Chapter 30: Last Battle, In!
09:04 AM (Japan Time), Friday July the 7th…
"… This is the place?"
"So it'd seem…"
"Good luck."
"Kick 'em all!"
Rock Man was standing in front of a Cyber World entrance to a large factory-like building along with Sigma and Blood Shadow: the building was made of old brick and all of its windows were boarded up: it had obvious decay signs.
"Thank you, guys. Let's go, Netto – kun." Rock Man nodded in agreement.
"Yeah. To our final battle…" Netto muttered.
Rock Man stepped through the entrance and it closed up behind him: he immediately looked around the largely deserted and unlit main room and spotted a set of nine circular platforms hovering in the air and being interconnected through energy bindings: Annihilator Man was standing in the middle one and looked like he was waiting for him.
"Welcome to Rama. Rock Man."
"Annihilator Man. So we finally see each other's faces."
"So as to say. You were able to prepare."
"Why don't get this battle on the road?" Rock Man suggested.
"Fine. Climb up."
Rock Man jumped and landed in front of Annihilator Man who calmly lowered his arms and set them parallel to his body; Rock Man did the same and both wait.
"Background program: start." Anderson's voice rang out.
"Background…?" Netto frowned.
The platforms hummed and began to slightly move while floating in the air as the whole area was surrounded by a 3D projection of outer space filled with countless stars: a large reddish gas giant planet could be seen far away along with a small ring-like object close to it: the background began to "travel" towards the north thus giving one a feeling of movement even though the platform wasn't moving at all.
"W-whoa! This reminds me of Final Destination, one of the fighting arenas in Great Melee Smash Brothers DX!" Netto looked awed.
"True. I got inspired from there." Anderson admitted.
"O. K., then… Battle Chip, Sigma Sword! Slot In!"
"Sigma Sword!"
Rock Man lifted the blade and set it horizontal to block any direct attacks on him: Annihilator Man made a smug smile and closed his fists to then begin hitting the blade over and over again with them: Rock Man held his ground and quickly jumped into the air to land in the platform behind him: Annihilator Man made his hands glow purple and white and opened the palms: energy flowed out and fused into a purple and white spheroid which he then shot at Rock Man: Rock Man used the Sigma Sword to bounce it back and Annihilator Man quickly drew both of his swords to bounce the attack off.
"Dead Man's Volley!" He announced.
"Sure." Rock Man shrugged.
"Let's go!" Netto grinned.
The volley game kept on but Rock Man suddenly changed the angle and position of the blade: the spheroid bounced back and hit Annihilator Man's right foot: he growled and clutched it for a second.
"Crap. My own attack backfires and I lose 400 HP to begin with out of my 4000… I know it's just 10%, but… It doesn't feel like a good start. Let's focus!" He muttered.
"Keep on." Anderson ordered.
"Roger, sir. Purple Rounds! White Rounds! Hra~h!"
His shoulder-mounted cannons hummed and began to shoot different shells of energy to bombard Rock Man's platform: he'd already jumped to the one at his right while the one he'd been at was destroyed.
"I see. Eventually… Only one platform will remain and we'll bet it on a close-quarters fight." Rock Man deduced.
"That's a strange strategy, but… It won't catch me unprepared. Let's level this up a bit, should we?" Netto suggested.
"Go for it."
"Soul Unison: Metal Soul! Slot In!"
"Metal Break!"
Rock Man picked the Sigma Sword on his left hand while his right fist glowed and he headed for Annihilator Man's head: he aimed the cannons at him but Rock Man lowered the Sigma Sword a bit to bounce the rounds off: his right fist hit the forehead and caused an explosion.
"Oh crap! Jeez! Another 250 HP lost…! And this guy is still fresh! Magnet Trap! Go~!" He grumbled.
Rock Man tried to jump back at his platform but hit his head with an invisible "ceiling": he then tried heading for Annihilator Man but was met with an invisible "wall": he quickly spun the Sigma Sword around his axis and it bounced off the west, south and east corners.
