(Thought I'd do Stringer some final justice while I explain how Kirin gets all of Donell's items. So here's all six pages of it. <__<)
ACDC General Textiles, 10 miles outside of ACDC Town, 6:17 P.M.
Most of the lights in the factory were off, seeing how most employees had already left for the night. Not in Donell Johnson's office, though. Moving at his usual snail's pace, Donell put some papers in a desk cabinet and zipped up his jacket for the brisk night outside as he finally got ready to leave. His Navi, Stringer, was lying back in the PET nestled in Donell's jacket pocket, enjoying the rare chance for some peace and quiet. As the lazy man walked onto the main assembly floor on his way out, though, all the doors around him locked, the lights flashed on, and all the machinery revved up to life, spinning and weaving different threads and strings at a speedy clip. As Donell looked around lazily, trying to find the source of this strange occurrence, a loud shout rang through the expansive room.
"I've finally found you... Donell!"
Donell craned his neck up to the catwalk above him, seeing a male figure standing there at the source of the sound. As the last of the lights popped on, Donell saw a face he recognized far too well.
"Oh... hey, Maxwell," said Donell in his normal bored tone.
"Don't 'hey' me!" roared Maxwell, clenching his fist. "I've spent the last seven years hunting you down, all so I could finally get revenge for the life you stole from me!"
Shrugging his shoulders, Donell shouted back, only so his voice would carry up to the catwalk, "I didn't take anything from you!"
"Lies!," screamed Maxwell, "My dream... my friends... the love of my life... You stole them all!"
Counting on his fingers, Donell tried figuring out which things he was talking about, "Huh... Oh, you mean this job as your dream?"
"Yes, damn it! I worked so much harder than you to earn that college degree in textile engineering, but you got this job anyway! I haven't been able to get a stable job ever since!" yelled Maxwell.
Sighing, Donell replied, "The company thought I was more qualified than you. As for your employment problems, don't blame your incompetence on me."
Growling under his breath, Maxwell roared again, "Well, what about my friends?! They all abandoned me to go follow you! It was your entire fault!"
Thinking for a moment, Donell said, "Hmm... oh, you mean the friends from college? Yeah, I guess they just liked me better. Besides, we all separated after college, anyway."
Gripping the catwalk's handrail extremely tight, Maxwell grunted, "You liar! Also, you stole the woman I loved!"
Thinking again, Donell replied, "Who, Mia? We were just a better match, I suppose. Anyway, we broke up three years ago, so she's all yours."
Slamming his fist against the handrail, Maxwell screamed, "How can you make such a mockery of my dream life?! Everything I strived so hard for... You just take it all so lightly and throw it all away on a whim! That's it, I'm going to kill you!" With that, Maxwell pulled a pistol out from inside his jacket, and pointed it and Donell's head.
"Hey, that's not very sportsman-like," said Donell flatly, putting his hands up in the air.
"Stop making jokes of everything, you bastard!" yelled Maxwell, his furor growing.
"Come on, let's settle this like reasonable men. That weaver over there has a jack-in port. Let's have our Navis decide this little feud you dreamed up in your crazy little mind." shouted Donell just enough so Maxwell could here.
"Grr... Fine!" yelled Maxwell, putting the gun away and pointing his PET to the machine. "Jack in, Shogun!"
Putting his hands down and grabbing his PET, Donell poked the screen and said, "Hey Stringer, wake up. You've got a fight."
Groaning, Stringer replied as he got up, "At this hour? Who on earth wants to battle now?"
"It's Maxwell," sighed Donell.
"Fantastic... I guess that means that stubborn old fool Shogun is here too," moaned Stringer.
"Yeah. Well, have fun," said Donell bluntly as he jacked in Stringer.
WeaveCompMain
Stringer appeared in the computer, coming face to face with an old-looking Navi decked out in samurai armor. "Uh... hey, Shogun. Long time no see," said Stringer, a forced smile on his face.
"Quiet, you! That operator of yours ruined Maxwell's dreams, and I shall make you suffer for it as much as your operator shall suffer at Maxwell's hand!" shouted Shogun, his furry gray mustache bouncing as he talked.
"Hey Stringer, can you take that old guy?" asked Donell through the screen.
"What, you don't remember Shogun? He's as much a tactician as I am, so at the least, this battle's going to take a while." replied Stringer, his arms folded over each other.
"Man... I just wanted to go home and eat some dinner. Well, I guess I need to get through this first to do that..." mumbled Donell.
