Chapter 49: Settling the score

10:44 AM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 31st…

"So this is the topmost spot of Purgatory… You sure nobody can see us?"

"Sure thing. We'll be pretty silent, the cover hides us from sight to the guys in the deck and no sounds come inside of the ship unless they have their portholes open which I doubt! They'll rather keep them closed and enjoy the A/C system…"

"Alright, Hikari… What did you bring me here for?"

"To settle the score… Last time around it was a match. I'm not asking for a Net Battle this time. Let's do it the old-fashioned way."

"Punches and kicks, you mean?"

"Yeah. There's a "Copy Roid" there for Blues to use! Saito – niisan wants to test him out."

"Alright… Let's get down to business then."

Netto had brought Enzan to the roof of Purgatory's central tower from where some cylinders, which looked like periscopes or antennae, emerged from; Saito was also present there and had taken off his shirt and vest, exposing his upper body; a "Copy Roid" was placed close by as well while Netto talked with ENzan Enzan.

"Plug In! Blues, Transmission!"

While Enzan did that, Netto took out his coat and the black shirt he carried to toss them into a corner; Blues merely drew his fists while Enzan also took off his upper body's clothes.

"There's something you haven't explained yet."

"What?"

"Hosoyoda. Kuwahashi. What happened to them?"

"Oh. Those two! No big deal! See: we found out during an initial testing of a prototype node about the mess Hosoyoda was in!"

"Yeah. Later investigation proved it."

"We offered him a quick way out as bait… He had to come to that party so we told him someone would pick him and extract him then… Zarashe went in with the portable "Dimensional Converter" in the tray and turned it on to warp the guy out of the room: we then sent him to Hokkaido where we'd made arrangements for him… The truth is that he'd been turned into a scapegoat by the real culprits so…"

"And Kuwahashi?"

"We did tell him a place to flee to if things went ashtray and there he was picked up by a "Dimensional Converter" too… I dunno what became of him afterward because I wasn't involved in that… I guess they tipped of the police to arrest him… Ikada – san had been trailing you so she figured out that Suzuki – san could be in the hospital. She was there the next day too disguised as a nurse to check on your reactions but then pulled out…"

"I can't really complain! I'll keep my word: Laika won't get to hear anything. It's easy for me to play frustrated and bored. He won't be surprised if I start shifting my attention to other things."

"Search Man's methods can be too radical. It'd be hard to keep him at bay and not having him nag on everything." Blues told Saito.

"Sure. Come on! I still can't believe he didn't try to compare photos of us to begin or our signatures… The guy stood there long enough so that if Search Man had paid attention he could've scanned a fourth of his code and just with a fourth of it he could tell us apart. Showing up and attacking us like that to then threaten me with deletion… Couldn't have he been somewhat more civilized?" Saito sighed.

"I get the point."

"Let's get started. We'll try not to hurt each other too much either! This isn't pro boxing."

"Come!"

"Here I come, Blues!"

"I'm ready!"

Enzan tried to hit Netto's right shoulder but he arched to the left, and Enzan's attack met the air; Netto used his right leg to hit Enzan's stomach area and force him to back away; he didn't give him a break and placed the right foot on the ground to hit Enzan with the left leg; he connected on the middle of his torso and managed to push him away; Enzan tried to counter with his right left but Netto used his own right leg to intercept the attack, and delivered a fist into Enzan's right side of the torso next; Enzan cursed under his breath and tried to ram into Netto using his head, but Netto ducked and used his hands to push against the torso, driving him backwards and having him hit the rear of his head with one of the cylinders; Enzan tried to jump towards Netto by ducking and attacking, yet Netto imitated his trick and they clashed mid-way across the jump; they began to push against each other, but Enzan began to slide backwards before Netto gripped his wrists and whipped him around with both hitting the floor next; Netto was atop Enzan, and still gripping his wrists.

"So, Enzan! I guess you never were a passionate fighter."

"The fuck. This isn't over yet, Hikari!"

"Bring it on, Holmes."

Enzan got to his feet and tried to hit Netto with his head on the chest, but Netto merely jumped to the right; Enzan ended up hitting the cold metallic floor instead; he stood up again and tried to rush towards Netto, who extended his hands to grip his shoulders and brake him, nodding the head sideways in reprisal.

"Have at you!"

Enzan did manage to land a hit on Netto's right shoulder, but he merely lifted an eyebrow and gripped Enzan's right wrist to pull him towards him, as he spun around, and finally threw him into the floor again; he gripped both wrists again and loomed over Enzan.

"This isn't over!" Enzan challenged.

"But I'll soon be."

"What!?"

"Here!"

