"The battle raged around him. One by one, his allies had fallen. Yet, somehow, the gods saw fit to spare him...thus far. And so, the knight did not surrender. He gripped his spear tightly, and saw that he was right behind the wizard that had burned his best friend alive. He might lose the battle if he went after him, and not the berserker coming after him, but he was dead anyway, he thought. If he could give his friend peace in his own final moments, it was worth it.
"With his decision made, he made his move. As fast as his heavy armor would allow him, he raced to the wizard, too busy burning the main army to notice him. He reared back his spear, made of the finest mythril in the land, and stuck forth, ready to pierce the murderer's heart...stop for a sec! The knight suddenly froze, as though halted by time itself. Ha, narrator humor, there...dice roll says...defensive spell fails! The wizard's barrier falls at an inopportune time! Accuracy roll...ooh, defied the odds! In his blind rage, the knight's shish kebob attempt sails wide left! Now the wizard knows he's there!"
"Hold up a sec!" The wizard turned to look at someone, but neither friend nor foe; he glared at the boy holding the PET nearby. "My defensive spell can't just go poof like that! It's guaranteed to last for 2 turns before it's even possible for it to fade!"
"...Ichiro, how many times have we been over this? You need to be LV 15 to be able to do that. Your character sheet only has you at LV 13. Now, if you give us some roast knight, you'll be LV 14, and then you STILL WON'T BE ABLE TO DO IT BECAUSE YOU'RE NOT LV 15. So, you've got a 25% chance of poofing on any turn."
"Man, that's bullcrap..."
"Ya don't like it, you can propose the change when we meet up to plan the next session."
"Ugh, fine."
"Besides, why are you even complaining? He still missed!" A nearby archer, lying on the ground, suddenly looked over, slightly ticked about the argument.
"I said FINE! Look, I'll just cast a fireball or whatever, and end this massacre already."
"...Okay, but LARP it up, will ya? You're in a role, now butter it up!"
"...Ahem. A valiant effort, knave, but now you shall join your companions in the flames of Hades!"...Whoosh! The fireball sails forward, and..." The wizard looked at the boy expectantly.
"The roll says...the fireball hits, melts the knight's armor to slag, and him with it. All of the Eastopolis Empire's great heroes have been vanquished, and without any, the general army panics." Several nearby people dressed as soldiers suddenly screamed, dropped their weapons, and ran off. "The Kingdom of Westington won a stunning, decisive victory on this day. Now they stood on the doorstep of Eastopolis's royal palace. Their next foe would not be nearly so easy, though, as the emperor himself sought to greet his unwanted guests...and that's a wrap for today!"
The 'dead' warriors began to pick themselves off the grass, though the last knight standing walked over to the boy. He took off his helmet, revealing that he was around the same age. "Hey, I know you always send all the roll results over, but can I see them? The RNG really had its way with us..."
"Sure. Bring 'em up, WarriorMan!"
"Fine...here." A bunch of numbers came up on the boy's PET's screen.
"...Holy crow, no wonder we got massacred. Think we might need to make some RNG sacrifices for next time."
"Heh, yeah, it really hated you today. But you never know. Your war ain't over yet!"
"Right! The emperor still lives! Hope I get picked to play him, now that Sir Knighton is, well, deep fried in his own oven."
"It's...a possibility. I'll talk it over with some of the others, okay?"
"Sweet, thanks, Gary!" The knight walked off, waving at someone to get their attention.
"Actually, I bet he'd do a pretty good job." The boy, apparently called Gary, suddenly jumped on a bench, raised his PET, and pressed a button, causing an air horn like sound to burst through the air, and the ear drums of everyone nearby. "Listen up, everyone! Good job today! Not a ton of energy on either side, but since it was such a lopsided battle, I'll cut you all some slack on that. But next up is a climactic battle inside the Eastopolis royal palace, so let's all give it 110% next time! On that note, we'll all meet here Tuesday after school for the set-up meeting. Any questions? ...No? Good. I'll e-mail you all the results from the battle tonight, so you can all update your character sheets and bios and stuff. See you guys then!"
==============
About 30 minutes later, Gary sat in a recliner, looking up at the ceiling, exhausted from walking back home on top of everything else he had done. "Ugh, I'm beat...being the storymaster is hard. And I don't get to do any actual role-playing...I guess being the narrator is fun, at least. ...Hey, WarriorMan, you listening?"
"Trying not to."
"Would it kill ya to at least pretend to care about this? It's important to me!"
"I think it literally would, yes." The Navi appeared on the boy's shoulder as a hologram, and yawned. "I don't think there's anything less interesting than fake battles. Why have fake ones when you can have real ones?"
