Chapter 5: Plots
13:03 PM (Honolulu Time), Thursday January the 18th…
"… Here we are, Kranos. So? What about your old buddies?"
"No need to be concerned. Ms. Anaya. They're searching Basel down to the sewers like their lives depended on that."
"Hah! Serves them well. Right, Yelling Yell?"
"E-excuse me, my lady?"
"Oh that face!"
"A-as you desire, my lady."
"Ms. Anaya… I am repetitive, but… I fail to see the point of these nicknames addressed to Mr. Twilight."
"Don't worry, Kranos! It's a little habit of mine… To show that this guy has a cute side to him!"
"M-ma'am! Cute? Me!? I'm supposed to intimidate!"
"Anyway. What do you suggest next, Kranos?"
"Well. Maybe we should send a "reminder" to those Rama folk…"
"Ah! Rama… Those interlopers… I was thinking something like that too… They've gotten in our way too many times!"
Anaya and two men were reunited in a room somewhere.
Anaya was a woman on her late 20s or early 30s and over a meter and eighty tall.
She had orange-colored hair, which reached until the base of her neck and blue eyes irises that depicted malice: she had a smug smile to her face.
She sported a sleeveless white shirt, jeans and sandals.
The room included a marble desk having an open Toshiba laptop, some paper sheets with annotations and a granite ashtray having a cigar on it, which was letting out smoke: it was still being used.
The room's walls were plain steel filled with satellite photos of several locations across the world, which seemed to be military complexes.
Other photos included advanced-looking planes and helicopters plus docks having battle ships and submarines docked on them.
A plain steel door marked the entry and exit of the room.
There were three armchairs having green leather body and equally green cushions.
Two were set in front of the desk and one behind: Anaya was sitting on the right armchair in front of the desk.
"But also give a little fright to the Net Police too…"
"Interesting."
One of the men was sitting in the armchair behind the desk: this armchair's back had the Alphabet letter "J" drawn there in a purplish color.
This man was on his mid-50s and could be over a meter and eighty in height yet he had a rather athletic figure to him.
His hair was brown and neatly combed while his eyes' irises were also brown: a small nicely cut moustache could be spotted on his face but he had no traces of a beard.
He currently whore a white tuxedo along with black pants and brown leather shoes.
"Hmmm… Maybe we could invade them with some small fry: just to make them be on the edge and paranoid…"
"Good, vampire!"
"V-vampire? Why, my lady?"
"Never heard of Stephenie Meyer?"
"… That series about vampire romances, was it? Sheesh. My lady! Just because my name is Twilight that doesn't make me a vampire! No offense! Ma'am!"
Twilight, the man on the left, was a man about a meter and eighty tall who looked on his mid-20s.
His hair was blond and neatly combed yet his eyes' irises were blood red: he looked both perplexed and scandalized.
He simply wore a black suit, a black necktie, a white shirt, black pants and brown shoes: he looked like your everyday salary-man.
"Teasing ya, bad, bad boy~… To remind ya who's in charge~…"
"B-but, I…" He protested.
"I know. You never question my orders. That's good. However, I feel like I should remind you who the real boss here is… The Boss!" Anaya snickered at him and looked amused.
"A-alright! So then… Mr. Opoulos…"
A buzzer rang out so Opoulos checked the laptop: a pop-up with the message "VISITOR INCOMING" had shown up along with the buttons "DENY" and "ALLOW": he pressed the second and the door unlocked.
"The tea, my lady."
"Good, Marco Polo!"
"… Yes, ma'am. As you command, sir."
"Ah. Mr. Izono, sir."
"No need for formalities. I'm just the servant of Anaya – sama…"
A new man came in.
This man was about her same age and maybe 2 to 3 centimeters shorter.
He had black hair and his eyes' irises were brown: he looked calm and he didn't seem to be surprised.
He simply wore a green shirt, jeans and sandals.
"Ms. Anaya… Once again, I insist, I fail to see the point."
"It's simple, Kranos! It's a pleasure that only a true ruler can experience! The pleasure of humiliating others and having them bow in front of you without being able to argue back…"
"Hum. I suppose so. Could we get back to our topic? Else we won't make any real progress, which we need."
"Sure. I think that sending Bapgei out in missions is dangerous. They're on the lookout. Now they all know his face too. So let's stop that and come up with new stuff." Anaya shrugged.
"Hmmm... We could spread a mail aimed at Rama saying that there's something in the Net Police HQ… Lure them there… Attack them with endless Virus legions… To gain combat data… Just in case they've come up with something new…" Twilight suggested.
