The Two Plotters

by Zoram Selrof

Sequel to Eclipse's Influence. Some months have passed since the crisis involving Virus Daemon. Eclipse, the hacker, doesn't seem capable of doing anything. But then a mysterious "General" appears and manages to take over multiple Internet Cities in an unprecedented scale. A struggle to free the cities and try to defeat this powerful enemy begins... Rated M for lemon.

1. Chapter 1: Heating up

The Two Plotters

By Zoram Selrof

Chapter 1: Heating up

10:23 AM (Japan Time), Sunday October the 2nd, 2012...

"... How's this for a heating up, Hikari?"

"Not bad, Enzan! I guess I missed one of these."

"Heh. But your speed hasn't dropped."

"Guess that!"

"You're as speedy as ever, Blues!"

"Heh. And despite that you're always one step ahead of me, Rock Man!"

Hikari Netto and Ijuuin Enzan (both aged 15) were having a friendly Net Battle in a corner of the Higureya store, sitting on chairs on opposite sides of a table that had a Net Battle terminal: both had their holographic displays of their Link PETs activated and were using them to send Battle Chips to their Navis: the terminal had a projector of its own that displayed how the battle was being held in the classical 9X9 grid: Rock Man had a Long Sword drawn and was clashing with Blues' Long Blade when he tried to step into Rock Man's area: both looked in a good mood.

"Rock Man! Plan D!"

"OK!"

"Plan D, eh? Interesting. Let's see things unfold, Blues!"

"Roger, Enzan – sama."

Rock Man smiled and drew a Long Blade as well: he then used a "Fumikomizan" ability to step into Blues' area and he brought up his shield to block the attack by the two blades: Rock Man quickly pulled back just as Blues swung his Long Blade horizontally and missed Rock Man by a few inches: Rock Man calmly resumed his initial position and stepped back to the farthest row: Blues saw a chance and stepped forward to try to attack with a vertical slash but Rock Man quickly moved one panel upwards and attacked just as Blues was about to attack: his slash made a slight cut on Blues' armor but he didn't flinch and merely retreated into his area.

"I see. So you added an extra effect to your swords."

"Yeah. I thought it could come in handy because the opponent would expect you to use the Battle Chip itself." Netto admitted.

"But I suppose you want to save it up for special occasions?"

"Of course."

"Well, well! This is a pro battle indeed! De masu!" Higure Yamitarou commented as he walked over to them.

"Evidently." Number Man shrugged.

"Oops! Customers, de masu."

Higure rushed back to the counter when he saw two or three customers coming in and start to looking at the shelves but not before closing a blue curtain to give them intimacy: Netto and Enzan were focused on their Net Battle and hadn't shifted their attention from there: both were highly concentrated.

"Plan C!"

"Roger!"

"More plans, huh? Fine! Let's check it out, Blues!"

"Roger, Enzan – sama."

"… Sorry, but the Net Battle machine is being used right now. De masu."

"What? Impossible. It's mine and only mine." A man's voice grumbled.

"No, de masu. It's not yours. And, besides… I'd never seen you here before, de masu."

"If I say it's mine then it's mine."

"None, de masu. I bought it with my money and it legally belongs to me. My lawyer can attest to that, de masu."

"Lawyers? Who? Naruhodou Ryuuichi? Hah!"

"Hey, you. Higure – san's right. You're not from this city and now you claim that the Net Battle machine is yours. Who do you think you are, the spoiled son of some CEO? You're a high school student and behave like a kid in elementary, man!" A younger customer complained.

"Is there a problem?"

"Ah! Mr. Policeman… See, this young man… He claims that this store's Net Battle machine is his despite that he's never set foot here before. De masu. And laughed when I said my lawyer would prove that it's mine."

"Hum. I see."

"Hah! You don't scare me. Daddy will crush you!"

"Oh yes? Who is he? The CEO of Panasonic?"

"Hmpf! Panasonic is history!"

