Disclaimer: I do not own Megaman Battle Network or any related properties. Capcom does. All other characters are the literary property of the Chaos Coalition.
Author's Note: Here's another chapter in the continuing drama that is Chaotic We Stand. No new characters in this one, but nonetheless, it is an important chapter in the progression of the story. Next week, the action begins to rush forwards again, so hang on tight, and enjoy!
-
To begin with, SH had never intended on creating the rivalry between himself and J.G. After all, the kid was six or seven years younger than him, and any conflict between them would be childish at best. But it had just seemed to happen. They'd both joined at roughly the same time, and just never really got off on the right foot. Eventually, it had exploded into a full blown rivalry, the latest encounter of which was going on today.
He and J.G. were meeting in the Labyrinth, to duel. The concept seemed odd to SH, but J.G. had promised that he would get to choose the terms of battle. Who could refuse a chance like that? SH rolled his eyes to himself as he leaned against the walls of the elevator, pondering what scenario to play out. Medievil? Too cliched. Futuristic? Too realistic? Western? Too dusty.
He finally settled on one as the doors opened, and he walked into the Labyrinth. The only one visible on the field was J.G. himself, the remainder of the Chaos Union being behind the glass windows of the Watchtower. He couldn't see Shroud, who'd said yesterday that he wouldn't be a party to this nonsense, but nearly everyone else was there, except for Link and Pavo, who were having another one of their 73-hour gaming sessions this weekend. They were on Hour 34, and had already consumed seven pizzas and 4 liters of soda. Each.
"Hello, SH." J.G. said as he walked towards the center of the room. "Have you decided what our battlefield will be?"
"Why, yes, I have," he replied, surprisingly sharp in his retort. "Jazz, activate Scenario 64-B."
A series of mutterings escaped the Watchtower before Jazz soundproofed it, and SH could see zenny exchanging hands through its glass windows. J.G. looked pale, knowing that the 64 series were apocalyptic missions, but he obviously didn't realize which one. The environment began to change, shifting to a world torn by conflict, burnt and ravaged. Then, the nanotech appeared, running across the ground towards him. "Your mission," he said as the small electronic bugs began to form his exo-armor. "is to survive for 10 minutes without being destroyed by me or any of my pet nanobugs. Prepare to die."
Then he attacked, lunging towards J.G. in his new body. He now appeared to be a giant man-spider, with a pair of normal legs and arms, the latter having long pincerlike fingers, and two pairs of insectoid arms, extending from his torso. All of his arms lashed out at the teenager before him, but J.G. rolled aside, barely evading a direct attack. He looked around for any weapon, and saw a sword protruding from the ground at an angle. He dashed towards it, but SH sent out one of his arms like a whip, extending far enough to lash across the sword, snapping its blade with a whistle that echoed through the room. The broken edge was sent flying, but J.G. managed to snag it from the air anyways, brandishing it in time to deflect his next offensive.
"You can't win with a broken sword!" he shouted with amusement as his whip-like appendages began to attack J.G. He defended valiantly, managing to block or evade a majority of the blows, but SH was winning over all, having six arms to fight with. After what felt like an eternity, one of SH's arms managed to disarm J.G., and knock him to the ground.
"All right, SH! You win!" he shouted, but SH was past hearing. With a passion that he had never realized, he raised one hand in the air, and then brought it swinging down to finish J.G. with a smooth decapitation. The look on his face was truly satisfying as the guilotine that was his arm swept in to supply death.
His satisfaction was marred by J.G.'s next expression: relief. Looking at his arm, he realized that the simulation was over, and his arm was roughly an inch from J.G., almost exactly where it would have drawn blood a second sooner. SH sighed in disbelief, and extended a hand to help up his rival. J.G. took it, but then instantly began to walk off towards the medical ward, where their new recruit Irine was presumably waiting for one of them.
SH reached up to touch the computer that was bonded to his neck as the room began to shut itself down. He'd had very few problems with it before, since Kyra generally stayed within it to hunt down any viral infections. But he'd sent her out on a job yesterday, finding some lost data in a company's mainframe. Perhaps the computer was more sentinent than he'd thought. At any rate, he'd need a diagnostic on it.
"Then again," he muttered almost inaudibly as he looked over at the retreating J.G., "maybe we're more of rivals than I thought."
-
Chaotic We Stand
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Chapter 10: Misteri Inter Amicos
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-- Saturday, April 5, 10: 04 AM, Terra Net Room 49, ElecNet, CyberNet --FallenKnowledge16 logging in.
