The Dam at the Alaki Reservoir

Using a clone would allow Sparks to get away from his pursuers at the door; those focused on pursuit dogpiled it all at once. Soon enough, however, they'd calm down and begin heading back the way they came... as it turned out, that was certainly to Sparks' benefit, because proceeding around the corner made it clear that an identical hallway extended from the door they'd seen on the other side of the lobby, which had never been opened... until now, that is. Several of the gray creatures had finished wrenching it open and would have been flanking Sparks' momentarily had DragonierMan not convinced Power to call them off.

At any rate, there was no point in looping back around through that way, so Sparks' interest would be drawn elsewhere: a long hallway now to his left as he turned, leading deeper into the dam. Lights lined the walls at either side near the roof all throughout. None of them had seemingly popped like the one that had been near Sparks earlier, but that didn't mean there was no danger; each light was still flickering sporadically, likely from the gray men draining the grid through other sources. Thankfully, the flickering meant Sparks could make his way deeper if he wanted to, without having to hold up a sword or spin a spear over his head to illuminate the way.

Sparks pressed on by himself, in hopes of filling out more of the spaces on the Samurai Bingo Card more than anything else. Whatever ReservoirMan abandoned would be up for grabs, and he'd run out pretty quick, so there was a chance he'd left behind something useful... or just cool. He might experience a sense of deja vu as he continued down the hall... there were no rooms, so it was just a long expanse of samey stone architecture, but as he continued along, the condition deteriorated. Cracks were visible along the walls and the further he went, the worse they became. It began to seem like he wasn't going to find anything... there were no doors, so seemingly, nothing to explore. More worryingly, as he continued, he would notice spots where complete darkness hung for a moment due to a complete outage of lights or where the cracks were allowing water through in slow streams.

Eventually, Sparks arrived at a door. This one was mechanical, but not like the others; it appeared to open via a large button near the side. If he entered the room, he'd confirm there was another similar button on the other side. It was likely ReservoirMan needed those to fit his huge hands, as even a simple, ordinary sized knob wouldn't have worked for him. If he chose not to investigate the room and instead to continue on, he wouldn't get far: just up ahead, the cracks became wet rubble, and that eventually turned into a massive pile-up of concrete, twisted pipes, and dangerous, sparking equipment. It wasn't too far from ReservoirMan's office, actually, so the navi was probably lucky he made it out as well as he did. Regardless, that way was a dead end now.

At this point Sparks could either head back, jack out and back in at the front of the dam, or explore the office. ReservoirMan had been rather distinctly shaped; it was a little odd that he hadn't designed the door differently or widened it assuming it had been built for someone else, given that as it was shaped, ReservoirMan would have had to stick first one arm through, then shuffle out sideways. Aside from the door, the rest of the room made sense for its owner. A desk with a console sat at the center, with no chair behind it. A carpet was lain across the floor, damp near the entrance where the water had started to reach it. A large indentation in the carpet showed that the console was likely the only place he ever stood (or more like rested) in here. The only other items of note were a few bookcases and shelves, most which looked as though they hadn't been disturbed in a while. They seemed to contain some binders with information related to the dam's history. It was pretty quaint, to see it stored this way rather than in a more convenient medium. Whoever had archived them that way was probably the same person who got a kick out of moving around in an old-fashioned cart, which probably meant it wasn't ReservoirMan himself. He hadn't bothered to take any of it with him, either.

A closer look at the console would reveal that it ordinarily tracked various factors of dam performance, but right now, most of that was meaningless next to the red, flashing exclamation mark symbol in the center of the screen. Beneath it, the words "EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY" were written. The fact that only ReservoirMan had access to such a warning showed what a solitary existence he had here, besides the Mr. Progs, who had presumably left soon after him and didn't seem like they'd be much for chatting regardless.

