"Reiki!" Tetsujin yelled out. Reiki tried to pick herself up from the
ground as best she could, but it was no use. She lay there again, pretty
much defeated. However, Koronenbu ran over quickly and, with his superior
might and with the help of the Deity of Earth, picked up both Reiki and
Trinku, and the others retreated along with him.
"What the hell was that!?" Koronenbu yelled to Tetsujin. Tetsujin's Sol Maxim weapon vanished as they ran away, the two blades disappearing lastly.
"Whatever it was, we can't beat it... not now, at least..." Tetsujin yelled back. The active four stopped as they hid behind a building for the beast to lose their tracks. They all waited patiently for the behemoth to move along.
"...we might be able to rush him when he's off his guard..." Cecil whispered. However, Tetsujin slowly shook his head towards Cecil.
However, they didn't expect that the beast...
...would have a brother.
BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
Volume 2: Pokerface
Chapter 7: A Hiatus to Meditate
It was a calm and cool Friday afternoon. The three elite officials were sitting in a booth eating a late lunch at Henry's Diner. Manic recognized it as the first place he went to eat when he moved to ACDC. Ryuu and Kinzoku, however, recognized it as a pretty good place to eat.
"So, does anyone have any more thoughts about what the hell happened yesterday?" Manic asked before taking a sip of soda.
"Well," Ryuu said as he leaned back on the booth, "we fought some person who called himself the Deuce, and he was able to transform into a beast..."
*By using me and Haldrin...* Gaius added in mentally.
"...Hal--"
*My mirror elemental, he's a spiritual deity.*
*Spiritual deity?* Ryuu asked mentally. *I don't understand...*
*Well,* Gaius started up, pausing for Infernos and Naoko to relay the message over to Manic and Kinzoku, respectfully, *You remember when I said there were two planes of existance, the material realm and the spiritual realm, right?*
*Yes...*
*So, in each of those realms, there are six deities, one commanding each element. So, there are six deities here, us, and six deities in the spiritual realm. Haldrin was the Earth Deity for the spiritual realm. Or, at least that's what he was calling himself last time...*
*Calling himself the Earth Diety?* Ryuu asked.
*No, calling himself Haldrin...* Gaius corrected Ryuu.
There was a short moment of silence. Finally, Kinzoku broke the silence after thinking of something.
"So is that how he was able to transform into a huge beast? By having two deities?"
*Theoretically, no human body can hold more than three deities at a time, otherwise they'd overpower the human's soul and then the human would be in a vegetable state...* Naoko replied. *Even with two deities, the soul can barely support them...*
*But it would still be possible,* Infernos added in, *if they were both of Earth...*
*Good point...*
Another moment of silence and contemplation.
*Moving along,* Gaius continued, *there is a sec--*
*Gaius! Nec'lai tal!* Infernos yelled at Gaius.
*Tuneka...* Gaius replied.
*Et kurenai sota, nes takeni queti...* Naoko said with depression in her tone of voice. Kinzoku, Ryuu and Manic were still wondering what they were talking about.
"Um..." Manic uttered.
*Anyways, that's the story of the deities,* Infernos said, as if nothing had happened, *but I have a question of my own. Why would Pokerface send in that job request if they were that close to finding the Sol Maxim in the first place? They could have found it on their own easily enough, and Deuce was extremely close to it as well. So why did they call us in?*
"Maybe to get rid of us from the start?" Manic said.
*No... they're too smart for that...* Infernos replied, *There's an alterior motive here... I just know it...*
"Hey guys," a familiar voice said as the owner of the voice leaned on Ryuu's side of the table, "Mind if I join in?"
"Hey Joseph," Kin, Ryuu and Manic said. "Sure, sit down," Manic said as Ryuu moved aside for Joseph to have a seat.
"Want something to eat?" Kin asked Joseph.
"Oh, I already ate at home," Joseph replied, "Thanks, though. Anyways, I heard about what you guys went through down there, it's been the talk of the town ever since..."
The three officials were shocked by this. So much that Manic choked on a piece of chicken he was eating.
