Except Shino and Alkaid seemed rather calm when they were attacked and didn't seem too upset as they were fading away. As opposed to Orca in the first series who was freaking out over how he couldn't kill Skeith and then sounded like he was dying as he faded away. Yet all of them became comatose.
Just because they're not freaking out on the outside doesn't mean they can't be freaking out on the inside. Alkaid was pretty worried over her condition even if she wasn't all "OMGWTFOMGOMGOMGOMGGGGGGGG" and Shino...well...who the **** cares? Anyway, Shino had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't have much time left anyway, and the PK only confirmed it. It's not just panic that causes Coma's. The person has to already be "in" the game.
But...if so's the case...what exactly causes them to be back?? Because they're 'dead' inside The World, so they have no idea of what's going on, and since, the way AT explains it makes it sound like its a 'mind trick', it makes me think that they'll not wake up until someone goes and gives them a therapy of 'You're not death' inside their heads.
Well, for Tsukasa, it was willpower. For the coma victims from IMOQ, they were summoned by Aura for the final battle where they all realized. "Wait a minute. How can we be fighting if we're dead?" And thus they snapped out of it on their own. Anyway, just because Shino and Yowkow are fighting with Haseo doesn't mean they're awake in the real world. They could be in a Tsukasa state or they could be AI copies.
I meant plot-wise. Was it obtained in an encounter with Eina, why did his AIDA manifest into Cubia <Alpha> as a source (if that's the case), why it doesn't simply affect his PC similarly to other characters who have been infected, i.e., Atoli and Pi. Neither of them spawned a Cubia <Alpha>, and neither ended up with a deformed arm.
No one knows when and how he got it. But it doesn't matter, does it? We just know it happens and that should be good enough. The reason it manifests as Cubia Alpha, in my opinion, is that Ovan's AIDA is the first, from which all the other AIDA come from. We do see that Ovan can create AIDA with his arm, afterall. My personal theory is that, as the Anti-Existence, Cubia simply formed over his arm from the beginning. Like while doing whatever, it just started appearing from WITHIN him.
Another question would be why he's able to contain it, and why he believes only Haseo can defeat him.
Corbenic can apparently create data, like the cannon Ovan uses to lock his arm, and Skeith can apparently permanently kill data.
And just, why exactly, did the AIDA not latch on to another Epitaph-PC, and what is its purpose in the world. Is it no more than a bug that exists as a hazard, or will they congregate into something?
Ovan was the first to receive his Epitaph, so it was a matter of first come, first serve. It's purpose in the World is to serve as the Anti-Existence. The AIDA seem to act as white (or in this case, black) blood cells resisting the Avatars, but the AIDA are self-aware and independant, and wish to be free of their fate as Anti-Existences just like the original Cubia. They also seem to wish to understand humans and control the internet. Both probably in the interest of evolution.