"Maylu, the roads might not be safe for long. I'm charting the safest route to the central traffic systems right now. head towards the inter-city cycling path entrance, three blocks to your right." Roll told her operator as she headed off with Troy on their scouters.
"Can we really afford to be making detours like that?" Troy asked, though they were already starting to make their way onto the suggested path.
"We won't do anyone any good if you two get pancaked by cars." Iceman said. "Besides, with traffic taken into account, this is going to be the faster route."
"Mr. Famous is calling for a public alert to help clear the streets, but there want be enough time. We have to hurry. Even if we can't stop the Darkloids, we can still hold them until the streets are cleared if we get their first, so get a move on." Maylu said, pushing herself to go faster.
"Be careful, we don't exactly have as much experience as Lan and Mega..." Roll started but then stopped.
"Roll, something the matter?" Maylu asked, wondering why her Navi had gone silent.
"It's nothing... just a glitch in my sensors. Keep going, the path you want to take is on your left." Roll said quickly. There hadn't been a glitch, she had picked up the same type of energy signal she had gotten from Phantom, but at the moment, there was no time to pursue the strange Navi. They needed to keep there heads in the game.
So Maylu didn't even notice as she and Troy speed through the park on the bikeway, going straight past a black haired teenage boy who was standing by some vending machines. Nor did she see him glance about before sticking his arm into the vending machine, his arm passing straight through, as if one or the other was just a hologram before he pulled out some of the junk food.
He pulled the package open and wolved the thing down with all the manner of a starving man, before going for some more. "Steal year old junk food from those vending machines nobody ever uses." He mumbled after eating nearly a dozen packages of sugar donuts. He looked up at the sky with sad blue eyes. "How the mighty have fallen."
No one even noticed as he started to walk away, his form seeming to shimmer slightly before vanishing all together.
"Get ready boys! They've broken though the second fire wall!" The lead Security Navi to the control system to the city's traffic lights shouted as he and six other Navi's took positions behind a barricade facing the entrance to their sector. Each of them was a copy of the same standard security software, dark green bodies and helmets with side arm blasters at their waists. "Remember, lives are on the line here! This is not a drill!"
They were to be the final line of defense. The fire walls had been destroyed and if the Darkloids and their virus army got past them and to the control tower behind them, it would all be over.
The control system's sector looked like a massive empty room the size of two standard football fields put together, with just the massive glowing orange tower and the sizable barricade to fill it.
"In all my cycles, I have never seen anything get past the first two firewalls." The lead Security Navi mumbled to himself, shaking slightly in excitement. "This is it, the day I was programmed for."
"Sir, we still have yet to receive an E.T.A. from our requested reinforcements." A second Navi commented as he checked one of the two mounted energy turret's data feed one last time, a sign of fear, since their was no time to fix it if something had been wrong.
"Doesn't matter, we will hold this line as long as we need to. Don't let a single one of these glitches get past you. We just need to last until the NetPolice arrive." The leader said, lifting out from behind the barricade a large shoulder cannon. The gateway started to show signs of forced activation. "Here they come!"
The hole in the fair wall of the room exploded into bright light and the viruses started to pour into the room. Nearly a dozen different types of virus came out, flying and land based alike. They must have numbers in the hundreds.
The Navi's opened fire, splitting their attention and trying their best to hold off the approaching army. The energy turrets focused on the flying viruses while the other five keep their attention on the groundlings. Tossing data grenade whenever they saws groups clumping together, otherwise they used their size arms to pick off individual targets.
The leader of the Security Navi's started to laugh out loud as he shot a cannon shot at the opening in the wall, taking out a dozen viruses that were trying to push their way into the central control room, kicking up dust around the hole. "Is this all you got! Come on! You viruses don't stand a chance against a real Navi!"
"Neon Light!"
The Security Navi's laughter was cut short as a sphere of bright yellow light flew out of the smoke and struck him straight in the chest, blasting him off of his feet and heavily damaging his data. "Sir!" His second in command shouted in shock.
"'A real Navi?' That was rather amusing, coming from a piece of mass produced processes." Said Flashman that slowly walked out of the smoke. He was tall, in a dark blue jumpsuit with a helmet that covered his entire head. The top of the helmet looked a bit like a street lamp, and was giving off a light glow as he moved forward. He lifted up hands covered in blade like gantlets, balls of yellow light flouting over them.
