The Network dropped into silence.

"Ugh…"

His breath coming in ragged gasps, Bass DS collapsed to his hands and knees. His strength was spent; he didn't have anything else to give… But how? How did that pink pipsqueak master most powerful move of all, the Shokutan?

"That was some power…" KaraokeMan got to his feet, and glanced about at the damage caused by Roll's last attack. Because he had been cowering behind Bass, the singing Navi had escaped the attack mostly unscathed. "Sozoji, I'm logging out, I can't fight this kind of power!"

"NO!" The lounge singer snapped, "We're not leaving until we finish what we set out to do. Now, that Unison can't possibly last much longer; just hold out until they separate and then we'll finish this!"

KaraokeMan glanced back at Roll Mega Soul, rushing blindly forward into deletion was not something that he particularly liked to do.

"If you say so…" The electrical Navi groaned, before snapping his mike up to attack. "Feedback!"

"Soul Unison: Punk Soul."

The Nebular Navi didn't stand a ghost of a chance.

Roll exploded past KaraokeMan, a shadowy form of Punk outlining her frame. "Punk Fist!"

The singing Navi wheezed as he doubled over from the blow. It was then that he noticed one particularly devastating fact…

Roll's Punk Fist had shattered his built in sound system. A round crater had been smashed into his sub-woofer of a chest, and sparking electrical wires were trailing out of the opening. Bits of cyber-plastic littered the ground around him.

"Electro Sword, Download!"

Doing his best to shake off the blow, KaraokeMan straightened himself as a sparking blue blade materialized about his right wrist. With a half-hearted battle cry, the singing Navi launched himself forward, targeting Roll.

"Soul Unison: Draco Soul." Roll's eyes closed in concentration, as the outline of the deceased DracoMan began to build around her. As soon as the shadow Navi had formed, her emerald eyes exploded open to bear on KaraokeMan.

The electrical Navi continued to rush onward, closing in on Roll.

In perfect unison, Roll and Shadow DracoMan lifted their right open palms; focusing their combined energies on the space before them. In response, a familiar white dragon-like virus began to form. "Chibi Dragon!"

"This one's for you Draco." The Unisoned Navi thought as she pointed at the Nebular Navi.

Take him down, Roll.

"Attack KaraokeMan now. Tiny Lightning!"

The Chibi Dragon growled in anger as it locked onto its target. With a high-pitched squeal, it opened its mouth as a white glow built up in the back of its jaws. A blast of electrical power exploded away from the Chibi Dragon's mouth, and whipped along towards the electrical Navi.

KaraokeMan's television eyes widened in fear, as he raised his sword in a desperate attempt to deflect the attack.

He didn't succeed.

As the Tiny Lightning exploded past him, KaraokeMan exploded into a burst of pixilated data. His days of causing mayhem were over.

For a long moment, all was still, as everyone released the stress from their battle. Then, a burst of light exploded about Roll as she and MegaMan separated out of their fusion.

"And that just leaves one small problem." MegaMan glanced about the Blaze Medical Network. "What do we do with our defeated Bass DS?"

"Whatever we do," Roll threw her two cents in. "We'd better do it soon… I have to tell you, I'm beat. That fight took a lot out of me."

The quartet of Navi, ProtoMan, MegaMan, StarMan, and Roll were startled as a sickeningly familiar voice entered their conversation.

"Exactly as I had hoped."

Before anyone could react, Roll found herself slamming into the ground. As her head crashed into the unyielding floor, her consciousness exploded into stunned senselessness…

"BASS!" MegaMan's fists locked themselves into fists as he charged across the Network towards the Black Shadow.

"Stay back." The Bugged Navi snapped, as he formed his massive Buster. Without another word, the Black Shadow made his threat clear by leveled his cannon at Roll, who was currently trapped beneath him.

The Blue Bomber stopped short, stunned by the strange turn of events. He still wasn't sure what had happened, but out of nowhere Bass, who was no longer in his Dark Soul state, had come flying in and knocked Roll to the floor. Without a second's hesitation, the Black Shadow had pinned the pink Navi to the floor beneath his large frame.

