Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaw shit. Aw SHIT. SHIT.” ToxicMan swore in surprise, his face of grim expression. “DAN MAN. YOU SEEIN’THIS? SOME LITTLE PUNK ASS IS WRECKIN’ OUR SHIT.”“Yes, I can see that. But those viruses are expendable. We’re not at a loss.” Dante calmly stated, hiding his…
The figure in the shadows that the determined Navi slashed at proved to be an Anubis statue; as an almost primal roar sounded from the opposite corner. ToxicMan, whom had been lying in wait, used this duping as an opportunity to attempt a sucker punch. However, the attack was thwarted by his opponent’s agility, leaving his punch to soar through empty air. He grunted.
Meanwhile, in the men’s restroom, Dante slyly opened the door to the bathroom stall. He flashed a grin beneath his oxygen mask at the sight of the unconscious janitor as heavy fumes began to disperse, fogging up the bathroom mirrors. It was time to make a run for it: the data he had received had provided excellent results, and a prolonged stay would result in certain arrest. Escape routes…escape routes…the boy pondered as he dashed through the wide hallway of the theater and into the lobby. The parking lot, visible through the glass doors of the lobby, proved empty; though Dante wasn’t about to wait around for law enforcement to arrive. Clutching his PET in one hand and his bag in the other, he bolted out the door.
Seeing an opportunity to strike as ToxicMan thrashed empty air, WingMan raised his blade and delivered a vertical slash, which was blocked by ToxicMan; though it left his arms damaged and caused him to skid backwards. Using the distance now between them, Dante uploaded a pair of Bug Bomb chips to use PET, allowing ToxicMan to roll them along the ground of the virtual battlefield. As they exploded, the Net Navi grinned, thinking he had bested the vigilant duo. However, his plan was foiled as Aceon quickly retorted with Bug Fix. ToxicMan gritted his teeth in anger, just as his OP buzzed in. “We’re done here, ToxicMan. We’ve no time to play games with these two any longer.”
“You’re not so bad, fly boy.” He remarked, “But you heard the man. Time for me to jet.” And the connection was closed.
Dante sighed. He had retreated to the sewers by crawling through a rather large drainage ditch installed on a curb near the movie theater. As ToxicMan returned to the PET, sirens wailed from above ground. “Good work today, partner. But I hate to say that these gases were a little too lethal. Distractions are good, but I’d hate for this things to kill someone…”
Using the sewer systems as a makeshift road, Dante was able to slip back into his apartment unnoticed by law enforcement. With a sigh of relief, he tossed his bag onto his futon and flipped on his television to the local news channel. As he expected, a live report was being made of the attack on the movie theater, and, as Dante had planned, no one had been killed during the attack; though his eyes widened as the reporter mentioned that a girl had been hurried off to the hospital due to an extreme asthma attack brought on by the gas. “…damn…didn’t expect that…” Dante brought his palm to his forehead and sighed. “Those damn things were too potent, it seems…lesson learned; idea scraped.” He felt guilty; what he thought was going to be simple test had quickly turned into a close call.
Dante had planned for the chemicals to induce a temporary coughing fit; not death. “Maybe I should go pay that girl a visit…without revealing who I was…” He mumbled.
Aceon returned to the atrium doors with a refill of popcorn. He pulled at the door handle, but for some reason, the door didn’t budge. He tried again to no avail.
“Huh, that’s weird,” Aceon said. He tried opening the door again, but with the same result.
“What’s up?” WingMan…
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaw shit. Aw SHIT. SHIT.” ToxicMan swore in surprise, his face of grim expression. “DAN MAN. YOU SEEIN’ THIS? SOME LITTLE PUNK ASS IS WRECKIN’ OUR SHIT.”
“Yes, I can see that. But those viruses are expendable. We’re not at a loss.” Dante calmly stated, hiding his building rage behind his cold eyes.
“BUT HE’S HEADING FOR THE CONTROL PANEL.”
“I know. And that’s why I’m sending you in there.”
