Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Date: January 8, 20XX-4

Location: NetMafia “Vile Numbers” Main Headquarters

Against a crackling fire, in silhouette, sat the mastermind. Though he was roughly the size of a human, his purple-hued ears marked him as nothing of the sort, and he covered himself in a protective cloak of his black, metallic wings. His clawed hand clapped shut his book, and the room’s simulated acoustics caused the sound to echo. “Barbarians,” this criminal declared, “absolutely disgraceful.”

“Huh?” One of the invaders said.

“To think that the youth of today are such that they would disrupt my reading time, and with such foolish notions as ‘justice’! What—”

Standing from his chair, the boots he wore over his clawed feet making an obvious sound, the gust of wind from Devilbat Schilt’s wings blew his prized chair out of range of his imminent sortie. Throwing one wing wide to grasp at some sort of theatrics, he continued, “—are the young generations being taught these days?!”

An unmistakable blue-armored young man lowered his MegaBuster and, with a narrowed look, said, “Well, at least we’re not criminals.”

“Oh, you Electopians,” Schilt said, rolling his glaring red eyes from beneath the blindfold-like visor that covered them. “An unfailing bastion of light, not unlike that doctor who you all enjoy puffing up as though he were the sole inventor of our Net society. I can’t stand it!”

With another, astonishingly dramatic toss that fluttered his wings once again with a crackle of static electricity, Schilt hurled his book back into its shelf with pinpoint accuracy (this was actually a coded function of the book object within these walls, but it looked cool.) “I had hoped that should some foolish fighter come in here attempting to interrupt my solitude, it might at least be someone with class, a noble with whom I might break bread and discuss the finer things in life.”

There was a moment of silence, before Lan Hikari, savior of the world roughly nine point twenty-four times over now, mumbled out, “Um, Megaman?”

“Yeah?” Megaman, his loyal NetNavi companion and twin brother, looked up toward an invisible connection to ask.

“What is this guy talking about?” Lan asked, whispering conspiratorially as though Schilt and his current fair-weather operator, the nefarious gangster Menart (who was currently standing approximately twenty feet away from Lan in the human world, albeit behind a glass wall,) couldn’t hear him perfectly well. “Is he okay?”

With a soft sigh, Megaman closed his eyes and responded, “He’s being racist, Lan.”

“So he’s not okay,” Lan said.

“And insulting Grandpa,” Megaman continued.

“Wow! That’s even worse!” Lan said, and though Megaman couldn’t see him at the moment, it was certain Lan was wide-eyed with something vaguely approaching outrage. “Your Navi seems like a real jerk!”

“What are my subordinates doing,” Schilt called out to his own operator, “that they’ve even reached this point?”

“Beats me,” Menart said, audibly shrugging. “Wolff’s off roping his Navi in again, Scuttler’s did a runner, the other ones fell over. We might be screwed.”

With a heavy sigh, Schilt’s ears twitched. “Incompetent man. Need I fight all of your battles for you? Against mere babes? These wet-behind-the-ears street rats shan’t even make a notch on my belt! Ready your chips, Menart, lest all my efforts go to waste.”

“If you say so, Schilt,” Menart said with another audible shrug.

“So, do you think this guy is the actual last boss this time?” Lan asked, and then turned his attention to Schilt. “You don’t have like, a big monster virus waiting in the back there or something?”

“Wha—” Schilt nearly sputtered, but caught himself. “What cheek! You must not know who you’re dealing with. I am the Wailing Gentleman, Devilbat Schilt! Children quake in fear of disturbing my solitude!”

“Hey, what do you think Mom’s making for dinner tonight?” Lan asked.

“Focus,” Megaman chided, raising his Buster again. “If I had five Zenny for every time someone told me something like that, I’d be the richest Navi on the Net.”

“Is that right,” Schilt snickered, before throwing wide his wings, making clear a collection of electrically-charged daggers which lined their walls. “You are an eyesore!”

Megaman gave a little smirk. “Ready, Lan?”

“You know it!”

“Battle routine, set!”

“Execute!”

Date: December 12, 20XX-4

Location: Watters-Markham Household

The door shut with such a force that the light fixtures shook, and the whispers finally left her ears. A heavy sigh forced its way out of Paige’s lungs, and she slumped against the door she’d just slammed shut.

Inside her house, the lights were off, as usual. Despite the sun outside, the inside of the Watters-Markham house was stricken with a gray pallor, almost like the static on old televisions. Craning her head with notable effort, Paige looked over to the entryway’s mirror, almost expecting to see her own brown hair sprouting gray streaks to match the house.

It hadn’t. It might have been plain, but it still felt like the only thing that wasn’t gray when she always wore these dark-colored hoodies and sweatpants—not to mention her complexion got more ashen every day. It wasn’t as though she even liked dressing this way, either; it was just comfortable.

After a minute’s worth of staring listlessly at the mirror and silently contemplating nothing, Paige supported herself on the door to stand back up, her backpack granting her a bit of extra traction against the door as she did. She managed to at least stand into a slump, dragging herself into the barren kitchen to find something or another covered in tinfoil on the counter, with a note from her father that she didn’t have the energy to properly read, but which almost certainly said something about work running late tonight and how dinner was under the foil and she could take care of it herself.

Holding up the note and managing to read none of its words, Paige nevertheless nodded and muttered an “mmhm” as though her father was actually present, and then shuffled off toward her room, where it was at least slightly brighter.

This was how most of Paige Watters-Markham’s afternoons roughly went. Perhaps her classmates’ whispers were slightly louder today on account of yesterday’s events, and yes, perhaps she was a little more listless today than most other days, but it wasn’t really that atypical, she told herself.

Here is how Paige expected to spend the rest of the day. She expected to slough off her backpack and everything that wasn’t her underwear, and spend hours being slightly uncomfortably cold but not cold enough to justify the possibility of becoming hot again by putting on clothes or covering herself in a blanket. She expected to get on her computer—an old-fashioned model she hadn’t felt the need to ask for an upgrade to—and spend the time browsing the web looking for nothing in particular, maybe finding a few vaguely interesting posts about some subject she found briefly interesting, which she’d bookmark a few resources for and then neglect to ever follow up on.

An explanation like this means it never quite goes that way.

As Paige went through the process of shedding her excess baggage, her PET, sitting forlornly on the desk, made a noise. “Hm?” Paige looked over at it, and it almost looked as though it had moved slightly. Perhaps she’d forgotten about an automatic update or something. She went back to her process.

Another noise. Was that a connection? Paige knew what an outside connection to a PET sounded like, and that definitely sounded like it. Ennui and curiosity warred in her head for a few moments, but curiosity won, and she hopped off of her bed, walked a few steps into her office chair, and took a look at it.

Her PET was a bright pink that didn’t quite fit her aesthetic at the moment, as she’d gotten the model on a day out with—

A twinge. I’m an old man, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I think it’d go great with—

Paige shook her head. She hadn’t used this thing properly in months, now. Turning it on and scrolling through its top menu, it appeared she’d forgotten to entirely jack it out whenever she last jacked it in, so maybe some sort of cybermarketer had knocked on her proverbial door. It wasn’t as though her house’s connection was in a particularly populated area of the Cyberworld, though—relatively speaking, it was in the middle of nowhere. Why would—

“Owwww…”

Okay, that was definitely a voice. “Ow, ow ow ow ow, shit, that smarts,” the voice continued. Bookmarks, no, friends list, no, top menu, no… or, wait, that little yellow border wasn’t—

Ah. Aha. It rose a little. There was a slight curve of yellow hair from which a murmur of “Couldn’t even keep the huh?” arose, stopping when Paige adjusted the camera angle downward.

Hm. To be certain, Paige knew that was most definitely a NetNavi inside her PET. She and this NetNavi stared blankly at each other from both sides of the PET’s screen.

Paige was most familiar with several of her classmates’ largely uncustomized Navis, so to find one so obviously unusual literally inside her house was quite bizarre. Here, staring up at her as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, was a girl. A long streak of straight, silvery-blonde hair fell from her head down to her mid-back, with side-swept bangs that, at the moment, fell at least a bit into her eyes, with a single, particularly noticeable lock between her eyes. Her face, unadorned by any standard Navi visors or masks, with its thin lips and eyebrows and high, cool features, looked like it was intended to look aloof and taciturn, but nothing about the way those big blue eyes darted back and forth was anything but kind of ridiculous.

She wore a faded yellow vest over a sheer, black bodysuit, and wore a matching skirt over her waist. Her metallic gloves were sleek and close-fit, and didn’t cover her fingers, which was most likely for the oddly-shaped guns holstered on each side of her body, and she wore… were those cowboy boots? Sure enough, for the spurs. The emblem on her left glove looked like… a bee? No, a wasp, that was more wasp-shaped.

If not for a few telltale signs like the emblem and, well, being inside of an electrical device, she could easily have passed for an oddly-dressed human woman, especially given her visible, well-toned figure, the fact that she was advanced enough to have ‘flesh’ underneath a tear in the leg of her bodysuit, which she had just been interrupted in tending to, the obvious swell of her chest beneath her ve—

Wow. Wow, that was incredibly rude, Paige. Just give her the thrice-over, why don’t you? She inwardly chastised herself.

Almost another minute had passed while the two of them stared at each other before the Navi cleared her throat and said, “Uh, hi,” then closed her eyes and awkwardly waved. “Howdy. Nice weather we’re having!”

“It is,” Paige answered. “Is your leg okay?”

“Oh, this?” With a smug grin, the Navi leaned against the ‘wall’ of the PET and crossed her arms, saying, “No big deal. Little scratches like these don’t bug me much.”

“You sounded like you were in pain,” Paige said.

“You were listening,” the Navi said, not changing her posture at all. “Shit,” she said, still grinning smugly. “I look like a clown now.”

“Why are you inside my PET?” Paige asked.

This got another pause, before the Navi dashed closer to the screen, getting on her knees and bowing to Paige. “Please don’t kick me out yet I need a place to hide out for a few hours! I will do literally anything! I’ll do your cyberdishes! I’ll clean your cyberlaundry! I don’t know how, but I’ll do your real laundry and clean your real dishes!”

“W-whoa, slow down,” Paige mumbled, leaning back slightly away from her PET. “Why are you inside my PET?”

“It was there!” the Navi answered. She looked to her side, hands on her hips, and said, “Like, I’m on the run, right? And I see an open PET connection, no Navi attached to it, means there’s an empty PET sitting around and that’s a flawless place to run, right? I figured I’d be in and out after a bit and nobody would know I was here!”

“You’re on the run?” Paige blinked.

“Oh, yeah, very dangerous stuff,” the Navi said, nodding. “Long story. Anyway, turned out I was in the neighborhood is basically what I’m saying. Why’d you jack your PET in?”

“I don’t remember,” Paige said. “Is it the police?”

“Huh? No. No, I’m not running from the police, look, just—just give me a bit and then I’ll be gone, I swear. Do me this favor, random stranger? Find it in your heart?”

Clasping her hands together, this Navi knelt back down towards the screen, looking up and giving her best puppy-dog eyes. Unable to muster much emotion about the strangeness of this situation, Paige’s best response was a shrug and an, “Okay.”

There was another uncomfortably long pause before the Navi jumped up, saying, “Wait, seriously?”

“You asked for it, didn’t you?” Paige tilted her head, confused.

“No, I just—” The Navi shook her head. “Thanks, boss! Seriously, if you need anything done let me know, I’ve got nothing but free time right now.”

“Why didn’t your operator just jack you out?” Paige asked.

“Huh?” The Navi blinked, and then sat down, continuing, “Uh, haven’t got one. Kinda hard to do that if you don’t exist.”

That got Paige’s eyes to widen. “You don’t have one?”

“Nope,” the Navi said, and then looked up at the ceiling. “Still default, huh? You seem pretty low-tech. What’s your name, kiddo?”

“Paige. Paige Markham,” Paige said. “Fifteen years old.”

“I didn’t ask, but thanks. I don’t know how humie ages work sometimes,” the Navi grinned.

A few hours passed, during which this odd Navi who lacked an operator poked around inside Paige’s PET and commented on any number of things, like the pathetic length of her friends list (with sympathy,) her long list of bookmarks (shock,) and so on. She was animated—something Paige could barely manage on a good day. Paige was mostly quiet, responding when she was asked something but mostly whiling her time away doing some homework.

The hours passed, and soon the sun fell and gave way to night. “So you’re a high schooler, huh? What are you studying?” the Navi asked.

“I don’t know,” Paige answered.

“For real? You’ve been doing that homework for hours and you don’t know?” the Navi said.

“It’s high school,” Paige said. “I can’t make a choice yet. I just do what they tell me.”

“That’s rough, champ, real rough,” the Navi said, crossing her arms and nodding her head. “Me, I don’t study anything ‘cause I’m kinda dumb. Mandatory schooling seems real tough.”

“You’re a weird Navi,” Paige said, and the Navi went quiet. “Where did you come from?”

“That’s…” The Navi averted her gaze. “Long story. It’d take me a bit to tell, and—”

“Do you not want to?” Paige asked, and the Navi shook her head. “That’s fine.”

“I’d say ‘maybe later’, but, y’know…” The Navi rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, seriously, thanks for having me. I should probably be sa—”

Paige’s hand gripped her pen very tightly, and a few nerves she hadn’t felt move for a while twitched in her face. It was quick, almost instantaneous, but she looked over more quickly than she thought herself capable of these days to say, “You don’t have to go yet.”

There was another pause. “Wha?” The Navi fiddled with one of her guns.

“If you don’t want to leave, you don’t have to,” Paige said. “Nobody’s staying in there right now. I don’t mind if you stay for a while.”

There was another pause before, again, the Navi said, “Wait, seriously?” Then, she repeated, “S-seriously?! I can?!”

“I can see if I can make the room a little nicer for you,” Paige answered. “I know it’s default, but I can look for updates. Do you want a place to sit?”

“Oh, come on, that’s way more than I could ask for, haha, yeah totally my dogs are kinda barking and your bookmarks are a crap seat,” the Navi said. “That’s. That’s really nice of you, thanks, kiddo! What a nice girl. You’re my new favorite human, Paige!”

“Your standards are really low,” Paige answered, standing up out of her seat, picking up her PET, and moving over to her bed. “You can stay as long as you like, I guess. I don’t really mind.”

“Sure thing, sure thing! Make it nicer for whoever comes next, right?” The Navi laughed, then tapped on the screen from her end. “Don’t break the bank on my account, though, huh, lady? Girl your age has to learn survival skills.”

“Mmhm,” Paige nodded. She stopped, though, in the midst of properly making her bed (something she never remembered to do in the morning.) “Um, excuse me. What’s your name?”

One more pause. Then, the Navi said, “Mine?”

“Yes,” Paige said. Who else? She didn’t say.

“Uhhh…” The Navi paused, and then answered, looking away, twiddling with a lock of her hair. “It’s Vespa. Vespa.EXE, if you’re not into the whole brevity thing.”

Vespa. So it was a wasp, Paige thought. She nodded, and gave her best smile, which was still pretty small. “Okay, Vespa. You can stay as long as you like. I really don’t mind.”

“Methinks I’ll take you up on that,” Vespa said. She grinned. “Thanks a bunch! You’re a sweet girl, you know that? Don’t worry, if you need the space back I’ll be right out.”

“I’ll let you know,” Paige said, and that was that.

“A while” is a pretty vague term, so it’s no surprise when days turn to weeks,

And then weeks turn into years,

And she just never wound up leaving.

Chapter Text

The year is 20XX.

Humanity lives side-by-side with their ‘Network Navigator’ partners, computer programs that work with and defend the Cyberworld from virus attack. The Net society fostered by the famous scientist, Dr. Tadashi Hikari, continues to flourish, and the line between man and machine blurs with the advent of the Copy Bot, a machine which can bring a NetNavi into the real world.

With the PErsonal Terminals held by the humans, it is not unusual for any human to be accompanied by a NetNavi anywhere they go—these programs serve as friends and family. However, evil still lurks beneath the surface, in the form of those who would manipulate the freedom granted by the Cyberworld to attempt to gain undue power.

Time and again, these villains have been halted by one pair—the unstoppable Lan and Hub Hikari, a pair of twin brothers. The circumstances of their birth have led Hub to live as a NetNavi under the designation ‘Megaman.EXE’, and the brothers’ close bond has proven a force unlike any other, shuttering scheme after scheme of villain after villain.

Eight years have passed since another form of revolution occurred—the invention of the worldwide antiviral software, “Colonel” and “Iris”, by the Hikari family’s former enemy, Dr. Albert Wily. The Hikaris have not given up their fight.

This is not their story.

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Watters-Markham Household

“Yeah! You got this!” The PET’s ‘alarm’ horn blared, letting loose a congratulatory fanfare that was entirely too loud for comfort. “Get those hair decs in! Uh! Yeah!”

Paige slumped over in front of her bathroom sink and stared at herself in the mirror. “Vespa.”

“Morning routines require encouragement!” Vespa fist-pumped from her cozy vantage point on her simulated lounge chair. “Already got mine done! I’m encouraging you! I’m being a good friend!”

“Vespa, please, it’s seven in the morning,” Paige groaned, checking the bottom of her eyes for bags. “I think I have a headache.”

“Okay, but can you blame me for being excited. Like, seriously?” Vespa asked.

Paige shook her head and gave a wan smile. “I guess not.” Her hand fidgeted and briefly went to tap the plane tickets in her pants pocket.

“My little girl’s growing up…!” Vespa let out a loud, melodramatic sob. “She’s going off and leaving me behind!”

“You’re coming with me,” Paige responded. She clipped a pair of pink hair bobbles onto her hair, carefully tying up her pigtails to ensure they weren’t too bunched up. “I—”

The PET beeped, and sure enough, soon Vespa had left the PET and charged into Paige’s bathroom herself. She leaned in, a hand on her chin, to inspect herself and Paige side by side in the mirror. “Hm, yes,” she nodded, “very nice, very nice.”

“Are you going out looking like that?” Paige asked, and Vespa took a moment to have the realization that she wasn’t dressed and was in fact still in her default uniform. About a minute later, she was back in the bathroom, properly dressed this time.

“I don’t get the appeal of showers,” Vespa said, leaning in again.

—Between the two, Vespa was taller by a few inches. When Paige had let this mysterious NetNavi into her house, she had not expected her, or, well, their, possessions to start trending so hard into biker territory, of all things, but the black biker jacket, white tank top, navy blue jeans, and black boots look Vespa always seemed to gravitate towards (plus the tacky leather fingerless gloves she wore because she ‘didn’t feel complete without ‘em’) definitely gave that impression.

When compared to the cool, socially acceptably anti-establishment NetNavi she operated, Paige, with her pale green sweater, pigtails, black leggings, and pale green tennis shoes, and not to mention her generally rounder, softer, overall less threatening frame, gave off the impression of being, in relativity, basically a stuffed toy. It was a good thing, Vespa often said, that she had such a tough, badass Navi, or else people might think they could ‘step’. Paige didn’t know what that meant and never entirely felt comfortable asking.

“Just think,” Vespa said, leaning over and putting her arm around Paige’s shoulders, throwing her other hand wide toward the bedroom window past the door, “this time tomorrow, we’ll be on a flight to Electopia, hanging around and eating in-flight cookies like cosmopolitan ladies of the 21st century.”

“For educational purposes,” Paige said, giggling under her breath.

“Who cares?” Vespa shrugged, grinning brightly. “So, you ready to go?”

Vespa called her motorcycle Chaser. The garish yellow frame that Paige swore was visible from space made Chaser an unmistakable bit of engineering, one Vespa, well…

“Hey, buddy, hey you good-ass bike,” Vespa cooed, cuddling onto Chaser’s front and giving it a bit of affection, “sorry, Momma’s gotta go off for a while after today. You’ll be okay for a while, right, buddy? You won’t die of loneliness? I’ll die of loneliness…” Her head jerked up toward Paige, who had already put on her helmet (also that same horrendously garish yellow,) and she put on the puppy dog eyes. “Are you suuuure we can’t take him?”

“They wouldn’t let us,” Paige said, shaking her head.

“We’ll just have to make this one count, huh, Chaser?” Vespa said, rubbing Chaser sadly. “Damn travel security… Impinging on my sweet baby’s rights!”

All joking aside, though, Vespa cocked her head back—she materialized her helmet onto her head, as was a Navi’s privilege. “You ready? Everything ready for when we get back?”

“Everything,” Paige said. As she sidled onto the seat behind Vespa, she looked awkwardly to her side. “Not that there was that much…”

With a loud purr, Chaser roared to life. “Nice, let’s ruin that by buying more crap,” Vespa said. “We ride at dawn, baby!”

“The sun’s up,” Paige said. And, with another roar from Vespa’s bike, the two of them sped out of the house and onto the road.

(OP: “Shouri no Uta”, by Dandelion)

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE ~ Blue Bomber & Red Fox

Whenever Vespa drove, she had a tendency to go full throttle immediately. Even after all this time, Paige wasn’t fully used to it, so she held onto her helmet tightly as Vespa took a sharp turn onto the road. Once they passed the suburb in which the Markham household sat, they passed over one of Paige’s favorite spots—a bridge over a large river. The air immediately grew cooler over it, which was certainly nice on a summer morning.

The sun had begun to rise, and Paige couldn’t help but stare at how it cast its light over the water, sparkling by as they drove over the bridge.

Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa

(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)

Bokura dake no kono STYLE de

(even if we only have this as our Style.)

Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara

(If this song reaches our hearts,)

Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru

(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)

“You okay back there?” Despite her helmet, Vespa’s hair blew in the wind, and it was all Paige could do to keep her head mostly beneath it. “Damn pretty,” she said, cocking her head briefly toward the river. “You gonna miss it?”

“A little,” Paige said. She shook her head. “Not too much. It’s not like I’ll never be back.”

Akirameru koto wa keshite nai

(As long as we’re here,)

Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri

(we’ll never give up.)

Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura

(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)

Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta

(so that we can fight for freedom!)

“Hey, hey, we can’t just start thinking about coming back already!” Vespa said. “This is a big opportunity! I, for one, haven’t been back in Electopia in ages, lovely place. I know this fantastic cafe over in the CyberCity Central Area—”

“Can I actually drink anything there?” Paige asked, giggling to herself.

“I mean, no, but I can luridly describe the taste of the brew. You can vicariously enjoy it! That’s Electrical Communication, baby,” Vespa said, and Paige had no doubt she was grinning like an idiot over there.

Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi

(Illuminated by the sunlight,)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau

(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)

Passing by a series of traffic lights that serendipitously all stayed green for their ride, the countryside gave way to entering the city—those choked Netopian streets where Vespa made no secret she felt most at home. “Where are we heading first?” Vespa asked, as the smells of roadside food stands and the sounds of buzzing businesses began to fill Paige’s senses.

“I need to buy some flowers,” Paige responded, “so I think we should stop in at the apartments first. I think Mimel would really hate it if I kept her waiting too long.”

“For sure, for sure,” Vespa nodded. “Awful temper on that one. Why are you friends again?”

“Oh, don’t be mean,” Paige said, playfully smacking Vespa on the arm. Vespa chuckled, for her part, too.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

“Well, hang on.” Vespa said, twisting her hands on Chaser’s handles. “It’s about to get bumpy, the pavement on this road is shit.” She waved her hand to the street light, in which there was a Mr. Prog that Vespa was friends with, and, wham!

“Vespa, you don’t go faster for rough pavement, you—uuuuuuaaaaahhhh!” Paige began to rock up and down from the uneven road Vespa began to blow past.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, maiagare!

(Now, fly high!)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!

(Shine brightly on this Earth!)

“Aaaaaaaaaand—”

Vespa careened into the parking lot, and pulled off a near-perfect Akira-style bike slide into open spots in a dingy apartment complex’s parking lot, before spinning into position, parked. “—saaaafe!”

“That was so illegal!” Paige panted, breathing heavily, her face going pale. “That was incredibly illegal! We’re going to get arrested. You’re going to get me killed before I even get to Electopia!”

“Yeah, but it was super rad, right?” Vespa said, taking off her helmet and turning to Paige with bright, expectant eyes.

After a very, very heavy breath out from all the tension in her body releasing at once, Paige shook her head, grimaced, and said, “Yes, Vespa, it was rad.”

“Yeah! Whoooo!” Vespa pumped her fists and cheered, then bent over to pet Chaser. “You’re such a good hog, Chaser. Such a good boy! Oooh, the best motorcycle ever, yes you are, yes you are.”

Episode 1: Dawn of the New Heroes! Revival of the Vile Numbers?!

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Redvine Apartments, Apartment 204

After one, two, three knocks, Paige and Vespa were let in, the clap-based levers for the door opening it without the apartment’s owner having to look over. “Come in,” she said, about three seconds after they’d already come in.

Apartment 204 was a noisy place—not in terms of sound, mind you, but there was simply no other way to describe the visual chaos. Easels stood all about the apartment in any number of corners, with paintings upon them that Paige had always admitted were too avant-garde for her to fully appreciate past their looking nice. A painting project on the ceiling, too, was doing well, with the pulley system for the owner to keep herself able to do so without falling. It was warm. She must’ve had the air conditioner off.

The dishes on the counter were kept almost sparklingly clean, and despite the messiness of the apartment, the actual hygiene of the place was always ship-shape. Such was the duality of its owner. “Ah-hah… hmhmhm… yeah, that’s the shit,” said that very same owner. She currently knelt by the large window on one side of her fairly spacious apartment, with a bouquet of flowers sat on the coffee table along with her current project—what looked to be some sort of plaster figurine.

“Mimel?” Paige asked, clearing her throat.

At full height, Mimel Blackgold was a fair bit taller than Vespa, though currently she was hunched over. She was wearing one of her favorite outfits for her craft, a faded green t-shirt whose front was more paint than fabric by this point, and an old pair of slightly torn blue jeans. She was a wiry, lean woman, with fists like springloaded rockets that could probably break the head of Vespa’s CopyBot if she tried hard enough, and flexible, which tended to help when she tied herself up to her ceiling.

No response. Paige tip-toed over to the other side, to look Mimel in the eyes, no matter how much those eyes were off in its own little world. “Mimel.”

Mimel’s usually-clean hair was currently falling into her eyes, red bangs covering her shiny blues. (She was naturally nearly white, but had dyed it once Vespa had shown up, feeling a little put off by having another woman with essentially the same hair color in this same circle.) Her nose twitched, and she was grinning goofily, making a few of the scars on her cheeks twitch, too—her thin face had given her an androgynous charm as long as Paige had known her. With an almost absurdly small brush, she leaned in for a dab of paint. “Good shit, now you stay right there,” she said, gingerly brushing. “Just about done.”

“Milady?” A black PET on a nearby counter rang out.

With a heavy groan, Mimel rolled her eyes and grunted out, “What.”

“Miss Paige is sitting right in front of you,” her Navi reported.

“Huh,” Mimel said, and then actually properly looked up, finding Paige patiently sitting at the other end of the coffee table. Vespa, for her part, had taken up Mimel’s recliner and was reclining as was appropriate. “Huh.” After a moment’s notice, Mimel jumped up. “Eh?! When the fuck did you get here?!” Paige waved.

“You let us in,” Vespa said, looking up at the slowly-turning ceiling fan. “Uuuugh, it’s hot in heeeeere,” she whined.

“Well, I’m letting the paint dry, dipshit, don’t want the wind to—” A second moment’s notice caused Mimel to realize that it was, in fact, Paige and Vespa who were present, and she lit up. “Oh! Paige! Hey!”

“Good morning,” Paige said. She was still waving.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Vespa asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Not my childhood bestie, dipshit,” Mimel responded. She stood up, and in one swift motion, spun her table around so that she and Paige were closer across from each other. “Okay. You remember how chip codes work, right?”

“Yes, Mimel,” Paige said.

Mimel leaned closer into the table. “You got a—”

“You can use one star-coded chip to make a Program Advance in place of another code in Program Advances like Giga Cannon,” Paige said.

“And—”

“AreaGrab allows you to take some of your opponent’s field,” Paige said.

“Okay, but—”

“With wind Chips like AirShot, you can fire obstacles into your opponent for significant damage and to clear the field,” Paige said. She smiled. “I’ve heard it all before, Mimel.”

Mimel’s PET was on the table now. Under his wide-brimmed hat, adorned with roses, TundraMan.exe rubbed his chin. “Shall I load the Virus Busting 101 program, Milady?”

A heavy sigh escaped Mimel’s lungs, her eyes widening as she slumped over her table. “No. You know what, no. She’s probably got this. She’s gonna be fine.” She tilted her head up. “She’s gonna be fine, right, Vespa?”

“What are you, her mom?” Vespa grimaced.

“I mean, basically,” Mimel shrugged. Paige nodded, too. As one, the two of them stood up. “Okay, so I know you’re gonna miss the sounds of home, I’ve been working on this.” She lifted up the figurine she’d been working on, and Paige finally properly looked at it.

“Oh—” Paige gasped. Mimel held in her hand a tiny scale model of a car of Paige’s favorite train, the Green Line of the Southeast Inter-City Netopian Network, made with such intricate detail that the connections to the cars in front and back were themselves detailed. The base it sat on had a headphone jack.

“If you plug in some headphones, I went and skulked on it for like two days and recorded the sounds of the line running,” Mimel said. She beamed. “It’s on seamless loop, shouldn’t need any fucking with, but if you’ve gotta have Vespa run any maintenance—”

The gentleness Paige held her little train car with stopped Mimel in her tracks, as Paige placed it inside her purse and then reached over to wrap Mimel in a hug. “Thank you,” she said, her voice nearly a whisper. “I love it. Really.”

“Heh, yeah, uh, it was nothing,” Mimel said. She put on a grin, but Vespa could see she was sweating. “No big. You’re good.”

“Excellent work, Milady,” Tundraman said. “You have successfully delivered a gift. Truly, you are the master of social interactions.”

“Hey, who the fuck asked you, pal?” Mimel said, breaking out of Paige’s grip and glaring at her PET. “Did I ask?”

“Naturally not, Milady,” Tundraman said. “However, you looked so dreadfully thrown off your game by this show of honest affection from your friend who only ever gives you those that I simply thought I might throw you a chance to regain your decorum—”

“Say hi to him,” Mimel said.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Paige said, a small blush on her face. “Hello to you too, Tundraman.”

“And a good day to you, Miss Paige. I’ve taken the liberty of turning the air conditioning to a more palatable level now that Milady has concluded her business. Shall I prepare you a drink, Miss Vespa?” Tundraman asked, and if Paige looked carefully, even though she didn’t have a straight look at him, she could just see that his eye was twinkling under his hat, and that he… had a rose in his mouth.

Once they’d properly settled down, Mimel leaned back on the floor and said, “Shit, you know, I never thought the day’d come. You’re actually leaving, huh?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said, nodding. “I’ll keep in touch. Don’t worry.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Mimel said. Vespa had briefly exited her CopyBot to engage in a virtual thumb war or something with Tundraman. “I mean, it’s just…”

“You don’t have to worry. I have Vespa with me,” Paige said. “I’ll be alright. I’m sure I’ll…”

“Don’t stay all cooped up inside, okay?” Mimel said, patting Paige on the back. “C’mon. It’s college! Make friends or something.”

Paige’s smile began to fall. “But—”

“It’s a new place. A new you, right?” Mimel grinned. “Take it from me, I know all about that. You’ve got this. You’re gonna be like, the coolest girl on the block.”

“That’s me, actually!” Vespa shouted from inside of Paige’s PET. “But I agree with the sentiment!”

“You wanna go soon?” Mimel asked, and Paige nodded. “Okay. Cool. Don’t worry, I can get you some flowers. You just take it easy, kiddo! This is your day!”

“We’re the same age,” Paige said.

“But only one of you is living la vie boheme,” Tundraman said.

“Mouth! Shut!” Mimel commanded. She turned back to Paige. “You know you can call me if you need anything, right? Anything at all.” Paige nodded. “Okay. Hey, by the way, fuckin’, congratulations! I went and saw the entry tests, way beyond me, man.”

“Ayanokoji Network College is quite an achievement,” Tundraman chimed in. “May I say, Miss Paige, that I have always known that you had it in you.”

“See?” Vespa poked her head in, too. “See?”

“Mom and Lambert say congrats, too,” Mimel said. “Mom wanted to throw a party for you, but I figured that’d make you crash.” Paige nodded. “I’m just…” There was a long, quiet pause. “...really proud of you. Really.”

“I know,” Paige said. She had curled into a ball from all the praise. “Thank you.”

The sun had risen to its highest, and the light flowed in through the windows, exposing small dust particles in the air. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?” Mimel crossed her arms, and kicked back. “Try to take praise a little better over there in Electopia.”

“It’s harder when it’s from you,” Paige said, blushing. “You know me.”

“But it’s fine from Vespa?” Mimel raised an eyebrow.

“Well, then it’s Vespa,” Paige said, and Mimel nodded, understanding heavy on her back.

“Yeah, it hits different,” Mimel said.

“Ooh, are we talking about me?!” Vespa jumped into the middle of the two of them, having entered back into her CopyBot while they spoke. She turned to Mimel. “Hey, Mim, how’s my hair? Does it look right for a plane ride?”

“Turn around,” Mimel said, and Vespa did so. “Ugh. Comb your hair more, dumbass. How do you put up with this moron, Paige?”

“It’s my winning personality, probably,” Vespa said. “Why does she put up with you?”

“It probably has to do with mutually being social outcasts,” Paige said, and that got both Mimel and Vespa to pause and stare at her. Paige looked away. “Uh, sorry.”

Mimel snorted. “Try not to do that. You keep her being the straight man, got it, Vespa?”

“Oh, of course. I’d never lose being the funny woman for anything,” Vespa said, letting Mimel’s fingers run through her hair. “It’s an important part of our dynamic?”

“Milady,” Tundraman said, still stuck in his PET, “I must inform you that visiting hours have just begun over at the lab.”

As Mimel stood up and went to go grab her own bags, Vespa whined. “Awwww,” fiddling with the half of a braid that had been done into her hair.

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs

Given the time, there wasn’t much time for browsing, but true to her word, Mimel did pick out some flowers. One of Mimel’s most striking skills was her ability to get on with just about every shopkeep in the area, and given how often they hung out, several of them recognized Paige by now, as well.

The busy streets of Crescent City bustled with vibration, vibration Paige felt in her feet every time she took a step. Standing on the ground always had a way of calming down. Being together with her two best friends probably helped, though. Vespa and Mimel bickered over just about every purchase, and Tundraman had his own occasional bit of sass to offer over them, as well. Given that these purchases were for Paige herself, she couldn’t help but keep quiet.

“You catch the new CyberWarrior Cybo?” Vespa asked, her eyes lighting up as though she’d just remembered something of dire importance. Mimel shook her head. “Dude.”

“Well, don’t tell me what happens!” Mimel gritted her teeth. “I gotta see it fresh! I’ll stream it when I’m alone again and done crying over the fact that you’re both gone.”

“I have logged this intention,” Tundraman chimed in.

“Thanks, T-Man,” both girls said. “Okay,” Vespa continued, waving her hands, “but like, I gotta let you down easy. Your theory about Ace got deconfirmed.”

“Shit, seriously?” Mimel put her face in her hands. “Damn it, all my evidence!”

“But the truth is even better,” Vespa said, leaning in closer. “You’re gonna be jumping out of your seat. I never saw it coming, it’s like, whoa.”

“Whoa?” Mimel asked.

“Whoa,” Vespa said, nodding her head.

“Whoa.” Mimel’s eyes widened.

And so it went. These two were on something of another level when they got to talking, so Paige just smiled and quietly listened. It gave her time to compose her thoughts, and think about the words she wanted to say.

Their destination was a glass building near the center of the city, a domed laboratory for development of the Cyberworld’s infrastructure. “Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs,” it was called, named after its founder. Vespa and Mimel stepped to the side to let Paige open the door.

The lobby, clean and sterile with several complicated bits of net infrastructure on display in display cases for the general public, was oddly empty for this time of day, but the receptionist smiled and waved his hand. “Afternoon, Paige!” he said.

Other than said receptionist, only one person was present—a short, bespectacled old man with a flat cap and goggles covering his eyes, with an odd, red apparatus on his back that Paige had never been sure of the purpose of detracting from the color of a perfectly good white labcoat. He turned from his pacing routine, and jumped. “O-oh, Paige!” After his startling calmed down, he walked closer. “Is it the twelfth already?”

Dr. Gaudile’s face had always reminded Paige of a duck bill, and she wasn’t sure why. “Good afternoon, Doctor. I’m here to see my uncle before I leave. Is something wrong?”

Gaudile nodded to himself. “Yes, yes, quite right.” He bowed to Vespa and Mimel. “And to both of you, ladies, good afternoon. Of course, I’ll have it open in just a moment. It’s just—”

“Is something wrong?” Paige asked.

“Well, it’s the darnedest thing, you see,” Gaudile said, before trotting over to a potted plant. Paige walked over to look, as well. “I—well, Mr. Scanner made his security report and said he found some odd readings that he wasn’t quite sure of, but none of our systems have been compromised.”

“What’s that got to do with the potted plant?” Vespa asked.

“I have no explanation for this, but I swear to you this was not here the last time I was out here,” Gaudile said. He dabbed a bit of sweat from his forehead. “I’m not sure how to deal with this.”

“Paranoid old kook,” Vespa said, smiling.

“A paranoid old kook I might be,” Gaudile said, turning on his heel, “but a paranoid old kook with reason! I’m not the head here for nothing, young lady. Why, my paranoia—”

“You were saying, Doctor?” Paige said, tilting her head.

“Er, yes, quite right. I’m not sure how this potted plant could constitute a security breach, but I’ve been on edge! Oh, but I’m prattling. Please, follow me. I’ll escort you personally—why, it’s the least I could do on your big day!” Gaudile said.

The staff entrance to the labs proper was the fastest way in, so Gaudile produced his keycard and led the three girls in. “Are you eating well?” Gaudile asked. “Glenn would kill me if you weren’t, you know.”

“Oh, shit,” Mimel blinked. “You make sure she doesn’t just eat instant noodles and stuff, got that, Vespa?” She put her hand on Vespa’s shoulder. “Got that?”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Vespa said. She shook her head, then smiled. “Don’t worry, Doc, I—”

It started with a small beep, a beep that made Gaudile raise his head up and go “Hm? That shouldn’t be going off.” Then, just behind them, as they entered the labs proper, the door shut. All the lights in the hallway dimmed, rendering the translucent walls of many of the labs essentially opaque, and an audible locking sound clicked. “Er—that shouldn’t be happening.”

His office was right here, so Gaudile ran forward and attempted to open it. Locked. It wouldn’t open no matter how much he tried, or no matter how much Mimel tried to force the lock. The door they’d just entered was locked, as well. “T-this is the automatic lock that the lab activates when security is attempting to deal with an intrusion,” Gaudile said, the apparatus on his back pulling out some tissues for him to wipe his sweat with. “This shouldn’t be happening, today, of all days…”

Gaudile turned on his earpiece, and then keyed in to a chaotic cacophony of all of the other members of the staff. “Hey, the door’s locked! Who locked—” “Doctor, intrusion in Cylinder 6! The autolock’s been forcibly activated! I—” “—oh god, I need to get home, come on, my daughter’s recital—” “—Virus readings confirmed, they’re attacking several nodes—” “—the cooling’s been cut off, we can’t continue working like this or this server will detonate, Dr. Gaudile, we need to get out of here—” “Dr. Gaudile, intrusion in Sector 3! Delta-level lock bypassed! Could they—”

“D-delta level?!” Gaudile sputtered. He looked around. “Aaargh, and me without my PET!”

Vespa, who’d just finished a pass of the hallway to confirm all the doors were locked, hurried back over and said, “What’s going on?”

“From the sound of it,” Paige said, pounding on a window to see the people inside a bit better, “someone’s forcibly activated the locks!”

“They’re—” Gaudile wiped a bit more sweat. “The Delta-level lock, they couldn’t be… Girls, one of you, please call the Officials! This is very important! We need to—”

“Did I hear that one person say detonate?” Mimel asked.

Gaudile yelped. “Ah, it should only cause some structural damage, but the risk to the personnel is definitely immense, yes, er…”

Now that they’d all crowded around each other again, Paige put her hands on Dr. Gaudile’s shoulders and asked, “Doctor, is there a port in this hallway we can use to access the laboratory’s network?”

“E-eh?!” Gaudile said, his goggles falling over his face for a moment. “Well, yes, you could use the ventilation system’s access point for an indirect entry point, but—why, there are viruses, and someone who’s managed to bypass quite a lot of our security, it’s too dangerous—”

“Vespa, into the PET!” Paige said, turning to Vespa.

“Right!” Vespa said, and she jumped into the CopyBot, flashing out of existence and leaving the yellow dummy behind. A small beep registered her return to the PET. “Alright, let’s go! Don’t worry, Doc, I’m a professional.” She probably winked, at that point.

“E-eh, but, I can’t—” Gaudile sputtered, but Paige nodded at him and ran off towards the nearest vent. “I—oh, but she really is just like Glenn… always the hero...”

Mimel, for her part, smiled. “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?”

“S-so it is, so it is, Miss Blackgold…” Gaudile said. Mimel then turned to find her own port to jack in, and Gaudile whimpered to himself. “Oh, dear…” He held Vespa’s CopyBot tightly.

As for Paige, she found the vent, and her reasonably trained eyes quickly located the jack-in point. “Alright, Vespa,” she said, taking in a breath and wiping her own sweat. “Are you ready?”

“As I’ll ever be!” Vespa said. As soon as the connection was established, Paige flipped the switch.

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Internal Network Sector 1

—and in a rush of sensation, the world came flooding in—

All at once, lights and sounds began to flood into Vespa’s senses, as she landed on the ground, her hand tapping lightly with two fingers onto the cyberearth. Perfect form. “Alright, I’m in,” she said, turning her head up to Paige.

Within the lab’s network, a great array of square, blocky buildings, lined the horizon as far as the eye could see, with flashing pillars resembling the lights on highway support holding up some of the taller buildings. Vespa had entered into an area of the lab that her brief excursions inside the network beforehand hadn’t really shown her. A slight sound of an alarm siren was all that she could hear.

Having entered with her combat uniform on, Vespa grabbed down toward her waist. Her twin, trusty sidearms manifested instantly, returning once more to her grip. “It has been a while since I got to shoot anything.” She took a quick diagnostic of all of her Hive Busters’ firing chambers, but everything was operating as normal. “All green.”

“Be careful,” Paige said, and Vespa nodded.

Vespa’s steps didn’t make a sound—she had long since gotten used to the FloatShoes modification Paige had picked up and installed, and frankly, it was pretty fun even when it wasn’t useful. She rounded a corner around a building and began to buzz about, looking around for anything in particular.

It didn’t take long. High above, Vespa saw a flash, and then a few seconds later, a strike of thunder. “One, two… Looks like it’s three sectors away, Paige,” she said. “Think that’s our guy?”

“First, we need to unlock the auto-lock,” Paige said. “Where’s the entrance to the second sector?”

As it turned out, once Vespa made a bit more progress, it became clear to see. This outer rim of the lab’s network stood around a barrier created by ten cylindrical nodes, the only entrance to which (that Vespa could see, anyway,) was blocked by several firewalls that she didn’t want any part of. One of the cylindrical nodes, far on the other side, flickered, as though it was running low on power.

The entrance was blocked by a whole squad of Gaudile’s personal anti-viral programs, the ‘Preon’ model—oblong little soldier-men in a wide array of colors. According to him, they were about fourth or fifth on his life’s works, which meant they were probably pretty effective, all told. “Okay,” Vespa said, huffing out, “let’s try and avoid that. How’s our folder doing?”

“I ordered a few new ones online,” Paige said. “A few we can’t get around here. The Circle-Guns and Asteroids should do decently well… oh, and some Buster improvements. Are you sure you don’t want to try any Risky Honey chips?”

“If we’ve gotta have defense, stick me to the Reflectors,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes. “Don’t type-cast me. We got Caps?”

“White and Orange, if need be,” Paige said. “And I managed to pick up another Wood+20.”

“Sick!” Vespa fist-pumped. “If the guy’s firing off lightning bolts, I can waste him in no time—hold up,” and she promptly dived to into more open space as a wave passed her by on the ground.

Turning around, Vespa came face-to-face with the ever-recognizable beady, black eyes and yellow construction helmets of a group of Mets. One had just finished using his pick-axe, and so the next Met in line began to waddle on its little feet to be put more in line with Vespa to use its shockwave.

“They’re like rats, I swear,” Vespa said, flipping a lock of hair out of her face. “Okay, follow me, little guy.” She began to sidle to the left, angling herself so her little friend could be put at a relatively even angle with the other. Once she did, just as it was raising its pickaxe to launch its projectile—

“Asteroid, coming your way!” Paige called out. A flaming ball materialized from the sky and tumbled toward the central Met, as Vespa brandished her guns at both of the two on the sides. While her Hive Busters were designed to have some travel time, Vespa’s particular customizations resulted in her wasp-shaped bullets reaching their target near-instantly. The Met’s processing was completely halted in its tracks by the sudden shots, and all three Mets were obliterated simultaneously.

“Nice!” Vespa cheered, and grabbed a fragment of the left-behind data. It was another Reflector. “You ever gonna get rid of any of these?”

“No, I—Vespa, behind you!”

She’d noticed, of course, but the virus had come in too fast for Vespa to react properly. A Red-Stinger virus, which Vespa always thought looked rather like some kind of red, three-pronged bee, had closed in behind her while she was distracted, and was ready to strike.

That was, until it was visibly split apart, fragments of ice surrounding it as it sparkled and vanished. “Miss Vespa, might I suggest a touch more situational awareness given our current predicament?”

“I was going to thank you until you said that,” Vespa said. Then, she stuck her tongue out.

Tundraman lowered his raised foot, equipped with his ever-present Hyogetsujin ice-skates—close-range weapons as well as mobility enhancers that allowed him to skate past hazards that many Navis struggled with. Compared to the nearly-human Vespa, Tundraman was much more obviously a program—beneath his wide-brimmed hat adorned with a blue, icy moon insignia, his small, reddish eyes did not actually connect to a face, but a multi-paneled face mask which carried his favorite rose in its grip.

Aside from his pale-blue ‘ponytail’ actually made of interlocking miniature sheets of ice, and a great, icy rose which adorned his shoulder, most of Tundraman’s armor was shaded purple, ornately designed with trim that harkened back to well prior to the advent of Net Society. (Supposedly, he’d designed it himself.) He had no feet aside from his ice skates, and in fact, his legs were tapered very finely. As for his Buster equivalent, both of his arms were adorned with great bow-like fixtures for his Tenro Shikku, a finely-tuned projectile rig with two firing modes—’Ice Gatling’ and ‘Tundra Storm’, he called them.

“Naturally,” he said, and reached over to pet Vespa’s head, since he was about a foot taller than her already significant height. “Truly, you are the peak of awareness. My apologies for speaking out of turn, Miss Vespa.”

“Who even gave you this stupid personality?!” Vespa fumed, doing her best to smack his arm away—ah, but he was too agile. “You’d be a lot more likable if you cut out the smarm.”

“Oh!” Tundraman put his hand on his chest, gasping in mock shock. “But my smarm is all I have, Miss Vespa! How is a man to operate without it?!”

“Operating’s my job,” Mimel said. “Now quit fucking around and get to work. Hey, Gaudile! How do we get past that barrier?”

“Ah, well, you see, the ten-cylinder security system functions—if I had my PET, I could simply—that is to say—”

“Okay, so we improvise,” Mimel said. She eyeballed the cylinders, and then snapped her fingers. “Tundraman, you think you could get up one of those buildings?”

“Who, might I ask, do you think I am, Milady?” Tundraman scoffed. “I can only ask if Miss Vespa believes herself capable of following along with me.”

“Who do you think I am?” Vespa snorted, punching Tundraman in the side.

Clasping his hands together to form his gatling, Tundraman aimed at one of the buildings to their side as a rapid-fire stream of icy projectiles launched itself from his weapon. Each of them stuck in the side of the building, sticking in to make an obvious grappling point on the sides. Vespa grinned, and gave him a thumbs up. “I got this.”

“I should certainly hope so,” Tundraman said.

Vespa leapt and grabbed on to the lowest ice grip, as Tundraman powered up his skates and began to ride on a sheet of ice onto and up the side of the building. They reached the top at about the same time, but Vespa landed fairly ergonomically, whereas Tundraman felt the need to do a flip and pose in the air, tossing his rose for an invisible crowd. Vespa took the opportunity, though, and followed the rose with her guns, as it flew towards, and struck, a node atop the much closer heights of the cylinder barrier.

“Milady, at the ready!” Tundraman called out.

“Got it!” Mimel said, and her Coming Road chip had an immediate effect—arrows facing toward the edge of the building appeared on the side of the roof in front of the two of them. Vespa and Tundraman both readied themselves, and then ran towards the conveyors, leaping off right at the edge.

Cyberwind running through one’s hair wasn’t quite the same, but it also lacked a certain resistance that meant the two’s leap launched them farther, far enough to tumble onto the end of another building that got them closer. Thankfully, Mimel had a number of Coming Roads at the ready—enough to get them right up to Cylinder 2. “Whatever would you do without us?” Tundraman asked.

“Probably fight all of those guys,” Vespa said. She wrinkled her nose and grinned. “Not that that would’ve been a problem.”

The side of the cylinders were electrified, so there wouldn’t be any repeating of the Ice Gatling trick. “Ah, I can get us up there!” Paige said. “Vespa, loading Dash Attack!”

The angular, aerodynamic green signaled the simulated head of a Fishy virus being formed around Vespa’s hand, and she gripped the inside grip tight. Tundraman grabbed onto her other hand, and Vespa let loose—Fishies were known for their momentum, and this allowed for their signature chip to be used as a momentum booster.

Vespa launched into the air, well above the top of the cylinders. With a thought, she activated a vestigial part of her arsenal she hadn’t had reason to use for quite some time—a pair of wings that were mostly good for slowing descent. She was plenty strong to carry both herself and Tundraman, but that didn’t stop her from griping at him, “God, how heavy do you need to be?”

“My true power is contained within my weight. I have a deadly secret within me, like one of Milady’s action figur—”

“Drop him, Vespa,” Mimel commanded.

“Please don’t drop me!” Tundraman squeaked.

A squadron of Preons popped into existence atop Cylinder 2, then immediately took notice of the two descending Navis. A black-colored Preon pointed its Buster-like fixture at Vespa, and the other Preons let loose a word bubble that said ‘YES, SIR!’ as they aimed their guns at Vespa to begin firing.

“Okay, sure,” Vespa said, “interrupt a lady while she’s flying.” Her other hand was free, so she began to fire back, but evading the bullets while also carrying Tundraman was troublesome. “Paige?”

“On it!” Paige said. The Preons were uncognizant of targeting reticles appearing beneath their feet, circling around beneath them until Vespa, who was now able to drop down, snapped her fingers. The ground beneath the Preons’ feet exploded in a burst of energy, and only the commanding Preon was strong enough to remain active—but when Vespa and Tundraman landed atop Cylinder 2, Vespa just sort of pushed it off the outside of the Cylinder. Its small arms flailed helplessly.

From atop Cylinder 2, the two got a closer look at what was going on inside. A number of the scientists’ Navis were in the second Sector, running from a number of different viruses—Red Stingers were present, as were the round, yellow forms of Billies summoning projectiles with their lightning-rod hand fixtures, and Scarecrows appearing out of the ground and calling down lightning from the Cylinders to blast holes in the walls. “I’m sensing a little bit of a theme here,” Vespa said.

“Ah, yes, well,” Gaudile chimed in, “you see, when a security system like this is broken into by an elemental Navi, it tends to be much easier for like-elemental viruses to appear within the network as well. That electrical Navi’s let havoc come into my lab!”

“This will be an unfortunate circumstance for me,” Tundraman said, shaking his head, “but no true warrior would leave innocents to such a fate.”

Vespa leapt off of Cylinder 2, using her wings to slow her descent once more, and began to open fire upon a squad of viruses chasing down a group of (largely unmodified) scientist Navis. The green and yellow form of a Navi with a larger coat turned around and noticed, then looked up and started waving his hands. “Hey! Down here!”

“Yup,” Vespa said. She’d obliterated the Billies, who weren’t particularly hardy, by the time she landed. As she did, a Scarecrow popped up behind her, but Vespa casually jammed her left Hive Buster into its face and opened fire, shredding it at the push of a button. “Hey, where’s the security auto-lock? The humans are stuck.”

“Well, you can’t just tell her that, that’s against protocol!” A blue Navi said.

“I really don’t care right now,” said the green and yellow Navi. “Do you see over there?” Among the largely walled-off cyberlabs, he pointed through the glass to a glowing red node on the far side. “There’s a Mr. Prog who sits in there and controls the auto-lock. He’s probably on the fritz right now.”

Tundraman finally took the time to land, and as he did, he carved another Scarecrow in twain with his skates. “And how might we reach Sector 4?”

There was a moment of silence. “Um, this lab has three sectors,” a pink Navi chimed in. “There isn’t a Sector 4. But if you want to reach Sector 3, it’s, um…”

She pointed to the opposite end of the area, right near the sparking Cylinder 6. A stairwell down deeper into the cyberlab sat there, its doors having been visibly torn open by powerful claws, servos still sparking. “It’s over there,” she said. “If you’re sure.”

Vespa groaned, and began to run forward into the hallways of the cyberlabs—unfortunately even more circuitous than the real lab’s hallways could be. “Great. Don’t think we’ve got time for that. You good to evacuate anyone else and get the lock fixed, T-Man?”

Tundraman, skating by her side, nodded. “That is likely our best option.” A trio of Billies in their path were crushed by a fist from the sky. “Ah, it’s Milady’s favorite chip.”

“Justice One makes me feel happy, okay?” Mimel scoffed. In the real world, Paige and Mimel clearly got closer to each other, based on the vocal quality. “They’re right. You stay here and focus—I’ll help evacuate once we get the lock open.”

“W-w-what if you run into the intruders?” Paige sputtered.

“Eh, she hits like a freight train, she’ll be fine,” Vespa said.

“Yeah, basically. I’ll just punch ‘em until they fall the fuck over,” Mimel said. “I—look out!”

At a split in the road, Vespa and Tundraman both leapt back as the round, purple forms of a ring of Shakey viruses lowered around them. The Shakies’ pylons extended from their bodies as they turned inward, their one, gaping eye staring toward the two Navis. A field of sparking electricity began to circle them as the Shakies increased in speed.

“We haven’t time for this,” Tundraman said, and raised his bow toward the direction of the autolock. “Miss Vespa, prepare to run.” Vespa nodded.

Tundraman’s bow shifted shape into a more crossbow-like configuration as he launched a large, freezing blast of his Tundra Storm from it. It nailed one of the Shakies square in the eye and froze it into a block of ice, causing the other Shakies to gravitate onto it. With her opening made, Vespa started running. “Thanks! See you in a bit, T-Man!”

“And I you, Miss Vespa. Do be careful!” Tundraman said.

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Sector 3 (Delta-Level Security Zone)

Once Vespa had cleared the stairwell down, the atmosphere of the area changed in an instant. The wide, cool blue of the lab’s cyberworld gave way to an underground maze, where most of the light came from diodes on the walls lighting the path for whatever few workers no doubt came down here.

Well, and the flash of Vespa’s muzzle. Now there were Bunnies, too! Much as Vespa would’ve loved to pick one of their cute, unassuming little pink heads up, those electrically-conductive ‘ears’ launched their ZapRing projectiles whether she did that or not—and she didn’t much like those.

“Why can’t there be a map?” Vespa moaned, doing her best to dodge past a number of security scanners. A tight corner led her directly into the face of a Billy, who launched a bolt of lightning through the ground that Vespa nearly didn’t leap in time to dodge. A bullet to the face wasted it pretty quickly. “I mean, if your own employees don’t even know you have a fourth sector—”

“Maybe you misheard?” Paige asked.

“I don’t mishear things,” Vespa said. “I know how far that was from.”

An installation of Killer Eyes had crowded together to block a hallway, so Vespa decided that was probably a good place to go. Their eyes tracked her, and simultaneously, four beams of electricity blasted toward her—but she leapt into the air, and while they were stuck, pointed downward toward them. In the nick of time, Paige’s Magnum chip blew up the ground beneath them, and Vespa was able to take advantage of the chaos to fire on the last one and grab the data left behind as she ran through.

The viruses weren’t there for nothing. Vespa stopped in her tracks. “Uh, that’s worrying.”

A massive hole had been blown in a wall, several miniature security cylinders sparking and attempting to reorient their lock, to no avail. In front of it, a massive Raider-Killer antiviral (another of Gaudile’s,) sat decimated, with one of its claw-like arms ripped clean off, and its snake-like head missing its lower jaw. Several puncture wounds sparked in its green torso. “So, I’m of two minds here,” Vespa said.

“Yes?” Paige asked.

“Okay, so like, I’m glad I don’t have to fight this thing, but I’m not looking forward to fighting whatever killed it,” Vespa said.

Past those security cylinders was a large chamber right in the center of this massive underground labyrinth—a broken tube lay in the middle, cyberwires fizzling out as they dangled. Underneath Vespa’s feet was… an engraving of some sort. “Um, Dr. Gaudile?” Paige asked. “What is this?”

As Mimel began to evacuate the other scientists (having cleared the auto-lock on her end,) Dr. Gaudile puttered up to her PET and said, “Er, yes, that is… that’s the—” He leaned in to whisper. “That’s the entrance to Sector 4… It’s maximum security! You manipulate the mural in order to unlock it… er, and the stairwell opens up beneath the tube—oh the tube’s broken, that is extremely not good, er…”

“Okay, well, how do I unlock it then?” Vespa asked.

“Ah, let me see here, er—” Gaudile sputtered for a moment. “Oh! Well, my goodness. It appears to. Already be unlocked? Yes.”

“Yeahhh, that’s what I thought.” Vespa shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Okay, so, I just gotta wait here until—”

She didn’t have to wait long. A stairwell downward loudly clambered into position, and Vespa took up position behind the remnants of the tube.

“—so what do you suppose this thing is, anyhow?” That, judging by the distance of the voice, was an Operator, and one who’d disguised their voice. “I wasn’t able to make it out while I was in there.”

“Whatever it might be, it’s in their hands, now.” The low, growling voice of a Navi said. “We shouldn’t trouble ourselves too strongly.”

“If you say so,” the operator said, a sigh evident even through their distortion.

The Navi who came up the stairs was definitely Vespa’s man, judging by the electricity running through his sharp claws. Actually, perhaps ‘man’ was the wrong word—even down to his posture, this Navi more resembled a beast. Vespa didn’t quite know what his ornate, ‘eared’ head, fang-like spikes covering a black space within his head, were quite supposed to resemble, as she was anything but a wildlife expert, but it was probably more cat-like than dog-like? While they didn’t move, the red ‘eye’ marks near his ears were likely his optic sensors. His body crackled with a blue-green lightning, and his form rippled with a ‘breathing’ that simulated the rippling of heavy muscles.

His claws, on both sets of his paws, were sharp and curved, sparking every few seconds—and the claws on his hands were bordered by even larger claws connected to his armor. A red V emblem on his chest was surrounded by another set of claw-like fixtures on his shoulders. His heavy boots were about as pointy as the rest of him, grounded to the floor with tesla coil-like fixtures, and his spiked tail served as a cylinder for a number more of those fixtures—by Vespa’s guess, they helped to conduct energy. Combine all this with a deeply dour black-and-red color scheme, and most people would likely run in terror at the sight of this Navi.

“Ideally, we won’t be stopped by any more guards on our way out,” the Navi said. He growled. “My claws have already been bloodied enough for one day. These civilians should learn to stay out of the way.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” his operator said. “Hurry and leave that sector—I’ll jack you out as soon as I’m able—”

The mysterious beast’s head cocked to the side, and he dashed backward, just barely dodging a blast from Vespa’s guns. “Oh ho ho ho,” she said, blowing simulated smoke off of the barrel as she strutted out from her hiding place, holding the other gangster-style behind her back, “did I hear someone say you can’t jack out from here?”

“This one’s different!” The operator said. “Flauclaws, on your guard!”

The beast—’Flauclaws’—took a look at Vespa, and though his eye fixtures didn’t move, Vespa knew when a fighter was giving her the once-over. “A combat-ready NetNavi? I was under the impression that this lab let their antivirals do the work.”

“Eh, nah.” Vespa aimed her outward gun at Flauclaws, and then waggled it up and down. “I’m just a concerned citizen. So whatcha got? Who’d you get it for? Is it for a giiiirl?”

“Wha—” Flauclaws’s operator sputtered. “It is not for a girl! And—what business is it of yours, anyway?”

“Sir,” Flauclaws said, throwing his claw up. His operator sputtered a bit more before going silent. “If you’re brave enough to have a smart mouth, you must be ready for a fight. Let me warn you—you don’t know what you’re dealing with.”

“Inform me, o brave warrior! Who am I dealing with?” Vespa smirked.

Flauclaws stood up properly, crossing his arms. “Very well. I am Panter Flauclaws, Subject 2-G of the Beast Brigade. If you do not leave posthaste, I will be forced to tear you to shreds.” His tail snaked above his shoulder, pointing menacingly at Vespa.

“Oh, you’re a panther,” Vespa said, crouching down and patting her legs. “No can do, kitty. My operator’s got a date here and you’re kinda in the way.”

The ‘fangs’ on Flauclaws’s helm closed together near-imperceptibly. “I see,” he said. “I’m very sorry for what I’m about to do to her day, then.”

“Big words, champ!” Vespa smirked, and aimed both of her Busters at Flauclaws. “Show me a good time and maybe we can get you some catnip later!”

“Vespa, be careful! He looks pretty tough!” Paige called. “I’m ready when you are!”

“Flauclaws, show them what you’re made of!” his operator cried.

“That’s never stopped me before, has it? Have a little faith!” Vespa scoffed.

“I’ll char your bones black, ‘concerned citizen’!” Flauclaws growled.

““Battle routine, set!””

““Execute!””

The instant her opponent roared ‘Execute’, Flauclaws had already appeared directly in Vespa’s face, leaving a trail of crackling afterimages in his wake. Vespa dodged backward to evade a sideways swing from his claws, but had to land on the ground and roll out of the way to avoid a follow-up pounding attack. From her vantage point on the ground, she fired a few shots, and a hiss of pain from Flauclaws told her quite obviously she’d hit.

“She’s a Wood-type!” Flauclaws’s operator called out. “Be careful!”

Flauclaws leapt back for a reposition, and his claws crackled with energy. He sliced the air, and thin, circular waves launched from his claws, flying toward Vespa. She leapt up and dodged forward, but the waves curved around behind her, limiting her position. When she got her orientation back, Flauclaws’s left claw had morphed into a multi-barrelled Buster, which was already revving up.

Vespa smirked, and drew her own Busters. Flicking a switch with her middle fingers, she set herself into Full-Auto mode, and held down the trigger to intercept Flauclaws’s blasts with her own bullets. After a moment of firing, Flauclaws winced. “She’s outspeeding Flauclaws’s Beast Buster?!” his operator cried. “Long-range is a bad idea with this one! I’m loading Area Eaters!”

“Understood!” Flauclaws said, as he activated his operator’s loaded chip. The wispy wave-body of an FM Float virus appeared in front of him, and swiped its claw against the ground. Vespa felt the room shift as the virus’s claw contracted the space the two were able to battle within, and soon she was much too close to Flauclaws for comfort.

“Vespa!” Paige cried, as another Asteroid came from above—but though it struck Flauclaws directly, and his body flashed to indicate as much, he trucked through the explosion, leaving a hole in the ground in his wake, and took another charged swing at Vespa. “SuperArmor?!” And—

AUTO System a-AUTO Sy-AUTO System activating.

One for the electricity, one for the first swing, and one for the second. Flauclaws’s claws landed a direct hit, one striking Vespa’s chest, the other slicing across her stomach. She hissed. “Okay, let’s avoid that! Paige!”

“On it!” Paige said. “I’ve got the full set!” One, two, three, four, five! Vespa inwardly fistpumped (not outwardly, she was busy.) She aimed her Busters at Flauclaws, who had leapt back, but was now charging again, and—

A Champy’s flaming hook appeared from the ether, clobbering Flauclaws in the chin, and this time, his movements were halted. He grunted, but the White Capsule addition to the Flame Hook had paralyzed him for just the moment Vespa needed. With a spin of her Busters, she opened fire, her Vesper Chasers rapidly eating through Flauclaws’s defenses.

Then, she aimed one upward, into the hole that Flauclaws had left behind, to launch an orb-shaped projectile from the top of her Buster. It flew forward, and landed in the hole—

“Kuh?!” Flauclaws let out a roar as, from behind him, a massive Geyser exploded from the hole, the waves rushing over him. His defenses had activated, but he held his head, taking staggering steps around and wasting valuable time.

“F-Flauclaws!” his operator cried. “His vestibular sensors are on the fritz! An Orange Capsule?!”

Vespa’s shots continued, piercing through Flauclaws’s defenses to continue whittling away at his power. The space of the arena began again to shift, this time expanding, as Flauclaws’s Area Eaters had begun to lose their effectiveness. “Paige!” Vespa cocked her head upward.

“On it!” The familiar reticles of a Circle-Gun began to appear underneath Flauclaws’s feet, but with his debilitated movement, he wasn’t able to dodge out of the way in time. The ground beneath his feet exploded, dealing another heavy blow through his defenses. He staggered to his feet, the debilitation wearing off.

“You’re pretty good,” he grumbled, shaking off his delirium. “I—”

Suddenly, a wavy, black portal exploded into existence near Flauclaws. “Flauclaws, K opened you an escape route. Get in there!”

“Wha—hey!” Vespa sputtered, with a huff. “Hold on a second here!”

She began to fire, but Flauclaws’s operator activated a RockCube Chip, placing an obstacle that halted her bullets. Vespa grunted, and continued firing. “I don’t enjoy this,” Flauclaws said, “but it appears I’ve places to be. Forgive me. I hate to leave a fight unfinished.”

One more shot, and the RockCube broke behind Flauclaws’s back. “I’m not just gonna let you get away with… whatever it was!” Vespa said, aiming her Busters at Flauclaws.

Flauclaws shook his head. “...On that subject, our battle here is meaningless. I’m not so foolish as to keep up a battle I wasn’t prepared for that has no actual benefit.”

“Huh?” Vespa tilted her head.

“I don’t have it,” Flauclaws said, and Vespa was somehow certain that he was rolling his eyes at her. “I’m here as muscle. Do I look as though I have pockets?”

“...Okay, fair,” Vespa said, lowering her weapons. “So, what, is this the part where you tell me we’ll finish this later?”

“For both of our sakes, I hope that we don’t.” Flauclaws said. “...With that said, you said your name was ‘Vespa’, yes?”

“Technically, I said that,” Paige said.

“Mm. I have a standing message to give to a ‘Vespa.EXE’, coincidentally enough.” Flauclaws brought his claw up to his mouth and cleared his throat. “‘We don’t accept deserters. Stay out of this.’”

A shot rang out through the security room. The wasp-shaped bullet buried itself into the wall near Flauclaws’s head. “Just go,” Vespa said. She was looking away, her bangs covering her eyes. “Get out.”

“...As you were, then,” Flauclaws said. He leapt through the portal and disappeared from sight, leaving the room quiet again, save for the faraway sound of alarms.

There was a long, quiet moment amidst the chatter of people being evacuated from the lab. “...Vespa?”

“‘K’? Who’s ‘K’?” Vespa brought her hand up to her chin. “If he’s involved, it can’t be anything good… that old man only ever makes trouble.” She began to pace about. “What does the old man even have down here that they’d want—?”

“Vespa!” Paige called a bit louder.

“Huh what hey yeah hi!” Vespa leapt into the air and staggered back cartoonishly on one foot from the direction of Paige’s voice.

“Can you check inside there? Just to make sure,” Paige said.

“Ah, yeah,” Vespa said. She shook her head and smacked her cheeks with both hands. “On it!”

The rumored fourth sector of Glenn-Markham Labs’s network wasn’t very large at all—it amounted to little more than a small hallway into a tiny, round room, where several layers of security lockboxes had been bypassed to take… something. Vespa wasn’t sure what exactly was in here, but she was fairly certain it wasn’t supposed to be this small blue card. She picked it up, and read the message on it.

Your ‘Erosion Key’ is now my property! Charmed~

A small insignia of a black sea-shell sat at the bottom-right of the card. Vespa snapped a picture of it with the camera function of Paige’s PET. “‘Erosion Key’, huh? What’s the Doc even working on?” Vespa muttered.

“Er, well… for now, we should probably get you out of there,” Paige said. “Hurry on out, please. And… Vespa?”

“Yeah?” Vespa asked.

“...Um, please don’t worry too much,” Paige said. “I, er…” She trailed off.

“I’m not worried! What, do I look worried?” Vespa waggled one of her guns up and down a bit, looking away from Paige. “I—”

“Your hands are trembling, Vespa,” Paige said.

Vespa looked down, to see her hands quivering on the handles of her Busters. She gritted her teeth and holstered the both of them. “Right. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, I’m... I guess I’m a little shaken.” She crossed her arms, but then gritted her teeth and hissed. The claw marks from Flauclaws’s attack weren’t gone. “I’ll… be outta there in a sec. No worries.”

“Right,” Paige said. “Hurry back.”

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs ~ Central Hub

“...stole the Erosion Key, how did they even learn about the Erosion Key, I kept it under wraps as best I could, this is terrible, just horrible, how will I face Glenn now that I know I’ve let someone break into the highest level security area of this entire facility, he’ll kill me, surer than anything he’ll drop a bomb from the sky and end me—!”

“Doc!” Mimel yelled, grabbing Gaudile by the shoulders. “Oh my god, take a breath, dude.”

Paige jacked Vespa out, and idly held her PET as she walked back to Dr. Gaudile. It had all happened so fast that she’d hardly noticed, but the doors were unlocked, and most of the scientists appeared to be gone. A few Officials were walking around now, investigating and asking some witnesses a few questions.

And Dr. Gaudile… well, he wasn’t in the best state. “They stole the Erosion Key! They stole the Erosion Key! They stole—”

“What… is an Erosion Key?” Paige asked.

There was a long pause.

“Oh, aha, nothing you need to worry about.” Gaudile did his best to immediately flip back to unworried. “Er, it’s…”

For such a small man, his ability to yank two taller women in for a huddle away from prying ears was quite something. “It’s an activation key for a program I haven’t publicly unveiled,” Gaudile said. “There are three, you see… and the other two aren’t even anywhere near here. It’s unlikely they’d ever obtain all three, but I’m just concerned, you know me.”

“What kind of program?” Paige asked.

“That, my girl, is a secret,” Gaudile said, before turning away and puffing his shirt up. “Maybe I’ll tell you some day if you take over for Glenn. Er, yes, hello, Officer! What can I do for you?”

Since they were both huddled together, Paige leaned in and showed Mimel the card she’d seen in the box on her PET. “Vespa saw this. What do you think it is?”

“A calling card, definitely. Definitely a calling card,” Mimel said. “I can tell from the artistry. They think they’re hot shit. Was it thunderboy?”

“No, apparently he was working with someone else,” Paige said. “Someone they called ‘K’. I—”

“Girls the Officials would like to see you now!” Gaudile yiped from a distance away.

Aside from a few details the lab didn’t allow them to divulge, the questioning went reasonably smoothly. Paige and Mimel were questioned separately, and Paige showed them this ‘calling card.’ The response was, resoundingly, “let the Officials take care of this.”

It was frustratingly far into the afternoon by the time everything was clear, and the Lab was set to close up for the day as soon as Paige and Mimel left. Once she was back in her CopyBot, Vespa stretched loudly, and muttered, “Don’t even get any thanks for my hard work. That jerk kitty hit hard!”

“I’m very, very sorry about the trouble,” Gaudile said, hastily bowing to the entire group multiple times per person. “But, er, shall we?”

At the center of the lab was the entrance to an atrium, sat beneath a single skylight. This atrium was covered in greenery, unlike the rest of the building—grass, flowers, and bushes all sat around a single, massive cypress tree. The sun cast its light over the scene, covering the green with an orange glow.

Paige took a few ginger steps up the slight hill to the front of the tree, and knelt down. There was a photo on the tree of an older man, his pointed beard greying but his long hair looking as good as ever, smiling a bright smile. Below it was a memorial.

Glenn Markham, 19XX-20XX

Founder of our Labs. A dreamer to the end, and beloved by his family.

Beneath these words were inscribed messages to Glenn from any number of his old friends. Way down at the bottom was a little scrawl—’I love you, Uncle Glenn’. Paige’s handwriting hadn’t been nearly as good when she was twelve, and the tears hadn’t helped.

Paige laid the bouquet of flowers down next to her uncle’s photo. “Hi, Uncle Glenn,” she said. “I’m sorry I haven’t been around in the past few weeks… I’m heading for Electopia tomorrow. For college.”

The light twinkled off of the photo right off of Glenn’s teeth. “Hehe. Is that supposed to mean you’re proud of me?” Paige paused. “Uncle Glenn… I want to know who I’m supposed to be. I want to figure that out. So, I thought maybe I’d try and follow in your footsteps… at least for a little bit. Um… That’s all, I think. I’ll miss you, but… um, please… I could use your help. In any way you can give it. Okay. I, um… I love you. Bye.”

Paige reached out to the photo and, using her thumb, wiped at a tear reflected in the glass. “Oh—wait, that’s me. Sorry.” She giggled, and then wiped the tear from her own eye.

Standing up, Paige turned to see Vespa standing behind her, a bit of wind from the lab’s air conditioning blowing her hair. (Mimel and Gaudile had left the room to give Paige her privacy.) Vespa’s hands were in her jacket, and she was smiling. “Ready to go?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said, and she nodded. “Let’s go.”

Date: August 12, 20XX

Location: Redvine Apartments, Apartment 204

Paige’s last night in her home country, despite the frantic day, had been a calming, relaxing one. Vespa and Mimel dragged her about to all sorts of places, and they’d wound up splurging on a nice dinner where Vespa got some sort of bizarre seafood dish Paige didn’t even know how to pronounce. They’d stopped by a local shooting range, and Vespa, as usual, had nailed every single shot with pinpoint accuracy so she could show off, flipping her hair like she thought she was such hot shit.

They’d stopped in a park, and Paige had gotten to watch as Mimel made use of her second-foremost skill to ensure for the fifth or so time that Vespa knew what she was doing as Paige’s guard. “Hey, hey, watch the face!” Vespa said, doing her best to catch Mimel’s fist as it careened toward her face.

“Wouldn’t watch the face in a real fight!” Mimel said, delivering another hook that Vespa was just barely able to block. “You gonna worry about your face if Paige is in danger?!”

“What about me?! I might be in danger too!” Vespa caught a body blow, then raised her leg to catch a kick from Mimel that got her to wince and grab her leg in pain. “Ow!”

“They aren’t gonna take it easy on you! I’m gonna be clown shoes next to some of those yakuza or whatever!” Mimel said, grabbing Vespa by the waist for a submission hold.

“I seriously doubt thaaaaaaaaAAAAAA!” Vespa squealed, and a few passersby looked at them all funny.

They’d even taken an opportunity to do something Paige hardly got the chance to do. “Now, I am a master at this, of course,” Tundraman said, “but do keep on my hand, Miss Paige. Ice skating is an expert’s sport.”

“Whoa, okay, okay…” Paige stumbled a bit, since the skates on her feet didn’t seem to be nearly as graceful as Tundraman’s. “Okay okay okay. I think I’ve—whoa! Oh ahhhh, oh dear,” and she tumbled onto the railing, using it to steady her balance.

“Using the rail is no shame for a beginner,” Tundraman said, turning to a security camera and winking with his rose displayed for some reason. “I’m sure even Miss Vespa, with her superhuman agility, would have some difficulty with such an action.”

“Thaaaat doesn’t help me,” Paige said, stumbling again. It was cold on the rink! Very cold!

By the time they’d returned to Mimel’s apartment, a bone-weary exhaustion had set into Paige even as Vespa and Mimel continued to argue about the intricacies of the plotline of Cyberwarrior Cybo or something. “A cup of tea, Miss Paige?” Tundraman asked, leaning in. (They’d rented a CopyBot for the evening for his sake.)

“Oh, thank you,” Paige said, nodding and taking a drink.

“Please make sure not to overly stress yourself,” Tundraman said, taking a seat next to her and crossing his legs. “You have a habit of becoming overly stressed, and it might cause deleterious effects to your health.”

Paige giggled. “Thank you, Tundraman. I appreciate it.”

“As Milady’s best friend, it is only natural that I would have a vested interest in your health, as well.” Tundraman tipped his hat. “Of course, you are also a likable young woman, in my estimation. Why, I’m certain you’ll be batting away the suitors willy-nilly once those in Electopia get to meet you—”

Paige lit up, and inwardly thanked that she had finished that gulp of her tea. Both Vespa and Mimel turned from their impromptu arm-wrestling situation to spout “What?!”

Mimel launched over and put her hands on Paige’s shoulders. “If you get a girlfriend, you have to introduce me ASAP so I can make sure she’s okay for you. Okay? Okay. Okay? Okay. Are we clear here, Paige?!”

Vespa hip-checked Mimel out of the way. “Introduce me first. Obviously. I will be your wingwoman. No creeps will touch you.” Paige wilted into her tea.

Soon enough, night had completely fallen, and there was no time left to dilly-dally. Vespa roared Chaser to life one more time, and Paige stood by it, looking at Mimel, who leaned against a support pillar. “Hey. You’re gonna do great, okay?” Mimel said.

Paige averted her eyes. “Well, I—”

“Uh, no,” Mimel said, standing up more firmly, “you’re gonna do great. You and Vespa are going to knock their socks off! You two are a great team.”

“W-what does that even have to do with—?”

“Whatever.” Mimel lurched forward, and wrapped Paige in a tight hug. Paige could feel a soft wetness of tears in the crook of her neck. “I’m gonna miss you, pal. Knock ‘em dead. Call me. ‘Kay?”

Paige closed her eyes, and nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”

Chaser thrummed. “See you later, Mims!” Vespa waved, as Paige got onto Chaser’s back. “Try not to mess up the place while we’re gone! Don’t hold any crazy parties!”

“I don’t hold parties!” Mimel called back. “That’s my mom’s job, dumbass!”

The flashing lights of the city giving way to the darkness of the highway gave an almost ethereal glow to the same sights Paige had seen coming in. Vespa’s hair flowed in the cool, nighttime wind, and though Paige was behind her, she could swear she saw Vespa looking off into the distance. “Vespa?”

“Yeah?” Vespa said.

“Thanks,” Paige said.

“What for?” Vespa asked.

Paige shook her head. “I’m not sure… it just felt like the right thing to do.”

Vespa snorted. “Yeah. Okay, Paige.”

And the two drove off into the night.

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Crescent City International Airport

“...Miss… Watters-Markham?”

“Ah, yes,” Paige said, standing up, and hurrying over to the travel desk. A bored travel agent looked up at her, his eyes clearly full of a desire for sleep. “That’s me. Paige Watters-Markham.”

“Says here your name is—”

“Ah, I go by my middle name.” Paige said. She held her breath, her cheeks red with anticipation as the travel clerk poked through a few extra screens.

“...Go through the security scan for me?” The clerk said. “Leave your PET on the conveyor belt, too.”

It only took a few seconds, but as the machine scanned her body for contraband, Paige felt like every bit of anxiety she’d ever felt was suddenly going to explode directly out of her lungs. Vween. Vween. Vween—

“You’re good to go,” he said. “Enjoy Electopia.”

Letting out a heavy breath, Paige grabbed her rolling suitcase. “Alright!” Vespa hollered into Paige’s headphones, once she’d gotten settled back in. “Travel routine, set! Execute!”

Under Paige’s feet, she could feel the vibrations of the planes taking off. She looked out the window, and stared up at the sky. “It’ll be the same sky, huh…” She muttered to herself.

“Quit thinking about the sky until we’re in it!” Vespa chirped. “Hurry up and go! I hear airports are full of crazy stores!”

“Okay, okay,” Paige said, and with one last glance at the sky and the Netopian horizon, she left the window.

(ED: NEO VENUS, by JANNE DA ARC)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo

(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)

Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?

(Are they still shining bright?)

Arriving at Ayanokoji College, Paige settles in and quickly meets a number of interesting characters. A NetBattle exhibition between the new students quickly breaks out, granting Paige and Vespa a chance to show off their skills.

Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o

(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)

Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?

(to go for the scene before my eyes?)

However, Vespa seems somewhat disturbed by the appearance of a certain pair of world-saving twins, and she can’t get Flauclaws’s words out of her head. And can Paige really ignore the incident at her uncle’s labs, and the calling card they bore witness to?

Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to

(While my heart was in disarray,)

Miushinai kake teta yume o

(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)

Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…

(who taught me how to remember)

Anata deshi ta

(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)

Is it really something they can just leave to the Officials? With a new country comes new opportunities…

VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!

Hikari no sasu hou he

(To where the light points,)

Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te

(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)

Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou

(I’ll search for the answer,)

Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai

(and I’ll never let you go.)

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 2: The Mystery of ‘K’! Hunt for a Great Thief?!

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

“Teach Me, Miss Markham!”

“AtteeeeenTION!”

All five students stood at attention, their faces—when applicable—white as a sheet. “Thank you,” Paige said, smiling sweetly.

Decorated world-saving hero Lan Hikari looked around, and asked, “Wait, um, what are we doing again?”

Megaman, in the seat next to him, rolled his eyes. “There are people reading this story who haven’t played Megaman Battle Network, Lan.”

“Oh! There are?” Lan asked, tilting his head.

“Hey, who said you got to take the title?” Vespa leaned her fist over on her desk and grimaced at the Blue Bomber. “Last I checked this story had my name in the title.”

“Who are you?” Lan asked.

“Sir Hikari, your notes,” Tundraman whispered, passing him a glossary sheet to catch him up. “No doubt a man of your caliber is literate, yes?”

“Oh, thanks,” Lan said. For the next few minutes, he hummed furiously, catching up on the lore of a few more adventures in this timeline—after all, he was still fifteen, since the story hadn’t introduced him in the present day yet.

“While a fair amount of lore was explained enough in the first episode proper,” Paige said, standing at her virtual whiteboard, “I thought it was worth our while to explain some of the more obtuse references. I’ll be filling in as the teacher for this first lesson.” Mimel waved her hand, with a “GO PAIGE” bandana on her forehead. “Yes, Mimel?”

“Does any of this contain, like, our backstory?” Mimel asked.

“No, unfortunately, we’ve left for Electopia, which means you aren’t going to get to show up again for a number of episodes,” Paige said. Mimel wailed.

“Ohhh, I get it,” Lan said, crossing his arms and nodding. “You’re going to go and get a trio of new friends in the new place, right? That’s how it was when I moved.” He turned to Mimel. “It hurts, but don’t worry! Even if she runs into a new friend who’s kind of like you, they probably won’t be as buff as you! You’re irreplaceable! Just like Dex*!”

“*Dekao ‘Dex’ Oyama: Lan’s childhood best friend and rival, and operator of GutsMan.EXE. Currently in a completely different college studying politics,” Paige said. She tapped on her board, and a slide about various Dex facts came up. Everyone nodded and oohed and ahhed.

Lesson 1-1: Battle Chips

“Who can tell me what a Battle Chip is?” Paige asked, and immediately, Lan’s hand rocketed up. “Lan!”

“A ‘Battle Chip’ is a solidified fast-acting support program for NetNavis,” Lan said. He crossed his arms and nodded to himself. “They’re inserted directly into the PET, and when they do, the Navi temporarily gains access to, and runs, the modification in the Chip. They can be manually developed, or created from data left behind by viruses or battles between NetNavis.”

“Okay, next question, Lan.” Paige said. “How many chips can you select in a round?” Lan’s eyes crossed, and he let out a loud ‘uhhhhhhh’ noise. Megaman sighed and raised his hand. “Hehe. Megaman, why don’t you take over and tell us a bit more?”

“Most, if not all, PETs have the capacity for thirty Chips to be used in regular memory. These thirty Chips are referred to as a Navi’s ‘Folder’. Other than certain chips with active overrides or special Chips that represent a Navi’s innate abilities, these are the only Chips that a Navi can run—while the technology presumably exists to increase that number, standardization of Net Battles meant that society as a whole accepted the thirty-Chip limit,” Megaman said.

“And during a battle?” Paige asked.

“Well, each Navi can load a total of five different Chip programs during a single transmission from their Operator,” Megaman continued. “However, there’s also a limit on what Chips can be selected together. Each Chip has an alphabetical code—if the codes don’t match, with the exception of *-coded Chips which can be freely selected, the only time you can select multiple is if they’re copies of the same Chip.”

“Oh, yeah!” Lan said, pounding his fist into his open palm. “So you select Cannon A and Cannon B! Or WideSword S and AreaGrab S!”

“Are you sure this guy saved the world?” Mimel asked.

“A good Operator is capable of synergizing their folder to fluidly support their Navi with rosters of Chips that don’t conflict with each other,” Megaman concluded.

“Can you give us some examples?” Paige asked.

“Of course,” Megaman said, nodding. “During the episode, you and Vespa discussed your deck. I noticed that several of your Chips weren’t the type that the Navi directly uses, but support Chips such as Asteroid, which is fired from above, or Chips that bolster your Navi’s attacks. Vespa seems to be a very offensively built Navi, and her Buster specs are pretty well-suited for massive amounts of damage to your opponents. In addition, Circle-Gun and the highest-tier variety of the Asteroid chip both come in a C code—and you mentioned Risky Honey, whose second-tier variety can also be obtained in C.”

“That’s correct, Megaman!” Paige said, beaming. “My Folder is a primarily C and *-coded deck. Very astute! What about you, Mimel? What kind of deck do you use?”

“Don’t need ‘em that often,” Mimel said. She shrugged. “I just kinda throw whatever in there.”

“After all,” Tundraman said, tipping his hat and bowing in his seat, “the lot of you have yet to witness my true power.”

“That’s bull!” Vespa shouted.

“I assure you it’s quite true,” Tundraman said. He shook his head, bowing his hat over his eyes. “But I digress.”

Lesson 1-2: Navi Elements and the AUTO System

“Who can name the four main Elements of NetNavis?” Paige asked, and Vespa raised her hand. “Vespa!”

“Fire, Aqua, Elec, and Wood,” Vespa said. She grinned smugly to herself. “Wood-types represent.”

“That’s right, Vespa!” Paige said. She tapped a slide, showing a four-way chart. “Elements are certain code affiliations programmed into NetNavis that help facilitate their natural abilities and their ability to use certain Battle Chips. Fire beats Wood beats Elec beats Aqua beats Fire—using the right element on elementally-affiliated Navis can be much more effective!”

“For instance,” Vespa said, brandishing one of her Hive Busters, “if I were to use my sick guns on some Electric-element loser, and I’m not naming names here or anything but say he’s shaped like a panther, my shots would be pretty damn good on him.”

Paige frowned, and shook her head. “If Mr. Flauclaws were here to hear you say that, he’d probably be very upset.” Tundraman raised his hand. “Tundraman!”

“We would be remiss to not mention the secondary elements, Miss Paige. I, myself, am an Ice/Slash Navi,” Tundraman said.

“Wait, how do you slash people?” Lan asked, and then he looked down at Tundraman’s feet. “Ohhhh. That’s cool!”

“So it is, Sir Hikari, so it is.” Tundraman was probably grinning, judging by the position of his rose. “NetNavis such as us are also capable of having affinities outside the primary diamond—Slashing, Breaking, Stealth, Recovery, Sonic, Obstacle, and Cursor. Sir Megaman is a non-elemental Navi, and I seem to recall Miss Vespa is Wood and Cursor?”

Vespa spun her gun in her hand. “Damn skippy, boyo.”

“And Navis have about eight Elements on average, right?” Lan piped up.

Paige shook her head. “Navis can only have up to one primary and one secondary element, Lan. Megaman has as many elements as he pleases. He’s an outlier.”

“Oh, right,” Lan said. He nodded. “Wait, what about Elementman?”

“Elementman’s processing was so specialized he couldn’t even speak properly,” Megaman said, and Lan nodded his head and muttered an ‘ohhhhh’.

“Each element of Navi tends to have their own suite of advantages,” Paige said, “but one we should focus on is their relation to the AUTO System. Can anyone tell me what AUTO stands for? Mimel!”

“That’s the ‘Automatic Uplink inTangibility Operation’ System, yeah?” Mimel said. She leaned back in her chair. “You know, it’s like when your Navi flinches and they can’t get hit.”

“Correct!” Paige said. “It could be likened to ‘invincibility frames’ found in many video games. The AUTO System was designed by the progenitor of Net Society, Tadashi Hikari, otherwise known as Dr. Thomas Light. It’s standard-issue in all NetNavis. When taking hits of a certain data intensity, a Navi’s cybernetic body will become briefly intangible and protect them from harm unless otherwise halted by a property of the attack.”

“For instance,” Tundraman chimed in, “my Hyogetsujin cause the AUTO System to activate—however, a blast from my freezing Tundra Storm freezes a Navi in place, preventing it from activating until they are unfrozen. Of course,” he said, turning his head away, “convenient as the AUTO System is, its duration is sadly very limited.”

“That’s true,” Paige said, nodding her head. “Mostly, its function is to prevent a Navi from taking too much damage from a single attack—but if an attack is either too small or too large, it also can’t do anything. There’s very little a Navi can do against having their head slammed into the cyberdirt, for instance.”

“Please tell me you aren’t foreshadowing anything,” Vespa said, with a very defined grimace on her face. Paige smiled. “That doesn’t make me feel better!”

“Its most common usefulness is in standard, regulation NetBattles or battles against wild viruses,” Paige said. “However, certain elements interact interestingly with the AUTO System. For instance—”

“I hate the fuckin’ AUTO System, man,” Vespa said, groaning and rolling her eyes, placing her chin in her hand and staring at the wall. “That’s why I choose not to interact with it.”

“Vespa is a Wood and Cursor Navi,” Paige continued. “Due to loopholes in the System, Wood-elemental attacks never cause the AUTO System to activate, and Cursor attacks can pierce through it even while it’s active, so it’s very rare she needs to stop shooting because of it. That’s part of what makes her such a great partner.”

“Man, who made you all chipper?” Vespa scoffed. She rubbed the back of her head. “I mean, I just roll how I do, you know?”

Lesson 1-3: The Navi Customizer and Busters

“Our final subject for the day is the Navi Customizer interface,” Paige said. “Who knows what that is?” Lan raised his hand again. “Lan!”

“It’s the interface you use to boost your Navi’s power!” Lan said. “It’s like a puzzle game! You shove them in and make them all fit as best you can!”

“Full marks, Lan!” Paige clapped. “The Navi Customizer came into popular use eight years ago, and hasn’t left. It’s a solid, multi-purpose interface that allows for an accessible level of customization of your Navi’s programming, even for those with otherwise un-customized Navis.”

“Yeah, like Vespa mentioned she had FloatShoes!” Lan said. He nodded to himself. “That’s a useful one! Good taste! I hate it when Megaman runs on poison panels and stuff.”

There was a long moment of silence before Vespa spoke up. “Are you actually paying attention now?”

“The combat tutorial’s over,” Megaman said, “he goes through this about once a year.”

“Sounds rough,” Vespa said.

“You can get programs and compress them with certain codes for heavier loads—I’ve given Megaman a whole lot and totally embarrassed Dex!” Lan said, and he laughed to himself thinking about it. “Super Armor, Air Shoes, Undershirt, Buster Pack…”

“What kind of parameters can you alter with the Customizer, Lan?” Paige asked.

“Oh, plenty! Their HP, the stats of their Buster, you can stop them from flinching, how many Chips you can have ready for selection in a round, I…” Lan trailed off, and scrunched up his face. “Hmm… wait, hold on!” He turned his head to Vespa. “How do you shoot so fast?! I can’t get Megaman to shoot that fast no matter how I try, not with his Buster!”

“What’s it to you?” Vespa looked away, scrunching up her nose.

“Well, I mean, I’m studying this kind of stuff, so…” Lan mumbled to himself. “Well, your Busters are kind of unusual. Standard Navi Busters are sidearms literally, you know, in their arm, right? You’ve got those six-shooters, they’re really cool!”

“Vespa’s Hive Busters are an unusual case,” Paige said. “First, Lan, could you explain how Busters are usually measured?”

“Yeah, sure!” Lan nodded. “Regular Busters like Megaman are measured with three ratings—Attack, Rapid, and Charge. They all go from one to five. Attack is how much damage they do a shot, Rapid is how fast their regular shots shoot, and Charge is how fast they can charge up.”

“Actually, Vespa’s Hive Busters don’t have a Charge function,” Paige said, and Lan’s jaw nearly hit the floor. “When I met her, she’d already broken the function in favor of bumping her Rapid stat further. In terms of the raw measurement, I’d measure her Rapid at about a 9.”

“Nine?!” Lan sputtered. “And she has two of them?!” He stood up out of his seat. “Oh man, that’s so cool! And they don’t activate the AUTO System! Who needs charge shots when you have that?!”

Vespa turned around and grinned, standing up too and meeting Lan in a high-five. “Yeah! See?! This guy gets me!”

“Lan, we’re not breaking my charge function,” Megaman said. He sighed. “I have enough trouble as it is.”

“Well, you kind of had something like that once, when you could Beast Out,” Lan said. “But I think hers are faster than that, right? And—oh yeah, you couldn’t charge then! Wow! What was your Charge like before, Vespa?!”

“Y-you don’t just ask a girl that!” Vespa huffed, stomping her foot.

Paige rolled up her board, and stood in front of her five students once more. “That concludes the first lesson! Thank you for listening, everyone. You all get As!”

“What grading curve are you even using?” Mimel snorted. “I’m stupid, man. I don’t get As.”

“Patently false, Milady,” Tundraman said. “As your mother would want me to say, you have an astonishing GPA—”

“Fuck the off, you stupid brat!” Mimel walked over and shook the towering Navi by his shoulders. “I can actually kick your ass now in real life, get ready! You’ve got so many years of this coming!”

“Oh, no!” Tundraman cried, the rose on his shoulder wilting. “I’m sure whatever punishment Milady has for me will last for several episodes—long enough that our return shall be quite noteworthy when it occurs!”

“Bye, Tundraman,” Paige said, and the other four waved to him as Mimel dragged him out of the room to do whatever it was an artist slash pugilist actually did when she was angry. “Not too much of this information will be needed to understand the story itself, but I hope you feel enriched by having learned a bit more about how the Cyberworld operates!”

Then, Paige let out a very, very loud breath, and slumped over onto a desk in front of her, saying, “Ohhhh no, that was too much. Help me. I need to go to sleep. Vespa?”

“Right, right. You did good, Paige, did real good.” Vespa nodded, and hefted Paige up in her arms to carry her bridal-style back to her room where she could finally stop talking to people and putting on her customer service voice. Before she did, though, she leered at Lan and Megaman, and said, “Listen, when we actually run into each other in the story? Kicking your ass, blue boy.” She pointed to her eyes, and then to Megaman, and then walked backwards to ensure Megaman knew very well her eyes were on him. “Gonna whip your ass.”

Megaman pondered for a moment, and then said, “Huh. I guess we all do get a character like that eventually...”

“Huh?” Lan asked, tilting his head.

“Never mind,” Megaman said.

Chapter Text

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Den City (Larger Metropolitan Area)

“'Shouldn't take more than ten minutes by foot', he said,” Vespa whined from her spot inside Paige's pocket. “'It's easy to find', he said."

“I swear he said, oh, excuse me, I swear he said...” Paige trailed off, slumping over in front of a line of televisions in a display window.

The Den City Airport let out to the same rough area where Paige's destination was, so she'd received directions from her professor before leaving. The only explanation for how she'd now spent forty-five minutes looking that she had was that the definition of “first left” and “first right” must be different here.

“Ugh, look at this,” Vespa said. “Electrical store! Electrical store! There's so many electrical store!”

“Wait!” Paige threw her arm up, then paused, realized she was throwing her arm up for someone who was currently stuck inside her pocket, blushed, and put it down. “Dr. K said that if there were entirely too many electrical stores, we'd probably gone to Elec Town, and that was too far.”

(Incidentally, seemingly talking to yourself was perfectly normal in this world on account of NetNavis, so nobody batted an eye at the strange Netopian girl yattering to herself.)

“Haha, yeah, probably...” Vespa trailed off, and then there was a mutual pause. “Hey, kinda weird that he calls himself Dr. K—”

“Vespa,” Paige said, pulling out her PET and staring blankly at the woman inside. “My professor has nothing to do with the incident at Uncle Glenn's lab. Lots of people have the initial K.”

“Mm, yeah, I know, I know,” Vespa said, looking away and crossing her arms. “But like—”

“I'm nervous, too,” Paige said, raising her voice slightly higher than usual (which was really impressive given her usual demeanor.) “I don't know where we are, d-do you think we should call Dr. K?”

“Calling the guy on our first day for directions?” Vespa scoffed. “Come on, do we wanna look like babies?”

“I'm willing to be a baby if it means I can stop carrying this suitcase around,” Paige said, frowning. Vespa made a noise of realization. (“Hey.”) “I mean, it's not that I can't handle being alone, really, I mean, not that I am alone but you know what I mean, it's just that this area is actually quite cramped and I'm a bit unnerved and also yesterday I might have been present for a terrorist attack or something and maybe I'm a little shaken by that—” (“...Hello?”) “—and I think I need my inhaler, do you remember where I put my inhaler?”

“Mm, one sec,” said the woman in front of Paige, who then reached down to her suitcase, opened up a front pocket to produce Paige's asthma inhaler, and handed it to Paige.

“Oh, thank you,” Paige said, taking a few puffs on it to calm her inflamed lungs before wiping some sweat from her brow.

Pause. The crowds seemed nearly imperceptibly to thin around the two of them.

Paige's eyes went wide, and her skin white as a sheet, as she realized what exactly had just happened, leaping back. “Hi I'm sorry hello do I know you hi?!”

She definitely wasn't Electopian, that was for sure. This woman, whose hand scratched now at a long, chaotic, uncombed mess of hair that straddled the line between brunette and blonde, had the look of someone from somewhere that didn't get all that much sunlight—not quite sallow, but definitely paler than even the indoors-y Paige. She was about Paige's height, but much slimmer (if Paige were feeling a little too nosy, she might raise concerns about this woman's diet.) There were bags beneath her blue eyes that didn't quite seem to match the cute little dusting of freckles above her nose. She'd come out in a greying labcoat and red sleep clothes, though the red scarf around her neck was obviously well taken care of. And...

Yeah, that was a cup of coffee. The woman took a drink, with a sort of casual lack of concern for the immediacy of social decorum, before lowering her mug, opening her eyes again, and saying, “So do you ogle everyone you meet for the first time?”

That got Paige to turn bright red and Vespa to yell, “Hey, what's going on?! What's happening to my precious dynamic?!”

The woman snorted, and let out a cracking, hyena-like laugh with her head down toward the ground. “I'm kidding. Mostly.” She looked back up, her smile having already turned back into a frown. “You're Paige Markham, right? First year, just starting at Ayanokoji, majoring in Net Science, been partnered with the NetNavi Vespa.EXE for four years now.”

“Um, excuse me? I'm becoming increasingly unsettled?” Paige said. “Who are you? How do you know who I am or where I put my inhaler?”

Another long, long swig of coffee. “How many questions was that?”

“What?” Paige asked.

Another laugh, but then the woman straightened up her posture, stretching a little as she did. “Audrey Longhener. I've been helping out Dr. K for a while now, so I picked up a few things. Plus you wouldn't shut up on the plane.”

“T-the plane?” Paige asked.

The two of them were walking, now. “The plane. The one you got off of,” Audrey said, and she pointed into the sky. “I was sitting behind you.”

Paige blinked, then her eyes darted toward her suitcase. “Ohhh.” She nodded. “What a coincidence.”

“And I couldn't sleep the whole time, planes are ass for my circadian rhythm, so I had to listen to every word you both said to each other the whole time.” When Audrey said this, Paige had the urge to profusely apologize, but Audrey raised her hand preemptively to stop her. “If it wasn't you, it would've been something else. Anyway, Dr. K asked me out for something around here anyway and I saw you, so.”

“Right after you arrived from a trip?” Paige asked.

“The doc's swamped with paperwork 'cause of the other new student in his course,” Audrey answered, scratching at that mane she presumably called 'hair' again. “I'd hate for the old man to tear all his hair out.”

“And what about DopplerMan?” Paige asked. “Is he assisting Dr. K with his work, or...?” Audrey could only give a shrug. “Well, thank you, Audrey. That's very kind of you.”

“I guess,” Audrey said. “I—”

“Sharo, right?” Vespa said. Everything suddenly ground to a halt. “I mean, I've been collating data, and with the lack of sun, I mean. Gotta be from Sharo, right?”

Thankfully, Audrey's paper cup was empty now, so when she crushed it, nothing came spilling out. “First things first. I was speaking. Don't interrupt me. Second, you must be a real idiot if you think it's decent to announce to the world that you've been playing an internal guessing game as to something you could've just asked someone, especially something as inane as that.” Audrey took in a deep breath through her nose. “Third, yes, yes, I am. Do you want me to make it more obvious next time? Maybe wear an ushanka for you?”

“Oh, well, uh,” Vespa said, having been placed back in Paige's pocket after that little rant. “I was just... curious.”

A high male voice from the pocket of Audrey's labcoat said, “Boss, you've really gotta take a chill pill.”

Audrey sneered at nothing.“I can take a chill pill once I've gotten my four hours. Since when are you part of this conversation?” She looked away, scoffing. “I thought that these sorts of errands were too boring for you.”

“Oh, are you still working on that?” Audrey's Navi groaned, and then a slight noise signaled the voice being cut off. Audrey staggered over to another roadside coffee stand to get herself another cup of hot, black pain.

“Are you sure she isn't gonna knife us?” Vespa stage-whispered.

“Don't be rude,” Paige said, frowning down at Vespa. “You know people need their sleep. I mean, Mimel—”

“Haha!” Vespa squeaked. “Please don't remind me!”

Eventually, the coffee managed to get Audrey well enough awake to help her drag Paige over to... an old-style arcade. Paige's eyes were wide, and she took in a little gasp. “They still have these here?”

“I know,” Audrey said, with a cock of her head. She walked in, throwing open the double doors, and took a look around. The flashing lights of the various games on offer were a level of visual chaos that dwarfed even Paige's deepest looks around her uncle's labs... or Mimel's apartment. The noise level was astonishing, too. Paige wished she hadn't buried that train model so deep in her suitcase.

“Um, why are we here?” Paige asked over the din of sound, once Audrey began walking somewhere or another in this labyrinth of folly. In response, Audrey jammed a thumb in the direction she was going. Paige squinted, and looked over to find what looked like... a karaoke machine? “To sing karaoke?”

“Look down,” Audrey said, and Paige did so. In front of the karaoke machine was the one currently operating said machine—a small girl with vivid silver hair tied up in a pair of cute little buns, in a short-sleeved pink sundress. A bell hairclip on her right fringe was probably unnecessary, then, to make her stand out, given her location... but it sure was cute.

The girl was singing her heart out, throwing herself into each note. As Paige got closer, she could hear it clearer and clearer, above the cheers of a crowd she'd attracted. “—narazu aru hazu yo! Tashikana ai datte, motomereba itsu ka wa mieru kara!” To be honest, with the sparkle in her bright golden eyes, and the force of the motions she went through, she looked for all the world like one of those Electopian idols that Mimel occasionally talked about... albeit a bit shorter. “Ima dou natte yukou to, ima unmei ni sakarau, tsuyosa wo...”

“Shinjisaseteeeeeeeeeeeeee!” She cried out, along with the crowd she'd developed. Paige didn't know the song, but Audrey gave a half-hearted effort at it, as well. 'We've Got an Unbeatable Love', huh? Paige made a mental note to look up that song later.

Once the song had completely stopped and the young girl had obtained her near-perfect score, to cheers from the crowd, she pumped her fists and looked to all the world to be ready to continue before Audrey came up and placed her hand on her shoulder. “Bweh?!” the little girl looked up and jumped. “Audrey?!”

“What is it with me and people jumping today?” Audrey snorted, and gave a toothy grin to one side of her mouth. “You gotta pay better attention, Compa.”

Paige walked up behind her, poking her head up cautiously behind Audrey's shoulder to get a better look at the young girl. “Compa?” she muttered. “Um... as in—?”

Looking for all the world like she'd just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Compa closed her eyes, put on the brightest smile she could, and put her hands behind her back. “Um, it's really funny seeing you here, Audrey! Super funny! When did you get back to Electopia? I—”

“Compaaaaa,” Audrey said, and Paige could sense a certain crackling energy within that mane of hair of hers. “I haven't gotten any sleep in twenty-four hours. Think about how worried you're making Dr. K that I agreed to come out here, sweetie. How terrified he must be, beside himself that his adorable little daughter is out in the city where ne'er-do-wells could come to get her at any time. Are you in your rebellious phase now, Compa? I never went through one, so I can't really relate, but I understand the concept. I really do. But—”

“Heeeelp!” Compa squealed, opting to hide behind Paige. “She's gonna delete me!”

“I-I don't think she's that powerful...” Paige stammered, but when Audrey turned her head, though she was smiling, for a moment the fear of God was struck in Paige so badly that she, too, believed that Audrey Longhener could delete a human being.

Thankfully, this situation was able to be moved outside onto the street, where it was much quieter. “Um, so you're Dr. K's daughter, right?” Paige asked, once they'd all been seated on an outside bench. “That Compa?” Compa nodded. “Um... what are you doing out here?”

Compa made a whining little noise and hunched over, putting her chin her hands. “New arrivals week is hard! Daddy always gets all nervous, and it makes me nervous too, and... awwww...”

Paige nodded, putting her hand on Compa's shoulder. “I understand. Meeting new people is hard... um, or maybe that's just me... er, but you probably shouldn't just go off, it's dangerous out here by yourself for a little girl!”

“I knowwwww,” Compa groaned. “It's complicated.”

Pause.

“Hi. Welcome to Electopia,” Compa said. Her voice had gone completely flat. “You're Ms. Paige, right? Daddy's been really excited to have you in his class.”

“One of these days,” Audrey scoffed, “one of these days, we are going to have to get this kid a PET.”

Paige started. “Y-you don't have one?!” Compa shook her head. “That's really dangerous! What if you need to contact him? What if—?!”

“I've had this discussion before,” Audrey said, shaking her head. “It isn't gonna work. Not on her, not on him.” Paige wilted.

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College (Go, Fightin' Fishies!)

It turned out that the one with a poor definition of 'first left' and 'first right' was Paige, in this case. Once someone who actually knew where she was going was at the helm, it really wasn't very far from the airport at all.

At the gates was a by-now familiar face for Paige—a scruffy, silver-haired, middle-aged man in his best SciLab casual, tearing at least a little bit of his not-yet-thinning hair out as he paced frantically around, checking his watch as he did. Audrey whistled. “Get everything done, Doc?”

Dr. Mazda Kamizono looked up from his watch, to see Audrey strutting up with a reluctant, gaze-averting Compa in tow. Paige opted to wait her turn. “Compa!” Dr. Kamizono bellowed, running over and nearly sliding onto his knees to wrap his daughter in an almost bone-crushing hug with his burly arms. “Where have you been?!”

“Just Elec Town, Daddy,” Compa said, her voice a little tight from the squeezing. “Come on, you told me that was okay—”

“I told you that it was okay if you let me know first, and with my permission,” Dr. Kamizono said, letting out a heaving, shaking breath. “Leaving me a note doesn't count as letting me know first. You have to say it directly to my face, alright?”

“What if your head's in a paper?” Compa asked.

“Smack me,” Dr. Kamizono said. “Just...” He let out another breath. “Oh, god, I was so scared...”

