Topic: The Digital World of RPM

[Mirby]

"I... I think I found him..." WombatMan said, pointing at a disoriented Navi that he recognized from the battle. "That was almost too easy..."

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

"I hate this place..." Spectro finally arrived in the Undernet, with a giant bazooka slung over his shoulder. He fired a round in an indeterminate direction, blowing up some platforms, and possibly deleting someone's navi.

"Stop that. Now, the regulars here probably aren't too friendly, so we'll have to interrogate some of them for any sign of Crux."

"Splendid idea! I'll start with that one!" said Spectro, walking over to a navi. "Hey, you seen a navi about yea high? Looks like a mummy with sunglasses and a coat."

"The [tornado fang] outta the way, [sonic slicer]," the navi said, shoving Spectro to the side. Not long after, Spectro lifted the navi by his back and slammed him to the floor, shaking him up a little.

"Now, I asked you a question, and I really would like an answer..." Spectro picked up his bazooka and pointed it point blank at the navi's chest. "Okay?"

"D-duh... Undernet F-f-five?"

"Thank you." Spectro lifted the navi by his neck and threw him somewhere quite far. "Gotta be firm with these guys, y'know?" Spectro said to Rankine.

"Yeah..."

--------------------

"Come on, bend over. I won't do anything."

A group of navis had Crux surrounded. Crux remained silent, staring defiantly at the navi. One of the navis kiced him to the floor.

"Good boy." A couple of navis laughed. Crux swung one arm at one of them, impaling him with the blades protruding from his arm. The navi was deleted, but the others immediately restrained him. One of them went up to Crux's face, and spoke.

"Hm... that's no good..." The navi downloaded a sword chip and had the sword pointed to his stomach.

[Mirby]

"No wait, that's not him... hmm.. where am I right now?" WombatMan asked.

"Undernet 2... see if you can find anyone to help!"

"Okay... hey, you, seen a mummy-lookin' Navi?"

"[tornado fang] you too! Second person to ask me that! Yeesh, why the [tornado fang] should I care what happens to some fuckin' Navi? They fall here, they should die; no normal Navis allowed here anyways!" He shoved past WombatMan and kept going, muttering.

"How rude..." He grabbed the Navi and put his claws to his throat. "It's my fault he's here, and I'm gonna save him!"

"Ugh... Undernet 5..."

"Thank you." He threw the dark Navi down and kept going.

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

The navi thrust his sword at Crux, about to stab him, when there was a shout from high above.

"SOMEONE PLEASE BREAK MY FALL!"

The navi intent on stabbing Crux looked up in surprise, as well as the others, and had accidentally scrawled a cut across Crux's chest instead. Spectro landed on top of one of the navis on both his feet, flattening the one who broke his fall. He got up and looked at them.

"That..." said Spectro, pointing to Crux "...belongs to me."

[Solar]

Mirror Knight was walking around Undernet 2 when he saw WombatMan talk to the other navi.

"Huh? It's that wombat navi? What's he doing here?"

"I don't know, lets follow and see."

[Mirby]

"Okay, we're in Undernet 5 now... let's see..." WombatMan scanned the horizon... "There!" He ran over to the mummy-like Navi. Right before he got there, another Navi landed on top of the ruffians attacking the mummy-like Navi. "Whoa!"

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

The navi with the sword took Crux and put him in a headlock. He pointed the sword at his head.

"STAY BACK, or your friend here gets it."

Spectro paused for a moment, then put his hands up. "Okay." He backed away a bit, then threw a knife, which went smack dab in the middle of the navi's face. The navi and Crux both collapsed onto the floor. The remaining navis started to run away, and Spectro fired a volley of missiles at them.

"Thank you. Thank you very much." He went over to Crux. "Well, hey there."

"...Spectro...?" Crux looked up, and then blacked out.

"Ooh, that's not good." Spectro picked Crux up and hoisted him over his shoulder. He turned around and saw the wombat navi.

"Oh."

[Mirby]

"I don't want any trouble," WombatMan said. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't deleted."

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

"Well, he's still here." Spectro was about to walk away, but then turned back to the navi. "Who are you?"

[Mirby]

"I'm WombatMan.EXE. I was trying to protect myself from that evil organization, when they attacked me. I'm afraid your friend got caught up in it. All I know is that these people are now targeting me, and my operator. I must protect her at all costs; and I want to apologize for sending him here. It was not planned; the bugs got the better of me and my programming, I'm afraid. I just want to know if your friend can forgive me."

[Solar]

Somewhere out of his sight MK was watching the other 3 navis.

"Oh, so he was only checking on another navi. Oh well, nothing interesting," said Tai.

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

Spectro tapped at Crux's face. "Hey, Fuzzy here wants to say he's sorry for sending you to the Undernet."

Crux didn't respond.

"Well, I guess he forgives you," Spectro said with a shrug.

Rankine rolled his eyes. "All right, just... let me jack him out, you idiot."

Spectro set Crux down on the floor and he was jacked out. He turned to WombatMan. "Well, nice meeting you." He fell flat on the floor and resumed his siesta.

[Mirby]

"Well... since he's obviously not capable of defending himself... I think I'll wait and protect him if anything comes knocking..."

