Chapter 4: Fun

11:11 AM (Japan Time), Sunday April the 8th…

"… And then I invented the astronomically flipping switch!"

"Let me guess! A Super Ultra Rare Chip!"

"Nope! Pure randomness! Tee, heh, heh!"

"Huh!? Oh come on!"

"Dekao… After all these years you should know that when Yaito says weird names they're mostly randomness that doesn't mean anything…"

"Dekao – kun, you look like a disciple of Higure – san…"

"Huh? Of Higure-san? No! I'm the disciple of the WWW!"

"The Wara-Wara-Wara, in short, the LOL!"

"Sheesh!"

"Oh boy."

"She's always been like this, Sakurai?"

"Oh yeah, Tamashita. Always."

"By the way, Meiru – chan and Aura – chan… You've yet to tell me the secret recipe!"

"What secret recipe?"

Netto, Saito, Sakurai Meiru, Ooyama Dekao, Hikawa Tooru, Nelaus and another girl were sitting in the sofas of Ayanokouji Yaito's mansion treehouse as she went on making silly jokes.

The other girl, Tamashita Aura, had orange curly hair and blue eyes.

She sported a yellow raincoat, jeans and sneakers.

Her Link PET's emblem was a stylized "F" letter colored white and black and set against a blue background which was decorated with snow drops: the PET itself was white.

"You know." Yaito grinned.

"… Lame." Both sighed in exasperation.

"What? A secret recipe for the broiled eels?" Dekao asked.

"No." Both directed dull glares at Yaito.

"How about cha, Roll – chan and Felicia – chan?"

"Like we'd know."

"Are you intending to humiliate us or WHAT?"

Roll also got annoyed along with Tamashita's Navi, named Felicia.

Her helmet was colored olive green and it had a sapphire set into its forehead which glowed differently depending on the light's angle: the helmet included a cobalt blue matrix over its surface.

Her eyes were cobalt blue as well and two twin tails of blondish hair came out from behind her head.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt blue instead and her emblem was the same one as in the PET.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and had ruby plating over them while her arms and elbow were colored in a mix of blue and white decorated with emerald square dots.

Her forearms were colored orange and had eight thin pink circles circling along their length.

Her legs used a mix of blue and yellow and contained diamond-shaped brown dots scattered at random.

The boots had been painted using orange color and had zigzag patterns which vertically spanned the height of them.

"Who knows? Maybe it's time to call for the special guest, the great hero come back from a fierce campaign in southern frozen lands? Beware and behold!"

"Huh!?"

"Beef!"

"Oh come on! Commander Beef!?"

"Same one! Come back from fighting the harsh frozen dragons!"

"Frozen dragons? What frozen dragons?"

Commander Beef stepped into the treehouse and everyone save for Dekao, Guts Man and Yaito sighed or groaned in annoyance: Commander Beef grinned and boasted.

"Those sneaky and devilish frozen dragons of witchery and trickery and delusion and doom and…!"

"It's all on his head, obviously enough." Shark Man whispered to the Navis inside of the Net Battle machine's Cyber World.

"Obviously." Roll sighed.

"Of course it is. Desu." Ice Man sighed.

"Guts, guts! That's a real man, de guts!"

"You didn't understand anything, did you?" Felicia exasperatedly asked Guts Man.

"Guts?"

"Forget it. Someone upgrade his CPU already."

"…with a harpoon blessed by the Queen of Antarctica…!"

"Yeah, sure." Netto muttered with obvious annoyance.

"That's a real man!" Dekao eagerly exclaimed.

"Didn't you listen to what Shark Man said…? It's all a fantasy he made up, you know…" Meiru sighed.

"Huh? Did he say that?" He wondered.

"Cleanse your ears." Meiru fumed.

"One day I'll be the strongest and…!"

"I'm not interested in brutes who spend the day dreaming in vain."

"Wha?"

"And I don't belong to you, never did, never will."

"No, I mean…"

"I'm a person. Not an object."

"O-of course, Meiru – chan! I wasn't saying that…"

"And despite your fantasies brought out of anime, I never had any "attraction" for you."

"Eeeehhhh!?" Dekao turned pale.

"Told you many times. You never listened. Your fault."

"But the other day Miyuki-san said that…!"

"Miyuki-san did?"

