As Enzan walked through the door, he heard Black tonelessly say from somewhere above him, "I speak on behalf of my superior. He sends his tidings." The speakers on either side of the huge monitor he'd taken over made his voice fill the room; if Enzan hadn't known Black like he did, the effect would've been a little imposing.

"That's nice." Laika's eyes darted to Enzan like he'd just seen an ant crawl into the room before returning to Black. "And who's this, then? Your attempt at creating a diversion?"

"He's not relevant to my message," Black said calmly, a slight echo following his words. "He can wait. I can't."

"Actually, I don't plan on waiting for you two to catch up," Enzan said. "Where's Meiru? What could've possibly made you think this was a good idea, Laika?"

"I don't have time for your questions," Laika said placidly, snapping his fingers. With the unmistakeable sound of data being translated into substantiated form, a purple Navi wearing a helmet like something out of Starpotter materialized. The Navi was armed with a cannon mounted to his back, which immediately was trained on Enzan. He thought about going for his Synchro Chip, but decided against it. He didn't want to break up the conversation right away; if Black wasn't going to tell him anything straight out, perhaps Enzan would learn something about what was going on this way. With someone else keeping an eye on Enzan, Laika seemed to forget all about him as he turned back to Black. "Now. Why is your superior bothering me? I haven't done anything wrong."

"Is that what you think? You've been causing quite a stir, what with all the interests of ours you've endangered. All the scrambling those poor people up top have had to do to accommodate you! Well, they'd all like me to remind you that we had an arrangement, dear sir." He smiled coldly in the face of Laika's stony stare. "You don't seem to have remembered its terms, but I have to ask…"

"You're the only reason I've had a breach. The terms were upheld," Laika said, just a sliver of annoyance beginning to show.

"That's funny you say that. Because from what I've seen and heard, they weren't." Black shook his head theatrically. "They really weren't." With a calm smile, he told Laika, "We've had a lot of fun examining your various projects."

"I never gave you the right -!" Laika snapped, any attempt at a businesslike demeanor forgotten. "Is your problem that I'm undermining the Net Saviors' authority? The Flock hates any sort of authority, including yours, but I don't see you going after them."

Enzan recognized the name, but Black instantly dismissed it. "The Flock is a bunch of thirteen-year-old script kiddies. We see no need to engage with them, and as you well know, we have no reason to believe they know anything of use about us. You're changing the subject." Black's smile turned into a full-on smirk. "Besides, unlike you, they at least know how to cover their tracks."

"You only knew to trace me because you had it in for me," Laika said angrily. Enzan was becoming less and less sure what to think of him. The quick losses of temper weren't like the Laika he'd known at all; then again, he couldn't discount the fact that underneath the demeanor, Black was very much who he seemed to be. And who was sitting there, if not Laika?

"I still did it," Black pointed out. "And with little trouble, too. What if Enzan down there had figured you out, hm? What would you have done then?" Laika didn't have an immediate answer. Black pushed on. "The General tells me they're not happy at all with you upstairs. You're cut off, effective immediately. And we both know what that means."

"If your superior sees me as such a threat, why hasn't he come to deal with me himself instead of sending one of his underlings? You may be a Silver pawn, but you're just a pawn nonetheless." Enzan could hear the capital letter in Laika's voice. What was that supposed to mean? More importantly, why hadn't the Net Saviors heard of anything or anyone important in this discussion? It was all going to be worth researching when he returned to Japan.

"First off, I don't consider myself a pawn. You know those candlestick things?" Laika stared stonily ahead. "No? Well, I'm one of those. Next off, believe it or not, the world doesn't revolve around you. My superior can't be bothered, and I am more than capable. Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation." Laika's eyes narrowed. Black held his hands up placatingly. "Though, don't get me wrong, it's not really that you're a threat. It's just that you've gone far enough, and we would like you to stop before our technology winds up in civilian hands."

Laika burst out laughing. "Oh, yes, that would be your first concern!" Mockingly, he said, "Who cares about success when your precious technology is at stake! I was never caught!"

Black's eye narrowed. "From what I saw, yeah, you were. You walked right into Enzan and Meiru's trap."

"And then I caught them in it!"

