It's Ch. 2! (pause) Well, duh, of course it is. It's the second one and… Never mind, I just went off for a sec there.
Anyway, you know that feeling when you know something really cool and you can't tell anyone but you really, really, want to? Now you know how I feel about this fic.
I feel that way in some ways.
I'm trying my best to get it up and running as quickly as reasonable. Not too fast, not too slow. So why not just get onto the fic already?
Yeah…let's get to it!
Back at an undisclosed location, two people met. One, an older shaggy looking fellow, and the other, a younger man. The first made his report. "Sir, through my vast networks of information, I've managed to locate another one of the pieces."
"Very good. What is the status of securing it?"
"My navi is going to lead a first strike team as soon as we are finished here."
"Lead from the rear, you mean?" The older one shifted nervously, but made no response. "And what about the other one you found earlier?"
"Well, given his skills, I took the liberty of sending one of our agents in to scope out the situation before we plan anything."
"Very well then, carry on and report once you have completed your work."
The older man nodded and started to walk out, but the other one stopped him by grabbing him on the shoulder. "I expect to hear good news," he added, before giving him a shove out of the room.
He watched the other scurry out before returning back to his work. Two found, two to go.
"Heads up, Lan!"
Lan quickly ducked an attack from a nearby Spikey virus before blasting it. "Thanks for the warning."
Lee grinned. "It's why I'm here."
Lee and Lan were practicing on working together in the dimensional area generator as they had for the past couple of days. Lee was getting more and more used to the work out, and more comfortable with Cyber Glove.
"Okay, next round." Dr. Hikari reported after the two of them had deleted the remaining viruses. A few keystrokes and the area began to fill with more viruses; this time it was Swordy and Metrid viruses.
"Great," Lee groaned. "Close range and long range. You take the Swordys and I'll take the others."
Lan nodded and headed off. "Long Sword, battlechip in!" One after another, the viruses fell to Lan's speeding blade.
Across the area, Lee faced a line of Metrids. One by one, they lined up and raised their flaming staffs. "Oh, shoot." Lee said. Meteors came flying toward him. Too many to dodge them all, he thought. So I'll just have to get rid of some. "Aqua Blade, battlechip in, download!" Any meteor that came directly toward him was severed into fragments.
"Here they come again," Cypher warned.
"And they're all lined up in a nice formation, ready to be deleted. Wide Shot, battlechip in, download!" Lee leveled the weapon and readied to fire it.
"Fountain, battlechip in!" Lan got there first and blasted a huge stream of cyber water into the Metrids, wiping them all out.
"Good job boys, that's all for today." Dr. Hikari reported.
Lee glared at Lan as the dimensional area shut down and Lan came out of cross-fusion. "What'd you do that for? I had them right where I wanted them!"
Lan shrugged. "You were too slow." With that he walked off.
Lee glared after him. "He's right, you know." Cypher said. "Maybe we were just too slow. Shrug it off, we'll get 'em next time."
"No." Cypher did a double take at the way Lee answered. "I can't shrug it off. It's been bugging me for a while, and I just have to let it out." Lee continued talking as he exited the room and headed out of Sci-Lab. "Just because we can't cross-fuse, Lan thinks he's better than us."
Cypher tried reasoning with him. "Are you sure or are you just jumping to conclusions?"
Lee ignored him. "Just because the Cyber Glove has some strong points doesn't mean that it completely makes up the difference."
"So you're saying that Lan rubs it in a little too much?" Cypher surmised.
"Unintentionally, yes, but it still chafes."
Cypher grinned. "So we just gotta train harder to beat him."
"Or get our hands on a Synchro-chip."
"Which is pretty much impossible."
"Yea, I know. Let's not talk about this anymore and just get home."
"Good idea." Cypher advised and put on a big grin. "Sooo… Nice day, isn't it?"
As soon as Serena arrived home, she hurried up to her room, jacked Dolph into her PC to recharge and then headed back downstairs to check in with her mom. "Hi Mom, sorry about the groceries. It's just that something came up with Dolph and I wanted to get her home as soon as possible."
"That's okay. I guess we'll just have to do with leftovers tonight. How is Dolph anyway?"
"I don't know. She's recharging, and I'll ask Dad to look at her when he gets home."
"Alright then, don't forget to do your homework!"
"I won't, Mom. I'm going to do it right now anyway." Serena walked back up to her room and checked on Dolph's recovery. No progress had been made as far as she could tell. Serena sighed and sat down at her desk, pulling out her books. It was going to be a long afternoon.
Over the next hour or two, Serena worked, occasionally glancing up to check on Dolph. Her status barely changed throughout the entire time. That was the way it went until Serena heard her mother calling her. "Serena! Wash up for dinner!"
"OK, Mom!" she called back and headed down the hall to the bathroom.
On her way back, she noticed something flashing on the screen of her PC as she passed her room. She hurried in to find out what it was. The screen read: "Recovery program interrupted."
"Dolph!" She tapped a few keys and a window popped up showing her the Cyberworld of her PC. Four navis had broken into her homepage and were attempting to navi-nap Dolph. One, a strange gray one seemed to be the leader. The other three were the thugs who had accosted Dolph earlier that afternoon.
