The three navi's
watched the boy in the throne playing with the binary. It was strange
to see Netto with that look of concentration on his face.
Rockman
looked extremely worried and Forte and Elecman weren't better off.
Finally after about 4 hours Netto or whatever was possessing him left
and the boy fell asleep.
"Okay, we need a plan."
said Rockman
"Well can he actually do anything? I mean
he is a human after all." said Elecman.
"He is
manipulating binary. For all we know he could have anything with him.
Binary can become anyone or anything." said Forte with a hint of
worry.
Rockman punched the bolder that had become his
temporary shelter. "Why can't we do anything!" he hissed "I
feel so useless!"
Forte nodded. "I know but for now
we have to help him by staying low."
Rockman sighed "I
know. It still hurts though."
Netto
felt the Shadow come in before he even realized what was going on. He
saw the dark shape slither in barely even recognizable from the dark
surrounding him. He grew and morphed into his favorite form to
torment Netto with. Namely his own body.
Netto watched his
double pace the dark abyss. He vaguely wondered why he didn't fall
since there seemed to be nothing to act as a floor.
"It's
almost time." he smiled
"Time for what?" Netto
asked
"You'll see soon enough." was all it simply
said
'Good' thought Netto 'Maybe this means he won't torment
me all night.'
But the shadow had other plans. "Oh by
the way, you know your precious brother and his friends are out
there? They hope to save you. It was quite amusing to listen to them
today while I worked. It seems they actually really think they can
save you! Isn't that great!"
Netto just scowled.
The
Shadow lifted an eyebrow. "Oh you don't find it amusing? Really,
I thought you had a better sense of humor than that."
Netto's
scowl only deepend.
"Well whatever. I am almost done. In
fact I really think it will take only one more day. Then I can
finally bring this pathetic world to it's knees."
The
shadow spent the remainder of the night chiding Netto, while outside
the navi's formed a plan.
Only the plan relied on the element
of surprise. Something they did not have.
And the shadow knew
this perfectly well.
Netto woke up. He
blinked as he saw the artificial sun shining down on him. He felt....
warm.
He stretched amazed that he had control of his own
body. He didn't remember much. just falling asleep listening to the
Shadow's drabble.
He yawned and stretched. He realized that
the Shadow had been having his body sleep in a chair. All his muscles
were horribly cramped.
He looked around in wonder thinking of
what to do next.
"Okay, he's up."
said Elecman who was on lookout.
"Are you sure you want
to do this Rockman?" asked Forte showing more emotion than he
intended.
Rockman nodded.
"Okay go!" said a
voice.
It was only untill later that all three would realize
none of them had said it.
The shadow enjoyed
playing with them. The idiots were so easy to manipulate. All he had
to do was put himself in a bit of binary and yell two words and their
plan came crashing down on them.
Ahhhhh, today was so much
fun. And it would end with the biggest most triumphant moment of his
life.
Or so he thought.
Netto
tried to see in the glare of the sunlight. After being in the dark
for three days his eyes couldn't see much.
He heard two
words, something like "Okay go." but it wasn't the words
that scared him it was the voice.
The voice that had haunted
him for days and the voice that would haunt him for years to come.
Netto had little time to react as he was caught in a great
bear hug. He fought it but realized his body wasn't at it's normal
functioning level.
'I guess sitting for days won't do much
for strength.' he thought ruefully
"Give us back Netto!"
a harsh voice demanded.
"I AM Netto!" he said
trying to figure out who it was.
"Yeah, right. Tell us
what you did with him."
Netto stopped struggling and
finally placed the voice.
"Rockman?" he asked
"Y-
Netto-kun?"
The scene was playing
out beautifully. Just a bit more, it was almost done and those idiots
had bought the time for him.
Almost.
Just a bit more.
Done.
While Netto was held in
his bear hug the Shadow completed the final code to the nuclear
fusion key. He now had access to every single nuclear bomb in
existence.
