MMBN RP - Soul's Impact

@snoruntpyro + @Cosmine Pitmeen CW: blood (at the end) (edited)

12:43 AM

Serpentine was an after thought and Ellen was long past thinking about what had happened in that small tournament centric town. The gnawing loneliness buried deep within her that she thought was solved and done with had reared its ugly head and threatened to drag her back into a comfortable life of emptiness. If not for her friends, if not for Cometman, she would probably still be there. But it was all an after thought and Ellen was definitely absolutely long past thinking about it!! She tossed about in bed and groaned into a pillow. “Can’t sleep?” Cometman noticed from his charging station next to her bed. She made a tiny whine. “What’s worrying you?” he huffed, giving her a sympathetic smile. She pulled the pillow away from her face, “Um… Lan. She got controlled so easily and I’m worried about how she’s handling it.” He gave her a knowing, patient look, “Aaand, anything else you’re worried about?” She buried her head in the pillow once more, “And me.” He nodded, even though she wouldn’t have seen it, and gave her some space to elaborate. “I know we’ve talked about all this already!” she grumbled, muffled by the pillow, “I didn’t want to bring it up again…” “We’re home now and that’s the important thing,” he responded, well practiced. “Right, but-!” she stopped herself, growling into the pillow. “And if something like that ever happens again, I’ll personally pull you out of it,” he smirked. She immediately pulled down the pillow, glaring at him with deadly serious eyes, “Promise me.” He threw up his hands, “Okay! I promise.” “Pinkie promise,” she shot out her hand, pinkie raised. He laughed, “Alright, I pinkie promise,” he raised his comparatively smaller pinkie towards hers. They mimicked shaking on it, and Ellen set aside the pillow as she sat upright. “I am still worried about Lan though,” she admitted, grabbing and kneading the pillow in her hands, “Do you ever get the impression that she’s got this insatiable thirst for power like some villain from a show or something?” Cometman shrugged, “Couldn’t tell you. But don’t you also always want to get stronger?” She pouted petulantly, “That’s different. I just want to be the top Net Battler of Netken.” He chuckled, covering his face with his hand as he caught her glaring right at him. She finished her glaring, softening slowly as she gently picked up her Game-Xross and Cometman. “I’m still worried about her… I wonder how I should approach her,” she stared past the screens on her device. “She never got along with you and that’s her fault” “I dunno… I did try to challenge her to a fight at an awkward moment,” she mumbled, “Even though I meant that we’d fight at a different time!!” He raised his hands placatingly, simmering her down as he consoled, “Maybe someone who knows her better could give you some advice?” She gasped, “TRIESE!” and covered her mouth to keep her volume down at this late an hour, “Triese!” she hissed, “She’d know!” She quickly navigated to the chatroom’s dm screen, pulling up Triese’s messages. [MSG:

] triiiiiiiiiiese! [MSG:

] i slide into your dms with a pair of cool shades on [MSG:

] im worried about our mutual friend lan [MSG:

] how is she doing after uh [MSG:

] the things? [MSG:

] I HOPE YOURE DOING WELL TOO!

Very tragically for Triese, winter break was almost over, and soon she would be absorbed by the clutches of school once more. They only had so much time to relax after the double-whammy of Luminous Revival and celebrating the holidays, and she'd spent a lot of that time pouring through various online rabbit holes all over again, to see if something clicked with all the new insight thrust upon them over the past few weeks. Lan seemed to be conjuring mysterious phenomena faster than she could process them happening. A chatroom message brought a swift end to her furious researching about bugs, however. She excitedly lurched over to the PET, and was overjoyed to see it was none other than Ellen messaging her! Man, it really did feel like forever since she'd talked to a lot of people from the chatroom... y'know, besides Reg, but that was for a special mission and not socializing! Ellen's question was a little confusing, but she rolled with it anyways. [MSG:

] ELLEN!!! [MSG:

] i reply to your messages with a cute pose! [MSG:

] um! huh! i think lan's doing okay? she's kinda holed herself up, but that's typical lan ~~ i've at least _seen her! [MSG:

] whyre you messaging me about it? ^o^ what do you mean by the stuff? [MSG:

] luminous revival was really messed up but lan seemed really determined about the end of it, so? yeah! and im feeling good too, so, yeah! [MSG:

] yeah. yeah! [MSG:

] there's more things i can say about the things i guess, but you're not being very specific :p

[MSG:

] well i mean i guess that but i also mean the serpentine thing [MSG:

] wait did she tell you about serpentine???? [MSG:

] uhhhh snake lady alpha program that trapped me and her and meiru and aon's operator but she didnt help [MSG:

] please tell me she told you about that o_o;;;; Cometman pulled up a window next to him that mirrored the mobile screen up above him and he gave her a concerned and pensive look. "You haven't told Reg yet, Ellen," he chastised lightly. They both knew it was a bit different there, but Ellen saw his point. She hadn't told Reg because he was so busy with DART stuff these days so there was no reason to stress him out more. When she told Eni, he looked, well, mostly the same as he always looked, but he worried about her in that soft way of his. It was nice to have friends like this. [MSG:

] it was pretty rough there, wouldn't be surprised she hasn't talked about it actually

Triese went silent for a moment, blinking comedically heavily as she slowly turned toward her PET. Ellen certainly was telling a tale that Triese had heard absolutely none of! Lan vaguely mentioned something about an 'Alpha program' on a weird train, mostly because of her exasperated reaction once things started going wrong on the Monument Express, but nothing about... a snake lady...? "Should I really be surprised...?" she muttered out loud, to which Lurerre could only shake her head in agreement. "She's just kind of... like that, huh? Knowing her, I guess she didn't want to talk about it..." "She is rather broody about these things," Lurerre pointed out. Triese had shared practically every single 'adventure' she'd ever had with Lan as soon as she possibly could, and heard only vague summaries in return of what she and Rock were up to. "At least she was with others, however. It's better than storming off on her own." [MSG:

] serpent....ine....?? [MSG:

] uummm.... nope o_o [MSG:

] when did this happen?? when did this have time to happen?? i've seen her every day since we came back from the tournament...! [MSG:

] blah ~_~ why is there a snake lady out there? that's weird. [MSG:

] i hope you're okay???? (edited)

Oh boy. [MSG:

] so i think this happened before her big tournament thing that she won Cause she definitely didn't win the one Ellen was informing Triese of. [MSG:

] yeah so chatroom's got like this program called alpha which was like the first internet iirc and its been spying on us but also providing us a way to communicate so double edged sword there yeah? [MSG:

] which btw any alphas listening in, hiiiiiiiiii [MSG:

] so one of the world's versions of alpha was this program named serpentine who was hosting this big tournament and drawing in a lot of people and mind controlling them with a messed up soulnet [MSG:

] uhhh lan got caught up in that mind control stuff [MSG:

] and so did i [MSG:

] it was not a good time [MSG:

] but we're out of that so we're fine now!!!!!!!!!!! [MSG:

] but.... i wanted to know how lan was doing after all that [MSG:

] i mean, she sounds like shes back to normal but that also means its kinda hard to tell how shes doing actually, yeah? [MSG:

] why i came to you cause i thought youd have the deets on our mutual friend Cometman mock coughed. [MSG:

] and well.... also i dont know how to talk to her [MSG:

] i wanna get to know her better and netbattle her but it always feels like the wrong time to ask about that!!!! [MSG:

] so instead!! triese!!!!!!!!!!

we should all hang out it would be awesome!!!!!! "You think that'll work?" Cometman asked, giving her an uneasy look. "What, with Lan? No idea," she grumbled back, pulling her knees into her chest, "I really do want all three of us to hang, I think it'd be fun, but..." She pulled her Game-Xross in close, "I also wanna challenge her to a fight; I think it'd be fun. But I can't just do that, not with Lan, not after what I said to all of them..." "So the idea is to smooth things over by hanging out with a mutual friend? I think I get it," he smirked back, "I hope it'll work. I think you guys would get along as long as you two listen to each other. Plus I've also kinda always wanted to fight Rock one on one, she seems strong. A good challenge for us." Ellen was eager to agree, nodding fervently with her eyes sparkling.

A tiny sweatdrop dripped down Triese's forehead with how many explanatory messages were coming in. That was a lot to take in, and sure did have a lot of proper nouns that Triese only knew a minute amount about. Alpha, and SoulNet, and probably ten other things she wasn't quite processing. Ellen sounded pretty serious about it, too; Triese couldn't help but feel a little bitter about it, knowing that Lan had avoided telling her about... all of... this... "M-mind control...??" Triese processed, blanching at the screen. "Wh-what is that... supposed to...? Th-that can't be real... can it??" Lurerre almost couldn't look at Triese for a moment, recalling all too well how strange and uncharacteristic her operator would suddenly become while under those horrible withdrawals. They were blessed to be free of them, at this point, but something like that to be able to happen to a human told Lurerre that anything was possible. "I recall this being mentioned in the chatroom... SoulNet is a kind of controlling device, is it not?" "Yeah... Dr. Wily said something about that interfacing with human souls," Triese recalled, just before wringing her hands around. "A-and that happened to Lan?! What the heck?! Oh, no no no, nooo, I gotta message..." Before she could think about interrogating Lan, however, Ellen revealed what she actually wanted to talk about. "Oh," was all Triese said at first, forlornly rereading the messages as a feeling of deja vu washed over her. She just wanted... to get to know Lan better. After seeing her go through so much... [MSG:

] hold on!! hold on!! slow down!! okay i know it's a little weird for me to say that but we gotta go one thing at a time here O_O [MSG:

] umm!!! mind control?? and stuff??? are you okay????? [MSG:

] IT SOUNDS LIKE A LOT O_O [MSG:

] but if you just want to talk to lan then like [MSG:

] i can ask [MSG:

] but i'm confused '^'

"The mind control wasn't that bad," Ellen mumbled with a pout. "Really, Ellen?" Cometman groused sharply, "Cause I think it was that bad." She looked genuinely wounded by this, reeling in shock and worry. Why was everyone making a big deal out of this?? No, a better question was why wasn't she more worried. Maybe because it didn't feel like she was ever controlled, not really. All her actions had been her own, she felt. It was more like she was convinced that comfortable miserable isolation was best, and sleepily fell in line. And the thing that broke her out of it was more like a slap in the face than a returning of control. And right in front of her was the slapper Cometman, giving her a serious look but was also letting Ellen gather her thoughts patiently. Ellen smiled, "Did I ever tell you how happy I am that we're friends? Cause I'm so happy that we're friends, Cometman." He immediately flustered, "What!? I- Yes!? I'm happy too!" he gave her a confused look, but didn't question things, kinda getting the feeling he knew where this was coming from. She grinned with closed eyed right back at him. [MSG:

