Chapter 8: The First Attack
"Well look who's here early for once," Mayl said as Drew ran through the door, "next I suppose you will stop mocking the teacher."
"You're still mad at me for playing matchmaker with you and Lan, aren't you?" Drew asked.
"What was your first clue?" She replied.
"That comment you just made actually," Drew said, he plugged his PET into the desk computer, "Jack-In, Solarman, transmit. You have some free time, do what you want with it."
"Okay," Solarman said, disappearing from the screen. He reappeared on Paige's screen. "Uh, hi," he said to her navi, "I'm Solarman, and what would your name be?"
"I'm Hannah," her navi said, "you're op is Drew, right?"
"Yeah, that's my op!" Solarman said.
"Drew," Paige said from Drew's left.
"Yeah Paige?" Drew asked walking over to her.
"Your navi is flirting with mine." She said, pointing to her screen.
"Yep," Drew said, "that's Solarman for you. And I can't blame him for it, you do have a cute navi, and she resembles her op quite a bit."
"Are you hitting on me?" She asked Drew. Then the teacher walked in. Drew took his seat and Solarman hacked the school's mainframe. Right as Lan was about to run through the door, Solarman locked it. Lan hit the door hard, and Solarman unlocked it. Lan fell face flat inside the classroom.
"Mr. Hikari," Mr.Lare said, "would you mind explaining why you are sleeping in my class? You usually don't do that until after I start my lesson."
"Sorry sir," Lan said. He took his seat.
"That should keep you awake," Megaman said, "thanks Solarman!"
"No dice Megaman," Lan said, "nothing will keep me awake!"
Lan walked to his seat and he listened to the lesson a bit, then he lost consciousness.
"Ugh," Megaman groaned, "Not again!"
"Drew," Solarman said, "they're back, I can feel it, they're back and they're here!"
"You mean," Drew started to say as he lost sight of Solarman on the screen.
"Solarman!" Drew yelled, "Solarman! They are back, and they've sealed off our communications with our navi's!"
"Drew!" Mr.Lare said, "What are you doing? Sit back down!"
"No sir," Drew said, "we need to get everyone out of the building, Jack-Out your navi's everyone! Hurry!" Everyone started to jack out of their desk computers, and they got up.
"What's going on Drew?" Lan asked.
"Darkloids are attacking, they've already cut off my communications with Solarman," Drew said.
"How do you know about the darkloids?" Lan asked, "and they've all been destroyed! How can they be here?"
"They are here," Drew said, "They must have gotten a huge dosage of dark energy. Get everyone out of here, I'll have to deal with the Darkloid myself." Drew walked over to his desk. "Transmission sequence, activate! Initiate emergency protocols! Solar armor, Execute!" Drew said, suddenly, data streamed from his PET and it started to swarm Drew. It made Drew look like Solarman, only he was a crimson color. He gave one last command into his PET before he unplugged it, "Locate Solarman and give him this message, Destroy the Darkloid in cyberworld, Drew will take care of any problems in the real world." 'I hope I can still do this as well as I used to,' Drew thought.
"Wh-What are you?" Lan asked.
"A Liberator," Drew said, "ever hear of team Colonel?"
"I was part of it!" Lan said, "How do you know about it?"
"Baryl heard of us and he made a team of his own. But he never knew the right way to delete a darkloid!" Drew said, "Now hurry and get everyone out of here!"
Lan started to get people out of the building, as Drew checked his armor's settings.
"Gun-Del-Sol, check, Powers, Check, Sol-De-Vice, Check, Savoc, Check. I'm ready to kick some darkloid butt. Now I just have to find it in the real world."
"Drew!" Solarman yelled from his PET, "I'm ready to help! The Darkloid is outside, his name is Blizzardman. Get ready!"
"Liberation sequence, set!" Drew said.
"Execute! Automatic synchro activated. We now move as one."
"It's been a while," Drew said, rushing towards the outside. When he reached the doors, he saw a snowball like navi. He ran through the doors and he began his assault. In the cyberworld, Solarman was attacking Blizzardman's Cyberworld counterpart. Blizzardman tried to throw a few snowballs, but they quickly melted as they came near Drew and Solarman. They brought out their Gun-Del-Sols, and shot a few blasts right through their heads. Blizzzardman disappeared from sight. He was deleted, permanently.
