Chapter 2: Deadly Duchess
10:40 AM (Japan Time), Friday November the 28th…
"… Toyota and Atoyot drive and not drive~…"
"That rhyme is LAME."
"Blame Ryuuto!"
"Blame Martin…? Why?"
"…'Cause he brought the Scotland puns with him."
"Jeez. We haven't met him yet!"
Charles drove a white Toyota into one of the parking lots located within the Densan Airport perimeter while joking with Davis who didn't like his jokes to begin with.
"OK. Let's go meet Otuuyr."
"You mean Martin!"
"Nitram! Shadow Man's mirroring spell works!"
"What "mirroring spell"? This is plain joking."
He parked and stepped out: after making sure it was locked, he pocketed the keys on his raincoat's right pocket and whistled a tune as he headed towards the arrivals building.
"OK! Is Ryuuto - dono's flight on-time, Davis?" He asked him.
"Yeah. It's scheduled to land in another fifteen minutes. And stop with the puns."
"O. K., Dave~…" Charles grinned.
"Jeez."
He entered the arrivals building lobby and picked a spot near the doors which connected to the luggage picking area: he leant on the handrail and distractedly eyed the people going up and down.
"Yo~! Charles! Over here~!"
"They came. My successor… The Cyber Snatcher!"
"What the heck do you mean? Just because his Snatch Machine was more advanced that doesn't make it "Cyber"…"
"Don't ask me: ask IBM."
"Not again with the IBM pun… Go fish 'n chips!"
A young guy a bit younger than Charles by one or two years and shorter by about 4 to 5 centimeters walked over to him.
He had unkempt reddish hair and brown eye irises which currently depicted some amusement.
He sported a golden-colored sleeveless vest which was open and he had a black t-shirt underneath it: he also wore blue jeans with a modern-looking double-row belt.
He had an arm strap for a Link PET on his right arm: the Link PET was colored in camouflage colors.
Its emblem was a skull colored black and with blue eyes set against a silver background.
The newcomer was also carrying a wheeled suitcase and a black-colored backpack.
"Martin Blackdesu! It's been ages!" Charles greeted him with a hand shaking.
"The same applies to you, Senator Charles Morgangantz." Martin sounded amused.
"So! The Sheriff will come out to greet the Captain?" Davis asked the Navi inside of the PET.
"Sure thin'! Hauptmann!"
Martin's Navi projected with the holographic projector: they could be about Davis' height or slightly taller too.
He wore a Mexican-style hat over his brown dust – colored helmet which also had some random blue and black dots scattered around it: his eyes' irises were brown.
His main body was colored navy blue and he had an open blackish vest over the torso: he exhibited a Sheriff's star on the right side of his torso.
His shoulders were anatomically correct and they had brass plating over them.
The arms' length and the elbows were colored brown too and his forearms were green with two orange circling bands on them: his wrists had metallic bracelets on them.
He sported a black leather belt with two Colt revolvers on it along with bullets on his waist.
His legs were also colored brown but he had jeans over them which ended at the start of his boots.
The boots were colored black: they had blue and brown dots across them.
"Yeah! Ye can be sure of it, Mr. Captain Davis Henshman!"
"You keep on being the same as always! Eh, Lander?"
"Ye're right on that, Davis!" Lander grinned.
"Come: I'll invite you to my place."
"Lead the way." Martin smiled.
Both of them walked back into the parking lot and climbed into the white Toyota, which soon drove away.
"So? Are you gonna tell us why the heck were you in Sharo Nation of all places?" Charles asked him.
"Well! I was investigating a group named "The Filibusters of Death" or FOD for short. They firstly were no different from any other Sharo Nation – based mafia which went around smuggling weapons into neighboring countries… But… One mid October day… They suddenly changed."
"Mid October…!" Charles muttered.