"By the way: did the operation of the other day go smoothly?"
"Yes, my lady. We gained several tons of drugs from a major Mexican drug cartel… Using Vincent to infiltrate them and manipulating them to kill each other is working… If we continue to make him believe it's for the sake of his precious "General Campestre" then… He'll obey without questioning and do it seriously." Twilight explained.
"Good. Remember to use Cloud Man as the middle man."
"No need to worry. Cloud Man is so eager to do that in the first place that he won't protest."
"Good. However, make sure he doesn't start a fight with Swallow Man when he feels like it… And tell the same to Swallow Man."
"Roger. I'll do so at once."
"And bring me a Vesper cocktail."
"Yes, ma'am. At once!"
"It's a joke!"
"… I see. Ma'am." He wasn't amused.
"I thought that, by now, you'd realize when I'm kidding and when I'm not… Oh well."
"Excuse me, but you always told me to obey everything Your Grace told me…Without questioning…" He argued back.
"Hmmm… Maybe I was too literal… Well then, I order you to not to be so literal. Acknowledged?"
"Yes, ma'am. As you desire."
"Ah yes. Regarding the CIA hounds… I sent them to Colorado. Made them believe there's a Communist gang there aiming to take over the state. They're now searching every nook and cranny. Sometimes it's good to reuse old fears… Especially when it comes to the top brass..."
"Good, Kranos! You take care of those guys so that they don't get in our way! Make sure that THE man is framed as having delusions!"
"Of course. Just leave it to me." Opoulos smiled as he exhaled some smoke towards the fan.
"Say. Twilight. Couldn't we try to start a scandal involving those Rama guys? And keep them busy?"
"We could but something tells me they're expecting it. After the failed attempt at creating a scandal using Thunderbolt…"
"Ah. Fine. If it's not worth it then forget it."
"Roger. As you command!"
"Well. It's settled. Let's lure at least one of them there and have them handle Viruses… Tell Zoan Gate Man to install backdoors to allow intrusions from multiple sources… Generate and store them in the remains of the Virus Factory… That way they won't be able to trace them to find us…" Anaya ordered.
"I'll have it arranged ASAP. If you shall excuse me…" He stood up and bowed.
"Go, Vamtarou!"
"Isn't that a parody of Vamp from MGS4?" He groaned.
"Guess it is… Beware of sneaky stalkers with monkeys!" She laughed.
"Yes, yes. As you desire, ma'am."
Twilight rolled his eyes and came out into the corridor: Izono was standing in the opposite wall and reading a book titled "Warrior: En Garde" by an author named Michael A. Stackpole.
"They're all in Platform 4 save for Bapgei who's using Platform 3." He told Twilight while looking up.
"Thank you, sir."
"You needn't. I'm a servant. Just like you."
"Yet…" He began to argue.
"Fine~… Have it your way." He sighed and rolled his eyes.
"I am sorry!" He apologized.
"You needn't… It's true that I was your educator but… I'm not that important of a man. I'm a man who serves others. That's all. You serve Anaya – sama as well so we're in the same category."
"R-roger. Understood!" He gulped.
"Look… I won't get annoyed. I don't need to. Show off some courage like the mastermind you are."
Twilight nodded in understanding and headed down the corridor: a speaker somewhere crackled to life.
"Welcome to Mike's everlasting gag and parody show!"
"MIKE~! SHUT THE TRAP UP!"
"Sod off, Bill! Have a dive in Venus' Lagoon."
"Where the heck is that?"
"In your brain!"
"By all the… Cloud Man's playing back that silly stuff that Mike, the radar controller, used to say… The idiot!"
He ran down the corridor and down a flight of stairs to then exit through a door into a wide and tall cylindrical shaft: six landing platforms were placed at different heights: the bottom contained seawater and there was a yacht parked there: Twilight stepped into a platform and saw Cloud Man giving him the back and messing with a holographic screen: Twilight cleared his throat: Cloud Man seemingly felt a shiver go down his spine and whipped around to salute.
"Stop. Acting. The. Idiot. Or I'll shut you down for 2 months!"
"Where the hell is Popsicle Man?"
"Freeze Man – sama? In Platform 4 with the others…"
"Ah! This is Platform 2! Fine. Behave! Or else…!"
He ran off back inside of the corridor and descended another level to exit into another platform; he spotted Swallow Man battling a Heel Navi, Yamato Man training with a Normal Navi, Zoan Gate Man sitting on a corner and going over some data and Freeze Man supervising them.
"Why aren't you keeping an eye on Mutant Man?" He growled.
"Twilight – sama! That is… I thought he was patrolling as I'd ordered him to do…" He argued.
