Title: "Infecten – stage 5 – Maturation 18/?"
Author: Nemesi.
Fandom: (MMBN)
Genre: Romance. Humour.
Word Count:3751.
Characters/Pairings: Blues/Rockman; Netto, Enzan, Axl mainly. Others mentioned.
Rating: PG-13.
Disclaimer: , its characters, places and themes belong to Capcom, Shogakukan, ShoPro, TV Tokio, etc.. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warnings: Shounen-ai. Un-betaed. Navi-preg (and I claim ownership on this idea). OC.
A/N: In this stage, the disease fully develops into a chronic condition.
Summary: THE culpritfinally made himself known.
* * * * *
It's not without emotion that we announce that the One Behind It All, the person who'd turned Noah into Kyuraweil, injected her with slime, invented the Slimers, resurrected Kage and Kuro, made experiments on the Darkloids, kidnapped Axl, Rockman and Blues … I think I lost my track here… anyway! THE culpritfinally made himself known.
The farthest wall from the Navis split neatly in two, and the halves began to slid apart, causing a subtle tremor to run through the room and more debris to drop from above.
The cavity so revealed was dark at first: a yawning hole totally devoid of light, but buzzing and crawling like a bug-nest.
Then a faint, greenish flame appeared, and within the light there was a stone or artefact: a pulsing little core from which the horrible hissing voice had originated.
That flaming stone brightened slowly, and each pulsation of light attracted more and more slime towards the cavity, like a magnet would attract metal.
Soon, waves and rivulets of slime heaped around the small, airborne core, slowly working themselves into the shape of an enormous Head. It was bald, with elongated, wicked features. There was no neck or body to support it: it floated among the shadows, green-tinted and evil.
As the Navis watched, the eyes opened, the mouth thinned and split into a cruel leer. Then the massive jaws worked, and a snake-like voice resonated through their heads, crackling like the transmission of an off-tuned radio.
"It wOulD seEm thAt mY rUNaWay SubjEctS arE bACk," the Head said, surveying the Darkloids with a wicked glint in its glass-like eyes.
The five Navis were spread before the Head like the fingers of a splayed hand: Axl in the middle, further away from the monstrosity; Blues and Kage a little ahead of the child, each on either side of him, with Rockman and Kuro on the forefront, busters armed and ready to fire.
Unsurprisingly, the first to break the silence was Kuro.
"So you're the one who runs this place, your Headship?" Kuro cocked his hip, tapping his buster against his leg as if to inconspicuously inform the newcomer that he'd have no qualms about filling his face with burning plasma. "Nice cosy factory you've got here. Maybe too heavy on the decorations, but there's only so much one can ask of a Giant Head, is there?"
The Head laughed, eyes crinkled at the corners, its look not unlike that of an indulging grandpa witnessing the antics of a bunch of silly children.
"YOu daRe aDrEss mE, yOu faIlEd SpeCimEN?"
"I address whomever I want, thankyouverymuch."
Rockman darted a warning glance at his Darkloid, then took a step towards the Head.
"Who are you?"
"MAsTer Veil iS tHe nAMe i GO bY, bReedEr nAVi."
Rockman stiffened momentarily at the epithet. Blues set his jaw; he exhaled loudly, making an effort to restrain himself.
The Head ignored both Navis, eyes widening as they alighted on Axl.
"Ah, bUt what dO we have hEre? The new-gen little navi HiMsElf!"
Axl looked about in panic for a second or two, wondering if the Head was referring to him for real. When realization sank, his eyes grew wide, while Axl himself, by rules of conservation of mass, went small.
Rockman and Kuro moved as one, taking each a sideway step to stand between Axl and the massive Head. Behind them, Kage and Blues unsheathed their swords, dropping into identical but mirrored fighting stances on either side of the child.
"Hello THere, digital cHild," said the Head, and its voice was getting clearer by the second.
"Hel-uhm-lo. Sir." Axl hastily attached the respectful title at the end, as he'd been taught when talking with an adult.
