Downtown ACDC 21:00
Michitown Apartments
Haruka Hikari had seen many things, most of which had to do with her boys getting themselves into trouble, and her and Yuichiro drinking themselves silly so they wouldn't be wracked with grief and fear at the stupid stunts the two pulled. Right now she felt like drinking, but for a whole other reason.
"GAFAFAFAFAFAFAAFA!" A bunch of naked men climbing down the apartment from the Bachelor's section, spouting that noise, and given how pressed they were against the window...well, there was a reason they were still bachelors. Like, wow. Now normally she wouldn't indulge in such crass humor, but 1, she was tipsy right now, and 2,-
{As of this moment, Downtown ACDC is under lockdown! All residents return to your homes immediately!}
-2 was the reason she was trying to get hammered. When you worry about your government agent son and his digital brother who could be killed with a glass of water spilling over him, saving the world over and over, you develop a high alcohol tolerance, as evidenced by her friend Kaori staring in shock and awe at the twelve sake bottles she downed. She knew her sons were going to be in on this, and given what happened with the Okuden Dam and that castle with that blonde foreign bitch who shot her baby boy, Yuichiro would be too paralyzed with fear to try anything to help like he did those times.
...God when did this become her life? Once the hangover had it's twenty minutes of fun -remember, expert drinker- she was gonna bring her husband home, screaming if they had to, and her family was going to have the best damn breakfast, lunch, or whatever!
ACDC Town, 23:00
Hikari Residence, Front Yard
To: ACDC Network
From: ACDC PSC
Sent: Monday, 22:20
Subject: Emergency!
As of 21:00, the city has been put under lockdown.
An estimated group of 520 people have taken to the streets naked, and have clogged up major transportation and emergency routes. Navis contained in PETs with satellite coverage have reported a strange signal that affected their NetOps prior to the incident.
4
As this signal does not effect NetNavis, this file will only open if the PET's external audio channels are disabled. If you hear this signal and your NetOp is outside, get them back into a building immediately!
In addition, animals from the ACDC Zoo have been let loose and, with a strange level of coordination, blocked off 14 major routes to the suburban city blocks. As a result of all this, ACDC Town is under lockdown.
Sniper Joes with tranquilizer rounds have been deployed, and have been ordered to arrest anyone who fails to stay inside or prevent the capture of these animals. Stay in, be safe, and have a good night.
ACDC Public Safety Council
Dex and Yai stared at their PETs in shock, Lan looking over their shoulders."...So that's why the taxi's not coming" Dex said as the three kids sweltered outside. "I'm sweating my butt off out here!"
Lan looked at his pajamas. "We really should've picked out more clothes before we did this." At least his skate-shoes were at the door when he ran out. "Why did you guys come to my house again?"
"I got the wrong homework." Dex answered pitifully as he went into his files and watched some cartoons on his PET that he 'legally' acquired. "So we're gonna break in and get the right disk before Ms. Mari's evil twin busts me up."
"Oh." His new PET was still applying the updates for MegaMan to activate, so he couldn't check the news. "Can't you call a limo or something Yai?"
"To go to school in the middle of the night?"
"..Oh yeah." Darn. "Guess we better walk…." The loud groans from his two friends summarized his exact feelings in this current situation.
"This is going to be an awful night." Yai grumbled as the three began to walk. "Our best fighter is out of commission, Downtown's probably going to be cordoned off, and we're dealing with a major communications lag!" The two boys stopped, turning to her in confusion. "What? The mail said it was sent two hours ago, and my PET's always connected to a private Ayanotech satellite. That means that something or someone is messing with EEEK!" Dex picked Yai up and began running. "PUT ME DOWN!"
"Not on your life!" Lan yelled as he activated the skates in his shoes, Dex bringing out his scooter mid run and getting on it without missing a step. "I didn't even think about that!" He thought it was because of that sucky SubPET, but if Yai's was getting a message almost an hour after it was sent, then this was worse than he thought! They needed to get to school, fast!
And so they ran, past Higsby's shop and up the hill, not ready for the horrors that awaited them at ACDC Academy.
ACDC Academy, 23:20
1st floor halls
"There!" Ruko grabbed Akira by the hand and dragged her into the elevator, quickly pressing the basement button and giving a brutal kick to the heads of the zombie teachers when they tried to pry the door open. "Ohthankgod!" She quickly pressed the floor buttons in a specific sequence before pressing the Emergency Call Button five times and the emergency close button six.
