Disclaimer: I don't own Megaman or any related concepts. Capcom does. All remaining characters and ideas are the material properties of the Chaos Coalition.

Author's Note: Late again, but it's finally here. I also have come to a new agreement with my muse: after any major plot point (the satellite crash is one example), I'll take a week's break to let it recharge and crank out more chapters. Agreed? If not, review and say why. Or, just review. Enjoy!

-

Jules Guidry walked slowly through the streets of Dreg City, capital of Nation Z. He hadn't been here much as a child, despite its proximity to Swampopolis. Now he could see why. The city was falling apart, and being bombed nightly by Electopia didn't help matters much. He was here to see if there was a way to finish this conflict quickly, so the bombing would stop and Electopia would be victorious. Tall order for a fifteen-year-old.

He had always found it odd that he was trusted to save the world, but he wasn't allowed to drive a car. Bureaucracy was a strange entity, it seemed. Still, if he made it out of here alive, his permit test was scheduled for next week. Something to look forward to. Now it was just a matter of finding the people he needed to, and taking them into custody.

He felt the small copyroid nestled within one of the pockets of his oversized gray jacket for a moment, ensuring that it was still there. Being only a B-License ONB, he wasn't able to gain a Synchro Chip, so this somewhat-illegal device in his pocket was his only protection in this foreign city. If the ONB had their way, he wouldn't have one at all, and just imagine what a situation that would put him in.

He stopped under a street lamp, cautiously looking around. No one was visible to him, but that didn't mean that no one was there. Especially not in a city such as this, where secrecy was the order of the day. He hoped that his contact would arrive soon. The skies looked as if rain would cascade down from them any minute now.

"Might you have the time?" The voice came from behind, and Jules turned slowly to face the speaker. He had come from nowhere, as most native to Nation Z were prone to do, and a dark cloak shrouded his face.

Jules pulled the sleeve of his jacket away to reveal his digital watch, once a staple of his daily apparel. He now more commonly wore a more precious watch, but he could not risk anyone seeing him for what he was. He checked the time to see that it was only 3:30, despite the darkening of the clouds above. "7: 10," he responded.

"Too late for hunting."

"That depends on your quarry." The proper exchanges delivered, the stranger lowered his hood, revealing a man with black and gray hair, who appeared a decade or so past his middle years. He adjusted the glasses he wore as he looked Jules over.

"I am not sure if we have met before. There were too many faces to recall in the chaos some time past that was Atos. But I think perhaps...yes, I am fairly sure--you are Chaos Fox, the one known as J.G?"

Jules nodded. J.G. was the name he had given to Shroud upon joining the Chaos Union, and it was the name he intended to keep within the mind of his father. "You are correct, Dr. Taruka. But did your sons not tell you who you would be meeting with, despite these formalities?"

The doctor of cybernetics shook his head, with a sad look in his eyes. "I have not heard from either of my sons in several days. I fear that they have been captured, or worse."

"I wouldn't worry about them. Shroud and Shade have been thought dead numerous times, and they always have a strange way of--" A flurry of motion caught Jules' eye, and he turned in time to see a soldier stepping into the light of the lamp, pointing a gun at them. "Down!" he cried, knocking Dr. Taruka to the sidewalk, as the gun and the heavens released their payload with a pair of explosions, one of fire and one of thunder. The bullet skimmed over their heads, but the rains drenched them in an instant, and blurred his vision.

"I never liked water," the fiery teenager said, reaching into his pocket for his copyroid and recieving only the scalding burn of a spark. It didn't appear that they'd see this rain stop, then. Jules could only watch as the assassin sent to kill them came closer, and then fell to the ground, a pair of figures taking form behind them. Yet Jules recognized them, and got to his feet as they entered the light, lifting the unconsious Dr. Taruka with him. "It seems that your father couldn't take the excitement," he said, walking towards the brothers Taruka.

