A CHILLIN D CHILLIN

With a burst of speed, a pair of teenagers made their way in front of a pink squirrel statue. Though, perhaps it was more 'girl drags boy across the park, potentially against his will'. Regardless, the more feminine of the two dragged out their PET, and twirled it around a bit. Which, fortunately enough, was the girl. "Okay, I'm getting kinda pumped about this now! Ready to see a real, live Rogue Net, Zeo?"

"Okay, so, I guess I'm ready, too..." SplashMan looked down a bit, disappointed that he didn't even get a 'Ready, SplashMan?' Well, unless Sabrina was about to-

"Ready, SplashMan?"

...He was apparently as psychic as he was water based. "Yep! Let's show 'em!"

"All right, here we go!" Oh, right. Confirmation prompts. Yes, yes, yes...little did she notice that one of those prompts did not read 'Rogue Net Access'. Otherwise, she may not have actually gone through with the procedure. "Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!"

(to ACDC Net...VERSION 3)

Having been dragged over to the park by Sabrina (he was getting used to it by now), Zeo stood beside her at the squirrel statue. He grabbed his own PET as she prepared to jack in and gave ViralMan a decent view of the girl's PET. "Yeah, go for it," he said smiling in response to her question. Sabrina went on to speak with SplashMan for a moment before sending him into the Net in a similar way to his own method. Zeo noted the prompts that came up on the PET. "Chaos Net...?" he broke off quietly. Figuring Sabrina knew what she was doing, he continued to watch.

After the surprisingly short battle, Zeo was fairly sure he'd just seen virus hell. That was downright insane. "...wow," was all he managed to say out loud. He glanced at his PET. ViralMan had put his helmet back on, presumably to hide his surprise. Zeo's eyes moved back to the badly injured SplashMan on his friend's screen, who had done amazingly well in his own right. "So... that was Rogue Net?" he asked, confused due to the previous PET prompts. "Never mind, that doesn't really matter. Is SplashMan alright?" Zeo asked with some concern, staring at the remains of the one minute battle.

"...Oh my God, SplashMan's gonna die..." Despite Sabrina's remarks, her Navi managed to pull out a victory. Since he was still walking on his own, she figured he'd be okay. But...wow. The most basic virus, and three managed to nearly defeat her Navi in a regular battle.

"Cash...chip data...PAIN..." In four words, SplashMan managed to give Zeo a concise, yet accurate answer to his question.

"...I can see that. Come on, back to the PET!" The aquatic Navi instantly returned to his home device, allowing the girl to breathe a sigh of relief. "...I have no idea what that was, but it was NOT Rogue Net...it's some horrible place that's apparently even worse than Rogue Net..."

"That...was rough...wonder what it's called?" Luckily, it didn't take long for the aquatic fighter to regain his health. "I can't believe they let anyone in a place like that!"

"Yeah, really..." With that, Sabrina turned over to her friend. "Well, SplashMan should be fine...but you know, compared to that, Rogue Net's not too bad. So, what'd you think of that? Pretty intense, huh? But I knew we could do it!" Despite the near Navi death, the panic, and the internal last minute negotiations with whatever higher power would listen suggesting otherwise, anyway.

"'Intense', haha..." Zeo laughed nervously. "Not quiet what I'd describe it as, but it works." He probably would have used words like frightening, terrifying, amazing and insane, but saying any of those would make him and ViralMan seem like wimps or something. "And that's not Rogue Net... nice to see that isn't what's in store for us yet," he said optimistically. "What'd you think, ViralMan?"

With his arms crossed, ViralMan's helmet disappeared and revealed a slightly disheveled but mostly alright look on the Navi's face. "That was really... wow." And with that highly articulate response, Zeo glanced around the park for a moment. He wondered if it would be a good idea to send ViralMan busting for some more upgrade money, but decided against it and instead opted to allow Sabrina and SplashMan-mainly SplashMan-to regain their composure. Checking inside Sabrina's PET, he figured it was indeed SplashMan who might have needed a moment.

Rose had managed to drop off her brother in a fairly short amount of time. Once she'd picked him up, it hadn't taken long. They chatted a bit, and Rose didn't blame him, but she was still somewhat unhappy about the recent turn of events.

She had ruined perfectly good plans and now would need some new plans of equal or greater value in order to set her day back on track. But as she drove down the streets of ACDC, she had some difficulty thinking of similar plans to hanging out with a NetBattler friend she'd spent time with in the lounge.

