Atomic Network
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: A not so-typical day
16:16 PM (Japan Time), Thursday September the 25th, 2008…
"… And don't forget that you must hand over the report on Tuesday! See you tomorrow!"
A teacher walked out of a classroom while the students began to pick their things to leave.
"Phew! I hope I can complete the report this afternoon."
Hikari Netto, aged fifteen, sighed in relief.
He was wearing a middle school uniform and kept his hair as messy as always.
"Alright, Netto – kun. Then we should mark it priority number one of this afternoon's homework."
His brother Saito stood up from behind his desk which was placed directly behind that of Netto's.
The main difference between the two of them was that he had green eyes and his hair had a nicer symmetry to it.
"Gotta say it: this institute feels way more dynamic than the all-guys-school I used to go in Chicago! Japan sure feels different."
A teen guy walked over to them.
He looked around their same age and height: maybe he was some inches taller than either Netto or Saito.
He had neatly arranged blonde hair which ended at his neck's base and his eyes' irises were green emerald.
His facial features were rather smooth and suave, thus making him stand out somehow.
They walked out of the classroom into the corridor and all accessed their lockers to change their shoes.
"Heh, heh, heh! You haven't seen anything yet, Nelaus Rainon!"
"Sure, Hikari. What comes after the summer heat making the city stir crazy? They all get sloppy with the autumn wind?"
"You could sum it up like that." Saito grinned.
"So! Nelaus – kun. Did you make a move in the B Class?"
"Huh? Eh… A move in the B Class…? What do you mean, Miss Sakurai?"
"Tee, heh, heh. Have cha found my Kansai cousin?"
"No, Miss Ayanokouji."
"Yaito – chan! I'm clever enough to know ya have no Kansai cousin!"
"My ears are tickling! Are cha talking about me, Dekao?"
"Man."
"Yaito – chan… When will we stop these pointless jokes?"
"Ask cha buddy Prophet Jeremy, Tooru – kun!"
"Jeez."
"Cheer up, Hikawa and Ooyama! It's already Thursday!"
"Let's go pick the PETs."
Sakurai Meiru had joined the group by asking a question to Nelaus which he didn't seem to catch: Ayanokouji Yaito made one of her silly jokes: Ooyama Dekao knew it was a silly joke but she played hard of hearing to make him sigh in defeat: Hikawa Tooru rolled his eyes.
"Speaking of B Class, that new guy… Arushi Masuko, right? What kind of guy is he, Tooru – kun? You always seem to get along pretty well with the B Class guys." Netto brought up.
"Oh! He's a bit timid but we're slowly getting to know each other."
"That's nice to hear. Maybe I'll hook him up." Yaito grinned.
"Yaito – chan…! I hope you're not talking about "that"!" Meiru looked suspicious.
"Of course not, Meiru – chan! Like I'd do what that Twilight jerk was provoking you to do… Speaking of the jerk: what became of his smug Mistress and all after the DNN take-over?" Yaito asked.
"They got jailed again in Louisiana along with Kranos Opoulos, the "Deadly Pandora" boss… The other "Admin" guys were sent to different facilities across Ameroupe for security too…" Saito recalled.
They reached the foyer and the lockers so each one took out their keys and unlocked them to find their Link PETs inside of them placed in a charger: Nelaus picked his (golden and purple) and checked it out with a grin.
"Yo! Isaac. You there…?"
"Hey! Nelaus! How did it go?"
A heavily customized Navi projected from Nelaus' PET.
He was about a meter and eighty tall.
His face was young and looked like a guy on his teens: his eyes' irises were purple and they had a hint of amusement to them.
His helmet had a central ruby jewel over the forehead shaped like a cross having four triangle ends: eight lines radiated from the central of it and spread across its surface.
The helmet's main color was navy blue and it was filled with small round and random green dots.
His ear-pads had a white edge and a reddish central body: the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple had been printed there.
His neck had a piece of armor shaped like the Alphabet "V" protecting its base before the start of the chest: it had a cyan edge which split it into two halves the insides of which were colored yellow.
His shoulders were slightly curved square pieces with brown edges, a central silver matrix and five bronze paws forming out of the southern edge which weren't even 5cm long.
His main body color was blue and a central thin purple line spread from the neck's base until his waist, being interrupted by his chest emblem which had the same design as that of his ear-pads.