"Hmpf! Melt on your shame!"
"Excuse me?"
"Whatever the ever! Gate Man! What about the keys?"
"Keys? Ah. Those "Duo's Crest" that we sold to some VIPs… They fell for the trap and we're getting a lot of data… The fools think that this system stops others from accessing their data but they don't know it has a backdoor on it…" He reported.
"Good! Heh. Have at you, you damned fatty blockhead defective stupid junky alien!" He hissed in a string.
"Does that mean the guy in Utah?"
"NO! It's someone else…! That damned traitor mice's former Boss… That stupid thing… At least kyoudai did me a favor and thrust the thing into the depths of the Milky Way years ago… It's never gonna show up here! One less headache! Hah! I a black hole eats you up and turns you into cosmic dust! Speaking of which… Where's Cosmo Man?" He mumbled before asking Freeze Man.
"Doing maintenance on the yacht." Freeze Man signaled downwards at the yacht.
"Good. Mr. Opoulos may need it. It better be neat and polished."
"Of course."
"Steal Luigi's vacuum cleaner to cleanse up!" He laughed at his silly joke.
"Huh… Roger, sir… I will do so…" Freeze Man sighed.
"Good! I'm going to check on Bapgei… Continue as you are…Remember my orders, Yamato Man! I don't want to be treated as an idiot who can't properly program his Darkloids!"
"By your will!" Yamato Man saluted.
"Ah! You! Swallow Man! Find and defeat a second-class duck! Then you'll become Lord of the Ducks!" He sneered next.
"HUH? Excuse me, sir?"
"Hah! Laugh and fly low!"
"I fail to see the point." He muttered.
"You're not the only one." Freeze Man sighed.
Twilight headed back and exited into another platform to find Bapgei doting a curious outfit and training with Normal and Heel Navis.
His outfit consisted on black leather clothes that covered his whole body including a hood with goggles: it design was reminiscent of an owl's face, even.
He carried a belt spanning from the right shoulder to the left flank of his body and which had sheaths for 6 knives: it included a medallion with the drawing of an owl close to the shoulder.
His equipment included gauntlets: the right one had metallic armor shaped like an owl's face and the left one had some sheaths for smaller knives.
He carried leather boots as well and two knife sheaths attached to the belt's waist.
His gear included two short swords' sheaths attached to his back.
He was currently jumping and throwing knives at the Navis as they tried to dodge yet he predicted where they'd go to: one of them attacked with a Super Vulcan but he simply jumped to the right because the Navi couldn't do anything else but aim forward: he drew his swords and quickly attacked with them to behead the Navi: the body collapsed and got deleted while another one ran for him with a Long Sword: Bapgei spun around and threw five knives that stabbed the chest emblem thus momentarily stunning the Navi: he beheaded this Navi too and kept on.
"Stop." Twilight ordered.
Bapgei stopped and so did the Navis: he took off the hood and sighed in relief because he was sweating.
"How much time have you been at it, Philip?" He asked in English.
"30 minutes."
"More than enough! I told you 15 would suffice."
"I know, Master, but I felt like I had to prove I was in shape."
"15 minutes would've been enough. You must be at your limits. Take the rest of the day off."
"Roger. As you command, Master!"
"You'll need to be fresh for an operation that will happen in the near future… It will require infiltration and sabotage…"
"Understood. What about Nelaus?"
"Hmmm… I'll give you a secure line so that you can poke the guy and let's see what happens… It could work to cloud his mind…" Twilight rubbed his chin and grinned.
"Good. Looking forward to it!"
"And if you want to go to Melbourne to visit your aunt and pretend nothing's changed then just tell me. I'll arrange for an undetected warp to send you over there."
"Good. What about Miss Kataka, though?"
"Lady IQ has plans for them… Has appointed them to lead a club somewhere but I don't know where. You'll ask to ask Her Grace directly for that." He admitted.
"Understood."
"Go have a shower and change. I'll dispatch these to the laundry to have them cleansed. Save for the googles and the sheaths and other equipment…"
"Roger. Understood."
"There's nothing troubling you?"
"Huh? No. Do I look like it?"
"No. I don't know why I asked. Guess it was a sudden impulse." He frowned and seemed to be unsure about that.
"Ah. I see. If that's all, then…"
"Yeah. There's nothing else to add. Go."
"Yes, Master. I will have a good rest."
"And remember: I don't intend to be as strict and overbearing as Sidious was with Maul."
"I understand. Thank you."
