Chapter 3: Tunnel struggle
12:44 PM (Japan Time), Saturday December the 18th…
"… More pointless presentations… We can do your project at IPC for 45% of your proposed budget… Go codfish."
"Indeed, Enzan – sama."
"Anyway. Has something important happened?"
"Apart from the double crime reported in the news…"
"Yeah. Some gangsters' tale. No big deal."
"… then nothing else of great importance has been reported."
"Fine."
Ijuuin Enzan walked into his VP Office and sat down on the revolving chair behind the desk: he left a folder with some documents inside atop the desk and quickly began to work with the computer while looking bored and uninterested.
"Man. I really wanna go back to that Angband mole and try to tackle some of the SP Viruses still roaming in the yet unexplored tunnels… Some of them are very long and extend for kilometers! They haven't been explored past the first 500 meters so… That place sure was huge! I'm sure they spent all the time from March to August building it up." Enzan muttered as he barely repressed a yawn.
"True, Enzan – sama. Hmmm? The auto-phone, sir…"
"Me…"
"Mr. Barrel!"
"Got a little something for you… Black Doom's showed up in Angband breaking through the guards and running into Tunnel 33A… He doesn't seem to have come out but that's one of the kilometric tunnels. Would you care to go after the punk and slice them up while Zero makes his way there to settle the score?" Barrel told him.
"You've just made my morning. That punk's not weak and seems to have grown stronger ever since August… I was wishing for a strong opponent to show up, really! Let's go, Blues!"
"Roger, Enzan – sama!"
"Plug In! Blues, Transmission!"
"Come at the Science Labs HP: we built a high-speed line using fiber optics to get there…" Barrel commanded.
"Roger."
Blues stepped into the IPC Cyber World and rushed past the different levels: all doors were opened on his wake and the guards saluted before he ran outside and into the general Network: he cut through some shortcuts and reached the Science Labs' HP where the entrance to a high-speed route had been placed.
"Go on." Barrel encouraged.
Blues travelled across the tunnel and soon reached the other end: the area had a large mountain range located in the center of it with a huge octagonal pit easily ten meters wide opened close by and extended downwards to unfathomable depths: a glowing green spiraling staircase had been built on the walls of it plus a round elevator platform hovering over the center of it: several sealed pyramidal doorways opened on all eight sides of the shaft: some damaged Officials Navis could be spotted nearby as well as several red brick turrets emerging from the huge mountain: the "skies" were clouded and the whole area was filled with snow as well.
"Are you alright?" Blues asked.
"He came from that same tunnel… He didn't mind us… Jumped straight downwards…" One Navi reported.
"Where's tunnel 33A at?"
"Out of the 50 descending floors, the 33rd counting from here, ground level… The elevator will take you there in about 3 minutes…"
"Roger."
Blues jumped into the elevator and it formed a "Dream Aura" protective barrier before plunging downwards at a maddening speed: Blues looked around and sighed.
"It's been four months… Nothing's changed. This place's sense of dread and doom hasn't been destroyed… And I doubt it'll ever be. We gotta be careful: some unexpected surprises might be left in these unexplored kilometric tunnels… That's gotta be the reason that punk came here after all this time… He must've been waiting for us to lower the guard and break in easily…" Blues muttered.
"Obviously." Enzan shrugged.
"Hum. The elevator's speeding down… I must be close. There: that doorway has been blow up…"
The elevator halted in front of the western side of the shaft where one of the covers had been blown: a tunnel which seemed to have been excavated manually into the rock opened with some fluorescent lights proving illumination at intervals: Blues jumped inside and began to run it down while drawing his Long Blade.
"… Heh, heh, heh. So you came. Blues!" Black Doom's voice suddenly rang out.
"Black Doom! Show your hide!"
"Catch me firstly." He taunted.
"Damn you!"
"This is a game of cat-and-mouse. Like the one Shadow Man staged for you… Do you remember that?"
"I'm fed up with rubbish stuff! Fight!"
"Nope. I wanna see you struggle. No pain no gain!"
"Cool it down, Blues. Or else you'll fall into the enemy's trap. Advance! But be careful: I wouldn't be surprised if there's a trap." Enzan warned.
"Roger, Enzan – sama!"
"And there goes Indy's stunt." Black Doom announced.
"Indy's stunt?" Enzan frowned.
A sound rang out from the corridor's depths and Blues seemed to realize what it was: he suddenly drove his sword into the wall and cut an opening there: he rushed into the newly-created cavity just a gigantic boulder ran down the corridor past him and Blues head it drop into the spiral stairway to then roll down it.
