"Its been three days since you attacked that hospital," Shademan growled, appearing in front of Nomde. "When are we going to actually merge the net with the real world?"
"Patience, Shademan, patience. The Net Saviors are on full alert, and right now they're keeping an eye on the all of the powerplants, which is precisely what I want."
"Why, puku?" Bubbleman asked.
"To distract them, of course. I have enough power saved up for the time being to cause quite a bit of damage to the human's world before we take control of it. And at the same time I can ground those damned Net Saviors into the ground. Of course, I'll be needing some help from you, my friend."
Nomde placed a hand on Bubbleman's shoulder and smiled. Bubbleman nodded eagerly. He was ready to do anything for the demon navi.
"And of course I'll be needing your help as well, Shademan. I need you to attack someplace in the city so that I can get into the radio station undetected. That tower is a perfect conductor for my power for the current plan I have."
"Hmph. Very well. But you better not try to double cross the darkloids, or you'll regret it."
Shademan didn't wait for an answer, he just left. Nomde shook his head and sighed. Some navis just didn't grasp just how powerful he truly was. But this was no time for idle thoughts. He had a plan to set into motion.
"What do you want me to do, puku?" Bubbleman asked eagerly.
"I want you to break into the city water system and flood as much of the city as you can. With the chill that's coming all of that water will turn to ice, and it will make things very difficult for the net saviors. Very, very difficult. I trust you can handle this?"
"Yes! I can handle this! Just leave it to me!" Bubbleman left then, leaving Nomde alone. Everything was going as planned so far. Now all he needed to do was get to the radio tower and take it over, then the second phase of his plans could begin.
"Lets see how the Net Saviors deal with this problem," Nomde sneered before disappearing himself.
Three days had passed since the demon navi had attacked Netto, and he hadn't since resurfaced. Kichi wasn't certain if she should take that as a good sign or not. At the very least Netto had finally started to recover from the mountain attack, and he was getting stronger by the hour, or as strong as one with a dagger wound to the chest could be. The moment Kichi had appeared to get S-chan after visiting Neko Laika had dragged her back to the Net Police HQ to be questioned about the attack.
That had gone pretty well, and afterwards Kichi had reported to her uncle that the demon-navi might try to take over any large powersource in the city, and just what he could do with that power. That information had stunned all of them, and it wasn't just Laika who had questioned it, even Yuuichiro hadn't wanted to believe it. But a quick call to Neko had her emailing them the file, and when they looked at the data, there could be no mistake that he could cause unimaginable damage to the entire world if he wasn't stopped.
"Why am I back here again?" Kichi asked as she put her feet up on the table yet again. Laika kept pushing them off because they kept landing on the map of the city he was studying. He was getting quite annoyed, and Kichi was enjoying every moment of it.
"Well, since you won't tell us who you're getting your information from, I have to keep you around in case you get any updates pertinent to this investigation," Laika growled, giving Kichi a cold look. "And keep your feet off of the table!"
"Am I bothering you?" Kichi asked with a wide grin.
"Immensily," Laika growled, pushing Kichi's feet back onto the floor and returning his attention to the map.
The map had any large power sources highlighted in different colors to note which were considered high priorty and which were of lesser concern at the moment. Kichi wasn't ruling out any of them, and would have been checking all of them out, but she was stuck inside with Laika. Not her idea of a productive day, unless one could count getting on the white-haired net savior's nerves to be productive. She had no idea where Enzan was, but her guess was that he was in the hospital visiting Netto along with Yuuichiro. She didn't know where Meijin was either, and she had no clue as to where he might be.
Sighing loudly, Kichi turned her head towards the window, and saw that it was snowing again. The flakes were large, and looked like the kind that would be good for snowball fights. That thought made her want to go outside, but Laika would drag her right back inside if she did get up and leave. S-chan had left some time ago, finding Laika's company to be insufferable, leaving Kichi without much to do. At least with her friend here she would have had someone to talk to. Laika didn't talk at all unless Kichi did something that annoyed him, and even then all he did most of the time was glare at her. Not like it did much, Kichi wasn't some weak-minded, weak-bodied woman. She was a ranger from a place that could be very hostile, and she was very strong indeed. Laika would find that out soon enough, though.
