Deadly Pandora
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: The E Days10:55 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday July the 17th, 2013…
"… It's time. Stop writing and leave the pens on the desk…"
A teacher called out to his students.
Everyone sighed as they left their pens atop the desks.
Question and answer sheets of exams were set above them.
"I will collect them. Stay still. Keep silence…"
He efficiently collected them and counted them.
"… 18, 19, 20…"
Satisfied, he headed back to the podium.
He stored them inside of a brown envelope and sealed the envelope.
"Good. Break time. Next exam is in 30 minutes. Don't be late!"
The teacher left and the students began to talk at once.
"… I'm done for…"
"Man! Dekao. Don't act like it's the end of the world…!"
"I know that math isn't easy, but…"
"It's not like you can't solve it by using the head!"
"Easier said than done…!"
"Well? How about you, Netto?"
"I think I did pretty well…"
"Well. That's the important part…"
"Sure. Last year of middle school isn't going to be easy…"
The usual group were talking about the exams.
Naturally, they all wore school uniforms.
"By the way! Saito!"
Dekao called out to Saito.
"What's up, Dekao – kun?"
"Did you find the secret password?"
"What for?" Saito asked, surprised.
"To evolve Raichu into Giga Raichu!"
"Come on. That's someone's parody…" He sighed.
"What!?"
"Who told you that, anyway?" Meiru asked with a sigh.
"Don Nube! Manager of the Mexican PKMN Forum!"
"Sir Cloud? That's Cloud Man. The "Neo Gospel" pawn!"
Yaito sighed, unimpressed.
"No way! Why would a terrorist…?"
"You should realize by now that he loves pranks…"
"Was doing that often during the last summer, too…"
"Really?" He blinked, surprised.
"I guess that exams erased your memories of last year…"
The group made it to the school yard.
They found Hikawa sitting on a bench and going over his notes.
"Next is chemistry. I won't fail!" He muttered to himself.
"Let's not distract him…" Meiru whispered.
"Agreed. Let's go to the other end of the yard…"
The five of them headed for the other end of the yard.
The boys sat on the ground and leant on a tree.
The girls sat on a bench a couple of meters behind the tree.
"By the way. What became of those weird folk from half a year ago?"
Dekao glanced over at Netto, sitting on his left.
"They returned to their nation to sabotage the enemy…"
"They sure had cool designs. That superhero guy, especially…!"
"Superhero…? He was named "Acid Ace", if memory serves…"
"How can I become that slim!?"
"Well… Consider that it was a Navi, not a human…"
"Really!? It wasn't Mr. Meijin in disguise!?"
"No…"
The brothers rolled their eyes.
Yaito giggled and Meiru sighed.
"Mr. Meijin… As a superhero of live-action shows….!"
She burst into laughter.
"Brilliant! Patent it!"
"… For now, worry about the exams, Dekao…" Netto sighed.
Dekao gulped and began to sweat.
"Agreed…" Saito added.
"Hi! Mr. Sage of Wisdom!"
"Yaito – chan… When did I tell you my number…?"
"Don't underestimate our intelligence network, Mr. Meijin!"
"No need for formalities…"
Yaito had placed a call to Meijin with her PET.
Although it was an audio call, his exasperation could be told, nevertheless.
"Anyway! Dekao says that you're the new live-action superhero in town!"
"Excuse me…?"
"Don't mind her, Mr. Meijin! It's a mistake!"
"No need for formalities…"
"Meijin! Trouble!"
"What now, Kanda…"
"The Fool's Lottery Ticket has arrived!"
"And what is that? A geek convention?"
"No! An announcement of a crime!"
"This isn't a manga…"
"But it says that Don Pájaro of Cuernavaca will come visit us!"
"Sir Bird of Cuernavaca? A Mexican…?"
"That's Swallow Man! Mr. Meijin!"
"Hi, Netto – kun! Also… No need for formalities…"
"It must be a joke by Cloud Man. Loves making a fool of his rival…"
"How did it make past security…?"