] uhhhhhhhhhhhhh ok yeah it was a bit more rough than I let on [MSG:

] lan honestly didnt get that much of it. i wouldnt ask her about it cause she seems real cagey about that particular thing [MSG:

] but uh, yeah, i got mind controlled a bit [MSG:

] a lot [MSG:

] like i said!! im fine now but it was kinda scary there [MSG:

] the power of friendship saved the day though so!!!!!!!!!! everythings better now, i promise

There were many things that, by virtue of Ellen, Triese had learned were 100% real, and mind control being real was definitely one of the least comforting things she had to grapple with. At least the threat was taken care of, but... well. She probably shouldn't ask Lan about it. And she wasn't sure if she wanted to ask Ellen about it, either. [MSG:

] what.. the freaking heck ._. [MSG:

] ummm!! well!! i'm glad everything's okay now... [MSG:

] i cant believe she didnt tell me about an entire really messed up mission >:T Now that she was taking some time to think things over, though, all of this made sense. If it happened before Luminous Revival, then that was before Lan had attacked those weird angel seraphs, so they hadn't had any conversation about their missions yet. And if Ellen and Lan were stuck with each other on these missions, then it was no wonder that she wanted to get to know her better... Triese was lucky, in a way, since the first time they'd ever really interacted was when Lan had to step in and defend her. It didn't sound like that was the case, here. [MSG:

] well! um. okay. [MSG:

] i think it would be a good idea to hang out yeah!! we don't have to talk about any of the hard stuff, but! [MSG:

] i've never seen you battle before, have i? :O and lan is a really really good netbattler!! so it would be awesome!! [MSG:

] i'll ask her! when do u wanna meet up? we could meet at my house, or something like that!

Was it weird that she kinda wanted to talk about the hard stuff? Eh, maybe if the topic rolled around she'd say something. [MSG:

] ummmm probably somewhere in your world cause if we do end up netbattling we're going to need a place to do it and my world aint got that [MSG:

] unless we find a virus territory and duke it out there buuuuuuut DART might show up and like. get em. [MSG:

] wait do you know about DART [MSG:

] uhhh in short: virus fighters that hate fun [MSG:

] so we should totally meet up at your house!!! i could bring like chips and stuff. future chips [MSG:

] and like, if you wanna talk and ask me about the serpentine stuff, go for it. itd probaly help me wrap my head around it better "You still thinking about Serpentine?" Cometman prompted. "Yeah," Ellen tapped the side of the Game-Xross in thought, "I feel sorry for her." "Me too," he echoed gently, then steeled himself, "She needed to be deleted though." "Right! Right," she agreed hastily, though she forced it through her uncertainty. Seeing an outsider's perspective on one of the darkest days in Ellen's recent memory only made her want for no one else to go through what she went through. Why was she here with friends now? What made her so different? All she could think was pity for that poor Serpentine.

[MSG:

] oh, no, don't worry, i know about DART, i met with reg a little bit ago :o [MSG:

] um! alright! i think that settles it then [MSG:

] i think, maybe i do want to ask... so come a little early, before lan shows up, i think.

Convincing Lan was about as much of an ordeal as Triese had expected; she knew better than to lead with the proposal for a NetBattle, but bringing Ellen up at all seemed to be a sore spot for her. With enough prying, Triese received microscopic crumbs of Lan's side of the story - she, and Meiru-san, and Ellen, and some other Navi had fought Serpentine, and were forced to fight each other, and Ellen said a lot of things that made her uncomfortable. Thankfully, Triese had plenty of cards to pull before Lan could bundle herself up and refuse to confront anything. She pointed out that it would be terrible for their trust if they never worked out their problems, and reminded Lan of how much of a difference talking to Mayl had made. It wasn't quite the same situation, but Lan recalling how violently she lashed out at Mayl was enough to guilt her into putting up with Ellen one more time. (Really, she just wanted to push her away, because she didn't want to remember their 'team-up'. There was a dark part of her mind that hated Ellen for ever falling prey to Serpentine, but she knew how hypocritical that was. She couldn't fault Ellen for that. And for some reason, it upset her that she couldn't fault her...) The night came and went, and Triese sent over the coordinates for her living room to Ellen just after lunchtime. She'd invite Lan over when she was ready, but for now, she wanted to make sure Ellen was okay. She was having... a really hard time understanding what they went through. The living room was still decked-out with Christmas decorations that had yet to be taken down, and a cozy couch and several other cushioned seats surrounding a glass coffee table would make for quite the welcoming first sight. Lurerre activated her hologram and floated around the coffee table as Triese patiently waited, standing just in front of the couch as she bounced up and down.

The moment Ellen summoned the portal, she jumped on through and announced her arrival boisterously, "Hello!! I'm here and I've arrived Triese!! I brought chips!!" She bounced in with a flimsy plastic bag with a couple of tubes of fried potato products of various flavors. She trotted right up to the other girl, sunny smile on, and stopped in her tracks as she finally took in the decorations around her. Triese's house was giant to Ellen, with ceilings tall enough to fit a whole other floor if you were a shrewd housing developer. The decor was delightful and so plentiful that she felt like she was in a theme park. Awe was evident on her face as she craned her neck to take it all in. For a moment she thought of the swanky apartments Serpentine had set up and how she left all that behind. She shook her head fervently, and refocused on Triese, "Triese!! How's it going how are you!!" she was too excited to make it sound like a question, "Your house is incredible!! it's so big and warm!" she squealed to herself and began unloading her chips onto the glass coffee table. "I'm here too," Cometman muttered from Ellen's arm, "You can't see it but I'm waving hello." "Oh! I got it! This is from Cometman!" she effused, waving to Triese like her arm was a small dog shaking water off of them.

Triese jumped as soon as Ellen arrived, excitedly rushing over to her and gawking at the bag of future-chips. For some reason, Triese thought that she meant Battle Chips in the text, but now that she thought about it, that didn't make much sense! And future chips were cool, anyways! Ellen's compliments immediately made Triese beam, and she twirled around with her arms outstretched to make the welcome seem even warmer. "Hiii! Ellen, hiii! And Cometman, hiii, too!" she enthusiastically greeted. "Yeah! Our house is really cool! Oh, man, it didn't even occur to me that you haven't been here before! I could show you so much before Lan even gets here! This isn't even, like, my room, or the basement, or anything-" "Ahaha... Lady Triese, one thing at a time," Lurerre helpfully chimed in with. "It's certainly one of the grander abodes around ACDC. Triese firmly believes in not hoarding it all to herself." "Well, yeah, it'd be a waste of space if we didn't invite people over," Triese chided, puffing her cheeks, before whirling back around to face Ellen. "I don't have a fancy NetBattle machine or anything, but any old electronic device will do! Ohhhh, I'm really excited." She bounced in place again. "I can be your guys' referee!!" "That can be discussed later, can it not, Lady Triese? You're jumping to conclusions a little early," Lurerre interrupted. "There's much that we need to catch up on with Ellen, isn't there..." Triese tilted her head for a second, before lighting back up. "Oh! Right! Yeah! So, umm, I kinda know what's going on, because I hung out with Reg recently, but I also didn't know anything about that snake lady, so!" she rambled. "I'm really sorry... all that messed up stuff happened."

"Huh?" Ellen blinked owlishly, "Right yeah, the snake lady stuff, I'll get to that, right, but Reg?? You hung out with Reg?? I haven't seen him in such a long time!! I mean I talk to him, we message each other all the time, but MAN he's been so busy with DART that he hasn't been able to see us -- me or Eni -- at all!! Gotta keep us secret and all that. How is he? Is he doing alright?" At this point Ellen had jumped forward and leaned in, affording Triese just a little space. Her eyes were wide and sparkling with a fervent energy. She missed him and the team all doing stuff and fighting around Spacity protecting people from the forces of evil. Course, things weren't that cut and dry, she's come to realize. They weren't the only ones fighting and maybe the viruses weren't as evil as she had originally thought. But you couldn't blame a girl for being nostalgic!!

Triese's shocked blinking patterns were comedically similar to Ellen's. "Huh? You haven't seen him?!" she gawked, flopping on to the couch as she thought over her last meeting with him. The explanation for why came to her pretty quickly, though. "Oh! Right, yeah! He's doing good! But I guess he has to be really careful now, with all those DART jerks hovering around him." A smug grin flashed across her face. "Nero totally thinks I'm one of the friends helping him. I'm basically covering for you... hehe." "We went to a gala with Reg, since he couldn't bring along you or Eni," Lurerre explained. "It's unfortunate... We ought to organize another meeting one of these days, if Reg is so consumed with that DART work. I worry for him..." "Yeah, it's weird!" Triese added. "I can't really get a read on any of those guys. But any enemy of viruses is an enemy of mine... probably!" She pulled her legs up on the couch, cradling herself and rocking around a little. "But, man, that really sucks. He's so cool! I wish I could really fight alongside him, too," she admitted. "At least you're still free! Y'know, besides all the weird stuff going after you..."

Ellen snickered, hiding her face a little, "Reg?? Cool?? Are you sure??" She tried to imagine that dork exuding any amount of charisma and came up blank. The guy was a nerd's nerd and stumbled through his words like his tongue was tripping on every surprise. Although, she did have to admit that he did have his cool moments, on occasion. But then her brain finally processed everything else that Triese had said. "Nero? Who is-" she began, then her brain caught up, "Oh shoot that girl!? That must be the coworker that Reg's been complaining about! Mel brought her over to my apartment one day so I got to meet her, kinda, never introduced myself. Glad I didn't. So you've been taking the heat off of me and Cometman! Nice! Thanks!" With a big wry smile she pulled back her sleeve and unhooked her Game-Xross, placing it on the table and propping it up, then sat next to Triese in a big flop. "We've been really lucky that we haven't run into any DART agents, I suppose that's in part, thanks to you, so thank you," Cometman acknowledged from the table, "But onto the other topic," he gave Ellen A Look. "Oh yeah!" she chuckled, more strained than she anticipated, scratching the back of her head, "The Serpentine thing! What did you wanna know about that?" her nerves rose, suddenly feeling like she was getting interrogated. Which was silly! Because Triese was literally the nicest ever! But the guilt in the back of her throat rose and she gulped to try to calm it down.

