The Gloria Scott Shopping Mall

Jacky seemed to trust Sleuth's excuse that her clothing had been a necessary sacrifice. After all, her limited experience with Jocelyn already seemed to indicate that loss of clothing was an occupational hazard anyone could face at any time merely by associating with her. As such, the operator was able to regard Sleuth a bit more approvingly (or at least objectively) as she completed her explanation.

To most people, being suddenly told about a group of ninja bodyguards might seem like a bad joke, but Jacky didn't find it that hard to swallow. She had a logical mind, and it had unfortunately taken some very practical turns as she'd assessed Jocelyn's situation: particularly, how had she managed to stay safe (and for that matter, employed) with only a Navi to look out for her? The operator's ridiculous endowment combined with her incredible naivety seemed like something all kinds of predators would try to exploit. She appreciated Sleuth giving her an answer to one of her burning questions, but she could have done without the crack at her earlier peril.

Jacky remained quiet and let Sleuth do most of the talking. The Navi seemed like the sort who'd want to dominate a conversation, and Jacky didn't have half the imperative to interrupt, anyhow. "Truth be told, I don't know how much sexual experience or appreciation of the male form she is in possession of. I think it would be fair to assume, though, that she primarily wields that vocabulary as a blunt instrument in the service of shock entertainment."

Jocelyn returned, and Jacky felt another sigh of relief escape her as she saw Jocelyn had apparently been talked into dressing like an actual mall cop by somebody. That relief turned to despair again as she quickly learned whoever she'd been talking to was most likely the one who'd convinced her to dress down in the first place. She frowned deeply and adjusted her glasses once again. "I really don't think you should be that willing to concede," she muttered, but her low volume made it more or less a speech to herself.

She shook her head at Sleuth's offering of appreciation. "Not at all. I feel an imperative to help out." Once again, Sleuth dominated the conversation, and before she knew it Sleuth and Jocelyn had ridden off into the sunset. Apparently, she was to meet them again "upon the morrow," although she really had no idea what time that should be. She hadn't given them any way to contact her, either. "I guess I'd better be punctual..."

The operator stood for a moment longer, contemplating, before drawing her PET again. "You went quiet suddenly," she told her Navi. Indeed, the Navi had slowed down cursing as the other pair had departed. "Something on your mind?"

"Hm?" Hyde tilted her head, seeming to find the question odd. "Ah... I'm not sure if I'd been saying anything..."

"Yes, you certainly were." Jacky adjusted her glasses again, a quick, severe motion.

"Ah! Well then, I do apologize. As usual." Hyde bowed and squirmed a bit uncomfortably. "However, I am looking forward to making the acquaintance of another Navi. I'm sure there's something we can do to help out Ms. Jocelyn, but for my part, I'm more interested in meeting Sleuth. Did you know that I haven't had any contact with another Navi since my forced leave of absence?"

Jacky wasn't aware of that, could hardly believe it, and certainly wasn't thrilled to learn it. "No. The professor didn't mention that."

"Yes, well... I suppose we should head home and worry about it further tomorrow?"

Jacky nodded, and made her way out of the mall. Making her way down the sidewalk, she looked both ways. Seeing no one around, the operator addressed her Navi in a bit of a stuttery whisper. "What Sleuth was saying back there... d-do you have that kind of... experience?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Hyde responded, adjusting her hat on her head. "Although, if I was going to do something like that, I would only do it with someone about, hm... thiii~iiis big," she commented, her face still looking innocent and her tone more or less conversational as she held up her cane and measured along its entire length with her free hand.

"Mm," Jacky whipped her face away from her PET where she'd been holding it close and kept on walking.

After acquiring their navi upgrades at Suitachi's, the dynamic duo of Sleuth and Jocelyn had returned to Netopia and promptly headed home for the night, it being far too late to start on their new mission at the time. In the morning, they'd taken up a new mission, and with the two of them each having a renewed sense of purpose, they headed in to work. "Thank you for asking me to assist with this mission, Sleuth! I won't let you down, I promise," the operator beamed, clapping her gloved hands together as she rolled out from the staff office on her prized segway. Today, she was dressed in her ordinary uniform; although she'd been given the day off-duty, she figured it wouldn't hurt to wear the outfit around regardless. In truth, that wasn't exactly good practice for security personnel, but she wasn't aware and nobody seemed to care enough to tell her. There were usually far more worrisome topics to address, where the young lady was concerned. "We're lucky there was a mission so well-suited for our talents, though."

