Flameman spat several fireballs at the Gamma Unit weaving about in the distance. Flashman and Plantman were shooting the same one from other angles while Punk, Drill, and Kingman had their hands full with the other one on their side. Just when Flame got in a good hit, the GU responded by rocketing towards him, claw first. Putting a good amount of spring into his arms, Flameman catapulted backwards, barely avoiding the impact. As he landed, he looked back and cursed upon noticing his accomplishment diminished by the GU's rapid healing. It had imbedded itself in the ground again and was absorbing energy from the system, undoing all the damage they had caused. They were getting nowhere.

Kingman noticed this too. His Pawn and Knight had managed to inflict a lot of damage on the other GU with the help of Drillman's Cannonball and Punk's TripleBomb assault keeping it distracted. Just when it looked like it was going to break up it moved away from the holes Drillman created and planted itself down. Red ooze seeped out from within, filling the cracks in its armor and solidified into a fresh, unbroken metal coating. It would have been more discouraging if Kingman hadn't taken an important clue from it.

"Drillman, do what you do best and take the ground out from under that thing. No ground means no healing!" Kingman proclaimed.

Drillman narrowly ducked an overpowered eye beam with the hep of his Mole chip. "Well, that's a lot of ground to cover, so to speak. At least if they want to heal they'll have to go farther away from us to do it..." he predicted grimly before converting to Drill Mode and getting to work.

Punk rolled up to Kingman and transformed pixels from his face. "Hey! Dontcha think that plan o' yers is a little shortsighted? We need places to stand, don't we? Or do ya wanna repeat of the last couple o' battles with the flyers havin' to carry us around by our armpits?"

Kingman backed up to a comfortable distance from the AH leader's intimidating visage before responding. "It's going to be hard to avoid that in the long run anyway, but for now we should get by with herding all three GUs into the fissure they created earlier. Once both groups have them surrounded in the hole, they will have a difficult time getting past our concentrated attacks to access any healing ground."

"Ah. Well why didn't ya say so!?" Punk brushed the regal navi aside and took aim at the Gamma Unit already back in the air thanks to their ally's quick drilling. A moment of lag later, a Tank Cannon formed in his outstretched arm and instantly fired a powerful shot, hitting the GU dead on, and sending it careening in the opposite direction, right towards the fissure. "Heh, think I'm gettin' the hang o' this friggin' delay. About time."

Kingman activated a Barrier and leapt forwards into the dust and smog covering their quarry's new position. "We should hurry after it to make sure we keep pushing it forard. Nijubu, relay the plan to the others!"

"Um, alright." Nijubu complied, feeling less like the operator and more like the operated. Nonetheless, he had to do what he could, and running over plans with the others made him feel just as much a part of the team as ever.

The other ops scattered about the room at their own consoles paid attention to Nijubu's description of their objectives. Cyros grinned when he realized they'd be dealing with his specialty, good old-fashioned brute strength. "Alright, finally time for some action! It's six-to-one on our side and we've been going nowhere!"

Adrienne gave a sideways glance to her oversized partner. "Well we might be getting somewhere if Carlos would let us use chips. I'm sick of pulling punches!"

Carlos tapped his nose and shook his head. "Think about it. We came here to fight Gamma. These things are the small fries. We might not get another chance to recharge so we should conserve our chips as long as possible."

"Well we can't waste too much energy just surviving against these things either!" Jake protested. "Let's just lead them into position and use some nice, strong chip attacks together to finish them off fast!"

"Hm, alright." Jon scratched the stubble on his chin. "We'll focus on standard attacks that can push it away. Carlos, I think that means Yamatoman's army is our best bet."

Carlos nodded. "Yes, but they are small and ground-based. They won't have much of an effect as long as the GU is in the air."

"Leave it to Metalman. Missiles and Metal Fists can keep anything on the ground!" Cyros boasted.

