Annihilation

Death

Page 1

"Behold, Gamma! The new age for the Cyberworld begins today!!"

The navis could only stare at Fate, who stood atop Gamma. They saw a wicked, evil smile spread across his face as he spoke.

"Gamma, destroy them"

Gamma made a sound unlike anything before. It was a sound that paralyzed the navis with fear. It was when they saw Gamma's right claw begin to rise that they began to run.

"You cannot escape!"

Like an unstoppably massive meteor, the spiked steel cylinder bore down on the group. As the red light from its palm grew brighter and more intense, the group of tiny, isignificant navis knew it was all they could do to flee. Beastman and Punk were able to dash to safety well before the claw struck down while Bowlman and Yamatoman were not so agile. The walkways under Gamma's fist shattered into splinters as it slammed downwards and kept going until it lodged into the base level of the system. Though not crushed by the simple attack, Bowl and Yamato were thrown into the air by destructive backlash. Dark and Drill barely caught them in time.

Gamma followed up with a horizontal sweep with its left claw. Most everyone in its path cleared away desperately. Kingman attempted to stop the speeding bulldozer by throwing all his Knights at it, but the rock-hard chess pieces shattered on impact with the superior strength of the prototype's armor. In the end King barely managed to leap clear himself before the rest of the level was obliterated by the swing. Everyone that couldn't fly was forced to move downward.

Flameman was still left on the higher levels where the two teams last fought before things got more confusing. He was pretty far from the action, but he could tell things were not going well for his friends. Luckily for him, he was out of Gamma's line of site, and it seemed even Fate forgot about him. Figuring he was the only one with a chance of hitting the monstrosity's weak point, he galloped at top speed down the remains of the walkways leading towards the center of the area. Reaching the end of the road, the hot-headed navi put as much spring into his oddly-shaped legs as possible, launching himself fearlessly over the side towards the terrifying all-powerful behemoth and pulled off a move he had been wanting to try for ages.

Activating his green body-burner, Flameman tucked in his arms and legs and became an invincible blazing comet hurdling towards Gamma's unprotected head. Fate noticed the screaming fireball too late to stop it himself. Flameman streaked into Gamma's skull with a massive, firey explosion, resulting in a tortured rumbling noise that could be interpreted as the beast's cry of pain. The actual monster showed no signs of weakening however, and alomst immediately the headwound congealed with the familiar red ooze and began to heal itself. Flameman squirmed out of his own crater when he realized he was about to be consumed by the slime and tumbled down the precipiced neck until landing roughly on Gamma's left shoulder.

Flameman noticed something strange about the way Gamma's body felt under his hands and feet. It was rock solid, feeling almost exactly like the ground of the internet he walked over every day. Yet at the same time it seemed to ripple and warp like it was made of the same ooze that just tried to swallow him up. The last fact terrified him to even be touching the creature, and he greatly regretted choosing now to try out his cannonball attack. He regretted it more when he finally looked up and saw Fate walking sinisterly towards him from farther down Gamma's shoulder. Putting his fears aside, Flameman opted to try cooking two birds with one briquette. He slammed his fists into the squirming surface and charged up his fire breath for a Flame Blast attack. The subsurface geysers of heat worked fairly well on Giant's armor, and he figured Gamma's body was built on similar principles.

Fate had an irritated look on his face. He obviously wasn't feeling threatened by Flameman's bold attacks, but was rather insulted that the pest would dare to set his unworthy feet on his creation. A trubulent violet aura enveloped the human-navi and a cell-burst began to grow in his left hand. However Flame was a little faster to the draw, and the ragged man was blasted into the air by a pillar of fire under his feet. Multiple other flame pillars opened holes in the previously unmarred surface of Gamma's shoulder. Flameman laughed in triumph and began spitting fireballs at the airborne Fate before he could recover himself.

