Annihilation

Hunters

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For the unlikely team of Officials Drillman and Overdrive, Darkloid mercenary Shademan, and the enterprising civillian navi Magister, the trek through the maze-like Undernet was unexpectedly smooth-going. Magister proved her fighting abilities against the viruses along the way, using a versatile array of attack and defense techniques patterned after elemental magical spells. Everyone was capable of defending themselves, which was fortunate as they were keeping some distance between each other. Shademan's sinister tactics and devious personality kept everyone from venturing close to his screech-filled feeding frenzies. Magister, while apparently trustworthy, came across as unstable. She hadn't done anything to endanger the others yet, but while she was casting fireballs, summoning meteors, and manipulating the terrain to swallow up the viruses in their path, no one wanted to run the risk of a mood swing redirecting that chaos their way.

Thus they arrived at their destination safely, albeit exhausted and unnerved. With their perilous journey at an end, the grim quartet was not too surprised with what they found; nothing. Undernet412 was mostly indistinguishable from its neighboring sectors. Cracked grey platforms, lurking overgrown viruses, and lower reaches that descended into thick, dark clouds. While this place could have been hiding any number of secrets, the same could be said about any corner of the Undernet. There was no unusual navi activity in sight. Things did not bode well for the Officials' investigation.

"Well, our best bet now is to try and re-trace Ashe's steps." Drillman suggested. "Which chip was she hunting for again?"

Magister scrunched her face, apparently struggling to remember. "Hmm...some kind of sword, I'm sure. AssassinBlade? Or was it SamuraiSword? Maybe SamuraiSword3..."

"We'll split up and look for sword-user viruses. Make sure we stay close enough in case we need backup." Overdrive instructed. It didn't seem to make much sense, but so far they had nothing else to go on. They already knew the disappearances couldn't be due to a simple virus attack, that wouldn't explain how the navis didn't return to their PETs. There was always a chance the real culprit was targeting the navis engaging in these regular virus-busting activities. It could be that the predator would avoid them if it could tell they were trying to lure it into a trap, but the inclusion of Darklady and other reputedly strong navis on the victims list indicated their perp probably wouldn't fear them either way.

They explored the area thoroughly for several minutes. They fought a variety of viruses including Gaiants, Daijans, Dominerds, Cirkillers, and Pulsebulbs, but no sword-types in sight. Something wasn't adding up, but Magister remained optimistic when she wasn't being recklessly violent or fearsomely stoic. Eventually, the flying Drillman grew tired of the search and landed on a small platform to think of a new approach. That's when he got an idea.

"Hey Moe, think you could run the auto-targeting check?" He asked his operator.

"Why? Plan on firing a Drill Missile barrage? That's not really necessary against forces like this." Moe answered

"No. I thought it might...well, it points out all targets in range and identifies friendly units to ensure they can be avoided, right?"

Moe shrugged. "Yeah, but if the enemy is hidden it's no more effective than your own eyes."

"The enemies can hide...but what about the allies?" Drillman nodded as he became increasingly confident in the idea. "Anyone registered as a friendly gives off a signal that the auto-targetter can pick up even when they're invisible or in subspace."

Moe thought for a moment, and then he saw where his partner was going with this. "So if the victims are anywhere nearby...we could detect Darklady! It's worth a shot, I guess." Moe keyed in the command on his PET to access the scanning engine. After a few seconds, a map of the area showed up on screen. A green dot in the center indicated Drillman. Several red dots in all directions indicated active viruses, and a solitary blue dot off to the side indicated Overdrive.

"Hmm, we should probably get Shade and Magister to synch up if we plan to fight alongside them for a while." Moe said with a bit of disappointment in his voice.

Drill already had his answer but started to ask anyway. "So, no sign of..."

"No Darklady or anything else. Sorry." Moe finished his navi's sentence and sighed.

"Tch...Well so much for..." Drillman started in despair, but then he decided not to give up just yet. "Can you increase the range?"

"This thing isn't really designed to have longer range than your own weapons, but I figure so. Just gotta open up the program editor..."

Drillman tapped his foot impatiently. He noticed his teammates not far away were looking at him with annoyance like he was just slacking off. He waved at them sarcastically. After a minute of modifications, Moe restarted the scanner.

"I patched it through your subspace link so it could sniff out targets in adjacent Undernet areas." Moe explained while they were waiting. The scan was taking longer than usual. "Uh, there are a lot of adjacent areas thanks to the Undernet's odd link structure. There's a good chance the whole thing will just crash."

"Huh. Well, I didn't need any fancy auto-aiming tech anyway." Drillman joked.

