Incarnation of Malice
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: Exercise
07:13 AM (Japan Time), Monday April 2nd, 2010...
"... Huff, huff!"
"... Huff... Huff..."
"... One, two, one, two..."
"... Hum... Hum..."
"Put more intensity into it, Hinoken and Count Elec! Else I'll have you make an extra 40 push-ups as punishment!"
"Y-yes, Dr. Wily-sama!"
"R-roger, sir!"
"Madoi! You don't look like you're taking it seriously!"
"Yikes! I am sorry, sir!"
"Why can't you learn from Maha Jarama over there? He does take it seriously and with discipline!"
The four ex-members of the "WWW" and staff of the "Maha Ichiban" restaurant were doing push-ups next to a river while Dr. Wily in his usual vagabond-like outfit oversaw them from the main street parallel to the river and separated by a short grassy slope: he had his arms crossed as he scolded Hinoken, Count Elec and Madoi for not taking the push-ups seriously while Maha calmly did them in a calm and methodical manner: all four wore gym clothes.
"I… still… fail… to… see… the… point…!" Hinoken complained between each push-up.
"Eeeiii! How many times do I have to repeat myself?" Wily grumbled.
"Yikes!"
"I can hear you! I'm not deaf!"
"A million apologies!"
"Shut up! Put more effort into it! Lazy pyromaniac!"
"Y-yes, sir…!"
"Hmpf!" Count Elec sneered.
"You too! Count Elec!"
"Yikes! Y-yes, sir!"
"Sheesh." Madoi sighed.
"Hum." Maha didn't comment.
"Those Neo Gospel rascals won't limit themselves to the Cyber World forever! Knowing them, one day they might hire assassins to come after us! This training is so that you improve your reflexes! It's for your SURVIVAL! Your lives might depend on your reflexes!" Wily reminded them.
"B-but…" Madoi began to say.
"No "buts"! You can't take anything for granted with those types, especially with how random they can be!"
"Indeed."
"How can you… take it so calmly?" Hinoken grumbled.
"Discipline and training. I do 50 push-ups each morning before heading to the restaurant." Maha calmly replied.
"That's what I call discipline! I've been saying it for years but it'd seem my advices fall on deaf ears!"
The other gulped and increased rate of push-up while Wily sighed and shook his head sideways out of exasperation.
"Makes me wonder what I saw you in you guys when I hired you back then… Guess I just wanted types who could start a ruckus." He muttered to himself.
He glanced behind him at a Toshiba laptop placed atop his robot cart filled with empty cans: Fire Man, Elec Man, Colored Man and Magic Man were training against automated Navis using cache Program Advances.
"At least they take it more seriously than you do." He muttered next.
"Fire Arm!"
"Elec Beam!"
"Aqua Tower!"
"Magic Saber!"
"But nevertheless… Those guys have kept with their "hit and run" campaign and we're no closer to figuring out their hideout… They seem to be changing constantly…"
"…97… 98…"
"…99…"
"…100!"
"PHEW!"
The group reached 100 push-ups so they stopped: Maha kept on while the other three were beaten.
"We've been doing this since last month and you still can't do more than 100 push-ups? Sheesh."
"Hmm? Wait. There's someone spying us!" Elec Man suddenly warned the other three.
"Neo Gospel?" Fire Man wondered.
"Who else?" Colored Man shrugged.
"One of those two again? Sigh." Magic Man sighed.
"Hmpf! Looks like you still keep your senses, sharp, old man!" Someone taunted.
"Who are you talking to?" Elec Man demanded.
"To you, scrap!"
"Scrap? Me? Wait, that voice…"
"Hmpf!"
"Sheesh. Not you again."
"Oh yeah! It's me! And this time around I'll wipe you off!"
Magnet Man suddenly stepped in brandishing his usual ruler and with his usual smirk: Elec Man hissed and formed a grimace while the other three got into fighting stance too.
"Hmpf. The extremist came, huh?" Wily taunted.
"E-extremist? Me?" Magnet Man didn't expect that one.
"Catch the joke?" He smugly challenged.
"Wha~t?" He got a twitch over his right eye.
"Damn it! It's either aniki or Tesla, come to annoy again!" Count Elec hissed.
"Well?" Dr. Wily suddenly asked to someone else.