“Oh. Right.”
Dante’s fingers danced across the screen of the PET like the legs of a spider as he prepared to send ToxicMan in to assess the current threat.
“Remember,” He advised. “This is only one of the canister’s we’re talking about here. We’ve still got plenty; more than enough to gain a sufficient amount of data. It’ll take more than one vigilante to stop you and I, you know.” Dante smiled faintly.
“You got it boss man! But if shit gets bad, we high tailin’ it out of here!”
“Of course!”
-
ToxicMan stumbled into the canister’s control room; the Jack In a success. “Aight, I’m ready for anythin’. After this, me and Dante can chill, and like, holla’ at some bitches.” He said, attempting to motivate himself to succeed in the inevitable and approaching conflict. “Yo Dan! Feed me some chips!”
“Sure, sure. No problem.” Dante’s hand fumbled in his pant pockets for a second or two before finding the chip he intended to use: Anubis. “Alright, Toxic. Here’s your favorite; coming your way.”
“Aaaaw shit. It’s Anubis, ain’t it?”
“But of cou-“
Just then, there was a slam of a door. Footsteps sounded from outside the bathroom stall as Dante quickly hid his legs by crouching on top of the toilet lid. “Helloooooo? Is anyone in here? I’m a janitor who works here and there’s been a gas leakage or something! Anyone still in the bathroom needs to evacuate immediately!” The footsteps got closer; knocks sounded from each of the stall doors before they creaked open. “HELLO?” Resounded after each.
It was obvious that this man intended to check all the stalls: empty or otherwise. Dante bit his lip as he carefully reached into his messenger bag, lifting it off the bathroom floor and suspending it in the air before pulling out his gas mask and a smoke bomb, in the shape of a grenade. He snickered as he pulled the pin, tossing it under the stall door. The metal clinked against the tiles of the bathroom before a soft “Huh?” was heard; then the hissing of gas and the alarmed cries of a grown man.
Then a thud.
“Come on, ToxicMan, hurry up!”
The shrill screams of a police cruiser blared from the streets below Dan’s apartment as it sped by. He stirred.
It was the rumble of the above ground train right next to his window that finally awoke him, or rather, caused him to roll off of his futon and hit his head on the…
“Some people…” Dante muttered under his breath, bringing the bag close to his body.
He checked the bag’s contents to assure that they had remained intact, and sure enough, they had. Fantastic. The boy thought, getting up to leave. Time to put this plan in to action.
Walking out of the dark viewing room, it took a couple of blinks and a rub of the eyes for Dante to adjust to the bright lights that shimmered above the hallway. Several other viewing rooms had their doors propped open invitingly, as movie posters lined the hallway. He pulled out his PET and headed towards the entrance. “The coast is clear, Toxic, no one expects a thing…not that I imagined they would, anyway.” Dante spoke softly to his Navi, making sure none of the movie-goers would hear him discussing plans to fumigate the theater. “Show me the blue prints to this establishment.”
“You got it, G. Closest entrance to the air ducts is in the bathroom, holmes.”
“That’ll do just fine…” Dante scanned over the screen of his PET, memorizing the layout of the building as best he could before heading off to the men’s restroom.
Sure enough, in the farthest stall to the left, there was a large vent that hung overhead. Standing on the toilet, Dante carefully unhinged the grate and placed it further in the duct before he himself climbed into it, lifting himself up and in. He screwed the grate back on before heading west on his hands and knees, crawling through duct.
…
After almost an hour of crawling, checking the map, crawling, and rigging smoke bombs, Dante had successfully planted one at every vent in the theater, so that the toxins would trickle down through the grates into every room a vent was located. Along with the actual canisters, Dante had installed several tiny video cameras to peer out of the vents and observe his toxins perform. It was exhausting work, Dante thought, as he lowered himself from the same enclosure from where he had entered. “Now, the real show begins.” He chuckled to himself, slipping on a gas mask he had kept in his bag.
