Inside the shop

Burt walked with both hands in his pockets and his back bent, feeling utterly dissatisfied with the rebellious nature of Jerry, who had not stopped insulting Counterinfectualism since they'd left his house in ACDC. About the last thing he wanted to do while looking after Joey and Jerry was have a theological debate with a 14 year old. "Listen, I'm a religious studies professor and I majored in religion. I know what I'm talking about," he assured her, glaring down from behind his spectacles.

"A nothing studies professor who majored in nothing, got it," she retorted, crossing her arms in satisfaction.

Ignoring the reply, Burt stomped into Suitachi's with a gruesome scowl. "Listen, I need three process upgrades. That's starting from level 5 upgrade, so it'll be 1800 zenny," he told the man behind the counter grumpily. "Do you give out free suckers with purchases or anything, by any chance? Something really big that you couldn't talk around?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and grinning to hide his frustration.

-----------------------------------------

Purchasing Process Upgrades 5-7

500+600+700 = 1800

Suitachi's usual smile dropped to an indifference as he saw Burt's scowling mug saunter in and order his purchase. "Process upgrades, right away," the shopkeeper replied, taking the upgrades to the counter top. "And if you want anything free, you can use the toilet out back," said Suitachi, thumbing at a door hidden behind some shop displays. From the looks of the door's condition, only the most desperate and daring of men would dare enter.

"Have a nice day," he said as a small smile crossed the edge of his lips.

Burt GET: Process Upgrade x3 [#5-7]
Burt LOSE: 1800z

"Thanks, man, but that's a little too violent. I can't just stuff little children's faces into toilets because they're too annoying," Burt laughed ominously, smiling down at Jerry and ruffling her hair. "I'll take the upgrades though."

With that, he led the two kids out of the shop and back to the metroline home. But first, a stop at the chip shop was in order.

((Heading to ACDC))

After a brief trip, and a far easier parking job than they'd found last, Rose and her party arrived in Sci-Labs.

Rose happened to be the first one into the shop, so she had time to think on her way up to the counter. "There aren't really many options for how we go about this, are there?" She pondered.

She approached the counter at a casual pace. "I mean, it's not like we really know what the thing is, so we can't be crafty about it that way. We basically have to ask about it, and then for it. Whether or not we mention the scavenger hunt or why we need it, that's basically the only set of options we have."

Once she got there, she looked for the shopkeeper and gave a big smile.

SummonerMan found this whole scavenger hunt thing to be fairly ridiculous by now, and his operator was heading in a similar direction, with her recent actions.

Rose waited a second for her friends to join her. "I can ask once everyone's here." she figured.

Stepping through the doorway of the Navi Shop a few moments after Rose, Zeo instead stopped halfway to the counter and glanced around. "I wonder if I've got time to make another purchase..." he mused to himself. "I don't think Rose and Sabrina are going to enjoy standing there while you try to figure out what to buy. If you didn't come in here with something in mind, don't bother," ViralMan said. Zeo crossed his arms. "Fine, I'll just focus on adding in the stuff I bought last time... which I probably should have done already."

Zeo began to absentmindedly work on his most recent Navi programming project while walking the other half of his journey to the store counter. "Maybe it would be better to get more money first..." he reconsidered after looking at the expanse of products behind the counter. ViralMan rolled his eyes. "Just ask him about the item already. Does he have one or not?"

"We should probably wait for Sabrina since Rose seems to be," Zeo said to his Navi. "I'd rather they ask instead." Ignoring the fact that Suitachi was probably one of the only people Zeo was used to demanding things from, the operator stood behind Rose and waited for Sabrina.

Right behind the other two, Sabrina stepped into the Navi Store, almost instinctively heading directly for the counter. It dawned on her that Suitachi was probably going to be disappointed, seeing three people in the shop at the same time, yet none of them were there to buy anything. At least, not as far as she knew. And she wasn't getting anything, unless he was willing to sell her stuff for 900z. Which was highly unlikely.

SplashLady, however, was thinking about something completely different. "Wonder why everyone's so quiet? It's not like we're in a library or anything..." The question encompassed even her, as she was nearly whispering herself.