"I hEard yoUr name is Axl?"
"Err… yeah."
"Axl. Axl. Would you lIke to play a gAme with me, littlE Axl?"
"Don't you bloody hell consider it!" Kuro growled, releasing a quick volley of charged shots. The globes of burning plasma impacted with their target with deadly precision, but were swallowed by the slime as though they were an Halloween treat.
Veil's eyes flashed towards Kuro, aglow with an eerie, sickly-green flame. The pointy teeth gnashed together with a grinding noise.
Immediately, several slim, squishy tentacles, dark and dripping with grease emerged from the pool of slime sloshing underneath the giant Head. They stretched up like begging fingers, writhing like tormented souls.
"Silence! I hAve no intErest in you, failed one!"
Kuro pulled back his lips in a snarl, but before he could do anything, anything at all, there was another green flash in those wide, terrifying eyes, a spark like sudden thunder. One of the slimmest tentacles tensed, reaching up straighter, like the string of violin – then crackled towards Kuro like an immense whip.
It was so fast, the Darkloid couldn't have dodged it if he'd tried. But ultimately, it was for the best than he didn't move: the tentacle sailed past his head, lodged itself into the wall, deep within a spider-web of cracks, and whished back at the speed of light.
"I was addressing the little One, so kindly shut up," the Head commanded.
Slowly, Kuro became aware of the trail of pixels brimming along his cheek, trickling down like blood. Only a second later did he actually feel the sting of the cut.
Unfazed and a little wondering, he reached out with his tongue to gather the shimmering pixels on the tip and swallow them with a flourish. He grinned wolfishly to Veil, a sort of madcap delight in his wide eyes, but made no move to counter the attack.
Behind him, Kage tensed, eyes zeroing in on the cut on Kuro's cheek. On the outside, he looked as collected as ever; but inside he was seething. Silently, he made a mental note to himself, which (after the right amount of censorship was applied to it) sounded more or less along the lines of: I shall crush that green skull open, paint the walls with its entrails and wear whatever remains of it as a scarf.
It was the closest he'd ever come to admit that he wanted to take care of Kuro, which was almost sweet, if you took out the death-treat, the murderous glare, and the violent burst of Kage's aura as he turned to watch Veil's head.
Satisfied with the sudden silence, Veil turned back towards Axl, slowly. He gazed at the round-eyed child for a moment or two, and then his lips stretched wide into a condescending smile.
Rockman slid one step closer to his Darkloid, and even Blues and Kage inconspicuously closed ranks, coming closer to Axl. For his part, the child was trying his best to gulp down his sudden fear. The adults were looking all sorts of cool, standing unafraid and battle-ready before the Giant Head of Doom, and Axl didn't want to disappoint them and act like a scaredy-cat. He swallowed, feeling his the weight on chest diminish a little, and straightened his back.
"Axl?" Veil asked, voice booming like thunder.
I didn't jump I didn't jump I did SO NOT jump "…y-yes?" and I didn't stutter!
"Tell me, wouldn't you like to know why you and your friends have been brought here?"
Axl blinked. Well, that wasn't what he was expecting. At all. He glanced around at the other Navis, then faced the giant head once more.
"I think I'd like that, sir," he said politely.
The Head dipped down in a sort of cosmic nod, a sombre gesture that was ruined when the Head bared his teeth in a feral grin.
"You, dear thing, are here to help me destroy the Cyberworld."
Axl blinked.
"That makes sense. Why?"
Blues glanced at his son, unable to decipher his mild reaction. Kage also spared the child a glance, needing to make sure that Axl was being brave, and not his usual gullible self. At a closer inspection, the child was shaking quietly, though his voice had sounded nothing but steady. The two red Navis looked at each other, something subtle passing between them, then turned as one towards Veil as he answered:
"Because I command it, child."
