The weekday after the telephone incident began pretty normally. The various workers who'd been angry before had been enticed back with raises, chocolates, and other treats, as well as promises to forget that this mess had ever happened. None seemed happier than Mariko-sensei, but someone in class had heard that that was because she'd gotten a substantial bonus along with a number of praises from the school principal. About the only unusual thing that could be said was that it was pouring rain outside, and even that had been predicted by the weatherman that morning. As Class 5-1 continued with their schoolwork, Turboman was surprised by Ring's appearance in Kaita's desk.

"Call Kaita's mum and ask her if he can do his homework at Mary-chan's place," she said, opening a word processing program and typing up directions. "These should sort of be from Mary-chan's house to your house, but you won't need them until afterwards. I asked Mum-Mary-chan's mum, I mean-and she said she'll pick us up. Sure beats walking in the rain, that's why I thought of this."

"I haven't even asked Asuna-san!" exclaimed Turboman, flustered.

Ring rolled her eyes. "Well, ask her, then! School's almost over, you don't have much time! Chisao's mum said yes, y'know."

"Okay, okay!" With that, Turboman composed the e-mail and sent it off. As he did, he thought of something. "I know you've told her mother, but what about Mary-chan?"

Ring shrugged. "I'll get around to it." The message box flashed, and she ran over to see Asuna's response. "She said yes! I knew she would!"

"I kind of hoped she would, too," confessed the red Navi. "This afternoon would've been such a yawn..." Closing the e-mail, he said, "Now, you should really tell Mary-chan about this."

The yellow-clad Navi sighed, "Okay, okay..."

Teruo stared glumly out the window at the rain pouring down outside his house. "I'm booooored," he whined, resting his head against the glass. "Sparkman, aren't you finished yet?"

"Completely, Teruo-san," responded the orange Navi, reappearing in his Operator's PET. "From what I heard, they're going to that Towa girl's house-a perfect opportunity, right?" Sparkman would've grinned if he'd had a mouth as he said, "Things'll work for us this time, I'm sure."

"Yeah. We'll finally get back at those little brats for beating us!" proclaimed Teruo, ignoring how close he and Kaita were in age. "Now, where does this chick live?" he asked Sparkman, bringing his wrist up to look at the PET.

"Just down the street," said the Navi. Teruo raised his eyebrows in surprise. The neighborhood where he lived was home to the richest residents of Densan City. "Her mother's a fashion designer from Kingland," Sparkman explained.

"Ah," replied the dark-haired boy as he attached his PET to a laptop sitting next to him. With the push of a button, Sparkman was projected onto the monitor. "Well, then, let's give her a good welcome to Japan!"

The car was not unusual; the driver was not unusual; indeed, Mary's friends had very little warning of what awaited them when they got out of the car. "Welcome to our humble abode!" said Ring, even as Kaita and Chisao stared in awe at the three-story mammoth of a house that loomed over them. "Completely pathetic compared to the family manor in Kingland, but we manage."

Mary's mother just smiled wryly at this comment and unlocked the door, ushering the three children in. "We have pink lemonade, cookies, crisps, there's some other stuff in the fridge..."

"Cookies, please," requested Chisao.

"Good choice!" said the blonde-haired woman brightly. "Oh, yes, and the plug-in port's right next to the stairwell if you want your Navis out." Mary had already plugged her Navi in, and the result was quite a surprise for her friends.

"That's so cool!" said Kaita with a huge grin, running over to do the same. Chisao was right behind him. "Wow, Turboman, you're really tall!" exclaimed the eleven-year-old, staring up at his six-foot-tall Navi in awe.

"I know! Isn't it neat?" Ring explained, "Us Navis can't actually knock things over and stuff-some silly law here in Japan-but we can show up like this."

Mary continued, "We had a whole materialization chamber in Kingland, since Dad's a supporter of their science program. But it's not legal here, like Ring-chan said, so this is as good as it gets."

Ring smirked. "Now who's bragging, Mary-chan?" she teased.

"Well, I would like to take you guys over there someday," said Mary. "Maybe on summer break."