I've got to get help! But from who? Serena glanced around the room, searching for some form of inspiration. She got it from staring out the window. Without another single thought she dashed from the room and down to the front door.
Lee, having found nothing else to talk about, had returned to the subject of cross-fusion. "But why can't I get a Synchro-chip? It's only fair since I'm a Net Saver."
"Yea, but there's only two possible ones," Cypher pointed out. "One is Lan's and the other is Chaud's."
"But Chaud never uses his anymore." Lee pointed out further. He was about to go on when he was suddenly grabbed from behind. "Hey, what's the…" He stopped short when he saw who had grabbed him. A young girl, who looked to be at least three or four years younger than him, in a black shirt with sea blue colored jacket, skirt and shoes and blue hair wrapped in the style of a dolphin tail, stood in front of him, looking close to tears.
"Please, you've got to help me!" she said breathlessly. "My navi…"
Lee put up a hand to silence her. "Which way?" he asked.
Lee noticed the extremely grateful look that lit up the girl's face before she took off back the way had came. As he ran after her, he noticed flashes of a symbol on the back of her jacket as her hair bounced around. It looked like a dolphin jumping in the air. I think I see a theme here…
Lee followed the girl all the way back to what he assumed was her house. They nearly knocked down a woman standing by the door, her mother apparently. "Serena, is everything alright?" she asked.
Serena kept on going, but Lee stopped for a moment. "Don't worry, ma'am," he said in his most official sounding voice. "The situation is under—Ack!" Serena had come back and grabbed him again, throwing him off balance. "Control!" he shouted back to the very confused woman as he was dragged upstairs.
Lee took in the situation at a glance. The four navis had very nearly succeeded in getting out of the homepage onto the Net. They were carrying a female navi in a blue suit with light blue wavy lines all over it and dark blue armor on her chest, shoulders, and shins. On her helmet was a fin sticking out of the top with her symbol on either side. More fins were on her arms and the back of her legs. Her hair was exactly like Serena's. The navi seemed to be struggling, but very weakly. Serena waited anxiously behind him. "What are you going to do?"
"Action first, planning later in this case, right, Cypher?"
"Sure, if you say so."
"OK, time for some community service! Jack in! Cypher, power up!"
Back in the Cyberworld, the four navis were carrying Dolph toward the exit. "Geez, she sure is heavy for a little navi!" one complained.
"Or maybe you're just weak," his partner snickered.
"Hey!"
"Never mind that," the strange looking gray one said, glancing around nervously. "We're almost out."
"Almost is as far as you're gonna get."
All four turned to see Cypher leaning nonchalantly near the exit. Calmly he straightened up, crossing his arms. "Didn't you guys ever learn not to take stuff that isn't yours?"
The four laid Dolph down and the three thugs started to advance while the gray one backed off nervously. "What can you do against four of us?" The leader said, smirking.
Three, thought the gray navi.
Cypher matched his smirk. "More than you thugs could imagine, or even comprehend for that matter."
The thug's smirk was replaced by a frown. "Why you little-"
Cypher waved a finger at him. "Watch your mouth, sir. There are ladies present."
"Electro Sword, battlechip in, double download!"
Cypher launched himself at the nearest thug, dispatching him before he could even react.
Netnavi, deleted.
The second one managed to upload a Fighter Sword before Cypher got to him. Cypher caught his blade between the two of his, held it for a moment, then leapt out of the way as he let it go, causing the thug's Sword to get stuck in the ground: An easy target.
Netnavi, deleted.
The leader backed off slightly. He called for assistance from the gray navi who was gradually slinking over to the exit in a wide circle. "Oy, Ratso, how 'bout some help over here?"
Ratso (for that's what the gray navi's name was, and a fitting name it was, too; he looked like a rat) had a dark gray suit with light gray armor that formed points on his shoulders, shins, and chest. His helmet was a rat's head, with the teeth forming a black visor in front of his eyes. He also had a tail that formed to a needle-like point. His symbol was two gray blocks with a black triangle between them.
For a moment, it looked as if he was going to bolt for the exit, but then he reconsidered. Two mechanical-looking attachments on his arms began to glow and summoned several viruses into the area to back up the remaining thug. Luckily for Cypher and unluckily for them, he summoned Metrids.
"Well, this is a familiar situation," Cypher observed.
"You bet, only this time Lan isn't here to mess with it. Wide Shot, battlechip in, download!"
Cypher took out the Metrids almost as soon as the battlechip loaded up. He looked around for the thug. "Where'd you go?"
"Over here, navi!"
Cypher whirled around to see the leader thug holding Dolph in front of him with his arm across her neck. "Don't do anything drastic," Cypher warned him.
Ratso took advantage of the momentary distraction to get to the exit and log out.
"Or what? You'll attack?" The thug laughed. "You'd only hit her. And that wouldn't be very good for her in the condition she's in."
Lee could hear Serena gasp behind him. "It's a standoff, Cypher. Or at least until I think of something."
"Man, I hate standoffs! They're so boring."
"I know. In the meantime, move to block the exit so he can't get out with her."
Lee turned to Serena. "Any ideas?" She shook her head, still staring at the screen. Lee turned back to the screen. Same here.
Dun dun dun! Cliffhanger, huh? What's gonna happen next? Well, you'll just have to stay tuned. That is, after you review. So REVIEW ALREADY!