Philip walked out of the platform while the Navis dematerialized: Twilight grinned and looked pleased with the outcome; Anaya walked up to him so he saluted but gulped because Anaya looked like she was up to something given her grin.
"So! Yearning Yosemite!"
"My civilian name is Yoru Yami, ma'am!" He protested.
"So it'd seem. Bad guy." She pulled part of his right cheek.
"Y-yes, ma'am…! I shall not disappoint you, ma'am…!" He managed to say while trying to ignore the pain.
"Not like you have, either. I felt like being the bad gal."
"A-as you desire, ma'am!"
"And tell Nelaus his nose is as uglier as Snape's too."
She headed back, laughing at her own lame joke; Twilight rubbed his right cheek while sighing in defeat.
"I fail to see the point, ma'am…" He muttered with obvious defeatism.
"There's none! Just a semi-colon!" She called back, laughing.
"Can this get any worse?" He exasperatedly wondered.
"Sure can. You'll faint when you see how super handsome ya are!"
"IQ – sama…! What have I done to deserve this? Oh man."
"Hmmm… Dunno. Maybe Reverend Matías soul has possessed me?"
"Oh come on! Ma'am! Afterlife doesn't exist!"
"Kidding. Guess you can blame Mike and Vincent for inspiring me."
"I knew it! Those two! They cast bad influence on others!"
"You never know. Maybe they're artists about to start a new generation!"
11:11 AM (Japan Time), Friday January the 19th…
"… Intrusion alert!"
"What's happening?"
"Prism Man – sama! Viruses! They've intruded through 8 backdoors placed there and there!"
"Devil. Neo Gospel's handiworks!"
"Neo Gospel, ya say?"
"Huh? Ah! You're… Destruction Man, right?"
"Sure. Sheesh. Those guys are annoying!"
Alarms rang out in the Net Police HQ Cyber World and Prism Man addressed a Police Navi to know what was going on: he got a report and immediately deduced the culprit: a voice speaking in Kansai dialect rang out and Prism Man looked at the entrance to spot a Navi named Destruction Man there.
"Can you help me?" Prism Man asked.
"Of course! They're Rama's enemies too. Let's go!"
"Good! Battle Chip, Prism! Now… Fire!"
Destruction Man looked close to a meter and eighty tall.
Black shades similar to Blues' own design hid his eyes but his mouth denoted seriousness.
A matrix of nine red spots was set on his forehead.
He had a robot-like designed given his metallic blue and silver armor pieces all over his body.
His armor included a belt while his legs had jets attached to them from behind.
His left arm ended in knife-like fingers and his right arm had an incorporated missile launcher on top of the right palm holding up to 10 missiles.
His body had brown-colored energy conduits, which seemed to originate from the chest emblem.
His emblem (the Kanji hakai (destruction) colored metallic gray and drawn over an azure background) was set on the center of his armor.
Destruction Man readied his hands' miniature missile launchers: he shot several of them towards the incoming Viruses and each one hit one Virus: the explosion wasn't strong enough to delete them but was to stun them: Prism Man's attack, bouncing off the Prism, took care of finishing them off before a new wave came in.
"This is Needle Man! Shah, shah, shah! I deleted a backdoor!" Needle Man called out through the radio.
"Nin! I dispatched two backdoors." Shadow Man added.
"Good thing I was here today… Out of the way! Sonic Boom!" Blues muttered over the radio.
"Did they mistake the timing?" Sigma wondered.
"Doubt it. Must be a new tactic to turn us paranoid and force us to spend time and energies redoing the system to purge the backdoors or hostile programs. Like what happened in the HQ…" Blood Shadow calmly deduced.
"It makes sense." Search Man agreed with him.
Destruction Man made his fists glow before shooting forward and hitting a large Voltic Eye: the blow was enough to delete it but it dropped a Count Bomb from inside the body: Destruction Man calmly kicked it into the air as if it was a can and it exploded mid-air.
"Guess that email was these guys' handiwork…! It said "Something could happen at the Net Police."… I got here because I happened to be close by… I'll tell the others not to come: we can manage." He muttered aloud.
"I see." Prism Man calmly commented.
"Really. They must want more combat data." The Operator muttered with a sigh: he also spoke Kansai dialect.
"Sure, Future! Else they wouldn't have bothered to lure us here with that email thingy…"
His Operator screen merely depicted the Kanji mirai (future) colored fuchsia.
"Eat machinegun!"
Destruction Man opened two chest compartments on the left and right sides to reveal built-in machineguns, which began to bombard the enemies: most of them were easily deleted before another wave came in: both grumbled.
"7 of 8 backdoors destroyed." Search Man reported.