{Code recognized. Heading to the lowest floor.}
As Akira let out a wail and plopped her butt on the floor, Piruluk gritted her teeth as she found all communications were cut off. |Interesting sequence.|
"Thanks," Ruko said as the elevator began to move. Akira's heavy panting filling the elevator. "We're going down to where the Navi and his NetOp probably are."
|According to the information you gave me and Akira, there shouldn't be much resistance down here.| God damn you BubbleMan; you and your stupid groupies.
"There's not much room to make a stand in." Ruko continued, grinning eagerly with clenched fists. "Which is perfect for me. Whoever owns that dildo looking NetNavi, he's gonna pay for taking my sis away from me." She heard Akira scoff, and quickly turned to the black haired girl. "You got something to say?"
"N-no!" Akira yelled, red faced despite the fear of that powerful smile. Memories of the violence the psycho inflicted on those teachers was still fresh in her mind, all of it to protect her, to keep her safe and she was so strong, so dominant! "I'm just a bit nervous that's all."
Meanwhile Piruluk, reading the room, was this close to breaking out a snort of laughter at what her Selector was feeling. 'So that's her type.' God that explained so much about her Iona hate-boner years.
"Good!" The elevator opened, revealing a glass floor with a massive server below. The server provided the only light in the tiny, bedroom sized room, the walls pitch black and making it impossible to guess the dimensions of the room. Ruko tapped on the glass with her foot as Akira stepped into the room. "Bulletproof."
The disguised ginger didn't bother asking how Ruko could know that just from a tap of her foot. "Just give me a minute to catch my breath…" Oh god, she hadn't run that long in years! "Oh man..oh man…!"
Piruluk noted that communications were restored, albeit on a restricted channel; a WWW channel. Perfect.
Ruko waited until Akira got her bearings before speaking."Ok, those bubble guys told me that here should be a secondary emergency compartment around here. Get your PET cord out and start looking for a port."
|You heard her Akira, let's go.| Now to nudge these two in the right direction. |Point me at the server.| Akira did so, and Piruluk took a second to adjust the brightness on the PET. She then activated the temperature sensors. |Just like I thought. This server is pretty old. Not to mention incredibly hot. We won't find the port to Jack In with anywhere near it, and given the fact that communications were cut off while we were going down, I think I have a hunch of where we need to go.|
"The elevator!" Akira realized. "And once you're in there, you can access the elevator controls!"
"So either the elevator network is connected to the server below, or it functions as the master control for the server as well." Ruko surmised. "Either way, we can hole up here for now." The two girls walked into the elevator, Ruko holding it open to prevent any surprises while Akira looked for the port. "Take off the plastic covering below the Emergency Call Button."
"Oh." Akira pried it off, and there it was. It was an old styled port, perfect for her old PET. "And we can get in there no problem, right?"
"No." Ruko answered with a shake of her head. "I'm going to give you my NetSaver ID. it's an old system, so it shouldn't realize I'm not authorized to be here, but that won't last long."
Akira didn't really understand why, but the time for questions had ended. "Alright, here we go!"
? PC, 23:26
Area 1
Stepping off the Warp Gate, Piruluk found herself staring at a city of school supplies. The buildings were shaped like #2 pencils, the streets were made of paper, and the skybox was the most elaborate children's drawing she'd ever seen. It was obviously colored in crayon and put into a scanner, as evidenced by the name of the kid right next to a smiley face, but it had enough depth of field that she could appreciate the effort. What she couldn't appreciate were the drones, the modern security drones that were probably added in a security patch. 'Hopefully FlashMan has enough security access to let me Grow without any problems.'
"HEY!" The blue LRIG's attention was turned downward, where an elderly in hall monitor uniform and a thick beard was staring up at her. "I NEED TO SEE YOUR ID PLEASE, STRANGER!"
'Or maybe he didn't.' Damn isolated networks. "Sure. It's-" She waited for Ruko to tell Akira. "NetSaver# 55-AK,CS."
"GOT IT!" The closed his eyes. "PROCESSING….PROCESSING….." His eyes suddenly widened as alarms began to blare. "ERROR! ERROR!"
|SHIT I ENTERED IT WRONG!|
"Of course you did…." Piruluk muttered with a sigh.
|No no, I think I gave you the wrong one!| Ruko admitted. |Damn it, it's too late!|
|What happened to the three time confirmation?! I only entered it once!|
And now the lost his mind, spinning around in circles while screaming "INTRUDER ALERT IN AREA 1! INTRUDER ALERT IN AREA 1!" over and over. With that stupid smile.
