BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga

Volume 2: Pokerface

Chapter 13: Netopian Drug Life

It was a cold day in Netopia, but that couldn't stop them from business. They had come all the way from Electopia for this, this was their only time to do it. They had to make it count.

"So, where was this guy again?" Enkou asked the tall, brown-haired individual walking next to him.

"He's in a parking garage somewhere," the man replied. Their trenchcoat tails barely scraped the ground as they walked towards the dank garage, the wind picking up the ends a little. Once they walked inside, the wind stopped the trenchcoats from blowing as GC and Enkou slipped by the security booth at the front.

"They're here already?" Enkou asked GC, but GC immediately hushed Enkou up by lowering his hand in front of Enkou. Their footsteps resonated through the garage, but they both stopped in the middle of the garage.

"Dostenheim... Gentlemen," the man standing a distance away from GC and Enkou said in Netopian. He wore a business suit under a gray coat while the seven bodyguards behind him wore black business suits as well.

GC and Enkou didn't understand what he said, and, as the man thought, neither would he. They immediately took out their cyberbands and pressed a small button on them and put them onto the backs of their necks.

"As I said, welcome, gentlemen," the man said, still in a foreign accent.

"Pleasure to be in Netopia, Navarro," Enkou said with an icy stare.

"Let's get to business, shall we, 'Dragoneye'?" GC said coldly. Navarro had sucked on a toothpick he had in his mouth, then snapped his fingers and one of the bodyguards handed Navarro a metallic briefcase. GC produced a small, flat box from his trenchcoat as well. He touched the small box to the cyberband on his neck and showed Navarro what was on the screen as Navarro opened the suitcase and put it down, now holding two medicine bottles, one in each hand.

"That's the amount we agreed upon," Navarro said as he read the screen GC held up.

"I must be getting a deal, then," GC said just as coldly as he did before as he put away the screen.

"Ah, you only get one of these," Navarro said, "but since I'm such a nice person, I'm giving you a choice." GC and Enkou snapped their attention quickly towards Navarro directly.

"This bottle," Navarro said as he held the bottle in his right hand up slightly, "contains the stuff we made a deal on. Once a dose is taken, the user can alter code on the internet and delete any person with a prolonged touch. It also, I might add, has the ability to lock down your target's ability to use any datasilver upon touch."

"And the other bottle?" Enkou said as coldly as he could.

"The other bottle," Navarro said as he held up the bottle in his left hand now, "has our newest production. It will severely increase the speed of the user in the internet and locks down the surrounding internet area once the user is in the cybersystem. The only way it can be diminished is if the user leaves the net or once the drug has worn off." Navarro cleared his throat for what he was to say next. "Now, we agreed upon only one of these, so choose which one you want."

Navarro glared at GC and Enkou as they turned towards each other to figure this out.

"Ok," GC whispered to Enkou, "Do your worst..."

"Gotcha..." Enkou replied. He then cracked his knuckles behind his back and looked towards Navarro as he cleared his throat.

"I speak for my partner in crime here," Enkou started as he was about to take a step forward, "when I say we want the del--"

"You idiot!" GC yelled at Enkou as he pulled him back by the collar. Enkou then glared at GC.

"You're a real idiot, you know that!?" Enkou yelled to GC, who glared back. "We came here for that, the other drug they made was to throw us off! I know I'm right, so back the Hell off!"

"You don't boss me around, punk," GC yelled in response, "I do whatever the Hell I want to, and I'm taking the sp--"

"Thinking about yourself all the time, you speed freak!" Enkou retorted as Navarro and his bodyguards laughed, "At the rate you're running the show, Worl--"

"Don't you even think about finishing that sentence, kid!" GC yelled back as he grabbed Enkou by the collar and lifted him up from the ground. Enkou kept his glare focused on GC and slugged GC, which made him let go of Enkou. He straightened out his trenchcoat once he landed on the ground.

