Chapter 22: Tropical Despair

13:37 PM (Japan Time), Sunday August the 11th…

"… Beast Ray!"

"Sonic Boom!"

"Out of my way! Human puppet!"

"A weakling won't intimidate me…"

"Who's a weakling!? Eat this!"

"Slow!"

Blues was fighting Beast Man before a firewall.

He easily outran the foe's attacks.

"Is that your best shot?"

"Shit! I'm the strongest! I'm the mightiest!"

"Really. Then why don't you defeat Shade Man?"

"T-that's…!"

"If you're the strongest… Prove it to your "comrades"…"

"Shut up! A human puppet doesn't teach me lessons!"

"Fine. No time to play with fools, either…"

"Jumping Claw!"

"Step Sword!"

Blues stepped forward and cut Beast Man's right arm.

It dropped to the ground, and he groaned.

Blues quickly did the same with the other arm.

"Fool!"

Bolts of electricity connected the cut sections.

The arms were pulled back to the body.

They attached to the body again.

"I'm invincible!"

"I see that they bothered to make them resilient…"

Blues wasn't surprised.

"Try Plan Beta…" Enzan ordered.

"Roger, sir…"

"No plans work against me! Beast Ray!"

Blues easily dodged by sidestepping.

"Vaccine Chip! Fire!"

He shot it at Beast Man's emblem.

Light ranging in all colors of the rainbow ensued.

Beast Man howled and clutched his chest.

"IT BURNS!"

"Chance. Plan Charlie!"

"Roger, sir!"

"Step Sword, Triple Slot In!"

"Zeta Step Sword!"

He quickly sliced Beast Man into three pieces.

A glowing sphere became visible inside of the body.

"Long Blade!"

He stabbed and pierced it.

He detached the blade and jumped away.

"Shit! That thing is hindering the reunion!"

Beast Man growled as he struggled to reunite his body parts.

"Dream Sword!"

"What!?"

He cut the core in half.

The energy contained rampaged and became a plasma ball.

"IMPOSSIBLE!"

The sphere grew and erased Beast Man.

A smoking crater was what remained.

"… Too easy…"

"I know. It's a teaser…"

"… I can tell your presence…"

CLANG!

Blues whipped around to stop Flash Man's attack.

The latter clicked his tongue.

"You mean to be their strategist, I take it…"

"And what of it? Human puppet!"

"Underestimating the opponent leads to a miserable end…"

"I'm not a brainless fool like that defective…"

"That's to be seen…"

Blues jumped away.

"Elemental Sword!"

"Blade Stop!"

Blues tried to attack Flash Man, but he stopped it.

However, he jumped back and attacked again.

"It's in…!"

The remaining three attacks connected.

Three cuts of different colors formed over his body.

"Impossible!"

"Blade Stop only stops one attack. It's not continuous…"

"W-what!?"

"You couldn't be bothered to read the product description? Lazy fool!"

Enzan mocked him.

"Shut up, human! Your kind will soon be wiped out!"

"Really. Less than 10 of you versus 4 billion humans and Net Navis…"

Enzan wasn't impressed.

"I'd say that numbers are in our favor…"

"Shit. I'll remember this!"

Flash Man escaped, to nobody's surprise.

"I drove away that Desert Man fool. They don't learn…"

"They probably lack memories of 3 years ago…"

"I see. To make them more motivated…"

Search Man joined Blues.

"These are distractions. Shade Man only cares about those two…"

"Naturally…"

"I guess that they will show up every then and then to annoy us…"

"Likely…"

"This is Raika. The car factory is secured…"

"The fool was attacking a car factory?"

"Tried to steal a 4WD car, but we botched them…"

"Twilight doesn't need them. Regal?"

"Possibly. Charles said that he used one in NYC…"

"Fine. Let's be on the lookout…"

Prism Man joined them next.

"I drove away that Bright Man fool, too…" He reported.

"That fool is REALLY annoying…" Misaki sighed.

"Should be the clown of a circus…!" Enzan sighed.

"Good job!" Manabe congratulated them.

"Thank you, ma'am!"

"Meijin has come to reinforce the firewalls. Take a break!"

"Roger!"

"Wait. Enemy signature. 10 meters away. SSE!"

Search Man aimed his gun as he scanned the area.

"A good director never misses a shutter chance!"

"Video Man. That's going to be annoying…" Blues fumed.

"I'll strangle you to death! You can't do it with a DVD!" He laughed.

"Barbarians will be but barbarians…" Prism Man sentenced.

"My tape is a revolution!"

"… Signature is gone. They escaped…"

"I'll have to dig up our tactic to deal with those copies…"

"Yes, Lord Enzan. Let's send copies to everyone else…"

"Thanks. It'll be useful to deal with these fools…"

00:23 AM (Jawaii Time), Sunday August the 11th…

"… This is D-4. No anomalies. Over…"

A soldier patrolled the area of the cells.

She reached the end of the corridor and stopped, reporting the status.

"Roger. The "Special Section" door is shut?"

She tried to open it, but it was firmly locked.

"Affirmative. Doesn't bulge at all…"

"Roger. Return to the barracks…"

"Affirmative. Returning…"

The soldier didn't notice an almost invisible shape tailing her.

