"And that's how I nearly killed a thousand innocent people, blub blub."

The AH navis were hanging out on the HQ homepage and Bubbleman had just finished sharing his tale of semi-victory.

"I dunno..." said Flashman scratching his lightbulb of a head. "All that work only to have it all come apart in the last three seconds? Seems pretty humiliating to me."

"Why'd you make it so the bubbles exploded after two hours? Seemes it would have worked better if you made them explode after two minutes or something, there'd be less of a chance for Megaman and Protoman to stop you." added Flameman.

"I'll keep that in mind NEXT time you blubbin' blub-heads." Bubbleman shot back. He then released some of his anger on his Megaman and Protoman shaped punching bags, shooting a few more harpoons into their already pincushion-like forms.

Out in the real world the operators of the team were playing a computer game, or rather Jeremy was playing and the others were over his shoulder making snide remarks and awaiting their turn.

"Don't attack now, you don't have enough resources to fall back on." Stuart advised.

"You could also use an army of some kind." Added Johnny.

"I know what I'm doing." Jeremy said calmly. "My force of six fully upgraded marines is more than enough to wipe out the alien base. Each one of those guys is a one-man army."

Matt snickered and poked Jeremy's shoulder. "Well, what's stopping you? Send them right in there."

Jeremy ordered his small army into the enemy territory. They slaughtered the outer patrol without gaining a scratch. Jeremy grinned. "What did I tell you? They're invincible!"

"Yeah, now they're in the base camp. Wow, look at all those cute little aliens." Johnny said adoringly.

Matt gave Johnny an odd look. "They're hideous insectoid predators."

Johnny shrugged. "Well, everyone's entitled to their opinion. Hey, look at them swarm over your forces."

"What forces? I can't see them any more, they've kinda been enveloped by the demon horde." Nijubu commented casually.

Jeremy stared jaw-dropped, "What's going on!? Hello? Special Forces Report! Johnny? Jake? Matt! Little Jeremy!?"

Jake scratched his head. "Uhh, we're right here. I can't vouch for Little Jeremy though, that's YOUR problem."

Matt rolled his eyes. "He named his soldiers after us. It's not very flattering since he turned them into bloodstains on the alien soil like that."

Sure enough, the aliens cleared away and went back to their business revealing six blotches on the ground of blood and pieces of armor. Matt nodded knowing the outcome from the start.

"Look, now the alien army is headed towards your base."

"Nooooooo!" Jeremy screamed in agony. One minute later the words "Game Over" flashed across the screen. Jeremy threw the mouse across the room and punched the keyboard. "Bah! It was a stupid game anyway. Now SSB, THERE'S a game that can handle MY brand of strategy."

Nijubu shrugged, "As unsettling it is to watch our self-proclaimed leader perform so suicidally, I guess RTS just isn't your thing."

"TS is right! Those games just can't be beaten. Alright Matt, you can have your turn, just let me check the e-mail first. Punk!"

"What?"

"Open my e-mail, will ya?"

"Can't you do it yourself?

"Since breaking the keyboard and mouse a few seconds ago? No."

Punk grumbled, and opened Jeremy's e-mail account. "Beep Beep Beep. You got mail." said Punk in a listless, sarcastic tone.

Jeremy checked it out and gasped. "It's from Fate! It's info on the next piece of Gamma!"

"Well? What's it say?" asked Stuart.

"'The foot steps through from east to west
Where it will see eternal rest.
Seize the day and get it first,
But go prepared for all the worst.
The foot does not walk on it own,
You cannot count on strength alone.'"

"Are all our clues going to be given to us as poems from now on?" Jake asked worriedly.

"Dear God I hope not." said Jeremy with a shudder. "Hold on, there's a little more. 'PS: To be more blunt. Go to Crescent Area 7 SubChip Dealer at 1:00 PM today. Look for a girl navi in green and black.'"

"We've got a couple of hours, maybe we should check it out now." suggested Stuart.

"Getting the piece off some girl? Sounds pretty easy." said Punk.

"Getting a piece of some girl? Sounds fun!" said Flameman. "I'd like to volunteer for this mission."

Jeremy nodded. Okay, you, Plantman, and Flashman can go. See? I know what being a leader is all about; making sure there's someone to keep Flameman under control."

* * *

A few minutes later, the three navis assigned to the task were spread across the city Net, hoping to find their transporter a little early. Flameman's quest was a little delayed as he did not limit his search to female navis dressed in black and green, and stopped to hit on every girl he ran into.

"Uh...I'm sorry. Big burning balls of gas generally aren't my type." said an orange navi who was slowly backing away from Flameman who was hovering over her grinning.

"I can turn the flames off, if you want. I don't see how it matters though, you're way hotter than anything I can produce."

She ran away before he was even done with the sentence, he shrugged and homed in on the next girl. "Hey baby, I may be a big burning ball of gas, but I got nothing on you when it comes to being hot!"

