Chapter 7: Of electricity
16:16 PM (Japan Time), Sunday January the 21st…
"… Sheesh. I come to visit Rock Man and I instead stumble upon this moron of all possible types."
"Sparkling mummy!"
"You're the mummy!"
"And Raoul is the Disco King!"
"I'm not in the mood for that."
"Too bad. Moody Moods dropped by with the 16:16 Louisiana Express?"
"Like I'd knew. Go, Thunder Man!"
"OK! I'm gonna beat you up, clown!"
"Bring it on, by Smith!"
Thunder Man was fighting Cloud Man in the Densan City Internet City: both were atop the radio tower and exchanging electrical attacks: neither was capable of harming the other and it seemed to be turning into a stalemate.
"Beware of monkeys who want a cigarette in exchange for a can of Cola~! And who belong to Mr. Yakuza 893!" He laughed.
"Cut me the bullshit. Fight me." Thunder Man grumbled.
"It's coming from the side! Beware!" Cloud Man joked.
"Thunderbolt!" Thunder Man fumed.
A thunderbolt fell down towards Cloud Man but he lifted his blade and captured the electricity: it turned purple and purple light began to glow around it: Thunder Man was hardly impressed and got into defense position as Cloud Man made an exaggerated giggle and flung the blade towards Thunder Man: he simply formed the Lightning Rod Battle Chip and jumped away to put some distance just in case: his hunch turned out to be correct because the Lightning Rod overloaded and exploded while Cloud Man rushed for Thunder Man.
"Elec Beam!"
The circles floating behind him began to frizzled with electricity and streaks of them interconnected those: he then shot a simple streak from his right hand's index finger but it coiled around Cloud Man's blade again: Cloud Man chuckled but Thunder Man didn't lose his cool.
"Lion Thunder!"
He now shot several streaks that shot past Cloud Man to converge in a nearby antenna and then combine into one big beam that flew towards Cloud Man's back: he turned around and made the attack coil around his blade: Thunder Man shot another Elec Beam and more electricity began to coil around the blade: it all suddenly scattered loose in all directions and most of it impacted Cloud Man and momentarily stunned him because he was caught with the guard down: Thunder Man rushed in and delivered a kick on the upper chest that pushed Cloud Man again: he put some distance again and got into defensive stance.
"Man! My blade has a limit to how much electricity it can keep trapped with its EM field… Gotta forge it again… Maybe I should ask the Dwarves of Hyrule to do so… Like they powered up the Master Sword in Triforce of the Gods! Hah, hah, hah!" He laughed.
"Watch out, Thunder Man. The guy's surely plotting something new and stronger than before." Raoul whispered.
"OK. I wasn't expecting an easy fight!"
"So~… Did Uncle Smith drop by?"
"Dunno. Maybe Swallow Man knows that and is keeping it a secret to make you look like an idiot."
"WHAT? Shallow Swallow Man!" He growled.
"Eat this! Mega Cannon!"
"Uack! By my might!"
The blast shortly stunned him and pushed him backwards: Elec Man put some more distance as Cloud Man recovered and formed a cloud while chuckling.
"Grounder Thunder!"
He shot a spheroid filled with electricity at Thunder Man and laughed.
"Hmpf! Elec Beam!"
The Elec Beam hit the spheroid and overloaded it thus destroying it: Cloud Man was rushing for him again and Thunder Man formed a Count Bomb that he kicked at Cloud Man: he instinctively sliced it in half with his blade but it exploded in front of his noses: the momentary distraction was exploited by Thunder Man who shot a Giga Cannon at Cloud Man: the blast was absorbed by some kind of field and vented off in various streaks of energy in countless directions.
"Hi-power weapons won't work, Raoul."
"So it'd seem. But maybe you can pull out that field."
"Good idea. Let's give it a try…"
"What are you 2 whispering about? Whispering won't defeat the great me! Dark Cloud!"
