ACDC Town: 19:33
Ooyama homepage
"Guts, another rejection…" GutsMan bit back his tears at another no-go from Roll for a talk. Normally this wouldn't bother him much, but after today… "I need someone to talk to, Guts." Dex was fast asleep, no way would Glyde talk to him at this time of night unless their lives were in danger, MegaMan was MIA until his dad fixed him, and the message boards were closed for the night.
Despite his reputation as a bit of a bully and an idiot -a reputation not wholly undeserved- Dex's messageboard was pretty popular among the elementary school kids and lower. The two of them worked together to make this place as safe for kids as possible - as well as making sure any talk about bypassing the school security to go to places they shouldn't never left the page- and GutsMan was quite proud of it. He liked talking -mostly about himself- and just mingling, and the design of the webpage really helped in that. Food was the name of the game when it came to this webpage's theme, from the Udon noodle guardrails to the game controller like floor. He, Dex, Lan, and MegaMan worked their butts off getting money to pay Yai so she could part with her super awesome apps, like the cyber hockey table, or that new game where you could literally trade viruses and battle them! That one was cool! It was fun when it was active, but a sad ghost town when everyone was offline. At least the N1 qualifiers were a blast. Beating up viruses and showing off awesome Chip Combos, he and Dex were such an awesome team! And soon they were gonna show off to the rest of the world on the national stage! And once all this soap opera drama was sorted out, Roll would-
"GOOD EVENING!"
"GUTS!" The giant Navi jumped in fright at the Mr. Prog for the homepage, dressed like a noodle vendor, was suddenly behind him. "Don't do that Guts!"
"I HAVE MAIL FOR YOU!" The program announced cheerfully, the icon for the file floating in front of GutsMan. The giant handed Navi took it, the going away to who knows where. "GOODBYE!"
"Yeah yeah guts, guts…" GutsMan waved him off and began to read the file. "..." Oh no, this can't be right. "That's not what the assignment is..." Then he looked at the date. "Guts…."
Back in the real world, in the messy, food ridden, and yet somehow bug free room of Dex, the rotund boy was sleeping on the floor with his legs in the air, having fallen out of his bed during his slumber. As he was dreaming about being awesome however…
|DEEEEEEEEX!| The young boy was jolted awake with a totally manly scream as his Navi suddenly appeared on the computer screen, scared out of his mind. |YOU DID THE WRONG HOMEWORK GUTS! THIS WAS LAST MONTH'S!| Any objection Dex had to being woken up was silenced as dread filled his heart. |WE GOTTA GET THE DISK WITH THE RIGHT ASSIGNMENT, GUTS!|
ACDC Net: 19:33
Aftercurrent Hotel Network
"OH GOD GET THEM AWAY FROM ME!"
From the safety of the Adblocker Forcefield, Piruluk watched as some Navi that was passing by was subjected to those AdBots. 'Took me 20 minutes to get here because of those stupid things.' Punched in the jaw. She was definitely getting clocked in the jaw the second she went to her room. Her and BubbleMan, that worthless waste of oxygen.
Located on the good side of town, the hotel in the real world was middle of the road, only really famous for it's ridiculous name that was related to the town, and the fact it sat on a big hole in ACDC's security. It's Cyberworld equivalent was just as boring as it's real world equivalent, a large, beige 4 story building with a fountain in the middle. The fountain was the only form of extravagance the 3D modelers decided to apply to the building. The water spout in the middle spewed out the liquid into a dome-like shape that landed just centimeters away from the edge of the fountain, creating the illusion that you were staring at half a sphere of water. She could see a fish or two swim in there, but that was it. There weren't that many people on the hotel's server tonight, probably not many in it's real world equivalent either.
She walked into the lobby, and headed to where the hotel receptionist, a Mr. Prog in a secretary's dress, was stationed. "GOOD EVENING!" He shouted, much to her irritation, and that big bright smile wasn't helping her mood either. "HOW CAN I-" She quickly handed him te Epub file. Suddenly his smile dropped to a grimace, and she could see two large Ws in his eyes. "Come with me." She followed him to one of the deluxe elevators, ones for customers who paid for the most expensive rooms. This elevator had a large rose garden in it, though the poor texturing and the paper like modeling ruined the image. The made a beeping noise, and soon they were going down. "FlashMan isn't happy with what you did today."
"I'm well aware." She felt herself disconnect for a second. The world felt smaller, closed off. 'We're in a Virtual Machine?'
"The plan for the TetraCode transfer is complete on the human world side. Is your NetOp going to be a problem?"
"Not at all."
"I hope for your sake that you're right." The elevator stopped, the floor indicator showing a giant W. "WWW floor, private server. Have a nice night."
Piruluk narrowed her eyes at the creature and exited into the room as the door closed behind her. And just as she predicted-
"TAKE THIS BLUB BLUB!"
POW
-Right in the jaw.
Ayanokoji Network, 21:00
Yai's Homepage (Set to private)
Converting data into different file formats was so hard for humans to do nowadays. They just left it up to Navis to do it, but there were times that you'd need to do it by hand. The problem was just learning how to use the modern equivalent of Right Click & Save As, something many kids today simply didn't know how to do. And that was part of ACDC Academy Class 2-A's homework, which was hindered by the fact that the teacher explicitly told the student's Navi's to not do it for their NetOps, because she'd know.
