The NG and AH teams scrambled without even knowing what they were running to avoid any more. Gamma's sudden rejuvenation had once again rewritten the scope of the battle. As the main body thrashed about in the pit, the arms orbited erratically at rocket speeds. A sturdy complex of platforms and walkways one moment would be wiped off the map the next. The once dense and massive port area was already reduced to a sea of floating splinters. Few of the chunks were still large enough to hold more than one navi, and as such, these navis were scattered and lost.

The viral output from Gamma's Dark sores continued still, though the mindless vermin didn't last long themselves under the rampage of that which spawned them. Ironically, the presence of Gamma Units had nearly completely ceased, as Gamma's chest gates remained closed and the GUs produced earlier were mostly destroyed by this point. This did not make survival any easier for the others.

Darklady had succeeded in unmaking most of the Dark Holes on Gamma's surface, with only a couple left on its right shoulder and others on the separate arms. Her progress came to a quick halt when the awakened Gamma unleashed its cannons on the unsuspecting demoness. Her Dark Aura managed to save her from the blow, and her Shadow3 gave her time to escape. After that, she tried to keep her distance and stick to defensive moves. She knew better than most what a Darkness-crazed creature was capable of.

Kingman and Pharaohman were forced to break away from Gamma's body as well. The abdominal ring that had made such an excellent foothold for their forces was now flooded with the ooze that occupied its center. Gamma's wild movements would have made it difficult to hold onto the surface anyway. The Poison Pharaoh simply floated further away, a thick cloud of virus-killing gas following his every move. King used Nijubu's AreaSteals to give him some added distance as he attempted to leap to safety, and successfully grabbed onto one of the errant broken panels floating everywhere. From there it was a carefully plotted path of jumps from panel to panel, all while dodging Gamma's swipes and obnoxious viruses.

Far on the other side of Gamma, the remaining navis moved between the shattered platforms much more haphazardly, Thankfully, they were well equipped to handle it by now. Thanks to Airshoes and Floatshoes, Flame, Beast, and Plant hopped like fleas in every direction, missing their target landing spots, but always managing to land on another before falling into the abyss. Drill and Yamato flew; Flash teleported, and Punk just grappled onto whatever he could with his extending arms.

While most tried to get farther away from the thrashing giant, Punk was all to eager to meet it head-on. When an arm was about to run him through, he leapt onto its side and rode it along its path of destruction. He launched his JoeHammer, his BigBomb, and his LavaBall at Gamma's body whenever the arm brought him in range, but these attacks only made the beast angrier. The other arm soon came to claw the pest off, but Punk laughed straight at it and activated his LavaStage just before leaping off of the first arm and onto the second. A large slab of the arm he had been standing off melted off as lava, searing what was left of it and causing Gamma to roar in pain. Punk added insult to injury by breaking out his VolcanoCannon before the magma could fall out of range. The powered-up heat blast burned through Gamma's face, and when the smoke cleared the bullhorns were gone and a black, melted stump smoldered in place of the monster's head.

"Boom! Headshot!" Punk exclaimed. His victory was short lived, as Gamma showed no signs of stopping. In fact, its movements were now more focused. The shoulder cannons began shooting lasers directly at the daring AH leader. His shield failed to protect him and he took several painful hits that knocked him clear from his joyride on the arms. Flameman leapt in to save him from falling and even donated a couple Recov200s to bring him back from the brink.

"Wraahhh! Why'd you have to do something so crazy?" he asked rhetorically as he took Punk back to a safer distance.

"Heh, 'dya see its face? 'course not, 'cause it's gone!" The red navi gave a raspy laugh as he healed his injuries.

A Zapring and a Sensor beam streaked past them at viruses hot on their tail. Flashman called out to them from another panel he had just teleported to. "Take cover! Things look like they're about to get real ugly!"

Flame found a slightly larger platform to set Punk down. They both looked back at Gamma in time to see its arms stop flailing around and move to a ready position at its sides. The shoulder cannons were open and charging.

"Aw no, not now." Flame despaired.

"Gamma Rays!" Plantman could be heard shouting. "We gotta get out of here!"

"There's nowhere to go!" Beastman pointed out, leaping onto a lone platform far from any other footholds leading out of the attack's path.

