Chapter 28: Cheap Darkloids

10:03 AM (Japan Time), Friday July the 11th…

"… Mugro~h… I feel bored!"

"Same thin' over 'ere…"

"Star Man! Don't you have some plan in mind?"

"Hmmm…"

Desert Man was grumbling aloud inside of the "Darkloid" castle when Star Man walked up to him while looking bored or without ideas: they failed to spot Swallow Man hiding close by and grinning.

"What are the others going to do?"

"Dunno. But Shade Man – sama is… too cautious. Going all out would do fine and we'd hit them hard… There are few defenders out there to begin with and we'd have numerical advantage… We could try to form a trap for them too… I've heard of a guy who is supposedly very hard to beat: we could try them out by materializing." He exposed.

"I like that better!"

"… Uack! Sword Man! You hit me AGAIN!"

"I didn't. Go electrocute your ego."

"Spark Man and Sword Man…?" Star Man sighed.

"Hah! What a bunch of fools! I'm cleverer!"

"Guess that if the others are always seeking to start a fight… How the mighty have fallen, huh? I wonder if that "Didact" guy Bubble Man babbled about did this in purpose."

"Wha~t? They rebuilt us like this to have us fight each other and they weakened us in purpose?"

"Feels like it: they must want to make those guys think their club is a weak as us and when they face each other they'll be pulverized."

"I won't accept that! By damnation and Gobi!" Desert Man growled and looked like he was getting annoyed.

"That's why I said to go out and give those guys a surprise." Star Man insisted.

Yeah… Go out and fail: when Shade Man gets pissed off, then the "Subspace" guys will finish the guy off and then we'll go for the real stuff… They're not idiotic: they'll realize the point of the whole deal, anyway…

"Let's go, then!"

"Sure. Wait a min: I'll look up info on the guys and where we can find them at… Tee, heh, heh. It's going to be a sandy and starry morning for them, I'd rather say!"

"Got it?"

"Sure. Follow me!"

"Mwroh, hoh, hoh, hoh! Let's go~! I'm immortal!"

Both guys warped out while Swallow Man rubbed his hands in excitement as if he'd been wishing for that to happen.

Heh, heh, heh… Now let's leave the others as they are… Then I'll have Burner Man incite them to "smash them all and make them realize Shade Man – sama's might"… Even Flash Man and Plant Man will be drawn into the deal… They'll go pick their targets… These guys are about to have a very busy morning indeed!

"… Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"

"Uack! Grah! Gruh! Stop using me to train your abilities, Gravity Man!" A voice growled.

"Unit Bowl Man is powerless. Powerless."

"Says the robot freak…!"

"Escaping from the Gravitational Hell is impossible."

Heh, heh, heh. All's going as planned… Glory to Twilight – sama's wisdom!

10:29 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Alright, Patrick… This new database thing is really smooth and quick: you and the others have done a good job!"

"Thanks, Charles."

"Database Love Man will date you, Charlie~ Team?"

"What in the… Go study Iapetus with the Monolith, Dave!"

"Mr. Leo wants his Snatch Machine back with a vengeance."

"Mr. Smith wants you to fix his laser doomsday weapon!"

"Davis… Was that really necessary?"

"He was getting cocky."

"I don't think so…"

Charles had been working with a computer inside of a small office room in the "Justice Council" building while chatting with Nokay: Davis (materialized) had been leaning against the window behind and began to joke: Charles got annoyed and turned the chair around to face him: Nokay didn't seem to find a point to the jokes.

"Mugro~h…"

"Heh, heh, heh."

"Huh? What was that?" Nokay wondered.

The building rumbled and a "Dimensional Area" formed: Davis opened the window to see Desert Man and Star Man forming outside.

"Lion Head!"

"Meteors!"

"Hell! The rebuilt Darkloids! Vadous told us about them!"

"They want a fight: they'll have one! Our special abilities should help turn the tide around… Let's have them hit each other!"

"Be careful, you two!" Nokay warned.

"Sure! Let's go!"

"Ou!"

Davis aimed his forearms at the PET and shot an IR laser: a "Copy Roid" was left behind and Charles took out a "Synchro Chip" from his coat's right pocket.

"Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!"

"Whoa!"

Nokay blocked his eyes to not to be affected by the bright sphere of energy: it soon dimmed.

"OK! "CF" Charles comes to the rescue!"

"CF" Charles' design included red boots and forearms along with brown chest armor, which had a golden cross set on the middle of it: matrixes of on/off squares colored green and blue spread across his forearms and legs.

His helmet's forehead had a blue hexagon-shaped jewel set on its center, which was glowing with a pale sapphire glow while his eyes' irises were blue: a mouth-guard having an outer golden edge and a main silver body formed over his mouth.