"Yes, yes, yes..I see, I see…" No Unicode errors, text was in the proper format… "Excellent work Miss Yai!"
|Thanks Glyde!| The heiress let out a yawn as she began to shut her computer down.|I'm going to bed now; good night.|
"Take care." When the connection was cut, Glyde immediately had a servant on standby outside the young mistress's room. 'Did she seriously think I wouldn't notice?' There wasn't a day where he didn't have an eye on her room since the mistress was taken hostage, what on earth was she thinking by hiding that fridge underneath her bed? 'I suppose I'll have to inform her father.' Oh, both of them will be quite cross with him after this! But first, her other homework! He quickly bought out the files to read over, impressed by what he was seeing. 'She passed the simulations with flying colors!' Hostile takeover prevention, money laundering investigations, and contraction negotiations! Even with her laughable attempts to smuggle contraband into her room, priide was written all over his face, happy that she took her duties as the next head of the Ayanokoji family so seriously!
And then GutsMan came flying in. slamming a good foot into the floor. "GUTS GUTS!" To his credit, Glyde didn't scream like last time, just stared as GutsMan got up and began shaking him. "WE GOT A PROBLEM GUTS! DEX FORGOT HIS HOMEWORK!"
"..."Glyde simply narrowed his eyes, unperturbed by the shaking. "Do you have any idea what time it is? Eject user GutsM-"
|DEX FORGOT HIS HOMEWORK?!| Glyde's eyes widened; of course she was awake! |We have to help him, stat! We don't know if has her crazy evil twin standing in for her, and if she did, he's gonna be in a heap of trouble!| Before he could protest, Yai grabbed her PET from beneath her bed, plugged it into said bed, got Glyde off her family's network, and soon snuck out of her mansion. She had no problem letting her friends get it for being idiots, but not at the hands of that psycho!
The worst thing about being a Level 0?
CRAAACK!
Fully rendered bones,organs, and the like. And the fact that basic Navi invulnerability can be set to it's absolute lowest settings by the puppetmasters that control your life. This is what happened to Piruluk more than an hour ago. Her skin was ore purple now than white, her hands and legs bent in ways that would make a contortionist proud. The ability to even breathe had just been given back to her, and she was pretty sure there was more blood on the inside of her than the outside. Now normally this would just be a painful, painful, painful, painful annoyance, but it wouldn't be a proper punishment now would it. |Daddy, I think she's suffered enough.| That's why Wily had Mayu reset her physical capabilities and body stare back to when she was just some weak little human girl. Stil, there was some solace in this.
"GRROOOOGHh... " BubbleMan was a shockingly painful blunt object, and despite the fact he, his oxygen tanks, and his oxygen hose were used to put her in this state, he was in a lot worse shape than she was. Oh it hurt to laugh right now. "Blub... Though it's not like either of them could do anything other than groan; FlashMan disabled that the second BubbleMan punched her.
|Yes, I think she's learned her lesson for now. Mayu, heal her.|
And it was then when Piruluk realized what FlashMan meant by 'needing something to bite on.' as she was suddenly restored back to normal. It wasn't like normal Navi restoration where you were restored from an archived backup, her bosses weren't keen on that when it came to punishments. And so within the four seconds it took for Mayu to heal her, she experienced the hour and 24 minutes worth of pain all over again, and by the time her restoration was complete, it took everything in her to get back up and stare FlashMan in his stupid mouthless face.
|I see you're not able to talk at the moment.| Wily responded if that was a good thing. |FlashMan, if you would? Now that we're on a private server, there shouldn't be any eavesdroppers.| Not even that blasted 'S' would be able to find this place! |Go over the plan.||
"Yes, Lord Wily." A holo-screen appeared in front of the two Navis and the dismembered idiot. "Around 10:00 today, the data package you gave to Piruluk when she returned to her NetOp was released into ACDC Academy's Public System." The map screen changed to show a map of the second floor, a bright blue light blinking above Class-2A. "I'm surprised the packet took so long to activate."
|It was set to activate once Lan, MegaMan, and that teacher of his were out of the school's communications range.| Wily explained as the screen then changed to show surveillance footage of the teacher in question going over future assignments. |You were able to verify that the teacher wasn't Yuriko Ozono in disguise, correct?|
"Yes. once they were far enough away from the school, I had this idiot-" A lightning strike slammed into BubbleMan's nearly dead form. "Send his Bubble Brigade into the facility and begin phase 2 of the operation."