Shroud had taken on the armor of his netnavi Juno via Cross Fusion, and looked to be regretting it in this rain. His pair of ivory wings were tucked firmly against his armor, and his normally-gleaming armor of gold and silver looked almost tarnished, although Jules knew that Shroud would never allow such a travesty to occur. Shade, on the other hand, had a more practical form in Cross Fusion, a long red coat covering a majority of his body. The trademark broadsword of his netnavi Auron was tied to his back, and he stepped forward to take his father out of Jules' arms. "We really need to invest in getting the rest of you ONB up to S-License," Shade said with only a hint of jest. "Either that, or just steal one, like I did."

Shroud and Jules both shook their heads and smiled. "Did you contact the targets?" Jules asked.

"Yes. And of course, they double-crossed us exactly as we suspected, telling us to come to a meeting place and then blowing up said meeting place. Them thinking we were dead just made infiltrating their missile bases that much easier. Nation Z won't be performing many military acts for quite some time." As he spoke, Shroud shifted out of Cross Fusion, although Shade remained in his fused state, since it wasn't nearly as out of the ordinary as his brother's was.

A few minutes later, they were on their way to the airfield where the remainder of their team would swoop in to escort them out of the country. A thought came to Jules all of a sudden, and he looked over at Shroud. "No regrets? This is your homeland, you know. You've basically just kept them from doing anything to the world, useful or not, for the next two decades or so."

Shroud sighed and looked at Jules, not without a bit of sadness. "Nation Z hasn't been a home to me since I was seven, old friend. I would cripple them like this again in a heartbeat."

"Good," Jules said, with mixed emotions. "I'm glad that someone would."

-

Chaotic We Stand

-

Chapter 6: Fervida Ferocitas, Alsius Fortitudo

-

-- 5:51 PM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia ---

Shroud had a bad feeling about this mission. Something just wasn't right. But he couldn't really do anything but trust Matthias at this point. That, and play a game of poker with the others to pass the time.

Looking at his hand in distaste, Seija tossed three chips into the central pot. Golex and Link shared a devious look, and the former raised seven while the latter called his bet. Obviously, the two of them believed that Shroud's daughter was bluffing. Shroud suspected they were right, so he decided to call the bet, putting in ten chips of his own. Brian and Alistor did the same, and then Seija resentfully added seven chips.

This completed, the group went about the circle, exchanging cards. Golex had dealt, so he gave Link two cards before turning to Shroud. He took a good look at his cards, seeing he had a seven, eight, nine, Jack, and Ace; all hearts, as improbable as it seemed. It was a good hand in itself, but the potential for a straight flush was too great for him to pass up. After all, it wasn't like the world was at stake over his one bet.

Turning in the Ace, Shroud was scarcely able to contain his joy at actually seeing a ten of hearts, and looked out the window at the submarine. "We should have tried to jury-rig some sort of transceiver from that communications room before they left. At least then we'd know if they ran into any trouble."

Brian shrugged as he turned in three cards. "We couldn't risk any communication between us being heard, and they left too fast anyways. I'm sure that they're fine." Alistor nodded his ascent as well, taking his two. Seija chose to do nothing, setting her head on the table. Golex smirked at this, and took three cards of his own. The betting then continued, Link starting with 25 chips, and the rest simply calling.

Link then showed first, having only three sixes, which Shroud promptly beat with his straight flush. Alistor and Brian sighed and put their cards down, and all eyes turned to Golex, who began to turn his cards over. "Ahem." Everyone looked at Seija, whose cards were overturned to reveal another straight flush, this one of spades, with a Queen high. "I never folded, so I guess I win."

Shroud began to laugh as Link and Golex turned crimson with anger, but the subsequent rumblings of the cavern cut them off. "Outside. Now." The team hurried through the doors, Shroud standing next to Seija in an instant.

"Dad, what's going on?"

"I'm not sure, Seija." Shroud looked around as he exited the room, and came to the quick conclusion that something had gone wrong, and his conclusions seemed to be proven right as a stalactite fell almost at their feet. "Cross Fuse, now!" The Chaos Union did so without thought; years of following Shroud's orders had made doing so routine by now. As they all took on their netnavis forms, Shroud spread his large wings, shielding his daughter from anything that might fall from above.