"Crap. He's using magnetism to contain me just like he did with his annihilation energy." Rock Man muttered.
"Annihilator Fists!"
Annihilator Man suddenly stepped in and hit Rock Man's body four times in a row with his fists before Rock Man plunged the Sigma Sword on his right forearm: Annihilator Man ignored and stepped back while Rock Man used the window to run out of the "cage" and jump back at the SE platform where he'd been at.
"I got 300 HP of damage and he got 220… He sums up 770 HP of total damage: so we've gone over the three eights mark." Rock Man calculated.
"Annihilation Meteors!"
Purple and white meteors began to rain down at random: three of them hit three empty platforms and blew them up, leaving Rock Man with four platforms to move and the central one where Annihilator Man was standing at: he was surrounded by a white-colored aura and seemed to be charging up energy for his next technique.
"Annihilator Beam!"
"Whoa!"
Rock Man jumped to the northern platform as Annihilator Man's white beam hit the platform he'd been at and it was deleted upon contact.
"That white beam looks dangerous! Let's stay clear of it!" Netto rallied.
"That beam is canalized "annihilation" energy capable of deleting anything on impact. But it's tuned to only affect structures: Net Navis will just lose half of their max HP." Annihilator Man let out.
"Half of their max HP with one attack…!" Both gasped.
"But it takes five minutes to properly load up and calibrate, so it's somewhat of a last resource for me because I can't use any other weapons when I'm about to fire it. And I don't recommend trying to intercept it: you could end up losing a part of your body, even. And he who warns a traitor is not. Or so I think they say… Am I wrong?" He explained next.
"O-O.K., then… Rock Man! Stay away from the guy as much as you can, then!" Netto gulped.
"Y-yeah. Metal Missile! Metal Wheel!"
"Magnet Barrier!"
Both attacks collided with an invisible barrier and were destroyed: the "horizon" seemed to come closer and the gas giant was almost all filling the background by now.
The ring object came into better detail to reveal its obvious artificial nature: the inner band had seas, lands and an atmosphere: it looked gigantic as well but dwarfed by the imposing gas giant planet.
"Isn't that ripped off a shooter game named Halo which Meijin – san plays from time to time?" Netto asked.
"Yeah. Correct. That gas giant is named Threshold and that's Installation 04, also referred as "Alpha Halo": the first game, Halo: Combat Evolved takes place there. Each Halo is a world on its own monitored by a Monitor… The simulation will let you have a spaceship's eye view of it, even! Enjoy the tour: it's for free!"
"Annihilator Tornadoes!"
Two purple and white tornadoes formed around the central platform: Rock Man quickly picked the SW platform as the SE and southern platforms were destroyed by them.
"Two extra platforms left…" He muttered.
"Change of plans… Soul Unison: Fire Soul! Slot In!"
Rock Man switched to the Fire Soul while Annihilator Man loaded his shoulder-mounted cannons: the muzzle suddenly changed to a smaller one and two lock marks locked on Rock Man: the cannons began to act like machineguns and shoot a string of rounds towards the SW platform: Rock Man jumped to the western platform and aimed for Annihilator Man while he slowly spun upon his axis clockwise.
"Double Fire Arm!"
Annihilator Man used his thick arms to protect himself but got some burn marks on them nevertheless.
"Hmmm… 230 HP… 1000 HP… 25% lost, then."
"Battle Chip, Fire Punch! Double Slot In!"
"Fire Punch!"
"How clever!"
Rock Man jumped towards Annihilator Man but he swung his right arm and hit Rock Man's stomach area: he then hit the chest and pushed Rock Man back into his platform.
"Ugh. 330 HP for me…! 630 HP of damage: over 25% lost as well… This is going to be painful." Rock Man muttered.
"Annihilator Bomb!"
"Yikes!"
