Inside the shop

"Th-thank you!" Aida said silently as she took the upgrades and bid the shop keeper goodbye as she left the store. She would decide what to do around here and then probably hop on the metro later.

"Hmph! Thanks..." Empress had said as she had jacked Empress out of the SciLab shop's net access and walked out after feeling that she had no longer a need to stay here after getting her upgrades.

Amelie walked into the shop, dressed back into her ordinary yellow dress. Her broad curls bobbed behind her as she straightened her white hair-band, looking far more petite than her nature would suggest. "That punk Rania... I know, when I come back, I wanna operate that navi of hers! That would be good payback for this!" she smiled, wringing her hands together at the thought of the navi's muscles. "I've got to get these fast!"

Quickly, she straightened herself out, stepping quickly up to the counter. "Hey, shopkeep! I'd like one... uh... what did she want again? She said an upgrade, but she didn't even say what!" Amelie thought to herself, smacking her forehead as she realized her friend's mistake. "Just give me an HP +100 program, okay? 10000 zenny, right?" she asked, placing the money on the counter. "Wrap it up quick, Suien, and I'll get out of your hair and back into your brothers!"

((Pay 10000 for HP +100))

((Bump))

Running into the counter and looking slightly at the Yellow dressed girl to catch her paying 10000 zennies. "Well... I believe I'll... have the following items... huh?" he said before he began, looking at a tattered notice about refunds. Ahh well I guess I'll start be refunding all of my sigs..."

"MY SIIGS!!!" came from the PET, screaming madly thoughout Polonius' demands.

"Then I'd like to have 8 sig upgrades and letsee... 3 HP upgrades...

11000(Sig refund) - 3600 ( All the sigs Upgrades needed(8)) = 8400

8400 + 3050 = 11450 In total - 9000 ( 60 HP Add) = 2450 Zs left plus the 600 I just got.. makes 3050 total left... That should do it"

Suitachi takes the cash from the two PET's and turns, pulling out the upgrades and programs and laying them on the counter before the pair.

"There you guys are, bring em back if theres any troubles"

"Thanks!" The boy nods politely as he took one more glance at that girl, shrugs, and leaves the door, trying to find that fence.

Amelie tossed her curls once and smiled, seeing that the guy next to her was checking her out. Snapping out of her momentary distraction, however, she turned her attention back to Suitachi. "Thanks again, Suien. I'll go keep your brother company at the springs!" she laughed, stepping back out of the door and readjusting the spaghetti strap of her pocket book. "Damn, I went and got the upgrade! Can't I just give it to GladiatorMan?" she pouted as she boarded the metroline and headed back on the short trip to Yoka.

"Suitachi!" Area shouted as she entered the store and looked around for the eccentric shopkeeper, "I need a Process Upgrade! My thirteenth, you do the math!" She held her elbows on the counter as she placed her PET on the counter with the amount of money necessary displayed on the screen. "And do you know anything of Persephone's past? Just a question..." she said afterwards, but then remembered herself something and continued to speak, "Oh and give me one of those Process Edits. With that update, I've got 580 data bits to align in Persephone's system. So that's 580 for the Process Edit, right?"

(( 1300 + 580 = 1880 ))

As Suitachi gathered the materials that she requested, he spoke softly, half to himself half to her, "Persephone's past? That was Soryus Navi, wasn't it? Hmm, I don't know all the details, I know she was created after the untimely death of one of her sister navis, and that she had the ability to not only summon her back, but also summon other beings alongside her. She wanted revenge on the guy who killed her sister too."

He placed the goods on the table and added, "Of course, you could always get it from her herself, she runs the online chiptrader. And theres always Soryu, the Chipstore owner. I'm positive they're the ones who know it the best. Haha" he said with a soft chuckle as he took the money and slid them to her.

"Enjoy those, bring em back if they don't work!"

The door opens as a rush of air blows in, and a familiar looking ponytailed man strides through up to the counter. With a stretch he yawns a relaxed yawn and grins.

"Looks like that vacation did you some good huh?"

"Yeeeap, I feel great. I feel like I could almost put up with your antics. ...almost."

"Heh, i'd like to see you try."

Ignoring his partner's taunt, Keito browses through the various merchandise. He places a hand to his chin and comes to a decision.