Jake looked embarassed. "Um, I guess Beast can't do much...but Bubble can do lots, can't you buddy?"

"Blub blub! Bubble Parade coming up, blub!" Bubbleman responded from the monitor. The navis all paid close attention to their partners' conversation and engaged accordingly. The high-flying Gamma Unit was knocked off-course from a few missile hits. Noticing them, it attempted to dodge, but found its movements restricted as large bubbles filled the air in every direction. Using the bubbles as cover, Metalman flew over the GU and slugged it in the head with a Metal Fist, forcing it straight down to the ground with a heavy crash. As soon as it landed, a flank of miniature spearmen lined up at its side and began prodding it with their weapons, rolling it in the direction of the chasm. Its attempts to get back up were hampered by a swarm of Darklady's Murkland Bats. Bowlman and Beastman rushed ahead to the chasm to prepare for the next step. It seemed the north team had it in the bag.

Progress on the south side was hampered by the fact there were two of them, and each time the team got one of them into position, the other would distract them and let its counterpart get away. Punk was getting especially frustrated. "Come on Plant! Just rope it down for ten seconds! Is that so hard?"

"Yes! They are stronger than they look!" Plantman claimed in his defense. The GUs had been forced closer to the chasm, but were fighting back harder than ever.

One broke free from Plantman's vines again. The other flew up alongside it and they were now moving in unison, speedily circling Plantman with their claws pointed outwards, shooting small laser bursts in all directions to keep the other navis away. Plantman warily stood his ground, not sure what to make of it.

"What the hell are they doing shooting away from the guy they have surrounded?" Flameman asked while defending with a green flame.

"Well, even together, the lasers wouldn't be that effective on Plant." Flashman reasoned, taking cover behind Flame. "He can heal quickly and while they're focused on him, we're free to make our move...Aw damn, they're aware of this!"

"You sayin' these sparkplugs are smarter than they look?" Drillman asked from a small hole in the ground.

Flash nodded. "They must be charging up for a massive attack to take out Plant in one hit. They're going to try to do us in one at a time. If we don't brave the cover fire, Plant's toast!"

"Huh, they can't be that smart if they think something like that'll work on us." Drill scoffed and dug below the platform. A moment later, the GUs spun around and pointed their claws inward at Plant, who was attempting to guard with a Plant Barrier. The Gamma Units then slammed together, drilling their claws into each other's at the point where Plantman stood. The poor wood navi had no time to dodge, but luckily for him, a convenient hole opened up beneath him at the last moment, allowing him to drop out of the way, only losing the upper tip of his head petals to the attack. Drillman carried the traumatized Plantman back to solid ground, dropping him with the rest of the group.

"Okay...let's not let them try that one again." Plantman said in a shaky voice.

"It's not a bad tactic though. We should try it against them." Kingman suggested. "Flameman, work on summoning those Changkeys of yours."

"I don't think they're going to give us a chance for that!" Flameman exclaimed before leaping out of the way of another coordinated laser attack. This time the GUs positioned themselves around Punk, and began circling him for another crushing blow.

"Oh, you two can just forget about that!" Punk roared and extended his arms, spinning in the opposite direction. His chains quickly wrapped around the both of them. Apparently shocked by the outcome, the GUs tried to move away, but Punk held on tightly. He was lifted off the ground and felt the strain as they played tug-o'-war with him in the middle, but he wasn't letting them get away. "Well? I could use some help here!" he pleaded to his companions.

Plantman reached out with his vines once again, but this time wrapped them around Punk's waist. Kingman likewise wrapped his arms around Plantman's waist and pushed his personal gravity to the max to hold them down. Then, in the most painful moment of the battle for all those involved, Kingman spun on his pivot point on the ground, overpowering the Gamma Units' flight and swinging them around on the Plant-Punk chain with gathering momentum.

