Tourney Spectator Lounge

"Yeah, but unlike the other Fire Navis of the world, we all actually know Voulge. So no, not entirely." Sabrina glanced over at the object-based Navi, growing slightly weary of his 'tude. "So, uh, about crosses..."

"Oh, I can tell you about that!" Good timing on SplashLady's part...Sabrina had nothing. "When a Navi befriends another Navi, they can draw upon their power, which materializes in the form of a Cross. While under the effects of a Cross, you can utilize some of the skills of that Navi. My current Cross is with a Navi called VoltMan, who, in addition to electricity, specializes in swords and spears. So while it's activated, my spear becomes sharper, and it gains some electrical attributes! So in a way, you have the power of two Navis! But while it sounds cool, I haven't gotten a good chance to use it yet..." "Since I've only been able to use it for about 20 minutes..."

"Yep, that's about it. So if someone gets SplashCross, they'd become better with water-based attacks!" Nothing that wasn't already obvious, just had to make sure she didn't look like a total moron. Even if all that was news to her, too. "Too bad we probably won't be getting FlareCross anytime soon, though...just imagine how awesome that one would be!"

"Yep...not like there's other Fire Navis out there, though." Her Cross explanation done, she turned over to DNR. "Uh...well, I gotta admit, water's my thing. Oceans, lakes, hot springs...even frozen water! But not as much, since I like swimming. It can make you feel like you're weightless! It's great!"

SummonerMan noted briefly that his goading hadn't succeeded, and disagreed with the notion that being a jerk got him no where. "I get a kick out of my comments." he thought.

He also noted that DNR was still going after this 'girl'.

"Whatever" and an accompanying shrug was all the comment Sabrina gave about Voulge got from SummonerMan.

"Cool, sounds like fun." was Rose's response, after hearing the explanation of soul crosses; this was a far more pleasing response than SummonerMan's. Rose was in general a more fun person to talk to.

"Whoa!" SummonerMan suddenly said aloud, bursting out in an uncharacteristic way. "Someone's done with their first match already."

Rose looked over at him, and he continued briefly, pointing at the screen that housed the competition that he was referring to. "Burt Blanchard and Exorcist; winning round one due to a disqualification." His tone had returned to normal.

"Looks like there's already someone moving onto the second round. Makes the tournament feel like it's really happening, even though we aren't competing yet." He continued.

"Can you imagine how lucky they must feel?" Rose said. "I mean, they didn't even have to fight. I wish we could be that lucky." She suddenly remembered that she knew her opponent, and covered up her small mistake. "Not that I want Marius to not show up, I mean it would have been nice to have been paired with someone who wasn't even showing up."

"A first round by would be nice." SummonerMan said. "Not that we'll need it, but it would be nice."

He turned to the others in the group. "Oh, by the way, what do you guys think the prize is for winning?" He asked, raising his eyebrows in slight interest.

"My thought is that they might let winners, or finalists, or even semifinalists keep these folders they got assigned." He began, "And The Winner will probably get some trophy and their name on a board in the lobby for a month or something. Then perhaps a selection of chips provided by sponsors."

Rose hadn't thought much about the price. For her, the story this was getting her would be a great reward; they probably hadn't had that in mind though. She touched her chin briefly and started thinking about what it could possibly be, as she looked at the others to see what they would say.

Burt stumbled into the spectator's lounge from the lobby, having obtained a new can of Net-Cola from a machine outside the door to fill the curve of his empty hand, which he seemed to feel must be perpetually occupied by a soda can. "This place sure is crowded! Still, I can't help but feel like a weight has been lifted. Our first match was so easy, ha ha ha! Now we'll get fabulous prizes for sure," Burt told his navi, plopping down on a two person couch and spreading his arms and legs in such a way as to occupy the entirety of the seat. "This is the life. We should come to tournaments more often!"

Burt's navi, as usual, was none-too-amused with his commentary. "Geez, Burt," she sighed, "we didn't even fight in our first match! You can't get cocky over something like that. It's not like all of our opponents are going to just drop out and give us the matches every time."

"Well they did this time and that's what counts! Let's celebrate with some refreshing carbonated liquids!" he guffawed, chugging a long draw from his soda, then exhaling loudly. "Hey, hear that? There's some people talking about us over there, and one's a really cuuuute girl," Burt whispered to his navi, covering his mouth to onlookers with one sideways palm.