"What?! Of course he's cool! He's a real-life magical, um, fighter!" Triese protested indignantly. "I-I mean, sure, I guess there's, like, Cross Fusion and Wave Change and stuff, but I don't know anyone who can do those! I do know Reg, so he's cool in my book!" But maybe one day she would get to see those other things... and maybe, one day, she could fight alongside Reg... At the very least, she was overjoyed that Ellen approved of her plan. "And, um, thaaannks~! It's smart, right? 'Cuz I don't, like, legally exist in your world," she smugly pointed out. "I can cover you until I get caught, and even if I do, what are they gonna do to me? You know, um." She raised her shoulders. "Unless, like, universe police exist... but I'm pretty sure they don't, because they would've gotten us by now, I think!" Once her accomplished glee had worn off, however, she took a deep breath, leaning into the couch cushion more. "But... right, yeah... I mean, I don't even know where to start," Triese said. "You did sorta dump a lot on us at once..." "It's been easy enough to fill in the blanks, with the kind of conundrums Lan finds herself in," Lurerre added. "But Lady Triese has been quite concerned about your health, knowing that this 'brainwashing' occurred." "I don't want you to get sick," Triese admitted sadly. "I don't really know the details, so, um. I don't know how this tournament thing went down, and if I should be worried..."

Ellen nodded along diligently as Triese explained her plan to fool DART, impressed and also wondering if there was any scenarios that would require her to pose as Triese. She could probably do it, they were strikingly similar. "Oh uh, sorry," she chuckled sheepishly, suddenly extremely aware of her extreme lack of tact. She offered a weak smile that fell apart slowly. Any amount of bravery she tried to paint her face with faded away as she recalled the events. She nodded solemnly along with Triese's worry. Her eyes met Cometman's and she steeled herself, closing her eyes and starting from the beginning, "We were baited and trapped there, unable to leave from this really tiny village that had a huge arena for some reason. Lots of people were there and they were all there for the tournaments that were held there daily..." She continued to explain the gist of what happened with Serpentine, the structure of the tournament, the gambling, the people who were dragged into this mess, and how Netto was there too. "...At the end... I ended up fighting against the group. I mean, that's part of how tournaments go, but I really bought into the idea. I think that's when the whole mind control thing was the worst. Cometman broke me out of it," she gestured at the Navi with her head and he smiled softly back, "Then we fought tall Netto's Rockman, went into these weird digital memory things, and then fought & beat Serpentine." She half shrugged, "That's basically how it went. Aaand as far as Lan's whole involvement in that Serpentine stuff, it really only happened at that final tournament match with the group. I um... Said some mean things to her there. Shoot I should probably apologize when she gets here." she ran her hand into her hair and gave her scalp a scratch as she bounced her leg. "Point being!" Cometman interjected the tense silence, seeing as his partner had trailed off, "We're doing alright. No one's sick, no one has lasting effects. So don't worry Triese, Lurerre, as long as we stay open and willing to listen to our friends, none of this mind control stuff can effect us for long," he spoke with exceptional confidence, remembering the sudden release of the darkness that overtook him right as Ellen was freed from Serpentine's control. Right when he reached her and she came back fighting with all her heart.

Triese gave Ellen an apologetic look as she began explaining - really, it was no problem that she said a lot, it's just that Triese had no idea what was going on! So she listened quietly, any curiosity she had slowly being replaced with concern the deeper Ellen got in the story. "So the chatroom... put you in some kind of trap," she summarized forlornly. "I guess it must've been... some kind of artificial tournament, then..." "I can't believe that Lan tolerated that on top of Luminous," Lurerre added exasperatedly. "I suppose it didn't last for nearly as long, but still. And Netto was involved, as well?" She crossed her arms. "That is incredible unfortunate... He was a very kind host to us not long ago." Triese's head rolled over, then lurched back to attention once she recalled the event. "Oh! Wow! Yeah! He invited me over once!" she recalled. "Man, I hope he and Rockman are okay, then. It sounds like everyone was able to break free of that, um, brainwashing stuff." It probably wasn't sickness, then. If it was, then she would've heard about it sooner, right? If it affected that many people. But it was still a scary thought; she was slowly becoming more and more aware of how so much threatening stuff could leak into the real world. Lan had mentioned that much, in spite of how cagey she'd been. "I can't believe Lan got controlled," Triese muttered under her breath, then narrowed her eyebrows as she looked at Ellen. "I-I'm sure it'll be fine, but... what did you... say to her...?"

"Yeah it was some weird bad version of SoulNet," Ellen rolled her hand about as she explained, "Bad as in it was flawed and didn't do its job all good, not like, a SoulNet full of evil. Well, uh, all SoulNets are full of evil. Eh, whatever." She inhaled through her teeth as she recalled the event, "Well... I called her a coward and said I expected better of her...?" her grimace was wide and apologetic like it was practice for the person who wasn't there. "It was a bit of a mad rush at the end there," Cometman noted, "No time to really sit down and apologize for things." "I did apologize!" she called out, "At least I think I did?" "You did, just as a blanket apology for everything." "Yeah! Man things were hectic!" she effused, gaining momentum, "Triese!! Oh man there was one part where the Navis like, went into the memories of the people there! Uh I guess also Navis cause Aon's was their creation? Anyways it was kinda cool, in a way? We got to see a Rockman all glowy and stuff! It was weird and cool and uh," she glanced at Cometman, "surprisingly nice." He grinned and gave her a solid nod back. (edited)

Triese frowned upon Ellen's recollection. "Oh, geez," she muttered to herself, putting a hand to her cheek. "Ummm... not to sound rude or anything, but she's kind of weird about that stuff. You should definitely apologize." She flopped her feet back on the ground and lurched forward, hurriedly clarifying. "I-I think it'll be fine, I promise! It's just, you know, she's a little sensitive sometimes..." "Memories of people...?" Lurerre speculated in the meantime. "That sounds rather familiar... and I'm certain Lan was none too pleased about that, either. She is a rather... guarded person." She crossed her arms contemplatively. "I don't believe we know an Aon?" "Is Aon that horse icon person?" Triese speculated. "I don't backread that often, but Lan was complaining to me about that person being suspicious of her for no reason. I mean, Lan's kind of a weird person - in a good way, I mean!! - but she's not really going along flaunting anything to be suspicious of. She's just Lan, right?" "I recall something about Rock attacking 'her allies' on the Starliner," Lurerre said. "I have a good feeling as to what happened there... but that shouldn't be an issue any longer, hopefully." Triese nodded along sagely. "True, true," she reverently agreed, then excitedly locked back on to Ellen. "A glowy Rockman, also?? Like, a rare holo-foil Rockman or something like that?"

Ellen let out a tiny whine as her suspicions were confirmed and she had in fact accidentally stabbed Lan right in her prickly, sensitive heart. She burned over the fact that she was just as catty and vindictive as the people she hated from school. "Yeah, Aon's the horse," she grumbled, still mulling over the fact that all that venom she thought she had stored away was just sitting in the eaves, waiting to strike at any moment, "Navi's a unicorn. Real haughty and full of themselves too. Got some sort of grudge against Rock for some reason." "They think she's a danger," Cometman clarified, "But if that's no longer an issue, as you say, then I'm even more confident that Rock is not some ticking time bomb." Ellen, familiar with gatcha phrases as well, nodded along knowingly, "It's true. I've never seen in the history books record of a Rockman like this one. Truly a mystery for the ages." "Lan seemed to know something," Cometman brought up, looking at Ellen curiously, "She was shouting someone name at Rockman. Saito if I'm remembering correctly." He was looking between the two humans with a face like this was an obvious topic to go to, despite the reservations written all over their faces. Ellen remembered the desperation in Lan's voice and the memory that she frantically wanted to hide and could easily tell that this was not something to tread upon. She looked at Triese for any insight she had on this, curious, but dreading that speaking about it would make that pink girl appear like a spooky assassin behind them. Regardless, she murmured, "Is that something we should talk about...?"

Someone thinking Rock was a danger wasn't really a surprise to Triese; something definitely must have happened, then, along the lines of what Rock had almost done to Dynamoman. But Triese knew that wasn't the real Rock, and was just because of that Faultroid stuff they hadn't quite figured out yet. "Yeah, I don't think she's going to blow up anymore," she decreed confidently. "They've got things under control now! I think." Both Triese and Lurerre fell silent upon the mention of Saito, however. Triese frowned, awkwardly shifting in her couch seat. "Um," she muttered. "I-I don't think... we should talk about that. I mean, it's not really a secret, but I think Lan would get mad at me if I said something." It almost kind of annoyed her how frank Cometman's expression was, like he had no idea what was touchy or not. "I don't really know what went on, there, but we should be careful, since..." The doorbell ringing cut Triese's sentence off, and she breathed a sigh of relief when she realized this was an easy escape from their conversation. She hopped off the couch, her bright smile returning as she composed herself for proposing Ellen's proposal. Sure enough, once she'd run through the hall and opened the door, Lan was ready and waiting for them, looking about as prickly and stone-faced as ever. "Hi," was all Lan said before she walked in the door. She seemed anxious to follow Triese to wherever they were supposed to be, so as her friend rambled about how great it was that she could finally come over again and that she hadn't been waiting for very long, she quietly fell in line. When Lan entered the living room, she immediately locked eyes with such a familiar face, her expression completely unreadable. "Ellen."

Once it was clear that there was something that Cometman wasn't getting in this conversation, he backed off, though gave Ellen a confused look that was met with a sympathetic one from her. Something to talk about some other time then. Then the doorbell rang and the two of them froze for a moment, mentally preparing for Lan's arrival. "Speak of the devil, I suppose," Cometman grumbled in a volume just loud enough for Ellen to hear. She covered her grin with a quick hand. Her good mood instantly went cold as she locked eyes with Lan. Something was different about her, and it wasn't just her clothes. Something subtle with the way she glared and demanded respect with just her presence, much much different from the way she carried herself at the Colossus Challenge. But at the same time, she couldn't tell if Lan was angry or just feeling fine and this was her baseline. But this was Lan she was looking at, her friend, kinda, more like teammate for two times. "Hey Lan!" she chirped back, half glad half concerned, "How've you been!? Heard you took first at a national tournament, that's huge! Bet that was awesome! How was that?" she smiled and gave a thumbs up. Cometman waved from where he was propped up on the table.

