"Allen~" Starting up for what had to be the seventh time today, Shell found himself just sitting in what Allen referred to as the Maintenance Station as data started to dance around him. "When can I leave~" He whined, squirming like a little kid. To be fair he kinda was.

"As soon as that bug gets patched up."

"Are you almost done, I've been here since last night~" Shell grumbled. "And you didn't even sleep last night."

"Trust me, I know."

Allen remarked, rubbing his eyes on the other end of the screen.

"I'll get some real rest later tonight."

"You should rest now, you got school in, what, an hour?" Shell remarked as he looked at the digital clock on his side. "Take a breather. Get a shower in." Shell muttered in concern. "You can take a few minutes from not looking after me to just take care of yourself."

"I will take care of myself in a minute."

Allen grumbled.

"I just want to make sure you're ok."

"I'm fine." Shell rolled his eyes. "You worry too much."

"And you're worrying too little."

Allen fired back.

"You're head split open."

He reminded his netnavi.

"That's a red flag if I'd ever seen one. If I don't get rid of whatever bug you have, your systems could start malfunctioning or stop working all together."

Allen stated as he stopped working, yawned and started up again.

"You really should get some rest dad." Shell muttered as he stared at his operator. "I think you're going to crash soon."

"I'll be fine."

Allen stated.

"This isn't my first time going a day without sleep."

Allen admitted, looking at his Netnavi's data and caught a look that was both concerned and curious being sent his way.

"When I work on something I like, I sort of... 'lock' myself into it."

He shrugged.

"I tune out everything else and can go whole days just doing that one thing I want to work on and can even end up neglecting my own health in order to keep working on it."

"Is that healthy?"

"Not even…"

Both Allen and Shell turned, their attention turning to see the house matriarch standing at the door, a sigh on her face as she walked up to her son.

"Uh… hey mom…"


Amber Fairwind sighed to herself as she looked at her son who was doing his best impression of deer caught in headlights. "I thought I came in here last night telling you to get some sleep."

"I did sleep." Allen caught onto his mothers expression. "I mean I tried to sleep and I… my brain was just really wired so I couldn't really clock out and…" He started to babble as his mother just looked at him, sighed and walked over.

"Honestly…" She muttered as she looked at Allen's work and stared at Shell. "What am I going to do with you Allen?" She muttered as she checked the time. "I put breakfast on the table, eat, brush your teeth, take a shower and get ready for school." She told him.

"Sure, uh just give me one more minute? I'm almost done making sure Shell's better."

"You can't take care of Shell if you can't even take care of yourself." Amber stated as she grabbed Allen's notebook and started looking through it. Inside were all his notes concerning Shell's software programming. "I'll finish up for you, ok?"

"But…" Allen looked at his mother as she just closed the book and stared him down. "Right… thanks mom." He muttered as he hurried downstairs.

"That boy…" She muttered, shaking her head and opened up his notebook again as she settled into the chair Allen had been sitting in not long ago.

"Thanks grandma."

"Don't mention it." She said turning a page in Allen's notebook. "So Shell, what's wrong, you a bit under the weather?"

"I'm fine."

Shell grumbled.

"My head just split open yesterday."

"That's not good." Amber muttered as she rested a hand on the keyboard and turned her attention back to the book she was holding. "Give me a second and…"

All Shell heard were the sound of her fingers tapping keys. Windows were brought up and code was being typed in. he barely had a minute to keep up with what was going on, windows were popping up so fast and being closed up before a single message was left.

[Running Software Patch…]

"There, just give that a minute and you should be better." Shell blinked in disbelief as he stared at the woman across the screen.

"Uh…"

Was all he could say as Amber closed Allen's notebook and smiled.

"How did you…"

"You didn't think Allen got his skills just from a bunch of books did you?" "She asked, leaning back in the seat. "I used to work for SciLabs, so I know a thing or two about building and patching up netnavi's."

"SciLabs."

Shell fell silent as he looked into his generic memories.

"You mean the Ministry of Science?"

He asked.

"The place where all Netnavi's come from?"

"Well, it's not where 'all' Netnavis come from, but yes I used to work there as a part-timer." Amber admitted. "I learned some valuable skills during my time with them, and I probably could have stayed… well if my department wasn't investigated."

"What happened?"

"There was someone in my particular department doing some pretty shady stuff under the table." She stated. "SciLabs had to do an investigation and they had to let those involved go, and, if I remember correctly, they were blacklisted."

"So you were…"

"No." Amber stated with a chuckle. "I wasn't doing anything bad, in fact I was doing really good work after I got into the swing of things and they even said I could start working full time, but after the investigation, I chose to go." She admitted. "My time was up, and I was more or less there for a paycheck instead of being, because I liked it." She admitted.

"Oh~"

Shell muttered as he seemed to think.

"But Allen wasn't paid to build me… right?"

"Not at all." Amber stated. "Allen made you, because he wanted to, and if he was just doing it to get a paycheck, he wouldn't have worked himself to near unconsciousness bringing you to life." She told the young netnavi. "You're special to him."

