Electown Research (EVENT!)

The area is full of electrical discharges, making processing speed slow. Evidence of strong viral activity are apparant, chunks of steel litter the area.

"Plug in..." came a voice as R-kid plugging.

"I'm putting you in safe mode as we wait rainbowkid." Said Cindy kindly.

"K!" Replied R-kid as he froze and a sub-program-data barrier covered him.

A beam of light descended from above, and a single feather fell from the sky in its midst. Where it touched the ground, a white figure of pure light coalesced in the air, and as it approached the waiting Navi, it morphed into the tough, capable form of Titania.

She nodded in greetings even as she cautiously examined the area. "It's very dangerous here," she said to the small navi. "Are you part of the NetPolice expedition?"

"Yuip!" Said R-kid, coming out of the shell. "It ems thei r two mor asind ere."

"Please ignore any hard to understand speech." Said a voice, Cindy's voice. "Rainbowkid still needs speech classes."

"Yeip!" Replied R-kid.

Oh? Hello, said Sarah, her face appearing in the air next to Titania. Name's Sarah, and this is Titania. Titania bowed at this. Our NetBattling setup can be confusing, continued Sarah. I assist a man named Kazu assists me in operating, and we might later meet Titania's counterpart, Oberon.

"So it is like two NAVI combination? How interesting." Said Cindy

"Ya!" Said R-kid, his Rainbow Gems glowing and fading.

Titania's body was completely white. It showed contrast only in the form of defining shadows on her clothing and features, and even her eyes were empty and pupilless: the only color on her entire form was the teardrop shaped, saphire jewel set in her cicrlet. Even so, to Sarah, who had known Titania and her counterpart for years, the change in Titania's emotions and body language was plain to see.

Yes, said Sarah's image in the Net, and even the human woman's expression had changed slightly. A combination, of sorts. Two Operators and...

For a moment, watching Titania's face in the close-up monitor on Kazu's laptop screen, Sarah couldn't bring herself to say it.

...and two Navis, she finally spit out.

"To have two navis form one, never apart and never together, it is just so sad." Said Cindy, as a tear droped from her eye. "My little Rainbowkid is born from something different, dark and light together forming one navi code, then the evil part of him spliting and dissappearing, I've still wondered where that darkness may be..."




(this is kind of a spoiler for my sub-plot when R-kid gets to the right level.)

((BRILLIANT ENTRY! not.))

Red shot down onto Electown Net in a red column of light. She saw two of her allies in the distance and ran over to join them.
"Hello, my name is Red Riding Hood.exe pleased to meet you!" Red greeted her companions cheerfully.
A screen with Shin's face popped out as well. "And I am her netop, Fujiwara Shin, just call me Shin for now."

"Oh hello!" Said Cindy, and her image turned and smiled.

"Hiyia!" Said R-kid.

MeleeMan strode into the area with a confident swagger, then dropped his arms limply as he surveyed his partners. His mouth lowered and his lip curled as he was obviously in disdain. "What, a tiny little boy... and a tiny little girl? The hell-?"

"D-Don't be concerned, MeleeMan," Rania urged him. "Rass was kind of small too, and he turned out to be quite powerful, remember?"

"That's true... He should be here shortly. Alright, I guess I'll try to keep my cool until he shows up," MeleeMan sighed, crossing his arms disappointedly. "If there's some big opponent to fight, though, I really can't help but wonder if we'll be able to face it with a force like this."

"Oh, wait? Isn't that one of the navis from Sharo over there?" Rania asked, noticing Titania.

"Huh... she looks more masculine than I remember her being," MeleeMan grunted, tilting his head to the side with confusion and drawing up his lower lip. He scratched his chin irritably, then turned his head to the side. "All that silver shine... she looks like a navi that's more about looks than substance. The kind you girls go for."

"What? I'll remind you that I created you," Rania sighed with annoyance, obviously irritated at her navi's lack of logic. "Besides, we saw her fight earlier. She was pretty good, remember?"

"I suppose so," he murmered, trying to avoid talking to the children around him. "I hate kids..."

Rass jogged toward the meeting site, clearly out of breath from the journey. As his large frame would imply, MeleeMan seemed to have the endurance of several navis, and the humongous pugilist looked as though the long run had been little more than a quick jaunt. As the small, black-and-pink navi placed his hands on his kneecaps, attempting to catch his breath, he looked upward and observed the navis that he would soon be working with. He raised an eyebrow as he saw a little girl in a red cloth hood and a small, gem-studded little boy. Kids? I thought that Suien said this was a research operation. he thought, Why are there kids here? Won't they get in the way?