"There's no-one in a 30 meter radius." Oozono Yuriko suddenly dropped from a nearby tree's cup.
"Shah, shah, shah! There's a backdoor!" Needle Man reported.
"Typical." He wasn't too surprised.
"Talk about an unoriginal joke, father." Yuriko sighed.
"What joke?" Magnet Man demanded.
"Dunno. Ask Ninja Man."
"Shadow Man? What does the guy know?"
"Maybe he stole secret info back when he worked for your previous owner? Ninja are sneaky, you know? Maybe he wanted an "insurance" in case you didn't pay him for his services."
"Sheesh. Damned sneaky mice."
"Well? Coming or not?" Elec Man drew an Elec Sword and stepped forward.
"Wait! Go after that ninja otaku, Magnet Man!" Tesla Magnets commanded over the radio.
"As you wish, ma'am." He acknowledged.
"Uncle's little pet comes later!" She sneered
"Little pet!? Me!?" Elec Man raged.
"Let the loser flee like a dog." Wily ordered.
"Loser? Dog? ME!?" Magnet Man hissed.
"I gave you an order!" Tesla complained.
"Huh! Roger, ma'am! You were lucky!"
"Move your butt, communist leftover!" Tesla hissed.
"C-communist leftover? Me? Ma'am?" He gasped.
"MOVE YOUR DAMNED BUTT!"
Magnet Man rushed off the arena while Wily smirked: Yuriko didn't seem amused, Count Elec looked about to strangle the air, and the others were indifferent.
"Why did you send him after Shadow Man?" Madoi asked.
"Meh! To play around with them."
"Wha? Thought it was some plan."
"I have random moods, too! Heh."
"And what's the joke about?" Hinoken asked.
"Won't tell! Boil your brains a bit!"
"R-roger, sir…"
"Huff. This is so stupid."
"Don't worry. Knowing Dark Miyabi he'll teach that extremist a lesson or two… Heh, heh, heh. Anyway. I'll be going. We meet again here at the usual time tomorrow!"
The Operators nodded and drew their Link PETs to recall their Navis into them: Wily shut the laptop and stored it on the bag he carried before walking away while pushing the cart and followed by Yuriko.
"I still don't get the joke." Hinoken grumbled.
"I don't, either." Count Elec sighed.
"Do you get it, Maha?"
"Sadly, no. Maybe we'll eventually figure it out? Anyway. Let's go."
7:34 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Hmmm?"
"What's the matter, Shadow Man?"
"Someone's stalking me…"
"The usual idiots?"
"Hmmm… No. Signature is different."
Dark Miyabi was sitting cross-legged under a waterfall in a gorge somewhere and apparently meditating: his clothes were folded and placed a few meters in front of him along with his Link PET: Shadow Man had gripped his katana sheath and looked about to unsheathe it while Miyabi was calm and collected.
"Found you! Mice!"
"That voice… Magnet Man, huh?"
"Give back the data you stole from the Gauss Console!"
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"Don't play dumb! You wanted a guarantee in case we didn't pay you so you stole secret data from both Gospel and the Gauss Console!"
Magnet Man appeared into the Link PET's room decorated with ninja motifs: Shadow Man had drawn his katana and wasn't too surprised while Magnet Man was pretty annoyed.
"And you're going to confess why Dr. Wily names me "extremist"!"
"Dr. Wily named you that? Hmpf."
"Somehow I suspect he's the one who provoked this guy to come bother us. That old geezer…" Miyabi grumbled.
"Wouldn't surprise me if he made up that lie to send that guy here… Since we told him we didn't to take part in his "training"…"
"What? So I got fooled by that gramps?" Tesla complained.
"Ssshhh! Tesla! Some respect!" Gauss Magnets hushed.
"But, Father…!"
"No matter what side he's in, Dr. Wily is Dr. Wily!"
"It's just that you have an odd obsession over him. He's not a saint or anything like that." She fumed.
"Well, same could be said of you!" Gauss grumbled.
"W-what do you mean?"
"Do you think I don't know you're obsessed with Leonardo DiCaprio and that you're avidly collecting stuff related to him, huh?"
"T-that's…"
"So? Are you going to bark the whole day or you can bite? Extremist or whatever you're supposed to be." Shadow Man taunted.
