BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

Volume 2: Pokerface

Chapter 5: Operation Elite

Manic was walking towards Ryuu's house on a bright and clear Saturday afternoon to deliver the message that they were ordered back to work. Friday was a tough day for he, Ryuu and Kinzoku because they had to take down a small-time data smuggling ring all on their own and under their chief's direct orders. He wasn't very pleased with how the outcome came about, two of the thugs left with broken limbs while the rest had managed to destroy almost half of ACDC Internet Two while they were all fighting, especially when both Manic and Infernos managed to integrate once again.

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"Kin!" Ryuu yelled as he saw Kinzoku being thrown around the internet by the smuggling lord.

"Gah!" Kin yelled out as he was dashed against a stray RockCube that Ryuu had activated for cover earlier. Manic was on top of the cube, hurting, as he felt the shock of Kin's cyberform thrown against it.

*Doesn't that guy know never to hit a woman!?* Naoko cursed inside Kinzoku's head.

"You're not really a woman, you know..." Infernos managed to say while he threw himself off the RockCube, landing on the ground next to Kinzoku.

"Ugh... so what now?" Kin managed to ask Manic.

"...I don't...wait..." Manic then thought of an idea. It may have been a dumb one, but it was worth a shot. He picked himself up from the ground using the RockCube as support and faced the smuggling lord.

"So, you want some more of me, eh?" he snarled.

"You're not enough for me..." Manic retorted.

*You thinking what I'm thinking, Infernos?* Manic said mentally.

*Yeah, I am. Let's do this.*

"Showtime!" Manic said aloud as he dropped to one knee and pounded his fist into the ground. Suddenly afterwards, flames swirled around him and he became Manic/Infernos once again.

"Heh, I'm actually getting used to this now," Manic/Infernos said to himself as he cracked his neck. The smuggling lord was in shock after seeing this. Never before did he hear of a datasilver that allowed something like this.

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"And the rest is history, sir," Manic said in front of the ONBA Head Chief, with Ryuu standing next to him at attention. Chief Massingale was fuming, but it was dead silent after Manic shut up.

"...Sir--" Ryuu started as the Chief slammed his fists onto his desk and stood up.

"Then tell me why the hell you three had to wreck almost half of the entire internet, for God's sake!?" Chief Massingale barked at the two elite officials. "God dammit, half the committee's going to be on my ass about this and I specifically told you three to keep destruction to a minimum for once!"

"Sorry, sir..." both Ryuu and Manic said as they hung their heads. The chief calmed down and sat in his leather executive chair once again.

"It's ok, not like this is the first time I've warred with the committee..." Massingale said. "Anyways, I have a new mission for you three..." Both Ryuu and Manic perked up at this.

"...speaking of which..." Chief Massingale said, "Where's Hyoukai?"

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(A/N: Right now, if you will, please start up Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts' instrumental song, "Tank!". You'll love this part.)

Kinzoku twirled the broom handle around himself and got into a ready position. Four thugs were on each side of him, each armed with knives. Kinzoku waited patiently for one of them to make a move.

*So... who wants some?* Naoko said mentally.

*They really don't know what's in for them,* Kinzoku responded as he twirled the broom handle around into an attacking stance.

*They're about to find out what happens when you attempt to rob a convenience store...* Naoko said menacingly. She was taking control of Kinzoku's upper half and in full control of how the broom handle would be used. The thugs had just come in here a few minutes ago, but they meant business from the start. Kinzoku was conveniently getting something light to eat for a snack when they came in, thus starting the fight.

Finally, a thug made a move from Kinzoku's front and lunged towards him with the knife. Naoko stepped backwards and spun around to avoid the knife blade while whipping the side of the broom handle at the thug to move the knife away from her. Then, she spun the handle around her arm and slammed the back end of it into the face of the thug that was behind her, then held the handle against the side of her waist and jabbed at the front thug a few times. She finished up with jabbing the back end into the stomach of the back thug and shooting it straight upwards and into the thug's head, then jabbed into the front thug again to distance herself from them, then spun the handle around more and got into a defensive position again.

With the broom handle behind her, she quickly glanced to both sides and the thugs, then smiled evilly.

Suddenly, all four thugs attacked from each side while Naoko quickly moved the broom handle around herself, miraculously blocking all the knife attacks from the thugs. It was apparent she was a master of the staff. Then, to go on the offensive, Naoko spun the handle around in her hands and to each of her sides, whipping the side thugs in the arms and legs while she walked forward. She then finished up, spun the handle around herself and waited for the left thug to attack again while they were all recovering from the attack.

Naoko then jammed the front end into the left thug's foot and shot the end upwards and over to the right thug's head, then jabbed backwards with the back end of the handle at the back thug, then another front end jab to the front thug's face. She then swung the broom handle over her head to get the thugs away from her again, then shoved it into the side of the front thug's foot. Then, Naoko called her acrobatics into play and lifted herself from the ground and lifed herself up and over the front thug using the broom handle and landed in a kneeling position.

With the broom handle with her, Naoko then spun around with the broom handle, whipping the front thug in the side before he actually moved while Naoko was standing up.

*Wow, you're pretty good,* Kinzoku said, allowing Naoko control of the situation while she spun the broom handle around in her hands and getting ready to attack again. She then rushed towards the front guard again with the broom handle ready to strike with the middle. However, the handle broke into halves when the front thug raised his arm to block. Naoko took advantage of this and used both ends to smack him in the abdomen twice and once in the head, sending the guard reeling while Naoko ran away from the thugs, allowing them to chase after her.