"Meijin and Hikari-hakase would've talked the other Net Saviors over, and you knew it. Calling up that Dimensional Area didn't reflect well on you."

Laika growled, "They were panicked! It would've gone according to plan -" Suddenly, the anger was gone, replaced by a superior smirk. "But of course you'd think that, these days! So logical and unemotional… how you've fallen. Just another inhuman Silver. Congratulations."

"Stop bringing that up. You're confusing Enzan." The teen resisted the urge to glare - it was hard to decide whether Black's patronizing tone or Laika's flat-out ignorance of him was more irritating. "Now. How would you like to do this? You've got numerous options open to you -"

"Your orders are to terminate me," Laika said.

Miffed, Black shouted, "Hey! Don't interrupt -"

"Otherwise," Laika continued loudly, sounding totally unimpressed, "you wouldn't have set a civilian on me."

"Net Savior," Enzan put in with the same tone.

Laika's eyebrows shot up. His head slowly turned to face Enzan, with the demeanor of someone looking at gum on his shoe. "Keep your mouth shut in matters that don't concern you."

"After you kidnapped so many of us, including my partner? I think it has everything to do with me. And the fact that it's you makes it even more my business." Enzan wanted to get some answers from Laika. He couldn't just let Black kill the teen without the whole story, and he doubted Black was looking forward to it himself. "Why did you feel the need to kidnap those Net Saviors?"

Laika's eyes slid shut. Enzan watched him carefully, waiting for an answer. Finally, the green-haired man broke the silence. "I have beliefs the world is unwilling to accept. It'll all become clear in the end."

"There's no more 'in the end' to wait for," Black said coldly. "Your experiment is over. It ends now."

"Indeed it does... for one of us." Enzan slammed in his Synchro Chip before Laika could command, "Vava, attack!"

Even if the purple Navi was shooting, Enzan couldn't tell; the power of the Synchro Chip surrounded him in a bubble of energy, vaporizing anything that tried to get inside. A pair of boots formed over his jeans and sneakers, the more subtle triangle on Blues' normal bodysuit translated into a large red spike on the boot accented by a smaller yellow one up its middle. Both spikes jutted out of a dark blue jewel. Gloves with matching spikes formed over his forearms. From both gloves and boots traveled a white band of data, converting the rest of his clothes into Blues' black and purple bodysuit. His symbol formed on his chest, with red armor forming around it moments later. After Blues' distinctive helmet formed on his head and a mane of black-and-white hair flowed out of it, the transformation was complete.

"Reflector!" The moment R-Blues had emerged from his energy bubble, a hard hat dropped over him to bounce back Vava's bullets; as he'd expected, the Navi had been firing on him the entire time. "Z-Saber!" He activated the thrusters on his boots to dash forward, catching Vava off guard.

Laika didn't seem worried; in fact, he was smiling as R-Blues delivered a powerful slash to Vava's chest. "Go ahead," he said. "Do what you will..."

0110100101100100011001010110111001110100011010010111010001111001

In the darkness of Laika's network, it was easy to get lost. There were many areas that had been constructed only to be abandoned, lit only by the shining blue data escaping from holes in the floor and walls. On the other side of a clear wall was the outside world, a laboratory of some kind that looked just as abandoned as this part of the virtual world.

It took a few minutes of sitting in complete silence for Meiru to realize that it was a monitor. Roll probably looked out on the world like this every day. She stood and cautiously stepped toward it, producing three near-silent taps. All was quiet down below. It looked like the papers on the desk had been disturbed recently, but it was hard to say. The image flickered, reminding Meiru of where she was - and what she was. Hiding from Optic Sunflower had given her some time for thought, and there was no denying it: she was a Navi now. Trapped in Laika's system, alongside - a backup? The real Laika? They hadn't had much time for talking, since it had taken so long for them to shake off Optic Sunflower. The Navi liked to sound playful, but her speed was no joke. There was no telling if they'd lost her for good or if she was just waiting outside for them to give up the game.

"I think we've lost her," Laika said behind her. "Who was that Navi?"

"Optic Sunflower. An Irregular," Meiru explained. "What are you?"

This seemed to irritate the little Laika. "What do you mean, 'what am I'? I'm a human, just like you."