"Drew," Lan said, "Why was Blizzardman here? I've deleted him before in the past."
"To truly delete a darkloid, you must destroy the one in the cyberworld and in the real world. I told you Baryl didn't know how to delete darkloids. The Liberators always went into Liberation mode before we tried to delete darkloids. You need to delete both sides at the same time, so liberation mode makes the navi and op move at the same time. It's like a forced Synchro."
"Okay," Lan said, "You just confused me. Would you mind explaining it in a simpler way?"
"Fine," Drew said, "The Liberators did exactly what Team Colonel did, but with one big difference, we totally deleted the darkloids. Darkloids have two halves, one in the real world, and one in the cyberworld. To delete one, you have to destroy both at the same time. The liberation mode automatically equips the op with his navi's powers and weapons, and it forces them to go into synchro to ensure both halves are destroyed at the same time. I used to be a part of the liberators, until all the darkloids were destroyed. Well, we thought they were. Solarman has the ability to detect a darkloids presence, and he was also the best navi out of all the liberators."
"No Drew," Solarman said, "We were the best team, without you, I would have been nearly useless."
"Thanks Solarman," Drew said, as he changed back into his former state, "The armor is only for use under emergency situations, so since the threat is gone, I have to change back. By my own will of course."
"Drew," Lan said, "What else haven't you told me about your life before we met?"
"Nothing you should concern yourself with." Drew said, "None of it's important anyway."
"Well," Lan said, "I was going to invite you over to my house after school, but since no computer in school will turn on, school technically is over."
"Let's go," Drew said, "I'd like to see what your family is like." And after that, the ran over to Lan's house. When the came inside, Lan's mom greeted them.
"Oh, Lan! Are you alright?" She asked, "I heard about what happened at your school and-"
"We're fine Mrs.Hikari." Drew said.
"Oh, Drew!" She said, "Will you be staying for dinner?"
"Yes," Drew said.
"Good, you're always welcome in this house." She said, "Oh, and Lan, your father will be here soon, have you introduced Drew to him yet?"
"No," Lan said.
"Your dad is going to be here?" Drew asked, "I've always wanted to meet him."
"And maybe you could show him some of your programs," Lan said, "He'd probably be really surprised to find out that a thirteen year old could create such awesome programs."
"And what would these programs be like?" A voice from behind Lan and Drew said. They turned around to see Lan's dad.
"Dr.Hikari," Drew said, "You are one of the best scientists the world has ever seen!"
"Well thank you, uhh what would your name be?" He asked.
"Dad," Lan said, "this is Drew, My new friend, Drew, This is my Dad."
"Ah," Mr.Hikari said, "So, you had some programs to show me?"
"Oh," Drew said, "yeah. Do you have a place where I could show you how they work?"
"Right here," He said, "Plug your PET into our TV." Drew did so.
"Oh," Drew said, "I almost forgot, Meet my Navi, Solarman."
Solarman appeared on the television.
"Oh, So Drew is your partner in the tournament?" Mr.Hikari asked.
"Yes," Lan said, "And he's an excellent programmer and a great hacker."
"A hacker?" Mr.Hikari asked.
"Sort of," Drew said, "I'm not really a hacker, but I do know how most systems work, inside and out. And that helps when I'm Programming things."
"Would you show me one?" Mr.Hikari asked.
"Sure," Drew said, "This is one of my newest, the appearance customizer. It's like the Navi customizer, except it changes how navis look. Take Solarman for example, He would look like me if I used the standard program, but I could alter his face, his hair color, his size, anything, all without losing his original shape. You can store two looks, their normal appearance, Which cannot be changed, and their alternate appearance."
"This program is good," Mr.Hikari said, "No bugs in it, no flaws, and it doesn't even mess up how the navi operates. You are pretty good. May I see how you programmed Solarman?"
"Sure," Drew said, "Solarman, standby mode." Solarman's eyes closed, and he was shown beside his programming in a grid form.
"Amazing!" Mr.Hikari said, "This navi has so much space for programming! He is loaded with powers and abilities, and he even has," Mr.Hikari paused, "the power of a cybeast... Where did you gain that?"
