Chapter 9: Background

14:15 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… So! There's one thing I've been wondering about… Vadous. Where did you come out from and just who was this Anaya Maria woman who you say wanted to assassinate Rock Man just for the chance to stage the massive selling of fake medicines?"

"Well… My tale goes back 7 years ago…"

"I'll listen. I don't feel like discussing since I just had something worth my time in a long while."

"Fine. I'll try not to bore you with the details, either."

Burai was using the workstation in the garage and speaking with Vadous using it: he looked calm and collected while Laplace was apparently examining a Jeep's engine.

"… I'd been an agent under her command, a special agent… I was supposed to be a representative and check on the grunts who managed each business to remind them that there was no room for double-crossing moves like trying to modify the accounting records. Maria's rule was accompanied by blackmail, murder, extortion, kidnapping, torture and sometimes leaks to the police. I was like that during the first two years and then she "loosened" me to pair me up with Lartes, who had a more medical background. She told me to set up my own business and prove to her that I could handle it on my own. I did so and that was when the "Subspace" began existing… That was around the year 2200, with the century change… I spent another two years building up this gigantic ship and setting up facilities on the dimension named "Subspace" while also recruiting Kir Osh, who had a rather technical background, and Dragon Hell as onboard cook. Omega was also built around that time." Vadous began explaining.

"Hmmm… But something made you realize that woman was using you as fall grunt and a mere pawn in her chessboard. Am I right?"

"Correct."

"When was that?"

"Took me a while… It wasn't until January of the year 2203, slightly over two and a half years ago… It'd been picking my nose for a while the fact that the typical business of drug and weapon trafficking didn't seem to account for more than 37% of the total profits. There had to be something else. I thought of the "obvious" but that just added another 21%, thus amounting to 58% of the total profits… I then dared to go and question one of the grunts off the record with threats and he confessed: they'd also handled the "obvious" with lower margins."

"Lower margins…? You mean…?" Burai gasped.

"Yeah. They robbed youth of their lives and tried to brainwash them into being mere puppets… Others were used as lab mice for her twisted genetic engineering experiments… I immediately realized how mad she really was and began to harbor the desire to bring her down and make her pay for it. But it couldn't be done just overnight: I kept the act up and began to calculate how to cut myself off economically from her plus destroying her business…" Vadous made a grimace.

"What Dealer did must've been pale in comparison."

"Yeah. Totally. King was nothing compared to Maria. She could've crushed him the very instant he began his activities but kept him as it was because it amused her."

"So. When did Rock Man come into the picture?"

"Last year. We had the FM invasion on January, you came into the picture in April and the Meteor G Crisis was in May. In about half a year, Hoshikawa Subaru jumped from being a totally unknown young man plagued by a depression to a courageous "hero" which everyone admired given how honest he was. Maria caught wind of it and soon began to think on her "master strategy"…" Vadous grumbled.

"And that was why, after Sirius was beaten, you made him go underground and finished your plan to bring down that woman?"

"Correct."

"How did you?"

"Well… Regarding the business, I realized that, if Maria's control vanished, they'd immediately go back to fighting each other to death and try to achieve dominance. A Sengoku, you could name it. I decided to let them destroy each other and let the police finish up the work. But there was a harder thorn to take care of: the Palace…"

"Palace?"

"A facility built using a meteor as basis… Could jump at will around the Space-Time, remain cloaked and be untraceable… Many prisoners were kept in there along with the toughest of her pawns… Escaping from that place was really impossible given the high degree of security. The only way to be able to really stop her was to force them to land on Earth and be arrested. That's why I kept the act up."

"And what did you do to hide Rock Man?"

"I blocked his memories and altered his genetic code to make him pass as someone else. I let him rebuild his personality from scratch while feeding him with some slightly altered memories and let him reach the obvious conclusion that he was taking part in some kind of secretive program or had been as an imitator to Rock Man…"

"Hum. And was then when you built Sigma and Blood Shadow?"

"Yeah. I'd had the design in mind for a while and took the opportunity to finish them up. Blood Shadow's role was important: as you could check back then, he tried to act up as if he was Rock Man. Anyone who only did a superficial investigation would believe the Satella Police reports in which he was identified as Rock Man who'd had a makeover."

"Clever. Even I got fooled. And I'm not slow at thinking, either. So I guess that woman got fooled, too."

"Yeah. Totally. Never questioned anything. She called me up for one of her "gallant" dinners and had me be the errand guy who had to check up the informatics department's security. I took the chance to sneak a program I'd been working on."

"And that program must've been an insider which allowed you to take control, right?"

"Yeah. I made them run into an ion storm which knocked out all electricity save for life-support onboard and, taking profit of the blackout, rescued all prisoners and retrieved their belongings while making some sabotaging work to ensure they'd be unable to abort the new course which was going to be uploaded into their computers…" Vadous detailed.

