The true avatar of the third Cyberworld. It appeared even more immense than they remembered from Sharo. Its arms hovered overhead like floating towers. The main body stretched from the highest point of the system down into the depths of the chasm its children had created earlier. The demonic horns pierced the heavens and its singular eye beamed like a red spotlight over the insect-like navis spread out below. Fate stood perched on the top edge of his creation's chest gate, which had already begun to open.

"Yes, I admit I was surprised to find that you were victorious against our agents of destruction!" Fate bellowed at Punk with disdain. "I almost thought you knew what you were doing. I thought it would be best to observe you while we continued our work in Asina, but now this country is all that stands in my way and you have only shown me how careless you all can be!"

Punk glared up at Fate. Embarrassed as he was that his big talk had been overheard, he wouldn't back down from it. He was still struck speechless however.

"I also see that your backup has arrived. Pitiful indeed. Your army appears to lack the energy-drain protection the rest of you seem to possess. I am afraid they will not last long." Fate swept his arm in a gesture to the advancing pawn army that had convered every edge of the system North, East, and South by now. Their puny swords wouldn't even slow Gamma down, but they were already slowing down themselves as the ground beneath their feet sapped them of their life force.

"So it seems Serenade is the only one with a weapon that may harm us now." he said, turning to the shocked NG leader. "If you really think you can get close enough to us to use that program without failing miserably...bring it on. We are waiting." A hail of laser fire then blasted the platform Serenade had been standing on. S quickly found himself in another bullet-dodging hell.

"Don't forget about the rest of us!" Flameman roared as he leapt onto Gamma's shoulder and began pumping a Flame Blast through the surface. He was pleased that the attack actually looked like it was working on the colossus, if only a little bit.

Yamatoman activated his NaomiSoul abilities and swiftly flew up directly in front of Gamma's face. Before the giant eye could fire its beam, Yamato delivered his signature Thousand Spear attack into the ruby oculus. The speed of the rapid thrusts had been greatly increased by well-placed NaviCust upgrades, allowing him to puncture holes over the entire surface, forcing sickening red gel to squirt out with every stab. Determined to leave the great beast blind and aimless, Yamatoman followed up the attack with a HeroSword, a pair of Airshots, an X-Cannon, several swipes of his Yamato Sword.

He was finally hovering before a pulsating mess of ooze, but it still seemed to be charging energy, it still seemed to be staring into him. In a final effort, Yamatoman charged the energy in his Spear, making it lengthen and sharpen. With one powerful thrust of the charged Yamato Spear he pierced deep into the slime and felt hit below the surface, the eye instantly became dimmer and Gamma let out a dull roar in pain.

Then Yamato attempted to pull his weapon out...but it wouldn't budge. The slime was crawling up the handle, and soon he felt something pulling back. The rest of the substance below him began to ripple and reach out for his feet. Yamatoman had no choice. He let go of his trusted spear and flew backwards as he watched it disappear into the bleeding hole of Gamma's eye.

Fate snickered in spite of the injuries inflicted to his pet so far. "The morsel is appreciated, but there is no point putting off your own absorption. Gamma will devour all."

"Oh yeah!? Don't see you letting him devour you or anything!" Metalman accused while charging the old man with a fist that the human-turned-navi easily dodged.

"Well, I wanted to stay out here and watch the destruction of Beta, but I feel now that I have seen all there is worth seeing. There is not even any amusement to be gained from watching you struggle." Fate sneered as he sidestepped a Drill Dash from Drillman and blew the navi out of the sky with a Cell Bullet. "So why deny myself any longer? I do so wish to become one with the new world."

Flameman landed behind Fate and landed a hit with a Burning Cross. Fate exited the fire not looking terribly phased, however. Flame scoffed. "Yeah right. Even you're not crazy enough to get yourself eaten in the middle of a fight!"

Fate simply took to the air and hovered backwards over the edge of Gamma's chest and then dropped down until he was staring into the hellish energy field that churned in the open doorway of his masterpiece's torso. Gamma Units were already flying out from the portal in packs. The spiraling nebula reached out to him.

Fate smiled and looked up at the navis above that had just attacked him, then turned around to look down at the others still approaching from below. He took off his hat and held it out to the system, letting his long, scraggly, grey hair be swept back towards the vortex. "Farewell Net Guardians, Acid Hackers. It has been a pleasure working with you. I hope we meet again as a unified entity in the new world!"

