Chapter 9: Of birds and expectations
09:29 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday April the 27th…
"… Hello there~! Uncle Mars Warrior says B-B-B-Bertie~ will have an adventure with you two~!"
"Whoa! Omega! You already switched modes?"
"Shachou thought it'd do well to balance me out, see~!"
"Oh. I see. Nothing on the birds?"
"Save bird-hunters…"
"What?"
"Heh, heh, heh!"
"That ain't funny, Netto – kun."
"Who knows, Saito – niisan?"
"Jeez."
Omega showed up on the twins' computer as they'd been reading a tankobon and looking up something on the PC: he'd switched to his joker mode and Netto got amused while Saito sighed.
"Niisan also has a random switch!"
"I knew it. If only Papa could find out how to fix it…"
"Heh, heh, heh!"
"Let's go Solomon's Salmon!"
"Jeez."
"Bravo!"
"And now… The birds will fly and hit the ceiling! Let the birds hit the ceiling!"
"Now a Bodies parody…?"
"They're the rage, Rock Man!"
"You're the rage, Omega." Netto laughed.
"Guess I am! So? What did B-B-B-B-Bertie~ tell ya in his gossip book?"
"It's not a gossip book! It's a journal!" Saito corrected with some annoyance.
"And his name is Albert, anyway. That nickname sounds forced." Netto didn't seem to find it funny, for once.
"It's my love-name!"
"Love-name…! Swallow me, earth…!" Saito groaned and dropped his head into the desk out of exasperation.
"Well! By now we've reached the part in which he met with "that girl" and he got told "his origins" but he leaves it vague in purpose… There seem to be just a few more days left afterwards." Netto explained.
"Yeah! With Super Idol – chan!"
"Super Idol – chan…? Jeez."
"A meeting made possible 'cause I happened to switch the VIP Guest Room's password with a joke she'd already heard before…"
"And what was it?"
"Well… See. There are two guys named Moon Disaster and Acid Ace."
"Yeah. So?"
"I reverse them!"
"Huh? How?"
"Moon Ace and Acid Disaster."
"HAH, HAH, HAH! ACID DISASTER!" Netto exploded into laughter.
"Moon Ace… Sure… I'm sure he's a disaster hence the name…"
"A disaster at improving singles and extravaganzas!"
"Huff. What a club."
"We're broadcasting pals! YO, YO, YO! Welcome to Mars Warrior's and Moon Ace's broadcasting show with the latest universal and local news of all times and smiles!"
"Times and smiles…? It doesn't rhyme!" Saito groaned.
"Times and smiles…!" Netto was barely muffling his laughter.
"Yo! Hikawa! Time to practice "to be or not to be"!"
"What?" Tooru grumbled.
"Yo! Ookarada! Time to kneel to your lil bro!"
"E~H?"
"Chu! I knew it, chu."
"Yo! Sakurai – sama~! Time to tell The Beatles to stay quiet and for The Mistress to rise!"
"Why not…" She sounded amused.
"Yo! Ayanokoui – sama~! Time to shower those two in strawberry milk!"
"Hah! See! I saw it comin' 5 miles away!" Yaito bragged.
"Yo! Tomono! Time to squish some eels!"
"I don't like eels!" Noa protested.
"Yo! Akashi! Time to solid some snakes!"
"Oho! Good, good, Omega!"
"Yo! Red! Time to climb Mt. Shirogane!"
"GTHJRGHGG!" Red Sword howled something undecipherable.
"Yo! Ou – sama! Time to crackdown on Bubble Man's Workshops!"
"I have no reason to, Omega." Serenade calmly replied.
"Will you stop bothering others?" Saito sighed.
"No, no! This is getting cooler!"
"Jeez. Netto – kun! Always asking for trouble to knock at the door…"
"Yo! Guts Man! Guts the Man-Guts!"
"Guts?"
"Yo! Ice Man! Ice the Man-Ice?
"Desu?"
"Yo! Glyde! Become the Bat-Glider!"
"No way, sir!"
"Yo! Delta! Bring out Delta Team!"
"That joke's running old, Omega!"
"Yo! Raf! Bust the Falcone fellows!"
"Yessir!"
"Yo! Forte! Conspire with the conspiracy!"
"Why not…" He laughed.
"Yo! Magic Man! Magic the Man-Magic!"
"W-what?"
"Yo! Roll – sama! Bust those flattened idols!"
"How rude!" Roll protested.
"Yo! Elec Man! Elec the Man – Elec!"
"What in the…"
"Yo! Colored Man! Color the Man – Colored!"
"Wha~t?"
"Yo! Fire Man! Fire the Man – Fire!"