"… I can't concentrate." Netto grumbled.

"Great. Some idiot had to come wreck our training." Enzan fumed.

"Let's hope the policeman kicks some sense into that guy." Rock Man turned off the swords and sighed.

"Yeah. Let's hope so." Blues also did the same.

"Well, young man… Your father might be a powerful CEO but that doesn't mean that you can do as you please. You might have powerful lawyers but that doesn't give you the right to mock his lawyer. If he's such a powerful CEO then why don't you ask him to buy you one to have at home so that you can use it whenever you want?" The policeman sighed.

"That's not fun. I want to show everyone I'm the strongest man in this nation!"

"Strongest, huh? Based on what? Intimidation? Coercion?" Enzan suddenly came out of the cubicle to discuss with the guy.

"Huh? I've seen you somewhere before, punk."

"Same here… Ah! I remember. You're the son of the Big Company's CEO, aren't you?" Enzan recognized him.

"Geh! You're Ijain from APS!"

"Ijuuin from IPC. Remember people's names. Didn't your daddy teach you to do that?"

"Hah! You're a lazy moron who slacks off work, I know it!"

"Oh yeah? Talk about yourself. Thinking some proxies will do the job?"

"Of course!"

"I don't think so. They might be talented people but the investors would rather have someone who inherits the will of the current CEO leading the business to ensure it doesn't stray off its main goal… Speaking of which, you bet so much in that "Booster System" yet it was full of structural errors and incomplete segmentations… You realized it was taking far more time than you thought it'd take and instead of delaying its sale you released an incomplete product." Enzan lectured.

As expected of Enzan, right, Netto – kun? Rock Man called out to him.

Sure thing, niisan. He'll surely get rid of that spoiled jerk and we'll be able to resume our training.

"Guh… Kuh… Sh…! I'll remember this!"

"There goes. Spoiled kids indeed. When confronted with reality they'd rather run away from it than face it."

"Indeed, indeed… Well then, I'll resume my patrol. Good morning."

"Thank you very much, sir."

"It's nothing."

"Ijuuin…? Ah! You're that famed Official Net Battler! Wow!"

"Guess that. Got stuff to handle so I'll be going back to it. And don't try to peek."

"O-OK…"

Enzan returned into the cubicle and sighed before stretching and rubbing his eyes.

"Oh well. Let's resume."

"Sure."

Both Navis got back into combat stances and drew their swords: Rock Man quickly stepped forward and tried a combination of a thrust, a vertical slash and a horizontal slash: Blues dodged each of them and then brought up his shield to block them: Blues then countered in a swift diagonal swing that made a slight cut on Rock Man's chest over his emblem: Rock Man merely spun using the inertia and put some distance between them.

"Heh! Diagonal, eh? I'll take note of it." Netto grinned.

"I knew you would. And I'll incorporate that extra effect as well. It'll be in handy to deal with rascals good at running."

"I'd rather send Koopa in a bike after them!"

"From Mario Kart, eh? Let's keep on, Blues!"

"Roger, Enzan – sama!"

"OK! Rock Man! Full speed ahead!"

"Roger, Netto – kun!"

Both combatants rushed for each other and began to clash their blades: Rock Man tried to attack the right hip but Blues quickly aimed his right arm's blade downwards and blocked the attack: he used the left arm one to try to thrust forward but Rock Man ducked and the blade thrust through empty air: he used the left one to make a superficial cut on the front side of Blues' right leg but he didn't mind it: they stepped away to put some distance and evaluate each other.

"I wasn't expecting that one. Another one for the list!"

"Sure thing. How about we end it up "grand style"?"

"Why not…" Enzan grinned.

"Heh. Let's do this! Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Slot In!"

"DREAM SWORD!"

"Same here! DREAM SWORD!"

Both Navis readied the "Dream Sword" Program Advance and flung it at each other: they collided and caused a bright explosion yet none of them were harmed in the least: they walked forward and shook hands.

