Chapter 8: Na Tou

10:20 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday August the 31st…

"… Who was the President of Y Nation in the year 2188?"

"War Rock!"

"Again?"

Vadous stood in front of an armored door.

This door was built in the left wall of a curved, metallic corridor decorated with arches and with fluorescent lights set on the ceiling.

Labeled armored doors were built at both sides of it, too.

The door Vadous was standing in front of was labeled "STORAGE #09".

"Who else? Omega is dead serious these days! And Sigma is under strict surveillance to make sure he behaves!"

"By all the…"

Lartes met up with Vadous, annoyed at War Rock's behavior.

A twitch formed over his right eye, and he was tapping the metallic wall in a gesture of impatience while Vadous was barely holding back his anger.

"More problems with War Rock, Boss?"

"As if it wasn't obvious enough, Kir Osh…"

Kir Osh fell short of Lartes by five to six centimeters.

He had blond hair and green eye irises.

Kir Osh's armor had the "K" letter over the chest area plus a sword sheath.

"Who was the President of Y Nation in the year 2188?"

"No – one. There's never been such a nation!" Lartes grumbled.

"Bravo for the Doc Frankenstein!"

"Very CULTURATE of the little prankster!" He grumbled.

"Where's the jerk?" Kir Osh grumbled.

"Inside of the car Kir Osh broke~!"

"What!? I've never broken a car! I was a car mechanic for something! But, say! We don't have cars onboard to begin with!" Kir Osh cursed.

"SIGMA~!" Vadous yelled.

"W-what's up, Boss?"

Sigma ran up the corridor from the left, looking nervous.

"Have you seen that prankster lion?" He grumbled.

"War Rock? Said something about visiting a joker with a red rose…"

"Sheesh! He must mean Red Joker, the AI that I built to surveil the "Subspace" domain while we're not there…!"

"But how did he get there?" Sigma wondered.

"Hmpf. Must've hacked the portal machine…" Kir Osh scoffed.

"Sheesh! I'm eager to catch him and alter his program!" Vadous grumbled.

"Don't we all wish that?" Lartes sighed.

"I'll grab the LED lamps I need and then change the password back to what it was!" Vadous growled.

He ran inside of the room, grabbed three spare LED lamps boxes and then interacted with the control panel.

"New password: Uranus' rings!" He hissed.

"Acknowledged… Password has returned to its original setting…"

"That bothersome guy…!" Lartes growled.

"I'm about to blow him up…!"

"Me too…!" Kir Osh added.

"Stick out your neck!"

10:33 AM (Japan Time)…

"And this is the result of the requested simulation, Lord War Rock…"

"Excellent! I'll prove to Claw Man I can come up with strategies!"

War Rock was fooling around with an "Air Display" device set inside of small square room the south end of which had a large viewing window.

Other furniture included an armchair with wheels and a command console plus a water dispenser device.

"Found ya!"

"Why! It's Amgis!"

"Sigma! And you know it! Not in the mood for jokes!"

Sigma ran into the room and War Rock trolled him, but he merely growled.

"What are you doing in the control room of the surveillance ship?"

"Tab-Bat told me about it!"

"Sheesh! Should've seen it coming! Tabby using you to troll us!"

"Our little Rocky is as smart as Koumei! It's a trap by Koumei!"

"Bringing up famous strategists from the Romance of Three Kingdoms? Aren't we CULTURATE?" Sigma grumbled.

"Look at my brilliant strategist, Amgis!"

"What next?"

The simulation showed two fleets of spaceships engaging each other in a spatial battle before a blue dot in the middle of both formations exploded and the shockwave wiped out both fleets.

The words "GAME OVER" colored red popped out next.

"What part of it is brilliant? Putting an anti-matter bomb in the middle and detonating it to destroy both combatants…!"

"It's brilliant!"

"ARE YOU CRAZY OR WHAT? NOBODY JOKES WITH ANTI-MATTER BOMBS! YOU LOWLIFE! COME BACK HERE BEFORE MY ANGER BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE TO CONTROL! THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES! OR ELSE I'LL COME AND DRAG YOU BACK HERE MYSELF!" Vadous roared over the radio.

