"Yumi, my dear."
"'Morning, Boss," Yumi greeted as the door swung shut behind her. "Is what's troubling you the same thing that's troubling me?"
"I'm afraid so," the Boss confirmed. On the monitor above his head, surveillance camera footage appeared. It showed a grainy picture of Black working away, surrounded by the base's servers and his monitor. The last item was casting sharp light on his angular face. "Just keeping an eye on them isn't enough any longer. I want him out of the base as often as possible. His friend, too—actually, his friend even more." He set his wineglass to the side of his chair, now drained of any liquid. "I hate to ask this of you. I'm sure you know how... erratic they've been."
"Don't worry," Yumi said. "I could do with fewer people around."
0110110001100001011100110111010000100000011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101
Regal Burger hadn't had a day so exciting in years. Narcy knew—they'd worked there for longer than they cared to remember.
Around them, the back room was in panic. Grease was boiling over the side of the hideous fry cooker that had given them breakouts they weren't allowed to hide with makeup. Some of the idiots who were their fellow workers had gotten the grease on their shoes, and they were screaming in pain. The central assembly line for the burgers was in flames, the microwaves and heating equipment used to defrost all those patties of mysterious source overheated. The manager was running around in a panic, or doing what he could to approach that considering how out of shape he was.
Nobody would ever suspect Narcy. Nobody noticed them making it to the safe on the back wall.
"Jewelman!" they called, beaming ear to ear for the first time in what seemed like forever. "Be a dear and help me liberate this cash!"
"Understood, Narcy-sama!" Jewelman made a pit stop in Narcy's PET before getting plugged into the safe's system. Through the PET screen, Narcy saw a pair of tired-looking guard Navis approach the white-armored intruder. "Gold Rush!" A sextet of golden bricks and sharp-tipped jewels rained from the sky at Jewelman's command, crushing the guards. In the real world, the safe swung open, and Narcy wasted little time plugging Jewelman into the inner system to retrieve the money stored inside.
"You cretin!" exclaimed someone from behind. Narcy turned to see the manager staggering closer. "Don't you dare move—"
"Excuse you? How about you not get in the way!" A spray of hot grease struck the manager in the side, forcing him to the ground with a high-pitched scream. Standing behind him was a short, skinny man, who grinned at Narcy. "I mean, an auteur like you must have a masterpiece in the works, right?" He prodded the manager with one steel-toed boot, not getting much of a response before he stepped over to Narcy. "Black Hiroki," he introduced, a laser beam carrying his Navi out from the fryer. "I've ridded the cash registers of their security. It's all yours."
After all this time, Narcy wasn't one to look a gift horse—or partner—in the mouth. They plugged their Navi out, whipped a scarf out of their backpack, and tied it around their neck. "Much better," they said. They stepped gingerly over the manager, not wanting to dirty their shoes any more than they'd already been, before practically skipping to the front entrance. "Everything's going so right!" they exclaimed as they plugged Jewelman in, racking up even more money without any trouble. Narcy watched the number on their PET screen rise. "I'll be able to get a proper camera, and sound equipment, and maybe—maybe—a gorgeous new PET! I can't make my feature with outdated equipment..."
"You don't have that stuff already? But you're a filmmaker—" Narcy shot Black a look that could fell the largest ham. "Oh." The purple-haired director plugged Jewelman out and stalked out the door. They couldn't hear Black's boots tapping against the ground behind them, but when they looked back, the darkly-dressed man was keeping up.
"Not since the Net Saviors had their way, I haven't," Narcy said furiously as they got out their makeup bag. In a way, it felt good to rant to Black; he at least seemed to want to listen, unlike anyone else Narcy had tried to talk to. "I didn't even understand it. One minute, some... idiot was rejecting my art, the next minute I was in jail!"
Something akin to pity flashed into Black's eye. "You still don't remember," he realized.
"No, of course I don't!" Narcy fumed. "And they wouldn't tell me! They said it was too dangerous," they sneered, brushing on purple eyeshadow. "So they could keep me there for months asking me the stupidest things, and that Netto would..."
"Netto?"
Narcy clapped the eyeshadow compact shut as their hands balled into fists. They felt like they were going to strangle something, the memory made them so mad. "The other one with the skunk hair at least tried to treat me with a little respect. But that Netto... Every time the Net Police came to ask me questions about World Three or asteroids or whatever else they wanted to make up, he'd be there, him and one of his gaggle of friends. And I'd always hear them making fun of me, laughing at me in the next room. The adults would tell them to stop, but they enjoyed it too...
