Depending on how much content I can write, I may end up with more than thirty chapters . . . Man, I never thought the climax would take up so many chapters. I thought maybe four at best, but apparently not?
I'm a fucking idiot.
Yeah anyway, time to get on with the story, we need to get back to our favourite egghead's POV because why the hell not. Also be prepared for just a slight bit of awkwardness between mother and daughter.
They're as crazy as each other but in different ways.
I don't own MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior, on with the show!
OOOOOO
Just under a third of the operatives from the Underground NetBattlers were selected for bomb-duty - searching and disabling the bombs as quickly as possible - and most of them were special operatives like Zoet (and technically Chaud). They were ordered not to alert the public to the danger, as that would cause unimaginable chaos and they were trying to prevent people from dying.
Zoet and Chaud, along with several other operatives, were assigned to the Gate District.
Since Chaud had never been near the supports before, it fell largely to Zoet to get them where they needed to go. They could get near the supports via the walkways above their heads, but unless they were builders, they couldn't get any further unauthorised. So they had to climb.
The height kind of made Chaud dizzy halfway up - he accidentally looked down after being told not to and promptly freaked out because dear god was this cavern really high - so he was forced to wait anxiously on the walkways while Zoet took ProtoMan up in her battle suit.
ProtoMan and Flight were to act as Virus's bodyguards, since it was the only one guaranteed to be able to defuse a bomb with any accuracy (due to its hacker-level skills).
But even after almost the full time they had been given, the two of them had yet to find more than two bombs. The Scourge had hidden them really well, but Zoet and Chaud comforted themselves with the knowledge that they weren't the only ones working on the Gate District.
It turned out their comfort was unfounded, because only three other bombs had been found. No one knew how many bombs in total there were, and Dekka - a special operative who only had one Navi but frequently worked with the independent Navis - told them to assume that there were more than just five. The supports, she explained to Chaud when he asked, were among some of the most complex machinery in the city, and it would take more than five bombs to break them down completely.
Dekka ordered them to continue searching, but they had just barely begun again when ProtoMan informed Chaud that they'd just received an email.
"It's from Kris, she sent it to every single operative currently active," he reported. "Shall I read it?"
Zoet had also gotten one, but she glanced at Chaud and nodded when ProtoMan asked his question.
"Go ahead," Chaud said.
"Attention all Underground NetBattlers - the Scourge has contacted us once again and we have handed over the VR system. Be prepared for any damage he may cause with it, as he can easily bring viruses into the real world. We now have forty-two hours to evacuate the city and find the bombs. I don't need to tell you to hurry. Kris Landy, First Leader," ProtoMan read. He looked up from the email with a worried frown. "With forty-two hours, we may be able to find all of the bombs, but . . ."
"The viruses make things more difficult," Chaud finished. "They can interfere with the search, or just destroy the city on their own."
"Hey, I just got another email," Zoet said suddenly. She read it, and then made an interested sound. "Huh."
"What is it?" Chaud asked her. But then he got a second email as well.
"I'll read this one too," ProtoMan offered. "Zoet and Chaud, this email has been sent to you two exclusively. I'm pulling you off the bomb-search. Come back to HQ as quickly as possible and come straight to the command centre. Kris Landy, First Leader."
"New orders?" Chaud guessed.
"That or we're gonna be shunted onto evacuation-duty," Zoet said. "Come on, we'd better get going, we can't waste a second."
They pretty much ran the entire way there. People being evacuated saw them coming and jumped out of the way, which was handy, but what wasn't handy was the fact that the trams had been shut down and there were people coming through the tunnels. It was the only way to get people from district-to-district, but they were kind of in a hurry.
"Wouldn't it be better to use the trams to evacuate people?" Chaud wondered, as he and Zoet stood to one side to allow a large group of people to pass.
"Trams would get crowded," Zoet replied. "Besides, you really want a pile-up in a place like this? The only transports that are running are the buses, and that's only because people in the back of the districts would have a really hard time getting to the tram stations in order to evacuate."
"Ah, okay."
When they reached HQ, they were both out of breath - no amount of walking through the maze of hallways every day could prepare anyone for running what would have been an hour's ride on a tram or something - and were forced to pause until they were no longer gasping. Then they started running again (thankfully HQ was mostly empty, due to everyone being out on bomb-duty or evacuation-duty) and arrived at the command centre in record time.
They took off their helmets and went inside.