"Hold on tight until I give the signal!" Kingman hollered. Plantman and Punk strained to keep the GUs under control. The swinging was building fast enough to create a wind vortex that cleared away the smog in the area. The chasm was now visible in the distance and the third GU was visible near the edge along with the other navis.

"Now is as good a time as any!" Flashman called out, ready at the edge along with Flameman and Drillman.

"Punk, let go!" Kingman shouted. Punk complied and loosened his arms, throwing the disoriented Gamma Units into the fissure.

At the same time on the other side, Bowlman and Beastman noticed they needed to get their GU in place and pulled out a Tank Cannon and an Airsword respectively. The combined concussive force from the weapons launched it across the pit and slammed it right into one of its brethren. Caught in a jumble in the center, the three Gamma Units began to reorient themselves. The Net Guardians and Acid Hackers would not let them finish, however.

Darklady unleashed a Dark Vulcan, while Drillman sent a swarm of Common Snakes from the other side. The combined rapid attacks bounced the GUs back and forth in the air while making swiss cheese of their armor. Metalman gathered himself and concentrated to pull off something he had never done before, the legendary GoldFist Rocket Punch storm. He always knew everything he needed for it, the perfect timing and rhythm, the steps, the force, but never before did it feel so important to get it right. When he finally saw fist after fist shooting out of his arm and into the Gamma Units in the distance, he knew it was his fate to be there that day. The other navis that weren't recovering had less in their arsenal to give at the moment, but didn't give their targets a chance to escape. The blue Yamatoman, his NaomiSoul mode in recovery, tried to line them up in a NOBeam3 blast. Bubbleman sent out a SideBubble3 along with his regular Bubble Parade. Flashman shot his BeeArrow while Flameman surrounded the GUs with his Changkeys and fired a LavaCannon.

It was a spectacular onslaught, but the Gamma Units were still there. While the second wave prepared, the first wave switched to standard weapons. That's when two of the GUs seemed to break apart. The navis took this as a good sign. They would shoot them into a million little pieces. There was a problem though, the GUs were glowing and moving in unison again. It almost looked like they meant to break apart like that. They both separated the same way, with the head and blue drum-shaped part the head sat on disconnecting from the rest of the body, revealing a spike at the end that would have been jutting into the blue part. Those two bodies spread their claws and joined the two rings at their base. The heads on the disembodied shoulders disappeared and metallic cones extended from the necks in their place. These broken parts began to rapidly orbit the third Gamma Unit, which remained intact, but was stretching itself out lengthwise. The glowing surrounding them grew more intense and the formation began to look frighteningly familiar.

The navis were not sure what was happening, but some had a guess. They all stopped attacking when they noticed their attacks had stopped having an effect and watched with apprehension. The operators decided it was as good a time as any to load some defensive chips. Whatever was happening could not be good.

The pieces came together with a bright red flash. When the light subsided, the three Gamma Units were gone...and a scaled down replica of Gamma itself floated in its place. The two flanking units became arms and shoulders with the third forming the body. After the flash, the central body now sported different horns, a chestplate, and a nucleus to match it with its parent.

Some of the navis were horrified, others were defiant. Punk just clenched his fist and bellowed the new orders before their new opponent could act. "Less targets, more damage! Just keep blastin' it!"

While the mini Gamma didn't look like much of an improvement over its separate components at first, it quickly displayed its improved firepower by spinning around firing lasers from its eyes, shoulders, and arms simultaneously. The navis were once again sent scrambling for cover. Once it stopped, it made a beeline for the south side of the chasm, hunting down the little pests one by one.

The first target was Kingman. He was fairly slow and easily caught. Gamma knocked him over with one swipe of one of its disembodied claws and prepared to crush the helpless body with the other. However before Kingman could be finished off, his coat and crown fell off revealing a simple Pawn underneath. An AntiDamage technique. The real Kingman dropped from above with a Checkmate attack, slamming into Gamma's back. The blow would have brought a GU to the ground, but in this form it kept floating, and brought up its arm to bat its attacker away like a bug. To Kingman, the landing was almost as painful as the claws themselves.

