Chapter 11: Freezing blackness
09:09 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday September the 1st…
"… Ta-ta-dan… Pom, pom, pom, porom… I'm the King of the world! Heh, heh, heh. This rhyme fits my character, I'd rather say!"
"Freeze!"
"Buruo~! That's as far as ya come!"
"Hmmm? My, my. Super Hero – sama and Bull Wannabe…"
"Who the heck are ya calling a "Bull Wannabe", hmmm? Buruo~!"
"Don't mind the guy, Ox Fire."
Tabuu had been floating through a metallic corridor filled with ice formations and being unlit somewhere when Acid Ace and Ox Fire suddenly showed up in front of him: Tabuu taunted Ox Fire while Acid Ace didn't mind it.
"Roger! Get ready! Ox Fire!"
"Wait, Gonta!"
"Too bad."
Ox Fire breathed in and then exhaled a torrent of flames which hit Tabuu but caused no damage at all: Tabuu hummed a tune while Ox Fire gasped and stepped back: Acid Ace sighed in defeat.
"How many times do I have to tell you his armor is invulnerable to most attacks?" Acid Ace grumbled.
"Uh! Sorry, Akatsuki – san! I got excited…"
"Buro~! Think! Ya have a head for something, Gonta!" Ox grumbled.
"Wha~t?" Ox Fire grumbled.
"No good." Acid muttered.
"Behave yourself!"
"Sorry, sorry!" Ox Fire apologized.
"So! Will you guys show me what you're capable of?" Tabuu taunted while sounding amused.
"Yeah! Take this! Capture Program!" Acid Ace announced.
"Hmmm?"
Acid Ace cocked his gun and then shot a yellow ring which formed around Tabuu and grew in thickness before creating two shields in the front and rear ends: Tabuu merely moved his head around.
"My, my… That's some nice toy you have, Acid Ace. Sadly… The only thing you've managed to do is to amuse me." He shrugged.
"I wonder about that. Reverse Polarity!"
"What!"
The "cage" generated bluish electricity which then struck Tabuu's armor's joins at the shoulders and hips plus the neck: they shone with a red glow and hissed as they released air: they then made some mechanical sounds and began to unlock.
"C-crap! Vadous found the files…! Ugh… Can't be taken down here: the climax is about to start…! Come! Pawns! Spark Man! Freeze Man! Laser Man!" Tabuu announced between hissed.
"Crap." Acid Ace cursed.
"More "Darkloids"…?" Ox Fire wondered.
"Hah! I'm Spark Man – sama: I take out the trash with a clean slash to then recycle it!"
"Heh, heh, heh. This place is like Field Power Bonus to me, Freeze Man, master of cold…"
"Laser Man – sama's power, granted by Tabuu – sama, will destroy these weaklings…"
"Spark Man! Disable this thing!"
"Roger!"
"Icicle Fall!"
"Star Breaker Laser!"
Laser Man had a diamond-shaped head which had a small white slit surrounded by a purple rim.
A blue-colored vertical stripe crossed through it from the top and two more formed under the slit while the top of his head had a blue rectangle-like shape: each side of the head had a descending line which then branched into two and kept on running down both sides of his head.
He had two shirt-neck objects near the neck and a slightly curved stripe directly underneath the neck: another two vertical stripes were set on the sides.
Two slightly diagonal lines originated from the neck and ran until the knees.
A couple of lines shaped like ascending and descending triangles were set above and below his chest emblem.
The two main lines had two horizontal stripes set above and below the emblem connecting them: a thin and colorless vertical slit ran down the upper body through the middle of chest.
Another two diagonal thin lines marked the beginning of the shoulders from which two arms originated.
They had blue stripes running down its middle section from above and below before they formed a circle around the wrist.
Two black-colored gloved hands of five fingers each came out: each finger had two thin circular stripes above and below the middle section of them.
His main body ended in a slightly circular opening from which his two legs came out: they each had two vertical parallel stripes running down until the knee: each foot only had three fingers shaped like claw fingers and the rear part of each foot had a small ramp-like shape attached to it.
There was a triangle-shaped stripe set around the base of the fingers with another blue stripe around their base.
Two slightly curved extensions formed on his back slightly beneath the head: they had a general Alphabet U letter shape.
Each one had blue stripe running down its perimeter: these extensions ended into square openings: the insides of them were colored purple.
