Chapter 7: Walls have ears

16:49 PM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 1st…

"… I'm surprised you called me here. Did you find Miquel or what?"

"No, no. But we found some interesting information."

"Well then: shoot it at me."

"That's not a bad catch-phrase either…"

Enzan had met with Netto in a café somewhere and Netto looked slightly curious while Enzan was neutral and composed.

"We met another Navi… Legato… A Blues spin-off…"

"Blues spin-off… Like Rock Man DS?"

"Yeah. The same concept but this guy is a very different tale. His strength is obvious because he beat us very easily and without doing too much effort… And he let out some information regarding the structure of the gang, named "Golden Star"… Apparently Kage was the one who came up with the name given his bandana's drawing…"

"Oh yeah? Funny. I always thought he was a guy very focused on the everyday matters and not the day-dreaming type…"

"Ah. I see. Well. They admitted they found him in Houston and invited him to take part into the business… He's got the eye of the onboard VP and responds to him… Both President and VP can do as they feel like and they're not obliged to tell each other what they've done but that's on the paper and in the field they work together pretty well… But it'd seem that Burner Man guy is the type to get bored easily given how he burnt some discarded film tape belonging to that Video Man jerk…"

"No – one's perfect or so they say."

"Guess so. I really need to train."

"So what do you want me to do?"

"Nothing. Keep as you are: it doesn't involve you directly."

"Alright."

"We're still looking into the Chicago stuff but we did confirm he was in Houston before he vanished… But we've got no clues as to how he came back to Japan undetected… He surely changed his appearance and they gave him a fake passport…" Enzan muttered.

"Could be, yeah…" Netto shrugged.

"Did he display any unusual abilities?" Rock Man asked Blues.

"He was pretty fast and strong, yeah, and could form one arm cannon as well to attack me… He seemed to read my moves in advance and be ready for them." Blues admitted.

"Whoa. And if he's Number 2, then Andy must've gotten quite a power boost ever since we last saw him…" Rock Man whistled in surprise.

"How did he use to be?" Enzan suddenly asked.

"Huh? Miquel, you mean? Well… Timid. Rather timid. He did address everyone formally and such but… He was always timid and felt nervous when he asked of us to lend him a pencil or an eraser even if it was for a little moment… He thought he was being annoying, even, but we told him he wasn't. We invited him to Yaito's parties as one more of the gang together with a B Class student named Hikawa Tooru – kun whose father works in the Waterworks and has a small Net Navi named Ice Man. It took him about three months to finally begin to open up but before that he was rather closed and although he attempted to look in a good mood I could see something was bothering him. Guess it was that uncle's stuff… After he opened up he began to join Net Battling which he'd kept out of and after a month of struggling he managed to beat Guts Man. We used to have friendly Net Battles on a more "basic" level where we didn't use anything else apart from the basic Folder and removed all Navi Customizer Programs so that we both were at the same HP and stats."

"I see. Did he strike you as cocky or…?"

"On the contrary: he was a guy who worried too much. He looked like me in the part that he was always concerned with each hit Andy got."

"Hum… So that means he must've had a radical change ever since the summer given the behavior he and Andy exhibited in the underground station…" Enzan rubbed his chin.

"Guess so."

"Here's a transcript Obihiro did and he's working on some sketches to illustrate the scene… He couldn't use his PET because its camera isn't designed to work in unlit spots and doesn't have night vision mode: the flashlight would've given him away…" Enzan told Netto as he handed him a piece of paper.

"Hmmm… Very hostile and straight to the point… Yeah… If you hadn't told me it was Miquel I would've believe it to be someone else. Or maybe that hostile behavior is a mask to hide something else like doubts…?"

"Could be…" Rock Man seemed to think along those lines.

"Why. That could be true, even…" Enzan muttered while sounding slightly surprised.

"It's not crazy." Blues shrugged his shoulders.

"Speaking of crazy… Superintendent Oda does keep on acting crazy or can he get serious from time to time?" Netto asked as he picked the orange juice glass with his left hand.

"Huh? When did you become left-handed?"

"What? Oh! Well… I still haven't gotten off the habit I had to develop while my wound healed…" He admitted.

"Ah. Well. Regarding Superintendent Oda…"

"…he'd like of you to bring him some sushi cookies."

"True, true, and… Superintendent Oda! H-how did you know I was here?"

"Have you forgotten your suggestion regarding CID members when off-duty should be easily located just in case?"

"Oh heck. My own idea turned on me!"

"Yo! Hikari – kun. Teaching him the virtues of using the left hand in a karate match?" Superintendent Oda grinned.

"No, sir." He drily replied while looking slightly annoyed.

"Oh, wait. Were you talking about Craig?"