"How did they find out about it?" Ryuu asked, amazed by this information.
"It was supposed to be covert op, how did it leak out?" Kin asked while Manic finally swallowed the piece of chicken. Joseph was just as confused as they were now.
"It's been on the news all day..." Joseph said, "that, and that because of this, ONBA's being flooded with applicants, just to get this kind of recognition..."
"I can't believe it..." Manic said finally. Suddenly, he saw his Cyberband jitter across the table, where he left it for the meal. He picked it up to read the message he got.
"Chief wants us back at HQ..." Manic said, but then noticed another message tagged onto the end. "Wait... 'find the director of the Iron-Fisted Few and bring him too'..."
"What does he want with me, anyways?" Joseph asked. The three officials shrugged.
"Well, we better get going then..." Kinzoku said as he stood up from the booth and threw down some zenny to pay for his meal, along with Ryuu and Manic. All four walked out of the diner and towards the Metroline Station. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Huh? That's odd..." a spritely youth said as he stared at a computer screen. Statistics and portraits of criminals came and went on the screen next to a map of Marine Harbor. "Hey Knux..." he said quietly, but he doubted he heard over the sounds of bare fists hitting a punching bag.
"Hey Knux!"
One final hit before a lower-pitched voice yelled out, "What!?"
"Come take a look at this," the youth said as Knux leaned on the back of the chair the youth was sitting on and looked at the screen. Suddenly, the map disappeared with the press of a button from the youth and several mug shots came up onto the screen.
"What about them, Miles?" Knux asked.
"Look at their status," Miles said.
Each mug shot had a status bar below them, and they all showed 'mobile'.
"...They're all mobilizing? Why?" Knux asked himself.
"That's what gets me, Chris..." Miles said. Knux snuffed at the name. He then stood up and lightly hit Miles in the back of the head.
"And call me Knux..." he said as he walked away.
"Shouldn't we check this out!?" Miles yelled back to Knux, who was back to the punching bag.
"I'll check it out tomorrow... but right now, we have to get more info about Bandit's Cove..." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Sir, yes sir," Kinzoku, Ryuu and Manic all said in unison. Joseph was standing to the side while the three were talking with the Chief. Or rather, the Chief was yelling at them.
"What I want to know is, how in the hell this information leaked!" Massingale yelled at them, "NSA's going to be all over my ass in a few days for this, and now everyone and their dog wants to check those ruins out! And even worse, I'm being flooded with applications from people who don't know what they're doing!"
"Sir--" Manic and Ryuu started.
"Shut up!" Manic and Ryuu hopped back a bit at Massingale's bark. "Now, the only way I can get rid of some of these people is to turn them back for not making the requirements, but that still leaves me with the few who won't back down so easily. That's where you come in, Katsuya." Chief Massingale nodded towards Joseph. "I'm making the Iron Fisted Few into a protectorate of the ONBA, so we can send people over to your side and that'll get them off our backs. However, there is one person I'm putting with you three..."
"That is, sir?" Kinzoku asked. Massingale was rubbing his temples at this moment.
"Go meet her, she's in the lobby..." Massingale said as he waved everyone out.
"...Who the hell even knew we were down there?" Kinzoku asked the other three.
"I didn't have any idea about it until I saw it on the news..." Joseph said, "So it sure as hell wasn't me..."
"Wasn't any of us, either," Manic responded, "and the only one who knew we were down there was the chief."
"We can worry about that later, I guess..." Ryuu said, "What's done is done. Let's go meet up with the rookie." Manic and Kinzoku nodded in agreement as Joseph stepped to the side.
"I'm going to go meet up with the applicants for the Few, so I'll see you guys later." The three officials said their goodbyes to Joseph as they parted ways.
Finally, they reached the lobby and saw a woman with brown hair and a knee- high purple kimono waiting for them patiently.
"Hey Miyuu..." the three said to her. She then looked up towards them and stood at attention, to their surprise. She was the new ONBA Elite. Tenjou Miyuu.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Next..." Joseph said, tired already from the numerous applicants. Shinzuka was marking people off the list and had only one name on another list; the list of applicants who made the cut into the Iron Fisted Few. Taichi Matanoa.
