An otherwise quiet and peaceful Sunday afternoon was shattered by an old jalopy tearing recklessly through the streets of Crescent City at 100 kph. At the wheel of the topless heap was none other than the renowned Sharoan programming engineer Sergei Cossack, with a fierce determination fixed on his fevered face.

A few blocks away, at a table just outside the GoNuts Donuts shop, Cossack's daughter Kalinka was talking to the NG leader David over some coffee. "So ever since you guys sent him that data, he's been spending a lot of time at the local SciLab analyzing it. He promises me he's taking his medication at least. But it seems I have some more spare time these days, honestly I likely wouldn't have agreed to meet you like this otherwise."

David, swallowing a bit of his donut, raised an eyebrow. "You wouldn't? Come on, taking care of the old man can't take up that much time, can it?"

"No, it's more that I don't think I should get too...sociable with the employees. You understand, right?"

"Well, that's actually sorta what I wanted to talk to you about. See, our main job is almost over, and I wanted to know about the future. What's going to happen to the Net Guardians when we bring the Acid Hackers to justice?"

Kalinka shrugged and sighed. "Well, I suppose the team would be disbanded. My father has a thing about cleaning up his own messes, I doubt he would have any reason to keep funding you once the AH mess is cleaned up."

David was noticably displeased with the concept. "Well, I don't want it to be over just like that. None of us do. This gig has been great. We've gone above and beyond our basic mission and made a real difference around town helping people out and fighting crime. We'd like to keep doing it, even after the AH is gone."

Kalinka looked down at her coffee and sighed again. "You could stay a team, but you'd have to get honest jobs, and of course a new base. With your field record as vigilantes the Officials might hire you as agents, but then things would run a lot differently than you're used to..."

David rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "See, I might be able to handle all of that, but...if we're not working for your dad any more, I might not get to see you again, and I don't know if..."

Kalinka started to blush as David trailed off. But before the moment could get any more awkward, the scene erupted with the arrival of Dr. Cossack. His old beater ramped off an uphill slope and was airborne for a good two seconds, catching the attention of everyone in the vicinity. Upon landing the brakes screeched as the driver tried to stop right in front of the donut shop. He cranked the wheel all the way to the right, causing the car to twist 90 degrees and then flip through the air a few times right past David and Kalinka's table. The vehicle landed updside down with a thunderous crash and burst into flames.

"Daddy!!" Kalinka screamed as she and David rushed to his aid. They both managed to pull him out and to safety before the wreck's gas tank exploded. The injured scientist was brought carefully into GoNuts. The rest of the team had heard the commotion from upstairs and came down to meet them. Samantha the shop owner called for an ambulance.

Cossack wearily held on to consciousness until he could convey his desparate message. "Ohh, the Net Guardians...where are the Net Guardians?"

Sam answered, "We're right here boss, what is it?"

"The data the Acid Hackers are after...I know what they are trying to do..."

"Why didn't you just phone and tell us?" asked Cyros.

"There...was no time for that...too urgent..." Everyone mulled that around in their heads for a moment, but decided it was best to just let him continue. "They...are pieces...very dangerous...powerful, destructive forces contained...they have four of them...there is only one left..." the old man began coughing weakly.

The Net Guardians became more unnerved. A few days ago they thought the four data packets the AH had stolen were simply building materials for some kind of online fortress, but it seemed there was something more sinister afoot. "What do we have to do?" asked Carlos.

"The hiding places...are no longer safe...you must get the final piece before they do."

"Where is it? Where is it?" Jon pressed desperately.

"Will you...shut up? Just let...me tell you...geez...I could have revealed everything...by now...but you guys have to keep...butting in...why in my day..."

"JUST GET ON WITH IT!" everyone shouted in unison.

"Alright...Alright...The last piece is in...Electopia...Network of downtown...DenCity...underneath a giant...'E'..."

David nodded and turned to his team. "You heard him guys, we gotta book a flight to Den, and look for the treasure buried under a big 'E'."

"...'X'..." Cossack blurted.

"Huh? It's under an X? Well I guess that makes more sense, but-"

"...'E'..."

"Damnit old man, will you make up your mind?"

"I think he just told us to look under a big 'EXE'." Moe reasoned.

"Uh, I guess that works...Doc? Can you clarify a bit?" David received no response, Cossack had fallen unconscious. Kalinka, who was holding him crying confirmed that he was at least still alive. "Dang. I guess we're on our own then. Too bad we don't have much to go on."

Cossack suddenly bolted upright, startling his poor daughter. "You must get the last piece! If they are reunited...and...IT awakens...it would mean the end of network society...this time I fear nothing could stop it..."

"Don't worry, you can count on us! But what is it, exactly?" Carlos responded, but got no response himself, for Cossack had fallen unconscious again.

Everyone looked at one another and the team started to head upstairs and prepare for their mission. Then Cossack shot up again. "It is all my fault!...Our fault!...Our petty nationalistic pride!...After Bass and the Acid Hackers...I don't want any more of my mistakes to be responsible people's suffering! You must...help me..." and with that he was out once again. The NG rolled their eyes and turned around again toward the stairs. Then he got up again. "Kalinka!...My darling daughter...I am so sorry for being such a burden over the years...forgive me..." and he was out again.

"Good Lord, how many times is he going to do that?" Moe groaned.

"Don't worry, the ambulance will be here in a few minutes. Then he's their problem." reassured Samantha.

Cossack gasped to life. "And all those poor animal specimens!...Oh why did I perform such cruel experiments? I was a computer scientist! My research had nothing to do with animals!" and he was out again.

"We'll be upstairs packing." said Carlos. "Call us if he gasps out anything relevant."

* * *

2:46 PM (PST) Mission Clock: 0:32

Meanwhile, over at the Acid Hackers hideout...

...what? Why are you so surprised? Yeah, these Chronicles usually focus on one team at a time, but we're approaching the end here. Special instances and all. Get used to it.

So anyway, the AH guys were getting restless after a few days of not instilling chaos.

"No Johnny, I don't want to break into Stuart's room and steal his stuff again." said Jeremy standing firm with his arms crossed while the diminutive catboy tugged at his shorts.

"But we HAVE to! He's the only guy left in town with good stuff to rip off that hasn't beefed up his security systems since the last time we attacked it!" Johnny pleaded with his biggest puppy-dog eyes.

Stuart waved from the couch. "Hello. I can hear you. And I actually did improve my security but mainly because I have enemies that might still know the location of our mainframe thanks to you."

"Ahh don't start with me, wallstreet!" shouted Jeremy, shaking his fist. "You're just lucky we're not in the Acid Hacking business for the money, or I'd expect a little more investment from you."

Stuart's hat and glasses hid his perplexed expression. "Wallstreet?"

"Well, why can't we be in it for the money?" said Jake, entering the argument while coming out of the bathroom. "We can't just steal everything we need you know."

Jeremy's head shot back in shock, ejecting Johnny who had climbed on top of it. "Can't steal everything?! Explain!"

"Well we may be able to bust into any place we want in Crescent City, but what about the exotic pets I want shipped over from Netfrica? Those hunters want me to wire them the before they even go out and catch the damn things!"

Jeremy was dumbstruck. "You mean to tell me the only thing keeping this place free of strange, smelly animals (besides Johnny) has been a lack of cash? Well thank God we're broke then!"

Matt, who was sitting a few feet away on a deskchair at the computer, kicked off the console to roll himself towards the conversation "Well we gotta get out there and make somebody's life miserable. Johnny's not the only one going stir crazy."

Nijubu showed up out of nowhere and nodded. "I've been alone here with you guys too long, you're starting to look good to me."

"Eh?" Matt started. "But you're already-"

"That doesn't mean you guys look good to me."

Johnny groaned in exasperation, "But this town is all hacked out! We need a change of scenery! We need something exciting to happen!"

"Excitement AND travel? Setting our hopes a little high, aren't we?" sneered Jeremy.

At that moment a tremendous explosive crash drew the Hackers' attention to the west wall of the warehouse, through which a 15 ft. tall black and green multiped tank had crashed through. The giant robotic monstrosity barrelled towards the group at a threatening speed and then stopped on a dime right before them. The boys stared with empty bowels as a crackling noise announced the activation of an onboard loudspeaker, a second later they heard an ominous booming voice emanate from the war machine. "Acid Hackers. This is Fate. You are going to Electopia to get the fifth Gamma piece."

The AH facefaulted in unison. When Matt recovered himself he held his hands in the air and shouted. "Wait just a minute!" After a second of silence, he continued. "Let's recap here. Fate's first Gamma clue was in the form of a telegram...the second was a poetic e-mail...the third came in a fortune cookie...and for the fourth he contacted us through the television." Everyone nodded slowly in agreement. "And now he bursts through our wall in a tank to give us the final clue. Thoughts?"

"Um...Awesome?" said Johnny.

"Unneccessary..." said Nijubu.

"...Shit." said Jeremy.

"Unexpected." said Jake.

"Wallstreet?" said Stuart.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." said Matt. He then turned to the tank. "Alright Mr.Fate, how are we getting to Electopia?"

"What do you think this vehicle is for?" The tank's speaker responded. "You can all fit inside and it can sustain jet-flight accross the ocean. Your navis can access the pilot controls."

"WAAAAIIIT JUST A MINUTE!!" screamed Jeremy, more worked up than usual. "If you had badass artillery like this before, why do we only get to use it NOW!? Do you know how much destruction we could have wrought in just five minutes with that thing? God! I've been wasting my life up to this point!"

"Because after those five minutes your career and mine would be at an end. The government of this country has access to far more powerful military defense than this single tank could stand against. We have remained free until now because they cannot deploy those defenses against cyber-crimes. This weapon is my trump card, an act of desperation. However, I believe you will find it much safer to use in Electopia. Their real-world defenses are much less...sophisticated."

Intrigued and impressed, the AH began to circle their new Acidmobile. It stood on four massive pillar-like legs with joints, shocks, and small wheels on the feet, indicating it could either roll along smoothly like it did driving up to them or walk, climb, and jump over more uneven terrain. On each of the hind legs was a jet engine and on the front legs were folded up wings, suggesting how the tank could convert to flight mode. The body was vaguely football-shaped, an entrance hatch was visible on the underside, a gatling gun was mounted on top, and four smaller laser gun barrels poked out of the front and rear. A pair of arms were folded up along the top of the pod, and seemed to have a few more weapons and tools equipped to them. The armor was non-reflective black, seemingly built for stealth during flight. The painted highlights on the arms and body were the AH's favorite shade of puke-green. Jeremy was shuddering in awe. "Ohh baby, come to poppa!" he said as he rushed toward the hatch, opened it up, and crawled inside.

