Author's Notes.
Ri2, sorry, but this thing is much worse than a bomb...
M. D. Trio, technically, Navi is the plural of Navi.
Begin Chapter.
Maylu sat silently in her seat, allowing her mind to wander. Assuming that Famous did have a reason behind this crazy tournament, why would he need not one, but three people on the job? What could be so catastrophic that he'd need Maylu, Lan, and Chaud there for it when it happened? And according to Chaud, the Net Agents had control over the tournament's movements. Did that mean that they themselves didn't know when it would strike?
The redhead sighed a shook her head, the next time she found Famous, he'd better have some answers. Frankly, she was beginning to wonder why she had accepted this job in the first place.
Then there was Chaud; Maylu wasn't sure why but she had the feeling that he was keeping something from them, and obsessing over whatever it was. Chaud really wasn't such a bad guy, he just needed someone to pull him out of his overly reserved state. Maybe…
Chaud was also pondering his thoughts from his position next to Maylu, but unlike her, he was putting his revenge against Lan into motion. That would be the last time that Lan ever brought that embarrassing situation up. The idle part of his mind quickly turned back to that night with Maylu… if he did go through with that, then he'd have to fight his father every step of the way. But then, his father always had been an uncaring man, and if he wanted to follow his feelings just this once, why should he back down?
Lan however wasn't thinking about that heavy stuff. He was wondering how long until his next match.
ProtoMan just stood silently in his P.E.T., waiting for his next round of instructions.
Roll was pretending to reorganize the data sector her Personal Terminal. In reality she was musing over the events that had taken place a few nights ago, she wasn't blind, no offense, so she knew that something more than a friendly conversation had happened that night... But still, she'd never expected Maylu to fall for Chaud; everyone had always expected her and Lan to get together.
MegaMan was oblivious, due to his Op's dense nature, to any of this. What he wanted to know was why everyone was being so quiet all of a sudden.
Not one of them knew about that deadly box located in the computer system beneath the stands. A box that was rapidly counting down to zero, and its timer was currently set at 23 minutes.
101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010
"Welcome to the next round of tournaments in the World Tour!" Ribbitta shouted once again into her trusty microphone. "So without further ado, let's get this event started! Up first we have Yahoot and the mystical MagicMan, battling against the large Dex and powerful GutsMan!"
The announcer paused as cheers flooded the stadium. After the crowd had quieted down, she continued.
"Our Netbattlers are in position, so let's rock and ribbit!"
"Alright GutsMan, we can take him." Dex zipped out his P.E.T. and went into his ten second Jack-in sequence. "Jack in, GutsMan, Power Up!"
"Very well, my young fool. Jack in, MagicMan, Power Up!" Yahoot also connected his P.E.T., despite the fact that he was folding himself into another contorted yoga position.
18 minutes.
With two beams of light, one yellow and one blue, MagicMan and GutsMan slammed down into the Network, and readied themselves for the coming battle.
"GutsMan won't take it easy on MagicMan." The ape rumbled.
"Your end is oh so very near." The magician replied. "For I shall defeat you here!"
"Let's get this party started." Dex slammed the first chip into his P.E.T., "Gold Fist, Battle Chip in, Download!"
GutsMan gave his battle cry of 'guts!' as his right hand became encased in solid gold armor. Not wasting a second he rushed forward, his arm cocked back to swing.
"Ghost, Battle Chip in, Download." Yahoot muttered.
"Gold Fist gives you power to boast." MagicMan raised a bulb-like hand and proceeded to summon his new virus. "But it stands no chance against my ghost!"
The ghost-like virus materialized in front of the wizard, and at his command it flew forward heading straight for GutsMan.
"Pound it!"
"GutsMan crush!" The huge yellow and red Navi sent its arm rocketing forward, and straight into the virus, or rather, where the virus should have been.
To the Navi's amazement, a ripple of distortion formed around the virus, allowing GutsMan's fist to sail right through the Ghost without doing an ounce of damage. Before the Navi could recover from his shock, the virus had swerved around and head-butted him, sending GutsMan sprawling onto the floor.
"Magic Fire!" The blue Navi capitalized on his advantage by pointing one of his bulbish hands at his opponent, and unleashing a blue stream of data that shot through the air towards the struggling GutsMan.
13 minutes.
The data collided with GutsMan, and erupted into a blaze of red-hot flames.
"That battle was fun." MagicMan gloated, "But you won't get up for another one!"
"That's what you think!" Dex shouted as theBarrier chip was ejected from his P.E.T.
The flames died down as GutsMan'sdefense wore off, the Navi had escaped unharmed.
"Now, Tri Fang, Download!" The bald kid announced.