Kris was on the platform with her back to them, but when the doors opened, she looked over her shoulder - and upon seeing it was them, she turned around to greet them as they came up the platform ramp. Arin was standing a few feet away, pretending not to pay attention (Chaud remembered how awkward it had been when she'd given them their orders; Zoet had looked everywhere but her mother), and Roahm was talking to someone on his PET, most likely giving out more orders. Gunter wasn't in the room, but he was most likely out in the city, leading the evacuation.
"Good, you're here," Kris said as soon as Zoet and Chaud reached her. "I have new orders for you. I'm not going to lie to either of you, this will be extremely dangerous, and I'll understand if you refuse to do this - but I have to tell you now, you two are the best operatives we have for this job."
"Quit stalling and tell us what it is already, and then we'll make a decision," Zoet almost snapped, but since it was Kris she just kept her tone mildly irritated instead.
Kris nodded. "I want you two to figure out where the Scourge is," she said. "He's based somewhere in the city, but since we couldn't trace either of his transmissions, we have absolutely no idea where - but thanks to the efforts of the combined efforts of my security team and the independent Navis we have in our employ, we've ruled out the districts as potential hiding places. And that leaves the outskirts of the city, the unexplored and forgotten caverns, which . . ."
"Which we can only get to via the unused tram tunnels or through natural tunnels," Zoet completed the thought.
Kris nodded. "Zoet, you're probably the best person in the Underground NetBattlers - maybe even the entire city - to explore the tunnels. You can find anything there. Arin told me about how you were the one to rediscover the lost Shining Lake, and the Limestone Depths."
"Okay, fine, so you want me to go exploring," Zoet said, shrugging. "I get me. Why him too?" She gestured to Chaud, who, at any other time, would have felt offended that she apparently didn't consider him up to scratch - but this was underground exploration, and it was completely different to what he was used to.
"Well, he's helped save the world a few times, he might be able to assist you if you do find out where the Scourge is located," Kris explained. "He has experience in taking on enemy bases, you have experience in tunnel-exploration. That's why I chose the two of you - plus you're essentially a package deal anyway. I know you're good friends and you'd probably drag each other along anyway, so I may as well give you permission." She gave them an amused smile. "Which I suppose is what Chaud's visit to this place is about, making friends and all that, so I'd say this has been a massive success."
"Aside from the entire city being under threat from a complete lunatic," Zoet dryly said.
"Yes, aside from that. But finding the Scourge's base isn't the only thing I want you to do. I also want you to see if you can rescue the Hikaris. If you can, get them out of there and then give the location of the base to us - we'll take it from there. This time we're not letting the Scourge vanish into thin air, we'll take him down even if we have to kill him."
Zoet nodded. Chaud did too, but he was a little bit freaked out by how serious this had suddenly gotten - even when facing World Three or Gospel or even Nebula, no one had actually tried to kill the bad guy. They'd always tried to arrest them, or at the very least put a stop to their plans. But considering how far most villains were willing to go just for the sake of world domination (or whatever it was that the Scourge wanted), lethal force was probably the best option for these people.
Well, the Underground NetBattlers seemed to think so. He couldn't really blame them.
"Find the base - if it even is a base - and rescue the Hikaris, then get the hell out and let you guys deal with the rest," Zoet parroted their orders to assure Kris that they knew what they were doing. "Orders understood. Will we need our battle suits, or should we go civilian?"
"A Shade would stand out a mile off," Kris said. "And last time he attacked, he was able to infect battle suits with viruses. Some of those viruses activated the Navi control function in almost every battle suit they infected, but the Navi wasn't in charge - the viruses were. You'll have to go civilian just to be safe."
The Navi control function was horrible enough with his own Navi doing the controlling. Chaud didn't want to imagine what would happen if a virus was in control instead of a Navi.
Just as they were leaving the command centre, Arin called out to them.
"Zoet - good luck. You too, Chaud."
Zoet paused, and for a moment Chaud was almost certain she was about to continue ignoring her mother, but then she replied.
"Thanks, Mom," Zoet said quietly. She left.
Before following, Chaud glanced over his shouder at Arin. She was now sporting her usual wild grin, which he returned with a smile of his own, and went after Zoet.
oooo
They changed out of their battle suits and into their civilian clothes, transferred their Navis back to their PETs, and headed out. Just before they reached the entrance to HQ at the antique shop, they heard someone calling out to them.