Unfortunately, it was really hard to call anything in this room "something cool." Perhaps there was somewhere else in the room he could think of to check? The bookcases, binders, desk, console, carpet, and entrance button... none of them seemed likely to conceal anything. Also, the sound of running water outside would remind him he was on a timer until the deterioration of the dam worsened, possibly up to the point of more areas becoming flooded or collapsing.

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Outside, DragonierMan and ReservoirMan's lender were butting heads. "Ha ha ha ha! Listen to bat boy getting worked up! You sound like some snot-nosed elementary school kid with a picture book, trying to convince his friends how cool dragons are! They're basically big lizard bats, aren't they? Not cool at all!" the pirate cackled, sounding herself rather like a bullying schoolgirl from inside the questionable safety of her ship. "Ha ha ha! But what if the president's in the pocket of some shadowy mastermind or something, huh? I'm more like that, nothing uncool like a landlord!"

The two continued to shout back and forth, advancing a conversation of debatable merit. "Contractors my ass! I'm not 'getting paid', I'm claiming what's already mine! Nobody's my boss, okay? You with the GNA or something? Maybe you're more like a sheep than a bat!" she taunted. "If you think I'm filing jack crap to repossess this location, then you're even dumber than a sheep! I don't care about this dam at all... It was just one of many power centers I've got, okay? I don't really even get why he wanted to be in control of the big dumb lake here, but it doesn't matter now, right? I don't care about the land and I don't care about Reservoir Dump, though he's gonna pay for screwing up my investment somewhere down the line. All I want now is whatever he already made for me, and it's gotta be stashed around here somewhere."

While he was chewing that over, Lee and Sake arrived from their hike back up to the entrance. "Woah! That's her, huh?" Lee asked, looking at the ship and shielding her eyes with one hand from the sunlight glinting off of it. She bent her back and stuck out her hips, as if looking extra hard. "Ha ha ha!" she finally laughed, planting her spear back on the ground and standing up straight. "She called you a bat sheep!"

Sake's smiled and shrugged. "Well, I got your message. Thanks for getting her to call the guys off, but it doesn't really matter which way we got out so long as we got out. Unless you just really wanted us to owe you one!" she laughed. She held the goofy smile for a bit, then reacted in shock. "Wait a second! Sparks is still in the dam?! Doesn't he know that thing's falling apart?"

"Psh, don't worry! He'll be okay," Lee reassured Sake, slapping the smaller girl on the back. "Why do I say that? Well, uh... Hey! It's pretty cool he wants to fill out the Samurai Bingo card, isn't it? That just shows you what a great recruit he's gonna be!"

Sake's wry smirk looked unconvinced. "You think so? It seems a little goofy that he cares so much about finding something cool for your bingo card that he's willing to drown inside that old collapsing dam for it..." she remarked quietly.

"I-It's inspiring! He's just having so much fun cause of the Bingo game I thought up!" she insisted, pouting. "Anyway... I guess we're just waiting on him now?"

"Huh, you screwballs look a little familiar... Well, whatever. Say, you goofs were in the dam just now, weren't you? Did you see my stash? Kinda like a bunch of old golf cart batteries or something?" the voice of Captain Power reentered into the conversation, talking loudly enough so she was hard to ignore. "Fess up if you saw them, unless you want me to blast you with bolts till your body fat slides off'a your bones! Just give me a reason!" the young girl cackled.

Sake sent the others a message again:

Quote (Sake)

It'll be easy to bluff and say we didn't find anything while we were in there. Don't reveal you know anything about the canisters. We should also be quiet about the fact that Sparks is still in there... if we talk about that too much and she figures out that one of us is still in there, it'll be hard to defend our ignorance. And uh, Sparks, maybe finish up in there... We're stalling her but eventually she'll think we're all out and her guys are going to start tearing up the place. If that happens, they'll find you, then, again, our bluff is compromised.

Quote (Lee)

We could just leave... but, the Bingo card!

Quote (Sake)

... It's your Bingo card. Couldn't you just give them the space for free?