"Hey, it didn't blow up." Moe remarked once the scan was complete. He examined the results and his heart skipped a beat. "Woah, it can't be."

"What? Did you find her?" Drillman pressed.

"Um...yeah." Moe answered disbelievingly. "But this can't be right, I'm also picking up two other NG signatures. The scan is having trouble identifying them."

"Where are they!?" Drill demanded.

"They're in different locations...but we should focus on Darklady first. She's on the move in Undernet400. Hurry!"

Drillman leapt off the platform and transformed to flying mode, his jets firing at maximum, following Moe's navigational commands to the exit to Undernet400. Shademan and Overdrive observed the sudden movement with concern. "Where's he headed now?" Overdrive asked her operator.

"Sounds like Moe and Drill found our victims. Better follow him." Tricia advised, making sure Darklight got the message as well.

Magister was the only one left confused by the Officials' scramble. "Hey, w-where are you going? You're not going to leave me-?" she pleaded with a panicked voice until Shademan surprised her by snatching her up in his talons to fly her along on the chase. Her demeanor then turned to fury. "HEY! What do you think you're doing!? Get your dirty feet off of me!"

"We have a new target. You don't want to be left behind, do you?" Shademan casually explained to his squirming passenger.

"What!? No! We have to search this area! We need to find my friend!" She screamed defiantly.

"I suspect you will thank me later. Perhaps when a more rational mood strikes you." The vampire mused wryly and flew through the teleporter to the next area after Drillman and Overdrive.

Drillman arrived in Undernet400 ready for anything. A gigantic ravenous virus-beast with a stomach full of navis? A powerful UnderDweller with the victims in chains? A horde of zombies? He had plenty of time to imagine wild, insane scenarios while he and his team were coming up empty with the investigation. If anything, he was relieved to find nothing of the sort in the predictably barren Undernet system. The only thing that stood out with this area was the larger, more intact main road that bridged two other larger Undernet hubs. He could even spot a few ordinary UnderDwellers and dealers hanging around down by the road, making it clear this was a place with heavier traffic. It seemed ironically unlikely that the missing navis could be found in such an open environment. Maybe they were moving through some sort of subspace? Had he already missed his chance?

"Drill! Above you! Over there!" Overdrive called out from the walkway below. Drillman looked to where she was pointing and couldn't believe his eyes. It was Darklady, flying fast and free. She seemed perfectly safe. This was definitely not what he was expecting.

He flew after the errant former Net Guardian and his mind went back to when they first asked Kalinka to send Darklady to the Undernet to help with their investigation. Everyone thought there was a danger that the unpredictable dark navi would try to rebel. Was that what happened all along? Among all the worry about the missing navis case, they entirely forgot this possibility. How would she pull it off though? Kalinka had safeguards in place.

Something about the situation didn't feel right, but right now Drillman had no other approach in mind but the direct search for answers. When he got close enough he called out to her. "Darklady!"

She slowed her flight path and turned to look at Drillman, faltering a bit in the process. She regarded him with cautious curiosity, not recognizing the drill-tipped, missile-like creature that was catching up to her.

Drillman normally didn't transform in mid-flight, but he had to see her face-to-face. He carefully converted to his normal mode and aligned his jets to enable him to hover near his lost friend high in the air. "Dark! What happened to you? We were really worried!"

Darklady glanced around nervously. This navi was clearly addressing the former owner of her body and she didn't know how to tell him that Darklady was, for all intents and purposes, dead. "Uh...I'm not...Sorry, you have me confused with someone else."

"What? I'm not going to fall for that, Dark. Come on, this is important! We thought your disappearance was related to the others you were supposed to investigate. Don't tell me you've just been running around AWOL the whole time."

"Really, I'm...Look, I'm sorry, but you've got the wrong navi. I don't know what you're talking about." Darklady awkwardly tried to dismiss the dangerous-looking inquisitor. She had a feeling this encounter would turn into another "Dragoon" if she couldn't get away quickly.

Alia had no patience whatsoever for such distractions. "Darklady, ignore that tool and proceed to the next area. Move it!"

She started to fly away but Drillman cut her off. "Wait! I know you're not some coincidental lookalike, the sensors don't lie. I don't know if you're playing a game or if you lost your memories or what, but I can't let you just run off again! We need to get you back to Kalinka, now follow me!"

Darklady was now very worried. "Um...A-Alia?"

Alia checked her own scans and came to some unfortunate conclusions. "Hmph, that's an Official, and he's got friends nearby. You can't fight back or run. Bah! Just jack out!"

