"Kaita-kun, Mary-chan! It feels like it's been forever since the tournament, huh?"
When he thought about everything that had happened on his end, Kaita could only say, "Yeah."
"How is it in Jawaii, Kalama-chan?" Mary asked.
"It's... well, that's really part of why I called." Kalama explained, "Things are going awfully funny in Jawaii's networks, and Dingo and I were wondering if you knew anything about it. I can show you a picture, if you'd like..."
Kaita and Mary gasped at the sight: veins latched onto digital palm trees like vines. "Nova," Mary recognized.
"We just wiped something like this out—we'll get over there and help you!" Kaita said.
"Wait. Shouldn't we tell the Net Saviors about this first?" Mary asked. "They might want to come along, and we did have their help last time."
"I know," sighed Kaita. "But I really want to get going!"
"It won't take that long," Mary said. "Besides, it'll take us a few hours to arrive in Jawaii to begin with—what's another few minutes?"
"We can hang in there until you guys get out here, Kaita-kun, don't worry about us!" Kalama said cheerfully.
"See if you can tell everyone to keep their Navis offline until help comes," Mary said.
"Dingo's already working on it," Kalama explained. "Well, hurry up and place that call! Later!" Her screen winked out. Immediately, Turboman sent the call out to Meiru's PET.
"Ah, hello, Kaita-kun!" Meiru greeted. "I was just about to call you!"
"Do you know about another place that's getting programs absorbed, too?" Kaita asked.
"We got word from Poipu-chan that it's spread very quickly. And since Creamland isn't that large, it's already hitting the borders of Sharo and some other nations..."
"So you guys are heading somewhere, too," Mary said. "We're going to Jawaii to help Dingo and Kalama-chan."
"Hmm..." Meiru decided, "Well, now that we've all been through one of these, we kind of know what to expect. Just be careful, okay?"
"We will! Good luck!" With that, Meiru's window winked out. "Okay, we've called," Kaita said. "Now let's go!"
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Though Kaita, thinking it would be easier to track down the problem with a set of wheels, had wished they could've found a way to take the Bratmobile along instead of leaving it parked in the airport lot, it probably wouldn't have made that much of a difference. Jawaii was a chain of small islands—so small that even Mary probably could have crossed some of them on foot in under an hour. "The absorption program shouldn't be that hard to find," she said once they'd left the airport.
"In fact, I think I see it right now," Kaita said, looking around with concern. The street before them was covered in shards of glass and plastic; sparks jumped out of destroyed displays while bright red vacuum vehicles zipped underneath, either trying to contain the damage or out of control themselves. Riding one of them was Kalama, her dark hair trailing behind her.
"Guys!" Her ride came to a halt in front of them. "There's a ladder on the back—climb up!" Once Kaita had reached the top, Mary close behind, Kalama explained, "Pele's inside this trash collector, so it's under control. Can't say the same for all of these, though."
"I don't think it ever got this bad in Japan!" Mary exclaimed as one of the uncontrolled trash collectors zipped into a glass window, probably taking down most of the store with it as it plowed deep into the building.
"That's because you guys have a larger country network. We don't think this thing can jump through cross-ocean connections—and since it's had no place to spread, it's just compounding."
"Every inch of the Internet here must be covered by now," Turboman noticed. "So much for jumping in and fighting until we hit the center."
"Yeah, that's definitely not going to work," Kalama confirmed. "But Dingo and I managed to get everyone who'd listen offline."
"That must have saved a lot of Navis," Mary said. "What a relief!"
"You said it!" Kalama explained, "We've managed to isolate the network in Maha Niban, so it's safe in there. We'll swing by and pick Dingo up, and then I've got an idea of where this thing is..."
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Once they'd reached Maha Niban and Dingo had climbed aboard, Kalama said, "I've never accessed the haunted pages directly. Dingo, do you know where they're hosted?"
"The old office building a few streets down," he said. "Tomahawkman can drive if you want."
"Sure!"
After the Navis were exchanged and the trash collector started up again, Mary asked, "The haunted pages?"
"Yeah." Kalama enthusiastically explained, "It's this abandoned site—the owner went bankrupt the last time the economy went down. He doesn't mind us using it, either—we pay a couple hundred Zenny to his Navi, and he'll pay the electric bill."
"Abandoned sites aren't that uncommon," Ring said.
"I know, I know! But here's the neat thing. It's built like a labyrinth, and the virus protection still keeps out the big stuff, so all the Netbattlers in Jawaii use it for fights or meetings. There's a central room somewhere, but I've never run across it—it's the haunted part."
"So of course, if you need to hide something important, you seek out that central room," Dingo finished.
