Chapter 6: Vanguard
11:09 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday July the 23rd…
"… Can you understand me now?"
"… What? What was I doing…?"
"Fine… Now I can gather data…"
A Navi wearing a green cloak and hood stood somewhere.
A Normal Navi lay on the ground, disoriented.
The mysterious Navi chuckled.
"Let us go! Let us be vanguards for the glory of our Army!"
The assaulter warped out of that space.
They reappeared atop an advertising banner.
"… "Provisional Japan Site of Internet City"…?"
They crossed their arms, as if stopping to think about it.
"… True. There used to be "nations", territories of the humans…"
They warped and reappeared before a firewall.
It was labelled "IPC JAPAN HOME OFFICE".
"Firewall… I hadn't seen any of those before!"
The fellow extended the right arm and pressed their hand against it.
"Open!"
Energy flowed out of it but soon faded.
"It's not meant to be easy, of course…"
They pressed both hands next.
"You shall open the path to victory! Like it or not!"
11:22 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Now I can decipher your idiom…"
"What was I…?"
"Take a nap over there!"
ZAPPP!
"Good!"
A bulky figure covered in a brown cloak and a hood was laughing.
They had knocked out a Navi before them.
"As vanguard, I must act quick and efficiently…"
The figure stepped along another road and looked around.
They were almost deserted to begin with.
"They must be afraid of stepping into our territories!"
The figure ended up reaching another firewall.
It read "JAPAN NET POLICE HQ".
They studied it while chuckling under their breath.
"As if this will stop us!"
They drew two spears and stabbed the firewall with it.
Electricity flowed into the firewall.
Nothing happened at first, though.
The figure clicked their tongue.
"Not enough output, I take it!"
They laughed.
"As if that'll be enough to deter ME!"
He increased the output and attacked again…
11:27 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Sir! Someone is hacking Firewall #18!"
"Regal or "Neo Gospel"!"
"Likely, sir!"
"Go! Stop them!"
Blues reported to Enzan as alarms blared.
He nodded in understanding and rushed away.
He connected to security footage.
"… Stop right there!"
"Are you an industrial spy?"
Two Security Navis and aimed their Mega Cannons at the intruder.
"You're speedy!"
The intruder chuckled.
"Yet… How strong are you really?"
They drew two large vines while the Navis shot at the intruder.
"Take distance!" Blues ordered.
"Roger, sir!"
"The real warrior is coming! Good. Else it'd be boring!"
"Flame Towers!"
"Aqua Towers!"
"What!?"
The intruder quickly counterattacked and cancelled the attacks.
"It's not stupid. Hold the ground!"
"We'll do it, sir!"
11:33 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Raika – kun! Intruder in the Cyber World!"
"They came!"
"It's attacking from Firewall #27!"
"Search Man! What's the status?"
"Sir. Security Navis are containing the intruder…"
Manabe rushed into an office to warn Raika.
He stopped working on the report and he looked up.
He addressed Search Man, who was checking security footage.
"As if rookies can stop a veteran!"
The bulky intruder laughed when Police Navis intercepted it.
They shot bolts of lightning from their spears.
The Navis dodged and counterattacked with Vulcan guns.
"Not bad. But you're still too green, rookies!"
"… I'm rushing over there, sir…"
"Take Route #13. It zig-zags, but it works to prevent intrusions…"
"I am on it, sir…"
"Excellent…"
"… It's vain! It only tickles! Rookies!"
"This is Search Man. Keep your ground. I'm headed there…"
"Roger that, sir!"
"What are you gossiping, rookies? Your doom?"
"You're not funny, intruder!"
"Stop struggling and blow up into pieces!"
11:36 AM (Japan Time)…
"… There you are!"
"You must their best warrior…"
"Indeed!"
"Let's see what you can do…"
"You'll regret taking me lightly!"
Blues made it to the scene of the attack.
"Step back. I'll handle this!"
"Roger that!"
"Interesting… Rose Needles!"
"Flame Sword!"
The foe formed several small needles, and they flew for Blues.
He used his blade to burn them in one swing of it.
"Plant Weeds!"
Two vines emerged from the ground and headed for Blues.
"Heat Body!"
They tried to wrap around his body, but they ignited and burned.
The intruder made a mock applause.
"Not bad. But can you resist this one? Ice Cannon Ball!"
"Little tricks! Step Sword!"
Blues closed the gap faster than the projectile could hit him.
He swung and ignited the intruder's cloak.
"Why, you…!" They hissed.
"You're…!"
11:39 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Spark Balls!"
"Fire!"
"Not bad, rookies! I'm starting to heat up!"
"We lack firepower to pierce that cloak!"
"Starting to realize your limitations, rookies?"
"Satellite Ray!"
"What!"
The Police Navis struggled to fight their intruder.
It laughed as their attacks bounced off the cloak.
However, Search Man attacked it from behind, surprising him.
"Who's there!?"