"I'll do whatever I want, bitch," Enkou said as he walked over to Navarro as GC picked himself up from the ground. Enkou immediately grabbed the bottle in Navarro's right hand and started to walk back to where GC was, but he felt an arm grab his and he was immediately thrown to the ground.

"Gah!" Enkou yelled as the bottle dropped from his hand. GC merely glared at the scene happening in front of him. Three of Navarro's bodyguards were holding down Enkou as Navarro calmly walked around him.

"Now, Mr. Criscuolo," Navarro said to GC, "I feel that your 'partner in crime' as he so put it, has embarassed me in front of my men. To make up for this," Navarro paused to pick up the bottle of drugs that Enkou had dropped, "I expect double of what you were to pay today for one of these... and I want it now. I know you can get me these funds in that amount of time, so get to it."

GC merely laughed, which made Navarro cock an eyebrow.

"Do you laugh at the loss of your own money?" Navarro asked.

"No, I laugh at the mess you're in," GC said as he fixed his glare on Navarro.

Navarro laughed, "What mess? I believe I have more than enough people here to kill you AND Mr. Yobuu here. Does that make you frightened?"

"Not at all," GC said with a smirk.

"Why is that?"

There was a silent pause for a second.

"Because four of your men are already dead."

Navarro gasped at GC's words and he immediately spun around to see. There were two people, one man and one woman, dressed all in black, standing over four bloody corpses of Navarro's former bodyguards. Enkou smirked as he saw Navarro's shocked look and immediately kicked behind him and threw the other two bodyguards off him to get free. Once two of the bodyguards decided to capture Enkou again, he was ready for them, and cut at their throats and chests with a balisong(butterfly knife), killing them as well. However, one of the bodyguards had snuck up from behind and tried to grab Enkou by the throat and put him into a choke hold, but the woman assassin was too quick, and snapped his neck before he could lay an arm on Enkou. Finally, after a while, the male assassin quickly threw Navarro to the ground and knelt on top of his stomach and held a knife to his throat.

"Gah..." Navarro gasped, "What is this!?"

"Didn't expect something like this to happen, didja?" the male assassin said with a cocky smile on his face. Navarro tried to gasp for air, but he couldn't due to the weight on him. However, before the male assassin could go for the kill, a metallic yo-yo had immediately snapped towards Navarro's head and damaged Navarro's right temple, killing him.

GC had snapped his wrist to the side and the metallic yo-yo had quickly sailed through the air and returned to his hand. The male assassin had looked up to GC with a defeated look on his face.

"Aww," the man said, "I was going to have some fun with him, too..."

"You know, Andy," GC said as he walked towards Navarro and picked up both bottles of drugs, "killing isn't supposed to be for sport..."

"Tch, I know..." Andy said with a smirk as he got off the dead corpse.

"So, GC," the woman said, "is that all we came for?"

"No, Shiro," Andy replied as he rolled his eyes, "We came for the food... yeah, this is all we came for, right GC?"

"No, actually..." GC responded as Enkou rubbed his neck.

"What'cha looking for, then?" Enkou asked.

"Well," GC said as he pulled a note from Navarro's jacket pocket, "You remember that Bandit's Cove tournament I told you about?"

"Yeah, wh--" Enkou was interrupted by the letter that GC threw at him, which he immediately caught. He opened it up to see what was written.

"Well, now you're going, as 'Dragoneye' Navarro, under my team," GC said as he stood up again. Enkou looked up at GC with a smile.

"Nice, I get to go now!" Enkou responded as his arm twitched a little.

"Let's get going," GC said as he turned around and Andy and Shiro followed him. GC then stopped and turned his head towards Enkou.

"Did I answer your question?" GC asked. Enkou looked at GC confused.

"What question?"

"You asked me if they were here yet... and they are..." GC then motioned to both Andy and Shiro. Enkou then got it and smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, cocky..." Enkou left his sentence open as he followed GC, Andy and Shiro out of the garage.