"Seija, stay with me, all right?" His daughter nodded, and then Shroud looked around the room. The entrance they had come through had been sealed by steel blast doors, and they didn't look like they'd open without a great deal of force, perhaps more than they could muster. Of all the times for them to be trapped underground, it was when they'd just managed to discover an attack that could probably drive a hole through the ceiling.

"Everyone, listen! This chamber is probably the only thing that's collapsing. My best guess is that there is an extra stone ceiling built into this cavern, and what the ceiling is now is just going to fall on top of us. Therefore, our only chance of escaping is to drill our way through that door." The team got the message, and Link led off the strike, firing several golden arrows into the door, and scarcely marring it. Apparently, the Vile 5 had prepared for this and made this door from something a bit stronger than steel. He didn't have time to discover what it was.

The others quickly followed Link's lead, Golex shooting something out of his sword that caused large explosions as Alistor fired shockwaves from his own swords. Their efforts proved futile as well, although faint marks could be seen upon the metal surface. Brian tossed several of his grenades at the surface, and when the smoke cleared and Shroud began to fire some shockwaves at the door, he could see that they were making progress. But it was too little, too late.

A faint snapping noise was heard as another large rock fell, missing Brian by a foot, and Shroud looked up to see a large net of some unknown metal above, straining to hold up the rocks that embodied the ceiling. As he watched, carefully placed torches began to ignite, and the strands touched by that murderous fire began to snap, dropping their burden. Another rock splashed into the water, and then Shroud heard another snap, and sadly looked at the others.

"I'm sorry," he said to them as the net above them broke, dropping the lethal ceiling down upon them.

-- Sunday, March 30th, 7: 18 AM, X's Office, Core Building, Neo Arcadia --

"I'm sorry, but we haven't been able to contact Shroud and the others, nor reach them. I fear they may no longer be with us."

Chris sighed as X spoke. Shroud and the remainder of the team had been AWOL for over 12 hours, and search teams back at the crater had found nothing. They had apparently descended into some sort of tunneling systems, but found only dead ends, one in the form of a solid stone wall, the other in the form of a steel blast door that no one had been able to open as of yet. The general consensus was that the team had entered a chamber through the steel doors, and then killed, by any of various means.

"They can't be dead," Pavo said vehemently, his netnavi nodding vigorously on his shoulder. "It's Shroud. He always finds ways to escape death."

"I'm afraid that appears to be the case, for him and the remainder of your team." X seemed saddened by the news, but he was a diplomat, and Chris suspected that he held Shroud's sacrifice in less regard that it appeared, especially since no information had been brought back about the Vile 5. "If you need any accommodations, please consult with my staff. Our nation's hospitality is yours to receive."

Chris and Pavo reluctantly bowed at the subtle dismissal, and then left the room, heading to the elevator. They got into it in silence, but after the doors closed, Pavo began to speak. "What are we going to do, Chris? X said that he would inform Irine in due time, but maybe we should--"

Chris raised a finger to his lips as Pavo spoke, and with his other hand, he pointed upwards at the camera above his head. Currently, he was out of its field of vision, and it was unlikely to have audio capabilities, but X surely had employees who could read lips, so Pavo had to be silent for now if they were ever going to escape this diplomatic nightmare. Mercifully, Pavo was silent, leaning against the wall in silent contemplation.

With this task finished, Chris leaned up against the wall as well, feeling the two Synchro Chips in his pocket. Last night, when they had turned in their Synchro Chips at the Southern Outpost, Chris had automatically checked to see where they were being put, a habit formed from his time at Setan. It had proven to be useful this evening, because as soon as he and Pavo had been informed that the Chaos Union was missing in action, he'd snuck out of their hotel room, and returned to the Outpost, taking advantage of the confusion to gain a new pair of chips.

He unconsciously fingered the silver pendant around his neck as he thought of the Academy, bringing it into the light enough to allow the glow of the florescent bulbs above to shine upon it. Its form was unmistakable, a serpentine dragon curled about a jagged dagger, but its meaning was hidden, even to those who knew of the Academy. The tattoo was standard upon graduation, but the Chain of Argent was something unique. Something Chris had sworn never to speak of.

