War Time...
Hikaru: " enemy spotted ahead of us!"
Haruki: " alright! Stick to the plan!"
" Roger!"
As a group of Gunthers tried to make their way through to the flag, they were met by the rain of fire launched upon them by Jenock's forces.
They seemed to have the upper hand when suddenly...
Sakuya: " everyone! It's happening again!"
He shouted out loud to warn everyone when he spotted from his position up in the sky a bunch of LBXs losing control and starting attacking their allies.
Muraku: " Back up and protect each other!"
He ordered them.
" Roger !"
The LBXs acted like wild animals, reaping everything in their way.
Hikaru and Haruki moved forward and blocked two of them that were getting too close to their friends.
Yuno: " I'm helping as well!"
" Set up! Z Lance!"
Dot phaser formed its lance and dashed for the attack as well, but even though they were fighting with all they have, they couldn't push the enemy back.
Muraku: " as tough as ever. I hardly can scratch them."
Haruki: " we have at least to hold them until war time is over! Hold together everyone!"...
Arata: " we're late! They should have started half an hour ago!"
Arata said as he rushed through the doors of the school. Eclipse had landed near the ocean while the LBX players rushed out to the school. Yagami and his followers decide on staying as a back up in case they needed them or an attack happened outside the school.
Jin: " let's go check on the situation on the second world first."
Just upon entering the school, they met with non other than the headmaster who had been informed of their arrival and was waiting for them.
Josephine: " I was waiting for you."
He spoke calmly, his face so solemn unlike him. Worry flashed through his eyes, which told them something was awry.
Jin: " head master?"
Josephine: " I'm thankful for you coming to our help. Yet, we don't have time to chat."
His eyes immediately narrowed as an air of seriousness washed over his face.
Josephine: " Follow me."
He led them through the hallways under the ground and to one of the observation rooms. As they entered, they faced off the huge screen that was showing the huge mess in the second world. Whispers of fear and dread rose from the students watching the battle.
Josephine: " they had just reported it, that a new rampaging had started."
His hand gripped on tightly to the railing by his. Sendou clicked his tongue as he was worried about his sister's safety.
Pandora: " this dark aura, this movements. There is no mistake, they're infected!"
Ami: " we have to defeat them before the situation gets any worse."
Kirito narrowed his eyes at the screen before turning to everyone.
Kirito: " I will bring Jin and Eva and go to check on the whole system of the Second World, you guys go ahead and stop those LBXs."
Josephine: " you can use the control pods."
Arata: " I will lead the way, everyone follow me!"
He ran ahead of them to the control pods room.
Evangeline: " headmaster..."
Josephine turned back to her as he knew what she was going to ask.
Josephine: " you can access the main system from any of the briefing rooms. I will lead you to an unused one."
And they left the observation room...
Yuno: " it can't be! I'm losing control here as well!"
In her control pod, Yuno was desperately trying to get her Dot Phasor to obey her again.
Catherine: " Siren isn't answering to my orders!"
Muraku: " we're surrounded!"
Once more, only Muraku, Hikaru and Haruki were the only ones left who were able to control their LBXs, leaving them even more confused at the reason why.
Haruki: " just what in the world...!"
Yuno: " watch out!"
Dot phaser moved to attack Magna Orthus, but it was blowing away by an hyper energy bomb before it could.
Haruki: " what!"
A tab on his screen appeared, showing a bunch of LBXs approaching them, either on a Riding Saucer or on their own.
Hikaru: " those are!"
The LBXs landed in a circle around the only normal robots while facing the infected ones.
Kazu: " wow, there are a lot of them here!"
Touko: " too much! Well I be able to defeat them!?"
Queen: " don't worry, we can do this together!"
Pandora: " everyone stay in formation!"
Ami: " we'll attack them together! Don't hold back!"
" Roger!"
Both humans and LBXs answered in unison as they dashed forward, pushing back their enemies with ease.
Sendou: " I'm not letting anyone put my sister in danger! Don't let them escape! Nightmare!"
Nightmare: " heh! I won't! I want to see them perish!"
He said as he cloned to three, picking up speed as all of the clones cleaved at their targets.
Arata: " there are a lot of them!"
