Chapter 9: Rise of the Black Tower

12:45 PM (Japan Time), Sunday November the 19th…

"… Oi. Hikari. Reply to the call."

"Jeez. Just when I was at the interesting point… Hello?"

"Today at 5 o'clock there is gonna be a show in Oosaka."

"Tabuu!"

"WHAT?"

The group of six had been on their way back to Akihara Town via the hi-speed train: Hikawa, Drake and Hiro had been engrossed in some discussion, Enzan had been napping, Netto had been reading the tankobon and Saito listening to music when Netto's Link PET rang and Gufuu showed up onscreen.

"So that's why you were so quiet yesterday… You were plotting this!"

"Yep! I'm not the kind to snoop too deeply into someone's private stuff or force them to tell me things. Thus, I've ditched those Z – Militia people to handle on their own and now I can focus better." Tabuu sounded quite amused.

"What kind of show do ya mean?" Netto questioned.

"I hate spoilers." Tabuu merely replied.

"We knew that." Enzan shot back.

"Then, your questions were rather pointless, weren't they?" Tabuu sounded confused.

"We'd forgotten." Saito admitted.

"Ah. Then it makes sense."

"What time is it? Almost 1 o'clock… We've got about four hours, then. You're not gonna let out a hint like last time around?" Netto looked at his wristwatch and then questioned Tabuu.

"Hmmm… Sorry. But it'd give the surprise away." Tabuu seemed to be thinking about it before replying.

"Che." Netto scoffed.

"Don't be so annoyed! I'm gonna send you guys canned tuna as a souvenir!" Tabuu amusedly announced.

"… Something tells me this is gonna be somewhat similar to the earlier chaos but focused on Oosaka's center districts." Enzan announced.

"Bravo, Poirot – sama." Tabuu sarcastically congratulated.

"I'm gonna slice you up." Blues growled.

"That ain't Anduril, as far as I can see." Tabuu shot back.

"For the last time: I'm not Aragorn!" Blues growled again.

"Guts Man could go Grimli's role… And Search Man of Sharo could be Legolas! Magic Man could play Gandalf. And Sword Man would be Boromir. I'm not sure about the hobbits yet, but some of you guys would fit on the roles quite nicely, I'd say. Dr. Regal could even be Saruman: his beard fits." Tabuu listed.

"Yeah. Very exciting indeed." Drake drily told him.

"You wouldn't even amuse a fly." Hiro added.

"I agree." Hikawa added.

"Hmmm… Aha-hah! I've got it... My hint will be "Fortress"!" Tabuu suddenly announced.

"The Oosaka Castle, you mean to say? Or the inner perimeter of the castle?" Enzan assumed.

"Who knows?" Tabuu replied.

"You lowlife do." Blues replied.

"My. What manners." Tabuu sounded shocked.

"I don't give a cent for that." Blues told him.

"Indeed. And you guys don't as well, am I right?" Tabuu kept on sounding amused.

"Go to Alaska." Saito growled.

"Indeed: I'm going to visit Shadow Moses Island." Tabuu announced with some amusement.

"Shadow Moses Island…?" Enzan frowned.

"Bye-bye."

"Oi, wait… Damn. Shadow Moses Island is in Alaska's Fox Archipelago, the scene where the main action of Metal Gear Solid takes place… The FOXHOUND – occupied civilian nuclear diposal facility with the adjacent military base…!" Hiro exclaimed.

"Oh yeah. I remember." Saito recalled.

"And you get to visit it again in MGS4: Guns of the Patriots, 9 nine years later." Hiro added.

"The "Shadow Moses Incident" is the start of everything: all events which take place later are a result of that incident."

"Then it had to be some big deal." Enzan calmly replied.

"… "Some big deal"! FOXHOUD seized Metal Gear REX and wanted to start chaos by shooting an invisible nuke at Lop Nor to provoke Choina and India allying and forcing the Ameroupe government to disclose the existence of the weapon, which FOXHOUND would then sell to the highest bidder…! That's not "some big deal"!"

"Clever guys." Enzan merely shrugged.

"Give up, Hiro. Nothing's gonna impress him."