A backpack with two exhaust tubes colored silver and golden materialized and attached to his back while extending four red lines arching over his body and creating a bluish ring around the chest emblem with four small black rectangles having a red dot on their center.

He had some extra armor coiling around his right arm too and he wielded a saber identical to Omega's but colored blue instead.

"Let's go!"

He opened the window and dropped outside; the two Darkloids immediately focused their attention on him.

"So you showed up… Heavy Sand! Ant Holes! Great Lion Head! Delete~!"

"Meteors!"

"Heh!"

"CF" Charles merely formed a tall black slab about two meters tall and with some thickness: the front of it vanished and he stepped into blackness before the front regenerated: the Ant Hole didn't manage to form beneath it and formed 7 meters NNW instead and the Heavy Sand landed 5 meters SSE too: the Great Lion Head circled around it like mad and finally hit Star Man: his Meteors had been diverted and some had hit Desert Man instead.

"Star Man! You lowlife!"

"Oi! It's not my fault! That thing is deflecting the attacks!"

"No! You want to get all the glory! Great Lion Head!"

"Ah! So you wanted to use me and then get the glory too! Meteors!"

"How stupid." Nokay muttered as he looked from the office.

"Not enough? Heavy Sand!"

"Damn you! Shooting Star Shower!"

"And those two are hiding inside of the shelter the "Monolith" is: he'll simply let them destroy each other." Nokay grinned.

"Not… enough… to beat me! Lion… Head!"

"G-guh! Damn this guy! Meteors!"

Star Man's meteors inflicted further wounds to Desert Man and his Lion Head did the same to Star Man: both had rather worse wounds, which were expanding quickly, but they didn't seem to notice.

"What damned pieces of rubbish! Be gone! Delete~!" Twilight'ss voice echoed.

Both "Darkloids" roared as their bodies broke down into raw data and then vanished altogether; "CF" Charles came out of the "Monolith" and sighed in defeat.

"Too bad we didn't get to hit them."

"What'll be next?" Davis wondered.

"Chaos! Across the world…!"

"Chaos Girl will come steal your wig." Charles taunted.

"By all the…! You damned interlopers!"

"That's our motto!" Davis taunted back.

"Hah! Whatever! My young Manipular and his Ancilla will soon come and sweep the ground with you lowlifes on it! There's no need to try to search those words: they don't exist yet! Mwah, hah, hah!"

"I dunno where'd he got them from but he means that Nelaus guy and that Isaac Navi…" Charles merely muttered.

"Guess he picked them from some future game."

"I've got some toys for you lowlifes!"

Some puddles of the silver liquid formed and the "soldiers" rose up to try to attack them: "CF" Charles cursed and drew his blade to try to strike back at them.

"Damn it. These idiots!"

"They look like Biohazard rip-offs if you want my opinion."

"Heh! Then next time around I'll bring the Tyrant units out and they'll crush you to death! They'll destroy all obstacles! They'll bring fear and chaos to this filthy world! Mwah, hah, hah!"

"Die already! You herd of freaks!"

"CF" Charles spun around and sliced several of them into pieces but they crawled to form a puddle from which 4 more enemies spawned: "CF" Charles growled and formed a golden-colored Hell's Burner.

"Justice Burner!"

"Nothing better than fire to dispose of plagues… Burn away already! Shit!"

11:41 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Bubble Man! Are you sure this is the right way?"

"Y-yes, Shade Man – sama! Puku! I remember the path that black jerk did when getting in and out! Puku!"

"Grrr! These lowlifes suddenly showed up on the castle basement and beat Sword Man, Gravity Man and Bright Man before fleeing! Before we'd recovered more came! Flash Man was right! Damn it!"

"That's why we'll go smash them! De puku!"

Shade Man was making his way across some spot in the Cyber World along with Bubble Man: he looked pissed off and was rambling aloud the reason.

"Yeah! De puku! The others were Rock Man, Search Man, Blues, Prism Man and Shadow Man! Those jerks took out Video Man, Flash Man, Plant Man, Bowl Man and Cold Man!"

"Desert Man, Start Man and Beast Man were deleted before too! We'd lost 3 to begin with, lost another 3 and now 5! 11 down! The only ones left would be… Spark Man, Burner Man, you and I! Those two suddenly left without saying anything! Damn it! Twilight fooled us: you shouldn't have listened to them!"

"B-but, Shade Man – sama! Puku! I alone couldn't break that tomb no matter how many tricks I used or how many corrupted Navis I tried to use on it! Puku!" Bubble Man pleaded.

"You should've tried harder! Like when you failed to get the safe with the "rare metal"!" He snapped back.

