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For the first time since the encounter began, Flameman's arms and legs unfurled from beneath his round body. Standing up on all fours he towered over the battlefield like a giant harvestman arachnid. He easily stepped out of the way of the IceTower attack.

"Oh COME ON!" IceChan screamed in protest.

"RAAHH!!" Flameman's aura again shifted to dark blue. He then temporarily crouched down, opened his mouth, and released a stream of his signature Fire Breath. IceChan was shocked from the turnaround, but forced herself to slide out of the way. The Hellfire blazed by and into the ground where a new plume of dark flames planted themselves.

IceChan hit the ground and rolled back onto her feet. She kept her eyes on Flameman ready for another attack, but the Darkloid just rose back up and stared down at her, apparently satisfied.

"IceChan, y-your arm!" Hoshiko warned.

That's when IceChan noticed the burning pain in her forearm. Enough of the Fire Breath had grazed her to ignite the sleeve of her parka. The blue flame slowly began to spread. She blew on it with her ice-cold breath, but it continued to burn. She shot a Bubbler into it, but it continued to burn and she only ended up hurting herself and wasting the battlechip. She tore off the parka along with her gloves and threw it away but she was too late, the flame was stuck to her arm and there was no stopping it.

It was only a matter of time before she was consumed.

"IceChan, you have to run for it! If you can get somewhere you can jack out..." Hoshiko pleaded.

IceChan bit her lip and tried to ignore the pain. "Hng...no! Have to defeat him! It's the only way to stop it. Only way this will mean anything! He's looking at me like I'm finished, I have to show him it's not that easy!" Surprising both Hoshiko and the Darkloid, IceChan leapt high in the air and boosted even higher with a DoubleJump chip. Her tiny form was now level with Flameman's face and before she could fall back down she unleashed a razor-sharp IceWave3 into his eyes. Reeling from the large snowflake embedded in his mask, he flailed his long limbs around the platform, but IceChan avoided the rampage and struck a WideShot into his underside, then leapt back and summoned a trio of AquaNeedles from the sky, piercing into his hide from above.

Flameman managed to knock the livid little girl a few panels away with his arm and his aura shifted to yellow. A pair of Changkeys appeared and began to chase her down. IceChan was ready for them and trapped one within a bubble with a BubbleStar chip. Before she could contend with the other, something else already stopped it in its tracks, a sparking web of electricity. Spider had returned.

"Your arm is on fire..." the professional commented, almost sounding concerned.

IceChan grunted. "It's okay...are those wires?"

Spider glanced at the sparks running from his hands to the entangled fireball. "Most don't notice too quickly."

"That's great, can you tug the little guy to the right a little?"

"Hm, like this?" Spider pulled on his nearly invisible line, moving the Changkey until it was in line with the other and Flameman's left leg.

"Perfect! AquaPower! BlizzardBall!"

With the first chip activated, IceChan seemed to become twice as strong, a bright blue glow emanating from her body. Then a snowball materialized in her hand and absorbed all of that power. Faster than any of the enemies could react, she rolled the ball through the two Changkeys, catching them, absorbing them, turning the snowball into a massive, blue, rolling boulder. The enhanced BlizzardBall plowed right through Flameman's leg, destroying it on impact. Flameman roared in pain and rage as its unbalanced body fell to the ground.

Before he toppled over completely, IceChan tossed another projectile to the ground underneath him, an IceSeed. Once more the fiery Darkloid was vulnerable on a field of ice. Spider quickly took advantage of the setup by laying his lightning web over the fallen opponent's limbs and striking hard with a charged CustomBolt.

IceChan wasn't letting up either. The Hellfire had spread to her whole arm, rendering it useless and was beginning to eat away at her torso. She could feel death pulling at her, enveloping her, and her strongest instincts forced her to fight with everything she had. An IceSword formed on her remaining arm. She charged onto the ice sheet and slid down at top speed. Flameman's head was pressed against the cold ground. He was struggling to withstand the pain from Spider's electric attacks and turned his eyes in her direction just in time to see her streak up and thrust her frozen blade directly through his mask, where it stuck.

"WRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!" In death throes, Flameman ripped free of the web, sending Spider flying to the sidelines. His head shot back and up, carrying the burning IceChan and her sword along with it. His entire body swung violently back and forth but IceChan held on with every fiber of her being and dug the blade in deeper.

"Just...die...you...jerk! Ahhhhhh!!" IceChan choked out, the pain from the Hellfire and Flameman's own ever-present heat finally becoming too much for her. She had to cry out in agony.

"IceChan! You have to get out of there!" Hoshiko shouted over the screaming. "You've done enough, you won! Please, you're hurt!"

"I'm...Ah! I'm okay, Hoshiko! Agh! We'll-ngh! show them we have what it takes! Aaaah!"

"WRRR...WRRRRR...WRRAAGGHHHLLLHHAHHHLLLRRLLLGLRL!" With a sickening gurgling roar, Flameman's mask shattered, revealing only a dark emptiness gaping from within his body. A dying flame could be seen deep inside, surrounded by black smoke, quickly being overcome by white steam. The aura of flame had disappeared, and from his many vents, more of the white steam began to pour out. IceChan began to fall without the mask to anchor her sword in. She could feel the last of her HP slipping away, but to her relief, the Hellfire was dissipating as well.

She smiled. "We...we did it?"

"...lllrrglRRGGLLAARRRHHH!!" Just then, a plume of black smoke erupted from Flameman's headless neck and wrapped around the smaller navi, stopping her descent and pulling her into the Darkloid's dying body.

"No! Let me go! N-no! NOOO! HOSHI-" Her last screams were cut off as the smoke swallowed her.

"IceChan!? COME IN! ICECHAAAN!"

Flameman's body dropped heavily to the ground. Silent, smouldering, crumbling like burnt-out charcoal.

Spider, back on his feet, and now the sole surviving navi in the system, slowly approached the Darkloid's corpse. He stared at it curiously for quite some time, then using his sword, chopped off its other arm and activated a command to lock onto it and teleport it somewhere else. "The navi transfer lock has been deactivated. It's possible to jack out now."

Hoshiko watched through the PET monitor, mortified. "You...you bastard! All you cared about was getting your trophy! Because of you, IceChan is...why did she have to...ohh." The young operator began to break into tears.

Spider sighed. "You are much too irrational. I could point out at least three things wrong with your assumption, but I think it will suffice to point out your PET connection is still active."

Hoshiko was so busy sobbing, she could barely comprehend. "Wh-wha? What does that have to do with...wait, my PET connection IS still active! IceChan! Are you there? Do you read me?"

There was no answer, but a faint purple light filtered through Flameman's disintegrating torso was enough to tell them she was still in there. It was enough to start to calm Hoshiko down. Then as Spider continued to dissect the corpse and transfer the pieces, he noticed something odd about that light as it began to shift from pink...to red.

"That...probably isn't good." Spider rushed up to the torso and began to pick away at the blackened husk, digging through the ash and soot until he found the living matter buried beneath it. When a small plume of fire burst out, he was taken aback, but the flame quickly died down and he went in for a closer look. He did not expect what he saw.

"What is this?...Who is that?" Hoshiko asked when she saw what Spider had uncovered.

A girl navi was lying there unconscious, but it wasn't IceChan. It was a more matured body type, wearing a thin black bodysuit with sheer golden harem pants. A deep-red ponytail extended from the back of her head, and her face was covered in a blank red mask, just like Flameman's.

"This doesn't make any sense, where's IceChan?" Hoshiko asked confused.

Spider shook his head. "There's no one else here...I don't know how to explain it, but..." Spider used the tip of his blade to tap on the girl's navi mark in the center of her mask's forehead, forcing a logout. She disappeared from the system...and reappeared inside Hoshiko's PET.

Hoshiko shook her head. "No...it can't be..."

Spider, now completely alone, took one more look around the battlefield. The spot where the Executioner's body fell was empty, and there were no more signs of his accomplice either. He entered the battle that day with straightforward expectations, and with the black knight's interference, and IceChan's mysterious transformation, he was starting to realize there was more to these rampaging Darkloids than originally suspected, and he no longer felt like he could handle the problem on his own.