"By all the…"
"Yo! Maha – sama! Become a maja!"
"What?"
"Yo! Hinoken! Become the Fire Sword! The "hi no ken"!"
"Oho!"
"Yo! Count Elec! Electrify the stage!"
"Wha~t?"
"Yo! Madoi – sama~! Become a witch!"
"This jerk!"
"Yo! Zero! Zero on the culprits!"
"Hmpf… Not a bad joke…"
"Yo! Gate Man! Visit cousin Gate Woman!"
"What in the… Go salmon!"
"And Solomon!"
"Jeez."
"Meijin – sama~! The donuts are flying off the window!"
"I don't eat donuts, damn it! Just rice cookies!"
"Beware! Dragon Hell might have stuffed them with spices!"
"Who?"
"Our onboard extravagant cook, see~! He invented the Salty Coffee!"
"BEEJ!" Meijin sounded like he found the idea to be repulsing.
"O-ME-GA!"
"Shachou's tenor voice rings out! And with this I bid adieu!" Omega grinned and made a reverence.
Netto laughed while Saito sighed in defeat…
15:25 PM (Japan Time)…
"… That table thing was too much, Akira!"
"Oh come on. You say the same thing after each experience, Shun – kun, but your body says otherwise."
"GJRXHTK!"
"Oh my. Mordor – tongue?"
"Of course not!"
"It was joke, my dear… You needn't be so hostile with your cousin."
"I'm who I am! End of the tale!"
"And start of the lunch."
"JEEZ!"
"Heh, heh, heh…"
Obihiro was having lunch (curry rice with sauce) and Akira was sitting opposite him as he complained but Akiara didn't seem to be too surprised and he smiled.
"And you see… Those two have been quiet but not for much longer… They're about to get desperate so I'm going to leak their location and they'll wrap the deal up… On Friday morning I'll release you and then "Strategy: Zeta" will be over…"
"Huff."
BEEP!
"The proximity sensors of the Cyber World…! Security!"
"There is a cardboard box." A security Navi reported.
"Lift it up!"
"Roger."
"Puku!"
"Puku…? Bubble Man?"
"Oh. So he's into the cardboard box joke, eh?"
The Security Navi lifted the box and revealed that Bubble Man had been hiding beneath it: he suddenly drew a weird digital clock with a frame having bubbles on it and displaying "66: 66 XX-YY-ZZZZ" on it.
"Puku! Alien Clock! 100,000 Z! De puku!"
"Alien Clock? That piece of junk is an alien clock? Don't make me laugh, you moron!" Akira grumbled over the mike.
"Yikes!"
"I'll give you a real alien! Go, go!"
"Grrr…"
"UWA~H!"
"Yikes! Ridley Scott's "Alien"…!"
"Yeah. I saw the comic adaptation of the film."
"That thing can give you nightmares for a whole week!"
"So they say, Cousin, so they say."
The "Alien" loomed over Bubble Man who ran off and dropped his "Alien Clock" joke: the "Alien" let some acid fall from the open jaw and immediately corrode the thing: it then vanished and Obihiro sighed in relief while Akira grinned.
"Did you see Omega's show?"
"Jeez. He needs more of his serious mode."
"No, no. He needs more of his joker mode."
"Jeez."
"Time for a call."
"Impersonating me?"
"Of course. Just to be on the safe side… Be back in a few minutes… Enjoy your meal, Shun – kun…"
Akira headed upstairs and closed the door while Obihiro grumbled something under his breath and ate up.
"At this rate my ass will end up aching the whole time… You're overdoing it, Akira…! Huff. But since the guy set up that whole "alibi" thing then nobody will question anything… Jeez."
"… Done! Heh, heh, heh. They believe you're still in Gunma and they're relieved nothing has happened…" Akira came in.
"Won't your mom question anything?"
"No. I'm supposed to be with dad but since mom doesn't want to keep contact with him then… As long as I get back on the scheduled day then she won't question anything and dad won't because I made it look like I got ill at the last moment and couldn't come."
"How devious of you."
"Isn't it, Shun – kun?"
He drew a Link PET colored purple and pink and inputted some commands using the touch-pen to interact with the holographic screen: it then displayed Forte and Omega along with "Gospel Jr." chatting in a spot of the Reverse Internet.
"Even if we find those… Can we find "Zeta"?" Forte asked.
"Hard to say." Omega seemed to have gone back to his serious mood.
"We didn't figure out Tabuu was using the Mare Nostrum supercomputer in Barcelona until he told us, after all. But the guy could alternate between real and Cyber World to begin with so… "Zeta" has to be a human. We know they're using the PTS and Navi frames to interact with the Cyber World but they are careful in not revealing their gender. They could be fooling us into believing it's a man and it could be a woman."