"Explosion Man came!"

The purple gateway suddenly opened and Vadous rushed out.

He pulled War Rock's head from behind and dragged him back inside before it closed.

Sigma fumed and began to type into the "Air Display" machine.

"Erase this simulation, Red Joker!"

"Roger…"

"That guy… Trying to drive us crazy…! And joking with WMDs!"

"Little Rocky got scolded by the Big Daddy!"

"You got play Big Brother, Tabbing!"

"Delighted, Vadouz!"

"VA-DO-US!"

"Beware, old Paps is coming…"

"Old Paps? Palpatine? That walking mummy? I'll send him back to the museum where he ran off from!"

"That's a new one. Enjoy it while it's still fresh and crunchy!"

"Very funny! Tabulating key!"

"Beware, the tabulator of Beijing has come to town…"

"What's that? A parody of "Santa Claus has come to town"? Not in the mood for that and it's still summer!"

"But it's winter in the southern hemisphere!"

"Sheesh! How sneaky of you!"

10:39 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Let's talk with Boss…"

Subaru walked down one of the corridors and Subaru stopped in front of a door with the label "ELEVATOR TO COMMAND BRIDGE".

He opened it to step into a small room which only contained a cargo elevator and its climbing shaft.

He stepped into the platform and inputted a command into a console.

The elevator hummed and began to climb up.

The small elevator reached its end and he stepped into a small dome-shaped room.

"This room is as amazing as always!"

He stopped and looked around while being seemingly in awe.

The floor was a narrow steel corridor wide enough for one person to stand, shaped as two trapezes connecting each other by a line.

The ground was lowered and covered in a grid on the spaces between each trapeze and to left and right of the corridor.

Another room could be seen expanding downwards below this one through the grid's openings.

Subaru spotted a small circle which marked the start of a rail crossing across the room until the other end.

He followed it with his sight and ended up finding a black metallic armchair with the A letter "V" painted behind it on purple color placed at the end of the rail and giving Subaru the back.

The other end of the room contained a console which was filled with several LEDs, indicators, switches, levers and buttons plus a built-in keyboard and mouse pad.

Three gigantic and interconnected LCD screens had been affixed to the wall to be above it.

The room's walls had several stripes built into it which contained round LED lights.

The centermost point of the room had a hatch built into the ceiling which was currently closed.

"Guess he's busy with something else…"

"Sorry for the wait, Subaru…"

Vadous came in while sipping a cup of tea.

He walked past him and sat down on the armchair, drinking the tea.

"I finally decided to lock up War Rock again because he'd begun to hack into systems that I own!"

"Sheesh! The guy's turning into a lousy hacker!"

"Tabuu incited him to make stupid simulations about anti-matter bombs!"

"Yikes! As if Death Shadow's bombs weren't deadly enough!"

"I know, right? I'm so eager to alter his programming to make him behave in a rational way!"

"I wouldn't mind that myself!" Subaru sighed.

A beep rang out and Vadous lifted his gaze to look at the center screen.

Live feed from a camera displaying an Aztec-like temple built in the middle of an island somewhere popped out.

It was evident that something was going on given the camera's shaking and how the building's top area was crumbling.

"By all the! That's in SS1! The Ancient Temple built to store that thing…! That's gotta be Tabuu's handiwork! Wants to use that thing against me…!"

"That thing…?" Subaru frowned.

"Come with me, Subaru!"

"R-roger!"

"I know how to stop that thing!"

"Understood!"

They stepped into the elevator and descended to the floor below to exit into the corridor.

They accessed an adjacent door labeled "PORTAL MACHINE ROOM" to step into an almost empty room containing an object.

"The portal machine…" Subaru muttered.

It consisted of a metallic ring set atop a pyramidal base and having several machines built on both sides.

"Start up! Destination: SS1's Temple!" Vadous commanded.

"Acknowledged."

The machine hummed and the purple gateway formed inside of it.

"Let's go!"

"Understood, sir…"

"True! I need to give you the program…"

Vadous drew a device and connected it to his Hunter VG.

