Aaahhh, I love the smell of fresh print in the morning… even though text on a screen technically isn't print. Sorry about the long delay. School caused me temporarily lose interst in writing. Whatever, moving on to the story.
The other three were already waiting for Ray when he got there. Jonas caught him as he came up. "Where you been man?" he hissed. "People've been giving me some weird looks."
Ray laughed to himself. Jonas with girls? That'd be the day. "Anyway, let's go," Ray said, motioning to the two girls.
They were about to walk away when… "Where do you think you're going, Hall?"
Sasha gasped and put a hand to her mouth when she saw the imposing figure of Bruce. Zoaya merely stood there and blinked. Ray turned around to face him, grinning. "Nice of you to join us. What took you so long?" He turned back to the rest of the team. "Meet member #5, guys."
Zoaya raised an eyebrow. Sasha smiled nervously and waved a tiny little bit. Jonas just stared.
"Yea whatever, let's just get goin'," Bruce grumbled.
The five of them set off, Jonas leading. The two girls chatted quietly in the middle. Ray hung to the back with Bruce. For some unknown reason, he felt that he had to make Bruce feel as though he was really part of this team. Because of their previous dealings with him, with the exception of Sasha, the others mostly stayed away from him and from what Ray had heard from Volcanoman, the navis preferred not to hang around with his Steelman either.
For a few minutes the two of them walked silently, Bruce had his hands in his pockets and was staring at the ground a few feet in front of him as he went. Ray decided to take a stab. "So… why'd you come?" Bruce said nothing. "It's not that I have a problem with it or anything…"
"Why are you doing this?" Bruce suddenly said. "Why're you being so nice?"
Ray was caught off guard and totally lost for words. Bruce continued, shaking his head. "I don't get you, Hall. Yesterday, you're all up in my face, threatening to rat off on me, and today you're being all nice and everything. What is with you?!"
Ray observed that there was silence ahead of them. "Someone's gotta break the ice," Ray said quietly. "If this is gonna work, we better get over whatever went on before, for the good of the team."
Bruce stopped walking and stared at him. "'For the good of the team?' You're starting to sound you already appointed yourself leader."
"And you think you could do a better job?"
"I know I can."
"Give me a break, Bruce. Nobody here trusts you!" Ray said, his voice rising. "That's one important thing a leader should have: the trust of his team. And it's something they have to earn. So I suggest you get working on it." With that, Ray turned and walked on, through the others who had stopped a ways up. Then they followed him.
Bruce was left standing by himself. "Feh, who needs 'em?"
"We sure don't. We'll do just fine by ourselves and we'll show 'em, right?"
"You got that right. Let's go, Steelman." But as he left, Bruce hesitated a moment and glanced back at the others walking off in the opposite direction.
Jonas opened the front door to his house and let everyone in. "Just don't break anything," he advised. "My mom'll throw a fit."
Ray nodded in agreement. Jonas's mom could go off major if you did the right thing to set her off. The four of them took seats in the living room, Zoaya and Sasha taking the couch, and Ray claiming the big armchair in the corner, leaving Jonas to drag in an extra chair from the dining room. "C'mon, it's my house an' all…" he grumbled, but got the chair anyway.
"I think the first thing we should do is let all the navis see each other again," Ray concluded. "Good with you?" he said, reaching to press the two buttons. The rest nodded and activated each of the their holo-screens. Immediately the navis began conversing back and forth as if the humans weren't there, greeting each other.
"Well hiya, Volcanoman. I thought I'd never see your ugly mug again."
"Ha ha, Charge, nice to see you too."
"It's so good seeing everyone again, don't you think so, Deckman?"
"Yes, I concur. We are extremely fortunate that we should have this opportunity."
Charge sighed contentedly. "This is the way it should be. All of us, and no Steelman."
Volcanoman glanced at Ray, while the other two expressed their agreement.
"Yes, that one can be a detriment to our operations at some times."
"Well, I don't really want to exclude him, it is true that he just gets annoying after a while."