It was then that the realization hit ProtoMan like a ton of bricks. Bass had never fully gone Dark Soul. The Black Shadow had merely pretended to mistakenly absorb MegaMan's Dark Soul just to get them to fight him, but now that they were exhausted from the previous battles, they were in no condition to take him on.

In short, Bass had pretended to be DS just to wear them out so that he could steal their individual Ultimate Programs.

"Hey you!" StarMan's cheerful demeanor turned sour as he formed his Star Bow. "You let her go!"

"I don't take orders from you." Bass snapped back, his Buster still leveled at Roll's head.

By now, the pink Navi's senses had cleared enough to realize that she was in deep trouble. Bass wouldn't hesitate to destroy her after he had what he wanted, and the others wouldn't attack Bass for fear of her getting hurt. Things did not look that good at this moment.

Unless…

Silently begging Maylu to read her mind, the pink wonder slowly began working her right hand up…

"Now then…" The Black Shadow turned his attention back to his trapped prey. With an eerie silence, Bass lifted his free hand, and keeping his Buster trained on her, he placed it over Roll's crest.

The pink Navi couldn't help herself, she screamed in agony as Bass went to work. It felt like he was ripping her apart in an effort to find the Ultimate Program…

StarMan began to bolt forward; he couldn't let this happen!

But he was stopped as ProtoMan tackled him from behind, sending both of them crashing to the ground.

"Let me go! We've got to do something!"

"Forget it!" The Raider snapped back, "Anything we do will get her deleted!"

A split second later, Bass released Roll's crest. A satisfied smirk traced his lips as he felt the new power flood his system, he had done it. Roll's Ultimate Program was now his!

"Roll!" Maylu's voice broke through the air. "Roll! Answer me!"

The pink Navi strained with all her might to make a reply, "I'm… fine… Maylu…"

"Roll, quick, Log Out!"

"Hang on…" Roll disagreed, her voice barely above a whisper. "We've got to finish this first…"

"But-"

"Maylu! Do it!" Straining what was left of her strength; the Pink Navi snapped her right arm up and pointed it at Bass, who was still towering over her. Using her left hand to steady herself as she lay on the floor, Roll set her sites on Bass and waited.

"You got it, this guy's history!" The redheaded Netbattler slid five chips into her P.E.T. "Arrow Chips in, Quintuple Download! Program Advance: Activated!"

A satisfied smile appeared on the pink Navi's face, as a look of horror appeared on the Black Shadow's. At such close quarters, there was no way that he could dodge this.

"My, how persistent you are, Bass." Roll steadied her bow arm with her left hand. "Omega Arrow: GO!"

With a scream of annoyance, Bass was forced log out of the Network as the energy of the Program Advance washed over him.

101010101010101010101010101010

"My apologies, Sozoji." KaraokeMan gasped as he materialized inside of his P.E.T.

"I don't believe it!" Sozoji ranted at his Net Navi. "They beat us, they beat BurnerMan, they even beat Bass DS! What's it take to stop them?"

KaraokeMan remained silent, he knew from past experience that it wasn't a good idea to interrupt his Op when the guy was upset. So he remained mute, watching Sozoji rave over their newly handed defeat.

"No matter what we throw at them, they always bounce back!" The Elvis-imitator barked on. "It's like we're cursed or something!"

The Navi didn't reply; a small 'beep' from the P.E.T. had seized his attention. And that sound meant that E-mail had arrived, ordinarily, that wasn't a problem, but the fact that this E-mail was from none other than Yuri wasn't a good sign…

"Uh, Sozoji? You've got mail… from Yuri."

That got his Op's attention, instantly the Nebula agent's face went white. "What- what's it say?"

"Uh, short version or long version?"

"Long."

"She says…" KaraokeMan scanned the message. "'Here's a ticket to DarkLand, it's advised that you disappear for a few months. And if you ever show your face to Nebula again; you'll disappear, permanently.'"

10101010101010101010101010101010

"Quite a fight in there, huh?" Lan called out to Maylu as she exited the building.