"They were summoned by the big boss and warned the members over the fact that the police was about to catch 'em all, so it'd be better for them to scram. A week later the big boss was located dead in an infamous pub which was raided by the police… They claimed that he'd been gambling whatever money he had left in a Sharo Roulette game and that he got the bullet. However! We suspect it was staged." Martin detailed.
"Hum! There was a coup inside of it, then?"
"Yeah. But we don't know who did it, see. All that we know is that, after they scrambled, the whole thing became a Cyber World-using terrorist group. They have attributed to their own some small sabotage and murders within the under circles of Siberia."
"Siberia, huh?" Charles smirked.
"Also… We did manage to find out that there are six solo Navis each themed about a type of Trumps… Spade, Diamond, Club, Heart, Ace and Joker. There's supposedly a boss-like Navi and two persons running the business and they recently moved to Japan. That's why I've come: I have to investigate their activities."
"So that's why you were there, then. But if there are 7 Navis then it ain't the "Pentagon Scheme"…? Or they could be thought of later on and added at the last moment after the main 5 were done…"
"Have you fought any of them, Lander?" Davis asked.
"I did fight a guy named Sharp Spade. He was rather sneaky and tried to overwhelm me with a lot of attacks which had low power. When I tried to counter-attack, he fled." Lander admitted.
"Aha. He wasn't a big fish, then."
"By the way, Charles… Do you know a Sharo Nation Net Savior named Laika? I was supposed to contact him to brief him on what I knew."
"Laika? I know the chap. I'll introduce you two later. Let's go drop the luggage and then let's be on our way to the Net Police HQ."
11:21 AM (Japan Time)…
"… You gotta be kidding me…!"
"What's up, Enzan?"
Ijuuin Enzan turned from looking at the coffee vending machine to spot Laika walking towards him: Enzan looked rather sleepy and tired.
"What… Did you stay up late?" Laika guessed.
"Yeah… One salesman came late at the evening and there was no way to shake him off… I told him over and over again that his project could be done by us by half of his proposed budget… Finally, I lost patience and told him: "Get your feet outta 'ere before I blow your PET up with my Net Navi."… And flee, he sure did." Enzan yawned.
"And the reason you were cursing a minute ago was because the coffee vending machine has broken down?" Laika smirked as he glanced at the small LCD screen.
"OUT OF ORDER"
"Yeah… What about ya? What did you do last night? Blow some Viruses up?" Enzan asked as he barely repressed another yawn.
"You could say I had a rather intriguing night. We had an unannounced visitor… It was a solo Net Navi from a Sharo Nation – based group, "Filibusters of Death". His name was Sharp Spade. He fled after we taught him one or two things." Laika smiled.
"What the… Why do these things only happen to you and I get the short end of the stick?" Enzan cursed and pointed an accusing finger at Laika's face.
"Enzan – sama has been wishing for a ruckus to happen as of late so as to break out of his everyday routine. He thought Twilight and his freakish "Talon" program would do." Blues hushed.
"It's no surprise." Search Man smirked.
"By the way, Enzan… There's someone behind you."
Enzan turned around, still being half-sleepy, only to be met by a blue-colored monster face.
It had red eyes, big and sharp teeth, four wide and big horns and a kind of crown.
"YEA~RGH!"
The monster's face faded away to reveal Charles' face.
"Yo!" He greeted with a broad grin.
"Gah! Charles! What was that for?" Enzan demanded, now being fully awake.
"I saw you very sleepy, so I thought I could give you a hand to shake it off."
"Hmm? Who's that guy?" Laika asked while signaling Martin.
"King Land Net Savior: Martin Blackdesu. I'm in charge of the investigation regarding the "Filibusters of Death"..." Martin announced.
"Oh. So you're the person my superiors told me to expect, then."
"Hullo! I'm Lander: the Sheriff of this county!" Lander announced.
"Wow. You do look like one." Search Man smirked.
"Be careful, Search Man. He may be faster shooting than his own shadow." Blues made a smirk as well.
"Yeah! No crappy shadow can match my speed!" Lander laughed.