"Geez, they think that this will slow me down. How embarrassing." Burnman added. Burnman looked like a small man who was located someone inside of a massive suit of bright orange armor that was modeled after a racecar. Flame's sputtered from exhaust ports on his head and hands as he grinned madly at the barricade. "I'm in a hurry so I'll delete you all quickly!" He laughed, jets of blue fire erupting from his body.
The remaining security Navi's silently muttered the same word, pure hopelessness in their voices.
"Darkloids."
Phantom sat on top of a tower in the middle of the city, looking out onto the distance as the noise of the city rang out far bellow him. A shiver went up his spin as he heard the drumming of the engines of a low flying airplane. "Oh man... jumpy aren't you." He said, rubbing down the goose-bumps on his arms. "Guess I am still not used to there being noise again." He said, trying to laugh at it.
He leaned forward and bared his face in his hands. "You're talking to yourself now? Not a good sign at all." He said, his voice breaking a little. He took several breathes, trying to regain control of himself. He couldn't have a panic attack. Well... he could... but he shouldn't let himself have one. If watching his older sister during her OCD moments had taught him anything, it was that one panic attack could totally wreck your week. He looked up again after having regained his steady breathing.
"On the surface, not much has changed. But I'm pretty sure there wasn't a world on the Internet when I left. Wonder what's happened to the world while I was gone. And how did I end up in Asia?" He said, looking down at a curry shop sign. He couldn't read it, but he was pretty sure it was a curry shop from the picture on the sign.
He flopped onto his back and looked up at the sky though his mop of snow white hair. He wished it was night time. The stars had always comforted him while his nerves were all jumbled up. "I suppose a better question would be, what am I going to do now? Don't exactly relish the idea of heading home, and the GZ isn't a happy go luckily place either. Not that this spot seems any better." He gave a pitiful chuckle. "I'm finally let back out into the world, and I haven't got a clue where to go."
His mind wondered back to the things he had seen that day, the child who had been playing superhero, that fat bubble themed guy, and the world inside the Internet. He couldn't make sense of any of it. At some moments, he wondered if he had really gotten out, or if this was all just a dream and he was still in the thermos. Wouldn't be the first time, though this all felt more real. At least the pain in his side felt real.
Whatever Roll had done really had helped the healing process along, but their was still a bit of pain left over. Nothing that made it so he couldn't function, but enough to assure him that the world around him was real enough. He was actually thankful for the pain for that.
The already noisy streets below became all the more noisy as car horns sounded and the unmistakable sound to two vehicles hitting each other at high speeds reached Phantom's ears. The teen sat up so fast that he actually shot straight off the side of the roof, though rather than falling to his death, he simply flouted there above the city, as if gravity had yet to notice him.
The sound repeated itself again and again, some closer, some further away.
As he looked down at the city below, Phantom saw a giant mess. All the traffic lights had turned green and people had sped straight into each other at nearly every intersection.
As he watched, a large truck crashed into the side of a smaller car right below him. The driver's seat door of the car was crushed and the car skidded a few feet from the impact, but then it started to move again. The car continued to more forward, the driver having been knocked unconscious with his foot on the gas. The vehicle hit the curb and jumped up onto it, speeding towards a few pedestrian. The three people on foot, two adult women and a young boy, were all to shocked to move out of the way.
But before the car could hit them, Phantom had moved in between them. He reached out and grabbed onto the front of the car, digging in his heels and focusing his considerable strength into bringing the thing to a stop before anyone else was hurt. A bright green glow covering his body from his unique energy.
He groaned a bit with the exertion, as the vehicle's wheels continued to spin. Finally, he reached into the car, his hand passing right through the hood and pulling the car battery out. The car gave a few small gasps before stopping all together.
"Oh man, that hurt." Phantom mumbled, shaking himself a bit. "Guess I'm not back up to full strength yet."
"So cool..." Phantom turned his head to see the small child looking up at him with big eyes. He smiled back at the kid, before the sound of the chaos in the city reclaimed his attention.
The damage in the last few seconds was out of control, and with all this madness, emergency response teams would have a huge problem on their hands.
Phantom himself went to the driver's seat, pulling the man out of the car by having him pass through the metal door. The man was badly beaten up, but as Phantom removed a glove and put two fingers to the man's neck, he could still find a pulse.
"This needs to stop." He said glancing up at the traffic lights. Something must have gone wrong with them, big time. He found himself wondering if the lights themselves were connected to the network world that he saw. If that was the cause, them maybe he could stop this if he want there too. "Not even back for one day and already back in the saddle. The world really hasn't changed much." He said to himself as he moved towards one of the street lights, turning invisible as he passed into the data port and entered the net.