Annihilation
The collective breath the netbattlers and the Cossacks had been holding was released in one encompassing sigh.
"We won..." said Nijubu.
Jeremy smirked. "I thought it'd feel better than this. You know, like a bunch of people suddenly break into the room and a party starts, you know?"
"No, I don't. Right now there's no time for a party. Right now, we have a few arrests to make." A voice from the back of the room stated.
The Acid Hackers nearly leapt at the word "arrests". Everyone turned to the group of Officials that had just entered. Trisha was just as surprised as the others.
Except for one. Blackbelt instantly recognized the voice, and answered without looking. "Hello Chaud. I was under the assumption that the Officials didn't know we were here."
"We didn't until you got here."
"Of course. The tracker in my ankle shocker."
"And voice transmitter."
"...what?" Sam answered in surprise, now looking at Chaud.
Chaud only pulled out a small playback device and pushed a button on it.
"You honestly think I care about them? They can rot for all I care. There's only one thing I care about. And that's me. For all it's worth, the only reason I care about Gamma is the fact it would have a negative effect on my plans. Hell, I don't even care for the Guardians that much. They were merely convenient at the time. And right now, it'd be convenient for all of you to help take down Gamma." Sam's voice blared from the speaker.
"Oh please, you think I'd m-make a deal with them? It was a bluff!" Sam answered, his voice wavering, fully aware of the stares he was getting from the Cossacks and the Net Guardians. The AH were less reactionary, but they were fixed on figuring out how to slip away while everyone else was focused on the other criminal in the room.
"Maybe, but there's two more things here."
Sam gulped.
"Viral Infection..."
"Correct. I assume you've all heard of us, specifically the Genjibo incident."
"It's all a bluff!" Sam yelled, defensive.
Chaud openly smirked, and tapped his forehead.
"What...?"
"Uh, dude, your bandana" Moe said, disappointed.
"...Shit."
"And you remember what was decided in the trial. You aren't innocent. A verdict was never reached due to lack of evidence and testimony." Chaud said, knowing full well what was going to happen.
"Yeah...I know" Sam answered, also knowing what was going to happen. "You're gonna completely ignore my contribution to saving the world."
"I heard all about your contribution to this little operation. Honestly, what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Not a damn thing. I saw an opportunity and jumped at it."
"You know very well that so many people would want to kill you if they knew what you did."
"...Aren't you guys gonna back me up?" Sam asked everyone.
"Dude, what you did was messed up. I mean, totally hardcore, but seriously messed up." Jon half-condemned, half-praised his teammate.
"I did what I had to!"
Innocent whistling filled the air.
"I don't see why you're so worried about it. Your actions in the last few days are of no concern. It's the ruins of Genjibo that's the issue. And honestly, nothing you do can erase that"
"...fine. You win."
"I...what?" Chaud asked, surprised.
"My name is Samuel Joseph Jeffries, otherwise known as Blackbelt, I am a member of Viral Infection, and I was directly involved with the events at Genjibo. Under section 14.5 of the Official's Criminal Rights, by making this confession in the presence of witnesses and Officials, I hereby revoke my right to a fair trial, and immediately subject myself to the maximum punishment for the crimes of which I am accused." Blackbelt then stuck his hands out in front of him. "Cuff me."
...
"What? I'm tired of running, and honestly, doing all this stuff has made me think. I've done some bad things. I deserve what is coming to me."
Jeremy backed away towards the opposite hallway and signaled for his teammates to gradually follow suit. "That makes one of us, ya backstabbing jerk." He said under his breath.
"Sam, come on. You're going to let them do this to you now, of all times?" Cyros asked, disappointed. He was really missing that party they could have been having.
"Unbelievable. Another weasel in our midst." Jon threw his arms up in the air. "Just get him out of here. I've had enough of this."
David shook his head. "You've been a valuable asset to our team, Sam. I regret this, but they're right. I admire ya for manning up to it all."
Carlos looked down on Sam with contempt. Moe couldn't even look their way; he just stood, shaking his head. Adrienne waved goodbye. Kalinka sat by her father, attempting to comfort the shaken man. She remembered the callous things he had done to help bring them victory, and she couldn't justify them in he mind. She stared at Blackbelt with sheer hatred. Sam took in the mixture of reactions and tacitly accepted them.
"So this is it then? No more Net Guardians united?" Cyros sighed.
