Chapter 7: [Universe C] New World, New Friends Act I

... A new city, new allies ...

- Akemi City -

Akemi City was known as the bright and beautiful city of lights. There were skyscraper buildings as far as the eye can see and small bullet trains can be seen whisking away at high speeds.

Netto, Draga, Ruby, Frost, R.C., Angel, Felica, Stacy, Henshin, Natsu, Ciel, Briana, Aile and Aimi were astounded by how futuristic and highly advanced this city was. But what really caught their attention was that the Net Navis were seen wandering the busy streets.

"Look!" Aimi pointed, "Net Navis, everywhere!"

"But how is that possible?" Stacy said in disbelief, "The Dimensional Area technology hasn't been released to the public yet, so why are there Navis wandering here in the physical, real world?"

"Could it be... That we've been transported to a new world?" Bulleta deducted.

"What?!" Henshin said, "Are you sure?"

"It can't be that far fetched but we did jumped through that yellow portal." Ciel explained, "It's possible that we went on some sort of dimension hopping and ended up here."

"That can't be it..." Henshin said. He was in denial that he was in a different city rather than a different dimension. "Hey, there's a bystander!" He walks up to a thirty-something-year-old woman with long brown hair and matching eyes wearing a pink sweater over a purple T-shirt, long lavender skirt and dark purple high heels. "Excuse me miss!" He asked, "But what city is this called?"

"Oh this is Akemi City!" The woman said, "Are you kids visitors here? You should see Ayano Amusement Park! Most young tourists go there for fun!""

"Huh? Akemi City?" Henshin said baffled.

The woman walks away and crosses a street.

"Guess you were right, Ciel..." Henshin said, "We are in another dimension, but we're not in Netto's Universe right? I don't think Netto mention any city with technology this advanced." He was still in disbelief but he was grasping the fact that he was in a different dimension.

"Does that mean, we're in a totally new universe?!" Ruby said in shock.

'I know that Draco told me that the portal transport would be a bit screwy, but not this screwy!' Netto thought.

'Did you mention my name?' Draco thought when he enters his thoughts.

'Gah! Draco-kun, don't scare me like!'

'Sorry~! But for some odd reason when I was fixing the portal system when I noticed that I was unable to access the other portals...' Draco explained.

'I see... So how did that happened?'

'I believe someone was trying to lock me from accessing it, the other one that knows about this is my sister, Purity. You did have a dream about the Cyber Zone correct? My sister is in the Universe D and your home universe in Universe A. So I believe someone or something is manipulating my sister to due this. Sure we had feuds in the past, but I'm usually the one to do that due her. Someone or something is pulling the strings here.' Draco added.

'You mean that you used to lock access to the other dimensions you were watching?' Netto asked.

'Yes, but that was due to mischief!' Draco said, 'Back on topic, I noticed that the locked access need some sort of key."

'You mean a password?' Netto guessed.

'No, a real key that you use to unlock a key lock.'

'Oh, that key...'

'Anyway, I sense that a portal key is hidden somewhere in this universe.'

'What does that mean I have to search in this universe's world for the key! That's like finding a needle in a haystack!'

'Come down! Luckily, I tweaked the Ruby Dragon collar so it will be easier to find the keys.'

'What a relief, so can you tell me what the portal keys look like?'

'H~m... We're in Universe C, so the portal keys for Universes A and B should the color of the portal with the letter of the universe. You did remember the colors of the portals that lead to their respective universes?'

'Yeah, I remember the Universe A Portal is aqua green, Universe B Portal is red violet, Universe C Portal is yellow and Universe D Portal is purple.'

'So you do know your portal colors... By the way, you should ask the locals of this Akemi City if they know anything about a portal key?'

'Now, who would know where a portal key, much less know what it is? It's probably a few centuries in the future and people may think portal keys are some sort of collectable toy or something...'

'Come on... Someone is bound to have some knowledge, you just need to look in the right place...'

Draco then ends the link with Netto, "The portal key..."

"Hm? Did you say something, Netto?" Frost asked.

"Yeah!" Netto said, "We need to find a key, a portal key!"

"What's a portal key?" Aimi asked.

"A portal key is an item we can used to travel to other universes!" Netto explained.

"I've heard of them!" Draga said, "Portal Keys were mentioned in the Legend, Draco would cause mischief on Purity and lock the portals and the only way to unlock them was to find portal keys that were hidden in the different universes."

"So, where do you think this portal key would be?" Aile asked, "I mean we have no clue where to start and where it is located..."

"My choker will help!" Netto said showing his ruby dragon gem choker to everyone. "So that thing is a radar?" Aimi said confused. "I think so..." Netto said, "Anyway I think the gem is supposed to show us the way. When it glows it means the portal key is near."

"Okay then, let put that choker to work!" Henshin said.

Netto nods as he removes his scarf to fully show his choker so it could work probably. "Now where to turn..."