He formed a purple cloud that shot forward: Thunder Man shot the Lion Thunder at it to overload it and then roared: Cloud Man gasped as his protective field began to fly away and gather around Thunder Man: he then switched its polarity and shot it back at Cloud Man: the blast spread across his whole body and he growled: Thunder Man rushed in and delivered another kick to his jaw and one to the waist to make him fall into the ground before jumping away: Cloud Man recovered and grumbled under his breath.
"No more Mr. Nice!" He signaled Thunder Man with his right hand's index finger and sounded like he'd run out of good mood.
"About time. You're slower than a turtle." Thunder Man taunted.
"Wha~t? Who the hell says that!?"
"Swallow Man says that!"
"Shallow Swallow Man! I'm so gonna kick your arse!"
"Coming today or tomorrow?"
"GHKGHSLHGDH!" He growled.
"Guess that means never." Raoul taunted next.
"Why these rascals…! I'm pissed off! For real!"
"Cloud Man! Don't disobey my orders! The Dark Generator is off-limits until I say so!" Freeze Man suddenly warned.
"Huh! R-roger, sir! As you command, sir!"
"And so is the trump card! I'm WATCHING!"
"U-understood. I will fight normally, sir!"
"Now fight! And stop getting confident!"
"R-roger, sir! At once, sir!"
"So. Coming?" Thunder Man played the bored.
"You'll regret pissing me off!"
"That remains to be seen."
"The Obscure Demon King, Summerill, will burn you to ashes!" He tried to impress him.
"Quoting RPG guys' names won't make you win either."
"Grrr… Gra~h! You pissed me off for the last time~!"
He rushed for Thunder Man while his whole body emitted electricity around him: Thunder Man saw it coming and stepped forward.
"Elec Wheel!"
"Wha! What the…!?"
The Elec Wheel robbed the electricity off Cloud Man, charged it with Thunder Man's own and curved to head back at Cloud Man and hit him face-on: he groaned and collapsed on the rooftop they were at: Thunder Man kicked his face and he lost balance so he dropped and crashed into the street while forming a crater there: Cloud Man managed to get to his feet but he wasn't in top shape: Thunder Man calmly dropped there and assumed a fighting stance: Cloud Man roared and rushed for him again but Thunder Man crouched and gripped the chest armor to then perform a judo hold and throw him to land feet first into a magma pool Thunder Man had readied beforehand: he got stuck there and tried to get out yet 3 thunderbolts rained down on him and he grumbled: he formed a long whip sparkling with electricity and flung it towards Thunder Man but he simply grabbed it with the right hand and pulled it to break most of it.
"I absorbed this toy's childish voltage too."
"Childish? It's 500,000 Volts!" He grumbled.
"Meh! For me it's like it was 5 Volts."
"Sheesh. Here I wanted to prove I'm the king of Electrical Attribute Navis…! Above you and Elec Man and Magnet Man…!"
"You picked a bad opponent. You expected that I'd get impressed and I wouldn't be able to properly react. If that's the case, then you underestimated me. Greatly."
"I had that hunch." Freeze Man grumbled.
"I s-shall offer no apologies, sir!" Cloud Man gulped.
"Whatever. Zoan Gate Man!"
"Roger. Remote Gate!"
The Remote Gate formed next to Cloud Man and the Devil Hand emerged to grip Cloud Man and pull him out of the pool and inside of the Remote Gate: it closed and Thunder Man began to look around as if he expected a treacherous attack: sure enough, a new Remote Gate silently formed behind him and he jumped as it opened and a blast of the Gate Cannon flew across the air: Thunder Man aimed his right hand there and shot five electrical bursts that hit Zoan Gate Man inside given the yelp that ensued: the Remote Gate vanished and Thunder Man continued to scan his surroundings in a mistrustful manner.
"What. You ran out of ideas?" He challenged.
Nothing happened: Thunder Man shrugged and walked away from the scene as if nothing had happened.
"Barely worth our time." He muttered.
"Yeah… Let's go meet Netto." Raoul confirmed.
