Chapter 10: Revenge's incarnation
05:47 AM (Indianapolis Time), Monday January the 29th…
"… Colonel… You're awake as well, man?"
"I am."
"The base rebuilding is on the last stage… By the noon it should be ready…"
"I know that, Tomahawk Man. But I feel it… A murderous intent… It's coming closer… It's them…"
"What!"
"Get ready… This time around they're serious…"
"Indeed! I am serious… It is about time you realized the foolishness of your actions insofar, Colonel!"
"Heck. You were right. Here it is!"
"White flag. I have come as a parliamentary!"
"Hum. Fine. Say what you have to say. Don't think you'll impress me, though."
"Hmpf. That remains to be seen…!"
Colonel had been sitting cross-legged on his tent: Tomahawk Man came in, surprised to see him awake, and Colonel looked beyond him: he got to his feet just as "Hell One" showed up on the tent's entrance while carrying a white flag: they stepped in at a sure pace while Tomahawk Man didn't seem to know what to do: Colonel signaled the outside with the right arm and Tomahawk Man silently exited, closing the tent's entrance.
"I am revenge's incarnation."
"And what if?"
"Alexandre Dumas."
"What?"
"You've heard of him. Haven't you?"
"Barrel did mention that from time to time, saying he read his works back when college. What about Alexandre Dumas?"
"You know his works?"
"I only know about The Three Musketeers."
"There's another work about revenge…"
"About revenge?"
"The Count of Montecristo… A man is unfairly imprisoned despite that he's committed no sin to hide the existence of a letter that could be comprising for someone… A fellow inmate tells him that he hid a treasure in a small island named Montecristo… Years later, he manages to escape and gets his hands on that treasure… By using it and creating the identity of the "Count of Montecristo" he decides to have revenge on the man who had him imprisoned plus another 3 who he used to know and were the ones who leaked the existence of the letter to the imprisoner…"
"And?"
"This work is also known as gankutsuou in Japan… King of the Stone Cave."
"King of the Stone Cave…? Wait… Lords of the Cave… You took your title from the Japanese name of that book?"
"Indeed. Because we are like him, like Montecristo. Unfairly imprisoned. But in this case… To become blackmail… So that some fools could blackmail YOU, Colonel."
"What? Blackmail me…? The top brass? They imprisoned you to blackmail me? I fail to see the point. If you were mere "chaff" as you called yourself, why would they bother? You were meaningless, no?"
"Hmpf. Like I thought. You erased that memory so that the blackmail would be pointless. Because you'd feel no attachment to something you couldn't remember…"
"Aren't you making too many assumptions?" Colonel grumbled.
"No, I am not! I've been spying on them for months to try to find your skeletons in the closet. Like how Montecristo exposed the cowardly treachery one of the conspirators had committed in the past: he went openly boasting about his riches and his nobility when he was a double-crossing bastard military man. But when he was overseas and in charge of protecting a royal family, he actually let the enemy inside because he'd struck a deal with them! Allowed for the King and the Prince to be killed and for the Queen and the Princess to be sold as slaves."
"B-but…"
"You haven't done that, true. But the basic idea still applies: as an incarnation of revenge, I've come to destroy your reputation and pride and rank."
"But I haven't imprisoned anyone!"
"What about Rock Man?" "Hell One" sneered.
"Tomahawk Man brought him!" He tried to argue.
"Then why tie him? Isn't that imprisoning?"
"T-that's…"
"You said it, no? You burst into the Science Labs, saw the Soul Unison, and said that you were going to imprison him. Because you feared that he could get too friendly with Forte and get in the way of your revenge. Not because you feared a Soul Unison between him and Forte. But because you wanted to avenge Serenade. And didn't like anyone who tried to defend a "murderer". That's what that Andy man taught you years ago when he beat you up with his overwhelming power."
"Grrr… Guh…!" He hissed because he knew the other was right.
"Your strong desire for revenge influenced me… You'd stop at nothing to have revenge, right? That's what I've done… While coming up with several smokescreens along the way to hide my real origins… The attacks on PSB agents, the assassin, the rip-offs, challenging all "defenders"… Mere smokescreens… You've been our goal from the start."
