Chapter 6: Doppelganger
12:49 PM (Japan Time), Saturday February the 1st…
"… Damn it. Nothing and nothing and nothing… Nothing Man showed up or what?"
"I don't think there's such a Net Navi to begin with, Enzan – sama, sir, or we'd heard of them, sir."
"Can't you catch sarcasm?"
"I apologize, sir."
"Whatever. Let's keep searching."
"Searching for something to fill the void in your bodies, Ijuuin Enzan and Blues?"
"Y-you're… Slur! Where's Kage!"
Blues had come into the Reverse Internet and was confronted by Slur who was floating high on the air, crossing her arms, while looking down (literally) on them yet she looked dull and imposing; Blues didn't yield terrain yet he didn't seem to like the tone she had.
"Kage? Kage Miquel? I do not know and I do not need to know."
"What!? Aren't you in the same league, group, or whatever? Wouldn't one know where each member is at?" Blues questioned.
"There are two administrations. While I am the strongest of all Net Navis in our organization, I report my actions to the President and so does Beta X. However, Andy obeys the Vice President and his Net Navi. Incidentally, that Net Navi will be coming over to challenge you and see if you have learnt your lessons…"
"That doesn't sound good. At all."
"Starting to realize your own powerlessness? You should remember who gave you that Muramasa Blade. Make that power be worth keeping it!"
"So! We finally meet… Enzan!"
A new Net Navi made it to the scene.
His helmet's main color was blood red, and had no ear-pads.
Thick red shades surrounded by a purple edge hid his gaze.
A wild flock of silver hair came out from behind the helmet and covered all of his body's back.
His main "skin" color was black.
His upper torso had red blood armor built over it.
His shoulders had black diamonds with purple edges set atop them.
An emblem with a black edge was set on the chest; it was two golden and silver halves split by a thunderbolt; golden was left and silver was right.
Red armor with purple bands circling them covered his forearms.
His palms had red circles drawn atop them.
His boots were red too and had purple knee guards; the soils were black
"My name's Legato. It means "Ambassador" in Latin. And I'm the Number 2 Navi in our organization." He announced.
"So! Andy reports to you." Enzan guessed.
"Yeah. Wanna kiss the floor, Enzan?"
"What?" He grumbled.
"I shall leave you to handle everything as per the Vice President's commands while I return to my duties. We may meet again one day, which may come sooner than you believe too. Farewell."
"Alright, Enzan. Let's bet. I bet 500Z that you'll be kissing the floor in less than 30 seconds starting… NOW!"
He warped forward and began to deliver a series of kicks and punches (using the left fist) before reappearing behind him, cutting across his armor with the Long Sword, and delivering a kick to toss him into the floor.
"By all the…!"
He placed his right foot over the wound, aiming the sword at the neck.
"I win. 17.09 seconds!"
"Fuck. This guy was being literal." Enzan cursed.
"You disappoint me, Enzan. Where's the man who fought for supremacy against Andy - kun's friend, Rock Man, time ago? Where's that man who could wield three blades, the one who fought to the very end and in a battle which none have been able to imitate or overcome? Huh? Did he go vacationing to Acapulco or what?" He taunted.
"Fuck. Area Steal! Long Sword! Eat this!"
"Slow. And predictable too, Enzan."
He calmly turned around and met Enzan's attack; he had no trouble holding it at bay, and simply pushed him back.
"T-this JERK…!" Enzan cursed.
"That's more like you."
"Who the hell are you?"
"Come on. Are you shortsighted or what? Don't you remember Rock Man DS? He's my predecessor."
"So you're a twisted copy of Blues then!" Enzan growled.
"Bravo, Holmes."
"Shaddup. Blues! Program Advance! Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Slot In! Dream Sword!"
"Eat this!"
"Dark Sword! Hra~h!"
Legato formed a purple-colored version of the Dream Sword Program Advance, which he hit the floor with thus rushing towards the incoming attack by Blues.
Both met and cancelled each other by releasing their energy in the form of an explosion; Legato grabbed Blues' neck and tossed him into the ground using a judo technique, to then step away and change the sword for a stylized gun consisting of a cone and two curved extensions growing out from it.
"Eat these!"
He formed some streaks of reddish electricity across the space and then shot a red spheroid of energy, which hit Blues and knocked him off his feet; he continued at it before switching back to the sword and then swinging it across the air to form a reddish slice of energy, which hit Blues again.
"Damn! What power!" Blues cursed.
"So? Where's that man who was one of the best? Why don't you show me what you can really do? I know you can do more than this… Show me your true power! You're humiliating yourself by holding back! Aniki!"