"Sorry. Guess I can't give you guys my guarantee. For that I apologize. Have a nice life."
"Oh shut up," said Chaud, then pointing to another Official. "You, make sure he doesn't do a damn thing."
The Officials led Sam away. The others watched silently. As the doors closed, Adrienne gestured towards them with an open hand. "There, but for the grace of God, goes the brains of this outfit." she recited dramatically.
"Well, that couldn't have happened at a worse time." Cyros groaned. "Well, I guess if it happened while we were still fighting Gamma it woulda sucked even more...but having them come arrest our friend a few days later woulda been much more preferable."
"Don't let it diminish your victory, guys." David said encouragingly. "I know things won't be the same without Sam and Kingman, but...wait, Kingman is still with Nijubu!"
David spun around to look at where he expected Nijubu to be. It was at that point that everyone noticed that Nijubu and the other Acid Hackers were no longer in the room.
"...WHAT!?"
The nine people quickly searched the building, but only determined that the AH members had slipped out the back service entrance and were long gone. David slammed his fist in the wall. "Damnit, how'd they get away like that? How could nobody see them leave!?"
"Well, I can hardly blame them for wanting to leave with the Officials in the room, even though they didn't even seem to care about anyone but Sam." Moe reasoned. "That also gave them a pretty good distraction to sneak away with..."
"I'm so sorry, I had no idea those guys were coming. They're not even local Officials!" Trisha attested apologetically. "So much for a smooth operation. Looks like I'll have a lot to explain to my superiors after all."
"Well, now that the Acid Hackers are gone, that may not be as hard as it seems." Kalinka proffered. "I think all the evidence will show that this was the work of Officially licensed vigilantes, with a SciLab doctor to vouch for them."
"Who?" Cossack asked, curiously.
"You, dad."
"Oh, right!"
Trisha smiled with relief. "Thanks, I appreciate that...y'know, on top of everything else you guys deserve appreciation for."
"So what about the Hackers, then? What was going to happen if the Officials didn't show up?" Carlos wondered.
"Good question," David replied, suddenly deep in thought. "We never thought ahead this far, did we? The purpose of our group is to bring those guys to justice, but we forgot all about that in the face of the common threat. Arresting them right after we were finished was exactly what we promised we wouldn't do."
"That was Sam's promise anyway." Moe reminded him. "I think we would have ended up turning on each other no matter what. Maybe it's better that they ran...Of course now they're still out there, and we still have to catch them."
"Well, maybe they're not so bad." Adrienne suggested. "Maybe after fighting for the good guys, they'll turn over a new leaf!"
"It's a long shot, but you've got a point." David acknowledged. "Punk even saved CiFNAS for me...Maybe there's some hope for them yet."
"Uh, speaking of saving navis..." Cyros spoke up, holding up his still-blank PET. "Metalman still hasn't come back. Don't tell me he's..."
"Bowlman too." Jon said worriedly. "Is Dave's navi the only one that came out?"
David looked down at his PET, where his familiar original navi silently recovered in sleep mode. It was at that point that he noticed the memory used was much higher than usual despite getting back a lower capacity occupant. Curiously, he activated the PET's manual mode and opened CiFNAS's memory viewer and found three unusual attachments. He opened one of the data files and found what looked like the code for a NetNavi's backup.
The cowboy looked back up at Cyros and Jon and grinned. "Let's get back to base. I don't think it's over that easily."
Trisha waved the others off. "Go on ahead guys, I still have some work to do here."
Moe waved back to his former partner. "Thanks Trish, catch you later." The Net Guardians grabbed their supplies and headed for the door, not looking forward to eventually being caught up by the Officials for questioning.
"Hope you don't mind taking the bus home." Cossack laughed. "Our beer run didn't go as smoothly as planned."
Kalinka sighed. "I really tried to keep him from driving."
The team split up as they headed back to GoNuts. David, Cyros, and Jon were eager to get back to their own computers to see what they could salvage from CiFNAS's promising extra data files, so they grabbed the first cab that came along. The Cossacks rode along with the tow truck that showed up for their car. Adrienne and Carlos took the bus, and Moe opted to enjoy a walk.
About halfway along his journey, Moe's PET suddenly rang.
"Hello?"
"I am in a sporting mood. You have 5 minutes to get here before I do something."
"Sam!?"
"That's Blackbelt to you, Mr. Fortis."
"What are you gonna do!?"
