It gets here today!
Those words formed a single thought, and that thought played over and over again along the inside of Joey's skull as he ran home from school.
It gets here today!
He jumped nearby fence, a move he rarely made due to the very large and very angry dog now bounding after him has he sprinted across the grass. When he was near enough to the other side, he firmly planted his right palm on top of the wooden post in front of him and hoisted himself above the fence in a single, momentum-fueled movement. The dog reared up onto its hind legs, holding itself upright against the fence, and barked after the intruder for a while before strutting back to its dog house in a self-satisfied manner.
It gets here today!
The youngest Sangrelli rounded the corner of Kings Street, flying across the pavement to the sixth house on the left. Anticipation gripped his gut in an iron vice as he passed one, two, three houses. By this time, the two and a half story Sangrelli household was clearly in view, the aged brick giving stark contrast to the brightly colored vinyl siding of the buildings flanking it. At the top of the front stairs, leaning against the front door with its faded coat of paint, sat a small cardboard box adorned with a shipping label.
It's here!
The sight of the package spurred him on and he flew by the remaining houses. He streaked up the stairs, clearing all of them in only two long strides, before falling to a stop against the front of 3231 Kings Street. Despite all of the running, he was only slightly winded, a testament to the rigorous training regimen of Pops. He stooped down and picked up the box, excitement nearly bursting from his face in streams of happiness and sunshine. The parcel was addressed to him, as he already knew who it was for and where it was from, but his grin grew even wider, if it were possible, when he saw the company name in the return address: Custom Navi Solutions, Inc.
"Well, it took them long enough to ship it here..." a low voice dryly commented from Joey's hip.
The shiny new PeT, barely out of the box for two weeks, let out an almost inaudible hum as the hologram projector clicked on and produced the miniature form of a NormalNavi perched upon the door knob. The Navi looked up at the box, his head cocked in mild curiosity.
"You can say that again," Joey said, reaching for the knob as the Navi floated off and into the air. His cheeks were starting to hurt, but he couldn't not smile.
"Well, it took them long enough to ship it here..." the Navi repeated, both tone and inflection identical to how he had said it seconds before. The statement caught Joey momentarily off guard. I really hope this upgrade'll break him of being so literal... the teen thought as he opened up the door and stepped inside. The entrance of the house opened up to a foyer with two doors. A sign directly in front of Joey pointed to the one on the right with the words "Pops Sangrelli's School of Boxing" above the arrow. Joey ignored the sign and went to the left door, pulling a key out of his pocket and unlocking the way to the house proper.
"Ma, I'm home!" he shouted as he passed the kitchen and began to climb up the stairs to the second floor.
"Joey, the mail man left a package for you out front," his mother called out, opening the door to the kitchen and allowing the delicious smell of tonight's meal escape out in a rush. "Oh, I see you've already picked it up. Well, dinner's in an hour, don't spend too long playing around with whatever it is."
"I won't," he said, darting upstairs. There were five rooms on the second floor, all of which were bedrooms. Since Paul and Sara had moved out, each of the remaining Sangrelli children each had their own room, which was a nice change of pace from sharing a room with Louis. Unfortunately, both of the Twins' rooms were before his, which usually meant running the gauntlet if they happened to be home. It seemed that Joey's good mood was sending out such powerful happiness juujuu that nothing could go wrong today, however, as neither of the Twins were in their rooms, allowing him to get to his computer unmolested.
"Well, let's see it..." the little holographic figure of his Navi said, alighting upon the desk and leaning against the computer case.
"Hold your horses," Joey mock-chided the navigator, sitting down in front of the keyboard and opening the box. The inside of the box contained a very nicely packaged disk featuring the company's name, the name of the new Navi frame that he would be uploading into his PeT to make his NormalNavi into a custom Navi (JadeMonk, based on the hero of his favorite martial arts film: Fist of Jade), and a tiny little block of red text. Closer inspection revealed that it was a warning label: {WARNING!!!} You install this custom Navi frame at your own risk. Custom Navi Solutions, Inc. is not responsible for installation of a custom frame onto an incompatible Navi. This frame is intended for Navi series PX-157T, DX-132S, IS-179G, . . .