'It's sure taking its sweet time to load up the defense programs.' Piruluk noted with trepidation. God she hated those things. God why were these green idiots so loud? "I hope you realize we can't use 'those', right Akira?" Thankfully she could grow thanks to what Akira said before Jacking in, but if they screw up here and reveal anything, whatever's coming up would be the least of their worries.
|Of course I know that!| Akira yelled, switching to the BattleChip folder. |Just get ready!|
"Don't worry I'm rea...dy….." Oh no.
There was no fancy animation to spawn it in, nor did it fade into existence. It just came in, the same way an object with poor draw distance would in an old game. It hovered over her, a UFO shaped like a six-leaf clover, with each of the points containing a thick pylon sticking out from the bottom. She could tell it was hovering, but it seems that it was so taxing on the server that it couldn't even do that properly, just alternating between the top and bottom of it's hover with no inbetween.
And all the while, the oh so killable Mr. Prog wouldn't shut up.
KASPERSKY CLASS ANTIVIRUS TANK
LICENSED TO: ACDC ACADEMY
© 2000 AO KASPERSKY LAB. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ELEMENT: ELEC
HP:120
The teleported mid rant, and soon it's voice was coming from the saucer. {HAHAHAHAHA!} And his voice was even more annoying! {PREPARE FOR DELETION INTRUDER! GAZE AT MY MIGHTY TANK AND DESPAIR!}
"...Ok" Attack wise? Yeah, she was going to make sure she wasn't hit by that. HP Wise? Wow Navis had come far if that was the standard back when this server was made. 'I thought this would be a challenge.' She'd fought bigger and stronger versions of these things before, so this wouldn't take long. "Ready Akira?"
|Yeah yeah yeah let's get this over with. Battle Routine Set?|
"Execute." And then an electric cage formed around the two combatants. "Shit." The nearest wall of the cage was at least 12 feet behind her, a short distance for the type of Navi that used to walk these servers, but it was enough distance for her. "BattleChips, now."
|Right!|
"I'll end this in one blow."
{OH YOU THINK SO HUH?!} The angle of the pylons suddenly frame skipped in her general direction. {TAKE THIS! ENDPOINT LASER!}
"Guard 3." A large blue shield with a yellow cross appeared over Piruluk's right arm, and she quickly put it in front of her, blocking the attack-
BOOM!
"GUARD2!" And sending her flying into the cage as the attack was reflected back at the saucer. Thankfully the shield she activated at her back caused her to bounce back from the cage and onto her feet. "Safe." and she took out that saucer too. That attack was at least 400HP worth of damage so-
KASPERSKY CLASS ANTIVIRUS TANK
LICENSED TO: ACDC ACADEMY
© 2000 AO KASPERSKY LAB. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
-400 TO SHIELD!
"Oh." Of course it had energy shielding.
{HA! DIDN'T REALIZE THAT I HAD THAT, DID YOU?! THIS SHIELDING IS-} MEMORY ALLOCATION ERROR DUE TO LAG! PROCESSING...PROCESSING… {5000HP!}
"Oh." Well that explained a lot about this. The was still speaking, but the lagging was getting worse. |Akira, I changed my mind; I need to grow, now. Our best Program Advances will only take off half that amount, and even afterwards we'll be out of chips before we get through that shield.|
"Damn it…" Akira turned to Ruko, who was looking over her at her PET screen. "Why can't we Grow again?"
"Surveillance equipment is all modern." Ruko said nonchalantly. " I noticed those flying drones weren't affected by the lag, which makes sense. It's the easiest thing to upgrade in the Cyberworld, and run using background power rather than the server's main power."
"Of course…" Akira forced Piruluk to Jack Out, and unplugged the PET from it's port. "Well now we're stuck."
"Not necessarily." Akira looked at her in confusion. "That looked pretty stupid, and he thought NetSavers were super strong and powerful. Piruluk.EXE may not fit that bill, buuuut…"
Akira's eyes widened, a gleeful smile on her face. "Oh, I get what you're saying!"
|Clever.| She was going to suggest this to Akira herself, but Ruko spared her the energy. |It will have to be during the transmission into the network; the surveillance equipment won't check me until I'm fully on the network.|
"Ok, Ok, let's do it!" Finally, she can act like a damn Selector again!