"A freak accident," Drew said, "Solarman got damaged, and he absorbed some data in the area to repair it. That data happened to be Falzer's leftover power."
"So Solarman has an auto-repair system, he can repair damage to himself by absorbing useless data, or the data remaining from a deleted navi." Mr.Hikari said, "Drew, what would this program be? It's called "Liberation Mode.""
"Have you ever heard of team Colonel?" Drew asked, and he explained everything he had explained to Lan.
"Amazing," Mr.Hikari said, "You made a program that can turn a human into a navi who resides in the real world. And it even synchronizes your mind with your navi's."
"Sort of," Drew said, "I had some help with the debugging, but I am the only person left who has a navi with that program installed, and the program can only be activated by me, and I am also the only one authorized to legally use it. And I can only use it under Emergency situations without doing it illegally."
"But one day," Mr.Hikari said, "that could become the way all net society exists, people being their own navi's."
"Yeah," Drew said, "but the one drawback is that sometimes when I synchronize perfectly with Solarman, it happens in the real world, bringing Solarman into the real world instead of me going into cyberworld."
"That's not a drawback at all!" Mr.Hikari said, "That is a great thing!"
"Yeah Drew," Lan said, "I sometimes wish I could do that."
"Well," Drew said, "I probably shouldn't do this, but I can't handle all of the darkloids that could pop up alone... so I'm offering Dr.Hikari a chance to duplicate the program, maybe then, I could make it so it will respond to Lan and I, and of course you Mr.Hikari, After all, I made it, so that makes it easier, And since it's my property, I can do what I want with it. So what do you say?"
"Yes," Mr.Hikari said, "Lan would like it, and it could improve net society. We can work on it after dinner." He paused, and then he started look at Solarman's programming again. "Hm? What's this?" He asked, "Restraint.EXE, what is that?"
"Oh," Drew said, starting to get worried, 'that's just a program to keep Solarman from unleashing 100 of his full power so he doesn't delete navis with a single punch,' Drew thought, "It just keeps Falzer's power in check," he lied. He couldn't just let them know that Solarman never was allowed 100 access to his power, he was only allowed 46 of his power, since he was saving that extra power for the one that they hated, the one that was called Bass. After all, if Bass saw his every ability, he'd have time to work on countering them. "The most impressive program is the Give.EXE program," Drew said, changing the subject, "It can store the powers of two navis that Solarman has seen, and it can allow him to give those powers to two different navis. Currently, he has the powers of two of my old teammates' navis. Kevin's navi Lunarman, and Eric's navi Copyman. They were two of Solarman's best friends, and we keep the data for emergencies."
"Drew," Mr.Hikari said, " you are one of the best programmers I've ever seen. Could I have a copy of that Appearance customizer? I'll patent it for you, and it could get you quite a bit of money."
"Sure!" Drew said, "I need a way to get money besides net battling, and since I live alone, I don't have anyone who can really provide much for me..." Drew paused, painful memories flooding his mind again, "Here." He said, handing him a chip, "this contains the program."
"You don't have any parents Drew?" Lan asked, "I didn't know that, why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want you to worry about me," Drew said, "But with how great a battler Solarman is, I earn enough to get by."
"Dinner is ready!" Mrs.Hikari said, "Wash up and come down to eat!"
"Oh boy!" Lan said, "Dinner!"
"That was great Mrs.Hikari!" Drew said, "Thank you for inviting me."
"Anytime Drew." She said.
"Well Drew," Mr.Hikari said, "Let's get started on that program."
"Alright," Drew said, they walked upstairs into Lan's room and Drew plugged his PET into it. "Now," Drew said, "I have to be careful, one mistake and Falzer's power might cut loose and destroy the computer. I need to get Falzer's power out of the program as soon as I make a copy... there! Now to drain Falzer's energy... Completed. I need to store it somewhere, you just can't get rid of that much power... Solarman, absorb the energy, and I'll start hacking the program." Drew typed quickly on the keyboard, "Done, Mr.Hikari, this where you can start your work on the program. I recommend making a backup copy."
Then Drew said his good byes,he left and went home.