L Virus...
The red head waved goodbye at the blunette and walked out the room. She let out a sigh and then took her CCM, scrolling through the news.
Her expression relieved as she saw them marking the end of the chaos in Misora with the mysterious stop of the small robots.
The news also stated the explosion in Misora's school, but said there were no victims. Despite that, there were many injuries from the LBXs attacks.
She placed her CCM into her pocket with a relived smile and casted one last glance at the room behind her before walking to the elevator...
The blunete woman sat down with her luggage next to her. She sighed as she read the news.
Mirai: " everything is alright now."
She moved to her gallery and flipped through her photos, most of them were of her and Hiro. She couldn't stop the small smile from being drawn on her face as she saw his excited eyes while posing like his favorite character. His dream had been always to become a hero, and he eventually became one.
Yet, does he remember that?
" Sorry for being late."
Mirai looked up from her phone and saw her mother walking to her. She stood up and hugged her tightly. Haruka returned the hug.
Haruka: " let's take you home."
Mirai nodded...
Rina: " thanks for the hard work."
She welcomed them as soon as they came in.
Takuya: " Kazu and Ami, you did great saving all the citizens there."
Ami merely nodded absentmindedly.
Kazu: " we didn't think a bomb could be hidden there."
Eva: " a bomb!?"
Eva stared back at them, thunderstruck. Ami nodded slightly, still slightly shaken.
Kirito: " I wonder what was their main intention of locking citizens there and trying to blow them along with the school?"
Jin: " who knows. If it wasn't for both Ami and Kazu they could have all died."
Kazu rubbed the back of his head with a small blush.
Takuya: " anyway. We have to search into this more."
Eva shook her mind back to the conversation.
Evangeline: " we have to be careful. We may have stopped those rampaging ones but there are more LBXs with the virus installed within them that will be activated at any moment."
Yuuki: " we will be analysing the data from your fights and try to come up with a solution."
Takuya: " for now, take a break. We don't know when the next attack will occur, so it's better to be prepared."
They all nodded their heads in approvement...
Kazu: " you seem bothered."
He was walking backwards so he could look at the purple head in the eyes.
Ami: " I'm just..."
She grabbed her arm tightly as she trembled.
Ami: " it's just... I didn't realize death can be so close like this. I've been through countless fights, yet, I never thought my life was placed on the line like today."
Kazu: " I have to admit, it was a traumatizing experience. A second's delay could have costed us our lives. But hey, look, we're still here. We're still alive."
He pointed out with a large grin.
Kazu: " if that means something, then it means we're still needed. There are things we should fulfill. Don't you agree."
Ami managed a smile at him.
Ami: " for the first time, you say something logical."
Kazu: " how mean. Don't I give good advices all the time?"
He seemed devasted by her comment and all she did was to chuckle.
Kazu: " I will drop you off with my bike, so hurry, let's go."
She followed after him to the black and grey motorbike...
Kirito : " it's strange."
Takuya: " what's it?"
Kirito: " I can't get through to NICS..."
Gouda: " what?"
Sendou narrowed his eyes as he grabbed his CCM and dealt a number. He waited for a few seconds before gritting his teeth and making a tsk sound.
Sendou: " I can't get Kiyoka."
Arata: " wait, you can't get to anyone on the island."
Jin: " not anymore. Recently, students are allowed to use their phones and communicate with their families."
Takuya: " try President Claudia."
Kirito typed away again but he didn't get through.
Fenrir: " what's just..."
Takuya: " try to communicate with anyone outside of Tokio City!"
All the employees had their hands moving on the panels but all of them shook their heads in the end.
Evangeline: " we've been... Isolated from the whole world..."
Just at that moment, Takuya's CCM rang, he took it out and saw it was Yagami.
Yagami : " Takuya..."
Takuya: " I know. We've been cut off the whole world."
The man on the other side sighed.
Takuya: " it seems you don't even know what's happening."
Yagami : " I have no clue. But the transport is working just fine."
Takuya : " I see, we will try to find something on our end. "
With that, the call ended.
The man sighed as he leaned back on the chair, looking at all the dots that got replaced by X marks.
