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Flamechick moved in front of the Knight after it landed again, and disengaged her Mole defense. It came as little surprise at that point that the object made no apparent reaction to her sudden appearance. It just continued rotating until it jumped again. "Hey!" she called out to the piece, trying to get its attention, but as it landed again and continued the same pattern despite her waving in its eyes, it was clear that wasn't going to work.

"Alright, time to really provoke it." said Hoshiko, clenching a tiny fist. "Hit it with your...main weapon...whatever it is."

"Did you even check her status screen when you got her?" Moe asked incredulously.

"I was getting to it!"

Chasing the Knight after another hop, Flamechick skidded right in front of its face, grabbed the mouth portion of her mask, and pulled it down. As the mask's mouth opened, a bright stream of fire erupted from it, spreading out in a flowering blaze and engulfing the chess piece.

"Wow, that looks a lot more impressive than chucking snowballs, I'll give it that much." Hoshiko remarked. The Knight was not as impressed, as once the flames cleared, it was still standing, unmarred, and still rotating in place before jumping off again. "Nnn. I take that back. Give me snowballs any day."

"Chess pieces have shield-class defense. Only breaking attacks will have any effect on them." Moe pointed out. "Incidentally, that's why I suggested waiting for Drillman, since his drills have that effect."

"Oh, well I have that covered too. Battlechip go!"

Hoshiko sent Flamechick a chip that materialized a blue sphere in her hand that immediately began steaming. Flamechick winced in pain and quickly tossed the object at the knight. The ColdBall succeeded in freezing the chess piece and the panel it stood on. After a second, the frozen Knight shattered into fine glassy shards that spilled out around the panel.

"There! That wasn't so hard!" Hoshiko said with a smile.

A flying Drillman arrived at the scene a moment later and landed near Flame, standing over the scattered ice. "Let me guess, your operator hasn't changed her folder to something more fire-elemental-appropriate yet?"

"I was getting to it!" Hoshiko professed with exasperation.

"Still no sign of controller activity." Flamechick noted. "It seemed intent on ignoring external forces with no sense of self-preservation. If we hunt down and destroy more of these, perhaps it will disrupt their operation to the point that the controller comes out of hiding to confront us."

Moe nodded. "I'm setting up a log to monitor the users going in and out of the area too. The controller has to at least be nearby, so even if they skip out instead of confronting us, we can correlate that information with the disappearance of the chess pieces to narrow down our search of suspects."

"Sounds good to me." Drillman agreed. "I guess we don't have to worry about stealth for now, but we'll continue searching as we were. How are you set up for breaking attacks?"

"I have a couple more ColdBalls, but it doesn't look like Flamechick liked those much. Sorry Flamechick." Hoshiko apologised.

Moe dug through his pockets. "I'll lend her some of our DrillArms. You really should construct a new folder at the earliest opportunity though."

"Un, I will. Though I don't think we'll have to deal with many of these white statue things on most missions..."

"White? What do you mean white?" Moe asked, having not personally seen the encounter between Flamechick and the white Knight on her PET screen.

"The white chess piece we just smashed. Maybe it was more of an off-white, but do you really want to split hairs?"

"She's right Moe, check it out." Drillman called out, pointing to the thawing shards littering the ground. They were definitely white.

"Huh...Kingman always used black chess pieces." Moe said, scratching his head.

"You should have specified." said Flamechick. "Does this mean we're destroying the wrong objects?"

"That was almost certainly one of the chess pieces we were sent out here for. Just not sure it's Kingman any more, unless he switched aesthetics..." Moe pondered. "Chess piece netbattlers are relatively rare, but we've monitored a few while searching for Blackbelt. This is the first case all year of one of chess pieces engaged in disruptive behavior though, so I thought it was a good lead."

"We'll find out one way or another." Drillman proclaimed as he transformed to flight mode and resumed his search. Flamechick dashed off to do the same.

Over the course of about half an hour, Flame and Drill scoured the area, encountering more white chess pieces, all exhibiting the same pattern of moving around its own route, occasionally stopping and rotating in place. None of the pieces fought back as the navis crushed them, Knights, Pawns, Rooks, or Bishops. After about a dozen pieces essentially used as target practice, Hoshiko and Flamechick at least became a little more familiar with each other's combat techniques.

