Frenetic Farce
"You lied to me," Shun growled, gripping the bars of his jail cell, the most unthreatening child Netto had ever seen. When the competition for Most Unthreatening Child was as tough as Kaita and Mary, that was a sort of accomplishment.
"Oh, no! Guess what, idiot? Everyone lies," mocked Three.
"You could have done a little more background check on your seasoned criminals," Netto pointed out. Three snorted.
Zimmermann kicked the bars of the cell, missing Shun's fingers by inches and sending him scampering. Netto noticed a dark bruise forming on his forearm when the sleeve of his prisoner's shirt rode back. "You really think the ol' General's gonna make something out of this one?" A relatively friendly grin on Zimmermann's face, he conspiratorially said to Netto, "He's worse than you were."
"He'll manage," Netto said lightly. "He always does."
"True!" Zimmermann said triumphantly. "Hey, Three, you think we can drag this guy out to the village sometime?"
"I'll put in a good word with the General, though after all this I'm sure he'll be all clear," Three said. To Netto, he said, "I've wanted to take you to the village for years. You'll love it."
Netto could only smile back. From what he'd heard of the picturesque village that surrounded the Citadel, he probably would have loved it, especially with Three there to cause mischief.
He glanced into the cell, expecting Shun to yell something like how they were forgetting he was there, but he was still in the corner, oddly quiet. Unmistakably well-acquainted with what Zimmermann would do if he interrupted.
In Netto's experience, Shun was as much of an arrogant idiot as Zimmermann, but it was hard not to feel a little empathy with him. He was half the man's size and probably half as old, so he had a bit more of an excuse to be an idiot.
Three abruptly slammed his weight into the bars and laugh-screamed into the cell, loud enough to make Shun flinch. At normal volume, he said, "Well, guess we should be on our way," just as the lights flickered.
Three went still because he knew it could be an attack. Netto went still because he knew it was one.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Three asked.
"The main terminal," Netto finished, even though it was already too late.
"Sir, all the doors are open!" a disguised agent yelled from the end of the hall.
Netto and Three rounded the corner and stepped outside into chaos.
Dance music played, the office lights strobing in time. "IDIOTS' BALL!" and "COME ON IN!" were plastered on every screen in default text. The printer and fax machine were loudly spitting out pages full of the same text. Most of the agents probably couldn't hear their Navis over the din, but Netto and Three both had implanted devices that sat behind their ears. They could still hear what was going on inside the Internet well enough to make this all appear a little more manageable, except that the real police officers on the outside were beginning to come on in. And they recognized the Ministry attackers palling around with the "detectives", as well as how unfamiliar the offices inside had become.
"Get out of here," Zimmermann shouted, members of both sides drawing pistols.
"I'm plugging into the outside of the building," Three radioed to his partner as they fled, finger to his implanted comm.
"Then we'd better, too," Punk said, broadcasting only to Netto.
"Atsu–Three and Burnerman know you, though," Rockman said to Punk. "Send me in on the way out, Netto-kun! I'll come along behind and keep you and Burnerman occupied away from the main terminal, so both of you act like it's a real threat!"
"Well, we are a real threat. But I getcha, Rockhead," Punk said, a bit skeptical. "Don't screw this up."
There was no time to think about whether Rockman, a partner Netto remembered as being quite strait-laced, had the imagination or the cunning necessary to pull this off. There was just the port on the inside of the back door, easy enough to slip Rockman into with the lights going crazy around them, and then they were outside.
"Blessed silence," Atsuki remarked. "Let's go, Seven!"
"Let's."
Punk and Burnerman had an easy enough time figuring out what was 'wrong'; after all, this outer layer of viruses wielding scripts was meant to look like the work of some garden-variety teen with no idea that the Net Police had been replaced by Darklish operatives. Rockman's task would be concealing what was wrong: namely, that there had been a massive data leak gushing from Zimmermann's main terminal to the center of the Ministry of Science network from the moment he'd plugged the "dropped" USB stick into his computer.
For the more noticeable attack to have launched, the important part was already over–Meiru, Enzan, and everyone else at the Ministry knew what Darkland was here for, what they'd brought with them, and how they'd planned to attack. They even had footage of 'Atsuki' helping finalize the movements, at this point. By now, the leak virus was done serving its primary purpose. It had turned inward for bonus damage, deleting files and melting down as much of the network as it could in the time it had left. Depending on how long Rockman could keep Burnerman (and Punk) off the main terminal, it could corrode things so badly that nobody knew what had gone down on that computer.
But that was an outside chance, and honestly not that likely considering Rockman was the one in charge. Netto sent in an Elec Sword and settled into his role as Clueless Virus Buster, knowing it was impossible to send guidance to Rockman with Three and Burnerman right alongside.
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It was taking them an awfully long time to get through one prank attack.
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"There's got to be someone else in here," Three grumbled. "Probably the little bastard who caused all this."
"It's spreading way too quickly," Netto agreed. Punk and Burnerman were at Rockman's complete mercy; no sooner did they finish restoring one area than the one they'd come from exploded back into ruin.
"Quit wasting my time!" Burnerman screamed in frustration, torching a swath of viruses and network alike. What was left behind was clearly not right; the corruption had spread so far along that the very space beneath the Navis' feet was bugged.
They'd been at this longer than Netto had thought. "It's all gonna come down," he realized. Not just the main terminal's system–the entire Net Police network.
"Damn it!" Three went ahead and plugged Burnerman out, not willing to risk the Darkloid Netto had reconstituted for him.