"Hey," another person said as he walked up. Joseph yawned.
"What's your name?" Joseph asked.
"Name's Derek."
Joseph yawned again and sat up, "Datasilver set?"
Derek dropped his cyberband onto the table and Joseph scanned through the list quickly. He then whistled when he saw a few rare datasilver in Derek's set and a few rare adaptor bits. Joseph then tossed the cyberband back. "Ok, you're in. Next." Shinzuka then wrote Derek's name onto the list.
Then, a tall man with jet black hair stood in front of the siblings. He looked menacing, even if he was just giving a person a glance.
"Um..." Joseph started, "name?"
The man then used sign language to tell Joseph his name. However, Joseph had no idea what he was saying.
"Um... that's great..." Joseph said. Shinzuka then handed the man a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled on the paper and handed it to Joseph.
Hello, My name's Jet Torasun. I'm applying for a position in the Iron Fisted Few.
"Ok, Jet..." Joseph said after reading the paper, "show me your datasilver set." Jet dropped his cyberband onto the table and Joseph looked at it. He then gave it back after a while, along with the paper and pen.
"Who's the highest ranked Challenger you've faced in the Challenge Hall?" Joseph asked. Jet scribbled some more onto the sheet of paper and handed it back.
I have defeated all of the Rogue challengers and I am currently working on getting through the Specialty challengers.
Joseph nodded at this. "Close enough... ok, you're in." Jet walked off with a smile and Shinzuka added Jet's name to the list.
"Phew... I think that's enough..." Joseph said to Shinzuka quietly, then stood up.
"I'm sorry, everyone, but all our positions are filled now. Thank you for applying, better luck next year." Several people grumbled as he and Shinzuka picked up their papers and walked towards the door, then quickened their paces as they noticed the mob of rejected netbattlers closing in on them.
"This is why I hate auditions!" Joseph yelled to Shinzuka as they both started to run to the Metroline. Shinzuka looked like she was having fun, though.
Volume II Chapter 7 down. Please read and review!
"What the hell was that!?" Koronenbu yelled to Tetsujin. Tetsujin's Sol Maxim weapon vanished as they ran away, the two blades disappearing lastly.
"Whatever it was, we can't beat it... not now, at least..." Tetsujin yelled back. The active four stopped as they hid behind a building for the beast to lose their tracks. They all waited patiently for the behemoth to move along.
"...we might be able to rush him when he's off his guard..." Cecil whispered. However, Tetsujin slowly shook his head towards Cecil.
However, they didn't expect that the beast...
...would have a brother.
BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
Volume 2: Pokerface
Chapter 7: A Hiatus to Meditate
It was a calm and cool Friday afternoon. The three elite officials were sitting in a booth eating a late lunch at Henry's Diner. Manic recognized it as the first place he went to eat when he moved to ACDC. Ryuu and Kinzoku, however, recognized it as a pretty good place to eat.
"So, does anyone have any more thoughts about what the hell happened yesterday?" Manic asked before taking a sip of soda.
"Well," Ryuu said as he leaned back on the booth, "we fought some person who called himself the Deuce, and he was able to transform into a beast..."
*By using me and Haldrin...* Gaius added in mentally.
"...Hal--"
*My mirror elemental, he's a spiritual deity.*
*Spiritual deity?* Ryuu asked mentally. *I don't understand...*
*Well,* Gaius started up, pausing for Infernos and Naoko to relay the message over to Manic and Kinzoku, respectfully, *You remember when I said there were two planes of existance, the material realm and the spiritual realm, right?*
*Yes...*
*So, in each of those realms, there are six deities, one commanding each element. So, there are six deities here, us, and six deities in the spiritual realm. Haldrin was the Earth Deity for the spiritual realm. Or, at least that's what he was calling himself last time...*
*Calling himself the Earth Diety?* Ryuu asked.
*No, calling himself Haldrin...* Gaius corrected Ryuu.
