Sunday afternoon found the four crime-fighters traveling the roads of Internet City, their attention on the walls and floors—and the veins barely visible pulsing underneath. "Are you sure this isn't just some kind of aftereffect?" Ring complained. "We've been at this all day!"
"Positive. Black's definitely in town," Turboman said.
"Not to mention that we saw unusual behavior in Sharo as well," Roll seconded. "The only question is, where will they begin surfacing?"
"But this is such a huge place to search!" Ring pointed out. "It seems like there're veins all over the place!"
"Assuming that Black's energy generator has been up and running for as long as the others have, there very well could be," Blues said.
"Huh?" Roll ran over to the dome-headed Navi sitting in the middle of the street. "Numberman, what's wrong?"
"My store," Numberman said, raising a shaking finger to point at the digital site of Higureya. "According to my calculations, those tendrils will fill it to capacity right about—" The windows burst open, showering the streets with 'glass' that quickly pixellated away and letting out thick, dark veins.
"Guess it wasn't such a huge place to search after all," Ring squeaked. She, Turboman, Roll, and Blues sent calls to get their Operators' attention, and soon four windows were sitting behind the four Navis in addition to Numberman.
"We'll blast our way in," Meiru decided once she'd seen the situation for herself.
"Everyone, stand back!" Roll warned.
"W-wait, demasu!" The bespectacled and rather pale face of Higure Yamitarou appeared in front of the pink-clad Net Savior. "I have so much rare chip data in there, demasu—!"
"Higure-san, I'm sorry, but anything of value in there has probably already been absorbed," Meiru said. "Cannon, triple slot-in!"
"Program Advance: Giga Cannon!" The sound of Roll's Giga Cannon blast pouring into Higureya was only matched by Higure's scream of grief. Golden light filled the interior as the veins were wiped away. As they cautiously approached, Roll formed her crossbow and Blues his sword while Ring and Turboman got ready to throw their weapons. The burned-out interior didn't seem to have any veins, but it was easy to see where they'd come from: a hole in the wall just large enough to crawl through, and looking just as crispy as the rest of Higureya.
While Roll had to collapse her crossbow, Blues said, "Hang on." He ducked in, sword arm leading. He was only gone a moment before he reported, "They're growing back fast. Hurry!" Turboman ducked in to see the red-armored swordsman cutting down swaths of veins that were all heading for him.
"Turbo Wheel!" Turboman sent his tires toward the most populated side of the room, making Blues's job a lot easier. For a split second, the Navis were able to see a huge hole in the wall before more veins surged out of it.
"Our turn!" Roll and Turboman sent attacks into the hole to create a cavity as Mary called, "Small Bomb, Cross Bomb, Big Bomb, slot-in!"
The first two bombs appeared in Ring's hands as Mary slotted them in. "Program Advance: Greatest Bomb!" She held them in front of her as they glowed and joined together into a bomb larger than her head, which she hurled into the gap left by Roll and Turboman's attacks.
"Dream Aura, slot-in!" Blues got in front of the group and shielded them as the Greatest Bomb detonated, wiping out anything else in both rooms. Once the explosion died away, the four wasted no time running into the next room. The vines were already starting to surge back, but it was no wonder; they'd found the site of the generator. A white gate had been erected around the next hole in the wall, and the Navis could see an empty room on the other side. They needed no prompting to head through the gate.
However, what they saw on the other side made them stop in their tracks. They were in a cave that was only lit by flecks of green, teal, and blue shining out from the rocks on the wall. "The heck?" Ring wondered, her hands on her hips as she looked at her green-tinted friends.
Roll spread her antennae to find out more. "We're in a completely different area," she reported. "I don't know where, though..."
"So that thing teleported us?" Turboman asked. "I've never seen a warp point like that."
"That's probably the idea," Blues noted. "I do see the generator, however." There was a cluster of blue-flecked rocks near it. As the group of Navis inched closer, nothing sprang out at them; before long, they were feet away from it, watching the chamber on the bottom bulge out and contract in.
"Wait," Enzan said. "This seems a little too easy."
"But we have to do something about those veins—they're still coming from here, right? So they'll just get worse if we leave it alone!" Kaita pointed out.
"No matter which one we go with, our answer's wrong..." Meiru sighed.
"Well, someone might as well blow this thing up and see what happens," Ring said, twirling one of her rings around her wrist. "I nominate myself!" She tossed the ring at it, causing the generator to explode in a blinding flash of light. The Operators had to look away from their PETs—the light enveloped the entire area.
When it died down, Kaita's attention was called back by Turboman saying, "Kaita-kun, something feels weird-nya..."
"...-Nya?" Kaita looked over at his PET. "Turboman, you've got cat ears!"
"So do you, Ring-chan!" Mary exclaimed. All four of the Navis also sported long tails and paws for hands.
"What's going on-nya?!" Ring asked, staring at her yellow cat tail in horror. "Is this some kind of sick joke?!"
"He stole the Neko Virus." Meiru rolled her eyes. "He would."
"Meiru-chan, what should we do-nya?" Roll asked. "We can't keep investigating like this-nya. We'll be completely transformed!"
"If he got it from the Ministry, shouldn't they have a cure?" Mary asked.
"We can regroup there," Enzan said. "Let's plug out for now."
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After Hikari-hakase had patched up their Navis, the four Operators got the news from Meijin: "That gate you four went through seems to be just one of many," he explained, highlighting the problems on the Ministry's map of Internet City. "We've tried sending in Net Police, but they never report back."
"Six total," Mary noticed. "We've already gone through one..."
"It would've been right around..." Mary plugged Ring in so she could point out the spot. "There, Meijin-san!"
"No need for formalities!" Meijin typed in a command, and the red-highlighted spot turned yellow.
"That leaves five," Kaita said. "But we don't have five people..."
"Gateman and Rockman can scope it out," Hikari-hakase volunteered. "But since we don't carry as many Battlechips, I don't think we'll be able to go in as deep."