Some small jade-colored pieces made of two triangles aiming in opposite directions fused at their base were set in columns along the sides of his upper body: none of them were taller than 2cm.
His waist had a belt with three converging rectangular stripes of white edges and black body: they fused in a diamond having a gray body plus a repetition of his Navi emblem on its center.
His arms had purplish DNA imprints painted over their surface.
His forearm armor had a magenta matrix on them while his wrists were colored in a bronze color: his hands were blue in color too and they had a circle with a white edge the insides of which depicted the Katana "I" colored purple: some "stars" were drawn at random over the background of the symbol.
His legs had some round dots set along their height which contained a drawing: the edge was brown, the core of it was purple and eight slightly curved lines painted red stretched from the core: the gaps between each one were colored blue.
The knees contained a circling bracelet colored mahogany and having those two fused triangles on the front colored golden.
The boots were colored purple and had an eight-pointed sapphire set on the inward side just below the ankle: eight thin indigo lines spread from each spook of the sapphire and across the boot.
Overall he was very cool and looked advanced.
"Good. Did the ex-senpai show his cloak around?"
"No. They're searching for him in Brazil but no luck insofar."
"Maybe he plans on waiting half a year before showing up and will be travelling across the world undetected…" Hikawa muttered.
"Mwah, hah, hah… "Oh! Traveler! Thou have chosen the unending road which leads to the Pits of the Greater Evil God and the Lesser Demon God: beware of their deceit and turn back while you can!"… Dragon Hell's newest and coolest banner: printed and posted 2 hours 11 minutes 55 seconds ago! Translation from Chinese (simplified): courtesy of Sigma who beats Google Translate to it! Mwah, hah, ha!"
"Oh come on. That banner sounds like an RPG rip-off!"
Netto had turned on his classical Link PET and a customized Navi had popped out of it while quoting some proverb: Netto rolled his eyes upon hearing it.
"Sigma! Tell me you haven't messed with the VR System again."
Sigma was about two meters tall and colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area.
This spheroid seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.
His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.
Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which was easily over a meter tall.
Overall, he seemed to be tall and imposing.
"Well…" He trailed off with a grin.
"He hasn't! He hasn't forgotten the summer lesson." A Navi told Saito from his PET (colored green and white).
"I thought as much, Blood Shadow." Saito seemed to have expected it.
"Yeah… The only thing he does is have Michelangelo's VR copy fly across the air and dive for the enemy who run for it believing it's Jaws which has come outta the film to eat them up…"
Blood Shadow, on the other hand, looked about the same height as Saito: his main color of choice was red.
He sported black shades: a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.
His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.
His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red: a small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.
"How original." Saito muttered with some dryness.
"Mwah, hah, hah! Hah, hah, hah! I win by win and winning!"
"Oh come on." Roll protested.
"That's silly! Desu." Ice Man muttered.
"Guts, guts? The Sigma Amgis?" Guts Man made up a rhyme.
"Yeah! Keep it up!" Sigma seemed to like it.
"Oh no." Glyde sighed in defeat.
"The Blood Doolb? De guts?"
"No way…" Blood Shadow slapped his forehead with the left hand.
"Well! I'm going back and start working on the report. See ya!" Nelaus waved bye.
"Let's go, Netto – kun. Time to report a reporting reporter…" Saito suddenly made up some rhyme.
"What's with that mood, Saito – niisan?"
"Dunno. I just felt like it. See you tomorrow!"
16:31 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So? Did lame ripping it all guy show up, Boss?"
"No. But it's hard to check Brazil depending on where you want to look and how the guy could've disguised. He could've gone to some remote village and pass off as a Brazilian too…"
"I tried to explore the Reverse Cyber World…"
"And you found a taunt?"
"Sure I did… Ra's al Ghul together with his ninja legions…"
"Lovely. Can you give me any other ideas, Omega?"
"Well, Boss…"
"Yahoo~!"
A guy and a Net Navi had been discussing inside of a room.
This room was shaped like a dome: the ground had the general form of the Hikari emblem although the straight line and the pyramid-like bases were placed at the north and south ends instead of being in the north-west and south-east ends like in Netto's bandana.
There were two half-hexagon spots which had been built such that the ground was thirty centimeters lower and covered in a grid-like material.