"Maybe it'd be better if we went to visit Commissioner Kifune and brief him and all of you at the same time?" Charles suggested.
"That's not a bad idea, ya know." Martin brought the right hand to his chin and looked like he thought it was wise.
"Let's go, Cyber Snatcher! Catch the "Kairyuu" Mirror Ball has on him and put an end to the "Dark PKMN Scheme"!"
"Jeez. Stop with the XD jokes… It's already been 3 years since the release to begin with! Let's move it already, Charlie~… Heh, heh, heh."
12:33 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Phew. Work and more work!"
"The Maha Special, Dr. Wily – sama."
Count Elec, Operator of Elec Man, was cleaning up one Maha Ichiban's table: he sighed in relief once he was done, while Maha Jarama, Magic Man's Operator, carried a dish of curry rice with its sauce towards a table and deposited it there.
"Oho! Today's Maha Special seems to have a distinct scent…"
Dr. Wily, dressed with his cap, jumper, jeans and boots, smiled.
"I added some new species to it." Maha admitted.
"I suspected so." Wily chuckled.
"If you shall excuse me…" Maha bowed.
"Go."
Maha returned into the kitchen while Count Elec flipped through a book regarding Scotland: he spotted two figures coming closer.
"Oh! We have customers! Good, good!"
He walked towards the entrance door and smiled while closing his eyes to look welcoming.
"Welcome to Maha Ichiban's!"
"EXODO FLAME!"
Count Elec opened his eyes and his jaw hit the floor.
He was facing an evil-looking face which was highly reminiscent of that of an ancient Pharaoh, but it was totally mummified.
It looked extremely sinister.
"OH MY GOD! It's a monster!" He exclaimed.
"Exodia: defeated!"
The face vanished and Charles' face appeared on its place: Martin, who was hardly muffling his laughter, was standing behind him.
"What! Morgangantz! You crook…!" Count Elec cursed.
"Ahem, ahem!" Dr. Wily cleared his throat.
Count Elec felt a shiver go down his spine and quickly spun around.
"W-what is it, Dr. Wily – sama?" Count Elec asked, his teeth dancing.
"You should watch your manners. Aren't you a Count?" Dr. Wily pointed out with a smirk.
"R-roger, Dr. Wily – sama!"
Both Charles and Martin sat down in one table.
"That's Dr. Wily. Have you heard of him?" Charles asked Martin.
"Wasn't he the leader of the WWW and the leader of Gospel behind the scenes?" Martin recalled.
"Yeah! You got the right man." Charles smiled.
"Of course… Maha Ichiban's is run by the former WWW members…"
"Mr. Maha Jarama! Will you bring us two Maha Specials?"
"Right away." Maha smiled.
He disappeared into the kitchen again while Count Elec walked towards there grumbling something under his breath.
"That kiddo! I'll teach him a lesson yet!"
"That's some good county accent." Martin hushed to Charles.
"Heh! County Man and Nam Ytnuoc conspire together."
"Not the mirroring thing again…" Lander groaned.
"Huff. You haven't met Shadow Man and his unbearable jokes yet."
"Heck. I'd prefer some Wild West city to this crazy city."
13:13 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So! He keeps on being the same?"
"That's right! It's getting onto my nerves!"
"You should tell 'im he's outdated."
Number Man, Higure Yamitarou's Navi, was speaking with another two Net Navis inside of the Cyber World Higureya locale.
"Hmmm… Then what could we do?"
One of the Navis was about a meter and sixty in height or maybe closer to a meter and seventy: his main color of choice was red.
He sported black shades: a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.
His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.
His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red: a small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.
"Mwah, hah, hah… Scare and Eracs! Bloody~ Shadowy~! Ya know the deal!" The other Navi joked.
"Blood Shadow's the name, Sigma."
Sigma was about two meters tall and colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area.
This spheroid seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.
His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.
Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which was easily over a meter tall.
Overall, he seemed to be tall and imposing.
"Maybe you should scare him with something…" Blood Shadow offered.
