The man in the white lab coat started with these words, and then held a dramatic pause for about two seconds which seemed like an eternity to his audience.

"Misterrrrr FAMOUS!" The man concluded with a series of dramatic poses. His audience applauded lightly at his entrance. The man was once the mild-mannered Sci-Lab programmer Masakazu Eguchi, but a few years ago he came to the realization he could be doing so much more with his incredible talents and get mass-admiration for it at the same time. From that point onward he donned the name of Mr.Famous, and roamed the world showing kids how much better he was at netbattling than they were. Today his journey has brought him to Crescent City, Netopia. Famous was making a self-invited guest appearance at a local cyber-café to give eager young netbattlers some pointers. His audience consisted of about half a dozen kids who just got out of elementary school.

"So my Netopian friends, who would like to be the first to test their skills against one of my specially customized premier navis? I use several navis for my lessons and today I give you a choice of three. Confident in your direct offence? Try the enigmatic Gateman. Think your navi has great reflaxes and skills? See how he performs against Kendoman. Have a foolproof startegy? Test it against Footman!"

The children were nervous, but couldn't resist his showmanship. The first kid confidently took on Gateman only to get stopped dead halfway through by a relentless RemoGate defense. The second thought his defensive barriers would stand up to Kendoman, but got blown away by his speed. A third kid tried his finely honed dueling strategy on Footman only to be caught off guard by a series of destructive team plays. Only a few more battles went by before the café ran out of kids that were gullible, overconfident, or masochistic enough to want to pick a fight with the expert.

"Well, it's a shame to see the netbattling spirit dying so soon. I just hope you all learn from these defeats to give me a better challenge next time." Famous concluded on a cheerful and inflated tone. But there was one more person to approach him. An older young man in black clothes and a Misfits logo on his shirt.

"Hey, Mr.Famous. I've been a fan of yours for a long time, and I was just wondering if I could try my skills against Punk?"

Famous' satisfied mood was shattered so suddenly he could practically hear the sound of breaking glass. "Punk? Well, uh...I just don't have him with me today."

"Really? Because if I'm not mistaken, that red PlugIn PET on your belt belongs to him."

The fourth PET Famous was carrying did belong to Punk, but inside was an ordinary normal navi named Havoc. Famous had special things in mind for that particular navi and didn't want his public to know about it. "Punk is just going through some maintenance right now, he should be out of commission for a while. I don't suppose you're interested in any of my other splendid warriors?"

The boy in black sighed. "Nah, that's all right. But since when was Punk out of commission anyway?" The boy turned around and started to walk away. "In fact, I could have sworn I've seen him on the net in the old warehouse district recently."

Famous was shocked. "Wait, what did you say?"

"Just that there was a navi that looked a lot like Punk hanging out with a bunch of nasty looking navis lately, like in the last few days even. You wouldn't have anything to do with that would you?" The boy exited the café and continued walking away. Famous wanted more information and ran out after him but as soon as he was outside the boy was nowhere to be seen, he'd disappeared into the crowd. Nonetheless, Mr.Famous knew what he had to do. It was time to regain his honour.

* * * * *

Not much later, the AcidHackers and the NetGuardians were engaged in the battle of their lives. The NetGuardians had received a tip on where to find the AH warehouse base, but ended up walking into a trap within a different abandoned warehouse the AH set up for just such the occasion. The AH were looking down at the NG from the rafters.

Jonathan snickered. "You should have put a bomb in the warehouse if you wanted to trap us. We came here to take you guys out, and now that you're here that's exactly what we're going to do."

Matt cackled as he and the other Acid Hackers revealed their handguns. "You'll have to get us down there first. And it'll be hard to do that when you're full of holes!"

The Hackers opened fire on the seemingly helpless Guardians. Fortunately for them it was dark, and the AH doidn't have very good aim to begin with.

"You don't think we weren't prepared for your underhanded tricks?" David yelled back as he and the other Guardians ducked for cover behind the warehouse pillars. He then pulled out his trusty shotgun and started taking choice shots up at the rafters where his enemies were hiding.

