The Hollow Warden

*Alto, Minato, Zeno, Ronin and Kelphy are at Seabreeze High, more specifically at a lecture in the school auditorium about the basics of fighting viruses, given by Rhea Diceus, the school's Netology teacher. The auditorium is a large white room with cushioned chairs in shades of blue that looks like the typical school auditorium for the most part, except each chair's right arm has a small metal arm supporting a thin touch control computer screen with a jack-in port on it. Also, instead of the usual black or white board, the stage has a large computer screen on the wall which is controlled on the hidden part of the teacher's podium. It is currently displaying the desktop, with a picture of a dog for a wallpaper and random icons and shortcuts no one gives a shit about. The teacher, a young woman with a slim figure, pale skin, shoulder-lenght blonde hair and green eyes that is wearing a plain white dress and black boots, clears her throat and looks up from the hidden keyboard to the crowd of students of all grades.*

Ms.Diceus: <I'd like to thank you all for coming here today, even though it's Saturday.>

*Kelphy stares at her and blinks a few times, looking around at the people seating next to her, whom I have just decided to be Alto and Ronin.*

Kelphy: <(But we were forced to come...)>

Ms.Diceus: <Now let's learn a little bit about viruses. Fun, right!?>

*As expected, an awkward silence takes over the room. Kelphy takes out her PET and Iceman's face appears on the screen.*

Kelphy: <(Do I have any new messages?)>

Iceman: <Nope. This is really boring, can't we just get to the part where we fight actual viruses already?>

Kelphy: <(Shh, be quiet!)>

Ms.Diceus: <Okay... any questions before I start?>

Alto raises his hand, waits to be called and says, "Why were we forced to come? Some of us already have experience virus busting."

Minato responds in a cheerful tone, "I don't though~" he smiles, it only serves to make the rose haired boy look even more feminine.

*Zeno looks down, then over to Minato. He sighs a bit and runs a hand through his hair.*

Zeno: <No need to be so self-centered... just saying... You'll learn virus-busting soon enough...>

Ms.Diceus: <I know most of you already know all about eliminating them, but virus attacks have been becoming more frequent lately, and everyone should be prepared to deal with them. Besides, reviewing the basics is always important. Now, as you probably already know, most modern electronic devices have a jack-in port that you can use to connect your PET to the device. I'd like each of you to jack-in to your computers. They're all connected in the same network, so your Navi should all be taken to the same cyber-location. Since they aren't currently connected to the internet however, they can't exit the auditorium's network. Okay. Remember you can ask any questions you need, kiddies.>

*Kelphy connects her PET to the computer screen. I have decided Edge is also at the auditorium, sitting behind/above Kelphy. (OOC: Read previous post for description if necessary.)*

Kelphy: <Jack in! Iceman.EXE, transmit.>

*On the computer screen she sees a green tiled platform floating in a black void. There is a green circle on the platform, at the center, surrounded by several metal rings. Iceman appears standing on the circle in a flash of light. On the screen of her PET she sees his face. Everyone else sees a similar scene.*

Ms.Diceus: <I will spread a virus through the network soon. I want you to defeat the first wave using your Navi's standard skills first. This will be quick.>

Iceman: <All right. I'm ready!>

Kelphy: <(Good luck, Iceman.)>

-----

*Iceman appears on the green circle in a flash of light. Looking around, he sees there is a green robot floating around talking to himself about cyber stuff no one gives a shit about, and narrow paths leading to the four platforms adjacent to his, the network being arranged the same way as the auditorium. He sees Kelphy's face on a large white screen-like thing floating above his platform.*

Iceman: <All right, I'm ready!>

Kelphy: <(Good luck, Iceman.)>

Alto groans and looks at his PET. The shadowy figure on the screen shrugs and mouths, 'Lie' to Alto. Alto nods. "Uh... my Navi is on my home computer at the moment running some diagnostic tests. Can I use one of my generic NormalNavis instead?" he asks.

Minato cat smiles, "Someone's lyyyyyying~"

"HEY SHUT UP!!" Alto yells at the pink haired boy.

Minato grins, "Liar Liar~!"

"You want me to break your face in!?" Alto gets up from his seat.

