BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
Vol. 1: The Darkness of Our Pasts
Chapter 4: Protecting Society the Lawful Way
It's been a week since the entire theft incident now and there have been some rumors about a secret society wanting to take over the internet as a source of controlling global and economic society, but no one really gave it a second thought. It was peaceful enough here in our corner of the world and we were happy. I was sitting in my apartment listening to music that peaceful Saturday morning on my couch. I had just finished yet another challenger battle in the Challenge Hall that day and I was feeling good about it. I had moved up in the Hall so that I was now able to take on intermediate challengers. I heard a knock at my door.
"It's open," I said out loud. Kinzoku and Joseph walked in, back from their own challenger battles.
"Hey, how'd they go?" I asked as I picked myself up from the couch.
"Not bad," Kinzoku said, "I earned a new saint blade, what about you?"
"I finished off the lower-levelled challengers there, so I got to move up in rank," I replied.
"Hey, congratulations," Joseph said. His head was obviously in the clouds.
"Something wrong, Joseph?" I asked. Kin went over to the refrigerator to grab a few cans of soda. We all had become good friends quickly, so I didn't mind so long as he got one for me.
"Well... I met someone at the Hall today..." Joseph replied, blushing a bit.
"Joseph's in love!" Kin joked with a smile. Joseph stammered at this, but then nodded to it.
"Hey, good work Joseph," I said as I went over to the counter and caught the can of soda Kin threw at me. We talked with Joseph for a while about his new love interest. He said her name was Honeychile, she was about a year older than Joseph, but he didn't really mind because he said they had so much in common. After a short while of listening to Joseph talk about Honeychile and how they met, an announcement came over the radio in my apartment.
--Do you want to make a difference in your neighborhood? Do you want to have a good start for your future? Many people have already tested out to become Official NetBattlers in the Official NetBattler's Association and you can now test too! The ONBA is now accepting applications for ONBA Official testing, we accept everyone who is willing to take our test! Come join today!--
The three of us listened to that announcement over the radio and paused for a second.
"Hmm... Official testing... want to try it out?" I offered to Kin and Joseph.
"Sure, wouldn't hurt," Kin said in agreement with me.
"Nah, I can't," Joseph responded, "I'm already a leader in the Iron-Fisted Few, plus I don't want to work where my dad works..." Joseph shrugged, " I don't know, I guess it'd be too awkward..."
Kin and I nodded in agreement. The Iron-Fisted Few was a Net Hunter's Guild who took on jobs for all kinds of people. Mostly, their morals guided them towards better jobs, but every once in a while one of them would take a fairly immoral job just for the money. Joseph was one of the head leaders in the clan and I knew that he wouldn't want to throw all that away.
"Hey, maybe Ryuu would like to join us," Kin suggested to me.
"Yeah, that's true... well, we better get going then, before the line gets too long..." I finished off my soda and we walked out the apartment door towards the elevator.
A few minutes later, Kinzoku, Ryuu and I were standing outside the Official NetBattlers Association headquarters in Marine Harbor. Inside, there were plenty of people inside waiting to be tested, but more and more people came out with saddened faces.
"Wow, guess the test must be hard," I mentioned as I saw another person walk out the doors and kick a trashcan nearby.
"We might as well try," Ryuu said. We then went inside and filled out applications. Even the applications for testing were painful, asking for exact measurements of your build and your cyberform online, along with your entire collection of datasilver and your current adaptor bits. They even asked for which skills you were proficient in. After a half hour of just filling in the application, I stepped in line just after Ryuu. Kinzoku followed me a minute later. The line had to have at least twenty people in it, but they went by quickly. ONBA had several testing arena rooms for such an occassion, so testing for the others fairly quickly. Finally, Ryuu made it to the front of the line within minutes.
"Mr. Ryuu Seitamashii," the Official managing the line said.
"Yes?" Ryuu responded.
"You're testing in arena eight, it's down that hallway on your left," the Official said as he handed Ryuu a card and he walked down the hallway.
