Chapter 14: Otherworldly

23:43 PM (Austria Time), Saturday March the 19th…

"… Huff. Hoshikawa is taking his time to come…!"

"Chiiii!"

"Not yet, you idiot! Hyde – sama said that he first needed end his speech…! I fail to see what he gains from it, though…"

"Nothing, man. It's just a desperate attempt to make himself feel great and supreme. Like always, man."

"I knew it. Sheesh."

"That Hyde… Saying he'd beat the old man when he found him and then he goes and gets lured by the old man's suggestions…"

"And I'm sure that that "Haidus" is a lie made up by those guys to make Hyde – sama get obsessed over it!"

"Sure thing, man."

"Here I am, Hyde and Shinobi! Release the parliament members!"

"Huh! So you came! Fool! To you grave!"

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Assassin Shinobi was patrolling the surroundings of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna as he talked with Phantom: he could see fences set up by the Satella Police and several SWAT units ready close to the main stairs leading up to the building: he ignored them and grumbled but then Rock Man landed there from a higher Wave Road: Assassin Shinobi got in the mood and drew his blade while Rock Man was calm and collected.

"Master! Rock Man's come!"

"What? Already? In the middle of my glorious speech?"

"But you said that if he didn't come in 45 minutes' time you'd cut off someone's neck, no?"

"Sheesh! Ahem, ahem! Well, my fellow countrymen! Get ready to see the start of a new and glorious Austro – Hungarian Empire lead by Hyde the 1st, the man who will make Europe shake down to its foundations!"

There was a noise and an opening formed in the shield surrounding the building: Phantom Black rushed out as Rock Man saw a quasi-invisible figure dropping in: he paid no heed as Phantom Black readied his cane and took up a fencing pose.

"En garde, Laertes' descendant!"

"How funny!" Lartes grumbled over the radio.

"I'm at my home nation! The soul of Austria is my ally! The citizens are my allies!" He laughed.

"I wonder about that. You must seem like a radical right-winged politician that says things "glory", "jobs" and such but in the end you don't have any plan and you say that to lure in people with poor criteria or people who want a strong-looking type who'll get them out of their troubles. It's called "populism"." Lartes lectured.

"P-populism? WRONG! I'm the new Emperor! I'm not a politician!"

"Emperors and kings are also politicians, you fool." A familiar voice scoffed from close by.

"SOLO~!"

"Yeah. Me."

Burai was standing close by and looked unimpressed: the energy field surrounding the building was gone and the SWAT were evacuating the hostages from the back of the building already.

"Damn! You got in when I was getting out and you disabled the field, didn't you?" Phantom Black hissed.

"Of course. We knew you'd play dirty to begin with. You surely planned to use the hostages to impede Rock Man from fighting you and putting up a show in which the "hero" sacrifices himself for the sake of the hostages… Too predictable." He dully exposed.

"Get me his HEAD!" He ordered to Assassin Shinobi.

"Your will!"

"Fine. You Mu defective. Time to settle the score."

"As for you, Hoshikawa! The soul of Austria will CRUSH YOU!"

"Do I look impressed to begin with, Hyde?"

"Nya~h!"

"So? Are you going to move or what?" Rock Man grumbled.

"Phantom Claw!"

"Hyper Cannon!"

"Guh! Impossible!"

"Not impossible at all. You're the same as always. There's no "soul of Austria" helping you out. It's all self-suggestion to make you believe you're stronger but you're the same coward as always."

"I will be crowned Emperor!"

"Oh no. You'll be arrested as a terrorist."

"TERRORIST? ME? I'M ROYALTY!"

"I'm sure you aren't. You're just trying to believe you're more important than you are. Like always. Dr. Orihime saw through you when you failed to stop me and Burai at the entrance of the Mu Continent. That you were a useless whelp." Lartes fumed.

"Speak for yourself! Dr. Frankenstein! I know what you did to Shinobi time ago! The old man told me and Shinobi admitted to it!"

"Shinobi might be a killer but a life is a life. Laws will judge, not us. We did what we thought was the best for that other man. I know that "it" isn't exactly moral, but… The world isn't just black and white. There are a lot of grey areas, too."

"Speaking of the old man… I don't see him around."

"Bah. He's prone to show up sooner or later. Let's settle the score already and focus on the old man, the only remaining headache. Bring out the secret weapons, you two." Lartes instructed.

"Fine. I'm tired of playing tag with this rascal."

"What secret weapons? Rubbish! Nothing can defeat the soul of Austria!"

"Of course it can. Because it's self-suggestion."

"Grrr!"