"But," Axl whined. "Why? I mean, I like the Cyberworld. It's full of nice people everywhere. It sparkles with more colours that I can name, and there are so many sounds, some pretty like laughter and some scary but cool like electrical storms. If there wasn't a Cyberworld, I couldn't have met Papa and Daddy and Roll-Oneesan and all my Ojichan. And that would've made me sad, because I love them, and they love me. So why do you want to destroy the Cyberworld, when it's so beautiful?"
Veil remained irresponsive for a moment. Then he began to shake with small, quiet chuckles, that quickly escalated into a full-fledged laughter as the giant Head tilted backwards on its axis. Axl shrank a little into himself, wincing at the horrible cacophony, then seemed to realize that he was being laughed at, and bounced up with a pout on his lips.
"It's true!" he argued, working himself into a miniature frenzy. "The Cyberworld is pretty and it's cool! It's my home and I like it the way it is!"
"Your home?" Its mirth quieted, and when the Head first righted itself, then leaned forward, its face split into a wicked grin, horrible to look at. "You little fool. You belong to this place as much as a fish would belong in the sky. You and your species are but a parasite."
Axl took a step back, confused and intimidated. The other Navis stiffened.
"Oi there!" Kuro called, waving his buster around. "Mind your tongue. If there's something here that doesn't belong in this world, that'd be you, you oversized potato bulb." Rockman tried to reach for his Darkloid and restrain him, but Kuro merely shoved him out of his way, and gestured towards Veil.
"You're a human, not a program." There was a collective start, which Kuro ignored. Veil peered down at him with an impassive frown. "And FYO, 'you and your species'," Kuro mock-quoted, "created this place for us. It's the likes of you that don't belong here."
"I commend you for recognizing me for what I am," Veil said, silkily, his voice like the hiss of a snake. "But your words only serve to bring your own ignorance to light. Create this place? The humans didn't create the Cyberworld. It came to exists long before we did."
There was a pause. Silence. Stillness. Then Kuro snorted.
"Funny. Ludicrous, but funny, Potato-head."
Rock elbowed him in the stomach.
"Would you please stop baiting that thing?" he hissed urgently, low enough for only Kuro to hear. "The last thing we need is an angry giant head going rampage on us!"
Kuro glowered, but said nothing. Above and before Rockman and him, Veil's head moved left and right in a sort of condescending, pitying gesture.
"You believe humans created this place," he spat out the word like a curse. "But think about it: what they invented was the Internet. A web, a route, linking our world to another. Nothing more, and nothing less. The humans didn't invent the sky. They devised vehicles to move across it. They didn't make the ocean – they made the ships that sail across it. Similarly, they didn't make the Cyberworld – the made a route to reach it: they made the Net."
Silence fell across the room, piercing like a blade of ice. Veil shook his head shook again, rueful, and yet amused.
"This space… this world we call Cyberworld… it already existed. The government had scientists create a gate to our own doom, and they feel proud of it!" The massive jaws worked as Veil's teeth ground harshly together.
"The gate to our doom," he repeated. Then, slower: "Relics of a super-advanced civilization were discovered throughout the ages. But it wasn't until the invention of computer that humans caught glimpse of what was beyond this reality, the universe known as the Cyberworld.
"The government saw the Cyberworld as a gold mine, and decided they should conquer it, using the technology devised for the conquest of outer space. When forcible access proved ineffective, they had scientists create the perfect means to navigate this unknown universe they'd uncovered. Ultimately, they had them create Net Navigators – Navis, for short. Your race."
Rockman drew an harsh breath in.
"How… how can you know that? How could you possibly…"
"I was there," Veil answered. He paused, smirked. The grin plastered to his face grew wider, like a shark's. "I was there when the government chose Dr. Hikari's vision of internet expansion, over Dr. Wily's research in the robotic field. Why, I was even there when the good Doctors partnered for the Cyberworld infiltration project," the Head shook, like with silent emotion. "Alpha, Noah, the Soulnet, Protoman… I was there when they were made."
Rockman licked his lips, unable to think, unable to believe. This man, whoever he was, knew…
"You… you knew… Dr. Hikari" he barely restrained himself from calling the doctor Grandfather.
