Global Winds

by Zoram Selrof

Sequel to Hellfire Period. The new year 2010 has begun and Neo Gospel's back at it: this time around their main strategies focus on generating frustration and trying to spark in-fighting between the good guys. Other parties seek to achieve further power by attempting to steal info and tech from both sides as well... Something's being plotted by the enemy... Rated M for lemon.

1. Chapter 1: Training

Global Winds

By Zoram Selrof

Chapter 1: Training

11:51 AM (Japan Time), Saturday January the 13th, 2010...

"... Charge Shot!"

"Roll Arrow!"

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

"Hah!"

"CF" Netto, "CF" Blues, "CF Laika, "CF" Roll and Zero were rushing through a street in a city somewhere filled with rubble, improvised barricades, weapons and, above all, Viruses: the skies were gray and rumbled as if a storm was about to begin: "CF" Netto shot a Charge Shot at a Fire Dragon that was flying for him, hitting its forehead and piercing through the head thus deleting it: "CF" Blues swung his Neo Variable Sword and a Sonic Boom sliced a Garuu in half as it was about to shoot fireballs at him: "CF" Laika took aim and shot his Scope Gun: the blast pierced through a bat-shaped Virus that was flying towards him: "CF" Roll formed a crimson and black arrow that stabbed a Mettool's right arm thus making it let go of the pickaxe: Zero swung his blade and generated Sonic Booms as well to delete some Viruses.

"How's the status like over there, Alpha Team?" Someone asked over the radio.

"We're advancing. I guess we'll be at the rendezvous point in another couple of minutes." "CF" Laika replied.

"Did you find anything over there?" "CF" Roll asked.

"Not really. Save for Viruses. And a doodle of Gravity Man signed "Zoan Bright Man – sama"…" The caller reported.

"Why don't they rename him Doodle Man?" "CF" Blues ironically suggested.

"Ask the guy!" The caller seemed to shrug.

"Guess that." Zero shrugged as well.

"It doesn't matter." "CF" Netto shrugged, too.

The group of 5 reached an intersection where three streets fused: the statue that had been there had been replaced by one of Cybeast Greiga and the original one had been broken into pieces scattered around the base of it: another group met up with them.

"Hey there, guys. Everything OK?"

"Sure, Nelaus."

One of the members of this group was a new "Cross Fusion" user.

This member seemed to be about the age and height of the other 4, maybe a bit taller than them.

His eyes were colored green emerald and some blonde hair popped out behind the helmet.

The helmet was navy blue coloring: it had three square dots on the ear-pads and on the middle of the forehead which were colored golden, crystal and silver from left to right: a black matrix filled the rest of the helmet's surface.

His emblem had the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple printed on its center.

On the space below the emblem and before the waist the alphabet letters "N" and "S" colored in a platinum color had been drawn: the "N" was on the left and the "S" to the right of the vertical line splitting the body in two.

His forearms' armor was different was transparent purple in color on the wrists and the Alphabet "N" letter colored green was set over it: the space over the palm had a black circle which contained a small red dot in the middle surrounded by different scales of red from dull red to crimson red.

The fingers had transparent red rings set on each one which glowed with a dull red glow.

His boots had slightly had red and black matrixes across their whole surface and they included some "eyes" (black edge, black body and a red dot) set on both sides of each boot.

"Hum. Maybe they've already left the city by now."

"It's logical, Miyabi."

"Yeah. They thought they had enough with causing some damage…"

"What's your opinion? Omega."

"Hum…"

"CF" Miyabi had been talking with the others before addressing someone next to him.

Omega was about one meter and eighty tall.

He wore 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 while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached until the floor.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Man! Too bad… I wanted to beat some of 'em to a pulp… Right, Bloody~ Shadowy~?"

"Sigma. Stop with the nicknames NOW or I'll piss off. FOR REAL. Got that, you moron?"

"R-roger, Commander Omega!"

"Sheesh."

Another Navi behind Omega began to joke to his partner but Omega scolded him without bothering to turn back and merely glancing over his right shoulder.

This Navi, Sigma, was about two meters tall.

He was colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area and it 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 he was currently aiming at the floor in lazy manner.

"And my name's Blood Shadow. How many times do I need to repeat myself?"

Blood Shadow used red as his main body color.

He sported black shades and 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.

"Let's at least bust this ugly thing. Then we'll finish sweeping the area and if we confirm that there are no Zoanoroids then…"

"Careful! Charged shotgun shot!"

