It was a peaceful, starry night in ACDC. Couples were walking along the sidewalks, admiring the stars and loving one another. It seemed everyone was peaceful that night, even a certain netbattler, living in apartment 777, in the ACDC Netbattler's apartment complex. The apartments were recently built with the advent of Navis, and one such navi was undergoing upgrading.
"Ow, that hurt!" Strike.exe yelped at his operator as a new, more complex program had replaced his arm. The navi was a bit taller than most navis seen on the net. It had deep red armor with black trim around the arms and legs, spiky red hair that went almost everywhere, and bright green eyes. "Couldn't you have at least told me what you were going to do first?"
"Hehe, sorry about that, Strike," his operator had said. He ran his hand through his short, deep blue hair and continued work on reconstructing Strike. Strike was a custom navi that he received from his father just before he left on a business trip, but he never saw him again since that day.
Pah, who needs him, the young netbattler would always say to himself.
While he was working on Strike.exe, there was a knock on the door.
"Hold on, I'll be back," Strike's operator said quietly as he picked himself up from the couch and walked slowly towards the door.
"Who is it?" the youth said as he walked to the door. There was another banging on the door, this time it echoed through the entire apartment. He narrowed his eyes and walked to a desk off to the side of the apartment and opened the top drawer. He pulled out a small handgun, took the safety off and walked to the door again.
"Who is it!"
"...Zero, it's me..."
Zero blinked, then put the gun into his other hand, away from where the door would open. He unlocked the sliding door and started to push it open.
"Man, Apo-kun, lay off the door banging whenev..." Zero paused as the door slid open on its own to show the scene. His friend was being held by two large thugs, one with a gun to his head. Two others were standing closer to Zero, and they immediately barged into the apartment. Zero attempted to aim the gun at one of them, but the men were too fast for him, and they rushed into him, sending the handgun flying to the other side of the room. Zero struggled to get free from their grip, but Apo-kun was thrown towards him. Zero caught him when the men let him go. They walked towards the front door and faced the two netbattlers on the floor.
"So, I've found you two at last..." said a decrepid voice among the four thugs. The two netbattlers picked themselves up from the ground and tried to see who the source of the voice was. "You ruined my life's work, you two... you just had to interfere..."
Zero then remembered where he had heard that voice.
"How...how did you get out of prison!?" Zero yelled towards the owner of the voice. The voice chuckled, then laughed whole-heartedly.
"You don't know my capabilities, do you?" the voice said. Finally, the voice now had a body with it. The man was short and round, his black hair was starting to fall out. "I have many contacts, getting out of prison was cake for me, and it was all worth it, to see you two die in front of my eyes."
With those words, the four thugs had brandished silenced submachine guns, and pointed them at the two netbattlers.
"Zero? What's going on? Zero!? Zero!" Strike yelled through the PET, hopelessly trying to get Zero to respond to him.
BATTLE NETWORK CYBERSYSTEM: The Manic Saga
"Zero!"
Volume 2: Pokerface
"Zero, answer me!"
Chapter 17: A Distant Farewell
"Joseph, wake up!"
"Ngh... five more minutes..." Joseph said as he rolled over and went back to sleep. Manic and Kin were now angry. They wanted to know more about who they were going to face next in the tournament, and since Team Ironfist had lost to their next opponent, Kinzoku figured that Joseph would know how to fight them.
"Kin, grab his legs," Manic said as he grabbed both of Joseph's arms. Kin grabbed Joseph's legs, and the two hauled Joseph towards the hotel room's bathroom and put him into the bathtub. The showerhead above was now aimed directly at Joseph's face, thanks to Manic's repositioning of the showerhead.
"Joseph, one last chance..." Manic said calmly, "wake up!"
Joseph merely mumbled in his sleep.
"You asked for it, then...," Kinzoku said as he turned the cold water shower knob. Suddenly, even Manic and Kin jumped backwards at Joseph's reaction.
