MR. FAMOUS'S DAY OFF

Meijin was happy. Electopia was finally safe. The death of KendouMan was unfortunate, but death was unavoidable if you fight the dark power.

Meijin sighed. This reflection was ruining his day off. Wanting to get his mind off Gospel, he went to the amusement park. MagicLand was the best place to get your mind off of your troubles.

Unfortunately, when he was exiting the toilets, someone had the gall to yell "Hey! IT'S MR. FAMOUS!"

Immediately, he was surrounded by a mob of girls.

"OOH! It's Mr. Famous!" one cried.

"Just…call me Famous…" Meijin muttered.

"Can I have your autograph?" another asked.

"No…" Meijin said, and ran out of there. He decided to go somewhere completely different. He walked to the top of the End City castle and was standing on the gargoyle when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hyeh hyeh hyeh…" it laughed.

"Who's there?" Meijin asked, turning around.

"Ohhhh…I've heard all about you…Famous…" the voice spoke. Meijin turned, but no one was there. Then he looked at his PET, where KendouMan used to be. With a shock, he saw a gray navi inside. It had a microphone for one arm and its legs looked suspiciously like gun parts. The single eye glowed red and blue, alternating.

"I…am RecorderMan," RecorderMan said. "I've come for you, Famous. I know about the death of KendouMan, and I've come to help you."

"Where have you come from?" Meijin asked.

"I have come from the Undernet. I am Darkman's second-in-command. I am the commander of the Bloody Quartet. I… am… death…"

Meijin's eyes widened. Darkman and the Bloody Quartet were at the top of the wanted list. The slaughter and carnage they had caused was legendary. No one knew their operators, or even if they had operators. Meijin spoke again.

"Who are the operators of the Bloody Quartet?" Meijin asked, trying not to betray any emotion in his voice.

"Well…" RecorderMan answered, thinking. "ScorpionMan is operated by Matteo Alacran, the new El Patron."

"That one's no good…" Meijin sighed. "The El Patron has too much power."

"CameraMan," RecorderMan continued, "Is operated by a kid who lives in ACDC Town."

Meijin made a mental note of that. It might be useful.

"Mephias is operated by a street vendor in End City," RecorderMan continued.

Meijin stood up.

"And I am operated by you…" RecorderMan concluded.

Meijin jumped off of the castle. Running to the main plaza, he looked around. There were way too many street vendors around here. By the corner was one cooking lasagna on a stove. Meijin examined the stove. A plug was on the side. Maybe this was the street vendor RecorderMan was talking about.

"Which one is it?" Meijin asked RecorderMan.

"I do not know," the navi replied. "We do not know names or faces of the operators, just occupations."

Meijin decided to take a chance. He walked to the vendor.

"Good afternoon," Meijin said, very casually. "How much is a slice of that lasagna?"

"250 zennies," the vendor replied. "But for 600, I'll give you a slice of cheesecake and a soda, too."

"Sounds good," Meijin said, handing over the zenny. When the vendor wasn't looking, he plugged RecorderMan into the stove.

"That's him," RecorderMan said to Meijin.

Mephias was huge. A mask covered his face, and he had a glowing red sword attached to his right arm. As powerful as he seemed, he appeared to be slightly scared of RecorderMan.

"R-RecorderMan, sir!" Mephias stuttered, his left arm in a salute. Back in the real world, Meijin was eating his food. When he had finished all of it, he pulled the plug and confronted the vendor.

"You are under arrest by the order of the Officials," Meijin spoke, flashing his badge. He hauled the vendor to the police station.

"This man," Meijin said to the officers, "Is the operator of Mephias, third of the Bloody Quartet."

The police officer grabbed the vendor by the neck and thrust him into a room at the back. Meijin exited. Some day off, he thought. He had spent the morning hunting the Bloody Quartet. His afternoon'll be spent, too. He headed toward ACDC town.

When he arrived there, he looked around. It was a nice town. He hadn't been there for a while. Maybe after this he could stay here…

"RecorderMan," Meijin asked his navi. "Why did you betray the Bloody Quartet?"

RecorderMan took a while before he answered. "The Quartet is evil. I am not truly evil…"

Meijin started towards a house. When he knocked, a woman who Meijin recognized as Yuuichiro Hikari's wife opened the door.

"Ah, Meijin!" Mrs. Hikari said, smiling. "Very nice to see you again!"

"Likewise," Meijin replied. "Do you know of any teenage boys living in the town?"

"There's my Netto," Mrs. Hikari said, counting off on her fingers. "There's his best friend Dekao. A few others…Ah, yes. There's also another who moved in not too long ago. I think his name is Erik. He lives in front of us."

"Thank you, Mrs. Hikari," Meijin replied, shaking her hand, and set off towards Erik's house. A jittery man answered that door.

"W-what do you want?" the man asked.

"Hello, I am Famous," Meijin replied. "I was wondering if I could speak to your son."

"C-certainly," the man said. "ERIK! GET DOWN HERE!"

A tall and skinny boy of about 15 came to the door.

"Yes?" Erik asked.

"Hello, I'm F-" Meijin began, but was cut off by the look of dawning comprehension on Erik's face.

"You're Famous!" Erik gasped. "It's an honor to finally meet you!" Erik started to shake Meijin's hand vigorously.

"I see you've heard of me," Meijin said. "What say you and I have a battle, so I can test your skills."

Erik's face lit up. "Sure! Let me get my PET!" And he ran upstairs. Meijin looked around. The house was certainly a nice one. A corner of the living room was devoted to a sort of test area. There were dismantled PETs all over the table. A welders torch was in its case. Erik came running down.

"Got it!" he cried. Then, he looked up. "Hmm…Looks like it's going to rain. How about we do this in my room?"

Meijin grinned internally. This was the perfect excuse. "Certainly!" Meijin said brightly, and they tramped up to Erik's room. It was amazing. A state of the art PC was in the center. Erik watched Meijin admire it.

"Nice, isn't it?" Erik asked, a grin on his face.

"Must've been expensive…" Meijin murmured.

"I built it," Erik replied. Meijin looked around more closely. The whole room looked like an ultracondensed SciLab. Tools neatly lined the walls. A corner was devoted to robotics. The other corner seemed to be a programming station for making navis. However, the most amazing thing was the station next to the PC. It was strewn with battlechips, docking stations, transmitters, and tools for battlechip creation.

"So, when will we netbattle?" Erik asked, impatiently.

"Oh, of course," Meijin spoke distractedly. He plugged RecorderMan into the PC.

"You know," Erik said. "This is a perfect opportunity to test out this new chip I made."

"Is that so?" Meijin replied. "Well, this is the perfect opportunity to test my new navi."

The two navis faced each other in the cyber arena. RecorderMan snapped his arm up in a salute.

"CameraMan, sir!" RecorderMan said, and transformed into a gun that CameraMan caught.

"You…fell…for…it…Meijin," CameraMan said, and aimed the gun at Meijin. The blast shot through the monitor and slammed Meijin against the wall.

"Now," Erik said, towering over Meijin. "We shall see…" and he injected something into Meijin.

Spasms wracked Meijin's body. He rose into the air. His face began to change. No longer pleasant, it had turned dangerous, evil. Meijin was now a dark human. The truth had lost its most important ally, and the dark power had gained the mightiest warrior.

Or so it thought. With a scream, Meijin turned back to normal. Slamming Erik against the wall, he opened the window and jumped out.

Now all he had to do was find another navi. Maybe he would enjoy his day off after all.