"I'm special…"

Shell muttered for a moment as he seemed to think a bit longer. A warm feeling nestled itself into his programming for a moment.

"But…"

He started up.

"What makes me special?"

He asked.

"I'm… just a netnavi, right? What makes me… special?"

He asked.

"Why did Allen even make me?"

He asked.

"He made you… because he wanted to." Amber stated. "Sometimes that's the only reason you need to do something." Shell fell silent for a moment, trying to wrap his head around that idea. "You'll understand one day."


Novus Dinner

"Mh~" A man made a noise as he ate a bit of his smoothie. A smile on his face as he did so, while his companion just looked at him, their breakfast momentarily forgotten. A moment later though they shook their head as they returned to their pancakes and started eating.

"I swear, you need to cut back on those, Zael." The man stated. "You keep eating those, you're gonna get fat."

Zael just chuckled lightly as he looked at his counterpart. "Maybe, but if I get fat, I at least did it eating what I love, Ku." Zael responded as he went back to his sunday. "Anyway, you wanted to talk for a bit?"

"Right." Ku grumbled as he took a bite of his pancakes and waited to finish eating. "It's about this new job." He muttered. "You sure you want us to take this one?"

"Having second thoughts?" Zael asked as his counterpart just added a bit of syrup to his pancakes.

"Yes." He stated. "I'm not sure we can trust this new client." Ku admitted. "Sure Opal directed him to us, but I'm just concerned about the job he wants us for." Ku fell silent and started eating again."I can't explain it properly, but something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way."

"You're not the only one." Zael stated. "Mari said the same thing." He admitted. "She's doing a background check on this guy to see what his story is. So I expect to get some results soon." He took another bite of his sundae. "Regardless of that though, the client is willing to pay half up front so we know they're not going to try cheating us." He admitted before sighing. "And I hate to say it, but we need the money."

"Well, you aren't wrong." Ku grumbled. "So, we'll take the job?"

"Yeah, but Mari's going to be our ears." Zael stated. "She sees something wrong, she'll let us know."


"Allen!" Maylu called out as Dex and Yai turned to see the boy walking into the classroom and taking a minute to yawn.

"Hey guys." Allen replied as he walked up to the trio. "You miss me?"

"Not even dude." Dex stated, smiling before he got a better look at Allen. "You ok, you look like you haven't slept."

"He really hasn't."

Shell spoke up as Yai frowned. "You really should be getting some sleep Allen." The boy in question rolled his eyes.

"I know I know, I was just busy last night."

"And this morning."

Allen turned his attention to his PET and gave it a look. "You were trying to get rid of that bug that Shell had right." Maylu asked as Allen turned to her and nodded. "How is he, is Shell going to be ok?"

"Yeah, he's gonna be fine. Mom helped patch him up so I know he was in good hands."

"That's good to here." Dex stated.

"Yeah, and since I'm back at 100% Glyde and I can finish our sparring!"

Shell shouted as Allen rested a hand on his face and the others laughed. "Is that why you were so impatient?"

"No, I just got really bored cause maintenance was taking fore~ver."

Shell replied.

"But I do want to fight Glyde again. It gave me an interesting feeling."

"An interesting feeling?" Yai asked as she stared at the PET. "What do you mean?"

"I think he means it made him excited." Allen spoke up as he turned to Yai. "Shell's only two days old now, his Emotion Progit is still calibrating."

"… what?" Dex asked as he looked at Allen. "What's an Emotion Progit?"

"It's the software that allows Netnavi's to have emotions." Yai stated. "It allows them to 'feel'; You know, smile, laugh, and get upset without them faking it and seeming unnatural."

"Oh so that's what allows Gutsman to feel?" Yai nodded his head. "I didn't know that."

"Well, you're not studying to be a Netnavi Designer so I'm not surprised." Yai stated before looking at Allen and his PET. "Still, he's only two days old? He must be having a lot of trouble understanding what he's going through emotionally."

"Not just emotionally, but mentally too." Allen added. "There's a lot he hasn't experienced yet, so he won't really understand how to process." He stated as he looked at his PET. "I'm thinking of slowly exposing him to everything so he doesn't get overwhelmed, but at the same time I'm not sure how to go about that, I mean there's a ton of stuff he has to learn first, so where to start, you know?"

"I'm still here you know…"

Shell grumbled as Allen smiled. "I know."

"Well, we can help him." Maylu stated as Yai nodded her head. "Our netnavis can take Shell around and help explain things to him and how he feels about them.

"It'll be easier to help Shell out if he has someone by his side who went through what he's experiencing." Yai stared. "The best way to do that is to have another Navi helping him."

"Yeah but…" Allen paused as he tried looking for the right words. "Are you sure it won't get in the way of whatever plans you guys might have?"

"We'll just have to work around them." Dex stated rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Shouldn't be too hard right, we can take turns or something. If one of us has plans, someone else can help out Shell that day."

"Exactly." Yai agreed as she puffed out her chest. "It's nothing to difficult." Allen fell silent for a moment before smiling in embarrassment.

"Thanks." The bell rang right after and Allen looked at the clock. "Guess that means it's time for class."