* * *

"My report is in your inbox, chief. I've CCed it to Mr.Fortis as requested. To sum up, my navi encountered the former Acid Hacker Flashman in the Undernet as suspected based on Fortis'...hunch. I engaged the suspect with a standard transmission blocker in effect and attempted to apprehend him for questioning, but due to the intense circumstances of the battle, Flashman was unfortunatley deleted and unrecoverable. We will have to wait and see if the abductions stop and/or the original victims start to pop up again. Either way, at least that's one more NetCriminal off the information highway."

"Hmm...Good work agent Smith."

Smith hung up his PET phone and smirked. "Yes, Flashman is gone forever. Not entirely untrue either, since you won't be quite how anyone remembers you once I'm through."

Flashman seethed from within his new PET, glaring angrily at his self-proclaimed 'new operator' through the PET's camera, a young man with brown hair, fairly unassuming on his own, but his plain looks betrayed his sinister and calculating persona. "What did you do to me? What are you going to do to me?"

"You'll find out soon enough. I'm making some additions to your NaviCust and Chip Folder that will ensure you obey my orders. Yes, it's not the most ethical way to operate a navi, but you shouldn't be one to complain with hypnosis being one of your own malicious talents."

"I told you, I had nothing to do with any navi abductions! I never even heard of them!"

"Understandable. There's more than one way to make a navi walk around in a trance without your HypnoFlash. Mind telling me what you were doing in the Undernet then?"

"YOU...you're not working for him are you?"

"Officially, I work for the Officials. Just because I'm not entirely up-front with them doesn't mean I'm working for anyone else. Who's 'him'?"

"Earlier today Matt and I got a message from our old boss...a guy calling himself Fate. He betrayed us a while back and we had been looking for ways to settle the score. From the message, it sounded like he was weak from what happened the last time we saw him and he wanted the Acid Hackers to work for him again to help him rebuild his empire. He was promising even greater riches and power if we put aside our differences and join the winning team. All we had to do was go meet him in the Undernet."

"Huh, and you were ready to fall for that?"

"Of course not! Trap or no trap, we just wanted our chance to finish the old bastard off! When that Jester showed up and led me right into your field of grass, I figured YOU were the trap Fate had set for us!"

L Smith was silent. Without explanation to his new navi servant he put the PET into sleep mode so he could be alone with his thoughts. He found something about Flashman's story unsettling. If it was true, then he had spent much of the day laying out a trap for Flashman when there was no reason for Flashman to be there until this "Fate" conveniently led him into that trap. Could that have been a coincidence? Smith had only planned to encounter Flashman in the Undernet based on his earlier phone conversation with Moe. If it were all someone's plot, they would have to know how to contact Matt and be within the small group of Officials that had access to the information from that phone call.

L Smith was a man that liked to pull the strings. He now experienced the unpleasant feeling that his own strings were being pulled. He had a brand new navi and was itching to find a way to put it to work. If anything, a good place to start would be cracking the mystery and finding the fool that dared to try and manipulate him.

* * *

"Motor Mouth to Big Hat: the Lite-Brite was positioned, and the feds called the bomb squad. The saurkraut is in the toaster and the subway car has yet to leave the jungle. Do you copy, Big Hat?"

"Jester, We do not recognize that gibberish code and even if We did, it would make no sense to use it within Our inner chamber, speaking to Us directly. Now We highly suggest you give your report in a straightforward manner if you do not wish to spend a fortnight with the torture program."

"Ah-heh. Ahem. Well, er...Mission Successful, Ma'am...Please don't delete me."

"Take your leave before We consider it further."

Jester quickly teleported out of the room, leaving the regally adorned woman alone, inspecting the monitors along the walls that fed her footage of various points in the Undernet. She chuckled and spoke out loud. "The campaign proceeds as designed, does it not?"

A disembodied male voice responded. "Unfortunately, there seem to be more variables in effect here. While we were misdirecting one set of prying eyes, two more made it past us and are closer to unveiling the truth."

The woman frowned. "The Children will handle those...hmph, officials. We will not allow anything else to come between Us and Our grand ascension."

"With our scapegoat used up, you may well have to sacrifice the Children just to keep the Officials off the trail." the male voice suggested uneasily.

The woman unsheathed an elegant ceremonial sword and began to run her finger along the razor-sharp edge. She smirked. "One way or another...that will not be a problem."

* * *