Chapter 7: Copyright infringement
10:10 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday October the 1st…
"… Really. Joseph. I insist. My latest employer was NUTS."
"Oh come on. Trevor. Ever since when a military mechanic like you runs into trouble to begin with? Don't kid me."
"I did and I think I got into one hell of a mess. I'm not kidding either, see."
"Really?"
Hum! Interesting… Kuwabara, kuwabara…
A man was sitting in a chair next to a table in a bar somewhere and listening to the conversation of two mechanics (given how they had blue overalls and caps plus a racing team's logo in the right side of their chest) while looking interested.
The man could be on his late forties.
He had blond hair although his face was covered in hardened veins: his eyes' irises were blue in color
He was dressed in an olive green military uniform and he had long brown leather gloves on, too, plus boots.
"To begin with. He had me work in a PMC." Trevor began.
"PMC! That's cool." Joseph sounded intrigued.
"They had a cool nice chopper but he told me he wanted it to malfunction at least once per month."
"What nonsense is THAT?"
"I dunno: he just told me to do it if I valued my neck."
"Hell. Who was that guy?"
"Not sure… They always covered their head in bandages and spoke in a hushed tone… They could be over a meter and eighty tall but I had no way of guessing their age…"
"Really… And what happened next?"
"Well. The PMC sold off the chopper to a Singapore company which that guy owned and then had come over to make some changes to it such as painting it over, replacing the tail number and building a fake TV camera over the front machinegun… Once I was done with that he gave me a check for 5 million dollars and told me to get lost."
"5 m-million?"
"Sure… The guy's name was "Hell's Envoy" and they had a thick Oregon dialect which made it hard understanding them…"
"Why the hell would they bother SO much?"
"Dunno."
"Excuse me."
"Huh! Y-yes, sir?"
"Have you heard the news as of late? That terrorist attack…"
The man on the neighbor table had stood up and walked over to them while looking serious.
"D-don't tell me that the chopper involved…!" Trevor realized.
"Yes. It's the same one you've just described… But I don't blame you for that: you were being threatened… I'm Colonel Thunderbolt… A member of the "Committee"… Did "Hell's Envoy" have any other peculiar traits?"
"I took a photo when he wasn't looking…" Trevor admitted.
"Ah! Excellent."
He took out a digital camera and showed the photo to Colonel Thunderbolt: he calmly picked the SD card from the camera and copied the files into his own camera.
"This will be helpful to us. Good morning."
"Oh hell… That guy almost accused me of helping out terrorists even…!"
11:51 AM (Japan Time)…
"… and, therefore, there currently is no know one hundred percent reliable method to predict the onset of volcanoes at long-term. Only if the volcano begins showing up a set of signs it might be calculated that it is likely to erupt in the near future…"
A Natural Sciences teacher was reading aloud from a textbook: the 3-A Class students were writing down all which was being explained.
"The next topic is…"
The whole classroom and building shook and moved: everyone looked around, baffled.
"Don't panic! It's just a small quake!" The teacher ordered.
The quake and tremor soon died down: everyone sighed in relief.
"I'm going for a minute to check with the other teachers. Don't move from your posts."
The teacher ran out and the classroom was filled with the noise of talk.
"It's been years since we had a quake." Netto commented.
"Yeah. Luckily it'd seem it was a relatively low-scale one. Besides, most buildings nowadays are built with strong foundations to resist such things." Saito added from the desk directly behind Netto's.
"I wasn't aware of that. It'd seem I should've looked it up." Nelaus commented while sitting at Saito's right.
"Thank goodness there wasn't any dust… It'd ruined my hair." Yaito sighed while looking at the ceiling.
"What a pity: they didn't cancel the rest of the classes." Dekao sighed and rolled his eyes.
"Dekao – kun! You're skipping classes?"
"E~h? No, no! It's not that at all, Meiru – chan!" Dekao held his palms up in defense.
"Come on! Bickering is pointless." Hikawa sighed.
"He's got a point, I'd say." Isaac commented.
"I agree! Desu!" Ice Man added.
"Guts, guts! Don't worry, Roll – chan! Guts Man is here to protect you! De guts!" Guts Man punched his torso.
"Oh? Is that so? I thought you and Ice Man preferred to protect Aki-chan instead…" Roll grinned in a sneaky manner.
"O~H! GATTSU~! AKI-CHA~N!" Guts Man danced around.