"Damned it!"

"Ah. So there was a mouse."

"MOUSE? ME? I'm Zoan Dark Man!"

"Like I care."

"Wha~t?"

Blood Shadow suddenly loaded his shotgun and shot to deflect a familiar black and purple axe: Zoan Dark Man became visible to his right and Omega taunted the guy as he drew a weapon.

This weapon had a pyramidal base with a rectangular hilt and produced a large green triangular energy blade that was quite transparent: Omega gripped it on the right hand and took a step forward.

"Let's go!"

Zoan Dark Man formed the axe again and flung it at Omega: he simply jumped over it and quickly flipped on the air to plunge the blade on Zoan Dark Man's chest emblem while attaching his boots' soils to his body: Zoan Dark Man groaned and recoiled as Omega jumped away: Sigma ran forward and punched him with the left fist: the blow made him get stuck in one of the walls: he growled and warped to different position.

"I alone will suffice! Greiga – sama shall promote me!"

"I wonder about that. Someone and no-one will complain." "CF" Nelaus taunted back.

"Damn it all! It's got to be Zoan Gravity Man! Always getting in the way of my promotion!" He growled.

"Not my problem. Elemental Cannon!"

"CF" Nelaus' right forearm got greenish armor over it, his left forearm formed red armor, his right boot gained extra bluish armor and the left boot was strengthened by yellow armor: energy flew out of each and formed a white spheroid: he then pushed it forward and it became a beam of energy which expanded as it flew across the space and hit Zoan Dark Man as he shot his beam at him but it was in vain: the attack formed wounds on his body apart from making fly along the street and land some meters south of the group.

"Sneak Attack!"

"CF" Miyabi suddenly dropped from above and plunged both katana into the chest emblem, piercing through it: Zoan Dark Man groaned and blew up while he sheathed both blades.

"We blew up the statue in the meanwhile." "CF" Roll commented with a smile.

In effect: the Greiga statue had been blown up to pieces and scattered around: they suddenly heard someone grumbling and Zoan Gravity Man hovered down into the area.

"Enemies detected. Resistance detected. Delete. Delete. Gravity…!"

"Slow! Giga Cannon!"

"Dream Sword!"

"Mugen Vulcan!"

"Yoyo Blade!"

"Hrah! Hah!"

"UGRA~H!"

"Weak."

The 4 "CF" users and Zero attacked Zoan Gravity Man at the same time and their power was more than enough to defeat him before he could finish turning on his "Gravity Drive": the Viruses close by seemed to demoralize and ran for it while some thunderbolts began to drop down from the clouds followed by rain.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" Some laughter ran out next.

"Whose turn is it?" "CF" Nelaus wondered.

Master Hand suddenly appeared there and made a taunting gesture but the group was far from impressed.

"Boss… Another of your "inspirations"?" Omega asked over the radio.

"No. I think it slipped here from the "open world" map… Maybe Trill programmed it to do that." A man replied.

"Well. Guess we gotta beat it if we want to finish this simulation. Let's go, guys." Omega calmly instructed.

"OK. Leave it to me. Diamond Blade!"

"CF" Nelaus drew a blade made of diamond yet the hilt was made of gold instead: he calmly jumped and swung it to cut Master Hand in two halves but they suddenly broke down into raw polygons and reformed: now both Master Hand and Crazy Hand were there.

"Alright. I didn't expect that." "CF" Nelaus calmly muttered.

"Trill's turning into a better programmer than I thought!" The man over the radio was baffled.

"Or maybe he asked Iris to lend him a hand." Omega suggested.

"Ah! That would explain it." The man agreed with the suggestion.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Gyah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Hmmm… They must have a core somewhere… Miyabi?"

"Alright. Shadow Clone! Sneak Attack!"

"CF" Miyabi formed a copy of himself and both jumped into the air to then jump down while aiming their blades down.

"Hah!"

"Mugroh!"

"Grumoh!"

He pierced the cores of both enemies (located on the wrist area) and they exploded: the environment then began to turn into a green matrix over a blackened space before yielding to a bright white ellipsoid: the matrix became circuitry paths and energy began to travel across them for the ellipsoid: the group began to hover and all of them entered the ellipsoid: a bright white flash ensued and the Alpha Team appeared inside of a cubical metallic room filled with a "Dimensional Area": it turned off so their "Cross Fusions" got cancelled: they all picked their PETs.

"Can't say it wasn't entertaining… Right, Rock Man?"