The other NetGuardians had other tricks up their sleeves. Sam literally had a collection of Chess Pieces stored in his sleeves for impromptu games on his headband. Now he could use them to throw at the sniping Hackers with startling speed and accuracy. One rook smacked Stuart's hand, causing him to drop his gun. Cyros too was training with toys akin to his navi's theme, and had a set of small circular saw blades to throw as shurikens in just such situations, and one metal blade happened to slice off the barrel of Johnny's pistol. Carlos stayed out in the open, skillfully deflecting bulltets with his Shin-Himitsuken blade and in a heated moment actually threw the blade itself upwards, it sliced through Jeremy's gun and stuck into the ceiling.

Jeremy growled with rage. "Oh, don't think it'll be that easy. You guys wanna fight? You'll get a fight."

Meanwhile online, the battle of the navis was well under-way. The AH navis were fighting slightly fiercer since the AH PETs were all plugged in despite nobody operating them. They knew they would automatically transfer back if deleted, but the NG navis had to be more defensive.

"Kyahh hah! Whassamatter wimps? Where's the fight?" Beastman taunted as he pummeled Metalman with a Wild Rush.

Punk was grappling with Serenade as he gave orders to the others. "Don't let a single one of them escape! Fight to deletion!"

Unknown to any of these navis, three more pairs of eyes were watching the battle from a short distance...

Meanwhile, Johnny got out a toy inspired by his own navi, a flame thrower. Matt made things worse by dropping a smoke bomb on the ground below. Between the fire raining down on them, and the smoke making it hard to breathe, the NetGuardians were ready to retreat.

"Go ahead and try to run! We took the liberty of programming the door to lock you in!" taunted Jeremy.

Carlos and Jonathan were unimpressed by the trap and merely rammed the door down together. The Guardians piled out as the whole warehouse began burning down.

"Aw nuts. So close." pouted a disappointed Johnny. "Guess we better get out of here before the Fire Department shos up. Guess we gotta get a new 'trapped fake base' too."

Jeremy shook his fist at the retreating NG party as he opened up the door on the warehouse roof. "We'll get 'em someday. I swear it!"

And do the AcidHackers piled out of the burning building and made their way accross the rooftops and back into the alleysto return to their real base. But unknown to any of them, somebody was following them every step of the way.

* * * * *

"I think that was our best battle so far!" Johnny exclaimed once they were all back at their real base. "We never came so close to wiping them out!"

"Yeah, well close doesn't blub it, blub." Bubbleman criticized from the main monitor.

Matt nodded. "Next time we may not be so lucky. We already lost our spare warehouse and squandered a crapload of Fate's expensive gifts. This was a case that we really should have made our thrilling conclusion."

Nijubu stretched and yawned. "Well, near-victory or not, it still brought a lot out of me. I'm ready to call it a night." Nijubu disappeared into the shadows as he went to the corner of the warehouse that was his own.

The other Hackers were pretty exhausted themselves and headed back to their own rooms. Jeremy collapsed on the sofa and stretched out on it, ready to go to sleep right there. "Guess we have Vidal to thank for tonight's fiasco. Huh, and here I thought I could trust that guy."

Matt took off his glasses so he could rub his eyes. "Well, guess in our line of work we can't afford to trust anybody." He then disappeared to his own bed.

Jeremy had trouble keeping his eyes shut with the light from the computer brightening the base's otherwise dark atmosphere. "Hey Bubs, could you turn of the lights please? Thanks." Jeremy complained to Bubbleman as he tried to get comfortable.

"Oh sure. The blubbin' sacks of blubbin' blood are too soft to blub keep their blub eyes open. Yours truly has to keep watch all blubbin' night as usual." Bubbleman responded cantakerously as he turned off the main monitor. But the sleepless autonavi would still be keeping a close eye on the place during the night. He had to.

* * * * *

Much later Bubbleman was spending his night on the AH homepage's shooting range. He was standing several panels away from the targets set up at the other end of the platform, and he had placed a Megaman plushie on one of the targets. In their last battle Megaman used the AntiDamage trap to use that doll as a Kawarimi to take the hit from Bubbleman's harpoon barrage. Bubble did lose that fight, but he still managed to recover that doll to use in target practise and help keep his goal of revenge in focus.