"See!"

He displayed an email on his inbox and Meiru frowned: she then seemed to spot something.

"Wait. That email address is odd."

"Odd?" Dekao wondered.

"No way Miyuki-san would name her email account "cowboy corpse"… That's a joke by Cloud Man and Swallow Man. In short: you got trolled. Maybe Anaya made us of those two idiots' parodies to write this email because I don't think those brutes are smart enough to impersonate a fortune teller." Meiru deduced aloud.

"Eeeeehhhhh!?"

"I feel like that new high-school girl detective who's recently appeared in the Conan manga… Sera Masumi – san." Meiru grinned.

"Is she your type?" Yaito asked in a whisper and with a grin indicating mischief.

"No." She drily replied.

"And what if she was?" Tamashita walked over to where Meiru and Yaito were at (the north wall).

"Dunno."

"Then what was the point of the question?"

"Ask someone and no-one."

"Sheesh. Guess your father needs to teach you some lessons again."

"YIKES!"

"I've got nothing against yuri but I don't think you should openly make jokes about it." Meiru sighed.

"Yeah. Agreed."

"Just because you're a couple years younger than us that doesn't mean you've got an excuse to keep on behaving like you had 8 years old. Which you aren't." Meiru scolded next.

"Ah! Such infamy! Such was the curse cast by the frozen dragon Drake into the lands of the Queen!"

"Drake? Yeah, sure." Nelaus grumbled.

"Someone make him leave…" Hikawa groaned.

"… But with the arts of the man of the sea I am…!"

"Then name yourself Commander Salmon…" Netto sarcastically muttered out of annoyance.

"Ah! Such terrific jaws and frozen breath! But nevertheless with the skill of artic wings blessed by the Queen…!"

"And how did he come up with all of that…?" Saito wondered, exasperated.

"I suspect Yaito wrote it and told him to act like he was in a theater play, maybe tricking him believing that doing so would win him the heart of Mariko – sensei…" Netto grumbled.

"Sheesh."

"You didn't see the stupid farce that he and Higure – san did years ago to decide who had the right to gain the love of Mariko – sensei… We were still naïve so that's why we took part on it but…"

"Huff. Really."

"One thing we regret." Saito admitted.

"Problem was that Mariko – sensei suddenly saw him as "cool" because he casually saved a cat from being hit by a car…"

"I see. Problem to begin with is that both he and Higure – san think that she loves them while she herself has no such feelings and just considers neighbors of the city."

"Yeah. The so-called "Platonic love"…"

"Hum! Some young folk here don't know when to stop gloating, it'd seem… Heh, heh, heh…"

"Huh? Dr. Wily? What are YOU doing here?"

"I called for him!"

"Oh come on. What are you up to now?"

Dr. Wily stepped into the tree-house chuckling as he glanced at how Commander Beef kept on making exaggerated and overly-dramatic poses as he acted.

"Hmmm!? Dr. Wily!" Commander Beef suddenly stopped doing what he was doing.

"So? Think you'll get an Oscar for your actuation?"

"I dunno who Oscar is and whatever but you've yet to fulfill your part of the contract!"

"Oh. So you remembered. Heh."

"Contract?" Many wondered.

"Where are the Super Mega Ultra Giga Chips?"

"Maybe in your imagination?"

"What? But you said that…!"

"That I would be your logistical supporter? I said so. But didn't say anything about special Chips."

"But I'm sure that the contract said so!"

"This reeks." Isaac muttered.

"Doesn't at all. Dr. Wily is just toying around with him. Maybe the contract was a paper with no legal validity whatsoever. He likes to make fun of Commander Beef so…" Saito suggested.

"Wait a minute!" Dekao suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" Yaito grinned.

"Showdown! Go, Guts Man! Beat Shark Man!"

"Guts, guts, GUTS!"

"Eh? What?"

"Guts Hammer!"

"Whoa!"

Guts Man suddenly jumped towards Shark Man reading his hammers but Shark Man quickly used Area Steal to warp away.

"Hey, I didn't say I agreed!" He complained.

"A man always takes on a showdown!"

"And what if I'm a shark?" He sarcastically shot back.

"Huh… Then… Huh… Hum…" Dekao apparently took it literally.