Darklady sighed and gave one last guilty look to Drillman. "Sorry." She then teleported out of the cyberworld. Drillman stared incredulously into space for what felt like an eternity before letting himself fall to the ground where he collapsed to his knees in frustration. He found her, but somehow he just let her slip away. How could it end like this?

Moe felt the same way, but tried to stay focused. He repeated the auto-targeting trick from before, but all three Net Guardian signatures had disappeared. They were back to square one. Tricia and Overdrive consoled their partners with empty platitudes, Darklight and Shademan were uninterested in the display and moved to call it a day, and Magister mewled nervously off to the side where Shademan had set her down.

"So...can we go back to 412? Can we find my friend?" Magister requested meekly.

"I think...this case is a little more complicated than we gave it credit for." Tricia said contemplatively. "We'll jack out, recover, and figure out what to make of this development. Magister, you should give us information to contact you or your operator."

"Oh, really?" The sorceress thought for a moment, then cheerfully nodded. "Alright, I'll send you my number. Thank you everyone, I hope we can meet again soon!" She seemed strangely comfortable with the aborted mission.

"Rrright...Drill? You okay?" Overdrive asked, putting her hand on the despondent navi's shoulder.

Two seconds of silence, then he slowly lifted his head again. "...It's fine. She's right, we should rest up. We'll find out what happened to Darklady and the others...and we will get them back."

* * *

IceChan's battle had gone from the frying pan to the fire. Both she and her erstwhile ally Spider now had to contend with the black knight and his scythe-like axe swinging for their necks at every opportunity. On top of that, projectiles were periodically raining down from out of nowhere. The new Darkloid could apparently attack wherever it wanted, long or short range. IceChan had to use her ElemIce on the armored fiend, unfortunately depowered since his arrival broke her ice panels. Spider in the meantime used his lightning-fast movements to dodge and observe. The Executioner was getting especially frustrated by Spider's propensity to seem like an easy target until a split second before his blade connects, and then disappearing and reappearing several panels away in a flash. How could he move so fast?

"That's the big metal Darkloid you fought a few days ago?" Hoshiko asked her navi, curious as the transmission block at the time made her miss all that action.

"No, it's an entirely different one. I hope there aren't many more like it..." IceChan replied while running to put some distance between her and the rampaging warrior.

Spider fired a plasma shot to get the Executioner's attention, and the massive navi obliged, charging headlong at the haughty mystery man. He didn't get halfway towards his target when a spherical field of electrical energy exploded from beneath him, locking the black knight in paralyzed agony. Spider was satisfied for a moment, but continued shots from above alerted him that his job was not yet complete. He tried to dodge, but momentarily letting his guard down to watch Executioner step into his trap cost him a hit to the shoulder. Another couple steps back and he flashed to another location, escaping continued hits. It was after that point he painfully pulled the projectile from his arm and examined the rapidly disintegrating ordinance.

"An arrow?"

A simple, slender green-colored missile with a sharp head and aerodynamic fletching for long-range flight. Spider had assumed the shots were coming from the Executioner since they started at the same time he appeared, but they continued coming even when he was incapacitated, and there was no apparent thematic connection. That's when Spider realized the new Darkloid had some kind of accomplice.

Far, far away, at the opposite end of the system, that accomplice watched the action through his non-existent eyes. A small, cloaked, and blindfolded navi holding possibly the most powerful bow in the Cyberworld and loading it with more arrows like the one he had just shot into Spider's shoulder. Despite his apparent blindness, he had no problems aiming his shots from such a great distance, and had observed a few things that even his ally there in the field had not. In particular, he quietly contemplated why the electric navi seemed to short-range teleport at certain times, yet otherwise moved at a normal speed. If he could flash out whenever he wanted, why would he be slow enough to take that one hit? He didn't pull that move until a few steps after the arrow landed. It almost seemed like he needed a running start back there, or was it that he needed to be standing in a certain spot?

His cohort was recovering from the last attack, so the Archer took the moment to contact him through their secure comm channel. "Does anything look odd about the spot where that guy disappeared?"

"What? I did not see him disappear. I could not see much of anything besides sparks for a moment."

"Well watch carefully if he pulls a vanishing act again. Also, he might be onto us now."

The Executioner became worried. "Eh? No! The Master said if they discover the truth..."

The Archer remained calm. "Don't worry about it. Delete them and it won't matter what they think."

Shaking his head in frustration, the knight charged again. He struck the ground with his axe as he moved, creating more quakes and further damaging the terrain, making it harder for Ice and Spider to dodge.

