Kauko had trouble staying quiet, but on a night like this, it was necessary. He had spent most of the trip looking up at the bare mountain peak, sparing few glances for the island he loved. Kauko had decided if he was going to get out of here, he needed to cut some ties...it would hurt less, when he left. His mind spun plots instead. This was first job, for one, and he wanted to show that this plan could work out, his plan. It was important tonight went off without a hitch. He also supposed he wanted to impress Titania too for...reasons. He figured that meant he should take the lead.
"...Rock might still be loose, and digging is noisy. Moonlights wasting. Let's get this over with-Lumi, you're the best one of to fit down in there...but, I'm better with tech, so it'll have to be me. Damian, please give me a hand, will you?"Kauko tried hard to not think of Damian as 'spare muscle', but he didn't know him well enough not to. He owed the man a great deal, however. Their bartering over the years had mirrored both of their developments as they attended the same year of school. Damian had grown like an oak on fresh air and sun, and gone to throwing rubber balls around-Kauko had grown like a skinny weed on the glow of computer screens. They couldn't be more different, but PETS and NAVI's gave them common cause-his finding Score was something that effectively didn't have a price. Combat NAVI's were way too valuable to sell.
So he had offered Damian a job. Hoping that the enticement of potential riches-the dream of potential-was worth something to him. As it turned out, it did.
...
Kauko had indeed, something of a rep as a good coder. You could bring him things to decrypt and problems to solve and he'd give you fair price. It started out with packs of Buster-Gum and Chocottaurs (both of which were still a guilty pleasure of his) for Chip Codes to the Local NumberMan, and how to game the chip trader machines in various shops to give you the chips you wanted-his old Navi, SplashWoman, had considered all that far too easy. She had always pushed him to do more, take risks. So by second year he had begun some low level netbattles and chip trading-people brought him things, was all. He had briefly run a 'OVO' (operator vs operator) fighting club that was shut down by the School Admins after a NAVI nearly got deleted (by SplashWoman, as it turned out). In his third year he played with virus breeding and made some...mistakes...some of which were still running around and causing trouble. By his fourth year he could unlock most standard decryption keys, and in fact, had created his own very simple one-it was least one security he would always know how to bypass. On the fifth year he had begin to make his first expeditions to the Outflow...
But the world just got bigger and bigger, and he had realized he was a very small fish in a very big sea pretty early on. Which was why he needed to do what he was doing now...he had to keep up. Things changed so fast! Already there were younger kids than him that seemed to have net-tricks he had never even thought of, secrets that he had given up on finding. A lot of them were outsiders who moved in and had a lot more zenny to throw around. Some of them had just been sneakier than him, he guessed. He was hardly the best coder on the island. Not yet, anyway.
He couldn't get complacent. He had to push himself. Like SplashWoman would have, he supposed, wanted. There would have been a time he wasn't even sure if Navis could want things...
...
Kauko was tall at 6ft and a spare zenny, but like his sister, skinny as a rail. He was sure he could snake his way down in there and get everyone connected.
He looked down to his oddly bulky PET, the soft whirling of dual-gear system producing more heat than would be usual. He was sure he had accounted for it, but...
"WindKnight, Score, are you ready? We'll be going in hot-no idea whats on the other side."WindKnight knew many Navis felt the inside of a PET differently. For some it was merely sleep, an abyss without thought. Others required more context, however, for their time spent unconnected to the NetWorld. WindKnight was cognizant of the connection between the two worlds and how they fit together, they just saw things with a different way.
For WindKnight, it was a small stone house without inherent decorations, just a stone room with a tomb like bed, a spare flat table with a chair, and a wooden chest with a heavy padlock. In the center of the room was the magic well the 'Lord Wizard' Kauko contacted them through. There was a door, but the yard was a very small grass square, that led into a field of wildflowers. Before it had been an invisible wall staring out into the blurred colors of Kaukos 'screen saver'-but the Good Wizard Lumi had remembered AirKnights 'birthday' (Kauko often forgot his own birthday), or at least the day they had been brought online again, and enchanted them with a spell that replicated the illusion of a field of crops around the exterior of the PET world-sunflowers, for now. You could even touch the first row, but like many things here, it was designed to look real, not be real. Trying to pass through them would loop you through the other side.
Still, they appreciated the magic of illusion, since it had been given in love.
All of these had their own functions in the 'real world' (Kauko often complained of wasted EB space), but to WindKnight, it was just their home. Kauko's designs tended to favor function over aesthetics...not that it stopped WindKnight from collecting various trophies, banners, and artworks. Blue sashes swooped across the ceiling, a mural of an eagle (one decorated to a particularly tenacious virus) was on one wall, and a smashed steering wheel was displayed prominently in one corner. The latter had been from a particularly enjoyable NetKart race they had with SnowMan.
The largest structure aside was the well of command, which resided in the center of the hut-it allowed Kauko to communicate with them, and spell fallen enemies directly and harvest their essence from this world to theirs. As WindKnight was exceedingly poor at doing at that.
WindKnight patiently honed their wind-like blades, waiting for the call to arms.
The Wizards face wavered into being in the well in the center of the room. Behind them, the sky was clear, dark, and full of stars. And it went on forever. His own sky was filled with a cold and blustery rain, what he reckoned as a side effect of Kaukos cooling spell. It made no pleasant rattling sound upon the roof, however, nor did the flowers flick in the storm wind-the limits of Kaukos spellwork. This made him slightly unhappy.
But, what a wonder to be in a world without limit...
I eagerly await setting foot on a new land. Just be...careful. Your injuries do not heal as readily as mine!
Hey, the swelling went down, right? An exploding PET could have been a lot worse. I've installed some systems that should help with the overheating issue...how's the climate in there?
The night remains cool and stormy. I will inform you of any...how do you put it? 'Electro-Metaphorical Data Anomalies'!
"Score? Come in! Are you getting my signal clearly?"
Action: Kauko tries to wiggle down the hole and set up the battery!
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Topic: Bay12 NetBattlers: The S-Files (Read 16428 times)