Chapter 38: Enzan's quest
14:44 PM (Japan Time), Sunday December the 26th…
"… Ugh… My head aches… What happened to me?"
"Welcome to Despair, Ijuuin Enzan."
"Twilight?"
"Indeed."
"What the fuck is this setup?"
"Don't you remember? PTS."
"PTS?"
"Pulse Transmission System."
"What the fuck."
Enzan had woken up only to discover that he'd been strapped into a "Pulse Transmission System" machine and Twilight's voice ringing out from a speaker somewhere out of sight: the room had a familiar vibe to it even.
"Welcome back to the WWW's island HQ… Don't you remember? Dr. Cossack used this system to unlock the elevator behind you yet he had a sad encounter with "Original" Forte…" He told him.
"And you want to repeat that?"
"More or less. I'm trying to come up with something new: a human's avatar in the Cyber World using Navi abilities on their own sans the need of having to enter "Full Synchro" with their Navis… Of course that the looks would be different to tell each other away but the abilities and powers would be pretty similar… This could be a system useful to me but I'm not as idiotic as to risk it myself so I thought you'd do some nice guinea-pig, Ijuuin Enzan. Find your Net Navi deeper in this network and then you'll be able to come out. And I'm not physically here so trying to find me is a waste of time and energies."
"Fuck you."
"You've got no other choice, see. I could easily use that thing as an electrical chair but where would the point be on that? No. You'll be dependent on your stubbornness and instinct to survive. So, ready or not, let the show start!" Twilight laughed.
The machine hummed and next thing he knew he was inside of the Cyber World and feeling very real there indeed: he did feel like he was wearing some kind of armor over his body and a Long Sword colored red was extending from his right forearm: Enzan looked at his hands and then touched around his body: his vision was somewhat dimmed and he realized he had bluish shades over his eyes plus some kind of mask over his nose and face the shape of which was very reminiscent of that of Blues' own.
"I'll avenge Sunayama~!" Desert Man roared as he suddenly came out from beneath the ground.
"Maybe I forgot to add you'll be fighting for your life too? Heh, heh, heh, heh… No pain no gain! Ijuuin Enzan!" Twilight taunted.
"Fuck you, Twilight. Eh… Area Steal! Neo Variable Sword!"
Enzan noticed how he was warped to another spot behind Desert Man and how the Neo Variable Sword formed on the right forearm: he attacked the top part of Desert Man's body from behind and inflicted a wound there.
"Neon Light!"
"Gwra~h!"
The attack caught him off-guard and he did feel the electricity travelling and attacking each inch of his body: he tried to endure it and turned around to see Flash Man laughing.
"Ever heard of "union makes force", stinking rat?"
"Hah! I'll avenge Cousin Bubble Man myself! Triple Drill!" A new voice joined the scene.
Something rammed into him from above and behind and made him fall into the ground: Drill Man showed his form as he violently tried to crush him by using the right foot.
"Not so fast, comrades. I want to make this interloper go through slow and bittersweet agony before driving them crazy. Plant Weed! Heh, heh, heh…" Plant Man chuckled as he came into the picture.
"Gruo~h… Plant Man! Don't get in the way." Desert Man grumbled as Plant Man walked into the picture.
"Who asked you for your caprices, savage?"
"Wha~t?"
"Desert Man. Cooperate or be deleted. You choose." Twilight icily commanded from somewhere.
"Uo~h! I cooperate, Lord Twilight!"
"Darth Twilight would be a preferable way to address me too."
"Damn them all. Area Steal!"
Enzan managed to escape the tight spot and ran past two large bulk doors which he quickly pushed closed: a laser field colored blood red formed in front of them but he didn't stop to regard at them as he was now facing a legion of SP Viruses.
"Fuck. How did I end up at this spot anyway? Last thing I remember is coming back to the office after fighting that Gothmog monster freak and having a cup of water from the water fountain… Why didn't anyone notice my absence yet?" He grumbled.
"That Barrel hound guy has obviously noticed it… But there's no big mystery, really. I just put on my janitor's clothes and brought new canteens for the water fountains yet yours had some slight doses of sleeping drug dissolved into it… My little trick with the warp-portals did the rest…" Twilight laughed.
"Damn it. When will you fight us for real?"
"When my new weaponry is completed and the world can be "glassed" just like in the Halo games…" He laughed.
"Glassed?" Enzan frowned under the transparent blue shades.
"Using a beam of concentrated plasma to actually melt the crust of a planet and finally turn it into a plasma-scarred world incapable of supporting life…" He sounded eager.
"What the hell!"
"But that's sci-fi. It's impossible to create something like that, alas, because it'd be the perfect deterrent."
"This guy's crazy!" He grumbled.
"I wonder that myself." He ironically replied.
