The Todoroki family was sitting around the dinner table, with Beat perched on Kaita's head. After school, Kaita had practically been dragged into the van and back home by his mother, who was eager to discuss the car sitting in the driveway. "But, Mama..."

Asuna patiently explained, "Kaita, honey, you can't just expect to keep it."

"Why can't he?" asked Kaita's father. "I think it's pretty nifty."

Asuna sighed in annoyance. "Honestly, Iwao, just look at it! There's mud and I don't know what else in the front seat—"

"Big deal! We can clean that out in a jiffy, right, Kaita?"

Kaita beamed up at his father. "Right!"

"Those seats aren't cloth, anyway," remarked Iwao's Navi. Nitroman's shade of red was every bit as bright as Turboman's, but his handlebar-themed shoulder armor and multiple exhaust pipes were just a few of the signs that he was patterned after a motorcycle instead of a car. "They might not even stain!"

"My next point is that you don't know who made it," Asuna said. "It could be a piece of junk!"

"It's definitely not, Asuna-san," Turboman defended. "I've been in its system, and it purrs like a tiger!"

"And why were you in there? Who told you it was okay to cart two kids in the front seat through busy traffic with no adult if things went wrong?"

"Dear, I programmed that Navi, and I would trust him to drive me out of a meteor shower," Iwao cut in. "Not to mention, you've trusted him with worse! He's practically a car himself, after all."

"I know..." Asuna crossed her arms. "I just worry about what you and that friend of yours get up to, Kaita," she said in a softer tone. "It's bad enough there's that weird bird flying around the house now—"

"Pi!" huffed Beat, his feelings hurt.

"—but driving through the center of town? After being involved with the kind of mess that makes the news? And that on top of disappearing off to Kingland for two days—Kaita, you two are going to get yourselves hurt!"

"Mary's mom is fine with it," Kaita grumbled.

"Do I look like Mary's mom?" Asuna rounded on Iwao, who was taking the newspaper off a nearby counter. "And you're awfully quiet."

"I don't have anything to say," he said, shaking the newspaper out to its full height and hiding his face in the process.

"I think it's pretty sweet, knowin' our boys are saving the city," Nitroman said. Kaita grinned at the motorcycle-themed Navi, knowing Nitroman's approval usually meant his father felt the same way.

Before Asuna could comment, Iwao changed the subject. "Joumon's son is being let out."

"Is he?" Asuna asked.

Iwao nodded. Shaking a lecturing finger in the direction of his son, he advised, "Kaita, never go to jail, even for something you didn't do. Your reputation will never recover, and neither will mine." As he turned the page, Iwao remarked, "At least among the customers, I've run into plenty who don't trust Joumon Electronics since its founder can't even raise his son right."

"Oh, Iwao!" sighed Asuna in exasperation.

"Just repeating gossip, don't mind me."

"And it was the truth, too," Kaita added. "He was so annoying!"

Turboman was quick to throw in, "Even his voice was annoying!"

"Boys!" Asuna scolded, "Even if it is the truth, it's not right to spread things like that around. Joumon Electronics still sells quality products."

"But you can hardly call them a respectable business nowadays—" Iwao peered over the top of his paper and caught the look on his wife's face. "How about those Tigers?"

01101100011000010111001101110100011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101

The next day started the weekend, but Kaita wasn't free from his mother. "I'm re-planting the garden," she announced. "The forecast says it's going to rain this afternoon, so we'll both save our watering day for when we need it and capitalize on this year's theme." Kaita knew better than to get in the way of his mother and her prize-winning gardens, especially when she was probably making him stay at home to get him away from a full day with Mary. "Go and fetch the potting soil out of the shed."

"Got it," he said, running out the back door. Once it had swung shut behind him, Kaita brought up his wrist. "I hope she doesn't do this every weekend," he told Turboman gloomily. "I really wanted to have a Netbattle or two with Mary-chan..."

"You won't have to put up with it for long," Turboman said while Kaita opened the shed up. "Group projects are coming up in two weeks, remember? As long as you pick Mary-chan as your partner, she can't stop you guys from meeting up for the rest of the school year."