Kingman, Darklady, and Pharaohman were the only ones out of harm's way, situated behind Gamma. They could see what was happening and Kingman made the signal to the other two to move in and attack before Gamma could finish charging. He knew they would have no chance if that one strike took out the seven navis on the other side of the system. They had to do something to save everyone. Gamma was no longer pulling punches.

"Now'd be a good time for that green flame of yours..." Punk hinted to his fiery comrade.

"Ryeahh, that'll keep us alive for an extra split-second before the big laser beams of death extinguish my candle and our invincibility." Flameman responded, rolling his eyes.

"Any better ideas?"

It was too late for any. The navis instantly found themselves scrambling to dodge once again as Gamma's focused, charged beams swept through the debris field. The few platforms that remained were reduced further as lasers disintegrated them on contact.

Flashman waited tensely for the last second before a beam hit him and activated his Shadow chip. The move allowed the beam to pass right through him, but unfortunately it didn't save the ground beneath his feet. He had been saving terrain chips for just this kind of situation, and his Repair formed a safe platform directly beneath him before he could fall into nothingness. He only had one though, and Gamma's attack wasn't over.

Beastman set his Barrier200, and Plantman set his PlantBarrier. They knew it wouldn't be enough though, and it wasn't long before just being grazed by beams left them defenseless. Beastman set another barrier right away, but Plantman had to charge up before he could activate another of his own. Pure destructive energy continued to rain down all around them, and they could not escape the onslaught...

Yamatoman flew as fast and as hard as he could to get around the line of fire. Gamma did not give him much room to maneuver, and all his CurseShields did was soften the blows as he pushed forward. He could barely see Darklady behind Gamma's shoulder, blowing away with a DarkTornado. It wasn't going to be enough. He had to get there and help.

Then, the shoulder beams cut off, and the arms and underside pointed forward in a triangular formation. Everyone's hearts skipped a beat. Yamatoman braced himself. Beast and Plant drifted into unconsciousness. Flame and Punk strained to lift their battered and scorched bodies. Flashman's Shadow wore off and he held his breath as he prepared the second one. Drillman threw caution to the wind and made a desperate move.

Then the clawed barrels simultaneously let loose with a surging stream of plasma. The all-encompassing blast burned for several seconds as Gamma rotated back and forth, up and down, annihilating the entire southern and eastern quadrants. Dark and King shielded their eyes from the blinding spectacle, uncertain of their allies' fates, but filled with a terrible feeling.

Gamma continued to pour out energy and slowly turn, aiming to obliterate the entire system and everyone inside. King and Pharaoh had already joined Darklady at the safest spot given the situation, Gamma's own back. If they were really the last ones left, they knew their prospects were grim. They could never get close enough to the core to damage it with just the three bodies.

Then they noticed a sign of hope. Even as Gamma's Rays continued to decimate everything around them, a Wormhole burst open above its right shoulder, and out of it spilled Punk, Flameman, Beastman, Plantman, and finally a highly damaged Drillman before closing tight. They all collapsed on the partially degraded surface, on the verge of deletion, but otherwise functional. Dark and King rushed over to meet them.

"Drill! I thought your holes didn't work with Gamma around!" Darklady exclaimed, helping the battered digger to his feet.

Drillman opened his eyes. His drills were scratched and worn down and he could barely move. "I'm not saying it was easy. It's not like I had a choice though. Man, two seconds of subspace travel was like hours of swimming in a hurricane."

"Can you still fight?" Kingman asked.

Pharaohman scoffed. "Clearly they are dead weight now. Cut them off before they lose you the war."

"We need as many soldiers as possible!" Kingman said defiantly. "Dark, set your Candle. I shall divide Nijubu's Recov chips among the injured. It won't take Gamma long to realize what's happened."

"Right." Dark nodded and summoned a Candle3 that began to gradually restore health to Drill and the AH navis. "Hey, what about Yamato and Flash?"

"Urgh. I'm so sorry. I couldn't make it to them in time." Drillman admitted with regret. "I saw the beams hit Yamato just as I was grabbing Punk and Flame. I couldn't even find Flashman..."

"You did your best." Kingman said consolingly. "We will have to make due with what we have."

As he gave a Recov to Flameman, he noticed the other navis gaining Recoveries as well. Punk also gained an Aura, Drillman a Barrier, and Beastman gained MetalBody.

