Spark Café

"...WHEW!" A very loud sigh could be heard over the bustle of ElecTown, as one very relieved Sabrina Jetto became aware that no one was going to have their own personal crater in their face. And they had the book. Awesome. "Ugh, that was kinda scary...but, we did it!"

ViralMan's comment reminded her of something, though. Putting the book as best she could into storage, the Netopian girl pulled out the master list, and crossed it out. "One down, six to go! I, uh, kinda hope they aren't all that...intense, though."

...Hmm? A few stores down...was that what she thought it was? If it was...perfect. "I'll be back in a sec, Zeo. Don't take a step!" Sabrina, however, being free to take as many steps as she desired, raced off for what she had seen, and made her way into...whatever it was that caught her eye.

A couple of minutes later, she was out, and returned to her friend. However, she was holding something in her right hand. It was hard to make out until she drew near; however, it had a brown top, and appeared to be holding it with a napkin. "Here you go, Zeo! For being really good about being used as a human shield, I got you some ice cream! I wasn't sure what kinds you like, though, so I just got you chocolate." She presented it to her personal human plow, hoping desperately that he wasn't lactose intolerant.

Quote ()

Scavenger Hunt

1- Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade
2- Nil-Zenny Poker Chip
3- [Neuronomicon], author Maya Frasser ~Bookstore in ElecTown
4- Previous three NetCafe Secret Menu listings
5- Two (2) Tier-3 Battlechips
6- Thousand Year-Old Spring-Boiled Egg
7- Dentech University 200X Vision Statement Plaque

"Yeah, me too," Zeo replied dryly with a meaningful smile in response to Sabrina's comment on the intensity of their task. He was about to make a comment on his status as the trio's human plow, but before he could Sabrina took off down the street. "Uh, okay," he said after she was already out of earshot. "I guess she doesn't need her human plow for regular crowded areas," Zeo laughed. "Not getting too bored, ViralMan?" he directed at his PET. The device was currently holstered on Zeo's arm.

"Eh, could be worse. I've decided that instead of getting mad at you for letting girls get the better of you, I'll just try to enjoy it." Zeo remained quiet for a few seconds. "Uh... thanks?" he managed before glancing back at the bookstore. "Rose sure is taking a while. I hope they didn't realize she was with us." Cars were great, but they didn't help in daring bookstore escapes when they were parked several blocks away in a bustling area. "She wasn't really walking with us during your little "display", she's probably fine." ViralMan's reasoning was good enough for Zeo.

A quiet minute later, Sabrina showed up again brandishing ice cream. As a reward for being a good human shield? Zeo smiled at that. He had no objections, so there wasn't any reason to say no. "Uh, thanks. I hope my services won't be required any more in the near future," he joked, accepting the ice cream and starting to eat it. After freezing his teeth on his first attempt, he paused. "So, do you think Rose is alright in there?" he asked.

Rose was, of course, 'fine in there'. Well, physically at least. Emotionally she received a little bit of a hit, but she persevered.

Rose had made her way to the table and smiled at the woman. Before she could continue her happy praise of the author's shining personality, she was referred to by number rather dismissively. This was the hit.

An inner Rose instantly slouched over, deflated, smile gone. The outer Rose continued smiling. "Now isn't the time to taker offense to things like this." she reminded herself patiently.

SummonerMan silently laughed at his operator.

"Hello. I'd really appreciate a signed copy of Neuronomicon," She Requested.

"I liked how you dealt with those kids earlier." It was true. One of the key reasons that she was still getting this book was that the woman had been so cool in her handling of the situation.

She figured that was about as cordial as she needed to be, and that she had successfully answered the question and casually started conversation. She continued smiling as she awaited a response.

Maya seemed to dawdle for a bit, looking blankly into space for a bit, waving her pen around like a metronome. "Forty-five, forty-six, forty-nine... adds up to forty and a hundred. That's a nice number, I think..." she mused, before coming to her senses with a startle. "O-Oh, right, right. You wanted something from me," she said. The woman began to scribble her signature on the front, before lifting an eyebrow at Rose's second comment. "I knew forty-six didn't mean anything, but really, forty-seven was looking for trouble," she replied nonchalantly, still writing.

Then, she looked up quickly, adding, "Oh, darn, I forgot. Er, what's the name that I should be putting on this book?"

Good, Zeo had no issues with ice cream whatsoever. That, combined with the fact both of them made it out with no crippling injuries, made Sabrina let out a nice, big smile without realizing it. "Eh, Rose'll be fine! I don't think anyone really saw her with us, so as far as they know, she's just another fan."

