Chapter 32: Battle: Start

17:48 PM (Japan Time), Friday December the 30th…

"… Laika – sama. I have received a mail from "Sauron"… Obviously enough, the address is untraceable."

"What does he want now?"

"He sends coordinate data. It belongs to the Monte Perdido in Aragón. It's about 4 hours by highway from Obihiro's hideout at Arenys de Munt."

"What!?"

Laika had been going over some documents on a workspace when Search Man reported the news.

"I see. There's an underground refuge there. The coordinates seem to be taken from the machine, so… We should have them inputted into the machine under Net Police custody and we could then get inside without complications. We know the machines are designed in a way that they won't allow to be shut down if someone is in transit. The transit time is under a second, so… Not even a Navi can react that fast. We have nothing to fear about."

"I suggest gathering everyone but do not try engaging the machine until the thirteen of us are there. We don't want to ruin the surprise element to our attack."

"I agree on it. Search Man! Send a mail asking for everyone to gather to the Net Police HQ: we need to go over what we know." Laika commanded.

"Roger, Laika – sama."

"The time has come…! We're finally going to put a momentary stop to this relentless conflict…!" Laika muttered.

"Indeed, sir. However… I don't really like that that "eye" sets the pace."

"I understand the reluctance. I have it, too. But can't be helped."

"Understood, sir. I'll focus on the mission!"

18:29 PM (Japan Time)…

"Impressive!"

The previous twelve "Duo's Crest" owners along with Dr. Regal were standing inside of a warehouse.

Thie warehouse had one of those portal-generating machines.

"I'm inputting the coordinates. There's no reason to be concerned over the usage of the machine! The actual trip last less than one second given the high acceleration achieved through the Time Space."

"We three will take point. The others must follow in order."

"… Finally… The time to settle the score has come!" Netto muttered.

"But we'll do that out of duty, otouto. This is not for payback."

"Cool it down, Netto. We'll need to use all of our skills to fight this battle."

"We shall put a halt to their petty schemes." Blues muttered.

"Nenjirou! Ya ready for a shakedown?"

"… Nenji. Have you written yer will?" Napalm Man coolly asked.

"What did ya say?" Rokushakudama frowned.

"I'M NOT NENJIROU~!" Napalm Man yelled.

The loud yell knocked Rokushakudama into the ground, dyzzing him.

Napalm Man smiled and sounded like he'd been holding out for time.

"I had to! I've been holding this one back for over a year!" He laughed.

The others blinked in surprise and seemed taken aback by the behavior.

"Attention!"

The machine hummed as monitors lighted up and purple electricity streaks jumped out from the inner ring edge to focus on the middle.

They created the purple portal, which swirled around the structure.

"I take point! Enzan! Netto! Follow me. The rest! Wait two seconds between each person! Silence is a must!" Laika instructed.

He stepped inside and vanished, so Enzan followed him and Netto stepped in a couple of seconds later.

"Let's go!"

The three of them silently stepped out in a large underground room.

The machine was on the east wall and the north wall had a closed shutter.

The west wall had two large armored doors set there along with a control panel while the south wall was just plain steel.

There were fans in the ceiling and fluorescent light.

A navy blue van had been parked parallel to the south wall.

"This must be the garage. The shutter must have the access ramp leading to the surface. That's how they brought all the heavy stuff inside without too much trouble." Enzan whispered.

The other members began to step out of the machine in silence and they looked around without making any noise.

Laika examined the control panel, displaying the word "UNLOCKED" written in red Alphabet letters.

"Let's go." He whispered.

He slowly pushed one of the two doors inward without making any noise and glanced inside, seeing part of the production chain machinery there.

There they are!

Obihiro was sitting on a chair and working with his laptop as Hunter Man, Sidier and Death Shadow talked amongst them.

Four.

Laika used his left hand and lowered the thumb to indicate the number of people present.

The others nodded in understanding as Laika softly closed the door.

"Enzan." He whispered.

Enzan drew out his PET and connected it to the machine, so Meijin appeared onscreen.

Enzan merely nodded in agreement with the head and Meijin returned the gesture as he typed into the central computer and pressed the button.

"Good luck." He hushed.

The environment's colors began to change to signal how a "Dimensional Area" had been deployed.

They drew their "Synchro Chips".

"What the heck? Did I trigger off "Dimensional Converters" while I was working on the production data?" Obihiro wondered.

"Or maybe Kuroumi – sama is pulling a prank?" Hunter Man suggested.