"Well, when someone takes a spear to the gut, we can't just go back to our PETs and regenerate like you do. Besides, the battles aren't about fighting. They're about telling a story!"
"I'm not sure whether to laugh or get angry. Who needs story? As long as you can defeat your foes, that's all anyone needs, Navi or human."
"I dunno where Dad got you from, but you're really a piece of work...oh wait, I get it. You want to do some busting, don't you?"
"That's not what I was getting at...but if it means not hearing you complain, I won't say no. I never got to try out that chip I got. What was it, FireHit, or something like that?"
"...I could, but I'm kinda tired, so-huh?" That was weird. The TV just went all staticy. "Okay, that thing's brand new, so either we have a warranty to make good on, or it got infected!"
"Send me in, and I'll find out."
"Good idea. If it's viruses, we can't wait for Dad to come home." Gary aimed his PET at the TV, but stopped for a moment. "And so, our brave young hero sent forth his Navi, armed with the sacred blade designed for-"
"For the love of programming, stop wasting time!"
"No sense of drama. At all. But fine...Jack in! WarriorMan, Execute!"
(TO ACDC AREA)
Gary's Moderator
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The instant he was fully returned to his resident PET, WarriorMan started running a scan program on himself. "Hmm. ...No abnormalities yet."
"Yeah, you said you were hearing voices?"
"There wasn't anything nearby that could talk, if that's what you're going to suggest. I know."
"Oh. Then uh, I've got nothin'."
"I wasn't exactly expecting any insight, anyway." ...Hmm? "One item found. It's...audiovisual data? And it's located...in my core data?"
"Is that weird?"
"Extremely. Yeah, getting that out right now. Extract...what?!" As he tried to start a program to remove the odd file, the swordsman's emblem started to glow with a brilliant light. "What's going on?!"
"Uh, WarriorMan? You might wanna stop looking at your chest and look up..."
"What do you..." Upon doing so, he noticed...a NormalNavi. A translucent NormalNavi. "Is this the data that was inside me?"
"The first cipher has been broken..."
"The what?"
"Shh! It's talking!"
"Greetings, WarriorMan...I am one of the scientists responsible for your creation. To conceal my identity, I am using this NormalNavi to speak through. If you can hear this message, it means you walk amongst Navikind once more. When you were made, you were perhaps one of the strongest Navis the world had ever seen...but as technology advances, your unaltered power may well lessen, relatively. As a result, you were bestowed a special ability, which you may or may not remember, to ensure that you would never be left behind. If you are hearing this message, you have already utilized this ability. Simply block attacks with your sword. Do so, and it will absorb some of the latent elemental and kinetic energies. Depending on what is absorbed, you will learn various techniques to harness these powers. For instance, if you block many fireball based attacks, you will learn to shoot fireballs from your sword without any outside assistance. If you block many earthbound attacks, you will learn how to trigger localized earthquakes with a sword stab. This ability is also capable of mixing and matching, if differing but compatible energy is absorbed. For example, if you blocked both fireballs and earth shock waves many times, you might be able to trigger a small-scale volcanic eruption below your foes. The possibilities are numerous. Yet, you could easily use this power for both good and evil purposes. This was partly why you were sealed. Yet, you are listening to this recording...you were created to aid the cyberworld against threats it might have trouble handling on its own. I can only pray that you use this information to aid the fight for justice, and to never misuse your powers. But I choose to believe in you, WarriorMan. Whatever the state of the world you are in, you shall help lead it to a golden age. Of this, my heart is certain. Now, go. Go, and help bring an old man's dream to fruition!"
A few moments later, the hologram vanished, and WarriorMan's emblem returned to normal. "What...?" He withdrew his sword, and took a look at the blade. Time had returned it to its usual coloring, but there was clearly a decent amount of fire energy flowing through it. "So, I have the ability to use this energy to learn moves? Let's see..."
"This might be a dumb question, but how would you even do that?"
"When that hologram mentioned it, I felt something...like my body was remembering something. If I touch the blade like this while holding it...ahh!" The fire energy suddenly left the sword, circling the Navi...but soon returned back to its point of origin. "...No good."
"Oh...that's too bad. Sure you were doing it right?"
"Of course I'm sure!...But I think I know the problem. Put simply, there was nowhere in my body for the fire to go. I have almost no spare memory for this sort of thing, for some reason...I think something else was put in there, but it's hard to tell what. I may need an upgrade to that part of me before it'll work."
"...Hmm. Well, we'll figure it out sooner or later. It's not going anywhere, at least."
"...It'd better be sooner. The faster I get stronger, the better."
"Well, for now, you can just sit back and relax, because you earned it! Me, I'm gonna watch some TV, then send everyone the data from today's battle-"
"I don't need your list of things to do today. If I'm not needed, keep quiet."
