Chapter 2: Comedy Club

14:45 PM (Japan Time), Thursday September the 19th…

"… Oi! You rascals! Wily – sama came! Salute!"

"What! Hinoken! You called me a rascal? Fight!"

"There they go… AGAIN."

"Wily – sama, sir! Do something about it, sir!"

"You two!"

"W… Wily – sama, sir!"

"Back to work! Or else…!"

"R-roger, sir!"

"Hi there~… Charlie Team came!"

"Sheesh. Let's not start the farce again, Charles."

"Don't worry, Dave~…"

"Davis, not Dave~…"

Dr. Wily had stepped into the Maha Ichiban's restaurant: Hinoken called out to the others to salute: Count Elec got annoyed on the spot, Iroaya Madoi groaned out of exasperation, and Maha Jarama called out to Dr. Wily who got annoyed, too, and made the two men start tremble in fear: he sat down and a new customer came in.

"Heck. Morgan's tribe heir!"

"Count Elec!"

"Yikes!"

"WORK!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Huff. My surname is Morgangantz and you know it, Count Elec!"

"Morgangantz, Charles Morgangantz."

"Oh come on. Dave~… Gimme a break!"

Charles Morgangantz was a young man who could be about a meter and seventy-five in height but his age was around his early 20s.

He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.

His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist.

His coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.

He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.

The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.

His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.

"Nope."

"Oh come on! Davis!"

Davis, his Navi, had a deep brown bodysuit and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.

His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some annoyance which they didn't bother to conceal.

His helmet's color of choice was red: and so were both of his boots and his forearms.

The helmet had the kanji for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.

The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver: this vest had bronze edges: it also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.

His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles around the wrist: his forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.

The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.

"Huh? Guys? Who is "DB" and why does this email say "grow noses and evil fangs"?" Fire Man asked the others.

"Dunno." Colored Man shrugged.

"Don't ask me." Elec Man grumbled.

"It must be the enemy." Magic Man guessed.

"Shah, shah, shah! It's gotta be that Darth Bapgei jerk!"

"Huh? Ah. Needle Man. Any news?"

"Nope…"

Needle Man stepped into the Cyber World while grumbling aloud: Davis called out to him and he sighed.

"So, Yuriko?" Wily asked her.

"Nothing. Almost like they'd become steam." She sighed as she sat down opposite Wily.

"Hum. We won't catch them with the guard lowered again."

"Indeed…" Maha muttered in the meanwhile.

"Huff. Sadly enough… Twilight got confident in August and didn't think he'd been figured out some days before by the Net Agents and Rama: but he's learnt the lesson." She took off the sunglasses and let them atop the table.

"Wily – sama! How do I defeat Freeze Man?" Hinoken suddenly asked Wily with eagerness.

"Hinoken. You don't have any memory or WHAT?" He growled back.

"Huh!" He gasped.

"Freeze Man doesn't have a solid body ever since a year ago! And he won't make it easy for you to target the core program, his essence! He could be hiding tens of meters away while taunting with the hologram at the same time!" Wily scolded.

"Huh! T-true, Wily – sama!"

"Huff. We'll get nowhere at this rate." Fire Man sighed.

"Aren't you guys looking for clues?" Wily asked Charles.

"Of course! But we've also got other investigations going on: each member of the "Justice Council" is working on something else and we're the only ones who can focus on this area."

"Like Charlie~ Team says…" Davis shrugged.

"Shah, shah, shah! The smug rascal!" Needle Man grumbled.

"Cool it down, Needle Man…" Yuriko sighed.

"Easier said than done!"

"Go have a battle in the stadium, then."

"Shah, shah, shah! Alright!"

"Let's hope Higure – san doesn't try to play commentator." Davis sighed.

"Huff. Let's hope that or people will think it's a weird stadium."

"By the way! That Higure guy! Aniki got involved with the guy?"

"That was 5 year ago: Gauss wanted to play Robin Hood by taking money from rich people and giving it to poor people. He hasn't gotten Higure – san involved ever since that." Charles reminded him.

"Heck. Aniki is one thing, but Tesla…! That niece of mine…! She's a walking catastrophe, alright." He grumbled.

"Grumbling goes later, Count Elec! Work!" Wily ordered.

"R-roger, sir!"

"By the way…" Davis began.

"Regal? He's working efficiently and neatly: nevertheless, a minimum level of surveillance is kept on him. Just to be on the safe side. You never know: Twilight might hack the chip implant and try to use him as a distraction making us think he'd been fooling us or something like that." Wily quickly replied.

"By the way, Charles… Speaking of implants…"

"Huh? Ah. Yeah. Junior asked Dr. Lartes to remove his since it's proven to be more counter-productive than productive."