"And they got arrested." Burai deduced the rest.

"Bingo. Oh! I forgot to say I'd recruited another man into the organization: Mark Zendong. He takes care of the security in the Subspace per se and is a good tactician. I used to keep an underground city in one of the planets but had it vacated because I'd never agreed with the idea of having to shelter some insidious criminals and provide them with their caprices, so I sent them back to Earth. I also shut down a "cold sleep" facility which was an excuse to have a lab to conduct experiments on people."

"Sounds like those crazy guys back in the 20th century…"

"Totally. But all tyrants are the same." He shrugged.

"Yu…! Ga…! Ra…!" Laplace interrupted.

"What? You've made the Jeep turn on and don't know how to shut it down? I thought you were smart, Laplace." Burai sighed.

"… Ga…"

"Can't be helped. Wait there. This talk ain't over yet."

"Of course."

Burai walked over to the Jeep and interacted with its controls to shut it down and close the engine's lid: Laplace muttered something and Burai directed a dull glare at him.

"Go study another system." Burai ordered him.

Laplace muttered something and slowly flew outta the room while Burai sat down on his earlier post.

"Why did Rock Man call "Master" to one of your subordinates?"

"You mean Lartes. Well… During his time living on Lartes' mansion, he was trained into boxing, kendo and target shooting so he was, in all senses, Lartes' disciple and still continues to be."

"Hmmm… I see. Yet… Rock Man and Blood Shadow… Are they equal in power?" Burai questioned.

"Well… Let's see… Blood can't do Noise Change but he can use the Meteor Server nevertheless… Yet, they've never faced each other mainly because there was no need for it." Vadous shrugged.

"Hum. Fine… Are those guys on their way?"

"Yeah. But I can't open portals so deep underground, so they need to come over there with the Jeeps."

"Whatever. I don't mind waiting, for once."

"Then, to kill the wait… Omega's special report from Nowhere in Particular!" Omega came into the line.

"Omega! Shut the trap up!"

"May I remind you of the liberty of expression law?"

"But this ain't a serious report!" Vadous protested.

"It's a report, anyway!"

"Something tells me you're exploiting a loophole."

"Looping loops of loop!" Omega invented.

"Stop making up those mottoes…"

"Tell Dragon to come down into Earth." Omega challenged.

"Tell him yourself." Vadous annoyingly told him.

"I don't need to! I don't need to eat!"

"Che."

"Oh! By the way, Boss… Did you know that…?"

Omega whispered something and Vadous got a twitch over the right eye to show his bad mood.

"And you expect me to believe Kir Osh would do that? May I remind you that Blood's an android and that he has no… "item"… whatsoever? If he hasn't then that can't happen." Vadous refuted.

"You never know!" Omega teased.

"What do you mean, I never know? I designed him!"

"Are ya sure it wasn't Dr. Zhivago?" Omega suggested.

"No. Go mop the docking bays." Vadous ordered.

"My, my! Mop Man will show up?"

"Stop making up "Men"!" Vadous yelled.

"Stigma Man sounds cool! Don't ya think so, Boss?" Omega told him with a broad grin.

"Stigma Man? By all the… Get out!"

"Through Evil's Door?"

"GET OUT!"

Omega ran out giggling while Vadous fumed and quickly picked a glass containing apple juice on it: he drank some of it before sighing and articulating his fingers to try to relax.

"That guy drives me nuts."

"No wonder."

"… Boss! This is too much!" Blood Shadow protested.

"What's up, Blood?"

"Sir Omega, Boss!"

"What did he say?" Vadous questioned.

"More like what he did, Boss." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Did…? Don't tell me…" Vadous seemed to suspect something.

"Yes, Boss! It's as you think." Blood Shadow confirmed.

"That H-like jerk… He's gone too far. I'm going to handle this: find something to chat with Burai."

"Roger, Boss."

Vadous ran out at a quick pace while Blood Shadow sat down on the command armchair: Burai directed a smug smile at him and he seemed surprised.

"So! What does Rock Man think of you?" Burai asked.

"Eh… As a companion?"

"In general."

"He respects me. I respect him. We get along. I had some trouble at the beginning because I thought he'd look down on me given how I'd tried to pose as him and was an exact copy of him physically speaking… But that didn't come to happen. He encouraged me instead."

"Hum. Sounds like Rock Man…"

"Yeah. That's his manner."

"I seem to recall he was looking for someone."

"Yeah. Futaba Tsukasa – kun. He was host to the FM Gemini. He's been avoiding Subaru – kun ever since then because… Well… He thought he'd "betrayed" Subaru – kun… They did meet in the Nanska Ruins during the Mu Continent affair but then he vanished from the radar and we suspect that he's being kept hostage by some gang in a foreign country… We're doing what we can to locate him." Blood Shadow admitted.