With those words, Fate tossed his hat away and let his body fall backwards into the swirling red mass behind him. He laughed ecstatically the entire way until both he and his voice faded into the light. The teams could scarcely believe what they had seen. Fate was gone, and Gamma was still attacking.

"You're not getting away that easily you stinking hobo!" Serenade yelled as he flew as fast as he could into the gateway that was now closing behind its master. Spinning like a hurricane to deflect all the laser fire he could, he made it into the crease between the doors just as they were about to close and crush him. With a last-second StepSword, he flashed ahead past the doorway just before they slammed shut. Again, the other navis stood in shock. Serenade had thrown himself headfirst into Gamma. He was gone. Just like that two players had removed themselves from the board...and the game had yet to truly begin.

* * *

"S?...Serenade!? Damnit, whad'dya do, ya crazy sonofa-...he's gone. It can't be."

David stood dumbfounded at his station staring at a blank PET. After all Serenade's talk about being the chosen one, he was finished so suddenly. There was just something off about it. David sat down, gazing in shock, not even noticing the silent, sympathetic looks of his comrades. He ran the moment through his head several times, and then smiled. "Nah, he can't be gone. He knows what he's doing."

"Woah, that was a quick transition into denial." Jake commented.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Yyyeaah cowboy. He's only not responding to yer PET 'cause he's too busy being alive to notice. I'm sure getting himself eaten was all part of his master plan."

David was still smug. "It was. He said so himself during the sparring match earlier, remember?"

Jeremy's eyes went wide. He then buried his forehead in his palms. "Oh you have gotta be kiddin' me...How the hell is that a plan? What happens now?"

"Giga Freeze, right? Maybe going inside was the only way to use it." Cyros suggested.

"So we'll know if Serenade's successful if Gamma freezes?" Matt concluded. He then looked back to his PET to see Flashman teleporting madly to dodge Gamma's fierce, all-encompassing attacks. "Great, so how long will that take?"

"No idea." David admitted. "I guess you guys will have to keep fighting, just in case."

Moe realized something and spoke up. "Uh, our plan is to attack the core, the connection point between Gamma and our Cyberworld. If we destroy Gamma outside, what happens to Serenade inside?"

David became more solemn, but lacked no resolve. "Let's not worry about that right now. Have a feeling we got a long way to go either way. 'Sides, Serenade knows the risks. One way or the other, this thing has ta' be stopped..."

Moe Fortis' PET was ringing, indicating a phone call.

"What the...?"

"Who is it?" asked Johnny.

"...Sam."

"Hurry up and answer it! Maybe he has an idea!" shouted Jeremy, obviously stressed.
-----------------------------------
Sam walked leisurely down the street as he talked on the phone.

"Report the situation."

"Gamma's here, Serenade and Fate have disappeared, and everything in general sucks."

"Is my army there?"

"Those are yours!? That was your big plan!? A bluff!? It's not even a distraction! Many of them have already been absorbed, and the rest aren't far off!"

"Perfect. Everything is going according to plan."

"Wah?"

"O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands. "

"You're not making any sense!"

"Fear not. I'm on the way. Just make sure you stay alive until then."

"That's gonna be a bit harder than you think."

"Give it about 5 minutes to start working."

"For what to work!?"

"Oh, and tell Nijubu something: Stop trying to operate King Man like I do, and start operating King Man like he would."

And than Sam hung up.

* * *

So is this the new world?

Serenade was aware. He somehow gradually came to understand his situation. The last thing he remembered was the gate closing behind him and the vortex swallowing him up. Then...he still wasn't sure. It felt like a time had passed. Had he been there for a few minutes? Hours? Days? It was akin to waking up from a dream...no, more like the start of the dream.

Was it a dream? Something about it was so surreal and indistinct. Visions around him faded in and out without comprehension. He got the impression of sights and sounds, but it didn't feel like he was using any of his senses. It was all very dreamlike.

However, Serenade was a navi, did he even really know what dreaming was like? Sleep Mode offered the opportunity for randomized image patterns, a programmer's approximation of the experience, but could humans imbue in their creations what they themselves could not fully understand? No, there was something different about it, unique among all of Serenade's experiences, yet familiar at the same time.