"I ain't you bastard's aniki! Muramasa Blade~!"
"Coming!"
Blues drew the Muramase Blade and hit Legato with it, inflicting a grave wound on him that sent him flying, yet he landed on his feet.
"This thrill! This pain! This agony! They make me feel alive! I wanted to see it… The power Serenade granted to you!"
"I should really start getting up to date with some rigorous training…"
"That's the old Enzan I heard about. I've been researching about you!"
"So then… Who are you guys?" A voice rang out.
"Search Man? You want payback for Burner Man's invasion of your mainframe, I guess. Too bad! You're not my type of opponent and I'm on a tight schedule."
Search Man had showed up aiming his Scope Gun at Legato from behind; Legato merely glanced at him over his right shoulder.
"Golden Star. That's our name!"
"Golden… Star…! Wait a minute, you! Then the emblem Kage has on his bandana means that? But he had it before joining you guys!"
"Before that we didn't have a set name, see. When we recruited Kage in Houston and saw his emblem, Vice President – sama decided "Golden Star" would be a cool and simple name."
"And Kage ran away from his uncle because the guy was trying to forcibly turn him into a xenophobe or what?" He tried asking.
"Dunno. Maybe VP – sama knows but I didn't bother to ask. By the way, Search Man! Uncle Ivan sent his greetings."
"Don't screw around: what do you seek?"
"What do we seek? That depends on each department, ya see. The President wanted that program, we're working on a little something and Slur – sama wants to test you guys in the name of the late Serenade. Make sure not to shame his memory, Enzan!"
"So there's a hierarchy after all." Enzan muttered.
"Of course. Although Slur – sama and I are equals on the paper, in reality I have no trouble submitting to Her Grace's commands. I recognize the strong. And in the paper both departments work independent of each other without having to depend on the other so as to avoid power struggles but in reality both cooperate peacefully."
"So you've foreseen that too…"
"Of course. Mr. President always examines a thing from several angles before arriving to a decision." He grinned.
"So Kage is gonna show his hide around?"
"That depends on what VP – sama thinks is wise."
"And you don't know yourself?" Search Man questioned.
"Nah. We work on "need-to-know" basis!"
"Something tells me you guys are very different from the WWW, Gospel or Nebula."
"Very different indeed. By all the…! That's…! It couldn't be…!"
"What?"
"Damn. Oldest trick in the book and we fell for it! The bastard snuck out while we were looking away!" Enzan growled.
"Who's that "Kage" whom you mentioned?"
"We'll send you a report once it's ready."
"Alright. I guess there's a lot of info to process." Laika guessed.
"And we need to add what this punk told us too. To sum up… Kage used to be Hikari's classmate. He travelled to Chicago then Houston and his trail vanishes there to reappear out of the blue yesterday evening."
"I see. What about the Navi?"
"Andy's the name… According to Hikari he wasn't very strong back then but you never know: this punk could've toughened the guy up and I don't think that other Navi we've seen, Beta X, is a joke either. If they're supposed to be on the same level as those three punks then you can imagine they'll drive us to the corner." Enzan sighed.
"Yeah. We should start training for real! The usual exercises aren't enough anymore so we need to improve over them." Laika grumbled.
"Attention to all customers! They're about to dynamite this facility so please evacuate in a calm and orderly manner! Uncle Merton's gone berserk." A voice rang out.
"What?" Laika wondered.
"Superintendent Oda! Stop hijacking my communications frequency already!" Enzan groaned.
"Santa says you're - FIRED!"
"Santa's nocturnal visit happened way over a month ago."
"Uncle Merton says you're - HIRED!"
"How original, SIR." Enzan grumbled.
"That's the Superintendent of the Net Police's Cyber CID? Why do I find that hard to believe?" Laika grumbled.
"Join the club." Enzan sarcastically told him.
"Got the joke, alright…"
"Hello there! Ladies and gentlemen! Did you request to know if Uncle Moran is badmouthing us?"
"NO, SIR!" A chorus of voices protested.
"Alright, alright. Then I'll bring Uncle Indy next time around. He'll show us how to dig out ancient treasures of the Maya."
"No pain no gain! Enzan!" Legato's voice rang out across the line as well.
"What the fuck. You hijacked it too?"
"Be glad I didn't hijack the trash collection truck instead."
"Who'd want to hijack the trash collection truck anyway?"
"Dunno. Maybe Superintendent Oda's Uncle Merton would?"
"Don't ride on his tune or it'll get worse." Enzan hissed.
"So they say, so they say."
"BURNER MAN! YOU MORON! WHO TOLD YOU TO BURN THE CUT MATERIAL OF MY NEWEST FILM? HUH?"
