Chapter 10: Of mimics
11:04 AM (Japan Time), Thursday March the 19th…
"… At last they fired those two idiots and brought in new ones! It was about time!"
"Yeah. The bureaucracy is so slow…"
Netto and Saito were talking about something during break time: they'd apparently decided to stay on the classroom today.
"They all used us to channel out their bad mood at losing Mahjong games and didn't care if they pushed us to our physical limits… They should have realized that they wouldn't get away with it." Netto was grumbling.
"Yeah. Good riddance, as they say."
"By the way… Did you hear? Apparently… Some info regarding access codes for several parts of the Science Labs' Network were stolen… Papa and the others have been frantically changing all them and re-issuing them. The Net Police has been unable to trace the one who leaked the info to the black market."
"I'd heard of it. When the data was accessed… Only one entry and one exit were registered: a Science Labs Navi working in the R&D lab and a Police Navi carrying some report for Superintendent Manabe… However… That report never reached her. What's more: she hadn't requested it to begin with. The Navi had faked an authorization notice."
"Somehow… This reeks. I believe the Desert Wraiths had something to do with it…" Netto brought a hand to his chin and frowned.
"Yeah. They could've infiltrated both Vulture and Cobra using avatar programs to pass as another Net Navi. They must be desperate to gather money to fund their operations."
"No wonder. And Twilight's being very quiet too… Save for the RAY thing which Charles and Martin told us about the other day..."
"Yeah. But that was to tease us… The real stuff is yet to come… Che."
11:23 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Hum… Hum-hum-hum…"
Number Man was humming a tune as he and Aqua Man worked on organizing and classifying a new cache of Battle Chips they had just received.
"Pyururu~? Where does this one go to? Pyu?" Aqua Man asked while holding a case containing Long Sword Battle Chips.
"This goes into the "Sword" category. But the shelf is too high for you to reach. I'll put it myself." Number Man replied.
He placed the case on the shelf and whistled a tune.
"There."
Suddenly, and without warning, a figure came out of nowhere, grabbed the case, and ran out through the backdoor, pushing Aqua Man to the ground on its wake.
"T-thief! Someone stop him! Aqua Man! Stay here!"
Number Man ran out, locking the backdoor behind him.
"There!"
He soon spotted the thief: they were wearing a large navy blue robe with a hood.
"Thief! Stop!"
They were running very fast across the side alleys like they knew them from memory.
"Stop! Give it back! Stop! Halt!" Number Man yelled.
The thief glanced backwards and sped up while Number Man was beginning to get tired.
"Grah! Somebody stop him!"
"That's as far as you come."
Three or four shuriken rained down and stuck on the ground in front of the thief thus forming a line: the thief tripped and fell into the ground face fist, dropping the case.
"Off!"
Before they could try to pick it up again, though, Shadow Man dropped in and grabbed it up.
"Hmpf. You lowlife were trying to steal stuff from my favorite store? You lowlife will end up in the brig." Shadow Man scoffed as he tossed the case back at Number Man.
Oddly enough, the thief began to giggle and slowly stand up before exploding into laughter.
"What the…? A woman?" Shadow Man wondered.
The thief grabbed the robe with their right hand and pulled it before tossing it away.
"Hah!"
It turned out that Roll was the thief: she had a smug smile on her face.
"Y-you're…!" Shadow Man uttered.
"Roll – chan? What does this mean?" Number Man asked.
"My! It was a joke… April's Fool will take place in about two weeks, but I couldn't resist the temptation to pull a joke on you, Number Man." She replied in a weird-sounding tune of voice.
"Hmmm… Something about your voice feels out of place." Number Man told her.
"… Was this your idea or your Operator's idea?" Shadow Man questioned.
"It was mine, obviously enough… Meiru – chan is on the midst of the institute class…" Roll giggled.
"Hello, Number Man! How are… WHAT?" A voice began to greet behind Number Man only to yell in surprise.
Both Shadow Man and Number looked in that direction to see another Roll standing there and looking totally baffled.
"W-where did that other me come out from?" She asked.
"Sheesh! I've been found out… So long!"
The thief Roll suddenly was covered in the familiar blackish mass and reverted to a standard female Navi's form: she jumped towards a building's wall and used it to jump towards the one across the street: she repeated the process until she reached the roof and ran away jumping across roofs.
