SP Mission: Bullet Train

Sagon? Who the heck was that? Before he could ask, the navi decided to take a more direct tone with him. So what should he do? Should he try for more information, tell him that he had his eye on him, or just let it go? He was already probably suspicious of Majinman being suspicious of him, so he might as well go for it, "From the sounds of it, those guys will be back and with help, so I'm using our short break to get as much help as possible and try to come up with some sort of plan. That said, other than the lady and gents that I've already got in my corner, you seem to be the only worthwhile person here. Not only that, but your behavior also seems a bit peculiar, and I don't want any more surprises, which is why I'm talking to you myself. While I'm still not sure what to make of you, there was one thing you said that makes me a bit curious. Would you mind elaborating on who Sagon is?"

"There is nothing to make of me. I am simply more observant than most," the NormalNavi commented. "And if you're looking for my help, you won't find it right now. I have other business to attend to."

He finally showed some semblance of an actual reaction when Majinman brought up the name he had tossed out seconds ago, in the form of a light scoff. "The excitable woman who was shooting up the car earlier. Her name is Sagon," he explained. "And if you were trying to win her over back there, you were wasting your time. She was part of a net terrorist ring some seven or eight years ago and was known for being extremely violent and unpredictable."

He paused, but only briefly, before adding, "That's all I know about her, before you ask."

"I see... Well, any little bit of information can be helpful, so I appreciate that little tidbit," Majinman stood up to leave. He thought about telling the navi to stay in his seat so that he didn't have any extra distractions, but given his attitude, it was probably unneccessary, "Thank you for your time."

"Well that was unexpected and certainly helpful," Wes said, "You weren't even looking for info on her and here you got it. Though I have to wonder how he knew about her."

"I wouldn't worry about that. If she was a big enough name on the terrorism scene, he probably just read about it in the paper or something," Majinman said, "What worries me more is what she's doing here. I'm hoping that it's just coincidence but we can't really be sure. She's probably not working with the guys we're currently up against, but still..." He did say she was violent and unpredictable. It didn't seem too far a stretch to think she might try hijacking a train herself, possibly singlehandedly. While he'd deal with these heelnavis first, it seemed he'd also have to make sure she didn't get too close to the first car either.

Pushing the uncorfirmed possibilities from his mind, Majinman decided to check on the rest of the car. How was Photon faring? Had anyone else been recruited? Was anyone else worth recruiting? And last, but most importantly, what was going on in the car behind them? After looking over his other inquiries, he'd glance down the aisle and try to see if anyone was coming back yet.

"One more thing," the NormalNavi said, doing something very unexpected and turning away from the window and at MajinMan. "Watch yourself around Photon. I don't know what she's doing here, but I doubt she's just on as a regular passenger." The navi turned away again, and this time through the reflection Majinman, were he still paying attention, could see his eyes shut off as he apparently went idle. Whatever the meaning of his parting words, Majinman wouldn't be getting anything else out of the navi right then.

The rest of the car, for the most part, remained silent. No one had yet returned from the other cars, and if there was any fighting going on in the other cars, any sounds of it were being drowned out by the roar of the train itself. In the back, however, the black-armored navi had joined one of his red-armored companions outside the car, and was now pointing his rifle up over the roof. Photon was nowhere to be seen, but from the opening in the front, Majinman could tell something on top of the car was glowing brightly.

Majinman paused at that last statement. What specifically was he trying to imply? Whatever it was, the fact was that she was proving a valuable ally, at least as far as he could tell. With that in mind, it would be counter-productive, not to mention rude to question and/or doubt her. He grinned, "No problems there. I already have a hard time taking my eye off her."

