There were a lot of certainties about the situation Enzan found himself in. Laika was certainly the ringleader; Meiru was certainly in danger; Enzan knew he was certainly the best man left for the job when it came to knowing the enemy. But every time he tried to think about Laika, and the Sharan's considerable intelligence and knowledge of tactics, and what sorts of traps he'd have to look forward to avoiding, and whether or not Searchman's absence meant his Synchro Chip was unnecessary, he just found himself asking, "Why?"
"Enzan-sama?"
"Nothing," he told his Navi quickly. He hadn't realized he'd said that aloud.
Blues crossed his arms. "If you're this worried, it isn't nothing."
Enzan took a long, slow breath. It didn't make him feel any better. "I've just been thinking, Blues. About - well, everything."
"You can't help either of them unless they want to be helped, Enzan-sama, we both know that very well."
"I know... I know. But I can't just do nothing, Blues, they're my -" Were they his friends? Were they ever his friends like he was their friend? It seemed like it had been so long ago - Enzan, Laika, and Netto, the strongest of partners, fighting together against whatever evil the world wanted to throw at them. It had been long ago - over four years. Had all that time made him see those memories in a brighter light than reality? "I just wish I knew where it all..." But there was no point asking that question; he already knew the answer. Remembering it was like a stab in the chest. "Why did we stop looking?"
"Enzan-sama..."
"Blues, why didn't we keep looking?"
"There were two other people whose remains were never recovered. It is very likely that all three bodies were in some part of the subway system that the Net Police hadn't discovered; at least, that's the official story."
"And we never found them. We never gave those families real closure, we just wrote those people off and hoped they'd go with it!" Enzan recalled, furious. "They could've needed help - of course they were going after Netto, he was -"
"The other two missing victims were a retired schoolteacher and a bank teller. They had nothing in common with each other - it was completely random. Enzan-sama, there was no way you could have known. Please don't blame yourself." Enzan nodded, forcing composure back on his face. Miserable as he felt, there was a job to do. "We don't know enough yet," Blues added. "Once we know the cause, we can find the solution. And don't forget who else is waiting down there."
He was right. Meiru couldn't fight Laika alone. If any of the Net Saviors before her were any indication, she was depending on him. And if she wasn't his friend, he didn't know who was. "Thank you, Blues," Enzan said, managing a smile. He looked out the window; down below, snow was falling. "Almost there," he said. "Now, the real work begins..."
0110100101100100011001010110111001110100011010010111010001111001
Enzan almost couldn't believe he'd landed at Sharo's Net Savior hub. It looked as if it'd been abandoned for months. Dust stirred around his shoes as he and his guide walked down the hallway.
"I'm sorry you have to see it like this," the blonde scientist said. Some of the lights were beginning to dim and flicker above them, and it was clear that nothing had been cared for in some time. "The janitorial staff won't work here. Everyone's been afraid for so long."
"He started his kidnappings here, didn't he, Cossack-hakase?" Enzan asked. "No wonder they were scared - Laika didn't just go after Net Saviors at first."
Cossack shook his head when Enzan named the culprit. "I just can't believe that Laika would do this," he said. "What does he have against the Net Saviors?"
Enzan shoved his hands in his pockets. "Not much to it, I'm sure. We're threats to any criminal. Who wouldn't want us out of the way?"
"But - yes, you're absolutely right, but still -" Cossack protested, "Everyone respected Laika. He had everything - talent, position, everything - on his side. Why throw that away?"
"I'm sure I'll get him to tell me sooner or later," Enzan said. Cossack flinched. The Net Savior was careful to sound a little warmer when he next spoke, not having meant for his tone to be so cold. "Do you have any idea where he could be?"
Cossack shook his head before swiping a card through the least dusty slot in the building. His lab was a little cluttered, and thick layers of dust were settling in the less-used corners, but it at least looked like someone was working here. The one knickknack that wasn't sporting some dust was a framed but slightly faded picture of a blonde, wavy-haired four-year-old. "Sharo is a massive country. He could be in the middle of the city; he could be hundreds of miles away, in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn't suggest going off on your own, especially around this time of year. If you could just wait for the spring -"
"That's nearly half a year away. This can't wait any longer," Enzan said.
Cossack sighed. "I haven't heard anything from Laika since he attacked you at the conference. He's probably at his main base - wherever he's been taking his kidnap victims to, I'd guess - but we have no idea where that is."
"He's turned his PET off?"
"Yes," Cossack confirmed. Enzan knew that was probably the first way Cossack had tried to find Laika's location, but he had to be sure. Reluctantly, the blonde scientist said, "There are trucks here equipped to make it through the ice and snow that you can borrow. And supplies are available in town. But I just don't like sending you out there alone." He handed Enzan a slightly dusty business card from his desk. "If you do decide to go through with this, keep me and your commander in Japan informed about your location. I'll provide whatever help I can."
"Thank you, Cossack-hakase," Enzan said. The scientist took a large keyring out of his pocket and turned back to his desk, unlocking a cabinet stuffed full of small envelopes labeled with numbers.
As he shuffled through them, he explained, "They're safer in here with me. Nobody's manned the desk they're supposed to be at in months..." He found the envelope he was looking for and locked the cabinet up again. "Follow me."
They took an elevator down to a lower level - the garage, even dirtier than the hub it serviced. A few civilian cars were parked nearest the exit. Enzan found it easy to pick out Cossack's station wagon - it was the only clean vehicle. The rest were covered in dirt and dust, and had to have belonged to some of the kidnap victims. Cossack led his guest further back, where a fleet of gray trucks stood out against the dark concrete walls. Closer up, it was clear that they were meant to be white.