"What are we at now? Five Pawns, three Rooks, three Bishops and one Knight?" Moe tried to keep tally of Drillman's encounters.

"Hey, we're winning! Four Knights, four Bishops, three Pawns, and three Rooks!" Hoshiko announced triumphantly.

"My point is that's way more than normal for one guy. They must be regenerating and the controller doesn't even care what we're doing. This is beginning to feel like a waste of time." Moe sighed.

"Hold that thought, boss. Just caught a glimpse of a different kind of piece flying by the Square. Have Flamechick meet me there."

"A different kind? Is it a black piece?"

"It's THE black piece."

Drillman swooped down over the Square, currently deserted except for one navi standing there, looking around pensively. Drillman transformed and landed behind the navi and made a couple purposeful steps towards him before breaking the silence and greeting him in a grave tone. "Hello, Kingman."

* * *

Beastman panted happily. "Plantman! I was looking for you too! You did a much better job of masking your scent though. Great to see you, unless you suddenly want to kill me for some reason..."

"No, can't say I do. Bubs does though?"

"It's crazy! I just smelled him in the area and pounced him, and suddenly he's all demonically powerful and shooting at me. How did YOU find us?"

"I came looking for a DarkChip dealer that's apparently been stealing my customers. I didn't expect to find this."

The girl had been awestruck and confused ever since the bubble-wave, but now saw a point to jump in. "Is a DarkChip like a BattleChip that's 'a very powerful kind, high demand, low supply'?"

Plantman gave her a curious look. "Yes, you could say that."

She pointed up at Bubbleman. "Well, he wanted to give me one, so maybe he's the one you're looking for."

"Interesting." Plantman shook his head and then shouted up at the Darkloid. "Hey Bubs, not knocking your choice of profession, but you really shouldn't sample your own wares! That's always a bad idea! Also, if I could have my customers back, that would be great!"

"Never any respect. Gbglghh. Not even with all this power. Bhhllghh! I will...hhgblh...I will kill you all! Bbllghhgh!" Dark Bubbleman wheezed, seemingly hyperventilating with fury as he directed more and more bubbles filled with Fish Missiles and Depth Charges at the trio of lesser navis.

Beastman grabbed the other two and used his Airshoes to fly them to higher ground. "Like I said, he's completely lost it. I'm pretty sure we can beat some sense into him though."

Plantman sighed. "Maybe we should let him cool off. Let's get out of here and regroup."

"We don't run!" Beastman insisted. "We'd just lose him all over again. Besides, the three of us should be able to take him out."

"Um, I don't fight..." The girl admitted meekly.

"Sure you do! Your life depends on it! Fight water with water!" Beast encouraged.

"I seriously have no weapons. At all."

Plantman couldn't take it any more. "Who the hell ARE you!?"

"Oh!" She realized she had never introduced herself. "I'm Burstgirl. Nice to meet you."

Plant's eye twitched. "Okay, I'm Plantman. I meant what are you doing here?"

"Err, I think she's just an innocent bystander or something." Beastman shrugged, focusing mainly on dodging the missiles shooting by them.

"Marvelous. Why were you even dragging around someone useless?" Plant asked his old teammate.

"I don't know, could we just concentrate on how to get close to Bubs? He's got some souped-up BubbleWrap that elec attacks only bring down briefly and nothing else seems to get through at all."

Plantman barely intercepted an explosion with his Plant Barrier. "Alright! If you insist on taking him down with just the TWO of us..." he said while casting a sideways glance at Burstgirl, "Then fly up high and get ready while I draw him in."

"Now yer talkin'! Rrowwr!" Beast took off, leaving Plantman to deal with the incoming bubble swarm himself.

Plant started by launching his Boomerang chips, cutting through a swath of bubbles quickly and giving him some breathing room. He spoke to the girl behind him while aiming his vines up at Bubbleman. "If you really can't do anything, then you're basically on your own, but if you want to live, then I suggest you just stay close..."

She smiled and stepped a little closer. "Maybe there is something I can do. I can control water just enough that I can slow those bubbles down. I can protect you!"

"Well then just go ahead and turn his own weapon back on him, will you?" Plantman barked back indignantly.