Zoet paused and closed her eyes. "Brat," she said, speaking carefully, "please tell me that isn't one of your idiot friends."
Chaud turned around and slumped in disbelief. Lan was running towards them looking determined, and there was only one thing that look could mean.
"Lan-" Chaud began, about to head him off, but Lan interrupted him.
"You're gonna look for my parents, right?" he demanded.
"No, actually, we've been assigned to beat up any idiots who think they have a right to defy my fucking orders," Zoet snapped, also turning to face him.
Lan, whether by sheer force of will or the fact that he was too worked up to care, wasn't bothered by her hostility.
"I wanna come with you," he said.
Chaud shook his head. "We can't, Lan. Kris ordered us to look for the Scourge's base or hiding place," he explained. "We're to find your parents as a secondary objective."
"And even if we had been ordered to do that first," Zoet snapped, "we still wouldn't let you come along. You're not an Underground NetBattler. You'll get in the way."
"He was all for letting us help with the Inky thing!" Lan protested, pointing rather rudely at Chaud.
"That was different," Chaud said, looking away from Lan. "Inkys are viruses, and besides, you can't do anything right now - like you couldn't back then. No offence to MegaMan, but there's no way you'll be of any use if you tag along now."
"What difference does it make? It's not like we'll have to fight on the way there," Lan huffed.
"We may have to, and you'll be defenceless," Zoet bluntly told him. "The Scourge has got the VR system now, he can make viruses show up in the real world - and who knows what else he has. Your Navi can't fight until he gets his spine fixed, which, as far as I know, hasn't happened yet. Our Navis will be focused on other things, they can't babysit your dumb ass."
"But they're my parents!" Lan burst out angrily. "How would you feel if your family was kidnapped by that lunatic, huh?"
"That lunatic is my uncle."
Lan paused. "O-oh," he stammered. "Right. I . . . forgot. S-sorry."
"Stop digging," Chaud advised him as gently as possible. "Just leave it to us, okay?"
Lan glared at them mutinously as they went back through the holographic wall - there was a button on this side that allowed it to become walk-through. They went out of the antique shop and headed straight for the Historical Station.
"You know he's probably gonna follow us anyway," Chaud said, after a few minutes of walking.
"Yeah." Zoet didn't sound too concerned. "If we're lucky he'll keep his ass outta sight until we actually find the base. If we can't see him, maybe the enemy won't, either."
"That's a pretty big 'maybe'."
"Eh. Not my problem if he's an idiot."
"He's not that stupid . . ."
"His Navi's crippled, unable to fight, and he still wants to tag along on what's probably gonna end up being a complete shitstorm."
Chaud had to admit she had a point.
Zoet decided that she'd had enough of discussing the stupidity of Chaud's friends. "Okay, we'll be travelling exclusively through the tunnels as soon as we reach the tram station. We don't have the benefit of night-vision anymore, so we'll have to rely on the lights from our PETs to get around. Luckily, Kris is right - I know those tunnels and I can lead us pretty much anywhere I've been before."
"What about anywhere you haven't been?" Chaud asked.
His friend gave him a sideways glance. "The fuck do you think we're gonna be exploring, you dumbass?" she retorted.
Chaud rolled his eyes.
They were just passing the animal history museum when a strange feeling overcame Chaud's body - he shivered, suddenly feeling ill, and stumbled over to hold onto a nearby street lamp. Then he threw up.
"Chaud!" ProtoMan exclaimed. "Chaud, are you alright? What's wrong?"
"Ugh," Zoet winced, looking at him with an expression of disgust - though she also looked paler than she normally was. "That's beautiful, that is. So you felt it too, then?"
"F-felt what?" Chaud coughed.
"That feeling like someone just walked over your grave. You threw up right after it, right?"
"What does this have to do with-" He coughed again, and doubled over, heaving.
"Yeah, that's how it feels if you go through it the first time," Zoet said. "That, my dumb chicken nugget friend, is what it feels like to be present when the VR system is activated."
Chaud managed to force his head up to look at her. "T-the VR system?" he repeated, feeling even more ill now. "So . . . so he's activated it?"
"Yup," Zoet agreed, eyes narrowed. "He'll be sending out viruses pretty soon. If we don't wanna die horribly, I suggest we send out our Navis."
"Can I . . . can I just have a minute here . . . Ugh . . ."
"You'll get over it," Zoet dismissed. She took out her PET and held it up. "Jack in, Virus and Flight!"