"First, plug in your PET but don't put Piruluk into the network." Ruko instructed. "Seeing as how I still can't remember ID, we're going to have to do this another way.
|Understood.| Piruluk said as Akira groaned. Hopefully, this will give FlashMan enough time to get to this server and get the damn TetraCode. What on earth was taking him so long? |What do we have to do?|
"Akira doesn't have to do anything. You Piruluk are going to do all the legwork. First, hide every single thing on there so I can have some plausible deniablity if I find something I shouldn't...like another NAT Cloak." Akira winced.
|I've already done it.|
"Good. Secondly-" She swiped te PET from Akira's hand-"This is gonna hurt me a lot, so you'd better cover your ears Akira." -And immediately began pressing buttons rapidly until-
{Administrative Access Granted.}
All the while a creeping frost began pooling around Ruko's lower body and began crawling up.
ACDC Town 23:40
Public Walkway#2
Well running here was the stupidest idea they had, seeing as they were sure two cabs pass them by on the way here! Lan and Dex were on the ground, sweaty and panting, while Yai was busy checking the news for updates, pacing back and forth with a look of contemplation. "No mention of anything at the school." Yai noted. "I'd at least expect the local police to put up something on their network, but Glyde can't find anything."
|Something must be blocking the transmission from going any furhter.| Glyde noted. |The main server for the precinct is downtown after all.|
"Oh, of course. Which probably means the source of all this is at the school."
Yai looked up to the sky. "Can you believe all this happened in a day? Some new thing with Mayl and Lan I'm not sure about, the school under attack, MegaMan's going to play support with you and GutsMan as the frontline fighters, and now all the madness downtown."
|I agree, everything's happening so fast. Usually these incidents take place over a couple of days!|
"Give...us...a...minute….." Lan said exhaustedly.
"Just...a….oh god…" Dex muttered painfully, holding a hand to his stomach.
"Things are going to get far worse, aren't they Glyde?"
|I'm afraid so mistress. First WWW, then the Zero Virus, then Gospel. Whoever it is this time has surely stepped up their game, and with our best fighter out of commission, who knows what will happen?|
"And why the school?" Yai questioned. There wasn't anything big there like one of the Elemental Programs, so-
HISSSSSSSSS
Yai froze, and after hearing that, Dex and Lan fully alert and ready. "Let's slowly walk back inside, and I'll lock the door, got it?" Both boys nodded dumbly. "Slowly."
SLAM
CLANK
{All doors sealed, Mistress Yai!} Glyde said proudly from the speakers to the frightened children. Yai and Dex's PETs were Jacked In to the nearest port, downloading data from the administrative server. {I'm getting the camera feed from the outside and transmitting it to our PETs.} For some reason he sounded annoyed at that. {The were quite adamant that I do so in order to understand the situation.}
"Thank you Glyde." Yai praised, shaking in her PJs like Dex. Lan was too busy panting and waiting for MegaMan to boot up to be that scared. "Ok, now we need to get out of here, now."
"But how?" Dex asked, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he got up. Sweat stained his and Lan's pits from the running, and right now he was fully alert. "Those stupid zoo animals are everywhere! I'm pretty sure I saw a Garden Snake walk it's way up here!"
Yai rolled her eyes. "First that was a gorilla-" Her eyes widened; that was a gorilla. "Glyde, how dead are we?"
{...}
"G-Glyde?"
"Oh man!" Dex gulped.
{I'm afraid Mister Ooyama has the appropriate reaction, Mistress.} The Navi said sadly as he went back to the PET. |Came feed transmission complete. It's as grim as you expected.|
The three kids went to the two PETs, and Lan nearly dropped his in shock. "WHAT THE HECK IS ALL THIS?!"
Gorillas. Vipers. Bats. they were all there, on every camera feed, staring into the cameras like they were possessed. Looking up, the kids could see through the ceiling windows that even more of them were down there, not even attempting to break through but just...staring. And if that was the case here, then that meant that it was the case throughout the entirety of the gate! Heck, some of the animals might have even come in here!
Luckily Glyde thought of that! |Closing all windows!| A loud noise blared from outside, frightening the animals away as shutter doors closed any available venue for the animals to look down on the three. |There, we're safe; for now. I'm not sure how long these shutters can resist being pounded by a gorilla, but until they try, we should be ok.|
This night just got a whole lot worse. But luckily Glyde might have given them the key to their salvation, as Lan figured out. "Hey Glyde, how many speakers are on the outside?"
|234.|
Lan smiled. "And there are some in the forests right?"
|Of course! You three should know that, having been in there for the Halloween Spooktacular last year! Why do you ask?|
Lan grinned.