"I'd thought of the same, yeah."
"Sir Omega: status report… Nothing in WWW Area 2…" Blood Shadow reported to him.
"This is Sigma… Nothing in Kotobuki Square…"
"Alright."
"Kotobuki Square…" Obihiro muttered.
"Yeah… That's where the Cyber World base of "Gospel" was at… And that apartment building in Kotobuki Town which you slowly began to take over was the real-world HQ… The intense EM radiation from the work of so many servers had created a distortion of Cyber World and real world with some patches of the building merging with it…"
"I know…" He sighed.
"Oh. But don't get down, Shun – kun. You weren't entirely to blame: Wily had turned you into a puppet, you know."
"I know. But nevertheless…"
"Don't be so gloomy… What you need is some love from me…"
"I don't." He grumbled.
"Oh? Someone might object."
Obihiro blushed as he realized how his cock had gotten hard and was popping out of the hole in the "briefs" he had on him: he looked elsewhere while Akira giggled.
"Alright. I'll be bringing the desserts. Let's hope they don't come from a desert, though, Shun – kun!"
"How lame." He grumbled.
"Heh, heh, heh. Oh, that blushing… You look so lovely and cute…"
"Please…"
"Heh, heh, heh. Oh well. I'll bring the banana. Wait a min."
"Sure~…"
Akira picked the platter and covered it before he went upstairs and soon returned while having brought a banana along with a dish: Obihiro ate it while Akira entered the annex and closed the door from the inside as he did something there: Obihiro felt a shudder go down his spine and then spotted that the Link PET imagery was still active.
"I got back from talking with Chief Lezareno." Zero joined them.
"So?"
"Two suspicious cars were sighted parting at top speed from the real-world abandoned lab where those two had been hiding at… They fled in opposite directions, straight north and SE… If we assume they keep those directions then they most likely headed for Hokkaido and Izu." He detailed to both of them.
"Hokkaido and Izu. Good. That's a starting point." Omega nodded in agreement and looked pleased with the news.
"Yeah. They haven't tried to use any underground resource but that's the Tokyo Province report. Other sleepers have been mobilized to gather info from those two spots."
"That's fine." Forte shrugged.
"My, my." The voice of "Zeta" echoed.
"Speaking of Koratta…" Omega grumbled.
"Alas, it would seem everything is heading towards its inevitable conclusion yet I have gathered enough data from this exercise for future reference."
"And now you're gonna say you need to dispose of the trash generated during the exercise?" Omega taunted.
"Oh no. I am not like those barbarian super-computers, gentlemen. So long, gentlemen. Maybe I shall speak again."
"Che. Fled, the Koratta did…"
Akira… Haven't you overdone the whole deal? Jeez. What a cousin you are!
23:19 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Alright. That's the place. Blood. You ready."
"Roger, sir."
"Sigma. Be ready. There's a possibility the jerk materialized Laser Man to fight back."
"Roger, sir…"
"Good. Zero? How's it over there?"
"Lone mansion, barbed wire… But we'll use C4 to blow up a wall segment and get in… Plenty of Heel Navis… They must believe they're Genome Soldiers."
"This is Gate Man… We're in position to strike from the south… A perimeter has been set 15 meters from the house and cutting off all escape routes: choppers are in standby."
"Good."
Omega, Blood Shadow and Sigma were laying face-down in a slope covered by trees and overlooking a solitary two-floor mansion surrounded by high-rise perimeter walls with embedded crystal shards on them: black Heel Navis were patrolling the decaying garden and the empty swimming pool while brandishing portable spotlights.
"OK. Tactical camouflage: on. Split. Report over the encoded channel. Figure out their frequencies and if someone asks for a report say "no abnormalities"… Just like in MGS2…" Omega whispered.
"Roger, sir."
"Mwah, hah, hah… OK, sir!"
They engaged their camouflages and crept towards the walls: Omega simply formed a Dash Condor and began to climb upwards to then fall down while attaching to one of the house's walls to make no noise: he slowly slid the wall down in silence and landed behind a lone Heel Navi stretching.
"Don't move."
"HUH!"
He aimed the gun from behind and then circled to aim it at the front: the Heel Navi quickly lifted both hands.
"Frequency. Speak."
"1…141.90…!"
"Fine."
Omega then gripped the forehead and something glowed inside of his right hand: the Navi was knocked out and he hid the body behind some overgrown bushes.
"This is BS… Two neutralized…"
"This is S… Three out…"
"Good. Count all doors and windows and mark them with the sensors so that we can form Viruses there to impede their escape." Omega instructed them in a hushed tone.
"Roger!"
