Alive Cell
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: Merry City
10:51 AM (Japan Time), Monday May the 30th, 2012…
"… Where did niisan go to all of a sudden?"
"To Glitch City of Glitches!"
"Whah!"
"Heh, heh, heh!"
"Jeez. Not another glitch!"
"Yessir! Brought from Glitch City!"
Hikari Netto had been sitting in a bench located close to the soccer field of Akihara Middle School: he'd been eating a sandwich and distractedly looking around until his brother Saito suddenly showed up behind him in purpose to startle him: Netto gasped and turned around but when he saw Saito's grin he groaned and seemed to get exasperated.
"Glitch City?" He skeptically asked.
"Oh my. Obihiro – kun didn't tell you about it?"
"What's it?"
"A "city" in the Gen I PKMN games made up of glitch data and incomplete sprites… Accessible through some weird trick involving the Safari Zone: it's not intended to be normally accessed… If you try to save there you might as well corrupt your cartridge! Scary, scary~!" He giggled.
"Jeez. I know Obihiro likes digging into old games to find out secret stuff but from there to you scaring me with it…"
"Blame Misfortune – sama."
"Yeah, yeah. So?"
"So? Well. It turns out someone will contribute with a catchy and innovative motto."
"Don't beat around the bush, niisan."
"With a 15cm long steel rod?"
"I give up."
"Yo! Netto. Did ya know? I've got a perv maid in my house!"
"Hiro… Stop calling Drake like that."
"Heh, heh, heh!"
A student around their age (that is, about 14 or 15 years old) joined them while telling a joke in a hushed tone of voice: Netto groaned and rolled his eyes while Saito grinned.
"Akashi Hiro says "good sense!"… And bad sense too."
"How brilliant."
Akashi Hiro's jet black hair was a mess, much like Netto's, and his eyes' irises were blue.
"What's with the chit – chat? Did ya get the ultimate weapon to beat them all from Bubble Man?" Ooyama Dekao rushed in while grinning and looking cocky.
"Oh come on! Dekao. You of all guys should know by now that whatever Bubble Man sells is a scam." Netto fumed.
"No! The Ultimate Drill Arm and Sword Arm Pack!"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure."
"What's with the ruckus? Fatman. What have you done now?"
"Wha! Meiru! D-don't get annoyed at me! I was…!"
"Building up fats and calories and vile lies…!"
"UWA~H!"
"Sheesh!"
Sakurai Meiru calmly walked into the spot but she looked pretty if not totally annoyed: she began to hiss while cutting off Dekao's reply and he ran off like he was gonna be slaughtered there and then.
"Tee, heh, heh. Saito – chan is gonna date Haruka – chan!"
"Date Mama? What does that mean, Yaito – chan?"
"Oh my! Ya know so much about PKMN…"
"… Huff. The girl protagonist of the 3rd gen, you meant to say? That joke's lame. And I suddenly feel like the glitch left."
"I'm Anti Glitches Yaito!"
Ayanokouji Yaito made up a silly joke as she joined the group: Saito groaned and looked like he'd snapped out of his earlier mood: the other 3 rolled their eyes in exasperation.
"Déjà vu." They muttered.
"What's with the ruckus?"
"Yo! Tomono – chan! Let's patent the "Tomo no ruretto"!"
"The "Friend Roulette"? Sheesh."
Yet another student happened to catch wind of the ruckus and headed over there to check it out when Yaito pulled a nickname on him.
"Try to ignore her, Noa – kun, or it gets worse."
"I know, Saito – kun."
Tomono Noa had neatly combed greenish hair and blue eye irises: he was closer to Saito in height.
"Noa – kun? You there? Is there some problem?"
"Hikawa – chan! Compete with Hinoken in the "hi-kawa"!"
"Sheesh. My surname doesn't mean "fire-river"!"
Hikawa Tooru joined them and sighed out of build up annoyance and exasperation when Yaito came up with some totally lame and meaningless pun.
