Chapter 17: Closing in
07:47 AM (Stockholm Time), Wednesday October the 26th…
"… Good morning, sir."
"Morning, Hans. Is Vladimir at his office?"
"Yes, he is."
"Good. I'll go see him."
"I'll ring him, sir."
There you are. So you did come in person. Hmpf. That smug face will soon be replaced by fear and despair… How fitting!
Spiral (wearing sunglasses today) walked into the Russian Embassy and spoke with the gateman who calmly greeted him as a usual visitor.
He opened the door for the staff so that he needn't pass the metal detector and the gateman grabbed a phone on the wall to dial an internal extension.
"Sir. Comrade Spiral has come, sir."
"Good. Send him to my office." A man replied.
"Roger, sir. You know the way, sir."
Spiral headed down the main corridor and turned right to open a door that led into the stairs heading up.
He climbed a couple floors and ended on another floor, then headed for the door in front of him and knocked on it a couple times.
"Come in!"
Spiral opened the door and stepped into a decorated office.
Another man about his age was waiting there sitting on a red leather armchair behind a pine wood desk.
Spiral sat down on the chair and placed an envelope over the table.
"Let's see."
The man opened it to find 10 banknotes each worth 5,000 Russian rubles.
He calmly picked them and examined them using his desk lamp to check they were genuine.
He was satisfied so he pocketed the envelope on his inner chest pocket and then headed for the eastern wall, where he opened a panel.
I see.
There was a safe there and the man operated them while Spiral hummed a tune and observed a portrait that contained a Soviet-era poster of Stalin and progress on the south wall.
The man opened the safe and took out a small package with a couple stamps before he closed the safe and shut the panel.
He handed the package to Spiral, who checked it as it to make sure it hadn't been opened and nodded in satisfaction.
"See you, Comrade."
"Good morning." The man dully replied.
Spiral came out and undid the way he'd walked before, waved to Hans, the gateman, who saluted in response, and walked out and into the street.
He grumbled when he saw the famous multi-colored pedestrian crossing in front of the main perimeter gate and fumed before heading south into a small white Peugeot car parked about 50 meters south.
Seed was on the driver's seat and munching some chewing gum while listening to a Russian choir over the radio.
Spiral climbed into the passenger's seat and she merely turned on the engine to drive away without saying a single word.
You do not realize you have an extra passenger. Hmpf.
The car drove across Stockholm to then exit it and into the direction of Ystad.
They reached the Mariagatan district and stopped in front of a non-descript house, one of many, so both came down and Spiral opened the hall door to let Seed in first.
He closed the door behind him and both climbed up the stairs to the first floor, where they then headed for the left-hand apartment and Seed unlocked it.
She headed to behind the door and punched the disarm code in the alarm control panel as Spiral turned on the lights and locked the door behind him.
"I'm going to check the report and then dispatch it."
"Alright. I'll try to set up some new cameras and microphones but it's getting harder. Now they're looking at every nook and cranny. I've had to sacrifice a few that were instants again from being found."
"Can't be helped. Let's do what we can. Lord Void's thirst for info is endless so we must make sure to satisfy it as well as we can."
"I knew that, Muscovite."
"Will you stop degrading me like that, you plebeian?" Spiral got annoyed.
"Speak for yourself, declining nobles' descendant. Someone who never had to suffer the harsh Russian winter. I felt it on my flesh for over 16 years before I joined the KGB and established here. But you were always in your nice manor, with heating and all." She icily countered with barely restrained anger.
"Lord Splinter would…!"
"…say you've got no qualifications to believe yourself to be the king of the world." She finished.
"HMPF!"
Spiral headed down the corridor towards a room at the end of it and shut the door with a slam while Seed headed towards a room on the right side, which was her control station.
I can take care of that control station later on. I first must figure out how they contact Void. That is priority one. The other things can wait for a later moment, anyway. I can come back anytime.
The stalker managed to get into the room without even opening the door and found Spiral reading the report while sitting in front of a PC having a 3D model of the "Infinitus" robot displayed on it.
There were some print-outs of renders of the model and they had a lot of hand-written Russian annotations.