"It was on my pocket!" Kanda admitted.
"Maybe it's the reverse of a pickpocket? Slide it into you…"
"Devil! We must check all staff, least something dangerous made it here!"
"At times like this, the sacred maiden could help us…"
"Stop daydreaming and focus on the job! Kanda!"
"The mighty Kiryuuin Sakurako…"
"Hold it! When did my staff become a sacred maiden!?"
"What? It's not that?"
"NO! It's a maid!"
"Then why did Ms. Kuroi tell me that over the email…?"
"That was Cloud Man… Ms. Miyuki never tells things over the email!"
"Now that you mention it… Never met her!" Kanda gasped.
"See? We need to check spam filters!" Meijin sighed.
The call ended there, and everyone rolled their eyes.
"Cloudy was busy, that much we can tell!" Netto sighed.
"Alright. Let's return… We must focus!"
Saito sat up and shook the soil from his buttocks.
"OK… Let's do this!"
Dekao poured motivation and stood up, too.
"It's Wednesday. Only two more days!"
Netto was the last to stand up.
"And a soothing strawberry pool is waiting for us!" Yaito giggled.
"For YOU, that is…" Meiru replied.
"Dear! No need to be so dry about it…"
"Sorry. It's the tension of the exams…"
"Alright, alright!"
They headed back towards the lobby entrance.
Hikawa was also doing that, immersed in his notes.
"I can do this! I can do this!" He muttered aloud.
"OK! Let's go for it!"
11:18 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Count!"
"One!"
"Two!
"Three!"
"Four!"
"Five!"
"… Why are we always missing one of us?"
"Because you forget to count yourself…"
"Devil! It's the Sharkey of Sharley Street!"
"Very funny. Now tell me… What are you up to?"
"As if we would! We're the Invincible Hexagon Brothers!"
"Really… Cut Man Brothers!"
The Cut Man Brothers were being goofy, as usual.
Shark Man loomed over them and Jirou spouted nonsense.
"What did Neo Gospel order you to do this time?"
"As if we would tell you!"
"Someone else might be more willing…"
"What!?"
"Nothing. They duped us a year ago, haven't been ordered anything!"
"Saburou!?"
Saburou sighed and confessed.
"Better that than being forcefully scanned, no?"
"A man's pride…!"
"We're data. Can we really be defined as "men"?"
"When did you become a philosopher!?"
"While you were constantly repeating Cloud Man's parodies…"
"He's the Sage of Wisdom!"
"As if he would be… The Sage of Pranks!" Shirou sighed.
"I'm sure that he's lurking nearby to laugh at us…" Gorou added.
"No mistake…" Rokurou sighed.
"Did you call for the stormy greeting?"
"Devil! It's Cloud Man, indeed!"
"Sharkey! Olrik says that you must pay the repairs of the Ford "Custom"!"
Cloud Man appeared there, laughing.
"Alright. Confess. What are you plotting?"
"Dunno. Grunts can only do a grunt's job!" He laughed.
"I see that Freeze Man's training is effective…"
"His Grace has been very strict in teaching us our roles!"
"And those include pulling pranks on Swallow Man?"
Cloud Man smirked.
"Well! Technically, it's forbidden, but… You know, man! Loopholes!"
"Sounds like a scammer!"
"More like the prank-loving kid of the class!"
"Really. You AI must be that of an 8-year-old kid…"
"Maybe!"
"Let me guess. Laos!"
"Laos? Maybe yea, maybe nay. Ask Sulky Skully!"
"Very funny. Is that your best shot?"
"Far from it!"
"By the way. Yamato Man said that you're but useless trash…"
"What!? The jerk! A mere Lv. 12 Eligor can't defeat me!"
Cloud Man hissed, annoyed.
"For I am a Lv. 24 Matador!" He proclaimed next.
"There! Cloudy! Tell me the password!" Jirou demanded.
"What password?"
"To Giga Evolve into Giga Ultra DX Jirou and…!"
Cloud Man burst into laughter.