"I'd love to go!" As they went upstairs, Chisao asked, "So, which assignment do you want to start on?"

Giving her Operator a confused look, Ring asked, "Assignment? We're not supposed to do homework, right?"

Mary reminded, "Ring-chan, we got together to do just that, remember?"

"Don't be silly, Mary-chan. We're going to play on the Gamestation V! Study groups at this point in your life are all about having fun and talking with your friends first, and actual homework and boring stuff after Mum comes in and makes you do it," said Ring knowingly. "It's not until college and the last bit of high school that you actually have to study."

Mary frowned. "Are you sure about that?"

"Positive. Besides, it'll be much more fun this way. Right, Turboman?"

"Right!"

A small ping sounded from the one-eyed hacker's laptop, and Black frowned at the message that appeared on his screen. "He didn't even report to me before starting on this mess, like he was supposed to," he said placidly. "What bad form." At the moment, he couldn't care less about Teruo's unpermitted misbehavior. All of his attention was on a text box. The scroll bar revealed its enormity, and the contents were gibberish to anyone with even slightly less skill than him. It was currently less than one-fourth of the way done.

"I hope Yumi's ready soon," he muttered to himself as he tried typing in another line before pressing the Enter key. A second window, simulating what would actually happen when this section of the huge project gained a physical form, demonstrated his failure as a huge, slightly lumpy pile of cheery yellow goop. "I'd love to see how to make this thing work from scratch, but he's getting impatient."

After two hours of fun, games, and the day's homework, Ring had urged Mary to give her friends the grand tour of the house. As Turboman noticed, her wanting to show it off went back on her earlier verdict of 'completely pathetic', but Ring countered that that was only in comparison to their Kingland home. It was still impressive, she claimed, just not as impressive.

It was certainly impressive enough for Kaita and Chisao, as their spending the tour amazed proved. Unfortunately, something was bound to go wrong, and go wrong it did near the end of their trip.

"And this is the storage room. Which... is boring, but it's still part of the house," explained Ring as the guests looked around at the assorted cleaning equipment. "Everything's automated, so we don't need to pay maids or anything. Saves some money and all!"

"Everyone has automated things around now," noted Mary. "This isn't even the newest stuff..."

"Well, well, well. If it isn't little Miss Mary and her annoying Navi!" The voice came from around them, echoing a bit. Still, Mary knew it well.

"Sparkman! What are you doing here?"

Jeeringly, the Navi explained, "Teruo-san and I feel that your fluke win a couple of days ago shouldn't go unpunished."

"Fluke?" scoffed Ring. "Mary-chan and I kicked your sorry butt!"

"I was going to ask if you wanted to surrender quietly, but your attitude says it all. In that case, I don't have much of a choice, do I? Farewell, children..." A flash of laser light came from the wall to the nearest cylindrical object. The shadowed machine wheeled itself into the light, its long stalk lifting threateningly into the air.

"Oh, come on. It's just a vacuum cleaner!" laughed Kaita.

The vacuum cleaner almost seemed to deflate for a moment. Then, it suddenly grew fangs, claws, and an assortment of spikes and black paneling.

"But... but... that isn't even necessary for doing its job," protested Kaita weakly. "What are the chances..."

"Forget the chances, just run!" shouted Turboman as the emo floor cleaner revved up, ready to suck the three kids and their PETs into oblivion. Chisao and Kaita made a break for the door, then turned to see their friend walking over to them painfully slowly. They were almost ready to lift her up and carry her out of harm's way when she stopped them.

"Don't worry," reassured Mary. "That vacuum isn't fast at all, so we won't have to run. It's very nice of you to volunteer, though," she said, smiling. "Come on, let's go!"

Inside his hijacked vacuum, Sparkman frowned as he wondered, "Huh? What's that mean, 'isn't fast'?" He checked one of the screens in its computer and swore. "A snail could win against this thing in a race! Just my luck!" Kaita and his friends were long gone, and it would take days for the emo vacuum to catch up. Sighing, Sparkman directed it to trundle over to a plug-in port on the wall, where he beamed himself into the house network. "Much better. Now, what should I do?"