Spiral was humming something as he read the report.
"Irritated, angered, frustrated, pissed off… As Lord Void had predicted: His Grace's a genius! HMPF!" He smugly muttered.
Only that those words were written by us to make you believe everything was going according to your plans. If it were then you would surely have no reason to suspect anything.
"It should be about to come…" He glanced at his wristwatch.
It is about 9 AM… I see. Maybe he cannot contact Void and is Void who contacts him with orders to be executed or to question the status of things.
There was a vibration and Spiral drew a Motorola cell-phone, checked the screen and pressed the answer key.
"Hitherto shalt thou come but no further." A distorted voice announced.
"Job 38:11." Spiral replied.
"Status." The voice drily ordered.
"As expected."
"Next orders… Set up a bomb in the Danish Embassy and make it look like it is the work of Finland. Scatter rumors. Create a lot of noise. I need a bit more time. Until Saturday at the earliest. That should create enough confusion and noise to keep them busy." Void ordered.
"Roger. Will have it executed in less than 12 hours."
"Next contact will be on Friday at 11 AM. This number, as usual, will cease existing. Good luck."
"Glory to Shadow Nova!"
The call ended and Spiral pocketed the phone while rubbing his chin and seemingly thinking about it.
"Hmmm… Let's have the Danish branch take care of that. A bribe there, a couple scapegoats and that's it. Let's look up a historical reason why Finland would want to pay back at Denmark." He muttered.
He began to type into the PC.
"Maybe we can say they're remorseful of Denmark always looking down on them and blame it to some rising ultra-nationalism and such… The classical tale." He decided aloud.
Void uses one-time SIM cards to contact these two and they cannot call back. Careful indeed. The cards must be bought all across the world for all we know. Just by investigating one number, we will not know where it's bought. Even if we did, it was paid in cash or a proxy bought it.
"Odd. I had the feeling someone was starting at me from behind but that can't be! Paranoia…" Spiral muttered.
I had better not expose this place yet. We need more info. We could warn Finland and Denmark! Maybe it would be better for the Interpol to do that! We should leave the chain of orders as it is. We would know what they attempt to do in Japan. Trying to place monitoring here is risky. Discretion is the key. We could suggest the Interpol to expedite some agents that pose as terrorists and make it look like they committed a blunder and were caught during the preparatory phase… That will do.
The stalker exited the room without opening the door and then entered Seed's room since she'd left the door open.
She was finishing assembling a small spheroid with a camera lens and three helixes.
A new model of surveillance device… I will take note of it…
She stopped and glanced up to the screen to see the camera feeds and audio feeds, where one of them showed a familiar small warehouse.
The boat warehouse! They control the boats' coming and leaving as if hoping to figure out Purgatory's location through that. Whatever. I do not think they can pull something like that attack on the Shunoros Island again so easily. No human soldier is a rival for our materialized Navis. I should pull out and get back to the base.
The "stalker" appeared in the Cyber World and it turned out to be Slur, unfazed and unsurprised as always.
She formed a purple "portal" in the air and became a yellow streak of energy that jumped into it and emerged inside of the Zero Cyber World.
She landed on the main platform and found Zero going over several files.
"Boss. How'd it go like?"
"Very productive. I would rather not share too many details. Especially…"
"Oh come on. My helpers don't chat to outsiders, Boss… Nobody but you and Serenade can come in here, anyway. So you don't seem to have a point, Boss." Zero tried to defend them.
"You never know. Later."
"Boss! Stop being so antagonistic against 'em, will ya? I can't work with that!"
He sighed and if he could've rolled his eyes, he'd surely done so but ended up grumbling under his breath instead.
"Back to work, guys."
"WORK BY KWOR!"
"That sounded a bit… forced. I think. Oh well. Let's just focus on the everyday work and that's it." Zero muttered.
"WORK! WEST ON ROAD KILOMETER!"
"Sheesh! Eisei! Stop spreading your stupid gags!"
16: 36 PM (Japan Time)…
"… I see."
"What do you think?"
"I guess it's the best way to handle that without raising their suspicions. Maybe that would trigger an off-schedule call with new orders. We could figure out some pattern or something."