"Blubble Routine Set...Blub!" Bubbleman whispered grimly as he pelted the doll in the distance with ten rapid harpoon shots. "Heh, just you wait, blub!"

"Impressive aim, but how well effective is it on a moving target?"

Bubbleman looked around frantically, "Who said that blub?! Show your blubbing self!"

"It would be my honour." Just then a navi that seemed to be wearing a kimono and wooden armour appeared between Bubbleman and the target range. He drew his weapon, a blunt, cylindrical beam sword. "I will test your true skills in battle."

Bubbleman was enraged, "The blubbing nerve! Blub, I'm not even going to wake the others to blub waste a blub ass intruder like you blub!" With that Bubbleman unleashed a massive Bubble Parade while simultaneously emptying his AquaShots directly at the navi.

Despite relentless onslaught, the navi quickly side-stepped it all, weaving his way through the bubbles and harpoons at lightning speed, leaving after-images in his wake. Before Bubs knew it, they were face to face. The intruder looked coldly at Bubbleman and said, "You must remain calm to concentrate." and then promptly whacked him his shinai. Bubbleman sailed back and tumbled on the ground before getting back to his feet, more furious than before.

"Oh...blub...so you want me to REALLY hurt you blub!?" Bubbleman summoned more Bubble Lead and made sure to surround the quick bugger. He wasn't going to let him escape. Sure enough, the navi found himself unable to move and the bubbles were closing in on him. "Not so blubbin' confident NOW, are you blub? I'll teach YOU a thing or two!"

Bubbleman was about to fire his Aqua Shots again, when more navis appeared. Two big, yellow, armoured navis charged through the Bubble Parade and stood in front of the other navi. Bubs' harpoons appeared to delete them, but Bubbleman then noticed a red version of the same type of navi and a thin brown navi join the one in the kendo gear.

"What's going on?! This isn't fair, blub!"

The brown navi responded in a calm, empty voice. "Normally, we would agree, but we don't have time to be fair today." And then all three navis attacked.

* * * * *

"Rrrriiise and SHINE, evil NetBattlers! It's time for the fight of your life!"

Jeremy snapped awake at the bizarre wake-up call. He noticed right away all the lights were on again, he closed his eyes again hard to block the light. "Bubbleman?" he groaned groggily. "What time is it?"

"Bubbleman is indisposed at the moment, but I can tell you it is 5:00 AM, and it is time to arise to defend your territory."

The loud, echoing voice was coming from their own computer, and soon enough, everyone was up and trying to make sense of the situation with all the sense their weary minds could muster. Filling all four monitors on the AH super computer was the face of Mr.Famous, looking stern and intimidating while also pompous and proud.

"How did you find us? Gah, that good for nothing Bubbleman!" Stuart cursed angrily.

Nijubu sighed and adressed the screen more calmly. "What do you want from us, Famous?"

"Simple, I want you to prove you're worthy of the possession of my navi, Punk. Just jack into your system and fight my navis. If you win I'll leave and I won't even tell anybody where you live. If I win, I take back Punk and I take you all into custody."

Jeremy growled, "You'd let us go scot-free? Give me a break!"

Famous chuckled, "I could have called the officials as soon as I found out where you lived, but I didn't. However I will if you do not meet my challenge."

"He's got us." Matt sighed. "Let's just fight him and get it over with. I doubt we could trust him to keep his word, but what do we have to lose?"

"But it's too early...I'm tired!" Jeremy groaned.

"We all are." complained Johnny, rubbing his eyes. "But I doubt he's going to let us get a few more hours of sleep first."

"Hmph, fine. I don't back down from a fight anyway." Jeremy said and then leapt off the couch and pulled out his PET. "You want Punk, do ya? Well here he is, enjoy! Jack in, Punk! Rock on!"

The other AcidHackers followed suit and plugged their PETs into their computer, which was now competely taken over by Mr.Famous. The six navis arrived on their beloved homepage to find it largely converted into a fighting arena with spotlights focused on four separate rings. A giant comm window hovered above the arena through which Mr.Famous looking down imposingly on the AH navis.

"Man, how long has been working on this?" Flameman asked with bewilderment.