"OK. This was a good heat-up. I've got a meeting at the HQ so I'm leaving. See you around, Hikari." Enzan stood up, satisfied.

"Sure thing, Enzan. If you need another of these then ring me up."

He extended his right hand and Enzan shook it with energy.

"Heh. Well then… See you!"

10:45 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Tee, heh, heh."

"What's up, Yaito – chan?"

"Listen up, Meiru – chan! The CEO of the Big Company is a spoiled high-schooler who thinks he's the strongest! Was trying to say Higureya's Net Battle machine was his!"

"Somehow, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Seeing your behavior from time to time…"

"Well, but at least I'm not saying police doesn't scare me!"

"Huff. I'm beaten from this gym session and least I need is a headache. What's the next topic on the local news?"

"Glyde will invent the Gliding League!"

"The madness! It's coming back, Roll – san!"

"Calm down, Glyde! Sheesh!"

Sakurai Meiru was sitting in a chair next to a static bicycle set in a gym inside of the Akanoyouji mansion judging by a nearby portrait of Akanoyouji Yaito dressed as a princess.

She wore the school's P.E. uniform and had a tower over her shoulders: she held a bottle of Aquarius on her right hand which was three-quarters empty.

Yaito also wore the P.E. uniform and looked up to something given her grin as she read up info from her PET: she made one of her silly jokes and Glyde began to despair while Roll tried to calm him down.

"I'm sure there's plenty of them across the world by now to begin with, Yaito – chan. You don't impress me." Meiru sighed.

"So?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"So… What?"

"What's that secret of Hikari – kun that you've got?"

"None of your business, Yaito – chan. I made a promise."

"But, you know…"

"I'm serious. I'm not a hypocrite." She was getting annoyed.

"Yikes! Alright, alright!"

"Who told you that, anyway?"

"Roll did."

"Did you, Roll?"

"No, Meiru – chan."

"I have no recollection of that, either." Glyde frowned.

"Then it had to be that gal." Meiru sighed.

"What gal?"

"Eclipse."

"Eclipse? Is she related to those weird guys from the summer?" Yaito asked, frowning.

"Well… In some degree, yeah. But at least the "Committee" have set their eyes on her. Seeing how she's the type that will use any means to achieve her petty interests… The type that will infiltrate a criminal org but instead of trying to actively sabotage it she used it for her profits instead." Meiru explained.

"I see. But why would she tell me that?"

"Maybe the gal is so itching to figure it out that she thought in a whim to try to exploit our friendship. Thinking that, as a fellow girl, I'd tell you stuff that I wouldn't tell the guys." She shrugged.

"Oh. I see. Wait… Eclipse… Is she related to that duo? What was it? Sun & Moon?"

"Sunlight & Moonlight." Roll corrected.

"Oh no. She's not. I think she coined her name time ago, before those two were designed. But then again there's a lot of characters named "Eclipse"… For example… There's the "Eclipse" summon from the Golden Sun series."

"Ah yeah. I remember those games. They were fun but challenging."

"Sure."

"Excuse us, Yaito – sama." There was a knock at the door.

"Ah, it's the strawberry milk… Come in!"

"Yes, miss."

Two of Yaito's maids came in: one was pushing a trolley with a glass bottle of strawberry milk and two cups: the other one filled both glasses and put the bottle back inside of a metallic cube filled with water and ice: they both bowed and left the gym.

"Want some?"

"No, thanks. I've got this Aquarius here, anyway." She removed the cap and drank some more.

"OK."

Yaito picked one of the glasses and sipped some: she smiled and seemed to be getting in the mood to pull one of her pranks: Meiru sighed and rolled his eyes, seeing it coming.

"By the way! Did you know?"

"Know… What? Another of your titles? At this rate you'll have more titles than the Royal Family." Meiru tried to guess.

"I'm going to be the Strawberry Baroness!"