"I worked under Dr Tadashi Hikari back in the days," Veil confirmed. "But when he discovered I loathed his dream of creating artificial humans made of data, he and Wily fired me."
Rockman's head shot up.
"…Wily? What's Wily got to do with…?" he shook his head, voice trailing off into a confused silence. "You… you want to tell me that Dr Hikari was…"
"… not the sole responsible for your pitiful existence?" Veil sneered, loathing evident in his tone. "No. He teamed up with Albert Wily, even used part of his studies on A.I. in his research. You are Wily's spawn as much as Hikari's."
Rockman gasped, staggering backwards. Axl was clueless, having never head of either man, and Kuro was simply unconcerned with who or what had made him. However, Blues stiffened at the provocation, and so did Kage.
"Those fool –" Veil's voice was an hiss now, low and dangerous "– ignored my project to create weakling creatures such as yourselves. Look at you. Susceptible to feelings. To change. To corruption. Unlike my EM waves, you can feel, you can rebel. But my EMs are the ultimate beings, always ready to please, always doing my bidding."
"The perfect slaves, you mean!" Kuro snapped. "Those thing don't have a brain to speak of!"
"Why would they need a brain, to follow instruction? They need nothing but blind loyalty. As things stand they'd do anything for me. Anything."
"Electromagnetic waves," Blues seethed quietly. "So this slime is nothing but noise!"
"This noise is perfection. Electromagnetic beings are fated to replace your kind in the near future. As soon as I'll have destroyed the Cyberworld, I'll create a network of radio impulses to replace the current Net."
"Destroy the…" Rock blanched, then flushed over with anger. "Are you even listening to yourself?!"
Kuro elbowed him at this point, payback for having been silenced before. Only, he did it quite more forcefully than Rock had.
"Remember rule one, Pebble: rule one. Don't enrage the Giant Head of Doom."
Rockman glowered up at the Darkloid from under his lashes, but was privately thankful for the intervention, since it helped him regain some measure of composure.
Axl took the silence as his cue to speak.
"But… uhm… Mr. Head, sir… you never… never told me… why."
Veil swivelled towards Axl, who had an hard time not cowering in fright under his heated gaze.
"Why," Veil mused. "Why, he asks why, the little fool. Why! Why indeed!" he hollered. "Well, but because if I don't, it will destroy us humans, first!"
There was silence, again. Kage and Blues shared a brief look, but again, it was Rockman who talked.
"How can a place poise a threat to you?" he paused, then softened, slouching visibly. "I know that Dark Navis and other cyber-menaces have harmed humans at times, but…"
"…but there were humans behind every single accident, you can say it Pebble," Kuro inputted. "I should know: I'm a manmade menace myself," he grinned, cheeks dimpling in a grin that was all things wicked and malicious. "Even the so-called God of Destruction Forte was a result of a human mistake." He shrugged.
Veil snorted in humourless condescendence.
"How can it? Are you really so blind, breeder Navi?" Veil mused. "Very well, then; I shall satisfy your curiosity. Defective as your kind are, you might still see reason and join me willingly, if you knew the facts."
He paused, looking up and to the side, like a man who dreams.
"The Cyberworld is a self-sufficient macrocosm, a world in and of itself. The Net routes we created? Nothing but ant galleries that perforate its fabric."
He looked back at the Navis as though they were the ants he was just speaking of.
"But what knowledge do we know of this 'fabric' we willingly plunge into? What do we know of the space that surrounds our internet? What is it made of? How does it react to stimuli? What kind of life thrives in its depths?"
He paused.
"Nothing," he answered itself, quietly and solemnly. "We know nothing. We move about in our narrow bug-galleries, unaware and unconcerned of the sheer weight of mud and stone over our unsuspecting heads. Our pathetic Net is encased in something bigger, just like a bug might be encased in a drop of amber resin. And like the trapped bug, we're unable to delve into the jewel and see its core. But!"
Veil's head reared up, drunk on the sound of his own voice.