"Eh? Wha's zis?" Punk mumbled, regaining his bearings and finding a defensive glow surrounding him from nowhere.

"You can thank us." Came the voice of David through their PET channels. "We got a hold of some Battle Chip Gates thanks to Trisha. Since I can't send my chips to S, I might as well share them with you guys."

"Turns out I had some chips left over too." Cyros' voice chimed in. "Don't let them go to waste."

"I'm not big on defense, but if you want a gun or bomb, let me know." Jon offered. "Also, Carlos says to pass on that you shouldn't worry about Yamato."

"Wha? But I saw him get blasted with the giant ray of death!" Drillman countered.

"Yeah." Jon confirmed casually. "He said it takes more than that to make you worry about him."

Gamma indeed noticed the insects crawling around on its shoulder soon enough. Its arms finally stopped blasting into nothingness then floated above its body, pointing back around to its own shoulders. The group was barely able to move their battered forms again when they were forced to scramble. The lasers Gamma shot from its arms now were thinner and more concentrated than the Gamma Rays; just powerful enough to delete the pests without hurting itself in the process. It wasn't exactly squeamish about it though, as evidenced by the cracks that generated automatically on its armor around the fleeing navis, out of which seeped its new, more aggressive ooze.

Flameman decided to take a note from Punk and took his chances jumping onto the arm that was shooting at him. Plant, Beast, and King followed. Dark, Drill, and Pharaoh took to the air, while Punk opted to take his chances on Gamma's body, racing the slime tendrils down to within striking distance of the core.

Gamma's right arm trained itself on the streaking ball of spikes as it rolled down the side of the main body. Punk skillfully dodged its laser shots as well as the cytoplasm breaking free in attempt to ensnare him. Gamma was through with letting the little bugs get away with running all over and inside it. It increased the laser's output. The larger beams made craters in its own armor, but Punk was harder pressed to avoid them now. A shockwave caused the wild navi to lose his traction and fall, transformed back to normal form, screaming into the abyss below. Punk stretched out both its arms to grab onto something, but Gamma was not about to give him the chance, after what he did to its face. The arm charged up another shot...

Then something tapped the side of the arm and the barrel moved ever so slightly such that the beam barely missed Punk just as his arms wrapped around one of the few tiny platforms still floating after the Gamma Rays attack. The arm quickly turned to find whatever had the sheer power to throw off its aim. It was not at all amused to find a charred, almost bare Yamatoman floating there with an AirShot equipped to his hand.

"Hm! It seems...with EarthBuster...even a small gust of wind...can move a mountain." the blackened navi mused with a weakened voice. His armor had been mostly destroyed. His golden chest plate, still baring Naomi's symbol, clung weakly to his body. His purple undersuit was tattered, and with his helmet gone and face showing, nearly the only thing that visually identified him as Yamatoman was the yellow crest from his helm that he held tightly in his hand.

Gamma knew that navi had been hit directly by its Gamma Rays, but it was alive, but barely. It didn't matter. The arm charged up another laser, this time pointing at the flying samurai.

"You're probably wondering...why I'm still fighting." Yamato strained as he began to fly straight into the barrel while a new chip formed in his hand. "A true warrior...does not fall until he has completed his task...Even when killed in action, he must continue to fight...That is the poetic explanation...the term 'UnderShirt' may make more sense to you."

The intense heat of the building reaction inside Gamma's arm consumed Yamatoman, but the courageous navi soared further inside. An innocuous katana formed in his chip hand and immediately began to glow with a fearsome aura. He took the hilt with his other hand as well, still holding the broken crest, and pointed the blade in front of him.

"All you need to know...is that I prepared for this moment...You took my spear! I will take your arm!...Your weapon!...Your defense!"

Blinding red light surrounded him. It was as if he were flying into the sun. He could no longer see, but he could feel the focal point ahead of him. he could sense the center of the arm, the source of its power, the point from which the pure destructive force poured out and was about to finish off his final hit point with furious vengeance.

"Blade Shift! Muramasa Spear!"

Yamatoman's sword transformed into a polearm tipped with a massive head of cursed energy. With the last ounce of his strength, he thrust the extending spear forward into the arm's focus. The blade carried all the pain he had endured from Gamma's rage and amplified it tenfold. At the same moment, that focus released all its energy. It was intended as a beam shot, but now came out as an explosion.

