Preparation

Wes glanced down at his PET as his navi finished writing his message, "So, where to?" he asked as he sat down in his usual spot.

"Sharo, if she has no objections. I guess I'll go straight through the square and then into the area." Junior replied.

"Fine, go for it." Wes said as he sent Junior into the net.

Leon hopped off the metro. He wasn't sure where Wes would be, but he took a look around anyways. And came up with nothing.

"So, where was he?"
"Junior said something about them stopping at the store, so maybe around there?"

Leon walked along a bit and looked around again. Spotting Wes, he headed over and grabbed a seat next to him.

"Hey. How's stuff been?" Leon wasn't exactly known for his small talking abilities, but he tried anyways. "Well, lets get this show on the roll, eh? Get to Sharo and stop making your brother wait." He found the nearest jack and jacked Miyu in to the net.

"Hey," Wes replied, "Nothing important, at least not that I can remember." A question like that didn't require much of a response, right?

The metro came to a slow halt at the Scilabs station and a clutter of people began to disperse. From the crowd appeared Aida who was already looking a bit worried on where to go. It was mostly her navi who wanted to go here anyway...

"GO STRAIGHT AIDA!" The navi persisted, "Just keep going!"

"C-Capuchin!" Aida groaned, "W-we'll loose Polonius an-nd DNR. We have to wait."

"HRMPH! Why do we really need to go with those guys...I can feel something a bit off....ESPECIALLY THAT DNR GUY! He's got something tricky up his sleeves...I don't like it..."

"M-maybe you have developed a crush on him..." Aida teased.

"WHAT?!"

"I'm o-only kidding. I think I-I....oh look!" Aida gasped as she turned her head to see two netops in the distance. "Its Mr. Wes. H-how nice to see him again." The young woman waved her hand in the air as a greeting as she rushed over to him.

"Hmph...again with all these annoying navis." Capuchin huffed, talking about Jr.

"C'moooonnn Sally keep it up! You can't let that heeeee-deous de-evolved monkey human girl hybrid!" DNR yelled towards Polonius as he was rushed off from the Metro, leaving the station.

"DNR... what the heck's wrong with you now?" Polonius blinked as he went with Aida outside the station.

"That Capuchin lady won't get away from me this time! I may have lost that spar but I'm gonna show her whose the better fighter damnit!" DNR replied with anger, growling slightly.

"Are you sure you aren't... I-I don't know... getting a crush with her?" Polonius said as he tilted his head, looking over to DNR in his PET as they reached the other three net operators.

"Wh-what!? Well... fine, she did prove herself to be a worthy spar partner... and FINE! The way she attacked she was rather powerful... it was.... stimulating... The important thing is.... Oh look Polonius, it's your GIRLFRIEND!" DNR said as they finally caught up with Aida.

"Wh-what? I-I-I...." Polonius could say, frozen from the jolt DNR has said.

As their current battle ended, Wes muttered, "Kamehameha," and then looked up as he thought he heard someone call his name, "Oh hey, Ambridge. And it's uh... that Polo guy. He with you or did you pick up another stalker?"

"It's Polonius-kun. I doubt he appreciates the nickname." Junior sighed from his PET, "He's the one with..." Junior scowled. He really didn't like DNR. Since he couldn't think of a proper honorific to use, he'd forgo saying his name rather than his manners.

"DNA? DNR? Well, whatever. We only met him once and it didn't seem likely that'd we'd see him again so I didn't prioritize memorizing his name." Wes replied. He then turned his attention back to Aida, "In any case, Ambridge, was there something you needed?"

"Ahahahah-ahahaha..." DNR said in a mocking tone of Soulman's voice, folding his arms as his hologram presented itself. "That's so funny, your so great.... but seriously, that's rather uncouth behavior of you to do so, and your supposed to be nice?" DNR said as he scoffed.

"Ohh I see... your more interested in THEM... how nice..." DNR said as Polonius only looked at his sneakers, ignoring their barrages.

Aida gave a curious look, "S-stalker?....did I ever h-have a stalker?......OH! Umm Mr. Polonius is my friend. We made a challenge at the colluseum with our navis. He's a very kind person and his navi...."

"FORGET THAT! Tell him who wooooooon!" Capuchin chimed happily.

"Eh?....That's very rude Capuchin..."

"Well then I'll tell him!" The monkey navi gave a backflip in rejoicing, "We won! We defeated this duo here triumphantly!"

"Th-though it was a very close call of course."