Though, come to think of it, why was she still in there? If Rose had said anything about it, she couldn't remember thanks to all the...er, 'fun' she had. "At any rate, there's not much we can do but wait here. I mean, I know I don't want to go back in there if I don't have to."

A large yawn suddenly came from Sabrina's shoulder, causing her to turn around and look at her Navi. Not because of the yawn itself, but because it sounded feminine. "Yaaaaaaawn...morning, Sabrina..."

"Morning, SplashLady. Any reason you felt like popping up?"

"Don't look at me, SplashMan must've gotten tired or something..." A quick check into their shared memory should clear things up...yep. That was some serious sleepiness coming from her brother's head. Also, Sabrina was on a scavenger hunt with a couple of friends. It didn't make a ton of sense to her, but maybe that's because she was still half-asleep. "Lemme see if I have all this straight. You, Rose, and Zeo are on a scavenger hunt for a mission, where you have to find all these random things. You decided to get a certain book first, since it was nearby. Which you did, at the cost of never ever being able to set foot in that specific bookstore ever again. Is that pretty much what's happened so far?"

"...Uh, pretty much, yeah." Yep, that sounded about right. "By the way, would it kill you to say hi?"

Hi? ...Oh, her operator wasn't alone. Smooth, SplashLady...real smooth. "Hello, Zeo and ViralMan! Sorry for ignoring you like that...guess I'm not fully awake yet! Nice to finally meet you guys!"

Rose smiled as the woman in front of her zone out. Rose smiled a lot, in general. The woman certainly was odd, but in a nice, silly, interesting way.

Rose was pretty much on the ball, so she figured almost immediately that, if she was 49, then her friends must have been 46 and 47. She was less put off by this number thing now. At least it was interesting, and almost added a personal touch to something so utterly dehumanizing.

She smiled and nodded as the author snapped back into reality and rhetorically asked if she had wanted her to do something.

Rose hadn't expected the signature to be personal, especially with the numbers and all. However she figured switching to names just now would be sort of a waste, and she had an idea that would help remind herself of this in the future, as well as make for a far better story.

"Oh," she began, as a reaction since she hadn't expected to be addressed, "49 would be fine."

SummonerMan rolled his eyes, though from his position no one would ever know that. He sometimes had difficulty understanding how Rose worked.

The girl just went on smiling.

"Yeah, likewise," Zeo said in response to Sabrina's reluctance to enter the store again. He took an experimental bite of his ice cream, and found it was no longer bestowing unending pain on his teeth. He set to work on the frozen dessert while Sabrina addressed her Navi. "How are you keeping yourself entertained?" Zeo asked his Navi casually.

"Without much help from you, that's how," ViralMan retorted before laughing to indicate he wasn't serious. "Like I said before, watching you get pulled around is mildly entertaining by itself. Other than that... I've never really paid attention to our surroundings much when we're traveling around. It's interesting to watch the hustle and bustle of Electown." Zeo smirked. "I'm glad you find humans to be so fascinating to watch. Maybe you'll deign to keep us alive when you transfer yourselves into robots and conquer the earth."

"Nah, the brains will probably take you out first. I just need a look at that book..." ViralMan's voice trailed off before he started smiling.

Zeo gave a half hearted laugh as he was reminded of the book cover. "Sure, I'll make sure to keep it away from you," he joked back frankly. If he could stomach the cover long enough to do so. Hearing a cheery greeting, Zeo dropped his current conversation and looked back at Sabrina to see SplashLady. "Oh, hey," he answered back. But haven't we met before...? Zeo decided to simply roll with it. He held up his PET so ViralMan could give a casual wave and a barely audible greeting. "Yo."

Maya chuckled slightly at the acceptance, and cocked her head. "Are you sure?" she asked, then realized the presence of other people waiting in line. "Er, right, 49 it is..." she said, scribbling down the number on the book, and sliding it towards the girl, smiling as she did so. "There we go, 49. Have a nice day, and try not to be called by number again for today. It makes you feel kind of demoralized," said the author, winking.

"Thanks, I'll try not to." Rose responded happily. She was somewhat happy that the woman had echoed her own thoughts.

SummonerMan was somewhat unhappy that Rose was happy about such trivial things.

Rose wished the woman a nice day, as well, and then wandered off to a different part of the book store to pick up the rest of the series. "After all, if this is the new sequel, I can't very well go about reading just the end without knowing what comes before it."

She figured they must have restocked before this signing, at least as far as the series went, because there were enough supplies for her to get her hands on one, and so she did.

After a fairly quick stop through check out, which was made easier by the fact that ninety percent of the stores population was centered around Maya Frasser's book-signing table, Rose made her way outside, a few chunks of change lighter, and one bag of books heavier, than she had been when she went in.