"He's obsessed over it: isn't that right?" Glyde commented while rolling his eyes.
"Guess that." Blood Shadow wasn't surprised.
"Mwah, hah, hah… I heard there was going to be a concert in two days' time." Sigma added in a hushed conspiracy tone.
"UO~H! Dekao – kun! I must be there! I must be there!" Guts Man pleaded.
"Oh come on!" Dekao protested.
"Dragon's newest banner: credits to Sigma for translation! "Oh unwise neophyte: thou who recklessly charge into the battle for "love" are misguided and foolish: thou fate shall be to become one with the ground and be washed away by the storms."…"
"T-that means ME?" Dekao seemingly guessed.
"Oi. Dragon wasn't aiming at anyone in particular and I don't decide which banners he prints!"
"That banner sounded like some RPG parody to begin with." Isaac fumed.
"It's gotta be RPG Man's handiwork, Isaac – sama~!"
"Nelaus. Stop getting in league with Sigma and resume writing down!"
"Quake and Quack are gonna shake and rumble! Mwah, hah, hah!"
12:03 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Oh! My rare Chips are so bright, de masu! They are shining more than any precious stone on the Earth, de masu! Soon I will be able to go into a real date with Mariko – sensei, de masu! Heh, heh, heh!"
Higure was standing behind the counter of his store and singing a tune while was rubbing his hands in excitement.
"I suspected so, Higure Yamitarou!" Someone accused.
Commander Beef walked in at his military-like pace.
"Commander Beef! You again, de masu?"
"Correct, Higure Yamitarou! More importantly! I see that you yet again forget that Mariko – sensei likes this gallant man!" He replied with obvious pride.
"Hah! De masu! That's wrong: you look like a weird guy! De masu! But I am cleaner!"" Higure replied with a grin.
"Trouble…" Number Man sighed.
"These two…!" Shark Man was exasperated by now.
"Is that so?" Commander Beef sounded offended.
Commander Beef suddenly leaned both hands on the counter and faced Higure so Higure did the same.
"You're outdated, de masu! You reek of rotten eel and tuna, de masu!" He pointed an accusing finger at him and grinned.
"WHAT?" Commander Beef clenched both fists.
"That's right, de masu! You're worse than eating badly-made ramen, de masu! You're pathetic, de masu!" Higure kept pointing an accusing finger at him.
"I'm pathetic, you say? I'm going to…!"
"Ahem, ahem!" Someone cleared his throat behind Commander Beef.
They both looked at the entryway and spotted Dark Miyabi there, who was smiling.
"A customer! De masu! You get lost, de masu! You're in the way of business, de masu!" Higure protested.
"Nobody bosses me around! You! The weird guy! Leave! We have a dispute to settle." Commander Beef didn't bother to turn.
"I don't think so." Miyabi smiled.
He took out some small spherical objects and threw them at Commander Beef's feet: they detonated and caused a black smoke.
"I can't breathe! Grah! I'm outta here! But I'll be back!"
"Phew."
"About time…"
"Heh, heh, heh… Shadow Man He Who Sponsors Arcane Rituals Came To The Undignified Rescue."
"Oh come on." Number Man groaned.
"Sorry for the holdup, de masu! What would you wish? De masu?" Higure asked with his classical smile.
"Well. I was looking for a Kawarimi Battle Chip. Do you have one?" Miyabi calmly asked.
"Here you have! De masu!"
He grabbed it from the shelf and handed it to Miyabi.
"Good. I'll make the pay via an electronic money transfer."
He pressed some buttons on the Link PET and the register in the counter beeped.
"Have a good morning and make sure that that helmeted show-off doesn't strangle you or kill you off with his rotten tunas." Miyabi grinned.
"… De masu?" Higure frowned.
16:56 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So… A quake hit Dark Land and Cream Land some hours ago?"
"Yeah! They just spoke of it over the TV. Cream Land was not affected by much, but it'd seem Dark Land lost an entire military compound."
Netto was chatting with Sigma on the bedroom as he worked on his homework assignments.
"Speaking of Dark Land… I still remember their ploy with that double agent of them, that Napalm Man guy. It's already been… What! Over four years already? Whoa! Time sure passes by quickly." Netto commented.