"So if none of us finds the generating program, we can head over to the fifth gate and assist," Enzan finished. "Got it."
"That one's a little more off the beaten path," Meiru noticed, pointing out a gate near the corner of the map. "Maybe you and Hikari-hakase should head for that one, while we take the other four."
"Good idea, Meiru-chan," Hikari-hakase said. "Well, we all know what to do. Everyone, plug in!"
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"What is this place?" Roll wondered, staring at the warping colors around her. The area stretched out for an indefinite length, its sky comprised of loud splotches of color running against each other and melting away like tape burns to show a new color underneath. There was a soft, high-pitched chattering coming from every direction, always the same volume, always too quiet to make out words. Next to the door was a pile of decapitated Net Police Navis, with white stuffing poking out of the tops of their bodies. Spreading further out were oversized spools, their strings tangled together into a multicolored mess; and at the back left of the area was a cottony mountain of stuffing. Behind the spools, Roll could see her enemies: an army of scissors, marching on their points in lines. They didn't seem to have noticed her yet. As quietly as she could, and careful of the needles that were poking out of the ground, she stepped toward the center.
"This is really creepy," Meiru said, careful to ensure that the only ears hearing her were hers and Roll's. It made her glad that the four Operators had decided to take separate rooms—she'd need all her focus to be on Roll's progress in an area like this. "Must be to scare away stray Navis..."
"Those Net Police must have made too much noise," Roll said in an undertone, looking around at the lines of scissors. Now that she was away from the entrance, she was beginning to get an appreciation for how wide the area was; fabrics and rickrack stretched along the ground for what seemed like miles. The shadow of a machine puffing out cotton-clouds could be seen in the distance. "But this is a lot of detail for just scaring someone away..."
"I know," Meiru said. "Maybe he keeps it in reserve for times like this. Or maybe it's the detail that makes it so unsettling..." It was certainly confusing. Roll realized after a while that walking straight ahead wasn't getting her any closer to an exit; even the stuffing mountain was remaining where it was. She slowly turned in a circle, trying to find a landmark. The entrance had drawn further away, and the cotton machine was still to her left. While returning to the entrance wasn't an option, the cotton machine was-along with whatever was on the opposite side. Roll turned to the right to see figures just a short way away, male and female. Curious, she came closer.
"Are they dolls?" she wondered as she came closer—and going in this direction, she did seem to be getting somewhere. "No, they're Navis!" They were lined up in a display case, its shelves starkly white against the dark red that the sky had shifted into. Some of them had frames typical of most Navis Roll knew, while others had oddly-proportioned, almost painful-looking designs. Strangest of them all was a black ball with plug-like prongs sticking out of its body. All of the more humanlike Navis had their eyes shut, and the black ball didn't move from its stand. To her surprise, Roll recognized Geminiman among their number, along with a purple-and-white Navi she'd seen alleged Nova members using before. Further away, partially blocked by a fence of spools, she could see the shapes of what had to be dormant copies of viruses. "This is some kind of storage area..."
"Storage and creation," Meiru added, reminding Roll of the scissors nearby—and bringing to her attention a green, Navi-sized table sitting a little further away. "Is this the Nova network?" she wondered.
"It could be," Roll said. "These all seem to be Black's projects, and he wouldn't have the time to build all of this anywhere else..." She turned from the stored Navis. "I'm almost certain the generator's going to be near that machine," she said, already striding across the area. The scissors just continued on their way, but that became a problem once Roll had crossed the halfway point—spools lined the space in front of her, and the scissors blocked her way beyond that. "Maybe I can jump it," she said, hopping to the top of one of the oversized spools.
"I'll send in an Area Steal to help you along," Meiru said. "Go for it!" Roll's jump caused the spool to sway dangerously, causing the nearby scissors to pause. But they weren't very smart; after Meiru's Area Steal took her further away, Roll looked back to see them jabbing the disturbed spool. "That's a relief," Meiru commented as Roll approached the cotton machine.
"But where's the generator?" Roll asked. "And why haven't I seen any veins this whole time?" She'd spoken too soon; two steps later, she could feel a familiar pulsing under her feet. She followed it to find a paint bucket. "Well, that's weird," she said. "Maybe I just fire into it?" she wondered, crouching to peer inside. She felt a tugging feeling toward the top of her head, and only managed a yelp before she fell forward and down—much further down than she'd expected. She landed in a pile of fluffy cotton, wondering, "What just happened?" Far above her head was a tiny opening—the paint bucket. "How strange," she said, getting to her feet.
This room was almost entirely a warm shade of red, almost uncomfortable to look at from the brightness. Bric-a-brac lined the walls, from eight-balls to snow globes. Shelves of pixels—they reminded Roll of paint chips-sat closer to the bottom. Sitting in the center of the far wall was a monitor. "Where's the generator, though?" Roll wondered, looking to either side. "Unless there was a hidden exit somewhere, I can't have missed it..." She turned back to the room's center.
Hello, doll.
Roll felt a shock at seeing the words on the monitor, remembering the state of the Net Police. She backed away warily, readying her crossbow. Seconds later, she was forced to change direction as a sewing machine dropped from the sky behind her, deploying jointed needle-legs to land on and sending up a puff of cotton. It immediately swiped at her, forcing her to duck before shooting an arrow into its narrower middle section. It retaliated by shooting a stream of fabric at her.
"Heat Cross, slot-in!" Half of the fabric wrapped around Roll's legs, keeping her from getting back to her feet. The rest was burnt away before it could reach her, leaving her arms free and the sewing machine creature looming over her. "Reflector, Flame Sword, slot-in!" The monster rearing back on its spindly legs was the last thing Roll saw before the oversized hard hat dropped over her. While she was covered, she wasted no time touching the Flame Sword to the fabric binding her, allowing her to get to her feet. When the Reflector disappeared, she saw the sewing machine flipped on its head.