"That's right!" remembered Kaita, clutching the oversized soil bag to his chest and stumbling back toward the house. "Thanks, Turboman!"

From there, the rest of the morning passed in a storm of weeding, planting, and garden gnomes in galoshes. Kaita noticed that it seemed to be unusually hot for spring, but his mother was too busy executing her plan to care. "Wonderful job!" she congratulated once they'd finished transforming the front lawn into a damp vision with soft blue and yellow flowers. She pulled him into a hug, and he returned it. "Thank you so much for the hard work. Now, let's have lunch!"

"All right!" The two went inside. Kaita looked over the headlines as he passed by the end of the kitchen counter, the title "Mr. Weather Densan U's Latest Marvel" and a picture of a wackily-decorated computer catching his eye. "So, after the rain's stopped, can I run by Papa's garage?" he asked while his mother got out a bag of pasta and a fresh jar of marinara sauce.

"If it's not too late," his mother replied. She didn't sound suspicious or upset. Kaita could only hope that the effects of sleep and gardening would eventually extend to Mary as well. It wasn't like not hanging out with her would make things not happen around Densan, and he figured they stood a better chance together and not apart. "You can rest in the TV room or wherever you want while I'm fixing this. We did a lot today, after all, so you must be a little tired," Asuna said.

Kaita called back a quick, "Okay!" as he jumped onto the sofa, laughing as he bounced a little. "Wonder what all's on TV..."

"...and the unusual heat wave across the Densan area continues to persist after temperatures began to climb this morning," Kero reported once the TV had turned on to its preset station. "It's not just the summer heat that has people reaching for the fans. Humidity levels are extremely low—setting records, in fact. Those promised rain clouds are just shrinking out of the sky! It's a dry and dusty day, so stay inside and be sure to water your plants!"

"Huh," Kaita said. Considering his mother, he decided to turn the TV off; doing something could wait for after lunch. "I wonder..." He got up and walked back into the kitchen.

"Nothing on TV, huh?" Asuna asked from near the stove, where she was stirring the pasta.

"I just wanted to look at something," he said, taking the paper and bringing it back to his seat. Just as he'd thought, Mr. Weather was an experimental weather-controlling system—one that had never been tested out of the laboratory, but could be capable of adjusting the humidity with working components. The only hitch would be getting to Densan University without giving his mother any hint of what he was trying to do...

"It's ready!" Asuna called. Kaita ran into the kitchen to ditch the paper and grab his lunch, already formulating a plan.

01101100011000010111001101110100011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101

"Errands?" Asuna wondered, taking Kaita's empty plate. "We are running low on milk, but I figured I could do it tomorrow afternoon..."

"I want to try these new chips I saw on TV," Kaita explained. "They're blue, but they taste like lemon!"

"Lemon potato chips?" asked Asuna skeptically.

"I don't remember exactly. Something like that." Kaita was already starting to see the major flaw in his excuse—now, he was going to have to find something ridiculous-sounding at the store. And when it got home, he would probably have to eat it, too. Still, it was better than letting Mr. Weather go uninvestigated and having his mother's garden get ruined. "Can I please go?"

"I guess," she said, heading for the TV room. Kaita knew what she was going to see there and started heading for the door. "Just be back at a reasonable time."

"Bye, Mama!"

"Wait, Kaita! There's—"

The door closed, and Kaita bolted for the end of the street. He started heading for the nearest subway stop—he'd barely been out for half a minute, and he could already feel the dryness of the air. "Okay, Turboman," he said, looking down at his PET. "Get me directions to Densan University!"

0110110001100001011100110111010000100000011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101

One air-conditioned subway ride later, Kaita stood in the main building of Densan University. "Not many people here, huh?" he asked, looking around.

"Well, it is the weekend," Turboman replied. "Not too many students willing to sacrifice the day off."

Kaita surveyed the many exits, wondering where to start. "Hmm..."

"Are you lost?" asked a woman. Kaita turned to see her jogging toward him. From the brown bun of hair sitting behind her head to the clean, professional-looking outfit, she was like nobody Kaita knew. Yet somehow, her face was familiar.