Fortunately, the one person that caught the remark was probably the best at breaking the ice of anyone in the room. "Hey, Suitachi! We're after a..." A quick check of the list was in order to make sure she didn't screw the name up. "...Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade! Any idea what that means? And more importantly, if you've got one, could we get it? We really need it for something..." Ah, get. No implications of getting it for free, like 'have'. After all, he'd probably give them more info if it looked like they were willing to pay for it.

...Even though it was extremely unlikely that any of them had any plans to do so.

"Batch... AA-00001?" Suitachi repeated, raising an eyebrow at the inquiry. Cocking his head to the side, he scratched his head, seeming to be thinking about something. "First batch to come to the shop..." he muttered, as he kept scratching. Suddenly, he seemed to jump a bit, as he grabbed the PET by his side, and began tapping a few buttons. Screens went by, and Suitachi stopped on one particular one. He looked at the screen for a bit, then at the three kids that happened to come into his shop.

"I believe that my PET is the one with the process upgrade you want... Why do you want it, anyway? Being a very early-model process upgrade means that it's probably incompatible with the PET models you kids probably have," said Suitachi, puzzlement written on his face.

Coming in from the subway, Vita opened the door of the shop to find that it was already quite busy. Three people were lined up at the counter and talking to the owner. She nervously crept around the group so that she wouldn't disturb them and busied herself instead with the displays so she wouldn't be getting in their way. She picked out the Process Upgrades she needed and carefully checked the types to make sure she had what she needed.

Vita hung back for the time being. Once the line had cleared up she'd certainly be able to make her purchases.

[Purchasing Process Upgrades V4 (400 Zenny), V5 (500 Zenny), V6 (600 Zenny), V7 (700 Zenny) and V8 (800 Zenny). Total cost is 3000 Zenny.]

Rose thought quickly. She had to respond, since stalling would look poorly. And she needed to get that upgrade.

So she wanted to make their request sound as positive as possible. Sabrina had set a nice precedent for that, so Rose figured she was ready to roll into it.

"Oh, you do have one?" She asked rhetorically, "Well, we'd really appreciate it if we could have it. " She had been smiling, but tried looking a bit more serious now as she explained.

"We're trying to get it for an acquaintance of ours," she had figured this was the best way to go about it, since even if she was spicing it up, she had difficulty calling the man her friend. "He's really into this sort of thing, and would be so excited if he could get his hands on one of these, upgrades."

She'd considered referring to it by name, but hadn't want to mess it up accidentally, so she comma-paused there before resorting to a more generic term. "It'd really help us out." she added, plaintively.

She'd noticed the new person who approached the counter out of the corner of her eyes, but hadn't really acknowledged her. The only thing it really impressed upon her was that she didn't want to hold this poor girl up any longer than possible.

"If we had to, we could use that as an angle if this doesn't work." she mused.

I really hope this doesn't end with me shelling out the only money I've got on me in exchange for that thing, Zeo thought wearily. Then again, this was a store, and it wasn't likely that Suitachi'd be getting the thing back anytime soon. Zeo wondered what alternatives there were to that. It was sounding like Rose was asking for it for free, but Zeo doubted their chances of that. Then again, he isn't sounding particularly defensive of the thing...

"I wonder what our chances are of getting that thing without us paying for it," ViralMan said to Zeo, echoing his thoughts. "Even if he doesn't care about it, it is a business." He glanced at their current funds. "It would certainly make you a nice guy in the eyes of your friends, though," ViralMan said with a smile. Zeo smirked. "Yeah, sure. Then maybe I can spend whatever I don't shell out here on a program to actually make you funny. If such a thing exists."

"I think they do. Not that I need one. Aren't we getting a little off topic?" asked ViralMan. Zeo sighed. "You started it, but there isn't much to talk about anyway." He turned back to the counter after realizing he'd practically turned around to hold his conversation. What is he going to want for that thing? Zeo asked himself mentally as he waited for the shopkeeper's response.

Before Sabrina could even open her mouth to respond, she noticed the sound of footsteps in the store. Everyone in the gang was already at the counter, as was Suitachi. So who could make-

Oh, duh. A customer.

Grabbing Rose by the shoulder, she sent both her and herself back a step or two, to let the woman behind them through. Being nice never hurt, after all. "Sorry about blocking you like that!"