Exorcist frowned, her eyes widening slightly as she saw the girl Burt was speaking of. "She uh, looks just a little too young for you, Burt," she commented with a quiet cough, being as polite as she could.

"Nonsense! Age means nothing in love, you ought to know that. I should add that to the codes of Counterinfectionalism some time," he mused to himself, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "At any rate, you start on your training and I'm going to go mingle," he giggled, jacking her into one of the terminals allowing general net access. "Head on to Yoko for your exercise," he paused to snort at the pun of exercises, "and I'll give you a special present I've prepared."

"Well, I must admit, I do enjoy your presents usually," Exorcist laughed, remembering the katana he'd rewarded her with last time he mentioned a present. "I'll be looking forward to it," she replied with a smile, setting Burt's emotions all aflutter as she proceeded to the designated net.

"Oh, I will too Exxy!" he chuckled to himself, rising out of his seat with an eerie smile. Adjusting his glasses, he strolled over to Rose with both hands in his pockets, emphasizing again the unnatural narrowness of his rod-like body. Walking over to Rose and the others, Burt did his best to act casual. His deceptively soft, blue eyes, hidden behind the shining frames of his half-circle glasses, scanned her up and down in a way that would have been extremely uncomfortable to anyone who might have actually noticed it happening. "Why hello there! Sorry to interrupt your conversation," he apologized to the general group, including Rose, Sabrina, and Polonius. "I couldn't help but overhear you mention me by name," he addressed Rose, flipping his loose, unkempt hair out from in front of his glasses with a supposedly suave hand motion. "Care to talk to the operator of the navi with the fastest tournament match clear time yet?" he asked in a cocky way, crossing both arms across his chest. He showed no ostensible interest in learning about anyone else, in typical fashion.

"Voltman you say?" DNR blinked curiously towards Sabrina's explanation. "I believe we fought together in that war..." the navi said as he covered his mouth to speak.

"Yes, why I even read more articles saying that crosses could be linked by some interactions with people, it's rather interesting..." Polonius said to Sabrina and Rose, smiling a bit. It seems like he's adjusting more to the new competitive environment, being quite more social...

...and then came Burt Blachand...

"...Didn't you win by default?" Polonius said, almost in a stupid way as he pointed to Burt, looking dumbfounded at the new entrant.

DNR had to laugh a bit at this guy's antics himself, after all this guy obviously makes him even more of a genius than he is. "Sooo... You won the first round by default huh? I'm DNR and this protege of mine is Polonius Carbonium..."

"Well..." Before Sabrina could conjecture on the idea of what the prizes were, or why DNR was involved in some war, some man came over and started checking Rose out. Considering he looked like he was twice her age or something, that got a fairly high score on her weirdometer. And apparently, this was the guy that won his first match by his opponent being DQed. Good thing Polonius took upon the task of stating the incredibly obvious. "Yeah...power to ya for that, but I wouldn't go around bragging about that if I were you."

"Maybe so, but that's no excuse to not introduce yourself!" The Aqua Navi waved at the newcomer with her spear. "Hi there! I'm SplashLady, and the girl whose shoulder I'm standing on is my operator, Sabrina Jetto! Mind if I ask where your Navi is? It doesn't appear to be in your PET..." Nothing like using a neutral pronoun when you didn't know what gender someone was...even if it was somewhat ironic coming from her. "Default win or not, it'd still be neat to talk to the first winning Navi of the tournament..."

Mill propped himself up against a wall in the Colloseum to catch his breath, having run the entire length between the airport and here as soon as his plane landed. "Holy... crap... I can... not be... lieve that... I rushed... here for... nothing!" gasped Mill, trying to wipe the gushing sweat from his brow.

"Yeah, you'd think they'd e-mail your or something to tell you that our match isn't until later." noted Anyis nonchalantly.

Mill slumped to the floor, giving his legs a much needed break. "Well..." he sighed, taking one last deep breath to get his rhythm back, "What now? We can't exactly fly back home with our match in the next round."

Anyis put her hand to her chin, taking a very thoughtful stance. After a few moments, she spoke up, "Since we're here, why not scope out some of the other competitors? There might be a few floating around doing the same thing."