"Craig?" Enzan frowned.

"Daniel Craig, my good fellow."

"James Bond, huh… I thought there wasn't going to be a movie this year because of financial trouble…" Enzan muttered.

"Sadly enough. But Quantum of Solace is a good movie nevertheless, my good old fellows enchanted by Uncle Merton."

"Enchanted by Uncle Merton… Oh come on!" Netto groaned.

"With all due respect, sir… It's… silly, sir!" Rock Man protested.

"Here comes the lawyer apprentice?"

"No, sir!"

"My, my. Would you rather hear out a little thing? I got a package which turned out to be the Die Another Day DVD… Who of you two sent it to me, then?" He grinned as he leant closer.

"I didn't." Netto quickly replied.

"I didn't either."

"So it had to be Uncle Merton's handiwork." He concluded.

Both rolled their eyes and looked rather annoyed at Oda's jokes: Oda then cleared his throat and showed them a sketch drawing of the scene which had happened in the station: Netto and Rock Man looked at it with attention.

"Yeah… That type of coat, the bandana, the sunglasses… It's the Miquel I knew, alright. And Andy looks like he used to do, too."

"He sure does… Yet that face is scary, even."

"That reminds me. Andy. What kind of personality did he have? Friendly, cocky…?" Enzan recalled.

"Hmmm… More like humble and cool-headed… He pulled some puns on us but they weren't as terrible as Superintendent Oda's ones."

"Obviously. Uncle Merton passed them down to me: they've been in the family for generations!" Oda proudly announced as he distractedly adjusted his necktie's lace.

"Sure, sure." Enzan skeptically told him.

"He never got cocky or anything in Net Battles either yet he seemed to like them more than Miquel – kun did. He didn't mind getting a blow or two and he didn't get frustrated with his initials attempts while battling Guts Man because he admitted he was a rookie and needed time to get used to Guts Man's style which he did." Rock Man continued.

"I see. So it comes down again to what we'd discussed before: a radical transformation of their personalities and behaviors. I guess they must have a former forensics or scientific police agent who trained them in to how to analyze the scene in search of traps to catch someone's biological data…" Enzan muttered as if reflecting aloud.

"Maybe they have a CSI Las Vegas fellow there…" Oda laughed at his own suggestion.

"It's a possibility." Enzan calmly agreed on it.

His PET suddenly rang and he looked at the screen: he pressed the "REPLY" button and Video Man's face came up on-screen with a smug smile across it.

"Ijuuin Enzan!"

"What the hell! Video Man? How did you know my private number?"

"My own sneaky and stealthy investigation!"

"So that's Video Man? He does live up to the name." Netto muttered with some surprise.

"Whaddya want? Brag?"

"Maybe yes and maybe not!" He teased.

"Get to the point, you moron."

"Mwah, hah, hah! Next time I'm going to strangle you!"

"What!"

"… What did you say?" Legato's voice rang out in the background with some barely concealed annoyance on it.

"Ta-taichou!" He gasped.

"So he's the Commander…" Enzan merely lifted an eyebrow.

"Who said anything about strangling? Did VP – sama tell you about it or you're trying to sound intimidating? I hope you did remember to encrypt this line!" Legato growled.

"Y-yes, sir! I'm not as foolish as Needle Man!"

"Needle Man wasn't foolish: he just underestimated his opponent but it wasn't a setback in any manner." Legato fumed.

"It is encrypted, Enzan – sama…" Blues whispered.

"Try to find Search Man and drag him here so that we can crack their damned code." Enzan whispered back.

"Roger, sir."

"… Anyway! Video Man! Who are you talking to?" Legato questioned with obvious annoyance.

"Eh… Well…" He trailed off.

"Answer me: that's an order!" He commanded.

"I-Ijuuin Enzan, sir…"

"Enzan? What for? To show your hide?"

"W-well… I thought some intimidation…"

"Enzan ain't the type to get easily intimidated at all. Quit it before they drag Search Man here and he tries to crack the protocol. Too bad, Enzan, but we're too smart for ya. Patent the Black & White Coffee! Heh, heh, heh, heh… Have at ya!" Legato chuckled.

"Che. They fled… The punk…!"

None of three persons realized that they were being observed by a woman on her early 20s and having long platinum blond hair plus eyes with blue irises to them: she had a ruthless-like figure to her and was currently grinning as she hid behind a novel.

She sported a simple black wool sweater plus jeans and a pair of black boots.

A simplistic-looking black handbag was hanging from the chair's right side while a cobalt-colored Link PET with a golden-colored Alphabet "S" character on it as emblem was lying atop the table.

"Tee, heh, heh. What do you make out of it, Sandra?"