"We're not stupid. Those guys are holding back in purpose. They're saving power up for something again." Thunder Man warned.
"Yeah. Unfortunately, we dunno what it's about."
"Let's hope it's not something like last time. That was too close…! Weren't if for THAT guy… We might've lost!"
18:28 PM (Japan Time)…
"… I don't think this is the handiwork of some novice programmer in this campus, sir."
"I think the same thing, Axe Man. This must be what Priest – sama warned me about: a ploy by Neo Gospel."
"Hmpf. They're but fools who rely on proxies."
"Indeed, Axe Man."
A Navi named Axe Man was battling inside of a Cyber World somewhere.
Axe Man's azure eye irises were protected by the helmet's protection
He looked like a medieval knight with azure armor covered in bronze diamond patterns.
He carried a large axe on his right hand and an octahedron shield on his left one adorned with the word "Rama" colored golden.
His legs and arms had sparkling ivory patterns spinning around their surface.
He looked over a meter and eighty tall and his axe emitted an unsettling sparkle of cleanness to it.
His symbol was the Kanji ono or "axe" colored forest green and set against a white-colored background.
"What should be done, Present – sama?"
"Slice them."
His Operator, Present, used a window that displayed the Kanji genzai (present) was drawn in green.
Axe Man was currently fighting a horde of Dwarf Gekkou units: there could be over 20 of them and they were jumping to latch into him and try to stun him with their low voltage yet they didn't manage to impress Axe Man: he lifted the axe and neatly split 8 of them in half: he quickly tossed it into the air and caught it back to change it to horizontal position.
"Rubbish."
He swung the axe again and cut off another eight foes.
He glanced over his shoulder and quickly turned around to bring down the axe into one that was rolling across the ground towards him: he lifted the axe and directed a mistrusting glare at his surroundings: sure enough, another horde of 30 of them appeared and began to advance by rolling or jumping or crawling: he built up energy on the axe and hit the floor to open a crevice: energy travelled across its length and knocked the enemies into the sides: he crouched and jumped several meters into the air to fly towards there, higher and faster than one would expect from him: he hit the ground and caused a ring-shaped shockwave to spread and further knock enemies off the ground: he began to jump and land to deliver attacks with his axe to crush them: a familiar sound rang out and, suddenly, 3 "Blue – Eyes White Dragon" monsters appeared there: they began to load their attacks and Axe Man calmly stood there, waiting.
"Burst Stream of Destruction!" Kaiba Seto's voice ordered.
Axe Man suddenly jumped and the 3 beams converged into the spot where he'd been at: an explosion and dust ensued as the ground was partly destroyed there: Axe Man flew over the dragons and simply dropped the axe: it cut off the neck of the leftmost dragon and hit the floor: the other 2 didn't react so Axe Man picked the axe and effortlessly beheaded the other 2: there was a larger roar and the "Ultimate Blue – Eyes Dragon" suddenly formed there: it loaded up energy but Axe Man shrugged as he began to quickly jump towards the right: the dragon shoot its attack but it was continuous instead of a single blast and began to chase Axe Man as he circled around its mole: he suddenly jumped into the air and quickly landed on the dragon's back: it tried to agitate the body using the wings but Axe Man unceremoniously beheaded the 3 heads as well: a growl of frustration rang out from close by.
"Hmpf. Swallow Man, was it? Your childish games don't work on me: my colleagues may be more emotion-biased but I'm another tale."
"Sheesh! This jerk!" Swallow Man cursed from close by.
"I'll bring your head to my Lord." Axe Man coolly announced.
"YIKES! This guy's serious!"
"Remain composed, Swallow Man! That man isn't authorized to do that so he won't do it… And you're not in the scene to begin with!" Freeze Man scolded.
"R-roger, sir…! T-true, sir… It's just that…"
"Enough. Focus!"
"R-roger, sir…! Eat this!"