The navis on the other side noticed that they were suddenly useless in their position. Airshoes wouldn't get the non-flyers across a hole that large. Fortunately they had a perfect flyer-to-walker ratio. Bubbleman carried the lightweight Beastman, Darklady took Yamato (who was unable to fly himself with his Naomi powers spent), and Metalman took Bowlman. They still had a lot of air to cover before they caught up to the action though, and they could only pray that Gamma wouldn't remember them and shoot them out of the sky over the chasm.

Drillman flew in to rescue Kingman before another eye beam could make things worse for him. Flashman and Flameman took the opportunity to move in for an attack, striking at its abdomen with an ElecSword and an ElecBlade. The combined cuts opened a deep gouge in the oozy inner substance, and making the pulsating violet nucleus accessible. Gamma quickly responded to the threat with rapid vulcan fire from its shoulders, heavily damaging the AH members and forcing them into retreat. It started to regenerate the coating around its core, but before it could finish a chained weight flew out of nowhere and punched into the orb causing the abomination to wail a painfully unnatural sound. Punk stood behind Gamma with his arm stretched out in the opposite direction. He snickered as he reeled in the wrap-around weapon.

Plantman used the beast's thrashing as a chance to get closer and start hammering away at the core with his gatling thorns. The spikes were running into slime as Gamma had jammed its claws in the ground and was now healing more quickly, but at least the rapid fire was keeping the wound from closing completely. With Kingman back on his stump, Drillman charged in with a DrillArm at the ready to do some more serious damage.

Gamma was not going to sit around at let that happen though. The first thing it did was open up its chest, revealing a small, twisted, churning portal. One by one, out popped the smallest Gamma Units they had seen yet. Each one was no taller than Bubbleman. They moved quickly enough though, and laid down cover fire in the form of concentrated laser bursts, forcing Plantman and Drillman to back off. Plantman turned his thorns on the mini-GUs, but their small size combined with their quick, sudden movements made them difficult targets. The Gamma itself already had five of these little helpers flyign around and continued to produce more even as it rose out of the ground and began firing its own weapons again.

Its single eye eventually caught sight of the navis flying in from across the chasm. Their fears were realized as it sent all five mini-GUs to intercept them. Metalman launched his missiles to intercept and Bubbleman fired his harpoons, but with the extra weight they were carrying they just couldn't keep up. They struggled to endure the laser shots and hold on. Eventually, one of the units stopped in place, glowed bright red, and shot itself like a bullet at Bubbleman and Beastman, self-destructing on contact. To everyone's horror, Beast and Bubble both fell out of the sky and into the deep, dark pit. Two more units followed suit and sacrificed themselves on the other two pairs. Darklady and Yamatoman suffered the same fall as their allies, but Metalman managed to endure the blast.

Panicking, Metalman threw a shocked Bowlman with all his might to the southern ledge and rocketed downwards in hopes of catching at least one of his falling comrades. Bowlman hit the ground and rolled to a stop. He strained to get to his knees, having suffered enough damage from the GUs, not to mention Metalman's idea of a dropoff. He had no time to lick his wounds however, as the first thing he saw upon looking up was the massive form of Gamma hovering over his head, charging its claw beam.

A sudden yellow flash of light froze everyone in place. Flashman warped in a moment later to grab Bowlman and pull him to safety. Punk was up next, throwing a Mega Energy Bomb into the creature's chest cavity, halting production of the mini Gamma Units with the resulting explosive energy field. Plantman then tangled up every current GU he could with his vines and allowed Flameman to incinerate them with his breath. Ignoring their target's building power, Drillman and Kingman boldly charged forward to open the core once again and hopefully do some significant damage this time. Drillman tore through the slime coating with his previously unused DrillArm while Kingman prepared a GigaTimebomb Advance to explode as soon as the core was exposed.

