Making Hades

After disembarking from the ferry, Sabrina looked up at the mountainous island before her, hands placed squarely on her hips. "Hey, SplashMan?"

"Yeah?"

"Question."

"Yeah?"

"WHY AM I HERE OF ALL PLACES?!" The Netopian girl panicked, and began to run in circles. "I could be anywhere, and I end up here? Hades Freaking Island?!"

"Actually, it's Hades Isle, not Island..."

"I don't care!"

"As for why you're here...you ended up in Beach Street, but while you were looking for a nice place to jack in outside, you accidentally fell into a boat that was about to set sail, and that boat was the local ferry to Hades Isle! And now you're here!"

"I know that! Ugh, I feel like a total idiot for doing that...these boots don't even have shoelaces to trip over!"

"Well, at any rate, we're here, and Hades still has its own part of the Net. So why don't we just jack in and do some busting?"

"Nope. Nuh-uh. Not a chance!"

"...Okay, I guess I can put it another way. The ferry doesn't head back for a couple of hours, so we're stuck here, and if you stick around here, you'll probably catch something."

"Nope, I just have to stand here and pretend the sea breeze isn't really cold, but something nice and balmy!"

"Or you can go inside the cave, where it'll actually be warm!"

Though Sabrina clearly had no desire to listen to her Navi, the shivering and goosebumps gave her little chance of successfully doing so. "...F-Fine...but I'm doing this under protest!"

"Noted!"

With that, the operator slowly walked inside, constantly looking from side to side, like someone was out to get her. She crossed the wooden bridge, which led to a NetBattling console on the other side. "Um, what's this doing here? It looks really old, but I think it's still in working order."

"Well, way back when, DNN sometimes sponsored NetBattle tournaments that took place here! They haven't in years, but they still maintain the area's network, in a throwback to the old days!"

"...Wait, you mean the creepy atmosphere-"

"Yep, they basically took the island's natural cave system and made it into a set!"

"...Well, they did a really good job, because it looks natural!"

"Well, it's not like they didn't pick this specific island for a reason...huh?"

"I guess...SplashMan? What's up?" No answer. A check of her PET revealed that he wasn't inside it, either. "SplashMan...?"

A translucent hand appeared on her shoulder. "Begone, intruder..."

The resulting scream that came out of Sabrina's mouth could most likely be heard all the way back at the DNN station. With incredible speed, she raced out of the cavern, eventually stopping just short of the ocean itself. Between the fleeing and the shrieking, she leaned over, breathing extremely heavily. If one looked closely, they could probably make out tears forming in her eyes from terror. "Never...going...there...again..."

"Hahaha!" Her Navi popped up as a hologram on her shoulder, clearly amused about the whole thing. "I knew you were afraid of ghosts, but I didn't think you'd fall for that hologram trick so easily..."

Unable to find enough air to speak, the Netopian girl instead had to make do with flipping off her Navi, as she gave him a glare that could probably put ice in the veins of something that actually had veins.

"Aww, come on! I was just kidding!...Wait, are you crying...?" The continuation of the leer wordlessly answered him. "...Wow...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you THAT bad..."

"...Well, you did!"

"I'm sorry, I really am...I won't do it again, I promise!"

"Do it again and I'll jack you into the Undernet and throw away my PET!" The scary part was, it wasn't entirely clear if she was exaggerating or not...

"...Ulp! I really won't!"

"Okay, now that we've got that settled, I guess I'll head back in!" And after wiping her eyes, she did just that. "At least it's warmer in here...and if it's just creepy because it's part of a set, I guess that's not so bad..."

"Well, there actually ARE some legends out there...but other than that, I'm keeping quiet!"

"That's because you're a smart Navi! So, are you ready to do...uh, whatever it is you're going to do?"

"Yep!"

"All right, anything to get my mind off of this!" Let the sequence begin! "Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!" Beam of light into the port! Transition!

(to the Net!)

Having left her Navi to his own devices in what was widely considered one of the most difficult parts of the Net to navigate, Sabrina raced onto the boat, and left for less terrifying locales...temporarily. She didn't WANT to ever go back, but, well, she didn't have a choice now.

(TO ACDC)

Once Navi and SP were back with her, Sabrina got up, and took a look around. Huh, she'd almost forgotten that she was in a super creepy cave. But she didn't have time to be freaked out about that, since she had a boat to catch. Putting away her PET, she made a race for the ferry, not wanting to have to spend the night in a place like this.

(TO YOKA)