As Dr. Kamizono clutched his daughter like she was a piece of driftwood amidst a roiling sea, Audrey looked over and told Paige, “He's like this. About her.”

“I know,” Paige said. “We've spoken. I gathered.”

“Yeah, I just felt the need to say,” Audrey said, shrugging. She cocked her head to the good doctor. “If it's all the same to you, Boss, I'm gonna go take a nap while the Dean talks.”

Switching his mode of conversation came easily to Dr. Kamizono, evidently. He was stern and a little scolding as he looked up to say, “That's disrespectful and likely against the rules, but I know I can't stop you.” Then he got back to crushing his daughter in a hug.

Eventually, even with Paige's lack of presence, Dr. Kamizono realized she was there. He stood and cleared his throat, Compa letting herself recover in the background, and reached his hand out. “It's very good to finally properly meet you, Paige,” he said.

“Likewise, Doctor,” Paige said. She smiled. “I'm sorry about the trouble.”

“No worries. I... probably should've just sent you the location on your GPS or something,” Dr. Kamizono said, and Paige blushed. “How was your flight? Not too troublesome, I hope.”

“No, sir,” and Paige shook her head.

Dr. Kamizono briefly froze, then looked at Paige's pocket. “Compa,” he said, and Compa made a noise. “The Navi inside that PET is not someone you should try to emulate.”

“Hey!” Vespa huffed.

“This is not to say that you're not a lovely young woman, Vespa,” Dr. Kamizono said, “just that I don't think that it would be best for someone of Compa's constitution to try and emulate you or any, ahem, freewheeling stunts you might attempt to perform.”

“Freewheeling stunts?” Compa's ears perked up.

“Of course that's what you heard,” Dr. Kamizono sighed.

Walking through the gates of Ayanokoji College was something Paige had dreamed about. It went much better than it usually did in her dreams. It was a massive campus, despite the college's relative youth—it had been built right next to a river, so there was a variety of greenery on the campus even in the modern era of infrastructure. Students playing hooky from the Dean's speeches mingled about the area, and Paige looked around to scout out the various structures.

The administrative building was tall, very tall, enough so that the three-floor dorms surrounding it were dwarfed. The college's main educational building sat in the center. Eateries, various stores, and even a branch of the national Battle Chip retailer Aster Land had set up shop on the school's premises. “Ah, of course that'd have caught your eye,” Dr. Kamizono laughed, and Paige blushed. “It's no shame to be good at something.” He shook his head. “To be honest, I was very glad to get your application. I was thinking that I'd be lonely this year.”

—Dr. Kamizono was something of a genius in his own right in terms of net science and Navi programming, though nobody was entirely sure what exactly to call his crowning achievement. As such, the courses taught on his level were some of the most difficult to get into, if not the most difficult, in the school's roster. Paige knew this very well, as she'd had to study for weeks, even months, to reach the level of knowledge she felt suitable for passing the extra exams to enter into his level of course work.

“I heard there was only one other pass,” Paige said. “Have they arrived?”

“I haven't seen him, at least,” Dr. Kamizono said, “but that boy will arrive sooner or later. I'm told he's chronically late; his father has complained about it a number of times to me. But he'll be here.” He shook his head. “At any rate, I should deliver Compa back to our home.” He gestured to a smaller building right on the corner of the campus. “Do come see me when you're settled in properly, I have a few things to deliver you.”

"Bye, Paige," Compa said, with a little wave.

“Y-you live on campus, too?” Paige blinked.

“The college was built just by me, and recently expanded its campus slightly. I refused to move,” Dr. Kamizono said, with a casual shrug. “There are worse places to live.”

“Like that island with the skull head off the coast?” Compa piped up.

“We are not going to Skull Island,” Dr. Kamizono chided. Compa wilted, but then took another breath. “Or Hades Isle. You could trip and fall.”

“Hey, question, why are all of your island names so threatening?” Vespa asked.

Dr. Kamizono took a breath, then had to stop and pause for a moment. “There's Oran, at least.” Vespa nodded inside the PET. Compa—“We're not going to Oran, either, mines have limited air quality.”

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Auditorium (and let us stand for the alma mater)

“Hmm-hmph! Students of Ayanokoji, lend me your ears!”

It took the esteemed Dean Tanque a few moments to step up the boxes he needed to actually get up to the podium, but the heaviness of his steps made him feel imposing anyway. He reminded Paige, oddly, of a cactus, with his round, short frame, great, pointy mustache (which he felt up... imposingly) and sparkly bald head. “I am proud, again, to welcome another group of students to the college which all would agree can be called the greatest on Earth! Those of you present in this room can feel proud that here you shall achieve an education like no other—”

Despite the sheer booming nature of his voice, Paige wound up tuning him out. “Does he really need a mic?” Vespa asked.

“Um, Vespa...” Paige whispered. She had to say it again to get Vespa to hear. “Now that we're sitting... um, what do you think we should do? About this... 'calling card', we saw.”

“Not sure,” Vespa said, shaking her head. “We've got enough on our plate right now, right?”

“I mean, I do...” Paige said. “You're not enrolled.”

“I'm busy being my fabulous self!” Vespa chided, and flipped her hair with a shining cybersparkle to accommodate it. “Seriously though, I don't know. It's been a long time since I was involved with any calling cards... Plus it might be hard to do anything from Electopia. I can get over to their net, but you...”

“'Trouble has a way of following trouble',” Paige said. Vespa blinked. “Oh, um, Uncle Glenn used to say that.”

“Okay?” Vespa blinked again.

“Er, it means that he would probably think that this issue wouldn't leave me alone just because I came to Electopia... that's all,” Paige said.

“Well, if anyone happens to come trying to steal anything of yours, I'll give 'em what for.” Vespa winked and brandished her Busters. “Bang! Zoom! I'll give 'em the Vespa Classic Jackpot Maneuver!”

“The what?” Paige blinked, but motion on the stage prevented her from being able to ask any further.

“—and I am proud to allow Student Representative Akajima a moment of your time, as well! Smart boy. He'll go far,” Dean Tanque said, before stepping off of the boxes and sliding them out of the way himself.

Though the tall young man to the side of the stage had been present the whole time, he only really caught Paige's eye now. His stride was dignified enough to even catch Paige's eye. 'Student Representative Akajima' wore his medium, pitch-black hair in a contoured foxtail. His eyes were sharp, keen, but with an approachable look to his features that prevented him from becoming frightening. He wore a bright red sweater vest over a white shirt, and black slacks—to be honest, he was the most professional-looking person Paige had seen all day.

“Good morning, everyone. I'm Keaton Akajima, and I've been given the honor of serving as your student representative.” He smiled and waved, and a number of the older students loudly squealed, with choice utterances like 'Keaton-sama, marry me!' 'Take me away, my prince!' 'I wanna touch his fingers!' “Haha, now, that's enough of that. Really,” he said, and Paige could tell that last one got to him a little.

Vespa made a humming noise, and now that Dean Tanque wasn't talking, Paige could hear her properly. “What's wrong?” Paige asked.

“This guy... I wonder if I've met him,” Vespa said, scratching her head. “He looks familiar.” Paige shrugged. “Yeah, you probably wouldn't know...”

“Our Net Society is, historically speaking, still in its infancy,” Keaton said, placing his hand on his chest. “The challenges we, as both humans and NetNavis, must face in helping it along to its greatest state are still massive, and no doubt seem near insurmountable. However, it is my firm belief that through cooperation and friendship, we can create a world in the future where we can truly say we are living to our fullest.”

As opposed to Dean Tanque's speech, people were silent for Keaton Akajima. “Here at Ayanokoji, I can't tell you how many times I've seen glimpses of this world I want to bring into existence.” He clenched his fist, his eyes closed. “To those of you who've just arrived, I can only earnestly ask for your cooperation—we are warriors on the front line of a sociological war against the ways of the past! I want to move forward, hand in hand with all of you, into a better future we create with our own hands!”

People began clapping as soon as he said that, though Paige could tell by the look on his face he wasn't quite done. That said, the decorum of Student Representative Keaton Akajima was such that he was able to smile and calmly take the interruption. “A better future...” Paige muttered to herself.

“Who makes a corny speech like that at orientation?” Vespa snorted.

“Well, I thought it was quite nice,” Paige said.

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ NetSci Dormitory (Canteen opens at 8 AM!)

Paige's room was on the second floor, but the dormitory was, blessedly enough, equipped with an elevator. She crammed herself into it with a few other students, who were probably not so new given their chattering about the new chips over at Aster Land.

“God I gotta get in that CopyBot,” Vespa said, her voice nearly salivating over the idea of the amenities in her room. “God I gotta get in that CopyBot. Bot I godda get in that GopyCot.”

By now, Paige's arms were screaming at her, so once her stop arrived, she ever-so-quickly charged over to Room 212. Though... across the hall, in 224, she happened to see a familiar face slumped against the door, snores coming out of a mass of her hair. Audrey's head was plastered against her door, her PET jacked into the port right under her room number.

Another student was attempting to rouse her awake, a short, sparkly young person in a long-sleeved, green and yellow button-up dress. Their short black hair was curled behind their ears in finely cared-for locks. “M-Ms. Longhener, t-that can't be good for your health! Come on, please?”

“Two years I've been going here...” Audrey sleep-mumbled. “Two years, Eiji. Does it seem fair to you? Doesn't seem fair to me.”

Eavesdropping was impolite, so Paige opted to stop and open her door with the key she'd been given. This would've been a fantastic plan... had it worked. “Eh?” But it didn't. Her door's card scanner beeped red at her. “Um...”

“Look,” Vespa said. “Over there.” Paige had to take a moment to figure out where 'over there' was, but she found it—a poster on the wall. The department head's Navi was present on it, and it displayed, “A Message from Battalion.EXE!”

Here is what it read.

Hey, Kid's! In order to get in, you're gonna have to show us how good you are at NetBattling! Jack in next to your door and find an “Aptitude Checker” around the dorm's network to activate your key! Happy Hunting!!

Paige had to take a moment, even after reading the poster, to register what it had said. “...T-this is a joke, right?”

“Two years, Paige!” Audrey suddenly shouted at her from across the hall, clutching her hands tight. “Two years I've been going here and they still make me do this shit!”

“I—Ms. Longhener—” 'Eiji' said, then let out a sad little sigh. He reached up to grip his collar. “I-I'm very sorry...” Based on the look of his face, he was seriously distressed, so Paige stepped a bit closer. “Um, eh?”

“Is something wrong? Er, besides the obvious, I mean,” Paige said. (In the background, Vespa rolled her eyes and said 'here we go again'.)

“Oh, no, please, don't concern yourself...” Eiji said, raising his hands before bowing. “I'm very sorry to worry y—”

“Eiji's Navi is halfway across campus, I'd wager,” Audrey said, raising her finger, and Eiji started. “He can't even get in. He's not gonna call his Navi back because he thinks she might be busy. He needs someone to do his test for them, since they never even bother checking these things as long as they've got the ID they need.” If Paige hadn't caught that Eiji's eyes were brown before, she probably wouldn't be able to ever again, given how tightly he was scrunching them up now.

“M-Ms. Longhener—” Eiji sputtered.

“Oh, of course!” Paige said, giving a soft smile. “I'd be happy to help. I'm Paige Markham, I just started here. I'll be right over as soon as we've found one.”

“Er... t-thank you so much,” Eiji said, blushing and looking down.

“Let's go, Vespa,” Paige said, hurrying back over to her door and producing her PET.

“You're lucky I'm tough, pretty boy!” Vespa called over to Eiji. “Double duty isn't something just anyone can do!”

“Yes, I'm aware, thank you very much.” Eiji said, bowing profusely to someone who couldn't even see him.

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Dorm #5 Inner Network (no accidents since 20XX-3!)

Thundering downward in a beam of light, Vespa bent her knees to absorb the shock of the landing. As soon as she finished materializing, she sprung back up, throwing her arms wide, to yell, “Saaaaaaaaafe!” A few passing Navis gave her strange looks, but it was their loss for not understanding proper dramatic entrances.

This network's pathways were slightly translucent, so Vespa could make out a central structure connecting them all that seemed to resemble a six-barreled gun, for... some reason. At the edges, where Vespa had landed, was an outer ring that connected to several sturdy social areas for NetNavis to gather, but getting to the center required an obnoxious amount of navigation.

“What am I even looking for?” Vespa said, rolling her eyes and getting to puttering forth.

Paige wasn't answering, but from above, Audrey's voice came in through Vespa's connection. “If it's anything like the last billion times I had to do this, you're looking for some green and red Navis with guns for heads.”

“Why do they have guns for heads?” Vespa looked up to ask. She didn't have to see Audrey to hear that shrug.

Vespa's vision was pretty good, so it didn't take her long to spot a guy with bulky feet, green and red coloring, and a gun for a head marching back and forth by himself along a pathway... but of course someone immediately slid in front of him and started engaging him. Hm. She materialized a targeting visor over her head, and turned on targeting mode, scanning around for anything out of place, and...

Well, there were two identical reticles locking on to things beneath a platform on the edge. That was pretty curious, so Vespa turned off her visor and started running over there. Of course, that involved running along a complicated network of—

“Yoink!” There was a blue chunk of Mystery Data on the path, so Vespa placed both of her Busters downward and blasted backwards to launch herself off of the ground and over the head of another Navi walking on the path, rolling onto the ground and picking it up. When she opened it up, though, she grimaced. “Ugh, just a SubMem. You can have this,” she said, putting it back down on the ground, then placing her gun back down to launch herself again now that she remembered that she could do that.

“The hovering wings are pretty neat,” Audrey observed. “You make her yourself?”

“Oh, um, no,” Paige said. “I don't actually know her father's name... she just complains about him sometimes when she's talking about her backstory.”

“Mm,” Audrey said. A few other Navis on the pathways gaped at the crazy woman using her guns to skip around like an idiot, but Vespa paid them no heed and soon arrived at the platform she'd been aiming for.

“Look at you, Private Chronoforce!” A member of Battalion's... Battalion said, saluting to the Navi in front of him. “You passed with a Busting Rank of [5]! When you grow up, you're probably gonna be a really great NetBattler!”

“Mmhm,” said 'Chronoforce'. This one was an odd one—most of his hard, armored chassis was a dark blue, but parts of his torso were 'wrapped' in a grey binding that almost resembled a human straitjacket. Tiny, ice-crafted arms stretched out of his torso like a T-Rex's, and were currently dealing with a miniature game window. His heavy legs, resembling castle towers with their square, blocky construction, sat to the sides of a tail-like jet fixture, and his head, tall and pointed, was faceless aside from two small slits with glowing green eye-lines inside. Vespa wondered if you could stab someone with it... maybe he was supposed to be like a swordfish?

Vespa strutted up, looking around, then leaned over Chronoforce's... 'shoulder' to look at his window. “Whatcha playin'?”

“Wanyadora,” Chronoforce said. “My cats need feeding.” Vespa nodded. That was pretty important.

“Oh my fucking god,” Audrey suddenly belted out, and Vespa could hear her run back to her PET. “You're done and you didn't tell me?”

“Eh,” Chronoforce said, with a shrug that moved his whole body. “You'd have found out eventually.”

“Even—I need sleep, you lazy sack of fish data!” Audrey spat.

“You got it, Boss,” Chronoforce said, as he took initiative like a boss and made absolutely no moves to leave. He looked up at Vespa. “...Yamaha, right?”

“Vespa,” Vespa said. “Can you stab people with that head?”

“Yup,” Chronoforce said. “I kept the spot warm for you.” Then he jacked out, and as soon as he did, two more members of Battalion's Battalion (surely that wasn't the actual name, right?) climbed up from a position at the edge of the platform, being that they'd been hanging off the side the whole time.

Vespa made a noise of understanding, putting her hands on her hips and nodding. “Aww, what a nice guy!”

Wham. “There she goes,” Paige observed. “Sir?”

“Present!” That sounded like a bow. “Um... thank you again. I-I really don't know how to repay you.”

Vespa grinned. “One hundred thousand Ze—”

“Please, don't worry about that,” Paige said. “Could I get your ID?”

After deflating, Vespa went over and interacted with the Navi on the left. “Afternoon, Private! A new recruit, are you? Give us your operator's name and student ID so we can get started!” Vespa cleared her throat.

And... “Eiji Kikuchi, second year, nurse's assistant. ID 2410974.” Vespa rattled it off after him.

After a moment to digest, the Navi's cartoonish eyes went wide, and he staggered back, nearly falling off of the platform. “L-Lieutenant Cinnamon?! My apologies for not recognizing you after your glow-up, ma'am! I-I'll begin the test posthaste!”

Vespa spun on her heels to face a row of viruses appearing behind her—the pointy bottoms giving way to silver viruses with small flames on their tops mimicking knights' helms. “S-Swordies?!” Eiji exclaimed. “I'm no good at those.”

“Vespa, Sensor loaded!” Paige said. Vespa received the sent data, and snapped her fingers on her left hand while drawing her right Buster. A KillerEye virus, just like she'd defeated in the labs yesterday, appeared in front of her, and the front Swordy raised its blade to attack.

Ordinarily, these had a wait time, but Vespa had very little patience for things like that, so she aimed her Buster at the back of the virus and fired, kickstarting its attack. A piercing electric beam launched from the Eye, catching the Swordy in front mid-attack and blasting its two compatriots in the back before they could move. All three went poof in the blink of an eye.

“Incredible work!” The Navi administering the test saluted, and was that a tear in his eye? “You passed with a Busting Rank of [S]! You've become a credit to the team!”

“O-oh!” Eiji exclaimed. “Ah, thank goodness. I'm in your debt, Misses—um, Markham, you said?”

“It's really no problem at all,” Paige said, and Vespa knew well that tone—it probably meant Paige was inwardly conflicted about being praised for something she didn't entirely realize was not something everyone would do. “Oh, but... who are these Navis? Do they work for Mr. Battalion?”

“They are Mr. Battalion, actually,” Eiji said, and while Paige sounded like she understood, that just made Vespa more confused. Seeing off that one, she now stood in front of the other. “Um, as I understand it, his base programming was fragmented in an attack on the Mother Computer some years back, so it became easier for him to operate in multiple instances that conferred with each other—”

Vespa leaned forward, and tapped this other Battalion on the head. “You there, chief?”

After a moment's pause, Battalion stood at attention. “Afternoon, Private! A new recruit, are you? Give us—”

“Paige Markham, first year, NetSci, ID 3738800,” Vespa said. She looked up. “Is this gonna confuse him later?”

“Just that one,” Eiji said. “There are ninety-eight more of him, so he should be alright... I hope.”

“Private Vespa, is it?” Battalion said, giving Vespa an askew glance. “Well, we'll see what a fresh young trainee like yourself can give.” He crossed his arms, which looked a bit too clunky to keep that up for long. “But do you want it mild? Spicy? Caliente?”

“What?” Vespa blinked.

“I'm hearing so hot, it'll leave you bawling like an anime fan on prom night!” Battalion leaned in entirely too close, and the muzzle on his head pressed into Vespa's nose. Vespa rolled her eyes, raised her hands, and muttered a, 'whatever floats your boat, chief.' Turning on her heel again, this time, four viruses materialized in.

Two of them, in front of Vespa and to her right, were red, inverted shrimp-shaped things with twin gatling guns—Red Hubcaps, they were called. In the corner of the stage was a white box-shaped virus, a Windbox, which Vespa already felt pushing her back with its powerful winds. Finally, a green tank on small treads—a Catack—began to slowly advance toward Vespa from the backline of the enemy's position.

Being in the middle of a fight meant that automatic barriers were set up such that Vespa couldn't fall off, but being pushed toward the back of the platform still didn't feel good. The Hubcaps warped next to the Windbox to guard it as the Catack slowly pushed forward, so when Vespa tried to fire upon the Windbox, a Hubcap absorbed it instead. Because of the Catack and Windbox's relative position, the Hubcaps twisted into a relative V pattern around the Windbox when they warped toward it, but they now began to dash forward to fire upon Vespa. “Paige?”

“On it,” Paige said, as she slotted in a few chips. Vespa smirked to herself, and placed her Busters downward to launch into the wind again before activating a DashAttack to bolster her momentum. Careening above the Hubcaps' shots, she got to the top of the Windbox's effective range, and fired again to land directly on top of the Windbox. When the Hubcaps automatically warped back to their homes, she placed her Busters on the back of their heads and fired, eliminating them in short order.

From there, she looked down. “Hey, little buddy,” she said, jumping off the Windbox, “you mind giving me an assist?” Windboxes were classified as Obstacle-style objects, so it didn't harm Vespa in the slightest to pick it up with a SuperArm Battle Chip, briefly encasing her arm in a much larger fist. With a sparkle in her eye, she yelled, “Go long!” and hurled her friendly little box at the remaining Catack, which was unfortunately never programmed to turn around and not fire directly at the now-vacant back wall. Just as it fired, the Windbox hurtled into it, and both viruses went careening toward the back barrier, ramming into it and vanishing in a puff of data.

The sheer awe in the noises Eiji made were enough to get Vespa to give a victory pose, winking for the camera. “Thank you, thank you,” Vespa said, “you're too kind, really.”

“Impressive work, Private Vespa!” Battalion said, standing at attention. “You passed with a Busting Rank of [10]! Just a little bit of growing on you and—”

“Not S?!” Vespa ran over and grabbed Battalion by the shoulders. “Did you see how cool my moves were?!”

“That was an illegal entry into the opponent's field! Had to dock you a point for that,” Battalion said, cool as a cucumber despite how hard he was being shaken. “I recommend you do not shake me, or else I might detonate!”

Vespa jumped back. “You can detonate?!”

“A true warrior knows the importance of a self-destruct button, Private!” Battalion said. Vespa attempted to digest this bit of wisdom, but failed. “I'll give you and your operator access to your quarters! Glad to be working with you!” And he was off.

“He seems nice,” Paige said, “this whole thing aside.”

“Why would he be able to explode?” Vespa said, putting her head in her hands. “Who just—wait, I guess if he has ninety-nine bodies... do you think he could just like, throw himself at somebody? Just blow up all of his bodies on people until he wins?”

“We're jacking out now, Vespa,” Paige said, with a little chuckle.

“Dude, what if I had ninety-nine bodies? I'd have... a hundred and ninety-eight guns! I could shoot so many bullets! I—”

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ NetSci Dorm (colloquially referred to as 'Battalion's Playhouse', by Battalion)

Pointedly ignoring whatever it was Vespa was talking about, Paige pocketed her PET and bowed to Eiji, who was standing there with his eyes wide and hands clasped. “I hope you have a good day, Mr. Kikuchi. This suitcase is very heavy, so...”

“O-oh, please don't let me hold you up, Ms. Markham.” Eiji bowed back. “It was very nice to meet you, but—”

The conversation was interrupted by a piercing ring from Eiji's PET, which got the boy to seize up, a single strand of his hair poking up off of his head. “Eh? Oh, no! N-no time to speak! I'm sorry to cut this short—” and Eiji hurried into his room “—but I've really got to go, there's an emergency—” and then he was out again “—very important, otherwise I might never learn anything, thankyousomuchforyourhelpI'msorrypleaseenjoytherestofyourdaygoodbyeMissesMarkhamandVespa!”

Paige blinked a few times. “He can run... very fast.”

“How much cardio you think he does?” Vespa asked. “Do you think he's jacked under that dress?”

“I'll ask later,” Paige said, and entered into her room.

Accounting for the increasing independence of Navis who enjoyed CopyBots, even this single room was large enough for two people. A freshly-made bed, fluffy-looking sofa, shelves, a walk-in closet, and a fairly extensive tech rig already present, even though Paige knew very well she'd be getting that, made her feel slightly awkward. She shrank back out of the room a touch. “Um... a-are you sure this is mine?”

“The key opened the door, didn't it?” Vespa said, and Paige gulped and clenched a fist, walking into her own room. The nervousness sank away the moment she was able to put down her suitcase and flop onto the bed... and speaking of CopyBots, there one was in the closet, provided for Vespa's use.

Such were there suddenly two women on the bed and not just one. “Oh my god,” Vespa said, breathing deeply, facedown, into the sheets. “Are we sure this is a public facility?”

“As far as I know,” Paige said, her voice sleepy and jetlagged.

“You wanna go out and explore a bit?” Vespa asked.

“In a minute,” Paige said.

“A girl after my own heart,” Vespa mumbled.

'A minute', as it turned out, meant two hours, which Paige realized with a start when she woke up from her impromptu nap. “Vespa?” she murmured, reaching her hand over to nudge Vespa awake. Of course, that required Vespa to not already be awake, having switched into casual, leaning back on the bed and reading a book. “You woke up first...?”

“I know, it's a miracle,” Vespa said, idly flipping through the pages of Things that Happen in the Fast Lane, a thriller novel she was particularly fond of. “You know, the author of this one is Electopian. Wonder if we could go visit his house or something,” she said with a snort.

“I'm sure he gets enough visitors,” Paige said, shaking her head to wake herself up. “Are you sure you're alright?”

“Why wouldn't I be alright?” Vespa asked.

“You've been crying,” Paige answered, and Vespa lowered her book—sure enough, her eyes were red, and her face was a little sticky. “I knew it.”

“Ugh. Who gave you permission to know me that well?” Vespa huffed, turning away. Paige came closer to give her a hug. “...Thanks.”

“A nightmare?” Paige asked, and Vespa nodded. “Mm.”

—When you lived with Vespa.EXE, and especially when you sometimes slept in the same bed, you simply got used to the fact that occasionally, she would wake up screaming her lungs out, her eyes full of some sort of wordless horror that she didn't like to explain, from the life she lived before she'd become Paige's Navi. And that usually meant—

“What are you craving?” Paige asked. (One of the many questions Paige had to hypothetically ask Vespa's creator was why on Earth she was programmed to feel hunger.)

Vespa gritted her teeth, but based on the way she was twitching, she was thinking. “You think they've got any burgers around here?”

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College (several establishments now hiring! Inquire within)

They did. No matter how long Paige knew Vespa, the sight of her tearing into a burger was never any less startling. Paige also found herself slightly jealous of the fact that Vespa could nosh on two burgers and a serving of fries and yet never gain any weight, on account of being made of data.

“Man,” Vespa said, downing a massive swig of some soda or another, “this hits the spot.”

They'd just managed to precede the dinner rush, so things were getting noisy fast. “So,” Vespa said, “how was I out there? Rad, right? We totally deserved an S, right?”

“Mr. Battalion seems like he's a bit of a stickler for the rules,” Paige said. “But I'm not a scorer or anything... I wouldn't know.”

“You deserve the S too, Paige! You're an important part of this duo!” Vespa said, leaning in over the table and placing her hands on Paige's. “If it weren't for you... I'd be nothing but a pretty face and a pair of guns...” Vespa looked away, her hair fluttering in a faux wind.

“Thank you, Vespa,” Paige said, and she looked away and blushed. A buzz in her pocket alerted her to a message, and she opened up her PET to check. “Oh, it's from Dr. K...”

To Paige,

I thought you should know that a number of the Net students tend to gather around this time in the Community Center for an impromptu series of exhibition matches among each other. If you're not busy, it might be something for you to do—Vespa does seem awfully bloodthirsty.

-K

“Where did he get this impression of me?” Vespa snorted, before ripping her second burger in half.

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center

“And that's game, ladies and germs!” As soon as Paige opened the door, she was blasted by a small crowd's worth of cheers and the microphone-boosted voice of an announcer. “Looks like raising Pandamonium just wasn't enough to take on the unadulterated speed of Buster Rod G! If you ask me, it was a bad matchup, what do you think?”

“Well, Scoops,” said a second announcer (and Paige was scanning the crowd, who were huddling around an Open Battle table which was displaying a massive panda-shaped Navi down at the feet of a monkey-themed Navi who brandished a staff, for these announcers,) “personally, I think Pandamonium and his operator should've realized that Buster's superior agility means that you can't beat him in a platforming game. There's only one way to go with guys like him unless you can outspeed him, and that's raw power. Pandamonium just needs to play to his advantages more.”

“And how do you think we'd do, buddy?” The first announcer said.

“Oh, I could outspeed him any day, you kidding?” The second announcer laughed.

—Ah, there they were! They were to a side, at an emcee's desk, and Paige actually first was drawn to that end of the area by seeing Dr. K and Audrey standing to the side, behind them. It was a human and NetNavi pair.

The first announcer's voice belonged to a short young woman, who was standing up to slam the table. The brown newsboy cap, pen behind her ear, and black-rimmed, square glasses gave Paige a definite vibe, though she wasn't quite sure what that vibe was as of yet. Her fairly spiky short hair and currently wide grin definitely gave her a chaotic energy of some sort, though. She wore a white button-up shirt, brown suspenders, and brown pants, and based on what Paige could tell, she was actually fairly muscular under her clothes. Oh, was that a camera around her neck? It looked like a camera.

As for the NetNavi, at the moment, he was clad in a darker brown trilby hat and trenchcoat, though the back of the coat had slits for folding wings that were currently retracted. He was visibly metallic, with sunglass-like lens that could flick over his small eyes, and a fixture like an underwater breathing apparatus where his mouth would've gone. He was primarily tan, with blue trimmings, but as for his specs, Paige wasn't sure as of yet.

Hoping not to be seen, Paige sidled past the crowd and over to where Audrey and Dr. K were. “Ah, Paige.” Dr. K nodded to her. “Good to see you.”

“Um, right.” Paige's head turned to Audrey. “Didn't you need sleep?”

“I got what I needed,” Audrey said, waving her hand around. “I wasn't gonna miss this chance, y'know.” She stared at the table, where another battle was beginning, with a keen eye, scanning the participants.

With a proud smile, Dr. K closed his eyes and nodded. “Quite right. We are scientists, after all. Data is important.”

“The type to stand back and watch, huh?” Vespa took her place on the wall, too, and shrugged. “Whatever you say, Doc. But what do you need this for?” She asked, looking at Audrey.

Audrey smirked. “Who knows? The time might come that I need to fight any number of these people. Not like Chronoforce is going to do me any favors.”

“I'm sure he has plenty of talent hidden in there somewhere,” Dr. K cut in. “He's definitely very well-made. Oh—”

“And that is it, everyone! What a way to go!” The human announcer called out. A blue beetle stood over a pink one, his pincers pulsing with a powerful electricity. “The Anchus brothers' grudge match has come to a close in record time! I never get tired of seeing these two in action!”

“Personally,” the NetNavi said, “I think Herculious should be more conscious of the fact that Kuwagust is impervious after he's successfully grappled something. Laying down those RockCubes could've been a good idea against any other grappling Navi, maybe, but Kuwagust? Nah. They should stick to tag teams.”

“Nah, nah,” the human said, “it's totally up to misjudging the vertical let on Kuwagust's projectiles. Herculious needs to learn to jump better. That's gotta be it.”

“But he's getting closer,” the Navi said.

“Without a doubt! And I hope you'll continue listening to Radio Hanasaka when the next grudge match comes up!” The human leapt out of her seat and pumped her fist. “Alright, who's next? Any contenders? I know we're a little late in this little contest, and—” Then, something horrifying happened. She swiveled around. “Audreyyyyy! You promised me a good match for that last bit of intel, you remember that?”

“I sure did,” Audrey said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes against the wall. “Gimme a break, Scoops. Chronoforce is busy with Wanyadora or something.” At some point, though, her arm had snaked behind Paige on the wall, and suddenly Paige found herself being pushed forward. “Here's my representative,” she said with a smirk.

Suddenly, Scoops seemed to slide in from off-frame into Paige's vision, right in front of her, brandishing her pen. “Oh ho ho ho ho. One of Dr. K's new guys, huh?” Yup, definitely muscular. Without a word in edgewise, Paige found herself being pulled up to the stage, to one end of the table. And... there's a microphone? “How you doing tonight, sweetheart? What's your name?”

“Um, P-Paige... Paige Markham,” Paige said, cognizant of roughly too many eyes on her. “I just started... I-I'm in Dr. K's class.”

“Lovely! Thanks for coming out tonight.” Scoops gave a glance around to the crowd, then said, “Hope nobody minds if yours truly takes this one. Stingray!” She held up a white PET. “Let's rock!”

“On it,” said Stingray, who stood up, and then immediately vanished out of his CopyBot into Scoops's PET.

Hurrying over to the other end of the table, Scoops smiled. “Hope there's no problem here, Paige. The name's Scoops Hanasaka, and me and Stingray here'll be showing you the ropes.”

“Oh, no, no problem at all,” Paige said, curling into her own brain on the inside. “V-Vespa...”

Vespa turned her head and glared at Audrey, who raised an eyebrow back. “Make sure nobody steals this jacket, I really like it.” And, poof, she was in the PET, too. “Hey,” she said, once Paige looked at the screen to see her. “Just take a breath and focus, alright? It'll be a lot easier once we're working.”

“R-right,” Paige said, and she gulped, and took a deep breath, and closed her eyes... “Right. Let's go.”

“Now that's what I like to hear!” Scoops said.

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!” “Jack in, Stingray! Execute!”

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center Open Battle Server

“I can't say I can complain about this,” Vespa said, standing with her back to her opponent. “See, here's something about me: I love showing off! Can't get enough of it!”

“Really?” Her opponent returned the courtesy. “Glad we could give you the chance, then.”

—Tension, cut. The two turned and leapt away from each other to give each other some space. The Open Battle Server was currently set to a plain configuration, having just been repaired of any damage from the last battle.

Vespa's opponent lifted up his hat, revealing the top of his rounded head, and placed it against his chest. “The name's Jet Stingray. I enjoy long walks on the beach, picturesque sunsets, and I'm always fond of a good scoop.”

Stingray replaced his hat, then threw his coat to the wind and unfolded his wings. A jet engine on his back, along with those wings, made clear that he was built for flight, and fast flight, besides. His body was smooth, fluid, and aerodynamic, and contained a number of photo sensors along his legs which presumably were for capturing images. He reached out his arms, and popped open chambers within them, holding red, stingray-shaped bullets. All of them were full, so he was ready to go. “We run the paper, see... I hope you'll pick up an issue sometime.”

“Oh yeah?” Vespa said, squatting down to stretch. “Well, I'm Vespa. I enjoy tearing through the night in a romantic wind with my hog, the occasional thriller novel, and kicking ass.”

“That's pretty bold, isn't it.” Stingray said, tipping his hat downward before tossing it away to where he'd placed his coat. “Well, you seem like you'll move a bit faster than Chronoforce. Good thing, too... didn't wanna fall asleep.” Though he didn't have a visible mouth, Vespa knew a cocky grin when she heard one.

“Ooh, that's pretty tough, huh? The beds here are crazy good,” Vespa said, pulling out her Busters and twirling them along her fingers before pointing them at Stingray. “Seriously, are we sure this is a college?”

“That's what I said!” Stingray responded. “Scoops is a bit too high-strung to sleep, though. More often than not I'll find her in a bush.”

“Hey!” Scoops cried. “That is private information!”

“I didn't say which bush.” Stingray responded.

“Really though, thanks for this. Last fight I had ended early and it was super not satisfying.” Vespa looked up. “Paige, we ready?”

“Alright, folks, hope you're ready for a hell of a fight!” Scoops called out, and though she didn't have a microphone, her voice definitely carried naturally. “Your loyal Scoops Hanasaka's live battle report on one of Dr. K's newest is about to begin, with media correspondent Jet Stingray on the scene!”

“I'm ready to roll,” Paige said. She took a breath out. “Let's go!”

“Over to you, Stingray!” Scoops said.

“No offense, but I'm gonna blast you out of the sky, pal!” Vespa said.

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, kid.” Stingray said, his jet engines roaring to life.

““Battle routine, set!””

““Execute!””

Chapter Text

The instant the battle began, Stingray blasted into the air, his speed creating a force of shredding cyber-wind around him that was sure to do Vespa quite a bit of harm if she ran into him. With the halting counter-jets placed in his boots, though, he exhibited an incredible amount of fine control, stopping and starting in unpredictable manners to throw off Vespa's aim.

“This guy's gonna be tough to hit with Chips,” Vespa said, nodding her head up toward Paige. “Try and keep up.”

Just as Paige was about to respond, though, Stingray's boosts took him to a closer-to-ground level, and he leaned himself toward Vespa. “Watch out!”

Vespa rolled out of the way, a bit of her hair getting cut by the blistering full-body projectile she'd just managed to dodge. Stingray caught himself at the edge of the arena and blasted into the air again, having cleared nearly the whole arena in a single dash. “I'm sure you'll agree, ladies and germs, that the Hienkyaku is looking gorgeous as usual,” Scoops said. “Show 'em another trick, Stingray!”

“Don't have to tell me twice,” Stingray said, taking a moment to lay back in the air before directing one of his arms downward. The chambers opened, and three of his red stingray bullets dropped to the ground, small airjets on their bottoms causing them to hover slightly along the ground and beginning their search. They traveled in a straight line at first, but began to curve toward Vespa, who began to step backwards.

“Okay, defensive play is really not my style,” Vespa said. She leapt up, and opted to jump over the seeking shots Stingray had fired to fire upon him himself. He didn't look to be expecting much, but when his speed wasn't fast enough to avoid the near-instant travel time of Vespa's shots, he dodged downward toward the ground and landed for a moment.

“Are Busters that fast even legal...?” Stingray muttered, but he didn't have much time to ponder that question, since Vespa was on the offensive—the force of her gunshots gave her enough airtime to dive over his Ground Hunters, so she had a clean vantage point. He boosted out of the way at an upward angle as Vespa rolled down onto the ground.

“Keep yourself above her, Stingray!” Scoops called out. “Having those Busters above you's not gonna be good for your health.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Stingray said, before boosting into the air again. Vespa tracked him with her Busters to—directly above her?! He let out a roar before performing his dash attack directly downward onto her. Vespa clicked her tongue, and rolled out of the way, only to hear out of the ear he'd just swooped by that he'd just burrowed under the ground. She wasn't going to land fast enough—!

So, that was a direct hit. Stingray burst back out of the ground with a great sound, tackling Vespa and knocking her back. One of her arms stung, but she held the other up and took a few potshots at him as he flew into the air. “So, he escapes straight up or straight down, huh...?” Vespa gritted her teeth.

Paige took a moment to think. “Ah! I see. Vespa, I've got an idea—I'll get the Chips ready! You should be able to figure it out! And...”

Then—over the hole he'd just left, Vespa was faced with her opponent. “Say cheese,” he said, and Vespa was barely able to leap back and shield her eyes in time to dodge the flash of his cameras. “Not a great shot,” Stingray said with a shrug.

The chips arrived. “Ah, yeah, I get it!” Vespa grinned and took one. She leapt above him and pointed a targeting reticle at and behind him, then made a throwing motion with her hands. The explosion of the Magnum beneath Stingray's feet would've caught a normal Navi, but he escaped straight up again. Vespa leaned forward from her strike, in between the two holes she'd just blasted and on top of some unsteady ground. She turned around to see Stingray, who had dashed back down and was ready for another tackle.

Vespa snapped her fingers. “Come at me, bro!”

“With pleasure,” Stingray said, before launching at her. His visor flicked over his eyes, but—“Eh?”

He most likely wasn't expecting Vespa to leap toward him, and even less for her to disappear out of his sight as she did so. He skidded to a halt above the hole again, and looked downward, expecting perhaps to see her below—but no, that was a Windbox!

“Stingray, above you!” Scoops shouted, and Stingray looked up to see a smugly grinning Vespa, having just crested the end of the boost from the wind that Stingray was now blocking. As she began to fall, the end of one of her Busters shifted into the grinning face of a Bomb Corn virus, which opened its mouth and launched a rapid-fire Corn Shot projectile.

It struck Stingray directly in the back, causing him to recoil from the strike and for his jets to sputter. He registered the damage, and while it was salvageable, it probably wasn't going to be for long if—

Vespa began to fire downward, spinning with her Busters pointed downward, striking Stingray repeatedly while his jets were weakened. While he was still able to move, Vespa had the advantage, and he was more subject to the wind from below while that was happening, so it would've taken energy he didn't have. She fell down, flipped over, and—

Wham! A massive dust cloud flew up as Vespa landed, feet first, on Stingray's back, sending both of them careening down into the hole where the Windbox had sat. “N-no way!” Scoops sputtered. “We got outplayed?!”

Once the dust cleared, Vespa casually hopped out of the hole and dusted herself off a touch. She looked down into the hole to see Stingray laying on the ground, moaning. “You wanna go any more, big guy?”

“Nah,” Stingray said, and he probably would've been gritting his teeth if he had them. “I think I'm good.” He gave a thumbs up. “Nice... nice fight.”

“Cool beans,” Vespa said, giving him a thumbs up back.

Date: August 13, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Community Center

The roar of the crowd was nearly deafening to Paige, who stared down, her hands shaking, at her PET. She let out a small, nervous chuckle, before looking up and around at the crowd, who were cheering for... her? Her and Vespa?

To Paige's eyes, she worried that Scoops looked a little put off, but as soon as the smaller woman jacked Stingray out and ran over, the massive smile on her face dispelled that illusion. “You're a real talent, lady!” Scoops said, grabbing Paige's hands. “Later on, I've really gotta pick your brain, that trick was genius!”

“Oh, no, really, it was all Vespa...” Paige said, looking down and blushing. “She's a really amazing Navi, and...”

When Paige was forcibly dragged over to her corner of the room, Vespa huffing in her CopyBot and enjoying the adoring looks a few people were giving her, Audrey nodded, her arms crossed. “I knew you'd give us a show.”

“I told you she was an amazing NetBattler,” Dr. K said, “did I not?”

“You may have mentioned something along those lines,” Audrey said.

“Well, Audrey, I can't say you didn't give me a good time.” Scoops walked up to Audrey, and the two of them resoundingly shook hands. “You always know how to treat a girl well by proxy! To think the reclusive future Dr. Longhener could make such an interesting friend.”

“Hey, you were the one who decided I was 'reclusive',” Audrey snorted with a little scowl. “I'm antisocial. There's a difference.”

“What?” Paige blinked, her gums flapping rather like a fish's.

As Scoops bolted back to her desk to continue commentating on other matches, Paige sat down against the wall. “Friend of yours, huh?” Vespa asked.

“Somehow,” Audrey said with a shrug. She turned her head to Vespa. “Your Busters—those are custom-made, right?”

“Yeah,” Vespa said. “Can't buy girls like these, it takes the programming expertise of yours truly to make such wondrous inventions.”

“Well, didn't you say you just modified them from how your creator made them?” Paige asked, and Vespa deflated slightly.

“A Navi who modified her own tech, huh?” Audrey said, looking down. “I see. Good to know. I'll have to figure out how to kick your ass in case I ever need to.”

“As if you could!” Vespa scoffed.

“She says that to everyone,” Dr. K laughed. “I've seen some of her contingency files, they're rather in-depth... even if she's missing a number of factors on DopplerMan's constitution that would make her plans insufficient.”

“If you say that,” Audrey said, looking up at him, “it sounds like a challenge.”

“Perhaps it is,” Dr. K said, closing his eyes and smiling toward the ground. “In any case, Paige, I knew you were skilled, but that really was quite a show. It'll probably be the second-best fight the people here tonight see.”

“Second-best?” Vespa sputtered. “As if! Who's gonna be better than us? We kick so much ass.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Dr. K said, and looked down at his PET. A white-armored figure with a straw mask appeared on his screen. “Ah, DopplerMan. Was the message delivered?” The silent figure nodded. “Give him until the rest of the matches are done, then.”

A few more fights went by, Scoops continuing to belt out commentary at the top of her lungs even while Stingray recovered from the whooping he'd gotten, until enough had gone by that nobody was volunteering any longer. “Alright, are we done for the night?” Scoops asked, looking around again. “Going once! Going twice! ...Twice and a hal—”

The double doors were flung wide with a massive crash, the setting sun shining into the room through them. “Wait! Wait, hold on,” said the boy who'd just flung them open, who stopped to crouch over and pant with his hands on his knees. “Hold on... wait...”

Vespa's jaw figuratively dropped. “Oh, you've gotta be shitting me.”

“Do you know him?” Paige asked. Vespa didn't respond.

This young man here was easily recognizable by the blue headband he wore, with his family's symbol, the yellow ring and red insignia, emblazoned upon it. His brown hair fell beneath it, down to his neck, though there were a few idiotic spikes above it that always refused to go down—really, his hairstyle hadn't changed much in the last ten years or so, it had just gotten a bit longer. He was in a white, button-up shirt that had clearly been tracking dirt in the past few hours, being that it was scuffed up and a little torn on his left shoulder, making him look not particularly professional no matter what that nice orange tie tried to say. The black slacks and... and were those rollerskates? Those were seriously rollerskates in the year 20XX. They really didn't help.

“Sorry...” he panted, raising one hand. “Sorry! I had to... you know, the train ran late, there was this guy, and then I tripped and fell, and then I had to do the aptitude test to get my room key...”

Running up behind him, funnily enough, in a pristine white nurse's uniform complete with cap (and punctuated by a few squeals of excitement from within the room,) was Eiji, who himself looked a bit out of breath. “Mr. Hikari, really... You need to calm down!”

“Sorry,” 'Mr. Hikari' said, looking up with a grin and rubbing the back of his head. “I just can't!”

“You're injured!” Eiji tried to protest, but as he reached his hand out, the new arrival ran up to the stage, that goofy grin staying on him the entire time. “...Aww...”

“It's alright, Eiji,” said the Navi within his PET. “Some people really are just like that.”

“You're kidding me,” Vespa said, her face scrunched up. She put her head in her hands. Audrey, too, looked a bit put off. “It's this fucking guy.”

“Really, who is this?” Paige asked, and with no other choice, she looked over to Dr. K.

With a smile, Dr. K said, “This is our other new arrival this year.”

“A sudden, mysterious arrival!” Scoops said, running toward the stage and pulling out her microphone. “And let me tell you, I'm bursting at the seams for this one. Those of us in the know, I'm sure, know who you are, sir—”

“You do?” With his wide, unassuming eyes and dumb grin, this guy was the kind of guy who could be called 'boyish' no matter how old he got, to Paige's eyes. “Wow! People actually know who I am! You hear that, Megaman?”

“It's not that surprising,” his Navi said. “It's gotten more common these days.”

“Oh, uh... Sorry, I get excited for interviews.” 'Mr. Hikari' leaned into the microphone perhaps a bit too close. “Hi! I'm Lan Hikari, and I'll be starting here today in Dr. K's course! I heard we were NetBattling?”

The name made a few more people recognize who was sitting in front of them. “He's something of a local celebrity,” Dr. K said to Paige. “He's more popular back in his hometown, but he's been catching on a bit. I recommend you watch. You might learn something.”

“From this guy? He's a black hole,” Vespa scoffed. Paige wailed.

“Well, sir, sorry to say we seem to have run out of volunteers,” Scoops said. She looked back toward the entrance at Eiji. “Unless Eiji wants to volunteer.”

“E-eh?!” Eiji said, putting his hands over his heart. “You know I'm not a NetBattler!”

Then, though—“You don't need to worry about that.”

An image came up from the Open Battle server, and its display came to life. Sitting on a platform inside was a Navi—his violet eyes and flowing white hair would've given him a fey aura already if the red fox tail, looking like it could twist and shift into a flame at any moment, hadn't already. He was roughly human-shaped, and his armor was patterned after the robes of an old Shinto practitioner in white and red, his arms covered in sleeves far wider than his hands. He was already tall, and the tall, red, heeled boots beneath his baggy pants made him even taller. The flame he commanded twisted itself into the shape of a pair of glowing tonfas on his arms, and he crossed his arms, leaning toward the screen with a coy smile.

This arrival got people to start hollering. “Okay, this guy I've definitely seen before,” Vespa said, tilting her head down.

“Oh, hey!” Lan waved, as though he were seeing an old friend.

“What a surprise, folks!” Scoops threw her hands out toward the crowd. “Our student rep's Navi, Cubit Foxtar, has appeared in the server undetected! Is our beloved Keaton Akajima going to take the newbie for a ride?”

“That's a bit undelicate of a phrasing,” Foxtar said, standing up and dusting off his pants and grinning, “but you seem to understand my meaning. Don't keep me waiting, Lan.”

Paige looked around. “Where's Mr. Akajima?”

“Keaton is rather reclusive when it comes to NetBattling,” Dr. K explained. “Even when he's been officially challenged, he tends to sneak in from another room. Foxtar is a bit of an expert at infiltration, so he can show up in the most unexpected places.”

“Alright!” Lan pumped his fists, and stood up, throwing his hands to the sky. “Today is great! C'mon, Megaman, let's show 'em what we're made of!” And, throwing forth his signal with a decisive pose—

“Jack in, Megaman! Execute!”

In the display, Lan's Navi appeared to face Foxtar. Paige blinked in surprise—this Navi, Megaman, bore quite the strong resemblance to Lan himself, aside from having a different eye color (a rather vivid green.) The two had nearly identical builds and faces, though the serious look on Megaman's face set him apart... and the helmet, and the blue spandex, but that was NetNavi standard.

“It's nice of you to come to greet us,” Megaman said after he'd landed, “but Lan was in the nurse's office. You couldn't have come earlier?”

“Wrapped up in office work,” Foxtar said, “you know how it is.”

“Yeah, I do.” Megaman sighed and rolled his eyes. “You have no idea how much of Lan's homework I had to go through last year. It's a wonder he can get out of bed sometimes.”

“It's been a while since we've gone at it,” Foxtar said, cracking his neck and stretching. “To be honest, I've really been looking forward to it. I don't like having losing records on my tab.”

“Well, may the best man win,” Megaman said with a smile. The two walked forward and shook each other's hand. “Lan, you ready?”

“Am I ever!” Lan said. “Battle routine, set!”

“Execute!” Megaman shouted.

(OP: “Kaze wo Tsukinukete”, by Jin Hashimoto)

And—it was like a blur.

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox

Mirai e to NAVI wo tore!

(Guide your Navi toward the future!)

Dokomade mo yukeru yo,

(There isn't anywhere we can't go—)

Kaze o tsukinukete, kimi to!

(Let's pierce through the wind together!)

Foxtar's footwork was breathtaking—he was lighter on his feet than any Navi Paige had ever seen, and as Megaman shifted his Buster into a sword, Foxtar vanished away from the swing and appeared behind Megaman to launch an attack. Megaman ducked down, and then— “Megaman, AquaCross!”

He changed shape. Megaman shifted to a bluer color scheme with a water screen across his face, and launched a rapid charge shot behind him that struck Foxtar with bubbles. Foxtar recoiled, but leapt back and gestured in front of his face to launch a series of fireballs towards Megaman—“ShadowCross!”—but Megaman shifted shape again, into a purple form reminiscent of a Ninja, and vanished much like Foxtar had through his fireballs.

Machijyu ni habikore MYSTERY

(This town is full of mystery,)

Genjitsu no hazama ni hisomu tagakari

(and the clues to the truth are slipping away.)

When Megaman appeared again, Foxtar struck at him, but it turned into a crude doll imitating Megaman, and Megaman himself leapt above to hurl a shuriken at Foxtar. Foxtar nimbly weaved underneath the shuriken, and launched his tonfa up, charging his shot to fire upward a blast of flaming napalm which caught Megaman and sent him toward the ground. Scoops was commentating, but it was all Paige could do to keep up with the fight.

Jitto shiterarenai

(I can't sit still!)

“TenguCross!” Lan called out, and Megaman shifted again, into a form reminiscent of an Electopian beast called a Tengu, which allowed him to catch himself. “Okay, we took some damage. RollCross!”

“Right!” Megaman called out.

tatta ima shiritai,

(I have to know!)

This form was red-armored, and had a pair of hair-like decorations atop Megaman's head. He fired a few vulcan shots, and the damage he'd taken visibly recovered as he laid in his assault. Foxtar turned invisible again, but—“SearchCross!” “Got it!”

Yuuki no PLUG-IN tobikonde!

(So let's be brave and JACK IN!)

A camo-patterned form whose Buster turned into a long rifle. Megaman leaned in to look at his scope and fired rapid homing shots toward the invisible Foxtar, who had to do quite some work to weave in between them. However, Foxtar approached despite the damage he took, and prepared to strike Megaman—“KingCross!”

Semari kuru nazo wo toke

(We've gotta solve this puzzle now!)

A red-robed form with a crown, like a chess piece—just like those he'd summoned around Foxtar to trap him after his attack. Megaman took the attack on the chin, because within these hard pawns and knights, he couldn't move an inch. “Megaman, switch to SlashCross!” Lan leaned in to the Chip he'd just sent, pushing buttons on his PET at an incredible speed.

OH, ROCKMAN! Futari de

(Together with you, Megaman,)

kotae mitsuketa suno sa!

(I know we can find the answer!)

This form was pointed, with long arms and sharp claws. His arm shifted into another sword, this one glowing with an incredible power, and he launched four rapid slashes which created shockwaves, each one glowing with a different element. Foxtar couldn't help but yell at the brutal attack, but he leapt over the pieces that had trapped him once he could, and floated into the air to fill the ground beneath Megaman's feet with erupting geysers of fire.

Girigiri no batoru demo,

(Even if we have to fight to the bitter end,)

“That's too easy, Keaton!” Lan said. “GroundCross!”

This final form was bulky, a heavy, industrial brown, with heavy drills on its shoulders. With another charge shot, Megaman burrowed into the ground, beneath Foxtar's attack, and rapidly advanced through the earth to catch Foxtar as he landed. He forced him back with a heavy drill attack, and though Foxtar tried to stand up after that, he simply couldn't.

akiramezu tatakau,

(We won't give up—)

kimi ga iru kagiri tsuyoku!

(because I'm stronger with you!)

A buzzer rang out, and Megaman returned to his regular shape. “Nice work, Lan!” he said. “I thought you might lose track with all that studying you did for once.”

“Nah, I've got this! It's in my mind like a steel trap!” Lan replied. Scoops was hollering.

The crowd exploded at the sight of Foxtar on the ground, and when he managed to get up at all, he just smiled. “Nice fight, as usual,” he said, as Megaman walked toward him.

“You too,” Megaman said, helping Foxtar up. The two of them shook hands again, and then simultaneously jacked out.

Paige blinked. Once, twice, three times. “W... what?”

“These boys are quite something, you know,” Dr. K said. He laughed. “They've saved this country more than once.”

“Stupid, full of themselves, grumble grumble,” Vespa... grumbled.

As the crowd let out, Paige following behind Vespa, Audrey, and Dr. K, she could see Lan, hurrying out of the room, running into Keaton, who'd been standing outside. “Hey, man!” Lan said, running up and giving Keaton a high five. “Great fight!”

“As always, I have no idea how you do any of that.” Keaton laughed. “It's good to see you, Lan. It's about time you got in here.”

“Sorry I missed your speech,” Lan said. Then he smirked. “But I bet I can imagine it. Better future, right?”

“H-hey!” Keaton sputtered, putting his hand against his chest. “I work really hard on those!”

“I know, I know. They've gotten a lot better!” Lan said.

Eventually, Eiji stopped bothering trying to cut into the conversation and slunk over to Paige and the rest, sighing, “I told him to get bed rest... I don't know how to deal with patients that energetic yet.”

“It happens,” Vespa snorted. She looked over at Lan again. “Guys like that are too stupid to live.”

“Vespa, really, is there history here I don't know about?” Paige asked, clasping her hands together to her Navi. “I don't understand.”

Vespa started to say something, but was interrupted by the sudden realization that Scoops was present in the group, having osmosed herself into presence. “Gah!”

“Incredible match, wasn't it?” Scoops asked, leaning back and cackling. “Not to say you weren't great, kids, but that was a real great match, right? It'd make a great story, right?” She hopped over to Eiji and pulled him in under her shoulder—the two were about the same height, so it looked pretty natural. “Right, Eiji?” Then she frowned. “Who made you cry? Who do I have to pound?”

“Scoops, please...” Eiji wailed. “I just want to go to bed.”

...Was every day going to be this noisy? Paige began to deflate, and Dr. K put his hand on her shoulder. “It might take some adjustment,” he said.

Date: August 21, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College, Nurse's Office

“At it again, are we?” The nurse sighed.

—This here was Cinnamon, the college's primary medical professional. With her cat paws, cutesy white-with-red-trim color scheme with armor reminiscent of a poofy skirt, cat ears, and cat tail, she had an awfully moe appeal—though she personally considered her face, an old CRT monitor that displayed her emotions in simple, easy-to-read emoticons, her best feature, as it made communication easy. “Eiji, could you hand me some antiseptic?” She asked.

“I'm telling you, I was just about to see a deal being made!” Scoops said, then hissed as Eiji's gentle hands placed some antiseptic on the wounds she'd taken from the brambles of the bush she'd hidden in. “It was totally worth it!”

“Maki...” Eiji sighed, his eyes downcast. “You really need to be more careful. What if I'm not there?”

“Doesn't compute,” Scoops said, her eyes crossed. “And—hey! Paige and Audrey are right there!” She threw her arm wide to gesture to Paige and Audrey, who were idly playing a card game on the chairs at the edge of the office.

—So, to explain, somehow or another Paige had wound up hanging out with these three. She wasn't entirely sure how herself, but it had simply wound up happening. “What?” Paige raised her head up. Audrey, though, was deathly focused, and did no such thing. “I didn't hear you.”

It had been about a week now, and things seemed to be settling in. Aside from Vespa mean-mugging at the Hikaris every time she saw them, which they apparently had yet to notice, things had been going as normally as they possibly could.

But, last night, Paige and Vespa had had a discussion. “I think I'm going to start looking around about it tomorrow,” Paige said, and Vespa had immediately looked up. “The calling card, I mean.”

“...You sure?” Vespa had asked, laying down on the bed. “Might be trouble.”

“Yes,” Paige said, nodding her head. “I don't think it's something we should just leave alone.”

—Then, she'd wound up finding Scoops in a bush, covered in thorns, and that was how they'd arrived here. “I'm very sorry about the trouble, girls,” Cinnamon said, leaning down to clasp her hands with a bright smile. “He tells me she's always been like this.”

“Oh, it's no problem at all,” Paige said, shaking her head. “A-Audrey, Audrey, we're ta—”

“Aha!” Audrey said, then looked back down at her cards. “Wait... no, that's not right.”

...So, they all wound up sitting at the same table as Paige attempted to research. The disparity between Eiji and Scoops's food, which Eiji had made himself and looked absolutely gorgeous, and the slop Audrey had presumably reheated from last night, was really striking. “Miss Paige, are you alright?” Eiji asked, tilting his head. “You haven't touched your food.”

“Oh, I'm alright,” Paige said, shaking her head. She was frantically scrolling through image searches, but found nothing. “I'm just—”

Like a rocket, Scoops was somehow immediately next to Paige. She shifted her glasses and smirked. “Having a research issue? I'm your girl. My middle name is research!”

“You don't have a middle name,” Eiji said.

“Apparently, it's 'research' now,” Audrey said with a shrug, before going back to shoving whatever it was she was eating in her face.

“Hey, hey, hold up,” said Vespa, who appeared on Paige's PET and pulled down the image. “This is kind of a serious thing we got going here, you sure you want to look at this?”

“Your words only increase my desire,” Scoops said, her eyes gleaming ever brighter. “I am a reporter, Vespa.”

Vespa shrugged and pulled the image of the calling card back up. The loud squeal from Scoops was enough to make Paige shut her ears. When she was excited, Scoops had a tendency to make these interesting little nasally noises that slowly increased in pitch, and also contract in on herself.

This got Audrey and Eiji to come over and check, and Paige had no choice but to explain the context of the attack on her uncle's lab and the theft of the 'Erosion Key'. “Oh my god,” Scoops said, “this is it. This is the scoop of a lifetime. Yes. Yes! This is the best day of my life! Yes!” She started jumping up and down like an idiot.

“What's got you so excited?” Audrey raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, d-do you know what this is?” Paige asked, raising the PET as she did.

“Do I?!” Scoops leaned in uncomfortably close. “Eiji!” She turned her head to him, and Eiji yelped. “Am I Scoops Hanasaka, Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter?”

“Yes?” Eiji said.

“Paige, you've got something very exciting here,” Scoops said, returning to grab her PET and stare gleefully at it. Vespa groaned about being manhandled. “What you've got here, this whole incident you're talking about, this here? This here?” She tipped her hat. “This is a calling card from the famous NetNavi phantom thief, Tech Kraken!”

Pause.

Episode 2: The Mystery of 'K'! Hunt for a Great Thief?!

“...Whaaaaaaaaaaat?!” Paige jumped up.

(ED: NEO VENUS, by JANNE DA ARC)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo

(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)

Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?

(Are they still shining bright?)

With a tip from her new friends, Paige and Vespa find a lead on how to progress in the search for the thief 'K'. Scoops suggests a visit to a famous private detective who works within the city, who caught this 'Tech Kraken' once before.

Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o

(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)

Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?

(to go for the scene before my eyes?)

However, it won't be an easy journey. Another powerful foe appears in their way, proclaiming his allegiance to 'K'—and this one won't run away!

Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to

(While my heart was in disarray,)

Miushinai kake teta yume o

(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)

Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…

(who taught me how to remember)

Anata deshi ta

(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)

And what is the truth behind Vespa's mysterious past, and the secrets she keeps within? When a mysterious new ally appears, those questions may come to light...

VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!

Hikari no sasu hou he

(To where the light points,)

Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te

(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)

Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou

(I’ll search for the answer,)

Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai

(and I’ll never let you go.)

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 3: Honorable Pegasolta! We're the Einherjar!

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: August 21, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Nurse's Office Backroom

“So,” said Scoops, as she tapped her old-timey projector to display an image onto the screen and began pacing around. Paige, Audrey, and Eiji all sat in front of it—Audrey had some real spread going on, and Eiji sat seiza, and the fact that they both sat in idiosyncratic ways made Paige feel a little out of place. “This note of yours, Paige, darling, takes us back to the halcyon days of six years ago. Stingray!”

“On it,” Stingray said, and switched the slide.

Displayed on the slide was an astonishingly blurry picture of some sort of black blob in between two buildings in the Cyberworld. “A normie like yourself couldn't be expected to be too familiar,” Scoops continued, “but for a number of years, an infamous phantom thief haunted the Cyberworld! He eluded the authorities at every turn, and the rare security footage of his existence, such as this shot, wasn't helpful at all. You see, Tech Kraken was originally designed as a Navi for corporate espionage, but his intellectual curiosity to find new information went out of control, and he spilled his own company's secrets anonymously before disappearing into the night!”

“Um, what company was that?” Paige asked.

“That's not important to the story,” Scoops said, “but I can give you a pamphlet later. Tech Kraken quickly took on the persona of a gentleman thief who considered his theft of great secrets one big game with the Officials! His ability to break into security systems was unparalleled—” Scoops swung around, all of a sudden, and pointed her stick at Audrey. “Audrey! Tell us about the Alpha incident!”

“What?” Audrey scoffed. “Why?”

“Because of your weirdly thorough knowledge of the events of that specific incident!” Scoops said, not budging an inch from Audrey's spite beams.

Understanding her own defeat, Audrey rolled her eyes and said, “So, before the Alpha program got stolen, it was trapped in this part of the SciLab server that had four hard-locked gates that you needed these codes called the Tetra Codes to get into.” She started rolling her hand around by the wrist. “The guy who actually stole Alpha and started that whole thing, DrillMan, had the Codes and he broke through the barriers with his security-busting features, then dug a hole through server addresses to break out to the Undernet.”

Paige nodded. “This was... when all of those tanks around the world went berserk, right?”

“Right,” Audrey said. “Basically, Alpha was the basis of the original form of the Internet. It went berserk and started eating everything, and then it got captured, and to cover it up, a Navi was blamed for it and it was all real fucking messy, I assure you.” Audrey rubbed her face with both hands.

“But!” Scoops cut back in. “Before that incident, one other Navi in history had managed to break into that sector of the SciLab server and come face-to-face with Alpha's core—our gentleman thief, Tech Kraken!” She tapped her screen, and the projector switched slides, to show a photo of the scene. Official Navis stood about a glowing program core, which had, atop it, a shining blue card. “He reported that he had not stolen it, because he had enough sense to know when something should not be trifled with, his words, but he'd gotten in there, broken into the highest security zone of the entire Electopian government!”

Paige blinked. “How?”

“I have no idea, but he did it!” Scoops twisted her hands around on her lecture stick. “Cool, right?”

“Okay,” Vespa said from inside Paige's PET, “that's great and all. So what do we do?”

“Hu hu hu. This is where being friends with Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter comes in handy, ye of little faith,” Scoops said. She began pacing around again, and Paige took notice of her stride—Lecture-Mode Scoops Hanasaka apparently had some military heritage in her if her goose step was that practiced. “This brings us to six years ago. A concerted effort by the world's authorities has been unable to catch him for years, but one plucky young Electopian detective enters the scene. Stingray!” Screen, smacked, slide, switched.

This here was a press photo of a young man who couldn't have been older than eighteen. His finely-combed, dusty brown hair was held in a low-back ponytail, and his bright green eyes and charmingly boyish features were accentuated by the utilitarian tortoiseshell glasses he wore. In the photo, he wore a dowdy blue suit, with a green brooch sticking on a faded red cravat.

“Enter Detective Yuu Himekago, eighteen years old and fresh out of training to become a proper private detective. His mother had been a famous private detective for years, and he cites her as his greatest inspiration,” Scoops said. “Despite his obvious young talent for detecting lies and solving crimes, Yuu is seen as cocky and untested by his seniors in the business—not in the least of which because he doesn't even have a NetNavi of his own, just an empty PET.”

“That seems like it would make things difficult,” Paige said.

“His mother had been on the Tech Kraken case for some time, so Yuu took an immediate interest in the effort to catch the Cyberworld's phantom thief. From his observations, he was able to solve a puzzle left behind at one crime scene and find one of Kraken's temporary hideouts—and he was the first who'd ever managed to do that, so Kraken obviously took notice. In his next notice, he made reference to 'the young detective', and an intellectual rivalry was sparked!” Scoops clenched her fist tight to pump it. “The two began to do battle, and despite Yuu's handicap of working solo, Kraken came to view Detective Himekago as his one true rival among the force.”

“Soon, using calculations based on what he'd learned of Kraken's personality,” and Scoops struck the screen to reveal a picture of the inside of an antiviral server, “Detective Himekago figured out Kraken's next break-in—the core of the Colonel.EXE antiviral system! Using a finely-tuned trap to route Kraken's body into a captive CopyBot, he was able to successfully trap the great thief, Tech Kraken!”

Strike. Detective Himekago standing over a bound CopyBot holding the form of Tech Kraken—a black-colored, bipedal, squid-themed Navi with green highlights for 'eyes' and along his bladed tentacles, with a rose-colored tricorn hat atop his pointed head and a dark red cloak that was probably meant to go across his thin core body when it wasn't also bound. Though Kraken didn't have a proper face, an odd pride was evident in his expression—the two both looked deeply satisfied.

“Thus, was the great thief captured!” Scoops said. “From there, Kraken's abilities were limited, and he was moved into the Cyberworld's greatest prison—and from there, no more information has been made public, so up until now, it was assumed by Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, AKA as me,” and at this point she jabbed her own thumb at herself with a smug grin, “that he was locked up... but it seems somehow he's managed to escape! And now our new pal Paige has gotten herself embroiled in the return of his deadly conspiracies!”

The projector turned off, and Paige and Eiji politely clapped as Scoops bowed. “Thank you, thank you, you're too kind, try the veal.”

“Okay, so what?” Audrey asked. She laid back down on the ground and shrugged. “What are we gonna do about it?”

“As it so happens, Detective Himekago is still in the private detective business here in Electopia!” Scoops said, putting her hands on her hips and huffing. “And he owes me a favor, long story. If we bring this information to him, no doubt his intellectual curiosity will be spurred!” Eiji raised his hand. “The cute young man in the nurse's outfit!”

“If Detective Himekago has no NetNavi, won't we have to go visit him personally?” Eiji asked, tilting his head. “Um, that might be difficult, I... have training, you see...”

Scoops's big, stupid grin only twitched a little. “What's lining up four schedules?”

“Four?” Audrey and Paige simultaneously asked.

“Well, obviously we're all going,” Scoops said, rolling her eyes at Audrey. “What, did you think you were getting out of this?”

Audrey groaned. “Did she even ask you?”

“I, um,” Paige said, and she began to stammer.

“Hey,” Vespa chimed in, “the more the merrier, right? Why, Paige's bestie is always telling her she needs more friends—”

“V-Vespa!” Paige brandished her PET to try and see if maybe, just maybe, this time a volume slider would've magically appeared. It hadn't. Paige wailed. Audrey gave a wheezing little chuckle under her breath.

A knock on the door to this back room rang out, and Cinnamon opened the door. “Could I get you in here, Eiji?” she asked, her face in a ^-^ configuration. “This might be educational.”

“Right away, Sensei!” Eiji said, rocketing to his feet and bowing.

Cinnamon's face: vov. She shrugged. “I keep telling you, there's no need for so much formality.” A little simulated sigh and shake of the head made it obvious how much fondness was in there, though. “Come along. And could I ask you ladies to cut your meeting short?”

“No worries, we were just packing up,” Scoops said, sliding over to her projector and folding its reels and lenses into a highly compact form before slamming it in her backpack.

Once they were outside the nurse's office, Scoops and Audrey both bid Paige farewell and went off to do whatever it was they did. Paige pulled out her PET and looked down at Vespa, who was idly twirling her Busters. “So that was educational,” Vespa said.

Date: August 21, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College (Wi-Fi pass code at the administrative desk!)

[Paige: so, that's where we are now]

[Paige: I donno what to do... v_v]

[Mimel: well first of all]

[Mimel: your friends seem nice]

[Paige: I'm not really sure how I wound up in this situation...]

[Mimel: because youre a likable human being duh]

[Mimel: anyway pick up a hobby or something]

[Paige: Huh?]

[Mimel: if your middle name werent paige it would be 'is shit at having free time']

[Mimel: if I had five zenny for every time Ive heard you call up and moan about how sad you are because you arent being productive or some shit like that id have like]

[Mimel: like forty-five fucking zenny, paige]

[Paige: That's not a lot.]

[Mimel: IT IS A THING THAT YOU DO A LOT]

[Vespa: lmao she's got you pegged]

[Tundraman: Indubitably.]

[Mimel: quiet in the peanut gallery brainlords]

[Mimel: is there like anywhere hiring on your campus or something.]

[Paige: I can check... I don't know how qualified I could be for anywhere, though.]

[Mimel: that's my girl]

[Mimel: lmk how this whole uh great thief thing turns out?]

[Paige: I will.]

“You're hired.”

Paige blinked and tilted her head. “Excuse me?”

(OP: “Shouri no Uta”, by Dandelion)

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber and Red Fox

The manager of the campus's local Aster Land was a quiet, stone-faced woman with a red bob cut who everyone just called 'Nori'. For reasons nobody could quite decipher, she did her work in a maid outfit. According to Audrey, she was one of the biggest workaholics on campus, and nobody ever actually saw her outside of the store.

“I said,” Nori said from behind the counter, “you're hired. You begin tomorrow.”

“W-what?” Paige sputtered. “Aren't there regulations to this sort of thing?”

“I saw your NetBattle with Hanasaka. You clearly know what you're doing,” Nori said. She produced an apron in Aster Land's signature green and orange. “This should be in your size.”

Paige took the apron, nodded, said, “Okay, thank you,” and then stepped out of the store before squealing quietly into her PET.

“How the hell did she know your size?!” Vespa shouted.

Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa

(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)

Bokura dake no kono STYLE de

(even if we only have this as our Style.)

Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara

(If this song reaches our hearts,)

Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru

(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)

It wasn't a particularly large store, so Paige was able to get the lay of the cabinets and stock rather quickly. People were mostly in classes when her hours started on her first day, so she got right to work on organizing.

“What are you doing?”

Paige yelped as Nori leapt down from atop a high shelf, coldly gazing upon Paige reordering certain display shelves. “Is there a logic to this?”

“A-ah, yes,” Paige said. She tapped one specific display case. “I saw that this case could be organized to be more intuitive for folder ordering—oh, and you see...” She pointed in. “We have Wind * and Fan * here, but the MesonCall was all the way back in the stock. It's not as effective as the raw Gater Program Advance used by Mr. Famous, but the MesonCall can be used as a bootleg Gate-type program to simulate it—Mechameson viruses have that spatial distortion inside of them for the construction of their mini-virus drones, you know? Vespa and I figured that out about two years ago, and it's caught on a little back in our hometown but I don't know if people—”

Nori leaned in and put her hands on Paige's shoulders. Paige cut herself off with a squeak. “I made a good decision hiring you,” Nori said.

Akirameru koto wa keshite nai

(As long as we’re here,)

Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri

(we’ll never give up.)

Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura

(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)

Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta

(so that we can fight for freedom!)

“Welcome to Aster Land!” “Welcome to Aster Land!” “Welcome to Aster Land!”

On her first day, hardly anybody came in. Things picked up a bit the second day, and she started having a steady stream. Nori stayed in the back and allowed Paige to handle things by herself.

“Sir,” Paige said to a tall, lanky blonde man with a pointy ponytail and a sharp glare. “I notice you're looking at the Anti line—are you in need of some defense?”

“Don't tell anyone,” the blonde (“Hareng,” Vespa said in Paige's ear, “seems like he's in training to become an Official.”) said, “but I've been losing points in being lightly dinged in our aerial combat courses from arcing ground fire. My Navi's swooping is too obvious of a weak point.”

“Hm. Anti chips are obvious and effective, but they might halt your agility if you're not careful.” Paige smiled, then looked in her chip. “The name's a bit of a misnomer—have you heard of the Double Jump chip? It goes unmentioned due to regulation rules in tournament NetBattles, but it grants a burst of upward momentum if your Navi is in the air. If your Navi flies with wings, you might be able to cut short your swoops or raise the bottom of your curve if you use this. Multiple copies can be chained together with the right timing, too!”

“Does it come in *-code?” Hareng asked.

“Of course, sir,” Paige said, with a little laugh. “We wouldn't ask you to reinvent your folder for the sake of an extra jump or two.”

Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi

(Illuminated by the sunlight,)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau

(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)

“You're that girl who beat Hanasaka in a NetBattle, right?” This was a fiery-looking redhead who carried about a guitar case like it was a rocket launcher. (“Cedre,” Vespa said, “looks like she's in Net Demolitions. Heh, reminds me of my ex-girlfriend, remind me to tell you—”) “People tell me you know your stuff.”

“Oh, no, miss,” Paige said, bowing her head, “I only have a fair amount of knowhow.”

“So,” Cedre said, whipping out her Folder, “I've been trying to make this work, but the BigBombs slow me down too damn much.”

“Oh!” Paige said, after a brief scan. Cedre's folder was disorderly, but there was a definite theme of chips that required a bit too much standing in one place—though the Time Bombs were a nice touch. “I have just the thing.” Paige squatted down to look in her case, and produced a chip. “The Induct Missile—it was developed from a piece of remnant data in Colonel when it was first launched. Your Navi can launch it into the air and continue attacking independently, and it'll track the opponent as they move around.”

“Nice!” Cedre fistpumped, and scrambled into her guitar case to pull out a blue can of... something. It had a giant 'E' on it. “You want this? I made it, it's basically the same as cyber coffee.”

“I'd prefer your money, ma'am,” Paige said.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

“Just take a look at me,” said Compa, who had stepped in for some reason. “What kind of chips do you think would fit me best?”

Paige did so. She scanned the small girl up, down, and up again. “You seem like the kind of person who'd enjoy chips from the Trumpy line of viruses—you could summon them behind your Navi and have them support you. You like to sing, right, Compa?” Compa nodded. “That seems right, then.”

“And something that reminds me of Nori,” Compa added. “She's scary, so I bet she could scare the viruses off.”

Paige couldn't deny that, so she started digging in. “Hmmm... consider this promotional Solar Boy Django NaviChip, then,” she said, pulling it out. “He rides a motorcycle. Actually, you can even input a command code to make him hit twice!”

“Milady,” Nori said, popping up from behind the counter and spooking both of them, “you don't yet use a PET yourself.”

“But it'd be neat to have!” Compa protested.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, maiagare!

(Now, fly high!)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!

(Shine brightly on this Earth!)

The glass display cases wiped down, the green and orange tiling sparkling clean, the free battle server ready to roll—Aster Land had never looked cleaner since Paige had started working there. “Toah!” Vespa said, crossing her arms and striking a Cleaning Pose with Paige. “Here we are! SPARKING! Behold the prowess of this campus's most unbeatable duo!”

“Thanks for helping,” Paige said, wiping her sweat. “That was a lot.”

“You'd think this place didn't have any employees before you came in,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes and leaning on the free battle server. “Hey, Boss Lady, you ever consider smiling? Maybe not scaring off your customers?”

Nori poked her head out from the back. “No.”

“Well, that answers that,” Vespa said with a shrug. “See what a winning smile and a bit of knowhow gets you. They'll call you the Angel of Aster Land or something, heheh.”

“I really hope they don't,” Paige said, her face lighting up. She put down her bottle of glass cleaner and put her face in her hands. “I'm really just trying to do my job well.”

Then, in a sudden whoosh of motion, the doors opened—and in strolled a certain student body head. “Excuse me,” said Keaton Akajima with an amicable wave, “would you be Ms. Markham?”

Episode 3: Honorable Pegasolta! We're the Einherjar!

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Aster Land (Ayanokoji Branch) 

Paige scurried back behind the counter, dragging Vespa, who definitely didn't have anything even resembling a uniform on, with her. Paige bowed her head, and put her hand on the back of Vespa's head to signal to her to bow hers, as well. Vespa didn't catch the signal. “Hello, sir! Welcome to Aster Land! Is there something I can get you?”

After a moment of silence, that got Keaton to burst out with a moment's laughter. “Please, there's no need to be worried. Does she think I'm going to get her fired?”

“According to your fan club, you probably could,” Vespa said, sitting down in a folding chair right in front of the door to the back room.

“They exaggerate many things,” Keaton said, beginning to browse the chips on display. “I don't come in here often, since my game plan doesn't need fine-tuning all that often. I heard the new clerk was quite knowledgeable, though, so I thought I'd come in to see.”

“Oh, no, sir, I'm just...” Paige raised her head and started waving her hands. “I-I don't think I'm all that knowledgeable. It's easy to learn with a bit of practice—”

“Ah,” Keaton said, nodding to himself and looking at Vespa, “so she's the type who doesn't realize she's smart.”

“An open book, ain't she?” Vespa chuckled.

“To be honest, I'd wanted to speak with the two of you since I saw your match with Scoops,” Keaton said. He'd turned back to the display cases. “It was really impressive stuff—that use of the Windbox was inspired. It really got my blood pumping.”

“Yeah, we're pretty great,” Vespa said. She didn't kick her legs up in the counter, as Nori had already given her a stern talking-to about that. “She's the brains, I'm the brawn, we're both the pretty faces.”

“Ahaha,” Keaton said. “And she,” he said, turning his head to Paige, “is the sort who masks her feelings of inadequacy with egotism.”

Vespa fell out of her chair. “Oh, absolutely,” Paige said with a nod. “I think it's very charming.” She paused while Vespa stood up, looking a little worse for wear. “Your Navi's weapon is very unique, sir.”

“Mm,” Keaton said. “So it is.” He started smiling to himself, and you could see that he probably had a glint in his eyes even though they were closed for him to do this particular smile. “You can likely tell it's based around a tonfa, but it also has principles from a theorized single-person armament from Dr. Albert Wily's catalog called a 'recoil rod'—it's an eight-directional beam armament designed to channel surges of energy to allow for breaking heavy objects and blasting off of the ground to reach higher vantage points. I found myself very taken with it, you see, so I developed the Soul Launcher using the basic idea.”

“Really!” Paige exclaimed, her eyes lighting up. “The napalm spread from an upward shot was really an inspired choice—do they spread randomly, or can your Navi direct them?”

“There's an algorithm to determine their spread depending on the situation,” Keaton said, his eyes opening—yup, there was that glint. He'd come up to the counter, and was smiling with his teeth showing now, and by god they were bright. “In battles with large groups of viruses, I can wreak havoc by sneaking into the center of their formation and firing from there—and if I need to make a quick escape, I can do that, too. It's a wonderfully multi-purpose weapon.” He paused, and then his eyes darted to Vespa. “Now, this one's Busters—those are brilliant. The firing speed and accuracy are astonishing! Is there targeting correction on them?”

Vespa shrugged. “There is, but I barely use it unless I have to. It's dishonorable, y'know?”

“I can tell your frame is rather lightly armored just from looking,” Keaton said, “but even just from that one match it seems obvious the firepower you're packing more than makes up for it. Even a hit like that wouldn't have taken down Stingray if you hadn't really laid into him.”

“Does everyone around here know Stingray's specs or something?” Vespa scoffed.

“Well, it's hard not to know Scoops,” Keaton said. “She's... you know. Like she is.”

Paige nodded. “She is like she is.”

“Her NetBattling skills go a bit underrepresented, but anyone with an analytical eye knows that she and Stingray are quite the fearsome combination, and I, for one, pride myself on my ability to get a measure of people's skills before I fight them,” Keaton said. He was, true to his word, looking Vespa up and down. “For instance, it seems like Vespa's primary weakness is close-quarters combat, so I'd likely have a good matchup, but the unpredictability factor is one I can't discount.” Then his eyes started glowing. “Really, though—who designed those Busters?”

Pause.

“Well,” Vespa said.

Pause.

“Okay, so like, this isn't how they originally worked,” Vespa said. “A while back I fucked with them myself and got them to work basically like this. The fine-tuning's from Paige, she's a whiz with a NaviCust.”

“So it's a home job!” Keaton's face lit up. “Awesome! Navis editing their own program isn't heard of nearly often, I've seen some really incredible programming come out of that—how did they work before then, if you don't mind me asking?”

Vespa blinked. “Uh...” She whipped out her Busters, and started sliding them together. “They used to fit together, uh, like this... they'd form this defensive shield? The old man always called it his Hiiiiive Matrix! Way slower, more like a cannon. Wasn't my style.”

“Ah,” Keaton said, “that explains everything.” He nodded to himself. “Thank you for indulging my questions. I don't get the chance to talk shop nearly enough.”

“You're friends with, er, Mr. Hikari, aren't you?” Paige asked.

Keaton frowned, and shook his head with a sigh. “The boy's got talent, but talking technical details with him is like plucking hairs. Details like that aren't his strong suit. He works more on... gut instinct. Inspiration, you could say.”

“Sounds obnoxious,” Vespa said, snorting.

Scanning the display cases one last time, Keaton came across a Whirlpool chip. “Oh, I don't believe I have this one. If I send my collection update into the Star Force Club, you know, I get merch!” Keaton winked. “May I?”

“Of course, sir,” Paige said.

“Please, do call me Keaton,” Keaton said. “Oh—one other thing. Hm, how to put this...” He trailed off for a moment as he stored his new purchase. “Are you going anywhere soon?”

“Um, yes, in a few hours...” Paige blinked. “Why do you ask?”

“Hm. I've just got an odd feeling,” Keaton said. He stopped, then, and laughed at himself. “Look at me. I sound like Lan, he's been rubbing off on me too much. Well, a bit of intuition never did anyone wrong, I suppose... anyway, maybe we can have a match some time.”

Student Body Head Keaton Akajima turned on his heel, and gave a remarkably cool wave you could almost see the sparkles on as he left. “See you! Hope to speak with you again soon!”

The doors closed.

“Oh my god, I'm blind,” Vespa said. She started rubbing her eyes. “What's the Star Force Club?”

“I don't know,” Paige said. “He seems nice.” She paused. “Oh—do you recognize him now?”

Vespa sighed. “Okay, see, I think he recognized me, based on that one comment, but I just don't quite... ugh.” She tapped her head. “Stupid poncey bastard.”

“He seems nice!” Paige said.

“You're only saying that because he's a nerd like you,” Vespa said, flapping her hands a bit. “You can talk about your nerd things like nerds.”

“Are you still mad about—”

“Yes!” Vespa gritted her teeth and seethed out the word. “How dare that ponce! I'll get him one of these days!”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Den City Metropolitan Area

After finishing her shift for the day, Paige headed back to her room, took off her apron, put on her sweater for the slowly-cooling weather, and started her ginger jog to the subway station. “I've never ridden an Electopian subway before,” Paige said. “What do you think they sound like?”

“Like trains,” Vespa said.

The two of them stopped in in front of the nurse's office to pick up Eiji. He came out of the office dressed professionally for the occasion, with a flowery-printed cardigan over a one-piece long-sleeved dress and warmly knit woolen socks. He even had his hair held up with some small rods in a traditional Electopian style. “God,” Vespa said, “can you give Paige some fashion tips one of these days?”

“If she asked me, I would be happy to,” Eiji said. His PET buzzed inside his purse, and he lifted it out. “Are we alright, Cinnamon?”

“Fleuve should be able to handle any minor injuries around here,” Cinnamon answered. “It's been a while since we've been to the city.”

“Who?” Vespa asked.

“The assistant nurse,” Cinnamon answered. “As opposed to the nurse's assistant, of course. I'm sure people would be much less liable to enjoy their time in here if I had a short old man under my wing rather than Eiji. And he certainly wouldn't play along with my little gags, either—it's really killer to think about.”

“Oh, no, Mr. Fleuve is a very skilled medical technician,” Eiji said. “I'm only an apprentice.”

“Yes, but you have other positive qualities he doesn't have, dear,” Cinnamon said. She laughed to herself. Paige laughed a little, too. “Shall we be off?”

As they walked to the station, Paige spoke up. “So, it... is a little odd to see a human studying under a Navi like this.”

“Yeah,” Vespa said, “it's like, what, are you gonna say 'Healing routine, set!' and then Eiji goes 'Execute!'”

“Yes,” Cinnamon said.

Pause.

“I do that regularly and he says it every time,” Cinnamon continued. “It's precious.”

Eiji's face was bright red. “Oh, Cinnamon... You're embarrassing me!”

Cinnamon laughed, and chirped a little as her face shifted for it. “Eiji and I have been partners for about six years now. I was working freelance as a battlefield medic until the Kikuchi family had need of a live-in doctor and wanted to find a Navi for their son. As it happened, I was able to fulfill both needs.”

“A battlefield medic?” Vespa said, raising her eyebrow. “What battlefields?”

“Whether in the real world or the Cyberworld, there will always be battlefields,” Cinnamon said, her voice momentarily growing heavy. “My creator sent me out with the intent of learning about the people of our world, and that was just where I wound up, I suppose. Then, while Eiji was in high school, the job listing for a head nurse at Ayanokoji opened up, and where better to teach Eiji than in a cutting-edge school for breaking the boundaries between the two worlds?”

“You took the job to teach this kid?” Vespa said.

“I took the job to help people and to teach this kid,” Cinnamon said. “I'm just an altruistic person at heart, you see.” She laughed a little at her own joke.

“No truly altruistic person calls themselves altruistic, lady,” Vespa said, rolling her eyes (not that Cinnamon could see that.)

“Say what you will. As long as I have Eiji's pretty face and genuine altruism by my side,” Cinnamon said, “I'm invincible. Aren't I, Eiji?”

“Cinnamon, please don't joke like that. I worry you might actually rob the bank this time,” Eiji said. He was smiling, too.

Before Paige could chime into the conversation again, Scoops hailed them in front of the stairs down into the train station. Audrey was idly tapping away at her PET next to her. “Hey, party people!” Scoops said. She slammed her right fist into her open left palm. “You ready to get down to brass tacks and make my career?”

“The key was stolen from my uncle's lab, Scoops,” Paige giggled. “It's not just your career on the line.”

Scoops wasn't listening. She was, instead, adjusting her glasses. “Gehehehe... a plucky band of four youths looking to solve a large mystery! It's like something out of a classic novel or TV show... why, all we'd need is an animal mascot and we'd be—” Pause. Turn. She stared at Vespa. “Never mind, we're good.”

“I'm gonna bury you,” Vespa said, shaking her fist, leering her eyes, and gritting her teeth. She jutted her jaw forward, too. Very threatening.

“Alright,” Audrey said, as the five of them stepped down the stairs, “looks like our train's arriving in about five minutes.”

“Should we buy our tickets, then?” Paige said, looking at the line in front of the ticket booth. Given the indoor nature of this station, it was a lot noisier than the train stations Paige was used to—a train drove by on the opposite tracks, though, and even under the fluorescent light, that sound filled Paige with a little bit of comfort.

“Nah,” Scoops said, “Audrey covered it.” Paige blinked and turned her head to Audrey, who shrugged. “She has a fund of illegal drug money or something that she pulls into—”

“It's not illegal drug money,” Audrey grunted.

“Then what is it, esteemed future Dr. Longhener?” Scoops said, with a smug grin.

Audrey whipped her head around, that mess of hair on her head looking almost like a windstorm. “Look, do you wanna get into the particulars of my backstory in a fucking subway station?” Pause. “Oh wait, it's you. Point is, we got five tickets—four humans, three ride-along Navis, one Navi in a CopyBot.”

“You even thought about me?” Vespa gasped, her voice filled with some kind of emotion. “How sweet!”

“We're gonna have to hit a connection to another line,” Audrey said, looking back down at her screen, tapping with her thumb at an incredible speed, “and from there it'll be about ten minutes to our stop. If we hit Elec Town or the Froid Waterworks, we've gone too far.”

Eiji, meanwhile, was looking up at the board that displayed the itinerary. Paige turned to him, and followed his gaze—it was slight, but there were a few visual oddities. “Does this line go to End City?” Eiji asked, frowning.

“Huh? No, that's another line,” Audrey said.

And inaccuracies in the itinerary itself, too... Paige rubbed her chin, then hailed down an employee, a tall, pointy-chinned man with an obviously ever-fixed frown. His nametag said, 'Hello, my name is 'autruche'.' “Sir, there appears to be something wrong with the itinerary board.”

“Oh...” The employee looked up at it, and scratched his head. “So there is. I'll... get right on reporting that. Yes, I will...” He walked away.

“Problem resolved!” Vespa said, with a thumbs up. “Nice one. Public speaking. Very cool.” Two thumbs up.

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Intercity Subway (End to Castillo "Ika Line"), Car 314

As soon as the train car they'd gotten on began to move, Paige leaned her head back and closed her eyes. She let the vibrations flow through her body, her ear leaning into the wall so she could hear the train car's motion. With her eyes closed, the vibrations were more obvious, more intense—sometimes, she could almost drift off to that sound. It was definitely different when you were underground, but the rickety sound of train tracks never fundamentally changed.

Vespa, at some point, had put her arm around Paige, but no matter how noisy Vespa was, she knew well to respect Paige's quiet time. A soft little nap, maybe, wrapped in the warmth of the sound of the earth. Maybe—

“Mom, Dad, look! I can move the earth!”

“Sweetie—sweetie, come look! Tempo's—!”

The train ground to a halt, and Paige was shaken awake. “Huh?” People began to look around and grumble.

A voice on the train's intercom turned on. “We're terribly sorry for the inconvenience. We've had a minor issue with our routing system. You should be on your way in just a few minutes.”

“Shit,” Audrey said, kicking up her legs on the other side of the subway and clicking her tongue. (It wasn't too busy of a day, thankfully, so she didn't kick anyone by slouching.) “We're gonna miss our connection.”

“...an issue with the routing system?” Paige muttered to herself. “I wonder if it could have anything to do with the glitches from earlier?” She hummed. “How are the Electopian subways guided?”

A collective shrug was drawn from the group. “That's not my field of expertise,” Scoops said, bouncing up and down in her seat.

“If it's serious enough to stop the trains...” Paige looked around. People were beginning to fret—a mother holding her child's hand, an old man breathing heavily... “These people need to get to where they're going. Vespa, let's go take a look.”

Pause. “Wait, what?” Vespa said.

“Let's go take a look,” Paige repeated. “There should be a jack-in point somewhere in the train to reach at least this car's internal network. Maybe from there we can figure out what's wrong.”

“Why?” Audrey said.

Paige blinked. “Because these people need to get to where they're going. C'mon, Vespa.”

Vespa stage-whispered, “Her hero complex is showing again,” before zapping out of the CopyBot and into Paige's PET.

With a grunt, Scoops stood up. “Alright, alright, c'mon, I'll go too! A reporter's not a reporter if she doesn't investigate.”

The jack-in point was nestled between a door and a map of the wider train network. “I'm sorry,” Paige said to a man standing by it, “but would it be okay if I got in there? My friend and I are NetBattlers, and I'd like to see if I can take a look.”

“Aw, well, sure!” The stout, muscular man took a seat and scooted over. “Go right ahead, young lady. No bother.”

Paige and Scoops turned to each other and nodded, and in unison—

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

“Hot off the press! Stingray, Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: “Ika Line” Car 314 Internal Server

The connective beams dissipated early, and Vespa and Stingray materialized mid-air pre-landing. Vespa grinned, and twirled over to catch a ride on Stingray's back, holding onto his shoulders. “Enjoying the flight?” Stingray asked.

“It's a lot better when I'm riding this way,” Vespa said. “The foot ride is pretty weak.”

“No kidding,” Stingray laughed.

The two of them touched down on a circular platform, with a red squid logo on it. This was about the only flat land for ages—this train's network platform was a small part of the Intercity Network's massive interconnected web. Outside its alcove, the whole line was connected through a massive, gunmetal grey vertical tunnel, with red rapid-transit connections running up and down through the walls faster than Vespa's eyes could process. A heavy wind current blew upwards through the line, and for as far as Vespa could see, there wasn't an end to it either up or... well, down, unfortunately enough.

Vespa reached up to briefly disable comms. “Stingray, can you take some pictures?” Vespa asked, cocking her head. “Let's surprise Paige with a record of this! She'll totally nerd out, she's big into trains and all.”

“Why not just take the photo yourself?” Stingray asked, doffing his trenchcoat and opening up his wings. Hat stayed on, though. “You've got image capture, don't you?”

“Eh, you don't get it,” Vespa said, scoffing. “I've got an image to maintain.”

“So are the train networks different in Netopia?” Stingray cocked his head up, one hand on his hat.

“You can ask her all about that later, dude, she has a billion words about it.” Vespa re-enabled her comms. “Okay, so it doesn't look like there's anything obviously wrong with this car. Stingray and I are gonna head toward the end of the line and see what's up.”

“Alright,” Paige said, and thankfully she didn't ask what that silence was about. “Be careful.”

There was a small outcropping that led to a single rapid transit line. Just stepping out into the open was enough to start blowing Vespa's hair up. That one lock that never went anywhere but in front of her forehead was particularly ornery at times like these. “You're lucky you don't have hair,” Vespa said.

Stingray snorted. “You take that line. I can fly, I can grab onto... that one over there,” and he pointed to a line about four spaces over.

“Okey-doke,” Vespa said, and reached out to touch the line on the wall.

Within the blink of an eye, Stingray was well down there and disappearing out of sight, as Vespa held on to the rail for dear life. The propulsion speed on these gave her a bit of a head rush, and she grumbled, “Ohhh man, I'm glad I can't puke right now!” as she grabbed on with both hands to keep steady.

Cars 313, 312, 311, and 310 passed by within seconds, but then Stingray, riding up with both feet on the nearby rail, flinched. “Hostiles incoming from below!”

Vespa looked up instinctively—wait, below. Right. Looking down, she was able to catch sight of a fleet of red, bird-shaped viruses with ovoid bodies jetting up from below. “Ahhh, shit,” she said, “Pipis? I hate these things anyway!”

Stingray switched his arms into attack mode as Car 307 passed them by. Launching his Ground Hunters, though, proved ineffective—they landed too soon and didn't move quickly enough in the air to catch the high-flying Pipis. The leader of the fleet produced its signature attack, the Egg Bomb. “Vespa!” Stingray said. “Copipis incoming!”

Launching the Egg Bomb in to the side of the two Navis, the Pipi released its attack. Upon hitting the ground, the egg shattered, and a smaller cloud of tiny Copipis appeared and aimed directly for Vespa and Stingray. “Vespa!” Paige said. “Use your feet, the rail has internal gravity!”

Vespa blinked. “Oh, right!” With an adept flip, she flung herself off the rail, reoriented herself in midair, and landed on the rail, facing backward toward her opponents. “Don't worry, Stingray, Mama's got this.” Materializing her Busters with a showy spin, she aimed toward the Copipis and smirked. “No wise man ever took an egg to a gun fight.”

Pipis were never much known for their durability, so a single pinpoint shot from Vespa was easily able to take down each one of the leader's spawn. The fleet of Pipis above them began to disperse, but Vespa aimed to both sides and fired upon the two Pipis at the side, obliterating them in short order.

Three Pipis remained, but Vespa and Stingray weren't out of the woods yet. Out of the network entrance for Car 290, the sound of engines began to thrum as a pair of Fighter Plane viruses launched into the fray as well. “We're getting a lot of flying viruses,” Vespa said. “Think it's a coincidence?”

“Probably not,” Stingray said. “Bad news, though,” and he pointed upward, behind Vespa. The rail she was on was about to end, turning in to meet Car 283. The other rails split off, and the next rail above her began about three cars away. “You think you can make that jump?”

Vespa shook her head. “Don't wanna chance it.” Looking down, she took a moment to take inventory, and then grinned. “I've got a better plan.”

She took aim again to fire at the Pipis, shooting down another Egg Bomb in midair. She very pointedly didn't aim at the Fighter Planes, though, and sure enough, one of them began its Air Raid strategy—taking three charges at their opponent, and then firing a blast of gunfire, was how it was supposed to work. Once she saw that, Vespa fired a single shot at the Fighter Plane. “Over here, ugly!”

The Fighter Plane charged toward Vespa, launching itself high upward with the help of the wind current. Vespa, for her part, also launched herself upward—she jumped off of the rail, and with the help of the boost from its propulsion, caught on to the wing of the Fighter Plane. Its charge took it well past the next rail, and before it could fire on her, Vespa jumped off again to hit up the rail next to Stingray. “See?” she said, giving a thumbs up. “Better plan.”

“Nice one,” Stingray said. “You're not gonna be able to keep up the dodging on just that rail, though. I've got an even better plan.”

In one motion, Stingray transitioned to laying face-first on the rail, placing himself as a platform. “Jump on!” he said. “I'll handle the dodging, you handle the shooting.”

Vespa wasn't complaining about that. She did just that. “You should be able to turn around pretty easy on my back,” Stingray said. “Just know I might have to jump.”

“No worries!” Vespa said. “Sorry to say, though, you'll always be second in my heart to Chaser.”

“That's fine,” Stingray said, and though he was face-down Vespa could hear the smile in his voice. “I'd never get between a woman and her chopper.”

By now, they were into the two-fifty range, and a few small, red viruses had appeared. “What're those?” Vespa asked.

Comms shuffle. “Looks like they're Smokies,” Audrey said. “They're gonna leave behind some real pretty gas for you. They're endemic to way to the northeast of the Amerope supercontinent, but some virus researcher accidentally left some of them around here.”

“Oh, how educational,” Paige said. As promised, they began to expel clouds of blue, yellow, and pink gas, creating a smokescreen for Pipis and Fighter Planes to dodge behind. Unfortunately for them, Miss Vespa was a real crack shot. Having a full 360-degree range of motion meant she was able to really lay into a lot the smaller enemies, leaving quite a few Pipis and a few stronger Fighter Planes crashing down to the ground and dispersing. Then—

“Wha—?” Vespa turned upward to see a distortion around Car 203's connection, about ten cars away. Its layer of the area was rapidly rotating, leaving the rails inconsistent. “Stingray, can you tap into the comms in there?”

He was. “Please come in. This is Line Inspector Jet Stingray speaking, over.”

“OH, THANK GOODNESS!” That was the chirpy voice of a Mr. Prog. “IT'S GOOD YOU CAME WHEN YOU DID, BECAUSE—”

“One second,” Stingray said. “Scoops!”

Stingray leapt into the air, and Scoops audibly grinned and said, “NorthWind sent!” Another burst of wind from Scoops's BattleChip sent several viruses flying and dissipated the Smokies' distractions, but more importantly, Stingray was able to catch the wind and sail clean past the area for Car 203.

Vespa posed on top, as though she were a skateboarder, then went, “Heh heh, nice,” and went back to shooting as they landed.

“Sorry about that,” Stingray said. “Your place on the line is out of control. What's going on?”

“OUR CAR ISN'T CURRENTLY OCCUPIED,” Prog 203 said, “BUT IT'S GOING ON AN UNUSED PART OF THE TRACKS! IT'S GOING IN CIRCLES! I THINK THE NAVIGATION PROG IS GETTING BAD SIGNALS FROM THE MAIN TOWER!”

“Understood,” Stingray said. “We'll get right on that. Hang tight, this issue will be solved momentarily. Over and out.”

“OKAY! I'LL QUIET MY PANIC ROUTINE AS BEST I CAN!” Prog 203 said, before Stingray cut the line.

“W-won't you get in trouble for impersonating a line inspector?” Paige said.

Scoops chuckled, and then presumably showed Paige some sort of ID. “Stingray's got a lot of notches under his belt.”

“Oh, wow,” Paige said. “I—sir?”

Some old guy from the outside laughed and said, “Oh, you kids just remind me of my own adventurous days from back when I was your age.”

“That's good to hear, sir,” Paige said.

Car 127, higher up the line, was also disturbed. Prog 127 had much the same story to tell—“Seems like something's up with the main tower,” Stingray said. “It's sending faulty signals.”

“Okay,” Vespa said, “how do we get there?”

“We're gonna have to head to the end of the line and hit the top multi-line network,” Stingray said. “The tower's Cyberworld is dead center in there, you can't miss it.”

Vespa turned and fired upon a Fighter Plane who was getting too close for comfort, and then looked down again. “Oh, for cybergod's sakes.”

“You can just say 'god's sakes',” Stingray said.

A heavy, propeller-laden virus in green camo, with a grey underbelly and a yellow mouth, was flying up behind the virus fleet. It opened its mouth to consume a few Pipis, who landed inside to restock. “Whaler incoming!” Vespa said.

“Oh, for god's sakes!” Stingray said, and he probably would've thrown up his hands if he weren't busy face-surfing.

“That explains where all the Pipis were coming from,” Paige said. “That must be their main ship! If you can shoot it down, it should be smooth sailing from there!”

“Easy for you to say!” Vespa grunted, turning her guns upon the Whaler's underside. However, Whalers weren't nearly so fragile as other viruses—Vespa's shots barely made a dent in their underside, except in specific venting locations Vespa had never fully gotten used to shooting. Car 90 passed them by. Then—

“Do either of you young ladies have a Tank Cannon?” That same old man was muttering aloud. “Why, I remember once when I was a bit younger, I punctured the underside of a Whaler with a Tank Cannon, and it started to deflate right quickly.”

Vespa continued firing, shooting down some missiles launched from the Whalers, as the Fighter Planes and Pipis continued their assault from around it. “Er, no, sir,” Paige said. “Um, Scoops, do you—?”

“Nada,” Scoops said.

“Oh, well that's alright,” the old man said. “As it happens, I've kept it in my back pocket here... give me a moment to find it... er, hold on, I swear it was there... ah, here we are. You can borrow it, if you'd like—?”

Quick as a wink. “Vespa, I'm editing the folder! Hold on for a second and you'll have it!”

“Got it!” Vespa called, as Scoops sent in another NorthWind to launch them past a third out-of-control train car. As the Whaler's mouth opened, Vespa fired some shots in to obliterate the reloading Pipis. The shots left some dents in the loading bay, but she didn't have a clear shot to inside.

Then—Click. “Oh ho ho ho, here we go,” Vespa said, as the heft of a Tank Cannon almost as large as she was landed on her right shoulder. She holstered her guns and took a moment to aim, right at a soft spot on its underbelly, and—! “Jackpot!”

The explosive projectile of the Tank Cannon blew open the hull of the Whaler, which rapidly began to lose air from inside. Its movements became destabilized, and Vespa opened fire in the hole she'd just made. Soon, the force from her shots sent a hail of rapid-fire Vesper Chaser shots through to the other side of the Whaler, piercing through and causing it to careen into the wall, taking out its minions with it. The data explosion from it launched up the corridor, and some Chip data landed in Vespa's hands.

With a fistpump, Vespa cheered. “Hell yeah! We rule!” Stingray gave her a thumbs up from under her.

“Thank you so much, sir!” Paige said, relief clear in her breath. “I—?!”

The connection—shook—

“Paige, what's wrong?” Vespa said, and instictively tapped her right ear. “Paige?!”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: “Ika Line” Car 314

The entire car shuddered. “Hold on to something!” Audrey shouted. “Everyone hold on!”

Outside of the car, Paige could just barely see the earth itself shaking. “It's an earthquake!” she called out. Vespa's CopyBot nearly fell to the ground before the heavy-set man whose seat Paige had taken caught it. “About a 4.6—it should pass soon!”

“You can tell?!” Audrey, who was desperately trying to hang on to the grip on the ceiling, said. She looked down at Paige. “How the hell can you tell?!”

After a few more moments' shaking, the car stopped, and the lights, which had flickered, returned to being on. Paige let go on her seat and raised her head back up, and on the floor, she saw—“S-sir, are you alright?!”

He was an old man who'd long since gone bald, with bushy eyebrows that nearly entirely covered his narrow eyes. He had a pointed, droopy mustache, pure white, and a long, dignified beard. He was clad in a faded green coat, and his wooden cane had fallen on the floor with him—because he was on the floor, moaning and clutching his chest.

People who'd crowded to the seats and grips were backing away a little, as the old man groaned, his breath labored and heavy. “I—” Paige started.

Then, Eiji, who'd been a bit behind the rest of them, ran past a few other passengers and slid onto his knees by the old man. “Sir, what's wrong?!” he said, kneeling down, his eyes scanning the old man for any injuries.

“Eiji!” Cinnamon called. “The CopyBot!”

With a nod, Eiji turned his head to Paige and said, “I'm sorry, but I need to borrow this!” He lifted up his PET, and with a click, Cinnamon materialized in the heavy-set passenger man's arms. Eiji smiled, then turned back to the old man. “Sir, it's alright. My Navi and I—”

“We're doctors,” Cinnamon said, kneeling next to the old man. “We're going to keep you safe.”

“Oh, well isn't that nice,” the old man said, his voice still a little airy and distracted even as he gritted his teeth in pain. “What nice young folk you all are...”

Cinnamon's monitor displayed scanlines for a moment as she took inventory of the man. “His vitals are weak, and I'm detecting an irregularity in his heart.”

“Ah—Sir, you were breathing heavily earlier, weren't you?” Eiji said. “Do you have any pre-existing conditions?”

“My... pacemaker's been acting up lately...” the old man croaked out. “You see, I was... on my way into the city to get it—” His forehead was covered in sweat.

“His heartbeat is showing signs of regular atrial fibrillation,” Cinnamon said. “Eiji!”

“Sir, we're going to keep you safe. Please stay with us,” Eiji said. He raised his head. “Someone please hurry to the front of the train and get the conductor and any other employees! We need to contact a paramedic—this man needs to get to the hospital!”

Before she could even process the thought, Paige's legs were already moving. “Hey—Paige?!” Vespa called out. Audrey followed behind, and the two of them charged forward one, two, three—

Paige slammed open the door to the head of the train, where the conductor, a blonde woman with a heavy black visor over her head to view the network of the trains, turned her head, raised her visor, and said, “Excuse me—!”

“A passenger is having a heart attack!” Paige said, her own breath heavy now from the exertion of running. “We need to message the paramedics! How do we get a message out from this train to the paramedics?!”

The conductor's eyes widened, and said, “Usually, we're kept to the inter-line network, and—ugh,” she said, turning her head to the empty seat next to her, “for all the days for Rouge to have called out sick!”

Slipping by Paige with surprising swiftness, Audrey sat her butt in the network operator's seat and said, “Don't worry, I got this.”

“Ma'am—”

“I got this,” Audrey said, turning her head and giving a foul look to the conductor. “Here's the intercom—Paige, get back over there, I've got this covered.”

“Right!” Paige nodded. “Thanks, Audrey!”

Thumbs up. “Don't mention it,” Audrey said.