"Who are you?" Kaita asked.

"Minamoto Mayumi," she introduced. "And you're...?"

"Todoroki Kaita," he answered.

Before he could ask her anything, she said, "Nice to meet you, Kaita-kun. Now, what brings a kid like you to Densan University?" She almost seemed suspicious.

"Nothing!" he said quickly. She was still scrutinizing him. "It's just, I wanted to see the weather."

"There's a whole channel devoted to that," Mayumi said. "Unless you wanted to see Yamakawa-hakase in the weather research building?"

"Yeah! The weather research building," Kaita said.

Mayumi pointed out a tall building sitting behind the far doors. "I'll walk you there," she said. As they started, she explained, "My major's in marketing, so I don't know the people there like I do the ones in Ijuuin Hall."

"Ijuuin?" asked Kaita. "Like Enzan?"

Mayumi looked confused. "Enzan? No, it's named for Ijuuin Shuuseki, the president of IPC. He donated money to Densan to strengthen its business department. A lot of business majors who graduate from here go to work for IPC," she explained. "Not me, though. My family has a pretty successful company of their own—we're furniture people. Our electronics only get as exciting as lamps and the occasional ceiling fan."

"Oh," Kaita said. "Is that boring to you, or is it...?"

"No, it's actually going to be pretty exciting," Mayumi said. "My job's going to be selling this stuff to you, and that's as fun or as boring as you want it to be. I'm aiming for fun!" She looked up. Kaita followed suit to see that they were already at their stop. "Well, here we are," she said. "Except I don't know where his office is. Kaita-kun, I think you'll be just as well by yourself," she said sheepishly.

"Okay. Thanks, Mayumi-san!"

She giggled. "You'll call anyone '-san', won't you?"

"Huh?"

"Nothing, Kaita-kun. Well, maybe I'll see you around sometime!" With that, Mayumi turned and walked off, smoothing down her skirt where the wind had blown a crease into it.

Kaita watched her go, trying to remember where he'd seen her, before realizing there was no time for that now when his mother was probably at home bemoaning her doomed plants and her escaped son. Kaita hurried inside, already looking around for anything out of place.

The weather research building was dark, though a plaque next to the empty desk told him that its real name was the Stratus Building for Weather Observation. "If I were a weather machine, where would I be?" Kaita wondered once he'd hit the elevator call button.

"Well, I wouldn't think you'd be able to do much damage indoors," Turboman said as the elevator doors opened.

"And the closest thing to the sky is the roof!" Kaita got in and hit the button that would take him to the rooftop level. "Get ready, Turboman!"

"I'm always ready to get in gear!" Once they'd hit the roof, Kaita got a blast of heat and saw not the funny Mr. Weather machine, but a bunch of metal devices.

"Mr. Weather has to be linked to these machines somehow," Kaita noted, wiping sweat from his face.

"But you can't stay out with them for long, or the heat'll overtake you! Plug me in, then go find Mr. Weather," Turboman suggested.

"If I do that, you won't have Battlechips!" protested Kaita. But he saw Turboman's point; he was rapidly approaching the point of exhaustion. "All right. I'll just have to hurry. Plug in, ! Transmission!" Having deposited his Navi in the system, Kaita got back into the elevator.

01101100011000010111001101110100011000110110100001100001011011100110001101100101

Turboman's first impression upon landing in Mr. Weather's extended network of machines was that it was pretty straightforward. Each machine was on a separate platform, but there were stairs and catwalk-like pathways to link them together. At the center was a giant sphere with a smiling face that was half red and half blue—a giant Mr. Weather face. Paths went into the eyes and mouth.

