Chapter 1: Out of the Fire and Into the Streets
I sigh as I make a makeshift house for myself. It's the third week since I was kicked out by my father leaving me with nothing but my laptop, its charger, my PET and its charger, and a bit of money. I was currently under the dome in the play ground near the school to which I have to attend now since my father signed me up for it. I opened my laptop to begin installing my newest purchase. Before arriving I bought a customizing pack from my net navi who is an Alpha A model, a high end basic model. According to the chip guy, he had special abilities, and is best for those who have never had a custom net navi. I bought it since it was on sale for 75% off its original price. This brings me here which shows that my installation is complete, now I just need to boot up my PET. "Hello, I am your new net navi, Circe (pronounced Kirk-ee). I specialize in visual tricks and manipulation as my fighting style. This leads me to be able to engage in short, medium, and long range battle." Interesting, so he's a a ninja of sorts, though his apparel says otherwise. "I can summon up to nine different puppets, though they have to be used via battle chip." I groan internally, I don't have enough money for such chips. Anything that involves summoning with battle chips spells high prices. "Four are provided but due to me being a version 1.0, I can only summon up to two at a time. Further down the line, I should be able to summon more as I explained earlier. One more warning, before I have my personality file installed as well as the rest of my design: Unlike other navis, I can run out of energy in a fight. Your PET will have my life gauge and my energy gauge, if my energy gauge drops more than half ways, I will not be able to control my own puppets leaving me with nothing to defend against myself. Also, right now is the best time to make a copy of me as a back up, since after my personality file is installed, I will be unreadable to you and you will not be able to make backups of me further down the line." That is weird, I guess this is why he was on sale, he is a win big or die trying kind of navi. I don't care, he's my first navi, and I'm sure that he can't be all too bad. "Installing remaining files, estimated time, half an hour." Another big plus, is that he didn't have much left in order to download. It was around six in the afternoon when Circe finished installing. His design was now completely different. Before he seemed more like a navi built for speed, but now he wore a dark colored coat, his right eye shone through the mask on his face. He also had light streaks on his cloak as well as a darker yet still visible swirling pattern on his cloak that continued to his mask and ended at his right eye. To my surprise, his coat moved freely as my new navi explored his new home. His coat looks like a heavy trench coat, but acts like a long sweater when he moves. I guess he does live up to his name of being a master of visual tricks. "So do you like your new home?" I ask him as he then appears in front of my screen. He nods, "It's actually pretty cool in here. I mean it will need a few flares here and there, but other than that it's cool." Interesting personality, he's much more laid back than I expected, in fact from what I heard, he seems to be much more that what meets the eye. "So, huh…" he began rather awkwardly, "What exactly is your name?" I face palm, "Sorry, the name's Jonathan." After my little argument with my father, I still don't know if I am a Simmons or not. "Awesome, now," Circe began as he cleared his that, "Jonathan, it is part of my coding to have you go through a small tutorial so you understand hoe I work. I know that you were briefed about my abilities, but theory is different from practice you know." I nodded and began the tutorial program that should only run once. "I think that we should begin with the most basic of my abilities, elemental changes. If you notice at the bottom left corner that I have three to choose from, WaterBase, FireBase, and GrassBase. Right now I'm your typical normal navi with no element benefits. You are able to choose one while we battle in one of two ways. First you can choose it as a full make over or use it as a power boost. Keep in mind if you use it as a power boost, you have to allow for it to recharge until next time." I nodded in understand, that wasn't too hard. "I don't think that you need practice on selecting and clicking the OK button so on to the second half of the lesson. My special ability of puppet manipulation. You are able to control my puppets while out on the playing field or have them automatically attack or block as they see fit. Insert two of the summoning battle chips into the field." I did as I was told and two different looking navis appeared, however they bore resemblance to the original in the center. The one on the left had a cloak that seemed to be alight, while the other one had more of a flowing feel to him. "Tell me one thing," my instructor began, "If a water attack clashes with a fire attack what happens?" I answered that they cancel out and he nodded at my answer. "Yes, but what happens after they cancel?" I thought about it, "Steam covers the field from the water that was vaporized," I began. "Good, now tell me, what is my especially?" I began to understand, "Right-o I want you to try it out." I did as I was told and had the puppets release a fire tower and an aqua tower. Upon colliding, the steam appeared as theorized, "Now for my special ability, I am able to hide in the steam and allow to attack the opponent from behind provided that the steam stays there long enough." I understood, "Good, now finally, my power gauge. You see since I can control other puppet navis I run out of my programmed endurance to fight. Since I get to control more than one navi at a time, I use up much more energy than any other navi. Compared to one I still have more than them, but my true power lies with me being able to use my puppets. A gauge is provided so you keep an eye on my power levels and pull me out if necessary. Remember, if I drop to zero, I vanish. It's the same way with humans, if they don't have energy to keep your blood pumping, then you won't live for very long. Once more I will emphasize, my true power comes in the form of me being able to have control over any navi's movements, I'm not limited to my puppets but also team members as well. Well, I think that's all you need to know for today, we can now have fun, what do you say, eh?" I nodded. Sure it was a mouthful of information, but it isn't as hard as it seems, with practice I'm sure that we can become great net battlers.