New Threat...
... Old man: " it was an infection."
It took a few moments before any of them could speak.
Arata: " first of all...Who are you?"
The tone of the man was business like as he safely deposited the LBX into one of his many pockets.
Old man: " I will tell you later, for now, I think you don't want to lose that boy, he is an important source of information."
He pointed his cane at the grey haired boy that was about to run away, only to be grabbed by Gouda.
Gouda: " don't you think you can just go like that!"
Jin snapped when suddenly Zenon jumped on his shoulder, taking him by surprise. Arata and Sendou weren't better as the later eyed the LBX skeptically. Only the old man seemed unfazed, rubbing his thick white beard.
Old man: " hoo, so it really began."
Arata: " do you know something about all of this mess? what's happening here? And how comes that Zenon started moving on his own and speaking?"
Old man: " you can say that he evolved."
Jin: " evolved?"
He glanced back at the LBX that glanced in return.
Zenon: " as you all know, LBXs have AI within them that manages them, although it's not advanced. All I know is that the instant you answered that question, I received an upgrade for my AI, which allowed me to move around freely and speak, as well as growing a personality and gaining further power."
Sendou: " further power?"
Zenon looked at him.
Zenon: " well, I hardly doubt a normal LBX was able to defeat that Lucifer."
Old man: " that's true."
" Hurry up, we don't have so much time left."
The giant clock robot spoke, tagging on the man's arm.
Old man: " sorry, I almost forgot."
He turned to face everyone else.
Old man: " I will explain everything when we reach... What was it's name again, Clockmon?"
The robot sweat dropped at the man's forgetfulness.
Clockmon: " Tiny Orbit."
Everyone narrowed their eyes at him, clearly wry.
Jin: " what do you want with Tiny Orbit?"
Old man: " you will find out soon."...
The man pouted at the red dot that suddenly appeared on the map on his laptop but quickly disappeared.
" It seems they got rid of it."
" It doesn't matter."
The man smirked as he leaned back on his chair.
" You're right."
On the same map, a whole bunch of red marks kept popping up and appearing in different places.
" No matter how much they resist, the victory is already ours."...
The man rubbed his back as he sat down on a chair in the Seekers' base with the help of the giant robot.
Old man: " I'm no longer young."
Takuya glanced over at him before looking back at the three men and the boy.
Takuya: " what you told me is just beyond imagination."
Gouda: " but you already saw the talking Zenon, right?"
Gouda argued back and Takuya sighed, that only fact he can't deny.
Soon, Rina walked over with Zenon in her hand. The LBX quickly jumped and landed again on the shoulder of his partner.
Sendou: " you see, he didn't even use his CCM!"
Rina: " we scanned Zenon. As you know, we dealt before with LBXs controlled by AI, but the one within Zenon... Is a different case. Its AI is even smarter than the ones usually used in LBXs. More like..."
Jin: " the ones professor Oozora made?"
Rina: " it's even smarter than that. We don't know how did that happen."
Zenon: " I told you everything I know."
They all then turned to the only one who claims to have explanations. The old man blinked at them and Sendou took out a card.
Sendou: " Hermit, upright. Revealed secrets. No matter how do you look at it, it seems you know something about what's happening, old man."
Old man: " that's right."
He leaned back on the chair, not bothering to deny it.
Old man: " first, what about the scan of the other LBX?"
Yuuki then spoke.
Yuuki: " we found nothing strange about the LBX."
They could see him narrow his eyes through his glasses.
Old man: " so it seems it deletes itself when the LBX loses. So smart. Then, what did the boy tell you?"
Takuya then pulled a video on the screen, showing them the process of the interrogation of the grey head.
Boy: " I swear I don't know anything about it. I was only told that I can be stronger using it."
" What's this thing that you talk about?"
Boy: " I don't even know, my friend recommended it for me and send it to my CCM and since I used it, I never lost for once, but that was the first time my LBX goes out of control."
Takuya: " as you see, it seems the boy himself is clueless about it. We even scanned his CCM but found nothing strange."
Old man: " Clever."
He sighed as he looked up at them.
Old man: " didn't any of you hear of the rumor of the program that can help LBXs become stronger?"
Gouda and Sendou exchanged looks, much to everyone else bewilderment.
Sendou: " it reached to my ear but I waved it off, I thought it was a mere rumor."
Gouda: " I heard about it from my followers but I didn't believe it either."
