Chapter 10: Break-in
15:45 PM (Japan Time), Monday June the 20th…
"… Alert! Alert! Break-in in Science Labs Area 4! Alert! Alert! Three intruders detected! Counter the attack!"
"What?"
"Grrrr!"
"The "Omicron" Net Navis…?"
"Let us counter."
"Ya mean: let's show them our power."
Forte, the "Gospel Jr." beast and Zero had been chatting inside of the Science Labs along with Search Man.
"Search Man! Combat procedure."
"Roger, Laika – sama!"
"No grunts get away from Laika's winter curse."
"Hmmm! Tengu Man Omicron will punish evildoers! Such is the heavenly command granted into me!"
"Hah! Ground Man Omicron – sama is gonna run them over and turn them into dust!"
"And Dust Man Omicron – sama will recycle them!"
Tengu Man was surely over a meter and seventy tall.
His head was shaped like a mythological tengu's one: he had a large nose and a metallic jaw which didn't seem able to move: his eyes' irises were colored plain black with a white dot and an emerald was set on his forehead.
His main body's color was pale brown and he had four round metallic spots on his chest: the base of his neck was colored red: his shoulders were covered with brownish armor shaped like halves of a cylinder.
His arms' skin was the typical black color and his forearms had partial armor over it.
His left hands' fingers were colored red while his right hand had three large ginko leaves set on it: his emblem was repeated in the point where the hand and the ginko leaves extension began.
His legs were covered in armor starting slightly below the hips and stopped slightly below the knee: both sides of each leg had a pattern of three grayish diamonds set on vertical stripe: his feet were shaped like traditional wooden pieces colored red and having a green stripe.
Lastly, two short wing-like extensions appeared from behind his shoulders and seemed to allow him to fly.
"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah! What can that rusted guy do? I'm ten times better!"
Ground Man struck as being close to two meters tall and had a rather machine-like design to him like Charge Man.
His head had no neck and was protected by a piece of armor shaped like the Alphabet "U" character: his face's skin was white and he had two normal eyes plus an irregular line crossing through it which obviously was his mouth: the edge of his ear-pads was red in color and their drawing was three mountain peaks (the left and right one being identical in height while the center one was taller) drawn upon a black background.
An orange cylinder with a metallic spear on the rear end was built atop his head: the front end had a brown edge and a drill built into it.
His upper body's coloring was metallic orange and he had a brown-colored stripe set on the middle of it plus two trapeze-shaped bases colored yellow turned horizontally and aiming towards the middle of his upper body.
His orange-colored spheroid shoulders had two metallic hexagons set over them with two drills emerging from them: his arms did have elbows and the forearm armor was orange in color, too: his hands emerged from inside of two hexagons as well.
His lower body had tank "caterpillar" tracks built into it and was colored mud brown: the tracks were black in color while the supporting frame was metallic gray.
"Shaddup! Dust Man Omicron – sama is in charge!"
Dust Man was a gigantic machine-like Net Navi, easily close to two meters tall: his main coloring was metallic-like orange plus olive green.
His face had seven golden cylinders emerging from over it plus two normal eyes and a tablet-shaped mouth.
His upper torso had a rectangular hatch-like device colored metallic gray and with two small yellow rectangles set on each side: the hatch was closed and had two pyramidal shapes drawn on it: the structure supporting it, which crossed over the shoulders, was colored olive green and ended in a large heat exhaust occupying the whole of his approximately square body.
His arms ended in orange circles containing five cylinders connecting to an accessory: the central one was colored metallic gray while the outer ones were white in coloring: the right hand's accessory was a metallic disk with four short needles and a hole in the middle: the left hand, however, was the contrary: one central needle and four surrounding holes.
He had a normal waist with a belt set on it and his legs ended in two olive green-colored pieces of armor covering the feet which were shaped like circles and having a small unprotected spot half-way along it.
"What! Dust Man! You lowlife!" Tengu Man cursed.
"Trying to get the glory?" Ground Man growled.
"Yeah! You two are weak!"
"… Which one will die first?" Death Shadow's icy voice rang out.
"Uo~h! Death Shadow – sama!" They all gasped.
"I control you lowlifes' existences… One snap of my fingers… And you lowlifes will forever be erased from this world!" Death Shadow threatened.
"We'll fight, sir!"
"Hmpf."
"Hyper Mode: Activate!"
"Hyper Tengu Dive!"
"Hyper Rock Crush Breaker!"