"Mwah, hah, hah! Yeah, I knew of that ploy. It'd seem that "Gospel" was trying to make the two countries destroy each other at the time. In fact, snooping around, we found an old data file of that time. Freeze Man was pretty pissed off by the fact that Rock Man had ruined it. Shuryou then said that it mattered not and that they were going to stop the "playtime" and move into the "big event"..." Sigma explained.
"Oho! That's interesting to hear."
Saito had walked carrying his Link PET on the arm strap.
"Did you get the book you were looking for?" Netto asked.
"Yeah, I did."
He sat on his chair and left the Link PET on the desk: Blood Shadow projected from its hologram projector.
"That guy was too full of himself… Napalm Man." Saito commented.
"Sure was… Using "ore-sama" to begin with…"
"Masa-Ero! Erotic Masa – san! Mwah, hah, hah."
"Please… We're not here to make H jokes, Sigma!" Blood Shadow fumed.
"Bloody~ Shadowy~ wants to have a hot night?"
"No. And shut it before Commander Omega drops by and scolds you."
"Heh, heh, heh… Hush strikes back!"
"Shadow Man. Show up."
"Mwah, hah, hah… Honoring the name is Shadow Man?"
"That's some Master Yoda parody."
Shadow Man emerged from Sigma's shadow and showed them the photo of "Hell's Envoy": he wore an open brown leather coat with an "R" logo on the upper right corner, gloves, a sweater and pants plus shoes.
His face was covered in bandages and he had a hostile expression on him as he glanced sideways at something.
"Ah. So his looks are inspired by "Hush" from Bat-man… Talk about ironic: they're very silent indeed if no one seems to know where they are at or where they were at…" Blood Shadow muttered.
"Ask Location Guy."
"He Who Is Located At Nowhere At All And Everywhere At All."
The twins slapped their foreheads out of exasperation: Shadow Man's mottoes were enough to drive anyone to those ends.
"I met Zero who was going to have a chat with Mr. X… It's 14 hours earlier there so… It's close to 3 AM… But it'd seem our Mr. X is used to work until late and such…" Shadow Man let out.
"Alright. Do you have anything else to contribute?"
"Maybe that Vader now talks about something named "Primordial" but I dunno if that's his future knowledge… He describes it as "the last of the Precursors"… "The timeless one"… "The captive of Charum Hakkor"… "The harbinger of doom"… And he mentioned someone named "Beggar after knowledge"… But I dunno who they are." Shadow Man added.
"Don't mind the guy's attempts to spoil the future of videogames impress you, Shadow Man. Just ignore him and find more info…"
"Yeah… Find it… Before Info Eating Jerk eats it up! Mwah, hah, hah!"
05:05 AM (Chicago Time)…
"… I'm sorry to bother you at such an hour, Mr. Rainon…"
"Don't mind it, Zero… So?"
"A quake registering 3 in the Richter scale happened in the San Francisco area occurred 33 minutes ago…"
"3 quakes in less than 24 hours…"
Zero had appeared in a computer's screen and was talking to a man.
This man could be on his late 40s or early 50s and over a meter and eighty tall.
He had abundant brown hair which was neatly combed and his face was clean shaven so he didn't have any beard or moustache.
His eyes' irises were brown.
He wore a simple black suit with a black tie, pants and brown shoes.
He was standing inside of a rather unlit living room in skyscraper somewhere with sights to the Chicago skyline.
"Atomic Network is involved, then?" Zero guessed.
"But how can they cause the quakes to begin with?"
"Hmmm… Ah! I remembered something… In the James Bond movie A View To Kill the villain intended to detonate a special bomb in a mine dug to try to find one of the spots in California where a tectonic movement occurred and thus provoke a massive quake… They could be using a non-manned sub which drills into trenches' walls and then inserts explosives which detonate…" Zero exposed.
"Aha-hah! So that's how it is. And their other targets were picked at random then… Our priority should be locating that submarine."
"There must be some wireless system for a Navi to go in or out and I'd guess that they're Ground-Elemental. Maybe they're fond of Ground PKMN and their "Earthquake" move too…"
"It wouldn't surprise me. How is Nelaus like? Yes, I should ask him directly but I wanted to have another PoV."
"Well. He seems to be having fun and all and he gets along nicely enough with the club… The B Class students seem to find him cool given how he "officially" came from Ameroupe…"
"Good. He gets involved with the others?"