Old man: " well, it's true. Lately it spread between LBX players, a virus program which boosts the performance of the LBX and enhance its durability, L virus. They were also told that the more they use it, the much stronger they can become."
Arata: " is that why that boy was looking for an opponent?"
Old man: " seems like the case. But in reality, the more they use it, the more the AI of the LBX becomes infected, and in the end, the player loses control over it and it starts causing chaos and destroying everything in its way. That's why I call it L Virus infection."
Takuya: " it's unbelievable!"
Old man: " but it's the truth. It's not just here, it has been all around the world. Most likely that there are more of them nearby."
Jin: " who made this virus?"
Old man: " an AI..."
They all blinked.
Old man: " an evil AI that tends to take over the world. Its name is... Leviathan..."
Sendou: " Leviathan?"
Old man: " an AI that can outstand the human beings. It's hiding somewhere within the Deep Web, despite all the efforts, we couldn't find it."
Arata: " then, what about what happened to Zenon? Is it the same thing?"
The old man shook his head.
Old man: " you can say that the program this LBX had received is the vaccine program of the L Virus. It was send by someone who wants to stop Leviathan."
Jin: " stop it."
Takuya: " who?"
Old man: " yet another AI, Minerva."
Arata: " eh? An AI wants to stop another AI? But..."
Old man: " it's complicated, i get it."
The old man stood up.
Old man: " Leviathan claims that he wants humanity to reach it's ultimate level of evolution. He is planing to get rid of anything he assumes to be unnecessary. He wants to turn the whole world into some circuit where everyone have to fulfill their roles without fail. What Leviathan is doing now is only showing the humanity what he is capable of, and also gaining more power for his project..."
He looked down as if the ground was the most interesting thing for him now.
Old man: "... Project Evolution."
They all looked up at him, still unable to believe most of what he told them.
Old man: " this is all for now, if you excuse me. And by the way, you better check the cameras all around the city, I'm sure some troubles started. "
He said and walked out. One of the employees looked through the security cameras and his eyes widened.
Employee: " President Uzaki, we have problems!"
He pulled the footages on the main screen.
Employee: " LBXs are rampaging in Misora!"
They all had their eyes wide open at that. They turned back to the door in an attempt to stop the old man, wanting to ask more. But he had vanished into thin air.
Takuya: " how is the situation!?"
Employee: " the LBXs had conquered the streets and are destroying the town, citizens are trying to take refugee but, we don't know for how long this will keep up."
Gouda: " Takuya-san, we have to help!"
Arata: " but our LBXs..."
Yuuki: " we can fix them here in tiny orbit. But that will take a while."
Jin and Zenon exchanged looks. It was clear what they had to do.
Jin: " then we will go."
Takuya: " on your own!"
Jin: " there is nothing else we can do, plus, even Arata and the others' LBXs won't hold on against them."
Takuya narrowed his eyes as he knew Zenon was the only LBX able to stand against the infected units.
Takuya: " take care, we will try to fix their LBXs as soon as possible so that they can support you."
Jin nodded and he got out with Zenon. Unbekown to them, there was a blond young man eavesdropping on everything. The blond man looked at the yellow eyes that were staring at him and nodded...
Misora...
" Damn it! There is no end to them!"
The brunette groaned as he and his girlfriend were taking refugee on one of the bridges, ducking down so that they won't be spotted by the robots rampaging under them.
At the same time, two LBXs were trying to face off the large army.
Ami: " they're very tough! I can't affect them no matter what I do!"
The brunette man clicked his tongue as they were surrounded.
Kazu: " you should have run when I told you so!"
Ami: " and leave all on your own?! Not happening in a million year Kazu!"
As they were struggling against their opponent, they were late to notice the Queen that descended in front of them.
Ami's eyes widened when it pointed its gun at them, ready to fire an energy bomb. Kazu quickly typed away on his CCM.
Achilles Deed quickly flew in front of them, standing in the way of the attack, there was an explosion and then a cracked Achilles Deed fell on the ground with a thud, a few pieces of its armor littered around it.
Ami: " Achilles!"
Kazu bit his lip as Achilles wasn't able to move anymore. Ami tried to pull her LBX back for support, but Pandora was knocked away with sparks flying out of its body. The Queen was still in front of them, ready to shoot again.