"I suppose we don't have time to pack." Nijubu sighed. "If we don't get in there with Jeremy right away he's going to start using us as target practice."

"Roooad Triiip!" Johnny squealed as he scampered up into the pod with Jeremy. The others followed suit. Matt made sure to grab the subPETs containing the nameless navis, he had a feeling they would all be needed soon.

"Blub? Woah! Helloo! Blub! Don't forget to take me with you blub!" Bubbleman called out from the computer, where he was alone in the AH mainframe.

Stuart responded while climbing up the ladder. "You can make it to Electopia faster than us on the net, buddy. Just meet up with us at...hey Fate, where are we going exactly?"

"Downtown DenCity. Look for a giant EXE." The speakers responded. The boys found out as soon as they were inside that Fate was operating the tank by remote, as if they actually expected him to be there in person anyway.

"Hmph, sure blub. The poor blubbin' Autonavi is the only one who doesn't get to ride in the blubbin' tank. I hope you blub-asses get shot out of the sky. Blub."

"Okay, love you too Bubs! See you in a few hours!" Jake called back as he shut the hatch, being the last one in.

Inside the dimly lit pod, Jeremy sat at the one pilot seat, Johnny managed to grab the gunner's chair, and since there were no more seats the other four had to brace themselves along the walls. The interior was not as spacious as Fate made it sound. Jeremy could not make any sense of the controls in front of him, but he did recognize a plug for his PET. He took it out and readied Punk. "Alright, time for some light reading. Get in there and learn how to fly this thing. Jack in, Punk.exe, rock the house!"

Punk zapped into the system and immediately began his traditional talk-back. "Oh sure, it's too difficult for the operator to learn how to pilot but the navi has no problem at all? Or do I just not matter enough to get out of doing all the work? Alright, I'm done." Punk then uploaded the manual into his memory and took over for Fate. The tank leapt up through the roof of the warehouse, converted to flight mode, and rocketed off to the west.

* * *

3:01 PM (PST) Mission Clock: 0:47

"So, this is an interesting development..." a shadowy figure on the Dark Council mused as he and his colleagues watched a monitor feeding them surveilance data from the bug they had sent into the warehouse after Swipeson's raid failed. "So what should we do now? I propose we forget about the stolen weapons for now and go after these 'Gamma pieces'."

"Are you insane? Their base is undefended. Now is the perfect time to attempt to break through the Dassamen boy's new security system!" another member argued.

"The bug's analysis shows he added several layers of encryption to the files. We would be wasting too much time trying to decode it right now. In the mean time Dassamen could be on the verge of acquiring an even more powerful weapon. This tank of theirs is an attractive piece of hardware as well."

"Very well, we will attempt to beat the Acid Hackers to this 'giant EXE' and keep the Gamma piece from them, then we may have an advantage against Stuart. But we should at least send a small team to the warehouse and get the database with our weapons in it. We could take the entire console back here and worry about the decryptioin later."

"Gentlemen, allow me to be the one to get these Gamma pieces."

"Swipeson? Why should we count on you. You were already defeated by these netbattlers."

"I was not even fighting them with my own navi. I was not expecting such resistance. I know the Acid Hackers' battle skills well now and I know my Ratman can handle them."

"Well, you do have the experience against them. Agreed. You may take the private jet to Den City. But be warned this is your last chance."

"I will not disappoint the Council."

"For your sake you had better not."

* * *

3:03 PM (PST) Mission Clock: 0:49

"Sorry Moe, if you want help from the Officials, you'll have to ask the Electopian branch when you get there." said Trisha Oscar, an Official agent and an old acquaintance of Moe. Moe had called her PET phone as she suggested he do if he ever needed her help during their last encounter.

"But getting there is what we need your help for, Trish. The guy that should be paying for our plane tickets is in a coma and we're kinda in a rush. I figured you guys would be interested in this since it has to do with the data the AH stole off you a few months ago."

She became somewhat agitated in response to that. "Well after my failure with that mission on top of the fiasco on our first day? Command won't be approving any international missions for me any time soon. And I'm afraid I'm the only one here who would rather help you myself instead of just referring you to the Electopian department."

Moe scoffed, "Fine, we can manage without you. Though I'd think if you really wanted to help you wouldn't let the Official apathy prevent you from doing so."

Trisha barely got to say a thing in protest as Moe cut the transmission. He turned back to the others in the flat who were all ready to go.

"Oooh, buurrn." said Adrienne in the way nobody could tell if she was being sarcastic or not. "So what about our military escort?"

"Well there won't be one obviously." said Moe with a shrug. "I guess we have to book a normal flight or something."

"I think that's out of the question." said Jonathan, holding up his PET with Crescent Airport's flight schedules displayed on the screen. "The next available flight leaves at 4 AM the next morning and keep in mind the security protocols and the fact we can't keep our navis with us during the flight."

"Then it may be up to me." Carlos announced. "I know a guy who knows a guy with a private jet. It'll probably cost me, but I've got quite a bit saved up." Yamatoman dialed while he talked, and an instant later he had turned away from the group for his private dealings. "Yo, Oscar! Lookin' to hook up with the Kappa Kappa Express! Is that drinking buddy of yours out of prison yet?"

"Remember it has to have room for eight!" Sam called out to Carlos. He answered the slightly puzzled looks of the others before they asked who the eighth was. "My watchdog here. He still has to follow me everywhere I go."

Sam's parole officer was leaning up against the wall smoking a cigarette. Everyone tended to forget he was there. "Are you even allowed to leave the country right now?" asked Cyros.

"Apparently as long as I'm still under surveilance. Besides, I think they're getting bored with it by now. My behaviour has been perfect lately and I clearly no longer have any sort of contact with VI." lied Sam in response.

"Can I come too?" asked a slurred, gravelly voice. The NG noticed their resident hobo was pathetically tugging at David's duster.

"The hell? Give me one good reason why we should save a spot for you!" David scolded as he batted the drunkard away.

"I'd be lonely here?" he replied with with a tear in his eye.

"Here's another reason. He makes me laugh." added Jon. "Come on, we know full well he doesn't take up a lot of space. We could stuff him in the overhead compartment!"

"Damnit, fine. The hobo comes with us. Maybe we can leave him there too." David proposed coldly.

"What about me?" inquired Samantha.

"Don't you have a shop to run?" reminded Moe.

"Yeah, fine. What the hell would I do over there anyway? Here, Kalinka wanted you to take these guys with you though." She handed the PETs of Dust Man and Ringman to David.

"Hey! Remember us?" Ringman called out.

"No, not really." said David. "I guess you're the Cossacks' navis or something?"

"Uh...yeah. Kalinka figured you could use all the help you could get on this mission. So let us help in any way we can!"

"This is good." Moe commented. "With those two plus Naomi, we'll outnumber the AH enough for a sweet advantage."

Carlos finished his calls and returned to the group. "Alright, you all have to chip in 50,000 Zenny, promise to keep the ride clean, and I have to wash Oscar's car for a month, but we have the access to the hovercraft."

Jon did a double-take. "Wha!? Hovercraft? You said it was a jet!"

"It's a hovercraft outfitted with jet engines. Long story short: fraternity regatta. It can get us accross the Ocean as fast as any plane. We just need to hitch the next bullet train to the west coast and we're in business."

"All right, I guess there's no time to lose." announced David. And so the team heroically rushed out of the building.

* * *

4:49 PM (GMT) Mission Clock: 4:35

"Hello? Fate? Fine time to bail on us man!" Jeremy was shouting into the tank's radio which had gone dead an hour ago. The tank was parked on a remote cliff overlooking the ocean somewhere on the west coast of Amerope. Fate told them earlier to wait there for replacement fuel cells that would take them the rest of the way. Now that they were there, they wanted to know how long they would have to wait. The other Hackers were outside the pod stretching their legs and enjoying the view.

"Whew. Halfway there." said Nijubu wiping the sweat from his hair. "I don't know if I can stand another four hours in that cramped thing."

"Zumm..."

"Desertman? What is it?" Nijubu took out his PET to see what his navi wanted to say.

<We are nowhere near the halfway point. The distance from Crescent to this spot is 3243 km. The distance from this spot to Den is 6216 km. Our vehicle can reach 850 kph in the air, so it will take at least seven more hours to reach our destination.> Desertman explained in the language his own operator could barely understand.

Nijubu's heart sank. "Alright...I got that we were less than halfway there...and it will still be eight hours. Yeah, that won't work for me. Stuart? Tell Jeremy we're going to have to land on some island about halfway there if we're going to make it there alive. Johnny? We're going to have to take turns with the chairs buddy, it's just not fair otherwise."

"Whaa? But what if we come accross something we get to blow up? I have to be sitting in that gunner's chair when the time comes!" Johnny protested.

"Man, when's Fate gonna get here with our re-fuel?" Jake wondered aloud as he came back from his bathroom break in the bushes.

"Fear not campers, supplies have arrived!"

The five Acid Hackers outside the tank were startled by the unfamiliar voice. They leapt into defensive positions as out of the woods came a young man pushing a cart with a pair of oil-drum like energen canisters. He wore all black and had a cocky smirk on his face. Matt took his shades off for a second to varify that he recognized the guy. "Vidal?"

"Hey Matt. Long time no see. I bet I'm the last guy you expected to see here." Vidal said with a slight chuckle.

At that moment Jeremy was sliding out of the pod and caught sight of the visitor as well. "Vidal? Vidal! You son of a bitch! What are ya doin' here?"

As Jeremy, Matt, and Vidal gathered together and started high-fiving each-other, Stuart figured it was time to get in on their little in-joke. "Um, mind introducing us?"

Jeremy flipped Stuart off and complied. "Vidal, these are some clods I stir up trouble with. Clods, this is some other clod Matt and I went to school with, along with our favourite cowboy nemesis of course."

Vidal wasn't sure how he was going to explain himself if the AH had somehow learned of his extremely brief employment with the NG, or of his more recent conflict with them, but it seemed they were completely in the dark which made him much more comfortable. "Yeah, I hear you and Dave are getting along even less now than when we were kids. At least that's what the boss tells me."