"Can I get a speed upgrade and one hp upgrade?"

"Can I get a speed upgrade and one hp upgrade?"

"Why do you keep doing that? I think you've been spending too much time with that Nachaman guy."

~6500 zenny~

"Thank you," Suitachi said as he swiped the money and put it in the register.
"And here you go," he continued, placing the necessary upgrades in front of Keito.
"Have a nice day," the store manager said as he walked off somewhere.

"Ask her herself!? That's like asking for her to preach me about privacy or something else that annoys her. I think I'll work it through with the videos Soryu left me of her... Just wondered if you knew more," Area said as she took the goods from the counter and installed them on her PET, "Thanks Sui. See you later." Slowly she walked out of the store and took a few steps to the right as she held her back against the wall of the building.

"But this video... Drackyre mentioned it," Area whispered to herself and looked at her PET while clicking some buttons, "There are videos of the Immortals too... But they look nothing like they are now. Well, some of them... Why do they change?" Window after window she checked information about Persephone and as she was about to put her PET away, she noticed something she hadn't seen yet. "Prototype... Design...?" she muttered as she entered the file and noticed a bar that had started moving as an audio file played.

"So you've finally taken the time to snoop around in the files I left with Persephone? This is a design I was working on if I'd ever go back to Net Battling actively, but the store tied me constantly. By now you must've realized Persephone isn't a simple Navi and have no idea what she is. Hah! Neither do I! But I do know how to manipulate her abilities in a way to create an armor suitable for her and the Immortals, so their powers will be at their maximum. The file is done, including the image data for her new body. Everyone aged... But Persephone didn't, so I made her new body to look older. I never got to installing it. There are bound to be some minor flaws, but I'm sure you can solve those easily. Soryu out."

Area remained quiet for a few seconds as a command appeared on the screen to install the new image design for Persephone. "What the hell?" she muttered as she glanced to her right side, "Such an idiot... He could've told me he had something interesting behind his back! But then again..." Swiftly her eyes started to move over the design as she entered different windows about the intricate details of the outfit while replacing lines of data as she noticed minor flaws in them. "It really looks interesting," she muttered as she continued but then blinked her eyes a few times as she looked up. "Wasn't I supposed to go somewhere?" she asked herself, getting caught by the process of working on the design, "Agh! Persephone! I'll work it out after it's installed!" With those last words she turned the program off while creating a shortcut towards it so she would notice it again and jumped on top of her motorcycle while, in the air, putting the helmet on her head and sped off towards Persephone and her companion.

The store doors suddenly erupted, as a certain young woman slamemd them open and made her entrance...with a yawn? "Agh, I was hoping that'd wake me up a little. Oh well." She wandered up to the counter, and grabbed the binder containing the detailed list of the store's inventory. "Let's see...Process Upgrades, Process Upgrades...here we go! They cost...100 zenny plus 100 extra for each you already have. Also says there's a customer limit equal to the Navi's current level. SplashMan, do the math for me, please!"

"Huh? Wha?" The Aqua Navi looked around hurriedly for a moment, having promptly dozed off in the comfort of the PET. "Sorry, what'd you say?"

"...Argh! I'm not repeating myself, so here!" Sabrina placed her PET's screen directly over the page, to allow her Navi to read it himself. "Find out how much of that we can buy!"

"Oh, okay! Let's see...100z+100z for each owned..." A calculator program appeared next to the Aqua Navi, who quickly made good use of it. "Aha! We've got exactly enough to get 7 of them! We don't have any right now, and my level's in the double digits, so we don't have to worry about that limit yet!"

"Gotcha!" Without looking up, she set her PET down, and pulled out every last bit of the 2800z she possessed. "You heard the Navi! 7 Process Upgrades, please!"

"Hey, all," Chris said casually, headed for the cash register. The place wasn't busy, the only one other than him there was Sabrina, by freak coincidence.