" We lost them all."
The L logo flashed once again behind him.
" Proceed to step 2."
The man smirked.
" Very well then. Let's see how will they deal with our army."...
She opened the door and walked in. Getting rid of her shoes, she moved straight up to her room, collapsing on the bed.
She balled and hugged herself, trembling everytime she recalled the explosion. The loud clear eruption, the heat wave brushing through her back and th sight of the school devoured by flames.
Pandora hopped on next to her and spoke with the most concerned voice.
Pandora: " are you alright, Ami?"
That's right, she was focused on the whole fight thing and forget about her now talking LBX. She looked up at the white robot.
Ami : " it's embarrassing, to see me like this."
Pandora: " no it's not. I've been with you for so long now, Ami. I know exactly of your weaknesses and fears."
The purple head sat up on the bed and held the LBX in her hands mildly.
Ami: " just... What exactly are you? Are you really the same Pandora I've been fighting with for this long time."
The white robot nodded her head.
Pandora: " it's me. The one you shared your saddest and happiest memories with."
Ami: " how came you can speak for yourself now? You even have your own personality?"
Pandora: " it's just that I got an update to my AI that allowed me to do things I couldn't do before. Because my algorithms were so simple, I couldn't do much for you. But now things is different. Ami, you don't need to fear anymore. I will make sure to protect you."
Ami had a smile.
Ami: " thanks, Pandora."...
He collapsed on the bed as well, placing both hands behind his head as he looked at the roof with a serious face. He as well couldn't stand what happened, nor even beared seeing Ami all traumatized.
Achilles Deed flew in front of him.
Achilles Deed: " this isn't like you to head straight to your room. You usually grab something and watch movies till it's midnight."
Kazu waved his hand to push the robot away and flipped on his mattress.
Kazu: " I don't feel like it today. And how do you even know about all of that!"
Achilles landed in front of his owner.
Achilles Deed: " because I was there from the start. I know everything about you. My AI back then wouldn't allow me to speak or move, but it surely had recorded a few things over the years about you."
Kazu: " it's hard to understand."
He said with a grunt.
Achilles Deed: " you've always been a rock head who didn't get things immediately."
Kazu: " hey! What was that for!"...
Rina: " you're sure you don't need to go home, your families may get worried."
Arata: " don't worry. We've already contacted them."
Gouda: " back to the main subject."
Everyone looked at Kirito and Eva. The former was drinking his Coke nonchalantly and the later merely blinked twice upon realizing the many eyes on her.
Kirito: " what?"
Jin: " you said you were the first to have your LBXs evolved. And clearly you seem to have some information we don't have."
Arata: " you should share everything you know with us!"
Kirito: " that will be a pain."
Eva looked back at him with a smile.
Evangeline: " well, we have more experience than them. It's natural for us to explain."
He groaned taking another sip.
Sendou: " since when you knew of the infection?"
Kirito : " well, it was when I was battling in an alley nearby that it reached my ear, the rumor about the program that boosts LBX performance. I was curious and so started investigating it until I stumbled across someone who was using the L Virus. It was my first time fighting off an infected LBX. I almost lost until the owl mark appeared on my screen and asked me a question. As soon as I answered it, Fenrir's AI evolved. Since then we've been doing our investigations on this case."
He said looking back at the woman.
Evangeline: " I was just helping him from the sideline for a while before I got my question myself and Twilight was upgraded."
Rina: " a question? "
Eva nodded.
Eva: " apparently to get to upgrade our LBXs, we get to answer some specific questions about ourselves."
Jin narrowed his eyes.
Jin: " mine was ' are you willing to do anything to help someone?'"
Evangeline: " my question was ' are you willing to help them all?'. And back then, I though I don't want to leave Kirito to deal with the infected LBXs on his own."
Twilight : " even though you yourself don't battle that much."
Evangeline : " no need for the details Twilight."
Everyone then looked at Kirito and he groaned in annoyance.
Kirito: " mine was ' is there a place you belong to?' and I answered with No."
Eva faked a cough and stared back at the man with one opened eye.
Kirito: " fine, it was Yes."
