Chapter 12: Overwhelming power
17:17 PM (San Francisco Time), Tuesday July the 4th…
"… What? Warehouse LA09? Yes. We rented it a month ago… Let me check the company name, Count de Rivalou…"
A woman was talking with someone over the phone: she appealed to be on her mid-thirties and over a meter and eighty tall.
She had short smooth black hair and her eyes' irises were green in coloring: her face was smooth but it didn't have a very appealing "profile" either.
She wore a white shirt with a reddish tie and a black knee-long skirts plus stockings and black heeled shoes: a brown leather jacket hung in the chair's backrest too.
She was working inside of a largely unlit office with various documents scattered on top of the desk along with a laptop.
"Hum… "Yaru Yomi Printing Inc.": registered in Phoenix about 3 months ago and they use the warehouse to store the material for their printing business located about 3 blocks south… Yes. In Los Angeles… Do excuse me?"
"That name's a fake. It's but a childish anagram." Count de Rivalou warned over the line.
"What?"
"You haven't heard of Dr. Yoru Yami, Ms. Jessica Argad?"
"T-the culprit behind the assault on the Black Hole HQ…!"
"The same one…"
"But why would they want to rent a warehouse which belongs to me to begin with? And why would they use it to store…?" Argad asked.
"No, not printing materials… Mr. Sponsor sent one agent to check the place out: it stores marijuana and cocaine brought from Mexico."
"WHAT?"
"I guess he was planning on letting the police find that and have your name be stained while planting fake data the police would fall for along with the DEA… A campaign to try to smear our names… Yoru Yami wants to make us feel the consequences of our "betrayal" to Anaya Maria two years ago… The man's a psychopath alright…"
"The son of a…!" She cursed.
"I know, ma'am, I know." He calmly replied.
"The asshole!"
"I know, ma'am, I know."
"The piece of shit!"
"Eh, ma'am…"
"… Sorry. I felt my anger rise up and…"
"There's nothing wrong with it, ma'am. We're all human."
"Oh. True."
"Well then, ma'am, I'll be on my way. The bogus info has been disposed of so there's no problem anymore… The drugs will be seized up nevertheless: next time try to be more careful with that."
"I know. Our PC components company won't be caught with the guard lowered anymore. San Francisco is good place to make businesses, close to Silicon Valley… Anyway… Good-bye."
"Merci."
The call ended and Argad sighed as she brough the right hand to her forehead: she then glanced at the San Francisco skyline.
"That bitch was nuts and that son of a bitch is nuts too. And now they're trying to stain the names of the whole "Council of Armies" too… I want to see them rotting away in jail and feeling the weight of justice weight down upon their backs! That'd be fitting! Get ready, you bastard!"
09:58 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday July the 5th…
"… This is Charlie Company! We're under heavy fire in Sector Z – 18! We need backup! I repeat! We need backup!"
"I'm on my way! Dash Condor!"
"CF" Netto was riding atop a Dash Condor to fly over the virtual city: jumping across the roofs were Blood Shadow and Sigma, who'd been assigned as his mission partners.
Once we reach the spot then we open fire. Saito instructed.
Roger.
They soon reached the square: a small group of soldiers were trying to repel another group of Viruses which had "Darkloid" Burner Man amongst them.
"Hah, hah, hah! Burn, burn! Strike Burner! Hah, hah, hah!"
He was making things hard by bathing the others in fire and breaking through the improvised barricades.
"Program Advance! Wide Shot, Triple Slot In! Super Wide!"
"CF" Netto shot the Program Advance and hit it Burner Man from behind: he groaned as the attack covered him in water and pulled out his flames: "CF" Netto quickly landed behind him.
"Program Advance! Yo-yo, Triple Slot In! Yo-yo Great!"
The powered-up Yo-yo combination pierced through Burner Man's body and he exploded: the Viruses (mostly Mettools and Garuus) ran for it: the group of three advanced towards the soldiers.
"Do we have any serious wounds?" "CF" Netto asked.
"We only have some minor scratches. That "Darkloid" was the cause of trouble." One of them explained.
"That's nice to hear. Command! What else has to be done?" "CF" Netto eyed his right ear pad.
"Our scanners are picking up multiple "Darkloid" and Virus signatures at Point G – 24. They are assembling to strike. Intercept them." Command ordered.
"Roger that, Command. Let's go, guys!" "CF" Netto rallied.
"OK!"
"Ou!"
Blood Shadow and Sigma followed him as they ran over various streets and side alleys while forcing the enemy's Virus battalions to retreat.
"No big deal!"
They soon reached a ruined concert hall and spotted various "Darkloids" (several Plant Men, Bowl Men and Flash Men) had gathered in there and were seemingly waiting to come out.
"Take that! Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Dream Sword!"
"Air Hockey, Triple Slot In! Hell Hockey!"
"Mwah, hah, hah… Spread Gun, Triple Slot In! Hyper Burst!"
The three "Program Advances" easily disposed of the cannon fodder enemies and the group sighed in relief: the concert hall's interior ended up wrecked, but it was of little importance.