Gamma itself didn't react any more negatively to the Flame Blast than it did to the headshot, but either in response to the attacks on its master, or out of its own irritation, it bagen to turn its head until its massive red eye was pointed right at the firebug beside its neck. Flameman didn't even notice until he felt an unusual heat concentrated on his back that felt much more disturbing than the many other degrees of heat he had subjected on himself. Looking behind him to see the eye glow brighter with energy, he decided to take his chances with another leap of faith and dove out of the way just before a red beam zapped the spot he was standing on and sent energy shockwaves in all directions along with the shattered remains of Gamma's own shoulder. The creature didn't seem to mind the self-inflicted injury as much though, and before Flameman even hit the ground the wounds from the laser and the Flame Blast had begun to heal courtesy of the red slime seeping out from withing the hard outer-shell.

Flameman landed painfully on a lower platform, but was surprised the landing wasn't as painful as he thought it would be. The fall was cushioned by a fine bed of sand that was just created. Desertman rose from the ground nearby and gave his partner a nod. That was the second time in the last couple days Desertman rescued Flameman from a nasty fall. Flame chuckled and smiled in gratitude. "Uh...Thanks. I swear I'll pay you back for these saves eventually." he promised, somewhat embarrassed.

"Zunn...Oowall uzalla ghahach." Desertman replied, assuring his friend that payback was entirely unneccessary.

"Yeah, well I got your back from now on anyway. After all that I'm ready to let somebody else take the lead anyway." Flameman smirked, still settling down from the adrenaline rush of his up-close encounter with Gamma.

"Shorahah, zwee malacha vrun voorah..." Desertman predicted grimly.

"Oh, don't be so negative! We can totally beat this thing!" Flame assured his ally confidently. Though when he stopped to process what he experienced fighting Gamma himself, and now looking up at the still-unscathed colossus tearing the system apart, he had to include an important addendum "...I hope..."

Despite the revealed presence of its own arsenal, the main body of Gamma did nothing more after the retaliation against Flameman, and only the arms continued to send the navis scrambling as the claws ripped the area to shreds. From within the box-like torso of the beast, the sound of thunderous churning grew steadily louder. It wasn't clear what it was doing, but nobody liked the sound of it. Only Fate, once again perched on his creation's shoulder, appeared to be happy with the way things were going.

Of course, jacking out crossed everyone's mind. If anything they had faced in the several months since they became teams made them want to retreat to safety, this was it. Based on everything they knew about Gamma, it was set to destroy, or at least drastically warp, the entire Cyberworld as they knew it. The very presence of the gigantic, invincible machine made them believe that would happen. Even Punk felt humbled by the sheer destructive force and awe-inspiring stature of the weapon he had come so far to be the one to control.

So why did the helpless navis continue to struggle to find a way to fight back? They were not without fear, they were certainly not confident, they were already on the verge of hopelessness. However, this was their purpose. As human-like as the navis were, they were still AI, strongly driven by their core purpose. Although it wasn't written explicitly in their programming, they all felt the need to stay and see it through. The Net Guardians went to Sharo to save the world from Gamma, the Acid Hackers had gone there to win Gamma for themselves. With both options exhausted, they all knew there was no way they could run from this aftermath, they had to fight to the end. It was all that was left for them.

If Cossack was right...if Fate was right, this was the end of their world. There was no running from that.

Outside the crumbling network, the perspective was somewhat different. Anger and Sorrow: Those were the two feelings the Acid Hackers were having. Jeremy was outside screaming and kicking debris like a young child having a temper tantrum. Matt kept slapping his hand on his face for being duped and unable to foresee what would happen despite his research on Fate. Johnny was crying his head off and turned to his friend Nijubu for Support. Jake went into denial still thinking that it was all part of the plan. Stuart however, just simply walked off into the cold tundra. Despite his calm look, anger was filling his veins quickly and he walked out. He really did not want to talk anyone. It was all beyond their control. And nothing could fix it.

The Net Guardians were not sure how to cope with the situation. They were surprised their navis didn't want to jack out right away, and were struggling just to keep up with the chaos erupting on the other side of their staticky PET screens. Cyros, being the only one who's navi was already jacked out, was trying to comfort Kalinka, who had been in a state of shock since Dust Man was destroyed. Cossack, looking as fevered and insane as he was back when the team first met him, was positioned at the main computer, running a myriad of diagnostics on Gamma simultaneously. Apparently, despite the main plan of preventing Gamma's appearance failing, Cossack was not about to give up on finding a way to stop it. He obviously didn't have a contingency plan though, and was reaching desperately to find one. An air of desperation and confusion permeated the large, militaristic war room. Sharoan scientists ran about in a panic, warning alarms blared, the guards did their best to keep the people calm to little avail.