One second to go and Gamma was ready with its counter attack. Kingman saw it coming as the beast's various weapons took aim and began to glow. He cursed his imperfect timing as he leapt to take cover, screaming a warning to his allies. They began to move, but when the Gamma Rays began there was little to be done about avoiding them. Highly concentrated lasers swept the ground, eradicating the platform a split second before the three overloaded claw beams burned through the air. The Timebomb was deleted before it could detonate, and the navis only barely survived behind their barriers and shields as the onslaught blasted them in different directions across the system.

With its enemies stunned and defenseless, Gamma targeted each navi with a separate weapon and charged up for one last beam barrage. From their own smouldering piles of debris, Flameman, Kingman, Flashman, Drillman, Plantman, and Punk could see their imminent end. Bowlman was still recovering and there was still no sign of the rest of the north group. They strained to get up and find some way to avoid deletion, but their bodies refused to move so soon after taking so much damage. There was nothing left they could do.

Then, another flash of light. This one didn't come from Gamma, nor Flashman, nor anyone else on the battlefield, but from high above the battlefield directly over Gamma's head. It shone like a pinkish white star and then streaked down like a meteor, exploding with vengeful power in the destroyer's eye. At that same moment it released its laser barrage, wildly missing its targets and gratefully leaving the navis with some respite. The origin of the light descended from the sky and took form just above the ground in front of Gamma.

Serenade's eyes were cold and determined. A new air surrounded the Net Guardian leader and everyone present could see it. He was there to turn things around.

The other operators didn't even notice David rush in and log on. Their attention had been focused elsewhere, after all. The response was mostly positive for the timely rescue, at least from the NG members. Others, such as Carlos and the AH felt the need to berate him for not being there sooner. He responded to all of them with an embarassed tip of his hat before proceeding to load his chips to Serenade. "Sorry y'all. S did find what he was lookin' fer, case yer wonderin'. We're ready to get down to business."

Jeremy was a little surprised. "So you have some special secret weapon now? Well hurry up and use it so we can wrap up this ungodly battle!"

"We can't use it now!" David snapped back. "This isn't the real Gamma! We only have one shot at GigaFreeze, we gotta make it count!"

"Well, we're having enough trouble with the lite version..." Jon sighed despairingly.

"Then let's see what we can do about that." The cowboy rallied his teams to action.

As if on cue, the cavalry arrived in the form of Metalman rocketing upwards from below the fissure. With Beast and Yamato carried in each arm, and a banged-up Darklady and Bubbleman floating up behind him shortly after, it seemed the whole team was still in one piece after all.

Gamma was already on the move and swatted Serenade away with one arm while jamming the other in the ground to recharge. Metalman dropped his passengers off and with no signs of fatigue, hurried in to take his leader's place. Gamma's free arm rose up and immediately slammed down on top of the powerful navi, but Metal countered by grabbing one of the three claws in each of his vice-like hands and pushed back with all his might. His feet dug into the ground and his jets burned out on his back. Gamma's spike fingers were bent and mangled from Metalman's grip, but a more pressing concern was the beam cannon between the claws that was now mere pixels from Metal's face and glowing red hot with building energy.

Bowlman had recovered by now and chose his next target carefully. Fully confident in Metalman's strength, he instead lined up his favorite ball with the other arm, plugged into the terrain and humming like some malevolent mystical monolith. He took two careful steps forward, inched a few tiny steps more on his tip-toes, did a ballerina spin, and reared back his arm for a windmill loop, releasing the ball with all his might straight down the center...

With his face being seared by the intense red light, Metalman grit his teeth and flexed his biceps. His chest felt like it was ripping apart as he clenched his arms together with all his effort. The steel that composed Gamma's hand groaned as it bent under the pressure. Metalman bent the ring that composed its palm and cannon barrel into an oval, and then further into an hourglass shape, and further still until the opening that had burned into his very being with crimson radiation was closed tight and the once immaculate polished steel that surrounded it was left a gnarled, twisted mess. With no strength left to fight back or even move, Metalman slumped to his knees under the arm that now tremored and screeched over his head as the energy it had been building up could not find an exit for release.

