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Kyogre
Author of 8 Stories |
'Transmission error.'
The words echoed through the scientist's mind. Blinking, he stared at the screen, but the even green letters refused to change or simply disappear.
'Transmission error. Data lost during transfer.'
The chair creaked in protest under the man's weight as he dropped into it, drained of all life. Letting his head fall into his hand, Hikari Yuuichirou squeezed his eyes shut, but the computers message continued to burn inside his mind.
'Navi data lost.'
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Sighing again, Roll transferred to the ACDC Town network. Here too, everything looked normal and dull. In the distance, she could see a few standard Navis traversing the floating walkways, on errands for their operators. To the left, the Hikari household homepage link glowed faintly. Far ahead and to the right was Tohru Hikawa's page.
Really, that was about all she would find in the ACDC network. It was still a small town and, despite being populated by the families of scientists who commuted to Sci-Labs, rather old-fashioned. Only two homes had their own websites, after all.
Heading toward the DenCity central network gate, Roll wondered once again at net's structure.
Who in the world was demented enough to imagine the inside of a computer as a labyrinth of floating walkways and platforms? What reason was there to make it so complicated?
True, Navis had better memory than humans and could generally remember the way to any place they had been before. Still, getting there the first time was downright frustrating and having to walk so far every time was just annoying.
'Ah well. I suppose scientists are always eccentric. Part of the whole genius thing…'
The DenCity central network connected the local area nets of ACDC Town, the Government Complex, and ElecTown, Electopia's capital. Also, it provided links to other local networks and the nets of other countries.
Though the entire world was connected through a global network, established after the third great war, getting to other countries could take several days, even for a custom Navi with all the right clearances. There were numerous firewalls and security gates on both sides, not to mention areas that fell under no country's jurisdiction and teemed with viruses.
Well, she hadn't been planning to go very far anyway.
In the DenCity net, things were a bit more interesting. As Roll watched with mild fascination, a Metool walked by, hanging upside down below a walkway. It paused for a moment, its large eyes blinking. Then, loosing interest in its staring contest with the strange Navi, the virus moved on.
Shrugging slightly, Roll began to walk again. Metools were the simplest of viruses. There was no point destroying this one. Before five minutes were up, another would take its place.
She was passing through Electown's second area when a distortion caught her attention.
It was, Roll supposed, kind of like hearing footfalls. Technically, there were no real "senses" on the net. Basic things like sight and touch were programmed into the environment, being necessary for the correct operation of Net Navis. But the secondary things – like smell and taste – were completely absent.
In the some of the more advanced areas of the net, special programs recreated the sensation of sound. Though she had never said so, Roll loved hearing the clicking of her heels on the cyber walkways. She loved sound, period. Sometimes, with no one around, she would hum to herself the songs Meiru used to play on the piano, or even sing the school choir's simpler melodies.
However, a highly trafficked area like ElecTown's main network would have no such programming. With the constant coming and going on hundreds, even thousands, of Navis, the system would overload quickly. Only more specialized areas, like Sci-Lab's inner servers, could afford extras like sound.
Shaking her head sharply, Roll turned her attention back to cyber reality. A disturbance was quickly moving along a nearby walkway. With instincts born of numerous virus battles, she automatically began to charge up an attack.
A virus was coming her way.
Viruses, as a rule, did not make noise. Aberrations in the system, they disabled the delicate synthesizers by their mere presence. Viruses were always silent. However, by the same token, viruses were easy to notice by the disturbances they caused, like ripples traveling across a pond, outward from a thrown pebble.
Navis, as natural parts of the net, made no such disruptions.
Roll was forcefully reminded of this fact as a blue and brown blur nearly collided with her, just ahead of the distortion. It was, she noted in the instance their eyes met, a custom Navi.
However, her attention was pulled away sharply to the dark blue shape behind the strange Navi. The Spikey, a dog-like beast, crouched as it prepared to spring at its prey. The instance the virus's jump carried it above the strange Navi's head, Roll released her stored attack.
The pink blast ripped through the virus effortlessly. Roll let out her breath heavily and regarded the Navi in front of her.
Custom Navis came in all shapes and sizes, ranging from fanciful to human-like to downright bizarre. Tohru's Navi was in the first category. Iceman's arctic-explorer theme and only vaguely-human form made for a cute but unrealistic image. He was obviously meant for a child, though Dr. Hikawa worked with him often enough.
Roll herself was fairly human in appearance, surprisingly so to many. In a different outfit, she would have looked like a fairly ordinary pre-teen. But the outfit was there, and it looked like something out of a video game. Nowhere would she be mistaken for a human, except perhaps at an anime convention.