"What the hell was that?" Shadow Man asked to no – one in particular.
"That black mass… Wasn't that the same thing that Shadow Devil monster was made of?" Miyabi recalled.
"It's the work of the Desert Wraiths, then. We should try to apprehend her."
Before Miyabi could add anything, Shadow Man dropped a smoke bomb and reappeared on top of a building.
"What's going on?" The real Roll asked Number Man.
"That imposter tried to frame you by stealing my case of Long Sword Battle Chips." Number Man summarized.
"Bloody those guys!" Roll cursed.
"I'd say you better stay out of sight… I'm sure no one saw what happened, but just to be on the safe side…" Number Man suggested.
"Okay. See you around, Number Man."
Roll walked away while Number Man sighed and undid the path to return to Higureya.
"Jeez. As if Meiru – chan's bad mood wasn't enough… She needs to accept it: and, besides… Does that stop Netto – san and her from being boyfriend and girlfriend? No. Nothing's changed. Meiru – chan's stubborn moods…"
"There."
Shadow Man was pursuing the impersonator Navi across the rooftops of Internet City: the impersonator would sometimes throw Mini Bomb Battle Chips at some rooftops to weaken them and prevent Shadow Man from using them.
"Hah. That won't stop me, you damned fake."
However, Shadow Man was too smart for that, so he used the handrails instead.
"Shuriken Needles!"
Several shuriken rained down around the impostor, limiting her movements: one of them hit her on the back of her right foot and got stuck there.
"Grah!"
The impostor tried to take it off, but, at that moment, Shadow Man caught up to her and aimed his katana at her neck.
"Confess. You lowlife work for the Desert Wraiths! Isn't that right? It's futile to pretend." Shadow Man told her.
"… Hmpf. This is just a test drive. The real terror is forthcoming, Net Savior… Long live to the Great Lords!"
The impostor Navi began to emit bursts of white light from her body and energy began to build up.
"Shit."
Shadow Man jumped down the building and landed down on the street just as an explosion wrecked the rooftop and caused it to collapse and fall inside of the building's topmost floor.
"It's confirmed, then. They plan on spreading confusion and forcing us to fight our allies by mimicking them." Miyabi commented.
"Yeah. That's how it looks like. Let's get outta here."
11:33 AM (Japan Time)…
"… History repeats itself, huh? It's similar to what happened over a year ago with "Sidier" and "Emperor S"… Those "Duplicates" of existing Navis which would come out to give us trouble..."
"So it seems."
Vadous didn't look in a good mood after getting a hold of the news Omega had brought over.
"Grftx! We must get rid of both Odin and Gate soon enough to focus all of our energies on tracing these guys… I think that they must use some kind of nanomachines system on these "mimic" Navis to recreate the skin and shape. They surely must have been observing some of them to check their acquaintances and their relationships… They're getting serious." Vadous grumbled.
"Yeah. I'm going to try to locate that Odin rascal. I'm sure he's itching for a rematch."
"Do so. Nelaus will take care of Gate once he shows his ugly hide around."
"OK."
"…invoke the anger of the Santenou…"
"Three Heavenly Kings? Why not invoke the Five Sacred Blades which showed up in Tales of Symphonia?" Vadous sighed.
"Guess he doesn't know what they are."
"…countless Demon God Swords…"
"Odd. One of Lloyd Irving's first known moves is "Demon God Sword": but maybe it's a coincidence to begin with." Omega muttered while rubbing his chin.
"Yeah. Just get moving and beat that jerk already."
"Roger."
"And once those two parties are gone… Twilight! I'll catch you yet. Hmpf."
11:44 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Hmmm… Not here?"
Omega was investigating a Cyber World somewhere which looked dusty and abandoned.
"Die."
A sword suddenly flew towards him from the north-east: Omega ducked and skidded across the ground to dodge as the sword hit the ground and got stuck there.
"Odin. Show your hide around. I know it's you." Omega called out.
Odin appeared next to the sword and drew it, letting light illuminate it.
"We meet again. This time you shall be buried in the Nifelheim." Odin declared.
"Who was the one who gave you a beating down last time, hmmm?"