The corridor was only wide enough for one person to walk through and it had a small hole from which a rail originated around the middle point of it: it extended forward until it reached the spot where the man's armchair (which had a purple Alphabet "V" drawn behind it) was at.
A closed hatch could be seen set on the ceiling directly above this middle spot.
The far end had a control console a group of 3 LCD screens set in a curved manner over the console: the room had some circular LED lights (like the ones in traffic lights) set on the walls forming figures.
There was a black armchair set on the rail in front of the consoles.
A man was sitting on the chair.
He looked on his mid – twenties, had messy jet black hair and red eye irises.
He wore a grayish armor made of several plates joined together of an unknown material and two swords sheaths were attached to his black belt.
His arms and legs were also covered in plating and he had boots and gloves of the same material.
A purple ragged, stained and torn cape hung from the back of the shoulders and reached all the way to the floor.
"What was that, Omega?" The man in the armchair asked the guy with some surprise.
"Who else? Trill."
Omega, the Navi, was about one meter and eighty tall.
He had a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots: two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.
A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.
His eyes' irises were blue and they displayed calm and concentration while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached all the way to the floor.
"Yahoo! Oohay! Hooya! Ohoay! Trill came! Uncle Omega! Vadous - shachou!"
"S-shachou? Where did you learn that word?"
"Trill heard it was cool!"
Trill, the child-shaped Navi from "Beyondard", came in running and giggling: he grinned at them and Vadous seemed to be taken aback.
"W-well… But… Oh well. Don't mind it." He shrugged.
"Trill! You came up here again? When will you learn not to interrupt the adults when they're talking?"
"Ops! Iris – oneechan!"
Iris, his guardian, also stepped in while sighing.
"I'm sorry for his behavior. He's still too hyperactive. And Dragon – san's strange tales don't seem to contribute to keep him calm either. The only thing is his children's TV series and picture-books." Iris politely apologized to them.
"You could give him one of the Nintendo DS and let him play something like Mario or Kirby or Pocket Monsters… Those are games aimed at a young audience so…" Vadous calmly suggested.
"Oh! I hadn't thought of it."
"Yay! Mario! Jump! Coin! Mushroom!" Trill got excited and began to jump up and down.
"You'll find one in the adjacent storage bay along with some of the games: go have fun." Omega grinned.
"Yay! Ayy! Yya!"
He ran off towards the south end of the room and into a rectangular platform having a waist-high edge around it and two openings in the north and south ends: it quickly began to go down a diagonal shaft: Iris sighed.
"Trill! Wait for me!"
She walked towards there and calmly jumped into the shaft: Vadous smiled and looked in a better mood while Omega looked slightly satisfied.
"Well. I'll try to ask Davis if he's spotted anything weird."
"…flying machine which emulates the almighty Albatrosses and that is crossing the skies faster than Man can reckon with His finite reckoning capability…" An echoing voice rang out from the side-openings.
"DRAGO~N HE~LL!" Vadous growled aloud.
Quick footsteps rang out along with a hum before he fumed: Omega slapped his forehead and sighed in defeat.
"Dragon… You just had to spoil Boss' good mood."
"GRHTNX! I'll have him make something eatable yet!"
"Now I'm glad I'm an android and I don't need to eat."
"Huff! I need something to cool off! I'll go to my room and play Platinum: it came out 12 days ago and I got my copy 8 days ago… I've finished the main plot and now I'm challenging the new Battle Frontier… It's really challenging!" He muttered.
"Sure… The Torn World, though, was as creepy as hell. Giratina makes honor to the myth surrounding its figure: that it lives on the "reverse side of our world"… Space isn't stable and time doesn't flow: gravity is mad as well… It was worth the 2 years' wait…" Omega muttered next.
"By Confucius!" Dragon Hell suddenly gasped.
"What now?" Vadous demanded.
"There is a drawing of an odd creature! A red turtle with wings!"
"That's just a "Patapata" from the Mario Bros. games!" Omega rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Is it not an otherworldly creature brought forth by…?"
"ANGER GOD'S COMING!" Vadous roared.
"UWA~H!"
"Yay! Mister Dragon runs like a thriatlete! And here's Trill's drawing! Yay!"
"What is his problem?" Iris wondered.
"I knew it… It was just a drawing Trill had lost… Why make such a fuss over that? Dragon… Fall back to Earth already! Sheesh." Vadous grumbled.