It was quite hard for Arata to keep up, after all, the vaccine program Otacross made wasn't as powerful as the special one the others got.
Hikaru: " behind you!"
Val Diver cut through the Gunther that aimed at Arata from behind.
Arata: " Hikaru !"
Haruki: " as usual, you leave your back wide open. "
He smirked widely.
Muraku: " you don't intend to get all the fun to yourself, right!"
Magna Orthus and Trivhine stood by each side of Achilles Deed.
Arata: " of course not! Let's go!"
With the three's assistance, Arata finally managed to press through as well.
Hiro: " Hissatsu Function!"
" Attack Function: Cosmo Slash!"
Arata: " Hissatsu Function!"
" Attack Function: X Blade!"
Ran: " Hissatsu!"
" Attack Function: Homura Kuzushi Kiwami!"
A flash of red, blue and purple flashed through the lump of LBXs and much of them broke over instantly.
Yuno: " wait!"
She screamed as Pandora was about to slash at her LBX.
Yuno: " here Yuno! Reporting back of control!"
Tadashi: " here as well!"
Mekhail: " I got it back as well!"
The LBXs finally calmed. Pandora and the rest whirled their heads in confusion.
Pandora: " the rampaging... stopped?"
Achilles Deed: " how?"
Kazu: " whatever happened, it's strange."
Their thoughts were cut by the usual call of war time's end.
" Time is up. Today's war time will now end."...
Touko sighed as she came out of the control pod.
Touko: " that was enough excitement for one day."
Queen: " you did well though."
She tried cheering her up.
Pandora: " we made it in time."
Kazu: " you were awesome there! Saving them in the last second!"
Achilles Deed: " you were the one who gave me the attack function just in the right time."
They both bumped their fists against each other.
Arata watched all of them before looking down at his own LBX.
Arata: " why... Can't I be like them..."
Haruki: " Arata."
He was pulled of his thought and turned back to face his friends who all had wide grins on their face.
Haruki: " it's been a while."
Hikaru: " who would thought that we will meet again on the second world."
Muraku: " welcome back."
Arata: " everyone..."
He was touched to see how much they were happy to see him again...
Kirito clicked his tongue as he slammed his fist on the consol, taking everyone by surprise.
Jin: " what's wrong?"
Kirito: " they got us!"
He looked back to Jin with both Zenon and Fenrir on his shoulders.
Kirito: " not just LBXs, the whole Second World is infected."
Evangeline : " eh?!"
Josephine: " the whole Second World!"
Jin: " how? There is no way you can infect the whole Second Wor-"
His eyes widened in realization.
Evangeline: " unless you infect the New Grand Master."
Josephine: " the New Grand Master, unlike the old one, was created by all the LBXs companies around the world. The old Grand Master used human's mind as it main CPU. It can't be hacked."
Kirito: " but this one is like any other computer?... No, it can't be, the New Grand Master is guarded by thousands of employees 24/7, there is no way they can hack through it without them noticing. Which only leaves one possibility..."
Jin narrowed his eyes.
Jin: " the New Grand Master was infected before the Second World was activated again..."...
Gregory: " thank you for your help."
He said as he walked to their saviours.
Arata: " by the way, I didn't see your LBX down there, Gregory-senpai."
Gregory: " of course you won't because I changed my LBX. Meet my Dot-Blaze."
He said holding an LBX similar to Dot-Phaser proudly.
Arata: " Dot-Blaze! It's cool!"
Gregory smirked.
Gregory : " our dependable mechanic created it, with some help from Hosono though."
Sakuya: " I just gave her some advises."
The boy smiled sheepishly. Kagetora walked over to them with the rest of his platoon.
Kagetora: " glad to see you again, Arata-kun. You came just in time, Haruki-kun and the others were having a hard time down there."
Suzune: " I can't believe we lost control over our own LBXs as well."
She heaved and irritated sigh.
Takeru: " well, not all of us. Muraku-kun, Hikaru-kun, Haruki-kun, Gregory-senpai and... Wait a sec... Where's Momo?"
Arata: " Momo?"
Suzune and Kagetora looked back only to see the orange pinkish haired girl in Harness' uniform trying to hide behind the bars of the railing.