"Transfer complete… Uncompressing data… Installing… Done!"

"Roger, sir. Activate!"

The Hunter VG glowed, and data clusters formed around his body, combining to form his "Rock Man" armor.

Rock Man checked his limbs and patted his chest.

"I don't feel a major difference insofar, sir…"

"Good. It's built using a scan of your Hunter VG data and my own research into how to replicate the transformation, so I was sure it had to work!"

"Understood, sir. Let's go tell that Tabuu that their pathetic stunts can't impress us anymore!"

11:18 AM (Japan Time)…

"What good stuff! Here! Smash it all! Na Tou!"

"Freeze!"

"That's as far as you come, Tabuu!"

"My, my… We have audience?"

Rock Man and Vadous appeared at the beginning of the temple's stairway.

Tabuu was hovering over the big hole on the top of the temple and using his energy strings to pull something inside upwards.

"Behold!"

He beat his wings and flew upwards to reveal a giant statue that resembled Ra Mu.

The face was sculpted to reflect anger and it was red and black instead.

Its body was a cylinder and its arms only had three fingers on them apart from being attached to the body.

Two crude feet with three fingers were placed near the base, too.

"Na Tou! Destroy the heretics!" Tabuu laughed.

"Hmpf. Objection!"

He quickly inputted commands into his own device and the thing's eyes stopped glowing.

The thing howled before starting to fall back inside.

Tabuu had to sever the strings to avoid being pulled down by the thing.

"What the… Override device…?" He cursed.

"Naturally. Game Over, Tabuu!"

"My, my… Too bad. I wanted to study its power system even if it's a crude predecessor to Ra Mu's one! Guess I need another idea and I can discard this one!" He sighed.

"Power system…? Why do you need that?" Rock Man questioned.

"Good question, Holmes Jr!"

"What? Me? Holmes Jr?"

"I just found out something interesting!"

Tabuu looked downwards and chuckled.

"What next?"

"Missile Launcher!"

"What!"

Missiles shot skywards from inside of the temple and rained down on Vadous and Rock Man.

They shielded their bodies and looked up to see another salvo of missiles heading towards them.

"Bothersome meddling guy!" Vadous growled.

He drew both swords, intercrossed them, and accumulated electricity, which split into several "thunderbolts" aimed towards each missile.

He destroyed them before he jumped towards Tabuu but was repelled by an invisible barrier.

Vadous landed half-way up the stairs and cursed.

"What the hell was that?" He cursed.

"Who knows? Partner?" Tabuu chuckled.

"Where did those missiles come out from?" Rock Man demanded.

"Na Tou had a missile launcher attached to its back! You added it back in October 2203! Didn't you, Partner?" Tabuu let out.

"Crap! I'd forgotten it was there!" Vadous cursed.

"No wonder. It's been close to two years, after all! And a lot has happened ever since then! You put it as an anti-theft device!"

"I'll find the weak point on that bloody armor… And get rid of it to make you be powerless!" Vadous cursed.

"I'd like to see you trying, Partner. Anyway… I'm off to continue my exclusive VIP tour. See ya around!"

He glowed with a golden light and shot skywards, becoming invisible.

"Ran away… The bothersome jerk…!"

"But… By "VIP tour" he may mean that he's going to shift his targets to here, to the "Subspace" per se?" Rock Man suggested.

"Could be!"

"Boss? Are you alright?" Lartes asked.

"Somehow…"

"I've lost track of the guy…" Lartes admitted.

"Naturally!"

"Come back here. Subaru. I want to make sure you're not building up any sequels to all this damage you've been accumulating!"

"Roger, Master!"

"Dispatch the repair Wizards over here… We need to rebuild the top part of the temple!" Vadous commanded.

"Kir Osh will be glad to have something to repair, for once, I'd say!"

"If you say so…"

"Anyway. I've put several security layers on the little lion to make sure that he behaves and can't escape detention!"

"Teach him some lessons, sir!" Rock Man sighed.

"Delighted! Last thing I need is someone stressing you out!"

"And update spam email filters to filter Tabuu's spam emails!"

Tabuu… What are you gonna target next?