Page 1 / Page 2 / Page 3 / Page 4 / Page 5 / Page 6 / Page 7

IceChan couldn't move, couldn't think. She shut her eyes tightly and held her head close to the ground as her only escape from the deadly terror all around her. Sounds bombarded her from all angles despite her attempts to shut them out. In her ear, the frantic voice of her operator pleaded for her to do something, but she couldn't understand what. Wooshing noises passed by above her and on both sides accompanied by flashes of ambiatic heat and light, each followed immediately by a violent explosion behind her. Voices of the Official navis shouting orders and screaming in pain were drowned out by a larger voice before them, a raspy, inhuman bellow that spoke only a single unending syllable of hatred and craving.

"WRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH..."

She wanted to cry, she wanted to run, but she couldn't do anything. It all happened so fast. One moment her team was treading carefully towards the anomaly they detected, then the anomaly began moving towards them, and the next thing she knew fire rained from the sky and the ground burst with magma, and nobody could see where it was coming from, they could only hear its bloodthirsty wail.

Something inside IceChan struggled to break free of her paralysis. She couldn't tell how long it had been since everything started, but the moment of certain deletion had passed and she couldn't help but notice she was still there. Thoughts formed, actions followed. She wanted to jack out, but nothing happened. It felt like the same interference that trapped her with the giant Darkloid before, but something was different this time. Hoshiko was there, trying to say something to her. The PET connection was intact even if the jack-out functionality was disabled.

She opened her eyes, there was a refreshing blue glow around her she hadn't expected to see. AquaAura, Hoshiko must have sent it at just the right time. It wouldn't stop the blasts directly, but it was enough to keep the creeping flames from reaching her. It was her own bubble of cool air within an inferno. Confidence returning, but not yet her full motor-control, she stood up and watched the blazing meteors fly past her. She could swear each one had a face, and they did not look happy.

Just as she was starting to realize how lucky she had been so far, she spotted one fireball heading straight for her. Her legs chose the right time to start working again as she dashed in a direction that looked relatively safe. She ignored the wall of fire as her Aura parted them easily. She would not clear the explosion from the incoming shot completely though. She needed a better defense. Now she could finally hear Hoshiko's words. "CrystalShield! Download!"

With practiced timing IceChan turned towards the shot and activated the aqua-elemental shield of ice. The fireball hit the ground, generating an intense explosion that threw her backwards with concussive force. She skidded against the terrain but was otherwise undamaged as the guard had absorbed and refracted the energy of the blast.

As she struggled to her feet while holding the shield to the flames, she could hear the agonized, dying screams of her red and black companion.

"AAH ARGH AHH EEE OOH OHH AHH ARGH OWW YAGHH AGH YEE OW AH AAAGHHH!!"

Ice couldn't see him, but she could tell he was finished. Not wanting to end up the same way, she turned to Hoshiko for help. "What's going on? Where are the others?"

Her operator responded, not sounding very sure herself. "Two...wait...three of the Officials were deleted! Back up, the orange guy is behind you, he needs help!"

The little navi moved quickly. After a few steps she could see another shape behind the flames. The new-model Official navi was kneeling there within a barrier on the verge of collapse. He looked up at her with a frustrated face hidden behind his scorched visor.

Hoshiko looked around. Two of the defeated operators were shouting into their phones requesting backups and analysis, the third was frantically typing at the room's main workstation trying to get the transmission fully functional again, the other remaining operator angrily shouted orders to the others, struggling to stay organized in the chaos. To the newest and youngest operator, it didn't feel much different to her out there than it did to the navis roasting in the Cyberworld.

The op giving orders turned to Hoshiko. "You! You never mentioned a massive fire-elemental attack!"

"Wha-There wasn't...but..." Hoshiko stammered, unprepared for his accusation.

"No time for explanations! We'll discuss it afterwards. Quickly, use your Recov chips on my navi. There's still a chance we can get the assailant under control!"

"Um...right! Okay!" The girl punched the buttons on her PET to organize her chips and prepared to download some healing to her navi and her ailing companion.

"Stop. You will need those chips for yourself. The other navi will be of no help." A voice from Hoshiko's PET advised.

The orange's operator was taken aback. "What!? Your navi's got a discipline problem, kid! Get her in line!"

Hoshiko was alarmed as well. "That wasn't IceChan's voice, sir. I don't know who..."