"You'll never get the chance to!" yelled Maxwell as he walked down the catwalk to the main floor. "Now Shogun, eliminate that Navi!"
"Yes, sir!" shouted Shogun in a quick reply. With that, Shogun waved his hand above the ground, and three miniature samurais, no bigger that Mettaurs, appeared. "Attack, my brave soldiers!" ordered Shogun, pointing straight at Stringer. The three mini-samurai dashed forward in unison, their sword drawn. Stringer answered by pointing his hand up to the top of a large operating system for one of the machines, shooting some threads up there, and pulling himself up off the ground and into the mass of OSs and stored files.
"Running from a fight? Have you no shame, coward?!" yelled Shogun, waving his arm in front of him once more, into the towering structures, his mini-samurai grinding to a halt at Stringer's former position.
"No shame in self-preservation!" shouted Stringer in reply, moving to a new position so his voice wouldn't give away his position.
"Ha, only a weakling would have such thoughts!" laughed Shogun aloud, making his position painfully clear to Stringer. Suddenly, one of the three mini-samurai jerked, swinging its sword to the side and cleaving through a second mini-samurai. The sudden rebel quickly turned around and charged at Shogun, who remained completely still as he shouted, "Run Seppaku.exe!" The mini-samurai started convulsing, quickly coming to a stop as he ran his sword through his own body. After it disappeared, Shogun noticed some wire-thin threads lying on the ground. "Your Puppeteer technique, I would assume?" shouted Shogun into the air. "And I'm sure you've already cut this strings so I can't hunt you down! You're always so predictable, Stringer! You can't win with such obvious ploys!" As soon as he said that, though, a Cannon blast rocked Shogun's body from behind. Turning around, he sees the form of Stringer throwing a way the now-useless chip. "Haha, I didn't think you could move that fast. Well played... but not well enough!" A mini-samurai ambushed Stringer from behind an OS, jumping up and deliver a quick slash to Stringer's chest plate.
Reeling back, Stringer groaned, "Where'd that one come from...?"
Chuckling, Shogun answered, "You already know that I summon the mini-samurai by waving my arm, yes? Well, while you were moving around up there, you couldn't see me, so I went ahead and took the opportunity to create a fourth mini-samurai to cover my back. The best offense is a good defense, wouldn't you agree?" The two remaining mini-samurai then began to converge on Stringer, forcing him to draw back. The tiny warriors suddenly stopped moving when they went in a narrow crevice between to OSs, making Shogun ask what happened.
Stringer laughing this time, he replied, "You said the best offense is a good defense, right? Well, probably the best defense I can do is this string web that I made." Stringer plucked a thread on the web, making the whole thing vibrate to make it more visible to Shogun, the mini-samurai still struggling to escape.
"Well played, boy. But how can you follow up that play? You have no offense with that web." inquired Shogun.
"True, but I believe you have some offense in this web..." grinned Stringer, collapsing the web into two nets to trap the mini-samurai, their swords protruding out of the nets. Linked to a string on each of Stringer hands, he lifted the nets up and began spinning them in the air before throwing them at Shogun. Surprised by the unconventional attack, Shogun could only watch as his own soldiers tore huge gashes in both of his arms at they passed before crashing into each other and deleting themselves.
Grunting, his arms now useless, Shogun dashed towards Stringer head-first with the sharp horns of his helmet as Stringer hurried to cut the ties to his nets. Stringer was too slow, however, as the horns drove into the already open wound on his chest from earlier, making Stringer gasp for air.
After regaining his breath, Stringer chuckled, looking at the tangled mess he and Shogun were in. "I was kind of hoping to win this fight..." mumbled Stringer, "... but I suppose a tie will suffice."
"What are you talking about, boy?" barked Shogun, his eyes fixated on his floor because his helmet was stuck in Stringer's chest.
"I set up a self-destruct system in this computer a while back on the off chance you two nutcases ever came back. And lo and behold, it looks like my efforts were well worth it."
"Making your moves before the battle ever began... Very clever, boy. You are a true tactician." sighed Shogun, closing his eyes.
"Never thought I'd hear that from you. Well, thanks, old man," chuckled Stringer, pulling his finger with the thread that was attached to the detonation device...
Main Assembly Floor
Donell and Maxwell watched their screens go blank as the weaving machine shorted out. Sighing, Donell said, "You always have to make yourself look cool, don't you, Stringer?"
