"In a flash of silver light!"

Pianissimo looked at the result of the battle, then walked over and picked up some of the remains, making sure he grabbed the fallen Heatshot. There, now I have a fire chip. he thought, recalling how he wished he had one earlier. Walking back toward the others, he glanced at Raiden as he remarked that the others "thought they were pretty strong."

Rather than take offense at what most others would see as a smartass comment, Pianissimo put in his own jab. "I'll tell you what I think. I think you talk too much. We may have finished these viruses easily, but that doesn't make anyone 'pretty strong.' There are stronger viruses, as well as navis, that could potentially make as short of work of us as we did of these guys. Especially of people like you who take so much time to make verbal jabs at their operator."

Pianissimo caught himself, remembering that he was trying to avoid alienating his current allies. "I'm not attacking you're attitude," he added, "so much as warning you that it could get you in trouble in the future."

Pianissimo leaned against a nearby pillar and continued, addressing something he knew had probably been causing some sort of uneasiness in his allies. "You may wonder why I use a technique to eliminate all sound. It's quite simple, actually, and it ties in with what I just told Raiden. I don't know about all of you, but the sounds of battle, including but not limited to pointless talking, are a distraction to me more than anything. Such a distraction in battle creates weakness. So I developed a technique to eliminate this distraction, if only for a short period."

"But enough of that," he finished, "If you would like, I will continue battling with you."

Talking, a pointless distraction...? Hal thought to himself, biting his lip. So now there are more important reasons to be on the Net than the sights, the sounds, the accompaniment of a friend? More and more, I'm becoming suspicious of these guys... it could be possible they're actually some sort of radical terrorist group against Net peace. If I reveal my position as a Net preservationist, I might be in trouble, especially in my prominent position... I'd better just play it cool for now-

"Indeed," Teethman called out to the slight comment that Raiden had made, completeley ignoring Pianissimo's reminder of their inferiority in the grand scheme of the Net, "Hal also I are the toughest Webfighters circumventing! There's never a greater battling pair onto the whole Web: why, my guide, Hal Belfast, is the first Webfighting extraordinaire concerning his youthful era! Continuing," the Navi ranted on, to the horror of his operator, "He's acquired various personal-protection instructions currently. He's located left outer the KISS snack store, whether either including you desire toward quiz his skill!"

Hal slapped his forehead, running his hand down his face. If the others didn't know where he was, the surely would now, and nobody would mistake him on the streets: who knew what kind of danger he was in now. Sweat began forming on the back of his neck as he struggled for a solution... letting out a sigh, he decided that if he was doomed, he was doomed. The best thing to do now would be to take the allies at face value.

Hal's face blipped on a screen next to his Navi, as he addressed the two Navis that had been discussing. "True, the possibility does exist of being defeated by a stronger opponent; if you're following my view of life, though, you'll realize that life is for the moment: there's no point in worrying about undetermined events like that when they aren't even looming in the immediate future. For now, we're an unstoppable team, and I'd venture to say we could take anything within an area-wide basis here," he finished, putting a hand to his chin and shutting his eyes. He finished his point with a confident grin.

Teethman scratched the back of his neck sheepishly... he'd just have to assume that Hal had made a good point, because he hadn't caught a word of it. He had a feeling it wouldn't be likely to sway the hardened allies, though. "Eherm," the Navi coughed, "Anyway, whatever voice you each we locate various greater bugs?"

Raiden raised one eyebrow as far as it would go as he listened to Teethman's declaration.

"Anti, you have any idea what he just said?"

"No. Be quiet for a minute. I'm trying to figure out who his Operator is. I know I've seen him before somewhere..."

Raiden shrugged, then turned his sarcastic grin back on Teethman. "I have two good words for you, big guy. Speech therapy."

"Raiden, stop being a jerk. It's getting on my nerves."

"Oh, as if you aren't one on a regular basis?"

"Shut up." Anti rifled through one of her more ancient folders, back from when she had been learning to program under her father's instruction, and pulled out the vidscreen component. A window to the Real World appeared next to Raiden, mimicking Hal's. What did it matter if they knew what she looked like? If someone took to stalking her, then she was positive that she could fend them off. She scowled around at the others from a Navi's perspective.

"Sorry about Raiden. He seems to like being a douche when he runs around on this network. Raiden, are we continuing or what?"

He nodded firmly. "I don't see why not. I'll keep with you guys as long as I can bear."