The battlefield was illuminated in red from the growing sphere of energy that burst out from inside Gamma's arm. Fragments of its outer shell shot in every direction, many digging into Gamma's main body as it backed away from the blast. The other navis in the air maneuvered quickly to avoid the rest of the shrapnel. The spectacle was a shock to behold, and a pleasing one for the warriors that had been running from that arm's shadow for so long.

They collectively recognized their chance. Drill and Dark began to fly back towards the body, aiming for the core. Punk grappled onto Gamma's underside. Pharaohman, having killed all the nearby viruses, calmly floated back to poison the largest virus of all. Gamma could see this ambitious movement and quickly brought its remaining arm to bear. However this arm was still crawling with four other navis, and they were feeling inspired by Yamato's sacrifice.

The outside surface of the arm was even worse than Gamma's body. It too was generating cracks through which to reach out with its ooze, and to top things off the free-flying appendage was constantly flipping and barreling along its path, forcing the navis to cling for dear life with whatever swords, claws, or vines they had on hand whenever they found themselves upside-down every couple of seconds.

They made their way for the middle of the arm. It was the thinnest part, but also the most dangerous as it was composed of the uncontained cytoplasm that was aggressively trying to consume them. They were prepared though. Flameman and Plantman led the charge and spread to opposite ends of the ring of the arm's "wrist". The dark red slime swelled out like a blanket to cover them, but at the exact moment of contact, each navi activated a GrassStage, momentarily transforming the entire mass into a harmless green field.

From there, Kingman and the MetalBodied Beastman came in for the strike. Nijubu's Magnum blasted a hole through the grass and Jake's Dynawaves dug through the ooze scrambling up from beneath. Plantman touched a portion of the remaining grass to power an ElementLeaf stream fired into the hole while Flameman stacked a FirePunch and a FireTower on other portions of the grassy surface to ensure it couldn't revert to the vicious slime.

Gamma apparently felt the relentless attacks hard as the arm began to shake and spin more and more violently while the main body let out a roar and fired on them with its shoulder guns. A laser shot out the ground beneath Kingman and he just couldn't hang on any more. As he was being catapulted away, he threw a parting gift down into the hole for the remaining navis to benefit from. They only caught a glimpse of the shining projectile before it disappeared into the ooze, but they had a feeling what it was and knew they had to be quick to use it.

Beastman set a VariableSword on each paw and rushed the hole, hoping to pull off a triple sonic enough to cut the arm in two, but at the worst possible moment the last of the grass reverted to ooze and stretched out to grasp him. The wild navi's MetalBody had finally worn off as well, and he was forced to abort his attack and leap away from the arm to avoid consumption. He had nowhere to land, but the BCG holders outside came to his rescue as well as Kingman's with a couple of AirRaid chips. The small viral planes flew by just in time to catch the falling navis and carry them within leaping distance of a solid platform.

The shoulder cannons continued firing rapidly at the navis on and off the arm's surface, and more shots were hitting home as Gamma grew more accurate and the navis grew wearier. The navis' operators and the BCG backup alike were running out of Barriers and Recovery chips to compensate for the barrage and the warriors were looking worse for wear. Naturally, no sooner were they safe from falling than the embattled Gamma Arm pointed its cannon directly at them, charging up for a finishing blow.

Plantman had dug his vines into the arm's main wound, but the slime was sealing up and working its way up the vines. He had to reel in closer to attack without being eaten, so he pulled out a WoodPowder just before the ooze reached him. Once more, the ravenous substance was reduced to sod, but not enough of it to get him inside.

Before Plant could figure out what to do next, Flameman leapt in and grabbed onto the rope ahead of him, taking the matter out of his hands. The burning navi gave his comrade an apologetic look as he severed the line behind him with a FireBlade and continued climbing inside. Plantman cursed as he reached out with another Rope3 to grapple a floating platform and watched apprehensively as Flameman dove right into the slime and activated a LavaStage, transforming the grass and slime together into molten rock that Gamma attempted to shake off before it could burn its interior. Flameman didn't care. He only needed the room to access the Prism that Kingman threw inside. It had almost broken down. With seconds to spare and dark ooze swallowing his legs, Flameman activated a FlameCross Program Advance, targeted to the Prism embedded in the center.

"WRRRAAAAAAGHHHHH!!"