"Last time I checked he did. Speaking of checking, I checked on Vincent "Red" just in case but he was just drunk and I saw him going down a street, yell, and get a pot with earth on it over his head… I don't think Twilight will bother to hire him and Atomic Network won't either… I did show you the photo we finally got, right?"
"Correct. I've dispatched it to the agencies and they're investigating this Singapore-based company which is also being looked upon the local police because of tax evasion… They should soon confess where did the guy come out from and how he approached them…"
"Good idea. Any bit of data we can collect is worth it: this guy is our only chance to figure out what Atomic Network really is about… And we need to figure out if they're the leader or not…"
"Metto!"
"Metto~!"
"What?"
Zero turned around to spot two Mettools with the numbers "29" and "30" printed on their helmet foreheads using purple paint: they ran off and Zero fumed.
"Heck. Legion 64. They were stalking me and now Twilight will go chase the sub to show up and taunt Atomic Network along the way…"
"As long as they don't attack us…"
"Hum. Good point. Well. I'm going to report this to Vadous. Good-bye."
"Hmpf… Atomic Network… You got "God complex", huh? No surprise."
03:17 AM (San Francisco Time)…
"… Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"
A Navi hidden by a brown cloak and hood was standing inside of a round Cyber World which included a Core Block and a holographic control panel: they typed a code into it while chuckling.
"This time around Siberia's gonna shake and rumble…"
They pressed the "RETURN" key but a fanfare rang out and a message showed up onscreen.
"What in the Hell is this about, you…? "'YOU GUYS ARE A BUNCH OF HOLLYWOOD COPYCATS!"… What the hell? Somebody messed with the Operating System? That's impossible! The sub cannot be traced! It's impossible to locate! Only I can find it! No – one else should be able to locate it, you know!" The Navi gasped.
"It can be traced, fella." A voice corrected.
"Damn it."
The Navi turned around to see Blood Shadow aiming his already loaded shotgun at the Navi.
"How about you take off that silly "Zoanoroid" fashion?"
"Hmpf! Fine!"
The Navi tossed the cloak aside.
His helmet's main color was a mix of dust gray and several shades of brown varying in brightness: a small round circle with a shining brown jewel had been set in the middle of the forehead.
The face's cheek had purplish circuitry patterns on them while his eyes' irises were blood red.
The body's choice of color was several patches of brown and gray of different bright and lengths mixed at random along with occasional patterns of purple circuitry there and there.
His emblem's edge was purple and the drawing itself was a mountain range with three peaks identical in height and colored black.
His shoulders were anatomically correct and had scales made of shards of stone varying in width, height and thickness.
The arms and legs shared the main body's random mixing of colors and the purple patterns across their length: his elbows and knees didn't stand out either.
The forearms and boots had a cyan color with three circling bands of brown coloring set at fixed intervals across their height: their palms contained a miniature purplish dome on them covered in brown patterns as well.
His boots also had spikes on their soils as if he was a hiker.
"My name is Earth Rock Man! We of Atomic Network shall make the foundations of the human's world be shaken!" The Navvi announced with pride.
"BWAH, HAH, HAH! It's a copyright infringement! You're so gonna end up in the courts!" Blood Shadow exploded into laughter, for once.
"What's so funny?" Earth Rock Man demanded.
"There's already a Net Navi named Rock Man!"
"I knew that! But he doesn't live up to the name! That's why I am Earth Rock Man: my specialty is the soil!" He countered.
"You've never bothered to look up a dictionary, right? "Rock" is a word with multiple meanings… In Rock Man's case, the name is taken out of "Rock & Roll"…." Blood Shadow told him.
"He's not a musical group member, you know!"
"It's not meant to be literal! You're gonna have to change your name to "Earth Man" if you want to avoid ending up in the courts!" Blood Shadow taunted him next with a sneer.
"Grah! I'm fed up with this! Quake Sphere! Eat this!"
"Oho. No negotiations? Better, then. Let's get down to the action."
"Me! To! Metto!"
"And it'd seem the VIP guest found us."
"VIP Guest?"
"Do not underestimate the power of the Subspace. I find your lack of faith disturbing."
"Fuck! You're Twilight!"
"Mwah, hah, hah! I gotta agree with the runt over there: your name is lame and is an attempt to make a parody out of Rock Man's name to begin with… Typical of Tesla Magnets!"
"Tesla Magnets is unrelated! Everyone is telling you the same!"