"We have confirmed that your sector has been cleared. Good job, everyone. That will be all for today."
"Roger."
The city "faded" and the three of them exited the Cyber World to head into the real world.
"Phew!"
They quickly appeared inside of the VR Room: the "Dimensional Area" was disengaged and Netto picked up his Link PET: the holographic screen popped out next.
VR TRAINING
LEVEL: 4
CLASS: C
NUMBER: 24 OF 25
TIME: 06: 45
RANK: B
USERS: HIKARI NETTO, ROCK MAN EXE, BLOOD SHADOW, SIGMA
HAVE A NICE DAY
"This one was HARD!" Netto groaned.
"You said so! We needed to protect various companies. We're doing quite well, nevertheless! We've almost finished Level 4. You never know what surprises Level 5 may bring with it." Blood Shadow commented.
"Yeah. Level 5 ain't gonna be a walk into the park." Saito sounded slightly nervous at the prospect, even.
"Heh! When it comes to cheap guys, I'm showin' 'em the shortest road out of the city!" Sigma laughed.
"Yeah. That's so true." Saito grinned.
"Oi, Sigma… Boasting is not good. It'll drive you into some tight spots before you realize it, you know…"
"You're sayin' it like ya were Mr. Universe." Sigma calmly replied while whistling a tune.
"I'm not Mr. Universe. But Boss insists on the topic."
"Wasn't there one of Dragon's proverbs speaking of this stuff…? Ah! "He who claims victory before having been crowned shall be met with swift and crushing defeat"… That's yer point, right?" Sigma suddenly frowned and then quoted a proverb.
"Yep. That's a good proverb."
"Dragon – san sure can come up with good ones when he wants to."
"Yeah. But we all agree that there's no bearing with his kilometric speeches." Sigma argued.
"I'd run out of words even before I completed a fourth of it! I dunno how he manages to keep on."
"He's stubborn: that's why."
"Blood? Come in." Omega called out.
"Commander Omega?"
"Someone named "Absolute" demands for you to come at a shut down laboratory for a one-on-one "fair and square" match… But I'm skeptical at the "fair and square" part… Bring some Pocket Monsters along just in case and the auto-recovery programs… You could try out that new "Program Advance" Boss managed to design on the field… Be wary: it takes a lot of power to execute so save it up as a last resource thing…" Omega detailed over the radio.
"Roger, sir. I'll be going, sir."
"Mwah, hah, hah. Tell 'em Uncle Disaster wants their lasers back or else he'll be back with a vengeance~…"
"Sigma. Shut the trap up." Omega growled.
"S-sorry, sir." He gulped.
"Hikari, Rock Man… If you guys wanna watch then come up to the Observation Deck #3 where I'm setting up a system linked to Blood's own visuals so that you can check it out… And, Sigma… Stay there for a min: we gotta have SOME TALK about your recent behavior regarding trying to play "yaoi" with Blood even though none of you can do that."
"Yikes."
"Sigma gets in trouble a lot of times, eh, niisan…?"
"Unfortunately, yes…"
10:26 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Alright. I've come. Show your hide."
"Heh, heh, heh… My name is Cosmo Man!"
"Cosmo Man? How fitting."
"Isn't it, you damned mouse?"
"Who knows?"
Blood Shadow came inside of a Cyber World which looked decayed and abandoned given the poor lighting save for some street lights which seemed to have been set there recently: a voice rang out and he calmly began to scan his surroundings while his shades glowed in a reddish color as if checking out who was there.
"Heh, heh, heh…"
A "gateway" circle formed in the "sky" and the glow of distant stars could be seen inside of it before the newcomer, Cosmo Man, slowly hovered out of it and landed in the ground.
Cosmo Man appeared to be close to two meters tall and he had a commanding look to him.
Four lines converged on his forehead where a small diamond was set and the head's upper portion was exposed and it had the typical black "skin" over it.
His eyes were simply black and surrounded by skin while his nose and mouth were covered by a thin layer of golden armor.
Most of his upper torso was encompassed by golden-colored armor which also covered the shoulders: it ended around the chest where the emblem was set at: it was a blue star drawn against a pitch black colored background.
The design of the armor included two thick white lines emerging NW and NE from his emblem and curving as they ran parallel to the neck and past the shoulders.
Another set of two thin blue lines formed from the east and west sides of the emblem and climbed upwards thus diving the armor into two uneven portions: the lower portion was shorter in length while the upper one was larger.
The armor also covered both sides of the neck and continued above the head where it expanded into two ear-like extensions having blue round dome-like pads.
The arms had a blue ring around the elbow and each ring was complemented by fin-shaped extensions aiming upwards towards the shoulders.
A pale blue transparent ring was also set atop each wrist and the wrists had blue armor covering them: the fingers were also covered by the golden armor.
Two thick white lines extended from above the end of those diamonds and travelled towards the lower torso area until they met an oval-shaped object with a brown edge and metallic interior: two small rectangles were drawn on the north and south edges, too.