"Ru…." Everyone's attention was turned to the shaking Piruluk. "Ru...ko…"
|Do you mean that Kominato girl?| Wily asked dismissively. |Iona and Urith told me all about her. What Lan lacks in common sense , his fellow NetSaver does restraint. Keep to the plan she set for you. And Mayu, I hope you won't try anything with her LRIG after the last disaster, right?|
|...|
Wily took that as a yes. |Now then, Piruluk.| Suddenly the blue LRIG found her head turning to the source of the voice against her will, likely where the streaming program was hidden. |After your failed and unsanctioned assasination of MegaMan on a public network, I spent the next three hours scrubbing as much of your presence as I could from every legal and criminal network available to the public. I hope you realize that your hospital visits are going to be postponed for the time being.| Piruluk looked away in anger. And suddenly found her face being slammed into the ground by that same force. |Now that your NAT cloak is useless, you'll have to be reassigned while we get another LRIG. FlashMan, you will have to handle most of the TetraCode's transfer alone without the aid of an LRIG, so I'm counting on your NetOp to separate Piruluk from the brats.|
"Understood."
|Piruluk.| The blue LRIG found herself in control of her body again. |Your new mission is to assist Saiko and FlashMan in keeping MegaMan and his NetOp off their backs, and secure a transfer to the server the TetraCode is located in.|| Piruluk opened her mouth- |Of course those two are going to interfere.|
"Agreed."
|Daddy's right.|
"Blub...help me…"
|Not only is the school within spitting distance of their homes, it's just routine by now. They're probably going to come an hour in with their friends, completely unaware of what's coming, just like they always do.| Piruluk couldn't see him, but she could feel the snarl coming onto Wily's face. |That's why we prepared.|
"I had the hypnotized teachers open the shipments of Wily Parts sent to the school. By now Inukai and Sunayama should begin reporting that their Wily Parts were installed."
|And the results?|
"On my end it went perfectly. There were no conflicts with the differing eras of tech. The machines cooled and heated up as fast as they normally would, and the log reports from the Mr. Progs in each indicated that they weren't even aware of the hardware addons, nor were they aware of the system BIOS for each device being accessed."
|Just how I want it. Once Saiko checks the connection lines in case those do-gooders try to cut the power, I want you to make contact with the TetraCode.| FlashMan's eyes widened. |Not to worry. Even if you were deleted, the data flow wouldn't corrupt Saiko's PET or any of your backups. You'll be the management system, nothing more, and nothing less.| FlashMan sighed in relief. |Now, Piruluk-| He began, as the LRIG in question found it very hard to get any of her limbs to respond. |You're going to help me and Mayu test out a new project. Mayu, get that Miyuba or whatever her name is in here.|
|OOOOOH!| FlashMan and Piruluk winced; the level of malevolence in a child that 'age' was just wrong. |GOTCHA!|
ACDC Town, 21:55
Hikari Residence, Lan's room
SUBPET HAS ENTERED SLEEP MODE.
With the lights off, Lan stared blankly at the SubPET on the desk, hooked into his desktop's internal wiring since it was incompatible with his regular PET charger. 'Finally!' He had enough time to change into his pajamas, actually do his homework three times, and watch some low quality 144p TV on the SubPET before the dang thing shut down fully! and now, this late at night, he could do nothing but think about his situation. Right now would be the perfect time for him to go on the net to take a load off, but even he wasn't cocky enough to risk using a default Navi body against a Mettaur or something.
The monitor lit up in a dim white as black text appeared on it. |The Mr. Progs cannot get in contact with Mayl.| MegaMan said using the oft forgotten text to speech program. And judging by the audio quality and lack of consonants, a very old version
Lan sighed as the computer speakers turned on. "Of course she wouldn't say anything after what happened."
|It took them 20 minutes for them to work up the courage to leave the PC. and then another 20 to get back, and another 10 to stop cowering over that creepy desktop background of yours.|
Lan grimaced; he really had to get dad to change that thing. "Can you access anything on that WIXOSS stuff?"
|Not until the batteries of the device recharges. Did you know that this computer cannot be used to operate a SubPET, at all? Between that and my current state, I cannot use the extra processing power to access the data.|
Lan fell head first on his mattress. "When did everything go wrong, MegaMan?"
|I wish I knew Lan. I did not realize that Mayl and Roll were so entrenched in this| And Roll's appearance and general demeanor,it was the same when in that LRIG form, but she felt like him for some reason!
"I'm not talking about the WIXOSS stuff." Lan replied, to the Navi's confusion. "I mean that stuff about her and cars." He let out a soft groan. "I'm such a bad friend! I should've noticed!"
|Uhmm...yes, you should have. It was kinda obvious. Are you not worried about this WIXOSS problem?|
"Nope." Was Lan's simple reply. "This is like, the 4th time this happened. You see the pattern right? We're probably gonna have to get some weird programs or something, you're gonna use the WIXOSS powers, and we're probably gonna face some bad guys! This is save the world type of stuff MegaMan, trust me."
Oh good god he was right. |But what about Mayl? And Roll?|
"I don't wanna admit it, but we have to worry about them later. Once that SubPET's recharged, we're going to have to explain ourselves, and then we gotta do research -ughh- to find out who that LuckyRucky Navi is. And on top of all that junk, we have to do it without triggering that curse thing!"
|Oh yeah.| He completely forgot about the fact that he almost died today. |It will take a while for me to figure out how to divulge the information without triggering anything unpleasant. Go to sleep Lan.|
"Yeah, sure." He wrapped his blanket around himself like a cocoon and scooched up to his pillow like a caterpillar. 'Just think about homework and you'll be off the dreamland in no time!' Yeah, some sleep would do him some good.