Just then three teleportation beams shot down onto three of the four battle platforms. It was the navis that invaded and overwhelmed Bubbleman. The large one held a squirming sack over his shoulder, which he immediately drop-kicked towards the AH navis. The sack landed with a thud and out spilled their missing security guard, looking considerably more pissed off than usual.

"Urrgghblub, don't under-estimate these blub-holes guys, they fight dirty for 'good guys' blub." Bubbleman groaned as he picked himself up.

"Ha ha ha!" the boisterous laugh of Mr.Famous filled the system with a resounding echo. "Fight dirty, do I? I'm giving you all a chance to prove yourselves fair and square, aren't I? Now here's what I have in mind, the battles will be two-on-one. You can decide amongst yourselves which two of you will fight which one of my navis. Oh, and Punk? Why don't you just go ahead and get on the fourth platform. I have something special in mind for you."

Punk raised a spikey, black eyebrow. "Man, this ain't like Famous to be so...devious, is it?"

Flashman shrugged, "How would we know? None of us really know this guy that well." Flashman then turned to the enemy navis. "Hey, you guys just want Punk, don't you? I say take him, we don't want him anyway."

Punk knew Flah was just joking, but had to smack him with his chain-arm anyway. Plantman examined the enemy navis trying to decide who to go up against. "Perhaps some intoductions would be beneficial?" he asked of the opponents.

The brown, hooded navi was glad to oblige and introduced himself dramatically. "Holder of the Void, Master of the Mysterious, the Operator in Navi form, I...Am...Gateman!" he finished with a series of fancy poses, true to his master's style.

The large navi followed, smacking his helmet while he shouted his introduction obnoxiously. "We are the dream team! We will conquer you! You cannot stop us! We...Are...Footman!" as a demonstration of his special ability, Footman summoned two yellow clones of himself beside him in the arena. All three Footmen got in a circle and slammed their helmets together with a violent grunt.

Finally the kendo navi took a bow and drew his shinai while addressing his opponents. "I am focus and determination. I know all your moves before you make them. I react with swift motion to any factor in battle with perfected counteractive technique. I...Am...Kendoman!"

The AcidHackers simply stared in embarrassment and groaned. Desertman whispered to Bubbleman. "<You fought them already, what do you think is the best plan?>"

Bubs furrowed in contemplation. "Uh...which one kicked me in the sack blub?"

"<That is a poor choice of words, and that would be Footman.>"

"Right blub. I'll take Footman blub." and with that the Scuba Hamster of Doom leapt into Footman's ring with a look of fierce determination.

"Well, that's not much help." Stuart sighed. "Nijubu, I think we should take on Gateman. Flash and Beast should take Kendoman, and Flame should help Bubble with Footman. And in case you're wondering I don't have a great strategy backing this up. I'm tired and I just picked them randomly because I want this over with faster."

Flameman groaned. "Why do I always end up working with the Aqua guy?"

Punk was in the fourth ring tapping his foot impatiently. "Well? Where's my special treatment?"

"All in good time." Famous responded. "Why don't you just sit back and see how your team fares first? Or you could try and interfer in their battles if you think that would be fair."

"Hmph! My boys don't need my help to whup your ass. I just don't want you to bore me to death by making me stand here and do nothing!"

The Famous navis wasted no time in attacking as soon as their opponents entered the rings. They all started with a quick barrage of battlechips but as the battle went on they used chips very scarcely. It was clear enough Mr.Famous, although skilled, could not operate three navis at once completely effectively. However, the skills of the navis themselves seemed to be more than enough to fare against each pair of AcidHackers.

Gateman usually waited until the battle was nearly over before bringing out his RemoGate, but the orders were to not hold back, no matter what. The RemoGate floated right in front of Gateman as he summoned a quintet of toy soldiers from his chest. The tiny brigade marched quickly right under the RemoGate and began attacking Desertman and Plantman. Unimpressed, Plantman leapt to the side to shoot a volley of thorns directly at Gateman, but the RemoGate instantly moved in to intercept them. While this was happening, Desertman Launched his SandLions from a different angle, but at lightning speed the Gate intercepted them as well. Gateman pulled out his special Cannon and landed a direct hit on Desertman, scattering his body accross the platform, Plantman took the oppurtunity to use his vines to attack the RemoGate, crushing and shattering it. Gate wasn't ready to let that go unpunished and hacked at thos same vines with a HeroSword, causing backlash damage to Plant. By then Desert had reformed and was ready to knock Gate into a WhirlSand trap, but Gateman saw it coming and activated some Float Shoes to let him avoid any sand covering the ground.

