Chapter 4: Nibelung
14:24 PM (San Francisco Time), Monday January the 19th …
"… Man. This ship is slower than a snail. We're gonna take the whole day to reach our destination… I wish something happened to kill the boredom, anyway…"
A Private was leaning over the handrail of an aircraft's carrier starboard side and boringly looking at the sea.
"The S. S. Utah… Cruising 40 km west of San Francisco… We're gonna have some drills and training exercises… Two battleships escort us… But I'm bored and the others only play Trumps."
He frowned as he spotted some irregular shapes travelling parallel to the Utah and close to the surface at high speeds.
"I'm seeing things… Unless it's a big fish nothing could match our current speed…" He muttered.
Something jumped out of the water all of sudden and broke through the observation window using its own body mass and inertia: the Private recoiled, taken aback.
"W-WHAT?"
He was facing a strange machine: it had a central spheroid body with two red "eyes" on it and some small hatches.
Four legs, which ended in five-toed claws, emerged from the central body.
It had a kind of inverted-cone-shaped object on the underneath of the body, which was spinning, and it was apparently its propulsion helix or turbine.
"W-we're being boarded!" The Private ran off yelling.
He entered an adjacent room where some other soldiers were playing Poker; they didn't bother to look up from their game.
"Shut the trap up, Joe. You always dream things." One rudely snapped.
"But I…!"
"Shaddup."
Joe didn't get to finish his phrase as the machine suddenly jumped into his back and tackled him to the ground: it opened one small hatch and took out a stun gun-like extension which it used to knock him out.
"Uack!"
The four remaining soldiers quickly stood up and took out their standard service guns.
"What's that?" One uttered.
"Dunno!" A second replied.
"Hey! L-look behind it!" A third signaled.
About five more of those things had shown up behind the first one.
"No way!"
All of them jumped as if they were live animals and attached to the faces of the soldiers, only to stun gun them a second later: they advanced without meeting any obstacle until they emerged into the deck.
"Sir! Are those devices ours?" One Lieutenant asked a Commander.
"No!" The Commander quickly replied.
"We're being attacked! Scramble alert! T'is ain't a drill! All men: report to your posts! Pick your weapons!" A voice warned.
Various soldiers carrying machineguns emerged and began to shoot at the mechanized attackers: they all skillfully dodged the bullets via some skillful and acrobatic movements which looked like some kind of dance: the attackers would stun gun them whenever someone ran out of ammo.
"DIE, DIE, DIE!" One hysterical soldier roared and unloaded his full clip.
The machine merely kept its legs firm on the ground and moved its central body to avoid the random shots.
"Shit!"
The soldier soon ran out of bullets and was stunned by the machine.
"Uack!"
The Admiral in charge was baffled while looking at it from the command bridge.
"This is Admiral Smithson! HQ: we're being attacked! We need-!"
Admiral Smithson didn't get to finish as one thing jumped towards the bridge and broke through the bulletproof glass using its kinetic energy.
"Huh! Eat bullets!"
Admiral Smithson took out a gun and tried to shoot at it, but it had no result: he, too, was knocked out; the rest of the crew didn't fare any better; the whole crew had been stunned in less than fifteen minutes and the group of twelve machines was totally unscratched.
"Beep – beep – beep."
The machines simply ran across the deck and jumped into the water to escape from the scene.
"Get closer to the Utah!"
"Quick!"
The escort ships maneuvered to get close to the Utah and some soldiers used rope and hooks to board the Utah and bring it to a halt.
"What the heck happened? I see spent ammo but no blood and no wounds!" One soldier wondered.
"Heck. I'm a 9 year veteran and I'd never seen anything like it either."
"Who or WHAT did THIS?"
"Devil! Sounds like someone's trying to start up a new Cold War!"
"Totally looks like it, yeah! Sheesh! Who's the smartlass that wants to pick up a fight with us, anyway? Some idiot who believes it's a genius?"
