Blanche stepped out of her bathroom, into her bedroom. Her hair was wet, and her attire was suitable only for the privacy of her own room. It had been a long day of cleaning up graffiti, of destroying artistic expression, and she had needed a shower to help her unwind before putting her thoughts to the matters at hand. She still had dirt and paint trapped under her fingernails.

Blanche shuffled across her spartan bedroom to her simple computer desk, taking a seat. She turned her eyes down to that mysterious white PET sitting a few inches from her keyboard. It wasn't every day that strange, middle-aged men in suits accosted Blanche and gave her presents. Maybe she would be used to it if she was more attractive. There was always the possibility that the man had unorthodox tastes in women, but Blanche knew that this was really about something else, of course.

She picked up the PET. "I'm back."

"Welcome back," the Navi replied simply.

"I'm Blanche. You're Blank Man, right?"

"Yes."

Blanche had a lot of questions on her mind about her new partner. Who programmed him? For what purpose had he been created? And why was she, just some pale punk, chosen to be his operator? But Blanche didn't ask him any of these questions. Instead, she drew the cord from the PET and plugged it into her PC, simply saying, "BlankMan.EXE, jack in and execute."

Blanche's PC came out of sleep mode, the old monitor audibly lighting up. The girl's eyes widened with surprise at what she saw on the screen: nothing.

"My homepage is gone!" she cried in alarm.

Blank Man was decidedly silent.

Blanche's anti-establishment propaganda page had been completely erased, and replaced with a completely blank default page. But how did this happen? The man that gave her the PET had commented on her page; did he or some affiliate of his hack her page? Or was it the Net Police? Had they deleted her page as part of her probation? Or, had Blank Man himself somehow done this when he jacked in?

Blanche decided not to ask. She took a few moments to compose herself, while her Navi waited patiently. "Alright, well, I'll deal with that later. For now, head to the ElecTown Net, Blank Man."

"I'm on my way," Blank Man replied.

"Let's see what you can do."

[To Electown Net]