"Yeah, Netto – kun."

Hikari Netto glanced at his PET (placed on the right arm strap) and Rock Man replied with a smile: he looked like he was close to a meter and seventy if not above by now and could be around 16 years old.

He sported his usual clothing as well.

"That Zoan Dark Man wanted to be literal, huh?"

"Yes, Enzan – sama. The man was hiding in a nearby alley."

Ijuuin Enzan chatted with Blues as he stretched: he hadn't changed at all, either.

"Is the research on the new armor-piercing rounds progressing, Search Man? We'll need them soon."

"HQ estimates another 3-4 days, Laika – sama."

"Alright."

Laika asked Search Man for information on something and Search Man provided it.

"Let's go meet up with Nelaus and Miyabi." Netto suggested.

"Sure." Enzan shrugged.

"Beware, Enzan. It's the ninja diet!" Laika snickered.

"How original of you, Mr. Foreign Serviceman!" Enzan grumbled back with some annoyance.

"Oh come on. Laika… Why do you need to poke on that?" Netto sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Nature's call?" He joked.

Search Man rolled his eyes and was seemingly exasperated with his Operator's behavior: Blues was sighing in defeat as well while Rock Man grumbled under his breath.

"My, my. Let's go, guys."

Sakurai Meiru rallied them: she wore the usual vest over the shirt but instead of skirt she sported jeans and white sneakers.

They all picked their coats (Netto's was brown and Enzan's red while Laika had his Net Savior coat: Meiru's was black) which had been placed on the SE corner of the room: they put them on and then exited the room into a curved corridor having some arches, fluorescent lights on the ceiling and armored doors on both of the sides.

"Hey. Guys."

"Hey. Nelaus. You ready to go back? We're gonna meet with the class at the park. Today's a neat day."

"Sure."

Nelaus joined them: he sported a navy blue sailor's coat which he had open: below that he wore a green wool jumper and jeans: he also sported green wool socks and white sneakers.

His PET was colored golden and purple and his Navi was projecting from inside of it.

"What's your take, Isaac?" Rock Man asked.

"Wasn't too hard. But that's fine, anyway. We'll steadily increase the difficulty."

Isaac had a unique design and 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 he was calm.

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 also 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.

These 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.

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 with no sense of order whatsoever.

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.

"Sorry for the wait. I wanted to discuss some improvements with Omega…" Dark Miyabi joined them.

"About if it'd be possible to program Swordy Viruses with better AI… So that they become a challenge…" Shadow Man specified.

"Yay! Morning, everyone!"

"Hey. Trill. That of the Master Hand… Iris lent you a hand?"

"Yeah. Trill could make the Master Hand itself but… Making it become Master and Crazy… I couldn't! So Trill asked Iris – oneesan…"

"I didn't think it'd slip into the other VR map… I'm sorry for the inconvenience."

Trill ran up to meet them from the left followed by Iris who looked a bit nervous as if she thought the others were annoyed.

"We're not annoyed at all. It was an interesting twist." Netto calmly reassured her.

"Thank you, Hikari – kun."

"By all the…! RIKKIDO~!" The earlier man's voice echoed.

"Whoa!" They all gasped.

"HDKAHFLNLKBHGJBAG!" The man growled something undecipherable next.

"Boss. What now?" Omega's voice asked with a sigh.

"That damned LIQUID!"

"What did the bastard do?"

"Filled Langley's AC system with chloroform and knocked out the whole building to then hack into the computers and steal TERABYTES of classified info! The damned…!"

"Hum. I see." Omega didn't lose his composure.

"They gassed the whole of the CIA HQ?" Netto gasped.

"Devil. The guy's gotten desperate?" Enzan gasped.

"Hmmm… No, I'd say no…" Laika rubbed his chin.

"Sounds like a pre-meditated move. The pawns stir up trouble with their hit and run like always yet… Using the distraction… He attacks a spot we couldn't predict. Typical of those stupid cowards…" Miyabi calmly guessed.

"Kyah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" A woman's voice rang out from Meiru's PET all of sudden.

"Heck. We got hacked." Roll fumed.

"Anaya. You again." Meiru fumed.

"IQ – sama! You little kittens!" The woman seemed to sneer.

"So you came to gloat. As usual. Ex – Boss."

"Hmpf! Raiden! Go and make Fatman sink in the ocean!" The woman, Anaya, sneered next.

"I'm SO impressed."

"Men stay outta this! It involves women!" Anaya hissed.

