seeing his cruel way of fighting and questions his presence. Bass replies by attacking him with intent to defeat and absorb his power. However, Serenade easily dodged each of Bass' attack and reflected his attack back, injuring Bass. Serenade reveals that he didn't come to fight, but he came to deliver a message from Dr. Cossack to Bass, surprising the latter. Serenade shows Bass the data that will allow him to jack out straight to Dr. Cossack's PET and tells him to restore the bond he had once lost. Bass crawled until he reached Serenade's hand. To Serenade's shock, Bass decides that he doesn't need bonds with anyone anymore and only need his hatred to become stronger. Grabbing Serenade's hand to prevent him from dodging, Bass uses Earthbreaker at him. However, Serenade survives the attack while Bass fell with heavy injuries, but not before warning Serenade that he will defeat him one day as Serenade looks on.

Dark Navis Arc
Serenade approached ProtoMan and Chaud when they went to Undernet to become stronger. Serenade questions ProtoMan's reason to fight and does he has the resolve to accept no matter how hard his destiny will be. When ProtoMan answer that he won't runaway, Serenade granted him Muramasa Sword.

He then appears before MegaMan and Lan, preventing them from chasing after ProtoMan and Chaud by creating a barrier, telling them that they are too weak. Realizing that the darkness power cannot enter Serenade's barrier, MegaMan and Lan uses Hub Style to forcefully enter the barrier. MegaMan demands for Serenade to back off, but Serenade simply tells him he can try if he can. MegaMan attacks him, but Serenade easily reflect his attack back to him, heavily injuring him. Serenade then reveals that while Hub Style might be able to defeat Bass before, in his case, it would be useless since he, too, had also defeated him, making him the true strongest Navi in Undernet.

He reveals that he cannot materialize completely to fight the darkness like other Navis because he is too strong and can only send a small part of his power to the real world. Angered that Serenade has no intention to fight, MegaMan once again attacked him. This time, Serenade turns his back on the attack when he noticed something behind him. But this didn't leave him defenseless. Serenade raises his hand towards MegaMan and attacks back, destroying the barrier and defeat MegaMan. It turns out that his sudden offensive was because he was trying to protect a butterfly that trapped within the barrier and let it free. He decides that he will observe MegaMan to see if he can acquire power to match his potential. It was also presumed that Serenade left behind Double Soul program to MegaMan shortly before he left.

He then contacted Mr. Famous, informing him that he has met both Lan and MegaMan, and ProtoMan and Chaud, whom Mr. Famous has chosen. Mr. Famous then asks do they have what it takes for the challenge, which Serenade replies that they might have a chance to use his program, but if they don't, Mr. Famous requests Serenade to protect them.

He saved MegaMan from Bass and protected him and ProtoMan from Bass' Vanishing World. Unfortunately, the Vanishing World was too strong for Serenade to handle, but Serenade persist since he promised Mr. Famous that he will protect them. He is able to reflect Bass' Vanishing World, but got caught by Bass as the result and is absorbed, deleting him. A remnant of Serenade's data tells MegaMan that even if he is able to fight with 100% of his power, the possibility to defeat Bass who has acquired the power of darkness is slim, but he believes that MegaMan and ProtoMan's unity can defeat Bass.

Nebula Arc
When CosmoMan, disguised as Bass, sneaked into Netopia base to lure MegaMan, Colonel reveals that Serenade is his best friend and bears grudge against Bass for deleting him. This also explained his reason for unable to believe in MegaMan who has formed a rivalry bond with Bass until MegaMan proves himself by figuring out CosmoMan's disguise.

Cybeast Arc
Serenade appears in front of Bass when the latter was captured by the last defense system of the Cyber Beast. He tells Bass to give all of his power to his only true friend, MegaMan. Hearing this, Bass insists that MegaMan is his nemesis and breaks free from the defense system while Serenade merely smiles at Bass' answer.

Their Journey
In the omake of the last volume of the series' reprint version, Serenade is revived and appears before Bass after he allows MegaMan to return to the original Cyber World, giving his praise for giving MegaMan a chance to return home while he stayed behind to defeat the bug. When Bass asked since when he watched, Serenade revealed that he had watched since Bass and MegaMan started their journey together, much to the former's embarrassment. Serenade offers to accompany him in MegaMan's place from now on, but Bass ignores him. Serenade follows Bass and even offers to fight him again because he is bored, but Bass tells Serenade not to follow him.

Abilities
Being the only NetNavi (except for MegaMan) confirmed to have defeated Bass, Serenade is among the most powerful Navis in the Mega Man Battle Network series. He has some very unusual attacks.


 * Sonic Boom: If Serenade is able to move up or down, any attacks that hit him will be reflected off his raiments creating a sonic boom down the row. Sonic Boom is capable of reflecting any attack which does not decrease HP directly (e.g., poison, Balance). Serenade can use Sonic Boom at any moment except when he can not move vertically or when he is performing Holy Shock. For this reason, it is best to fight Serenade by restricting his movement, either by breaking or stealing panels.


 * Saint Light: Serenade fires an orb that slowly zigzags across the battlefield. The orb can hit through Invis, so other defenses should be utilized.


 * Holy Shock: Serenade stands at the front of his area and puts his palm forward. Panels will flash and damage the player if he's standing on them, and also a gust of wind will push the player backwards. This may also crack some panels. If the player has increased their area size, Holy Shock will be spread out over a wider area and give the player more opportunities to avoid taking damage.


 * Raiments shield: In the manga, it is shown that his raiments can reflect any incoming projectile attacks. In Bass' version, it is capable of even deflecting sword attacks (which is close-combat and physical).

Battle Chip
Serenade is a Giga Chip exclusive to the White version of the game. It is a chip of darkness that requires a Dark Hole on the field to function. When used, Serenade appears and attacks with Holy Shock.

Trivia

 * It's believed Mamoru is Serenade's intended operator, as he has Serenade's emblem on his wheelchair, and his father created the Undernet.


 * The raiments around Serenade in his artwork are orange, but his sprite shows them to be pink. Tying in further to his divine theme, these raiments are based off of that of tenne, being the flowing and arching scarf like cloths that adorn heavenly divinities and beings in Buddhist art and legend.


 * Queen Virgo's attack in Mega Man Star Force 3, "Light of Saint", is similar to Serenade's "Saint Light".


 * Officially, Serenade was designed to have an androgynous appearance, meant to appear as a "perfected being" without a gender.
 * Interestingly, in volume 6 of the MegaMan NT Warrior manga, the first few pages after Serenade's introduction to MegaMan had the character addressed as a "she," and then later became "he" in the rest of the series. Serenade was also called a "he" by Colonel in both English and the original Japanese version of volume 10.
 * In the English translated Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works, Yūji Ishihara refers Serenade as a "he" in his brief author's note about the Navi. However, in the original Japanese version of the book, pronouns (he/she) were never used to address the character, as pronouns are seldom used in the Japanese language compared to other languages.


 * In Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works, Ishihara says that Serenade represent light, the opposite of Bass, Ishihara giving the Navi a divine mystique appearance and using white as the main color. He also notes that Serenade's Navi mark stands for a certain word. What that word is was not disclosed, but as the king of the Undernet (Ura Internet), it is possibly derived from the letter "U".


 * There's a poster of Serenade in Higsby's shop in the Blue Moon version of Mega Man Battle Network 4.
 * Serenade is the only (human-like) dark-skinned NetNavi in the Mega Man Battle Network series.
 * Serenade's name uses the French pronunciation, "Sere-nahd" (セレナード, "Serenaado" in Katakana), instead of the English pronunciation, "Sere-naid."