Spider reconvened with IceChan to help get her to safety. He relayed the information about the arrow while he was at it along with his suspicion about the invisible sniper. Ice did not like the sound of that. "Three on one now? This is too much."

"If we're quick with these guys, we won't have to worry about the fiery one. It hasn't been moving..."

"That's because he's healing! See the red flame? He's been recovering ever since this guy showed up!"

Suddenly, Flameman came alive once more. With an intense roar, his aura grew to twice its size. The flames took on a blue hue as if they were hotter, but they were not any brighter. Instead they somehow seemed to absorb the light around him. The others turned to behold this sight, not sure what was going to happen. At first the Executioner was pleased. He figured he could leave with his mission accomplished, but then the beast shot a large bullet of flame directly at the armored warrior.

Executioner staggered back and barely got a chance to take stock of the damage before Flameman was unleashing a hot blaze at his feet, melting the ground and forcing him to retreat. As he ran, he contacted his partner in the distance. "What is going on? I thought this Darkloid was weakened! It's deadlier than before!"

The Archer's voice responded impassively to his plight. "It seems to have unleashed its DarkTech. Our earlier surveillance has caught moves like this against stronger netbattlers. It's an ability that has the same power differential as a Dark Chip."

"THIS is a Dark Chip!?"

"It's like one anyway. The boss has dubbed this one 'Hellfire'. It's an enhancement type. Think Fire+40, only it's more like Fire+400...and it's continuous. The flames don't die out as fast either...if at all."

The Executioner barely avoided a rapid stream of fireballs. He could feel his armor melting to slag from the residual heat. There were definitely more fires burning all over the battlefield where the attacks had hit. "Why didn't you mention this before!?"

"It didn't look like it would get the chance to use it. It was already near dead by the time we stepped in. I thought if anything it was going to use this against those other two navis." The Archer shrugged as he explained.

"I will have your head for this! I swear it!" As the Executioner made this threat, a superheated column of fire erupted beneath him. The mighty warrior made an agonized scream and collapsed on the verge of deletion, surrounded by undying flames.

"Dang. I should probably rescue him anyway." Archer grumbled, but kept his bow trained on the interlopers, and paid attention to Flameman, who was now turning his attention to them. "Well, I doubt they could do anything to hurt it any more, should be safe to pull out."

Spider and IceChan once again found themselves in the middle of a relentless blaze. The explosions were so far only grazing them, but it was enough to do some heavy damage. It was time for IceChan to use those Recov chips she had been saving, and Spider was grateful she was willing to share; he just didn't show it very well with his stoic demeanor. IceChan called upon a BubbleWrap to replace her lost AquaAura, but with the heat growing it was of little help. "Can we still take on three of these at a time!?" she challenged angrily.

"Hnf! I think we only have one to worry about now. Didn't you see it attack the knight? They're not all on the same side after all." Spider summarized while raising a barrier of his own. "Don't know if it will work any more, but you'll need to use whatever you got in your arsenal to cool it down!"

"Sure, no pressure or anything! Hoshiko?"

"Gotta clear some ground. Good a time as any for this!" The operator announced while sending more chips.

The fire was spreading towards them but IceChan threw her hands to the ground and a blue Wave fanned out from that spot, mowing down the flames and continuing towards Flameman himself. He would have taken heavy damage from the attack, but switched to his green aura at the last moment.

Spider didn't like what he was seeing. "His candles are working again...what happened to my anchors?"

"Your what?" IceChan asked curiously.

"Never mind. I have to take care of the candles again. Just don't die for a few seconds." Spider then took a flying leap into the wall of flames and disappeared again.

"I'm getting tired of that." IceChan mumbled and turned her attention back to Flameman. A pair of FlameTowers was heading her way and dodging would be nearly impossible. She had to counter them. "Hey, anchors, huh? SideBubble!" Using Spider's cryptic words as inspiration, she called upon a pair of water-encased ship anchor viruses at a carefully timed moment just as the Towers were approaching. Earlier she might not have believed she had the reflexes for it, but just as she defeated the Changkeys, her timing was spot-on. The bubbles burst simultaneously upon meeting the fire, defeating the heat-elemental and releasing the anchor-shaped missiles inside. They shot forward, slamming into Flameman just as his green aura disappeared again, bringing a much-enraged howl from the Darkloid.

Hoshiko cheered. "Right on! Now try this IceChan. We usually can't land a hit with this thing, but this guy isn't one for dodging."

"IceTower!"

A chain of cold white spires erupted from IceChan's position and headed towards Flameman. The dark fire navi would have taken heavy damage from the frozen spikes, but before they could reach them he enacted an unexpected defense.

He moved.

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