16:09 PM (Japan Time), Saturday June the 13th…
"… Central City! Been about a year since last time we came!"
"Sure, Hiro – kun… We were chasing those petty fools…"
"That wanted to wake up those two beasts and almost did it…"
"Those are the statues about them…"
Delta stepped into the area which had the huge endless pit and circled around it to head to the platform with the Cybeast statues.
"…"The lion is Greiga. Born from an accidental fusion of computer bugs. The bird is Falzer, created by an unnamed scientist to fight the threat. However, it went out of control as it battled its target. After several days, though, both creatures clashed. The resulting energy release collapsed this area and a new area, the "Underground" was born. Both ravaged there until they ran out of energies. The MoS managed to "seal" them by chaining them and turning them into stone" … But the conspiracy led by the former Mayor, Mr. Cain, almost managed to revive those things! Man! That was a close call!"
"I know! Fortunately, no-one else seems interested in reviving them!"
"Since they already made a fusion of them last autumn…"
"That thing was dreadful, for sure…"
"It's odd, though. This area is devoid of other Navis. Despite that there were plenty of them in the adjacent areas…"
"What? Before we knew it, all exits have been locked due to "a major bug threatening stability of the area"…! Someone must have been tracking us to assault us here!" Akashi gasped.
"The hell? It's a trap?"
"Sure is, young folk… Engage Hyper Mode! Hyper Crush Noise~!"
"What!?"
There was the sound of a machine turning on and a series of sonic pulses hit Delta as they formed in the middle of the air and sent him flying off the platform and land hard into the ground.
He groaned and managed to stand up somehow while rubbing his body's aching parts.
"S-strong! I've lost 250 HP out of my 1000 HP in just ONE attack!"
"The hell!? That thing is a cheat!" Akashi growled.
"Feel the might of Shade Man Omicron!"
"Shade Man!?"
Shade Man dropped down from the sky and landed in front of Delta.
Where his chest emblem would be at, however, there was a metallic device shaped like an octahedron and which had a ghostly blue cross in the middle of it.
The device was humming, and he a ghostly blue light formed around Shade Man's body as nerve-like patterns were drawn around different spots of his face.
"The mighty Grim Reaper wants your soul! Hyper Crush Noise~!"
"No good! Battle Chip, Super Vulcan! Slot In!"
"Useless!"
The bullets bounced off Shade Man and he spread his wings wide as he formed a smug smile on his face.
"Hyper Red Wing!"
Shade Man became a group of red bats, and they flew towards Delta while hitting him from different spots and overwhelming him.
"Hyper Crush Noise!"
"Devil! I've got no chance to counterattack!"
"Delta! Battle Chip, Recovery…!"
"Slow! Hyper Shade Hunt!"
A gigantic copy of Shade Man's right arm formed, and the claw closed around Delta.
"Recovery…!"
"Hyper Crush Noise!"
"Plug Out!"
"Useless!"
Akashi was starting to get panicked, so he pressed the Plug – Out button.
But the word "ERROR" showed up onscreen instead and the PET buzzed.
"Impossible!"
"This was a trap from the very start! You only have about 50 HP left! Instead of just deleting you, which would be boring, be corrupted! Become one of the "Omicron" Net Navis! The race that'll rule the world!"
He gripped Delta by the neck and drew his fangs as he pulled him forward.
"That's as far as it goes…"
"Who the hell are you? Devil! The Hyper Mode device…! It's broken!"
"I'm Zero. Be deleted!"
"Crush…!"
"Slow!"
Delta slowly looked up from his face-down position on the ground to see Zero dashing across the air and plunging his sword into the foe's broken chest device.
He then kicked him into the ground and left him there as he ran towards Delta and crouched next to him.
"Z-Zero…?" He slowly called out.
"Here. Full Recovery Program!"
He handed Delta a red spheroid, which was absorbed by his chest emblem.
"Zero! We owe you one. Really!"
"I was on a mission to see what the "bug" reported on this area was about, and, as I suspected, the area was locked down… I struggled to force a way into the area… Sorry for the holdup…" He explained.
"My bad…" Delta groaned.
"Don't mind it. We're comrades, aren't we?"
"Comrades…? Guess you could call it…"
"Devil! I'm not done with you yet! Crush Noise!"
Shade Man recovered and jumped into the air while snarling and shooting.
Zero moved forward and used a Curzdo Virus to block the attack and its counterattack system made it jump and latch at Shade Man.
"Get off me, you bloody…!"
"Chance!"
"OK! Elec Pulse!"
Delta formed the pulse weapon and moved behind Shade Man as he was busy trying to shake off the Curzdo.