The ding of the elevator lifted him from his reverie, and he looked up to see Pavo eying the Chain with confusion. He'd have to give him the basics later, but for now, they needed to do what was required. He led the way out of the cubicle, Pavo temporarily deferring to him, and exited the Core Building, completely ignoring the aide who attempted to flag them down. As Pavo saw him reach for his radio, he whispered to Chris, "What are we doing? We're obviously supposed to talk to him."

"I know," Chris replied, pulling the hood of his black coat over his head. "That's exactly why we're doing it." He walked through the revolving doors, and took a quick glance behind to check on the progress of the guard and catch Pavo's eye. Then, he broke into a run, dashing down the main street and not looking back.

-- 8: 41 AM, Feedback Plaza, Electown, Electopia --

The sun slipped behind a cloud as Luke pondered the game before him. It was Sunday, and every Sunday possible, he and John met here and played a game or two of chess, and simply discussed life. This week, Luke had called another friend over as well, whose name was Alan, and he had pulled a chair up alongside the two of them. Alan was a year younger than either of them was, but was taking the same classes. He had mousy brown hair and wore either rectangular glasses or contacts, whatever suited his mood. Today, he had chosen glasses, and was wearing a brown t-shirt with the words "Each your station are own to we", in honor of the cult phenomenon that was currently sweeping the globe.

Currently, he held Luke's PET in his hands, and was scanning through the Project: Fallen documents. "Well, this is certainly a very elaborate program," he said finally, as John moved one of his white progs forward two spaces. "It seems to have overwritten Aeon's weaponry systems in some way, but it's left his glaive intact for some reason." Alan's father was a netnavi programmer, and he was following in his footsteps. Luke had called him this morning, hoping that he could be of some aid, and he had been helpful so far.

"There's some sort of change in it, though," Luke said as he slid a proxy diagonally across the board, putting John's firewall in jeopardy. His friend quickly responded by sliding his firewall towards a black virus, and Luke was forced to move that elsewhere, ruining a plan he had begun to formulate. "It's more of a focal point now, and energy flows through it more easily."

"Yes, I see that," Alan replied. "I believe that your new Fallen are going to be summoned through the energies that the glaive currently possesses, and the modifications are just to make the summoning go smoother. Other than that, nothing else is different."

"All right, thanks for your help, Alan."

"You know, you could just ask your father about the program, Luke," Alan said. "He's the one who made it."

Luke looked over at John, who gave him a look of understanding. John was the only person that Luke had told of his Chaos Union heritage, and he seemed to understand why Luke wasn't telling anyone else. The Chaos Union was a great team, sure, but they still had enemies, and he had enough trouble without vicious criminals attacking. Besides, his father had lied to him before. What was to say that he wouldn't lie about this secret project of his?

"Maybe I will," he said aloud, his unspoken conversation with John having taken only seconds. Alan didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, looking at the specs one last time.

"Luke, would you mind if I made a copy of this?" he asked hesitantly, loading up the data transfer function on his own PET.

Luke had to think about it a moment. Obviously, his father had wanted the program kept secret, but he thought he could trust Alan. But it really was who Alan could trust that might pose problems. "Why?" he asked, sticking with a non-answer.

"Well, there's a kid I know, who might be able to get a better idea about the program's purpose. He's the best programmer I've ever met, including my father, although you didn't hear that from me. He might see something I can't. Apparently, he just got into town a few days ago, and he's staying at the local hotel."

"Well then, I'll just see if I can contact him myself, considering my dad told me to use the hotel's security for hacking practice. I'll leave him a message later today; maybe send the plans along with." Looking back down at the board in front of him, he saw that John had moved his navi to put Luke's operator in check. As he did so, Luke suddenly noticed that John's navi was a generic navi, instead of his actual one, Chance. Very odd for him.

After all, in this version of the game, in which the pieces were hard-light constructs of the board itself, one could and generally did add data into the slots provided on the sides, which morphed the pieces to your personal specifications. For example, while the only changes Luke had made were the addition of image data to make his operator look like himself, and the loading of Aeon into the board to take on the shape of his navi, a pair nearby had completely edited their pieces, one managing bronze animals, the other emerald fauna.