"Someone…"
Search Man appeared there, aiming his gun.
"You look like stronger than those rookies…" The intruder chuckled.
"Possibly…"
"Let's talk from veteran to veteran, shall we?"
"Enough talk. Leave or I'll remove you by force…"
"Really? Taste these! Spark Waves!"
The foe shot electrical bolts from the lances.
Search Man flung grenades to intercept them.
He shot a bullet that stabbed the cloak and ignited it.
"Crafty, aren't we!?"
"Identifying attacker…"
11:42 AM (Japan Time)…
"… You're the "Darkloid" Plant Man!"
"… "Darkloid"? So that's what "this" Plant Man was known for?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I am different from the subject that you know…!"
The intruder over at IPC was Plant Man.
However, his coloring was slightly different.
He also had an eight-pointed star over his chest emblem.
"We "Zoanoroids" do not like to be called without a title…"
"What next? "Zoanoroids"?"
"If you must… Attach "Zoan" to my name…"
"… "Zoan"?"
"Yes. For I am "Zoan" Plant Man!"
"… I guess that we'll need to talk to Omega about this…"
"Roger, sir…"
"Yellow Flower!"
"As if that'll stop me!"
The foe formed a yellow flower which spread yellow pollen.
Blues quickly attacked it and split it in half.
However, the foe was gone.
"I guess that it was a scout, come to assess things…"
"We should warn Search Man, sir…"
"Go ahead. But maybe one of them appeared over there, too…"
"It wouldn't be odd, true…!"
11:46 AM (Japan Time)…
"… Match found. A "Darkloid"… Spark Man!"
"Classical…"
"What the hell is a "Darkloid"?"
"You'd know better than anyone else…"
"Morons. I'm the "Zoanoroid" Spark Man!"
"Really…"
The intruder over at Search Man's end was Spark Man.
His color pallet was different, too.
His emblem looked like a bird with extended wings.
"The mighty "Zoan" Spark Man!"
"What. You're nobility next?" Raika mocked.
"Couldn't care less. Eat these! Spark Balls!"
"Scope Gun!"
The foe formed the spheroids, and they shot bolts of lightning.
Search Man quickly and precisely intercepted them.
"Not bad. How about this? Make Shadow!"
"Mirror!"
"What!?"
He formed a mirror to bounce back the attack.
"Fool! It doesn't harm me! Have at you!"
He stabbed the ground, and a small explosion ensued.
When the dust cleared, the foe was gone.
"What was that…?"
11:51 AM (Japan Time)…
"… And? What happened now?"
"Well. At first it looked like the classical revived "Darkloids", but…"
"They behaved like they were different entities…"
"And fled after a small scuffle…"
"Curious… Did the fool bother to increase their intelligence?"
"They called themselves "Zoanoroids", and…"
"Zoanoroids!? Devil! So that's the point of the Japan Site takeover!"
"Can you explain it in order?"
"… Sure. But allow me to bring Rock Man and Davis, too…"
Blues and Search Man were talking with Omega.
The location was a plaza somewhere.
It had several doorways around it.
A 3D globe of the Earth was projected on the center of it.
It was spinning, showing which areas were day and which were night.
"I did plan to hold a meeting to report our recon results, anyway…"
"Fine…"
"Hi, Blues and Search Man…"
"Rock Man. Been a while…"
"Sure…"
Rock Man stepped into the area from one of the doorways.
"Only Davis is pending…"
"Knowing him, he must be on his way here…"
"Did you call for the Capt'n?"
"Speaking of which…"
The newcomer Navi was about a meter and eighty tall.
His irises were chestnut brown.
His face was shaped after a man on his mid-20s.
His helmet was red.
The golden kanji "seigi" ("justice") was drawn on the forehead.
His chest's armor was brown.
His emblem was the golden cross, surrounded by a silver edge.
He had a blue sleeveless vest over his chest.
His black arms had brown stripes running down their faces.
His forearms had gray armor over them, and a red dome inside each palm.
The legs had green patterns drawn over them.
He had silver boots with golden edges.
"We have a new, annoying stunt…"
"And that is…?"
"The "Zoanoroids" of "Beyondard"…"
"… "Beyondard"? True. Kuroshiro brought it up a year ago…"
Rock Man crossed his arms, recalling.
"Dad told us that Grandpa had coined the term…"
"Yes. It means "the world beyond"… A parallel world…"
"More parallel worlds!" Blues sighed.
"Also… We hadn't told you yet, but…"
"What?"
"We went there. Two years ago…"
"You did!?"
"While searching for Twilight… We found an odd signature…"
"And what was it?"
"A crack of time and space… Inside an abandoned Army base…"
"But Twilight didn't do that?"
"No. It was a "natural" happening…"
"And what was beyond it?"
"Another Earth but which had a wholly different history…"
"Such as?"
"Real world and Cyber World had permanently fused together…"
"What!? Not a "Dimensional Area"!?"