Before Roll could receive the finishing chip, a second sextet of legs came out of the top of the machine. "No, you don't! Heart Slash!"
With the sewing machine knocked ungracefully back to the ground, Meiru sent in, "Aqua Tower, slot-in!"
"Take this!" Roll slammed her hand into the ground, producing a blast of water that rammed into the sewing machine before falling apart into a water wave that crashed over the creature's rectangular body. When it died away, there was nothing to be seen.
A window winked into life inches from Roll's nose. "Oh, you wound up here!" Black said. "That kind of fits, actually."
Meiru asked, "Where's the generator?"
"Not here," Black replied. "You've reached the end of this dead end, so I'm collapsing it back down."
"Collapse?" Meiru asked.
"Yeah. The entrance, the scissors, and the endless north are new features. Bit impractical when you're trying to actually use it for something."
"So it's always this... weird?" Meiru asked, looking at the melting sky and bold colors.
"I prefer it to boring," Black explained. "When you've got a break and nothing else to do, it's amazing how much you can add to an area."
"Go outside instead," Meiru immediately suggested.
"Well... that isn't always an option, Meiru-chan. But I'll keep it in mind for when it is." He continued, "Anyway, this area's about to go offline, so unless you want me taking Roll along when it happens..."
"Fine," Meiru said. "We'll just try the gate Rockman and Gateman are at."
"No need," Black said. "One of the Netbattlers is already on the right path. And if they wind up turning around, then you can lead the whole crew back in."
He sounded sincere, but Roll wasn't sure if he could be trusted—and from the worried look on her face, neither was Meiru. "I..." She closed her eyes for a moment. "Why do we have to play this game?" she asked, staring right into Black's eye.
That gave him pause. "Meiru..." His usual demeanor fell away; for just a moment, Roll could see a deep weariness, one that had to have been there for a long time. But then his smile snapped back on. "Well, what else are we gonna do?" he asked. "You're the hero. I'm your villain. Maybe when I'm vanquished, you'll find out what to do. Like experience points!"
"I don't want that," Meiru said. "I..."
"Then maybe you should switch sides," Black said. "Right now, for you to win, I have to lose, right?"
"But I want—" Black's window winked out. Dejected, Meiru finished, "—both."
Roll looked worriedly up at her Operator. "Meiru-chan..."
"...No. He's right. I can't go back, and... for all I know, neither can he." She looked around at the bizarre room. "This... it's really pretty impressive, isn't it?" Roll didn't have an answer for her Operator; she could only mutely nod. Meiru closed her eyes and shook her head. "Plug out, Roll."
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"Do you think this is really the gate?" Kaita wondered. "I mean, you've been walking for a really long time, and nothing's happened."
"I know," Turboman sighed. "At least the other false gate was short. This is really boring." It was dark, as well. It wasn't just that the walls, ceiling, and floor were all black; the lighting was dimmed, too. Even when he turned up his eyes to shine as brightly as possible, he could barely see his feet. He was contemplating breaking out into a run to at least alleviate the monotony. "Kaita-kun, I'm going to—" When he next lifted his right leg, it seemed to stick to the ground. No, Turboman realized, focusing on the feeling—it was melting into the floor, his frame and the data inside it reduced to the consistency of warm wax. "Kaita-kun?!"
"What?!" Kaita asked, alarmed. "What's wrong?"
"I—Kaita, maybe you should plug me out! I'm-my legs—" It had spread to both of his feet, slowly traveling upward.
"Turboman?" Kaita asked next, now sounding puzzled. "There's nothing wrong with your legs. They look fine."
"No, they don't," Turboman yelled, terrified. "Look at them, they're a puddle on the floor!"
"I'm reading your stats right now, Turboman, you're fine," Kaita said. "You haven't been damaged—your hit points haven't even fallen. And you still look okay, physically. Maybe you should scan the area—I think there's something messing with you."
"But—"
"Try taking a few steps," Kaita advised. "You might walk out of it."
Reluctantly, Turboman took a few steps. It was as if something had snapped away; his legs were abruptly back to looking and feeling like they should've. "Maybe it really is some kind of weird trick." Turboman retraced his steps to see if it just affected the area, but it didn't happen again—he was fine, and when he scanned the area, it read as normal and with no processes running besides his.
"That's weird," Kaita said, now a little worried as well. "Maybe we're on the right track, after all."
"Yeah," Turboman said, now wondering if it was just the low lighting that had brought that on. "I guess I'll keep going." Even knowing that the last bout of problems had probably been a fluke, Turboman couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive as he stepped past where he'd been before. When he looked down at his arms and saw that one hand was smaller than the other, he quickly closed his eyes. "There's nothing wrong," he said to himself, "there's nothing wrong..." He did a scan of the area. But it registered as normal, too. There was still nothing running inside it but him. "There's nothing—" He felt a lurch as his torso shrank. "Kaita—?"
"There's still nothing wrong," Kaita said anxiously. "This is really weird..." Turboman's legs shrank down next. He looked over at his oversized arm before it, too, shrank to his new size.
"There's nothing wrong," Turboman chanted, hoping he'd believe it eventually, "there's nothing wrong..."
"That's right," Kaita said, "there's nothing wrong." Turboman was frightened, and even more so as he heard reverberating footsteps. Out of the darkness loomed a giant Metool. Before Turboman could panic and tell Kaita to plug him out again, the Operator said, "It's larger than normal, but its hit points aren't that high! Mega Cannon, slot-in!" The red gun appeared as it should've on Turboman's arm. He fired it smoothly, deleting the Metool in one shot.
"Okay," Turboman said, a little spooked. As he kept walking, he couldn't tell if he'd returned to normal size or not—or even if he'd been small to begin with. All he could do was believe what Kaita said, that nothing was wrong with him. "Maybe I really should plug out," he said. "Maybe there's something wrong with me, not the area..." He kept walking and heard nothing but silence. "Kaita-kun?" He tried to send a message to his Operator, but he was blocked—something had cut the pair's communication. Quickly, he scanned the area. There was still nothing else running.
