Three's Company

At the stern lecture of Tsujsa, she just lowered her head slightly in response. Well, it wasn't like as if she had anything else to lose... I mean, it's not like it can get any worse than losing the ability to walk, right? she thought inwardly, before raising her head slightly to look at the conversation going on. They were mentioning something along the lines of exploration and support program...

Oh, yeah, wait, support program?

Turning her head towards Rhea, she briefly recalled allowing Rhea the freedom to meddle with it, considering how she knew nothing about customization of programs and such. If Rhea was so free, that meant that the SP was ready already... But it was nowhere in sight. Giving the purple Navi the liberty to do as she wishes, the redhead took out a bottle of water to soothe her drying throat. She lit up when various locations were mentioned in their Netxploration itinerary for the day, but then realized that it was nothing compared to real world exploration... Paying no attention to her inability to perform the latter now. Nevertheless, Camillia observed how Rhea lit up from the idea as well, eager to know the many places of the Internet.

"I think both Rhea and I like that idea, Harke. It's excellent."

Rhea nodded at Eternalis as the much taller Navi addressed her, inquiring her about the relationship between herself and her operator. "We are fine," Rhea said quickly, eyeing the table left and right. "... I do not see your new support program," Rhea noted the obvious. To any person who was paying attention to the purple Navi's movements, it was pretty glaring a fact that Rhea was anxious and nervous in meeting new companions (she was swaying her head like a child eager but patiently waiting for candy)... Or perhaps was she eager to reveal her own?

Validus turned to look at Aurora, and tried to suppress his amazement at how nimble the SP was. "Well, it's just a piece of coding Tsujsa modified into my weapon. It made it simpler to distinguish the type of chip inserted into my rifle." He said as he slung the rifle across his back. "The weapon just has a cosmetic change, really. Nothing more than that." He added.

"A world trip-tour in the net eh?" Tsujsa remarked. "I like that idea. Let's go for it." The idea itself seemed like a great way to train up Validus as well, maybe it would make him far stronger than currently. Then, something crossed his mind. "Oh, right, speaking of support programs..." Tsujsa pulled out a small disc and inserted it into the PET. The PET's screen beeped green and turned into a loading screen.

READING...
PROGRAM READ
.
.
.
ACTIVATING SUPPORT PROGRAM...
.
.
.
ACTIVATED.
MARKERLIGHT VERSION ALPHA 1.0
ENGAGING.
.
.
.
SUPPORT PROGRAM FULLY FUNCTIONAL.


Instantly, a small figure flashed out of the holograph projector and materialized into a human shape. The form then changed into the body of a female, and glowed brightly before materializing it's armor. As soon as the glow had finished emanating, a female navi, with the appearance of an 18-year old, appeared in front of the group of navis.

"Hi there!" the navi chirped as it saluted Validus.

"Validus, meet Markerlight. She'll be operating as your spotter to maximize your sniping capabilities." Tsujsa said. Validus only gave a weird look at the operator. "Wha? Do I really need an assistant for that...?"

"Hey! I'm not an assistant or anything like that! I'm supposed to act as your spotter!"

"That's right. She's going to pinpoint targets of importance for you. Since I'm in meatspace, I can't really see the whole combat from my area, except for a small screen. With Markerlight, she'll be able to determine targets that I designate, while you focus completely on shooting them."

"So, the group here is my team? Nice to meet you all!" The SP added with a smile as she gave a salute gesture to the rest of the team.

Watching Rhea's head bob and sway to the sides was somehow hypnotic to the water Navi standing at the table, and he was momentarily distracted from the actual person standing in front of him and started doing it himself unconsciously. "Huh, wha?" Eternalis said as he replied (sort of) to Rhea's question. Taking a while to process the question, he started, "O-Oh, Support Program...?" Then, taking another few seconds to process the answer to the question, he continued, "Ah, right. Harke didn't finish it completely yet, he said. He's driving me nuts with all his secrecy about the whole thing, I can hardly wait!" Unconsciously, he crossed his arms, and he began rocking himself with his boots, forward and backward.

Aurora let out an impressed "Ooooooh~" at Validus' gun, and stood back up. She crossed her arms, and tilted her head sideways as she appeared to examine Validus' rather imposingly crimson eyepiece and the blue helmet that came with it. Then, realizing it to be rather impolite of her, she ceased her examination with a start, just as Markerlight made her entrance. Her eyebrows raised and eyes widened as her visor immediately began to analyze everything she could about this newcomer. Of course, that included measurements, and upon glancing at the values projected on her visor, Aurora's face started to screw itself up tight for an instant before she suppressed the chuckle. S-Steady, Aurora... it wouldn't be nice to do that... she thought to herself.