Flameman's final battle cry mixed with Gamma's inhuman cry of pain as the entire arm burst into flames and ceased its beam charge. The colossal burning monolith sank slowly into the abyss below. The glow from the fire continued to illuminate the underside of area as it sank endlessly into the darkness.

Gamma was down to only its headless torso. Even in this state it continued to fire furiously at the remaining navis from its shoulders. However these navis were no longer running from the barrage. They got as close to the body as they could and poured every attack they had into the armor surrounding the core. The shoulder cannons could not aim inwards and all the Gamma Units were gone. Its body was useless. The only defense it had left was the living ooze inside and the core itself.

It was time to shed its skin.

* * *

THEY ARE HURTING US STOP THEM WE CANNOT STOP MUST DESTROY THEM MUST CONSUME THEM CONSUME EVERYTHING ANNIHILATE EVERYTHING

Serenade fought the pain with every ounce of strength. The atmosphere around him was pure chaos. Gamma's rage filled his mind and its force was crushing his body. He could no longer sense the others that had helped him earlier. He was alone. Yet he knew he could not think as if that were true. The blue aura still burned. He still had one shot left, but he wasn't going to walk away from it.

Yes you will. Don't worry. I'll handle things from here.

This voice was more appreciated in Serenade's mind, as it was his own. Could it mean...?

We could only have gotten this far together. Thank you for everything. It has been a pleasure working with you.

Serenade once again found himself separated from his body. He was falling back from the glowing form of the ruler of the Undernet before him, holding the Giga Freeze triumphantly over its head. Chaotic black and purple energy swirled around them, yelling incoherently into their minds as the blue-white energy swirled outward from the Forbidden program, ceasing all movement of whatever it touched.

Serenade took one last glance at the navi disappearing into the background.

Goodbye.

* * *

Gamma's left shoulder broke off from the combined damage of Darklady's DarkBomb and Jonathan's BigBomb. The lasers mounted to it continued to fire randomly into the sky even as the broken appendage plummeted into the flaming pit below. Punk used Parallel Shell to burrow deeper towards the core and fend off the slime attacking him. Plantman was blowing away with a Twister alongside him. Beastman's Variable Swords went to good use severing ooze tendrils as they lashed out. Kingman used Nijubu's healing chips to support the other warriors. Drillman's drills were still broken and his energy low after his reckless wormhole use earlier, but he could still throw whatever chips he had left at busting up Gamma's armor. CannonBall, Magnum, Geddon! The giant's body was quickly breaking up!

Yet with every chunk of armor removed, the amorphous blob beneath became less restrained. The navis had to struggle just to keep the ooze at bay, even as they were getting closer to the core. Drillman's CommonSnake attack shot towards the nucleus, but every last snake was intercepted and devoured by the ooze. The digging navi had run out of attacks and was forced to retreat back into the air.

Kingman had just unleashed a Mudwave against a rising mass of slime when a purple cloud descended over him and the Poison Pharaoh floated down to meet him. "This creature resists my curse. How can this be?" he asked in an irritated tone.

Kingman sighed. "Your poison was of great use against the viruses, but now it seems there is nothing you can do. I am sorry."

The Pharaoh narrowed his eyes. "This will not stand. If it has a heart, I will crush it."

Kingman was taken aback, but gave in and pointed towards the core. "The heart is in that glowing orb, but if you get too close to it, you will not survive."

The purple sarcophagus began to float into Gamma's body. "No matter. I will be revived again eventually. Provided you awaken me..."

Shocked by these words, Kingman watched the summoned object carry its poison cloud into the ooze and certain doom. After a moment he smiled and nodded. "If I get the chance...No, when I get the chance...you can count on it." The Poison Pharaoh had disappeared, but the ooze surrounding the core had turned into a swampy purple. Gamma did not react well.

Lasers from the remaining shoulder cannon blasted at whatever they could. When Darklady came within range, they trained vengefully on her. With no more CurseShields or her BlackBarrier or any other dark-themed defense, she had no choice but to take the hits and tough it out. However she had wanted to show the Dark-infected monster what Dark Chips could really do. Just when she was on the brink of deletion, she brought out her DarkCannon and fired back. The pain-powered shot punched a messy hole straight through the shoulder guns, and put an end to Gamma's endless long-range barrage. She immediately followed up with a DarkRecov to undo all the damage to herself.