"YAAAH!" Joseph screamed as he struggled to get out of the bathtub before being frozen by the water. After a moment of struggling, Joseph finally crawled out of the bathtub and looked up at Manic and Kinzoku.
"Rise and shine," Manic said.
"How do we fight our next guy?" Kin said.
"...I hate you two." Joseph said with glaring eyes as he grabbed a towel and walked out of the bathroom.
-And welcome to the Quarter Finals of the Bandit's Cove Tournament. Our first match of the day will be the deciding match of the Electopian Bracket. This looks like it will be an exciting match, too. First up, we have the underdogs and guest entrants of the tournament, Team Deity. They will be facing a veteran team of the last Bandit's Cove, Team ZX-One. They fell short of the semi-finals last year due to a forfeit, but their team leader, Dr. Barnes Wainwright, seems to have a few more tricks up his sleeve as compared to last year's tournament. We've seen one such trick in the first match-up, with the good doctor taking control of two of Team Ironfist's members. If that was just a mere taste of what he has in store for his next opponents, then we can all expect a very well-fought tournament this year.-
"They barely mentioned us..." Miyuu said, wiping the blade of her katana clean with a piece of cloth.
"Well, we're the underdogs, after all," Kinzoku responded.
"We'll do fine," Ryuu said immediately after Kin, "there's no match we can't win in this tournament, don't worry about it."
Manic smirked. "You're right. Besides, I'd like to see the look on their faces once we win this tournament!"
As Team Deity was preparing for their next match, Manic took out the enveloupe they found in their room and looked at the datasilver cards.
Who left these in our room...? Manic thought to himself. They look familiar... like an advance attack that I... no... it couldn't be... Once the teams were announced, though, Manic put the enveloupe back in his pocket and walked towards the entrance to the arena.
The arena was filled with the cheers and boos of the crowd, once again. Team Deity stepped out into the open and hopped onto the concrete slab.
-And our veteran team, please welcome Team ZX-One!-
The crowd was now in an uproar of cheering as a short, stubby man had walked out and stepped onto the arena concrete.
-And Begin!-
"We have to fight an old guy?" Miyuu asked skeptically. Ryuu and Kinzoku just looked at the man while Manic sighed.
"Yes, you have to fight me," Dr. Wainwright said with an evil smile, "so don't take me too lightly, you brats..."
Wainwright snapped his fingers and two tall men had grabbed both Ryuu and Miyuu and hauled them off to the side of the arena.
"What are you doing!?" Manic yelled towards Dr. Wainwright in surprise.
"Now, now, it wouldn't be fair for me to fight four of you... I just evened the odds up a bit..."
Manic looked towards the tall men holding Miyuu and Ryuu. They were struggling and tried to fight their way out of their grasp, but the two men seemed as if they didn't feel any of the hits that Miyuu or Ryuu gave them.
"What's with these guys?!" Ryuu yelled as he tried to launch another kick towards the man holding Miyuu.
"Gyeh heheh, they're practically zombies at my disposal, struggling against them is no use," Dr. Wainwright said with a smile. Kinzoku and Manic glared at the doctor.
"Now, you two will fight me," the doctor said towards Kin and Manic. Manic stood up straight, with a cocky look in his eye and straightened out his hawaiian shirt.
"We can still beat you, no problem," Manic said. Wainwright then looked towards Manic's right hip, where Manic's gun was.
"Ah...interesting..." Wainwright said to himself. Then, quickly, Dr. Wainwright threw a small pebble-like object at Manic. However, Manic merely bat it back towards the doctor. However, the object hit something in front of the doctor and dropped to the ground, leaving a small ripple in front of the doctor.
"A barrier?" Manic barked at Dr. Wainwright, who was laughing.
"A bit more than that, though, but you should be focused more on that pebble... right about... now!"
"What?" Manic said. However, he finally found out what was happening. He was starting to lose consciousness, but he was struggling against it.