"Oh boy… Well then, I'm going. See ya later, Boss."
16:46 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Let's play Rock and Roll!"
"… Not again…"
"Heh, heh, heh… Count Elec!"
"Whoa! Dr. Wily – sama!"
"Sweep the ground with those newbie guys on it and prove you're a competent "WWW Team" member!"
"Roger! Here we go~! Stowaway soul of billion thundering typhoons: go round and round 'till you meet round 'em all!"
Count Elec had begun to practice with his electric guitar in the Maha Ichiban's store-room: Elec Man sighed and Dr. Wily came in to encourage him so he began to sing.
"You want a fight I'll give thunder and devil by evil and thunderbolt!"
"How brilliant." Elec Man drily muttered.
"Oi! Elec! Are you sure you don't want to tag with that Paul McCartney guy in Liverpool?"
"Hinoken – sama…!"
"WHAT! Hinoken! You moron! I'll teach you yet!"
"What was that?"
"I'll teach you yet!"
"Oh yeah? Then come and I'll burn up that silly punk hairstyle!"
"HINOKEN!"
Hinoken had come up with a joke which Fire Man seemed to suspect it'd lead to a grim result and indeed: they were about to fight when Wily called out for Hinoken.
"Go fight the powered-up Viruses in the Internet City Virus Factory! Go!"
"Roger, Wily – sama! I'll show those guys my TRUE STRENGTH!"
"Oh boy…" Fire Man sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Tee, heh, heh. Hinoken's fake strength…!" Colored Man giggled.
"MADOI! Is this a conspiracy?"
"No." Iroaya Madoi dully replied.
"Hinoken! I gave you an ORDER!"
"Huh! R-roger, Wily – sama! Plug In! Fire Man, Transmission!"
"Maha Jarama – sama: the ordered spices have arrived." Magic Man reported in the meanwhile.
"Good, Magic Man."
"Let's continue! And where drum and hum meet the dull hull came out along with the outlet and the inlet!"
"Yo!"
"OH MY GOD! WHAT'S THAT?"
Count Elec had resumed singing before someone called out for his attention: he looked at the entrance of the store-room.
He could see a gigantic recreation of his face without hair and a big mouth which looked like it was made manually using cardboard and paper mache: two black boots came out from beneath it.
"Heh, heh, heh…" The "head" chuckled.
"Huh? Wait a min! That voice!" He recoiled.
Two hands came out from under the head and pulled it upwards to then throw it towards a corner of the room: a guy was revealed to have been hiding inside of the thing.
"Ta-dan and da-tan!"
"YOU AGAIN! MORGAN'S TRIBE HEIR! I'LL GIVE YOU A LESSON YET!"
"Ahem, ahem. Morgangantz. Charles Morgangantz."
Charles Morgangantz could be about a meter and seventy-five in height but his age was around his early 20s.
He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.
His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist: the coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.
He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.
The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.
His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.
"And introducing Dave Bowman…!"
"Davis! Davis Henshman!"
He drew his PET and his Navi suddenly materialized by some effect of forming blocks of data which spun clockwise as data joined inside of the round space left by them in the center and then gained the basic humanoid form followed by the details.
"Hah! The Hauptmann came! Time to haupt a mann!"
"Oh come on. Count Elec. That rhyme was too forced."
"Don't worry, Dave~… Hal will bring up 1024 reasons why he doesn't think it has any logic to begin with."
"Jeez. I know a kilobyte is 1024 bytes but…"
Davis' body suit was colored in a deep brown color and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.
His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some annoyance which they didn't bother to conceal.
His helmet's color was red and so were his boots and forearms: the helmet had the kanji for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.
The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver and having bronze edges: the vest also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.
His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles around the wrist: his forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.
The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.
"Anyway! Count Elec. Before joining the cavalry you need a hair cut more proper of the cavalry." Davis got amused.
"Not again! By George and Henry!"
"Heh, heh, heh … Appealing to your past sovereigns, Count Elec?"
"Well yes, Dr. Wily – sama! And now YOU get OUT right AWAY!"
"Sing the tactical withdrawal trumpet, Dave, and let's get going!"
"Sure, Charlie~ Team."
Davis formed a trumpet and sang a tune before he and Charles ran off to the annoyance of Count Elec: Wily just chuckled under his breath.