"Where's your navi at, John?" he asked. It seemed to be a sore spot, as John slightly winced.

"I got beaten horribly in a netbattle here the other day." Alan looked puzzled, but Luke understood. While the park's tables had been made so that people could play chess without their own personal set, many people, Luke and John included, used it for netbattling instead. One would just override the rules to the game, and log their navis in to fight in the middle of the board. The truly ambitious could even modify the playing field, turning the remainder of the pieces into obstacles.

"What, someone deleted it?" Luke had thought that to be impossible in a place like this; all the failsafes built into the tables would remove a netnavi if it was in danger of deletion, as if it had been captured in a game of chess.

"No, but close enough. The navi had some kind of program that gave him powerful fire attacks, and Chance wasn't lucky enough to avoid it. Not only did I lose, but the program was powerful enough to overload his randomizer. I was actually hoping that your dad could take a look, but since he's out of town, I just dropped it off at the store."

"Too bad. I certainly hope that it's repairable." Luke moved a prog in front of the navi to try to block John's attack, but he moved a proxy that Luke had forgotten into position, putting him in checkmate.

"Nice try," John said with a smirk. "But I win again." A score table popped up on the side of the board, tallying John's seventeenth win out of 25 matches.

"Just wait until you get your netnavi back. You're just asking for a netbattle with all these chess wins." Luke withdrew his data from the table, and Alan handed his PET back.

"Speaking of wins," John said as Luke installed Aeon within his PET again, "here comes the kid that fried my navi." Luke turned around as John gestured towards him. The netbattler was a kid, about their age, who wore dark sunglasses. He had blonde, spiky hair, and he wore a red jacket over a plain white shirt, and some black slacks. Overall, not intimidating enough to scare Luke, but enough that it took a second for him to convince himself to get to his feet and walk towards him.

"Hey," he said as he approached the kid, John hurriedly getting to his feet to protest. The teen turned, and removed his sunglasses to study him. Now that they were gone, Luke could see that he was probably a year or two younger than them, but easily the same age on an emotional level. "I hear that you're pretty good at netbattling."

"What of it?" The teen had a strange accent, one that Luke would later recognize as Swampopalen, but he paid little attention to it at this time. "May I presume you are challenging me? If so, I would at least like to know your name."

"It's Luke. Luke Terre." Luke caught a flash of recognition in his opponent's eyes, which flashed down to look at the watch Luke had recently taken to wearing. Could he be…no, he didn't have time for this.

"Well then, Terre-san," he said, offering his hand. "My name is Kitsune. Shall we play?"

Luke took his hand, shaking it firmly. "Sure, Kitsune. Let's play."

-

Within a few minutes, the two of them had seated themselves at one of the tables. Luke had quickly loaded Aeon into the system and rearranged the pieces so that they were all on the sides of the board, leaving the space in between for their navis. Meanwhile, Kitsune was fiddling with his PET, and finally jacked his navi in as well, it taking form in the center of the board.

"My name's Metro," the netnavi said as he walked towards Aeon. He was a fox-like navi, having two orange ears and nine bushy tails. The remainder of his body was humanoid, with red armor over a majority of it. His gloves and boots resembled flames, their edges reaching up to his elbows and knees, respectively, and he had long shoulder guards, pointing about a foot outwards. At his back were two crossing blades, and Aeon faintly recognized them as katanas. "Shall we begin?"

"Sure," Aeon said eagerly, his Summoner's Glaive appearing in his hands. "Luke?"

"Let's go, Aeon! Combat parameters set; execute!"

"Metro! Spirit of battle, ignite!"

The two battlers activated their PETs at the same time, Kitsune's old Link PET lighting up a bit, and Luke's PET Watch extending itself. They both then proceeded to send in chips to their navis, Luke sending a Sword, WideSword, LongSword, SonicWave, and Pulsar2, while Kitsune sent his navi a Vulcan2, two FireBlades, and two LongBlades.

"A few too many swords, I see," Aeon said as he lunged forward, slicing at Metro from the safe distance his glaive provided for him.