"When they released me, I had nothing. Nothing but the clothes on my back. And you know what that Netto said? 'At least we won't have to hear him complain anymore.' Him and his scientist father and his Net Savior paychecks! I bet he never had to work for a thing in his life! But I have. All this time, I've been creating the perfect Navi. Planning my revenge. I'll show the whole world that the Net Police are nothing but weak bullies! On film, exposed in living color! I'll show them all how wrong they were about me. My filmmaking career will rise from the ashes, and it begins with the Net Saviors' humiliation!"
"I'm sorry," Black said quietly. "And you've had to wait all this time... You must've been upset to hear that bombing got half your revenge for you."
"He deserved it," Narcy said, their attempt at flippancy helped by their focus on getting out their lipstick. "He drove me to this. To wasting all those years slaving away in some pigsty like that..." Only then, putting the last touches of lipstick on, did they think of something else. "How do you know me?"
"You're Narcy Hide, aren't you?" Black said with a nostalgic smile. "Some circles were close followers of your work. I couldn't not know you." He stretched his arms behind his head. "I think it was fate that brought us here today," he said. "You've walked out on your job, and I've just been kicked out of the house. Well, technically, she said 'you look like you could use a break' and 'maybe you should go to Regal Burger' and 'bring me back some fries', but she's got every reason to not want me around." Black grinned at Narcy. "I'm dangerous, you see. But before I return home and say there was a mishap, I thought I might pass on a good place for you to increase your budget..."
0110110001100001011100110111010000100000011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101
"Is everyone here?" Mariko-sensei asked from the head of the small group outside the art museum.
"I can't believe this," sighed Kaita. "I thought we'd be seeing something cool..."
"It is art, Kaita," Turboman reminded his Operator.
"It's going to be amazing!" Ring gushed, "Some of these pieces were worn by royalty! Real diamonds and sapphires and rubies..."
"But it's girly," whined Kaita.
"There are African tribal masks on display, too," Chisao said, skimming over a pamphlet. "So it's not all bad. Just most of it."
"Great," sighed Kaita. "What's the point of a field trip if it's mostly boring?"
"School is generally about education and not entertainment," Turboman said. "Otherwise, my idea to write off the monster truck rally as physics would've worked."
"Okay, everyone, we're going in! From now on, I want you all to use your inside voices," Mariko-sensei called.
"Right!" everyone replied. They trooped past a picture of a funny-looking man on one side of the hall, then a twisty and curly vase that Kaita doubted would hold flowers, and finally turned a corner. An old man was standing right next to the doorway, soberly waiting for his guests to file in. Kaita was unimpressed already, while Mary smiled and Ring was already fawning at the necklaces and bracelets hanging on the walls. Most of them were shiny, and most had big jewels in them somewhere. There was another person in the room, too; a person wearing a lot of pink and a floppy cap, and carrying a large bag. Kaita wasn't sure whether the pink-clad person was male or female.
"May I have your attention, everyone?" the curator asked. Kaita looked up at what he was supposed to be paying attention to and saw a big, shiny necklace. "Now. The very first Horuptan jewelry was made from simple, natural materials, like shells or bones. As you can probably tell, this dates from a later time." He chuckled. Kaita looked over at the person in the corner. They twirled a strand of long, purple hair around their finger as they looked through rose-tinted sunglasses at the jewelry—and not at the little cards next to each display, Kaita noticed. They didn't care about history. All that mattered was the ancient and probably valuable jewelry—or were those the cases the pink-clad person was inspecting?
Kaita knew he was overthinking things, and turned back to the curator just in time for the group to move on to a new piece. "Now, this is from Namaste. Notice the focus on patterns and the precious jewels..." The pink-clad person's arm moved, and Kaita's attention went straight from the boring talk to them. Their face stayed pointed at the center of the case, but their eyes were roving up to the top of the case, across, down... Slowly, delicately, they slid something onto the case's bottom and sauntered to the next one.
"Kaita!" hissed Turboman in warning. He moved on along with the rest of the class.
"Another piece from Namaste—this is actually an anklet, not a bracelet. It dates back to around..." Kaita looked over to see that the person was already to the end of the row—they weren't bothering with a few of the smaller displays. With a soft sigh, he turned back to the curator. He couldn't look that far behind him without getting into trouble.