Netto hit Enzan's torso with the front of his head, knocking the air outta him; he stood up and saw Saito, locking arms against Blues; both backed off and prepared for another round; Netto glanced ahead of him ,and stepped one pace to the right to dodge Enzan, who'd managed to recover, and his right punch; he extended the left leg and Enzan tripped with it, meeting the floor again.

"So?"

"Damn. That Keitai Denwa man sure taught you well."

"Obviously. He wouldn't have survived without these tricks."

"Man. I guess this isn't my show anymore then."

"But you're the PR guy, see."

"No way…" He groaned.

"Gotcha."

"Sneaky guy…"

"The wind's soft today."

"By all the… He's not even looking at me and he can stop and predict all of my attacks? This is out of my league!"

Both looked at how Saito was glancing at the skies and distractedly blocking or dodging all of Blues' attacks; he began to hum a tune, and Blues warped behind him; Saito arched his body backwards and Blues failed to grip him; Saito lied on the ground, rolling to the right, stood up, and closed his arms around Blues from behind to lift him and have him crash against one of the cylinders; Blues growled and managed to break free.

"Surprise, surprise. Uncle Moran came to say hi."

"Oh come on. Who invented that?" Enzan asked.

"Oriol did after I told him Superintendent Oda's mania of referring to that "Uncle Merton" guy…" Netto laughed.

"I knew it!"

"Relax, Enzan! You'll get to shine 'long with the Net Police's Cyber CID from now on! You can go and hunt some sneaky fries who boast of being the strongest! Make them cower in fear."

"Oh yeah. I like the sound of that."

"Damn. I'm beaten."

"No wonder! I'd rather say Uncle Moran's smiles boost me up." Saito improvised.

"Guess so… Man." Blues groaned as he stood up.

"Not bad." A voice rang out.

A hologram formed on the zone and displayed Zero EXE; both Enzan and Blues gasped.

"You're… Zero EXE?"

"Why. You hadn't seen a photo of me yet?"

"No. Gotta admit that." Enzan admitted.

"You can fight?" Blues asked.

"Of course. I'm good at swords and I've got one or two tricks up my sleeves too. Or should I say aces-in-the-hole?"

"Whatever. If there are some idiots boasting around then tell me where they are: I'll handle them." Blues told him.

"Sure. I don't like idiots like those either. You're strong or you're not, but you can't know without trying."

"Elemental." Netto grinned.

"You're Hikari Netto, right? Kuro… I mean.VP Noir talked me about you… Where's Kage at?"

"Miquel? I guess he's talking with that Noir guy."

"Fine. I won't bother them. And you're Rock Man?"

"Yeah. Correct."

"You look very human-like."

"That's how I was designed to be." He shrugged.

"Alright. By the way… Those three are at it."

"Can we listen to them?"

"Sure. Wait a min."

Zero's hologram vanished and a speaker turned on; there was the sound of someone clearing his throat.

"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen aboard Purgatory! Today, I, Video Man, along with fellows Burner Man and Needle Man, bring to you The Security Provost… Lights! Camera! And… Action!"

"Alright! You "TIA" guys! What are you doing?"

"I'm working with this "puzzle" and…"

"Quit the "puzzles"! Mr. Prevost wants to see you ASAP! CLOC!

"Come on, man… Didn't you say that I was working with this "head-breaker"? You had to get in the middle of its path!"

"The pun is that "puzzle" is named "rompe-cabezas" in Spanish which can be literally translated as "head-breaker" because it takes a lot of mental effort to solve one…" Saito guessed.

"I admit some hard, but I wouldn't go to such ends…"

"Spring has come, eh? It popped out of your head!"

"GRFTJX! Stop being the scarecrow and go meet Mr. Provost!

"Well, well! I'm going!"

"And you certainly don't have a diploma on first aid, do you?"

"I did what I could and… F was bandaging his head's bump! The bandages ended up connected to the chair!"

"Come on…" Enzan rolled his eyes.

"You again? I told you I don't want see you smoking any of those bothersome cigarettes anymore!"

"Man! Don't yell! You can't see me anymore like this…"

"What's going on?"

"Your idiotic partner stuffed this bucket in my head! I almost asphyxiated there!"

"What a brute the guy is! Let me take this away… This is better, see? This one is of your size!"

"So he took the bucket out but then placed a gigantic one on him? Both of them can be so idiotic, really!" Enzan sighed in defeat.

"By the way, Enzan… Make sure to watch if Barrel tries to snoop around by sending Dingo as a proxy… We don't want them to get to know about this either, right?" Netto requested in a hushed tone.

"Deal."

"Count on us." Blues added.

"I know I can count on you guys." Saito smiled.

"I'm gonna be busy with the 3rd year of middle school but I'll keep on coming to the monthly Science Labs meetings… Of course, I'll also go hunt some jerks when needed. Don't worry; we'll make sure to leave the diehard rascals for you two to slice up!"