"Wish me luck," Ryuu said to Kin and me.
"You'll do fine, kid," I said.
"Don't worry!" Kin yelled to him. The door closed behind Ryuu and I waited for my turn now.
"Mr. Manic Grave," the Official finally said after seeing a fairly big person walk out of one of the rooms. I saw the Official give a double-take to the door that the person just stepped out of.
"I'm here," I responded to him. He looked back to me slowly.
"Well... there's your door, number 4..." the Official looked like he turned a shade whiter.
"Anything wrong?" I asked him briefly.
"Well... all I can say now is good luck fighting him..." The Official was a bit scared now. This did not look good for me. I swallowed up my doubts and walked towards the door. I could hear Kin asking the Official about why he was scared and I overheard the word 'vicious'.
I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. I was in a pure white room with a speaker on the wall.
--Mr. Grave, please enter the cybersystem.--
I complied with the announcement and put on my cyberband. In an instant, I found myself in a spacious arena facing a person clad in knightly armor and holding a very long sword.
"Your test is to defeat me, Mr. Grave," the knight said. "Don't you dare hold back against me or I'll kill you..." I nodded with a serious look on my face as I prepared myself for the fight.
Suddenly, the knight made his move. "Dark Mist!" he yelled as the arena suddenly became filled with a dark fog. I could barely see my hand in front of my face through it.
"Damn," I said to myself as I cautiously walked forward, ready to defend myself. I uploaded a fire sword and a big punch datasilver as I walked blindly through the mist. Then, to my left, I heard the sounds of footsteps. Suddenly, they stopped.
"Haa!" the knight yelled as he jumped quickly towards me, bringing his sword down at me. I quickly put up my fire sword to defend against it and pushed him back. I ran towards him and cut horizontally at him, which he parried again. We kept parrying each other's attacks for a few minutes until my Fire Sword datasilver expired, just before the knight swung at me again. I braced myself as I felt the sword cut at my arm and sent me into a wall. I winced in pain as I picked myself up and ran towards the knight again. I activated my big punch datasilver, causing my fist to be coated with metal, and swung at the knight's head. The punch hit him, but he countered against me with an elbow to my stomach. When I was phased, he smacked me across the face with the hilt of his sword, which sent me to the ground. I quickly picked myself up and ran back from him.
"Had enough yet?" he yelled at me as he advanced. I uploaded my body burner special datasilver and waited until he was closer to me.
"Never," I said back as I rushed into him and activated the datasilver, causing both of us to be scorched in flames. Once his back hit the ground, I rolled off him and backed up while I uploaded two cannon datasilver.
"Ah, you present some worthy attacks for me," the knight said as he got up from the ground and ran towards me. I managed to shoot one cannon blast at him before he hit me again with his sword, sending me to the side again. I rolled across the ground, feeling weary against his attacks. I managed to gather up my strength to pick myself up from the ground just in time to see him shoot a large cannon blast of water at me. I barely ducked under it out of fear that I may be hit with it and ran towards him again. I activated another big punch datasilver and went into slide towards his legs to trip the knight. My plan succeeded that he was falling towards me, so I threw the punch at his head again as I slid past him. I got up from the ground and backed up, still hurting from his previous attacks. However, he also got back up with his sword.
"You've done well against me," he said, rubbing his chin, "but I haven't even begun to fight... Deathmatch Again!" Suddenly, the ground everywhere around us fell into a void, leaving two areas for only the knight and me to stand on.
*Not good,* I thought to myself. I didn't have anything to do against this, but neither did he.
I thought wrong. The knight's feet managed to lift him up from the ground, allowing him to float in midair. He slowly walked towards me and aimed a large cannon at me.
I was shocked. How did he manage to get a hold of a kaiser cannon? The kaiser cannon was one of the most powerful cannons in existance and now I was facing down the barrel of one. I was dead for sure.
