Annihilation
Disappearances
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The cold stone hallways of an aged Sharoan citadel were dark and quiet this night, but they merely hid the hospitable light and warmth of one of its modernly renovated inner chambers. The room featured a well-made bed, a closet filled with mostly black and red clothing, shelves with gadgets, trophies, photos and other assorted memorabilia, and a whole wall of computer equipment with the whole building's sole inhabitant drifting asleep in her chair in front of one of the monitors.
Kalinka Cossack was startled awake by the sound of the phone ringing. Fretfully, she answered it, expecting her nightly call from her father at the lab, warning her a bit late of his intentions to put in overtime. She was pleasantly surprised to find an old friend on the other end of the line.
"Hey Kalinka, it's Moe. How are things at home?"
"Moe, good to hear from you." She answered cheerfully, but wearily. "The reconstruction up here is pulling along. Dad and I are both pretty busy, you know."
"Sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting something important then." Moe apologized. He had always been a little nervous about bothering Kalinka back from when she was his boss.
"Not at all. We do need to rest sometimes...though my father needs to be reminded about that a lot. What about you, isn't it early morning there?"
"Yeah, I have a couple assignments to get to today, but one of them...well it almost seemed like a Net Guardian job to me. When was the last time you spoke with David and the others?" Moe asked uneasily, wondering if he was venturing into uncomfortable territory.
The breakup of the team and less-frequent contact didn't seem to bother Kalinka at all though. "Oh, progress reports every week. They've been taking up Request Board jobs that need extra manpower but haven't gotten into anything too serious. What happened? Did the AH finally surface again?"
"Actually, no. When I said this could be a job for them, I was actually thinking of...well I called you first for a reason. You haven't found our extra navi a new operator yet, have you?"
Kalinka came to a small realization and turned a concerned gaze to the purple PET hooked into the charger at the far end of the table. "Ahh, no. I've interviewed a few applicants, but you know her..."
"Scared them all away?"
Kalinka nodded even though Moe couldn't see it. "On purpose, I think. I don't think it's that she misses Adrienne. It's like she would prefer to go solo again, but...I'm not sure I should set her loose like that, there's no telling what she would do."
Moe was surprised by the serious tone. "Huh? It's not like she's a villainess or anything. She was a Net Guardian, you trusted her back then."
"Yeah, that was before I had her in a lab though. I never realized what kind of...thing...she was. She's a Darkloid of some sort, but none of the data we have on them completely matches up with her. She's an abnormality, and I don't know how much of it has to do with the original Darkman or with Adrienne's tampering. One thing's clear though, her powers tie in closely to her personality, just like with other Darkloids on record."
This made Moe's blood run cold. He had always thought of Darklady as a powerful, trustworthy ally. Psychotic maybe, but somehow working with the Net Guardians had led him to view psychosis as mere rambunctiousness. "Well...maybe this isn't the best thing to ask after all..."
"You wanted Darklady to do something for you? What is the mission anyway?"
"Can't say for sure yet. It involves the Undernet, navi disappearances, and in all likelyhood, Dark Chips. Could be a search and rescue or a search and destroy depending on what the investigation turns up, but given the threat of Darkness possession, I thought it would be safer for all involved to conscript her to go in first since she's immune to corrpution."
Kalinka sighed. "That's an interesting way of putting it. Well, she's my responsibility right now, and she's been bugging me to let her out so she can get some action. Send me the coordinates and I'll operate her through the search myself."
"Really? If you're not sure about her, I'm sure Overdrive and Drill would be okay on their own..."
"No, it'll be fine. I've rigged her PET with a forced return function. I'll just call her back if she...gets too carried away."
Moe chuckled. "Well, that should give you all of five minutes if you're lucky. Better hurry. I'll e-mail you the directions now. Let me know what you find in that sector...and I can't belive I'm saying it for Darklady's sake, but be careful."
"Don't worry, I'm not about to lose her before I can find out what makes her tick. Good luck with your missions."
"Thanks Kalinka. Take care."