Quote (Lee)

That'd ruin the whole thing! Hard work is it's own reward! Go on, Sparks! Find something cool!

Sparks had been given a tall order, considering how sparse the rest of the inside of the dam was. DragonierMan might be able to help out by either calling off the search or otherwise finding something cool himself.

DragonierMan and Aya turned to see Lee and Sake on the nearby path. DragonierMan, shrugging off the 'bat-sheep' insult, then turned back and shouted down to Captain Power. "Looks like my allies are here. Thank you for your cooperation and I wish you luck in collecting what is owed to you!" And, without continuing the conversation or mentioning the canisters, Drago and Aya flew down to where Lee and Sake were and landed. "In order to wrap this up before we end up with any more problems, like this Captain Power attacking us, or the dam collapsing on Sparks..."

Quote (Suzume)

"Sir Sparks!"

"Sir Sparks," Aya gritted out. "Perhaps you can just make the canisters we found fill in the space as well. They were hidden 'around' the dam after all," Aya pointed out. "Yes it might be a 'cop-out', but I think the boys have shown that they gave the game a real show by now. It will make them want to do another attempt at a similar game in the future, in order to make up for the lack they feel for this time."

DragonierMan sent a message to Sparks.

Quote (DragonierMan)

"Yeah, get out of there before the dam, or these pirates, comes down on your head."

Before he turned back to the ship. "As I said, we were collecting our payment for dealing with problems around the dam! Now that we are done, we are leaving! Goodbye!" he shouted back as he began to mimic shooing the three girls back down the path with his arms. "Just play along," he said quietly to Aya, Lee, and Sake. "We'll meet up with Sparks where you guys came back in from and then get out of here before she finds out there are no more of her canisters." And with that he started down the path towards wherever they jacked-in from, which is where Sparks would too if he came in that way. Assuming he didn't just make a beeline for the Shogun Camp.

Sparks finally arrived at what had to be the Dam Owner's office. "Well... It sure dosen't look like anything special is in here." He spoke to himself aloud. First the samurai chose to walk over to the console, being a net navi had it's perks in situations like this, while glancing at anything that might be of some value the samurai returned Drago's message.

Quote (Sparks)

I'm in the grump master's office. Nothing really interesting to me, but I'll take these binders, and copy this computer then jack out to meet y'all. I shouldn't be too much longer, thanks for everyone's concern. It seems driving the cart off the Dam didn't impact our friendship after all.

After finishing his comms message, he placed his hand on the moniter's screen, quickly attempting to copy the files to his PET, that he could later install to another computer, maybe back at the base. As soon as the download was complete he walked over to the bookshelf. If Sparks took the time to look through each and every binder, the dam was liable to completely collapse and drown him in the process. At the same time he probably wouldn't understand much of it anyways.

It was too many binders to carry, and carrying the the whole book case was completely improbable, so he reached up under his breastplate and pulled out a handy black bag. From top to bottom he grabbed each binder and placed them neatly into the bag trying to keep them as orderly as possible. Taking one more look around the room Sparks didn't see anything else that could remotely be interesting so he decided to jack out.

Quote (Sparks)

Sake, get the sake ready because I'm on the way.

A quick beam out from inside the damn, followed by a quick lighting strike at the entrance were the original group had started, and should be now that the mission was wrapping up. Looking around to make sure everyone was accounted for he said, "So how was my recruitment mission?"

"Huh? Oh, uh, okay. Luck shouldn't be a part of it since I didn't see ReservoirMan carrying anything. Just scram," Power responded to DragonierMan, as he and his girls left the upper area of the dam.

Lee perked up as DragonierMan approached. Sake lowered her eyebrows and whispered. "Keep your voice down... she could hear Lee, remember? She's going to hear you talking about the canisters if you aren't careful," the smaller girl murmured, though if she'd thought about it, she could have used messages to be safer as well.

