King, Queen, and Jack Law Firm

"Ugh...slow..." A young woman in a beige suit sat, reclining in an office chair. She used her feet to slide back and forth, as she mindlessly looked at the ceiling. "Slow, slow, slow...and worst of all, I'm stuck here minding the office!"

"Oh, relax already!" A hologram popped up on her shoulder; a rather slender Navi dressed as a ninja...though her mask was down, revealing her face. "All that complaining me is driving me crazy!" She looked around, frowning from the lack of other people in her view. "...It is kinda weird, though. Usually you can't buy this kind of peace and quiet in this office."

"I know, it's boring! I know I'm just a paralegal right now, and someone needs to look after the office, but geez! You'd think at least one person could've postponed a meeting until tomorrow...ah well. At least you're here to keep me company, Shuri!"

"Oh, I'm just thrilled to be here..." The ninja Navi looked around, almost as though she thought someone else was there for whatever reason. "Say, I just got a great idea. Since no one is here, and there's been no walk-ins today, what do you say I do a little busting and make a quick buck?"

"Well...I guess there's no reason why not. But, what if someone comes in?"

"Don't be such a worrywart! You see, there's this incredibly advanced PET function. It's called 'jacking out'. Dunno if you've heard of it, but-"

"You can cut the snide talk. I'll do it, but if someone comes in, you're out, okay?"

"Yeah, sure. As for where...make it somewhere foreign. Like, I dunno...Netopia."

"Sure, but...why?"

"Well, Netopia's all the way across the ocean. The way I figure it, that means I'm an ocean away from all your complaining!"

"Ugh! I am NOT complaining!...Well, not much, anyway." A phone ringing interrupted the delightful conversation. The young woman picked it up. "King, Queen, and Jack Law Firm, we shuffle the deck of the law in your favor! How can I help you?...Oh, hi boss. Uh-huh...uh-huh...all right, will do! Take care!" She hung up, and immediately let out an aggrivated sigh. "...That was Mr. King. He said everyone was going to be out the rest of the day, so I'll need to lock up at closing time. Just perfect."

"Sounds good to me. At least this way we can probably bust in peace!"

"Oh, just go already!" The woman pointed her PET at a nearby computer, and pressed a button. "Jack in! Shuri, Execute!"

(TO THE NET)

A light went off on Naomi's PET, as her Navi reemerged from the Net, and immediately took the opportunity to sit back and relax. "I'm back. How long until closing time?"

"Perfect timing, I've done everything but lock up. Filing's done...real exciting stuff. But you don't want to hear about that, so, what'd you do on your mission?"

Fortunately for Shuri, she'd spent a fair amount of time thinking up a way to explain her mission in a way that wouldn't freak her operator out, but without really lying. "Oh, nothing too amazing. I had to help someone throw a surprise party. Cake, entertainment, the works. And they wanted a bit of a ninja feel, so they wanted to hire an actual ninja to help with it."

"Oh, neat. Did they like it?"

"Not overly, but I'm pretty sure they just weren't into surprise parties."

"Well, that's too bad."

"Well, I got paid well, so I can't complain." With that, the ninja Navi summoned the SP core she had obtained from Dee...as well as a blue, translucent sphere. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have scientific research of potentially questionable ethics to conduct."

"What?"

"Oh, don't worry, it's nothing TOO far over the line. I'll tell you all about it when you get home."

"......" As much as she really, really wanted to question her Navi, home did sound really good after such a long, boring day. So instead, she locked up all the doors, and went on her merry way.

PING!

"...Done."

"Kinda a weird place to put that slot, but whatever, I guess the PET people know better about it than me." And thus did Naomi snap shut the back of her PET, installation of the upgrades complete. "So, to review, your basic shuriken attacks can actually cut things now, and you've got extra space for your sig system. Any idea what you'll do with them?"

"Yeah, I've got it figured out."

"Great! What is it?"

"I am going to...save it until later."

"...You say that with such a totally serious face. Not that anyone else could tell, since you always have that face mask on."

"...What? This is always how I look. And I'm not about to change it."

"Well, I don't mean it's a terrible look, just...that extremely fancy way you basically said you had no idea, with your usual serious yet detached expression. It sounded like you were trying to make a joke, but it fell flat or something."

"...What? You asked a question, and I answered it. Since when did you grade my responses?"