"You've been seeing too much Digimon, kiddo!"
"You're the kiddo! Surprise Chopping!"
"MY ARM!"
Jirou jumped for him as his scissors became bigger.
He chopped off Cloud Man's right arm past the elbow.
Purple energy poured out.
It drew patterns and formed the shape of a new arm.
It solidified and became a replacement arm.
Jirou became pale.
"Good guts, kiddo. Did you write up your will yet?"
Cloud Man formed an evil smile and hovered towards him.
"Because I'll send you to the Hades!" He roared.
"Objection. Woody Tower!"
"Devil! It's Forest Nature Man!"
"Wood Man. Remember it…"
A "Woody Tower" stabbed his chest from below the cloud.
Wood Man landed there, unimpressed.
"It's in vain!"
The wound regenerated.
"The "Dark Generator" can instantly heal any wounds!"
"Really. But what about this one?"
"Which one?"
"Input emergency code…"
"Devil! I'm off to Panama!"
Cloud Man gasped and escaped, afraid.
"… The fools have fled, Shark Man…"
"Predictable…"
The Cut Man Brothers escaped during the confusion.
"Well, well. If it isn't Jaws and Forest!"
"Not you next…"
"Swallow Man…!"
Swallow Man dropped there, crossing his arms and smirking.
"I'm the mighty Kurama Tengu! Lv. 48!" He laughed.
"Not you too…" Shark Man sighed.
"Who's going to be the sacrifice to revive the Demon King?"
"Very original. As if we'd fall for that lie…"
"Lie? It's a proclamation!" He laughed.
"As if it would be…"
"By the way! If you see Ned, tell him that the Nerd is Node!"
"I fail to see the logic in it. If there's any!"
"Ask Sulky Skully!"
"Bone Stalker!"
"Speaking of the skeleton!"
Skull Man joined the fray and flung his arms at the foe.
He jumped to dodge and laughed.
"Beware! It's the Belmonts! Come to hunt you down!"
"I don't care!"
"I see that you're eager to go to meet Dracula, too…"
"You never know. He might be about to suck off your blood!"
"Input emergency code…"
"Devil! Run for your jet engines! To Bolivia we go!"
Swallow Man escaped as well.
"… I'm sure these actually don't work and they're pretending…"
"Sure. Twilight is not a fool, unfortunately for us…"
"It's very likely to be a trick to make us feel overconfident…"
"Agreed…"
"No point in hanging around here. Let's return…"
"Sure…"
"We'll place sensors to be on the safe side, though…"
"Yes. It never hurts to keep eyes on suspicious places…"
"We should train. The real deal might be about to come…"
"Those fools…!"
11:49 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Been a while, Raika…"
"Sure…"
"I guess that nothing major happened over there?"
"No. Only bomb threats that ended in nothing…"
"But aren't those to make you feel overconfident?"
"I know. But we leave it up to those in charge of it…"
"Alright…"
Enzan came to greet Raika at the airport.
They walked across the lobby, headed for the parking lot.
"As for us, we have to bear with those two clowns…"
"No surprise. They're saving up the real deal…"
They headed for a car driven by Misaki.
"Been a while, Officer…" Raika greeted.
"Sure. Climb in. I'll bring you to the HQ…"
"Thank you very much, sir…"
Raika and Enzan climbed in the car, and they drove away.
"Did something happen over at IPC?"
"Not much. We were careful to inspect things…"
"Did you fear that they would strike it?"
"They did attack me with that chopper, a year ago…"
"Good point. I'd forgotten it…"
"Also… Those folk of half a year ago…"
"What about them?"
"They sent me data on a stunt that Twilight pulled "over there"…"
"A terrorist attack on IPC?"
"Correct…"
"I see. The fool might try to pull something similar "over here", too…"
"Hence why we've been on the lookout…"
"I kept an eye on my comrade, Iriya, but nothing odd happened to him…"
"Good. We can't take anything for granted…"
"How is Rock Man like? Been a while since we last talked…"
Search Man was talking to Blues.