"I don't know if that of the fake spider will work again, Blood Shadow."
"No! What we need is to project a monster's body into the store!"
"It could work."
"It'll work." Sigma grinned.
"What kind of monster do you have in mind?" Number Man asked in a hushed conspiracy tone.
"Let's show 'im the Dream Virus."
"Oh come on."
Yells and explosions began to sound outside of the store accompanied by megalomaniac laughter.
"Shit! There's trouble." Blood Shadow cursed.
"Mwah, hah, hah… You know our orders: trouble goes back to the pit they came out from!" Sigma chuckled.
Both of them ran out to see several Navis running away and some buildings had holes on them: there was one Trump card on the ground: the nine of diamonds.
"Aha ~h, hah, hah! Hah, hah, ha~h! This land is mine! Run for it, you plebeians!" A high-pitched voice laughed.
A Navi came into sight: she was a girl Navi who was about a meter and eighty tall and her face resembled a girl on her early 20s.
Her main body colored was a shade of vermillion: her helmet was colored in that shade and it had some random white patterns carved across its surface: the forehead had the "FOD" initials carved there.
Her eyes' irises were blood red and she looked smug.
A long ponytail of greenish hair extended from the lower edge of the helmet and reached almost all the way to the floor.
Her main body included greenish edges which signaled the spot where her shoulders and hips began.
The chest emblem was the "diamond" symbol colored red set against a black background.
Her shoulders were anatomically correct and some climbing cyan patterns surrounded them: the arms and elbows were colored in that vermillion shade with black circuitry patterns across their length.
The wrists had bracelets with emeralds, sapphires and rubies embed into them colored metallic gray and her fingers were colored golden.
Like her companion Spade she also sported a leather belt with the "FOD" initials on it around her waist.
Her legs and knees were colored black instead and the patterns were vermillion: it was a reversal of the arms' colors.
She sported azure boots with heels on them.
"I am Diamond Duchess! I claim my patch of land today and now! Make way, you herd of plebeians! Aha~h, hah, hah!"
"BRING IT ON! YOU'RE FINISHED!"
"Aux femme fatale!" Blood Shadow snickered.
The Navi stopped and looked at both Navis: she looked angry or annoyed and her arrogant pose didn't change.
"Didn't you hear me? Move out of the way!" She waved her right hand like she was in charge.
"Sorry, missy! But you're the root of trouble and we're under orders to send you back to your beloved Switzerland palace!"
"That's our motto!"
"How rude of you savages…! I shall teach you to bow before someone of the royalty! Diamond Rain!"
A purple swirling rift opened in the sky and a rain of diamond-themed Trump cards rained down at a mad speed: they exploded and caused smoke to build up when they impacted into the ground.
"Hah! I hope you learned your lesson, vermin!" Diamond proclaimed in an arrogant tone.
"Sorry! But we're not there!"
"Ye rush too much!" Sigma's voice added.
Diamond assumed a worried face and looked around.
"Charged shotgun shot!"
"Sigma Sword!"
Blood Shadow suddenly appeared again to her right and shot a blast of energy shot from his shotgun's double barrels while Sigma hit the floor with his sword and a shockwave sent her flying and crashing against a building's side.
"W-what the heck are you two? You're not normal Navis!" She cursed while having a grimace on her face.
"We're the Sub Space. You'd better remember it."
"We're letting ye run this time. But next time, we'll have to send you to the Net Prison instead."
"D-damn it! I'll remember this, vermin!"
Diamond was surrounded by a sphere made of Trump cards and vanished.
"Let's go tell Commander Omega."
"I'll go. You meet up with the guys. They should be about to leave… They end up earlier in Friday…"
"That's fine for me! They'll be eager to learn more!"
14:51 PM (Japan Time)…
"… * huff * … * huff * … That was close…"
"If ain't Ms. Impatient Duchess."
Diamond Duchess had been leaning her back against a metallic wall in a large and wide metallic corridor lightened by fluorescent lights when she spotted Sharp Spade standing close by.