She exited the sector, followed by the figure.

She continued straight ahead.

The figure turned to the left.

There was a shut door at the end of it.

"AIRPORT. NO ENTRY WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION".

An IR beam shot for the control panel.

The door's LED changed from red to green.

The shape reformed there.

They crossed the door and pressed a button.

The door was shut.

The shape headed for the parked helicopter.

They stopped and looked upwards.

The control room was dark and empty.

The IR beam shot towards it.

A computer there turned on.

A few seconds later, the central hatch silently opened.

The shape rushed for the chopper.

They unlocked the door and climbed inside, shutting it.

The chopper hummed.

The rotors began to spin.

It lifted into the air and retracted the landing gear.

It headed for the skies beyond the open hatch.

When it crossed the hatch, though, something happened.

Music blared out of speakers inside of the base, at full volume.

"Welcome to the Tropical Despair sponsored by Monokuma!"

The chopper ignored that as it became invisible, too.

The lights of Nihau Island were visible in the horizon.

An alarm rang inside of the chopper.

It automatically deployed flares around it.

Several SAM missiles were flying for it but were intercepted.

The chopper turned and shot its own missiles.

They headed for a tanker ship cruising along the seas.

The odd part is that the signaling lights were turned off.

More SAM missiles flew off, and the chopper deployed flares again.

The chopper opened fire along the starboard side of the tanker.

It also shot its own missiles at the deck, destroying the SAM launchers.

Yellow "holes" formed across the tanker.

"Dimensional Converters" emerged.

The chopper quickly pulled upwards to avoid being trapped.

It headed for the island, leaving the tanker behind.

A familiar laughter echoed.

The tanker headed for the hideout island.

It formed two large rocket boosters on its flanks.

They ignited and the tanker cut through the water.

An energy field formed some meters away from the island.

The tanker's "Dimensional Area" clashed with it.

Bolts of energy flew off in all directions.

The chopper ignored that strife, leaving it behind as well.

"… What is going on!?"

A voice sighed inside of the chopper.

"Maybe that's that man named "Regal"…?"

The chopper drew closer to the island.

"… According to this database, there's a radar site of the Navy…"

The chopper's computer locked in that location.

"If it has radar, there must be communication equipment as well…"

After a few minutes, the site's lights became visible.

The chopper landed in the area between the facilities.

It turned off its camouflage and slowly stopped.

"Delete all data of the computer…"

The door opened and the shape rushed out.

It headed for the facilities further ahead.

The radar antennas and other equipment were visible.

"Fortunately for me, there's nobody here at this hour of the night!"

Iris became visible, hiding in the shadow of the radar's tower.

"Now or never!"

She aimed the PET at a nearby telecommunications antenna.

She and the PET became blocks of data.

They spiraled clockwise.

Pieces of data formed in the center of the formation.

The whole thing vanished.

A second later, it reappeared within the machine's Cyber World.

Iris had become the "caretaker Navi".

"Fortunately… They thought that I was a human…"

She quickly opened a "portal".

"Else they wouldn't have given me the PET again…"

She crossed the "portal" and travelled across a tunnel.

She exited into another place.

She turned invisible and hid behind a pillar.

She looked up to see a banner.

"NIST Radio Station WWVH".

"Good. I can surely reach the Japan Site from here…"

She quickly crossed across the area.

She reached a communications hub.

Navis and data moved up and down.

She mingled with them.

"Chance…!"

A few seconds later, she emerged at the other end of the hub.

There was a banner that read "WELCOME TO JAPAN".

She slipped out of the crowds and into another tunnel.

"I'm drawing closer…"

She emerged in the active Internet City.

"It's about 8PM here, so… 19 hours difference…"

She hid in an alley and formed a holographic control panel.

She inputted a set of parameters.

"This is Flower Keeper. I request an escort to Rosefield. Over…"

"This is Florist. I copy. I will send a clerk. Over…"

A purple "portal" opened before her, and she jumped inside.

She emerged into the main hub, before the spinning globe.

Omega was waiting for her.

"Iris. Glad that you managed to escape…!"

"I was stupid. Should've asked you from the start…!"

"We all make mistakes. Nobody is perfect…"

"That aside! Is Trill safe?"

"Naturally. He's under our custody here, in our HQ…"

"That's such a relief…!"

"Here's a chair…"

He offered her a chair, and she dropped there.

"I'm exhausted. The nerves, the tension…!"

"Understandable. Take a rest and we'll go meet Trill…"

"Yes… Naturally…"

20:08 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Sis! I missed you!"

"Sorry for that, Trill. I was stupid…"

"I don't care! You wanted to protect me. But don't go away!"

"Don't worry. I won't make you suffer that again…"

Iris, having resumed her "human" look, met with Trill.

Trill sat on her lap and hugged her.

The place was the observation deck.

Omega and Zataki were present, too.

"Thanks to your data, we can confirm their hideout's location…"

"What about that odd tanker?"