"Hmpf! Fine!"

Meiru headed back into the earlier room as if to keep the discussion between her, Roll and Anaya: the guys seemed to be unsure if they should follow them or not.

"Ex – Boss can't do more than gloating. Not like she'll show up here: and can't… Dimensional Converters don't work. And Mr. Vadous disabled the portal machine by pulling the plug: she can't hack it either. And no stealth shuttle will do either: we can detect those." Nelaus listed.

"Good points. But don't lower the guard. Despite our security and all they got us last year's summer." Netto reminded him.

"I know. But same trick doesn't work twice."

"I've been searching Melbourne but… Nothing." Miyabi told them.

"Omega did suggest they switched countries. But it'd seem Vadous is on another of his sour moods and ignores everyone else." Shadow Man sighed.

"Trying to track this hacking is pointless too: there's surely a lot of traps and dead ends in the line. Anaya wouldn't do that unless she's sure she can't be traced back." Enzan guessed.

"At least most of the readers ended up believing that "Hellfire Period" tale was a mix of real facts and sci-fi so no harm over there." Laika shrugged.

"A LEAD! MY KINGDOM FOR A LEAD!" Vadous, the man, roared.

"Calm. Down." Omega insisted.

"Like I'll get any closer!"

"Obsessing yourself with the idea that they're still in Melbourne won't get you closer to them either."

Trill had apparently shut down his audio input by now and was drawing hiragana in a holographic screen belonging to Iris' PET and using the touch-pen: Iris was calmly instructing him the steps needed to draw each one and Trill looked like he was totally concentrated on that.

"Good thing Navis can shut down their audio input and hear nothing. Now's when I'd like to have earplugs at hand." Nelaus sighed.

"Can't be helped. Vadous – san is too prone to frustration and anger: seeing how it's been about a month since that of London and we haven't located them again…" Rock Man sighed.

"Bapgei was spotted in Melbourne but he only went to his aunt's farm and all attempts to trace him when he leaves fail because one of the Darkloids is close by to impede the "Committee" agents from following him. Even if we have a standby Navi close by to fight them… Bapgei gets retrieved through a "DC" hidden by a signal jammer…" Search Man summed up.

"And other times… Even if a capable Operator is on standby as well… There's yet another Darkloid to get on their way." Laika grumbled.

"And they run away: and attempts to chase them across the Cyber World end up in vain because they copy Shadow Man and use "Shadow Clone"… To top it off these clones' signatures can't be told apart from the real one and their HP is very high… Close to the HP of the real one… So it doesn't take a single blow to defeat them… Behavior and speech are a copy as well…" Isaac related with increasing annoyance.

"Huff. Shook the madwoman off." Meiru joined them.

"How did you?" Netto asked.

"I improvised: I suggested Jade Panther may actually be a triple spy working for the CIA and she got panicked. I used that distraction to shut off the channel." Meiru explained.

"Like Ocelot, huh?" Netto wasn't too surprised.

"Yeah. The idea came from there, that young Ocelot was actually a triple spy working for 3 parties…"

"Meo~w Man!" Sigma suddenly showed up there, laughing.

"Why not?" Meiru shrugged.

"Oh come on. Sigma. Now's not the time for that." Blood Shadow scolded him.

"Huff. Managed to convince Boss somehow along with Lartes to have some proper rest… Looks like he did short 15 minutes naps from time to time and didn't properly sleep… And he's lost 3 kilos!" Omega sighed.

"Say, where did Zero go to?" Shadow Man asked.

"Went to speak with your uncle, Nelaus, to confirm the info. It was on the NY Times website but I thought it might be a fabrication because the scale seemed too big… A trap to turn Boss hysterical." Omega replied.

"Ah. Wouldn't surprise me." Nelaus shrugged.

"Well! We're going on ahead to Akihara Town to scout out. Let's meet there later!" Sigma grinned.

"Don't do stupid things like bothering Number Man." Omega suddenly warned: his glare was icy.

"Y-yes, sir!" He saluted.

"I'm watching you." Blood Shadow dully reminded him.

"Sheesh." Sigma sighed.

"Max persons is 4 so… We'll have to do 2 trips. I'll go on ahead with some of you to heat up the engines." Omega had called an elevator.

"I'll go in the 2nd trip." Netto shrugged.

"And me." Meiru confirmed.

"Good. Ijuuin, Nelaus and Laika come with me. You 2 wait for the elevator to come back."

Meiru suddenly pulled Netto's left ear and he yelped.