"Manic!" Kinzoku said as he knelt down and tried to keep Manic awake. However, Manic lost consciousness of his body, but it seemed to move on its own. It stood up and walked towards Dr. Wainwright,
This can't be good... Naoko said to Kin.
You're telling me... Infernos said in response.
Infernos! Naoko said with surprise.
Yeah, I'm still here. Not in control, but still here.
Any ideas, Sparky? Naoko asked.
...well... you'll really have to make it look good, but...
"Now that I have him on my side," Dr. Wainwright said with a smile towards Kinzoku, "it seems you have a choice. Kill your friend, or be killed by your friend. Heheh..."
Kinzoku glared at Wainwright, but took a step backwards when Manic turned his head towards him. His eyes were glazed over completely. He really didn't have any control over his body.
"Go!"
After swaying a bit, Manic quickly shot towards Kinzoku and sent a flurry of punches at him. Kin tried his best to block all of them, but Manic's hands were too fast for him. Once Kinzoku found his footing again, though, Manic easily flipped over Kinzoku and sent a knee into his back. Kinzoku yelped with pain, but was quickly taken off his feet and kicked into the air forcefully. However, Manic was in quick pursuit of the airborne samurai and, with great agility, jumped over Kinzoku and punched him down towards the concrete again. During this, though, Manic fell towards the ground before Kinzoku could and, with one final blow, kicked Kin away from him. He was sent sprawling into the concrete, leaving bits of torn-up concrete in his wake. Kinzoku tried to pick himself up, but found Manic looking over him, his gun pointed to his head.
"Finish him off!" Dr. Wainwright screamed at Manic.
However, Manic smirked. He threw off the hawaiian shirt, towards Dr. Wainwright. The shirt had hit the barrier protecting the doctor, but the barrier quickly dropped once a shot rang through the barrier, sending a small floating object to the ground, the object maintaining the barrier around Dr. Wainwright.
The doctor was surprised that his barrier was shot down, but then looked towards the two fighters, who were now standing. Manic's gun was holstered, but smoke was still coming out of the barrel.
"Insolent pest!" Dr. Wainwright yelled at Manic.
"You didn't count on me, did you?" Infernos said through Manic.
Ready, Kin? Infernos asked mentally.
Yeah... I've been waiting to use this...
"Advance Attack!" both Manic and Kinzoku said in unison, each of them holding three cards in their hand.
"They were tricking me..." Dr. Wainwright said to himself, "That fight was staged..."
"Double-"
"Hero-"
"Plus!"
Suddenly, after the Advance Attack was activated between Kinzoku and Manic, a large bolt of energy flooded the arena. Miyuu and Ryuu tried their best to shield their eyes, along with the rest of the audience, but the flash was gone in an instant.
However, where Kinzoku and Manic once stood, two other men stood. Where Manic was stood a man in a black trenchcoat with deep blue hair, baggy black jeans, black tank top and two long-barrelled revolvers. Where Kinzoku was, though, was a man with pure white hair and glasses, dressed in full samurai armor, and with a long, sheathed katana.
"You remember us, doc?" the blue-haired man said coldly.
"Wh...who are you!?" Dr. Wainwright yelled at the two.
"Obviously not." The samurai said with the same amount of coldness as the other. However, the samurai had unsheathed his katana and held it horizontally, allowing the blue-haired man a foothold to somersault into the air, his back towards the doctor. As the blue-haired man was in the air, the samurai had launched himself towards the doctor and sent a five-cut combination at him, cutting through several robotic decoys that the doctor launched at the man. As the samurai had stopped past Dr. Wainwright, the blue-haired man had now sailed above the doctor and aimed the two guns at him and shot two bullets each at the doctor, each shot causing the man to sail a bit higher in the air. Once the man landed in a kneel on solid ground, though, the doctor quickly scraped his way across the arena, to get away from them.
"Wh-who are y-you two!?" the doctor yelled.
"You still don't remember us..." the blue-haired man said as he slowly stood up. He pressed a button on each of the guns and the revolving chambers had sprung away from the guns. The man then reloaded each of the guns with new chambers and looked towards the doctor.
