Lan and Glyde dodged another blow from Coloredman. They had heard the entire exchange between Saito and Yaito. Lan would of laughed if he wasn't busy trying to stay alive.
"Yaito-sama, the nearest restroom would be at the traffic station!" Glyde announced.
"Saito-kun, you better move it...!" Lan warned then fired a few more rounds of plasma at the crazy navi.
"Heeheehee!" Coloredman cackled. "I can make things go boom too! See!" He raised his hands and sent waves of fire towards the two navi's.
"AAAAAAHHH!" both screamed in pain.
Saito quickly raced into the station without even stopping to take off his skates.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" a guard stood in his way.
"I'm very sorry, but this is an emergency!" the boy gasped.
"Emergency or not, there is no rollerblading in the building, and incase you didn't know, we have a little crisis on our hands. No visitors!" the man glared.
"But-"
"Listen up you part-time piece of trash!" Yaito snarled. "My father owns this building, and if you don't get out of my way right now, I'll make sure you NEVER work in this country again! Do I make myself clear?"
"Y-Yes, Miss Ayano..." the guard slunk back to his post.
"Yaito-chan...?" Saito started dumbly.
"Hello? I've got to pee here! MOVE!" she yelled in his ear. Saito needed no second bidding and was off like a flash towards the bathrooms.
"Here they are!" he announced triumphantly. Yaito hopped off his back and ran into the bathroom as fast as possible.
"Thanks!"
"Phew...OH, LAN!" Saito quickly plugged into the nearest appliance. "Lan, are you okay?"
"I will be now," Lan smirked. "Lets give this freak the beating of a lifetime!"
"Right! Attach battle chip, sword! Slot-in!" Lan felt his hand morph into the sword and he cut the giant bouncy ball of doom in half then wasted no time in charging Coloredman.
Coloredman threw some of his little mini-me's toward the blue warrior, but they were all treated with the same respect as the ball.
"EEEEEK!" the clown screeched with fear.
Coloredman, logging out
Lan tripped over himself when his sword cut threw the empty space that the clown had occupied a moment earlier. "Aw, crap! I'm getting tired of them always getting away..."
Saito sighed with relief.
We did it...
"Saito..." Yiato walked up to him. "Thank you for helping me..."
"No problem!" Saito grinned.
The next day at school, everyone was talking about the strange traffic light incident and how it was mysteriously resolved.
"Hey, Saito-kun! School's almost over! Are you ready for your date with Meiru-chan?" Lan asked slyly.
"Lan, it is not a date! And I'm sure she was just joking..." Saito grumbled.
"Saito-kun, are you ready to walk me home?" Meiru asked as she walked up towards him. The young boy turned several shades of red.
"O-Okay..."
Roll and Lan giggled in their PET's as their operators decided to take the long way home.
Lan shifted and sighed contently in his rest cycle. Sleeping was one of the things that he enjoyed most, next to net battles of course. A small grin spread over his face as he continued to dream.
"Roll-chan..." he muttered. "I can't eat anymore..."
"Net navis don't eat, silly!" a familiar voice giggled.
"...Oh yeah...Huh?" the navi blinked and slowly regained his senses.
"You were talking in your sleep," Saito teased. "Dreaming about Roll?"
"What are you doing up?" Lan blushed and tried to change the subject. "It's too early!"
"No it isn't, its 7:00! You over slept," the human sighed. "Good thing I set my alarm clock..." The blue navi snorted with indignation. That alarm clock of Saito's would soon meet its maker.
"Saito! Time for breakfast!" Haruka called from the kitchen.
"Coming!" Saito turned back to his still pouting navi. "What? Don't tell me you're mad..."
"Why would I be mad? You only replaced me with some cheep clock," Lan humphed and looked away.
"Oh, come on. You're over reacting," the young boy sighed and made his way to breakfast. "I wouldn't have to use it if you would wake me up on time!"
"Saito, I think that you should get your navi checked," Haruka said as she placed breakfast in front of her son. "I think he might be glitched or something..."
"Papa programmed him, Mama," Saito frowned.
"It isn't that I don't trust Yuuichiro-san, it's just that Lan is... well... Odd for a navi," she shifted uncomfortably with the term. Lan was mentally debating whether he should be offended.
"I know his a little different, but he really is a great navi and I wouldn't want him any other way," the little human smiled warmly. "Don't worry, Mama, you can trust Lan!"
"Well... If you're sure..." Haruka didn't seem very convinced but decided to drop the subject. "Oh, look at the time! You better hurry on to school!"
"Right," Saito downed the rest of his cereal. "Bye, Mama! Love you!"
"Love you, too, hun!" Haruka waved as she watched her son rush out the door.
"Hey, you're on time!" Yaito smirked. "I'm surprised." Saito rubbed the back of his head nervously.