On the other side of the machine, Maxwell was screaming, "Damn it all! You were supposed to win, Shogun! Damn it, damn it, damn it! That's it, I'm finishing this myself!" Maxwell pulled the handgun back out and pointed it at Donell.
Sliding his PET back into his jacket pocket, Donell didn't bother to raise his hands back up, instead only saying, "You think this will resolve all your problems? Shooting me might make you feel better for a little while, but it won't make your dream life happen, and you'll have a criminal record on you. Can you handle that?"
"Shut up, you! I'm really going to do this!" roared Maxwell, his hands shaking violently.
"I don't think you will. Look at your hands. You're too scared to shoot me," goaded Donell, in what probably was not a good idea.
Jumping up on the motionless conveyer belt of the broken weaver, Maxwell barked, "Shut up! I will kill you!" Just then, Maxwell's violently twitching hands accidentally pulled the trigger, knocking Maxwell off his feet, with Donell's orange jacket slowly turning blood red.
"Oh god... oh god..." mumbled Maxwell, his sanity as the breaking point. Suddenly, the shorted-out weaver sprang to life, rejuvenated by the impact of Maxwell falling on it. Maxwell let out a few screams, and a loud crunching noise was heard a few seconds later as the machine came to a halt once more...
4 days later, ACDC General Hospital, Room 226
Donell cracked an eye open, only to see a pair of big blue ones staring right back at him from a distance of about 3 inches. Groaning, Donell spoke up, "Kirin... This is a one-person bed..."
Hopping off at light-speed, Kirin replied with a laugh, "Hehe, sorry, big bro. I got you to wake up, though." Donell's mother, with the same bright red hair of the whole family, walked in to see her son awake, and hurried to ask how he was doing.
"Fine, fine... What happened, anyway?" asked Donell, his memory of the end of his and Maxwell's showdown a bit fuzzy.
"One of your co-workers came in to get something he forgot, and saw you on the ground with a bullet wound. He called an ambulance, and you've been hear ever since."
"Huh, I guess he really did go through with it... What happened to Maxwell?" questioned Donell once more.
"He... was pronounced dead at the scene. Apparently, he was crushed by the gears of one of the machines in the facility," replied Donell's mother, a depressed look on her face.
"Uh huh..." said Donell curtly, no real sign of emotion on his face. "Wait... how am I alive? I thought I was shot in the heart."
"You would've been, if it wasn't for..." answered Kirin, pausing to hop over to the desk next to the bed and picking up Donell's PET, "this!" Donell looked at his red and white PET to see the screen shattered, clear proof that the bullet had gone through it. "The doctor said that your PET slowed the bullet down enough so it didn't reach your heart! You're so lucky!" said Kirin, her peppy attitude not dampened in the least by what should've been a morbid atmosphere.
Reaching up slowly to grab the PET from his little sister, Donell examined it, soon noticing that all the data stored on it was still intact.
"Yeah," began Kirin, "your PET is really trashed, but the guy at the shop said that the hard drive was still intact, so all the stuff you got is still there, including the backup data for Stringer. That means you can put him back together!"
Thinking for a moment first, Donell replied, "I'll probably be in this hospital for at least another couple of weeks, though, so I won't even be able to get a new PET to put Stringer in until then. Give me your PET, Kirin."
"Huh? Well, okay, big bro..." said Kirin, confused as she pulled her red and blue PET out of her pocket and handed it to Donell. As he lifted her PET up, two faces suddenly slammed against the screen, catching Donell off-guard enough to make him flinch.
"Hi there, big bro!" squealed Hien and Souhi in unison. Lazily staring at the two hyperactive sisters for a moment, Donell linked up the two PETs in front of him.
"Uh... What are you doing?" asked Kirin as she glanced over Donell's shoulder, completely lost as to what was going on.
"I'm giving you my upgrades, chips, and other junk that I've picked up lately. I won't be needed them for quite a while, anyway," mumbled Donell, a bit of shyness in his voice.
"What?! Really?!" yelled Kirin, utterly shocked, seeing how her older brother almost never did anything for her.
"Yeah. Now you owe me, so do me a favor and leave me alone so I can get some rest," grunted Donell as he handed Kirin her PET back, all the new items successfully transferred.
"Alrighty! Thanks a lot, big bro!" chirped Kirin as her mother led her out of the room.
"Hmph..." grumbled Donell as he closed his eyes to go back to sleep...