"This is the third time I've ever seen an LRIG outside of their Level 0 form." FlashMan remarked as he observed the frozen teenaged girl. " Her name is Miyubi Matsutame, correct?" He grimaced." Must she be dressed like this?"
|No.|
|Yep!|
"Blub…"
FlashMan shrugged; not like it'll matter by morning. "So you know what to do with the sacrificial lamb, right Piruluk?"
"Yes." The pain had subsided and she was soon back to normal, her face impassive. "And you will kill MegaMan, correct?"
"As long as you don't interfere." FlashMan answered. "In his current state, I may not even have to delete him. Saiko could just crush that clunker of a PET under his heel!"
|You probably could.| Those SubPETs were annoyingly weak to intense pressure. |But I'm warning you right now.| Wily began. |Leave everyone alive.| Piruluk hid her shock |Unlike Inukai's plan with the YokaYoka Zoo, this will have your NetOp's fingerprints written all over it. If you get a murder charge, it will be all over for you, and should that happen…| Wily let the threat hang.
"Not to worry Lord Wily. We're ready to die for the cause." FlashMan spared a look at Piruluk, who didn't react. 'And some are more than willing.'
|Good. Now, let's draw the pests to the school before the illustrious can repair MegaMan.|
"Whoa." Of all the things Dex and Yai expected after this mess of a day, a cute older girl wasn't one of them. "Uhhmm...uhmmmm.." That was some super long hair! It reached all the way to her knees, and there was so much! And all that purple! 'Is she wearing Lan's mom's clothes?!' "Is...is...s..isss-"
"-Is Lan up?" Yai interjeted, stepping in front of the fat slab or hormones and readjusting her purse. "We need his help with something."
Chiyori stared at the pajama clad kids blearily. That fat kid had some weird cape on the back of his onesie, and she was pretty sure the little blonde boy with the forehead was wearing something with real fur. She should know; she'd ruin plenty of expensive things that she learned to recognize them by sight alone! "Lan...Lan….Laaaaaaannnnn…." Her eyes widened. "Oh, Dr. Hikari's son!"
"Yeah...this is his house."
"I….uhh…" Meanwhile Dex was being super helpful.
"The alarm didn't go off, so I guess you're friends with him or something?" Chiyori let out a yawn and let them in, closing the door behind them as the kids wiped their shoes on the carpet. "I don't know where he is, I'm going to bed, night."
"Uh huh…" A red faced Dex mumbled as the pretty girl went back to the guest room and slammed the door shut. "She's nice…"
"..." Yai narrowed her eyes. "Something's going on here."
"Yeah I know!"
"Not her Dex!" Yai Jacked Glyde into the house's surveillance network. "Unlike you, I know how to read the room, so I know something big just happened here." She turned to her PET screen. "Glyde, access the systems please?"
|Understood Miss Yai.|
Heading to the control panel for the surveillance system, Glyde noticed the change of mood that his NetOp was talking about. The were lethargic with their heads held down, unable to look him in the eye. As he and Yai had admin access to a lot of the Hikari family's systems, they didn't stop him from going through the family's records.
15 minutes later….
"Yai, come on let me see!" Dex pleaded. "I wanna know what happened!"
Yai, face blank, logged Glyde out and put her PET back in her bag. "Dex, what I just saw is something we discuss with Lan, and only Lan." Dex was about to ask why, but a businesswoman like glare from Yai, something she was trained to do, shut him up. "I….Mayl's involved in something big Dex, and she made sure that Lan wouldn't tell. That was all I was able to get."
"Huh? I don't get it. It's , the guy wouldn't have cruddy software."
"I don't think it's…" She shook her head. "Nevermind, let's go get Lan." She dragged the much taller boy by the arm upstairs with her to Lan's room, where she gently knocked on the door, noting that Mr. Hikari was talking with someone on the phone in the room next to Lan's. Sounded important. And given how everyone was acting on the footage, Lan and MegaMan were their best bets to figure out what was going on.
The door opened up, but there was no one on the other side, likely MegaMan's doing. Lan was sound asleep in his bed, curled up in his blanket. Dex, having recovered and remembering what happened today, tiptoed behind Yai, nearly letting out a yelp when the computer monitor came on with the words 'what do you two want?' being displayed on it.
"We need Lan's help." Yai whispered. "The idiot behind me got the wrong assignment, and we don't want him getting in trouble if decides to let her sister teach.
|I see.| It only took him a couple seconds to consider. |Do You have a spare PET in that bag of yours Yai?|
"Yep." She took it out of her purse and sat at Lan's computer. "Transferring you to it is gonna take a bit, hold on." She took out her own PET and activated the flashlight. She then accessed the computer's desk and got to work. "Oh, hold on." She got up for a second and fiddled through Lan's drawers until she pulled out a GigaChip. And nearly dropped it in shock. "I...didn't think he'd have it." Yai bought the Chip up to the monitor's light for Dex to see.
"How did he even get that?" Dex nearly yelled, remembering to keep his voice down at the last minute. "He'd be unstoppable with those!"