*Zeno ignores the feuding Alto and Minato, then plugs in his PET to the jack-in terminal.*

Zeno: <Jack in! Protoman.EXE, transmit.>

=====

*Protoman materializes close to Iceman, and a screen with Zeno's face on it appears next to the one with Kelphy's.*

Protoman: <So, we just wait for instructions then, Zeno?>

Zeno: <Pretty much, Protoman. Be on alert, though, never know what's coming.>

Protoman: <I'm ALWAYS on alert.>

*Edge sighs and looks at the computer next to him in his seat.*

Edge: <Aww man, I actually have to MOVE? Fine, fine...>

*Edge sighs again and looks at the ceiling, and then slowly raises his hand to connect his PET to the computer.*

Edge: <Let's just get this over with... jack in. Spider.exe, transmit. C'mon, Spider, let's make it quick.>

*A NetNavi dressed in mostly black clothing appears next to Iceman and Protoman.*

Spider: <Damn, really? Agh, this is terrible. Can you get me out of here? I want to get back to my alone time.>

Edge: <Not until you clean house! So go on! Clean some house in there!>

Spider: <Maybe if it's a... FULL house? Heheheh.

*Edge facepalms at the terrible pun. Spider himself seems to realize it was kinda lame and frowns.*

Ms.Diceus: <Stop being a lazy bum and tell your actual NetNavi to do the same! Also, threaten someone again and your Netology grade is down a number.>

*She chuckles and plugs her PET in.*

Ms.Diceus: <Jack in! Brightman.EXE, transmit!!>

*They see Brightman appears at a similar location on the large screen behind the teacher, but there are no paths off to the other terminals like there are for the students' NetNavi.*

Ms.Diceus: <Oh yeah, my computer is in a private network, just so I can show you all what to do. Everyone set?>

*For the next few seconds, they hear the other students jack in to different parts of the auditorium network.*

Ms.Diceus: <And... it starts.>

*She dramatically presses a key on the keyboard on the podium and they see three Mettaurs materialize near Brightman on the screen.*

Ms.Diceus: <This part is easy. Just... hit them. Go go, Brightman!>

-----

Brightman: <No problem there!>

*He dashes towards the viruses and whips two of them simultaneously with the plugs on its head, hurling them away. They desintegrate. He then holds his hands out and shoots a yellow energy sphere at the last one, finishing it off as well.*

-----

Ms.Diceus: <Great job. Now it's your turn, kiddies.>

*She presses a couple more keys and smiles broadly at the students.*

-----

*Mettaurs start materializing across the network. Three of them materialize near Iceman, Spider and Protoman. Each of them draws a pickaxe out of fucking nowhere and hammers at the floor, sending a shockwave towards each of the three NetNavi.*

Iceman: <All right! Action!>

*Spider quickly jumps over the shockwave and backs up.*

Spider: <Desperate little bastards, eh?>

*Spider pulls out a card and throws it at the Mettaur on the far left of him. As it heads toward the Mettaur, the card lights up with yellow light, a sign that it would be exploding soon with not much time to react*

Protoman: <Nothing a quick swordplay can't handle.>

*He dashes towards one of the Mettaurs and delivers three successive sword swipes.*

"Guess I don't have a choice... this should serve as a good field test I guess" Alto muses out loud and smiles. "Jack In, Axl.EXE, transmit!"

=========

In cyberspace a new navi enters the fray. A young looking navi with a blue body and light brownish orange hair. His insignia was an X.

He slowly opened his eyes, "Field test eh? I was expecting something more than this" he didn't even look to see the mettaur approaching him. It swung its pickaxe down but it never connected with the ground as a neat little hole was blown in it's head before it collapsed into broken data bits.

=========

"Show off. Get serious Axl my grades are at stake. Don't be so pretentious."

=========

"Pretentious people are uncool. Don't worry I got this handled" he said as he fired off another shoot from his hand guns, this time the left and behind his back. It nailed the mettaur that was sneaking up on him.


========

Minato had been stunned into silence with his mouth agape at everyone fighting.

"So this is net battling... SO COOOOL~!"