Of course, this issue wouldn't last long. ACDC Park was a fairly popular place, roads passed it, and it was fairly hard to avoid. So the fact that she passed it wasn't a surprise. Fate conspired to throw a curveball her way when she passed the park, however, thanks to who she caught a glimpse of.

At first, from afar, she only got a hint of familiarity. However, as she got closer, she placed the figures. A boy and a girl, of around her age, were hanging out in the Park. And they weren't just any members of her generation; they just so happened to be people she knew. Netbattler friends she'd spent time with in the lounge. It was a great stroke of fortune and coincidence.

Not only did she now have something to do since her plans earlier had failed, but she'd swapped up and stumbled across two friends in the same place. What Luck!

However she was going to miss her chance if she didn't snap back to reality. Since it was a road she was moving at a fair travelling speed. With the distance and speed she wasn't sure they'd catch it, but she decided to yell to them.

"Sabrina! Zeo! Hey!" She yelled, preceded by three quick, loud honks of the horn, and accompanied by a generous wave (in some cars this wouldn't have been so obvious, but the top was down on Rose's convertible, so it wouldn't have been too hard to see if one looked at the right time). Being the safe driver that she was though, despite the fact that she'd inappropriately used her horn, and had taken one hand off the wheel, she managed to keep her eyes on the road.

However, even with her greeting, she couldn't go straight in to greet them. She was driving, and there were likely rules against off-roading into the park. She remembered a parking lot being located near the entrance to the park. "I'll have to make a quick lap around the block though." she thought, her mouth moving to one side of her face as she envisioned the process.

However, soon a wide grin returned. "Hey Summ, we've got new plans. Going to hang out with some different friends instead."

The navi lazily responded in turn, "Oh boy. Sounds like fun." Disinterest was dripping from these words. Rose didn't mind. Her smile persevered.

Allowing Sabrina and SplashMan a little time to regain themselves was actually a very good idea, considering both just blankly stared at their counterparts for a moment, before the operator broke the silence. "Yeah...I'd really like to meet a Navi that could handle that no prob. Could you even imagine how good you'd have to be able to beat those kinds of viruses without breaking a sweat?"

"Yeah, I think we should stick with Rogue Net for now..." The Navi hologram appeared once more, though it was constantly shaking. Probably not due to technical issues, either. "But anyway, we should probably show them what Rogue Net really-"

HONK! HONK! HONK! "Sabrina! Zeo! Hey!"

Well, that got the Netopians' collective attention. The human of the two turned and waved for a moment, fairly sure that her friend from the Colosseum Lounge wouldn't be able to hear her. "That was Rose...wonder if she's gonna join us? Well, the more the merrier, right?" And...a turn back to her original company. "If she's coming over here, I guess we should wait on showing you guys Rogue Net! But trust me, it's not exactly a cakewalk itself!"

At the very least, it probably wouldn't give them all nightmares like Chaos Net probably just did.

The honking of a car horn prompted Zeo to whirl around towards the source of the noise. In the passing (and one hundred percent unmistakable) car nearby, Rose from the Netopia tournament came driving past. He instinctively raised a hand in greeting before checking to see if Sabrina was doing the same. Just as he did, she got more verbal about it, leading Zeo to believe that he'd been a little slower on the uptake. "Yeah, definitely. It's been a little while since the tournament..." he replied to her initial, somewhat rhetorical question.

"I'm sure it isn't," ViralMan said audibly in response to Sabrina's Rogue Net comment. "Mostly looking forward to seeing it..." he trailed off. "Anyway, looks like miss 'look-at-me-I-can-drive' is finally making an appearance again." Zeo waved his hand at his PET to discourage any more remarks from the Navi, even if they weren't reaching their target. As Rose continued past the park in her car, Zeo elected to wait with Sabrina for the newest member of their coincidental party to join them.

It didn't take Rose too long to find a spot once she got to the parking lot. The latter action took a bit more time, but more out of necessity than out of any difficulty had in achieving it.

She got out, locked up, and headed to the park proper. Since she'd already seen the people she was looking for it took her all of no time at all to find them once she was there in person. She started speaking from a short distance away, well before she'd stopped walking. "What are you two doing here?" she asked.

She likely wouldn't have been as curious if they hadn't been together. She wasn't sure why they were meeting up. She suddenly had second thoughts, after having come all this way, considering the possibility that this could have been a private meeting. "Oh god. if this is a date, I'll have to bounce A.S.A.P. She thought about it. "Probably isn't though. Not the most romantic atmosphere, they aren't all blushy or anything (and Zeo seems like the type who'd blush being caught on a date). It's possible, I guess, though, They were friendly in the lounge."