"Do you remember, when you killed two young men in cold blood?" the blue-haired man said with glaring eyes.
"...no...no, i-it couldn't be... you two!?!?" the doctor picked himself up from the ground to look at the two men again.
"Z-Z-Zero...?" Dr. Wainwright asked after looking at the blue hair. Zero didn't respond.
"A-and... Apollyon?"
"You seem to have remembered finally..." the platinum blonde samurai said as he turned towards the doctor.
"Remember us when you're in Hell," Zero said coldly as he stepped back at took aim at the doctor again. However, each gun seemed to take in energy as he held them. After a short moment of charging, each gun shot was a large blast of energy, straight towards Wainwright. The doctor barely activated a barrier in time to take the shots, but the barrier was only strong enough to prevent those, as it shorted out quickly.
"My turn," Apollyon said as he ran towards Zero's back and, stepping onto Zero's right shoulder quickly, launched into the air, his katana in both hands. As Apollyon came down, however, lightning surrounded the blade.
"Heaven Strike!" Apollyon yelled as he cut towards the doctor as he landed. The doctor barely escaped with another of his contraptions, but Apollyon had done more than enough damage to the arena itself, leaving a large crater where Wainwright was.
Apollyon, jack into the left computer, I'll take the right!
Got it, Zero, good luck!
"I...I remember..." Wainwright said slowly, recalling his lost memories.
No! What are you kids doing!? My work!
What we should have done long ago, Doc, we're shutting down your system!
No, you fools! Do you know what this could mean!? No one would age! Everyone would be healthy and young forever!
No, Doc, you don't get it, you've seen the side effects of what would happen!
Strike, you're coming up to the main power code, get rid of it.
Gotcha, Zero.
No! I won't allow you two to destroy my life's work!
Zero, I did it, jack me out!
Zero, get moving, Azrael's already done with getting his side of the main power code!
Done, let's get out of here!
"I can still... still hear the explosions of my lab...echoes...
"You don't remember it all..." Zero and Apollyon said again.
Zero, what's wrong?
The door's jammed, I can't get it open!
Bahahah, I'll make you two twerps suffer in here forever!
Zero, jack Strike in and try to get the door working again, I'll hold him off.
Don't die on me, Apo-kun.
Heh, you still don't know how good I am with a sword...
Strike, how does it look in there?
...Strike?
Strike! Answer me!
Z...Zero!
Strike!
There's too many of them! I can't hold them off!
Strike! Jack out, now!
"Because of your twisted mind, everyone in the world would have ended up like you..." Apollyon said coldly, "Had it not been for us, you would ha--"
"I would have cleansed the world! The newly-born youths would have been cast aside, the greater minds would have become the strong, we would have made the world great!"
"You would have ended the world," Zero said, "just look at yourself. That drug you take is the only thing sustaining you now."
"H-how did you--?"
"We're dead, remember?" Apollyon said, answering Dr. Wainwright's question quickly.
"Y-you were exposed to the virus also!" Wainwright yelled.
"We were..." Zero said as he lifted a part of his tanktop up. Underneath, where his abdomen was, there was a chunk of rotting flesh. "We are what we were at the time you killed us. Three years after that incident. We were already rotting away in secret, thanks to your project."
"N-n-no..."
"And the same will happen to you," Apollyon said, glaring at the doctor.
"N-no... I-i won't accept it!"
"Learn to accept your fate--"
"Apo-kun..." Zero said. They had a limit of time before Manic's and Kin's bodies would start to deteriorate due to their appearance.
"I know," Apollyon said as he turned his head towards Zero. Zero walked towards the doctor as Apollyon turned his head back towards him.
"Remember this day, Doc," Zero said coldly as he reloaded the two guns, "the day you were defeated by your past and future. Goodbye."