"Was bored! Wanted to burn something… Next time put a label on it or something, dude."
"NYA~RGH! I'M SO GONNA STRANGLE SOMEONE TODAY~! I'M GONNA FIND AN ASSISTANT AND BEAT YA UP!"
"Whatever."
"Fuck. We'll settle this later! Have at ya!"
"Hmpf… So back luck is starting to hit them too…"
"Eye for an eye."
"Emergency! A trash collection truck is running berserk!" Meijin reported.
"What the hell. The jerk was being literal!?" Enzan growled.
"Lovely." Laika sighed.
"Uncle Merton's gone berserk, as I warned!" Oda laughed.
"Sheesh. I'm headin' over there!" Punk reported.
"And then the Blackbeard descendant went to met with his new political cousin, Professor Bacterio, and together they developed a super banana to tame the gorilla of the Black Island in Scotland and…" Oda was coming up with some parody.
"Does he EVER SHUT UP?" Laika grumbled.
"Never! That's the issue!" Enzan groaned.
"Sheesh! There was a Wario 3D model hijacking the driver's seat! It took several hits to beat the jerk up!" Punk grumbled.
"How original!" Blues fumed.
"You needn't tell me." Search Man sighed.
"Damned punks! I'm so gonna beat you to a pulp!"
"…the rumbling minds of the mumbling papers which…"
"It doesn't rhyme! SIR!" Enzan grumbled.
"…the conclave of the not-so-smart purple hood fellas…"
"Which ones!?" Laika sighed.
"…the third-class fakir that fails the whole time and so…"
"Sheesh. Let's scram!" Enzan decided.
"Good idea! I'm fed up too!"
13:19 PM (Japan Time)…
"… ZARASHE~!"
"Wha! Video Man! Whaddya doing in my PET? I go out to have some fresh air here, on the harbor, and now you interrupt me."
"Where's Beta X!?"
"Beta? He said there was some stuff he wanted to do. I don't question him anyway. What's up?"
"BURNER MAN! THAT MORON!"
"He burnt your films or what?"
"CORRECT!"
Zarashe had been sitting on the edge of the cargo harbor where cargo containers could be seen piled in different groups, and staring at the sea when Video Man's life-sized hologram formed right to him, startling him.
"And you wanted Beta to put him down? Beta is of the President's department, ya know. We're not supposed to get involved in a quarrel involving ya two who work for the VP."
"That's on the paper! Reality says otherwise~!" He hissed.
"Sorry. I really dunno where Beta went off. He did warn Legato about you two fighting so I guess he'll come solve it."
"Nya~h! Uncle Moran's bad luck is chasing me again! And Commander Legato did come scold the guy but I'm not satisfied yet!"
"Come on. You know the VP started the joke after having heard from Kage who heard of that Hikari about that "Uncle Merton" joke Superintendent Oda did. He got amused and suggested using is as an ironical joke aimed at the Net Police's Cyber CID guys." Zarashe took out his sunglasses and revealed his green emerald irises.
"I knew that, by Moriarty! I'd now want to pick the red Gyarados of the Rage Lake and have it use "Hydro Pump" on Burner Man!"
"You could always try to rip if off and treat it as a Virus program because it doesn't take much storage space."
"Oho! What a deliciously juicy idea!"
"Ever since when can ideas be deliciously juicy?"
"Don't mind me! I'm being sarcastic! I now know how to handle that irresponsible cocky bastard… My vengeance shall be terrible~!"
Zarashe lazily stretched and stood up to then spot a figure half-hidden while leaning their back against one container nearby; he rolled his eyes before putting on the sunglasses again and leaning both closed fists against his body's sides.
"Ice Queen. Playing Ms. Stalker again?"
"Oh my. And what if I did?"
"Whatever. I know Mr. President doesn't mind it because you've got brains and it was you who found out about Moneda and then gave the info to him so that we settled on a programmer who had the level needed to finalize that program we'd begun."
"But I agree that something should be done about Burner Man. Maybe sending him off to heat some small fry up there and there would do to show those guys who they're messing with. And I don't mean the Net Police's Cyber CID, mind you." "Ice Queen" replied.
"Good. I dunno why he comes to ask of me for help instead of Kage but I guess he must believe I've got more varied ideas while Kage would just tell him to complain to Legato." Zarashe muttered aloud.
"Let's have a little game tonight, shall we?"
"Why not… I need some thrill."
"I'll go soon go check out on that Ijuuin chap. Let's see if he's fitting to be Miquel's target of admiration or not."
"Sheesh. Don't overdo it, or the guy will get annoyed. That aside… Things are about get exciting, yessir!"