"Look. It's already 11:10! We've got about 15 minutes of break left and I wanna have it on peace. The exams are close by too!" Netto tried to break off the gathering.
"Good point." Everyone (save Yaito) muttered.
They headed on different ways leaving her alone there: she shrugged and giggled as she stepped away.
"Oh well!"
"… Phew. We got away… somehow!"
"Yaito – chan…!"
Netto and Saito were discussing once they got away from the scene and close to the P. E. material storage workhouse: Netto sighed in relief and Saito was annoyed.
"Are you really sure those glitches can't be fixed?"
"There's no point. You might fix them all and one day something in the software might generate a new one outta the blue. Even modern games like the Halo trilogy are plagued with them. Every time you try to alter or change something in complex programming you get glitches or bugs: it's inevitable." Saito exposed with some annoyance.
"Alright, alright. I didn't want to annoy you, niisan."
"No. It's just that Yaito – chan's pun was lame."
"Totally."
"She seems to be somewhat of a stalker even. Always showing up to pull others into the prank show…"
"I wouldn't be surprised if she were."
"Dunno why I feel some kind of déjà vu…"
"Join the club." Netto sighed.
"I get the irony."
"Let's hope we can bear with the madness once again."
"Let's hope it, yeah."
"By the way… Are there any news?"
"B2 & W2? Apart from the animated trailer… It's set for release on the 23rd… It's still a long way ahead…" Saito rolled his eyes.
"I know. But it'll surely be worth the wait."
"Oh well. Let's bring out the sparkling dust." He tried to make up a joke to break the ice.
"Heh. And Bubble Man will sell it claiming it brings luck around. The guy won't learn. But since he's harmless then…"
"I know. Who else would think that setting up an empty box labeled "C4" and copying the design of a TV remote would let you blow out a bridge's pillar, anyway?" He laughed.
"Instead of Bubble Man he should be Short Man. In height and wits and strength." Netto joked.
"Hah. Not bad, Netto – kun."
"We gotta stay cherry if we wanna tackle these exams! 2nd of middle school won't end so easily."
"Of course not. Let's bring out the heavy guns." Saito grinned.
"The Nidoking and the Nidoqueen?"
"Guess that. Sakaki will come to get them back with a Sidon which knows "Horn Drill" and will put Drill Man outta job."
"And Drill Man will engage in a deadly battle with the Sidon!" Netto eagerly exclaimed.
"Drill VS Drill! Who will win?"
11:24 AM (Japan Time)…
"… BUKU – PUKU – RUKU! Don't miss Bubble Man – sama's Mega Alien Clock! De puku! For only 5,000 Z! The invention of the century: ya can know what time it's in Mars! De puku!"
"Bubble Man and the guy's ads, huh?"
"Sure, Delta – kun."
"I know, Roll – chan."
Roll EXE was walking down a street in the Internet City along with another Net Navi, named Delta.
Delta's main body color was jet black while his forearms, boots, shoulder plates, rear-pack and helmet were painted silver.
His face looked strikingly similar to Rock Man's although he had some slight differences regarding the eyes' irises (which were blue) and the shape of his cheek bones.
The central part of his helmet had a murkier silver color to it plus two rectangles and one band cutting across it starting at the back: some jet black hair came out from behind the helmet as well.
His emblem was a silver Delta set against a black background.
Overall, he looked extremely similar to Rock Man and seemed to be around his height as well.
"Guts, guts. Glyde, what's Mars, de guts? A Battle Chip, guts?" Guts Man EXE asked close by.
"No, sir. It's a planet, sir!" Glyde EXE replied.
"Planet? Guts?"
"Someone upgrade his AI already~!"
"Poor Glyde. He's getting another exasperation attack."
"Anyone would, Roll – chan, anyone would."
"Ah! Delta – sama, sir. Good morning, sir."
"Red Sword… Anything on our sneaky Koratta?"
"Nothing, sir. We've deduced they're outside the country, though."
"It was to be expected."
A new Navi met with them and saluted.