"There's a lot of GigaChips in that drawer." Yai said as she plugged in the Gospelᾨ chip into her PET. "All of them from major baddies too. I'd hate to be the guy he uses those against." The fan on her PET was soon set to full blast, not having the computational power to fully use a GigaChip of that power. Then again barely anyone did.
|And you couldn't use the other method?|
FlashMan shook his head. "All the screens were replaced with new LCD ones, something the commercial PETs lack as of this moment. I would need to be hooked up to a larger system to increase the Hypno Flash's power enough to bypass that, but the shock could kill them especially the children."
|I see. And what else?|
"The school's higher ups are under my control. Even with the Hypno Flash, I couldn't get any of the administrative personnel to divulge the Emergency Transfer Server for the TetraCode, so I'm going to have to fight my way through the server to get there. Mariko Ozono and the rest of the Academy's elementary teachers are currently sleeping thanks to a cold shock from Piruluk that I ordered. They're still tagged, and ready to activate on my command."
|Good. When Lan and his friends get on campus, use them. Now as for Miyubi here, I've reviewed the battle footage from your first fight with MegaMan, Piruluk, and I noticed that Roll did something very unique with the blue pest.|
"..I see where you're going with this." Maybe she could trigger a deletion in the poor girl's Level 0 form during the fight. It'd be so easy. It'd be merciful compared to what she'd suffer in the coming hours.
|Don't escalate unless he does.| Mayu warned surprisingly. |That stupid boy and his Navi are already deep into my game, I don't want his NetOp to be a Selector!|
"Understood." FlashMan gave her a look that said 'did you really?' but she ignored it.
"Blub…"
|Hm?| Mayu's attention was turned to BubbleMan. |Oh yeah, he's here, I forgot all about him!|
|So did I.| Wily logged the Navi out for repairs. |MegaMan's current state is our best and possibly only chance to defeat him should he ever go online. . . Are we clear?|
"Yes sir." The two remaining members responded.
|Good. I'm closing out this Virtual Machine. Return to your NetOps, and FlashMan, report everything I've said to Saiko. Once I contact Inukai to assist you, I'll give the two of you a full dossier on her as well.|
"Yes sir." HAS LOGGED OUT
|The operation begins soon, Piruluk. For her sake, that TetraCode better be in my hands by the morning.|
"Understood."
|Saiko will also send you an update to the mission parameters as progress is made. That is all.|
|Cya Piruluk!|
LOGGING OUT ALL USERS.
The connection was soon cut, leaving Piruluk all alone as she logged out too. The Virtual Machine disappeared along with her, leaving no evidence that it was there. All that was left was a luxurious pool.
Well. this was aggravating.
MegaMan's defaulted body was laid out on the operating table for all to see. Since it was such a simple backup, there were none of the organs and bits that really enthusiastic Navi makers liked to put in their creations, just simple wireframes. Putting MegaMan into sleep mode and taking him apart was the easy part. In fact all of this was painfully easy, as it seems someone had done a lot of the work in repairing his basic functionality, even giving a backdoor for easier repair instead of having to use that ghastly, archaic C++. no, the real problem was the 'help' he had to endure while doing this.
LUCKKKKK-YY_y_Y_YY_ LU-C-C_K-K-Y A-KfKKkii-
"OH JEEZ SHES FREAKING OUT AGAIN!"
"RUN!"
Glyde sighed as panic resumed around him for the fifth time. "Miss Yai, may I please change the wallpaper?!" He put his fingers in his hands and whistled, causing the to stand in formation. "That's better." But it wouldn't last long.
|I wish, but Lan's dad put some lock on the wallpaper settings. It's like he wanted to make it impossible for Lan or anyone to change it.|
|This is why we started hanging out at my place| Dex said, shivering in fear.
"I see…." He took a deep breath and turned to the . "As AyanoTech Administrative Navi and sponsor to NetSaver Agent Number 45, I request administrative access to all of 's systems. Now that we've had him safely dissected, we can safely reach a workaround for his current state."
"..."
"Well?"
"UHMMMM…" One of the floated towards him nervously, with that big goofy smile. "MEGAMAN DOESN'T HAVE ANY TEMPLATES. UNLESS YOU MEAN THE STYLE CHANGE, BUT THAT WOULD-"
"Yes, that's exactly what I mean." Glyde responded. "Unless you want one of this country's best government employed NetBattlers to be out of commission should another major incident come up, correct?"
"I…."
"It's just temporary, I assure you." Not to mention it would have to be a Style that wouldn't let him fight, because in this state, that would be the last thing anyone needed! "Now then, give me access please."
"O...OK…"
Yai and Dex stared at the information on the computer screen. "That's it?" Dex muttered. "I thought he had more of those costumes. There's like four here."
"He does." Yai said with confusion as she began right clicking and going into the properties of each Style to check them out. "The problem is that it needs to be a style that won't mess him up anymore than he already is. His default Style here-" She hovered the mouse over to MegaMan's default appearance, labelled 'NormalStyle.' "-Takes up way too much memory for his current state to handle." This was worse than she thought… "We're gonna need his source code to bring him back to normal."
Dex scoffed. "That's easy; you're Lan's NetSaver sponsor. You can-"
"-Nope." Dex deflated at the answer. "Ayanotech isn't that high up in the government,so you'd have to ask Lan's dad or Chaud to get that. But I'm not sure that'll help." She hovered over to the last Style, whose icon was glitched out and corrupted into what would be described as a trypophobe's nightmare. "This Style was added around the time we were on the bus, but MegaMan's memory and programming language can't even handle his default appearance. There's no possible way for this Style to form, even in this current state."