05:55 AM (Mongolia Time), Tuesday January the 20th…
"… Well. Our Nibelungs did a splendid job. It's been proven that they can easily maneuver on water and then use a jet to jump out and board any ship… Even those experienced Marines were no match for them."
"Bravo."
The six unidentified figures were seated around the round table and commenting upon the attack on the Utah, which had made it to the TV and radio media across the world.
"How's the data retrieval going like, Scorpion?" Meta asked.
"I found some new data… It's another set of initials… "N. R.", "I.", "S. T.", "S.", "B. S.", "O.", "C. M.", "D. H."… I'm pending running a check to see if I can find any matches…" Scorpion replied.
"However… One of that set of initials… "S. T."… It rings a bell somewhere. I'm sure we'll find out what they stand for soon enough." Cobra added.
"That's splendid, dears." Bella told them.
"Stop acting like a megalomaniac." Vulture grumbled.
"You should stop being a sadist." Bella shot back.
"Bella! Don't pick up fights." Viper commanded.
"Vulture! Ignore her." Meta commanded.
"Good. We only need to test out the V. Net Navis next before we wrap up our business." Meta announced as if to switch topics.
"You still thing you'll be able to do THAT?" Scorpion asked.
"You know me. I never desist." Viper giggled.
"Go your own half-way, then." Scorpion shot back.
"Let's go "interview" that suspect." Viper announced with a hint of evil to her voice.
"Roger, Viper – sama. It'll be worth our time, Mistress."
11:02 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Well. I had the breakfast so I better go unload…"
Netto came out of his classroom and waited in the corridor next to the restrooms because all stalls were being used: he failed to see an invisible figure hanging from the ceiling and crawling across it.
"Oi! Netto!"
"What, Dekao?"
"I beat Arushi!"
"Arushi Masuko, the 3-B transfer student? You're lying."
"Huh! What gave me away?"
"He never does Net Battles and he's got an automated simplistic Navi to do most of the mandatory tasks… You've already said 5 times that he's a "no-one" and you didn't give a cent for him."
Dekao rushed up to Netto while grinning but he glared back with a very skeptical look.
Arushi, you say~? I know the guy~… Heh, heh, heh.
"If you don't have anything better to do but boast then go try to find the "treasure" in Internet City."
"Hah! It's gotta be on that store place!"
"That wasn't a real store: it was to hide the Warp Point to somewhere else: go collect lilies and offer them to Meiru – chan."
"Heh, heh, heh!"
Dekao ran off and Netto entered a stall: he locked it but then the figure silently dropped atop him and brought him to the ground: they took out a stun gun and hit his neck thus stunning him.
Hmpf. Too easy! You guys underestimate us too much. Now let's get moving: we've got 20 minutes' time to operate… Heh, heh, heh.
12:05 PM (Melbourne Time)…
Huh…? I'm geared up… This feeling… The column? Oh. I remember: Saito – niisan and Tooru – kun agreed with my idea to visit a closed down dungeon and try the stuff out. I can feel it already pumping into me and maybe I fell asleep because I didn't sleep enough last evening.
Netto woke up to realize he was sitting in his knees and that he had some gear on his body.
This gear consisted on some leather bands set on his body: they formed a pyramidal shape with a stripe splitting them in half: another two bands arched over his shoulders and connected with the band circling his upper body.
He also had a thick leather collar where the apex of the "pyramid" was attached at.
His legs were strapped to a metallic platform using adjustable leather bands.
He had a blindfold on and had a plastic spheroid with some holes on it placed over his mouth: a leather band circled around his head to keep it on place.
His cock's base had a round leather band into which another three placed south, west and east spread and tightened his balls.
Other stuff included a pair of clothes pegs connected by a string and clipped to his nipples and two sets of two capsule-shaped vibrators above and below his nipples: their controller was strapped to his right hip while the controller for another bell-shaped vibrator set on his cock's head was strapped to the left hip.
He could feel his main torso strapped to a cylindrical metallic column using two leather bands.
The other feeling was that of a piston pumping two thick vibrators spinning upon their axis into his ass without slowing down.
