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- No, you don't get it, Tesla!
- What I don't get is how you managed to fail such a simple mission!
- Please, just lis—!
- It's a useless business Navi! Not even a fighting class! You are a tank! It hits you with a single laser shot and you log out?!
They were in a small side-room next to her office, with the only lighting coming from the holotube itself. Magnetman was standing with his real height as a hologram in front of Tesla, towering well over her, yet he’d never felt smaller before. Nor had he ever believed he would be screaming at his NetOp but here they were… for the nth time now in two months.
- TESLA! Don't you remember Duo's comet?! Do you remember what happened up there?! Am I the only one who recalls anything?!
- Oh, not this again, Magnetman! –Tesla waved dismissively, turning away partially from him. – Yes, of course I remember. That has nothing to do with—!
- The Earth was destroyed! Only-only the 26 of us—
- But it got remade! Does that not compute with you or something?! – the woman snapped, turning back to him.
- By some fucking miracle, it was restored, yes! – Magnetman desperately pushed on, knowing all too well he'd already lost. – But before that everyone was dead! Everything was destroyed! After all that, you want me to… ?!
- To just delete this one loser who has important information for my opponent in the upcoming negations! Yes!
- “Just delete”… ?
- You are a NetNavi! – Tesla smashed her fist against the tube’s glass, looking downright murderous.
She couldn’t touch him physically (nor would her strongest punch be able to do any damage to him), yet Magnetman uncontrollably flinched back, his fight or flight reflex on high alert.
- Your job is to do what I say! – she went on with sheer venom. – You hack what I want you to hack. You fry the system I want you to fry. You delete the Navis I want you to delete, and you Crossfuse when I want you to Crossfuse!
The walls seemed to close in and press down on Magnetman, and the pale blue light painted Tesla in a downright ghoulish way. Magnet wanted to bolt… but there was nowhere to.
- What, did that trip to the comet fry every code in your logic center?! – Tesla pulled her hand away but her cold glare pinned the Navi down completely. – Did you forget your place?! You had no trouble following my orders before, so you’d better get back on that. Or so help me, I will have you reprogrammed! Do you hear me, Magnetman?!
Magnet wanted to lash out, he wanted to grab Tesla and make her understand somehow what he couldn’t put into words, that he felt genuinely sick about causing further damage to a barely restored world. The urge to flee grew in him, run anywhere, away from here, away from her…
Instead he remained silent and still, every bit of his being tensed to their limit. Maybe he was shaking, it was hard to tell.
- That’s what the hell I thought. Get back inside your PET! – Tesla huffed in utter disdain.
She turned around and marched out of the room. Magnetman stayed in the holotube until he felt like the room was choking him to death.
Finally, he logged out, hoping to flee from the sensation. Yet even his PET was now crushing him.
oooOOOooo
Hours later, in the middle of the night, Magnetman was lying on his back on his bed custom tailored to his body shape, staring upwards at a screen. He was shifting through folders full of image files, he opened them just to delete them almost right away. His mind was completely empty, save for the monotone rhythm of his actions.
Open, stare, delete. Open, stare, delete Open, stare, delete…
Magnetman had no idea why he was doing all this. He was never one to keep files in order. But here he was now, staring at moments frozen from his past, and getting rid of them all. Screenshots of old documents, Navi profiles, former targets, pictures of the Asteroid Navis Tesla had made for whatever reason…
The woman sitting at her father’s desk, now hers, on top of the world, smug and alone. At least Magnetman wasn’t in the frame so she could yell at him for something.
Delete
An older picture of a younger Magnus Gauss, sitting at his newly acquired CEO chair, beaming with pride. By his side on the table, Magnetman’s old PET was propped up, the Navi clearly visible. It was a professional photo, the lighting, the angle, everything was perfect. Magnetman’s finger hovered over the Delete button. That had been a hard-fought battle, sometimes fair, often dirty as all hell… but Magnus and Magnet had made it as a team, with nobody else backing them, no family to rely on. From runaway no-name brats to the top of the world. And despite the genuine insanity of that old fool, they made a good pair. Lord knows, they did.
… Delete
But Magnus was forced down from his throne by his even crazier daughter and he would never operate Magnetman ever again. That one disastrous if brief marriage with a gold-digging witch had led to this. Truly, reality ran on irony.