Omega then headed for the backdoor and used the saber to cut off the lock and silently pick it: he then slowly pulled the door outwards to reveal a messy kitchen which was a mess: Omega crept into a barely clean living room in which there were some beer cans and a TV which had been used until recently.
"Hmpf… Regal couldn't care less for keeping his place clean… The guy must be upstairs trying to invent something new but he surely lacks the resources or the mood to… And instead he must be trying to improve something lame…" He muttered.
"All sentries neutralized." Blood Shadow reported.
"They gotta be dreaming of Hugo Pawn!"
"Shut up, Sigma!"
"Yikes! R-roger."
"This is Zero… We've secured the perimeter too…"
"This is Gate Man… We're going in."
"Good. Maintain radio silence until success."
"Roger."
Omega climbed up a flight of dusty stairs and spotted a faint computer screen glow coming from the right where there was a slightly open door: he peeked inside of see Regal working with a laptop and cursing under his breath as Laser Man was standing quietly behind him but seemed to be watching out.
Hmpf… So I was right…
"Damn it. Every time I try to recreate the "Darkloid Army" they have some flaw there and there which makes them unstable! I don't have enough hijacked remote servers to properly clone them! I need more!"
"But, Regal – sama… We are risking too much. They surely will start to realize some external factor is diverting a lot of server power and cutting speed for normal users…" Laser Man argued.
"Did I give you permission to speak?" He growled.
"Huh! I apologize." He gasped.
"Shut up! Patrol! Now!"
Omega suddenly silently drove his blade through Laser Man from behind: he howled and his "Copy Roid" began to malfunction before his body suddenly turned into stone and collapsed face-down on the ground: the blow made the ground shake so Regal violently picked an M4 assault rifle and began to shoot at mad towards the wall: Omega merely jumped, attached to the ceiling, crawled across it and landed behind Regal to knock him out with the hilt of his saber.
"Operation: bird. Status: bird one down… Now we need to wait for the other team to catch bird two… And the crisis will be over…"
23:03 PM (Japan Time)…
"… You damned idiots! What's with the server power?"
"W-we are sorry, Grand Wily – sama, but it'd seem Regal is boycotting Wily – sama by also hijacking servers!"
"Damn it! Why didn't you burn up his damned hideout?"
"W-we still haven't figured it out…!"
"You useless grunts! Off this room! I'll solve this myself!"
"R-roger!"
"… Hmpf… In-fighting… Typical of the guy, Gate Man…"
"Yeah… I can guess that…"
Zero and Gate Man (both in invisible state) looked on as to how Wily scolded the Heel Navis while working in a garage which had a blue Hyundai parked on it and a desk on the left side where Wily had his PC: he'd stood up and looked menacing to the Heel Navis.
"E~h! Useless puppets! Go patrol! Or else my anger will rise! Bury Regal 70 feet under!"
"R-roger!"
"If the guy isn't buried by tomorrow you lowlifes will be the ones to sink in the ocean instead! To a watery grave~!" He threatened next while throwing the chair at them.
The Heel Navis (3 of them) ran off through the right-side door which they shut while Wily discharged both fits on the sides of the PC: he grumbled and opened a cupboard to draw a FAMAS machinegun which he loaded and removed the safety.
"The next idiot who dares to get in gets some holes in their suits! Get it, you damned useless puppets? Or do I need to show it to you lowlifes instead? HUH?" He roared.
"R-roger, sir!"
"Flee, by damnation!"
He fumed and sat back on the chair while both Navis silently circled the car and headed for the guy without making any noise: Wily seemed to feel something because he opened fire so Zero drew his sword and began to bounce the bullets towards the wall.
"What in the!"
"Blame your precious disciple."
Zero unveiled himself and Wily frowned but then gasped and seemed to recognize him.
"What the hell! The Zero Virus vector body?"
"A bit wrong. I'm a Navi by now. And my name's Zero."
"Che! The failed project of the "Professor" idiot!"
"Failed project? Oh no. I'm a big success, Wily. But it all ends here and now because "Zeta" won't bother to save your hides. You were used to stage an exercise so that they'd gain battle data of you and us."
"Impossible!"
"Not at all. Gate Man. Do the honors."
"Delighted."
Gate Man stole the FAMAS and used its butt to knock Wily out while Zero headed for the door as the Heel Navis ran in: he quickly cut one in half with the blade and the others dispersed.
"Run for it!" They yelled.
"Omega? Status: second bird down. Operation: completed." Zero reported to him.
"Excellent. The crisis is finally over."
"Yet… We still need to solve the enigma of "Zeta"…"
"If we can, that is… For the time being… Let's have a party on Friday!"