"I can push back, but he's pushing a lot harder! I'm sorry. Though I really don't want to hurt him anyway..."

"Whatever, Beastman and I are plenty capable of hurting him ourselves." With that he finally snared Bubbleman's DarkWrap with his spiked vines. The barrier held, but Plant had connected, and after digging another pair of vines into the ground beneath him, he began reeling him in close like a fisherman with a catch on the line.

Bubbleman pulled back at first, until deciding he may as well give Plant what he wanted and quickly shifted forward, slamming his dark sphere into the green navi, pressing him into the ground. With sick, wheezing laughter, he forced the bubble down harder, slowly and painfully crushing the chlorophyll out of Plantman's body. Plantman strained to free himself, twisting his neck to check Burstgirl, whom he'd hoped could control the DarkWrap at this range, but the poor desperate girl was having no such luck.

He may have been in excruciating pain, but Plantman's ploy to catch Bubbleman within striking distance worked nonetheless. Beastman came pouncing down on the Wrap once more, using one more ElecSword to cut through the barrier. Then, a suddenly grinning Plantman pulled the snare that was wrapped tight around the bubble, now wrapped tight around a surprised and howling Darkloid, as Beastman wasted no time packing his claws with his strongest remaining sword chips to hack and slash away at the helpless little scuba-hamster of evil before it could recover even the slightest bit.

"Say it man! Say uncle!" Beastman growled.

"HHGHHRR UUUNNCLLLLE!"

Beast leapt off and Bubble, badly damaged, squirmed free from the vines and shakily returned to hovering while a partially flattened Plantman struggled to his feet.

"Hah! Oh Bubs, you didn't change much after all." Beastman laughed.

"Ggrghlrghhh...yyoouuu!" As Dark Bubble lurched at Beastman to attack again, a GaiaBlade from Plantman gouged into his back and pinned him to the ground.

"Enough already!" Plantman wheezed before falling backward to the floor again.

The sky suddenly cleared of both the all-encompassing Bubble Parade, and the mist that had shrouded the area for weeks. No longer needing to hold the bubbles back, Burstgirl approached Bubbleman's body carefully and kneeled beside it. "He was your friend. Did you have to be so brutal?" She addressed the other two navis with sadness in her voice.

Beastman sat down on the ground to tend to his injured leg. "Lady, let it go. He's suffered through worse. In fact, that's apparently why he was trying to kill us. You remember that part, do you? Where he tried to kill us?"

"Bubbleman will live." Plantman groaned while lying on his back on a fresh panel of grass that was helping him slowly recover. "He just won't be in as much of a fighting mood. With any luck we burned out some of the DarkChip energy that was infecting him."

"Infected? If he's sick, then he needs help." She pulled the sword out of Bubbleman's back and rolled him over. "He's an aqua-type like me. I can move aqua particles, so I should be able to isolate and expel the sick part. Out with the bad water, in with the good!" She placed her hands gently on the small Darkloid's scuba suit and small clear bubbles began to form around her as Bubbleman's colors began to brighten and darken rhythmically.

"Stop messing around and get out of here!" Beastman warned. "If you 'help' him, he'll probably just start rampaging again."

Plantman started struggling to his feet again. "Pretty sure you can't undo Dark influence like that anyway. Let us take care of him. I still need him to tell me what he's done with my customers."

Burstgirl sighed. "Some friends you are. No wonder he was angry. He just wanted you to respect him, but all you did was beat him up, insult him, and now all you care about is what he means to your business!"

"Well, that's the basis of our friendship. Always has been." Beastman shrugged.

"Hhhkkhh...you can help me..." Bubbleman choked out, evidently still partly conscious.

"Yes. Just stay still..." Burstgirl whispered.

"Body too damaged. Hghhkghh...N-need to f-feed...Bhghhkhh...need to merge!"

Plantman and Beastman both noticed what was going on and panicked. Drained as they were, they pushed themselves up and lunged toward the other two in what felt like slow-motion. Bubbleman was trying to use the Hybrid function to absorb Burstgirl and take possession of the new body. Burstgirl was completely oblivious to this and continued to try her technique on the injured Darkloid, thinking it was helping. Just before either Acid Hacker could reach them and pull them apart, a stream of black energy shot forth from Bubbleman and generated a shockwave that sent Beast and Plant flying backwards. Bubble and Burst were now surrounded in a purple sphere that looked like the DarkWrap. The colors of both figures within rapidly fluctuated.