"He trains intensively. Now he's handling the end-of-term exams…"
"True. Japanese school year is from April to March…"
"What about Regal?"
"Has been quiet. We know that he doesn't have human accomplices…"
"But has a means to send messages to the outside…"
"Actually… Searching the cell led us to a small hole a few mm wide…"
"And what was behind it?"
"A micro-robot in the shape of a spider…"
"I see. And that's how he sent orders to the outside…"
"But the receiver is very careful. Left no traces…"
"We can't tell whether it's a human or a Net Navi?"
"The signals were sent to the nearest signal receiver, so…"
"Anyone with enough skill could access it…"
"Regal plays dumb and feigns ignorance, too…"
"Naturally. Isn't going to spill the beans so easily…"
"As for Izono and Anaya… We caught their accomplices…"
"What about that man who escaped last summer?"
"Tried to rob a gas station and was caught there…"
"Was a use and throw pawn, anyway…"
"Sure…"
"As for Twilight, we're not short of eyewitness accounts, but…"
"99% of them are fake…"
"Yes. And even if we find one that's true…"
"It's an imitation of the man, using holograms or "Copy Roids"…"
"What about his friend, the "cult leader"?"
"Is wrapped in a lot of buzzwords to confuse searches…"
"Such as?"
"… "the advent of the savior"…"the prophet of truth"…"
"How childish…"
"It's but buzzwords to appeal to certain circles…"
"I can tell!" Raika sighed.
"The authorities scouted major Choina cities, but to no avail…"
"Him being in Shanghai a year ago was but a misread…"
"Exactly…"
"But he must've stopped pretenses and is lying down…"
"We suspect that he might be behind an odd tale that's going on…"
"Really… What is it?"
"Hoodlums hired to pose as couriers and bring weed to random folk…"
"Why bother?"
"To direct the attention of the "elite"… The Public Safety Bureau…"
"I see. But there must be others coordinating in the field…"
"Yes. We're hoping to identify one or two of them at the least…"
"That's where my skills can help, I take it…"
"Correct. An ambush…"
"Excellent. I'll show them what an ambush is about…"
Raika became animated.
"We have an idea of where they hire hoodlums…"
"And we'll witness the exchange…"
"We're aware that we might not catch the real deal at first…"
"Anything is better than nothing…"
"Exactly…"
"Don't worry. We've been very careful about planning…"
Misaki called out to them.
"Not writing anything in the PETs or computers…"
"Resorting to analog means… Smart. It throws them off…"
"Besides. They'll assume that we're more worried about the clowns…"
"Play along with their "expectations"… I see, I see…"
"The PSB plays along, pretending to focus on Yokohama…"
"Wonderful…"
"The operation will be this weekend…"
"Enough time for training and reading the investigation files…"
"I will stay at IPC and pretend that nothing important is happening…"
"Daring. But effective…"
Raika nodded in agreement.
"What about Oozono?"
"She's working with Dark Miyabi to investigate the hoodlums…"
"I see. She has experience digging in the underground…"
"And Miyabi can handle any punks or grunts or mercs, too…"
"Wasn't there some merc making a fuss half a year ago, too?"
"Deep Kabase… Former ninja, specialist in explosives…"
"Exactly…"
"Was caught and locked up. Still is…"
"Good. Let's bust any threats become they become bigger…"
"Don't worry. We made sure that nobody is tracking us…"
"They must've lost interest in us ages ago, anyway…"
"But one can never be wholly sure…"
"That's why we readied dummies…"
"I see. Fight poison with poison…" Raika deduced.
"We'll show them that we can use intelligence, too…" Misaki told them.
"Sir. I checked our surroundings. All is clean…" Prism Man reported.
"Good job…"
"I also helped him. All is clean, Lord Raika!" Search Man added.
"Excellent. Leave no stone unturned!"
"As you order, sir…"
"Lord Enzan. I improved our security as well…"
"Great. Tense days are waiting for us!"
"Let's do this, gentlemen!"