His opponent merely leapt backwards, drawing his swords from their sheaths. "I think that my Kasai will prove you wrong," he replied. Aeon was startled to see the sword in his right hand start on fire, and was hardly able to block with his glaive as Metro dashed forward and spun on his heel to slice at him with his swords. He managed to beat his opponent back though, and a few moments later, the two of them were several yards apart again.

"So far, your 'Kasai' aren't proving anything, Metro." Aeon formed a pickaxe in his hand and drove it into the ground, creating the sonic wave of a Mettaur. Metro evaded it easily though, and a near-transparent aura grew around him.

"Well, perhaps you underestimate the Kasai Spirit then. Let me show you what it can do." With those words, the aura intensified, and the sword in his left hand seemed to morph, coagulating down into a cannon of some sort. As it solidified, Metro smirked, and literally fired, a massive wave of flames rushing at Aeon, one he could surely never dodge. He had nothing to do but cross his arms in front of him and pray for deliverance.

Deliverance came. An aura formed around Aeon as well, and a large cloud of steam came up, keeping the combatants from seeing each other. When it faded, Metro's flamethrower was held loosely at his side, and in front of Aeon floated Glacios. The being hovered a foot or so over the ground, and its gloves were off, lying beside him. The aftereffects of his mighty attack trailed from the sleeves of the parka, thin wisps of frosty mist.

Metro growled as he swung his sword at open air, causing flames to fly towards the two of them. But Glacios simply expelled more freezing mist, which quelled the flames and continued onwards, chilling Metro. While the fiery navi was trying to get over the cold, Aeon ran past Glacios, and attacked Metro with his glaive. Metro was better resistant than he appeared, however, and the two of them traded blows for a few seconds, Metro deftly wielding his sword to slice past Aeon's whirling glaive, and Aeon using it as a staff, jabbing with both ends as he saw fit.

Eventually, Metro parried a strike and leapt over Aeon, swords appearing as he flew. When he landed, he had moved the sword from his right hand into his mouth, and he had the two FireBlades in his hands while his LongBlades had been attached to his elbows. "Now you'll see my master technique!" he said around the blade in his mouth. "Flaming Five Swords!" He then leapt into the air towards Aeon, swinging the swords on his arms in an X as he swung the blade within his teeth so that it would sever Aeon's neck.

Aeon barely saw the move, turning around fully just in time to see Metro flying through the air, his swords poised. He attempted to bring up a sword or something, to defend himself, but he took a step to steady himself and slipped on the now-icy chessboard, plummeting towards the ground. Yet his Fallen came to his aid, rushing over and catching him before being hit by Metro's technique, leaving four gashes in his parka and severing its hood, revealing a face of mist that chilled both Aeon and Metro to the bone.

Glacios apparently decided to take the attack personally, expelling another wave of frost made all the more potent by his recent injuries, which allowed more of his cold essence to leave his parka. Metro was easily hit and blown backwards into the invisible wall that was the edge of the board, falling to the ground and tipping over a proxy and a firewall. He coughed as he got unsteadily to his feet, shards of ice clinging to his armor. "Good move," he said, his swords vanishing, save his Kasai. "That was one of my best attacks."

"Thanks," Aeon responded, a faint gleam in his eye as he looked at Glacios. "Here's one of mine." At his signal, Glacios tore away his parka, and molded himself into a large glacier, which rushed at Metro to slam him into the wall. It moved quickly, but Metro had enough time to see a way to escape being slammed against the wall, and began to melt a hole into it with his flamethrower, using the hole as a safe haven.

It worked, partially. The glacier slammed into the wall and didn't do any damage to Metro, although a few shards did slice into his skin. But then he looked over at Aeon to see him charging a cannon of some sort. The Pulsar. Metro saw Aeon's plan an instant before he fired, but didn't have a chance to escape before it struck one of the larger shards, reverberating throughout the shattered shards of the glacier and deafening Metro.

The vulpine netnavi clutched his ears for a moment, and quickly initiated a repair program to restore his hearing. Just in time, he looked up to see Aeon running towards him, a LifeSword glowing in his hands. "I feel you underestimate my power," Metro said, or at least he thought so, and he formed his other sword in his hands again, before crossing it over the other. "Jakai and Reishi, unite!" As he spoke, he twisted the blades so they were perfectly parallel, and they began to fuse together. "Now, join together for the ultimate strike! Kasai Kyoudai!" The resulting katana glistened like a diamond, and ignited as Metro lunged forward to parry Aeon's LifeSword.