"Oooooh…" The WIXOSS Curses were at times more powerful than even the LRIGs themselves, Piruluk realized, maybe even moreso than the ancient brat herself. She had no idea why Mayu thought potentially killing Selectors for sharing PETs was a good idea, but at least it knocked the smart one out. "My head…"
|She's just tired.| Piruluk said. 'Too tired to point out anything I do that's contradictory.' |Alright Akira, Jack me In so we can finish this. The BattleChip modifications Ruko made should help us with the saucer and those drones.| That is if those frame skips don't screw them over in the fight.
Akira nodded. "Here we go! Jack-In, , GATE OPEN!"
{AAHAHHAHAHHAAHAHHAHA I AM TH-} MEMORY ALLOCATION ERROR DUE TO LAG! PROCESSING...PROCESSING…{-E KING! I AM THE KING!} The shouted as he span his saucer around in place. {NO ONE CAN STOP ME! NO ONE! NO ONE!}
Then a giant snowman hit him.
KASPERSKY CLASS ANTIVIRUS TANK
-1000 TO ENERGY SHIELD
REGENERATING...
{HEY!} He shouted with the most cheerful look on his face, as he searched the camera feeds. {WHO DID THAT?!}
"I did."
{OH YEAH!} He shouted, switching to the right feed. {WELL I-holy crap she's cute.}
"Holy crap they could speak in a normal voice?" Or rather, they used to be able to?! "Good evening . My name is Piruluk, and I will be your executioner for the day." Where on earth was FlashMan?!
"And so Ruko said, 'Tama, don't get too cocky!'" SLAM! "And then Tama said 'Ruko, have you been watching R-18 stuff again? Tama's a girl!" SLAM! "Tama thinks Ruko was mad, because Tama said it while that dorky skunk haired boy was in the room. He's a jerk to Ruko!" SLAM! "So anyway-"
FlashMan slammed his head against the holo-console again. "Oh god, SHUT UP!"
"But Tama can't! You told her to spill the beans!" Because Mayu hated you and he wanted to know why! Not about some violent pervert's fetishes! "So anyway-"
'One of these idiots has to know the access code for that damned elevator!' He thought as he began using the ceiling lights to instruct his various slaves to look through their cell phones and text him information. 'At least Piruluk's clearing the way to the TetraCode, hopefully.'
"Hey, what's a strap-on? Ruko's search history has a lot of 2D girls using them-"
"GODDAMNIT!" If this doesn't work, he's checking the camera feeds!
"TAMADON'TYOUTALKABOUTMYPORNTOSTRANGERSAGAIN!"
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Akira nearly dropped her PET as Ruko shot up...and then fell back down sleeping. "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"
The strange reaction would not be out of place, however, from the 's perspective. The NetNavi speaking to him managed to hit all his favorite traits all at once: unblemished pale white skin that felt soft and creamy like milk and yet flawless like snow, with long legs and beautiful shoulders and nape that her dress could not hide as it lacked shoulder straps, coverings, or stockings to be in the way. The blue and white dress seemed to flow in wavy patterns even as she stood there, though her motions were graceful and seemed to be ruling the way in which it moved, just as much as her dark, icy blue hair cut in the least graceful style possible did. She was an absolute beauty!
{HELLOOOOOOOO NURSE!} Suddenly the saucer frame skipped above her. {IT'S BEEN AGES SINCE I'VE SEEN ANOTHER PERSON THAT I COULD RECOGNIZE ON SIGHT AS A WOMAN! WHY DON'T YOU COME UP TO MY PAD AND WE COULD GET ACQUAINTED!}
Piruluk blinked. "That is a thing I want." she didn't expect this to happen, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Let's do it."
ACDC GateWay Network, 23:56
GateNet#1
The Warp Gate took GutsMan and Glyde into a transparent tunnel, hovering what had to be thousands of feet over an ethereal void. A blue forcefield protected them from the void, and the roof itself was octagonal in shape, same as the walls/generators for the roof.
GutsMan stared down at the void. "Gee, I've never been in here before." He could see two towers in the distance, one red, and one blue...at least he thought so; this barrier was messing with his color perception.