Magnet Man hissed and Shadow Man suddenly jumped to avoid an attack from behind by the "S" clone of Magnet Man which he formed during his "N-S Tackle" attack: Magnet Man quickly jumped too after Shadow Man and tried to attack with his ruler but Shadow Man easily blocked it with his katana using the right hand while he shot kunai with the left one: Magnet Man formed a magnetic barrier to repel them and Shadow Man simply snapped his left hand's index and middle fingers: several shuriken popped out of nowhere and stabbed Magnet Man's back since his barrier only protected the front: Magnet Man hissed and used magnetism to pull them out and fling them towards Shadow Man who simply formed a wooden log out of nowhere and had the shuriken stab there: Magnet Man shot his "Mag Balls" towards the log followed by his "Mag Missiles" but Shadow Man simply swapped with a clay statue of a samurai and appeared behind Magnet Man to try to stab him with the blade but a magnetic field repelled it so he simply shrugged and landed on the ground as Magnet Man did the same.
"Answer me!"
"I don't know and I don't give a crap."
"What!"
"Dr. Wily. You owe an explanation."
Miyabi, on the meanwhile, had dressed back and was using a flip cellphone to talk to Dr. Wily.
"Heh, heh, heh. Nothing beats some good morning exercise." Wily chuckled over the phone.
"Hmpf."
"Guess it wasn't of your liking. Maybe next time I'll send you Bruce Wayne to have some philosophical talks."
"It's not remotely funny."
"As for why I named that guy "extremist"… Mr. Claws has the answer to that, no?"
"Mr. Claws? Who's that? Beast Man?" Miyabi frowned.
"A distant cousin."
"Very funny." Miyabi drily replied.
"There are too many characters with claws." Shadow Man grumbled.
"He's part of the Y Brigade."
"Y Brigade?"
"Stop beating around the bush, old man!" Tesla complained.
"Tesla! What did I tell you about manners!?" Gauss complained.
"There's no such brigade to begin with!" Magnet Man complained next.
"Heh, heh, heh. Well, well. Maybe the Professor Z resents how his old partner has become an extremist?"
"… Wait a minute… That rings a bell somewhere…" Miyabi muttered as he rubbed his chin with the left hand.
"… Aha. I finally got it." Shadow Man muttered next.
"What?"
"It's lame." Miyabi grumbled.
"I know. Old man's lame gags." Wily laughed.
"Sheesh." Yuriko sighed loud enough to be heard.
"Stop beating around the bush, you bunch of…!" Tesla hissed.
"MANNERS!" Gauss yelled.
"What madness." Magnet Man hissed.
"Maybe you prefer Vincent "Red"." Shadow Man taunted.
"Grrrrr…" He apparently knew Shadow Man had a point.
"Ah, I'm fed up! Give me this!" Yuriko was annoyed.
"Hey, wait…"
"What Father means is Professor X, of the X-Men! And Magneto, his old friend! You're MAGNET MAN so he associates you with MAGNETO who's considered an extremist!" Yuriko explained.
"Oh by all the… That's LAME!" Magnet Man groaned.
"Eeehhhh!?" Father and daughter were taken aback.
"Heh, heh, heh. I still can bite."
"Pathetic."
"If you must."
"And this is the point of all it? All this for a lame gag?" Magnet Man was exasperated.
"Kiiihhh! BLOW THEM UP!" Tesla was pissed off.
"Yes, ma'am!"
"Fine." Shadow Man shrugged.
"I've got a trump card!"
"I know it. Your mosquito CPU."
"M-mosquito CPU? Is that a parody of mosquito brain?" Tesla was baffled by Shadow Man's taunt.
Magnet Man didn't pay heed and drew a grenade: he took out the safety pin and threw it at Shadow Man as he formed a magnetic barrier and also shot several "Mag Balls" and "Mag Missiles" at him: Shadow Man frowned and suddenly gasped as he realized something: Magnet Man made an eager grin as the grenade suddenly turned into a white mass of energy which began to grow and expand while erasing anything it came into contact with: Shadow Man regained his composure and suddenly jumped backwards as he aimed the katana towards the ground.
"It's useless! You're done for!"
"I wonder about that…"
"What? Huh!? What!?"