Two twins about 11- 14 years old were walking down the streets with their navis trailing behind them.

One twin was male and the other was female. Their navis share the same emblem which was a silver O and D with the 'O' overlapping the 'D'.

The male twin had spiky brown had and violet eyes but the female twin had purple hair and brown eyes. Both wore similar clothing, dark blue clothes and a white shirt with the same logo and black shoes.

The navis were boy and girl. The boy navi had long spiky black hair flowing out of his blue and black helmet with a spike sticking out. His chest armor had two one-inch spikes seen at the bottom half of his chest emblem, black open spikes, yellow rings on the upper rings, some spikes were on back of the palms of his gloved hands. Dark blue boots with some white rings finished the look.

The girl navi had long pink hair tied into a messy bun with a braided pig tail down from her dark blue helmet with the OD Logo and dark green eyes. Her armor had the same colors to match her male counterpart. With a white band around the collar bone and yellow rings around the upper arms. Her bodysuit was black but her gloves, where the rings are, were a dark blue. Her boots was a simple blue with some spikes stick out from the knee area.

They were the Kazami Twins, Seimai and Roudou and their navis were Buster and Blade. Unofficial leaders of the Over Drive Team, Over Drive is where the operator uses a special key to unlock his/her navi's full potential. The navi in Over Drive Mode gives them access to new moves and abilities they cannot normally learn. This is a very versatile mode and is very unique to each navi. However, not many operators and navis can use Over Drive and it takes a lot of effort from both sides in order to achieve it.

Seimai was humming a tone while fiddling with an aqua green key that had the capital A attached on one of the ends. "Seimai..." Roudou warned, "You should be careful with that key. Who knows what that key could be capable of..." "Yeah, yeah..." Seimai murmured.

"I'm serious, Seimai!" Roudou shouted, "You may drop that key! And lose it as well!" "Jeez, sis, okay... I'll be more careful of it." Seimai assured as he put the key back in his pants pocket.

"Buster, why are we going to the Over Drive Head Quarters again?" Seimai asked.

"We're going to a meeting regarding reports of mysterious rips in certain areas." Buster replied, "Apparently they started appearing two weeks ago, and no seems to know what caused these rips. So know they are closed off from the public due to public safety." "Still I wish I could go inside and know what's it like in there!" Seimai protested.

"There has been tests on the rips." Blade added, "Testers threw objects in there but they haven't come out yet."

"So you're saying if I jump into one those rips, I might not return?!" Seimai gulped. "I'm afraid so..." Blade replied, "So don't do anything crazy alright?" "Hey!" Seimai protested.

{Meanwhile}

The ruby dragon gem on Netto's choker brighten when the pair of twins went past them. "Hey it lit up!" He cried, "Then that means the portal key is with them!"

"What are you serious?!" Henshin cried, "How are we going to get it back? I mean we just can't ask... them..." He sweat dropped as he saw Aimi tapping on the shoulder on the male kid.

"Excuse me, but do you have a portal key?" She asked.

"Portal Key?" Seimai asked. He reached into his pants pocket where he stashed the key earlier.

"Yeah that's the one!" Aimi jumps as she points out the key, "Can I have it?"

Seimai was about to give it to her, but his sister had stopped him. "Roudou, what gives?" Seimai said. "There's something odd about this girl..." Roudou noted, "Excuse me little girl... What is your name?"

"My name is Aimi Tsubuki!" Aimi greeted, "Is something wrong?" "It's just you know what this key is?" Roudou said, "You're not working for the T.I.F.F are you?"

"What's tiff?" Aimi said confused, "Is it a name of a file format?"

"Guess she's not an agent..." Buster noted, "What a relief. On the other hand why would TIFF hire a young kid to do terrorist stuff?"

"T-terrorist stuff...?!" Aimi gulped.

"Aimi!" Henshin cried, "What I tell ya!"

"Who are they?" Seimai asked. "Those are my friends!" Aimi said, "The red-orange haired boy is Henshin Daidaiiro, the short haired brunette with the azure jacket is Aile, the golden haired girl is Ciel Rei, the long haired brunette with butterfly hairclips is Briana, the blonde hair girl with royal purple eyes is Natsu Pinku, she has a navi named Mira, the girl with double pigtails is Bulleta Assaina, the lime haired girl is Stacy, the blue haired girl is R.C., the blonde hair girl with the cyan jacket is Angel, the black haired girl with red eyes is Felica, the brunette with the red clothes is Ruby Unido, the brunette with the cyan clothes is Frost Kumo, the brunette with wings is Draga and the brunette wearing the orange clothes is Netto Hikari!"

"That's a lot of friends..." Seimai said. "Did you say wings on Draga's back, sorry but I don't see any wings." Roudou frowned.

"That's odd, they were on my back a while ago..." Draga noted.