"Hmpf. Well, the time's come. You buffoons' age has come to an end. Now… The age of fear and terror begins!" A voice rang out.

"That's not the old man's voice… The real culprit? Yet that voice rings a bell somewhere." Rock Man frowned.

The air rumbled and everyone struggled to keep their balance: a large mechanical hand made of a purple material and having four thin fingers suddenly emerged from a gigantic "portal" that was growing in size: it gripped Phantom Black and Assassin Shinobi (since he'd jumped to his master's side to challenge Rock Man) and lifted them into the air: another portal formed and a black beam was fired at the two of them: they roared as their transformations were cancelled.

"T-that hand… It can't be… Right?" Rock Man gasped.

"By all the…" Burai cursed.

"T-that's…!" Lartes gasped as well.

"Hmpf. You can have these buffoons! I have no need for them anymore. The age of buffoons has come to an end!"

The hand retreated inside of the "portal" and another other formed in mid-air about 30cm over the ground: both Hyde and Shinobi along with their Wizards were dropped into the ground in the midst of the SWAT area: several of them quickly immobilized both criminals and had them climb into one of their armored vans: another team captured the Wizards into transparent energy cases and loaded them into another van.

"Alright. Let's heat up the ambience. This BGM will do… Ultra Beast Battle, from Sun & Moon…" The voice sneered.

A BGM rang out as the "portal" expanded higher in the air and a gigantic mole emerged from the "portal": it soon totally emerged and loomed over them: all color left their faces.

A gigantic robot easily over 6 or 7 meters tall emerged and hovered inches above the Parliament's roof.

Its main body was humanoid in shape and made of some purplish material: the head a central "eye" that emitted a thin menacing reddish glow as it was underneath what seemed to be the upper head.

A large mass of a greenish/grayish material and which seemed to be further pieces of it was spread starting over the shoulders and towards the rear: two gigantic hands with six fingers each could be made out of the several pieces there.

"The "Wiita" robot? Impossible! It's being stored at WAXA and it's totally broken from the inside!" Rock Man gasped.

"And that means that…" Burai scowled.

The front plate of the chest cavity suddenly split in two and swung outwards: the pilot became visible and it turned out to be someone they all knew: Grave Joker.

"You again!" Lartes hissed.

"Yes, me! It's been a while." He snickered.

"B-but you got deleted a month ago in front of our eyes!" Rock Man argued.

"Oh, sure. My body was. But my mind lurked inside of the "Wiita" camouflaged as the OS… Not even Dr. Yoiri, my creator, was able to detect me! And I easily snuck out to then rebuild my body. It was a calculated gamble. And I won it." He admitted with a shrug.

"Oh by all the…" Burai hissed.

"I needed time to repair this marvel from the inside. Your idea of storing it inside of an annex where no – one would come in and it'd be remotely monitored came in handy. You thought that taking out the fuel cells would help you but I placed new ones. All these games were a distraction to make you forget about the "Wiita". To buy time to finish repairing it. It was so easy to set up a "bubble" in the surveillance system of the annex to make it look like all was alright… You expected this thing to sit there and build up dust. So no – one bothered to spend the whole time checking at the live feed. Even if they did they wouldn't have seen anything out of place since all repairs were made from the inside."

"Damn it. So that was what Queen Tia felt!"

"Another reason I had those two buffoons start up the show here is because I needed insurance that Vadous couldn't pull the same trick twice on me. Not like he'll dare damage this Parliament, right?" He formed an evil snicker.

"Grrrr!" Lartes growled.

"Unlike that Hyde fool, I don't need human hostages. I needed an immovable hostage. In short: a building. And I needed spectators as well. All of the world's media is looking at us ever since I rang them up to say that the Earth's hero, Rock Man, was fighting an alien invasion. Look around you if you don't believe me!"

Rock Man and Burai looked around and found tens of journalists aiming their cameras at them: several aerial cameras were also flying in circles while keeping a security distance from the Parliament: some curious had come out into their houses' balconies and were recording or live-streaming the happenings through their Hunter-VGs.

"Damn it. We can't act from this side, then." Lartes grumbled.

"Feeling the despair already? It's just like I predicted. The reason I picked that form of an old man and a childish alias is because that would make you think the culprit was someone else and not someone like me. In short, I degraded myself to avoid you recognizing me from character traits. I guess that I am the one who really understands the "soul of Shakespeare" in the end." He rubbed his chin with the right hand.

"Rock Man. Use "it"…" Burai whispered.

"Yeah. Seems like the best choice…"

"Ah. So it's finally starting. Good, good. Put up a good show for the cameras, Mr. Hero. The world's expecting a lot from you, in case you'd forgotten." Grave Joker taunted.