*Iceman blows a freezing gust towards the Mettaur, then shattering it with a punch. The card's explosion and the slashes finish the other two Mettaurs.*

-----

Ms.Diceus: <Nice job, everyone.>

*She frowns at the screen, then glares at Minato.*

Ms.Diceus: <Oh. One of you didn't jack in.>

*She briefly glares at Minato and then goes back to pressing keys on her keyboard.*

Ms.Diceus: <Next, I'd like to tell you munchkins about Battle Chips. Your PETs have a chip slot that allows you to insert a chip that'll temporarily upgrade your NetNavi with a special skill or weapon. This spends your PET's Upload Bandwidth, also called UB. How much UB a chip uses up depends on its level, and memorizing it really isn't hard: A level 1 (*) Battle Chip uses up 1, while a ** chip uses 2 and so on. The current PET version has a 5 UB capacity. After you use all of your PET's bandwidth, you can recharge it by talking to me or another professional technician, though it'll cost you. One more thing. When you use a chip, its data can't be uploaded on to the PET again until its UB is recharged, which means the chip will be unavailable unless you have more of the same kind. I think I covered it all. Check under your seats to find a Sword* Battle Chip and use it to defeat the next wave of viruses.>

*She takes a chip out of her pocket and inserts it into her PET's chip slot.*

Ms.Diceus: <Uploading Sword*!>

-----

*Brightman's right hand turns into a blue sword of light. He slashes at an approaching Mettaur, cutting it in half. It desintegrates.*

Brightman: <Check that out.>

-----

Ms.Diceus: <Now, if I check my PET info, I can see I have 4/5 UB left and my only Sword* is crossed out. Now it's your turn.>

-----

*Three more Mettaurs appear near Iceman, Spider and Protoman, and two more near Axl.*

~Kelphy, Zeno, Minato, Alto and Edge have each obtained 1 Sword* Battle Chip!~

Minato jacks in silently because apparently the teacher didn't like him fanboying.

=======

Starman appeared on the field in all his stoic glory.

Meanwhile Axl looked at the sword that his right hand turned into when Alto slotted the chip.

"The hell am I suppose to do with this Alto? Swords aren't cool!"

"Oh quit your whining shorty" Starman glared at him.

"You wanna fight!?" Axl called back.

"You're not worth it kid" he shot back.

*Edge picks up the sword chip and plugs it into his PET*

Edge: <Let's do this! Round 2!>

*Spider's right arm becomes a blue sword of light energy that he points at the Mettaur to the right of him.*

Spider: <Hah. Cute toy, but I don't plan to use something like this all that often. You'd better not force me to either, Edge. Not good with these kinds of things, you know?>

*Spider throws a card with his left hand towards the Mettaur, and then dashes forward in a slashing motion, so that even if the Mettaur dodged or deflected the card, the slash from Spider's sword would still hit it.*

*Zeno silently uploaded his Sword* chip into his PET, which appeared in Protoman's offhand.*

Protoman: <Another sword? I mean, dual wielding is cool and all, but is it practical?>

Zeno: <It's what the teacher wants, bro. We gotta do as she says.>

Kelphy: <Iceman, I'm uploading the chip!>

-----

*Iceman's right hand turns into a blue energy sword and he jumps over one of the Mettaurs and shoots a couple snowballs down at it, freezing it. After landing, he turns around and slashes it through, desintegrating it. Nearby, another Mettaur sends a shockwave into Spider's card, causing it to explode halfway towards it, but is surprised and defeated when Spider comes slashing through the explosion. The third Mettaur sends a shockwave towards Protoman.*

~

*The Mettaurs hit the ground with their pickaxes, sending shockwaves towards Axl and Starman.*

-----

Ms.Diceus: <Those of you who have already uploaded the chip can check your PET info on your PET. You should have spent 1 UB because the chip is level 1 (*) and the Sword* chip should be crossed out. This is about all you need to know for basic virus busting. Finish off the viruses and you can jack out. Now, a little announcement: Since I arrived in the Fall I've been teaching Biology too so I've only been able to teach Netology to the 11th and 12th grades.>

*She glances at Alto, Edge, Kelphy and some other students.*

Ms.Diceus: <I'd like to announce we have a new Biology teacher and, starting next week, first week of Spring, every student will have Netology in their schedule. That's right, give me a yay for busier schedules!>

"Useless!" Axl says and jumps over the shockwave impaling the first mettaur through the head.

"Trash!" Starman does the same thing.

They stare at each other.