"That's... not a bad idea." nodded Mill as he pushed himself upright. "Alright, opponent intel it is. The map at the entrance said there was a spectator lounge around... Ah, there it is." Mill pointed over to the doorway at the far end of the lobby to prove his point. "The best place to go first is probably there."

"Lead the way, maestro." chuckled Anyis, allowing Mill to step up on his pedestal for the sole sake of her own amusement.

---

As per his suspicions, there were 4 people hanging out in the lounge when he stepped in. He took a quick sweep with his eyes to make some observations: 2 girls, both with brown hair. One's a little shorter than the other. 2 guys. One... is wearing a lab coat. Okay then... And the other... Probably was going to take home the award for most creepy. He couldn't really put his finger on it, but the lanky tall guy was giving him chills. Come to think of it... The lab coat guy was too. Mill choked back a sigh as his mind wondered if this was going to be more of a circus than a tournament.

In the end, though, Mill steeled his courage and stepped through the doorway and into the lounge, approaching the group. After picking his words carefully, Mill asked to everyone, "Hey, do any of you know what's happened so far in the tournament? I just got here and am wondering what I missed."

Exorcist blinked curiously, looking back out at Burt with some surprise. "Wow, it's funny how interested people seem to be in Burt. I guess maybe it's a good thing that my opponent happened to forfeit after all. Maybe it'll help Burt make some friends," she laughed to herself, fanning herself lightly with one hand as she continued into the sauna of Yoka Net.

"Yes, well, I'll speak to you again after your first round and you can tell me how that went, doc. I hope your opponent forfeits as well!" Burt laughed, the dripping, self-righteous, possibly unintentional lack of tact smothering any good intention he might have had. "And you too! I hope all of your opponents forfeit so that you can be as lucky as me," he smiled, adjusting his glasses and holding his head up proudly.

"As for my navi, I'm sorry that she couldn't be here to say hi to all of yours personally. I'm busy training her in Yoka at the moment. What I can offer you all, however... is a glimpse of her really cute swimsuit!" he cried, pressing a button down on his PET and then whirling it around so that it's monitor was visible by all of the other participants, circling it with his arm to give them a panoramic view (apparently forgetting that his PET might have a hologram feature).

The navi cried out more from surprise than anything as her coat and under-suit disappeared along with her precious silk hat. In the skinsuit's place formed a black, nearly elegant one-piece swimsuit, its refinement slightly offset by the large V-cut down the chest. Across the hips, Burt had the decency to protect a bit of her modesty with a trendy yellow cloth hung around the waist, reading "PEACE" in bold letters. Overall, the suit was much more form-fitting than her usual robe, and she couldn't help crossing her arms across her impressive bust-line as Burt paraded her around. "T-This was the present you were talking about?" she stammered, not enjoying the attention.

"Yes, Exxy! It's wonderful, isn't it? I looked into some great websites to get ideas for it!" Burt laughed, gorging himself upon his own navi's image. "I even added those cute accessories! You ought to appreciate it. I even restricted myself from making it a bikini. You know what they say: too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing, nya ha ha!"

"I like it, but please, stop showing off like that, it's embarrassing," she muttered, still not content to move her arms. "I-It's very nice to meet all of you. Good luck to your navis," she concluded with a small bow for politeness, her uncovered white hair bobbing as her head went down.

Burt smiled with satisfaction and complied. "At any rate, I'm sorry none of your navis are getting a chance to score with my awesome navi right now. She's busy with a solo-training run right now, pumping up for the next match, you see. Anyways... you there, new guy! The only thing worth note so far is that I've absolutely dominated in the first match. There are other matches going on too right now, but what's more important is that you check out my awesome navi," he smiled, discretely sliding the PET to Mill. Exorcist was not paying attention to the screen, instead searching for viruses to begin her training. "I picked out that swimsuit myself. Kind of a shame, I thought the modest skirt looked cute, but you can't really see her bottom with it on. Too bad," he told the new guy, unabashedly smiling as he adjusted his glasses.

SummonerMan gained a little from his natural observance and noticed the man and his navi entering. However, from his generally strange appearance and the exasperated tone of the navi, as well as the glance in Rose's direction made the navi slightly suspicious of this guy.

SummonerMan then proceeded to get his question ignored. "Well, that'll teach me to try and talk to these guys."