"You ruin my fun!" Capuchin huffed. "I did beat DNR after all."

Aida only gave a humble sigh, "W-we are just here to bust for a bit. Capuchin was very excited about battling here in scilabs....OH WAIT! Y-you seem to already know Polonius! Did you two meet before?"

"Ooohhhh now it was a close fight..." DNR said in response, wagging his finger. "I mean I ripped your stomach right out..."

"But... Junior is nice, almost to a fault. He's probably just following that old rule, 'if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all'. Kind of lame for anyone to still obey that, though, if you ask me..." Wes said in reply to DNR's accusations, "He does have good reason to be pissed off... at least three or four of them. Plus..." Wes stood up for a second, glanced around Polonius's shoulder, looked at his PET, and sat back down, "with your current level of power, it'd take a miracle for you to beat Junior, so I wouldn't reccommend pissing him off."

Junior just stood silent, his arms crossed. He really didn't want to get involved with him again. His ears perked up, though, when he heard Capuchin's declaration. A tiny smirk appeared on his face, so subtle that only Wes and maybe Miyu would be able to catch. This caused Wes to smile a bit as well. He really loathed this guy. How interesting. This was only the second person Wes could recall his navi not assigning an honorific to out of disrespect, "Well, congradulations, Ambridge. Humility is an attractive quality, but you're among friends now so its okay to act a bit excited. Just try to avoid outright gloating." Wes said, "Oh, Polo... nius? and I met during some test at the colloseum once. He was assigned to the same team as Shin and myself. Plus, he was also at..." Okay, while it was interesting to see Junior angry, everything had a limit, "In any case, we're here to train and spend some time with Junior's sister, Miyu. Her netop is this man beside me. You've met Leon, correct? In any case, we're in Scilabs for easy access to upgrades but Junior and Miyu are battling in Sharo. Given her type, we figured Miyu would have the best results there."

At DNR's comment, Junior began to fume. His finger began to throb as he felt the energy for the Dark Finger Shot build up without him commanding it. Wes glanced down worried, "We'll have to expand your capacity for that. That doesn't look safe." He then glared at the navi hiding in Polonius's PET, "You better shut your mouth unless you have a death wish. One finger..." He held up his right index to demonstrate.

"You'll... have to excuse my navi here... he's... a rather proficient test examiner..." Polonius said as he fixed up his glasses, looking over to DNR as the navi's smile faded. "Alright... so I HAVE been testing your resolve for a while..." DNR said in a rather rare form of seriousness mixed with expository as he folded his arms, not eliciting any form of emotion "just trying to see how you guys handled over pressure... But even I know my limits... and yet I can't help to wonder why so crass over fleeting meetings where we never got to know each other truly. After all, there's more than personal appearances..." he finished off, not hinting at any trickery.

"Well shut it up!" Capuchin barked, "Its enough to drive someone insane." Her eyes adverted their gaze from the other two navis yet her teeth were revealing fangs. She didn't care for this talk of nonsense and even the stab notion began to get to her as she looked down at her gut. How many times had she been struck there....maybe it was just a blind spot for her.

"W-WES! LEAVE Polonius alone!" Aida insisted as she stared at him crossly. "H-honestly, it has been nothing but words exchanging! I-it is nothing to get upset about."...her eyes then became wide as she looked at the other navi. "OH! That's right, Jr was son of Soulman so it wouldn't be odd." Aida's voice changed to that of a happy tone. "Its very nice to meet you Miyu."

Capuchin just gave a grunt as she made attention behind everyone. She did not care for the memory of her forgotten friend being recreated in two new navis. Only she seemed to have a problem with Soulman's children...but she did have an awkward ideal of things anyway...and awkward history perhaps as well yet she really kept things to herself.

"Then I am sincerely sorry for the whole crazy bit... but..." DNR said in an aloof voice "It's also my fighting style... just keep in mind it's a psychological attack..." as he wagged his finger. "Plus we're here to have fun and socialize!"

"The son of Soulman?" Polonius asked out of sheer curiosity as he tilted his face, blushing a bit at Aida as he thought. He had surely heard of reproducing navis from a parent navi, but he has never seen one in real life before. He then looked towards Capuchin's rage... making him feel rather uncomfortable... but he looked at DNR as he covered his mouth a bit.

"Why are you covering your mouth DNR?" he asked.

"Nothing... nothing... I'm not blushing or anything if that's what your insinuating..." DNR said as he looked off... quickly eying Capuchin slightly.