Rock Man was forced to jump into the central platform as a white and purple Mega Energy Bomb hit the platform and blew it up: he then ducked to avoid the large arm swinging of Annihilator Man and aimed his Fire Arms at him.
"Double Fire Arm!"
"Magnet Reject!"
The Fire Arms' fire bounced back at Rock Man and inflicted damage to him: he panted and mumbled something under his breath.
"… Given how it was Flame vs Flame, it got a 75% reduction… It normally delivers 220 HP, but, in my case, I only received 55 HP of damage… 685 HP lost… Phew." Rock Man calculated.
"Hah! This is nothing! The true battle is about to start. Battle Stage: Version 2! Execute!"
The stage suddenly expanded in size until it measured exactly ten meters long per five wide: the ground changed to hexagon patterns interconnected with each other and the background switched to display an approach course to Installation 04.
"Whoa!" Both whistled in surprise.
"Annihilator Shockwave!"
"Soul Unison: Roll Soul! Slot In!"
"Let's go! Execute the plan!"
Rock Man switched to Roll Soul and jumped over the white expanding shockwave while aiming the Roll Arrow at Annihilator Man.
"Roll Arrow!"
The arrow got stuck on his forehead and it glowed with a crimson red halo as Annihilator Man tried to remove it: Rock Man's body shone with a shooting blue halo and he looked calm: the arrow self-deleted and Annihilator Man mumbled something.
"That arrow stole 500 HP off me! And you healed that same amount as well…! Clever bothersome guy!" He grumbled.
"Yeah. I lowered my damage to 165 HP and increased yours to 1500 HP: that's just over 38% of your total HP. I am very versatile, in case you'd forgotten!"
The platform began to descend through the clouds an energy shield formed to protect it from atmospheric reentry: both combatants tensed and ran towards each other.
"Battle Chip, Long Blade, Long Sword! Double Slot!"
"Annihilator Swords!"
Both clashed swords and struggled while dragging their feet forward or backwards: Annihilator Man seemed to be gaining terrain when Rock Man suddenly countered and pushed him back: he then extended his antennae forward and they hit Annihilator Man's jaw while provoking a small jolt: he lowered the guard out of instinct and Rock Man managed to deliver some attacks before setting his guard up.
"250 HP… 1750 HP lost, huh… Close to 44% of my total HP… But there's still more to come!" He muttered.
"Welcome, Reclaimers. I have been waiting for you." A slightly metallic voice with a curious tune rang out.
A metallic gray spheroid with one blue eye-like shape and some patterns on its body suddenly hovered next to them: both stopped to look at it with obvious surprise.
"I am Guilty Spark 343: the Monitor of Installation 04. It would seem you are having an argument. Do you need some help?"
"Eh… No, thanks. But we're sorry if we're intruding." Rock Man improvised.
"Y-yeah. And this is an honorific thing, so… Don't you have more stressing duties to do?" Annihilator Man suggested.
"Oh. True, true. I must undergo another firing simulation. Well then… I shall come later. I am a genius!"
He floated away while the platform finally touched down on the midst of a river and got lodged there: both stopped the battle to look at the landscape surrounding them.
"Whoa." Netto and Rock Man whistled.
"Eh… Impressive decorative work, Anderson – sama…"
"Yeah. I was inspired!" Anderson admitted.
"Let's continue." Rock Man called out.
"Fine. Annihilator Me…!"
"Stop! Stop! Stop!"
Guilty Spark suddenly hovered in front of Annihilator Man and sounded hysterical: he stepped back.
"Huh… What's up?" He asked.
"…"What's up", you ask? That attack! If you had made meteors rain down, you could've damage a containment facility and the Flood could break free from hibernation! It would be catastrophic!" He yelled.
"Ah… Hum… Alright, alright… I'll use swords…" He gulped.
"Good! And don't think I don't know what goes on anytime anywhere: this is MY Installation, after all! Later!" Guilty Spark annoyingly told him.
He shot away and Rock Man looked surprised.