"I dare say you're correct, my dear Jocelyn," Sleuth responded, feeling plucky and go-get-em in the morning sun. She reflected for a moment that it was odd that the sun in the outside world should energize her, with her being a navi and all, but there was something about the mood that was infectious. "Your recently honed skills in the art of budgeting for night-wear and my expertise in exorcism should make us invaluable in this affair. But in all seriousness, I'm just happy that it happens to fall into the realm of one of your confirmed talents. Not that there is anything wrong with your pool of skills, but let's just say... it's not the widest pool to wade through," Sleuth murmured, ending up sounding more critical than she meant to.

Thankfully, Jocelyn took no offense. "Indeed. God favors hard workers! That's what daddy always taught me and I've endeavored to live my life my those words," she sighed, shielding her eyes and staring cheerfully up to the glass roof of the outer-most part of the food court, where the sun shone beautifully down upon the scant early-morning mall crowd. At these times, the only people who tended to roam around were those who were obligated to be there by there jobs. "I'm sure Miss Jacky will be happy to work with us. She seems quite a capable woman herself, even if she lets her emotions cloud her judgment some times."

"Well, I agree with you that she'll be a help and a willing aid, anyway," Sleuth shrugged, not wanting to go the painful route of trying to explain the previous Hyde-instigated incident to her operator. "For this mission, our goal is primarily to help our employer, but let us not forget that our secondary goal is for you to foster growth in some of the wits you've long needed to nurture. Practicality, knowledge, rationality, skepticism, faith in your own ideals, a set of ideals to have faith in... all are traits you must grasp hold of. Honestly, you're like a blank slate that needs to be painted upon. That said, please don't offer to let anyone paint on you... unless it coincides with the mission. Then, we'll evaluate the option carefully before continuing," she warned her operator.

"It all sounds terribly difficult," Jocelyn sighed, closing her eyes and pressing one hand daintily to her cheek. "I hope you'll be able to guide me through it. At any rate, back to Miss Jacky! Let's find her and inform her of the mission. Luckily, I know just the way to get her attention!" Still equipped with her segway and all of her equipment, Jocelyn retrieved her trusty radio, which was capable of linking directly to intercom. "Ahem! Miss Jacky! Please meet Miss Sleuth and I in the food court at your earliest convenience. On your way here, if you could kindly log into the GNA mission board and stamp your approval on our task, it would be much appreciated. Sleuth has left the request open for you. Thank you! Everyone, have a lovely morning~" she finished, then promptly replaced the mic in its slot. That likely would have bugged most of the mall, if the weren't use to it, for one, and if Jocelyn's voice wasn't so darn sunshiney and pleasant.

"... I hope our employer isn't too close. You're being rather loud about our secret mission. Then again, I don't think anyone would suspect you or I of doing any real, straight-laced detective work," her navi chuckled dryly.

Jacky was already in the food court, having arrived obscenely early in an attempt to meet up with Jocelyn no matter when "upon the morrow" was supposed to be. Waking up was one of the many employable talents the student had already attempted to foster. That said, she was fast asleep, passed out at one of the tables. She'd lost so much sleep worrying about the next day and dealing with various Hyde-related antics in the middle of the night, even going to bed early hadn't done much for her. As a result, the ordinarily composed operator lay with her head face-down in her arms, which rested on the table before her.

Hyde had considerately spent a minute or two trying to rouse her operator before launching into as many antics as she could with no one to stop her. However, all of her cursing, fart noises, and flashing of skin fell on deaf ears. Her operator appeared to be out cold, and there really wasn't anyone around to get the attention of. "What kind of mall cop is that Jocelyn? Maybe she's off duty," the Navi mused sourly.