"That's because unlike you and Master Dex, me and Mistress Yai can be trusted." Glyde answered as he went to the control panel and accessed it. "It's just like I thought; someone accessed the area controls. Around the time we were heading back from school."
|Check the surveillance records man!| Dex exclaimed.
"Very well, I will." It only took him a second. "No unauthorized Jack-Ins, but the in charge of this sound network signed for a massive payload from ACDC Academy. I can't get the ID of who delivered it, but it was a human!"
|Yeah right!|Yai scoffed. |Every adult here was either too tired, wasted from work, or busy to do anything like that!|
"That's not what the reported before he logged off. According to him, the breathalzer reported the teacher as normal, so they were allowed to download the payload from the PET. and-" His eyes widened. "This can't be right!"
|Glyde?| Yai said worryingly.
"But the data said that-" He narrowed his eyes. "This attack was heavily premeditated, Mistress Yai." Glyde said lowly. "There's no wonder that neither of you three saw any of the adult humans acting out of character, because the reports that the download happened while you were in SciLab!"
|Right when that LuckyRucky Navi KOd MegaMan!| Lan exclaimed.
|Wow, talk about coincidence!| Dex said. |Think she's a part of this?|
Lan shook his head. |She probably attacked for more personal reasons.| He didn't know what happened during that WIXOSS thing, but that wasn't just an ambush; that was settling a grudge!
"Guts Guts Guts!" GutsMan whined. "We got killer animals in the real world affecting our NetOps Glyde! Just download the data and let's go!"
Glyde blinked. "Yes, yes you're right." Glyde downloaded all the relevant data from the console and soon the two Navis were on their way.
"MET MET!" Or so they thought. Three Mettaur3's, with their blue helmet and yellow crosses and lines, stood at attention. Along with a very familiar virus.
|HOW DID THAT GET HERE?!|
|OH THIS SUCKS, MAN!|
|I'M JACKING YOU OUT GLYDE!|
There were some viruses in the UnderNet that even the strongest Netizens wouldn't go near. Not just because of their power, but because they were so hard to kill, and often on message boards, you would hear them be described with the two words being in front of the description being 'Those Fucking.'
As in Those Fucking ? vrisues.
Those Fucking robots on wheels that that liked to circle around you before going for the kill.
Those Fucking bob robots with the stupid 90s backwards cap.
And lastly, and this matters becuase this one was right on front of them 'Those fucking Spiky variants.'
Ohhohohoho, but this wasn't just a Spiky variant; this one was custom made, by a long defunct company called Border Concern. These Spikies, SaberRuffs, were a lighter blue, and had thick fangs in place of the ability to breathe fire. "GRAAAAGH!"
SLASH
"GUUUTS!"
Their default attack was also the devastating StepSword!
500HP
-200!
|GUTSMAN!|
"AntiDmg!" Glyde shouted as the Mettaurs and Saberuff attacked again, the former lifting their pickaxes up and slammed them down, sending massive shockwaves barreling towards the Navi as the Saberruff went to GutsMan to bring him closer to deletion.
ANTIDMG
MEGACHIP
ATTACK:100
NULLIFIES ALL INCOMING DAMAGE ONCE
AND DELIVERS 100HP OF
DAMAGE TO THE INCOMING TARGET(S).
TARGET(S) ATTACKS MUST HIT NAVI AT THE
SAME TIME FOR MULTIPLE HITS IN RETURN.
Sadly for the viruses, the attacks for it and the Mettaurs both triggered the AntiDmg Chip, taking out the Mettaur3s and taking the SaberRuff down to 160. The dog virus took one look at the two and then quickly retreated, easily dodging the Buster fire from the two Navis. "Such a vexing, swift creature!"
+400HP
+500 MAX HP ADDED
"WHAT IN THE WORLD?!"
"GUTS?!"
"We're not alone here." Lan said. "Someone really wants that virus to stay alive." He smiled. "Good."
"I was worried for a second there after I saw the damage!" Dex said as he checked over GutsMan's data and began repairs.
"If that's the case, then that means that Virus is the only big thing we have to worry about." Yai finished. "We just have to play their game until the mastermind decides to reveal himself, simple as that!"