She looked from one to the other, and decided there was no way what she'd been considering was happening. Intuition. She still needed an answer, though.

And there she was. Inquiring about what they were doing. Well, no sense in not being honest. "Oh, we bumped into each other at SciLab, and one thing led to another...and here we are! I was going to show Zeo what Rogue Nets were like, but I messed up and SplashMan wound up somewhere even worse..." ...Okay, so there was sense in not being honest. Horrible, horrible memories. "...So Rose! What have you been up to lately?" Conversation redirect, go!

SplashMan, on the other hand, was a bit more interested in Rose's Navi, moving his hologram in front of her PET. Which looked silly, what with him standing in mid-air. "Hi SummonerMan! Long time no see!"

"Oh, we were-" Zeo managed to get out before Sabrina began explaining what had brought them to the park. He quieted down and waited as she talked, waving quickly at Rose before directing his attention to his PET. "No smart remarks about her car, please," Zeo asked his Navi in a hushed voice. ViralMan shrugged and nodded from inside the PET before tuning back into Sabrina's voice. Zeo did as well, though he wasn't sure what else to say.

Sabrina even ended her explanation with a question for Rose, so Zeo kept quiet without any other option. He figured he'd try to get something in on his next opportunity. While he waited for the newcomer's response, Zeo watched with some interest as SplashMan's image flitted over to the girl's PET. ...come to think of it, do I even know who her Navi is? he asked himself. He only recalled talking to Rose and not her Navi, and subsequently wondered what they were like. Probably some kind of really happy counterpart, like that Seli girl... Zeo fervently hoped he was wrong; he wasn't sure if he could keep up with so many chatty people around.

Both of her friends began to respond, overlapping somewhat. This made it seem dangerously like they may have been quickly trying to come up with an excuse. However, Zeo stopped and allowed Sabrina to go one, and as a result Rose was able to see quickly that she was right, and that small nagging worry had been unfounded all along.

Sabrina's vague hint at an interesting statement was enough to raise Rose's eyebrows, but she managed to tactfully avert the subject back to Rose. Rose decided she wanted to know more, but figured she'd have to use a bit of tact in order to answer, remain cordial, not rush the conversation, and get what she wanted.

"Actually coincidentally enough I was just at SciLabs earlier. I saw Aelieth there, remember him?" Rose quickly searched her memory and tried to decide whether or not they would. He had been there for a brief period of time near the end, when both Sabrina and Zeo had been there, she believed she could recall. So she decided to remind them, just in case, and then continue on.

"Aelieth Hadrok, tall, college kid, he was at the Tournament, too. Had Holoß as a navi," the end of this line took her eyes back from recalling the appearance of the boy she'd seen just earlier, and thinking of how to describe him, and back to making eye contact with her current crowd.

"Anyway, I had to pick up my Brother and drop him off, so I left SciLabs and came to ACDC, and then after dropping him off, here I am." Shrugs and smiles accompanied the period of this sentence.

During this time, Zeo would be proven wrong, likely much to his delight, by the entrance of SummonerMan into the conversation. "Hello and likewise." the purple-clad Navi replied, curtly and coolly. It wasn't an aggressive response. He just didn't appear to be going out of his way to further the conversation; which is decidedly not chatty.

After a pause, Rose resumed the offensive. "So, what's worse than Rogue Net?" The question was asked as she looked between both of the others. She didn't care where the response came from, she was simply hoping for a response. Her curiosity was piqued.

Worse than Rogue Net...Rose WOULD go there. "Well, uh...I dunno what it's called or anything..." Which reminded her...she could show her friend what she saw. Just had to rummage through her chips for a sec...ah, there it was. Sabrina pulled out the chip, and presented it to Rose. "Here, check out this Battlechip I got. See how the Mettaur in the picture is blue with a little yellow in it? SplashMan found three of them...and almost lost. That should tell you right there how tough they are..." Seriously, Mettaur were known for being weak...and they STILL almost defeated a strong Navi like SplashMan. Ugh, she couldn't help but shiver a little at the thought of that...

"Yeah...it was really rough. Honestly, I don't want to go back any time soon..." Even the Navi couldn't help but shake at the thought of blue Mettaur. "I'll stick with Rogue Net, thank you very much!"

...Okay, this conversation needed to end before the memory became irrepressible. "You know, since we're all here, we should totally do something!" But what? She just kinda...said it without thinking. Oh well, maybe someone would have an idea. Maybe.