There was something more. He felt somehow alone in his environment, like a single body in the center of a void. Yet he could see navis all around him, a vast crowd of frightened-looking individuals, all trying to push away their way away from the crowd, but not going anywhere. The setting sometimes seemed like an endless darkness, or a stark grey-white haze, or a featureless red glow, with no clear transition between any particular perspective; either way there was nothing to see and nowhere to go. Serenade tried to focus on the navis. It was difficult, as their forms blurred as they moved; their faces were an indistinguishable mess. Their clamoring voices were distant and unclear; not a single word was audible. Colors faded in and out in the most disorienting way possible. Just what did this crowd represent?

Serenade was beginning to panic. The desperation of the navis surrounding him made him feel like there was something he should be running from. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of gold, something long and waving. He turned to focus on it and he was disturbed to find...himself. Serenade was there, standing still amidst the crowd scrambling around him. He was staring right back with a dumbfounded look on his face. A mirror? Serenade tried to move closer to the reflection, but couldn't find his legs. He tried to look down, but he couldn't see any part of himself, just more navis running around in confusion.

As he looked around he suddenly spotted something else out of place. Another figure standing still as others ran around him. This one didn't seem scared or unnerved at all. In fact, Serenade noticed a smile on the figure's face. At first he just stood, looking up at the sky, then he raised his arms as if embracing something coming down from above. Serenade's gaze darted upwards but he couldn't see anything. It was a featureless expanse, but somehow it made him want to look away, like staring into the sun. He quickly turned back to where the other figure was standing...

...but he had disappeared. Countless navis continued to crowd the area.

No, you don't really know what a dream is like.

Serenade glanced around in shock. He recognized the experience of the errant thought, the voice in his head. This was not another Serenade's voice however. It was Fate.

Only a human can know what a dream is like. You are lucky we are here together. All of you. Now you too can know what it is to dream, along with me.

The crowd suddenly seemed to move slower. The words had a calming effect on the surface, but Serenade could also hear the sinister laughter beneath. This really was the inside of Gamma. Everyone and everything was merging together. Serenade realized it now. His own consciousness was there among the multitude of unfortunate souls already absorbed by Gamma. Was he looking through the point of view of Gamma itself? Just how much of him was still an individual?

It appeared as if none of the navis present were too eager to give up their identity. In some way they were all fighting against it, but Gamma was pulling and invading. Fate as well felt determined to become one with the mass, and Serenade could feel the old man's tortured memories flooding into him. Visions of the crowd were occasionally replaced by a snowy field, an energetic laboratory, a dirty alley, the Net Guardians' flat, or a number of other exclusively human experiences that his curiosity found difficult to ignore. As evil as Fate was, his life was a powerful temptation, and every time the crowd came back into view, Serenade noticed there were fewer navis present. Few that remained were still running around in a panic. Some stood still, staring up to the sky. Others covered their heads, fighting the urge to look upwards. Some were on their knees begging for mercy.

The crowd was still fairly thick, but Serenade spotted himself again. He was doing none of those things, but searching with a determined expression. He was relieved to see that he was not disappointing himself by giving in. Then he remembered what he had come there for.

Giga Freeze.

He watched with anticipation as the Serenade among the crowd nodded and held out his hands. A blue glow surrounded the lone navi and within moments, the crystal appeared floating above his palms, burning with a cool flame. The other Serenade mouthed some words that he couldn't hear from where he was, and the Forbidden Program rose up. Everything became slower and choppier...

Serenade then felt a sudden jerk back into motion. He looked back at himself in the distance. The program was still there, Serenade was still holding it, but something else was holding him. Several of the navis from the crowd had ganged up on him, holding him down. Featureless before, these navis were now all a distinct shade of red.

You didn't think it would be that easy, did you?

Fate's laugh echoed from every direction.

* * *

A massive surge of energy obliterated a third level platform along with several of both Kingman's and Yamatoman's armies. Plantman was disgusted as he saw the black knights charge recklessly to their doom. There were now only a couple dozen of the fodder navis still standing. They weren't helping at all.

Plantman may not have been an avid supporter of the Net Guardian's plan, but at the moment they were on the same side, and their failure may as well have been his failure. He couldn't let that continue. Dodging enemy fire, he made his way to the edge of the fissure where most of the pawn army was waiting impotently. Putting all his growth energy into his vines, Plantman stretched them both far over the edge to grab onto the steel ring platform of Gamma's abdomen in the distance.