The white energy suddenly vanished: most of the room's walls, ceiling and floor had been deleted without a trace revealing the plain background of the PET: Magnet Man looked around, puzzled, and suddenly narrowed his eyes as he noticed a faint figure distorting the air.
"What! Stealth camouflage!"
The camouflage faded to reveal a plain black slab with no features whatsoever about 2 meters and some tens of centimeters thick: Magnet Man gasped again.
"Damn! Those monoliths warp-gates! You warped the energy to elsewhere so that it'd collapse upon itself and fade!"
"Indeed. That was close, I must admit. Didn't expect Neo Gospel to have provided you with an ANTI-MATTER grenade of all things. But thanks to you we now know what to expect from them this season."
"Tesla! Idiot! Dr. Yoru said that it was for emergencies only!"
"What? Did he? I thought he said it was a trump card!"
"Hmpf! That's what happens when you let your spoiled daughter loose, Gauss-kun! Now, how are you going to explain it to him, huh? Be glad he's not Darth Vader." Wily taunted over the phone.
"YIKES! Plug Out!"
"Hey, wait…!"
Gauss retrieved Magnet Man while the audio channel also shut down: Shadow Man sighed in relief and sheathed the katana while Miyabi grumbled and suddenly cut the wall with Wily.
"Let's go, Shadow Man. We've got two jobs to do today."
"Roger, Miyabi. Dr. Wily will take care of informing the others, anyway."
"And let's hope he doesn't disturb my morning meditation anymore!"
"Huff. Yeah. I'll have to be on my toes as well…"
08:19 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Sheesh. Where the heck did I stuff the report?"
"Looking for something? Meijin-kun."
"Ah. Dr. Regal. Yes, sir. I had a report about the new firmware updates here on my desk a while ago but now it's gone."
"Hmmm… Maybe Dr. Hikari thought it was ready and grabbed it when he came to search for you?"
"Ah! That could it be it, true."
Meijin was rummaging the drawers of his work desk in the Science Labs looking for something when Dr. Regal stepped in carrying a bulky folder full of documents: Meijin turned around to greet him.
"Meijin-san, this is security No. 129." A Police Navi appeared on the SE corner of Meijin's PC screen.
"Huh? Ah. A visitor?"
"Yes, sir. Mr. Needle Man. Passwords, data signature, all is correct."
"Good. Allow him in."
"Roger, sir."
"Shah, shah, shah! We've got news."
"Those clowns have done something out of the usual?"
"Huh? Ah. Danna. Hadn't seen ya, my bad."
"Don't mind it. You're no longer my subordinate. And, well?"
Needle Man appeared onscreen next and someone asked a question from behind: he glanced over his right shoulder to see Laser Man there.
"They have anti-matter grenades now."
"What!"
"They gave one to Magnet Man and the moron used it because his Operator thought it was meant to be a trump card instead of being something for emergencies only."
"I see. Do you have more details?"
"Shadow Man, who's the one who was brawling with the jerk, sent me footage of the grenade."
"This MP4 file, then. Good." Meijin sat on the chair and opened the email tab of his Chrome browser.
"From what Dr. Wily has analyzed, it has a delay of 3.5 seconds before activation once you take off the safety pin."
"Maybe it's a prototype." Dr. Regal warned.
"That's what he thought, too."
"Yeah. 3.5 seconds is not extremely fast for most Navis. They still have time to process and using something in cache they can react in slightly over 1 second." Meijin agreed as he looked at the video.
"They look like normal grenades which must the point. To make it look like it's an old-fashioned attack or an attempt to imitate real-world war tactics…"
"Ah! You're back, Meijin. See, this report is lacking two pages and… Is something the matter?"
"Ah! Dr. Hikari, sir. That report is incomplete since I printed an outdated version of the file, sir. I went to print the missing two pages but when I came back you'd taken it, sir."
Yuuichirou came in having a report folder and was slightly surprised: he looked like he hadn't shaved in some days.
"The enemy has a new weapon."
"Ah. What is it?"
"Anti-matter grenades."
"Devil."
"Yes. It was a matter of time before they turned them into more practical weapons."
"It must contain an anti-matter capsule kept stable by a magnetic field. The grenade alone has little mass so it doesn't amount for a lot of destruction but…"
"The issue is if there is a lot of matter around it when it's used."
