The City Of Love

Protoman: <Are you alright, Zeno?>

Zeno: <Yeah, just peachy.>

*Kelphy nods to Alto.*

Kelphy: <Where do we start?>

*A couple of younger boys walk by.*

Boy1: <Je ne peux pas croire qu'ils sont ici. C'est fantastique!>

Boy2: <Oui, je conviens!>

Iceman: <Anyone speak French?>

Kelphy: <U-Un peu.>

Iceman: <What.>

=====

*Someone knocks on the door and he hears a little girl's voice.*

???: <Sir?>

"I do not speak French, sorry" Alto blinks.

Zeno: <Yes, who is it?>

*Edge just shrugs in confusion, not having a clue what was said.*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

Kelphy: <There aren't many other people around...>

Iceman: <It's still 9am here.>

Kelphy: <E-Excuse me!>

*The boys turn around, looking at her with their eyes widened in surprise. They're both around 13 years old.*

Boy1: <Oui?>

Kelphy: <Bonjour.>

Boys: <Bonjour.>

Kelphy: <Hum.. Je... p-peux te poser une question?>

Boy1: <Oui, bien sûr!>

Kelphy: <J-J'ai besoin de... trouver les NetNavi chercheurs.>

Boy2: <Ah, oui, je pense qu'ils sont à l'Hôtel Britannique.>

Boy1: <Oui, je pense aussi.>

Kelphy: <Oh... m-merci beaucoup.>

Boy1: <De rien. You speak English?>

Iceman: <This is hilarious!>

=====
~Zeno~

*He hears a "click" and the door is opened. A little girl with long dark blue hair and greyish eyes wearing a simple light blue dress and white sneakers walks in. She's about 6-years old. She goes to untie him. Oh yeah, she talks with a British accent.*

Ella: <I'm Ella. Nice to meet you.>

=====
~Jack~

*That day, at lunch time, Jack had watched the news and learned about the whereabouts of Mayor Colsun, and around dinner time another announcement had shocked the citizens of Seabreeze. He remembers exactly how it went, first the anchor introduced a reporter that was live from the City Hall...*

Reporter: <We're live, here at the Seabreeze City Hall, where Mayor Espada is about to give her first press conference as the new mayor of Seabreeze.>

Olympe: <Good evening, dear citizens. I am giving this conference to let you all know how determined I am to do a better job than your previous mayor and to truly help Seabreeze be at its best. Trust that I will do a good job. Moreover, I'd like to announce a dangerous hacker has been infiltrating several personal networks in our city, and for that reason the City Hall has decided to check every network tonight. Starting in around ten minutes, and in an operation that is expected to last several hours, we will be checking your personal networks one by one to make sure you are safe. Please turn off any security measures protecting any devices you possess that have an internet connection until yours is checked. Thank you very much, enjoy your dinner, and I'll see you all again soon. Take care.>

*It is now 1 in the morning and Jack is still at his computer, waiting for his network to be checked.*

"You speak french Kelphy?"

*Edge still glares on in confusion.*

Edge: <Didn't catch a word of that.>

Spider: <Me neither.>

SIDE NOTE: This is my first post, and I know it's disconnected at parts and obnoxiously long. I'll try to avoid that in future.

Jack: <Oho, this is not good. Network checks means Network traffic checks. And I simply do not want them finding all that illegal software, or more importantly, my extensive collection of Eroge King Takemoto's Tentacle Beast Fetish!>

Crashman: <How you can stand to read that crap, I will never know.>

Jack: <It's an acquired taste. If you'd broaden your horizons you'd might just understand. Getting back to the problem at hand, CODE BETA LAMBDA EPSILON 9. Maximum Security Cloaking deploy!>

*Jack clicks on the executable, activating a security program he pirated earlier that disguises his network and sets up some security measures. Crashman facepalms upon hearing the obnoxiously unnecessary voice-code*

Crashman: <Why the hell would this new mayor use such extensive measures to track one hacker anyways? Wouldn't it be easier for her to wait for reports of hacking to come in and investigate them individually? I feel like she's trying to keep tabs on the entire city or something...>

Jack: <Ha! You and your conspiracy theories. There's no way our hardworking, intelligent, beautiful, diligent, caring, beautiful mayor would ever commit something as tyrannical as city-wide espionage!>

Crashman: <Come on, I know you know something's up! Stop acting like an idiot! You saw Mayor Colsun in that news report today. There's no way they'd bring in some random chick we haven't heard of to take over as mayor, much less just to allow Mayor Colsun to take a surprise vacation to Paris!>

*Jack remains silent*

Crashman: <Just tell me what's going on already!>

*Jack continues to remain silent*

Crashman: <JACK!>

Jack: <Hey Crashman, have you ever felt...unsafe inside your PET?>

Crashman: <Of course not. You know I'm tough enough to take care of any situation. What's up with you lately? You don't usually act this crazy.>

Jack: <The past few days have been...strange. First that random power outage at school, then that fiasco at City Hall, I dunno... I feel like... like something's coming. Something big. I thought that all this added security would make me feel prepared... but... Yeah, you're right. I guess I'm just being paranoid, going crazy. Yeah. I'm making up these weird situations and...and...>

Crashman: <Jesus, calm the fuck down! Would you just listen to yourself! Alright, just hear me out. I've been feeling a bit like that too. I've noticed some shady figures on the net lately and I thought they were just no big deal. But with what you're saying, we might be right. There's got to be something wrong here. Only question is, where do we go from here? We're not some fucking detective agency.>

Jack: <Alright, the way I see it we've got 2 choices. We either sit around here and do nothing while everything plays out, or we do something about it. And honestly, I've just ran out of chips so I don't feel like sitting around anymore.>

Crashman: <Well, what the hell are we going to do then, genius?>

Jack: <We need to talk to Mayor Colsun and find out what the hell is going on. So it looks like we're going to Paris.>

Zeno: <The same to you. So, may I ask why you're here?>

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*After the boys walk away, she turns to Edge and Alto.*

Kelphy: <...A little. They said the researchers are staying at the "Britannique".>

=====
~Zeno~

Ella: <My daddy's working here. I saw that pretty lady and the big guys with her throw in there. That wasn't very nice.>

*She smiles and turns around, walking out of the hangar chamber down a hallway.*

Ella: <Come!>

=====
~Jack~

*A message pops up on his screen from a @Razz that reads "Let me in. I'm not with the mayor."*

"Shall we go then? Or is it a reservations only thing? Should I check?"