"Well? Hurry up and climb across!" He screamed at the soldiers. "Use those swords of yours and hack through the red gunk until you hit the core! Move it!"

The pawns saluted the botanical navi and charged across the makeshift rope bridge. Plantman strained as their weight piled on, but with GUs still making their way around laying out cover fire, he didn't have the luxury of asking them to go "one at a time". Stuart loaded a Grass Stage to help keep his navi's stamina up, and a Rope3 to reinforce the vines. The problem was he still couldn't move or attack, and the GUs were approaching fast.

Fortunately, a Wild Rush streaked across the sky in the nick of time, knocking two off course. A Bubbler exploded on a few more. Bubbleman and Beastman were both there to provide backup, much to Plant's relief. Even though these seemed to be the same types of Gamma Units they fought earlier, these went down considerably faster, owed in no small part to the fact the warriors no longer had to hold back for the arrival of the big fish. It was all or nothing.

Beastman landed a few panels to the left of Plantman and took a crouching position. Three GUs instantly moved to surround him for their crushing attack, but as soon as they took their positions, they fell to the ground in halves. Beastman stood in the center with his Slasher blade glistening in the scarlet light. It seemed the netbattlers had also learned plenty from their previous battle and were already applying effective new strategies. Beastman then disappeared thanks to an Invis chip and more nearby GUs began to fall apart as the unseen animal sliced them to ribbons.

Plantman couldn't relax yet though. Beastman may have been protecting his platform, but the shaky vine bridge hanging over the abyss was in greater danger, and only ten of the pawns had made it across. A GU needed only to fire a laser at the ropes to send fifteen more plummeting to their unceremonious end. A small BubbleWrapped scuba hamster was all that stood in their defense now.

"Blubin' blubballs, why am I botherin' with this?" Bubbleman muttered to himself as he took pot shots with is harpoon gun at the GUs cutting through his Bubble Parade. "They're just a bunch o' blubbin' land-blubbers why should I care? I could do their blubbin' job at ten blubs the speed. Awww blub!"

The autonavi reacted to the sound of a weapon charge behind him. Three of the GUs had merged into a Gamma and were about to let loose on the vines and everything beyond them with Gamma Rays. Bubbleman activated his SlowGauge chip to delay the Gamma's energy flow and then moved in to sweep the monstrosity away with an AquaWhirl. The body began to fall into the pit but managed to fire a single eye beam before it was out of range. The laser cut right through the ropes, eliciting a yelp of pain from Plantman but meaning even worse news for the nine pawns that were now falling as well.

Sixteen out of twenty-five was a good number considering how many more were already deleted, he should have just let them fall. But Bubbleman was feeling unnaturally generous that day, and he had made too much effort to help already to let them go that easily. Bubbleman dove down and grabbed one of the black navis in a Bubble that he sent floating upwards. His Aqua Balloon and Elec Balloon acted as rising platforms for two more. Kicking his flippers madly, he managed to catch one more in his own arms. The other five had already disappeared into the darkness below. Bubbleman cursed in his usual vocabulary for his failure. The soldier he had rescued was disturbingly impassive.

Bubbleman's passengers made it up to the ring of Gamma's abdomen where their comrades were already hacking away at the messy red slime, the elusive core shone brightly above them inside Gamma's body. Soon all twenty remaining soldiers were digging a hole into the beast's gooey hide.

Unfortunately, the Gamma Units and their merged bigger brother were back on their tails again. With Plantman and Beastman still busy on the distant platform and the other navis battling other far corners of Gamma's body, it was up to Bubbleman again to act as backup. Remembering what Kalinka had said earlier about Pickaxes on Gamma, Bubble used his own PanelOut on the solid metal platform to open a hole for a concentrated Bubble Lead stream. It only barley slowed the GUs down, but once they were close enough to the hole, he backed up and tossed in his Geyser charge. The powerful rising stream from below them wiped some of the targets out. The merged Unit was still coming strong though. Its arms simultaneously fired off lasers that Bubbleman narrowly dodged, but at the cost of a couple pawns being lost in the crossfire.