"Fine..." Time to start channel surfing.
---
A few hours later, Gary was over by the front door. "Hmm. Now that I've got everything done...yeah, that place isn't too far from here. I'll be back in plenty of time." Yep, he should definitely go. "Hey dad!"
The returning voice had no clear point of origin, but sounded like a wall was muffling it a bit. "Yeah, Gary?"
"I'm going out for a bit!"
"All right, but be back before it gets dark!"
"Will do!" And, out the door he went. Where he went...only he knew. And definitely not his Navi.
(TO THE CHIP SHOP)
"Yeah, you said you were hearing voices?"
"There wasn't anything nearby that could talk, if that's what you're going to suggest. I know."
"Oh. Then uh, I've got nothin'."
"I wasn't exactly expecting any insight, anyway." ...Hmm? "One item found. It's...audiovisual data? And it's located...in my core data?"
"Is that weird?"
"Extremely. Yeah, getting that out right now. Extract...what?!" As he tried to start a program to remove the odd file, the swordsman's emblem started to glow with a brilliant light. "What's going on?!"
"Uh, WarriorMan? You might wanna stop looking at your chest and look up..."
"What do you..." Upon doing so, he noticed...a NormalNavi. A translucent NormalNavi. "Is this the data that was inside me?"
"The first cipher has been broken..."
"The what?"
"Shh! It's talking!"
"Greetings, WarriorMan...I am one of the scientists responsible for your creation. To conceal my identity, I am using this NormalNavi to speak through. If you can hear this message, it means you walk amongst Navikind once more. When you were made, you were perhaps one of the strongest Navis the world had ever seen...but as technology advances, your unaltered power may well lessen, relatively. As a result, you were bestowed a special ability, which you may or may not remember, to ensure that you would never be left behind. If you are hearing this message, you have already utilized this ability. Simply block attacks with your sword. Do so, and it will absorb some of the latent elemental and kinetic energies. Depending on what is absorbed, you will learn various techniques to harness these powers. For instance, if you block many fireball based attacks, you will learn to shoot fireballs from your sword without any outside assistance. If you block many earthbound attacks, you will learn how to trigger localized earthquakes with a sword stab. This ability is also capable of mixing and matching, if differing but compatible energy is absorbed. For example, if you blocked both fireballs and earth shock waves many times, you might be able to trigger a small-scale volcanic eruption below your foes. The possibilities are numerous. Yet, you could easily use this power for both good and evil purposes. This was partly why you were sealed. Yet, you are listening to this recording...you were created to aid the cyberworld against threats it might have trouble handling on its own. I can only pray that you use this information to aid the fight for justice, and to never misuse your powers. But I choose to believe in you, WarriorMan. Whatever the state of the world you are in, you shall help lead it to a golden age. Of this, my heart is certain. Now, go. Go, and help bring an old man's dream to fruition!"
A few moments later, the hologram vanished, and WarriorMan's emblem returned to normal. "What...?" He withdrew his sword, and took a look at the blade. Time had returned it to its usual coloring, but there was clearly a decent amount of fire energy flowing through it. "So, I have the ability to use this energy to learn moves? Let's see..."
"This might be a dumb question, but how would you even do that?"
"When that hologram mentioned it, I felt something...like my body was remembering something. If I touch the blade like this while holding it...ahh!" The fire energy suddenly left the sword, circling the Navi...but soon returned back to its point of origin. "...No good."
"Oh...that's too bad. Sure you were doing it right?"
"Of course I'm sure!...But I think I know the problem. Put simply, there was nowhere in my body for the fire to go. I have almost no spare memory for this sort of thing, for some reason...I think something else was put in there, but it's hard to tell what. I may need an upgrade to that part of me before it'll work."
"...Hmm. Well, we'll figure it out sooner or later. It's not going anywhere, at least."
"...It'd better be sooner. The faster I get stronger, the better."
"Well, for now, you can just sit back and relax, because you earned it! Me, I'm gonna watch some TV, then send everyone the data from today's battle-"
"I don't need your list of things to do today. If I'm not needed, keep quiet."
"Fine..." Time to start channel surfing.
---
A few hours later, Gary was over by the front door. "Hmm. Now that I've got everything done...yeah, that place isn't too far from here. I'll be back in plenty of time." Yep, he should definitely go. "Hey dad!"
The returning voice had no clear point of origin, but sounded like a wall was muffling it a bit. "Yeah, Gary?"
"I'm going out for a bit!"
"All right, but be back before it gets dark!"
"Will do!" And, out the door he went. Where he went...only he knew. And definitely not his Navi.
(TO THE CHIP SHOP)