FallenKnowledge16 has created a room.
ArcadianSaint has entered the room.
FallenKnowledge16: Seija? Is that you?
ArcadianSaint: Of course it is. How many other people could it possibly be? And how new is that screen name, considering that you only found out about your father's connection with the Chaos Union last week?
FallenKnowledge16: Only three days. I thought it was better than the one I've had for the last 3 or 4 years, TechnoKid79.
ArcadianSaint: Much better. Anyways, Alistor and Dakota should be on soon, I told them to be here by ten and not tell their parents.
FallenKnowledge16: Which reminds me, how are our parents doing, aside from my father being paralyzed and everything.
ArcadianSaint: Umm…not as good as they'd hoped. X came back late last night, and apparently hasn't seen anyone, not even Harpuia. My dad hasn't heard anything about the satellites either.
FallenKnowledge16: Hey, Seija, sometime after this is all over, maybe you could…come back to Electopia or something. You know, to hang out or whatever.
ArcadianSaint: Sounds great! I'd pack my things tonight, but I kind of feel like staying as long as my dad's here. To support him, you know. Although he's already told us that if they fail to stop the satellite, we're to take your dad's jet out of the city right away.
FallenKnowledge16: All right, well maybe you could even stay…
Sir-Merlo has entered the room.
Sir-Merlo: Seija, this is the room, right?
ArcadianSaint: Yep! Alistor, this is Luke, Matthias' son. We met right before this whole thing started.
FallenKnowledge16: Nice to meet you, Alistor.
Sir-Merlo: Likewise. Dakota will be on in a second, he's trying to figure out how to plug his laptop into the outlets here.
ArcadianSaint: What was he using before? He was online the other night.
Sir-Merlo: I let him use mine because I went to the meeting with Link. He wasn't too happy that I restricted him to a guest account though, I think he wanted to load up a copy of Penultimate Phantasm VIII on my computer.
FallenKnowledge16: VII was better.
Sir-Merlo: I know, but don't tell him that. He hasn't played it and I don't want to hear him whine about it anymore.
Trigger-Happy-Maniac has entered the room.
Trigger-Happy-Maniac: You know, this isn't a messenger. I can scroll up and read what you guys have already written. And just because I accidentally forget to buy the best game in the Penultimate Phantasm series after buying all the others doesn't give you the right to mock me.
FallenKnowledge16: I think I have a copy floating around here somewhere, Dakota. I'll send you it as long as you promise not to let Busterman chase me through any alleyways again, all right?
Trigger-Happy-Maniac: Deal. Now where is it?
FallenKnowledge16: Well I don't have copies just lying around. I'll have to make one, and that means Aeon will have to crack the anti-copying code on the disc. It might take a while.
Trigger-Happy-Maniac: All right, I can wait…for now…
Sir-Merlo: Dakota, I'm sitting right across from you. Stop writing "Luke must die" on a piece of paper.
FlaminKitsune has entered the room.
FlaminKitsune: Hey, Luke. Is this everyone?
FallenKnowledge16: Everyone except my friend John, who wanted to help out.
ArcadianSaint: You told someone else about this?
FallenKnowledge16: We're best friends. I started by telling him about my trip to Neo Arcadia, and eventually it got to this point. Anyways, he's a loyal friend, and we'll need as many loyal people as possible.
!Rnd()mness has entered the room.
FallenKnowledge16: Speaking of which, here he is now. Glad you could be here, John.
!Rnd()mness: Thanks, Luke. Is this everyone?
FallenKnowledge16: Yep. All right, Aeon. Let's make this visual.
-
Aeon stood within the lounge-like interior of Room 49, finishing setting in place the changes to the server that allowed for both the humans and their netnavis to converse simultaneously, instead of only one or the other. Everyone needed to be there to begin the hack, but once accomplished, the room was much improved.
"All right, Aeon. Let's make this visual."
With the semi-omnipotent voice of his NetOp ringing in his ears, Aeon pulled the switch built into the fuse box that was the visual representation of his hacking. As the lights flickered momentarily, Aeon sat in the chair that materialized below him, a picture of Luke's face appearing over the chair's back, directly behind him. The webcam setup in Luke's room would transfer his messages to the others perfectly, but Aeon hoped that the others had similar technology.