"And that's where you think the absorption program is?" Kaita asked.
"That's the only place I can think of where nobody'd stumble across it for this long," Kalama said. Kaita held onto the side of the trash collector a little tighter as they turned onto another street. One of the buildings toward the other end had black cloth over the windows and a For Rent sign in one of them. Overall, it looked just as presentable as any other shop in its row.
"Here it is," Dingo said as they came to a stop. "The door's usually unlocked, so let's hope it still is." Fortunately, the door swung open when Dingo turned the knob. It was easy to tell that the building was mostly used by Netbattlers—there was a box of Battlechips and a pile of old PETs sitting on one of the desks, and anything in the room that seemed more fit for running a business was covered in dust or graffiti, including all of the walls. A stylized 'W3' marked one side of the stairwell, while a sheep's head took up the other; as they reached the top, Kaita noticed the detailed paintings of all the different generations of Battlechips running up the ceiling, ending with the more square ones he knew best. There was no one in this room, either; it only contained a chair, a desk with a three-year-old calendar on it, and a large server to the desk's right.
The server had four ports on it. "Ready, Turboman?" Kaita asked.
"As ready as I'll be," the Navi replied. Kaita looked around at his friends, all of whom looked equally prepared.
"Plug-in!" Instead of riding the burst of energy to the ground as normal, the Navis cut it off in midair so Mary and Dingo could use Dash Condors, Pele hitching a ride on Tomahawkman's and Turboman on Ring's. It was the right choice—the area floor was swarming with veins. Even around them, the many platforms and walkways were top-and-bottom covered in a writhing mass. Pele shot down the veins that got too close to the Condor caravan with golden flames from her hair. Kaita could see why the page got so much use—it was sprawling, with seemingly little reason to its design. Quite a few Netbattles could probably fit inside.
"We're looking for a warp door," Dingo explained. "I haven't actually found it, either, but I'd guess it's a few levels below this main one." The Navis found a narrow hole. Turboman's tires and Pele's golden fire shot down first to clean out the mass of veins, closely followed by the two Dash Condors. It was easy to tell that things had gotten far out of control; the hole was quickly overgrown again, leaving the Navis in near-darkness. The quartet's eye-lights flicked on, casting four beams of light on the squiggling veins below as they flew on.
"There!" The other three focused on where Turboman was looking-a sliver of blue glow nearly completely buried by the tangle around it.
"That's gotta be it," Tomahawkman said. "Now let me chop some'a this stuff down! Tomahawk Air Raid!" He hurled his axe down. It disappeared into the throng, followed by a large patch of veins vanishing to reveal it buried in the ground. "Pele, take over!" The feather-dressed Navi leapt down after his weapon, snatching it up to deliver a second attack. "Tomahawk Swing!" The little patch of blue got much larger after the massive chop Tomahawkman made. "Jump down, guys!"
First Pele, then Turboman and Ring flew their Dash Condor down to deliver them to the safer patch. "You've beaten these Nova guys before, right?" Pele asked, setting a Kusamura Seed alight and hurling it toward the mass of veins. On contact, it grew a swath of flaming vines, wrapping around and destroying everything between the Navis and the warp door. "Then you should deal with him now. Tomahawkman and I can clear this stuff out easily, so we'll be fine out here."
"She's right," Dingo told Kaita and Mary. "As long as you don't take forever in there, we've got this covered!"
Kaita nodded. "Got it! Get moving before that stuff grows back, Turboman!"
"You too, Ring-chan!" Mary seconded. Tomahawkman sliced away the veins that were trying to grow back; Turboman and Ring wasted no time running through to the warp door.
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Ring could definitely understand why a place like the central room would earn the name 'haunted'—it was something out of a ghost story. Thick, floor-to-ceiling curtains covered the walls. Random pieces of data were piled up in the corners, some Rattons weaving around the piles to stand guard. A triangular pattern on the floor pointed toward the golden circle at its center. The light shining down on it was the only source of light in the room. Standing in the light was Burnerman, and mounted to the wall behind him was his absorption program.
Atsuki's smile was as unnervingly pleasant as ever. "Burnerman, after them." Immediately, the Navi leapt for Turboman, his jets lighting up to give him an extra boost. But something was wrong. Either Burnerman was faster than normal or Turboman was slower, because the two were flying backwards of the fiery Navi's volition before Turboman could even react.
"What was that, Turboman?" Ring asked incredulously, detaching her rings.
Before she could send them out, Atsuki called, "Daifunsui, slot-in!" Burnerman summoned the wall of water, blocking Ring's view of the fight.