Both active PETs beeped to indicate a proximity warning. The warning was too slow because by the time anyone looked again, there was another navi standing beside the two Officials. It was a tall male humanoid type in a suit and sunglasses. He held a shining sword defensively in front of him and kept his eyes upwards where the fireballs continued to rain down from. IceChan looked up at the visitor with a sense of déjà vu, the other Official beheld him with a sense of alarm. In his weakened, delirious state and nothing else to go on, he assumed this was the one behind the current assault, and raised his buster in attempt to make an arrest.

The new arrival barely turned his head to acknowledge this threat; the direction of his gaze was hidden by reflective lenses. With one quick swipe of his sword, the Official's barrier collapsed and his body fell into two clean pieces before both of them disappeared in deletion. The man then simply turned his head back to the fireballs and brought his blade back up into position.

IceChan backed away and raised her own IceSword defensively. For a moment she thought they had backup. Whose side was this guy on? The operators were wondering the same thing. The man who had just lost his navi took his anger out on a confused Hoshiko.

"Where did that navi come from!? Are you responsible for this? You set us up didn't you! I knew the Officials should screen their recruits better!"

"N-no! I don't know anything about this! Look, Ice is afraid of him too! Don't blame me!" Hoshiko pleaded, while secretly thinking 'and don't look any deeper into my past because you might find you were right' as well. She began to wonder if this character was a WWW agent sent to ruin her life as payback for her desertion.

Opening his mouth for the first time, the mysterious navi had another explanation. "That Official had no resources to combat this threat. I did him a favor by deleting him quickly, and I did us a favor by getting him out of the way. We can do this ourselves."

IceChan lowered her sword a bit. "We? Um...do you mean you and...me?"

Before giving an answer, he quickly scooped the bewildered girl up and made a long jump to the side to avoid another exploding meteor. He dropped her gently at the landing point and went back to watching for incoming shots. Back on her feet, Ice was embarrassed she didn't even get the chance to move the sword she was brandishing. "What...what can I do?" She lamented.

The other navi answered directly. "We're up against a powerful Fire-elemental. You are a cold Aqua type. You don't need to be fast, just use your powers. I will be fast enough for both of us."

The head guy outside listened to all this through Hoshiko's PET with growing ire. "Hold on! Who do you think you are taking over an Official operation like this? Nobody is doing anything until I get some kind of explanation!" He then pointed at Hoshiko accusingly. "You may try to look all innocent, but this doesn't add up. Your navi led us straight into the ambush and now it has teamed up with the perpetrator to...I don't know what, but I intend to find out!"

"You've got it all wrong!" Hoshiko protested. "We didn't ask for any of this, we were just following your orders!"

"You sure made it look like that, didn't you? We're getting to the bottom of this, so-" a ringtone from his own PET momentarily diverted the man's attention. "Bah! Don't have time for this!" He answered the phone call irately. "What? I'm busy here. Important mission...Now? I can't...but I'm onto something with this...You can't do this, you don't know what's happening here!...Ulp...Alright, alright, yes sir."

The man stopped the call and let out a dejected sigh. The others in the room stopped what they were doing for a moment to find out what was happening. He took a deep breath and explained. "I have new orders and...this operation is to continue as it is." He started to head for the door but broke his rush long enough to shoot Hoshiko a threatening glare. Then he was gone, along with a lot of the distracting noise in the room.

Hoshiko looked nervously at the other three Officials, but they just shrugged and went back about their business. She let out a relieved sigh and turned back to her own PET. "Wonder who I have to thank for that lucky break."

"Wonder later. We still got a fire to put out." IceChan proclaimed, her confidence miraculously returning. "This guy's got a point. Send me OceanSeed!"

"Oh, right!"

A projectile materialized in IceChan's hand. She tossed it into the flames and in a flash of blue, the fires in a ten-panel radius disappeared and a small lake took their place. Fireballs continued to rain down into the water but rather than explode and spread, they splashed and fizzled out. IceChan and the swordsman made their way into the water, with parts of it freezing under IceChan's footsteps.

"Okay, now what...um...mister?" IceChan looked up to her mystery helper for suggestions.

He looked around the now clearer skies and hissed. "We still need to reveal the target. CommonRain. Also...you can call me Spider"

The water on the ground turned to water in the air. Gradually the inferno that had consumed the area died down, and an angry roar from its unseen source protested in pain. The navis scanned the area again as smoke and steam rapidly diminished. With the blaze gone, everyone's attention was soon drawn to the one remaining source of red and orange light, still burning brightly despite the rain attempting to douse it. Visible within the flame was an unmoving black round object, the source of all the fire.