"I have a bomb, and I plan on blowing it up. 4 minutes 30 seconds. And don't tell anyone else what's gonna happen. I'll know. Come alone to the intersection of Fourth and University. See ya." And Sam abruptly hung up.
3 Minutes later....
The first thing Moe noticed was the truck.
The overturned, currently on fire, armor plated prisoner transport truck with the door to the prisoner storage area opened.
The second thing he noticed were the two officials on the ground. He instinctively ran to them, to see if they were ok.
It was than that he noticed the third thing. The sudden strike to the back of his head, which then left him unconscious.
"Idiot. Look out for yourself before you look out for others." Blackbelt said to no one in particular. "Honestly Moe, you always make things too easy for your adversary, you and your damn honor code. And you were too stupid to leave your PET behind." He continued, grabbing Moe's PET from the holder on his waist.
"What...are you doing?" Drill Man's voice came from the PET.
"I am merely taking back what is mine." Blackbelt pulled a PET from his pocket. "You will transfer my data crystal to this PET."
"...Never!"
"Thought you'd say that. Which is why I grabbed this" Blackbelt pulled out a .45 Caliber handgun, and fired off a bullet into the sky. "Next bullet goes into Moe's head if you don't do as I say."
"...fine. Do as you will."
"How courteous of you." Blackbelt began, as he looked through the files on Moe's PET. "Honestly, I wish more people would learn at the first warning. I mean, I remember the last time someone didn't do as I say. Man, that was such a messy...and what is this?" Blackbelt interrupted his own story.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing." Drill Man shot back.
"You're a horrible liar." Blackbelt said, and he opened the folder.
"Hmmm. A bodysuit as a PET...Not quite as advanced as the Pulse Transmission System, but much more.....mobile. I'll be taking this as well."
"You will not!"
BANG
A loud scream of pain pierced the air
"Shoulder. He's alive. Next time you become rebellious, I shoot him in the spine and paralyze him for life."
"...You bastard."
"Why thank you." Blackbelt said as the files were transferred.
"Have a nice life, both of you." Sam threw the PET to the ground.
* * *
"DNN Six o'Clock News! We now bring you live to Ribitta Midorikawa at the Seaside Official Center. Ribbit!"
"Ribitta here, recapping today's top story. The sudden infection that rapidly spread throughout the Cyberworld early this morning has been stopped! It has only been two hours since the Officials gave the 'all-clear', and an investigation is still ongoing, but SciLab has issued a statement that no traces of the virus remain, and power levels are back to what they were yesterday. Navis everywhere in Electopia and Netopia are already back online and experiencing no ill effects.
The cause of the outbreak has been traced back to a remote server in Sharo. Sharoan Officials were unavailable for comment, but reports say the entire Sharo network is still down after sixteen hours. No indication as to when the Cyberworld will be back to full capacity, but Sharoan emergency crews are setting up an old-style power grid for its people in the interim.
Choina and Yumland networks have also suffered widespread network crashes and power outages, leaving most of the continent on a long road to recovery. Electopian and Netopian servers are mostly intact, with only a few crashed systems that are already being restored from hard backups. Yuuichiro Hikari of Electopia's SciLab has issued a statement saying his people would dedicate whatever resources available to helping the mainland get back online.
But we still don't know what eventually stopped the infection. Reports from the Officials credit an Ameropan ONBA initiative. With me now to give a direct statement is Center spokesman-"
"MISTERRRRR-"
"Mr. Famous. Ahem. What can you tell us about today's events?"
"FAAAMOOOUUSSS!!...Well Ribitta, like many viruses, this infection took on an aggressive form that NetBattlers like myself had been fighting hard all day. However, it didn't take us long to realize it wasn't quite a virus at all! It was more of a massive forced paradigm shift, or rather..."
"And what does that mean?"
"Er...never mind, I suppose 'virus' will suffice. Still, just deleting its agents couldn't stop it. Someone had to access the interface point between the source (i.e. the virus) and the host (i.e. us). Most recent word is that the point had been moving, and was deleted somewhere in western Amerope. Unfortunately, the epicenter of the infection's reversal has crashed, and no records from the timeframe are on hand. We may never find out what happened exactly, and even if we do, we may not be permitted to release all the information..."
"Are you suggesting someone may want to cover up-"
"I have said to much already! Mister Famous! Awaaay!"
