This is a thread for keeping track of all the various storyline events from the Mafia.EXE game thread. The main reason I did is because several people seem to enjoy the plot, and it's sort of a pain to weed through the posts to see past storyline events, so I organized everything right here. Technically, this thread isn't a game, so I think it's in the right spot. If not, then feel free to mod-move this thing. Thanks.
SLIGHT EDIT: forgot the prologue. Whoops.
Opening Prologue:
It was supposed to be another routine errand on the Net. All that Freeze Man had to do was log into the ACDC network and pre-order airplane tickets to Netopia. Everything was going according to plan: Freeze Man walked up to the desk, paid enough Zenny, and recieved the ticket data. He was on his way back to deliver the tickets to his NetOp, Sean Obihiro, when suddenly he was confronted by a Navi he had never seen before.
"Who are you? I have no time for games," Freeze Man warned.
"Good..." said the mysterious Navi. "Neither do I."
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"AAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!! Why do you have to be so darn GOOD at this!?!?"
"Heh heh, don't worry Dex! With enough practice I'm sure you'll beat me and Mega Man someday."
"Yeah, Lan, except that's what you ALWAYS say..."
A cool breeze was blowing through that lazy summer day. The group would usually meet up on Tuesdays to partake in practice matches, where Yai would stand as referee. Lan and Dex were at it again, but this time there was an Invis3 chip on the line. Mayl was trying her best to hide her excitement for Lan's victory, but it was no use; everyone knew by now what was on her mind. Today was extra-special because Chaud had some time off of work and could afford to stop by for a few Net Battles. It was a perfect summer day in ACDC Town... or, it WAS perfect, anyway. At this time Sean ran up to the young NetOps with a distraught look on his face. He was sweating, out of breath from running so hard.
"Sean!" Lan cried out. "What's the matter? You look like you're about to collapse!"
Mayl extended her arm. "Don't worry, we're you friends now, remember? You can tell us."
Sean looked up to the group with a tearful gaze strong enough to penetrate steel. "Fr... fr... free... Freeze Man..."
Dex became concerned. "What's wrong, man? Did something happen to Freeze Man?"
"Free... Freeze Man..." Sean choked out behind a sob. "Freeze Man was... was... DELETED..."
"Oh, good heavens!" Glyde exclaimed. "Someone! Anyone! Call the Net Battlers' Association immediately!!"
"I'm on it!" Roll called back. "What do I tell them the emergency is?"
"Tell them..." Glyde said with a serious expression. "Tell them there's been... a Net Navi murder."
Day 1:
Lan followed Chaud to the ONBA Headquarters meeting hall. When the two boys showed up, they noticed that the room was, for the most part, very well packed. Lan guessed that there were as many as 30 people patiently waiting for his arrival.
After Lan took a seat at the conference table, the ONBA Chief walked to the head of the table, and turned everyone's attention towards a large screen at the head of the room. Most of the displayed data was in numbers and complex vocabulary arranged on hard-to-decipher spreadsheets, but there were a couple images of Freeze Man, as well as a video of the UnderSquare.* Then the ONBA Chief cleared his throat, and began to speak.
"First of all, I would like to thank you all for your willful cooperation with ONBA. All of you are here today because you have either been accused of deleting Freeze Man, or because you have volunteered to assist in our investigations. For security reasons, I cannot tell everyone which reasons the others are here, and I hope you do the same."
"Why is this such a big deal, anyway?" Dex suddenly interrupted. "I mean, Guts Man gets deleted all the time whenever I NetBattle! Shouldn't Freeze Man be fine after a Spare Backup?"
"I sell Spare Backups at my shop, huh. They're really handy to keep around," Mr. Higsby shamelessly plugged.
The ONBA Chief took a short pause. "That's a good question, actually. You see, Freeze Man's data has been damaged beyond recognition, and therefore a simple Spare Backup won't do much good. The science department should be able to repair the Navi, but it will take some time. We have reason to believe the culprit behind the attack was using illegal data and hacked Freeze Man's internal program structure to prevent Sean from using any of his backups."
He turned to the rest of the group with a stone-cold look. "Therefore, I am requesting that each and every one of you leaves your Navi logged in to the ONBA network until the issues are resolved."
"What!?" Yai broke out. "After all we did for you guys!?"
"My fish will spoil if I don't tend to the shop!" Masa exclaimed.