Leon had remained quit and somewhat zoned out while the other three had been going at it. So what is a machinesword? Oh... wait. We got another level. Awesome... now I can try programming some more abilities for Miyu someti-

He was snapped back to reality by Wes saying his name. He waited for the argument to settle down a bit while looking over the two newcomers.

Giving a mock salute towards the two newcomers, he introduced himself. "I'm Leon."
Miyu made a similar, but more feminine gesture, and said "I'm Miyu. Junior's sister."

Miyu looked over Junior and noticed his change in demeanor. She thought to herself, Man, he must HATE that guy or something. I wonder why..?

Leon looked over Aida and Polonius. "So um... nice to see you again Aida. And nice to meet you, er... Polonius.

Miyu simply waited in Sharo and fixed her hair. "Stupid things... ruining my hair..." She continued to mumble, but it was impossible to understand what she was saying. So... why do these people have to show up and bug us? she thought to herself. I guess I'll have to save talking to Junior for another day...

"L-likewise there m-mister Leon..." Polonius said as he looked over to that net operator with a curious face.

"Miyu huh?" DNR said curiously as he continued folding his arms, looking over to the navi. "Well it's a pleasure to met you..." he said with a wide smile, bowing deeply with a giggle. "I'm sure we'll have some fun in our romp through whatever net we're going to..."

"You make it sound like you're coming with us. I don't recall anyone inviting you." Junior snapped.

"Hold up." Wes said, raising a hand. He should probably have a talk with Junior now. He wished he had some kind of link in his brain with his PET so that he could talk without anyone else hearing but technology wasn't quite at that level yet, at least not as far as he knew. He'd have to take this elsewhere, "Hold onto that thought, people. Right now I have some purchases to make." He stood up and began to walk off. He gave Leon an exasperated look, asking for his patience. Then he walked into the Navi Shop. He'd need to make this conversation fast so that if someone decided to follow them, they wouldn't interrupt.

"...." Aida looked a bit embarrassed as she realized what she had done. "Oh dear....I-I'm very sorry Mr. Leon." She stuttered, "I've overstepped my boundaries..Y-you were probably planning something with Mr. Wes already. I'm so very sorry!"

"Eh?" Leon raised an eyebrow as Wes walked off after Junior had barked as DNR. He's got quite the bark... too bad his bite might just be as bad.

He looked at Aida as she apologized to him. He thought for a moment about why he HAD come out here. "Well, it was more Miyu's idea than mine. I was just dragged along by her really." Letting out a small sigh he continued. "Anyways, I don't mind too much. We can use the time to get caught up or something, so don't worry too much about it."

"As for you two..." Miyu said, turning her attention to Polonius and DNR, "I'm not sure what, if anything, you've done to make my brother angry, but tread lightly. He doesn't seem to be in any sort of good mood." He grinned and bared her fangs ever so slightly. "And just remember, I might not be anywhere near as powerful as he is, but I'm not a pushover either~"

Leon just sighed and looked at the ground. "Well... I guess she has a point. It might be best to not try and provoke Junior. For everyone's sake, ehehe."

"What? He's only seen me like, twice and already thinks I'm public enemy number one?" DNR said as he ran his fingers through his hair, placing his index finger on the bridge to his nose. "You can't blame me for saying that's a bit overreacting... I did what he asked me to do... just with a little of my style..." he continued as he gave a heavy sigh. "Perhaps I did become brash with my technique... but having this facade of insanity can be rather an alienating factor... The fact I got a cross from an 8 year old and a zap-happy schizophrenic may have alluded to thus...But if he really hates me that much maybe I should bust somewhere else..."

"B-but DNR... surely you can just talk with him? The National Psychiatric Association's Handbook clearly stated that ignoring the problem is never the solution..." Polonius spoke softly as he twiddled his thumbs.

Hearing this, DNR flashed a wondrous smirk, giving a hearty laugh that surely reminded him of his various antics "I see those reading exercises work well... excellent! Perhaps we'll try your old 800 page Biology textbook later tonight?"

"S-s-sure..." Polonius said with an endearing smirk, fixing his glasses with his own left index finger.

"Hmmm.... another 120 points... I think I'll try allotting 80 to DFS and 40 to SP. That sound okay?" Wes asked as he came out of the shop.

"Sounds fine." Junior replied.

Wes took his seat again, "Okay, looks like it's fine for you two to join us, if you wish. Both Junior and Miyu are in Sharo's net and they're not too far in so you should be able to catch them easily."