Just like they did in the training room, Virus and Flight materialised in the real world via the infrared jack-in beam. They both looked around the district with some interest.
"Never thought I'd see this place from the real world," Flight commented. "It's a lot different looking at things with my own eyes instead of through a digital screen."
"It is indeed," Virus agreed. It turned its head towards Chaud. "Zoet, perhaps you should jack ProtoMan in for him. It seems he is not reacting very well to the activation."
"A'right, fine-"
But Chaud had recovered enough by then, and he straightened up - very carefully, since he still felt like he was gonna throw up again - and pulled out his own PET.
"Jack in, P-ProtoMan," he said weakly.
ProtoMan materialised, but unlike Flight and Virus, he wasn't distracted by the real world. He immediately went over to Chaud and gently rubbed his back, which helped to calm his stomach somewhat.
"Just give it a minute," ProtoMan advised him softly. Chaud nodded and leaned against the street lamp.
"We're wasting the Sun Pyramid's light," Zoet said. "ProtoMan, you're big enough and he's built like a goddamn twig, just carry him."
ProtoMan glanced at her and then turned back to Chaud. "Will that be alright?" he asked.
"She's right," Chaud managed to say. "We're wasting time . . . and it's you, so it doesn't matter. Agh . . ."
Very carefully, ProtoMan took Chaud into his arms - kinda like how Arin carried Chaud when he was almost killed by that rockslide, but more protective. Now moving as a group of five for real, they were more wary of viruses showing up randomly. Attacks on networks were one thing, but viruses in the real world (previously unheard of, and of course the crazy country just had to be the first to have it happen) was sheer chaos.
"You know," Zoet said conversationally, "if this is how you reacted, I'd hate to see how your idiot friend is right now. Probably vomiting all over the floor."
Chaud groaned and buried his face in ProtoMan's shoulder.
"Maybe we should go back and look for him," Flight suggested, glancing over her shoulder.
"Wasting time here," Zoet reminded them sharply. "But that's not what I meant. You can go back, Flight. Just zip around the air and find him, then bring him here. We may as well take him with us now anyway, can't leave the idiot alone in this shitstorm."
Flight nodded and shot up into the air, then vanished so quickly that Chaud didn't even see her go. He still had yet to see the speed that Zoet had told him about, but flying around breaking the sound barrier in mid-air was probably a terrible idea this far underground, no matter the size of the cavern they were in.
She hadn't even been gone for three minutes before the first viruses came at them.
It was a group of Kitty viruses, skeletal cat-like viruses that were more or less harmless on their own but could very quickly get dangerous if there was more than six or seven - which, of course, there were. They rounded a corner at speed and froze when they spotted the group of now-four, and then started hissing breathlessly.
"Aw, shit," Zoet said, and then the Kitty viruses came at them.
Virus sped past Zoet and launched itself at the group of Kitty viruses, lashing out with its clawed fingers. It also used its clawed feet to grip some of the viruses and keep them in place, or to kick them away when they tried to slip past it to the trio beyond.
The Kitty viruses soon had Virus surrounded, and it was beginning to have a difficult time keeping up its attacks.
"Design Shift!" Zoet shouted, but Virus couldn't hear her over the sound of battle.
"ProtoMan, put me down," Chaud ordered.
ProtoMan looked like he was about to protest, but he nodded and set Chaud down carefully. Then he dashed past the two humans and drew out a Proto Sword, beginning to hack and slice at the Kitty viruses surrounding Virus. Now with a second target to harrass, the Kitty viruses got more frantic, but at least they stopped trying to get past Virus to attack the human operators.
"Ribbon Whip, download!" Chaud shouted, quickly slotting the battle chip into his PET - the whip could help, it was both physical and long-ranged, and ProtoMan could use it to force back some of the more energetic viruses.
The Proto Sword vanished and was replaced with the two red whips attached to ProtoMan's palms. He barely paused in his attacks, switching tactics seamlessly, and began whipping away at the viruses. It worked better than Chaud had dared to hope, and ProtoMan was able to whip off a couple of Kitty viruses that were trying to climb over Virus.
But then even more Kitty viruses came around the corner, and jumped into battle alongside their half-deleted friends.
"Shit," Zoet muttered. She looked at Chaud. "Hey, do you still have those virus chips we got ages ago?"
"The- what?"
"The Kitty virus chips, you got two and I got two," Zoet explained in a rush, already searching through her own pockets. "Wait - here. These." She held up a couple of battle chips with the image of a few Kitty viruses on them.