Feels like it's tickling… After the "endurance" thing back in 2005…
He suddenly felt how someone removed the spheroid and stuffed a cock into his mouth: he instinctively began to suck and lick it with eagerness as he outstretched his head: two hands gripped his head from behind and began to move it to set a pace.
… I've become rather perverted along with Saito – niisan and we convinced Tooru – kun to join us in weekly all-guys threesomes… We used vibrators and clothes pegs to spice it up but we didn't tie each other… We were getting bored of the same routine so we've decided to increase the level and try some real S&M… And I don't regret it: Tooru – kun's cock which I've gotta be sucking now feels as good as ever.
He kept on licking and sucking the cock while he felt how the piston pumped faster and deeper: he then noticed how someone pulled a string connecting his clothes pegs and he inwardly gasped.
Yeah! This feeling's good! Bully me more, Tooru – kun. I guess Saito – niisan's gotta be pumping into your rosy ass too. Heh, heh, heh. This column thing does feel good… Guess I'll always be grateful to Forte and Shirakami for unlocking the doors to this world which knows no age limits: as long as we do it guy on guy then it's no problem. But! The only S&M I tolerate is the "friendly" one. I know Enzan began to get ideas and geared me up while having sex with him from time to time but he only keeps me tied to the bed: that's all. He's soft. The kind of S&M I despise is what Twilight's boss, Anaya Maria, did on the "Palace"… Guys and girls abused of by creeps without rest until they broke down… Most of them are still going through therapies to try to at least have a normal life and interact with others… It's been over 4 years since she got "dethroned"…
The cock inside of his mouth released and filled his mouth up: he swallowed the stuff up and the spheroid got placed into his mouth again while someone rubbed his cock.
Teasing me? I guess Tooru – kun is about to unplug me.
He felt how the bands around the base of his cock got loosened before the beads inside of his urethra and the bell-shaped object got pulled out.
Whoa! Here I go~! Get ready to be showered, Tooru – kun! Whoa!
11:23 AM (Japan Time)…
"…kun… tto – kun… Netto – kun!"
"Huh! What, where?"
"Are you alright? Do you have stomachaches?"
"Huh… No… I dozed off."
"Jeez. Break will be over in 6 minutes!"
Netto suddenly woke up to realize he'd been sitting in the WC and he'd apparently finished unloading given how the cover had been lowered: his pants were buckled and all and Saito was knocking on the door from the outside.
"Hai~… I'm coming out. Sorry."
Netto flushed the toilet and came out to find Saito: he looked slightly worried.
"Are you really OK?"
"I dozed off!"
"Ah. Then you shouldn't have been reading tankobons until it was past midnight." He scolded.
"I know…" He grumbled.
"Meiru – chan! I'll invent Rose Man!"
"Hmpf. No need to. Improve Guts Man's AI first. Ask Meijin – san to help you."
"Tee, heh, heh. Rose Man? Why not." Aura giggled.
"I'd rather invoke Sky Mower Man." Yaito giggled next.
"Please…" Nelaus was skeptical.
"How silly." Hikawa muttered with some annoyance.
"Totally." The twins drily muttered.
16:53 PM (Japan Time)…
"… What? Some unidentified weapons assaulted an Ameroupe aircraft carrier and left the whole crew K. O.?"
"You heard it well."
Netto and Saito were talking about the news Saito had heard over the TV a while before.
"Could they be related to the same weapons which hit a Choina army base and Internet City?"
"They sure look like it. These ones seemed to be designed to cruise underwater and fighting onboard ships."
"Hmmm… Then… There should be some kind of machine skilled at fighting in the ground in any terrain next, shouldn't it?" Blood Shadow suggested.
"If they're a pile of scrap, then I'm gonna send 'em straight to the junkman's!" Sigma laughed.
"Remember how skillful those flying machines were. It won't be a walk into the park."
"I find it odd, though… They only resorted to knock out the crew and dodge their shots... They didn't try to inflict major structural damage to the ship or try to attack the other ships… They must've been taking part in a test drive so as to make sure they work like they're supposed to do and weren't intended to do anything else apart from that…" Saito brought a hand to his chin.