0110110001100001011100110111010000100000011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101
"Hm."
A few blocks away, Black was contemplating the possibilities the rest of the day afforded him. Yumi had tried sending him to another burger place, and he'd responded by packing up his laptop and telling her that he'd just work on the Devil outdoors if she was so bothered. He'd followed that up by wondering why she was on his case and not Atsuki's, anyway—he'd thought they were friends. She'd looked a little remorseful after he'd said that, which was good; he missed hanging out with her. More seriously, this run-around was a horrible, annoying distraction. He was already working out a massive-scale prank instead of actually doing anything meaningful, and seeing that Narcy was going to keep Kaita and his girlfriend busy was just further incentive. Maybe this prank would make it through the entire city, right up to the IPC complex at its heart...
"That's right," Black realized. The Net Saviors would come running. He wanted to deal with them on his own terms, not encounter them on something like this that was throwaway. "Hm." As he flipped his laptop open, he thought through his current resources; what was ready, what wouldn't hurt to get set in motion a month or two early...
"Computer!" It recognized his voice and unlocked. "Hit it!" That caught the attention of half the street, as did the loud music that started blasting from the speakers. Black didn't care. He plugged Punk into the laptop and took a seat on a raised planter. "Pop quiz! It's one-thirty on a Monday. Where is our pal Stinger now?"
"Going from the Ministry of Science to take a look at Battlechips. He'll be out there for another fifteen minutes," Punk replied.
"Correct! And while you're on your way to intercept," he said, prompting Punk to access the link to Internet City, "here's the lightning round for the grand prize! Why Stinger?"
"Intern's Navi," Punk instantly recalled.
"And why do you think I like Ministry interns?"
This one took a second of thought. "Because the ones we looked at tended to have all the security privileges of full-blown junior scientists with none of the experience to detect you."
Black grinned. "I'll make you an infiltration Navi yet. Congratulations, you're going on a cruise!"
"They sound overrated," Punk said. Ahead of him was a generic Navi that had been recolored green.
"Well, fine," said Black, faking miffed. "If you're gonna be that way, just go intercept our target."
Punk's eyes narrowed in amusement. "That suits me better." Punk fell into step behind Stinger, waiting for the other Navi to turn onto a quieter street. As Stinger almost always did, he made the turn a minute later. A third of the way in, Punk's cable arm tied him down.
"Connect me," Black ordered as Stinger began to shout. Punk placed his hand over Stinger's Navi symbol; moments later, Black had silenced him. "Hello, Stinger," he said mockingly as he started his work in earnest, head bobbing to the instrumental. "You can call me Black. We have a few fun months ahead of us. I hope we can be pals." Stinger couldn't answer. His mind had been almost entirely shut down as Black added new, overriding layers of code. "The song isn't even over yet!" he realized as he double-checked his work. "Today is the best day ever!"
"I'm guessing my part is over," Punk said.
"Afraid so," confirmed Black. Punk returned to his PET. In the meantime, his Operator noticed, "Stinger, if you don't hurry you'll be late! I can do this last part on the fly, so let's march on back to the Ministry. We're going to send the Net Saviors on a little ride." He snickered as he thought of the perfect place. "I hope they don't mind the great outdoors..."
0110110001100001011100110111010000100000011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101
What seemed like an eternity later, Mariko-sensei announced, "That's all the time we have for today! Class is dismissed, so unless you have any questions, you can go ahead and leave!"
"Mariko-sensei, can we look at the gift shop instead?" Kaita asked.
"I don't see why not," she said with a smile. "Go ahead."
"Come on, Mary-chan," he said, taking her hand and tugging her toward the gift shop.
"Um... Kaita-kun?" The gift shop was large enough that they wouldn't be overheard in the corner, so Kaita made a beeline for it. "I don't really think I want anything—"
"We need to wait," he explained. "For them."
"Who?" Mary asked.
"That person! The pink person who was in the room with us!"
Mary sighed. "I shouldn't be surprised, should I?"
"I guess he is a guy," Ring said. "One emerald and they zone out."
"I'm serious," Kaita said. "They were putting stuff on the cases, they didn't even care about the history stuff!"
Now, Mary was listening. "Are they still inside?" she asked, looking out the window into the hallway. "Shouldn't we get someone?"
"What if they don't believe—that's them!" They were walking out with a much fuller-looking bag than they'd entered with. "Come on!" The two children tailed them out the door. Seconds later, Kaita and Mary were forced to clap their hands over their ears as alarms burst out inside the museum. Kaita looked up to see the person jump into a beat-up old sedan and slam the door.