After getting outside, she took a moment to look around, and quickly spotted Zeo and Sabrina. She smiled a bit nervously, realizing she'd left them waiting here for her the whole time she'd been shopping, when they were supposed to be on a hunt. She also waved. And she imagined they'd have plenty to talk about once she got to them, as one was now eating ice cream and the other was now carting around a new Navi.

She made her way over to them. "Well not quite new," she thought, looking at the far more feminine form of Sabrina's Navi, "We did see her at the tournament. But different and not yet met for today's outing."

Rose slid both hands behind her when she reached the group. One went to rub the back of her neck, the other went to move her bag of books behind her. "Sorry for the delay, I wanted to pick up a few things myself." Rose explained quickly. "I'm ready to go now, though." she added, not wanting to hold up the group anymore if they were hoping to get going to their next destination.

Ah, there she was. About time. Somehow, that plastic bag with an entire book series didn't surprise Sabrina in the slightest. "Don't worry about it, it's not like we're in a huge rush." Although, if they could finish the list before nightfall, that would be super. Not a requirement, but it'd be awesome. "But before we go somewhere else...don't you think we should figure out where that somewhere else is?"

With that, the Netopian girl dragged the almighty list out once more, and held it in front of her friends. "We need to figure out which one of these we should try to get next. I don't think we'll get anything else here in ElecTown, though...anything either of you guys really want to go after? I don't really care where we go next." With that declared, Sabrina awaited a response from her partners in scavenging.

Quote ()

Scavenger Hunt

1- Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade
2- Nil-Zenny Poker Chip
3- [Neuronomicon], author Maya Frasser ~Bookstore in ElecTown
4- Previous three NetCafe Secret Menu listings
5- Two (2) Tier-3 Battlechips
6- Thousand Year-Old Spring-Boiled Egg
7- Dentech University 200X Vision Statement Plaque

With Rose finally out of the store, the group's thoughts changed to those of their next destination. Going over the list, Zeo couldn't immediately connect locations to every item. Three caught his eye. "The Process Upgrade... Suitachi might know something, or someone at SciLab itself might," he proposed, running his hand through his hair. "And the poker chip... hard to guess anywhere other than NetVegas. I've never been there in person though, I've only seen the network." The other one was the Dentech item, but he had no idea what it meant unless it literally referred to vision. At this point Zeo was favoring going after the Progress Upgrade. He said so.

"If we can find the Process Upgrade somewhere in the SciLab area, it is pretty close by. I guess I'd vote we try there next, unless one of you has a good idea where we could get one of the other items." Taking his own look at the list, ViralMan whistled. "Two third tier chips? Where would you find those? Better yet, why would you want to give them away?" Zeo sympathized with his Navi. If he ever got his hands on a chip like that, he wouldn't be eager to part with it. "It's not like we have to get everything on the list, like that guy said."

His suggestion made, Zeo repeated his previous question to Sabrina and Rose. "Do you two have any idea where we could get the others? By the way, what does it mean by 'vision statement'?"

The girl was fairly relieved that her friends didn't seem too bothered that she had delayed them. She listened to their conversations and managed to hear enough to have things to respond to.

However, oddly enough, the new Navi hadn't introduced itself to her, or been introduced or mentioned, and Zeo didn't mention his newfound Ice Cream either. Rose had totally missed the call on those subjects of conversation.

However, that didn't matter. She had plans to agree to and concepts to explain.

"Sure SciLabs sounds like a plan. I'm sure Suitachi's bound to have those Process Upgrades. If they're outdated he probably has leftover's, like, sitting in the store room or something."

Then she continued. "Let's see. . . I figure the NetCafé menus could be found at the NetCafé. That's a fairly reputable place. It's in Netopia, isn't it? And the only Springs I know about would be the ones in Yoka, so that's probably a good place to check for that one."

Then, looking at Sabrina, she addressed the other item on the list offhandedly, hoping Sabrina would know what she was referencing and offer to look into it. "If she can deal with this, that'd be great," Rose thought, "Otherwise, I have no idea where we're going to get those two things."

"By the way, what did you say your Dad did again, Sabrina?"

She gave her a moment to ponder that, using the time to turn to look at Zeo. "Also, a Vision Statement is something a lot of places, like schools, have. It's basically like, an inspirational short write up of the goals and qualities the place has or wants to have." She imagined it worked like this. Her school had one like that, anyway. She didn't see why it would work too differently elsewhere.

"So Scilabs sound good to you?" She asked Sabrina.