The general wasn't worried about that, however; she was more concerned over DragonierMan's plans for the bingo card. She crossed her arms and tensed her brow, closing her eyes and thinking hard. "Hmumumu... This is difficult... I want to be the cool general that gives you lots of prizes, but I also have to be tough since this is a real legitimate Neo-Shogun mission! I guess if we get some proof that those things are 'cool' then I'll count them for that square too. I don't even really get what they do, though! Maybe somebody back at the camp will have a better idea," she grumbled, struggling internally with how much slack she ought to allow the two of them on their bingo cards. "So sorry, Drago! The final fate of your bingo cards will be announced at the camp! Until then, this is what your bingo card will look like this!" she remarked, holding it out for him to see.



"You've got both sexy prizes already though, isn't that pretty cool?" she asked, grinning big and leaning in. "We'll handle that once Sparks has met back up with everyone! Now where is that guy...?"

"I got a message from him, he says to keep the sake ready. I've always got some of that available, of course! Though if he doesn't get here fast, I'm going to drink it all first, he he he," Sake let the others know, pulling out a fresh bottle from her robe's heavy sleeves and rubbing it against her cheek lovingly.

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Inside the office, Sparks was doing what he could to wrap up quickly. As the carpet grew more damp and a heavy thud resounded from somewhere inside the dam, that seemed wise indeed. It was hard to find anything of interest on the console, since it was mostly specific functions of operation the dam's flow and almost all of it was non-operational now. One point of interest, however, was encrypted data hiding deep inside. It seemed too tough for the untrained and not the kind of thing you could use an unlocker to open up either, so the best he could do is take it with the rest of the data and hope he'd find someone capable of unlocking it later.

As for the binders, they all appeared to be full of items related to the dam's history. If he flipped through a few, he'd discover many photographs of various navis, but none including ReservoirMan... they must be related to the dam's previous owner. He'd also notice that certain pages had either been ripped out, or otherwise blank spots where photos had been removed. There was definitely something to them... but, like the computer files, it would not be easy to figure out what was hidden. Perhaps someone with knowledge of what had been written before could explain it? That would have to be either ReservoirMan or the dam's previous owner, though, and both were impossible to track down for now.

With those collected, Sparks could leave and rejoin the others.

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Back outside the dam, Sparks greeted the others, asking Lee straight up what she thought of his mission. "Oh, it went just super," she explained easily, not having much of a gift for building suspense. "However! For the full assessment, we need to proceed... back to camp! Last one there's a rotten egg!" she finished, pointing a finger first toward Sparks, then DragonierMan. Before anyone had a chance to protest, she vanished off the net in a pillar of fire, a little too close to those she might ought to worry about roasting.

Sake clutched her bottle to her chest protectively, then looked to the others once Lee was gone. She shrugged and smiled. "We'll drink back at the camp, then!" she cheered. "Oh, and Sparks, here's the address to get to the Camp, in case you don't have it. It's just a big camp where subordinates gather all the time. The Shogun doesn't live there or anything, but, well, it feels like it some times nowadays!" Sake laughed, before beaming off the net, accompanied by a spinning sake bowl twirling about her and raising into the air, out of sight. It sounded like quite a lot was going to be resolved at the camp, in terms of rewards and probably drinking sake.

((To be continued at Neo-Shogun Camp))

Sparks arrived on the scene in timely fashion, but the reunion would be short lived due to Lee giving her minor grade on his mission. However, she quickly directed the group to head badk to the camp to officially bring the mission to a close. "We will be right behind you guys." The samurai spoke, but held out on leaving just yet. Once Lee and Sake had left, he waved down DragoneirMan to get his attention.

"Hey Drago, I appreciate you helping me out with this mission today. It's always great teaming up with you. You have been my closest friend and ally." Sparks gave his comrade a quick look up and down, his tone went from energetic to a more serious nature. "However... I'm not sure about what kind of past incidents you were involved in, but I now have many free ends and allies. As well as choosing to serve the Shogunate." The samurai paused briefly, as if he was hestItant to speak his next statement, "...I have no reason to believe you ever would, but don't give me a reason to point my blade at you..."