"There's nothing wrong," he said quickly to himself, "there's nothing wrong, there's nothing wrong..." One of his wrists gave a jellylike wriggle. He clamped his other hand over it, closed his eyes, and felt it carefully. Everything was solid, everything was normal. Nervousness gnawing at him—none of this made sense, it bothered him that he couldn't rationally explain it—he stood where he was, trying to decide what to do next. "Well, everything seems to go away after a while, right?" he thought aloud. "Then I should keep moving, and I'll be reconnected."
No sooner had he taken two steps forward than the fingers clamped around his wrist began to curl up and back as if his motion skeleton had gained thousands of extra points. "There's nothing wrong—!" He dashed forward, his arms rolling themselves up and scrunching themselves into his shoulders. "There's nothing—"
Suddenly, his feet weren't where they were supposed to be; he flew headlong into the ground, skidding along. As he came to a halt, the momentum rolled him over on his head to face the ground. He struggled to get to his feet—his arms and legs didn't seem to be there anymore—and finally managed it. The floor was only centimeters away. He seemed to be just a head and a pair of yellow shoes. He tried to yell, 'Help me!' but what came out was, "Metto!"
Stumbling over his oversized feet, Turboman ran forward. He could see a light up ahead coming from the ground—it had to be a warp panel. This had to be the end. Not even regarding the viruses on the far end of the panel, he stepped onto it and vanished just as they began to fire their attacks.
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The area was dotted with white fences formed in the shape of flat vines, none of which extended all the way around; they just jutted out in small patches, reaching up until they were obscured by the sky. Soft gray mist obscured the shadows of more fences, while the glass floor hid the only source of light. Blues walked by a raised platform on his left and a spiral staircase to nowhere on his right, cautiously looking from one side to the other for enemies. Sometimes, sounds would echo from too far away for Enzan to place what they were. He had been watching Blues go deeper into the area for some time, and they had yet to run into any enemies. It made him wonder where those enemies were hiding, or if there was some other trick to this place that they didn't know about yet.
Finally, Blues reported, "Enzan-sama." There was something dark and lumpy up ahead, obscured by the mist.
After the surprise the first gate had given them, Enzan wasn't about to order Blues to charge forward. "Careful," he warned.
"Yes, Enzan-sama." Blues's battle mask closed over his nose and mouth, and his sword formed. Ready to spring away at a moment's notice, he inched forward. He was mere feet away when the fog lifted from the surrounding area—revealing that he hadn't found the generator after all.
To his side, a wide, spiny fencepost fell toward him. Blues leapt away as it crashed down, revealing itself to be a huge millipede. It skittered toward him, and he sprinted away, toward an archway he could see close by. It stopped, peering upward as Blues hauled himself to the top. Then, with a shout, he sprang down toward its middle, stabbing it. The millipede made a raspy, screeching sound, then wildly charged. Blues held on by the hole he'd torn in it as he was tossed from side to side.
"Magma Cannon, slot-in!" Blues kept holding on with one hand and fired with the other, dousing his ride's brown head in flame. The millipede came to a sudden halt, clawing at itself as Blues disembarked to shoot even more flames at it. It was weakened, but not down; knowing that Blues was at a dead end, Enzan was anxious to be ready if whoever had the real doorway needed assistance, and that meant finishing this fast. "Program Advance!"
"Program Advance!" Blues echoed, sprinting away from another charge.
"Battlechip: Sword!" A sword formed on Blues's hand, and he swiped at a nearby leg, causing the massive insect to hiss. "Wide Sword!" Blues kept the timing even as the millipede tried to stab at him again, half-jumping backwards. As the bug began to skitter up the archway, Enzan called, "Long Sword!"
"Dream Sword!" Blues swung down into the monster's head, cracking it easily and forcing his weapon deep inside. The rest happened in a matter of seconds. A tendril of what had to make up the inside of the millipede shot out of its head and down the Dream Sword as a dark, thick miasma, engulfing Blues before he had time to even gasp and swinging him upward. As the host cloud lifted itself free of its exoskeleton, the offshoot carrying Blues slammed into a wall.
Swords were obviously not an option. Enzan found his one bomb chip and slammed it in as the miasma reared back to take another swing. "Cross Bomb, slot-in!" Blues was ripped free by the explosion, falling to the ground. His left arm was a fragmented mess from the elbow down, only red pixels marking where his glove had begun. When he stood, Enzan saw that the miasma creature had managed to make Blues's left foot a little fuzzy, too. It didn't stop him from throwing himself out of the way of the thick cloud as it charged toward him, a pit opening at its front like a gaping maw. "Earthquake, Z-Saber, slot-in!" Enzan wasn't expecting the Earthquake to actually damage the miasma; it split into two halves on either side of the silver weight. Blues threw the Z-Saber into one of the halves, causing it to bleed pixels before vanishing from sight. The other flew forward, and Blues evaded as Enzan called, "Kouri Hougan!" The blue sphere's freezing effect spread through the cloud, and it fell as a solid chunk of purple ice. Blues grimly walked over, formed his default sword, and ran it through. It splintered into hundreds of pieces that faded away.
"You've got this really nasty tendency to make me say things I shouldn't," Black said, his window appearing. "So I'll let you know that this is a dead end, and you should plug Blues out before I collapse the area. Other than that, I have nothing to say to you." His window closed, leaving Blues alone in the void.
The red Navi stood there in the silence for a moment. Then, Enzan said, "Plug out."
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When Turboman regained his senses, he was lying on a sailboat. When he sat up, he saw that it was slowly drifting forward on an ocean as dark and still as the sky above it. It seemed huge; impossibly, infinitely high. As a computer program, Turboman hated it; everything had limits, as there was only so large a value any number could hold. To see something like this—something so blatantly wrong passing itself off as right—felt so intensely unnerving that he wanted to turn around and leave. Remembering the last area, he tried to check for any processes running. The only ones he found were his own. Similarly, he couldn't connect back to his PET.