"Boss? For a second there I thought YOU were the mysterious Fate." said Johnny.

"Me? Pfft, yeah right. That would be a lame twist. No, I'm just working for him. He got me a nifty new navi so I owe him some assistance, and right now I'm assisting him by delivering these fuel cells to you. He's pretty busy these days, you know."

"So I guess we have to make room for YOU in the tank now?" Nijubu groaned.

"Nah, you guys fly on ahead without me. I'll catch up later. Fate proably would have built that thing for more people if he knew he'd end up with such a large staff in the end though."

"Woah, Fate built this tank all by himself? No way." a skeptical Matt sneered.

"Yes way!" Vidal nodded with the corny cliché. "Of course it took him a couple of decades. Now you know why there aren't more of them. He stole the designs from the Ameropan military way back when. By their current standards that baby is obsolete junk, but I think it'll suit our purposes just fine."

"Must be great to be so in-the-know with our enigmatic benefactor." Matt grumbled with envy. "So if you know so much why are we in such a rush all of a sudden? It seems this mission has been ready for months."

Vidal turned a bit serious. "Actually, Fate just found out about the location of the last Gamma piece this afternoon. Unfortunately, so did your rivals."

"The Net Guardians know about Gamma now!?" Jeremy shouted while shaking his fist.

"They know enough. They know where to find it and that the Acid Hackers should not be allowed to have it."

"Well, that's as much as we ever know." shrugged Jake.

"I guess our advantage is gone then. The sudden scramble makes perfect sense." Stuart said folding his arms and looking back at the tank. "We'd better fuel up and blast over there as soon as possible. We have to secure the location."

Vidal snickered. "You may not have to. I took it upon myself to hire some local help in the area. You'll have some backup waiting for you when you get there..."

* * *

11:52 AM (JST) Mission Clock: 4:38

"Name: Mistman.exe. Region: Electopia. Offered Price: 15,000 Z. Job Description: Need help finding and retrieving missing data package. Only information is that it is somewhere in the downtown Den City region hidden under a giant EXE. Rendevous with search team at the downtown CyberMetro Station at 7:30 PM today whether the data has been found yet or not. Time is of the essence. Personell Requested: The nearest and most quickly available. What do you think?"

The blonde man sitting back in his desk chair only listened for a few key words as his navi read off the posting on the request board. "Ehh, 15,000? Not really worth it."

"Well, it does seem to be a fairly short and simple job. They want us to have it done within eight hours." The sparkling electrical navi reiterated. "You know, if they're desperate enough, they may offer a much higher price at 7:30 if it's not found yet."

"Heh heh, now you're thinkin'. But in that case we should try to find it earlier and just say we didn't. We can't risk them finding it themselves or we may get nothin'. Alright, let's hit the streets, it's not like there are any other jobs to pick from this morning."

"A search and retrieve job? Count me in." a teenager in a white trenchcoat and sunglasses announced as he strolled into the office.

His colleague frowned, "Hey, the meeting was over yesterday! Get back to your own turf already!"

"My flight back to Oceopia doesn't leave until late tonight. I might as well be doing a quick, easy job in the mean time." the kid shrugged.

Another young man wearing black came in behind the younger member nodding in agreement. "I concur. I am in no hurry to get back to Yumland. A chance to stretch my legs with an easy job would be a welcome distraction."

The resident merc slammed his fist on the desk. "Come on you guys! The pay is lousy enough as it is! I shouldn't have to share it with you two!"

"The darker mercenary chuckled sinisterly. "Well, the way I see it the client will pay whoever brings them the data anyway, so you won't have to worry about that if Shademan and I find it first. Good luck Nathan." He turned out the door while nodding to his younger ally. "You too, Pharon."

Pharon responded with excitement. "Oh, so it's a race you want, is it? Well, you don't know who you're messing with! My domain may be Oceopia, but Windman is much more at home here in Electopia! You two don't stand a chance against the air, man!" and with that he bolted out the door like the wind, rushing to get a head start on the stoic Samuel Darklight. Nathan was left behind, lighting a cigarette and grumbling curses at his team-mates.

"Feh, what do we have to worry about? You're the one with the biggest advantage. You lived Dentown your whole life while you were Jomon's navi. You probably already know what we're looing for."

Sparkman shrugged his broad, metallic shoulders. "A giant EXE? Sorry, but I have no idea what that could be offhand. I suppose since Dentown has a lot of billboards it could be referring to something printed on one of them, but they're not exactly set in stone."

"Hmph. So I guess to solve this puzzle we have to go Dentown and look all over the place, taking note of all the obscure features we can find."

"Um...yeah...I just got a sudden case of déjà vu and some sickening shame along with it." Sparkman said with a shudder.

"Thinkin' about the good ol' days with Terry again?" Nathan smirked.

"Just shut up."

"Well, we better get going. My fellow Darklight Mercenaries are going to make this job less easy than it ought to be." and so Nathan grabbed his PET and headed out the door after Pharon and Sam.

* * *

6:45 PM (NT) Mission Clock: 7:31

The Net Guardians were well on their way towards Electopia aboard a rocket-propelled, wave-riding vehicle conceived of a madman. They were blissfully unaware they were over an hour behind the Acid Hackers. As the boat blasted across the ocean it bounced along the surface of the water like a skipping stone. Logically, the craft and its passengers would have been torn to shreds by the air and water well before it hit its current speed of 900 kph, but the team was in too much of a hurry to let the laws of aerodynamics get in their way. Sam, Cyros, David, and Jon were uncomfortably aware of how impossible and dangerous their journey was and were prepared to sit perfectly still, clenching the arm-rests of their seats for the next five hours. If Adrienne or Carlos knew, they didn't care, and were actually standing up and enjoying the wind in their face. Sam's guard was reacting to the situation with his usual bored indifference, the Hobo was passed out next to the cooler with their travelling snacks, and that just left Moe, who was focusing on his PET for some reconaissance work.

"Alright, I'm here." Drillman announced, emerging from a wormhole in the Dentown area sky. "Things look pretty normal as far as I can tell. Don't see any big EXE's...wait! Is that-"

"Remember, don't engage the AH yet, just keep an eye on them!" Moe warned his navi, shouting over the din of rushing air in the open-roofed boat. Without a proper connection to the network Drillman would be chipless and helpless in battle, so there was nothing he could do with his wormhole travel but scope out the area and make sure their target was safe.

"No, it's not the AH. It's Sparkman! I can see him down there on the street, he seems to be looking for something too."

"Oh yeah, Nathan works as a merc over there." Moe recalled. He then got an idea. "Well, go and see if he's available for a job right now."

"Are you sure you want to pay for it?" Drillman questioned skeptically. "We already put up a hefty investment on that rocket-boat you're riding. It's a little late to outsource the mission."

"Well, if the Hackers get there first, I'd at least want someone there to slow them down until we get there. Besides, maybe I can still bum Carlos out of some more cash."

"Also keep in mind he may still be pissed about that time we tried to horn in on the merc business." Drillman added with worried tone.

"Oh yeah...well I doubt he'd try to delete you on sight anyway. He'd at least be willing to listen to a job offer."

"Well, if you say so, but I'm outta here if he starts getting agitated. Y'know, more than usual." And so Drillman converted back into his drill mode to fly off his perch and meet his occasional ally/nemesis on the streets below. He switched back a few feet above the ground and landed right in front of the startled spark plug. "Hey Sparks." He greeted casually.

"You? What are you doing here?" Sparkman greeted cantankerously. "It better not be to horn in on my business again. I have enough competition from my own camp on this one."

"Easy, big fella. I assure you this has nothing to do with your job. I'm just looking for this data under a big EXE and-"

"That's it! You die now!" Sparkman cut Drillman off with an enraged roar and smashed his electrodes together, creating a blinding flash. Nearby civilian navis started to panic and run around in circles bumping into walls and each other. Drillman immediately gave up trying to reason with the irritable thug when he heard the charging electricity as an indication that the flash was just a precursor to something more painful and dove drill-first into a wormhole before he could receive damage more serious.

"Gee, he'd at least be willing to listen to a job offer, he wouldn't try to delete me on sight." Drillman sarcastically mocked his operator while flying blindly through subspace. "I hate you so much right now."

"How was I supposed to know he'd go postal for no reason like that?" Moe hollered and let out an exasperated sigh. "Just head back to the base and wait there until I can plug in somewhere proper and bring you back."

"Yeah, that may be tough since I have no idea where I'm flying right now. I'll probably pop up somewhere in Netfrica at this rate."

"Well, just stay out of battle then. Your eyes will be fine."

Moe continued to focus on his PET as the boat blasted onwards to its destination. The other passengers were having a less interesting ride, which is why Carlos decided to make things a little more interesting with some antagonizing. He fell back into his seat and reclined it so it jutted into David who was sitting behind him. "So, having trouble finding your sea legs, cowboy? You're looking pretty green there." he said, taunting his annoyed leader.

"I can stand the ocean just fine. It's being downwind of you that's making me sick." David retaliated.

"He's got ya there, lardo!" Adrienne cackled while swinging her fist over her shoulder.

Carlos scoffed. "Don't forget who's essentially the captain of this ship. Or do you secretly want me to make you wipe my poop deck?"

"Hah hah! Ouch!" Adrienne swung her other fist and continued to egg on both of them.

"Captain, nothing!" shouted David, shaking his head in disgust. "We all paid our dues, I don't owe you anything. We're here on business, plain and simple."

"I can't believe I'm asking this now, but do we really need to be in such a hurry?" Cyros asked, still hanging onto his seat for dear life. "I mean we should have at least tried to verify Cossack's information first! This could be a long way to go for a wild goose chase!"

"Well, you know David..." whispered Jon, nudging Cyros with his elbow. "He was just looking for an excuse to leap into action and look all heroic to Kalinka..."

"What?" shouted Cyros, unable to hear what Jon was saying over the sound of the wind.

Jon sighed an repeated his comment at a much louder volume. "...and the dope doesn't even realize she'd be more impressed by a mission that wasn't run sloppily for once!"

"WHAT!?" this time it was David shouting.

"I SAID-" started Jon.

"I heard you, dumbass! You know full well I'm a professional! I get the job done. I'm not out to prove anything." Carlos, Adrienne, and Cyros just snickered at his corny deflections.