His chest emblem was a series of vertical stripes of several colors which stood for the light's specters: ultraviolet was set as the leftmost and it climbed up the scale until it reached the infrared.
"Buro~! Ox Tackle!"
"No! That guy's Ice-elemental! You're weak to ice and water!"
Freeze Man had summoned some icicles which began to rain down on the field and several of them hit Ox Fire, who shrugged them off and tried to tackle him.
"Che!"
Acid Ace dodged some meteors which Laser Man had summoned by opening a "gateway" of sorts in the air using his rear-mounted lasers.
"Spark Ball!"
Spark Man, on the other hand, formed two orange spheroids with a central green circle and four yellow antennae coming out of the NW, NE, SW and SE corners of it: the spheroids began to draw the energy of the "cage program" so Tabuu's armor joints turned red and locked up again: he sighed in relief and hovered backwards.
"Spark Man! Follow me." He commanded.
"By your orders!" He made a reverence.
"Freeze Man! Laser Man! Delete them."
"Roger!"
"Sheesh!"
Tabuu flew past the two Raid Troop members and being followed by Spark Man, who tackled Acid Ace into the ground so that then Laser Man used his massive hands to grip his neck.
"Cross Laser!"
"GUAH!"
"Ice Tower!"
"BURUO~!"
Laser Man formed a yellow-colored laser attack shaped like a cross which hit Acid Ace at zero-range thus forming a wound on his armor: Freeze Man smiled and formed spears of ice which emerged from the ground and drove into Ox Fire's armor, inflicting double damage.
"This ugly guy…! Wing Blade!"
"What!"
"Buruo~! Ox Tackle!"
"Ice…!"
Acid Ace ignited his thrusters and drove Laser Man into one of the metallic walls, leaving a hit mark on it while Ox Fire did the same to Freeze Man.
"Why, you…!" Both cursed.
"So! What does your master seek in this abandoned Antarctica outpost which belonged to Anaya?" Acid Ace questioned.
"We don't need to know! Be deleted!" Laser Man shot back.
"Mountain Spear!"
"Hmpf! Fire Columns!"
Freeze Man formed some metallic spears which he shot towards Ox Fire but they bounced off his armor: he then roared and began to glow as he went into a rampage and moved around while punching the ground and forming columns of fire out of the spots he hit with his right fist.
"What!"
Freeze Man gasped and seemed to be taken aback by the move: Ox Fire chuckled.
"Too fast!" He gasped.
"Cross Laser!"
"Lock On… Long Sword!"
Acid Ace locked on Laser Man and hit him twice with his Long Sword thus intercepting his would-be attack.
"Take this! Spade Magnets Galaxy Advance!"
Spade Magnets formed on the field and hit Laser Man with his swords twice thus inflicting further damage but not paralyzing him: Laser Man tried to punch Acid Ace but he jumped towards the right and dodged.
"I see. Status Guard… Like Sirius… Tabuu's careful!" Acid Ace guessed.
"Oof!"
"Take this!"
Ox Fire had moved right in front of Freeze Man and hit him with his right punch to then tackle him against a wall: Freeze Man growled and suddenly hovered into the air to then begin summoning icicles which didn't seem to affect Ox Fire.
"I've got Super Armor! I won't flinch from attacks which aren't elementally weak to me!" Ox Fire told him.
"Che! Bothersome meddling guy!"
"Twin Lasers!"
"What!"
Acid Ace loaded up energy and shot two twin lasers which ran down the corridor and met Laser Man head-on, inflicting damage to him but he didn't get stunned or anything given his "Status Guard" ability.
"Hah!"
He instead warped and appeared right in front of Acid Ace.
"Delete~!" He roared.
"Slow, gramps."
Acid Ace dodged the fist and then slashed the rear area of his body twice before shooting a Daba Flame Battle Card at that area: Laser Man growled and ran towards Acid Ace only to step into something and get blown into the air before landing, hard, and face-up, into the ground.
"You lowlife… Giga Mine!" He cursed.
"Yeah. Game Over. Strong Swing X!"
Club Strong formed on the corridor and beat Laser Man with several hits of his club before he exploded and was defeated: Ox Fire was moving around madly and not giving Freeze Man a chance to hit him to his increasing annoyance.
"Stay still so I can delete you lowlife~!" He roared.
"No chance, ugly!" Ox Fire shot back.
"Calling on Spark Man! Make Shadow."
Spark Man suddenly appeared inside of the corridor: he intersected his lances to create a flash and then form black-and-white-colored copies of Ox Fire and Acid Ace.