Titania finally decided to interrupt, after a thorough analysis of what she had seen. Anti and Raiden were bickering. Pianissimo just wanted to prove himself, a harmless trait with a warrior who knew better than to let it jeapordize the situation. Teethman was probably an import with a poorly programmed translator. Hal was quite nervous, and maybe a little suspicious of them, though Titania couldn't imagine why. Anti and Raiden were bickering. Raiden seemed to like feeling superior. This gave Titania-- actually, Oberon-- an idea.

"If you really want to see how strong we are, why don't we take the entourage somewhere more worthy of our skills?" Her voice fluttered and changed just the smallest amount as she spoke, and although she was sure no one would see it, she felt a tiny light showing from where a sapphire pendant might be on her chest. "Running around picking on small fry--" (and here she paused just for a split-second) "-- might be an easy way to train with minimal risk, but I think that our equipment is more than sufficient to deal with the viruses of, say, our Operators' home network of Sharo."

She approached them, then stopped at arm's length, and bowed. "My name is Titania," she said, a softer tone entering her voice. "Later, I think we may meet my counterpart, Oberon."

Pianissimo noticed the subtle waverings in Titania's voice and was about to ask about when he remembered that her "counterpart" was actually sharing a "body" with her.

"Sharo, you say?" remarked Pianissimo, remembering how he had come out of his last sojourn there without too much injury. "My own operator lives there as well, though other than the occasional visit he hasn't been there in a long time. I have no problem with going there...unless there are any objections?"

"'Peach Heresy?'" Teethman responded, taken aback at the comment as though he hadn't understood it. The implications didn't seem to have hit home.

"Raiden's operator... Anti, did he say? She's... direct, isn't she?" Hal said, his face frozen into its charming grin with a half-hearted twitching edge as he muttered under his breath. Nonetheless, Hal was content to sit back and let his allies do the talking for now. Eventually the subject arose of tougher training... but in Sharo? Hal realized his face was still on the monitor, so he tried to hide his shock. Fortunately, his TV-appearance trademarked face had adapted itself to putting on masks now, so he stood with a perfectly confident smile as the group mentioned venturing to an area he had never seen even when he was back in his fighting prime. Raising a hand to his chin again and adopting his most suave smile, Hal interjected. "Ah, while Sharo sounds interesting, I-"

"Concerning route we take!" Teethman affirmed once again before his operator could stop him. "Hal and I shall be glad to step upward toward harder trials, left Hal?"

Hal kept a whimper from crawling into his face, remembering that he had to act his age. "O-of course! Teethman would be happy to accompany you to Sharo!" Nonetheless, Hal was glad that advances in technology meant that he could transmit Teethman from a Netportal to the new Net: he hadn't come dressed for a winter expedition, and the thought had already begun to make his nose run.

"Sharo, huh." Anti glanced down at her chip case; it was a pretty hefty proposition that these other Navis were making, but she was sure that the group of them would be able to handle the challenges of Sharo without much distress.

"Sharo. I like the sound of that." Raiden looked off to one side, toward one of the side paths that he unconsciously knew led to the Netsquare, and therefore, the portal to the frozen wastes in question. "Love to see you guys choke there. Now, let's go!"

Turning on his heel with no regard for anyone else, he headed off toward the Sharo portal.

Anti looked skyward, as if praying for divine reinforcements, and sighed heavily.

"Everyone seems to be in favor, then." said Titania flatly, shooting a glance at Raiden's retreating back. "Raiden seems to know the way. Move out and regroup at the NetSquare." The tone of her voice said: Move it or lose it. We'll haev time for chit chat once we're there.

Choke? In Sharo? I doubt it. sighed Pianissimo, making his way toward the netsquare portal. Privately, he wondered why he had chosen these guys as teammates. Titania he only trusted because they had teamed up before. No problems there. Yet her commanding nature was sure to get on anyone's nerves. Teethman...Pianissimo didn't know what to say about him, other than how incredibly flawed his speech program was. Raiden...was being a jerk.

I suppose everyone has their quirks said Pianissimo to himself. They probably have similar misgivings about teaming up with me.

"Well, let's head on then," Hal said with a nod to his Navi before turning off his screen. He did have a strange feeling he could trust these other Navis, despite his initial opinions. For now, he'd see where the journey took them.

"Wilco!" the Navi responded, turning and following the icy troupe through the Net to the supposed portal that could take them to the icy lands of Sharo.