"Nah! You've just been out to hook up with her since day one." Jon claimed doubtlessly. "I know this because I haven't had a decent chance to make a move on her thanks to you!"

The others nodded in agreement, it was too obvious at this point. David folded his arms in defiance. "I'm the most responsible out of the lot of you. You really think I would launch a non-priority mission based on uncertain intelligence for personal reasons? What kind of joke of a leader do you think I am?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?" asked Carlos rhetorically. As he and David loaded their ammunition, Sam, who spent the whole time trying to ignore them by leaning back in his chair and staring up at the sky, spotted something that would turn out to be a better target of their aggression.

"Uh, guys? I think we have company!" Sam shouted, trying to get everyone's attention. The others looked up to see some sort of aircraft flying just a couple dozen feet above them and matching their course. The Net Guardians became silent in anticipation as the craft hit its afterburners just long enough to pull ahead of them by a few meters and then shot a pair of steel wires backwards that hooked onto each side of the hovercraft's frame. Carlos quickly grabbed his shin-himitsuken so he could cut the wires, whatever their intent was, but stopped in mid swing when he realized the boat had missed a skip. He looked over the edge and confirmed they were now fully airborne, and their altitude was rising. Cutting one wire would dump all the passengers into the ocean while the other wire carried their only transportation away. At least the boat's unique aerodynamic properties kept it level from stem to stern for now. He considered the possibility of cutting both wires simultaneously, but he wasn't sure the boat would survive the drop. Besides, there was still the question of who exactly was giving them this lift.

"I really hope that's the officials and they've changed their minds about helping us get there faster." Jon prayed. Suddenly a hatch opened up from the back of the mysterious craft, letting out a stream of gunfire from within. As Net Guardians ducked for cover they chalked "Officials" off the list of possibilities.

"Is it the Acid Hackers?" Moe screamed, gritting his teeth.

Carlos noticed someone he recognized from within the opened hatch. "Actually...I think it's..."

* * *

6:19 PM (IDL) Mission Clock: 8:05

It wasn't the Acid Hackers. As they were still ahead of the NG and had just landed on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific to stretch their legs, empty their bladders, and scrounge around for some more food to keep them going.

"Man, this road trip sucks." Johnny whined while laying flat on his back on the beach. "We didn't get to blow up anything yet, and I'm already exhausted. I feel like it's bed time while it's still light out."

"Well, it IS your bed time, actually." Matt explained while picking banannas from the top of the tree giving Johnny his shade. "Back in Crescent it's after ten, but since we're going west, time is sorta going a bit slower."

"Or way faster depending on your perspective." said Stuart, drinking from a coconut. "Since we probably passed the date line by now, it's technically Monday evening."

"What!?" yelped Johnny, jumping to his feet. "I missed an entire night's sleep? Gah! I need my beauty rest you know!"

"Believe me, we know." joked Jake. "Look, you could always sleep in the pod. That's what some of us have been doing while you were playing that eye-spy game."

"So that's why nobody was playing along?"

"That, and you and Jeremy were the only ones that could see outside. Not that there was anything to see outside besides water."

"Yeah, I never thought Johnny's annoying voice could put me to sleep, but this trip is just full of surprises." said Jeremey, leaning up against one of the tank's legs.

"Wait, YOU were sleeping too?" Matt inquired. "You were driving!"

"Punk was driving." Jeremy replied.

"You're welcome by the way." added Punk sarcastically.

"But you said you couldn't give up that seat while you were driving! You could have let someone else have a turn at the padded seat!" Jake accused.

"Yeah, I guess I lied. I'm a dirty rat, aren't I?" As Jeremy said this smugly, the others could see an actual dirty rat crawling out of the pod and onto Jeremy's shoulder. Jeremy didn't notice.

"Uh...huh...Did you bring that all the way from the warehouse as a prop to accompany that line?" asked a confused Nijubu.

"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Jeremy as more rats dropped out of the pod behind him. other rats could be seen crawling through the sand and over top the vehicle. They seemed to come out of nowhere.

"Crap, must be those tropical jungle rats we're always hearing about." Jake surmised.

Stuart shook his head. "Rats don't live on tiny deserted islands in the middle of the ocean, Jake."

"And you're such an expert on the fauna of tropical islands?" Jake shot back.

Jeremy finally noticed what was going on behind him when the fifth rat landed on his head. He spun around and grunted in anger, tossing the cratures off his shoulders and skull. The other just laughed. Jake decided to rub it in. "Okay, the earphones explain how he couldn't hear them squeaking. His thick skull explains how he couldn't feel them. But how could he not smell them?"

"You obviously haven't smelled Jeremy lately." Nijubu chuckled.

"Where'd the vermin come from, anyway?" Jeremy questioned, still more annoyed than disgusted as he backed away from the tank to join the rest of the group.

"Good question." Matt said gravely. "They can't be native to this place. Look at them struggling through the soft sand. They're leaving pretty big trails in the beach, but look at the sand everywhere else. Totally smooth, like we're the first living things to be walking in it for ages."

"Brilliant deduction, Sherlock." said Stuart sarcastically. "That really improves upon my earlier statement of 'rats don't live on tiny deserted islands in the middle of the ocean'."

"They're all over the tank!" Nijubu pointed out. "It's like they're trying to envelop it."

"Yes, they're securing it for me." The unfamiliar voice came from the trees behind them. The Acid Hackers spun around to see a creepy man in a suit, lurking in the shadows of the palms and chuckling sinisterly. He had a few more rats crawling over him than Jeremy did and he seemed quite comfortable with it.

The Acid Hackers were stunned silent for a moment. Jake was the first to take a guess at their visitor's identity. "...Crispin Glover?"

"Huh?" The man responded. "I'm Swipeson. We've met in battle not long ago. Remember PiracyMetalman? Now I'm out for this Gamma piece of yours, but decided to make a little stop-over to swipe your new toy as bonus."

"You!" Jeremy growled. "How did you find us, and how do you know all that?"

Swipeson laughed. "Please, we knew where your base was. Did you really think we'd leave you alone without surveilance? Mere hours after my defeat I had some of my little friends here sneak into your warehouse with bugging equipment. Of course you didn't think rats crawling around in your filth was anything out of the ordinary. The Dark Council has been aware of everyhting you've been doing over the past few weeks."

"Well, that's disturbing." Nijubu stated the obvious.

"Don't worry, we deliberately ignored what you and that cat-eared freak were doing behind closed doors. We were out for information, not scarring mental images."

"Hey, we never did anything like that!" Nijubu protested. He noticed the others were looking at him skeptically. "Honest!"

"Seriously, the surveilance equipment was aimed more towards your more crafty and deceitful ally. The rest of you were of little interest to us." Swipeson looked directly at Stuart as he said this. Stuart had remained silent, gritting his teeth as soon as Swipeson arrived on the scene.

"Mister Hidden-Cyber-Weapons-Cache? No kidding, I can relate." said Jeremy, giving Staurt the stink-eye.

"This is all very fascinating." Matt lied. "But I'm thinking now's a good time to clobber rat-boy and get him to call off his horde so we can get going."

Swipeson snickered and sprinted off into the jungle. Many of the rats followed him. Jake and Jeremy started after him, but Matt called out to stop them. "He wants us to chase him! Look!" Matt was pointing to the tank, which was starting to power up and move.

"What the? The rats are driving?" a bewildered Jake supposed.

"Navis drive that thing. One of the rats must of snuck in a remote jack like they snuck the bugs into our base!" Matt reasoned. It seemed whatever navi was inside was having a little difficulty with the controls, but as the jets activated, the Acid Hackers realized they had no more time to try an make sense of it and dashed straight through the army of rats to board their ship before it took off.

Nijubu stopped when he noticed Johnny wasn't following them. He looked back and noticed Johnny was still laying back in the sand, sleeping. He must have gone out back before the rats showed up. Sighing, Nijubu ran back and scooped up the napping cat and turned back to the tank that was already lifting off the ground. Stuart and Matt were already inside with Jeremy and Jake hanging off the ladder. Jeremy screamed at Nijubu to hurry up as the crafted lifted up out of reach. When Nijubu got close enough he threw Johnny upwards. Jake caught him with his free arm, nearly dropped him and nearly had a heart attack. Miraculously, Johnny continued to sleep.

Nijubu was the tallest Acid Hacker but even jumping he couldn't reach Jeremy's outstretched legs. Thinking fast, Jeremy hoisted himself up, latched his legs onto the ladder rung, and hung himself upside down. He then took his earphones out for the first time since Nijubu met him and lowered them down for extra reach. Nijubu was touched at the desperate act to save him from being left behind, but knew the two spaghetti strand rubber wires were not going to help one bit. Instead Nij leapt up and grabbed a much sturdier rope, Jeremy's dangling ponytail.

Jeremy hollered out in pain and cursed Nijubu's non-existant parents with all the foul language in his personal dictionary. Nij ignored it and climbed up his squirming leader to the ladder. He then issued a heartfelt "thank you" and climbed into the pod behind Jake and Johnny. Jeremy groaned in exasperation, put his earphones back where they belonged, and hoisted himself back up to climb into the pod as the tank converted to full flight mode and blasted off towards Electopia.

Jeremy started to pull the hatch closed behind him when Matt stopped him again. "You may want to wait until we throw out the rest of our unwelcome passengers." and in explanation he tried to kick a couple of rats out the hatch. One fell out to its doom but the other latched onto Matt's leg. Many more were scurrying around the pod faster than could be caught. Stuart was at the pilot's seat desperately keeping the the agressive gnawers off the console. Now that the tank was under their control they were doing their best to make sure it stayed that way. As they chewed through some exposed wires, monitor screens and indicator lights went out. The Acid Hackers that were awake did their best to grab every filthy invader they could and threw it out the hole in the floor. Luckily, it was a small pod and there were five big defenders to handle the scooping and tossing. After a few minutes of the annoying struggle, there were no more rats to be seen or heard in the pod, though they suspected one or two were hiding in wait under the seats or something, but had enough wild rat chasing for one day and pulled the hatch shut.

Finally, they focused on the console and the sparking transmitter jammed in one of the jacks. The AH knew there was only one way to expel the navi that was still flying their hijacked ride. They pulled out their PETs and jacked into the remaining slots.