"Why don't you guys like him?" Ray asked quietly.
Charge answered for the group. "'Cause he's a big selfish jerk. Don't even know why they programmed him that way," she added in a mumble.
"Actually," Deckman corrected, "Netnavi personalities develop on their own."
"Whatever," Ray said, breaking up what was turning into a technical conversation. "The point is, he's still part of your team isn't he? I don't care for Bruce that much either, but I still gave him the opportunity to join us today."
"Yea, Ray and Bruce don't have a very good history," Volcanoman explained. "Why, on the day they found us, Bruce tried to off Ray during cross-fusion."
"Wait a second," Zoaya interjected. "You've already done this thing?"
"Once, yes," Ray admitted. "But I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just lucky 'cause the bad guy ran away for some weird reason."
"Sparkman," Volcanoman corrected.
Ray stared at him a second. "You know who these guys are?"
"We have a database of all the known Darkloids loaded into the PETs, but I've never met any personally… except Sparkman now," Volcanoman explained.
"So how many are there?" Sasha asked nervously.
"Quite are few," Deckman said. "By Dr. Hikari's count, they have encountered around fifteen different Darkloids."
"Fifteen too many, if you ask me," Charge muttered.
"Only fifteen?" Zoaya asked. "Then our job should be done fairly quickly."
"Not exactly," Volcanoman explained. "You see, when a Darkloid, or any navi for that matter, sustains a certain amount of damage, they 'log out,' surviving to fight another day."
"Oh…" Zoaya said.
"Yes, but it doesn't always work like that," he went on. "If a navi should choose not to log out, or take a large amount of damage before they have the opportunity to, they are 'deleted,' gone until Dr. Regal finds some way to regenerate them, which he most likely will. In either of these cases for us, you would lose cross-fusion."
"So if they take a lot of damage, they just leave and if we take a lot of damage, we lose cross-fusion?" Zoaya clarified.
Charge nodded. "And you can't do it again until we've recovered sufficiently, so if everybody happens to lose, you're pretty much hosed."
"That's not gonna happen though," Ray said quickly, noting Sasha starting to look very uncomfortable. "We can handle it right? And we'll all watch out for each other."
"How we gonna let each other know where one of the dome thingys is when we spot it though?" Jonas wondered.
"They're called dimensional areas," Deckman put in. "Please refer to them correctly now that you have been educated." Jonas pulled a face, but Deckman ignored him and went on. "Each of your PETs is wired to a private communications network. You can call each other anytime you need to… or rather we can hook it up for you."
Ray's PET suddenly made a soft beep and Volcanoman checked one of the readouts. "Speaking of which, incoming call, audio only. I wonder who it's from…?" Volcanoman asked, faking a thoughtful look.
Ray rolled his eyes as the call picked up. Immediately, Ray recognized Bruce's voice, as if anyone else could have contacted him this way. He was obviously in the middle of something. "Hall, I hate to admit it but I'm in big trouble! Some guy's tearing up the park! Get down here now!" Then the transmission cut out.
Ray immediately stood up, shut off his screen and headed for the door. "You heard him. C'mon!"
The others followed his lead, Jonas staying back a little longer in order to lock up. As he dashed toward the park, Ray caught a glance of Jessie just getting home from school. She watched him with a curious eye for a moment, then shrugged and went inside.
The park was in flames inside the dome. Bruce held up an arm across his face in order to shield it from the intense heat, despite the fact his visor was on. He hadn't seen the guy responsible yet, but other matters pressed him now… such as finding a way to put out this inferno. This is bad…
You said it. Any ideas?
Got anything that can spread around dirt?
A moment then: Best I can come up with.
Bruce's right arm turned into a giant drill. "Cool." On his command, the drill began spinning at high speed and he rammed it into the soft earth. Dirt sprayed everywhere as Bruce strained not to be dragged down by the power of the drill. The dirt landed on some patches of fire, but did nothing against the entire blaze. Crud! Ray and the others better get here soon…
Meanwhile, outside the dome, Ray and the group had arrived. "Now how do we get in?" Ray voiced his thoughts out loud.