"Che! Stone-faced jerk…" Hiro grumbled.

"I knew that."

Hiro fumed and resumed the earlier chat while Netto and Saito looked worried…

16:55 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Here we are. Oosaka center district and there's nothing. His avatar isn't anywhere to be seen and there was nothing in Oosaka Castle. If this is a hoax then I'm gonna make raw bits and bytes of his ugly hide. We showed you the photo, right?"

"Yeah. He must be a medieval armor fan."

"Jeez! You and your sarcasm…"

"Cool it down, Netto – kun!"

"Enzan – sama. It is not wise to start a fight, sir."

"Hmpf."

"Hiro – kun… Don't be like that."

Netto, Hiro and Enzan were standing near the Tsuutentaku in the middle of Oosaka: Netto looked impatient, Enzan was shrugging and Hiro looked like he still carried on the bad mood from before: their Navis were trying to calm them down.

"16:57 PM… We're drawing closer." Blues reported.

"… Say. Don't you feel like the air is chilling?" Netto asked Hiro all of sudden.

"Huh? Yeah… And what's this smell? It smells like vulgar smoke, but, at the same time, it seems stronger than smoke…" Hiro began to sniff and looked thoughtful.

"Hmmm… This smell…" Enzan frowned.

"It somewhat makes you be reminiscent of the onsen…" Netto muttered as if he had a clue.

"Fortress… Smoke…" Hiro was seemingly trying to tie them together.

"16:59 PM…! Coming!" Rock Man warned.

"Show yourself, Tabuu!" Delta challenged.

The sky was suddenly filled with brownish-colored clouds and thunderbolts began to rain down in a 1 kilometer radius around the Tsuutenetaku tower.

"Whoa!"

The earth rumbled and something began to appear around the tower: black-colored smooth and stainless rock walls which rose until they were taller than the Tsuutentaku and formed a circular cover above its antenna spire: two curved horn-shaped black stone formations appeared as well.

"T-that's…!"

As if the dramatic appearance of the tower wasn't enough, four tall and large stone walls rose appeared to 'rise' from the ground in a 500 meters radius of the tower and form a compound, thus trapping all vehicles and persons inside of it.

"By all the…!"

The "Eye of Mordor" suddenly formed on top of the tower at the same time Orc-shaped Viruses materialized en masse around the whole district.

"… I know what that tower is! The Black Tower: Barad - dûr!" Rock Man gasped.

"And the sky and walls are supposed to be an overall recreation of the Mordor geography! This is why he named it a fortress!" Netto added while gasping.

"… This whole area is another modified "Dimensional Area", too. Let's use "Cross Fusion" and go fire him." Enzan rallied.

"Good!" Hiro grinned.

"But don't slow me down." Enzan warned.

"Che."

"Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!" The three of them exclaimed in unison.

Three flashes of light happened and Netto's dimmed first to reveal his "Cross Fusion" form: he took out the Rock Buster.

"Mine's similar."

"CF" Hiro's design looked very similar if not identical to Netto's with the only difference being the jet black and silver color pattern instead of sky blue and navy blue.

"Stop chatting. Follow me."

Enzan's "Cross Fusion" design had red armor over his upper torso and shoulders while his main bodysuit color was a mild blue color with tints of grey to it.

His helmet design was almost identical to Blues' but his shades were more transparent than Blues' own: the silver hair came out from behind the helmet and reached all the way to the ground.

His chest emblem was set on the middle of the armor and two white patterns climbing up towards the edges of the shoulders were drawn upon it.

His arms' skin coloring was divided in two: the upper half was colored in a gray/blackish color while the lower half was tinted mild blue.

Red armor formed over his forearms with one small wing-like formation set over the wrist: the armor around it had two round white bands reinforcing it plus a piece of bodysuit over the hand's palm which had his emblem drawn into it, too.

The rest of his bodysuit until the hips was colored in that combination of mild blue and grayish/blackish color running down the sides of it: there was a red triangle drawn over each hip before his boots began at a slightly lower spot.