"Say goodnight," the knight said as he was about to fire. I then acted on instinct and jumped backwards. The shot sailed through the air as I fell into the void. Darkness surrounded me everywhere, but at least I wouldn't be hit by that cannon.
However, my right hand grabbed hold of the panel I was standing on. I unknowingly saved myself. I took this time to upload another body burner special, which would finish him off for sure, and uploaded a recovery datasilver, increasing the amount of damage my cyberband could withstand before logging me out, and picked myself up from the void.
"Huh? You're still here!?" The knight was shocked as I jumped towards him from the panel and grabbed onto one of his feet. I then activated the datasilver and sent him into flames, logging him out of the cybersystem. I soon fell into the void, however. My cyberband logged me out before I hit the bottom.
I opened my eyes and was met with an old man standing in the same white room as I was. He was holding a sheet and was reading it. He stopped reading when he realized I was back.
"Mr. Grave, you had a few tricks up your sleeve that I didn't think you would use," the old man said to me, "You pass, you're an official now. Congratulations." The old man handed me the sheet, which was my application, and an ID card that showed that I was now an Official.
I walked out of the room and saw both Kin and Ryuu standing in the lobby. I must have taken more time to deal with the old man than I thought, so I walked up to them.
"Sorry I'm late," I said.
"What took you? Viruses don't take that long to bust," Kin said to me. I was a bit shocked at hearing this.
"Viruses?" I asked him.
"Yeah, that was the testing," Ryuu said to me as he and Kin showed me their ID cards as well. They were Officials as well. I grinned a bit after hearing that I had the hardest test out of all of them and we walked out of the ONBA.
For some reason, when we were eating lunch after the testing, that dream I had when I was still living with old pops and gram came back to me. I wondered who that 'Shadow' person was, and whose voice said it. I couldn't think of it, but I knew that I heard them before. *Oh well* I told myself as we headed out the door after finishing lunch. I would find out some day.
Chapter 4 complete! Don't know when I'll get the others done, but I'll try to finish them ASAP. Review, please? ^_^ thanks!
Vol. 1: The Darkness of Our Pasts
Chapter 4: Protecting Society the Lawful Way
It's been a week since the entire theft incident now and there have been some rumors about a secret society wanting to take over the internet as a source of controlling global and economic society, but no one really gave it a second thought. It was peaceful enough here in our corner of the world and we were happy. I was sitting in my apartment listening to music that peaceful Saturday morning on my couch. I had just finished yet another challenger battle in the Challenge Hall that day and I was feeling good about it. I had moved up in the Hall so that I was now able to take on intermediate challengers. I heard a knock at my door.
"It's open," I said out loud. Kinzoku and Joseph walked in, back from their own challenger battles.
"Hey, how'd they go?" I asked as I picked myself up from the couch.
"Not bad," Kinzoku said, "I earned a new saint blade, what about you?"
"I finished off the lower-levelled challengers there, so I got to move up in rank," I replied.
"Hey, congratulations," Joseph said. His head was obviously in the clouds.
"Something wrong, Joseph?" I asked. Kin went over to the refrigerator to grab a few cans of soda. We all had become good friends quickly, so I didn't mind so long as he got one for me.
"Well... I met someone at the Hall today..." Joseph replied, blushing a bit.
"Joseph's in love!" Kin joked with a smile. Joseph stammered at this, but then nodded to it.
"Hey, good work Joseph," I said as I went over to the counter and caught the can of soda Kin threw at me. We talked with Joseph for a while about his new love interest. He said her name was Honeychile, she was about a year older than Joseph, but he didn't really mind because he said they had so much in common. After a short while of listening to Joseph talk about Honeychile and how they met, an announcement came over the radio in my apartment.
--Do you want to make a difference in your neighborhood? Do you want to have a good start for your future? Many people have already tested out to become Official NetBattlers in the Official NetBattler's Association and you can now test too! The ONBA is now accepting applications for ONBA Official testing, we accept everyone who is willing to take our test! Come join today!--
The three of us listened to that announcement over the radio and paused for a second.