Amazingly, the new blade seemed to be of equal strength to the LifeSword, and Aeon was scarcely able to break the parry, twisting to take a piece out of Metro's shoulder guard. With his ears damaged, this threw Metro off balance, and he crashed to the ground. Aeon raised his LifeSword to drive it into his chest, but an aura flashed around Metro again as he raised his diamond katana, and it flashed, causing Aeon to fall back also.

Metro slowly got to his feet, and realized that his hearing was slowly coming back, most likely a side effect of the power of the Kasai Spirit. He then looked over at Aeon, who was rubbing his eyes. The effect of his Fiery Flash was to stun an opponent long enough to make them cease their attack, and cause some brief blindness. Quickly taking advantage of the situation, he leapt into the air and swung the flaming katana, sending flames everywhere heedlessly.

As Aeon's vision restored itself, he looked at the flames around him, realizing that he was trapped. "Luke, I need chips to get out of here!" he called, knowing that his NetOp would be able to hear him.

True to form, Luke had already found several that should help, and sent them through: a Bubbler, AquaSword, Recover50, HiCannon, and LongSword in total. Aeon used the recovery chip to heal himself a bit and then drew the AquaSword and used it to fight back the flames. As soon as he could see Metro, falling in midair, he fired the Bubbler, which hit him and knocked him back into the flames.

"Flames won't harm a fox," Metro called out amidst the burning field. Aeon fired several shots from his HiCannon towards the voice, but Metro was already moving, and the shots struck nothing. Aeon walked slowly through the flames, looking for Metro, and he suddenly appeared, leaping through the sky with his katana swinging downwards. Aeon knew that his AquaSword wouldn't stand a chance, so he cast it aside, calling his glaive to him.

It arrived just in time, blocking Metro's stroke. Aeon gave a slight push upwards as the glaive and katana contacted, and it was enough to knock Metro backwards, and as he fell, Aeon formed his HiCannon again and fired, hitting Metro in the chest and causing bits of his armor to fragment and break off. Metro got to his feet and looked at Aeon critically. "Good job. But a warrior can never give up, even when the odds are grim." Aeon scarcely registered his statement before he was moving again, delivering a punch with his left hand.

Aeon leaned backwards to evade the attack, but too late did he see Metro's hand shift into a Vulcan, and the bullets slashed across his right cheek, causing the skin there to de-rezz. Aeon attempted to ignore the pain, and quickly formed both his AquaSword and LongSword, swinging them horizontally at Metro. His enemy raised his hands to protect his weakened armor, however, and his gloves took a majority of the damage. He then fired again with his Vulcan, but Aeon rolled aside to dodge.

"This has gone on long enough," he said, sending energy through his glaive and causing the engravings to glow. An arcane circle appeared before him, and Aeon quickly began to call a Fallen. It came forth, and was revealed to be the serpentine Azul, sinuously intertwining itself with the air. It lunged for Metro as soon as he saw him, and eagerly took a bite out of the surprised netnavi.

Metro was barely able to defend himself, especially after that initial attack. He was able to beat back Azul for a few minutes with his blade, but eventually, the Fallen's sharp jagged fin sliced into one of his legs, and he buckled just long enough to allow the Fallen to take advantage of him, sweeping him into the air and weaving a pattern of pain around him. Aeon could simply watch, mesmerized by Azul's raw strength. He suddenly realized that Azul had split himself into three copies, and which explained how he could be attacking three portions of Metro's body at the same time.

He suddenly became aware of someone saying something to him, and then recognized the voice as Luke's. "Aeon, stop it or you'll delete him! Aeon, listen to me! You have to call off Azul!" The urgency of his voice snapped Aeon back to reality, and he dissolved the Fallen somehow, causing Metro to fall to the ground limply, before logging out. Aeon looked at his glaive a moment, still faintly glowing from the summons, and then did the same, returning to Luke's PET.