"Exactly, sir. However, as we know, they don't last forever. There's a point in which the absorption rate of energy overcomes the limit and it collapses into itself thus dissipating."
"I think it'd be impractical for real-world use. So they're probably only going to use in the Cyber World. Knowing their egos, they probably want to keep it exclusive to themselves."
"I'll report it to Rick as well. Maybe he can think of a good countermeasure since it's his specialty."
"Alright."
Regal exited the room as Obihiro Shun came in, looking surprised, since he probably crossed paths with Regal.
"The enemy strikes back? Dr. Regal had a grave look to him."
"Ah, Obihiro-kun. Yeah. See."
Meijin played the video which was FPS (First Person View) of the Shadow Man VS Magnet Man fight: he was slightly surprised and rubbed his chin with the left hand as toyed with a pencil on his right hand.
"I see."
"Remember to keep this under wraps. There are many who are after Neo Gospel's tech and we mustn't them let know about these. Insofar we managed to wrap all about the anti-matter weapons but… We can't lower the guard."
"Of course, sir."
"Usual protocol, Meijin. This is unofficial research. There mustn't be records of it."
"Roger, sir."
"Well, I'm leaving."
"Alright. We'll send warnings to the Net Police and the other "defenders" as well. Top priority is readying counter-measures against these new weapons…"
"Roger. See ya, Danna."
"Don't take them lightly."
"Roger."
"Ah! One more thing. They might make other weapons with this. It probably won't be limited to grenades." Laser Man warned Needle Man was he was about to leave.
"Good point. Roger, Danna. Bye."
"Hmmm… I could see them using RPG-7s loaded with that. But now normal bullets since there's too little space." Meijin thought aloud as he turned his office chair to face the other two.
"Yeah. Hmmm… Maybe land-mines, too. Issue is: to what extremes do they intend to go to? Instead of nukes, use anti-matter missiles against Net Cities?" Obihiro wondered.
"That wouldn't benefit them, though. They thrive in the underground of societies… And cities are where they make their profits." Yuuichirou pointed out.
"Good point, sir. But if they get desperate you can never know what they'll do. Maybe if they feel cornered they'll try to drag many with them and trying to make us look like hypocrites for not stopping them… Would feel with that megalomaniac's behavior."
"… That's true, too. I get the impression that they're not actually not shifting bases, they make it look like they are."
"So all those bases we found were decoys, then… I was getting the impression as well…"
"Their leader is the type who throws people away like broken suits when they're no longer useful. It wouldn't be surprising if they went mad and decided to wreck the Cyber World before being brought down." Obihiro dully muttered but he had a hint of anger on his voice.
"Good points, too."
"… I sent him an email. It's already late night in King Land so he must be sleeping but his Navi will receive it. He will begin to research on counter-measures." Regal came back into the office.
"I already checked all radio waves and frequencies but there are no suspicious outgoing emissions." Laser Man reported.
"Well, they will soon know about Magnets' blunder so there's no need for them to spy on us…" Yuuichirou shrugged.
"Exactly. They will be more focused on trying to spy on the "Subspace", anyway."
"Good. I'll ready a warning and ring Commission Kifune so that he issues an alert. You compile all data and keep it in tight custody, Meijin. If you need help improving the security, Obihiro-kun can help you."
"Roger, sir."
"Understood, Dr. Hikari, sir."
"Good. Laser Man. You come back to my PC too. We need to coordinate with Rick's Navi to calculate possible mass of these weapons, time it'll take to detonate and how much time it'll expand before collapse. All are critical factors to take into account."
"Roger, sir."
"I'll be in my office."
"Alright."
Regal left again while Laser Man warped out of the PC: Meijin copied the data into a Toshiba external drive and deleted all copies on the PC: he unplugged the drive and nodded to Obihiro.
"Let's get working on the security for this."
"Roger, Meijin-san."
"…San wa iranai… You needn't add it… Makes me feel older." Meijin muttered, sighing.
"But, sir…"
"Alright, alright. Do as you like. Else it's an infinite loop."
"Understood, sir."
"We'll work this on my flat to avoid leaving records here. Let's go."
"Roger, sir. We must be ready… The enemy will soon strike…"
"Indeed… And this time they might be fiercer than what they've been insofar… Neo Gospel… One day… You'll be brought down!"