The Navi in front of her, however, looked… well… human. A bit strange, perhaps, with thick brown gloves and boots, but human. As if noticing her scrutiny, he turned away from the quickly dispersing remains of the virus and grinned sheepishly.
"Thanks a lot! I thought I was toast for sure!"
He did not, of course, speak as such, but the words were there. This was what telepathy would have been like in the real world, Roll supposed. Speech without sound. Though, his mouth moved all the same. Reality mannerism programming wasn't situation-specific.
"No problem," she replied slowly, still watching him carefully. "Though… Why didn't you fight it yourself?"
'A Custom Navi should have no problem with such a low-level virus…' Roll mused.
His expression would have been best described as blank.
"Er… Well, I… uh… don't have any weapons?" he trailed off, unsure of his answer. "How'd you do that anyway? I mean, just blow it up like that…"
It was Roll's turn to don a blank expression.
'A custom Navi without weapons? That's a bit strange, but not impossible…' Certainly, many custom Navis were designed for purposes other than combat.
"Well then, why didn't you call your Operator?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. A small, small part of her regretted the silence once again. Normally, her long hair would have whispered quietly at the motion. Now, she simply took comfort in the gentle brush of strands against her shoulders.
"Emm… Operator? What Operator?"
There was a moment of silence. Or whatever counted as silence in a place without sound. Then, the proverbial dam broke.
"What Operator? Your Operator, of course!" The stranger's expression remained completely uncomprehending. "You can't be a solo Navi! There's just no way!" Roll continued, forgetting all manners and discretion. "If you can't even fight off a Spikey, there's just no way! And even solo Navis know what Operators are! What do you mean, "What Operator?" This isn't funny, you know!"
A Navi without an Operator… one of the unspeakable renegades, highest priority criminals on the NetAgents' list…
'No way! He's just too… cute!' Roll thought frantically. The strange Navi regarded her with a confused expression that was slowly turning into something between of a pout and a frown. 'He's just a kid!' Never mind that a Navi's appearance said nothing about their age.
"You're weird!" he declared, now definitely frowning. "What the heck are you talking about? Navi? Operator? Spikey? Are you sick or something?"
"You're the one who's sick, I think," Roll told him with mild indignation. "Do you have amnesia? What's your name anyway?"
Never mind that Navis didn't get amnesia…
He considered this for a moment, then smiled cheerfully.
"I have no idea!" he declared.
"Then I suppose you don't know where you're from either," Roll commented, sighing. Well, she'd wished for something to happen…
"Nope!"
"Don't sound so cheerful about it," she told him almost sternly. Raising one hand, Roll summoned a small info screen. The strange Navi blinked in surprise and stared.
"How'd you do that? And what is that?" he asked, peering at the half-transparent screen.
"It's your license." Predictably, he looked blank. "Every custom Navi has one. Most Navis have these, actually. It lists a Navi's general stats, like name and operator and home area," she explained distractedly, scanning the lines of text in front of her.
'Or, at least it should…'
His didn't.
There was exactly one piece of information on the license.
"Well, your name's Torrent."
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Meiru spoke softly, watching the brown-haired boy closely. For a few moments, he remained silent, examining his PET closely.
"I think…" His voice was quite, hesitant. "Someone tried to send me a file, but the transfer was… interrupted?" he finished uncertainly, his forehead furrowing slightly as he searched for the right word.
"What were they trying to send?" she asked, knowing from experience he wouldn't saying anything else without being prompted. Sometimes, you practically had to drag the words out with tongs.
"I… can't tell. The connection was cut too quickly. Even the sender's address didn't get through." He finally looked up, shrugging slightly, his brown eyes apologetic.
"Well, at least it wasn't anything bad," Meiru commented with a small smile. "It was kind of scary how it just went off in the middle of class."
"Yes… Higure-sensei wasn't happy at all," he replied softly, looking down again.
"Don't worry about it," she told him gently but firmly. "You're her best student! She didn't really mind."
Saito Hikari returned her smile, somewhat hesitantly, his eyes meeting her own. Really, he was so nice… just so shy…
Of course, her PET had to go off at that exact moment.
Cursing mentally, Meiru reached into the carrying case at her waist. The pink device beeped again, its screen flashing with an incoming communication.
"Roll-chan? What's going on?" Meiru asked, pushing down her irritation. The ugly emotion fell back easily under the onslaught of common sense and the almost undetectable warning of guilt. It wasn't her Navi's fault. She had no right to complain, especially not after everything Roll had done…
"Sorry to bother, Meiru-chan… You're at recess, right?" Roll's image looked back from the other side of the screen apologetically. The guilt stirred sluggishly.