"Craaap! Got any fight left in you, Plant?" Beastman shouted over the din of burning Dark Power.

"Seriously!?" Plantman yelled back, with the lower half of his body still partially squashed.

The platform rumbled violently as energy swirled around the dark sphere. A crackling roar that sounded like a waterfall in a thunderstorm rose to deafening proportions, and then...began to die down. The energy faded, the rumbling stopped, the noise ceased, and the blacklit bubble disappeared. Burstgirl was barely propping herself up on the ground, holding her head with her hand, apparently stuck with a dizzy headache. In the next panel over, Bubbleman was lying motionless, looking back to his pudgy, aqua-blue, green, and yellow self. The only remnant of his Darkloid physique was a small pink rebreather mask.

Beastman crouched low and made some tenuous steps forward. "Um...Hey?"

The girl blinked, shook her head, and looked up groggily. "Unnhh...I think I accidentally got some of the bad water in me. Bleh. I'm alright though." She looked down at Bubbleman. "Wow. Sure made a difference with him."

"Don't tell me her bubble-headed scheme to cure him actually worked..." said Plantman, lying on his back once again, unable to see what was happening personally.

"I dunno what happened, but it looks good so far..." Beastman murmured while poking Bubbleman a bit with his claw.

The small aqua navi suddenly sat up with a gurgling hiss, causing Beastman to jump back into a defensive posture. "Bllghh...Glblhh..." Bubbleman wheezed a bit before reaching his hand up and yanking the diving mask off his mouth and tossing it aside. "Blech! I could hardly breathe with that thing, blub! Why did I think wearing that was a good idea, blub?"

Beastman remained tensed up, but chuckled. "Well, it made you sound creepier."

"Yeah blub, that was probably why." Bubbleman noticed Beast was still in a battle stance. "Blub, settle down! I'm done trying to kill you. Transmission blocker's down by the way, blub. You can all jack out any time."

"There was a blocker?" Beastman asked while loosening up. Plant and Burst shrugged.

Bubbleman's face tightened into a familiar pout. "None of you even tried to run from me. Oh blub you guys."

"What happened to all that Darkness?" Plantman enquired.

"Uh...I tried to take over the girl's body with Hybrid but something got messed up in the process. I think it was because of that ability she was using. My Dark Soul separated and tried to do the merge, leaving my body behind. Sorry about that, by the way."

Burstgirl rubbed her forehead. "Is that what that was? No worries. It felt rough at first, then I was a little woozy, but it's wearing off now. I'm fine."

"Really? Thought that would make you crazy evil like Bubs was." Beastman said curiously.

Plantman laughed from his small, rejuvenating grass patch. "Ha haa...they say Darkness feeds on and enhances the buried sinister nature of a navi it infects...I think it's quite likely this girl has no such sinister nature. Bubbleman's Darkness foolishly threw itself into its greatest weakness...a soul of pure-hearted compassion."

"Hah! Makes sense to me!" Beastman howled. "Nice to have you back to normal, Bubs! Sorry, but you just weren't meant to have that kind of power."

Bubbleman clenched his fist around the small object no-one else noticed he still had. With a subtle sneer, he quietly pocketed the DarkChip, the last remnant of the time when he felt invincible, like a force to be feared. "I guess you're right blub. It feels good to be myself again."

"Now that you're feeling better..." Plantman started, still laughing a bit. "Now may I ask what you've been doing with my customers?"

Burstgirl tsked and sighed. "Honestly! Can't you all rest on it?"

"Ehh, it's fine. Blub, Desert and Bowl aren't gonna be happy, but blub those guys. Their plan sounds a lot more insane to me now for some reason."

Beastman cocked his head. "Plant, you sure you wanna discuss this now?" He gestured with his head at Burstgirl, still in earshot.

"At this point, I honestly don't care about keeping secrets. I really doubt any of you are working for the guys hunting us down, and I'll probably need you further down the line now. In fact, I think it would help to have Jake contact Stuart as soon as possible."

"Jake?" Beastman repeated, slightly confused. "Oh! I forgot to mention! I got a new operator!"

* * *

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