"Hyper Dust Break!"
"Scope Gun!"
"Z – Saber!"
"Hell's Buster!"
Tengu Man flew into the air and then dived towards Search Man who replied by shooting a pink-colored laser from his built-in "Scope Gun" accessory: Ground Man ran forward while activating his built-in drills and heading towards Zero, who shot some energy swings from his built-in weapon: Dust Man tried to hit Forte with his right fist and Forte replied by showering him on bullets.
"Is that all?" They all taunted.
"Che." Search Man grumbled.
"Persistent grunts!" Zero cursed.
"Can't be helped…! We gotta take out the devices. Go, "Gospel Jr."! Bathe them in flames!" Forte commanded.
"Grrr!"
"Uh-oh." The three enemies gulped.
"Gospel Jr." loomed over them and began to bathe them in streams of flames colored yellow, blue, red and green in succession: they shielded themselves in the best way they could before jumping towards the three defenders.
"Hyper Tengu Thrust!"
"Hyper Rock Crush Breaker!"
"Hyper Dust Break!"
"Go!"
"Satellite Ray!"
"Z – Saber!"
"Hell's Rolling!"
Search Man formed a small orbital satellite which shot a green laser at Tengu Man as he extended his nose: Zero countered the earlier attack with the same technique while Forte made the two indented purple wheels hit Dust Man and open wounds on him which began to seep "Omicron Factor" but he didn't seem to care as he stepped atop the growing puddle and suddenly formed what looked like some kind of arm cannon colored black and the barrel of which was glowing with the familiar ghostly blue color.
"Omicron Beam!"
He shot a continuous beam of concentrated and high-pressured "Omicron Factor" at Forte who gasped and looked like he'd be unable to dodge it time yet "Gospel Jr." jumped in the middle of the path and made the shot bounce off the left flank of his armor: it hit Tengu Man's device and it blew up thus making him collapse into the ground.
"I-impossible!" Dust Man gasped.
"G-Gospel Jr.!" Forte gasped.
"Grrrr…"
"Whoa." Zero whistled in surprise.
"… This is the first time I see a Virus actually helping someone out…! What a surprise! And I hadn't realized his armor was this thick, either…!" Search Man was surprised, too.
"Guess it's a result of them having tagged along for over a year by now."
"Hmpf! You guys may have beaten the old Tengu Man jerk but I'm still at full power! Let's go~!"
"Once more should do it! Omicron Beam!"
"Grrr!"
"Yikes!"
"Gospel Jr." repeated the earlier trick and the beam hit Ground Man's device (set in the middle of his upper body) thus destroying it and making him growl in agony: Tengu Man had recovered by now, too, and was grumbling under his breath.
"Like we though! You lowlife aim to take all the glory for yourself, Dust Man Omicron!" They both yelled at him.
"Talk about friendly fire." Forte commented with obvious sarcasm and a broad smile.
"I catch the sarcasm." Laika shrugged.
"Silence! Fight!" Death Shadow hissed.
"Uo~h! R-roger!"
"Program Advance! Vulcan, Triple Slot In!"
"Mugen Vulcan!"
"Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Slot In! Dream Sword!" Zero announced.
"Darkness Overload!"
Both Search Man and Zero attacked their respective opponents by using Program Advances while Forte shot his classical stream of purple energy at Dust Man: it impacted him fully on the device (built over his body's central hatch) thus crippling it: the three of them panted but the black spots formed over their broken devices, thus repairing them.
"How naïve! Did you lowlifes really think I would not think of repairing this weak spot?" Death Shadow taunted.
"Who knows?" Forte teased with a grin.
"What? What are you lowlife planning to do?"
"You may repair the device… But we have an insider over there, ya see!"
"It could not be…!" Death Shadow seemed to guess what Forte was getting at.
"What, what?" Kurayami asked.
"Those guys…!" Kanaya cursed.
The infected Net Navis' devices suddenly began to glow with a white light and all blue coloring vanished while the pools were set on fire: the Navis collapsed into the ground while their devices cracked and stopped functioning.
"Heh! Our recent attacks had the anti-body program installed into them so they got installed into them and were purged from the inside thus rendering you guys' repairs useless!" Forte grinned.
"I find you peoples' attempts to be pathetic." Search Man drily told him.
"Yeah. You're fired." Zero added.
"Why, you…! Bah! Our tests prove it: you can strengthen Net Navi with "Omicron Factor" but we will use the random mutation method…! Prepare to meet you lowlifes' nightmares! The new "Omicron" Net Navis will evolve with each attack: and become immune to all attacks!"