Just when everybody thought they had seen everything the nightmare of a day could offer, the main body of Gamma finally did something since the churning noise from within it began. Its chest plate appeared to bulge somewhat, and then a crease appeared down the middle and the two halves of the heavy steel casing slowly opened, hinged at the shoulders. A bright red light shone through the opening of the chest doors and as the gate opened wider, the navis that witnessed it were nearly driven insane by the illogical geometry and perception that swirled in an other-worldly vortex within the giant's cavernous torso. To the humans watching from outside the cyberworld, the view of the opening was frustratingly obscured by static, and Cossack found his attempts to scan the innards resulted in nothing but errors. All he could discern was that the spectacle must have been a depiction of the alternate Cyberworld that Gamma represented, and something was coming out of it...

The navis had taken to averting their eyes from the red hell that seemed to envelop their minds, so they didn't even see the objects that began to pop out of it. A loud metallic crashing sound forced them to open their eyes and look at what happened. The gate on Gamma's chest had closed, but the beast was now surrounded by several small, cylindrical objects resembling Gamma's arms. Each one was about as tall as the average navi, and on the non-clawed end of the cylinder there was a small head similar to Gamma's, but with shorter horns. The mini-Gammas orbited their parent, currently docile.

Fate chuckled and shook his head in contempt for the navis too foolish to run. "The first wave Gamma Units are ready. We're ready to begin conversion. You miserable wastes should have jacked out when you had the chance."

With a downward gesture of Fate's hand, the armada of Gamma Units plummeted into the ground beneath them, stabbing into the structure of the net with their claws. Gamma itself plugged both its arms and the claws on its underside into the base of the system in a similar manner. Almost instantly the colours of the system changed from a mix of blue, red, and purple into a monotone grey. The navis felt a rapid draining and glitching of their own systems. Just when it looked like they didn't have to worry about dodging Gamma's relentless attacks any more, they were hit with something worse, Gamma's actual re-writing of the Cyberworld.

With the ground itself acting as Gamma's weapon, those that could fly tried to help those that couldn't. Kingman held onto Drill, Serenade lifted Bowlman, Dark got Yamato, and Bubbleman encapsulated Beastman, Punk and Mistman's lamp in his bubbles. None of this did them any good in the battle. Without anywhere to set down, the non-flyers were just weighing down the others. Things were looking increasingly hopeless.

Unfortunately for the Acid Hackers, they could not get their entire team airborne. A Bubble Wrap was obviously not a feasible means of travel for Flameman, and Desertman had it the worst, for he was merged with the ground itself. Flame, growing weaker by the second as Gamma robbed him of his energy and code, decided it was time for he and his friend to retreat. The idea disgusted him after all he had been through, but they were running out of options. The navi embodiment of burning rage cursed to himself and put his remaining faith in the rest of his team, as well as the Net Guardians. It was all up to them now.

Desertman still wasn't far from Flame since they last split up, so Flame ran to meet him with the remainder of his strength to verify the escape plan. "Hey, Desert! You know I hate to say it, but I think we have to let the others have all the fun! We're...not gonna last much longer in here..." Flameman said to his partner, running out of breath.

Desertman appeared to be in worse shape than anybody. His normally yellow sand had taken on the same grey complexion as the rest of the terrain, and his makeshift body was moving slowly and shakily. Flame was very worried upon noticing this, but Desert managed to force out a response after some apparent struggle to form words. <Well...then jack out al..already...You are not...looking so good...>

Flame was taken aback and only grew more worried. "Me? What...what about you, man? We g-gotta get out...out of here together!"

Desertman sounded like he was coughing and moaning in pain. The fact that his voice sounded somewhat like that all the time made that difficult to notice. <I...I know...I shall be right behind you...the way G-Gamma is interfacing with the terrain...I am finding it difficult to control my own subroutines...I am trying to j-jack out as we speak...you must go now...while you still can...>

The last thing Flameman wanted to do was leave his best friend behind. It was the whole reason he was still there. "Is there something I can do? Maybe...maybe I could junction some of my energy..."