"You all did as well as we expected." Swipeson's voice announced to the navis as soon as they entered the tank's control system. "But we were hoping you wouldn't, but that doesn't mean we're stupid. This time we're ready for you. This time we know you. We had planned for defeating you flawlessly, and that was with all seven of you present, but now it's just five. Things are actually better than we could have hoped.

The Acid Hackers were looking around the console-ridden system for who to fight. Punk called out. "We we we! There's only one of you! Who's this we?"

"All of us."

And then a swarm of Ratty viruses scurried out from behind the control panels, and a single navi dropped down from above into the midst of the rat army. The navi's armor was grey and brown and scraggly fur poken out of every joint. Not surprisingly he had a long nose, pointy ears, and buck teeth. "I am Ratman.exe, and we will devour you."

* * *

6:44 PM (IDL) Mission Clock: 8:30

Meanwhile, the Net Guardians were in the middle of thwarting a hijacking of their own. The man in the craft Carlos recognized was a hairy old germanic green pants wearing lunatic calling himself Barnacle Wilhelm. He was the sole gunner within the black sonic jet with a pair of hand-held chainguns and those guns already lay in a mangled mess somewhere in the ocean behind them. Carlos got out in the open and absorbed all the bullets with his bullet-proof clothing, giving Cyros and Sam cover to use their sharp throwing skills with circular sawblades and metal chess pieces respectively to knock the weapons out of his hands. Now the hatch was closed, its pilots hiding inside while the Kappa Express was still being air-towed on its course to Electopia. The Net Guardians were still trying to figure out their situation.

"So, the 'Steel Jesus Republic' again?" David growled, smacking Carlos in the back of the head. "I'm so tired of you attracting your personal adversaries!"

Carlos pushed David aside with a look of severity on his face as he continued to hold his sword at the ready. "The SJR is dead! Right now all we know is that it's Wilhelm! The Getsumen Corps was hired by the SJR but were otherwise independent of them. As much as I hate to admit it, you're right about one thing. They're obviously here for me."

"Well, if they want to kill you, they're not trying very hard!" Cyros shouted. "You'd think that guy would remember how well his guns work on you and failing that they could always just drop us while we're up this high...not that I'm complaining, of course."

Before they could speculate further, they noticed an unnerving rise in pitch in their boat's jet engine. The deck began to rumble as well. At this point Moe spoke up. "Drillman told me about his memory of when he was last deleted. He was in control of a robotic tank and could have killed his opponent's operator easily, but instead allowed the guy to jack into the tank because he wanted to settle it with a netbattle."

"So you think these guys are as stupid as Drillman?" asked Jon.

"Hey! Give my navi some credit! He had personal reasons, his opponent defeated him once before, and he saw no honour in killing a helpless human!"

Jon nodded. "Yeah, and you say that's his deletion story? Like I said, stupid. That's good news for us. These jerks really do seem like they want to give us a fightin chance!"

Adrienne tapped one of the cables suspending the boat and instantly jerked it away and put it in her mouth. "Yup, they're using these wires to tap into our systems alright. Pretty mean shock from touching them." she said while blowing on her tingling finger.

"And from the sounds of things, they're starting to overload the engines!" David surmised. "I guess we might as well oblige them since they're kind enough to give us plenty of warning before they blow us up. Everyone, jack in!"

There was no argument, Carlos opened up the access panel and was first to plug in both his PETs, Adrienne, Cyros, David, Jon, and Sam all followed suit. David also plugged in the PETs of Ringman and Dust Man, not sparing any firepower. Moe, with his own navi elsewhere in the cyberworld, was indisposed. Moe looked up at the enemy jet and started thinking of ways he could help solve the next problem that would ensue.

Inside the boat's system, the NG navis quickly spotted the source of the engine's overheating. A massive burning navi just standing next to the engine interface was enough to affect it. Yamatoman became furious and pounded the blunt end of his spear on the ground to get the navi's attention. "Infernoman! Why are you Getsumen filth stalking me now?"

Infernoman grinned with his wide, jagged mouth and didn't budge from his spot. "You know full well, Yamatoman. The way you disgraced us will not stand."

The sound of rushing water behind them prompted the NG to spin around to meet a toga-wearing blue navi holding a trident and standing atop an aqua tower somehow. "We've been waiting for the day you would eventually venture into my territory. Of course only you would dare to anger the sea god and then try to sneak across his ocean!"

A yellow Sparkman-like navi stepped out of the shadows from the left of the party. "Yeah, like the fruitcake in the dress so eloquently explained, we found out you had access to this craft but it wasn't protected as well as your usual hangout, so we wired it with a homing device to alert us if you ever decided to take a trip on it again."

"And now that you have, you have fallen right into the Getsumen Corps' trap!" A green female navi holding a massive sword concluded. "Revenge will be ours at last!"

"Poseidonman, Bitman, and Gaia." Yamatoman introduced for his allies.

"Yeah, I'm familiar with bitch." Darklady said coldly while giving Gaia an icy glare.

"So where is Gekkoman? Surely this was his idea." Yamatoman continued.

"Right here." announced a voice, and a red samurai navi dropped down from above into the middle of the area, placing himself between Yamato and Inferno. "Come, my rival. We'll settle this once and for all. Your friends can keep themselves busy with the Getsumen Corps."

"What about us, Gekko? We all want a piece of him." Gaia complained.

"Tough." and with that Gekkoman snapped his fingers enveloping himself and Yamatoman in an eerie light. They began to fade from sight. Naomi rushed to her partner's aid, but Yamato calmly motioned to her to let him be.

"I can handle this imposter on my own. You just take out Infernoman before he destroys the boat." And in an another instant Yamatoman and Gekkoman had vanished to their own private battlefield.

The other invading navis were disappointed to have come all this way without facing their old rival, but settled for the new ones that were already bearing down on them. Gaia used her blade to block a sword attack from Serenade, but was left defenseless for an axe attack from an eager-for-revenge Darklady. Poseidonman released the fountain he was standing on towards Kingman, sweeping away the chess pieces he had just layed down. Kingman himself held his ground in the tidal onslaught and managed to launch himself above the waves in Checkmate form. Poseidonman held his trident out to meet the incoming object but didn't even see the bowlingball barreling into him from the side. Bitman was launching tasers at Metalman to keep him at bay but the tough-skinned navi charged straight through the paralyzing spikes, barely feeling their effects.

While the NG navis kept the free members of the Getsumen Corps busy, Naomi nimbly weaved through the chaos towards the true objective of Infernoman, who remained motionless next to the engine controls. He saw her coming though, and didn't need to sit perfectly still after all. He opened his cavernous mouth to belch out a volley of fireballs towards the incoming foe.

"Oniichan! Aura!" Naomi shouted while coming to a full stop in the air. Carlos couldn't send the chip fast enough, but luckily for her someone else was ready with a suitable defense, the fireballs exploded a short distance before Naomi on several chunks of garbage data and bugfrags launched by Dust Man.

"Didn't forget about us, did you?" said Ringman as he charged Infernoman with a ring cutter in his hand.

"Yes, actually, several times. Is there a good reason for you two to even be here?" Naomi questioned while preparing an Ice Missile.

"...harsh." Dust Man said sullenly just before being caught off guard by a blast of flame. Infernoman was strong, but was not prepared to defend against a three-way attack. While Ringman threw sharp boomerangs he could barely dodge, Naomi pegged him with a freezing missile that significantly weakened him. The engine began to return to normal temperature as the battle continued.

Outside on the deck the operators were optimistically pumping commands through their PETs, cheering as the fight continued in their favour. But Moe had enough time to realize the full extent of their plight. "Guys, what do you think these jerks are going to do when they're defeated? I doubt they're going to just lower us back into the ocean gently like good sports!"

The others' optimism suddenly turned into reverse. David hissed, "Win or lose, we're taking a swim! That's just great! Any suggestions on how to handle this?"

Moe nodded. "We'll have to hijack their plane somehow! They're in control until we do so!"

"I don't think all of us are going to fit inside that thing! The body may be bigger that our boat's but it looks like the cabin is only a four-seater!" Sam analyzed.

"We don't have to abandon ship!" Moe continued. "We just need to send a couple guys up to take it over long enough to get us down to sea level, cut the cables, then come back and we can continue on our way!"

"Moe, that's a nice plan and all, but I take it you haven't thought it all the way through yet!" Adrienne criticized. "The cables are electrified, so how is anybody going to climb up there? Then how do we get inside? And how do we get back after the cables are cut? And what if they know we're coming and cut the cables before we can reach the top?" she announced the problems she figured out at the top of her head, but everyone had the feeling there were a lot more.

"Well, you can leave part of that to me!" David declared as he pulled out his trusty lasso. Despite the wind, distance, and angle, he managed to snag the outside handle of the jet's hatch on his first try. David tied the other end to his seat and there was now a third, unelectrified tether connecting them to the plane. "If they cut the cables, this won't hold us up very well, so we'll just have to count on luck that they can't see us very well without the hatch open! We'll need a raiding party of at least three to take on the guys inside. I'm going myself, who's with me?"

Carlos was already grabbing onto the rop when David stopped him. "Appreciate the enthusiasm, but the rope would snap, fatso. You have two navis to operate down here anyway."

"Bakayarou, those are my enemies up there. You don't even know who you're facing."

"They're all our enemies right now. Why don't you just trust me for once when I say you're better off down here?"

Moe stepped up between Carlos and David. "I have nothing to do down here, so I'm best for the job anyway. I can olso get through that hatch with my personal pocket power drill."

David nodded solemnly. "Anybody else? You have to be sure about this, this will be a dangerous mission! Even if we can bring the boat down safely, there's no guarantee we'll all make it back...alive."

On that grave note, the third member of the raiding party stepped forward and bravely put his life on the line with an indifferent "Yeah, whatever. Let's get this over with." It was Sam's nameless, smoking parole officer. He had been sitting in his seat looking bored since the trip began. He didn't even budge when Wilhelm opened fire on them. He was certainly a man of steel nerves...or just completely passive and listless.

David was shocked, he turned to Moe, "Was that guy wearing a red shirt this whole time? I never noticed until just now."

"I think it's more reddish brown, but the sunset's making it look more red." Moe answered back.

"Close enough." David shrugged, he then grinned and turned to parole officer guy. "Alright, let's go! No time to lose!"