Being on the Internet reconnected Sparkman with Teruo's PET, which was still connected to the laptop sitting on the teenager's lap. In response to his Navi's question, he replied, "Oh, I don't know. Set the dump on fire for all I care-my favorite show's on right now! Leave me alone!" and closed Sparkman's window, leaving the Navi to his own devices.

"Well, okay!" said Sparkman with a shrug, already looking for the proper area.

"It's kind of obvious that Sparkman'll want to try something else," Chisao noted. The three children and their Navis were heading to the first floor. That way, if anything serious happened, they would be closer to an exit. To Mary, he said, "We'd better tell your mother. She can call the Net Police, and they can sort this guy out."

"Net Police? Who needs the Net Police for Sparkbutt?" jeered Ring.

"Chisao-kun's right. Sparkman may not be the most threatening Navi, but we need the Net Police to arrest him," Mary told her Navi. "If we tried, he could easily say that we're the ones harrassing him. If he's really got friends to cover his tracks, there'd be no easy way to prove he was doing anything wrong."

Chisao began to agree, but a scream from downstairs cut him off. "Towa-san!"

"Mum!" The three rushed downstairs, Mary lagging slightly behind the other two. As Kaita and Chisao returned their Navis to their PETs, she stopped at the bottom, breathing as deeply as she could.

"Mary-chan, please don't push yourself," Ring said, worried for her Operator's sake more than she was for the house. The room around them was burning hot, and the heat was coming from the appliances in the kitchen. Everything that Sparkman had touched was in flames. Mary took deep-but shuddering-breaths, her fear not helping her to return to a normal heart rate.

As Chisao helped Mary's mother out of the house, Kaita turned to see the girl sitting on the stairwell. "Mary-chan, we have to go!" he called, running over to her. "Either we see what's going on here or we get out-whichever one happens, we've got to hurry!"

"A-All right..." Shakily, Mary got to her feet. "There's a fire extinguisher in the closet. If you put the fire out near the leftmost part of the oven, there're two ports that we can use."

Kaita nodded. "Got it!" As he turned to get the red object from the closet, Mary took a deep breath.

"I think I'll be okay now," she told Ring quietly. If Kaita could hear her, he made no indication. "Ring-chan, plug out." The worry still evident on her face, the pink-eyed Navi vanished from the room.

Meanwhile, Kaita had put out most of the flames. "Come on, let's plug in!" he called over his shoulder.

"Right," his friend agreed.

"What? You think you two can just waltz up here, huh?" asked Sparkman. Suddenly, streams of flame flew out of the appliances. Kaita dove under and weaved to the side, making it to the plug in port; however, Mary wasn't as lucky. The fire had her pinned against the wall, where she was coughing uncontrollably.

"Mary-chan!" yelled Kaita.

He wasn't the only one who appeared alarmed. "I-but-WHY DIDN'T YOU GET OUT OF THE WAY?"

"She can't, knucklehead!" yelled Ring. "She's got a heart problem, she can't run or do anything that might wear her out!"

"Don't... tell..." Mary managed to whisper before her coughing worsened.

"I'm sorry," the Navi told her Operator quietly. To Kaita, she cried, "Don't just stand there, send Turboman in to wallop Sparkman!"

"But-"

"Ring's right, Kaita-kun," Turboman said. "It'll take you more time and put you in more danger to get back over to Mary-chan than it will to beat this guy down!"

Kaita took one last look at the spot where Mary was trapped before turning back to the plug in port. "If you say so," he murmured. "Plug in, Turboman EXE! Transmission!"

Sparkman was staring at the controls when Turboman arrived, poking his needles into them rapidly. "Turn off... turn off... why aren't they turning off-oof! Hey!" he yelled at the red Navi after a well-placed Turbo Wheel sent him flying away from the blue screens.

"It's no use, Kaita-kun!" Turboman exclaimed after a few moments. "Someone's controlling this from the outside."

