Chapter 41: Renegade
18:18 PM (Japan Time), Sunday August the 4th…
"… Video Man. Are you there?"
"Commander! What are your commands, sir?"
"Have you seen the newbie? He's not in the rebuilding capsule and that's where he should be at."
"No, sir. I didn't!"
"Burner Man! What about you?"
"No, Danna."
"Needle Man!"
"Shah, shah, shah! Negative, Boss!"
"Then where the fuck did the guy go to?"
"Is there a problem? Legato."
"Ma'am! The new project, ma'am… They are not in their capsule and I was trying to see if anyone had seen of them… This system has only one entrance and exit after all…"
"The new project…? Who was it again?"
Legato had been questioning the three Navis about something when Slur floated down into the ground; everyone kneeled and Legato reported, while Slur frowned.
"Plant Man."
"A former companion of Dark Man, huh? They were not in the rebuilding capsule, then? How far had the rebuilding progressed?"
"It was 95% completed. The body, operating system and mind are rebuilt! The only thing left was memory purge. I'm afraid that it's accessed its memories somehow, skipping the locks, and has escaped to go for revenge… What should we do?"
"Who gave consent for that?"
"President Hades…"
"Is that so? One would believe he had learned the lesson from the time of Bomber Man and Stone Man." Slur frowned.
"Obviously, since the current plan involved purging the memories. It would seem something has not totally worked."
"Look for them and dispose of them before they can become a menace for our reputation. With Zero at 83% we are still far from achieving full capacity and start auctioning the nodes' access codes! If we want the important agencies to believe in the fairness of our offers then such eyesores must be sterilized at once before they become an infection or, worse, a plague. If it was going to become a hindrance to manage, better dispose of them now. Failed assets are not beneficial to anyone."
"Roger, ma'am. By your commands."
"Who is in charge of watching the exit?"
"Dark Man was supposed to! However, he developed a minor infection, which had to be treated before it could spread… A kind of new malware, which attempts to steal any bank-related data from the Navi… It could've revealed our location." Legato explained.
"I see. Did you not think of placing a replacement?"
"No, not really… Since there has never been any trouble with unauthorized personnel coming in or out… We will ensure to keep a strict watch from now onwards, though." He apologized.
"True. It cannot be helped, then."
"I shall be going ASAP."
"Go. You three resume what you were doing. Do not speak of this to anyone and instead prepare another of those "shows" to keep the morale up. Understood?"
"ROGER, MA'AM!"
18:27 PM (Japan Time)…
"The racing game is as fun as ever. We even saw Beta X there! He really is a racing fan. His skills are pretty good, yeah!"
"Yeah! Now come back home. We need to finish planning the party."
"I'm on my way."
"On your way to Hell."
"Who…? Wha!"
"Let's go to a discreet spot… Here, this old warehouse will do fine!"
"You're…!"
Rock Man had come out of a Cyber City building labeled "GAME CENTER GAME SOUL" and had been chatting with Netto when someone taller than him seized him from behind and dragged him inside of a warehouse building; the attacker turned out to be Plant Man.
"You died YEARS ago!" Rock Man complained.
"I know! Someone began to rebuild me and although they tried to delete my memories to turn me into their pawn, I escaped and I've prepared a proper revenge… Plant Weed!"
"Wha! Let go of me, you… Hmmmpfff!"
"No – one will get in the way! I've cut off your PET transmission and turned off your transmitter… Hmmm… Good feeling, yes… This thing is on the way… Let's remove it!"
Plant Manformed some weeds, which emerged from the ground, and tied around Rock Man's arms and legs, spreading them open; Plant Man moved in closer and began to kiss Rock Man, who was taken aback; he began to massage Rock Man's body with his hands before inputting some commands through a holographic screen thus disabling all of his bodysuit.
"My. What a figure!"
No fucking damned way!
He tossed him into the ground and used the weeds to immobilize his arms behind his body; he set another across his mouth to muffle his cries of help; a third one kept his legs open and a fourth one descended from the ceiling to connect with the one tying his arms; he was lifted into the air and suspended there while Plant Man moved in behind him as used his fingers to pinch his nipples.
"Didn't you know? I like humanoid Navis like you… Back then, I was more focused on the resurrection of Forte! Had I had the chance, I could've done this before! Your body has been upgraded during this time! It looks more suitable to my arts!"
He formed a cock of his own and began to rape Rock Man from behind while he toyed with his nipples and his own cock; Rock Man moaned in agony and Plant Man's psychotic face just grew wider.
"Struggle in vain! Soon you'll be my pet."
"YOU LOWLIFE~! FLAME SWORD!"
"Who in the…! An interloper…!"
"YOU BASTARD! I'M SO GONNA KILL YOU~!"