Rose on the other hand was busy turning to meet their first new arrival. "Hello there, you must be Burt." She said, smiling. Until she noticed the creepy look over she was getting, at which point it became a less pronounced somewhat forced smile. Then it recovered. "Wow, this guy's a little creepy. But you never know, I could be wrong. Always give people a second chance." she figured. "I'm Rose, nice to meet you."

Rose sort of gave him a look as he confidently asked if people wanted to talk to him about his fast finish, but other people filled that in for her. She added an "I agree, that is pretty neat." to Sabrina's comment about being the first one to win the first round.

With the entry of someone new, SummonerMan decided to fill him in. Though Burt beat him too it. "Yeah, that's pretty much it. This dude won by default because his opponent didn't show up, and the other matches are just starting."

"Hello, I'm Rose." the so-named girl said as she held out her hand to yet anouther unfamiliar man. She was meeting all sorts of people today.

Rose became slightly bothered by Burt's tone, but she could deal with it. He was probably better than SummonerMan, at least. He was just oblivious, not intentionally rude. "I should pity him, if any thing. His poor Navi, too." she thought.

This pity only increased as he flashed her around the group in her swimsuit like some sort of commodity.

"Well, it does look cute." Rose said. "If you two like it, then you did fine." she said to the suit's inspired creator.

Rose flashed red for a moment and coughed as Burt made himself more and more sketchy, handing his PeT off to the newcomer. SummonerMan, too, echoed her beliefs on the strange meter of this Operator, but he ignored the situation for the most part and continued watching the screens. He needed to watch for good strategies, after all.

"Well... she looks... mighty nice..." DNR said, hiding his blush with his own hand as he tried his best not to be too swayed by the female in this room.

""Hmmm... Does she even like it?" Polonius had to ask towards Burt, tilting his head in curiosity.

"Uh... thanks..." said Mill awkwardly as Exorcist's PET was pushed onto him. So this was the Navi that won her match by default? Mill looked over to a nearby screen with the bracket, and sure enough, Burt Blanchard and Exorcist.exe were the winners of their match. No one really knows how well they fight, then... Having his competitor's PET pretty much offered to him was a golden opportunity to gather some information, but... Well, Mill's conscience was bugging him. While Burt seemed really off-kilter, Exorcist seemed nice enough, and he'd probably feel guilty about stealing her info. Plus, these two were on the other side of the bracket. Both them and he would have to get all the way to the finals, and that just seemed impossible this early on. Yeah, this was better. Taking info from someone as naive as Burt just seemed like cheating... Realizing that he actually needed to say something, Mill cobbled some thoughts together told Burt, "The GMO is pretty nice. I think it fits her image very well. It was a good choice." Yeah, that'll do, thought Mill as he handed the PET back to Burt.

"That is nice..." muttered Anyis to herself from inside her PET. "Hey Mill, I want a swimsuit too."

"... What?" asked Mill incredulously, grabbing his PET to look at Anyis.

"I said I wanted a swimsuit. Make one for me." repeated Anyis, adding an order to it this time.

"Why? How is that in any way important right now?" whispered Mill into his PET.

"Because I don't want my robe to get wet when I swim." replied the Navi with some very spoiled logic.

"... Fine. I'll do something when I get the chance." sighed Mill in defeat, not wanting to make a scene of this. This wasn't about to go any further anyway, as a hand from Rose suddenly popped up in front of him as she introduced herself. "Ah, yeah, nice to meet you, Rose. I'm Mill." said Mill in a slightly surprised tone as he offered his hand to Rose in return, having not expected her to have suddenly come up to him like she did. "Actually, come to think of it, I guess I haven't formally introduced myself, have I? I'm Mill Alidine, and I'm in the 9th battle." he said as he motioned to the screen with the bracket on it. "And this is my Navi, Anyis." Mill continued as he lifted up his PET for everyone to see.

"The fight should be pretty interesting, considering that we've never fought together before." grinned Anyis confidently as she popped out of the hologram projector on Mill's PET.

"... Oh god, you're right." groaned Mill, sliding his hand up under his glasses to cover his face. "You only entered my PET 2 days ago, and I've been getting your systems back up to standard ever since... I guess we can hope that our opponent doesn't show up like Burt's, right?" laughed Mill feebily, suddenly feeling a lot worse about the tournament as a whole.