"I'll miss this month's E3 Expo!" Mr. Famous cried.
"I think I left the oven on..." Mr. Higsby quietly noted to himself.
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Roll joined the group of Net Navis that were congregating around the center of the ONBA network. Mayl had instructed her to jack in and follow the ONBA Chief's Navi and his instructions, but soon after that communications had suddenly stopped. At any rate, something strange was going on.
"I would like to thank everyone for showing up," the Normal Navi started. "You see, we have reason to believe that some of the Navis here today are directly linked to the Navi murder incident, and as such communications with your Net Op have been interrupted until further notice."
"HAWWWW?" Guts Man yelled. "Guts Man innocent! Dex will prove it!"
"I keep telling you, I'm not with the World Three anymore!" Fire Man complained.
"Forget you, Fire Man! I saved the entire damn planet!" Colonel shouted.
"Everyone, everyone!" called the Normal Navi. "Now, I know there's a possible reason for each and every one of you to be innocent, but there's also a possibility that you could be turning against your friends without even knowing it."
"Hm?" Wood Man said. "I'm intrigued... what do you mean?"
The Normal Navi took a step closer to the crowd. "We've done thorough investigations on the Gospel incident from about 4 years ago, and it turns out Sean was being manipulated by an unknown force against his will. In layman's terms, he was brainwashed, and I'm afraid the same may have happened to a few of you. Don't worry, because everyone cooperated with ONBA so quickly we were able to contain the virus, so your original personalities won't be altered. We've also devised a special program that will scan you and find any source of the malicious programming, so we can treat it and return all of you back to your normal selves."
"So why don't you just scan us and get everything over with?" Glyde said.
"Simple," the Normal Navi said. "First off, this is an experimental system, and it only works once every 24 hours. Secondly, it has the rather nasty side effect of deleting the scanned Navi, but unlike Freeze Man's situation we can simply restore you with some backup data. We've also received a crucial tip from one of our outside agents -- "
"Lemme guess," Mega Man interrupted. "It's Proto Man."
The Normal Navi looked rather annoyed. "Sigh... yes, it's Proto Man, are you happy? Anyway... we received an important tip, and basically we know that both the World Three and Gospel are in the scheme somehow. We also know that there are four members of both teams. I can also share that we have secretly deployed four members of ONBA to the case, and they will be hunting down the maverick Navis. I advise you all to stay cautious during this first day, and hopefully we'll have more information for you all tomorrow. Until then, try to relax in the server to the best of your ability, and I'll contact you tomorrow. Okay? Good."
And without waiting another second to be interrupted or yelled at, the Normal Navi jacked out of the server.
Night 1 (warning, it's very short):
As the Net Navis try to sort out the current situation, one by one they slowly retire to their quarters to get a good night's rest. Some Navis, however, secretly lurk about when no one else is watching, and are up to various activities...
Day 2 Begins:
As the Net Navis woke, they once again congregated towards the server's Square. This time, the talk wasn't so much about their varying degrees of frustration, but rather about who could be possibly accused of being the Net Mafia. There was a lot of talk to be had, and sooner or later someone would be sacrificed for a Scan Target in order to save the entire group.
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"Ah [redacted], I see you were successful in infiltrating the ONBA investigation."
"Yes, but I have a question... why didn't you contact me earlier?"
"Well, those ONBA program jockeys managed to detect a variance in their firewall."
"You mean, they know we're here to kill their Navis and stop the investigation?"
"Not quite. ONBA knows we broke in... but they haven't quite pieced together WHY."
"That's good information... but you never answered me. Why did you wait so long?"
"Simple... I didn't want the fools to trace our communication. It was too risky to engage contact right away."
"Whatever you say, boss. As long as we finally get our revenge on those retched Navis..."
"Good, that's what I like to hear. Don't forget to report on [redacted] every now and then."
TRANSMISSION END
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"This is [redacted] reporting for ONBA. Everything is moving smoothly and the Navis have stopped panicking."
"That's great to hear. I'm sorry for not being able to contact you earlier, [redacted]."
"Let me guess... it's because of the problems with the ONBA firewall, isn't it?"
"Well, it's not only that. We had to launch a jamming signal to track any outgoing signals from WWW or Gospel."
"That's great, but how does that affect me, [redacted]?"
"If any ONBA operatives were engaging in communications, they would've tied up the tracking device as well."
"Guess there's no complaining about the past, then. I will continue my investigations posthaste."