While Netto tried to convince the navi's he was
himself the final encoding was made to the key. Still, he wondered if
it would work as only Netto could use the key. How could he get the
brat to use it? He could take over but, Netto was slowly gaining
strength, he might find out how to throw him out of his mind.
He
could take over another navi, but then the might just delete
themselves.
No, he needed a fool proof plan on how to get
Netto to use the key.
Maybe, just maybe.
He could
make a body of his own.
Why not? There was so much junk data
it would be easy to fuse his own body, the soupy mixture was easy to
manipulate. All he needed was a few more minutes. But he also had to
be in control.
Maybe not as easy as he thought.
He appeared in Netto's conscious and took over. It worked
seamlessly.
"If you are Netto-kun then where is the
shadow?"
'Netto' blinked. He forgot the navi's were
trying to figure out it was Netto.
"I-I don't know."
he quickly improvised an answer. "I remember falling asleep then
waking up here."
He was facing the three navi's so he
put his hands behind his back and pretended to wring his hands. The
junk data slipped in and out of his hands freely.
"So,
then is he still in you?" asked Forte
"Ummmmm...."
he dodged the questions easily.
The data had almost formed,
once dropped it would collect all the data around it and make a
suitable body.
"You are not answering the question."
said Forte calmly
Almost there.....
"NETTO!"
Rockman yelled, almost on the verge of panic.
Done!
He
let the small magnet data ball fall into the mixture. Then he jumped
out of the way landing with ease behind the other navis. The data
started to clump and pull it's self together. The three friends could
only watch in horror as the monstrous ball of data got larger and
larger. Soon it was as big as the Gabcom building. Then it started to
meld it's self. Pulling, twisting, shaping and reforming untill a big
back monstrous shadow with no definite shape stood there.
When
the three navi's got their wits they turned to look at him. He raised
Netto's hand in farewell and left his body.
Rockman saw a black mist leave Netto's body. Then he saw
Netto collapse. He ran forward and caught him.
"Netto-kun!
Open your eyes!"
Forte and Elecman saw the black mist
enter the monstrosity the just saw created.
For a minute
Rockman held his half conscious brother while waiting for something
to happen.
The big black shadow started to shape the top into
something of a head. Soon two red eyes and a gaping mouth were seen.
While this happened Netto became fully aware. "R-rockman?"
Rockman's attention was soon diverted to his little brother.
"Netto-kun!"
The joy of reunion was short
lived.
"So, you are awake! Good, I need you alive for
now. Who knows, maybe i'll let you all live! Just to see your pain as
I destroy your world."
If Netto would have not been
currently so terrified by the huge black shape looming over him he
would have quipped about how clichéd that line was.
Then
he reached down and wrapped a tendril of black ink around Netto.
Netto screamed and Rockman grabbed onto his brother.
Forte
and Elecman both grabbed on in turn and before anyone could do
anything they were inside the blackness.
"an.... Rockman! Please wake up!"
Rockman
woke up to Netto's shaking. !" the
last thought hit him like a thunder bolt.
Netto sat back.
They were in a big shapeless room. It almost seemed like they were
floating.
Forte and Elecman looked at the brother's.
Netto
was on the verge of tears.
"I couldn't stop him. I'm so
sorry Rockman! I didn't mean for things to happen like this."
All the emotion Netto had held back for three days to give
the shadow no leverage cam bursting out. Rockman held him as he
sobbed. After what seemed like an hour Netto's sobbs subsided and he
fell asleep.
Forte smiled. "He's been through so much
yet, he never broke down once in front of the shadow. Which is more
than I can say for myself."
Rockman nodded. "Yeah.
I just hope he will be okay."
"I'm sure everyone is
fine for the time being." said Elecman. "But I have a
better question. Where the hell are we?"
Rockman and Forte
pondered his question. In the empty black room there was nothing but
a pulsing black abyss. It didn't even seem that they were in the
right dimension.
