CHAPTER 3 - Day in the City.

Switch stepped off of the train and glanced around, on a big screen in the town centre one of the television channels was broadcasting the highlights from last years National Netbattle Championships. She filtered through the crowd, eyes on the side of the building with the screen all of the time. A small crowd had gathered close by to watch, and she could hear them chatting happily.

Pushing to the back of the crowd she was in time to see the battle reach its dramatic conclusion as the two Navis fought it out. One red with a scarf-like flair of white hair streaking from the back of his helmet, the other blue and slightly smaller. It looked like they were duelling with swords made entirely from light.

"Excuse me," she spoke up, "who are the Navis on the screen?"

A twenty-something boy amongst the crowd looked down and answered her question with a slightly surprised expression. "That's Megaman fighting Protoman in the final," he paused and then added "You mean you don't know?"

Switch flushed a little "I'm not from around here." She admitted.

Watching the match, she suddenly remembered why she had made the long trek all of the way into the city, and felt for the reassuring weight of her PET hanging from her belt. Above her the match ended and the crowd dispersed as highlights from another arena bout were aired, and quietly she edged away from the crowd and crossed the courtyard to where a tall building was waiting with invitingly open doors.

Unnoticed, a tall figure in a white lab coat watched her go.

----

Inside the store she suddenly found herself in toy heaven. It sold everything from plushie figures to computer hardware, as well as stocking a decent selection of music and video data files that weren't out on Net release yet. Wondering idly through these candy-coloured sections she wished that she had more money with her, but her allowance only amounted enough to cover the one item she had been saving for.

Up on the third floor she fount the PET section and was greeted with a large stack of attachments for the system as well as new anti-virus data and a wide selection of battle chips. It was these that she was interested in, and with care she picked her way around the large table rigged with projectors for combat. Nobody was battling at the moment, but a healthy amount of children were eyeing the table.

"See what you want?" Enker's voice trailed up from her hip, where the PET was hung. But she had to admit that she didn't. She'd come all this way in the hopes of picking up a collector's catalogue, something that would contain a detailed description of every battle chip currently on the market. In that way she would be able to look up the strange Mirror Buster chip that had arrived the same night that Enker had. Almost six months ago now, they were still no closer to discovering his origins.

Eyeing the shelf, she finally found it and scooped it into her bag. The price tag wasn't cheap, but Enker was her friend and she had promised to help him. He'd been her loyal companion for a long time now and she wanted to prove herself worthy of such loyalty. When he had arrived she'd been an unpopular kid at school, but since then she'd learnt self confidence and found friends.

Sitting in a corner with her latest purchase, she pulled the chip out of her pocket and began to rummage through the pages in the hope of spotting the same title written across the head of a page. Each leaf was split into sections covering name, rarity, value, effect and best combo uses.

"Ugh!" she squeaked in frustration and started toying with the chip, turning it over between her thumb and fingers. It wasn't listed at all.

"What's that you've got there?" a cheerful male voice chimed in behind her and before she could do anything a man in his late twenties with a white lab coat had swiped it out of her hand and was holding it up for inspection. One eye narrowed and he made an eccentric humming sound.

"Hey!" Switch cried and tried to take it back, but he was twice her height and one well planted hand on her head stopped her getting anywhere near him, her arms waving about ineffectually in front of her and just out of reach.

"This is strange, I've never seen something like this before . . ." he announced, and tossed it to his other hand idly, letting her go then spinning her around with the free arm around her shoulders. "You know I've seen almost everything there is to see, and this is probably the work of a master. See the inlay work? Very nice!"

He was walking her out of the shop now, across the street and down the road. Before she knew it he had brought her to a smaller store where he slipped behind the counter and plucked out an order form. The owner protested for a second, then stopped abruptly when she saw who it was and simply smiled at him. She seemed quite smitten and was obviously used to seeing such strange behaviour from her man.

Banging the form onto the desk he traced a finger across it, still humming. Switch, feeling a little out of place, looked to the owner for help.

"It's alright hun," she assured her in a motherly tone, "He's a little weird but a genius. They employ him at the university, but he made his money developing battle chips when he was younger. My guess is that you have something that caught his eye right?" she smirked when Switch nodded. "How about a cup of coco? He might be a while."

The young man waved her away with one hand, obviously responding to some private joke between them and then snapped the book shut. "Nope. Not even in here." He tossed Switch back her chip which she caught with both hands and tucked away quickly before he could rethink the move.

Sighing, he looked at her confused face and realisation dawned on him. "Oh, I'm sorry." He flustered and smoothed down his jacket "My name is James Settler," he held out one hand and she shook it bewildered, giving him her name on automatic.

"That chip you have is quite remarkable, but if you'll excuse the expression, it shouldn't even exist. There's no boost to power, speed or defence when it's used and it doesn't seem to have any immediate effect. Why would anyone develop something so professionally in order to do absolutely nothing?"

Switch shrugged. She listened to him ramble on about the design and structure, which didn't mean anything to her at all. Eventually she decided that he was a nice guy, just slightly obsessed. He was relatively young and good looking, with deep blue eyes and short brown hair, and his heart was in the right place. Eventually she introduced him to Enker, who was polite but untalkative. The Navi seemed quite content to listen to the man ramble. Maybe he thought that he may be able to work out where he came from?

"I develop chips for a hobby, and published a study through the university a short while ago. But you say Enker arrived at the same time?"

She nodded.

"Hmmmm . . ." he scratched his chin thoughtfully with one hand and glanced over at the shop girl, whose name was Ruth. Turned out they were childhood friends and her store made a lot of money selling his designs. It also imported rare chips from abroad, which explained why he had gone there to check names.

The Mirror Buster didn't seem to do anything. She'd used it herself on one occasion in a training simulation, and nothing had happened at all. Enker had glowed blue for a fraction of a second then returned to normal. She figured it was a dud or that the data had been corrupted somehow.

----

"Whoever made this program was advanced." James summarised as the day began to draw to a close. Switch had spent the better part of the day learning about chips and their development from the student and his girlfriend. As the time fast approached for the last train to leave, she made her excuses and left. On her way out of the door Ruth had pushed a scrap of paper into her hands wrapped around something solid. She winked and assured her that he'd keep researching and get back to her about the chip, and that she should feel free to drop by any time.

On the train Switch unwrapped the note and found that it contained a chip. Holding it up to the light she gasped as she read the name "Paladin Sword."

"That's a good one." Enker interjected from her lap. "You should thank her."

"This may come in handy." She read aloud from the paper, "Be careful, it sounds like people have already tried to kill Enker for that chip twice and they may try again. Whatever you do take care of him, his memory may be the key to unravelling this secret. Feel free to call me anytime."

----

James looked over at Ruth across the counter and the pair shared a mutual moment of worried silence. "Well we know where Enker went." She spoke at last, "Who'd have thought that he'd end up with that innocent little girl."

Sighing, James let his gaze wonder to the window, it was starting to rain. "Enker is the greatest Navi that I have ever created. He'll protect her."

"I hope so, she's such a sweet girl, and this is all our fault."