Red Sword had a wild flock of silver hair which came out from behind the helmet and covered all of his body's back.
His helmet's main color was blood red as well, yet the inner edges surrounding his thick red shades had a tint of purple to them: a purple band formed on the forehead and circled the whole diameter of it: two valley-shaped cavities had been inserted into the sides of it.
They ended in golden circles: a "fin" sprouted from the top of the helmet thus giving it a menacing-like look.
His main "skin" color was black, yet his upper torso had red blood armor built over it: there were two black shapes drawn over the shoulders having a golden rim and a thin black line spread from the base of the neck to the lower edge of the armor.
An emblem with a black edge was set on the chest: it consisted of white and black halves split by a thunderbolt-shaped line: white was golden and silver was right.
The forearms were colored blood red and had two purple-colored parallel formations which originated at the sides of the emblem atop each hand's palm: they spread over the edge of the forearm while forming a pyramid-like shape.
The central body of the forearm was now colored metallic gray and had two purple circles colored yellow inside: a purplish-colored blade emerged around a cone-shaped purple-colored formation: the blade looked sharp and menacing for some reason or another.
His boots began slightly below the knee.
They had purple-colored diamond-like shapes which extended as high as the knee: they were colored blood red as well: the soils were colored purple, too.
"So? Did the club behave? Or do I need to come down and put out another fight between Cloud and Blizzard?"
"Ah! Well, sir… Cosmo Man and I are managing somehow, sir."
"About time." He fumed.
"I shall offer no apologies."
"No, I didn't mean you. I meant those 2. About time they started to listen to you and Cosmo."
"Yeah. Guess that." Roll sighed.
"Yo! What's with the chit – chat? By Haddock and Unicorn!"
"Forte. That joke you just made up is lame."
"Grawl."
Forte came out of side-alley while walking: his cloak was on but since he now kept the upper edge around his neck one could see his permanent grin: he was followed by a smaller version of the "Gospel" beast but which was at least one meter and eighty tall: Delta wasn't impressed by him showing up since he closed his eyes and folded his arms.
"I just told Gate Man to pray to the Brandenburg Gate."
"How original."
"And Meijin is looking for his missing fan-girl autograph."
"I feel skeptical." Roll muttered.
"Zero was trying to outshine Major Zero."
"That joke's running old." Red Sword grumbled.
"Bubble Man was making up "Alien Clocks" and I bought one to have it as decoration for my hut." He giggled.
"No wonder." Delta wasn't surprised.
"No wonder, oh wondering wonderer of wonderers."
"So?"
"Raf is re-painting the Vatican's website."
"Jeez! Forte, Danna! Don't mix me with the Italian artist. My name's Raphael, yeah, but…!"
"Then you're one of the 4 Heavenly Kings! Or I should I say 4 Heavenly Turtles?"
"The TMNT joke's outdated, too!"
Rafael used black as his main body color.
His head was encompassed within a helmet having a copy of his emblem set on the forehead with a metallic rim: the forehead piece was colored red while the rear part was black.
A red stripe extended from the forehead and through the middle of the helmet while heading towards the rear: the sides of his helmet had white armor constructed over them.
A small cavity housed the ear-pads from where a red stripe originated and was drawn across it until the end: the helmet design also included two small yellow pieces extending until the edge of the lower jaw.
His face had a hard-to-spot scar in the shape of the Alphabet letter "X" drawn above the nose: his eyes' irises were green and he looked youthful: spiked brown hair came out from behind the helmet.
Rafael's emblem was two triangles missing the base and being intercrossed plus three round dots on the middle of the formation and to the sides of it: the whole set was colored bronze and set against a navy blue background.
His chest armor had the emblem set on its middle: three parallel red lines were drawn over its upper edge and extended past the neck's base and apparently until his back.
The segment below the emblem was colored yellow and it included a red stripe on the center which extended until the edge of the chest armor.
His shoulders had the shape of a red triangle drawn on their upper face while their main color was black: a thin round yellow stripe was present just where the arms began.