"It'll blow up when it reaches the force field cutting floor BF50… Enough wasted time!" He muttered.
He rushed up the corridor and suddenly heard another one: he growled and repeated his earlier trick to escape unscratched.
"Did you really think there'd be just one?" Black Doom taunted.
"Hmpf! No little tricks are going to save your hide."
"Little tricks, you say? Well, I guess Stone Man was that type of jerk alright… This was made by him, see."
"Stone Man from the WWW… Whatever. We deleted the guy with Napalm Man's help back in August too. You're the only one left expect for Freeze Man but that's because Obihiro convinced him to abandon evil." Enzan calmly muttered.
"One day I'll have taste of your blood, Ijuuin Enzan!"
"Dream on. You won't get past me." Blues shot back.
"Then I'll have to call on Mr. Shoes."
"Mr. Shoes? Who the hell is that?"
"Your worst client." He replied with obvious amusement.
"We don't have a worst client." Enzan grumbled.
"Ah no? What about this morning's guy?"
"How could you know that?"
"Heh! You seem to have forgotten that my "original" was a Virus who could see and hear everything within the Cyber World! I've regained that ability!" Black Doom announced.
"So you've been spying on us and that's how you found out a good moment to slip back here…" Enzan was unimpressed.
"Ijuuin Hyouzan is so unimpressed."
"Hyouzan? I ain't an iceberg!" Enzan grumbled.
"Ironic! Ain't it? You have the "flame" kanji in your name yet you're so dull and skeptical!" He taunted next.
"You bastard! Stop insulting my Lord. I'll have you swallow those foul words!" Blues growled.
"Try it, Clark Kent!"
"Clark Kent? Super Man's civilian ID?" Enzan grumbled.
"Coming! Indy's Stunt!"
"Damn it! This is the 5th one already! We'll never make it through this place at this rate!" Blues growled.
"Muwo~h! Eat this! Hah!"
"Huh? You're… Ground Man!"
"Sorry for the holdup: Mr. Barrel told us to come! There some splendid rocks to drill here, it'd seem!" Ground Man laughed.
"Che. An interloper showed up…" Black Doom fumed.
"You handle the rocks I handle the punk."
"My pleasure! Mwah, hah, hah!"
"Let's go, Blues!"
"Roger, Enzan – sama!"
"Coming? Come! Hra~h!"
Ground Man ran on ahead just as another boulder ran down the corridor: he used his built-in drills to shatter it and picked some of the remains which he warped away: Blues followed him and they advanced through the winding corridor: Black Doom had suddenly fallen silent and the sound of boulders halted too: yet Blues noticed a loud breathing sound and immediately enough loud footsteps belonging to something big rang out while the ground trembled and shook.
"Temperature's rising… Damn it! There's one of those things left around here!" Blues growled.
"Che!" Ground Man grumbled.
The footsteps began to grown in noise and a fiery glow began to come from further inside: the air began to distort due to the rising heat levels and most of the fluorescent lights began to melt and short-circuit thus plunging the area of the tunnel into pitch-black spots only illuminated by the approaching glow.
"Coming…!" Blues warned.
"Damn it." Dotarou cursed.
"… There they are… Like you thought, Ijuuin Enzan… A Balrog!"
A monstrous figure filling the width and height of the corridor showed up while flames burn on its body and carrying a large fiery whip: its mole projected a large shadow and filled the corridor with even higher heat which made both Blues and Ground Man feel sluggish.
"Damn it! The heat affects our performance!"
"So that's what the punk was after…! There was one of these kept in storage deeper inside of the tunnel and he's freed it. But we've battled enough of these to know their weakness… The head! They have a control unit coordinating their moves according to the control signal and if we break it then they're rendered unable to function."
"Allow me. Nin!"
"Shadow Man!"
Shadow Man suddenly formed in the air above the Balrog and drove his Muramasa Blade into the head of the monster: the Balrog growled and tried to hit Shadow Man with the left hand yet Shadow Man had leapt into the air to strike again: his blade sunk further this time.
"Distract him."
"Roger! Neo Variable Sword! Sonic Boom!"
"I'll have to pull back: my drills can't handle this heat!"
"It doesn't matter: we can handle this between both of us!"
"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Festival, bloody festival! Finally! A though guy worth my time…! Oi! Danna! I'm gonna join the bloody festival too!"
"Killer Man. Good timing." Shadow Man welcomed.
"More interlopers!" Black Doom growled.
"Ground Man. Can you try to make a shortcut?" Blues asked.
"No big deal! Horra~h!"