Wes sighed, "Not that I wasn't expecting a reply like that and I can see where you're coming from, at least on the issue of trusting her, your demeanor still manages to worry me. In any case, she strikes me more as a scientist than some sort of secret agent with a hidden agenda, so I'm willing to trust her as well. Plus, given our original mandate..." Wes trailed off. They still didn't know what specifically they were protecting and it was highly unlikely that they would be hired to protect someone who already had bodyguards. Of course, Majinman had said that they should try minimizing damage and causelties on this mission, so watching out for her fit into those parameters, "Well anyway, unless she attacks either you or the train itself, I'm willing to keep this team-up going. I'll keep an eye on her, just in case." From behind his PET screen, it would be hard to tell where he was looking. He could be suspicious without looking suspicious.

Majinman looked around. Nothing out of place... except that Photon was missing. There was also something bright on top of the train. Well that answered one question, but raised another. What was she doing up there? Majinman called out to the bodyguards, "Hey, everything okay on your end or you gonna need my help?"

((Banana... I mean, bump))

"Everything's fine," the black-armored navi said curtly, raising his rifle slightly and firing off a shot. Several more shots sounded from the other end of the car, barely audible over the roar of the train. The light from the front began to fade, then went out completely. Immediately after the last of the light went out, something slammed into the roof of the car, hard.

"Hey, we're still here! Can you fight it out when we're not in the way?" came a shout from what was probably the middle of the car. Someone near the back shouted a response, but it was impossible to make out.

The door from the car behind the one they were in slammed open, and a navi in standard NetPolice armor walked through. "May I have your attention," he shouted to the passengers who were steadily beginning to panic again. "Please remain in your seats. Only then can we guarantee your safety. We have the situation under control." As he finished, he looked directly at Majinman. "Sir, that applies to you too," he said.

"Tch, more of you," the black-armored navi grumbled from the front.
___

Majinman narrowed his eyes, his jaw hanging slightly open as he watched the bodyguard, "Really now? Well, whatever's going down, I suppose I'll trust your judgement. Just let me know if you do need help. After all, we are friends now. Accomplices? Allies? Yeah, that last one works the best," Majinman said.

"Just be careful. If they mess up, it'll cost us our pay. Though as long as no one reaches the front car, we should be fine. Right now, it seems like they're having a nice little shoot-out up there. The light is most likely Photon. I hope the fading doesn't mean that something happened to her," Wes said.

"Awww, our you getting attached to our new friend as well?" Majinman smirked. Before Wes could get in a retort, a new navi walked in. They listened to what he had to say, which caused Majinman to grin even wider, "This guy seems to be worried about my safety. Wes, what did the nice lady say before I boarded?"

"'You can board but please do not interfere', or something like that, if its the conversation I think you're referring to," Wes replied. Then, switching to a private channel, he continued, "Well, you have two options. You can comply and let him fight off as many of those heelnavis as he can before he falls or you can tell them off and risk a confretation."

"Tsk tsk. In this day and age, people need to work together. Besides, as I've already proven, you can't really judge people based on their appearance, not in this situation. It's best to keep him close for the moment," Majinman chided his netop. He switched off the private chat and began to speak out loud again, "I'm sorry, Officer, but I've been asked to do a favor here. I could not, in all good conscience, just take a seat and allow you to do all the grunt work. Of course, I would more than welcome any assistance you could survive. For starters, we could exchange information on what we know about the situation thus far."

The police navi stared at Majinman for a moment before recognizing him and saying "Oh. It's you." Apparently, it was the same Police navi that ENA had said those same words about not interfering to. "The situation has gone well beyond the scope of any civilian mission. You'd do best to stay out of this and let us handle it from here."

A voice came in over the police navi's radio. "What's your status?"

"I've got ENA's hireling here. Should I prevent him from interfering?"

A few seconds passed in silence before the voice on the other end spoke again. "No. At this point we can use all the help we can get. Just make sure he doesn't make things worse."

The police navi gave a sigh, apparently not liking the idea of being forced to work with civilians. "Understood, sir. If I may ask though, weren't you supposed to be up here first? What's taking so long?"

"I've got another one back here. Can't tell who it is, but they just took out three HeelNavis in one shot then attacked me." A small explosion sounded through the radio, followed by a tremor running through the terrain. "Listen, once you've cleaned up up there, get back here immediately. Understood?"