"It was." Maylu homed in on the brunette's position, and turned to face him. "But I'm glad that Roll's safe. I don't know what I'd do if I lost her. But enough of that, why did you want to meet me?"

"Maylu, I need to talk to you." The Net Saver replied, his voice showing a level of seriousness that was rarely heard from him. "And I need to talk more seriously than we ever have."

"What- what's wrong?"

Lan took a deep breath to steady his nerves; this was not something he was good at. Nevertheless, it had to be said.

"Maylu, I've learned a lot about myself from this whole mess." The brunette whispered. "And I learned some things about you and Chaud too."

"Lan, you-"

"Hold on, let me finish." The brunette cut her off, "I've been thinking about this… After I finish school, I've always dreamed about taking off and doing research around the world like Dad did. And I've always thought that we… might get together. But now I know that that can't happen."

Maylu gasped quietly, she'd never dreamed that Lan felt like this.

"You need someone who's going to be there on a constant basis." Lan continued, "And even though I'm willing to give up the world travel business, I don't think that I could provide for you like Chaud could."

"Wait, don't rush into this, we've still got-"

"Please, I've got to finish, the truth of the matter is, that Chaud's the more mature of the two of us. I realized that after I got upset with you on the Blaze Jet instead of hearing you out. And since I know that there's something between you two, I'm willing to bow out of the picture."

Maylu couldn't believe her ears, Lan knew?

"How did you know?"

"I'm not as dense as I let on." The brunette replied, solemn resolve filling his voice. "I've seen this coming for a while; I just chose to ignore it…"

"But Lan, I can't just let you do this." The sightless girl tried to explain her tangled web of emotions. She liked Chaud, true. But she also enjoyed Lan's company…

The Net Saver sighed silently, why did this have to be so difficult?

"Maylu, trust me on this, I think its best for you." Lan took a step back as he prepared to make his escape. "That's all I want, so please, let's part on good terms, and not with any hard feelings."

"Now hold on there!"

"Chaud?" Maylu turned slightly as the double-haired kid joined the conversation.

"Hey, Chaud." Lan greeted his friend, "Come to make sure that I leave?"

The Official sighed to himself, before making his reply. "Actually, I'm here to keep you from making a mistake. Maylu, I like you true, but I never meant to come between you and Lan. There's something between you that… to be blunt, I'm a little jealous of."

"Guys, let's not drag this out any longer." The brunette put his foot down; in his mind, the conversation was closed. "It's already settled, Chaud, you'd better take care of her, because I know where you live."

"No wait just a moment!" Maylu snapped, "Don't I have a say in this? Or am I just supposed to accept whatever terms you two come up with?"

Silence followed, evidently the two had been stunned into submission over her last remark.

Trying to calm her nerves, the redhead took a deep breath. Then, confident that she had a handle on her emotions, she continued her explanation.

"I think we're rushing this." She gave her view to the two boys. "I like you both, a lot, but I don't think any of us are ready to make this kind of decision. I mean, let's face it, we're still young. We've still got years ahead of us that need living before we actually find out who we are, and I know that trying to decide this right now would be a mistake."

The two Net Savers remained silent for a long moment, pondering her point. Although they tried to wiggle around it, both were eventually forced to concede her point. They were too young to try and decide an issue of this magnitude.

Breaking the silence, Chaud asked the obvious question. "So what do you propose?"

"I think we need to be who we are." Maylu outlined her idea. "And just be friends all around right now. There's no point in trying to be boyfriend/girlfriend, so for the moment, we'll just be us, a group of friends who are always there for each other."

Another moment of silence followed, this time Lan was the one to break it.

"Sounds good to me."

"Likewise." Chaud accented, "I agree."

A familiar feeling of happiness flooded through Maylu. She still had both of her friends, Roll was always by her side; and before too much longer Blaze Medical would give her sight back. There was no doubt about it, the future looked promising. Very promising.

In fact, it was shaping up to be a bright dawn for everyone.

END CHAPTER.

Well, that's a wrap! I have to admit, that I had a lot of fun writing this as I went along (Not that I want to make this a regular event) and I hope that you all enjoyed it.