His arms' skin was also gray in this spot yet it soon got covered by black armor having a metallic piece of the elbow colored in a thicker shade of gray: the armor extended until the wrists where a trapeze-shaped piece of armor originated: his hands were covered in white "gloves" as well like most Net Navis.
Two thin red stripes ran down the unarmored gray-skinned body until the waist where another piece of armor was present: it had the general shape of briefs underwear and the color of choice was black as well: yet another red stripe ran down the center of it and curved to continue towards the rear.
One gun-belt colored silver was attached on the waist and had holsters for two guns which looked like modified handguns colored purple and having a white muzzle.
His boots began over the knees and extended until the feet: the color of choice was black again and there also was a red stripe running down the length of them across the center: the outer sides of each one had a white-colored triangle-shaped cavity which had a lower edge and a red stripe running down the rightmost edge: the heels' armor was gray as well.
Lastly, two white triangle-like extensions protruded from the rear of his body and extended diagonally towards the ground in a SE direction.
Overall, he looked heavily customized and cool.
"Heh, heh, heh. Oh yeah. I checked on something." He let out.
"On what or who?" Roll looked suspicious.
"Whoa. Mistress. Don't look at me like I'm guilty of some crime!"
"I just feel like you've done something bad. VERY bad."
"I meant to say that I checked on a group of 13 Heel Navis who believed they were the "13 Knights of Doom"… I saw Blues and Search Man beat them in a flash." He explained.
"Ah. If it's just that…"
"Desu? Is there some problem?"
Ice Man happened to walk down the road into the right side of the square where they all were at right now.
"Nothing important, Ice Man." Roll told him.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." Number Man greeted as he caught up with them.
"You look pretty beaten, Number Man." Delta spotted.
"Oh yes. I was hunting for Rare Chips in the Reverse Internet and I got some. I hope Yamitarou will pay more attention to the store from now on." He explained.
"DE MASU~! My new Yamitarou Charm will protect me from evil sorcerers! MASU~!" Higure Yamitarou exclaimed over Number Man's radio band.
"Behold! The Subspace Emissary~!" Forte called out.
"MASU~!"
CRASH!
"Oh come on." Number Man fumed.
"Heh, heh, heh. It turns out the SE has a twin bro! Or maybe the SE is the twin bro? Heh, heh, heh."
"If you mean Tabuu… I'd spotted that, too. But the guy is not a copy of the in-game Tabuu. Mr. Vadous did tell us that he was a Navi that he had designed several years ago and then went off on his own." Delta rolled his eyes and sighed.
"I know, Delta Team!"
"Have you got something USEFUL to do?"
"Hmmm… Sure. Dropping by Serenade's and have a chat about chit-chatting parrots in the Devil's Inn. Heh, heh, heh. And maybe I'll introduce ya to the guy's pal…" He blinked Delta an eye.
"Don't bother to." Delta drily replied.
"Let's go, Gospel Jr.!"
Forte walked away along with "Gospel Jr." while the group sighed and began to disband.
"Red. Just don't get obsessed with trying to find "Zeta": if they said they only wanted to test us by stirring up that of some weeks ago then they surely aren't coming back. Keep an eye out on the Z – Militia trio just in case: you never know. Those are dangerous. And I don't think the prison can hold them at bay forever."
"Good point, sir. I shall go investigate, sir."
"Excellent. I'm counting on you, Red."
"Roger, sir!"
Red Sword ran off while Number Man nodded at them and exited the Internet City: Roll opened a screen and checked a schedule: she shrugged and didn't seem to be worried.
"By the way, Delta - kun…"
"Yes, Roll – chan?"
"Is it true? Meiru – chan says Hiro – kun claims that you are his house's maid."
"That got into his head after he watched a shotacon OVA titled "Boy Maid Kuro – kun"…" He muttered with some annoyance.
"Really… Hiro – kun is terrible, trying to tease you like that."
"I know. He needs someone to splash his face with cold water and get back to work." He sighed.
