Chapter 9: Ghost city battle
17:17 PM (Japan Time), Tuesday August the 31st…
"The thirty-six bells of doom have rung out to signal this fatidic moment… Let's go explore a ghost city and find its treasure. They say ghost cities have treasures on them, don't they? Well then! I'll get my own treasure, which makes gold pebbles look pale and ridiculous in comparison!"
Tabuu appeared inside of a stone building which was half-dismantled.
The building was an auditorium, with steps leading to the stage and several rows of seats.
The stage's wall had been removed and so had the ceiling.
There was no illumination save for Tabuu, whose armor emitted a faint ghastly glow and his helmet's drawn-in eyes glowed as well.
"The "auction house"… But what was auctioned here wasn't the typical famous paintings, statues, collector's items, porcelains, limited editions, first editions of books or the likes… This place has a sinister story written into its walls… The houses here were shelters to criminals who had their own "basements" in which unspeakable things happened… No wonder Vadous was so hell-bent on shutting this down first before bringing down that tyrant that Anaya was. He's working into dismantling the whole place to leave no trace of what happened here… No wonder. He didn't want to leave a monument for such creeps to revere…"
He flew outside of the building, which was lacking any doors or windows yet the spaces where they should have been at remained.
Wizards and robots were working on removing parts of the building and setting up explosive charges.
Tabuu flew past them and looked on into the blackness.
"Say… How many houses were there in one floor? Let's check the data… 16! If each one was allowed to have 2 of "them" and there were 3 habitants per house… That'd make 48 habitants… But the whole system had 10 levels… That makes 480 habitants! Creepy…!"
17:20 PM (Japan Time)…
"… It's been a while since I last came here, too. So? Do we know what Tabuu is going to do next?"
"We believe he'll show up here again, Misora – chan!"
"Good. At least we have a thread to pull at!"
"By the way. Did Rocky get punished?"
"Sure did. About time!"
"Agreed!"
Subaru, Misora and Harp talked as they sat on the ground inside of a metallic room having a large viewing window looking out into the Earth.
"By the way… What happened at Okudama Studios?" Subaru brought up.
"It turns out that it was a complot from a rival TV station to try to make me quit working there and firm an exclusive deal with them. And guess who decided that? A mister on his 50s!" Misora fumed.
"But that's…"
"Being a pervert? Of course! I asked Mr. Akatsuki to run a background check on him. Guess what? Three employees had reported harassment coming from the guy, the Staff Chief! Now that their "insider" has spilled the beans they have enough evidence to arrest him on the charges of disloyal competency and with the accusation of having perverted motives behind the plot!" Misora added.
"Really… It must be hard to bear with those. What happened to that managed you had, Kaneda?"
"Sheesh! That man? Mr. Akatsuki found out that he'd done tax evasion! I'm independent by now!"
"Sheesh! No wonder he was so fixated with money! Must've wanted to gain money to flee overseas before they found out!"
"Indeed! He was accused of exploitation of children, too!"
"Sure did! Must've used some connections to get the job!"
"Naturally! Using money to make others look away!"
"Guess that's enough discussing that topic… On another topic… Has Ice been behaving?"
"Ice? She behaves. She longer gets those jealousy fits given how Suzuka is making progress on her career!" She admitted.
"That's good. I should really go there one day to speak with Mr. Urakata… We haven't talked for a while!" Subaru muttered.
"Say, Subaru – kun… I never got to know Tsukasa – kun. Since he vanished shortly after you returned from defeating Andromeda. Do you think of him as being more than a friend?"
"That's… I'm worried about him because I don't want him being consumed by his regrets and wanted to say to him that I wanted to forgive him for what happened back then…" Subaru trailed off.
"Naturally. Sorry if it was an odd question. Maybe it's some stupid idea…"
"I wasn't saying any of that, though…"
"I know. Guess it's the nerves. I'm branching out into stupid speculation…"
"Can't be helped. We're all tense…"
"We must tell that joker to go home and resume chasing the fugitives!"
"Surprised that they've been so quiet…"
"We've argued that maybe they fled to another planet and are trying to recreate that mutagen before making a move…" Subaru brought up.
"Sheesh. Wouldn't surprise me… That guy must believe itself a "mutant" as in the "X-Men"… I read some of them, too!"
"Given how that foe was such a creep!"
"Subaru! Are you there?"
The door opened and Lartes rushed, out of breath.
"Tabuu! The Underground City! He's there!" He reported.
"Then my hunch was correct!"
"Wasn't the shelter from criminals Anaya had Vadous build?"