Kendoman could see the AH chose well in sending a speedy navi and one capable of instant paralysis attacks against one as swift as himself, but he felt no less confident. Beastman got up close and personal with his claws converted to swords from Jake, and Kendoman parried these attacks with his shinai until converting it into an Airsword to repel Beastman to the far end of the platform with a single swing. At that moment Flashman had just summoned several lamps to create a TimeStopper flash, but all Kendoman had to do was stand still and hold his sword in the air and utter "Hiraishin". The flash occured as Flashman planned, but in that flashing instant, the image of Kendoman was replaced by a lightning rod, and then both Beast and Flash were struck by a shock of electricity from the AntiElec trap. Kendoman reappeared in the same position he diappeared in. Jake then remembered "hiraishin" was the electopian word for the chip Kendo just used. Moving his shinai into an attack stance, Kendoman then shouted "Fumikomizan!" and before either navi could react, he seemed to teleport in front of them both and sliced them with a wide swipe. Matt and Jake realized they were up against a navi that, although announced his attacks, did so in a language they couldn't understand.

The Footmen moved quickly into position to charge their opponents. Bubbleman used a pickaxe to open a hole for his BubbleParade and soon a swarm of Bubbles stood between them and the football navis. The Footmen didn't slow down their rush however and merely plowed through the Bubbles with fierce determination. The yellow clones were eventually destroyed by the wall, but they provided enough cover for the original Footman to get in close and tackle Bubbleman. Flameman used the time to summon a pair of candles to aid himself, and was ready to help out with a stream of FireBreath knocking Footman off the squashed Scuba Hamster. Bubbleman didn't look to grateful about almost being scorched himself.

Gateman continued to show Desertman and Plantman a difficult time. Whenever Desertman attempted to create pillars for defense or Sandstone Cubes to attack, or whenever Plantman summoned his flowers, Gateman would have something prepared to handle them, be it a Poltergeist, or even a simple Airshot, he just sent their toys back at them. Gateman had also plenty of RemoGates to replace each one Plantman destoryed, and Plant couldn't keep up very well. But Stuart had plent of Battlechips to handle the problems. He had Plantman activate a HellBoomerang Program Advance to overwhelm the RemoGate's attempt at shielding and wipe out several of Gateman's soldiers, as well as deal some mean damage. Desertman pelted Gateman with a SandRing and followed with a Tornado to add on some more pain.

Kendoman had less of an advantage without his AntiElec, and some paralyzing moves from Flashman easily set him up for combinations of Beast's slashes and Flash's Electric Light. Kendoman soon recovered and made sure to keep a close eye on Flashman to prevent any more attempts to slow him down. Jake astutely noticed the lack of attention he was getting and took the oppurtunity send his navi a LifeSword PA. Beastman lunged at the eastern warrior with his fused blade ready to kill, but at the last moment Kendoman threw his shinai like a knife at Flashman to distract him and then with baffling speed spun around and grasped the blade of Advanced destructive energy between his hands. Beastman was shocked beyond belief at this action until Kendoman spoke another Electopian word to clear up the confusion, "Shirahadori". Apparently he had more than one trap chip at his disposal. With a twist of his hands, the mighty LifeSword snapped in two and Beastman fell backwards holding the blunt half. Kendoman held the sharp half back and gave it a good swing, releasing its remaining energy in the form of three sonic booms. Beastman was sliced to pieces by his own strongest attack.