Lan's expression warped back and forth between confusion and indignance when Ellen immediately treated her as an old friend instead of anything else. Part of her still wanted to hate her; she was loud and annoying and disrespected her to her face multiple times, but. 'She's so stupid, how could she let herself get controlled like that,' was a thought she had in the immediate aftermath. Except, well. The hypocrisy of that thought was evident. "...I'm okay," she begrudgingly answered, clutching her arm. Rock appeared on her shoulder, giving her a slightly pushy look - she wasn't about to let her shove all her feelings away. "I guess you're okay, too, then," she eventually continued. "And, um..." Sensing her embarrassment, Triese volunteered herself to help answer Ellen's queries. "It's true! She's the first-ever champion of the Luminous Revival tournament! I knew she'd crush it, but to think it's already over, and that her victory is now reality!!" she recalled, her expression dreamy. "A lot of other stuff happened, but what matters is that she's accomplished as ever, no matter what her humble-barrier will try and tell you!" "Triese..." Lan grumbled. "W-well, yeah, I guess..." "Glad that you're alright, both of you," Rock added, gesturing at Ellen before shooting her operator another look. "And It ain't really a secret about what's got your knots twisted, kid. I've got a feeling Triese invited us over for a good reason." Lan averted her eyes. "The... Serpentine...?" she mumbled to herself. "I-I don't want to talk about that..." She narrowed her eyes. "I'm not that weak anymore."

Ellen kept a big grin the whole time the two of them talked, nodding along and genuinely getting excited about this 'Luminous Revival tournament' stuff. She found it funny and kinda cute that Lan was being so begrudging about her big giant super cool win! She giggled to herself and tried her best to hide it, but quickly sobered as the topic changed. "You're not weak for getting manipulated," she reassured with a stern expression. Because that would mean she was weak and stupid and she wasn't that! She wasn't. "I know you don't want to talk about it, but I think we should," Cometman challenged, "Talking about what caused these things, and what worked to solve the situation will help prevent similar things from happening in the future. The only reason Ellen's out of that mess is because I finally got through to her, so we should talk about this and not bottle these things up." Ellen nodded along to Cometman's proposal, agreeing whole heartedly. If Lan really was as strong as she said she was, she'd be strong enough to confront this issue head on and talk about it. Course, Ellen wouldn't say this aloud cause she wanted to hang out and have fun after all this! "Serpentine got to us by using what we're scared of against us," she murmured, shifting in her seat as she sat on her hands and gave Cometman a quick glance, "So if we talk about it, they won't be able to control us as easily, I think." her Navi gave her an assured nod in response.

"Cometman's got a point, kid," Rock insisted, jabbing her shoulder toward her operator. Lan fell silent, conveying her resistance by squirming around like a little bug; she still wasn't quite comfortable around Ellen, clearly. "If we don't say something now, then do you just plan on sittin' here awkwardly for the rest of the day?" Lan hated the idea that Serpentine had used anything against her. She barely remembered when she'd stopped being herself and started being... 'Serpentine's pawn', so it wasn't like she could pinpoint much. She remembered being terrified that they'd all lose themselves, and begged Meiru to help her, and then she was too weak in the end to stop herself from getting taken over and taking control of her Navi and... "I... well," she mumbled, continuing to cradle herself. "I-I don't know what to say. I just feel like I shouldn't have gotten controlled. I don't remember what I was scared of..." She shook her head, then gave Ellen a bitter glance. "B-but I remember what you said... about our worlds being dead. That's not true. Maybe I believed it in the moment, when Serpentine was controlling me, but... we can't just abandon our worlds and call it a day!" "We've gotta work with what we have, is what the kid's sayin'," Rock clarified. "Maybe Serpentine was trying to get us to give up on that. And stay in her perfect world forever, as her cute little trophies." She scowled at the thought. "But that's no fuckin' way to live." Triese had taken her position in between them just in case anything went awry; she was uncharacteristically nervous as Lan talked, and finally worked up the courage to interject her own question. "W-wait, so, Serpentine was trying to get you to stay forever?" she asked. "I guess that's why... she controlled people..."

Ellen winced hard, sucking in a lot of air through her grimaced teeth. She did say that didn't she? Well, in her defense, her world was more dead and Lan's at least still had Navis and- "Serpentine's 'perfect' world sucked," Cometman grumbled, "Any world without friends or anything new would get lonely real fast." And Serpentine was lonely as could be already. Ellen removed her hands from under her and shifted in her seat, then got up with a swing of her legs. She declared emphatically before her brain could catch up and stop her, "There's something I wanna apologize for! Um!" her brain caught up, "I said a lot of mean things at the Colossus Colosseum, and I shouldn't have. I was staying stuff to be mean so you guys would leave me there. I'm glad you guys didn't listen to me then," she chuckled uncomfortably. She thought back to the moment Cometman pulled her out once more, making a tiny smile, "Our homes may not be perfect, but they're our homes. And I'm not gonna give up trying to make it better! In the moment, giving up felt like the only choice, but now that I'm thinking about it, that's kinda silly isn't it? Of course we could've taken Serpentine on! We're strong as heck! Nothing can stop the Alpha Squad when we work together!" she ended with a goofy grin and her fists pumped up high.

Lan scoffed at the 'Alpha Squad' name, but to her credit, she listened. The two of them were right in that Serpentine's vision for the world was terrible; there was no true proof of strength in a world solely consisting of mindless violence. "It's... okay," she eventually accepted. "I know that it wasn't really you that was saying that, so." Neither was it really Netto who had said all thsoe horrible things, and neither was it her when Serpentine was controlling her. That's why she didn't have to think about it. "Giving up was just the mind control kickin' in, I guess," Rock speculated. "But we beat her, and that's that. And we've only gotten stronger since." She crossed her arms confidently. "Any more Alphas that try and cross our way are gonna learn that the hard way." "Yeah," Lan responded, lowering her eyelids. There was the tiniest hint of malice in her eyes as she said it, but it didn't last long. Triese, enabled by the knowledge that there wasn't any real beef going on anymore, stepped up to the plate to provide her own commentary, which made Lan back off. "Yeah! Exactly! We've got a tournament champion over here!!" Triese proudly proclaimed, spreading her arms out with joy. "Oh my gosh, Ellen, you totally need to watch some of the tournament replays-!!" "No," Lan immediately barked.

Ellen was about to interject with a claim that she was in fact the one saying these things, but saw Cometman -- who must've just read her mind -- waving his hands wildly to get her attention and shook his head in a way reminiscent of a lawyer preventing his client from implicating themself. She shut up with a pursing of her lips, and if she was honest, maybe that was the giving up that Serpentine had implanted into her head and everything else was just her convincing herself. Sheesh, she really did need to voice her concerns more often. She wondered that if she had said something earlier, noticed something was wrong, then someone would've sat her down and said something to her to get her back on track. Well, she now knew what she would need to do if something like this ever happened again. "Oh?" Ellen let loose a terrible grin upon hearing replays were available, "You don't want me to watch the footage of your fights?" she slinked forward, hands behind her back coyly, "Is that because you don't want me to see your cool secret techniques or is it perhaps... That you're shy?" a cat like grin stretched across her face. "Ellen!" Cometman chastised, begging for his partner to shut her trap. Even if he also wanted to see these fights.

Lan was ignorant to Ellen's hesitation, but Triese had no problem picking up on it, and eyed her with suspicious concern. The situation sounded pretty simple to her, so she wasn't sure what there was to protest... but she'd never know, she supposed. Cometman stopping her was probably a good idea for things to stay calm in here...!! Once the mood changed, however, and Ellen gave Lan such a shit-eating grin, the latter responded with an embarrassed scowl. "Wh-what the hell are you...? No!" she immediately barked. "M-most of them aren't that interesting... and..." "Bwah! You're putting yourself down," Triese chastised, pouting her cheeks. "You literally won the tournament, Lan. You beat so many different Navis! You guys invented a Program Advance. Of course you had cool battles!" Conspiratorially, she side-eyed Ellen. "She is just kinda shy, so, y'know..." Such words would not pass by Lan unnoticed. "I'm not shy!" she protested shyly. "I-I'm just... what are you trying to get at?! Did you really just call us here to hang out, or was there something else?" She continued her childish scowl. "I don't think there's anything else to talk about with the Serpentine stuff, not without everyone else here..." "Don't think an 'everyone' will happen, not as long as Aon still thinks I'm a ticking time bomb," Rock pointed out. "Their beef with us doesn't even matter, anymore. That smoke isn't gonna be an issue from here on out."

"Invented a Program Advance!?" Ellen repeated with a glowing expression. She bounced in place, energy off the charts, "You have to show me that!! That's awesome!! Oh!!" her merriment froze and restarted, shifting to a determined grin, "I know how you can show me! The other reason why I called this meeting!!" She lowered into a some sort of fighting stance, slung out a pointed finger at Lan, and declared defiantly, "I challenge you to a netbattle!!! One v one, standard arena standard folder restrictions!!" Cometman chuckled at Ellen's enthusiasm, "I've also been wanting to face Rock in a netbattle for a while now. It doesn't have to be now, but I'd love to spar some time." Ellen nodded along excitedly, "Yeah yeah yeah! With Serpentine beat and you back from your tournament, it's the perfect time for us to duke it out in the arena! Um!!" she stood up straight, hands behind her back politely, "Only if you want to!" and a cheesy smile. "And don't worry about Aon, that horse is about as friendly as a hammer," Cometman added with a grumble and continued coaxingly, "Maybe a fight will prove how much you two have improved?"

