To The WhazzapCave!

Once the boat had reached the surface of Hades Isle, Na'im took a leap towards the ground and immediately started to run into the direction of the volcano. Shortly after he had started running, the road that led around Hades Isle and its facilities was left behind him and only pieces of scorched vegetation surrounded him. Still carrying the guitar around from the Yoka inn and the PET on his back he started to feel himself getting more and more out of air as he kept running. Eventually he stopped at a giant rock nearby the volcano and rested against it with one hand while keeping his other on his knee. "Finally made it..." he muttered and raised his other hand to place it against the rock too. Gently he kicked a part of the rock and a rotating slab of rock revealed itself in front of Na'im, which he pushed aside until he was inside a cave-like entrance with electronic lights hanging around its hallway. Holding one hand against the right side, he slowly continued to walk until he reached a staircase which he followed without questioning his current position. "Joseph!" he exclaimed once he reached the bottom of the staircase and came across a wooden door, "I know you're there!"

A moment later sounds of things falling over or being bumped against were heard until the door opened and a pale man with black hair that hung over his face, a white shirt and black overalls on his body. "Man, I need to see a barber..." the man said absentmindedly until he took a better look of Na'im, "Ah."

"Got a bed for a weary traveller, Joseph?" Na'im said while he took off his sunglasses, pocketing them in his jacket.

Joseph just continued to stare at Na'im's face until suddenly a grin appeared which stretched from ear to ear. "The lion returns to his cave," Joseph said and stepped out of the way so Na'im could enter.

The inside of the cave was very technologic with a large amount of monitors on, each showing different things, with a rotating chair in the center. At the sides were various databanks and it felt like everything made sounds. "Didn't change a thing. The computers still sing," Na'im said with an amused tone in his voice and walked around.

"Only the hardware has been changed, of course," Joseph commented and followed Na'im while he picked up some various things that had fallen down in his stumbling motions to get to the door. "But let's not dawdle here," he continued and held his hand out to a door on the right hand side of the room. They both walked through it, ending up in a lounge which also functioned as bedroom and kitchen.

"Looks like new," Na'im said and looked around the room. The interior was rather luxurious for a house under the ground. "Customers only a few?"

Joseph cackled with an unpleasant sound and pointed at the door they came from with his thumb over his shoulder. "I tend to sleep there and I never bring my clients to my house," he said, a grin still on his face, "I'm sure you have your reasons to come visit this old dog but I ain't going to ask about it. Besides..." He turned his head to look at a clock on the wall. "I got an appointment," he continued and extended his hand towards Na'im. "Stay as long as you like. Y'know the rule. No outsiders."

Na'im shook Joseph's hand with a smile, then looked over his friend's shoulder and noticed a closet. "You mind if I pick something new for myself?" Na'im asked as his gaze returned to the face of his friend who simply shrugged.

"This is all I wear!" he exclaimed happily as he prodded his thumb against his chest. He then put a hand on Na'im's shoulder before turning away and leaving through the door that led to the computer room. But before he had passed though it, the sound of an Operating System booting came from Na'im's PET. "Feel free to use my computer or connection," Joseph said with a sly grin and then left from Na'im's view.

"Don't mind if I do... Djinni will need practice too," he said and finally put the guitar down against one of the couches in the room. He then took his PET from his back and sat down on the couch. Using the program he had gotten from Harke he connected to Joseph's connection and Djinni's image appeared as she was sleeping soundly in a pose that left little to the imagination about Djinni's body. Not wanting to wake her up himself, he simply sent her into the Internet with a blank look on his face.

"Time to jet," Na'im said, checking his new clothes out in a mirror before leaving for the door and stairway to the surface. "We should like..." Na'im started as he walked along the stairway, one hand against the wall, "Install tubes to get to places faster." Eventually he reached the surface and held a hand above his eyes to block the sunlight until he got used to it again. "OK, Suitachi. Ready or not, here I come," and with these words Na'im started to run as he whistled out loud. A large bird came floating towards Na'im while he raised a hand to take hold of its legs and fly away. The bird snapped at Na'im's hand, took a turn and flew away again. "Ingrateful bird... How does Joseph do it anyway," Na'im asked himself while scratching the back of his head, "Ah well." He then continued his march towards the seaport, whistling playfully to himself.

"Honey, I'm home!" chimed Na'im's voice as he entered the secret living area under the ground with arms spread wide. Once he lowered his hands while walking towards the table he had left his PET on, he took the upgrade for Djinni out of his pocket and put it down next to the PET. With a great fall he landed on top of the couch by the table and took the PET onto his lap. "Had a fun time without me, Djinni?" he asked while setting the system up for the installation of the buster upgrade he had bought, "I see you managed to finish them off. That's good."