"It sure sounds like it." Netto agreed.
Netto's Link PET suddenly rang.
"Who is calling me, Sigma?" Netto asked.
"Hmmm… Prefix 49… That's Germany." Sigma announced.
"Do we know anyone in Germany, Saito – niisan?"
"Not as far as I can recall… Maybe it's a mistake?" Saito wondered.
"It won't hurt to reply. Sigma: you can be interpreter. Right?"
"Sure."
Netto pressed the button to patch the call in; there was some static on the line and no video.
"Hello? Am I speaking to Herr Hikari Netto?" A German-accented voice asked in Japanese.
"Hum… That is I. Who are you?"
"Ach, so! Forgive my manners… I am Kount Kamiel Serbauf. I am a member of the Council of Armies… I suppose you gentlemen know about us, right?" Kount Serbauf introduced himself.
"Ah! Dr. Spimer told us about you, Herr Kount… You are the head of an important military equipment manufacturing company…"
"Correct. I called you directly because I could not contact either Herr Vadous or Herr Doktor Spimer… I have some hints that these so-famous weapons have been manufactured here, on Germany." Kount Serbauf explained.
"Is that so? Do you know who is financing them?" Saito inquired.
"Ach, so! No, I do not know as of yet. I shall call Herr Vadous or Herr Doktor once I have more information… It was nice meeting you gentlemen... Auf Wiedersehen."
"I find it curious that Herr Kount wasn't able to reach either Vadous – san or Dr. Spimer…" Netto commented.
"Knowing Vadous – san, he could've been overworking again and Dr. Lartes told him to take a break. Dr. Spimer could've been busy with some lab experiment."
"It's not crazy."
"Crazy Man He Who Drives You Crazy Spoke." Sigma laughed.
"Jeez."
17:17 PM (Mongolia Time)…
"… By all the…!"
"What is the matter, Scorpion – sama?"
"Look at this!"
Scorpion signaled some information on a laptop's screen: the light from the screen illuminated him.
He was a man on his early thirties with a three-day beard and about a meter and eighty tall.
His eyes' irises were brown and his hair was died gray.
He wore olive green military attire without any medals or distinctions of rank.
"Look at THIS, I say!"
"Huh? And what would that be…?"
A Net Navi was standing at a respectful distance behind his right shoulder and could be one or two inches taller than him.
He had yellow eyes shaped like a cobra's pupils.
His body was mainly colored brown with some cobra-like skin shaped like rings around his forearms and legs: his main body was covered in skin similar to a cobra's.
The shoulders were spheroids with the word "Cobra" written there using Cyrillic characters colored olive green.
His arms and elbows had some varying and mixing shades of brown, green and blue mixed at random across them.
The forearms were black and his fingers contained fake nails, which glowed with a purplish dust as if they'd been colored in purpose.
He sported a black leather belt with a Battle Chip case attached to the right side of it and a service revolver on its left side.
His legs and knees used the same color patterns as in the arms but they included yellow where blue and green mixed.
The boots were black too and they had some purplish sparkling dust scattered across their surface.
His emblem was the head of a cobra with its fangs open and the Cyrillic symbol for "C" was placed inside of the cobra's mouth.
"Top – Secret… Secret Service 4th Department Former Agent… Then, that's…!" Cobra began to ready only to gasp in surprise.
"That's it! This guy died years ago! Why does he show up as part of the remaining info on Atomic Network's server? This reeks! Cobra!"
"Truly. Scorpion – sama. Hmmm… Should we tell Meta – dono and Vulture about it?"
"Not yet. Meta dislikes incomplete info. I need to try to patch up more info. However… It now looks like the guy behind Atomic Network was not a commoner." Scorpion replied.
"The situation has made a turn… But it would it be a turn for the best or for the worse?" Cobra commented.
"It's too early to know for sure… Maybe by matching initials to people involved in the Atomic Network affair, I will be able to find out who they are." Scorpion told him.