The girl gave him a puzzled look. "Uhh...I'm kinda busy right now."

"Looks like you're ready for a NetBattle with that sword you got there. If you need any backup, I'm pretty good in battle myself you know."

"I've got plenty of backup, thanks."

"No, thank you for not running away after the first five seconds of our conversation. I'm Flameman."

"I'm Overdrive. Sorry, but I'm only in town for today and I really am busy at the moment. You seem nice, but I don't have the oppurtunity to be making any new friends right now."

Flame sighed. "Yeah yeah yeah. Let me guess, you're a secret agent for the government and you can't tell me where you're going because it's classified."

"Actually, yes."

"Well, don't let me keep you." Once again, she was gone before he even finished the sentence. "I wish they'd at least stay long enough for me to cop a feel."

Plantman teleported into the area. "Hey Flame, any progress in the search?"

"Right...what are we looking for again?"

"Sonofa...A girl in black and green that apparently has the leg of Gamma!"

"Oh yeah! The girl I was just talking to was in black and green. She went that way I think."

"Oh brother. Stuart! Get Matt to send Flashman over here!"

Within moments, Overdrive found herself surrounded by the three navis. She noticed their hostile attitude and drew her sword. "I thought you seemed to know too much about what I do. You're after the package, aren't you? Who sent you?"

Plantman was surprised. "Flame, you were on the ball after all. Sorry I doubted you."

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, damn straight." responded a confused Flameman, he then turned to Overdrive. "Okay lady, just give us the 'package' and we don't have to mess up that pretty face of yours."

Overdrive's eyes narrowed and she took a battle stance. "Come and get it then."

Flashman released a Light Tower, Plantman spread vines throughout the area, and Flameman summoned a swarm of Changkeys. Shockingly, Overdrive dodged all of it with an amazing display of speed. She turned into a blur as she ran circles around the Acid Hackers delivering several direct hits with her sword.

"I hate speedy navis!" Plantman exclaimed as he noticed his severed vines and pruned leaves.

Flashman flash-teleported a few panels away. "Well they're just my type! Time Stopper!" He pulled the lightbulbs out of his shoulders and held them up in the air. The bulbs released a blinding flash and Overdrive's blur ceased as she was struck by the paralyzing light. "Not so fast NOW are ya?"

Plantman was about to go in for the kill when someone tapped on his shoulder. He slowly turned around to see who it was. "...Officials?"

* * *

About half an hour later, Plant, Flash, and Flame's deleted data was restored. They woke up in the recharger on the HQ homepage. Jeremy greeted them through a viewscreen, shaking his head in disappointment. "I can't trust you guys with the simplest job, can I?"

After remembering what happened just before their defeat, Flame tried to present their case. "It wasn't just the girl, alright? She had backup! She's an Official navi, and she's with about fifty other official navis!"

"It was more like a hundred!" added Flash.

"A thousand!" corrected Plant.

"Fourteen, plus the girl." Stated Stuart calmly. "We saw it on the PETs guys."

Jeremy laughed "Well, I may be able to take on a dozen Officials by myself, but it's obviously too much for those three."

Matt groaned. "Look, this is what Fate's stupid poem was talking about. We can't just dive in headfirst as usual. We need a strategy."

"But...diving in headfirst is a strategy...a kickass one!" Jeremy pointed out.

"We can do this." said Matt. "Now, how do we get the upper hand on trained officials that outnumber us two-to-one?"

"A surprise attack?" suggested Johnny.

"More than that, we need something to deal with their speed." added Flashman. "Even my paralyzing attacks won't slow them down for long."

Nijubu joined in. "None of them could fly, right? I'll use Sandstage. That'll slow them down."

"I rely on speed too, remember. I don't want any sand messing up my moves." growled Beastman.

"Since their strategy relies on speed, they probably have Repair chips or something to counter the use of movement hindering terrains. We should have a way to deal with that." added Stuart.

Even Jeremy had an idea. "If we attack from a higher altitude, they won't be able to reach us AND we won't have to wade knee-deep in sand."

Matt checked his watch. "We need to set up a trap to get all this into effect. Whatever we do, we'd better work fast. We have half an hour before the girl gets to the SubChip dealer."

* * *

At about 1:00, the team was mostly converged around the Net's business district, they had chosen a plaza encased between three buildings to execute their plan. Flash, Bubble, Plant, and Flame were postioned on the ledges of the buildings in their sniping positions. Desertman hid in the plaza below preparing the sandstone blocks that would seal the officials in. Out in the real world, the guys had snuck into the building that housed the area's server and set up an operating station. Matt had rigged up a Transmission Lock to prevent anyone from jacking out in the area. Nijubu had lined up the chips that would set the plan into motion.

"Is this really going to work?" asked Flameman.