"Oh, sure. Patent that for an adventure novel. The Strawberry Baroness that goes on searching for the Fountain of Eternal Strawberry." Meiru improvised as if to shake her off.

"Good attempt, Meiru – chan! But I'm not giving up so easily. Tee, heh, heh!"

"Good grief."

"I'm going to show up in a CM about this brand of strawberry milk! I'll make them famous! All thanks to Baroness Yaito – sama!"

"Does your father approve of that or you arranged it on your own?"

"D-daddy is unrelated." She gulped all of a sudden and began to nervously sweat as she looked around the room.

"Thought as much. Gabcom is a game-making company, you know?"

"Of course I know! I'm the heiress!"

"I don't see what they gain from sponsoring a strawberry milk maker, anyway. Unless they're so desperate for publicity that they want to put ads or promotions on the bottles' labels." Meiru calmly argued as she drank some more Aquarius.

"Just you wait and see!"

"Oh boy." Glyde sighed.

"Huff. Does her father know or…?" Roll asked in a whisper.

"I did send him several messages but he's in the middle of negotiating a new contract with Valve Software regarding PC and Linux ports for some of the most recent Gabcom games…" Glyde answered.

"Did she really contact the maker?"

"Not really. But she's hired a company through an alias to do the preparations and they're already underway…"

"Lovely. What about the head maid?"

"She is but an employee. She has no authority to stop Yaito – sama's decisions… An aspect I've argued with Mr. President several times but he always shrugged it off."

"Sheesh. Someone needs to have the authority to put a halt to her crazy ideas when her father isn't around to oversee things." Roll fumed.

"Yes, that's what I argued and yet…"

"What are you two hushing about? Oho. Roll… Did you just propose to Rocky and you want Glyde to be the godfather?"

"E~H?" Glyde was baffled.

"Very funny!" Roll wasn't amused in the least.

"What's the point? Navis don't have children, you know."

"Ah. But they can ask for a programmer to build a child-model Navi that carries on some characteristic of either and has a basic AI that can be expanded upon…" Yaito grinned.

"Don't tell me that's a new line of business you intend to start."

"Oh, no. It's already being done overseas. A lot of those are popping up there and there in Ameroupe. It's called the "Cyber Baby Boom" by some media." Yaito replied.

"They don't know what to invent anymore, huh? And what's it supposed to achieve, anyway?" Meiru wasn't too surprised.

"Gals who'd like to have a baby but don't want the artificial insemination deal… They can have a "Cyber Baby" instead and along with their Navi raise it together. At least that's what most users admit."

"Well… We'll see where it leads to. I'm sure there'll be some controversy at some point nevertheless."

"Isn't there always, anyway? Oh well. I need a shower."

"Same here. I've cooled a bit but I need a proper shower to take care of this sweat." Meiru stood up.

"This gym wing includes the changing rooms and showers as well so we can do it like we were in the school but there'll be only the two of us. It'll be quieter." Yaito smiled.

"I hope you don't try one of your typical shower pranks. You know that I'm not fond of them unlike some of the other girls in the class." Meiru warned her.

"O-of course I won't!" Yaito gulped.

"Good. I'll have a glass of that strawberry milk, too. I've got some Aquarius left but I'll save it up for another day."

Meiru walked over the tray and picked the second glass: she slowly drank some and stopped to savor it: she looked mildly satisfied so she kept on drinking: Yaito was talking with Glyde in the meanwhile while Roll was looking up information.

"… We're too young for this, anyway. We're both busy, too. This can wait… Maybe this boom will fade away in less than a month, even."

"Sure. These things last less than Jupiter's rotation to begin with."

"Yaito – sama… I insist again. Let's stop this deal with the CM."

"You're too much of a worrywart, Glyde! Leave it up to me! Heh!"

11:03 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Halt! Who goes there?"

"It's me, Yamato Man… Who else did you expect to come?"

"Hum. You never know, Forte. A guardian can't lower the guard."