It was no telling how Drago would react in this moment. Sparks' demeanor didn't seem to aggressive but again his tone was very serious.

After Lee and Sake headed back home, Sparks came up to DragonierMan for some serious talk. Drago listened to Sparks have his say before he turned to Aya. "Better head back to the camp and meet up with your sister. We'll join you later. I leave the 'welcome back party' to you guys," he said to Aya. Aya looked at Sparks, and then back to Drago. She nodded, "Roger that boss, see you soon." And with that said, she jacked-out in a beam of shadowy-purple light.

Drago turned his back to Sparks and walked over to a large rock at the side of the path they were on. He turned back around as he took a seat, sighing as he let the pressure off his feet (not that he was walking all that much today). "So what's on your mind?" he began as he started to loosen the straps on his right hand gauntlet. His eyes came up from his hand to give a longer look at Sparks before turning back to the task he was busying himself with. "Can I assume something happened on this mission, or perhaps earlier than that, to warrant an ultimatum?" he said in a pretty even voice. It seemed that his demeanor didn't indicate that he thought there was any threats to be concerned with at the moment, or that Sparks was going to start anything physical right now, and that Sparks probably had some questions or clarifications to voice. So Drago was making himself comfortable and getting ready to have a potentially long talk with his associate and friend about what was on his mind.

"Feel free to ask," Drago said as he shucked the gauntlet from his arm and let it clatter to the dirt. He then began working on removing the padded leather glove that was underneath it. "We probably don't need to return right away. Suzume and Aya can handle things with the others while you get whatever you need to get off your chest." He stopped for a moment to look at Sparks with a serious, yet compassionate stare. "Whatever you plan on talking about you should know that I also see you as a worthy friend. And I will not lie to you. You can trust me on that at least." If windows were the eyes to the soul, as many claimed, then Sparks could see that Drago was being quite genuine. "So ask. I will answer, truthfully. No tricks, no excuses. Just promise me that you will give me the benefit of the doubt."

Sparks was relieved to see that DragoneirMan didn't take an aggressive stance. He felt it right to mimic Drago's sense of comfort if you could call it that. The samurai tapped into his Relaxdd.GMO. This caused any armor he was wearing to crackle with electricity before popping into junk data around him. His Navi suit was overridden with a forest green yukata with yellow trimming.

Sparks slipped his left arm out of the kimono, cracked his neck, and walked over to a near by stone big enough to act as a chair, and took a seat. "Honestly Drago, I have zero quarrels with you, Lee said something about yo wanting to take the Shoguns head in the past..." His tone was more relaxed then earlier, meaning Drago probably wouldn't have to try hard to make his point. "Just don't make a move like that without giving me a good reason first. You're my friend, but I serve the Shogun now, I'd like to think you did to."

DragonierMan dropped his right-hand glove to the ground and began to work on his left gauntlet. "First of all, I didn't plan on taking the Shogun's head. Though there was an altercation where that almost happened. No, the idea was to work my way up the ranks and 'take' the Neo-Shogunate for myself by becoming the Shogun. The current Shogun has way more value as a member of the NS. There is no reason to delete her," Drago said.

Drago shucked the gauntlet off of his arm. "So, what happened was there is this organization named ROT..." he paused. "I forgot what that stands for." He then started working on his gloved left hand. "So they have this leader called BrainMan or something, and he managed to get to Yasu and implant a robotic eye in her head which controlled her. Now, I didn't know what was going on behind the scenes. I thought it was just her true nature finally breaking free to the surface. It isn't like she wasn't brash with me like that before."

"Basically she decides that the Shogun has bungled up enough things for the NS and should be replaced. Either by herself or me. Probably because some of the others wouldn't oppose if I took over. And so, in order to facilitate the transition, I was sent to capture her to be imprisoned. Probably tried in front of the others... Make it a legitimate transition if they voted that way."