The Navi kept going over the images well into the night. He didn’t dare to think, lest he risked collapsing or straight up exploding. He didn’t know what he could do, he couldn’t even quite name these feelings roiling inside him. They weren’t pleasant, but that was about the end of his expertise.
Magnet never cared about feelings, including his own. If there was work to do for his NetOp, he went and did it without a word. That was the role of a NetNavi, Tesla was entirely right about that. Especially back in the old days when Magnetman was created, Navis weren’t friends or family members, they were servants, even when they were well-treated and valued, like in the Zap family before Lord Maxwell’s untimely death. Magnet was fine with that hierarchy, it was the natural order of things from his perspective. It was a fact that feelings didn’t get the job done, actions did. Magnet could always easily push his own emotions in the back where they would then just disappear with time.
Unfortunately now they refused to be moved, let alone fade away. That absolutely trumped his coping mechanism, he couldn’t deny.
Magnetman opened one of the last few images in the folder… and froze. It was an absolutely ancient picture, over 40 godforsaken years old. How the hell it survived all the stormy decades, the Navi had no idea. Two pairs of eyes stared back at him – one was his, more specifically of his very first model. He looked vastly different, a bit more like a robot, his torso resembling that of a human’s with its shape, his horseshoe-magnet shaped helmet standing upright over his visor, his emerald green eyes were pupil-less and two dark lines ran from his lower lip to his chin. He was smiling in the photo… God, when was the last time he smiled, truly smiled? Not out of malice, but just because he was happy.
Magnetman took the deepest breath imaginable before shifting his gaze to the other figure in the picture. Right next to his old self, being hugged with one arm by Magnet, was a much smaller, much lighter built NetNavi. Dark grey mostly in color, with some bright yellow highlights, a light greyish green face. His eyes were ruby red but they didn’t have any evil or cruel shine to them, instead they were large and glinting with pure happiness. The helmet was a pretty plain and standard in shape, with only one lightning streak starting from the yellow visor to break the appearance. The Navi was practically hanging from Magnet’s neck with both arms, carefreely laughing into the camera as if nothing could ever go wrong in the world.
Both Navis had the exact same symbol on their bodies: a stark white fork lightning in the shape of a diamond against a black background.
Magnetman stared at the picture for long. The storm in him froze, although he still couldn’t say why. He looked at his old self, he looked at the other Navi, he looked at their shared symbol, one that used to be such a great source of pride for them. Maybe… maybe he was supposed to react in some way. But he just felt so overwhelmed. An over 40 years old picture had transported him back home and he didn’t know how to react. Was he sad? Was he happy? Both, somehow?
…
Home…
Magnetman copied the picture to his own personal memory space. Then he closed the screen, sat up and finally got to work.
oooOOOooo
Sure, let’s “storm” the base of the Darkloids… As in, “deliver the 7 idiots with the Crests” to that little purple bastard.
Magnetman couldn’t say he was fully on board with this plan, but he had to admit two things to himself. One: it was genuinely cruel to leave Tesla with that psychopath. And two: Magnetman hated Lan and co. Gyroman, especially. He couldn’t even say why exactly, he just hated the guy. So hey, they get screwed over, and Tesla gets out. There was no way the purple bastard was going to keep his word, but if they had 7 Crossfuser pairs on their team, that will definitely raise their chances.
And… Magnus has somehow gotten Jack’s help too. Which meant Elecman was on the team as well. Magnetman couldn’t quite decide how he felt about this. Relieved that once in their goddamn lives he didn’t have to go against his little brother… And nervous about how Elec would behave towards him. The kid had every right to hate him, especially after that massive shitstorm with Grave. Considering how that had ended, odds were…
… Yeah, Elec definitely hated him. Completely valid reaction.
Well, at least they weren’t on opposite teams this time. He would take that little solace, if nothing else.
Climbing the tower was incredibly boring for the first 55 floors – the gang literally took the elevator. Magnetman tried to voice his concerns about the Darkloids just cutting the cables, trapping them in there, possibly killing them roughly 56 different ways, but nobody listened to him. To be fair, the purple bastard needed the Crests first before killing them so… maybe they were safe for now.
Of course starting from the 55th floor, things got more complicated with security measures that ranged from ridiculous (unleashed water hose) to absolutely vicious (moving walls of pure high-voltage electricity). Magnus had the Crests scanned in as the excuse for shutting down the security system, and then the merry band of idiots got separated immediately. Because of course. Lan got stopped by the water hose. Of all the things, the two-times savior of the world was trumped by that.
