Suzuki had been frozen by the overwhelming feelings within her, and had luckily not been the target of any of the viruses. At least, that was true until now. The Mettaur coming from the south got within range and, noticing a non-moving target, raised its pickaxe and brought it down in front of it, sending a shock-wave along the ground at Suzi.

It took a few shots from Fefnir's blaster to do any meaningful damage to the virus, but the activation of Heat-V brought a quick end to the Mettaur, dealing more than enough damage to delete it, another bit-crunched scream coming from it as the flame shot spread at an acute angle from where it stood, creating the "V" that Heat-V was named for.

Lily and Aki had been given a moment's reprieve thanks to the diligent work of Ciel.exe. Even Simon had been granted safety from the viruses, for now. However, as the humans and NetNavis looked around them, they may have noticed that the two Mettaurs from the west were still approaching. They also likely noticed a rise in temperature once again, and that the sun was now seemingly ready to go down across the horizon. It couldn't have been a full day fighting these viruses, could it? And surely the sun going down would lower the temperature? 

As the first Mettaur from the west entered firing distance, it stood and fired a bullet at the tower, which bounced off the metal beams with a loud [i]plink[/i] sound. Then stood the other Mettaur, the one that did not have a normal helmet. From the ground came a large humanoid figure that was as dark as night, no different in color than the body of the other Mettaur, but this was clearly nothing like them. As it stood, the humans' Expanse Callers would announce in their wearer's voice: "Digital Hazard detected. Anomalous data registered. Scanning." As the Mettaur(?), now looking not unlike a [url=https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/megaman/images/f/f3/NormalNaviConcept.png]NormalNavi[/url] if it were painted black and given a Mettaur helmet, slowly approached, a feeling of unease swept through those who looked at it. [i]Something[/i] about it was... off, somehow. The way it moved, slowly and not quite matching the way it should be moving in order to actually cross the distance it did. The way it shimmered, as if the inverse of a hot summer day's haze. The way the eyes seemed to melt into fluid only to spin through its sockets and reform, over and over again.

This was clearly something not natural; not natural to the world, to the games or toys that the humans knew of, not natural even to the digital world the two NetNavis had vague memories of. It was alongside this realization that the Expanse Callers once again spoke. 



[hr]




"M̶̧̮̞̖̪̤͖͑͛̐̂̿̌̇̆͛̓̀̓̎̚ȩ̷̡̪͇͙̖̯̘̒͜T̷̤̼̗̗͔̬̭̩̮͇̾͋̔̌͋̓̐̿̽͆̚̚͜͝͠͝T̶̛̺̺͔̪͔͇͕͙̪͌̇̎̑͛͝a̵̻̭̪͔̯̎̇̃̍̉̅̈́̃̓̾͘ͅǘ̵̧̢̥̙͕̳̮̰͈͜ŕ̷̛̫͓̮͆̃̍̔̅̿̇̐͂̔͝u̸̙̖̗̻̮̠̫̠̱̖̼̐̂̏̊̋̽̌̅̐̆͘̚͝s̴̹͕͎̻̗̲͗̈́͌͂̈́͘ ̵͙͚̥̝̭͍̫̺̣͍͍̳̀͐̓̄̄́̽̈́͂̈͌̕̕͘͝ͅL̵͔͎̱͊́̑̎̃̌̚͝ Class B Virus Hazard found."