"Fine, I did imprison Rock Man! But no – one else!"
"True… in part."
"In part?"
"It wasn't your order or your idea but the top brass' one. Yet instead of trying to defy them you chose to abandon us, to forget us. You didn't want us to become a liaison, a burden. And with time… Those fools lowered the guard… That's when Shadow Nova got involved. They freed us since Spiral thought we'd do excellent blackmail material: they merely wanted to recycle the top brass' idea. We pretended to obey Void as the fool granted us further power and knowledge. When the fool tried to challenge those strong ones… We saw the chance to abandon the sinking ship. We went into hiding using their assets… And we came up with these outfits to hide our identities…"
"Blackmail material…? Imprisoned Navis…?" Colonel frowned.
"That proves it: that you did delete your memories of us."
"Shut up…!" He grumbled.
"Maybe this will make it clearer?"
A pop-up window displaying a progress bar and some buttons like play, pause, stop, rewinding or fast forward showed up: the play button was clicked.
"… What does that mean?" Colonel's annoyed voice rang out: it appeared to be a recording.
"Like we said. Those 3 are under our custody. They'll keep up with their jobs in that closed up hole down there." A man's voice sneered.
"That's not what…!" Colonel began to argue.
"Chut, chut. You're not in a position to give us lessons. You're the one who began to pressure us, weren't you? So we'll pressure you too. To make sure you can't do stupid things." The man had continued.
"Grrrr!"
"If you stay quiet and do what you need to do then no harm will come to them… If not… They'll be deleted! Get it, Colonel?"
"Damn it…!"
"You were a fool for starting to try to play Communist revolutionary without knowing what we're capable of! This is reality! You better realize that you can never defeat us. And you never know: that freakish thing might come back for all we know. Maybe you should take proper responsibility if it happens and fight it to the death instead of trying to come up with desperate plans."
"You bastards…!"
"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…"
The recording ceased and Colonel grumbled while "Hell One" merely sneered.
"Those 3…? Freakish thing, fight it to the death, desperate plans…? What the hell was Field Marshall Orwell talking about?"
"More proof that you delete that memory. To escape from the guilt: to avoid having to assume responsibilities. Which means you've always been an irresponsible fool." "Hell One" drily taunted.
"I'm fed up with your games! Who the hell are you?"
"Fine. So be it, Jedi."
"Hell One" sneered as they took off the hat, tossed it at the ground, and lowered the robe covering the head yet keeping the mask on the side: an ample bunch of chestnut hair reaching past the neck's base became visible and so did two black roses adorning the sides of the head.
"I took the freedom of changing those childish flowers for these."
"A woman's voice…? So your voice insofar was a voice – changer…?"
"Isn't my hair enough of a hint? Guess not."
"S-shut up! Grrr… Brown hair, a woman… Flower decorations…? Wait…!"
"Looks like a little bit of us is left… About 150 kB, I take it?"
"Grrrr…! Shut up, I say!"
"How pathetic. Fine. Witness the face of revenge!"
"Hell One" finally took off the mask and tossed it at the ground: Colonel gasped and all color left his face.
"You! Impossible!"
"Not impossible at all. Here I am… Brother…"
"… IRIS!"
"Hell One" happened to be Iris, Colonel's sister: her face had changed to become that of a girl on her early 20s and her green irises burned with hatred: she had an evil sneer on her face as well.
"Yes! Me! Iris, the useless chaff! The hinder! That part of you that you had to remove from yourself when you failed to defeat the Cybeasts! And who has survived being unfairly imprisoned in the Cybeasts' territory along with her comrades!"
"Comrades…? Then, those other 2…?"
"Come!"
"Been a while, Colonel – dono… Did you miss my lectures of military law?"
"KABU…GORI…YAYAGOO…"
The other two "Lords of the Cave" appeared there without the dresses and turned out to be Judge Man and Element Man: none of them had changed in the slightest.
"Judge Man, Element Man…!" Colonel gasped.
"Yes! We are the Lords of the Cave! We have come to exact our revenge, Colonel! Enough masquerades!"