Now, onto business. "But yeah, it's just like Rose said. We know a guy that collects...weird stuff, and that's something he'd really like to have. And if he finds out the great Suitachi used it in his very own PET...well, I think he'd totally flip!" Yeah...'great'. Aside from the fact he ran this shop, Sabrina didn't really know any outstanding qualities of Suitachi. Oh well, she didn't have to, so long as she could get that Process Upgrade.

"I don't know..." mumbled Suitachi, still scratching his head, now in hesitation. "I don't think you can pay for this kind of upgrade, not only for its zenny, but for its sentimental va-" He stopped himself when the girls stepped back a bit to let through an actual customer, who he dealt with quite well, packing up the upgrades and taking her zenny. "Here you are, miss, have a nice day," he said, as he handed Vita the upgrades in a plastic bag.

Vita GET: Process Upgrade x5 [#4-#8]
Vita LOSE: 3000z

Turning back to the other three, he continued his line of talk, "Now, where was I? Oh, yes. You may not know it, but these used to cost as much as today's Speed Upgrades. Add that to the fact that this is one of the very first off the line, and that it's, well, mine..." Trailing off at the end, he looked up at the ceiling for a bit. "I think I do have one or two lying around the place, though. Some person just traded in his old one, I might have it somewhere..." he said, looking around. His eyes stopped at the door behind him for a bit, then turned back to the three. "I think I have those old ones stored in the back room, but I never let anyone in there. I would look around in there for you, but that might take hours. And I still haven't heard anything about... compensation."

Rose thought quickly. "It doesn't need to be yours. It just has to be an upgrade of that series." she said, when they were informed about the sentimental value of his own piece. However, after that he mentioned hours of searching and also compensation.

"Well, it's a bad idea to offer a price, since he's likely to take it if it's too high and deny us if we're too low. Best bet would be to act surprised and hope he hands it to us for nothing to free. But we'll see."

Rose looked at the door he'd glanced at. "We're ok with waiting. We can come back later if you really want." she suggested, trying to be as compliant as she could in order to help him feel the need to give way on the last matter.

The girl looked aside and gave a sideways grin, teeth clenched, and inhaled through them. "But I didn't know that upgrade was really worth anything. We'd be really grateful if you gave it to us. I don't know what you're looking for in terms of compensation, though."

Her voice trailed off into a more despairing tone near the end, trying to portray their pathetic position with equally pathetic voice. She really didn't want to have to pay for this, and using this, along with her complete intentions of getting the Batch-AA-00001 upgrade, she planned on continuing to aim for the best they could manage.

She was also both relieved and unhappy with the fact that the girl who arrived right after them had been taken care of. On the bright side, the girl would be happy and their group hadn't held her up. On the other hand, they'd lost a reason that Suitachi would want to do whatever they said to deal with them quickly and not lose business.

She tried another smile, and made it look like she was trying, and looked up. She tried her best to make eye contact, looking with eyes full of hope directly into Suitachi's eyes, or as directly as she could manage. "Please," she begged in her mind, "don't make this harder for us, and you, than it already is."

Compensation? The way the shopkeeper said it sounded somewhat dubious to Zeo, but he figured it wasn't intended as such. Zeo could sympathize with the sentimental attachment to the upgrade though; the operator himself was always reluctant to lose possessions, and in this case it appeared like he'd have to lose zenny. Not that I'm that attached to my money, I can get more later... Still, he agreed with Rose's reluctance to offer anything when they had no idea what the shopkeeper would accept.

"Well, you're the shopkeeper. What would you accept for one?" Zeo asked. He had enough zenny for a first level Speed Upgrade, though offering that would leave him mostly broke. If it could be avoided, Zeo wanted to do so. "Come to think of it, what happens to the upgrades after they're traded in?" Zeo felt bad about challenging the item's worth, but if Suitachi was only going to trash it paying a high price seemed unfair. We could offer to do something for him, but we're already trying to complete a scavenger hunt, he thought.

Zeo figured that Sabrina and Rose would probably have more luck convincing the shopkeeper to somehow hand over the upgrade, so he stopped talking and waited for someone else to say something.

For a change, Sabrina just hung back a bit, listening to her friends make their cases for the upgrades. However, there was one thing about what Suitachi said that didn't quite seem to gel. "Um...well, if someone actually DID trade in an old model upgrade recently, why would it take hours to find it? Shouldn't you at least have a good idea about where it is?" Surely it wouldn't be buried THAT far in all the stuff that was surely back there.