Far off in the distance to the south, a lone icy platform floated safely amidst a wide expanse of nothingness. The earlier Gamma Rays attack had completely erased the landscape in this hemisphere, but this one slab remained, and a blue figure stirred on top of it.

"Wow, they're doing better over there than I thought." Flashman remarked as he noticed the tamed Gamma body in the distance.

"Great, you can go rejoin the battle just in time to take credit for it." Matt joked.

"How long was I out anyway?"

"Just a few minutes. Cracking your drivers so that you froze in the air in Shadow mode was the easy part, getting you moving again without crashing? Not so much." Matt explained to the freshly rebooted navi.

"I really wish you'd save that risky hacking stuff for other navis." Flashman groaned, checking to see if all his parts were in the right place.

"I don't have any other navis. Now get moving."

"Um...where? I'm in the middle of nowhere in this IceStage you put underneath me."

Matt blinked. "Good point. Guess we'll have to attack from there then. I hope your aim is really good..."

David slotted in a Meteors chip and multiple flaming rocks shot out of the sky and buried into Gamma's already crumbling backside. Beastman delivered several powerful slashes to the chest with a BetaSword PA, opening it wide. Punk pounded at the ooze around the core with Heavy Shake, Gaia Hammer, and RockArm, but his assault did little more than keep the slimy torrent at bay. Kingman powered up a BurningCross with his Fire+30 chips and Plantman grew his GaiaBlade with whatever chips he had left. As these attacks simultaneously hit the body, the entire upper torso finally burst open with a scarlet explosion, spreading giant-sized shrapnel everywhere and sending the navis flying. Darklady caught Kingman and Drillman caught Beastman while Punk and Plant used their extending limbs to grab onto something solid.

All that remained of Gamma's armor were the rings at the base and the claws jutting out the bottom. These cracked and degraded pieces hanged loosely from the floating mass of purple and red ooze that now occupied the middle of the system; the darkened Core pulsed in the center of it all. Giant tentacles formed from this transparent blob and began to reach out to the sprawling warriors.

Then it stopped.

The entire mass just froze in its twisted, tentacle-laden shape, like someone had hit the pause button. The navis were confused, that is until they remembered the Net Guardians' missing leader. Serenade had finally succeeded!

Gamma was paralyzed, but looking closely, they could see the core shivering ever so slightly. If there were still a chance that it could break free, they wouldn't let it have it. Punk activated his BlackWeapon chip and launched his shoulder guards at the blob. His health began to drop rapidly, but the MegaChip drastically strengthened his weapons and the flying discs tore through the frozen cytoplasm, shattering it like glass. Plant and Beast were out of chips, but aided in the breakdown with Rose Thorns and Wild Rush respectively. Kingman decided the time had come for Checkmate and had DarkLady drop him right over the top of the blob. He landed with a thundering stomp and cracks spread throughout the entire mass.

With a loud, resonating crash, the glassy shell finally collapsed into billions of fragments falling into the flames of the abyss. The core remained, floating and pulsing with severed yellow veins hanging limp or snaking down into the rusty remains of its base below. It glowed above those rings like a prize on an altar.

Something was wrong though. The core pulsed faster and faster once it was exposed to the air. Was it adapting to the Giga Freeze? Or was something else happening? The navis only had a moment to contemplate if the ooze was meant to keep something contained as well keep threats from entering. There was a loud pop, and suddenly it felt like the entire Cyberworld was being drawn into the core like a black hole.

Gamma had been systematically moving from system to system, gradually absorbing energy and data from everywhere at once while its physical avatars directly chose between who and what would be brought into the new world through direct consumption, and who and what would be rejected from that world through apocalyptic destruction. Fate did not want Dark power, or the products of his enemies, or any number of other impurities the Beta Internet had been host to. The nucleus at the center of the main body was the contact point between the two worlds. The cytoplasm was meant as a filter, to only absorb the desired components of the old world. Unrestrained, the core hungrily devoured anything and everything, and it showed no signs of stopping.