The pulses hit him from behind and he yelped as he became paralyzed.
"Train Arrow!"
He formed a bow gun next and shot three consecutive spears that stabbed the back of the foe, and he groaned as gel poured out from them.
"The blue gel thing that was in the Hunter's Guild!"
"So that thing is named "Omicron"?" Akashi guessed.
"Guess that. Guess that fool needs more pounding before releasing he's just a pathetic idiot high on drugs…" Zero scoffed.
The gel formed the shape of another Shade Man but Zero quickly formed a Flame Sword and pierced the copy with it, making it ignite and explode as it caught fire and burned away.
"Fools! Don't underestimate the might of the GRIMP REAPER!"
"Tell it to fight the Grim Reaper of a Demon Castle Dracula AKA Castlevania game and then we'll talk about which is mightier!"
"Shaddup! Impudent fools! Plebs! Worms! Squids! Bees! Ants!"
"What colorful vocabulary. Looking up to Catp'n Haddock?" Zero mocked.
"Crush Noise!"
Delta sidestepped to dodge the incoming attack and threw an "Earthquake" Battle Chip at Shade Man from above, crushing him underneath its weight and pinning him to the ground.
"Impossible~! I'm Shade Man Omicron! Above the wreck my other I was!"
"You're just a fool high on drugs…" Zero scoffed.
"When did you turn that sarcastic and blunt?" Delta asked.
"Guess I absorbed that from my surroundings… Anyway…"
"I'm not done with you yet…! I'll stain your blood with Omicron!"
"Sheesh. Whoever rebuilt him really insisted on the vampire setting!"
"Guess they're a vampire maniac!"
Shade Man growled as a puddle of "Omicron" formed beneath his body and he began to suck it up.
His body glowed and a spike of energy shot out from his back to delete that object atop him and he recovered, flying for Delta.
"Dream Sword!"
He formed the Dream Sword and plunged it through the chest, emerging from behind him and causing an explosion as the gel inside of him ignited and began to burn.
However, a hollow chuckle echoed as a barely visible figure formed behind the burning vampire and plunged the left hand into the chest.
Energy traveled across it as Shade Man turned into a rotten corpse before transitioning into a skeleton.
The figure jumped upwards leaving a trail of "afterimages" while the remaining skeleton hit the ground and shattered into dust.
A cold wind blew across the area and scattered the dust away, too.
"By all the…" Akashi and Delta cursed.
"That must be the "Grim Reaper"! They hid their presence!"
"What the hell was that!? That wasn't a normal deletion!"
"Guess their bodies have been altered to turn into that if this energy is syphoned out of them…" Zero deduced.
"That was creepier than any horror movie!" Akashi cursed.
"Guess they're fond of dramatics!" Zero shrugged.
"Hmmm? The system has been reset and the doors unlocked…"
"Time for cleanse-up… Help me. Use flame attacks!"
"Roger!"
Both used flame attacks to ignite and destroy the puddles of the gel.
"That should do it. This thing is still classified. Rock Man knows so you can discuss it with him, but we want to keep this discreet…"
"No wonder. If some criminals get their hands on this, we'll have a zombie outbreak in the Cyber World!" Akashi grumbled.
"Hmmm? I felt something!" Delta gasped.
Zero looked behind the Greiga statue and found a cardboard box there.
He kicked away the box, to reveal Bubble Man hiding inside of it.
He gasped and tried to run out but Zero easily caught him by the tube.
"Bubble Man again? Sheesh!" The duo sighed.
"What were you doing here? Speak or I'll call the guys you hoaxed with that "Proton Torpedo" scam!" He threatened.
"Puku! That's… I wanted to find a scoop to sell!" He admitted.
"When did you get here?" He questioned.
"Dunno! My memory files are bugged! Puku!"
"Lame excuse. Won't save your oily hide…"
"What's that? A secret weapon to bring back the WWW? Puku?"
"Of course not!" The duo groaned, annoyed.
Zero used his left hand to grip Bubble Man's face and he yelped.
"Has been here since a few minutes before you came. Guess he was tipped off by the culprits to come take footage of it… And the box was a thing he improved as a desperate attempt to hide when you felt them!"
"Sheesh. How sneaky of them!"
"Whatever. I'll transfer it to the MoS quarantine area for analysis!"
"Objection! Prosecutor Karuma Mei has an OBJECTION!"
A woman's voice laughed as Bubble Man was retrieved from the area.
"Sheesh. It's Mine Fujiko!" Akashi grumbled.
"We did suspect that she'd eventually show up!" Delta sighed.