"Ring Boomerang!" Breaking up the Daifunsui didn't have the effect she was hoping for—even though it wasn't the extremely pressurized blast of water that would've hit her, its remains crashing down over her side of the battlefield still hurt. While she got back to her feet, she recalled the way Atsuki had battled in the tournament so long ago—specifically targeting his enemies' weaknesses.
"He'll have lots of those wide-range chips, as well as Aqua-element attacks to douse Turboman's tires," Mary noted, seconding what her Navi was thinking. "So here's a Custom Bolt!"
Now properly armed, Ring dashed back toward the fray. Burnerman seemed to be winning, to her surprise—he kept landing hit after hit, and Turboman seemed unable to counter. "That doesn't seem right," Ring said.
"Care to take a guess why?" Burnerman asked, his leap taking him straight into her face in an instant. She fired the Custom Bolt, halting his progress and sending him crashing to the ground, but he clamped a hand on her shoulder—with a yelp, she followed him down, where one of his arm cannons was waiting. "If you get the chance, anyway!"
"Bubble Cross, slot-in!" At such a close range, the attack hit Ring as well, but she didn't mind-it put out the flames around and on her. She scrambled to her feet, putting as much distance between her and Burnerman as she could, but it didn't do her any good. Burnerman dashed up to her, smacking her across the face with a cylindrical cannon before opening fire again.
"It's this area," Turboman reported on the other end of the battlefield. "There's been some kind of bug placed on it—our speed stats are the opposite of what they'd normally be!"
"Exactly," Atsuki said. Burnerman let one of his cannons shift back into his arm so that he could pick Ring up and toss her into the center of the room. "Kanketsusen, slot-in!" A series of water blasts ripped out of the ground, sending the two ailing Navis in front of Burnerman flying up to smack into the ceiling. "I know I can't beat you when it comes to speed," he said as Ring and Turboman landed in a heap, "so why bother?"
"That's not fair," Ring protested weakly.
"Who said anything about fair?" Burnerman laughed. "We're in this to win!"
"Perhaps you should be following my example," Atsuki said.
"Why would we want to?" Kaita asked angrily. "You have to stoop this low because we'd beat you otherwise!"
"You've never been anything but a bully and a cheat," Mary said.
"What's wrong with that? I've won, haven't I?" Even though she couldn't see him, Ring could hear Atsuki's amusement. "This isn't a tournament or a game; this is grown-up business, where there are no rules. I don't understand why you're so upset."
There was a moment's silence while Ring struggled to open her eyes. "We'll have to do this in one shot," Mary decided as her Navi got to her feet.
"Yep. There's no other way," Kaita seconded.
Ring's eyes widened for a second as she received instructions—she was to stay close to Turboman. She then understood why as both Operators sent in, "Aqua Tower, slot-in!"
"Burning Jet!" For the first time, Ring was glad that she was only moderately fast; it meant that now, she was only moderately slow to react, and could haul Turboman along with her as she leapt up to dodge.
"Ready, Turboman?" Ring asked, pulling him with her as she landed.
"Of course!"
With Burnerman hurtling toward them, they raised their arms and chanted, "Double Aqua Tower!" The resulting attack was massive. Even with his increased speed, Burnerman couldn't both reverse direction and clear the attack. He was barely visible inside the huge pillar of water as it swept him up; when it finally hit the opposite wall and crashed down, taking out the absorption program with it, he fell lifelessly to the ground.
Angrily, Atsuki said, "There's no point to continuing. Get out of there, Burnerman." The weakened Navi logged out. Atsuki didn't even bother acknowledging the Netbattlers who had defeated him.
For a moment, Ring thought she could hear the sound of a girl cheering; but when she looked around, she didn't see anyone else there. "Everything's returned to normal outside!" Dingo said out in the human world.
"Yep! No more veins!" Kalama agreed.
While the Operators chatted above them, Turboman said, "Hey, Ring-chan!" Ring looked over to see a program shaped like a dark-haired young woman—she looked off somehow, not like a Navi at all—peering out from behind one of the curtains. Ring met her gaze and gave her a wave; she waved back, then slipped away.
"So it really is haunted," she breathed. "This is the awesomest thing ever."
Their Operators plugged them out, returning Ring to Mary's PET and Turboman to Kaita's. "I wonder how Meiru-san and Enzan-san are doing?" Kaita said as the four Operators began to head for the stairs.
"They're going after one of these programs too, right?" Dingo asked. "Knowing them, they've probably finished up by now!"
"Mm-hm! I guess now we just have to head back to Japan," Mary said.
"I wonder who'll be waiting for us there?" Kaita said. "We've dealt with Yumi and Atsuki-there's just Montaile and Black left now..."