"Sure thing… And that would do for Yaito – san too."
"Really. Miss Heiress… I dunno why I feel some kind of déjà vu when bringing up her name. My imagination, I guess."
"Guess that, yeah."
"Morning."
"Hey. Zero. What's up?"
"Huff. Apart from Forte's lame jokes?"
"Apart from that."
"No big deal. I dropped by the WWW Area to train on Program Advances and nothing's changed ever since that incident in St. Valentine's with those weird foreign Navis…"
Zero EXE, the former Zero Virus, walked into the square while sighing and sounding both fed up and tired.
"Anyway… I'm gonna drop by Obihiro's to see if he finished the debugging of that app Mejin was having trouble with… And ask him if he got to figure out something about "Zeta"… But I doubt it."
"No wonder. He was out of the town by the time the whole mess with "Zeta" happened."
"In the end… We didn't even figure out their gender, did we?" Roll seemed to recall.
"No. We tend to assume it's a man but it could be a woman too: it's just that we tend to be too narrow-minded in these things. And they could be a woman trying to pose as a man too."
"In short: we know nothing save their name. And that they know a bit about PKMN but that hardly says anything, either."
"It doesn't say anything. They did a damned good job at being as vague as possible and leaving us with nothing to cling to." Zero growled.
"Whoa. Calm down, Zero."
"My bad. It's just this built-up frustration… I'll vent it off by walking to Obihiro's place… See you."
"Bye."
"Take care."
"Oh well. Guess we should each other's paths already." Delta suggested to Roll.
"Sure. We just happened to be heading for the same sector." She shrugged and didn't seem to mind.
"Let's hope someone doesn't start rumors." He warned in a hushed tone of voice.
"Hmpf. If they do… Then let them come and show their hides if they've got any dignity…" She was unimpressed.
"That's it. Bye."
"Bye~…"
Delta headed SW while Roll turned right: Delta looked like he was thinking of something.
I hope Hiro – kun doesn't overdo this time around either. He doesn't have any bad intention, that's for sure, yet… He can be a bit reckless from time to time. Or hot-blooded, too… In that he takes after Hikari – kun: no wonder Saito – kun finds his lil bro so hard to control from time to time yet that hot-blooded nature sometimes turned out to be helpful… Like when they pulled down the switch of the power plant to stop Elec Man from recharging energy…
However, he didn't spot a single Mettool looking at him from some distance and apparently trailing him from time to time: the Mettool's eyes glowed with a bluish glow as if something was different with it.
"Oh well. Let's just tackle the errands and be done with it. Not like anything is gonna happen… is it?"
I dunno why but I felt a shiver go down my spine… I'm over-reacting!
22:22 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Yo. Aniki."
"So? How's it going like?"
"Heh, heh, heh. I'm only pending one more to set… Tomorrow's a good chance…"
"Just don't get cocky. Don't underestimate those guys. And by "those guys" I mean old Lezareno and company…"
"I know. But they're far more worried about finding that "Zeta" guy whoever the guy is, so…"
"Fine. But I'm gonna warn ya again, AC…"
"No need to, KT. I'm in charge. Of the situation."
"Sure, sure. Just remember how they lured me out using a 19th century trick, will you? Don't take anything for granted when it comes to those guys! Absolutely nothing…"
A figure was standing in the balcony of an apartment in the city and looking out at the setting night as they talked with someone through a cell-phone: the caller sounded confident and smug but the person on the other end of the line didn't sound amused at all: they sounded like they were tired of having to insist on that over and over again.
"Ya just relax and watch from your VIP seat!"
"Fine. But a warning is a warning. And since I don't trust you not to screw it up… When you carry out the big operation… Dispose of this phone beforehand. I'll use another method to contact you were everything to end up alright. If I don't get response then don't count me to get you outta the fire." The other person described.
"I know, I know. Well then. See ya!"
"Hmpf. Just don't screw it up."
"Don't worry~! Heh, heh, heh. This is gonna be FUN! Heh, heh, heh!"