Blah, blah, blah... Joey thought, inserting the disk and connecting his PeT to his computer. After following the on screen prompts, a progress bar appeared in the center of the screen, displaying how much longer was left until the NormalNavi became JadeMonk.EXE. As the bar filled, he fantasized about how awesome it would be to finally have his own custom Navi. On their sixteenth birthday, each of the Sangrelli children had received their own PeT and Navi. While Joey had no problem with his PeT, he only got the baseline Navi because the gym wasn't doing as hot as it had in the past. Still, only having NormalNavi was worlds better than having to use Boxer, Pops' old Navi who ran the training rig down in the Gym. Boxer was irritating, had a massive superiority complex, and enjoyed tormenting Joey a bit too much... He subconsciously brought a hand up to feel the skin underneath his right eye; the shiner Boxer had given him last week was still tender.
Joey was content with having a NormalNavi until one of his friends at school clued him in to a website that offered custom Navi upgrades at a fraction of normal retail price. It sounded almost too good to be true, but as Joey looked through their site he found himself becoming more and more sold on the idea of buying a custom Navi from them. Though it was a lot cheaper than getting one from Sci-Labs, the discount Navi still cost him almost all of the money he had saved up, but if it meant a custom navi of his own it was so worth it.
A spritely little jingle snapped him out of his reverie as the installation finished up. Barely containing himself, he booted up the PeT and was promptly dumbstruck. The Navi standing center screen looked nothing like the badass warrior monk design he had paid for! The head was misshapen, on leg was longer than the other, the hands looked like a 2 year old drew them, and, most annoyingly, the Navi kept on shouting at the top of its lungs "JOEY'S A PRETTY BALLERINA!" There was some writing on the front of the chest: "Hope you like the new design! We came up with it just for you. —M&M"
"Dammit!" Joey shouted, pounding his fists on the desk. A knock came from the door.
"Hey bro, you all right?" Louis's voice called from the other side.
"Yeah, yeah... I'm fine..." Joey lied, amidst a torrent of "JOEY'S A PRETTY BALLERINA!"
"You sure?" Louis asked.
"I'm good." Joey insisted, pressing the mute button on the PeT.
"If you say so. Ma wanted me to tell ya dinner's almost ready." His older brother finished, followed by the sound of him walking away.
Joey stayed in his chair for several minutes, furious that once again Mike and Mac had seen fit to make his life miserable. Well, at the very least I should uninstall this piece of trash... Joey thought, moving to turn off the PeT and uninstall the "upgrade".
"JOEY'S A PRETTTTTT-TTT-TTT-TTT-TTT-T-EEEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" screamed the being in his PeT, causing Joey to flinch back in alarm as the screen went bright blue. In white letters, the message appeared:
"A problem has been detected and PeT_OS has been forced to shut down. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: PeT_OS.sys. Unable to recover PeT_OS.sys. Please send this PeT to Sci-Labs for repairs."
Joey leapt from the chair, knocking it over in the process and threw himself onto his bed. Burying his face in a pillow, he screamed his rage at the world, followed by an impressively long stream of curses and threats directed at the Twins. When he could scream no more, he sat up, then reluctantly got to his feet and headed downstairs for dinner. As he entered the dining room, he noticed that both of the Twins had unforgivably smug looks as they saw Joey come in and take a seat. Throughout the meal he stared daggers at the two of them, wishing with every fiber of his being that looks could kill, just this once. Near the end, when everybody was finishing up amidst a buzz of small talk, Ma looked over to her youngest and asked "So, when are you going to tell me what you got in the mail today?"
"Er..." Joey said, trying to avoid saying something that might reveal his situation, "nothing really... just something for my PeT."
"What'd you get?" she continued, pushing him for more information it seemed.
"Nothing! Just an upgrade for my Navi." Joey said, louder than he intended and failing horribly at diverting the conversation away from the fact that his PeT was out of commission.
"Oh? Can I see?" she asked. At this point, most of the family had been attracted by his loud response earlier and was listening in.
"Yeah, Joey," Mike said, sneering.
"Let's see it," Mac finished, mirroring his twin.
Everybody else was watching now, wanting to see what their son/little brother had bought.
All the eyes unnerved Joey, and he finally broke. "I can't. The PeT crashed and won't start back up..." he mumbled, the peas on his plat suddenly very interesting.
"What now, boy?" Pops said from across the table. "Speak up."
"My PeT's broke." Joey said just loud enough to be heard. He flinched as Pops stood up.