Paige burst again through the other cars to reach where Eiji, Scoops, and the old man were waiting. Eiji was loosening the old man's clothes, including an overly tight belt buckle. “...and I remember she left me a note,” the old man said, “and a three-leaf clover. The note said, 'I'm sorry I couldn't find you a four-leaf clover, Mr. Andrew'...”

“I'm sure your students were very happy under you, Mr. Andrew,” Eiji said, with a bright, calming smile.

Over the intercom, Audrey said, “Okay, we're connected to the outside. Message sent. Once they clear the Ika Line's network, there should be a connection out to the broadcast tower, too.”

“Vespa!” Paige said, returning to her seat. “How are things in there?”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Electopia Metropolitan Railway System Multi-Line Network

Vespa and Stingray launched out of the windy tunnel, and both of them touched down in front of a crowd of NetNavis waiting in line to enter the tunnel itself. “Perfect landing!” Vespa said, turning her head to Stingray. “Not bad, partner.”

“Only the best from Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter's trusty partner,” Stingray said.

The multi-line server was much better-designed for the public—a dark, nighttime sky with simulated stars lit up in regular patterns, and graffiti-styled murals floated past on holographic windows around the transit lines between the railway towers. Each of the system's train lines were underneath a great pylon, and their landing platforms were surrounded by flashing light fixtures. In the center was a massive spire, stairs spiraling up it well into the sky.

“That'd be the broadcast tower, I guess,” Vespa said, “so we should head over there.”

“Er, sir, ma'am!” An employee Navi in a blue suit tried to hail them down, his hand shaky on his megaphone. “You're not supposed to... there are regulations!”

“In case you haven't noticed,” Vespa said, putting one hand on her hip and turning one backward toward the windy tunnel to eliminate one last straggler Pipi with her Buster, “there's a bit of an emergency. There's something up at the broadcast tower, so we're gonna head over there.”

“You can't just—”

Stingray swooped into the discussion and showed off his ID card. “Line Inspector Jet Stingray here. This concerned citizen is with me.”

“T-terribly sorry, sir!” the employee said, his posture going ramrod stiff. “Take a left at the first junction and head forward, you can't miss it!”

“You really can't,” Vespa said, cocking her head on it as she ran past the throes of Navis and leapt onto the now grounded transit rails. Stingray joined in, just behind her. “Okay, so what are we gonna do?”

“Whether it's viruses or a Navi,” Paige said, “we need to get to the broadcast tower and clear it out so the right signals can be sent.”

Underneath their feet, distortions in the signals were beginning to appear here, too—the network of rails were swapping around with each other, and leading to dead ends, instead of to other landing platforms. Vespa clicked her tongue. “Alright,” she said, looking up—but as she did, through those distortions, several aerial viruses launched up into the sky, forming a cloud in the airways. “Do we wanna chance ground or air?”

“Air's more my speed,” Stingray said. “Hop on!”

Stingray launched into a Hienkyaku, and Vespa leapt off of the rail to grab onto his back. As the two of them reached the air, a spotlight from the ground below caught sight of the two of them, as Vespa struck another pose to enter into full sight mode. She tapped her left eye, and a yellow visor flipped over her eyes.

With a smirk, Vespa declared, “Welcome to my Fantasy Zone! Get Ready.”

“This time, I can help out,” Stingray said, opening up his Ground Hunter salvos. “You take care of the guys in the air, I'll handle any ground troops.”

“Isn't being an air guy who just rams into people for his only dogfighting trick kinda tough?” Vespa asked, enabling her targeting function. She dragged her targeting reticles across a cloud of Pipis, and when she let her triggers go, a burst of shots tracked them down and obliterated them all in one fell swoop.

“Hey,” Stingray said, launching Ground Hunters down to target some Fanner viruses firing Tornado ground-to-air shots. “You'd be surprised.” He took a few photos of his handiwork, too.

“If you say so, Chief,” Vespa said, her eyes locking on to a group of Smokies disguising some Cloudies, spinning around under their parasols, ready to launch their rainclouds. Nothing could stop the Vesper Chasers from finding their target, though—with a heavy boom, the Smokies and Cloudies both careened toward the ground, dissipating and burning up.

Some more powerful shots were launched, and Stingray looked down. “Heads up—some Hyper Boles are in the area.”

Vespa looked down. The heavy, tree trunk-like artillery installation viruses were indeed beginning to appear in the rail system, and charging up their electric blasts. Some Weather viruses, too, were blowing disruption onto the rails, freezing them or coating them in magma.

“Oh, hey,” Stingray said. “Good timing. Check this out.”

Launching a salvo of Ground Hunters, Stingray directed them toward the Weathers—but they passed underneath, and coated themselves in the magma, absorbing it and increasing their speed as they then charged for the Boles, striking them directly and lighting the trees aflame. Vespa whistled. “Glad you didn't do that to me!”

“Yeah, you don't seem like you take fire that well,” Stingray agreed.

Not much could take a full homing blast of Vesper Chasers, so even the heavier Fighter Planes were going down after a moment in Vespa's reticles. One thing that could, though, were Windboxes, which were quite the heavy virus—and on back of some Fighter Planes, a wall of Windboxes began to encircle the tower, forming a defensive barrier that Vespa couldn't quite shoot down.

“Not sure I can ram through those too easy,” Stingray said. “It's gonna slow me down too much for a full-force Hienkyaku—”

“Time's up!”

The sound of a clock ticking at incredible speed began to resound from somewhere, and a visible, watery distortion appeared in the midst of their formation. The Fighter Planes entering the distortion slowed to a crawl, leaving open holes in the formation. “Wha—?” Vespa blinked.

“Can I get a thank you?” Over the comms was Chronoforce's voice, of all people. Vespa and Stingray looked down to see him hanging out outside of another line's tunnel, with a window back open to his little cat game or whatever. “I was busy here.”

“You weren't busy with shit,” Audrey said. “Anyway, his Time Bomb should last long enough for you to get through.”

“Oh, so that's why they call him Chronoforce,” Vespa said, her eyes wide, nodding. “Cooool. Hey, can you teach me that trick sometime?”

“No,” Chronoforce said.

As the two of them approached closer to the tower, transmission from whoever was up there began to be audible. “—in tarnation is that big bubble?!” That was a woman's voice, with some sort of... what accent was that?

“I'm unsure, but it appears we have hostiles incoming,” and that was a man's voice. “Shall I launch the Mame-Qs, ojou-sama?”

“There one of them big whale fellers?” The woman said. “Shoot 'em there and let's trash these varmints!”

People were really beginning to make noise in the train car, and Vespa heard Eiji say, “Don't worry, Mr. Andrew. My friends are amazing NetBattlers, they'll be able to—Paige! Your folder is in... C, right?”

“Yes, it is—?” Paige started, but then cut herself off.

“It's Cinnamon's NaviChip!” Eiji said. “It'll be useful if Vespa takes any damage. Please, be careful!”

Paige went utterly silent for a few moments, until Vespa called out, “Hey, Paige! Ruminate on your friendship milestones later!”

“O-oh, right!” Paige said. Bulbous yellow-and-green viruses, three in total, with heads that looked like little light bulbs, launched out from the top of the tower, and gravitated toward the Whaler battleship. All three landed atop it, and the Whaler was enveloped in a pink glow, and began to directly aggress upon Vespa and Stingray. “What were those viruses?”

“MAME-Qs,” Audrey said. “Recent ones. They're man-made viruses that allow a Navi to directly control hostile viruses and power them up temporarily. It's short for 'Multi-Attachment Mechanical Engine type-Q', but a lot of laymen call them 'Bulbrites'.”

“Thank you for the trivia!” said someone on the train car.

“No problem, I'm full of it,” Audrey said back.

The Whaler shot missiles out of its mouth, careening toward Vespa and Stingray. It was all Vespa could do to shoot down its barrage—Stingray's evasive action wasn't quite enough to burst through. “Vespa! I just reordered our Folder again. Give me just one sec!”

“As long as you need, sweetheart,” Vespa said, the six exits on her guns all simultaneously lighting up for multi-shots to take care of the Whaler's cloud of missiles. Her receiver pinged, and—“Ah, I gotcha. Stingray, I'm gonna need to jump off of you for a sec. When the missiles are clear, ram the bastard, alright?”

“It's what I do best,” Stingray said.

Launching forward, Vespa used her first Chip to materialize a pair of sharp rapier-esque foils. The Red Stinger line's Stinger Foils gave her a brief burst of forward speed, and she leapt off of Stingray, dashing through the missile storm and coming down atop the Whaler. With a quick move, she stabbed once, twice, and then pulled them both out for a third and final stab. The White Capsule briefly halted its movements.

Vespa began to run across the Whaler's back, kicking a MAME-Q as she did for the fun of it, and then activated her third chip. The Geddon effect was meant to change terrain during NetBattles, cracking terrain beneath the Navis' feet, but in a situation like this, what it did was crack the Whaler's innards, lowering its structural integrity. Turning back around, Vespa fired upon a cloud of missiles, and shouted, “Now!”

With a roar, Stingray burst forward, the last few missiles detonating against each other. Scoops let loose another North Wind to give him a boost, and he charged directly through the Whaler. Vespa leapt off at the moment he came out the other end, and landed again on his back as he charged forward unharmed. Behind them, the Whaler detonated, taking out most of its virus compatriots with it. “Gone like so much algae waste,” Stingray said, tipping his cap as the two of them launched out of the fleet's airspace.

“Blister my bagpipes!” The woman's transmission said. “What kinda loco nutsos are these two?!”

“Looks like we're gonna get to skip the stairs,” Vespa said, as the two approached the top of the tower. “Audrey, we got a connection in?”

“Should be good,” Audrey said. “Give this idiot what for.”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Electopia Metropolitan Railway System ~ Broadcast Tower Server

“Ojou-sama, I've received word that our nakama at the Radio Tower in Elec Town have come under fire,” said the man's voice, as Vespa and Stingray swooped up to the top.

“Wha?! Genblem and them?” The woman's voice shouted. “Hogtie that hogwash, you gotta be kiddin' me! By who?!”

The man... whinnied. “It matters not. When our great K-sama and T-sama see that you have wisely taken the initiative to complete your objective, their hearts will burst with a pride unrivalled by any other—”

Vespa and Stingray cruised over the side of the tower, and Vespa flipped off of Stingray's back to land feet-first on the top of the tower. Its tip was above them, and beneath it was a manual operation comms rig. Several Navis were unconscious on a few lower scaffolds, and Vespa and Stingray now landed on a great, gray, circular arena.

With a frown, Vespa said, “I hear you mention a 'K-sama'?”

Standing at the comms rig certainly wasn't an employee. Turning around, it became clear that this Navi was equine in nature—his white muzzle and armored, reverse-jointed hooves made that clear enough. A bright yellow piece of headgear, similar to an ancient Electopian straw hat, sat atop his head, blocking his eyes. His armor, too, was white and gold—segmented atop his aerodynamic body akin to a suit of samurai armor. Jagged golden wings sat atop his back, and they clearly weren't just for show, as he flapped them and created a gust of wind as he turned (for effect, presumably.)

“So I did,” the Navi said. “What business is it of yours?”

Vespa waved one of her Busters at her newfound opponent. “That mean you're with the Vile Numbers?”

With a low chuckle, the horse Navi looked down, and then with a swing of his arm, his hand morphed into a long, razor-sharp katana. Another gust of wind blew up his hat, which uncovered his bright yellow mane. He pointed his blade at Vespa, laughed again, and dramatically bellowed, “Nay!”

Pause.

“Okay, yes, you're a horse,” Vespa said. “I get it. So are you with the—”

“Argh!” The Navi clutched his fist and stomped his hoof. “You ignoble kisama! That was not a 'neigh', it was a 'nay'! N-A-Y! A negative! I am not with the Vile Numbers, you ancient relic!”

“Did he just call me old?” Vespa turned her head to Stingray, who nodded. “I'm not old! I'm like, nineteen!”

“From up close, there is no doubt that I recognize your personage,” the Navi said. “You are Vespa—the former Navi of the honorable Scuttler-sensei.” Vespa gritted her teeth, and furrowed her brow. “I have heard much of you, but somehow I had imagined you would have more of a sense of bushido—not to be the sort of person who brings the coward's weapon to a duel!”

“You know this guy?” Stingray said.

“If you're not with the Vile Numbers, then what're you doing with the old man?” Vespa asked. “And don't insult my Busters, these are my life's—”

“Baka!” the Navi called out, throwing his head up to the sky as he did so. “Your pride is meaningless before the justice within our breasts.” He drew his second katana out from his hand, and struck a combat pose. “I am Pegasolta Eclair, of the noble Einherjar. Our noble cause shall not be halted by a traitor such as yourself! We are no criminals, only senshi in a mighty campaign to—”

“Not a criminal?!” Paige cut in. “There's a man on this train whose heart is failing and we can't get him to a paramedic because you've caused trouble with the broadcast system!”

“There's what now?!” Pegasolta's operator began to sputter. “Heavens to marmoset, Peggie, there's a dyin' man on their train! You sure we should—”

“Listen to yourself, falling for their vile bluffs!” Pegasolta pointed one katana at Vespa, who slumped over and rolled her eyes. “All shall know your name, ojou-sama, when your operation succeeds where the others' did not! You shall be the hero of our leaders' causes! Declare yourself proudly!”

“U-uh, you sure about that?” Pegasolta's operator said.

“One hundred percent!” Pegasolta shouted. “Seeing through their claims is simply asameshimae!”

After taking a deep breath, Pegasolta's operator cleared her throat, and said, “That's r-right, you varmints! You ain't got a shot of pullin' one over on me, 'Whiplash' Makimura! You ain't got a snowball's chance in the Undernet—”

“Ohhhh!” Scoops said, audibly blinking. “I thought your voice sounded familiar. Hey, Makimura, what're you doing over there?”

Pause.

“H-” Makimura began stammering. “H-H-H-H-H-H-Hanasakaaaaa?!”

“You know her?” Paige said, her voice lilting in disbelief.

“Sure I do,” Scoops said. “Asahi Makimura, she went to middle and high school with us. Sweet kid, had a bad habit of getting in over her britches and falling for sob stories. Always got real loud whenever I was around, always went, ahhhh, I'll get one over on you one day, Hanasaka! Said she'd try and be a reporter, too, so she could be better than me, really not cut out for it, though. Gullible, but not a bad heart. Not a great NetBattler, either, though she might've improved. Where'd you pick up this wacko, Makimura? And what's with the accent?”

“W-w-w-w-” Asahi continued sputtering.

“Don't listen to this foul minstrel, ojou-sama!” Pegasolta declared. He stomped his hoof. “Makimura-sama and I shall defeat you in an honorable duel, and I shall prove our mutual honor! Command me, milady! I shall be as your blade!”

“U-uhhh, y-yeah! Yeah, you're—yer darn right!” Asahi said. “I'm 'Whiplash' Makimura, of the Einherjar, and we're 'bout to tan yer hide!”

"Please," Eiji called out, "Asahi, please, you have to believe us! We—"

“Step forward, if you dare!” Pegasolta said. “Which of the o-baka-san-tachi wishes to be pulverized first?!”

Pause. “Oh well. You tried, Eiji." Scoops sighed. "You know I can tell you're not Electopian, right? You look like you're... somewhere from South Netopia, right? You're not a sa—”

“URUSAI!!!” Pegasolta screamed, and that was the end of that discussion.

After another moment's pause, Vespa stepped forward. “So what, you're just gonna fight one of us?”

“As is the law of bushido!” Pegasolta shifted one hand back into a hand and clenched his fist. “We shall duel, with honor!”

“Have fun,” Stingray said, casually strolling past their little duel field and heading over to the comms rig to start fixing it as they fought. Asahi said something, but Pegasolta wasn't listening, so the point was moot.

“Will do, Chief,” Vespa said. She pulled out her guns.

“Vespa, be careful! I don't think he's all hot air!” Paige said.

“I'll show you, and then I'll show Hanasaka, too!” Asahi declared. “I'm the best!”

“I'll show you a 'coward's weapon', you samurai poser!” Vespa said, aiming her guns.

“Here in the ring, we shall duel seiseidoudou!” Pegasolta said, drawing both of his blades.

““Battle routine, set!””

“Execute!” “HAJIME!”

Chapter Text

The first move went to Pegasolta, who swung his left blade horizontally, then his right blade vertically, and then finally swung the two of them in an X pattern to launch a Sonic Boom projectile at Vespa. Vespa was able to dodge this mighty attack by idly walking over to the left when she had a spare moment. “Bakana!” Pegasolta gasped, making some grunting noises or something. “To dodge my Sonic Boom technique... this battle shall not be easy, Makimura-sama, but do not be discouraged! Together—”

“Do you ever stop talking?” Vespa asked, loading up a pair of Buster Up modifications before laying in with full-auto fire. “Seriously, I'm supposed to be the chatty one in any given fight.”

“Kuh!” Pegasolta staggered back from the force of Vespa's rapid blasts. “The coward's weapon foils me once more!”

“Dagnabbit, Peggie, do the thing!” Asahi shouted. “You have a thing for this! Do the thing!”

Since the blasts weren't actually staggering him, though, Pegasolta stood up, and with a “At once, ojou-sama!” he raised his right hand. The katana on it rocketed forward, connected by a chain. “Taste my blade, foul projectiles!” A blast of wind shot out from the chain's connection, and the katana began to spin, creating a whirling fan that carved Vespa's bullets in two as they rocketed toward it. Pegasolta's fan blade returned to his right hand, and he charged forward, 'shield' in hand.

“Okay, so you've actually got a trick or two,” Vespa said. She smirked. “Good, good. At least you aren't too boring.” On foot, though, she was much faster than Pegasolta, so she was able to dodge past his charging slash with ease, rolling to the right on his shield side—

“Pegasolta, launch!”

“Eh?” Vespa looked to where he just was, and lo and behold, there he... wasn't.

“Vespa, dodge backwards!” Paige shouted, and Vespa obeyed, backflipping out of the way as Pegasolta descended from the air with a double-bladed stab directly downwards. “His wings aren't the only flight he has—he can boost off of the ground from his feet!”

“Wow, folks,” Scoops commented, “she's even went and got herself a flying Navi, too.”

“Y-you can it back there!” Asahi shouted. “Pegasolta is tougher than your Stingray, Hanasaka! I—” She cleared her throat. “Peggie!”

Pegasolta nodded. “At once, ojou-sama! Shadow-Severing Flash Fang ~ Flash Stinger!” He threw his blades wide, and several pieces flew off of his wings, making clear their true purpose—they flicked open into independent bits, which began to float around him. Each of them began to charge with cyclonic energy and formed whipping gusts into lance shapes, and entered into a V-formation behind their owner. “Launch!”

“Thanks for the heads uuuuuuuuuuup?!” Vespa said, ducking low to the ground and dodging just beneath Pegasolta as he launched forward with a piercing thrust. She fired upon the lance that followed just behind him to slow it down and let herself roll out of the way again, as the others launched just behind Pegasolta and stopped in the air behind him. “Whoa, okay!”

“We've gotta stop him!” Paige said. Chip data—received.

Vespa grinned. “Huh, awfully on brand. When'd you get this?”

“I can shop at my own store,” Paige answered. With a snap of her finger, a White Web chip activated, creating a spiderweb net just beneath Pegasolta's feet. As he dramatically turned to face Vespa again, he found himself unable to launch, struggling against it. “I've got something ready for later, if you can just hold out, too!”

“I'm great at holding out!” Vespa said, lunging forward and leaping over the webs to strike Pegasolta while he was open. The Stinger Foils directly connected while her opponent was distracted trying to free himself, and Vespa launched backwards as Pegasolta froze in place even further from the paralysis.

“No worries, Peggie, Mama's gotcha!” Asahi said. “Code—ON! Shiny Rain, go!”

“The name of the technique is Downpour of Light Pillars ~ Luminous Rain, Makimura-sama,” Pegasolta said, as his Wing Bits flew off again and began to position themselves with red targeting beams toward Vespa. Vespa ducked her head out of the way of one to avoid the laser blast that came out of it, and the series of dodges she had to pull out to dodge out of the way of all of them almost looked like some sort of strange dance, from a distance.

Still, she did manage to dodge them, skidding backwards to reposition herself and stand back up. “What's with the fancy names?” Vespa asked, spinning her Busters on her fingers.

“It is the way of things when you are an honorable senshi,” Pegasolta said, brandishing his blades again. He smirked. “Not that you would know anything about that! Tah!”

Breaking free of the web, Pegasolta blasted forward again, a trail of fading afterimages flying behind him. Vespa leapt backwards, but then—“We got 'er,” Asahi said, with a smug chuckle.

Underneath her as she leapt, Vespa saw a sixth Wing Bit, embedded in the ground. The light around it was slightly refracted, and as it turned out, Pegasolta hadn't been aiming for Vespa at all—his blades swung against his own armament. “Vespa, it's a Prism!” Paige shouted. “Wa—”

It was too late for that. Pegasolta's strike struck his Prism, and the attack was reflected all around it, redirecting the force of his blade right into Vespa's face. Wailing in pain, Vespa flew back and fell onto the ground. “Vespa!”

“Wha—she actually did get better,” Scoops muttered.

“The honorable Pegasolta Eclair, ikimasu!” Pegasolta cried, redirecting his blades to knock his Prism Bit into the air with a rising slash. This, thankfully, didn't strike Vespa, but she wasn't going to stay lucky—the other five Wing Bits refocused around Pegasolta. “Glaring Condemnation of Ruinous Light ~ Judgment Ray!”

The spread caused by firing these lasers through the Prism meant that even if Vespa hadn't been recoiling from the earlier strike, there was no way she could escape this. All five Wing Bits fired directly through the Prism, creating a focused laser which seared Vespa's body. It hurt, it hurt a lot—it'd been ages since Vespa had been hit by an attack this strong, and searing light, the feeling of sensing her data slowly wither away under a heavy blast, was still absolutely nightmarish. When the blast faded, Vespa, teeth gritted, started forcing herself up off the ground. “Are you ready to admit defeat?” Pegasolta said, raising his head to the sky with a whinny.

“Go to hell,” Vespa spat, staggering up off of the ground. “Paige, hurry up!”

“But I—” Paige paused. “Wait... okay! Please don't get yourself hurt anymore, you can't take it! Just a sec!”

“I do my best work under pressure,” Vespa said, spitting a few fragments of loose data out of her mouth. “Hey, bucko. I mighta needed those. You gonna pay me back if I just lost a security code or something...?”

“Uh,” Asahi muttered, “h-how much Zenny do I have. Uh, how much would you need?”

“Rhetorical question,” Vespa said, her hair falling over her eyes a bit more than usual. “Thanks for the thought, though.”

Pegasolta, feet on the ground, began again to advance. “Ojou-sama, your kindness is truly most subarashii.” Two of his bits launched off and stuck into the ground, to either side of Vespa. “Whirlwind of Interpersonal Connection ~ Cyclone Interceptor!”

Around Vespa, the two bits shot forth gusts of wind to connect to each other in a chain. Vespa stepped forward to dodge them, and again Pegasolta thrust forward with a Flash Stinger, three of his other bits trailing behind him to form a diamond with him at the bottom. Vespa ducked downward, and—“Thanks for this one, Paige!”

This time, the Flame Hit chip manifested around Vespa's fist, as she delivered a brutal uppercut to Pegasolta's muzzle. As he cried out with a distressed whinny, his momentum shifted upward to collide with his uppermost Wing Bit, rendering him victim to its shredding gale. She didn't have the finger dexterity at the moment to spin her guns like she might've wanted, but she could sure fire them. Pegasolta, for a short but all-too-painful time, was bounced between his own Bit and Vespa's bullets like a pinball before the alignment shifted and he landed on the ground.

“My mastery of the ukemi is second to none!” Pegasolta called out, and he quickly recovered despite the heavy damage he'd just taken. “Taste this technique! Gallop of V's Demise ~ Inazuma Drop!”

“Wha—don't count your chickens 'fore they caw, Peggie, that's—!” Asahi called out.

Unfortunately for her, the headstrong Pegasolta had already leapt into the air, and was charging toward Vespa with a 'net' of gusts ready to catch her. “No worries, Vespa,” Paige said. “You've got this!”

“Nah,” Vespa said with a smirk, “she does.”

Of course, that charge required him to not run directly into something, and run into something Pegasolta did. His net instead caught the NaviChip apparition of Cinnamon, who Vespa had summoned into existence. Unfazed by the capture, the fascimile of Cinnamon manifested a jack-in-the-box, and she put it forward toward Pegasolta's face with a casual 'ω' on her face.

With an almost comical sproinging sound, a boxing glove launched out of the box, rendering Pegasolta's forward momentum totally inert and causing him to float down to the ground, his muzzle slightly compressed from the punch. Cinnamon, for her part, turned and clasped her hands together before disappearing in a white light, which had the fortunate side-effect of healing some of Vespa's vitality.

“Woo,” Stingray said, still tapping away at the console. “Go, Vespa.”

Pegasolta grunted, and stomped his foot. “This was meant to be a seiseidoudou one-on-one duel!”

“You've got six helpers,” Vespa said, pointing her Buster at him. “I was just evening the playing field. And isn't it two-on-two?”

“Urusai!” Pegasolta waved his blade to the side to silence Vespa's mouth, however well that was going to work. “Makimura-sama, do I have your permission to unleash my fullest form of bushido?”

“...Wha?” Vespa couldn't see Asahi, but was sure she was probably blinking in confusion.

“May I please use my spectacular Hi-Ougi to finish this duel in our glorious—”

“Y-you just use the move if you gotta,” Asahi sputtered, “don't tell everyone in a kilometer radius!”

“It is only fair to declare a strike this powerful! After all,” Pegasolta said, calling back his hat from wherever he'd sent it to so that he could tip it, “there is no way you could possibly evade this greatest of all strikes! Toah!” Sending his wings wide, a gust of wind blew through the top of the tower, and the area around Pegasolta began to crackle with light.

“Yeah, sure, pal,” Vespa said. “I can evade a lot, y'knowwww... uhhh...”

A Prism Bit formed in front of Pegasolta, but rather than go for a Luminous Ray, the five other Wing Bits formed into a larger blade. Pegasolta launched up his two arm katanas, as well, shifting back to regular limbs as the blades merged together. His hands both grasped a colossal, glowing blade, which seemed to almost burst at the seams with glowing light.

“With my flashing blade / I battle for my lady / to regain honor! Light Blade of Demise ~ Blade of Zero, Phosphoratorium!” Pegasolta swung down his blade, and its force briefly inverted the light, placing the entire arena in a photonegative filter.

Then—“Vespa, it's reached max power! Sending it now!”

As she holstered her Busters, black clusters of corrupted data began to gather around Vespa's right fist. The twisted form of manifest Bug Fragments shifted into a wolf-like maw around her hand, the power bursting from within its deep red eyes clear as it roared so thoroughly as to render static that disrupted the photonegative of Pegasolta's Zero Blade.

“—What?” Audrey muttered over the intercom. “Gospel?!”

Vespa felt the wolf on her hand link up with her programming, and she gritted her teeth into a wolfish grin of her own. “You like it, huh? Maybe we'll get along. Here's a super move for you, Peggie!”

As Pegasolta launched forward to strike the Prism Bit with his Zero Blade, Vespa held her right arm with her left. “Bug Charge complete! Activating Vanishing World!”

The head of the Multibug Organism atop Vespa's fist opened up, and it breathed out a colossal beam of pure white toward the Prism Bit. No matter how fast Pegasolta could move, he wasn't faster than light itself—his own Prism Bit shattered under the force of the beam, but not before reflecting it into his Zero Blade, shattering it to pieces.

As the blade shattered in his hands, Pegasolta looked down to see that he was right in the path of the attack—while the beam itself had been partially diverted, the phantom maws of the Multibug Organism it manifested from the errors within Vespa's programming had smelled blood, and hunted him down with a hateful ferocity. “Pegasoltaaaa!” Asahi shouted, as they stacked onto each other, pummeling straight into his chest, blowing him back with a force that made clear that no AUTO System could prevent that from being his defeat.

And then—the distortions finished, and the two warriors were left. Only one remained standing. Vespa chuckled under her breath. “You're pretty good, horsey.” She fell to one knee to rest for a moment. “Where the hell'd you get that one, Paige...?”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Electopian Metropolitan Railway System ~ Broadcast Tower Server

“I, uh,” Paige said, stammering under her breath in that way that made Vespa sure she was twiddling her fingers, “well, I was digging through our Chip Trader since Nori says that I can have pick of anything that doesn't look commercially viable, you know, and I found that one. I don't know who put it in there, but it didn't seem like something most Navis could use?”

“And Vespa could?!” Scoops said.

“Well, you know,” Paige said. That was her 'twiddling her hair' voice. No, Paige, people didn't know.

Vespa stood up again and pushed her hair out of her face, other than that one annoying lock. She wiped some sweat from her brow, and walked over. “Okay. We clear here? That was my win, right, big guy?” She reached her hand out toward Pegasolta.

“U...urgh... g-huh... kuh...” Pegasolta moaned. “Do what you will, hakaishin Vespa... I am at... your mercy...!”

“I'm helping you up, dude,” Vespa said.

“Oh,” Pegasolta said, and shakily reached up to take her hand to stand up. “Arigato?”

“Listen,” Vespa said, raising her hands. “I can tell you two are just dumb, not evil. Hey, Paige, can you turn the cam on and point the PET at Mr. Andrew?” She did so, and Vespa displayed the camera feed of Eiji and Cinnamon caring for Mr. Andrew, who was still covered in sweat due to his very real heart difficulties on the floor of the car.

“Oh my god,” Asahi said, “there really is a dying man on the floor of the train car, I'm so stupid oh my god.”

“...G-gomenasai,” Pegasolta said, gritting his teeth and looking away awkwardly, tipping his hat over his eyes. “I-I have brought shame to myself, and Makimura-sama, and our leaders!”

“You sure have,” Stingray commented.

“What did you get yourself wrapped up in this time, Makimura?” Scoops said, no doubt rolling her eyes.

Vespa helped Pegasolta stagger over to the console, as he was still quite injured from the pounding he'd just received... not that Vespa was doing too hot, herself. “My sincerest gomenasais, hontou,” Pegasolta said. “Had I known that I would be putting innocent lives in danger I really do assure you that neither I nor Asahi would have—that is to say, that Makimura-sama would never have shown such indiscretion as to attempt to use this broadcast tower in the middle of the day.”

“It was your idea!” Asahi said. “You were the one who was all, 'Oh, K and T might've said not to do it in the middle of the day, but if you take this tower so decisively then surely you will be the pride of we noble Einherjar!'”

“I... cannot deny that,” Pegasolta said. Both Vespa and Stingray shook their heads and scoffed. “D-don't scoff at me! My logic was sound!”

“Seriously, kids,” Vespa said, “it's best not to get wrapped up in any organization that involves you working with Dr. Scuttler. The old man never really gets up to anything great.”

“To be sure,” Pegasolta said, “I find the man rather distasteful myself.”

“Definitely a creep,” Asahi said.

“But his position is more that of an independent contractor, so to speak... that is to say...” Pegasolta waved his hands a bit. “Er—”

And that, of course, is when a shredding electric guitar riff rang out around the broadcast tower. Vespa froze. “Uh, did you hear that?” Stingray said.

“Oh, come on,” Vespa said, leaning against the console. “Can today not just end already?”

The intercom atop the console briefly sputtered with feedback before saying, “Nahhhhh.” Everyone at the console turned their head, as the spotlights atop the tower shifted to a point off the stage. On a rising platform of scrap, the guitar sound came ever closer until its player drifted into view.

Another NetNavi had entered the fray—and this one, Vespa recognized as soon as she saw him. This Navi was based on a bird of prey, the vulture, and his long, beaky head, cast in black and white, was meant to both resemble a vulture's head and a human skull. The skull theming was a motif all across his armor, appearing on the shoulderpads covering his spindly arms, the armor on his chassis, and spiked kneepads on his thin legs. Green hands with white claws played the strings on a heavy, sparkling-white battle axe that doubled as an electric guitar. Dark green spirals of feathers ran across his arms and legs, crossing together in X shapes as though to form stitching akin to a sort of metal rocker. Though he was turned forward, Vespa knew that on his back, in place of a bird's actual wings were defensive wings meant to protect the speaker rig on his back.

“Heyyyyy,” the guitar-playing vulture said, “heard there was a pretty sick show going on. Thought I'd drop by.” He leapt off of the platform of scrap, which fell apart as he stopped playing his guitar. His usual posture was hunched over, but he was definitely capable of standing upright, which he did to rub the back of his head. “Geez. Kids these days, am I right, H? Oh—wait, it's V now, right. My B.”

“Of all the—” Vespa drew her Busters again. “Who said you could show your ugly mug here, Vulturon?”

“Well, this little sting operation of ours seems to have gone off the rails thanks to a certain someone going off the rails,” Vulturon said, moving a little bit of scrap from somewhere to snap his fingers to an invisible beat in his head, “you feel me? Yours truly was a bit bored, so I figured I'd make something of this.”

“Vulturon, you ignoble kisama!” Pegasolta shook his fist. “This was an honorable one-on-one match which I rightfully lost! You have no right entering!”

“Wow!” Vulturon laughed. “Check out how much I really don't care. See, this is the problem with these bleeding heart kids, am I right? No sense for getting things done.”

“Vespa, who is this guy exactly?” Paige asked.

“He's the...” Vespa looked upward. “Probably like the fifth-strongest guy in the old Vile numbers, and the old leader's right-hand man.”

“Fifth?” Vulturon snorted. “Who you counting as fourth, then? You?” He began idly strumming his guitar.

“Nah, I was thinking Queenie,” Vespa said. Stingray looked at her like she was speaking Esperanto. “I'm a lot tougher than I was then, though.”

“Heh. 'Fifth-strongest', I like that. Let's say I'm the fifth-strongest guy in the Einherjar now, too,” Vulturon said. “Oh, wait—”

““You confounded wretch, your black as pitch heart has no right calling itself a true Einherjar!””

Vulturon slapped his knee and wheezed a bit as Pegasolta sputtered from the dead-on call-out. “Oh, yeah, that's the good stuff. Anyway, we need this broadcast tower for a bit at some point, so might as well be now, right?”

“Sir, there's a man who desperately needs the paramedics on this train!” Paige cried out.

“Spicy!” Vulturon replied. “Really bold of you to assume I care, honestly.”

“Paige, hurry up and start arming me,” Vespa said. “We gotta take care of this guy.”

“But—you're all beat up!” Paige said, no doubt rubbing her forehead. “I can't just let you—”

“Oh, no worries,” Vulturon said. “I'd be deleting you whether you were ready or not. Hey, check this out, right?” The strumming he'd been doing on his guitar increased in intensity, and then—

Vespa's eyes raised up. She saw certain parts of the Whalers she'd destroyed earlier sticking out of the colossal sphere of scrap that Vulturon raised over the side of the tower with his guitar. “So, either you run away like good little kids, or I make you a splatter on the ground.”

“Stingray, I really hope you're ready to fight!” Scoops said, as Stingray turned and began to ready his Ground Hunters.

“As I'll ever be, I guess,” Stingray said. “Not really the best place for it, though.”

Vespa gritted her teeth, and aimed her Busters at Vulturon's scrap sphere. “He's not joking, Paige, he's gonna delete all three of us. Seriously,” she said. “This guy's not dumb.”

“But you're—you're not in shape to fight! You might—I don't—” Paige was hyperventilating into the mic. “No, please, no... I don't wanna lose you, Vespa, I don't—what do I—?!”

—And then the issue was resolved, as the scrap sphere split cleanly in two, falling to the ground and being consumed by some force even as it fell, preventing Vulturon from reconstituting it,

as a fifth Navi appeared on the top of the tower, brandishing the broadsword which had cleaved Vulturon's massive weapon. “There's no place here for someone like you, Vulturon,” the Navi said, and to Vespa's ears that sounded like a woman's voice. “Leave.”

“Gh—?! Blade?!” Vulturon flinched at the sight of this new Navi.

She wore a heavy black cloak over most of her body, with a glowing green inside and accents upon her shoulders. Atop her head was a silver helmet, adorned with two gleaming horns straight up, one shorter and one longer—they reminded Vespa of a rhinoceros beetle, almost. The only part of her body underneath that was visible was her uncovered mouth and chin, but that and her stance was clear enough to make her obviously humanoid. Glowing green eyes gave a piercing gaze to Vulturon, and the clawed gauntlets and spike-tipped metal greaves she wore helped accentuate the fact that she had a shining silver sword, with a segmented blade that looked as though it could split and yellow energy running through its center.

“Did I stammer?” 'Blade' said, her sword not moving. “Leave, Vulturon. The sight of you makes me sick.” She cocked her head backwards to Pegasolta. “You, too. The time for pleasantries has ended. If you aren't going to give up on that cause of yours, you should go.”

“Er—ah, yes, ma'am,” Pegasolta said. He turned his head to Vespa and Stingray. “T-to be sure, I'm sure you both know that if we meet again it may be as enemies, but having witnessed Vespa-san's combat prowess I shall respect you and yours as equals in the ring and battle you with no malice! Sayonara!”

“Wha—?” Vespa blinked, and Pegasolta had jacked out.

Vulturon, for his part, was stopping to weigh his options, idly looking around. “Huh. Well, I guess I can take a hint. Geez, lady, you've gotta stop cramping my style.”

“Unfortunately,” Blade said, “I think your style sucks.”

“Ta, then! See you later, V!” With a two-claw salute, Vulturon leapt backwards off of the side of the tower, and he, too, was gone.

Blade sheathed her sword and hurried over to the console. “What's the situation?”

“Well, seems like they were trying to connect to two other towers for triangulating something or another,” Stingray said, turning back, “and it messed up the regular broadcast. But thankfully, we should be good—” He pushed one last key. “Now. How's it looking?”

There was an obvious lurch through the mic. “The train's starting to move,” Audrey said. “Okay, shouldn't be too long—”

The sound of people cheering was deafening through the mic, and Vespa could make out more than a few people tearfully thanking Paige and Scoops for saving them. She laughed to herself, and turned off that side of the mic for the time being. Stingray did the same. “They've got that,” Vespa said. Being able to relax a moment, she walked over to the center of the tower and sat down. A few remaining viruses were being cleaned up around the area. “Thanks for the assist,” she said. “I'm not sure I could've taken him, honestly.”

Blade didn't sit down, but she stood next to Vespa, staring over into the horizon. Stingray was there, too. “You should be more honest with your physical state,” Blade said. “Someone in your state shouldn't be taking such heavy hits.”

“Hey,” Vespa laughed under her breath, “what do you know about my state?”

“I'm not stupid,” Blade said. “Any layman with a basic knowledge of Scuttler-made Navi builds would know that the cohesiveness of your data is at a maximum of forty-five percent, and I'd spitball it at closer to thirty-five. Even had people's lives not been in peril, I couldn't have let you go into battle against him in that state.”

“Just checking,” Stingray chimed in, “are we talking about the Dr. Scuttler? Heinrich Scuttler?”

“Infamous for his work in the creation of 'anti-antiviral' programs, yes,” Blade said. “Father of the Scuttle line of viruses. Any layman with a basic knowledge of his work would be able to tell right off that she's a Scuttler Navi.”

Vespa snorted. “Oh yeah? I find people have a pretty hard time figuring it out.”

“...of course, I myself am not a layman with basic knowledge, so it's possible that my viewpoint is a touch biased,” Blade said.

“And what are you?” Vespa asked.

“At the moment, you could call me a 'concerned citizen',” Blade said. “I was made aware that this operation by the Einherjar was taking place, and I was on my way anyhow. I hadn't been expecting citizens on the train to move into operation... and even less so for one to be Dr. Scuttler's former Navi.”

“Hey, that was eight years ago!” Vespa waved her hand around. “I'm just a concerned citizen, myself.” She jabbed a thumb in Stingray's direction. “He's a line inspector, though, apparently, so it was his job.”

“I see,” Blade said. She walked toward the edge of the tower. “Unfortunately, I shouldn't stay long. For your sake, I hope this is the end of your troubles.”

“Hey—he said your name was Blade, right?” Vespa said, standing back up. “You know what these guys' deal is, right? Can you help us out here? We've got—”

“I have someone waiting for me, but perhaps if we run into each other again,” Blade said. She looked over her shoulder. “Vespa. To be honest, I've wanted to meet you for a long time.”

—“Huh?” was all Vespa could get out before Blade drew her sword and jabbed it into the air. It extended, splitting apart into a form almost like a whip, and clung on to a small floating diode for her to launch herself away with. Vespa blinked as Blade disappeared into the distance. “Whoa. I wish I had a grappling hook.”

“You could get a grappling hook,” Stingray said.

“Maybe I should get a grappling hook,” Vespa said, rubbing her chin.

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: “Ika Line” ~ Manzo Historical District Stop

Being left without her Navi as a bunch of passengers came up to personally thank the brave young women who'd managed to restart the car was somewhere up there on Paige's top twenty nightmare premises, but thankfully, Scoops was able to handle doing enough talking for the both of them with aplomb. Paige shook some hands of crying people who'd been paying rapt attention to what they could gleam of what was going on, and at least a few people said to thank her brave, brave Navi, too.

It was still going on when the train finally pulled into the station, where paramedics were already waiting to receive Mr. Andrew. Paige, Eiji, Cinnamon, Scoops, and the heavy-set man whose seat Paige had stolen all helped to transport Mr. Andrew to an ambulance. “Such brave young people these days,” he muttered, “such brave young people, thank you ever so much, ladies...”

“Actually, I'm a man, sir,” Eiji said.

“Very good, I'm happy for you,” Mr. Andrew said.

People hurrying off the train kept thanking Paige and Scoops as the ambulance drove off, and eventually, Audrey managed to slouch her way out of the train before the Officials arrived to investigate. She scratched her hair as she headed toward the other four. “So,” Audrey said, “that just happened.”

“Got a bit of a hero complex, huh, Paige?” Scoops said with a toothy grin. Paige blushed and looked away. “You did great, honest! We did great.” She reached up and put her hand on Paige's shoulder. “Good work, team!” Second hand on Eiji's shoulder. “Audrey, get over here, time for a group hug!”

“No,” Audrey said, before she was absorbed into the group hug by Cinnamon. “I don't do group hugs, come on.”

“Don't be such an edgelord,” Scoops said.

Paige was still only half there as Vespa and Stingray finally returned to their PETs. “That was entirely too much work for one day,” Vespa said, “I am beat. Can I have my CopyBot back?”

“Of course,” Cinnamon said with a wave, before a quick swap occurred and—(Paige quickly dressed the CopyBot to Vespa's specifications)—Vespa was back in the physical world. “Have fun out there!” Cinnamon said. “And you did great, Eiji. Fantastic work.”

“Seriously,” Vespa said, putting her arm around Eiji, who wilted slightly. “You saved a guy's life there, Eiji. What a good kid.”

“No, no, I really do have much more work to do before... that is to say, um...” Eiji's eyes darted between Paige and Audrey for help evading compliments, but neither of them had any to give. “Er... thank you, Vespa.”

Staring out from the train station, Scoops looked out and whistled. As it turned out, the Manzo stop on the Ika Line was right in the middle of a public park, so the group could look out into a veritable sea of trees and greenery, stationed atop a small creek. Paige took a deep breath in of the fresh air, and looked down at the slightly damp soil beneath the footpath out of the station. The houses she could see were close together, and all looked to have old walls—though they did still seem pretty sturdy.

“The Manzo Historical District was originally a bed town for the workers who worked at and constructed the Gargoyle Castle in End City, but wound up developing its own identity due to the unusually clean water originating from underground springs in the soil, as well as its small population, meaning that it was an especially safe place for fugitives from the law from other nations to escape to once Electopia's borders were opened,” Scoops said. “Many of them were wrongfully sentenced or imprisoned, and as it turned out, that many people with that shared backstory in the area led Manzo to become one of the least criminal areas in the nation—and even now, it has the lowest crime rate of any district in the major populated areas of Electopia by a landslide. It's a lovely place to do business, I tell you.”

“Do you give this spiel to every foreigner you take here?” Audrey said, the bags under her eyes accentuating the glare she gave Scoops.

“You betcha!” Scoops pumped her fists.

“Oh!” Paige started. “Um, Eiji...” She fished Cinnamon's NaviChip out of her pocket. “Here you go. Thank you for letting me borrow it,” she said, handing it back to him.

Eiji, though, looked down at the Chip, then shook his head and smiled. “No, please keep it. I'd be very happy if it kept being useful for you.”

Pause.

“Um, P-Paige?” Eiji said, his smile slowly turning upside-down. Paige had completely frozen in her tracks, staring wide-eyed at him. “H-have I said something wrong?”

Then Paige started tearing up. “Oh, geez,” Vespa said, hurrying over. “Hey, Paige, don't turn on the waterworks, c'mon.”

“T-that's the...” Paige sniffled. “That's the first time... anyone's ever given me a NaviChip...” She sniffled harder, and it sounded more like a honk now. Eiji was much more clearly dismayed, and leaned in to try and dry her tears. “Thank youuuu... I'll treasure it with my life, I swear!”

“I'm very glad it makes you happy,” Eiji said, “b-but please don't cry, Paige! I didn't mean to make you cry!”

“See?” Cinnamon said from his PET. “Such charms this boy has. Fleuve could never measure up to him.”

“No doubt about that one,” Scoops said, yukking it up in the background.

Audrey, for her part, hung back, her eyes landing on Vespa. “A Navi whose body can handle an instance of a Multibug Organism inside it, huh? Chronoforce... let's try to not NetBattle her for any stakes if we can handle it.”

“Were you planning on it, Boss Lady?” Chronoforce asked. “That sounds like a drag.”

“No, but you know me,” Audrey said. Her eyes shined. “I can't help but find it interesting.”

“Well, at least we know where you get that,” Chronoforce said. “I think you'd find it a lot easier if you just stopped having so many thoughts. Take in the sights for a sec, isn't it pretty out there?”

“I guess so,” Audrey said. “But maybe you'd—”

“Quit brooding over there,” Vespa said, quickly stepping over and tugging Audrey by the hand toward the gate of the station. “We're leaving!”

“Hey, don't interrupt my brooding!” Audrey said.

—Incidentally, an Official radio broadcast had the following to say.

“Attention, all officers. Please ignore the situation reported at the DNN broadcasting station on Beach Street and cover other reported incidents. The Hikaris have handled it. Again. Over.”

(ED: NEO VENUS, by JANNE DA ARC)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo

(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)

Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?

(Are they still shining bright?)

With their tumultuous train ride over, Paige, Vespa, and their friends go to visit the ace detective, Yuu Himekago. However, it's not just a simple business trip that awaits them in the Manzo Historical District.

Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o

(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)

Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?

(to go for the scene before my eyes?)

With her encounter with their new enemies fresh in her mind, Vespa finds that the police in Manzo appear to have a situation on their hands. The Einherjar may have more than one leader, but amidst a criminal investigation on the 'net, Vespa may have found one—a figure who resembles the very Great Thief they're hunting!

Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to

(While my heart was in disarray,)

Miushinai kake teta yume o

(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)

Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…

(who taught me how to remember)

Anata deshi ta

(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)

An old murder case—a curious Navi claiming to be Devilbat Schilt himself—the cloaked warrior known only as Blade—the theft of Gaudile's Erosion Key—what is the thread which ties them all together? And whose hands are those pulling the strings?

VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!

Hikari no sasu hou he

(To where the light points,)

Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te

(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)

Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou

(I’ll search for the answer,)

Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai

(and I’ll never let you go.)

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 4: The Great Detective's First Account! A Grisly Deletion in Manzo

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Himekago Detective Agency

In these days of ubiquitous electronic signs, the old-fashioned swappable open/closed sign that sat in Detective Himekago's window was a curiosity that stood out even despite the building's nondescript nature. Aside from its dark coat of paint and a small placard placed atop the door, and this very sign, it did not stand out from the buildings it was sat next to.

The fact that the good detective appeared to not be in did not help. Scoops's fists pounded on the wooden door, as she sunk down to the ground (not that it made much difference for her height). “He's supposed to be open right noooow!” she wailed to the uncaring door.

“Could he be investigating?” Paige asked.

“I mean, yeah, probably, but that's a pain!” Scoops stood back up and huffed, her hands on her waist. “I—”

Audrey looked up from her PET, having been casually tapping away for some time. “There's some cops converging a few blocks away,” she said. Vespa and Eiji peeked over—she'd managed to find police surveillance data within that short time somehow.

“Breaking with rank and file... Waste Scoops Hanasaka's time, will he?!” Scoops said, huffing out her chest, and pulling out a notepad. She scribbled down a message onto a sheet and plastered it onto the door—'It's Hanasaka! Mondo important case! Meet at the Kikuchi residence at your earliest opportunity.'

“Must be convenient,” Audrey said, “having a detective at your beck and call.”

“Any guerrilla reporter worth her salt needs a contact on the side of justice,” Scoops said, turning back around toward the rest of the group to put her hands on her hips. “It's common sense!”

“How exactly did you and Mr. Himekago meet, anyway?” Paige asked, tilting her head.

Scoops waved her hand. “Not important, not important. Maybe later. More importantly, as a representative of the good people of Manzo I have to take all tourists to see the sights, come on, you've got hours to spare.”

“Wait,” Paige said, “you... live here?”

“Why else would she have a local detective by the balls?” Audrey shrugged, as Scoops grabbed Paige by the hand (and thus, grabbed Vespa by Paige's gravity) and began to drag her off.

“Oh, I see, that makes sense, thank you,” Paige said.

Eiji rubbed his arms, muttering, “I hope Mom and Dad aren't bothered by the sudden visit...”

(OP: “Shouri no Uta”, by Dandelion)

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite!

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber and Red Fox

The district of Manzo was cozier than Paige was used to, even for a girl from the Netopian suburbs. The walls were close in, and the buildings short. Business owners waved to Scoops and Eiji, calling out their names to say hello to them.

“—and of course,” Scoops said, “the Ooe tomato farm is a real one. See, their son's a real whiz kid—got his hand on a tomato once and he was never the same. Quiet guy, but a good one if you need him to, plus since he doesn't talk much he hears things that other people don't expect him to.” The farm, as it turned out, was placed in a vacant lot just near the family home. Scoops pulled out a voucher from one of her pockets that she signed and placed in a mailbox by the lot, then pulled a tomato off the vine. “Ooe guarantee. Want one?” She handed it to Paige.

Paige raised her hands. “Um, I... don't really like—”

Saving her from her indignity, Vespa grabbed the tomato and chomped into it, pale red juice squirting to the sides of her lips. “Ahhh, thank god,” Vespa said, chewing her bite of tomato, “I was starving.”

Audrey craned her head over from where Eiji was bowing to a pair of ladies who seemed to own a pottery store. “You experience hunger for human food?”

“You think I was eating all that food for show?” Vespa said, before biting into the tomato again.

Dare ni mo mane wa sasenai sa

(I won’t let anyone intimidate us,)

Bokura dake no kono STYLE de

(even if we only have this as our Style.)

Kono uta ga mune ni todoku nara

(If this song reaches our hearts,)

Shouri wa mou te no naka ni aru

(victory is already in the palm of our hands!)

“...experiences hunger,” Audrey muttered under her breath, “the hell?”

“Can it,” Scoops said, waving a hand in front of her face. (The relative difference in their heights made it a bit hard.) “Now here,” she said, walking into the center of a small vendors' square and standing by a well with no water in it, “here's the Stuck Well. Bit of folklore for you—the way the oldies tell it, a great ol' carp jumped in the well once, back centuries ago, and ever since it's been stuck. Whoever can pull it out'll get the well running again and they'll get a wish from the carp once it becomes a dragon by swimming up the water.”

Sure enough, there was a rope by the side. Paige took a breath, produced a pair of gloves, put them on, clapped her hands, closed her eyes, and then pumped her fists and furrowed her brows to look as ready as she could. “Alright. Well, I—I mean, far be it from me to not participate in a tradition, right?”

Placing her hands on the old, wet rope, Paige breathed in, out, in, out. “Give it your best, Paige!” Eiji cheered.

“Programmed,” Audrey said, covering her eyes from the sun by using her hand as an awning, “to experience hunger, and she says she's nineteen, that's before cybercooking was really a thing.”

“Quit having an existential crisis over me,” Vespa said, putting her arm around Audrey and lightly knocking her on the head with her knuckles, “and cheer for Paige.”

In, out, in, out... “Hrrrrnnnnngggghhhh!” Paige grunted louder than she'd done in quite some time, exerting all the force her body could really muster onto this poor little rope. She couldn't feel the slightest bit of give, but it was part of local tradition! “Ghhhhrrrrrrrrnnnnnghhhhh!” There were peoples' eyes on her as her face turned red and she began to sweat, a number of people crowding around and asking Scoops and Eiji about their new friend, but Paige's social anxiety was thankfully stymied by the mighty task ahead of her. She dragged her feet into the dirt to stay strong against this damn rope—!

Akirameru koto wa keshite nai

(As long as we’re here,)

Kono basho ni bokura iru kagiri

(we’ll never give up.)

Tada tatakau tame dake ni bokura

(We’ll raise our fists to the sky)

Ima kobushi sora e tsukiageta

(so that we can fight for freedom!)

“Don't feel bad, little lady,” said a local ice cream vendor who'd given Paige a few scoop of strawberry for her efforts, “most folks give up after a few seconds! You really stuck it out!”

Paige, having foolishly exhausted herself, slumped down onto a bench against a thin wall next to... a yoga studio, probably, by the sound of it, and began to tiredly lick her ice cream. “Seriously,” Scoops said, “you okay, pal?”

“I did my part to participate in local tradition,” Paige panted out, “oh this is delicious.” (Incidentally, strawberry was not Paige's favorite flavor specifically, but of the commonly-available flavors she preferred it. About the only commonly-available ice cream she would not eat was rocky road.)

Eiji sat down next to her, and turned his head down the alleyway, pointing into the distance at an unusually tall and wide building for the area. “Over there is Shirojo Academy,” he said. “Scoops and I went to school there.”

“It's about the only thing in town that looks like it's from this century, huh?” Scoops said with a smirk on her face. Paige couldn't help but agree—with the great clock on its front and Western-style arches, it really did look like the kind of high school she'd expect to see in a major city. “That's 'cause of the last mayor, see. She got all up in arms about how small the schoolhouses in town were, so she went nuts about the education budget. Got a bunch of architects out of her own pocket to build something new with the land of a family that had moved out, and they wound up using the whole space. One of our pride and joys, it is!”

“They also say,” Eiji said with a sparkle in his eye, “that it's haunted!”

Vespa did a double take from Paige's other side. “Is that a good thing?!”

“Oh, nothing malevolent, I assure you. They say that ghosts from the olden era with a lingering attachment to, and love for, Manzo help fledgling couples to confess their love under the enoki tree in the school's back, and those who confess so will remain happy with each other forever!” Eiji's eyes glowed with an uncharacteristic glee, his hands under his chin. “I just think it's a lovely idea!”

“Ah, yes, a love of pure romance,” Scoops said, a grin on her face as she turned away to chuckle to herself, “held by Eiji Kikuchi, Manzo's greatest teen heartbreaker.”

“Awww...” Eiji wilted a little.

“Teen heartbreaker?” Audrey said, producing from her pocket someone's love letter addressed to Eiji from yesterday.

Taiyou ga bokura wo terashi

(Illuminated by the sunlight,)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni utau

(we sing so we can shine brightly on the Earth!)

“They like to film stuff in this area,” Scoops said, leading her tourists along by the riverbank. A few sets of stairwells crossed down through the grass down to the river's edge, where damp soil glistened with the beginnings of sprouting plants. A few flowers grew between the paths and the untamed grass, which clearly hadn't been trimmed for some time.

Paige's eyes gravitated to the light of the sun sparkling across the clear blue water. “Wow...”

“Yeah,” Audrey said, taking a seat on the top step of one of those stairwells as a number of students passed by, walking to their schoolhouses, “I got struck myself the first time I visited. Nice place, huh.”

Trees on the other side of the riverbank's road waved in a light breeze. It was still too early for them to start falling, but it gave Paige the briefest image of a crisp, orange leaf gently floating along the water. “Damn,” Vespa said, sitting down next to Audrey to admire it herself, “the human world's a wonderful place, ain't it?”

Cinnamon piped up from Eiji's PET. “Honestly, the local Cyberworld isn't half bad, either. The local architects really took it seriously!” She giggled to herself.

“Still,” Vespa said.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, tachiagare!

(Now, stand up!)

Shouri no hana wo mune ni kazashite

(Adorn our chests with the flower of victory!)

“And over here,” Scoops said, swinging over to the sign at the front, “is our batting center. The difficulty can get pretty nasty—even pros fall to our Manzo spirit!”

Vespa cracked her knuckles. “That a challenge?”

Sure enough, soon Vespa had shelled out for a round. Twenty balls, fifteen home runs for the prize. Audrey snorted, as the four of them crowded onto a bench just outside Vespa's lane to watch. “Awful competitive.”

“You did the same thing,” Scoops said, giving Audrey a playful shove.

“You did?” Paige asked, her earnest eyes glowing with a curiosity that made Audrey wither away and turn away, her face red.

“Believe it or not,” Scoops said, “she was even more feral-looking back then. Hadn't cut her split ends in years and she was thin as a rail.” Scoops snorted to herself. “Really, meeting me and Eiji was a wonder for her health. One of these days we might even get to see her hair when it's completely clean and at its natural color.”

“I wash my damn hair!” said Audrey and her mess of cowlicks, on that stained-looking line between brunette and blonde. She scratched at her temples. “Quit giving me shit,” she said, smacking her palm on her leg to punctuate her point. “It just takes a while.”

“Yeah, bet those bangs of yours didn't help you hit any homers, eh?” Scoops said.

Ole! Ole!

Saa, maiagare!

(Now, fly high!)

Kono daichi de kagayakeru you ni!

(Shine brightly on this Earth!)

Crack!

The first shot from PitcherMan's lightning-quick arm went right into the target. Fastball, 100 kilometers per hour. All four of them immediately snapped to attention, as Vespa crouched down to take another shot. “Easy,” Vespa said, a fire lit under her voice. “C'mon, champ.”

“That one was easy,” the diminutive baseball-headed Navi tasked with such details said, as he reared back for another shot. And—

Crack!

“I ain't got nothin' if I ain't got my shot!” Vespa declared, hitting another homer. Screwball, 80kmph.

Suddenly struck by a burst of enthusiasm, Paige straightened in her seat and shouted, “Go, Vespa!”, cupping her mouth with her hands to carry her voice. Vespa looked back and gave her a reassuring grin and a thumbs up.

Crack!

Forkball, 65kmph. Curveball, 50kmph. Forkball, 80kmph. Cutter, 85kmph. Slider, 100 kmph. Fastball, 150kmph. “Oh my god,” Audrey muttered.

“Coulda gone pro if I hadn't joined the army,” Vespa joked. “C'mon, give me a challenge, pal!”

“If you insist, lady!” PitcherMan grimaced a little before launching—Circle changeup, 130kmph. Slider, 145kmph. Sinker, 150kmph. Slider, 130kmph. Was that lightning zig-zag pattern even legal or physically possible, 160kmph. Palmball, 80kmph. Fastball, 170kmph.

As the buzzer for the home run target rang out for the fifteenth time, a few people in the batting cage who'd come to gawk at Vespa's run cheered. Paige was cheering, too. She'd stood up and started pumping her fists enthusiastically. “Go for a perfect, Vespa!” she commanded. “Take him down!”

“I hit like two of those,” Audrey said, pointing a finger. Scoops and Eiji, both wide-eyed, nodded gormlessly.

“A tough guy, huh?” PitcherMan, with nothing left to lose, reached up and turned the baseball cap on his head backwards.

“Personally, I like to think of myself as an aspiring champion in all things,” Vespa said, crouching down and readying her bat once more.

Splitter, 160kmph. Lightning zig-zag, 170kmph. Cutter, 180kmph. Sinker, 190kmph. And—

Crack! Fastball, 230kmph.

The crowd, Paige included, went completely nuts as PitcherMan's humanly impossible final pitch sank right into the home run target. Twenty outta twenty. “How's that for participating in local tradition!?” Vespa laughed, spinning her bat with a showy motion, then planting it into the ground to lean on it.

Now, PitcherMan may have been a very small torso on a massive baseball head, but that didn't prevent him from taking a deep breath motion, closing his eyes, and strutting right over to shake Vespa's hand. “Not often I get to go all out, tough guy,” he said, extending his hand.

Vespa took it. “Same here.” Thus, a new friendship was forged that day. And really, that was the greatest reward of all.

...though, the coupon to a local ramen stand didn't hurt either.

Episode 4: The Great Detective's First Account! A Grisly Deletion in Manzo

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence

“...and over there,” Scoops said, pointing down another street as they walked along, “you'll get the Shirayukis, very blue family, single mother, three kids, son's moved out already and he's a rapper now, daughter's becoming a lawyer, younger daughter loves baking, and then Dr. Morinaga and his daughter—she runs a paranormal vlog, Eiji loves it to death, it's good stuff.”

“It really is,” Eiji said, sparkles in his eyes.

Vespa blinked. “Aren't ghost stories a bit macabre for someone so sparkly?”

“Everyone knows,” Audrey said, raising her hands from their place in the pockets of her labcoats, “that people who are this pure need to get out their freak out somehow. All the old bints back where I used to live? True crime, nothing but true crime. Frankly,” and she turned around to actually face Vespa and Eiji here, “this is pretty normal and at least he just thinks they're romantic instead of, 'did you hear about the time that this crazy lady whacked her seven husbands with an axe—'”

Paige and Eiji jumped and clung to each other at the sound of that. Scoops continued on heedlessly. “...and down that way you'll get the Murasakis—pair of sisters with their own place, older one's in construction, nice family, very Jewish, and then the Nishikiyamas—”

“How,” Vespa said, speeding up her pace to catch up with Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, “do you know everyone in this whole town?”

“You get the hang of things,” Scoops said with a wink. “Anyway, turn left here, and here we are!”

One of the district's few other large properties was a large old estate with its own surroundings, the sort of multi-building home that Paige didn't want to admit out loud she had only really seen in anime. The lush, green frontal garden, with water running through minor systems of bamboo levies, sat in a rim around the home proper. Stone lanterns dotted the rock-set path over the grass. The green slanted roofs over top of the Kikuchi estate were adorned with golden carp statues on their peaks, leading Paige's eyes down to the doorway, where a paper lantern hung above a small step up to the doorway.

The front of the property was largely open, and if Paige desired, she could easily have gone off on a walkway to the side and probably circumnavigated the actual home on them, judging by the look of things. Still, there were a number of windows, so someone would no doubt eventually see her and think that was rather odd of her.

“Always breathtaking, ain't it?” Scoops said, taking a deep, no doubt satisfying breath in. “Used to be the estate of the town's magistrate way back when, but the Kikuchis got it at some point.”

As Eiji bowed to the front of his own home, Cinnamon chimed in from his PET. “I don't mean to impose, Vespa,” she said, “but would you mind if I borrowed your CopyBot for a moment? I promise I won't do anything nasty to it.”

Vespa, after having bluescreened for a moment staring at the house, shook her head and said, “No, no, you, uh... Go ahead, this scene ain't my bag. I'll, uh—”

“She gets a little uncomfortable when she feels like she's incapable of being properly formal for a social situation,” Paige said, and Scoops, Eiji, and Audrey all nodded understandingly.

Vespa gritted her teeth and took a sharp breath in, saying, “Well I wasn't gonna say that out loud but okay,” before vanishing out of the CopyBot for Cinnamon to take her place (after Vespa's clothes were properly tucked away.)

Thus, with a twirling motion and a starry wink toward an invisible camera, the family medic arrived on the scene properly. “The idol of nonviolence has arrived!” Cinnamon said, her tail forming a heart shape for effect as she did.

“I'll go check out the place on my end, then,” Vespa said. “Let me know any embarrassing family secrets you learn!”

“Take pictures for me?” Paige asked. With a 'you got it!', Vespa plonked onto the network and skillfully avoided a social situation she found imposing.

Now, Paige certainly wasn't going to be the one to open the door, but thankfully Cinnamon strutted up onto the doorway. “Imagine the looks on their faces,” she said. “Oh—Paige, dear, do remember to take your shoes off in the doorway.” Cinnamon had an idiosyncratic knock—five knocks in a row, with a sort of slapping motion to them.

The humans present crowded behind Cinnamon as the doors opened, and... “Sorry,” said the lady who answered the door as she opened it, “Mrs. Kikuchi isn't accepting any...”

Blink. Pause. The girl in the doorway was wearing a white and black traditional archer's uniform, but it was deeply unsuited to the leather cowboy hat and gloves she wore. Blue eyes, very bright, and her hair, a warmer brunette than Paige's by quite some degree, was tied up into a pair of pigtails. She had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose that that obnoxious back part of Paige's brain that made observations she wished it wouldn't observed that she found rather cute, honestly. And she was... well, she wasn't tall tall, but she was taller than Paige and her friends, at least.

Speaking of her eyes, they darted very quickly. First they landed on Audrey, and then Eiji, and then Paige, and then Scoops, and then back to Eiji again, and then back to Scoops. The dumbfounded expression on her face only intensified. The awkward silence thickened.

Paige cleared her throat and turned her head to Eiji, putting on her best smile. “Um, someone you know?”

The awkward silence thickened further.

“Um,” Eiji said, leaning in to whisper, “you... just met a bit ago.”

“Oh,” Paige said, “when? Was it at the pottery st—”

“Stop, no, no, okay, no, I'm gonna close the door and try this again, this didn't happen, shut up, okay,” the girl said, and pointedly shut the door.

A pause for everyone to catch their breath. Audrey coughed.

The door opened, and the girl bowed in a manner befitting one who'd open an entry door at a large estate like this. “Welcome home, young master Eiji, miss Cinnamon. If you'd like to see your parents, they're currently enjoying a spot of television.” She got through that whole statement with only a few stammers for surprise! Good for her. “My most earnest apologies—I hadn't expected you to visit, or with such a large group.”

“Have you been practicing your cardio?” Scoops asked.

Pause.

“Cause I mean, wherever the broadcast tower was it probably wasn't that near here and you probably had to get in from a physical access point, right?” Scoops continued. “So you would've had to hoof it.”

“Please, come in,” she responded, very pointedly walking out of the doorway to allow everyone to walk in. Cinnamon was laughing, of course.

As she walked over the boundary into Eiji's home, Paige proceeded to bend down, untie her shoes, take one off and place it in the shoe box, and then as she was lifting the other shoe into it, the metaphorical lightbulb finally lit up over her head and she dropped the other shoe out of surprise. “Oh!” Paige said, turning her head to look at—“Oh, you're—you're their other friend, right? The, um...”

Asahi Makimura, as it turned out, had been in the process of leaving the entryway and scurrying off when she'd been directly addressed, and she stopped dead in her tracks as she did, her shoulders hitching up. She made some cracking noises as she turned her head, and... yes, those were the wide eyes and gritted teeth of someone who felt she'd been caught red-handed.

“Well—” Asahi sputtered. “Well! You know, I—really I should be asking who you are, I mean—i-in my duties as part-time caretaker of the estate it's, well it's—p-perfectly natural, you know.”

This hallway wasn't particularly wide, and the sliding doors along the inner wall did not seem particularly thick. As such, Asahi was attempting to keep her voice down as best she could. Paige tried to match. “Oh. Yes, I'm—I'm very sorry, hi. Hello. My name is Paige Markham, I—I met them at college. We're—I think we're friends now.”

“You think?” Scoops asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I—look, I—” Paige raised her hands defensively. “I don't—you know, I don't really have—”

“I'm just joshing you!” Scoops said, giving Paige a jovial faux-punch in the ribs. Scoops was not very respectful to the whole volume issue. “She and her Navi just kicked your tuchises, is who they are.”

“Oh,” Asahi said, “oh, so you're.” Pause. Raise finger. “You and... you're with...”

“Yes,” Paige said, nodding.

“Okay,” Asahi said, nodding back. “Hello. Hi. I'm Asahi Makimura. I, um, I live... nearby. The Kikuchi family, um. Sometimes I. Take care of the place during the day.”

“Hi,” Paige said.

“Hi,” Asahi said.

“Can we talk about the cowboy hat?” Scoops asked. In response, Asahi pulled off her cowboy hat and started attempting to smother Scoops with it. “Hey!” she said, muffled by the fabric, “this is assault! I'll call the cops on you!”

“You'll call the cops on her for that?” Audrey said, having already opened a nearby door to a waiting room—she must've been here before, Paige observed—and settled down.

At that comment, Asahi stopped doing what she was doing and grabbed Eiji by the shoulders, her eyes wide with terror. “Please tell me that man is alright I swear I didn't mean to hurt anybody I—”

Eiji raised a hand, and Asahi shushed. “He's alright. We got him on an ambulance, and he should be off to the hospital by now.”

Asahi visibly deflated, an animated sigh rolling out of her lungs and flattening her like an accordion. “Oh thank goooood,” she said.

Cut. A few moments later, the six present had sat down in the waiting room around a currently un-heated kotatsu. Paige and Audrey sat across from Asahi, Scoops to their left, and Eiji and Cinnamon to their right. “So,” Audrey said, idly shuffling a deck of cards, “your boss asked you to do something when nobody was looking, and you and your Navi just went off and did it in the middle of the day.”

Asahi pulled her hat over her head. “I'm sorryyyyy,” she wailed.

“Well,” Eiji said, reaching over to pat her on the shoulder, “nobody was hurt, thankfully.”

“So,” Audrey said. “That Navi of yours went, 'what ho! If you ganbatte, ojou-sama, surely our lords shall look favorably upon your commitment to the way of a seigi no mikata!' and you actually listened to him.”

Asahi continued shrinking. “I'm sorryyyyyyy,” she sobbed.

“I tell you,” Scoops said, “you really need to learn how to exercise some critical thinking, Makimura. You and these sob stories, I swear—”

“Um, excuse me,” Paige asked. “Your bosses—are they really working with Vespa's old operator?”

The room went quiet for a moment before Asahi finally looked up from underneath her cowboy hat. “Not by choice. Um—well, see, it's—”

“Bit of an internal schism?” Cinnamon asked.

“Right. Right, right,” Asahi nodded. “Uh, I don't—you know—the way K tells it, see, it's like—”

“Even if you personally disagree with the ways of certain undesirable elements of society,” Audrey offered, “it's sometimes necessary to work with them to get things done.”

Pause.

“Yeah, that,” Asahi said.

Paige took a breath out. “Alright, thank you. I was worried I was getting involved with a criminal organization full of very nasty people.”

“Oh, no, no, yeah, no,” Asahi said, rapidly shaking her head, “no, no, most of—uh, well—I just sympathize. Just—y'know. Sympathize.”

“With?” Paige asked, tilting her head.

Pause.

“The—the point is,” Asahi said, dodging the question with all the grace of a waterlogged Samoyed, “we're not—I mean, we're not upending our lives here—I didn't—”

“You're doing someone a favor,” Audrey said, “not upending your life to become an agent of some big organization like the WWW or something.”

“Yeah! Yeah,” Asahi said, nodding rapidly. “Yeah, yeah, that's it. So.”

“So no hard feelings,” Paige said.

“Yeah, uh, no—yeah,” Asahi said. “Yeah. Yeah. Please don't get me arrested. I can't go to jail. My parents would be so disappointed if I went to jail.”

One final pause.

Eiji giggled. “That is rather like you, Asahi. Please just try not to get other people involved next time.”

“Right! Yeah. Sorry. My bad. Should I send flowers? And chocolates, maybe? Should I fold him some paper cranes?” Asahi said.

Cinnamon and Eiji put their hands on Asahi's shoulders. “Breathe,” Cinnamon said. “Find your center, Asahi.”

Asahi did so, taking deep breaths, in, out, in, out. Hoo. “Okay,” Asahi said. She awkwardly pulled out her PET, and poked the screen. “Peggie?”

“I must repent for my foolish actions!” cried the voice of Pegasolta Eclair. Asahi grimaced, so whatever he was doing over there must've been quite something. “I WILL BECOME PURE! A BLADE OF PURE JUSTICE!” Asahi pocketed her PET again.

“Where'd you get this guy, even?” Scoops asked. “What happened to the last one?”

Asahi frowned and slumped a little. “Skiver went off to become a pro C-Slider after you left for college,” she said.

“And seriously,” Scoops said, “what's with the cowboy hat? And that fake accent you were doing?”

“I can express my aesthetic however I like!” Asahi said, standing up from the table, her nostrils flaring. “D-d-d-d-you can't tell me not to! You—I mean, you've got that silly nickname and the hat!”

“This hat,” Scoops said, crossing her arms and glaring up at the much taller woman, “is the mark of any good reporter. That thing's just goofy.”

“Well—” Asahi puffed her cheeks out and sat back down. “Well, I like it.”

Paige laughed a little. “It's a very interesting look. Um, should you be getting back to work?” Asahi froze.

“If you'd like,” Cinnamon said, “we could leave the room to let you get back into character.”

The five of them filed out of the room and shut the doors so that Asahi could gracefully slide them open again and bow to them. “It was lovely speaking to you all, but I do have duties to attend to. Thank you, Ms. Markham, for befriending the young master.” And she was off, with a watering can in hand to go do... gardening things, presumably.

“She likes to get into character,” Eiji said to Paige, once Asahi had left. Paige nodded.

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Estate (Inner Chambers)

“My younger sister,” Eiji explained as they navigated through the halls, “doesn't get home from school until a little later—when she's here, she always wants to roughhouse with Asahi, so her job gets harder.”

“Roughhouse?” Paige blinked.

“She's very rambunctious,” Eiji giggled, reaching a finger up to twirl with one of his ringlets. “Hm—ah, I should've asked if Michi was awake. Are you allergic to dogs, Paige?” Paige shook her head. “It'll be alright, then. We've had Michi for quite some time—she's large, but please don't be intimidated. She's as gentle as anything.”

Through a few open doors, Paige saw a linen closet, a laundry room, a... well, that room just looked like it had nothing but a stand for ornate origami cranes. “You see,” Eiji said, “Mother has always been somewhat sickly. With Cinnamon and me gone, Father wanted to be sure that someone would be here during the day.”

“She still has our number, though,” Cinnamon said, leaning in conspiratorially for this completely normal conversation, “and I'm on call twenty-four hours a day.”

“Really? Twenty-four hours?” Paige asked.

With her face in a downright angelic ^ω^, Cinnamon said, “Oh, of course. After all, I don't sleep. I just sit there, waiting.”

“Waiting for... what?” Paige asked. Cinnamon laughed.

“Ah, here we are,” Eiji said. Audrey leaned in to whisper to Paige, 'brace yourself'. Eiji slid open the door, and—

“Sweetieeee!”

It happened before Paige even had a chance to blink. Eiji had been simultaneously tackled by two different people, and was now in the midst of one of the most smothering hugs Paige had ever even imagined. “You didn't tell us you were coming!” That was probably Eiji's father, speaking.

“Oh, Eiji, it's so good to see you! How's college?!” And that, probably Eiji's mother. “Is it treating you okay being a second-year?! You haven't gotten hurt at all, have you?”

“Ahaha,” Eiji said, remarkably unfazed, “no, Mom, I haven't. Sorry for the intrusion—we weren't expecting to need to come by!”

Sliding into Paige's field of view like an old cartoon, Cinnamon asked, “Room for one more?”

“Oh, and you even brought Cinnamon!” A heavy arm reached out from the overwhelming mass of family affection, pulling Cinnamon in. “How's work treating you?!”

“Same as it was the last time you asked that,” Cinnamon said.

Suddenly, the Kikuchi family pow-wow ceased, and the formation in the doorway shifted to be comprehensible to an outsider like Paige. Eiji took quite a bit after his mother—she had the same eyes and very similar hair, though obviously the pink and orange yukata she wore couldn't entirely hide certain womanly traits that Eiji did not possess. She was taller, though, and looked to be overall more slender, especially in the hands.

Eiji's father, though, was a bit of a shock having known his son—the man, with his stoic blocky glasses, set chin, thick mustache, and heavy, stout build, looked about as far from Eiji as you could get in terms of overall vibe. His yukata was black, and he stood, his glasses blocking his eyes, arms crossed such that his hands were hidden within the sleeves of his yukata. Both of them bowed simultaneously. “Welcome to our home,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “I don't believe we've had the pleasure.”

Pause. “They're talking to you,” Audrey said.

“Wha—oh!” Paige realized she existed again and started. “I'm—I'm very sorry for the intrusion!” Paige bowed. “I'm—Paige Markham, sir, ma'am, I—I met your son at college, he's—he's a very nice boy.”

“Yes,” Mr. Kikuchi said, his face hardly moving but to betray just the slightest hint of pride, “he is, isn't he.”

The inner chamber here contained a rather odd fixture for the estate—a Western-style sofa, set up to look at the family's television. Its dark cedar walls lit up from the light fixture in the ceiling, and the back of the room contained a fold-out futon, presumably for in case someone needed to lay down without being transported elsewhere. There was also a cabinet full of first-aid supplies, and what looked like a small refrigerator in the corner—but it took up a small part of the room, all of that, and most of it was dedicated to the sofa, and chairs, and a small table, and a television. “I visited Netopia once,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, “and it's easier on my back, the sofa is. Makiri! How are you, sweetie?” Mrs. Kikuchi launched into a hug towards Scoops.

“All good, Mrs. Kikuchi, all good,” Scoops said, though she did look a bit flummoxed by the use of her real name. “Got a real scoop on the table thanks to Paige here!”

Meanwhile, Mr. Kikuchi had broken from the formation to show a bit more facial motion as he greeted Audrey. “Very good to see you, Ms. Longhener,” he said, as they bowed to each other, “and thank you again for humoring Saaya when you visited last month, and for fixing her PET, of course—I don't know the first thing about them.”

“Of course, sir,” Audrey said. “She's a good kid. I don't mind at all.”

“She is, isn't she?!” Mrs. Kikuchi slid into the conversation to grab Audrey's hands, stars in her eyes. “So full of life! She really likes you, you know, especially that mop of hair of yours—she said that she might want to have hair like yours at some point!”

“She really doesn't,” Audrey said, snorting and grinning. “She's better off keeping it short like she's got now.”

“What, now Audrey's her role model?” Scoops said. “I remember that kid used to think I was the coolest lady on the block!”

Mr. Kikuchi turned his head to say, “She has room in her heart for multiple.”

And then—

Suddenly, Paige was being gently shoved by the shoulders over to the sofa, where Mr. and Mrs. Kikuchi sat down to their side of her. “So,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, leaning in, “Paige—can I call you Paige? How'd you meet our Eiji, hm?”

Eiji slumped over by the door, rubbing his forehead and sighing. “Oh, dear...”

“Oh, um...” Paige shrunk into her seat. It was quite plush. “Well, Cinnamon was helping another student in my class, so my Navi and I helped him get back into his room, is all. It's really not—”

“That's very kind of you!” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “You know, Eiji really does just seem to attract kind people like yourself. Though, when I first met Audrey I didn't think she'd be as good with children as she is—she is a little scary when she's mad, isn't she, all fangs and spittle?”

“Oh, no,” Paige said, as Audrey grumbled a little in the background, “no, no... um, they've all been taking very good care of me—”

“I'm sure,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “What do you do, Ms. Markham?”

“Ah, I'm in Dr. Kamizono's course with Audrey, so—”

“Her uncle,” Audrey said, sitting down in a nearby chair, “was this big-time Cyberspace developer and Navi programmer out in Netopia, Glenn Markham.”

“Oh, I remember you mentioning him once!” Mrs. Kikuchi said, gasping with her hand over her mouth. “So you're following in your uncle's footsteps, hm? Oh, that's lovely!”

“Taking up the family tradition,” Mr. Kikuchi said with a stern nod. “Very respectable. Any notable talents?”

“Apparently she can measure earthquakes down to the decimal just by feeling them,” Scoops said. She sat down, too. Paige wilted deeper into the sofa.

“Fascinating,” Mr. Kikuchi said. Paige felt for her PET, and then remembered Vespa wasn't there.

“You seem like a lovely young lady,” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “Eiji's a lovely young man, isn't he?” Paige was gravitated to look Mrs. Kikuchi in the eyes. “Really just lovely. It's just tragic he hasn't found the right person yet, isn't it?”

“I—” Paige stammered.

“But perhaps love can strike from any moment,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, clasping her hands against her chest, stars in her eyes. “Perhaps my darling son is just waiting for the moment that a dashing hero sweeps him off his feet—!”

“Um!” Paige called out. “I'm. I'm a lesbian.”

There was a moment's pause.

“Ah,” Mr. Kikuchi said. “I see. Carry on, then.” He patted Paige on the back. Paige staggered off of the sofa, finally released from the well of gravity upon it, and slumped to her knees on the floor, panting. Her face was red, and her head felt deathly foggy.

“Yeah, they do that to everyone he brings home,” Scoops said, snickering to herself. “Everyone gets it once.”

“She seems lovely,” Mrs. Kikuchi said to Eiji, who, too, was wilting into embarrassment. “What brings you around town?”

“We need Detective Himekago,” Scoops said, “and it seemed like the best place to direct him. The old man's house is a bit small.”

“Whatever do you need Yuu for?” Mrs. Kikuchi asked, her hands beginning to ball in excitement. “Is there some some sort of case? Can I help?”

“Not at the moment,” said Cinnamon, who slid in to thoroughly defuse Mrs. Kikuchi's excitement by giving her a shoulder massage just right. “Ooh, these are awfully stiff.”

“Ohhhh yeah, oh yeah, that's the spot,” Mrs. Kikuchi said, her posture melting into jelly. “Those are the paws.”

“Who doesn't need the loving care of everyone's favorite angel of healing?” Cinnamon winked, and there was a little star on her face for a moment as she did. “Someone's been skipping her daily exercises, hasn't she.” Mrs. Kikuchi made a vaguely displeased noise. “Now, you know your body can get stiff when you don't move around enough. Ah, I swear, a month or two without me and you're right back to complacency—if I see you've been sitting seiza we'll have to have words.”

That got Mr. Kikuchi to instantly freeze. Mrs. Kikuchi averted her eyes, suddenly alert. Cinnamon turned her head. “Teruaki,” Cinnamon said to Mr. Kikuchi, “anything to declare?”

“No,” Mr. Kikuchi said, his posture hardening into stone. “Nothing.”

“I'll have to have a look at her legs later, then,” Cinnamon said.

Eiji sat down next to Paige, who was recuperating from her earlier evaluation in the corner, and said, “I really am sorry. I, um... I wasn't entirely sure how to warn you about that.”

“Surprisingly,” Paige said, trying very hard to steady her breathing, “um, lively people. I wasn't—I wasn't expecting that.” Then, a thought occurred. “I'm really glad Vespa isn't here.”

“God, can you imagine?” That was Audrey, who'd stealthily folded out the futon and was fiddling with that same deck of cards. “Someone'd probably light on fire from the culture clash.” (Incidentally, Scoops was still over in a chair with Eiji's parents and Cinnamon, contributing to Cinnamon's comedy routine as the overworked medic.)

“I recall you having a pretty hard time yourself,” Eiji giggled. Audrey grumped. “All things considered, it went very well for you, Paige. Audrey spent an hour in the corner unresponsive.”

“Shut the hell up,” Audrey said, and Paige could swear that her hair got pointier in that moment. “What's with you people.” Shuffle. “Laughing about my misfortune, huh.”

“Um, what's with the cards?” Paige asked.

Audrey looked down, realized she was shuffling her deck of cards, then shrugged. “Easier for me to be cordial if I've got something occupying the lizard space of my brain. Plus it'll make a good prop for when I inevitably wind up making my once-in-a-lifetime villain speech. I'll lean back in a red velvet seat, cross my legs, and start shuffling my cards with a smug grin on my face, before explaining my evil plot in great detail to the heroes with a maniacal cackle or two.”

“Why is it a villain speech?” Paige asked.

“Heroes have to be role models,” Audrey said. “Texas hold 'em?”

Paige blinked, and then smiled. “Sure!”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence (Physical Therapy Room)

As Eiji explained it, this room had used to be for kendo practice, but being that Eiji was in no way a kendoka, it had been repurposed by Cinnamon to be used for certain physical exercises. It was roomy, clear, and had a very solid floor, making it ideal for any number of activities, up to and including—

“Hajime!”

Paige wasn't much for dancepad games, but the rules were pretty easy to pick up. Mrs. Kikuchi was clearly an old hand by this point, as after a bit of stretching her legs were already right on point. And—

“Nanairo emaki no you, nigiwau machi azayaka ni! Kisetsu wa oukaranman, koko wa Edo hana kouji!” Her singing voice wasn't that great, but Mrs. Kikuchi was evidently quite into this. Paige inwardly resolved that this was going to need to be training—if both Mrs. Kikuchi and Compa were so into these, then she needed to get better! It was local tradition!

Taking a deep breath, Paige stopped thinking so much about her movements and tried to just let her feet and the arrows on the screen guide her. She'd played video games before, of course, but controlling one with your feet was something entirely different that took some getting used to. That said, the rules were very simple, so it was mostly a matter of getting her body into the rhythm.

...Yeah, Vespa would've had an easier time with this, Paige thought. She'd probably be getting really into it. Her hair would be waving back and forth, and she might even be singing along with Mrs. Kikuchi if she knew the words. She'd probably—well, Paige had seen Vespa dance before. She was a good dancer. She knew her way, as it were, around a dance floor. Paige never had. Even when Mimel's mother had tried to teach her, Paige had always felt like she had two left feet.

...well, there were a lot of things about herself Paige wasn't entirely satisfied with. Her personality, for one thing. It was easy to just sort of sit back and let other people dominate the conversation at the best of times, and it was lucky that at least the people she'd run into on her first day were largely kind, even if they... well, even if Scoops was very energetic, and gregarious, and... loud. Scoops was loud.

That led Paige to a realization—usually, she got at least a little nervous when she was in a social situation and Vespa wasn't around (or Mimel, but Mimel was across an entire ocean, and had her own life, too, such as it were being an apartment-dwelling eccentric artist by day, MMA star by night.) And, sure, Eiji's parents made a very forceful impression, but she didn't feel all that nervous. It was the first time in quite a while Paige had been in a situation like this at all—even if she did have her own alone moments, usually she was with Vespa, the girl who'd suddenly stumbled into her life.

Paige still remembered the first night she'd met Vespa. On the outside, Vespa was scuffed, but on the inside, she'd been wrecked. It was a wonder she could still move, in the state her internals were in. Even now, Vespa couldn't charge her Busters or utilize about twenty percent of her own customization space, and she'd lost a great deal of durability from what Paige speculated her original specs might've been. Paige was no expert, but Vespa had said that the repairs Paige had made to her were enough, and that there was no need to actually go see an expert. “Besides,” Vespa had said, “why would I need to go see some fusty old doctor if I've got a lovely young lady's handiwork right here?”

Vespa was the first person in quite some time who'd called her 'lovely' and meant it. If Paige had put herself together now, it was thanks to Vespa's encouragement more than anything. “You've got such a pretty smile,” Vespa had said. “I don't wanna see it all choked up.” It had been cheesy, sure, but those sorts of cheesy, earnest words were, as it turned out, just how to reach Paige Markham's heart.

She'd never had the strength to say what she wanted to say to Vespa. Many times, she'd wanted to shout, “Please, don't leave me! Don't leave. Stay.” For so long, she'd been afraid that Vespa would just vanish from her life one day. That she'd leave, and never come back, gone as suddenly as she came. Who knew why. There were different reasons why, every time Paige dreamed of it. Perhaps she'd heard about who Paige was before they met. Perhaps she'd found someone else she wanted to be with. And perhaps—perhaps she'd simply grown bored. Perhaps dull, simple Paige wasn't good enough to maintain her attention.

Paige had never given voice to these feelings. Not to Vespa, to Mimel, to anyone. If she did, she'd have to ask questions. She'd have to properly confront the fact that she was still just a dependent. So... why was she thinking about them now?

...Right. She knew why she was thinking about them now. Well, partially it was the social anxiety being relevant, sure, but—well, there was a different reason. A very grumpy, Sharonian reason. One with a lot of hair. One who—

Paige collapsed onto her knees and panted, the last arrows on whichever number song this was in the set scrolling off the top of the screen and displaying their mutual scores. She grasped the edges of the dancepad and wheezed. “Ohhh gosh.”

Cinnamon, who'd been controlling the set for physical therapy reasons, blinked. “Wow.”

“Wow what?” Paige asked. Mrs. Kikuchi, for her part, was also just about to faint.

“I mean, I just kept going as a joke, I'm amazed you stayed on that long,” Cinnamon said. She held up her paw and made an O-K hand gesture, then whistled. “Impressive.”

“So you can keep up with me, huh?” Mrs. Kikuchi's lungs clearly were a little worse for wear, but the grin on her face made it seem like she at least enjoyed the exhaustion. Her husband and Eiji helped her off the dancepad. “Durable... aren't you...”

“No, ma'am, I'm really... how long was that?” Paige muttered.

“Twelve minutes, forty-seven seconds of pure groovin' action, ladies and germs!” Scoops declared, having set up shop at the dedicated booth that this room had for her (no doubt she was a regular, huh.)

Thankfully, Audrey was there to support Paige as she stood up. “You good there?” Audrey said, holding her hand on Paige's lungs. “Looking a little pale. Need any water?”

“Please,” Paige begged.

Water was obtained, and both Paige and Mrs. Kikuchi recuperated from their odyssey of dancing and aimless introspection—well, Mrs. Kikuchi probably just sang and danced, Paige thought. “Seriously,” Cinnamon said, leaning in to where they sat, “you can tell me when to stop.”

“I was having fun!” Mrs. Kikuchi said. “I was playing with the young folk!”

“Mom, you're only forty-one,” Eiji giggled. “You're not very old yet.”

“My withering bodyyyy,” Mrs. Kikuchi wailed, falling to the floor and grasping her arms up. “My withering bodyyyy!”

“What's the old line,” Audrey said. “Time flies when you're having fun?” Paige nodded. “Right.” Audrey got back to playing with her cards.

—There was something or another about Audrey that reminded Paige of herself. She wasn't sure what, exactly; it certainly wasn't their personalities, considering that Paige was about as spiky as a marshmallow and Audrey was as soft as a sea urchin, but having to be convinced to take care of basic bodily hygiene wasn't unfamiliar to Paige. She was a curious woman, this Audrey Longhener who was in Paige's class. Paige would have to ask Mimel to make sure she remembered how to talk to people, because at this point she wasn't entirely sure anymore.

The sliding door at the entrance of the room opened, and Asahi poked her head in. “Young master, Detective Himekago is at the entrance waiting to see you and your party.”

“He's a good man, that one,” Mr. Kikuchi commented. “Don't keep him waiting.”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence (Entryway)

It was a simple black car that the esteemed detective drove, as he was not one to be pressed with keeping on the cutting edge. People had sometimes jokingly referred to Detective Yuu Himekago as a luddite, one opposed to new ways of operating in modern society, but that was not the case—he preferred to think of himself as a modest man. A detective's greatest tools were his eyes, after all, and his ears, not a great big car to declare himself.

When the door opened, he was where he'd remained—standing by a stone lantern with a cup of tea in his hand, waiting patiently so as not to intrude. Six years after his big break, that finely-combed ponytail, those boyish features, and those utilitarian tortoiseshell glasses were still a dead giveaway.

People had sometimes jokingly referred to Detective Yuu Himekago as an eccentric, one who did not abide by the regular norms of the time, but that was not the case—he preferred to think of himself as simply a fashionable man. Certainly, one did not often see people parading around in black half-capes with yellow trim, or with a jewel-topped cane, or white feathered gloves, or in a fine brown suit with that same green brooch atop its lapel. However, if he had learned anything, it was that what looked best was usually the truest expression of one's earnest aesthetic, and he had his aesthetic and he worked it.

Upon the opening of the door, the good Detective saw four people, three of whom he was acquainted with. Two of them he knew well—one was the young scion of the Kikuchi family, and one his ever-trusty companion, Hanasaka. “Afternoon, Scoops,” he said, placing down his teacup, and turning his head to the group in the doorway to raise his eyebrow. “You know, there's something important I should be working on right now.”

Then, there was their newer friend, a Ms... Longhener, if he remembered correctly, a shaggy, feral-looking girl in a labcoat who'd come into the country rail-thin and had managed to attract Hanasaka's attention somehow or another. Right, Audrey Longhener. They'd met in passing once or twice on the street, and he knew of her existence, but they'd never spoken at length, so all Yuu had were his eyes to go on, there.

It seemed they'd added another member to their repertoire, though—in the back there was a young lady who carried herself in a demure manner, seeming awfully small as she did—a skill she'd no doubt practiced quite a bit, as she was not actually a small woman herself. She wasn't about to give Eiji a run for his money in terms of femininity, but she was definitely much more classically feminine than the company he usually kept. Judging by the clothes she wore, and the apparel, such as her purse, it was easy to assume she was not a local even without looking at her face. Brunette, wore her hair in pigtails... She was averting her eyes. Probably not someone he should be too loud with at first.

“Eh, yeah, yeah,” Scoops said, charging up and attempting to grab Yuu by the hand. “Get in here, Himekago, we've got things to do and you're the man for 'em!”

Yuu dodged his hand out of her arc, and slid casually past her to walk toward the door, giving his cane a little twirl as he did. “I've come here, you know,” he said, “so that implies I'm here to listen to you. Eiji,” he said, bowing his head. “Ms. Longhener, I recall?” She nodded, and he bowed his head. “And I haven't made your acquaintance, ma'am—if I had to guess, you're Scoops's informant on this case?”

“P-Paige Markham. Sir,” she said with a bow. “Um. I-I—well, I'm a person the case happened to? So I think so.”

Yuu laughed aloud. “Oh, thank god, I was worried she was going to be my client.”

“What's that supposed to mean?!” Scoops piped up.

“You're a lovely young lady, Scoops,” Yuu said, turning his head over his shoulder, “but you speak very, very fast and it's hard to catch your train of thought sometimes.”

They sat down in the front waiting room, naturally, and Yuu produced his notepad. Paige and Audrey sat next to each other, and Eiji and Scoops to either side. “Now,” Yuu said, “what sort of case are we dealing with here? I will warn you it will likely take longer for me to investigate international cases.”

“Um,” Paige said. “Well, see—”

“Quiet,” Audrey said, shushing Scoops as she revved up.

“I came to Electopia to go to college,” Paige said. “At Ayanokoji.” Yuu nodded. “But, the day before I left—um, I went to visit my uncle Glenn, at his lab—”

“Markham?” Yuu asked. “Glenn Markham?” Paige nodded. “Ah, I see. So the incident occurred at Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs?” Paige nodded again. “I mean no disrespect, but I was under the impression that Dr. Markham was deceased.”

“He... is,” Paige said. “His grave—”

“Ah,” Yuu said. He raised his hands. “Understood. My apologies, ma'am.”

“I, my friend Mimel, and my Navi, Vespa—she's, um, out right now—we all came to visit. Dr. Gaudile—”

“Harold?” Yuu asked. Paige nodded. “I'm sorry about the questions, it's just I wasn't expecting something so relatively high-profile today.”

“No, no, it's alright. Yes, um, Harold Gaudile. He was... a very good friend of my uncle's. He, um, he runs the lab. Nowadays. So, Dr. Gaudile greeted us, but as we were going in, um, there was a security malfunction. Someone had broken into the lab's cyberspace, and people couldn't get out while it was happening. We weren't sure how it happened. We went to go investigate, and Vespa and I reached pretty deep in to follow the perpetrator—”

“You went in to follow a most likely armed perpetrator?” Yuu asked. Paige blushed and nodded. “Why?”

“Because people were in danger, and... well, I wanted to help,” Paige said.

“Ah,” Yuu said, nodding. “I see.” He made a mental note to himself—despite her timid demeanor, Paige Markham was apparently the sort who operated by what some would uncharitably call a hero complex. He wouldn't, though. “That was very brave of the both of you.” He smiled.

“We wound up reaching a secret area of the lab's network that most of the employees didn't know about,” Paige said. “A deep, hidden chamber. Vespa and I wound up battling one of the people who'd broken in, a Navi named Panter Flauclaws. He and his operator were working for someone they called 'K'.”

“Who is—!” Scoops started up.

“Shush,” Audrey said, placing a finger over Scoops's mouth.

“They got away when their boss, K, opened a portal for them out of the network,” Paige said. Yuu raised his eyebrow. “Yes, a—a portal. And we went in, and the item that was being contained had been stolen, and they'd left a calling card.” Scoops reared up, Audrey knocked her down. “Dr. Gaudile said that it was called an 'Erosion Key', but he didn't tell me what it was for. And, well, I wasn't sure if I should do anything about it—Dr. Gaudile said to leave it to the Officials, but it didn't quite sit right. Scoops suggested coming to see you.”

“And this was when?” Yuu asked.

“Um, two and a half weeks ago. The twelfth,” Paige said. “So, um, something more happened after that, but I showed Scoops the calling card they left and she said—”

“Tech Kraken is back!” Scoops said, leaning onto the table like a hungry beast. Her eyes were wide with a frenetic giddiness. “It's a Tech Kraken calling card! He must've escaped somehow!”

When he was younger, people had sometimes jokingly referred to Yuu Himekago as a rather rude boy. This was not the case, or at least he did not believe it to be so, and neither had his mother—when something completely baffled the young detective, he had a habit of going quiet to ponder it, rather than responding immediately with his first thoughts. When one's peers are teenagers, who oftentimes say things that make absolutely no sense, this means that one goes inward a lot.

So, Yuu did not say the first thing that came to mind. He did not, as a certain instinct told him, let out a noise of disbelief in Scoops's face. Paige handed him her PET—well-worn, so no doubt she really was Glenn Markham's niece, and it lent credence to the idea that she and her Navi really did share that sort of skill and bond. It had a picture of a calling card on it.

And, sure enough—well. It certainly looked like one of Kraken's calling cards. It bore a resemblance, you could say. “Hm,” Yuu said, studying it. “Well, Ms. Markham, I am quite interested to hear more—but there appears to be a misunderstanding here. This isn't one of Kraken's.”

“It's not?!” Scoops said, her knees banging into the underside of the table. “But who else can break in somewhere like that?!”

“Well, that remains to be seen,” Yuu said, “but this is a fake. And, even if it was a forgery, I can tell you that Tech Kraken is not the culprit of this crime. He has an utterly air-tight alibi.” Scoops reared up. “Air-tight, Scoops. When I use that word, I am not exaggerating. There was not a singular second that he could have suddenly developed super-speed and gotten onto that network from across the ocean while not being observed. This is a forgery, most likely meant to frame Kraken.”

The room went silent for a moment as everyone digested this information. Poor Paige, clearly out of her depth, looked awfully befuddled. “Still,” Yuu said, “the theft of such a secretive item from a highly-guarded facility doesn't sit well. I am sorry it took so long to get here, Ms. Markham, but I'd be happy to put this on Scoops's tab.”

“Oh, um—” Paige stammered for a moment. “T-thank you, Detective.” She breathed a sigh of relief.

“That said,” Yuu said, “I'd appreciate your Navi's testimony as fast as you could contact her before we continue any further. If she's going to be a material witness then it's best I speak with her.”

“Oh, that shouldn't be very...” Paige trailed off, pulling out her PET. Audrey looked over her shoulder. “...um, Detective Himekago? Were you investigating a murder?”

Pause. “...Yes,” Yuu said. “It's rather grisly business, I was hoping not to bring it up in greater detail. Why?”

“'At a murder scene,'” Audrey read. “'Actually found Tech Kraken just hanging around. He mean-mugged at me. Gonna catch him and pound him. See you in a bit,' and then there's some photos of the Cyberworld.”

Pause.

Yuu slumped over, and held his head in his hands. He let out a loud, pained groan. “Some days,” he said, “some days, there are nothing but problems in my life.”

Chapter Text

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Spring Quadrant

“Hm,” Vespa muttered. “Hm. Hmmm!” She squatted down to give the glass case the stinkeye. “Hmmmm!”

Pause.

“...you got this one in star-code?” Vespa said, standing back up. She tapped at the Wind Rack chip in the case. “We don't really use R.”

“Let me,” said the heavy-set, robotic NetDealer behind the counter as he opened some boxes, “check for you.”

Of course, this was largely an abstraction—what he was really doing was going into his own internal filing system to read through his manifests. However, it had long become standard for NetDealers to imitate human storage methods for the sake of maintaining the customers' verisimilitude. Vespa leaned in on the shelf of this dealer's roadside establishment.

“Lucky you,” he said, pulling his head out of the box, “just got a shipment from this one wacko down in ACDC. It'll run you a bit extra, but I'm willing to part with it.”

Vespa fist-pumped. “Sick!”

When buying BattleChips over the net, there was due process to be had. Most PETs came with several 'blank chips', which one could obtain the data of a Chip and place it into. (Of course, some people didn't have those, so most NetDealers possessed their own retinue of blank chips and could send them through mail order—the license to a given iteration of chip data was stored on the PET until the chip itself arrived.)

Vespa marked a delay down for the Wind Rack—after all, she didn't want to spook Paige by having her PET suddenly spawn a new chip. So, the chip would be ready to be set once she returned. While it wasn't something that Vespa would necessarily gravitate towards, Paige was always delighted to find new tactical avenues for NetBattling—surprise presents like this always made her light up in the most delightful way, so it was something Vespa could scarcely resist when she had a bit of extra change in her pocket.

“Hey, just so you know,” the Dealer said, “they say there's been some batty Navi around the place these days. Hasn't hurt anyone, but they say he moves a bit weird... and he thinks he's Shademan.”

“Like, the guy from Nebula?” Vespa said, tilting her head.

“Yeah, that's the one. Haha!” The Dealer laughed to himself a bit more. “Shademan.”

Stepping out from under the awning of the Dealer's establishment, Vespa turned her head to Chronoforce, who leaned against a wall, tap-tap-tapping away at a window as usual. “You good?”

“Hey,” Chronoforce said with a light shrug of his tiny limbs, “I'm always good.”

Whereas the real world was in late summer, beginning to fade into autumn, the Manzo Cyberworld needed pay little heed to the passage of time. To the north, winter—to the east, spring—to the south, summer—and to the west, autumn. The four seasons each had a quadrant to their own, and as the pamphlet Vespa idly read stated, this allowed architects and designers to go hog wild and bring their visions to life. (The pamphlet did not say 'hog wild', of course; this was Vespa's interpretation.)

The two Navis strolled beneath a bright pink lane of sakura blossoms, falling in a light, cool breeze. Cyberkoi leapt out of a small brook to Vespa's right, in the center of the lane, and several Navis strolled across this busy street, nearly as packed with establishments as the real thing, idly browsing for whatever craft goods were on offer. Some were locals, doing their daily shopping; others, like Vespa, were tourists looking for a taste of local tradition.

“Y'know,” Vespa said, “if I'd known a place like this was around when I was on the run in Electopia, I woulda holed up here. Maybe get myself a nice little secret hamlet and just chill.”

“Sounds legit,” Chronoforce said. He paused, blinked, and started grabbing for the pamphlet.

“Summer is this way, we're going the right way,” Vespa said, holding it away from him.

—To explain. When Vespa had taken her leave of meeting Eiji's family, Chronoforce had surreptitiously followed behind her. According to him, he considered the Kikuchi family like a very decadent dessert—very lovely in quantities smaller than he was going to get if he stayed behind. As it turned out, once they had jacked in, Chronoforce claimed there was someone he knew in the area by sheer coincidence, and that she was over in the summer quadrant.

“So,” Vespa said, “tell me about yourself.”

Chronoforce blinked. “What?”

“I mean, I know we've known each other for a few weeks now, but I feel like I haven't really gotten the picture of what kind of guy Chronoforce.EXE is on the inside,” Vespa said, doing some stupid hand gestures as she did. “What makes you—”

“What makes me... tick?” Chronoforce asked.

Pause.

Chronoforce let out a dry laugh and bent over as best someone with his oblong body could. He'd probably have slapped his knees, Vespa thought, if he had arms to do that with... or knees.

“...what?” Vespa asked.

“You know,” Chronoforce said. “Like a clock. The ticking of a clock. My name—my name's Chronoforce.”

“Oh!” Vespa said, clapping her hands. “Oh! Yeah, I—I get it now. Yeah.”

Pause. Chronoforce, who had apparently mastered the skill of focusing on two different things at the same time, continued to play his game. “Right,” Vespa said. “So, how long have you and Audrey known each other?”

Chronoforce made an audible humming noise as a few cute little meows came from his screen. “Gotta be... how old is she now?”

“Twenty-two, right?” Vespa asked.

Chronoforce nodded. “Yeah, yeah. Right. So, uhhh...” He trailed off for a moment. “Right, right. She was ten. Twelve years.” He laughed to himself. “You know, you might not believe this, but I remember—she got the biggest, stupidest grin on her face, on account of she got her PET as a Christmas present from her dad. It was one he'd done some work on in the past to make me, so I was in there the whole time, but it took her like, half an hour to actually notice cause I was sitting in the back just doing my own thing, yeah? So I'm just over here and then she sees this spooky-looking horseshoe crab guy just in the background of her new thing and she screams.”

Vespa laughed. “She can, like, smile?”

“Yeah, I know,” Chronoforce said. “It's, uh... you'd never think it, right?” He snapped a few of his fingers.

“So you two are siblings, huh?” Vespa asked, and Chronoforce turned his head. “I mean, that explains why she puts up with you.”

Chronoforce stopped walking and took roughly twelve seconds to process this thought. “Huh,” he said. “I guess so, huh.”

“I mean, if her dad made you, you're just as much brothers as those freakin' Hikaris, right?” Vespa said. She gritted her teeth at the thought. “I've never met any of my siblings. The old man only ever had one Navi at once, and he only makes a new one once the old one's gone.”

“Huh,” Chronoforce said. “Weird. I never really thought about the whole siblings thing before.”

“To be fair,” Vespa said, “like—”

She turned on her heel, and began gesticulating. “Okay,” Vespa said, “so Paige's best pal, Mimel, back in Netopia.”

“Blackgold?” Chronoforce asked. Vespa stopped cold. “Like, Mimel Blackgold? The mediumweight MMA champion of Crescent City?”

“You...?” Vespa blinked.

“Yeah, I watch pro fights, you think my right eye doesn't do anything while I play this and nobody's talking to me? I'm a master of pay-per-view television,” Chronoforce said. “So you're best friends with Mimel Blackgold. Gotcha, gotcha.”

“So,” Vespa said, “Mims's mom has—okay, it's a bit complicated, actually. So, first, ol' Daddy Blackgold marries and he has a kid—that's Reinhardt Blackgold, the eldest, very serious guy, great beard, runs a freighter company. Then, he splits up with his wife and finds a second lady, and they have a kid—that's Mims's older sister Nadine, who, much like me, appreciates a good bike and a nice night out. Then that wife bites it, and then he marries Mims's mom, and has Mims and her younger brother Lambert, who, incidentally, is a freaking brat and I don't care how many grades he could've skipped, sometimes the things that boy says makes me wanna give him so many noogies, y'know?”

“Uh-huh,” said Chronoforce, nodding along and having grabbed a cup of cybercoffee as Vespa was talking.

“So, then, about... what, six years ago? Way I hear it, anyway, he was already there when I met him—well, all four of the Blackgold kids's Navis are... also siblings,” Vespa continued. “Like, I donno who's older or younger? But way I hear it, they were all made by the same people for basically the same purposes, so they're siblings. I've only ever met two of 'em, Tundraman's Mims's Navi, he's a smarmy prat but he's got a good fashion sense and he's got a way with ice skates, and then a few times I've met Magmaman, he's Nadine's Navi, kinda has this Roman gladiator thing going on but he's surprisingly chill. Not, like, cold chill, though.”

“I would hope a 'Magmaman' wasn't cold chill,” Chronoforce said.