Another two thick lines came out from the NW and NE edges and met the chest emblem by connecting the SW and SE edges, too.
A large blue transparent ring was set around his body in a 45º angle and aiming to the SE from around the same height as the right shoulder until the left forearm.
The plain black-skinned feet (the fingers of which couldn't be seen) had blue armor on their ankles as well and a golden-colored diamond-like object set slightly above the ankle.
This object had a blue-colored triangle-like pattern aiming upwards set slightly above of the spot where they began at.
"So. The Golden Guy came…"
"Hmpf."
"So? What's your trick?"
"Cosmo Buster!"
"Not the talkative type, then."
Cosmo Man formed some planetoid-shaped objects having vertical rings around them and colored golden which he shot in a row: Blood Shadow ducked to avoid them and then fired a blast at Cosmo Man who grinned and suddenly detached his ring to throw it forward.
"Cosmo Ring!"
The ring glowed with purplish electricity and created an EM barrier like Yamato Man had done the previous day to block the blast and shot it back at Blood Shadow who calmly warped away to another spot but Cosmo Man was waiting there.
"Cosmo Gate~!"
The "gateway" opened again and some gigantic brown-colored planetoid-shaped objects began to rain down around the area causing destruction: Cosmo Man flew upwards and Blood Shadow had to jump over the falling planetoids to chase him into the insides of the "gateway" which turned out to be the Reverse Cyber World given the circuitry boards and data clusters floating around with no order at all.
"Cosmo Ring!"
The attack hit Blood Shadow but a chibi doll formed there and Blood Shadow reappeared behind Cosmo Man to shower him in a row of 10 shuriken: Cosmo Man growled and whipped around to throw the ring at Blood Shadow again but he used a Met Guard Battle Chip to bounce it off and end up unharmed.
"That's named "Bodyguard Program Advance", Golden Boy."
"You damned mouse!"
"Sure, sure."
"Be destroyed by the Universe's overwhelming power! Hra~h!"
"Coming…!"
Cosmo Man turned on his "Dark Generator" and chuckled as he formed two katana on his hands colored purple and dashed forward at an impossible speed provoking a sonic boom upon overcoming the speed of sound: Blood Shadow gasped and formed a "Dream Aura" just in time as both swords made contact but were repelled.
"Damn it. The effects vary from one guy to the other."
"Did you really think we'd just copy each other's strategies?" Cosmo Man taunted with a smug smile.
"Damn."
"Heh! "Dark Down"…!"
"What!"
Cosmo Man formed some streams of energy which became echoing sound waves when hitting the "Dream Aura" which began to shatter: it totally shattered and Cosmo Man plunged both katana into Blood Shadow: he groaned and reddish energy suddenly began to flow into Cosmo Man: he roared and grinned.
"I'll be borrowing three quarters of your HP!"
"T-three quarters…! That's unfair!"
"All's fair in war, you damned mouse. Now die!"
"… Program Advance! Laughing Doll, Laughing Doll, Forte! Hra~h!"
"I-impossible! A "Program Advance" using Forte's data?"
"Yeah. Back when Omega managed to drag the guy to the HQ in March, 2005… The anti-intruder system scanned his body data and I managed to use it to form this "Program Advance"… It's never been tried out on the field until today." Vadous admitted.
"By all the…!" Yoru Yami hissed.
"You're not so confident anymore? Mr. Drug dealer?"
"Shaddup!"
Blood Shadow formed the head of the "Gospel" monster and shot a stream of flames at Cosmo Man who growled: a copy of Forte showed up next and drew a Long Sword colored purple which he swung to create a blade of energy identical to a Dream Sword: it opened a wound on Cosmo Man's new armor and he clutched it while Blood Shadow panted and was seemingly recovering given how a small red pilot was blinking on his helmet's forehead.
"Huff, huff, huff…"
"Huh… Not… enough to… Ugck!"
Cosmo Man clutched his chest and noticed how "Dark Power" was leaking out due to the earlier wound: he growled and suddenly warped to begin kicking and punching Blood Shadow in a furious barrage: Blood Shadow placed the loaded energy barrels in the chest and shot through it to damage the "Dark Generator" further: Cosmo Man growled and recoiled while the power leakage worsened.
"Cosmo Man! It's useless to fight on. Retreat!"
"R-roger, Boss… But… the other 3 will… destroy you damned… mice… and bury you… in bottomless grave…! Heh… Heh, heh… Hah, hah, hah!"
Cosmo Man warped out while Blood Shadow groaned as he noticed the blows all over his body: Omega suddenly appeared there and picked him to warp back into a Cyber World having a rotating 3D hologram of the Earth set in the middle of a round plaza and also having several doorways built into the round walls.
"You did good, Blood. The "Program Advance" worked and that saved you a long and difficult battle… But that guy wasn't weak either: they got cocky and they lowered the guard…" Omega told him.
"T-thank you, Commander Omega, sir…"
"By all the… I'm glad of not being there." Netto cursed.
"The enemies this time around are far deadlier…!" Saito muttered.
"Damned rascal. How long will this pointless conflict drag on?"