Bored out of her mind, Hyde decided not to waste her efforts and sat cross-legged, taking a swig of her brew to let her dull nature take over again. Back in a calmer state of mind, the new Hyde tried a couple more times to wake Jacky before realizing the last thing she needed to do was raise her voice enough to attract some strange passerby and alert them to an unoperated PET and a defenseless girl. The Navi decided to simply stay quiet and meditate...

... Even for her, that got pretty boring pretty quickly, so Hyde spent some time browsing information boards. This was the activity she was currently engaged in when Jocelyn's voice suddenly split through the mall.

"zzzzmgrguuh can ONLY BE PROVEN, NEVER DISPROVEN," Jacky suddenly shouted, jolting back to life. "Wah? Uh... Hyde?"

"Welcome back to the world of the waking," Hyde greeted her operator with a bow. "You seem to have dozed off. Jocelyn appears to have used a mall PA system to try and contact you."

Jacky blushed deeply as the picture of what happened cleared up in her head. "How long was I... No, never mind. More importantly, what did Jocelyn say?"

"Jocelyn instructed us to meet her in the food court, and advised we accept a mission she requested from the GNA in the meantime. Apparently, this is the task Ms. Sleuth was informing us of... she may be using this to try and facilitate deep thinking in her operator."

Jacky scowled, looking like she just wanted to roll back over and fall asleep again. "Deep thinking? We're already in the food court," the operator complained, still feeling groggy. "Surely she must have realized that, with no further instructions given, we'd simply return to the location from the previous day."

"I really don't think that's fair to Ms. Jocelyn. There's a plant right behind you, see? If Jocelyn approaches from inside the mall, she can't see you here. Only from the outside. Did you consider she may have arrived before you and been performing her early duties?"

Jacky couldn't argue with that, and she had chosen a pretty bad spot to try and be noticed... "Fair enough," Jacky returned, rising to her feet and removing her frames to brush sleep from her eyes. She wasn't wearing her labcoat today, and the eye flakes fell lightly onto her plain turtleneck. "It's nice when I can count on you for responsible feedback."

Hyde knew that was a bit of a loaded compliment, intentionally or not, and smiled a bit tightly. "Yes, well, I'm happy to provide it. Shall I go and find out about our mission while you meet up with Jocelyn?"

"Yes, thank you," the operator said, brushing herself down and returning her glasses to her face. Excluding the slight dark rings beneath her eyes, Jacky had more or less regained her average level of presentability. Not giving much more thought to the fact that she had just allowed Hyde to go and participate in communication with a global Net entity of considerable clout, not to mention more or less determine her own course throughout the day, Jacky quickly spotted Jocelyn and made her way over.

The mall cop looked like she was radiating energy this morning, and in spite of her reservations, Jacky was happy to see it. She needed another person with energy to spare. "Good morning, Jocelyn. Hyde's currently investigating the GNA request, so soon she should be ready to engage. How are you?" The operator stifled a yawn and offered Jocelyn a small smile, blissfully unaware that the type of mission which had been requested would require the two of them to act as partners in more than just Navi operations.

Before Jocelyn could even begin to think about how to pass the time while waiting on Jacky to show up, the other operator set aside the concern by appearing immediately and greeting her, indicating that she must have been in the food court already when the summons was given. "Good morning! I'm doing very well, but I'll be doing even better once we head off to the Shamus Austin Mall and start serving the general good, as our mission handler has requested of us! I'm not certain if Hyde has explained it all to you or if you've looked into it yourself, but there are nasty doings afoot, very serious. It sounds like it may be theft... or, attempted theft? Either way, an item has gone missing and we will most likely be responsible for retrieving it and finding out who took it. Of course, that's all in a day's work for me, but I'm not certain if you have any prior mall cop experience. Therefore, if at any time you need any pointers or someone to help you understand the correct methods to use, please look no further than myself," Jocelyn offered. At this point, Jacky might find Jocelyn's confidence on the subject to be blind and misguided, but Jocelyn felt it genuinely herself, at least.