"Rose is a cute name, and all of you have such excellent taste! It's a wonderful bathing suit that everyone can enjoy," Burt laughed, clasping his hands together and staring amorously back into his PET. "Except you, doctor's navi, but I'm sure you just don't realize the special bond that Exxy and I share. Even if at times we appear displeased with each other, it's just another way of showing our love," he cooed, emphasizing love with a peak of his thin eyebrows.

"I wouldn't really say that," Exorcist mumbled, not wanting to be rude but also not desiring for anyone to think that she and her operator were in any type of relationship. "W-We're good friends though!" she defended with an apologetic smile.

Irked but playing it off, Burt turned disinterestedly to Mill and tilted his head. "Your navi, eh? Let's see your navi then-" he started, then lurched forward nearly into the hologram that had risen up from the PET, his glasses sliding to the bridge of his nose. "P-Perfect! How could you have such sense in designing navis?!" he cried, trying to snatch the PET from the operator's hands, but ceasing as soon as he met resistance. "Brilliant! You two must join me in my quest of Counterinfectionalism! Our navis can pal around and fight with each other and get stronger together and take baths together and-" he rambled on, still not pushing his glasses back up so that the combination of his soft-blue eyes and tensely arched eyebrows was visible, giving his face a very unnatural look.

"Burt, Burt! You'll scare him," Exorcist piped up in the loudest voice she could manage, which still wasn't very loud or demanding. Still, it caused Burt to stop his fangasm.

Mill may have gotten defensive as Burt went for the hands again, but instead of the PET, Burt this time clasped one of the operator's hands instead, giving him a winning grin. "Quite frankly, I'm in love with this design you have. Excellent work, friend. I wish you and Anyis nothing but luck in the upcoming competition," he told the two, shaking the hand of his new brother-in-spiritual-navi's hand vigorously. "Also, my personal suggestion: if your navi wants a swimsuit, give it to her! Designing bathing suits for one's female navi is the secret joy of us male operators, am I right?" he whispered, raising his eyebrows excitedly.

Ah, another person joined in. Fortunately, this one didn't seem like a total jerk/idiot/alien/whatever Burt was. Plus, he had a girl Aqua Navi like her. Well...sort of. "Hi, Mill! I'm Sabrina, and the Navi on my shoulder is SplashLady!"

"Hello, Anyis! And you too, Exorcist!" The fact true, always been female Navis were showing up was starting to bother the speared lady. Hopefully nothing would happen that'd force the truth out...most awkward explanation EVER. "Swimsuits, huh? ...Don't worry Sabrina, I won't make you make one for me, too! I'm already designed for underwater stuff, anyway!"

The Netopian glanced back at her Navi as the obvious thought occured. "Is it even possible to use a GMO when you're already using another GMO to look like that...?"

"Anyway, aside from Burt and Exorcist, we're all in the second block, too! I don't think any of us is your opponent, though..." Come to think of it, DNR hadn't said anything to her in a while. A look over revealed that for the time being, he was more focused on Exorcist. And considering what she suspected, that was fine with her.

Sabrina's gaze, in the meantime, had returned to Burt. Not because she especially wanted to, but she wasn't going to take ANY chances with something...unexpected. Yeah, unexpected was as good a word as any.

"Hello Sabri- Oof!" grunted Mill as he tried to return the greeting to Sabrina, only to have that plan crushed by a physical assault from Burt. Sure, it was praise, but should anyone really care that much about how someone else's Navi looks? Unfortunately, Mill didn't have the heart to say that he really had no hand in Anyis's design, leaving Burt free to continue his excited tired. In a futile effort, Mill tried some modesty, saying, "No, she's not that-"

"Haha, you have good eyes Burt!" And there was Anyis, stepping in and effectively crushing Mill's attempt to spare whatever little embarrassment he could as she laughed. "I'm not all looks, though. Just wait until my match and you'll see a real show of force! Of course, that's if my opponent's brave enough to show up." prodded Anyis bravely, even though her opponent wasn't there. Inwardly, Mill was very glad of that fact and prayed his opponent never heard a word of this. A little piece of curiosity popped up in Mill's mind, and he just couldn't help but ask...

"... So you want to take baths with Exorcist?" asked Mill, wondering if Anyis even listened to all of what Burt said.

