854 Electric Avenue, Room 512

Phew, felt good to be back in her room. It wasn't fancy, but it was nice enough. "Well, we're back. SharpMan, did you schedule a tour for me on the way over?"

"Yep. It's scheduled to start at 10. I made it so it'd start after we had a chance to check out the Navi shop there."

"Well, aren't you clever? But it's a good idea to see what they have."

"Right. ...Oh, by the way."

"Yes?"

"I'm officially bored. Jack me in and let me tear some viruses apart again!"

"Already? Even after the beating you took earlier?"

"That was a fluke! It ain't happening again!"

"...Well, if you say so." Dawn walked over to a window-side table, which contained a single laptop. "My laptop should be finished downloading everything now...mm-hmm." There, just had to click on that list, and..."Now I just have to select what area of the Net to go to, and I can instantly jack you in there."

"Good, that's a lot quicker than jacking in wherever and having to transfer. Which is extremely annoying, I'll have you know."

"I'm sure. So, where do you want to go?"

"Uhh...let's go with the Net I'm most familiar with. Netopia Area!"

"Makes sense." Now she just had to point her PET towards the jack-in port, like so..."Jack in! SharpMan, Execute!"

(TO NETOPIA NET)
"Zzz..."

BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP! Click! A hand creeped out from the side of the bed sheet, turning off the source of the noise.

"Uhh...strange, why is the alarm going off like that? Lately, SharpMan's been the one to wake me..." Dawn sat up, and looked over at her PET stand. It was intact, but the PET's window was conspicuously empty..."SharpMan? Are you all right?"

No response. A closer inspection revealed a note...

"Thanks for looking after SharpMan, but I'm taking him back now. Good luck with your expansion or whatever, sis.

- Hector"

=====================

"...That's all you said? And you had the nerve to swipe her NetBattling cash, BattleChips, and programs too? Ha! That's cold!" A hologram of SharpMan stood perched on a man's shoulder, clearly having no problem with being stolen.

"Perhaps, but she doesn't need to know the details, now should she?" The man stopped for a red light on the sidewalk. Despite the hot weather and his dark clothing, he didn't seem to be so much as slightly warm. "This is pretty warm for Electopia this time of year, isn't it? Of course, it's not even close to what it's like back home..." Ah, green light. Time to keep going.

"Who cares about the heat?! Dawn might not need the details, but I do! Now, spill it!"

"...No, you don't. Aside from one. Namely, you and I are free men."

"...And how's that different from usual?!"

"We've had some...transgressions in the past, have we not?"

"Heh heh...good times!"

"Let's just say that we're no longer in trouble for them."

"...Ah. Well, it's not like anyone was catching us anyway!"

"Of course, but don't tell me you aren't feeling a certain feeling of freedom..."

"...Whatever. It'll be nice to have my awesome moves back!"

"...Yeah, about that. All your upgrades and previous chips...gone."

"...WHAT?!"

"I needed money, and plenty of it, fast. And the quickest way for me to do that was to sell everything off."

"......You..."

"Ha, Dawn didn't change you a bit! Don't worry about it. We'll just have to strengthen you up once again." Ah, the MetroLine station entrance. "Well, don't have anywhere specific to go...let's just head for wherever the next train goes, shall we?"

"...I'm stuck being weak. Pah! But, whatever...so long as I can cut things apart, I can't complain too much."

(TO DENTECH)