"Did you call for us, Mr. Half a meter…? I mean… Mr. Provost?"

"We've found out that Salustio "Metralla", the king of assaulters, has established his hideout in 7, Guiu Street… We needed actual evidence to imprison him, and I sent Agent Fernández to try to slip into the gang but… He had bad luck! They pierced his sandwich with a bullet, see!"

"Bad luck? Didn't he have money to buy another?"

"HE'D JUST EATEN IT!" Needle Man exclaimed.

"Yikes. So that means they got him on the stomach?"

"So you'll feign being villains, will slip into their gang, and get the evidence to imprison him during two millennia!"

"Sure. What if he figures out we're "TIA" agents?"

"Then you must use these candies."

"They look nice! I'm sure they're strawberry flavor…"

"Do you really think that by giving him candies the "Metralla" will let us go?"

"The candies are for you to use! They are potassium cyanide as established for those kinds of situations!" Needle Man replied.

"Jeez, Boss. You're like a brat! You always want to stuff your mouth with something!" Video Man grumbled.

"Well then! Get to the work! Come back soon! I don't want to be caught with the pants down if some terrorist targets me!" Needle Man commanded.

"Calm down! We've foreseen everything! We've placed a trap door behind this door which leads to the waste burning plant! If someone tries to come closer without activating the safety device then… Whoa! Boss! The trap-door…! It opened on its own!"

"We'll simply lock it up again and we'll check the mechanism later on…. Let's get to work! By the way! Where could've the secretary guy gone to?"

"Dunno… I guess the guy must be pretty burnt out by now!"

"Let me guess: he'd fallen into the trap-door." Netto guessed.

"Correct!"

"Really…" Saito laughed.

"Jeez. How ridiculous. I dunno how many times I've said this already but I won't tire of repeating it." Blues grumbled.

"Alright, Hikari. Let's make a deal. I keep your secret and in exchange you tell me where I can find grunts worth my time."

"Deal. Count on me."

"Rock Man. Can I call you "Saito" as our secret name?"

"Sure. I'll be having an active role as Hikari Saito, so we'll come up with a Rock Man imitation to fill for me when I'm not in the Cyber World. No – one will suspect anything." Saito smiled at him.

"…Pretend you're killing me while causing uproar to get them to notice!"

"Yeah, Boss!"

"Shaddup, you brutes! There are kids sleeping in 'ere~!"

"Mortadelo came up with a whole music set of trumpets, drums, claxons and saucers!" Video Man laughed.

"Let's head back to the mainland. Today's gonna be an important day: as one chapter ends another begins…"

"…and this new chapter is yet to be written!"

"I'll agree with you on that."

"Guess I did overdo it with some of the provocations, but… It was worth keeping up with the game, wasn't it?"

"More than enough. I did get the lesson, indeed."

"Make sure Laika doesn't snoop around too much, either. Suggest it to Superintendent Oda and he'll back you up." Netto warned.

"Agreed. By the way, that notebook you mentioned… Did it have anything linking it to me or the guy?"

"No. We figured out it was Laika's because of some Russian scribbling."

"What did it say?"

"No big deal. Rambling about other guys on his base who didn't behave seriously enough." Saito shrugged.

"Apart from that… There was a note about "white and black smoke from a volcano"… Which obviously meant you." Netto rolled his eyes.

"Sheesh. The guy's nicknames. Then he complains about the Superintendent when the guy makes up lame nicknames too."

"Yeah. There was one which, thinking about it again, probably refers to that Torolov guy… "The James Bond wannabe"…"

"In the aspect that he drove in a mad way? I can see the why. Goes on praising the guy for his driving but then mocks him too."

"I suspect the guy is jealous about that, actually."

"Wouldn't surprise me. Search Man did admit he has a hard time keeping up with his Operator's ironies." Blues admitted, sighing.

"The guy must believe he's Mr. Perfect." Enzan grumbled.

"Obviously enough." Saito grumbled, too.

"At least his uncle did punish him by having him cleanse the restrooms for several days in a row… The guy should be glad he wasn't sent to a court martial and to prison for almost starting a war with Japan!"

"Totally agree! I'd like to tell that to the guy and remind him that we haven't forgiven him for his actions, more like we tolerate the guy because he's being sent to help us as a way to compensate for the mess."

"Enough talking about the snow jerk. Let's focus on something positive or something fun… Deal?" Netto ended the topic.

"Deal. Maybe we can go see a film at theaters one day."

"Sure. That'd be a good way to shake off tension!" Saito agreed.

"I think it will do us good, sir." Blues agreed.

"OK, then! This affair ends now, but… Now I'm more motivated to tackle any wannabes! They'll fear the name Ijuuin and Blues! Let's do this!"