"Stop saying I did that," Lan griped to Triese as soon as Ellen's excitement revved up like an engine. "I didn't do that on purpose. I don't even know how I did it..." Let alone the fact that the reason it existed opened up a million questions they still didn't have all of the answers to. Then, Ellen made her brazen challenge, and Lan's brain grinded to a halt. For a few seconds, she had a truly unreadable mix of emotions on her face, like she'd simultaneously seen it coming from a mile away and had no problem with it while also having been shocked by this slimy little slug monster daring to say such a thing at such a time. Rationality eventually won out, and she sighed, averting her eyes. "I-I...? Um... uh," she stammered, gripping her jacket awkwardly. "I don't... well... I guess." Her eye contact faltered. "I-I don't know why you keep asking about this, but- I-I mean, it's not really... I'm not doing anything else today..." Triese was elated by the best reception she could've expected out of Lan. "Yes! Yes! You have to do it, right, Lan?! No one's really challenged you to a NetBattle before!" she exclaimed. "Well, besides me, but that doesn't really count!" "I'm down," Rock agreed, tapping her foot. "It'd be good to make sure we don't atrophy, right? Heh." She smirked at her own flimsy joke. "Not like there's very many opportunities to train against a fellow Navi around here, anyways." "...Fine," Lan relented. They hadn't fought at the tournament, after all, and Ellen was being controlled during all of that, anyways. "We can fight... I guess. We're just going to do it here...?"

Ellen practically vibrated in place, ascending to a higher energy level and releasing such a high pitched squeak that it was barely audible. She burst with excitement, "Yes!! Yes we're gonna NetBattle! We can just do it anywhere right?? So long is it resets after the fight right? I've trained at Meiru's house and she's got this NetBattling uh dome thing, don't really know how it works, but as long as its a place that's okay to be wrecked it should be fine right?" "If only we could do this in our world," Cometman grumbled from his spot on the table, "Less likely to ruin some tech, and the wrapper program wouldn't have to be used. We could just shove some viruses in a hole and use their territory as an arena." "No no no no," she said dismissively, "Too complicated. We're here and we're ready to duke it out." "Alright," he cautioned brightly, "As long as Triese is okay with it." Ellen gasped joyfully, "Triese! You get to choose our battlefield! Where's a good place to have a NetBattle!? Do arenas come with elemental stages built in or is it all neutral? How does the internet world even work...?" she trailed off, calming down for what felt like the first time in a while. She was suddenly realizing that she truly had no idea how the internet of the past even looked. Archival pictures of that ancient world probably didn't do it justice. Her whole frame of reference really was just Netken, and the brief moments whenever Alpha liked to mess with her and her friends. Maybe one of these days she should wonder around the past with Cometman, he'd probably appreciate it too.

Ellen's enthusiasm made Lan back away - it was an all-too-familiar level of loud that made her anxious, but it was somehow even more intense than Triese's worst moments. "U-um," she stuttered, uncertain of how to respond to the torrent of questions. "Dome... thing...?" Triese was quick to intervene, stepping in front of Lan to shield her from Ellen's bountiful energy. "Wait, yeah, hold on! We don't have to worry about wrecking anything!" she insisted. "I, uh, you'd be surprised... I don't actually have a NetBattle machine here or anything, but there's comps all over the house that we don't have to worry about doing real damage to! I-I mean, it's kind of hard to damage an empty comp more than they've already been damaged, right...?" "I don't even remember us tearing up most comps," Rock wondered out loud. "But I guess we've only really had battles in those machines, or in places that were already busted-up." "It depends on a lot of factors!" Triese answered cheerfully. "But we've got plenty of reinforcement in our house network, both 'cuz we don't want my bred viruses to damage them, and 'cuz of that whole crap with Sunayama." She spun around in place as she pondered Ellen's question. "I....! Have an idea! Hold on!" The next minute was spent with Triese trying and failing to rearrange her living room, prompting Lan to help her by effortlessly picking up the furntiure and moving it around to suit her vision. The table was rotated ninety degrees and placed as a separator between Ellen and Lan, while one of the seats was moved to its side; Triese placed her PET on top of the cushion, and summoned a holo-screen to monitor her battlefield of choice. "I think it'd be the most fair to just have a neutral battlefield, and there aren't a lot of places with elemental panels built in, if that's what you mean," Triese explained to Ellen. "So! We'll just use the TV over there! It's nice and easy!" Curling her lip, she wondered, "I don't know what you mean by not knowing how the internet works, though..."

Ellen stood by as Lan handled the furniture like it was nothing. She made it look so easy that Ellen didn't even bother asking if she needed help moving, she just looked on, impressed. Cometman noticed how the Game-Xross's gyroscopes were wiggling about and gave Lan a pensive look, but was glad to find that she moved the table without any issue and didn't knock him over. "We~ell," Ellen started her word engine back up, "The way I fight with Cometman tends to make any arena pretty messed up, so it should probably be in a place that won't explode or something. Honestly I don't know how any of this internet stuff happens like, is it true that if you blew up a part of the internet world, it effects the electronics outside in the real world?" "I think that's how it works back home too, Ellen," Cometman noted, "I uh, may have accidentally destroyed a neighbor's speaker by punching its program." "Wait, for real?" she chirped back, picking him up off the table, "Man that's wild. Y'all's internet is like, a real place with a full 3D environment and everything, but ours is so different. Like ours doesn't have a world inside it, it's just all computers talking to each other with wires. That's uh-" Her brain caught her throat in a chokehold as it finally caught up to thinking about what she was about to say. She was NOT going to explain why the Net Reset happened and WHO did that, not here. "Anyways!!" she covered her worry with enthusiasm, "So we're going to fight in your TV? Hope it holds up to our epic battle," she grinned at Lan, and then back to Triese, "So that makes you our ref right?" "Wait!" Cometman called out from Ellen's hands, "Triese, does your TV have an old style port? The backwards way Mel was able to get the Game-Xross to jack into old tech uses a physical cable." Ellen blinked brightly as she was reminded of this tid bit and fished out the janky cable from her cargo shorts pocket and held out the other end for Triese to inspect with big hopeful eyes.

"Is a TV really going to explode...?" Triese wondered out loud, before Ellen's speculation gave her an excuse to ramble. "Well! Um, like I said! It depends on the system. Old, crappy systems, or systems that have to process a lot of data, those can be pretty load-bearing! But a lot of comps here are busted up already, so a virus picking at them isn't going to do a whole lot." Pacing in a circle, she continued. "I'm guessing you guys don't have a real Net because of the whole Net Reset thing, right? The wire stuff, that's how old-fashioned computers work, ones that don't really have NetNavi integration, but the Net invented for them is like, a 3D visualization of all the electronic signals zipping back and forth." She spun toward the TV, pointing at it. "So, I don't know, maybe you could accidentally destroy the code that connects to the screen, but that stuff's not gonna really be exposed after my dad did repairs, so I don't think you have to worry about it!" Lan and Rock blinked slowly throughout the entire ramble, barely acknowledging Ellen as she riled herself up for their so-called "epic" battle. "You broke a radio?" Rock wondered, giving Cometman an aside glance. "Nice one." That was all either of them got to interject before Triese was handed another excuse on a silver platter. "Oh my gosh! And! I would LOVE! To! Rep!" she gleefully exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "I never get to do something like that... wow! Um! Yes! So!" She practically skipped over to the TV, admiring Ellen's shitty cable along the way. "This is a vintage TV, it's got crisp scanlines and stuff, so it should have a port you can use?" Breath. "Mel knows about that stuff? Wow! I wonder how she's doing... She's doing okay, I hope? Lan said some weird things about-" "Triese," Lan barked, stopping her dead before she could embarrass her. She really did not want to explain her cutting up Mel to Ellen, because that would just make her look even worse. "C-can we just... get along with the battle already? Psyching myself up always, uh. Sucks." Blink. "Oh! Sorry!" Triese replied, pressing her fist to her cheek awkwardly. Gesturing toward the port, she said, "Uh! Well, we should make sure that Cometman could fight at all, first. 'Cuz he's, like, a future-alien Navi or whatever."

Cometman had no idea how to respond to Rock's comment, unsure if it was a compliment or a pre-fight jab. He decided to respond with, "Thanks?" and looked up at Ellen for any insights. She was too busy walking over to the TV with a curious and eager face on. "Oookay!" she chirped, peering beneath the TV for a port and jacked her Game-Xross in unceremoniously, "Whoah... So your dad knows computer stuff, Triese? We'll put his work to the test with this fight." She stood back, checking the connection on her Game-Xross when a thought sprung into her mind, "Oh yeah! Is there a thing you're supposed to say when jacking in? I think I heard y'all say something during the Colossus Challenge? Or no...? I know there's a pre battle thing you're supposed to say..." She activated the connection sequence and Cometman appeared on the TV in a hazy flash that slowly rendered him as the wrapper program finally loaded in. He flexed his hands and shifted his weight from one side to the other, giving Ellen a nod from her little window floating over his shoulder. She chuckled excitedly, "Man that Dr. Hikari sure is a genius!" "For context," Cometman added, addressing everyone from the TV, "A nice Dr. Hikari made the wrapper program I'm using to be able to interact with four hundred year old tech. No idea how," he shrugged his big shoulders.

Triese was more than happy to keep explaining things to Ellen. “Yeah! My dad works for this company called Slither Inc.,” she cheerfully relayed. “Um! It’s not as evil as it sounds. It’s only, like, the normal amount of kind of sucking. But it’s a tech company, and my dad’s also made Navis on his own time, so he knows a lot! I mean, y’know, he made Lurerre, so…” “It’s ’jack in,’ your Navi name, ‘execute’,” Lan flatly interrupted, her expression comically serious for the subject matter. “But that’s just, uh, the default. I made up my own thing that I can say, so you can do whatever you want.” “And then I ripped her off!” Triese joyfully added. “She made her own pose for it, too! Gosh…” Her eyes sparkled, and she took a breath, like she stopped herself from saying anything. “She’s… cool, right?!” The room iced over, however, when Ellen thoughtlessly mentioned the absolute last person Lan wanted to acknowledge at the moment. For a second, she froze, her expression glazing over and slowly growing angrier, before Cometman thankfully clarified that she meant… ‘Hikari-hakase’. Which… that was true. She couldn’t deny any of that. Hikari-hakase didn’t… do anything. “A wrapper…?! Woah!” Triese wondered. “Yeah, I was wondering, because not that long ago you couldn’t battle me! But I’m glad that that’s solved now!” She stroked her chin. “Kinda weird how it doesn’t go both ways, since we could use those weird virus fields just fine, but I guess that’s just a mystery of the universe!” “…Right,” Lan awkwardly acknowledged.