Suzune: " you know you can't possibly hide behind those Momo."
She sighed and the girl was startled and fell back.
Kagetora: " as clumsy as ever."
The girl stood up holding the back of her head tightly. She then dusted her skirt with a taint of pink all over her face.
Suzune: " why are you hiding? Don't you want to say Hi?"
Yuno: " he is the original owner of my Dot-Phasor that you had always longed to see."
Arata blinked at that. Suzune placed a hand on the girl's shoulder as she introduced her.
Suzune: " this is Itsuki Momona, the new member of Harness' first platoon."
Her face was even redder.
Momona: " Nice to meet you! I've always longed for this moment, Senpai!"
She screamed excitedly with sparkling eyes, eventually getting too close to Arata's face.
Arata: " nice to meet you too."
He said with a sweat drop as he tried to keep distance between them.
Kagetora: " Momo had been always wanting to meet you. Since she came to this islands a month earlier, she was hoping to meet the first user of Dot-Phasor."
Yuno nudged Arata and whispered to him with a wide grin.
Yuno: " it seems she respects you a lot."
Kazu: " so more players are coming to this island again."
Ami: " that's a relief."
Yuno: " well, lately a lot of players dropped off as well."
Arata: " is it because of the attacks on the Second World?"
Yuno nodded.
Haruki: " it all started when D Ezeldee showed up again."
The named downed on him like a bolt of thunder.
Arata: " D Ezeldee!"
Sakuya: " it suddenly appeared in the second world once more, and seems like it was looking for something."
Hikaru: " we fought it and captured it, but it was already badly damaged it shouldn't be able to move again."
Arata was worried by the anxious look they all had.
Arata: " what is just happening in here..."
" Everyone!"
A very loud deep voice screamed at them and it startled them for a second before they turned back to see its owner.
Arata: " inspector Saruta!"
Saruta: " ho, if it isn't really Sena Arata."
He trudged to the red head, his large built body towering even over the adults there.
Saruta: " I've seen what you've done down there, good work on saving them."
Kazu: " he wasn't the only one down there so you know."
Saruta: " right, everyone, you've helped a lot with this crisis today."
He turned his look to Haruki, Muraku, Gregory and Kagetora.
Saruta: " I believe the members of the student council should report the events of the battle to the headmaster."
Kagetora: " right. Let's go then."
The other three nodded.
Saruta: " while for you."
He faced Arata and the others.
Saruta: " I'm pretty sure you're tired after your long trip, why don't you go back with the students to their manors and rest."
Ran: " doesn't sound like a bad idea."
Ami: " what about Eva and the others?"
Kazu: " they will catch up with us."
Touko: " and Yagami-san and the rest?"
Hiro: " I will be calling them to inform them of the situation."
His CCM was already in hand.
Arata: " then, let's all head back to the Duck Manor!"...
Kirito: " thanks, I will be looking into them later."
Takuya: " hope they can help you."
He said before he ended the call.
Zenon: " so..."
Kirito turned back. They were currently in Josephine's office.
Kirito: " since Tiny Orbit took part in the reconstruction of the New Second World, Takuya-san has some left data of the blue prints they used and the companies that helped. If there was something placed in the New Grand Master from when it was being rebuild then we should be able to know through those data."
Twilight: " let's hope this will work."
Jin turned to Josephine.
Jin: " headmaster, can I request that you hold off the war time for the time being?"
Josephine: " stop the war time?"
Evangeline : " the whole system of the Second World was infected. Any LBXs within it will be infected as well, there is a possibility the virus was installed into the students CCMs through the control pods themselves."
Fenrir: " it's a possibility."
Josephine contemplated on it for a second, the serious faces they were giving him was more than enough to make him set his mind.
Josephine: " alright then, the students' safety comes first for me."
A knock was heard as a robot at a human's size entered.
Josephine: " what's wrong, Meta-chan?"
Metazawa: " headmaster, we've confirmed that the LBXs ceased rampaging. Most of them were broken over by Sena Arata and the others."
Evangeline : " they did it."
She breathed in relief.
Zenon: " there was no doubt they could handle them."
Josephine breathed out.
Josephine: " I'm really thankful for your help."