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"Well, day's come," Joseph said as he yawned and stepped into the family room, followed by Shinzuka. His father, Edric, was reading the newspaper at the table. Joseph had to be tricky about this, so he quietly walked towards the mantlepiece over the fireplace. The family sword had hung there, the sword of a long and famous line of mercenaries. It had now belonged to them. He quietly picked up the hilt of the sword and gripped the side of the blade with two fingers and lifted it up.

"Joseph, what're you doing with that sword?" Edric asked as he sipped his coffee and read his newspaper. Joseph looked to his dad and his mouth hung open. No way.

"Um, I..." Joseph started as he quickly took the sword off and walked towards his father.

"You...yes?" Edric asked calmly. Joseph sighed.

"I was invited to a tournament and I thought I could borrow the sword... I'll go put it back now..." Joseph then turned around and started to walk towards the fireplace again.

"Hmm... ok, have fun," Edric calmly again. Joseph stopped in his tracks.

"Woo hoo!" Joseph said in excitement as he grabbed the sheath leaning against the mantle and sheathed the sword, put it across his waist and grabbed his backpack next to the door.

"Well, see you later, Dad," Joseph said with a smile as his father slightly nodded as Joseph walked out the door.

A few seconds later, Shinzuka had walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

"Hey Dad, did Joseph leave yet?" Shinzuka asked as she poured herself some orange juice.

"Yeah, you just missed him..." Edric answered.

"Oh, then you know about the Bandit's Cove tournament..." Shinzuka said happily as she put the bottle of orange juice back into the refrigerator. Edric slowly sipped on his coffee, then choked and spit the coffee onto the newspaper he was reading.

"WHAAAT!?!?!"

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The fighters, minus Manic still, stood at the Marine Harbor pier. The mysterious man who had trained them in fighting was standing there as well, staring at the sea. The fighters were surrounded by a large group of thugs, bandits and other henchmen waiting for the ship.

"Where's Manic?" Kinzoku asked impatiently.

"He'll be here..." Ryuu said in response, meditating as best he could within the crowd while trying to stay on the defensive.

"I agree... he'll be here, he wouldn't miss out on this..." Joseph replied. He then looked to the others. "Ok, so we all know our teams, right?"

"Yeah," Taichi responded, "We went over this a million times..."

"Teams of four with one substitute, got it..." Derek said, a bit annoyed. Jet nodded in agreement, seeing as how he was mute.

"And tall, dark and brutal over there's our sub," Joseph said, "And I'm sub for Ryuu's team..."

"You may have to be a regular on our team, at this rate..." Miyuu said with disdain, "doesn't look like Manic's going to show up..."

"Hey missie," a large thug had said to Miyuu, "you look like you're easy enough to kill... how about we get a pre-game fight going?" Miyuu glared at the thug and reached for her katana, but she immediately stopped as she heard a voice from behind the large brute.

"I wouldn't advise that, she's pretty fierce with a sword."

"Who sa--ACK!" the thug then immediately hit the floor to reveal Manic standing in front of the group. His clothes were torn up a little, his white shirt under his hawaiian shirt revealed splotches of blood scattered everywhere, and there were bruises on Manic's face and arms. However, he was holding nunchaku in a defensive stance while a ninjato was strapped across his back and a gun holster slung across his waist.

"Manic, long time, no see!" Joseph said with excitement. Manic stood up straight and held the nunchaku in one hand and held them out to Ryuu.

"Here, I got you a souveneir from my training," Manic said with a smile. Ryuu thanked Manic for the weapon, but Gaius was starting to get choked up.

*What's wrong, Gaius?* Ryuu asked mentally.

*These...* Gaius started, *these are Koro's nunchaku...*

*Who's Koro?* Ryuu asked.

*I'll explain later... he was an old friend of mine...* Gaius said.

"So, when does the boat show up?" Manic asked Kinzoku.

"I'd say..." Kinzoku looked at his cyberband's built-in watch, "just about now..."

Sure enough, the boat arrived on time. The back end of the boat lowered and opened up for all the fighters to enter. The contest was about to start.

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V2 chapter 13 complete! Read and review, please?