He wasn't disappointed. The images of the NetOps appeared first, and several wore a headset similar to Luke's own, an efficient method of conversing. They appeared in a circle of six, and the chairs surrounding them were quickly filled with netnavis. The chair to his left was filled by John's netnavi Chance, whose appearance changed randomly every time he left his PET. Today, he wore a navy cloak over a gray and green bodysuit, and had a spiked whip coiled at his belt. He looked over at Aeon and smiled briefly, little sparks along his fingers showing that his randomizer was working perfectly again, and then looked back around at the others, Aeon doing the same.
To his immediate right was apparently the face of Seija, the only girl so far in the group, and her netnavi below in a black chair. On a whim, Aeon tried looking into the netnavi's data strands, as Gizmo had been trying to teach him. It was similar to reading the coding of a server in preparation for hacking it, and he could eventually hack a netnavi itself, or so his mentor told him. At any rate, he could see that the navi's name was Ark, and that parts of his data were corrupted, or missing. Regardless, he seemed both frail and frightening at the same time. He was an albino, with palest white skin and pink eyes, and a grey and white bodysuit, causing his figure to almost glow in contrast to the chair he was seated in.
Beside Ark was a netnavi in bright silver armor, with two swords sheathed behind his back. The armor looked as if it was a struggle to wear outside of battle, but the netnavi seemed not to care. Above his head materialized a teenager that Aeon didn't know, but from the brief description Seija had given them over the phone last night, it had to be Alistor Merlo, and his netnavi Bladeknight.
Directly across from them sat another well-armored netnavi, this one in camouflage that was vastly unsuited for sitting in a lounge, a mix of greens and browns. Presumably, this was Busterman, and his coloration shifted into a mix of blues, while the cannon attached to his right arm morphed itself into a Bubbler. Above, a child could be seen, and this must have been Dakota. Aeon was surprised that a kid who couldn't be more than 12 was joining them, but kept his mouth shut.
The last of them was Metro, who Aeon had met earlier, although he was not wearing the battle armor that he had been last time. Instead, he wore a light robe of some kind, of a scarlet shade. Upon it was a golden fox rampant, and Aeon had to admit that the robe suited the fiery warrior, perhaps more than his armor did. "So, what's up, Luke?" Kitsune said from over his head. "What are we all meeting for?"
"Well," Luke replied, "I gathered you all here because I think that the six of us should try to destroy the Vile 5."
"You mean reform the Chaos Union?" Seija asked. "That sounds great, Luke, but what about our parents? I can't imagine that they'll be too pleased with us attacking terrorists."
"Not to mention the fact that the Chaos Union is hunting the Vile 5 already," Bladeknight replied. "Alistor and I have battled one of their navis already, and they're no pushover. Why don't we let the real Chaos Union take care of it?"
"Because they aren't taking care of it!" Luke said, Aeon noting the fact that he was beginning to lose his audience's interest. "All my father wants to do is stop the satellite and get the movement of his legs back. And I'm sure there are several members who feel the same way. After all, Alistor, your uncle's only flying in today to keep you from having to fight. The Chaos Union isn't going to do anything more than stop them this time and then leave Neo Arcadia and the rest of the world to pick up the pieces."
"If it's any consolation, Luke, I agree with you," Kitsune said. "My parents only went because of their relation to Shroud. Someone needs to hunt down the Vile 5 for the sake of hunting the Vile 5." Beside him, both Dakota and John nodded, and their navis expressed their agreement briefly as well.
"Well, it sounds like a good idea in theory," Seija said, "but we can't really do anything, not legally. We're powerless. I think that we should just leave the Vile 5 alone and let the Chaos Union do what they can."
Kitsune opened his mouth for a rebuttal, but before he could say anything, a loud siren began to blare, and Aeon leapt from his chair with a mild oath. "A mod's trying to get in! Everyone, log out now before they lock us in here!"
"Too late," Ark said meekly. "We can't escape." Aeon paid no heed to him, and hurried for the fuse box, hoping that he could reach it in time. He couldn't.
"Attention," the moderator said as he materialized in Aeon's path. "You are in direct violation of the Terms and Conditions, Paragraph 5, Lines 8 through 10, which state that: 'There are to be no variations of any kind to the chat rooms. This includes, but is not limited to, the editing of any censoring, an attempt to turn the room into a server of any kind, utilizing it for a purpose other than chatting, and attempting to break into Terra Net servers through the room. Any attempt will be construed as hacking, whether it is successful or not." The moderator was now completely solid, and was reciting his lines by rote, with his eyes unfocused. However, Aeon recognized the figure, and so did some of the others.