Plus, he was talking about what he'd get for it. But there wasn't any point in that just yet. "Besides, not much point in talking about compensation if we can't get what we need, now is there? Give us what we want, and then we can talk about what you want!" Which hopefully wasn't anything too crazy, since none of them were exactly rich. Unless someone was holding out, anyway. Which she doubted.

"Nrrrrrgh."

Why did these kids have to come in at this time? Why were they asking something for essentially nothing? "Sorry, kids, but I will have to turn you all down. I think you kids are clever, you know what compensation means: zenny's all I'm looking for. Unless you happen to have some other experimental upgrade that you'd like me to sell," he replied, chuckling. "As for the old traded-in upgrades, they're kept in the back room until they can be claimed by some Sci-Lab folk that come here every once in a while. Dunno what they do with them. And miss, by 'just traded in', I mean a few days ago. These trade-ins don't happen very often, and there's more stuff than you would think back there. Would you like me to pore through the inventory for you, hmm?"

After a few seconds, Suitachi went about sitting down back in his seat and reading a book he seemed to be reading before being interrupted. A closer inspection of the book would reveal it to have a cover that looked incredibly unsuitable for children, with regard to the amount of blood and depiction of human brains spilling everywhere.

Vita was pleased and a little embarrassed when the three people already there let her through to make her purchases. She smiled sheepishly and handed over her money and then quickly got out of their way. If they had come for something other than normal wares, it was probably something way over her head. "Thank you." She said once she had cleared the group and gotten her upgrades. "Um, all of you." She added, quickly exiting the shop.

She'd been denied. The shopkeeper even expressed annoyance with her question, which she'd thought was fair. "Besides, if he thinks it's so obvious, why didn't he just name a price. Unless he's trying to play us into naming one."

Rose looked down for a bit, somewhat unhappy that the man expressed such disgust over three people who could be potential customers if he hadn't decided to be such a jerk.

She decided that she'd have to try and get him to name a price. With that in mind, she looked up and back at him, but he was not sitting down, reading a book; one with a violent cover that reminded her of something.

Realizing what it was it reminded her of, she decided to strike up a conversation. Being personable couldn't hurt, of course. "What are you reading, there?" the girl asked, in a friendly and inquisitive tone.

She hoped her friends wouldn't be too upset that she seemed to be wasting time. She wasn't trying to, of course.

He seems a lot nicer when transactions are straightforward... not that he's really being straightforward with us, Zeo thought, a little annoyed. "Just name the damn price," ViralMan mumbled, the utterance only audible to Zeo. The operator figured he would have to calm his Navi lest he say something worse aloud. "Don't worry about it," he whispered into his PET. "We'll figure something out, so cool it." Zeo directed his gaze back at the shopkeeper. "Oh hey, that looks like the-" Zeo immediately turned his head once his realized what he was looking at.

"Hey, that looks like the book we just got. He doesn't seem the type to care for that kind of stuff," ViralMan noted. "Too bad we don't have anything else like that, or maybe he wouldn't mind trading." Zeo nodded in agreement. "Maybe we can go back for one while he finds what we need." Realizing he probably looked odd practically whispering into his PET with three other people present, Zeo returned it to its holster and straightened up.

It doesn't matter whether we buy it off him or trade him; at this rate we're paying either way. Might as well let him respond and see if we can work out a deal this way. Zeo slid his hands into his pockets and waited for Suitachi to respond, curious as to whether these overly graphic books would be the key to their success.

"Er, don't mention it!" Sabrina gave the woman a small wave, before returning her focus to the only person they knew had the upgrade they needed. ...And apparently, he'd rather read a book than help them. Yep, he was definitely a model of can do entrepreneurial spirit. Seriously, where did he get off treating potential customers like that?! And that book cover was super gross. What if some kid walked in and wanted something? Who did this guy think he-

...That book cover! That looked incredibly familiar, to put it lightly. Now, if she could just remember the name of the series...oh, right. "Hey, is that a NERVE series book?" If he gave the answer she was hoping for, it might just break this huge stalemate. Assuming Rose was willing to make a 'contribution', anyway.