Meanwhile in the Getsumen jet, Infernoman's operator Kazami was piloting while Wilhelm, Chikyuko, and Joe struggled against the odds on their PETs. "These Net Guardians are as bad as Yamatoman and Naomi!" Wilhelm grumbled as his Poseidonman got pelted from various angles by Kingman's Poltergeist attack. "Maybe Carlos is sharing his secrets of incredible power with his teammates."

"Or maybe we just suck." Chikyuko sighed as she watched Gaia get deleted by Darklady's DarkMeteor. "Well, that was disappointing. Hey, where'd the pink guy go?"

"Damnit! Infernoman's out!" Kazami groaned. "Poseidon and Bit are going to be even more outnumbered now. Let's just cut the wires and our losses."

"What about the Gekko boss?" Joe reminded. "He can't just jack out like I'm about to." and with that Joe pulled the plug on Bitman.

"Hey! Don't leave Poseidonman alone you coward!" Wilhelm accused. One second later Poseidonman was deleted by seven simultaneous attacks from all directions. "Great, thanks lot! Screw that bossy autonavi, let's just get out of here!...What's that drilling noise?"

The hatch in the rear of the cabin suddenly blew off its hinges and three figures swung in from the side where they were hanging on. David jutted his shotgun into Wilhelm's neck while Moe delivered a kick to Joe's face and grabbed the spike on his arm before it could stab in retaliation. The parole officer just flashed his badge at Chikyuko who froze in a defensive stance. Kazami continued flying with his jaw agape.

"Alright, losers." adressed David. "Bring us down slowly and nobody gets hurt more than they deserve to be."

"Aaaw screw you man! We're already dead!" Kazami screamed maniacally as he jerked the plane into a nosedive. Surprisingly enough it was Chikyuko that dove to stop him first.

"You trying to get us all killed you nutjob?! Give me those controls!"

"You don't even know how to fly this thing, bitch!"

Down in the hovercraft, the others desperately hanged on to their seats as they began to do some barrel rolls and flips. Jon had to grab the still-sleeping hobo's collar once they were upside-down. Everyone was jacked-out by now except Carlos, who continued to focus on his PET the best he could while hanging on for dear life. "Thanks David, your raid really helped us out." he muttered under his breath.

As the ride got bumpier, a struggle broke out between David and Wilhelm, and Moe and Joe. The parole officer just kept standing there holding out his badge. Joe tried to impale Moe with a single powerful thrust of his spike hand, but Moe dodged at the last moment and Joe got his spike stuck in the fuselage. Moe got his chance to land a swift kick to Wilhelm's head while his attention was on David, freeing both of them up to pull Kazami and Chikyuko away from the controls.

"Hey pal, take the wheel, we're still a little busy here!" David shouted at the parole officer while trying to shake off Chikyuko who was biting his arm.

"Whatever" the man uttered as he slid into the seat and leveled off the flight path.

Down below, the rest of the gang started to relax as the twisting and flipping stopped. Sam, Cyros, Jon, and the now-awake hobo leaned over the edge ready to throw up. That's when they noticed they were less than a metre above the water. "Hunhh, good timing." Cyros groaned just before losing his lunch.

Sam used his PET to call up David's. "Hey, guess you guys managed to get things under control up there. We're ready to be let go now."

"Roger that." David responded. Kazami, Chikyuko, and Wilhelm were now all unconscious and Joe was still stuck in the wall cursing Moe and David with every breath. Moe was at the back ready to climb back down when he noticed a new problem.

"Uh, David? You tied your rope to something else before I drilled off the hatch, right?"

"Yeah, it should be on the grip to your left."

"Well, it isn't. I guess our turbulence shook it off."

David went wide-eyed. "Ah dangnabbit! That was my favourite lasso! How are we going to get down now?"

"We'll have to use the cables. Don't cut them just yet buddy, turn off the transmission first."

The parole officer was still examining the controls to figure out how to cut the cables, so he shrugged and started looking for this other thing. Finally, he found a swicth between the jacking ports and the computer interface that made all the computer lights go out. A message on the monitor confirmed that the connection through the cables was now dead.

Moe leaned out and tapped a cable. He got no shock so he nodded to David and leapt right onto it. Moe slid down the cable quickly and landed on the deck with a thud, and immediately began blowing on his rope-burned hands.

"Guess I'll have to cut the cables after you go down thus trapping myself up here. Whatever." The parole officer said indifferently.

"What? No, just put this thing on autopilot and come down the same way. Carlos can use his sword to cut the cables."

"Alright, whatever."

"Stop saying that!" David groaned in exasperation as he followed Moe down to the hovercraft.

The parole officer was about to switch the jet into autopilot when a large metal spike was thrust into the console. Five-Fingered-Joe was free, and wasn't happy.

"I'm going to keep you alive just long enough before this jet crashes, and then I'm going to make sure I kill you before the crash does. But every moment leading up to it will be filled with more intense pain than you've felt in your entire life!" Joe hissed in the most threatening tone he could make.

"Whatever" said the parole officer, and then he punched Joe swiftly in the jaw and hit the two buttons controlling the release for the cables.

"I'm gonna stab you so many new assholes, asshole!" Joe roared as he rushed the officer well trained in hand-to-hand combat. The two combatants met in a heated struggle, one frothing at the mouth, and the other bored and rolling his eyes.

Back in the hovercraft, the others watched in aprehension as the now untethered jet barrelled out of control away from them. Everyone held their breath as it spiraled into the ocean in the distance and hit the water with a firey explosion.

"Oh man...I can't believe he's gone..." said Sam, his voice breaking. "The guy that was watching over my shoulder 24 hours straight for the Officials is gone." He did his best to suppress a pesky smirk that was trying to appear on his face.

"I never got to tell him he was my best friend!" wailed the hobo.

"He sacrificed himself for our mission." David said solemnly. "We will never forget that brave man...whatever his name was. Well, we still have a mission to complete. At least now the current danger is over and we can continue to Electopia uninhibited."

"I'm still netbattling over here." stated Carlos.

Within an isolated pocket node of the boat's system, Yamatoman and Gekkoman continued to wage a fierce battle within a veil of moonlight Gekkoman had set up to increase his strength. It was clearly working for Yamatoman had not fought such a long battle with Gekkoman before. Spears clashed, beams fired, armies of jingasa-capped foot soldiers were cut down by waves of claw-shaped boomerangs. Neither warrior showed signs of slowing.

Yamatoman had set down a trio of StoneCubes to keep Gekko at bay and took a moment to taunt him. "Your vessel has been destroyed, your allies deleted, and your human accomplices most likely dead. You have no escape, and you know you can never defeat me. Why don't you surrender?"

Gekkoman crushed one of the cubes with his spear and continued forward passionately. "What a ridiculous question. I could never surrender to you. Even with my head deleted my body must continue forward to accomplish its task. This is our way."

"What gives you the right to claim adherence to a code of honour, ronin?" Yamato retorted before propelling one of the Cubes straight into Gekko with an AirShot.

The scarlet samurai quickly regained his footing and extended his naginata suddenly to land a heavy stab to his blue counterpart's chest. "Do not assume you know everything about me. Honour is the very reason I must destroy you."

"If you really believed in that you would have taken your own life long ago after all the times I disgraced you." Yamatoman chuckled as he recalled his own spear to land a return strike to Gekko's shoulder, he then activated a Recovery chip Carlos had sent him.

"You have only disgraced yourself in our past battles! You have never faced me alone, always letting your girlfriend get in the way of respectable combat! I have always been superior to you and I cannot rest until I prove it!!"

Gekkoman's fervor rose by the second. He launched a crescent-shaped bolt straight at Yamatoman, who reflected it by spinning his spear. Gekkoman spun his own spear to reflect the spearhead-shaped sonic boom and suddenly the two were in a ping-pong match with the growing and quickening bolt of energy. Gekkoman did appear to have the upper hand in speed and strength; an advantage from both his auto-navi nature and the boost care of the moonlight filling the battlefield.

"Assuming for a moment you could actually defeat me, what then? You're trapped! There's nowhere for you to go!"

"That is of no importance to me! All I care about is your defeat! And since you seem to believe you follow bushido so well then you will see to it that it is permanent!"

"It is because I follow it so well that I will not be defeated. I have my master, I have my loyalty, and I have my purpose. You are just a lunatic with selfish ambitions!"

"I am THE lunatic! Gekko Koushen!" Gekkoman reflected the bolt one more time and immediately followed with a deadly beam from his moon-shaped crest.

"The same old tricks, Yamato Koushen!" Yamatoman sidestepped the reflected bolt, allowing it to sear past him, exploding in a spectacular fireball behind him, he then met Gekkoman's crest beam with one of his own. The heads of the two energy streams pushed against each other, with Gekkoman's moonlight-empowered stream winning easily. Yamatoman kept holding it off and moved slowly to the last StoneCube, and once he was in front of it...

"NObeam3!" Carlos roared as he sent his last chips.

Yamatoman crossed his arms, and his shadow on the Cube, already in sharp definition due to the moonlight and the beams of light clashing before him, inverted into a beam of silhouettes as bright as the sun. The NObeam blasted through both Koushen streams and straight through Gekkoman, who screamed in pain as the energy scorched through him. Paralyzed, he could not avoid Yamatoman's final attack, a direct stab through the chest with the Yamato Spear. Gekkoman hanged in the air, impaled and deleting.

"We fought on your terms, one on one, and you still lost. Do you still claim to be superior? Will you finally accept your dishonour and end it all?" Yamatoman calmly asked his fallen adversary as he withdrew his spear.

"N...n...n-" Gekkoman stammered as he tried to speak.

"No? Of course not. I will have to end this myself!" The Blue Sun warrior's spear turned into a sword and he rose it to behead the Red Moon warrior once and for all.

"N..N-New Moon!" Gekkoman blurted out just as the blade fell and the ethereal light that filled the area instantly vanished, resulting in pitch-darkness. Yamatoman's sword sliced thin air. It seemed Gekkoman vanished along with the moonlight.

"Master Carlos! I need Naomi in here quickly to run her X-Scanner!" Yamatoman attained a defensive stance and focused his senses to detect hidden presence within the darkness.

Carlos furrowed his thick eyebrows as he examined the readings on his PET. "There may not be a need. The computer now only registers one navi in the system. Either he deleted himself or he teleported away...somewhere."

"The boat is not connected to any kind of network! Where could he go?"