A boulder fell from atop but Axe Man merely jumped to its encounter and sliced it along with the Count Bomb hidden inside of it: he moved away as the bomb exploded but did no damage: the halves of the empty rock hit the ground and shattered while Axe Man simply landed in a calm manner: there was a sound and another Axe Man having a zombie-like head instead ran for him while moaning and having blades instead of hands that looked like they were red hot close to melting point: Axe Man was hardly impressed by that grotesque parody so he simply aimed the end of the axe's bar at it: a hatch opened and a dart flew off: it stabbed the forehead of the enemy and detonated: the explosion was small but served to stun the enemy: Axe Man quickly rushed there and swung the axe horizontally to slice the enemy in two by the waist and destroy the core: the enemy was deleted.
"Is that all?" He challenged.
"Sheesh. Why doesn't it work?" Swallow Man grumbled.
"Swallow Man…!" Freeze Man was getting annoyed.
"W-well, I…!" He began to argue.
"I want no more excuses! Do SOMETHING! NOW!"
"R-roger, sir…! Grrr…! Have this for a change!"
The ground rumbled as an avalanche rushed towards Axe Man: cracks formed on the ground and flames erupted from them while thunderbolts began to fall around: hail ensued along with fog but Axe Man didn't lose his cool: he merely shrugged and dug a hole under his feet: he hid inside of a cavity he'd dug up and made up a stone cover to seal it up: he simply waited for the avalanche to stop and used an Area Steal to emerge again, unscratched.
"I-impossible!" Swallow Man gasped.
"I'm an adult. Not an immature child." He drily reminded them.
"F-fuck!"
Freeze Man was grumbling aloud close by and Swallow Man gulped as if he feared Freeze Man would punish him.
"I heard those rascals were back at it! Where are they? I'm gonna smash them to dust!" Balrog suddenly rushed in.
"Hmmm… Who is AM – sama?"
"Huh? What? AM – sama? Dunno."
"Then die. Impostor."
Axe Man suddenly rushed for "Balrog" and easily sliced him in half: the two halves became black mass and reverted to a bulky Security Navi: both halves hit the ground and were deleted.
"Why didn't you add more data to it?" Freeze Man hissed.
"T-though t-that…" Swallow Man stuttered.
"That your opponent was stupid, huh?"
"Y-yes, sir… As you say, sir…!" He admitted.
"Do you want me to replace you with a gorilla?" He threatened next.
"N-no, sir…! Anything but that!"
"Then use your damned CPU!"
"It'd seem they can't do better than that. Good. Then we'll let everyone know… The whole world… That this is the best you can do." Present calmly taunted.
"E~H? NO WAY~!"
"You damned FOOL!"
"I am sorry, sir…!"
"Like that'll change anything! FOOL!"
"They can pull things like that of London from time to time but most of the time are this weak and stupid." Present taunted next.
"Did you think that appealing as weak would make us get confident in battle? Afterwards you'd suddenly turn serious: would that help you beat us easily? You clearly have a distorted view of reality."
"I did tell Twilight – sama but…! He was so confident that this tactic would work out…!" Freeze Man hissed.
"Hmpf. Then that man is no more than a fool who gets confident and has reality distortion field."
"ENOUGH! Swallow Man! Out of my sight! NOW! I FEEL RABIDLY DISGUSTED!" Freeze Man exploded.
"Uwa~h!" Swallow Man yelped and ran away as if he was going to be slaughtered alive.
The channel shut down so Axe Man shrugged and merely placed his axe vertically as he scanned the area.
"There is no enemy presence, Present – sama."
"Good enough. Check that there aren't any backdoors or spawn points or some cowardly tactic left behind."
"By your will."
"SOMEONE GIMME A HOSE! I SO WANNA SHOWER THOSE IDIOTS IN COLD WATER!" A woman yelled close by.
"Uh-oh. Masada – sensei got another fit of anger. Guess her students pulled something stupid again. Sheesh. When will they learn that they're not at an age to pull childish stunts? I'm worried about the maturity of the new generation!" Present grimly muttered.