After they both hung up, Kalinka got up and reached for the sleeping PET, the dormant navi inside seemed to pull at her with its power and intensity, begging for release and battle. The clock on the wall weakly suggested that this task was best set aside until the morning. Kalinka ignored it. She didn't need sleep anyway, she told herself.
* * *
Moe stood up from his chair and started to head for the door. His work had been somewhat dull since both his own comrades and their enemies, the Acid Hackers had dropped off the radar. Still...it didn't mean he wouldn't be needed sooner or later. He was halfway through the door when he heard the phone ring. "Why would anyone be calling this early?" he asked himself while he picked the phone up. "Hello?" He said, only noticing how tired he was when he heard his own half-asleep voice.
"Good, you're still there Moe." a somewhat distorted male voice came from the line. Moe kept on edge, but he was fairly sure he knew who it was. The Official Netbattler called Smith. He figured Smith wasn't really his name. Nobody had seen the guy or even heard his voice unaltered. It seemed odd but Moe just figured he was a shut-in that liked to lay on the melodrama. Moe wasn't about to hang up, but he wasn't sure he'd like what Smith had to say either. He'd heard some...questionable rumors about his Netbattling tactics. Putting his Navi through frequent Darkchip use was one of them.
"It's kinda early Smith, do you need to cancel the meeting?" Moe replied. He was starting to wake up a little. It appeared Drillman was too. He'd been in sleep mode for the past hour or so, waiting with Moe for anything they might be needed for. But now the screen of the PET attached to Moe's leg was lit up. Drillman went to speak, but then remained silent when he noticed that his operator was in the middle of a call. He half hoped that something on the net had imploded, and they'd be needed to go catch some criminal.
"Actually this is the meeting. I don't know what you've been told, but I won't be able to be there in person. Now about the Acid Hackers." Smith said. The tone of his voice made it unclear if he was being serious, or just using the name to get Moe's attention. "It seemed like they'd dropped off the face of the planet. I was starting to wonder if they could run from us forever."
Moe held his breath. Though it wasn't the kind of correspondence he was expecting, it was starting to sound like this was the breakthrough they had been waiting for...
Smith continued. "Maybe not. Our agents actually apprehended one of the Acid Hackers a few days ago." He pointed this out with little enthusiasm.
Moe nearly jumped. "What!? Who!"
"Johnathan...erhm...Funkyhouse." He recalled, showing some uncertainty about the name.
"So...why wasn't I informed?" Moe demanded, feeling somewhat cheated to find out about this now.
"Because he was alone, had no Flameman, and had no idea where the other members were. He quit the team." Smith summarized curtly. "We couldn't even hold him, and the find didn't tell us anything new except that he quit the team. At least we now have more evidence to support the theory that the AH are no longer. I've stepped up on the attempts to track each member individually in case they did break up."
Moe wasn't sure what to make of it. If the AH were no longer a threat, then what was? What about Blackbelt? "I don't get it, if you couldn't hold Johnny, then what are you going to do with the rest of them? What's the point of the search now?"
If Moe could see through the phone, he'd have seen Smith shake his head and give Moe's reasoning a disgusted look. "'Johnny' as you call him was ancillary, there just wasn't enough evidence that he even committed crimes with them. Now if we could get our hands on the actual hackers from the group, like say...Matthew Gemini...then we might have something to convict them on. There's also a better chance that if Blackbelt allied himself with any of the team's remnants, it would be the more competent ones."
If anyone had bothered to look hard enough into Smith's past, then they'd know that odds were he didn't really believe that.
"So you think Matt's the best lead right now?" Moe asked, spirits rising a little. He was eager to catch the rest of the hackers, and he knew Smith would be able to help.
"Well I'm pursuing all options, but...you wouldn't have any more information that could help lead us to him, would you?"
Moe took a few seconds to look through his own files. He didn't think he had anything that this investigator didn't already know, until he noticed the brief on the newest mission he had received last night. The news of navis going missing was accompanied by sightings of people walking around like zombies. Almost as if they were in a trance.