"Charged shotgun shot! Last one's destroyed. This should stop the waves… But let's not lower the guard." Blood Shadow warned.
"Central Cannon!"
A compartment on his torso above the chest opened and a cannon's muzzle popped out: it shot and the recoil pushed Destruction Man backwards while a howitzer flew for a slightly bigger than usual Mettool: the howitzer impacted and the Mettool got destroyed leaving behind yet another Count Bomb but Destruction Man aimed his right hand and shot some missiles at it: the bomb got destroyed.
"There are still more of 'em?" He asked.
"About 30 remain…" Prism Man replied.
"This looks like it's gonna be annoyin'…" He grumbled.
"Sure thin'…" Future whispered.
"Did ya put the earphones?"
"Of course… I'm making it look like I'm talkin' to someone else…"
"Good. Keep the act up!"
"About 13 left…"
"As expected of the others… They're fast. Gotta pick my loot of 2 or 3 of 'em if I don't wanna fall behind…"
"Heh! That's the spirit." Future chuckled.
"Of course! Those Garuus over there will do! Ya guys! Eat these!"
Destruction Man drew two thick laser projectors over his hands: he shot two high-power lasers, which hit a couple of Garuu Viruses and deleted them: a bigger one rushed for him and began to load an attack.
"Not so fast. Eat missiles!"
He focused and shot 10 missiles towards the mouth: they hit the growing fireball and it exploded thus deleting the Garuu: the sirens stopped and both looked around.
"Check the firewalls as well!" Prism Man ordered.
"We're on it, sir. Nothing has changed."
"Hum. Don't take your eyes off them."
"Don't cancel battle formations. There surely is more to come." Search Man warned.
"Yeah. I get that feeling. They can do WAY better than this."
"I found the origin." Manabe reported.
"Where is it, ma'am?" Misaki asked.
"The old Virus Factory ruins…"
"Should've seen it coming… Twilight showed up there once… Over a year ago…" Enzan muttered.
"I and Search Man will check the place. All others remain there and in combat formations." Laika ordered.
"OK. Roger!" Netto confirmed.
"Leave it to us." Saito calmly added.
Lowing like that of cattle rang out; that was followed by chirping like that of cicadas which slowly began to grow closer: Prism Man and Destruction Man watched out: Destruction Man scanned in a 360 degrees radius while Prism Man was keeping an eye out for the skies: the sound suddenly broke and "Gekkou" fighting vehicles emerged from there.
"Shit. Gekkou of all things. Search Man was right." Prism Man cursed.
"Their weak point should be in the head… We can also attack the hips to make it fall…" Destruction Man didn't lose his cool.
One of the "Gekkou" tried to kick Destruction Man with the right leg but he jumped into the air and landed atop it: he formed his machineguns and began to attack the small dome atop the "head".
He heated up his fists in the meanwhile and accumulated energy: he unleashed it into the front and made the metal bent to reveal the internal components: he formed a grenade and tossed it inside before jumping away: the grenade exploded and although it wasn't strong enough to destroy the armor it did wreck all of the internal components thus defeating unit: it fell into the ground, making it shake, and got deleted: Destruction Man slid beneath another and suddenly drew two daggers from inside of his hands' upper armor: he began to spin around using jets on his soils and performed many cuts to the legs until they both got split in half beneath the knees: the unit collapsed into the ground but Destruction Man was already jumping towards another one: he drew the lasers next and aimed them at one of the grenade-launching tubes: the heat made it detonate and the explosion of several of them did open a hole on the right side of the head: Destruction Man shot his Central Cannon inside of the head thus wrecking some internal components: Prism Man took the chance to fire a Giga Cannon and finish it off.
"There's only another two units left in the other sectors. It'd seem there were only 13 of them. They probably wanted to play with superstition! That's LAME!" Future grumbled.
"Huff, huff… I managed to destroy one. I really need to improve my techniques, I can't keep up!" Shadow Man panted.
"And I got the other." Blues reported.
"Phew. About damned time." Enzan grumbled.
"Carry out a full system inspection! NOW! Scan down to the last inch of terrain! Even if takes 24 hours to do so!" Manabe ordered.
"Stakin' anythin' that it was a parody of the "comin' from above! Look out!" cliché…" Destruction Man fumed.
"Sure thing…" Blood Shadow was annoyed as well.
"Come at full power!" Sigma challenged.
"Good job there." Omega told them over the radio.
"Thank you, Commander!"
Yeah. But when are the jerks gonna get serious? Ya won't fool us with lil tricks! Wait 'n see! Hah! Destruction Man's spoken! Hmpf!