"Well… You've got a point. Some rascals have managed to come here before, after all."

"Ah. Forte. So you did come."

"Of course. Did you think I wouldn't?"

"I thought you were in Thailand, so…"

Yamato Man readied his spear when someone approached him in the Secret Area: the visitor was Forte who came in walking: he resumed his normal pose and Forte admitted he had a point: Serenade then came in by climbing down the stairs leading up to his square.

"Thailand? Me? Who told you that?"

"Rafael did."

"Rafael can come in here?" Forte frowned.

"Oh no. I'd gone to Internet City to help Mamoru with some errands he wanted to do… And we crossed paths." Serenade explained.

"… Ah! I did mention Thailand saying that Bubble Man was caught trying to scam tourists in Bangkok Internet City… But I didn't go there, I just heard it from someone in Twitter…" Forte clarified.

"Ah. So he wasn't paying attention and misunderstood that you were going to Thailand instead. Oh well. No – one's perfect."

"Yeah. Not like I was going to discuss with Rafael over that."

"But I'm surprised nevertheless that Bubble Man dared to leave his workshop to go to Bangkok of all places."

"I was surprised, too! It'd seem they kicked the guy back here and revoked him permission to travel abroad. He's still a WWW member even if the WWW was dismantled. And he cheated at ice hockey as well."

"But apart from that he hasn't done any real harm."

"Yeah. And that's why both Officials and Net Police have let the guy do as he likes all this time."

"Yes. The Net Police is the anti-cyber terrorism branch of the police that was reformed into a stand-off organization… To help coordinate the Official Net Battlers… The Net Police normally gathers the information and manages petty Net crime but they are also authorized to handle general threats along with the Officials… It's a form of ensuring that the Officials don't gain too much authority and begin to chase interests of their own and not those who pose a real threat…" Serenade recalled.

"Ah, yeah? Thanks for reminding me, I hadn't bothered to figure out the legal differences between each org. By the way, what category does the "Hunters' Guild" fall in, then?"

"They're collaborators who can work independently of the Net Police but have no authority to arrest, only to investigate. Formal arrest and all are handled by either Net Police or the Official Net Battlers."

"Hum. I see. Guess Omega and the others fall into the same category, then…"

"I suppose."

"Things have been ever since late August, though… We were expecting Eclipse to make a move but it'd seem the woman's smart enough to know it's pointless… Shouldn't have a reason to, now that Virus Daemon is locked up in the brig once and for all."

"Yes. But she cannot be trusted, nevertheless. She can be very amoral and has her own way of doing things…"

"Obviously. But the "Committee" guys are keeping an eye on that woman. They should be able to detect if she gets in the move."

"Rattling devils!" Dark Man complained close by.

"What's the matter?" Yamato Man asked him.

"Huff! I found a bunch of bounty hunters who were trying to abduct me saying I'm the Navi of the Konami CEO and wanted to use me as hostage to get ransom money! What idiots. I sent them running and called Mist Man to teach them a lesson about the rules of the Reverse Internet. What idiots!" He explained.

"Dark Man, the Navi of the Konami CEO…? Oh come on. They must be newbies who haven't heard of him." Forte rolled his eyes.

"By the way, what about your pet?"

"Pet? Gospel Jr.? Ah. It's on the Science Labs. It'd seem Meijin wanted to further study the outer armor to try to recreate it and use as building material…"

"Hum. I see."

"I apologize for the scandal." Dark Man hovered in and bowed.

"No need to bow, my friend. I never ordered you to bow before me or be loyal to me." Serenade replied.

"Thank you."

"Did they look like newbies?" Forte asked Dark Man.

"Hard to say. They felt like they were foreigners, in my opinion. From another Asian nation, I think. But what idiots… Like the Navi of the Konami CEO would be openly roaming in the depths of the Reverse Internet… Speaking of which… I spotted Shadow Man. It'd seem he's after the trail of some smugglers."