"Maybe, but you're not going to like it." Moe said to the Official. "There's a recent possible MO match in...the Undernet." Saying it sent a chill down Moe's spine. Not because he was afraid of it, but because so much was revolving around that one place latetly. He'd barely gotten off the phone with Kalinka, and now this.
"The Undernet?" Smith's distorted voice asked curiously. "What would he be doing there?"
"Who knows what anyone is doing there? Probably laying low while still trying to gather information on whatever he's working towards now. All I know is he can hypnotize, and there have been sightings of navis in a trance in the area."
Smith was lucky this was a phone call. Moe would probably start to get suspisous of him if he could see the wide grin spread across is face.
"Pacific sector, you need directions?" Moe asked in an almost sarcastic tone. Judging by rumors about Smith, any Undernet was the last place he'd need directions to. He had to be buying those Darkchips he subjected his poor Navi to using somewhere.
"No. I know of a few ways in. I believe the connection you mean is on the edge of the western Ameropean network." Smith said nonchalantly.
"Yeah. I'm sure you do. Alright. Good luck finding...anything." Moe said as he pushed the "end" button on the phone and placed it down in the charger. Now that the call was over, Drillman finally spoke up.
"What was that all about?" He asked, having only heard Moe's side of the call.
"That Smith offical. Acting as odd as they say. He had some interesting news. They found one of the Acid Hackers. He'd broken off from the group and they couldn't charge him though." The thought of one of them getting away with all they'd done would be upsetting at most times. But Moe had other things on his mind. "Anyway... He's looking for Matt. Said he was the best lead on the others."
"Do you believe him?" Drillman asked, noticing Moe's tone.
"Do I believe him..." Moe said, more to himself than Drillman. It was a good question. he supposed if nothing else, he gave him the benifit of the doubt. But he'd see after they were all done in the Undernet.
* * *
When much of the world hears the word "Undernet", the pacific sector is what they think of. Every city on earth had its illegally-run servers and well-hidden access points where the scum of the internet gathered, but only one such area was supported and maintained by the very society its inhabitants abhored. This massive multi-tiered conglomeration of Electopian and Netopian networks represented the lawless international waters between them. Its busiest locations housed the homepages of criminals and filesharing hubs. The deadliest viruses known to navi kind infested every corner of an infrastructure long abandonded by its architects, left to crumble and decline into a hazardous maze of dust and shadows. Somewhere deep within were hidden areas accessible only to a select few, some of these places guarded the greatest secrets of the Network Scilabs. Deeper still, one could find gateways to worlds within the cyberworld such that Scilab never even conceived of. These secrets in the darkness brought fear and uncertainty to the denizens of this artificial world. Yet there were some that would brave these mysteries in the search of knowledge or power.
A lumbering steel giant plodded slowly along the floor of a remote area here. Each step shook the foundations of the system, kicking up plumes of black dust from the aged structure beneath his feet. Deep cracks remained behind, surrounding its oversized footprints. A safe distance away, another navi less than half the monster's size watched its movements carefully, hidden by the effects of a Dropdown chip. The spy did no more than scan the unusual creature as it moved about unaware of any presence other than itself.
The inconspicuous navi examined the readings it gathered from its subject. The results coincided with what had been detected earlier. There was the presence of a NetNavi ID code, but the structure of its body and soul were heavily corrupted with the same energy signature of Dark Chips. This was a Darkloid. That revelation did not come as much ofa surprise, but what the spy wanted to know was how such a massive Darkloid surfaced so suddenly. It couldn't be a regular Dark Chip junkie, someone had to be behind its creation.
The surveilance would have to wait though. A faint signal from a detection device hidden at one of the distant entrances to the area alerted the navi like an insect landing in a spider's web. It was the third unexpected visitor in the last hour. If any of the new arrivals found their way into plain sight of the Darkloid, things could get messy.
Then again, the navi considered that seeing the Darkloid vent its violent desires on an unwitting subject could provide valuable data in its investigation. The question was just how wide could the spider allow its web to spread? Creating another tracer to watch over the Darkloid, the navi quickly left to get a mark on the intruders.