Bubbleman and Flameman managed to set up a good line of defenses against Footman's rushes. A wall of BubbleLead, a crevice from Flameman's LineOut, and some Fanflare flame from one of Flame's candles made them practically invincible. Flameman was attacking with a pair of Changkey summoned through his other Candle while Bubbleman lobbed FiddlerCrabs over the crevice. Without being able to get close, Footman used his clones to block for him and take all the hits while he threw a football over the defenses to do some real damage. The ball seemed to miss by a mile, but it defied physics by bouncing madly around the area. The ball landed on the wicks of both Candles, snuffing them out and even smacked both navis in the head before finally dropping into the hole. Footman didn't stop there and kicked another football straight into the air. The ball came crashing down next to Bubble and Flame like a comet, making an explosion that threw them clear. Getting serious, Flameman tried to launch a HeatSpread PA, but one of the clones turned into a barrel of fuel, creating a firey explosion when it was struck that did more damage to both Flame and Bubble while leaving Footman unharmed. It seemed Famous was well stocked in trap chips like the FireHazard trap they just experienced. Bubbleman lobbed a Geyser charge into the chasm but didn't expect Famous to replace his spent trap so quickly with another one. The Geyser backfired due to the GreatFlood trap and soon both Bubble and Flame were overcome with a deluge of water.

"You have been waiting patiently, Punk. I'm impressed." Famous took time to address his former navi. Who was still tapping his foot on the fourth platform.

"Well, it wouldn't be fair to the others if I didn't wait my turn, would it?" Punk responded irritatedly.

"So you have a concept of what's fair, do you? Colour me more impressed."

"I'll colour you red once I'm through with you!" Jeremy shouted impatiently. "Why don't you show yourself?"

"Easy Jerry!" Punk advised his operator. "Just you wait, I don't think we're going to be disappointed here."

Ready to finish things off, Gateman pulled another cannon out of his chest, but rather than his standard weapon, it was the GigaCannon3 PA, a single hit on Desertman was all it took to finish off the sandy navi. Desertman's core was deleted and his body of sand was scattered well accross the platform. Taking advantage of the situation as well as taking the oppurtunity to avenge his comrade, Plantman drew his brand new ElementRage chip to absorb the sand and fire back at Gateman in a stream of bright yellow flame. The powered up ElementSand struck Gateman head on and nearly did him in, but he had been at an advantage the entire battle, and now that it was one-on-one, Plantman didn't stand a chance against his finishing move. A Windbox and a VaccuumFan downloaded from Famous appeared at his side and were instantly absorbed into his chest gate. With a dramatic shout of "Gater Magic!" Gateman once more opened his chest to reveal a swirling vortex emitting a powerful wind. Plantman struggled to hold his ground against the gale, but that was the least of his problems as the vortex began shooting out random debris at destructive speed. Plantman rose his PlantBarrier and Stuart boosted the defenses with a WoodAura and a Guardian statue, but the onslaught of boulders, panels, plush dolls, steel girders, kitchen utensils, livestock, and other completely random objects cut through all of it in no time and quickly deleted the green navi.

Kendoman was out of chips to defend against Flashman's continuing attacks. The noble navi fought hard to defeat his opponent, and decided it was time to unleash his special Training technique. "Kakarigeiko!!" Kendoman seemed to split into three, but the two other Kendoman were merely shadows. Kendoman was now moving faster than ever, and Flashman was being pummelled from every angled by the triple threat before he knew what was happening. Flash did not even have time to gather his bearings as hit after hit piled on. Matt pulled through with the only thing he had available that could pass as a defense, a way to literally make the skillful navi slip up. Matt downloaded an IceStage, transforming the entire platform into a slick sheet of ice. The fast footwork of Kendoman suddenly worked against him as he careened uncontrollably across the battlefield still faster than Flashman's eyes could track. Not wasting time allowing him to recover, Flashman charged all the Electric Light he had left into an instant TimeStopper flash. When the bright yellow flash of light was finished, all three Kendomen were visible and in the same paralyzed position. After a second the shadow Kendomen faded away and the real Kendoman remained frozen in place on the sheet of ice. Matt finished with a trio of Satellite chips to advance into a SatelliteParade PA. A swarm of electric satellites hovered towards the helpless navi and shocked him into oblivion.

