Forty two zenny. All in coins. That was it. Dirt-ridden and lacking in detail, the young boy counted it thrice. Forty two zenny; still the same amount. And the next day would be Christmas.

"Life really is composed of cheap sobs, isn't it?" he thought out loud, staring at the endlessly grey sky with endlessly blank yet pretty brown eyes.

"Huh?" a small voice emitted from the young boy's left pocket. "What was that?"

"Nothing," the boy replied gently, removing an expensive-looking object from where the voice had come from. "Just talking to myself again."

"Oh."

Several seconds progressed in awkward silence as the boy's eyes wandered elsewhere, a wistful expression on his pale face.

"Don't let it get to you," the red object finally answered, tremendous concern obviously evident in its voice. "We'll get through this, like last year and all the other years before that."

"I know, I know. It's just," the boy's expression fell grim. "harder and harder to grasp the fact that nobody really cares you know?"

The object sighed, an understanding face appearing in a small screen attached to it. "Yeah but, you shouldn't be thinking like that. Besides, I care about you bro."

For the first time that day the boy smiled, eternally grateful to the virtual PET that was comforting him now. His life's work. "Thanks, partner. Don't know how I'd make it through without you."

"Heh, the feeling's mutual."

A few more seconds passed in voice-less observation as the boy rummaged through the coins once more, wishing that somehow he had made a mistake in counting them a minute ago.

"Karu, you should get out of the cold. You've been standing there all spaced out with no thick clothes for nearly an hour already."

"Ah, heh... oops," the young boy known now as Karu smiled sheepsihly, pocketing the measly amount and shrugging the snow off his faded blue shirt. "Alright, to the apartment then."

"Tomorrow is Christmas right?"

Karu flinched, his expression having grown slightly darker. "Y-yes, I believe it is."

"Then let your present for mom and dad be your cheerful smile."

The young boy gasped softly, caught off-guard by the navi's caring suggestion. The perfect gift. A small tear rolled down Karu's right cheek and he hastily wiped it with his shirt.

"Karu? You ok?"

"I'm fine," Karu sniffled, gracing the net navi with one of his most cheerful smiles. "Thanks to you anyway."

The face replied with a smirk.

"SOMEONE HELP!"

"MY NAVI!"

"Did you hear that? Those voices sounded like it came from over there." Karu muttered, looking over to where the limb-less angel statue resided in the middle of the river. A small crowd seemed to be pacing back and forth there.

"Doesn't sound like something good's happened, that's for sure."

"Darn it all, not again."

The net navi noticed Karu's change in expression and chuckled. "Deja vu, huh? Let's go check it out."

"Why bother? What if it's another virus raid?" the young boy irritatedly whispered, fumbling specific buttons on his PET. "You remember last time? We were almost caught and exposed to the public!"

"Yeah, but..." the navi argued. "We can't just not do anything right? Besides, we can probably get some good battle chips if it happens to be another raid."

"But--"

"Aw, come on."

Karu sighed, defeated once more. "Oh alright. I guess that way we can get enough money to give ourselves a tolerable christmas day. For once."

"Yep. Something to look forward to, right?"

"Definitely," Karu grinned. "But if we're exposed, I'll overload you with enough programs to cause a bug, 'k?"

"Bah, fine." The navi huffed. "Be that way."

"It's a deal then," the boy smiled, treading over to where all the commotion was. "By the way, where does the last ticket that dad gave us lead to?"

"Hold on, I'll check," the navi replied, as data surged through the screen of the PET. "Got it. Den City, 'Electopia.' Why do you ask?"

"Because if we get exposed--which i'm sure we will," the navi grumbled at this and Karu chuckled slightly, "we're going to need that ticket, and some money to get started. So bust up as much viruses as you can. Understood?"

"Yep."

"Good. Alright, we're here." Karu stopped, carefully nudging the jacket on one of the panicky spectators. "Excuse me sir, what happened?"