"What should I do, Scorpion – sama?" Cobra requested.
"Grab any spare laptop and work on the same stuff. Between the two of us… We should be able to compose a nice list for Meta and have it ready for tomorrow." Scorpion ordered.
"Roger, Scorpion – sama."
Cobra saluted and Scorpion made a dismissing gesture as he walked out of the room: he began to impatiently tap the edges of the desk.
"Twilight! You're one sneaky "collaborator"… I agree that you were useful to program the FOD Navis but…! You hide way too much stuff!"
08:48 AM (Iceland Time)…
"… Hmmm… That's how it is, then…"
A man was standing inside of a metallic room, which was shaped like the lower right quarter of a circle: the ceiling had some fluorescent lights installed on it.
The only exits or entrances were two metallic sliding doors placed at each rectangular wall.
A square metallic table covered in blueprints and rough sketches was placed against the north wall.
Two hologram projectors replaying footage recorded by the Utah's onboard cameras were placed at its right.
"Hum. Replay."
The man looked on his late twenties or early thirties and could be over a meter and eighty tall.
His hair was combed in a neat manner and it was colored in an orange-like coloring while his eyes' irises were blue.
He had reading glasses on.
The man currently wore a white lab coat over a shirt, brown pants and shoes.
He carried an ID clipped to the right side of his coat, which read "DR. PIERRE SPIMER: HEAD OF CYPHER SYNDICATE".
Dr. Spimer looked immersed in some notes and annotations, which appeared next to each part of the assaulting machines.
"It's obvious! The material must be lightweight for it to be able to jump out like that and travel so close to the surface… It also makes sense if they plan to mass-produce them. They're programmed with the speed of different handguns and machineguns so that they know how to avoid the projectiles. Continuous hammering of it could break it down, I'm sure of that. You must balance armor and mobily after all."
The footage switched to the raid on Internet City by those mysterious fighter craft: notes and annotations appeared on several still frames where the craft could be seen with clearness.
"The same logic must apply to these as well. If the manufacturer is German, it must be taking into account the current economical crisis and must be aiming at low costs… However, I am sure that they're designed to be semi-resistant to EMP weapons… And something tells me that they can self-destroy if hit by an EMP weapon… The guys behind this are obsessed in leaving no trails, huh?"
Dr. Spimer took out a remote and disengaged the holographic projector before he walked towards the west wall and opened the door; he ended up in a rectangular room which had two rectangular parallel walls with a single door set on each one; the north wall had a diagram showing a circle divided on four curved pieces with four rectangular pieces set between each portion; the south wall had a wooden vertical rectangle wall set on it and a switch at its right.
"… Qu'est – ce que c'est que cette sombre historie de armes non identifies..?" Dr. Spimer muttered under his breath.
Huff! What exactly is this whole shadowy tale about unidentified weapons? WHO finances them? What's Twilight's role in this?
He pressed the switch and the wooden wall moved backwards by following some rails and then to the left, revealing another room.
He stepped inside and the fake bookcase returned to its place soon enough; the room was square, its walls were metallic and so were the floor and the ceiling.
There was polished wood desk, which had a closed laptop on top of it as well as an interphone system: the desk also contained several drawers and there were several papers piled in the top left-hand corner.
A pot with several pencils and pens was placed nearby.
There were two leather armchairs most likely reserved for visits in front of the desk.
The room itself looked like an office: it had a set of five bookcases, which occupied the whole length of the north wall.
The left wall was largely bare except for a custom-made light support design and an air duct cover.
The right wall had another identical light and a canvas of the Eiffel Tower.
The south wall just had the entry/exit mahogany door.
Dr. Spimer glanced at a seal in a document's NE corner; the seal depicted two swords clashing together and creating a cross-shaped flash of light.
A volcano could be seen erupting in the background and a rain of lava surrounded the scene; two arms covered in armor were wielding each sword, and the letters "CYPHER" were engraved on the rim in a red color.
"How ironic…" He muttered.
