Joseph and Joseph face to face!

Joseph arrived back at the inn after the successful NS mission. It was time to unwind, and get some relaxation in. So he thought. As he made his way down the hall towards his room, Joseph could see a white piece of paper taped to his door with some writing on it. The paper read, I have returned home for a visit son, come to your mother's house and lets have dinner, and catch up.

For just a moment Joseph was overcome with joy and excitement, but it didn't take long for a massive anger to overcome those emotions. The rage that he felt towards his dad leaving them to go chase some myth, a rumor, something that they didn't even know existed pulled at his heart strings more then anything else. "Why! Why even come home!" Joseph yelled punching the door. Unfortunately for him, the door wasn't made of a very strong material and his fist went right through it leaving an apple sized hole.

"Relax master." Sparks made an attempt to console his Operators rage. "Let's just go see how things are, if Mrs. Akers has accepted it, then you can to."

That isn't exactly what he wanted to hear at the moment, but Joseph did his best to calm down, before he caused any more damage that he would have to pay for. "Looks like we will get to relax later Sparks, lets go see what the old man wants." Joseph headed back outside, flagged a near by taxi and headed to his old home. The Akers residence wasn't very far away, roughly took the driver twelve minutes to get there. "Thanks man, here is a little bit extra for you." Joseph gave the man the fare, and a little tip for the ride.

It had been a while since he was home, and it did feel good to be back. Their house was of a traditional Electopian design on the outside, though the inide was fariy modern and had been updated with the times. Their yard was a pretty decent size, the images of him running laps around the house during his summer training flooded his mind. The property also held another small building, it was the family private dojo. Mr. Akers and him would spend hours at a time in there training in swordsmanship back in the day. The unique thing about the dojo was that it also had been updated, and had its own net server that allowed their two navi's to train just as hard.

Joseph walked up to the house and knocked on the door. Tapping his foot while he waited, a mixture of emotions flooded his mind. A combination of rage and excitement. The fact that his father had left to chase a myth haunted Joseph for years, but at the same time that was his dad, his best friend for the longest... how could he not be happy to see him again. The young man tried to battle those mixed feelings as the door opened... it was his mother. She was fairly average, standing about five'six, long dark hair that dropped to her shoulders, she was clothed in a velvet red deep v cut rope that showed off her perky chest, a pair of black black open toe heels put her and her son face to face height wise. "Welcome home son. Your father is in the living room waiting on you."

"Why should I care. I came to make sure you were okay... but I can see youre happy as ever." Joseph was irritated... it was obvious she was okay with him leaving and just now returning... she even dressed up for the man, which could only mean they would have extra curricular activities when he wasn't around any longer.

"Don't be rude Joe, it has been a long time since he's been home, lets go see him."

"Fine...." He shook off his distaste for the situation fairly easy. They walked into the house and made their way to the living room.

"Now there's my boy! My son! I've missed you." Joseph senior look at his son with the most genuine joyful look. "Your mother has told me about all the great things you've accomplished since I've left..."

"Thats just the problem... YOU LEFT! WHY?" The son barked back, face red with anger,"You couldn't even respect me enough to say good bye. You had to leave a note." His fist were clinched tightly, while his eyes teared just a little.

"Son... I know it wasn't my best decision... but I had my reasons..."

"Like what!?" Joseph asked, "The stupid cybeast don't even exist! Tell him Mom! Tell him he's wasted these years searching for nothing."

Mrs. Akers complexion had went a little pale, her previously positive demeanor had turned almost sour at the mention of the cybeast. Aside from the letter, her and Joseph had never really spoke about it. Mr. Akers caught his wife's change in attitude and walked over to her, giving her a big hug. "It's okay... Let's just hope he never has to understand what it's like."

Joseph paused... why was his mom upset now... she should have been upset from the start, at his dad not at what he said. "What do you mean... Whats the matter."

"Joe, lets go to the dojo and talk my boy." Mr. Akers kissed his wife's forehead gently, "I'll be back in a little while, finish up dinner and we will feast later." The older man headed back towards the front door.

Joseph didn't respond this time, but followed his fathers lead. Dragging his feet loudly behind him as they walked, he couldn't get the conversation out of his head. The look of disgust that crossed his mother's face. Finally they arrived to the family private dojo.

"You must clear your head son, so much aggression and anger. Are you not happy to see me?" The elder Joseph walked over to the far left wall and grabbed two kendo sticks, and tossed one to his son.

"I already told you, how can I be happy when you just got up and le..." The younger of the two was cut off by a loud WACK, from the kendo sticks colliding. Right as he caught his, the father rushed in for a fast over head slash.

"Ah, good reflexes... last time we sparred that would have landed. Show me more." Joseph senior continued to swing the heavy kendo stick, first another overhead, followed by a wide horizontal slash, into a low diagonal lunge. His son was just barley able to block each one. The father was relentless and fast, not letting up on his attacks till finally he bypassed the son's guard and gave him a powerful strike to his left shoulder.