Magnetman was almost glad he was finally jacked into the network so he could distract himself from the ridiculous situation at hand. As he logged in against the water viruses controlling the definitely life-threatening hose, another presence appeared right next to him.
- Hi, Magnet!
That… sounded unreasonably cheerful, making the magnetic Navi pause. Elec was standing right next to him.
- Never believed we would be finally fighting together again – the kid tilted his head to the side, smiling as if they weren’t deep in enemy territory.
- Oh, uh… hi? – Magnet finally found his voice, only for this one pathetic greeting.
Why was the kid smiling? Where was the well-deserved anger and hatred?
One of the viruses let out a water burst which missed the two unmoving Navis miserably.
- Alright, let’s get to work, yes? – Elec grinned before swooping past the still stun-locked magnetic Navi.
- Magnetman, wake up! – Magnus shouted at him.
Finally Magnet snapped out of it and immediately hurled a Magnet Ball at the horde of enemies. He might as well be useful… even if he had genuinely no idea what was going on with Elec.
… Did the kid even remember what had happened back at Grave HQ? Maybe his restoration hadn’t been entirely successful and some memories were lost. Honestly, that sounded like a solid explanation. Magnetman held onto that in order to keep himself moving… But surely, the kid would at the very least hate him for that Mr. Wily brainchip incident, no? That was another mess, although definitely not as colossal as the one in the Virusbeast’s cage. There was no way Elecman didn’t remember at least the hunt for the chip.
Magnetman gave up trying to make sense of the situation.
The water viruses were quickly wiped out, allowing Mr. Hero Lan Hikari to finally move on.
How was this kid alive, again?
Magnus sent a wordless signal to Magnetman to log out and separate from the group, so they could get Tesla.
- Hey, Magnet?
The magnetic Navi froze on his tracks then slowly turned around. Was it finally time for a well-earned shouting match? They were a little pressed for time here but it was as good of an opportunity as they would get, to be fair.
Instead, Elec was once again smiling at him. It was definitely fainter and looked almost sad. Magnet had no idea why, but he felt terrible seeing it.
- Y-yes? – he finally managed to stutter.
- You go ahead. I’ll finish up here, don’t worry. It was… it was nice seeing you again – Elec said softly.
Inexplicable warmth flooded Magnetman and he realized he too was smiling. Extremely faintly, but it was there, after probably years of absence. At the same time, the weight of entire decades suddenly pressed down on him, and he knew he would have collapsed, had it not been for that strange warm glow in him keeping him upright.
- Nice to see you too – he answered.
Elec’s smile grew wider and brighter at this. He placed his palm on his symbol as if saluting and spoke loudly and joyously:
- Good luck, brother!
Once again stunned to his core, Magnetman couldn’t get a word out before Magnus forcefully jacked him out, having run out of patience. The Navi arrived back into his PET utterly disoriented and baffled.
Elecman just called him “brother”. After everything, every stupid dumb fight Magnus and Jack had dragged the two Navis into during their brotherly rivalry, Mr. Wily’s chip, the Virusbeast, literal decades spent apart… the kid still called him brother.
There were no words to express just how goddamn unworthy Magnetman was of that designation. He had no idea why Elec was so friendly, where the kid even got this titanic willpower to forgive all the insanity, let alone to count this massive red heap of trash as family still.
But worthy or not, Magnet was… he was happy he still had this one connection to someone in his life.
oooOOOooo
Despite being in the Cyberworld, DenTech NetCity also had ebbs and flows in its activity. Much like its human counterpart, the streets were mostly empty in the early hours when data flow was lowest. Above the buildings the skybox was slowly turning pink as it mirrored the sunrise of the real world.
Magnetman marched along the main street with utter determination. After spending most of the night in dreadful paralysis, he finally had work to do. A list of tasks, completely bonkers and bold beyond everything he’d ever done before… but it was work that needed to be done.
And Magnetman was good at that.
He held onto this rediscovered sense of purpose as he quickly went over everything. It was a good thing Tesla slept late into the morning, that was all the time the Navi needed. Copy bank account information and other details here, delete from himself, leave every license key within the PET’s system, clean up the files, make it obvious for Tesla where to find everything…
Also borrow a bit of money for survival. She probably wouldn’t miss it, the coffers were full.
And now… only three tasks were left.