"Well...there you have it? Possibly the entire Cyberworld, saved by something or someone, possibly in Amerope...wait, we don't know anything more than when I got here. Hey Famous! Get back here!"
"Ribbit! We will return after these messages!"
* * *
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
Vidal looked down at the purple PET in his hand with a thoughtful gaze.
Mistman tried to hide how flustered he was behind his usual stoic attitude. "I know you probably do not trust me as much now that Fate has...revealed his true intentions..."
"He used me through you." Vidal said bitterly. "Nothing I wanted ever mattered."
"He used me as well!" Mist protested. "I swear, I knew no more than you did when this all started. There is no need to go our separate ways. I can still help you get revenge on those who wronged you!"
Vidal frowned. "That's just it, man. Working with those guys again got me thinking...the whole revenge plan was stupid. My old navi doesn't care about me at all any more; I gotta admit I was never that close to it. Then I got you...and it was all just the same."
Mistman understood what his operator of such a brief time was saying, but part of him didn't like it. "You do not have to give up like this. We can become something greater!" He pleaded uncomfortably.
"I've never been happy with any of my navis. I'm beginning to think I've been on the wrong path from the start. When they started talking about saving the world back there...what was I supposed to do? We woulda just been fodder or moral support if we stuck around. It was my fault for coming back in the first place...I gotta go home."
After several minutes of waffling and hesitation, Vidal finally approached the counter of PETcetera. "Bye, Mistman. It's been fun. Hope your next op's a better one than I've been."
As the young man sold his PET, Mistman sunk his shoulders, sighed, and dissolved, slinking back into his lamp. "...Godspeed, Vidal."
* * *
Deep in the Secret Area, cloaked Undernet navis marched back and forth, carrying building materials and working on repairs. The region was nearly as beautiful as it was before everything that had happened in the last couple of days, but its master would not allow the slightest damage to mar the perfection of those sacred grounds. The navis that were privileged enough to set foot in the sanctuary worked tirelessly to appease the whims of their ruler.
From the highest point in the area, Serenade sat in a relaxed, meditative pose. The androgynous navi smiled in reminiscence of the unique experiences of the last several months.
Leaving this place...meeting friends...fighting alongside them...such a rare treat for one such as myself. Serenade thought. But I still have responsibility here, and I have given those people all I have to give. It is time to let them forge the future with their own strength. I will continue to guard the past.
Looking down in the direction of the Secret Area's invisible Dark portal, Serenade grew slightly anxious. Gamma has taken so much from this world, and thanks to one of our own, the aftermath will not be easy to deal with. I hope they are up to the task. They may have to deal with the fact that their friends are gone forever...
Looking away and closing eyes, Serenade smiled again. "But I suppose nothing is final in this world. If I found my way back into the light...who knows what those navis are capable of?"
* * *
It was early morning in Yumland.
And at the Darklight Mercenaries Yumland branch, Samuel Darklight had what could be considered the worst hangover in the history of man.
"Ooooooowwwww..."
"Oh, suck it up, ya wuss." A voice came from the computer.
"About damn time you regenerated, ya wuss."
"Come up with your own insult." Shade Man yelled. "Whee-Whee."
"Oooowww, stop yelling...or at least screeching..."
"You have a job mail, BTW."
"...Don't care, want pain reliever."
"It's a 100 Million Dollar job."
Pain forgotten, Samuel immediately ran to the computer, and read the E-mail.
"...I don't know what the hell he did, but he's just become my #1 target...I never did like having a look-alike running around..."
* * *
Two days after the Gamma incident, the Acid Hackers sat around a dingy motel room, bored and restless as Matt surfed the net from the laptop previously used to house Bubbleman. Jeremy watched grumpily over his friend's shoulder for any sign of progress from Flashman's search. The others sat in uncomfortable silence along the bed, chairs, and floor.
"I miss the warehouse." Johnny said for the thousandth time.
"Yes, we all do." Stuart said with exasperation. "But thanks to Fate crashing our tank through the wall, the Officials found it, and we can't go back."
"Come on boss, let's forget about tracking down Fate for now." Jake pleaded. "We gotta figure out a way to steal our stuff back from the pigs that confiscated it!"
"I think we should concentrate on finding a new place to live first." Stuart suggested.
"What about fuel for the tank?" Matt offered. "Hiding it under the pile of junk out back isn't going to keep it safe for long."
