The net navi turned around & started walking. Shade said nothing & followed close behind, wondering what the net navi was about to show him. He shuddered at the thought. What could the net navi want to show him? Shade followed the net navi down a long wall-less hall. They came to a series of horizontal lines, they disintegratd upon being approached. Shade walked through the spot where the door was & saw it reintegrate after he walked through it. After a while of following the net navi down several hallways, they came to another room with several screens surrounding the pair.
"Where are we?" Shade asked, curious. The net navi turned around & faced Shade. Something about his stare made Shade feel uncomfortable. Maybe it was the fact that Shade couldn't see his face, so he didn't know what to expect the net navi to do. Just then, with a wave of his hand, all the screens disappeared.
"But first, we have to train you for the outside cyberworld." The net navi said. Shade stood there confused, unsure of how to respond. The net navi put its hands up & opened his hands towards Shade. Just then, a row of 3 panels appeared in front of him. Followed by another row of 3, & another, making a large square of gray panels with a blue outlining. Shade was frightened by this, not knowing how to respond. He wanted to run from the appearing squares, but he knew that the net navi only wanted to train him for his new life. As more squares in rows of 3 appeared, Shade noticed a difference in them. The outlining is now red. Perhaps it was to mark his & his opponent's territory. Another row appeared where he was standing & he saw he was in the middle square. As the final row appeared, the net navi put his hands down & the squares stopped appearing. Shade looks down at his feet & sees that he's in the combat area. Just then, the entire combat area was lifted off the floor. Shade was surprised & scared at this. He wanted to fly off & escape, but remembered why he was up there. He decided to let the panels levitate him above the floor. He stood up & stayed still in the combat area. Just then, a dark blue mask with a light blue line going up from the bottom & stopping at the middle covered Shade's lower face.
"AAHH!" Shade shouted in fear. He grabbed the mask & tried to yank it off, but to no avail. "GET IT OFF!" He shouted. "GET IT OFF MY FACE!" Just then, the net navi floated up to the battle area on a panel separate from the combat area.
"Don't worry, Shade." The net navi said. "That won't hurt you." Shade stopped yanking the mask & looked at the net navi, confused.
"Huh?" Shade asked.
"That's a combat mask." The net navi explained. "All net navis have them. They protect your face." Shade looked at the net navi, then looked down at the mask on his lower face. He placed his hands on it & felt it. It felt hard, but unlike any other hard he ever felt before, even rock. Shade looked back at the net navi.
"Does it really work?" He asked.
"You bet." The net navi said. "Helped me out a few times. Now, on with the combat training." The net navi put a hand up & a beam shot toward the blue middle square of the battle area. It hit the middle square & took shape. Shade looked at it confused, his opponent was a small black orb with eyes. He had some yellow feet, & a yellow helmet with a black line & a green plus sign on it. Shade looked at the net navi confused & kinda miffed.
"Do you have any faith in my combat abilities?" Shade asked.
"Don't be mad, Shade." The net navi said. "Every net navi trains with these guys, to start them out." Shade sagged his shoulders.
"Fine, so what do I do?" Shade asked. The net navi pointed at Shade.
"First, I'll start with the basics." He said. "You know, common knowledge that everybody needs."
"Alright." Shade said.
"First off, you might notice numbers above the virus' head." The net navi said. Shade looked down at the virus & saw a 40 above his head. An arrow pointed at the 40. "That's the virus' hit points." The net navi said. "To delete it you must widdle them down to 0." Shade looked at the net navi like he'd grown another head. Obviously the net navi was speaking in a way that Shade had never heard before.
"Huh?" Shade asked, confused. "Virus? Delete? Hit points?" The net navi closed its eyes & shook his head.
"The thing in front of you is a virus, there are a lot of different types of viruses." The net navi said. "You'll meet more as you go on. This is the most common virus, a Mettaur. Deleting it is the net's way of killing it. It's hit point act as its health." Shade nodded his head in understanding.
"Uh huh." He simply said.
"Okay." The net navi said. "Now anyway, do attack it, you just gotta hit it. Normally your default weapon, the Shade Buster as we call it, works in this situation. Go ahead, try it out." Shade looked at the net navi, puzzled.
"How?" He asked.
"To do that, you have to put your right hand in a fist & clench it." The net navi said. Shade nodded his head. He then put his right hand up & clenched as tight as he could. Just then, he became frightened at what happened, his fist started glowing & took a new shape. It had become a cylinder with a little nub sticking out at the end with a small hole on it. Shade was frightened; his own hand was now a whole new thing.