"But…" he repeated, slowly and with mounting glee. "Noah went there. She breached the barrier that separates the Net from the rest of the Cyberworld, and travelled to its very core, the area I dubbed The Spheres. And there she saw it – she saw the being that resides there, the very pillar of the digital universe. A creature of such tremendous power that a mere flick of its hand may destroy us all: the Blue Light."
"The… Blue Light?" Blues questioned, and again, he shook with an odd sense of familiarity at the name, as though he knew – he ought to know – who or what Veil was referring to, but the memory eluded him, like a mirage in the desert heat.
"The Blue Light," Veil repeated in murmurs, like a feverish man who's fallen prey of a delusion. "And what else could obviate such blinding Light, if not a wave of the blackest Darkness? I reprogrammed Noah to chase and revive Darkloids, and used my slime to clone them and create an army of destruction. But the slime-clones are defective, as you might know. They are sane and functional for only a limited time, before the chemical bonds between their atoms start falling apart, and they liquefy back to their original state of brainless matter. I was scouring the Net for something to stabilize their bodies, looking for that far superior being, the greatest invention of Dr Hikari and Dr Wily, but in the Upper Levels I stumbled upon a different sort of salvation – a new kind of Navi, who was born instead of being programmed."
Veil's eyes glittered, like heated mercury.
"With the four of you under my control, I can breed an army of exceedingly powerful digital creatures. I can use the slime to brainwash them into being my slaves, and then send them against the Blue Light, and it doesn't matter how many will be deleted in the process – you'll just breed more and more, and more, until the Light will have fallen, and the Net crumbled."
Rockman was breathing hard with shock and disgust at this point. Even Kuro, for all his steadfast sadism, seemed horrified.
"You…" Rockman breathed out. "You're not even sure that Light would pose any threat to you! If you attack, the Light will have to defend itself, and if it's as powerful as you say, we WILL be destroyed, and it'll be all your fault!"
"It's light," Blues broke in, tone simmering with a quiet, honed anger. "Holy Light. Its purpose is not destruction!"
"You lie!"
As Veil roared, the room itself started to shake and splinter, more debris falling from above. The Navis duck for cover, crouching low and raising their arms against the deathly shower.
"You cannot know its intentions! You cannot! You cannot!"
There followed a moment of silence as the dust settled, the only noise Veil's rasping, uneven breathing. Then Rockman uncurled from around Axl, barely aware that Kuro had his arms around the child as well.
"Nor can you!" he cried out. "You can't destroy a whole universe and all the life in it just… just because it hosts a creature that's too powerful for your liking!"
The Head tilted itself marginally up. Its eyes remained shielded, shrouded in darkness.
"You are no living beings," it said quietly.
Blues stepped up, putting himself between his family and the enemy.
"You're wrong. We live. We feel. And we die. Just like humans. We are the same. We are alive."
Veil let out a roar. The slime coating the floor reacted immediately to its anger: it began to boil and churn, crackling with green sparks. A sick radiance originated from it, flooding the room, painting twisted shadows across Veil's face. One dripping tentacle of slime reached out, curled tight around Blues's sword arm. Rock cried out a warning, but the Red Navi remained unconcerned, and did nothing to either evade or disengage the decayed limb from himself.
"Such a pitiful man," Blues murmured. "What is really driving you?"
Veil's Head shook, eyes wide and crazed, grin sick with delight.
"…fear." He said, then cackled. "Don't you see how terrifying you all are? Not only that ancient Blue Light, whatever it might be. But you. Every single one of you monsters. Even your progenitor, who should have been a weakling prototype, had such an endless potential that he had to be sealed off before he realized his power. You might look like humans on the outside, but you aren't. Not within. You are a different race, and you'll desire to overcome us, one day. Even more so now that you've found a way to breed. That's how things work in this world: it's the endless fight to reach the top of the food-chain, to wield the control over every other creature. It's eat or being eating. And I won't let you come out victorious. I will exterminate you first."
- Scene 18 cleared.
NOW LOADING…