"Good question. I wouldn't believe Gekkoman had the guts to actually delete himself after all that but making an escape in such an isolated system is impossible..." Carlos sent Naomi in to run her scans just to make sure, but there really was no more sign of Gekkoman in the system, not even deleted data fragments, no residual teleportation activity signs either. It was as if he simply vanished into thin air.

"I think it's over now." David offered, patting his rival on the shoulder. "You may have gotten us into this, but you did well getting us out of it. Let's get some rest, we'll be in Electopia in a couple hours."

After some hesitation, Carlos jacked out both his navis. He looked ahead at the setting sun on the horizon, then up at the sliver of a moon becoming visible in the sky above them. "It's not over yet. He's still out there, craving revenge." he muttered to himself. "Well, he can come back as many times as he wants...because-"

"You're not going to say that weird catch phrase of yours again, are you?" David groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Don't interrupt, cowboy!" Carlos barked, smacking David upside the head. "As I was saying, no one can stop Mr.Domino!"

* * *

7:19 PM (IDL) Mission Clock: 9:05

"Flash! They're getting closer, aren't your batteries recharged yet?"

"Punk, I'm pumping out Time Stoppers as fast as possible here you're just going to have to take them out faster!"

"Grrarr!! There's no end to the pests!"

"We have to get to Ratman, he's controlling the lot of them."

"Zaworahs Zuhakhimus Poohlahnt? <What do you think we're trying to do, Plant?>"

The Acid Hackers had already expended much of their strength just trying to hold off the endless Ratty army Ratman was swarming at them. Flashman was the most useful in this matter with his ability to freeze the entire horde at once with a single flash, but even then the rodents could not be deleted fast enough, and when they were moving at full speed the slower navis like Plantman and Desertman had a tough time even hitting a target.

"This is getting tiresome damnit! I'm making a break for it, time to make rodent roadkill!" Punk declared this and tucked into rolling mode to bowl through every rat straight to Ratman. The others shouted at him to stop, even Jeremy thought it was a dangerously stupid plan, but Punk had the skills to match his balls. He did a zig-zag sweep as he went along, mashing as many rats into paste as he could in the process.

"You will all pay for each of my bretheren you've killed, insects! That includes the ones in the real world!" Ratman threatened from atop his perch at the tank controls.

Punk passed the horde, hit the wall leading up to the platform Ratman was on and started rolling up the vertical plane, his spike treads tearing up the surface. "I'll have you sucking cheese through a straw you mangy freak!"

Plantman noticed the nice path Punk paved through the Ratties. "Beast, Flash, you guys have to start handling the viruses on your own, My vines are too slow to catch them so I'm going to help Punk with the main monster!"

Beastman was leaping, slashing, and deleting Ratties at blinding speed, but had time to turn to Plant with an annoyed reaction. "Enh? Why shouldn't I get the important job?"

Flashman was flash-teleporting throughout the confused rat crowd to keep them away from them and occasionally cutting them up with an ElecSword. "We DO have the important job, we're fast enough for this much virus busting, so we have to be the ones to do it!"

"Zwha Dzooaidzoo?"

"You get down and dirty." Nijubu answered his navi's question. "Clearly, the best way we can help here is get sand everywhere and slow those pests down. Here comes a SandStage!"

Desertman moaned in affirmation and disintegrated into the ground, his sand starting to permeate the area. Dust flew into the air as the scurrying viruses began to struggle to move. Beastman's foot sank upon landing from a jumping claw attack, causing him to trip a little himself. He recovered quickly enough and resigned to stay in place for a while. He muttered some curses at the new plan and split up his limbs for a Wild Rush. Flashman was not as hindered thanks to his teleport ability, but took advantage of the slower rats by throwing HeavyShakes into large groups, creating massive shaking dumbells knocking viruses all over the place.

Up above Punk had met face to face with Ratman but was finding him to be as quick as his virus companions. He was attacking entirely with Ratton series chips which Punk avoided easily, but Punk's YoYo chips were avoided just as gracefully. The determined adversaries zipped around the platform, both leaving after-images in their wake.

Ratman got lucky and tripped Punk with his tail, Punk landed in rolling mode and spun around Ratman, he was about to plow into him when Ratman jumped straight up and Punk drive under him...and got stuck there. "The hell!?" was all Punk could utter when he realized he was stuck in a ball. Ratman landed on top of him and snickered, he then backflipped off gracefully and summoned another ratton in each hand.

"You're stuck in a rat trap, of course. All that's left now is to clean it out!" Ratman let loose the pair of rat-shaped explosives which hit Punk dead on...and did no damage to his hard spiked shell.

"Yeaaah HAH! Whattaya gonna do now ratface? You really got me right where ya want me!" Punk spouted muffled taunts from within his fortified prison.

"A tough nut to crack, aren't you? Mr. Swipeson, a nutcracker, please." A massive BreakHammer materialized in Ratman's claws. Punk's taunts turned to curses as Ratman reared back, but just before he could swing something caught his leg and he tripped, it was a mass of vines.

"Thanks for holding still for a moment!" Plantman thanked his enemy as he scaled the wall with the help of his vines anchored on Ratman's legs. Ratman hissed in rage and started gnawing on the spiked ropes to cut him loose, but Plantman had pulled himself to the top before that could happen and opened with a charged blast of WoodPowder. Ratman staggered around the platform from the hallucinigenic effects of the pollen. Grass grew over the panels including the spot Punk was glued to, negating the trap and allowing him to unfold.

"Daaamn, do you know how tough it is to stay crammed in a little ball for more than ten seconds? These limbs are gonna be sore for days." Punk wiggled his chain-like upper arms like wet noodles. "Hey, looks like our dancing partner is shuffling pretty close to the edge."

"Why that's dangerous, allow me to knock some sense into him." Plantman smiled sadistically and received an ElemLeaf chip, after a second of charging with his PlantWeed, the cannon grew a bit, and had already absorbed additional energy from the grass at his feet. Plantman took aim at the swaggering vermin and let loose a devastating green flame of pure wood-elemental power. Ratman was knocked clear off the edge and fell five levels into the Ratty-infested sand below.

"Nice one." Punk complimented. He looked over the edge to laugh at their enemy's painful end, but was surprised to see Ratman not deleted, and getting healthier. Dozens of Ratties swarmed over their master, sacrificing their data to heal what he had lost. Ratman was already on his feet and laughing sinisterly.

"We still have our work cut out for us, it seems." Plantman sighed. "At least we got him away from the controls."

"Uh, yeah! Everything accordin' to plan!" Punk gave a thumbs up. "You stay here and fix whatever he did to navigation. I'm goin' down there to tear him a new one." And with that he balled up again and rolled down the wall the way he came up. Plantman nodded and headed for the control panel, taking the break to recover much of the earth energy he just squandered in the last attack.

Ratman had nearly fully recovered and the Ratties began to disperse, he noticed they were having trouble moving though. "What's that my pretties? You don't like the sand? Well, we knew there would be sand, didn't we? That's why we kept these chips."

"WindBox!" announced Swipeson, and a cubic wind-making machine materialized between Ratman and the Acid Hackers.

"Zwuh-oh"

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Sandy." Flash gulped as the WindBox blew a sandstorm towards them. "Well, technically I could since my mouth and voicebox aren't made of dust, but you get the point."

The wind cleared away all the sand and drove it full foce into Flash, Beast, and Desert. Desertman didn't receive any damage from being hit by fragments of his own body, but was finding it difficult to keep his form solid with it being blown all over the place. The storm stopped when a spiky red beach ball landed on the WindBox smashing it to pieces. Punk immediately sprung out and punched Ratman into the far wall with his extendable arm.

"That's right RatShit! Don't forget about me!"

The Ratties all scurried to their master's aide, but he recovered himself and had them turn around to attack simultaneously, sending a massive wave of Rattons at Punk even he couldn't dodge, though it would turn out he wouldn't have to, as the ground in front of him exploded, leaving a small chasm into which all the Rattons fell into.

"Magnum3, don't you just love it?" Nijubu smiled.

"I do NOW." Jeremy laughed.

Beastman and Flashman began to hammer at the Ratties from accross the chasm with VarSword Sonic Booms and ZapRings respectively. Ratman grew increasingly angry and swiftly dashed the chasm, leaping over it, and landing heel-first into Flashman's jaw. Flashman ws left sprawled on the ground in pain and Ratman quickly moved onto Beastman, meeting him claw to claw to fang to fang and matching his speed easily.

"Grrr, you're not as pathetic as you look." Beastman commented as he tried to block and dodge Ratman's swipes as best he could.

Ratman knew Punk and Desertman were quickly drawing in closer to help Beastman, so he finished it quickly with his signature move. "Fear Incisor!" Before Beastman knew what was happening he had been bit twice in his right shoulder. It was no ordinary nibble and Beastman fell back in pain, clutching his badly torn shoulder with his left paw as his right hanged useless at his side. He could feel more of his HP dwindling slowly away and noticed some kind of degenerative poison was left behind in the bite marks. He roared in fury.

"Your filthy disease-ridden tactics won't save you forever, vermin!" Punk bellowed as he charged Ratman for a scissor-swipe with both his arms in chain-mode. His attack was stopped short however, as once again he found himself stuck in place, this time with sharp crushing pain in his legs. The sudden snap caused him to fall right on his face. He turned his head down towards his feet already knowing what he was going to see clamped over his shins. Sure enough, it was a deluxe-sized classic mechanical mousetrap. Ratman apparently had more peculiarly anti-rat tools with him than the glue trap he rolled into earlier.

Desertman was the last navi left standing to face Ratman now and decided to take a defensive approach. He erected sandstone pillars around his recovering teammates to keep the gathering Ratty scavengers at bay. While he was worrying about his allies, he was left open for another well-plotted attack from his enemy. Ratman struck the head-shaped pile of sand with a simple AquaSword, turning the dusty mass into sopping mud. Unable to move his core away quickly enough within the muddy prison, Desertman took the full brunt of the next attack, a pumped-up Tornado chip, and an smack of his tail for good measure. Desert was finally able to retreat back underground in much pain before Ratman could charge up another Fear Incisor.

"You pathetic creatures are putting up less of a fight than we thought! Of course we were expecting more of you." Ratman taunted as he began hacking away at the pillars protecting the now standing Flashman.