"WOAH!" Shade shouted in amazement.
"I know it's a surprise, but you'll eventually get used to it." The net navi said. "Just aim your Shade Buster at the virus & squeeze on the inside to build up energy. Release to fire." Shade nodded. He stuck his buster up at the virus & started building up energy. He then noticed the virus doing something. It pulled out a pickaxe & slammed it into the ground, sending a snake-like shockwave at Shade. Shade reacted in time & leapt from its path. He decided to fire & did so. However, the recoil launched him back & he landed on his side. He stood up, still recovering & he looked at his new arm.
"What was that smack I felt?" He asked. The net navi paused the virus and got Shade's attention.
"That was the recoil." The net navi said. "You have to get a good firm grip on the ground before you fire, otherwise that will happen." Shade looked at the net navi & nodded in understanding.
"Okay." Shade said.
"Anyway, nice work." The net navi said. "Doing a normal shot can subtract 1 hit point from a virus. You just did a charged shot, which subtracted 10 hit points from him." Shade looked at the virus' hit points & saw that the virus now only had 30 hit points.
"Also, it IS smart to dodge your opponent's attacks." The net navi said. "Otherwise he would've dealt some damage on your hit points."
"MY hit points?" Shade asked, pointing at himself.
"Yes." The net navi said. "Look above you." Shade looked up & saw a 100 above him. He smiled a little.
"Wow, I have a lot of hit points." Shade said, the net navi pointed a finger at him.
"Don't get cocky, Shade." He said. "Some attacks can deal more than 100 hit points. The hammer battle chip can do 200 hit points of damage, & the mine battle chip can do 300 hit points of damage." Shade looked at him in horror. 200 or 300 hit points of damage? That's certainly more than enough to delete him. Surely there was something to do to avoid that.
"Is there anything I can do to avoid taking damage from those things?" Shade asked the net navi.
"Uh huh." The net navi said. "You can either avoid them altogether. Or you can collect HP Memory." Shade looked at the net navi in confusion. HP Memory? What was that?
"HP Memory?" Shade asked. The net navi nodded his head & pulled out a small blue diamond.
"This stuff." He said. "It can raise your hit points by 20. There's a LOT of them & they're strewn throughout the net & real world." Shade nodded his head. If he could collect enough HP Memory, he could raise his hit points to an amazing level. But since they're strewn throughout the net, it'd take weeks to find them all. & since some are in the real world, he might never reach them.
"Anyway, Dr. Oppelle is ready with the battle chips, so we can move on." The net navi said. A screen appeared behind Shade. He turned around to see Dr. Opelle holding a dark blue hand-held computer with some chips.
"In my left hand is battle chips." Dr. Opelle said. "I insert them into the P.E.T. in my right hand to send them to you, so you can receive help in battle." Shade looked at the small chips & the hand-held computer. The human wanted to help him in battle? How would it do that? By downloading chips onto a small hand-held? Dr. Opelle took a chip & inserted it into the top of the hand-held. "Download!" He shouted. A small yellow picture of a sword appeared above Shade's head. He looked up at it in surprise.
"What is that?" Shade asked.
"That's a battle chip program." The net navi said. "Simply touch it with your hand." Shade reached up with his left hand, since his right was the Shade Buster. He touched it & his Shade Buster morphed again, he watched in awe as it shrunk a bit & grew a long glowing blade.
"Woah!" Shade said. He couldn't believe it, first his hand was a buster, now it's a sword. What was it gonna become next?
"That's a sword chip." The net navi said. Shade looks at the virus & saw that the net navi summoned another virus on the front row. "To reach the front virus, simply walk forward." The net navi explained. "You can only walk on the red panels, since it's your side of the field. The sword does more damage than a single shot, even a charged shot from the Shade Buster."
"Really?" Shade asked.
"Indeed." The net navi said. "Simply swipe the virus with the sword. Shade nodded. He stepped forward to the front row of his side of the field & swiped at the virus. He sliced it in half. However, to Shade's surprise, the virus exploded.
"What just happened?" Shade asked. He'd never seen an animal explode, aside from Goth when he blew up along with the metal disc in the rainforest.
"That's what happened to a virus when you whittle its HP down to 0, Shade." The net navi said. "Get used to it, cause that's how things work in the cyber world.
"I dunno whether to be shocked or amazed." Shade said. Indeed this was both amazing & frightening all at once to him.
"Glad you like it." The net navi said. "Now onto phase 2."