jhvh777- Nope, I got all four components of Elementalsword down correctly.

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Chapter 7: To the Stars
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The rest of the afternoon was spent unloading the trucks and storing the cargo in the warehouse. Their Indian Summer was continuing, so the hot sun beat down on everyone. Normally, it would start to get colder around this time.

'' Alright Karla, one, two, three!'' Terry grunted as he and Karla hoisted a midsized container into the air and began to carry it towards the warehouse.

Everyone was working. Butch was unloading the crates from the truck, Vick was checking the contents, while Terry, Slate, Karla, and Lloyd were transporting them. Lloyd however, had easily done the least work, and had complained whenever he could. Clearly, he was not used to physical labor.

'' Sigh, I don't know what we're going to do with him.'' Terry sighed as they reached the warehouse and set the container down.

'' Hmm, he does appear to be rather soft. No work ethic at all.'' Slate's voice said.

Terry turned to see Slate standing about eight feet away from him, with his trademark light brown overcoat slung over his shoulder. '' Oh! I didn't see you there!''

The three of them began to walk back to the truck. '' Terrence, Vick told me about your navi.''

Terry sighed. '' I'm kinda getting tired of this... Something infected Dash, but we're waiting until something shows up.''

'' Well, let me know if anything happens.''

'' I will.''

Slate picked up the pace, leaving the other two behind.

'' He knows I prefer ' Terry'.'' Terry grumbled. Well, it was nice to see Slate acting so sociably. The Old Slate, before Saito's death, probably couldn't have cared less about the problem, as long as it didn't affect his ability to fight. Terry liked the New Slate better.

'' I like Terry.'' Karla said, interrupting his thoughts. '' It sounds cuter.''

'' Err... thanks... I guess...'' Terry muttered, turning red. He heard snickering coming from his PET. '' Shut up you...''

When the two of them got back to the truck, they found that everyone else had clustered around its rear. Butch had pushed several crates to the edge. '' They're all marked ' Pulse Transmission System '.'' he was saying. '' Does anyone know what that means?''

'' I've heard of this before...'' Lloyd muttered. '' It was an experimental technology for sending humans into the cyberworld.''

'' What? That's impossible!'' Vick exclaimed.

'' But we've seen navis come into our world, so I guess anything is possible.'' Karla countered.

'' It doesn't actually send the body into cyberworld.'' Lloyd explained. '' It converts brain waves to data, and sends that. So, you 'operate', if you will, just like you do in the real world.''

'' But how do you know all of this?'' Slate asked. '' Even I have never heard of this system.''

'' Umm...'' Lloyd scratched the back of his head. '' Just something I heard a long time ago...''

'' Hmm...'' Slate muttered, casting Lloyd a suspicious glance.

'' Anyway, maybe we should take a break, for now.''

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The six navis were in the cyberworld, chatting each other up, when they were interrupted by an unexpected guest.

Metool Metool

Dash glanced over his shoulder to see an odd looking Metool. Normally, Metools were yellow, with green markings, but this one was red, with blue markings.

'' How did you get in here?'' Tyria asked.

The Metool seemed to notice that it had been discovered, for it began to march away.

'' Hey! Get back here!'' Tyria shouted, morphing her hand into a buster and firing off a warning shot.

The Metool leapt in alarm and began to scurry away. Tyria fired a second shot, but this time the Metool ducked under its helmet, and the blast bounced off of it. '' Since when could they do that?'' Crushman demanded.

Meanwhile, the Metool had ran over to its... companions. Nearby was an access tunnel, and at the entrance to it was a group of other red Metools, about fifteen or so strong.

'' How did they get in here!'' Zero said, sounding mildly annoyed. '' Stop!'' he shouted. Normal Metools would have been intimidated at this shout, but these ignored him and began to enter the tunnel, as they did, they were converted to transmission waves, and they began to vanish.

Zero, wanting to find out what was going on, ran after them. Soon, he too was converted to data and vanished. '' Wait up!'' Dash shouted, jumping in after him. Crushman, Ryn, and Tyria followed as well. After they vanished, the tunnel vanished, leaving Beta alone and bewildered. '' Oh dear...''

The navis found themselves on the floor of an unfamiliar cyberworld.

'' Where are we?'' Dash asked, picking himself off of the floor.

'' I'll see if there is any video feed I can pull up.'' Tyria said, calling up a display screen. '' What the... There're some cameras to monitor... hull damage?''

She hit an option, and the screen displayed the blue curve of the planet Earth, and several stars.

'' Look at this other data: The Evening News, Daytime Soaps, Monday Night Football...'' Tyria muttered as she scrolled through a chart. '' We're in a TV satellite!''

'' Hey hey! Look at the top news story!'' said Ryn, who had pulled up his own screen. '' It says that virus attacks have been reported at various government sites. But these viruses are different then normal, like they've, evolved or something.''

'' Hmm, I've heard of viruses evolving naturally over a great period of time, but that rarely happens, since they're constantly deleted...'' Zero said, scratching his chin. '' So how could there be this many at once?''

'' Hey!'' Tyria said. '' Look at this. It's a record of the signals sent to and from the satellite. Most were sent to various TV stations, but there is a fairly large amount sent and received from an unknown source, and the last one was just now!''

'' Where was it sent to?'' Zero asked.

'' Um... A point in Densan, just a moment...'' Tyria said. '' There! An old sea port on Densan's northeast corner. It's on the water, obviously.''

'' Alright.'' Zero said. '' I'll store this data until we get back.'' He placed his palm on the view screen. His blue eyes briefly displayed the incoming data, then they returned to normal.

'' Alright. Let's log out and go tell our operators about this. I'll sure that Akira-sama will be very interested in this.''

So now a new mystery presented itself. What were those viruses doing in HQ? Why were they evolved, and more importantly, where were they coming from?

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