"We can't follow them now!" Mary said.
"Sure we can. We just need to borrow something."
Mary followed Kaita's glance to the row of cars parked outside the museum. Before long, she'd put two and two together. "Kaita-kun, no! That's stealing!"
"We'll put it back!" Mary wasn't biting. He tried, "If we just hop out with it now and follow them, we can get the jewelry back safe and sound. And the car'll be back here before the day's even over."
"Hey, you're right!" Ring said. "It's for a good cause, innit, Mary-chan?"
Mary looked up at Narcy's car peeling out and bit her lip. "I guess... I really don't like this..."
"It'll just be for a little bit," Kaita reminded her. He scanned the cars in the lot, looking for an older one with a weaker security system. "That one! The alarm's on the opposite end of the lock system, but it isn't too bad otherwise," he explained.
"So Ring'll disable it while Turboman unlocks the car." Hesitantly, Mary nodded. "If you're sure we'll give it right back."
It went smoothly, as Kaita had hoped. While Mary shut the door behind her on the passenger side, Kaita grabbed a pair of wire strippers from his backpack and ducked under the dashboard.
He'd barely been at it a minute before Mary said, "Um... Kaita...?"
When he emerged from the small space, he saw a stern-looking man glaring in at him. "We're going after a jewelry thief," he explained, "and we need your car." The man's expression didn't change. "Can I borrow your keys?"
"What kind of a story is that?" asked the man indignantly.
"T-the truth," Mary said. More resolutely, she continued, "Some of those pieces are hundreds of years old. Please, sir..."
"Well, I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to call a taxi," the man said angrily. "I'm not letting you take this car anywhere!"
Kaita's eyebrows raised as he realized, "I don't think you understand. I don't actually need your keys. I was just being polite." Before the man could put two and two together, Kaita said, "Turboman, hit it!" The man didn't get another word in before they sped away in the direction the jewelry thief had gone. "Thank goodness for speed limits," Kaita said.
"Really..." Their newest foe was just two cars ahead. Mary wondered, "Say, Kaita... Do you think they're with Nova? I'm not sure."
"Me, either. It's weird how Mr. Meme had nothing to do with Nova yesterday, and now this... Where have they gone? Why all these people who aren't the right ones?"
Mary's hand moved to trace the edge of the round pendant over her chest. "Who knows..." The light changed. Kaita looked at the jewelry thief's worn car, wondering what they wanted. Money was obvious, but money for what? "Maybe they feel like I do. Something's coming..."
"And whatever it is, it's gonna change everything," Kaita finished for her. "That's how I feel, too. Maybe they think this is their last chance." Up ahead, Narcy's car turned off. "Turboman!"
"Saw it!" Turboman followed the other car onto a quieter road. "You can't run from me! I'm the king of the road!" he proclaimed, speeding up.
"Don't we want to not look suspicious?" Mary asked. The window of the beat-up sedan was rolling down. The purple-haired driver stuck their arm out the window, aiming for the car. There was a moment's silence as the driver's arm retreated; then, Kaita and Mary's car suddenly swerved. "Ring-chan, help him out!"
"Leave it to Ring!" she proclaimed before Mary plugged her into the dashboard. Kaita took one last look at the road and the car ahead before monitoring the fight on his own PET. In the dashboard's system, a Navi with heeled boots and a garish jewel ponytail was flying to the ground after receiving a tackle from Turboman. An assortment of oversized jewels was fading into pixels, having failed to hit their mark.
"Ring, grab the wheel!" gasped Mary. Kaita looked up and almost wished he hadn't—there was a turn coming up ahead, and Turboman was distracted.
Kaita selected a chip in case the enemy Navi repeated his attack. "Samurai Sword!"
As the bone-white sword appeared on Turboman's arm, the jeweled Navi grinned. "Diamond Dust!" He waved a hand in the air, causing razor-sharp shards to appear. They moved incredibly quickly, and even Turboman couldn't evade them all with his speed. Following them was a slower-moving cloud of white, sparkling powder.
"I've got a bad feeling about that white stuff," he told Turboman. "Try not to let it touch you!"