It had become midnight and Na'im was asleep in a comfortable bed, dressed in a light red, almost pink, pajama. His sunglasses were off and on top of his head was a long sleeping cap in the same color of his pajama and a large ball of fluff at the end. On the table in the same room there was the PET with a dimly lit screen.

Inside of the PET, Djinni was ordering files which she hadn't been capable of doing due to the busy schedule with fighting viruses and others. Her weapons were on the floor and she had unwrapped her turban, letting her hair hand loosely over her shoulders and back, just for comfort. Along the surface of the PET's netscape were several programs running about while assisting Djinni with ordering the stuff properly. The netscape within the PET was shaped like a desert with an oasis in the center which was the control point of everything. Each palm tree represented a folder, the flowers were the individual files, the water within the oasis was the remaining battery life of the PET and the sand was the empty space of the PET's hard disk. Eventually the ordering process was finished and Djinni put her hands in her sides with a content smile on her face.

"So these are your weapons, huh?" said a male voice from behind Djinni. At first she checked the floor, noticing her guns had been taken away, and then looked at the direction of the voice. A male figure sat on a digital rock within the oasis and smiled unpleasantly at Djinni. He was a thin person with a dark skin color. His head was wrapped entirely in bandages, only his mouth visible and seemingly missing a nose, while the rest of his body was also covered in sloppily done bandaging work. A lot of traces of sand were visible around his hands and feet, no visible skin in those areas, and had several golden ornaments on his outfit. He held Djinni's handguns in his hands while checking them out curiously.

"Who are you?" Djinni asked calmly while she walked over to the unwrapped turban and picked it up, wrapping it around her head again and putting her hair up in a ponytail.

The person tilted his head, wondering why Djinni took this so nonchalantly, and replied to her. "Efreet," he said, "Is what they called me."

"So you're the person I was based on," Djinni said as she stood in front of Efreet, face to face, "And the one who kept whispering annoying things into my ears." Djinni frowned and crossed her arms beneath her ample chest. "Why is it you are here? And with a body," she asked while doing her best to keep her calm.

"Whoa whoa whoa," Efreet said while raising his hands and hopefully conveying the message he was harmless in this state, "Person? I was a mere program." He then threw the guns to Djinni's feet and grinned, showing a large row of fangs, and continued to talk, "I only became a 'person' because of you and you are the reason why I am here. This is only an image file with a voice file." He stood up on the stone and jumped off of it with a simple movement, then started to walk curiously around the oasis.

"But why are you here? What is there for you to gain?" Djinni asked, keeping her eyes on Efreet intently.

With those questions asked, Efreet came to a halt and turned his head towards Djinni. "To help you out," he said and then pointed at her accusingly, "But don't get me wrong! I'm only helping so you can hurry up with getting me an SP program in order to give me a proper body!"

Djinni raised an eyebrow curiously at the statement Efreet had given, then walked over to one of the palm trees and accessed some files. The rock Efreet had been sitting on changed form to that of a table and two chairs were created at opposite sides. "Then feel free to talk," Djinni said, a smile on her face, and sat down on one of the chairs.

Efreet remained quiet as he stared at this peculiar action Djinni had taken. "What are you doing?" he asked bluntly and pointed at the chairs and table, "Shouldn't you be screaming at me and trying to get me away?"

"You'd rather have me do that?" Djinni asked with a playful tone in her voice.

Crossing his arms, Efreet decided to sit down on the other chair but kept his sight away from Djinni. "What do you know of the Efreet program?"

"Na'im was undercover while working on the project. Eventually he stole it and built me as a shell around it..." Djinni said, feeling a bit of pain at verifying she was merely a shell.

Efreet, however, merely whistled in awe at this and began to laugh. After a moment of laughter and Djinni pouting, Efreet began to talk. "Your current design is based on the previous states of my creation," Efreet said and crossed his legs while putting his feet on the table, "Na'im made large parts of me, but there was a time when he vanished for an extended period of time. After that period, he returned and stole me." He then pointed at Djinni and exclaimed, "In that moment, my program was changed!"

With a frown on her face, Djinni just stared at Efreet and eventually shook her head. "You have to learn on your dramatic endings. Programs are changed all the time," she explained, "You totally ruined a dramatic shot at this explanation!"

Efreet, silent at this being the thing annoying Djinni, sighed and just continued his tale. "What I'm trying to say here... This is kind of like giving a dog the brains of a monkey. Your programming is not synchronized with the base program, therefore creating abnormalities."