"I didn't mean anything by it, I just thought-"

"What DID you think? I realize it'll soon be your job to poke holes in what others say, but that does NOT give you permission to do it to me!"

"...Ha! Finally!"

"Now what?!"

"You're always trying to fluster me and whatnot, so I thought I'd see if I could give you a taste of your medicine!"

In a rare moment, the ninja Navi had a surprised looked in her eyes, clearly taken aback a bit at the admission. "W-Well, it's just, you're always so uptight, I thought it'd loosen you up..." Ugh, that came across a lot lamer than it sounded in her head.

[color=blue]"Hee hee! Now there's a side of you that doesn't get out much!"/color]

"...This conversation is officially over. And tell anyone about this, and I'll shut off the hot water in the middle of your next shower!"

It took the paralegal a good minute or two to quit laughing enough to respond. "Sorry, it's just, the way you looked when you said that...hahaha!"

"...Moving right along...can you just jack me in somewhere already? The installation's done, so there's no reason to not get started."

"Hoo boy...ah, my sides hurt a little from that...what? Jack in? Sure, but, I've got a question."

"As long as it doesn't involve something from the last several minutes, shoot."

"Why were you so bent on going to to Beach Area? Not that I'm complaining, this coffee shop's delightful and I'm glad I remembered it, especially since it's so close to the firm, but it doesn't seem like your type of locale..."

"...And what WOULD be my type of locale?"

"I'd say...a more traditional Electopian area, like Yoka...or maybe a place like Yumland, with tons of places for you to hide and strike from the shadows!"

"...Well, I can't argue with either of those. But Beach Area has two very important traits."

"And those are?"

"First, it's in Electopia, so you can jack into it directly, without having to go through any links or such. It's not much difference to you, but you'd be surprised how much of a pain it is on the Navi sometimes when you're not jacked in from the same location."

"Makes sense. And second?"

"And second, to the best of my knowledge, there are hardly any Elec viruses there, which means Shurimpy'll have an easier time surviving...I saw that cringe when I said his name."

"Sorry, reflex. And I see, you want...Shurimpy...to tag along, since...er...why do you want that again?"

"Oh, for the love of...to put it simply, Support Programs are capable of absorbing what would otherwise be junk data to make themselves stronger. So, just by accompanying me, he'll be able to bulk up into a true threat."

"Oh, that makes sense. Is he ready to go?"

The Navi looked over to her side...her SP looked like it'd just woken up, but otherwise seemed ready for entering a potential line of fire. "More or less."

"Well, are YOU ready to go?"

"I've been ready for a while. Once you're all set, jack me in."

Well, she was ready, so...hmm. She knew this shop had free jack-ins, but she couldn't find the spot she was supposed to. Where could it be?

"...This shop has wireless internet. You can jack in from any direction."

"...I knew that!" She totally did NOT know that. "Okay, let's go! Jack in! Shuri, Execute!"

(TO BEACH AREA)

The first thing Shuri noticed upon reentering her PET was her SP, comically covered in bandages. "I'm sorry...I shouldn't have even tried to fight that battle. There were too many different ways they could do something like this..." She reached over to try and pat her seafood-based partner, but stopped when she noticed the part she was going to touch was bandaged up. She didn't want to risk hurting him.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's your fault. You did everything you could, and if I'm not mistaken, those viruses could've easily hit the both of you if you were near each other. Plus, running away in that situation wouldn't have been all that easy..."

"I...suppose, but I still think I could've pulled it off." A screen popped up in front of the Navi, causing her to type some numbers in. "Anyway, go ahead and jack me back in. I'm all healed up, and I might as well kill some time while you kick back."

Naomi took another sip of coffee, then nodded. "Sounds like a plan." Point the PET at the communal jack in point, and..."Jack in! Shuri, Execute!" Pew! Red light shot.

(TO ACDC AREA)

With her latest spoilers, Shuri arrived in her PET of choice. She didn't seem particularly eager to relax, however. "All right, now send me back in."

"Um, why are you doing this?"

"Simple. As you may have noticed, the farther into an area a Navi goes, the larger the virus groups tend to become. By doing this, the numbers are kept small, and I can quickly remove a group."

"And that's important because...?"

"Shurimpy's almost done recovering. I want to be ready as soon as he is, but there's still enough time to kill for one quick bust, I think. So, chop chop. Time is money."

"I...well, whatever." If she said so...dramatic PET pointing, here she came. "Jack in! Shuri, Execute!"