"It's already 'not safe'." Jeremy muttered. "Fate controls it, remember?"
"Fate's not controlling anything right now!" Matt shouted and abruptly jacked out of the laptop, slamming it shut.
Jeremy got mad. "Hey! He's out still out there! That prick that took advantage of all of us! Yer just gonna let him pick up the pieces and start again!?"
"You said it yourself, the guy was just a leaky torso when you found him." Johnny shrugged. "He's not even like a real navi, maybe he'll never recover from that."
"It should at least take him a while. We should be using this time to gather resources if we plan on hunting him down again." Matt emphasized.
"We could at least look for Desert, Flame, and Bubs, right?" Johnny asked, looking sadly over to the distant Nijubu.
"Erm..." Jeremy fidgeted. "Yeah...if they're still out there I mean. Punk didn't see any others laying around in the dark there..."
Nijubu looked down at Sam's PET. They found out what happened to the guy after they escaped, and it didn't seem like he'd ever get the chance to return it now. Even if he did, should he? Kingman had been stubbornly silent the whole time, seemingly feeling hopeless without his original operator or his team. The distance only made Nijubu feel more isolated. He considered just giving the PET away.
As these thoughts ran through his head, he was shocked to suddenly hear three iconic words from the formerly quiet Kingman. "You got mail."
Nijubu was perplexed. "Huh? In this PET? Do you mean Jeffries got mail?"
Kingman seemed just as confused. "It's...addressed to you. It's from David!"
"Wha-!?" Jeremy ran up and looked over Nijubu's shoulder. "What's that guy want? I toldya we shoulda smashed that PET as soon as we were outta there! Well, now's a good a time as any!"
Nijubu ignored the proposal and opened the mail, reading it aloud. "Yo Acid Hackers, you don't have to return the PET to Sam any more. He's basically forfeited it." Kingman remained silent, but wasn't happy to hear these things. Nijubu continued. "We'll still have to confiscate it along with the other navis you've stolen the next time we cross paths though. That being said, thanks for all your help over the last few days."
"What a smug friggin' asshole!" Jeremy threw his arms up in the air in frustration.
"Also, it turns out when Punk retrieved CiFNAS, there were some others along for the ride. One of them seems to belong to you. Please see attachments. Sincerely, the Net Guardians."
"What the f*** is this then?" Jake wondered aloud.
Nijubu opened the file. "It's...it's a navi backup! It must be one of our navis that was absorbed by Gamma!"
The others leaned in intently, particularly Johnny. "Just one? Who is it?"
Nijubu shrugged. "I dunno, we have to compile it first, I guess. Matt?"
"On it." Matt grabbed the PET and hooked it up to the laptop, after a few minutes of setup and suspenseful waiting, the navi started to generate on the screen. Everyone was eager to see who it was going to be. Desertman? Flameman? Bubbleman? Some random other navi just so the NG could screw with them?
The rendering finally appeared, and the navi that appeared onscreen was unfamiliar to all six, save one. Johnny recognized his original cat-eared partner immediately. "Floofie!?"
"J-Johnny? Is that you?...What happened to me?" The small, red navi said wearily. "Last thing I remember was...blowing something up...Whoa, what? My body! I'm not Flameman any more!"
"Great, we get someone back, and he's not even equipped for battle." Stuart sighed in disappointment. Most of the others were less than thrilled at the result as well. Nijubu felt happy for Johnny, but at the same time felt like he had lost Desertman all over again.
The small cat-eared boy eagerly transferred the navi back to his PET. "Battle shmattle! I don't wanna do any more fighting for a long time anyway! Sorry guys, but I'm outta this."
"Wait, what're you sayin'?" Jeremy glared at his tiny teammate.
Johnny shrugged and cradled his PET. "It's been bugging me for a while. I'm tired of all the running and battling. Seeing Floofie back to normal makes me realize how much I've missed seeing the little guy like this. I wanna go back to a regular life. There's not much of a point in going on with the Acid Hackers anyway now that we've lost all our cool stuff and the guy that gave us our missions."
"But we still gotta hunt down the guy that gave us our missions!" Jeremy protested.
"Sorry, I just don't care about Fate that much any more. Good luck with whatever you wanna do. I'm outta here. Coming Nij?"
Nijubu looked down at his closest friend on the team in shock. He then sadly looked away. "Johnny, I'm sorry, but I know Desertman is still out there somewhere. These guys can still help me find him..."