Iris tugged the robes and threw them away: she still sported her one-piece dress and her tall black boots from years ago.
"What's this ruckus, Colonel? Do you need help…? E~H?" Tomahawk Man rushed in but stopped, baffled.
"By all the…" Shadow Man came in next.
"Transform!" Iris suddenly exclaimed.
Iris' body suddenly glowed as a new armor formed over her usual clothing.
This armor's helmet had some strange-shaped lines colored yellow atop it.
A partial mask covered her eyes, although it could be seen that their irises were colored crimson now.
She wore a blue sea coat and her legs were colored blue: she had some four crimson buttons on the coat.
The only emblem she had was on the ear pads and it was the Kanji jigoku no joou (Hell's Queen) colored black over a crimson background.
"This will be my form from now. The incarnation of revenge! Judge Man! Take care of the ninja! Element Man! Use your power to defeat Colonel's dog!" She ordered.
"Your will!" Judge Man chuckled.
"PAKARIKA… SHARIKARARAKA!" Element Man said something undecipherable, as always.
"So that's why one of you was silent! Because Element Man has that speech program glitch that makes him unable to properly speak!"
"Catching up, Colonel? Too late! Eat this!"
She suddenly formed a gray-colored Long Sword with some yellowish/greenish square dots scattered at random across the surface: she plunged into the waist belt's emblem and Colonel gasped: soon enough his skin turned into that same color with the dots included and parts of his body began to change or break down to reform in a bizarre manner.
"W-what have you done to me!" Colonel demanded.
"I infected you with bugs that will make your Ultimate Program become bugs and run berserk… Your body's structure will slowly fall apart too!"
"Guh…! Kuh…!"
"This is the main stage of my revenge. To make you slowly suffer… And to make sure your suffering is long… I've taken your ace-in-the-hole. Hmpf…"
"Ace-in-the-hole…? Guh… Kruh… Grah…! It couldn't be…!"
"What! Colonel! I just got a call from the medical center! Meddy hasn't arrived at the scheduled hour and they can't get into contact with her either!" Tomahawk Man explained.
He was busy trying to dodge Element Man's rain of meteors while Shadow Man was trying to fend off the Golem Punch that Judge Man had summoned from one of his books: Iris merely looked on at how the bug began to affect more and more of Colonel's body.
"Heh, heh, heh. Taste the pain and the fear. I brought some visits."
"Pai~n!"
"Fea~r!"
"The end…!"
"Fury~!"
"Sad, so sad…"
"Kuwabara, kuwabara…"
"My reloading's a revolution!"
"Is that all? How disappointing."
Iris looked outside beyond Judge Man and Element Man to see the whole unit struggling to fight characters taken from some game.
"The Cobra Unit, Colonel Volgin, Revolver Ocelot… Heh. Hope Big Saru doesn't drop by with his crocodile cap, his cardboard box and his torch. Tee, heh, heh." She muttered with obvious amusement.
"Gruah…! Gwah…! I… Iris…! Stop it…!" Colonel hissed.
"Why would I? Having come this far. You're not one to talk. You still have grudge towards Slur and want to pay back for the defeats you've suffered, right? I only had to sneak into the backup of your memory files!"
"Gua~h…! S-stop it…! M-my body…!"
"Yeah… Pain worse than being bitten by countless hornets! It'll slowly tear you apart…! And if you try to come for me… Then you precious medic – chan gets the same! Don't worry! I'll take good care of her… By turning her into my bitch!" She laughed in a maniacal manner as her face turned psychotic.
"D-damn it all…! Gu… Gruh… Gahah…!"
"Don't expect the others to come help you either. I'm sure that they must be catching up by now that you brought that into yourself. Maybe I'll toy with them a bit but unless I get on their way they won't move a finger either… This feels so thrilling! A thrill like I've never felt! Freedom! This is why so many die fighting for freedom! Because it brings along such pleasure…! The pleasure of being able to do whatever you want to! Indeed…!" She eagerly exclaimed.
"True, my lady! Sinners! The gallows are waiting for you!" Judge Man laughed.
"KASHAKU~! MAKAKAGASHA~!"
"Guh! Even with the Totem – sama's help… I'm being pounded. These power-ups are no joke!"