"Guts, guts? Huh…"

"In terms of appearance, you aren't a "man" either since you're shaped like a gorilla or orangutan." Shark Man pointed out with a sigh.

"Huh? Guts? Huh… Too complicated, de guts…"

"When will someone upgrade his AI…?"

"Never at this rate." Glyde sighed in exasperation.

"B-but that's very expensive!"

"It isn't. It's a public service provided by the Science Labs… Ever since 15 years ago. So you have no excuse there. You could've booked a turn and gone there and had Guts Man upgraded anytime." Netto argued.

"Eeeehhhh!? But every time I looked online…!"

"Those are customizing packs and they're not official. Most of them are "click bait" which have viruses and spyware and ransomware. Meijin – san often tells me about those."

"There were mentions of Science Labs, guts, but Dekao always ignored them saying "real stuff is found by digging!"… Guts."

"D-did I say that?" He turned red.

"Unlike humans, Navis can't get a wrong memory since they directly record what we say."

"I knew it." Meiru sighed.

"You fill your head with clichés and, as a result, you always run into trouble…" Tamashita sighed as well.

"Heh! Impatient young folk." Wily grinned.

"Hey! Don't ignore me!"

"Here you have."

"Huh? Ah yeah! This is what I signed! Huh? Whoa… So many difficult kanji… Huh? Wait a min… This is Chinese!"

Wily suddenly took out a folded paper from his bag and unfolded it to show it to Commander Beef who gulped when checking it but then realized it was written in Chinese.

"Heh. So you noticed?"

"Of course! There are no hiragana at all! And some kanji are different from the Japanese ones! I can tell the difference, I'm not an analphabet…! Shark Man! Tell me what it says!"

"Roger… Let's see… "I, Commander Masa, hereby admit that I am Masa and that Commander Beef is no more than an attempt to live up to Ultra Man and Bat Man and that everyone figured it out years ago and that I should be selling fish or investigating Neo Gospel instead of wasting time chasing Oozono Mariko – sensei or fighting with Higure Yamitarou like we were a couple of gorillas that are fighting in a war to expand their territories. I swear in the name of Buddha that I will behave properly else divine punishment shall fall upon me. The evil genius scientist here is the witness of this confession and act of faith. Somewhere in Beef Land, April 2nd, 2010."…" Shark Man translated.

"WHAAAATTTTT!?" He was dumbfounded.

"For once, Dr. Wily has a point." Many drily muttered.

"Oho. As expected from the evil genius scientist." Yaito laughed.

"Heh. That's what happens when you underestimate me, Masa…"

"I-I'm not Masa, I'm…"

"Sheesh. Enough farces, Masa – san!"

Netto walked over to him and pulled up the helmet revealing Masa's face: he gulped and nervously looked around as if hoping to find a way out but Wily was standing in the door's threshold and blocking it as if preventing him from running away.

"T-this is… Hum… No, this is…" He began to blurt.

"Like that paper says, we've all known for years. I was a bit slow-witted in not realizing at the time but I eventually did. So there's no need to keep on the farce." Netto grumbled.

"Yaito – sama?" A voice asked over an interphone.

"What is it?"

"Dr. Smith has come." A butler replied.

"Dr. Smith?" She frowned.

"Yes, the gentleman you called for 3 days ago to take care of upgrading the tree-house's computer systems firmware."

"Odd. Did I, Glyde?"

"Yes, Yaito – sama. It's written on your agenda like your father instructed me to do." Glyde displayed the day's agenda.

"Ah, so Papa is the one who called for him but since he was on my agenda the staff thought I called for him. Alright. Show him in, please."

"Acknowledged."

"Well, if there's going to be a firmware upgrade then we better leave since he'll need to shut down everything to do his job." Netto shrugged.

"Feel free to run until your abode of salmon and eel." Wily stepped asides to allow Masa to leave.

Masa quickly grabbed the helmet from Netto's hands and ran off without bothering to retrieve Shark Man or say good-bye: Shark Man sighed and warped out of the Net Battle machine while the others picked their school bags and readied to leave.

"Yaito – sama, Dr. Smith is here." The butler knocked on the door.

"Alright."

"Good afternoon."

"Good… Huh? Eeeehhhh!?"

"Ex-Boss!?"

"No way!"

"The hell! Twilight!"

