Definition

Decryption

"Good job, puppet." A man clad in black appeared from the shadows. "You've successfully given the dogs your scent."

A woman sat on a desk, typing away without caring. Her eyes were diluted, almost as if she was in a trance. One could only assume she was under the man's control.

The man smirked. "Time for phase three."

~~~~~

Entering the Seeker Base, the pink haired woman ran in and tackled a blue-head into a hug. "Hiro!!"

"Ah! Ran!" He awkwardly hugged her back, but quickly let go. "Not right now, okay?"

"Ehh? I haven't seen you in months! Why not???" Ran wanted to complain more, but as soon as she saw Jin, she immediately understood. "Oh... I-I didn't mean..."

"Forget it. We have more important things to worry about." Jin kept his voice as calm as possible, but it still came out rather cold. However, it was only to the point that the ones who noticed were his long time friends.

The long haired boy walked up to him and offered his hand. "Jin, it's nice to see you again."

He let out a very faint smile. "Likewise, Yuuya. Thanks for coming on such short notice."

"Sakuya! Takeru! Kiyoka!" Arata called. "You're back!"

"We sure are!" Takeru replied gleefully.

"Heard you guys found Detector's base." Sakuya said.

"The Wheel of Fortune." Kiyoka showed the card on her phone. "A beneficial change is approaching, but keep in mind that luck is uncontrolable."

"Gouda, Sendou, Asuka." Ban greeted them.

"Yo! We're back!" Gouda smirked.

"Looks like everything's alright here." Sendou looked around with a nod.

Asuka yawned. "Man, I'm totally bored. When do we get to fight the bad guys?"

"After we break the code." Kirito said, already running through scanners.

"Ones and zeros would usually mean it's binary, right?" Kazuya asked.

"Kirito, do you have some kind of decoding system?" Ami suggested.

"What do you think I've been working on?" The blonde replied with a frustrated sigh.

01000001 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01110000 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110100 00101110 00100000 01000010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01110010 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00101110

That was the code on the other tab. It was repeated over and over as the numbers scrolled, making it seem as if there were lots. Kirito figured this out in an instant and began working on finding the beginning. It took some time, but he finally managed to get the words on screen.

'A trap is set. Be careful.'

"Someone's trying to warn us?" Wataru asked.

"Takuya-san, does Yagami-san have someone on the inside that we don't know about?" Ban asked.

"I highly doubt it." The blonde man replied. "It could be some kind of trick..."

"Like... A double trap?" Arata asked. "Like a trap in a trap?"

"Something like that."

"Still, it's not like we can pass up on the opportunity." Jin stated. "We can send out a small group to infiltrate. Just to find out who the insider is. Then we get out and coordinate our movements with them."

"But what if you get caught?" Takeru asked. He had worried enough about his vice commander fainting, now he has to worry about this? It isn't like the... 'safe' War Time he knew. This is a real war, between real people and not LBXs. Their tiny partners cam always be fixed, but people? He didn't want to know the answer to that.

"Hope we don't." Was his only reply. "I'll be taking Yuuya, Ban and Niara. We don't need that many people with us, and taking you kids is too dangerous."

"Excuse me, but uh..." Nikolai cleared his throat to get their attention. "Who were the ones that fought in space five years ago? Who fought off the terrorism of a robot? Who saved the world back then?" He looked at every adult in the room. "That's right. You guys did. Minus your current ages by five and you'd be our age! So let us help you! We've clearly fought in war before."

"This fight isn't one like the Second World." Jin tried to reason.

"We fought Seredy Kreisler for heaven's sake!" The Russian boy crossed his arms. "Sure it turned out to be sleeping gas, but during the whole battle, we thought all our friends were dying! It's just the same here! Don't take last year's incident lightly just because it didn't turn out to be 100% dangerous. You adults were panicking, but doing nothing while we kids do all the work!"

No one could deny that. Niara whistled and clapped. "Wow. That was really something." She smiled. "Alright then. We can always use a few extra pairs of hands. Nikolai, Hannah, Miraku and Haruki. But that's it."

"Actually, I think I should stay behind."

"Haruki?" The other kids turned to him in shock. Mainly Arata.

"Muraku will be their commander out there. I will be the commander here." He stated simply. "There's no point in having both leaders in the same place."

"Alright. Then it's a group of seven." Kirito cracked his knuckles and stretched as he stood up. "I called for NICS' help to get there. Asuka and I will stay there as back up. The rest of the kids should come too."

"Not you." Hannah immediately shot down her brother's gaze. "You're not even supposed to be here in the first place. You'll be staying at Seeker base and helping out the other Seekers."

"Aww, no fair!" Nonetheless, Wataru went and sat on a seperate chair.

"I'll be staying here too. Just in case." Kiyoka said, putting her hand up.

"So the ones going to Country A are the infiltration team, Kirito, Asuka, Haruki, Arata, Hikaru, Sakuya, Takeru, Mikhail, Vanessa and Kageto." Takuya noted. "And the ones staying will be Hiro, Ran, Ami, Kazu, Gouda, Sendou, Kiyoka and Wataru." Everyone nodded in approval.

"Now that we're clear on that, pack up." Kirito said, already walking towards the door. "The Duck Shuttle'll be here in the evening."

~~~~~~~~~~

Decryption: The conversion of encrypted data into its original form

((THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE PUBLISHED YESTERDAY AGSFSJHDGS I FORGOT IM SORRY))