"Tee, heh, heh. Ikada Bertha – chan: it's obvious that they're not minding their surroundings…"

A Navi projected out of the Link PET using the standard-sized hologram while having a smug smile on her face.

Her helmet had a ruby set on its forehead and her eyes irises' was green: her face was shaped like a woman on her late teens or early 20s and its profile had an almost smooth shape to it.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt coupled with a golden band around the waist, golden shoulder plates and golden bracelets on both the wrists and the ankles.

Spiral-shaped magenta patterns travelled down her arms' and legs' surfaces while eight lines of the same color spread from the blackish edge of her chest emblem.

Overall she looked prideful and like she wanted to be ahead of the others given the brightness in her eyes.

"So true. Should we tease them a bit?"

"Let's rather make them feel nervous, Bertha – chan."

"How?"

"Easy. Let's use S&M…" She trailed off.

"Oi, oi." She looked surprised.

"Ahem! I meant Smoke & Mirrors…" She clarified.

"Smoke & Mirrors…?" Ikada frowned.

"Mr. Sniper's Navi told me about that… It's a technology to create holograms which look like real helicopters and send them to "assault" a fortress defended by AAC guns… The gunners shoot around like mad until they run out of ammo and then the real thing comes to deliver the coup de grace…" Sandra smugly explained.

"Ho~h… How intriguing." She made a smug smile.

"Ain't it?"

"So let's send some smoked pets to cause some scare at several places simultaneously and distract them so that we can pull a discrete escape and provide them with a glimpse of what we can do when we set our minds to it…" Ikada grinned.

"Delighted. I'd prepared everything on advance because I had a talk with Slur – sama who found it amusing. She's already given me the go-ahead to start it up." Sandra admitted.

"Start it up, dear."

"Leave it up to me…"

Sandra disappeared from the PET and Ikada then looked at the table where Netto and Enzan were trying to shake Superintendent Oda off but he wouldn't give up so easily.

"…and Aunt Garrideb used to say that grass is a grassy as a grassed lane, ya know." He was finishing another pun.

"How lame, sir." Netto grumbled.

"Totally, sir." Enzan drily added.

"My. What dryness." Ikada muttered.

"Ijuuin – kun!"

"Meijin? What's up?"

"Whoa. Meijin – san!"

"Huh? Ah. Hi again, Hikari – kun… Anyway… Trouble!"

"Where?" Enzan simply asked.

"13 spots at the same time!"

"1-13 spots at the same time…! What kind of trouble?" Enzan stood up from the surprise.

"Dream Viruses!"

"DREAM VIRUSES?" The five of them uttered.

"But… How weird. They don't seem to be doing anything else apart from standing and roaring yet their mere roar is disrupting some systems already… Wait a minute…" Meijin trailed off.

"He forgot his cigarettes." Oda joked.

"I don't smoke!" Meijin protested.

"Snake says you smuggle them in your jeans' rear pocket." Oda laughed next and his grin grew wider.

"Grfjtx!" He uttered something undecipherable over the line.

They didn't spot Ikada walking past them by going behind Netto and glancing at them: she'd put on sunglasses so they didn't spot her gaze apparently focusing on Enzan: she walked off and was obviously holding back the wish to laugh.

"Excellent job, Sandra."

"Thanks."

"I'm sure Mr. President will be largely satisfied."

"No wonder."

Both girls giggled while the roar of a Dream Virus rang out through Enzan's PET making it and Netto's frizzle as well as scaring some customers off and triggering the automatic watering system.

"By all the… Someone stop those!" Enzan cursed.

"Huh? Well… It turns out they aren't real Dream Viruses… They're holograms with a program having a sound wave the harmonics of which have been designed to contain a lot of "noise" and mess with basic automated systems…" Meijin reported.

"Yeah. I can't hit 'em to begin with." Punk grumbled.

"This show was brought to you by Industrial Light & Magic: thank you for your feedback." An automated voice rang out.

"Whoa! That was a show brought to us by the SFX Company which George Lucas founded when producing the first Star Wars films…? They sure are progressing a lot!" Meijin whistled in admiration.

"With the sponsorship of Uncle Merton."

"I knew it! Mwah, hah, hah! Uncle Merton is - EVERYWHERE! He's Orwell's Big Brother!" Oda laughed.

"Oh come on." Blues growled.

"Someone is conspiring with him to make him look smart." Rock Man muttered with some annoyance to his voice.

"Obviously!" Enzan fumed.

"Heck. It's gotta be the "Uncle Merton Fan Club" even."

Well then, cute boys… Play around while you can but you'll soon realize to what ends we can come when the situation calls for it… Kage will love to hear about this… Tee, heh, heh, heh!