His next feeling was that he was being watched. That feeling was only confirmed when trying to run towards Mr. Weather made the machine platforms shoot light beams at him. "Well, it's not like they're doing much good to anyone right now," Turboman said, doubling back. "I'll just disable them!" He hurled his tires at the first one with a customary shout of, "Turbo Wheel!" The equipment on the platform was destroyed, pixellating and disappearing in moments. That also caught the other platforms' attention again, making his journey to the next one more interesting than he would have liked. It was a long way down to the bottom, and something told Turboman that even his superior Navi endurance wouldn't let him land safely. After leaping over a double blast, he landed on the next platform and sent his tires to reduce the next station to pixels. "Three to go," he noticed. He ran along the edge of the catwalk as the light beams shot at him again, then took a leap over the next shot that landed him dead center. He readied his tires as he dashed forward. "Turbo Wheel!" With the middle platform gone, Turboman decided to try heading back to the other end—while he had to be a little careful, it was easy to dodge the blasts from afar, and it would save him time.

Mr. Weather's empty eyes came closer and closer, until Turboman jumped through one of them. On the other side was a spherical area filled with sand at the bottom and sporting cacti twined around the grid on the sides. Floating near the top was a petite Navi dressed in blues and yellows. Her skirt and the tops of her gloves were clear and ringed with yellow piping. So were the four pigtails sticking out of her dark blue helmet, which bobbed as she turned to observe the intruder through pink-tinted goggles. "Ah, you must be Turboman," she said, clapping her oval-shaped hands together. "I thought you'd come. My name is Typhoon."

"Are you with Nova?" he asked.

"Of course. It's not like anyone else around here keeps track of who you hero types are," she said. "It's been some time since I was allowed out, so I'm just stretching my legs."

"As the whole city can see," Turboman said.

"I'm guessing you won't leave quietly," Typhoon said, floating down to his level. "Well, I could use a little battle. But you don't seem to have the boy with you... What a shame. You'll be quite easy." She floated a little higher. "Thunder Storm!" Rain pelted the battlefield, accompanied by one lightning bolt after another. Turboman couldn't avoid the slight damage from the rain, but he could twist away from the lightning. He jumped on to the grid that supported the sphere they were in.

"Water Spout!" Turboman got ready to climb higher, but stopped—to his left was a spiky cactus, and to his right was another. Before he could drop down, Typhoon's swirl of water crashed over him. When the area stopped spinning, the smaller Navi was floating over him. "Not much for thinking ahead, are you?"

Before she could say anything else, Turboman hurled his tires up at her. "And you talk way too much!" Typhoon sent another Water Spout at him, but he flipped backwards and to his feet.

"You certainly are an annoying little pest," Typhoon said with a laugh. "If you want to play hardball, then I'll gladly rise to the challenge." She'd talked long enough for another set of tires to spawn on Turboman's shoulders. As she raised her arms, he jumped up and above her. As sheets of water began to fall around her, Turboman aimed straight down and threw. Typhoon was knocked to the ground, her big attack falling in sheets to be absorbed by the sand. "Don't think you've won," she told Turboman as he landed on the ground behind her. "Thunder Storm!" Turboman was only able to hurl a Turbo Wheel at her in between dodging lightning bolts. When he was able to direct his full attention toward her, she had been encased in a huge tempest that was whipping up wind, sand flying along with it. From somewhere in the middle came the shout, "Disappear! Great Typhoon!"

There was very little Turboman could think of to do against an attack so large, and nothing that he managed to actually get done before it was bearing down on him. It was a little like being in a washing machine, only with nothing to keep him from flying out the other end, into a cactus, and down to the floor. "Ugh..."

"Hang on, Turboman! Satellite, slot-in!" Before Typhoon could launch a second attack, she was distracted by the green virus. It didn't last long before it got a hole pierced into its middle with one of her Water Spouts.

"Well. Things have finally gotten interesting." She tilted her head. "Unfortunately, my playtime has run out. Consider this a warm-up." She raised her hand to summon a cascade that washed over her body, hiding her from view. When it vanished, she was gone.

"Weird," Kaita said. "I've never seen her before. Why wasn't it Atsuki again?"

"Or Black, he was out that one time," Turboman added. "But one thing's for sure... she's strong."

"Well, at least everything'll get back to normal now!" Kaita said, "Plug out, Turboman! We've got milk to buy!"

"And weird potato chips to eat," reminded Turboman.

Kaita cringed. "That wasn't the best idea I've gotten, was it?"