"About time… Twilight gets obsessed with hacking those to try to lead them to in-fighting or defeat."

"What the… A mail from Magnet Man! "Rot away, relic of the past forgotten by everyone!"… You lowlife!" Elec Man growled.

"ANIKI~!" Count Elec growled.

"Huff… WORK!" Wily yelled.

"Sheesh. Gauss is doing a damned good job at trying to stir up trouble wherever he goes to!" Charles grumbled.

"Huff. That old man…" Madoi complained.

"Someone hit him with a frying pan!" Wily fumed.

"Someone shower him with cold water… If this is a prelude of Twilight's next ploy then we're in trouble… BIG TROUBLE…!"

15:55 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hrah! Hah! The small fry is gone, Omega."

"Good. We only need to rendezvous with Trill and Iris and then tackle the Boss of this level, Zero."

"Perfect. By the way, I found nothing save the usual Ra's al Ghul statue surrounded by a horde of Tzar's ninja sprites."

"Twilight and his mockery… The smug jerk…"

Zero and another Navi had been fighting against some Viruses hordes in a city somewhere which bore scars of war: they began to chat as they walked down a large avenue filled with abandoned cars, rubble and tossed weapons.

"And apart from that… An ugly 3D dragon colored black and purple and apparently named "Evil Dragon"… I dunno where he dug it out from but I don't care…"

"Some little-know RPG game or something which doesn't exist yet: the Spoiler Jerk…!"

Omega, the other Navi, 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 some annoyance which he didn't bother to restrain while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached until the floor.

"Yay! Hyper Ball! Get!"

"Omega – san? Zero – san? Are you there?"

"Trill and Iris? You sound close by." Zero called out.

"Yes. If we could remove the rubble blocking this alley we should be able to rendezvous."

"OK."

Both entered an alley and found a pile of rubble which were destroyed walls from the houses flanking the street: Omega drew his weapon, a pyramidal saber hilt which produced a thin pyramidal green blade of energy: he pressed a button on the hilt and it began to hum.

"HF mode activated. Step back!"

"Yay! Uncle Omega's cool sword!" A child – like voice exclaimed.

"Let's step back, Trill." A girl's voice ordered.

Omega began to swing the blade and it cut through the rubble in a neat manner: two Navis stepped forward from behind it.

"Yay! Trill caught some Viruses!"

"Well. Maybe it's better to capture and tame them than to delete them, don't you think so?"

Trill greeted them with a smile.

"Guess that, Iris. Let's go find the Boss and be done with this: we've got work to do." Omega rallied.

Iris (in her Net Navi form) merely nodded in approval.

"Over here. Follow us."

"Alright."

The group of four rushed down the avenue and reached what seemed to be a largely ruined government building: they stepped in and followed a trail of breadcrumbs.

"Odd. Who'd bother to program these?" Zero wondered.

"Sigma. Who else?" Omega sighed.

"Sheesh."

"Yay! Breadcrumbs!"

"Sigma – san…!" Iris muttered with some exasperation.

"I hope he didn't replace the Boss but I guess it is fat chance… What kind of parody has he come up with now?" Omega grumbled.

"Dunno and I'm not eager to know." Zero sentenced.

"Mugro~h… Me… Obelisk!"

The left wall was broken as "Giant God Soldier of Obelisk" (but reduced to 2 meters tall) came in while brandishing the fists: both Zero and Omega sighed and drew their weapons.

"Go on ahead. We'll soon catch up. And the Boss door can't be open until all players have assembled so…" Omega instructed.

"Roger." Iris nodded in understanding.

"Yay! It's gotta be the Anger God's cousin! Anger God! Descend! Mister Dragon faints! Tee, heh, heh!" Trill giggled.

"Sigma…! You tell weird things to Trill, I knew it!" Omega exasperatedly sighed.

"The moron. He never learns the lesson?"

"It's some miracle we haven't go mad already."

"Some miracle, alright."

"Me! Rule! World! Crush! Insects! God! Hand! Crusher!"

"Obelisk" flung both forearms forward but Zero and Omega dodged: they quickly stabbed their blades in the rear: a red circle was drawn there and it expanded until it the center of it vanished to reveal a tunnel apparently expanding towards the infinite: the head of "Osiris – Sky Dragon" popped out and opened its upper mouth to shoot out the electrical balls followed by the electrical blast from the lower mouth: both fighters were caught off-guard and got hit: before they could recover, though, "Obelisk" turned around and hit them with both fists.

"Uwrack!"

They got propelled into the adjacent room which had destroyed furniture scattered all over it: both recovered and jumped to the sides just in time to dodge another attack which shattered the outer wall and allowed one to see the lake surrounding the building 20 meters below.