Waves were starting to form, pushing the boat on faster. Turboman watched white spires drift past him, each one higher out of the water than the last. There seemed to be no way but forward; besides, this had to be where the key was. He couldn't imagine going through all this to get no reward—and besides that, it meant that the others were depending on him making it through. That was what bolstered his resolve as a white cathedral, twin spires on either side of the stained-glass window whose top edge barely broke the surface, appeared on the horizon in front of him. He carefully got to his feet as it drew closer. He bent his knees in preparation before jumping toward the open window near the rightmost spire's top. He fell a little short; he gripped the window's edge with both hands before pulling himself in entirely.
The inside was far larger than the outside. It was a cavernous room supported by at least six rows of columns, their styles mismatched. Turboman resisted the urge to poke his head out the window and see if he'd really gone through the window at the top of the spire; he wasn't alone here. A line of hooded men carrying long, thin candles was walking single-file across the room, silent and ghostlike. The ground was going to be far from silent; it had been woven from small sticks, and Turboman had a feeling his steps would alert them. But they didn't seem to be running out of members. Reluctantly, Turboman took a step. Sure enough, the crunch of the floor caused them all to stop, their heads turning as one to watch him through their circular eye-holes.
Turboman didn't waste any time staring back at them. He bolted in the opposite direction of them, but found no door for them to come from. They were just materializing out of nowhere; and now, they were all starting to walk toward him. He hated to set the room on fire, considering that he didn't know how long he was going to be in the building. He ran toward them, then leapt over their heads, landing on the other side and dashing toward the exit they'd been taking at full speed.
There was one stair down into this area's center; from there, Turboman's options were numerous. There were more stairwells leading from this landing than there had any right to be, one disappearing into the wall, three leading more-or-less logically from the landing, and then a few that ran sideways up the walls and from the top of one doorway to the bottom of another. Turboman took the one that led down—he'd been near the top of the spire when he jumped in, and he didn't want to get trapped at the peak. As he ran down the stairs, he watched the traffic overhead and to his sides—some of the hooded men from before, along with gaunt-faced, almost noseless priests in flowing robes and patterned scarves.
The next room was another cacophony of stairs, this time with rooms and landings leading from them. It seemed he'd found some kind of break room for the things that populated this place; they were sitting at tables or standing with each other near railings, seeming to enjoy each other's company. Turboman could see a stairwell that led further down directly across from him, on the side of the wall; but how was he going to get there? Slowly, he climbed first one flight of stairs, putting him near the stairwell, then tried to start walking on the wall-floor. He wound up flat on his back, still on the surface he'd come from. "So I have to take the stairs," he figured.
After another look around, he took the flight that ran alongside the wall. The next flight was on the wall, close to where he was. But there seemed to be nothing connecting the two. Not really expecting it to work, he tried stepping onto the next flight. There was an uncomfortable lurch as gravity shifted around him, and he was on the next stairwell. "I guess that works," Turboman said, still unnerved by how little sense that had made. When he reached the top of the stairwell, there was a small drop to a circular peg; midway through, gravity shifted again, and Turboman wound up sprawled on the ground once again. He ran to the railing to reorient himself and realized he needed to be on the ground below it. He climbed over the top to cling to the railing, then dropped down. Giving the strange room one last look, he ran down the stairs.
The next stairwell was dark, and his eye-lights were disabled; Turboman could only tell he'd reached the end of each flight when he ran into the wall. He kept going to the left each time he felt around a corner, over and over. As the number of corners grew, he began to wonder when it would end—or if it would end. Finally, he stopped and popped one of his tires off, holding it up and setting it alight. There really was no end—the stairs all connected to each other, creating a square. Turboman threw his tire down-it illuminated nothingness below before hitting the ground.
The fall would probably shave a few hit points off, but it would be worth it if he got out of here. After shaking out his legs—the looser he was, the less damage he'd take—he leapt.
Suddenly, Turboman's perception of everything violently shifted, and he was plummeting from such an impossibly extreme height that he knew the landing would severely damage him if he ever reached the bottom. Thoughts flitted through his mind—how none of this should have happened, how he'd never see Kaita again, how everything before seemed too short now that he was stuck here—
There was another shock that rattled him to the core as everything mutated around him again. He clutched his head, still falling, as the initial waves of strangeness ebbed away.
He was now on the ground, with no idea of how he'd gotten there. "I must've looped around to negative infinity," he said, more to reassure himself than anything. "It makes sense." He got to his feet. "It's all just tricks," he told himself. "It makes sense when you think about it."
There was a window at the far end of the room, and nothing else. There was no other place to go; Turboman took a running leap through it, shattering the glass.
Again, he was falling with no end in sight. Reflected to either side of him were hundreds of hims, all falling, all looking around. The Turbomen were all changing; gray spikes were beginning to stick out of their backs. Turboman couldn't feel anything out of place as the spikes began to grow larger and sprout feathers—they were huge gray pigeon wings, completely incongruous-and he wasn't sure if he wanted to reach behind him and touch them. But he and his copies all spread their wings simultaneously, and there was a great whumph of air as they were all buoyed forward by a steady wind that came from nowhere.
The wind was taking him somewhere. Where that was, Turboman didn't know; but it had to be closer to where he needed to be. He wasn't sure how much more of this lonesome place he could take.
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Mary could only hope that if the generator wasn't around, the dead end would show up soon. There were many message windows dotting the area Ring had been working her way into. Some contained brightly-colored arrows, though the girls had figured out that their directions weren't completely trustworthy after finding one that featured a periwinkle blue arrow that split to point two opposite ways. Others didn't even pretend to be benign. Ring didn't mind it, but Mary had to lower the volume on her computer when she ran into message windows that loudly spewed jumbles of nonsense. Both Operator and Navi were frightened by a window that tried to snap shut on Ring's head, forcing Mary to use an Area Steal. Another had joined together with its fellows into a heavy stack and tried to flatten Ring, forcing an Aqua Tower use to push it up and away.