Rockman just sighed and continued to hold
his brother. Whether for his comfort or his own he really didn't
know.
Forte and Elecman tried to move around but they
couldn't seem to even be able to walk let alone explore. They were
just there, not really able to do anything.
After about three
hours Netto finally woke up. He was confused at first but then all
his memories came back. He looked scared and was glad for his
brother's strong arms around him. After putting everything together
in his mind he settled for burying his face into his brother's chest.
Rockman was surprised by the sudden show of emotion but
didn't say anything. He quietly tightened his grip and sighed.
Forte and Elecman felt a little out of place as they watched
the two siblings comfort each other. After about ten minutes of this
they felt a huge jolt.
"Well, well, well. I believe it's
time to finish this once and for all." said a monstrous voice.
Before anyone had time to react the inky blackness depleted
beneath them and they fell.
Where they fell no one knew, it
seemed that they just slowed down and floated there. Netto looked up
and saw a huge black, thing right above him.
The thing
grinned. Well, Netto felt the presence of a grin, he shivered that it
could still toy with his emotions like that.
"So, it's
come down to this. You and me. You know that currently you are the
only one who can use the key to open everything up. I didn't mean for
it to happen that way but oh well." he said this like he was
saying he forgot to pick something up at the store.
"Oh,
and while we went on out little trip look who I found!" He
lifted his shapeless tendrils that were supposed to pass as hands.
To the foursome's horror a junk data pile appeared and within
it's inky depths was all the navi's that they had left at the battle
arena.
"Looks like they were trying to find you. Well, I
guess in a way they did."
Roll tried to yell something
that no one could hear, she looked terrified and it seemed they
couldn't move.
"Isn't it sad? And in a few hours their
data will be disintegrated into the junk data." the red eyes
narrowed and were filled with a malice that made even Forte shiver.
Netto had never been so angry in his life. This, thing, had
taken almost everything away from him. And now he was hurting his
friends and was going to try and kill the ones in the real world.
"Why?"
Netto whispered the word but for
some reason everyone could hear it.
"Excuse me?"
asked the Shadow
"Why?"
Netto looked up at
it with hatred in his brown eyes. Rockman had never seen Netto look
like that, it scared him a little.
"Revenge. That's why,
everything, every problem in this damn world revolves around revenge.
That's the reason."
Netto didn't do anything for a
second, then he walked over to the junk data prison that held the
navis. He put his hand on it and........
It disintegrated.
All the navi's fell out of the prison and "landed"
on what was to be the floor of the abyss. If you could call it that.
"Oh, smart boy. Looks like you realize what you can do
now. A human, in the cyber world. Such complex data, with the ability
to manipulate anything. Too bad you can't do anything about it now!"
he shot a black tendril out and tried to grab Netto. Only, it was
stopped by the WWW navi's attacks.
"Netto-kun! Over
here." Roll grabbed his hand and pulled him over away from the
battle.
"This is out battle now kid." said Elecman
Netto could only stare.
Every single navi used his or
her power to the fullest ability and hit the black mass with all they
had.
Not even the shadow could do anything about the power of
the attack. But it mattered little, he was where he needed to be and
he had what he needed. Only one more component was needed.
A
black mist flew out of the dark now disintegrating mass. It flew into
the ground and soon the very place they were standing on started to
swim. A voice echoed around them reverberating off of nothing.
"So,
you thought you could defeat me in a world where any medium could
become my body? Are you stupid?" he laughed the cold sound
making the navi's and lone human wince.
"It's time to
start this!" Without much warning a wave of black material shot
out of the ground and wrapped it's self around every being in the
area. No one could escape and as the grip tightened they could almost
feel their data slip away.
"NO!" Netto fought,
hard. He refused to see his friends die and he refused to be defeated
by the shadow.