"I trust in your abilities, [redacted]. [redacted], signing out."
TRANSMISSION END
Day 2 Scan:
The Net Navis once again gathered in the ONBA Square and started to talk about who to Scan for the day. After nearly eliminating someone, they decided that blindly guessing who was an enemy and who wasn't was a dumb idea.
"Whose bright idea was it to block communications to our PET, anyway?" Gate Man complained.
"Uhhh..." the Normal Navi from the previous day said. "Proto Man?"
"Well then, to hell with Proto Man!" Mega Man yelled. "We're not getting anywhere without some concrete information."
"Yeah!" the other Navis agreed.
So, one by one most of the Navis revealed their code names. A few of the more nervous Navis still felt in danger and decided not to share their link to their PETs, but for the most part everyone was blatantly up-front and confident about revealing their identities to everyone around them. After a few minutes of talking about Code Names and introducing themselves to the crowd, the conversation once again turned to the day's Scan Target. Talk quickly became heated, with people turning against one another in an instant. At one point the "band wagon" got REALLY nasty, and almost broke into a fight between Guts Man and Number Man until Meddy intervened.
"Hey!" Meddy cried out. "You can't be fighting at a time like this! Otherwise the Net Mafia will take advantage of us all!"
Guts Man lowered his fist (previously aimed at Number Man). "Okay then, what's YOUR big idea?"
Meddy looked around nervously. "Uhh... umm... I think... I think we should go after... FLAME MAN!"
Number Man (who was crouched away from Guts Man) spoke up. "H-h-hey! You're just wildy guessing too!"
"Actually, Meddy has a point," Roll said. "Don't you remember? He got a bit touchy about revealing his Code Name."
Indeed, not only had Flame Man become incredibly defensive, but now he wasn't even with the Navi group anymore.
"Sounds suspicious to me," Mega Man added in. "Anything's worth trying at this point."
"You just ssssssssaid that because you and Roll -- " Snake Man started.
Mega Man aimed his buster at Snake Man's face. "SHUT. UP. NOW."
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After wandering around for a bit, Ice Man found Flame Man sitting at the Net Cafe, even though the bartender wasn't there. He was just quietly meditating while watching the 4:00 DNN News. Ribitta was droning on about the difference between Magnet panels and Aluminum panels, but Flame Man just seemed to absorb the information with a blank look on his face.
Ice Man eventually spoke up. "Flame Man? Could you come with me for a minute?"
Flame Man turned to Ice Man. "Sure thing, little buddy. What's the problem?"
After about five minutes Ice Man returned to the ONBA Square with Flame Man in tow. Within another two minutes the other Net Navis had returned from searching for Flame Man. At first Flame Man simply looked around with a neutral expression, but suddenly Magic Man and Wood Man had stepped behind Flame Man, blocking his escape and making him panic a little.
"What... what's going on here?" Flame Man said.
"Well..." Roll started. "We've all nominated you as today's Scan Target."
"Preposterous!" Flame Man boomed. "I've done nothing to any of you -- hey, get your hands OFF me!"
"I'm sorry Flame Man, but we all think you're too suspicious," Colonel said.
Flame Man tried to break away, but as soon as he did Toad Man used his Melody attack to stun Flame Man once more. Flame Man flailed about in panic as several Navis charged their attacks.
Flame Man suddenly freaked out. "Wha-- my weapons! My attacks are useless!"
"That's because they've been disabled," the ONBA Normal Navi said. "The Scan Target is restricted from trying to fight back."
In a last ditch-attempt, Flame Man looked towards the crowd. "I'm telling you, I'm innocent! You'll all regret this!"
"I'm sorry," Cut Man said. "The tribe has spoken."
Suddenly, Cut Man was filled with an intense purple energy, which must've been the ScanProg taking effect. He charged forward and unleashed his charge attack... and with that, Flame Man was cleaved in two. His data disintegrated into translucent cubes (lol NT Warrior anime reference) that dissipated into the air. There was a small block of Mystery Data left behind, though. Upon analyzing the data, it revealed Flame Man's true intentions...
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Player: Travis / Code Name: Thunder Fist
Flame Man ~ WWW Intelligence
As one of Mr. Match's creations you were having a pretty content life. That is, until you started feeling suspicious of your NetOp. You were his least-used Net Navi, and Mr. Match would always complain about your losses in Net Battles. One day, you decided to leave Mr. Match, leaving behind a note saying you would return when your strength would finally make him proud of you...