"Anderson – sama… That was too much, sir!" Annihilator Man protested.
"Sorry. I wanted to recreate Guilty Spark." Anderson replied.
"Can't be helped…! Annihilator Punches!"
"Battle Chip, Curse Shield! Slot In!"
Annihilator Man's attack bounced back at him and disoriented him for a moment as Rock Man drew the Roll Arrow bow again.
"Roll Arrow!"
It got stuck to Annihilator Man's forehead for a few seconds before it self-deleted again: Annihilator Man shrugged.
"Just 150 HP of damage… 1900 HP lost: I'm not even at 50% yet! Let's go, Rock Man! Bring out your true power!" Annihilator Man challenged.
"Soul Unison: Omega Soul! Slot In!"
Rock Man transformed into the Omega Soul and drew the O – Saber: he dashed towards Annihilator Man while leaving "afterimages" on his wake but, when he hit Annihilator Man, a Guy Fawkes straw doll appeared on his place: Rock Man gasped and suddenly felt four shuriken hitting his back.
"Ouch. Kawarimi…" He muttered.
"Correct. And that was the classical Guy Fawkes doll which is annually burnt in a bonfire around King Land."
"Hum… I had 18 HP of damage with the latest Roll Arrow, so… It lifted up to 268 HP of damage… Slightly over 13% of my total HP…"
"Purple Cannon! White Cannon! Go!"
Annihilator Man shot rounds from both cannons but Rock Man used the O – Saber to bounce them back and inflict some damage to Annihilator Man: he stopped and calculated the damage.
"Hmmm… 220 HP… 2120 HP lost… Over 50%. But there's still a long shot to go! Start charging sequence… I'm going to turn the tide around with this one attack!" Annihilator Man grinned.
"Coming?" Netto wondered.
"Hra~h! Uo~h! Annihilator Beam! Fire~!" Annihilator Man roared as he built up energy.
The beam headed for Rock Man but he started to glow with a cyan halo: he closed his eyes for a second and opened them again to reveal how they'd become a mix of emerald and chestnut brown: he drew the Rock Buster and began building up cyan-colored energy on it at an amazingly quick rate.
"I c-can't believe this…! Rock Man's readings…! They're off-scale! The sensors are overloaded…!" Anderson gasped.
"What?" Annihilator Man gasped.
"Saito Style Charge Shot… GO~!" Both he and Netto yelled.
The brutally powerful attack which seemed to go above sound speed given the sound shockwave and the ripples which accompanied it met the Annihilator Beam and brutally pushed it back at its source: Annihilator Man gasped in horror but was unable to react in time as both attacks landed on him and caused a large explosion which wiped off about ten square meters of terrain: the sound of a logout could be barely heard above the turmoil and everything soon died down.
"My God…!" Anderson gasped.
The only thing left was a crater and some smoke lingering on the area while Rock Man's glow slowly decreased and he suddenly dropped into his knees being obviously exhausted: Netto, on his real world bedroom, was trying to recover his breath as well.
"We… did it… After 4 years… We brought it up again…" Netto muttered.
"Yeah… We won… Somehow… We woke it up."
"Incredible! I'd never seen such energy display before…! What are you, Reclaimer?" Guilty Spark asked.
"Is this guy a program with AI?" Netto asked.
"… Well… Yeah…" Anderson slowly muttered.
"… I am who I am. Rock Man EXE. Net Savior." Rock Man tried to stand up.
"I can detect a large draining of your energy… You seemed to have placed around 75% of your total HP into that attack… It was rather risky to drain so much energy all of a sudden, Reclaimer Rock Man."
"I know… First time doing this, actually… Saito Style is supposed to normally cut my max HP by half while using that cutoff half to double my attack ratio, yet… I reverse engineered it to output my HP into attack: I spent some intense days trying it out ever since March…" Rock Man admitted as he sat down on the ground.
"Yet… Given how your Operator shows signs of tiredness… Are you two interlinked somehow?" Guilty Spark wondered.
