The life of a SciLabs employee...

A SciLabs worker ran through the maze of hallways in the Science Labs, a scared look on his face. He reached a door, and knocked on it rapidly. Without waiting for an answer, he burst in.

Christopher Lemrock was sitting at a computer desk, his back to the door. His left hand was jotting down notes on a sheet of looseleaf paper, his right hand was browsing an online shop for computer parts. On his ear was a phone speaker/receiver, which was connected to his PET, and he was talking into it.

"I'm sorry, Eric, but I've just been too busy with work. I'm free Saturday, how about then? ... 'Kay, see you there. Bye," he spoke, pressing a button on the PET, ending the conversation.

"Err, Mr. Lemrock, sir? We have a problem in one of our supercomputers, and we need you to check it out," the lab rat said nervously from the door.

"For the last time, it's Chris. I'm not even married yet!" Chris exclaimed, spinning to face the drone. "Could it wait for a sec, I need to take a few more notes on this." He turned, only to see that his screen had gone blank. "Dammit, my graphics card farted again. Binary, think you could set a dozen or so Progs to repair the thing's inner circuits?" he asked the white figure on his shoulder.

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Binary replied in a loud, robotic voice. He disappeared, then reappeared, saying, "REQUEST ACCOMPLISHED! 24 PROGRAMS REPAIRING DEFECTIVE SOFTWARE!"

"Good, that's better. Now, a bad supercomputer, you say? Let's roll!" Chris shouted, barreling past the lab rat to the computer.


Upon reaching the room, the drone saw that Chris had already begun investigating the cause of it. "Yeah, I'd say a virus or two managed to get in here," he said to himself.

"ANTI-VIRUS PROGRAMS: 100% LOA-" Binary began.

"No, not that. Listen, how about you go in and see what you can do first?" Chris asked. "What do you think I programmed battle routines into you for?"

"AFFIRMATIVE, OPERATOR UNIT CHRIS!" Binary said, jacking himself into the supercomputer.

"All right! We're here!" Sabrina entered the SciLab building, and began heading for her destination. "Let's see...take a right here...and a left here...then a far right. There! R+D Lab 3! Okay...here we go!" She took a deep breath, and opened the door.

And naturally, she promptly got a lot of stares from people in lab coats. Not that it was really surprising...they probably didn't get a lot of 16 year old girls in there. Especially one that didn't look nerdy and wasn't some sort of prodigy. "Er, can someone tell me where-" Sabrina was nervously looking around for someone different, and at that point, found him. He wasn't kidding when he said he stood out; he looked like he should be hanging out outside instead of messing with SciLab computers. "Oh, never mind! There he is!"

She hurried over towards Chris, glad that her excuse for being here had become apparent. "Hi, you must be Chris! I'm Sabrina, the person that responded to your BBS post! Nice to meet ya!" The young woman aimed her PET towards the computer's jack-in port. "But, I'm not here to chat, am I? Let's get down to business! Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!"

(to SciLab's Net, for team virus busting!)

Chris looked sheepish, ordering Binary to stop screeching at once. He did. Most of the scientists sighed in relief. "Sorry about that, I guess I really am the only one who's used to that." Anyway, I'm guessing you've already guessed that I'm Chris Lemrock, and I can't thank you enough for coming. My Navi Binary's not that suited for combat, he's mainly a research Navi," he explained. "We'd better find another way of attracting viruses," he added. He seemed to be forgetting something, then he remembered, "Oh, one more thing: I didn't give my Navi much of a speech program, and he's a bit, I dunno, loud. Not as loud as that screech, though."

"Ahhhh!" The instant her Navi returned to her PET, Sabrina stood up and stretched. "Even I'm a little beat after that last battle! But I think I know what'll perk us both up! A nice trip to the Navi Shop!"

"The Navi Shop? But you spent all your cash on chips!"

"Well, duh. But remember Dad's e-mail about your moves? Sig move upgrades got cheaper because of it. So even though I don't have much, it oughta be enough to give you a nice boost!"

"If you say so. If you're right, make sure to give me some nice stuff!"

"Well, don't you worry about that!" The young woman started to head for the door, but suddenly stopped in mid-step, and turned around on one heel. "Thanks for letting us help you out, Chris! It was pretty neat being able to check out the inside of a SciLab computer! If you need help again, you know who to call! Well, I guess I'll get going now. Catch ya later!" And so, Sabrina did a 180 once more, and this time proceeded to exit the room, destined for the nearby Navi Shop...

(To the Navi Shop with thee!...Or me, whatever. Stupid 16th century English people.)

Sighing, Chris watched Sabrina retreat from the room, as the trickle of scientists gradually dispersed. It had been fun and everything, but he needed a break, and some upgrades. One of which he knew where to find.

Glancing at his PET, he saw Binary, in his ordinary form once again, and a new chip in the chip tray. Glancing at it, he was happy to see a chip with Splashman's emblem on it. Sliding the chip into his folder along with the new Countbomb, which he was eager to try out, he departed after Sabrina to the Navi Shop.

Chris opened the door to his office, peering at his surroundings. The main office itself was not incredibly spacious, but the space had been well-used. An enormous, custom-made desk that wrapped around a good bit of the office took up the majority of space, with five computers set up on various parts. There were two normal computers used for coding and write-ups; general work, a new and experimental computer that was essentially Chris' 'sandbox', where he tested new theories and brands of code, and finally his personal laptop from which he sent emails and accessed the Internet. A swivel chair was on a circular rail set into the ground, allowing for easy access to any computer from anywhere behind the desk. A space was cleared off at the front of the desk for meeting visitors or other employees, with a chair at the front of the desk for the visitor to sit in. A door behind the desk led to the small flat where Chris lived.

Sighing, Chris opened the flap on the side of the desk and walked into his workspace, plunking into the cushy chair. His first priority was to check his email, at which he saw orders for a few different codes to be sent around the lab. With a rather loud grumble, he set to work, with Binary checking over the code as he worked for any errors. As it turned out, he wasn't making any. Eventually, he finished the work, and searched around for something else to do. Finding nothing, he turned to the image of Binary on the work computer. "Binary, we have nothing to do. Which is why we're going virus busting; that, and I need some extra cash," he said to the screen. "The jack I've got the PET hooked up to lets you travel between all four of these computers without hassle. Go to our personal computer, and jack yourself in; I'll be right with you," he added.

"NETWORK UNKNOWN!" Binary reminded him.

"Ahh, that's right," Chris exclaimed, "how about DenTech Net? We haven't been to many networks yet, and it seems as good a place to start as any."

"AFFIRMATIVE!" And with that the gelatinous Navi was gone from the computer screen.