If the other girl responded positively, it wouldn't take long for them to drive over. They could be done with this in nearly no time. She waited for a response before getting too excited about heading out, though. If Sabrina didn't agree, they could be here discussing for a while more. And if she hadn't gotten the reference she'd dropped, they'd have to think harder on how to get those Tier-Three chips.

Sounded like SciLab was the next destination. ...Nope, still didn't care what they did next. "All right, SciLab it is!" But before they did anything, Sabrina decided to add the prospective locations to each item. Good thing most of them were pretty easy to figure out where they were. The problem was actually getting to them. Aside from those Tier 3 chips. She'd probably have to bust for them, but she wasn't too keen on having to give up what would probably be two of her best chips...

Then Rose mentioned her father. Which, oddly enough, gave her some insight on more than just one item. "...Right! I bet my dad could help us with the chips! He's been NetBattling for years and years, so I bet there's a couple of worn out chips he wouldn't mind giving us! At least, he could if we could actually find him..."

The hologram on Sabrina's shoulder disappeared for a moment, only to reappear shortly afterwards. "Okay, Sabrina. I just sent your dad an e-mail about the situation. He's not really the one to say no to you, so I bet we'll get a response before too long!"

"I hope so, SplashLady..." Oh, right, her other revelation. "By the way...I'm not sure how much she could help, but if the egg is actually some kind of fancy named Yoka specialty dish, I think my mom might know something about it. She IS a professional chef studying Electopian food in Yoka, after all!" Sheesh, if she knew where her brother was, she could make this a family affair. "But we can talk about that later. Shall we head for SciLab?"

Quote ()

Scavenger Hunt

1- Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade ~SciLab (Suitachi's Navi Shop)
2- Nil-Zenny Poker Chip ~NetVegas
3- [Neuronomicon], author Maya Frasser ~Bookstore in ElecTown
4- Previous three NetCafe Secret Menu listings ~NetCafe (Netopia Area)
5- Two (2) Tier-3 Battlechips ~Dad?
6- Thousand Year-Old Spring-Boiled Egg ~Yoka (Mom?)
7- Dentech University 200X Vision Statement Plaque ~DenTech

Zeo's lack of knowledge about most of the list items turned out to not matter as the rest of the group pitched in to fill in the blanks. He smiled. "Looks like we've got a lead on the rest of these things, then." That meant it was time to go to SciLab. Zeo turned in the direction Rose's car resided before speaking to his Navi. "You have any idea what a batch... whatever Process Upgrade is?" ViralMan raised his palms and shook his head. "Got me. It's got to have some value if the guy orchestrating this whole things cares about it. Maybe an early model?"

"Yeah, that's what it sounded like to me. I wonder if they're even distinguishable from regular ones..." Zeo trailed off, hoping their next target had some kind of unique feature. "For all we know, it's just some random piece of software identical to every other one." Shrugging, ViralMan spoke again. "Isn't that why we're asking around? Someone's got to know about it." Zeo nodded. "Yeah, you're right." He slid his PET into its case on his arm.

Taking a step forward, Zeo intended to lead the way back to car. From his PET, ViralMan couldn't resist making a comment. "It's better if you're in front. This way you'll have a better chance of not getting lost," the Navi joked. Zeo adopted a weary look his Navi couldn't see before abandoning it for a light smile. "Off to SciLab, then," he said to Sabrina and Rose behind him before starting off in the direction of the car.

Rose was happy that Sabrina had picked up on the hint. She'd even gone further with it. It hadn't occurred to Rose that it could in fact be more of a food reference than an artifact reference.

She began walking in the direction of her Car, following and quickly catching up to Zeo. She checked over her shoulder to make sure Sabrina was coming, and to get one last look at the bookstore. "Probably won't be coming back anytime soon."

Rose walked along with her hands behind her back, holding onto a bag of books. Once she got to the car, she'd be dumping them into the trunk. And then they'd be off to their next destination: Scilabs.

Realizing she'd already been there this morning, her thoughts wandered back to what Aelieth was doing now that she'd been forced to cancel their meeting. But she couldn't dwell on that.

"This is probably one of the most eclectic lists I've ever seen." She thought aloud. "What kind of collector is this guy? What is he going to do with all these weird things?"

Once they arrived at the car, she could pop them to their next location right away. But for now, conversation couldn't hurt.

"Batch AA-00001 Process Upgrade." Prompted by Zeo's remark, Sabrina read aloud the first item on the list, taking a moment to think about what that mean. ...But, nothing.

Her Navi, on the other hand..."AA-00001? You know, I'm wondering...could that just be a fancy way of saying Process Upgrade #1? AA and 00001 kinda imply first."