Suddenly Kichi's body siezed up, and everything around her disappeared into darkness!
Flash of Red
A navi shaped like a vampire was standing inside jewelry store, smashing in the cases while the shop owner and some customers cowered in a corner...and some of those people were children! The navi looked at them and just laughed, then began swinging a sword at them...
"NO!" Kichi screamed, causing the image of the children to fade. Laika's head snapped up from the map to look at Kichi, his eyes narrowed in annoyance.
"What was that about?" he growled. "I am trying to work here."
"Shove it, Laika," Kichi snapped back, jumping to her feet and grabbing her coat at the same time. (S-chan?)
I'm in the truck, and I'm waiting. came the reply.
"Where are you going?" Laika demanded as Kichi moved towards the door. "You've been ordered to stay here until further notice. We have a mission to carry out."
"Correction, you have your mission, and I have a completely different one. My rules and yours are different, and I don't have the damn time to try and explain it well enough to get through your thick skull!"
By now she was outside, and the snow she had thought would have been fun to play in was actually full of a bitter cold. It felt as if the temperature had dropped quite a bit. There was ice beginning to form over the windshield and windows, but Kichi had no time to scrape it off. S-chan was waiting inside when she pulled the door open, and hopped to the side as she slid in and started the engine. It had just started when Laika pulled the passenger side door open and climbed in as well.
"What are you doing?" Kichi asked even as she slammed her foot on the gas pedal, jolting Laika into the seat before he had a chance to settle. "Scratch that, no time to waste on an answer, you're coming along for the ride!"
Snow flew everywhere, and it was a good thing that there were next to no cars on the road, because Kichi was most definitely not following the speed limit, or driving laws. In any case, she made it to the downtown area in record time, and finding the jewelry store was just as easily taken care of. Kichi scrambled out of the car, followed by S-chan and Laika, the latter still shouted at Kichi, demanding to know what was going on.
Kichi ignored the stuck-up net savior and ran into the shop, S-chan clinging to the back of her coat for all she was worth. For the most part the shop was empty, save for the owner and a mother with her two children. Kichi walked over to the mother and quickly told her that she should get her children home before the weather got any worse, and thankfully she was willing to agree without question. Laika came in just as the mother and children were leaving, and he looked rather angry.
"Kichi, what do you think-"
Laika didn't get to finish his sentence because at that very moment the dimensional area Kichi had seen in her vision appeared, and so did the navi. He looked a bit surprised to see a Net Savior there, but Kichi wasn't the least bit surprised to see the navi.
"Hide," Kichi ordered the shop owner, who had absolutley no trouble following the order.
"What's this?" the navi sneered. "A net savior and his girlfriend? I didn't anticipate seeing you here when I chose this place as a target."
"I guess you didn't anticipate a lot of things," Kichi hissed, pulling a knife out of her coat sleeve. "And I am not that ass's girlfriend!"
Kichi threw the knife at the navi, who knocked it aside with ease. He sneered at kichi, revealing a fang. "Such a pitiful weapon. Do you honestly think you can beat me with that?"
"We'll find out," Kichi replied with a grin, pulling out two more knives. She glanced over at Laika. "Are you just gonna stand there, or are you gonna help?"
"The two of you shall be easy to get rid of," the vampire navi laughed as he launched his attack at Kichi and Laika.
Both of the humans dodged, and S-chan got thrown into a corner at the same time. Kichi kept a firm grip on both her knives, but the navi had moved over to the other side of the room where Laika was. Laika was already on his feet, and this time he had grabbed a metal pole that had been part of a fence to keep people away from a case of large diamond studded jewelry. The way he held it, Kichi was very certain he would be able to use it formidably. Which gave the navi enough of a distraction for her to creep up behind him.
"Do you really expect to beat me with that," the navi sneered, striking out at Laika, who blocked it with the metal pole.
"Yes," Laika replied coldly, landing a blow to the navi's shoulder. The blow knocked the navi back just as Kichi moved foreward to strike. But she was spotted, and the navi swung around, hitting her as hard as he could and sent her flying into one of the glass cases! The case shattered under the force, sending glass everywhere. Kichi raised her head slightly before slumping over completely, knocked out by the blow.