Spider nodded and crouched down. "It's up to you now. Try not to get too close to it."

"You mean me?" IceChan asked, but received no answer because as soon as she turned her head he was gone. "Huh!? Did he just teleport out? So much for my knight in shining armor!"

The source's flame began to glow bright yellow and more fireballs formed around it. IceChan could now clearly see a pair of triangular markings on each orb like eyes glaring right at her. The fireballs moved around in the air like they had minds of their own, and they began to fly towards her. She figured there would be no lucky dodging this time, she had to fight back.

Hoshiko relayed some advice. "One of the Official guys said those fireballs are giving off viral readings, and the database apparently recognizes them as 'Changkeys', fire-type things that don't do anything but run themselves into their target, in this case you. They're not very strong, so your IceSword should take them out ."

"Riiight, 'long as I don't miss..."

The Changkeys closed in on her. She tensed. She raised her sword. She let instinct take over and let her blade fly. One, two, three...the living balls of flame split in two, turned black, and burst into charcoal dust one-by-one. IceChan could barely believe she made it through that. There were more coming. She watched their movements closely and ran towards them, leaping past with a wide slash that took them all out at once. Now she was closer to her attacker and it had yet to prepare another barrage. It growled in irritation. IceChan began to smile, she was getting the upper hand.

"Let's take out the big guns, Hoshiko!"

"This should wrap it up, the rarest chip we got!" Hoshiko announced.

"Gotcha!" IceChan slid into position and pulled back her arm before the projectile even materialized in it. "Have a taste of your own medicine! FreezeBomb!"

She threw the mighty explosive high into the air and the burning boulder didn't even move as it began to fall right on top of it. Instead it let out a hiss and the flame shifted from yellow to green. Hoshiko and IceChan then watched as their most powerful attack bounced off some unseen barrier, tumbled to the ground beside the beast and burst into a flowering crystal of solid ice. Having grown to its full size, the spiky cluster shimmered for a second and then shattered into countless fragments that littered the ground. In the center of it all was the green flame and the dark sphere inside of it, completely unaffected by the frozen shock.

IceChan gaped in disbelief. "No...No way, that's not fair!"

Hoshiko sank into despair. "It's...invincible. Not even our best chip could hurt it, I...don't know what we can do."

Just then a cyan-colored flash in the distance out of the corner of IceChan's eye coincided with a gasp of pain from the burning creature. Another flash in the other direction brought out an angrier noise and a flare of flickering light from the beast. The green fire danced wildly like a candle flame about to be extinguished, and then sure enough it was gone. IceChan was taken aback by what she saw revealed once the flames were gone. The black ball had a head and arms. It was some kind of large navi curled up into a crouching sphere. Its face consisted of a round mask with two angry eyeholes from which the light of an inner flame glowed through like a jack-o'-lantern. It wasn't until she spotted the Navi Mark on its forehead with its signature curled tongue of flame symbol that she recognized the poor creature.

"Flameman?...Hinoken's navi?"

"Eh? I don't remember Flameman being that big or dark looking..." Hoshiko commented before she remembered she was surrounded by Officials that did not know she was a former WWW member. "...on the news...where I saw him...from that one time...and also in notable criminal dossiers which I have been dilligently studying since becoming an Official, yeah, that's it." She glanced around to notice her covering apparently wasn't necessary, since her comrades were more interested by what was going on onscreen than what she was saying.

"I don't know what this means but if this is Flameman...he's really giving me the creeps..." IceChan said with a shiver.

"Whrraaarrrllll..." The extinguished Dark Flameman gutterally vocalized as new wisps of orange fire began to extend and dance from his eyes and the other vents around his body. The body itself remained completely still while the flames returned. IceChan ran towards him with a Blizzard gun, hoping to blast it before its defenses returned, but once again found herself being quickly pulled in another direction. She could see the ground where she was standing ignite in a pillar of fire and several more FireTowers springing up in a line extending from Flameman. She landed a few panels away with a familiar tall suited navi standing beside her again.

"Told you not to get too close." Spider chided.

IceChan was annoyed. "You? I thought you ran away."

"No. Just needed to scope out its pattern and...set things up a bit."

"Wait...was it you that made his fire disappear for a second?"

"Yeah. Candles stationed in protected locations. They won't be as much of a problem now."

"Well I wish you took down his barrier before I wasted my best chip."