Now this is what I call an entertaining afternoon… Heh, heh, heh…!
16:58 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Hiya~… Number Man!"
"Oh! Isaac."
"Pyrururu! The cool customer… Pyu."
"So? What's the tale with Higure – sama?"
"With Yamitarou…? Huff. He's gotten into a weird mood and now wants to play desperado by wearing a brownish cloak and hat and wielding a poster of a Muramasa Blade!"
"What?"
"Really?"
"You're Nelaus, right? Well. It's just as you heard."
Isaac had come to talk with Number Man (and Aqua Man too) and Number Man explained to him Higure Yamitarou's latest behavior: both and Nelaus were surprised.
"Maybe he needs some fright?" Isaac suggested.
"Maybe: it could make him land back to Earth."
"Then let's invoke Fright Man He Who Resides In Your Shelf."
"Oh come on! Shadow Man! Not those titles again!"
"Heh, heh, heh… I'm everywhere and nowhere at all!"
"I know you're inside of my shadow: you've kept on pulling that on me every time I come here."
Shadow Man emerged from Isaac's shadow and looked amused: Isaac and Number Man seemed to be fed up with his behavior.
"Shadow Man. Are you calling for trouble again?" Dark Miyabi questioned.
"Ask Ms. Trouble, the next-door neighbor."
"Very funny. Go chat with the Cut Man Brothers."
"The Cut Man Brothers? I'd heard of them: but weren't they deleted last year when the "Neo Gospel" campaign?" Isaac asked.
"Oh no. Those were but imitations. The real ones are still plotting to find a way to defeat Rock Man…"
"They're still at it even 4 years later?" Nelaus was surprised.
"They're persistent and stubborn, you see, Oh Young Neophyte Exiting From Some Training Halls."
"Hah, hah, hah. Patent some new fantasy manga already." Isaac drily replied without being surprised.
"So! Our Golden Guy is about to overcome the Silver Guy?"
"I dunno what the heck you mean to begin with."
"Let there be dragons and snakes and rats and owls!"
"What a weird cocktail." Number Man muttered with some sarcasm to his voice.
"De masu~! Hop and poh and oph and pho! DE MASU~! I challenge you with my Muramasa Blade! De masu!"
"Yamitarou acting like a MORON again…! Someone shower him in cold water and let's end this farce already."
"I'd say the same over here." Isaac glared at Shadow Man.
"Oh Glaring Glare Of Thousand Souls…"
"Huff. Let's go back, Isaac. I wanna have a lil walk to cool off before starting working on the report." Nelaus settled.
"Alright. I'll settle the score with you on another day."
"Come again anytime, stranger to this city."
Isaac sighed in exasperation and was retrieved as Nelaus shut down his holographic screen: Number Man glared at Shadow Man next.
"Well, well… Guess I'll be going to visit No One At All. Heh, heh, heh!"
17:17 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Ah! The fresh air feels good… At least it's not as violent as in Antarctica even though the hanger was perfectly isolated from the outside…"
"I know."
"You know it all?
"Jeez. That joke's getting outdated."
"Heh, heh, heh… Huh?"
"What's wrong?"
Nelaus walked down a street while looking in a good mood and pulling a joke on Isaac and he didn't find funny: he then stopped and looked across the street to see a guy examining a van's engine.
"Huh… Maybe it broke down?"
"Bah. They'll simply call for the car crane to tow them to the workshop and get it examined… Maybe they just forgot to add enough oil to begin with…" Isaac shrugged.
"… That registration plate… Is there really a "Mecha Province" here, in Japan, Isaac? And the contents… 06-66… Isn't that 666, the so-called "devil number" in the West?" Nelaus wondered aloud.
"Why. You're right."
"… Something about that van reeks… Well. I'll comment it to Detective Misaki when I see him: maybe it's supposed to take part in some festival or competition and such they get told to come up with "cool" plates to begin with… Let's go back." He thought aloud while rubbing his chin.
"That could be. And you really should begin working on the report."
BANG!
"Ugah!"
"What! Nelaus!"
A shot had rang out from the van's left open window and Nelaus collapsed face-up on the ground 3 meters from the van: the guy looking at the engine quickly closed the lid, climbed in, and the van shot away: Isaac materialized and drew a Mega Cannon Battle Chip which he shot but given his shocked and angered state his aim wasn't good enough and the van got away.