"Doesn't look like a virus." Dex muttered as Yai Right Clicked it and opened the Properties. "I don't see any-" His jaw dropped. "..."
"..." Yai stared agape at what she was seeing. "That can't be right...Glyde?"
|Yes, I'm seeing this mistress, but I can't believe it. How did that LuckyRucky woman do this?|
There were two ways for MegaMan to undergo a Style Change. To fight in a lot of battles, like around 200 or so, or undergo a monumental amount of physical or mental stress. He and the PET he occupied must also have the proper memory and storage space to hold the data while MegaMan's CPU analyzes his experiences. Needless to say, Styles were usually a last resort for him, and had their own special folder in his systems that he could access. But this was different, far far different.
Because now all of MegaMan's data, the thing he needed to be himself, was locked in this final Style.
This was bad. Very very bad. Dex and Yai looked at each other resolutely, and Yai quickly picked AquaShadow, the one that would be the least taxing. It's rapid fire and quick charging would give MegaMan all the support he needed while not taxing his fragile systems, and the Style itself took up the least amount of memory. Not to mention it's built-in firewall was the best out of all of them, with it's ability to lock out any status effects in exchange for low HP. With that done, now came the part that both were dreading since they came in...waking Lan up and finding out just what the heck was going on.
"YOWCH!" And Dex decided that tact was for suckers, and just yanked him out of bed. "Watch it Dex! I-" He blinked, noticing how dark it was. "What are you guys doing in my house?"
Yai pointed to the computer. "We have to talk,Lan."
ACDC Academy 22:20
Akira's Room
"OW FUCK!" Was the first thing Akira yelled upon waking up as Piruluk logged back into her PET. "Stupid Tama!" Who the fuck punches a girl there?!
|Good evening Akira.| Well seeing her like that cheered her up, even though she could sympathize. She now understood why guys reacted the same way when one of their own was hit there. She took a couple minutes of watching her write before speaking up. |You're past due for the meeting.|
"...Shit!" Ignoring the pain, Akira grabbed her PET and headed out the door. And promptly ran back in to get on a sweater. "Freaking air conditioners not working!"
|How odd.|
Once Akira got on a sweater and pants, she headed out the door, making sure to lock it behind her. "..." She narrowed her eyes and headed towards the elevator. "Something's wrong."
|What makes you say that?|
Akira got onto the elevator and pressed down. "I don't know, but I feel like we're in trouble."
|I see.| Of course she'd have that intuition, given her track record in life.
The elevator got to their floor and Akira got off, taking a second to adjust to the temperature. "It's even colder down here!" It was so cold that there was frost on the walls! FROST! "We need to find Ruko, now."
|I agree, but why do you care?|
"Because dumbass, if anything happens to these people my life's over, kaput. And secondly, these people didn't do anything to me. They're not like Iona or that simp of a brotherfucker, so if anything happens to them when I could stop it, I'd be the one to feel bad, and I hate that shit!"
|Understandable.| Not really.
"Look, I learned my lesson! I'm a cunt to people who deserve it now! They're less likely to call the cops or get their friends to kick my ass!
...Her sense of morals were so broken. But then again she herself wasn't one to throw stones, so Piruluk decided to change the subject. |I've sent Ruko an Email. She's quite angry with us.|
"I'd be too if I was covering for your mistakes and then-WHAT THE FUCK?!"
|What are you-| Piruluk began, before Akira pointed the PET screen in front of her. |What?| That was all she could say; WHAT?! |This is…| All of the teachers under FlashMan's control were staring at them. Just staring at them. '1.2...3..4..' She quickly opened up the mission report and quickly found her answer; every single teacher and live-in student was now under Saiko's command! 'This is going to be easier than I thought.' Now she just needed to make sure Lan -and unfortunately Akira were out of the way. |Akira, we need to go forward.|
"Nope!" She quickly turned around, and fell to the ground when three of the teachers, fat, old guys, were suddenly in front of her. "HOW!?" She just saw them over there, no way these old fucks were that fast! One of them looked like she was in her 70s!
|Like I said, we need to go forward.| Piruluk began to bullshit. |The cold, the teachers, this school is under attack at this very moment., and we're in the perpetrator's line of sight. If we try anything, we can die.|
"Uh-huh, ok!" The teachers forced her to her feet and nudged her forward. "Well, thanks for that!" She said as cheerfully as she could, making a mental note to take a long shower because this was so wrong! "Go forward right?" The teachers nodded and pointed down the hall. "Ok good! I'll just be on our way and-"
"DoNt BoTher GetInG HelP" Akira screamed as one of the teachers was suddenly next to her ear. "I CuT all PeT ComMunicATIONS TO anD frOM thiS buIldING. YOuR PIEce of junK IS TOO ModERN to ACcess The BackUp Software."
Piruluk rolled her eyes. 'Really with this FlashMan?' |Have you seen a brunette our age?|
"WHY ARE YOU ASKING QUESTIONS?!"
|It's not like we have anything to lose.|
"dON'T aSK ANYmORE quESTiONS." Was what they were answered with, yet it was as though the man was reading off a script instead of talking to them.