But Netto couldn't follow suit.
"There's nothing we can do," Three said. "I know this isn't right for just some kid hacker's work, but this is too much to fend off now."
He had no idea where Rockman was, which was the point, but it also meant that he didn't know if Rockman realized how much danger he was in. All he could do was buy time.
"We have to go," Three said firmly as the skybox around Punk went dark, and Netto plugged out. The car they'd driven in was up front, where all the real police were; they'd have to find some other vehicle on the street. For now, they hid in the brush, not willing to get on the main road until they'd put some distance between them and the mess they'd left behind.
Netto looked down at his PET and released the breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
Rockman and Punk were both looking back at him, triumphant.
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It was only when he was in the safety of his quarters that Netto allowed himself to process it. Everything that branch of the landing party had brought with them was gone. Some of it was so top-secret that new copies would have to be delivered by hand, if they even existed. Their timeline had expanded from hours to days. Things had gone insanely well.
"Thank you, both of you," he told his Navis, relieved.
"You can count on us!" Rockman said, smiling widely.
"No problem!" laughed Punk at the same time. "All in a day's work for us hacker Navis, right, Rocky?" It had been less than twelve hours, and Rockman and Punk had progressed from barely comfortable in the same space as each other to nicknames.
"Right!" The Navis fist-bumped. It was a little discomfiting.
"They don't even know what's leaked yet," Netto realized, doodling with pen and notepad as he thought of what to set in motion next. What he wanted to set in motion, now that time was on his side.
"I don't think they know where their virus attack came from, much less that you'd set a leak up at the same time," Rockman said.
"If that's true, they don't even know that the Ministry of Science knows everything," Netto said, not quite believing his luck. "They're gonna make up a whole new plan with a lot fewer people. And without the cover of the cops. And that plan is doomed anyway! This might be a lot of time we've gained."
"So whadda we do with it?" Punk asked.
"We burn it all down, of course." Netto got writing. The Navis would commit it to memory and he would destroy the physical copy; it was a far cry from secretaries taping passwords to their monitors in the olden days. "We're gonna show the world what's in the Citadel."
"So, international scandal," Punk summarized. "Nice."
"But that's our end goal. In the meantime, while we're figuring out the details, we need to be keeping anyone here from returning to the Citadel," Netto said, drawing out a crude map with two dots, one labeled JAPAN in his tidy Kinglish script and the other DARKLAND. "If we can keep it this understaffed, our reveal will just get even better. They won't be able to hide nearly as much from our press corps, whoever they are."
Netto drew a set of lines walling the dots off from one another. "To do that… we need to keep on top of everything. We can't leak all their movements or sabotage everything. But if they get back on their feet before we're ready, we need to keep them away from the Ministry. They can't know about this."
"You keep saying that," Rockman said sadly. "In your letter, too."
"That's how this has to work," Netto explained. "We're not trying to start a war between Darkland and Japan, y'know. Having a bunch of government Netbattlers and scientists in on this is an easy way to get one. This has to look like what it is–someone on the inside leaking all of this out."
"I see," Rockman said, though he didn't sound convinced.
"We need to drop in on the surge team that just got sent over, but I bet they'll be hanging out with the support team, since we just screwed up the Net Police Headquarters for them. Should see what they brought along, too…"
"So you have to do all this alone, and pretend you're still on their side?" asked Rockman, concerned. "Isn't that hard on you, Netto-kun?"
"I've been lying for a long time now. I'll survive a little more." It was easy, knowing he wouldn't have to deal with the consequences. "We need to keep them off-balance, but not so much so that it seems targeted. More like we need to make stuff go missing now and then… and…" Netto tapped his pen against his nose. "Hmm…"
"You should go back for him," Rockman interjected. Netto could not recall who his Navi was referring to; he nearly asked if Rockman meant Three, but instead the Navi said, "Shun."
"No way. Shun is a kid." Netto explained, "He's immature, he's in way over his head, and if he gets loose they will just shoot him."
"Right, Netto-kun, and you're very grown-up," Rockman said, trying and failing to not look amused or sound placating.
"Look out, everyone, he's seventeen!" Punk added.
"Hey, wait a second, I never told you I'm really seventeen," Netto said, confused. The ID that corresponded to his cover name had told the world he was twenty-two. When he'd needed to pick a fake birthday, he had certainly felt like he'd been under the Citadel for nine years. "I'm not even sure if that's the right number. I could be eighteen, for all we know."
"I told him," Rockman explained way too cheerfully. "And for the record, you've still got another four and a half weeks until your eighteenth birthday!"
"What have you two done to each other?" groaned Netto. "Look, if this all goes down the right way, Shun'll get put in a halfway house or something while someone figures out what to do with the rest of 'em. He'll only be in Darkland for maybe a month."
"If that twerp's loose, he's not gonna be able to help it. Darkland'll be tryin' ta find him, and he might actually not screw up whatever revenge of his own he's gonna cook up." Punk leveled his mace hand at his audience. "He's gonna make a great distraction."
Netto hesitated. "It's the right thing to do," Rockman offered simply. After a moment, probably realizing what kind of audience he was pitching this idea to, he added, "Along with the distraction part, of course."
"I can't believe this," Netto sighed, thoroughly defeated by the programs he was meant to exploit. An unthinkable predicament for a Silver Division agent. "We'll look into it tomorrow, okay? For all we know, they'll just get right back up on their feet again overnight."