"It had blubbin' better." grunted Bubbleman. "I'm tired of putting so much blubby work into a plan only to have it be for nothing."

"Punk and Beastman are on the way, and the Officials are on their tail!" Jeremy warned. Punk and Beastman had gone to rob the Subchip dealer blind so the Officials would try to stop them. The navis saw on the horizon as Punk rolled towards the plaza at top speed and Beastman ran like a cheetah as a mob of fifteen Officials chased after them.

Jeremy raised his hand and took a deep breath. "Ready? Three...Two...One...Hit it!"

Punk and Beastman hit the dead end in the plaza and the officials thought they had them cornered. Suddenly, a pair of vines dropped down next to Punk and Beastman and pulled them up the wall to saftey. Behind the surprised pursuers, dozens of Sandstone blocks fell from above and formed a wall sealing them in. Then Desertman appeared and out of nowhere the ground became a pool of sand. The Officials were already taking defensive procedures when Nijubu wrapped up his part in the strategy with one of his strongest weapons.

"Poison Mask...Poison Face...Poison Anubis! Advance! Summon Poison Pharaoh!"

A dark Pharaohman statue appeared on the battlefield and Desertman immediately set up pillars to protect it. The Officials' attempt to fight back was severely hindered by the life-draining poison that started filling their lungs. Finally, the Acid Hackers on the upper level unleashed a swarm of long-ranged attacks to pick off the Officials one-by-one.

"Whee! It's like shooting fish in a barrel! They're running around like chickens with their heads cut off!" Exclaimed Beastman, mixing his metaphors.

"There goes one. Oooh, and another! Five deleted in ten seconds! Not too shabby." Flashman witnessed gleefully.

"Save the girl for last! We can still have some fun with her!" shouted Flameman.

Within a minute, nearly all the Officials were deleted. Before they could finish up, a hole appeared underneath Overdrive and swallowed her up, the hole then disappeared. With the rest of the Officials deleted, Desertman was suddenly alone in the plaza. "Zahhzeearu?(What gives?)"

The others used their high vantage point to scan the area. Punk noticed movement on the other side of the sand-wall. Drillman.exe popped up out of nowhere carrying Overdrive, gave the Acid Hackers a threatening look, then ran behind another building to hide. Off in the distance, Bowlman.exe could be seen running up to meet him. Punk growled. "Net Guardians! And everything was going so perfectly too. Oh well, maybe now it'll get interesting. Alright men! The new target is over there!"

The Acid Hackers began firing at the building Drillman and Bowlman were hiding behind. The building started to crumble as it took damage from their weapons. Bowlman occasionally peeked around the corner to fire back. After a few minutes of going nowhere, the entire NetGuardian team burst out from around the corner and charged the battlefield.

Metalman picked up Kingman and flew with his jets at full power over the sand wall and towards the Poison Pharaoh. The rest charged the wall and demolished it with breaking attacks. The Acid Hackers, noticing all the targets were out in the open, unleashed their heavy artillery. Punk and Beastman went straight down into the fray while the elementals kept their high ground.

Jeremy pulled another PET out of his pocket and plugged it in. "Jack in, Nameless Navi, Execute! Find that girl and get us that Leg!"

From the building on the left, Plantman thrust his vines into the wall behind him and they re-emerged under the feet of Darklady and Drillman, tangling them and halting their attacks. Flameman threw a barrage of fireballs from the same ledge as Plantman, creating powerful explosions around Dark and Drill, who felt extra heat from the burning vines.

On the opposite building, Bubbleman and Flashman pelted Metal and King with Bubble Lead and Neon Light attacks. Metal did his best to counter with missiles but his attention was focused on punching his way through Desertman's pillars and not be overcome by the poison draining his energy. Kingman did his best to hold off Desertman himself who was determined to defend the statue.

Yamatoman countered the assault of Beastman's claws with a Cursed Shield, but Beast was fast enough to avoid the shield's bite. Beast took a leap back, loaded two swords from Jake and disappeared as his body portions separated and spread out for a fast Savage Beast attack. Yamato sensed the oncoming attack as did his operator. Carlos loaded three Rock Cubes to intercept the oncoming attack.

Punk went straight for Serenade and the two engaged in another duel. Punk launched his Screw Crusher attack at Serenade again and again while Serenade attempted to take his sword to Punk's chains as to effectively disarm him.

Metalman, nearly deleted from the onslaught of poison, lightning and bubbles, gave one final swing of his Metal Fist and destroyed the statue's last defense and cracked the panels it stood on. He then collapsed on the ground. King saw this and made a huge leap, landing next to the statue and destroying it. The poison faded away and Kingman was crushed by Desertman's SandStone attack. Before the navis could be finished off, Bowlman dashed into the now unpoisoned plaza and rolled a powerful strike right through Desertman's head, forcing him to retreat underground. The Bowling Ball continued on at full speed right into the building Bubbleman and Flashman were perched on, causing it to shake and crumble. Bubble and Flash nearly lost their footing. Drillman finished the job with a spray of fully charged Drill Missiles from every angle. The building collapsed in a cloud of pixel debris.

