Halstead Dataworks: Electopian Branch

As Adrian continued to look around the room in jealousy of the fancy company and its spiffy rooms and nice equipment, a beeping emanating from the PET caught her attention causing her to put her daydream plans of the future aside. "Oh, they've finished. That was quicker than I was expecting, really." All the while Adrian was fumbling through her pocket to find a few blank chips for the new data being uploaded to the PET. Triumphantly pulling two out, Adrian stood as she copied the new merchandise to them.

As the PET began the process Adrian's attention turned to Jeff, and then to Lydia not sure who to speak to about the question on her mind. "Jeff, Lydia, Sorry if this has already been covered but... can either of you explain a bit more to me about this Cybeast? Any information would be appreciated, and I'm not really sure who I was supposed to ask..." As her words trailed off Adrian's gaze was shifting back and forth between the two waiting to see which one would respond first, a little embarrassed at her lack of knowledge on the situation.

Before she could get an answer however, A loud grumble broke any silence there may have been, coming from her mid section. Her face brightened to a nice shade of red as her stomach protested as if to say there was another question she needed to address first. Now panicked, Adrian pulled her hat down tightly letting out a bit of a squeek, her voice breaking into a more feminine tone once more. "S-sorry, I rushed over here as soon as I could. I didn't get a chance to eat..." She stammered trying to return her voice to its usual tone.

"I-I don't suppose there's anything to snack on?" Adrian sheepishly asked, feeling completely ashamed of herself at this point. She worried if this would completely ruin her first impression with everyone, and thus began to make her more nervous.
Embarrasedly Camillia nodded and shyly smiled at Lydia's comment, scratching her own cheek with a finger before turning her attention back to her PET-- to which she saw that the Navis in the network had already finished the job of clearing the enemies. ... And Rhea was no part of it. Smooth and surprising, considering how Rhea normally reacted to viruses.

To her surprise again, Rhea was still busy fidgeting with the buttons, oblivious that the battle had already ended."Um, Rhea? It's over, s-so perhaps you can join the others?" Camillia started, unsure if her Navigator was listening. The redhead was relieved, however, that the battle was over. Harley was a bit beaten up, but he seemed to be okay. Slotting in the Recov30 chip to Rhea's perusal, Camillia set the PET onto the top of the workstation before reversing out of her... parking lot.

"U-um, excuse me ma'am, sorry for bothering you but uh, where's the ladies' room?" ... Now that she was relieved that Rhea and co. seemed to escape from the fight relatively unharmed, she needed her own relief. How ridiculous.
Thomas' head lowered for a moment as he thought about the offer... and how ridiculously cheap it was. Finally he nodded. "That's a great price for it, Jeff." He said, smiling as he pocketed the chip. "I'll take it." Thomas set his PET down on the desk after that-- and then pulled up a holoscreen, tapping a few icons before physically plucking a Zenny icon from the page and flicking it at the PET.

A few moments later, in the net world, a small bag of Zenny appeared in Regalia's grip.

"Thomas?"[color=5A6351][/color] rang the knight's question, hanging and open-ended.

"We just got a new chip from Jeff. Hand that to Minah, please." Thomas responded, nodding towards Jeff. He tapped a button on the PET, stopping it from barking his casual conversation in Regalia's ears, and spoke again. "Thanks again, Jeff. I'll make sure to put this to some good use in the mines." The teen slotted the chip into his PET, which gave off a trio of happy little beeps before spitting it back out, the image displayed on the side blank. Thomas pocketed the now-empty chip.

"Gotta love digital storage..."
Vincent let out a soft breath as the battle and finally come to a close, it being surprisingly easier than he was expecting when he first saw the Cybeast fly by in the digital world. Still that fight was yet to come. And while it was entertaining to see Regalia frozen once more, why was more surprising as he looked on closer. "Untrap? So both were mimics, I saw Minah destroy the first, good to know the barriers weren't generated by the crystal beings.." Still he could only shake his head as the rewards were gathered.

It was then the small call from his navi brought Vincent's attention back to his own duo in the net. Looking on in honest surprise as before his very eyes, his wolf support program was forcibly transformed into that of a large feline instead. "Strange effect, a glitch from the enemy attack I wonder?.."

Though his thoughts were cut short as Lucia called out to him again, "Master! Master!! What's happening to me!?"

"Fascinating." Slipped through his lips despite himself as Vincent looked on at the odd changes to his navi, "Truly fascinating."

" No it's not! Change me back, I don't like this, I'm cold and clammy and my flames went out and I hate it! What's going on!?"

"Calm down, I'm working on it Lucia, do try and relax." Vincent responded simply as he pulled up his PET and flicked on the holo-screen, starting to read through her system's code.

"Calm down!? I'm blue! Blue damn it! I look like something from an old Saturday morning cartoon or a bad movie! What the hell is going on!?"

Shaking his head, Vincent glanced at the portion of the screen Lucia had forcibly opened to use as a video chat, "Mmm, it seems your core coding has been overwritten, not sure how yet, a glitch, but a truly astounding one. I haven't seen or heard of one like this. Quite amazing really, try to summon your bow."

"A glitch, you call this a gli-eep!" came Lucia's respond, which got him to glance her way again before smirking faintly and returning his gaze to her coding to watch it while she made the attempt with her reluctant, "Fine.."

Moments later her code blinked red while the navi let out a surprised scream. "What the hell was that! I couldn't do it!"