"I'm sorry about that," Luke said to Kitsune as soon as Aeon returned to his PET. "I'm not sure what happened. It must have been some sort of programming thing."

"The ghost in the machine," Alan said from behind. Beside Alan, John looked at him a bit oddly, as if wondering what Luke hadn't told him about the Fallen. In truth, Luke hadn't withheld anything, but something told him that it would take some convincing to explain that to him.

"I understand, Terre-san," Kitsune said, looking at Metro's diagnostics before pocketing his PET. "I had a similar experience once while working on my own program. I meant to create a small tornado to blow my opponent back and ended up trashing the entire server when it got too hot to handle."

"No hard feelings?" Luke said, hoping that he hadn't gained an enemy.

"Not a one," Kitsune said. "As long as you don't mind hanging out for a bit today. To discuss our match, and perhaps what our parents do for a living." As he spoke, he pulled his left sleeve back, to reveal a very familiar-looking watch. John recognized it right away, and looked at Luke in astonishment, but Luke simply nodded.

"Certainly. Alan, John, I'll talk to you later. And Alan, do me a favor and get ahold of that kid. I need someone to take a look at these Fallen."

-- 9: 03 AM, Subterranean Caverns, Twilight Desert, Neo Arcadia --

Pavo could scarcely believe that he was back here again; much less on a mission to prove that Shroud was alive. In addition, he was most likely a fugitive by this point, having joined Chris in fleeing the city while under X's protection, and was attempting to completely defy X by searching for people he claimed to be dead. He had incapacitated soldiers, highjacked a pair of sand speeders, stolen Synchro Chips, and was now trespassing on government property. What's more, he still didn't fully understand the situation.

"Now, remind me again why I'm risking jail time to search for people who are dead?" Chris looked at Pavo critically and sighed.

"For one thing, I don't think that Shroud's necessarily dead. After all, we did have to subdue several guards to get this far." That was true. He and Chris hadn't even had time to cross fuse before the soldiers had attacked, and it was only the martial arts classes that his campaign advisors had made him take and Chris' ninjitsu skills that had kept them from being defeated. After that, they'd both used their Synchro Chips.

"In addition, it's much too convenient for Shroud and the others to be dead. After all, since we didn't learn anything, X needs an excuse to attack the Vile 5. What better excuse that to avenge the deaths of the heroic Chaos Union?"

"These are all valid points, Chris, but I don't think that X would do that, at least not to Shroud. Isn't Shroud one of his more trusted advisors?"

Chris simply shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. X didn't become the leader of Neo Arcadia just because that was what he was programmed to be. Or rather, that's exactly why. X may have created a perfect utopia, but sometimes utopias aren't perfectly created. X has done more backstabbing than most people will care to admit. He's just like any other politician. Personally, I think that giving Shroud such an honored position is simply a public relations move."

Pavo gave Chris a brief glare. "I think that I'm tempted to take that politician comment seriously."

"Take it however you like. But I'm sure that you've done something that you'd see as immoral or wrong as a normal person to gain political favor, right?" Pavo had to agree with that one. He'd needed to apply a cheese quota once to make sure he had the funds to get reelected. That one had plagued him for nights on end. "It's the same concept. Except that X has been doing it for the last fifteen years or so."

Pavo opened his mouth to contend with that, but then noticed that they were approaching the steel doors. "All right, Chris. Now, how are we going to do this without wrecking another set of Synchro Chips?"

"Well, I think the best way to do it is for you to make a very small sphere of radiation and set it in front of the doors, and then I'll just shoot it with my laser weapon," he replied, pulling out the afore-mentioned gun. "And while I'm firing, you can use a shielding chip to protect us. You have anything good?"

"Just a Guard," he replied, searching through the database implanted into his arm. "Will that be enough?"

"It better be," Chris replied, and a chill went through Pavo's spine as he walked up to the door and laid a small sphere against it.

"I'm ready when you are," he said as he walked back towards him and readied his battlechip.

"All right," Chris said, aiming his laser. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!" Chris fired, and Pavo brought up his shield an instant later. Two instants later, the sphere shattered, and the world exploded around them again.