Johnny felt rejected. He pouted a bit but quickly toughened up. "Fine, do what you want. You'll come around eventually. You'll all realize it's better to go my way. Bye." Johnny then walked out the motel room door to destinations unknown.
"Well, I guess he's right. There's not really an Acid Hackers any more, is there?" Jeremy admitted bitterly. "Well, you guys don't like my plan to look for Gamma, you might as well all leave too!"
The others went silent for a while. They thought carefully about their leader's sarcastic suggestion. A lot had happened recently and a lot had changed. They began to realize that they felt like the team was over ever since Fate revealed his true nature. After that, they were just caught up in the momentum of stopping Gamma. Now what? Only Jeremy seemed to care about Fate at the moment. Nijubu had his own quest, and the tall young man was already standing up, ready to leave along with anyone that would join him.
Stuart looked back and forth between the two sides. He had his own long-term goals and needed help from a team to reach them. Jeremy's goal seemed too personal and focused at this point. He knew they had to build back up before they could take action. At least Nijubu understood the importance of preparation. Tipping his hat at the fuming former leader, Stuart stepped over beside Nijubu.
Jake was almost ready to walk out with Johnny, but he wanted excitement more than anything. He didn't know which side was going to find it first, but he wasn't going to make it on his own, and he'd had enough of the boredom hanging around in the motel room under Jeremy's leadership. Shrugging, Jake shuffled over to join Nij and Stu.
Jeremy watched these movements with disgust and finally broke down and sighed. "Well isn't that typical. Wha'bout you, Matt? Might as well at this point."
The blonde hacker chuckled and shook his head. "Hey, I stuck by you this long, you think I'm gonna ditch you over this?"
This perked the AH leader up a bit. He then put on his serious face as he turned to the other three. "Well, I never liked you guys anyway. Go on and form your own second-rate team. The Acid Hackers still have a mission to complete."
Nijubu smiled. He could see through Jeremy's trash talk after working with him for so long. "Good luck to you too, Jeremy. See you again."
Nijubu, Stuart, and Jake exited the room with their remaining possessions. Matt began to pack up his things as well. Jeremy shot him a glare. "I thought ya weren't leaving!"
Matt put on his trademark sunglasses. "I'm not. We are. We gotta get out of this dump and find some real accommodations if we're going to figure out where Fate's hiding."
Jeremy smirked. "Heh. Knew I'd get through to ya. Yeah, I guess we could at least find a place with a real internet connection before we start. Maybe the Netmafia's hiring. Defeating Gamma musta boosted our cred, like, a LOT."
"Maybe." Matt shrugged. "We could always hack into their server from that parking garage on 20th if we have to."
"Just like old times!"
* * *
Around the same time at the Net Guardians' flat, the team, along with Kalinka, Trisha, and Ms.Stake socialized one more time over donuts and coffee. After spending much of the previous day figuring out their next steps, they realized this was the last some of them would be seeing each other, and decided to make the best of things before the members went their separate ways.
"Well, my plane's leaving soon. Sorry I gotta leave early." Jonathan apologized as he took his PET and bags and headed for the door, looking back at his home for the last several months one last time. "Thanks again for restoring Mort from that backup. It makes up for everything that's happened." He patted the PET with his original navi inside.
"Well, Gamma's the one that somehow undid the Hybrid program to the guys inside it." David clarified. "Man, I know you're eager to go home for a while, but are you sure you don't want to come back? Cyros only has his regular navi back too and he's sticking with the team."
"Ah, it's not that. Yeah, without Bowlman I just don't feel like the same NetBattler any more, that's part of it..." Jon looked down at his clothes, a simple T-shirt and jeans, not his usual bowling-themed uniform. "Really though, defeating Gamma seemed like the prefect note to go out on. I'm just not up to going back to hunting Acid Hackers again after that. Good luck completing the mission though."
"Alright buddy...take care."
Everyone gave their goodbyes to Jon and then he was out the door back to his old life. Cyros sat back with a satisfied smile. "And it came to be that I was the only Jon on the team!"
"Your name is John!?" Adrienne reacted in shock.
He nodded. "Yeah, I only took the nickname to avoid confusion. Right, Cyros?"
Adrienne looked around. "...You're Cyros."
"No, my navi's name is Cyros, I borrowed it as a nickname. We went over this."