Oh, he'd almost forgotten those chips.
He searched through his own pockets and found them relatively quickly.
"Download them," Zoet ordered. "We need all the help we can get."
They downloaded the first Kitty virus chips, and then the second, in unison. Each chip contained four Kitty viruses each, so after all of theirs had finished materialising, there were sixteen new Kitty viruses standing around them in a loose but protective circle.
"Two of you stay here, the rest help out our Navis," Zoet told her Kitty viruses.
Chaud repeated the words to his own group. They followed their instructions to the letter - four Kitty viruses stayed behind and formed a protective barrier around them while the other twelve streaked toward the battle, and then pounced on the other Kitty viruses.
It was fairly easy to tell the difference between the viruses. The originals, the ones who had attacked them, had the plain black eyes that all Kitty viruses had. The ones that Zoet and Chaud had sent out had red or white eyes depending on which chip they had come from, and also had a darker skin tone than the originals.
With the twelve Kitty viruses assisting them, Virus and ProtoMan were able to gain the upper hand. Within minutes, the group of hostile viruses had been deleted, and only two of the viruses that Zoet and Chaud had sent into battle were left out of their group, but they vanished in a burst of pixels as soon as the battle was over, having taken heavy damage. The four that had stayed behind as guards remained, though.
Virus stayed where it was to check that no more viruses were about to launch another surprise attack, while ProtoMan went straight back to Chaud.
"Thank you," ProtoMan said as soon as he reached his operator.
"Just doing my job." Chaud smiled.
ProtoMan did something that surprised Chaud and most likely himself - he reached out and placed his hand on top of Chaud's head, and gently ruffled his hair, like how someone would to their younger sibling.
"Ah," ProtoMan said, withdrawing his hand a little awkwardly. Chaud was still smiling, though, so he relaxed. "Are you alright now? You're standing up and you don't look as pale as you did before . . ."
"I don't think I'm in any danger of throwing up whatever breakfast I had this morning," Chaud reassured him. "Well, I kind of already did that, so I guess that's a little redundant."
ProtoMan let out an amused huff of laughter.
Just then, Flight came sweeping overhead. Clutched in her clawed feet was Lan himself, hanging on for dear life and looking too terrified to even scream. As Flight descended, Chaud saw that Lan was also looking sort of sick as well, so at least he hadn't been the only one to react like that when the VR system activated across the city.
Flight placed Lan on the ground (he immediately collapsed onto his hands and knees and started gasping for air) and landed beside him.
"Found him," Flight announced unnecessarily, grinning.
"I can see that," Zoet noted unconcernedly. "Did you freak him out much?"
"Oh, he was already being attacked by a few Mattaurs, so me showing up didn't exactly terrify the poor kid," Flight replied, shrugging. "I deleted the Metts, by the way. Very easy pickings. Oh, hey, we've got some viruses hanging around here too."
"They're ours," Zoet informed her.
"Awesome."
They were forced to wait a minute or two for Lan to recover - both from the sickness and the impromptu flying lesson from Flight.
He took in one last giant gulp of air, and sat up, looking around. His eyes stretched wide when he saw ProtoMan standing next to Chaud.
"Woah," Lan said softly. "You weren't kidding about the VR system."
"No shit," Zoet deadpanned.
Lan then did something that, under the current circumstances, was completely stupid - he jacked in MegaMan.
"No-!" Zoet started to snap as he lifted up his PET, but he'd already pressed the jack-in button and it was too late.
"Jack in, MegaMan!" Lan announced.
MegaMan, sitting in his hovering wheelchair, materialised in the real world a few feet away from Lan. He wore the same look of surprise that Lan had, but MegaMan had already experienced the VR system once before, so his surprise was most likely being jacked into the real world so unceremoniously.
"This is the coolest thing ever!" Lan exclaimed, springing up a little awkwardly. "MegaMan's in the real world!"
"L-Lan, that probably wasn't the best thing to do, under the circumstances," MegaMan stuttered out. Lan ignored him entirely and flung his arms around his brother.
"Even Pulse Transmission wasn't like this," Lan gushed, now hugging MegaMan so tight that, had he been human, MegaMan probably wouldn't have been able to breathe.
"Everyone reacts by hugging their Navis," ProtoMan said to Chaud quietly, echoing what they'd been told back when they'd first been shown the training room and the VR system.
