Double Soul

Double Soul, known in Japan as Soul Unison (ソウルユニゾン), is a fictional term used in the MegaMan Battle Network series of video games and MegaMan NT Warrior (Rockman EXE) anime and manga. It is an ability employed by MegaMan.EXE (Rockman) to gain added powers and techniques in combat using the powers of an allied NetNavi.

Double Soul was first introduced in the two incarnations of MegaMan Battle Network 4. Out of twelve souls, six were exclusive to either game. It appears once more in MegaMan Battle Network 5: Team Colonel and MegaMan Battle Network 5: Team ProtoMan. It replaced MegaMan's Style Change capability of previous iterations.

Games
In the events of MegaMan Battle Network 3, MegaMan.EXE sacrificed himself to save his operator, Lan Hikari (Netto Hikari) from absorption by the horrific Alpha (Proto) program revived by Lord Wily near the climax of the game. Lan thought his ally and brother to be gone forever, only to be revived using data from his grandfather Tadashi Hikari. His revived state, however, rendered him unable to utilize the powerful Style Change programming option any longer. Hence "Double Soul" was developed as a suitable replacement.

Unlike Style Change, which can be performed by a single NetNavi, Double Soul occurs when a Navi's soul communes with MegaMan. This usually happens after battling against or completing a "Liberation Mission".

Chaos Unison
Introduced in MegaMan Battle Network 5, Chaos Unison occurs when sacrificing a Dark Chip. MegaMan gains the soul's attributes, but his charged attack, depending on the element of the sacrificed Dark Chip, changes and can be used repeatedly without any ill-effects. Should the charge shot go awry, however, MegaMan reverts to normal and his Dark Soul is unleashed, fighting alongside the enemy.

Cross MegaMan
Also introduced in MegaMan Battle Network 5, Cross MegaMan provided an alternate base form for MegaMan with several Navi Customizer programs already installed, as well as an altered Charged Shot. In the Gameboy Advance version, Bass Cross MegaMan was made available in two different forms, a Gold form available only in Team Protoman, and a Silver form available only in Team Colonel. They could only be acquired legally in the Japanese versions by use of an e-Reader card, but could still be obtained internationally by use of a cheating device. In Double Team, Bass Cross is acquired instead by having a GBA version with all 7 icons in Slot-2. A third Cross, Sol Cross MegaMan was made available by having Konami's Boktai 2 in the second slot. Cross MegaMan does not overwrite Double Soul, and all of the non-Buster related abilities remain present in the Double Soul.

Cross System
Introduced in MegaMan Battle Network 6, the Cross System is a combination of the previous Double Soul and Cross Megaman system. Like the latter, it involves aligning MegaMan's strength with that of a Link NetNavi. It does not require chips for its initiation and can last indefinitely unless MegaMan is hit with an opposing elemental attack. If MegaMan Beasts Out while a Cross is already active, he will gain further advantages through Cross Beast.

Double Soul
In Axess, MegaMan is able to perform Double Soul initially through a special bond between fellow Navis; he usually obtained new souls in dire situations, during which either he or the other Navi in question were subject to great peril. After initiating a given Double Soul once, Lan received a corresponding chip, allowing MegaMan to freely access it when needed.

While it is Double Soul that overrides MegaMan's Style Change option in the games, it is a side effect of Cross Fusion that serves this purpose in the anime.

All twelve Souls from MegaMan Battle Network 4 appear in Axess. Only one Soul from MegaMan Battle Network 5 (Gyro Soul) appears in the Stream.

Cross System
Cross Beast makes during Beast+. The process occurs whenever Lan links the data of another Navi with the Beast Out file housed in his PET. As a result of Cross Beast, MegaMan not only becomes more powerful through the incorporation of another Navi's data into himself, he also takes on that Navi's personality; in the original version of the series, Rockman acts more childish after a Cross with Aquaman, and acts more arrogantly after a Cross with Tomahawkman (dropping the honorific of "-kun" when addressing his operator). MegaMan also displays the ability to perform regular Crosses as well through identical methods.

Examples of Double Souls

 * Main Article: List of Double Souls