Ground Man quickly excavated a secondary tunnel which formed the shape of the Alpabet "C" letter and both rushed through it as Shadow Man and Killer Man kept the Balrog busy.
"Killer Death Beam!"
"Shadow Blade!"
Blues and Ground Man soon ran into a cavern having several gigantic steel crates set in a row: one of them was open and it was obvious that each of them contained a Balrog: Black Doom was walking atop them and attaching some devices to the top of each crate as he hummed what sounded like a heavy metal tune.
"Alright. Setup complete… I can now bring these with me."
"Where to?" Blues demanded.
"What! But the Balrog's still alive!"
"Ever heard of shortcuts?" Enzan smugly taunted.
"Damn it. I hadn't thought of that!"
"So! Who wants those things?"
"The R – Nation!" He proudly announced.
"The R – Nation! That militaristic nation who has a network of illegal armed satellites aiming for major nations…? The ones Wily intended to hijack during his attempt to use the Dream Virus…!" Enzan gasped.
"Hmpf… I expected it from them… They're desperate for a new weapon after the satellites have been rendered useless by a virus and placed into new orbits which will make them drag against the atmosphere to then burn up there…" Barrel muttered.
"Yeah! And they're gonna give me a load of money in exchange! With that I can build my own army and I'll recreate the glory of Angband! Mwa, hah, hah! Long live the spirit of the "Witch – Queen of Angmar", the Mistress who gave me life!" He exclaimed.
"That ambition ends here and now!" Blues exclaimed.
"Hmmm… There are 12 crates… I said I'd bring "some" and we didn't agree to a set number so I can do this."
He jumped into the crate next to the open one and interacted with a control panel: the crate hissed and unlocked as a new Balrog came out and immediately turned into flames while drawing the whip: all of the other crates began to be warped away while Black Doom laughed in a victorious tone of voice.
"Damn it! We must trace their signal!"
"No good. It's heavily encoded." Barrel cursed.
"Fuck." Enzan scowled.
"Grwra~h!"
"Shut up." Blues growled.
"Damn it." Ground Man cursed.
"Rolling Slasher!"
Something suddenly hit the face of the second Balrog and the impact stunned him as Slash Man landed atop his head and began to plunge his claws into the head from above: Blues wasted no time and jumped into the air too.
"Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Slot In! Dream Sword! Go, Blues!"
"Dream Sword!"
Blues drove the Dream Sword into the head of the monster and it growled as the flames were put out and its eyes lost life to them: the giant lost balance and collapsed into the ground with a loud sound: another rang out from the corridor to signal that both Shadow Man and Killer Man had finished with the other one.
"We won… Somehow." Blues grimly muttered.
"But they got away with their goal too." Enzan cursed.
"We aren't all-perfect." Barrel reminded them.
"True, yet… Sometimes…"
"Ijuuin Enzan. I'm not perfect and you aren't either. We have no time to weep on what's already happened. Withdraw and return to the Science Labs for examination." Barrel ordered.
"Roger. Return, Blues."
"Come back, Shadow Man."
"Nin!"
"Killer Man…"
"Nyah, hah, hah! That was exciting!"
"Yo! Ground Man. Let's head back!"
"Ou!"
The four Navis pulled back and reached the shaft where the lift was waiting for them: it climbed upwards towards the surface and they stepped into solid ground.
"We'll have to place some defenses and seal up the shaft but we should also try to explore other tunnels to see if we can find these depots and impede Black Doom of coming back for more of them."
"Obviously…" Shadow Man shrugged.
"Hyah, hah, hah! Let the punk come! I'll kill 'im!"
"I'll ground 'im!"
"Hmpf…" Blues was unimpressed.
They failed to spot a figure looking at them from inside one of the turrets looking into the shaft.
"Boss… It's me, O… Black Doom showed up and stole 10 Balrogs which hadn't taken part in the final battle to sell them to the R – Nation… It'd seem there are some tunnels pending exploring given their length and the low available forces…" The figure whispered.
"Oh lovely. The last thing we needed! Yesterday I almost got killed by that bomb-rigged car, we found that double murder and today we have this! Damn it! The "Common Patterns" and the R – Nation… I'm sure they're on a league!" The voice of "Mr. Sponsor" growled over a radio.
"Sure thing…" The figure agreed on it.
"Pull back, O… We don't wall to call the attention yet. I'd prefer not to get in their way even though we have the same enemy… Those bastards are soon gonna tremble when they find themselves to be at the receiving end of my anger!" "Mr. Sponsor" hissed next.
"Obviously… Those guys won't get away with it. Let's get on the move and locate them… For justice!"