Though she'd heard of false windows being used as a way to sneakily summon hordes of viruses, nothing like that was to be found. Mary almost wished that wasn't the case; at least viruses would be simpler to counter.
"This had better be the place," Ring complained, running past a pair of contradictory arrow windows. "It sure seems bad enough-oh!" She dove behind the nearest window she could find as the arrow windows hurtled through the space where she'd been. "That was-" The window right in front of her was displaying a boiling pot of water, which emptied itself on Ring's head. She shrieked in pain, stumbling away from it.
"Ring-chan!" Mary cried, alarmed. The girlish Navi slumped over once she'd managed to distance herself from the water stream, panting. But there were always windows waiting; one of them slid underneath her almost like a spatula and lifted her off the ground, knocking her to her stomach. "Area Steal, slot-in!"
Ring reappeared below, shaking her head to try to clear it. "Let's move faster," she said. "Mary-chan, send me a Dash Condor!"
"Right away!" Now, no matter what the trap was, Ring could simply outrun it; it meant that there were quite a few windows flying at her, but she could outpace them as long as she stayed at speed. But soon, Mary saw how fruitless their endeavor was about to become; the sky blue wall was racing up to meet Ring. "Watch out!"
"I see it, Mary-chan!" Ring told her, jumping off. "Ring Boomerang!" Though some of the windows followed the Dash Condor into the wall, most of them curved downward to follow their Navi target. With a pair of precise throws, Ring shattered them all, causing their frames to fade from existence. "That's it, huh?" she asked, crossing her arms at the dead end.
"It seems that way," Mary said. "But..."
"But what?" Ring asked.
"These six gates—of the two we've been through, neither has taken us to anything resembling Internet City. In fact, they've been so bizarre that I can't help but wonder..."
"What if they're all partitions of the same place, huh?" Ring asked. "So all we'd need to get through would be a big blast."
"Like a Program Advance," Mary concluded. "We'd better do it quickly, before any more windows figure out we're here."
"Yep!" Ring said, tired but enthusiastic.
Mary quickly sent in, "Corn Shot, triple slot-in!"
"Program Advance: Corn Fiesta!" The two normal Corn Shots on Ring's hands combined into a much larger one, which she immediately fired on the wall. When the blasts died down, the wall was covered in grass and Ring looked exhausted from controlling such a powerful attack, but there was no change otherwise.
"It doesn't even seem like it made a dent..." Mary said worriedly.
"Maybe we just need another!" Ring gritted her teeth and held her arms out at the ready. "You send it and I'll blast it!"
"It's all right." Ring whirled to see one of Black's windows, this time displaying the man himself. "You've done a lot better than I expected," Black said. "But those walls are guarded against Program Advances. You can't force your way through."
"So?!" Ring asked. "We can't just give up!"
Black smiled. "Kaita and Turboman are on the right path to the real room. Like I said, it's fine. You can plug out."
Mary had the feeling he was telling the truth. But between this honesty and the window-creatures from earlier, she had been reminded of an old question she'd never been able to answer. "Before I do... Can I ask you something?"
"Hm? Oh, sure." Black turned to something next to her screen. "But don't take too long, Kaita'll be here in a few minutes."
"The maze, back at the Grand Championship." Black's interest returned to Mary. "That ballroom... Where was that? Did that happen to you, or...?"
"That's two questions. You're cheating."
"They're similar enough," Ring said, crossing her arms. "You can still answer."
"Okay, okay." Black took a breath, looking thoughtfully at something below the window. "No, that wasn't me," he explained. "See, we have this holiday back home where the important people throw a party and us unimportant people walk around the room with drinks and fancy food. It's a change of pace. Usually pretty uneventful. But sometimes someone unimportant steps out of line, and let's just say some of the younger important people have pretty nasty senses of humor..."
"You just watched it happen?!" Ring asked. "But that's just as bad as piling on him!"
"Do I look like I can overpower a bunch of trained, armed guards?" Black asked. "She got him in the center of the room, where everyone could see. From there, it was just a matter of waiting for them to come." He sighed. "I was pretty young then. It kind of made an impression on me."
"But then, why'd you put it in the maze?" Mary asked.
"I needed something to hold you guys down. And in my experience, few things are better at that than a mob of guards." He seemed half-sad, half-amused at the thought. "You know, you've really surprised me," he said. "I can't think of many people who've improved so much in such a short period of time. In my day, I practically stood alone toward the end..." He looked back over at Mary and Ring. "But not Kaita. I don't think he realizes how lucky he is to have so many friends there who can back him up."
"Well... honestly, it's as much for us as it is for him," Mary admitted, smiling.
"Yeah! We want to get out there and do the right thing, whether it's helping Kaita out or just kicking Nova's butt!" Ring said enthusiastically.
Mary sheepishly laughed, "Yeah, I guess you're right."
Black laughed, "If they just had a pair like you in every region, I think I'd be out of a job." He checked the other screen. "Kaita's right on my doorstep!" He explained, "I'm going to collapse this space in a second, so nobody outside can wander in. You girls wouldn't mind skedaddling now, would you?"
"I dunno," Ring said. "It is you who's suggesting this..."
"But if this place is going to stop existing, we'd better get you out," Mary told her Navi. She looked across the area to Black's window. "Thank you for talking," she said. "It was very informative." Black gave her a quick smile and wave before she turned her attention back to Ring. "Plug out!"
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To his surprise, Kaita's next attempt at fixing the PET connection went through. Turboman was sprawled on the ground of an area with purple tiles, Punk standing over him.
"Turboman!" As his Navi's hand twitched in response, Kaita glared at Punk. "What did you do to him?!"
"You know me way too well, kid," Punk laughed. "But I haven't touched 'im. Black wants it to be a fair fight."
Slowly, Turboman got to his feet. "Kaita-kun...?"
The boy grinned. "Yeah!"