The enemy Navi disappeared in an Area Steal. "Excuse me, little boy, but that isn't just 'white stuff'," the Navi said, reappearing behind Turboman and shoving him into the cloud. "All my attacks are valuable, but that's my favorite," he confessed as Turboman struggled to lift his feet. "Narcy-sama just hates people who try to run away from them!" He looked over at Ring manning the wheel. "While I hate people who try to interrupt me," he said, summoning another six oversized treasures. "Gold Rush!"
"Would you pipe down?" Ring asked, hurling her boomerangs at him, making a slight tweak to the wheel so they didn't crash into an oncoming tree, and finally managing to slide under a falling gold bar. "I am trying to drive here! You'll pick up damage in the crash too, mate!"
"Narcy-sama knows my code inside and out," the enemy said, laying a hand on his white-armored chest. "As long as their cause remains, there will always be Jewelman to carry out their vision."
The voice of Jewelman's Operator was about as androgynous as they looked. "Battlechip: Ice Wave! Slot-in!" Jewelman whipped his arm out, summoning a flurry of oversized snowflakes to freeze the already-immobile Turboman further and pin down Ring's left arm and foot. She gritted her teeth as she tried to steer and keep an eye out for her opponent.
"Jewel Sabre!" Two clear, pink swords appeared on either side of Jewelman with a wave of his hand. He snatched them out of the air and charged at Ring.
"Flame Sword, slot-in!" Ring swept the fiery blade at Jewelman, whose rush attack turned into a roll to avoid it. He put the two blades in a cross shape and began to sweep outwards, but was halted by Ring's sword.
"Thanks, that's much better," she said, allowing the heat pouring off her sword to melt the ice coating her arm. "Mary-chan, if you would care to even the odds?"
"Here's an Aqua Sword, Ring!" called Mary. The Jewel Sabres were beginning to get visibly hot. Jewelman knew what was coming; he withdrew his blades before Ring could slash sideways with her new Aqua Sword and turn them brittle. However, Kaita had a surprise for him. Turboman had used his tires' heat to defrost himself, and the odd quasi-paralysis had worn off. With the help of an Aqua Blade, he chopped one of Jewelman's swords in half, letting the point sail away to vanish in mid-air while the hilt was deleted from Jewelman's hand. The other sabre slashed sideways toward Ring, who parried with her Aqua Sword and forced the blade downward.
Kaita looked up for a second to report, "Guys, we're turning!" Turboman ran for the wheel while Ring stomped down on the Jewel Sabre, forcing it out of its owner's hand. She cut down toward Jewelman's back, but the fabulous Navi wasn't through yet; he took the hit while sending out another round of Diamond Dust, hitting both of his opponents hard. However, the cut down his back was leaking data, and his retreat was more staggering than graceful. Turboman was able to stabilize the car before it could go flying off the road, while a scream of rage told them all what Narcy thought of the turn the battle had taken.
"Finish this off, Ring!" Mary said. "Mega Cannon, slot-in!"
"I'll remember this!" yelled Jewelman. "Gold Rush!" As the treasure plummeted down, Jewelman logged out. Kaita slammed in a Dream Aura as the two immobilized Navis vanished under a pile of gold and jewels...
"How could you?!" came the yell from up ahead. Narcy ran straight over a curb and deep into some bushes in his distraction. Kaita had a feeling the villain's car wasn't going anywhere, and wisely, Narcy wasn't even bothering to try moving their car. "You little brats!" they cried, pulling themselves out from the wreck. "I'll deal with you later!" A fistful of jewelry in their hand, they ran for it as Kaita and Mary pulled up.
Kaita plugged Turboman out and sprang out of the car, Mary following him. Narcy's bag was still inside, and Mary looked inside to see most of the jewelry. She took it by the handles. "Why didn't they—oh!" Her attempt at picking it up came to a quick end. "It's heavy!"
"I'd think so, Mary-chan," Ring said. "Even if gold's a light metal, it's still metal!" Kaita hauled it out of Narcy's car and began transferring it to his commandeered car, while Mary walked over to pick up a bracelet Narcy had left on the ground.
"I just wish we could've gotten them all back," she said.
"Oof!" said Kaita as he put the bag in the back seat. "Well, at least we got a lot of them back!"
"Uh, guys...?" came Turboman's voice from the PET. "Are you hearing what I'm hearing?"
In the chase, Kaita hadn't been paying too much attention to the monitors and other displays lining the roads. Now, he saw that they were all playing one endlessly repeating video. "Is that...?" he wondered, not believing what he was seeing.
"The Llama Song," Mary confirmed.