Zeno: <Thanks...>

*He follows Ella out.*

Crashman: <It's a trap. They saw through the cloaking program.>

Jack: <Razz...you think that's a girl?>

Crashman: <Focus, fucknuts! Alright, I think there's an emergency escape out the back window. If we hurry, you can back your stuff up on your laptop and we can make it before they.....Are you even listening to me! Hey! I'm talking to you!>

Jack: <Dude, chill. Not even a falcon could see through my awesome defenses. Besides, maybe we could hitch a ride to Paris from her.>

Crashman: <"Hitch a ride to Paris from her," does that even make fucking sense?! Look, you're making a big mistake! We don't have much time!>

*Use @Razz has been allowed into network VALKNET*

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

Kelphy: <...I think we can all find out.>

*She points down some street. A large sign reads "Hôtel Britannique" with an arrow pointing to the right.*

=====
~Zeno~

*She takes him into some empty office and opens a drawer, revealing the pink teddy bear inside. She takes it and sits it down on the desk.*

Ella: <This is Mr.Fluffles. He will be my hubby, and you can be our son.>

=====
~Jack~

*ShadowMan materializes in the network and just stands there, looking around every so often.*

"Lead the way."

CrashMan: <You see! This is exactly what happens when you give in to your idiotic ideas! Now hurry up and jack me in so I can explodify this fuckin' ninja wannabe so we can get the fuck out of here!>

Jack: <Now hold on for just a moment! Let's talk this out with this Razz chick before we go explodifying anyone.>

@Jack -> @Razz: <So what's up, miss?>

Edge: <Alright, let's go!>

*Edge starts to walk triumphantly towards the hotel.*

Zeno: <O...kay...>

Protoman: <She's a little girl, Zeno. Give her some slack.>

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*Kelphy smiles and nods, following Edge. Walking into the five star hotel, they don't really see anything suspicious happening in the luxurious lobby.*

Iceman: <Maybe they were wrong.>

Kelphy: <...I think we just need to know what room my father is staying in.>

=====
~Zeno~

Ella: <Your daddy is tired from working all day, will you rub his feet for a bit while I go to prepare lunch?>

*She walks to a little fridge at the corner and takes out what little is inside. Zeno hears steps. Looking out the office's door, he sees Olympe walk down the hallway.*

=====
~Jack~

*A new message pops up in reply to his.*

@Razz: There are only two private networks left to be checked, yours and mine. They should be arriving here to check yours any minute, and I intend to stop them from moving on to mine next. Don't interfere.

Edge: <Erm... yeah, you do that. Waaait just a minute. I'll catch up, I think I have to go to the washroom.>

*Edge walks away to get away from the other two.*

Spider: <(What are you doing?)>

Edge: <(Remember what that lady said? We have to keep her away from here!)>

Spider: <(Really? REALLY? Let go of that already.)>

Edge: <(No way, man, no fuckin' way. I don't wanna go to Russia.)>

Spider: <(Fine, then. What do you suggest we do?)>

Edge: <(We've gotta find a place to jack in at... beat up the security Navi, shut down the lights and other crap like that. You know, make the place go apeshit.)>

Spider: <(A reasonable idea... but where do we find a place to jack into?)>

Edge: <(How should I know?)>

Zeno: <Oh geez.>

*He falls down in a feeble attempt to hide from Olympe.*

"Check the guest book?" Alto suggests to Kelphy.

Jack: <And you thought she was a spy!>

CrashMan: <And you think he's a she.>

Jack: <...eh? How would you know?>

CrashMan: <Ugh...just send a damn reply already...>

@Jack -> @Razz <So you intend to fight them out here? I guess we have no choice, then.>

Jack: [Bah, all that added security, for nothing...]

CrashMan: <So, are you jacking me in, or what? You don't expect me to to just sit back while this ninja wannabe gets all the action, do you?>

Jack: <I was going to get to that! Jack in! CrashMan.EXE, transmit. Let's do this!>

~Kelphy, Alto & Edge~

*Kelphy glances at the counter, behind which one of the receptionists is typing on a computer.*

Iceman: <We could find a port and hack into it.>

Kelphy: <Or... we could just check it ourselves...>

Iceman: <You'll need someone to distract the receptionist lady.>

*Iceman smirks at Alto. Kelphy smiles awkwardly.*

=====
~Zeno~

*She doesn't even look into the room. Ella walks up to him and frowns down at him.*

Ella: <What are you doing? I told you to rub daddy's feet.>

=====
~Jack~

*ShadowMan glares at CrashMan but doesn't have time to say a word. A wave of light crosses the network, blinding the twp Navi momentarily. An horizontal tear's opened in the air ahead and two silver gloves emerge, pulling the tear wider. Jack's defenses have been broken. A figure in bulky silver knight's armor with a long purple plume falling back from the helmet to the ground and a large spear with purple linings walks through into the network.*