Having been brought to near deletion by the traps earlier, Flame and Bubble had to go on a stronger defensive. Flameman turned the flames of both his cnadles red, enveloping him in a warm aura that rapidly regenerated his energy. Johnny helped the process by downloading a Totem3 to keep Footman busy. Bubbleman used all the Recov chips he'd stored at once and raised his BubbleWrap. There was no way the dimwitted jock was going get the best of them. Footman proved to be fairly resourceful though and activated a MetalStage chip to both stop the flow of bubbles and to clear a path to the goalposts that suddenly appeared behind Bubble and Flame. When they noticed the Footmen start to run for the goalposts, they knew something bad was going to happen when they reached it. Bubbleman unloaded his AquaShots at the red one, but he just passed his football to one of the yellow ones and fell back. Flameman made the ground erupt with a FlameBlast attack, destroying the clone carrying the ball, but not before it could toss the ball to the remaining clone. Bubbleman launched a BubbleSpread PA at it, but it passed the ball right over Bubbleman's head as it was destroyed. Bubbleman spun around to see the ball back in the hands of the red Footman, who got passed them and made it through the goal for a touchdown. Spiking the ball to the ground, the entire platform shook with a massive explosion that would have deleted Bubbleman if not for his BubbleWrap and Flameman if not for the FanFlare he just activated. Footman reappeared on his own end of the field, looking as good as new, not even showing any signs of pain. It was clear his football gear acted just like SuperArmour. He had no intention of slowing down, and after recieving a pair of MarkCannons from Famous, he was ready to trigger his own special PA, FootMegaBall. Footman kicked two powered-up footballs into the air, which began rocketing down towards the unprotected navis below. Bubbleman had one appropriate chip to counter with, while all Johnny could do was send a HeatAura and a BodyBurn to continuing boosting his defense. The two football meteors landed with an explosion, knocking Flameman back, and seemingly incinerating Bubbleman. But when the smoke cleared, in Bubbleman's place was a plush doll of Megaman, still pierced with harpoons. Bubbleman had used the AntiDamage chip to avoid the attack and counter Footman with a trio of Shurikens. Footman couldn't make his clones take those hits and took his first serious damage of the match. Flameman followed one good hit with another by activating his newest PA, MadBoxer, which pummelled Footman from al angles with invisible fists of fire. Bubbleman knew the only way to finish him of was to keep using attacks that team Footman couldn't block. He used three MetaGels to fuse together into a GelRain PA. Gels hailed down on all three Footman, destroying the clones instantly, and after a moment, the red leader was finally deleted as well. Game cancelled due to rain. Bubbleman felt good finally getting some form of revenge out of those suckers.

It was all over, except for Punk, who still hadn't started. "Well? We lost three, you lost two, what does that mean?"

"It means your team performed better than I expected." Famous responded. "Either way, it all comes down to this. I saved our battle to the end so I could concentrate on one navi rather than three."

Then the fourth of his navis teleported into the ring. It was a navi Punk was quite familiar with, because it was the body he used to own. The navi introduced himself. "Say hello to Havoc, little punk!"

Jeremy laughed. "You kept your Punk's mind in the body of my crappy old navi? And now you're going to fight me with it? Are you nuts old man?"

Mr.Famous was dead serious, "I hand-make all my navis from scratch and break down and re-customize them after every battle, so I could have easily converted your pathetic Havoc into a navi as advanced as Punk if I wanted to, but that would be admitting defeat. Instead I have kept Havoc looking the same as a reminder until I could track you down and teach you the lesson you deserve."

"A rematch? Fine, but I doubt it could go any better this ti-" Punk's mocking was cut short by a sudden punch to the face, knocking him onto his back. Havoc was moving as fast as Punk could, possibly faster. The red normal navi zoomed circles around Punk with after-images following in his wake. Havoc shot at Punk as he moved with an unusually strong Normal Buster.

Famous chuckled, "Just because I left Havoc looking the same doesn't mean I didn't re-customize him. He was indeed weak before, but that was only the configuration you had him in. You had no idea what your own navi was capable of."

Punk realized he had to take the battle seriously and went into evasive maneuvers. Both Havoc and Punk were moving around the battle platform at ridiculous speeds and the other navis and operators could only watch in awe. Punk converted to ball mode to Roll in and crush his former body, but Havoc was prepared and shattered the field with a Geddon2. Havoc to the skies with a brand of Airshoes and began tossing bombs at the Punk, stranded on the one remaining panel. Punk defended with his shield while attacking with his chain arm. Jeremy sent in an Invis chip to give Punk a chance to land a sneak attack with a BronzeFist, shot like a rocket at the flying Havoc. With a GrassStage to give him more room to move and a HeavyShake attck to bring Havoc down, Punk then proceeded to burn things up with a BigRedWave. Havoc countered with a TripleCrack and a Magnum2 to once again damage the field in his favour.

