Just a few miles inland of a busy fishing harbor is an area of suburbs, where the Cantons call home. One of the Canton boys, Mark, lives in a nice single family home with his wife Christine, and their 9 year old son, Danny. Though Jack lives in an apartment complex closer to the harbor, he's a regular guest, and this time he's been invited over for dinner. After a good home-cooked meal, Jack, Mark, and Christine retire to their back porch to relax with a drink and a surprisingly good view of the bay.
"Thanks again for the meal, Chrissy, delicious as always," Jack said, holding his glass of rum and ice in his hand as he sat on one of the wicker chairs. Christine gave a genuine smile, "You're quite welcome, Jack. Can't have frozen food every night, you know," she joked before she sat down next to Mark. Her husband raised his glass, clinking it gently against hers with a smile before he looked over to Jack. "How's the old rust bucket doing?" Jack responded with a grimace and swirled the rum in his glass before taking a sip. "They're at a standstill again, can't find a godda-" he paused, sensing Christine's piercing look from across the porch. She'd done her best to not teach Danny any bad habits, and no foul-mouthed brother in law was going to spoil that. "Sorry... can't find a bracket for one of the fuel lines. They say they don't make 'em anymore." Mark furrowed his brow, and took a swig of his drink as well. "Man, that stinks. Well, the Widget is pretty old... but they aren't going to charge you extra for it right?" Jack nearly downed half of his drink, bringing the glass down with an audible thud on the chair arm. "Not if they want a fight on their hands, they won't!" "Let me know, I'll hold em down for ya!" Mark boasted before both men started to laugh. "Don't encourage him, honey," Christine protested as she playfully swatted at Mark's shoulder.
Apparently the commotion drew Danny's attention, the three turned back as they heard the sliding door open behind him. "Hey kiddo, what's up?" Jack asked with an eyebrow raised. Danny seemed excited, as if he just remembered something important. "Uncle Jack, how's ClampMan? Did you take him out busting yet?" About a week before, Danny convinced Jack to install a virus busting patch to ClampMan's programming, to give them both something to do while their boat was still in dry dock. However, after going several pages into the instruction manual, Jack felt like he was trying to learn another language, got discouraged, and just put it off. Leave it to a kid to call him out. Jack shifted in his seat slightly as he took another swig. "Uh, I hadn't really gotten to it..." "Aw c'mon, it's easy!" Danny cried out with a frown. "I can show you how, it'll only take a second! Dad, can I show Uncle Jack?" Mark looked at Danny, then to Jack, who was looking back at him with a 'don't you do this to me' look. He flashed a mischievous grin before he turned back to his son. "Sure, you can teach Uncle Jack, just don't take too long, got it?" Danny beamed and grabbed Jack's arm, tugging him out of his chair. "Alright! C'mon, there's a port to the TV!" With a displeased grunt and a minor struggle to swipe the drink off the chair, they both went inside.
The living room had a nice, big TV and a sectional couch, quite pricy but not surprising considering Mark's lucrative job as a financial advisor for one of the major fisheries in the area. Danny sat down on the carpet next to the short table at the foot of the couch, and slid a small sea shell centerpiece out of the way to clear space on the table. "Go ahead and put your PET here, there's a port on the table that goes to the TV." Jack recognized the word 'port,' but unless the table was capable of docking/housing ships, the kid was likely referencing a different definition. Jack pulled the faded blue and greenish-brown PET from his pocket and placed it down on the table before Danny quickly snatched it up, and popped the jack in cable from its casing. He craned his neck as Danny put the cable in a small rectangular port in the side of the table, when connected the PET's screen turned on automatically. "Oh... so that's what they're called..." Jack thought to himself. "Okay," Danny started as he put the PET back on the table. "Now we just need to log ClampMan in." He looked at the screen, but didn't see the Navi... He looked up at Jack, "... where is he?" Jack shook his head and smiled as he leaned forward to get closer to the PET. "Ah, he's just hidin'. See those two periscopes coming up outta that pool? That's him." He pointed at the screen, referring to two gray stalks sticking out of the blue waters of the small lagoon-like area near the center of the PET's netspace. "ClampMan." .... "ClampMan!" .... "WAKE UP YE LAZY SEA BUG!" The periscopes shot bolt upright, then cut laterally in the water as ClampMan scuttled sideways up and out of the lagoon with his eight armored legs. Bubbles started to spill out of his slat-shaped mouth, and his claws clicked angrily. "What's the big idea, Cap'n?!? I was on break, and I AIN'T A BUG!!" Danny couldn't help but smile and giggle, though he didn't mean the Navi any harm, his hot-headed reactions were still very entertaining. Jack grinned, and further spun up his Navi. "Alright, maybe not a bug, but ye still lazy. Look lively, we're goin' out to the net."
ClampMan grumbled, causing more bubbles to slowly float from his mouth, then he flinched in realization. "Wait, the Net? We're shipping out, Skipper?" "Aye, and Danny boy is gonna be our guide," Jack replied as he tilted his head to his nephew, who was smiling from ear to ear. ClampMan had canted his entire body slightly to the side, his massive right claw slowly opened and shut apprehensively. "Well, alright then. If Danny's at the helm. You couldn't even make it through 3 pages of the handbook," ClampMan responded, adding a quick jab at his NetOp. Danny looked up at him, suddenly inquisitive from ClampMan's remark. "Ah yeah, Mr. Bubbles is quite the joker... So, how do we shove off?" Danny pointed at a flashing green button on the PET's screen, then pushed it. ClampMan was in the middle of fuming again at Jack's unflattering nickname for him, but his retort was cut short as the Navi disappeared in a flash of light, which beamed up and out of the PET and logged him in to the network.
((TO THE NET, not a literal one, you know what I mean, jeez.))