Netto grabbed the tendril and squeezed his
eyes shut. "Leave them ALONE!"
The half deleted
navi's were let go and dropped to the ground, their data streaming
back into them.
"Is that how you want it? Very well."
The tendril squeezed Netto and mercilessly pulled something
out of him.
Netto's yell was all that could be heard for a
long time. Rockman couldn't move because his program was still not
all there. He had never felt so helpless in his life.
Finally
the shadow stopped. The tendril loosened but did not let go. Instead
it incased Netto in a secretion similar to that of the junk data Roll
and the others were in earlier.
"Now, it's finally time
to finish my plan."
Netto again found
himself in darkness. But this time there it was absolute, so dark and
never ending......
For a few second Netto wondered if he was
dead untill his body jolted in a pain that would never come to the
dead, and it really shouldn't have been for the living either.
As
Netto was in this state of shock the Shadow finally opened up the
final encryption code to the nuclear base.
"All Humans
will go." Rockman felt the smile, rather than saw it, and he
wished he didn't. The feeling of cold washed over him, but he felt a
small warmth.
"Netto-kun....." whispered Rockman
Then Rockman ran and leapt right into the Shadow, plunging
himself into it's core. There he found his brother semi-conscious and
seemingly half dead.
"Netto-kun, are you okay? Please
answer me!"
"Nii-san, the Shadow can't manipulate
the data without a human program without me, stop him from doing
this. Please, shoot me."
Rockman kinda floated there for
a second and then without thinking punched Netto as hard as he could.
"ARE YOU INSANE?! Why the hell would I do that? Netto
you are the only one on this planet that truly sees me and has seen
me as an equal. Now get your head out of your butt and focus, we can
get though this!"
Netto was wide eyed and blinking then
he grinned. "Aw, what I just said sounded like something out of
a bad movie huh?"
Rockman laughed and nodded.
"I'm
sorry Rockman. Still. how do you think we can get out of here?"
"Listen to me very carefully." he said
Roll saw Rockman jump in after Netto and
started panic.
"What! He's gonna get deleted, he can't
help anyone that way! Why did he do that?"
Forte put his
hand on her shoulder and she stopped. "Just believe for a second
that he knows what he's doing. The bond between those two is stronger
than you think."
Roll glared at Forte marveling at how
much he had changed then looked at the Shadow finishing the final
take over program.
"Be safe Rockman."
"Okay Netto-kun, are you ready?"
"You sure this will work?"
"Let's hope
so."
"Wow, I certainly feel reassured."
"3,
2, 1...."
"Cross Fusion!"
The Cross
Fusion this time around was even stronger than the times before. It
was almost certainly the help of the link that Rockman had opened.
"Charge Shot!"
The shot ripped through the
gelatinous goo of the shadow and ended up right were Rockman said it
would.
It ended up right in the nuclear code.
Now the
way Rockman explained it, this would set off one of two chain
reactions, one being that it would activate the code and destroy
human kind and the other being that it would destroy the code and it
would collapse of it's self bringing the Shadow with it and hopefully
rebuilding the NetCity codes.
Either way it was crucial to
get out of the way. Unfortunately for both Netto could no longer hold
Cross Fusion and they ended up almost swimming out of the now rapidly
deteriorating pile of goo.
The Shadow's code was being
deleted as it fell into the small black hole that was forming,
however he did not yell in anguish, or even laugh manically, he said
nothing.
Netto and Rockman landed a safe distance away from
the black hole and saw the explosion that scattered the codes back
out into the net world.
"I will never do that again."
said Netto
Rockman laughed "Agreed."
The
navi's came over and helped the two up. "Well it looks like
humans will have to rebuild Net City." said Glyde looking at all
the junk data strewn everywhere.
"At least they have all
the codes needed." said Blues
"So everything is
gonna be okay?" asked Netto
"Let's hope so."
said Rockman
"Good, now can I go home now?"
"Anything you say little bother."