After the incident at Mary's house, Kaita and his friends were too paranoid to enjoy the rest of the perfectly normal school week. This spread to their Navis as well. By Saturday, though, Ring was sick of the tense atmosphere around her friends and their Operators.

"I'm going shopping in Internet City, and you two will carry my bags," she announced as the familiar chimes of the school bell rang. "Just like any other bunch of Navis. And our Operators will just hang out at Kaita or Chisao's house, because inviting the hostess over to your house is the polite thing to do."

"We can go back to my house," Mary said. "We can't just invite ourselves to someone else's house, can we?"

Even as Chisao said, "No, she's right-my house it is," Kaita sighed.

"My mother's barely letting me come to school now," he told them. "She's been worrying about me since she found out I was at the hospital..."

Turboman agreed, "Yeah, and it didn't help that Nova had just run off with about five hundred thousand zenny worth of art from the museum. Did you guys see that?"

Mary nodded. "Mum's not sure that Teruo was really with Nova, but she's still worried about what they've been getting away with."

"Come on, come on," Ring interrupted. "You're just saying that stuff because you think I'll buy out every fashion store in town! I may go overboard sometimes, but even I have my limits."

"He's serious, Ring," Turboman said. "We have to get back soon, or Asuna-san'll come after us."

"Fine, you can go home and be bored," Ring said to Turboman. To Gutsman, she said, "But as for us two, let's just forget Nova for a day. Is that too much to ask?"

"Not at all, de gutsu," the bulky Navi replied. "But I'm not carrying bags, de gutsu!"

"Bye, Kaita!" called Chisao as the black-haired boy shouldered his backpack and got up. "Send Turboman after Gutsman and Ring later, okay?"

"No problem!" As he left the front of the school behind, Kaita decided to take a quieter route home than his usual one. Still, the trip took him by an electronics store with television sets on display. They were showing the news channel. Kero was presiding over a special report on Nova and its suspected members. There were very few with any sort of description to match the name. One of the faces resembled Teruo's. Kaita frowned as he saw a green-haired girl among the many suspect Navis. The hair was all Arrow, but the rest of it wasn't very accurate. After his mother's protectiveness had subsided a little and he had time to spend in town again, maybe he could fill the Net Police in on how she looked...

"Oh! Like, excuse me!" A woman was walking in his direction, quickly closing the gap between them.

Turboman's eyes narrowed. "She sounds familiar, Kaita-kun," he whispered. "I just can't think of where I've heard that voice before..."

"You're Kaita... erm, what's your last name again?" She seemed to get closer to the boy by the second, violating the 'personal bubble' law with an inaudible pop.

If giving her personal information would make her back off, Kaita was willing to oblige her. "Todoroki," he responded hurriedly, inching away from his interrogator.

Turboman's frown grew deeper. "Maybe it was... Wait, no. Oh, come on, it wasn't that long ago, think, Turboman..." The car-like Navi gasped. "Wait a minute! It's-"

"Todoroki Kaita! What a nice name!" came the woman's voice yet again, interrupting Turboman mid-sentence. Kaita's strategy to get her away from him backfired; she gasped loudly and leaned into his face. "Oh, you're that little boy I saw Netbattling a few weeks ago!" she exclaimed, almost sounding like she was talking about her favorite movie star.

She sounds like the woman that was talking with Teruo!" hissed Turboman. "This could be bad..."

Kaita studied her for a moment as she began chattering away. She wore a short, tight-fitting orange dress over blue jeans and pink boots with thick, short heels. Her sunglasses were the same shade of pink, and her only other accessory was her garishly orange purse. Her hair was blonde to the point of almost being white-he'd been under the impression that Teruo's taunter had been a brunette. "I don't think this is her," he replied as quietly as possible as the woman praised him for his excellent fighting.

She screamed as a man wearing a balaclava suddenly stole her purse. "Stop! Thief!" she yelled. But the street they were on was deserted apart from Kaita and the woman; nobody heard her cries for help other than the somewhat unwilling Kaita. The thief paused for a bit when he'd made it to the end of the road, giving Kaita and his new fan time to catch up with him before he continued down the street.

"Oh, no!" shrieked the woman, causing Kaita to wince and cover his ears. "He's heading toward that warehouse!" As she said it, the security shutters rolled down over the windows and doors on the nearby warehouse, which looked like it had been deserted for a long time. "And he's locked everything down, too! This is just horrible!" She paused. "Oh, wait, he left the port on the outside uncovered, so you can plug in..." She looked down at her companion imploringly, and Kaita sighed and stepped up to the panel near the door.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing it... Plug in, Turboman EXE! Transmission!" With the push of a button, a laser sped to the port, sending Kaita's Navi into the bank's webpage. His image blipped into view on a holoscreen, which was much larger than what Kaita had on his PET.

