Hitting the Street

Wes walked off the Metro and looked around one of Netopia's cities. This area was big and thus the net would be big as well. He would need to narrow down where on the net his target was. Looking around for someone to ask for info, he picked out a young man a few years younger than himself. Chances are, a kid would know details of suspicious things more than adults because they were more prone to listen to weird things. An adult would probably just brush it off as being not their problem while a kid would find it interesing and neat. He pointed at the child and said, "Hey, kid, I have a question for ya and you look like you could be in the know. Have you heard anything about some navi tearing up the net around here?"

"What's that dude?" the young man asked. "Nah, man, you're in the wrong place. I hear somethin' about it...But..."

The man paused, seemingly uncertain. He looked around, suddenly nervous, and then leaned closer to Wes. Sweat had broken out along the young man's brow and his voice was a low, harsh wisper.

"You sure you wanna know, man?" He asked. "I've heard this Navi is one bad dude. Some kind of rogue Navi or something. Local rumor says he's trying to hit up the Mafia. What are you anyway? You look too young to be a cop...Some kinda vigilante or somethin'?"

"No, the police just have something I want and thus I'm willing to put up with stupid errands. In any case, I've faced mafia before. Some wannabe aint gonna scare me off." Wes replied. If they could take on some psycho Dark chip user with a group, they should at least be able to take down some flunky by themselves, right?

"Heh," the man chuckled. "Yeah, I've done a few of those errands myself. Annoying, but worth it sometimes. Alright, I'll tell ya what. You seem like you're on the up and up and you look like you can handle yourself in a NetBattle."

He paused once more and nodded to himself as though confirming his thoughts. He took in a deep breath and then continued.

"Alright, you wanna go to the net town over. This Navi has been tearing things up all day. He was here a few hours ago. I hear he deleted a few Navi and wrecked a few email accounts and webpages. He's gone now though...I heard from a friend of mine about an hour ago. Next town over. Be careful though. This Navi is a wild one. Oh, my train is here. Later bro!"

With that, the man waved and headed off to get on his train.

"Thanks." Wes said, heading off in the direction of 'the next town over'. When he arrived there he noticed, much to his dismay, it seemed his navi had not returned to him. Was he lost or was the battle more than Junior had thought it to be? Wes simply found a post to lean against and waited. Chances were, by talking to that kid, word would get to the navi that someone was looking for him. He wouldn't be hard to find once they plugged into the area.

As Wes leaned against the pole, he saw a young boy with a PET standing on the sidewalk. The boy was visably upset and seemed like he was on the verge of tears. Wes could overhear the young boy talking to the PET.

"Sniff...Can you hear me Basketman? Are you okay?"

The boy paused as if listening to a response and then continued.

"That guy was a monster! he shrugged off our best combo like it was nothin'! Sniff, I'm so sorry that I got you into that fight. I thought we could...I thought..."

He choked back a sob and wiped his eyes with his shirt sleeve.

Wes thought carefully to himself. Here would potentially be a reliable source of information on his target. He could easily ask the kid for stats on the guy or he could charge in like an arrogant prick. Of course, while he probably was an arrogant prick, he wasn't a hypocrite. Since he had just chided his navi to take the enemy seriously, it would be a good idea if he did the same, "So, kiddo, you get hit by that crazed navi that's been running around? Could you tell me anything about his stats and attack patterns?"

"Huh?" the young boy looked up at Wes. "Who are you Mister? My mom told me never to talk to strangers..." He paused as he noticed Wes' PET. "But since you're a NetOp, I guess I can talk to you. Yeah, we got creamed by that guy. He's some kind of monster, rampaging all over. Basketman and I threw everything we had at him, but he shrugged it off like it was nothing but a buster shot."

"Yeah," A voice from the boy's PET chimed in. "Our best combo barely even dented the guy's defenses. The only thing that seemed to do any damage were fire attacks."