"Yes sir," the police navi said. He turned back to Majinman. "Commander Tarkel is willing to accept your help, so I guess I have little choice. You want to know about the situation? It's an absolute nightmare is what it is. At least two HeelNavi gangs, virus summoners, a lunatic shooting up the place, Netmafia, whoever those hunters on the roof are, and whoever the commander just got attacked by. Our only saving grace is that they're all fighting each other, but at this rate they'll tear the entire train apart."

At the back of the car, the black armored and one of the red-armored navis had also climbed up to the top, leaving only the other red-armored navi guarding the door. Though it was difficult to tell from the middle of the car, he appeared to be focusing his gaze down the middle of the car, at Majinman and the police navi. Meanwhile, a flash of light preceded another small explosion toward the front of the car's roof. A couple seconds of sustained buster fire followed, and ended with the dull thud of one navi falling toward the middle. Outside the window, a navi-shaped shadow could be seen dropping down from the roof for a brief moment.

"If you have any questions, or any information to give me, say it quickly. Every second counts."

"Hmmm... If his assailant is a woman, its probably that Sagon chick again. If that's the case, so much for trying to get her to help us. Anyway, Wes, you have any questions? I have a few in mind, but I'll let you start out," Majinman said.

"All right, here goes," Wes took a breath and put communications back to normal, so that the officer could here him, "First off, are any of the groups you listed working together or is this just anarchy? Second, do you happen to know what they're after? We weren't told what we were hired to protect, so I prefer you don't tell us anything specific, but it would be helpful to at least know if their goal is hijacking, rioting, kidnapping, assassination, or a specific item."

While Wes asked, Majinman took a moment to check in with his other allies, "You sure you guys are okay? I can take those folks on the roof out, if you need some help," he called to the armored navi still in the car.

The police navi sighed. "I wish they were working together. Then they wouldn't have turned the entire damn train into a shootout before we could do anything. No, it's just anarchy as far as we can tell. As for what they're after, we're here because we were tipped off that the NetMafia planned to raid the train and steal some important SciLab data. Other than them, though, we have no idea." As he spoke, he kept glancing toward the front of the car, at the remaining bodyguard navi.

When Majinman mentioned the 'folks on the roof', however, he took a step back and raised his buster. "We're the ones on the roof," he said. "Are you NetMafia? What are you really after here?"

"So much for not drawing suspicion," the red-armored navi muttered, pointing his own weapon at the police navi. It looked like the car was about to become a battleground again.

Well crap. It was anarchy on the train and because that wasn't bad enough, suddenly there was anarchy in his lap. Though this was surprising. Wasn't it those pansy hunters on the roof? When the the NP take their place? And how was it that Photon was now an enemy? She was too cute to be evil. Wes, on the otherhand, just sighed. He knew he should have asked the NP navi if he had ever heard of Photon, but he didn't want to upset his navi.

Majinman held out a flattened palm at each of the navis, though he refrained from stepping directly between them, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it, fellas. Do we really need another shoot out on train? I'm here for vague reasons, the police are here for peace keeping and.... possibly also vague reasons, and you folks are here for reasons that are even more unclear. So why don't you call Photon and your other buddies down here and we at least clear things up before things get all crazy, possibly over a misunderstanding?" Majinman glanced back and forth at each of them, very carefully. Since he still didn't know what he was guarding specifically, it would be best if he kept destruction to a minimum, though he got the impression that pacifism wouldn't be an option much longer.

Wes raised an eyebrow, but Majinman gave a slight shake of the head in response. So he didn't want chips just yet. Probably trying to avoid antaganizing either side. That was fine, but soon it would be out of his hands. A fight in the train... a fight on top of a train... there were a lot of interesting possibilities. He almost wanted his navi's negotiations to fail.