"Viruses, and lots of them!" Turboman reported to Kaita. "I don't think I've ever seen a few of the ones he's got in there. Not like they'll last long, though. Turbo Wheel!" Most of the lower-level viruses, like the Metools and Garuus, were deleted on the spot. But some didn't even register a scratch. These were higher-level Lava Dragons, which stayed asleep near the back of the area. "Okay, let's try this again. Turbo Wheel!" The projectiles softly dinged off the nearest virus and returned to Turboman's waiting arms. "But why didn't it work?" he wondered aloud. "Maybe I need a Battlechip..."

"Enemy located," said a voice in monotone. Turboman readied his Turbo Wheels once again, knowing what that voice usually belonged to. Sure enough, behind him stood an uncustomized Navi. They weren't known for their speed or strength, so Turboman knew that getting rid of it would be easy as pie. "Battlechip: Meteor," said the Navi calmly. Turboman paled as huge meteors rained down upon the battlefield.

Kaita, meanwhile, was wishing that he had a Barrier Battlechip. "I can't watch," he wailed, peeking at the screen showing Turboman's impending doom through his fingers.

Near Kaita's left ear, the voice of his Navi snapped, "Send over Meteor to destroy the ones this guy sent! Hurry!"

"Okay! Meteor, slot-in!" The meteors were destroyed, but it offered little relief. The standard Navi was now firing off an Aqua Tower. "Area Steal!" was Kaita's next selection. As Turboman vanished, the enemy attempted another Meteor strike.

"You may have good chips, but your aim's still terrible!" taunted Turboman as the Wide Sword on his arm struck home, logging the standard Navi out on contact. Without a Navi to control them, the Meteors vanished.

Kaita grinned, laughing, "Easy as pie, Turboman!"

"Hm... I'm sure that you're expecting me to say 'very impressive', but I'm afraid that the near-disaster you had with those Meteors deducts points." The voice, who could belong to nobody other than the thief, continued on. "What can I say? I'm hard to impress."

Turboman growled, "Who are you, and why're you just sitting there and taunting us? Just send your Navi over here so we can give you something that'll really amaze!"

The thief laughed, cold and harsh. "You may call me Black," he said coolly. "Even if I had a second Navi, I wouldn't plug it in. You haven't destroyed even one of my viruses yet, which leaves me to think that you aren't as good as you seem to think you are." Black melodramatically sighed, "It's like everyone nowadays with a halfway-customized Navi seems to think they can be some kind of big hero. From the way you've been handling Nikumu and Teruo, I was hoping that you'd actually be somewhat decent, not to mention all of those chips that you won. But even with them, you're nothing special. Just another stupid kid and his pathetic Navi..."


"Geez, he's really laying it on thick," muttered the blonde under her breath. Luckily, Kaita was too engrossed in sending every Battlechip he had to Turboman, hoping to prove Black wrong by destroying one of the Lava Dragons, to notice. "But it is working-the brat is getting mad..." She grinned, knowing that their plan was as good as completed, and silently walked away.


"Shotgun! Flame Tower! Cannon! Corn Shot!" Four near-identical pings were the only reward Turboman got for his efforts, eliciting a groan of frustration. "Come on, you stupid thing-" Another chip interrupted him mid-rant. Glaring at the nearest sleeping dragon, he took aim at it and unleashed a Spread Gun shot.


On the other side of the door, Black smirked down at his laptop, which displayed Kaita's Navi in one window and many lines of code in the other. "I do know how to piss these kids off, don't I?" he asked himself, amused, as he rested his finger on the key that would turn his microphone back on. After schooling his face back into a cold sneer, he pressed the key and began, "You're a pathetic excuse for a Netbattler. Couldn't even delete something as weak as that virus... guess that shows who the real weakling is, huh?" In reality, Black had never expected Kaita to destroy the viruses toward the back of the area; he'd programmed them to require a Program Advance to be deleted, and the boy probably didn't even know what that was. It was easy to see that Kaita had gotten frustrated, which played right into Black's hands. He typed one more line into the text-laden window and hit Enter. A small orb of black data, erratically emitting sparks of purple lightning, materialized in front of Turboman. "If you really think you can, just try to hit this!"


"I think I will!" retorted Kaita, pulling out another Battlechip. "Heat Cross, slot-in!" More than ready to oblige his Operator if it meant that their taunter would shut up, Turboman raised the gun and shot at the sparking lump of data. It exploded in a burst of red-and-purple flame and split in all directions, leaving nothing behind. There was a long moment of silence before either realized what had just happened.

"We did it?"

"Hah!" laughed Black, the sound short and harsh. "Thanks, kiddo, you certainly have. Care to see?" A window popped up on Kaita's PET screen, showing a panoramic view of Internet City. But something was horribly wrong with the Navis there. Some shivered, though sweat dripped down their faces. Others looked pale, like they'd be sick at any moment. If they were human, all of them would immediately be diagnosed as feverish. "You've just unleashed an epidemic of unprecedented proportions onto the Internet," he said with sarcastic cheer. "Congratulations!"