"That is what I was thinking of."
"Good. But let's be careful."
"This is between you and me, President Hades. Nobody else must know for now."
"What about the Cyber CID?"
"Let us say it was unproductive and no contact came."
"Alright. To fool the enemy first fool the ally…"
"Exactly."
Slur and Hades were discussing on his office room.
Hades looked somewhat worried while Slur was serious and her glare didn't admit objections.
"You look tired." Slur pointed out.
"… Sometimes…" He began.
"… Not that debate again…"
"I sound like a loser dog, you mean to say?"
"Not exactly but…"
"… Whatever. Now's not the time for that. Else we'd be dancing to the enemy's tune." He cut the discussion.
"Remember that there are competent people over there who can take care of whatever that man comes up with."
"Of course. Cousin will handle it, as always."
"It was necessary. Someone had to put order to this chaotic world. We prevented chaos. It was for the sake of that man, too."
"I know that." Hades replied.
"You let that "responsibility" hunt you too much."
"Adults must have responsibility. To prove that they are serious. Society is built upon it. That is an important factor to tell whether something will be successful or not." Hades sighed.
"Maybe so. I never understood it."
"No wonder, Mademoiselle. You were not supposed to feel any in the first place, were you?"
"I suppose not." She shrugged.
"Let's leave it at there."
"You better do so." Slur insisted.
"If you want some advice about it, why don't you try asking Mr. Helios about it? Or Mr. XY."
"Maybe so. I would rather speak of that with XY. They can be trusted with this information because they will take no action but they could have useful ideas." Slur muttered.
"Alright."
"I will go there. We shall talk again."
"What about…?"
"You take care of that if you may. However, Daikani must be kept out of the loop as well." She distractedly replied.
"Alright. Cannot be helped."
Slur exited the room by opening the door and closing it while Hades leant back on his armchair and grumbled.
"There's no way they can figure it out. They couldn't begin to imagine it on the first place. Only five of us know that. Six, actually. Seeing that young man's face and feeling his energy…! It was worth it. It was necessary! We had to do it. We needed to bring some order to this chaotic society. The Cyber CID alone couldn't have hoped to: they are too understaffed. It is thanks to our numbers and potential that we can face these threats."
He stood up and exited into the corridor to then head into the cafeteria.
"Good afternoon, Mr. President." Dark Man welcomed.
"I'd like a glass of water."
"Natural water?"
"Yes. Thank you."
"Roger, sir."
Dark Man placed a plastic water bottle and a glass atop the counter.
Hades grabbed the bottle, unsealed it and served some water into the glass.
He slowly began to drink it and stopped when there was still about half a glass left.
"I needed some water indeed." He muttered.
"You shouldn't push yourself so much, sir. It's bad for the health." Dark Man advised.
"I know. I want to prove I am serious with my work. Both here and at the company I cooperate with."
"I think that they should know by now that you are very competent and responsible, no?"
"Responsible…" He muttered.
"That's… Did I say something uncalled for, sir?"
"N-no. Don't mind it."
"If you say so…"
BANG!
"W-what was that!?" Hades gasped.
"S-sounded like it was on the deck!"
"Where's the sentry!?"
"P-Pharaoh Man should be the…"
"Contact him!"
"R-roger! Pharaoh Man, did you hear a bang?"
"What? A bang…? No…" Pharaoh Man distractedly replied.
"… Or were you meditating?" Dark Man sighed.
"Lovely! Talk about being RESPONSIBLE indeed! Beautiful "flag retrieval", indeed!" Hades fumed.
"President, sir! It's just that…!" Pharaoh Man began to argue.
"We'll TALK later! Figure out what was that!"
Hades sprinted off and headed up in the elevator.
He exited into the deck and saw Pharaoh Man hovering over the deck and scanning the surroundings.
Hades rushed down and saw Tozukana giving him the back on the bow.
"What happened!? Where's the culprit!?" He asked, out of breath.
"What!? Culprit!? Of what!?"
"I heard a bang!"
"Oh crap. Then I'm to blame."
"What?"
"I was doing maintenance on the rifle and forgot to put on the safety so I accidentally pulled the trigger…" She admitted.