An amber-colored diamond surrounded by black edges was built over the knees plus two extra white bands of armor around the knees themselves: the front edge of the boots was colored white and it had a golden rim marking the border between both colors.

"Hai, hai…" The other two muttered in a resigned tone of voice seeing how he believed he was their CO.

"Jet Vernier! "CF" Netto picks the left!"

"…Heh! "CF" Hiro picks the right!"

"Hmpf. "CF" Blues picks the center."

"CF" Netto and "CF" Hiro formed two jet exhausts on the lower edge of their backpacks while "CF" Blues formed jets on his soils: they floated upwards and began to fight some Viruses floating in the air before they reached the top and confronted the gigantic "Eye" although Gufuu was standing beneath it and bowing.

"Welcome! I'm sure I've left you guys speechless." Tabuu greeted.

"And what if you haven't?" "CF" Netto shot back.

"My. That's an intriguing question." Tabuu sounded amused.

"You're fired." "CF" Hiro told him.

"Fire my pawn firstly." Tabuu replied.

Before they could question him further, Plant Man appeared in front of them with his lustful face and his psychotic grin.

"Plant Man: there's a lot of public. Don't make anything obscene." Tabuu instructed in a rather serious tone.

"Roger." Plant Man bowed.

"You two. Let's go for the three-piece-sword strategy." "CF" Blues instructed in a hushed tone.

"We'll have to get rid of his shield firstly." "CF" Netto whispered back.

"Leave that to me." "CF" Hiro replied.

They all jumped up in different angles and positions, surprising Plant Man, who wasn't expecting such a move.

"Hell's Burner!" "CF" Hiro announced.

The Hell's Burner hit Plant Man fully and made him lower his guard, which would prove fatal.

"NOW! Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! DREAM SWORD!" The three of them announced at the same time.

The three Dream Swords sliced Plant Man's body in three vertical pieces and he roared in agony before exploding: the Cross Fusion users landed back on the ground and aimed their weapons at Gufuu.

"… Alas. A pawn is just a pawn." Gufuu looked resigned.

"Game Over." They all announced.

"Hmmm… Not yet. I'll give you a display of my true abilities." Gufuu decided.

He lifted his right hand: the "Eye" suddenly lost its front part and became an empty black cavity with something shining inside of it.

"Cosmo Beam!" He announced.

A golden-colored beam of energy hit the ground inches from the feet of the "Cross Fusion" users and destroyed the materialized data, thus making them be pushed out of the edge of the tower by the shockwave: before they knew it, they were in free fall.

"Je-Jet Vernier!" They all shouted.

They managed to engage their jets and maneuver: how all of the Barad – Dûr copy was self-dematerializing and so were the adjacent perimeters walls: the Viruses began to self-delete, too and the sky began to revert to normal.

"Now I know what that smell was: volcanic ash!" Hiro seemed to have realized it by now.

"It was a hint as well, then…" Netto muttered.

"He's becoming a true copycat. That of the Eclipse was taken from a Nintendo DS game, and this is from the Lord of the Rings… When will he come up with something far more original?" Enzan grumbled.

"Yeah. I can't stand copycats." Hiro grumbled and looked like he didn't like the setup, either.

"Dunno. And now we know that he can use his Navi attacks despite having the avatar on place. I dunno how powerful that "Cosmo Beam" was supposed to be, but I'm glad it didn't hit any of us directly."

"Indeed." Gufuu taunted as he hovered over them.

"Come down 'ere and fight like a man!"

"I am afraid that this character isn't a "man" per se but a Piccol, the diminute race." He came up with a loophole.

"Ya sound like a lawyer." Hiro groaned.

"Truly." He sarcastically replied.

"Stop beign a copycat!"

"Sorry. But there's such a huge pool of stuff to be recycled that I cannot avoid temptations. Maybe you can?"

"Huh? This smell… Curry rice! All mine~!"

CRASH!

"Uh…"

THUD!

"What the hell!"

Netto had suddenly run off towards a nearby store when he crashed with the "air" and the hit made him become dizzy only to then collapse in the ground and look disconcerted: the other two gasped.