“Really, though, nice people, the Blackgolds. Mama Blackgold's a good mayor, too. I'm complaining about Lambert, y'know, but I love the little snot, right? It's just sometimes I wanna punch him because he's a really smart fourteen-year-old,” Vespa said, clenching her fist and pounding it into her open palm.

“Oh, yeah,” Chronoforce said, “totally.”

Pause.

“So you got any interests other than pro fights and mobile games involving cats?” Vespa asked.

Chronoforce thought for a moment, which then became two, and three. “Lemme, uh... lemme get back to you on that,” he said, and focused all of his attention on his game.

As they walked, the crowds heading toward the Spring Quadrant began to fade, and the leaves turned a vivid green. The cool breeze stopped, and was replaced with the bright light of an artificial sun. It wasn't as large as an actual lake would be, but one thing the Summer Quadrant of Manzo's Cyberworld boasted was a beach and an area with at least a little bit of simulated water. There were more homes for Navis in this district, Vespa observed. Holes in the ground... oh, well, on some off roads here Vespa even saw a few small viruses, so that was where they'd gone.

Chronoforce's slow gait sped up slightly as the beach area came into view. “She's a sunbather,” he said. “Definitely here.”

Vespa materialized a hair tie and reached back to tie up the body of her hair into a ponytail. Chronoforce, had he an eyebrow to raise, gave her a look that indicated he would've. “What? Keeps me cooler,” she said.

Shrugging, Chronoforce returned to walking slightly faster than he had been.

There were people enjoying their time on the beach, of course, a number of them—Navis of all makes and builds. A colossal pig-shaped Navi hurled a green, kappa-looking Navi into the water to watch him bounce back up as part of a game, for instance... whatever the rules of this game were.

Chronoforce's friend, though, seemed to be perfectly content with avoiding the water entirely. She'd appropriated a beach chair and parasol, and was currently using a screen to direct the sunlight onto herself. “Yo,” Chronoforce said, giving a little wave. “Mandrago.”

“I wasn't expecting to see you here,” Mandrago said. She resembled a plant, more than anything—a furled-up, green-and-pink head that had similar narrow, yellow eyes to Chronoforce's said 'flower' to Vespa. Two long, spindly arms extended from near the top of a thin, spiky 'stem', which ended in pointy appendages with small, visible vines capable of fine motor movement if necessary. Four large thorns curled down over her legs, almost like a dress—but from what Vespa could see, her legs were drills, likely made for burrowing into the ground to root or... something. The thorns looked reversible, though. And... well, she was wearing sunglasses. “To what do I owe the pleasure of the Prince of Lethargy?”

“I was in the area,” Chronoforce said.

“Ah, but of course,” Mandrago said. She turned back to her sun screen. “It would be foolish of me to expect anything less than happenstance with you. Why, even after Ilyana and I have been so generous to you both...” Then, it seemed she had another thought, so she raised her sunglasses to look at Vespa. “Young lady, I haven't your acquaintance, but I would recommend you not take this man too seriously. He is deathly incapable of applying himself to much of anything.”

“I thought you said she was your friend?” Vespa said, tilting her head at Chronoforce.

“She is,” Chronoforce said, at the same time Mandrago said, 'I am'.

“I am admittedly a touch snippy after I suffered a rather humiliating defeat in a NetBattle earlier today,” Mandrago said, “but I assure you I say these things entirely out of a fondness for this layabout tridentanus.” Pause. “So are you going to introduce us, Chronoforce?”

“Eh,” Chronoforce said.

“Of course,” Mandrago said. She didn't give Vespa the honor of standing up, but she did extend one of her arms over for what amounted to a handshake. “Noble Mandrago. A pleasure.”

“Vespa,” Vespa said. “My operator and me are in Audrey's class. We're pals.”

“I see,” Mandrago said. “Suffice it to say we are well acquainted. I'm sure she would have several choice words for me were I to be a bit overly mouthy about the embarrassing details of her backstory.”

“Yeah, sounds like her,” Vespa said with a nod.

With that understanding, Mandrago's other arm twisted over to uproot the parasol from its position. Vespa had not realized that it belonged to her, but uprooting its stem showed a dual-pointed body akin to the roots of an actual mandrake. Mandrago casually bent its bottom to curve it, clicked the stem into a shorter state, and shook the head of the parasol to drop some of the leaves that had appeared within its consistency, which fell to lay upon the hem of her 'dress'. As such, what was once a beach umbrella had now shifted into a strolling parasol befit for a lady of high stature, which Mandrago gently held over what amounted to her shoulder area.

“'Vespa', you said?” Mandrago asked, and Vespa nodded. “I see. If you continue to be acquainted with dearest Audrey, there is no doubt we shall continue to meet.”

“That is a neat trick,” Vespa said, levying a finger at the parasol.

“It is ever so convenient,” Mandrago said. “Do you have need of Chronoforce? For his impertinence, I would have him show me the way, being that he has been here for a year.” Vespa shook her head. “Very well. Come along, Chronoforce.”

“Huh?” Chronoforce mumbled.

Mandrago sighed and turned her head to Vespa. “The quick wit of a great mind's last remaining legacy, as usual.” She swung the parasol upside-down, and its head inverted before sharpening into several sharp leaves, which she loudly stabbed into the sand. “Chronoforce!”

“Oh, uh, yeah?” Chronoforce said. “Hey, c'mere, Koshka, who's a good kitty—”

Vespa leaned into his field of vision. “Bro, I think she wants to go on a date with you.”

“Ohhhh,” Chronoforce said, and for the first time in the entire time Vespa had known him, he shut off Wanyadora and actually looked with both eyes at Mandrago. “Okay, sure.”

With a high scoff, Mandrago said, “And may I give thanks that Navikind are not all afflicted with your chronic lethargy.” She began to stroll off, and Chronoforce followed, actually paying full attention. “Be well, Miss Vespa. Thank you for bringing this fool with you.”

“Yeah, good luck with him,” Vespa said.

“Hey,” Chronoforce said, “I'm not that bad.”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Central Connection Junction

Walking around the outside of the area was not the only way to get around. The center of Manzo's cyberworld represented what almost amounted to a maze of narrow pathways that always seemed, according to the pamphlet, to have a way of getting you where you needed to go. This was also, apparently, where people brought their pets to go on walks and whatnot—one Navi had his Met in his arms, whereas another struggled against three Spikeys on leashes that she could barely keep hold of, on account of they'd probably just seen a mailman or something.

Vespa didn't have much of anywhere to go, so she'd started to aimlessly wander. Being that she'd existed in the Cyberworld for quite some time, she remembered a time when things like this sort of scenery were much rarer. Same with these temperate breezes, or the water—there was a time not too long ago when these were things you came to specific locations to find, not something that a nice country town would just have around.

Still... Vespa smiled up at the sky. The Cyberworld, she thought, really was a nice place. It was nice being able to go between places pretty fast. It was nice being able to see a bunch of different things without being concerned about geography. On the other hand, the real world had that continuity of locations, didn't have some of the troubles, and there was always going to be differences in the experiences between one or the other. Thank god for CopyBots, she thought to herself. Thank god for CopyBots.

This here was a junction at about a sixty-degree angle—Vespa would be turning here. There were a set of orange bushes here, so likely this was at the edge of the Autumn Quadrant and she was just making a turn back inward. One of the bushes was rustling, which wasn't exactly the most normal thing in the world, but... well, Vespa put her hand on one of her Busters just in case.

Then, rising from the bushes—

“Wh-wh-wh-what gives you-utheright to enter my domaiiiiiain?!” So, it wasn't a virus in the bushes, probably, it looked more like a Navi, so there was just a Navi in the bushes. He was—

“Oh,” Vespa said, “batty. A-heh.”

This Navi here wasn't very large. He was a vampire bat, most likely, with small, pointy ears and a bright purple head. One of his eyes jerked about every which way, but the other, or where his optic circuit probably was located, was covered by a monocle. Under the shabby cloak that his wings tried to be, he was clearly very thin, and not even remotely durable or particularly combat-ready. His fingers twitched as he moved, too, and his legs—

Well, as he stood up out of the bushes, one of his legs spontaneously jerked off of the ground and caused him to trip, catching himself on the wall. “...Are you okay?” Vespa asked.

“Need you-you-you—” His head jerked to the side for a moment on the first 'you', and then both of his ears started violently twitching, but then he caught himself, and seemed to have it together, as he stood up and pulled one of his wings over himself. “—concern yourself with my well-being? My dear girl, it is you who has stepped into the realm of danger—”

As he spoke, his entire body was taken by a violent spasm, causing him to shudder uncontrollably for a moment before continuing as though it had never happened. “—for you stand before the Wailing Gentleman, Devilbat Schilt! To a civilian such as yourself, I—” It was really, really rude to laugh, Vespa thought, and yet she laughed. Out loud. Very hard. “What is so funny?!”

“Oh, man, it's just—no, Schilt was taller than you. I knew the guy. And he had a deeper voice, yours is pretty high. And he was smarmier, too—you've got the start of it but no, you've gotta dial up the smarm like two hundred percent,” Vespa said.

“Do not mock me! I am the embodiment of all thin-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-ggggg” His posture completely broke, and he curled inward on himself, all of his limbs going completely stiff. He made a few cracking noises. “gggggs evil! Wh-whee!!”

Much as she couldn't stop herself from laughing, Vespa was rapidly growing deeply concerned for this Navi's health. It was hard to know exactly who to call at times like these, though—she didn't want to call the police on the guy, but she didn't have the numbers of any local doctors or technicians.

Then—he lurched forward, and grabbed Vespa by the shoulders. She flinched, but then she saw his eyes—or, well, the one eye she could see. It wasn't frenzied in that moment, it was pleading. “Ko-Ko-Kohaku,” he said, grabbing tighter onto Vespa. “Kohaku! Kohaku.” His voice crackled and glitched coming out of him, but she was pretty sure that he was saying a name.

“Kohaku?” Vespa asked. “Is... that your operator?”

“Koha—ku,” he said. “Kohaku, Kohakuuuu... hurts, it, it hurts—!”

—Some Officials rounded the corner, and Vespa turned her head. “Ma'am,” said the front one, an orange Navi with a round head and a blue visor, “is this guy giving you any trouble?” ('Kohaku, it hurts, Kohaku, Kohaku!')

Vespa looked down at him, and then said, “Uh, no, officer. I'm good. I'm... I'm keeping track of him while his operator goes and gets some stuff, he's—damaged, but he's got a unique build so we're not sure you can get the right stuff in just Manzo.” She inwardly prayed that he remained at whatever lucidity he was currently in, and didn't start yelling about being an infamous gangster again until the cops were gone.

The Official looked down at the bat, and then shrugged and said, “If you say so, Ma'am.” Crisis averted! They walked past, and were on their way.

Once they were out of earshot and sight, Vespa had to deal with this frail little guy currently trying to crackle for what might've been his operator. “I'm, uh,” Vespa said to the boy—because he probably was a 'boy', given the voice, “I'm gonna try and help you find Kohaku. Okay?”

“Koha...ku?” The boy said. His limbs jerked and spasmed for a moment, and then—“O-okay.”

“Alright,” Vespa said, and she picked him up onto her back—the little bat wasn't too heavy to carry piggyback, thankfully. “So, do you know where I can find—”

“Holding a vampire on your back,” the boy said, “is a pretty gutsy move. Wh-whee!! It almost makes me thirsty, wh-whee!!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vespa said, “your fangs couldn't drink anything I've got anyway.” The boy attempted to use a Noise Crush attack like the notorious Shademan, but he barely got more than a squeak out before his head jerked upward and he stopped. “Okay, kid, don't worry. We'll find her.”

“...I don't need anyone,” the boy said, his voice having dropped to something vaguely pretending to be a deeper tone. “I don't need friends. Friends just make you weaker—”

“Mmhm,” Vespa said, “mmhm.”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Winter Quadrant

There was snow on the ground, here—snow that crunched beneath Vespa's feet as the boy above her tried desperately to remain coherent. The light of the sun had faded, and the air had grown chilly, as snowflakes lilted through the air and landed atop frost-heavy bushes. Crossing into the Winter Quadrant from the center took Vespa over a wooden bridge with red handrails, which crested over a river. Lilypads lazily floated across the river, and the sound of the running water was a nice break, as it seemed to be something that could get the boy to quiet down just slightly—

“Nnnnnnngghhghghnghghgnnnn!!” Nope, quiet was over. “The running water! The running-g water! Vampires can't cross running water! Do you mean to torture me?! I am a gentleman and I shall not take this insult!”

There were some pagodas set up to view the snowflakes, each with a crackling bonfire in a brazier at its center to give passers by a relief from the chill. There was a sheet of ice to one direction on which Navis could ice skate, if they so desired—what a luxury, Vespa thought, I'll have to let Tundraman know about this. As with anywhere in Manzo, there were a number of ways Vespa could go aside from the main street; several alleyways did go off into deeper into the city.

However, Vespa spotted someone she knew, surprisingly enough. Well, 'knew' was a strong word, but slumped against a stone lantern on the side of the path, obviously at least a little exhausted, was the knight who'd called herself Blade and saved Vespa, Stingray, and Pegasolta from Vulturon just hours before. Her teeth were gritted, and she breathed heavily as she leaned against the lantern.

“Hey!” Vespa said, picking up her pace to head over to Blade. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“...Vespa?” Blade muttered, before raising her head to see them—“Necrobat!”

“Ko—Kohaku—” The bat crackled, and Vespa thought she heard a little sniffle.

Ignoring her exhaustion, Blade stood up and hurried over to Vespa's side, grabbing hold of Necrobat and putting him on the ground. She let out a heavy sigh of relief. “I've been looking everywhere for you. Necrobat—” She looked up at Vespa. “Where did you find him?”

“Huh? Uh, over in the bushes between the center and Autumn,” Vespa said. She blinked. “You know him?”

“Yes,” Blade said, holding one side of her head, “come on, I need to get him back home.” From one back to another, it seemed. “Follow me.”

“Mm'kay,” Vespa said, and she did so. Blade took them down one of those alleyways, taking a series of turns, double-taking a few times to make sure, Vespa guessed, that nobody was following them except her. They then entered into a dead-end alleyway, and Blade pulled open a passkey and stuck it into the open bottom of a paper lantern just to the left of the end of the path to unlock a tucked-away door.

Blade stood aside to allow Vespa to enter, and Vespa opened the door and stepped inside. For how secretive it was, she was actually rather impressed by the immediate air of hominess. A warm orange light from a recreation of a few lamps atop ordinary cyber-wooden nightstands lit up the walls of the round central chamber. It wasn't large by any means—Vespa only saw two other doors in Blade's home, one to each side of the room. A rug in a tasteful checkerboard pattern sat beneath a rounded table, and a cozy black sofa lay at the far end.

The close wall to Vespa's right had a cyber TV, which was definitely a bit retro to have in your home, but it was probably up to taste. A small coat rack, too, sat by the door, and Blade removed Necrobat's shabby cloak—with those detached, Vespa finally noticed that the structure of his wings was naught but bone. She removed her own, as well, revealing more of the beetle-like armor that covered her body. Wherever Blade's logo was, it was covered by her armor, segmented and tough upon her torso. Vespa thought she even saw some simulated chain mail—whoever had designed Blade, or given her that armor, was likely a real stickler for details.

On a small cabinet just to the side of the coat rack was a glass case, evidently for Blade's... blade. “Please don't touch it without reason,” she said, when Vespa's eyes met her sword. “This blade—it wouldn't do for you to hold it.”

“Uh, yeah,” Vespa said. Okay, coat rack and cabinet and stuff to that side, table here—“Where should I put him?”

Blade pointed over to the right-side door. “His bed is in there, as is mine. His is the purple one.”

“Ah,” Necrobat said, “so it is time again for me to sleep... but the band still begins to play. Are you ready for the Mu-Mu-Musical of Blood?!”

The bedroom wasn't large, either. Both of the beds were small, uncomplicated affairs. Nevertheless, this was clearly a lived-in room—why, to the side of Necrobat's bed was a bin chock full of books that had been thoroughly read, cover to cover. Vespa lay the boy down in his bed as he continued rambling about fresh Hunter blood, or whatever, and Blade came in once her sword was properly fastened.

“I'm sorry, Necrobat,” Blade said, sitting down by him on the bed. He snapped to lucidity, and looked back at her—and though much of Blade's face was covered by her helmet, that smile was very obvious. “I was... late coming home. I'm going to make it better now, alright?”

Necrobat was too jittery to properly nod, but to Vespa it looked like he did something close. Blade nodded back, and opened up his monocle. Vespa couldn't help but gasp—there was something growing inside there, an object that looked almost to be between solid and liquid—glimmering, like a gemstone, with its black and blue glow, and yet viscous, seeming to shift and change shape when observed.

Blade sighed. “Necrobat... how long has this been going on? You should've told me you were in pain.” She patted him on the head. “Alright. It'll only be a moment.” With one hand, she reached in and placed her finger in a piece of the odd gem-like thing, and Necrobat audibly flinched. Then, she slowly draaaaagged out, and the formation inside of his eye socket resisted at first, but then began to slide out itself. It was deeper than just his eye socket, apparently—the mass that Blade removed was certainly large enough to have reached inside of his head.

Eventually, Blade muttered, “Ah. There you are.” Necrobat's movements had gone still, as the substance from within him had been pulled further and further out, revealing an amount almost as large as Blade's hand. At the very deepest, though, the black and blue glow intensified, and a small, perfectly solid fragment, buried within the muck, appeared. Blade picked up her broadsword, and its segmented body shifted into a much shorter form, akin to a paring knife, as she pulled it in to begin cutting the blue fragment out again.

The yellow light within Blade's weapon, as it shined upon the loosened soft solid, withered it away and caused it to vanish into dust as she chipped pieces away. Vespa sat down on a closed box to watch her at work, and marveled at how gently she was able to slice away pieces of this bizarre substance. “What is it?” she asked, finally remembering her curiosity.

“Give me a moment, and I'll explain,” Blade said. Her cuts became finer and finer, until eventually she reached the shining fragment. “There.” She placed the fragment back inside Necrobat's eye socket, and pushed it in until it disappeared from view.

Necrobat was now no longer still or jerky—he made simulated breathing motions as his eye rested. It looked as though he'd fallen asleep. Blade patted him on the head again, and reached down to gently kiss him on the forehead.

“Don't take this the wrong way,” Vespa said (and she was quiet, thank you,) “but you didn't strike me from looking at you as the kissing on the forehead type.”

“Mm,” Blade said. “The armor may perhaps give the wrong impression. Please forgive me if I don't feel the need to kiss you on the forehead, though.” Vespa snorted.

When the two left the room and closed the door to let Necrobat rest, Blade made a decent faith effort at properly hitting her sofa, and then proceeded to slump down entirely. “Forgive me,” she said, “I'm not in the best state myself.”

“Hey, I get it,” Vespa said, sitting down on the other end of the sofa. It was a sofa for two, so it still wasn't very far between them. “I mean, what, you had to grapple all the way from out there to here to get home? I'd be beat.”

“True,” Blade said. “Very true.”

There was a pause. “So, I guess—I guess Vulturon called you Blade, so I'd been thinking of that as your name,” Vespa said. “But I guess it's just your executable, huh?”

“Mm,” Blade said. She nodded.

“So...” Vespa said, one arm reclining on the sofa, “should I call you Kohaku?”

There was a moment's pause. “Yes,” Kohaku said. “It's not as though it's a secret I need to keep.”

“Oh, I get it,” Vespa said, nodding. “I mean, it's not like I don't have any experience with naming myself, but... I mean, I woke up one day about a week after we met and I find out Paige went and changed the metadata of my executable to match my name, and I don't show her this of course—would look way uncool if I did—but I'll admit I cried a little.”

“Your operator seems like a very sweet woman,” Kohaku said. Vespa blinked. “I've never met the girl personally, but I had heard of her in relation to you. I had gotten the impression she was quite the improvement.”

“Oh, god, you have no idea,” Vespa said. Oh, she suddenly realized, a cooler by the side of the sofa. “You mind if I crack one open?” Kohaku shook her head, and Vespa opened up a cola. The satisfying crack of the thing was something Vespa blessed every day she got to experience in the Cyberworld—how had she lived over ten years without that wonderful sound beforehand?! Miserably, no doubt. Miserably. “She's real sweet. I like her a lot. One of these days, she's gonna get herself a girlfriend, and then I'll probably be a maid of honor at her wedding and I'm gonna cry like a baby.”

“How sweet,” Kohaku said. Vespa took a drink. “I can't say I expected you to be on your way to Manzo, of all places.”

“Funny how things work out, huh?” Vespa laughed. “So does that helmet come off, or?” Kohaku looked away. “What?”

“It's funny,” Kohaku said. “Here I am in the comfort of my own home, and yet I feel nervous to show my face.” She paused. “I... really am sorry about Necrobat. He's a kind boy, really. Very curious. It's not his fault.”

“You don't have to be worried about showing your face, first off,” Vespa said. She turned her head to look directly at Kohaku. “Really, I get it. You don't have to be embarrassed.”

After a moment's silence, Kohaku said, “Give me a moment.” She closed her eyes. Vespa actually recognized this—in her own original appearance, she hadn't been entirely humanoid, and had had no exposed skin worked into the design. When removing an armament or piece of clothing, to show what was not the default, or to have anything beneath what was never meant to be removed, a Navi needed to focus to temporarily script their appearance data away from their original design. Vespa, herself, closed her eyes when she had done this in the past—it helped her to visualize what had eventually become her modern appearance, step by step.

Then, without opening her eyes, Kohaku reached up and flicked a latch on the back of her helmet, causing a burst of simulated steam to emanate from the neck of her armor. As she lifted it, a long head of brown hair fell out, with a rich, even tone and a fair hint of volume that Vespa's straight hair could definitely not match. When she opened her eyes, they were about the same color.

Vespa honestly couldn't help but be surprised—Kohaku looked younger than she expected from her tone and behavior, perhaps a year or two younger than Vespa herself. If she were a human, Vespa wouldn't have been surprised to see the fair, unblemished skin, thin lips, tiny, pointy little nose, all of that, on an ordinary high school girl passing by on the street.

Kohaku reached into her helmet and pulled out a blue hair tie and hair band from somewhere or another, placing the hairband atop her head, behind her ears, and tying the back of her hair up into a large ponytail. Still didn't do anything about those bangs, though.

“I don't see the resemblance,” Vespa said, and Kohaku turned and raised her eyebrow. “Between us. Necrobat thought I was you.”

“Ah,” Kohaku said, giving a little chuckle. “Pass me one?” Vespa did so, and Kohaku opened it. “Sometimes I wonder how we lived without that sound for so long.”

“You too?!” Vespa said, pounding the cushion beneath her. “I was literally just thinking that. Great minds think alike, man.” Both of them nodded.

The serious, quiet expression on Kohaku's face was a lot more obvious with more than her mouth to go on. “That's a pretty neat sword,” Vespa said, nodding her head over at Kohaku's sword, which she'd managed to get into the case before crashing earlier. “How it changes shape like that. Must be convenient.”

“It comes with its fair share of problems,” Kohaku said.

“You don't look like a Kohaku,” Vespa said. Kohaku raised her eyebrow again. “I—well, I guess you do, since—well, your hair and eyes are the right color—it's just usually you dress like someone I'd expect to see at a Creamland ren faire.”

“You go to ren faires?” Kohaku asked.

“I mean, no, but I feel like people usually have a decent image of what one finds at a ren faire, right? And I mean, their queen's got that big ol' lad of a Navi, right? What's his name, uhhh...” Vespa snapped her fingers a few times. “Knightman, yeah.”

Kohaku nodded. “I don't originally come from Electopia, but the country has wound up becoming a home to me more than any other. It felt right to me to take on a name that suited it.” Pause. “It's not as though you were a wasp originally. Or did the change in name come second?”

Vespa blushed, and looked away. “Promise you won't tell anyone?” Kohaku murmured her assent. “I saw this cool scooter while I was on the run, right? And it had a cool-sounding name.”

Kohaku laughed aloud. “And you changed subfamilies for that?”

“Yeah, I did!” Vespa said, stage shouting so as not to be too loud. “Wanna fight about it?!”

—Considering that Kohaku was previously acquainted with Vulturon and had a working knowledge of Dr. Scuttler's work, it didn't come as much of a surprise that she would know about those aspects of Vespa's past. Still, though... “So what is your deal?” Vespa asked. “You and Vulturon don't seem to be on good terms.”

“I don't believe a man such as him would be on good terms with anyone with a working sense of justice,” Kohaku said.

“So how'd you get wrapped up in all this?” Vespa asked. “Quite a situation you've got going on here, fighting the mafia and taking care of a sick kid.”

Averting her eyes, Kohaku said, “The situation is... more complex than that.”

“That's fine,” Vespa said, leaning back again and taking another drink of her cola. “I mean, hey, a lot must've happened. I don't mind not knowing, just as long as you aren't hurting anybody.”

Kohaku was silent for a few moments before responding, “Thank you.” Then, a few more moments of silence. “I... appreciate that.”

“Alright,” Vespa said, “that said, I'm pretty curious about things that aren't your origin story.”

She'd been somewhat relaxed beforehand, but Kohaku's posture straightened as she turned her head back to Vespa. “I've been protecting Necrobat here for some time,” she said. “It was quite a bit of work to find a proper home, but we've been able to maintain this one. I don't know exactly about the people they deal with, but Necrobat...” She trailed off. “Alright, I should start from the top. You remember, of course, the incident that ended the Vile Numbers.”

Vespa nodded. “Yeah, 'course I do. A buncha people'd quit by then, so I think by then all that was left was... me, Queenie, Uncle Mino, Schilt, Vulturon, Schilt's partner—I never knew the guy—and I think Boarski and... Boarski and Warfly were still around, yeah. So it was the eight of us, the old man, Wolff, that dupe Schilt conned into serving as his operator, and Warfly's operator whose name I forget.

“The Hikaris were messing up Schilt's plans like hell, and he and his partner had been fighting or whatever. So, when the Hikaris turned out to have found out where the base was, and they were coming, there was a freakout. The six people who were still left on call got made to assemble and stand in the Hikaris' way. But, then, y'know, Uncle Mino comes up to me and Queenie and he says he's not going to try and stop them. They already beat him once, and he isn't at his best and he wouldn't feel good about giving them a clean fight. And he says we should consider it, too, and consider what we want to do with our lives.

“Now, they charge through Queenie and Boarski, and Scuttler says we're up next, so we're going to meet them on his turf. But... I mean, I've already lost to these guys once. I got humiliated. They clowned on me and even got a Chip with my ugly old face on it, and I'm still mad as hell about it. And they get there, and we start fighting, and I think to myself, is this really it? Am I really maybe going to get deleted fighting for people I don't even care about? And...”

Vespa trailed off, and Kohaku wasn't saying anything. Vespa took a deep breath in. “Well... I had some stuff going on, myself, y'know.”

“I do,” Kohaku said.

“So... I decide right then and there. I lower my Buster, and I cut the connection to Scuttler's PET and I start running. I don't look back. I run and I run and I run until I'm not even sure where I am anymore, and then I turn back and I see that tower Schilt liked so much blown sky high, and up there in the sky I see Megaman, in one of those crazy forms of his, landing the final hit on Schilt and sending him down into the dirt. And I turn and I keep running. And I hear later that Schilt's gone, he straight up died,” Vespa said. “And it's all over.”

“It was a bit rude of you,” Kohaku said, “to leave Queenbee to suffer another loss after you.”

“I can apologize if we run into each other again, okay? It was awkward! Like, I wasn't sure what to say, and I think neither of us were really happy, but—” Vespa sputtered. “Whatever. So. I missing anything?”

Kohaku leaned forward, and placed her elbows on her forelegs. “Vulturon avoided the fight, as well, on Schilt's orders. After that, Megaman did battle with Schilt's partner, who you didn't know. And that was the end of the Vile Numbers.”

“Wait, Vulturon dipped out, too?” Vespa asked. “Why?”

“How much did you know about Devilbat Schilt?” Kohaku asked. “Obviously, you were acquainted—your operator worked for him. But did you ever learn about his purposes as a Navi?” Vespa shook her head. “It comes down to their Core Programs.”

—At the words 'Core Program', Vespa unthinkingly grimaced. It wasn't as though it was a new term to her, or one that was unusual. Any Navi that wasn't a simple Normal Navi had a Core Program, the program that defined their basic functions and design. Some called it like a 'soul', but that wasn't necessarily true... but then, it wasn't not true, either.

For instance, she recalled, she'd heard once from the old man about a sentient virus created to spawn other viruses, which had been altered into a Navi by changing parts of its virus functions into a Core Program—no other changes had needed to be made. The Navi, Zero.EXE, had gone on to assist law enforcement in taking in a dangerous terrorist through using his modified Core Program to control existing viruses that had spawned from him on said terrorist's computer.

While creating viruses, then, was a virus's role, controlling viruses was one that a Navi already had—removing that one aberrant facet had been all that was needed to turn the core of that hyper-advanced virus into something recognizable as a true 'living being'. So, it wasn't necessarily a 'soul', but it wasn't necessarily not a 'soul', either. Or, rather, a Core Program was something that could be a soul, because it wasn't like Vespa was about to dunk on all the many nice Normal Navis she'd met that, from a metaphysical perspective, definitely had souls, most likely. Of course, then you had to consider—

Vespa shook her head, and scratched at her hair a bit. “Sorry.” The phrase brought up unpleasant memories for Vespa.

“The 'Lor-a-lua' Core that Vulturon operates with,” Kohaku said, placing her can down on the table now that it was empty, “is a program that can raise junk and scrap data into mobile forms through sound waves. You know this. You've seen him use it.” Vespa nodded. “The issue is Schilt's Core. It's a one-of-a-kind Core—the program 'Demerzel'.”

“Never heard of it,” Vespa said.

“That's natural,” Kohaku said. “One ability it grants Schilt is the ability to retain his consciousness in a state of pure electricity once his body has been destroyed, allowing him to avoid deletion if his 'spirit' isn't grounded. Schilt's contingency plan, then, was that if he were to be defeated, he would allow his spirit to go into hiding and attempt to locate Vulturon. Then, Vulturon would recombine the destroyed pieces of Schilt's body and allow Schilt to re-possess himself.”

“That's a neat trick,” Vespa said.

“However,” Kohaku said, “Demerzel, Schilt's Core Program, was destroyed when they later found it. All that was left was a few shattered pieces of what used to be Schilt's body. It wasn't going to be sufficient, not even remotely. This,” and she paused a moment for what must've been effect, “was where the Einherjar came in.

“The aims of the leaders of the Einherjar are not something that I know. However, I do know that Vulturon and Schilt entered into a partnership with them. For the Einherjar, the resources amassed by a now-dead crime lord; for Schilt, their network would allow them to obtain pieces of scrap data from other locations to make up the difference. The data they obtained came from any number of locations—fragments of a defused bomb in Okuden, bits and pieces of Nebula operatives in the Undernet... however, when Vulturon attempted to raise the body together, it wasn't able to remain together. It would simply fall apart,” Kohaku said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Vespa said, “so you're saying—?”

“Necrobat was born then, but he wasn't yet able to remain cohesive. The first thing he remembers clearly is one of the leaders of the Einherjar looking down at him, smiling, having placed that Moon Fragment in his empty eye socket.” Kohaku rubbed one of her temples. “I don't know what it is. Apparently, it's a dear treasure to the Navi who gave it to him. What I do know is that it's completely indestructible by any method I know of, and it's taken the place of the empty Core inside of Necrobat's scrap body—it's what gives him the power to remain together. And yet...”

“And it grows, huh?” Vespa asked.

“It's erratic when it happens, but the fragment will occasionally sprout that bizarre substance you saw. It'll grow inside of him, and start destroying his cohesiveness from the inside. Pieces of whatever Navis he was built from begin to take over his mind. I have to prune it, as you saw. He's supposed to tell me when he feels it happen, but...” Kohaku sighed.

“So,” Vespa said, “you're basically raising Schilt and Vulturon's kid for them because they're bad parents, and that's their beef with you?”

Kohaku nodded, and looked up at the ceiling. “Not only the Moon Fragment, of course, but the pieces of Schilt's data still present inside Necrobat—I know he desires them. I knew from the moment I met Necrobat that I needed to keep Necrobat out of Schilt's hands, not just for the sake of hurting whatever Schilt's ambitions may be, but—”

Oh, speak of the devil. The door from the bedroom, and the small, bony bat, looking even smaller now that he wasn't constantly jerking and spasming, opened the door. “Um,” Necrobat said, awkwardly shuffling out of the room, “I... I-I'm really sorry, Kohaku. It's just—well...”

“First,” Kohaku said.

“Eh?” Necrobat blinked. Vespa noticed that his ears stayed down when he was lucid, so that probably had something to do with how small he looked now. Then—“Oh!” He turned to Vespa and bowed. “Um, thank you for helping me, ma'am. That was very kind of you.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Vespa said, smiling at him.

“I—well, I didn't wanna—” Necrobat started stammering, turning back to Kohaku and then immediately averting his eye. “I didn't wanna, um, bother you? You seemed really busy the past few days, and I had plenty to read, so it wasn't so bad for a bit—”

Kohaku stood up out of her chair, her nose huffing, and Necrobat squeaked. She stomped over to him, her fists balled, and then knelt down and hugged him tightly. “I'm so glad you're okay,” she said. “I was scared to death when I came home and you weren't there.”

“But you're not dead?” Necrobat said. Pause. “Oh—um, right. I'm—”

“I know what it really was,” Kohaku said, with a scolding frown on her face even as she hugged him. “You wanted to stay up and keep doing your own thing instead of letting me help you.”

“I mean, it—it hurts, Kohaku!” Necrobat said. “And—I mean, it feels weird! I can't move! At all!”

Vespa stood up off of the couch, walked up to Necrobat, and then proceeded to lightly pinch his cheek. “Take your medicine, kiddo.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Necrobat said. As Kohaku let go of him, he bowed again. “Um, your name was... Miss Vespa, right?”

“That's right,” Vespa said. “I guess me and Kohaku are friends now.”

“Oh, that's wonderful!” Necrobat said, clapping his hands. “Kohaku needs more friends.” Kohaku gritted her teeth and recoiled as though she'd been physically struck. “What?”

Vespa laughed. “Yeah, she seems pretty dour. She'd probably be more popular if she smiled more.”

Necrobat was small enough that he managed to fit between the two of them on the sofa, so now there were three on the sofa. “—and I've been reading Cain's Jawbone recently and trying to figure it out,” he said, looking at Vespa. “It's a murder mystery, and it's really hard, I thought I'd read a lot but I feel like I've gotta take a break from it and work on it slowly.”

“I've never had a head for those things,” Vespa said. “I just read 'em and then I go, ooh, wow, when the detective says who did it.”

“That's valid,” Necrobat said. “I mean, there's no wrong way to read a mystery novel.” He scratched behind one of his ears, and probably would've blushed a little bit if he was capable of it. “I mean, I think that's what's so neat about them, really.”

“My operator and her friends are seeing a detective today,” Vespa said. Necrobat lit up. “Some famous boy detective—”

“You're actually gonna get to meet Yuu Himekago?!” Necrobat said, leaning in very close. “Can I get his autograph please please please?!”

“That'd be a bit tough,” Vespa said, “but I'll see what I can do.” Necrobat vibrated in excitement for a moment, still in close to Vespa, but then—

Necrobat's ears perked up. “Miss Vespa? You don't seem very healthy.”

“Heh?” Vespa scrunched her nose and let out a confused grunt. “Hey, worry about yourself, kid.”

“It's just, I got a reading off of my sonar and there are a lot of parts you aren't using—um, may I see your Custom Screen for a moment?” Necrobat put his hands together and bowed his head.

Vespa shrugged, sighed, and opened it up for him to see, placing the holographic display on the table in front of the sofa so that Necrobat could use it. “Don't toy with it too much,” Vespa said. “And the charge function's just broken, don't try and mess with it.”

Kohaku audibly grimaced as she looked at some of Vespa's specs. Necrobat, meanwhile, moved over from the basic Custom Screen, depicting things like Vespa's overall durability and firepower, to some of the more nitty-gritty. The Navi Customizer had an abnormal layout, as its middle four panels were unusable and broken for personal reasons, but Paige had definitely done some good work with it—Vespa had never found reason to complain. “Ah, yes—um, here it is!” Necrobat said, scrolling over to a small program and opening it up.

Vespa blinked at the menu following. There were, like, four kind of complicated bars and graphs, some of which were greyed out and some of which were filled in red, and a bunch of statistic data and—“What is this?”

Both Necrobat and Kohaku turned to her and stared at her. It was Necrobat who said, “Wait, you don't know?”

“I mean, there's no reason to mess with a good thing, right?” Vespa said. “The program did enough on its own, I thought I never needed to—” Pause. “Wait, why does the kid know about this stuff?”

“He's got a knack for it,” Kohaku said.

Necrobat's eye sparkled with a giddy little intensity. “You see! You see! It's actually quite interesting—this is the Style-Operated Upgrade Ladder, or SOUL, which is a primary equivalent of the Core Program for Normal Navis. Actually, the reason people refer to the Core Program as a 'soul' is because of the acronym of this program entering common parlance!”

Vespa blinked. “Huh.”

“So, seeing as your Core Program is... um, missing?” Necrobat said, tilting his head. “Not here. Um, your operator must've installed a SOUL inside you to take up some of the slack. It was a pretty smart move on her part, actually! See, look here—”

Necrobat gestured toward the screen, pointing one of his fingers toward the main four graphs. “Essentially, the way it works is that the SOUL tracks a Navi's combat style and allows them to develop their abilities over time accordingly. It's what allows Normal Navis to fight differently from each other despite lacking a proper Core Program, by developing their abilities over time to suit their preferences.”

“Ohhh,” Vespa said, nodding. “So it's like... is this how you get things like those Style Changes some Navis have?”

“Yes, yes!” Necrobat nodded. “See, here, you've got—the top graph here is your Trickster data, this marks down your evasiveness and speed-based maneuvers. The increases are incremental, but in layman's terms you can essentially describe it on a five level scale, and I'd put you at about a level 3.2 for Trickster. Then, um,” and he pointed to the next one down, which was greyed out but still had some slight filling inside the graph, “well, um, evidently your Swordmaster function isn't... properly working? Which isn't very surprising, since you—well, um, anyway, Swordmaster governs melee fighting and the usage of weapons, so you must use some melee-based Battle Chips, right?”

Vespa nodded. “Yeah, we use a few of them.”

“Right, right.” Necrobat pointed to the next one down, and this one was real full. “Here, this is Gunslinger, which is for ranged fighting and gunplay. Your Gunslinger score is really impressive—you're not quite to the absolute maximum yet but you're very close! And then—” The one at the bottom was greyed out, too, and it had basically nothing inside it. “Um, you don't seem to enjoy defense much, do you, Miss Vespa? Your Royalguard doesn't function properly.”

Shrugging, Vespa leaned back and said, “Used to be able to. Not really my thing.”

“Well, um, anyhow,” Necrobat said, “I was looking at it, and it looks like you haven't really been taking full advantage of it. Er, that is—do you actually fight any differently than you first did when you got this?”

“Huh,” Vespa said, crossing her arms and manifesting her Busters by her sides. “Well, when I first met Paige, the homing on my bullets' auto-targeting used to be a lot worse. They shot slower, hurt less... And there is this one function,” and she raised up a finger and pulled up the reticle over her eyes. “At some point, this thing showed up, and it kinda lets me... like, I drag my Busters over a bunch of guys and my Busters shoot a bunch of shots at once at all of them. But other than that I've kind of just gotten better at it, I guess.”

Necrobat's ears drooped. “That's good, but with a rating this high—oh, um... do you mind if I edit your permissions for a moment?”

Vespa grimaced and took a very sharp breath in. “What for?”

“If you have your permissions set such that your SOUL can provide live feedback,” Necrobat said, “you'll be able to develop new abilities instead of simply improving what you already have. Er—think about it like this. So, your Busters in their current form, um, you already had those. And you've gotten a lot of improvements for them over the course of improving your Gunslinger score. But say there was some important new feature that changed the way you fought that you unlocked at level 2, and that would keep getting upgrades as you leveled it up further, too. That sort of data hasn't been properly reaching you.”

—It took a moment before Vespa realized entirely what he meant. “Oh,” she said. “So...” She looked down at her Busters. They were holsterable firearms now, rather than an in-built weapon, and in modifying them so, in her haste she'd cut them off from several internals. “So you're saying... Okay, basically what you're saying is I've gotten really, really good at doing what I can already do, but there's a bunch of potential for new things that I could've already learned how to do, but didn't because I fucked myself and my permissions up.”

After a moment's pause to think about the wording, Necrobat nodded and said, “Yes, basically.”

Vespa turned inward for a moment to think. The idea of anyone but Paige editing her permissions, and especially doing so like that, did fill her with a bit of anxiety. But—well, that was nothing compared to the pit of anxiety she felt when Flauclaws first brought up Scuttler's name. She'd barely been able to think straight. This incident having followed them—it likely meant they would meet again.

And... Paige was always improving. Editing the deck, becoming a better Netbattler. She was always improving. No matter how much the idea scared Vespa, if she was going to have to face the old man again, and Paige was putting in her best effort—then it was only right for Vespa to do so even if she really didn't want to, right?

Vespa looked over at Kohaku's sword.

With a sudden, glowering seriousness, Vespa stood up off the sofa with Necrobat still reading her Custom Screen, pulled out her Busters, and then—slammed them together. The two six-shooters' bullet holes flipped open, and as they slammed together, the Busters latched together and shifted shape slightly into a more ergonomic, single form. Shifting away from the flaps on the side, the chambers elongated.

Having merged into one, her Busters were no longer two six-shooters—Vespa brandished a shotgun, now. “Like this, huh?” Vespa asked.

Kohaku gave her a golf clap, and then said, “If you fire that inside my home, I will cut you down where you stand.” Necrobat, for his part, actually did clap.

Vespa holstered her new shotgun—hm, if the six-shooters were the Vesper Chasers, then maybe... Vesper Buckshot, that sounded rad—and turned back, grinning. “You were the one who gave me the idea.”

“It's a reasonable principle,” Kohaku said, crossing her legs and placing her elbow on the side of her sofa. “Your original Buster—”

“Could change shape anyway, yeah,” Vespa said. “I just figured I broke that when I messed with 'em and all.”

Kohaku sighed and frowned. “How on Earth can someone possibly be this incurious about her own internal workings?”

“Yeah, switch the permissions, Necrobat,” Vespa said, and gave him a thumbs up. “Maybe I'll give Paige some crazy surprises, and she'll go,” and she put her hands under her chin and started wiggling back and forth with eyes closed, “oh, wow, Vespa, you really are the best Navi ever created! I'm so glad we're partners! And I'll go,” and she put on an incredibly loudly smug grin and swung her hips to give herself some swagger, “yeah, well, I couldn't do it without you, toots.”

“Um!” Necrobat raised his hand, and Vespa nodded at him. “If Miss Paige is your operator, then she's the one who installed this in you in the first place. She would probably know that you had a lot of potential you hadn't been using.”

Pause.

Vespa coughed. “Oh, god. Do I have to—Should I apologize?” She started pacing around, rubbing her forehead. “I feel like I should apologize. Like, I—wow. Okay. I mean, I trusted her, y'know, but—have I been hurting her feelings? Does she stay up at night wondering if I've ever even really noticed how well she's helped me survive?”

With a pained groan, Vespa stopped pacing to fall to her hands and knees, wailing on the ground. “I hate thinkiiiiing!”

“I'm... glad I could help?” Necrobat said, with a nervous look to Kohaku. Kohaku patted him on the head and smiled at him.

“Ugh,” Vespa said, staggering up, “first I get my butt kicked by a weeby horse, and now I had to actually engage in introspection! I don't know which is worse!” Even when she was stood up, though, her shoulders sagged. “Maybe I should seek therapy.”

“Is introspection really that hard?” Necrobat asked Kohaku. Kohaku shrugged.

“Okay,” Vespa said, whipping her head up, “it is time to stop thinking about the intricacies of my own mental state and return to being an irreverent, wisecracking cool kid.” She raised up three fingers. “Three. Two. One.” With a deep breath in, Vespa closed her eyes, then reopened them and pumped her fists. “Al-right, mojo back!”

After a few more minutes' conversation, Vespa said, “I should probably get going. I don't wanna impose too long and I wanna be sure I can get back as soon as they're done.” Inwardly, she wondered what on earth was taking this detective so darn long. “Thanks for having me!”

Kohaku, who'd put her helmet and cloak back on to see Vespa off, nodded. “You helped Necrobat,” she said, “and I already knew I could most likely trust you.”

“And, uh...” Vespa scratched her head. “Well, I guess you two don't really have PETs, but—I mean, do you want my number?”

Since Kohaku's helmet was back on, the neutral line of her lips didn't tell Vespa much. “Your number?”

“Yeah,” Vespa said. She grinned. “I mean, we're friends now, right?”

“Oh, you'd—” Necrobat, who was almost entirely camouflaged by Kohaku's cloak, perked up. “Um, would you like to come over again? Is that—?”

“Yeah, sure,” Vespa said. She knelt down to rub Necrobat's head. “Ahh, heck, I can't resist a good sob story. I'm sure Paige'll be on board, too. I guess if I tell her to get more friends, it's fine for me to get more friends too, right?”

Kohaku had looked down, her mouth hidden by the cloak. “Friends, hm?”

“Uh-huh,” Vespa said. “I mean, you saved me, you're cool, and I've spent a while inside your house. I think we're friends now. So... call me if you need anything, y'know?”

There was a moment of silence, and then—“Of course,” Kohaku said, nodding. “It's... nice to hear you say that.”

“Aw, heck,” Vespa said, proceeding to rub the top of Kohaku's helmet, too (which got a grunt and a grimace,) “you kids got me all sentimental. Big Sis Vespa's gotta go now, though.”

There wasn't much chance for a wave and a goodbye as Vespa left, given the secrecy of the home, but both Kohaku and Necrobat bowed to Vespa as she left. “I hadn't known entirely what to expect from you,” Kohaku said, “but it seems... I can't help but find you likable, Vespa.”

“Cryptic and complimentary, you've really got this thing down,” Vespa said, giving a wave over her shoulder as she put her hand on the doorknob. “Later! Call me if you need me! I'm fast, I can ride motorcycles!”

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Autumn Quadrant

There were a lot more trees once you entered the brilliant reds and oranges of the Autumn Quadrant, and the cold wind simply became cool, instead. As she walked, Vespa stretched, and idly wondered, seriously, what on Earth was taking this detective so darn long? It had been a few hours by this point. Perhaps she'd go impose on Chronoforce's date to see what was happening.

The pathways here were cobbled out of stone, and a number of torii gates hung above the walkway. Apparently, there was a replica of a noteworthy shrine from the area that had long ago burnt down in a lightning strike, so that was an interesting point of reference, maybe. Still, her brain was beginning to slow down and lose its ability to properly digest points of tourism attraction, plus she'd dropped her pamphlet at some point while carrying Necrobat to his home.

Yawning, Vespa idly noticed that the streets on this quadrant were fairly empty. Surprisingly so, really, given the time of day. Was there something she'd idly bumbled into that she—

And then she smelled a scent,

one that she most certainly should not have smelled here,

but one that she also recognized,

and as a flash of vivid memory forced its way into her mind, she turned in the direction she'd smelled it.

It was down an alleyway, where she heard what sounded like the Officials talking about something. She smelled it. She smelled something that she certainly should not have smelled here.

After all, that substance didn't exist in the Cyberworld. Or, rather, it shouldn't exist in the Cyberworld.

Vespa's legs slowed down, but she began to wander down the alleyway, her eyes both unfocused and locked on forward. The awnings above had pennants hung to make up for the lack of trees, and a few koi-themed windsocks flew in the breeze.

And it had the scent that Vespa followed.

She took a right turn, and sure enough, there were some Officials. And... holographic police tape over one of the turns off of this alley. She was likely going to be ejected if she was seen,

but she needed to see what she had smelled.

So, her body seeming to constantly resist every single step she took forward, and every bit of the anxiety she'd felt in the past few weeks bubbling up and redoubling again and again, threatening to crush her from within with its biting chill, Vespa stepped forward again, and again, until she was able to turn her head to look down the alley that was closed off by the police tape.

Ah,

she thought.

I see. Of course. It was that, after all.

Blood.

Blood in streaks on the ground, originating from a mess in the back of the alleyway. Whoever this Navi was, they were no longer much of anything. The blood said that much. What was left of the body was so covered in it that detail was hard to make out, but Vespa could see what was most important.

The bite marks.

Limbs cut off at the stump with the rough chewing motion of mad fangs. A torso chewed clean through, ripped of all of the data it could possibly hold. A head streaked with blood, which was now more gone than not, ripped off by a mad, freakish maw.

But Vespa saw one thing on that head. What was left of the Navi's final screams.

On August 29, 20XX, in the district of Manzo,

this Navi, whoever they were,

was eaten alive, made to bleed in a bloodless world, and murdered

and Vespa, who witnessed the aftermath,

fell onto the ground and screamed as loud as she possibly could.

Chapter Text

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Autumn Quadrant (Scene of the Murder)

“...a'am. Ma'am!”

As Vespa's screams finally faded from lack of air in her lungs, she realized that there were Officials around her, looking down with a mix of sympathy and concern. She'd been placed on a chair, and that—that thing wasn't anywhere in sight.

Vespa's head pounded with adrenaline, fear, and a sort of pain—the pain of unwanted memories barging their way into her head. “Who,” said a mustachioed Navi who Vespa guessed was the head constable in the area, “left a pathway open into the murder scene?!”

“S-sorry, sir!” said a young-looking lady who hurriedly bowed. “I've, um, never covered a murder scene before, sir!”

It was then that Vespa regained enough consciousness of herself to realize she was hyperventilating. Breathe, she thought. She closed her eyes and breathed, one, two, three, one, two, three. Okay, maybe she was a little better.

“We're really sorry, ma'am,” said a blocky orange program-style Navi who looked vaguely familiar. “I hope you won't take all this as being indicative of our town. Things like this never happen here.”

“What the hell?” Vespa responded. She idly realized that they must've checked out her credentials to figure out who she was.

“That's what we're wondering,” the Official responded. “It's not like any deletion I've ever seen—”

“I'm not a suspect, am I?” Vespa's eyes refocused and her posture grew rigid.

“Oh, no, ma'am,” the Official said, shaking his head. “Even if we did find a program inside you that somehow did this, we've got video footage of you in the human world at around the time the murder occurred—”

“Why are you telling the civilian this?” The huffy, mustachioed Navi barged in, getting unsettlingly close to his orange subordinate.

“Well, sir,” his subordinate said, “she was catatonic for several minutes and I'd rather we didn't have mishandling of a civilian on our record for the day.”

Vespa bent over, placing her forehead in her hand. What the hell? How could this—? No, no, no, no. This was bad. This was really, really bad. A corpse like that—a corpse left to bleed and die after being eaten, in the Cyberworld—she should've expected something like this, but then, should she have? I mean, this was totally unreasonable, right?

Staggering to her feet, Vespa threw her hand back to catch herself on the wall she was sitting near. A few orange and red leaves, scattered across the ground, crunched underfoot as she stood up. “Sorry,” she said, vaguely waving at the Officials, “sorry I got in your way. I'll—bye.”

People said things at her, she thought, but she didn't spend the time to decipher them. She staggered against the wall, her stomach heavy with nausea. Shit, a wry part of her brain thought, why the hell do I have to experience nausea?

Leaves crunched underfoot. Sweat ran down Vespa's forehead. She crossed over, back to where she'd first smelled that awful, sickly iron smell, through the alleys, and then—

[Override command, status refresh. Need vestibular senses back online at full capacity.]

<ERROR: Overall effectiveness at 30%. Please reinstall CORE PROGRAM: “Stratos.bat” to avoid debilitation on sudden overrides.>

[What? We have one now. No.]

<Failure to reinstall “Stratos.bat” has lasted: (1693) days. Status of overall cohesion: CRITICAL. Make contact to manufacturer?>

[What? No! Hell no! We don't even have his number anymore!]

<Call to Dr. Scuttler declined. Please locate manual install of “Stratos.bat”—>

[Stupid OS—uh, here, redirect CORE PROGRAM permissions to “SOUL.bat”.]

<Are you certain? This NetNavi's purpose is to host the CORE PROGRAM, “Stratos.bat”.>

[According to who?]

<This Navi's operator, Dr. Heinrich Scuttler.>

[...Did I seriously get knocked so hard my OS reset to default settings? Nobody ever talks about the effects of trauma when you're a Navi, I swear. Please read the registered status of this Navi.]

<Registered name: “Vespa.exe”. Registered Operator: “Tempo P. Watters-Markham.”>

<...>

<Registered shift in name. Recognizing “Vespa” as Navi's title. Update NaviChip?>

[Yes.]

<NaviChip updated: “Vespa H”. Note that previous iterations of your NaviChip will still be—>

[I know. Those idiot Hikaris have it. Continue.]

<Registered shift in Operator. Recognizing “Tempo Markham” as administrator.>

[Call her Paige.]

<Registered Operator rename: “Paige Markham.”>

[Read metadata of “SOUL.bat”.]

<'Style-Operated Upgrade Ladder', a substitution Core Program for Navis who lack a dedicated Core. Installed on December 26, 20XX-4, by 'Paige Markham'.>

<...>

<Recognized substitution in Core Program by registered Operator. Switch CORE PROGRAM permissions to “SOUL.bat”?>

[Yes! Thank you! Do that!]

<...>

<Registered CORE PROGRAM as “SOUL.bat”. Overall effectiveness has increased to 40%. Congratulations! You leveled up!>

[Yeah yeah, okay. Override command, status refresh. I need my vestibular senses back, OS. Now.]

<Overall effectiveness at 40%. Please seek repairs to avoid debilitation on sudden overrides.>

[Yeah yeah, I will, just do it.]

<Refreshing.>

And there was that familiar sensation. Ahh, like Vespa'd just been punched in the head. She reeled back, her vision blurry, and then blinked away the blurriness as her senses restored themselves to full operating capacity.

Which brought her, of course, to the reason she'd needed to not be nauseous right now. Over in the distance in this alleyway was a squid-like Navi in a rose-colored tricorn hat and a dark red cloak that covered his body. He was bipedal, but beneath his cloak, Vespa saw the rest of his arms floating about like blades. He was black-colored, primarily, with small green lines for his eyes and across his tentacles. Thin, by the look of things, but not weak—any layman could see this was not your average Navi.

He stood atop an awning, casually tapping away at a holographic notepad and humming a little tune to himself. If Vespa were less certain of her eyesight, she'd probably think she were hallucinating. There was no way she could possibly be this lucky, could she? The great thief, Tech Kraken, the guy they were chasing, was standing right there? Putting a tacky-looking rose in his beak for effect, no less?

Vespa let out a barking laugh, then hopped up from a trash can to an awning herself. “Hey, you!”

Dismissing his notepad and holding his hat as he turned his head, Tech Kraken said, “Oh, my. This wouldn't happen to be your street, would it?” He winked. “I assure you, if you need your awning back, I don't have any problem getting off. It was just such a lovely vantage point, I couldn't help myself~” He chuckled to himself.

Blink. “What?” Vespa said. Then she shook her head. “No, it's not about the awning! You're Tech Kraken! The phantom thief!”

“Ah!” Kraken said. “It's always so nice to meet a fan.” Suddenly, he was just there on the same awning as Vespa. “Would you like my autograph?” He said, leaning in. “Publicly, I'm jailed, so I'm sure your friends will be awfully jealous.”

—A Buster was pressed up against Kraken's beak. He made a little crowing noise of surprise. “You stole Gaudile's Whatever Key,” Vespa said. Her face was affixed in a tight, cold frown. “That means you're working with Scuttler, and that means I had a bone to pick with you even before I found a murder. Talk, and maybe I won't blow your beak off.”

“Oh my,” Kraken said, a bit nasally from the pressing against his beak. “It seems I've drastically misread your intentions, a terrible misstep on my part! If you'd like a key, ma'am, I can get you one. Would you like the key to the city?” He winked.

—A blast rang out, and hit nothing but the wall. A fluttering red afterimage of Kraken dissipated in front of Vespa, as she looked up to see him sitting on the side of the rooftop. “Yoo-hoo!” He waved. “There's no need to use violence, milady. If you shoot me, I'll die, you know.”

“I can temper myself,” Vespa said, gritting her teeth. “What's the deal with you and your 'Einherjar', huh? What's so important you've gotta work with that old bastard for it?!”

“Hm, well, I could spin you a nice yarn, if you'd like,” Kraken said. He stood up, and spun around, backflipped, and struck a pose in the air. “I am an artist at heart, you know!”

Vespa spat. The rooftops weren't that high, so... Right. She closed her eyes to visualize her trick, then—“Alright, then spin me a yarn!” Lucky she'd just picked up that WindRack, as she set it on a delayed timer from her position, then leapt off of the awning and let loose her wings. The gust of wind from her purchase gave her enough lift to get near the top of the wall, and with a burst of physical inspiration, she turned her momentum onto the wall to run up the rest of the way, landing on the roof in front of the posing Kraken.

Kraken whistled, then clapped. “Ooh, that's a nice application of physics! What a smart young lady you are.”

Vespa produced her twin Busters, then started rapidly firing at Kraken's feet. Kraken, in response, started deftly stepping around the bullets, making a few squawking noises as he did before bursting into a little tune and proceeding to do the can-can around Vespa's shots. “Whooo! This is great exercise!” Kraken sang. “Oh, but wait wait wait, don't act so rashly, my girl. I thought you were trying to get me to talk.”

“Bugs the crap out of me when someone talks more than I do,” Vespa said.

This clearly wasn't working, as Kraken disappeared from his position again and stood atop the slanted roof of the building they stood on. “They shot a movie here once, you know. Thunder Boy Lives Twice! Sequel to Midnight Thunder Boy. A thrilling action-suspense starring a devil with a kind heart.” He clapped to himself, and his rose sparkled as a few autumn leaves passed by behind him in a well-timed gust of wind. “Definitely gets my recommendation.”

“Huh, really,” Vespa said. She leapt up to the roof, and the two of them stood at odds with each other atop its twin peaks. “Alright. So I guess we're doing this the hard way.”

“Let the record show,” Kraken said, tipping his hat, “that you shot first, ma'am?”

“I'm not giving up my shot,” Vespa said. “You're going down, and then you're gonna tell me everything about the old man.”

“Oh, which one? I know so many doddering old men,” Kraken said. “Without your operator, though?”

“She'll thank me later,” Vespa said.

“If you insist, I can play with you!” Kraken said, clapping again.

“Solo routine, set!” “This is where I thrive! Lights, camera—”

“Execute!” “Action!”

“And with that, ta-ta!” Kraken gave a little salute, before turning and leaping away, afterimages fluttering behind him. “You'd best keep up!”

“Wha—” Vespa sputtered. “Hey, get back here!”

From his vantage point, Kraken had leapt from the roof they'd been on to a flatter roof to the side, turning his head to the side to see if Vespa was following. She was—she took the same leap, closing the distance between them. He vanished again, but Vespa was ready for it this time—she'd opened her targeting module and traced Kraken, so the shots she fired bent to the side as Kraken dodged onto a wall in the center of town, striking him as he reappeared.

As Vespa leapt across the rooftops to get over there, Kraken wailed. “Oh, my goodness! A Cursor property! My one weakness! How dare you!” With an overwrought bending over, he took the rose from his mouth, leapt into the air, and tossed it downward at Vespa.

Vespa dodged to the side, and the rose stuck into the roof. “Get over it, you baby,” she said, looking back and steadying herself to chase his downward arc—wait, where'd he go?

“Oh, alright,” said Kraken from—behind Vespa?! She managed to jump over just in time as his bladed tentacles rocketed out toward her feet from behind her. Kraken's head poked out of a rose-colored portal in the roof, and he tipped his hat. “Hi there!” He hopped out.

“Huh,” Vespa said. “Guess that makes sense for a great thief.”

“That it does. Such a convenient trick, isn't it?” Kraken said. “Anyhow, ta!” Then, Vespa noticed another rose railing out behind him that one of his cloaked arms had thrown, and Kraken leapt into the portal he'd come through to hop out on the outer wall of the Autumn Quadrant.

Vespa clicked her tongue, and scanned her surroundings. This wall was pretty flat, but maybe she could find some way over... Ah! Leaping across to another rooftop, she had a vantage point to run across the gate separating Autumn and Summer to cross walls. Kraken was still running, performing tricks in mid-air as he leapt from building to building. “Get back here!”

As he performed a roll in mid-air, Kraken cried, “Watch your feet, miss!” Then, he flung open his cloak and thrust three rose-red spectral blades that hung in the air along the arc of his fall. There was a skull-shaped apparatus on his back that produced the roses, it looked like. He landed, tipped his hat, moonwalked, and planted two more spectral blades behind him.

Crossing from season to season, the heat picked up immediately. Vespa started firing again on Kraken, who was still moonwalking, and he took some shots, to be sure, but after a brief bit of recoil he spun around and clapped—

—and then those spectral blades were positioned around Vespa, thrusting inward! She ducked, and managed to avoid their stab, but when they detonated in mid-air after colliding, that got Vespa a bit. “Tch.” Vespa clicked her tongue.

“Not that you asked,” Kraken said, “but aren't my Abyss Tracers the most elegant weapon? I've hardly got to worry about carrying anything and I've got such brilliant strategic opportunities to use—”

“Can it!” Vespa said, getting up and firing at him again. This time, two of Kraken's arms flew out to materialize a mirror floating horizontally in mid-air, and another two threw roses down in a V-pattern. Kraken leapt into one, and Vespa's bullets followed—but at their speed, while Kraken ducked out of the loop, the bullets hit the mirror in mid-air and reflected back into the portal they'd entered.

“Oh, I'm so sorry, sweetie,” Kraken said, placing his primary tentacles up to his face to lower his head onto, his voice getting just so piercingly cloying. “It looks like that isn't going to work.”

Vespa was only one roof away from Kraken, but he raised his right tentacle, and then threw down several roses in a straight arc, lining Vespa's path with small portals. He dove into another, just below his feet, and his arms started poking rapidly out of Vespa's path, almost daring her to try and get past.

“Why don't you just aim at me?” Vespa said.

“Why would I do that? I'm having a great time!” Kraken responded.

There were seven portals in front of her, but Vespa, from the sound of Kraken's voice, headed toward the one on the furthest left and grabbed the arm as it came out by the stem, not the blade. She pulled, and yanked Kraken's head out of it. “Oof!” Kraken said, whining as his tentacles stopped. “Rude!”

He likely wasn't expecting Vespa to, quick as a wink, slam her Busters together and levy her sparkly new Vesper Buckshot right into his face. “Oh dear,” Kraken said.

“Dodge this,” Vespa said. He didn't. Kraken popped out on the next roof over, waving his tentacles on his face and moaning loudly about his beautiful face or something.

Huffing to himself, Kraken placed his primary tentacles around his waist area. “Alright,” Kraken said, “so you caught up. Great work, really lovely stuff. If you're going to get rough, though, so am I.”

“About time,” Vespa said. She launched forward with her Buckshot to plaster him in the face, but he disappeared into the ground and reappeared behind her.

Seven of his arms stretched out from under his red cloak, and began to construct another mirror in mid-air. Kraken shot out several mirrors, see-through but glinting into the light, in an almost arbitrary-seeming pattern. When Vespa stepped forward, Kraken's eighth arm launched a rose toward one of the mirrors from beneath his cloak, and it ricocheted off of each of the mirrors at high speed before it stuck itself—right behind Vespa's ear?

“Ah!” Kraken said, clapping his tentacles. “You look lovely with a rose in your hair! I'm serious, for the record—the red really works with your complexion, so fiery! You wanna keep it?”

Vespa fired again, and a few stray bits of buckshot beaned Kraken, but not enough to stop him from spinning away to the corner of this flat rooftop, leaving a few Abyss Tracers hanging in the air behind him. Vespa grimaced, and ducked, predicting an attack—and sure enough, far from just hanging in the air like they'd done previously, after a short delay each one rocketed toward the rose in Vespa's hair, shooting over her and then staying in the air when they missed.

Kraken clapped to recall them, and they hung in an X formation behind his back. “Aww, was that too obvious?”

“It's a neat trick,” Vespa said. She tried to brush the rose away, but it was affixed. “If you've got all this, I can see how you got a reputation.”

“He who doesn't think hast not won even once,” Kraken said, tipping his hat. “You're not bad yourself, Miss. May I have your name for this dance?”

Blink. “Wait, you don't know it?” Vespa said.

“Are you someone I'm supposed to recognize?” Kraken said, tilting his head. “You wouldn't happen to have been in a film or two?”

Vespa shook her head. “Never mind. It's Vespa.”

“Vespa! Ah, so you're a wasp,” Kraken said. “Lovely creatures. You certainly sting like one, a ha ha, ow~”

“Yeah, I try,” Vespa said, cocking her head to the side. She looked at herself in a mirror, and poked the rose, then turned to properly inspect herself. “Huh. You're right, it does look good on me, doesn't it?”

Kraken came over and nodded, looking at her in the mirror. “Red's my color, of course, so I'm a touch biased, but it really does bring out your eyes. You seem a bit futchy, if you'll pardon my observation, but have you considered a flamenco dress? You'd look absolutely stunning!”

“The red, floofy ones?” Vespa asked.

“The very same,” Kraken responded.

“Huh,” Vespa said. “I'll keep that in mind.”

Vespa leapt backwards to dodge an angled strike from Kraken's tentacle, then dashed back in for another blast with the Buckshot. Kraken vanished, so Vespa split her Busters into the Chasers again, and let the homing of the bullets clue her into where Kraken was going to reappear. "That's a nice hat," Vespa said. "Where'd you get it?"

"Ah, can you believe it? It was just sitting in the back of a train when I was just a boy. I saw it and it was true love at first sight!" As Vespa approached, Kraken clapped, and the Abyss Tracers he'd manifested reappeared around them, their color intensifying. Vespa sped on through as fast as she could into Kraken's face, but the detonation stymied her enough that he disappeared again. In response, Vespa thrust one Buster behind her and another above her, and began firing as she spun around.

"Oh, dear me!" Kraken exclaimed, this time doing a prisyadka to dodge the bullets he'd wandered into the path of. "Such panache! Such gumption!" Vespa redirected her other Buster at him, and ducked her head to the side to avoid an Abyss Tracer that launched itself at her head, then reappeared behind Kraken. As though they weren't an obstacle in the slightest, though, he weaved to the side, afterimages following behind him, and ducked around the path of Vespa's bullets to get in for a close-range strike.

"Sometimes," Kraken said, as Vespa weaved her head between his blades, "I do so prefer a more intimate dance, you know?"

Vespa grinned, baring her teeth, as she repaid the favor with an uppercut to Kraken's torso. He managed to dodge out of the way, but through the cloak, Vespa felt herself make contact with one of his arms. "Owie~" Kraken said, flying back further than he'd been hit for to leave a trail of Abyss Tracers, which he called to behind him—a cloud of ten of them hung behind him, and he re-oriented the mirrors with a swift movement to place them around Vespa.

—Wait, Vespa realized. When had all those portals gotten around her?!

"And in the end, we are all satisfied," Kraken tipped his hat and turned around, and his formation of Abyss Tracers dashed into the portals and into the mirrors to place Vespa in a tight pincushion, blades sailing toward her head, bouncing across mirrors, passing through portals, never stopping as they continued to reflect in a loop.

When an Abyss Tracer stuck itself into Vespa's head after her best attempts at dodging, it didn't hurt much—it just sort of sat there, not even really puncturing so much as just existing. That said, if they all stuck in and detonated at once, she was sure to take massive damage. Think, think, think—

A few near-instantaneous calculations got Vespa her out, and she started firing toward one of the edges of the mirrors, giving her a perfect line of fire towards Kraken. That managed to surprise him, and through the mirrors, even if she focused on dodging, she could see him and get a bead on him just fine.

It took long enough that any tags disappeared from her body, and Kraken had to recall his other projectiles to his back, his formation now much smaller. "Clever, clever!" Kraken said, clapping genuinely, not as a command. "But I'm afraid I'm far from done. I—"

An awkward beep, signifying a re-established communication, rang out. "What did I tell you about antagonizing civilians?!" shouted a voice Vespa wasn't familiar with. Kraken flinched.

"Oh, but my darling Yuu, she shot first!" Kraken said, wilting. "She seemed so excited about the idea of pounding stories about old men out of me, how could I—"

"No excuses, Kraken," 'Yuu' said. "You were supposed to be investigating."

Vespa stared blankly as Kraken looked up to the sky in the direction of his apparent operator. "I did investigate! I've got so many notes. Besides, you don't classify inspecting a witness to the crime scene as investigation?"

A second beep, and this time it was in Vespa's ear. "Vespa!" That was Paige, and she'd clearly been pretty nervous from the heaviness of her breath. "Where have you been?!"

"Oh, uh," Vespa said, "didn't you get my message?"

Paige sighed in that 'she's clearly rubbing her temples' way. "Let's... let's just jack out. Please stop fighting."

"But—?" Vespa pointed at Kraken.

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Himekago Detective Agency

"What do you mean the detective is Kraken's operator?!" Vespa shouted.

The Himekago Detective Agency was an eclectic place, as Detective Himekago was a collector of various knicknacks. A magician's saw trick box, an automatic spinning cyber-goldfish bowl, a series of fancy Victorian hats, several bowling balls, an arcade machine for Mrs. Pac-Man... Despite this, it was clearly well-organized, and the central sofas, chairs, and coffee table where Yuu met his clients was clean, well-kept, and inviting.

—To be clear here, Paige and Vespa sat together on a sofa. Audrey and Scoops took a second, as Eiji had stayed back at his house. Then, on the other sofa across the coffee table were Yuu and, well, Tech Kraken.

Yuu cleared his throat at Vespa's shout, and said, "When we took Kraken in, I thought to myself that he would be an awfully useful person to have on our side, and I didn't have a NetNavi of my own."

"He comes to my cell, you see," Kraken said, with a nostalgic tone in his voice, "and says just the right words to convince me! My darling Yuu knows how to entice me with intellectual stimulation, you know. He's the greatest of partners!"

Scoops raised her hands, when Vespa turned her head to look at her. "Hey, I didn't know, either!" Scoops said, and then she pouted. "Couldn't even tell your pal Scoops, huh, Yuu?"

"It's a secret for a number of reasons," Yuu said, rubbing the top of his head. "Kraken has a reputation. Bad as it sounds for me to say, he makes an excellent scapegoat—this isn't the first time we've gotten a copycat crime like this. He's also, obviously, an excellent infiltrator, and he's a very smart man, if eccentric."

"Oh, you're going to inflate my ego if you keep complimenting me~" Kraken said, putting his head in his tentacles and rolling it back and forth like he was overtaken by a cute animal or something.

"What the hell convinces a great thief to work with a detective?" Audrey said, raising her eyebrow.

"You misunderstand," Kraken said, sitting up straight. "I like solving problems as much as anyone else! Cracking a good puzzle is just ever so satisfying."

"Yeah," Yuu said, grinning, "there's no change of heart here. He's just like this."

"With that said," Kraken said, laughing to himself, "had I still been in the thievery business, I probably would've stolen this Key—it sounds awfully like a nice present for me to crack open and decipher. This faker of yours has my taste down to a T, but the methodology? Bringing a brute along to claw through the security? Activating the alarms to pin the professor down?" He scoffed. "Dreadful! The sign of an amateur. A truly great thief is out before anyone realizes they're there at all! And that imitation of my calling card, pah!"

Paige bowed her head to Kraken. "I'm really sorry about Vespa, sir."

Before Kraken could say anything smarmy in response, Yuu pulled a gold-foiled chocolate coin from his pocket, unwrapped it, and flipped the coin into the air before catching it in his mouth. He chewed it for a few moments, then decisively swallowed it. "Alright," he said, "I'm thinking now."

Vespa sat up and blinked. "What the heck was that?"

"He's a big fan," Scoops said. "Loves the taste of 'em—he got hooked on 'em by Yayoi, that's the older Murasaki, I mentioned them earlier?"

"So," Yuu said, lilting his hands up and closing his eyes. "let me get this straight." He stood up, and started pacing. "You—Paige and Vespa—were present for the theft of Dr. Harold Gaudile's Erosion Key, which he wouldn't tell you the purpose of. The culprits framed the great thief Tech Kraken for it, and it seems that there are links to the mafia group Vile Numbers. You, Scoops, and you, Ms. Longhener, you're here because you wound up becoming friends with Paige, same as Eiji."

Yuu hadn't opened his eyes once during this rant, but he apparently knew where everything in his office was, as he wasn't tripping on anything. "This group, according to Asahi Makimura, a member, calls themselves the Einherjar, and appear to not be a formal criminal group so much as a social club of people who agree with the unspecified motivations of their leader, who goes by 'K'. Another member of this group is Panter Flauclaws, of the 'Beast Brigade', who assisted K in the theft of the Erosion Key. Makimura hastily attempted to take the communications tower for the Ika Line against K's orders, but your group stopped her and prevented any injury."

At this point, he'd begun using his cane like a conductor's baton, conducting to a tune only he could hear. "Apparently, the brunt of the group do not intend criminality—aside from 'independent contractors' Devilbat Schilt, Vulturon, and Heinrich Scuttler, evidently they believe their cause is just." Then—

Flash. His eyes opened.

"First off, it's clear that this event has ties to the mafia group Vile Numbers. Not just from what you told me, but from Vespa's behavior when she discovered the murder scene, and her behavior towards Kraken," Yuu said. Paige saw Vespa's knuckles tighten. "Miss Vespa, am I incorrect in assuming that you are a former member of Vile Numbers yourself?"

After a moment, Vespa shook her head. "No, I was. I was the old man's Navi, so it would've been hard for me not to be."

"Right," Yuu said, "so you're Dr. Scuttler's former Navi. Based on the time frame, I can make another assumption—are you familiar with the Kichijoji Cannibal?"

—What? "What?" Paige asked. "What does that mean?"

"Roughly four years, seven months ago," Yuu said, as he produced a case file from a cubby hole in the wall, then spun over to open the case file onto the coffee table for his clients to see, "a Navi by the name of Blazin' Flizard—a 'hot-headed C-Slider enthusiast—was murdered near the residential district of Kichijoji." Vespa went white. "Details of the case were kept mum to the public, but much like the victim in today's case, Flizard was devoured, eaten alive and found in a pool of blood. Rumors from spotty accounts of those who caught a glimpse of the corpse have made the Kichijoji Cannibal Navi an urban legend in the area."

Yuu turned again and tapped his cane on the arm of the sofa he'd been sat on, before swiveling around to behind the sofa. "Investigation into the victim's personal life unearthed that Flizard was a member of the Vile Numbers mafia group himself. If the killer has struck again, it'd be natural that you'd be aware of the prior case."

Vespa was breathing pretty hard, and Paige reached her hand over to hold Vespa's fist. "As such," Yuu said, "I gather that you assume the two cases are related."

"It's not an assumption," Vespa said, her voice a bit ragged with heavy breathing. For their parts, Audrey and Scoops looked pretty concerned... well, Audrey in her Audrey way, at least. "It's the exact same killer. The same person who killed Flizard killed this guy."

"Then you know who the Kichijoji Cannibal is," Yuu said. "Care to enlighten me?"

"Not—not right now," Vespa said. She shook her head. "No. I—look, it's—"

Yuu sat back down, and leaned forward, clasping his hands together. "I understand," he said, "that it must be very traumatic for you. I won't pressure you to tell me immediately—if you can give me your word that by investigating this Einherjar case, I'm coming closer to avenging the death of someone I knew."

"Huh?" Vespa blinked.

"The victim today," Yuu said. "His name was Ballade. This isn't a large town—I'm sure Scoops knew him, too. He handled firework displays for our summer festivals."

It took a moment for Scoops to react, but—"Ballade? Wait, sunglasses Ballade?" Scoops said, standing up out of her seat. "Gets around in a CopyBot and hands little kids balloons that go pop when they get too high Ballade?"

"The very same," Yuu said.

Pause. "Oh," Scoops said. She sat back down, and looked down into her lap. "Oh."

"Yeah," Vespa said, nodding and looking Yuu in the eyes. "Yeah, this is the way to go. It's—" She sighed, before clapping her cheeks. "Geez. It's a long story, maybe I'll tell you later, but yeah."

"Alright," Yuu said, nodding. "Thank you." He put his chin in his hand. "There's also the matter of this 'Moon Fragment', and the lost Navis you found hiding out in Manzo. This Kohaku, she wasn't a previous member of the Vile Numbers?"

Vespa shook her head. "Nope. I've got no idea where she came from."

"Well, we'll mark that down on things to wonder about," Yuu said. He grabbed a wine glass from a small cabinet near his sofa, then switched hands to present it to Kraken. Kraken, for his part, already had a glass of grape juice ready to go. "Thanks."

"My pleasure, partner," Kraken said with a tip of the hat.

"The name is curious to me," Yuu said, before taking a drink of his grape juice. He crossed one leg over the other and leaned back. "'Einherjar'. Are you familiar with much myth, Ms. Markham?"

Paige blinked. "What?"

"It's Norse myth," Yuu said. "The old country of Norway. I believe most of their lineage is in modern-day Ulvaria? Anyhow, 'einherjar' are elite warriors of the Viking culture who were brought to Valhalla, home of the gods, by the valkyrie—female attendants of the All-Father, Odin. Odin knew the future, and so he gathered these elite warriors to feast and battle day upon day to train for Ragnarok, the day that would herald the end of all things, where they would fight alongside Odin in battle against the great wolf Fenrir."

"Okay," Vespa said, raising her hands, "not to nit-pick here, but if this Odin guy knew the future, why didn't he stop Ragnarok from happening in the first place?"

"Well, if we're nit-picking," Yuu responded, "Odin knew of a specific path to the future that would allow anyone at all to survive the final battle. He had no guarantee that if he changed anything, more people would survive, as opposed to less."

Pause.

"Okay, cool," Vespa said. "So what?"

"So," Yuu said, taking another drink, "it's something to look into."

Blink. "What, that's it?" Vespa scoffed.

"I'm not a miracle worker, ma'am," Yuu said. "I'm a detective. I have a solid amount to look into. I would recommend you not shirk your classes, expecting me to magically solve the case in three days or something."

At the grimace on Vespa's face, Scoops leaned in, nearly bounding out of her seat. "Don't worry, Ves. If we've got anyone on the case, it's good it's him. He's a great guy! Real upstanding fella!"

"I would also request," Yuu said, raising his hand, "that you not talk about these new friends you've made in Manzo outside of to people in this room or anyone else you know you can trust. I don't imagine, if they're like Asahi, that most of the operatives of the Einherjar will mean Necrobat harm, but Devilbat Schilt is a frightening enemy to have, and we'll want to prevent information from getting to him even if he currently... lacks a physical body, you said?"

"Apparently," Vespa said. "Can I visit them, though?"

Yuu shrugged. "I don't see why not. Thank you for being as upfront with me as you can, Miss Vespa. As I told Paige, I'll be placing my fees on Scoops's tab because I owe her—" Scoops fistpumped in the background. "—but since I have a personal investment in this case now myself, I'll be prioritizing it as best I can. We'll likely see more of each other on a fairly regular basis, and—is she asleep?"

At that point, Paige and Vespa both looked over at Audrey, and finally noticed that she had an eye mask of her own open eyes on her face, and that while she was sitting upright, her head was beginning to loll, and a bit of drool was running down the side of her face.

Paige stood up, tip-toed over, and shook Audrey's shoulders. "Audrey, the discussion is finished."

"Zznrf." Audrey's head righted itself, and she wiped the drool off before removing her eye mask to reveal her eyes, bleary with sleep. "'Course you don't know anything about Norse myth. Odin had an eight-legged horse that was his grandson, y'know. Funny story, that one. Thanks, Paige."

"I still don't know how she does that," Vespa said.

"Alright, well," Yuu said, clapping the Kichijoji Cannibal case file closed again, "I'm done." He flipped another piece of Hanukkah gelt into his mouth, and chewed it. Then, he stamped his cane's end on the ground to make a noise. "I'm going to go wind down by watching my favorite movie with a glass of white grape juice on the rocks, because the Dude drinks White Russians, but I don't drink alcohol, so I figure that's the closest I can get in the spirit of it. I hope you ladies have as good of a day as you can have for the rest of it. Please tell the Kikuchis, one and all, that I said hello, and that Saaya's depiction of me for her art class drawing was precious and made me laugh quite a bit. Kraken?"

"Just a moment, if you will, dear," Kraken said. Apparently, he had quite a few roses under there, and he presented one to Vespa across the table. "I was serious, they look great in your hair."

Vespa shrugged and put it behind her ear, and the instant it was in there, Paige couldn't help but strongly agree with Kraken's judgment. The deep red of Kraken's roses really did go with Vespa's hair.

"Alright," Kraken said with a tip of the hat, "ta, ladies! Lovely to work with you!" His CopyBot then returned to its blank state, and Kraken returned in part to Yuu's PET. Yuu raised a hand, then stood up, turned around, and walked towards a spiral staircase in the back, which he ascended and disappeared out of view.

Pause.

"They seem nice," Paige said.

"I don't know how to feel right now," Scoops said, standing out of her chair and huffing. "Tech Kraken's been living in my hometown for years, a guy I knew is dead, I'm on the path to helping solve a years-old murder case! Today is pulling me in too many directions!"

"Well," Audrey said, sloughing her way out of her own chair, "now you know how we feel around you."

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Kikuchi Residence

"I got you now, monster! Nobody's souls are going to die today!"

In the front garden, a small young lady, couldn't be more than second grade, with short, parted hair and a dark blazer and jeans, brandished a toy Buster at Cinnamon, who hissed and growled, her CRT having turned red for the occasion. In her arms, Eiji wailed. "Oh, please, Cybo, help me!" he said, placing his hand on his forehead demurely. "I don't know what I'm to do!"

"Grrrawrrr!" Cinnamon raised her paws menacingly. "Destroy Cyberwarrior Cybo!" Eiji's younger sister, Saaya, smirked, then pulled a lever inside her toy Buster to launch a yellow foam ball at Cinnamon, who roared in pain. "Noooo!"

Cinnamon let Eiji go, and he wilted to the floor, a true paragon of the wispy damsel in distress. Saaya rushed forward to grab her older brother. "Are you okay, miss?" she asked.

"I'll... be fine..." Eiji coughed. "You have to... defeat the monster, Cybo...!"

Sure enough, Cinnamon had gotten back up, and was ever-so-slowly approaching again. "This monster's tough," Saaya said. "Looks like I'll have to pull out all the stops!" She flipped a switch on the inside of her toy Buster, and a few LED lights on the outside began to glow.

Cinnamon roared in terror. "Nooooo! Not a charge shooooot!"

The yellow foam ball that came out this time must've been much more effective, as Cinnamon clutched her chest, and with a few hacking noises, fell to the ground. Saaya looked at her brother. "Brother..." Eiji coughed. "You... came for me..."

"Miss, what's wrong?" Saaya yelled. "Your vital signs are fading!"

"I... could never tell you... I... was infected by a virus..." Eiji coughed again. "It's been killing me from the inside... all this time... I'm so glad I got to see you again before I went... Brother..."

With one more dainty cough, Eiji's body went limp. "Miss? Miss!" Saaya shook him. "S-Sister... Sister, wake up!" A moment's realization. "Sister! NOOOOOOOOOO!"

Scoops dashed in to the scene to stand in front of everyone. "Thus, Cyberwarrior Cybo won the battle against the Lion Beast... but he lost a link to his previous life in the process. His former identity is safe now... but at what cost? When will be he able to stop fighting? Only the CyBuster on his right arm knows the answer..."

Paige and Audrey clapped, and the actors in this drama all stood up and bowed. Vespa clapped from inside the PET, too, and she hooted and hollered a bit. "Yeahhhh! Cyboooooo!"

Play-acting was over now, so Saaya hopped over and leaned curiously toward Paige, blinking at her. "When did you make a new friend, Eiji?"

"About two weeks ago now, I believe," Eiji said, coming up to join the conversation. "This is Paige, and her Navi is Vespa. Vespa is the one yelling for you."

"Dude!" Vespa said, pumping her fists inside the PET. Paige helpfully showed Saaya the screen. "Cybo owns!"

"Yeah!" Saaya pumped her fists back. "Cybo DOES own!" She turned back to Eiji and puffed her chest, then reached up to pat him on the shoulder. "Okay, they pass the test." At some point, Asahi had shown up to start cleaning up the foam balls.

"How'd it go?" Eiji asked, and Scoops gave him a thumbs up. "Oh, good." He knelt down to Saaya and ruffled her hair. "Sorry, Saaya, but we have to go again."

Saaya huffed again. "If you don't visit again soon, I'm gonna go to your college and scribble curse words on the door."

Eiji giggled. "Please don't."

"No, no, it might be an interesting bit of art deco," Cinnamon said. Her CRT had returned to its regular color. "I support it."

"Cinnamon supports me," Saaya said, grinning smugly at Eiji. Cinnamon joined her in it.

Looking over at them, Paige giggled. "Having siblings seems like an awful lot of fun."

"Maybe if it's a sister like Saaya," Audrey said, snorting, "but younger brothers are a pain."

"Speaking of," Vespa said, "while we were out your little bro ran into his girlfriend or something. They went on a date."

Pause.

Audrey rubbed her temples. "The hell is Mandrago doing in Manzo? Anyway, I don't care as long as he's back by midnight."

"He has a curfew?" Paige asked.

"Otherwise I get worried," Audrey said.

Date: August 29, 20XX

Location: Ika Line

The sun had set by the time the party caught the train home. Paige couldn't see the sun from the subway, of course, but there was a different atmosphere to trains after dark no matter where you were.

Scoops was going over the starts of her notes for her inevitable expose with Stingray. Cinnamon and Eiji were going over reports from Fleuve, the substitute nurse. Audrey... was asleep.

So, it was just Paige and Vespa here, sitting close to each other on a seat of the train. "Are... you okay, Vespa?" Paige asked.

"Huh?" Vespa started up. She'd been lost in thought, after all. "Oh. Yeah, I'm... I'm fine. Hey, uh, Paige?"

"Yes?" Paige tilted her head.

"...That SOUL you put in me," Vespa said, "I didn't really get what it was supposed to do until now. Necrobat showed me."

Pause. The train continued forward.

"Oh," Paige said. She blushed and looked away. "I'm glad. I knew you weren't, but I didn't want to... impose..."

"No, no, it's okay," Vespa said. "Just didn't wanna forget about it." She leaned into the window, but looked over at Paige. "Sorry."

"I thought introspection was your least favorite activity?" Paige smiled.

"Yeah, but... well, you're my best friend. You're worth introspection sometimes," Vespa said. She paused. "Hey... Paige?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks again," Vespa said. She looked out to the window, but she could still see Paige's reflection in the darkness. "For letting me stay."

"What? Of course," Paige said. She put her hand on her heart. "We're partners, aren't we?"

"I mean when we first met," Vespa said. "I don't think I can ever thank you enough for that. You're a really good person, Paige."

It wasn't altruistic. I was being selfish.

Paige didn't say a word in response. "I mean, I'm not. Not really," Vespa continued. "I was... I've done some bad things, Paige. I mean, I'm not... damn it, how do I put this..."

I'd have let you stay no matter how evil you were.

"Even if you did bad things in the Vile Numbers," Paige said, "I don't care. You're a good person now, Vespa. You aren't that person anymore. Right?"

Vespa chuckled. "How many times have you told me that now?"

"Twelve," Paige said. "And every time, I learn some new thing about your sordid past, but it seems like there's always more to tell."

Another chuckle. "You're a sweetheart," Vespa said. "Let me know if there's anything else I'm missing. I'd hate to keep disappointing such a lovely young lady."

"Vespa!" Paige blushed. She looked away a bit more. "...Okay. I... I will."

After a few more moments, Paige looked back, but it seemed Vespa had closed her eyes for a bit of sleep, herself. As the walls of the subway tunnels flew by, Vespa's hand sat between the two of them, loose on the seat. Paige hesitantly approached with her own hand, inching ever closer—

but then she stopped, and reached her hand back, placing it back in her lap, and let herself fall asleep, too, to the sound of the shaking train.

(ED: NEO VENUS, by JANNE DA ARC)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

With the assistance of the Great Detective, it seems that Paige and Vespa have no choice but to rest easy for the time being.

Oshiete, Venus, boku no tsubasa wa ima mo

(Tell me, Venus, my wings -)

Mada shiroku kagayai teru ka?

(Are they still shining bright?)

Of course, daily life at Ayanokoji isn't the simplest thing. Paige is conscripted along with Audrey to assist Dr. Kamizono with cleaning his house, but she finds more than that—a question regarding the past of the Kamizono family poses itself, one that the good Doctor seems to wish to keep secret.

Goran yo, Venus, me no mae no joukei o

(Hey, Venus, was I wrong)

Mesashi ta boku wa machigatte nai ka?

(to go for the scene before my eyes?)

What interests Vespa more, though, is the enigmatic Cubit Foxtar, and his navigator, Keaton Akajima. A chance encounter pushes to the forefront Vespa's question—how does she know the Red Fox? Is Keaton Akajima ally, or enemy? Vespa remains uncertain.

Itsumo chira katta bazuru no yo na kokoro to

(While my heart was in disarray,)

Miushinai kake teta yume o

(like an incomplete puzzle, it was you)

Mou ichido ochie te kure tano wa…

(who taught me how to remember)

Anata deshi ta

(the dreams I’d half-forgotten.)

And finally—it seems that the two can no longer avoid the Hikari Brothers. On the eve of a great festival, the two pairs properly meet at last.

VENUS, NEO VENUS, together!

Hikari no sasu hou he

(To where the light points,)

Mukai kaze no naka demo kumo o muke te

(even if we have to go against the wind and clouds)

Boku wa kotae o sagasu darou

(I’ll search for the answer,)

Soshite anata o hanashi wa shi nai

(and I’ll never let you go.)

Lan and Hub Hikari—Mazda and Compa Kamizono—Keaton Akajima—

What roles do they play in this ongoing drama? The duo at the front can only wonder.

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 5: Red Fox, Blue Bomber, White Butterfly. Ignition of the Great Festival

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

“Teach Me, Dr. Kamizono!”

“Alright,” said Dr. K, flipping through what curriculum Paige had covered in the last exposition session and adjusting his reading spectacles to ensure he got it all, “let's get to... roll call, huh? It's been ages since I did one of those. I was never a schoolteacher, you see, so it's been...” He tapped his chin, then realized that that would be telling the audience exactly how old he was and cut that thought out. “Alright. Paige and Vespa?”

“Here, sir!” Paige raised her hand. Vespa raised hers, too.

“Lan and Megaman?” Dr. K said. Both of them raised their hands. “Good of you to come, but haven't you and they not actually exchanged words at this point?”

Lan, who was now an adult given that he'd actually shown up, leaned back in his chair and grinned. “We get special permission.”

“And we were here for the last one,” Megaman said. Him, too. He was nineteen now.

“Okay, well, no complaints there, you are canon, after all,” Dr. K said. “Let's see... Audrey and Chronoforce?” Silence. Dr. K looked up to see Audrey asleep with her eye mask on. Chronoforce was standing in the doorway of the classroom, playing Wanyadora. “Well, they're here, at least. Wake Audrey up if we need her input. Eiji and Cinnamon?”

“Here, sir,” Eiji said, raising his hand. He'd gotten into a sailor uniform for the occasion, complete with skirt. He looked darling.

“Isn't this exciting?” Cinnamon said, her face shifting into a conspiratorial wink toward Eiji. “We get to be students! Maybe there'll be some heart-pounding romance awaiting you within these halls.”

“Wait, is this an actual high school?” Eiji said, his eyes widening. “A-are we taking up space?”

“Makiri and Stingray?” Dr. K called.

“Excuse you!” Scoops said, standing up in her seat to place her knee on her desk dramatically. “That's Electopia's number one up-and-coming guerrilla reporter, Scoops Hanasaka, to you, grandpa!”

Stingray grabbed her by the camera strap. “He's calling your name for roll call, Scoops.”

“But the audience—”

“They already know your name,” Audrey said, having been woken up by Scoops's yelling, her cheek in the her hand as she leaned onto her desk elbow-first. “It was in an earlier chapter.”

Scoops crossed her arms and harrumphed. “It's best to put your best foot forward in the realm of education, and that best foot forward is—” Her precarious position caught up to her, as her chair slid backwards slightly and caused her to cartoonishly fall to the ground, landing on her stomach. “I'm fine.”

“Okay, well, with that out of the way,” Dr. K said, looking back down at his sheet. “I'm sorry, I don't actually know these names. 'Yuu Himekago' and 'Tech Kraken'?”

Those two were a few rows back, Yuu already having busted out a notepad to start taking notes. Kraken was playing around with a few of his roses. “Here,” Yuu said, raising his hand.

“Hi, I don't believe I've made your acquaintances?” Dr. K said.

“Wait,” Audrey said, turning her head around, “these two get to be in here?”

“Of course we do!” Kraken said, tipping his hat. “We're important enough to be counted among the main cast of this story, you see. Former great thief Tech Kraken at your service, Doctor.”

“Detective Yuu Himekago, an independent contractor with the Manzo District PD. Paige is currently my client,” Yuu said, standing up and bowing rigidly. “Please don't worry about my job, though. At the moment, I'm one of your students, and I take education very seriously.”

“We have to keep putting up with that guy?” Vespa said, shoving her thumb back in Kraken's direction.

“He seems cool!” Lan said. “I like his hat.”

“It's a great hat, isn't it?” Kraken laughed to himself.

“Huh, okay,” Dr. K said, nodding. “Alright... Keaton? Is Keaton here?”

Pause. Silence. “Huh,” Lan said, crossing his arms. “Where'd that guy go?”

“He said he felt a bit awkward about it,” Megaman said, “because Vespa was so suspicious of him when they first met, so it felt 'out of touch' for him to show up here at the moment.”

“Well geez,” Vespa said, scoffing, “how dare I be suspicious of suspicious people.”

“He seems nice!” Paige exclaimed.

“Alright, well... oh, okay, 'Mimel Blackgold' and 'Tundraman', these are your friends, right, Paige?” Dr. K asked, and Paige nodded. “Well, if they're across the ocean at the moment. Mazda Kamizono, that's me. And...” Pause. He frowned. “Where... is my daughter? She's listed on this sheet. Where is she?”

“Off in the AV room singing karaoke,” Chronoforce said, because it turned out one of the screens he'd been playing with was actually a security camera feed for the school.

About five minutes later, Dr. K returned with his unruly teen daughter, holding her by the arms like she was a cat. “I know I said just to call me if you needed me while I was in class,” he said, his lips puckered into a frown, “but that doesn't apply if you're one of the students in the class, Compa.”

Before Compa could protest, Yuu raised his hand. “Is there a particular reason you both have motor vehicle-related names?”

“Wait, what?” Compa blinked. “I do?”

“The UNVI Compa, it's a type of minibus,” Yuu said. “And Mazda is obvious enough, it's the Mazda Motor Corporation.”

“Let's say it's a family tradition,” Dr. K said, averting his eyes, “and leave it at that. Alright, so...” He then pulled out his clipboards and flipped through the notes. “What should we cover heeere...”

Lesson 2-1: NaviChips and the Variable Weapon System

“Alright, here's a good subject to cover,” Dr. K said. “I'm to understand Paige got her first NaviChip recently?” Paige let out a noise somewhere between embarrassment and pride. “Who here knows what, exactly, a NaviChip is?” A few hands raised. “Lan.”

“You slot them in and they summon the Navi and they do their cool signature move!” Lan said, pumping his fists. “You can only have so many of them in your Folder at a time, though—”

“And that,” Dr. K said to the rest of the class, “is why Mr. Hikari is not an expert. Audrey.”

Audrey started playing with her deck of cards. “A NaviChip is basically a Battle Chip that has a copy of the public functions of the Navi's Core Program inside of it. Running it lets you materialize the Core Program to run an automatic function, and the proxy the chip summons happens to look like the Navi you got it from. The processing power is so low that it can't do much else for it, though, and even then some Navis' Core Programs are so complex they can't really get a NaviChip that does much other than the default. They're automatically generated when a Navi is registered to a PET, but there's usually only one copy and there's no reason for a Navi to ever use their own, so seeing a NaviChip in use usually means that it's on loan from a friend or something.”

There was a pause as Audrey raised her hands.

“Or,” she said, gritting her teeth, “you're these guys,” and she gestured to the Hikaris.

“Well, Mayl always gives me Roll's, we usually don't fight for it,” Lan said.

“*Meiru 'Mayl' Sakurai, a childhood friend of Lan's who happens to now be his girlfriend and going to community college in ACDC,” Dr. K added. “A lovely young lady with much better wits about her. Megaman, if you would?”

“In my case,” Megaman said, “the edition of ExaMem running as my Core Program grants me the ability, once I've registered an opponent's combat strategy enough, to generate NaviChips whole-cloth. That's how I got Vespa's chip.”

“Wait, what?” Lan blinked, then looked over at Vespa, and then looked back at his brother. “When did we get her NaviChip?”

Megaman pursed his lips before saying, “I'll explain later, Lan. Anyhow, it's worth noting that this ability of mine, the Variable Weapon System, can also generate chips simply based on a Navi's armaments—for instance, a Navi named StarMan I battled once let me obtain both a copy of his own chip and the Super Arrow chip. It's based on a piece of technology our grandfather, Dr. Light, designed when he and Dr. Wily were still working in robotics. As a result, Lan and I possess an unusually large array of special-design armaments created for other Navis, but I can't use them to the same degree, as I have to use them through chips instead of being able to just use them.”

“Oh, but—” Paige stammered for a moment. “In your battle against Cubit Foxtar, you changed shape multiple times.”

Megaman nodded. “That's my Cross System—it's an evolution of the Variable Weapon System that entered development...” He rolled his hands around and raised his eyebrow. “...eight years ago? The Cybeast Incident was the first time it was put into proper use. When Lan and I get to understand the abilities of someone who actually likes us, and especially when Lan gets the chance to operate another Navi for himself, I'll gain the ability to take on some of that Navi's attributes—that's a 'Cross'. It weakens our connection somewhat since we're adding someone else into the mix, but it also opens up my options pretty significantly.”

“And how many of these are you capable of?” Yuu asked.

Silence.

“Uhhhh...” Lan said. He then chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. “I've lost count.”

“I see,” Yuu said, writing this down in his notes. “That's worrying. That sort of power in the hands of someone with less stringent morals could be a real problem.”

“Cheaters,” Vespa said, puffing her cheeks out and huffing.

“So,” Dr. K said, “in summation, using other Navis' abilities is a sign of real friendship unless you're specifically the Hikaris, in which case you can just do it willy-nilly.” He grinned. “No offense, boys.”

“None taken,” Megaman said. “It's true.”

Lesson 2-2: The Gospel Incident (and related topics)

“Speaking of these two cheating,” Dr. K said, “next point! That was quite a chip you used there in that battle against Pegasolta Eclair, Paige. I'm surprised you had the confidence it would work with Vespa.”

Paige blushed. “Er, well, I...”

“Yeah,” Scoops said, “where'd you dig up a hunk of Gospel?” Paige blinked. “What?”

“Would our intrepid reporter like to report?” Dr. K asked.

Scoops slammed her desk and stood up, then leapt to the front of the class and began pacing back and forth in lockstep. “The year is 20XX-9, and it's a balmy summer! Child prodigy Sean Obihiro, a lonely, orphaned young man whose only friends are computers, has been goaded by one of his internet friends into forming the NetMafia group known as Gospel! He takes on a cybersuit disguise to appear older than he actually is, and begins plotting his revenge on the world that has caused him this grief and despair.”

Spinning around and slamming her hands on the Hikaris' desks, Scoops continued, “Meanwhile! Fresh off the heels of their defeat of the criminal organization WWW, the Hikari brothers enjoy their fifth grade summer vacation when their friend Yai is held hostage by an agent of Gospel for ransom money!”

“*Yaito 'Yai' Ayanokoji, the third of Lan's friends. Very rich, with a hot temper and a large forehead. Her family funded Ayanokoji College, in fact,” Dr. K said.

“Naturally, the Hikari brothers take this clown to town, but this is only the beginning of the Hikaris coincidentally running into operatives of Gospel through happenstance.” This was the first breath Scoops had taken this entire time. “On a trip to the Okuden Valley, environmentalist “Speedy” Dave Hayami (IQ 170!), a member of Gospel, plans to bomb the Okuden Dam to flood large swathes of Electopia to teach humanity a lesson! Lan and Megaman, along with their trusty Official rival, Eugene Chaud, and his hotshot Navi Protoman, defeat Dave and his Navi and stop the bombing... but the name of Gospel begins to be spread around the net like wildfire!”

“Then! You all probably heard about this one on TV—the legendary assassin ShadowMan is sent in to Yumland to assassinate its king Navi and his soldiers, decimating the cybersecurity of the entire nation! He then assaults the Squares of Electopia, but it's a feint—his true target is Electopia's Mother Computer, the central server of all of Electopia! Armed with the power of the Chng.bat program, Megaman and Protoman hurry in—”

“Aww,” Eiji said, “it's rude not to mention Mr. Battalion.”

“Huh?” Vespa said, raising her eyebrow. “Like, the guy who's a bunch of himself? Who runs our dorm?”

“He used to be an Official, yes,” Eiji said with a smile. “His signature technique was 'Official de Barbossa's Dangerous Cannon!' This was actually the attack that damaged him such that he started operating as several instances of himself—I hear tell that Shadowman is quite the fighter.”

Lan nodded furiously. “Yeah, no kidding! He's tough! It's a good thing we're friends now,” he said, and he smiled, crossed his arms, and nodded his head.

Pause.

“I'm sorry,” Yuu said, “did you just say that you're friends with the man that assassinated the king of Yumland?”

“Uh-huh,” Lan responded.

Pause.

“Okay,” Yuu said. He nodded to himself. “Good to know. Good to know. Is this a regular habit of his, Mr. Hikari?”

Megaman nodded. “Oh, absolutely. All the time.”

“Admirable! Admirable,” Yuu said with another nod. There was a bit of sweat on his brow. “Very admirable.”

“Wait, why does Megaman get to be 'Mr. Hikari'?” Lan said with a frown. “We're the same age!”

“If you have to ask,” Kraken said, reclining in his seat and tipping his hat, “then you're not mature enough to know the answer, dear. Ku hu hu~”

“A-NY-WAY!!” Scoops said, and that was enough to get just about everyone to stand at attention. “They manage to get Shadowman to retreat, but the Officials panic, and call a gathering together in Netopia of several hotshot teams ready to take down Gospel! But, one of these operators is Princess Pride, the princess of Creamland, and she's been tempted by assistance with her nation's poor state—so she acts as a double agent for Gospel, sabotaging the meeting! Infighting kicks up amidst heavy suspicion, but the Princess is defeated by—who else—the Hikaris, and everyone thankfully survives.”

“And then we went on the plane, right?” Lan asked Megaman, and Megaman nodded. “Yeah, on the plane, with the spider, and the whiskey.”

Pause. “I... uh, haven't heard about these details,” Scoops said. “You what?”

“Yeah, you know, there was a really big poisonous spider loose on the plane,” Lan said, “and it bit a guy but thankfully Dr. Iron Fist was there. So, the insect guy who was on the plane told us we needed to make a trap, and we needed some things like the chopsticks an old woman made with her husband for forty-five years before she died, and she brought them on the plane so she could bring them abroad like her husband had always dreamed, and then we had to ask the rapping man in first class for some of his whiskey and he made me drop some rhymes with him so that we could get the whiskey to trap the spider.”

“...With whiskey and chopsticks?” Eiji asked, his hand in front of his face to cover a small gasp.

“And a pilot's cap and some thread,” Lan said, a proud smile on his face. “You know, actually, when Mr. Magnet tried to crash that plane and get the program he needed... Sean was on that plane! It was kinda weird that he'd crash a plane with his own boss on it, but I guess maybe he didn't know Sean was the leader of Gospel since Sean wore that suit... unlucky, I guess!”

The room went so silent you could cut it with a butter knife.

“Daddy?” Compa asked. “Is this why you always warn me about international travel?”

“Not specifically,” Dr. K said, his eyes narrowed. “This is a bit of an extreme case. In any case, these next segments are actually what are relevant to us, but thank you for the report, Scoops—”

“Upon the Hikaris' return to Electopia, though,” Scoops said, throwing her hand heedlessly in front of Dr. K's face, “Gospel began its ultimate plan, Obihiro's 'Civilization Destruction Plan'! Several of us here likely also remember this incident... though I guess Compa's a bit too young for it?”

Compa shook her head. “No idea.”

“Wait, how old is Compa?” Vespa asked, tilting her head.

The girl in question raised her eyebrow, but Dr. K answered for her. “She's fourteen,” Dr. K said.

“Fuh-fourteen?” Vespa said. She stood up and gestured to Compa, who, for the record, it should be stated was four feet, three inches tall (or 130 centimeters, for our non-American readers.) “This sassy lost child is high school age?!”

“They start high school at fifteen years old in Electopia, Vespa,” Paige said.

“Still!” Vespa gestured again at Compa, whose face had puffed out with huffy breath until it was about as round as her hair buns. “This kid looks like she hasn't grown an inch since she was like, eight—”

—Whoosh! Suddenly, Dr. K had produced a chunky silver firearm with a few black and red decals and a blue handle. This, incidentally, was called the 'Divider'. “We're in the middle of a lesson,” Dr. K said, “so I can be a bit more forceful than I might within the actual story.” He had a bright smile on his face, but the energy coming off of him was anything but. “Vespa, my friend, you are entering a world of pain.”

“Doc—”

“You insult my daughter again and you are entering a world of pain,” Dr. K continued.

“Bullshit, Doc, mark it eight, Dude,” Yuu suddenly chimed in, a grin on his face.

“MARK IT ZERO!!” Dr. K suddenly barked directly at Yuu, his face twisting. Then, the two of them started laughing—Dr. K's laugh was louder than Yuu's.

“I see you're a man of taste,” Yuu said, adjusting his collar by the brooch.

“Ah, well, I could only be recognized by a man of similar taste,” Dr. K said, puffing his chest out and striking it with his fist. “'The man in me will hide sometimes, to keep from being seen—but that's just because he doesn't want to turn into some machine.'” Yuu nodded sagely.

“Boys bond over the strangest things, don't they?” Cinnamon said with a puff and a shrug. “I can't say I get it myself.”

As Yuu and Dr. K continued vaguely nerding at each other, Kraken chimed in—“My darling Yuu's always over the moon when he meets someone he can talk his favorite movies with. I can talk all I want, but there's nothing like finding another in the wild, you know?”

“It's not just boys,” Paige said. “I mean, Vespa and Mimel hit it off at first because they were both into that Cyberwarrior Cybo show.”

“You just sound like you don't have enough interests to bond with people over,” Compa said to Cinnamon, who clutched her heart and started making wheezing noises. “You must've had a really lonely childhood, huh, Ms. Cinnamon?”

“Kh—!” Cinnamon grimaced. “The child's attempting to drag my backstory out of me through leading, sympathetic questions...!”

“Heh, it's funny,” Chronoforce said. “Because the original Cinnamon was a sheltered kid, and this one's a weird mom friend. It's ironic humor.”

Pause. “The 'original'?” Cinnamon asked. “Do I have previous iterations I should know about?”

“You know,” Chronoforce said, “in Megaman X: Command Mission.”

Audrey rolled her eyes, then walked over to the doorway to flick Chronoforce on the head. “The idiot's been wiki-crawling on 4thWall again. Pay attention, slowpoke.”

“Aww,” Chronoforce said with a little pout, “but I like learning details about alternate universe versions of my Navi brethren so that I can metagame and predict plot points in advance.”