"Damn. Does this base's Cyber World never end?" Enzan cursed as he looked around.
"It ends at the end of Time Eternal." Twilight laughed.
Enzan stopped when he spotted a puddle of water where he was able to look at his reflection.
His "bodysuit" design was not radically different from Blues' one yet it had some aesthetic changes there and there.
His helmet design was almost identical to Blues' but his shades were more transparent than Blues' own: the silver hair came out from behind the helmet and reached all the way to the ground.
He had red armor over his upper torso and shoulders while his main bodysuit color was a mild blue color with tints of grey to it.
His chest emblem was set on the middle of the armor and two white patterns climbing up towards the edges of the shoulders were there.
His arms' skin coloring was divided in two: the upper half was colored in a gray/blackish color while the lower half was tinted mild blue: red armor formed over his forearms plus one small wing formation over the wrist. The armor around the wrist had two round white bands reinforcing it plus a piece of bodysuit over the hand's palm which had his emblem drawn into it, too.
The rest of his bodysuit until the hips was colored in that combination of mild blue and grayish/blackish color running down the sides of it: there was a red triangle drawn over each hip before his boots began at a slightly lower spot:.
An amber-colored diamond surrounded by black edges was built over the knees plus two extra white bands of armor around the knees themselves: the front edge of the boots was colored white and it had a golden rim marking the border between both colors.
"So that's what you meant, huh."
"Puku! Rock Man's accomplice, puku! I'll defeat ya and Shade Man – sama will praise me! Puku!"
"What? Bubble Man?"
"Puku! I know you deleted me before, puku. That remake ain't gonna fool me, puku!"
Bubble Man suddenly showed up from behind while aiming his harpoon pistol at Enzan and having a confident smug smile across his face: Enzan didn't seem to be surprised at all.
"Get lost." He merely scoffed.
"What? Fight like a man! Puku!" Bubble Man got a twitch over the right eye and began to wave his arms around in a comical manner.
Enzan whipped around in a blur and kicked him in the nose thus breaking it and then quickly yanked his short neck before throwing him down a flight of stairs he'd just climbed: Bubble Man yelled but Enzan wasted no time in keeping on forward.
"I gotta hurry: that laser field ain't gonna keep those guys busy. Wait a min… I'm missing someone, right?" He frowned under the shades and seemed to recall something.
"Yeah! The great me! Chaos Flame!"
"Fuck. Flame Man!"
Enzan dodged Flame Man's attacks and ran away while Flame Man rushed after him: Enzan spotted a waterfall right ahead of him and crossed through it while Flame Man stopped right in front of it: he cursed and ran towards the right while Enzan kept on forward by slicing Viruses and climbing up another flight of stairs: he reached a new area and found what seemed to be the rotten "corpse" of "Proto" in the form it'd displayed over a year ago: Enzan ignored it.
"You think you can fool me with some decorating tricks? Proto is long deleted and gone: nothing was left of the monster-like form. Now go to Hell." He scoffed.
"I'd do so yet I can't seem to find the entrance to it."
"This guy is nuts, really."
"Hah! Did you really think that door would keep us busy? Now you die as a fool!" Drill Man laughed as he came out of a hole drilled into the ground.
"Damned. A tunnel." He realized.
"Yeah! I'm named "Drill" Man for something!" He boasted.
"Hmpf. Ah. Finally. You came, "Copy" Forte."
"COPY FORTE? WHERE?"
They began to look around but then they realized Enzan had slipped past them and had locked another set of doorways: the ground was now replaced by very narrow walkways suspended over a grid of "Dark Panels" filled with "guardians" just like in the "Liberation Missions" and these walkways were only wide enough for one person to cross over: he did spot a cubicle made of smooth black walls at the end of the room in the middle of a circular platform.
"That's gotta be it. Let's be careful: I wouldn't be surprised if those things tried to jump for me or impede my progress…"
"Heh, heh, heh. I'll praise you, Holmes."
"Shut the fuck up."
"Go, Roy Hawk!"
"Damn. I knew it!"
Enzan jumped forward to dodge a "Roy Hawk" which rammed into the support pillar for a segment of the catwalks and then used its talons to rip segments of the roads off along with others: the swordsmen and the beasts began to attack the support pillars too and Enzan had to run and jump until he reached the central circular platform which was suspended from the ceiling by several chains: he jumped atop the cube and noticed a button titled "EMERGENCY OPENING" which he promptly pressed: the cube vanished altogether and revealed Blues.
"Blues!"
"E-Enzan – sama, sir?"
"Explanations later! Come! We must get out of this place before we're overwhelmed by the enemy's numbers!" He commanded.
"Roger, sir!"