"You needn't tell me. My Shadow Clone doesn't work on this guy to begin with." Shadow Man grumbled.
"Enough. Let's go." Iris quickly turned dull and commanding.
The 3 Navis emitted bright glows and vanished: Shadow Man and Tomahawk Man rushed to Colonel, who'd collapsed face down on the ground because most of his right leg was gone along with the left arm, cape, and right shoulder.
"This is terrible. What do we do?" Shadow Man cursed.
"Hope forcing him into sleep mode will stop that… We'll have to place him in quarantine… At least the cells are already rebuilt… Let's put him in one and reinforce it… Someone wake Barrel up already! We need him to retrieve Colonel!"
"I've been trying but his door's lock is locked. I've been knocking for at least 15 minutes!" A soldier replied from the real world.
"Ram it down! I take responsibility!"
"Alright! Hra~h! Mr. Barrel, sir! Sir! Emergency, sir!"
"Guh… Ugh…! What a headache…! What the hell…?"
"Barrel! Explanations later! You must retrieve Colonel, turn the sleep mode on and place him on quarantine! Now!"
"Huh! A-alright…! My PET's here… What! It's off…? Out of battery? But it's on the charger and… The charger's unplugged!"
"Oh shit." Tomahawk Man cursed.
"There, I plugged the charger… It booted up! Plug Out, Colonel! What! What happened to Colonel?"
"Explanations later, I say! Move him to the cells!"
Both rushed for the still under rebuilding base and into the detention wing: they opened one of the cells as the infected Colonel was transferred there face-up on the ground: Tomahawk Man formed an energy field to protect him and the walls, ground and ceiling before shutting the door.
"Barrel! Program some passwords and keep them to yourself."
"Alright. Damn it. What the hell's happened…? This headache…!"
"Maybe they put sleeping pills in your water glass?" Dingo suggested.
"Wouldn't surprise me. Shadow Man."
"Of course. Leave it to me."
16:28 PM (Kabul Time)…
"… Phew. We're back the base. Nobody trailed us, right, Judge Man?"
"No, my lady. I did set up the usual red herrings. 15 of them. That should keep them busy long enough to clean up the records."
"Good. Element Man. Go check the security logs."
"BARARIRARA~…"
"What is our next move?"
"Hmmm… Guess we'll stir some ruckuses there and there. That should feed up their frustration. We could make use of it: maybe if we tried to make it look like one of the parties is trying to keep the credit for themselves… That could spark some rivalry…"
"Understood."
"And you know: stop looking into the archives we robbed. Try newspapers or news agencies."
Iris (still wearing that blue outfit), Judge Man and Element Man materialized inside of a server room having several servers aligned across the walls plus a work-station.
"I've got business to do in the basement room. Don't enter and only contact me if something really urgent happened. Make sure that the decoys are in place: we don't want some guerilla coming in and trying to make of this their base." Iris commanded.
"Your will." Judge Man bowed.
"PABABABA… SHOSHOSHO…"
"Huh? Ah. "As your order, my lady"… Remember, Element Man. We can translate your talk easily enough but you should send text messages in case I don't have time to translate."
Element Man bowed as well and warped elsewhere while Judge Man sat in the chair in front of the work-station and began to type there.
"Let us work!" Judge Man muttered.
Iris walked out the room through a side-door and exited into a corridor: she pressed the wall to the right to reveal a hidden door.
Heh, heh, heh. Too easy, even. But there's the possibility that that may end up in nothing. Hence why I'm readying several backup plans. Problem is… I still can't figure out anything about "XY"… Was it him that deleted the Koopa Army like that? And regarding Rock Man… It's very odd. Everyone says he's working at the Science Labs but in truth he's never there. There are no entry/exit registers either. Dr. Hikari never mentions him to his colleagues or subordinates. So where is he? I know he IS alive! I saw the recording of that battle with Blues at full power! He did quit the Net Police Cyber CID shortly after but… It's like he'd vanished from the map. Golden Star's rise created enough turmoil back then to contribute to people forgetting about him. I'm sure that that report Shadow Nova had stolen from the Net Police HQ had something but that Void idiot wouldn't let me see it and had it controlled the whole time.