"Hmm... Official testing... want to try it out?" I offered to Kin and Joseph.
"Sure, wouldn't hurt," Kin said in agreement with me.
"Nah, I can't," Joseph responded, "I'm already a leader in the Iron-Fisted Few, plus I don't want to work where my dad works..." Joseph shrugged, " I don't know, I guess it'd be too awkward..."
Kin and I nodded in agreement. The Iron-Fisted Few was a Net Hunter's Guild who took on jobs for all kinds of people. Mostly, their morals guided them towards better jobs, but every once in a while one of them would take a fairly immoral job just for the money. Joseph was one of the head leaders in the clan and I knew that he wouldn't want to throw all that away.
"Hey, maybe Ryuu would like to join us," Kin suggested to me.
"Yeah, that's true... well, we better get going then, before the line gets too long..." I finished off my soda and we walked out the apartment door towards the elevator.
A few minutes later, Kinzoku, Ryuu and I were standing outside the Official NetBattlers Association headquarters in Marine Harbor. Inside, there were plenty of people inside waiting to be tested, but more and more people came out with saddened faces.
"Wow, guess the test must be hard," I mentioned as I saw another person walk out the doors and kick a trashcan nearby.
"We might as well try," Ryuu said. We then went inside and filled out applications. Even the applications for testing were painful, asking for exact measurements of your build and your cyberform online, along with your entire collection of datasilver and your current adaptor bits. They even asked for which skills you were proficient in. After a half hour of just filling in the application, I stepped in line just after Ryuu. Kinzoku followed me a minute later. The line had to have at least twenty people in it, but they went by quickly. ONBA had several testing arena rooms for such an occassion, so testing for the others fairly quickly. Finally, Ryuu made it to the front of the line within minutes.
"Mr. Ryuu Seitamashii," the Official managing the line said.
"Yes?" Ryuu responded.
"You're testing in arena eight, it's down that hallway on your left," the Official said as he handed Ryuu a card and he walked down the hallway.
"Wish me luck," Ryuu said to Kin and me.
"You'll do fine, kid," I said.
"Don't worry!" Kin yelled to him. The door closed behind Ryuu and I waited for my turn now.
"Mr. Manic Grave," the Official finally said after seeing a fairly big person walk out of one of the rooms. I saw the Official give a double-take to the door that the person just stepped out of.
"I'm here," I responded to him. He looked back to me slowly.
"Well... there's your door, number 4..." the Official looked like he turned a shade whiter.
"Anything wrong?" I asked him briefly.
"Well... all I can say now is good luck fighting him..." The Official was a bit scared now. This did not look good for me. I swallowed up my doubts and walked towards the door. I could hear Kin asking the Official about why he was scared and I overheard the word 'vicious'.
I walked into the room and closed the door behind me. I was in a pure white room with a speaker on the wall.
--Mr. Grave, please enter the cybersystem.--
I complied with the announcement and put on my cyberband. In an instant, I found myself in a spacious arena facing a person clad in knightly armor and holding a very long sword.
"Your test is to defeat me, Mr. Grave," the knight said. "Don't you dare hold back against me or I'll kill you..." I nodded with a serious look on my face as I prepared myself for the fight.
Suddenly, the knight made his move. "Dark Mist!" he yelled as the arena suddenly became filled with a dark fog. I could barely see my hand in front of my face through it.
"Damn," I said to myself as I cautiously walked forward, ready to defend myself. I uploaded a fire sword and a big punch datasilver as I walked blindly through the mist. Then, to my left, I heard the sounds of footsteps. Suddenly, they stopped.
"Haa!" the knight yelled as he jumped quickly towards me, bringing his sword down at me. I quickly put up my fire sword to defend against it and pushed him back. I ran towards him and cut horizontally at him, which he parried again. We kept parrying each other's attacks for a few minutes until my Fire Sword datasilver expired, just before the knight swung at me again. I braced myself as I felt the sword cut at my arm and sent me into a wall. I winced in pain as I picked myself up and ran towards the knight again. I activated my big punch datasilver, causing my fist to be coated with metal, and swung at the knight's head. The punch hit him, but he countered against me with an elbow to my stomach. When I was phased, he smacked me across the face with the hilt of his sword, which sent me to the ground. I quickly picked myself up and ran back from him.