"Oh, hey Sabrina!" Chris called, walking beside her to the counter and slapping something on the table. It appeared to be a data chip (an obsolete LVL.1 PU) with a small slip of paper clipped to it. The paper read:

Chris' List of Current Needs:

Coffee (Irrelevant)
Speed Upgrade LVL.1 (5000z)
HP Memory x2 (2500z)
Custom Expansion (1000z)
Process Upgrade x9 (4500z)

TOTAL: 13000z

P.S: The old P.U Level 1's worth 3000z. I read the sign, so there should be enough. Oh, and my Navi'll be Level 9 once I install all the other upgrades, so all the P.Us will work.

-Chris Lemrock, Executive Coder and Programmer-


Chris then took out a card with exactly 10000z on it, laid it on the desk, and waited.

<(Bumps the topic for Cereal and I)>

"You two seem like quite the couple," Suitachi remarked, taking the money, calculating the prices, adding the refund, and taking out the necessary parts.
"Of course, I don't have a couple special so you're out of luck and have to pay the actual price. Here you two go. Have a nice day... Is that snow outside? Hmmmm..." Suitachi commented, scratching his chin and giving the respective orders to their respective buyers.
"Snow huh..." the shop owned mused as he walked off somewhere.

(OOC: If this isn't the longest Navi Shop post ever, I'd like to see what is...)

...Couple? Yeah...because we all know how much- Sabrina quickly ended her thought before she could complete it; it just led into territory that freaked her out. Fortunately, getting her stuff made it a bit easier to change the subject. "Yeah, you wish!" She opened the back of her PET, and began placing the 7 upgrades meant for her into it. And it was at this point she noted the snow comment. "What...snow?!" She looked down at her present wear; something told her that a tank top and skirt alone weren't quite enough, even though she did take cold rather well. "SplashMan, check the weather, quick!"

"Okay!" The Aqua Navi began activating various PET functions, as though he didn't have a clue what to do to bring up the weather. Mainly because he didn't. "Darn, where do I bring up the weather again?...Oh, right, there!" After accessing 'there', the local forecast appeared on the PET's screen. However, it couldn't be seen since Sabrina still had it face-down from installing the upgrades. "Yep...it's light, but it should be snowing right now! As an Aqua-based Navi, I can't help but feel kinda happy about that!"

"Well, I can't help but be really mad about that!" Sabrina slammed her PET into its case on her side in one smooth motion, then leaned against a nearby wall. "Well, this is fantastic. It's too cold to be outside, and I just burned all my money on those upgrades! Crap...what am I gonna do now?"

"Special delivery for Sabrina Jetto!"

"Huh?" The young woman quickly turned towards the door, but it was already closed. However, next to it was a beatup cardboard box with a piece of paper taped to it. "What the...that wasn't there before..." She walked over towards the box, picked it up, and placed it on the nearest table. "This is weird...delivering me something is one thing, but how did whoever sent me this know I was here?" Figuring the paper might explain a thing or two, she slowly ripped the paper off the box, and read it softly, but aloud, to herself:

'Sabrina,

In this box is the stuff you usually wear when it's cold. Don't ask me how I got them, and since you'll probably wonder why...let's just say a bunch of good things happened after you ripped those upgrades from me. That, and I'm the best big brother ever. Got that?

-Brandon'

"...Well, can't say that doesn't explain it all..." Sabrina opened the box, to discover that to her great relief, it was filled with blue and black winter gear that looked highly familiar. "Well, I guess I owe him for this...shoot, that's probably what this is really about anyway!"

"Maybe, but since you can't exactly return it, you might as well use it!" SplashMan's facial turned puzzled, or at least as puzzled as one could look when the only part of a face one had was a pair of eyes. "But, uh...how did he know where you were?"

"Don't you EVER underestimate a Jetto's ability to know random things!" The young woman grabbed the box, and stood up. "Well, I can't put all of this on in public. Especially if there're men around!" She headed over to the door, and leaned against it slightly to make it open; it hadn't been shut entirely from earlier. "Well, I'm off! Bye, Chris!" And so, she set off for places not named SciLab...at least after a quick detour to the ladies' room for some bundling up.

...Or possibly not until after that. She entered the Navi Shop once more, this time with no intentions of buying anything. However, her appearance was visibly different; she now had a blue jacket of medium thickness shielded her upper body from the cold, her hands were protected by a pair of black gloves, and her ears were guarded by a pair of black earmuffs. Below the waist, very little had changed, though she now was wearing leggings to fortify that part of the body from cold. Even her boots were the same as before.