Iris went down some stone stairs into an unlit basement but she didn't seem to care about the lack of light: she then exited into a corridor having several detention cells aligned across it with an armored door having a slit at eye height and a small hatch at feet level: all were locked with a simple bolt that had to be pulled to the right to open.
The good part is that it's physical. So no Navi can remotely open it. I installed the materialization factors into Meddy to have her be in the real world but also set a lock impeding her from dematerializing. Let's go greet her… She must be cowering in fear… It'll be juicy…
She stopped in front of one of the cells and drew that Long Sword she'd used on Colonel on the right forearm while pulling the bolt to the right with the left hand: the door opened outwards.
"Don't try anything stupid, Meddy. I'm sure you know what this sword is: it was recorded in your research files."
"That's…! A "Bug Sword"…! Used several years ago but fell out of use because it was decided Viruses would be faster…!" Meddy gasped.
Iris smiled and stepped into the room: it had a bed without blankets, just the mattress, and a toilet without cover: a single bare light bulb hung from the ceiling and it was on: the walls and ceiling were brick while the ground was mere raw ground: Meddy was standing glued to the far wall.
"Yes. I used this on Colonel. He will suffer for a long, long time."
"What!"
"This is also why you're here. So that you can't heal him. And to make sure he can't fight me back. Because you're my hostage. If he tries to… You'll end up the same as he. And I did steal your whole research files and the backups too. You're the only one who has deep knowledge on these nowadays. So without you… Colonel can't be healed."
"Who are you?"
"Iris."
"Colonel's sister? But weren't you in charge of monitoring a possible comeback of the Cybeasts?"
"I was. But they never came back. And there I was, locked in that damned hole to rot away. Someone helped me escape and made me stronger. I used this to have my revenge on Colonel." She summed up.
"What!"
"You're my hostage. There's no Geneva Convention, Meddy. So I can do whatever I want."
"W-what are you going to do? Brainwash me?"
"I don't need any of that. I just want one thing… You will obey me."
"It's not like I have any other choice, is it?"
"Hum. I expected you to be cowering in fear but you seem to be have some strong will… Maybe I took you too lightly, Meddy. But that makes it interesting. I like strong-willed women. If you behave then maybe I will eventually let you go… And I won't need to use this on you. It'd be such a waste, truly." She caressed Meddy's jaw with her left hand.
"Y-you're a lesbian, right!"
"And what if? Is that a disease, maybe?"
"N-no, of course not!"
"Maybe you'd prefer some rough and violent man that would beat you up and make you submit by force while keeping you hostage for years on end? There were tales like those on the news."
"N-no…!" She gasped.
"Good… The fear's flowing in… It's juicy… Truly juicy… Now…"
She stepped a few steps back and a removed the sword: she materialized a crimson leather suitcase which she left on the middle of the room: a full-body mirror formed behind Meddy as well.
"Change into that. I've got something to do. Will be back in about… a couple hours. Until then… There's a manual there. Do as it says."
"U-understood…"
"If you don't obey… I'll make you submit by force. We can do this slowly and peacefully, Meddy. You choose."
"G-gotcha."
"Good…"
She stepped back and exited the cell while aiming a Makarov gun at her right shoulder: Iris quickly kicked the door shut and pulled the bolt to the left to lock it: she smiled and dematerialized the gun as she glanced at a door at the end of the corridor: she ignored it and went back the way she'd come back to the ground level: she stepped again into the server room and found Element Man discussing something with Judge Man using hand symbols.
"For the last time, Element Man! You're not going to drop a meteor big enough to wipe out Internet City!"
"Element Man! Trying to act on your own?" Iris scolded.
Element Man gasped and got firm all of a sudden: Iris leant both punches on the sides of her body and fumed.
"I've got businesses going on Internet City. Get it? So save you those meteors for another occasion. No, wait. I'll lock them up with a password so you don't get tempted. Don't move!"
Iris stepped forward and pressed Element Man's chest emblem: a holographic screen popped out and she inputted some commands: Element Man turned around to avoid looking into the keyboard and so did Judge Man as Iris typed the password: she then shut the screen down and both turned back, bowing.