"Do something?" Zeo asked automatically as Sabrina made her suggestion. It looked less like she wanted to do something and more like she wanted to change the topic... he smiled faintly and racked his brain for ideas. "I don't know any really entertaining stuff to do around here..." Zeo grabbed his PET. "Wanna suggest something?" he asked his Navi jokingly. "You could always take a mission together, or even go busting. Humans do that all the time, right?" ViralMan replied in a sarcastic tone.

A mission? the boy picked out from his Navi's quip. "I wonder if the GNA have any 'missions' they need done. Maybe they even have non-Net missions, heh," he laughed, not completely serious himself. "What do you think, Rose?" Zeo turned the focus to the newcomer, finally getting to say something to her. While he waited for an answer, Zeo was left with an odd mental image of real world virus busting. He shook his head sadly to dispel the thought.

Rose listened to Sabrina recount her terrifying tale with a good deal of enthusiasm. She responded appropriately to the showing of the chip, looking at it fairly closely. She even responded with a trailing "Sounds Rough," when she had finished.

Then she suggested they do something, which was obviously a good idea. "Not like we're going to sit here doing nothing." Before Rose could suggest anything, Zeo took this chance to get a word in the ajar door he had been watching the conversation through, and finally opened up.

Rose allowed him to finish, playful banter with his Navi and all. She also couldn't help but imagine a Real World Busting. She wasn't sure she'd be exceptionally skilled at taking out opponents, but imagining herself with Super Human fighting skills and the ability to fire blasts at opponents was fun. Her current friends accompanied her in these thoughts, even getting to pose at the end in a dramatic teamwork stance.

Rose was in the center, obviously.

Back in the Real World, though, Rose responded without spacing out. The imagining had all been accomplished in during Zeo's story and in the background of the quiet space between lines. "A Non-Net Mission, eh?" she asked rhetorically. She considered that Zeo, like his Navi, was possibly joking.

She didn't care though. "Sounds like a great idea to me." Justification followed. "It'd definitely be something to do. Together. And it'd be exciting. Everyone needs a little adventure in their lives, right?"

She looked up for a moment, thinking about the possibilities and what not, before turning right back to the others. "I say we go for it. Sound good?"

A...non-Net mission? Yeah, like they even had those. Especially missions that three 16 year old could handle. Right.

"Sounds like a great idea to me. It'd definitely be something to do. Together. And it'd be exciting. Everyone needs a little adventure in their lives, right?"

Rose's statement, however, caused Sabrina to do a 180. It would be something to do. And it could be exciting. "You know...if they have any, let's go for it! I mean, it could be a lot of fun!"

"A real world mission?" Hmm...something didn't sound quite right about that to him. "Well, I guess they could have something...but if the GNA gives out missions, I dunno how it makes sense that they'd give out ones that didn't have anything to do with the Net..."

Which, to SplashMan's operator, was a moot point. "Hey, we won't know until we ask, right? Don't ruin everything before it even starts!"

"Hah, as long as there's no heavy lifting involved Zeo should be fine," ViralMan laughed aloud. In one swift motion Zeo responded by tossing the PET up a foot in the air before catching it. "Hey, not so suddenly! That made me dizzy!" the Navi bristled. The look on the boy's face told ViralMan that was the point. "I was only speaking the truth," he conceded, crossing his arms.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Zeo wondered what kind of mission wouldn't involve the Net with an organization he was pretty sure contained the word itself. GNA... yeah, probably. Even before that, I can't believe they went for it... he sighed mentally. Not going through with it now would be a complete jerk move, so Zeo had no choice but to assent. The only hope he had left (of not embarrassing himself in front of some of his only friends) was that a non-Net 'mission' seemed like an unlikely event.

"Alright, I guess I'm up for it. Uh, who wants to put up the request?" Zeo asked his companions with heavily veiled unease.

Rose was happy about the positive response. It wasn't quite her suggestion, but it was a movement she supported, so when everyone agreed it was certainly in her favor.

She was glad that Sabrina's enthusiasm overpowered her Navi's reservations. She nodded in support when Sabrina made her case for trying it out. There was no harm in trying.

She later smiled as she watched Zeo's antics. She wasn't sure her PeT worked that way. She figured based off the running and driving and such she did carrying it, if sudden movements rattled SummonerMan she would have heard about it from him. She chalked it up to design differences and enjoyed the show.