"T-that was…"

"Silence! Is this the right way?"

"Y-yeah, we should be less than 2 minutes away… Puku…" Bubble Man gulped and looked panicked by now.

"Huh? I hear something!"

"… Yeah. Zero took out Spark Man 3 minutes ago… Thunder Man got Burner Man 7 minutes ago too… Only Shade Man and Bubble Man should be left by now, Boss…"

"Good, Omega. I'm fed up with the jerk's "show mania"… Let's end this farce already: I want the real stuff to begin."

"There! Puku…! Beyond that Warp Point… Inside of the store…!"

"Let's go!"

"Mwah, hah, hah! Mugro~h!"

"W-what's THAT?"

"PUKU~!"

"I am Nebula Grey~!"

"Nebula Grey" appeared along with the "face" effect; Shade Man wasn't impressed, rather it fueled his rage while Bubble Man gulped and hid behind Shade Man, who didn't pay heed to him.

"Wrong! Puku! That's the "Didact", de puku!" He warned.

"Hah! My name is Twilight, as you know! The Darkloid Age is but a foolish dream to begin with! Let your kindred be erased from the Cyber World: the new-gen Cybernetic Species will rule the Earth instead!"

"You lowlife… You used us!"

"Twice! First, I used you lowlifes' "alternates" and did get to rule over them until they were dispatched off… At least your "alternate" had a greater ending than you lowlife… Heh, heh, heh."

"What are you babbling about?" Shade Man grumbled.

"You don't need to understand or realize! You lowlifes will be swallowed by the infinite and unending Time-Space!"

"Crush Noise!"

"Useless!"

A white "crack" suddenly formed on the middle of the space and grew: its insides were made of white energy and some dancing patterns of shifting rainbow colors began to form around them.

"Puku! The clock's gone mad!" Bubble Man gasped.

"Impossible! What's that?" Shade Man gasped.

"A "Fossa Ambience"! It's set at random and it's unstable: once you cross then you can't return! Let Fate decide what will happen to you lowlifes like it did with those fools 3 years ago~! Be swallowed!"

"PUKU~!"

"MUGRO~H!"

Air began to be sucked up inside of the thing and so were Bubble Man and Shade Man: both yelped in fear before vanishing into the depths of the "Fossa Ambience" which slowly closed and vanished with a bright flash of white energy: the weird special effect vanished as well.

"Mwah, hah, hah! And so the mighty have fallen! Let them be subject to the will of Time-Space!" Twilight laughed.

"You again! What have you done this time around?"

Omega ran out of the building with the saber drawn and faced the "monster" which seemed to form a grin even.

"Hah! I thrust those two into the depths of Time-Space! The little show is over already: stretching it would've BORED the guys out there WATCHING THE TV… Mwah, hah, hah…"

"What guys watching the TV?" Omega grumbled.

"Dunno! Kyoudai~!"

"Ya called? Knock at the door firstly. State your purpose." Vadous dully answered.

"Hah! Trying to play cool guy: I can see that! But that won't save you!"

"You'll send the neophyte for us first?"

"Nah! That would be suicide. They're not rookies but that red guy over there would be too much for them! I'll send them against the Skywalker duet! Mwah, hah, hah! Get the message or do I need to translate it into German?" He taunted.

"Oh come on. I knew already that you'd send them to have a Net Battle with the twins. Let them come. We won't be caught with the pants down if that's what you were aiming for." Vadous fumed.

"No! I was aiming to quit around with the games and get this show to boil and steam! The audience must've felt like we were stretching it all! Public nowadays don't have patience!"

"Oh yeah? And Anaya has had patience or she's gone to torture someone already by now? It's been almost a month ever since you guys allowed them to escape from the jail." Vadous wasn't surprised.

"Hah! IQ – sama has a reputation to keep and thus they've had enough with staying on the base. They've decided to keep a low profile and not take unnecessary risks! Heh, heh, heh."

"How clever of the bitch..." Omega taunted.

"DAMN YOU~! YOU DAMNED PLEBEIAN!" He fell for the taunt.

"There: you just proved your own weakness. Next time I'll bring a sunlight generator and vanquish you like you were a vampire."

"Hmpf! You will try… But you will die trying as a fool! Fool killer!" Twilight smugly shot back.

The "monster" and the "face" vanished but Omega didn't even beat an eyebrow at what had happened.

"Sure, sure. Let you neophyte come: we'll see if he's made of cheap alloys to begin with or not." He muttered aloud as he crossed his arms and glanced around.

"Well. The "Darkloids" are done for this time around. Let's rest a bit."

"Yeah. Maybe I'll try MGS4 in some higher difficulty… It's gaming time!"