"Why not? A group bath in the Yoka Net springs is a lot of fun." answered Anyis unabashedly. Did she really find nothing weird in that...?

"... Right, then." said Mill curtly, realizing that pursuing this line of conversation would take him only downhill... and very quickly at that. "Wait, you're in the second block too Sabrina? Ah, I guess that would make sense with all of the block one competitors except Burt still battling." responded Mill with a genuine interest, actually having a chance to respond to something sane. Of course, that couldn't last long with Burt around, and sure enough, Burt quickly grabbed Mill's free hand and gave him a slightly disturbing smile. "Uh, thanks Burt. Good luck to you too in the tournament." Mill nodded weakily at Burt's swimsuit comment, hoping to appease him enough so he'd be quiet. One thing was still bugging him though, and he just had to ask. Little did Mill know that he was violating taboo...

"What's Counterinfectionalism?"

"B-Baths? Really? Your navi really wants to take baths together with my navi? Both of them? In the same tub? Naked? Washing each other's backs?" Burt muttered in disbelief, groping at his chin with one hand as if in a daze. "Your navi can join mine in training before your match! What do you say? Great idea huh? Right? Riiiight?" he begged, clasping both hands together and wiggling his legs in anxiety.

"Hey, don't get carried away. I'd love to hang out, but that would defeat the purpose of my solo busting, wouldn't it?" Exorcist asked with a serious frown. "Remember, we're not doing this just for fun. We need to get stronger before our next match, not to mention that getting distracted from virus busting defies the basic idea of Counterinfectionalism!"

Burt's ears perked up as both his navi and his new friend spoke the name of his sacred religion simultaneously. "That's right! Conversion! You are now a Counterinfectionalist, my friend!" Burt cheered with mirth, embracing Mill in a surprisingly tight and uncalled for hug. "You are my newest inductee and you will now learn the ins and outs of Counterinfectualism. You see, I was an ordinary religious studies teacher, well versed in most ordinary religions and theologies, until one day the grand concept came to me in a vision. Since then, I've devoted my life to organizing, spreading, and initiating the goals of my blessed message. To learn more, check me out on the web at my Dentech University homepage! I'll give you the link," he smiled, ripping off a sheet from a magazine and sprawling the address out in neat cursive handwriting. "There you go. Don't lose it; you're going to want to learn EVERYTHING about the new guiding force in your life!"

"I hate to interrupt, Burt, but what about the training?" Exorcist sighed in exasperation, resting upon an elevated rock.

"Oh, eh, my navi needs to get on with her training. Give that a good looking over before you start your match! You should go hang out with those cute girls now or something, no use in an upstanding young man such as yourself hanging out with a fogie like me when you could be flexing your youthful spirit!" Burt laughed, giving Mill a push towards the others with his palm, slapping Mill's back just a little too hard and furthermore ignoring the fact that "those cute girls" were both under-aged. "Alright, Exorcist, let's get back to the grind. It's refreshing to see such pleasant young people though," he sighed with a happy smile. "And with such gorgeous navis..."

"... What just happened?" asked Mill confusedly after Burt had left the room.

"I think you've become a believer." observed Anyis.

"... A believer of what?" questioned Mill in return.

"That's a good question. Maybe you should check out that page he gave you later to see how you're going to be living your life from now on." snickered Anyis, having trouble restraining her laughter from the thought of Mill being devoutly religious.

Mill sighed and shook his head before continuing, "Whatever... He made a good point, though. Just sitting around while the other matches are going on is pretty pointless. It looks like they might be going on for a while still, so this might be a good chance for us to get some training in."

"True. You probably should learn what I fight like before our match." admitted Anyis as her hologram dissapated and she returned to within the PET. "The matches should be on TV, so we should be able to know when to head back."

"Yeah, let's go." agreed Mill, giving his regards to Rose and Sabrina before leaving.

(Moving to Netopia)

"Ooohhh... Ah! Sorry about this Burt, Sabrina, Splashlady, Summonerman and Rose. I need to try out the Chip Trader quickly!" Polonius scampered off, leaving DNR rather confused.

"Hey! I'm not done talking to SplashLady!" DNR said as he gets cut off from the group, Polonius running out of the Colosseum and running down the Metro Station quickly.