"Aim you PET at the dome then hit the red button on the back of it," Volcanoman instructed. Ray did so and heard what sounded like vibrating sound waves. Soon a bunch of the hexagons had broken away to form a small but accessible hole in the side of the dome. "Nice," Ray said, lowering his arm.
"Better hurry. It won't last long."
"Right. Let's go," he said, waving to the other three and diving into the hole. He rolled, and then stood up. "This place is a mess."
"You know what to do, kid. The others' navis will help them out. You just get going."
"OK, here goes." Ray gripped the symbol on his PET and turned it a quarter turn to the right. The others watched in amazement from where they stood just inside the hole as it began to glow then it broke up and transformed Ray into CF-Volcanoman. (Now we get to the descriptions.) He looked incredibly similar to regular Volcanoman as was expected but he had some added details such as added light gray lines coming across the suit on his arms and legs as well as an added loose collar around his neck. Also, instead Volcanoman's typical flame colored hair spiking out the back, it was Ray's hair color, and there was also an added fire-like design on the boots and gloves. The outer orange stripes on the helmet had turned to red fins with flat tops and pointed ends, and the volcano peaks had added wavy orange stripes on each side, each with a yellow center stripe. Finally, he had a black mouth guard with red along the top edge and a translucent red visor that covers the distance from the helmet to the mouth guard. He turned and winked at his friends, then shot off toward the center of the park.
"Whoa…" Jonas said, staring.
Sasha just stared, but Zoaya was a bit more animated. "Awesome!!" she shouted, dancing around excitedly. "How do I do that?!"
"Alright, calm down," Charge said, trying not to laugh. "All you gotta do is twist the symbol on your PET…" Charge would've said more, but Zoaya was way ahead of her. Pretty soon, CF-Charge was on the scene. The hair was the same only it was Zoaya's color, the bangs styled like Zoaya's as well. The bodysuit was no sleeve and the gloves were lengthened, ending with a wide, yellow stripe. The gold fins on the gloves had an extra point to them, and the yellow ridges on her helmet had fanned and spiked out. She had a purple lightning bolt in the middle of her boot-fins, as well as an added, yellow fin on the heel. A two-pointed purple lightning bolt came out from under her armor, as well as a purple diamond wrapping around her thighs.
Zoaya turned her hand over as she inspected it. "This is cool beyond belief," she breathed.
It gets better. You ready for some combat?
"Ready as I'll ever be."
Great! Now we just gotta find the guy who's responsible for this…
"That I can handle." Zoaya turned back to Sasha, who was still staring in half shock, half amazement. "You gonna be OK?" Sasha was aware enough to manage a nod, so Zoaya took off.
"It's alright, Sasha," Tide said from the PET. "We don't have to fight. We can just deal with putting out all these fires. Is that OK with you?"
Sasha relaxed a bit. "Yea, I guess so."
"Great!" If Sasha could've seen Tide's face, she guessed she would be beaming all over. "But we still have to go into cross-fusion. Are you ready?"
Sasha gulped. "Uh-huh."
"I guess I'd better get to it, too," Jonas sighed.
"Correct," Deckman answered. "Rotate the symbol 90 degrees."
"Huh?"
"Just turn it," Deckman sighed, shaking his head despairingly.
"OK." Both Jonas and Sasha turned theirs at the same time, revealing CF-Deckman and CF-Tide.
Jonas looked the same as Deckman had before but with tan stripes cutting across his arms, legs, and chest diagonally as well as added tan ridges to the helmet. The normally plain dark green pads on his elbows and knees now had burgundy diamonds in the center of them. Also his visor was just a little bit more translucent. Deckman's board appeared at Jonas's feet. It had a tan deck with burgundy edging and a green underside.
Tide's jumper became a normal bodysuit on Sasha with a light blue wavy line separating a tan top half and a dark blue bottom half. Two tan ridges flanked the helmet, and dark blue wavy lines were added to the edges of her boots and gloves. Also her symbol was entirely inside a water drop design on her chest.