"Anyway! Natsu can I see your navi?" Blade asks when she takes Natsu's Link PET. Natsu was at first hesitant to give her PET to Blade but Roudou assured that her navi won't do anything harmful it.

Mira felt this was a surreal event, a Net Navi looking at the PET Screen instead of a human made this all the more unrealistic. "This PET Model seems outdated... Severely outdated..." Blade observed. "Excuse me! But where my operator and I come from these models were just released!" Mira retorted. "Really?" Blade asked, "even the most remote towns don't have models this outdated. In fact, this Link PET Model is very hard to find these days."

"Really?" Henshin said confused, "When were Link PETs popular?" "They were popular about twenty to thirty years ago." Blade replied.

Everyone was shocked at the statement. Twenty to thirty years? In that about of time, technology had advanced significantly.

"So what's the new PET Model today?" Henshin asked.

Seimai takes out his PET which was dark blue and black but the design was both similar yet very different. The PET was slim and flatter then the Link PET. It was huge screen that covered the whole front. The top shows a thin black bar that says Seimai's PET with a green check, a small email icon, four white bars, and the current time. Below was a white rectangle showing how much zenny the PET contained, the amount of Bug Fragments and the current location. In the middle were three screens, the Activity Log, the Battle Chip Folders and Net Battles. The Activity Log screen contains useless information that shows what the PET holder has accomplished today such as selling chips for a closed amount of zenny, and picking up pastries from a bakery. The Battle Chip Folders Screen contains at least more than twenty folders with the button equip below them and finally there was the Net Battle Screen that shows how many battles were played, won and dropped. And two buttons that said start and join a battle. At the bottom were three icons, the Chip Folders, the Status of the Navi and a Save Option. Below was a button that says Plug In but now it says Plug Out.

"That's so cool!" Aimi said, "I never seen a PET that advanced. May I see it?" Seimai hands Aimi his PET so she can examine it better. "Careful with it!" Seimai warned, "The screen is fragile!" "I will..." Aimi noted.

Everyone gathers around Aimi as they want to see the shiny new PET as well. "Uh, Seimai-kun..." Netto asked, "What model is it?" "Oh that's the Touch Screen PET or TS PET for short," Seimai noted, "My grandpa is the one created them, a company named Advanced Technology Assets funded the project and are being sold worldwide now." "So who's the one who created the PET?" Netto asked. "Oh that was our great-grandpa Hiroto Seimai!" Roudou answered, "He passed away a few years ago due to health reasons..." "Oh... I'm sorry..." Netto apologized. "It's alright..." Seimai said, "You didn't mean it. Besides we all moved on from his death. Anyway, would you like to have a tour to our base? It's open to the public except for certain areas." "Sure!" Netto replied, "Can't wait to see it! Hey guys! Seimai-kun and Roudou-chan are inviting us of a tour to their base!"

Henshin, Bulleta, Natsu and Stacy looked up to hear Netto but the rest was still fascinated with Seimai's PET. "Come on guys! Seimai and Roudou have invited us to their base!" Henshin stated.

Blade then plucks the PET out of Aimi's hand, much to most of the kids' dismay, and returns it to Seimai. "Thanks Blade!" Seimai said. "Ew... There's greasy fingerprints all over it! But that's okay... I have some cleaning material at home to clean it."

The group decides to follow the twins and their navis to the base which was dark blue with glass windows and the big silver letters OD Logo perched on top. Five facilities were seen around it.

"Whoa! Is that your base?!" Felica cried. "That's right!" Seimai said, "This is where our Headquarters, Over Drive HQ is. There's at least five facilities here. The Labs, the Gardens, the Aquarium, the Testing Grounds and the main HQ Building." "The Labs is where most of the research is conducted. This is where we continue to make ground breaking technology." Roudou explained, "The Gardens and the Aquarium is just where all the plant life and marine life are being regularly monitored and the Testing Grounds is where we test new equipment and to train both ourselves and our Navis."

"Wow! That's pretty cool!" Netto exclaimed. "That's not all! You should see inside!" Buster added.

The twins and their navis guides the group to a small portal generating a surge of energy. "What's that? Another portal?" Aimi asked. "Why yes!" Blade said, "This portal is a quick transportation device. This portal will take us straight to the Main HQ Building area, specifically the upper floors."

One by one the kids step on the portal. When Netto steps on the portal, he was magically teleported to a room in Over Drive HQ. This was actually a food court with lots of people around, most of them wearing clothes similar to the Kazami Twins implying that they are workers here.

"Welcome to the Over Drive HQ Accessible Food Court or AFC for short!" Seimai exclaimed. Everyone was amazed at how hi-tech everything was. There were billboards and holograph screens floating above, most of them was about today's News.

But deep down, Netto knew that he would make new friends. Even though it was for a short period of time.


A/N: And that's the end of Act I. Next Act will feature the antagonists of the series.