"There. Your flame attack has become a flamethrower with a 5 meter length. Meteors are disabled unless I authorize it. Really. I always need to power you down because you want to wipe all out in one blow. This isn't Armageddon! Stop looking up to those movies and do something useful: what happened to the security?"
Element Man formed a holographic message that read "There was nothing out of place, my lady": Iris nodded in agreement but her bad mood didn't seem to be gone, either.
"Go train in the training room. You need to get used to your new flamethrower. I want to do a sortie in some days' time and you need to be in top-notch condition."
Element Man nodded and warped out of the room with Judge Man: Iris headed left and pressed a wall to reveal another rotating wall door that led to a small hall that had nothing on it save another wall: she was about to press the second wall but she snapped her left hand's fingers and an energy field formed splitting the hall it two: satisfied, she pressed the second wall and stepped into a bedroom having silver walls, ceiling and floor plus a king-sized bed with golden covering and pillows.
"Fitting for a Queen…I want to be full of energies to start Meddy's training. Tee, heh, heh. It'll be so exquisite… Testukai and her accomplices were stupid. They relied on being violent. But I rely on slowly tearing away the defenses… Heh."
19:37 PM (Thailand Time)…
"… Lord XY. Here I am."
"Good, Refractor. Today I want you to tell me more about the status of things in the home-world before you left for your previous mission. What do Navis in general think of their masters?"
"Yes, sir… From what is still left on my memory files… They generally accept them as their creators and know they are to help them in their researches, to be able to reach faster conclusions through faster analysis speed…"
"I see. So they must be trying to recreate the system as it was. It surely must have been widely recorded in those "time vaults"."
"I assume it is the case. I am not privy to such information. I know the existence of the "time vaults" but nothing about their contents."
"Hum. What about between Navis? Did they get along, did they cooperate or everyone is set to benefit their own group?"
Refraction was standing in front of XY as he sat in one of the stone armchairs next to the arches dome: XY looked interested while Refraction calmly explained.
"I am afraid I have no memory data about that. A lot was taken out so that I would be able to store a lot of reports. Even with compression technology… Navi memory capacity is still very low. 10 years is the max."
"Only 10? They sure are just in the beginnings." XY was surprised.
"My records remain so I have been active for 8 years, 10 months, 16 days, 17 hours, 48 minutes and 33 seconds."
"So… Ever since March, 2004?"
"Yes, my Lord. I was assigned to a scientist in Kamas' Ghar, the southeastern continent. There is a large particle collision device there used to improve knowledge on "cold fusion"… There is a total of 38 Navis and 40 scientists assigned there. I am the most "veteran" amongst them."
"So your former field is study of particle collisions. Like the CERN is doing in Switzerland."
"Yes, I am aware that similar experiments are also being undertaken in a region of the continent to the west of here."
"If memory serves, the home-world had four continents and a central artificial island, no?"
"Yes, but the artificial island was sunken in an accident some time before the Age of Reset. No plans have been made to rebuild it as of yet. There are still uninhabited zones or sealed off zones like remains of cities of older times. The combined landmass of the continents is about 15.78% higher than in this planet."
"Hum. What about atmospheric contamination?"
"There was a period of high contamination but with the formation of the Science Council great efforts were made to actively reduce that… That was about 50 years ago. Improvements in "cold fusion" have helped improve that as well."
"Space exploration?"
"I apologize. It is not recorded on my files."
"Hum. Well. I think they have not gotten much further than Kyutora, at about 10 light-years. There is still a lot to catalog in their own system and in the colonies, anyway." XY deduced.
"There is an idea of using EM waves to create "roads" stretching across the world and thus allowing for data and Network Navigators to travel at high speeds without the need of repeaters or sub-stations or signal amplifiers… And I have seen some here yet no – one seems to use them."
"No wonder. Materialization technology is still very limited. Those were designed by Kuroban: he emits them from his base's antenna."
"Is that so? I thought it was a repeater or amplifier. I did not want to get too close during my investigation least I trigger some anti-intruder system…" Refraction looked a bit intrigued.