Ellen was too busy contemplating cool poses and awesome lines to say while jacking in to notice the bomb she set off. She beamed back at Triese, "Right!! And one of these days I'll challenge you to a NetBattle too! And I'll have a cool thing to say and pose by then!! I'm thinking... Dash and crash!! Go Cometman and execute!!" she punched the air and held the pose for a moment, "What do you think?" Cometman covered his face and stifled a chuckle, "Dash and crash?" he repeated questioningly, "That makes it sound like it's a bad thing. I know what you mean, but I don't think anyone else would." She pouted, returning to her normal stance and giving Cometman on the TV a contemplative scowl and hummed, "Time to make an impact... Cometman..." she put her fist to her lips, thinking intently, "Flare and strike... Execute..." "We'll work on it," he smirked, turning to face everyone outside the TV, "Maybe seeing an expert do their jack in phrase will inspire you," he gave Lan and Rock an encouraging upward nod. "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Ellen scrambled back to the table, eyes blazing, "What are we waiting around for!? Let's get this show on the road, I'm raring to go!!"

Triese was almost swept away by her enthusiasm for battling Ellen herself, since it'd been such a long time coming, but she quickly refocused herself on the task at hand, swirling around the TV and...! Catching wind of Ellen's, uh, ideas. "'And execute'...?" she couldn't stop herself from repeating out loud. Even her eternally sunny face went a little cold. Lan did not hesitate to voice her very blunt opinion, however. "Your ideas suck," she stated bluntly, before she twitched and quickly tried to correct herself. "Um- I mean, it's not like... all your ideas are going to be good... but there isn't, like... a rhythm to it. It's just bad rhyming and stuff." "The kid just wanted something that represented her, y'know?" Rock added. "I mean, you've seen her do it before, I think. But we're gonna have to do it now, anyways, so we might as well take your suggestion." "Yeah," Lan agreed, taking a step back. With an obnoxiously practiced motion, she swiped her PET around in a broken-heart shape, pointing it toward the TV as she shouted, "Cut the light, Rock! Execute!" Rock appeared on Triese's holographic display a moment later, giving a cool thumbs-up to the camera. "Like that," she said. "She practiced that a lot. Kid won't admit how proud she is of it." "Sh-shut up," Lan retorted, blushing.

Ellen pouted petulantly at everyone tearing down her great ideas that were admittedly, not that great. Then she saw the master do her work and awed, feeling like she understood it a bit better after watching it occur right before her eyes. "You do a whole pose thing too, oh," she wondered, hand to chin, "Cool..." "Honestly it seems like more of a confidence thing," Cometman noted, looking back at Ellen on her floating window, "Maybe don't think about it too hard and it'll come to you, Ellen?" She took this into consideration, and all the intense brow furrowing and eye squinting faded away as she mumbled something quietly to herself. Then she nodded boldly, giving Lan a powerful grin and declared, "I do got an idea." Cometman, meanwhile, waved to Rock and trotted over to her, "Hey, Rock! Been a bit, good to finally say hi up close again. Glad you're doing better." He reached out his hand for a shake and gave her such a joyful look that would normally be reserved for old friends. It was like the guy had only ever interacted with like, five other Navis. Ever. But it was also clear that he had a lot of respect for Rock with the space and straightforward gaze he was giving her.

Rock was caught off-guard by how casually Cometman greeted her, especially since they hadn't held much in the way of a conversation before. They'd worked together against Alpha, sure, but they hadn't really talked to each other - the closest they got was when she tried to knock him to his senses at the colosseum before she, too, was... subsumed. "Uh... yeah, right. Nice to see you again, too," she awkwardly greeted. The handshake she returned was painfully uncomfortable for her, but she was at least being earnest about it. "Sounds like, uh, you're operator's doing a lot better, too. I'd be worryin' about her, not me, to be honest." Rock was well aware that Lan thought Ellen was a little annoying, but she would be remiss to not treat her relationship with her Navi with the same amount of respect. Crossing her arms, she laughed a little. "But that's not really what we're here for, is it? We're here for a NetBattle." She unclasped her blades, swiping them through the air in an X-shape. "It's been a bit since the kid and I've fought a proper opponent... but I doubt we're gonna get rusty any time soon." "We're going to keep getting stronger," Lan insisted alongside her Navi. "Anything that happened at Serpentine's tournament... none of that's going to happen again." Shaking her head, she swiped her PET forward. "Blade routine! Tear them apart!" Rock was surprised that Lan was so ready to get into the fight, but she played along regardless. "I'm not goin' easy on you, 'dash-king!'" !! WARNING !! WARNING !! !! INCOMING HOSTILE WILL !! W̷i̴s̷h̸i̸n̸g̶ ̴S̴t̴a̷r̷T̷M̸1̵6̵ ̸▼̵W̷G̸d̴ = C̵̨̅o̶̱͂m̵̫̂ẹ̴̔t̵̨̃m̵̬̍ã̴̮ñ̶̜.̴̼͘?̸͔͘?̴̣̃?̴̰̍?̶̼̌?̶̖̓?̴?? = !! WARNING !! WARNING !! (edited)

Cometman laughed, "Don't you worry, I'm always worried about Ellen." "Hey," said girl glowered, "That makes it sound like I'm a delinquent," which made Cometman laugh harder. When it was clear that Rock and Lan were burning for the fight to start, Cometman stepped back and readily got into a fighting stance. Eager energy sparked around his core, ready to explode at a moment's notice. At Lan's starting signal Ellen grinned wide. This was it. "Make an impact!! Cometman! Battle Routine Set Execute!!" she declared in one boisterous breath, dropping to a wide stance as she gripped her Game-Xross in close. She sent Cometman blazing forward, fists flashing into his signature star maces, as he bantered back with a smirk, "Don't hold anything back, 'champion'!!

At least they had a rapport, Rock thought to herself. It was a little strange, since she was pretty sure Cometman was pretty new to this, but... then again, so was she. She'd be a hypocrite to question a relationship like that. Who knows how Cometman worked, but Rock knew that her getting along with the kid was her decision - even if she was made to get along with her to begin with. Rock wasn't used to being bantered back at, so Cometman's talk threw her off a little - but she quickly swerved to the side and tossed one of the Roller Blades at his maces just to see what would happen. She and Lan had watched plenty of Cometman fighting during the Serpentine incident, for better or for worse, so she figured it was best to keep her distance for now. All Lan could remember was the Aura that'd carried them, so she kept a Wind Racket ready for when that came out. They'd need to bait that, first, however, so she sent Rock something she thought would do the trick. "Battle Chip, Yo-Yo! Slot in!" Rock leapt toward Cometman to chase him from behind, aiming to unleash the Yo-Yo and cut through him as soon as he skid to a halt.

Cometman's mace shot out and deflected the Roller Blade as his eyes followed Rock's, watching where she was looking. This was a benefit to having a lot of his motions controlled by someone else; he could focus on figuring out what his opponent was thinking and he'd realized this from training with Roll. Ellen recognized the Yo-Yo tactic from her training with Roll and Meiru and quickly input an attack for Cometman to shoot one of his maces into the ground and pull himself to the side, narrowly dodging the blades as they came whirling past. She'd never told Lan or Rock about Cometman's weakness of horizontal motion, so for them to pick up on that so quickly spoke to their sharp instincts. Ellen's grin widened as she anticipated how this fight was going to push her to her limits, and maybe beyond them. Using the momentum of the dodge, Cometman circled around, body low. Ellen called out, "Jet Attack!!" and activated a chip that flared Cometman's hip jets and sent him rocketing forward at a higher speed than they usually propelled him, making a beak-like vapor cone around him as he blasted forward with a sound that trailed behind his movements.

Lan, compared to her opponent, was completely stone-faced, with Triese holding all of the enthusiasm instead. It was easy for Triese to get excited in spite of Lan's mood, because that was just how she was - she was always so focused on a fight, and that's what made her so cool! She could brush off any threat like it was nothing!! Meanwhile, Rock grinned as her blades were deflected away. Cometman's maces were definitely a weird weapon, but they were pretty similar to her own, in some respects. She kind of wished she could tether herself away with a blade... but maybe that'd be better off as a Battle Chip tactic? Her reflexes were more than good enough for her to sidestep Cometman's Jet Attack, though he still looked cooler than Rock expected when he whizzed past her and grazed her side. It did minimal damage, but it was more important that Rock was free for a follow-up. Lan, realizing they needed to bait out Cometman's dashes, went for a ranged attack. "Battle Chip, Clock Arrow! Slot in!" Rock waved her arm and summoned three purple projectiles shaped like clock hands. The hands spun around and shot toward Cometman all at once, but a second later, Rock rolled one of her blades across the ground at an awkward angle to try and cut off Cometman's escape routes.

Multi-hit attacks. Looked like it was time. "I'm sure you remember this," Ellen declared, activating a chip, "Aura!" A familiar ethereal glow encircled Cometman and deflected Rock's attacks like a repulsive magnetic field. But she wasted no time with gloating; she knew this wasn't going to last long. In competitive Netken no one would be caught dead without a WindRack chip in their folder, and she fully expected Lan to be well armed and ready. She sent Cometman in blazing, knowing her opponent would be using her Wind Racket to blow away the Aura. She would just have to time her counter well, but as she'd learned with her training with Meiru, grabbing an agile Navi like Rock would be like trying to grip water. But that's all it would take, one successful grapple and a speed/attack spec'd Navi like Rock would crack. The opportunity was there and the future pair both knew it. In that split second of Cometman dashing right towards Rock, he hunkered down low, anticipating the wind with star maces at the ready, predicting a jump and air dodge.