"Yeah," the boy spoke up again. "We were just minding our own business too. We were in the Net about an hour ago, just practicing against some weak viruses, when he came and trounced us. First he started playing with us, a few weak hits. Then he just stood there as we attacked him, not even flinching...And then...And then...With one hit he dropped Basketman. It took me this long just to get my Navi working again."

"It was pretty scary," Basketman agreed. "And what about that girl?"

"Oh yeah!" the boy shouted. "There was too of them! The guy in the green robe and the girl in the blue one. She didn't do much, just sort of stood there and watched, but I think they were together."

Wes made a very unpleasent face, as if he had just gotten hit with a case of diarrhea. A girl, huh? His navi didn't have it in him to strike a woman. Maybe they'd get lucky and it'd be a crossdresser but... that seemed unlikely. A better plan would be assuming that since only one target had been mentioned, they could down him and then bail, since that would be the bare minimum required. There was also the possibility that the woman was just there to watch and wouldn't interfere even if he was beaten. If he was trying out for Mafia, she could just be a scout, "Thanks for the info. This should help a lot."

"Wa-wait Mister!" The boy shouted. "I won't mess with this guy if I was you. I mean, he seems like he's weak to fire, but I dunno..." The boy paused, thinking. "Before Basketman was EJO'd, I overheard something. I suppose they thought we were already down and out, so they didn't care, but...The girl mentioned something about the bank. She said that she would be able to take the bank's power or something to create a barrier that would protect the guy while he did what he had to do. I-I dunno what he's gonna do...He just growled in response. If he's got some sort of barrier, than even fire attacks won't touch him. You gotta stay away from the bank until the police can get there, okay mister?"

((Please keep in mind that the bank is on a private server and without the ability to smash through the firewall, you would be best off jacking in from inside the bank))

"I don't think I can quite do that, though thanks for the concern." With a wave, Wes headed off towards the bank. After waiting a short time, his navi finally returned to him, "Its about time. Were those enemies more than you expected them to be?"

"Hardly worth the effort. The salvo we threw at them finished them all off. Had you waited enough thirty seconds before running off, I could have just plugged out. Instead, I had to track down your signal just so I could exit the net." Junior replied. He then got to the issue at hand, "So, what's the situation?"

"We need to track down some wannabe Mafia guy who has been tearing up Netopia's net. According to my last source, he's going to try hitting this bank, he can only really take damage from Fire chips, and he might have some back up." Wes explained. Of course, he left the detail of the back up being female. No use getting him worried about fighting a girl now. Wes headed into the bank, stood in line, then talked to the person at the desk he approached, "Excuse me, I don't want to panic you, but I recieved a tip that this bank might get attacked by that weirdo navi that's been causing havoc in the country's netspace. I think he's supposed to be after some kind of ultimate barrier program, though I have no idea what that's about. I'm just supposed to take this guy down so if your manager wouldn't mind, could I take part this bank's defense department today? Feel free to contact the netpolice if you question my motives. My name is Wesley Xesivan, so you know who to inquire about. I'll just sit down right over there and await your response." With a polite nod of the head, Wes took a seat over to the side. This would no doubt take a little bit of time to get cleared and there was a good chance they'd think he was up to something devious until they talked to the net police. He didn't want to seem to anxious and get himself marked as a suspect. Besides, the deal was he had to take care of the navi, not save this bank so even if they denied his request, there would be other chances, no doubt.

"Um..." The girl behind the counter paused. "Uh...Uh....Hold on?"

The girl didn't seem very sure of herself. She turned around and moved quickly to a tall, elderly man in a suit. Wes could see them speaking together in a whisper, but couldn't hear what they were saying. The man disappeared into the back for a few minutes and then returned to speak with Wes.

"Ahem," he spoke. "I've contacted the NetPolice and they have confirmed your story. Once I've seen your identification, you can jack into a port over there. We thank you for all the aid you can give us, but...I have no idea about any barrier chip. Are you sure that's what this Navi is after?"

