Sweet Coding.

Binary remained silent, his optics scanning the 'village.' He could see the monklike Navis...doing what? Patrolling? Scouting for intruders? It was really impossible to tell.

Chris cringed slightly as Red made her entrance. She obviously didn't mean any harm, but being as friendly as she was could possibly be a disadvantage. "Remember, do not make any noise. Just act like a ball, not a Navi," Chris urged the Binaryball over the private link.

"AFFIRMATIVE!" Binaryball replied, then returned his attention to the village. His invisible optics, hidden within the digits that were perpetually swimming around within him, were still looking around the area, providing him with a near-360% view.

The monks merely ignored Red and kept walking past her. As they walked, they began a slow chanting song. The last one in the line slapped himself in the head after the first line, seeming to think it was funny. The one in front of him turned around and gave him a sour look, causing the head slapper to straighten up.

Well, that was useless.

As Binary scanned the village, he caught sight of the crowd on the far side again. Most of them were holding weapons. It seemed best to avoid them for now unless they wanted to pick a fight.

The buildings in the area were medieval in appearance. Four of the center six buildings obviously had at least one person inside. Perhaps these people could give another side to what was going on?

In one of the other two, though, he thought he could see a shadow moving around. In the other, the nearest building to them, was an obviously modern-looking filing cabinet.

Binaryball dug the screencaptures his optics had taken into the vast emptiness of his memory capacity; they could potentially useful. Useful enough to merit telling Red so she could take him there to investigate...if Chris hadn't forbidden his speech programs. Perhaps he could ask permission?

Over the private link, Binary called, "REQUESTING PERMISSION TO TRANSFER POTENTIALLY VALUABLE INFORMATION TO INTERNETNAVIGATOR UNIT: RED_RIDING_HOOD.EXE!"

Chris' fingers were a blur as he typed a reply, "Permission granted, but I'm turning your volume switch way down, just so you won't attract attention." He then cleared his throat and said in a falsely cheery voice to Red, "Red, I think Binaryball has something to say! Would you please listen closely?"

Once Binary was sure that Red's audio receptors were focused on him, he relayed the information he'd gathered from his sweeping gaze of the village, praying she'd be able to comprehend him:

"Potentially hostile InternetNavigator units on opposite side of community! Structures A-D inhabited; number of inhabitants unknown! Stucture E status: unknown movements sighted within interior! Structure F status: storage unit located within interior!" Binaryball said, his voice only hearable if one's head was right beside it. Tiny spikes of gel, barely noticable from a distance, jutted out as he spoke, pointing out which buildings he was talking about at which times.

With nothing more to say, he retracted the spikes and was just Binaryball once more, hoping Red would get what he was talking about.

"Hm, yeah, I think so too!" Red agreed with the supposedly inanimate object, if it made her look crazy, some might just pass it off as a child's imaginary friend.

"Well, thanks for all your help everyone! I'm off!" Red announced politely to the mob and monks. The red-caped wonder skipped, along with Myun, who held the Binaryball, toward the buildings.

Upon arriving on the first building (Building A), she knocked politely and called, "Hello? Anyone home? May we come in?"

((Go to Building A and knock))

"I thought I told you guys, the meeting place is on the other side of the village," came a gruff male voice from inside. "I don't want any more people messing up my house for thi-"

A second voice cut him off. Though also male, this voice was slightly smoother. "You've made that clear to everyone by now. These people probably aren't from here."

"Then we don't want their ungrateful, heathen-" the first voice was cut off again, this time by a loud bonk. "OW! Sorry..."

"Yes, you may come in," said the second voice.

"Excuse us," Red greeted, pushing the door open and stepping inside, Myun with Binaryball following close after.

Once inside, the crimson crusader curtsied and gestured to herself and her companions, introducing herself and them in the same manner as she did earlier outside.

"So, what's going on in this village? And what's the village's name for starters," the red-caped wonder inquired to the two males.


((RED used INQUIRE))

Binaryball sat in Myun's diminutive arms, listening to Red's questions. She had brought up some extremely good points in his opinion; the information she would be likely to receive in turn could turn out to be very valuable indeed.

He let the ones and zeroes swim around inside him aimlessly; not that he needed to allow them to, as that was their job to begin with. With absolutely nothing to do, his artificial intelligence began to wander. What would the two Navi's reactions be if he suddenly grew spikes? What if he suddenly sprouted tentacles and started climbing around the structure? The thought intrigued him, but he could not; he was bound to Chris' word.