There was a short moment of silence. Finally, Kinzoku broke the silence after thinking of something.
"So is that how he was able to transform into a huge beast? By having two deities?"
*Theoretically, no human body can hold more than three deities at a time, otherwise they'd overpower the human's soul and then the human would be in a vegetable state...* Naoko replied. *Even with two deities, the soul can barely support them...*
*But it would still be possible,* Infernos added in, *if they were both of Earth...*
*Good point...*
Another moment of silence and contemplation.
*Moving along,* Gaius continued, *there is a sec--*
*Gaius! Nec'lai tal!* Infernos yelled at Gaius.
*Tuneka...* Gaius replied.
*Et kurenai sota, nes takeni queti...* Naoko said with depression in her tone of voice. Kinzoku, Ryuu and Manic were still wondering what they were talking about.
"Um..." Manic uttered.
*Anyways, that's the story of the deities,* Infernos said, as if nothing had happened, *but I have a question of my own. Why would Pokerface send in that job request if they were that close to finding the Sol Maxim in the first place? They could have found it on their own easily enough, and Deuce was extremely close to it as well. So why did they call us in?*
"Maybe to get rid of us from the start?" Manic said.
*No... they're too smart for that...* Infernos replied, *There's an alterior motive here... I just know it...*
"Hey guys," a familiar voice said as the owner of the voice leaned on Ryuu's side of the table, "Mind if I join in?"
"Hey Joseph," Kin, Ryuu and Manic said. "Sure, sit down," Manic said as Ryuu moved aside for Joseph to have a seat.
"Want something to eat?" Kin asked Joseph.
"Oh, I already ate at home," Joseph replied, "Thanks, though. Anyways, I heard about what you guys went through down there, it's been the talk of the town ever since..."
The three officials were shocked by this. So much that Manic choked on a piece of chicken he was eating.
"How did they find out about it?" Ryuu asked, amazed by this information.
"It was supposed to be covert op, how did it leak out?" Kin asked while Manic finally swallowed the piece of chicken. Joseph was just as confused as they were now.
"It's been on the news all day..." Joseph said, "that, and that because of this, ONBA's being flooded with applicants, just to get this kind of recognition..."
"I can't believe it..." Manic said finally. Suddenly, he saw his Cyberband jitter across the table, where he left it for the meal. He picked it up to read the message he got.
"Chief wants us back at HQ..." Manic said, but then noticed another message tagged onto the end. "Wait... 'find the director of the Iron-Fisted Few and bring him too'..."
"What does he want with me, anyways?" Joseph asked. The three officials shrugged.
"Well, we better get going then..." Kinzoku said as he stood up from the booth and threw down some zenny to pay for his meal, along with Ryuu and Manic. All four walked out of the diner and towards the Metroline Station. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Huh? That's odd..." a spritely youth said as he stared at a computer screen. Statistics and portraits of criminals came and went on the screen next to a map of Marine Harbor. "Hey Knux..." he said quietly, but he doubted he heard over the sounds of bare fists hitting a punching bag.
"Hey Knux!"
One final hit before a lower-pitched voice yelled out, "What!?"
"Come take a look at this," the youth said as Knux leaned on the back of the chair the youth was sitting on and looked at the screen. Suddenly, the map disappeared with the press of a button from the youth and several mug shots came up onto the screen.
"What about them, Miles?" Knux asked.
"Look at their status," Miles said.
Each mug shot had a status bar below them, and they all showed 'mobile'.
"...They're all mobilizing? Why?" Knux asked himself.
"That's what gets me, Chris..." Miles said. Knux snuffed at the name. He then stood up and lightly hit Miles in the back of the head.
"And call me Knux..." he said as he walked away.
"Shouldn't we check this out!?" Miles yelled back to Knux, who was back to the punching bag.
"I'll check it out tomorrow... but right now, we have to get more info about Bandit's Cove..." ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Sir, yes sir," Kinzoku, Ryuu and Manic all said in unison. Joseph was standing to the side while the three were talking with the Chief. Or rather, the Chief was yelling at them.