"Thank goodness," Turboman said. "That place was like a nightmare..."
"And yet you barely hesitated to push through it. Well done." Black's window had appeared above them. "I'm glad you were the one who found the real gate," he said. "I've wanted to have a real battle with you for some time now."
"Those ones before weren't real?" Kaita asked disbelievingly.
"I'm sure you've gotten better since then. Right?" With a nearly imperceptible shrug, Black said, "Well, I guess I'll find out. Punk!"
The rust-red Navi dashed forward. Turboman didn't even bother trying to attack—he sprinted out of the way. "Ya can't play keep-away!" Punk shouted, hurling his shoulder plates after Turboman. "Someone's gotta win this!" Turboman reversed direction for his jump, taking him right in front of Punk. A Long Sword appeared on his arm, and he sliced downward—and continued downward, Punk catching blade and arm in his cable and letting the simulated gravity do most of the work.
As Turboman crashed to the ground, Kaita frantically called, "Cannon, slot-in!" The Operator-controlled turret appeared to the side.
"Sword, slot-in." While Punk received the chip and stomped down on Turboman's sword, leaving him pinned, Kaita shot three times. Punk swiped diagonally across first one bullet, then the second, then the third; their shapes disrupted, they dispersed inches from his face.
"Flame Sword, slot-in!" Kaita called. Turboman stabbed through the Wide Sword trapping him, shattering it. "Area Steal!" The speedy Navi zipped away as Punk swiped downward with his Sword, leaving him with only a small cut. Punk immediately gave chase. It reminded Kaita of the way Dingo and Tomahawkman had lost to Black and Punk at the tournament that last summer; they hadn't been paying enough attention, and had been completely outclassed by their opponents. "We've got to play it safer than this," Kaita decided. "Vulcan, slot-in!" It didn't slow Punk down at all; he simply raised a shoulder plate to block. Turboman scrambled backward, abandoning shooting to avoid Punk's other shoulder plate flying at him.
"Stone Cube, slot-in," Black intoned, amused. Turboman came to a halt when the Stone Cube crashed down right in front of him. Punk's mace shot forward, slamming Turboman into it. Careful didn't work at all, Kaita realized now; it just gave Black time to retaliate without Turboman getting in a hit. Playing it safe would just result in a slower loss.
"All-out," he decided.
"All right," Turboman said determinedly, Punk nearly on top of him and hurling his fist forward. Even though he'd been the one to say it, Kaita was momentarily surprised by how quickly Turboman ducked underneath, shooting his legs into one of Punk's boots.
As the larger Navi stumbled, Kaita called, "Gold Fist, slot-in!" Turboman slammed the golden gauntlet into Punk's face, then kicked at his side—but Punk blindly threw up one of his shoulder plates, lessening the impact. He swept his fist toward Turboman's chest, forcing him to duck, then whacked the other Navi's legs out from under him with a sweep of his cable arm. "Mega Cannon!" Even as Punk kicked him upward, Turboman fired, landing a solid hit. But it wasn't enough to stop Punk—a Senshahou had appeared on his arm, and he fired it straight into the vent on Turboman's chest.
"Don't keep any distance," Kaita urged, sending in an Area Steal and a Break Hammer. "We can't afford to let up!"
"And neither should we. Drill Arm, slot-in!" The Break Hammer was met with Punk's spinning Drill Arm, producing a terrible shriek but leaving his cable arm free to receive a Bubble Shot. Turboman was swallowed by a cloud of bubbles exploding from his back, throwing him straight into Punk's clutches. The rust-red Navi exchanged the Drill Arm for a Gold Fist of his own, and brought it down with a painful-sounding crack on Turboman's head.
"Flame Tower, slot-in!" Even dazed as he was, all Turboman had to do was touch his hand to the ground to engulf Punk in the pillar of lava. But even as the Flame Tower dissipated to leave nothing in front of his Navi but a few scraps of data, Kaita remembered how first Meiru, then Enzan had thought Punk deleted only for their Navis to get an unpleasant surprise. Knowing time was of the essence, he dug through his pocket. "I've only got one AkaTsunami. Think it'll do?"
"Definitely," Turboman said. "Hurry and send it!"
"Right!" Turboman clapped his hands together as Kaita slotted in the chip. He slammed them to the ground on either side of him. The two resulting walls of lava were smaller than they would've been had he not split the attack, but they still reached twice the height of his head. He didn't waste any time detaching his tires and sending them out along the row of untouched ground he'd left—one in front of him, one behind him. Turboman whirled around at the sound of the impact—it was startling how close Punk had gotten.
Instead of dwelling on that, Kaita called, "Magma Cannon!" Turboman fired as Punk was trying to recover, piercing through his cable arm. "Long Sword, slot-in!"
Kaita's shout was matched by Black's: "Paladin Sword, slot-in!"
Punk swiped at Turboman's head. Turboman ducked it and swept his sword up and through Punk's arm, sending it sailing through the air until it pixellated into nothing. "Spreader, White Capsule!" Punk was frozen in place before he could get far. "Cannon, triple slot-in!"
Turboman whipped around as he joined the two cannons on his hands together, leveling the Giga Cannon at Punk, chipless without any arms to use them with. "It's over."
Punk was plugged out just as the Giga Cannon blast ripped through the space he'd occupied. Without Punk in the way, it continued on to reduce the vein generator to nothing. "Well, that was impressive," Black said, his window reappearing. "Guess you've officially graduated to the big leagues, for what that's worth. Congrats."
"Uh... thanks?" Kaita said, "But who knows what might happen the next few times!" Black didn't answer. "There will be a next time, won't there?"
The older Netbattler seemed to be lost in thought. "You feel like this could last forever, don't you? All these adventures you've been on. All these people you've met." Black's eye focused on Kaita again. "But nothing lasts forever, kiddo. You'll have to deal with that one day."
Unsettled, Kaita asked, "But not soon, right?"