"What was that for, Meiru – chan?" He groaned.

"A teaser." She giggled.

"What do you want now? To go see a film?"

"Oh no! It's a teaser. Next time… I'll tickle ya." She giggled again.

"No offense but I find you girls to be too complicated."

"By the way, Netto! Ms. Skull sends her greetings from 5 years ago: skulled greetings indeed!"

"Oh come on. You mean the day I got the "Roll Soul"? Still grudging that?"

"It's not a grudge! It's a reminder. Cutie bad boy." She laughed at her lame joke.

"Lovely!"

12:33 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah! Just in time. Nelaus – ku~n!"

"Hey. Aura – chan. Where are the others?"

"They'll soon come."

"OK."

"Well, well. Tamashita… Did you find the seer?"

"Huh? What do you mean, Sakurai?"

Nelaus, Netto, Saito (brown hair and emerald eyes) and Meiru walked into the Akihara City Park and met up with a girl who'd been sitting in a bench.

This girl, Tamashita Aura, had orange curly hair and blue eyes.

She sported a yellow raincoat, jeans and sneakers.

Her Link PET's emblem was a stylized "F" letter colored white and black and set against a blue background which was decorated with snow drops: the PET itself was white.

"I think that she means that Ms. Glassy… Felicia."

"Ah! Ms. Glassy… Yeah, that fake seer who we used to visit… Hard to believe she intended to turn us into dime spies!"

Roll began to talk with Tamashita's Navi, named Felicia.

Her helmet was colored olive green and it had a sapphire set into its forehead which glowed differently depending on the light's angle: the helmet included a cobalt blue matrix over its surface.

Her eyes were cobalt blue as well and two twin tails of blondish hair came out from behind her head.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt blue instead and her emblem was the same one as in the PET.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and had ruby plating over them while her arms and elbow were colored in a mix of blue and white decorated with emerald square dots.

Her forearms were colored orange and had eight thin pink circles circling along their length.

Her legs used a mix of blue and yellow and contained diamond-shaped brown dots scattered at random.

The boots had been painted using orange color and had zigzag patterns which vertically spanned the height of them.

"Ta-dan! The President of Miss Joke & Co. has arrived! Stocks are on the rise! Rising raiser!"

"Yaito – sama…!"

"I've got news! Gorilla Man is coming to town!"

"Guts, guts. Provided by Explosive News, de guts."

"Oh come on."

"Gorilla Man? Desu?"

"It's a lame joke…"

Ayanokouji Yaito, Ooyama Dekao, Hikawa Tooru and Eboshi Shuuichi walked into the park next: Yaito was laughing at a joke, Dekao looked cocky, Hikawa sighed and Eboshi rolled his eyes.

"Karazawa isn't coming?" Meiru asked Tamashita.

"No. Apparently went with her aunt to visit her uncle. That is, a brother of her aunt." She replied.

"Alright."

"She did send me an email saying we had no right to criticize that Scherezade's coloring is inspired by the PKMN games… Because it'd seem that the TV emitted some news about the DNN takeover and Deadly Pandora… And revealed that the executives were also named after the PKMN games too…" Tamashita explained.

"True." Nelaus seemed to remember.

"Speaking of Deadly Pandora…" Meiru began.

"She'll bring you a deadly bouquet?" Yaito joked.

"How innovative." Meiru directed a scolding glare at her because she interrupted her.

"Isn't it?"

"What's that Dogly Pandora?" Dekao frowned.

"Deadly Pandora… A terrorist org! Buddies with Neo Gospel…"

"Neo Gospel…? Huh…? Who were those again?"

"Figure it out yourself. It's on YouTube too!" Netto fumed.

"What was that?"

"Here we go again." Hikawa rolled his eyes.

"Ooyama – kun doesn't pay enough attention." Eboshi sighed.

"Hey! Listen! Could it be that those guys are reusing the Deadly Pandora hideout?"

"By all the… It could be!" Nelaus gasped.

"It's perfect because they don't need to rent or buy a house and thus risk leaving a record behind… The base's energy is self-generated… And I'm sure that they steal food there and there and bring it to the base…" Isaac guessed.

"But we should be VERY discrete. We don't want them to realize and jump away." Netto warned.

"Good. We mustn't tell anyone else apart from Vadous – san and the "Committee"… We could place a mike in one of the outer walls and try to analyze the vibrations… If they correspond to echoing voices then that's our confirmation… We could just try to place a mike in the outside, close to a vent…" Saito suggested.