"So I did it. I went to where she was not expecting an attack, and took the Shogun hostage and came back. And as we were throwing her in a prison, MachMan, who by the way was a member of the NS before he left. He took over the air force that was created when the Terror Girls attacked here not too long ago. Anyways, he left because of a fallout with the mind-controlled Yasu, who we didn't know was mind-controlled at the time," he continued to explain. He dropped his left-hand glove to the ground and leaned back, looking up at the sky. "You know I haven't seen them since. I wonder if those three air force girls are still members of the NS?"

"Anyways," he said as he looked back to Sparks. "MachMan showed up just then to free the Shogun. There was a little tussle, nothing more than a few shots fired, and that was when I almost took the Shogun's head. See, Yasu was basically saying, screaming really, that it was better to delete her instead of letting her get away, as that would cause a civil war so-to-speak. And we didn't want the NS to fracture over this, so I almost did the deed. I held her at knifepoint basically and demanded that MachMan get out. However, it was then that we found out that Yasu was mind-controlled, as MachMan defeated Yasu and BrainMan revealed himself through the eye. So this whole coup was a set up to give BrainMan control over the NS. So of course I let the Shogun go," Drago concluded.

"Now, did I jump on the train too early and maybe with too much enthusiasm. Maybe. Sometimes you have to 'take the bull by the horns' as they say. Would I do it any differently? Probably not. I am not one to have elaborate plans, that is the twins' job. No, things just spiraled out of control and a lot of people almost got hurt, but didn't." He smacked his thighs with his bare hands. "And that is the story of how The Great DragonierMan Almost Took Over the NS. And had it all been as successful as BrainMan wanted, you would be serving me... Or possibly Yasu. As the Shogun instead."

He waved the story away as if it were bothersome smoke with his hand. "Any, anyways, everyone involved with the scuffle is trying to figure out what to do from here on. I haven't stopped wanting to take over the Shogunate, but I don't plan on doing it the same way next time. BUT first on my docket is the complete annihilation of BrainMan and the ROT organization. I'll try again with a more peaceful power-grab after I lay the foundation of the Shogunate's peace... with the bones of ROT's membership," he said as he stomped heavily on the ground in front of him, grinding his heel into the dirt. A billowing cloud of dust erupting under his boot.

"Until then I will serve the current Shogun just as well as I did before I tried to take over."

Sparks listened to the story intently, focused on every little detail about the past conflict between ROT and the NS. In the end ultimately Sparks was with Drago's vision of a peaceful power grab, and would support it wholeheartedly as long as that is what it was. "Well then brother, if you don't mind me referring to you as such, I'm behind you. You are a strong and trustworthy warrior, I look forward to serving beside you, and maybe one day under you." The samurai stood and walked over to his friend, it was obvious Drago was ready to be done with this conversation about the past, and he seemed completely focused on the future.

"I look forward to cutting down this ROT enemy with you, so if you go to face them make sure you let me know first." In a completely cliche manner he offered the warrior a handshake to seal their ever lasting friendship. "It was never any disrespect when I started this conversation, it was more of a way to see where your mind was. Let's continue to grow stronger together." Assuming Drago accepted the handshake, Sparks would direct them back to the camp. "Maybe its time we get back and get the full evaluation of my mission, and collect these rewards." A smile crossed his face, happy to be done with the dam mission and move on to what ever was next for them. On that note Sparks beamed out of Okuden Net, and headed to the address that Sake had given him.

This is where he went.

DragonierMan stood up and clasped Sparks hand in a warrior's handshake. Both of their arms flexing with power. "Done," Drago agreed. If there was a strike against the ROT, he would be sure to request Sparks on the mission. "Yeah, let's head out before that pirate girl finds out there isn't anything of value left in that dam. Especially after you raided it," he said, before jacking-out in a beam of light.