"More or less… Saito Style requires total and perfect synchronism between us two: it goes over the 100% Full Synchro, even. Hence why it takes a stress on both me and Netto – kun…"
"Yeah… We really shouldn't need to use it since the Omega Soul alone is normally more than enough, but… This was an exceptional case. I wanted to see if we could bring it out. Just in case."
"Splendid! I will be looking over this recording, then."
"Do as you like but please make sure that the Flood doesn't break out: as far as I know, it could lead to a galaxy-wide crisis again like in the time of your builders." Rock Man shrugged.
"Oh! True, true. Maybe we'll meet again, Reclaimer Rock Man. Until then… Farewell!"
Guilty Spark headed out as the "background" slowly disappeared to reveal that the remaining portion of the platform was just sitting on the ground of the factory-like building in the Cyber World: Rock Man exited the place while leaning on the right wall and Blood Shadow helped him lean on him once he was out on the street.
"Good job! You did it." Blood Shadow congratulated.
"That's the Rock Man I know!" Sigma laughed.
"T-thank you… Let's go home… I'm exhausted and I don't think I'll be able to move much for the rest of the day." Rock Man made a weak smile.
"Good job out there." Omega caught up with them.
"Commander Omega!" Both saluted.
"Thanks, Omega… Did you find Anderson's physical location?"
"It'd seem Dr. Regal was contacted with it: he will be taking care of the formalities and the Net Police won't intercede since Anderson plans on coming to the Net Police HQ anyway."
"Back and not back and cover yer back, lads!"
"Cloud Man."
"I saw it all! I'm Seeing It All Man! So that's the "Saito Style" thing Twilight – sama said you used 4 years ago and had kept buried or sleeping… Amusing! By my nose!"
Cloud Man appeared there but none were impressed.
"Yeah, yeah. Go collect tuna and offer it to Commander Beef & Tuna and then he'll praise you yet!" Netto fumed.
"Not bad, Hikari Netto! No wonder Twilight – sama says you're good at improving mottoes!"
"I'm flattered." Netto drily replied.
"2 years with the guy around are enough to make us be unimpressed at his lack of originality. And his spoiling mania..."
"Ruin Mode: activate! We're doomed!"
"Another ToS rip-off? That won't save your transparent hide."
"Good motto, Omega Danna! Patent it or they'll invent Transparent Hide: the newest Spider-Man villain!"
"Cloud Man! Will you stop meddling around?"
"Don't worry, Swallow Man. All's under control!"
"I'm skeptical myself."
"Wanna dance a sparkling dance of thunder and thunderbolt?"
"What the…"
Swallow Man formed behind him and Cloud Man turned around to greet him with his classical smug grin: Swallow Man looked annoyed at Cloud Man's crazy random mottoes.
"Huff! Enough! Cloud Man! Behave!"
"Cosmo Man! Mr. Lex Luthor wants to brawl with ya~…"
"Sheesh. I'm fed up with these jokes!"
Cosmo Man showed up next: the others had already left but since Cosmo Man and Swallow Man began to discuss with Cloud Man then they hadn't realized or didn't mind that.
"Behave already!"
"Zoan Gate Man! Use your Remote Gate and get into the Bat-cave!"
"GORHAZLHTOL!"
"Alien Covenant Version?"
Zoan Gate Man physically got there and Cloud Man pulled a joke on him, which he replied with an undecipherable growl.
"Hmpf! So the campaign ended! At last!" Twilight sneered.
"Yeah. Also, seeing the "good mood" between you guys we already deduced that that of yesterday was but a farce." Omega shot back.
"Hmpf! As expected of kyoudai… His Holmes nose is sharp!"
"How original." Everyone else (Sigma as well) drily muttered.
"Just you wait, gnats… I'll unleash my full power into you!"
"It wouldn't be interesting otherwise. Come anytime." Rock Man taunted.
"We won't be so easily intimidated, Twilight!"