"Sheesh. Sigma. You've overdone it, really. Fusing Obelisk and Osiris together…! And I'm sure that "Winged God Dragon of Ra" is also hiding inside there… What will it use next? "God Blaze Cannon"?" Omega complained aloud.

"Guess that. Or the "God Phoenix", too." Zero warned.

"The jerk…! He needs another week of shut-down!"

"I approve. Let's take care of that once we beat this thing."

"Krie~h!"

"See?" Both sighed.

"Obelisk" was surrounded in flames and ran forward but both dodged and it couldn't stop in time so it fell into the lake 20 meters below with a large plunge of water: both wasted no time in rushing further in and up the stairs until they found an opening blocked with a large padlock and a blue energy field.

"Sorry for the delay."

"Don't mind it. Trill was going over the list of captured Viruses: and my scans tell me that the flag is inside. I guess that that "collage" down there was the Boss." Iris reported with a shrug of her shoulders and looking like she wasn't impressed.

"Good. Let's get outta here already."

"Yay!"

The padlock disappeared along with the field and they rushed into a room where they found a Mexican flag along with a bottle of Mexican Vodka in the ground: Omega groaned.

"Sheesh. Sigma's into Vincent's "show" too?"

"Yay!"

"Let's end this damned farce already."

Omega grabbed the flag and the 3D letters "GOAL" popped out of nowhere: the room became cybernetic and began to spin as they floated there: a white round shining "portal" formed and several lines of energy seemed to travel towards it: they began to hover and "fly" towards the opening.

"Yay!"

All became white and the next moment they were all standing in a room having a green matrix with black squares covering its surface: the walls were bare steel as well and it could be about 4 meters tall: a "Dimensional Area" was taking effect there and it covered the whole of the surface too: it powered off and the matrix vanished: the lights came on and a holographic results screen popped out.

"Well. Let's see."

VR SIMULATOR

MODE: CUSTOMIZER

STYLE: BATTLEFIELD

DIFFICULTY: MEDIUM

TIME: 08:11

RANK: B

USERS: OMEGA, ZERO, TRILL, IRIS

HAVE A NICE DAY!

Iris' body glowed and her bodysuit vanished to reveal her usual form.

"Huff. Well. Trill. Let's go watch the cartoon."

"Yay! Cartoon!"

"See you around." Omega smiled at them.

"Stay in shape." Zero encouraged.

Once they came out of the room, Omega turned serious again and Zero nodded in agreement.

"I'm going to give Sigma some scolding myself. You go sweep another hub and see if you find anything. Maybe Twilight has turned smug enough to recycle the trick Balrog of Rama used: disguise as a regular Navi. And by that I mean that he's installed the consciousness programs of his Darkloids into those and can move them around without standing out." Omega told Zero.

"Hum. Good point. And if they mingle with crowds it'll be harder to single them out yet… Maybe Cloud Man will stand out."

"Hum. Yeah. Knowing the jerk he's surely come up with some prank or another: maybe it is mere graffiti but you never know. If you hear reports of someone being struck by lightning then investigate them further: it could be nothing but, at the same time, it could be a clue."

"Roger. See you."

Zero dematerialized by turning into blocks of data which rotated anti-clockwise and then broken down into streams of data: Omega sighed and stepped out into a curved metallic corridor having doors on both sides of it, arches and fluorescent lights set in the vaulted ceiling.

"Sigma…! Messing up with the VR again…! Do you want us to end up like what happened last year's summer? It wasn't funny ending up like in the Reboot TV series: trapped in a game's sprite!" He grumbled.

"…avatars of evil incarnations which…" A calm voice began to slowly announce in English through a speaker.

"And you hacked the speakers to patch us to Dragon Hell in live again as well…! Boss is gonna explode again. Damn it. It's hard enough to keep Boss cool at these times and you mess it up. Why do you need to be the onboard troublemaker?"

"DRAGON HELL!" A man's voice roared over the speakers next.

"YIKES!" "Dragon Hell" gasped.

"ANGER GOD'S COMING!" "Boss" roared.

"UWA~H!" "Dragon Hell" exclaimed out of fear.

"BY DAMNATION!"

"Boss! Calm down!" Another man warned.

"Easier said than done! Lartes! Nya~rth!"

"Shit. I've had enough of this clown show. I'm off to finding Sigma and giving the idiot a lesson!"

"By damnation! I'm fed up with this circus! SIGMA~!"

"Huff." Lartes sighed.

"Iris – oneechan, there's a scandal going on… What's up?" Trill asked Iris close by in a hushed tone.

"Sigma – san did something bad again." She sighed.

"Uncle Sigma gets into trouble a lot." Trill muttered.