"THeSE GuYS aRE nOT PROgrammeD TO REsPOND TO AnYmORE qUErIES. tRY aNYthING AND wE'LL EScORT YOU BY fORCE"
"GOOOO"
"Goooo"
"GOOOO NOOOOOOW!"
"OK OK!" Akira ran for her life down the halls, feeling the stares from the teachers as she heard their footsteps! "WHAT DO WE DO WHAT DO WE DO?!"
|I've seen the Emails from Ruko, and-||
Akira bought Piruluk to her face. "I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE YOU TO SAVE MY OWN SKIN BITCH! USE YOUR CYBER BRAIN OR WHATEVER AND HELP ME!" They turned the corner.
|...If you'd let me finish, I was saying that Ruko has had the same problem. They're going to funnel us right to where she and Tama are. I should make it clear that-| SWITCHING TO TEXT MODE |-They confiscated her PET. Tama is currently in the school's network.|
"Oh THATS JUST GREAT!" There was one door in front of them, and therefore one way to go: one of the server rooms. "Ok, I'm here!" She held her hands up with the PET in her left one, and turned to the teachers. "There, you happy?"
FLASH
"AAHG MY EYES!" A blue blinding light filled every corner of the hallway, Akira catching her PET before it fell to the floor. Her eyes stung, and it took a couple seconds for her to adjust. When she did, she found nothing changed. "THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
"YoU aRe nOT cONtROLLeD?"
"IS THAT'S WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Akira quickly ran into the server room and slammed it shut, locking it behind her and turning to the dozens of servers in the room. It was cold in here, but not as much as outside, and yet both girls could hear the cooling fans going into overdrive. Ohohoohoho fuck this!" She began cracking her knuckles.
Piruluk's ears twitched after hearing that. |What are you doing?|
"School's under attack, the place is cold as shit, the teachers are all zombies, which means some Navi's behind this. So I'm gonna wreck this place! I could unplug all these servers, but fuck it, I'm pissed!"
|Question.| Shit shit shit! |What happens to you afterwards?|
"Jail, ruined life, etcetera." Now which of these looked the most breakable. "I came here to get a fresh start and I'm this close to turning into some creepy guy's fucktoy! I'm gonna break something!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" Ruko's voice shouted, causing Akira to stop as her fellow Selector came out from the shadows, letting out a yawn. "Took you long enough."
"Well then maybe you should've controlled your LRIG better!" Akira countered, pointing to her crotch. "Or teach her basic biology, because I'm sure it hurts for us more down here than it does guys!" She quickly changed the subject. "That's not important right now, why can't I destroy these computers?!"
The answer was not what Akira expected. "Because if you did, everyone under the perpetrators control will die." That took the wind out of Akira's sails fast. "After our Sycnrho Battle, I went to set up everything, when I got an alert on my PET that someone interfered with the school's temperature control system. I began doing some inspecting, and when I went down to this floor to check, I wound up right here, same as you."
"Ok that's nice, but what does this have to do with what you just said?! And how the fuck are these old guys doing anime ninja crap?!"
|Probably because of some mind alterations.| Piruluk said, Akira bringing her PET up in confusion. |When the teacher asked if we weren't controlled, I'm guessing that light must have had something to do with it.|
"Yeah." Ruko agreed. "I also detected some power surges during my inspection, and sent the data to every NetSaver in the area. So only one person got it, and I'm pretty sure he's asleep, so we're on our own."
"Oh that kid." Yeah, that makes sense. "Keep going…"
"The power surges are on the exact same level as that light that blinded you earlier. Whoever did this to everyone out there must have hacked into the PET's and associated devices first before they got access to the school's main power grid."
Akira clenched her fist. "So it really doesn't matter if this server's destroyed."
|And if we did destroy it, whoever is responsible for this can simply send a kill command to the brains of those he affected. They are his attack force and his hostages. As for the second point, It would be foolish to assume that this is the only data room that controls all functionality on this floor. If we ignore point 1 and attempt to destroy this room, backup power would kick in, and we would have just wasted our time.|
"DAMN IT!" Akira punched the server as hard as she could, but Ruko quickly sent her to the ground with a sweep kick. "OW! I GET IT, DON'T TOUCH IT!"
"Good." She tried to help Akira up, but the girl swatted her hand away. "They took my PET for some reason, and it's weird; I heard the voice of a little girl over the intercom for a second, and it sounded like she really hated Tama."
|I don't get why they didn't take ours. No doubt they don't see me and Akira as a threat given the PET she has.|
"Yep, that makes sense." Akira admitted reluctantly, taking a look at her clunker. "So what now?"
"I beat the crap out of them all." Ruko said, Akira and Piruluk shocked at the answer as she put on some gloves. "What's with that face? Can't leave any fingerprints."
"...Nothing." Holy shit, this was not how she expected her first day back at school to end. "I just hang back and uhh...yeah, I'm not doing anything right now, right?"
"Right." The grin Ruko, freaking Ru-Ru, gave her sent chills down her spine. "Excuse me for a moment, this won't take long."
"Y-yeah." And it didn't take long at all. It was so quick, so vicious, so brutal, and all Akira could do is watch in awe. "So uhhh, Ru-Ru?"
"Yeah?!" Ruko shouted as she grabbed one of the hypno-zombies by the legs and threw him to the side. "What is it?!"