“Try paying attention to the actual plot, nimrod,” Audrey said, before grabbing Chronoforce by his primary horn and dragging him into the room, while Cinnamon continued wondering what a 'command mission' meant.

“So,” Stingray said, walking up to produce a diagram, “for a while, our world was governed by the Environmental Control System '8MS', a series of nanomachine clouds used as miniature servers for a series of programs that controlled things like the weather, the movement of tectonic plates, and pollution and whatnot. Early Net-era warfare caused a pretty solid amount of damage, and 8MS was developed as a countermeasure.”

“But!” Scoops struck the diagram with her hand. “Obihiro and his Navi, FreezeMan, put forth a diabolical plan to clog net paths with virus-infested heavy ice that required specific vaccine programs to delete. You see, Obihiro had found that the 8MS had caused a gradual buildup—the control the system enacted on the world as a whole disrupted nature such that if it were ever to go offline, a series of natural disasters would occur that had a good chance of completely obliterating Net society as we know it!”

“It's like a zombie,” Audrey chimed in. “The body keeps moving, but the flesh keeps rotting. Scientists enacted so much control over the whole thing that the Earth started rotting instead of healing—it was life support, not healthcare.”

“A lot of people born in that period had never felt an earthquake before,” Yuu added. “It was a bit of a wake-up call for me, at least, and several people who are a bit older than I am have had a hard time adjusting.”

“Trawling all across the Net, the Hikaris managed to find the ice's source in the home base of Gospel—the server for the town of Kotobuki, which had been gathering fragments of data errors the whole time for just these sorts of purposes! Defeating FreezeMan himself in battle thankfully managed to stop us all from a horrific destruction, but technically, Gospel did accomplish their goal—scientists like the Hikaris' father quickly got to work dismantling large parts of the 8MS system, to help the Earth return to a healthy state. Sudden earthquakes like that are still commonplace as we all continue to live on our freed planet, and finding ways to insulate what pieces of 8MS have stuck around is still difficult—Sharonian terrorist Ivan Chillski later attempted to use it to cause several massive snowstorms during the Meteor Incident a year later,” Scoops continued.

“It's actually a bit worse here in Electopia,” Paige said. “Uncle Glenn... well, he didn't have the sway to tell people, but he figured out that 8MS might cause issues and worked on easing possible fallout in his work. That's why he got so strongly into infrastructure, and as a result, Netopia took the transition the best overall.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “Still... It's really good that it did wind up being stopped when it did. Things could've gotten much worse.”

There was a moment of silence before Lan exclaimed, “Oh, man, I should go thank Sean for it, then!”

“I don't think that would go over well,” Megaman said. “You know he's trying to reinvent himself these days.”

Compa, for her part, had screwed her eyes up to listen, and let a long breath out through her nose. “Wow. You mean you all didn't used to have sudden earthquakes and all that?” Everyone collectively shook their heads. “Wow... science is kinda terrifying, huh, Daddy?”

“Don't I know it,” Dr. K said, shaking his head. “I can only hope that the things I create don't cause such rampant chaos in the name of convenience.”

“But then!” Scoops declared. “In the town of Kotobuki itself, the fusion of Bug Fragments had reached such a peak that radiation had begun merging the Cyberworld and real worlds together! You see, with that out of the way, Obihiro had one more aim—to use the fragments to create a replica of the SuperNavi, Bass.EXE, the strongest NetNavi ever created!”

With a scoff, Audrey looked away, a bitter tinge to the way she gazed out the window. “As if that would work. To make something like Bass, you can't just throw chaos into a blender. No matter how smart, a kid's just a kid after all.”

“I'm not familiar?” Paige asked.

“He'll come up in the story,” Stingray said. “Just wait your turn.” Paige nodded.

“I'll tell you what he needs,” Kraken said, “a trip to the tailor's what! I could hook him up with such nicer cloaks—”

“Quiet,” Yuu said, putting a finger up to Kraken's beak. “I'm taking notes.

“That said, the radiation caused the bugs to merge together—into the MultiBug Organism known as 'Gospel'! It was a massive beast, a colossal, shifting wolf-monster with incredible fortitude, but the Hikaris managed to take it down, and, I'm to understand, then got into Sean Obihiro's heart by promising to be his first friend,” Scoops said. “That's about all.”

“Yeah, he's a good guy!” Lan said. “Hey, Megaman, remember that road trip we went on?”

“How could I forget?” Megaman sighed, slumping over and looking awfully tired. “If I have to hear Keaton and Chaud get into one more debate about the ethics of punitive justice, it'll be too soon.”

“So, this 'Gospel' monster's what showed up on my hand?” Vespa asked.

“Indeed,” Dr. K said. “The 'BugCharge' chip—as is Paige's taste, it comes in C, but it's something called a 'DarkChip'. It only works for Navis with significant errors or certain tags to be able to operate outside of the law—and this one in particular only unleashes its power for Navis running with serious hardware errors. Gospel feeds on them, after all.”

“So you must be a real shit brick to be able to host a branch of Gospel inside yourself,” Audrey scoffed. “The kind of Navi that can control a MultiBug Organism like that's gotta be a special kind of busted.”

“Gee, thanks,” Vespa said, clicking her tongue. Scoops bowed grandly, and Stingray gave a gormless thumbs up.

“Oh, I'm reminded—” Eiji started up. “Mr. Hikaris, how do the two of you know Mr. Akajima, anyhow?”

Lan gave a big ol' protagonist-y grin. “Oh, Keaton and I go back a few years. I think it was—”

“Lan,” Megaman cut in, “that's a spoiler.”

“How is it a spoiler?” Lan asked. “It already happened.”

“Do you really want to hurt Keaton's feelings by having him learn you stopped him from having that mysterious mystique of his?” Megaman responded.

“What?! No!” Lan gasped.

“Then it's a spoiler,” Megaman said, and Lan nodded his understanding. “Sorry, everyone.”

“We can be patient,” Paige said with a giggle.

Clearing his throat, Dr. K put his hands on his waist and smiled at the class. “Alright, it seems that's all we have to discuss for today's lesson. It was a touch less mechanical than the previous lesson, but I'm glad you all mostly stayed engaged.” Then, his foot tapped, and one eyebrow twitched in Chronoforce's direction. “With an exception.”

“Huh?” Chronoforce said, looking up. “Sorry, Koshka needed feeding.”

“And this is why I'm glad Audrey is my student and not you,” Dr. K said. “That said, the majority of you stayed quite engaged, which is good. I was worried this subject was going to be a bit dry.”

Finishing off the last of his notes, Yuu stood up and bowed. “Thank you for the lesson, Sensei. I'll put this to good use in my investigations, but I do have to be going. Kraken?”

“As you wish, darling,” Kraken said. He took one of Yuu's hands with a tentacle, and then shot a rose through an open window that launched him and his operator through the window off into the distance. “Ta-ta, lovelies! Good to be working with you!”

“Why can't anyone just steal things without being so damn extra?” Vespa grimaced.

“He seems fun,” Lan said. “I hope we get to meet him soon!”

“It'll happen sooner or later, I'm sure,” Paige said with a smile. “Thank you, Dr. K. I really appreciate it.”

“Well, I am your teacher. Facilitating discussion is what I do best,” Dr. K said. “Though, this is a touch more crowded than my classes usually are. Anyhow, Compa, we should be going. The both of us need to look our best for when we actually get to be important.”

“What? But this section is non-canon, right?” Compa asked. “How does that work?” Dr. K very pointedly didn't answer, and instead took her by the hand and led her out.

A moment of silence.

Through that same open window, one Cubit Foxtar launched through, having blasted off of the ground with his Soul Launcher to reach the upper floor. He ran over to a cabinet, slammed himself inside, and then yelled, “Hide! They're coming!

“Huh?” Lan and Vespa had about the same reaction.

Then—the rumbling approached. Every hallway in the school began to shake with the dread force of the fan club, searching desperately for their beloved president. Stingray grabbed Scoops and rocketed out, shockingly, the same open window, leaving the remainder of the group to shiver in fear.

“I never thought this was going to be how I died,” Cinnamon said, “but there's an end for everyone...”

“Oh, no worries,” Chronoforce said, casually looking up. “If the chapter ends before they trample us, they can't trample us. See, watch. Time's up!” And Chronoforce snapped his fi

Chapter Text

Dear Ms. Markham,

I hope this letter finds you in good health. Forgive me for sending a physical letter in this day and age, but I find it invites fewer prying eyes. With regards to the case, I wanted to update you on a few matters.

First of all, regarding the 'Moon Fragment'. I've had some early success with regards to a 'Project Moon' in—wouldn't you know it—Ulvarian records, though details remain classified. However, what I have found mentions a particular regenerative property that rings familiar with regards to Vespa's friend Necrobat and his affliction. Details remain murky, but I happen to be aware that an Ulvarian dignitary of some sort has been visiting in Electopia recently, so I will attempt to get a handle on them.

There have also been a number of curious sightings of the Navi known as Vulturon over in Netopia as of late. Personally, this implies to me that he and Schilt have some sort of iron in the fire over there—it's too early to say for the moment, but for the time being it seems they're out of our direct hair.

One subject I have had quite a bit of success in is in locating this 'Beast Brigade'. I will be assuming here your familiarity with the Cybeasts—if not, you might want to ask Scoops about it, as I'm sure she has many, many words on the subject. For some time, Megaman.exe held a Cybeast within himself, giving him an ability known as 'Beast Out', which altered his shape and granted him the power of a Cybeast. The Beast Brigade are a set of four NetNavis designed with this ability in mind—Navis who can change between humanoid and beast forms, with the power to match.

It appears that there are two Navis whose power resembles Gregar, and two who resemble Falzar. Panter Flauclaws, then, would be the younger of the Gregar-resembling Navis, hence '2-G'. I have no data on his humanoid guise, though. I'm unsure what occurred to the Beast Brigade after their dev team was disbanded, but by all accounts the project was a success. In accessing the Gregar records, I was able at least to find that Flauclaws has an older brother called 'Fenri Lunaedge'—a Gregar-type Navi with the ability to manipulate cold. Be on the lookout.

Finally, regarding the 'Erosion Key'. Details of this item are quite hard to come by—it appears that Dr. Gaudile kept whatever they were relevant to quite under wraps, though given that you know him I doubt that this comes as a surprise. Kraken and I are currently hunting down leads.

If you would like a bit of advice, I would urge you to perhaps look for some of Vespa's old comrades in the Vile Numbers. With the inclusion of Schilt, Dr. Scuttler, and the Kichijoji Cannibal's reappearance, it seems likely to me that there could be some link. However, take this at your leisure—I would rather you not hurry yourself on my behalf.

I will continue to write as relevant.

Be well,

Det. Yuu Himekago

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Lecture Hall #11 (or, well, Dr. K's.)

“—why the previously-used Press system created by Dr. Mikhail Cossack was phased out. See, people had a lot of complaints about it. It compressed the size of the data, sure, but it took up space itself in the data's core functions that meant people kept having to take it in and out.”

Dr. K had very intricate diagrams. This wasn't a new fact to Paige, who had now been in his class for over a month, but it was a matter of truth. This was the most detailed set of slides Paige had ever seen on the intricacies of Dr. Cossack's Press system, a subject it seemed like most people in the Net industry were all too happy to come up with an alternative to.

—There were ten students in Dr. Kamizono's lectures. Technically, there were actually nine, but, well...

“Mr. Hikari?” Dr. Kamizono said to a suddenly raised hand.

“I always thought it was rather ironic,” 'Mr. Hikari' said, dressed in his lecture best. “The Press program itself was one of the few programs we ever encountered that entirely lacked its own compression code—the program to compress data couldn't itself be compressed.”

“Ah, are you a compression code collector?” Dr. K said with a chuckle.

“Not intentionally,” 'Mr. Hikari' said, averting his eyes, “but in our line of work you come across a number of them in the oddest places.”

...apparently, Lan Hikari was a chronic oversleeper. The first time his twin brother Hub had come into class, in Lan's clothes, was a bit of a shock, as Hub actually took things seriously—but Paige had gotten used to it by now.

“You, uh...” Dr. K rubbed the back of his head. “You wouldn't happen to have the most recent Shadow Shoes code, would you?”

“It's BLALBRALBA, sir,” Hub said. Dr. K quickly whipped out his PET and entered the code as Hub recited it, and the wide grin on his face told Paige all she needed to know. “Happy to help.”

[Mimel: so hows that whole uhhh detective thing going]

[Paige: He's turned up a few early results... I'm not sure how to proceed from here, but he's definitely helped.]

[Mimel: rad]

[Mimel: do u know anything about teenage boys]

[Paige: Is something wrong with Lambert?]

[Mimel: hes been acting kinda cagey lately, same w/ voltman]

[Mimel: might be girl troubles might be gender troubles might be genius troubles]

[Mimel: idk maybe he got in a fight with his quiz bowl team or s/t]

[Paige: I remember when you were his age.]

[Mimel: ughhhh. UGHHHHHH]

[Mimel: man ok we're both way hotter and better put together these days]

[Mimel: but paige, seriously]

[Mimel: have some pity on me, I have to live with the memory of being the kind of gonard who said 'splendiferous']

[Paige: It was charming!]

[Mimel: it was douchey is what it was]

[Paige: Anyhow... well, Lambert's always been a little cagey, hasn't he? You should probably talk to him about it the next time you go over to your mother's house. And tell him he can call me any time he needs to too, okay?]

[Mimel: has he not]

[Paige: No... Maybe he doesn't want to bother me. He can be a bit... um, presumptuously thoughtful? That way.]

[Mimel: yea that's lambert for you]

[Mimel: anyway lemme know if you need me to fly over and clobber someone in the face]

[Paige: I, um, I will. ^^; You and Eiji could talk fashion—I think he'd love your insight.]

[Mimel: btw good job on the whole job thing]

[Mimel: sounds like your kinda thing to begin with.]

[Paige: Oh, um, hold on—]

The quiet of Paige texting her bestie after a lecture was interrupted when the inner wall of her PET suddenly had something thunk into it. Vespa, who'd been reclining in a simulated beach chair and reading some superhero comics, wailed and fell off of her chair. “Who? What? Where?”

“Um...” Paige pointed, as students walked around her on the green to get to their next destinations. “Vespa, in the wall behind you, there's—”

It was an arrow, of all things, and one that happened to have a sheet of paper wrapped around it. As Vespa stood up, she reached up to grab it and read it aloud. “'Dr. Kamizono has need of you. At your earliest convenience, please report to the Kamizono residence. Please do not wait too long, as Ms. Longhener will also be present.'”

“Ah,” Paige said with a stunned blink, “that would be from Dopplerman.”

“How did he even—” Vespa sputtered, then rubbed her face with her hands. “The lengths some people will go to to not just say words, I swear to god. Did Dr. K just not program the guy a voice?”

“I, um... I'm sure he can speak,” Paige said. “He just doesn't.”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Kamizono Residence

The Kamizono house was on the corner of the campus, so it was a bit less crowded even during the day. It was a modest (though two-story) building in a Western style, painted in blue and white that just made it look homey from the outside. It reminded Paige of home.

Having changed into a striped, white-and-purple hoodie, one Compa Kamizono was laying on the grass in front of the house, staring at a ladybug that rested on her finger. Paige walked up, then squatted down, Vespa trotting up behind her. “Hello, Compa,” Paige said. “What are you doing?”

“I'm just vibing with this ladybug,” Compa said. “Daddy told me to wait outside, so this ladybug's my friend now.”

Vespa gave a surprisingly emphatic nod. “Yeah, I getcha. Ladybugs can be great conversationalists.”

“You've got Audrey's job now too, huh?” Compa asked, and Paige shrugged and nodded. “That's tough. Good luck.”

Knock, knock. Knock, knock. “Come on in,” Dr. K said through the door. “Oh—Vespa, great timing. Would you mind hanging out with Compa? And no funny stuff, please?”

Paige and Vespa looked at each other and shrugged. “Good luck in there,” Vespa said, putting a hand on Paige's shoulder. So, Paige opened the front door, and stepped in, closing the door behind her—

and was met with Audrey slumped over on the stairs up to the second story in the entryway, a box in her lap. She wheezed and coughed before looking up and seeing Paige. “Thank fuck,” Audrey said. “Hey.”

“Oh, um, hi?” Paige said. The entryway had a few plants to each side, and open arches into a dining room on the left and a hallway further in on the right. Here, the floor was lacquered wood, but you could hardly tell with what a sheen Dr. K had polished it to—it could pass for marble. “What are you—?”

The good doctor himself puttered in from the hallway, wearing slippers and carrying a few trash bags in his hands. “Ah, Paige! Great to see you, I'm glad you got my message,” he said, running up and putting his hand on her shoulder as best he could, considering they were already busy. “It's time to start packing up some of our summer clothes, considering the equinox is in two days—not to mention the people setting up that lot over in Densan need a few things from me, too... ah—oh, in my chest pocket, could you—?”

Paige reached into Dr. K's labcoat chest pocket and pulled out a list. “Yes, okay, I know you haven't been up there before,” Dr. K said, cocking his head up the stairs, “but basically you and Audrey are looking for things on my list and picking up... um, some things, I gave Audrey a list of the sort of components I need to pick up, she's done this sort of thing before, she'll help you. Thanks, I really appreciate your help!”

Dr. K proceeded to putter off through a door into the dining room, past a glass cabinet of fine china that shook as he puttered. Paige blinked, and then said, “Um, no problem...”

“He forgot to actually ask me the first time too,” Audrey said, bent over on the stairs as she was.

(OP: “Innocence”, by Ippo Yamada and CAO)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox

“So, kid,” Vespa said, now that she and Compa were shuffled off to the side, “the old man shuffle you off for this stuff often?”

“Daddy's a bit of a secretive guy,” Compa said, sitting up (but the ladybug was still on her finger, of course). “There's a few rooms he doesn't like me going in.”

“What, and you just haven't?” Vespa sputtered, throwing up her hands. “Where's your sense of adventure?”

“All I'd probably find would be pictures from his dead wife or something,” Compa said with a shrug.

Tobenai tsubasa ni negai wo takushite

(Entrusting my wish to these wings that can't fly,)

Chizu ni nai michi wo doredake aruitara

(how many uncharted roads would I need to walk)

Kimi ni aeru no?

(to finally find you?)

“So,” Audrey said, waving her hand around the open upper level of the Kamizono home, “over there's the laundry room. Dr. K's office is over there,” and those were both on the same side on the left of the home, “then the master bedroom and Compa's room are on that side,” and those were in an area on the right, next to each other, “the master bathroom's downstairs so don't worry about that.”

Paige crossed the open top onto the rails at the other side, and looked down—there was a rather deep room in the Kamizono house, next to the garage, that looked like it probably accounted for most of the back space. “What's back there?”

“It's the doc's study,” Audrey said. “And that hidden panic room he keeps back there.”

“The what?” Paige turned around and blinked. “How do you—?”

“Here, lemme show you,” Audrey said, and she waved Paige to follow her down the stairs.

“But we—” Paige sputtered.

“You're curious, so here, lemme show you,” Audrey repeated.

Ryoute ni kakaeta yume ya kibou nara

(If I have the hopes and dreams that I carried in my arms,)

Mugen ni hirogaru mayoi wo kowaseru no?

(could I break through this never-ending doubt)

Nani wo hikikae ni

(and manage to change something?)

“Alright,” Vespa said, waving her hand around by the wrist, “so what do you usually do with your time?” The two of them had gotten to aimlessly strolling around the dorms, past a piece of faux-graffiti on the wall of Dorm #7 that said “DON'T LOSE YOUR WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! - xXxBrandishxXx” (nothing unusual, on account of Mr. Brandish's personality).

“Well, at times like these, I'm usually playing video games in my room,” Compa said. “Or maybe taking the train out to—”

“Nah nah nah nah nah,” Vespa said, waving her hand around, “you know where a girl could get a chopper around here? You don't do trains if you're riding with Vespa.”

Blink, blink. “Like... a helicopter?”

“No, no, some wheels! A hog! I couldn't bring my bike, Compa!” Vespa groused, letting loose another groan on the subject. “I feel naked without my boy. Chaser's the best bike.”

“Ohhh,” Compa said, smiling and nodding, her arms crossed and her eyes closed in understanding. “So you're one of those kinds of people who names your vehicles.”

“You'll understand if you ever own one, kid,” Vespa said.

“I always wished I could have a bike or something to name,” Compa said. She started puttering over toward the AsterLand. “Buuut, if you want a motorcycle, I know where to get one.”

The smug grin on Compa's face was enough to fill Vespa with confidence. “Ooh, do tell.”

Sotto... kono yoru ni tokeru

(Softly... I melt into the night.)

Kodoku... yori zutto fukaku

(It's... deeper than my loneliness.)

The study in the back was full of books, but it definitely wasn't large enough to fill out all the space in question. It was dark, and the wood was less thoroughly lacquered than the rest of the house—a room for a solitary man, rather than a home, if you will.

As Paige stepped in, Audrey sidestepped a reading chair and pulled a marble from her coat pocket. “Hm?” Paige tilted her head. “What are you—?”

Kneeling down, Audrey quietly placed the marble on the floor. And, after a moment, two, three... it began to roll toward the back of the house ever-so-slowly. The direction it rolled was perfectly clear—it was towards the largest bookshelf in the room, at the very back of the room.

“Wha—?” Paige sputtered.

“Panic rooms have weight, Paige,” Audrey said, walking over to pick up her marble. “If there's a heavy-lined secret room in a house, it's gonna have weight and it's gonna make an incline. Whether it's lined by metal or there's something heavy in there, I donno, but there's a room back there.”

“...That... actually makes sense,” Paige said, slowly nodding, “but why do you know how to find hidden panic rooms?”

“You never know when you're gonna need to hide out,” Audrey said. “It's a useful thing to know. My old man had a room like this one, too—in case the Dead Hand system ever prematurely started detonating, see. Back of his study, behind a bookshelf, just like this one. Gotta pull The Brothers Karamazov from the shelf and—” She snorted to herself. “Never mind.”

“Um... the 'Dead Hand' system?” Paige asked.

That got Audrey to let out a barking laugh. She patted Paige on the shoulder, then laughed again for a moment and walked out the door, waving her other hand. And... was she singing? There was a bit of a sarcastic tone to it, but— “Soyuuuuz nerushimyy respublik svobodnykh~ Splotila naveki velikaya Rus~”

Owari no nai ketsumetsu sae mo

(In this 'ending' without an end,)

Sono mirai wo kagirinai tsuyosa ni kaete

(I'll turn our future into limitless strength!)

“So,” Compa said, as they crept toward the Aster Land, very, very stealthily, hiding behind the bushes, “Nori actually has a little garage in the back where she keeps her motorcycle, with the keys. And she said that if I ever got someone who knew how to drive a motorcycle, I could totally get to ride in the side car.”

Vespa gasped and placed her hand on her chest in faux shock. “Why, Compa. I know how to ride a motorcycle!” Pause. “Why does she keep her motorcycle in the back of the store?”

“I think she might live here,” Compa said with a shrug.

The two of them sneaked around the side of the store, laughing evilly to themselves as they did, and came to the back of the lot, which indeed was not flush with the edge of the campus—there was a small garage in the back, and something covered by a white tarp resting in the shade beneath a tree. “What's under the tarp?” Vespa asked.

“Uhh...” Compa blinked.

Yuruganai toki no kanata ni

(The other side of this unwavering time)

Kasanaru kioku kara nigedasanai kakugo wo shita boku wo utsushiteru

(reflects the part of me that resolved not to escape from these overlapping memories)

With that little diversion over, Audrey began handling looking in the master bedroom. While on the hunt for some of the pieces Dr. K had asked for, she noticed that there was a room on the right side of the upper floor that Audrey actually hadn't mentioned—a door in the back, to the other side of Compa and Dr. K's bedrooms.

The door wasn't locked, so Paige softly opened the doorknob and opened—to a layer of dust that made her cough.

Afuredasu omoi

(or my overflowing emotions.)

It was a third bedroom—one whose sheets were still made. There was a bookshelf not unlike Dr. K's in one corner to the side of a closet where a few labcoats hung that were obviously smaller than the good doctor's—a lightgun peripheral for an older game console that still sat on a slightly out-of-date TV—a red, black, and white spherical alarm clock with cybernetic 'wing' fixtures that Paige found oddly cute—and, most importantly, several unsorted boxes on the floor over a red-and-white ringed carpet.

“Oh, dear,” Paige said.

Kono te ni, chikaitsuzuketa yakusoku...

(The promise I hold with these hands...)

Boku wa ima, kimi no tada...

(Is that right now, I just...)

Vespa and Compa stayed staring at the white tarp, which definitely wasn't large enough to cover a motorcycle, but it was large enough to be definitely odd. Not to mention, if you listened closely there were slight noises under it—something... cyber-y?

“Rock paper scissors,” Compa said. Vespa turned her head. “It's the only fair way.”

“Nod nod,” Vespa said aloud.

“Starting with rock, jan ken, pon!”

Compa smugly placed her sheet of paper over Vespa's pathetic rock, and stood back so that Vespa could pull the tarp. Vespa wailed. “If I die, it's your fault, kid!”

Puffing her chest up, Vespa pumped her fists, let out a decisive breath, and then reached down to grab the tarp without disturbing whatever was under it. With a decisive swoosh—!

...mamoritai.

(...want to protect you.)

“Eh?” “Eh?”

And, under the tarp, sitting there with a glazed expression on his face, was Student Body President Keaton Akajima, staring blankly at his PET.

Episode 5: Red Fox, Blue Bomber, White Butterfly. Ignition of the Great Festival

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Behind AsterLand

“I was wondering where he'd gone,” Compa said with a huff. Talking about him like he wasn't there wasn't bothering Keaton any, as he wasn't responding.

“Uhhhh...” Vespa blinked, and vaguely gestured at the zoned-out prez. “Is he good? This happen often?”

“Must be 'cuz his fan club discovered his last hiding spot,” Compa said. She laughed to herself. “You know how Keaton never lets anyone see him NetBattling?”

“Ohhhh,” Vespa said, as Keaton blankly tapped a few buttons on his PET. “It's 'cause he zones out, huh?”

Compa nodded. “He says he doesn't wanna disturb people.”

With that said, Compa walked over behind Keaton and started playing with his ponytail. “Akajima~ Akajima~ Get! Out! Here! Akajima~ Akajima~ Have! No! Fear!” Whatever twiddling she was doing, it was awfully practiced... and, well, Vespa couldn't deny the kid had a lovely singing voice. Compa cleared her throat, and then...

“Hito! Ki to! Shi to! Mi to! Sono! Shu wa! Ki-ma-se-ri! Iza! Ao—gi mite, oeru omoni wo—!”

“Not—not so loud!” Keaton started awake, and turned around, his ponytail now having been braided a little. Compa giggled at him. “I don't want to ruin Miss Nori's kindness that soon, Compa.”

“Sure thing, bro,” Compa said. She giggled again, and Keaton smiled at her in that 'aw, I can't be mad at you' way that Vespa knew from Paige. “What's the deal? It's cleaning day.”

“Oh—is it?” Keaton stood up, his eyes wide, and dusted off his vest. “I'm really sorry, Compa. Some work came up—well, not quite 'work' per se, but community service, if you understand me.”

“Being a do-gooder again,” Compa said with an understanding nod. “You gotta at least tell me!” She let out a toothy grin, and Keaton ruffled her hair.

“Really sorry,” Keaton repeated. “The time just ran up on me.”

“How long,” Vespa said, “have you been under that tarp?”

Pause. Keaton turned his head, and then registered that there were three people present. “Oh,” he said, his eyes widening, “Miss Vespa? Did Dr. Kamizono pull you in to care for Compa in my place, then?”

“'In your place'?” Vespa snorted. “What, does the mighty President Akajima play babysitter often?”

Compa looked like she wanted to snap back, but Keaton answered first. “If you want to put it that way,” he said. “If you must know, I'm actually quite indebted to Dr. Kamizono. It's thanks to him I was able to come to this college in the first place—so, at this point I think I count less as a 'babysitter' and more as a 'trusted family friend'. And, yes,” he said, turning his head to huff, “Compa isn't a baby, Vespa. Don't be rude. It's teensitting if it's anything.”

“Thank you,” Compa said. She put her hands on her waist and gave Vespa a smug grin.

“What's with the song?” Vespa asked.

“It's his theme song,” Compa said, and now the grin was awfully proud. “I wrote it myself for him.”

“Now,” Keaton said, putting his hand up to his chin and resting it between his fingers and thumb, “if you're back here with Vespa, I have no doubt you're meaning to commandeer Miss Nori's motorcycle. I seem to remember you're an avid fan?” Vespa nodded. “Ah, no need for that, then. We can drive. Has Paige gone to join Audrey in that cleaning business?”

Vespa didn't have a problem with taking a car, so now they were walking over to the parking lot. “Yup,” Vespa said. “What, so, like, do you not have a degree or something? Why would you need his help?”

“I have some... unique circumstances, let's say,” Keaton said with a smile and closed eyes. He leaned his head back to catch a short-lived breeze. “It's a bit of a miracle I can attend a school like this at all, but Dr. Kamizono was sympathetic to my situation.”

“And now,” Compa said, puttering up to grab Keaton's left hand and hold it, “he's stuck with us!”

“You say it like it's a problem,” Keaton said with a soft laugh.

Vespa had to admit, seeing this guy palling around with Dr. K's teen daughter wasn't what she was expe—“You pal around with teenagers often in between planning all those overblown villain speeches?” Oh, yup, there was the thought out of her mouth.

“Wha—?” Keaton sputtered. Compa giggled at him. “Villain speeches? I haven't the foggiest what you're talking about.”

“You do kinda sound like a TV villain sometimes, Keaton,” Compa said. She giggled at him again, then grinned an evil grin at him. “You could do a great Dr. Vega.”

Keaton then stopped, let go of Compa's hand, and stood back, holding his arms wide in a menacing posture. “'In this world... there are millions of fools, but only a few with true intelligence. That is why those with true intelligence must rule over the weak—it is the only way they can ever be happy.'” He then threw his head back and raised his hand to shelve his chin, letting out a high-pitched “Ohhhhhh ho ho ho ho ho!”

“You've got hella vocal range, dude,” Vespa said, almost flinching from his aura.

“I try,” Keaton said, returning to normal. “How was that?” Based on the wide-eyed glee on Compa's face, it was quite good. “How has the latest season been going, anyhow?”

“Harp Note came back,” Compa said. Keaton smiled. “But she had to fight Geo.” Keaton frowned. “So now they're going together to the lost continent of Mu.”

“Of course it had to be now of all times that my community service was needed,” Keaton said with a spiteful click of the tongue.

Keaton's car was a white SUV, nothing special, but a good, sturdy vehicle with plenty of space. Vespa slid into the backseat while Compa rode shotgun, as was her right. “What are you two even talking about?”

“Um, duh? Megaman Star Force?” Compa said, rolling her eyes. “It's only the best show on TV!”

“Megaman what now?” Vespa asked. “He got another stupid superpower?”

“It's a tokusatsu show that started about three years ago now,” Keaton said. “No relation to the actual Megaman aside from the name—Lan and Megaman were actually brought on to consult regarding the overall flow of how the life of 'a Megaman' would go. It chronicles the adventures of shut-in, reclusive middle schooler Geo Stelar, when a chance encounter leads him to meet the alien Omega-Xis. The two of them combine through the process of Wave Change to become the superhero known as Megaman. It's a heartwarming show about togetherness and learning to open up to people. I'm very—”

“Oh, that's what the Star Force Club is!” Vespa said, her eyes wide from realization.

“Mmhm, mmhm. I'm on the mailing list.” Keaton said. Why did he look so proud of that? “Compa and I share an appreciation for it. It is, to be frank, my favorite TV show—and would be even if Lan and Megaman weren't friends of mine, I assure you. The quality of the action and storytelling—it's superb, I tell you. Any self-respecting tokusatsu fan hasn't lived until they've seen it!”

“Yeah, totally.” Compa said. “And my favorite character just came back, so I'm super jazzed about it.”

“Sonia Strumm,” Keaton said, leaning his head over his shoulder to pull out of the parking spot and coincidentally look at Vespa. “She's a young idol who becomes Geo's first proper friend. She has her own Wave Change form as Harp Note. Really precious young lady—lights up the screen. She's been absent for a hot minute, but Compa tells me she just came back.”

“They should kiss,” Compa said, with the certainty of someone decisively declaring the sky's color.

“Now, Compa, that's perfectly valid,” Keaton said, and then he grimaced, “oh who gave Tanosuke permission to park like that, agh, has Dynatron taught him nothing, but personally I'm very supportive of Geo and Pat.”

The two of them paused, and then Compa said, “Okay, Vespa, that means you have to ship Geo and Luna. Why are they the best ship? Go!”

Flummoxed, Vespa could only offer, “Uh, I like Cybo.”

The car exited onto the roads outside of the campus, and Keaton took a few turns. “Usually, we'd be headed to Elec Town, but an acquaintance just got out of the hospital and I'd like to go see him at our usual meeting place, if that's alright with the two of you.”

“Oh, for real?” Vespa asked. “What happened to him?”

“Sudden heart attack caused by the shocks from a recent earthquake,” Keaton said. “Oh! That reminds me. I'd meant to ask your operator about this—the other day, that odd feeling I had. Was it on the money for you, too?”

It took Vespa a moment to scrounge up the memory, but—“Oh.” She looked out the window. “Uh... yeah. Yeah, some stuff happened. Why?”

“I had quite the busy day myself,” Keaton said. “I had a run-in with a pair of odd Navis over in the relay tower for the International Airport—I had an errand to perform in the area, you see, and traffic was behaving oddly. One of them fought me, and she could really fight!”

—“Wha—?!” Vespa sputtered. “Nuh uh! I totally thought you were K!”

Pause. The car went silent.

“Oh,” Keaton said, his eyebrows raising being visible in the mirror. “Oh, I see. So we've had run-ins with the same group, then.”

“Wait, this was the day with the black panther Navi, right?” Compa asked. “The guy—”

Vespa's hands slammed down onto the seat. “Panter Flauclaws? Black, red, big claws, serious guy?”

Compa let out a little 'oh mannnnn' in her seat as Keaton nodded. “I see you've met. Lan tells me that another member of this group battled the two of them at the DNN station on Beach Street. The 'Einherjar'?” Vespa nodded back. “Right. 'K', that's their leader, yes? So you thought it was me.”

“I mean, I have this weird feeling I've met you and your Navi before, you talk like an anime villain, they act like they're a social club about politics or something, you talk about weird odd feelings you get before we get in a train accident, it's not a hard leap to make, dude,” Vespa said.

Keaton chuckled. “Fair enough. No, I'm unrelated, I can assure you.” He paused. “Still... so you were in a train accident?”

“Yeah,” Vespa said, “me and Paige went and fought one of their guys at the train broadcast tower while we were on the... Ika Line? Scoops and Stingray helped.”

“Ahhh,” Keaton said. “That's curious. Three broadcast towers on the same day... they didn't seem very excited, though. Did something happen?”

“The dope we fought jumped the gun,” Vespa said. “K ordered them to try and take the towers while things were quiet, but her Navi was all, 'ah, ojou-sama, you gotta take the tower now so they'll think you're cool!'”

“That... explains a lot,” Keaton said, with a slow nod. “You met the operator?”

“Yeah, this goof who's friends with Scoops and Eiji named... Asahi Makimura, I think?” Vespa said.

“Ahhhh,” Keaton said. “I've heard the name. Thank you for sharing. The Navi I fought was a plant-type, from Sharo—rather drill-shaped, with a—”

Then something clicked. “Could make a parasol? Real upper-crust?”

“Yes?” Keaton said, his voice lilting in confusion. “Have you met?”

“Noble Mandrago,” Vespa said. “I met her in Manzo. She's Chronoforce's girlfriend or something, a family friend of Audrey's, I think. She mentioned a 'humiliating loss', I guess that was you, huh?”

“Chronoforce?” Compa sputtered. “Has a girlfriend??”

“Apparently,” Vespa said, shrugging. Keaton was laughing to himself. “It doesn't seem like they actually mean much harm, but we're still looking into it.”

—Telling him this was one thing. But telling him the whole story—no, Vespa still didn't understand Keaton Akajima yet. So there were things she couldn't tell him. After all, Kohaku and Necrobat—Vespa wanted to keep them safe.

“I see...” Keaton shook his head. “Thank you for letting me know. I'll look into it myself—please don't worry yourself too much about it, Vespa. It would probably be better for you and Paige to focus on your studies.”

“Hey, hey,” Vespa said, taking advantage of a red light to scoff at Keaton when he could see it. “What makes you think you've got more of a right to this than I do?”

“A 'right'?” Keaton said. “Why is this a question of a 'right'? I'm saying this out of concern for your safety.”

“I barely know you,” Vespa said.

“Well,” Keaton said, his brow furrowing and his lips curling downward into a frown, “that doesn't stop me from being concerned for your safety. Miss Markham especially—we've spoken enough times on work for me to understand she's a bit faint of heart.”

This was where Vespa stopped recognizing where they were going—Keaton turned right at an intersection Vespa had never turned right at, and turned out of the main city to cross past some alleyways over to a riverside. The water wasn't as clean as it was in Manzo, but rivers were nice wherever you went.

“You need to understand,” Keaton continued, “that this sort of thing happens around Lan roughly once a year. It always seems to wind up alright for him, somehow, but I can't say the same for passersby wrapped up in it. Agent Chaud always seems to pick me to complain to about the sort of property damages or injuries that can occur in their wake, so I'm very keenly aware of it... though that might just be confirmation bias. I—”

“Okay, well,” Vespa cut in, “riddle me this then, Sherlock. Where do I know that Navi of yours from? 'Cubit Foxtar', right?”

There was another pause, as Keaton pulled in along the road into an empty spot next to a small, single-door building. “This should be a good place, actually,” Keaton said. “To jog your memory, I mean—if you don't mind leaving your CopyBot for a second.”

It should be mentioned that this conversation was causing Compa, who loved tea and all of its spilling, to make little noises of anticipation the entire time. She jumped out of the car, bouncing up and down, calling out, “C'mon, c'mon, I wanna hear the tea!”

This building had a few shuttered windows inside of it, and a faded sign out front that wasn't really very legible. There was a pavement path, but the grass was overgrown in front of the building. That didn't bother Keaton, though, as he strolled up and knocked on the door. “Hello? Anyone home?” he called out.

After a brief wait, the door creaked open, and a hobbled old man with bushy eyebrows poked his head out the door crack—wait, wait. Hold on. Was that—? “Oh, hello, Keaton,” said, of all people, Mr. Andrew from the train. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“Dr. Kamizono is cleaning today,” Keaton said with a smile on his face, “and Compa needs entertaining. We have a guest today, though.”

“Oh?” Mr. Andrew opened the door wider—his back was arched in a way that suggested calcium deficiency when he was younger. Underneath his eyebrows, his small eyes did seem to widen a bit. “Oh, aren't you one of the young ladies from the train?”

Vespa blinked. “I mean, to be fair, I guess I do have a pretty memorable mug, but I'm surprised—?”

“Oh, I've got an elephant's memory. An Andrew never forgets, oh ho ho,” Mr. Andrew said, opening the door wide. “Come in, come in. And it's good to see you too, little miss.”

Keaton and Compa were evidently familiar with the building, but Vespa took a moment to look around as she entered through the doorway. Apparently, this was something of a dock—there was an old boat moored to creaky wooden poles on the water's edge, and lining the dock was fishing equipment galore. That was down a ramp from where Vespa had entered—up here, to Vespa's left was a kitchen area, with visibly old but well-cared-for cooking equipment, and a small living area with an old computer and a double bed. To the right, though, were a number of wooden desks and a chalkboard hung up on the wall, as though it were a small schooling area.

At Vespa's wide-eyed look, Mr. Andrew laughed. He'd managed to get right beside her at some point. “It's not that impressive.”

“I-I mean. It's got pretty much everything you'd need to live, huh?” Vespa said, rubbing the back of her head. “Unless all the fish in the river die out or something.”

“Oh, I've got canned food,” Mr. Andrew said, walking over to the cupboard to show Vespa his supply of food cans—it seemed like it went on forever, sinking back into the cupboard's darkest reaches. “I'm very prepared.”

Compa sat down at a table in the kitchen area, her legs bouncing against the seat. “How're the bites today, Mr. Andrew?”

“Oh, slow, meandering, as usual,” Mr. Andrew said. “Just the way I like it. The record's still yours, sweetheart.”

Keaton, who'd also sat down at the table, looked over at the gawking Vespa to explain, “Compa caught eight fish in one day once. Apparently, that's the most Andrew's seen in over a decade.”

“I... see. Okay,” said Vespa, sitting down at the old table. It was wood, too, painted white—though there were scuff marks where the paint could have used a bit of touching up. “What's her name? The boat's, I mean.”

“She's called Three-Leaf,” Mr. Andrew said. He'd put on some oven mitts to open up his oven. The heat flowing out was enough to make Vespa's skin crawl, but the loaves of bread in there looked awfully appetizing right now. “Funny story about that, you know.”

“Ah,” Keaton said with a stunningly friendly, punchable smile on his face, “now you get this story.”

“When I was in my twenties—oh, all that time ago,” Mr. Andrew said, puttering about his kitchen, “I always had a dream of getting myself a right fine schooner to park somewhere and have all to myself—and the missus, of course, but she always said I'd have to get as lucky as finding a four-leaf clover. Now, my wife, she started looking around and saving up money little by little for years, not telling me a peep about it, until the day I turn thirty-three and she looks so awfully disappointed. 'Darling, come here', she says, and she takes me down here—at the time we had our own house, you see—and shows me this plain ol' fishing boat, sitting there in the water. 'I tried to find you a four-leaf clover, Andy, I really did—' but I turn to her and I'm bawlin' my eyes out, thinking about how much I adore this woman. She ain't a four-leaf clover, so we called her Three-Leaf, see? She ain't pretty or too lucky, but she's a real workhorse—lasted half a century or so now.”

Vespa wasn't crying. She wasn't crying, shut up. “Shut up!” she said to a giggling Compa, while wiping the dust from her face. “I'm not crying.”

“Suuuure you're not,” Compa said, sticking her tongue out.

Mr. Andrew pulled some grape jam and butter along with the bread, placing it on a platter in the center of the table and using a large knife to cut it into slices. “Take as much as you need, kids,” Mr. Andrew said, “just leave one for me.”

Keaton and Compa were polite enough to begin preparing one slice each, but seeing the size of the loaf presented, Vespa grabbed a chunk of the bread and shoved it in her mouth, letting the hot, crispy wheat rub against her taste buds, gwaaaahhhh it was good. She took another, and another, having crammed three whole pieces of bread in through her mouth before she realized that Keaton and Compa were staring. “Uhhh...” Vespa trailed off. “I was, uh, I was hungry.”

“You sure were!” Mr. Andrew laughed. “I don't think I got your name, young lady.”

“It's Vespa, sir,” Vespa said with a hasty bow of the head. She began preparing her fourth slice of bread properly this time, with the presented butter and preserves, as Compa finally took her first bite of her own slice of bread. “Sorry. I, uh—”

“You think I can eat all this on my own?” Mr. Andrew said with a dry chuckle. “I make it to feed to people. A hungry lady like yourself is just the ticket.”

“How do you keep that figure,” Compa said, eyeing Vespa's wiry body, “with a diet like that, huh?”

“I get lots of exercise! I fight viruses, I jump around, I shoot my guns, I jog—” Vespa crunched a bite of a jammed-up piece of bread, ohhhh that was good, “—and I'm a NetNavi! But seriously, mostly it's the exercise. Plus I've got the metabolism of a monster.”

“Ohhh,” Mr. Andrew said. Vespa could barely see a glance of the eyes over to Keaton—another glance back at Mr. Andrew. “How's it compare to the stuff in the Cyberworld?”

“Real food and cyberfood hit different spots,” Vespa said, “but honestly overall I prefer stuff like this. Homemade by an old man, diggity-dang, baby,” and she took another bite, smiling and letting out a little squeal of delight with her hand on her cheek, “that's the stuff.”

“Andrew?” Keaton asked. “While we're here, do you mind if we use your terminal to access the Net? Vespa needs to have a conversation with Foxtar, and I'd rather it be somewhere private.”

“Oh, being a bit shady again, are we?” Mr. Andrew laughed, and that made Keaton look away and blush, with a frown on his face. “I'm kidding. Go right ahead. I'll keep your CopyBot warm for you, miss.”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Kamizono Household ~ Old Bedroom

“Wake up, Boss! It's time for another big day out there!”

The alarm clock on the old bedroom's nightstand had roared to life when Paige had tried to move around it to look inside the nightstand, and she now desperately grasped at the red orb to try and find an off switch. It vibrated intensely in her hands, almost knocking straight out of her hands—a little marker on it read 'Lola', so perhaps that was its name.

“C'mon, Boss! Who's being a sleepy-bones? Aww, does someone need me to sing him a song? What'll it be? 'Explosion and You'? '3-2-1-0'? Oh, 'Inner Alarm'll do the trick, right, Boss? Here I go, eh-hem—”

Thankfully, before Lola started singing, Paige managed to find a small switch on her underside that turned her off for the moment. She breathed a sigh of relief, and placed Lola back on the nightstand. This alarm clock was probably a custom job—it definitely didn't look much like any alarm clock Paige had ever seen.

She re-produced the note from within her pocket. Paige had found several of the items, but one befuddled her—a 'Divider'. What was a 'Divider'? She'd hunted through a few of the boxes in this room, but had only found old papers, their author only listed as 'Kamizono'.

There was this closet, though, Paige thought, pumping her fists in the air to steel herself. It was open, showing a few labcoats, but she hadn't looked too extensively within them, or in the closet's edges. First order of business were the pockets—

“Eh?” Paige let out a noise of surprise, as the leftmost lab coat did in fact have something within its pocket. It wasn't large enough to be anything worthy of a title like 'Divider', and yet... well, she pulled it out to make sure.

—This was a photograph. It was aged, certainly, but its picture was as crisp as ever, maintained within the sort of nano-fiber frame that only a real treasure warranted. Inside the world of this picture, it was a sunny afternoon, at the front of this very home. To the left on the photo was a beaming, proud-looking Dr. Kamizono, closer-shaven than Paige usually found him these days. On the right was Compa, looking almost the same as she did these days, but—no, well... that wasn't quite right. In this photo, Compa had her hair down, and a silver-white butterfly pin sat in her hair instead of her current decoration. She was more demure here, too—she wore a smile, but it was a softer, smaller smile than the exuberant young lady of today.

In the middle was a boy Paige had never met. He had the same white hair as Dr. Kamizono, with his bangs falling low between his eyes and his hair covering his ears. It tapered backwards to a set of spikes on the back of his head, like that one famous lawyer—and evidently he had an issue with bedhead, given that ahoge. He had Dr. Kamizono's eyes, too, but he resembled Compa in the clean-shaven, boyish look of his facial features. Despite that, he had a look that could easily shift to severe—but not here.

He had about a foot and two inches or so on Compa, and the labcoat he wore was white with red lining, like on the carpets, or on Lola—oh, but that was a hood on it, wasn't it. A hoodie labcoat, how industrious. On his wrists were red-and-white wristbands, and beneath his lab-hoodie he wore a black undershirt and professional black pants over red shoes.

Dr. Kamizono's hand was on this boy's shoulder, and he looked prouder than Paige had ever seen him. Compa demurely grabbed his hand, as well. And this boy, he stood proudly, the object of their pride.

Paige turned the photograph over. Two handwritten messages sat on the back.

Congratulations on your admission, Acura! I always knew you could do it, but that doesn't mean that I'm not proud of you. You're the best son I could've ever asked for.

-Dad

I love you more than anyone else, big bro.

-Michiru

“Michi...ru?” Paige muttered to herself, but that was all she could manage. Even when Audrey came to the door and discovered Paige inside the room, she couldn't respond. All she could do was look at the photo in silence.

Chapter Text

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Kamizono Household ~ Acura's Room

“I see you found that old thing,” Audrey said, weaving past the boxes to look over Paige's shoulder. “I figured you would. Where'd he hide it this time?” Paige mutely pointed to the pocket of the labcoat. “Ugh. Why not just hide it in his panic room? I'll never get sentimental old men.”

Paige couldn't help but let out a little sigh, now that she'd registered this photograph. “...It does make sense, I guess,” she said. “Why he's so protective of Compa, I mean... er, well, I'm assuming—?”

“You can hear about it from the man himself,” Audrey said, whipping out her PET, “'cause I don't wanna get blamed for a bad case of telephone. Chronoforce, ring the Doc.”

“On it, Boss,” Chronoforce said.

Paige started looking through the rest of the labcoats, but she didn't exactly find much. If the items she was looking for were in here, they were awfully well-hidden. “Yeah. Hey, Dr. K. Paige saw your photo. She has some questions.” Pause. “You know damn well which photo I mean. A pocket in one of your son's labcoats? You could take some lessons. Do I need to educate you in how to hide things better?” Pause. “Right.” Audrey hung up. “He's actually almost here. What are you still looking for?”

“Um...” Paige pulled out her note. “A 'Divider', two miniature carburetors, and a bundle of sparklers.”

Out of the pocket of her own labcoat, Audrey, casual as ever, produced a gun. Paige yelped.. “Relax. This is the 'Divider',” Audrey said. It wasn't an ordinary handgun, Paige saw—it was rather blocky, and the chamber was pretty narrow. Three currently-dull red spokes extended off of the bottom of the barrel, and the handle was blue, but the rest of it was a similar white to the Kamizono standard. “According to the Doc, it's a weapon for loading programs into CopyBots at range. Technically, you can put things that aren't Navis in 'em, too, with this thing. You can also unload a program if you've got to.”

“Dr. Kamizono made something like that?” Paige's eyes went wide.

“Nah,” Audrey said, turning out of the room. “His kid did. C'mon, think I know where those carburetors are.”

—It was only about ten minutes later that, with a whole bag of supplies, Paige and Audrey sat down at the dining room table just as Dr. Kamizono walked in the door. His frantic energy from before had completely vanished, and a wistful, almost regretful frown had affixed itself on his face instead. He took off his slippers, then walked over to the dining room table and sat across from Paige.

“Hello,” Dr. K said.

“Um, hello,” Paige responded. “So... um, your son—?” Dr. K held his hand out, and Paige nodded and gave him back the photograph. “Right.”

“Acura had just been admitted to this very college,” Dr. K said. His voice was low and monotone. “Michiru and I held a small celebration for him. Much like myself, Acura had a knack for physical machinery rather than programming—the Divider was an unfinished design of his that I finished after his death. To think, he was only eighteen... I was always astonished by how bright he was for his age.” He shook his head, and chuckled. “Sorry if I seem like I'm bragging.”

“N-no, it's alright,” Paige said. “Um... what happened?”

“It was a fairly ordinary incident, all things considered,” Dr. K said. “Acura and Michiru were out for a stroll when they ran afoul of a street gang. Acura hid Michiru and attempted to confront them in order to escape, but these street toughs played a bit too rough and accidentally ended his life as Michiru ran for hers. I learned Acura was dead a few hours later, when the Officials called me.”

“...I'm—I'm so sorry, Doctor,” Paige said. “I-I didn't know.”

“It's alright,” Dr. K said. “I don't talk about it much these days. I remember him every day, of course—but I've never had the strength to clear out his room.”

There was a moment of silence, as Paige averted her eyes, her hands clammy on the table. “There's something else you want to ask, right?” Dr. K said. “I can tell. Go on.”

“We're so glad you've come back to us—”

“'Michiru'.” Paige said. “Your daughter's name is Compa, isn't it?”

There was the sound of a clock ticking in the background, as Dr. K ran his hand through his hair and breathed out. “Well... it's a natural question, of course.” His brow furrowed, and he leaned in closer. “Paige, I need you to listen very, very closely to me. The reason I keep this secret is for her sake. I—” A few stammers.

“Take your time,” Paige said.

In, out. In, out. “My daughter's name is Michiru Kamizono,” Dr. K said, “but Compa Kamizono is how she currently knows herself. Regarding... my wife's death eight years ago,” and that got Dr. K to grit his teeth, “the trauma caused Michiru to lose the ability to speak. She drew inward, shy and scared. Without a mother, Acura took it on himself to be Michiru's protector. Michiru was closer to Acura than anyone else—he... was her rock, Paige. When she lost him...”

Paige's heart was in her throat. She couldn't speak.

“...I've tried to tell her,” Dr. K said. “I've tried to remind her of the first eight years of her life—but she doesn't remember a second of it. Acura, her mother—she thinks of her own mother as a stranger she's never met. But, trying to recall Acura... it causes her pain, Paige. She shuts down on me again if I try, if she sees mementos of him—she... I just want to keep my daughter safe, Paige. I can't lose her. So, she has a new name, and... well, she's so much more exuberant now that she's not burdened by all that, I'm sure you can tell, and I—”

That was the point when Dr. Kamizono was unable to continue speaking, as the tears that had built up in his eyes started to fall, and his throat break him with resisted sobs. “Please,” he choked out, “please. Don't say a word about this to Michiru. I want her to stay safe. I want her to be happy. Please.”

As Dr. K sobbed, Paige's knuckles rose as she took a deep breath in, balling her fists to steel herself. “How many people at this college know, sir?”

“As far as I know,” Audrey said, “it's Dr. K, you now, me, Chronoforce, the Dean, and Akajima.”

“Mr. Keaton?” Paige said with a blink, and Audrey grunted a confirmation. “Hm. Um, is it alright if I tell Vespa?”

Having taken a moment to steady himself, Dr. K managed to catch his breath. “I imagine I can't keep it from her, but please be sure she doesn't tell anyone who's looser-lipped. I really... I just want to keep Michiru safe, Paige.”

Paige nodded. “Yes, of—of course, sir. I'll do anything I can.” Then—“It... is kind of ironic.” Dr. K looked up and raised his eyebrow. “That someone who lost the ability to speak would have such a lovely voice.”

Dr. K nodded, closing his eyes. “It's true. I count my blessings every day that at least she can sing with such gusto.”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Electopian Greater Metropolitan Area ~ Old Riverside Server

The blockiness of the trees lining the gated-off, simulated river was enough to tell Vespa this server of Mr. Andrew's was probably older than she was. Cube trees, hah. What a story.

It wasn't a large server by any means—a Mr. Prog or two ran about at the far edge of the river, fiddling about with waste management programs and old manifestos for boats that no longer docked here. A lot of Mr. Progs were chatty, sure, but it did look like the kind of place for a clandestine discussion—

A movement in the bushes! Vespa pulled out her Busters, preparing to fire, but she stopped herself when she caught sight of a familiar straw basket on the shape exiting from behind the bush. “Oh, it's you,” Vespa said.

Dr. Kamizono's Navi, Dopplerman, was based on an old type of monk called a komuso—those who discarded their identities by placing a basket over their head in order to both move incognito and represent the lack of a specific ego... or at least, that was what the good doctor claimed. Sure enough, his head and neck were entirely covered by his own basket—all that was visible was a wiry frame underneath white-and-red cloth robes, light Navi-standard body armor and boots, and a wicker apron. As he moved, indigo after-images followed him, probably generated by the wing-like aerial mobility fixtures upon his shoulders.

“I should've known you'd show up,” Vespa said, leaning in to crow at Dopplerman. As was his usual reaction, he didn't react in the slightest. “Catching the tea so you can tell Compa later, or something? What kind of guy follows a teenage girl around all day?” Nothing. “You're really just gonna take that, huh?”

—“Always the shadow, following her wherever she goes, into even the strangest places.”

Okay, so apparently today was Talk At Vespa From Behind Her Day. Vespa didn't raise her guns this time, though—she did at least remember the voice. Lilting, androgynous, with a hint of both playfulness and deathly determination behind it—the voice, in other words, of a tool. Exactly the kind of Navi Keaton Akajima would have, then.

And she remembered what Cubit Foxtar looked like—his old Shinto robes, his white hair, his violet eyes, his flame-like tail... he didn't have his weapons drawn at the moment, instead holding a lute in his arms as he lay casually across the top of a square tree, playing a few notes into the afternoon sun. “The straw baskets of those old monks were often used as a disguise for assassins, as well. You see, the shogunate granted political freedom to the komuso, and so the ability to travel freely while disguised was quite the effective tool for spies or killers. Play me a note, would you, good shadow?”

Dopplerman pulled a small tool from a sheath on his waist and extended it into a long flute, then snaked it under his basket to blow Foxtar out a note or two. “Ahhh,” Foxtar said, reclining atop the tree, “bliss.”

Though the simulated, blocky leaves took a bit of burning as he leapt off, Foxtar's slow, graceful descent onto the ground was flawless in its form—clearly he'd practiced, because there was no way someone was just that cool without trying, Vespa knew, she'd tried. “Do you have to try so hard?” she asked.

“You wear cowboy boots,” Foxtar said, his chin resting in his right hand, “dropping one-liners and mocking your opponents like you're the protagonist of an anime for young boys, and you tell me I'm trying hard?” Vespa flinched, recoiling backwards and gritting her teeth. “You ride a motorcycle and you affect this whole 'biker chick' aesthetic, it really is obvious how cool you think you are.”

“Wha—wha, wha—” Vespa flapped her gums like a fish. “I—I have—I, uh—”

“Of course, with the understanding that this isn't your original appearance,” Foxtar said, “it makes sense. You've gone very far with creating the sort of style for yourself that you find expresses your innermost heart, right?” Vespa mutely nodded. “Well, it's the same for me. Certainly I've been a fox since the day I was born, but nothing else has to stay the same if it's not part of your soul. That's part of the beauty of being cybernetic. Humans have it tragically harder, you know.” He looked off to the side, a wistful sigh in his eyes.

“Oh—uh, yeah, I know,” Vespa said. She nodded again. “I mean, I've seen photos of Paige's bestie in boymode and it was nuts. Wasn't even like looking at the same person. Those poncy blazers, those shiny shoes... I mean, frankly she barely looks like the same person anymore even from when I met her, four years does a lot for a teenager.”

“Mmhm,” Foxtar said. “So. Have I made my case?”

“I, uh... I guess I never thought about it that way,” Vespa said. “Um... sorry?” She bowed her head, blushing.

Foxtar laughed. “It's alright. Really.” Then, the smile on his face turned upside-down. “It's been a long while since the last time I looked into your eyes, Vespa.exe. Four years, almost to the day.”

“So I do know you,” Vespa said.

“You're looking a lot more functional,” Foxtar said, turning to the side and beginning to pace down the path. “You see, the last time I saw you, you were face-down on the ground, with a gaping hole in your chest, on the verge of death. It's understandable you wouldn't remember my face, but maybe you'll remember what I said.”

“'Vespa'... to live, or die?”

And then—she did remember.

Date: September 25, 20XX-4

Location: An arid, canyon-filled region of the wider Electopian public networks

“Lemme go.”

“Lemme go.”

“I said, lemme go!”

Shaking off the paralysis from such a strong forced-stop command wasn't doing Vespa any favors in terms of maintaining her strength. At the moment, though, everywhere hurt, so hurting a bit more wasn't that odd. Her arm fell through the rim of her cloak as she fell down onto the rocky ground, panting and heaving, supporting herself on a trembling hand.

“Please, Miss,” said the Navi who was following her, “you need to be repaired. You're in dire straits—”

“Shut up!”

Anyone, everyone, on the Net knew this program. The fair-haired, dolled up young girl with her butterfly hair clip and her pink dress—one half of Dr. Albert Wily's ultimate net security system, 'Iris'. There wasn't any reason to fear for an ordinary Navi—even if her older brother Colonel had been present, there were few repair programs as reliable as Iris.exe.

—But Vespa was not ordinary. She staggered to her feet, still clutching that thing under her other arm, and began again to limp forward. “What part,” Vespa said, spitting bits of data out from between her teeth, “of 'let me go' do you not understand?”

“...Why?” said Iris. The sandstorm around them continued to rage, but to a program like Iris, environmental details were only necessary when they needed to be. The sand got in Vespa's eyes, her teeth, but Iris remained immaculate. “You're in pain. If you really need to be left alone, then tell me why. Tell me why you've—”

Vespa staggered again. “I did tell you,” Vespa said. “This thing... needs to go. Somewhere where nobody, nobody, can touch it again. You won't see that, will you? It's not a virus. You—”

—and then she lurched over,

and coughed up blood onto the dirt. Iris gasped in horror and shock—who wouldn't? Blood should not exist here. “—nn, need, you need to stay away,” Vespa said. “This thing could... this thing, it—”

Even just holding it under her arm the feeling hit her the need the emptiness the compulsion the drive please give it back please give it back you can't live without it you need it you need me

In that moment her consciousness had clouded over, Iris had come closer, pulling down the hood and letting Vespa's ragged blonde hair loose. Just feeling that hurt like a bastard, every routine embedded in her hair telling her over and over again exactly how many things were wrong with her body. “If you make me slow down—!” Vespa said, barely managing to avoid coughing up more blood. “—youuu, hah, idiot!!”

[Overall program integrity at 5%. Reporting lack of several basic cybernetic features. Data volume at unhealthily low volume. Hive Matrix offline. Other defense systems offline. Close-combat systems offline. Severe leakage detected in torso.]

Even a cloak couldn't hide a prying eye seeing what was wrong with Vespa. The stumbling, the agony, the coughing, it all came down to the simple fact that there was a gaping hole in her chest. It was a rough hole, caking the edges of her body lining with that same anomalous blood, data dripping out of her chest, pieces of her consciousness dribbling out of her body in one long, agonizing death of personality.

The strength of Vespa.exe was such that she had torn her own Core Program from her chest, knowing full well that something like her could not survive that. She had been a coward for so long—she would not run from this.

Vespa felt the Recovery programs Iris was trying to run. Why had such a nosy woman had to have been likely the last Navi Vespa would ever meet? “Just leave... me be,” Vespa said. “It's not... too much further. I'll... make it.”

Another forced stop attempt. Another breakthrough. Another fading memory. “I need to reinsert your Core Program,” Iris said, “so that I can prevent you from being deleted. I don't want to watch someone die.”

“Then look away,” Vespa said. She pulled her cloak back over her head and started staggering forward faster. “We're all born to die. The least I can do is make something right with this rotten life. I'm not worth saving.”

—Would that that had been the end of it... but it was never the end of it, not even here at the end. With a small yelp, Iris was transported away, and Vespa heard the sounds of footsteps behind her.

—These were not viruses, and they were not Navis, and they were not programs. One, two, four, eight, sixteen—the way that the husk-like forms of these stumbling Pantheon Zombies multiplied was almost insulting. An army could appear in a second of these mindless drones—after all, in one of these things was an S-38 'Metaroid', controlling this horde remotely from its host.

He had gotten the idea from Vulturon. Vespa had always hated Metaroids.

“You can't leave well enough alone, can you?” Vespa scoffed, standing up onto her feet. “...Old man.”

He didn't respond. That likely meant he wasn't on call—he would watch this, sure, but he was probably too angry to have a coherent word to say. Doctor Heinrich Scuttler... the world's foremost expert on “anti-anti-virals”. Any expert virus buster knew his handiwork—his self-named project, the Scuttles, had become viruses in their own right, and yet still terrorized the lower reaches of the net with their fearsome drive to delete. He had always thought of it as a rousing success.

—This would probably be the last time Vespa ever met her father, even if he said nothing. So—

With one swift motion, she threw her cape away into the fading sandstorm

as the orange sky came into view

and revealed the form of a Navi who had chosen her own path.

“Let's go.”

The Hive Buster still worked for just a bit, so Vespa launched a mortar shot into the crowd, detonating a blast of shrapnel that disabled several of the ambling Zombies. Her trustiest firearm began to crack and shudder under the force of the shot, but Vespa leapt into the air to fire two more into the crowd. She clicked her tongue—nothing. Wherever this Metaroid was hiding, it was doing it well.

A few Zombies managed to make a lunge for her, but Vespa drove one off with a brutal backhand and produced her right-hand Chaser to let loose a shot or two to blow the others off of her. She slowly advanced backward, now holding both Chasers, but—

—well, that 'click' meant a misfire. It was just a momentary glitch, but seeing them stop being mowed down... “...This isn't fun anymore.”

Emergency propulsion system activated.

Pivoting in the other direction, Vespa dashed into the distance, leaping down to a lower point on the rocky cliffs and re-evaluating her options. These stupid things couldn't jump, so leaping across the cliffs was probably her better option, as long as she was careful... so, she aimed down into the nearest pit to fire upon the leaping Volcaire Scuttler would likely call in to hit here where it counted, then began to leap across the cliffs.

The feeling of speed, after so much excruciating walking, was exhilarating in the sort of way that only reckless abandon could be. Flinging herself up edges she just barely caught as a set of blue S-5 'Pararoids' flew in to launch their sonic blasts at her, then tumbling down a brief incline to make a leap for another, taller cliff to scale—

Oh, hell. This one was falling! Vespa took another long dash, with only the straight-away she'd earlier left as an option. She'd gained a lead on the Metaroid, and continued to press her advantage as she fired upon the Pararoids to take them out as she ran. None of these were particularly sturdy.

Ah, but this, Vespa thought as the bulky blue form and green visor of an S-3 'Bee Blader' floated into view from a gap in the road Vespa would've had to jump anyhow, this was sturdy. These were floating carriers for other Scuttler-line products, equipped with their own machineguns and a seemingly endless supply of Deerball support drones.

But—“You forgot I remember how these work, old man!” Vespa called out, taking a daring leap towards the Bee Blader, grabbing onto its front and punching in through the glass of the visor, cutting her hand but letting her use the last of her Scuttler-line admin privileges to alter its flight path. The Bee Blader turned right around, thinking Vespa had just teleported behind it, and began to fly forward, chasing her—but Vespa aimed her Hive Buster downward and blasted herself back, the recoil helping her clear this canyon and send the Bee Blader just the slightest bit downward into the canyon wall.

The flight adjustment took its toll, though—Vespa felt one of her hovering wings shatter as she landed, and she cried out in agony before shaking her head and continuing to run forward. This far out into the networks, there weren't many connections left, but Vespa knew where she was going, and she barreled forward with a single-minded determination. It wasn't too far now, so do your worst, old man—!

Vespa leapt to the side to dodge past a metal claw, its pincers glowing with an orange heat. It dug up the ground in its path as it flew off into the distance, and Vespa turned around to see what had launched it.

This—was new. Four narrow, green-and-yellow legs extended off of the central body, itself armored with heavy green plating. Yellow cooling vents ran along its underside. Its white head, with four, glowing red eyes, was heavy, with two jutting mandibles from its underside. It was flanked by a machinegun cannon, and, returning to it, that same claw appearing in its holster once more. Most telling, though, was this monster's tail—tall, bulbous, arching upright with a stinger that pointed menacingly at Vespa.

“Do you think you're the only person who can innovate?” A jittery, hissing, spiteful voice rang out. “I haven't sat on my laurels. I don't need you if you're going to leave me like the rest. This is the S-43 'Mega Scorpia'. If you won't stay with me, Hornet—”

“My name...” Vespa said, aiming her Chasers at the Scorpia, “is Vespa.”

“You could've called yourself whatever you wanted without leaving,” Dr. Scuttler said, “but I understand. I'll be sure to remember you properly.” He was spitting into the mic. “If you want to be like this, then you can die Vespa! Go to hell, traitor!”

The Scorpia began its advance, its machinegun roaring to life as it began to chase Vespa across the wasteland. Covering fire made Vespa dance to dodge it, as the beast's tail tracked her position, then stretched out, data connections keeping the tail together as it stabbed into the dirt right where Vespa was about to head. If she'd been just a hair faster, she would've been impaled—but Vespa knew enough to know Scuttler knew how she thought. Judging by the armoring, the tail wasn't going to be a weakpoint—no, it was just going to be the head. That was the only place that could serve as a central command if the thing was so heavily armored.

As the Scorpia ran out of shots and needed to take a moment to reload, Vespa fired a mortar shot from her Hive Buster as she advanced backwards—but the claw extended over the beast's face to block it, taking the damage itself. Then—

Vespa's own retreat was halted as the Hive Buster cracked even further. No, there was only going to be one more shot in this thing. She had to make it count. It looked like the claw was about as armored as the head, so it was possible Vespa could destroy it. She brandished her Chasers as she saw it begin to roar to life again, keeping aim as she dashed backwards and levied her firearms to hail a steady stream of bullets onto the claw.

The weakness of an S-# line member was that it lacked the AUTO System, and thus, the claw took every shot as it launched toward Vespa. Using her remaining wing to alter her dash path, Vespa slid onto the ground on her back to keep the blasts coming onto the claw. Her other wing broke off, of course, but that was fine—the claw, midway through returning, dented and broke from Vespa's bullets, falling uselessly on the ground in two pieces as the Scorpia advanced ever further.

With its shield gone, the Scorpia's machinegun revved to life again, as its tail arched itself further upwards again for a better bead on Vespa. Stepping backwards in a predictable pattern was going to get Vespa stabbed, so she began to bob and weave in and out of the line of fire, such that the Scorpia would stab downward into the line of fire—then, she flipped onto the tail itself, using it as a temporary vantage point to hail fire down onto the vulnerable head.

The tail returned to the Scorpia, and Vespa continued to fire from above it, pounding into the head from above. No matter what, she kept firing until she saw the machinegun turn itself upwards to fire at her. With a grimace, Vespa waited for it to fire, then leapt off of the tail, back onto the Scorpia's advancement path.

Holstering her Chasers, Vespa brandished the shaking, breaking Hive Buster on her right arm. The sweat pouring down her face redoubled as she dashed forward, toward the Scorpia—and drove the Hive Buster right into its face. “Just die!”

—The last shot from the Hive Buster blew out into the Scorpia's head, and its shrapnel then obliterated the Buster around Vespa's arm—which detonated itself as the force of her punch sent the shrapnel directly through the Scorpia's head. The explosion from the Scorpia's destruction staggered Vespa back, and the shrapnel of her own Buster having punctured her arm didn't help her ability to stand upright. “You really are... my greatest—” The connection cut off after that. It seemed Scuttler had been speaking through the Scorpia specifically.

Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately. Reinstall Core Program immediately.

—And yet... she hadn't made it. “I... I won...” Vespa said—and then coughed up one last bit of blood. “...but it... cost me everything.”

The glowing, yellow program, entrapped in its cage, tumbled out onto the ground. Now that the Hive Buster was gone, she had nowhere else to put it.

This blood was liquid. There was, ever so slightly, a reflection in it. As Vespa tumbled toward the ground, she saw in that reflection—

“Listen, Hornet... your problem is you aren't honest with yourself. I know deep down in there there's someone good—otherwise, I wouldn't like you, right?”

“Quee...nie...”

“...Your eyes are clouded. You're afraid of yourself. Your heart is trembling. I can counsel you, but I cannot take the first step. Take heart. Live your life without fear.”

“...Uncle Mino...”

—Ha. Hahahahaha. Was that it? They say your life flashes before your eyes when you die... but were those two truly the only relationships Vespa had had that truly made an impact on her heart? Even as she fell to the ground, the light in her eyes fading, she let out a dry, derisive chuckle.

“...I'm sorry. Please tell me... that I... did okay...”

Then, as the sandstorm roared to life once more—a glow appeared in the faintest edges of Vespa's fading vision. With the last of her strength, she tried to look upwards.

A Navi—and was that... a coffin? He took that thing and placed it in a coffin, covered with talismans and chains—then lit the coffin aflame. Thousands of shrill screams rang out from within it. Vespa... could not speak, but if she could... she would still be laughing.

The white-haired fox looked down at Vespa, as her last bit of strength gave out, and her head fell to the ground.

“Dr. Scuttler's greatest creation... the Navi designed to carry his masterwork, the Core Program, 'Stratos'.”

“'Vespa'... to live, or die?”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Electopian Greater Metropolitan Area ~ Old Riverside Server

“You—?!”

Vespa staggered backward as the memory came back to her, clear as day. She pointed her finger at Cubit Foxtar—the man who had saved her life. “You're him! That guy!”

“One of my favorite TV shows,” Foxtar said, still turned to the side, “is an episodic mystery series by an up-and-coming director. 'Neko Box RED-OR-WHITE', they call it—'NekoAka' for short. It chronicles the story of two twins, separated at birth, with vastly different circumstances, having reunited at different times during their lives—the two of them always seem to find themselves in odd circumstances. The white twin, he always thinks of himself as a shadow, and tries to remain out of sight, even as his sister knows he's there, but he never knows when to leave well enough alone. 'The silver-haired interloper', they call him.”

“...huh?” Vespa blinked.

“What I'm saying is, I'm a chronic interloper. Seeing something like Stratos, so close to being put away for good—how could I not step in?” Foxtar said. He turned to face Vespa again. “Part of my duty as a citizen of this world is to eliminate that which might harm it.”

“But, then... why me?” Vespa asked.

“Why did I save you?” Foxtar asked back, and Vespa nodded. “Many a person burdened with an inescapable fate will submit themself to it. However, you, a Navi doomed from creation to be used for sickening aims, rejected your fate and fought to define yourself.” He clutched a hand to his chest. “My dream, Vespa, is a world where no NetNavis are abused in that way again—to leave you would have been hypocrisy of the highest order. You had the chance for a new life—it was the least I could do to help you.”

—After that, Vespa had woken up with at least a functioning body and her Chasers, in Netopia, of all places. It was enough to keep her going until she met Paige. “I... always wondered,” Vespa said, “who that guy was who decided I should live.” She snorted. “Never thought I'd meet you here.”

“You seem happy, at the very least,” Foxtar said. He smiled. “Troubles aside, Paige is a lovely woman. You seem quite happy together.”

Vespa snickered. “You make it sound like we're dating.”

“You're not?” Foxtar asked, and Vespa laughed for a moment before realizing it was a serious question, then shook her head. “...Could've fooled me.” He shook his own head. “To tell you the truth, I was shocked to see you here, too—mind you, even though we were hardly even acquaintances, it filled me with pride to see you walking proudly.” His brow furrowed. “Vespa. I need to know something. Do you know if Dr. Scuttler is involved in this incident?”

Vespa nodded. “He is. There's no doubt about it. Their leader, K—they're working with him as an 'independent contractor'. Apparently they don't like him, but my best guess is they need him for something. We've all actually got a detective on the case now, too—guy named Himekago.”

Foxtar nodded back. “That's good. The more hands on deck, the better—”

“Hey, but wait,” Vespa said, raising her eyebrows. “How did you even know what Stratos was? It wasn't a public thing. You would've had to have gotten into Scuttler's files somehow, or heard about it from him.”

“We... had a mutual acquaintance at the time,” Foxtar said. He averted his eyes. “That's as far as I can go at the moment.”

“Aw, what?” Vespa sputtered. “Come on! Dude, I used to be a career criminal—if you—?”

“It's not you I'm concerned about,” Foxtar said, and cocked his head at Dopplerman, who was still standing in the background. “I don't want Compa involved, and if I explain further, I'll know for certain she'll get involved somehow.”

Vespa groaned, crossed her arms, and then turned away. “What's with you cryptic badass types and your thing about kids? Twice in one month now, I swear.”

“Huh?” Foxtar asked.

“Sorry,” Vespa said, “had to mouth off, force of habit. So, you're... a good guy, right?”

In response, Foxtar turned to look at the sun, his tail waving in the breeze. “I want to believe that I am. For the sake of—”

“Okay, no,” Vespa said, and then finally bridged the gap of this conversation to put her hands on Foxtar's shoulders from behind, “you need to lay off the overdramatics for like a second, dude. I know we had that conversation earlier, but you and Keaton are both so damn extra with the way you wave your hands around acting like you're characters in an opera or something.” Foxtar had gone totally rigid. “I am asking you if I can trust you to help me with this if I need help.”

A pause. Foxtar looked back over his shoulder, with a smile and a nod. Vespa smiled back. “Heh. Maybe if I'd known someone like you earlier, things would've gone differently.”

“Perhaps,” Foxtar said. “Perhaps.”

—Then, there was a third person from back then. Cubit Foxtar... maybe he wasn't that bad, even if he was kind of a ponce.

So, the second life of the Navi called Vespa continued to expand—

Chapter Text

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Kamizono Household

“...and so Alkaiser uses Al-Phoenix on Metal Black, but then Metal Black counters with Dark Al-Phoenix, but then Alkaiser's like, whoaaaahhhh!! and he upgrades his Al-Phoenix to Al-Phoenix X! And it's like he jumps up in the air and there's this targeting reticle and there's this phoenix around him and—”

When Vespa and Compa returned to the Kamizono home, they were animatedly discussing tokusatsu shows. Paige did recognize 'Fight! Frontier Warrior Alkaiser', though she hadn't gotten to see much of its sequel, 'R3X'. Compa, who had apparently not seen this show, listened along, her eyes glowing with a captivated intensity.

...and, for some reason, Keaton Akajima was there, too, chatting along and offering the occasional bit of character analysis for Alkaiser's allies in the Inter-Regional Police Organization. He looked right at home in this sort of discussion.

“Oh,” Vespa said, looking up to see her operator, “hey, Paige. What's up?”

Paige looked up to match her, and gave a weak wave. “Hi, Vespa. Compa. Mr. Akajima. I thought you didn't like him, Vespa?”

Vespa shrugged. “I mean, the guy's a tool,” and Keaton sputtered at that, “but he's better than I thought. Same with his Navi.”

“It was a real nice bit of bonding,” Compa added, with a smug smile on her face. “And I got to see all of it! Ehehe. Now Keaton has to have another friend!”

“Are you still on about that?” Keaton said, giving Compa a frown as though he'd been stabbed in the heart. “I'm telling you, I have plenty of friends!”

“How many friends do you have that you didn't meet through Lan?” Compa shot back.

“Well, there's—” Keaton muttered to himself. “You. Mr. Andrew. Uhhh... hold on, let me... let me roll through my contacts—”

Vespa walked over to sit next to Paige on the porch in front of the doorway, and put her arm around Paige's shoulders. “Hey, what's up? You're looking kinda down. Dr. K that much of a drag?”

Paige shook her head. “No... not, um...” Her eyes darted toward Compa. “We... found some mementos of his wife,” she lied. “It was a bit... um...”

Keaton's face lit up in recognition, and he leaned down to whisper into Compa's ear. Compa, then, nodded at him, and walked over to sit down on Paige's other side. “Are you worried about me?”

“W-wha?!” Paige gasped. “Um, I—!”

“It's fine,” Compa said. “I know. Audrey got the same way when she saw how lonely Daddy was, and they talked about his family... his wife, and his... other daughter.”

“Huh?” Vespa blinked. “I thought you were an only child.”

Compa shook her head. “He doesn't like to talk about her much, but I'm pretty sure he had another daughter who's gone now.” Paige's teeth gritted behind closed lips. “Cause if it was just his wife, you and Audrey wouldn't have gotten so worried about me, right? I mean, I know Daddy's kind of a sad guy, but... I'm okay. I like my life. So, don't look so sad, Paige.” Compa grinned, showing her own teeth. “You look better when you smile.”

“...you're not... lonely, at all?” Paige asked.

Compa shook her head. “Why would I be? I have Daddy, and Keaton, and Audrey, and lots of other people around the campus. I've got all the family I need!”

—Ggghhh. It hurt. It hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt it hurt. The best thing to do would be to treat Compa just as Paige always had. That was the best thing to do. And yet, and yet, and yet and yet and yet. But but but but but.

Paige ducked her head down to her PET.

[Mimel: paige? u good?]

[Paige: Vespa and Compa just came back. Compa was trying to cheer me up.]

[Mimel: oh shit. can you talk?]

[Paige: It hurts. I don't know what to do.]

[Mimel: put me on]

[Paige: You've never spoken to Compa. Mr. Akajima, the student body, president, is here, too. The two of them might not have any idea who you are.]

[Mimel: quit making excuses and put me on, paige.]

Brrrrring. Brrrrring. Paige's frantic texting that Vespa and Compa had tried desperately to look over her shoulder to see gave way to a call being picked up. “Yeah, hi, this thing on?” Mimel's voice rang out. “I—”

“Wha—I'd recognize that voice anywhere!” Keaton yelled, dashing in to complete this huddle around Paige's PET. “You have the 'Handsome Dynamite's' number?!”

Pause. “Ohhh, I've got a fan, do I?” Mimel smugly chuckled through the phone, and Paige knew exactly how her face looked in that instant. “Hi. This is Mimel Blackgold, Paige's bestie. Don't take this the wrong way—Paige has trouble talking about this kind of stuff sometimes.”

“W-wait,” Vespa said, grimacing and leaning back, “is it that bad?”

“Compa, right?” Mimel said, and Compa nodded. “...right?”

“Oh right, you can't see me,” Compa said. “Yes. Hi. What?”

“Paige has some problems of her own, and the discussions she had with your dad are causing her to have a moment. I appreciate you trying to cheer her up, but right now, that dumbass Navi of hers should drag her back to their room and let her take a bit to decompress. That cool?” This was far from the first time Mimel had had to have this sort of discussion, but it was new for her to have to do it from across an ocean.

“Hey, who's calling me a dumbass, dumbass?” Vespa shot back.

“Takes a dumbass to know a dumbass, dumbass,” Mimel said, “and I'm as stupid as they come! Seriously though, no offense, kid, I'm sure Paige would love to continue chatting with you and all—”

Then, there was a movement over the phone. “One sec. It's just Paige, Mom! Yes, I know it's my turn. Ye—yes, I know that I'm smart. One can be both smart and stupid, Mom. Just look at Lambert. The kid's wearing a snuggie and it's not even officially fall yet—My thoughts on your fashion choices aren't new, punk! I'm aware you get cold easily, but there are ways to do that without looking like a caterpillar while you're going bowling—Yeah, I did used to wear a justaucorps to school, you wanna fight about it? I'm gonna cream you, watch, I'm gonna catch a turkey!”

“Milady,” said Tundraman, “you might want to hang up first if you're going to begin furiously challenging Master Lambert.”

“Gimme a sec!” Mimel barked. “Yeah. Hi. Okay, so, I'm sure Paige would love to continue chatting with you, but she's gotta cocoon herself. No offense. Message sent. Okay gotta go bye.”

Click.

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Paige & Vespa's Dorm Room

As requested, Paige was returned to her dorm room, and the two began to idly converse on what they'd each learned on this ever-educational day. Paige couldn't help but tear up a bit at the story about Mr. Andrew's boat, but Vespa reacted stronger to being told about the Kamizonos.

“...Oh, uh...” Vespa said, once Paige finished her mumbled recounting of the story. “Something about that messed you up, huh?”

Paige nodded. “...Poor Compa. I... Vespa, I'm not...”

There was a moment where Paige's knuckles clenched on her lap, as the two of them sat side-by-side on the bed.

“How do you,” Paige asked, “deal with that? How should you treat them? Is Compa really the same person as Michiru? Is it fair to feel bad for her over what happened before?” Her wrists struck her legs as she gesticulated, clutching her hands to try and grasp at the answers she sought. “Am I hurting her somehow with my feelings?”

—A person's a person, Paige. Whether they're human, Navi, or somewhere in between. I think everyone has the right to tell the world who they are.

“In a situation like this, though,” Paige said, responding to a thought Vespa couldn't hear, “when the person herself doesn't have the ability to dictate where she stands related to the division in question—? What are you doing?”

Vespa had grabbed Paige's PET and was texting someone. Just a moment later, a knock on the door. “C'mon in, door's not locked yet,” she called out.

As it turned out, it was Audrey, scratching at her scalp as she slid into the room on her slippers. She sat down on the bed on Paige's other side, let out a pointed yawn, and then said, “So you're having an existential crisis over this.”

Paige sunk further into herself. “Mmhm.”

“Think about it this way,” Audrey said. “Michiru was eight and Compa's fourteen now, right? That's almost half her life there. People change. If you're worried about her acting differently, well, she probably would've turned out similar anyhow. Don't worry about it.”

“I'm really bad at not worrying about things,” Paige said.

“Yeah, I couldn't tell,” Audrey said with a snort. “Seriously. I've known the brat for, what, two years now? She's just your average kid. Short, but average. The doc makes it sound all serious, and it sucks for both of them, sure, but they're living. Don't worry about it. Compa's Compa. Or Michiru. Either way, she's the same kid.”

—By now, Paige had looked up, and turned her head to Audrey. Despite the sluggish, dirty air she had, Paige couldn't help but agree—she was persuasive in spite of her demeanor.

“I mean,” Chronoforce suddenly chimed in, “Audrey used to smile.”

Pause. Audrey's head slooooowly craned down to her PET, her teeth gritting as she did. “What.”

“What?” Paige and Vespa agreed.

“No, seriously,” Chronoforce said. “Sweet as could be when she was younger. A bit melancholy, sure.”

“Why,” Audrey said, reaching down to her waist to grab her PET and hold it in front of her face, glaring at Chronoforce inside it, “are you suddenly chiming in at the worst possible moment.”

“Eh,” Chronoforce said with an audible shrug. “'Cause it's funny.”

“Nuh uh,” Vespa said, shaking her head, “pics or it didn't happen.”

Bing! That signaled that Paige's PET had just received a text. Audrey sputtered, punching the bed. “Bastard crab, what the hell did you do that for?”

—Curiosity killed the cat, so being handed her PET, Paige opened the text message from Chronoforce to see—“Nuh uh,” Vespa said, shaking her head, “nuh uh. That ain't you.”

She was probably about thirteen in this picture, given the height difference. The bags under Audrey's eyes had yet to develop, and said eyes were a much more vibrant green than they ever seemed to be lately. Her hair—well, astonishingly, Audrey's hair was apparently a natural golden blonde, as opposed to the dark, dirty shades Paige had known her with thus far. It was shorter in the photo, but that was just because Audrey had such an intense mop these days—it was mid-back length, with a bit of charming natural waviness. The Sharonian snow was heavy on the ground despite this day's sunniness, and so Audrey had worn a heavy, baby-blue coat with a set of white buttons on its front, along with a tawny scarf, snow boots and cargo pants in-color, and...

“Is that what an ushanka is?” Vespa asked Paige.

Yup. A tall, black, fluffy ushanka. The girl in the photo was indeed smiling. She had a soft smile, and bright, too—the exact sort of adjectives that would never, ever be used to describe today's Audrey Longhener.

“I'm gonna drag you face-first across hot coals,” Audrey hissed at her PET. “You little traitor.”

“I think you look better when you smile, Boss,” Chronoforce said. “You should give it another try one of these days—”

Chronoforce's words were muffled as Audrey slammed her PET into the covers on Paige's bed, muffling it and furiously rubbing her disobedient crab on the mattress. “Nuh uh,” Vespa said.

“The hell does it matter?” Audrey spat. “I—”

“Who took this photo?” Paige asked.

A pause. “My dad,” Audrey said, looking away. “Why?”

“I... was just curious,” Paige said. “I wouldn't have been smiling at that age.”

“You would've been ten,” Audrey responded. “Would you have been smiling when you were ten?”

Paige looked at the photo of her friend's past again and hummed. “I think... if I'd gotten a photo like this taken, I probably would have. If it were me, it would've been my uncle taking a photo like this...” A pause. “What was your dad like?”

“He...” Audrey sighed, and let go of her PET, making Chronoforce huff out a sigh of relief. “Well... he was smart. Too smart for his own good. It made people need him a lot. But he was a genius—and self-sacrificing. Even though he was from Sharo, he wound up working in Electopia most of the time, so he didn't come home often. Mom died pretty early, so a woman from the neighborhood spent a lot of time as a sort of nanny. Dad didn't exactly want to be out that much, I know—it wasn't like he didn't want to spend time with me. I was really happy every time he came home... what are you doing?”

Paige, who'd pulled her model train up to her ear to listen so as to calm herself, sputtered and said, “Um, just listening. I'm listening.”

“Mm. Then, one day, he went to work, said it might be the most important job of his life... and he never came back,” Audrey said. “Well... I guess he did, kinda.”

“Huh?” Paige asked.

“If you go to the hospital nearest our family estate,” Audrey said, “he's still in there. He's been asleep for... must be almost nine years now. The doctors keep him on life support out of respect, but the prognosis of him waking up isn't good. He might as well be dead.” Audrey looked up to the ceiling. “Huh... I wonder. Your uncle and my dad probably met a few times. Who knows—maybe there's a world out there where you actually got to know me before I went to shit. Shame it's gone now, huh?”

—At some point, Vespa had gone into the PET, leaving the CopyBot to the side of the bed. It was just the two of them on the bed as Audrey scoffed. “Why am I even telling you this?”

“As a point relevant to the discussion we were having about Compa?” Paige suggested.

“Mm,” Audrey said, nodding. “That makes sense.”

And then—“Huh?” The noise Audrey let out was hardly dignified—it was somewhere between a squeak and a growl. Paige had reached over to hug her, wrapping her arms around her friend. “What are you—?”

“You don't have to stay a mess forever,” Paige said into Audrey's shoulder. “I...”

Vespa helpfully stayed out of proceedings, but no doubt pulled up just the photo Paige was hoping for. Paige showed Audrey her PET screen—there was a bright smile in this photo, but it wasn't Paige. The grey, dour, sorrowful Paige of four years ago had been in this photo unwillingly, but Mimel had insisted. This was before she had dyed her hair, so the photo capturing the two of them on this roller-coaster showed one silvery-blonde teenage girl, wiry and emotional, hollering on a particularly tight turn, and another, dark-haired, dour, and dumpy, hardly even reacting except to look a little queasy.

“Thrill rides are the worst,” Audrey said, giving Paige a commiserating pat on the shoulder.

“No, I'm saying—” Paige lifted her head to look Audrey in the eyes. “Don't... be so down on yourself, Audrey. Even if you are a mess... I believe in you.”

“You have known me for a month,” Audrey scoffed.

“I don't care,” Paige shot back. “I believe in you. I think I'd like to see you smile like that again someday.”

Rolling her eyes, Audrey clicked her tongue. “Clearly you're feeling better if you're hitting me with corny lines like that.”

(And, in the background—

Vespa couldn't help but giggle, in a connection with Chronoforce. “She really is making new friends. I'm proud of her.”

“Same,” Chronoforce said. “Though... different her, I guess.”)

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Densan Cinemas

How, exactly, this emotional conversation had wound up turning into going to see a movie, of all things, Paige wasn't really sure. Momentum had led her to walking along with Audrey as Audrey went off to go 'take care of this and that', but when said momentum had led Paige to follow Audrey into the city proper, and onto the subway, for that matter, Audrey shrugged, pulled out her wallet, and declared, “I've been meaning to see something. C'mon.”

As it turned out, Audrey was into corny action flicks, so the latest Mission Impossible seemed right up her alley. Paige, with her fundamental understanding of movie special effects, was able to nod along as Audrey stared intently at Tom Cruise pulling off a daring heist. The plot was about as thick as a sheet of cardboard, but it was mostly an excuse for cool action setpieces, and there was nothing wrong with that.

“—proper knowhow of a good special effect—“ Audrey munched on a chocolate bar she'd picked up at the concession stand as the two of them left the theater. “—I mean, believability is key. The best sort of trick to play on someone is a trick where they don't realize they've been tricked. If you guide peoples' eyes, guide their thinking, then you can get them to not notice things that are right in front of their faces.”

“Suddenly I understand how you and Scoops became friends,” Paige said with a giggle, as the two of them made their way through the crowds.

“No, it's completely different,” Audrey said. “Reporting and special effects are two different fields entirely. When I was a kid, you know, I always wanted to direct my own conspiracy action flick.” Her arms raised a bit for her to move around as she spoke. “The sort of thing where it seems totally dense at first, but then it all totally unravels by the end and you just get it, and there's a big, cathartic fight scene where the heroes come out on top! And the best part is waving the truth in front of peoples' faces the whole time—so when they watch it again, they go, oh, damn it, how could I have missed that?” Pause. “That's not Mission Impossible, Mission Impossible is popcorn.” Munch. “You see any parasols?”

...A bit of an odd question, but Paige looked out into the crowds surrounding them as they vaguely gravitated toward the exit. Hmm... Well, there were the doors, and... Oh. There was a parasol, frilly and lilac and extending well above the crowd, as its owner was tall by any measure, to say nothing of Electopian heights.

Following Audrey, Paige joined her in skulking toward the entrance, and officially left through the doors to see the owner of the parasol having a nice laugh about something. Er—“Doesn't Miike have just the most stunning style to his films? And that leading man was really something. Rowr!”

“Uh, s-sure thing, Mrs. Ulyanov...” ...Wait, alright, hold on. Sure, with the cowboy hat and the boots and all that... outfit, she looked different, but the parasol-holding woman had definitely wrapped Asahi Makimura in her arm around the shoulder, and was dragging her about. “I, uh... I don't really know much about those sorts of things.”

“Oh, come on now!” She had to be over six feet, this woman, though not much taller. Mid-40s, most likely, with a length of raven-black hair that was just starting to grey. She had a frilly old dress on that matched the colors of her parasol, but under that she was pretty lean—there wasn't much fat on her, and a fine but not particularly strong amount of muscle. She had a rather bird-like face, and knew her way around a makeup set, with tasteful, but not overpowering, amounts of eyeshadow, blush, and the like, and ruby-red lipstick that really didn't look like 'movie date' decal. Grey eyes... if Paige was being honest with herself, this woman was aging quite gracefully.

'Mrs. Ulyanov' had spun on her heels to grab Asahi by the shoulders and look her in the eyes. “I look into your eyes and I see a girl who knows the fires of love, Asahi. Or are big, tough men just not your type? Are you more into the lighter, softer type? Oh, or is it the manliness by itself? C'mon, tell me!”

“T-t-that ain't, uh,” and there was Asahi's bad accent as she blushed profusely and averted her eyes, “that ain't the kinda junk I wanna yap about when we're out on the town, lady!”

Audrey's left eyebrow twitched. “Just be quiet,” she said, whispering into Paige's ear, “and she won't notice us.” The two of them attempted to merge into the wall to sidle away—

—Ah. Apparently, 'Mrs. Ulyanov' had quite the hearing, as she declared, “And now, who is this I hear trying to run away without even saying hello?” A spin on her heels made a loud clack, so they must've been fancy shoes under there. Audrey froze in her tracks, and Paige looked toward her for some assistance. “I see, I see. You didn't want me to interrupt you on a date, hm?”

“Shut the hell up,” Audrey said, recovering from her freezing to walk over and pinch the taller woman on her cheek. “The hell are you doing out here with Makimura, you old bag?”

“Can't a girl have a nice day out with one of her good friends?” Mrs. Ulyanov said, laughing as Audrey pinched her cheek. “Poor little Asahi was looking a little forlorn! How could I resist? Who's your friend?”

Okay, so now the four of them had a space for conversation in front of the cinemas, as the crowd had dispersed. Paige bowed. “Paige Markham, ma'am! I'm in Audrey's class.”

Mrs. Ulyanov bowed back with another little laugh. “Ilyana Nikola Ulyanov, at your service. Forty-seven years old, my blood type is B. I'm the eldest of three sisters, and I've been married for twenty-three years. I've got two sons, and the youngest left home a year or two ago to head off to college.” Paige blinked. “I graduated top of my class from Moscow State School 57, and obtained a Master's in construction management, which is where I met my husband—he's still in the business of actually lifting all that heavy business, you know. Both of my sisters live in Netopia, and when I visit the region I make it a point to bother both of them. My house is in a neighborhood with a lot of villas—it's not a villa, it's an oddly low-rent place in that relatively fancy neighborhood, because it's right next to the biggest house in the area. I'm certified as a child caregiver by the municipal government of Sharo, because I've got a thing for spending time with kids. My husband says I don't look a day over thirty even when I've got my makeup off, and I personally prescribe that to a hard and fast skincare routine, which I have marked down on flash cards that I keep with me at all times inside my purse. My three sizes are—”

“W-whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa!” Paige sputtered. “I-I can't learn that!”

Ilyana doubled over and cackled at that, laughing so hard she had to wipe a tear from her eye. “You're so patient! No wonder you're Audrey's friend!”

“Always with the yattering,” Audrey scoffed. “Sorry about her, Makimura.”

“Oh, no, it—” Asahi paused. “Ain't nothin', ain't nothin', really.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Ilyana said, catching her breath at last. “I just like to mess with people sometimes. I'm—”

“Audrey's, er, nanny, right?” Paige asked. “It's funny—we were just having a conversation that involved you, actually.”

“Oh? Is secretive Ms. Longhener Junior actually telling some of her feelings to people? Why, I never thought the day would come.” The cheery smile on Ilyana's face didn't exactly go well with Audrey's usual dour frown. “Paige Markham. Yes, I've heard of you—Audrey hardly tells me anything when I call, but even she couldn't bear not mentioning you, I suppose!”

“It was important business,” Audrey said, having turned away, waving her hand over her shoulder. “I knew you were in town, but you should've told me you were going to a movie. I'd have taken you.”

“Oh, no, no, I would never,” Ilyana said. “It was a spur of the moment thing, you see—my young friend here just looked so awfully forlorn once her workday was done, and—habit of mine, Paige—I have this really deep desire to spoil hard-working young adults, and nobody works harder than 'Whiplash' Makimura!”

“Uh, is my workday... what time is it?” Asahi muttered to herself, then looked down at her old-timey analog watch. “4:30. And it's a... right, right, wait, wait, yeah, I'm off the rest of the day unless I get home and check on Mrs. Kikuchi.” She slumped over and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Is it really that hard to keep track of?” Paige said, her eyes wide.

“Look,” Asahi said, shaking her head, “I've got like, three jobs and the maid thing, even if none of them are too intensive or full-time I've got a lot of work to do, you know? I have a lot of gigs and it takes a lot of effort to get into character.”

Ilyana nodded, her arms crossed. “That's why they call her 'Whiplash', you know. It's from how fast she can change affectations!”

“I figured it was a cowboy thing,” Audrey muttered, rubbing her hair.

Apparently, Asahi had a nervous tic when she wore this hat, where she'd always reach under it to ensure that her hair was still decent-looking. “Uh... right, right, so! Yeah. How's, uh... how're things?”

Paige chuckled. “I know it's a bit awkward, but you don't need to be that nervous around me, Asahi. You seem like a nice person, so I don't mind being your friend.” After a moment, a lightbulb went off in Paige's head. “Oh—Scoops and Eiji are doing just fine. You were wondering, right?”

“Right, right!” Asahi said, nodding her head furiously. “I've gotta keep tabs up. Eiji's a soft boy who needs help every now and again, just like his dear old mom, and I'd be a terrible archrival to Hanasaka if I didn't know her every move!” Pause. “So they're doing good?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said. “So... pardon me if this is a bit of a weird question, but how did you become friends with a middle-aged woman from Sharo?”

“Oh, well,” Ilyana said as casually as discussing the weather, “that'd be because I'm also an Einherjar, naturally.”

—Huh? “Huh?”

“When you're in the same... 'social club', I suppose you could say,” Ilyana said, “you make friends! You already know what those are, of course—I would certainly hope so, right? Even if—”

—There was a promotional rental CopyBot near the front of the movie theater that had vanished without Paige's noticing. That CopyBot was now in between Paige and Ilyana, in the form of one Vespa.exe, brandishing one of her Busters in Ilyana's face. This drew a few gazes, even though everyone knew full well Vespa couldn't actually fire those things.

“Step off, old lady,” Vespa said with gritted teeth. “I will shoot you.”

Ilyana raised her eyebrow, unfazed by the firearm in her face. “Hi, I haven't had the personal pleasure! You must be Vespa, right? I knew you two were a duo act, so I'd been wondering why you'd been so quiet.” Raising her hands up, she continued, “I come in peace. Please!”

“Oh, really?” Vespa said, cocking her head to one side. “That why you're working with the old bastard? Expect me to believe that covert sons of bitches like your little 'social club' isn't—”

“Vespa.” Paige stepped forward to put her hand on Vespa's shoulder. “Calm down, please.” She shook her head at Vespa when Vespa turned to look at her. “I already knew that—remember? You told me her Navi was one earlier. I was just surprised she said it like that, that's all.”

With a teeth-gritting sigh, Vespa lowered her firearm, and hopped out of the CopyBot back into Paige's PET. “Fine.”

Seeing this, Ilyana puckered her lips and rubbed her chin in thought for a second, then said, “Audrey, do you mind if I steal your date? I want to talk to your friend.”

“What?” Audrey blinked. “What about?”

“Oh, life, the universe, and everything. The usual stuff,” Ilyana said with a wink. “You know me—I'm too chatty for my own good!”

Sigh. Audrey threw her hands up. “If you wanna go get your ear talked off, Paige, be my guest. The old lady's nosy as hell, though, so watch out for that.”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Densan Shining Plaza, Pavilion 3

The place Ilyana chose to have their little chat was a marble pavilion on a large raised bridge in a nature-filled plaza standing strong in the midst of Densan's most heavily commercial area. It wasn't exactly secretive, but it was the sort of location that implied to Paige that Ilyana had some experience with hiding in plain sight.

The raven-haired older woman took a sip of some piping-hot tea, and then said, “Sorry about messing with you earlier. You can think it's a bit weird, but every so often I like to get the measure of someone by seeing how far they'll let me go in some annoyingly long ramble.”

“How does that work?” Paige asked.

“Well, that's simple,” Ilyana said. She pointed a finger at Paige. “You let me go on for quite some time—that implies you're patient, and don't like to put yourself forward to interrupt or tell someone else to stop. You did realize it was odd, though—you have enough conversational acumen for that. You have a sense of privacy, and kept me from telling you actual personal information—that shows me you have strong character, a firm heart that knows what's right and wrong.” She winked. “Am I wrong?”

“Um... I-I don't know,” Paige said, blushing and looking away, twiddling with a lock of her hair and staring out over the plaza below.

“That's true,” Ilyana said. “They do say we are our own worst judge of character.” The older woman's face flipped from jovial to serious. “Your Navi, Vespa. She's the previous Navi of that Dr. Scuttler character. I can only imagine how she must feel, with that incident in Manzo—I imagine that's part of why she was on edge when I introduced myself.”

“Can you blame me?” Vespa chimed in, and Paige put her PET on the center of the table between them so she could have a spot in the conversation. “You people willingly ally yourselves with that bastard, and the bat besides?”

Ilyana shook her head. “You misunderstand—”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Vespa scoffed, “'independent contractor', right?”

“No, you misunderstand more than that,” Ilyana said. “Or... perhaps it's just you haven't been told.” She took a moment to hum and pause. “First of all. You know that if you continue investigating this business, it's almost certain we'll come to blows at least once. No hard feelings, right?” Paige nodded. “Good. Vespa, I know K personally. I want you to know that, perhaps besides you, K is the person who despises people like Heinrich Scuttler most in the entire world.”

“...Huh?” Vespa squawked.

“Have you ever heard the adage, 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'?” Ilyana asked. “It's the same story with Schilt. The truth is, aside from what assistance was previously rendered, K aims to take both Schilt and Scuttler out—to nullify their threat to the best of their ability, and that's why they keep those two close.” She smirked. “You understand of course that since K wants their identity to remain secret, I'm using gender-neutral language.”

Paige frowned. “Um, continue.”

“Let me ask you something, Paige, Vespa,” Ilyana said. “Why are you pursuing this matter at all?”

“Well—”

“Let me throw up an addendum here,” Ilyana added. “I'm aware of the incident at Gaudile Labs. That, materially, makes sense, but why are you following this little trail of breadcrumbs? Is it out of fondness for the good doctor? A simple belief that thievery isn't right?”

That... took Paige a moment to mull over. “In other words... why would I keep going even knowing what you've told me?”

Ilyana nodded. “Let me make an addendum. You know that K, and the Einherjar, mean no actual harm. I'll give you two extra pieces of information—K has two goals.” She raised her fingers in time. “First—to right the injustices caused by two long past incidents of abuse of Navis. Second—to further an ideal of a world where humans and NetNavis can truly be equal, without humans levying power, authority, or control over the heads of Navis.”

“Isn't that obvious?” Vespa scoffed. “We're saving the people you idiots get in trouble with your cockamamie schemes.”

“So you're just cleanup crew?” Ilyana said. “For mistakes caused by inexperienced operatives? You should know—I'm sure you heard that Mandrago and I battled Mr. Akajima. No civilians were endangered in that incident—it was all quite quiet. If you just want to clean up, then why not ask to join? Then you'd know just where and how to protect civilians.”

Then—

Paige shook her head. “No. I have my answer.”

Ilyana tilted her head in response. “Oh?”

“This whole thing... it's a secret. You're trying to keep it undercover, on the down-low. I only picked up on it by chance.” Paige steeled her gaze to meet Ilyana's. “People don't keep secrets unless they don't want people to know about what they're doing. If they don't want people to know about what they're doing, then there has to be a reason that the people they're keeping the secret from shouldn't know. And that means that there's a reason I shouldn't know.”

“Why's that?” Ilyana asked, smiling.

“You're from Sharo,” Paige said. “This organization—it has a name based in Ulvarian myth, and even just from these two operatives I know that K can talk to people from both Sharo and Electopia, not to mention has the connections to find these evil people. So... if K wanted to tell me these things, they could, right? I know about what's going on that I've seen, and if K believes they're on the side of good, then they shouldn't have any problem telling me that unless there's some reason that I can't know. And... given what you've said, the best guess I have is that there's something about the means to those ends that K knows I could never agree with, because of my... 'firm heart'.”

Ilyana gave a little golf clap, her eyes closed in a bright smile. “Great answer! So, in short, you're saying that you believe that even if K and the Einherjar have good motivations, something's funky about the whole business and you can't leave well enough alone?”

“If I leave this alone... who knows what could happen?” Paige said, her knuckles tightening. “It might not be earth-shattering, but... this incident did hit close to home. I don't want to lose anything, or anyone...” Then, Paige's eyes averted, looking down at her tight fists on the table. “I... hate secrets. I want to know the truth. If there's a secret in front of me, I want to find it out. I want to find how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. That way... maybe everyone can be happier.”

Smiling, Ilyana reached out to put her hand on Paige's left fist. “You're a girl after my own heart, you are. You're exactly the kind of girl I'd hoped you'd be. Why, with a good influence like you, Audrey might start smiling again sometime soon!”

“Er, but... why are you talking to me about this?” Paige asked. “Aren't you a member of the Einherjar?”

“Hmm... how to put this...” Ilyana scrunched up her face and rubbed her chin before lighting up with an idea. “There's a way K 'intended' for this to go, and I knew that as things went, the best thing for me to do would be to act as a member of the Einherjar. But you—truth be told, Paige, nobody expected you. It's true the group knew you existed before the incident at Gaudile Labs, as a name on a sheet, maybe—but nobody could've expected that the operator of Scuttler's old Navi would spring into action so heroically.”

“They probably should've,” Vespa scoffed. “Paige is a chronic do-gooder if I've ever met one.”

“I wanted to meet you, Paige,” Ilyana said, “so that I could learn what kind of person you were. I wanted to know whether you were the kind of person who could pull together a happy ending and really win K's big, elaborate game, an unknown variable as you are. I think you are—so even if we're on opposite sides, I'm wishing you luck. I want to see everyone happier for the truth, too, you see.”

Paige blinked, then cleared her throat. “You're... very dramatic for a nanny.”

“Oh? I find it's one of the best jobs for any aspiring drama queen.” Ilyana laughed. “Sorry, sorry. I know I made the mood all serious—it was important, but now that's all over with! Next time, hopefully we can talk about frivolous things, like cookies, or maybe your taste in newspaper comics.”

“Actually...” Paige smiled. “I can see how you rubbed off on Audrey, every now and then.”

The both of them smiled at each other, and reached out to shake hands. “What happened to that poor man was a tragedy,” Ilyana said, “and I and K both hope that it never happens again. Let's give it our best, eh, Paige?”

“Mmhm,” Paige said. “Right, Vespa?” Pause. “Vespa?”

“Sorry,” Vespa said. “It's just, I don't see you so badass often. It's a good look on you!”