At that moment, the large green bowling ball struck the dead center of the recharging arm's base...and continued straight through the other side and onward over the edge of the platform. The ring of the base shattered, sending two halves splintering in opposite directions while the remainder of the arm flew up into the air, now without a hand or weapon. Red ooze spilled out of the wound and over the ground like thick translucent blood, rushing to reform the lost appendage but wasting more energy than it had recovered.

Then the other arm just exploded from the overload of jammed beam energy. Metalman was thrown a fair distance by the blast, but due to his tough nature, this didn't bother him at all. He was actually prouder than ever for having arm wrestled the internet and won. Gamma was left with one useless arm, but it was not about to give up and brought out the gun on its shoulders, charged up its eye, and once more opened its chest.

Many of the navis were still down, but not all were out. Bubbleman set down behind Gamma and activated an Aqua Whirl chip to circle around and wash out into the belly of the beast, sucking it lower to the ground and softening up its shell. Then Darklady appeared at its side and unleashed a heavily bugged Noise Storm with the center of the vortex drilling directly into the core and scattering the protective gel in all directions. Undaunted by the mess, Serenade made his move with his first set of chips of the battle, the LifeSword Program Advance.

With one massive, blinding, powerful slash, the nucleus was no more. The miniature Gamma made a deafening howl that resonated across the system. The sky cracked with electricity, the ground shook violently, and every navi on the net could feel the power being released. This Gamma was disappearing from the world the same way it had appeared. Serenade, Bubbleman, Bowlman, and Darklady cautiously stepped back and watched as the great machine of vengeance decayed and crumbled before their eyes. Even when the body had mostly disintegrated, the horrible cry continued. The combined teams could take no satisfaction in the death throes of their opponent however, as they could all tell the wails were not those of lament, but of summoning. The child was calling out to its parent, and they knew the call would be heard no matter where the parent may be. As the last traces of their adversary faded away along with the calamity it produced, the remaining combatants could only wonder how much time they had until the real fight came upon them.

* * *

The next few minutes were tensely peaceful. They knew they had to wait right there, it was their entire plan. Although everyone felt like they had been through a full day's work already and spirits were anything but high. The operators had the chance to load some Subchips, and given the pain their navis were in at this stage, they wasted no time in performing emergency medical treatment. Once the navis were healed enough to move again, they began to move to the north side of the fissure where the ground was still mostly stable. Even with most of the team in Airshoes, they couldn't fly as much as they wanted. The south side felt like it could crumble under their feet at any moment, having took the brunt of the previous battle.

The operators also had the chance to recharge their folders, although after some debate, they opted to leave them be. It could take too long to refresh and most of them already had favorable chip arrangements they wanted to exploit as soon as necessary. They were in good shape anyway. Most had managed to conserve and only used around five chips since the battle began. Kingman had used the most with nine, but two of those were a Pawn and Knight, and were still by his side. He was more concerned with planning what he would do with them and the chips he had left.

"There's something I really don't get..." Johnny mumbled at one point, scratching his ears.

"What's that?" Nijubu, who was sitting next to him asked.

"Well Metalman wrecked that one arm by bending it all out of shape...and Bowlman broke the other one by shattering it...What is Gamma's armor supposed to be made of again? Is it malleable like titanium or brittle like ceramic?"

"I think it's both, like ceramic-titanium!" Adrienne helpfully suggested.

Johnny was unsatisfied. "That doesn't make any sense. Unless those arms were made of two different materials, Metalman's shoulda crumbled or Bowlman's shoulda gotten a big dent, as long as they reacted the same way!"