"Why did that Futaba guy feel like he'd betrayed Rock Man?"

"He had another personality… Futaba – kun was abandoned as a newborn and the very knowledge of it shook him so deep…"

"And that personality was supposed to be his "evil" side?"

"Yeah. He named himself Hikaru. He liked to hit people and get into brawls. He despised bonds and friendship. In that aspect, you and he are similar." Blood Shadow compared.

"I won't deny that."

"Well… One day, Futaba – kun and Subaru – kun had been chatting in Dream Island and he'd told Subaru – kun of his origins… Subaru – kun, who was opening up after 3 long years, suddenly suggested to form a Brother Band with him. Futaba – kun requested to be given a while to think of it. He was unsure if he could bring himself to tell him about Hikaru…" He narrated.

"And that Hikaru guy tried to exploit Rock Man's naïveté to approach him and try to retrieve that so-called "Andromeda Key", then?"

"Correct. He took control at that moment but War Rock sniffed the scent left behind by Gemini. They then became Gemini Spark via Denpa – Henkan and stirred up some chaos. Subaru – kun was forced to fight them and, after that, felt depressed. Futaba – kun disappeared and didn't show up until the end to try to amend a bit for what he'd done. He then went off to Nanska to try to train himself by keeping Hikaru repressed and taking profit of the remaining program of Gemini left into him. But Futaba – kun didn't feel like really making up for the trouble caused back then and that was their last meeting before his disappearance." Blood Shadow narrated.

"Hum. So that's why he was looking so hard for the guy by questioning Denpa Bodies if they'd seen "two black and white humanoid Denpa bodies with golden armor in one of their arms"…"

"Correct. But all results were zero… And that's when we began to chase the foreign line because there were similar cases... Maybe they caught him unaware or something similar taking profit that he was against violence and not precisely strong. Another reason why "Albert – kun" went through the training which still continues nowadays… Subaru – kun tries to look strong, but this is bothering him."

"I see."

"Yo! Sorry for the wait."

"About time. Hmmm… You two must be Lartes and Kir Osh."

"Correct."

"Hum. Cool Jeeps."

"Kir Osh… Do you have to bring up your car mechanic background again…?"

"Come on, Doc… Don't look at me like this is bad."

Rock Man, Harp Note, Acid Ace and two men clad in armors similar to that Vadous sported had come into the room at that moment.

"This is Dr. Lartes." Rock Man introduced.

Dr. Lartes' age seemed to be around his mid-twenties and he stood at close to a meter and eighty tall: his jet black hair had a style slightly reminiscent of Subaru's and his eyes' irises were brown in coloring.

His armor had the Alphabet "L" character drawn over the chest (and painted in purple coloring) and he also carried a sword sheath attached to the right side of his belt.

"I'm Kir Osh."

Kir Osh fell short of Dr. Lartes by five to six centimeters despite being on the same age group: his hair was neatly combed and blond in color while his eyes' irises were emerald greed.

Similar to Dr. Lartes, Kir Osh sported the Alphabet "K" character over the chest area plus a sword sheath.

"Kir Osh used to be a car mechanic but he also made his own research into electronic devices repairs… He knows a lot about circuitry and he helped in the construction of Blood and Sigma."

"Yeah. But when I see a cool car, I can't lay quiet until I've disassembled it and examined each piece of it."

"Hmpf. Fine… Let's go chase those defectives… Rock Man. You drive and I take care of any rubbish on the way." Burai signaled him.

"Eh? Me? A-alright!" Rock Man sounded surprised.

"But don't try to pull a speech on me." He warned.

"O-of course not!" Rock Man gulped.

"Whatever. Move it."

"R-roger!"

"Oi! Subaru! Are ya really gonna let this guy boss ya?" War Rock asked with obvious annoyance.

"I don't have a choice!"

Rock Man jumped into a Jeep's cockpit and turned it on while Burai sat on the passenger seat: he suddenly glared towards Rock Man and lifted an eyebrow formed by a smug smile.

"… You could be interesting later."

"Eh…? E~H?" Rock Man seemed to catch the meaning of it.

"Later."

"Ah… Y-yeah… R-roger…"

"Heh. Your secret weapon was useful, eh?" War Rock teased.

"Be quiet!"

"Actually, that guy hit the mark." Burai let out.

"… I knew something unlucky was gonna happen." Rock Man grimly muttered in a defeatist tone.

"Catastrophe Man knocked at the door, ya see."

Burai made a smug smile again, War Rock chuckled and Rock Man rolled his eyes while Harp Note lifted her eyebrows.

Subaru – kun will have it hard to get outta this pinch…