The red-armored navi did as requested, but wasn't gone long before he had his answers. "Photon says not a chance in hell. Not quite on those exact words. ...actually, those were Dimmu's words. She still refuses." And what a great way to start off negotiations that was, with one side refusing to come down and negotiate.

The police navi gave a similar response. "I have to agree. I'm not going to have them back down here in a car full of civilians for negotiations that are doomed to fail. And if we're going to be talking at all I sure as hell won't be the one doing it. I don't trust NetMafia goons to say a damn word."

Two refusals, and the Police Navi's words clearly set off the red-armored navi, as he raised his buster again. "What a coincidence. I don't like hearing you either," he growled. The police navi shifted his buster from Majinman to the red-armored navi in response. Meanwhile, the normal navi Majinman had spoken with earlier waved him over.

"If I may make a suggestion," he said in a hushed voice. "The NetPolice force's second-in-command is much more reasonable than this guy. He goes by 48 and he should be on the roof now, if you wanted to try appealing to him."
___

Majinman froze as the loyalties of his new friends were revealed. Well crap. This can't be good, "If you think about it, we were the only ones that we know of that were hired to be here. The NP are aware but were not officially requested. The NM could be here under similar circumstances or could just be passengers who got spooked by the appearance of their opposing faction," Wes said, contridicting Majinamn's intial line of thought. Wes sighed as he continued, "While I can't believe I'm saying this, I think you should put a little faith in these guys and wait for evidence before passing judgement. I'm Netopian, so the whole 'innocent until proven guilty' thing."

Majinman slowly shook his head. However, there was one thing that was still bothering him. How the heck did that NormalNavi know so darn much? Knowing about a terrorist was one thing, but knowing which officer was specifically here and where he was currently located was a bit much. He was either a spy, an uncover cop, a psychic, or some combination of the aforementioned. Either way, he had something to go on now, so why not get to it? He could only hope that he wasn't being taken for a trip.

He took a deep breath, "Hold on for a bit, you two. We have terrorists on board and so far, no one has been able to tell me what their agenda is. I really think we should prioritize taking down the rogue agents before you guys start up a turf war. I heading up there to try and sort things out, so for the moment, keep pointing those things at each other but please don't fire. This really isn't the place."

He headed towards the back door of the car, hoping that neither would shoot, especially not him in the back. As he passed, he glanced at the Normalnavi with the corner of his eye. If he wasn't setting him up, he could prove a really good friend to have. He passed through the door, glancing up at the edge of the roof. Making a cone with his hands in front of his mouth, he tried to yell above the roar of the train, "Excuse me, I'm looking for a 48. My name is Majinman and I was hired to handle any situations that would arise on the trip. I was kind of hoping to talk to you before anyone else got blown up."

"Hold your fire."

A navi walked to the back of the car to peer over the edge in response to Majinman's request. It was another navi in standard Netpolice armor, painted a dark green instead of the orange-brown of his companions. One of his eyes appeared to be made of glass or something similar, and his other kept drifting toward the front of the car to keep track of his adversaries. One one hand, a wrist blade retracted into its sheath, but the other still held a riot shield, facing toward the front of the car.

"Any situations?" the navi asked. "SciLab's either putting a lot of trust in you or has no grasp of what's going on here. I certainly wouldn't have expected a single navi to try to handle every group represented here."

He sighed, then dropped down at the edge of the roof and slid off to land in front of Majinman. "Don't get me wrong, kid, I'd like to solve this without blowing anyone up, too. It's been a bit difficult so far, though, especially with Tarkel's preferred method of dealing with problems being to throw firepower at it until it goes away.

"That said, if you can get them to back down and find out what they're here for, I think we can work something out. We've certainly got enough problems here without Mafia involvement, so I'd be happy to have one less thing to worry about."