"MY KINGDOM FOR A HOSE!"
"Calm down, Masada!" Another woman sighed.
"Cha go broom the office, Sereida~! I FEEL OVERWHELMINGLY DISGUSTED!"
"What have I done to deserve this?" Present sighed in defeat.
"I… don't know, sir." Axe Man was at a loss for words.
"Wasn't asking you. Anyway. Compile the data and we'll submit it to Priest – sama in the next meeting." Present grumbled.
"Roger, sir. At once, sir."
"SOMEONE ALLOW ME TO KICK THOSE MORONS IN THE BALLS!"
22:22 PM (Japan Time)…
"… So. We have all gathered. Priest – sama will now speak to us. Past. Future."
"Roger that, Present."
"He must want details: we did send him reports but…"
"… What? An imitator of mine, Axe Man?"
"Yes. But with low intelligence and knowledge."
"Hmmm… That description ya made… Think I've heard it somewhere before… Need to dig into my archives…"
Axe Man, Balrog and Destruction Man had gathered in a warehouse somewhere: their Operators' windows were open and they were all talking to each other: the Navis did the same.
"This is Priest."
"Priest – sama."
A new window popped up: like the other 3, it only displayed the Kanji shisai (priest) colored black.
"So. They're holding back in purpose. And think that'll make us get confident." Priest got down to business.
"Yes, sir. It'd seem it's another of Twilight's reality distortion fields. Another of his fits of arrogance." Present replied.
"Hmmm… Did they let out anything important?"
"No, sir. Freeze Man only seems to piss off more and more with every passing day." Future reported.
"The usual tactic of pitting Cloud Man against Swallow Man and vice versa still works so they haven't changed in that aspect." Past added.
"What about that Darth Bapgei?"
"My sources told me he tried to stalk Net Savior Blackdesu but was recognized: Ijuuin barely got the man." Past reported.
"Hum. That could've been useful to lure Twilight out of hiding before he was ready for some other ploy…" Priest muttered.
"What about you guys? Did you notice anything?" A Navi's voice asked in the meanwhile.
"AM – sama." They all saluted.
"Let's get down to business."
"Roger, sir. They seem to have an obsession over mixing up games and animation." Axe Man reported.
"I saw your report. Apart from that?"
"They get arrogant and improve without thinking that these improvements are highly likely to fail."
"They also rely on cheats like spawn points." Balrog grumbled.
"Or parodies. That thing Axe Man said sounded like an attempt to mix in Biohazard or survival horror."
"They must be up to something big again. Last time they did that and the other time that of the Empire State… And let's not forget the fuss he made in the summer…" The Navi, "AM", muttered.
"Sheesh! We almost had the guy but slipped away by inches! It feels so frustrating!" Balrog grumbled.
"Greetings, Reclaimers." A cherry voice rang out.
"Huh? Spark, huh… Eh… Could you come later? We're in the midst of an important chat."
"Oh, is that so? Reclaimers. And here I wanted to…"
"Tell us you're gonna be the baseball in the next game at Koshien Stadium…"
"Vexation!"
Guilty Spark 343 suddenly hovered in the warehouse and began to say something only to be cut by a lame joke by Balrog and he got annoyed on the spot: the other three sighed.
"Balrog. Shut up." AM ordered.
"R-roger. Danna!" He gulped.
"And, Spark… He's waiting for you to tell you more about things."
"Oh, is that so? Excellent! But before that… 10 orbits, 5 loops, 7 dives, 6 ascensions, 9 flips…" He began to list.
"Yeah, yeah. We know the tune, man. Excellent, excellent." Destruction Man sighed and was trying to shoo him away.
"Impatience!" He complained.
"So it would seem." Axe Man dully commented.
"Not you too." AM complained.
"I apologize." He calmly apologized.
"Oh well! I shall go visit that person. Stay healthy and beware of the Duck Illness. As reported by Explosive News."