"Kuh…! Hit my weak point…! If there's one thing I hate is when they expect too much of me…!" Rock Man muttered.

"Yeah. I can see the why." Burai agreed.

The hatches quickly shut and an energy field formed over the surface of the "Wiita" main body: it suddenly materialized Grave Joker's "Destroy Missiles" and they began to fly towards the two of them: they jumped asides as the missiles impacted the Wave Roads and released "black paint" that deleted them.

"Excuse me! Satella Police officers! We need someone to adjust the Wave Stations and repair the Wave Roads as we repel this thing!" Rock Man called out to them.

"What?" Someone asked back in English.

"Oh crap. I forgot I'm not in Japan. What do I do?"

"Omega will be the interpreter. He's just returned from dealing with some of those copies in Japan. Omega! Translate the message to German and send it to the Satella Police on the scene!"

"Roger!"

Omega dropped atop one of the vans and displayed a holographic ID card which had the Satella Police logo on it: he then jumped down and explained to the officers what to do: some nodded in understanding and rushed away.

"They got the message. Now, problem is… How do we deal with that? I'm sure the field's been strengthened ever since last time." Omega muttered as he looked upwards.

"Excellent deduction, Holmes! I'll praise you yet."

"Oh shut up."

"Let's try dropping some heavy and solid atop it…" Rock Man whispered over the radio.

"Fine. Let's warp a boulder and toss it from above." Burai agreed.

Omega silently warped elsewhere while the two of them tried to lure the "Wiita" away but it didn't bother to move from its position: both grumbled and kept on dodging the missiles.

"You might bring as many reinforcements as you want but I'm afraid they won't help you out." Grave Joker taunted.

Two grayish beams shot from the palm of each of the six-fingered hands and headed for the two of them: they used Stone Cubes to block them as the beams deleted the Stone Cubes on contact: a "portal" formed over the "Wiita" and a large boulder about 70cm tall fell from above: it impacted the energy field and made it frizzle as energy ripples spread from the point of impact: peaks of excess energy jumped off from different points across the field as it tried to vent off the excess energy: the field suddenly vanished.

"Sheesh. The generator has entered emergency cooldown mode and it'll take 3 minutes to cooldown." The enemy grumbled.

"Chance…!"

"Go!"

Burai formed a "Spiriting away" eyeball device and created a "black hole": Rock Man dived inside and ended up in the mysterious alternate dimension those holes led to: he spotted a white circle of light on ahead so he rushed there and crossed it to emerge inside of the "cockpit" of the "Wiita" and behind Grave Joker: the walls, floor and ceiling displayed a 360º peripheral view of the surroundings and Grave Joker was using two energy chains that coiled around his wrists to order the movements to the robot.

Chance! I'll use Tabuu's Battle Card to suck off his energy and immobilize him!

"Or so you thought?"

"Huh? Ah!"

THUD! PTAF!

"Ougah!"

"I predicted this as well. And I'll be having this! It's exactly like I'd calculated. Heh, heh, heh."

"Ow… Ah!"

Grave Joker suddenly appeared behind Rock Man: he didn't have time to react as he kicked him forward with the right foot: he bounced off the frontal hatches and into the ground: he dropped a Battle Card with Tabuu's image on it and Grave Joker picked it up: it turned out the one piloting the robot was a hologram which vanished.

"Ever heard of autopilots?" He snickered.

"Ow…! An autopilot…! Damn! Didn't think of that…!"

Grave Joker absorbed the data of the Battle Card before striding forward and landing his right foot over Rock Man's back: he groaned and tried to crawl away but Grave Joker applied further pressure.

"Hmpf! I'm transmitting this live to everyone out there… They're seeing how disappointing their "hero" is! In live!" He snickered.

"Y-you coward…!" Rock Man groaned.

"Hmpf. I'm a coward. And what if? I told you years ago on Shiisa Castle! Didn't I? Survival of the strongest! That's the rule of this world! You were too used to incompetent fools. But I'm another tale! I'll engrave that lesson into you."

"You bastard! Fight me!"

"Hmpf! So you came, too. Just like I predicted."

Burai also got inside of the cockpit and had drawn his Laplace Blade: Grave Joker grinned stopped stomping Rock Man to grip his neck with the right hand and lift him effortlessly: he turned him around to have him face Burai and Burai scowled.

"You call yourself the lonely warrior. Can you cut through this weak man and defeat me? Or maybe that was but rubbish you said just like those buffoons." He challenged.

"I've got other means!"