"Aggh BLUB! Quit diminishing my blubbing accomplishments! Just leave us the blub alone!" Bubbleman swam up close and surprised the mini-Gamma with a boosted SideBubble that encapsulated the arms, and then proceeded to blast the main body with a Bubbler. The spray of suds blew himself back, but the enemy once again sailed over the edge into the abyss, this time with a gaping hole in its chest.

Bubbleman bounced and rolled a few times before stopping, picking himself up, and noticing the coast was clear. "Well, that oughta do it, blub. That'll teach these blubs not to blub with...oh blub!"

That was when he turned around and noticed the ooze that the soldiers had been cutting away was now returning, and enveloping the few remaining warriors as it did so. "None of that blubbing absorbing blub while I'm around you blubbing blub of blaaagghhh-!" The watery navi fired every last Aqua Shot he had at the ooze in an attempt to free his charges. He then got an idea and tossed his Ocean Seed at the mass, pleased to see a large chunk of it instantly liquefy, washing the hapless black navis out onto the ground at the same time. There was still a long way to go to the core however, so Bubbleman used his last remaining SideBubble, his MetaGel, and finally his Fountain MegaChip to tunnel even deeper.

Once the last of the powerful Aqua Tower receded, Bubbleman was on his knees, breathing heavily and glaring angrily at the core, still protected behind several panels' depth of slime. The untiring pawn soldiers were back to helping out, but it didn't look like it would be enough, and the only battlechip the scuba hamster had left was a useless Lightning Rod.

Exhausted, Bubbleman looked behind him. The shimmering blue ocean that his seed created was beginning to fade away, reverting to the glowing red ooze it had converted from. The slime was already crawling back into the hole where Bubbleman and the last pawns were trapped. Bubbleman could no longer fight, he could barely even move. The sticky gel began to close up around him.

"Blub...blub blub...bluh...bl-...shit."

* * *

Gamma's immense arm smashed through the upper levels, rendering every platform and walkway in its path into floating splinters. Punk raced out of the way, but the walkway he was rolling on still broke off, pulled by the impact zone behind him. The spiky red ball was catapulted off in the other direction, transformed in mid-flight, and was thankfully caught by Darklady before he could fall any further. A pair of Gamma Units streaked by to intercept them, but some Zaprings fired from Flashman stunned them long enough for Dark to set Punk down on another platform.

"Don't you wish you had some Airshoes equipped now?" Darklady said to Punk before flying off to deal with the GUs.

"Hey, I didn't need rescuing, ya know! Was aboutta grapple somethin' with my, y'know, extendable arms when you-" He stopped yelling at her when he could see she was already locked in battle and not even listening. "Well screw it then." He then rolled back up and peeled out along a walkway that led closer to Gamma. His steering allowed him to narrowly evade laser bursts from Gamma's piercing eye. Once he was close enough he leapt up, transformed, wound back his right arm with some extra slack, and then threw a BugBomb the length of a football field to land right in the beast's face.

A dark explosion surrounded its horned head in purple smoke, and when the smoke cleared, Gamma's head was spinning around like a carousel. The vulcans on its shoulders, which were previously aimed at Punk's allies and keeping them at a distance, suddenly began firing in random directions, mostly harmlessly up in the air. Flashman, Drillman, Yamatoman, and Kingman took the opportunity to advance. Punk chuckled and readied a ResetBomb in his other arm as he addressed Jeremy. "Tell the guys down below to aim fer the core with all they got. Now's our chance!"

Jeremy didn't sound as enthusiastic. "Too bad, we don't got anybody in firin' range of the core right now."

"What!? What's Bubble doin'? What about those peons that Plant was helpin' across?" Punk threw the bomb at Gamma's head. It didn't seem to do much damage.

"...They were all absorbed a minute ago."

Punk's eyes went wide. He clenched his fist. "We lost Bubs?"

"'Fraid so."

"Hrrr...Well, you coulda told me sooner so I wouldna wasted that BugBomb gamble!"

"I'm on it!" Metalman proclaimed as he dove down the face of Gamma's chest plate and stopped at the purple casing below the gate out of which the oozy abdomen hanged. "We shouldn't have been trying to cut through the slime, it heals too fast! The core is behind this armor anyway, we should be breaking through...IT!" Metalman accented his statement with a concentrated punch to the casing...resulting in no signs of damage.