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Learning this information, the Navis were extremely relieved. Right off the bat, they had detected a member of the Net Mafia and had abruptly stopped his plans before they even started. Tonight, everyone happily walked off to bed with a little more peace of mind, and a bit of confidence as well.
Night 2:
Fire Man was partaking in one of his favorite late-night activities: watching scary movies with Elec Man. Every third Wednesday, the two Navis brought their favorite horror films, bought some cyber popcorn from ACDC Square, and competed in trying to outlast the other Navi, to avoid being "scared shitless" first. Fire Man found it somewhat odd that Elec Man had managed to meet him on this particular Wednesday, especially since neither Elec Man nor Count Zap were present at the beginning of the investigation, but to him he didn't mind. Maybe Count Zap had joined the ONBA, or maybe Elec Man managed to break in through ONBA's firewall. Either way, he was just glad he could relax with his friend.
Tonight's movie (picked by Fire Man) was a classic: Colonel Squad 4 ~ Falzar's Revenge. Elec Man enjoyed the Colonel Squad series mainly because it focused on Colonel's summoned underlings rather than romanticizing Colonel. The movie was at the climactic final fight scene when the image of Colonel on-screen suddenly "popped" forward a bit.
"Wow! This technology's amazing!" Elec Man beamed. "It's like the movie just flies right in your face!"
Fire Man grinned. "Yeah, it's absolutely marvelous, isn't -- "
Elec Man was slightly alarmed by the sudden pause. "... What? It isn't what?"
"Elec Man..." Fire Man stuttered. "This movie was never remastered in 3D..."
"Well, if the movie isn't 3D..." Elec Man thought. "Then... that's really..."
"Yes, indeed," Colonel said. "Surprise, surprise. I'm the bad guy. It's such a shame, too... I really liked you, Fire Man."
Colonel's face formed an evil, blood-curdling grin as he unsheathed his sword. Suddenly, Elec Man grabbed himself in the chest and started grunting.
"W-what are you doing!?" Fire Man said. "If I were you, I'd either attack or get the hell out of here!"
Suddenly, Elec Man's body started to crack all over as if he was an egg that a newborn chicken would try to escape. After a couple more seconds, Elec Man was ripped apart... except it wasn't Elec Man, it was a disguise!
"No... way..." Fire Man gasped.
"It can't be... !!" Colonel yelled.
"Oh," the revealed [redacted] chuckled. "But it is! And your scheme's over, Colonel! Give it up!"
"Never!" Colonel freaked. "I've come too far to give up now! I'm taking you down, Fire Man!!"
[redacted] switched to a Guts Punch chip, but Colonel backed away in time. He turned into a blur, seemingly passing right through [redacted]. Realizing what was about to happen, [redacted] switched to a Risky Honey chip and fired the bees straight at Colonel... but it was too late. Colonel's sword had already sliced Fire Man into a perfect "Z". He was deleted, and it was too late to do anything about it.
"Col... col... !! COLONELLLLLLLLLLL!!!" [redacted] shouted with fury. "You've gone TOO FAR!!"
Absolutely bursting with rage, [redacted] made it a point to give Colonel as much pain as possible. [redacted] trapped him with Bubble Star, combo'd that with Thundoll for x2 damage, then finished him off with a Life Sword program advance. Colonel's screams of pain were so loud that it woke all of the other Navis, who quickly rushed to Fire Man's quarters to see what had happened. After the other Navis had reached the scene, two more pieces of Mystery Data were left behind...
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Player: Sora / Code Name: Big Daddy
Colonel ~ WWW Team Leader
During the fight to control the Cybeasts you were unfortunately deleted in order to preserve peace. Wily has reformatted your data and brought you back from the dead, but in order to win your freedom you must partake in his "experiment". Therefore, your job is to test the intelligence of other Net Navis.
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Player: Bikdark / Code Name: Hipster Zero
Fire Man ~ ONBA Recruiter
After leaving the World Three, Mr. Match has had a lot of time to think about his life. He's had dozens of opportunities to reflect not only on his own existence, but on human life as a whole, the universe, and... well, pretty much everything. And although Mr. Match didn't think of the number 42, he did think about the crimes he commited in the past. He became a volunteer at ONBA in order to atone for his sins, and to help make the world a better place.