Suddenly, both Apollyon and Zero ran towards the doctor, but split up and attacked him from two sides. Wainwright tried to activate another barrier, but the two spirits were too fast for Wainwright. Apollyon had cut through Wainwright's torso while Zero had taken two shots from point blank range at Wainwright's heart and head. Both dead netbattlers stood on either side of the doctor, who fell into a dead heap a moment afterwards.
"Apo-kun," Zero said as he stood up and turned towards his friend, "...we should leave now. We did what we came to do."
Apollyon finished sheathing his sword and looked back to Zero. "Yes... but it's good to know our grandkids can still fight without PETs," Apollyon said with a smirk.
"Yeah..." Zero responded, with the same kind of smirk. Suddenly, the two bodies started to appear more like Manic and Kinzoku, rather than Zero and Apollyon.
"Manic! Kin!" Miyuu and Ryuu yelled as they broke themselves free from the two tall men, who were suddenly regaining consciousness from their long slumber. They both ran towards Manic and Kinzoku, who were looking everywhere.
"Wh...what just happened, Kin?" Manic asked, putting a hand to his forehead.
"I don't... know..." Kinzoku responded, until he caught a glance of the fallen Dr. Wainwright, "...did we win?"
"I guess..."
"Daijobu ka?!" Ryuu asked as he and Miyuu hurried towards them.
"Ngh..." Manic said, trying to remember what happened, "What's going on, guys?"
"Yeah, what happened?" Kinzoku asked. Miyuu and Ryuu looked at each other with blank expressions.
"You mean... you don't know what happened?" Miyuu asked.
"No... could you fill us in, please?"
"Back at the hotel, we will," Ryuu responded as he looked towards the audience, "but right now... I think we better leave..."
The audience was dead silent. The only sounds were those of mumbling to one another about what they had just seen. Slowly and carefully, the four had walked towards the exit to the arena.
"Joseph!" Manic and Kinzoku said in unison as they saw their friend walking down from the stands.
"Hey, you know," Joseph started, "if you guys told me about THAT little trick, we might have beaten that guy instead! Why'd you hold out!?"
Manic and Kin looked at each other. "We didn't...hold out anything..."
Joseph merely looked at them, then walked past. "Yeah, yeah... good job, by the way," Joseph said with a grin.
Tournament Bracket:
Electopian Branch: Team Deity
Netopian Branch: Team World Three
Northern Republic Branch: Team Ace
Eurasian Branch: Team Ryusho
Notice:
From here on, the Bandit's Cove Tournament will now take place in the sponsor's home country/province. Tomorrow, teams must be packed and ready to move to the Northern Republic Tournament Site. Thank you.
"Northern Republic?" Manic asked.
"Yeah, I heard it's really cold up there," Joseph said.
"Well, Wainwright won't be a thorn in our side any more, sir," a calm voice said.
"Yes, allowing us to take his work for ourselves. Our plan has just been advanced... how do you expect to win your fight tomorrow?"
"As carefully as I can, sir..." the calm voice said before leaving.
"...I hope I can trust you..."
"Miles, can you hear me?"
Knux, what is it?
"My team was kicked out early, so it's easier for me to work behind the scenes now."
Good, because I planted the package in their room yesterday.
"Good, but... did you know it'd have that kind of power?"
...what kind of power? All it does is give them extra speed and power...
"..."
Why do you ask?
"...nothing. The tournament's headed to the Northern Republic now, so I'll have to go there alone. Stay sharp, I'll see you back in Electopia."
Gotcha Klo...Knux...
Hey, come back here, you little brat! You still have to pay for that!
I didn't steal anything! Honest!
Then why are you runni--Hey, kid, look out!
What?! Umph!
...hey, are you ok? Let me help you up...
Huh? Th-thanks...
Hey, what's your name?
Me? I'm...
Apollyon! Got you!
Hey, let me go! I never got his name!
My name's Zero!
Gotcha, kid!
I'm Apollyon! I hope we meet again! Hey, let me go!
Yeah! See you later, Apo-kun!
V2 ch. 17 finished. Please read and review. Also, if you have any questions about it, feel free to ask.