"Abnormalities?" Djinni asked.

"Abnormalities," Efreet verified and stood up, then walked over to Djinni's side of the table. He then raised a finger and poked Djinni's chest. "I mean, what's up with these? Even for digital creations there are limits."

Instantly after Efreet had stopped talking, Djinni arched backwards and slammed a foot into Efreet's chest. As Efreet was forced back, Djinni decided to stand up and suddenly realized he had the size of a small child. "These are just the way Na'im likes them!" she explained as blunt as possible, "There is no abnormality with them!" She then aimed her gun at Efreet with an angry look on her face.

Efreet chuckled after he got his balance back and stood up. "What are you going to do with those?" he asked playfully, "I just told you, didn't I? If you wish to utilize our strengths, you should get rid of those."

Efreet's words were slowly sinking into Djinni's thoughts and lowered her gun. "What is your plan?" she asked cautiously.

As a response, Efreet brought sand from the surroundings into his hands and formed two wrenches. "Just some tweaks..." He then pointed at the guns she was holding, "And those! Get them away. We're giving you a make-over."

Efreet walked over to one of the palm trees and started accessing files while Djinni sat close to him. Curiously she began to speak to him, "I... I still don't understand much of what is going on. What was changed about your program? What abnormalities?"

"The voice," Efreet responsed as he continued to work on Djinni's programming, causing Djinni's facial expression to sometimes shift to that of pain, "It was part of a darker part of my program. Because of the fusion with a Navi, I was given a personality and a voice. The measurements Na'im took to seal the Efreet program deeper also gave me the chance to take control over myself. You could say I adjusted my voice."

"And the changes made on you? Those that Na'im doesn't even know about..." she asked while arching her back in an attempt to block away the minor amounts of pain she was going through due to Efreet's reprogramming, "And how come you can program me?"

"Didn't Na'im tell you that the plans to create me were within you?" Efreet replied with a smug smile on his face, "They were brought in with my program, so I know what is needed to alter you to the best specs. He took the 'new' design though, not the one he last saw." Efreet chuckled faintly at the thought of Na'im not even checking the plans before working on Djinni, then glanced at the buxom Navi to check if she was in pain or not. "The original program would go to a network and detonate itself. Its recovery would restore its form swiftly, its transportation would get it to another place, its defense would prevent others from attacking and the strength would eradicate everything. But they figured this was... Ehm..." Thinking of the proper word, he just shrugged and continued working while talking. "Stupid. So they made up a way for the program to summon objects that in turn would explode. The mother program would keep itself safe and networks would be destroyed."

"Mother program..." Djinni whispered to herself and then began to talk to Efreet in her usual tone, "So I will gain the same abilities? This summoning thing?"

"Correct!" Efreet exclaimed and glanced at the scorching sun that was in the sky of the digital oasis, "I will work on this for some time longer... Plenty of work needs to be done." He then looked at Djinni with a serious look, "Close your eyes and rest. You will see the result when you wake up."

Still a bit uneasy with the idea, Djinni slowly nodded at Efreet and let herself fall onto her side. Before deactivating her senses, she glanced at Efreet and smiled a bit. "For a program of death and destruction, you're not that bad... I hope we'll get that SP program soon." With those last words, causing a small spark in Efreet's behavior and personality, Djinni fell asleep. The PET's screen that was once dimly lit, now entirely extinguished itself.

Going through the procedure of entering the homely cave, Na'im swung the PET from his back into his arms and started to talk to the inhabitants. "I'm going to assume we already know what's going on," he said as he glanced downwards, "It can't be anything else than Efreet at this point. There was no outside interference."

"Correct," Szand replied and turned to see where Na'im was heading towards.

A large terminal of computer screens was in one of the rooms which in turn were connected to many computers and a large server. "The way I see it now," Na'im commented, "Is that Fhyre is relatively safe. While she remains in the PET." He sat down by the terminal and shoved away its main keyboard to make place for his PET. Bending over the PET slightly, he pulled along a couple of cords and connected them to his PET. "But she can't stay there forever," he commented when he returned back to his seat properly, "So we are going to throw her into a secluded space." With a few taps onto his PET, a location was opened up to Djinni and the others.

"This is... My website?" Djinni commented, "It's true that nobody knows of it. Although that saddens me a bit." Popularity was always something Djinni had desired, but now was not the time for such an urge to surface. "So what will be doing?" Djinni asked. She was still caressing Fhyre's core carefully, sitting on her lower legs with Fhyre on her lap.

Na'im adjusted his sunglasses and sighed, "You'll be fighting her. Or rather... You'll fight Efreet."