Jonas's main attention was focused on the board. He placed a foot on it cautiously, watching it bob up and down due to the added weight as it hovered in front of him. "Sweet…"
Indeed. Care to go for a ride?
Jonas was too distracted by the board to notice the fact that there was a voice in his head. He automatically jumped on and shoved off, getting to top speed in a few seconds. "YEEHAW!!" he yelled, throwing in a 360 Nosegrab off an ollie.
Sasha was as amazed as any of them. "Uh, Tide…?"
Don't worry, I'm still here. Let's get to work putting out these fires, alright?
"Alright…"
Ray ran as fast as could, weaving through the fires and avoiding panicked "crazies." The last thing I need is one of those guys trailing me, he thought.
Good plan. I think I spotted the guy up ahead.
Gotcha. Ray slowed as he approached a tree near where the Darkloid was. Hey, that's the guy who attacked the museum that first day!
Burnerman, Volcanoman confirmed. Figures this is his doing.
Time to shut him down. What've we got to work with?
Focus on the visor in front of your eyes. I'll upload a list of the Battlechip data we have on board.
Ray peered at the inside of the visor only a few inches in front of his eyes. He placed a hand over the outside of it in order to help him focus better. Lessee… Why not stick with something we know? Fire Sword it is.
OK, and for future reference you can say it out loud and it'll load in automatically, Volcanoman said as the flame sword loaded in.
"Got it. Here goes." Ray leaped forward and came down on Burnerman, blade raised above his head.
"Wha?!" Burnerman shot out a burst of blue flame from his hand and locked Ray's sword with it. "Where did you come from?!" he demanded.
"What does it matter? I'm here to take you down!" Ray said, pushing on his sword.
It was then that Burnerman seemed to notice Ray's peculiar eye color. Oh wait… crap, he thought as recognition set in. I can take him. He backed off and aimed a jet of flame at Ray.
Ray reacted quickly shielding himself by holding his sword in the path of the attack. I know they say "Fight fire with fire," but this is way too literal… Scratch the Fire Sword. The sword transformed back into Ray's glove. Any ideas?
Hit 'em from below. Punch the ground and say "Eruption." Remember to focus on where you want to hit because that's really important.
"Sure," Ray said, shrugging. He brought his fist back and slammed into the ground. "Eruption!" He stared right at the spot beneath Burnerman's feet. That should do it right there…
Burnerman hardly had time to think before a tower of lava shot out of the ground directly beneath him. "Whoa!" He was thrown up and landed a few feet away on his back. "Ow…" He got up, none too pleased. "Alright, no more Mr. Nice Guy."
Ray raised an eyebrow. "He was nice to begin with?"
"Burning Jet!" All of Burnerman's jets ignited, sending him zooming toward Ray, leaving a trail of flames behind him.
"Too fast to dodge," Ray realized. He braced for impact.
Zoaya was trekking through the park when she nearly got ran over by a certain high-speed boarder. "What the!?" She dived out of the way just in time. Jonas swerved and pulled around, skidding to a stop.
"Sorry," he said, grinning sheepishly. "Too excited."
"Mind if I tag a ride?" Zoaya asked, gazing at the hovering board.
"I dunno. It's seems a bit--" Before Jonas could say anything else, the board extended itself, creating a comfortable space for two riders. "Small?"
Zoaya hopped on the back end. "Alright! Let's see if we can round up some of these civilians and take them to a safer place."
Jonas shrugged, climbing onto the front. "Sure." The both of them shoved off and were soon cruising along.
Sasha, meanwhile, was getting more familiar with the technicalities of her abilities. Tide had taught her that her attacks all depended on her emotions. Lucky for her, she needed little power to simply put out fires and they had secured a wide area of the park.
There's another fire over there, Sasha, to your left.
"Alright, I got it." Sasha took a deep breath and focused for a moment. "Ocean Breaker!" she said, bringing her arms forward in a fluid motion. A large wave rose up in front of her and slid off in the direction of the blaze, crashing onto it and leaving smoking grass and trees behind. "This is getting easier," she remarked.