So, he just lay absolutely motionless (except for the digits), and was just a Binaryball being carried around by a little rabbit.

Both of the navis were adorned in priest robes. One of them had very rough features and scraggly hair, while the other had more smooth features and looked like he had shaved his head. "We're crusaders," the navi with the gruff voice answered. To their surprise, it was the smooth-faced navi. "We serve the will of the Lord and fight in his name." He raised his weapon, a shovel with the letters "X P" carved roughly into it.

The other, meanwhile, had a more effective-looking, yet still improvised weapon which he had sat in the corner: a woodcutting axe with the same inscription. He was also holding a wooden walking stick, presumably what he had used to hit the first guy. "The village is called 'Pius'," he said in his ironically smooth voice.

That explains the degree of religious zealots they are, Shin and Red thought, sweatdropping as they remembered Damian's words. The navi put on a straighter face and curtsied again, before resuming her discussion with the two.

"Oh, so is there a specific name for your God, or just the er- What were they again Shin?" the crimson crusader asked, trying to think of an appropriate modifier.

"Generic Holy Title, God, the Lord, our father in heaven, to name a few," Shin replied, munching on some Skittles.

"Yeah, what my operator said! Oh, and what are your guys' names, and what're those cool symbols on your weapons? Is that an- an-..." Red started, thinking for the right word.

"Anagram," the ace completed, making the red-caped wonder light up in excitement, noting to herself to remember the word.

"Yeah! Is it an anagram for your religion?" the wind navi continued.

Hoo boy, I hope one of them is at least patient enough to answer her questions, the half-Yumlander/half-Electopian thought, exasperated at his navi's inquisition.

Myun kind of just stood there, holding the Binaryball, both in hearing range.

((Red used POSSIBLY ANNOYING INQUIRY))

Chris winced slightly as Red started her questions. He thought for a second, then nodded to himself and reached down, snapping open a holster on his belt. He withdrew what appeared to be an eight-inch long cylinder. Punching a button at the top, the thing almost seemed to unravel, becoming what seemed to be a smooth sheet of some unknown material, about the size of a piece of printer paper with a border.

Casually, he took out a pencil-sized stylus and started scribbling lines on the material; a black line appeared wherever he had drawn. Satisfied, Chris hit another button and the scribbles disappeared. Holding his stylus in his left hand and keeping the 'tablet' steady in his other, he began to draw, writing a few notes along the side now and then.

Binaryball silently watched... well, pretty much everything; Chris included. He watched the movements of the other two Navis carefully, waiting for one of them to make a wrong move. If they did, he really hoped Chris would be done his drawing by then, and for that matter, he hoped it was good.

"Anagram? What anagram? It's two letters," the smooth-voiced navi answered. "The symbol dates back to the days of Constantine, near the end of the age of the Roman Empire." Both navis ignored the question about their god, believing it to be relatively obvious.

It seemed they were Catholics straight out of the dark ages, or perhaps something similar. But that still raised the question of Damian. Perhaps if Red asked them about that...

"Oh cool! So, hey! Do you know a... 'Damian'?" Red inquired, sounding innocent. "I heard he was chased out of the village? Is that because he didn't believe in god?"

Come on, she sounds cute and innocent enough.

((Red inquired more about the situation))

Binaryball listened intently for the Navi's answers. He had to admit, he was curious; who wouldn't be? And not only for what they would say, but as to what Chris was up to now...


The Operator in question suddenly sneezed, looking around. "Err, pardon me," he muttered, looking down and not at the people that had suddenly looked at him in shock. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah, right," he continued under his breath, hunching over his tablet and continuing sketching with his left hand, while the right took another stylus and started following the first pen around, shading in the parts that needed more detail.

...Wait, what? Two stylus pens? Where'd the other one come from?

The gruff-voiced navi lunged forward at the mention of Damian, only for the other to hold him back. "That's enough," he said to his struggling roommate, pushing him into a seat again, then turning back to Red. "We don't know specifics, but there is supposedly a great evil lurking within the one you call Damian." He lowered his voice a few degrees before continuing. "Several of the villagers knew it from the instant he appeared here and sought to take him out before anything happened. Though utterly confused about how he got here or why he was being targeted, Damian took them out with relative ease. That's when he got the attention of the priests, who rallied the villagers to hunt him down, calling him a demon in human form."