"You broke it?! Already?!" he shouted across the table, causing Joey to try even harder to shrink his tall frame into something small and insignificant. "What, you think them things just grow on trees?! I bought ya that PeT because I thought your more responsible than that! Well, I ain't payin' for another one, I'll tell ya that right now!" Pops kept on, his voice growing ever louder.
"But Pops," Joey cried, suddenly finding his voice, "I need a PeT for school!"
Pops Sangrelli stood at the head of the table, staring down his youngest son.
"Well then, I think I know how to punish you as you earn up enough to buy another PeT..." Pops said in a dangerous voice.
"Oh, god! Please don't, I'm beggin' ya!" Joey pleaded with his father, fearing what he knew to be coming next.
"That's right. Until ya can buy your own PeT, AND pay me back for the hours I'll be letting ya use him, Boxer'll be more than happy to help ya with your schoolwork."
"But..." Joey started, but was cut off by Pops.
"This ain't a discussion, boy! You will be using Boxer, and that's final! What's more, for back sassin' me, you're gonna head down to the gym after dinner for extra training."
Joey sat in silence, thoroughly defeated. Across the table, Mike and Mac exchanged mischievous grins.
-------------
After dinner Joey headed downstairs to the gym below the house, thoroughly dejected. As the stairs leveled out, he opened the door to enter the gym and found the room almost completely dark. The only light was that directly above the boxing ring.
"Well, lookie what we got here!" a gruff, condescending voice echoed around the room. In the center of the ring, a suspend hunk of metal stirred to life as the training rig Pops Sangrelli had bought ages ago, when robotics were looking to be as big as the Net, began to move.
"Shut it, Boxer," Joey snarled, putting in his mouth guard and climbing through the ropes surrounding the ring. No sooner had he made it through than a flash of movement, followed by a stab of pain, came at him from the right.
"Too slow, Corky!" Boxer shouted, backing the rig up in a whirr of motors as it adopted a defensive posture.
Rubbing his cheek, Joey stood up, taking his own fighting stance before springing forward with a right hook. His glove hit padding as Boxer blocked then countered, catching Joey in the ribs.
"Come on, you gotta do better than that!" Boxer taunted, following up with another jab. Joey was quicker this time, however, and managed to sidestep the blow. This exchange went on for a little over an hour, and with each minute, Boxer's relentless taunting made Joey ever more infuriated, which of course made him sloppy. By the end of the training session, Joey had more than just black eyes to worry about, though the one he already had was not only refreshed, it also had a brother. "I must say, that went well," Boxer gloated as the training rig reset to its default position.
"Bite me," Joey spat, removing his mouth guard as he started to climb out of the ring.
"Hey, where you going?!" Boxer shouted after him.
"Not that it's your business," Joey said, still heading to the door, "But I'm going to sleep."
"Oh no you're not! Pops told me about our little arrangement, and you got homework that needs doin'. Now, get back in here, unplug me and let's get started."
"I'll do more than unplug you..." Joey grumbled under his breath, stepping back into the ring. Boxer, to his credit, made no move to attack Joey, though he did make the rig lurch as Joey reached around back to detach Pops' old PeT from it. Pocketing the device, he stomped upstairs, threw open the door to his room, and slammed the PeT, hoping to jar Boxer, to somehow repay him for the new bruises forming nicely all over his body.
"Aww, why so sour, squirt?" Boxer asked, completely unfazed.
"Let's just get this over with..." Joey said. He looked over the sheet the assignment was written on: "Research and come up with a hypothesis concerning the possible causes of the phenomena in ACDC Net resulting in significantly powerful viruses appearing at predictable frequencies. Research can come from recorded data or firsthand experience, but must be documented and submitted in a formal report." Reaching into his school bag, Joey grabbed one of his school books when Boxer let out a shout from the PeT.
"What're ya doin?!" he roared, a hologram appearing on the desk displaying the stocky Navi with his arms crossed in irritation.
"... My homework..."Joey said, his irritation rising at Boxer's behavior. "What you told me to do? Remember that?"
"Why're ya reading a book?! The thing says 'firsthand experience'! Why read about it when ya can actually do it? Get your hands dirty, boy!" he continued, punching his gloves together.
Joey just stared at the Navi. How is it that someone so tiny always managed to piss him off so much? After a while, he let out a sigh. "Fine... if it'll shut you up," he said, reaching into his pockets and gathering his scant amount of chips.
"Boxer.EXE, jack in."