"Been a while, cool guys blessed by Big Sis Vermouth!"
"Sheesh! It's not funny!"
"Don't worry! I'll keep this footage to myself! In exchange for providing it, you can become the trending topic of the day on Twitter!"
"We don't need that!" Delta sighed.
"Get lost, gossip-lover!" Akashi hissed.
"Mr. Zero~!"
"What?"
They turned around to see a crowd of about thirty females Navis rushing towards Zero.
"Please sign us an autograph!"
"Autograph? What's this about?" He questioned.
"You'll be Mr. Bond's opponent in the next movie, Fall of the Mighty! Because Ms. Venus Warrior stated it in the official account 5 minutes ago! She must be producer Broccoli! What is your role going to be about?"
A Navi with a press accreditation for the DNN TV Station questioned him.
"What? I don't understand what you're talking about!"
"See! We can infer it from the clues! You'll steal his lover and seduce her! We are sure your true face under the mask must be as awesome and wonderful as Mr. Brad Pitt's!" The reporter exclaimed.
"What? There's someone who's saying that I wear a mask, then? However! This is my face as a Navi! It's not a mask for aesthetic purposes! Do you understand that!?"
"Venus Warrior tweeted that, too!"
"Are you sure it's really producer Ms. Broccoli?" Delta sighed.
"It MUST be the case, sir! So?" The reporter quickly replied.
"The announcement says that Leonardo di Caprio will be the main villain! Then you must be his right-hand man!"
"Zero has no connection to the film! And I think this "Venus Warrior" hacked into the website! She must be an accomplice of "Jupiter Warrior", the terrorist of Akihara Town!" Delta sighed.
"Is that so? This is exclusive news! Thank you for your time and beware! There will be more requests for autographs now that you openly admit being in the film!" The reporter eagerly exclaimed.
"I never said that, and…"
"Sign! Sign! Sign! Sign!" They chorused.
"There! Craig's Net Navi!" Delta pointed.
They all turned around to stare at Navi who was seemingly a passerby
The crowd shrieked in excitement and the Navi ran, chased by the crowd.
"Chance! Let's get out!" Delta hushed.
"Agreed!"
Both warped out of the area, but they didn't see Kanaya looking from atop a staircase and giggling.
"That Minami woman sure loves stunts! Borrowing my name, too!"
"Making up a tale about a film to try to annoy the man… Feels a bit too contrived for my taste…" Kurayami muttered over the radio.
"There you are! Puku! Venus Warrior! Gimme the Mega Harpoon DX!"
Bubble Man appeared behind her and aimed his gun at her head.
"Hmpf. Don't get overconfident! You're but an inferior program…"
Her body emitted a purple glow and Bubble Man stepped back, afraid.
"Do you really dare defy us, the Ancient Darkness, which has overcome the passage of time and entropy?" She icily challenged.
"MOMMY~! SAVE ME~! PUKU-BUKU-MUKU~!"
Bubble Man ran off towards the Sky Area access while Kanaya smirked.
"Feel the dread, foolish programs… Human darkness and the darkness of death have joined forces to bring death to all fools…"
"Man! That sure has an aura!" Kurayami whistled in admiration.
"I know, right? We'll instill the fear into fools…"
"Excellent. It was about time we turned serious…"
"You had not been serious insofar?" Death Shadow questioned.
"I meant that there wasn't a good chance to use our full power!"
"Good point. I cannot argue that, since I only have had 3 real battles…"
"You must be the Navi of Ms. Broccoli! A statement for the press, sir!"
"I'm not, ladies and gentlemen! Why would they be in Japan?"
"Because they're scouting filming locations!"
"Sheesh! I thought you had more common sense! I'll complain!"
"Yikes! T-that's… We take it back, sir!"
"Puku! All you need is a Proton Torpedo to blow them up, and…!"
"That's the jerk that scammed me the other day~!"
"Same! Gimme back the money~!"
Bubble Man tried to sell a scam to the crowd, but some Navis recognized that he'd scammed them and began to chase him.
"Strong business spirit, my chap!" She giggled.
"Proton Torpedo, sure… Ripped off Star Wars, alright…"
"Look! There! Puku! It's Brad Shad!"
"You won't fool us, kiddo~!"
"Cousin Drill Man! Gemme outta 'ere~!"
"Too bad! Your cousin is in the brig, can't help ya~!" She sneered.
"Sign! Sign! Sign!"
"Ladies and gentlemen! I'm not Mr. Pitt's Navi!"
"You must be it! Give us the autograph!"
"Run, my chum, run. Else rum will run your ran!"
She giggled under her breath at her silly rhyme…