"Yes. Unfortunately."

"Then Uncle Sigma is haunted by Trouble Man?"

"… I don't think so. He just overdoes it."

"Trouble Man? Sheesh. Sigma… Don't tell Trill weird stuff." Omega grumbled under his breath.

"Go find the rascal!" "Boss" commanded over his radio.

"Roger."

"I'd say you need some tea." Lartes muttered.

"DRAGON! Green tea! On the double!"

"Sheesh. Let's go find the rascal and tell the guy that he needs a lesson!"

16:56 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Sigma? He was here 5 minutes ago, yes."

"Did you see where he ran off to?"

"No. But if you find him beat him from my part too."

"What did the idiot do now?"

"He sent a package to Yamitarou."

"And what was it?"

"Mujura's Mask."

"Mujura's Mask? From the N64 Legend of Zelda game?"

"The same thing, alright! Yamitarou the moron fainted and Shuuko – chan now believes she's a harbinger of omens!"

"What the hell? I knew Kido was timid but… Anyway! I'll gladly beat the jerk up in your exchange. I'm fed up with the guy's meddling around: speaking of which, did Cloud Man show up here?"

"No. Else I'd already reported it to Prism Man."

"Fine."

Omega had come to Higureya in Internet City apparently looking for Sigma and Number Man explained what had happened: he looked and sounded pretty much if not totally annoyed and Omega's bad mood kept on escalating given his grimace.

"He turned off the transmitter, Commander Omega." Blood Shadow reported over the radio.

"What's the last known location?"

"The 4 – A class. In short: he turned it off before leaving."

"The fucking bully!"

"Commander Omega, sir, anger…"

"…leads to nowhere! I know! But I can't help it! The guy's gone over the edge and someone needs to show him that there's a limit to pranks and jokes! Else they get worse!" Omega snapped back.

"R-roger, sir." Blood Shadow gulped.

"Shah, shah, shah! Where's Sigma!" Needle Man ran in while looking pretty much annoyed.

"I'm looking for the fucker. What next?" Omega replied.

"He's swapped my cache Battle Chip Folder with Guts Man's Folder! I don't need 30 Vulcan Battle Chips! Sha~h!" He growled.

"By all the…!"

"Wait, wait. Couldn't this be Cloud Man? Maybe he's hacked into Sigma or something?" Yuriko suddenly suggested.

"Huh? Well… Taking into account that Twilight did hack me once… It could be, yeah." Omega realized.

"Omega? I found out that Cloud Man snuck in last night through Dragon's outdated security and uploaded himself into Sigma's body. He must've brain-jacked him." The man named Lartes reported.

"Whoa. I was right." Yuriko whistled in surprise.

"Twilight. I knew it. So that's why he's been so quiet! He was aiming to begin a civil war!" "Boss" growled.

"Shit. The last thing we need right now…! When did the swap happen, anyway?"

"11 minutes ago!" Needle Man replied.

"Someone should've spotted him: else we'll dig up sensor data. Sigma stands out so easily… Or, wait… The emergency transmitter! It should be emitting!" Omega recalled.

"Good point. I'd forgotten about it. Let's see… Aha-hah. The changing rooms of Akihara Middle School! You know: the P. E. class ones…"

"Alright. I'm getting there on the double."

Omega opened a VPN tunnel entrance and jumped inside: he flew across it and stepped out into another Cyber World where he found Sigma laying face-up on the ground, apparently unconscious, and the hologram of Darkloid Cloud Man hovering over him while grinning.

"Mwah, hah, hah. Surprised, Omega~?" He taunted.

"Sheesh. It had to be you. Fight me!"

"Not yet! But soon… Soon…" He teased.

"You'll get overshadowed by Magnet Man?"

"What! Magnet Man! You moron! Trying to overshadow me…! Just you wait!"

The hologram vanished and Omega spotted a golden sphere of energy about 30cm wide and 15cm tall which ran away while travelling across the board pathways, 2 meters away from Sigma in the NNW direction: Omega sighed and turned off the weapon.

"Lartes. Handle the retrieval. Guess Sigma's antibodies found a way to kick the guy's program outta him. I'll check out what Cloud Man did over here and then join Blood Shadow in escorting the twins." He announced over the radio.

"Roger. Emergency retrieval, on."

Sigma got warped out along with a purple flash while Omega checked the control panel and sighed.

"Rising up the temperature in the changing rooms to make everyone sweat, huh? How lame. Sheesh. When are they gonna come at us at serious mode? I hate trolls. I really do."

"Join the club." Lartes invited.

"I get the irony, Lartes, I do… Damned lot."

Come out of hiding and face if you've got the GUTS! HMPF!