They stopped in front of what was probably the best-looking of the trucks. "Use this to travel to your hotel, please," Cossack said, taking the key from its envelope and handing it to Enzan. The Net Savior had a feeling Cossack knew he had no reservation and no intention of booking a room. "I don't want to hear of anyone else vanishing in Sharo." With that, Cossack left, his footsteps fading as he went out the door and further down the hall.
"We're going off on our own, aren't we?" Blues said after Cossack was out of earshot.
"We can't sit around and wait for him to be found. Look at how long it took us to figure out he was behind this," Enzan said, opening the door. He shut his eyes against the cloud of dust this produced. As he got in, sending up a smaller cloud, he said, "He'll probably have repurposed some abandoned warehouse or factory for his purposes. We'll search until we find him."
"I've compiled a list of possible locations, Enzan-sama. I'll display them right away." A map of Sharo appeared in midair, with fourteen dots scattered on it. "Very few of them are near each other. At worst, we could be looking for a month."
"All right." He tried to think of the best way to cover that much ground. Sharo really was huge, but with transportation and the proper supplies it was conquerable. It had to be, for Meiru's sake. "Considering where this started, we can rule out -" He nearly jumped at the hum of the PET vibrating; someone had sent him an email.
"It's from an unknown sender. Subject line is..." Blues fell silent in a way that, Enzan had found over the years, usually suggested he was trying to soften an insulting message.
Do you even know where you're going, dumbass? mocked the email when Enzan took a look for himself.
"Open it."
That was rash of you, just up and running without even figuring out where Laika is. It's not like you. Try not to get yourself killed.
"Enzan-sama, these coordinates..." A satellite image replaced the message. Most of what it showed was white, but a few gray skeletons of what had probably once been fences or other buildings surrounded a still-standing building with a brown roof. As Blues spoke, the brown building was highlighted by a yellow filter. "It's an old military base, abandoned around ten years ago. It'll be a four-hour drive from here."
"Then let's get started," Enzan said, putting the key in the ignition and turning it.
0110100101100100011001010110111001110100011010010111010001111001
Meiru opened her eyes to see blue. The room she was in seemed to be like a blue box - blue walls, blue ceiling. From what she could tell, there was no door. She sat up to get a better look, surprised that her head didn't seem to mind at all. She had expected a bit more protest from her body, considering she'd been given a bad enough blow to miss coming in here. Encouraged by this, she decided to try standing. In the process, she found a blue floor to go with everything else and discovered that her clothes were gone; instead, she wore a skintight black bodysuit. It covered her hands and feet, though her hair was free. She twirled a strand around one finger as she regarded her prison, wondering what move to make next.
"Guess you're not the kidnapper after all." Meiru turned to see Austin sitting in the corner of the room, dressed in the same bodysuit she was.
"We found Commandoman on Laika's computer," she explained. "He's safe with Meijin."
"That's fine and all, but what about us?" Austin asked. Despite his words, he looked a little relieved at the news. "We don't have long. This is a holding cell, Sakurai. Some other guy was getting dragged off when I woke up. I've been here for a while, and he hasn't come back."
"Then we need to get out of here," Meiru said. "Do you know where -"
"- the door is? Sure, but I can't force it open," Austin said. That reminded Meiru that they were in enemy territory; they were probably being listened in on. She walked over to Austin and dropped to a crouch, prompting him to talk more quietly. "We must be in a Dimensional Area or something - those guys who grabbed that first fella were like beasts! There was one like a penguin, another like a tiger..."
"The one who got me was Optic Sunflower," Meiru recalled.
"Does he shock people to sleep?" Austin asked.
"She, and yes."
"Well, she got me too, but I didn't even see her." Austin said, "The Dimensional Areas this guy's got are insane. I didn't even know one was up until I was waking up here."
"I've never heard of anything like that," Meiru said, amazed. "Aren't there laws against that sort of thing?"
"Here in Ameroupe, yeah. Some places like Kingland and Creamland let you have walk-in Areas, but even they're required to tint the affected space at least one color. And they're pretty easy to detect."
Meiru remembered, "The alarms! We had those all over..."
"And they were useless, yes."
The redheaded Net Savior sighed, "Wow... Hikari-hakase and the rest'll go nuts over this. We've got to escape and warn the others."
Austin shook his head. "Nah, you got us into this mess. You'd better see what you can find out there."
"Austin -"
Before Meiru could protest, the Ameroupian said, "Can it, Sakurai! We don't have much time. Here's the deal..."
A/N: Aaaaaaand more continuity! The first four chapters and the last one of String Theory are the most important in terms of overarching things, but you can read the whole fic if you want, it's only nine chapters long. Looking back at the last author's note, I like how I was so confident I would get this posted last fall. "Barring major tragedy," indeed.
YAY YOU'RE BACK MI3 yeah, if I were writing a plot like this now, I'd definitely do more with Meiru and Enzan being accused than "welp okay let's have a quick action scene and then it's time for Laika's base." It doesn't help that I had just realized (back in 2010, wow this fic is old) how slowly paced the front ends of Neo Alliances and Grand Championship were, and decided to ratchet the speed way up for this one. (If I say anything other than "Meiru is going to start doing awesome things next chapter," I'll spoil myself.) Laika will also be explained very soon, much sooner than I could've strung it out for. :P