While Paige was blushing and sputtering, Ilyana stood up, picked up her teacup, cleaned it out with a handkerchief, and produced her parasol. “Well, I've actually got to get back to my hotel—my husband will flip if I don't call in safe and sound in my room. Lovely meeting you! Ta-ta~”

And that was when Ilyana did a backflip over the railing of the bridge, opening her parasol in midair and seemingly catching a wind current from a sudden breeze to slow her descent, allowing her to flutter gently down to the ground and go on her merry way.

Vespa helpfully dialed Audrey's number on Paige's PET as Paige picked up her phone and put it to her ear. “Does... she always leave conversations like that?” Paige asked.

“What, the Mary Poppins thing?” Audrey said. “When she has the chance.” She snorted. “It's funny, right?”

Chapter Text

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Densan Subway Station

“...and so if you consider it like that,” Audrey continued, “if someone doesn't notice you cheating, it's really like you've just started playing a different game with different rules. I've always thought tricks like that, where the real rule of the game is to figure out what the trick is, were cool.”

—As it turned out, Audrey Longhener (Junior, apparently) had many, many thoughts on game theory. It wasn't a surprise to Paige so much, considering she carried that deck of playing cards with her everywhere she went, not to mention that Ilyana, the closest thing Audrey apparently had to a mother, also described K's machinations as a 'game'.

Still, some of what Audrey said went over Paige's head a bit. “So... what do you mean?” Paige asked.

The sun was beginning to set, and the two of them had wound up rejoining after Ilyana had floated off and beginning to walk toward home. The streets were busier now, as it was the end of the workday, and the glare of the sun reflected off of many a window into Paige's eyes if she wasn't careful.

“Say—here, this is from an old manga,” Audrey said, “say you're playing... you know what cee-lo is, Paige?”

Vespa chimed in. “Yeah, we played it with Mimel this one time.”

“Okay. Say you're playing Cee-lo, but your opponent gets all sixes three times in a row,” Audrey says. “What would you think?”

“I... would probably think they were cheating somehow,” Paige said. “If they weren't sputtering about it—it is possible, but it's...” Pause. Paige closed her eyes to calculate. “Well, the odds are over one in ten million, aren't they? I suppose it could happen, but I'd be suspicious.”

“Okay,” Audrey said. “Let's add two facets. One: You're playing for money. Two: All three of your rolls have been 1-2-3.”

“That's—” Paige sputtered. “That's into scientific notation, and it's a game with stakes? Of course they're cheating!”

“Okay,” Audrey said. “So you know they're cheating, but you see them roll the dice, you ensure they're not cheating by not rolling the dice.”

“Then I—well, I inspect the dice,” Paige said. “And—probably the table, or the bowl, after that, right? If they're cheating—well, the bet is null, and I don't lose or gain any money. Right?”

“Sure,” Audrey said. “So you look at the table, and the bowl, and the dice. You can't figure it out. What do you do?”

“Well, there's gotta be something!” Vespa shouted. “And—”

“Oh!” Paige's eyes went wide. “So, because I'm not even thinking about the bet anymore—the rolling of the dice is just a means for me to try and figure out what's going on.”

“Right.” Audrey nodded, and smiled. “You're not playing cee-lo anymore, you're playing another game that uses the mechanics of cee-lo as a backdrop. You're playing a game where you try and find your opponent's trick. Games—I mean, if you think about it, almost any game with an element of skill is about predicting what your opponent is doing, trying to get in their head. Here—I've been workshopping this scenario too. It's a—it's a Netbattling puzzle, so consider it.”

“I thought you didn't Netbattle?” Vespa asked.

“I never said that. I just said I'm more of a scientist... did I say that? I don't remember.” Audrey shook the question away with her hands. “The point is, I'm a scientist. That means I observe and puzzle things out. Not that I'd lose if I got into a fight—I think I'm pretty good at that, too. But, so, when I'm up at night I construct these scenarios, see—”

Audrey then grabbed Paige's hand and shoved her thumb toward a building right next to them—a branch of AsterLand. “Here,” Audrey said. “I'll show you.”

Paige blushed at the sudden contact, but said, “Oh, o-okay!”

Throwing open the doors, Audrey hurried up to the front desk and gave them about 500 Zenny—the fee for 30 minutes at the exhibition match table for two—and grabbed an empty place. Paige stood next to her as Audrey began to rapidly type circumstances into the field, and then—

A vista appeared on the table, displaying a mock Cyberworld, as no Navis were currently jacked in. On this side was a NormalNavi representing 'their' side, and on the other, a portly blue Navi with a trident on his arm and a flowing beard. That was—

“N1 Grand Prix entrant #17 from three years ago,” Audrey said, “WaveMan.exe. He faced off against Megaman.exe in the third round and was eliminated by knockout. He's an Aqua-element Navi who focuses on melee attacks with the help of his Water Wave ability—spouts of water that come out from where his opponents are standing. You can see, they come out of those tentacles on his back.” Audrey pointed them out, and sure enough.

The field was clearly to WaveMan's advantage—most of it was over water, and the back row of the NormalNavi's field was currently broken. The line of conflict was drawn center—no AreaGrabs or similar chips had been used. A '10' hung over the field. Over WaveMan, a '2000' was present. Over the NormalNavi, a '1'.

“There's ten seconds until the match ends,” Audrey said. “The only Navi Customizer program the NormalNavi has is Number Open, giving him a total of 10 possible chips to choose from. His Buster has minimal stats. If the time runs out, WaveMan will win by decision. If the NormalNavi gets hit, he'll be knocked out.”

Swinging a hand across the air, holographic displays of ten Battlechips appeared where Audrey swept her hand. The NormalNavi's hand consisted of the following:

M-Cannon T: A straightforward projectile. Within numerical battle systems, this strongest form of the Cannon line dealt 180 damage.

Doll Thunder 3 V: A Scarecrow virus's signature chip, dealing Electric damage to an entire row after a moment's windup. This also dealt 180 damage.

Anti-Damage *: A trap that the Navi could set. When struck by an attack, they would be replaced by a dummy, and be able to hurl a shuriken for 100 damage.

Double Point *: Using this, a Navi would pull the line of conflict closer to themselves, lessening their legal area of movement—however, for each area of the field taken, normally three, the next attack would gain a +20 boost to damage, usually implying a +60.

Going Road *: Any Navi parkourist's best friend, this chip placed a magnetic conveyor belt upon the ground in front of them leading away from the Navi. In regulation matches, this chip affected the opponent's field, meaning that any area directly across from the NormalNavi on WaveMan's side of the line of conflict would be turned into the conveyor belt.

Recover 300 O: This simply recovered 300 of the NormalNavi's HP.

Sensor 3 Q: This was a chip Vespa had used before, in fact. The signature chip of the KillerEye viruses, it placed such a virus on the field, and its eye would look in a certain direction depending on where it was placed—for instance, placing it in the center of the field would cause it to look straight ahead. Any time an enemy target moved into a new space in front of it, the KillerEye would then fire an invisibility-piercing Electric beam worth 160 damage into the target.

Otenko O: A chip summoning a sunflower-esque character named Otenko, companion of the Solar Boy Django. Otenko's presence on the field would cause the user's next chip to slowly accrue extra power up to a +50 boost. He would last as long as he needed, but would be destroyed if he were to be attacked too much.

Coming Road *: The counterpart to Going Road, it worked in the same manner, save for the fact that its conveyor belt operated in the opposite direction.

Meta-Gel 1 *: The signature chip of the Slimey viruses, this would cause three of these viruses to rain from the skies and land on the edge of the line of conflict, forcibly increasing the user's space of the line of conflict and invading the opponent's. If the Slimeys landed on an opponent, they would deal 90 Aqua damage.

“Under these circumstances,” Audrey said, “the goal of the operation is to win the match within the time limit of ten seconds.”

Paige flapped her jaws. “The fuck are you on?!” Vespa shouted.

“It's perfectly winnable,” Audrey said. “Go on. Try it. Remember, you can only use five chips—there isn't enough time to get another batch until the time limit is up.”

Nodding to herself, Paige looked down upon the field. “Well, obviously, Doll Thunder and Sensor will deal double the damage. WaveMan is an Aqua-element Navi, right?” Audrey nodded. “And if you get him over a Water tile, it'll deal another double the damage... Doll Thunder would deal 720 damage in one fell swoop.”

“If you add the Double Point, that's 240 to 960, yeah?” Vespa asked. “And with Otenko—”

Paige shook her head. “No—first off, the codes don't match. Second, Otenko has a slow windup. And third, he would only be able to get the blast an extra 200 damage. Even if Doll Thunder 3's code matched Recover 300 and Otenko, and if Otenko was able to get to full potency, that would deal 1160 damage and leave WaveMan at 840 to our Navi's 301. It would be a win by decision for WaveMan.”

“Maybe there's something with Anti-Damage?” Vespa said. “Could—could we get him to trip and fall into the water and get wetter?”

“No, this is Audrey,” Paige said. “If I know her, this will be completely logical.”

“How are we supposed to get rid of 2000 HP in ten seconds, though?” Vespa asked. “That's a lot! I mean, a lot, a lot. Maybe we trick him into walking into the Sensor a bunch of times?” Pause. “Wait, but no, that paralyzes you. He couldn't move, and a beam only hits once.”

Several of these were obviously traps—after all, five of them were the wrong decision. If there was only one way out... by virtue of how multiplication worked, it was unlikely WaveMan was going to be able to be brought below 300 HP but not to 0. This would most likely be a victory by knockout.

“If his element wasn't important,” Paige said, “then he would just be another NormalNavi. Audrey picked WaveMan on purpose, I know it...”

No matter what letter-coded tack Paige took, she would have access to Going Road, Coming Road, Anti-Damage, Meta-Gel, and Double Point. Two of those altered the line of conflict, so perhaps—“Wait,” Paige said. “WaveMan is a melee-focused Navi, so if... wait a minute...”

And then—she knew. The epiphany struck her.

Paige tapped on her five chips, slammed on the start button to take control of the NormalNavi, and the match resumed from its current position. “Whoa, what?” Vespa said.

The Water Waves began to appear from underneath Paige's Navi's position, and she took a step to the left to dodge it. WaveMan lunged forward with a trident stab that reached far enough to get there, but Paige also dodged that. He then retreated, and Paige followed him back to the middle row—

The first chip Paige activated was Going Road, which sent WaveMan to the back of the field, along with taking him out of the water. Then, the next second, she used MetaGel, capitalizing on the opportunity to launch them and increase the space she had to work with. With the line of conflict moved, one segment of the conveyor belt was now within her space.

“Wha—?” Vespa asked.

Paige threw up a finger. Keeping her Navi light on their feet to avoid the Water Waves, Paige's next move was to activate Coming Road. This altered the conveyor belt under WaveMan's feet, but not the one on Paige's field—meaning that there were now two conveyor belts moving counter to each other on the field.

Dodging another stab, Paige activated her fourth chip—Double Point, placing the line of conflict back at its neutral position and charging up her next attack. The two conflicting conveyor belts now met within WaveMan's side of the field. Paige then moved to the middle of her side of the field and activated her fifth chip—Sensor 3, placing it in the middle row so it faced dead ahead. “That's just 440—?” Vespa said, but she had to cut herself off.

Brazenly waiting in spite of the Water Wave beginning to appear at her feet, Paige stood in that same position until WaveMan came in for a trident attack to strike both her and the Sensor in one fell swoop. This placed him on the conveyor belt sending him backwards, and the Sensor launched a beam at him—with the Double Point, that was 440, yes.

However, what Vespa had not considered—nor Paige, until that moment—was that when the conveyor belt sent WaveMan onto the other conveyor belt, that triggered the Sensor again, sending another blast of electricity towards WaveMan. And then that other conveyor belt bounced him forward, and back, and then—!

In a flash of white light, the fascimile of WaveMan disappeared. The remaining time was 2 seconds, 29 milliseconds. It was a victory by knockout—Paige was the victor.

“Yes!” Paige shouted out, briefly not heeding her volume and giving a triumphant fist-pump with both arms.

Audrey patted Paige on the shoulder, then gave her a vigorous shake. “Nice one! I figured you'd manage it.”

“I didn't know you could do that!” Paige said. “That's a really neat trick! Did you figure that out yourself?”

Audrey scratched at her mop of hair. “I mean, I'm sure I wasn't the first, but yeah.”

Then—“Ohhh, wow, Megaman, you see that? That was that one guy from the N1, right?”

Paige turned her head, and Audrey craned hers as well. Standing at the counter to purchase something or another, with a pack of fluff chips to presumably shove into the Chip Trader, was a messy college student with roller-blades, his bright blue bandanna with the insignia... yeah, there was really only one person that could be. Or, two, Paige momentarily supposed, before realizing she'd never seen Hub with the bandanna on.

Yeah... that was Lan Hikari, alright. His skill with those rollerblades was pretty significant if he could walk that fast on them over to the table to take a look at the field. “Whoaaa!” Lan said, nodding his head. “Yeah, we—we did that too, once, right, Megaman?”

“You forgot?” said his PET. “It was six years ago, when we were teaming up with Chaud in that Choinese castle. Remember? We both set it up.”

“Right, right!” Lan nodded more vigorously. “Yeah, I remember. What happened to that? Why did he stop using the Road chips, anyway?”

“Protoman mentioned once that there was an accident,” Megaman said, and that was that.

“Muh—” Paige sputtered, leaving her fistpump position to stand up very, very straight. Audrey's head, having craned over very slowly, became affixed in an intense frown. “Muh-M-M-Mr. Hikari! I'm sorry, were you—I mean, I—were you using—?”

“Nah!” Lan said, giving a thumbs up. “I just thought it was neat. We've...” He screwed his eyes up. “We've met, right?”

“N-not directly, no,” Paige said, twiddling her fingers.

Megaman chimed in. “These are Paige Markham and Audrey Longhener. From our class?”

“Oh! Right!” Lan nodded. “I'd been meaning to say something! Hiya!”

“H-hi,” Paige said, giving a little wave. Audrey was doing her best to pretend she wasn't present. “Um, it's very nice to meet you, Mr. Hikari.” She bowed. “I saw your match against Mr. Akajima at the start of term, it was very impressive!”

“Yeah, I got to see a recording of you fighting Stingray, it was pretty great!” Lan leaned in slightly closer. “You wanna Netbattle?”

Paige didn't have the chance to answer. “Hell no!” Vespa shouted. “I'm not getting into a fight I know I'll lose.”

“Hi!” Lan responded. Vespa grumbled. “Okay, okay. Some other time, then. Still, I'd introduced myself to everyone else in the class, I thought, y'know! You work at the Aster Land on campus, right?” Paige nodded. “Cool, cool! Hey, did you know that the MesonCall chips—?”

“Oh! Yes, I put them in that segment,” Paige said with a nod. “With the Winds and Fans.”

“Awesome!” Lan pumped his fists. “You know, I've still got a copy of Gateman G in here somewhere. I could show you the real thing one of these days.” Paige sputtered. “No, really! I keep a copy of every NaviChip I get. At least one, 'cause sometimes I get multiples. I—”

“Lan,” Megaman said, “speaking of that.”

“Oh! Right.” The mind of Lan Hikari was evidently a mile a minute. He started digging into his pack. “See, Megaman said that your Navi, Vespa, right?, she was giving him the stink-eye a few times and he suggested giving you a Chip as a peace offering. I don't know why this one in particular or anything, but uhhhh... oh, let's see here, which pocket...” It was a deep pack, worn well over the years. “Ah!”

Lan produced a NaviChip with a small picture of a yellow, armored figure with hive-shaped shoulderpads. He handed it to Paige, who looked at it. 'Hornetman H', it said. Paige sputtered again. “Wha—?”

“Wha?!” Vespa added.

“I figured it would be the best thing to do to get you to stop glaring at me,” Megaman said. “Sorry about this.”

Lan smiled and said, “I have no idea what he's talking about, but I hope you enjoy it!”

It didn't take long before Vespa, having beamed into a rentable CopyBot on the shop's premises, ran over to inspect the thing herself. She grabbed it out of Paige's hands, narrowing her eyes and deeply scrutinizing it. “God damn, really?” Vespa said. She looked over at Lan...'s PET. “I thought you were one of those obsessive collector types.”

“Are you kidding?” Megaman scoffed. “I had to remind Lan about three different times not to toss it into a Chip Trader. I had a feeling it'd be important eventually.”

“...y'ever use it?” Vespa asked.

“Once or twice,” Megaman said. “It came in handy occasionally, but the function was pretty limited. Why?”

“Just curious,” Vespa said. She placed it in Paige's pocket and whispered in her ear, “Smash it when we get home, it's the only copy in existence.”

“How do you even—?” Paige started to ask, but then stopped herself. That was a question better served for class. “What are you doing out here, Misters Hikari?”

“Please, call me Megaman,” Megaman said. “And you can call him Lan. At the moment, we're out here investigating... hm, should we?”

“I don't see why not,” Lan said. “The more the merrier, right?”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Grounds (under construction)

There was a large lot near the AsterLand that Lan hurried toward, one that was currently covered by steel fences and blocked from the public. A number of things were being built, but Paige couldn't quite discern their purpose—most of them that she could see didn't look like architecture she recognized. The three of them were on a gravel path just on the rim.

“See,” Lan said, “so I've been chasing this one Navi around the place. He's been giving us the runaround. And I think he wants something with this lot, because I think he's been looking in here.”

Walking around the perimeter, they found an entrance in the fences, but it too was barred off. “What is this lot for?” Paige asked.

“Beats me!” Lan said. “Maybe it's some sort of evil base?”

At that moment, Audrey, who had been following behind for some time, groaned. “Evil base? How can someone this stupid exist?” She rolled her eyes, and Paige and Lan both turned around, tilting their heads in unison. “It's the ElecFes grounds. Duh.”

“The... wha?” Paige blinked.

“Electric Festival. It's a once-per-five-years get-together of tech luminaries across the world to show off national tech crap. It's being held in Densan this year, starting on the first of October. It's a pissing contest, but it's an entertaining one. How the hell do you not know this, Hikari? Your daddy's gonna be there, doing whatever other magic he's done since he turned a human infant into a Navi.” Audrey was looking away, flipping her cards around.

Pause.

“Language aside, I've been trying to tell you that, Lan,” Megaman said with a sigh.

“Oh,” Lan said. “Ohhh! So that's why a Netopian Navi was hanging around?”

On an off-chance hunch, Paige asked, “What sort of Navi?”

“This one our friend Keaton's met too—uh, you know Keaton, right?” Lan asked, and Paige nodded. “Black and red, kind of Cybeast-shaped—?”

“Electric-element, coil tail, panther Navi?” Paige asked, and Lan nodded. Paige's eyes narrowed. “We've met. You say he's been running around in this area?”

“Yeah, but we kinda lost him,” Lan said with a sigh. He sat down on the ground next to the entrance to slump over. “He's part of some kind of evil organization, but I donno which one. I think he was working with that other guy who was—?”

Then, the lock on the entrance jiggled, and it began to slide open slowly. Lan stood up, and he and Paige stood beside to 'stealthily' look upon who was exiting the grounds. Their eyes were a bit high to actually see him, though—had it not been for the red gizmo on his back as always, they'd likely have missed the diminutive doctor. “Oh dear,” said Dr. Gaudile, puttering about as usual, “I can't get a moment's rest, can I...”

“D-Doctor Gaudile?” Paige exclaimed, and that got Dr. Gaudile to turn around and yelp, briefly brandishing a taser before putting it down and recognizing her. “Hi.”

“H-hello, Paige,” Gaudile said, “fancy meeting you here, yes. What are you... is that Lan Hikari, I... have we met before, ma'am, I...” He shook his head. “My apologies, I'm a bit frazzled. You see, I've been having a touch of a spat with a Choinese dignitary over, ah, differences, and in my old age my nerves are...”

“Harold Gaudile, PhD,” Audrey said. “Current head of Glenn Markham Infrastructure Labs, a well-respected mind in the field of security programming and energy generation.” Lan made a noise of understanding. “What an honor.” She stepped in front of the two of them, and bowed her head. “Audrey Longhener. At your service.”

“Longhener.” Gaudile pushed up his glasses and clicked his tongue. “Longhener, Longhener... It's on the tip of my tongue. Audrey Longhener. Oh!” The realization struck him so hard he jumped slightly. “Oh, yes, I... your name, it's definitely familiar. I met your father several times, brilliant man, really... awful shame what happened to him.”

“No, really,” Audrey said, raising her hands up in a bizarrely obsequious gesture, “please, save your sympathy, sir. I'm just doing my best to follow in my father's footsteps. Paige and I have become friends, and it's an honor to meet you, both as a personality and as the colleague of the late Dr. Markham.” Oh, no, she was stroking his ego. Gaudile was smiling unusually wide now. “I was just directing Paige and Mr. Hikari here around the grounds—will you be present at the festival, sir?”

“Ah, yes, I-I very much will,” Gaudile said, nodding.

“If you wouldn't mind me asking,” Audrey said, tilting her head, “what were these 'differences' over?”

“W-well, you see,” Gaudile said, “actually, it's a bit of a sad story—er, at one point I gave a particularly secure, under-wraps program over to a colleague in Choina to, ah, safeguard it, and... well, my colleague has now retired and turned said program over to the government who, without any knowledge for its actual function, they're going to put it in a parade float, can you imagine? Where anyone at all might find where it is, I—?” He looked around a bit. “Nobody's listening, are they?”

“Other than us? No, sir,” Audrey said. She smiled. “Mr. Hikari says he's been chasing down a Navi—?”

“Oh, is it that panther?” Dr. Gaudile said, and the speed at which his head whipped over to Lan was astonishing. Lan nodded. “Yes, I'm sure that panther probably wants to steal this program, you see—er, it is not the first time he has stolen from me, or assisted with it, at least, I.”

“Stolen? From you, sir?” Audrey gasped, bringing her hands up to her mouth. “Why, how awful! And impressive besides, knowing your skill in security. Whatever program this is must be very important. Should I contact any authorities to protect it, sir?”

“No, no, I... this isn't something that should be...” Gaudile mumbled. Audrey stared at him earnestly. “Er, I suppose if you wanted to, I. I can't say no. I can't say no to those eyes, those are your father's eyes! Certainly. Just do try and keep it private.”

“Alright, good,” Audrey nodded. “It just so happens I know a private detective. He'll be about the premises investigating, then. Thank you, sir. I certainly hope we're able to assist. If we find the program he stole, should we return it to you?”

“Yes, please,” Gaudile said. “Thank you very much, ma'am, aha. I.” Then, presumably, he remembered Paige and Lan were there. “Yes, well... er, but I told Paige to stay out of this for her own sake, so. Well, if it's a detective I suppose... um...”

“'This', sir?” Audrey asked, her eyes wide. “So is this a similar program to what was stolen before?”

Gaudile sputtered, his eyes wide. “Um.” He began to sweat, which glistened bright on his bald head. “M-may I plead the fifth?”

“Of course, sir. Sorry to disturb you.” Audrey bowed again. “I'll see what I can do to assist you. Please call me if you need any assistance—My Navi and I will be happy to help.”

After mutely taking down Audrey's number, Gaudile looked back up at Paige and said, “Er, lovely seeing you,” before puttering off into a nearby car and driving away.

There was a moment's silence before Audrey laughed, looking over her shoulder to grin at Paige. “You're welcome.”

“I... what just happened?” Paige blinked.

“I got permission for Himekago to question Gaudile at the festival and found you out what Flauclaws is doing around here, is what. Thank me later.” Audrey said, then turned back around and started walking. “Anyway, let's bounce.”

“Huh?” Lan said. “Huh? Huh? W-what's going on here? Wait, should I understand what just happened?”

“Nah,” Audrey said, waving her hand over her shoulder. “Don't think too hard, might hurt yourself.” Paige hurried to follow behind her, but looked back over her own shoulder—

“Um, sorry, sir!” Paige said. “Um, maybe I'll explain back at campus? I'm really sorry about this!”

“Okay, sure thing!” Lan said back, giving a salute.

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College

“I don't like the guy.” was all the explanation Audrey gave on the way back as to her attitude. Vespa had chimed in with an 'I couldn't tell', and then Audrey tried to give her a noogie through the screen of Paige's PET.

Paige had opted to sit at a bench amidst the main campus to watch the sunset, and she looked down at the chip that the Hikaris had given them. “This is... you, right?” Paige asked. “Sort of.”

Vespa scoffed. “Barely. I hardly even quipped back then, can you imagine?”

With a little shrug, Paige grabbed both ends of the chip and pulled enough to snap it in two—it was a bit old by this point, and evidently Dr. Scuttler's Chips weren't very sturdy. Vespa let out a contented sigh. “It's like a great evil has been banished from this world. How lovely.”

Ring, ring. Ring, ring. “Himekago Detective Agency,” said the detective over the phone.

“Detective Himekago? It's Paige Markham,” Paige said. “Er, I mean, I know you know my number, but—”

“Good evening,” Yuu said. “Is there something you need?”

To the best of her understanding, Paige ran through the information she'd just learned through Audrey's surprising ability to be obsequious. Yuu was quiet as she explained, but then audibly nodded. “Alright, I see. I imagine any self-respecting student of Mazda Kamizono's would be going anyhow, but if we can find this Erosion Key present on the festival's grounds, it would be a great help to the investigation. Be sure you're ready on the day—and bring Scoops, she'd get mad if you didn't.”

“Right,” Paige said. “Um, thank you.”

“No, thank you,” Yuu said back. “This is a good event to prepare for, especially if Flauclaws will be present. Kraken?”

“Good day~” Kraken suddenly appeared in this conversation, which made Paige yelp. “Oh ho, my apologies.”

“Get into the ElecFes grounds and find me the guest register, would you?” Yuu asked.

Kraken gasped. “Why, my darling Yuu, are you asking me to sneak in somewhere? How underhanded of you.” He giggled. “At once. Have a lovely day, Paige, Vespa. I hope to see you on the day of! Be sure to dress your best!”

“Uh, right,” Paige said. “Uh—?”

“Hi!”

Paige screamed this time, jumping up off of the bench and spinning around to see Lan Hikari, who had just poked her on the shoulder. He gave a genial little wave. “Sorry Detective I have someone else who's just spoken to me I'll talk to you later thank you very much bye bye!” Paige squeaked out, turned off the call, and then took a breath before blurting out a, “Hello, sir! It's nice to see you again!!”, her fists balled up and her eyes down toward the ground.

“You know,” Lan said, “you remind me of my friend Shuko.” He nodded to himself, crossing his arms. “The first time I met her, she missed the jackpot on a vending machine, and then she spent a few minutes blurting out her entire life story to her Navi without actually realizing I was behind her, and then she turned around and ran away.”

Pause.

“Then her Navi thought they were going to replace him because he made the same noises as their old, broken washing machine, so he cried so hard that he accidentally flooded the entire Elec Town network. Does Vespa make washing machine noises?” Lan asked.

Paige looked down at her PET. “Uh... Shunk! Gadunga-dunga-dunga-dunga-dunga,” Vespa said.

“That was a weird month,” Lan said. “Anyway, hi! You have the same hair, too. Or, similar hair. Yours is darker. Plus you both wear sweaters.” A brief pause. “Sorry! My brain totally went on a tangent there.” He was holding a box of fries, which he grabbed a few of to eat, then sat down on the bench while munching. Paige did so too, and now she was sitting next to picture of perfect calm Lan Hikari.

“So,” Paige said. “You're Lan Hikari.”

“Uh-huh,” Lan said.

“You've saved the nation, and um, probably the world, several times. You were, um, the one who... stopped that meteor eight years ago, right?” Paige asked.

Lan nodded. “Yup.”

“And the tanks before then, and, um... well, basically what I'm saying is that I, um, it's an honor to, uh, meet such a decorated... hero?” Paige squeaked.

Lan shook his head and grinned. “Aw, c'mon. You and I are the same age, right? Ish? So, what's this thing that platypus guy was talking about?”

“Oh, um, well, you know...” Paige mumbled. “You see, um... back at my uncle's lab...” Sudden realization struck. “Oh! Lan! Um, did you face a Navi at the DNN station at Beach Street the other day?”

“You mean the turtle guy?” Lan said. Paige blinked. “Oh, I guess you don't know that one. Umm... But you do know the panther guy.”

“We were there when he assisted in stealing Dr. Gaudile's Erosion Key,” Paige said. Beat. “Er! I mean, we were trying to stop him.”

“By which she means,” Vespa chimed in, “that little miss Hero Complex over here jacked me into a dangerous situation again. She's lucky I kick so much ass, really.” Paige groaned, and her face reddened. “Who'd you take on? With whoever this guy you fought is, we'd be up to four teams in this group.”

“I didn't catch the operator's name,” Lan said, “but I think he was an older man, from the sound of things. The Navi was...” Lan bent over and started doing motions with his hands. “He was kinda... kinda, uh...”

Megaman chimed in. “He had a slight build under his shell, and he was able to detach himself from it. His name was Heat Genblem—he was a tortoise, actually, Lan, and he had at least some control over particle acceleration beams. Primarily green, his shell had a number of medals on it, and one of his eyes was covered by an eyepatch.” Lan thanked him with a thumbs up, and fist-bumped his PET screen.

Paige nodded, and Vespa groaned. “Ugh. Can we not deal with people with particle acceleration beams? They're awful for my complexion.”

“I swear,” Lan said, “a guy can't go visit a couple of friends without tripping over an evil organization some days.”

“Oh,” Paige said, “you were visiting friends?”

Lan rubbed the back of his head and grinned. “Guilty as charged. Lemme tell you, Dr. Wily was cran-ky today—”

Even Paige knew that name. “Albert Wily?” she sputtered, her arms wide, as Lan munched on his fries. “The—the former roboticist? The inventor of Colonel.exe and Iris.exe? That Dr. Wily?”

“The head of criminal organization World Three? The guy who put together the first fully-functional Life Virus? The Cybeasts guy?” Vespa added.

“Yeah, he's been staying over in a place in Densan with his, uh...” Lan snapped his fingers. “Hub, what's the word.”

“Protege,” Megaman said.

“That's the one,” Lan said, snapping his fingers. “They've got him under watch, I mean, yeah, but, uh, 'friends and family of incarcerated individuals' are allowed to visit, and I count. Plus I know his protege (boom, got it) too.” Lan paused for a moment. “Come to think of it, how many of Wily's basically-kids do we know by now?”

“That depends,” Megaman said, “are you counting Colonel and Iris I and Colonel and Iris II as different people?” Lan nodded. “In that case, we've known seven. The two Colonels, the two Irises, Baryl, Regal, and Rin.”

“I still can't believe Regal was Dr. Wily's son,” Lan said. Pause. “I can't believe Dr. Wily, like... had a biological son at all? He doesn't really seem the type.”

“Maybe the skull belt buckles on his old clothes really got the ladies going?” Megaman suggested, and Lan crossed his arms and nodded before throwing another french fry into his mouth.

“So... do you know what these guys want?” Lan asked, his brow furrowing. Paige shook her head. “Dang. Do you know what this thing that Mr. Platypus had stolen from him is?” Paige shook her head again. “Dang. So who should I be on the lookout for?”

“Their leader is called K,” Paige said, “but I don't know their real name, or anything about them. Aside from that, um... I don't think you have to worry about Asahi or Pegasolta... They seem... kind of harmless?” She frowned, and her head dropped. “I'm sorry. I really don't know much more than you.”

A sudden thump told her Lan was patting her on the shoulder. “Hey, it's okay! What's a little confusion between friends?” Okay, apparently they were friends now. “It happens. Really. Hey, am I allowed to talk shop while you're working?”

“Within reason,” Paige said. “Please don't hold up the line if there are other customers.”

“Okay, cool,” Lan said, nodding. “Seriously though, we gotta duke it out sometime. I—”

“Lan,” Megaman said, “aren't we holding someone up?”

Lan blinked, and then stood up off of the bench in an instant. “Oh man, I totally forgot! Sorry! Talk to you later byeeeee!” The wheels on his skates really did function, Paige idly registered, as Lan rocketed away on his skates, rolling down the campus towards one of the dorms.

“...So,” Paige mumbled, “that's what he's like.”

Date: September 19, 20XX

Location: Paige's Room

“The Electric Festival...” Paige sighed to herself, looking out the window at the dim night sky—there was enough light pollution that the stars weren't visible at all. “Vespa, what have we gotten ourselves into?”

Vespa, who was clipping her nails on the other side of the bed despite the obvious uselessness of that action, audibly shrugged and said, “I mean, you're the one who got us into it, Paige.”

“College is complicated,” Paige said with a sigh as she fell backwards onto the bed proper. “Is this what it's like for everyone?”

“I wouldn't know,” Vespa said.

There was a knock on the door, and Vespa stood up off the bed to let Paige continue laying. On the other side of the door, hair in cute little ringlets and looking darling as usual, was one Eiji Kikuchi, with a little bag of cookies in his hands. “Uh, hey,” Vespa said.

“I heard Paige wasn't having the best day earlier,” Eiji said, averting his eyes, “so I thought I would... um, but then you were gone by the time I got here.”

Vespa blinked, then craned her head behind her shoulder to call out, “Hey, Paige, delivery for you.”

The blubbering look on Paige's face as she registered the little bag of cookies, tied with a pink ribbon, was the kind of thing that felt like a punch right to Vespa's heart. “I... d-did you... did you make these?” Paige said, tears beginning to form in her eyes, and Eiji nodded. “Y-you're... you're so sweet...”

Eiji twirled a lock of his hair, blushing himself. “Oh, goodness. I just... well, this might sound a little rude, but kind as Audrey can be sometimes, I figured you might need something a bit more direct.”

Though she'd stepped to the side to let Paige be in the doorway, Vespa suddenly had a realization, and grabbed Paige's PET to snap a photo of Eiji's outfit—since he was indoors, he was wearing a pale pink-and-white polka-dot dress over light, strappy, rose-pink sandals. His skin was flawless as usual, too. He yelped. “U-um?” Paige joined him in umming.

“Dressing so damn cute even after sunset while you're in your own dorm,” Vespa mumbled, “that's ridiculous. She'll go ga-ga over you.”

[Vespa: yo]

[Vespa: (1 image attached.)]

[Tundraman: Whose visual acquaintance am I making here?]

[Vespa: where's mim]

[Tundraman: Mrs. Blackgold's pacemaker has been a little on the fritz recently, so Milady is currently watching a movie with her to ensure that her darling mother doesn't overwork herself. Really, who is this picture?]

[Vespa: it's our buddy eiji]

[Tundraman: The nurse?]

[Vespa: the very same, my man. he dressed up like this to deliver cookies to our door.]

[Tundraman: My goodness. Why, I want to reach through the screen and pinch his cheeks! He's adorable!]

[Tundraman: I also fully understand why you wanted Milady to see this. Her hunger to pick his brain will no doubt grow exponentially.]

[Tundraman: Hopefully her appetite for human interaction runneth not over the sides of the cup.]

[Vespa: you lost me]

[Vespa: oh btw i've been meaning to ask do you think i'd work a flamenco dress?]

[Tundraman: Let me visualize that]

[Tundraman: Oh, absolutely, yes. A red rose in your hair would be the cherry on top, so to speak.]

[Vespa: the guy who said that to me said the same thing!!]

[Tundraman: Then he must have good taste. As you know, I'm a bit of a rose aficionado. I learned it from the most fashionable man in the Cyberworld, so I prefer to believe my understanding of roses in fashion is at least somewhere approaching his.]

[Vespa: oh yeah? who's that]

[Tundraman: ...Do you promise you won't laugh or tell Milady?]

[Vespa: I can promise that I won't tell Mim on purpose.]

[Tundraman: When I was a bit more of a neophyte to the whole dashing gentleman business, I rather idolized the gentleman thief Tech Kraken.]

Vespa burst out cackling, which made Paige, who had been trying to grab the PET back for a while, and Eiji, poor Eiji, standing in the doorway, only more confused.

[Vespa: NO FUJKCING WAY]

[Vespa: NUH UH]

[Vespa: OMG MY SIDES ASJIAKFOWEKFOAKSDF]

[Tundraman: Hey! He's very cool, you know.]

[Vespa: NO DUDE THATS NOT WHAT IM LAUGHING ABOUT]

[Tundraman: Don't leave me in suspense, Vespa. You know I would never be caught dead in suspenders.]

[Vespa: do u want his autograph]

[Tundraman: ?!?!?!?!?!]

[Tundraman: What does that mean]

[Tundraman: Vespa what does that mean]

[Tundraman: Please explain to me what you just meant]

[Tundraman: Explain this to me!]

[Tundraman: Vespa.]

[Tundraman: VESPA]

[Tundraman: Explain the meaning of your words]

[Tundraman: I am choosing not to assume the subtext I am reading into that statement please explain to me exactly what those words mean right now.]

[Tundraman: VESPA]

[Tundraman: VESPA!!!!]

(OP: “Piece of Peace”, by mica)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

The pieces are in place for the next round of K's game.

Hitogomi wo kugurinuketa

(Moving through the crowd,)

kaze no oto ni mimi wo sumaseba

(listening carefully to the wind,)

At the Electric Festival, the second Erosion Key is lying hidden in wait—but so too are several members of the Einherjar. Conflict is likely to be unavoidable.

Iradachi wo togaraseteru

(My sharpening irritation)

kotoba dake ga MELODY ni naruyo

(gives way to a melody when I depend on you.)

Amidst an investigation with Detective Himekago, both Paige and Vespa have some unexpected reunions. For Vespa, this reunion is less than pleasant at first blush—it's time to confront some earlier misdeeds.

Nee, utatte kimi no tokiuna egao de yasashisa wo

(Hey, can you sing me a song that's only yours with your smile and your kindness?)

Iki ga tsumaru jikan no nami ni kokoro wo

(Before your heart drowns in the rivers of time,)

sarawareru mae ni

(can I see you smile one more time?)

A South Netfrican cyber-botanical display seems a good place for bugs, no? Wasp, bee, and rhinoceros beetle—a nimble gunner, a heavy trooper, and an armored swordswoman.

Kono hoshi no daremo ga ai wo sagashiteiru

(Everyone on this star is looking for love)

Mou kizutsukeau arasoui wa shinai de

(so don't make painful fights anymore.)

The ruins of a play-acted romance lay amidst the scattered petals. But Kohaku hopes—she hopes that this bridge can be crossed.

Kimi ga nigirishimeru hon'no kakera de ii

(Just take a little piece of what you're holding,)

PEACE tsunagiawase yume wo egakou)

(tie it with peace, and let's draw a dream.)

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 6: Four Years' Separation, One Shot! Launch! Empress Breaker!!

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: September 29, 20XX

Location: Manzo Public Network ~ Kohaku's Home

Necrobat was hunched over on the couch, fixated on a small cube in his hands. He made a few little grunts as he did, repeatedly twisting segments of the cube every which way. “This is a bit of a tricky case,” Cinnamon said, poking a point of exposed bone where Necrobat couldn't feel. “It's not like he isn't operational, but he lacks a Core Program, his data cohesion is one of the lowest I've ever seen in a functioning Navi... I'm sure several technicians would put him as a lost cause.”

Kohaku's helmet was off at the moment, at Vespa's insistence. She clicked her tongue, and looked away. “Does 'several technicians' include you, ma'am?”

“Technically I'm a doctor, not a technician, but what's the difference, right?” Cinnamon chuckled to herself, and winked. “Have you ever heard of the Chinese Room, Kohaku?”

“What?” Kohaku blinked. Vespa, who was sitting back with a cola and playing a game by herself, was also brought out of it.

Only Necrobat seemed to understand, and it happened to come at the instant he solved his Rubik's Cube. “Aha! Um, wouldn't it be the 'Choinese' Room these days, miss?”

“I suppose so, but let's stick with Searle's original thrust,” Cinnamon said. “Are you familiar, dear?”

Necrobat nodded, and placed his Rubik's Cube down on the table. “Yes, it's come up in a few stories I've read. It's a thought experiment regarding the nature of artificial intelligence. While the central thrust of Searle's argument has been debunked—er, well, obviously, or we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation—it's still an interesting idea.

“So, the basic idea is, imagine there's a man in a room,” Necrobat continued. “This man only speaks English. There are a bunch of books, papers, filing cabinets, and stuff, inside the room. There's a locked door, and under the door, slips of paper come in with questions written on them. The questions, though, are written in Chinese. The man is told that he needs to reply appropriately to these questions.

“In the books in the room, there's a phrasebook that lists Chinese answers to Chinese questions. So, the man finds the questions he's been asked, and he writes the answers down and replies. He doesn't understand any of what he's reading or writing, but to the Chinese-speaking people outside the room, they're getting back the correct answers. They would think that the person inside the room spoke Chinese, right?” Necrobat said.

“...Huh,” Vespa said. “Okay.”

“Searle's idea was that this could be extrapolated to computer systems,” Necrobat continued. His ears twitched as Cinnamon fiddled with them. “In his mind, you couldn't create a machine that 'thought', only one that simulated the processes of thought so well that any outside observer would think it thought—but there would be no intentionality, not the same presence of mind that exists in a human.”

“Well, that's clearly false,” Kohaku said. “We exist right here, right now.”

“Right,” Cinnamon said, “but at the time he didn't necessarily know that, you know? It's always like that with philosophers. The reason I bring it up, see, is because it's always been interesting to me not because of what it says about AI, but what it says about those outside the room. 'Looks like a person, talks like a person, acts like a person, then it's probably a person', right? To an outside observer, it doesn't matter if something isn't internally a 'person' so long as it looks, talks, and acts like one. 'As long as it works', in other words.”

“...Alright,” Kohaku said. She raised her eyebrow. “And?”

“So,” Cinnamon said, “it doesn't matter whether Necrobat has the sort of stuff that makes up a 'normal' NetNavi. It just matters that he works. I'm sure a lot of technicians would get wrapped up in other mess, but lucky for you you have me, and I like to think I know what I'm doing. Ku hu hu hu hu.” Her eyes narrowed on the screen, and her mouth became a W-shape. “So, really the main objective here is to either help Necrobat operate without this doohickey in his eye, or make it so that it doesn't cause him data spasms. We'll have to try a few different treatments without knowing what exactly this thing is, but I'm an industrious woman.”

Cinnamon disengaged her diagnostic mode and patted Necrobat on the head. “You've done a good job sitting still, hon. I'm very proud of you.”

“Thank you very much, Ms. Cinnamon,” Necrobat said, bowing his head. “I have a question, if that's alright?” Cinnamon nodded. “Am I okay to go outside for a bit?”

“No!” Kohaku said, standing up and affixing him with a very serious glare. “Your physical health doesn't have anything to do with whether it's okay for you to go out, Necrobat. You—!”

“Weeeeeeeeell,” Cinnamon said, giving Kohaku a wink, “there are ways to get him out of the house without giving away his position, you know. Where do you want to go?”

“Um...” Necrobat twiddled a few of his claws together. “I want to see the Electric Festival. I've never been to such a large event before—and Detective Himekago is going to be there, right?”

“Well, that's a simple job,” Cinnamon said. “You'd just have to ride in a PET.” Necrobat's ears perked up, but Kohaku shook her head and placed it in her hands.

“Who do you suppose is going to let Necrobat ride in their PET?” Kohaku groaned.

“You,” Vespa finally chimed in. “Duh.”

Blink. “Excuse me?”

(OP: “Innocence”, by Ippo Yamada and CAO)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox

Tobenai tsubasa ni negai wo takushite

(Entrusting my wish to these wings that can't fly,)

Chizu ni nai michi wo doredake aruitara

(how many uncharted roads would I need to walk)

Kimi ni aeru no?

(to finally find you?)

Ryoute ni kakaeta yume ya kibou nara

(If I have the hopes and dreams that I carried in my arms,)

Mugen ni hirogaru mayoi wo kowaseru no?

(could I break through this never-ending doubt)

Nani wo hikikae ni

(and manage to change something?)

Sotto... kono yoru ni tokeru

(Softly... I melt into the night.)

Kodoku... yori zutto fukaku

(It's... deeper than my loneliness.)

Owari no nai ketsumetsu sae mo

(In this 'ending' without an end,)

Sono mirai wo kagirinai tsuyosa ni kaete

(I'll turn our future into limitless strength!)

Yuruganai toki no kanata ni

(The other side of this unwavering time)

Kasanaru kioku kara nigedasanai kakugo wo shita boku wo utsushiteru

(reflects the part of me that resolved not to escape from these overlapping memories)

Afuredasu omoi

(or my overflowing emotions.)

Kono te ni, chikaitsuzuketa yakusoku...

(The promise I hold with these hands...)

Boku wa ima, kimi no tada...

(Is that right now, I just...)

...mamoritai.

(...want to protect you.)

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Grounds ~ Front Entrance

In a world where tech had come to instill itself in most facets of the planet, a gathering of 'tech luminaries' was much larger an event than one might think. Far from a conference simply attended by stuffy scientists, the Electric Festival was an event with pomp and circumstance befitting a 'festival', and the cloud-less, shining skies seemed to agree.

A massive glass stadium had been set up in the center of the lot for larger exhibits, and on the central road of the plaza coming up to it, soft-light projections presented passers-by with a top-down view of the festival to get their bearings. Smaller countries who had only managed booths tended to congregate on the outer road, as well as trucks for refreshments, and donations of festival amusements from various cultures meant that the Electric Festival had no shortage of things to do or see.

—And there was a ferris wheel in the back there, too, decorated to look like a snake eating its own tail. Apparently, an eccentric millionaire from Netopia had insisted on it being present so she could show off... or at least, that was how Paige understood it.

Crowds were already swarming into the premises for its opening day—the Festival would last one week. Hanging back a bit from those crowds were four people—namely, Paige Markham, accompanied by Scoops, Audrey, and Detective Himekago.

“Now,” Yuu said, studying a print map of the place he'd gotten somewhere, “it doesn't appear that any 'parade floats' will be being deployed today, but that doesn't mean it's not worth investigating. It's likely that at least a few members of the Einherjar will be present to scope the place out for whatever heist they might be planning.”

Scoops was taking photos of the front of the grounds, and giving herself thumbs up when she got one she seemed pleased by. “I'll get Stingray in the public networks to bounce around, look for our guys.”

“I'll be looking around for Dr. Gaudile, myself,” Yuu said. “I have some questions to ask him. If any of you run into anyone worthy of note, let me know. And of course, it would be best if you all tried to keep an eye on our escortees.”

Just on cue, from the crowds coming in, Eiji hurried out and beckoned to two others within the crowd. Vespa dragged Kohaku along by the arm. Being as the armor, or even the cloak, would be too obvious, they'd gotten her a real-world equivalent to the hairband she wore, as well as a plain amber tee and some skinny jeans over sneakers.

To say that this was a less threatening look than her usual outfit would be understating it. Kohaku ground her teeth as Vespa pulled her over to the group, looking away. “I feel ridiculous.”

“I think it's a lovely look on you!” Eiji said, pumping his hands. He turned his head to Paige. “Would you agree?”

“Well, of course.” Paige said, with a smile. With Vespa in her usual biker glam grinning like an idiot, and the shorter Kohaku standing next to her... “To be honest, you two could pass for sisters.”

“You think?” Vespa asked, and turned to look at Kohaku, leaning in to properly scrutinize her face. Kohaku, to her credit, didn't flinch. “I don't see it.”

“I know what you mean, though,” said a PET somewhat unsteadily holstered to the rim of Kohaku's jeans, as she was by no means practiced in holding one. “The two of them have very human-like appearances.”

“So,” Kohaku said, crossing her arms and giving an entirely too serious look, “what are we meant to do at events like these?”

“Enjoy yourself, mostly,” said Scoops, who'd turned on her feet to take a photo of Kohaku for a second before returning to her photo-snapping of the crowd at the front. “'s why you're here, ain't it?”

The befuddled look on Kohaku's face was a bad sign, and Vespa ruffled her hair a bit. “See, Kohaku here is bad at having fun. It seems we'll have to tutor her.”

“I'll accept that insult,” Kohaku grumbled, “but I'm not sure what I could learn from you on the subject.”

“Well,” said Yuu, who struck his cane upon the ground, “I'll leave you all to that, if that's alright. Ladies, gentlemen, please enjoy yourselves. And,” he said with a twinkle in his eye and a smug little grin before bowing, “a lovely day to my biggest fan.” Necrobat's squeal was so loud it could almost make a sonic blast. With a flutter of his half-cape, Yuu turned and walked into the place proper.

Then, within another moment, Scoops spontaneously decided she was done with photos of the front, and raised her camera and grabbed Eiji by the hand. “Alright, my lovely assistant, c'mon! We've got places to be!” Eiji's protests were ignored.

That left four people actually standing there, and Audrey, who had been idly standing there and tapping out a text to someone, began to wander off too. “See you,” she said with a little wave. Paige frowned at her in response. “What? Three's company, four's a crowd. 'Sides, I imagine the shit I might be interested in would bore you to tears.”

—So here they were. The Crescent City segment of the lot was what Paige's eyes first gravitated toward. It was within the stadium itself, and primarily dominated by Markham Labs, but there were a few smaller exhibits. On the staff for one such exhibit was a name that made Paige's eyes widen, and so she said, “Let's go here first.”

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Outer Rim

The high school where Paige had spent much of her worst years had always valued the sciences, so it was no surprise that if a genius wandered its halls, it would give him at least some leeway. Add to that the fact that the boy in question was the mayor's son, and when Lambert Blackgold entered high school, he'd already attained a reputation as one of the brightest young minds in all of Netopia.

His current ministrations were upon a subject he'd always found interesting—the process of flash-freezing. Taking a bit after his sister in that regard, he'd professed to Paige once that he found the idea of an entire environment of flash-frozen ice—say, for instance, a garden made entirely of ice sculptures, which Mimel had then drawn up a plan of to show to Paige and brag about her brother's imagination—absolutely fascinating. Of course, taking the ice casts of physical objects without destroying the objects in question was the hardest part.

Lambert's theory, then, was the usage of high-voltage currents to maintain a counter-active heat in the body to ensure that the frozen cast he desired and the object he experimented on remained separate. In a small booth in the outer rim of the ElecFes Stadium was what appeared almost more like a florist's stall, save for the fact that all the flowers were casts made of ice. He maintained them with the same usage of electrical currents, though the specifics were a bit beyond Paige, whose expertise lied elsewhere.

Boy genius Lambert Blackgold, though, wasn't being visited much during the festival, it seemed; he was staring fixedly on his PET browsing the internet. Even had Paige not known where he was, he would have stood out—not only for his pale-blonde curly mop and coke-bottle glasses making him stand out anywhere in Electopia, but for the fact that his unique sense of function over fashion meant he was still wearing what looked more like a big, fluffy blanket over him than a coat. Lambert was fond of these blanket-esque coats. He would wear blankets properly all day if he could, Paige imagined.

He was a short boy, so even the relatively small Kohaku towered over him in his seat. Whether this was because puberty hadn't finished with him yet, or he was just short, Paige wasn't sure. “Lambert?” she said, and got no response. “Lambert...”

“...Is he, er, a friend of yours?” Kohaku asked.

Paige nodded. “I'm really good friends with his family. I... hold on.” Paige cleared her throat. “Laaaaaaam-beeeeeeeert!”

“Whawhawhawhawha—?!” A number of Lambert's bangs fell over his eyes, but behind his glasses, as he leapt up from his seat. His eyes darted between Paige and Vespa multiple times before he stammered out, “P-P-Puh-puh-Paige! Hi?!”

“What, nothing for me?” Vespa crowed, giving a sardonic little shrug.

“Oh, give me a second,” Lambert grumbled, “I'm registering a lot at once! You can't expect me to move at the speed your mouth does, Vespa...” He continued grumbling something indistinct as he shut off his PET, then placed it in one of the pockets in his blanket coat. “Right, right, you'd... you were in school in Electopia so it makes perfect sense you'd be here. Yeah, of course. Hello.”

For a moment Paige remembered that Lambert had been acting oddly, according to Mimel. “Are you alright, Lambert? You're acting a bit jumpy.”

“Jumpy?” Lambert shook his head, then swung it backward to get his bangs out of his face. “I'm—” He scoffed. “Jumpy. Jumpy. I'm no such thing. Look, I'm—yes, I'm familiar with Electopian custom, but you must understand this is my first time actually leaving the Netopian continent, and there are a lot of people here. There's a lot of noise here. It's too—who is that?” He pointed at Kohaku. “I—I can't speak straight if I don't know who this is.”

“This,” Vespa said, putting her arm around Kohaku, who grimaced, “is my good buddy Kohaku, who we've dragged out because she needs to leave her house more, and not dressed like a rhinoceros beetle.”

Lambert blinked at that last remark, and then said, “Whatever floats your boat, ma'am.”

“The point is, she's a friend of ours,” Paige said. “But—well, enough about that!” She smiled, and reached across the stand, careful to avoid the ice-cast flowers, to hug Lambert. He squeaked a little, but didn't fight back. “It's great to see you, Lambert. I didn't know you were coming to Electopia?”

“You...” Lambert blinked, and then groaned and started rubbing the top of his head with two fingers. “Of course you don't. Why should I have trusted her to tell you anything?” He sat back down on his seat, crossed his arms, and started mumbling to himself. “I can hear her now. 'No, man, it was supposed to be a surprise.' What is it with people and surprises? If you want a surprise, go read a thriller novel, and don't drag me into it. Always the way of things with my sisters, this devil-may-care attitude toward surprises...”

Kohaku turned her head toward Paige to whisper, “Is he alright?” with a furrowed brow.

“Oh, yes,” Paige said, “this is just how Lambert expresses his happiness. Here, just give him a moment—”

“...and it's very nice to see you,” Lambert concluded, suddenly looking back up and standing again, “really just lovely to see you, I'm glad you seem to be doing well, I'd been very worried about your health! Have you been eating right? Both of you.”

Vespa nodded. “Do I look like I'd let her eat poorly?”

“Yes,” Lambert said, and Vespa wailed, “but I do trust you a bit more than that.”

There was a chirping noise from the PET Kohaku had borrowed, and as she took it out it became clear that Necrobat was straining against the screen, trying to see Lambert's science on display. “Wooooow!” he said. “Kohaku, can I see it a bit closer? Can I?”

—He was allowed to, of course. The glint in Lambert's eye at getting to talk to someone that sounded like he was about Lambert's own age, maybe a bit younger, was obvious. “Oh?” The boy gave a smug little grin. “Oh ho ho ho. And to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

“I'm Necrobat, sir,” Necrobat said, as Lambert was shown the PET screen to get a look at him. “Did you make all of these yourself?!”

“Well,” Lambert said, “I did have some help in the actual process, but the theory is all mine, and I put together the process to be done. Of course,” he said with a little chuckle, “I can't deny the contributions of my older sister and both of our Navis, though Voltman is currently out. Don't worry, he's not the best conversationalist anyhow!”

It wasn't exactly the largest exhibit, but as Necrobat was whirled around in his little device to see frozen casts of tulips, hydrangeas, sunflowers, cacti, even that venus flytrap that Lambert had had an odd run-in with when he was thirteen, he couldn't contain his glee. Noises of pure awe kept emanating from Kohaku's PET, and Kohaku herself was smiling far more than was usual. Lambert relished the chance to actually describe his process of taking an ice cast. Paige... still didn't really fully understand it.

At that point, though, another visitor came to Lambert's exhibit, and not for pleasure, either. Dr. Gaudile tumbled in, and hid behind the booth walls to attempt to disguise himself. “Lambert, my boy,” Dr. Gaudile squeaked out, “don't tell him I'm here!”

“Wha—?” Lambert mumbled, and everyone else stared for a moment as well until Paige turned her head to see one Yuu Himekago idly walking about the outer rim, casting his gaze all about.

“That detective,” Dr. Gaudile said, “asks too many questions! Nosy man, far too nosy. You'll hide me, won't you, my boy?”

Lambert stared at the small old man hiding behind the short wall of the exhibit, then at Paige and Vespa, then at Detective Himekago, who walked over to inspect the exhibit himself.

“Paige,” Yuu said, “Vespa. Kohaku. Mr. Lambert Blackgold, I presume?” He bowed. “Yuu Himekago. Nice to meet you.”

“You too?” Lambert said, his eyebrows raised as he registered Yuu's bow.

“Am I interrupting something?” Yuu asked Paige.

Paige shook her head. “No, Necrobat is still having a good time over there.”

“Alright, good,” Yuu said with a smile. “Mr. Blackgold, I've been investigating a case on Ms. Markham's behalf. Do you mind if I ask you a question or two?”

“Uh...” Lambert blinked. “No. You're... you're that detective that caught Tech Kraken, aren't you?”

“The very same,” Yuu said. “It's nice to hear you've heard of me. You've worked at Markham Labs on some projects before, right? I take it to understand you have something of an apprenticeship there.” This was true, as Paige knew, and Lambert nodded. “Were you there on August 12th this year?”

Lambert's eyes went wide. “Wait, you mean—?”

“Of course,” Yuu said, “you would be aware that there was a break-in that day, yes. I wanted to ask if you'd noticed anything out of the ordinary that day. Of course, I've heard Paige and Vespa's testimonies, but I don't have many other eyewitnesses.”

“I wasn't...” Lambert mumbled, twiddling his fingers. “I left a bit before then, actually. I knew it happened, but I wasn't there to see it.”

Yuu nodded. “I see. Well, thank you anyway, sir. Don't worry—a calling card was found at the scene, so it shouldn't be too hard to solve the case. I don't mean to disturb you unduly.”

“Oh—yes, of course,” Lambert said. “You've already caught Tech Kraken once, so if you know his calling card was there—”

Yuu gave a little smile, then nodded. “Right. Now, I was actually also coming to find you because I know that a boy your age wouldn't be allowed to travel cross-country with this sort of machinery without adult supervision, and I was meaning to speak with your mother.”

“You want to talk to Mrs. Blackgold?” Paige said, her eyes widening in surprise. “Wait—Mrs. Blackgold is here?”

Lambert sighed, and then said, “Mom said she'd be in the area across the way—head to the other side of the main atrium, out the door, and she'll be at the stand run by the burly, bearded man with snow-white hair.”

Yuu nodded, and then turned to Paige and said, “I don't mean to impose, Paige, but could I ask you to come with me? I know it hasn't been that long since we split up—”

“No, that's alright,” Paige said. “I'd love to see Mrs. Blackgold. Vespa?”

Vespa nodded, then continued flailing Necrobat's PET around Lambert's exhibit, then aiming it out the windows at neat stuff out there. “C'mon, Kohaku, you've gotta give him a little zazz!”

“I think she was doing a great job—oh what's that?!” Necrobat exclaimed.

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Grounds ~ Rear Grounds

“Wha-BAM!”

The hammer crashed down on the plunger beneath, and the bell on the backboard started heading up, up, up, heading ever higher—! Ding ding ding!

“Yeah! I've still got it, baby!” the woman who'd struck the pad said, throwing her fists in the air and starting to dance around.

“I have nothing to give you but admiration,” said the man whose game she'd just played, “but admiration I have plenty of! You are a mighty one indeed!” He clapped and laughed boisterously.

—Pauline Blackgold's hair was a bit more of a strawberry blonde than her two children, but she had their same blue eyes. She was a thin woman, in face and body—at her best, she could be called 'chic', and at her worst, 'emaciated'. She was closer to her best at the moment. Ruffled long-skirts with floral patterns and baby blue cardigans over white blouses was her signature look, and today was no different—she wore that same side-ponytail that Mimel always laughed about for some reason, too. Mimel had not inherited her mother's warmer skin, but her frame and facial structure was quite similar, and the longer Paige knew Mimel the more she was struck by the resemblance.

This man, on the other hand, Paige did not know. His thick, tree-like arms and legs rippled with visible, hard muscle, graying hair running across them and contrasting the head of white hair, mustache, and bushy beard upon his face. He was tall, really tall—frankly one of the tallest men Paige had ever met, so much so that it was clear even while he was sitting. A red bandana flowed in the wind across his head, and his somewhat wrinkled eyes glowed with a vivacious light. He wore a dark green vest and a red, short-sleeved over it, as well as dark brown leather gloves. The coat, on its back, was decorated with flame designs that gave it quite the striking appearance, as were the bottoms of his black cargo pants. With his black, military-issue boots tied to perfection completing the look, Paige's first impression of this man was that he could easily bike with Vespa.

“Huh,” said Yuu, his eyebrow raising. “Fancy that...”

“Someone you know?” Paige asked.

“Not personally, but I've heard of him,” Yuu said.

The two approached closer, as the heavy-set man said, “You are Netopian, yes? Are all women of your age there so vivacious, or is it just you?”

“Oh, my, you're flattering me!” Mrs. Blackgold laughed to herself and made a little gesture with her right hand to deflect the compliment.

“I am very serious,” the man said. He crossed his arms and nodded, closing his eyes as he spoke. “I do not mean to say that women from my home country are weak, of course—I know many strong women. However, you must understand that it is a more resolute strength, unlike your verve and liveliness!”

“We-ell,” Mrs. Blackgold said, a coy little look on her face, “personally I think my family's got a little something special. I've got daughters, you know, all of them wonderful women—”

She was starting to brag, which meant it was time for Paige to tap Mrs. Blackgold on the shoulder and say, “Um, Mrs. Blackgold?”

Unlike her son, that got Mrs. Blackgold to swivel immediately, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree as she exclaimed, “Oh, Paige!” She came in for an immediate, tight hug, which Paige returned, even though she was being a bit squeezed. “It's so good to see you, honey! How's college been? How are you doing? You look great.”

“Oh—yes, I am!” Paige said, smiling and nodding as Mrs. Blackgold let go of her. “You too, Mrs. Blackgold!”

“Is Vespa around?” Mrs. Blackgold said, looking at Paige's PET. Paige shook her head. “Oh, huh. I don't usually see you alone.”

“I'm not,” Paige said. She gestured to Yuu, who'd been standing back a bit. “I'm here with him.”

Mrs. Blackgold gaped for a moment, then said, “Wait, you, alone with a man? Have I gone mad?”

“Wha—?” Paige said. Yuu sputtered and tried to stifle a little laugh. “No, no. Vespa is back at Lambert's exhibit with some other friends of ours—we split up so I could come see you. I—I can have male friends, can't I?”

“You have not had a male friend as long as I've known you,” Mrs. Blackgold said, putting her hand on Paige's shoulder and chuckling lovingly. “The only one we thought you had turned out not to be a man, and we both love her dearly, don't we?”

“Absolutely!” Paige nodded. “No, I, uh... wait, isn't Tundraman a—?”

“He's a Navi,” Mrs. Blackgold said, shaking her head. “That's different. Is this, uh, hi nice to meet you, what's your name?”

“Yuu Himekago, ma'am,” Yuu said.

“Is Yuu here your only—” Mrs. Blackgold stopped dead in her tracks, then turned her head back to Yuu to stare, open-mouthed. “As in the detective? The—the one who caught Tech Kraken?”

“Am I popular among this family?” Yuu asked Paige, and Paige gave a shrug to communicate 'I guess so'. “The very same, Mrs. Blackgold. Lovely to meet you.”

“Are you investigating a case with the great detective?” Mrs. Blackgold sputtered, and Paige nodded again, blushing. “Oh, Paige, I knew you had it in you! Well not that specifically, of course, but I knew you had great things in you!”

“And no,” Yuu said, “I am not her only male friend.” Pause. “Do I count as...? I mean, she's my client, so to speak, but to be fair my mother is always telling me I need to make more friends my age—”

“Sure you do!” Mrs. Blackgold said. “I mean, you came here with her to meet her mom, that's friend stuff! Right?”

“That's true,” Paige said. “I guess she's right.”

“Technically I'm here for a number of things, which happen to include meeting you,” Yuu said, “but, uh, sure, that works.”

“Oh!” Paige's eyes widened. “What's been going on with Lambert lately? Mimel said he's been acting oddly?”

Mrs. Blackgold scoffed and laughed a little. “Oh, that? I think he was just worried. My pacemaker had this little glitch a while back, and he got really worried about me at the time. I imagine he was just worrying about me, you know how he does.” Paige nodded. “But of course I'm in perfect health!”

Yuu mumbled to himself, “Close enough to call her 'mom', huh... Mrs. Blackgold, I actually have a question for you.”

“Ask away!” Mrs. Blackgold said, her eyes sparkling.

“This might seem like a bit of an odd question,” Yuu said, “but does the term 'Beast Brigade' mean anything to you?”

There was a moment of silence before Mrs. Blackgold blinked and sputtered a bit. “Wow, you know, I'd been running through in my head what you could be asking about me and that appeared nowhere on the list. The—the Beast Brigade.” She cleared her throat, and then folded up her hands and put on her most serious face she could when in Paige's presence, which wasn't very, honestly. “Yes, I am familiar. I mean, I'm the mayor of Netopia's capital. I'm not too big of a politician, but I know enough to know about something like that.”

“You can stop me at any point if you're not at liberty to tell me,” Yuu said, “but would I be correct in my understanding that it consisted of four Navis, one for each primary program element?” Mrs. Blackgold nodded. “Alright. Do you happen to know where I could find them?”

“Okay, stopping you,” Mrs. Blackgold said.

“Thank you,” Yuu said with a smile. “That's all. I ask because—”

“Oh don't tell me,” Mrs. Blackgold said, throwing her hands up with a beaming smile, “I want to be there when it's relevant to you solving some kind of case!”

Yuu smiled and nodded, then performed a sweeping bow. “Alright, ma'am, I won't. But—”

In that moment, there was a brief lull in the din of the crowd, and a brief pyrotechnics display from nearby lit up the space behind Detective Himekago as his shoes clacked against the ground, his feet moving nimbly in a practiced tap-dance. Paige stared befuddled, but Mrs. Blackgold started jumping up and down, squealing in glee. With a flourish of his half-cape, Yuu tapped and twirled over past the two women, then stopped to point his scepter—

—at the burly man who'd been sitting in the background, minding his booth during the conversation. “—I am of course not done making conversation,” Yuu said, “as a man quite relevant to my interests has appeared before me.”

“Eh?” The white-haired man looked up from polishing his booth. It was a small exhibit, with not much to show.

“Your booth is looking rather barren, but I imagine it's something of a formality,” Yuu said, “as your nation specializes in technology which isn't well-suited for this manner of exhibition.” Yuu lowered his scepter to clack against the ground, then spun to face the man, pointing his finger. “You, sir—you are Ulvarian, yes?”

The man blinked. “...Yes. That much is obvious if you simply look at a map of the place, or my clothes, or at me, for that matter.”

“As it turns out, I've been looking into the myths of the old country of Norway recently,” Yuu said, “and the modern country of Ulvaria has also been relevant to me. Seeing your booth so barren is sad, though understandable—the military technology juggernaut would likely not have much to show to the public. That said, seeing a man of your stature, sir, manning such a barren booth is sad in and of itself.”

Paige, Mrs. Blackgold, and the man who Yuu had focused himself on all made noises of confusion. “Sorry,” Yuu said, “I should catch you up. You see, I was meaning to find you myself, but you appeared before me so coincidentally. I know you, sir, or perhaps I should say I know a woman who knows you—a Captain Emilia Harlock?”

“Eh?!” The man sputtered. “A friend of Harlock's?”

Yuu tapped a moment, then spun to Paige and Mrs. Blackgold. “So as not to keep you in the dark, Captain Harlock is a former soldier from Creamland who resides in my hometown. I've heard many a story about her old war friends, and I happen to be acquainted with her daughter. Said daughter is a perceptive woman, and when I need assistance I will sometimes ask for her testimony. She mentioned you, sir, as you and her mother became friends when your two nations were allied during an armed conflict. Your name—it is Wilhelm, is it not?”

“And a friend of young Rinko's?” Wilhelm said once more, then stood up. “Why didn't you say so? I would've greeted you more properly!”

“A pleasure to meet you, sir,” Yuu said, “but I'm not finished.”

“He's not finished!” Mrs. Blackgold whisper-squealed into Paige's ear.

“Now, Wilhelm is not that uncommon of a name,” Yuu said, “but it is uncommon to see a former colonel in the Ulvarian army manning a small booth like this... that is to say, if you were just any old soldier.”

A sting of music played from somewhere, and Yuu started tapping along to it for a moment before reaching beneath his half-cape and producing a print newspaper, of all things, directing the eye to an article on the third page, in small print. 'Rumors of an Incognito Dignitary', it read.

“Rumor has it,” Yuu said, “that a dignitary of some manner from Ulvaria has come to visit our humble nation, though in disguise as a simple citizen. The political scene in Ulvaria, as it turns out, is not that large—such an endeavor would most likely only be performed by a member of the upper echelons of society, considering the country's current economic recession. In my reading, I learned something—Ulvaria has a total of seven princes, sons of the late king. The eldest prince is a fifty-seven-year-old man who, I read, performed military service, and has quite a background in military technology as well—not to mention being quite the NetBattler.”

Another strike of the scepter upon the ground, and Yuu produced a copy of the family tree of the Ulvarian royal family. “Printed on this sheet of paper is the family line of the royal line of Ulvaria, the dignified Blaster family. Walden II, the former king, just recently passed away, and you can easily trace his family line—” and their eyes drew down—“to his son, Wilhelm Blaster VII!”

“What?!” said Wilhelm Blaster VII, his coat fluttering in the wind as he clutched his hand to his heart as though he'd been struck. “Impossible! How could you possibly have figured out that that was me?!”

“It's simple, of course,” Yuu said. “'Elementary', as a wiser man than me once said.” Yuu snapped his fingers before pointing to Wilhelm's headband. “The headband of the eldest Blaster son is legendary—a relic of the family. They say that when it's tied upon the head of a true warrior, it never stops blowing even in the stillest wind—the spirits of the old Vikings keep it blowing for ever more. Of course, I'm not so sure about that—but, ladies, if I may direct your attention to the ends of the headband?”

Both Paige and Mrs. Blackgold looked dutifully there, and saw upon the red headband a blue cross, outlined in white. “The old flag of Norway,” Yuu said, “an emblem only the royal family of Ulvaria may wear on their clothing! Article 67-A-III of the Ulvarian penal code tells it all, though the exact text is a little boring.”

Wilhelm crossed his arms and nodded sternly, then said, “So this is the power of an Electopian detective... truly sublime!” Then he flung himself back against the wall of his booth, yelling, “NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”

There was a moment of silence.

Two.

Three.

Wilhelm got up, put his hands on his hips, and laughed, his booming voice echoing through the festival. “Did you mean to give me a demonstration, young man? Because it was quite splendid! I appreciate the entertainment.”

“A great deduction from the great detective...” Mrs. Blackgold sighed in joy.

Yuu shook his head, though. “No, sir, I do have reason to speak with you.” He turned his head to look at Paige over his shoulder. “Sorry to leave you in the dust—hopefully next time I can give you a more properly followable deduction. This part should be easier to follow, though.”

One last little tap-dance, and then Yuu twirled into a dramatic pose. “You see, the reason I was speaking to Captain Harlock led me to you somewhat unexpectedly. I had been asking out about a local handywoman in the town of Manzo, to see if she had made any more recent acquaintances, anyone unusual. Of course, you were not 'someone unusual', rather a friend to the Harlock-Sakazaki family, but it was unusual for you to be acquainted with said handywoman.”

That finally made Paige catch on. “Wait—you mean—?”

“The very same,” Yuu said. “I was of course asking about our mutual acquaintance Asahi Makimura. After all, she had already become friends with one person from outside of the nation in joining her little social club—why not more? So, in my investigations, I discovered the name of your Navi, Prince Blaster, and it reminded me of a recent incident—that is, the culprit of a near-silent, victimless raid on the DNN radio tower near the coast. Through a bit of telephone, I've learned the name of the culprit—a Navi named Heat Genblem. The very same Navi who works as your own partner!”

Once again, Wilhelm clutched his heart and recoiled. “Kuh!”

“Being acquainted with Asahi Makimura and being party to the three tower raids on that same day, as well as a connection to old Norse myth by your royal blood... The connection was clear.” Yuu snapped his fingers, and then shot a finger-gun gesture at Wilhelm. “You, sir, are a member of the group called the Einherjar!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Wilhelm exclaimed again, except this time he fell face-first onto the ground behind his booth, the flames on his coat almost seeming to rise up and burn into a blaze as he did. “So this... is the power... of a great detective...!”

“To paraphrase a man much wiser than me,” Yuu said, “this has been Yuu Himekago's Logic and Reasoning Spectacular!” He gave a more grandiose bow to conclude his dance. “Thank you for coming.” Mrs. Blackgold clapped like a madwoman in the background.

“Well,” Wilhelm said, upon dragging himself up off of the ground, “you're correct on all counts!” He laughed with his hands on his waist again. “I am indeed Wilhelm Blaster VII, eldest prince of Ulvaria. This booth is indeed a formality for technology that is improper for the location. And yes, I am a member of the Einherjar—though, if you'll forgive a question that might be a touch impertinent, detective, why are you even familiar with the existence of that little club?”

“Ah, well,” Yuu said, and gestured to Paige, “my client, Ms. Markham, was present for the theft of the Erosion Key from Dr. Gaudile's laboratory in Electopia. I've been hired to investigate.”

Wilhelm nodded, crossing his arms, and scrunching up his face such that his mustache bristled against his nose. “I see, I see. Yes, I did do battle with the Hikari brothers there—though you will perhaps forgive a boast if I were to say that my partner was not in his best form at the time! We were caught with our proverbial pants down—and not by him, either.”

“Yes,” Yuu said, “don't worry, we've spoken to Asahi about it.”

“Lovely young lady,” Wilhelm said with a smile. “Lovely young lady. Really, the whole group are by and large people I haven't the slightest problem being friends with, which in my situation and at my age you must understand I do not have too many of. You know, Detective—Himekago, you said your name was?” Yuu nodded. “I'm impressed with your reasoning! I'm quite proud of my old heritage, you see, but I imagine not too many people exist who'd make the connection.”

“Um, may I step in?” Paige asked, and Yuu nodded, stepping to the side to allow her to take point. “Mr. Blaster... um, Your Highness?”

“Wilhelm.”

“Wilhelm, sir,” Paige said, then cleared her throat out of nerves, “I've spoken to the other two members of your group who were attacking the towers, but I've never really had the chance to ask... why those towers in particular?”

“Ah, a fantastic question!” Wilhelm said. “Now, you will forgive me if my explanation is not the most technical, as I am more a physical construction man and lack K's expertise in the network side of things. It has to do with a program K was looking to pick up for their Navi. It's in a bit of an inconvenient location, and achieving the place in question requires either quite a powerful ship or something to manipulate the 8MS fragments in the ocean to calm the seas.”

Yuu put a hand up to his chin, and then nodded. “Mmm... yes, that would do it. The three towers are all equidistant from each other, so if you wanted to have a strong enough signal that would be a good way to circulate it. So this program is on an island?”

“So it is,” Wilhelm said, “though actually it's got naught at all to do with that whole Erosion Key business. Many irons in the fire, that K, has the kind of multi-tasking I could only dream of!” He laughed again.

It was at this point that Mrs. Blackgold, with an aura of the most intense curiosity, poked her head between Yuu and Paige, and asked, “Hi, what are we talking about?”

“Oh, it's, um, it's a long story, sorry,” Paige said, rubbing the back of her head.

“A few acquaintances of this man's stole a possession of Dr. Gaudile's, and we're discussing the investigative progress with him,” Yuu explained. Paige mumbled that that was a decent enough short version.

Mrs. Blackgold blinked, paused, opened her mouth, raised her finger, closed it again, and then opened it again to say, “Okay, as a humble city mayor, a thing like that is a bit outside of my jurisdiction, but you know that's a crime, right, Mr. The Seventh? You just admitted to breaking and entering and possible aiding and abetting grand theft.”

“Oh, yes, I am well aware,” Wilhelm said.

“Okay! Glad we have that clear.” Mrs. Blackgold nodded, then turned to Paige and grabbed her shoulders, grimacing and sweating. “What have you gotten yourself into?! I'm gonna have a heart attack if you keep getting into these crazy situations!”

“Oh, no!” Paige yelped. “Not so soon after the last complications!”

“It's an exaggeration, dear, pacemaker's working fine,” Mrs. Blackgold laughed, before returning to her serious face. “Seriously, how did you get yourself wrapped up in something like this?”

Paige blinked, and then mumbled, “To be honest, I'm not entirely sure,” while looking away.

“In this gentleman's case,” Yuu said, “he does have a degree of diplomatic immunity. Anyhow, sir, I was hoping you could answer me one more question. How many members are there in your group?”

Wilhelm hummed for a moment, and then said, “We do work in tandem, of course, so let us say there are nine operative units consisting of either only a NetNavi or a human and a Navi.”

“Thanks,” Yuu said. “Well, that's all. Lovely to meet you, sir.” He bowed.

“And you, Detective, and Ms. Client as well.” Wilhelm mirrored Yuu's bow.

“...Wait,” Mrs. Blackgold said, gaping, “that's it? There's no dramatic confrontation or anything?”

“This was a completely coincidental encounter and he answered all the questions I could expect to have answered,” Yuu said. “I have an understanding by this point of what questions no Einherjar is liable to tell us, so I'm satisfied with this for now. I have a prior engagement to continue investigating at this point, and His Highness has a booth to run.”

“Yes, it, um... well, it seems like they all have... rather ordinary lives, with day jobs and... whatnot?” Paige squeaked at Mrs. Blackgold's befuddlement. “Sorry! If there is a big confrontation with the mastermind at some point, I'll let you know!”

“Madam, you seem to be under a bit of a misconception,” Wilhelm said. “We are no organized ring of crime—just a gaggle of compatriots working toward a common cause. Oh, and speaking of, Ms. Client, that would make you the operator of that Navi named 'Vespa', yes?” Paige nodded, and Wilhelm's brow furrowed as he shook his head. “Oh dear.”

“What?” Paige asked.

Wilhelm stood up from his booth, and exited the side of it, quickly sending off a text message to someone before looking back up. “If my suspicion is right, you may be in for a bit of trouble if two of the myriad particles within this festival collide.”

Pause. The din of the crowd became deafeningly loud for just a moment.

“...Huh?” Paige and Mrs. Blackgold tilted their heads.

“I'm saying I'm following you,” Wilhelm said, “and that we should go meet your Navi as soon as we can.” Given Wilhelm's sheer size compared to the two ladies, there was no room for argument.

So, with that, the three of them began to walk, and after a bit of mumbling, Paige managed to work up the chutzpah to ask, “So... how's Mimel doing these days?”

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Outer Rim

“So how long has it been since you've eaten, Kohaku?” Vespa asked, as the bowl of pho she'd foisted on Kohaku arrived for the younger lady. “Like, real food.”

“...I try not to eat much,” Kohaku answered, looking away.

“Well,” Necrobat chimed in, after having fully registered the online database regarding the western Yumlandian botanical gardens they'd just passed through, “the last time you ate anything while you were in a CopyBot was four months ago, Kohaku. I heard your stomach grumbling all last week.”

“Wha—Necrobat...” Kohaku mumbled, smelling the aroma of her bowl of noodles and visibly salivating. “D-don't... don't sell me out, please.”

“You know,” Vespa said, “here I figured I was the only Navi who got actually hungry like that. Please,” she continued, as her own bowl arrived in front of her, “it's on me. I hate to see a young lady like yourself go hungry.”

“...It's...” Kohaku stared at the bowl. “...Is it really alright for me to have this?” Vespa affixed her with a 'yeah, duh' stare. “You're sure?” 'Yes, you idiot.'

Kohaku was still much milder-mannered than Vespa even as she dug in, but to say she wasn't voraciously devouring the bowl before her would be a lie. There was something to be said for savoring a meal, but Vespa knew the feeling of having an actual meal after way, way too long, and so she added, “By the way, if you need more it's still on me. No worries.”

Having to take a moment to breathe, Kohaku sat down her utensils and closed her eyes to steady herself. “That's appreciated, thank you.”

This was a small stall, and so the other seats were taken up by a pair of men who had both turned their eyes over upon seeing Kohaku so hungry. To wit—The one on the far seat, furthest from Vespa on the other end, was a dusty-blonde, lanky-looking Electopian man with a sitar upon his back and a yellow, angel wing-patterned robe on over his white shirt, black tie, and long khaki pants. It was a little silly-looking, honestly, and Vespa wasn't sure it all went together very well. His hair was straight and hung down to about the end of his neck, and looked like it had an unfortunate tendency to hang limp. He had a thinly-built face, which was currently affixed in a large grimace, and large grey eyes.

The man in question exclaimed, “Wait, okay, is she okay? Is that girl okay?” He clearly gestured to Kohaku over his companion's shoulder, before continuing, “Dude, I don't think she's okay.”

“Can I please just think about my own food?” His companion groaned. This one, Vespa had the strangest feeling she'd seen before. His hair was a dirty brown, which sat upon his head in something you could probably call a pompadour, though it looked more like a puffy tower of smoke, if Vespa was being frank. He had a very pointy goatee, like, very pointy, and his angular, hawkish face was adorned by a translucent red visor over his beady eyes. He wore a mauve vest and black cargo pants, and heavy red boots with a golden insignia that looked rather like a really short 'T' on the buckles. He was Netopian, incidentally.

“Hey, is—” Angel Robe over there asked, ignoring his companion's wishes. “Is she okay? Are you okay? Do you need help?”

Kohaku had returned to devouring her bowl, so Vespa answered, “I think we've got it handled, but thanks for your concern.”

“Well, I mean, she needs something to drink, right? At least?” Angel Robe said, and Smoke Tower groaned into his hands—evidently this was a regular occurrence. “Is she of legal age, or should I make something non-alcoholic?”

“'Make'?” Vespa said with a blink. “With what?”

There was a duffel bag by the side of his seat, and Angel Robe leaned down to start opening it. “Ah ha, I see,” he said with a smug little lilt to his voice, “you're asking for a demonstration. Please, allow me.”

Kohaku finally finished her bowl, having gulped down every bit of the soup, and finally rejoined the conversation, only to see this curious man drag an entire tea-brewing machine out of his duffel bag. “Er—what is that?” She shook her head. “Wait, why do you—?”

“Part of the trade,” Angel Robe said. “How do you like your tea? Doesn't have to be tea of course, could be coffee, could be... y'know. Anything you want brewed, on account of I consider myself something of a virtuoso?” He grinned, and it showed off his pearly whites. “See, I can't leave someone that hungry besides, because the last person I found that hungry was my fiancee—” Oh, huh, he did have an engagement ring of some manner on, didn't he? “—and it's instilled in me the stern belief that if I see a young lady like yourself clearly undernourished I can't stand for it. So!”

“I, er...” Kohaku mumbled. “I... black tea, if you would. Dealer's choice.”

“That's what I like to hear!” Angel Robe exclaimed, giving a little fistpump, as he went about working this machine with more skill than Vespa frankly thought possible on such a clearly complex machine—tea brewer though it was, it was a specialized rig, probably a custom job if Vespa had to guess.

Smoke Tower switched seats to the far seat, and groaned, “Oh, come on. I'm not paying for it if they fine you! I don't have the money for that!”

“Don't worry about it, it's fine,” Angel Robe said, “I've got myself a permit, and that does you a whole load of good. I'm legally allowed to brew anywhere on these grounds so long as it doesn't endanger anyone!” He took the seat nearer to Kohaku, and continued working his machine on the ground, having put together the ingredients for black tea and still continuing to do things on this machine Vespa guessed were probably to brew the tea. “Now, who am I having the pleasure of serving today?”

“Um...” Kohaku stammered.

“She's Kohaku,” Vespa said, “and you didn't ask, but I'm Vespa.”

“That's a weird name,” Angel Robe said. “Yours, not hers. It's quite a fitting name for you, 'Kohaku', with the eyes and the hair. You're both lovely young ladies, of course.”

“Will you quit flirting?” Smoke Tower scoffed. “You're engaged, man.”

Angel Robe's eyebrow twitched, and he looked over his shoulder. “Dude,” he said with gritted teeth, “I'm not flirting. I'm just being honest—and sometimes it's the people who are in a bad way who need to hear it the most, you feel me? I'm just a humble country boy trying to do my best!”

The tea finished brewing, and Vespa got her own tea, as well. She and Kohaku took a drink of the piping-hot elixir simultaneously, and both of their eyes went wide. Vespa drank for slightly longer than Kohaku did, but both of them sat the small cups down with a large 'pfwah!'

“Wait, whoa,” Vespa said, a bit of sputtering in her breath, “this is really good!”

“Yes, it-it really is,” Kohaku stammered, “this is great. Thank you, sir.”

“Ahaha, well,” Angel Robe said, with a self-satisfied grin upon his face, “I try. I always think a good drink can really be the difference between a good day and a great one, you feel me?” Pause. “Daisuke Harada, at your service, by the by. Just realized I forgot to introduce myself! If you're ever in Wakayama, please, stop by the family brewery—we'd love to have you. I—”

“Whoa whoa whoa whoa!”

This was the moment that one Scoops Hanasaka chose to enter the proceedings, braking to a stop in front of the stall so hard she almost kicked up a dust cloud, then whipping out her camera to take a shot and her notepad to follow up. “Our country's young virtuoso brewmaster, Daisuke Harada? Wakayama's vineyard wunderkind? Scoops Hanasaka, Ayanokoji Digest, sir,” and she forcibly shook his hand, “lovely to meet you. Now, tell me something—did I hear right you're engaged? Tell me everything.”

Pause.

“Wha.” Daisuke sputtered with a blink. He turned to Kohaku and Vespa. “Do, uh, do you know her? Is she yours?”

“Well, I know her, sure,” Vespa said, “but I'm not sure Scoops 'belongs' to anyone.”

“As an arm of the free press,” Scoops said with a huff, “I belong to no one, just like the truth and journalism!”

Smoke Tower briefly had a flash of realization, then looked very conflicted about saying anything, then spoke up. “Wait, uh, Hanasaka? Makiri Hanasaka, from the Manzo district? Are you that Hanasa—”

“Thank you for recognizing me,” Scoops said, before giving Smoke Tower the firmest evil eye she was capable of, “but it is 'Scoops Hanasaka' to you, buster, and don't you forget it—”

This is when Eiji finally caught up to his much faster friend, having to crouch down to hold himself and pant for a moment before saying, “Scoops, please don't, don't—we don't—hello sir,” and he wiped some sweat from his brow before taking a very deep breath and standing up again, “hello, sir. Um, is your name 'Wolff'?”

Smoke Tower blinked, then started wringing his hands together and put on an awkward smile.” Uh, yes, yes I am. Hello. Who's asking?”

Realization hit Vespa a moment later, and it was then that she realized she was in trouble. Naturally she recognized him now that she knew his name—he was in a different outfit than she was used to, didn't have that silly helmet, but Wolff here was the operator of a Navi that Vespa knew quite well.

“Eiji Kikuchi, sir,” Eiji said, “and please one moment.” Eiji turned around. “We found him, ma'am!”

Oh shit. Ohhhh shit. Vespa had a very bad feeling about what was happening, and if she was correct she was in danger. She needed to go before ohhhh god it was too late wasn't it—

One more person entered the scene—a rather petite, redheaded woman whose hair, adored with a pair of small antennae, was held up in a bun. She wore a red-and-gold dress, not unlike an Electopian idol's these days with all the golden ornamentation around it, with a fluffy bottom and flower print around the hem. It lacked sleeves, so her slender, smooth arms and sharp, red nails were all very much on display. A Navi emblem of a heavy sunbeam was emblazoned on her deep red, knee-high boots—under which Vespa knew were tights, though they were covered by the hem of her dress.

Her piercing blue eyes first leveled themselves on Eiji with a smile, saying, “Thank you, sir, you've been a big help,” before swiveling to Wolff to say, “Where have you been?” with a frown. “I've been looking all over for you, do you know that? But instead I find you here eating noodles well after we were supposed to meet up with—”

And then,

those blue eyes met Vespa's, which these days were just the same hue, because she had always rather liked them.

Vespa had been caught standing up, trying to disguise herself by being behind the similarly shocked Kohaku—but it hadn't really worked. Beads of sweat began to roll down Vespa's forehead, as she gripped the sides of her jacket to attempt to look smaller and perhaps wink out of existence. It wasn't working, as the woman's chilly gaze made very, very clear.

“Oh,” she said.

Scoops and Eiji looked at each other, and Scoops shrugged. “You know Vespa, Queenie?” Shit. Shit shit shit don't say that out loud you just confirmed it you idiot! Vespa made a mental note to, if she survived, harangue Scoops for about three hours—wait, no, wait. No. It could just be a mistake, she might not actually know, right?

“Mmhm,” Queenbee said. She nodded. “Oh, yes. We're very well acquainted.” Oh, no. She was using that tone. That really flat, even tone that told you she was about bursting at the seams ready to commit an actual murder. Oh, she knew. She knew. Vespa took a step back—“And where do you think you're going?”

“Uh...” Vespa mumbled. “Um, uh. Uh, nowhere? Anywhere? Uh, ahaha. Um. You know, I just... aha, my operator's probably like, you know, I bet you she needs me for... something, maybe she—”

Queenbee took another step forward and Vespa loudly squeaked, so loud it was really closer to a screech. “Is that how it is? Really?” Vespa gulped. “Four years and I don't even get so much as a hello. Is that it?”

“No! No, uh,” Vespa sputtered, “no, really, I, I just needed to... to compose myself? Uh, you know, it. It, uh—”

As Queenbee took another step forward—

“Wait!”

Kohaku leapt up from her seat, standing between the two of them. She held up one hand. “Don't do anything rash, Queenbee.”

Pause. Queenbee blinked. “Sorry, have we met?”

Kohaku took a beat of silence, before realizing, “Right, you wouldn't—without the helmet and armor... It's Kohaku.”

“Oh!” Queenbee exclaimed, then rubbed her eyes. “Oh. That's a good look on you. I like it.”

“Thank you,” Kohaku said. “I appreciate it—”

“Wait wait wait wait wait wait!” Vespa said, shaking her head to make sure she wasn't seeing things. After a moment's pause for everyone to look at her, she said, “Why in the hell do you two know each other?!”

Chapter Text

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: The Most Intensely Awkward Spot In The Entirety Of The Electric Festival

It is perhaps pertinent to review exactly how many people were present for Vespa being in the hot seat. Obviously, there was Vespa herself, and Queenbee, the aggressor. Kohaku and Necrobat were both present, as was Wolff, Queenbee's operator, and his apparent friend, brewmaster Daisuke Harada (and whatever Navi he operated). Scoops and Eiji, and by extension Jet Stingray, were also present—and then Paige, Mrs. Blackgold, and some old guy (and possibly said old guy's Navi) made themselves apparent.

All in all, that made eleven, with possibly two more, present. However, any number higher than 'zero' is an unfortunate amount of people to witness someone being lambasted by their ex-girlfriend, especially when that number of people included one's... best friend? Operator didn't really imply a level of closeness by itself, Vespa thought. Paige, the number included Paige.

Anyway, to return to the question at hand—

“Huh?” Queenbee stopped in her tracks to turn and look at Kohaku, after Vespa's outburst. “...Does... does she not—?”

“No,” Kohaku said.

“Should I tell her?” Queenbee asked, and Kohaku shook her head. “Alright, makes sense to me.”

“Wha—what am I out of the loop here about?” Vespa said, throwing her hands out and shaking her head a little in desperation. “Is there some history here I don't understand? Am I an idiot?”

“Yes,” said Queenbee, Kohaku, and Mrs. Blackgold at the same time. “Hi, Vespa!” Mrs. Blackgold added.

“Hi, Polly,” Vespa said with a weak little wave. She suddenly became intensely conscious of the fact that this was a public place, and that at least a few people were starting to look. Vespa turned on her heels, and said, “Hey, can we maybe do this later—”

Oh, no, there went Vespa's grace period. Queenbee took a dramatic step forward, and Vespa squeaked—and of course now, of all times, her legs had seized up. She was a program! Who programmed her to feel fear? (Well, she knew the answer, but still!) “Vespa dot E-X-E,” Queenbee said, cracking her knuckles, “you had better not be trying to run away again. I have many words to say to you, and none of them are pleasant—”

“I like the dress,” Vespa squeaked, “it's cute on you.”

The intense aura grew, crushing Vespa deeper into the floor. Vespa wanted to cry, but if she cried she'd show weakness, and she was already the prey here. “Oh, is it?” Queenbee said, and as she took yet another step forward, Vespa was certain she was once again experiencing the edge of death—

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Outer Rim

When Paige arrived on the scene with Mrs. Blackgold and Prince Blaster, Vespa was being accosted by the Navi Prince Blaster had mentioned on the way—'Queenbee', who Paige knew by name, but not by sight. She was, as Paige understood, Vespa's ex-girlfriend, and had thus not seen Vespa for quite some time.

The fact that they had already encountered each other was a problem in and of itself, but Paige was also sure that Scoops's impertinent photo-snapping was going to freak Vespa out even more once she became aware of it. However, this was a secondary concern to a simple fact—it turned out Queenbee was kind of scary!

She had a cutesy face and overall vibe, but the red-haired girl had the practice of pre-beatdown knuckle-cracking down; Vespa had explained once that when Queenbee cracked her knuckles, it was akin to an ambulance call for whoever she was approaching. Kohaku was behind Queenbee, trying to talk her out of it, but it appeared her words were falling on deaf ears at the moment. Paige decided, then, to defuse the tension the only way she knew how—by making herself a nuisance and barging into the conversation.

“Excuse me!” Paige said, waving her hands and running in between the two of them. Queenbee stopped in her tracks, crossed her arms, and began looking Paige over—it was a dry look, one that felt like Queenbee was trying to discern what manner of object she was even looking at. “Um, could you maybe not try to violently assault Vespa right here, in public, or at all, maybe?”

Queenbee tilted her head, and put her hand on her chin. “Who're you supposed to be?”

Oh, no. This was the worst time to get social anxiety! Paige gulped and began to sweat. “Um, I-I'm. I'm, um.”

“She's Vespa's operator,” Kohaku said. “Paige Markham.” She helpfully swiveled around Queenbee to form a united front.

“Ohhhh, okay, okay.” Queenbee closed her eyes and pondered for a second, and then said, “Really? Don't get me wrong here, sweetie, it's no offense, but you seem a bit too nice and, ah, demure for this one. I bet she walks over you a lot, doesn't she? Takes things for granted when you don't say them out loud and doesn't notice the effort you put in for ages?”

Paige... wanted to deny that, but unfortunately, she wasn't very good at lying. “...Yes?”

If it weren't for the boots, Queenbee would be a fair amount shorter than Paige, but the boots made them about level. As such, the sympathetic, pitying look Queenbee gave Paige was levied right at her eyes, and that made it sting. “Poor thing. Yeah, a girl-next-door nice girl isn't the best fit for an idiot like her. Terrible at saying how she feels, terrible at introspection... Probably gives you a lot of hassle, huh?”

“That... that may be true, but please don't beat her up, still!” Paige said, clasping her hands together. “Really, she's a very good friend to me—I swear I—”

“Do you NetBattle?” Queenbee asked, and Paige mutely nodded. “Great. Get her in her PET and let's go.”

“Hey, hold on.” This was when Wolff, the man with the smoke-tower hair, chimed in. “Do... do I get a say in this?”

“No,” Queenbee said, and she turned and crossed her arms to glare at him. “You don't have to do much but hold the PET anyway.” Wolff let out a great big groan, which Queenbee ignored. “I'm saying, so we're clear, that I want to NetBattle you. Would that be preferable to assaulting her?”

“I—I don't really... want to fight,” Paige said, waving her hands around. “And I'm not that good at it. Can't you just... talk?”

“Why'd you run away from me, Vespa?” Queenbee barked, shooting past Paige to reach Vespa, who was still desperately trying to get her legs to work. “Left without a word, never even looked back to try to contact me, and then later I learn you've changed your face and your name, and shacked up with some nice girl from down the lane. You're always like this—you never tell anyone anything. It's a wonder anyone can even learn your name anymore!”

“Stop,” Vespa groaned, holding her head in her hands, curled up on the ground. “Please stop.”

“One! Hour!” Queenbee declared, then turned on her boots and began to walk away. “Wolff! Come along—you can bring your food with you. And Daisuke, would you make me a cup of tea? My nerves are beginning to get fraught.”

“Y-yes, ma'am,” said Daisuke, the man with the angel-wing robe. He had a blush on his face as he followed along, very different from the look of defeat and regret on Wolff's.

“The western Yumlandian botanical gardens! I expect you in there, Vespa, and if you run, I will find you. Are we clear?” Queenbee said. Silence. “Are we clear?!”

“Ma'am, yes, ma'am!” Paige, Vespa, and Kohaku all simultaneously saluted and exclaimed, standing at attention in a triangle formation.

“Making trouble for me again, I see, eh.” Wilhelm said, rubbing the back of his head. “You know, what am I going to say to those Yumlandian dignitaries? Kids, eh, Mrs. Blackgold?”

“Definitely,” Mrs. Blackgold offered.

As soon as the posture broke, Paige wilted, letting out a groan and saying, “What did you do to her, Vespa?”

“Well... well, y'know, I,” Vespa stammered, before turning heel and running away. “Haha, talk to you later, Paige!”

Paige cried out for Vespa to wait, but was interrupted by Kohaku, who threw up her hands and started running after Vespa herself. “Damn it, get back here,” Kohaku spat.

—So, now Paige could sit around a table nearby with Scoops and Eiji, and... also Mrs. Blackgold and an Ulvarian prince. “That girl,” Wilhelm said, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head. “My humblest apologies, Ms. Markham. Had I known you were earlier, I might have tried to convince Queenbee to come on a different day.”

“Okay, back up, back up,” Scoops said, pulling out her notepad to start scribbling, “is that Wilhelm Blaster VII? Eldest prince of Ulvaria?”

“The very same!” Wilhelm laughed. “And I take it you are friends of the young lady's here?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Mrs. Blackgold said, holding up her hands. “Okay, this might sound weird, but you, in the pretty dress. Are you this guy friend of Paige's?”

Eiji blinked, and it made his eyelashes glitter a bit in the light. “Yes, I am. My name is Eiji Kikuchi. Whose acquaintance am I making?”

“Hi, sorry. Pauline Blackgold,” Mrs. Blackgold said, shaking Eiji's hand, “Paige is a very dear family friend. She told me she had a friend who was a man and wasn't Detective Himekago, and when I saw you two, I thought, if that one is a guy, that's exactly the kind of man Paige would be friends with.”

“Ah, yes,” Eiji said with a nod, “that would be me. And this—”

His gesture to Scoops was interrupted by Scoops launching forward to shake Mrs. Blackgold's hand. “Scoops Hanasaka, Electopia's number one guerrilla reporter, at your service, ma'am! Now, my question to you—what the hell was any of that?”

Paige could only shrug, but Wilhelm was able to explain. “To my knowledge, that young lady, Queenbee, used to be romantically involved with your Vespa. She has a mighty temper, and still has quite the stick up her craw about it, haha.”

“I see, I see,” Scoops said. “So the lady we ran into just coincidentally happens to be a former member of the Vile Numbers, eh? Fascinating, real great stuff. Now, you, Mr. Prince Blaster, what's your story? How do you know her?”

“Oh, I met Queenbee when she joined up with the Einherjar,” Wilhelm said, and while Scoops took this down without a beat, Eiji let out a little gasp of surprise. “Imagine my surprise—I had a hand in the project that created her precursor, you know. In a way, I'm something like her grandfather, you could say, so I feel a touch responsible for this business.”

“She's also a member?” Paige gasped.

“Ah, it's for convenience's sake, really,” Wilhelm said, wiping away the notion with his hand. “Just looking for a certain someone! Ha ha ha ha!”

“I always figured,” Mrs. Blackgold said with a theatrical sigh, “that Vespa had to have at least one vengeful ex. She just seems like that type, you know?”

It had been some time since Paige had really had to speak with someone utterly alone, but she squeezed her temples, took a deep breath in, and then asked, “Prince Blaster, do you know where these botanical gardens are?”

“Oh?” Wilhelm asked. “In the mood to talk to dignitaries with me, are you, miss?”

“No, no. I'm just very out of the loop here, and I'd really rather resolve this without a fight if possible,” Paige said. Wilhelm's bandanna blew particularly strongly in the inexplicable wind to show his approval. “I'm sorry to leave you all so soon, but I really need to—”

“You kidding?” Scoops said, putting her arm around Eiji and roping him in. “It's not every day I get to sit down with a foreign politician and talk shop! Trust me, we can kill an hour.”

“I get to talk to your friends,” Mrs. Blackgold added, her eyes sparkling. “That never happens! I'm excited for you!”

“I'm concerned about Vespa,” Eiji said. Paige nodded in agreement. “Um, do your best, Paige?”

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Yumlandian Exhibits

Wilhelm was a tall man, so Paige felt a touch dwarfed walking by him. As Paige understood it, Yumland, after a political crisis nine years ago with the assassination of their king, had bounced back with aplomb and had delivered to this ElecFes a display of the botany-assisting software. Walking under moss-covered archways in the exhibit, which took up a good sixth of the festival grounds, Paige took in a smell of good, honest dirt.

“How do they manage to transport this around?” Paige asked Wilhelm, having to crane her neck to look at him—frankly he rather resembled one of the trees around.

“Well, as I understand,” Wilhelm said, “the vegetation is raised atop a transportable server, which can temporarily digitize the area to be placed elsewhere—the electrical signals can simulate sunlight and nutrients within the virtual environment that maintains the actual plants before they can be replaced.”

“Oh!” Paige gasped. “That's a technique Dr. Wily originally developed, isn't it?”

“I wouldn't know,” Wilhelm said with a shrug and a smile. “I'm repeating what K told me. I'm not so good with the recreational technology.”

“Well,” Paige said, “considering the relative simplicity of the makeup of plants, it makes sense that they could be at least partially transposed into a virtual environment. It must take an incredible amount of energy, but maybe the photosynthesis feeds the servers to store energy for transposition! A sort of balancing act, I... I guess...”

Paige trailed off, blushing deeply and twiddling her fingers. “I had heard of you,” Wilhelm said, “but I hadn't realized you were so bright.”

“Oh, no, I... not really,” Paige mumbled. She turned to smell deeply of a wall of vines with flowers growing atop it, to try and calm her nerves. Then—“It's just, the ability for programs to replicate genetic sequences of carbon-based lifeforms is an interesting new science that I'm not particularly focused on, but a girl in my class is, and her presentations on the subject have been really fascinating, so I've been doing a bit of reading on the subject during my studies for my classes to begin with—”

Paige reached up and pressed her cheeks inward with her hands, squishing her mouth. “I'm very sorry!” Wilhelm was laughing, and he looked very positive about the whole thing, which made Paige even more embarrassed.

“Ah, there we are,” Wilhelm said, pointing his finger. There was a fountain in the center of the botanical garden that, by Paige's reckoning, likely served as a hub for the garden and split off toward its various entrances. Sitting around the rim of the fountain were Queenbee and her operator—apparently the other man had left, but he had made Queenbee that tea, which she sipped gingerly and with her pinky out. “I don't imagine I'll be much help, so I'll be off, then.”

“Oh, um, right,” Paige said, nodding and taking a deep breath in. “Lovely meeting you, Prince Blaster.”

“Likewise! I can already tell it'll be exciting when we butt heads on the battlefield, aha!” Wilhelm's cape fluttered in the wind as he turned toward another path out of the fountain, through the small crowd of mingling people. He probably knew where he was going.

Approaching a young lady drinking her afternoon tea was something that Paige had to take a few more breaths to do. She took some steps forward, ensuring that she kept her breath steady and that she was out of the way of any passersby, and came closer and closer until managing to squeak, “E-excuse me!”

Queenbee looked up from her tea at Paige, took another sip, and then said, “Oh, hello. Didn't expect to see you again so quickly, Miss...”

“Uh, Markham. Paige Markham,” Paige said. “Yes, I, hi. That all happened very quickly and I, um... I wanted to...” Keep steady, Paige, nobody's here to quip when you trip up now, she thought. “You know, I thought we could... um...”

“Take your time,” Queenbee said.

“It's just, I don't really understand. I know you're angry at Vespa, and I heard what you said, but I don't really understand. Vespa's told me a few things about herself, but not very much, and I don't want to just, you know... I want to know why I'm going to fight you if I'm going to fight you. If that's okay,” Paige said. She'd started out speaking very fast, but had managed to catch her breath and start speaking normally.

Queenbee properly put down her tea, and said, “That's fine. Go ahead and sit down.” Paige did so. “I'm sorry to drag you into this. You really seem too nice for her. How did you even find this idiot in the first place?”

“She, um... came into my PET one night four years ago,” Paige said. “She was pretty injured, and her body was in a bad state. I helped repair her and let her stay for a while, and then she... never left, I guess.”

“You guess?” Queenbee asked.

“Well, she's never left, but she's also never said that she intends to stay... permanently,” Paige said. “I think she does, but I'm just never sure, and—”

“Ohhhh, I get it,” Queenbee said with a knowing smile that made Paige wilt a bit. “You're nervous because exactly the thing you're worried about happening to you, happened to me. Right?”

“Yes!” Paige blurted. “Yes, I am. I mean, Vespa always seems to take for granted that I understand how much she appreciates me, and I mean, I know she does appreciate me but I'm not sure she really understands how much I do for her sometimes, and—! Aaaaaargh!” Paige stuck her tongue out and started rubbing it with the sleeve of her sweater. “I'm sorry, I haven't rambled like this since I was a teenager!”

“Oh no no, you're totally fine, I get it. Trust me. She's always been terrible at being honest, apparently. Even back when she wasn't so... eh, what's the word... stupid?” Queenbee said with a shrug. “You think that's right, Wolff?”

Wolff, who had been on his phone, said, “I'm texting my dad.”

“Ah, mmhm, you do that,” Queenbee said with a quick nod. She turned her head back to Paige. “She hasn't changed a bit, I guess. Same story with me. I knew she liked me, but I didn't ever know how much, or anything past that.”

“Weren't you two... dating?” Paige asked.

“Well, sure, but she was always so awkward about it. Terrible at expressing anything. Y'know what I think, is she was only spending time with me because she had to—see, that operator of hers, Dr. Scuttler, he thought it would be cute if two bug Navis got together when he caught wind of the fact that I had a dumb crush. So she put up with me, but she cut and ran when she got the first opportunity,” Queenbee said, the last sentence through gritted teeth.

Paige shook her head. “No way. Vespa's bad at expressing a lot of things, sure, but she'd never let someone think she liked them when she didn't. She's not that kind of person.”

“Uh-huh. And your little crush on her, have you told her about that yet?” Queenbee asked. Paige turned a bright red, let out a high-pitched squeak, and hid her head inside her jacket. Queenbee reached over to pat her on the back. “It's okay, I'm not judging. She's got good qualities, that dumb charisma of hers, and she means well most of the time. And she's a lot easier on the eyes these days, too. I get it. I'm just saying—”

“Listen!” Paige's head popped back up out of her sweater, and she started vaguely gesturing with her arms. “Listen, you need to understand, I get crushes on a lot of girls! It just happens! And I don't, um, I don't know if, um, if, if-if-uh-if-I don't think, you know, that it's, um...”

“Take your time,” Queenbee said.

“So, I had a crush on her when I first met her, when I was still a teenager and I didn't know her that well yet. And, um, I was going through kind of a hard time, back then, and Vespa... Vespa made a lot of things easier. Having her around made my life brighter. And I didn't want to scare her off by being... weird about it. And I've always thought that, you know, my-my reasons for wanting her to stay, they're... selfish! She thinks I'm just a really nice girl, but they're not—I let her stay because I needed someone there, but I've known her for four years now, I've lived with her, spent a ton of time with her, and—!”

Paige took a deep breath. “Oh sweetie,” Queenbee said with wide eyes, “you're kinda repressed, aren't you?”

“In some respects!” Paige admitted. “I love Vespa, yes. But I think the love I have for her now is different from that, it's... it's sort of...” This took a bit of thinking. “She's stood up for me before when nobody else has, and she's always there for me. She's like a sister to me—she's irreplaceable. But those feelings that I had four years ago, they're still there, I've never been able to voice them and sometimes they flare up and they make me feel... strange, and flustered. And I can't get them out to her because I still don't know that she's going to stay, and I feel like the longer it takes the weirder it's going to be when I admit that I had a crush on her! And so I can't—I just—”

Paige groaned into the sky, Queenbee commiserating with a knowing nod. “Yeah. I know how it is. I mean, hell, I know it's immature of me to want to force her to give me closure, but it hurt so damn bad at the time that I can't deny that I need it, you know?”