"When did you get here, anyway?"
"That would have been by September the 20th. It took me a week."
"A week. What was your route?"
"I was sent as a hi-power signal mingled in as part of a message headed for one of the colonies yet the coordinates were slightly deviated so that I would shoot past the colony by a few kilometers and straight towards Kyutora. Once in there I used Kuroban's space station emergency transmission circuit to jump into the Solar System through the gateway. From there I began to use the signals sent back to Earth by several probes like New Horizons, Cassini – Huygens, Juno, Mars Orbital Explorer and the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. From there I only had pick an Indian satellite and easily landed on the surface riding on its downlink: the control center did not detect me because their system was not very advanced… From there I began to gather info and moved across both real world and Cyber World to move undetected."
"I see. Quite a feat indeed. But then again… What need was there to remove memory data if you still can store for over a year of info?"
"It was unknown how long my mission could last. It might have lasted years, even. Once I discovered the other space-city I began to use it as a base of operations even though I was unable to properly use the central computer because of its lack of maintenance."
"And that is where I found you back in November the 2nd. You had been ordered to stay there, no?"
"Indeed, my Lord."
"Good. We have been busy with some experiments these months and I had yet to conduct a detailed talk with you."
"Lord XY. We apologize for the interruption but we have gotten a hold of developments." The 4 Warriors walked up the stairs and kneeled before reaching the top.
"Regarding Iris and Colonel?"
"Yes, my Lord. Iris has infected Colonel with powerful bugs."
"And has taken away the Net Navi known as Meddy, the only one with knowledge to heal that."
"I see. I did expect something like that. Oh well. Brought it into themselves… But having that Meddy Network Navigator kidnapped is playing dirty indeed. We should try to find a lead to their location. Likely overseas but I am not sure where to start from." XY wasn't too surprised.
"Does that mean the Navis that were supposed to be in the so-called "Cybeast territory", my Lord? You sent me to explore the area some days ago and found that there was an opening in the seal and there was no – one there." Refraction deduced.
"Indeed. Hmmm… I will think of something to lure them into the open… You go back to your posts for now. Then I shall assign you areas to gather information."
"Roger."
"Do not forget to keep an eye on Dullahan. The others' reconversion is progressing favorably but I still have not finished designing how to reconvert the fool."
The 4 Warriors left and XY sighed while Refraction remained there waiting for orders: Helios came out of the cubicle and XY looked up.
"Master…"
"I heard the reports. I agree that it would be a good idea to rescue that child. Their knowledge is a must if we need to come up with a method to nullify that." Helios told XY.
"Understood."
"But no do not delay the other projects. Patience is the key. Those children are impatient and will want to do everything fast. But we shall wait. And they will eventually tire."
"I see. Yes, they are children, after all."
"Indeed. And Refraction there can easily slip there and there to gather information. His camouflage technology is excellent."
"Is that so? I thought it was a childish imitation."
"No, it is very well done for your level of technology. We did have more advanced things but yours has more to it… Like the shape of its atomic structure, arranged in that manner… XY. When you finish this up come. I think I have been able to calculate a new and more precise location…"
"Is that so? Then I shall come immediately."
"There is no need to rush. It is not like the distance has greatly changed: it is still massive."
"Could that be…?" Refraction seemed to have a guess.
"It is." Both directed serious glares at him.
"… Understood." He saluted.
"Return to your post."
Refraction walked away while XY and Helios headed into the lab: there was a large 3D map of the Milky Way with several round circles drawn there and there and having an attached label: there was a small green cross drawn at some distance from the Orion Arm.
"Estimated distance… 465 light-years from Earth. Max speed is a fifth of the speed of light. So it takes 5 years to cover 1 light-year. It more or less fits with our computation that it did fly past Earth 2.350 years ago. I thought it should have covered about 470 light-years. It would take the same amount of time to reach us yet…"
"What is it, Master? It cannot have gotten faster, can it?"
"It should not but who knows… Maybe our calculations are all wrong to begin with and it could have turned around at some point. And it could be closer than we believe it is. Those children come later. This comes first. What a fool I have been: I did not even contemplate that possibility until now…! By the stars…!"