"Same one! Mwah, hah, hah, hah."

Twilight was a man about a meter and eighty tall who looked on his mid-20s.

His hair was blond and neatly combed yet his eyes' irises were blues: he had a wide smug grin on his face.

He simply wore a black suit, a black necktie, a white shirt, black pants and brown shoes: he looked like your everyday salary-man.

He carried a toolbox on his right hand and a screwdriver on his left hand.

"Huh? Is something the matter?" The butler wondered.

As a response, Twilight suddenly stabbed him on the base of the neck with the screwdriver and a small electrical zap happened: the butler suddenly collapsed into the ground as Twilight stepped in and shut the door behind him: he tossed the tool-box into the ground and it opened revealing a familiar grenade: which he grabbed as Netto and the others pushed the others backwards to put distance between them and Twilight.

"So. Ready for a one-way trip to Hell?" He smirked.

"No way!" Netto gasped.

"You can't be serious!" Nelaus gasped.

"Stop!" Saito gasped, too.

"Heh! You seem to have forgotten that I am beyond normal humans… I'll revive again and AGAIN! And then Neo Gospel will rule the surface world in the name of the grand and almighty IQ – sama! While Her Grace rules the underworld!"

He laughed like a madman as he took out the safety pin and threw the grenade into the air: a blinding flash and a deafening roar ensued…

12:28 PM (Japan Time)…

"... Ugh… Guh…"

"Calm down. It's alright."

"Ugh… Guh… Huh…?"

"Ah! They're finally awakening!"

"Yes. They obviously feel confused and out of place."

"No wonder."

"Uh… Huh… I'm… alive…?"

"Yes, you are."

Netto slowly woke up as he heard a voice and saw an ambulance staff leaning over him.

"Netto! Thank goodness."

"D-dad?"

Yuuichirou was crouching next to him: he began to get a hold of the surroundings and realized he was on a stretcher placed over the grass in Yaito's mansion garden next to the tree where the tree-house was built in: he saw the others were also in stretchers and some had awakened while others were unconscious.

"B-but…"

"You got tricked. It was a flash-bang grenade filled with sleeping gas. Everyone is safe." Yuuichirou told him.

"… I see…"

"They're still in shock state but it's no wonder. They thought they were going to die followed by such a brutal visual and sensitive attack. It won't leave physical sequels but as for mental sequels… We can't know what effects this will have." The staff sighed.

"Yes, sadly enough… How about the butler?"

"He was only knocked out with a Taser-like weapon. Since he was outside the house he wasn't affected by the grenade. But the man who did this must be such a sick man…!"

"You don't know half of it! It's better not to know."

"Yes, indeed…"

"N-nobody's missing…?" Netto asked.

"No. All Navis are here too. They were also attacked from the Cyber World as well but we found traces of a forced access into their memory files… But apart from that nothing else is missing."

"W-what about…?"

"Masa – san? He'd gotten back to his fish-store and began selling so he's safe and sound."

"Stay still. It takes time to recover from such an experience."

"Y-yes, sir…"

"It's obvious that they intended to get the memory data of the Navis so they could figure out or next move or how closer we were to find out their hideouts… And once again they exploited the lack of knowledge and the personality of the staff…"

"What do you mean?"

"The man who attacked them is a wanted man across the world. There are WANTED notices on police stations and official sites. But despite that he wasn't recognized by the butler when he appeared here without any disguise. Also, they faked an email from the owner to make it seem this man had been hired by the owner. It's not their nature to question orders so they didn't bother to check if "Dr. Smith" existed or not." Yuuichirou exposed.

"I see. So that's how they managed to get in!"

"Ah! Commissioner Kifune."

"I heard about the situation by Manabe – kun. Devil. We must be really closing in if they've turned this desperate."

"… Or so they want us to think." Yuuichirou suggested.

"… True."

"This isn't some desperate move. It was planned since 3 days ago. The form in which they did feels like it but it's far from it."

"Good points. Incidentally, we had a patrol car on standby here with two officers keeping watch… Given how Neo Gospel had infiltrated the house's staff before… But they were attacked: a sleeping gas capsule suddenly was thrown inside… Hence why they didn't ring the alarm."

"I see."

"Devil. Can they be so desperate to go to such extremes?"