With the comment about lifting things, Rose decided to take a closer look at the people in her group. She was by far the smallest. Well, she wasn't too far from Sabrina, but she was smaller. Zeo was a good deal taller than her. Thanks to his height and gender, despite his average build, Rose figured he'd likely be the designated strongman of the group, if it did come to that. Sabrina looked like she could probably give him a run for his money. Except in the gender department; he had her totally beat fair in square there, no way was Sabrina male.

Regardless of what her gender-confused Navi could help imply.

Rose took out her PeT and began opening the Mission BBS. "I'll do it," she responded to Zeo's inquiry. However, this plan didn't last long. "-Oh, or not, " she said as she returned her PeT to its holster, giving a friendly smile to Sabrina.

"You're on top of your game, huh?"

"Alright, I guess I'm up for it. Uh, who wants to put up the request?"

Click.

As soon as the group's lone human male voiced his approval (sorta), a button press could be heard coming from Sabrina's PET. It was, in fact, the last of a series of presses, which had combined to form the group's official request. And all done before anyone else even thought to post it. Oh yeah, who was awesome? Sabrina Jetto, that's who.

Which Rose happened to notice pretty quickly. "Heh, like I said, what's the worst that could happen from asking? They say no? Oh, I'm so scared, they might actually say no..." Oh, the sarcasm. One could probably see it dripping from that last statement. "Now I guess we have to wait...hope they respond soon! Wonder what kind of mission it'd be, anyway?" Hmm...even though the question just slipped out, it was probably worth thinking about. What WOULD a mission like that be? Hmm...she had no idea.

"Maybe it'd be a delivery job," Zeo said jokingly. "I could live with that. Then again, that's just like getting a job..." The prospect of getting a job for upgrade money presented itself to him, but he waved it away. Then I couldn't wander around at random like this, his mind countered. "I doubt they'd trust a couple of random teens with maintenance work or anything like that, so... what else is there to do?" Zeo let the question hang in the air for a moment.

ViralMan broke the short silence. "Maybe they'll let you test a virtual battle arena where you can fight virus holograms; that would be cool." His mind was filled with images of Zeo running around with a gun strapped to his arm. He chuckled quietly. Without hearing the chuckle, Zeo pondered over his Navi's suggestion. "Nah, I'd probably be terrible at that. Besides, enclosed spaces with 'real' viruses? How dumb and/or dangerous would that be?" the boy said, holding up his palms.

"You don't have to insult my ideas like that," ViralMan responded, a little hurt. "Besides, it'd be nice for you to get some real 'combat experience' before your arms get any thinner, hm?" Zeo bristled a bit at the comment. "It's not like I'm that inactive," he retorted quickly. In an attempt to divert the conversation from his own physique, Zeo brought it full circle back to the proposed 'mission' at hand. "Anyway, I can't think of any good examples of real world 'missions'. You two have anything in mind?" he asked the others.

Rose smiled at the various comments of her friends or their Navis. Sabrina oozed sarcasm with mock fear of rejection. "At least she isn't self-conscious," Rose decided.

ViralMan slung attacks at his operator over the latter's physique. Said operator quickly changed the subject. "Which apparently is more than can be said for Zeo. Too bad, too, he doesn't even look exceptionally wimpy. Better than a lot of the Net Battling nerds at school." It was a bit of a quick clique assignment, but she could always take it back mentally. She hadn't said anything yet. And even in her mind, it wasn't a straight up attack; it was more of a . . . back handed compliment.

Rose considered, once again, the possibility of fighting viruses in real life. It still seemed as intense and action packed as before. She tried thinking along more realistic lines, but as many exciting real life expedition as she could think of, she had trouble thinking of things that were both exciting and reasonable expectations as missions.

For example, mazes, obstacle courses, laser tag matches, real life holo-virus battles: intense, but unrealistic missions.

Picking something up, dropping something off, delivering something to and from, meeting up with someone: more realistic, less exciting.

"Well," she eventually began, "Even if it is like, mundane or whatever, we can always make it more exciting. I mean, worst case scenario it's something like dropping off a package. Sounds lame, right? Well, turn it into a race. Or have a countdown. Or avoid public transit. Suddenly things are a lot more interesting, right?

"But as far as possible jobs go, it probably will be fairly normal, like meeting up with someone or doing some sort of delivery. Though I'm not sure our ages factor in much. I mean, that's assuming the GNA has a profile on all of us readily available, which is a bit creepy."

She sort of hoped she was wrong. She wanted it to be something fun. But it didn't matter. Rose was creative. She'd make due with whatever they gave her, and craft a fine work of fun out of it somehow.