"Correct. It's 50% dismantled by now. But Tabuu is searching for something useful. No, I don't believe he wants to use the city as something to stain Boss' reputation because he never understood the concept of "scandal", so…" He explained in a rush.
"Then… We should get there, right, Master?"
"Correct. Follow me! We'll use the portal machine!"
"Roger!"
They ran out of the room and followed Lartes into an elevator.
He pressed the button labeled "3rd Deck" and the elevator climbed.
It pinged when they reached their target, and they quickly ran out into the corridor and heading down it.
"The city was divided in eight sectors with two houses each and the center section had a main plaza where an auditorium had been built at! However, the whole set was repeated in ten floors… Making it a total of 160 houses. The auditorium building had the elevator climbing to SS2's surface where a tower to dock shuttles was erected. Power to each floor came from power plants set on the southern and northern ends. He's heading to the southern one because the northern one is already dismantled, and nothing is left. The southern one is still intact yet shut down. Our man must be targeting the fusion reactor there because it must still have deuterium and tritium reserves! Fusion reactors are not to be toyed with!"
"Obviously not… And we don't want him building up a weapon using raw plasma from that thing, either!" Misora added.
"Of course not! Sheesh! We're dismantling that place but given the scale, it'll still take time to dispose of everything…"
"Let's focus on dealing with the target, sir!"
17:25 PM (Japan Time)…
"… This place is cold, and it gives me the creeps!"
"Bear with it, Subaru – kun! We've gotta halt Tabuu!"
Rock Man and Harp Note rushed down an avenue built inside of the underground city, using built-in flashlights to illuminate the path.
Four houses could be seen close by all having signs of having suffered a fire given the charred marks on the outside.
They all were just one story tall and built using brick.
"Shah, shah, shah~! This is as far as ya come! Too bad! But Lord Tabuu's orders are absolute~!"
"I was missing a thrill!"
"Crap! "Darkloids"…!" Rock Man gasped.
"Shah, shah, shah! I'm Needle Man!"
"I'm Star Man!"
"Shah, shah, shah! Needle Cannon!"
"Shooting Star Shower!"
"Mad Vulcan!"
"Break Saber!"
"Gotcha! Counter Barrier!"
"Same thing! Counter Barrier!"
"What!?"
Needle Man transformed his arms into cannon muzzles and began to shoot some thick needles towards Rock Man while Star Man opened a "gateway" of sorts to begin firing shooting stars at Harp Note.
Both users attempted to counter but were met with a purple shield which made the hits bounce back.
"Tabuu…! He's made them tougher!" Rock Man cursed.
"But maybe Mega and Giga Cards still work?"
"Worth a try… Apollon Flame!"
"Rapids Wave!"
"Counter Barrier!"
Both attacks were bounced off again and they hit the combatants.
"We won't get anywhere at this rate!" She cursed.
"I know! There must be a way around them!" Rock Man grumbled.
"Shah, shah, shah! Is that all? I expected more from the elite members!"
"Let's put them out of their misery!"
"Aren't barriers weak to Break attacks? But our attack didn't work! Wait! Look! Star Man's barrier has a crack on it! We need to insist!"
"Roger! Break Saber!
"Hammer Weapon!"
"Counter Barrier!"
"Gotcha!"
"What!"
"No way!"
Harp Note's attack broke the Counter Barrier and managed to open a gash on Star Man's torso while Rock Man's attack formed a big crack on the barrier which ended up shattering and hitting Needle Man, dizzying him for some seconds.
"Let's go! Atomic Blazer!"
"Elemental Cyclone~!"
"NO WAY~!"
Rock Man and Harp Note rushed forward and reached a large building.
However, it was sealed off by a "Dimensional Area".
"Tabuu~! Come out! Fight like a man!" Rock Man challenged.
"Show your useless hide!" Harp Note taunted.
"Impatient youth… Had this place still been active, your little missing friend could've ended up here for all you know. And then all searches would've been in vain…"
"You can't make fun of person's lives!" Rock Man growled.
"I didn't intend to. I was just toying with a "what-if" scenario… Good job finding out the weaknesses of the Counter Barriers. I'll quadruple their resistance for the next time!"
"Do you think we'll let you build an H – bomb to threaten us?"
"What? Build an H – bomb? Who said that?"
"We've guessed!" Harp Note replied.
"My! As expected of Watson Jr! You always end up a hundred steps short of the goal!" He replied.
"You wanna use the plasma as a weapon?" Harp Note asked.
"Weapon, weapon… What obsessions! I don't need a weapon right now because I have plenty of them. I only need a power source for my HQ given how I've got a lot of machinery to power up!"