Kirito: " don't thank us yet."
He pivoted so he was once more staring at the records of today's battle.
Kirito: " we still ought to find out the source of the infection and do something about it."...
The man closed the video tab he was watching and stood up, walking to the large window. The red mark appeared on the screen of his laptop situated on the desk.
" They want to stand against us again. They even went to Kamui island. I thought they would be terrified after you almost got them when the hack the communication center."
" They're tougher than to be shaken that easily. Don't worry, we will retrieve the data from there safely."
The man turned back to face his computer with a smirk.
" Right. You will get your update soon, Leviathan. Project Evolution is just about to start."
The L mark shone even brighter than before...
Tomoe: " a special dinner for our special guests!"
She announced excitedly serving the dinner to Kazu and the others. Ami smiled, thanking her.
Hiro: " don't worry mom I'm alright. I will be fine. Achilles D9 is with me as well."
Kazu: " is he still talking to his mother?"
He said as he sat to the table across him along with Ami. Ran merely sighed and shook her head.
Ran: " it can't be helped. Parents tend to worry about their kids right."
Kazu: " right, my mother as well was worried about me when I told her I wasn't in the city anymore. What about you Ami?"
Ami: " well, I'm used to staying on my own since my parents would usually leave me and travel abroad for work. But since they came back around the same time everything started, I can see they became more worried about me. I'm thankful, but it can be sometimes annoying."
Kazu: " you never told them actually about most of the dangerous things we did. They didn't know their daughter helped with saving the world twice now."
His eyebrow shot up at that.
Ami: " I like it better this way. Sometimes you don't have to tell your parents everything."
At another table.
Sakuya: " glad to have you back on the table."
He stated as Arata sat down.
Arata: " will Haruki take too long?"
He asked as he looked at the empty spot next to Sakuya.
Sakuya: " don't worry, he will be over with the council soon."
Hikaru: " anyway, it seems you got yourself into something again?"
He said looking at the older players sitting to the table right behind theirs.
Arata: " kind of, though I can't really be that much of help to them."
Hikaru: " we know about what's happening around the world, all of those attack."
Sakuya: " it seems though they're led by LBXs. Strangely enough, there were no reports of World Savers activities. As if they had vanished after the last incident."
Arata: " strange..."
He muttered to himself.
Haruki: " I see you had already started."
He said taking the seat next to Sakuya.
Arata: " I will starve if I had to wait for you."
His comment made the rest chuckle.
Sakuya: " typical Arata."
Haruki: " anyway, the headmaster had decided to stop war time."
Hikaru: " Really?"
He nodded.
Haruki: " until Jin-san and the others find a solution to what's happening down there, we won't have war time for a while. It's for the benefit of everyone. He will announce the news officially tomorrow."
Hikaru: " what about the rankings?"
Haruki: " either we will freeze them for a while or we hold competitions in the lobby."
Arata: " wait, what's with this ranking?"
Sakuya: " it's the new system of the new war time. Each and every player is ranked based on their efforts. The higher you get in rank, the more silver credits you get. And when you become lost you have to start over from the very bottom rank."
Arata: " really, then what are your rankings guys."
Hikaru: " 18th."
Haruki: " 19th."
Sakuya: " Muraku came as 12th and Gregory-senpai is 22th."
Arata: " you're not the top 10!"
Hikaru: " new strong players arrived after all. And the teachers are involved in the rankings as well."
Arata: " seriously!"
Kagetora: " you guys speaking of the ranking system?"
Kagetora leaned from his own table next to them as to participate in the chat.
Sakuya: " right."
He said turning to Harness' first platon.
Suzune: " didn't you tell him yet who is ranked the 1st player?"
Her voice was laced with excitement as though she had been waiting for it to happen.
Haruki: " nope. Not yet."
Arata: " who is he? I want to battle him!"
He said all excited.
Sakuya: " well, he is actual-"
Kazu: " Arata."
The boy blinked as he looked back at the man holding up his CCM.
Kazu: " Kirito is telling us to meet immediately at Eclipse."
Arata: " alright."
He said standing up.
Arata: " sorry guys, we will continue talking later."
And he followed the others out of the dinning hall...