"Save for their own, obviously enough." Forte smiled.
"This western cloaked bandit wannabe…!" Kurayami cursed.
"Shaddup." Kanaya snapped.
"You two be silent and stop using my line." Death Shadow sentenced with some annoyance.
"Yeah. Buy yourselves an iPhone!" Forte taunted.
"WHY, YOU…!" The two of them complained.
"Hmpf!"
Death Shadow cut the line while some Navis came in and retrieved Tengu Man, Dust Man and Ground Man: the group sighed in relief and then began a debate.
"Sorry for the delay! Where's the fight?"
"It's ended, VP – sama."
"Not you again."
"Oh boy."
"Laika – sama…"
Blues ran in while having his Operator screen open: Enzan looked around before Laika directed a grin at him: Enzan groaned, Blues sighed and Search Man rolled his eyes.
"Why do they need to do that?" Zero wondered.
"Dunno. Laika began it." Forte shrugged.
"Grawl?"
"So?"
"Ah no!"
"Heh, heh. Igor's charm didn't work, then. I'll ask Goriv for his one."
"What in the… You guys are weird." Enzan groaned.
"You've seen nothing yet, my enchanted VP – sama."
"Shoo, shoo." Enzan tried to shoo him away.
"What do we do?" Blues asked Search Man.
"Wish you could tell me. I'm out of ideas."
"My, my." Forte giggled.
"Oh boy." Zero sighed.
17:44 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Man! I'm bored. I thought these Navis would be interesting stuff but they're being beaten so easily! They better hope that their plot, whatever it is, it's powerful enough to turn the tide around… I dunno what to do anymore! I don't wanna make a bold move and let the "Committee" guys catch me and force me to undergo a debriefing to confess how much info I leaked to my old bosses…!"
Keitai Denwa was lazily zapping through TV channels inside of a rather unpolished apartment somewhere: his beard and moustache had grown a little thicker and he looked like he wasn't taking care of his looks or hygiene a lot.
"I need some thrill!"
A cell phone rang and he lazily sat up to walk over to the open suitcase where it was stored along with an iPad: he checked the calling number and sighed as he picked it up.
"Hades? Whaddya want outta me?"
"I am calling in a bad moment, perhaps?"
"Nah. Had nothing better to do… So?"
"Very well, then… You desire something worth your time and which has an element to thrill to it, sir?"
"Yeah. Get to the point."
"Break-in plus installing of a little program in a concrete house and specific PC… And the house might have an out-of-the-ordinary security system. But rest assured! It isn't a millionaire's house…" Hades told him.
"Hmmm… I used to do that a lot for my bosses before they promoted me to double agent… Sounds like a return to the good old times, even, by the sound of it… Whose house?" He questioned.
"Cousin's Japan residence. He is in the Bermudas, where he owns a small research institution, and won't move from there…"
"Mr. Sponsor's? Ya got my interest. I'll finally be able to see behind those curtains which both the "Committee" and the Net Police have set up everywhere I look into…" Keitai Denwa formed a smug smile.
"Then I will send you the info along with a new phone number: it may be bothersome to change it after each call but one wishes to be on the safe side, my good sir." Hades replied.
"By the way! There's one thing I forgot to ask ya. How many years old Zataki is?"
"Cousin? Hmmm… I believe past 24 and maybe closer to 25… He is some months older than me." Hades replied.
"And if he's been the Mr. Sponsor ever since I came in around 2008, then he was even younger… What is the guy, the son of a CEO?" Keitai Denwa asked as he frowned.
"… Correct. Yet he changed his surname and came up with that alias because he doesn't want to be linked to his predecessor. That's why he's been helping the "Committee" for a while already instead of directing that lawyer agency." Hades confirmed with a hint of amusement.
"Heh! I knew it. My hunches always end up being correct. Fine. Send me the exact data. But I want something on exchange."
"Both of us will have full access but we need to be discrete and rationalize our usage. I will take care of any trail covering by diverting trails to busy servers which will take a long time to investigate, my good sir. Count on a nobleman's word, my good sir." Hades gallantly announced.
"Perfect! I like this. Later!"
"Take care, my good sir."
Keitai headed over to a small bathroom and looked at the mirror for some seconds before forming a smug smile.
"Yeah. I need a shaving. I'll look cooler than Daniel Craig, even!"
He laughed aloud at his own joke…