"Ahhhh!" Joseph barked in sudden pain. It had been a long time since he had felt the crack of the wooden weapon, due to having worn body armor in the tournaments. "What the hell is your problem! You can't just come back and act like we're on good ime to terms." It was Joseph's turn to strike, as he lashed out with his own combination of slashes. First high, then low, then middle. His style was so similar to his father's you could tell who taught him. However having far less experience the attacks came slower, thus Joseph senior easily blocked each one until they were locked into a sudden pushing contest.

The stood face to face, grunting, sweat doused the youngin's brow, as he panted trying to push through his father's guard. "Let me ask you something... Don't you ever wonder what happened to your mothers navi? Why she all of sudden had a normal navi that was a shell of her original self?"

"Yall always told me it was nothing to worry about... that it was a bug, and we would manage. What is your point." He finally managed to push his father's guard up, sliding into a quick spinnging back slash that the dad easily blocked by switching hand's, and dropping the sword over his head, but behind his back to protect his side.

"You're old enough now to realize that something must have caused it. Navi's don't just bug and mess up for no reason. We encountered a cybeast, and barley managed to escape without being deleted. Rosa suffered permanent damage to her core. Call it selfish... call it chasing a myth... call it whatever you want. SenseiMan wasn't happy with his defeat and neither was I. You're mother knew that I would be back, and we both knew that you would turn out alright. Stop being a damn crybaby and suck it up!" Upon dropping the reason behind his Cybeast pursuit the father retaliated with his own spinnging back slash, the kendo sticks met, but there was so much power behind the older man's slash that his son's kendo stick split in half, causing a blow to land on the side of his left shoulder.

The son seemed dazed... like the second strike didn't make him budge. The thought of his mother's look flooded back into his mind. Respect, honor, and competition were things that always drove the family... they were core values. "Why couldn't you have just told me all of that to begin with..."

"Because son... I wanted it to seem the way you thought it was. You used it as fuel to help further your growth. You became a fine, strong young man. I'm proud to see how you've grown." Joseph senior dropped his wooden weapon and walked over to his son. After giving him a long strong embrace, "I'm sorry we kept the truth from you... I love you son... can we move forward from this?"

Joseph took a moment, while being hugged by his dad. More memories invaded his thoughts. Good, bad, and ugly. Everything from the years with his father, to the years without. With watery eyes he sincerely responded, "Yes... Its good to have you home."

"That's more like it, how about we get a little net training done? First let me see your PET."

Joseph did as his father requested and handed him the device. The dad carried the PET over to the computer, plugged it in and did a little tinkering with Sparks.EXE's data. "I'm giving your navi a little power up that's gonna allow him to tap into another element, but he's going to have to tap into it first. You won't be able to access it until you install some process upgrades, but while we are training, it will prep his body for the transition. Go ahead and Jack in over there." Upon handing his son the PET back, he plugged his own PET into the computer and sent his navi SenseiMan into their private net.

This is where his Navi was sent. Yoka Net.
"Ah that was fun. Just like old times." Joseph senior exclaimed. "At least Sparks showed exceptional improvement. You still got a ways to go." The elder of the two Joes, slapped his son on the back playfully. "Earlier I tweaked Sparks code, like I said it would allow him to access an element. Having him fight those many battles in a lava filled area should make it easier to for him to use some fire attacks. They are a little harder to program and use up more memory, bur I'm sure you could find some use in them right?"

"Fire attacks? On Sparks? Hmmmm. Never really thought about that." Joseph examined his PET for a moment. "I think we could make that work." He smiled, as different battle scenarios began to play out in the back of his head.

"That's not the only thing that I added though. I figure yall should have another companion so I created an SP core and gave it to you. It's up to you to do as you see fit."

"Thanks Dad." He was smiling so wide, from cheek to cheek. He and Sparks had both seen their friend's .SPs so it was great to finally have on one of their on. "Are you leaving again?"

"Nah... I think I'm going to stick around for a little bit. I might just leave our mission with you. If there is ever anything that you need, just come back home and we will get it sorted out. Here's a little zenny also, go fix up Sparks, Yall earned it." The father hugged his son tightly. "It's good to be home. I really am proud of who you've become and I look forward to seeing what else you accomplish. Don't hesitate to come seek my guidance."

"It's so good to have you home. Thanks for all this stuff today. I'm gonna go hop on it now, so I'll see yall around!" With one last squeeze, Joe hugged his dad good bye, pocketed his gifts and headed out.

SubPlot finished, Rewards:

.SP Core, 2400z (enough for Process Upgrades v7,8,9)

Headed to the Navi Shop to buy some upgrades.