"DAMN YOU~!" He growled.
He crouched next to Nelaus and opened his shirts to see that he had a bullet wound above the stomach area but it wasn't bleeding: he seemed to have lost consciousness, though.
"Shit. Quick, the emergency number…!"
He dialed a number and it soon connected.
"Hello? Emergency number? I need help: someone got shot in Kanrou Street, Akihara City, and they've fainted! The wound doesn't look like it hit anything vital but I wouldn't trust it! 10 minutes? Alright! I'll try to check if it's supposed to be grave or not…"
Isaac finished the call and cursed under his breath: he carefully grabbed Nelaus' right wrist to test his pulse.
"It feels normal enough… So maybe he fainted out of shock or some other reason? So who the heck were those guys? They weren't part of any competition then! And unlike in Ameroupe, gun usage here in Japan is very regulated: guns like these tend to be gotten from the black market…"
He pressed two fingers (the right hand's index and middle finger) against the right side of his neck next.
"Nothing weird over here… But why would they shoot him? Ah! Our talk about commenting to Detective Misaki…! They got panicked and tried to prevent us from telling the Net Police…! So they're up to something highly illegal, I guess! Damn them!"
He heard the ambulance's sound and stood up while sighing.
You're a strong guy, Nelaus… You can make it through this… Who did it?
19:34 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Hello? Can you hear me?"
"Huh? Unh… Huh… Y-yeah… W-where am I?"
"Calm down. You're in the hospital. You got injured."
"Huh… That bad…?"
"You don't remember what happened?"
"I feel very foggy…"
Nelaus slowly woke up and found his sight to be very blurry: a medic was talking with him but he didn't seem to remember what had happened: he could notice he had an oxygen mask on and heard the beeping of some devices close by.
"Well. You were shot but the bullet only grazed your ribcage and didn't hit any vital organs: the shock of it made you faint."
"Huh… I see." He muttered.
"I think you'll be discarded by tomorrow: just stay during this evening to make sure there are no post-surgery complications but it's highly unlikely, anyway. That won't leave any physical sequels on you."
"T-thank you. Sensei."
"It's nothing: I'm just doing my duty."
The medic came out and Nelaus' sight got clearer: he looked at his left and spotted Isaac sitting on a chair there and looking tense.
"So. You're awake." He calmly greeted.
"Isaac… Someone in that van shot me? But… Why?"
"They had to be someone doing something illegal and they surely got scared when we started to chat about telling Detective Misaki: I rang Vadous and Prism Man to pass on the info. The class dropped by and they left those there." He sighed.
He signaled a bunch of flowers and some "get better" cards which had been left there: there also was a Mega Guts Punch Battle Chip there with a note which said "get better, chu" and signed "Chisao": Nelaus managed a little chuckle.
"I also had to tell Uncle and he's going to ask for some favors too: nobody shoots at Net Savior and gets away with it so easily."
"Huh… Yeah. Guess that… Good sense…"
"Heh. You got that from that Liquid Ocelot guy… You asked Omega to lend us a spare PS3 and a copy of MGS4 because you wanted to check it out after Twilight had played some of the mottoes in the summer… And it really is a cool game… It's nice because it includes these flashbacks for those who haven't played the other games…" Isaac grinned.
"I know… I like creeping on those guys from behind and tell them "don't move" to then see their reactions… The details to the levels and the countless sneaking manners or fighting manners… No wonder they spent 4 years working on it…"
"I rather think these guys were small fry and I guess that once their bosses get a hold of that they'll be regretting it A LOT… Their own fears will result in a full-scale investigation and sweeping of any notorious organized crime branches… I don't think they'll be able to escape being noticed and even if they change vans or try hiding they'll make a mistake: we'll lock 'em up…"
"Inside of a smelling drum…?" Nelaus made up a joke.
"Jeez. That wasn't funny, Nelaus."
"I guess that… Wasn't Funny Guy has clicked the "I like" button on your own Facebook profile."
"I don't have a Facebook profile to begin with, Nelaus."
"Kidding ya~… Well! No big deal. Heh, heh, heh. And now… Nap and zzz!"
Nelaus began to rest and Isaac rolled his eyes: he sighed and shrugged.
Well. At least Nelaus' mood hasn't changed! But I've got a bad feeling…