"It's terrible!" The man exclaimed. "A bunch of powerful black navi's have taken precious key data from electopia's net browsers and are holding it here! If we don't get it out in time the internet in Electopia's servers will be disconnected!"

"Electopia? Kinda like coincidence, huh Karu?" The net navi cut in.

"Argh... somehow i have a feeling we're going to end up in that country no matter what." The person in question wailed.

"Look on the bright side, more adventuring and a lot of battlechips!"

"Yeah, and a lot more searching for food, begging for discounts and looking for an apartment to stay in."

"You've got a point there."

Karu sighed, cursing his mendicant state for the billionth time. "Let's just find a backdoor to that angel thing. There's gotta be another place to jack in."

-

"Mega, be careful!" A light pink navi yelled, as the blue virus buster known as Mega was involved in an intense standoff with an obscenely large virus.

"Hurry, or all of Electopia's servers will be down!" A large yellow and red navi warned, gingerly touching his now useless right arm.

"Alright, let's go Lan! battle routine, set!"

"Execute!"

-

"Here we go.." Karu whispered, blowing off some dust from a hidden jackport on the rear end of the statue. He then pulled out a small wire from his PET and connected it to the old structure. "Execute!"

"Let's go!"

Colors and data invaded his PET as the navi's face disappeared, and a small text saying, 'Connecting' was shown. It was soon replaced with a large 'Established' sign and the navi appeared full body in a colorful, technoish scenery.

"Whew, haven't been on-line in a while." The navi sighed in relief, stretching his virtual arms and legs a little bit before looking around. "You there, Karu?"

"Yep." Karu answered from his PET's mike. "You'd better go find the source of the problem before I'm seen or else..."

"Yeah yeah, bugs," the virus buster shuddered. "I thought you were just kidding."

"Nope."

The net navi sighed, a little irritated. "Why is there always a catch with you??"

His operator simply chuckled happily.

Before he could even think up of a retort, three mettaur viruses appeared before him, waving they're small pick-axes in a hostile manner.

"Uh-oh. Karu, hurry up and kick start the--"

"Battle chip interface? Way ahead of ya'."

The navi grinned. "So what have we got?"

"Thirty battle chips equipped, with no extras at the moment. Five random chips are being uploaded to the interface now... upload done," Karu whispered so as not to be heard by the crowd, viewing his current options. "Two cannon chips, both c-type, one minibomb, b-type, one sword, s-type, and a crakout chip. Picking necessary data and uploading it to ya'... done."

Upload positions; crakout, cannon version C, cannon version C

"Alright, battle routine execute!" The virus buster yelled as one of the mettaurs just across him held its pik-axe high in the air, ready to strike the net navi at point blank range. "Here we go."

"Go--"

"Back a square and use crakout? Way ahead of ya'."

Now it was Karu's turn to grin.

The net navi blurred a few feet back with unbelievable reflex, reappearing one square behind. As the mettaur unleashed its wave attack he executed the crakout chip, destroying a square between him and the virus--rendering the mettaur's attack useless.

"It only lasts a few seconds." His operator warned.

"Oh." The navi smiled. "Just enough to destroy two."

As the mettaur was about to try and attack again, it was blown away by a huge bullet coming from the navi's cannon arm, thanks to the second chip. The virus that took its place also suffered the same fate (using the third chip), and the navi now seemed to be glowing bright orange.

"Counter huh? Good shot." Karu praised.

"Thanks."

Several more seconds passed and the turn was over, the battle chip interface reappearing on Karu's screen. "Hmm. I'll upload just one chip for now, alright?"

"Sure. And the mettaur is probably dying since I unloaded about five shots of flame plasma on it."

"Speaking of fire plasma, I added a '1 Attack' program upgrade in the navi customizer, so those five blasts had about four attack power each."

"So the mettaur's life has been cut in half?"

"Exactly. Data send complete by the way."

"Goody."

Upload positions; vulcan1, v-type

"Vulcan? Not to mention the double damage from the counter... heh, that's overkill Karu."