"What I want to know is, how in the hell this information leaked!" Massingale yelled at them, "NSA's going to be all over my ass in a few days for this, and now everyone and their dog wants to check those ruins out! And even worse, I'm being flooded with applications from people who don't know what they're doing!"
"Sir--" Manic and Ryuu started.
"Shut up!" Manic and Ryuu hopped back a bit at Massingale's bark. "Now, the only way I can get rid of some of these people is to turn them back for not making the requirements, but that still leaves me with the few who won't back down so easily. That's where you come in, Katsuya." Chief Massingale nodded towards Joseph. "I'm making the Iron Fisted Few into a protectorate of the ONBA, so we can send people over to your side and that'll get them off our backs. However, there is one person I'm putting with you three..."
"That is, sir?" Kinzoku asked. Massingale was rubbing his temples at this moment.
"Go meet her, she's in the lobby..." Massingale said as he waved everyone out.
"...Who the hell even knew we were down there?" Kinzoku asked the other three.
"I didn't have any idea about it until I saw it on the news..." Joseph said, "So it sure as hell wasn't me..."
"Wasn't any of us, either," Manic responded, "and the only one who knew we were down there was the chief."
"We can worry about that later, I guess..." Ryuu said, "What's done is done. Let's go meet up with the rookie." Manic and Kinzoku nodded in agreement as Joseph stepped to the side.
"I'm going to go meet up with the applicants for the Few, so I'll see you guys later." The three officials said their goodbyes to Joseph as they parted ways.
Finally, they reached the lobby and saw a woman with brown hair and a knee- high purple kimono waiting for them patiently.
"Hey Miyuu..." the three said to her. She then looked up towards them and stood at attention, to their surprise. She was the new ONBA Elite. Tenjou Miyuu.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Next..." Joseph said, tired already from the numerous applicants. Shinzuka was marking people off the list and had only one name on another list; the list of applicants who made the cut into the Iron Fisted Few. Taichi Matanoa.
"Hey," another person said as he walked up. Joseph yawned.
"What's your name?" Joseph asked.
"Name's Derek."
Joseph yawned again and sat up, "Datasilver set?"
Derek dropped his cyberband onto the table and Joseph scanned through the list quickly. He then whistled when he saw a few rare datasilver in Derek's set and a few rare adaptor bits. Joseph then tossed the cyberband back. "Ok, you're in. Next." Shinzuka then wrote Derek's name onto the list.
Then, a tall man with jet black hair stood in front of the siblings. He looked menacing, even if he was just giving a person a glance.
"Um..." Joseph started, "name?"
The man then used sign language to tell Joseph his name. However, Joseph had no idea what he was saying.
"Um... that's great..." Joseph said. Shinzuka then handed the man a piece of paper and a pen. He scribbled on the paper and handed it to Joseph.
Hello, My name's Jet Torasun. I'm applying for a position in the Iron Fisted Few.
"Ok, Jet..." Joseph said after reading the paper, "show me your datasilver set." Jet dropped his cyberband onto the table and Joseph looked at it. He then gave it back after a while, along with the paper and pen.
"Who's the highest ranked Challenger you've faced in the Challenge Hall?" Joseph asked. Jet scribbled some more onto the sheet of paper and handed it back.
I have defeated all of the Rogue challengers and I am currently working on getting through the Specialty challengers.
Joseph nodded at this. "Close enough... ok, you're in." Jet walked off with a smile and Shinzuka added Jet's name to the list.
"Phew... I think that's enough..." Joseph said to Shinzuka quietly, then stood up.
"I'm sorry, everyone, but all our positions are filled now. Thank you for applying, better luck next year." Several people grumbled as he and Shinzuka picked up their papers and walked towards the door, then quickened their paces as they noticed the mob of rejected netbattlers closing in on them.
"This is why I hate auditions!" Joseph yelled to Shinzuka as they both started to run to the Metroline. Shinzuka looked like she was having fun, though.
Volume II Chapter 7 down. Please read and review!