Magnetman turned down on a small side street and quickly disappeared in a dark alleyway. No sane Navi would come here, but he was a regular. He knew his way around, didn’t even have to conjure up a Magnet Ball anymore for lighting up the path. After a few minutes he stopped at a seemingly random portion of a wall. He banged on it four times with enough force to rattle the discarded bits of data around him, hearing a reverberating gong on the other side. A moment of silence…then a thin slit on the wall opened up and two white eyes peeked through.
- Lookin’ for somethin’? – the owner of the eyes barked in a raspy voice.
- I’m here to see The Vizard – Magnetman answered with the most well-practiced poker face.
- We have no wizard ‘ere.
- Tell him Big M is here to call in a favor.
- As I’ve said—
- Mention the “bank transfer incident” to him.
The eyes disappeared from the slit. Magnetman stood still and waited patiently.
A few minutes later there was a loud kling and the wall slid to the side in a spot, revealing a hidden doorway. Beyond, even deeper darkness awaited the Navi, but once again, he was a regular here. It was a hidden base of all sorts of shady works and shadier characters. In the past Magnetman had made a lot of deals here in the name of his NetOps and the company, and he’d also earned some favors as a personal side project. He knew he would need them one day.
And that day finally came. Who would have guessed…
The doorkeeper, a trepid ancient light grey Navi, one of the oldest models still in existence, stood to the side, keeping his piercing gaze on the visitor.
- Glad to see you’re still kicking, Met – Magnet smiled at him.
The old Navi, nicknamed “Methuselah” just grunted in annoyance and motioned with his head for him to get in.
oooOOOooo
- Mag, you’ve gone crazy!
- You might be right, V. Do it.
- Look, disappearing is one thing, forging ID-s is another, but illegally breaking your link to the PET…
- What’s the matter, is that beyond your abilities?
- Fuck you, I can get it done within half an hour! But it’s not a damn walk in the park, you realize that?!
- Figured as much.
- You’d lose your symbol…
- Don’t care.
-… Your ID gets all messed up and broken…
- Also don’t care. That’s why I asked you to make me a temporary one.
- … Hell, you might even lose access to some of your powers temporarily, or you might need an expert level programmer to re-establish a connection with another PET. It’s random as shit how you’d end up!
- Still don’t care.
- And it hurts like a motherfucker!
- V.
-… You don’t care.
- Mmm-hm.
- Jeesh, Mag, can’t you just talk it out with your NetOp?
- V, seriously, what’s your problem? It’s my shit to deal with, all you have to do is cut the connection and get me a goddamn temp-ID. Can you do it or not?!
- Alright, alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!
- You made everything crystal clear, V, don’t worry. And I’m still saying I want out.
- Bloody hell, if I didn’t owe you…
- But you do, old friend. Better get to work.
oooOOOooo
Jyawaii’s titanic airport definitely wasn’t in line with the island’s total population or the size of its largest city. But tourist paradises operated by different rules, certainly.
Magnetman stopped himself from wincing as he stood in the lobby of the airport’s system, the crowd milling around him. V wasn’t kidding when he said the process would hurt. Sharp ghost pains still stabbed into Magnetman’s core every now and then. Maybe his past Crossfusions also made it worse, they probably established a much stronger bond with the PET than what regular Navis had.
But Magnetman was out. That was all that mattered, and the occasional pain was well worth it.
He tore his gaze away from the table of departures. He wasn’t quite sure why he stared at it in the first place. Maybe he needed something to ground himself a little bit in this new reality. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, mentally going through the entire list of tasks he had done up to this point. Leave everything important that might cause Tesla to come after him, in the PET. Check. Break the link to the PET. Check (as if the ghost pains would allow him to forget). Get on a plane to Jyawaii. Check. And now…
… Now, what is a newly-made solo Navi to do?
Well, there was only one thing left on his list. After that, Magnetman had no idea what the next step would be. He hoped there would be a next step.
He transferred from the lobby to Jyawaii’s NetCity. The entire Cyberworld’s most beautiful skybox greeted him, with the sun almost at its zenith. Thousands of Navis filled the streets, most of them tourists, some of them locals. The buildings were far smaller than in DenTech NetCity, providing a much more open and calmer mood despite the crowd. Magnetman looked up at the sky. He felt both uncertain and incredibly light, completely lost but also free – the kind of freedom one would feel after just narrowly escaping a terrible trap. Or a tyrant’s rule. Magnetman smiled slightly then he started walking slowly and relaxed, towards that one final task on his list:
Find his little brother and say hi.