"Huh...Well, I got plenty more where that came from!" Metalman then brought out his chip arsenal. Cyros had been very conservative with chips so far and now was the time to cut loose. SilverFist, HeavyShake, RockArm, ZetaYoYo, SuperVulcan, ZeusHammer, GodHammer. The steel navi didn't let up on the wall before him, each attack was charged to double breaking strength, and gradually he made headway. At first the surface only bent inwards a little, and then it cracked, and soon pieces of the deep armor were breaking off under his relentless assault.

The effort didn't go unnoticed however. By this point the confusion from Punk's BugBomb had worn off and Gamma Units were about to swarm on Metalman in full force. Metal didn't even notice as he continued to pound away, only stopping once the barrage of lasers blasted him clear, forcing him to fall roughly on the grey ring below.

Metalman's work was nearly left unfinished, with drips of red ooze seeping through the cracks in the crater he made in the purple casing. However Bowlman, far below on a lower walkway, took note of his fellow Net Guardian's plan and decided to pick up where he left off, but from long distance. Vulcan, SuperVulcan, NOBeam, Spreader, TankCannon, LavaCannon, MarkCannon, ZetaMegaCannon. Each gun was fired with focused accuracy and his Bazooka Charge for extra breaking damage. Every explosive shot opened the wound a little more. Finally, his last MegaCannon blast caused the casing to shatter apart at the focal point, revealing a wide hole through which cytoplasm gushed out like blood, and beyond it the shining core of Gamma beckoned.

Kingman was having a difficult time getting any use out of his pieces. He had two Pawns, four Knights, and four Rooks surrounding him but their movements barely slowed the Gamma Units. Every time one swooped in to attack, he had to sacrifice a piece to take the blow. The debris would eventually regenerate, but they weren't coming back fast enough. Attacking was even worse; the Pawns had to time their blows perfectly to cause only a minor cut, and the Knights were too inaccurate. All this and his contribution to attacking Gamma was zero, as he couldn't approach the floating behemoth fast enough.

His Poltergeist chip was ready. He could direct all ten of his objects at Gamma's core, but then he would be defenseless against the GUs. It was a difficult decision in the heat of battle.

"All right Kingman," Nijubu suddenly spoke up. "I'm sending you five more chips. This is going to be tricky, so just do as I say."

Kingman was alarmed to hear this. As he activated a Barrier100 to defend against a laser shot and have it dissipate under the single attack, leaving him with only minor damage for his trouble, something tricky was the last thing he had in mind. "With all due respect Mister Nijubu, I know what I am doing I need to get myself a little closer to-"

"Use that Poltergeist on the Gamma Units. Now!" Nijubu shouted urgently.

The forceful command from the previously quiet temporary operator caught Kingman off guard. Without thinking, he executed the command and the telekinetic storm of the ten giant chess pieces quickly pulverized the four GUs that had been dogging him. The attack deleted his projectiles along with their targets, and so the regal navi suddenly found himself standing alone amidst a pile of smoldering wreckage. He attempted to collect himself. "Well, that may make me safe for the time being, but now we must rebuild from scratch. I still need something capable of getting through Gamma's defenses."

"Forget Poltergeist. At your master's suggestion...we're taking a different route. I've spent the last several minutes trying to figure out what. I think I got something that'll work, and we have Bubs to thank for it. First, do whatever you want with your last five chips."

Kingman received the download. Barrier100, StoneCube, Team1, Team2, and...FolderReturn! Kingman's personal Giga Chip and the key to countless victories. Now perhaps rebuilding his army in time was not such a daunting task. Still, he wondered what Nijubu's "different route" entailed. He wasted no time in setting the Barrier, knowing full well it wouldn't help much. Having no purpose in mind for the Cube, he dropped it where he stood and then leapt down to the level where Bowlman was fighting as he summoned the Twin viruses.

His teammate noticed the arrival and knew exactly what he had in mind with the supporters. Bowlman stopped attacking and made his way to the trio to join in on the combination. He placed a hand on one of the Twins while Kingman placed a hand on the other. The small spherical objects resonated and disappeared, pouring energy into the two navis. Grand Prix Power; the special Program Advance that only they could use through their affinity with Object class chips.

"Can you get me over to where Metalman is fighting?" Kingman asked his powered-up companion.