"Well, you wanted a break, right SplashMan?" The young woman sat down at the same table where she had discovered the contents of the cardboard box. "Well, then I'm giving myself one too!" She then looked around, to see if Chris was still there for some reason. Nope, it was just her for non-shop employees. "All right, guess now's a good a time as any to make some adjustments!"

"Adjustments? ...Oh right, the new chips and upgrades! So, what'll be new?"

Sabrina dumped all the chips she had in her folder onto the table, and arranged it into a loose 6x5 rectangle. "There's the chips in our folder, all organized." She then removed one chip from her spares, then dumped the rest to the side. "And these are the extras! Now, of the 7 extra chips right now, 5 are going to be in the folder. And yes, I know I only have 6 on the table!"

"Okay..." SplashMan had his arms crossed, but looked on with a curious gaze. "So, what's new!"

"Hmm...first, the Recover10s. They've gotta go!" She grabbed the pair of recovery chips, then placed them in the extras pile. "And I'll replace them with these!" Chips with a picture of a green cannon with a cursor and a blue ray-like virus were placed in the newly empty spots. "Nothing new, but they're good chips. So I bought them! Although I probably payed a little too much since the other person wanted the shop price..."

"Another MarkCannon and WideShot? Neat! What else?"

"Next...is MiniBomb. It's out!" It was placed into the pile, in lieu of a chip with a picture of a brown, bug-like virus. "Kinda the same thing, but it can hit 3 viruses at once. So it may actually be worth using! It's called LilBomb, by the way."

"LilBomb? Never heard of it...doesn't seem too bad, though!"

"Of course not! I wouldn't have gotten something that wasn't good! Now, next up..." Her copy of PickPocket1 found itself in the scrap heap, and replaced with a chip with a hand clutching...something with the number '3' on it. "I never remember that chip, so we should just go with something we might actually use. And TimeBomb's usable!"

"Yep, very! So...what's that chip you keep hiding from me?"

"What, you mean...this one?" Sabrina held the chip up between two gloved fingers...with the picture facing her, of course. "Well, first, I'll take out the once that it's replacing." CactBall1 found itself with the other half-discarded chips. "CactBall's going out, so that way our folder's all Aqua and non-element chips! And now, for the chip that I spent 10000z on, just so we could call it our own..." She set the chip down in CactBall1's spot; it contained a picture of a blue knight-like virus. "Look familiar at all?"

"Uhh...nope! What is it?"

"All I've gotta do is say the name..." The young woman paused for dramatic effect. "AquaSword!"

If the Aqua Navi had been drinking something at that point (and if he had the mouth to do so with), he would've spit it all over. "W-what?! AquaSword?! Someone sold something like THAT to you??"

"Yep! Had to bug them a little, but I won in the end!" At this point, Sabrina began re-arranging the chips a little, so that then new ones she expected to use a lot, like AquaSword, would be near the front. "And that's it for the changes. Look good to you?"

"Look good? I'm still recovering from the shock of you getting an AquaSword..."

"Heh, just wait until you actually use it!" Once her folder was arranged to her liking, she put her chips back into either her main folder, or the extras pocket. "There! Everything's all good to go! Now we need to come up with something new for you with those process upgrades! Can you boot that up for me?"

"Uh, sure!" As opposed to the weather report, SplashMan knew exactly how to summon the Signature Move altering program. "Loading on the screen now!"

"'Signature System Version 3.4.' Huh, kinda makes you wonder what 1.0 looked like...huh? 'In order for this program to take effect quickly, it is recommended that the Navi enter sleep mode. Is this OK?' Uh...I guess..." A Y was typed as a response. "'NetNavi SplashMan.EXE is now in sleep mode.' Guess I've gotta do this on my own..." The menu was brought up on the screen; Sabrina picked 'Existing Moves'. "Let's see...existing move: Water Splash. Power 60. Recommended added effects...none? Shoot. Oh wait, it can boost its power? Sounds good to me!" A press of the button changed that 60 into a 140. "140? Wow, that's the strongest move we've ever had...'At your Navi's present level, 11, the maximum power of an innate move is 140. To increase this maximum, you must increase its level by 4.' Hey, I'm not complaining..."