"Well, you know..." he muttered.
"I can't believe that blue boy actually woke you up..." Dekao muttered.
"Actually he didn't. I used an alarm clock!"
"Now it makes sense..."
"What is that supposed to mean, flubber gut?" Lan snarled. He was still a little touchy about the alarm clock thing.
"That you are totally useless!" Dekao growled and both started to fling insults at each other that would put a drunk sailor to shame.
"Ugh! You two are so immature!" Yaito sniffed.
"What atrocious manners!" Glyde gasped and blushed. "And in front of a lady like Yaito-sama, no less!"
"Dekao! Stop tormenting poor Lan!" Meiru scolded the bigger boy.
"I'm sorry, Meiru-chan..." Dekao bowed his head then glared at the blue navi. "We finish this later...!"
"Fine with me," Lan glared.
"Anyway!" Yaito announced, "There is something I want to show you all!"
"What is it?" Meiru asked politely.
"Its something really cool! Meet me at my house after school," she smirked.
"Okay, class! Get to your seats!" Mariko said loudly over the bustle of the room.
"Right!" Saito nodded to Yaito. "Meet you after school!"
"Class, today we have a speaker! Please pay attention and greet Mr. Higure!" she nodded to a tall skinny man with thick glasses and clothes that fit the criteria for the classic computer nerd.
"Boy, he's even more of a dork than you, Saito-kun!" Lan whispered.
"Hush...!" Saito muttered As he tried to pay attention to the speaker's rant on security systems and battle chips... Wait, battle chips? Saito blinked with surprise when Mr. Higure started to show his passion for battle chips.
"Higure-sensei?" Meiru raised her hand. "Aren't you getting a little off topic?"
"Oh, er, yes..." the skinny man muttered. Lan groaned in his PET. It was going to be a long school day...
"Saito-kun, do you remember where Yaito's house is?" Lan asked from his PET.
"It should be around here somewhere..." Saito muttered. "Ah, there it is!" he cheered when he saw the gigantic mansion.
"It's bigger than I remembered," Lan commented.
"Saito! Saito, over here!" Meiru called from a small golf cart like vehicle.
"What's all this for?" he asked.
"The surprise is hidden in my back yard. Do you really expect me to walk all that distance!" Yaito sniffed.
"Is it really that big?" Saito blinked curiously.
"It is only 20 acres in all... But the club house is only about... 30 yards or so into the property," Glyde offered.
"O-Oh..." Saito and Meiru sweatdropped.
"Hey, guys!" Dekao called as he ran up to them. "I'm here! Lets go!"
"Alright," Yaito nodded to her butler. "You may drive now." The driver nodded and soon they were on their way.
"Th-This is incredible!" Saito gasped as he starred at the giant tree house.
"What is it?" Dekao cocked his head to the side. "Some sort of a big bird house?"
"How rude!" Yaito glared at him. "This is a secret club house for net battling."
"Net battling?" Lan perked up.
"Yuppers!" the rich girl smirked at the little navi. "Check it out!"
Everyone followed the eight year old into the building. It had a kitchen, a TV, and a table with chairs. Saito had seen cabins smaller than this!
"Um, what's so special about all this? I don't see anywhere to plug in..." the biggest of the children muttered, obviously disappointed.
"Here..." Yaito smirked and pushed one of the buttons on the wall. Everyone gasped when the walls shifted and turned into monitors and other technical do-dads.
"Wow!" Saito starred in awe. "W-What is it?"
"It is the most highly advanced network of holographic Netbattling stadiums in the world!" she smiled.
"Awesome!" Dekao cheered. "Lets plug-in! Gutsman, transmission!"
"Right!" Meiru nodded. "Plug-in, Roll.EXE! Transmission!"
"Lan.EXE, plug-in! Transmission!" Saito followed.
"Wow... This system is so cool!" Lan cheered as a wave of excitement rushed through him.
"I'll say!" Roll giggled from beside him.
"Where our opponent?" Gutsman grumbled looking around the area.
Saito blinked at the life size hologram of Lan and the other navi's.
"Woah..." he muttered dumbly.
"I've never seen anything like this before..." Meiru gasped. "Its almost like we could reach out and touch them..."
"Too cool!" Dekao smirked. "I bet battling on this will be awesome!"
"Huh?" Lan turned to see that Glyde had arrived in the area.
"Greetings, everyone! You will be battling with me today," he smiled. Lan nodded, his mind traveled back to his fight with the butler type navi.
Glyde and Yaito were not to be underestimated. Even though they were both a little immature when it came to using their battle chips, they could give him and Saito a little run for their money.
"Are you sure, Glyde? You aren't a battle type..." Roll seemed concerned about her friend's safety.
"I will be fine, I assure you!" he gave her an award winning grin.
"Me smash you!" Gutsman announced.