* * *
Moments after arriving through the teleporter, Dark experienced a troubling sensation from her emotional simulators, the navi's equivalent of a quickening heartbeat. At the moment, she wasn't sure if it was a resonance with the dark energy she had already contracted, or if it was just her subconscious telling her how monumentally bad an idea this trip was going to be.
Alia had a more positive perception. "I can tell from here there's definitely an energy signature that popped up only recently. Head downward. I'll find it here, I can taste it!"
Dark wanted to protest, but she knew enough about her operator to know that was pointless, and she would be a lot better off facing the dangers lurking in the obscure depths. She wasted no time moving out. It took a while to find a walkway heading down. The Undernet roadways were notoriously maze-like due in no small part to many of the possible paths succumbing to decay. Alia might have simply demanded her navi jump down to the next level at the expense of potential broken limbs except that there was so little light penetrating distance that neither she nor her navi could see what lay below them. They had no choice but to follow the paths they could, pushing through all the viruses that waited for them around every corner.
Ten minutes later and three levels down, they met with their first real surprise. The viruses Dark was fighting began dropping like flies, and she had nothing to do with it. Amidst the poor light, she couldn't make out exactly what was happening. She could only tell that the attacks were dropping off, and she could hear the distinct sounds of viruses dying, along with an unidentfied flapping and screeching sound...Bats?
As the violent noise died off, the navi instinctively backed away from the source of the carnage, or so she thought, as she quickly bumped into something...or someone that was not there a moment ago.
"Lost? You look lost." A chipper female voice asked from directly behind the petrified explorer. When she realized her throat hadn't been slit, nothing was devouring her head, and there was no buster pressed into her back, she slightly relaxed and slowly turned around.
Dark found herself facing another female humanoid navi, about her own size but hovering some pixels above the ground so she was still looking down on her. She smirked playfully and inspected Dark with glowing green eyes. Her cute and innocent face was betrayed by her demonic purple attire and the large black horn protruding from her forehead. Though the woman made no direct threat, Dark was still greatly unnerved.
The floating lady spoke again. "I guess what I mean is, are you one of the navis that's gone missing around here in the last couple of days? Because I'm supposed to rescue you or something."
"So she's a good guy after all?" Alia noted with some surprise. She was as convinced of her navi's imminent deletion as the navi herself. There was still somethign suspicious about their unexpected heroine though, so she took the opportunity to get some scans of her.
Dark slowly backed away, but managed to speak. "Thanks for your...uh, help. I'm not 'lost' or 'missing' though. I'm here...for research."
The other nodded knowingly. "Ahh, you're just here for the fun and atmosphere. I know what it's like. I've been cooped up for ages. You know how great it feels to get to fly around this place again, even for just a little while? I don't even care about the mission, but I'm hoping I can prolong it."
Dark started to realize her would-be rescuer was a few chips short of a full deck. "...Good for you, but I meant I'm actually here for research purposes. I'd really rather not be here."
"Oh don't be so dishonest. A Dark Chip user ought to feel right at home here, don't you think?"
She was suddenly hit with a twinge of guilt and shock. "Wh-what? How did you-"
"How cute, you must be new to this. What's your name, honey?" The woman said alluringly, floating down to meet her face-to-face.
"Um, it's...Dark." Great, that threw any ideas of denial out the window, she thought.
"Hah! That's my name too! Small world. Small, unimaginative, predictable world." Darklady laughed and patted her new friend on the head, much to Dark's chagrin. "Well if it's more 'dark' you're researching, why don't you stick with me? I know my way around and I'd be happy to share whatever I find. You look like you could use the help - you can't become this corrupted and chaotic overnight!"
Before Dark could respond to that, Darklady was back in the sky, cackling gleefully as she soared off, resuming her search. Since she couldn't get any more scans, Alia finally spoke up. "Stay close to that one! It's a Darkloid. A peculiar one at that."
"Her?" Dark wondered as she set out to follow Darklady's flight path on foot. "She was a lot more agreeable than the last Darkloid we came across."
"Precisely. She could hold the secret to avoiding Dark Chips' negative effects. This excursion is turning out better than I'd hoped."
* * *