"He looked in a strange mood when I saw him a while ago! It'd seem he and Kagehi - sama look like they'd love to pull a prank on someone! This must mean that he did." Sidier seemed to agree with the idea.

"It does not affect the production. Ignore it." Death Shadow ordered.

The group silently slotted their "Synchro Chips" in and performed "Cross Fusion" next.

"Regal – san looks cool…" "CF" Netto muttered.

"CF" Laser Man's design was very similar to his original one but had some slight differences.

The patterns were drawn differently and his light spectrum signs were drawn on both sides of the shirt neck formation.

The two tubes were set slightly beneath the shoulders and the pattern drawn outside them was different as well.

"Is it me or I'm hearing some noises on the garage?" Hunter Man asked.

"Don't mind it! Gotta be that Pyrenees wind which howls so loud and makes the shutter rattle!" Obihiro ordered.

"Solo pulled that prank on me once. I almost thought there was a ghost!"

"A ghost… A Force Ghost, you thought?"

"I thought Naga Sadow had come out to torment me."

The doors opened and the thirteen "Cross Fusion" users ran in, drawing their standard weapons.

"What in the…?"

Obihiro's jaw hit the floor and his empty hot chocolate cup fell off his right hand and into the ground.

"By all the…!"

Hunter Man and the other two stood frozen there for about ten seconds, unable to believe what they were seeing.

"… T-the "Net Saviors"!" Obihiro finally gasped.

"H-how did they know the refuge's location? But… I'm sure I locked those doors with the panel and the security code! Any attempts to forcefully open them would've triggered the alarms!" Hunter Man gasped.

"I see! The "Eye"! It tipped them off!" Sidier growled.

"So that was its goal, then!" Death Shadow growled.

"Obihiro! This is as far as you come!" "CF" Netto announced.

"Give it up, Hunter Man!" Rock Man added.

"Laika and Yuriko will handle Sidier. Miyabi and I will handle Death Shadow. Find the supercomputer and secure it! If you can shut it down, better. Try to leave it intact if possible!" "CF" Blues instructed.

The four of them remained speechless as eight of the "Cross Fusion" users warped using Area Steal and appeared at the other end of the room.

They ran up a corridor heading north.

"Hunter Man! Get back to the PET ASAP! It's "Cross Fusion" showdown time!" Obihiro announced.

"Roger!"

Hunter Man dematerialized and returned inside of the Link PET while Obihiro rummaged his lab coat's right pocket and drew a "Dark Synchro Chip", which he held out.

"Dark Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!"

"CF" Obihiro appeared there.

He looked almost identical to Hunter Man, although his torso had the drawing of a square skull.

A mouth guard with purple teeth drawn on it protected his mouth.

Purple lines spiraled around the whole length of the legs and arms as well.

"Charge Shotgun Blast! Die, Hikari!" "CF" Obihiro announced.

"Charge Shot!"

Both attacks met each other and exploded, harming neither, so they assumed Mexican stand-off positions.

"Sheesh! Come! Power!" Sidier commanded.

He assumed his armored form and examined his right hand and arm.

"No holding back I don't need games to be able to kill you!"

"The armor levels are something. But it ain't indestructible! We can crack it if we use sufficient strength." "CF" Laika muttered.

"Battle Chip, Tank Cannon! We'll defeat you, Sidier! Bring it on!"

"The Reborn Grim Reaper! Well then: try to count how many I've slain."

"Shadow Man… I don't think this is the time for that."

"Reborn Grim Reaper or not… He's just a "Darkloid". He can be defeated if we find out how." "CF" Blues replied.

"Defeat me? That is impossible for your level of power. But I shall take your souls, so come at me." Death Shadow challenged.

"… Over there!"

The group of eight found a large armored door at the end of the corridor leading north, which had a large banner set on its surface.

"THANATOS SUPERCOMPUTER"

"Here! Let's open it!" "CF" Laser Man instructed.

"Leave it to me and Nenjirou! Vulcan Arm!"

"Battle Chip, Mega Cannon!" "CF" Roll announced.

"Kingdom Crusher!"

The three attacks formed indentations on the door.

"CF" Laser Man kicked it with the right leg and it collapsed out of its frame and inside of the room with a loud metallic sound.

"Go!" He rallied.

They ran inside but they quickly stopped dead on their tracks.

"What is that?" "CF" Rokushakudama asked.

"Amazing!" "CF" Roll was also surprised.

The supercomputer was built inside of an isolated glass and steel chamber filled with AC systems and wiring.