"Well. It was similar, since it was an "accident" during an experiment…"
"… I have the feeling that it was more than that…"
"Of course. That was what most of the population assumed…"
"Since they didn't know what happened during the experiment…"
"Desertification ensued as well as environmental changes…"
"And where do these…?"
"They appeared shortly after that. As a result of the fusion…"
"What was their purpose?"
"They were different from the "Darkloids". They ignored the humans…"
"Really. What did they do, then?"
"Fight each other…"
"A battle royale to decide the strongest?"
"War to seize territories…"
"I see. Those two must believe that it's a continuation of that…"
"The soldiers themselves aren't the real issue, but…"
"But?"
"The "Cybeasts"…"
"What? Something like "Gospel"?"
"Yes. Two of them. Greiga and Falzer…"
"And they lead each faction?"
"Yes. Their purpose was to defeat each other…"
"Which means that it evolved into a planet-wide territorial war?"
"Correct…"
"And they were hard to chew?"
"They were. Also, they had an annoying little trick…"
"And that was…?"
"Infecting Navis with data named "bestialize factors"…"
"And turned them into their pawns…"
"Exactly. We caught one of those and analyzed it…"
"And you designed countermeasures…"
"Yes. By using dummy Navis with self-destruct systems…"
"Must've been annoying…"
"Yes. Because the more pawns you beat, the stronger they become!"
"Sounds like a game, even!"
"Did you figure out the source of all?"
"Yes. It was Wily…"
"Wily! Well. Given what he did with the "WWW" and "Gospel"…"
"And don't forget selling "Spectrum" to the Army, too…"
"True. Regal and Twilight overshade him, but…"
"He always had been ambitious…"
"He also tried to seize Duo's technology, don't forget it…"
"Fair points…"
"The whole setup was to wear down the world…"
"And rule over it…"
"Yes. The beast that won would absorb the other…"
"And he'd combine with them, too?"
"He'd already become an AI tied to his lab's central computer…"
"Makes sense… But talk about an over-the-top plan…"
"Since he was "immortal", time didn't mean anything to him…"
"And how did he pull that trick to fuse the worlds?"
"Easy. He hacked into the "Dimensional Area Lab" and hijacked it…"
He formed a graph showing two locations on the Earth globe.
"Using both "Dimensional Generators" to spread the "factor"…"
An energy layer covered the globe.
Several slabs formed over the globe next.
"The end result was huge slabs with circuitry boards drawn on them…"
"And they must've covered most of the skies…"
"Yes. Normal Navis were at a disadvantage…"
"Because of the risk of "beast" infection?"
"That was one factor. Another was incompatible environment…"
"It didn't allow them to act freely?"
"No. An average of 10 minutes at the max…"
"10 minutes! Talk about short!"
"And you needed 3 hours to recharge them…"
"Devil. You had to really gauge when you could come out or not…"
"Thanks to us being robots, we were free of such limitations…"
"Not even Wily could expect otherworldly visits…"
"We also met the founder of the "DA" Lab… Dr. Hikari Tadashi…"
"Grandpa also existed there?"
"Correct. He, too, had become an AI…"
"And he's the one that told you about the truth of that world…?"
"Indeed. He yielded us a weapon to defeat the enemy…"
"Impressive!"
"As for Wily's AI… He tried to blow up and take us out…"
"And failed at it… Feels like what happened with Pharaoh Man…"
"Ironies of fate!"
"And you used the weapon to defeat the beasts…"
"To be exacts, to act as antibodies to erase the "factor"…"
"And erase the root issue…"
"The "crack" closed shortly afterwards, so…"
"You haven't stepped there again…"
"As for why we kept it a secret… There were many factors…"
"Because it was pointless to panic about it?"
"We wanted to assess if we could solve it ourselves…"
"Fair enough…"
"To avoid confusion, let's say that it's a tale made up by Twilight…"
"Works for us…"
"We will warn the MOS, though. We may need to make antibodies…"
"… Wait. Then that "Bestialize Bug Style" of last year…"
"It was a combination of the "beasts" and "Gospel"…"
"What a maniac mix!"
"How many of such foes were there?"
"Would have to watch Kanou's records. Didn't find them all…"
"Anything else that we should worry about?"
"They had mass-produced foot soldiers…"
"But they weren't much of a deal, no?"
"No. But they have numbers. If you're not careful…"
"You'll end up in a numerical disadvantage…"
"And the Viruses there could also "Bestialize" and become stronger…"
"Even Mettools can pose a threat…?"
"It's a matter of numbers, after all…"
"Fair. We'll be careful to avoid large numbers of them…"
"Or have attacks to shake them off and open an escape way…"
"I now see why you said that it'll be annoying…"
"See?"
"Sorry. Didn't mean to make fun of it…"
"I don't mind. Let's get to work. It'll be long days…"
"That clown…!"
"We all feel the frustration at it, indeed…!"