Dr. Spimer sat down on the armchair and opened one drawer from which e took out a cell phone, which he turned on: he dialed a number and awaited response.
"Hello?" A man's voice asked.
"Dr. Lartes? C'est moi, Doctor Spimer." Dr. Spimer announced.
"Ah! Dr. Spimer… Did you find out something else about those attackers of the Utah?" Dr. Lartes asked him.
"Apart from the fact that the things are being manufactured in Germany… I've deduced that they're semi-resistant to EMPs and include a self – destruct mechanism. The metal must be very thin."
"Oh? That could be useful to counter those things, yes."
"The reason they were dodging bullets most of the time must be because a whole clip from a machinegun could very well destroy them. They're programmed with the average speeds of guns so they know how to dodge them. You must balance armor and mobility. Unfortunately, I doubt ever capturing an intact model for dissection." Dr. Spimer explained as he distractedly toyed with a pen he was holding in his right hand.
"Huff! You're right, sadly enough… That seems to be the more realistic scenario right now…"
"If anything else urgent were to happen… Please inform me. Ms. Argad has told me the NSA has started looking into the affair. Washington is boiling with activity. The DIA, FBI and CIA are going to look into it, too. Nobody likes finding out an aircraft carrier was attacked and that nobody has claimed responsibility for it."
"Obviously enough. But the opponent knew that from the start. They must've readied a net of fake ends and misinformation to lead any rushed investigations ashtray… Maybe they placed plausible scapegoats there and there which will unfortunately be blamed for this mess…" Dr. Lartes didn't bother to conceal his frustration.
"Oui. Guess the usual folk will be blamed, as always."
"Also, Doctor, be careful with Twilight's scouts. You never know when they'll find a way to sneak past firewalls."
"Of course. I did precit that and placed some traps there and there. To deal with all of their proxies…"
"As expected. If they show up, just bombard them with gunfire and show them that we're serious. Make them suffer a Waterloo."
"Bien sûr! I'm not a Frenchman in vain. I'll teach them that we're not a bunch of pencil-pushers! Both of my grandparents were members of the Resistance during WII. They taught me how a guerilla war is fought like, and I'll make Twilight regret pissing me off!" He got amused.
"Excellent! We shall be in contact. Au revoir."
"Au revoir."
"Do they want war? They shall have war, then…! I promise you!"
"Dr. Spimer? Sorry to bother you but we repelled 22 Mettols through a barrage of gunfire." The interphone buzzed and someone reported.
"Hmpf. Speaking of evil and devil… Make them regret their affronts!"
18:19 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Sheesh! You freaking idiot! What do you understand by "criteria", huh? Answer me!"
"You Foreign Department people are all the same: always seeing trouble on what we do."
A woman was talking with someone via a phone while standing near a desk filled with documents inside of a dimly lit room.
She appeared to be on her late twenties and close to a meter and eighty tall.
She had short blond hair and blue eyes.
She wore olive green military attire with a long skirt, which reached past the knees and boots.
She had no distinction whatsoever indicating her rank.
"Of course I see "trouble"! You arrested a civilian just because he was quoting Shakespeare! No one has ever said quoting Shakespeare is "incentive for rebel movements"! Who's your Boss? I wanna tell him one or two thing regarding cha and cha concept of "criteria"!" The woman was protesting.
"… I won't say it." The person at the other end of the line replied after a five second pause.
"Hmpf! Gotcha there! You just wanted an excuse to draw attention to your own useless brain and believe cha would be promoted! I've proven you wrong! You did write a report, so I just have to demand it and find your number! Then I'll tell your Boss to kick you into the streets!"
"… Why, you…!" The man cursed.
"Admit it: you're a freaking idiot! We don't need people like you in the Secret Service's 4th Department! Get lost!"
The woman slammed the phone back on its place, clearly pissed off, while she cursed under her breath.
"Viper – sama? Is something the matter?"
A Net Navi had walked towards Viper while she was engrossed in the phone conversation.
She looked like she had the same age as her and was about three to four inches taller.