Most of the navis didn't know what to do. They were too close to run away now, but they were out of strong attacks. Kingman, Drillman, Punk, Beastman, and Plantman could only burn what little energy they had left struggling to escape the orb's pull. Debris from the system along with the landscape from adjacent systems flew inward from all directions. Drillman had to maneuver between them in the air while the others used them as stepping-stones to leap away. They were counting on a last-second brilliant plan from Sam or Kingman, or some special chip sent through the BCG that would let them put an end to it all, but for now all they could do was try to outrun the incredible force behind them.

However two navis were not running. They each still had one last trick up their sleeves and there was no better time to use them.

Darklady teleported far to the north to find one large platform still mostly intact.

Flashman simply rode the platform he awakened on as it drew closer to his target.

Darklady touched down on the ground activated one last Dark Chip. DarkStage mottled the surface around her with Dark Holes while melting the panels everywhere else into poisonous swamp. The Dark Holes merged together into one massive black portal to the netherworld. As the terrible power released filled her form, she felt a incredible surge of power along with multiple stings of pain as her coding degraded at the same time. Her body's image flickered and distorted as bugs began to take control.

Flashman activated his own final terrain chip. Sanctuary, the rare MegaChip transformed his floating ice sheet into a field of light. The Holy Panels beneath him bathed him in a protective glow and charged his own light with divine radiance. Gamma's pull was strong, but the aura of defense now surrounding his platform slowed down his approach just enough to allow him to prepare for the final strike to come.

Adrienne had been saving a handful of chips for this moment, as had Matt. The navis were too far away from each other on opposite sides of the core to see each other, but just as their gauges filled, the operators looked up for a moment and noticed, out of all the netbattlers scrambling to figure out what to do next, they had the same look of apprehension and suspense on their faces. At that moment, without words, the erstwhile rivals realized they were about to do the exact same thing. The knowledge that they were now coordinated eased their feelings and increased their certainty of success. They smiled at each other as they simultaneously hit the "transmit" key.

Darklady held out her arms and a grey, pixellated pattern rippled through her body into her hands. A mass of irregularly shaped blocks formed between them and unfolded into a pair of massive bat wings with a fanged mouth at the center. The cannon embodied her own bestial nature and grew to a fearsome size from the bugs that she had inflicted on herself. The stack of enhancement chips appended to the weapon increased its power even further. The entire apparatus shook and sparked with energy.

Flashman clasped his hands together and a bright white flash emanated between them. His arms were then surrounded in a peaceful swirl of rainbow lights. Colors danced around him as the Giga Chip arm cannon formed in his hands. The weapon was a simple teal cylinder with a blue-tipped barrel. On each side of the cylinder, a hexagonal crystal radiated pure white light outwards. Below him, the images of the Holy Panels drew inwards, climbed up his body, and fused into the cannon, leaving ordinary terrain under his feet. The lights on the side of the weapon shined brighter as the holy power and the additional enhancement chips energized it greatly.

Adrienne and Matt watched each other and coordinated their command. At the exact same time, Darklady and Flashman unleashed their final attacks.

"Bug Charge!"

"Holy Dream!"

A stream of shining white bullets flew up from the south, a horde of flashing bug-formed bats swarmed down from the north. The combined forces of light and dark collided in the center, in the unleashed heart of Gamma. The dimensional orb relentlessly took in everything that came to it, but this much power, this much contrast, this much pain; it was too much for the entity to handle.

The twofold assault hammered away. The core folded, snapped, and collapsed. Space seemed to sink to a point for a moment, and finally, it expanded with a brilliant explosion. Navis everywhere could feel the structure of the cyberworld distort in an instant, just as it had done when Gamma was awakened, only now the foreboding presence was sucked away. The gravitational pull stopped. The energy and data drain stopped. The Gamma Units spread throughout the world vanished without a trace. Everything was returning to normal.

The few navis still logged in were witness to an inspirational sight. From the spot where the core had been, multi-colored streaks of light shot out and disappeared into the atmosphere. There was nothing of Gamma to be sensed among them, but a limitlessly diverse array of foreign data. Everything Gamma had absorbed had been released; though not necessarily in the forms they began with...

Flashman, Darklady, Kingman, Beastman, Plantman, Drillman, and Punk had barely survived the battle, and at times they didn't think it would come to this. They knew they had to persevere as long as possible though, all for the chance to witness this moment. They had won.