"So that's why you're interested in this stuff? Are you gonna target the factories in SS3 next?" Lartes questioned over the radio.
"Ask the President of B – Nation!" He laughed.
"Not you too…!" Lartes growled.
"Hit a spot! I'll be taking my leave and be ready for my next episode. Dancing dancer of dances! Struggle within the snows of Siberia and return with a souvenir!" He laughed.
The "Dimensional Area" was turned off and both hurried inside only to find that he was nowhere to be seen.
Two berserk Wizards were attacking the inactive reactor, though, and hitting some cylinders popping out of the top and bottom parts sustaining the central spheroid.
"No good! The reactor is still loaded! If they trigger an electrical reaction, then it could very well turn on without control and implode! Stop them right here and now!" Lartes gasped.
"Come on… Behave yourselves! Sword Fighter!"
"Drill Arm!"
Both attacks deleted the Berserk Wizards so both combatants lowered their weapons and looked at the mole of the dormant reactor.
They didn't notice a figure hidden in the space between the ceiling and the top of the reactor.
Hmpf. Fool around! I'll soon gain ultimate power!
The figure formed a smug smile and chuckled under his breath.
"… Is it me or there was someone else here?" Harp Note asked.
"Radar doesn't show anything on a 30-meter radius!"
"Guess I'm over-imaging things… This silence and this blackness are enough to spook anyone into believing this place is a ghost city haunted by remorseful spirits…" She trailed off.
"Come on, Harp Note… You've seen too many horror films. Master had me see them when I was training with him because he wanted me to admit they were silly things… He claimed that all monster designs were cheap and laughable…" Rock Man argued back.
"I always thought that about horror and terror films. And the alien designs were somewhat lame, too… They tried to make them look scary with all those teeth, but they failed at scaring! They rather looked like an attempt to invent a new carnivorous dinosaur in my opinion…" Lartes laughed.
"True! I wouldn't be surprised if they all sought inspiration in the drawings of dinosaurs!" Harp Note giggled.
"They're so predictable, really…" Rock Man chuckled.
"Let's go back, Rock Man! Tabuu will be hitting the next target at any moment now!" Harp Note rallied.
They both ran out and failed to spot the same figure spying on them from inside of a burn out house.
"Say. Were day and night cycles in this space?"
"No. It was like being inside of a shopping center, where you don't have a grasp of what time of the day it is unless you look at your watch…"
"It's not like this planet has a clear day and night cycle, too…"
"True. Given the constant mist in the atmosphere… It's not toxic, fortunately enough, but it's creepy enough… From studies of the atmosphere and the planet's environment, it's probably the result of some predator attempting to use it to hide itself from the hunters…"
"Such as how the octopus uses ink to throw off its hunters?"
"Exactly. These planets being in this dimension is probably the result of some amazing civilization toying with time and space…"
"And that Ra Mu lookalike is a relic of them?"
"No. That was found in Pakistan several years ago… Anaya stole it using the portal machine and placed it on that temple as a trophy…"
"Reminds me of how Solo tried to steal the OOPArts…"
"Hmmm? It's call from young Saishouin…"
"Kizamaro? How can he contact you, sir?"
"I provided them a system to connect to a retransmission system that beams the signal to us through a time-space tunnel…"
"Someone, help me! It's terrific! I can't describe it!"
"Calm down! Where's your Wizard, young man?"
"D-dunno!"
"Hyde? Is Hyde there?" Rock Man gasped.
"No! It's not Hyde!"
"Tabuu? A Darkloid?" Harp Note asked.
"No! It's worse than that!"
"A rebuilt Wizard? A berserk Wizard? Did Pedia go berserk?"
"N-no, but I'm telling you that it's… Too horrific! Words won't come out!"
"I hear someone banging at a wall…"
"Help me~!"
"If you don't tell me what's happening, we can't!" Lartes sighed.
"Found ya!"
"… I'm sorry~! But I can explain!"
"No explanations, four-eyes!"
"What's going on, anyway?" Lartes questioned.
"Dr. Kazemura! See! He stole the vegetables I gave Gonta as part of the diet and snuck forbidden goods to the guy! I just found out and I'd come to scold the guy only to have to search in all cupboards!" Luna argued.
"Sheesh! Don't use the emergency system for that, young man!"
"You heard him! Don't complain if you get a phone bill afterwards!"
The call ended and everyone sighed, annoyed.
"Kizamaro…! You brought that into yourself!" Rock Man sighed.
"Sure thing… Pull his ears, Luna – chan! He needs a lesson!"
Hmpf! You are but mere children. Mere luck shall not allow you to survive the real battlefield! I shall prove it to you with my power!