Vincent closed her coding as he shakes his head faintly and cups his chin in thought, "Interesting, it seems your base code was altered, to the point you can no longer interact with fire of any kind. I'm rather curious to see how it effects your other functions. I'll have to study this code in detail.."

"Oh well that's just great, but what about me!? I'm all blue, and cold, and my chest is all pokey and I can't do anything like this! Do something!"

Vincent chuckled and nodding softly as he taps a key to pull up a full holo-keyboard, starting to type away at it surprisingly quickly. It took but a moment for Lucia to get wrapped in a beam of light. "Hm.. well I suppose this will do for now, perhaps we'll make this an override later.." He'd finally tap the activation key to make the changes permanent, revealing the now, far more properly dressed navi standing on the net, shaking his head as he flips closed his PET and moves back towards Jeff and Thomas. "Nice to see this mission Is starting to grow interesting, don't you agree?"

Vincent eyed the chip Thomas was currently buying off Jeff, only to give a shrug, suddenly wishing he'd gotten that cup of coffee when he first thought of it.
Jeff nodded to Thomas as the Zenny transaction showed up on his PET. "Glad to hear it." The tired NOC Administrator looked over at Vincent with a wry smile for a moment. He turned his head away without saying a word while chuckling to himself quietly.

----

"Yes, I could use a visit as well." Lydia said more to herself than Camillia. She put her tablet computer away, and stood up. "Let's go," the business woman said to Camillia as she took hold of the wheel chair's handles, and began to push the younger lady to their destination. On the way out, she paused to reply to Adrian. "We'll talk when I return with this young lady here. In the meantime, there are refreshments in that room over there." Lydia pointed to the break room door. "Help yourself," she added before continuing her way towards the door.

Upon arrival, Lydia stopped, opened the heavy door, and motioned for Camillia to precede her through it. She called out to Jeff, who was seated at his nearby desk "I'll be back in a few minutes, Jeff. Listen for my return knock, and let me in would you?"

Jeff nodded. "Sure." His response sounded more alert than the man looked, to be sure.

Lydia followed Camillia out the door a moment later, and let it close behind her. "Shall we?" She began pushing the wheelchair back towards the entrance.

----

Once Lydia was out the door, Jeff noticed his mug was empty again, and sorta sulked at it for a moment. He then looked up. his expression clearing, and said to the two young operators: "I'm gonna go make more coffee." He grabbed his mug and wandered off to the break room.



Camillia was about to comment that she could move the chair on her own, but decided to not turn down the good lady's offer, considering she didn't know where to head to in the first place. The redhead nodded a small apology to Adrian as she indirectly caused delay to her questions, before placing her two hands on the wheel bars and ushered herself out of the room.

As the large, heavy door closed behind herself and Lydia, Camillia nodded as they moved down the corridors towards their destination. Camillia couldn't help but secretly gawk at her surroundings like some country bumpkin, apparently curious what could be hiding behind every door or corner passed.

As they arrived in front of the room, Camillia smiled and thanked Lydia, making her way into the ladies' room and wheeled her way straight into the nearest handicapped stall.

...
...


The redhead emerged from the stall later, wheeling to the basin as she stared at herself in the mirror. Not that she could see much aside from her head at her height; but there were no dressings to be fixed, nor was there any need to adjust her hair. It was more like a habitual thing to look at the mirror rather than the need arising from it, which essentially no longer existed for her unless it was for a very formal function (which in itself was a rarity in itself).

Camillia reached forwards with a small sigh, a hand opening the tap as she washed her hands, and splashed some cool water over her face. The redhead noted idly that the toilet was well maintained and clean, but felt more like it was more from disuse than being frequently cleaned. As soon as she was done refreshing herself (and possibly to keep herself awake without the help of caffeine), she wheeled herself to the two objects hanging next to the washbasin area.

The ultimate dilemma of using the tissue dispenser or the hand dryer was presented before her, and she just stared at the two of them, as if uncertain on which to use.

It was nice to know that they have provided both options, but on the other hand, having both meant that Camillia would be stuck with deciding for one. Perhaps the tissue for drying the hands, but that would be so environmentally unfriendly. But it wasn't as if the hand dryer was any better option; who knows what kind of air the ducts or wherever the air that came out of it came from. Her face wrinkled from the dilemma...


... and people wondered why ladies spend such a long time in the toilet.
Adrian was a tad disappointed upon hearing that the briefing would have to be postponed for a while, but it was an understandable delay and was comfortable with waiting. Especially after being directed towards the break room. Adrian's eyes almost lit up at the talk of refreshments, before she recomposed herself with a small cough.

"Right, well then I suppose I shall do just that then. Be back in a moment." She added with a decisive nod as she held herself back from making a dash for the snacks, and instead walked with a bit of speed in her step towards the break room.

Please have something sweet, please have something sweet

Adrian's mind had already forgotten the thought of her previous question as she began to delve into the wonderous ideas of what they might have to snack on as she entered the room. Adrian had a bit of an issue when she came to self control, a lover of food but a complex about gaining weight. She knew if she indulged she would be spending the better part of the week making up for it with an intense cardio work out or two every day, but it was always so worth it.

"So let's see what they got." Muttering to herself as she checked the place out. Suddenly her eyes locked onto the fridge, causing her to make a move on it with haste. The door swung open revealing what Adrian hoped to be a variety of choices for her snack making pleasure.