<No! Gamma spreads quickly...any link we made would only trap you too...please...go now!>

"But-"

<Now! I promise...I shall overcome this. You will see me again...>

"Aw c'mon! Don't say it like that!"

<GO!>

Frightened and uncertain, Flameman gave his friend a deeply forlorn look before he finally reluctantly jacked out. Desertman continued to struggle against the forced assimilation with Gamma's design. His body of sand began to harden and crack. Red veins began to spread upwards from below the surface, flooding Desert's trapped core with a subtle burning sensation that grew in intensity as the red ooze seeped into his essence.

With every last shred of strength he had, the besieged navi attempted to ignore the growing pain and concentrate on sending his data back up the the link to his PET. The results were greatly unsettling however, as not only was none of his data escaping Gamma's overwhelming pull, but he could feel more data pouring into him from his pocket-sized home. Battlechips he had not expected were downloaded into his frame and then immediately broken down to feed Gamma's ravenous hunger. Other files and programs never meant to leave the PET rushed through Desert's being in a way he did not understand. All he could comprehend was the all-consuming feeling of the pull downwards into the abyss. Above him was the way home to his PET, Nijubu, and Flameman, and for some reason it was growing more distant and unreachable.

Nijubu was panicking. Somehow, ever since the GUs plugged into the ground, some type of hacking had bypassed every built-in security measure the PET had and was rapidly removing every program, file, and folder on his PET, and there was nothing he could do about it. Everything he knew about the PET was put to the test, but sadly, that wasn't enough. The device seemed to refuse his every command, ignored every button pushed, and mocked him with the display of Desertman's quickly depleting vital signs. He tried to communicate with his navi, but it was as if Desert couldn't hear anything he was saying. Not knowing what to do, he called out to someone that might. "Matt! Stuart! Help me! The PET, it's-" before his friends could even get a look at it, the PET screen began flickering in and out. The audio filled with static and Desertman's voice grew faint. Nijubu called out to his navi one more time. "Desertman! Are you still there? Answer me!"

"Khcckkchk-k-k Zh-zh-zweeah...ahzha...zz-zz-zaah...aah...N-Nizh...Nizhu...Niihh...zhuu...buuuuuuuu-"

Desertman's voice was ultimately cut off by a single cough of static before the audio went silent completely. The screen went completely dark as well. The PET was dead. Nijubu was speechless. He only stared at the bricked electronic device in shock.

Within the network, the remaining navis wore a similar expression as they saw the spot where Desertman once stood reduced to pure red slime and floated eerily towards one of the nearby Gamma Units along with the rest of the terrain in the system, now clotting up in balls of floating crimson ooze and being swallowed up by Gamma and its children. The monolithic entities grew larger with the substance they consumed.

It was over. What little confidence and determination the navis had left had disappeared along with Desertman. They lived in a universe in which an individual could rarely truly die, and they may had just seen one of their own friends do just that. No regret, no disappointment; only sadness and fear was left with them, and these feelings led them all to jack out while they could for their own self preservation.

Fate watched with utmost glee as the system became empty save himself and his creation. As silence overtook the dying area, he broke it with an extended maniacal laugh that spread throughout the darkened void. Eventually composing himself, Fate spread out his arms, signalling the fattened GUs to scatter throughout the Cyberworld. He then pointed a single finger westward, ordering the main body of Gamma to proceed to a specific destination. It was time the rest of Sharo...and the entire world...saw what damage Gamma was truly capable of.

****

"So now what?" asked Jonathan, gathered along with the other Net Guardians and the Cossacks around a battery-powered emergency lamp in the now blacked out, powerless secret Sharo Scilab/military base. The defeated operators were taking turns at a backup generator, plugging in their PETs to give their navis badly needed recharges and repairs.

"I think it's too late for us to do anything." Adrienne said with some resignation. "We already did everything we could in there and it wasn't enough."