"Hmm...maybe. I kinda hope you're right, since that'd make life easier for us!" Though really, that raised a whole bunch of questions about the requester, which Rose addressed a little. "Honestly, I think that guy's kind of a nut. But this is pretty fun, and I get the feeling he's the kind of guy that'd give us nice rewards. So for all I care, he could stick this stuff in a blender and drink it!" ...The scary part was that a mental image of him doing that popped up in her head...and it didn't seem completely impossible. "...You know, pretend I never said that. I don't really like these mental images I'm getting..."

Hmm, looked like Rose's car was in sight. Looked like SciLab was just a drive away now.

Quote (FRIENDSHIP ACQUISITION)

SummonerMan/SplashTwins: 6FXP
SplashTwins/ViralMan: 8FXP
SummonerMan/ViralMan: 6FXP

Rose managed to find a parking spot much closer to the café this time. It was also much easier this time, now that she knew where it was. It didn't take her long to get to the spot and parallel park into it.

The drive from NetVegas had been a little rough, but they made it, and it hadn't even been too long, now. "Not that I'd want it to go on much longer. I'm pretty much ready to be done with this." The girl thought. Of course she liked spending time with friends. She was more done with the tasks.

Luckily they were about done. Rose leapt from the car and locked it up, before pocketing the keys. She then dropped some more cash in the parking meter, enough to last her a good deal of time. She didn't know how long they'd be here, after all, and she'd much rather be ten dollars over on a parking meter than a hundred fifty in the whole for a ticket.

Turning to her friends, she was ready to take a back seat for a bit. "Where did you say we were meeting your father, again, Sabrina?" It was a fair question. Rose wasn't exactly sure the fact had ever been mentioned, so she'd need to know whether she forgot or not.

Once she was told, she was basically ready to follow Sabrina to whatever part of Electown they needed to get to in order to be done. She would do a lot to be finished. Since that end hinged on getting to Sabrina's father, and that hinged on following Sabrina, it was an easy and logical step.

As Zeo got out of the car, he felt like he couldn't be happier seeing Electown again. "It's only been a few hours, but it feels like this took months," he sighed. "Maybe that's an exaggeration, but I didn't think it would take so long." It wasn't a bad experience, at least. From acting as bulldozer in a crowd of people to infiltrati... visiting a casino, they had certainly covered some ground. Now they just had to wait for their last item to arrive so they could collect their reward and be done with the whole affair.

"I wonder if Mr. Jetto's thrilled about having to deliver food," Zeo laughed after Rose asked about Sabrina's father. "Come to think of it, do you even know where we're supposed to meet, Sabrina?" Zeo glanced around on the off chance the man might be somewhere nearby. Nothing... but I don't think we even mentioned Spark Café, he thought. Despite the end being in sight, all Zeo could do now was wait until they knew where Mr. Jetto was. Even if she doesn't know where he is, she just has to call or something.

With that, he turned to Sabrina and waited for her to answer Rose's question.

Parallel parking. A skill Sabrina envied like few others. Of more importance, however, was the fact they were back in ElecTown. It was weird...all that running around for seemingly pointless objects, and now they were done. Now they just had to wait on one Christopher Jetto. Which Rose inquired about. "You know, that's a good question. I guess I could call him, but I wouldn't be surprised if he just popped up behind us and-"

"Said hi, right?"

She probably would've jumped 10 feet in the air if she wasn't at least partly serious about that. "Hi Dad! So, how'd the egg turn out?"

"It's your mother and cooking, so it's no surprise it turned out amazing." Reaching into his pocket, Mr. Jetto pulled out a yellowed egg. "Apparently, these things are supposed to smell incredibly bad once they're done, but your mother had a little time to air it out and get rid of it. And as someone that was there, you owe her big time for that."

"Don't worry, I will!" Egg accepted. ...Wow, for something that was supposed to be a boiled egg, it was pretty heavy. And hard. "This is an egg? It feels more like a rock..."

"Yep, Josephine said something like that, too. But according to the man supervising her, it came out flawless, so that's how it's supposed to be." The elder Jetto took a quick glance at the time, before turning around and taking a couple of steps. "Anyway, I promised your mother I'd head back to the inn once I had that delivered. I guess I'll see you there, Sabrina. And take care, Rose and Zeo." And just as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone.

"Well, now we've really got everything. So I guess it's time to go back to the Spark Cafe!" And so, leading the way, Sabrina led her friends to the cafe of what had better be some serious riches. Though regardless of the reward, she couldn't wait to see the look on the requester's face after they told him, "We got everything!" Batting 1.000 on something that weird was a serious accomplishment, after all.