"One down, one to go," the navi sneered, returning his attention to Laika.
"Don't count on it," Laika replied. "I'll delete you."
"Oh really?"
The navi struck again, and again Laika blocked and struck him in the shoulder. Without pause Laika struck a second time, knocking the navi off of his feet.
"Like I said, I'll delete you."
"Guess again," the navi grinned. Before Laika could finish him off the navi logged out. A second later the dimensional area vanished as well.
Laika set the pole down and turned his attention to Kichi, who was still lying on the shattered glass, bleeding where the glass had cut her. She had woken up and was shakily rising to her feet. She looked at the blood running down her hands and made a face while shaking the glass off of her body. She looked around, noting that the dimensional area was gone.
"Did the navi escape?" she asked.
"Yes," Laika replied. "Not that you did much to help."
"Bite me. I wasn't expecting him to turn like that," Kichi hissed, heading out the door. She pulled the door to her truck open and pulled out the first aid kit. Taking out some gauze she wrapped her hands up to cover the cuts. She'd take a closer look at them later.
"Tell me, how did you know there was going to be an attack here?" Laika demanded, appearing next to Kichi. S-chan was right behind him, and the skunk quickly hopped into the truck.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Kichi replied, climbing into the truck as well. "Get in now, or you walk back."
Laika walked around to the passenger side and got into the truck. "Try me," he said, pressing for an answer.
"You really want to know?"
"Yes."
"Alright then. I'm a Seer. At times I can see things before they happen."
Laika looked at Kichi, his eyes narrowed. "You're right, I don't believe you. That is by far the dumbest answer I have ever heard, and you've given some pretty dumb answered before this."
"That's it!" Kichi shouted, pulling the truck over into a snow drift very suddenly, sending Laika foreward into the dashboard. She reached over him and opened the passenger door, then pushed him out into the snow. "You can walk the rest of the way. I have had it with you and your "I'm so superior to you" attitude. You need to get over yourself!" Slamming the door shut Kichi wheeled around drove off.
"Ha! I made it in, puku!" Bubbleman cheered to himself as he finally got control of the city water systems. It had taken a bit of time, but he had done it, and with Shademan distracting the Net Saviors, he'd run into very little trouble aside from those stupid water control navis. He had deleted them with just a little bit of trouble, but now he was in control, and it was time to cause some damage.
"Time to flood the city, puku," Bubbleman laughed, opening up all of the flood control gates. Through a screen he could see water beginning to burst from pipes all over the city, spilling out into the streets and sidewalks, running over the snow and into buildings. With the temperatures getting colder by the minute with Nomde's help, the water would freeze, and the entire city would be immobilized. Having finished his job, Bubbleman retreated back to the lair to wait for his next orders.
Laika was walking back through the snow, his coat pulled up around his face, trying to keep warm. The wind was bitterly cold, and it seemed to find every opening in Laika's clothes and freeze his skin. He was very irritated, and the source of that irritation was Kichi. She was the most infuriating creature he had ever met, bar none, and she kept getting worse. And all of that nonsense about her being able to see the future was absolutely ridiculus!
"Laika-sama, I am picking up a disturbance in the area," Searchman reported from Laika's Pet.
"Where?" Laika asked, stopping to look around.
There was a pause as Searchman scanned the area, trying to pinpoint the source of the disturbance.
"Laika-sama! Its right below you!"
Even as Searchman said this, the drain Laika was standing on began to shake. Before he could jump back the water shot through the metal grate, hitting Laika full force and knocking him off of his feet! He fell backwards onto the sidewalk and hit his head hard, knocking him out instantly.
"Laika-sama! Wake up! Laika-sama!"
Laika didn't answer as water continued to rush out of the open drain, pouring out into the street and everywhere else. Pipes along along the street were doing the same, quickly flooding everything. The pressure was still pretty strong, and while no longer strong enough to move Laika's limp body, it had enough power to sweep his Pet away. All the while, the temperature continued to drop further and further....