"Pedro?" John asked from behind, realizing that the small avatar was the juvenile programmer he'd met several days before.
Pedro himself blinked, and seemed to realize for the first time that he had taken form in the room. "Well, that's odd. This is an interesting bit of hacking you've done here. Perhaps if you cooperate, I'll let you off with a warning so that I can suggest the idea to my superiors." He then studied the netnavis and people that were in the room, and recognized Aeon first. "Well, if it isn't Project: Fallen himself! You've certainly gotten yourself into trouble this time, haven't you?"
"Pedro, listen. Let us out of here, will you? I'll even leave the hacking up so that you can study it." Aeon gestured to the fuse box behind Pedro, and he turned to look at it a minute.
"Yes…it's tempting…but perhaps I should ask you and your friends a few questions first. Now, what were you all doing here?"
Aeon looked at the others, and Luke gave him a faint shake of his head. Unfortunately, before he could respond, Busterman's voice was heard. "We're going to restart the Chaos Union." As the collective group began to glare at the netnavi, he simply shrugged, before proceeding to fire Bubblers aimlessly into the air.
"Well, this changes everything," Pedro said, a strange look in his eyes.
-- 10: 15 AM, Lambda Complex, Neo Arcadia --
Peter Hurr carefully leapt across the gap between the two buildings, hoping that his contact had been correct about the location of his target. Sure enough, as he approached the edge of the rooftop, he could see his client below, walking past the window of a two-room apartment. The Lambda Complex didn't have decent housing, but it was easy to get an apartment there, and it kept you out of the government's vision.
Peter had been following his mysterious client ever since he'd left his office back in Electopia, and had only lost him twice. The first time was at the airport, where a combination of security checkpoints and bad luck had kept him from tailing him closely, and then again recently, when Peter had strayed into a bit too much sunlight to get a better view. However, he didn't seem too perturbed by the encounter, and simply packed his bags and vanished, presumably to this new apartment.
Pulling out a pair of binoculars, Peter scanned the apartment through the window, seeing very little of it. Still, he saw enough to note that this was truly the person that he was looking for, and that they had a pistol lying on their desk. Surgeonman's PET suddenly pulsed at his belt, and he pressed the talk button on it, feeding his words directly into the headset he was wearing. "What's up, Surgeonman?"
"Your dad's on the line. Should I have him call back?"
"No, I'm good," he replied, moving along the rooftop so that he couldn't be directly seen from the window. "Patch him through."
A few seconds later, Peter heard his father's voice come over the line. "Hey, Peter. What's your status?"
"I've found the target's domicile," he quickly replied, "he's in Lambda Complex still, just in a new portion of it."
"Excellent," SH responded. "Keep up the good work. Shroud thinks that X will agree with our proposal, so as soon as we get the word, we're heading into space. Keep an eye on this guy in the meantime, alright?"
"Got it. Thanks, Dad."
"No problem. Remember, think of this as practice." The line went dead, and Peter moved back into his prior position. Now, all he had to do was wait.
-
The 'target' paced back and forth in front of the window again, making sure that the child on the rooftop across could see him. He then sat at the desk beside his bed and opened his laptop, activating the camera he'd placed on the rooftop opposite earlier. It gave him a good view of Peter Hurr, and he watched as the teenager moved to a new position and began talking to someone via a headset of some sorts. He hadn't equipped any audio devices to the camera, but he knew the look of someone reporting to their superiors.
It seemed that the Hurr Repossession Agency wanted him for some reason, and it obviously was dire enough to send a relatively untrained operative for the job. Perhaps they felt that he would lead them to Shroud, but if so, they were wrong. He had no intention of betraying him to them, despite what they might think. So, he'd been forced to play this game of cat-and-mouse with young Hurr, although his pursuer had no idea that he was the mouse.
As such, he couldn't reach Shroud, and that meant that he couldn't help him. He'd picked up a few rumors in the streets, including the reformation of the Chaos Union, but nothing coherent enough to go by. If only he knew the members…if Steve had rejoined, there was no need for this subterfuge. But if not, then revealing himself and contacting Shroud would lead to his capture, and there was still a high bounty on his head in Electopia. It seemed a catch-22, and he knew no other alternative to the choices he had. It seemed that he would have to sit here alone, until the Hurrs gave up, or all hell broke loose. It was only a matter of time.