"That's misinformation by Cloud Man, Monitor…" Priest sighed and seemed to be tired of repeating it the whole time.
"Vexation! They shall pay for this affront!"
"Yeah, I know… So what?"
"Hum! Infinite questions, limited answers!"
"Guess that." AM muttered.
"I need some clean airs and gusts and winds! Farewell! Vexation!" Guilty Spark fumed.
Spark hovered away and left the place while AM cleared his throat and called for their attention again.
"Always be on the lookout. Keep records of your movements and actions. Maybe they're trying to use imitators to frame us. They won't have it easy. My word." He told them.
"Ah! I found it! The Desert Wraiths, AM – sama…!"
"The Desert Wraiths? What about them?"
"They made up that "mimic" thing that uses the same mass as that "Shadow Devil" weapon to recreate the appearance of someone… Twilight was in good terms with two women who were part of the gang… They surely told him about the tech. And thus Twilight decided to recycle it to confuse us." Destruction Man explained.
"I see! Good finding, Destruction Man."
"It was nothing. I just happened to dig into my archives."
"Good. Keep it up."
"So… We should be on the lookout for attempts to smear our names and reputations." Axe Man summarized.
"In essence."
"And of leeches…" Past fumed.
"You needn't tell me… Had to shake off three of them in 5 days… Their Darkloids are bad at battling so that madwoman thought that she could pressure us through the real world… That traitor leaked out data on our IDs so… And it'd seem they pressured that Ancient old man to confess some stuff too…" Future grumbled.
"Yeah. Prophetess hacked into you guys' PETs and that's how she figured out everyone's IDs." Priest fumed.
"First I thought the gal had stalked me when she showed up one morning on my door but… That wasn't the case…"
"I'm sorry. I choose the wrong person. That was a fatal error in judgment…" Priest sighed.
"Ah! No, no! I'm not sayin' that the Danna – sama is to blame… I'm sorry, Danna – sama!" Future nervously apologized.
"I'm not offended, Future. One must be conscious of their mistakes if they want to learn from them."
"Hum… Indeed, sir. You needn't feel guilty. We all make mistakes because we are humans, after all. Nobody's perfect, sir. So please don't let that haunt you, sir." Present calmly reassured him.
"You're right, Present. Did you have trouble with leeches too?"
"No. Maybe Anaya thought they wouldn't work on me. Or has no interest on me to begin with."
"Could be. Seeing how you're older than Past and Future… Oh well. Be on the lookout, nevertheless. You can't trust them not to pull something."
"Acknowledged."
"Any more questions?" AM asked the Navis.
"If we find an impostor… We beat 'em up?" Balrog asked.
"Affirmative. They surely have no valuable info. Try asking a fake question: if they answer like they believe that it's true then they're clearly a fake. And try to scan them too." AM ordered.
"Aye, aye!" Destruction Man acknowledged.
"Report to me any more encounters with those."
"Roger. We'll do so!"
"I'll expedite alternate frequencies and meeting places just in case: we don't want the enemy to spy on us, after all… And I did search this place but it's clean and there are no Mettools or Viruses spying either. Else I'd said so to begin with."
"If those fakes appear before me… I shall slice them up." Axe Man coolly looked at his gleaming axe.
"Go ahead. Show them we're not intimidated."
"Hah! My wrecking ball will blow them up like balloons!"
"Don't get confident." Past sighed.
"Hum… If they dare to show up in our bike store then I'm gonna run into them with the bike." Destruction Man calmly muttered.
"Of course: Bike Power!" Future laughed.
"Confidence leads to an early defeat." Present reminded them.
"I know, Present. But morale is also important, no?" Priest argued back.
"Ah. True, sir. I apologize if I was too blunt with my words."
"Don't mind it. Let's return, AM."
"Roger, sir. We'll be in contact. Glory to Rama!"
"Glory to Rama!"
The line shut down so the Navis nodded at each other and saluted towards where the screen had been at.
Let's find a weakness in the enemy… And exploit… Glory to Rama…!