"Did something uhmm happen? I don't think you were ever….like this? I think?" Yeah, she definitely wasn't.
Ruko grabbed the head of one man and used it to hammer the head of another before speaking. "With my NetSaver duties and REAL LIFE-" She kicked one of the teachers, a middle aged woman, in the stomach, knocking her out. "-stuff HAPPENING-" She grabbed another by the hand and sent her into five of the teachers that were rushing after her. "-I couldn't do any WIXOSS stuff so I took up FIGHTING-" Akira watched as she elbowed a man in the nose and then used that same limb to punch another person in front of her in the throat. "-And I got a knack for it!"
"Uh-huh…" She remembered being weirded out by Ru-Ru enjoying fighting in WIXOSS a bit too much, but she never imagined miss goody two shoes had this side of her! "It's actually kind of hot…"
"You say something?!" Ruko asked as she downed the last teacher.
"Nothing!" She quickly ran to Ruko/the safest place to be right now, jumping over a body or two. "Guess you took to fighting huh?"
Ruko shrugged. "I remember I hung out with these two girls, and I really got along with one of them, Sachi I think? It's not important right now."
"I guess not…" Good lord, what a massacre. "So why didn't you do this earlier?"
"You weren't answering my calls, the school's a freezer, and I had no idea what was going on. I didn't know if you were sleeping or one of these guys, so I didn't want to move until I was sure. You're the only other-" She moved to her ear. "Selector in the school that I know of, so if they got their hands on Piruluk, we'd all be screwed."
"Oh." She was worried about her? " I don't know what to sa-BAD TOUCH!"
"I'm just so glad you're alright!" Ruko exclaimed, strengthening her hug. "We may not like each other very much-"
"-I don't like this, back off!"
"But right now we're the only ones that can do anything!" She let go, much to Akira's relief. "Now we need to get out of here. Because they're going to wake up soon, and they're going to be a lot stronger."
She didn't need to tell Akira twice! The two girls and LRIG made their way to another safe space, unaware that they were being watched.
ACDC Academy, 22:30
Admin Server
A large spacious room filled with ugly paintings, ugly carpeting, and ugly wallpaper. The sheer size, as big as a house, and the amount of crap in here would answer any inquisitive mind's questions on if the school's funds were being misappropriated. This server was where things happened in ACDC Academy, the master control. And now it was in the hands of WWW.
From the fancy massage chair, FlashMan, legs crossed, watched the two try to escape. "I'll leave them alone for now.' Until he was ready to begin the TetraCode transfer. He was well aware of the Emails being sent out to every NetSaver in the area, which means sooner or later, MegaMan would get it, even in that clunky PET. he had to be ready for anything, and prep Miyubi for battle.
"LET TAMA OUT OF HERE!" And find some way to deal with that annoyance in the cage above. "She's gonna kick your butt if you don't let her out of here!"
FlashMan rolled his eyes. "As if you could do anything." Without a Selector, the walking megaphone only had her Level 0 form, and even at his measly 300HP he could slap her around. He didn't know how that was possible, but Mayu must have really hated her if she exercised that level of control. "Just sit back and watch Shiro. You're in for a surprise."
"TAMA'S NOT THAT WHITE!"
"Yeah ok." He should try out more functions on this chair, this is marvelous! "I'm ready when you are Saiko. Just give me the word…"
"You're kidding!" Lan exclaimed as he looked at the screen.
"Do I look like I'm joking?!" Yai yelled. "This is bad! I managed to make a temporary fix for you, but it's not going to last! Even in a new PET, MegaMan's capabilities are going to be seriously crippled!"
Lan looked glumly at the screen. The and Glyde had quickly put a list up of Chips that he and MegaMan couldn't use, lest his brother suffer total system crash. "I gotta seriously edit my folder."
"Not to mention all that junk about-OW!" Yai quickly elbowed him in the stomach. "Got it!"
Lan ignored that for now; seemed personal. "Let's boot him up. We can figure out something-"
|YOU GOT MAIL!| Everyone jumped at the loud Mr. Prog's voice from the computer, an emergency alert coming on the screen.
Lan quickly read the image and nearly let out a scream. "OF ALL THE TIMES!"
Dex read the Email. "NOW?! Seriously?!"
Yai sighed as she had Glyde call a taxi. "Your luck sucks…"
"I know!" How did an alert on the school being attacked take that long to get here?! He quickly looked through his computer to select a Folder preset. 'This is gonna have to do.' He'd be dead if they fought an LRIG with this, but it would have to do. "Yai, hand me the PET."
Yuichiro did nothing as he heard his boys and their friends once again go out to possibly fight another murderous criminal. It was times like this that he and his wife would just sit and wait, potentially bring out the booze if their sons were too far away like in Kotobuki, but Haruka was staying at a friend's place, something about the road home being blocked by a bunch of men pretending they were animals, and actual animals from the town zoo running amok as if something set them off! The police and the Sniper Joes in the area were swamped trying to contain this madness, and it was probably going to get worse from here!
'I should probably go to bed.' He thought, looking at his lonely, lonely king sized mattress. His wife was safe, and wherever the boys went, it sure as hell was safer than downtown right now!