-- 10: 18 AM, Terra Net Room 49, ElecNet, CyberNet --
Metro looked around the room cautiously. It seemed that this moderator that had entered the room knew Aeon and his NetOp, and the NetOp beside him seemed to know him as well. To be honest, Metro knew very little about this John, but he had faced his netnavi Chance a couple of weeks ago, and the navi was a formidable foe. If they were truly restarting the Chaos Union, John and Chance would be excellent members to replace those that were lost, such as Brian or Lica.
At any rate, Aeon and Pedro seemed to have finished their silent conversation and were approaching the group, the former looking glad yet worried, and the latter all smiles. "All right, everyone. This is Pedro. Supposedly, he's one of us; Pavo's kid."
"What?" Seija said, trying to get a better look from her window. "Pavo doesn't have a kid, does he?" Dakota muttered agreement, but Alistor didn't look so sure.
"I don't know, guys. Pavo did mention a boy while we were in the underground base, but he never said it was his son."
"I'm not his son. I'm adopted," Pedro replied. "He found me during his first campaign in a city that had been stricken by plague. My mother had died and he took me in as his son. I've lived with him ever since."
"That works then," Alistor said. "It fits with everything I heard."
Personally, Metro agreed. The story that Pedro had just recited seemed both plausible and complicated enough to be true. Still, the boy looked familiar, but that was impossible if he was no direct relation to Pavo. He shrugged off the feelings and spoke up. "Well, if he's joining us, then let's get on with this."
"Yes, let's," Aeon said as a chair materialized for their newest arrival. "Now, Pedro, our purpose for reforming the Chaos Union is to hunt down and defeat the Vile 5, who are the five traitors that attempted to kill our parents."
"That makes sense," Pedro said. "My dad sent me an email detailing the events of the cave-in a few days ago, so I get a general idea of who we're dealing with. And he also mentioned a majority of you in his email, so I know everyone except you." He was pointing at Kitsune and Metro, and his NetOp volunteered the appropriate information.
"I am Kitsune Yukamara, son of Jules and Mikoto Yukamara. Your father may have known mine as J.G."
"Oh, yes, I know you now. He mentioned that two of the old members had married each other. It must have been your parents." Metro and Kitsune nodded in unison, and then Luke took hold of the meeting again.
"Now, since over half of us are currently in the wrong country, I propose that we start with a two-fold approach. Seija, Dakota, and Alistor, since you are in Neo Arcadia with the Chaos Union, you must do whatever you can to discover what the Chaos Union is doing at all times. Divide the duties up as best you can, and report back to me whenever possible." Seija and Alistor looked hesitant, but Dakota and their netnavis looked enthusiastic, and Metro supposed that was the best they could hope for.
"As for the rest of us," Luke continued, "we shall do whatever we can to track the Vile 5, via satellites and the Arcadian databanks. It will probably be easier for us to break into their systems from another country, which is why we are doing it rather than Seija and the others. In addition, we should be checking the movements of other nations as well, especially Sharo and Netopia. I'll talk to you all later on the best way to accomplish this. Until then, any questions?"
No one responded, so Luke began to finish speaking. "All right, in that case, this meeting is adjourned. Before I go, I would like to suggest that you all consider joining the ONB, or perhaps an equivalent force from your home district. John and I have already submitted applications, and the license that we will soon receive enables us to reach more secure databases. It is not required, but I figured that I would just suggest it, in case anyone was interested. I look forward to our next meeting." With that, Aeon jacked out with Luke's window vanishing along with, and John, Seija, Dakota, and Alistor soon followed his example, logging out and taking their netnavis with them.
This left the room half-empty, only Metro, Kitsune, and Pedro within it. Metro began to log out as well, but a hailing from Pedro stopped him in his tracks. "Hang on, you two! Wait up!" He looked over at Pedro, and then towards Kitsune, who nodded. Metro advanced, and Pedro began to speak again. "Listen, I know that Luke was trying to help with his suggestion of joining the ONB, but I don't think it's going to help, do you?"
Metro was initially startled, but suddenly realized that Pedro spoke the truth. It didn't do any good to ally yourself with the enemies of a nation you're trying to preserve. "You're right," Kitsune said from behind him. "So what are you suggesting?"
"Well, Neo Arcadia isn't a popular spot to be right now, so prices on international flights to and from that location aren't very expensive right now. In addition, I've heard rumors that X is starting to form a group of official netbattlers as well…for his nation."