"You're not convincing enough, Admiral."
"Vader" showed up there after his Metools raised the alarm and made his usual motto parody while signaling Earth Rock Man as he formed a brown boulder over his head and lifted it with his forearms: he threw it at Blood Shadow and he merely recoiled: Earth Rock Man formed two Long Blades colored brown and jumped towards Blood Shadow who calmly crouched while bending the right leg and having the left one rest on the ground as he lifted his shotgun and shot a blast of plasma: Earth Rock Man cancelled his jump by seemingly increasing his own weight using a boulder he attached to his back and hit the floor with the spikes: purple energy travelled across the circuitry patches and some purple lightning leapt out of it to hit Blood Shadow: he grumbled but didn't mind them too much: Earth Rock Man suddenly appeared in front of him and began to punch him several times but Blood Shadow merely yielded terrain: "Vader" brought the right hand to his chin and was seemingly looking on while making a weak chuckle.
"Heh, heh, heh… Alright… 47 and 48! What news do you have for me today~? Did Dow Jones hit the floor? Let the stock hit the floor!" He called out with obvious sarcasm.
Two new Mettools formed the "Win RAR" icon and he studied the data while being seemingly interested.
"Aha-hah! So he was in Singapore as recently as 5 days ago but then fled."
"What! You found about "Hell's Envoy"…? Ah! The mechanic! I knew it was a bad idea to let them loose!" Earth Rock Man gasped.
"Not like the guy knew the ID of "Hell's Envoy"… Only his "Hush" cosplaying habit… And his Oregon accent…" Twilight shrugged and didn't seem to care.
"… By the way, Earth Rock Man… Aren't you surprised I haven't bothered to counter-attack yet?"
"Huh? Oh crap!"
BLAM!
"Ugrah!"
"Gotcha. My shotgun has a Muramasa function too: it can increase the damage to be delivered given the hits I get…"
Blood Shadow delivered a powerful blast from his shotgun and Earth Rock Man recoiled while grumbling.
"Shit. I got cocky!"
"And that's not all… No matter how much combat data you look up you guys forget something: we evolve, we improve… And your tactics are more suited to standard-level battling than guys like us… The "Darkloids" were harder to chew because they could try to improve too and they had enough imagination to exploit other forms of combat… You guys get obsessed with "like this" and "like that" but that's not all there's to battling…" Blood Shadow lectured.
"No way! Then why did the "Darkloids"…?"
"Why did they last so much? I told you: they had a strategy and they knew the speed, direction and other factors of their attacks which they didn't shoot at random trying to settle it with one or two blows."
"What?"
"They didn't try to play cool... Which is what you guys do, anyway… You were sent to real battles in a rush after looking up in a rushed manner the battle data and hoping you could catch us unaware and hit us a lot."
"Sheesh! Plasma Man! The jerk! Why does he have to take all the glory when he got beaten twice in a row? I dunno why he's the favorite! But at least this proved to the world one thing: you CAN create earthquakes and use them to ravage the lands! What we Atomic Network have begun… Others will continue! Even if you take us down someone sometime will come up with a new system or will use this same system to spread terror and chaos across this world!" He got cocky.
"Then show me your real strength."
"Hroa~h! Rock Armor! Tackle Mode!"
Scales made of rock formed all around Earth Rock Man as he crouched and assumed a wheel shape: he shot forward and rammed into Blood Shadow while leaving some of those scales stabbed into his armor: the blow had also pushed him to the floor but Blood Shadow simply aimed the shotgun and when the guy came back for more he shot at him.
"Ugrah! That damned blast can pierce through the Rock Armor? And Plasma Man said I'd be unstoppable! The jerk didn't bother to make the calculations on the strength of this or WHAT?"
"That was more like an attempt to imitate a "Goron" from the Legend of Zelda to begin with… And you forget that my shotgun gets stronger and you surely never bothered to calculate how much it can pack."
"Shit. I'm fed up with this damned FIASCO AFTER FIASCO! We'll go imitate the hit and run: at least that ensured a long campaign! Plasma Man: you and I will have to TALK about MY "Rock Armor"! Get ready!"
"Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh… Copycats! Stray souls! Heh, heh, heh…"
"Vader" vanished after Earth Rock Man and Blood Shadow sighed in relief.
I can't believe they're so lame… Are they acting weak in purpose or…?