He shook his head. "That was two months ago. He fled after that, and we're still searching for him."

"Hmmm..." Shin mumbled, musing over this latest news piece. That's interesting, so he's a pretty powerful navi stuck in this forest like a bunch of us, huh? the operator thought, drinking some orange juice.

Might as well ask if they saw his moves first-hand, Shin grumbled to himself, sending the order to Red, while also programming something into the PET.

In an instant, the red-caped wonder snapped out of her own thoughts, which largely consisted of cake, bunnies, flowers, and tea parties, and continued the questioning. Myun still held the Binaryball with her, and hopped around the residence, looking for anything interesting.

"So, did you see what his attacks were like? And... why is there that mob outside anyway?" Red questioned, relaying her operator's thoughts, and then one of her own.

((Red inquired more! Myun looked around the place! Shin drank some orange juice!))

"Rallying speeches and what have you," the gruff-voiced navi sighed. "Don't know why, most of us are pretty hyped up as-is."

The other nodded in agreement. "His attacks were...I guess you could describe them as being 'hellfire'. Those people that attacked him...as soon as one laid a hit on him, they all burst into flames. After seeing that, I don't know why anyone needs to give rallying speeches either."

A loud cheer erupted from that end of the village. The smooth-voiced navi continued. "Not that it's doing any harm either."

"I see, and yeah, if anything it's probably making you guys more fired up," Red commented casually, heading toward the door. "Well, I'm going to see if there's more I can find about your interesting town, thanks for all your help. Come on guys," the crimson crusader beckoned to her support program and her partner. Myun finished her examination of the room, apparently satisfied that she had found nothing out of the ordinary, and hopped out to join her master, holding the Binaryball intact while doing so.

"So where to?" Red asked her operator.

"Next closest building, this will take a while, so let's tackle things in 'order,'" Shin suggested, nodding to Chris and raising an eyebrow at... whatever he was doing.

"Okay! To the next round house!" the wind navi cheered, leading her tiny party to the second round building, knocking on the door, and politely calling for the residents to open up.

((Traverse from 1st Round Building to 2nd Round Building, and call politely out to the residents of 2nd building))

"Hey, can't I use my tablet in peace?" Chris shot at Shin with a sheepish grin, in response to the raised eyebrow. "Besides, what I've got here is just backup; if the worst comes to the worst and we get the entire village riled up at us, this'll give Binary a bit of an intimidation factor," he explained. He then went on to finish his drawing, while jotting down a few more sidenotes to it as he went.

Binaryball just sat in Myun's diminutive arms, waiting patiently for something involving him to happen.

<(Chris explains reason for having his tablet out! Binary kicks back and waits for something exciting to happen!

Nobody answered Red's call at first. Then, a soft, yet familiar voice called out of the house. "No one actually lives here anymore. There's no reason you shouldn't be allowed to come in."

The door swung open, revealing the house that Binary had seen the modern-looking file cabinet in. There were several other objects in the room that looked strikingly out of place, including a coffee table, a couch, and a radio, as well as several stacks of paper. But even more unusual, sitting on the couch was...

"You again," the voice repeated, and the familiarity sunk in. It was the goth lolita navi from the forest. Though still not perfectly illuminated due to the poor lighting (apparently, despite all the modern-looking furnishings, the only light was still a torch on the opposite wall and a candle on the coffee table, as well as light from what little of the only window wasn't obscured by the filing cabinet), what they could see was the same as what they had witnessed in the forest. As she folded her arms across the front of her corset, however, they noticed the symbols on the back of a pair of elbow-length gloves: one each of the sun and moon. "So you survived after all." The last sentence carried the slightest trace of a mocking tone, as if the words "too bad it won't be for long" were lightly implied.

Binary's optics were a blur; the black ones and zeroes within him a blur as they took in the new surroundings. A good few of them, however, remained completely focused on the gothic lolita; why the hell had she been out in the forest when there was a (as far as he knew) perfectly safe shelter right here.

The rest of his optics, finished their primary lookaround of the place, slowed down to their regular pace, taking in all the details that a rushed eye refused to detect. For example: the mysterious mix of modern-day furniture and medieval lighting, the designs on her gloves, and the somewhat mocking edge of her voice.

His optics struggled to see what was on the papers that were neatly stacked, but the angle he was positioned at wouldn't let him. He attempted to convey a silent message to Myun, asking him to get him to a higher point.