Rock scoffed once the Aura came out - it was rare that she even saw this chip, but it was infamous enough for her operator to have received bitterly-laced information about it from their referee months ago. "Wh-what?! An Aura?!" Triese commentated. "Oh, geez, you guys probably have so much more of that defensive crap in the future, don't you?!" Lan was just about ready to slot in the Wind Racket in response, but out of the corner of her eye, she spotted that Ellen was looking a little too confident in herself. There was no way that she wasn't expecting a counter-attack, was she? And even if she wasn't, then... there was no harm in pulling out something expected, right?! Chaos was the constant, chaos was the constant... "Face it head on! There's no escape!" Lan commanded, quickly switching tactics. "Battle Chip, Tornado! Slot in!" There was rarely any reason to use Tornado when Static was almost always a better version of it - but Lan wanted to save that for later. When Rock's arm changed out in a split second and she let the Tornado rip, its advantage would become clear - Cometman would have to fly straight through the cyclone to get to his opponent, inevitably trapping himself. The Tornado ripped straight through the Aura and stunned Cometman out of his dash, giving Rock a follow-up opportunity. "Fire Hit, slot in!" Lan added on, as Rock changed out to her brass knuckles. Her fist cloaked itself in flame, and she uppercut Cometman as hard as she could, trails of fire flying every which way.

Sure enough, Cometman got trapped within the Tornado. The completely unexpected attack only threw Ellen off for a moment as she quickly shifted to her back up strategy. What else to counter a counter than with a counter of her own, so without even looking or hearing her opponent's attack she fought against the stun status and activated a chip. One of Cometman's star maces became emblazoned with fire of its own as Ellen called out, "Fire Hit!!" Breaking out of the stun as Rock's flaming fist came flying towards his face, Cometman swung down, his burning mace striking his opponent's face as her's met his. The clash burst with fire as both Navis were stunned at the exact same time. For just a moment everything paused. The two Navis were locked in a cross counter freeze frame while Ellen looked right into Lan's face and gave her a wild smirk. "Having fun yet, Lan?" she asked cheekily.

Lan made a little face when Ellen countered her chip with the exact same chip; was she trying to copy her or something?! She grimaced when Rock was slammed in the face, confused at how Fire Hit was even able to work like that - but she couldn't let shake her confidence. She looked up at Ellen with scorn, clearly taking this way more seriously than her opponent. "What are you talking about," she muttered to herself. "Omigosh!! A perfect match!! That's not something you see every day!" Triese gleefully commentated. "I-I didn't realize Cometman was this fast, Ellen! Wow!" There was no way Lan was going to let her guard down, Triese was sure of it, but Ellen seemed pretty prepared, too!! Rock stumbled backward and backflipped away on contact, cursing herself for letting herself get caught off-guard. Cometman was too fast to allow for follow-ups like that, she noted, and they'd most likely have to play hit-and-run. Lan clearly understood this, and dug through her chip pile as Rock threw both of her blades at Cometman for keep-away. "Try this, then," Lan muttered, both to her Navi and to taunt Ellen. "Battle Chip, Rock Cube! Needler! Double slot-in!" Rock got the hint and summoned the Rock Cube in front of her once she had enough distance from Cometman, then materialized the Needler directly on top of the cube right after. With her blades spinning toward Cometman's sides and the Needler already firing its barrage of needles, they had successfully improvised a kind of setup you'd see in a tower defense game.

"You gotta be careful about using Obstacle chips," Ellen smirked, thumbs clacking all over her controller, "You'll just give Cometman more ammo!" With a dash forward Cometman shot out a mace that encircled the Rock Cube and whipped it to the side. Using its momentum, he pulled himself at an angle, the center of mass between these two objects being the pivot point. This allowed him to dodge the Roller Blades coming in, but not the needles coming out of the Needler. Ellen clicked her tongue; Cometman was taking more damage than her opponent. Even if he had a higher health pool, that was gonna need to change soon. A wide swing with that grappled Rock Cube would be seen a mile away so... "Break Saber!!" Ellen announced as Cometman came careening towards Rock. His free hand flashed into a swirling foil that glowed neon bright and he prepared to swing, crossing his arm across his body, obscuring how long the Saber is. "Why don't you try this then!" Cometman barked as he closed in.

Lan hated Ellen's taunts, considering making her shut up for a moment, but then she remembered how often Rock liked to taunt her opponents, too, and she didn't want to make her feel bad. Plus, she didn't want to make a fool of herself - the pivoting technique Cometman used with the Rock Cube was pretty impressive. She had no clue what a Break Sabre was, but she could hazard a guess, and she had a good feeling from Rock's expression that the latter didn't want to give up her position. Silently, she slotted in a trap chip as Rock made no effort to run, instead bracing herself and letting the sabre slash right across her - only for her to not flinch at all, and instead begin glowing a bright green. "Anti-Sword!!" Lan announced as Rock drew her own blade from nowhere, slicing at Cometman with a triple Sonic Boom attack. The Needler continued firing as all of this went on as well, cutting off Cometman's escape routes. "Now, Lava Cannon! Slot in!" Rock recoiled backward as the head of a Volcano virus formed in her head, a fiery energy boiling within it. At the absolute last frame Rock thought Cometman would still be stunned, she fired a burst of magma from the Battle Chip straight at his chest armorpiece.

Eesh! That looked like it hurt. How did Lan have the right chip at the right time like that? That read was supernatural! A blow like that would prevent Cometman from doing anything for a few precious frames, so the best option in this case was to use a chip that could be activated without his input, but would he be ready the frame it came out? It was in these moments that Ellen always felt far behind on NetBattling compared to everyone else. She grit her teeth and burned away her doubts. She decided to trust him and activated her chip. The world flashed cyan and reflective ice shot out of the ground, taking the hit from the Volcano. It left a shimmering mist that obscured both of the Navis from sight. "Welcome to the future! Hope you brought your Float Shoes," Ellen announced as Cometman burst forward from the mist, "This is Ice Caves! It's like Ice Stage and a bunch of Ice Cubes combined!! Oh and, MagBolt," she added quickly. And Cometman immediately used it in on the wily Rock, ensuring she couldn't run away from this attack and continued to charge, aiming straight for an Ice Cube that he would be sure to hit at his max speed.

The change in scenery was certainly enough to give Rock pause. "Woah!! What?! What the heck!! What chip even is that?!" Triese shouted, her reaction a mixture of excitement and skepticism. "I should've expected that you'd bring chips from the future, but that looks so overpowered! Wow!!" "Tch," Rock complained, nearly slipping on the ice as she tried to stand her ground. Before it could become a problem, Lan slotted in a Wind Racket that Rock used to blow the ice away - but that gave Cometman plenty of time to whip out the MagBolt. As Rock unwillingly gained traction on the ice, she attempted to cross-slash her way through a nearby Ice Cube, only to find that the object was way tougher than expected. Lan winced as Rock was briefly stunned, choosing to slot in a Boomerang chip in her panic. If she was lucky, then it'd interrupt Cometman's dash. A combo of both ice and a Magnet Bolt was difficult to escape for a light Navi like Rock, so even something like Air Shoes wouldn't really help...! The Boomerang spun across the battlefield to Rock's side, attempting to curve around and catch Cometman on his way in. "Th-this is crazy...! You're neck and neck!" Triese was commenting in the meantime. "Wh-who's gonna pull out the big guns first?! I can't even tell!"

With Rock caught in the MagBolt coursing electricity through the Navi, powered up by the ice, Ellen and Cometman had their opponent right where they wanted her. They had the advantage and were going to push it. No hesitation. No holding back! Ellen activated her chip, calling it out like how one would identify a target for hunting, "Bubble Hook." Cometman's other hand formed a large blue fist that he used to uppercut the stunned Rock. A burst of bubbles flew out in its wake, encircling Rock in foam that quickly froze on the ice, trapping the Navi like she was in a snowglobe. The easy to read Boomerang was simply dodged with a back step, which was fine because they would need the bit of space for this upcoming attack. Ellen input the special command and a light coalesced between his hands, forming a statue like head. "Program Advance!" they said in unison, "Stream Head!!" The first of five heads finished forming and shot like a canon straight into the ice sculpture that was Rock, breaking the ice and dealing massive damage to her frame. The ice shattered like sugar glass, flying everywhere and painting the arena like glitter as Rock went flying. The next came flying out one after another, mere frames between their launches, but they both knew that their opponent would not be beat so easily. In fact, deep down, Ellen wanted Rock to somehow survive this attack. To somehow pull out a ridiculous dodge and keep going because she wanted this fight to continue. They were not yet pushed to their limits!! A manic grin stretched across her face; she was having fun, and she knew Cometman was feeling the same way. As the Program Advance's animation finished playing, Ellen readied her Reflector, knowing this fight was far from over. (edited)

Lan grit her teeth, pushing down any panic that she could've felt as she watched Rock get dragged in. It was way too late for her to escape from the initial attack, but as Rock was frozen by the Bubble Hook, Lan focused as hard as she could, trying desperately to puzzle a way out of Ellen's combo. Of course the Boomerang missed - that was sloppy, and she didn't have room for sloppy, she needed to go beyond that, she needed to be unpredictable, to be chaotic- "Rock!" she reflexively yelled as the Stream Head was fired off. The first of the Megalian heads shattered the ice, dealing heavy damage to Rock - but the moment she was free, the moment she could look at her operator's pleading expression, her red eyes twinkled. Whipping her arm around, her body turned a pitch black, and she warped out of the way of the remaining Aura Heads in an unnatural-looking way. When the shadowy veil over her faded away, she looked a bit nauseous, but she collected herself fast enough to make sure she didn't slide right back into Cometman's attack. Lan was quick to think of a follow-up, as well; ice in the cyberworld usually didn't fold to any old fire attack, so smashing it would have to do. "Battle Chip, Air Hockey! Slot in!" Rock tossed the Air Hockey puck at Cometman, letting it bounce off the cubes placed by the Ice Caves on purpose to ricochet it toward her target.

The puck spun and ricocheted off the many Ice Cubes, cracking them and wildly speeding about. Ellen activated the Reflector right as the Air Hockey was set to impact, sending a shockwave down the arena that cleared away a cube in its path. As much as she hated to admit, the Cubes were not going to be super useful in this fight seeing as how evasive Rock was, especially with that shadowy dodge she pulled!! No, it was time for the one last trick up her sleeve that used them. Cometman kept his distance, dashing along the side to an Ice Cube by itself. He pulled back his arm, preparing for an attack. "Synchro Hook!!" Ellen called out and Cometman's fist turned into a very unassuming yellow fist that impacted with the Ice Cube and sent a rising fist to everything else in the arena, breaking most of the Cubes and sucker punching Rock right in the chin.