ACDC GateWay Network, 23:57
GateNet#4
{We just have to play their game until the mastermind decides to reveal himself, simple as that! Let's go over our BattleChips before we proceed.} Her gaze turned to the camera. {And we won't let you see them, buster!}
"Blubblubblublub!" Even in casts and with his arms jammed into his nonexistent ears, BubbleMan was a genius! He cackled with glee at the hopeful looks on the kid's faces as they looked through their BattleChips "You can try, Blubblub, but I've been upgraded to the rank of Oshegotusha, blubblub!" And that stupid FlashMan had the gall to laugh when Lord Wily gave him that title! "I can't do much, but with that virus, I'm invincible! Blubblubblubblubblub!" Hide your BattleChips from the camera all you want, it wasn't going to help!
Meanwhile at ACDC Academy, Akira's and Ruko's faces were as white as Tama's skin.
The bought her up via tractor beam and showed her the controls. They were pretty simple, just a joystick and some buttons, like an old game console. All the while however….
"Did...did you have to freeze him like that?" Akira asked nervously. "I mean he was like those annoying parents who wanted to show off, but-"
|I despise those creatures.| And the fact it acted like her 'parents' with the same amount of shallow love was just the extra motivation she needed.
"Look, I hate a lot of people I want to kill, but I'd drag it out like that for one person, one, and she doesn't have the mind of a kid!" That part alone was 10 pieces of wrong! That level of innocence deserves to be ignored, not tortured to death! "He was actually helpful, you have any idea how rare it is to have one of those things be professional outside of a government facility?!"
|I despise those creatures.| So many operations as a rookie failed because of their loud obnoxious voices. And operation failure meant disassembly time from Wily and Mayu. |I'm surprised you're objecting.|
"I'm surprised I'm the one with fucking standards right now!" Akira shouted back. "Like, holy shit, he begged you!"
|Do I have to repeat myself a third time?| There was no room for argument in her tone, so much so that Akira didn't say anything else. 'Thought so.'
"No" Ruko interjected, putting a hand on Akira's shoulder to silence her. "We'll leave it to you; me and Akira are going to have a little heart to heart."
"Understood." Piruluk said as she closed the communications line. Once she was absolutely sure the PET wasn't transmitting from her, She looked to the fear-filled, teary-eyed, dead . With that stupid smile. "Kominato was a lot more perceptive than I let on." And she let her anger get the better of her again. 'Now the passcode to contact the Master Server should be….'
"Ok, she's busy right now Ru-Ru. What is it?" She needed a good break from...that. Never really liked hurting those little guys, annoying as they could be.
"...You didn't give her that NAT cloak, did you?"
"Eh?"
"And so Tama said-"
BEEPBEEPBEEP!
"OH THANK GOD!" FlashMan exclaimed as the monitor beeped. "One of those idiots must've found something!" Strange that they'd put into a text file though. He ran a quick virus scan and then opened it.
|This is P2. I've found my way into the TetraCode's server. Where are you?|
"..." The Kominato girl! She was a lot smarter than any of them could predict! He began typing. |Listening to this idiot nag and nag and nag! We need to find a way to disable your Selector's partner before BubbleMan inevitably screws things up!|
|...You sent BubbleMan to stop Lan Hikari?| Piruluk typed.
|I had no choice.| Piruluk's face was alight with relief. |DesertMan, BeastMan, and FlameMan are all too far away, and even if I could get U2, she'd focus on MegaMan's barely functioning body rather than her job.| Oh he heard about her thoughts on that pest. Just...no.
|I'm sad to say that as far as I know, this server is private. The only way to get down here is through the elevator, and you must Jack In manually.|
|I should've figured.|
There was silence for a moment.
And another moment.
And another moment.
And another….
|P2?|
|My apologies; I was fixing this saucer's memory problems. There was so much allocated to the wrong areas that it was causing severe frame skipping problems when it attacked me.|
|I see. | A Kaspersky unit, there? Good thing he didn't go down there or it could've one-shotted him! |Save the original settings once you're done modifying the vehicle. Once BubbleMan gets his ass handed to him, the frame skipping could be a perfect weapon against MegaMan. You could kill him right then and there, even if he was fully restored, and without triggering another WIXOSS incident, and powering him up further!|
Piruluk ignored the barb; that does make sense... | As stated before, I've commandeered one of the server's AntiVirus Attack Vehicles (AAV) And will learn to pilot it. I'll have to go through it's data to get it's Permissions and Certificates to see where I can and can't go. I also need to figure out the Elemental Affinity for the viruses and security system here. I'll keep you posted.|
|You do that. FlashMan out.|
|P2 out.|
The connection was closed, and Piruluk had a smile on her face. 'At least one person I care about is safe from WWW.'