"What! You want to laugh at my face? You were beaten by a Sharo Nation Net Savior!" Diamond Duchess pointed an accusing finger at him.
"And you had to try to claim a patch in Internet City and get the Sub Space to know 'bout us." Sharp Spade replied.
"What? How did you know about them and I didn't?"
"If you hadn't run off forty-five minutes ago, you'd been in the briefing Boss held up. He was rather pissed off when he heard about what you were planning to do." Sharp Spade explained with a smirk.
"Demons! I must apologize in front of him… But I'd never had trouble doing this back in Siberia…"
"That was because it was Siberia: there are so many empty patches that no one cares about. But Japanese people do value every square meter of terrain." Sharp Spade told her.
"Get lost!" Diamond Duchess grumbled.
"Okay, Ms. Dethroned Duchess."
Sharp Spade walked away towards the north laughing aloud: Diamond Duchess kept on looking rather pissed off.
"He won't get away with it…! Just you wait, Spade!"
"I wait and not wait and not wait and wait!"
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT, CHA~?"
"My newest invincible rhyme, Comrade~… See ya and not see ya~! Heh!"
15:05 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So… Two of them have showed up insofar, eh?"
"Yeah! And we told that chick that she's fired!"
Sigma was projecting from Netto's Link PET and telling him, Saito and Nelaus about what had just happened in Internet City: Charles and Martin also heard with attention.
"Two out of seven… There's another four left to show up and we don't know if we'll get to see their boss." Martin brought a hand to his chin.
"Heh! If more grunts show up, I'll go tell 'em I'm the Sheriff!"
"And tell 'em Whyte's ghost is gonna chase 'em." Isaac smiled.
"Good ol' Blood went to report to Commander Omega… We should list them as our topmost priority." Sigma suggested.
"I agree. You never know what they might do next."
"Why do these guys tend to show up one after another, anyway? That Twilight jerk gotta be involved: it's become the "Heptagon Scheme" instead of the "Pentagon Scheme"…"
"Sure thing…"
"Hullo, I'm back!" Blood Shadow returned to the PET.
"What did Omega say?" Charles asked.
"Our top priority is dealing with these jerks."
"And what's the second priority?" Davis asked.
"He didn't tell me."
"Well… I'd say we should really worry about what are those guys gonna do next. If Twilight is behind them then…"
"Heh! They're gonna search for the Demon King's throne in Hokkaido!"
"I'd rather say you should search for the Demon King in Melbourne…"
23:33 PM (Utah Time), Thursday November the 27th…
"… Why! This is VERY odd!"
"What's odd, boss?"
Several NASA men were wandering around the base camp set next to the crater: the crater was five kilometers wide and almost one deep and chatter filled the air.
"My clock is acting funny…" One of them told another.
In effect: the "second" mark tended to stop and jump forward altogether every twice or thrice.
"Maybe it's broken, boss?" The aide suggested.
"That's weird. I bought it just one year ago." The head frowned.
Yet the mysterious alien Net Navi known as Xon' Edos was not oblivious to the team of NASA men camping near his landfall spot.
"They must have been attracted by the crater I have left behind… But it would take very advanced technology to reach me… I have nothing to worry about. The mother ship receives reports of my investigation in a fast time thanks to the fact that our Creators have long ago learned how to transmit data above the speed of the light: my duty will not be in vain. Or that of the other 4 that departed the mother ship time before me: we 10 "Explorer" units must catalog and compare notes so as to see how evolutions progresses in each planet…"
He chuckled under his breath and his eyes shone with a strange lust on them as he looked up more holographic screens filled with both binary data and strange glyphs.
"Yet the data I am translating is intriguing… It would seem some entity named "Twilight" is expected to start a conflict involving a new kind of Net Navis… And 2 of them have already appeared… This planet might be very interesting to study indeed… Let us resume! Time is of essence."
He chuckled under his breath once again and formed a creepy grin…