[Black Mage J]

[phase 1: liquid fake]
Tryn sat on a plastic seat in the backyard of his house, playing checkers with Crusader using his P.E.T.
"Aha! King me!"
"Dammit!" Tryn scratched his head, trying to think of a way to get back at Crusader.
"Now then, what would be our next objective, m'lord?"
"Oh easy, we establish a multimillion base of operations"
"That sure doesen't seem easy, how would we get a place for ourselves?"
"Simple, an old warehouse will do fine, it's off the oldest part of town where no one lives. We just make it an underground base"
"Smart, but where to fund it?"
"Why we invite many prestigious net-battlers to a lake for a tourny, the winner challenges you and me, we then create data backups of the navi to use as a type of virus"
"That sounds....complicated, king me"
"What, again?!" This kept going for hours, rematch after rematch, to any passerby it might seem like a net operator and his navi having a friendly game, how wrong they are.

[Blackhook]

After the fiasco in Sci lab, Jupiter.EXE  wandered around the place he was most familiar with - the Undernet. He didn´t really understand why he likes this place so much. While he was in deep thoughs he approached a Familiar Navi.
"Hey there, what brings you to a place like this?"
Jupiter greeted Wombat Man in a cheerful tune.

[Mirby]

"You. I don't want trouble. I'm just protecting this Navi, who is still unconscious. I destroyed SciLab network and caused him to fall here. So I'm protecting him until he can be jacked out. Just... leave me alone. I really don't want to fight right now..."

[Blackhook]

"You know, I was ordered to take you with me...but that mission kinda bored me. I already had my fun, I just wanted to thank you for it. I would like to fight you sometimes again, if my brothers allow me to do that..."
As he said that two Navis appeared next to Wombat Man. A brown one without arms, whos hands were just floating in midair and his body was surrounded by a ring that kept spinning. The other Navi was similiar to Wombat man, but he was covered by thicker purple fur. He had long sharp teeth and claws and had a wild expresion in his face.
"Saturn, Pluto, nice to see you brothers..."

[Black Mage J]

Tryn started setting up posters all over the city, happily singing a tune.
[More emphasis on the real world too]
It read in big black letters over a blue backround
"Come to the beach next friday for the wave tourny! 1st place prize 100,000Z or a super rare chip!"
Children started following Tryn, who just smiled a charming smile and kept on his way.

[Dantonumanoa Ongdolota Amycronicon]

"You. I don't want trouble. I'm just protecting this Navi, who is still unconscious. I destroyed SciLab network and caused him to fall here. So I'm protecting him until he can be jacked out. Just... leave me alone. I really don't want to fight right now..."

[[Oh, I was afraid of this... Crux was jacked out, so you're standing next to Spectro. Sorry.]]

Spectro awoke with a rather loud groan, and looked up at the navis that were standing around him.

"Okay, what are you all doing here? This isn't an exhibit. Shoo, just..." Spectro picked something up and threw it at one of the navis. He then rolled over, resuming his siesta.

--------------------

Back at Rankine's house, Rankine had finished the restoration work on Crux.

"You feeling better?"

"Yeah. Geez, those Undernet regulars, they're a rotten bunch."

Rankine looked out a window and saw someone putting up posters for what looked like a tourney. He stepped out for a moment and read the poster. "Super rare chip? Eh... couldn't be..." Rankine felt that his suspicion was unfounded, but that it wouldn't hurt to investigate. Going back into his house, Rankine went to the PET.

"Hey, you wouldn't mind joining a tourney, would you?"

Crux cocked his head. "What, now?"

"No, next Friday, actually."

"Hrrm... I guess it wouldn't hurt. But why the sudden whim?"

"The posters out there said that first prize was 100K Zenny or a 'super rare chip'."

"And you think that's the Cross? It could be anything."

"Well, who knows how many times the chip may have exchanged hands at this point?"

"Oh, right..." Crux rubbed his chin. "I guess anything could be a lead now..."

[Mirby]

[[Your words were a bit misleading, I was confused]]

Taylor jacked WombatMan out, and brought up the posters for the tourney.

"Another fight? Really? Doesn't that seem a bit dangerous?"

"You, worried? What's gotten into you?" Taylor asked.

"I just... don't want to destroy the stage... I obliterated SciLab area with my power..."

"Well, if I can find Dad, maybe he can help..."

"Yeah, let's see if we can..."

[Black Mage J]

Back to Tryn, finishing with the poster set up he went over to the area where the tournament was supposed to be set. There was only grass and trees this far out of the city, a slice of nature just a couple miles out of the city. He started making calls, soon enough people were setting up the entire place. There were generators being set and tents to protect equipment and people sitting on the grass working on the arenas used for the tournament. Running and shouting as people prepared for the event.
"Sir, the promotional site is done"
"Alright Crusader, wait for the applicants in there"
Crusader was standing behind a counter waiting for navis to sign into the competition, he had changed into a blue suit that looked more in place with other navi's rather than his normal white 'clothing'.

[Blackhook]

"A tourney?"
Asked Jupiter while he and his 2 "brothers" were on the way to registrate themselves.
"Yes, Are you interested Jupiter? You don´t need to answer, I know that you want to enter."
Answered Saturn.
"How come we are entering? Don´t tell me?..."
"Yes, he is looking for worthy candidates..."
The three Navis arrived to their destination. Then they approached Crusader.
"Hey there!"
Greeted Jupiter.

[Solar]

"Would you look at that? A tourney. I believe it's time we had some fun, what do you say about entering MK?" asked Tai when he saw a poster.

"Well, sure why not? What could go wrong?"

[Mirby]

"Where the hell could he be?" Taylor asked, after hours of searching.

"Right here, honey!" Taylor turned around and saw him.

"What the.. when.. what?" Taylor sputtered.

"Let me see that PET," he said. She gave it to him and watched as he carefully examined it and then started some reprogramming.

"What are you doing?"

"Just a little program-fu."

"Okay..." She sat down and waited...

[Black Mage J]

"Please sign in, the fee is 100Z"