"Yeah, maybe we just have to leave this to the professionals." Moe sighed. "The Officials ought to be able to handle something like this. Somebody stopped Alpha, they should be able to stop Gamma...just not us."

There was a long uncomfortable silence as they all considered this. Their navis were silent the whole time. They had clearly already given up hope upon witnessing Desertman's destruction. Even the humans that wanted to continue to fight were not sure if they could convince their navis to fight for them. The hopelessness was spreading and somebody had to try and end it.

David finally spoke up with an attempted counter. "I...I think we are capable of a lot more. We have proven ourselves at least on the level of the Officials before. We only need to regroup. With proper preparation..."

Nobody showed a lot of faith in his proposal, and as he trailed off at the end, evidently neither did he. Carlos, in a rare display of agreeing with his rival, finished the thought with his own idea of encouragement. "I decide against doing nothing. Unchecked, Gamma will spread across the net and consume everything. Even being jacked in at all it potentially fatal to our navis. We can either fight for the existence of the Cyberworld or prepare for life without it. I will fight. It is the honorable thing to do." These words broke Yamatoman from his state of catatonic depression. Feeling renewed spirit, the samurai navi held his spear high as a signal to his operator that he was with him. Naomi, who had been attempting to comfort Yamato to little avail, now smiled and stood with her partner.

"Well, would it really be the end of everything?" Adrienne wondered aloud. "I mean, there will still be unconnected systems and stuff that Gamma can't reach. Maybe we could just connect all of them and make a new internet! Start fresh, y'know? Just unplug whatever Gamma's got itself stuck into and let it die, 'cause it doen't look like it wants to come out."

"Ah, the obvious solution." Kalinka acknowledged listlessly. She was somewhat cried out from Dust's destruction and was beginning to come out of her own depressed state to offer some explanation. "Gamma has already proven that it can surpass boundaries like that."

Some of the Guardians were confused. Moe voiced this. "What? How? You're saying it can transfer to systems not connected to a network? How's that possible?"

"Wish I could tell you." She replied emotionlessly. "This base was locked down as soon as Gamma came online. All comm lines leading out of the building were physically cut and the wireless broadcasting equipment was disconnected as well. It was the contingency plan in case the reunion succeeded and we needed to at least trap Gamma and prevent it from spreading. The pirated link the Acid Hackers were using remained, but that was only coming from a portable, un-networked transmitter itself. There chould have been no way for Gamma to move to another system, and yet just before the power went out here, Gamma transferred somewhere. Radio reports from other bases confirm it. Gamma has started popping up in other systems on the larger net. It's certainly unsettling..."

It sounded impossible, but Drillman broke his own silence with a possible answer. "It...it could be...the mystery of subspace." the orange navi said with some uncertainty. The others were perplexed by this statement.

Moe scratched his head and rolled his eyes. "Uh...I don't know Drill, I don't think this is the right time for that theory of yours..."

"What theory?" Kalinka pressed.

Drillman hesitated for a second and then explained. "The subspace that connects my wormholes is made up of...well, they're like light and dark masses. The light ones represent possible exit points. The dark ones, I used to think were nothing, but I could feel like there was something there, but I could never touch them. I think the dark masses are actually non-networked cyberworld systems. Maybe Gamma found a way to...y'know, touch them. While I was in there and trying to use my wormholes, I could feel everything in subspace was shuddering violently...even the dark parts, and that was the most I was able to feel them ever before."

"Uh...sorry Drill, that's a bit far-fetched." Jon said, surprised that Drillman's normally level-headed personality had such a crazy idea. "I mean seriously, they're not connected to anything, how could you possibly be aware of their existence?"

Something familiar rang through Sam's head. He was aware there was an unexpected metaphysical quality to the cyberworld that no one could quite explain. His earlier extra-dimensional escapades with Viral Infection taught him at the very least this man-made virtual world had somehow achieved its own status as a universe that even its creators were unaware of. He was not about to share this with the present company, however. Still, how could Gamma access this metaphysical plane?

"You said Gamma was a part of the cyberworld even before the pieces were united, didn't you Dr. Cossack?" Sam finally asked the doctor, who was trying to analyze what data he was able to download onto his battery-powered laptop before Gamma wiped out the building's system.