"It's touching and all, but we need to get going, and this is only slowing us down," Zoet muttered, arms crossed. She raised her voice so Lan could hear her over his excited babbling. "Oi, dumbass, get it together! Do you wanna rescue your parents or not?"
At the mention of their parents, Lan and MegaMan both glanced up. Lan let go of MegaMan and stepped back, a look of determination on his expression now.
"So," he said, "does that mean you're letting me come along?"
"Not like we have much choice," Zoet huffed, uncrossing her arms. "If we left you all alone out here with just him-" She gestured to MegaMan. "-for protection, you'd get your ass torn apart in seconds. You may as well come along."
"We'll rescue our parents, Lan, don't worry," MegaMan told his brother.
Zoet made a noise of confused interest, and Chaud suddenly remembered that she didn't know about MegaMan's origins as Hub Hikari - only her mother, who had been in the data-bone reconstruction room at the time along with the team of data-bone scientists, knew.
But for whatever reason, Zoet decided to ignore it. She spun on her heel and was about to lead them away to the Historical Station, but then froze mid-step and cursed.
Chaud turned around and immediately spotted what had made her stop.
Just ahead of them, blocking the middle of the street, was a robotic NetNavi that resembled something from a steampunk-styled movie. It was dirty-brown in colour, but it was also strangely washed-out and muted, as if someone had tried to clean it and had accidentally rubbed off some of the colour.
It took Chaud a moment to recognise it because of the muted colours.
"Virtue?" he said. He'd only ever seen Virtue, the Navi whose job it was to manage the VR system's core in the training room, once before - most of the time it was just Virtue's voice that he heard, a warm but robotic genderless voice (genderless because, like Virus, Virtue had no gender, but unlike Virus, Virtue preferred to be referred to as 'they').
"That's not Virtue," Zoet said slowly. "Virtue doesn't look like someone tried to clean them and failed epically."
"I am Vice," the Virtue-lookalike said. Its voice, like Virtue's, was robotic - but lacked the warm tone and was instead as cold as ice. "Master Zaliki created me to be the foil of Virtue, the manager of the VR system. Since Master Zaliki has gained control of it, I am now the manager of the VR system."
"Of course," ProtoMan said in a low voice. "Remember? The Scourge mentioned something called Vice when he first contacted the Underground NetBattlers. This must be what he was talking about - Vice, the opposite of Virtue."
"And what does the new manager of the VR system want with us?" Flight called to Vice.
Vice tilted its head at her as if it were inspecting a mildly curious bug. "I merely wished to extend a hand of greeting," it said. "Is that so wrong?"
"It is if you're working for that lunatic," Zoet bluntly told it.
"That 'lunatic', as you call him, is your family," Vice reminded her.
"Yeah, well, he may be my uncle, but he certainly ain't no family of mine!" Zoet snapped out. "Piss off already."
"Your goal is to find Master Zaliki's base, yes?" A few viruses materialised behind Vice - an Inky and two strange cloaked viruses that resembled Swordys, but had scythes instead of swords. "I am afraid I cannot let you do that. He has worked very hard for the last fours years and I will not see his plans go up in smoke because you decided that his ideals are insane."
"His 'ideals', as you call them," ProtoMan called, "will lead to the entire city buried under rubble. I don't know about you, but I'd call that insane."
Vice shook its head and raised an arm, signalling to the three viruses to start advancing.
"I cannot change your minds, I know," Vice said as the viruses flowed past it. "I can, however, stop you from advancing. Prepare to-"
But they never found out what it was they had to prepare to do, for at that moment, two more Navis materialised in front of them. One looked exactly like Vice, except a solid dirty-brown instead of the muted colour of Vice, and the other was a tall, bulky Navi with giant blades attached to his wrists which, when put together, would resemble a pair of deadly scissors.
"We will handle this," Virtue said, and Chaud had never been more relieved to hear their warm robotic tone.
"Yeah, let's get cutting!" the blade-armed Navi shouted gleefully. His name was Scissors, one of the independent Navis, and he was a little bit crazy - but extremely powerful. Chaud and Zoet had once worked with him on a mission involving a virus-infected security system in a factory located in the Science District, and Chaud, who usually found it very difficult to get along with anyone who was far too energetic for their own good, had found himself enjoying the Navi's company. There was just something about Scissors that made him likeable.