Takuya: " why didn't you tell us about this?"
Kirito : " the less to know about it the better. I didn't want anyone bothering my researches. Anyway, here what we found while fighting off the Virus users. The Virus is actually located within the CCM. Once it's executed, it sends abnormal signals to the AI and follow chips of the LBX, modifying both HP and EXP systems, making them stronger."
Gouda: " that's how, they can hold for so long in front of our attacks, and their attacks are strong."
Evangeline: " right. The easy way to stop the infection is by stopping the execution of the file on the CCM. It can be either by hacking or destroying it. But as long as the CCM works, the infection won't stop."
Arata: " that's how you stopped all of those LBXs today, right?"
Kirito: " we used the infinity net to get to all of the CCMs with abnormal signals and forcefully shut them down."
Rina: " but, isn't the CCM's range of control 8m, wouldn't the infection stop outside of that area?"
Eva's face pouted at that.
Evangeline: " I thought the same. But this virus even changes the settings of the CCM. Making it use the infinity net to access the LBX from far away. You can easily command an LBX from anywhere in the world that way. They can keep up even if they're far apart. "
Jin: " like accessing a computer using another one through the net."
Taluya: " to think about it, the Akihabara Hackers corps pulled the same trick when Tiny Orbit was attacked once."
Kirito cleared his throat to get all the attention back to him.
Kirito: " another thing is that it has an auto delete system, from both LBX and CCM, once the LBX loses, you can never use the L Virus again. All infection traces on the AI disappear as well."
Rina: " what a furious virus."
Arata: " then, what about the vaccine program installed in Twilight, Zenon and Fenrire."
Kirito: " it's more complicated than the virus, that's all that I know. Since it gives LBXs the ability to form conscious, personalities, allow them to move and speak. I would like to meet the one who wrote this program's algorithms. And it was made so it can be easily run by LBX and CCM. It doesn't require a high CPU."
Takuya: " just who could be behind such program."
Gouda: " I have a hunch the old man knows about it."
Arata: " it's not like we will find him right now to answer our questions."
Takuya: " so, with Eva and Kirito's purifying program. We're surely to be able to stop the rampaging of LBXs anytime."
Kirito interjected.
Kirito: " not at any time. There is two things required to do so. First, you need a strong computer that can run the program. Second, all the CCMs of the virus users should be connected to the net. I just told you that the virus changes the setting of control, so that it can use the infinity net to command the LBX. When it's a rampaging like today, surely they will have their CCMs linked. But if you're to battle one face to face, they can use the normal control mode, so you won't be able to hack through the CCM. You have either to break the LBX or the CCM."
Sendou: " you will have to battle in other words."
Kirito nodded.
Fenrir: " you guys don't know the number of battles we had been through with infected LBXs."
Evangeline: " some of them are really strong."
Arata: " but that's unacceptable!"
Everyone looked at him and he bolted up on his feet.
Arata: " forget about the world being in danger and the rampaging! Those people are taking it the easy way!"
He looked down at his hands.
Arata: " the strength is something you should earn through battling. You continue to hone your skills, face off strong opponents, train harder, come with maintenance idea to improve your unit. It comes from battling and battling, to climb up and learn from your mistakes. That's how you become really strong. But to think they would resort to using something as a virus to cheat their way and win. How can this be considered strength. Where's the fun in all of that? Where's the bond that's been born from competing and trying to outstand each other? LBX are fun because you put your heart in them, in modifying them, in battling with them. They're fun because you give it all you have, and even more fun because you're clashing with the opponents' hard work and long years of training! Am I wrong?"
Everyone had a dumbfounded look at him, almost making him sweat drop.
Evangeline: " are you imitating Ban or something."
She offered a wide grin and the rest seemed to agree with their own smiles as well.
The boy then rubbed his head with a small blush as he realized he was carried off.
Gouda: "you're completely right though!"
Sendou: " we can't tolerate those who are resorting to those ways. We've gained our skills through our hard work, we won't let those people defeat us easily."
Kirito: " you actually did."
He pointed out with a sneer while drinking from his bottle.
Gouda: " shut up!"...