“I was coming over here to try and dissuade you, and look at me now,” Paige groaned. “You... you really seem like a nice lady! Why were you part of a Netmafia?”

“Oh, it's Wolff's dad,” Queenbee said, jabbing a thumb in Wolff's direction. “Guy was in a bad accident and the family didn't have the money for the surgical bills. Crime pays. Since I stuck around until the end, I got to grab a bunch of Schilt's savings, and the day was saved. Nothing but clean sailing since then, I assure you.”

“Mmhm.” Paige nodded. “So... you want to force her into a situation where she has no choice to admit how she actually feels, so you can stop wondering?”

“That's about the size of it,” Queenbee said. “You know her. It won't work any other way.” Paige wished dearly that she could deny that. “I'll admit there's a possibility you're right, but either way, she ran and left me without a word. I never saw hide nor hair of her since the day Megaman raided our HQ.”

“You're—you're not going to try and kill her, are you?” Paige asked.

Queenbee sputtered, and put a hand to her chest. “No! What? No. Just beat the hell out of her is all.”

“Okay, good,” Paige sighed. “I... I still just don't think you're right, though. I don't think Vespa is that kind of person. I—”

Through the crowds, a fourth person burst into this conversational bubble. Kohaku edged her way through the crowds to find Paige and Queenbee—alone. “Kohaku!” Paige said, standing up to go meet her. The dour look on Kohaku's face wasn't promising, but she still asked, “Where's Vespa?”

“She gave me the slip. I don't know where she's gone,” Kohaku said. She brushed past Paige, bumping into her slightly, and said to Queenbee, “If Vespa doesn't show up by the hour, I'll serve as her replacement.”

Queenbee raised an eyebrow and sipped her tea. “You? Are you serious?”

“Is that not acceptable? I'll be fighting on her behalf,” Kohaku said. “If you want to get out your aggression on somebody, I should do.”

With a groan, Queenbee stood up herself, flipping her hair and looking away from Kohaku. “You're always like this. You really just don't get it, do you? Why don't you ask Vespa's operator whether she should be a bit more open?”

Kohaku turned her head to look at Paige, and Paige couldn't get out a reply, other than a sad frown and a sigh as she averted her eyes. “I see,” Kohaku said. “Let me put it this way, then. I'll fight you to extend the deadline. We'll fight, and if Vespa appears before the end of the match to take my place, then that'll prove Vespa's character just as well.”

“Huh?” Queenbee tilted her head. “What kind of logic is that?”

“Knowing you,” Kohaku said, “I imagine you think that Vespa's cowardice is her strongest trait. But myself, I don't believe so—and I imagine that Paige has faith in her character, as well. But I can't deny she's likely to be fashionably late either way—so you'll get your fight even if she doesn't show, and if she does show, she can prove herself to you and Paige.”

Queenbee put her hand up to her chin and rubbed it a bit, humming in thought. Her wings fluttered just slightly. “Fine. You're on.”

Paige looked down to where she'd been bumped to see Necrobat inside of Kohaku's PET, scrolling through some photos they'd taken without a care in the world. She took a deep breath in, and said, “Excuse me, please!”

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Yumlandian Exhibit (Temporary NetBattling Stand)

“Are you sure about this?” Kohaku had donned her cape and armor, and looked up at Paige from inside of her PET. “I can fight by myself.”

“Yes, I'm sure,” Paige said. “When Vespa shows up, I want to be ready for it. I know I'm not the best operator, but I want to do my best to help!”

From Paige's purse came a muffled, “You can do it, you two!” from Necrobat. They'd had to give him the short version of the situation, but Paige appreciated the vote of confidence.

“Alright!” Wilhelm said, standing to the side of the NetBattle stand—it had been hastily erected from the server on his request when he'd informed the staff of the situation, and as a result, it didn't look much different than the standard sort you might find in AsterLand. “Ladies and Wolff, let's review the rules of engagement. Outside of this specific area, no usage of your weapons, or else I may be sued, and my younger brothers are already a little annoyed with me right now.”

This was in a secluded, usually staff-only area of the garden, and Paige was astonished that Wilhelm had managed this. Her friends—Scoops, Eiji, Mrs. Blackgold, Yuu, and the wayward Audrey—had been wrangled up and brought over here to observe, at Scoops's request.

“...basically Paige's mom! Hi!” Mrs. Blackgold had just finished introducing herself to Audrey, who shook her hand with her legs crossed.

“Audrey Longhener. I'm in Paige's class. Apparently I leave for ten minutes and they get into trouble,” Audrey said. When Paige flinched, Audrey continued, “I know it's not your fault, Paige, I'm just saying.”

“How's it been going with you, Yuu?” Scoops asked. “Got lots of hot Netopian gossip over here.”

“Well,” Yuu said, “I got some tailing of Dr. Gaudile done, garnered a few leads about the Beast Brigade. I'll let you know after this—I've actually got reason to come by Ayanokoji in the next few days. Why am I here, exactly?”

Wilhelm laughed. “Because Paige is about to properly duel a member of the Einherjar. I imagined you'd be interested.” The instant the word 'Einherjar' left Wilhelm's mouth, Yuu's posture shifted, and he was glued to his seat.

“Oh, that's Detective Himekago!” Mrs. Blackgold laughed, with a little clap. “Tell him it's related to a mystery and you can't distract him at all! See, watch!” She waved her hand in front of his face, and he didn't react in the slightest.

“What? Where does he get that discipline? Teach me!” Scoops shouted, grabbing Yuu by the hand. He also didn't react. “Argh, damn, of course I blew my favor on this investigation in the first place.”

“I really like your friends, Paige!” Mrs. Blackgold said. She was smiling, but then it transitioned to a grimace. “Though, Audrey, I'm going to let you know now—you aren't going to like my daughter's reaction to your hair.”

“Huh? The hell's wrong with my hair?” said Audrey. “I washed it today and everything.” She reached up to pat a matted tangle on her hair, as though that was reassuring. “It's fine. It's hair.” The fact that a lock or two of Audrey's hair reached down long enough from her knotted mess to sit firmly under her butt as she sat did not evade Paige's notice. Paige clasped her hands together in a gesture of preemptive apology to Audrey.

“I know I don't get any say in this,” said Wolff, who had put a red helmet with a silver spike on top on, presumably to assist in battling, “but I really don't think we need to do this!”

“You would,” said Queenbee, in his PET.

Checking his old-time analog watch, Wilhelm announced, “The hour is past! Warriors, ready yourselves!” Wolff's posture wasn't as confident, but Paige readied her PET in a quick, smooth motion.

“Jack in... Queenbee, be gentle!”

“Jack in! Blade, execute!”

The holographic display over the stand roared to life—

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Network ~ Yumlandian Botanical Server Region 6-A

Having someone other than Vespa present in her connection was odd, so Paige chimed in—“Kohaku, are you doing alright?”

Kohaku adjusted her helmet slightly as she landed, having beamed in just on top of a bed of cyberfoliage. Her blade, the Nemesis Fang, materialized on her hip, and she threw her arm to the side and fluttered her mantle. “I'm fine.”

Paige breathed a sigh of relief. “I hadn't realized you were a Wood-type too, like Vespa. I can't find your Buster in here?”

“The Nemesis Fang was created as an alternative,” Kohaku explained. “It's a multipurpose armament. I'd ask that you don't look too deeply into my systems?”

“Oh, uh, of course,” Paige said. “S-sorry. I was just getting a handle on what you can do... Wow, this weapon's incredible. I feel like this would make Mr. Akajima salivate. It doesn't activate the AUTO System on contact, it can be used at multiple ranges...”

The stage itself was set in a relatively clear area with foliage underfoot, but trees, vines, and moss lined the edges of the stage for the two fighters to enter if the situation called for it—the combat zone stretched for some distance past there. It was as obvious a Grass Stage you could get. When a Wood-type Navi stood atop a Grass Stage, they slowly regained vitality—ordinarily, it would be quite the boon.

Of course, since she was so red, and since Queenbee came down hoisting a fair amount of heavy weaponry, Paige was pretty sure she was a Fire-type Navi—which was very, very bad. Not only would Kohaku take much more damage from her attacks normally, Fire-type attacks could also burn up the foliage of a Grass Stage and increase the damage even further.

The smaller Navi was currently holding a shoulder-mounted morter cannon on her left shoulder, and a red, hand-mounted contraption of some kind on her right hand. “Alright, Kohaku,” Queenbee said, “I'm not going to hold back.”

“I would expect no less,” Kohaku said, drawing her blade. “I didn't come here intending to hold back, either. You're not someone I can treat lightly.”

Beaming down to stand to the side as the referee, Wilhelm's Navi appeared—'Heat Genblem', if Paige recalled. He looked to be based on a tortoise, his head green and his eyes a flat blue underneath his hat with the emblem of the Ulvarian military. The 'shell' on his body, green with orange trim like the rest of him, seemed to be not built for defense so much as to link to some other manner of program, given the light build and the plug-like extension on the back. He was bipedal, and his right arm was devoted to a massive Buster, but aside from that his design was fairly minimalistic.

“Ladies!” Genblem said, putting both of his arms behind his back and standing at attention. His voice reminded Paige of a klaxon siren. “I want to see a clean fight! In the tradition of the Ulvarian military, I expect fair tactics and overwhelming strength to win the day! This will be a single-elimination match! I won't tolerate any injustices or breaking of standard protocol here—save for a single allowed tag-out from one team! Audience, please refrain from interfering with the match!”

“We know,” Queenbee scoffed. “You don't need to go through the whole spiel, they know.”

Genblem continued. “Nevertheless, it's my duty as a representative of our proud nation to state the rules of engagement, which are so frequently broken! The Geneva Conventions won't apply to you two, but common sense and a gentlewoman's dignity still will! All a soldier has is his dignity, and I will not see either of these honorable warriors' dignity tarnished! Permission to proceed, Commander?”

“Permission granted, General. Do us proud!” Wilhelm said.

“Sir!” Genblem saluted with his Buster arm, before leaping backwards onto a Carry (a floating platform designed to hold in-server referees,) which lifted him into the air. “Combatants, your battle begins in three!”

“I won't lose,” Paige exclaimed. “I know Vespa's coming!”

“Here we go again,” Wolff mumbled. “I'll give it the best I've got. Hope I'm not late coming home...”

Kohaku's hand gripped the hilt of her blade tightly. “I'll count on your abilities, Paige!”

“Sorry,” Queenbee said, aiming her mortar cannon, “but Vespa won't get here fast enough!”

“Battle routine, set!” “Ordnance ready for launch!”

“Advancing!” “Firing at will!”

Despite her heavy armor, Kohaku's agility was nothing to sneeze at—she leapt forward to take an initial swing at Queenbee, rapidly closing the distance. Queenbee managed to predict the arc of the swing and dodged out of the way, and this was when Paige learned that her mortar cannon could be set to auto-fire—as she dodged, it launched a series of three Meteor projectiles into the air, which began to fall toward Kohaku's position.

“Kohaku, look out!” Paige exclaimed. Kohaku gave a brief nod before nimbly back-stepping to dodge the trailing flames, which burnt up the foliage and left plain cyber-stage behind. “What kind of chips should I be sending you?”

“She specializes in controlling distance and striking heavily from long range,” Kohaku said. As the flames died down, she tumbled forward as Queenbee pulled her mortar cannon forward, just dodging a heavy blast which struck the back trees and caused an explosion, burning a great chunk of the foliage. Embers were left on Kohaku's cape from the tumble. “A close-range Navi like myself is at a disadvantage.”

“Got it!” Paige said, loading in a set of Chips. “Do you know how to use these?”

“I believe I can get the idea,” Kohaku said. Queenbee had dodged to one side, and her arm contraption had left a set of missiles rocketing straight forward behind her. Kohaku then dodged to the same side as Queenbee—

“Eat this!” Queenbee yelled, ducking down in front of Kohaku and planting her mortar into the ground. The area in front of Queenbee began to shake, and then detonated, leaving behind a burning crater. The Mettaur shield in front of Kohaku, on the other end of the crater, dissipated—the hole in the ground meant the shockwave that Paige's Reflector had created was ineffective.

Paige clicked her tongue—the Geyser chip she'd loaded had a throwing arc too far for Kohaku to hurl into the crater from her current position. “Kohaku,” she said, “duck into the foliage for a second!” and sent over the plan for the throw arc.

“Copy that,” Kohaku said, ducking to the side past another mortar shot. She vanished into the dense vines, and found the optimal position, but Paige couldn't help but notice that Queenbee hadn't yet fired upon the area. Kohaku threw the Geyser as commanded, though, and ducked forward into a bush to see the result.

Queenbee wasn't in range to be hit by the tidal wave, though—she'd dodged over to the far end of the stage where she'd started, and her gauntlet had generated a small, red object dotted with hexagons. Small bee-shaped drones emerged from each of the hexagonal flaps, and the first that had left began to zero in on Kohaku's position.

“There you are!” Queenbee said, firing off another salvo of Meteors. As Kohaku ducked out of the foliage to the rim of the crater to dodge them, and dashed backwards to dodge the bee drone, not only did another emerge from the hive, but Queenbee cartwheeled across the back end of the clearing, leaving behind her Fanatic Missiles once more.

Paige frantically slotted in an Invisible chip, and Kohaku gladly took the moment of freedom, drawing her cloak over herself and dodging through the missiles. “Wolff!” Queenbee said, running forward in response. “Load the GDS!”

“On it! Solar Sensor onboard!” Wolff said, and now Queenbee's left hand held a gun Paige recognized—a green-barrelled, grey-hilted gun with a solar panel sight. She couldn't help but sweat. Solar-energy attacks dealt constant damage and couldn't be negated by defensive chips like Invisible, nor did they trigger the AUTO System—and they weren't common, but the Gun Del Sol line was by far the most common.

“Kohaku, watch out!” Paige said, and she loaded another set of chips. As the bee drones began to crash and explode into the ground, the flames amidst the cyberfoliage began to grow, so Kohaku began to trend toward the side of the battlefield with fewer flames. She still wasn't visible, so that gave her just an instant before it ran out to launch an attack. None of Paige's Geddon strategies would work, since Kohaku lacked FloatShoes or AirShoes to avoid destroying her own terrain—

Kohaku thrust the Nemesis Fang forward, and its blade stretched out into its whip-like longer form, which she used to grapple Queenbee's mortar launcher. “Whoa?!” Queenbee exclaimed, feeling the sudden pull—the program was disconnected from her shoulder, and as the Invisible chip ran out, Kohaku pressed the advantage to use her left leg to deliver a roundhouse kick to Queenbee's side. “Guh!”

Queenbee tumbled forward, but without her mortar launcher, she was lighter on her feet—her wings slowed her descent, similar to Vespa's. Kohaku reappeared, flung her mantle to the side, and recalled the Nemesis Fang, Queenbee's mortar cannon dropping at her feet. “Ah! Great!” Paige said. “Pick that up?”

“Very well,” Kohaku said, and did so—though she lacked the onboard connector, so she simply had to lug it under-arm.

“Alright, so that should work for... right!” Paige said. “I should be able to use Buster-related chips using this as a substitute. Here we go!”

Kohaku held the mortar launcher tight as its barrel morphed into that of a Tank Cannon, firing an explosive blast up at Queenbee, who dodged to the left as she finished her descent and landed, leaving behind another Hive Block under where she'd begun her fall. With two Buster Up enhancements loaded in, Kohaku was able to fire the mortar launcher in its regular state, firing her own volley of three Meteors into the sky.

The bee drones from Queenbee's hive, though, took the shots for her as she generated another one under her, then said, “Wolff, solar charge level!”

“Seventy-eight percent!” Wolff said.

“Offload ten percent of that to manual GDS fire!” Queenbee said, and backflipped into the air, firing down a hail of singular shots from the Gun Del Sol. “What's the charger status?”

“Still online! It's reached the fifty-point mark!” Wolff responded, as Kohaku dodged out of the way of most of the hail of shots, deflecting one with the mortar launcher.

Queenbee laid another Hive Block in front of her, then lobbed a second object with her summoning gauntlet to behind Kohaku. This obstacle was a solar panel array, which, Paige saw, began to deflect light to create Solar blasts around it on Kohaku's side of the field. Kohaku stopped dead-center between these two objects, and the blasts the solar panel began to create started to rotate around it, coming closer to Kohaku's position.

“Damn,” Kohaku said, “she's gotten stronger since the last time I faced her.”

“If you turn around, you've still got time to destroy the solar panel she threw!” Paige said. Kohaku launched a Fire Hit chip to slightly destabilize the solar panel before she dashed straight in, and cut it in two with the Nemesis Fang.

—“Sorry,” Queenbee said with a smirk, “wrong move.”

Paige realized too late Queenbee's intended strategy—before the Hive Block Queenbee had summoned could launch any bee drones, it detonated, leaving its place a small, floating soldier program in military uniform. “Colonel Army?!” Paige exclaimed, as it raised up its machinegun and fired Vulcan shots at Kohaku. “Kohaku!”

“Tch!” Kohaku said. She took one of the three shots—while Vulcan shots were usually rather small individually, this one buckled her armor slightly. Paige wasn't sure why, but Kohaku blocked the other two shots with the mortar launcher—

—and stopped moving. “G-guh—!” Kohaku stood, paralyzed. They must've used a White Capsule, Paige realized—or perhaps these two had access to the original version of the Colonel Army chip, the armament used by Colonel.EXE himself. Either way, Queenbee dashed in, her wings helping boost her momentum, as she aimed the Gun Del Sol down, and fired—upon the mortar launcher.

Queenbee caught herself in the air as Paige gasped in surprise, and kept away as the mortar launcher's ammunition was caught by a solar blast. It detonated in Kohaku's arms, and while Kohaku was hardly as fragile as Vespa, such a heavy blow knocked her to the ground and destabilized her, a piece of shrapnel sticking itself amidst the plates of Kohaku's armor.

“I think you're better than you give yourself credit for,” Queenbee said, floating a fair distance away, “but you're obviously used to a Navi with more range, Paige. And I thought you weren't going to take it easy on me, Kohaku? Don't you have a few more functions besides that sword?” She landed on the ground.

Kohaku staggered to her feet, using her sword for support. “I'm not taking it easy. You're a strong woman, Queenbee. But I'm not done yet!”

“Solar charge complete!” Wolff said. “Unloading GDS!”

“Sorry,” Queenbee said, “but no, you are done. This fight's over, girls. Load GDS BX—Empress Breaker!”

In the audience, Paige saw Wilhelm mutter to himself. “So, it's finally time to see it in action once again...”

The Gun Del Sol disappeared, and in its place sat the largest armament program Paige had ever witnessed. It was heavy, cast in a gunmetal grey, and its bulky mechanisms left little room for design or flair. The Solar Sensor of the Gun Del Sol sat on its top, much larger to fit the colossal gun—it was nearly taller than Queenbee herself, and about as long as four spans of her arm. She held the trigger in one hand and a handle in the other, akin to a grenade launcher, and a small sight flipped out from its midsection for her to aim with, directing the colossal barrel in Kohaku's direction.

Queenbee threw her other hand to the side for just a moment and inverted the power on her summoning gauntlet, calling back a summoned obstacle—a sunflower with a cartoonish face and large nose, otherwise known as Master Otenko, mentor to the Solar Boy. His effect explained the Vulcan's heavy power, Paige realized, as Queenbee thrust the fully-charged Otenko object into a slot on the Empress Breaker.

Kohaku attempted to roll to the side, but Queenbee exclaimed, “There's no escaping this! Empress Breaker, fire!”

There was just a moment's windup before the Empress Breaker launched a gigantic laser beam of solar energy, great enough to span half the width of the clearing, and easily covering Kohaku's movement range. The force of the blast was so great that as it kept going, the ground began to shatter under Queenbee's feet, and the beam left sparks flying out of its sides, singing the ground to its sides.

Queenbee's blast kept going for what felt like minutes, but in fact was only eight seconds. The incredible light began to dim as the blast dissipated, the Empress Breaker's mechanisms making noises of relief as the intense blast ceased. And Kohaku—

—wasn't there?

“Man, I show up a few minutes late and you're getting yourself shot.”

Everyone's eyes looked upward, to well above the blast—and Paige couldn't help the glee in her voice. “Vespa!”

The woman of the hour was flying in the air, visibly straining as she held Kohaku in her arms. “Yeah, hey, one sec,” Vespa said, before touching down and letting Kohaku down. “Cripes, that armor's heavy. How do you even wear that stuff?”

“My thanks,” Kohaku said, staggering to her knees. “That would've been very painful.”

“Sure, sure. Your darling older sister understands. And you can't look uncool in front of you-know-who!” Vespa said, leaning forward to give a smug grin.

“How the hell did you do that?!” Queenbee shouted.

“Yeah, hey, Queenie!” Vespa said with a wave. “I'm pretty fast. It's simple—Paige had a Super Arm chip loaded for dealing with the Hive Block, so I re-established connection, used it, and hucked Kohaku into the air, then I grabbed that funny sword of hers to tether myself to her and launch myself into the air to grab her and keep from falling. Took about a second?”

There was a moment of silence.

“How—how is that simple?” Queenbee sputtered. “And how could you have known that she'd—?!”

“'Cause we're partners,” Vespa said. “Hey, Kohaku, I'm gonna have to ask you to jack yourself out, if that's cool. That's my PET you were riding in.”

“That's fine by me,” Kohaku said. A Carry dropped down, and Kohaku got herself onto it, then sat down to rest. “Thank you, Vespa. I knew you'd come.”

“Mmhm,” Vespa said with a nod, before turning back to Queenbee. “Mighty fine mess you've made of the place, huh. That's the Queenie I remember—collateral damage first, politeness second. It's pretty charming when you're in a controlled environment like this—ah, hold on, I started quipping,” and she threw up her hands. “Force of habit. I'm quippy.”

“Vespa...” Paige said, noting that the connection had been re-established to its proper place.

“Hey,” Vespa said, turning around and waving toward the sky. “I'm real sorry for running off on you like that. I got an earful about it a bit ago, and it made me think.” She rubbed the back of her head. “Yeesh. Maybe giving that kid my message address was a bad idea, he's cute but he can be pretty harsh when he wants to.” (Paige covertly checked the extra PET in her purse, and Necrobat was in there watching a feed of the server, having recently opened the message app. He gave an awkward chuckle.)

“You? Think? That's new,” Queenbee scoffed.

“I know, right? I'm terrible at it, that's the problem,” Vespa said. She averted her eyes for a moment. “So, uh, Paige... I think I got the short version of what you guys were talking about, but I'm sorry. I really left you hanging, huh? I had no idea you were so worried about me leaving.”

“...Yeah,” Paige said. “I... well, I—”

“Don't worry, I've got this. Let me be blunt,” Vespa said. “I've never had a better partner—Kohaku would've looked a lot more cooked right now if I didn't trust you. I get you, and I like to think you get me too. So... I know this is a bit late, but... Will you be my operator on a permanent basis?”

Paige started sniffling, and couldn't help the tears coming to her eyes. “Of course, Vespa! I'd be glad to!”

Vespa gave an uncharacteristically soft smile, and said, “Good. I'm glad, too.” Then, she turned on her heel, and manifested one of her Vesper Chasers in her hand before spinning it and pointing it at Queenbee. “Now, Queenie. I know I fucked up with you. Honestly, I've known I've fucked up this whole time, but it was hard for me to face. I never expected to see you again—I honestly expected I'd be dead before the year was up, and I nearly was. It's thanks to Paige I've got this chance to apologize, so here I am. I'm sorry.”

Queenbee, who had sent away all of her weaponry, stared, flabbergasted, her jaw agape. “...What?”

“No, really. I about died a while back. You know how they say your whole life flashes before your eyes when you die? Well, you were about half of it.” Vespa shook her head. “I never told you what I should've told you, either. I didn't really understand it. Frankly, I don't really understand it now, but I understand it a bit better. I cared a lot about you, Queenie. I still do. You were my best friend back then, one of the few people I could really trust, but I didn't love you the same way you loved me. I'm sorry, but I can't accept your feelings.”

Everyone present blinked a few times. Queenbee stammered for a few seconds, before exclaiming, “What the hell?! Just over an hour ago, you were running away from me in terror!”

“Turns out introspection is pretty easy in bursts. I mean, okay, it wasn't easy, it involved a lot of admitting fault on my part, but all of this seems pretty simple to me. I'm kinda dumb, and I can change my mind easy—but I always cared about you, Queenie. I thought... when I ran away, I figured...” Vespa's eyes went downward, as she muttered, “...it was better if you hated me than if you were dead.”

“God damn it!” Queenbee threw up her hands. “You made that decision all on your own?! What the hell is with you sometimes?! You—I—rrrraaaaagggh!”

“Hey, you know me.” Vespa looked back up, and gave a cheeky grin, holding her gun over her shoulder. “Sometimes I'm real damn stupid!” She winked.

Queenbee re-materialized her mortar launcher and summoning gauntlet, and hunkered down. “Alright, that's it! I can't stand how stupid you are sometimes! I'm going to beat the hell out of you!”

“Works for me,” Vespa said, brandishing both of her guns now. “After all, I hear tell you're working with the Einherjar, and Paige and I both have reason to be fighting your bunch—so you can get out all that aggression while we're kicking your ass! Right, partner?”

“Oh! We're, uh, still fighting? Okay!” Paige took a deep breath in. “I'm ready to go!”

Genblem cleared his throat, and then shouted, “Tag-out confirmed! Per the rules of this engagement, the terrain will now be reset, and participants returned to their initial positions! Give it your all, combatants!”

The evolution of Vespa's SOUL had been given time to breathe since Necrobat's repairs, and Paige glanced back over the familiar statistics of her Navi. Her overall structural integrity was ever-so-slightly improved compared to when the two had battled Pegasolta, and a few bits of standard internal NetNavi functionality had finally obtained the space to work properly. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled, and then opened her eyes.

“I know we can do this, Vespa. Give it your all!” Paige exclaimed.

“I feel kind of like a third wheel here,” Wolff groaned.

Vespa spun her guns. “Nice to finally meet you—I'm Vespa.EXE! Let's rumble!”

“I'll accept that apology of yours after you're in the dirt!” Queenbee roared.

WARNING!

THE HOSTILITY OF

PRODUCT CODE S-TITAN rev3.30

“THE FLUTTERING ARTILLERY”

QUEENBEE.EXE

“Battle routine, set!” “Ordnance ready for launch!”

“Execute!” “Firing at will!”

Chapter Text

The ordnance came down hard and fast, Vespa immediately ducking forward under a missile launched at her position. “Goodness me!” Vespa gasped in faux shock. “Is that a missile in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?”

Queenbee's response was a wordless roar of rage and firing off some more missiles to keep Vespa on her toes, then placing down a Hive on the field before stepping back to keep range. “Vespa, how comfortable do you feel with her attack range?” Paige asked.

“Oh, great, thanks,” Vespa said. Her answer prompted a load of chip data. “Oh, I getcha, I getcha.”

Vespa lifted her hand up, and a red rubber balloon with big, yellow, angry eyes appeared in her hands. Keeping hold of the Heat Balloon, instead of dodging directly away from the missiles, she kept the balloon in her hands and dragged it behind her, allowing the missiles to come into contact with it—causing it to swell in size. Bee drones popped out of the Hive and launched towards Vespa, and she swung the balloon around and released it into them—the balloon absorbed them as well, and had swelled to a massive size.

“Wha...?” Queenbee muttered. “A balloon chip? Who uses those anymore?”

Rather than answering, Vespa ducked behind the balloon, then activated the SuperArm chip that Paige had sent before hurling a Rock Cube over the balloon into its path. Her aim had become precise enough that Queenbee, having been momentarily shocked into stopping, didn't have time to get out of the way before the balloon popped against the cube—

A wave of heat and light burst out of the balloon, burning up all of the underfoot foliage and staggering Queenbee onto her knees. “Nice throw,” Paige said.

“Thanks,” Vespa answered, but the mortar cannon on Queenbee's shoulder roared to life, giving her scarcely a moment to celebrate having removed a disadvantage. “Alright, Queenbee's a pretty tough gal. That was pretty beefy, but we're gonna need to hit her hard to take her down.”

As Vespa danced about dodging several Meteors, taking a shot or two when she could, the mortar cannon was levied directly at her, and she slid underneath as Paige loaded some more chip data. However, the second the recoil from the blast ceased, Queenbee took a different aim, slamming her mortar directly into the ground and blasting into it. A great explosion hit Vespa's ears as the terrain behind her shattered and broke, limiting the radius she could return to.

Rolling to the side and hopping up right in front of Queenbee, Vespa locked eyes with the disgruntled bee and gave a little wave, grinning and winking. Queenbee roared and went for another shot, but Vespa threw up a blue shield with a cross pattern atop it, and the Reflector launched a shockwave back in Queenbee's face that left her momentarily stunned.

“W-what the hell?!” Queenbee grunted. “You weren't nearly this fast—!”

“Am now!” Vespa said, cartwheeling off to the side to toss a Geyser bomb into the hole Queenbee had just created. Queenbee wasn't able to recover from the stun in time to dodge it, and yelped aloud as she was blasted by a torrential gush of water. “So when'd you add the Reflector?”

“Well, I thought I would give it a try, since I was going to be operating Kohaku for the moment,” Paige said. “I know you don't really—”

“It's fine,” Vespa said. “Listen, I'm making an effort to be less of a curmudgeon here, so hey, not gonna knock a good thing—oh hold up—”

The mortar cannon vanished, and instead Queenbee now held two Hives in her hands. She began to hurl them to form a diamond around Vespa, new Hives being generated in her hands as she threw them, but out of the corner of Vespa's eye, she saw behind the drones that Queenbee had then generated that tell-tale Master Otenko.

A swarm of bees was nothing for a wasp like Vespa, though, as she took aim with the Vesper Chasers and bent her arms around to take them down with a single shot each. “Wait—Vespa, watch out!” Paige yelled.

Queenbee then rematerialized her mortar cannon and fired a Tank Cannon blast directly at one of her own Hives, sending it hurtling toward Vespa. Vespa activated an Invisible chip that Paige had sent her, and she vanished just as the Hive hurtled past her, crashing into the Hive at the other end of the diamond. The two both detonated, sending a wave of heat to blast Vespa's face.

“Right,” Vespa said, “gotta worry about that. Though... hey, that gives me an idea, do we have any more Super Arms?”

“I've got two more in the Folder,” Paige said. “But I'm not going to load them yet. I think we can do better than just one of those!”

“Ooh, playing risky. I like it,” Vespa said. Queenbee threw her arms back, allowing wispy, flame-like wings to come to the fore. “Whoa! Okay, Fanatic Missiles incoming!”

From Queenbee's wings, as she dived around, came a volley of missiles trailing where she hadn't been standing. Vespa still had a moment of intangibility left, so she dashed right in front of Queenbee before—“Hey, Queenie, check this out!”

“Wha—?” Queenbee wasn't able to finish before Vespa appeared right on top of her, dashing onto her and pressing her foot right onto Queenbee's face to use as a springboard. “Gffrrrgh!”

“Sorry about that,” Vespa said, flipping in the air and returning to the more damaged half of the field she'd begun on. “But I didn't wanna step on your toes, see, so your face seemed more apropos.”

The Fanatic Missiles began to turn with her as Queenbee pivoted to face Vespa once more, and Queenbee yelled, “What the hell is with you?! You give me that bullshit about having tried to keep me safe and then you step on my goddamned FACE?!”

“Hey, we're fighting,” Vespa said. “All's fair in love and war, right?”

“I'm gonna turn you into dirt!” Queenbee roared. She generated another solar panel, like the sort that had thrown Kohaku off. Looking about, Vespa noted Otenko in the hole she'd thrown the Geyser into earlier—

“Wait, Vespa!” Paige said. “Just survive a bit longer. We've got all we need! Don't destroy Otenko!”

“Why? It'll let her power her big—” Vespa cut herself off, then grinned. “Gotcha.”

Vespa's Float Shoes allowed her to dance about the cracked ground without shattering it beneath her, so as the Solar Panel set up shop behind her, Vespa twirled between the Fanatic Missiles and a round of Meteors that Queenbee fired in tandem. Explosions all about her didn't stop Vespa from spinning about, feeling the hot wind blasting through her face and blowing her hair all about.

—Hehe. She couldn't stop herself from giggling, either. “What are you laughing at?!” Queenbee yelled.

“I'm not laughing at you!” Vespa said, twirling about, sliding beneath a missile to land in front of Queenbee with her knees bent and her arms wide like she'd been playing limbo. “I'm just thinking—man, this is so much fun! I wish we could've fought like this ages ago!”

“...Huh?” Queenbee said, her anger quietly turning to confusion.

Vespa tossed her Busters into the air, and they affixed to the spurs of her boots to allow her to enter a bullet-laden breakdance—the movement of her legs twitched the triggers enough to fire and fire and fire, clearing out a whole swath of missiles, not to mention several drones launched from some Hives Queenbee had thrown at some point. Vespa sailed right underneath the Solar Panel's solar blasts, too, before pulling off a handstand and leaping from the ground with her arms to catch her Busters in her hands and land on the ground.

“I mean, c'mon! You see me!” Vespa said, throwing her arms wide, before hopping a few paces ahead to dodge the Solar Panel. “This kinda thing is what I live for, Queenie! I'm having fun! Do you know how rare that was back when we were dating? Not your fault, I mean, you were doing your best, but I was miserable, and now I'm having the time of my life!”

“...Why are you telling me this?” Queenbee asked, and her wings retracted.

“Because I think it's important to understand where I'm coming from here. Honestly? I'm happy we ran into each other again—gives you a chance to see what the real me is like, untethered by the old man and his machinations, if you feel me? Basically... Well, I think I already apologized, right? I'm saying I think I'd like to try being friends again,” Vespa concluded with a wink. “Wanna call it there?”

There was a moment's silence before Wolff coughed and said, “Um, solar charge comple—”

“Oh, go to hell! Loading GDS BX!” Queenbee grabbed Otenko by summoning him to her summoning mechanism, and then that colossal cannon, the Empress Breaker, appeared in her arms again.

“Really? You're just loading it right in front of me?” Vespa said, clicking her tongue. “You know I could just get out of the way, right?”

Slamming Otenko into the firing chamber, Queenbee roared, “Like hell!” The firing mechanism whirred to life.

Vespa shook her head. “Alright, your loss. Paige?”

“You got it!” Paige said, and there was that second SuperArm. Vespa hopped back toward the Solar Panel, and then just before it ran out of juice, grabbed it by the stem and hefted it in her arm. “Got the trajectory?”

“You know it,” Vespa said, her targeting reticle flicking out in front of her face. The increasingly loud whirring of the Empress Breaker counted down the timing, and then... 3... 2... 1... “It's Vespa on the pitch!”

Vespa hurled the Solar Panel right into the barrel of the Empress Breaker just as it fired, and that burst of solar energy coming from the gun had no choice but to be repelled by the glass back into its chamber.

“Wha—Oh crap!” Wolff squeaked. “Deload it! Deload it!”

“I—?!” Queenbee managed to get out before one more colossal explosion. The energy contained within it, along with the explosion of the Solar Panel itself, caused the Empress Breaker to burst apart in a colossal fireball, sending Queenbee hurtling to the ground. Pieces of its wreckage crashed to the ground, seared by the sunlight the gun generated, and Queenbee didn't get back up.

“Game!” Heat Genblem called from his platform above. “By the tradition of interpersonal warfare, this game has ended with a decisive victory from Vespa.EXE! Commander, sir, the Empress Breaker—!”

“Leave it,” Wilhelm said. “It's not as though anyone needs it—she had it on loan to begin with. That was an incredible shot right there, wasn't it? Now I'm looking forward to when the time comes for us to face her.”

“I, too, quiver with anticipation, sir!” Genblem responded. He turned his head to Kohaku, who was quietly absorbing Vespa's victory dance from above. “And you?”

“...? What about me?” Kohaku asked.

“Are you, too, quivering with anticipation?” Genblem asked. “Based on your shared history and diametrically opposed combat styles, it seems inevitable that the two of you will come to blows at some point! That's simply the law of long-term tactical warfare!”

“...Genblem,” Wilhelm muttered, “please be quiet for a moment.”

“Yes, sir, commander, sir!” Genblem called out with a salute.

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Yumlandian Exhibit (Temporary NetBattling Stand)

“...so yeah, sorry about that,” Vespa said, rubbing the back of her head and handing Wolff a book of coupons in recompense. “Thank you for putting up with that. I know you're a busy guy.”

“Yeah, okay,” Wolff said, with a heavy, shoulder-slumping sigh. “I'm just going to go now.”

“Thanks! Nice seeing you again!” Vespa waved, before turning on her heel to everyone else. Queenbee was slumped over on the NetBattle stand, Wilhelm patting her on the back, while Scoops, Eiji, and Mrs. Blackgold were excitedly discussing something or another.

“Oh, but she's always been like that,” Mrs. Blackgold said. “I remember this one time, Nadine—that's my oldest daughter, you know—she was visiting home, and she has a motorcycle, you know, big into it just like Vespa is. Vespa didn't have hers at the time, so she tried to pilot it from inside and she just wound up making it play showtunes instead!”

“Why'd the motorcycle have showtunes on it to begin with?” Scoops said, scribbling down notes.

“Oh, that'd be because Concreteman—that's her Navi, you see—he's a big fan of them. Loves them to death! So he installed a bunch of them on there and plays them when Nadine isn't looking.” Mrs. Blackgold said with a conspiratorial giggle. Next to her, Audrey had put on her eye mask. “Is she alright, by the way?”

“Yes, she does that,” Eiji said with a smile. “It's how she stays awake to digest information when she's tired!”

“I can't believe you beat me,” Queenbee moaned from her prone position. Then, she lifted her head, to stare at Paige, who was still standing across from her. “...not you. I don't mean you.”

“I know,” Paige said, with a smile that was probably meant to be reassuring.

“Ugh, fine, whatever!” Queenbee then threw her hands up and stood up. It was a testament to Wilhelm's sturdiness that he wasn't shaken at all by the sudden movement. She took a few deep breaths, waving her hands around to attempt to center herself, then puuuushed the negativity out, and... “Okay. I'm fine.”

“Cool,” Vespa said. “Wanna hang out some time?”

Queenbee's teeth clenched and her breath hitched, but then she let out the breath again, and said, “You know what? Sure. You seem like you're doing well for yourself. I'll just have to find something else I can beat you at.”

“Probably won't be hard,” Vespa said with a wink and a grin. “I'm a dumbass.”

“True enough,” Queenbee grumbled. “Fine. Okay. You win. Oh—hey, Uncle Will?”

“Yes'm,” Wilhelm said, raising his hand.

“I quit,” Queenebe said. “I got what I wanted, so I'm out.”

“Right, then!” Wilhelm said with a nod and a smile. “I expected as much. The Einherjar still number eight Navis all told, so that shouldn't be too bad.”

“Is that the kind of information that you should be offering up?” Detective Himekago asked, as Vespa realized he was still there, having just sort of faded into the background for a bit. It seemed that Paige shared this sentiment, given that she jumped.

“I don't see why not. It gives you a cleaner picture of what you're doing, doesn't it?” Wilhelm said. “It's just fair play, and K didn't say I couldn't say that.”

“Oh, but how is this K character going to get the message that you quit?” Mrs. Blackgold said, politely raising her hand.

“They got the message,” Queenbee said. “But, uh...” She snapped her fingers a time or two.

“Before you go,” Yuu said, “would either of you two happen to be part of an operation set to happen at the festival itself?”

“Right,” Queenbee said, with a sudden look of realization. “That's it. No, it wasn't us.”

“Thanks,” Vespa said. There was a moment where the two of them looked at each other, and Queenbee seemed a bit befuddled by the big, goofy smile Vespa had on her face. “It was really great seeing you again!”

“Yeah,” Queenbee muttered. “You seem like you're doing well.”

“I am,” Vespa said, putting her hands on her hips, “and it's all thanks to my lovely operator. I can't complain.”

“Right. She seems like a good girl. You... treat her well, got it?” Queenbee scoffed, then turned away, her paces picking up in speed. as she went. “'Scuse me! I have places to be now. Coupons to use, apparently. Bye. Come along, Uncle.”

“Always,” Wilhelm said with a laugh. “Be seeing you, warriors of justice. Be well!” His bandanna fluttered in the wind as always.

“Bye!” Vespa said with a wave.

...And so with that done, Kohaku finally beamed back into the spare CopyBot still in the room, and let out an exhausted sigh, removing her helmet. “Are you okay?” Eiji asked.

“She doesn't do much social interaction on the best of days,” Necrobat chimed in from his PET. “I—”

“Thank you, Necrobat,” Paige said, pulling his PET out of her bag. “I'll have to take a look at what you said to Vespa at some point.”

“Um, p-please don't think worse of me for being a bit rude!” Necrobat squeaked. “It's just, I thought it was frustrating that she was letting Kohaku take these blows for her—”

“Don't worry,” Vespa said, “I understand. It's fine, as long as you never get that real with me again.”

“I promise that I won't unless the situation really really calls for it!” Necrobat said, as Paige handed the PET back to Kohaku. “Um—”

“Thank you, Necrobat,” Kohaku said. “You did well. Thank you.” Necrobat went silent from an overload of praise.

“Wow!” Mrs. Blackgold said, having finished her embarrassing anecdotes phase and moved on to a different phase of middle aged woman-dom. She stood up, pumping her fists. “I got to be present for part of a big adventure. One with Detective Himekago there, even! That's great!” She leapt over to Paige, and gave her a hug. “You're the best basically-daughter a lady could ask for, Paige!”

“Eep!” Paige squeaked.

“And I hear you got your first NaviChip!” Mrs. Blackgold said, her eyes glowing. “Isn't that exciting? You have such interesting friends! I don't know how she does that thing with the eye mask, either!” Paige went silent from an overload of praise.

Eiji giggled, and said, “Mothers have a way about them, don't they, Detective?”

“Well,” Yuu admitted, “to tell you the truth, my mother is much more the tough love sort. Surly, but respectful and caring in her own way. This sort of thing is rather alien to me—I don't imagine my mother has used an exclamation point in well over a decade.” He was smiling through that whole statement.

“Sure enough,” Scoops said. “Old lady Himekago's a rough one. I still don't know how she managed to raise a lovely guy like yourself, Detective. I—”

Then, behind her glasses, a look of wide-eyed horror came over Scoops Hanasaka, as she stood up, screamed “I don't have any material for next week's issue!” and ran out of the room at top speed.

That got Audrey to stir, and she awoke with a grumble. “Sounds like another all-nighter for her.”

“Yeah..” Eiji said with a sad little sigh.

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District Public Network ~ Kohaku's Home

Collapsing onto her couch, Kohaku let out a noise that sounded akin to a balloon deflating. “Oh, gosh,” Cinnamon said, “was it really that bad?”

“No,” Necrobat said, pulling out a book from his little bookshelf and opening it up, sitting on a chair for himself, “she's just tired.”

“Oh?” Tech Kraken had invited himself along, and was looking over Necrobat's shoulder at what he was reading. “And you aren't? I was under the impression your constitution was far weaker, dear boy.”

“I'm a bat! We're nocturnal,” Necrobat said with a happy little squeak.

Vespa sat down next to Kohaku and put her arm around her. “Hey, thanks. Really.”

Kohaku lurched back up, and Vespa's arm followed her. “It was nothing.”

“No, it really wasn't,” Vespa said. “I mean, I'll admit I don't get why you cared so much—but it was thanks to you and Necrobat that I was able to get over myself like that. I appreciate it. Seriously. You're good people, you two.”

“...Right,” Kohaku muttered. “Thanks. Did you enjoy yourself, Necrobat?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Necrobat said, with a little clap. “I had a great time! I got to see something in the real world with my own eyes for the first time, and meet so many interesting people, and I got to see both you and Vespa being really cool!”

“Good,” Kohaku said with a smile. “That's all I could really ask for.”

“Me, I'm just disappointed I had work,” Cinnamon said. “I would've loved to have had blackmail material on Vespa, but here I find myself, high and dry. What'll I do?”

Vespa craned her head over to look at Cinnamon, looking innocently about the shelves. “Wha—what does that mean?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Cinnamon said with a little laugh. “Still, I'm a little sad I had to miss such an important moment for you all. I guess these are the dangers of being gainfully employed, huh?”

“So they are, so they are,” Kraken said, bending over as though he was wilting. “Just as my darling Yuu drives me to work and work, the long arm of Big Pharmaceuticals forces you into that most altruistic of careers. Oh, does my heart go out to you, my sister!”

There was a moment of silence.

“...by the way,” Kohaku said, “who exactly is this?”

“Ah, yes,” Kraken said, tipping his hat and bowing, “perhaps your young friend has never shown you pictures. Former phantom thief Tech Kraken at your service, milady, Detective Yuu Himekago's erstwhile rival and current partner. While this Einherjar business is fascinating to me, of course, in truth I find something oddly captivating about your little friend here as well.”

“M-me?!” Necrobat squeaked.

“...If you steal him,” Kohaku said, gritting her teeth, “I'll hunt you down to the ends of the Cyberworld and bury you.”

“No, no, no, but it is an intellectual puzzle par excellence! And it is for that reason I've come—that blade of yours, the Nemesis Fang, can take shavings of that 'Moon Fragment', yes? Might I borrow one? I'd like to have my darling Yuu take it to someone who knows a touch more on these scientific subjects, get some expert testimony and all that,” Kraken said.

There was another moment of silence.

“Okay,” Vespa said, “I know this guy sounds like a lunatic and dresses like a fop, but he is actually legit. And that's a good idea, actually—the sooner we figure out what exactly this thing is, the sooner we can figure out how to make it so Necrobat doesn't need it to live.”

“Ah, but I knew you would understand, Vespa dearest,” Kraken said with a wink. “A cumbersome Core Program can do as much to hinder our kind as a proper one can help us, no? If I don't miss my mark, you know, I would imagine Vespa would know all about that—and you, Miss Kohaku,” and Kohaku flinched, “being that you are so aware of Vespa's backstory?”

“You're right,” Kohaku said, shaking her head. “Just... don't do anything with it.”

“Oh, never,” Cinnamon chimed in. She winked herself, making a V-sign in front of her face as it lit up with her emoticon. “If he did, I'd break every bone in his model.”

“Ah, but I've got quite a lot, you know! Prehensile tentacles are a highly articulate sort of appendage,” Kraken said, sounding awfully confident for someone who was backing away.

Date: October 1, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Paige's Room

“Eight more,” Paige muttered to herself, flipping through notes on her PET while Vespa laid back on the bed next to her. “Let's see... Eight Navis, so Pegasolta, Mandrago, Flauclaws, Genblem... four more after that.”

“And Schilt and his buddy Vulturon,” Vespa added. “And my old man.”

“So if we keep going,” Paige said, “there'll be eleven people we have to beat?” She fell back on the bed, too. “What have I gotten myself into?” She put her hands on her face, blocking the soft lamp light.

“Hey, y'know,” Vespa said, her hands behind her head on her pillow, “I mean, we managed one already, right? I think we're doing pretty dang good.”

She turned her head over to look at Paige. Paige's hair was actually longer than Vespa's when it was down, so a lot of her hair was pinned under her body.

“I know, just... I am kind of scared,” Paige said, “to be going up against people like that, even if the Einherjar are kind people.” She sighed heavily. “I miss Mimel. She'd know what to do at a time like this.”

“She would probably say to punch them,” Vespa said with a snort.

“Okay, yes,” Paige said, “but still.” She took her hands off of her face, and laid them down on the bed. “Hey, Vespa?”

“Yeah?” Vespa said. “What's up?”

“I had a crush on you for a while,” Paige said, “after you first showed up. I wanted you to stay because I... I was lonely. I wasn't really being kind or anything. I was being selfish.”

“Huh,” Vespa said. “Okay.”

“I still don't want you to go,” Paige said, “but it's... you know, it's different. I mean, you're... I don't know how to put it.”

“Frankly,” Vespa said, sitting up to more properly look at Paige, “I am really glad that didn't stick, because I'm a terrible person to have a crush on.”

“I know, but it's me,” Paige said, looking away with a little blush on her face.

“Hah! Yeah, I know. See, this is why we've gotta find you a girlfriend so all that kinda awkward business just doesn't happen, y'know?” Vespa said, and Paige nodded. “I'm not leaving. Mim would kill me if I left you in the lurch, you know that.”

Paige sat up, too, then, and smiled at Vespa. “Yeah. I know.” She giggled, and Vespa couldn't help but have her night brightened by how much she liked to see Paige smile. “I'm... really glad. That you're going to stay, I mean.”

Vespa tried her best to give an honest, soft smile, too. “I don't really have any other place I'd rather be. You're a good person, Paige. I've never really had that before, so... y'know. Whatever's at the bottom of all this, we'll find it—and I'll stay after that, too.”

“I don't think I could work very well with any other Navi,” Paige said, “so that's good. You're... you're like...” It took a moment before Paige finally found the words she'd been looking for, but they managed to shock Vespa nonetheless. “You're family, Vespa.”

“E-eh?” Vespa's eyes went side, and she briefly stumbled back down onto the bed. “I'm what now?”

“Family,” Paige said. “I can always count on you. Like a sister, I guess. I, um... I'm an only child, but I...” She started twiddling her thumbs.

“Nah, nah,” Vespa said, “I get it. I never had much of a family, either—just the old man. So yeah—you know what, that works. I'm happy to be your family, Paige.”

Paige was, in Vespa's opinion, quite a good hugger. She was large in a way that made her grip encompassing, but not overburdening. And so did that night pass—the night of their first true victory of a sort, ending with a duo sleeping peacefully in their bed.

—That night, Vespa slept peacefully, as well.

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Grounds ~ Private Network

“What do you want?”

Two individuals stood in a dark fragment of network at just past midnight—one, a black-and-red panther, and the other, a stark white vulture.

“We've got the plan all ready, is what,” Vulturon said, pacing around Panter Flauclaws with his claws on his waist, leaning over with a little chuckle in his voice. “It's the 4th—the Choinese parade float will be being unveiled. Your buddy will meet up with a collaborator we've got on site—he's got what we need to get you in there. That detective cottoned onto K's trick pretty fast, so you're doing the job yourself this time. It's not a big network—you'll get it just fine, won'tcha, big guy?”

“...and I suppose,” Flauclaws said, with his arms crossed, remaining stoic in the face of Vulturon's smarmy manner, “afterwards—”

“Yup yup, you got it,” Vulturon said with a wink. “You'll hand it off to me. You can tell your buddy K someone stole it back or something—not my problem. Oh—you should know Asimov's in position to take care of the collateral if you don't. All it'll take is a little—” He snapped his talons, somehow. “And boom. You know that, right?”

“I'm not stupid,” Flauclaws growled. “I know what the situation is.”

“Great!” Vulturon stood up and patted Flauclaws on the back. “Alright, later trails, buddy!”

—And, behind a block of junk data in this unused fragment of network sat two others. Thankfully, Stingray had some ability to take photographs without a flash.

“Hmhmhm,” Kraken said, “oh, but Yuu will love this, won't he?”

“Will he?” Stingray said. “You're the one who knows him.”

(OP: “Piece of Peace”, by mica)

On the Next: Battle Network Vespa.EXE!

Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, Makiri “Scoops” Hanasaka, isn't as unflappable as she seems. She has fears and anxieties like anyone else.

Hitogomi wo kugurinuketa

(Moving through the crowd,)

kaze no oto ni mimi wo sumaseba

(listening carefully to the wind,)

But all that is blown away when, accompanying Paige and Yuu, she gets the chance to meet a real-life shaper of history—and then, after that, a genuine celebrity, too!

Iradachi wo togaraseteru

(My sharpening irritation)

kotoba dake ga MELODY ni naruyo

(gives way to a melody when I depend on you.)

No matter what certain old men say, as she gets to report on a genuine sports event, she feels a fire burning inside of her—the fire of her destiny!

Nee, utatte kimi no tokiuna egao de yasashisa wo

(Hey, can you sing me a song that's only yours with your smile and your kindness?)

Iki ga tsumaru jikan no nami ni kokoro wo

(Before your heart drowns in the rivers of time,)

sarawareru mae ni

(can I see you smile one more time?)

However, an appearance by her fated rival leads not only her, but Vespa and a certain icy newcomer, into a battle in the rafters of a stadium, where Vespa has a reunion with a genuine piece of history himself.

Kono hoshi no daremo ga ai wo sagashiteiru

(Everyone on this star is looking for love)

Mou kizutsukeau arasoui wa shinai de

(so don't make painful fights anymore.)

This match is scheduled for one fall! Before the game can reach its first climax, an ancient warrior returns to test the heroes' resolve! Can Vespa become the successor of the legend?!

Kimi ga nigirishimeru hon'no kakera de ii

(Just take a little piece of what you're holding,)

PEACE tsunagiawase yume wo egakou)

(tie it with peace, and let's draw a drema.)

Next time, on Battle Network Vespa.EXE:

Episode 7: Navi, Myth, and Legend! Great Magnus's Sure-Kill, Quasar Breaker!

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

Chapter Text

BN Vespa: Reading Old Memories

“Aaaaaaaaaand we're back!”

Clap, clap! The lights came on in the empty classroom.“Huh,” said Vespa, putting up her jacket on a coat rack, “not used to seeing this room so empty.”

“It has been a while,” Paige said, pulling down the projector screen. “Weren't you off in another story entirely?”

“This is non-canon, do I have to have a schedule?” Vespa grunted, before moving to turn on the projector. “Okay, so we're recapping?”

With a nod, Paige reached into an attache case and produced a large stack of notes to flip through. “Mmhm. It's been over a year since the last chapter, and we need to make the transition of skipping a year's worth of writing experience less jarring.”

The two took positions next to the projector's screen in swivel chairs, and Vespa leaned back and put her legs up on the nearby teacher's desk. “How come you always seem to get this stuff more?”

“Well,” Paige said, twiddling her fingers and looking away, “I, er, think it's because you don't listen.”

“I listen plenty! I'm great at listening! I've got ears and they even work! That's a luxury among NetNavis, I'll have you know,” Vespa said.

“At any rate, in order to expedite things,” Paige said, clearing her throat, “we'll be framing the dialogue...”

P: Like this!

V: Whoa whoa whoa, where'd my dialogue tags go?! I didn't sign on for script format!

P: We're just going to be sitting here and talking, I think we're expected to let our vocal interplay carry the recap.

V: Oh, I get it. It's like, uh, it's like that Electopian comedy style. The—

P: Boke and tsukkomi? No, well, I know we have a distinct duo dynamic, but I'm not sure it's entirely like that.

V: Right, true. You're more uptown, I'm more downtown.

P: That doesn't even mean anything.

V: You explain it to me, then.

P: You're the wisecracking rogue sort, but I'm more of a romantic heroine. I think.

V: True, true. I'm no good at romance. I'm too funny.

P: At any rate! Eh-hem. I think you should start.

Prologue

V: Okay! I'm Vespa.EXE, a NetNavi—a kind of sentient, personified computer program that helps people browse the Cyberworld inside all those computers. I'm hot shit—I'm a gunslinging cowgirl with wit, verve, and wisecracks. I didn't used to be, though. See, I'm a Navi developed by this guy named Heinrich Scuttler—he's this guy who's really into bugs. I'm wasp-themed, by the way, it's like 'Vesper'.

P: He's a genius scientist infamous for his work in 'anti-antivirals', right?

V: Some of them are good enough they just became viruses. Scuttles. They're cute little guys. Scuttler's a weirdo, though. Got abandonment issues like hell. Anyway, I was his most successful Navi design, though back then I didn't look like this. I was a lot less cute. Much blockier. Bulkier. Had 'man' on the end of my name. Weird stuff.

P: Why do people feel the need to append 'Man' on the end of so many Navis' executable names? It's really strange. It's even more bluntly gendered than cultural expectations of human names. You have 'Woman', too, sometimes, but a lot fewer of those.

V: Beats me. Anyway! So, I was designed to hold this program—my Core Program, the thing that governs my functions and personality, basically my 'soul'—called 'Stratos.bat'. The old man thought of it as his masterwork.

P: What did it actually do?

V: That hasn't come up yet, but it's bad.

P: Okay.

V: Now, Scuttler's not a popular guy in the wider scientific community because he's arbitrary and weird and likes breaking things, but he needs money to do his work, so he winds up running with the criminal underworld a lot. About five years ago now, he partnered up with this group called the Vile Numbers. It was the criminal empire of Devilbat Schilt, a bat Navi, expert assassin and all-around bad guy. I met Schilt pretty frequently, so I can tell you he wasn't great—he's got a way of wrapping people into his wake by telling them what they want to hear. Went through a bunch of 'operators' who were really basically his patsies.

P: And that's where you—

V: Back in the day I knew a few people there. People who weren't evil through and through, but just doing what they needed to. There was Queenbee, yeah, a Navi from Ulvaria. She and I dated for a while, but like I said, no good with romance. Then there was Mino Magnus, we'll talk about him later, and Splash Warfly... oh, and Vulturon.

P: That's that vulture Navi we ran into, right?

V: Right. He kinda showed up out of nowhere one day—I donno where he came from or what his deal is, but he and Schilt are pretty tight. Real tool. Anyway! So, the Vile Numbers's goal was basically amassing power for Schilt to start overtaking power in the physical world, but we were doing a lot of operating in Electopia. And that's when, as it happens, basically the same thing happened to us that happens to most criminal organizations that operate in Electopia.

P: Right. The Hikaris.

V: Lan Hikari and Megaman—they're like, this pair of twin brothers, one's human and one died as an infant but got his brain scanned into a Navi.

P: They're the grandchildren of Tadashi Hikari, or 'Dr. Light', the man who invented the modern Internet. It's a pretty impressive bloodline. As I understand it, the two of them are real-life heroes who've solved crisis after crisis.

V: Yeah, so, those guys got involved, and so the entirety of the Vile Numbers got broken down by a pair of fifteen-year-olds. But I'd been thinking a lot about myself and what I needed to do with this whole Stratos business, so when I was supposed to fight them... I sorta just left. I ran to the hills, abandoned Scuttler and the Vile Numbers, and bounced.

P: You know, I know you did hurt people by doing that... but I don't blame you.

V: Anyway, I went on a journey of self-discovery for a while, during which I was redesigned to the new hotness you see before you, but I got more and more broken down as I went. Eventually, I nearly made it, to a place where I could destroy Stratos, but while I was being harangued by this one lady after tearing it out of me, Scuttler found me and tried to kill me and take it back. I won, but it cost me everything... or so I thought. I woke up in Netopia later, with Stratos gone—

P: Sorry, you actually tore your own Core Program out of your own chest?

V: Yeah.

P: ...That explains a lot, honestly.

V: I'd gotten kinda hastily repaired, but I still needed to find a place to stay. I couldn't keep running forever. So I ran into this empty connection I found, into a PET—that's short for Personal Terminal, it's what we Navis hang out in a lot of the time. It was empty, yeah, but it still belonged to someone.

P: Right. My name's Paige Markham, and I'm the other protagonist of this story. My name isn't in the title, and please forgive me for taking time away from Vespa. I know she's more entertaining. I'm nineteen years old, from Netopia—though at the time I was fifteen. I was struggling with a lot at the time. I still do, but it was... rough, at the time. My full name's a bit longer, but—

V: Yeah, you've got like, a hyphenated surname.

P: Yes, er... my parents are divorced, you see, and my name was legally changed to have both of their surnames. But they aren't particularly important right now. Vespa appeared one night in my PET, in visible disrepair, and asked to be able to stay. It was technically a temporary arrangement, but... I was desperate for someone to be around, so I never really asked her to leave. I did my best to help fix her up—I know how to do this kind of thing, especially thanks to the tutelage of my Uncle Glenn.

V: He was big in infrastructure, right?

P: One of the biggest names on the network in Netopia. The capital city's primary network infrastructure lab is named after him. Er... So, Vespa and I became partners. The both of us had a sort of unspoken agreement not to pry overmuch about each others' pasts, but we still became very close friends.

V: Right, which is why I spent a while rambling about my backstory and you're giving us nothing.

P: These things take time.

Episode 1

P: Alright, now we're moving to the present day. Vespa and I headed out for my last day in Netopia before leaving for Electopia—I was accepted as a student at Ayanokoji Net College, a very well-regarded college in Electopia, into the courses of Dr. Mazda Kamizono, who is another luminary of the industry. This is when we went to go visit my best... and, er, prior to Vespa, only friend, really, Mimel Blackgold.

V: Real millennium woman, that one.

P: She's been an eccentric as long as I've known her, though what kind of eccentric she was has changed over the years. She's always had a great passion for the arts, but as she's grown up she's also become a pretty well-known and skilled MMA fighter. In the ring, people call her the 'Handsome Dynamite'. Oh! We should mention Tundraman, too.

V: T-Man's her Navi. They get along because they're both artsy-fartsy types, but he's a ponce who does things like wear flowers on his hat. He likes playing this snarky butler act, calls her 'Milady'. They have these really funny arguments about things like musical theater, it's great.

P: We headed over to my uncle's lab, the Glenn Markham Infrastructure Lab, to visit his grave. His former second-in-command, and now head of the lab, Harold Gaudile, let us in. Dr. Gaudile's been a friend of the family for quite some time. He's squirrelly and paranoid, but I don't think he's a bad man by any means.

V: He reminds me of a platypus. And yeah he's super paranoid, he got weird about a potted plant not being there before or something.

P: While we were there, though, an incident occurred—someone broke into the labs and activated the security system, trapping a number of scientists. I jacked Vespa into the network to investigate.

V: Your hero complex is really endearing.

P: Vespa and I—with help from Mimel and Tundraman, who stayed behind to chase off some viruses and rescue worker Navis—chased down the thief to a restricted area of the lab that most of the workers didn't know about. His name was Panter Flauclaws—or rather, he was a distraction, meant to cause a scene while the real thief escaped. We battled Flauclaws and his anonymous operator, and he was a tough opponent—but his boss, an individual named 'K', opened up an exit for Flauclaws to escape before we could finish the battle.

V: He said something that implied he knew the old man, too. Made my hair stand on end. Y'know, metaphorically.

P: The Erosion Key, the program that had been locked down here, was long gone, with only a calling card left. Dr. Gaudile didn't explain what it was, aside from an activation key for an 'unrevealed program', but he did tell us that there were three in total, and not to get involved. After that, I went to pay my respects to Uncle Glenn, and we spent the rest of the day out.

Episode 2

P: After that was our first day in Electopia. We spent a lot of that day meeting people and getting situated. First, there was Audrey Longhener, Jr., and her Navi Chronoforce. Audrey was actually just behind me on the plane in. She's a programmer from Sharo with a lot of knowledge about technical systems, viruses, intricacies of NetBattling... She and I are classmates in Dr. K's course. She's cranky, sleep-deprived, grumpy, and has a strange sense of humor, but she's also very keen, charismatic when she wants to be, and can be quite kind... even if she'd never say so herself.

V: She walks around in slippers. And her hair, man, it's so ratty. Her Navi, Chronoforce, he's like this walking horseshoe crab guy. Total space case. He's obsessed with mobile games, especially this cat-raising one called 'Wanyadora', and would rather play that than actually pay attention or do things. I get the feeling he could really kick some ass if he ever tried, but he doesn't.

P: Audrey is one of Dr. K's house-cleaning assistants, too, so I also got to meet Compa Kamizono, Dr. K's daughter. She's a charming, hip, with-it girl with an interest in tokusatsu shows who frequently feels smothered by her overprotective father. Dr. K is a kind man, he really is, but it can be a bit much. The family Navi, Dopplerman, is a sort of silent ninja type who bodyguards the family. I don't know much else besides that.

V: Who'd we meet next, again?

P: Ah, right, we had to get into our rooms by passing Mr. Battalion's test, and we met a student named Eiji Kikuchi, who couldn't get in—his Navi, Cinnamon, is actually the current college nurse, and she was busy. Eiji's—

V: Precious. I want to pinch his cheeks.

P: ...Yeah. He's a very sweet boy, not prone to fighting—his dream is to become the world's first medic to be able to treat both humans and NetNavis. He's a romantic and a bit of a gossip, and actually loves ghost stories. Cinnamon likes to bully him—she used to be a battlefield medic of some sort, and she plays at both being a motherly figure and like she has dark pasts we don't know about.

V: Play at? You think she couldn't? She scares me sometimes.

P: And then there was Scoops Hanasaka and Jet Stingray. Scoops—her actual name is Makiri Hanasaka, but she calls herself Scoops—is a reporter who basically single-handedly runs the college paper. I... don't actually know what her major is in, but she's got a strong nose and a loud personality. She has the kind of confidence and go-getter attitude I could only dream of. She and Eiji are childhood friends, and apparently, she met Stingray, who used to be a dirty reporter of some sort, when her earnest and honest style inspired him.

V: We don't have courses for like, cyber-journalists, right?

P: No.

V: Anyway, yeah. They're good folks. Me and Stingray fought in an exhibition match for the start of a semester, but then who should barge in as a late arrival but the Hikaris, right?

P: Audrey really doesn't like them.

V: I bet Lan did something to offend her at some point and forgot about it. He's a dumbass.

P: Er... maybe 'blithe' is a better way to put it?

V: I can put it however I want.

P: As it turns out, the Hikaris are friends with student body president Keaton Akajima, a political and sociological student with a distinct and lofty speech-writing style. He has an enthusiastic fan club on campus. His Navi, Cubit Foxtar, had a friendly bout with them, but lost—Lan and Megaman are something else to watch in action.

V: Yeah, can't deny that.

P: Like I said, Scoops and Eiji are childhood friends, and Audrey had apparently already become friends with the two of them, but I seem to have found myself another part of their friend group now. Not that I mind, really... They're good people. A few days later, Vespa and I were talking about the incident at my uncle's lab when I wound up talking about it to the three of them, and Scoops turned out to recognize the calling card—it apparently belonged to an infamous phantom thief named Tech Kraken.

Episode 3

P: Scoops and Eiji are from a place in Electopia called the Manzo Historical District, a nice little town amidst the hustle and bustle, and a boy detective named Yuu Himekago also lives there—he's, er...

V: Kind of a luddite?

P: No, no. He's an eccentric, certainly. Sort of a musical man, with a habit of collecting knicknacks, but he obtained some international fame for being the one to take down Tech Kraken. Scoops decided to call in a favor with Detective Himekago about the card, so we decided to head to Manzo on a day off to go see him about the case. We took the train, but things became troubled when there was a sudden error in the trains' transmission systems, stopping our tracks... and then an earthquake hit at an inopportune time. Er, to explain, a few years ago, it was discovered that a worldwide weather control system called 8MS was causing the planet severe problems that would cause massive catastrophes if it were ever to be disabled, so the planet's natural weather has been allowed to slowly come back to mitigate that, and earthquakes have become more common as a result.

V: Right, and that old man Andrew had a heart attack or something?

P: Poor Mr. Andrew... I'm glad he's alright. Eiji and Cinnamon cared for him, and Audrey headed to the front of the train, while the two of us and Scoops and Stingray jacked into the network to try to discern the problem.

V: A bunch of viruses were flying around everywhere because some idiot had decided to bust in and try and hijack the transmission tower for the trains' paths, so me and Stingray got into this sick high-flying sky battle. It was all Space Harrier and stuff, it was rad. We headed to the tower itself and ran into... uh, that guy.

P: Asahi Makimura and her Navi Pegasolta Eclair, you mean?

V: Makimura's like this Manzo handywoman, jack of all trades, who's also friends with Scoops and Eiji but has this weird one-sided rivalry thing going with Scoops where she wants to show her up for some reason.

P: She's a nice girl, from my conversations with her. Very good at getting into various characters, but... maybe a little overeager.

V: And then Eclair... Man, he's a weirdo. He's this pegasus guy who found out about Electopian samurai and decided to re-invent himself to be one, and he speaks in this weird language pidgin. Don't we have translation softwares for this kind of thing?

P: I feel like maybe the two of them might play off of each other in not quite the right way sometimes...

V: To make a long story short, they're part of this group called the Einherjar—it's like this villains club slash social group of a bunch of people who are helping this mysterious K. There's nine units of them in total, and Flauclaws and his operator were also one. K had this plan to use these three transmission towers to triangulate something or another, but they planned to do it at night. And then, well—

P: Eclair convinced Asahi to try and go forward with it too early, and it caused a panic. She was terrified when she learned Mr. Andrew almost died, but at the time Eclair tried to make her think it was a trick. He's certainly an enthusiastic man.

V: Stingray handled fixing the tower while I got into a fight with Eclair. Those two are no joke, even if they're pretty silly. I got messed up, and Paige had to bust out this new chip called BugCharge for it—I'm super broken and have tons of bugs, eheh, so I can handle it. It's like a piece of this thing called Gospel, which is like a wolf made of computer bugs or something?

P: Something like that, at least... We did manage to prevail and explain to the two of them what was going on, and they were both apologetic. However, Devilbat Schilt's ally Vulturon chose that moment to appear and try to attack us while Vespa and Eclair were damaged. Schilt and the Einherjar are apparently allies, but it's a very unsteady relationship, as I understand.

V: Before he could get his big attack off, though, another new person showed up and stopped him. She's this Navi called Blade, or well, that's her executable, but she calls herself Kohaku. She's a surprisingly young girl when you look at her out of her armor, kind of a cute high schooler vibe if it weren't for the whole 'cybernetic medieval knight with a cape and a sick sword that's also a grappling hook' thing. Real serious lady. She's wrapped up in this all somehow, but I'm not sure yet—she knows a lot about me and Scuttler, but she's a good kid despite being all cryptic and weird.

P: How do you know she's younger than you? You are computer programs, after all. She can look however she wants.

V: I get the feeling that she and I are on the same wavelength vis-a-vis personal appearance, see, so I get the vibe and that's all I need.

P: ...That's the first time I've ever heard you say 'vis-a-vis'.

Episode 4

P: Arriving in Manzo, we headed to Eiji's house, since Detective Himekago wasn't in yet. His family is an old family in town, so they have quite a large house. It wasn't Vespa's scene, so she headed off to the Cyberworld while I went in and met his family. Lovely people... er, maybe a little overbearing. Asahi was also there as a housekeeper, so this is when I properly met her. I played some Dance Dance Revolution for medical purposes with Eiji's mother.

V: They sound like a lot.

P: Detective Himekago arrived at the Kikuchi house, and we started discussing the case. He shocked us by telling us that Tech Kraken had an airtight alibi, so it was likely that it was a forgery. But then... er, you should continue.

V: I went to go hang with Chronoforce in Manzo's cyberspace, beautiful place. We ran into a lady he knows, I think she's his girlfriend? Noble Mandrago, she's this princess-y plant type, has this cool umbrella drill thing, they go off together. And then on the backstreets I run into this little guy, this little skeletal bat fella, jittering and skittering about, yelling like he's Devilbat Schilt, but the poor kid's clearly glitching out, so I pick him up. Turns out, his name's Dark Necrobat, and Kohaku, who's rooming in a little backroom in these parts, is taking care of him, so I go hang out at their place.

P: If I recall correctly, Necrobat is sort of a... 'zombie' NetNavi, yes? Built from masses of scrap data by Vulturon as a possible spare body for Schilt?

V: Yeah. Schilt can turn into pure electrical signals, which is how he survived dying, and Vulturon can control scrap data, so they tried to make a spare body but it didn't... work. But one of the leaders of the Einherjar—a Navi, so not K—put this thing called the 'Moon Fragment' in him, and it gave him the ability to be conscious, but it's this crazy indestructible material and sometimes it grows and causes him to glitch out and have physical and personality spasms where the bits of scrap data come out into his personality.

P: He's so much smaller than I would expect for a 'spare body', though...

V: Yeah, I donno. He's cute, though. Really curious kid, and a surprisingly good Navi repairman, did some good work on me, made me notice programming Paige did ages ago that I didn't question until now, so now I'm getting new firing modes and stuff as I fight. It's cool. They're good kids.

P: I hope we can find some way to make Necrobat's life easier as we get further in.

V: Same. But then...

P: ...Mr. Ballade's corpse, right?

V: Yeah. I stumbled onto the scene of a murder. This Navi named Ballade had been... eaten alive by someone. Another Navi. He died the same way as Blazin' Flizard, a guy from back in my Vile Numbers days—an unsolved murder they call the Kichijoji Cannibal. It's... relevant to me, so I freaked out, but who do I find there but Tech Kraken, taking shots of the place. I chase him up onto the rooftops and we have it out for a bit, running along, doing crazy stuff. He's a pretty good fighter for a phantom thief, but—

P: As it happened, Kraken's alibi was that he is now Detective Himekago's NetNavi partner. This secret was kept under wraps for specifically this sort of situation, but the two have been working together now for some time. Back in their office, Detective Himekago gets the picture of the situation, figures out some of Vespa's backstory, and—

V: Acts like a weirdo when he does it. Why does he flounce around like that?

P: He also points out that the name, 'Einherjar', comes from old Norse mythology, from what is now modern-day Ulvaria. It's a start to our investigation, but now we wait.

Episode 5

P: Over the next few weeks, Detective Himekago uncovered details of something called 'Project Moon' in Ulvarian records, sightings of Vulturon in Netopia, and details of something called the Beast Brigade, four Navis who have the powers of creatures called Cybeasts, who can switch between humanoid and beast forms. Panter Flauclaws is one, and he told us about a second, an ice-controlling wolf named Fenri Lunaedge.

P: Anyhow, I'd obtained a part-time position at the Aster Land chip shop on campus, so I was working on that, but also got a request to assist Dr. K in cleaning and moving things in his house, for summer cleaning and moving things to a lot in Densan. Vespa got the job of babysitting Compa as Audrey and I helped clean. She showed me where to find his secret panic room, though not how to get in—it turns out her father had one.

V: I decided it'd be fun to go take Compa out on a drive on a motorcycle, so we go to go steal the chip shop owner lady's, she's this maid chick named Nori, but we find this tarp covering something, we open it up, and it's Student Body President Akajima, sitting there and staring glassy-eyed at his PET. Apparently he just gets like that when he goes online and that's why he never lets anyone see him in the same room when he does it.

P: He's very passionate about the subject of things like NetNavi customization.

V: It turns out he's a Kamizono family friend, and Dr. K got him his in to come to college. He and Compa are fellow tokusatsu buffs. Well, okay, they might be bigger into the genre than me, I've never watched an episode of Megaman Star Force.

P: Yet. Right?

V: Do you wanna?

P: I might, if it's coming so enthusiastically recommended.

V: So anyway, it turns out that Keaton and Foxtar actually protected one of the other three towers from the Einherjar. He ran into Flauclaws, who was there, but he actually fought Mandrago, Chronoforce's ladyfriend. I totally thought Keaton was K, but nah. He told me that Lan told him that they'd fought to defend the third tower. Anyway, we headed off to a beachside boathouse where, hey, crazy coincidence, it's Mr. Andrew from the train, turns out they're friends with him.

P: Around that time, I was hunting for an item Dr. K requested called a 'Divider', when I stumbled into an unused room looking for it, and found a photo of Dr. K with not just Compa, but a young man. That was his son, Acura, who's no longer with us. When he was alive, he followed in his father's footsteps—the Divider is a gun-like object that can load and unload programs, Navi or otherwise, into CopyBots from range.

V: Those are the robot bodies that Navis can use to move around in the real world, by the way. I use mine all the time.

P: However, this photo had a darker side—as it turns out, Compa's real name is actually Michiru Kamizono, but after the death of her mother eight years ago, she lost the ability to speak, and relied on Acura as her protector... but he perished at the hands of a street gang two years later. Michiru went into a traumatic state where she was incapable of remembering much of her early life, including her mother and brother—and her own name, apparently. So, Dr. K's overprotectiveness is to protect his daughter from having attacks of memory... I think.

V: Screwed up that things like that can happen in this day and age.

P: Yeah...

V: I'd gotten this feeling like I recognized Cubit Foxtar ages ago, so he and I finally had a talk at a server at old Andrew's boathouse. Dopplerman was there too, but he never says anything. Anyway, it turns out that Akajima's Navi, funny enough, he's the guy who saved my life when I almost died before I met Paige—he saved me and fixed me up as best he could. Turns out he's a good guy, though hella extra. I don't know how he was involved in all of that stuff before, but he's a good guy.

P: Right, and this is when you came back. I was... having trouble, so Mimel, over the phone, told them to let me go back to the room, you took me back, Audrey came in, and we got to talking. I saw a photo of her when she was younger, and learned about her family circumstances—her mother died early, and her father spent much of the time working out of the country. She loved him despite that, but one day, he went out for 'the most important job of his life', and came back in a coma that he's never woken up from in nine years.

V: Still can't believe she used to smile.

P: And we... well, we went to go to a movie. She's surprisingly smart, you know. She knows a lot about special effects, how to guide people's eyes. Of course, while we're talking, we happen to run into two unexpected people—Asahi Makimura, as well as Noble Mandrago's operator and Audrey's next-door neighbor and maternal figure, Ilyana Ulyanov. She's...

V: Chatty.

P: Yeah.

V: Weird lady.

P: Very Mary Poppins.

V: Yup.

P: She was the third member of the Einherjar we'd encountered, but like Asahi before her, she was hardly what you'd expect from an antagonist. In fact, she sat us down to explain several things about K's motivations—about K's desire to make a world where humans and Navis can be more equal, and to right wrongs from two past incidents of abuse of NetNavis. They want to take out Schilt and Scuttler, too, and are keeping them close for that reason. But...

V: It's still a secret, so we're hunting down the truth. Yeah?

P: K has connections enough to form this multicultural group, but didn't tell me anything. K didn't account for me—so I'm going to do my best to solve their 'game'. Mrs. Ulyanov wants that too, apparently. ...Audrey has a lot of thoughts about game theory, too, and I wonder if she picked them up from Mrs. Ulyanov.

V: Audrey has thoughts about a LOT of things.

P: We got to talking about puzzles and solved a NetBattling puzzle she set up, and the Hikaris happened to be there. Lan is quite the hyperactive guy, isn't he?

V: Megaman was decent enough to get him to give back my old NaviChip.

P: They'd run into a fourth member of the Einherjar, a tortoise Navi named Heat Genblem, and were out investigating Panter Flauclaws's traces at an empty lot that was soon to be host to the Electric Festival, a festival held every five years for tech luminaries to show off their country's newest tech. Dr. Gaudile was there, too! Audrey managed to get out of him that the second Erosion Key was going to be present in a parade float at ElecFes, and that Panter Flauclaws was angling to steal it, along with getting permission for Detective Himekago to investigate the place.

V: It was great. I laughed.

P: I didn't hear you laughing at the time?

V: I was muted.

P: We returned to campus, where I happened to have a conversation with the Hikaris on our own. He... seems like a good man, if... quick. It's a good thing he has Megaman around to anchor him somewhat.

V: Then Eiji made cookies.

Episode 6

V: We took Kohaku and Necrobat along to ElecFes's first day. Necrobat really wanted to go and hey, how could I say no to that guy, right? So we all headed out, with Kohaku having a spare PET to put Necrobat in. Navis holding Navis... it's a brave new world we live in.

P: Mimel's younger brother, Lambert Blackgold, had an exhibit at ElecFes, so we came by to see him. Lambert's a boy genius with a particular interest in the process of flash-freezing things, to make ice sculptures and whatnot—he's an apprentice at Uncle Glenn's lab.

V: The kid's a dweeb, but he's got a good heart.

P: Dr. Gaudile tried to hide behind the exhibit to hide from Detective Himekago's questioning, but coming by Lambert's exhibit made Detective Himekago realize that Lambert's mother, Pauline Blackgold, must also have been there. So, I went with him to go find her at a booth playing a test of strength. Mrs. Blackgold is... honestly, she's the closest thing I have to a mother. She cares about me a lot, and counts me as one of her own.

V: She's got a lot going on.

P: She's led a complicated life, with a lot of ups and downs, along with medical problems... apparently her pacemaker briefly glitched recently, which worried Lambert, but she swears she's fine. I hope she really is... er, anyway, Detective Himekago, of whom she's a big fan, questioned her about the Beast Brigade, but then turned his attention to the very large man running the booth with the strength game. With some flashy and impressive deductions, he revealed that this man was Prince Wilhelm Blaster VII, the eldest prince of the country of Ulvaria, and the operator of Heat Genblem, the third tower attacker—so he was also a member of the Einherjar.

V: He's like the second-largest dude I've ever seen.

P: Prince Blaster—er, Wilhelm, that is—was kind enough to tell us there were nine Navis in the Einherjar, and explained that K's aim with the towers was to use them to triangulate the location of an island in the ocean where a certain program could be found, and use the towers to manipulate 8MS to make the rough waves in that region easier to cross. However, after that, he requested to come along with me and Mrs. Blackgold to come see Vespa.

V: Kohaku and I were over at this pho stand, great stuff, and there were these two guys next to us. One of them, it took me a bit to recognize him, was Wolff, who was an operator from the Vile Numbers, this kinda harrowed guy who kept falling into bad work to support his dad, who got in an accident or something. The other one was... uh...

P: 'Uh...'?

V: He was like... uh... he had this weird angel robe, and like... a tea-brewing set? What was his name? I didn't see him again that day, I just know he existed.

P: It says here in my notes that there was a man named Daisuke Harada. I barely saw him, so I don't remember him very well, either.

V: Oh well, he'll probably never come up again. Anyway, so then everything turned hella awkward when everything converged, because Wolff was my old girlfriend Queenbee's operator, and she was SUPER mad at me. You know... justifiably. But then it turned out Kohaku knew her too, somehow?

P: And then you ran. Where did you even go?

V: I went on the ferris wheel.

P: Okay, then. Well, Queenbee challenged us to a battle, and Scoops got to pick Wilhelm and Mrs. Blackgold's brains for a bit as I ran off to talk with Queenbee. She helped me unpack some feelings... I'm, er, not the best put-together. But you were still gone, so Kohaku stepped up to do battle in your place under my command.

V: I still have no idea what her stake in all this is or how she knows Queenie, but I appreciate that.

P: We did our best in this fight, with everyone watching, but Queenbee unveiled this incredible weapon—the Gun Del Sol BX, the 'Empress Breaker', and obliterated most of the arena... though, you did save Kohaku.

V: Necrobat razzed me until I got my head out of my ass, so then we resolved all of our weird lingering feelings and officially became operator and Navi on a permanent basis! And then we won the fight and it was sick, we beat Queenbee, she and Wolff quit the Einherjar, so now there's eight left! Woo!

P: Overall, I'd say it was a good day. Two last notes, though. First, Cinnamon took a look at Necrobat and the Moon Fragment and decided that we needed to investigate the Fragment itself, but that it didn't matter how we helped him to live normally as long as he could. Kraken asked for a shaving from it to give to Detective Himekago, so he could ask someone with more knowhow.

V: Who's he asking?

P: Er... one of my classmates, actually.

V: Hold up. Are you telling me there's still more characters left to introduce?

P: I think we've introduced almost all of the major characters at this point, but there are a few more left, yes.

V: Second last thing—at around midnight, Kraken and Stingray happened upon a secret nighttime talk between Flauclaws and Vulturon. They went over a plan, but it seems like Vulturon's holding Flauclaws and his operator hostage somehow—they've got collateral to force Flauclaws to hand the Erosion Key to them if they can steal it on the 3rd.

P: I hope we can stop it before then...

V: I think that's everything. Is that everything?

P: Yes, that's everything. In the next episode, it seems like Scoops will be a focal character... 'Great Magnus's Sure-Kill Quasar Breaker'? That sounds dangerous.

V: Hold up one sec, I gotta... I gotta...

“Hraaaaagh!” Vespa exclaimed, standing up and stretching so thoroughly she regained her dialogue tags. “Yeah, there we go! Decompressed and living large again!” She did a little dance, the spurs on her shoes jangling, before firing fingerguns at Paige. “How do I look? Not any flatter?”

“No, Vespa,” Paige said with a little chuckle, before standing up and stretching herself, “you're fine. Alright, are you ready to get back out there?”

Vespa put her arm around Paige, leaning in with a conspiratorial grin, and said, “Hell yeah I'm ready! Cameos are great, but I'm a leading lady if I'm anything. You too, though, eh, pard?”

The CopyBot Vespa was residing in returned to its dormant state, as Vespa appeared in Paige's PET. With a thumbs up, she gave Paige the green light to go. Paige walked toward the door to leave the room, and threw the door wide, throwing up her PET with a cry of—

“Jack in, Vespa.EXE! Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Makiri Hanasaka's Room

Brrrring, brrring~

“Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooood morning, Densan!”

(OP: “Active Heart”, by Maaya Sakamoto)

Battle Network Vespa.EXE: Blue Bomber & Red Fox

Yume wa, doko ni aru?

(“Where is my dream?”)

Ai wa, doko ni aru?

(“Where is my love?”)

Springing up out of bed like a rocket, Electopia's foremost guerrilla reporter, Makiri “Scoops” Hanasaka, launched toward her mirror and sink to get straight to brushing her teeth. Those who entered her room were generally originally stricken by how much stuff there was, what with all of the notes about her corkboard, a specially-constructed tent for use as a darkroom, her camera equipment...

Generally speaking, while she understood her own order, it was chaos to a layman. However, Scoops was an agile sort, so her ability to spring about her own room to just where she needed to go without knocking anything over was never in question. This sort of opening routine was just how she woke up—it was easier for her than taking it slow.

Hadashi ni natte mita

(“I walked along barefoot”)

Machi no man'naka, hitogomi

(“in the middle of the crowded town.”)

“Not even a good morning for your faithful alarm clock?” sighed Jet Stingray, her faithful partner. “Man. It's like you don't even appreciate all the work I do.”

Spitting out her toothpaste and letting out a decisive sigh, Scoops exclaimed, “Come on, there's an order to these things! You can get a good morning once my mouth works. Good morning, Stingray.”

Sora ga anmari kimochi yokute

(“The sky was so pretty today,”)

Nanka arukitakunatta

(“that I just kinda wanted to walk.”)

“You've got that consultation slash interview with Kamishiro in a bit,” Stingray said, laying back on a virtual lawn chair on the front screen of Scoops's PET, “and I don't need to tell you, but it's October 2nd.”

Scoops's hair was naturally a bit unkempt, which was part of why she wore such a large newsboy. She still did her best to push it down, though. Placing her glasses on her bed for the moment, she swung on one of her preferred workin' shirts, and gave a thumbs up to herself in the mirror. “October 2nd! Right!”

Mawari no hito-tachi ni

(“At first, I thought the people around me”)

Hen na me de mirarerutte

(“would think it was pretty weird.”)

People often asked her why she wore suspenders, and she always told them the same thing—“You know how much crap I have to cram in my pockets?” She'd tried belts for a while, but they simply weren't good enough. Moreover, they weren't much her style.

In a move Stingray often called totally unnecessary, Scoops did a running handstand to flip over her bed, landing to the side of her backpack and her trusty camera. While she was foremost in reporting, Scoops also liked to joke at times about her title as Shirojo High's arm-wrestling champion, on account of all the exercise she got carrying her stuff. She was only second or third at Ayanokoji, sure, but there were some weird people here.

Omotteita keredo igai ni

(“But I was surprised to find”)

Daremo ki ni shite inai ne

(“that nobody really seemed to care.”)

“Al-riiiight!” Scoops exclaimed, grabbing her PET and Stingray last of all. “Ready for another busy day, partner?”

“When am I not with you?” Stingray tipped his hat with one arm, shrugging with the other. “I'm telling you, one of these days you're gonna need to give me a vacation or something.”

Scoops slammed open her window, letting the early-autumn breeze roll in, and took a deep breath. “Don't act like you don't enjoy it!”

Another pivot and flip, and Scoops had launched herself out of the window of her second-story room, hitting the ground cleanly and casually with a little pose before standing up and dusting herself off.

Karada ga chuu ni ukandeyuku yo

(“My body feels like it's floating—”)

Jibun no ishiki ga kekkan no TUNNEL nukedashi

(“—as my consciousness emerges from the tunnel”)

“Keep it down with the dramatic intros,” came the grumpy voice of Audrey Longhener, who had the room just across from Scoops's in the neighboring dorm. “I'm trying to sleep here.”

“Come on! It's a great day out, Audrey!” said Scoops, hailing her with a wave despite her not being present in her window.

Oh, there she was. Her hair was as unkempt and full of split ends as usual—sooner or later, Scoops figured someone was going to attack her over it. “I had a long night and you're just yipping around like nothing's happening,” Audrey groaned from over the railing. Her eyes peeked out over it, so Scoops couldn't see her no-doubt gritted teeth. “Come on.”

“Then close the window at night,” Scoops said.

“No. If I do that, the air gets stagnant and my hands get so hot I feel like I'm dying,” Audrey groaned. “You be quieter.”

“No! If I do that, my soul will die!” Scoops shot back with a pointed finger.

They'd had this conversation about twenty times by now, and Scoops did it with a smile on her face. “Welp, see you later!” Scoops said, her finger transitioning to a wave as she walked off.

“Yeah, later,” said Audrey, who slid down her own wall back out of sight.

Nee, yume wa doko ni aru?

(“Hey, where's my dream?”)

Ai wa, doko ni aru?

(“Where is my love?”)

Fukai mori wo mizu'umi wo tsukinukete-yuku

(“I break through the forest and the lake”)

“Oh, good morning, Maki!”

Nurse's assistant Eiji Kikuchi waved from by the nearest entrance to his workplace. Scoops jogged over. “Hey, you,” Scoops said, “it's the 2nd. Ol' Cinnamon gonna keep you tied down?”

Eiji chuckled, and twiddled with one of his ringlets. He'd had that habit for over ten years, and it was the kind of thing that drove a lot of people crazy with how cute it was. Scoops, of course, was not among them—she had much more important things to be concerned with. “No, no. She did make reference to tying someone down, but I think that was in more of a hostage situation sense. I'll be there!”

“You better be, buster, or I'll have to bust that CopyBot of hers,” Scoops said with a waggling finger, taking a sassy pose rather like this one cartoon hedgehog she was fond of. “Anyway, I've got places to be, so I can't stay long. Got an interview scheduled and all.”

“I know I don't need to tell you this,” Eiji said with a smile that Scoops knew very well was half-kind half-concerned, “but please remember that Ms. Dominique is waiting on that essay—”

“What, you think she's gonna sic Seismic on me if I'm not making steady progress on my deadline? I flourish under pressure, Eiji. Mother Superior over there won't know what hit her!” Scoops said with a confident snort.

Shalala~

Kutsu wo nugisutete

(“Taking off my shoes,”)

Shalala, ishikoro wo funde

(“stepping on the pebbles,”)

With a quick wave to Eiji, Scoops darted off again. She considered herself pretty good at rocket starts of that sort, and Stingray liked to joke about there being sonic booms whenever she started running.

Thus was an average morning in the life of Electopia's foremost guerrilla reporter, Scoops Hanasaka. It was easier than taking it slow—better to rush to meet life than to let life rush to meet you, she thought.

Shalala, tooi ni hi... oboeta kuchibue fuite

(“whistling a song I remembered from long ago...”)

Episode 7: Navi, Myth, and Legend! Great Magnus's Sure-Kill, Quasar Breaker!

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: Ayanokoji Net College ~ Dr. Kamizono's Lecture Hall

“So, you needed something from me, right?”

Dr. Kamizono had had a pretty short stay in his hall this morning, as he was still doing some manner of clerical work for ElecFes. As such, Scoops was able to slide on in without a fuss to meet Paige and Detective Himekago.

“Right.” Yuu nodded, then produced a data stick from his pocket. Cool as a cucumber, that boy detective—Scoops had run afoul of his mother a few times when she was younger, a much more irritable woman, so she was glad her contemporary was of cooler mind.

Paige, meanwhile, was visibly a bit flustered, and it wasn't hard to understand why. The consultant they'd hailed here was a woman by the name of Kari Kamishiro, well-known on campus for her beauty and style. Her head of long, snow-white hair, pale blue eyes, skin so pale she more resembled a porcelain doll... All that was one thing, but then you took into account her curvaceous figure that wouldn't be out of place on a model, the lilting timbre of her soft yet slightly deep voice...

Supposedly, she'd had this sort of reputation for years, but in a previous interview Scoops had had with Kari, she'd said, “Oh, I know how people see me, but I only started really deserving it when I got to college. I barely had a head on my shoulders for style before then, and my parents just liked putting me in plain dresses and whatnot.”

Another fact about Kari Kamishiro that Scoops knew was that once upon a time, she'd been president of her high school occult club. One look at the lilac witch's hat atop her head was enough to tell one how she felt on the subject now. Her ears held a number of earrings and studs which glinted in the room's light, and her fingers were much the same, with all manner of jewelry. Incidentally, her nails were painted glossy black and red. Most of them were long and pointy, but for some reason she kept the index and middle fingers on her right hand filed down short. Scoops couldn't tell you why.

Aside from that, she wore a sleeveless white blouse, not much special, and a pure black pencil skirt that shifted as she crossed and uncrossed her legs... and a parasol she kept above her head at all times, as befitted the picturesque, modern, young lady. All this to say she was the sort of woman Scoops could easily picture walking into a detective's office in the rain, late at night with a mysterious job offer and an even more mysterious personality—the sort of woman someone like Paige would be naturally weak to, in other words.

(All of this was, of course, Scoops's observations. Ogling people to this degree was, in her eyes, simply due diligence as a reporter.)

“I'm to understand you're in a somewhat unusual field of study,” Yuu said as Kari took the data stick, “and my client and I could use an expert opinion.”

“Your client being Ms. Markham, right?” Kari asked, tilting her head at Paige. Paige squeaked with a hasty 'yes, ma'am.' “Oh, come now. We're classmates. There's no reason to be so flustered.”

“Yes, ma'am,” Paige repeated with a little nod.

“I'll be the first to say I don't understand your field of study,” Yuu said, “but we've brought you two samples for an expert opinion.”

“Right,” Paige said with a nod. “I'm better with, er... programming architecture.”

Kari produced her PET, slotted the data stick in, and said, “Berkana, if you would.”

“Kihihihihi!” came a cry from the PET, which she set on the table between them. “Visions, twist and shake before me!”

A holographic image of a small sample of data appeared, and under it was an amount of technical data near-unfathomable to Scoops's sadly physical-brained mind. Kari's eyes scanned it, moving up and down at an astonishing rate. “I've got to admit,” she said after a minute or two, “I'm awfully curious. How exactly is it you've come across something like this?”

“Detective Himekago scrubbed the site of a battle I had in Netopia just before I came here,” Paige said. “This is the Navi I fought. Or, a trace of him, anyhow.”

With a little 'oh ho ho', Kari gave a coy, coquettish smile to Paige and said, “Oh, my. Getting up to business that requires a detective and a reporter, just after a heated battle? You've only been here a month and a half or so, Ms. Markham. You must lead such an interesting life.”

“O-oh, no, it was, um, it was a coincidence is all...” Paige twiddled her fingers, visibly blushing. She'd never make it in this line of work, Scoops thought.

Kari's eyes glinted with a quiet excitement before saying, “Based on what I can gleam from this, this is... oh, how do I put this... a sort of transforming Navi. It resembles something Hikari-kun told me he got up to once—but I imagine you know that?”

Scoops raised her hand. “Which one?”

“Oh, I mean Hub, of course,” Kari said, with a smile and another glint. “I find him awfully fascinating. I'm hardly an expert, of course, but I find Dr. Hikari's handiwork in replicating human genetics in a NetNavi quite interesting, so I try to find time to pick his son's brain when I can. Lan's a lovely boy, but he's a bit inscrutable.”

Paige and Scoops nodded in unison. “Yeah,” Scoops said. “Yeah, I get that.”

Kari steepled her fingers and rested her chin atop them, looking closer at the data. “At any rate, for Hikari-kun, this process involved a sort of layering effect—the Cybeast within him layering atop his data and transforming it—but this one... hm. Did you ever play with action figures when you were a child, Detective?”

“Can't say that I did. I was a bit of an odd child that way,” Yuu answered.

“Ahahaha, I see,” said Kari with a little giggle. “Well, when a toy company attempts to make a figure of some manner of transforming robot, they'll often make parts that can be twisted to enter different shapes—or perhaps keep spare parts inside the body of one form. I believe this Navi is a lot like that—that they possess a humanoid shape, but their pieces all shift and switch around for a proper transformation. It's more thorough than Hikari-kun's Beast Out, essentially.”

“Then, essentially,” Yuu said, steepling his own fingers, “it's likely this Navi's humanoid form would possess several similar traits, just reorganized?”

“Just so,” Kari said with a nod. “For instance, it's unlikely they'd manage to change the color scheme much from this striking black and red. It's really interesting what they've done here, actually—you know, of course, that the Cybeast Gregar was a Multi-Bug Organism, but they've managed to replicate important parts of its construction and 'programming' and layer it into this Navi's DNA. I—”

Scoops raised her hand. “Yes, Ms. Hanasaka?” Kari asked.

“Okay. I know you've talked to me about it before, but what does that mean, a 'Navi's DNA'?” Scoops said, a notepad at the ready.

“I'm curious as well,” Yuu said, “though again, I can't promise I'll totally understand.”

“Ah, right. How rude of me. Please forgive me for going off on an unprompted ramble!” Kari said with another little giggle. “No, it's not literal deoxyribonucleic acid, of course, but Navis have 'genes' the same as us. Human genes are essentially lines of code that our body outputs to develop itself, and the same can be said of the self-evolving code Navis use.

“Take for instance your friend Stingray. If he were to use a Cannon chip, his arm would transform into that Cannon, fire, and then return to the same arm. His 'genes' understand how to recreate his own 'regular' arm after the code inside of a Battle Chip has finished running. It's these underlying blocks of code, the 'genes' of Navis, that I study. You can learn quite a bit by studying the genealogy of a Navi's code—many of them are indeed 'inherited' from prior programs, much like this Navi's visible heritage from the Cybeast Gregar.”

“Interesting,” said Yuu, producing his own PET and looking down at it. “I'd never thought of it that way, but you have a point.”

“If I didn't have a point, I wouldn't have much of a field of study,” responded Kari. “At any rate. If you mean to catch this fellow, you ought to look for humanoid Navis who resemble him somehow. His shape will likely be different, but not so different he wouldn't be recognizable. Rather like Optimus Prime transforming into a convoy, if you understand?”

“Thank you very much. Even I'm not enough of an oddball to miss that one!” Yuu said with a laugh, his posture relaxing.

“Now, as for this second sample. Before I load it in, may I ask what it is?” Kari said with another tilt of the head.

Paige answered this time. “This is a shaving we took of something called the 'Moon Fragment'. It's... essentially, it's serving as a replacement Core Program to a Navi we've met. He didn't have one beforehand, since he was constructed out of junk data—”

“Out of junk data?!”

People who were not at least passingly familiar with Dr. K's class would probably find the sight of a TV monitor on wheels and a stand careening from a far corner of the hall to right next to them, but it had happened to Scoops at least once before. The only one surprised was Yuu. “Sorry, did you say that this Navi was made from junk data?!” the monitor's speaker said. The screen was switched off at the time.

Yuu had jumped back a bit in surprise, but, his posture rigid, he blinked a time or two and let out a sigh. “Sorry. Another classmate of yours?”

This was one of Ayanokoji's odder students, Rin Hashizawa. For reasons Scoops did not know, some time last year, she had switched to attending classes remotely—through this somewhat ramshackle setup. Even beforehand, she'd been a bit of an oddball; she was flighty and quick to squirm away from trouble, but also excited to take scrap data from other students who had no use for it any longer.

“Hello, dear,” Kari said with a little laugh. “Ms. Markham, Ms. Hanasaka, and the good detective here are requesting my services.”

“O-oh! Haha. Yes, you do have those, ahaha,” said Rin. Her voice was audibly trembling with sweat. “Sorry, I just got excited because, you know. Um. Well, I guess you don't, actually. Sorry. Sorry, Ms. Markham.”

“Um, p-please call me Paige,” Paige said, rubbing the back of her head. “I mean... it's one thing from Ms. Kamishiro, but you don't seem like the sort of person who should be calling me Ms. Markham.”

“Oh, that's true. I do command less, um, innate respect than her—I mean, she's very dignified and I'm—and I mean, we haven't even met in person—um, anyway, sorry, I'll—I'll go,” Rin mumbled.

(In the same way that Kari was a Navi geneticist, Scoops had the understanding that Rin was something of an expert in trash.)

At that moment, Kari looked as though she was about to say something, but then she pulled up the sample of the Moon Fragment. “...Huh,” she said.

Rin's monitor stopped in its tracks, and all of the other four waited with bated breath as Kari's eyes scanned the data on her readout. “That's... unusual,” she muttered. “Er... hm. I've never seen that before... Berkana. Just to check, you haven't been out drinking with that Gareth fellow, have you?”

“How dare you accuse me of such a thing!” her PET yelled. “I, the mighty witch Berkana? Kihihihihi! I'm as sober as the sobering realization of an unpaid medical bill outside one's budget! I, with a clear mind, show you the truth and only the truth, despite my skill at illusions!”

“Just checking. Hmm. That shouldn't... well. I suppose I've... hm. Er, well... huh. Equals what...? Er... hm.”

Kari's litany of confused noises at the Moon Fragment's data continued for another few moments. “Er,” Rin stammered, “are you okay, Kari?”

“Oh, I'm fine, I'd say, it's just...” Kari pursed her lips. “Sorry. You said this is serving as a Core Program?”

Paige nodded. “It's a very odd thing, yes.”

Letting out a harsh little sigh, Kari raised her hands. “Well. This is going to take a bit longer. In fact, strangely, it looks a bit out of my expertise. This isn't...”

There was a pause. You could almost hear the gears in Kari's head turning, clicking into place.

“I think I know exactly what we ought to do with this one,” Kari said. She turned her head to Rin, and proceeded to say something completely absurd. “Say, Rin. Is Dr. Wily available?”

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: Densan Corrective Living Penitentiary Facility C Suite

Scoops had never had a reason to be allowed into the DCL Penitentiary before, so she was vibrating with excitement as Kari rang the doorbell on the front of the C Suite. “Hello?” she said into the intercom, before pulling up a visitor's pass and scanning it on a device just below it. “I have three other guests with me today.”

The DCL Penitentiary was a fairly recent construction within Den City, being a penitentiary designed to allow patients to receive psychiatric care while within its walls. The C Suite was the smallest, as, apparently, only two people currently lived there—it was primarily reserved for perpetrators or conspirators in grand Electopian Netcrime, and that was not the largest field in the world. The A, B, and D Suites were all much larger buildings.

...Of course, at the moment, that meant it looked a lot more like just a highly-monitored apartment than anything else. The doorbell button was shaped like a skull, though, so that was cute. A beep came from Paige's PET as Kari knocked on the door, and Vespa made a stretching noise. “Hey, so how'd that go?”

“We're at Dr. Albert Wily's door,” Paige muttered, her voice quiet and quaking. She was shivering.

“...What,” Vespa said, “the fuck do you mean we're at Dr. Wily's door?”

No sound came from the door, so Kari's response was apparently to grab the doorknob and twist, walking casually in. Paige squeaked, but Scoops was quick to follow, as was Yuu.

The inside of the suite, now that was where the business was. The central room was decked out with purple carpet, printed with white skull insignias every so often. There were inscrutable electrical appliances every which way on the walls by the entrance, several of which had tangled messes of wires coming from them. A massive TV hung on the wall sat in front of several cushioned chairs, red with skull-print fabric, and a couch with the same. Entryways on the left and right walls presumably led somewhere, and an entryway to the side of the TV appeared to lead into a dining area, which was probably covered in skull print.

“Muwahahahahaha! Now, I'm going to delete this frozen meal!” an old man cackled from the kitchen. “Watch me from Hell, Thomas! Watch me as I destroy this piece of human ingenuity!” The beeping of keys on a microwave started ringing out from back there, Dr. Wily's fingers frantically hammering some button or another. “Delete!! Delete!! Delete!! Delete!! Delete!!”

“Get it, Dr. Wily! Raise the power higher!” That was a young woman's voice, but the little cackle was present in her, too. “Delete! Delete! Delete!”

The raucous, overjoyed, giggling chant of “Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete! Delete!” continued from the kitchen for a while, and nobody seemed to want to move to interrupt them. Scoops certainly didn't—she might have been nosy, but she knew better than to interrupt an old man enjoying himself.

After a minute, it started to fade, and then the light hum of the microwave kept going. The sound of a wooden cane started tapping against the ground. “Don't they say time is supposed to move faster as you get older? I should've made a Time Man or something, then that would've shown them.” There was a spiteful little scoff. “Fine! I'll go see who's at the damn door!”

Dr. Albert Wily was an old man, and he had as distinctive an appearance as a man with the surname 'Wily' could be expected to—his tanned, leathery skin had long since started developing liver spots atop his bald head, and a ring of spiky white hair stuck out from there. He had an awfully prominent chin beneath his full, commanding mustache, and his right eye was covered in a glass monocle. He was, if you would, yet another unmistakable guy—so as he rounded the corner and came into view, Scoops found herself breathing more heavily, her body starting to shake in anticipation.

Wily's (skull-top, of course,) cane stopped on the ground as he stared at the people who'd arrived. He was still in his pajamas (a matching shirt-and-pants with, what else?, skull print) despite having been informed of incoming visitors, which was an impressively laissez-faire attitude towards social decorum. Scoops couldn't help but be a bit impressed.

“Good morning, Doctor,” Kari said with a little wave, matching his grumpy frown with a coy smile. “A classmate of mine needed your consultation on something.”

“Pfeh,” Wily said, grumbling to himself. He lifted up his cane and continued grumbling before pointing it at this unreasonable band of younguns who had inserted themselves into his home. “Now you see here. You think you can just call me in for whatever you want because you're allowed to show up at my doorstep? College students these days.”

“You let Lan do it, don't you?” Kari asked with a smirk.

The grumbling continued. “No, I don't. He shows up anyway. I can hardly get rid of the brat—he's just as nosy as Thomas used to be, I tell you—”

“I-I-I—It's an honor to meet you, Doctor!” Paige darted up to the front of the group and bowed, her voice quavering. “My name is Paige Markham, and I really respect a lot of your work!”

“Yes,” Dr. Wily said, “I know who you are.”

Paige froze stiff. “You do?”

“Of course I do. You think I can avoid it? There's, what, nine people in that class of yours? And one of them lives in my guest room. You're the one with the dead uncle who's famous or something, and the mouth-off Navi who's a work of that prat Scuttler. I've heard. I know who you are, so what do you want with me?” Dr. Wily said. Paige looked a little limp. “If you faint on my carpet, I'm going to hit you with this until you wake up.” That stopped her.

Unable to contain herself any longer, Scoops skidded in front of Paige, taking out a notepad and starting to frantically scribble notes. “Dr. Wily! It's an honor! Scoops Hanasaka, Electopia's greatest guerrilla reporter, here—”

The hitting was not an idle threat, as it turned out. Wily jabbed the butt of his cane into Scoops's forehead forcefully enough to send her tumbling to the ground, wailing in pain. “Bring a paparazzi into my house, will you,” grumble, grumble, “you're on thin ice, Kamishiro, thin ice! And what're you, huh?” This time he was looking at Yuu. “Lemme guess. A detective?”

“Yes, actually,” Yuu said.

Wily digested this fact for a moment before he turned around without another word and started walking away. “Oh, come on, Doctor,” Kari said with a giggle, “don't be so grumpy.”

“I'm always grumpy! Do you know how old I am?!” Wily shouted, his voice echoing off of the walls as Scoops rubbed the new bump on her forehead.

There was a moment's pause, before everyone collectively answered, “No.”