"Invisible walls hidden by refraction of light… Heh, heh, heh. A good tool to prevent temptations. Let us hope you learned the lesson, Hikari Jr.! Falling for temptations means a hit on the face."

"C-curry… r-rice… m-mine…" He muttered.

"Oh come on."

17:11 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hah! This one was a piece of a cake, too. Let's head back."

"Not so fast."

"O-Omega!"

Kratins Boo and his four subordinates were leaving another secret backup server area after hacking it when they stumbled upon Omega blocking the exit.

"That's as far as you come!"

"Che! Beasts! Rip him to shreds!" Kratins Boo ordered.

"Grrr!"

"Skre~!"

Both Beasts jumped towards Omega: the G – Beast began a series of quick punches and kicks all of which Omega dodged by simply changing the position of his head or body.

"Slow."

The F – Beast flew over him and tried to bombard him with several projectiles but Omega merely calculated where they'd land at and quickly sidestepped to dodge them.

"… Vanish." He coldly announced.

He rushed towards the G – Beast and delivered a kick to its lower jaw thus momentarily stunning it before he began a terrific set of combos: he swung the saber up and down three times, he jumped skywards with it to perform a rising diagonal attack, he jumped down and hit the ground with the saber, electrocuting it, created fin-shaped waves of energy which traveled across the ground to meet with it and began to roll around before he finally stabbed the saber deep into the chest emblem.

"GROA~R!" The G – Beast roared.

"NO WAY!"

Omega then took out his O – Buster and shot a charged shot at the F – Beast's chest armor melting it and exposing its main program inside of the body: the F – Beast dived towards Omega, who merely awaited and then performed his rising diagonal attack, splitting it in half.

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

"So? If your two pets went down so easily, do you three think you'll behave any better? Your days will end here and now. The UN will take care of dealing with the formalities." Omega announced.

"Nope. It's still too early for the finale, Omega…" A familiar voice corrected with a hint of amusement.

"Damn. Tabby – chan."

"Will you drop that nickname already?"

Omega turned around to see Gufuu there looking somewhat resigned and shrugging.

"Hmpf. I'd thought you'd said you'd split off with them." Omega scoffed and was unimpressed.

"I did. But I want them to cause some more ruckuses. We've still got some time before the deadline. And it's part of the contract with Nebula Grey, too." Tabuu announced.

"What deadline? And when did you start working with the freak Nebula Grey?" Omega frowned.

"I hate spoilers." Tabuu merely replied.

"No avatar is gonna stop me." Omega told him.

"I'd rather object. Cosmo Beam!"

The "Eye" formed above him and shot the beam at Omega: he was sent flying and past the three of them before he violently crashed against the armored wall, leaving a dent on its smooth and stainless steel.

"Damn. I feel like I've just broken all of my bones." He cursed.

17:58 PM (Japan Time)…

"… How is Omega – san like, Vadous – san?"

"He'll recover with some repairs…"

"Eh… By the way…"

"Yeah. It's true. Tabuu is an alien."

"Whoa!"

Netto and Saito had gotten home and were conducting a video-conference with Vadous over the PC.

"Long story short: he started a string of incidents to taunt me after he feigned his death in an accident and then, when Blood Shadow fought him, the combined power of their attacks caused a crack in time-space which dragged the guy from that faraway place to Earth. And to keep his campaign of proving who has more guts, he's come up with all these incidents." He summed up.

"I see. So this whole affair is a challenge aimed at Vadous – san, then? But… Where could he hide and how could he hide all that stuff like the towers and such?"

"The towers… No big deal. Change their color pallete values to blend with the environment and then materialize them or uncloak them. But he'd need a lot of computing power to do that. Maybe he's bugging servers and computers to create a "bot-net" of infected computers executing programs remotely and then working together to assemble them in large pieces. Not unlike how cars are made by pieces which are then assembled together…" Vadous told them.

"So you're going to try to pick his trail?" Saito asked.

"Yeah. Stay put. You need to rest after that of Oosaka. Later."

"Tabuu… We won't let him harm innocents out of eagerness to overcome his rival…!" Netto muttered.

Saito merely nodded in agreement and formed a serious face…