"Oh by all the… And here I thought it was the enemy!"
"I'm sorry! It was an accident!"
"Fine. An accident is an accident. Next time put on the silencer! My heart's beating like crazy!" Hades growled.
"U-understood!" She gulped.
"Hmpf!" Pharaoh Man fumed.
"Ahem, ahem! Mr. Pharaoh Man!" Hades scolded.
"It shall not happen again either!" Pharaoh Man apologized.
"I hope it doesn't!"
"I swear!"
"Back to your post. Before I get further annoyed. And you, Mademoiselle, watch out what you do with that." He ordered as he directed an annoyed glare at her.
"R-roger, Danna…"
Hades walked back towards the ship while grumbling under his breath and stuffing both hands on his pants' pockets.
"Youth nowadays…! How reckless!"
Speaking of reckless! I think that it was reckless too. That incident which happened on that ship. But since Mademoiselle insisted that it was necessary… She has that air that she'll never take "no" for an answer no matter what. She could be a bit more flexible in that aspect! Being too rigid isn't good either.
"What happened?" Dark Man asked.
"Miss Sniper shot her toy by accident." He summed up in a line yet he still was annoyed at the scare.
"So it wasn't the enemy!"
"No. Fortunately enough."
"I'm going back to my post."
Hades sat down on one of the boxes on the left side to stare at the bay.
Could it be…? No, that's not it! That man wasn't subtle! Was flashy and called for attention. That man can't know our location! No. If that man's alive his obsession over his rival should keep him locked in place. Surely would start a cycle of campaigns every a few months to try to wear his opponents down! Discarded! Our enemy is someone else! Wishes to know it all about its opponents! Doesn't care what it takes to stal! Saturday at the earliest… What'll happen on Saturday?
"… Who's there?"
"What?"
"I thought someone was there! My imagination, I guess. Too much stress."
Cosmo Man had stepped out and stopped, as if he'd seen something, but when Hades looked over there, he saw nothing.
Now's not the time to let paranoia hunt us! We must be ready to face the closing in menace! There's little to no time! We must get on the move before they do!
"President Hades. We did upgrade the security of the shooting range computer. Now there are 3 passwords that only I, Freeze Man and Zero know." Cosmo Man reported.
"Wise thinking."
"Thank you."
"Just in case… Sweep the zone. You never know if something or someone's lurking around the area." He whispered.
"By your commands, sir."
Cosmo Man hovered and began to scan the area while Hades stood up and shook some salt off his suit.
Speculating won't solve anything. Let's coordinate a defense of the ship!
18:37 PM (Japan Time)…
"… The phone… Hello?"
"Are you Kei Yuuki?"
"Yes. I am. Who is it?"
"One of your… fans."
"Is this a joke, sir?"
"It's irony."
"Well, sir…"
"Call me… Smith."
"Mr. Smith. Can I do for you?"
"I'd like to ask you something."
Obihiro had been working when his PET rang, so he answered to the call yet he frowned at the display "HIDDEN NUMBER".
"How did it feel like?"
"Excuse me, sir?"
"To have so much power on your hands, to be able to decide between life and death…" The caller followed on.
"… I barely remember that." He began to get annoyed.
"Is that so?" The caller sounded intrigued.
"I am serious, Mr. Smith. Deadly serious."
"I've got something else to ask of you."
"What is it now, sir?"
"Did you feel like everyone else was but so much chaff? That they were worthless?"
"… I've got no need to reply to you, Mr. Smith."
"Hmpf. Guess the answer is "yes" in that case."
"Who – are – you?" He questioned again.
"My. Touched a delicate spot, did I? Your "kindness" mask is falling apart and revealing the evil genius you really are? Or is it… Humiliation? Anger at being humiliated?" The caller began to ask.
"Look. I'm a member of…"
"The Cyber CID. I know that."
"If you knew that… Then why bother to call me by that old name? It's no longer valid by now, is it?"
"Because you have it associated to that time's events. Your brain does, at the least."
"And what's your goal by asking me that?"
"My goal? Hmpf… I'm testing you."
"Do you expect me to switch sides or what?" Obihiro skeptically questioned the caller.