"No, it's fine," Meiru replied quickly. "And besides, you're much more important than any class."
'Do you know… just how important?..'
"I wouldn't you to get in trouble…" Giving herself a quick shake, a gesture Meiru recognized and admired, Roll cut the pointless mushiness and got back on track. "I was walking around the Town Net when this weird Navi… ran into me. I think he has amnesia or something. He doesn't remember anything. I checked his license, but it's totally blank. I'm going to take him to Sci-Labs, okay?"
"Ah… Sure." Meiru smiled softly as her Navi quickly cut the connection. Roll was just so nice, so kind, always helping.
'I wish I was… like that…'
And maybe someday she could be. But for now, it would have to be enough to fool everyone, to make them think she was the perfect kind, caring girl. And maybe someday she could fool herself…
Shaking herself mentally, Meiru pushed away the melodrama. Pointless angst got you nowhere, Roll had taught her. Turning, she smiled at the brown-haired boy. He looked back cautiously, from beneath his bangs, a glass shield just behind his eyes.
Well, she'd just keep trying.
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Only as he took a deep, shuddering gulp of air did Dr. Hikari realize that he'd forgotten the small vital task of breathing. That must have been the fifth time. Or was it the sixth? From the time when…
'Don't think, dammit, just type.'
What had gone wrong? It was just a routine transfer, simply sending a file… Just when he'd thought it was alright to relax…
'You're thinking again…'
And now… and now…
'Don't think. Just type. Check the transfer parameters. Check-'
It took him a moment to notice the insistent chiming of the computer. Someone was trying to open a channel. But even after realizing the sound was coming from the metal and silicon beast in front of him, all Dr. Hikari could do was stare at the flashing pop-up window.
'Click on it.'
That's right. You had to point the mouse at the message and push the button.
"Dr. Hikari! Hello!" The female Navi's cheerful voice seemed far away, separated from him by a great distance, or perhaps a great deal of water. Or maybe he was the one underwater, sinking slowly…
Navi…
'Don't think.'
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I didn't know what else to do," Roll continued, looking down as if to study her shoes.
That's right, her name was Roll. How could he have forgotten?
She seemed almost human. No, she seemed human. Nothing less. Seemed, only seemed. Navis were just data, so easily lost, deleted, corrupted… but then, humans were so fragile as well…
'Don't think. Don't let her know. No one needs to know.'
"I found this really strange Navi wandering around the Town net. He doesn't remember anything, and his license is almost blank. I thought-" Abruptly, she stopped, looking at something beyond the screen. "Hey! What are you doing? Put that down!"
"Why? What is it? It's kinda cute…" A disembodied voice answered her, childish and upbeat.
"It's a Metool. Don't mess with it. It's got more weapons than you," Roll responded sternly. As she finished speaking, a startled yelp sounded from the same unseen source, followed closely by a metallic clang. Like a Metool being dropped unceremonially to the ground…
"Who're you talking to?" The voice drew closer, and another face peered into the screen alongside Roll.
"Hi! I'm Torrent!" the Navi declared.
And suddenly, Dr. Hikari wondered what it was he had done right in this, or previous, life. The relief and elation were too sudden to be uplifting or warm. Like being dropped into ice cold water, he was abruptly pulled to reality, faced with its sharp line and hard contrasts.
The two Navis were arguing.
"Yes, but you didn't know that fifteen minutes ago."
"Yup! Thanks a lot!" the other Navi replied, grinning.
"How can you be so simple-minded? You were totally lost in a completely alien place!"
"Hey! It wasn't my fault! And I wasn't lost! I just… didn't know where I was… or where I was going… or what places there were to go to… But I wasn't lost!"
'Don't let them know.'
'A bit of the truth, and no lies. They don't need to know. And maybe it's for the best.'
'That he doesn't remember…'
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comments:
Eheh heh… me write weird stuff…
Welcome to Remix. I had too many ideas bouncing around in my head, so I wrote this thing. You can call it an AU if you feel like it. I don't care.
However, this isn't just "Saito lives instead of Netto." People don't seem to understand this, but Netto and Saito were identical twins. If Saito had lived instead of his brother, nothing would have changed except for the main character's name. So instead, this is a remix. Expect to see Axess characters appear too early. Expect to see some characters simply cut out. Things are different, but they are still similar.
A note on geography. I'm using the BN 4 map, with the translated location names. Except NAXA. That continent will be called Ameroupe.
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