"This is supposed to be LESS confusing? I'm so glad I'm leaving."
"Do you have to?" Carlos asked, knowing he was going to miss Adrienne's zaniness.
"It was a fun ride while it lasted, but you guys get too serious with the fighting evil thing. Evil is good too! Besides, Dark's looking forward to meeting yet another new operator."
"Wait, you're not even taking your navi with you?" Jonathan shot back in surprise.
She shrugged it off and grinned. "We both knew it wasn't gonna be a permanent thing. She likes the idea of corrupting more operators with her Darkness habit. Try to find a nice and innocent replacement for me. Toodles!" The lady in black left her PET on the table and leapt out the window. The others could see her walking casually away down the street a moment later.
"Well, it's getting pretty lonely in here." Kalinka commented. Jon quickly sidled up to her in response.
"Don't worry about getting lonely, I'll always be here." He was quickly pushed out of the way by David.
"Ahem. She doesn't need your personal company."
Kalinka shook her head. "Come on, you're not both just staying under my father's employ because of me, are you?"
"Well, maybe he is, but I still have unfinished business with the Acid Hackers and Fate." David proclaimed. "Even without Serenade, CiFNAS is up to the task."
"No arguments here." David's navi chirped in.
Jon felt insulted. "C'mon, you know me. This is my calling! Cyros.exe is going to be every bit as tough as Metal was."
"I'm still the same navi, after all." Cyros.exe stated proudly.
"You two are still going to need some support from a Hybrid navi." Carlos said, indicating Yamatoman. "I will not abandon the side of justice when I am needed."
"Sure, whenever you're not running off on your own solo adventures." David responded sarcastically.
Naomi cheered her operator and partner on from her own PET. "We'll have time for all sorts of solo adventures and still save the world as Net Guardians, right Oniichan?"
"Heh. No one can stop Mr.Domino!" Carlos recited his catchphrase.
Moe had been quiet the whole time. His arm was in a sling and he was deep in thought. The others already knew he would be pursuing his own goal after what had happened. He finally stood up, cringing from the pain in his arm. "Are you guys sure about Blackbelt? He could be a serious threat."
The others were uncomfortable about anything involving their former teammate. Some still had trouble accepting he did what Moe claimed. "Are you really sure it wasn't his evil twin that shot you? He has an evil twin, you know." Jon suggested.
Moe rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure, and I'm pretty sure our Sam is the evil twin at this point."
"I just want to let the Officials handle it." David said dismissively, feeling weird enough about the e-mail he sent to the Acid Hackers with Sam's PET.
"Yeah, that's what I figured. That's why it's as good a time as any for me to crawl back to the Officials." He turned to Trisha, who nodded sympathetically.
"Don't worry, it won't be as bad as you think. They value skill above all else. I'll vouch for you too." She smiled hopefully.
Moe sighed. "Thanks. I'm still not looking forward to it, but I have to do this. He has to pay...See you around, guys."
Moe and Trisha left the gathering together, leaving the three remaining Net Guardians with Kalinka and Stake. Ms.Stake was especially satisfied that the rowdy crew was finally leaving her business' upper floor. In light of the new smaller incarnation of the Net Guardians, Cossack had arranged separate apartments for them and a simpler office to operate from. She was thinking of bringing a crane in to help clean out the mess of a floor.
"Well, I guess it's the end of an era." Jon lamented, looking out the window at their departing friends. "Our biggest victory ended up taking the team apart. How's that for irony?"
"We can always keep in touch with them." Carlos reminded him. "This is just business, and our job isn't ending at all."
"Nah, it's just getting started." David nodded and tilted his cowboy hat.
Kalinka smiled at all of them. "As long as my father's work is still being used for evil, you'll always have a home with my family as our Guardians."
"Anything for you, milady." David bowed, then pulled out his PET and held it up. His teammates did the same. "Wherever our own paths take us, we'll always be a part of the Net Guardians...and even the Acid Hackers. We'll always be the rivals that united against a common threat. We'll always be the team that deleted Gamma. We'll always be the NetBattler's that fought for good...bad...and a few other things we just threw in."
The others shook their heads at the corny speech, but smiled in spite of it. They felt the same way, that they would always be part of something special together. Even after going their separate ways.
Fate brought them together, but they wrote their own destiny. Their maker's master plan aimed to control them and consume them, but when they fought back, only one thing came of that plot: Annihilation.
The End
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