"Of course not. I'm not an imbecile."
"Then this whole call is pointless, isn't it?"
"Not really. It allows me to assess you."
"… You give off a bad vibe."
"In what sense?"
"Forget it. It's something pointless, anyway."
"Hmpf. So it'd seem… Fine."
"Are you done with the show, Mr. Smith? I've got work to do and not time to waste with Freud wannabes." Obihiro challenged.
"Scherezade Symphony…"
"What?"
"I said Scherezade Symphony. You should know about that incident."
"I heard of it but I wasn't there."
"I know you weren't there. But don't you find the whole tale a bit odd?"
"Odd? There was a clear culprit! All evidence pointed so. The Homicide Department carried out a detailed scene investigation and wrote their own conclusions."
"Then why would someone pay the ship owners so that they would take out the whole front window of the restaurant, melt it and put a new one when they could've just sliced that fragment where the damage was at and place a new panel on its place? Why would someone pay them to repaint some of the handrails' outer face? Outer face, mind you. Something the passengers would never bother to look at. Melting the glass would mean that there was something to hide. Something compromising." The caller got excited all of a sudden.
"… More conspiracy theorists?" He rolled his eyes, uninterested.
"Good attempt! I can feel it… Your nerves… Your sweat… Your panic…"
"Are you a user of super abilities or what?"
"Hmpf. Of course not. It's just a form of speaking. There's no such thing as ESP to begin with."
"And what if there was that someone? The case's closed and it's not any of my competency. I'm paid to figure out the stuff I'm told to investigate to begin with. If you want to figure out who that "someone" was then hire a private eye. Maybe you could use Sleeping Kogoro. He'll tell you all while sleeping!" He shot back.
"Who?"
"Never mind. It's irony, Mr. Smith."
"Hmpf. Fine…"
"Are we done with the chit-chat or are you going to try to pressure me for more info? I'm about to run out of patience too."
"Impatient youth…"
"My bad! Not like I can choose when I become an adult."
"Hmpf. Nice attempt. But you're still too green."
"Isn't it obvious? I never said I pretended to be an expert."
"Fine! Remember that feeling of power! One day you will realize what it really brings with it! One day maybe you will overcome us, even! Farewell!"
"Us? Overcome?" Obihiro wondered.
He stared at the PET for some seconds, frowning, and then all color left his face all of a sudden.
"By all the…"
"What's wrong?"
"Ijuuin – kun! I think we've got trouble."
"What now?"
"I think that Void guy was just talking to me."
"WHAT!?" He gasped.
"I didn't realize until now! However, the man said "maybe you will overcome us, even"… Was talking about the feeling of being in control of it all and such…"
"Why would the man bother?" Enzan wondered.
"Why indeed?" Blues wondered next.
"He obviously wasn't expecting me to switch sides, but… I dunno why he's gotten the idea that, in the future, I might get tempted to feel that which I felt before and turn into someone like the man…" He gulped.
"Devil." Blues cursed.
"I know, right?"
"It's pointless to investigate the number, anyway. Slur finally told us about her trip to Stockholm! She explained that Void uses a different number each time to contact those two! We could search where that number was bought at but that wouldn't lead us to the man. We're stuck until we get anything else." Enzan sighed.
"He was poking about the Scherezade Symphony as well."
"Devil. And if he finds Kyundai he can coerce him to tell what happened and could use it to threaten us Cyber CID next!"
"We should place that man under custody. Let's try to force them to make something stupid like trying to rob a bank or such and so we'll have an excuse to do so." Blues fumed.
"Let's go talk it with Superintendent Oda ASAP! Be right back, Obihiro, but be on the lookout! You never know!"
Enzan ran off while Obihiro sighed and resumed working on what he was doing before.
He noticed a new mail on his inbox and opened it to gasp.
"… "If you don't want the mass to know you were the leader of the Net Mafia Gospel then you will cease all attempts to investigate us. You have 24 hours to do so. Starting today at 20:00 PM. You have been warned."… And it's not signed but it's obvious that Void guy sent it. Whatever. I just need to redirect this to Golden Star and they'll check it out. You lack imagination." He grumbled.