"I can now." Bowlman grabbed the chess navi with his throwing arm and mightily tossed him over the chasm with little effort. Kingman slammed into the chest gate base-first expending the PA's added energy and creating another impressive dent in Gamma's armor. He then dropped gracefully to the abdominal ring where Metalman struggled against a group of ornery GUs.

"Here to back me up?" Metal enquired while smacking a unit away with his BronzeFist.

"One moment and we shall have all the backup we need! Folder Return!" Kingman triggered the Giga Chip, bringing out an intense flash of light and thundering tremor as he sent the restorative energy back into the PET, instantly refreshing the equipped folder.

"Okay, don't be too alarmed, handlebars. I have a good feeling about this." Nijubu's message gave Kingman an uneasy sensation, not least of all due to the nickname. He quickly retrieved the next four chips...Recov150, SandStage, BurningCross, and Fire+30.

"What in the net? These are not my chips!"

Nijubu chuckled. "Yeah, they're mine. I cobbled another folder together from my pack. Then I used a little trick Matt showed me to force the PET out of battle mode and switch folders while your Giga Chip was doing its thing."

"A little trick?" Kingman didn't like the sound of that coming from a hacker. "Nothing that will void my warranty, I hope."

"Uh, it may have reset a few system settings. You can worry about putting your icons back the way you like them after getting out of this alive. Now use that SandStage on the ooze."

"The ooze? Will that work?"

"Yeah, Bubs verified that for us, rest his soul. As soon as the way is clear, burn that core!"

"Does this mean I'm still on my own?" Metalman groaned. His left arm was missing and his remaining arm fired away with a Vulcan at the GUs, momentarily held in place by a Timpani horn.

"Just hold them off for another minute, I'll try to make this quick!" Kingman proclaimed, feeling oddly inspired by the sudden change in tactics. He leapt upwards within range of the wound Metal and Bowl had opened and activated the terrain chip. The cytoplasmic bleeding was suddenly replaced by a torrent of falling sand. Kingman narrowly avoided the dry stream as he continued propelling upwards and then landed on the edge of the gap. He looked up into Gamma's body and could see the core behind the remaining gelatin layer and the few sand particles sticking to the boundary. He took a second to look down at the small hill of sand that accumulated on the ring below. Already he could see the pale yellow quivering and shifting back to red. Gamma was quickly adapting to this form of attack. He had to be quick.

"King! Do it, hurry!" Metalman suddenly called out. Kingman looked over and was horrified to see the invincible steel warrior pinned into Gamma's membrane by the two remaining Units he had been fighting. His legs were already dissolved in the liquid and his rockets struggled to push away, but with just one arm he couldn't overpower both enemies to free himself. "Give this monster hell! I want my fist to be the last thing this bastard tastes! Hraaagghhhhh!"

It was too late to do anything; Metalman was already swallowed up. Kingman pushed back his sorrow and turned back to the important task at hand. He leapt again until he was right in front of the gel blocking the core. He didn't have much experience with BurningCross, so he only prayed it had enough range to make contact. He thrust his hand forward, engulfing himself and everything in front of him in flames. The intense heat evaporated the covering in an instant. Tendrils of ooze lashed out from behind him but could not penetrate the burning barrier. Through the fire, Kingman could see the way to the core was completely clear, but he had not actually hit it yet. "Damn! Nijubu, another chip, hurry!"

"Sorry, still timed out! Gauge is almost full..."

"Get out of here, leave it to me!" Screeched the voice of Drillman, flying in from behind.

Kingman began to fall. He could see the goo was already covering the area left exposed by the last attack. The sand had reverted as well, and the slime below was slithering back up Gamma's side into place. Kingman cursed and adjusted his fall trajectory to exit the hole before it could be covered up, trapping him as well. Drill Man continued to speed right for the exposed area in Drill Mode.

"Drill Man stop! You'll just leave yourself exposed for the enemy!"

Drill Man kept flying. The ooze kept sealing.

"Drill Man!"

Drill Man was about to hit.

Then suddenly, the ooze began to move slowly, choppily, and ultimately stopped sealing.

Drill Man made direct contact with the core.

Gamma snapped back into motion as its scream filled the air, causing everyone to freeze.

And then splotches of dark purple began to appear on Gamma's surface.

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