"Lets show 'em Gutsman!" Dekao cheered.
Gutsman nodded then attacked wildly. Glyde and Yaito were able to silence the two barbarians with a well placed rare battle chip or two.
"No fair!" Dekao whined.
"You are just jealous that you don't have any rare chips yourself!" Yaito smirked. "Who's next?"
"I guess that would be us, huh, Lan?" Saito said shyly.
"You bet! Lets cream him like we did last time!" Lan cheered.
"We underestimated you last time," Yaito announced. "That won't happen again!"
"Whatever! Lets---Huh!" Lan gasped then whirled around. "What the..."
"Is something wrong?" Saito asked, confused by Lan's behavior.
"I... thought I saw something..." the navi said distantly. "Someone else is in here..."
"That can't be! This network has the best security system money can buy," Yaito snorted.
"..." Lan shook his head to clear it. "R-Right... Must be my imagination..."
Saito frowned. What ever it was, it seemed to of really upset Lan. The boy had a very bad feeling about all this...
He skated to the school newspaper meeting amazed that Lan had woken him up that morning. He smiled as he realized how hard he was trying. It looked like he did care about what people said about him. Of course he would never let anyone know that.
"Why are you so quiet?" said a voice from his PET.
"I'm just thinking."
"Oh."
Saito was taken aback, he expected some cheeky remark. Lan had been awfully subdued since yesterday.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't know. I swear there was a navi there yesterday."
"Hmmmmmm……" He was so deep in thought that he didn't realize he was lost…..
He ran down the halls and was about to get into the classroom when the door slammed shut.
"Hey, Saito isn't late!" Lan shouted.
Lan picked himself up and looked into the door. "I think they are locked in." he said.
He plugged in Lan and he went inside where the battle was starting. "Glyde!" he said as he saw the Navi fly through the air. Roll appeared next to him.
"They locked Meiru-chan and the others in the classroom. He's after Yaito-chan's rare chips. They are the prize in the outcome of this battle. But she was forced into it."
He looked at the strange navi. "That's low." He said. And rushed at him, and ran into a wall.
"There is a fire wall." Said Roll.
"Can you find the password?" Lan asked.
She nodded and put her antenna into the firewall. Then some viruses came and started to attack. Lan jumped behind her and started to blast them.
"Thanks Lan!"
"No problem."
"Ok D-O-V-E."
"Oh, the number of Dove's we have on the school grounds." Said Mariko-sensei.
"And that number would be………" said Yaito.
"I don't remember."
Everyone face faulted.
"I'll go count them!" said Saito from the door.
"Ok!" said Lan. "Good luck."
Saito flew down the halls and out towards the green house area where they kept the doves. He could hear their soft coos already. Once he rounded into the garden he spotted them and started to count in his head.
1...2...3...4...Huh? Didn't I already count that--Ahh! They're moving! Saito groaned. This might be harder than he thought...
Lan continued to fire away at all the viruses who were trying to halt their efforts. They were really starting to get on his nerves! Why did there have to be so many? And to make things worse, Numberman kept mouthing him off.
"Hahahaha! Do you really think your operator will be able to get all the passwords in time? You are nothing more than an annoyance!" the light bulb headed psycho snickered.
"Hmph! You're one to talk!" Lan sneered. "Why can't you WWW weirdoes just back off?"
"W-WWW? How dare you!" Numberman sputtered with indignance. "I'll have you know that I would never work for such an insignificant organization."
"You don't work for WWW?" Roll asked. Lan frowned with confusion but didn't say anything, he was too busy shooting down the viruses.
"Of course not!"
"He's working alone? But who would do something like this...?" Meiru said over the PET's link.
"Hey! Lan, there are 43 doves!" Saito announced.
"That's great, Saito-kun, but right now we're trying to figure out who Numberman's operator is," Lan said as Roll keyed in the number.
"Oh...?" Saito frowned thoughtfully. "Well...Roll said that he is after rare chips, right?"
"Uh-huh."
"And he seems to know a lot about the security system?"
"Looks that way..."
"What about that speaker we had earlier? He fits the bill, don't you think?"
"I don't know, I wasn't listening..." Lan muttered. Saito sighed, he should of known...
"Uh-oh! They know who we are!" Numberman gasped.
"Too bad..." the battle chip otaku's face appeared on the monitor of the class room.
"Higure!" everyone in the class room gasped.
"How could you?" Mariko starred in disbelief.
"Very easily infact... Numberman! Finish this quick before they get the next code!" the crazy teacher ordered.
"Right!" the evil navi released another assault against the weakened Glyde, causing the poor navi to scream in pain.
"No!" Lan gasped. "Oohh... When I get my hands on you I'll pay that back ten times worse than anything you could ever come up with!"
"Saito, please hurry!" Yaito sobbed.