The battle went on and on with fierce intensity. Havoc was determined to win back his body and Punk was determined not to be defeated by a puny NormalNavi. Punk also knew that if "Havoc" were to defeat "Punk" when Havoc could not even come close to defeating Punk on that day the AH was formed, it would be admitting his weakness was in his skills and his operator, and not his body, which is what he preferred to believe.

After a long and exhausting battle, draining all the chips from both folders, and leaving both navis with less than 10% of their energy, Punk knew he could finally prove his true strength. Rolling into a ball, Punk made a final charge at his enemy. Havoc shot the spiked sphere with his customized buster, piercing the armour and making red chunks of metal fly everywhere, but it was not enough to stop him. Punk sprung out of his ball form right in front of Havoc with both arms stretched out. With a scissor swipe of both arms, all Havoc could do to avoid being chopped in two was lunge forward into Punk's chest, so Havoc's final attack ended up looking more like a hug.

"Gee, I thought you may have missed your old body Punk, but I had no idea." Flashman teased from the sidelines.

While Punk gave his comrade an evil eye, the body of Havoc, still wrapped in the chain arms, began to glow. Famous spoke in the calmest voice he had used all morning. "I've seen enough. Your skills have improved much in the last few weeks, and you obviously know how to handle Punk."

Havoc's glow expanded into a bright flash. When it cleared, he was gone. The message "Enemy Deleted" scrolled accross Jeremy's PET. Gateman took the moment to teleport away as well, and with him went the four battle platforms and the rest of Famous' renovations to the AH homepage.

Famous continued, "Not only did you and your team fight impressively, but you did so fair and square. Perhaps there is hope for you punks after all. I'll stay true to the deal and leave without telling anyone about this." And with that the screen of the AH computer went back to normal and all evidence of Famous' transmission disappeared.

The AcidHackers groaned in exhaustion. "Do you really think he's just going to leave us alone now? Could it really be that simple?" Stuart queried.

"Maybe he thinks we're good guys now. Misguided moron." Matt chuckled as he staggered back to his room. He was too tired to wrestle with the implications now.

"Do we have to move now? Just to be on the safe side? Or should we count on the fact Famous is a man of his word?" Jake asked.

Jeremy thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right, we CAN count on the fact that he's an idiot. We're not going anywhere. Besides, he doesn't exactlt have a good record when it comes to beating us. If he tries anything else funyy, we'll come out of it smelling like roses. Trust me."

Satisfied with that explanation, everyone went back to bed to catch up on the early morning sleep their intruder had robbed of them. Meanwhile Bubbleman cleaned up his Homepage and gathered up his Anti-Damage doll. Traps were obviously the way to go these days.

* * * * * The next day, Mr.Famous was on a plane heading back to Electopia. He was spending his time adjusting the customizations and folders of his navis, and was just finishing up with the navi in his red PlugIn PET, Punk. "So how does it feel to have your old body back Punk m'boy?" he asked with a smirk.

"Wonderful. Couldn't stand that Havoc's body for a moment longer. I still don't think it was neccessary to copy the body directly when you could have just re-made it from scratch using your original designs. All things considered tracking those villains down was a lot more work."

"Yes, but it was worth it. I won you back fair and square this way, and now the AcidHackers know to take Misterrrrr FAMOUS AND his navis seriously!" Famous noticed some of the other passengers were starng at him since he started talking more loudly and dramatically. He coughed in embarrassment and just turned to look out the window as he finished his thoughts quietly in his head.

"I can leave the ultimate judgement of the AcidHackers to Cossack's NetGuardians. It's their fate to deal with each other, not mine. Still, I wonder how that young man at the Cyber Café fits into their conflict. He obviously knew more than he was letting on. Well, whatever happens, those kids are capable of handling things on their own. I have nothing left to teach them...maybe."

The End

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