"Hi, guys. What's up?" Urakawa Mamoru opened a holographic window: he had a headset of a mike plus headphone on.

"No big deal. Some stupid bounty hunters that thought that Dark Man was the Navi of the Konami CEO."

"Really? They sure were stupid, no? Did they think that the CEO modelled him after a Castlevania character?"

"Maybe." Serenade shrugged.

"I will return to my patrol."

"Alright. One thing, Dark Man… Anger does not solve problems." Serenade warned him.

"Of course, my lord."

"By the way, Urakawa… Did that chess guy show up again?"

"Torakichi – kun? Sure did. Why does he bother to, anyway?" He sighed.

"Dunno. Beats me, too."

"I don't play Net Chess to begin with, anyway. And we got to know each other just because he was stopping in this inn to begin with. I heard that his latest tournament he messed up a lot and ended up 5th place… I guess he got cocky with his previous victories." Urakawa sighed again.

"That is a possibility. And to try to appeal as he strong he wants to challenge people with no experience. How the might have fallen."

"Yeah, that's exactly it! How the mighty have fallen indeed!"

"Did the hacker duo invite you to their club?" Forte suddenly asked.

"Hacker duo? You mean that Obihiro – kun and his cousin? No, they haven't. We haven't met each other yet. I guess we've both heard about each other but there's been no contact as of yet. And why do you need to ask that, Forte?"

"You never know."

"That's hardly an answer, mind you."

"Maybe I was expecting "The Three Geniuses" instead of the "The Three Musketeers"…" Forte chuckled.

"How lame." He didn't find it funny.

"Blame Omega. He's the one who came up with that."

"I had the feeling." Serenade sighed as if he'd seen it coming.

"Man. You didn't think of becoming a fortune-teller? You seem to predict stuff from time to time, too."

"I always fail to see the point in something that has no scientific foundation whatsoever."

"You're not the only one." Urakawa admitted.

"Hop and behold! It's the advent of the edgy edges!"

"Edgy edges? Please. Even a kid can come up with that pun."

"Maybe yea maybe nay, Mr. Smith. I'm off to picking up my pet. Petting pets. Heh, heh, heh!"

"Somehow I think his old, serious self was better."

"To some extent." Serenade replied.

"Well. Maybe he wasn't intended to be THAT dry and serious but his trauma and the passage of time did that to him."

"Indeed… We mustn't forget that he's a victim of fools who tried to stop progress… Fools afraid of the inevitable future…"

"Hmmm? What's this? Ah. It's nothing, just a Twitter suggestion about a tweet that some of the people I follow have liked… Nothing out of place. But autumn is about to hit us full blast, given these weather forecasts I'm looking at…" Urakawa muttered as he glanced at his right to something off-screen.

"Obviously."

"What now? Oh come on! Forte! "3 Geniuses of Hack and Crack: Soon in Theaters!"… That's not funny!" He groaned.

"Huff. At least it's not as unbearable as when Omega, Zero and him were running around and trolling."

"I know that, but…! Sheesh. To the garbage bin!"

"Hmmm… Make sure to have a look at the physical servers later. We need to make sure to secure some exits just in case."

"Just in case? Do you expect trouble?"

"Something tells me that "Eclipse" could attempt to impair roads to delay our arrival to the scene of trouble… So it would be better to have escape routes to the real world just in case. Ready a terminal with Bluetooth that can allow us to exit the Secret Area itself and then jump to your PC. We don't want to be cornered by that hacker, do we?" He exposed.

"Alright. I'll get working on that right away."

"… Huh? Who…? Nothing…? But I could've sworn that… Ah. Maybe it's her or a proxy… Had the feeling something was looking at me from close by but it's gone… Speaking of the devil, its shadow looms over us…"

"Oh well. Let's not allow that to sink our morale."

"You're right, Mamoru. I better resume my training as well."

Too much "peace" can dull one's senses… I must sharpen them again!