"Go!"
"Buruo~! This is cheating!"
"Yeah. And cheats aren't allowed. Giza Wheel X!" Acid Ace fumed as he drew a new weapon.
The Giza Wheel X bounced off the right wall and hit Freeze Man on his waist area while he was still recovering: he growled and formed a grimace but didn't have time to recover as Acid Ace shot a Stealth Laser X at him which inflicted double damage.
"Uwo~h! Glory to Tabuu – sama~!" He uttered before he blew up into a thousand bits.
"Freeze Man! You lowlifes!" Spark Man cursed.
"Kogarashi X!"
"Wha~t? NO WAY~!"
The greenish tornado inflicted multiple-hit-damage to Spark Man while Ox Fire tackled him and finished him off.
"I guess Tabuu didn't program high HP into this one." Acid Ace calmly deduced as he turned around to face his "shadow".
"Buruo~! How do we take these down?" Ox Fire asked.
"Hmmm… Gotcha. Use this one!"
Acid Ace tossed a Mega Card at Ox Fire, who picked it and gasped but nodded in understanding.
"Apollon Flame X!"
Acid Ace ran away to make the "shadows" follow him but that was when Ox Fire used the Mega Card's "Sun Flare" attack to scorch the ground with them standing on it: the "shadows" were silently deleted and both sighed in relief.
"Phew. We made it through alive, somehow." He muttered.
"Let's go catch the guy!"
"Yeah. I wanna know what he was after."
Both ran down the corridor and ended up in a vast room which seemed to be missing a large structure given the marks on the ground and some dust patterns around it.
"He took whatever was here. Vadous! Any ideas?"
"The rations?" Ox Fire wondered.
"Buro~! Course not." Ox grumbled.
"The fusion reactor… That model should be still functional… He must've formed a space-time gateway to forcefully take it with him without bothering to properly dismantle it. Spark Man surely was necessary to examine the electrical systems and test if they were still alive… It makes sense, anyway."
"So! He's finally found what he needs to power up his HQ. And I think that the only thing left for us to do is to find him. Which can't be easy but we'll achieve our goal sooner or later." Acid Ace guessed while punching his sides.
"Buruo~! If he dares to try to harm iinchou… He'll have to get through me first!" Ox Fire exclaimed.
"That'd be easy for the guy taking into account what he can do." Acid Ace grimly muttered.
"… This is Mr. Universe, broadcasting from D – Nation. I thereby announce that the newest edition of the Gourmet Town contest with the prize being a kiss from Ai – chan!" A voice boomed out.
"Whoa! I'm not missing this!"
"Please step through the backdoor."
"Wait, Gonta!"
Ox Fire suddenly ran towards the far wall without looking ahead and crashed head-on with it, ending up stunned and dizzied: he then slid down the wall and into the ground: Acid Ace slapped his forehead out of exasperation.
"Heh, heh, heh… No pain, no gain!" Tabuu's voice laughed.
"Tabuu! You moron!" Acid Ace cursed.
"Heh, heh, heh! Bye – bye, Clark Kent – sama~! And dream of ginger beef, Ushijima~!"
"Ginger beef… Mine~…"
"Oi! Gonta!"
"Buro~! Got it comin'! For braggin'!"
"Warning. Bragging braggers of brags assault us. Assault the assaulting assaulters of assaults."
"There is no logic in that!" Acid complained.
"Of course there isn't. It's a lame attempted at a tongue-twister! And that must be one of Omega's influences!"
"Bravo, Meitantei Akatsuki!"
"Sheesh."
"Tabuu…!" Vadous growled.
"Oho. Aibou. You were there, watching it all from your VIP seat. Did you enjoy the show?"
"Sheesh."
"I can do better than that, obviously enough."
"I hope so!"
"Else I'll disappoint you again?" Tabuu deduced.
"Wasn't it obvious to begin with?"
"Guess that. Hmmm? Ah. Good, good."
"What now."
"Nothing. My hamster just had its ration. While you're at it tell Ushijima to try out calorie mate. Heh, heh, heh."
"Calorie mate? Sheesh. The guy needs a vegetarian diet." Acid Ace sighed as he glanced at the guy.
"Ai – cha~n…"
"Well then, I'll be excusing myself! See you around the loop route." Tabuu chuckled before his voice was gone.
"How original. Sheesh. What have I done to deserve this?"