Return of the Clones

"So, this is all of them." Fins regarded the forms with a cold, calculating smile. "Excellent."

There had only been enough data left from Gospel's archives, and the direct remains, to reconstruct two of the Navis. Although two might be enough, considering what they'd done. They were both stored in tubes, on this digital landscape.

One of the Navis was a tiny, delicate girl. Her eyes were closed, but Fins knew that when they opened, they would be cornflower blue. Her outfit was the same as before, but a different color… instead of pink, it had become a vibrant indigo. The parts that had been gold were now silver. Fins smirked. Rockman and the other dullards would recognize her in a heartbeat, even with the color change… she was a new version of Roll.

He turned his attention to the second Navi. Silver-white hair flowed down behind him, over pitch-black armor. He was all black now, from his feet to the flowing spike on his helmet. Fins glanced down at his hands. Fiery orange claws glowed on his left hand, pulsing slowly. They were his new default weapons. But Enzan would also have recognized him in a heartbeat… he was a new Blues.

Fins turned his head to look at Knut. "Ready to activate them?"

"Yeah…" Knut looked at the new Navi's, rather uneasily. "Are you guys sure about this, though? Independent Net Navis… it's kinda creepy." Fins smirked. That was the change they had worked on the copies of Blues and Roll.

Gospel had thrown the copies together very quickly, so they'd be technically normal Net Navis. And had been thrown into battle without any operators… small wonder they'd been trashed. All they'd had had been their innate abilities.

Now, they had been altered. More normal Net Navis wouldn't be useful for Mito, since he already had Fins and Knut. But independent ones would be. Normally, that would have been impossible… independent Net Navis weren't easy to make. But…

It gets easy when you can just copy files. And a Super-Navi is independent by definition. Mito didn't quite understand what he had done, but Fins had directed him. An independent Net Navi was usually limited, though, to whatever chips were tied to him. They could only use them so many times, over a length of time. A true Super-Navi didn't have that limitation… but Fins did, and so would these.

Still worthwhile. Mito had already picked the chips to tie to them, although that might change in the future. They both had Recov50, Dash, Hi-Cannon, Mini-Bomb and Sword. Common chips, but they'd be able to use them far more quickly than a normal Navi.

"Start the activation, Knut." Mito's voice echoed in the digital landscape, and Knut nodded with a sigh, activating the programs.

There was a long moment of silence, as the tubes powered up. Then, the Navis inside began to twitch.

The Roll look-alike woke up first. She twitched, moaning softly, tossing her head back as the tube opened to release her. Her eyes opened, wide and brilliant blue.

"Who…? Where?" She said weakly, sliding her arms out of the tube, gripping the edges. Fins smiled.

"You're in our computer. We-" Then, the other tube shattered. Fins whirled, arms forming cannons, as the second Navi erupted from his containment.

Left hand ready, he scanned the digital landscape, looking for threats. His visor hid most of his expression… but not all. And Fins could recognize rage.

"Where is he? Where is he?!?" The black Navi turned, and began to slash up the tube that had contained him. Fins kept his guns on him, but said nothing. Now probably wasn't the time to catch attention. "I'll kill him! I'll tear him to shreads!" He went on in the vein for several minutes. Fins was impressed with his command of invective… and how dissimilar he was to Blues. Something had obviously changed a bit.

Something tugged on his arm, and he glanced down to see the female hiding behind him, peeking out at the angry Navi. Fins lifted an eyebrow, but let her stay there. It did no real harm.

"Who do you mean?" He asked the panting black Navi, who whirled on him, white hair billowing behind him. He was fairly sure of the answer, but he might as well ask.

"BLUES! And I'm going to find that bastard and delete him!" Fins winced at that shriek… then his eyes widened as the Navi suddenly exited into the net.

"Wait! You idiot, you can't-" He swore as the Navi disappeared, then turned to look at the Roll Navi. "Wait here with Knut, figure out what you're going to call yourself, while I get that idiot." She nodded hesitantly. Fins waited for no more confirmation, and dove into the net.

Fortunately, he and Mito had somewhat anticipated this. "Mito! Do you have the signature?" A unique energy signature in the new Roll and Blues, easily tracked.

"Right here. Track…" Fins eyes narrowed as a graph superimposed itself over his vision. He had no trouble keeping track of it and the reality of the net at the same time. He flew along easily, increasing his speed.

In a way, he wasn't very worried. The new Blues was looking for the old, but he wouldn't have a clue where to find him. Netbattlers of Enzan's caliber did not post their addresses for anyone to see, and Enzan was dangerously competent. He wouldn't make such an elementary mistake.

And yet, something was wrong. The red speck that showed the new Navi was moving very, very purposefully. In a straight line, without any wavering at all.

"He knows where he's going." Fins spoke the words out loud, than grimaced. Mito's voice came, startled.

"He's what? How?" Fins shrugged slightly, increasing his speed.

"I don't know how, but get ready to feed me chips. I think I'm going to be meeting Blues.EXE."

"Well, hell!" Mito quickly pulled out his chips, though. He didn't want to loose Fins, or the new Navi he'd worked so hard to recompile.

If that meant deleting Blues.EXE… then so be it. But…

"Just grab him and get out of there, Fins. We don't need the Netbattlers after us." He urged. They would probably still be looking for them, but not as hard as they would be if Blues was deleted. And Enzan would take a deletion personally, although he'd just reinstall Blues from backups.

"Right." Fins nodded, lips thinning as the new Navi stopped. He'd found his target, and now it was time to fight…