Spider raised his hand in the air and sparks of electricity surrounded it. "The ice hasn't melted yet. It won't go to waste."

A blinding flash illuminated the battleground. Thick arcs of cyan lightning shot through the immobile Flameman from multiple angles. His roars took on an agonized stutter as electricity enhanced by the conductive ice painfully fried his body. While this was going on, Spider pointed his sword at the beast and bright blue bullets of plasma shot out and slammed explosively into the burning navi. IceChan initially shielded her eyes from the dazzling display but once she could adjust and look at Spider again, the sight of his silhouette framed in the cyan lightning storm called upon her memories of that fateful encounter with the Darkloid earlier that week. Spider was the same mystery hero that rescued them from that hulking metal monster. What was he doing there? What was his purpose? Did she have a guardian angel? Or did she just happen to step into another bad example of Undernet business?

"We can defeat the Darkloid if we combine our strengths." Spider advised. "You supply the water and ice to weaken it, and I'll use electricity to work off of the water and ice."

So it was another Darkloid after all. IceChan realized their mission might be more successful than their early losses led them to expect. It also seemed this character was more interested in taking down Darkloids than helping the Officials. Was he some kind of Darkloid hunter? If the Officials wanted to capture Flameman's remains to study it, Spider might prove to be more of a hinderance than a help in the end. IceChan couldn't worry about that now though, Flameman was still attacking with FlameTowers and fireballs even through the pain of the electricity attacks. She had to fight to stay alive. She slid to one side to avoid a tower chain, Spider having pulled another sudden disappearing act already. She then summoned an IceCube and shot it at her opponent with an IcePunch. The block of ice slammed into Flameman, who responded with another cry of pain and rage. The flames surrounding his body had now returned, but were still only the default orange color. Every time the color began to shift to something that provided him with special abilities, a flash of Spider's electricity in the distance would make the fire revert again. Spider could evidently move extremely fast, as no sooner than a distant was extinguished, that the lightning navi himself would appear nearby Flameman at a different angle and zap him with another bolt of plasma. The Darkloid was still perfectly still, but his omnipresent voice wavered in a way that suggested he was on the ropes.

"Ready to finish this, IceChan?" Hoshiko asked while sending IceStage and ElemIce.

"Guess we are!" The ground everywhere flashed white and transformed into a glassy skating rink. IceChan aimed the ElemIce weapon which crackled with elemental power. Flameman was in her sights. The Darkloid was going down.

Yet before she could fire, another deep rage-filled voice roared from behind her and a sudden explosive quake knocked her off her feet and shattered the IceStage she had just put down. She scrambled back up and spun around in alarm. There, a dozen panels away stood a towering navi in spiked black armor. His axe-like weapon was embedded in the ground, but he was in the process of pulling it back out. Once his blade was up and at his side, he stood up straight, appearing even more massive compared to the little parka-wearing girl and even her tall dreadlocked companion.

With a hateful rasp, the new arrival stated his intentions. "I will execute you both for your offense."

Spider reappeared near IceChan and defensively held his sword in front of them both. IceChan groaned. "Is that another Darkloid?"

"It would seem so..." Spider answered hesitantly.

"And now it's two-on-two? Not fair...well I guess technically it's fair, but these things are too tough to fight like that. Have any strategies?"

"I haven't seen this one before...so no, not yet."

"Uh oh."

* * *

"It's been 5 months since HE..."

A conversation was going on inside a dark, stone temple of an ancient South Netopian civilization. The dark figure on the obsidian throne, dressed like an emperor of the ancient world, had his fist clutched into the armrest pretty hard, showing strong rage. In contrast, the informant he was talking to looked like came out of Vice City.

"Por favor, relax señor Cortela, you told the generals to be on the lookout for him and..."

"And did they find him yet?"

"N...No."

"Then there is a problem here, isn't it?"

"He's just a fugitive sir..."

Right now, Cortela just pulled out a shotgun from beside the throne, with part of then barrel sawn off and chiseled tipped.

"We never had any fugitives..." After saying that, He pumped his shotgun, "We've killed everyone that had tried to trespass here. Do you at least have an idea where he went?

"*gulp* No sir."

It was then that the informant's chest practically exploded and sent his blood and guts splattering behind the now dead body. Cortela discarded the empty shell.

"Guards! Get rid of the corpse, and tell the next one in line don't come to me unless he's dead!"

* * *

Page 1 / Page 2 / Page 3 / Page 4 / Page 5 / Page 6 / Page 7

Return to Chronicles