"Well, to be fair, I don't think my employer could have ever expected something on this scale. The guy who normally takes this job went missing so I was hired to set in for him. They weren't even sure if they really needed a replacement, I was brought on just in case," Majinman sighed, "Regardless, I was under the impression that I was mainly to protect some sort of data, which, according to your underling, could very well be what these Net Mafia members are here for. When I met with them earlier, I was under the impression that they were merely using the train for transportation with the muscle being there to protect the fair lady. If what he said is true, though, that makes them very much my concern, so I'm hoping to get to the bottom of this," Majinman put a hand under his chin as he thought about it. Before, they hadn't shown any signs of being up to something, they only sprang into action as a countermeasure. Either things had gone to hell before they had had a chance to put their plan into motion or somewhere along the line the information the Net Police had be thrown off track. It certainly was possible, given that ENA had mentioned the two groups getting into battle but treating it more like a children's squabble disrupting business than an actual concern. Either way, he'd better try uniting these two groups now and then worry about the particulars after the threat of terrorists ripping the train apart had been taken care of.

Majinman nodded to 48, "I do appreciate you giving me a crack at this. The fact that you're more concerned with securing the situation than some stupid turf war shows that you have a good sense of priorities. From what you've told me, I better try to wrap this up before your commanding officer shows up and says otherwise," Majinman leapt to the roof, using his Omnishoes to assure that he wouldn't fall short of the mark. As he touched down, he took a quick look around, making a note of everyone on top. He stood up and slowly began to move forward, waving both hands at Photon and then keeping them in the air to remain non-threatening.

"These two don't normally get along. If things go to hell, I'm ready to send you support," Wes said. He leafed through his folder, picking out a defense, support and finally an attack chip, keeping them on hand and ready to slot in.

"Fine, but you wait for me to say go. No force unless we have to. I'm no slouch when it comes to dodging," Majinman whispered back. He really had to contemplate the irony of a Shadow type being a negotiator and drawing all this attention to himself.

"Okay, everybody, let's just cool down. Miss Photon, as you can see, I'm walking over towards you very slowly. My netop has been instructed not to send chips unless I say so, so until you hear me say otherwise, you can expect no hostile actions from me. Now then, there's a lot of crazy stuff happening right now and no one seems to know what's going out. I just want to talk to you, find where you stand, and see if we can't work out some sort of truce for all of us here, at least until we take care of the real bad guys. Are you willing to discuss this with me?" Majinman asked. He really had to hope that they wouldn't just unload upon him. Given that he was representing Scilabs' interest, he shouldn't have to worry about the NP shooting him in the back, at least. And if Photon and her men were to fire on him, well, he'd just have to use the agility of the Omnishoes to avoid their shots. In this situation, his ability of flight gave him the advantage. While everyone else had to watch their footing, he only had to worry about not going to high to scrape the roof of a tunnel. No, what he was worried about was others showing up before they figured this out and complicating things furthur.

"Just to protect her?" 48 said as Majinman made for the roof. "That's laughable. That woman's a lot more than she appears to be."

The roof, Majinman noted, was now marked with several burns from weapons fire, as well as a large indentation right in front of him where someone had apparently been slammed into it. The damaged weapons and armor of the two police navis on the roof suggested that, while they were at full health now, that had not been the case until right before Majinman had spoken with 48. Farther down, three of the original six hunter navis, including their leader, remained on the roof making themselves as close to non-targets between the two rival factions as they could manage. Beyond that, near the back of the car, the black and red-armored navis that had climbed to the roof to back Photon up stood flanking her. Meanwhile, Photon appeared to be dismissing a much larger exoskeleton, as at the moment Majinman jumped up to the roof large metal plates fell to the roof and disappeared, and Photon's body began glowing with a white light, though nowhere near as brightly as he had seen from inside the train. Two translucent rings that had been barely visible but easily missed before now clearly circled the middle of her body, sporting a shifting wave pattern and constantly shifting between all colors of the spectrum.

Above him, Majinman could see beyond the edges of the tunnel to the space beyond, lit up by many other tunnels running in all directions, illuminated by gold lights running along the edges. They all appeared to have data, navis, or other, smaller transports running through them. At the center of the network of tunnels rose a massive mechanical tower with a segmented plate exterior. From between these plates shone a brilliant emerald light that appeared to pulsate just slightly.