Practice makes perfect, and you're doing a great job."Thanks Tide."
"Steel Curtain!" A solid steel wall rose up between Ray and Burnerman. Ray could hear the crunch as Burnerman rammed into it at high speed. He winced.
"Ooo… That's gotta hurt… Thanks Bruce."
Bruce walked up. "What, you think I was trying to save you? I just wanted him to go down," he huffed.
Ray rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Bruce, let's just finish this up."
The Steel Curtain vanished revealing a distinctly groggy, but still mad Burnerman. "He stood up slowly and unsteadily, holding his head with one hand. "You'll… pay for… that," he got out, pointing the jet on his other hand toward them. "Blue Flame." The fire shot forth and kept coming, moving back and forth as Burnerman moved his arm from side to side, preventing them from getting any closer.
The two of them jumped back a little. "Now what?" Bruce demanded.
"He can't block everything with just that one flame. I'll distract him, then you go around behind him, OK?" Ray suggested.
Bruce pounded his knuckles into his palm. "Let's do it."
"Magma Blaster!" Ray shot out his two streams of lava to intersect Burnerman's one flame. Burnerman was forced to add another blast to the fight. The two of them stood there ground against each other, pushing for an edge as the blue jets of flame blasted against the twin orange flow of the lava.
"You think you can defeat me?" Burnerman demanded. "My fire power is greater than yours any day."
"Maybe," Ray said shrugging, a difficult feat when you got two cannons on your shoulders blasting lava. "But you're not more powerful than my friend."
"Wha?" Burnerman turned to see Bruce just standing there behind him.
"See ya. Steel Fist!" Bruce's raised fist charged up and he brought it swinging into Burnerman's gut. Ray took the opportunity of Burnerman going down to spray him with his Magma Blaster at full power.
Burnerman, logging out.
Burnerman's form twisted into the words "Log Out" and then he vanished. Very soon afterward, the dimensional area shut down, the fire around them dying down as well. Ray and Bruce's armor dissipated and reformed into their PETs on their wrists. Ray turned to Bruce. "Nice teamwork." Bruce shrugged and walked away, muttering something about just wanting to pound somebody. Ray just watched him. "I think he's taken the bait…"
"Possibly," Volcanoman responded. Just then, the rest of the group came up to him.
"How'd it go?" Zoaya asked. "Kick any bad guy butt?" Ray nodded. "What?! You mean I missed it?!"
Ray rolled his eyes and smiled as the other s laughed. "How'd you guys do?" he asked.
"Jonas and me rounded up all the people stuck out here," Zoaya reported. "They were too panicked to argue. We got out of there just as the area shut down, so I don't think they saw who we really were."
"I took care of most of the fires," Sasha said shyly. "It was actually kind of… fun."
Ray grinned. "This team sure is forming up well. Good for our first mission, but there will be more, and I'm pretty sure they won't all be as easy, so be ready. You guys can go home and I'll meet you at school tomorrow."
The rest nodded and shouted their goodbyes to each other as they each walked home.
OK, so we'd survived our first mission as a team. And no, that wasn't the big problem I got us all into. That one's still to come. But for now, everything seemed to be going great, with the exception of Wild Card Bruce. We didn't know for sure what he was gonna do, but I hoped and believed that in the end he'd join us for good. But anyway, we had lot more stuff to do before we were doing the best we could. After all, we're still in training pretty much.
Dr. Regal's lair"That's it!!" Dr. Regal shouted. "I've found their weakness!" he declared after listening intently to Burnerman's report. "It's their teamwork. They work as a team and cover each other's individual weaknesses."
"And what are you going to do about it?" Mr. Yuri asked.
"The most natural thing," Dr. Regal replied calmly. "Split up the team…"
Ah, yes, but now the question becomes just how is he going to do that? And as usual, I'm not going to tell you a single thing except that you should review. Have fun with that!