Cossack was slow to react, engulfed in his work. After Sam repeated the question twice and Kalinka prodded him, he finally looked up and joined the conversation. "Hm? Yes, yes. Gamma, being the internet itself is, at a subtle level, infused with cyberspace. Uniting the Gamma pieces basically succeeded in bringing those subtle connections to the surface."

"So, even with no connection to the net from here, it still existed there the whole time, could that explain how it escaped? Could that mean even unconnected systems and jacked-out PETs are vulnerable to the spreading?" Sam continued.

Cossack thought for a moment. "Well...a signal to trigger the awakening of Gamma in unconnected areas would still need to be transmitted from the origin point somehow. I am afraid there is no clear explanation as to how Gamma broke free from the trap...but if he could, I suppose any unconnected area is vulnerable too..." he concluded grimly.

"So even avoiding Gamma isn't an option." Serenade surmised. "We have to take the fight to it."

The other navis chimed in with their approval. They were all back on board. "One question remains though." Cyros spoke up. "How?" Metalman cracked his knuckles in anticipation. Having been the first one out of the battle and the only one to miss Desertman's death, he was the most eager to get back into action. He was ready to fight Gamma even before the rest of the NG navis, but true to form, remained silent and stoic.

"Good question." Kalinka sighed. "Dad? You're our only hope finding out that thing's weakness. Is there anything you can tell us that might...I don't know, give us hope? I mean, at least tell us there's a possibility of stopping that thing."

All eyes were on Dr.Cossack, who had his own eyes fixed on his laptop monitor. He was uneasy with the pressure being layed on him, but he had to give them an answer. After several moments of suspense and fumfuring, he offered one possible answer. "Well, the physical body of Gamma you saw was a representation of its globally networked self...and...well...it is like a cell, an amoeba...and it has a nucleus, representing its base code, the core of its being..."

"A weak point, great!" Cyros pumped his fist in satisfaction. "So all we gotta do is hit it for massive damage, right?"

Cossack continued with little self-confidence. "Well...assuming there is a way...to hit it...Destroying the core would certainly neutralize Gamma no matter how far it spreads across the Cyberworld, but it is in no position to be destroyed."

"The glowing ball of light in the ooze that rose into the chest portion when the body first formed?" Serenade asked, hoping to have seen the apparently elusive weak point.

"Er...yes." Cossack confirmed. "But seeing the nucleus or even exposing it is not the problem. The nucleus isn't something solid that can be attacked directly like a virus or another navi...like I said, it is a visual representation of a concept...hrmm..." the frazzled scientist trailed off as words escaped him. After a few seconds he picked up again. "Needless to say, it is beyond any of your individual abilities to damage the core, much less expose it..."

"I'm not going to take that!" Cyros proclaimed angrily. "If our navis can't touch Gamma or damage it the way they are, then we just gotta find some way to upgrade them so they can! Isn't that possible?"

Cossack was taken aback. He thought for a moment and then suddenly perked up. "You know...perhaps...yes! In fact, I believe you are the only ones capable of such adaptations..." he then, in an almost bi-polar way, became much grimmer as he finished the thought. "You, and the Acid Hackers."

"Say what?" Jon retorted. "Can't we leave them out of this for once? They've done enough."

Cossack shook his head. "I am afraid your shared origins with the Acid Hackers is imperative in the execution of our potential victory. I fear twelve navis will be insufficient as it is, but the seven of you alone will be unacceptable."

The Net Guardians were uneasy about this proposal. The conflict between the teams may have been temporarily swept aside by the appearance of Gamma, but they were far from working with each other. "We don't even know where they are." Moe said. "How are we supposed to get their help?"

"We know where they are." Kalinka pointed out. "They're camped at an outpost not far from here. The base personnel pinpointed their position shortly after Gamma came online. They were unable to spare the resources to send anyone after them, but now is as good a time as any."

"Great...but what are we going to say to them once we find them?" David groaned, picturing the inevitable senseless shootout.

"Leave it to me, guys." Sam said in an assuring tone. "I think I know just how to win them over."

* * * * *

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