"There's a more ideal place… In the central hub! Near the edge of the water… I'm sure they must come out there from time to time: maybe they've got a ship parked there… Jade's own ship… I seem to remember that they didn't bother to move it from there when the police burst into the base…" Nelaus rubbed his chin.

"I don't get it." Dekao scratched his head.

"No need to! Ya just solve the Math problems!" Yaito replied.

"YIKES!" He turned white.

"Or do ya need a tutor like every year to help you clear that?" Yaito grinned and whispered.

"Oh crap!"

"Guts, guts. Gorilla Man and Gorilla Woman will marry on February the 31st." Guts Man announced.

"What a lame fake… February can only reach 29 days at the max! There's no 31st of February!" Roll fumed.

"Uh-oh. Desu." Ice Man gulped.

"Trouble… Someone build a shelter…" Glyde groaned.

"Now, now!" Roll tried to calm them down.

"Don't get depressed now." Felicia tried to encourage.

"By the way! Netto! What's Enzan up to? Huh?"

"Should I know? I dunno what he does at his company."

"KI~H! I'm sure he's plotting something!"

"Oh come on. Yaito – chan. Play fair. Or your father will scold you again… Do you want that?" Meiru sighed.

"YIKES!"

"And when will you stop with that "Miss Joke & Co." stuff?" Tamashita questioned next.

"W-well…"

"Really… And to think you're the heiress of Gabcom Inc.!"

"T-that's… Ottawa…"

"Ottawa?" The girls asked.

"Miss Ottawa said that…"

"Who's that?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's daddy's secretary?"

"Speaking of which! You didn't notice back in November and December that your house's staff had increased by 2?" Meiru questioned.

"N-no. I don't manage that!"

"Really… And that "Miss Ottawa" must be Anaya… The madwoman…"

"E~H?"

"I'd stake anything on that."

"Even a choco-banana crepe?" Netto ironically asked.

"Ah! T-that's, hum, well…" She got nervous all of a sudden.

"You still owe them an apology: you stuck around, didn't contribute, forced him to pay you that crepe and in the end you didn't tell him the solution to the homework. Not like he'd been skipping in purpose: he had to stop that Burner Man guy!" Roll scolded her.

"You still remember that?"

"Navis DON'T forget."

"Crap."

"And I can be dense from time to time but I DO remember that. Papa sneaking away too." Netto grumbled.

"And Rock Man had to find it." Saito fumed.

"So don't be so quick to speak like you're perfect." Both warned.

"A-alright." She gulped.

Tamashita merely lifted her eyebrows in surprise while Felicia didn't seem to be that surprised.

"We'll settle that on another day. Now we need to focus on checking out if that hypothesis is correct or not." Netto settled.

"A-alright." Meiru nervously replied.

"We should use the same strategy… To listen in and pretend we don't know where they're acting from… It's frustrating but it's better to have them located than having to search for them… And by the way… We should be careful… Because that tale of the CIA attack was a lie: they hacked into the NY Times website and made up a fake headline." Saito detailed.

"Of course, Saito – niisan. But we know how dirty they are. Let's wash them over with Mr. Clean." Netto grinned.

"Not a bad joke, Netto – kun. Good… Let's go for it!"

"Beware! Kimura's coming to town!" Yaito giggled.

"Who's that? A Rare Chip otaku?" Dekao eagerly asked.

"Maybe."

"I did it! I'll get a Rare Chip to beat Sigma!"

"Its name is… "And there were none"!"

"HUH?"

"Oh come on." The rest of the group (save Guts Man) sighed.

"And what does it do?" Dekao still believed on that.

"It makes the enemy vanish… It's spiriting away!"

"Cool, cool! When's that Kimura coming?"

"Tomorrow at mitternacht."

"Tomorrow at what?"

"Midnight."

"Where, where?"

"The backyard of your house!"

"I did it! I'll be a Net Savior and protect MY Meiru – chan!"

"MORON!"

SMACK!

"UAH!"

Meiru suddenly smacked Dekao and then directed a glare that could kill at Yaito: she ran off while Meiru and Tamashita fumed.

"I'm not your possession! Moron!"

"Bua~h!" He ran off too.

"You 2… You're behaving like Ex – Boss wants, you know?" Nelaus sighed.

"Ah… T-that's…" They gasped.

The guys sighed while the girls timidly looked away.

Damned Ex – Boss. You want us to fight each other but we won't let you!