"And you're complaining about that? That is so not like you."

"Hahah, true, true."

The turn finished as soon as it started. The mettaur didn't even have time to attack, it died in an instant. And that was just the first bullet.

Enemy Deleted

"That was kinda sadistic, huh?" Karu whispered.

"Yeah, but that's ok," his navi reassured mockingly. "What're the results?"

"Hold on," Karu replied, peering over his PET screen. "Delete time thirteen point twenty four seconds, busting level nine."

"Woo!"

"The data we got, A guard chip. I guess we can sell that for a few hundred zenny."

"Alright... I'll have a peek at what's happening over there."

"You do that. And be careful."

"I will. Those black navis seemed to have been too occupied to notice me fighting those mettaurs anyway, so that's an advantage."

"Yeah, so maybe you should sneak over there and see what they're talking about."

"Took the words right out of my mouth." The virus buster grinned, tip-toeing over to the two navis who seemed to be engrossed in some deep conversation. "Wow, those guys sure are talkative."

"Open your wide speakers so you don't need to go too near."

"Alright."

click!

"And so the boss said, you leave that here or else!!"

"You're kidding!"

"No way man!!"

Bwahahahahahaha!

click!

"Karu?"

"Yeah?"

"This is going to take a while."

"I know."

click!

"So, so the chicken said, CLUUUCK!"

"Ha! Good one!"

"Heheh. Hey, what are we guarding anyway??"

"You don't know?? Man, that's messed up. It's supposed to be part of some permanent data in the electopia server that if taken away, could destroy it."

"Permanent data?? Doesn't that mean it can't be taken away??"

"The boss has an encrypted virus that can delete the firewalls."

"What the-- really?? A virus that can destroy the electopian main fire walls!?"

"There are two of them viruses actually. But the other was slightly weaker, so he could only do so much as take the data away and store it in the electopia servers."

"You mean part of that data is still in electopia?"

"Yep, but we have some of the lesser rank guarding it."

"Lesser rank? But they'll get smeared! Doesn't he know that one of the best netbattlers live there??"

"Exactly. The servers will still shut down even if one piece of the data is recovered."

"Huh?-- ah.. I see where you're going.."

click!

"Dammit, the data in electopia is just a decoy."

"Looks like it. What do we do?"

Karu cursed inwardly, viewing his current options. " No choice but to fight them head on. God, we are soo busted when we save that thing..."

"Heh... yeah," the navi thought for a moment, before stalking over to the hostile virus busters. "Karu, it's been five years... Don't you think they've probably forgotten you by now? A little publicity shouldn't hurt-- And the money we get could be enough to send you to school and buy sufficient groceries."

"Well, maybe. But I won't defy dad's final wish," Karu said sternly. "Ever."

"Yeah...I guess we should be cautious about it still," the navi sighed, charging up his flame plasma cannon for a quick delete. "Hey you!"

One of the net navis turned his head, only to find it almost torn off by a searing substance. The more--for lack of better words--physically fit of the two let out a small scream, startling just about every hostile navi in the area.

"I think i'm in trouble."

"Don't worry, I'm setting up the appropriate chips now."

Upload positions; heatshot b-type, mini-bomb c-type

The battle started with two furious looking black navis screaming, and then throwing mini-bombs all over the net-battle area.

"Karu, it looks like all of them have at least two minibombs equipped!" The navi yelled, trying his best not to get hit by the three-square radius explosions.

"Stay focused and concentrate on doging all of them, then give'em hell!" Karu advised.

"Gotcha."

In four seconds flat the bombardment was over, and a lucky shot from one of the dark net navi had the outnumbered one clutching his left leg in anger.

"Are you ok?" Karu asked, concerned at his navi's current situation.

"I'm all right," the navi ground his teeth in obvious frustration, "Just really pissed."

"Use that to fuel your focus," Karu added wisely, "And remember, I created you as a fire elemental, so you can charge up heat-type battle chips for double damage."

"I remember. Do we still have the counter blitz online?"