"Johnny, I cannot believe that is your biggest concern right now." Matt sighed, rubbing his temple.

Cyros tapped his chin in serious contemplation. "Well, it's Cyberworld physics...not to mention warped Prototype Gamma Cyberworld physics. Let's not put much thought into it."

"Yeah, screw realism. It just detracts from enjoyment of the story." Moe proclaimed. Everyone stared at him uncomfortably. "That is...the story we'll be telling our grandkids years from now about how we saved the world, right?" He was met with general agreement that time.

David leaned back in his chair and took off his hat to wipe away some sweat. When he opened his eyes he found Kalinka standing over him offering a fresh bottle of water. "You look like you ran the whole way here. I figured you could use this." She said with a smile.

David took it graciously. "Thanks. I did do quite a bit o' runnin'. I didn't know where you guys went at first so I called Sam. It doesn't look like he's here either though."

"Hey I'm thirsty too. Get me something, will you?" Jake prodded Kalinka who responded with an irate glare.

"Sounds good." Jon commented, smacking his lips. "While we're taking orders, I'll have a Hardy's."

"You want a beer for the most important battle of your life?" Stuart asked incredulously. "Aren't you worried about your performance taking a hit?"

Jon scoffed. "One drink won't make me push the damn buttons any slower. It might make the apocalypse a little easier to handle though."

"Beer run? I'm on it!" Dr.Cossack jumped to his feet and grabbed the car keys. "This party's a total bust anyway! Catch you dudes in a few!"

"Dad, no." Kalinka sighed in a futile attempt to get him to settle down.

"Ah, go ahead and take him. It'll give you something else to do besides stand around worrying about us." Matt remarked.

Kalinka shook her head in exasperation. She couldn't tell if everyone wasn't taking the situation seriously enough or if they were really trying to mask their collective stress. A different female voice added to the feeling. "Go on, I got the moral support thing covered here." Trisha said with a smirk. They almost forgot she was there guarding the place for them.

"Any word from the other officials?" Moe asked after noticing she had re-entered the room.

"There were some reports about that shockwave a few minutes ago, but it hasn't slowed down the other GUs." the young Officer said with disappointment. "Just remember how much those of us with regular old navis are putting our faith in you. Don't let us down."

"Relax, we know what we're doing this time." Johnny grinned. "And I think we'll all operate a lot better once we have some alcohol in our system." Kalinka could only roll her eyes, but her father couldn't wait any longer and dragged her along. The netbattlers once again turned their attentions to the screens in front of them.

"So you all feel that, right?" Drillman asked the other navis dressing their wounds along the dusty platform.

Metalman nodded. "Yeah, I can barely feel what the GUs did to me, but can sure feel the air all around me. Just how close is it?"

"Maybe it's already here..." Darklady remarked cryptically. She was already healed and hovering high in the air scanning the horizon for any signs of the enemy. Nothing seemed different yet everything seemed off. The system wallpaper seemed to move more listlessly. The sunset-like western extreme appeared more red than orange. Everything else about the scenery was more eerily silent and motionless than ever.

Then, when casually glancing behind her she spotted movement in the east. "Woah! Battle stations! They're comin' from-" then, after Drill and Metal nearly dropped a load of bugfrags and took to the air with their weapons ready to fire at anything that moved, she looked a little closer. "Oh, never mind. That's not Gamma. It's just a bunch of navis or something."

Drillman fell face-first on the ground after transforming in mid-air. "Gah! You don't make a good scout, you know that?"

"Navis? Bystanders is the last thing we need." Metalman groaned. "Who else is crazy enough to be online right now anyway?"

Dark shrugged. "Looks like they're here for a goth convention or something. They're all wearing black. Sounds like fun, actually."

Kingman hopped over. "Black? How many navis?"

"I can't count 'em all. There's like, a million or something...uh oh, they're surrounding us..."

"Don't worry about them, I have a feeling they're on our side." Kingman advised.