It took a bit of cajoling, but they did manage to get Dr. Wily sat down, at the very least. He grumpily ate his frozen meal as his protege, by his side on the couch, awkwardly rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “I'm really sorry, Dr. Wily's not, um, very good with new people?”

The unspoken question here, of course, was, 'then why did he agree to let anyone in here in the first place', but Scoops had learned one thing from her new bump on the head. This old man was probably the sort who'd get mad at you if you pointed out his charity or generosity, she thought—it was best not to ask.

Rin Hashizawa was another pale young lady, but as opposed to Kari's 'having albinism' variety of pale, Rin looked more like she'd come out of a vampire novel. Her hair was dark, strung up into a ponytail, and her eyes were blood red. She was a large girl with a top-heavy build—the sort of squishy that Scoops imagined could absorb a fall or two, if it came to it. She wore similar skull-print pajamas to Dr. Wily, but she wore a classy, black cloak with gold trim and a purple gem as a clasp for the hood... rather like a vampire.

“I'm not either. Really, actually... well, that is...” Rin looked to the side, and scratched her cheek gently with her index finger. “S-so that is to say, I'm sorry.”

“So, okay, am I allowed to ask about the elephant in the room?” Scoops said, raising her hands and looking around. “Alright. Why does one of Paige's classmates live in a penitentiary? My inquiring mind is dying to know.”

There was a moment of silence as Rin's eyes consulted Kari's for an answer. “Long story,” they said simultaneously.

“Well,” Yuu said, “I would presume it would be because she committed some manner of crime.” Before the reaction could go any further, Yuu raised his hand. “I'm not asking you to elaborate, I'm just stating the obvious. It's not like any of us are any stranger to fraternizing with former criminals, right? If we were, we wouldn't be here.”

“Technically,” Stingray chimed in from Scoops's PET, “nothing I did was ever illegal.”

“That is an extremely strong 'technically',” Yuu responded, “and you had best hope I never have reason to inspect it more thoroughly. At any rate, Dr. Wily, my client and I were told you were the best person to speak to regarding something relevant to a case I'm currently pursuing.”

“Myeh,” Dr. Wily said, his mouth full of food. Kari helpfully tapped some buttons on her PET, and sent them over, by the beeps, to the television screen on the wall. Dr. Wily produced a remote from a pocket of his pajamas and said, “Fine, let's see here. Not like I'm doing anything else today.”

The shaving of the Moon Fragment appeared on screen, along with the same nonsensically fast stream of data Scoops already didn't understand. Wily finished his bite of food and then immediately said, “What the hell is this supposed to be?”

“It's a shaving of something a source of ours called the 'Moon Fragment'. It's an unusual substance of some sort that's currently operating inside of a NetNavi, serving as a replacement for a Core Program,” Yuu explained.

“A Navi?” Wily scoffed. “No Navi could run off of this. The framework's all wrong—the basic structure of the code isn't applicable to even Light's oldest programs.” He waved his hand, and twisted something on his monocle. “Self-replicating, is it. This...” He mumbled for a moment, before continuing. “Tell me about this Navi.”

“He was constructed out of junk data,” Yuu said. “He wasn't meant to have a consciousness of his own, you see—he was made as a spare body for another Navi, but he's not very sturdy or robust, and was unusable for those purposes. He obtained consciousness once the object this came from was placed inside him.”

Things went quiet as a moment as Rin awkwardly raised her hand. “Yes?” Paige asked.

“Oh, um. Well, it's just—you know, that is—It's actually very difficult to build a whole Navi body completely out of scrap data. Even if they used data from other Navis as part of it, it's... well, you see, scrap data isn't really all that useful. You'd need a specialized Navi or a very skilled technician. And... well, I don't, um, want to boast...” Rin's voice started to trail off.

“Please boast. It is a noteworthy skill, you know,” said Kari.

“W-well, okay!! In that case, I don't really know how many people other than me would even be capable of that sort of thing, since it's a very niche discipline. Do you happen to, er, know who made this Navi?” Rin asked. Incidentally, her hand was still raised straight in the air.

Paige nodded. “His name is Vulturon. He's... well, he's a former member of a mafia group called the Vile Numbers, and he's still causing trouble.”

“Sort of a vulture-y skull knight scrap rocker kind of vibe,” Scoops added.

“Oh,” Rin said. Scoops thought she looked a bit sad, but she shook her head. “No, I've never heard of him... Sorry. Um, please continue, Doctor.”

“You're telling me that someone stuck this thing inside a pile of scrap data and it started moving on its own?” Wily said, the frown lines on his face deepening a bit. “This thing... it couldn't be, could it?”

“Do you have some idea, Doctor?” Yuu asked.

Wily shook his head. “I'm not about to go spouting off nonsense without being damn sure. I've gotta go get my analysis equipment up and running for this... Shoving this thing in a pile of junk and making it run. Great, now I'm going to be busy... You'd best hope I'm wrong about what this thing is. And don't expect anything fast! Young people these days expect everything right away. Back in my day, if you wanted a package you waited weeks, months even. Now it's gone from same-week to overnight to same-day to instant.”

“Well, 'instant delivery' still isn't 'instant', Doctor...” Rin mumbled.

Yanking the data stick out of Kari's PET, Wily stood up and said, “Ah, you know what I mean. Shoving this thing in a Navi and making it run. What kind of lunatic even thinks of that? Who just has this thing lying around? Great, now I'm going to be busy.” And so did Dr. Wily continue grumbling as he walked into another room and loudly shut the door.

“Lovely fellow, isn't he?” Kari said with a little laugh.

Scoops had, by this point, recognized the fact that she wasn't going to get any sort of interview with Dr. Wily, so she slumped and sighed out a, “Boy howdy.”

Paige, meanwhile, bowed to Rin. “Thank you both for having us on such short notice.”

“Oh, it's n-no problem at all, really! I-I mean, Lan, you know, he gives us less notice,” Rin said, again trailing off into a mumble, “opening the door all of a sudden, even forgetting his visitor's key...” She started twiddling her fingers. “I mean, I had started to forget what it was like to have someone warn you beforehand... um, except Kari, she always warns beforehand, of course, thank you...”

“No need to thank me. It's my civic duty, after all,” Kari said with a wink that lit Rin's face up with a fluorescent blush.

As Yuu began to prepare to leave, Paige asked, “If you don't mind me asking, who were you expecting to have made this Navi?”

Rin's eyes darted away for a moment, but then her body slumped over with a deep, heavy sigh. “Um. Well... Actually... You guys are going a lot of places, right? Lots of investigation and all that?”

“That is my duty as a detective,” Yuu said.

“Well, um... I don't have a NetNavi right now. But I used to, a few years ago, back when I was first studying the use of scrap data. I programmed him myself, but... um, I lost track of him a few years ago, it's a-a long story and all...” Another finger-twiddling. “A-and I'd really like to find him again, is the thing. His name is Kyorown. He's about yea tall—” Not very. “—and he's supposed to look like a little crow, like the kind you'd find on a graveyard gate. If you tell him, please, um, let him know I'd like to see him again.”

This was definitely a long story, but before Scoops could inquire further, Paige grabbed Rin's hands, pumped them with an intense look on her face, and said, “Of course!”

“Oh, you're very kind, thank you!” Rin clasped Paige's hands back, and the two of them shared a moment of thorough understanding... or something.

(“She's got a hero complex something fierce, Paige does,” Scoops whispered to Kari out of the side of her mouth. “Can't stop herself.”

“Oh, it's cute, you know,” Kari said back. “It's good for us both if Rin has friends. I worry about her sometimes, you know. She's far too easy to fluster. Someone meaner than me could take advantage of that.”

“What's you two's relationship, anyway?” Scoops asked. Kari gave her a pointed look. “Right, gotcha. I mean, I didn't wanna meaninglessly write gossip, y'know?”)

With their business concluded, it would be rude to remain any longer in Dr. Wily's home, so Scoops, Paige, and Yuu left. Paige took a deep breath in, and then pumped her fists to the air. “Alright! I've got to go home and make sure I'm ready for tomorrow.” As Scoops understood it, some friend of Paige's was coming in from Netopia. “Sorry, but I'll have to go.”

“No worries, I'm busy for the rest of today too,” Scoops said. She sidled over and reached up to pat Paige on the shoulder. “You take easy, kiddo.”

“You're only one year older than me,” Paige said.

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Northern Housing

The air in Scoops's hometown always tasted the best. Sure, it wasn't that far from the big city, but to her, it felt like a carved-out chunk of something much deeper in the country. Befitting its title as a 'historical district', you got to know everyone fairly quickly. Scoops, being a reporter, probably knew more people in this town than your average Joe or Jane, for that matter—

“I should probably get back to the agency,” said Yuu, looking at his pocket watch and interrupting Scoops's thought. “Kraken's liable to be getting lonely all by himself.”

“Can't he entertain himself?” Scoops said with a roll of the eyes. “He can't be that clingy, right?”

“I couldn't tell you whether it's joking or serious, but he always lights up whenever I come home, even if he's been out himself,” Yuu said, idly spinning his cane around in his hand. “I figure I can't go wrong treating it like it's serious, and I might have something more minor to tackle. Perhaps Mr. Kuromatsu has lost another of his socket wrenches, or something of that nature.”

“You'd think he'd keep a better eye on 'em,” Scoops said. She scoffed. “I mean, me, I never lose a camera.”

“So you don't. I like to think I'm fairly well-organized myself, but some people's brains just work differently. My mother, for instance—I still don't truly understand her filing system all the way. If I ever have to look inside it, I'll sometimes find exceptions to every rule I thought I understood,” Yuu said, looking up into the sky fondly.

It was strange. Existing here, for a few reasons, was strange.

Ballade, a person that Scoops knew and had known for some time, was gone. He would never grace the streets of the town again, whether in the real world or in Cyberspace. That was one reason. He was not someone Scoops was particularly close with, but in a town like this, that didn't mean it didn't sting.

Another...

“Give my regards to Takezo, would you?” Yuu said. “And I know how you feel, but as far as I can tell, he really has your best interests in mind. Try not to be too mad with him.”

Scoops sighed. “Right. Yeah. I'll see you later, Yuu.”

A casual, mutual wave, and then a split.

“'Try not to be too mad with him', huh?” Scoops said, muttering to herself as she walked down the early-afternoon streets. It was quiet this time of day, which was good for the sorts of thoughts she was having. “What do you think, Stingray?”

“What do I think? He's not my grandpa, sister,” said Stingray, still chilling on his lawn chair with a virtual mimosa. “Me... Eh, I'd probably still kinda hold it against your old man, but I'm not the best guy for emotional advice.”

“Boy, don't I know that?” Scoops clicked her tongue. “Thanks anyway.”

“No prob,” Stingray said, returning to his own daily paper and his no-doubt lovely mimosa.

—The first thing Scoops noticed was the fluttering red scarf. The second thing she noticed was Eiji. Eiji was talking to someone with a fluttering red scarf... in plate armor... in the middle of the street...?

Then Scoops looked up. Oh.

“Oh, hi, Maki!” Eiji noticed her, and waved Scoops on over. Asahi Makimura, meanwhile, turned red as a beet and started stammering as Scoops appeared on the scene.

“T-thy presence is not needed here, madam!” said Asahi, pointing a finger clad in a steel gauntlet at Scoops. “Nay! For I still must steel my decorum for our next fateful encounter!”

“You got a new gimmick, huh, Makimura?” Scoops said with a raised eyebrow. “What, the Ren Faire coming into town or something? I mean, you look better in armor than the cowboy hat, sure, but—”

“S-silence! Silence!” Scoops couldn't help but notice one hand held behind Asahi's back as she frantically waved the other at Scoops. “I be not prepared yet! Y-you can't make fun of me for not being prepared yet!”

Eiji couldn't help his sensible chuckles, no doubt. “Asahi and I happened to run into each other. It's nice armor, isn't it? Strikingly Western, at that.” He pondered for a moment. “Say, Asahi. What if you tried a samurai or shrine maiden character next?”

Asahi's decorum was completely broken by this, and she stopped waving her finger. “Huh?”

“Oh, well... the first time, it was a cowboy, and now you're a Western knight, but it strikes me that it might fire Pegasolta up some if you did something uniquely Electopian. It might give you the edge, is all,” Eiji said, smiling, bringing a hand up just under his mouth in a cute little gesture. “You could get training for either of those here, too!”

“DAGA KOTOWARU!”

...came the shout from Asahi's PET, which she had to quickly squirrel out of her armor. The bouquet of flowers she was hiding behind her back dropped to the ground, and Eiji politely moved them out of the way as Pegasolta began yelling. “Ojou-sama lives at her ganbarimasu when her noble, moero character is what she desires! The contrasts in our passions, intersecting amidst a jounetsu setsuna, itself creates the kizuna between nakama!”

“P-Pegasolta—”

“Moreover! To imply that I, a senshi who battles seiseidoudou, would ever give less than his ganbaribest no matter the circumstances?! Were you not a medic, Kikuchi-dono, I would commit tsujigiri upon you in the realm of fervent debate! My tamashii alights, with kaze no NO REPLY, all hours of all days! Sessha, Pegasolta of the Eclair Clan, needs no enticement!” Asahi had, by this point, lost control of her PET—Pegasolta was being loud enough to cause it to wiggle around on its own.

“I-I'm very sorry, sir,” Eiji said, bringing his hands up in instinctive defense. “Really, I'm so sorry.”

“Hmph! I can forgive this sin today, but mark it well! No matter the time, Ojou-sama lives how she pleases!”

...And he was done.

“You know,” Scoops said, “Skiver was, like, normal. Where did you even get this guy?”

Asahi's eyes darted back and forth, before she finally noticed Eiji holding the flowers and squeaked. “W-wah! C-can I have those back? Oh my god, they aren't squished, are they? Oh my god!” She grabbed them, then went extremely rigid as her eyes darted towards Scoops. “It's not what you think! I don't have these for any sort of embarrassing reason or anything like that!”

That was enough to get Scoops laughing, which only made Asahi turn more red. “No! How dare you laugh at me! I swear, I'll get you for this! I'll crush you in the palm of my hand!”

...A few minutes later, Asahi had calmed down. Scoops had started walking, and so had Eiji, and Asahi apparently was going the same way. “I'm delivering these for Captain Harlock,” she said. “She's busy with work today.”

“Ah, got you playing delivery girl again, huh?” Scoops said, taking the opportunity to stretch her shoulders out as she walked. She grabbed her shoulder and started swinging her arm around in a circle. “No need to be such a weirdo about it.”

“Well, I didn't want you to see it and make fun of me for it!” Asahi harrumphed, puffing her cheeks out. “The last time, you went, 'Hey, Makimura, trying to flirt with someone? Who's the lucky person? Want me to take pictures at your wed-ding?' with that tone you use when you're making fun of people! It was mortifying!”

Scoops blinked blankly, then turned her head to Eiji. “Is she right?”

“Yes,” Eiji said, “you did say that.”

“Huh. Well, okay.” Scoops pondered it for a moment with a little humming noise. “You know, you're right. I would've joshed you a bit.”

With a little 'hmph', Asahi turned her head away. “That's right. I'm completely justified.”

“Still, you're just makin' it easy with these stupid outfits and voices,” Scoops said. “I mean, if you want some dignity, you could just dress like yourself—”

“Not on your life!” Asahi huffed. “I mean, you gave yourself a silly nickname so you could succeed. What self-respecting rival of yours wouldn't have some sort of title and goofy character?”

“Seriously, where is this schtick coming from?” Scoops hit back with a shrug so deep her hands went above her head. “Mild-mannered handywoman Asahi Makimura trying to be my rival?”

“Not that you'd get it,” Asahi puffed, “but Mr. Wilhelm says I look dignified, like I can do anything I put my mind to!”

“You probably could, whether you were wearing a cowboy hat or a suit of armor or a flowery bikini,” Scoops said, “and you'd probably look best in that last one, sure, but my point is—”

This, of course, made Asahi start loudly sputtering. “Maki, you really just don't understand a maiden's heart, do you?” Eiji asked with a little giggle, reaching over to pat Asahi on the shoulder.

“What, and you do?” Scoops asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, sure. Better than you, at least,” Eiji said. “It's just a way for Asahi to express how much she cares about you, you know? She gets pretty concerned about you—”

“Ahp bap bap! None for her, sirrah!” Asahi exclaimed, turning her head to look at Scoops while placing a finger in Eiji's face to shush him. “She wouldn't understand this sort of thing anyhow.”

“Well, if you told her how you feel directly—”

“She wouldn't understand! Would you, Hanasaka?” Asahi said, with crossed arms.

“Concerned about me? You're right, I wouldn't. I'm doing great!” Scoops said with a laugh.

“See, it's exactly that! It's that baseless confidence of yours!” Asahi huffed, and maybe with a little puffing, too? “You just tackle things without worrying if you'll fail!”

“Well, yeah, I'm usually good enough at most things I try, y'know?” Scoops said with a smirk. “And even if I fail, hey, I did my best, y'know?”

“It's exactly that attitude that pisses me off!” “Oh, yeah?” “I mean, being so unafraid of failure! What about—I-I mean, if you're so good at everything, what about the rest of us?” “There's plenty left for you to do!” “Like what?” “The things that need tall people!” “That's beside the point! You don't understand what it's like to be mediocre!” “Should I need to? I thought self-confidence was a virtue.” “It's exactly that attitude that pisses me off!”

“Oh, you two...” Eiji said with a sigh, slumping over a little bit. (Incidentally, Stingray had taken the opportunity to take a nap.)

Date: October 2, 20XX

Location: Manzo Historical District ~ Public Cemetery

The early autumn winds blew as leaves fell and fluttered in the wind. The sky was a perfectly clear blue, without a cloud in sight, and the air was cold, but not too chilly. This sort of day was Scoops's ideal, so having one for today was a good thing.

Much of this cemetery was dedicated to family plots for families that had lived in Manzo for years. The Hanasaka family plot was no different—from the entrance, you walked forward past three plots, then turned right, and it was the fifth plot on your left. It sat just in front of a hill that further plots sat atop.

In front of the plot was just the man Scoops had expected to see. Her grandfather, Colonel Takezo Hanasaka, had long since gone bald beneath the military cap he wore. He had a shrewd, sharp face with much more piercing eyes than his granddaughter, and he always wore a blue-and-yellow yukata lined with the Hanasaka family crest. He also happened to be just about the shortest fully-grown person in Manzo, though there was no calcium deficiency involved—he was just a fair few centimeters shorter than his already-short granddaughter.

Takezo had already lit some incense, and had his hands clasped towards the two graves he'd lit them upon. He knelt quietly in front of them, sitting so still he could be mistaken for an overturned jizo doll if you didn't know he was alive. To Scoops, it was another sign of the intense discipline he had that she could definitely never match.

“Have you come to this grave without any incense?” Takezo said, without turning.

“I've got some, but there's no point lighting it until yours goes out, so I guess I'm waiting,” Scoops shot back.

“Hmph. I guess there's some respect in you yet,” Takezo said. “Not that you'd know it looking at you.”

“I've come here for the same reason you have,” Scoops said, taking the step up onto the slightly raised plot, “so do you have to diss me like that?”

Hanasaka Shun. Hanasaka Mahiru.

“Good day, Colonel,” said Eiji, who stepped up and knelt beside him to pray. “Please, don't mind me.”

He didn't. Scoops took off her hat and clutched it onto her chest, looking down at the graves where her parents' possessions were interred. She'd never been the praying type.

“I'm sure you haven't. But have you honestly considered what I said?” Takezo asked, still not moving a muscle besides his mouth. “Without simply dismissing it out of hand.”

“Considered it?” Scoops scoffed. “What was there to consider? All you did was yell at me.”

“You don't listen to anyone unless they yell at you. It's a trait you should work on fixing if you ever mean to accomplish anything positive in this life,” Takezo said with a hint of a grumble.

“Anything positive? I have, Grandpa,” Scoops said. She didn't leave her somber posture, and her voice, without meaning to, came out a bit softer than usual. “I mean, come on. Right over there—” and she pointed to the Sakazaki-Harlock family plot, where Asahi was busy placing the flowers on Councilman Sakazaki's grave just right—“it's the Sakazaki plot. Can you really tell me I didn't help them?”

“You help solve one high-profile case and it swells your damned head. You don't have the discipline to make it in that trade,” Takezo said.

...Four years ago, a man named Daigo Sakazaki, a local politician, was assassinated. It was a high-profile case for those who lived in his hometown of Manzo, and his wife, Captain Emilia Harlock, hired boy detective Yuu Himekago to look into it. However, for Scoops, it was more personal—Sakazaki's daughter, Rinko, was an underclassman of Scoops's at the time. Her pleas struck a chord in Scoops.

“I want them to pay! I want everyone to know what they did!”

Though they hadn't been to her—Scoops overhearing Rinko grousing in the bathroom, more like—they'd struck that chord, and it couldn't be stopped. That was when Scoops decided on her desire to be a journalist, and she'd assisted Yuu in solving the case as a result... especially by delivering active reports of what the assassins' clients' true aims were.

“Discipline? People deserve accurate reporting,” Scoops said, “and that's a fact. Who else is going to do it if I don't?”

“You aren't listening,” Takezo grumbled. “As usual.”

...Ten years before that, the corpses of a war reporter and his wife were discovered at the site of an ongoing war with the military state of Nation Z. Treaties were eventually called for, and the fighting stopped, but these two casualties were simple statistics. Their bodies, obliterated by the bombing that had taken them, were so damaged that only a box of their possessions could be brought back home.

“I'm telling you this for your own good,” Takezo said. “Quit. Find something else to do. You've got a good mind on your shoulders, and I know for damn sure you aren't going to college just for journalism. Do something else.”

“When people properly go out into space and meet aliens, for instance, someone is going to need to be there to report on it. If we enter alternate dimensions, someone is going to need to be there to report it. There's always a need for reporters, old man—”

Asahi slunk towards the grave and started praying herself, as Takezo finally stood up and grabbed his granddaughter's shoulders. “You aren't listening to me!” Birds in the fading trees flew away, as the tranquility of the cemetery was pierced.

“What is there to listen to? All you do is argue with me and tell me I can't do it!” Scoops shot back, shaking him off.

“Because you're too soft! Too self-assured!” Takezo yelled, gritting his teeth. “You believe that you'll be right, and that everything will be fine! Sooner or later, it's going to break your heart! You'll fall to pieces!”

“My dad risked his life to go onto the sites of wars so people could know what happened—!”

“And he's dead!”

Now, Takezo and Scoops were in each other's faces again. Scoops gritted her fingers, wringing her hat out a bit to get out her anger.

“Your father, my son, died! He's dead!”

“And do you want his death to not mean anything?! I'm carrying on his spirit!”

“His death didn't mean anything! People who go to war don't die heroes, they just die! You shouldn't live your life shackled to some idea of forcing yourself to get it to mean something!”

Eiji did his best to calmly remain praying, though Asahi couldn't—she stopped, looking up with concern at the fighting Hanasakas.

“It makes me happy to give people the truth, tell them what they want to know! I know I can do it!”

“And what about when you're wrong?! What about when someone betrays your trust? Will you honestly be able to say you wanted to know that? The only reason you've been able to report on anything is because they weren't your stories!”

“How's that your business?! I'm an adult! If I get hurt, it's my business and I'll deal with it!”

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

Though the two of them were covered in sweat, panting heavily, after their argument petered out, it had ended before either of them came to blows. Takezo was the first to say anything. He turned his head toward the graves and said, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout.”

“Y-yeah,” said Scoops, doing the same thing. “Sorry, Dad, Mom.”

Another pause.

“Yuu says hi,” Scoops said.

“He's a good boy. Got a good head on his shoulders,” Takezo responded.

Respects were paid until the incense burnt out. Then, Scoops lit her own sticks of incense. She and her grandfather stayed there for some time, well after Eiji and Asahi left. If saying words would cause them to fight, then sitting in silence was the best idea—at least in that, they could be of one mind.

Chapter Text

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: Densan Municipal Airport ~ Arrivals

“Are... you okay?”

The scene was thus—Paige and Audrey were sitting at Arrivals at baggage claim #4, at five in the morning. Arrivals was quiet, full of people who respected the time, and their seats were against the wall. Paige had woken up just an hour before, but she was getting used to being awake by now. Audrey, on the other hand, had insisted on coming along when Paige said she was going. So quoth Audrey—“That idiot Navi of yours is still asleep, and I'd hate for anything to happen to you. I might not look like it, but I can be good in a fight when I want to.”

However, it was five in the morning. Audrey was not one to wake up at five in the morning, so the easiest explanation was that she hadn't slept at all. Hence, Paige's question.

“Eh?” Audrey said, before taking another gulp of her coffee. (Today, it looked like it was fairly sweet. She'd used caramel creamer this time.) “Yeah, I'm fine.”

“Okay, but... how long have you been awake?” Paige asked, tilting her head with a frown.

Audrey mumbled for a bit, scratching her head, then... “I wanna say six hours. Since the doc slept in and all...”

“Are you going to be okay?” Paige asked.

“Yes! God.” Audrey placed her hand on her forehead and leaned back. “Look, I appreciate the concern, but sometimes a girl's gotta skip a day. I'll probably hit the hay after I get home today and hey, I'll go to bed at like seven or eight. Normal person hours. Go me, right? Yes, I will be able to function.”

“As long as you're sure—”

“Hey, it's the wiry redhead, right?” Audrey asked, gesturing to a certain wiry redhead who was currently hefting her suitcase off of the baggage claim. It wasn't that large, but Paige knew it would certainly be densely packed—it was probably her art supplies.

Paige stood up and ran over, choosing to eschew words for the moment and instead get right to grabbing Mimel's other bag (this one was everything else) before she could. Oh... yeah. This one was pretty dense, too. Still—

“Hah! Hoo, hoo...” Paige panted, bending down after placing Mimel's everything-else bag on the floor.

Mimel, for her part, finished ensuring her art supplies case was safe, then grabbed Paige's shoulder, pivoted her around, threw her arms out, and said, “How's it hanging, cuz?”

“Mimel!” A bit of friendly laughter came out of Paige's throat as the two embraced. In the early morning, the warmth of Mimel's body was well appreciated. “This has been a very long few months.”

Then it stopped for a moment, and Mimel began actively rubbing Paige's back a bit. “Huh. Anyone tell you you're real tense? You've got a helluva knot in your shoulder back here. Class troubles? Crime fighting troubles? Point is, I can get that in a bit here if you want.”

“Would you, please? I don't feel comfortable asking anyone else,” Paige said.

After the embrace came a quick but fearsome fist-bump. Then, Mimel went for her art supplies case before lifting her head, raising an eyebrow, and pointing to ask, “Which one's your hanger-on?”

Paige let out a little yelp and jumped back when she realized Audrey had been standing there for that, already having grabbed Mimel's everything-else bag and hefted it over her shoulder. “Um!”

Audrey let out one of those dry, wheezing, bark-laughs she gave. “Sorry, sorry. I just didn't wanna interrupt,” she said, gasping her air and waving her hand around a bit before extending it. “Audrey Longhener. I'm also in Dr. K's course. Paige and I have been getting on.”

“I've heard the name. Thanks for taking care of her,” said Mimel, meeting Audrey for a handshake. Her face briefly scrunched up, though Paige wasn't sure why. “Right, you're the one who can sleep through courses or something, right?”

“It's a skill of mine,” Audrey said. “What's the address of your hotel? I probably know how to get there.”

The airport directly connected to the train line, so it didn't take long for the three of them to get on. As they were walking, Paige said, “So, not that I mind you being here, but... um, why are you here, again?”

Mimel laughed and rubbed the back of her head. “Well, see, I've got this exhibition match that they had scheduled for tomorrow. But the stadium they're gonna use is the same one they're using for that, uh...” Here, she snapped her fingers a few times to try to wring the name out. “...that thing Mom and Lam are at, so they had to reschedule last moment—real sloppy. So, I get to hang out for a few days.” She winked. “I kept it a surprise.”

“ElecFes,” Paige said.

“Yeah, that's the thing,” Mimel said, clicking her tongue. “Figured I'd go by and see them while I'm here, too. Hear they're doing some kind of exhibition in the main stadium today.” She chuckled as she sat down on her seat in the train. “Shame I can't spook Lam, right?”

“Oh, come on, be nice to him,” Paige said with a little giggle. “He's at a tough age.”

“So.”

Audrey, who hadn't said much, cut in as she took her place holding onto one of the standing bars. “Permit me a bit of curiosity. How's this happen? I mean, I'm not a sports kind of lady, but I have the impression you're pretty well known. It's not the sort of thing I picture Paige being big into.”

“Oh, all my knowledge is because of her,” Paige said with a nod.

“What I'm asking is, how'd you two become friends?” Audrey said.

The answer was quick, near-instant, from both Paige and Mimel, who casually pointed at the other. “She was(, like,) the only person who would talk to me.”

“What?” Paige asked. “Plenty of people talked to you. You were sociable. Not like me.”

“Listen, Paige, sure, I talked a lot, but that's not the same as being sociable. I said shit, you know? Like I'd just fuckin' talk. Sure, people kinda blandly tolerated me, but nobody actually liked me,” said Mimel, with a well-practiced argumentative tone.

“I thought your strange mannerisms were funny,” said Paige with a little huff.

“Okay, but everyone else was laughing at me. I was hella cringe!” Mimel said, recoiling a bit at the thought. “I mean. Ugh, man.”

“Well, you were nice to me. Actively. People 'kinda blandly tolerated' me, too, but you were the only one who really made an effort to be my friend,” Paige said. “At least you had something. I was barely a person at that age.”

“Yeah, but 'what kind of self-respecting practitioner of the ideals of chivalry's gonna leave a young lady to be sad?' or something like that, it was cringe, I'm telling you.” Now Mimel was chuckling at her own past buffoonery.

“Well, I thought it was charming,” Paige said.

“Huh,” Audrey muttered to herself, “so this is what a 'childhood friend' is like, is it...”

“Another friendless kid, huh?” Mimel said, raising her eyebrow with a stern nod. “Sympathies.”

“No, no, well... I suppose people liked me fine. The only person around my own age I was decently close with was my nanny's niece, and she lived in Netopia, so that was a once-a-year hangout, or somewhere thereabouts,” Audrey said, turning to look out the window at the dark tunnel wall. “So, this whole inseparable childhood friend business is a bit alien to me. Makes more sense with you two than it does with Scoops and Eiji, though. How the hell's a girl like that manage to be friends with him...?”

There was a quiet moment before Mimel said, “So wait, this is the one who used to be like, blonde blonde?” Her leg started bouncing involuntarily.

“It just happens to some people, okay?” Audrey grumbled, pointedly facing away. “Some people just have their hair get darker as they age. It's a thing. It happens.”

“A nanny, huh...” Mimel hunched over to ponder that one. “When's the last time I met someone who had a nanny? Sure, I had babysitters sometimes, but a nanny?”

“I've met her,” Paige said. “Funny lady. Very... Mary Poppins.”

“'Course she is,” Mimel said, crossing her arms and nodding to herself, “that's just the way of things.”

At any rate, Mimel's hotel room was a simple one-bed one-bath affair, with a reasonable amount of room to spread her things out. Once both bags were set down, Mimel dusted her hands off, let out a sigh as she put her hands on her hips, shook her head, and said, “Okay. That's done. Okay. I've been trying not to say anything.”

Pivoting on her feet, Mimel dove right past Paige to put her hands on Audrey's shoulders. Audrey froze up, her eyes wide, and her mouth so thin her frown could be drawn with pencil.

“Listen. You have gotta let me cut off some of your hair,” Mimel said, delivering this absurd request with the deathly seriousness of someone asking for your gun while being attacked by a raging bear.

“Wha—” Audrey sputtered. “What?”

“No, okay, you've gotta understand. I can't bear to look at your hair, man. Sure, I get the 'herd of cowlicks' look, but you're not doing anything with it, you've just got a labyrinth of split ends! Mm-mm! No! If we're in the same friend circle, I will not let this keep happening in front of me if I have anything to say about it. Nuh-uh!” Mimel said, continuing to deliver this impassioned speech as though it were a call to revolution.

“Ohh... right,” Paige muttered, “I should've warned you... she did this to me once, too, actually.”

“Who gives a shit?” Audrey scoffed, gritting her teeth and looking away. “It's my hair. It's on my head, that's all it does—”

“No, no, no! You can't do anything with it! What if you find yourself with a sudden passion for life and go, say, 'I need to braid my hair?' You'll have to go through the process of cutting off a bunch of this anyway because you've got unhealthy hair here! Trimming's one thing, but you need a weed-whacking, and I'm great at whacking, weeds or otherwise! Please!” Mimel shifted from the shoulder grab to the hand grab, her eyes burning with intensity as she clutched Audrey's hands tightly. “Please.” Her voice became a whisper for that last cry.

Pause.

“Uh...” Audrey's eyes darted to Paige for advice. Paige gave her the look that sent the only advice she had—'just let this one happen. You really could probably use a trim, at least.' “F-fine. Just... try and be gentle.”

“Nice!” Mimel jumped up and pumped her fists in the air. “Alright! Lemme get my hair cutting tools out real quick and we can get started.” She dashed over to her art supplies suitcase (as far as Mimel was concerned, hair was a form of art as well) and waved a hand behind her at Paige. “Sorry to cut and run, bestie, but I've got an important job to do. You, uh, go do college things, or something. My soul's blazing!”

“That it is!” Paige said with a smile, before turning that smile on Audrey. “Sorry about this one, Audrey. Sometimes, she's just unstoppable.” Audrey only had grumbles to offer.

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Outer Rim

Today, an exhibition of larger machines was occurring in the central stadium. As such, the doors were properly open, and people were slowly heading inside well before the time. When Paige arrived, Scoops was already dragging Eiji along, scoping out the crowd. That was normal, and after a quick wave, she decided to take another look around.

That was when she noticed a much more unusual combination. Vespa, who'd been patting down her jacket after a sudden gust of wind, arrived by her and said, “Yo, what're you—” before herself looking.

“Listen,” said Lambert, with a little huff to his voice and with his fists on his hips, “I-I really think that the intricacies of this exhibit would be lost on someone your age, so maybe you shouldn't comment on—”

“I'm just saying that maybe if you didn't stand around by ice sculptures all the time,” said Compa, with a shrug and that air of 'obviously' to her posture, “maybe you wouldn't have to go around wearing a snuggie. And I'm fourteen! I'm plenty old enough to—”

“No, you're not! I'm fourteen. I think I know what a fourteen-year-old looks like,” Lambert said, with a jabbing, accusatory finger, “and you, miss, are not fourteen!”

“What,” Compa said, huffing and putting on a mocking tone as she turned away, “you gonna card me?”

Thinking to herself that this had probably gone on long enough, Paige gestured Vespa to come on over. “Um, Lambert?” she said, causing the boy to start.

“Gyah! Paige! Vespa! Uh!” Lambert's eyes darted between all three people present at his exhibit.

“Nah, dude, the kid's fourteen,” Vespa said. “No foolin'.”

Pause.

“But...” Lambert mumbled, turning his head to look at Compa, then turning back to Vespa. “...short.”

Compa exclaimed something or another, but Vespa spoke over her to say, “You know, you're not exactly the tallest tool in the shed yourself, kiddo.”

“That may be, but—!”

It was at that exact moment that both Lambert and Compa registered Paige and Vespa's mutual familiarity with the other fourteen-year-old, and said, “Wait, you know him (her)?”

Some sensible chuckles from both of the protagonists later, Paige said, “Compa, this is Lambert Blackgold, my best friend's little brother. Lambert, this is Compa Kamizono, my teacher's daughter.”

“You're the Handsome Dynamite's brother?!” “You're Mazda Kamizono's daughter?!”

“Keaton shows me matches a bunch. Your big sister is really, really cool!” “Well, I've always really respected your father's work! I was really proud of Paige when she got in, but I didn't realize I'd have the honor of actually meeting the good doctor and his daughter!” “Oh, I can kind of see the resemblance, you have the same hair color from before she dyed hers.” “To think, this early on I'm having these great honors... Hah! My sister could never!” “But she's so cool, though!” “She didn't used to be! She used to wear a justaucorps to school!”

Lambert and Compa's excited babbling, Lambert taking the opportunity to diss his sister a little with a smug grin on his face, seemed to have solved their dispute. “Aww,” Vespa said, “young friendship. Ain't it cute?”

Paige, on the other hand, was looking around. “Do you see Dr. K around?”

“I didn't even know he was coming,” Vespa said. She looked around a bit herself. “Nnnnope.”

“Oh, dear,” Paige said. She tapped Compa on the shoulder. “Sorry, I don't mean to interrupt, but where's your father?”

“Daddy?” Compa hummed to herself for a bit as she brought her hand to her chin to think. “Ummm... I think I left him at the popcorn machine...?”

Vespa held up her hands, and started quietly pulling her fingers down. Five... four... three... two... one...

Shockingly, the person that came running up at that very instant was not Dr. Kamizono, but Mrs. Blackgold. She was a bit out of breath, but quickly recovered. “Oh, good! That's nice. Hello, Lambert, Paige, Vespa.” She walked over to Compa, then. “You wouldn't happen to be Compa, would you? The girl with the little bell hair-dec?”

“I mean, I don't think this one's custom-made, but that's me,” Compa said.

“Great!” Mrs. Blackgold clapped. “You know, your father is—”

There was Dr. Kamizono, running so fast that it seemed like he might kick up a dust cloud before screeching to a half. He was more than a bit out of breath, enough so that he knelt down and supported himself on his knees to gasp for air. “Oh... oh, hold on a second, oh... all this running isn't my strong suit...!”

“Pace yourself, Doctor,” Paige said.

“I'm fine. I'm fine,” Dr. Kamizono said, taking in a decisive gasp before clearing his throat and doing his best to put on his stern dad face. “Compa? What have I told you about going off on your own in crowded spaces like this?”

“It's fine! Nobody would try anything in a crowded space like this,” Compa said, “and if they did, I'd just hit them with a Yes Man Kablaam!”

“You're taking the wrong lessons from those videos,” Dr. K said. Then he finally noticed Paige and Vespa were there. “Oh! Hello, Paige. Sorry, Compa went missing and this nice lady here, see—”

Vespa interrupted. “Mrs. Blackgold, this is Mazda Kamizono, Paige's teacher. Dr. K, this is Pauline Blackgold, Paige's basically-mom.”

“Wait, you're the Dr. Kamizono?!” “Wait, you're Mrs. Blackgold?!”

“It's such an honor to finally meet you!” “No, no, I'm so sorry I didn't at least ask your name beforehand—” “Oh, don't worry about it! I was the one who approached you to help!” “Uh, but really, I should repay you somehow—” “My son really admires your work, and obviously I'm very glad for your taking care of Paige!” “Oh, of course, she's a pleasure to have around—er, I'd heard of you by reputation, I hate to have our first meeting be so awkward—”

“Daddy just can't talk to women his own age,” Compa groused, and Lambert nodded and mumbled that no, it seemed not.

“H-hey!” Dr. Kamizono squawked. Mrs. Blackgold was having a laugh, and he was turning red. “Compa, you can't just sell me out like that! I'm having a hard enough time here as it is! Er—n-not that I—t-that has nothing to do with it, it's just social decorum that I'm not following here—M-Mrs. Blackgold, I'm so sorry—”

“Oh, please, call me Pauline,” Mrs. Blackgold said. “Not 'Polly', though, I stopped letting people call me 'Polly' in high school. They always used to say it and squawk like a parrot, and I just hated that!”

Dr. Kamizono gulped, wiping away some sweat. “Oh. Uh. Sorry. Um... Pauline. Uh, then you... can call me Mazda.”

Pause.

Pauline blinked. “Sorry, your name is Mazda?”

“Yes.”

“Like... the car company?” Pauline asked, tilting her head.

Mazda grunted, gritting his teeth with another sigh and a shake of the head. “Yes. It's a family thing. I couldn't explain it to you if I tried. I'm named after the car company. I know it's a weird name.”

“I'm named after a minibus!” Compa added.

“Oh,” Lambert said, frowning a little. “I thought it was for 'compass' or something.”

“In that case, it's nice to properly meet you, Mazda!” Pauline said, extending her hand for a more proper greeting. “Thanks again for taking care of Paige. It's good to know that she's in dotty, but reliable hands!”

“Hahaha! Um, yeah,” Mazda said, taking the handshake. “Er, yes. Yes, of course. She's a... a pleasure to have around, like I said. I'm sorry to have concerned you! It's just, I get awfully concerned about Compa—I-I know I must look like a complete mess right now.”

“No, no, it happens! I mean, I had to learn how to deal with that myself. It's hard being a single parent. Who could blame you?” She was still smiling.

To Paige, seeing Mrs. Blackgold's sunny disposition contrasted with Dr. Kamizono's uncharacteristic, near-comically flustered demeanor struck her as like something out of an absurd comedy sketch. As such, when Lambert sidled up to Paige to ask whether Compa's comment was true, all she could do was shake her head in befuddlement.

There was a beep, and then Lambert stepped forward to grab something out of Dr. Kamizono's coat pocket. Paige recognized it—it was the Divider. “Sir, this thing just beeped,” he said. “Not to be impertinent, but why have you brought a gun?”

“Huh? Uh, whoa!” Dr. Kamizono broke from the handshake to say, “Er, could I have that back? It's not an actual gun or anything, but I'd rather it didn't get damaged.”

Lambert waggled it around a bit, and then handed it back. Dr. Kamizono fired it in that direction, and sure enough, it beeped and flashed a little bit. “See? This is the Divider. It's an, uh, it's a Kamizono family invention.”

“Ooh, what's with the spokes on the bottom?” Pauline asked, curving around him to ooh and aah at his funny gun-shaped object.

“Oh, these are Bullits, see... They actually serve a practical purpose, they're where the Divider stores its, uh, 'ammo'!” Dr. Kamizono said, before puffing up a bit. “Ah, they store programs, you see. You can store a lot of things in here. It's like an old USB, but much more stylish and widely compatible!”

This time, the ooh'ing and aah'ing was mutual between the two Blackgolds. “That's really incredible!” Lambert said. “Can I have one?”

“There's only one, sorry,” Dr. Kamizono said. “It's a family heirloom, I can't give it away.”

Lambert turned her head to Compa, who said, “He usually keeps it locked up somewhere. I can't even fool around with it!” She puffed her cheeks.

“Well, at any rate,” Dr. Kamizono said, putting it away, “I hope you understand what I'm trying to tell you, Compa—”

“Could you rip me out of this CopyBot right now?” Vespa asked.

Pause.

Pause.

“Wha—?” Paige turned her head to look at Vespa. “I, I, uh, but, I, um, uh, w-what kind of question is that?”

“I mean, I'm just curious,” Vespa said with a shrug. “Like, could you? I don't want you to. But could you?”

Lambert and Compa, who were apparently now seeing eye-to-eye, looked at each other and went, “Classic Vespa.”

“Er. Well, I could, sure,” Dr. Kamizono said. “And then I could probably load you back in. B-but that's not important! More importantly, you know...” He sighed. “Oh, man. I came here to try and have a good time, you know. I've been having a busy few days, and it's just...” There was another sigh, one that made him bend over. “But here I am talking work!”

“Well, maybe you should go relax with something that's not almost work?” Compa asked.

“You wanted to come see, too, you know,” Dr. Kamizono said. “Well, at any rate, I should be going. We should take our seats before I pass out! Er, thank you, lovely meeting you, have a nice day, everybody, come on, Compa, let's, er, let's go.”

And so Compa was shuffled off by her father, waving goodbye to those present before properly walking alongside him. “She's a cute kid!” Pauline said. “Stylish, too. I can't believe you have even more friends, Paige!”

“...Huh,” Lambert said, blinking. “Yeah, I guess so, huh... It's not the kind of thing I normally picture you doing, hanging out with people.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Mimel asked, with her arms crossed, standing next to her mother and Lambert in the lineup.

“No, you're an exceptiAAH!” Lambert screeched, falling backwards at the sight of his sister, who was doubled over with laughter. “Damn it! I even knew you were coming, damn it! How are you so loud at every other time?!”

“It's the power of a big sister,” Mimel said, turning away and putting her hands behind her head. “I can do whatever it takes to punk you a little. Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, honey!” This was a regular occurrence, so Mrs. Blackgold wasn't fazed. “You get in okay?”

“I had some work to do, but yeah, I got in okay,” Mimel said. Paige laughed a little to herself.

“What's good?” Vespa asked, coming up to hit Mimel with a high-five. Mimel obliged. “Your head fall off in transit?”

“I look like I've got a green ribbon on my neck?” Mimel returned it.

Paige looked around in the vicinity, but for a moment, she wasn't able to locate Audrey, who, by all rights, should've come in at the same time. That was, until—

“What the hell happened to your head?!”

That was Scoops, and the shout made the scene move a number of meters to the side, closer to the entrance. There, Scoops was staring, wide-eyed, at Audrey, who had pinned herself to the wall like a bug, trying not to be seen.

“God damn it, be normal about it,” Audrey spat. “Just for one second, please be normal about it.”

Audrey, shivering and a bit flush with embarrassment, had lost a lot of hair. Mimel had apparently been quite serious. Where Audrey's hair had once been nearly down to her waist, it only reached her neck now—Mimel had left her with a tousled bob that looked distinctly more combed than anything Audrey had had since Paige had known her. Even her bangs looked more even.

Eiji was shocked, too, but his gasp was much softer. He took a step or two closer, then said, “Wow, it actually looks very nice on you.”

“You actually cut your hair,” Scoops said, her jaw figuratively on the floor. “I mean, just, you know. I've known you for over a year now, y'know, and your hair. I kind of just assumed it would stay like that forever, y'know—”

“Be. Normal. I am begging you to be normal,” Audrey said, slightly coming off of the wall. “It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. You're making it a big deal and it's not a big deal. I have less hair now. My head is lighter. Yes. That happened.”

Eiji continued his inspection, and continued on to say, “Wow, the consistency is lovely. Not a strand or tangle in sight yet... Did you go to a professional for this? It's really nice!”

With a loud, commanding stomp, Mimel stepped onto the scene and said, “No, no, my friend. She ran afoul of yours truly. I'm not a professional, I'm just an enthusiast.”

“Professional weirdo, maybe,” said Lambert, averting his gaze. “You cut a woman's hair first thing after you got into the country?”

“Ahahahaha!” Mimel exclaimed, crossing her arms and laughing to the sky. “You can't deny an artiste's spirit!” She launched over, wrapping her arm around Audrey. “With my assistance, even that tragic herd of cowlicks can be tamed, made into something that at least doesn't look deeply unhealthy!” She clutched her fist and flexed, pulling her arm toward as she did. “The first step towards proper health starts with a single step.”

Pause.

“Wait,” Mimel said, whipping around and properly getting a look at Eiji. “I've heard of you.” To an observer, she almost looked like she teleported. “First off. Hi. Mimel Blackgold,” she said, extending a hand. Eiji took it. “You're Eiji Kikuchi, right?”

“That I am, Miss Mimel?” Eiji said, tilting his head with a quizzical lilt.

“Oh, man.” Now that the handshake was done, Mimel screwed her eyes into a narrow almost-glare and started really eyeing Eiji over. “Man. You weren't kidding, Paige, he's cute. Oh, man. Anyone ever tell you you give a girl the deep, intense desire to put you in cute outfits? Like a fashion store mannequin, but you're sentient and shit. I've got like five tops I could find something to put you in.”

“No, but that's a very kind thing to say! Albeit, also very strange,” Eiji said, twiddling with one of his ringlets.

“And you're Scoops Hanasaka, yeah?” Mimel said, turning away to deliver a handshake to Scoops. Scoops took it enthusiastically. “I'll give you an interview sometime in the next few days if you want.”

“Hell yeah!” Scoops said, pumping her fists. “I love interviews!”

Audrey took the moment to rub her face and grunt into it, and Paige sidled up next to her. “Hey, are you okay?” Paige asked.

“How does she manage this much energy?” Audrey groaned. “She found things to talk about for hours and she's still on.”

“Mimel's special that way,” Paige said. She smiled. “I don't really get it, either, but it's basically why we're friends in the first place, so I can't complain. Um...” She hesitated for a moment, but continued. “It does look nice on you. Your hair, I mean.”

Audrey turned away, grumbling for a bit, but then turned back and mumbled a, “Thanks.” She huffed. “Shit. Ilyana's gonna see me like this at some point.”

The thought of that was so horrifying that Paige felt a few pangs of sympathy anxiety about it. “Oh, no. I'm so sorry,” Paige said, shaking her head and patting Audrey's shoulder. “It's going to be okay. Do you want me to come with you?”

“I'm an adult. I can handle being embarrassed,” Audrey said. She started fiddling with her deck of cards. “Chronoforce, email her and tell her I got a haircut. Pre-empt it a bit.”

“Huh? Mm'kay,” Chronoforce said.

It was much closer to time to take seats, so Mrs. Blackgold and Lambert went to take theirs. “I'm gonna head over with them,” Mimel said. “Don't be too long, okay?” Paige nodded.

The rest of the group prepared to head over, too, but Scoops got a ring on her PET first. “Yo,” Stingray said, “I'm baaaack. Detective Himekago there?”

Paige would've said 'no', had Yuu not seemingly materialized from nowhere to join the conversation and say, “Yes, I'm here.”

“Whoa, where'd he come from?!” Vespa yelled.

“I've been here the whole time,” Yuu said, with a little smile. “You might not know this, but I'm actually quite good at remaining stealthy when I want to be. How'd it go?”

“Kraken said to tell you he's having a laugh by himself,” Stingray said. He cleared his throat. “Anyway, allow me to make my report. Got your notepad, boss?”

“You know it,” Scoops said.

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Public Networks Coalition (Branch 3-B: 'PopcornMachine Comp')

“Another plain square, huh...”

Plain appliances with limited electrical components never tended to have particularly special Cyberspaces. While ElecFes had many individually interesting and customized Cyberspaces, it was far too expensive to form them into a cohesive area for this limited time. As such, many individual appliances were left alone, puttering on as they usually did.

For Stingray, who'd spent years as an independent Navi on the wider net, this meant it had once been quite hard for him to get into this sort of appliance. However, he happened to have an easy ticket in this time.

Kraken stepped through his portal, turned, and tipped his hat to it, causing it to close. “That's the way of things, isn't it? You escape out of the bounds of what's expected and it's just plain squares!”

“Still, things would've been a lot easier for me if I could just cheat like you,” Stingray said with a snort. The tubes on his breathing mask wobbled a bit.

“You think? Personally, I think that people just don't see these sorts of connections. I've just got a keener eye than most~” Kraken brought one of his tentacles to his beak and let out a loud, high-pitched laugh.

...So, here was the inside of a popcorn machine, a plain square floating in nothing. Only the dutiful Mr. Prog spinning about and yelling about something or another inhabited this one. “POP POP POP POP, FRIEND! BUDDIES WON'T CREEP THESE STREETS WITH ME, CAUSE YOU KNOW HECKING WHAT THESE STREETS'LL BE, MAKE YOU WANNA, THEN I'M GONNA, CAUSE I GOTTA, POP POP POP POP, FRIEND!”

Well, that and a floating crystal of Mystery Data. Stingray opened it. “Aw, sweet. A spare AreaGrab *. Gonna pocket that, if you don't mind.”

“Oh, no, it's yours. You go right ahead. My darling Yuu's folder doesn't have much need for that sort of thing,” Kraken said, swinging into a bow.

[Stingray found: “AreaGrab *”!]

“Well, I feel better already,” Stingray said.

The two of them were out and about to try and find Panter Flauclaws. If they could find him and get details about what sort of hostage situation he was under, then that would solve quite a few problems—but they'd combed about a third of the appliances in the park now, and had yet to find anything.

It was possible he was still in his PET, Stingray thought... but then, that depended on whether they needed any prep work done. Flauclaws's operator probably wasn't stupid enough to keep his Navi around on a day they were going to do anything, and if Flauclaws didn't know who Vulturon's collaborator was, then his operator and their collaborator likely needed to meet to confirm the plan.

Did K know that Vulturon planned to betray them? Probably. Whatever plan K had in particular, Stingray figured it was likely planned around Vulturon's plan—or rather, Devilbat Schilt's plan. And who was 'Asimov'? Another collaborator, perhaps? From the sound of it, Flauclaws did know who that was, so likely it wasn't the same one.

Anyway, the point was, Flauclaws was probably about the festival right now. He wasn't liable to be in a CopyBot, because if anyone learned about the Beast Brigade and knew he could transform into a humanoid shape, he'd stand out like a sore thumb—and if he was in a more common pedestrian network here, say, at one of the exhibits, he'd risk detection.

Hence, Kraken and Stingray had decided to scan as many individual appliances as they could. This would be easier if Stingray could get into a staff zone or some manner of overhanging appliance directory, but it didn't seem like these had any. That made sense—a fair number of them weren't even from the same countries.

It would be much easier to find Flauclaws's operator, of course, but Yuu disliked cluttering the air with meaningless speculation, and wasn't 100% sure of his operator's identity. So quoth the good detective, “I'm roughly sixty percent certain, but there's a lot of things I need to clear up.” That mayor, Pauline Blackgold, sounded like she could be a witness, but so quoth the good detective, “Her silence tells me a lot more than you might think it does.”

“Alright,” said Kraken, who had finished clambering around the underside of the square like some sort of strange cryptid, “ready to go, big guy?”

“We're the same size, but yeah,” Stingray said—“Wait.”

A thought occurred to Stingray. There was a possibility that Flauclaws noticed them coming if they went through one of Kraken's portals—that is, he could've been in any of the appliances they'd already visited, but hopped out with whatever method he was using to get around.

He voiced this thought to Kraken, who hummed a bit. “Weeeeell... Let's see. In the incident at Markham Labs, he needed K's assistance for it. Here, it seems like it's the collaborator who has the ability to get him places. That said, it's not a bad point. If it is something he could borrow or something like that, then he could be running.”

Stingray nodded, and said, “Right. Okay, I've got a better idea. You mind opening up a small portal to the other appliances? All of 'em, in a row. Abouuuut... let's say, eighty centimeters in diameter.”

Kraken cocked an eyebrow, and chuckled. “Ooh, someone's got an idea, huh.” With a bow, Kraken spun about, then clapped two of his tentacles together. A smaller portal, with the desired dimensions, opened.

“Nice. Alright.” Stingray rolled up the sleeve of his trenchcoat, and a plate of his armoring flipped back to reveal one of his Ground Hunter launchbays. Internally, he commanded—Ground Hunter, Survey Mode! before launching. The little stingray missile launched out of his arm, and with a snap, Stingray obtained a few photos of that appliance. “Nothing. Keep it coming!”

“Oh my, isn't that something~” Another clap, and the dance continued. With a gashunk, shunk, shunk, Ground Hunters continued launching out of Stingray's arm into each of the appliances in turn. The ones they'd already investigated were largely empty, but there were a few that were more populated as you got into certain areas of the park. A NetCafé, or the stop for a BBS... of course, then you had things like an electrically locked box for a fire extinguisher, which just had a poor, lonely Mr. Prog.

Then—“F-5. We've got a hit.”

Stingray closed the plate on his arm, and pulled his camera out. Feeding the visual data he'd gotten, he generated a photograph from its slot, then pulled it out to show Kraken. F-5 was an air conditioning unit installed in the wall of the stadium, and the photo showed a few Mr. Progs standing on each other to make a Prog Pyramid, of course, but also—

“A-ha! That looks like it might be our man,” Kraken said.

Stingray could see what that Kamishiro lady meant. The Navi there, standing at a diagonal angle to the shot, was bulky, black, and red—he had segmented armoring along his body, with a number of silver points on his elbows, his kneepads, and the back and front of his boots. It resembled bone more than anything. His gauntlets were ringed with electrical coils, and his shoulderpads had lightningrods coming off of them, so it was doubtless he was an Electric Navi. His head was squat and rectangular, with only deep red eyes visible through the hole in the deep red, metal armor that covered his head and shoulders.

“Right. I've only seen a picture of the guy, but I can kinda see the bits. You know, like the silver plating becomes the claws, or something...” Stingray nodded, before sending some energy into his legs and jetpack. “Alright. Open up a wider portal in there and I'll try and rush in there before he can get away.”

“You're going for the Hienkyaku right away, are you?” Kraken laughed. “Oh, my. How rough.”

“We're not on the same side, even if there's a hostage situation,” Stingray said. He leaned down into a ready position, his fingers tapping the ground. “Three... two... one...”

The portal opened! “Sheeeeah!” Stingray exclaimed, as his boosters launched him into a forward thrust through the air. The wind wrapped around him at armor-shredding speeds as he launched into the space between appliances—the portal quickly gave way to just the same sort of small space, and the Navi he was looking for looked to his side to see the noise.

“Eh?! Damn—!”

The bulky knight tumbled to the side to dodge Stingray's greeting. In response, Stingray stopped on a dime with his inertial thrusters, and floated in the air as he gave a two-finger salute to hit him with his second. “Howdy. Name's Jet Stingray.”

The knight rumbled with a little growl. “How'd you get in here? There wasn't any outside connection.”

“Sorry to answer a question with a question, but more importantly, you're Panter Flauclaws, yeah? Concerned citizen here, interested in having a word.” Stingray landed. “Well, okay, I guess you're not technically Panter Flauclaws right now, you're... eh, you look like a Somethingman. Elecman? Sparkman? Nahhh, I think those guys already exist. Oh, Joltman! Got it! You look like a... Joltman.”

“...No,” said the knight whose name was not Elecman, Sparkman, or Joltman, “you're off on all counts.”

“Thunderman, then?”

The knight whose name was not Thunderman either put one of his bulky hands up to his squad, armored head, shook it, and sighed. “What do you want?”

“Well, like I said. I'm pretty sure you're Panter Flauclaws of the Beast Brigade, and I wanted to have a few words,” Stingray said. “See, I—”

With a shrug, the knight looked away. “Sorry. I don't know anything about any 'Beast Brigade'.”

“Oh, yeah?” Stingray asked.

“Do I look like much of a beast to you?” The knight said, looking back with a little glare. “Don't waste my time—”

“Sorry, sir, but that's where you're wrong. See, I happen to be well aware that the Beast Brigade can shift between humanoid and beastly forms, and you fit the bill for Flauclaws's human shape perfectly. Listen. I don't actually wanna kick your butt or anything. You're in the middle of a hostage situation, right?” Stingray said, and the knight's eyes widened from that glare into shock. Bingo.

“So what if I was?” he asked.

“Well, just so happens I'm in the middle of a gang of do-gooders who'd probably love to help, is all,” Stingray said. “You know, just—” The knight actually chuckled at that. “I say something funny, guy?”

“You're a fool,” he said. “Alright, I'll drop the pretense. Yes, I'm Flauclaws. Do you recognize what Devilbat Schilt is capable of? At the moment, he lacks a body, so he's capable of existing as a pure electrical signal. He could be here, right now, listening to us—and no sane hostage-taker would let me or my operator go around blathering about that sort of thing. Do you seriously believe that I'm at liberty to tell you anything?”

Stingray went quiet for a second, then said, “You know, that's a good point.”

“Yes, it is. If you want to subdue me, you'll have to do it by force,” Flauclaws said.

“Oh, that won't be necessary, I don't think~”

From the floor, making both Stingray and Flauclaws start back, Kraken's upper body poked out of a portal. He waved from the floor. “Good day, sir! I don't appreciate your being party to framing me with such a gauche crime, but it's lovely to meet you. I'm the former great thief, Tech Kraken!”

Flauclaws rolled his eyes. “I'm aware of who you are.”

“Right, right. Well, big fella, if you're so aware, surely you're aware that my dearest partner, Yuu, is more than capable of solving this crime with or without your help. The way I see it, helping us will just resolve things faster. Oh, we could easily find you somewhere that nasty Devilbat fellow couldn't follow. Are you sure you don't want to reconsider that?” Kraken said, lilting it into a little pout.

In response, the lightning rods on Flauclaws's shoulders began charging up, and they ran to the point of his right index finger, which charged with electricity that he pointed at Kraken. “I believe I was completely clear.”

“Okay, if you insist,” Kraken said.

That was when a portal opened up under Flauclaws's feet, causing him to yell as he stumbled and fell into it. It cut off halfway through, leaving his feet up in the air, wiggling frantically. “Dearie, dearie me. You're not a very smart fellow, are you?” Kraken said, clicking his tongue and waving a tentacle as he climbed out of the ground properly. “The sort of fellow whose only real awareness is fighting. Oh, such a barbarian~ Wouldn't you say, Stingie?”

“Ehh, I think he's probably just overly serious. I know the type,” Stingray said.

Beep, beep. A communications line opened up on the side of Flauclaws's helmet. “Sir! Sir! I need help, sir! I've been pinned down by the enemy!” He continued wriggling in the portal for a bit, long enough that Stingray started laughing to himself. Then—

Byoom. Flauclaws vanished from the portal. It wasn't the blue beaming-up of a usual jack out, but a snappier, thinner pink line that brought him out. Stingray stopped laughing. “...Damn.”

“Well, I didn't imagine that would last forever,” Kraken said, “but that does tell us something. So, wherever his operator or their collaborator are, they're capable of grabbing him from there... and not using a PET. Fascinating, don't you think?”

“I would've liked it better if I could've properly interrogated him,” Stingray said with a disappointed shrug.

“If you don't mind, Stingie, would you head on back to your partner and fill them in?” Kraken said, before kneeling down on the ground and closing his portal. “I'm going to study this, and see if I can figure anything out from it. If you see Yuu, let him know I'm having a laugh by myself.” He waved one of his tentacles to the side and opened up the gate to A-1, where Stingray had initially jacked in—without Scoops's oversight, that was where he needed to head back.

“Yeah, sure,” Stingray said. “Later.” And so Stingray headed off—gone like so much algae waste.

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Main Area

Quite a few people lined the stands of the stadium. It wasn't quite packed, but attendance was pretty good, to Paige's layman eyes. On the ground, Paige could see a number of machines that she didn't totally understand, and multiple technicians running about making sure they worked. For a moment, she found herself surprised that Dr. Kamizono wasn't down there presenting, himself, but she supposed she didn't know of any particular Machines he'd made.

The group had sat right near each other to continue talking. “An off-color beam of light, huh?” Yuu said. He screwed his face up in that sort of, 'What I'm thinking about is really important' sort of way. “Do any of you recognize the description of his human form?”

Paige didn't, and neither did Scoops, Eiji, or Audrey, but Vespa tapped her foot. “Oh, man. That... actually sounds familiar.” Tap tap tap. “Oh, man. That sounds familiar. Like... Oh, I know I've met someone somewhere that looks just like this.”

“Have you?” Paige tilted her head.

“Okay, no. It was in the last few years, and... I think you weren't there,” Vespa said, crossing her arms and grunting. “Oh, man. Like, I met this guy. I know I did.” She grabbed the photo, and stared at him. “I... oh, I don't think I thought he was that memorable or anything...”

“Wow,” Eiji said. “I mean, I think he looks quite memorable, but maybe I just haven't been around as much as you?”

After a moment more, Vespa slumped back into her seat. “Shit, I lost it,” she said.

“That's okay,” Yuu said. “I think I have a decent idea, anyhow. That goes along with my current thought process.”

“Which is?” Scoops asked. “C'mon, don't leave us in the dark.”

Yuu snapped his fingers a few times to himself, then pulled a chocolate coin out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and ate it. “I shouldn't say,” he said, “because if I'm wrong, I'll have wasted our time and energy on needless speculation.”

“Again with you! Man, you gotta give me something here,” Scoops groaned. “What's a reporter supposed to do without a lead? Not get a hot...”

Scoops trailed off, which was distinctly unusual for her. Not that Paige wanted to cast aspersions, but she was a little bit of a blabbermouth. Scoops leaned forward and tapped Paige on the shoulder (Scoops was sitting directly behind her), and said, “Hey. You see that?” She pointed her finger towards somewhere much further back in the stadium.

At first, Paige didn't recognize the armor-wearing scarved figure, but once she got a look at her face, Paige recognized it—it was Asahi. “Oh. Has she developed a new gimmick?”

“Man,” Vespa said, leaning in to look herself, “you know, I kinda dig that look, actually.”

“Quiet!” Scoops whispered. Some people had sat behind them now, so it was only polite.

“Hm,” Eiji said, joining the pile, “well, there's nothing saying she can't be here. But why is she in costume...?”

“And why isn't she sitting down?” Scoops asked. Asahi looked around for a second, then looked down at her PET, and turned around and left through a door behind her. “Suspicious. You think she's here on business?”

“The day before?” Vespa asked. “What, like, you think she's here with Flauclaws? You'd think she'd wanna stand out less.”

“Asahi's concerned about her optics lately, you know,” Eiji said with a little frown. “I think she wants to stand out a bit more, actually.”

With a collective shrug, everyone returned to waiting for the exhibition to begin... but as though the universe were feeling a bit slighted by their not chomping at the bit, all of a sudden—

Shunk.

The lights at the top of the stadium went out for a moment, leaving the room much darker. Not pitch black, no, the lights on the walls were still on perfectly well, but the lighting rig on the top went black—and then back on, and then they started flickering. The technicians below looekd visibly perturbed, and a murmur started up in the crowd.

“Well then,” Yuu said, “I doubt that that's just your ordinary technical error. Kraken hasn't reported back yet, but I'd like to visit the staff area about this, if you all don't mind.” He stood up. “Considering we've got multiple Einherjar running about, it's possible this could be something worth checking out.”

“Right!” Paige said with a nod. She then turned to Vespa, the two of them shared a look, and Vespa retreated from her CopyBot into Paige's PET.

“Someone keep my CopyBot warm for me, wouldja?” Vespa asked. Since Scoops was standing up to join them, Eiji started calling Cinnamon to see if she wasn't busy. “Cool, thanks.”

“Nice!” Scoops pumped her fists. “Let's roll!”

“You guys have fun,” Audrey said, leaning back in her seat and stretching. “I'm gonna sit this one out, if that's cool. You've got it. Probably. I'll, uh... I'll call if anything weird happens.”

Paige, Scoops, and Yuu started heading for the nearest exit back into the outer rim, but as they reached the entrance, they were met by someone else running around the bend. Mimel had jogged over, and as soon as she reached them, she asked, “Okay, what're we doing?”

“Huh?” Scoops said, tilting her head. “What, you wanna come?”

“Totally. Some more hero shit, right? Kinda thing Paige gets up to all the time. Some sorta nefarious plot by the Einherjar or something?” Mimel said with a smirk and a shrug. “C'mon. I'm here, so yeah I'm coming. You might need some help!”

“Oh, thanks!” Paige stepped forward to give Mimel a quick hug, then put her serious face on. “We're heading to the staff area to inspect that lighting glitch. We think at least two members of the Einherjar might be involved.”

As they started to run, Mimel said, “Hey, well, y'know, if you need anyone punched. In real life, I mean. I'll have to leave that to Tundraman if we have to punch anything cyber.”

“Good to have you with us, Ms. Blackgold,” Yuu said. “By the way, I assume you're well aware of who I am, so I'll skip introductions?” Mimel nodded. “Good.”

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium ~ Staff Area

“There,” said Yuu, turning to the left a bit further in from the outer rim. “That's the staff area.” All four hurried toward the door.

“Oh, no, please,” said the tall but otherwise unassuming man standing at the entrance of the staff area. His name tag read 'Autruche'. “You probably shouldn't go in there... really...” His lazy, blank expression looked slightly less blank as he looked at Paige. “...have we met before?”

“I just have one of those faces,” Paige said, “u-uh, but anyway—”

“Now you listen here, buster,” Scoops said, standing on her tip-toes to try desperately to get in his face, “we've got reason to believe that there's ne'er-do-wells in the system!”

“Wow,” Autruche said, “that's really horrible... Gosh. Um... do you have a license?”

“Uhhh... shit, uh,” Mimel started stammering, looking around, “uhhh I could go borrow Lambert's volunteer—no, that wouldn't—”

Scoops, on the other hand, had it handled, as she presented her PET. “I'm not, but my Navi is licensed as a lighting technician.”

“I sure am,” Stingray said, presenting his certification on Scoops's screen. “Check it.”

Autruche stared at it—or so Paige figured, but his eyes were pretty droopy—before saying, “Oh. This looks pretty legitimate... I'd check it, but there's an emergency, I think... Okay, Mr. Stingray Plus Four To Seven.” He turned and unlocked the door. “Go on in. I'll just be here... waiting to close the door again...”

Paige, Mimel, Scoops, and Yuu ran through the door and up the stairs, up to a small computer chamber that connected to the rigging catwalks. The head technician and his assistants were running about. Well, his assistants were running about, flitting around terminals that lined the walls—the head technician was mostly just yelling.

“Perroquiet! Hibou! Do you understand what's at stake here?!” The head engineer, a pointy-haired old man with bright orange-lensed goggles, a bright blue coat, and a tool kit in his hands (whose name tag read 'Doigt') barked orders at a tiny boy with a helmet and a chubby fellow doing his best not to pass out. “If the lighting breaks now, it's not just the exhibition, it's my reputation, our reputation! Imagine! We'll be treated as pariahs for this!”

“B-but sir,” said Hibou, the chubby one, “I'm just a temp!”

“All the moreso! Think about it!” Doigt barked. “Do you really think anyone's going to put in a good word for you if there was a screwup this colossal? You'll never work in this town again! None of this will! Think about your family! Think about your children that you don't have yet—”

Paige ran up to the main terminal for the lighting, barging past Doigt, then turned her head to ask, “What's the security like on your internal network?”

“Wha—okay first of all who are you, second, it ought to be perfectly good!” Doigt harrumphed. “Only staff and folks with event access ought to be able to get in. It's an internal, isolated network, and the only jack-in points are inside the stadium!”

As the three girls crowded around the terminal, Yuu slid between them and Doigt to work his magic. “Sorry, sir. I'm Detective Yuu Himekago, from Manzo. There's a possibility there's been some manner of compromise. These three are assisting me in my investigation. We'll do our best to isolate the problem as soon as possible—”

The little assistant, Perroquiet, started hopping up and down at a screen to the side which was flashing red. “V-viruses, sir! Viruses!”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhh?!” Doigt just about slammed into the ceiling from how high he jumped. “Viruses?! So there really is some kind of compromise in our security?”

A beep came from Scoops's PET, and Stingray said, “Okay, so it looks like we've got... two, maybe three, uninvited Navis inside this network. There's no hole, but I can't see what route they used to get in from just this basic data scan.”

“Oh, dearie me~”

A beep came from Yuu's PET. “Hey! You're back!” Yuu exclaimed.

“So I am, so I am~ Welcome back to me!” Kraken exclaimed. “Seems I didn't get back in time to warn you of this little pickle, but here we are. Everyone listening?” All four of the humans in the group did. Hibou did, too, but nobody really noticed. “Alright. The way it seems to me, they're attempting to create a relay point here. Oh—the cute little redhead's new, right? I'll do my best to explain later, if you please.”

“That's fine, no prob,” Mimel said with a thumbs up. All four were now crowded around the main terminal.

Kraken made a show of clearing his throat. “So, the most likely thing to me seems like however they got in here, they're using the top of the stadium as a relay point to set a connection to the parade float tomorrow. There shouldn't be another way in, though I don't quite know their method exactly yet. The point is, our thief will travel from ground floor to this network to the parade float, to avoid detection by using a completely unintended entry point.”

“So, if we can stop that,” Paige said, “we can stop them from getting the second Key!”

“Exactly! Full marks, Paige~” The sound of the heart emoji at the end of Kraken's statement was unmistakable. “It's not a bad idea if you can do it without being noticed, or making a ruckus like this to disguise it. I probably could, though I'd definitely find an easier way.”

“Alright,” Yuu said, “in that case, we'll stay here and keep an eye on the overhead with the lighting staff—if that's alright with you, sir,” he turned to say to Doigt. Doigt, who was deeply confused and out of his element, just nodded. “Right. We'll take over for Stingray and keep a bird's eye view, and try to stop any outward connections from forming. Ms. Blackgold, is your Navi capable of combat?”

Beep. “Oh, good sir, I'm almost insulted,” said Tundraman.

“He's hardly me-tier,” Vespa said, “but he's pretty good in a fight.”

“Heh,” Mimel said, “damn right. Let's go, partner! You ready to kick some ass again, Tundraman?”

“Always, Milady,” Tundraman said, “though I will warn you I'm not the best at kicking, specifically.”

“Alright,” Yuu said with a nod, before switching over to Scoops's position. “Okay, we're good. My partner's pretty good at reading data, so no need to wait. Hurry on in!”

“Roger!” Paige said with a nod. Mimel gave a thumbs up, and Scoops saluted. Then, all at once—

“Jack in, Vespa! Execute!”

“Hot off the presses, Stingray! Execute!”

“Emerge, Howling Crescent Moon! Tundraman, Execute!”

Chapter Text

Date: October 3rd, 20XX

Location: ElecFes Stadium Network Top Layer ~ LightingComp

As the three Navis beamed into the entry port, technicolor lights of all sorts of bright colors blared around them. Here, the rigging of the lights was large enough to run across, platforms of hard light glowing in pulsing rainbow light covering their tops to give leverage. To the sides, though, was a great big space of open air—structures beyond there lined the walls, riding up into the sky, but the space was far too large for anyone who couldn't fly. It rather reminded Vespa of a rave.

The jet black metal rigging headed on for some way, amidst the madcap rave of the computer, to a great big gate in the distance. A poor Mr. Prog was screaming its head off, running around in circles on the entry platform.

All of this was to say that when Vespa landed, she did so in a handstand, before beginning to breakdance. After a few moments, she came to a halt in an alluring pose on the ground, holding a rose in her teeth.

Stingray landed next to her and did absolutely nothing of the sort, instead looking about and ignoring Vespa. He began to scroll through his list of various certifications. “Let's see, where is it...”

“Aww, come on!” Vespa groused from the ground. “Those were some sick moves!”

It was at this moment that Tundraman decided to upstage her by slowly fluttering down from above, his cape slowing his fall as he spun in the air with the practiced poise that befit a professional ice skating routine. The lanky artist who himself resembled an art piece landed in a swan position, himself holding a rose—though this one was an icy blue. Some confetti blew in from somewhere, and an audience cheered for his astonishing entry.

Standing up, Tundraman bowed to nobody, tipping his hat as he did. “Oh, you're all too kind. I simply did what anyone would do, if they had ice skates for feet. Hmhmhmhm.”

Vespa stood up off the ground and threw her hands up, stomping up to Tundraman and gritting her teeth as she did. “Hey! You're totally stealing my thunder here!”

“Oh, my apologies, Vespa. But, you know, it strikes me as a touch selfish... Why, your friends here don't even know me! I simply have to make a first impression so that someone from our city doesn't look like a fool,” Tundraman said, raising his hand to his face plating and chuckling.

“Stingray!” Vespa yelled, as Stingray finished finding his lighting manager certification. “Hey! Is he legit?”

“What?” Stingray asked, turning around and staring at the two of them. His eyes went wide as he walked up to Tundraman, craning his head back a bit. “Man, you're taller than I expected.”

(For your benefit, Vespa is 175 centimeters tall. For the Americans in the crowd, that is roughly five feet, nine inches. She is not a short woman. Stingray is of a similar height. With all of the pieces of his body considered, Tundraman, meanwhile, is roughly 202 centimeters. Again, for the Americans in the crowd, that is roughly six feet, seven inches. He is a tall man.)

“Oh, am I, now? I would question what Misses Paige and Vespa have said about me that would make me sound short,” Tundraman said, “but I hope it's to your liking, sir.”

“Just an observation,” Stingray said, before extending his hand. “Jet Stingray. I'm a reporter. Vespa and I've been getting on.”

Tundraman graciously took it, offering, “Tundraman. I would describe myself as an artiste, though I must also live under the whims of my dearest Lady Mimel. Vespa and I have gotten on, historically.”

“Hey,” Mimel chimed in, “fuck you mean, 'the whims of my dearest Lady Mimel?'

“Oh, Milady, you have ever so many whims, don't you know?” Tundraman laughed. “Even your being up here is a whim of sorts, and I graciously go along, here to investigate and get into heated combat, no doubt.”

“You are kind of whimsical, Mimel,” Paige said.

Stingray raised his hand to say, “How have I met two Navis in the past two months who call their operator Milady?”

“Well,” Scoops said, “with that horse wacko, it's 'ojou-sama'.”

“Same difference,” Stingray said with a shrug. “Besides, she doesn't seem like much of a 'Lady'.”

Tundraman recoiled in faux shock, letting out a loud gasp as one of his hands clutched his chest plate. “Oh, good sir! Please don't insult Milady like that. Certainly, she has an unorthodox sort of femininity, with the way she so gracefully pounds the stuffing out of her opponents, and her brash and uncouth demeanor, but I assure you it is certainly worthy of the title Lady! No truer a Lady exists than my Lady Mimel, and so I will continue to refer to her as Milady until the end of time.”

Stingray blinked. “Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult?”

“Get used to it,” Mimel said, “he's been like this as long as I've known him.”

The three Navis caught the poor spinning Mr. Prog in its path as Stingray produced his license. “Yo. Lighting engineer Jet Stingray here. What's going on?”

“OH! IT'S SO HORRIBLE, SIR!” the little green bunny said. One of its ears gestured over to a particular point in the open air, where a cloud of viruses was forming. “THE INTRUSION WAS ONE THING, BUT ONE OF THOSE GENTLEMEN WHO CAME IN DIDN'T EVEN CLOSE THE DOOR FOR VIRUSES! SO RUDE!”

“Okay,” Stingray said, “so what form is the disruption taking?”

“THERE'S A MAGNETIC FIELD BLOCKING THE WAY TO THE SECOND COMPUTER AND DISRUPTING CONNECTION!” The Mr. Prog started gesturing with its little ears to try to get its points across. “A BIG ONE, TOO! THE GENTLEMAN WHO LET IT FORM SAID, 'HMPH! IF ANYONE FOLLOWING BEHIND ME CAN'T EVEN PIERCE THIS, THEN THEY'RE NOT WORTH MY TIME!'”

“In those words?” Vespa asked, and the Mr. Prog nodded. “Cool. How many came in?”

The Mr. Prog thought for a moment. “THREE, MA'AM! BUT ONE OF THEM ALREADY LEFT. HE SAID, 'I'M VERY SORRY ABOUT ALL THE TROUBLE. FORGIVE MY FRIEND FOR THE RUCKUS, HE'S QUITE OLD.'”

“In those words?” Vespa asked, and the Mr. Prog nodded. She turned to Tundraman. “Okay. So, we're probably gonna be dealing with two people here. Not sure which one the guy with the viruses is, but there's also this guy named Pegasolta. He's a huge weeb who turned himself into a samurai, but he's also pretty tough. Lots of sword moves and he can fly and reflect light and all that jazz.”

“With all this open air,” Stingray said, “he might have an advantage. If he starts flying, I'll take care of him.”

“I see, I see,” Tundraman said. He raised his arms and shifted them into his Ice Gatlings. “I'll do my best to assist. My aim is killer, you know!”

Vespa took point, with Tundraman and Stingray following behind on the path. While it was initially clear, the branching paths were soon shadowed by a figure up above—a large, red, horned virus that resembled half of a muscular body riding atop a cloud. “Heads up!” Scoops said. “There's a Kaminari Ogre!”

“Huh. Don't think I've seen this one,” Mimel said. “They endemic to this region?”

“Something like that. They kinda suck, 'cause they, uh—”

Scoops was interrupted when the Kaminari Ogre reached into its cloud platform and pulled out a pack of three smaller ogre heads with much longer horns—these were Eleogres, the Kaminari Ogre's spawn. It hurled them down onto the path, then flew away before Vespa could get a shot in. “Yeah, they do that,” Scoops said.

The Eleogres began moving back and forth on the platform, charging up energy between their conductive horns in a formation that blocked the group's path. “Vespa!” Paige said. “I'm sending in chip data!”

Bing. “Right, got it. Follow my lead, boys!” Vespa said, before running straight for the Eleogre formation. They turned to fire their Electric Reel blasts at her, but Vespa knelt into a running slide, which her chip data, Charge Kick, coated with a wave of repelling energy. Sliding beneath the Eleogres, she kicked the three into the air, then fired at the nearest one from below with her Buckshot.

“Oh, nice move! Allow me to assist!” Tundraman exclaimed, making a running leap and performing a midair slash with his Hyogetsujin to slice the second in twain. At the same time, Stingray burst off the ground, stopped in midair, then launched forward into a Hienkyaku, crashing through the third Eleogre. All three viruses faded away at the same time. (Stingray claimed a silent dibs on the chip data.)

The Kaminari Ogre floated at a fair distance past, but as the group took a right on one of the branching paths, it generated a lightning bolt from its hands and hurled it down at the path in front of them. It struck the ground, cracking the rainbow floor panel, and creating a pillar of lightning that reached into the sky. A number of viruses in the open air took notice—in particular, in the air above, one group of viruses were directly struck.

These were purple orbs with a red 'eye' fixture, with tripod-like bottom fixtures and a conductive rod top—they were called Raiken. A set of them, charged by the Kaminari Ogre's bolt, descended on the path and began raining orbs of lightning upon the field. First, they shattered the cracked panel, and then they aimed their fire at their three targets.

Tundraman acted quickly, slamming his arms together to form Tundra Storm, then launching a blast of ice towards one of the Raiken in the air. The shot beaned it straight on, freezing it solid. “Stingray!”

“You got it!” Stingray launched up and grabbed the frozen Raiken, then began flying back and forth to catch the other Raikens' blasts with the conductive rod of the frozen virus. They were numerous, and the sound of his jets starting and stopping burst from the air quite a few times as Tundraman switched back to his Ice Gatling and started firing upon the floor.

The chunks of ice on the floor formed a platform of ice, which Tundraman beckoned Vespa across. As Vespa ran across the path, she turned upwards to start firing at the squad of charged Raiken. They didn't take too many shots from her Chasers, and with that, Stingray hurled the frozen Raiken into the abyss.

“Hey! Over there!” Scoops said, and Stingray turned his head over to where she signaled him—the Kaminari Ogre was floating above solid ground again. “You know what to do!”

With a roar, Stingray burst forward, receiving a set of chip data as he did. First was Grass Stage. As he flew over the ground and the abyss in turn, many of the rainbow panels shifted into a vibrant green, including those below the Ogre. The Ogre attempted to flee, but Stingray's jets were too fast for it, and he grabbed its sides, clutching tightly.

Next, he activated North Wind, causing a gust of strong wind to blow away the Ogre's cloud. Its half-body wasn't capable of resisting without solid ground beneath it, so Stingray was freely able to launch downward into a spinning toss, hurling it into the grass below. Staying in the air above, he thrust his arms out at a downward angle and shot out his Ground Hunters onto the grass. As the missiles touched the ground, they absorbed their energy and turned green—anathema to an electric virus like the Ogre.

A ring of six missiles in total crawled around the ground and rammed straight into the Ogre, as Stingray finished his descent with a flying drop onto its torso. The Ogre shattered beneath his bulky feet, disintegrating and vanishing. The hatches on Stingray's arms opened back up to let back in his Ground Hunters.

This region of the computer was still rather simple, but sure enough, the gate to the next region was blocked by a magnetic field strong enough to actively repel Vespa when she tried to run in. Looking about, the edges of the field were lined by bulb-shaped viruses with black armoring and a red pattern on them—Pulse Bulbs. Vespa got up from being knocked on her butt and said, “Okay, so what do we do about this one?”

This time, it was Yuu who chimed in. “It looks like their electrical pulses are combining to form this magnetic field. We'll need to counter it to disrupt them. I don't suppose any of you happen to keep around Elec Pulse chips, do you?” The shrug from the three operators was audible from the Cyberworld. “Right. Alright, that's fine. I've got something for this. Kraken, the viral security hole is still open, right?”

“Oh, of course, dear~ Do you want me to send a little present through it?” Kraken asked. Tundraman visibly had to stop himself from squealing in excitement.

“If you would,” Yuu said.

Falling from the sky from above, a small pod full of little yellow-and-green viruses landed in front of the three Navis. These ones were still, though, even as Stingray cracked open the pods. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “these guys. Uhh...”

“Bulbrites,” Yuu said. “Tundraman, can your Busters load alternate projectiles?”

“O-oh, yes, of course, sir!” Tundraman said with a salute.

“Alright, then here's what we'll do,” Yuu said. “In that open air space, I'm getting a reading that there are quite a few Sparky viruses. Kraken, set the Bulbrites to Stingray's ID for controller.” The Bulbrites dinged. “Thanks. Tundraman, you fire the Bulbrites at any Sparkies you see. Stingray, you fly through the air and gather Sparkies behind you. Once you've gotten enough of a cloud, you should be able to break that magnetic field by launching them at it.”

“And we'll keep the rest of the viruses off of them, right?” Paige asked, before Vespa could grumble about taking a second fiddle for this operation. “Got it.”

Tundraman closed the pod of Bulbrites, then hefted it onto his back. The pod connected, and a Bulbrite loaded into his crossbow rather than the usual ice bolt. The Sparkies were fairly small targets, but Tundraman nodded to Stingray as Stingray launched off. “Lady Mimel, if you would!”

“You got it!” Mimel said, activating the Search Scope chip. A reticle appeared over Tundraman's right eye, and with it, he was able to lock his shots on to the Sparkies in the air. “Let 'em have it!”

Stingray's flight path followed just behind the Bulbrite Tundraman launched. The Sparkies' floating was rather lazy, but thanks to the Search Scope, even those minor adjustments in its position were accounted for as the Bulbrite curved in the air. It impacted the Sparky, and its head lit up as the Sparky beeped. Enveloped in a purple glow, the Sparky began to follow behind Stingray. “Nice shot!” Stingray said.

Sparkies had a sort of gravity to them, so Stingray burst off in another direction, the controlled Sparky behind him, and then a series of uncontrolled Sparkies following behind it. With that opportunity, Tundraman launched several more Bulbrites, five, six, seven, each of which hit its target. Vespa turned one of her Busters to the side to blast an errant EleBee on Stingray's six before turning back to blasting at a number of Billies and Magneakers.

Once the pod was empty, Stingray had amassed a cloud of twelve total Sparkies, and he burst back downward in front of the magnetic field. He aimed a Ground Hunter straight forward at the center of the field, and the Sparkies began orbiting his Ground Hunter as he launched it forward. The orb of Sparkies collided with the magnetic field, causing it to burst, and the Pulse Bulbs to scatter and fall into the abyss.

Tundraman and Stingray shared a high-five when Stingray reached the ground, while Vespa poked through the data left behind by all the viruses she'd busted. “Oh, boy. Thunder. That's a great one,” she said, rolling her eyes.

VESPA, STINGRAY, TUNDRAMAN rushing to...

LIGHTINGCOMP AREA 2

The second area had more ground. Several large rainbow panels lined a central landmass, where an upward elevator sat. The magnetic field in this area was strong enough to make one's skin tingle just from walking in, and it was easy to see why—the elevator upwards was being weighed down by a crowd of MagnePa North, small, squat walkers in red that launched magnetic polarity fields at each other. They numbered in the dozens.

“That elevator should lead to the highest point,” Yuu said, “where the Einherjar are currently situated.”

Vespa didn't run hard enough to blow herself on her butt this time, but she did push against the magnetic field, being thoroughly repelled from approaching the elevator. “Man, I haven't felt magnetic force this strong in ages.”

From the sky, a giant metal fist came crashing downward, but it bounced backwards off of the magnetic field and fell into the abyss, vanishing into data. “Okay,” Mimel said, “so that one didn't work.”

“They're positioned just right to keep the elevator from moving even if we managed to pierce the barrier with a localized shield,” Paige observed. “That's a very efficient formation...”

“Whoever this large gentleman is,” Yuu said, “he's no fool. Any ideas?”

Scoops chimed in. “Okay, so I did this report once on a factory that used these guys. According to that, MagnePa South should be attracted here in the same numbers. Look around for them, guys!”

Stingray flew above, and Vespa and Tundraman began skirting the edge of the field around the landmass, poking onto side paths as well, but after a few minutes, no luck. That was when Paige gasped, and said, “Stingray! Look on the underside of the platforms!”

“Oh, great idea!” Scoops said. “What she said, partner!”

“If you say so,” Stingray said, and curved his flight path downward around the underside. Beneath the central landmass, sure enough, blue MagnePa South clung to inverse rainbow panels. In the center, a black pillar—a Protecto—sat with a radio antenna atop it, broadcasting a signal that no doubt kept the Souths from moving, and thus from the two magnetic fields encountering each other. “Ah, shit. A Protecto.”

“We just gotta punch a hole in it strong enough to kill it in one shot, right?” Mimel said.

“That's right, but the repulsive field is going to make that tricky...” Paige said, before beginning to murmur to herself. “...Hm, but... Oh, wait... Wait! That might do it! Stingray, can you bring Vespa down below?”

Stingray burst back up, then switched his wings into riding mode. “Oh, my,” Tundraman said, “that's a neat trick.”

“Thanks, I'm real proud of it,” Stingray said.

Vespa hopped on back of Stingray, who flew down towards the inverse platform. “Okay,” Paige said, “now, I need you guys to have Vespa's feet touch the ground for a second!”

Pause. “Wait,” Vespa said, “you mean like, the ground ground or the ceiling ground?”

“Ceiling ground,” Paige said.

With a shrug, Vespa unhooked her feet from Stingray's riding spots, then switched to a handstand. “Hey, can you lock me in here?” Vespa asked. Stingray did so, though the shape was a bit awkward. “Thanks.”

“Okay, here we go!” Stingray said, carefully floating upward while still remaining perpendicular to Vespa to keep her balance. Inching closer and closer, closer, closer... tap.

Paige activated the Geddon2 chip, shattering the pieces of the platform where the Souths weren't present. Since the full platform was the insulation keeping their field away from the Norths, the two magnetic fields met, and a burst of repulsive energy knocked all of the MagnePas off of the platform. “Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Stingray exclaimed, desperately attempting to keep balance. “Will you warn me first?!”

He did manage to keep his balance, and the two returned to solid ground on the top. “Uh, sorry,” Paige said, as Vespa re-adjusted to being right-side up.

“Attagirl!” Mimel exclaimed, and the sound of her patting Paige on the back was audible through the connection.

While the shaft itself was visible from outside, the elevator was covered in cyberglass, so the three had to enter through its door. It was a large elevator, almost like a freight, that went further up into the sky than was visible through the bright lights. The interface was a simple up and down, so once the three had entered, Vespa hit the button to go up.

“You should almost be there,” Yuu said, as the elevator began to rise. “It should just be a straight shot from here.”

Stingray took the opportunity to take a few pictures out of the side of the elevator as Tundraman inspected his Tenro Shikku to ensure they hadn't taken any damage from firing the Bulbrites earlier. Vespa, meanwhile, was pacing around and muttering to herself. “Could it be? I mean, no way, right?”

“What's up?” Paige asked.

“Oh, just wondering who we're going to find up there,” Vespa said. “I mean, I think—”

A loud crash shook the elevator, sending the group to their knees. “I'm picking up a huge virus reading!” Yuu said. “Kraken, any info?”

“It's right on top of you, everyone! Stay sharp!” Kraken said.

The glass walls of the elevator darkened, blocking out the light from outside, as a second platform materialized above them. The speed of their ascent decreased to make space between them and the second platform, and the center of the platform above them shifted to the side to allow their enemy to clamber in.

The six-legged creature resembled a mechanical crab, but it was far larger than any crab. Its segmented armor was a bright pink color, but beneath its plating it glowed with a green electrical energy. Its eyes, also green bulbs, sat at the end of stalks. Its feet were round magnetic clamps to stick to the ceiling, and its chassis had a hangar compartment to launch ordinance. The 'claw' fixtures were more like rotating magnets, no doubt capable of launching magnetic force in beams.

“What the hell is that thing?!” Vespa exclaimed, staggering to her feet.

WARNING!

THE LAIR OF

VIRAL SIGNATURE RM-Z4-MIMA-S1UG63R-A

“REVERSIBLE POLARITY SHATTERER”

CRABANGER-NS

“Oh, right, I have that feature back now,” Vespa said, crossing her arms with a smile. “Thanks, enemy code!”

“Much as I appreciate your better health,” Tundraman said, running in to push her out of the way of a beam launched from Crabanger's right claw, “I suggest we get serious.”

Tundraman switched his Tenro Shikku to Ice Gatling mode, and Vespa drew her Vesper Chasers with a little spin to complement them. The two began firing rapidly at Crabanger. “Stingray!” Scoops shouted. “Let's try and hack off some bits!”

Stingray loaded a Variable Sword, and flew up towards Crabanger's legs, but it was prepared—its left claw changed shape, becoming much more like an actual crab's claw, and Crabanger swung it over to its right claw to grab it and charge it with energy. “Damn!” Stingray cursed as he dodged out of the way of the launching swing, landing back on the ground.

The energy of that swing shook the elevator, and pieces of the wall broke off and clattered onto the floor. “Wait, look out!” Scoops yelled, and Stingray looked down at the pieces of the wall to see smaller versions of Crabanger—Mini Crabans—had disguised themselves amidst the noise. They were crawling towards Tundraman and Vespa. “Stingray! Opposites attract, right?”

Stingray nodded, taking the chip data for an Air Shot, sliding in, and firing upon the red Mini Craban to launch it into the blue Mini Craban. Sure enough, the two detonated, and purple fragments blew from the wreckage up at Crabanger, striking it in the face and causing it to roar.

More Mini Crabans began to launch out of the hangar compartment of Crabanger's body, coming down onto the platform. “Oh, leave these ones to me,” Tundraman said, levying his Ice Gatlings at the grounded crabs.

“You got it, pal,” Vespa said, continuing to adjust herself to avoid Crabanger's beams as she laid down a hail of bullets.

Tundraman began skating around the platform, launching Ice Gatlings at the red Mini Crabans, then kicking them into the blues. If they dodged, Stingray would fly down for the pass, nailing the shot on the assist. Fragments after fragments launched up at Crabanger.

Its rage was evident in the roar it let out. Crabanger shifted its left claw back into beam mode, and then fired a beam that missed all three members of the party, instead blasting one segment of the elevator beneath them. The back-left corner of the elevator (from Vespa's point of view) began to rise out of the ground, leaving a gaping hole in the platform as Crabanger's right claw began directing it around at high speeds.

“Whoa!” Vespa exclaimed, as the three of them had to dodge around the careening hunk of metal. Crabanger's left claw shifted into its larger mode again, and it grabbed onto the block of the elevator. The right claw then used magnetic force to shape and bend the metal into a shape akin to a hammer, which Crabanger swung down at another corner. That piece broke off, causing the elevator to rumble and tilt.

“You okay, Vespa?!” Paige yelled, as Vespa staggered to her feet again.

“Yeah, good enough,” Vespa said. She had to duck back down, though, as Crabanger's hammer came in for another swing. It collided with the wall, and sent another rain of fragments down, though some fell into the shaft from the holes in the floor.

Naturally, Crabanger decided to launch another beam at the floor where Tundraman was standing, on the other side. “Oh, dear!” Tundraman said, leaping off. “Lady Mimel, if you would!”

“Getting up close and personal, right?” Mimel said, and Tundraman gave a thumbs up.

Tundraman leapt into the air, and then did so again using a Double Jump chip. As he leapt into the air, he collided with the arm of one of Crabanger's claws, which was currently ripping another piece out of the platform. He kicked his leg up into the air in a slashing motion, and his Hyougetsujin launched a wave of cold energy, slicing off some of the armor. “Stingray!”

Stingray, who'd been hanging about in the air off the ground, dived in. Scoops entered the code for his Variable Sword again, and Stingray launched the massive Life Sword swing to cleave Crabanger's arm clean off. The beast shrieked in pain, and as Vespa continued raining bullets down, it slammed the hammer into the wall again in rage. Then—

Flash, and it was gone. The elevator platform continued to shake and rumble, its ascent increasing even further in speed. Vespa collapsed to the ground again from the force of the gravity. “W-what's going on?!”

“At this rate, you're going to be crushed at the top of the shaft!” Yuu said. “Kraken! Where'd it go?”

“Ohhh, you're not going to like hearing this,” Kraken whined, “but it appears to have entered super-dimensional reverse space!”

Pause.

“What the fuck does that mean?!” Vespa yelled.

Scoops started, but Yuu explained first. “It's a phenomenon certain viruses started exhibiting three years ago! Super-dimensional space is the operative principle behind Kraken's teleportation—it's an extradimensional layer atop the Cyberworld that certain Navis can travel within. It's how the Solar Boy Django entered our universe, for instance. However, some viruses have started exhibiting the ability to travel within 'reverse space', a form of super-dimensional space that creates an altered iteration of the space it exists within.”

“In other words,” Stingray said, “it's like it just entered a world inside a mirror.”

“Just so!” Kraken said. “I'm capable of existing within super-dimensional space myself, but without me present, it's impossible for me to switch you all over with me—”

A door slammed over the comms, and Doigt exclaimed, “Another person inside my office?!”

“Move.” It was Audrey's voice. “I'm here to help them.”

“Audrey?” Paige said. “I thought you were staying behind for this one?”

“I was listening. I do that. If there's a virus that can enter reverse space, then this is serious. Taking this thing out is even more important than finding the Einherjar. You three. Install this to your Navis. It shouldn't take up much space in your Customizers,” Audrey said.

“Huh?” Scoops said. “What's this thing?”

“It's the Virus Reversal Visor System. VRV, for short. It's an update that gives Navis the ability to detect and enter reverse space through the portals left behind by viruses. Your armoring will shift somewhat to keep your Navis safe there, too, though you can't exactly spend all day there,” Audrey said. “You'll be able to chase that thing.”

“Where the heck did you get something like that?!” Scoops yelled.

“I made it. Duh,” Audrey said. “Now quit yapping and install it so those three don't die.”

“VRV.bat” located in systems.

Install? Y/N

Installing... 0%

Installing... 27%

Installing... 66%

Installation complete.

Virus Reversal Visor System enabled.

Activating.

“W-whoa!” Vespa staggered to her feet from the G-forces to gawk at a massive, glowing portal in the center of the platform. “That thing, right?”

“Seems like it,” said Stingray, using his jets to have a bit of an easier time standing. “Let's get in there!”

“Oof! This certainly wasn't on my itinerary,” Tundraman said. “Still, we must boldly venture forth, Milady! Into the bold new frontier of 'reverse space'!”

The three leapt towards the portal—

VESPA, STINGRAY, TUNDRAMAN rushing to

LIGHTINGCOMP REVERSE AREA

Switching armor processes to 'super-dimensional' mode.

Entering 'reverse space'.

'RM' factor: 24%. Operational limits: Thirteen hours, twelve minutes.

The black walls of the elevator shaft began to glow in shifting shades of super-dimensional purple, stars visible outside. This version of the elevator was lined with extra railways along the side, and certainly wasn't anywhere close to the Lighting Computer.

Vespa found herself grabbing onto a bar on the bottom of the elevator platform. “W-whoa!” she gasped, looking up at the fixture her hand was suddenly on. “Okay, whoa, we're on the bottom!”

“So we are!” Tundraman said, a nervous chuckle under his voice. “It's a good thing I haven't the slightest fear of heights!”

“Oh, calm down,” said Stingray. “Being this high up is barely even a bother.”

“Those fixtures you're grabbing will appear for you as you climb around the bottom of the platform,” Audrey said. “They're part of the VRV system's adaptation for this virus's reverse space.”

“Speaking of that nasty little fiend, here it comes!” Kraken said.

Clambering up the shaft from below, the Crabanger's body had switched colors—now its body was in that bright green, and its energy conduits glowed pink. Its arm had been repaired, and its six legs ran up the side of the shaft at incredible speed, keeping up with the elevator platform easily. Part of its armor below its eye stalks tore open to reveal a fanged mouth shape, and it swung its claws wide and roared.

WARNING!

THE LAIR OF

VIRAL SIGNATURE RM-Z4-MIMA-S1UG63R-B

“REVERSED POLARITY SHATTERER”

CRABANGER-SN

“Oh, come on!” Stingray groaned. “It even got its arm back?!” His foot silos opened, and he began dropping Ground Hunters onto Crabanger below. It was large, but in this form, it was also fast, capable of jumping around the shaft and using its momentum to continue chasing the platform. The Ground Hunters' seeking capability was strong, but a few of them simply weren't able to keep up.

With only one hand free to fire upon Crabanger, Vespa switched to the Buckshot and began firing. She didn't have much opportunity to, though, and neither did Tundraman—Crabanger's beams were firing hard and fast. Outside, the cargo railways began operating. Crates began careening up and down the elevator on the two different tracks, and those coming up had a number of Mini Crabans inside. They leapt into the shaft, and Crabanger blasted them onto the platform, where their magnetic legs allowed them to stick.

“Damn it!” Vespa grunted. She started shooting them off. “What the hell do we do?”

“Tundraman! Sending some data your way!” Mimel said.

One, two, three—in Tundraman's arms, three Time Bombs shifted into one large Time Bomb +. The numbers ticked back down—three, two, one...

Amidst the Mini Crabans, Tundraman hurled the Time Bomb + down to explode in Crabanger's vicinity. The explosion knocked its legs loose, and it roared as it began to fall. “Haha! Take that, you churlish whelp!” Tundraman said. “That ought to—”

Two beams fired up from below, and the platform slowed slightly as Crabanger pulled itself back up using its own magnetic force. Hurling itself back up, it continued running—damaged, but definitely not out, and managing to regain its momentum to chase the platform. The places where the beams grabbed the platform began to buckle, just as they had in normal space. “Oh, come on!” Tundraman yelled. “I'm trying my hardest here!”

Another set of chip data from Paige later, Vespa continued her own hammering with a Fire Hit and as many bullets as she could muster, but she grimaced and said, “This isn't working! We're gonna crash into the ceiling at this rate!”

“Crash into the...” Paige mumbled.

“Uh, not the best time to be going all quiet, Paige!” Scoops yelled.

Then, Paige was in thought mode. “Mimel! Do you still have the chips for Mother Quake?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. You want me to use it? Like, now?” Mimel asked.

“Please!”

Another set of chip data appeared in Tundraman's arms, and he activated it. Hanging onto the platform with them, a head made of stone appeared—the GodStone, plus two Rock Cubes—and its mouth opened, letting loose a quake that sent boulders down through the shaft. One of them beaned Crabanger right in the face, and it fell again, but the beams came back up and continued knocking the platform loose. “Come on, come on...” Paige mumbled.

As Crabanger swung back onto the wall of the shaft, one of the chunks fell off the platform. “Yes! Can one of you look up there and tell me what you see?” Paige asked.

Vespa was closest, so she used the fixtures appearing by her hands to climb up onto the top of the platform. “Uh, nothing up here! It's the same place we left, mostly—”

“No, no! Up, Vespa!” Paige said.

Vespa did so. There was nothing but empty space as far as Vespa could see, though presumably the ceiling was coming in fairly quickly. “Uh, there's nothing—”

“Wait, of course!” Yuu exclaimed. “That's brilliant! If the Crabanger is below you, then it stands to reason that that's the upper platform!”

“What? Wait, so they're on the one that the thing showed up on in the first place?” Mimel said. Yuu gave his assent. “Then where's the one they were on?”

“I think it might still be at the bottom of the shaft!” Paige said. “And if that's the case—”

“Oh, yeah! I get it!” Mimel said.

“You hear that, Stingray?” Scoops said, a manic grin on her face. “Fly down there and turn the bottom platform on!”

“One problem with that,” Stingray said. “I don't know how fast this thing is going. I might not be able to get down there in time—” Then, his gaze turned to outside. “...Wait. Actually, never mind that. I'll be on it in a jiffy. You two! Take care of these crabs!”

Vespa and Tundraman directed their fire right at the Mini Crabans, and Stingray charged his jets for a full-on burst. “Ready?” Scoops said, waiting for just the right timing... “Goooo!”

Stingray launched forward through the glass wall, grabbing onto one of the downward-racing cargo cars outside the elevator. He grabbed onto the side, and continued rushing forward, pushing the careening cargo car even faster downward. The wind of super-dimensional space rushed past him in a blur as he rocketed downward. “You'll reach the bottom in seventeen seconds!” Yuu said. “Be ready to act!”

“Got it!” Scoops said. “Giving you what you need, Stingray!”

As he raced toward the ground—or what passed for it in this space—Stingray boosted back through the window, crashing through the glass onto the bottom platform. Sure enough, there it was. He ran right over and hit the button to send this one up, and it began racing at just the same pace. “Tell those two to get onto the top of the platform!” Stingray said.

A Panel Out pickaxe appeared in Stingray's arms, and he slammed it down to break one segment of the elevator platform. Then, he clambered onto the bottom of this one as well. Blast Launcher S + Burner S + Burning S equaled the Program Advance Jet Launcher, and the rocket launcher for it appeared in his arms. He let go of the platform, then fired straight up at the platform as he fell—and the rocket he fired struck the bottom of the platform and—

Boom! The jets of fire that emanated from it burned on the underside, causing it to launch upwards at a far greater rate as they burned. Stingray launched back out and grabbed an upward cargo car, boosting it upwards at a rate that could just barely keep up. “Impact in ten seconds!” Yuu said. “Nine! Eight! Seven! Six!”

Stingray opened up the cargo compartment of this cargo car and kicked the Mini Crabans off into space. “It's open!” he yelled. “Tell them to get out here! Jump out the north end when it blows!

Inside the shaft, Crabanger had begun running faster to try and outrun the bottom platform, but its pace was capped by the top platform it was chasing. It had begun grabbing onto pieces to try and open up a larger hole, but by this point, as the two Navis left looked down, it was too late. “Three! Two! One!”

There was a loud crunch of twisting metal as Crabanger was crushed between the two elevator platforms, its larger claw grasping out for one more attack in vain, clamping and then going limp beneath the platform. Another crunch, then a third, as the griiiiiinding sound of metal being compressed rang out, and then—!

Vespa and Tundraman broke through the glass and leapt to the cargo car Stingray was pushing along, managing just barely to catch the open compartment, as the menace in the elevator exploded. Vespa struck a pose when she landed. For once, Tundraman didn't take the opportunity, instead breathing a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank you for flying Air Stingray!” Stingray said. “Your concerns and travel anxieties, gone like so much algae waste.”

Below them, a portal back to regular space appeared where Crabanger had been crushed, so after a bit of waiting for the cargo car to rise, all three of them leapt inside—

VESPA, STINGRAY, TUNDRAMAN rushing to

LIGHTINGCOMP AREA 3

—and arrived on the regular elevator platform, the glass having returned to normal, though the platform was still wrecked. All three Navis, and their operators and onlookers, breathed a sigh of relief as the elevator proceeded up at a normal speed. “Anyone got a Repair?” Mimel asked.

“Yeah, uh,” Scoops mumbled, fiddling through her pack. “Here we go.”

In the blink of an eye, the elevator platform was fixed. “Good thing it's just the right size, huh?” Stingray said.

“Oh my word! Oh my goodness! I was on tenterhooks, Yuu! Weren't you on tenterhooks?!” Kraken squeaked.

“I wouldn't put it that way, but that was a real wrench in the operation,” Yuu said. “It's a good thing you had that VRV System ready, Ms. Longhener.”

Audrey mumbled a 'myeah' before Scoops pressed the issue. “Why did you even have that?!”

“I told you, I made it,” Audrey said.

“Yeah, but, like, why? How? Come on! My inquiring mind wants to know!” Scoops yelled.

Audrey groaned. “I knew about this sort of thing. Chronoforce can interact with super-dimensional space a bit too, so I figured I'd work on making a system that would let people properly fight viruses with reverse space capabilities. People are going to need it sooner or later with monsters like that thing on the loose.”

Pause.

“Okay, question one,” Scoops said, “what do you mean Chronoforce can do that?”

“He can,” Audrey said, “he's just lazy.”

“Question two. How the heck do you invent something like that so casually?!” Scoops yelled.

“What, you think I don't get enough sleep because I like working all night?” Audrey snorted. “I have to do something with my free time when I'm not swamped with work. I'm a scientist, too. I saw a problem and I worked on solving it.”