Djinni had a shocked expression in her eyes and swept her head up to look at Na'im, but before any word came from her mouth she simply knew that there was no other way.

"You do know what you're up against, right?" Szand asked as he glared at Djinni, "I was the program that came into existence after Fhyre. I still hold memories of when I was part of Efreet."

"This is first I hear of this," Na'im commented, his expression becoming a tad more grave.

"It's not something I'm proud of," Szand continued and walked over to Djinni while looking down at Fhyre, "All he wants is to destroy. You'll be having a tough fight." He then turned his core up to Na'im, "And for the sake of me not connecting with Efreet... It's better if I stay out of this fight."

Na'im simply nodded before replying, "I see your point. We'll have to talk about your 'memories' later. Djinni, we will only be looking but we'll be with you all the way."

After these words Djinni stood up, still holding Fhyre in her arms, and looked up at Na'im for a moment. She then switched her eyes to Szand and then back at Fhyre again. "I'm not afraid. In fact..." She let Fhyre drop out of her hands, "This is not Fhyre... I want Fhyre back." Her eyes turned to Na'im, "Can you promise me that Fhyre will return if I defeat Efreet?"

"Yes," Na'im replied, "Her memory is untouched by this. In fact, it may prove useful to us. She won't look the same, but she will still be Fhyre."

Djinni inhaled deeply, followed by a slow and long exhale, and turned towards the website gate. "OK. Send us," Djinni said. Na'im only took a short moment to initiate the process to upload Djinni and Fhyre's core to the website.

"OK, extraction successful," Na'im's voice sounded. Many of the monitors of the computer room were lit and each had different information displayed on them. On the center monitor and the one to its right were Szand's and Fhyre's core program. "Are you sure with this?" he asked, his eyes turned to the monitor of Szand.

"Y-e-s," Szand replied, his voice sounding broken due to the maintenance and adjustments being made, "F-o-r t-h-e b-e-s-t."

Na'im nodded and glanced downwards at his PET. Djinni was sound asleep and restoring her own body through a personal maintenance similar to meditating. "OK, you've all done your best," Na'im continued to speak as he looked up and slid his fingers over the keyboard, "Now it's my time to do this. We will see each other again at the other end, Szand."

"B-y-e," Szand replied before his core lost all functionality and had its individual data plucked off of him like a chicken's feathers. The same was done with Fhyre and each part was kept properly and backed up.

"Here it is..." Na'im whispered to himself as he continued to work on reforming and redesigning the Support Programs. He was now sure of the hooks Efreet had on them and how to prevent them, but since the damage had already been done to Fhyre there was no immediate way of removing the hook except for letting it get integrated as a positive part in the programming. "Szand, being the intelligent and wise one of the three, should be able to control this. It's what he told me..." Na'im thought as he transmitted the parts from Fhyre to Szand, "And we'll need to update Fhyre. The defense mechanisms aren't necessary anymore, so let's grant their wishes." Lights flickered on and off from the monitors as day turned to night and the night to day. Na'im's eyes were only focused on the work in front of him, neglecting his own body and the time completely.

--- That next day ---

"Na'im!" Djinni shouted from her PET. Within an instant her holographic image appeared to give her more sight and she looked around. "Na'im!?" she shouted again, "My maintenance's done!" Her PET had not moved one centimeter, still being in front of the large amount of monitors of the so-called super computer. Walking around over her PET, still looking around and glancing at the monitors, she eventually noticed the odd thing in this scenario. The desk chair had vanished. Running over to the edge of her PET she saw the chair lying on the ground with Na'im sleeping closely next to it. "Ehh... Na'im?"

"Let him," sounded a voice from behind Djinni, followed by footsteps, "He worked almost a full day. He deserves the rest."

Djinni quickly turned around to see a boy approaching her with a rather peculiar appearance. But while her intelligence wasn't the best, she had at least some common sense. "Szand?" Djinni asked as she walked over to him, "That's you, isn't it?"

Szand smirked, baring his sharp teeth. "Of course," he replied and lifted his right arm to look at it himself, "Na'im gave us an actual body and improved many things." But as Szand was admiring the work Na'im had done, Djinni was more focused on the blue ponytail that appeared from behind Szand while Szand's hair was very clearly not blue.

"You have two colors?" Djinni asked and pointed at the ponytail.

Szand turned his head to look behind him. "No..." he replied, "Well... You'll see." He then stepped to the left to reveal a girl, somewhat shorter than him, standing behind him. "Meet the new Fhyre." The girl quickly tried to hide behind Szand again but was being pushed away by him. "She doesn't seem to have a name yet. Na'im fell asleep closely after trying to think of a name."