"No idea whatsoever." Wes said matter-of-factly, "Everything I know about this navi I've gotten second hand. I've yet to come in contact with this buffoon, so what I heard on the street is all I know. The info that this guy is targetting the bank and after some barrier program is what some kid told me. Whether its reliable or not, I don't really care. This is the best lead I got so I'm gonna run with it." Wes said. He then brought up some idenfication information on his PET, then prepared to plug in, "Now then, my two best guesses are that this barrier is part of your security system or is something one of your customers have locked up here. The second makes more sense, since you have no idea what I'm talking about and I doubt you know every single thing being stored here so a barrier program under your care might escape your notice. Of course, you could always be hiding something from me, in which case, the first could very well be true. Of course, knowing my luck, its probably some third option that I haven't even thought of and thus all this thinking was for nothing. In the long run, though, I don't really care. This navi's just some mafia wannabe so whatever his motives are, they are of no concern to me. As long as I get my promised payment from the Net Police, the underlying motives for all this ruckus are beneath my concern. In any case, since I assume you're at least going to provide a bit of support, equip your security navis with any Fire element weapons you have. If my information is reliable, then only Fire attacks hurt this guy, though as much as I hate to contridict myself, that does make me slightly curious. In any case, I'm sending you in, Soulman_Junior.EXE."

"Sheesh, you talk a lot. Its not like this poor man needs to hear each and every little thought and opinion you have." Junior complained.

"Yeah, I know. He might not have even caught everything I said. Its mostly for my benefit. Hearing me say my thoughts out loud. Now then, get in there and get ready. I'll try figuring out which chips will work best." Wes commanded.

"Fine, I'm going." With that, chatter time was ended and Junior entered the bank's netscape.

The lights in the bank flickered wildly and then dimmed to almost nothing.

"What's that?" the managed asked. "Is someone siphoning our power?"

"Hmmmm.... well that can't be good. Can you tell where it's being redirected to?" Wes asked. Surely something as stupid as stealing the banks power couldn't be the big trick behind this guy's invincible barrier, could it? That would just be stupid. Though, if that was the case, would simply turning off the power be enough to stop the barrier? Perhaps for now Wes would stay his hand and avoid using his fire chips. Stalling might be his best bet, "Also, on a semi-random note, if the power of the bank's computers were to be turned off, how long could your security navis hold in there. I know that my PET's battery would probably be able to hold for at least one battle, though I might want to try hijacking a car battery, just in case..."

"I-I'm not sure..." the man stammered. "I suppose that a barrier that powerful would need a lot of energy to generate it...Maybe more than a single PET could handle. Maybe severing the power would disrupt the barrier...Maybe. As for the security Navi, they should be able to last a few rounds without back-up power. If the barrier drops and you guys can finish this quickly, there shouldn't be a problem."

"Then do that, if you please." Wes requested. Finish this quickly, huh? With all that HP, they'd need a miracle to do that, "Also, did you equip your navis with fire attacks? I have a little something here that will boost my Fire chips, but even with those I can only do so much. Though only way this'll work is if we all have enough chips to hammer him... I mean, geez, look at his HP."

"Yeah...yes," the man said. "It may take a few moments to get everything powered down. I'll go do it now."

The man hurried off into the back room to turn off the power.

"Crap, he got away." Wes said with a sigh as he stood up. He then addressed the manager, "Well, at least everything should be safe... Its probably fine to turn the power back on." Wes thought to himself for a moment. That one navi with the keyboard said they obtained what they wanted, but what specifically was it, "Hmmmm.... anyway, if there is anything missing, let me know. Here's my e-mail." Wes said, writing a note on some scrap paper the bank kept on the desks, "Also might want to report back to the NetPolice, since its their fault that I'm even here. Hmmmm.... so she called him Grendal, huh? Sheesh, I hated Beowulf..." Wes then turned and walked out of the bank. He then found his way to the metro and began to type out a message on the Mission BBS during the ride.