However a deep rumbling alerted them to another threat, one they were all quite familiar with by this point. Once the lights from Gamma's destruction dissipated, the sky turned dark, and the only light came from the fires that still burned deep below the ravaged system. Crescent Area 277 was once a large, dense metropolitan center, but all that remained of it now were a few miniscule shards of floating platforms scattered throughout the empty expanse. The Area's server was crashing and the navis had to jack out before they went down with it.

Dark, Flash, Drill, and Plant jacked out right away. The remaining three navis were just about to follow suit when David's voice came in over the line. "Wait! My PET just came to life. Serenade is there...well, it's not Serenade, but...well it is, but...oh, never mind, he's unconscious! Someone has to go get him!"

Kingman looked around frantically. "Where is he?"

"I can smell 'im." Beastman mentioned apathetically and pointed a claw towards the spot where the core used to be. "He's a little over that way. I'm definitely not risking my tail for the Net Guardian though." He then quickly jacked out.

Kingman gave a nervous gulp. "Damn, it would take a flyer too long to get back here by jacking in. It must be up to me then..."

Punk waved the short, stubby navi off. "Feh, like you could get that far the way things are now anyway. I'll do it."

"YOU!? Save Serenade?" Kingman was flabbergasted.

Punk scowled. "That prick just walked out on our last match, got it? If any big, red, scary thing is gonna beat that girly boy, it's gonna be me, not Gamma." With that, Punk rolled up and ramped off the platform into the darkness. Kingman could feel what was left of the ground crumbling beneath his base. He had no choice but to put his faith in his friend's greatest enemy, and jacked out.

Punk bounced from rock to rock in his ball mode, racing the collapse of the area to find the missing Net Guardian. He muttered to himself the whole time. "Thought ya'd bit it as soon as the door closed on ya. What dick move, waitin' so long to freeze the bugger. It didn't even last, ya worthless bastard. And now ya have the nerve to actually survive the thing you were inside going nuclear, yeah I bet you think yer real badass after all that, tool. Well, I'll show ya, yer not gettin' outta this alive without me. Punk gets the glory, got it?"

Finally, a glimpse of pink light caught his eye. He sharply turned towards it and unraveled in the air just before landing on the platform where the body lay.

"Well, aren't you a sight fer...wait, who the-AW HELL NO!"

A few panels ahead of him was splayed a limbless torso of bearded old man. The body was covered in heavy damage, and purple ooze seeped out of its wounds. Fate's remains didn't stir, but Punk was ready to stomp its head in just to be sure.

Just as the foot crashed down, a long pole stretched down from behind Punk and struck the body, causing it to disappear in small balls of purple light that drew into the pole, and up to its holder. Punk spun around to find a familiar floating primate navi retracting his staff.

"Monkey!?"

The legendary navi's appearance had changed slightly since it had failed to finish off Giant.exe. Its armor was now red with golden trimmings. It seemed to have been powered down quite a bit, and the navi's uncharacteristically calm demeanor reflected this. It cordially responded to Punk's sudden shock. "Monkey? Ah, I guess that was my name before my master reformatted me. Sorry, but I dunno who you are. We also don't have time to play around, right? Anyway, I'm just here to get the master. It was the only mission he gave to me in case he came back out of that Gamma thing."

Punk was seriously confused. "Fate planned for this!? He didn't seem so pessimistic when he was getting himself eaten!"

"Hey, I'm just as surprised as you are." The red monkey navi shrugged. "Well, see ya."

"Hey, yer not gettin' away with F-!" Punk shot an extending punch at the visitor, but he had already jacked out before the hit connected. "F-f-ffffFFUUUU-!"

Before Punk could complete his profanity, another collapsed navi on a nearby platform caught his eye. It wasn't Serenade, but there was something familiar about it. "Great, whosit this time, Gateman? Wait, in'dat...you have got to be kidding me."

In that instant, both his platform, and the one with the other navi disintegrated. Both bodies were falling into the pit with the rest of the system collapsing on top of them. "Gah, no time t'get picky!" Punk grunted and shot out his chain arm to the unconscious navi, wrapped it around him, and reeled him in. The form of David's original navi hanged limply in his grip. "You still owe me a battle with Serenade, dork." Punk squeezed the navi's icon, forcing a logout, and quickly jacked out himself. Everything left in the system disappeared into nothingness.

* * *

First Page-----Second Page-----Third Page-----Fourth Page-----(Page 5)-----Last Page

Stories main