He redirected the mail and nodded to himself in approval.
He headed out into the corridor, stopped in front of the coffee vending machine, and bought a cappuccino sans caffeine.
He hummed a tune as he looked around and noticed a group of officers chatting.
What guts! First they try to tempt me into becoming their heir and then they threaten me. Let's hope we can get Kyundai into custody or else we're in trouble!
He grumbled under his breath and paced back and forth before the vending machines.
Maybe Kyundai won't feel like in the mood to tell them and will go with the official version! Depends. Maybe they could offer him money and he'd spill it out. Sheesh.
He returned to his post and frowned as he was about to sit down in front of the computer.
He looked around and seemed to find something odd in the surroundings.
He interacted with the PC, entered his unblocking code, and accessed some info.
Someone tried to access it while I was at the corridor! There's someone infiltrated here! Luckily, I locked it! Do you expect a hacker like me to not to take measures to avoid being hacked myself? We'll have to check security footage to see who did it…
He sat down and resumed working while trying to focus.
It's just a matter of time before those guys are busted! Let's try something else… Show me your guts! I know it's a parody of Captain Falcon but better this than nothing.
"TOO HOT!" Meijin yelped.
"I told ya to wait a bit!" Punk sighed.
"Last time I ask you to tweak the temperature!"
"It was your idea, mind ya!" Punk reminded him.
"I know that! Some stupid idea of mine indeed! Cold water! My tongue's on fire!" Meijin groaned.
"Looks like Meijin – san didn't find the coffee hot enough for this taste insofar…!" Obihiro muttered.
"I feel better… Somewhat! It aches! Last time I hire myself as test subject of my weird experiments! One day I'll regret it!"
19:11 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So, Legato… Any luck tracing that threat mail?"
"None, sir. I am sorry, sir. The trail turned cold in Shanghai."
"Surely Seed sent it because she appeals as being the computer geek out of the duo…"
"I managed to locate Kyundai in Kobe. For the time being nobody seems to have approached the man."
"Did you send that anonymous email?"
"He got cocky. As expected. It's highly probable he'll try to pull it off and be caught. So we can keep him under watch."
"Good."
Legato was reporting to Kuroshiro inside of his Purgatory bedroom as Kuroshiro interacted with a PC.
Today he'd taken out the monk robe and wore a long-sleeved black wool sweater, dark blue jeans, a reddish leather belt, black socks and black sneakers.
He also sported fingerless gloves on his hands as well.
"At least we can try to prevent them figuring out about that. The last thing we needed. Really. We should've thought more about what to do with Kyundai. Maybe we could hypnotize the guy and make him believe the official version. We'd get rid of the problem. It's not the best of ways but… Damn it all. I won't let anyone toy with Netto – kun's pride and reputation!" He cursed, for once.
"I know, sir."
"I also wonder what Spiral was doing some days ago at the old Nebula base! He found a photo of the old man but that alone didn't tell the guy anything, according to XY. Speaking of which! We never figured out who placed those weird & funky machines there! Did we?" Kuroshiro asked while apparently reminiscing about that.
"We didn't, sir. We did speculate that it could've been some failed Ameroupe Army experiment. Maybe something to do with ESP or a similar research? Anything that could amount to a new weapon would be worth a research so…" Legato reminded him.
"It makes sense. The experiment failed and since it was a pain on the ass to have to disassemble them to transport them to the junkyard, they decided to break them and leave them there to rot away with time! They sure were in a rush to close down that project."
"No wonder, sir. They must've felt extremely disappointed and like all of it was a waste of time, money, resources and staff. And red tape."
"Red tape…? Secrecy? Surely."
"The news that they expect to be ready by Saturday makes one think they're betting it all on that day."
"Sure. Typical."
"But we still don't know what it is."
"No. That's their trump card. I'm sure that not even those 2 have the slightest idea of what is. I'm sure the guy must be doing it all on his own and without relying on anyone."
"Something to do with "Dark", maybe?"
"Because of the "Shadow" in "Shadow Nova"? Could be but it could be a red herring too."
"That could be the case indeed. A call from Zero… What's up, Zero?"