Legato had shown up on the scene in an enraged state, and wielding a Flame Sword, which burnt all of the weeds; Rock Man hit the floor and remained there, paralyzed by the shock; Legato warped and appeared behind Plant Man to drive his Flame Sword through his body, setting on it fire.
"DIE, DIE AND DIE~!" He roared.
"IMPOSSIBLE~! MY PET…! NO WAY~!"
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! How did this happen…! How did this happen…! I'm to blame…! My Saito – kun…! My best friend…!"
"L… Lega…to…?"
"Yeah! Me, Saito – kun! It's alright! Hang in there!"
"Is that… you…?" He slowly asked.
"Of course! Can't you recognize my voice? Here! Let's re-activate your bodysuit and get you to home…"
Legato interacted with the holographic screen and fixed the bodysuit yet he didn't come closer as if fearing an impulse of fighting back from Rock Man; he hadn't moved at all and he didn't seem to be capable of seeing anything despite that his eyes were wide open.
"Saito – niisan! What in the world happened?" Netto asked.
"Ne…tto…ku…n… I'm broken… I'm broken… I'm broken… I'm a broken doll… A broken boy…" He muttered as if in trance.
"Plant Man. The bastard raped him."
"WHAT!?"
"We're to blame! We did intend to purge the memories! They skipped the locks on them and replayed them before running away! I then heard you'd gone missing all of a sudden from Beta X… I'll contact him to tell him there's no need to search anymore… Look, Hikari… That's what we should do. Retrieve Saito – kun and place him on your bed using the "Copy Roid"… Keep him company and try not to touch or come too close to him… He might hit you out of instinct… Noir – sama will surely apologize to your father too even though it wasn't his project but since he's responsible for your safety then…" Legato exposed.
"A-alright… Plug Out."
"I'll go back to base after making sure there aren't any records left anywhere…" Legato told him.
"Gotcha… Plug In! Rock Man EXE, Transmission."
"… Is this… your bed…? Netto – kun…?"
"Not just "my" bed… It's yours too!"
"I'm broken, you know… Sorry. You'll have to replace me… I'm a broken toy… Broken toys are… tossed away…"
"By all the… Fuck it all. How could we have been so stupid…!?"
18:39 PM (Japan Time)…
"Don't say nonsense! A Navi isn't a toy! They're partners! You're my Saito – niisan! Who'd throw his brother away? No! Snap out of it! We've both been through worse. Heck, you went MIA after the destruction of the Super Cybeast and it took you a whole year to return."
"I don't remember much of that… My body probably broke down very badly and… I needed a lot of time to rebuild it…"
"Alright, alright… Calm down. Calm down. Who scored the best result at the racing game this week?"
"Beta X…"
"What do you think of the guy? Is he a nice buddy?"
"Yeah… Nice guy… Cocky… Strong… Agile…"
"That's it… Think in something else… Which starter are you gonna choose for the new Pokémon game? Speaking of which: which it'll be? White or Black?"
"White… Light is white… I'll pick Flame…"
"Good! Then I'll go for Water."
Netto was trying to calm Saito down as he laid face-up on the bed and he had an absent gaze to him; Netto was sitting on a chair next to the bed and trying to look animated.
"The auto-phone…"
"I'll pick it. Hello?"
"Netto! Wouldn't you know?"
"What, Meiru?"
"Kage – kun has an elusive girlfriend!"
"What if? He's free to make his choices in life."
"I'll end up finding out their ID! I'm sure of it!"
Meiru turned out to be the caller, and Netto replied with a skeptical look.
"Don't be so skeptical!"
"I find it hard for Miquel to be involved in some complicated girlfriend tale or another. He's devoted to his organization's purpose."
"Oh yeah! I don't doubt that but he surely meets her in secret: else why would he have a golden ring with the initials "K. O." on it?"
"Maybe it's a memento of a parent?"
"Oh! I hadn't thought of that… It could his father's or mother's wedding ring or engagement ring too!" She gasped.
"See? I told cha were rushing it all." Yaito argued in the background.
"Sorry, Yaito – chan. I got thrilled and thought…"
"Meiru – chan. Next time be more rational and don't use clichés as basis to justify a theory 'cause that ain't evidence." Roll sighed.
"So I take it that the "K" is for "Kage" and the "O" is the parent's initial, then… Olga, Ophelia… Huh… I can't think of many names. But I'll find another one somewhere, anyway." Meiru muttered.
"If that's all then good luck and see ya around."
"Alright. See ya."
Netto finished the call and sighed as he glanced at Saito again; Yuuichirou came in, looking grave, and closed the door behind him before sitting on the chair next to the bed.
"Saito. Me. Yuuichirou… Can you hear me?"
"Yeah… I can, but… I can't see anything… I've gone blind?"
"Navis don't go blind. The shock has made you "shut down" your vision systems and you've only left the hearing and speech systems online because you don't want to be deaf and mute too."