They both ran forward along a wider catwalk and reached a set of double doors which they crossed and locked behind them: they then found a large hollow sphere hovering in the middle of a circular room with three levels of circular catwalks interconnected by stairs: the sphere was quickly shifting colors yet it kept on looking hollow: Enzan spotted a locked hatch on the ground level beneath the sphere but there was little to no space to maneuver towards the center of it where the lock system was set at so Enzan looked at the sphere again.
"What do you make out of that, Blues?"
"I can't feel anything from it: the surface seems to bounce off any type of radiation and "noise" thus creating a "noise-free" environment like a room the walls of which are designed to absorb the noise and make it safe to have a conversation without being overheard."
"In short: something is inside of that sphere and we gotta find a way to destroy or disable it before progressing on forward."
"Roger, sir."
They jumped towards the sphere and "crossed" it to enter a new Cyber World altogether which seemed to be decorated to look like outer space even: they spotted a set of stairs leading to a platform where a throne had been set at which was empty yet it had some kind of control panel built on the right armrest.
"Blues. Cover me."
"Roger, sir."
Enzan slowly climbed upwards and when he was one step ahead from the throne there was the sound of the wind making something flutter and Enzan spotted a silver-colored curtain flickering in front of him plus a figure occupying the throne.
"Optical illusion…?" He wondered.
He decided to come inside and gasped because the figure turned out to be Ijuuin Shuuseki: his stare was as cold as ever and he kept on sporting his usual dress: he didn't seem surprised at all.
"F-father, sir?"
"Son. You've done well." He merely replied yet his voice was devoid of any sense of pride or recognition.
"Do excuse me, sir, but…"
"It'd seem your half-brother has been testing you out." He dully commented as if he was bored.
"H-half brother, sir? You don't mean Twilight, right, sir?" Enzan gasped in surprise.
"I do mean him."
"B-but that is not possible, sir." Enzan politely protested.
"Who said it was impossible?"
Enzan stopped there and gulped: he seemed to be confused and Shuuseki's stony face did not help in the least.
"Chichi-ue-sama." Twilight's voice rang out.
"Yami. My other son. I've seen your career and you have impressed me as to how you could control everything with such cold blood and fooling those men to the end. It was necessary to expose them out because they could have been an obstacle to some of IPC's businesses."
"I am proud of it, sir. Her Grace has taught me well."
"Indeed. You have been fortunate to have been picked by her: such intelligence must be shared and strengthened. One day you will be my successor." Shuuseki confirmed.
"Father, sir… I apologize for interrupting, but could you not allow for me and Blues to leave? Any further second we stay here is dangerous: there are some who want us dead. What good will I do to IPC dead? Or were you planning to replace me with that man, sir?"
"No. Your VP post won't be affected. But you'll be in that rank as long as he lives. I've signed all legal documents: my lawyers will show them to you if you still think this is an illusion."
Shuuseki pressed the button and a mechanical sound rang out: Enzan sighed in relief but didn't dare to move until Shuuseki silently signaled the exit with his right hand's middle finger: Enzan ran out and Blues followed him out of the bubble which had hovered higher in the air to allow access to the opened hatch.
"What happened there, sir? The curtain was too thick to allow me to see or hear and I couldn't get past it, sir."
"I'm not sure if Twilight is very good at illusions or if I've been deceived by my father for years. I can settle that once I'm back in the real world: there must be a way back to the room where my real body is at, strapped into that PTS machine…"
"Roger, sir."
"Ah. A direct drop there… Good. Follow me!"
"Acknowledged."
They dropped down into the room and Enzan stepped into a virtual replica of the chair after crossing a bubble-shaped field: he sat down there and his "avatar" vanished while Blues spotted a Warp Point which he used as well.
"Uh-unh… Huh? Back here… Phew!"
Enzan blinked several times and found that he was back in the real world and that the restrains had unlocked: he wasted on time in jumping off the machine and spotted Blues inside of the PET.
"Let's go, Blues. Call for a helicopter or a boat: the sooner I get outta here the better. I'll have to go through debriefing by Mr. Barrel but that's the least of my current worries. This place is about to drive me mad at this rate." He muttered.
"Eh… Roger, sir…"
Enzan rushed out as the doors unlocked before he touched them and he finally came outside: the WWW base building was still pretty much ruined and the environment hadn't changed much: he did spot a familiar-looking boat parked there though.
"The boat we used back then…? Anyway! I'm off to the mainland before I go crazy." He muttered.
He jumped aboard and aimed his PET at the control panel before turning it on at max speed and speeding away from the island: he sat on the ground of the cabin and brought both hands to his head.
Is Twilight trying to drive me crazy or Father has been tricking me for a lot of years? While it's not impossible it seems too fantastic… Yet sometimes truth beats fiction too. Oh hell. I'm not sure what to believe anymore: I need to speak with Father's lawyers and see if it's true… I'm so gonna crazy, I swear! What's going on around me?