"It's likely to be Regal, as you suspected. He used to have one…"

"I still don't understand why that odd music played…"

"Maybe Cloud Man set it up as a prank aimed at Swallow Man…"

"Must be receiving a heavy scolding by now…"

"I managed to extract some data from that computer, too…"

"I'm looking at it. This log entry is catching my attention…"

"What is it?"

"A stealth fighter! And a pilot known as "Black Knight"…"

"THAT's the "Black Knight"? An ace pilot?"

"There's probably more to it, but we lack data…"

"Unfortunately, I didn't have time to search. I had to escape…"

"No, no! I don't blame you. Sorry if I sounded like it…"

Zataki quickly apologized.

"We're all tired. Let's have a good night's rest…"

"Rest assured. Twilight has never been able to strike this place…"

"And won't do anything predictable. His pride hinders him…"

"Understood…"

"More bullies?" Trill complained.

"Don't worry. We'll scold them…" Omega reassured.

"Great!"

"You can use the same room as Trill…"

"Thank you very much. We owe you so much…"

"It's nothing. I wanted to help. That's all…"

"Understood… Let's go, Trill!"

"Bye, Uncle Omega!"

"Sure…"

Iris and Trill left, and they remained.

Omega tapped the right side of his helmet.

"A transmission from Zero…"

"What does he report?"

"That fighter plane attacked the tanker…"

"Any data on the pilot?"

"Yes. They were in a rush, and they didn't encrypt transmissions…"

"And?"

"It's a duo of a human and a Navi…"

"Guess that the human is the "Black Knight"…"

"Nelaus and Isaac…"

"Nelaus? Talk about a fancy ring…"

"But if we take into account Anaya's geek naming sense…"

"His name is a parody of something…"

"He skipped the pattern with Kanou Shade, but…"

"If she's back to using it, then… It's Star Wars…"

"Given how Twilight named that spare body "Sidier"…"

"But this time it's not so obvious. Must be from the comics or novels…"

"I'm looking at a fan wiki to find prominent Sith Lord names…"

"Good idea. Knowing the witch, she pulled them from there…"

"Darth Bane: creator of the Rule of Two…"

"Bane…"

"Darth Plagueis… Master of the very Darth Sidious AKA Palpatine…"

"Bane and Plagueis…"

"Take "ne" from "Bane" and "la", "u", s" from "Plagueis"…"

"Ne-la-u-s…!"

"There you have it…"

"And what do you get from the remaining letters?"

"... "Ba", "P", "g", "ei"... Bapgei? Or… Geibap… Or… Gapibe…"

"Bapgei… Has an ominous ring to it, even…"

"Maybe this is related to that odd sonic boom in Antarctica…"

"If that plane is supersonic, it'd make sense…"

"Maybe we need to inspect Antarctica…"

"Not on foot. It'd take forever!"

"I know. We'll send a probe to take aerial photos…"

"Maybe the facility is hidden with a stealth field…"

"Given how they're using it for the Jawaii base…"

"Assuming that they haven't blown it up yet…"

"Or maybe they simply formatted all data in the systems…"

"That's more likely. Anyway. Any hint is appreciated…"

"He's reporting that Anaya, Izono and Clark blame each other…"

"Suits them!"

"Anaya scolds Clark for lack of research, Izono says that he feared this…"

"Classical!"

"Clark says that it was his orders not to pry about women…"

"Anaya and her random orders. Serves the witch well…"

"Opoulos is furious at Clark for not keeping a leash on his men…"

"Guess that that prank woke up the whole base…"

"Regal is laughing at them, taunting about a kin-strife…"

"Regal… Don't add coal to the fire!" Zataki grumbled.

"In short: it's a mess!" Omega concluded.

"Fine. Let's use this chance to tackle those "Darkloids"…"

"From the sounds of it, Clark didn't come up with the idea…"

"And Regal did to annoy both Clark and shame Shade Man again…"

"Given how he really didn't settle the score…"

"He wants to repeat that of 3 years ago…" Zataki sighed.

"When we tackle this, we must make sure that…"

"We bust the PMCs working for Deadly Pandora, too…"

"Else it'll be a repeat of this mess…"

"The issue is Clark. The fool might go missing again…"

"We should continue building those new jammers…" Omega suggested.

"Good idea. If we can anchor him to the real world…"

"It'd make it easier to cut off their escape routes…"

"I'll go and work on it with Kir Osh…"

"I'll take care of coordinating sorties to fight those clowns…"

"Handle it. I'll ask Lartes to look after Iris and Trill, too…"

"Good idea. Let's use our resources…"

"As for our scouts, Daratsu and Kuro Kaze…"

"Do we send them to Jawaii?"

"No. Zero will suffice. Let's have them chase leads to Regal's location…"

"Understood…"

"As for Dragon, our cook… He's behaving as of late…"

"Took time and effort, though…"

"I know. But I'll give him a reminder, nevertheless…"

"Naturally. There's a contract in place…"

"Will warn him that otherwise I'll buy takeaway food…"

"That should tell him that he better pour effort into cooking…"

"Exactly!"

"Let's take a rest, though. We don't want to collapse from overwork!"

"You're right. I need rest!"

He barely held back a yawn.

"You're not alone, Boss. Let's combine forces and do this together!"

"Well said!"