"R-Right..." the brunette nodded. "Roll, what is the next code?"
"Searching..." Roll announced. "T-E-N-N..."
"Tennis! It is the number of different colors of rackets used by the tennis team!" Mariko cheered.
"You are the coach aren't you?" Meiru asked, "You should know this..."
"Should know, and DO know are two very different things..." the young teacher sweatdropped. "I forgot..." The children didn't bother to repress their collective groans.
"Saito-kun, move!" Lan ordered.
"Right!" Saito tore off across the school grounds towards the gym.
Lan clenched his teeth when he heard another cry of pain escape from Glyde. Yaito and the other kids tried to urge him to hold on. The blue navi decided to take out his frustration on the next swarm of viruses that were heading their way.
The gym was full of all kinds of rooms. Some were for soccer, some for baseball, and there were even some for basketball or football. But that wasn't what Saito was looking for. He needed tennis.
Saito skimmed the door's signs carefully until he came to the desired room. He quickly threw open the door and found... Nothing! The boy tried to repress the feeling of doom. Surely he had just misread the sign?
He backtracked and reread it. In big bold letters it stated: TENNIS RACKETS. But why were there no rackets?
"What are you doing in there?" a girl asked from the doorway.
"Um... I'm looking for the tennis rackets. Mariko-sensei wants to know how many there are," he half lied. There was no need to worry them about the crises. They might just cause more trouble or get in the way.
"Oh, they were taken out yesterday. We are getting some new ones because all the old ones weren't much good anymore," the girl said. "I thought she knew?"
"O-Oh..." Saito felt his heart drop into his stomach. What were they going to do now? He quietly thanked the girl then rushed out of the gym. "Lan! Did you hear that?"
"Yes..." Lan's voice was grave and hinted of anger. "There has to be a way... We can't give up now!"
"I know that, but what do we do?"
"Well... They had to get rid of the old rackets so those must be in the dumpster, right?" Saito did not like where his navi was going with this, but nodded. "Then get ready to get dirty!"
Saito groaned. This was going to be a long day...
"There are exactly 23 tennis rackets!" Said Saito into the PET.
"Did you get that Roll-chan?" asked Lan.
"2-3...ok!" the second firewall disappeared.
Lan continued to blast the viri out of the air as Roll got the last bit on information. "This is encoded in a different language F-L-O-W-E-R"
"I know! Flower, hana! How many potted flowers there are in the school garden."
"Well, at least it's the potted ones." said Saito under his breath.
"Ha ha ha! You can't beat me!" said Numberman.
"Those chips will be ours!" said Higure.
"Saito-kun, where are you?" said Lan, although no one could hear him.
"444, 445, 446" a ball came out of nowhere and hit him on the head. "Itatatatata."
"Are you ok!"
"Yeah, I think so. Thank you for your concern. Now where was I?" Saito blanched as he tried to remember the number he was at. "443, no, 446! Ahhhhh!"
"There are exactly 557 potted plants in the garden. I should know, I planted them all." Said a voice behind Saito.
"Oh, Saloma-san. Thank-you so much." he did a little bow and speed off.
"Good luck, Saito-kun." she said quietly.
"Lan, did you get that."
"Yeup, Roll-chan is putting it in the computer now."
"Too late!" said Numberman as he threw three dice. "Triple sixes, my best score ever!" As the explosions ensued there was a ton of smoke. When it cleared the unconscious form of Glyde was being supported by Lan and Roll.
"WHAT?"
"Sword, battle-chip, slot in!" said Saito.
Lan took the sword and pursued the fleeing Numberman. He caught him and threw him to the ground.
"I'm sorry, please don't delete me!"
"I won't if you release the locks on the school."
"Done."
The doors opened and everyone gave a sigh of relief.
"I'm sorry."
Higure was on the ground begging for forgiveness.
"Hmph," said Mariko "I do not look kindly upon anyone who puts my students in danger."
"I just wanted the rare chip! Children do not take care of them like I would."
"If you truly think that, then what did you do when you got your first chip. Did you treat it, 'well' in your standards, or did you just enjoy the fact that you had one."
"I-I... I'M SORRY!"
"Hurry up! Your late!" said Lan.
"I know, I know... oof!" Saito ran into Higure.
"Ahhhh, my chips, are they scratched? If you are...oh, Saito-kun. Good morning."
"Good morning! Higure-sensei!"
"Ah no sensei. I am now a businessman, with my own chip shop."
"Ohhhhh," said the boys together.
"Ahh, I'm late!" said Saito looking at his watch. He sped off to the school.
"Sorry I'm late!" He said.
The room was empty and quiet except for Lan's roaring laughter.
"What did you do that for!" said Saito.
"Oh, that was so worth it!" said Lan gasping for breath. "You totally fell for it! It's Sunday!"