"Someone should go find out what they want!" Yamatoman called from another platform on a lower level where he, Bowl, Beast, and Plant were setting up. If they are an army here to fight Gamma, we should coordinate with them."

"How did you-?"

"My own scouts are over there." Yamatoman clarified. "Unfortunately they don't talk."

"Just forget them!" Kingman reiterated. "We have bigger concerns." He was referring both to Gamma's imminent arrival and the apparent lack of focus among the others. He could see the other four Acid Hackers on another platform farther away attacking the air restlessly. They hadn't even noticed the black army yet. Down below, Bowlman and Plantman were both creating elaborate setups of bowling pins and flowers, but they didn't even know how effective the setups would be yet, they didn't care either. Kingman was exhausted with trying to organize the fighters. He wished Samuel were there.

Over on the other platform Flashman felt similar distress watching Punk, Flame, and Bubble waste time and energy with some kind of misguided celebration. He was trying to figure out the best place to set up for his Giga Chip attack, but the others were acting like they had already won. "Shouldn't we be relocating guys? You can feel what's coming, right?"

Punk peeled out and drove donuts around Flash. "Gyahahh! Don't sweat it man! We have this thing in the bag now!"

Flameman was hopping around in excitement. "Sure, we almost got deleted by that one attack, but hey, didn't we do a lot better than we thought we would? We weren't even prepared when those things showed up!"

"All the more reason to prepare this time." Flashman sighed. "Look, I'm moving to higher ground. Bubble, you should come too. You two should get down lower where the ground is more stable."

Punk popped up and glanced over the edge in disdain. "We need to be where the action is. Gamma's big, but not so big that we'll hit 'im from all the way down there while you guys hit 'im from all the way up there."

"He could be at this point, blub." Bubbleman reminded him.

"Well why do ya think it's takin' it so long to get here? You heard the satisfyin' agonized cries of its substitute, right? I think daddy's afraid of us now. Fate knows we're gonna kick his ass, he's in hiding!" Punk's triumphant assertion didn't receive the boisterous accolade he'd expected. The other three were all just staring upwards behind him. Punk felt a sudden crash in mood as he imagined what he would see as soon as he turned around. Slowly he moved his gaze back to match those of his friends.

There was no Gamma. However Punk was only half relieved. High above the rift, standing in mid-air with his arms crossed was the sinister Fate, and he appeared to be chuckling. More disturbing was the air he seemed to be standing on. Something about it seemed to bend outward, cast shadows, fill space, like a giant semi-invisible platform that wasn't there before. By now all the navis in the system could see Fate and whatever he was standing on, and they could only stare in incomprehension at the uncertain geometry of their nemesis' foothold.

Then they could hear his voice, clear, close, as if he was speaking right beside each of them. "Not hiding. Just watching. I almost thought you pathetic miscreants weren't worth watching any more."

It was unfathomably creepy. It suddenly felt like he had been there the whole time, just spying on them. Worse yet, everything about the system was rapidly feeling smaller. Pressure from an invisible wall pushed out from the rift, the presence of which seemed to be there all along as well. This was it. Some navis didn't waste time. Bowlman rolled a Strike through his previously set pins, launching them up towards Fate. Yamatoman used an Airshot to propel a Stone Cube, Bubbleman fired a Wideshot3, Flameman shot a HeatSpread, Plantman threw a Boomerang3, and none of the attacks got anywhere close to Fate. They collided with the block of distorted air he stood atop, and the air was still taking shape.

"You were mistaken in waiting for me to come to this place." Fate whispered enigmatically. "It was only a matter of time before this place came to me. Gamma has been rooted throughout the Cyberworld from the beginning. It is already...everywhere." His whisper gave way to steadily intensifying laughter, filling their audio sensors and shaking the area to its foundations. Then, like eyes adjusting to the darkness, the true shape of Fate's platform subtly melted into view.

Gamma.

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