Now to spy from the safety of the bathroom. He flipped on his PET. “We don’t have any popcorn, and the seat’s might be rather uncomfortable, but I think we’ll enjoy the show after all, eh, Toxic?”
“Man, I am PSYCHED. Let’s just go ahead and get those things to explodin’, aight?”
“An excellent notion.”
The screen of the PET flashed as Dante pressed a button on the digital interface that appeared on screen, beginning the process. The cameras activated, and the boy was provided an array of panels to sit and watch, along with a small box, like that of a webcam, where ToxicMan appeared.
Slowly, the toxins began to trickle into the theater.
The shrill screams of a police cruiser blared from the streets below Dan’s apartment as it sped by. He stirred.
It was the rumble of the above ground train right next to his window that finally awoke him, or rather, caused him to roll off of his futon and hit his head on the coffee table. This caused the table itself to shake, bringing his PET down onto his cranium with a soft thud, and waking his Navi.
“Oh, shit! The hell’s goin’ on?” The voice emitting from the PET was deep and harsh, until its owner realized that it was not in any dange. “Oh. Yo, Dan man, why’s we on the floor?”
Dante, or as he was more commonly called, Dan, slowly rose to a crouch. “Morning, that’s why. I guess a train must have came by while I was half-awake.” He sighed, scratching his wild white hair.
“That must’ve been one hella’ loud train.”
“All the trains are loud when they’re right outside your window.” As if to emphasize his point, another train sped by, releasing a cloud of black smoke into the air as it whined.
“So was on the agenda fo’ today?”
“Well…there is that new smoke bomb I’ve been wanting to test…” Dante stood up, walking over to his dresser.
Rummaging through piles of clothes, Dan pulled out a small, roughed up cardboard box with a piece of tape over it “New bombs need testing.” He read. “Find me the nearest location of mass entertainment, if you would, ToxicMan.”
On the floor of the apartment, the PET lit up as a small map of the city spanned its screen. “Aight, uh…looks like the closest place’s be the movie theater.”
“Cinema, huh? That’ll do fine. See if you might be able to hack into the city’s archive, or something similar, in order to find the blue prints. Also, find us the film that is soonest to be shown, and what time it is to be so.”
“Already on it, Dan man. I know how we’s roll.” A bleep from the screen. “Download COMPLETE. Some shitty ass movie about action or some shit starts at 11 AM. It’s 10:25 right now, and the theater ain’t too far away.”
Dante bent over to pick up his PET, giving the screen an air five (to which ToxicMan did the same) as he did so. Placing the device gently in the pockets of the faded jeans he had slept in, he grabbed a black messenger bag from the end of the coffee table, and stuffed the cardboard box inside as he headed out the door.
Name: ToxicMan.EXE
Element: Null
Personality: Loud-mouthed, rude, and very smug, Dante’s Navi and himself get along quite well. He is constantly mocking his opponents and making light of any tasks he is to perform, though he is easy to anger, and very violent when he is so, which often leaves his defenses something to be desired while greatly increasing his offensive capabilities. He considers Dante and himself to be both “partners in crime”, and good friends.
PET: ToxicMan.EXE’s Personal Terminal is of the Advanced model, and is of a dark lavender color.
Name: Dante “Dan” Fumagawa
Age: 19
Birthday: October 19th
Height: 5’5
Weight: 115 lbs
Occupation: Chemistry Student/Domestic Terrorist
Interests: Net Battling, Chemistry, and Chess
Personality: Although Dante is quite cunning, brash, and very sarcastic, that does not necessarily mean he is void of all compassion or charisma. However, this camaraderie is only reserved for those whom he works with, such as fellow WWW members, or people he’ll eventually throw under the bus.
Background: Being very sickly as a child, what Dante lacks in physical strength, he makes up for in intelligence and agility. He has always had a certain affinity for chemicals and chemistry, (specifically gases and toxins) which enabled him to rise through the ranks of World Three quite quickly. He claims that he joined the organization for his own benefit, as it enabled him to gain a variety of chemicals normally not available to the average citizen.