"They're terrorists. And you know who pulls the strings of them. What they did… And keep on doing."

"Indeed… With such folk roaming loose it's impossible to predict what they'll end up doing."

"Truly. This has been going for too long but then again we aren't perfect or omnipotent…"

"Ah. Chief Lezareno. You came as well."

"I'd stationed a couple of our agents as well on the rear side but they were attacked too…"

Chief Lezareno, was on his forties and appealed to be over a meter and eighty tall.

His hair was blonde and neatly combed his face was clean shaven and he seemed to be calm enough.

He was dressed in a gray trench overcoat, a black sports suit and pants along with brown shoes.

He had sunglasses on, though.

"I see. We both had the right idea to keep an eye on the surroundings but they got defeated easily…"

"Yes. What about the Security Navis?"

"There was a stray cat that got in through a gap in the fence in one corner and all attention was focused there since it was thought it was either a thief or a child who'd come in out of curiosity." Megure explained.

"Maybe they picked the cat from somewhere and let it in knowing that it'd work as a distraction and it wouldn't be unusual."

"We thought the same thing."

"Sheesh. And that sneaky Opoulos popping and vanishing every then and then to provoke us, too. The FBI and CIA are also after his trail but given how he knows how both agencies work in the inside he uses his knowledge to foment rivalries amongst top members. The MI6 are also on the trail and although they handle better Opoulos can still poke there and there to stall their efforts."

"Nobody said it'd be easy but… Definitely Opoulos is the factor that's allowed them to persist…"

"No doubt about that, Commissioner. The man is a sly fox and there's no seizing his tail."

"Just in case we'll bring them to the hospital for further examination although it'll only be a checkup." The ambulance staff announced.

"Alright."

"I'll go there as well. At times like this they need the support of a parent... I already ordered all Science Labs staff to be on max alert as well. Maybe you could send a few agents to reinforce security."

"Of course."

Yuuichirou got into one of the ambulances in which Netto and Saito were loaded into and left with them while the two men sighed.

"Maybe another goal of this attack was to hamper "Cross Fusion" since both Operators and Navis might have sequels and their synchronization might not be as effective and high as always."

"Good point, Chief… At least we have other Navis and "Cross Fusion" users to compensate but… Our potential will be trimmed down indeed. Damned rascals." Kifune hissed.

"Hmm? Excuse me, a phone call…"

Lezareno's flip-phone vibrated and he walked a few steps away to answer to the call.

"Ah. Colonel Talos. Any news?"

"Yes. One of my former subordinates who's now an executive in the FSB told me that "THE man" got a package supposedly from the head of the Navy yet…" A man with a slight foreign accent replied.

"A provocation?"

"Indeed. A real skull with the words "Death to Spies" written on its front using blood… And to top it off the head of the Navy has gone missing so it gives credibility… It's no little secret that the head of the Navy didn't like the cuts to the Navy so… There was also a card saying "What you created will destroy you"… Obviously "THE man" went into a fit of rage and ordered the head of Navy to be caught and sent to a Gulag… Although the FSB already suspect Neo Gospel to be real author with the goal being a deviation of resources… Maybe they're plotting to attack Moscow for all we know. So we should keep an eye discreetly." The man explained.

"I see. They went out of their way this time around but it must be another move by Opoulos. Seeing the style and how it's been planned… They know that "THE man" was after their technology but given how most of the military top brass fell for the deniers' talk they don't give a crap about it thinking it was but a show." Lezareno grumbled.

"Truly. I already warned Mr. Sponsor and he's sent Mr. Omega to do some scouting. It'd seem that Rama will also contribute in checking if there's something hinting at such an attack. I don't want to send large numbers because it might be a distraction and there won't be attack there but there'll be one here."

"Good point. Better keep it small."

"Yes. My contact requested of me but since it's an unofficial request… The less the better. His men are so eager to catch spies that they might screw up something."

"Understood. Please handle it, Colonel. I'll soon head there."

"How are the victims?"

"They're going to undergo further examination in the hospital just in case. But they will have sequels, obviously enough."

"Damned cowards." Talos hissed.

"Indeed. It's about time we put an end to this needless drama and conflict that a single human's madness began…"

They're asking for it… You won't be laughing for much longer… This time around it'll be the end for you… Destroyers of the future…!