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The Navis were saddened by the loss of the charismatic Fire Man, and even more shocked by the fact that Colonel was working for the World Three, but eventually they all absorbed the facts. The memorial service was short, partially due to the fact that they knew Fire Man and Colonel could easily be reconstructed by a Spare Backup, but nonetheless the Navis tried their best to honor the fallen Navis' short time in the investigation. Then the Net Navis slowly returned to their quarters for the night, though a few were unable to resume sleeping with any success.
Day 3:
As the third day opened up, Number Man quickly ran up to the group of Navis who were talking at ONBA Square. He wasn't quite sure what was going on, but apparently someone had already formulated who to place as the day's Scan Target, and remembering yesterday's incident, all the Net Naivs were eager to get the act over with as quickly as possible.
"... and he's a total weirdo, too!" Cut Man said.
"That's an objective opinion," Bass coldly cut in, "and it shouldn't count as fact."
"Hey, why are you here again?" a confused Punk asked. "Don't you hate humans?"
"Umm..." Bass tried to hide a blushing face. "It's... none of your business."
"Oooooohhh, SOMEONE's getting emotional!" Wood Man teased.
"I bet he's in LOVE!" Glyde gleefully added in. "Who's the lucky girl, huh?"
"Hey, don't get so defensive, Mega Man..." Guts Man said off in the distance somewhere.
Ice Man formed an evil smile. "Or maybe it's a GUY! Oh snap! I said it!"
"Sh-shut up!!" Bass yelled. "It's nothing of the sort!"
"SUUUUUUUUUUUUURE it isn't!" Snake Man cackled.
All of the Navis had completely abandoned the earlier subject and were now thoroughly enjoying the roast of Bass. The rumors and stories were cooking up so good, you could actually smell grilled bratwurst if you imagined strongly enough. Of course, Bass wasn't enjoying any of this one bit, and if it wasn't for the ONBA Server restrictions on weapons, he could've easily wiped out the group of Navis in a single attack... but Number Man wasn't thrilled about the current topic either.
"Hey!" Number Man shouted above the crowd. "You were talking about the day's Scan Target, and I missed everything!"
"Oh yeah," Magic Man recalled. "You see, we have this strange unsettling feeling about Toad Man..."
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*flush*
Toad Man cheerfully walked out of the lavatory when suddenly he realized that all of the other Net Navis were around him, giving him piercing looks. Toad Man suddenly panicked and broke out into a sweat. Oh, no! Now you've done it, he thought. He quickly scanned the crowd, turning his head left to right. Then, he finally faced the group as a whole...
"I just realized, Net Navis don't have to use the bathroom!" Toad Man said. "Oh, you guys must be totally EMBARRASSED right now!"
Thunder Man: *facepalm*
"No, you big idiot!" Guts Man said. "You're today's Scan Target, and we're takin' you out!"
"W-w-what!?" Toad Man burst out hysterically. "You've got to be KIDDING me!"
"I'm afraid not," Magic Man said. "You've been acting awful strange lately, Toad Man."
"It didn't help that you tried hiding your Code Name, either," Wood Man said. "It's for the best."
And without any sort of dramatic fight scene or climactic build up whatsoever, Toad Man had been cleaved in to by Glyde's Custom Sword. As usual, a small fragment of Mystery Data was formed after Toad Man had completely dissipated into small cubes of programming, but before any of the Navis could read it...
*thonk*
"Ow! What was THAT for!?" Glyde screamed in pain.
Roll held her hand in a karate-chop shape. "You could've waited for the poor guy to talk, you know!"
"Well, everyone wanted to get it over with early in the day," Glyde interjected. "I was just trying to help!"
"Then ask before you 'help' us out!" Roll barked back. "He could've had some quality information!"
"I'm glad I'm not in his position," Mega Man snickered.
Meddy just gave a chuckle back. "Oh, but you will be... soon enough, hee hee."
TOTALLY NOT HINTING AT ANYTHING THERE
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Toad Man ~ Investigator
Toad Man has been reporting with Ribitta for the DenCity News Network for as far as he can remember. The dynamic duo has covered a myriad of topics, from the first-ever World Three attack to the Battle Chip Challenge Grand Prix to the manufacturing of Dark Chips. Ribitta and Toad Man even went as far as to join a Liberation Team to gain extra information. And with a story as juicy as a Net Navi serial killing spree, there's no way that the two would pass up such a large opportunity.
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