"This time I shall be victorious."
"Less talking: let's get down to business." Omega challenged as he ignited his O – Saber.
"You asked for it, Red Demon!"
Odin wielded his sword and began to charge up energy into it before hitting the ground with it and causing eight straight lines of white energy to originate from that point: tall and narrow energy shockwaves travelled across the lines at a mad speed and very close to each other, making dodging very hard.
"How's that?"
Omega, however, smirked: he simply charged up his gun and broke part of the ground, causing a small crevice: the energy hit the chunk of broken terrain and was stopped by it.
"Your attacks can only travel across straight and smooth surfaces. By slightly curving this chunk of terrain… I've been able to nullify it."
"Damn it."
"You're all the same: you rely more on trying to impress or scare your opponents than in real power." Omega told Odin.
"Be silenced!"
Odin wielded his sword again and shot out a straight beam of energy towards Omega: Omega merely used his double-jump technique and aimed his gun at Odin's face.
"Burn 'till only cinders are left."
Omega shot a plasma ball towards Odin: he brought up his shield and blocked it, but it was melted by the high temperature of the plasma round, which also provoked another eight smaller rounds to bounce off the shield and hit several parts of Odin's body armor, melting them off.
"What in the…!" Odin cursed.
"I made some modifications to my gun. I try to emulate real plasma's properties. And your armor wasn't designed to deal with plasma of all things."
"I shall destroy you!"
Odin formed something similar to a "Dark Chip" but which had a logo (the international radiation symbol with circuitry patterns drawn over its surface) instead of that dome thing and the body was orange in color: its logo glowed with an orange glow.
"That's…!" Omega recognized it.
"Atomic Chip! Engage!"
The Chip began to glow and eight streams of energy carrying small spheroids alongside them flew out of the Chip's logo and into Odin's chest emblem: a menacing orange glow formed behind him and he began to chuckle.
"I thought none had survived the destruction of Atomic Network's mainframe!" Omega cursed.
"Hah! Wouldn't you know? I found this in a corner of Deadly Pandora's server… Maybe one of the Atomic Network agents was carrying it but dropped it and didn't realize the fact." Odin chuckled.
"Damn!" Omega hissed.
"Experience the power of the Lord of Gods! Ragnarok!"
Odin tossed the sword aside and built up energy on both hands: he shot it towards the sky, causing a kind of portal with a circle containing Nordic runes on it to appear. Incandescent meteors began to fall down from it and hit the ground, leaving burning craters behind.
"Come down, my faithful warriors! Slay this demon!"
Four Valkyries appeared by riding down the Bifrost rainbow bridge while the music from the opera echoed around the space.
"By the will of our Master, you shall be slain!"
"Scope Gun!"
"Sonic Boom!"
"Shuriken Needles!"
"Eat this!"
The four attacks caught the Valkyries off-guard and pushed all of them back for some centimeters: Omega looked behind him and spotted Blues, Search Man, Shadow Man and Zero there.
"Guys! What are you doing here?"
"Mr. Vadous rang us up. He admitted that you were having slight complications." Zero admitted.
"We'll take care of these lowlifes. You take care of the head honcho."
"They are cheap, after all." Blues smiled.
"Cheaper than a Sword Battle Chip, even." Search Man smirked.
"I owe you one!" Omega admitted.
"You'll have plenty of chances to return it. Let's go, guys!" Zero rallied them.
"By the Valhalla! This can't be happening!" Odin cursed.
"It can be happening. Say farewell, Odin!"
Omega suddenly dashed forward leaving a trail of "afterimages" on his wake while the others kept the Valkyries busy: he jumped two times into the air and plunged his O – Saber into Odin's chest emblem: it glowed and Odin roared.
"T-the power… the power is vanishing…!" He roared.
"It'd seem Atomic Network built these things based off a Dark Chip's basic structure. My Vaccine Chip Program seems to be taking effect."
"DIE!"
Odin tried to punch him while his right punch was surrounded by fire, but Omega jumped over it and drew this O – Buster: he shot a ball of plasma at Odin's face, charring it and momentarily blinding him.
"The final blow!"
Omega back flipped while in the air and took out his O – Saber again: he plunged it into Odin's chest emblem again, this time reaching further in thanks to his earlier wound.