Scissors burst forward and started cutting at the three viruses with his blade-arms. He was one of the faster Navis in the Underground NetBattlers, and he was almost a blur as he went straight for the two cloaked viruses - Rippers, Chaud remembered. Zoet had shown him a picture of them in case he ever went up against them.
In contrast, Virtue stood almost rigid as they watched the Inky flowing towards them. It opened its liquid mouth and Chaud could see it building up Acid Fire in its throat, but Virtue simply raised their arm and pointed their palm at it. With a burst of pixels, the Inky disappeared - it hadn't been deleted, Virtue had just sent it straight back to the cyberworld.
Virtue turned their head toward the group of Navis and humans behind them. "Go, there is a shortcut to the tram station not far from here," they said. "If you run into any trouble, run." They glanced at MegaMan and eyed his hoverchair for a moment, but then turned around when Vice started talking again.
"So, you are the Navi I was based on," Vice said. It didn't look too impressed. "Your systems and data are much weaker in comparison to mine. Did your creator not think to give you combat abilities?"
"I was not created for battle," Virtue informed it. "I was created solely to manage the VR system. I am here to take back what is rightfully mine, imposter."
"Underhanded insults will get you nowhere."
ProtoMan and the other Navis quietly gathered up their operators and led them away from the battle going on - just before they left through a back alley in the street, Chaud caught sight of Vice bursting into action and Virtue rising to meet it. For a Navi that hadn't been programmed for combat, Virtue was a very good battler.
"Do you think Virtue can win?" Chaud asked breathlessly, as he followed behind ProtoMan.
"They weren't created for battle, of course they can't win," Zoet replied. "But Scissors is there and he's one of the best sword-fighters we have, he'll make sure Virtue doesn't get deleted by that Vice thing."
"Even if he's being attacked by two Rippers?"
"Rippers are nothing to him," Zoet dismissed. "To everyone else, yes, they're a huge problem, but he was actually created specifically to combat viruses such as Rippers. The company that created him went under a few years ago and he ended up wandering the net as an independent Navi before a couple of our own Navis found him messing around in the Cultural Areas. They saw his potential and took him to Livid, who discussed it with Kris, and the rest is history."
"Hey," Lan puffed, catching up with them as they ran. "Should we have left them alone like that? I mean, we could have helped-"
"We have our job and they have theirs, stop trying to be the hero," Zoet said sharply.
Lan glared at her, but made no further protests.
Virus, who was in the lead due to it being the only one who had the fully-detailed map of the entire city memorised, called back to them.
"We are nearing the tram station," it reported. "The next turn will put us out into the street that it is in, but we should proceed with caution - there may be viruses or even Navis waiting to attack us when we get there."
"Don't need to tell us twice," Flight half-laughed. "We've been attacked twice in the past ten minutes!"
"And it sounds like the Scourge knows exactly what we're doing, so we're probably gonna get attacked a lot more," MegaMan said from the back of the group. It was lucky his wheelchair was a hoverchair, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to keep up - there was a lot of rubbish scattered around the alley and he passed over quite a bit of it.
MegaMan was right. As soon as they exited the alley and came out onto the street where the tram station was, they were faced with an absolutely ridiculous amount of viruses. All the viruses, upon noticing them bursting out of the alley, turned around to face them.
"Really?" Chaud sighed.
The viruses attacked.
OOOOOO
Hello cliffhanger, my best friend!
Don't tell me none of you expected this - the VR system was gonna be a part of the climax right from the moment I came up with the concept for it, and of course that would mean ProtoMan and all the other Navis get to come into the real world by proxy. Vice was actually sort of almost-last-minute, something I decided to create to promote the whole image of the Scourge being the complete opposite of Arin. Plus I don't think a human could operate the VR system anyway, it's really complicated.
Anyway, for those of you who're wondering why Chaud didn't get sick when he first went into the training room, that's because the VR system is pretty much always active in the training room. But since the Scourge got a hold of it and had to activate it all across the city, that meant Chaud got to experience what it's like to be inside the system's range when it gets activated.
It's not pleasant, obviously.
Oh, and you know Scissors? I kind of imagine him to look a little similar to Beast Out Zoano QuickMan from the Beast season of the anime. I love his design and I think he's probably my favourite Zoanoroid because of that, hence why I decided to make a Navi based on him. Or his design, anyway.
Unfortunately Scissors isn't a main character, despite how cool he is, so he won't be getting a drawn design from me - you'll just have to imagine him. Maybe just pretend he's Beast Out Zoano QuickMan with grey armour or something.
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