"Probably one of Sparkman's friends," Kaita said. "I bet they'll stop when Sparkman's beaten! Cannon, slot in!" Sparkman had barely been back on his feet for more than a few seconds when Turboman's attack sent him sprawling once again.

As he got to his feet, he growled, "So that's how you want it, eh? Spark Ball!"

"Kaita, destroy it fast!" Ring yelled from behind him.

"Got it! Battlechip: Vulcan, slot in!" The machine gun's spray of bullets pinged against the orange ball's exterior for a moment before it exploded, allowing the remaining attack to hit Sparkman. "Now, let's finish him off! Battlechip: Flame-"

Suddenly, a window popped up, overlooking Sparkman.

"...and if you won't bother to make sure your Navi doesn't make a fool of himself, you obviously aren't interested enough for Black to spend any time on him," a woman scolded Teruo from his laptop. He noticed them and shook his head at her, embarrassed, but she wasn't planning on just hanging up. "Yes, I see it, you have company waiting. I hope you're sufficiently entertaining to them. I'll be watching, and if Black doesn't hear good words about you, kiss a chance at an upgrade goodbye. Now, go have tea and cookies with your friends," she mocked, closing the connection to leave Teruo glaring at his blank screen.

"Stupid brown-haired people, think they own the world..." he muttered, scowling. "Sparkman!" he yelled next, fishing out a Battlechip. "Let's show him what we've got!"

Kaita put the Flame Tower chip away; if Teruo blocked it, he didn't have any other powerful chips. Meanwhile, Sparkman's Operator had given his Navi a Cannon chip. "Turbo Wheel!" yelled Turboman, sending his attack speeding toward his opponent just before he leapt away.

"Give me a break. Is that it?" asked Teruo with a laugh. "Area Steal!" Sparkman was suddenly at Turboman's back, firing what remained of the Cannon. Caught off guard by the attack, Turboman was sent sprawling.

"Spark Arm!" yelled Sparkman, jabbing his needles down at the spot where Turboman laid. He managed to roll on his side at the last minute, dodging the direct attack. He winced as he heard the electric energy crackling inches from him.

"Battlechip: Area Steal!" Kaita called before spiriting his Navi away from Sparkman's dangerous arms. "Now, while he's off guard! Flame Tower, slot-in!"

"Got it! Flame Tower!" Both Operator and Navi breathed a sigh of relief when Sparkman was logged out. Though Teruo's opinion was expressed in a scream of frustration, Sparkman didn't seem to be complaining.

"Just you wait-I'll get both of you one day!" promised Teruo before he vanished from Kaita and Turboman's view and left their thoughts entirely.

The sprinkler system suddenly poured down on the whole area, letting Kaita and both of the Navis breathe a slight sigh of relief. "Mary-chan!" called Kaita, running to his friend's side. She was breathing-unconscious, but breathing. "Turboman, call the hospital," Kaita ordered, plugging his Navi in. Now, all he could do was sit by Mary's side and wait. "Ring," he asked worriedly, "do you think she'll be okay?"

Ring sighed. "Yeah. No thanks to me." She scowled as she continued, "I hate those dumb holograms. I could've been a million miles away for all the help I was!"

"At least she'll be okay," Turboman reassured Ring. "That's what counts, right?" To Kaita, he said, "I told them everything-they'll be here as soon as possible."

She nodded. "Yeah." There was a moment's pause; the faint sound of a siren became audible. "Hey, don't hold any of this against Mary-chan, okay?" she asked, peering up at them from Mary's limp wrist with a worried look. "She's a great kid, and she's really scared that people won't like her 'cause she can't do everything they can. And... I guess I am too, a little. But don't tell her I said that, okay?"

"Don't worry about it," Kaita said.

Ring smiled. "I'm glad she has friends like you," she said.

"Thanks-I'm glad I know her, too." Kaita's smile wasn't as bright as it would've been-Mary's current state had him worried, despite Ring's reassurances-but it, and the presence of the doctors, still reassured his friend's Navi. "Oh! I'm so glad you're here... no, worry about her, not me! It was just a little smoke-I'm really okay!"