"Dad… Oriol called?"
"Yes. He introduced himself and then apologized in an honest manner, even though he had no responsibility over what happened. He was obviously distraught about the whole business. He really cared about you two! I could see that Legato was having a hard time repressing his anger: it's obvious that they value you as good companions." Yuuichirou sighed.
"Yeah… We're good pals… Dad… Will Saito – niisan recover? Will he go back to normal?" Netto asked.
"That's his choice. I can't force it."
"My choice…? I can return to normal… when I want to…?" Saito slowly asked with a hint of relief.
"Of course."
"I'm starting to regain sight… I can see… the ceiling… it has a lot of dust on it… weird…" He muttered while focusing his sight on the ceiling.
"It's not that easy to cleanse the ceiling."
"You know! That guy who was talking about doing the Superintendent of the TIA was found by Mr. Super! He questioned him and explained there's been a misunderstanding! He meant a dog named "Superintendent" which belonged to his aunt, and had the habit of biting his leg every time he went for a visit. So all of the attempts by M&F to protect him were in vain! The pun is that "TIA" can be read as "tía" or "aunt" and that's led to a mistaken idea from time to time!"
"Really… There was one time when Mr. Super gave M a folded newspaper! He read them from the downside upwards thus making F think it was the Soviet press!" Saito began to cheer up, given his growing smile.
"Then there was a radio broadcast saying someone had had their pants stolen in the middle of the street… That "someone" turned out to be Mr. Super! And when Mr. Super said that the high-ranking politicians wanted to lock in jail the villains…"
"M told F he'd bring him tobacco when he dropped to visit him! As if he was a villain himself!" Saito laughed.
"That Mortadelo man sure is resentful of his Boss."
"Sure is! There's more! Mr. Super showed them a timer bomb! M suggested setting it at 4 PM! Because it's 3PM! However, it turned out that his clock was one hour behind and the bomb exploded with them still holding it!" Netto kept at it.
"When they had to go for a mission for "Vincent's Men", they were told they had a vehicle with all they needed parked in front of the main entrance!: M asked if it had radio, and Mr. Super said that there indeed was a radio onboard! Onboard the cart filled with weapons and a portable radio…" Saito's eyes began to sparkle with amusement and he directed his glance at the other two.
"Here's one more for the record! Alright! We gotta take down that shooter! Do you have a plan?"
"Yeah, Boss! Here you have. The only thing I don't have on me is sausage!"
"PLAN! NOT "PAN"!" Netto exclaimed.
"Then speak clearly! It sounds like you're stuttering!"
"Pan… Bread. He missed the "L" sound!"
"I know! One distracts him shooting from here, another one comes up and holds him, and yet another one gets his weapon!"
"Excuse me, but… You didn't get the highest notes in Math, did you?"
"Not really… Why'd you ask?" Saito wondered aloud.
"See! One, another one and another one makes three! And there are only two of us!" Netto argued back.
"True! I didn't count us well…"
"Didn't count us well! Even though there's just the two of them! Hard to believe, really…" Yuuichirou laughed.
"But, whatever… Let's use the twin brothers disguise and all will go fine enough!" Saito announced.
"It turns out some thieves steal the cart! They tell a policeman standing next to the patrol car! He begins to radio the HQ but finds out his mike has a carrot on the other end and someone has just stolen the patrol car in front of three guys' eyes!" Netto was thrilled by now.
"Another example! They are told to check a clandestine weapons factory in one apartment building! They'll get a lock-pick from one of the agents and it turns out to be a tree log!"
"I see. To use as battering ram… Wait. The joke is that they had to carry it all the way to the apartment building?"
"Correct!"
"Whoa! I can move by now… The temblors halted too…" Saito muttered as he sat up on the bed and looked at his gloved hands.
"Thanks goodness!" Netto sighed in relief.
"See? You can overcome anything, Saito. I always believed you had some hidden potential." Yuuichirou told him.
"Yeah… No punk is gonna scare me! Speaking of punks, I guess Punk will be bored by now… He must be looking for a way to have fun elsewhere or in another form… Enzan – kun must be training hard while exploiting the full capacities of the VR simulator…"
"Sure. The guy must be doing extra hours in the gym! To keep in shape and be ready for any fight. Maybe next time we'll do a Mexican stand-off with the PETs." Netto suggested.
"By the way… Did you solve the dilemma with the Ms. Sniper?"
"More or less. She's been expulsed for a while, and I guess her relatives must be heavily scolding her by now. Whether that'll be enough to make her behave, we dunno, though…!" Netto rolled his eyes.
"If you thought Yaito was too spoiled, she's pale in comparison."
"I get the idea! Oh well. One must do what they can."
"Yeah. We won't let this slow us down. We'll achieve our goals, indeed!"