""WHAT DID YOU SAY!?""

========

Alto facepalms.

"YAY MORE CLASS~" Minato smiles as he's one handed handstanding on the back of one of the seats.

*Zeno shrugs and resumes studying his PET.*

Zeno: <So, I get an excuse to browse the 'net in class. Nice...>

===

*Protoman looks to some of the feuding Navis and approaches them.*

Protoman: <We should be doing more of a team-like thing, dontcha guys think?>

*Spider sighs and watches the two navis arguing, then the other one trying to break it up. His sword disappears and is replaced with his normal arm again.*

Spider: <This is humiliating....>

*Spider raises his right hand to cover the right side of his face. He usually does this during times of extreme embarrassment or humiliation, and if this wasn't one of those times, he didn't know when it would be.*

Ms.Diceus: <Oh, yeah. The current version of the PET can only store data on 10 different types of chips, so that's the limit on how many different kinds you can carry in your folder right now. You can carry up to two of the same type. But don't worry, there is a new upgrade coming out soon, work to earn it! I guess that's all. I'm closing off the network and your NetNavi will be downloaded back to your PETs. You can-->

*As soon as the NetNavi return to the PETs, the lights go out and every single computer in the room dies. Luckily, there are plenty of opened windows and it's a sunny afternoon.*

Ms.Diceus: <That's weird. Well, it's probably just a s/c. I'll ask the janitor to open the gates manually. See you all kiddies on Monday, have a nice weekend.>

*She skips up the steps out of the auditorium. Kelphy stares at her blankly as she does so, then smiles to herself and looks at Iceman on her PET's screen.*

Iceman: <That was weird.>

Kelphy: <I guess so. Let's go home now.>

"Weird WEIRD!~" Minato flipped in place and landed on the same chair.

<"Stop acting like a clown Minato it's embarrassing"> Starman facepalms.

"I dunno I think its kinda inspiring to watch him" Alto snickers at his stealth pun.

<"Alto it's not cool to call someone 'special'. Cool people like me just don't do that">

"WOOO WOOO 10 POOOINTS!~" he backflipped and landed with only one hand on another chair.

"Lets just go home. Catch guys" Alto got up and waved to the others. His eye caught Edge's and he grinned. "There's some interesting people here I didn't even know about. Maybe I should come to class more often..."

*Edge unplugs his PET from the computer and looks at the monitor as Spider is transported out of the area and is now in a blank room by himself.*

Spider: <Well, geez. That didn't end well. These other guys are gonna cramp my style, y'know what I mean?>

Edge: <Yeah... their arguing made me start to have so little faith in the future virus busting community.>

*The two sigh and walk out of the classroom, not even bothering to wonder why the lights just went out due to being so tired.*

*Zeno unplugs his PET and silently walks out of the auditorium.*

Protoman: <You should try to make friends. It's not good to be antisocial.>

Zeno: <Yeah, yeah...>

Kelphy: <I need to go get my laptop and the keys before we go to the yacht.>

Iceman: <All right.>

*She stops walking and stares around as the others walk past her.*

Iceman: <You said you were going to try making friends.>

Kelphy: <I know...>

Iceman: <The pink-haired guy looked cheerful.>

Kelphy: [He scares me a little...] <...I g-guess.>

*She smiles awkwardly and shakes her head before continuing to walk home.*

~Timeskip!~

*A little while later, everyone's at their respective houses when on TV, on the local news, they start talking about a strange blackout at Seabreeze High. The reporter is standing by the school's main gate.*

Reporter: <...Every single program in the network was mysteriously and irreparably damaged, and there doesn't seem to be a logical explanation for it...>

Alto is working at one of his computer terminals doing some minor diagnostic scans and menial bullshit with Axl. He hear's whats on TV and looks at the screen.

"No" he says.

<"You don't think its worth checking out the network?"> Axl questions.

"No... I do, but, not until class again on Monday. We have more important things to work on."

<"You're still trying to decipher that code?">

"Yeah. Its been bugging me again lately. I know mom had more research than this. There's more to all these notes. I just gotta crack this code..."

<"Heh, maybe you should take learn from a cool guy like me and relax a bit.">

"Axl... you're a walking terrible example."

---

Meanwhile Minato was roller-blading in the park.