"Had enough yet?" he yelled at me as he advanced. I uploaded my body burner special datasilver and waited until he was closer to me.
"Never," I said back as I rushed into him and activated the datasilver, causing both of us to be scorched in flames. Once his back hit the ground, I rolled off him and backed up while I uploaded two cannon datasilver.
"Ah, you present some worthy attacks for me," the knight said as he got up from the ground and ran towards me. I managed to shoot one cannon blast at him before he hit me again with his sword, sending me to the side again. I rolled across the ground, feeling weary against his attacks. I managed to gather up my strength to pick myself up from the ground just in time to see him shoot a large cannon blast of water at me. I barely ducked under it out of fear that I may be hit with it and ran towards him again. I activated another big punch datasilver and went into slide towards his legs to trip the knight. My plan succeeded that he was falling towards me, so I threw the punch at his head again as I slid past him. I got up from the ground and backed up, still hurting from his previous attacks. However, he also got back up with his sword.
"You've done well against me," he said, rubbing his chin, "but I haven't even begun to fight... Deathmatch Again!" Suddenly, the ground everywhere around us fell into a void, leaving two areas for only the knight and me to stand on.
*Not good,* I thought to myself. I didn't have anything to do against this, but neither did he.
I thought wrong. The knight's feet managed to lift him up from the ground, allowing him to float in midair. He slowly walked towards me and aimed a large cannon at me.
I was shocked. How did he manage to get a hold of a kaiser cannon? The kaiser cannon was one of the most powerful cannons in existance and now I was facing down the barrel of one. I was dead for sure.
"Say goodnight," the knight said as he was about to fire. I then acted on instinct and jumped backwards. The shot sailed through the air as I fell into the void. Darkness surrounded me everywhere, but at least I wouldn't be hit by that cannon.
However, my right hand grabbed hold of the panel I was standing on. I unknowingly saved myself. I took this time to upload another body burner special, which would finish him off for sure, and uploaded a recovery datasilver, increasing the amount of damage my cyberband could withstand before logging me out, and picked myself up from the void.
"Huh? You're still here!?" The knight was shocked as I jumped towards him from the panel and grabbed onto one of his feet. I then activated the datasilver and sent him into flames, logging him out of the cybersystem. I soon fell into the void, however. My cyberband logged me out before I hit the bottom.
I opened my eyes and was met with an old man standing in the same white room as I was. He was holding a sheet and was reading it. He stopped reading when he realized I was back.
"Mr. Grave, you had a few tricks up your sleeve that I didn't think you would use," the old man said to me, "You pass, you're an official now. Congratulations." The old man handed me the sheet, which was my application, and an ID card that showed that I was now an Official.
I walked out of the room and saw both Kin and Ryuu standing in the lobby. I must have taken more time to deal with the old man than I thought, so I walked up to them.
"Sorry I'm late," I said.
"What took you? Viruses don't take that long to bust," Kin said to me. I was a bit shocked at hearing this.
"Viruses?" I asked him.
"Yeah, that was the testing," Ryuu said to me as he and Kin showed me their ID cards as well. They were Officials as well. I grinned a bit after hearing that I had the hardest test out of all of them and we walked out of the ONBA.
For some reason, when we were eating lunch after the testing, that dream I had when I was still living with old pops and gram came back to me. I wondered who that 'Shadow' person was, and whose voice said it. I couldn't think of it, but I knew that I heard them before. *Oh well* I told myself as we headed out the door after finishing lunch. I would find out some day.
Chapter 4 complete! Don't know when I'll get the others done, but I'll try to finish them ASAP. Review, please? ^_^ thanks!