"So…"
"So…perhaps you would be interested in visiting Neo Arcadia once this whole thing is over."
Metro was startled, but Pedro spoke the truth. As members of the small nations that existed in the International Archipelago, their citizenship of those nations was easily ignored, and Swampopolis even allowed its citizens to maintain citizenship after being naturalized into another nation. It would be easy to become a citizen of Neo Arcadia, and after that, they could join their netbattler's army. But it wasn't really Metro's decision, because he had no indication of leaving Kitsune.
But his NetOp was of the same opinion as he, and said, "I've always wanted to see Neo Arcadia. Let me know when you're leaving. Metro, let him have our address, will you?"
"With pleasure," he replied, pulling a business card out of the pocket of his robe, Kitsune's e-mail address glowing gold upon it. "Let us know when you're leaving, and we'll be right alongside."
"All right, Metro, let's head out." Metro nodded and jacked out with Kitsune, leaving Pedro alone in the room.
-- Sunday, April 6, 3: 33 PM, Xyber Boulevard, Electown, Electopia --
Xyber Boulevard was the shopping center of Electown, with almost any type of store that you could think of along one of the two sides, except for an electronics store. They were nearly everywhere else in the city. But if you needed something that wasn't electrical in Electown, you came here first, to the outdoor mall that was a gathering point for women of all kinds, spurned by their male acquaintances for the glow of an electronics store. There were some men there, to be sure, but very few came of their own volition. In such a crowd, it was easy for one to slip seamlessly amongst the masses, and become nearly invisible.
This had been quite useful for Prelude. All that she had needed do was materialize in the real world in a secure location, don some normal clothing, and then walk the mall without any real purpose. Of course, she did have a real purpose, but it involved appearing to have no purpose. So, accidentally-on-purpose, she wandered towards the food court, where Minuet said that she was to meet her.
Prelude and Minuet had been working together for several months now, working to defeat Nocturne and wrest control of the Dark Union away from him. Once that was accomplished, the two of them would either overthrow or ally themselves with the Underking, and become leaders of the Undernet. Neither of them had any particular inclination to evil, but neither did Serenade, and he ruled efficiently. Prelude hoped that he would simply join them. She didn't want to delete her role model.
Prelude expected difficulty finding Minuet, considering that they rarely were out of armor, but she saw her fairly quickly, waving goodbye to a pair of children. She walked towards her table and sat down, greeting Minuet as she did so. "Who was that?" she asked.
"Our allies," Minuet coolly replied, taking a sip of the strawberry smoothie she was drinking. Her friend had always had a bit of a sweet tooth.
"Those two kids? Minuet, you promised us good NetOps, not juveniles."
"How are we going to convince anyone with a netnavi to take us on, Prelude? Besides, I didn't just choose them because they're fresh meat. I chose them for their genetics." She pulled a pair of folders out of her purse and set them on the table, drinking her smoothie slowly as Prelude studied them. Truth to be told, she was liking their odds a bit better the more she read this.
"How did you convince them to join you?" she asked. "The boy's known for his secrecy and the girl's father is one of the leading gadgeteers in the world. How do you get people like that to try and take over the Undernet?"
"The boy was easy. His father's been training him for a similar task for years, and I believe he thinks that he'll be able to do both. And the girl…the girl has been a part of this plan from the beginning." That last was nearly a whisper, and Prelude wondered again what Minuet's past held. She had never told her a thing about her life before the Dark Union, and had actually become violent once after she'd asked. Apparently, her past was a closed door, but something told Prelude that she'd soon have to open that door if there was any chance of perfect trust being formed between them.
"Well, at any rate, I managed to get ahold of the Vile 5 on behalf of our Quintet," Prelude said. "I met with Lumine in the Fallen City, and he said that all the Vile 5 was waiting for was our help taking over the station. When are you going to be ready to hack into the station?"
Minuet laughed at that, a light giggle that brought an image of happier days to Prelude. "I could be ready in an instant, but Nocturne doesn't know that, and neither do those fools in the Vile 5. Still, the Chaos Union needs a bit of time to regroup and plan, so that they are ready to fight when I strike. But if I wait too long…" She trailed off, obviously weighing the benefits and disadvantages against each other. "Tell them that I will need at least three days to prepare, Prelude. Tell them that Thursday is the day they will bring down Neo Arcadia."