She then lifted her hand in a small wave and mustered her best smile possible that didn't look like a grimace. "Hey, Marker! I'm Aurora. The blue guy over there's my Navi, Eternalis. Nice to meet you, too!"

"All right, glad to see that we're all in agreement," said Harke, grinning happily. He looked at his PET, and initiated the jack-in signal finder. He quickly found the nearest access point, and initiated wireless-access jack-in. "Well, no better time to start than the present. Et, Aurora, I'm jacking you guys in. Ready?" In response, the two programs raised their heads simultaneously, and gave the affirmative signal of a simple thumbs-up.

"Ready!" "OK!"

"All right, first stop, Yumland! Jack in, Eternalis.EXE, Transmission!" With that little announcement, Eternalis and Aurora turned to their respective conversation partners and gave them a two-finger salute before disappearing into beams of light.

[Destination: Yumland Net]

"Markerlight... It is good to meet you," Rhea said briefly, wondering the oddity of such a name. It did not seem logical to name a support program as such, though the Navi suspected that it might have something to do with Tsujsa's naming sense-- which meant that she shouldn't comment on the matter. "My designated name is Rhea.EXE." ... Her introductions were always so short.

"Oh, right, let's jack in, Rhea," Camillia noted as Harke seemed to be eager to start the netjourney, already throwing Eternalis and Aurora into the cyber world. Rhea turned to look at her operator in the eye, before nodding and disappearing in a flash (and a thunderclap). "... Maybe I shouldn't have picked a sound effect like that..." the redhead muttered, scratching her head.

[[Jack-in, Rhea.EXE]]

"Right then. Get ready for transmission, Validus. You too, Markerlight." Tsujsa said as he prepped the PET for network transmission. The navi gave an okay signal as he disappeared into the world network. Markerlight followed suit soon after. "I'm looking forward to working with you all!" she said before disappearing in a blue beam of light.

[Yumland NET: Jack-in]

"Well, that takes care of that," Harke said to himself, relaxing in the chair as he propped up the PET on the table. Looking at the table itself, Harke snatched up the menu of the cafe with one hand, operating the PET with the other. Flipping through the pages, he looked put on a disinterested face at the selection. His stomach betrayed the look on his face, however, as it made a low rumble, though it wasn't loud enough to be heard by anyone except himself.

"Tch, be quiet," he mumbled.

Still, nothing looked that great on the menu, until he came to the desserts section. A small grin appeared on his face as he contemplated the choices. After some time, he figured out which one he was after, and put the menu back on the table. Leaning back on his chair, he continued to operate for a bit as he thought of something.

"Hmm, I'm still a bit hungry... oh, hey, Cam, you want anything?" he said, pushing the menu on the table towards the wheelchair-bound girl.

"Eh?" Camillia said, her attention deviated when Harke addressed her. She placed her PET down and took the menu, burying her head behind it as she evaluated her choices. "Umm, I think a drink is nice. Let's see... um... orange juice?" she noted, pointing to at the menu while looking for permission of some sort from the other teen.

Packing up his stuff into his bag, Harke stood up, and threw it over his shoulder. "Well, later, guys. Again, sorry I couldn't stay. Hope we can meet up like this some other time, alright?" he said, waving as he turned to leave. Walking out of the shop, he headed for the Metroline across the street, and went down the stairs. Oh, wait, he could stop by Suitachi's on the way home. A fair amount of zenny had landed itself conveniently into his card, and he was anxious to get some new gear.

[To SciLab]

Camillia waved at the leaving Harke, she pocketed her PET and turned to her cousin.
"I'll see you around then, Tsujsa, Validus and Markerlight-- I'll try to be home soon," Camillia told them, bowing as she could from her wheelchair before carting herself towards the metroline.

[[To Scilabs]]

Noticing the other two had already left the scene, and replying to each with a simple goodbye gesture, Tsujsa decided to pay for whatever Camillia and he had ordered during the course of their stay.

With nothing else left to do, Tsujsa opted to leave to purchase upgrades for Validus with the (mysteriously obtained) funds from virusbusting.

[[to Scilabs]