Her eyes' irises were colored blood red and displayed calm.
Some white hair emerged from behind her helmet.
Her bodysuit was mainly colored with a mix of golden and silver colors yet the helmet was bronze.
Her shoulders were anatomically correct and the Cyrillic spelling of "Bella" had been drawn there using blood red pain.
She had wave-like patterns drawn on her arms and elbows colored in different shades of blue and gray.
The forearms were crimson red and she had greenish fake nails over her fingers.
She sported the same type of belt and equipment Cobra did.
Her legs had mail-like patterns colored black drawn over them and exposed some "skin" colored to look like a human's skin.
Her black boots were heeled and the front had a small blade emerging from there.
Her emblem was the Cyrillic symbol for "B" set against a black background and surrounded by eight fangs aiming towards it.
"Huff! Bella! See! The person we "interviewed" two hours ago was just quoting Shakespeare on a blog! And there goes one 4th Department freaking idiot and arrests him just to get himself a promotion! I'm so gonna tell his Boss to kick his ass into the street!" Viper cursed.
"… How did such a useless grunt make it into the Secret Service, anyway? I thought we had strict background checks and IQ checks." She wondered.
"He surely was some amateur hacker wannabe who got the eye of some big fish who thought he could use him." Viper fumed.
"Ah. That is how it is, then." Bella was not surprised.
"Anyway! We have to present two reports. You work on the "interview" report while I present a report about the uselessness of that freaking idiot." Viper commanded.
She sat behind her desk and continued fuming and cursing under her breath.
"Bah! In any case… The world shall soon know to fear our might!"
She typed something with her laptop before she stopped and fumed: she picked the phone and dialed a number.
"Boss 17! This is Viper: Foreign Department! I wanna have a chat with cha regarding Number 138!" She yelled.
"W-what's wrong with Number 138? Ma'am?" The man gulped.
"They're a complete and useless MORON! SACK THEM!" She ordered.
"B-but… Huh! I see… This report… Huh… Truly… I'll sack them right away, ma'am… I assume responsibility for lack of direction, ma'am…!"
"And make sure you erase his access privileges and all: the guy's a damned amateur hacker, I'm sure of it. That's why CHA hired the MORON in the first place!" She snapped at the man next.
"R-roger, ma'am… I won't repeat the same mistake twice!"
"Cha better don't or YOU'RE NEXT!" She threatened.
SLAM!
"Men!"
She violently slammed the receiver back on its place and formed a scowl as she opened a drawer and took out a coiled whip.
"It's better to dominate them and turn the tables! Hmpf! Hah, hah, hah!"
20:40 PM (Melbourne Time)…
"… But how…?"
"Magic."
"Master. Don't kid me. There's no such thing as magic."
"Heh, heh, heh… Sorry. I was inspired."
"Huff. I can live without them, thank you very much!"
"Don't make that face! Next time around you get the other."
"Alright. I'll use the table."
"Excellent… You've tested how good it feels, haven't you?"
Philip was sitting to Twilight's right on the living room sofa and began asking when Twilight began to kid but Philip was far from impressed: Twilight shrugged and he also made a lazy shrug of shoulders.
"What's up with those "Foreign Departments" guys and gals, anyway?"
"Heh! They've found out about that damned interloper… That guy behind Atomic Network… Who is rotting away in jail 'cause IQ – sama wanted to show them the consequences of defying the Secret Empire… Speaking of which: the banner in the north wall of Diamond Duchess' room was an old propaganda banner we'd devised…" Twilight chuckled.
"Propaganda Man and Nam Adnagaporp draw it together!"
"Cloud Man… You remind me way too much of Sigma and Shadow Man."
"Huh! I'm n-not trying to imitate them, Twilight – sama! I promise, sir!"
"Huff. Whatever. I'm not in the mood to lash out either."
"So? What's the plan?"
"Heh! Let them be: I don't care about what they plot or design anymore, anyway. I'd rather use my free time to do clever stuff."
"Hmpf… True… I feel in a good mood this week… Heh, heh, heh…"