"We don't right now," Karu warned. "You were hit, remember?"

"Oh yeah... damn."

"We'll get them at the next turn. For now just do what you do best."

The red navi nodded, his left arm having uploaded enough data to fully charge the heat blast chip and fire, barely noticing that one of the hostile navis still had a mini-bomb in hand and was just about to throw it. "Perfect."

In one clean sweep the black navi was disfigured, his entire body scorched in flames. One of the deleted navi's friends seemed to have been intimidated by that, moving back a square-- Only to be deleted by a counter blitz mini-bomb.

"Very nicely done partner," Karu praised once more. "In a few seconds I can upload more battle-chip data so you can finish this."

"Alright, I'll just hold off this last guy for a while and--"

"Navi," The last of the living hostiles interrupted, deactivating battle mode and immensely startling his supposed opponent. "I wish to know your name."

"My name?" The navi asked, a little baffled. "The deleted don't need to know."

Yet Karu's navi really wasn't totally convinced about that. The first two henchmen were dispatched with ease, yet this heavily armored navi; with a purple and gold color scheme and a frightening expression, seemed different in structure and the presence around him disturbingly calm.

The purple virus buster simply grinned in reply, earning a shudder and a confused look from the red navi. "I shall hand over the key data only if you tell me your name, red."

Karu's navi looked helpless, fidgetting slightly in an attempt to not embarass himself too much. "Karu, help me out here."

"Hmm... We've got no choice then," Karu whispered via thought intercom. "Remember in Netfrica? When we were helping those odd people without them actually knowing?"

"Of course I do. Rumors spread and they kept calling me all those heroic names like the 'mysterious red navi' and--"

"Mister volcano... I got it! From now on your name is volcan."

"Volcan?? Interesting name." The navi smiled slightly. "I like it."

"Then we'd better answer him before he changes his mind."

"Right!" The red navi turned to face the virus buster across him. "Volcan... Volcan is my name."

"I see." The purple navi uttered in reply, a small white box forming on the top of his open palm.

"That box holds the key data?"

"Correct. And as a net navi of my word, I return it."

"Why would you do that?"

The navi in question smiled, throwing the box over to the red navi now known as Volcan. "Let's just say, my job here is done. Now jack out and e-mail it to a netbattler by the name of Lan-- You will have no trouble with searching for his address as he is ranked as one of the best in the world. He will know what to do with the data you now possess."

"Umm... thanks, I guess." Volcan replied, a stupidly confused look still etched on his face.

"A word of advice before you go. Improve your battle chip folder."

"We'd better get out of here Vol," Karu whispered hastily, "People are starting to get suspicious of me being in this particular spot for quite some time now."

"Oh, right," the navi bowed politely. "Thank you for the advice."

"We'll meet again."

And the red navi was gone.

The purple navi sighed, greatly amused. such talent...

Soon enough another red colored navi jacked in, sporting long platinum blonde hair.

"Ah, so the consolation prize is here."

"You're under arrest by law of the official netbattlers association. Fight back and I will be forced to use--"

"Force?" the purple navi laughed. "Boy, your skill and expensive chip based tactics could never hope to defeat me."

"What did you say!?" The navi growled, his default beam sword sparking to existence.

"Don't feel too bad though," the purple virus buster gestured upwards. "Your precious data is being sent back to electopia by the real nightmare. A navi and operator that someone the likes of you could never rival Protoman."

"Oh really?" the navi's operator replied, uploading the necessary battle chip data to battle. "Sounds like some cheap bluff to me. No one is better than Protoman, and I'll prove that fact by deleting you here and now!"

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

Poster's Note: Yeah, me, the "author" who doesn't really write anything. lol. I'm working on it, don't worry. Anyway, the author's name is Malphas, he's a good friend of mine so he's using my account first (he's a new member). Like it? :)

The Real Author's Note: Chapter 1 finished. I'll post the second chapter depending on those reviews so don't hold back those sharp tongues :P.