"Guts!" The huge Navi cocked his arm as two sharp claw-like weapons formed, and the Navi threw them forward so that they rocketed through the air towards MagicMan.
"You are done for," The magician raised his arm, "I have summoned four Mettaur!"
The hardhat viruses appeared, slamming their pickaxes into the ground. As a result, four powerful shock waves erupted from the tools that raced into the fangs, destroying them.
"Now he's got five viruses on the field…" Dex looked over the map, things just couldn't get much worse.
"Cyclone, download!" Yahoot inserted his chip.
"I hear it will be windy today." MagicMan commented as he summoned his new fan-shaped virus. "With my Fan Virus on the way!"
So they got worse.
7 minutes.
The fan went into action, sending a miniature cyclone tearing across the field.
GutsMan couldn't get out of the way fast enough, and was snatched up by the whirlwind, after a few sickening spins inside of the tornado; he was thrown across the arena to the Ghost virus. The virus promptly slammed into him, sending the Navi plummeting to the floor, where the Mettaurs quickly clobbered him.
Finally the attack was over, and GutsMan slowly but surely got to his not so steady feet.
"Is GutsMan having fun now?" The Navi gasped.
"That does it!" Dex eyed the timer; they had less than five minutes to win this match. And there was only one way of doing that. "Black Hole, Battle Chip in, Download!"
"GutsMan like Black Hole…" GutsMan placed his open hands together as a small swirling black vortex appeared between his cupped palms. Then, the Navi threw it skyward, where it grew into a large Black Hole and began exerting its gravitational strength on every virus on the field. The viruses didn't have a chance, and were sucked up into the vortex.
"See ya!" GutsMan couldn't help himself; he had to wave to that annoying Ghost as it vanished through the swirling Black Hole.
"Now, he's wide open." Dex announced as the Black Hole vanished, "And its time for a Program Advance!"
"Right, which one GutsMan going to use?" The Navi asked.
"This! Time Bomb, Battle Chips in, Triple Download!" The chunky kid sent his chips sliding into the P.E.T., "Program Advance:"
"Guts Giga Count Bomb." A large bomb appeared before GutsMan, and began ticking down the seconds before it would explode.
GutsMan amazed everyone by walking over and sitting down on the explosive package.
"Don't expect that to work!" MagicMan chuckled, "It'll destroy you first you dork!"
"MagicMan, do not be fooled." Yahoot dissented, "this is a very powerful strategy, you would be wise to summon a virus to protect yourself."
"Very well, I'll summon a new lackey." The magician announced as he formed a new virus, "Arise my Spikey!"
GutsMan's time bomb hit zero, and began shaking as it prepared to explode.
"GutsMan hate this part." The large Navi placed his hands over his ears and waited.
The bomb exploded, sending the huge ape-like Navi flying through the air. MagicMan's Spikey leapt in front of its master, preparing to stop the attack.
"AAAHHH!" GutsMan rocketed through the air, straight towards his opponent with the explosion from his Program Advance trailing behind him. Amazingly, he crashed through the Spikey, dissolving it in the process, and continued on towards MagicMan.
"This can't be happening!" MagicMan stared at the Navi-turned-projectile. "NO!"
MagicMan screamed in annoyance as first GutsMan body-slammed him and the explosive Program Advance flooded over him.
3 minutes.
"Time!" Ribbitta shouted as the countdown clock reached zero. "Since neither Navi logged out, our judges will tally up the damage that each Navi received, and the Navi with the least damage will be declared the winner!"
"Its just gotta be us…" Dex waited for the results.
"Victory is ours." Yahoot disagreed, "GutsMan took more damage throughout the match than MagicMan would have with the Program Advance, there is no conceivable way that you could have won."
0 minutes.
Down in the basement computer, the black box reached zero, and flashed a green light. Then, it began downloading its dangerous load of data directly into the central computer. By the time its work was done, there would not be a single Navi left in this tournament.
"And we're back!" Ribbitta shouted, "And we have our winner! Unfortunately, Dex's Program Advance connected with MagicMan after the buzzer. That means that the Navi that took the least amount of damage was… MagicMan! Yahoot is our winner!"
"I don't believe it…" Dex looked heartbroken, stunned, and dejected all at once. So much for winning this championship...
The dejected Op turned away, and slowly headed over to the Chip Recharge Machines. For lack of anything better to do; Dex placed his used chips into the Recharger, Battle Chips could only be used once, and after that they had to be recharged before they could be used again. So Dex stood there, stewing over his defeat while the chips recharged.
He never saw a horrible picture come to life on his chips, before the image faded away to reveal the previous graphics and labels.
End Chapter.