"Depends on how you see things." Kaita watched Black stare off into space with concern. "I'm guessing you're going to plan on stopping whatever Nova does next?"
"Of course," Kaita said. He didn't even need to stop and think about it.
Black nodded. "Nothing I say could deter you." Kaita assumed that they were finished talking, and lifted his hand to plug Turboman out. "Everything's gone wrong, Kaita," Black said miserably. Kaita's attention snapped back to his monitor, plugging out forgotten. "I don't know what to do."
"Can't you come unstuck from your job, somehow?" Kaita asked. "I mean—I know you're capable of doing bad things just like anyone else in Nova, but-"
"But what? I don't revel in it? It doesn't make what I do any better." Black looked off to the side with a sigh. "But I wouldn't talk to you if you weren't stupidly naive, so I can't really be mad at you for it. The others are too smart to not hate my guts, so it's not like I could talk to them." Black stared at Kaita pensively. "I guess I might as well ask you. What would you do?" he asked. "If something went wrong, so wrong you couldn't see how to get out of it, and you kept on going and not seeing how to get out of it, and all the while it kept getting worse... how would you fix it?"
Kaita considered the dusty shelf over his monitor as he thought, staring away from the screen more than he was looking at anything in particular. "I'd wait," he said. "But I wouldn't do nothing. I'd see where I was, and what I could do, and then be ready if any chances came up to make things better. And the minute I saw one, I'd take it."
Black didn't seem to react at first. Kaita waited. "Right," the older Netbattler said, leaning to the side to rest his chin on his hand. He slowly inhaled, then exhaled, barely moving otherwise. "Thank you." After another moment, he said, "I guess you should get going, then. See you, kiddo." His screen winked out.
As he plugged Turboman out, Kaita said, "Bye, Black." He stared thoughtfully down at his PET for a moment. He didn't feel like joining the others in this mood—it wasn't like he was supposed to be feeling so concerned when he'd just destroyed the last of the generators. But he couldn't help it; Black had seemed so sad, and so lost. "Well, I guess I shouldn't keep them-" Kaita swiveled his chair to face the doorway, looked up, and saw two concerned Net Saviors and one confused Mary. "—waiting," he finished, the word almost dying in his throat. "You didn't see anything, right?"
"Kaita, how long has this been going on?" Enzan asked.
Remembering Enzan's far more antagonistic connection to Black made Kaita twice as nervous. "Um—uh—not long? I guess, I mean, since the tournament, really, which is kinda long, but—if he thought I was telling on him, he wouldn't have talked to me! And you saw how he was—he's nice, he just doesn't want people to know it since it would ruin his job and everything. And I knew you wouldn't believe me, so I just went along with him." Cringing, Kaita looked at the two Net Saviors, who thankfully didn't seem like they were about to get mad at him. Still, he felt bad for keeping something like this from them. "I'm sorry."
"Kaita-kun, it's not your fault," Meiru said, walking over to him. Her smile seemed a little weaker than normal. "Besides, can you imagine how much worse off he'd be if he had no one to confide in? It's a good thing he had someone like you to talk to."
Kaita looked worriedly up at her. "But—you and Enzan-san are nice, too."
"You have no prior history with him," Enzan explained. "To you, he was never anything but Black Hiroki."
Meiru added, "But we would've recognized him right away if he started talking like that. I don't think he wanted anyone asking too many questions."
Now, Kaita was even more confused. "You knew him, too?"
"Yes," Meiru said. "And he was just like you said—he was nice. He never would've done anything like this by choice."
"We'll continue this in the conference room," Enzan said. "Meijin needs to hear this, too."
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"Why didn't you ask Hikari-hakase to attend this meeting as well?" Meijin asked. "If this concerns Black, he ought to know. He does direct the Ministry, after all, and Rockman will be helping us against any attacks on the system."
"We've considered that," Meiru said, barely holding herself in check. "But we think they'd both be too distracted to effectively deal with—" She stopped before she could finish and substituted, "—with our attacker."
"What do you mean?" Meijin asked.
Enzan and Meiru looked at each other. Then, Enzan said, "Black Hiroki is a pseudonym. You and I know him better as Hikari Netto."
Meijin was speechless for a moment. "Impossible," he finally managed.
"There was proof that he was on the subway train that was caught in the bombing, but never concrete evidence that he'd died," Meiru explained. She sounded like she was trying to keep up a professional veneer, but her voice shook whenever she wasn't careful. "In fact, the whole incident was probably constructed just so that Netto could be kidnapped and we'd never look in the right places for him."
"His talents are the same as ever—in fact, they've improved," Enzan explained. "But his lies aren't as airtight as he'd like to think; he knows of people he shouldn't, and acts far too familiar with what should be complete strangers. More importantly, he remembered enough about the Ministry to give us that incident last month," Enzan pointed out. "Whatever he does next will probably be worse."
"But if he really is Netto-kun, what makes you think he'd do anything worse than that?" Meijin asked. "He wouldn't commit crimes for no reason. This can't be by choice."
"It's not," Kaita said. "But he feels trapped. Whoever's giving him orders... I don't want to know what they're like."
"All we have to go on are rumors," Meiru said sadly. "Of a secret cyberwarfare unit in Darkland."
"Darkland?" It didn't take Meijin long to chew it over before he pointed out, "Do you understand what you're saying?!"
"You aren't the first person to ask us something like that," Enzan remarked dryly.
"There's no chance that we'd get the blessing of the Net Police to look into something of that scale, not to mention the Japanese government! It would cause an international incident!"
"And that's why we're stuck in the current situation. Netto has to be the one to come forward to save himself, but he won't," Enzan explained. "He thinks that keeping us in the dark is safest for us, but that protection doesn't extend to the people around us. Right now, the only thing we can do—the right thing to do—is stop him, and ensure he's unable to cause any more harm."
"So we have to prepare for him—someone with his abilities, who knows the Ministry of Science like he does," Meiru finished. "And we just have to hope we can win."