"I am - A GOD! I am - INMORTAL! I am - ODIN! I am - GRUO~H!"
Odin's began to emit white bursts of light from his body and build up energy.
"Let's scram!" Omega told the others.
Odin's bomb program went off, sweeping the ground with it and destroying the Valkyries as well
"Huff. The goons are gone. Gate comes next. The guy's turning into a mad jerk: and he could try to slaughter Akihara Town to lure Nelaus out. That's why we gotta beat the guy: Nelaus and Isaac will surely find a weakness."
13:23 PM (Melbourne Time)…
"… Phew."
"Phew Man!"
"Cloud Man. Go pick on that Gate guy."
"Not yet."
"You like to pick on me?"
"Guess so, Bapgei!"
"Huff. Master is going to get ANGRY and you know that."
"Mwah, hah, hah."
"CLOUD MAN!"
"Yikes!"
"See?"
"GET OUT!"
Philip had been reading a novel in the bedroom when Cloud Man's holographic screen displaying a close-up of his face popped up and he began to grin: Philip was unimpressed and Twilight got annoyed as he called out from the ground floor.
"Tactical withdrawal!"
"Huff. That guy…" Zoan Gate Man complained.
"I know. He's annoying. I was enjoying 2061: Odyssey Three and he had to come and begin to bother me."
"Sorry. Let's continue with the planning."
"Sure."
"Things are advancing. Meta and Scorpion are engrossed with those mimics and keep on planning new "mimicking" strategies: Vulture and Cobra do as told and they're not bothering to think 'bout us two."
"Excellent. As we'd predicted…"
"Here's the data we agreed on." Viper announced.
"… Ah! I see. Good, good. Hmmm… Maybe I could lend you a device which could be helpful."
"Good, good."
"Twilight! You lowlife! Found you!" A voice rang out from the Cyber World.
"Herr Doktor. Welcome to the party, my dear."
"You've betrayed me! You've betrayed IQ – sama too! What "Demon Tribe"! You lowlifes are but a bunch of defectives!"
"Oh? Maybe IQ – sama would object."
"Yeah. Gate. Get lost. I should've deleted ya like Oswell E. Spencer did with the architect Trevor after he completed the Spencer Mansion off Raccoon City." A woman's voice joined the conversation.
"IQ – sama! That can't be! That's an imposter!"
"Oh yeah? 1 year, 10 months, 5 days, 14 hours, 56 minutes."
"T-that's the time I spent to fully build the "Palace"! Nobody but me and IQ – sama knew it! It was never written down!"
"Isn't that proof enough? Now get lost: you fail at "burying" Nelaus over and over again. I've had enough of failures."
"B-but Twilight there!"
"Twilight fled the DNN Studios 'cause I ordered him to."
"That cannot be!"
"Cha time is over. Was over long ago…"
"Impossible!"
"Not impossible at all. Go try to "bury" Nelaus but I've got the hunch that lil miss is skeptical about your approach. Anyone would be. Even me."
"But I thought curiosity…"
"…would get the cat? People nowadays know better not to butt too much into others' stuff or they get into trouble. That lil miss found out about the cover but got afraid and didn't dare to push it. I'd done the same."
"H-however…"
"Don't cut me!"
"Yikes."
"Hmpf. That's it. Go battle Nelaus in that pit and let's see which of you will end up in Hell. Maybe Twinrova will pick you up and disguise you as Ganondorf for the next game he's featured in."
"T-that cannot be…"
"Get lost. Twilight. Cut the guy off."
"Roger."
"DAMN YOU, TWILIGHT! I'LL… KZZZ!"
"Huff. That guy needed a lesson." Philip muttered.
"So! Back to business, my dears." She apparently addressed the visitors next with a hint of amusement.
"Roger, miss." Viper giggled.
"You know of it?"
"Twilight's been briefing me. Amusing."
"Thanks for the complimenting!"
"It boosts us up." Bella giggled too.
"I'm glad to know it. And soon… They'll see how clever we really are. They think I can't do anything from this Louisiana prison but they're wrong."
"Truly."
"Glory to IQ – sama and the Secret Empire! We shall be victorious! Hah!"