"Jocelyn, please keep in mind that our employer might not be... how should I say it... picking the operations that you're best suited for quite in the same way that Rodney does," Sleuth warned her operator, leaning on her cane as she spoke. "That means that we may ourselves doing something more ill-suited to our talents. There will also be limits to how thoroughly the rest of your security team can watch over you. All I'm saying is, it is of paramount importance that we take caution in how we conduct our business in that mall. Remember: this mission is about gaining prudence and judiciousness, and neither of those things will come unless you start by considering your own safety." That said, when Sleuth got into her own leg of the mission, she'd probably be pushing everyone's buttons like she always did without a thought or care for her own well-being.

"Yes, of course. Remember, I passed training and got certified to become the mall security officer that I am today! I believe I know a thing or two about how to handle myself in a mall security investigation," the operator reminded her navi, taking a bit of offense. "Now, let's hurry Jacky! The mall in question is but a short distance away. I should warn you, Rodney has said a lot of unkind things about them already. He considers them competition, and thus, to some extent, I'll have to think of them that way myself. But, in truth, I like to think that all malls can join hands and live in harmony... growing the sanctity of all malls with togetherness, in harmony! I'm sure that we can obtain a beautiful world like that," Jocelyn sighed happily. "That all starts with this mission. They'll see that two malls can come together in one happy communion."

"... My dear, we already have an abundance of objectives to keep in mind. Let's not add silly ones on top of those," Sleuth sighed in a far less cheerful way. "Remember: she who keeps her head in the clouds may soon find it minced by a passing helicopter! There's a phrase that goes something like that, anyway. Not that helicopters are chief amongst my concerns in this upcoming case."

After what seemed like eons of rambling, Jocelyn headed outside... still riding her segway. "The ground is quite even, meaning that, over a small distance, I can safely ride from here to the neighboring mall! It's quite convenient, isn't it?" she chuckled, smiling at her new caretaker. "I think it gives me an air of authority, even when I'm not on my 'home turf,' so to speak!" It did give her some added height and possibly make her look a bit more authoritative, but nothing Jocelyn did would ever make her look menacing to lawbreakers.

((Heading to mission topic in Netopia))

Jacky's eyebrows peaked behind her thick frames after hearing of a theft. "No, I haven't heard anything about a theft. I have to wonder why the person in question hasn't contacted the NetPolice or even mall security. We'll need to apply some scrutiny to our mission in order to ensure we aren't inadvertently stepping into shady dealings ourselves. And, ah... I don't have any prior mall cop experience," she added unnecessarily. "I suppose if there are any areas which wouldn't be apparent to the average civilian, I'll have to rely on your expertise."

The operator continued to listen warily, again marveling that Jocelyn had passed training and become certified to be a mall cop. After hearing her back story, she was more or less convinced that Jocelyn had somehow been handed the position as a favor from a powerful benefactor. Then again, she supposed she couldn't count her as a reliable narrator of even her own circumstances.

Still frowning, she watched as Jocelyn boarded her means of transportation and started making for the other mall. "I'll... follow your lead," she sighed, walking at the leisurely pace that was afforded by following someone riding a segway outdoors. "Although I have to wonder if they're going to allow you in the mall riding on that..."

Jacky found herself considering the other mall. What if she had walked there instead of to Gloria Scott to begin her acclimation to Hyde? She might never have met Jocelyn, and might be in a completely different situation...

"I'm curious to see how these two malls compare," Hyde spoke up. "It's most interesting that they were constructed directly apart from each other. I wonder if they specialize in different commodities?"

"Yes and no," Jacky replied. "The two malls have nearly the same commodities, but offered by different brands. To be honest, I think some often mistakenly believe the two malls are related, and are two halves of one complex... In reality, I understand they are in fierce competition. Of course, that's based on my limited understanding. It's quite a peculiar situation, and worth studying if one has an interest in economics. Did you handle the mission request, by the way?"

"Oh yes, I issued a response. Nothing out of the ordinary," Hyde commented. As far as she knew, that was the truth.

"Mm... thanks, then." Curious to learn the circumstances of their mission, Jacky pressed onward.