Naoko ran down one aisle and went rushed into another thug and past him while ditching the broken broom handle. She then took a corner and ran down the next aisle. She then slid through the legs of another thug and rolled to behind the cashier's counter, where two more thugs were making their entrances. She rushed past them and rolled across the countertop and ran down an aisle, only to find that a thug was loading up a submachine gun. Naoko skid to a halt in the aisle and looked on in shock.

*Not good...* Kinzoku said as the thug cocked the machine gun and was ready to fire.

Naoko quickly backed up to the left shelves to avoid the gunfire, then quickly ran forward and up the shelves to the right and swung over the aisle median by means of a pipe running across the ceiling. She then got up and ran down the aisle and towards where the thug with the machine gun was. She then barrelled past him, knocking the thug into the aisle shelf, and she barrelled into a thug still carrying a knife. She rolled over the thug while disarming him of his knife and ran down another aisle, free of thugs, and ducked down to catch her breath.

*I haven't done this in a while...* Naoko said, *This is fun...*

*Don't get too used to it, this doesn't happen a lot...* Kinzoku responded.

Finally, both Naoko and Kinzoku heard safetys coming off of handguns as the thugs looked around the store for them. Naoko crouched and walked towards the end of the aisle and saw a thug looking around and with his back turned. Naoko then quickly threw the knife at the counter to catch his attention, then knocked him out with a hard punch to the face and dragged him into the aisle, relieving him of his 9mm handgun.

Naoko then looked at the end of the aisle and smirked evilly again.

(A/N: final chorus should start right now.)

Suddenly, the aisles started to collapse into each other, creating a domino effect towards the guards. Naoko then quickly slid as she turned a corner and ran towards an unsuspecting thug and unleashed a flurry of punches, knees and pistol whips at the thug, finally knocking him out with a side kick to the face and relieving him of his pistol as well. Naoko then quickly ran over the fallen aisle shelves and pistol whipped a thug a few times. The thug showed signs of collapsing due to the hits to the face, so Naoko quickly grabbed the thug by the back of the head and dropped him to his knees while she waited for another thug to run up to her from behind. She then sent a knee into the downed thug's face, then side kicked the running thug with the same leg. Naoko then let go of the thug and pistol whipped him in the head one last time before noticing that she was now in between a low snack counter and the machine gun-wielding thug, ready to shoot another volley of gunfire at her. She quickly jumped over the counter and leaned against it, keeping her head out of view.

Naoko then checked the guns she retrieved and checked to see if there were actual bullets in them, one hand each pulling back the chamber of each gun. She then pressed down on the hammers with her thumbs(snare drum hit), and finally jumped away from the counter and backwards to face the thug. She fired a few times at the ceiling to get the thug to duck while she flipped around and used the barrels of the guns to launch herself back again and fired two accurate shots at the machine gun in the thug's hands, disarming the thug. She finally landed in a kneel and shoved the guns into the abdomens of two thugs next to her now. Both thugs were white-faced and shocked.

Naoko then pressed a button on each gun to let the bullet clips slide out of the guns. The guards immediately fainted afterwards.

(A/N: Song should end here. Thank you.)

"Phew, that was fun..." Naoko said in a higher-pitched voice of Kinzoku's as she dropped the handguns and calmly walked out of the convenience store.

*Crap, we're late!* Kinzoku said mentally as he took control of his body once more and ran down the sidewalk towards ONBA HQ.

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"Sorry I'm late, chief!" Kinzoku yelled as he ran into the office where Ryuu and Manic were waiting for him. Kinzoku was panting a bit heavily as he shut the door behind him.

"Where were you?" Manic asked as Ryuu nodded in agreement.

"Oh..." Kinzoku said as he finally caught his breath, "I had some trash to take out..."

"Now that you're finally here," Massingale said sarcastically, calling the three elites to attention, "There's something I want you three to check out. Recently, there've been some reports of strange occurrences happening outside of the Undernet. I want you guys to check it out. Understand?"

The three officials nodded.

"Good, you're dismissed," Chief Massingale said as the three started towards the door. "One more thing," he added as they stopped in mid-movement, "...keep the damage to a low for once, this time."

The three officials nodded as they walked out the door.

"Wonder what's happening there..." Ryuu said as he put his hands behind his head as he walked.

"I don't know, let's go check," Manic suggested as they all walked towards the door.

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After a few hours of venturing towards the Undernet entrance, the three elite officials stood outside the entrance to a dark cave with an ominous mist coming from inside.

The three stood looking into the darkness for a few minutes before Kinzoku broke the silence.

"What do you think is down there?" Kinzoku asked.

"I have no clue..." Manic responded.

"Obviously something that breathes mist..." Ryuu added.

"Sounds painful..." Kinzoku said.

"And we're bound to get our asses kicked nine ways to Sunday if we go..." Ryuu added.

Another silence.

"...so, should we go in?" Manic asked, and caught two glares.

"Why the hell not?" Kinzoku said.

"Why even suggest backing down?" Ryuu added in.

"I wasn't suggesting it... well, let's go, then," Manic said.

(A/N: Here, for only a few seconds, is another song by Incubus, off their S.C.I.E.N.C.E. CD, called "Deep Inside". Start it now)

The three stepped forward and into the abyss, each of them determined to find out what was down there, whether it be good or bad.

(A/N: Stop track.)

Chapter 5 of Volume 2 is down now. I made this into a tribute for Kinzoku, one of my best friends(yes, he is a real person, and so is everyone else mentioned in this fanfiction. Except for Shinzuka, Shadow Grave, the Jack and Chief Massingale. And Honeychile.). Good luck with your Naginata technique, buddy! Anyways, please review this chapter if you get the chance. I feed off reviews, good or bad, like a vampire. Blah.