Outside, Suien frowned, wondering the same thing. "It's possible that they could possess advanced programming, but generally speaking, the maturity routines of children navi are set to a low level unsuited for scientific observation and data gathering," he muttered, flipping through his chipfolder and reorganizing them to fit the newly acquired MarkCannon, "What could their operators be thinking? Don't they know what kind of danger they're in?"

Rass shook his head, readjusted his scarf, and sidled up alongside MeleeMan. He took one more nervous glance toward the kids before folding his arms across his chest and looking toward the side. If worst comes to worst, I guess I'll have to make sure they don't get hurt, he thought.

R-kid notices the two NAVI that just entered.

"I tink tat is ail hive!" Said R-kid.

"I think so, so lets begin with a scan." Said Cindy.

"Ohukay!" Said R-kid.

"Search Program, scan." Said Cindy as R-kid's Gems glowed pure white and made a rainbowish barrier kind of thingy around him. After a few seconds it shot out red rays that scaned the area's discharging and elec disrupution before the barrier faded and a camera hanged above R-kid.

"Yai! Picures!" yelled R-kid.

"Cheese!" said Cindy.

"Chezze!" yelled R-kid as the camera took a picture and then turned into a video camera. "Now lets record this and show it to Mom and Dad via E-mail when we are done."

"Yai!" said R-kid.

"And don't forget to send it to the Net police." Added Cindy.

"K!" said R-kid.

"What the...? Are you photographing me, kid? What do I look like, some kind of tourist attraction?" MeleeMan growled at R-Kid, forgetting his natural intimidation factor. He spit on the ground, watching with a bit of surprise as the liquid seemed to course with static as it hit the ground. "Hah! The lack of substance in this group is laughable."

"Substance?" Rania asked, arching her eyebrows critically.

"Yes, substance. Body mass! Muscular build! There's hardly two bodies between the four of us," MeleeMan growled, slamming his fists together.

"Hm? There are five of you, you know?" Rania asked, tightening a velco strap on one of her gloves.

"Ah, I see," MeleeMan muttered, tilting his head down to see Rass. "Hey there, Rass. It's good to know I'll have some backup in the coming battle. Let's just hope these other three are worth the muscle that they're made of..."

"I heard that," snarled Titania, as the jewel in her circlet flashed in synch with her eyes... and her counterpart's temper. "I think you'll find that I can punch well beyond my weight, which isn't saying much... compared to you."

She looked Meleeman over a few times, then suddenly realized that she recognized him.

"Wait a minute," she said. "I'd know that air of senseless bravado anywhere. You're MeleeMan, from the NetSquare opening!"

"Hey, I may be heavy," MeleeMan admitted, flexing his biceps, "but it's all muscle!"

"Try to be courteous, MeleeMan. She's one of your teammates from Sharo, remember? Her name is-" Rania started, trying to keep her navi up to speed.

"Yeah, that's right. I don't remember your name, sorry," he commented, putting a finger to his earplate and scratching it casually. "But yeah, I do remember you."

Sarah, glad to meet your acquaintence, said Sarah as she reappeared next to Titania. Kazu's busy right now, but he'll re-introduce himself later enough. Our navi is...

"Titania," said the ivory-faced woman curtly. "And later, my coutnerpart Oberon may surface."

"And I'm Red Riding Hood.exe, pleased to meet you two." Red greeted her newly arrived companions.
"I'm Shin, I guess this is the whole gang, we should get moving." Shin commented as his screen popped up.

Rania blushed, realizing she didn't know how to put up a screen to chat with the others in the way they were, displaying their faces. After searching around on her PET for a moment, she simply turned on the audio to speak with the others. "This is Rania Firebrand. I thank you all for your cooperation with MeleeMan in this event."

"Your counterpart, huh?" MeleeMan repeated, seeming confused. With a shrug, he dismissed it. "Yeah, I'm with Shin. The more time we sit around here, the more I can feel the static running up my body," he agreed, removing his helmet briefly and messing his hair with his fist.

"I'm bored..." Said R-kid to Cindy.

"Don't worry, we're all together, just wait." Said Cindy.

"K!" Said R-kid.