Kazu tried to hide the purple head behind him as he looked up at the LBX. Clenching his fist on his CCM, ready to use it as a weapon if the need called. Ami held her CCM tightly and prayed for a way to be saved.
As if responding to her, both CCMs bursted in a bright white light, startling the white and red LBX in front of them.
As they glanced down at their screens, they saw a blue owl symbol on them.
" Kawamora Ami, are you ready to support someone till the end?"
" Aoshima Kazuya, are you willing to sacrifice anything for someone's sake?"
A ' yes' and ' no' buttons appeared on their screens, they quickly exchanged looks and nods before that each pressed on the yes button.
" Chosen ones who chose to fight, you shall now receive a great power. Please use it wisely."
The owl mark faded away and the screens went back to normal. As soon as the light dissipated, the Queen was on the attack again, only to be shot down by Achilles Deed that was now standing perfectly fine and undamaged .Kazu blinked twice at that.
Kazu: " what just happened!?"
" It seems we received some kind of upgrade."
Pandore jumped up and landed on the bridge next to Achilles. Having finished off the LBX that encircled her a moment ago with ease.
Ami: " Pandora!"
She didn't know whether to be relived that her LBX was fine or to be shocked to see it move and talk on its own.
Pandora: " explanations will be later. For now, your safety is our priority."
Ami nodded as she held up her CCM.
Achilles: " you don't intend to let the ladies do the work, right?"
He told the brunette man who merely smirked as he held up his CCM.
Kazu: " of course not!"
Pandora: " then let's go!"
The two LBXs jumped down and faced off the other units. As soon as they got their attention, the rampaging robots tried to attack, only to be shot by Achilles Deed or get slashed at by Pandora.
Kazu: " strong!"
Ami: " fast!"
The two LBXs didn't seem to have problems dealing with the rampaging ones, but they were surprised by their back up.
Achilles: " Crap!"
" Attack Function: Impact Kaiser!"
The LBXs were forced back and exploded as soon as a certain black and purple LBX appeared.
Pandora: " Zenon!"
Zenon: " seems I'm not the only one who evolved here."
" Kazu! Ami!"
They both snapped and looked at the man who ran towards them.
Ami: " Jin!"
Jin: " are you alright?"
Kazu: " well, we're still in onepiece."
Ami: " your LBX..."
Ami's eyes quickly flicked to the trio fighting down the bridge without their help.
Jin: " I will explain later. Let's first take care of them!"
He shifted towards the LBXs wrapped into red aura.
Kazu: " alright, let's attack all together with all we have!"
The other two nodded at that.
" Hissatsu Function!"
" Attack Function: Impact Kaiser!"
" Attack Function: Black Storm!"
" Attack Function: Souken Rangeki!"
The three LBXs focused their attacks together and managed to wipe the rampaging aircrafts in front of them.
Kazu: " we did it!"
He cheered, but seems Jin and Ami had another opinion as their eyes suddenly widened.
Ami: " behind you!"
More LBXs dropped down behind Zenon and the others and were about to assault.
" As usual, your back is exposed."
A lazy voice spoke as a blur of red jumped above them and slashed using its flame sword at the ambushers, destroying them with one sweep.
Zenon and the others looked back to see a certain red LBX that turned to face them.
Zenon: " Fenrir Flare!"
Jin, Kazu and Ami looked to the side as a certain blond walked out from the shadow.
" Having your LBXs powered up doesn't mean that you can let you guard down."
He lowered his CCM as the red LBX jumped on his arm.
Ami: " Kirito!"
The three other LBXs returned to their owners as well.
Jin: " Kirito, you..."
Kirito: " I was the first to have my LBX evolved."
Kazu: " evolved?"
Kirito: " the fact that your LBX starts move and talk on its own means that the AI chip within it received a major upgrade. It happened when I was investigating about the L Virus."
He said the last sentence locking eyes with Jin.
Zenon: " you knew about the L Virus?"
Kirito: " of course, as that old man told you, it already spread that much between LBX players."
Fenrir: " since then, we've been looking further about this Virus."
Kirito took out his CCM and checked it, not caring about Kazu and Ami's perplexed faces which was enquiring for explanations.
Kirito: " we can continue the talk later. There is more infected LBXs around, we should stop them."
He said as he showed them his CCM that was displaying a map with multiple red dots.
Jin, Kazu and Ami as well as their LBXs exchanged nods before following Kirito who had already moved ahead of them...