Djinni placed her hands onto her knees and bent forwards to have a better look at the girl. "Fhyre..." Djinni whispered, fell onto her knees and embraced the girl tightly, "So everything is fine... I'm glad..."

The girl returned the embrace with a smile, but... "Who is fire, Djinni?" she asked, tilting her head to a side. Djinni quickly stopped the embrace then after staring at the girl, she turned her eyes to Szand.

"She remembers everything, but because Na'im didn't input a new name... She has no name. And any recollection of her old name is gone," Szand explained, "So I guess you get to name her."

"A name?" Djinni asked herself, trying to think of a good name, and stood back up. While Szand looked stubbornly in front of himself, the girl once known as Fhyre just looked around herself curiously. "I can't come up with anything..." Djinni eventually said and scratched the back of her head, underneath the flaps of her turban, "Maybe we'll have to wait for Na'im."

"I am Oasis," the girl eventually said.

"Oh, that's right," Djinni replied, turning away to look at where she had seen Na'im sleeping. But then Djinni turned to the girl again and put her hands onto her shoulders. "Oasis... Oasis is your name?" she asked curiously.

"Oasis is Oasis' name," the girl replied, her face beaming with happiness. Oasis took hold of Djinni's hand and scurried over to her side, leaning against Djinni's body. "Thank you for help," she said, smiling gently.

"Now that's solved," Szand said and pulled a digital window out of the PET's screen, "This arrived while we were fighting." Increasing the window's size, he revealed the e-mail they have received from Anyis' Operator Mill. "This should be a good opportunity to test our new bodies," he said as he walked over to Djinni, "While also helping her. It sounds urgent."

Djinni just stared at the screen for a moment, focused completely on the line 'Anyis's life is in danger'. "Then there's no time to rest," Djinni said as she looked over her shoulder to see if Na'im had stood up already. No luck there. With Oasis holding Djinni's hand and Djinni taking Szand's hand, she looked in front of herself as a window appeared. "We'll go in advance," she said as coordinates appeared on the screen, "Na'im will wake up shortly."

"He has been resting for quite a while now, yes," Szand commented and turned to look at the pile of chips that were still on the desk, "We'll have to do it on our own."

"We'll manage," Djinni said, "For now Anyis needs us." With the coordinates set, the holographic images of Djinni and company vanished and were transmitted towards the network.

"OK, so." Na'im said as he sat on the couch, his legs on the short table in front of him and a coffee in his right hand, "Any suggestions, ladies?" His PET was placed near his feet on the table from which the holographic images were shown of Djinni and her companions.

"Well, you got this," Djinni said as she pulled a window out of the PET's screen, "An e-mail arrived not too long ago." Before handing it over to Na'im, she, Oasis and Szand read it and were quickly taken aback by the message. "E-eh... It's your friend," Djinni stated, happy the mask hid most of her expression.

Szand had placed a hand onto his forehead and slowly shook his head. "This is not how you invite someone..." he complained, "But who knows what goes on in this person's mind..." Oasis, on the other hand, had fallen over a moment after reading and had brought her knees up to chest level while quietly whimpering.

"It can't be that bad, can it...?" Na'im asked and wondered what friend it could've been. In his mind, 'friend' had probably meant Rania, Mill, Jared, Camillia or even Harke. But the truth was bleak and filled with horrors. He adjusted his sitting pose to take a good look at the e-mail, reading it, and then disaster struck. "Ugh," Na'im winced and reached for his heart while his breathing became heavier.

"A-are you really that happy to hear of him again?" Djinni asked, thinking the emotional outburst was out of surprised joy.

"No," Na'im said, "I think reading this got me a fatal disease... But as sudden as this is... We have nothing else to do. Let's meet up with him."

Djinni looked around, especially her SPs, while hoping for a suggestion on anything else to do but nothing came. "Well..." she started, "At least we get to be with Exorcist, nothing bad can happen with that."

Szand looked up suddenly and walked over to Djinni. "She's the one who helped you getting the core for me, right? I owe her a thanks."

At the same time, Oasis also remembered Exorcist and the SP Bhikkhuni. "I like them!" Oasis cheered after standing up, "Let's meet."

Na'im, however, got a rather annoyed look on his face as he was the only one who'd have to spend time with Burt J. Blanchard. He sighed and stood up, taking the PET as he did so and swinging it onto his back. After making the required motions for security in the cave home, he eventually departed and beckoned Djinni's holographic image from the PET. "Let's send an e-mail back to him."