"We're more than enough for YOU to handle." Flashman said just before teleporting out of his defensive cage and some distance behind Ratman. Ratman spun around expecting a direct attack only to see Flashman with his back turned and holding his arms in the air. An instant later an intense electrical surge coursed through his body. The surge came from the pillars behind him, Flashman had used the ThunderBolt chip.

"Urgh, not a bad move. But you only had one of those." Ratman skewered the gloating electric navi with a trio of SideBamboo from multiple sides, then sent Ratties in to finish him off. "So now what's saving you?" As if in answer, a DynaWave knocked him off his feet and Beastman jumped forward into view, his right arm now completely missing. "What? Did you chew off your own shoulder or something?"

"Yeah..." Beastman growled sinisterly.

"Didn't that hurt?"

"Not nearly as much as you're about to. RRRAAARRR!!" Beastman rose his left arm in the air, his three metal claws were rapidly replaced by a Sword, a WideSword, and a LongSword. In a flash of light a LifeSword then appeared over his entire paw. Beastman rushed the stunned Ratman with the Program Advance.

"NOO!! Ratman screamed in terror and in response all his remaining Ratties, having finished deleting Flashman, scurried into Beastman's path and forced him to use the powerful blade on them instead. In one might swipe all the viruses were deleted. "MY PRETTIES!!" In blind fury Ratman countered the now weaponless Beastman with another Fear Incisor, this one directly to Beastman's throat.

"Grgk! You'll get yours, rodent!" Beastman tried to initiate a Wild Rush, but found the bites fused his head to his body, Jake saw no choice but to jack out and start repairs before the poison could do any more damage.

Ratman was now painfully aware he was outnumbered and retreated to a far corner of the system, hiding like a rat in a hole. From the shadows he could see Plantman lowering himself down from the controls by his vines, apparently having fixed the problems he caused. Desert was helping Punk out of the trap and healing them both with his saved Recov chips. "Swipeson, what do we do? They're regrouping and I need more pretties!"

"We cannot give up now. I have to return to the Council victorious or not at all. There's still the HyperRat."

"Yes, of course. Send me the chips now. When they gather together, I can delete them all in one shot!"

Punk was finally free from the rattrap and was already looking around desperately for any sign of Ratman. "Hmph, gone into hiding now? Well, I have a way of fishing him out that'll be real poetic justice!"

"Poetic justice?" Plantman exclaimed, bewildered. "Punk just uttered two of the least likely words I ever thought I'd hear him say."

"Very funny, flower power. Jeremy, time to out-rat the rat!"

"Loud and clear! Ratton! One, Two, Three, Hit it!" Jeremy loaded up the three Ratton series chips in sequence, causing them to merge together in Punk's hand as an extremely potent Hyper Ratton explosive.

"Zwoan Zheeshee Zhahaoumin Zaamairawah?" Desertman pointed out the obvious problem. <Won't he see that coming a mile away?>

"Yeah, he'll avoid it easily. All it'll do is point us in the right direction. You could have just used a Ratton1 for that." Plantman added.

"You dorks have no sense of style!" Punk scoffed and spiked the HyperRat on the ground, causing Plant and Desert to cringe in terror. The motorized bomb remarkably did not explode on impact and instead spun in place for a second before making a beeline for the corner where Ratman was hiding. "See? Now get ready to charge in full force!"

It seemed Ratman no longer desired to hide, as something emerged from the shadows heading straight for the HyperRat. As it got closer they could see it was another HyperRat, but much bigger, at least as tall as Punk. It collided with Punk's Rat and kept going through the system-shaking explosion, towards the remaining Hackers.

"What the hell? Why is his bigger?" Punk clamored, getting ready to make a break for it.

"Probably the same reason my Wood-based chips are bigger and stronger than others'," said Plantman. "Battlechip Ability. It makes sense he'd have the ability to power-up Rattons..."

"ZRUN!!"

Desertman went underground and Punk rolled away, but Plantman stood his ground and planted his vines. Ratman laughed at the pitiful escape attempt of the first two navis, knowing the explosion would take them both out no matter how they hid, and he knew Plantman was trying to cop out of the attack with a Plant Barrier. He readied a NorthWind chip for the last moment before the Rat would strike.

At the moment of truth Ratman summoned his NorthWind, and for a split second he could see Plantman's leaves blowing away in the wind before the giant Ratton hit him dead on, rocking the system with a blinding explosion. The force knocked Punk clear off the edge and into the abyss, deleting him, the ground in a ten panel radius was shattered, and Desertman's core was erupted from below the surface. The dimly glowing black ball landed roughly on the ground outside the blast radius not far from Ratman. When the smoke subsided, Ratman could see Plantman had either jacked out at the last second or had been vaporized. Desertman's core was all that remained on the field, weakly pulling grains of sand over itself to reform a body.

"Pitiful. It's time to finish this once and for al-gkk!!" Ratman's confident words were cut short by a stinging and numbing sensation all through his body. He fell forwards, paralyzed and caught sight of what was behind him that immobilized him. A Yellow Flower pouring out pollen of paralysis. It seemed Plantman placed his vines in the ground for another reason besides collecting a barrier. Ratman struggled to free himself from Plantman's legacy before Desertman could recover and land the finishing blow.

"Z-Zee...Haa...Z-Zwozss..." Desertman summoned the last of his strength to launch his signature attack, Lion Head. The pair of sandy jaws slammed into the Rat's helpless body, deleting him and ruining Swipeson's master plan.

"N-No! It can't be! I was prepared this time! I had everything I needed!" Swipeson began to freak out over his loss. The Acid Hacker ops could still hear him through the tank's communicator. Jake got fed up and pushed the button to send his own transmission.

"Man, what's your problem with us anyway, jerk? What do we have to do with your stupid Dark Council anyway?"

"You know full well why I'm here! Or if you don't why don't you ask your dear friend Stuart?"

"Stuart? This is just about those weapons in his database?" Nijubu guessed, looking back at a somewhat sheepish Stuart.

"Those were Darkness Technologies Weapons! Weapons your friend stole from us when he abandoned us!"

"Woah, abandoned? You were involved with these guys, Stu?" Matt asked, confused.

"More than involved, he's the heir to the company!" Swipeson screamed. Nijubu, Jake, and Matt were wide-eyed with shock. "Without Stuart Van Dassamen, there would be no Dark Council! We are here because of him, remember that!" and Swipeson then finally cut the connection, the remote transmitter he had his rats place in the jacking port burst into flames. They were now alone, staring at the embarrassed company heir they just learned they were sharing a netcriminal team with.

"Pfft, what's the big shocker?" Jeremy said, rolling his eyes. "Like I said all along, this guy's had 'wallstreet' written all over him from the start."

Nijubu's jaw dropped at Jeremy's ridiculous claim. "Stuart? The guy that dresses like a farmer? That Stuart has 'wallstreet' written all over him?" Stuart looked down at his faded blue jeans, green T-shirt, and ballcap and shrugged in acknowledgement.

Jeremy nodded. "I mean come on, fancy computer security and advanced cyber-weapons? I knew he was holding out on us the whole time. Alright deep pockets, fork over the inheritance. Share with your starving team mates."

"Jeremy, I'm NOT rich." Stuart stressed, knowing he was a long way from getting through to his leader.

"Don't pull that BS with me. Heirs have inheritances! The word 'heir' is right in the WORD 'in-heir-itance', so come on! I'll accept cheques, cash, or credit cards." Jeremy continued to hold out his hand obnoxiously awaiting something to be placed in it.

"I don't have an inheritance because I ran from those guys before I could get it! The current Dark Council killed my father and were obviously going to kill my brother and I as well so they could get control away from my family. Pharon and I were in Oceopia when we found out through loyal sources and we split up on ships towards Electopia and Netopia in anticipation of the assassins, but on the way my own boat got sucked into a storm and wrecked." The others were in shocked silence listening to the intriguing story, even Jeremy shut up for a minute.

"Just prior to that my source informed me the assassins were on the trail of my ship, likely assuming Pharon and I would stick together, so I was kinda glad as I thought I was going to drown in the waves that they'd figure we were both dead and lose track of him. The next thing I knew I awoke on the Aegean shore just a few hundred kilometres south of Crescent City..."

Jeremy wondered why he trailed off. "Yeah? And then what happened?"

Stuart was surprised. "Uh, that's where you MET me, remember? It was early last year? You were trying to use a metal detector to find ancient Greek artifacts? You found me half naked, bruised, bloody, and covered in seaweed? You stood there pointing and laughing at me for ten minutes?"

"Ohh yyeaahh...Good times man, good times!"

Stuart's eye twitched and he nodded. "Uh, yeah. We sorta became friends after that. How come you never wondered why I washed up on shore like that?"

Jeremy shrugged. "I've partied pretty hard in my day, I know what it's like."

Matt was rubbing his temple exhaustedly at Jeremy's attitude. "Right, and even after meeting him in that state you thought he was some kind of rich oil tycoon?"

"You dorks just have no sense of deduction! Now if you'll excuse me, there hasn't been any navi at the helm for several minutes and I'm kinda surprised we haven't crashed and burned yet." he then calmly took the pilot's seat and jacked Punk back into the system. "Yeah, I know it's a mess in there. It'll hold up. Now get us back on course!"

Nijubu sighed and patted Stuart on his shoulder. "Well don't worry. That guy's words had no effect on us. You're an Acid Hacker no matter what you were in the past."

Jake affectionately punched Stuart in the arm. "Yeah, to hell with Swipeson. Or should I say 'Asswipeson'? Damnit! I wish I thought of that name before he cut contact with us! Asswipeson! That's so awesome!"

Matt nodded. "I can imagine you're planning to get back at those Dark Council pricks eventually too, and you can count us in to help. We all have a bone to pick with them now."

Stuart smiled and chuckled lightly. "Thanks guys. But let's just forget about Darkness Technologies for now. We have more immediate concerns."

And so both the Acid Hackers and the Net Guardians continued on their collision course towards Electopia, battle-worn and unprepared for the challenges awaiting them there. The Darklight Mercenaries were already on the case, and Fate and Vidal are catching up quickly from the shadows. The giant EXE remains safe and hidden, but who will be the first to unearth its secrets? Find out the ultimate fate of the Gamma Pieces in part 2 of "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad Cyberworld"!

*Intermission: Let's all go to the lobby and get ourselves some snacks!*

Stories main