"I don't know what to believe," Meiru said. "Laika's running around out there, and you -"

"That impostor is the original Irregular," Laika said. "Sigma. What has he done out there? And why are you so old?"

"What?! I'm not old!" Meiru protested, wishing she had a mirror - did he think she was thirty, if he sounded that surprised? "I'm only seventeen!"

"That's not what I meant. You just look a lot more mature; the last time I saw you, Sakurai, you barely came up to my shoulders. And now -" Laika stood and walked over to her. She was slightly taller than him.

Now that the immediate crisis was over, Meiru could get a much better look at him than before. He looked just like he had right after that incident with Cache, when they'd all waved farewell to him as he boarded the plane home. "What in the world is going on?"

"Perhaps I should explain my story from the beginning," Laika said.

Meiru could only agree there. "Sounds good to me."

"Condensing it's easier said than done..." After some thought, Laika began, "Recently... well, recently for me, the Sharan Army's Science Labs, which is like your Ministry of Science, finished development on a device called the Pulse Transmission System. It took a human's brainwaves and sculpted a Navi body around them. Basically, the user's consciousness would leave his body for the Internet, though he would still be connected enough to keep up his vital signs. It had been a major project of theirs for years, and they wanted the Net Saviors' blessing once they figured they'd gotten rid of any issues that might arise. I was selected as the first to publicly test it. It more than did its job at first - I went in, said a few words on behalf of the Sharan Army, and activated the trigger to return me to the real world - but there was a design flaw that allowed a Navi to access the Pulse Transmission System from outside and meet the human mid-transmission..."

"And that's what this Sigma did," Meiru finished.

"He essentially changed places with me. He must have made it so my vital signs were linked to him instead, though how he did it without the scientists getting suspicious I don't know. He sent me into this server and took up residence in my body. After that...he must have forced me into a coma."

"You look so young," Meiru said. "It must've been around Netto's..." Laika's flinch was nearly imperceptible; if Meiru hadn't been expecting it, she wouldn't have noticed. "Not long for you, huh?"

"Just a few days ago."

Meiru sighed, knowing her next news probably wouldn't go over well. "It's been over four years."

Laika looked stricken. "And Sigma... What has he been doing?"

"He's head of Sharo's Net Savior force," she said, only now realizing just how much power Sigma held. "And the Irregulars are his... and he's behind the missing - he's been kidnapping Net Saviors from all over the world."

"What have you found?" Laika asked.

"Besides you, not much. There are a lot of Irregulars around, not just Optic Sunflower. From what I've seen and heard, I have a feeling none of them are humanoid. And - that's right! Laika - Sigma - he claimed to be using Searchman, and Commandoman was stored as a file in his computer. The Navi of one of the people he kidnapped," she explained.

Laika thought this over. "So what you're saying..."

"...is there's going to be some kind of room where he's keeping the Navis, yeah," Meiru finished.

"I doubt we have weapons of our own," Laika said. "The Pulse Transmission System was experimental - they hadn't yet gotten to where they could confidently program something like that."

"Then we need our Navis," Meiru said. "And to find them, we need to go back out there." Still, she was reluctant to leave the relative safety of this area.

It must have shown, because Laika pointed out, "It's better than waiting for the Irregulars to find us in here."

"True," Meiru agreed. "I bet they'll be closer to the center of the network, back the way we came." They left their hiding place at a run. As fleeing from Optic Sunflower had shown them, their Navi bodies didn't tire as quickly as their human ones did. And in Meiru's opinion, the less time they spent out of hiding in the Irregular base, the better.

They went past a number of rooms that were dead ends. As they got closer, more and more of the rooms had Irregulars in them, usually performing some kind of task or otherwise not paying attention to the traffic. The Navi-like footsteps of the two Net Saviors didn't alert them enough to look up. Soon, they got back into territory Meiru recognized as being closer to the center. She slowed down, and as Laika followed suit, she cautioned, "Be careful."

Laika was quick to give her a nod of acknowledgement. At a fast walk, they continued on. Instead of turning into the room Meiru had decided was the center, she took a right. This room was wide and dominated by a monitor wall that showed what resembled a throne room. In the seat was Sigma. And there, fighting with a purple Navi in front of him...

"Enzan!"