"...Chip Trader, huh?" Sabrina looked down at her folder, trying to resist the urge to follow suit...ultimately failing miserably. "...Sorry Rose, but I think I'm gonna follow suit! Be back in a little bit!"

And thus did the Netopian girl exit stage right for a shot at another rare chip...

(oh the shame...to ACDC for me...)

SummonerMan noticed DNR blushing up for another female, who he was in no position to see. However, he chose to attribute it, in his head, to the Navi being some sort of lovestruck hopeless romantic. Rose silently echoed the hope that the female Navi liked her present.

Rose nodded politely when she got her introduction returned. SummonerMan noticed with a vague amount of interest that she'd be a potential second round opponent for him, after he won his battle against Voulge. Rose did manage to take a look at the Navi, who appeared interesting. SummonerMan was slightly more interested to here that his potential second round opponent had little experience with their teamwork.

Rose said "Thanks." To the compliment in reference to her name from Burt, though she still watched him sidelong with slight suspicion. She accepted the assertion that Exorcist gave of them being good friends as an acceptance of the outfit, and gave up that issue. His prior comment only continued her suspicion of him, though.

Rose noted his incredible interest in the new female Navi, too, with more mild suspicion. "So, he apparently just might be obsessed with young woman. Interesting." she thought with a mild tone of sarcasm.

Rose spoke up somewhat after SplashLady said she didn't think any of them were Mill's opponent. "We're not." She said, "Their opponent will be the group of Soundman and Trenn." She said, recalling the list and thread. "And they aren't here."

Rose also noted Sabrina continuing to watch Burt in suspicion, and was relieved to note that she wasn't the only one who thought his actions were somewhat off.

Rose paid only mild attention to Mill and his Navi discussing the baths. Well, she payed full attention, but didn't feel the need to respond. She nodded when he mentioned how it would make sense for all there to be in the second block.

She also started to pay attention to Burt when Mill asked what Counterinfectionalism was. She had never before heard of it, and was moderately interested. She was somewhat less interested ion hearing Burt speak after hearing him mutter about naked female Navis washing each other, but listened all the same to see if he'd get to a real point.

She was somewhat dismayed when he didn't say it aloud, so she made a note to search Dentech for Counterinfectionalism. She remained somewhat thrown off as he shoved Mill towards the group and made his strange comment. "Bye. See you around." She said politely, as he left. Though she was relieved that he was leaving.

Rose smiled at Mill and Anyis' resulting exchange. She thought to herself that it wasn't quite pointless, but kept that to herself. "Alright, see you two around. Good luck." She wished, as these two also left.

"Looks like it's just us three again now." She said aloud, after they had left.

And then Polonius bursted out to head to the Chip trader. "Uh, goodlcuk?" Rose said, somewhat confused as they ran off with such urgency. "Or just us two." She said, now somewhat more thrown off.

"Or not." Sabrina announced her regret at leaving. "Don't worry about it. Have fun. Bye." She said as her last friend left. "See you then!" She called, as the girl ran off.

"And then there was one..."Rose trailed, looking back to SummonerMan. "Well, looks like we were just abandoned." The Navi looked over the screens, where action was finally starting. "Well, I wasn't hanging with them; you were abandoned." He said, as he popped back into the pet to watch the streams online, abandoning his holographic presence.

Which left Rose alone in the room. "Oh well..." She said "Whatever, they'll be back. And until then, I guess I'll watch some of the matches, which was my original goal anyway."

So Rose watched the battles progress, going back to the seat her PeT was lying in and sitting in it. She was interested enough that she wouldn't feel lonely. Especially since something told her that her friends would be back very soon.

...Whew. After a journey full of perils and disappointing chips, she was back in her homeland. And naturally, Sabrina made haste to the Colosseum, where she soon found Rose watching the matches on the various TVs throughout the lounge.

"Hi Rose!" A friendly hello was always nice...even when the recipient of the hello had no idea you were there. "Told ya I wouldn't be gone too long! Polonius should be right behind me...so, how are the matches going? Anyone else win yet?"

"I'm right here!" Polonius said as he ran up to them, panting a bit. "S-sorry to have left you a-alone miss Rose..." he said as he got up, coughing a bit from running up the stairs over to the Lounge.

The DNR hologram popped up as he said with a bit of a scowl as he said "All this running and all we got was a darn Needler1 chip... could be useful I guess..." he said with a laugh.