"Oh? Then prove that to me."

Burai tossed the Laplace Blade and loaded up energy on his left fist: he rushed forward and plunged through and past Rock Man stopping inches from Grave Joker's body: he formed his old blade and it pierced through the body armor: Grave Joker gasped and let go of Rock Man so Burai cancelled the blade and pulled Rock Man towards him: he closed his right arm around him as he took out the left one from inside of him: Laplace materialized and flew towards Grave Joker's neck: he brought up his right arm and caught it: Burai pulled Rock Man outside the cockpit and out into the SWAT Area: he deposited him on the floor.

"Are you alright?"

"Koff, koff… Y-yeah… Somewhat… I owe you one… But I screwed it up there… He stole the Tabuu card from me!"

"But it's set up so that only you can use it, no?"

"Huh? Ah! Now that you mention it…"

There was some muttering close by and Burai spotted Omega trying to explain something in German to some of the officers.

"Omega's trying to tell them not to fall for Joker's psychological warfare tactics but he's not having it easy. People and their "expectations"! Things would be easier sans them." Lartes grumbled.

"Truly!" Burai fumed.

"Heh, heh, heh. You're all puppets who dance to the tune of my flute. Oho. It'd seem kyoudai's come. So, Snake? Coming to do some dirty work in the name of your nation?"

"Hmpf! You're not remotely funny, Joker!"

Burai looked at the "Wiita": some holographic screens had deployed around it showing what was going on inside of the cockpit: Acid Ace had intruded and Grave Joker greeted him with some sarcasm of his own.

"Another "hero" who's come to die in name of "justice", you see."

"Stop talking to the public. Get ready!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Fine. Destroy Missiles!"

"Wide Wave! Giza Wheel! Stealth Laser! Daba Flame!"

"Guh…! I still feel the pain…!" Rock Man groaned.

"Don't overdo yourself. Take it easy." Burai instructed.

"Calm down. The copies are gone. It's obvious that he doesn't need them anymore." Lartes reported.

"Huff. These guys ARE stubborn!" Omega grumbled in Japanese.

"Was hast du gesagt?" An officer asked in German.

"Du bist stur!" Omega replied.

"Was?" The officer was surprised.

Omega began to argue with him again while Burai rolled his eyes, exasperated: he spotted how Acid Ace and Grave Joker were still fighting inside of the cockpit and none seemed to have the upper hand over the other as they circled inside of the limited space.

"He's toying with you, Akatsuki." Burai warned.

"Thanks for the warning. I was already aware of it."

"…Da hast du recht." The officer sighed.

"Jetzt erkennen Sie?" Omega rolled his eyes.

"It'd seem this guy is realizing that Omega's got a point. His buddies also agree. About time!" Lartes sighed.

"Sind Sie der Held?" A new voice asked.

"Herr Premierminister!"

The officers saluted as a man who they identified as the Prime Minister walked forward escorted by bodyguards and other officers: Burai helped Rock Man stand up.

"He's asking if you're the hero." Omega translated for them.

"Well… Depends on what you consider a "hero"…" Rock Man muttered back with a hint of annoyance.

"Eh… Das ist richtig."

The Prime Minister then began to say something for a while and Omega seemed to wait for him to finish speaking.

"Well. He says that he admits that you must be under a lot of pressure from those "expectations" but that he understands that no – one's perfect and that you're doing what you can."

"Ah… Thank you, sir. It's just that… I hate it when people expect too much out of me. I just do what I can, sir. I'm not invincible. I never called myself a "hero", sir. "Heroes" never call themselves like that. It's a title that others impose into those persons, sir."

Omega translated that for the PM and he nodded in understanding as he seemed to agree with Rock Man's points: Burai was keeping an eye out as Acid Ace and Grave Joker punched and kicked each other: a big, purple "portal" suddenly formed behind the "Wiita" and sucked it inside: the screens vanished along with it as well.

"There. Pulled it to the same place we fought it last month. There we can go all out and I'll pull the same trick to put an end to this. But this time around I'm going to grab whatever remains of this stupid robot and toss it into a real black hole!" Vadous told them over the radio.

"It's useless, Vadous!" Grave Joker intervened.

"Oh, yeah? I wonder about that! It's already on its way there!"

"Or so your GUI tells you." Grave Joker calmly pointed out.

"… Don't tell me that…"

"Huh, Vadous? Nothing's coming down." Acid Ace pointed out.

"B-but… There was the slight power compensation and the vibration of the devices! It should've fired!"

"Ah! There it comes, but… It's way off course! It'll hit kilometers away!"