Another press of a button brought the screen back up to the main menu. "Let's see...'140/340'. That must be how many points are in use right now. That's plenty for a new move, so..." The option 'New Move' was selected. "Let's see, how do we make a new move...'The Navi detected is using outdated software. As a result, it cannot use Passive Sig Moves. If you attempt to create one, it will be rejected.' Well, I don't think SplashMan would like that kind of move anyway. So let's make an Active move!" At this point, the operator went silent as she began work on a new move for her Navi. And eventually, she had made one to her liking. "There, all done! Now let's see what it says the 'recommendations' are...'Recommended power: '140'. Also that strong? Nice! "Recommended added effects: Impact, Knockback'. Well, yeah...a move like that's gonna cause impact! And...there! It's added! '310/340' for used points? That's not enough for a third, so I'll save that for later. Okay, let's install this! 'Expected time for the changes to take effect: Error 56: The technology of the affected Navi is too old to reliably estimate a time.' Oh, give me a freaking break..."

And with a final button press, the sig move menu closed, revealing the more traditional view of SplashMan, who looked incredibly groggy. "Ahhh...that was a nice nap! So, did you make me a new move or two?"

"Yep! I think you'll like the new one I made you. Feel any different?"

"Uh...nope! Same as always!"

"Guess it's taking a while to boot or something. And now I'm kinda bored, since there's nothing else to do. And for that matter, I'm getting hot from wearing my winter stuff inside! Hmm...where's a place we haven't done any virus busting yet? Preferably somewhere in DenCity, since spending money just to go somewhere is bad. Reaaally bad."

"Oh, I think I know a place! There's a place in downtown DenCity called ElecTown! We haven't been there, so why don't we check it out?"

"ElecTown? Doesn't sound Aqua Navi friendly, but it couldn't hurt to look around! Oh...guess I should ask if you're good to go first..."

"I'm fine! Let's go!"

"That's all I needed to hear!" Placing her PET into its case, Sabrina stood up, and made her way towards the door. "Oh, one more thing...eh, never mind. It's downtown, the MetroLine's gotta go there!" Opening the door, she exited the shop, and began making her way towards a more virus-friendly place.

(to ElecTown!)

Chris smacked his forehead as Suitachi called the two of them a couple. "Couple? Yeah, right. And Binary's made of solid gold bricks instead of ... wait, I don't even know what he's supposed to be made of!"

"UNPREDICTED WEATHER PATTERNS PRESENT!" the all-too-familiar voice rang from his PET.

"Eh?" Chris looked out the window. "What the hell? Snow? Well, I guess it is December, but why now? I could've sworn the weatherman said just plain overcast today!"

"HUMAN UNIT: WEATHERMAN ANNOUNCED PRECISELY 87.93246781234084327897324231467890651285432650819326536509174460659068057432160916432065064350654016350643043665015965439360526/100%CHANCE OF OVERCAST. REMAINING PERCENT: SUB-ZERO PRECIPITATION!" Binary explained.

Chris was silent for a while. Then, "Yanno, Binary, you could've just said it was an 88% chance of overcast."

Off a belt clip, Chris withdrew a thermos that seemed to be issuing steam out the openings in it. He opened the thing and took a swig of it, coughing and thumping his chest afterwards. "Damn, this stuff is terrible. Binary, remind me to never fill my thermos with SciLab's coffee," he groaned.

"AFFIRMATIVE, MESSAGE RECORDED!" Binary confirmed.

"Great. Now, then, we're headed to ElecTown," Chris said.

"ELECTOWN?"

"Why not? We've never been inside ElecTown's Net, and plus a buddy of mine recommended this one cafe in the heart of the place. I need to try it out," Chris said, shrugging.

"AFFIRMATIVE!"

And so, Chris left the shop, dumping the vile chemical-ridden coffee in a new snowdrift that had been created outside the shop before he boarded the Metro.

Wes walked into the shop and brought up his cash file on his PET, "Three more Process Upgrades, Shop Keep." He waited for his order to be brought to him. As he stood there, he took a moment to send Junior into the net. Given the situation, dilly dallying could cause them to miss the entire mess.

((1400+1500+1600=4500z))