The cabinets were set in rows inside of it and working.

The east, west and north walls had alcoves with closed curved metallic doors on them.

There were nine alcoves, and eight of them were white while the ninth one, set directly opposite the entrance, was black.

The eight alcoves opened some small round hatches and expelled vapor.

"There's something inside of them!"

The double doors unlocked and eight silhouettes walked out at the same time while emitting a low buzz-like circuitry sound and the sound of metal hitting metal.

"Elite Thanatos – Zero is online. Orders: protect Thanatos Core. Annihilate all threats."

Several of the Thanatos robots (colored golden and silver) walked out of the alcoves and began to walk towards the "Net Saviors".

"Pull back! We'll have to try to fight them in the corridor even though it's just barely wide enough to accommodate three persons on it! This will be a close-quarters fight!" "CF" Laser Man commanded.

They pulled out and the robots followed them.

A purple energy field formed on the threshold and another came up at the south end of the corridor, trapping them inside of its space.

"Battle Chip, Elec Sword, Elec Blade. Double Slot In."

All of the robots drew the electrical blades and faced one opponent each.

"Battle Chip, Long Sword, Long Blade!" Everyone announced.

They began a clash of swords with the robots and tried to hold their ground against them.

"Let's start by heating up. Two!" Sidier announced.

Two of the electricity spheres formed and hovered left and right of his body as he walked towards the two adversaries.

He assumed a combat trance and the spheres shot their electricity at the opponents, who dodged and drew their weapons.

"Let's go! Program Advance! Battle Chip, Vulcan! Triple Slot In! Mugen Vulcan!"

"I'll take a shot too! Program Advance! Battle Chip, Hi Cannon! Triple Slot In! Giga Cannon!"

"Useless!"

The two attacks bounced off Sidier's body and didn't leave any marks save for very slight burn marks.

He'd summoned another two spheres which hovered above his head and in front of his feet.

"Cross Attack!"

The spheres' electricity interconnected and formed a cross shape.

It shot forward and hit both combatants as they were trying to recover from their "Program Advance" usage.

The attack electrocuted them and pushed them into the ground due to the cross' speed.

"Damn." "CF" Laika hissed.

"This is bad." "CF" Yuriko grimly muttered.

"… Sonic Boom!"

"Shadow Blade!"

"Death Aura!"

A blue transparent sphere of energy formed around Death and both attacks bounced off.

He crouched, jumped into the air, assumed a compact position and shot towards the ground.

He hit it with force, pushing both "Net Saviors" back and inflicting damage to them as he landed on his fours and the energy slowly dissipated.

"If you people were counting on your companions, I think they are rather busy by now."

"Sheesh! What a jerk! Enzan! We're in deep shit! We're fighting "Elite" robots armed with two electrical swords and without much room to maneuver! The width of this corridor only allows three persons to fit in a row! We're forming a row, but there's no length remaining! We've been forced into close-quarters combat!" "CF" Dingo reported.

"Can't you use your special attacks?" "CF" Blues asked.

"No! Every time we try, they use a Muramasa-like barrier! It absorbs the attack and vents it off with electrical discharges! They've blown out the lights!" "CF" Dingo replied.

"Damn. No lights, narrow space and with those prospects… It could turn deadly, even." "CF" Miyabi muttered.

"I do not have an electronic brain in vain." Death Shadow announced.

"So that's the "surprise" ya said ya were working on! Good one!"

"CF" Obihiro he clashed a Fire Blade against "CF" Netto's Flame Sword.

"Death can come up with deadly ideas." Hunter Man made a pun.

"Shit. You were expecting us to appear here all along!" "CF" Netto cursed.

"Why, you…!"

"And those shields shall not vanish until all robots are gone. But even if they are, I still have two key cards." Death Shadow added.

"Shit. This is spiraling out of control." "CF" Blues cursed.

"We've gotta do what we can! Fight!" "CF" Miyabi rallied.

"Then fight. Soon there shall be nothing but corpses left in this underground facility. Death Missiles!"

His arm cannon split into four pieces and a missile emerged.

He shot at "CF" Blues, who sliced it but the explosion pushed him back.

"Tank Cannon!"

"Dram Aura!"

The Tank Cannon's blast bounced off the Dream Aura and pushed "CF" into the ground, but he managed to stand up somehow, however.

"If we don't get help soon, this may be our last stand, even…!"

"CF" Netto tensed as "CF" Obihiro aimed his shotgun at him…