"Damn! So you didn't disable the beam but altered the GUI so that the actual lock on coordinates would be off-mark!"

"I'm subtle. You're too used to amateurs like Virus Daemon and the like. That's the real reason I intruded into your HQ and also sent King there. To be able to insert this slight modification. You've lost your trump card, Vadous! Feeling the despair? You betrayed everyone's "expectations" as well! You're not better than this failed "hero"!"

"That doesn't work on me, ugly. I never gave crap for that. I do what I can: that's been my policy!"

"Of course, Solid Snake."

"I'm not Solid Snake! That woman mocked me by calling me that but I'm not him! Damn it!" Vadous growled.

"Who's Solid Snake?" Rock Man wondered.

"A fictional character… I think you can deduce the rest." Omega whispered to him and Burai.

"Ah. I see." Burai calmly realized.

"Was?" The PM looked perplexed.

"Ah! Eh… Ahem, ahem…"

Omega told him in German and he nodded in understanding: the sounds of a scuffle kept on ringing out through Rock Man's and Burai's radios: Grave Joker was cackling and Acid Ace grumbling.

"The guy's got us! I came out to avoid being hit by the beam when it rained down but I can't get back in."

"Hmmm… Relying on this forever might make me look like I can't do anything by myself… Fine. I'll bury you with my own hands, Snake! And then I'll prove that I have the superior genes! You have the receding genes, after all! Solid Ivory!"

"He's coming out? But let's not lower the guard. It could be a pretense for all we know."

Omega formed a holographic screen showing them how Acid Ace was battling Grave Joker over some Wave Roads crossing over a set of ruins somewhere: the robot was left standing still on the ground some meters deeper in: Grave Joker looked calm and Acid Ace was concentrated in dodging or countering him.

"Chance…!"

Vadous opened the "portal" again and stole the "Wiita": Grave Joker gasped and formed a grimace.

"Damn. You improved the reloading time!"

"Sure did! I knew it'd come in handy! Say bye to your trump card, Joker! I'm tossing it into a real black hole!"

"After all the time I spent repairing it…! Damn you, Vadous! Once I finish settling the score here I'm coming for you! I won't fail like that miserable King… I was getting annoyed of the man so I set up that show to humiliate him before letting you catch him… I'm way smarter than that fool who didn't realize he was being used!" He hissed.

"Sure, sure."

"Huff. This pain is finally subsiding… I think that the guy did something that kept on triggering pain reactions in my nervous system to keep me out of the fight…" Rock Man rubbed his chest.

"Surely." Burai wasn't too surprised.

Omega was explaining the situation to the PM in the meanwhile who distractedly nodded in understanding as he witnessed the exchange between the two combatants.

"I said that the portals are a new prototype technology WAXA is working with but it's still experimental…" Omega told the other two.

"Alright. WAXA can always refuse to divulge information because of the fear of this tech being abused by other parties."

"Hyde attempted to do it when another scientist worked on this tech."

"Yeah. The "Shinaides Affair"…"

"Hah! Is this all you've got on you, Akatsuki?"

"Of course not. I was just getting warmed up."

"Warmed up? Hum. I see, I see. So be it!"

"Finalize!"

"Come!"

Acid Ace finalized and shot the Red Gaia Eraser at Grave Joker who also countered with the same attack: both attacks met and merged to create a gigantic explosion which whitened the screens: the whiteness slowly began to fade: both Acid Ace and Grave Joker were separated by some meters and facing away from each other as if they'd just dashed for each other and clashed: Acid Ace was lacking a good chunk of his frontal chest armor which looked like it'd been pulled out by a claw: he had a red-colored modified Hyper Cannon on his right forearm: Grave Joker, on the other hand, held the missing chunk of armor on his right hand which had become a claw, but had a series of small rectangular holes that had opened on his body's front and below: he looked slightly satisfied nevertheless.

"Hmpf… So you used it… The same weapon as I… A cannon that can project the same type of beam attacks I can… To pierce through my body and damage my core… Yet I didn't go down just like that… I forced you to bring out your best… And I was inches away from finishing you off, too… Not bad… Now I've got nothing left to do… But my name will remain in history nevertheless… Heh, heh, heh… Farewell, Acid and Akatsuki!"

He chuckled as his energy core become unstable and the energy contained imploded before releasing in the form of an expanding sphere of energy that began to become bigger and bigger until it consumed the whole of Grave Joker: Acid Ace collapsed on his knees and clutched the wound with his left hand, panting.

"Kuh…! That was a close one… But we won, nevertheless… It's finally… over… Guess that was like a hero? Heh, heh, heh…!"