As Majinman reached the indentation in the roof, Photon stopped him. "Don't come any closer. We can talk from here," she said, clearly audible despite the roar of the train. Her voice was much more forceful than before, though it still held much the same quality. "And you lot," she gestured to the hunter navis. "Get out of the way. You're embarassing yourselves."

The hunters did as they were told, pulling open the door of the train car from the top and dropping back in. Once they were out of the way, Photon listened to Majinman. Once he finished talking, she took a deep breath, then answered, "Yes, I'm willing to discuss it, but make it quick. I expect we'll only have a few minutes before more trouble shows up, and I don't trust your NetPolice friends to wait forever."
___

"Yeah, time is certainly of the essence," Majinman said, stopping in his tracks. Okay, what was the first order is business? Probably to discuss what they wanted here. No use trying to convince everyone to play nice and then find out later that their goal is to blow the place up, "So, first thing's first, what is your purpose here? I'm here just to make sure that the train makes it from point A to point B. The guy who normally takes the job went missing so I was just randomly brought on to take his place. The NP are here because they heard about some of your guys being spotted in the area but they were not officially requested by Scilabs. And how about you folks? Nothing nefarious, I hope?" Best not to mention that one of the main concerns Scilabs had mentioned to him was data transporting which might or might not be the reason that they were here. Best not mention something that could break down negotiations just as they had begun. Plus, by appearing ignorant, it would make it easier to keep an eye on them without them thinking they needed to keep an eye on him.

Photon sighed. "Seems like thanks to your NetPolice friends you're already on to us, so there's not much point in hiding it. You said earlier you were hired in case something happened on here, and I have a pretty good idea of why. This train has little trouble making it from 'point A to point B', as you say, even if a fight does break out. No doubt they want you to protect a data package being transported."

She paused, as though allowing Majinman to confirm or deny this, but soon continued whether he did or not. "Recently, our family's leader, Altair, reached an agreement with the staff by which we could analyze this data in a controlled environment. One where their Guard Navis could vaporize us if we did anything untoward." She added the last sentence somewhat bitterly. "But after an incident in Sharo two days later, they backed out of the deal and are being indecisive about continued negotiations. We're here to force a settlement. I'm sure you already understand what that means."

Another explosion rocked the train, this one visible from the vantage point of the roof as plumes of smoke rose from the last car. A voice came through on the radios of the NetPolice officers, including 48, who had returned to the roof.

"I'm going to have to fall back. Expect company very soon; I'm probably going to be followed." It was the same voice that had been on the radio of the Police Navi inside the train car, the one he had called Tarkel.

Meanwhile, Photon continued her story. "Not that it matters now. With everything else going on on this train, that has become nearly impossible."

"And how do we know you can't simply steal this data package and make off with it in the middle of the confusion?" 48 asked.

"For all I know, it's already gone. One of the groups on this train can summon viruses at will into a protected area outside of normal netspace. Who's to say they can't get inside the engine without anyone noticing?"
___

Majinman placed a hand under his chin, nodding as he took in all the facts, "I see, I see... I think we can swing this. They kicked you out because they thought you might be the ones who took out the regular guard. And as long as no one hears says anything, my employers don't know that you've come here to take the data package for negotiating purposes or otherwise. If you help us protect the train from here on out, you might be able to save the data you're worried about and find out who took the guard in Sharo. If you claim your prescence here was merely to accomplish these ends, you should win back Scilabs' trust," he looked from Photon back to 48, "So, what do the two of you say? The NM helps take out the bad guys and the NP put in a good word with Scilabs for them? We can unite a large chunk of the forces right here and now if you agree." Majinman winced at the explosion. And as soon as this was out of the way, they'd need a hastily constructed plan to deal with the situation, if they could figure out exactly what the situation was.