Darklady decided to take the clean approach with Flame and Plant's perch. She downloaded some Airshoes and Invis chips and flew unseen up to the ledge where they were attacking from. Darklady then snuck behind them and used her FireTower and IceWave on Plant and Flame respectively. The two were knocked down to ground level with the rest of the party.

By the time the smoke cleared, Beast, Desert, Plant, Flame, Bubble, and Flash had recovered and managed to surround the four standing NetGuardians. Not far away, Punk and Serenade continued their battle. Locked in a pushing contest between Serenade's sword and Punk's Shield, they took a moment to glance at how their comrades were faring.

Punk laughed. "Your lot did pretty good at first, taking us out even when we had the advantage..."

Serenade didn't care how, he was only interested in why at that point. "What was this set-up for? What are you after?"

"I thought we made that clear already. Chaos and Destruction. Preferably YOURS! It looks like we already have a start on two of your navis..."

Serenade noticed with horror that Metal and King were indeed out of energy. The last bit of poison finished them off and they were slowly disintigrating into thin air. With the Hackers' Transmission Lock in place, the deleted data would not return to the PETs and they'd be lost forever.

"Well..." Serenade uttered calmly, "We'll just have to even the score then."

In a sudden burst of fury, Serenade released a wave of energy that knocked Punk away. Punk tucked into ball mode to recover, but by then Serenade was already making a full-on attack on the nearest of the Acid Hackers in the Plaza, Beastman.

"Huh?! What?! That's not fair! GRR!"

Everyone was surprised by the move, especially Beastman. The other Guardians received the plan and gave their all on Beastman as well. Beast couldn't stand against the assault of swords, spears, drills, axes, and bowling pins from all directions for more than five seconds. The navi exploded with violent deletion.

"Matt?" Jake sighed.

"Oh all right." Matt pressed a button on his laptop and the Transmission lock was removed. Beastman's Data returned to Jake's PET ready to be restored.

Everyone saw as the scattered data shot up into the sky and disappeared with a fading twinkle. Serenade smiled with satisfaction.

"Couldn't let one of your own get permanently deleted, could you? The Transmission Lock is gone. Jack-Out Metalman and Kingman!"

The two fallen navis were already gone before he finished talking. Before he could revel in his victory, Punk knocked him onto the ground and pinned him with his foot. The other NetGuardians found themselves just as easily conquered.

"That's a pretty nasty trick alright." Punk spat. "But when you all drain your own energy on one opponent while leaving the rest time to launch a counter-attack, it's not a very good strategy overall, is it?!"

Serenade just smiled. "It was neccessary to save our team mates. I would gladly throw the rest of the battle to make sure we all made it out safely. Besides, do you really think it's over just yet?"

Punk was suddenly hit from nowhere by a sword attack. Serenade escaped and regained his stance. David had downloaded a Slasher chip so his navi could attack even though he couldn't move.

Meanwhile, the nameless navi had located the unconcious Overdrive and proceeded to scan her. The PET beeped and Jeremy took a look at it. "Here we go. There's a Mystery Data Crystal stored inside her. That had better be what we're looking for. Nameless navi, commence download."

Serenade and Punk once more faced each other on even footing. Serenade laughed. "Look, even though we're still outnumbered we're still overcoming the odds. Looks to me like you guys need to brush up on your battling skills if you want to pose a threat to us."

Punk was getting angry. "Oh yeah? You shoulda been here when we sprung our trap! You'd be singing a different tune. Speaking of which, we got what we came for, we don't have anything more to prove to you. Until next time then! Jack-out Acid Hackers!"

The six navis returned to their PETs. Jeremy stayed focused on the extra PET. "...Download complete...There's the leg!...and...a bunch of other junk data...AND...a crapload of Zenny!"

The team cheered simultaneously. "Bonus!"

* * *

A few hours later the Acid Hackers were lounging and watching TV on the plasma screen they just bought with the money that came with the Gamma piece.

"We already have a bigscreen, why'd we have to buy another television?" asked Nijubu.

"You can never have too many TVs, pal." Johnny explained.

Jeremy was on the computer again giving a second shot at the RTS game that thwarted him earlier. Matt strolled over to see how he was doing. "Wow, you took out the entire base with just seven soldiers and no casualties."

"Yep, I'm finally getting the hang of this strategy thing."

"Hey, wait a minute. They're not taking any damage even though they're being swarmed. You're using cheat codes, aren't you?"

"Cheating is just as kickass a strategy as diving in headfirst." Jeremy said with an evil grin.

The End

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