"No big deal. Serenade has come with Forte and are asking to come in. They're the real ones but since Boss isn't here then I'm not sure…"
"Ask President Hades."
"Of course. Sorry for the bother. Later."
"Maybe it's better for the guy that Slur – sama isn't here. Slur – sama is somewhat contradictory on that aspect."
"I know, sir."
"She claims Colonel is an idiot to hate Forte over what happened to Serenade but she also displays enmity in front of him."
"Yes, sir. A sad aspect."
"Sad? More like contradictory."
"I'll go talk with them."
"Go ahead."
Legato dematerialized while Kuroshiro kept on working.
"I'm trying to see if there's a way to properly optimize Andy's Ryuusei Form energy usage! Training insofar has made it possible for them to be able to properly move right after usage but that's just bearing with the tiredness. If we get into a prolonged battle then that might bring upon a weakness." He muttered aloud.
He inputted a command to see footage of the Cyber World.
"So it's a central wing and then there's the rooms." Forte commented.
"The only way in or out through the Cyber World is from where you came in. It was built like this to make intrusion harder." Legato replied.
"Do many wannabes ever reach that firewall?"
"Almost none. But just in case we've got it armed."
"Deterrence, I take it." Serenade guessed.
"By the way… Do we know anything new about those rascals? What are they up to or…?" Forte asked.
"We know they intend to do something on Saturday. We don't know the what. Try to keep it to yourselves. We don't want them to realize we know that much."
"Gotcha."
"...Legato – san! Trouble!"
"Akemi? What trouble?"
"A threat has been issued against the DNN! They say that we cease calling them terrorists and instead "saviors" or else they're going to bomb the station!" Akemi reported.
"By all the damned…!" Legato cursed.
"Bad news too. The college we're in has been told to take down all board messages complaining about those guys and switch with others in which we admit they'll save us from sin!" Victor reported next.
"Damn it. They're bored and want to something to take away attention so they came up with these." Legato growled.
"Hmpf. Cowards…" Serenade fumed.
"So I can go and cut them up?"
Tom toyed with a knife by tossing it into the air and catching it back.
"Of course. If they bother to use Navis, that is."
"Target acquired… Locking on…" Qong drily muttered over Tom's radio as if he was practicing.
"I heard the fuss." Sandra joined them.
"They seem to be in a rush, no?" Ikada commented.
"Let 'em come! I'll take 'em down with a few shots!" Tozukana bragged.
"Cha stay put." Lily muttered.
"More bad news. Now's the Diet!" Beta X warned.
"It's all over the TV!" Zarashe added.
"They sure have FREE TIME!" Legato ironically growled and was starting to get pissed off for real.
"Maybe they're bluffs to trigger hysteria?" Zero suggested.
"Seeing what the lot can do…" Hades agreed on it.
"It barely comes off as a surprise by now." Kuroshiro added.
"Shah, shah, shah! Not that robot again." Needle Man cursed.
"Marchando! Let's melt them down!" Burner Man snickered.
"And record their downfall for all eternity!" Video Man chuckled.
"Calm down, all of you!" Legato tried to put some order.
Silence ensued and Legato cleared his throat.
"We're going to mobilize. Victor and Tom: college."
"Roger."
"Lily and Akemi: the DNN."
"Roger."
"Beta X and Sandra: the Diet."
"Roger."
"The Operators: remain here. If there's a real need for action then… You'll get mobilized as well, Tozukana and Qong." He told the others.
"Sheesh. Not fair." Tozukana complained.
"… Roger…" Qong drily acknowledged.
"Freeze Man, Cosmo Man, Shade Man and Dark Man! Reinforce security in case they try to come at us. Pharaoh Man! Scan the surroundings and, if possible, try to avoid too many "meditations". Our pride is at stake."
"If there is the need to defend pride then I shall do so!"
"Maybe we need to pit a Fierce Deity against them." Forte suggested.
"Hmpf. Yeah. Go ahead. For victory!" Legato encouraged.
"Indeed! We won't let those cowards get away with it!"
"We shall also help. For the sake of civilization, that is."
"Works for me. They need a lesson!"