There was no escaping the quirky use of Synchro Hook, of course. Rock grunted as she was smacked in the face and slid back on the ice, while Triese practically fangirled over the technique on display. "H-how'd you even...?! Oh my gosh, is that something like Copy Damage?!" she realized, jumping in place. "It's like a combination of that, and Life Sync, and a general punch chip! Man, chips in the future are strong...!!" Any kind of phantom hit was awfully disorienting to Rock, but Lan's presence steadied her. When their Synchro ramped up like this, it felt like there was a 'beat' to reality, like a metronome, or the pulse of a heart. It helped to push through any battle damage. Ellen was clearly ramping herself up, as well, so the two of them knew they had to fire back quickly lest their opponent prepare another, even less avoidable counterattack. Cometman was too fast to catch off-guard, and Rock's usual strategy of throwing her blades as feints clearly wasn't working, so they'd need a more elaborate distraction. "Battle Chip, Heavy Shake! Slot in!" Lan decided on. Rock underhand tossed the Shake weight to Cometman's side, and it swung toward him, shattering some of the ice fragments scattered around it with its force.

Another obstacle, another thing to sling back at her opponent. This fight was going to require them to throw every odd strategy they had and be as unexpected as possible. Cometman dashed around, grappled the Shake and like an Olympian hammer threw the attack in Rock's direction. It's shaking threw off its trajectory but it wobbled forward on the ice towards the target regardless. They knew Rock could dodge an attack like that easily, but the problem was to where she would dodge? In Netken, air dodging had its major disadvantages so hardly anyone jumped, but here in the past, in this more freeform environment, anything was possible. Another example of Ellen's inexperience that she knew was holding her back. She prepared for Rock to dodge upward, aiming Cometman that way, and trusted that he would adjust the attack at the opportune moment.

Rock was definitely surprised that Cometman chose to do that instead of just dodging like a normal person, but she supposed that he was always going for grapples back at the colosseum, anyways. Now that the Shake had been ricocheted back at her, their feint couldn't go quite as planned, but Cometman was still a sitting duck, anyways. Lan was able to easily read from a distance that they were expecting a jumping dodge from Rock, so she mentally imagined her Navi sliding forward instead. A second later, Rock complied without her operator saying a word, bending over and launching herself across the ice and past the Shake as her operator sent in one of their strongest chips. "Battle Chip, Black Wing! Slot in!" Purple portals opened up around Cometman, pinning him in. As Rock kept sliding toward him, bats began to shoot out of the portals, flying in wild patters and smacking themselves into their target; they exploded into dark energy on impact. The constant barrage of bothersome bats would give Lan and Rock plenty of opening for a followup attack, as well. "Static, slot in!" Rock twirled around like an ice skater to slow herself down, changing her arm out for a purplish fan. The fan's blades emitted a distinct whirring sound as electrically-charged wind whipped up around Cometman, and a moment later, a storm of purple tornados captured and paralyzed him.

Rock dodged by going towards the attack!? It was a bold and reckless strategy that paid off due to her exceptional skills and Ellen couldn't help feeling impressed. Then the bats flew out and caught them both off guard. They should've known to prepare for the unexpected. In between the barrage and Rock loading her Static chip, Ellen activated her counter attack that was going to take some time to load. Cometman grit his teeth as bat after bat exploded into him, but he knew this fight was farover. He tanked the hit and met the Static head on, paralyzed in a smirk. "Meteor Knuckle!!" Ellen barked, hungry grin stretching across her face as several shadows were cast over the battle field. Giant metallic fists fell from the sky like rain, falling everywhere but where Cometman was, breaking ice and sending fragments skyward, making the entire arena a glittering ice storm. It gave plenty of time for Cometman to shake the paralysis and Ellen to ready the next attack, a Drill Arm, but this unfortunately was going to have to end soon. One look at Cometman's health told you everything you needed to know and the Navi's wrapper program was definitely not holding up as it fuzzed and crackled. Despite this, he looked determined, eyes scanning the aftermath of the Meteor Knuckle's barrage for where Rock was going to strike from next.

Lan winced when the Meteor Knuckle was called out, reeling back as the arena shattered into a chaotic icestorm. Not only was this a chip they hadn't seen before, but it was also coming out absurdly fast; Rock attempted to use some of the remaining Ice Cubes as cover, but they were quickly smashed by the rain of fists. Now, Rock could only rely on her natural agility, which, to be fair, was quite high - but it didn't save her from being nicked in the side by one of the fists. The force nearly slammed her to the ground, but she bent over and improvised a backflip to right herself up just as the Meteor Knuckle storm ended. Collecting herself, she found herself in a stand-off with Cometman, the arena completely cleared of the ice that nearly made her eat shit. Lan was staring at Cometman as well, finding his visibly crackling frame all the more tantalizing. That usually meant victory was in sight, didn't it?! They couldn't make their approach so obvious, but she slotted in one of the most violent Battle Chips she could think of, anyways. "Battle Chip, Drill Arm! Slot in!" It didn't take a genius to figure out that a head-on approach would be suicide, but she felt Lan's directions from across the veil, anyways. Rock leaned forward and dashed for Cometman in an exaggerated fashion, kicking up shards of ice along the way. She wound up her arm with a guttural roar as she approached, only to cartwheel to the side and bound straight over Cometman. Just as she loaded the Drill Arm chip, she thrust herself toward the ground to land faster, and lunged for Cometman to pierce him through the back while she still had the chance.

The benefit of having a person with a top down view controlling your movements meant you could never be caught by surprise. Cometman remained calm and readied himself. "Drill Arm!!" Ellen activated the data and sent Cometman whirling around a full one eighty degrees. The Drill came out and clashed with Rock's Drill, making a percussive grinding noise as they spun in opposite directions. She chuckled and Cometman smirked; great minds thinking alike and all that. Cometman threw off Rock's attack and wound up for counter, throwing out a punch before a chip was even activated. "Freeze Knuckle!!" Ellen called out just as Cometman sucker punched Rock in the stomach, making the impact an explosion of ice that encompassed her entirely. Wasting no time, Cometman was sent dashing away then shot a mace into the ground to act as a pivot for him to quick turn around as he gathered momentum for a final dash into the frozen Rock, guaranteed to do massive damage once it connected. Both Ellen and Cometman had a pair of wild and hungry grins on their face as they closed in on their target.

Rock grit her teeth as their drills clashed - why were they copying her so damn much? The momentary hesitation was enough for Cometman to get the upper hand, however, and her drill was thrown away as she stumbled backward. Since she was stuck dismissing the chip, she couldn't even reach for her blades, giving Cometman a free opening. Meanwhile, Lan could only growl as their plan completely backfired, with Rock being completely frozen in place. That feint strategy worked on so many other people, why wasn't it working on Ellen?! Idiot, she should've known better! Idiot, now she's looking at you with a smug grin that deserved to be wiped off her stupid face! Idiot!! Idiot!! Idiot!! As she chastised herself, and her rage welled up within her, she reached her heart for Rock as deeply as she could. Any struggling motion her Navi could make while trapped was completely in vain, as Cometman slammed into her and sent her flying. Lan's strategic train of thought completely crashed when the ping noise of Undershirt going off was sent to her PET; her eyes went wide, and she leaned in closer. Bugs and smoke went flying as Rock crashed to the ground. Aware of her own HP situation, she grasped the wound on her chest, and triggered a brief recovery period with an invincibility bug. She could at least take one hit, but... Cometman was way tougher than she expected. It was easy to assume Serpentine was pulling some strings back at the tournament, but... "No. No! We're not going to lose!" Lan suddenly screamed, withholding her urge to append 'not to you'. Gritting her teeth, she clutched her heart, realizing that they did have an extreme way out of this. "Rock... I think I know what we have to do!" Rock gave her operator a weak smirk. "Goin' all out?" "Right," Lan answered with a nod. Swiping her hand forward, she clawed one hand over her eye as something flickered underneath it. A connection had been made, somewhere, through sheer force of will. "It's time! Destroy the light, and carve our own path!! Shadow Trance!" On cue, Rock erupted into a massive cloud of black smoke, the surge of power rippling across the arena and kicking up shards of ice. Lan also hunched over ever so slightly, the tiniest of shadows casting over her eyes as they tinted the same shade of red as Rock's. When the smoke cleared, Rock's true potential was revealed, her jacket billowing as dramatically as it usually did with her massive black blades rotating around her like planets. Without a single word, Rock blasted toward Cometman, hovering just above the ground as she travelled. Somehow, she was even faster than before, and quickly grabbed Cometman by the neck. Tossing him into the air, the two transformed Roller Blades whirled around her and sliced across him in an X-shape. Lan grinned as she watched the tables turn. If someone was paying close attention, one might notice the black particles crowding around her face and her shoulders.

The satisfaction of a good clean hit was fleeting as the sound of Rock's undershirt activating meant this fight wasn't set just yet. That meant one more hit. One more- The plume of smoke erupting from Rock was a sight to behold. The atmosphere changed abruptly; they could tell that this was it. This was Lan and Rock's big secret weapon that Lan was too shy to talk about. Fear and excitement were wound together in a tight ball of energy that exploded as Rock came in for her first attack. Cometman and Ellen made a gasping sound as Rock grabbed Cometman's neck and Ellen stuttered, "I-Invis-!" as Cometman vanished before the powered up Roller Blades struck. They backed off, but refused to back down. That one last hit, that one tantalizing bit of HP kept them laser focused. They were so close. Cometman, still under the effect of the Invis data, landed on his feet and then circled around and sent both maces flying to wrap Rock up in a long range grapple. All it would take is feeling their opponent caught in their grasp and then they'd know they had it. Grab her, slam her to the ground, win. Ellen's eyes flickered green as all her attention was honed in on her Game-Xross's screen. The previously extremely animated girl now stood perfectly still, hardly even breathing as if even that was too much to think about.

Triese was absolutely elated to see Lan and Rock pull off Shadow Trance once more, especially when it was in the confines of her own home! Actually, this was probably the closest she'd ever been to them when they used their ability! Part of her told her that she should think this is freaky, given, y'know, Lan's eyes turned red and all of that. But it was also really cool... There was no mercy in Rock's eyes as Cometman escaped from her grasp, and she continued hovering menacingly as she waited for his Invis to run out. Meanwhile, Lan narrowed her eyebrows, confused at why Ellen had gone so still; the tiniest bit of hate flickered in her eyes. The incoming maces were incredibly easy to see coming, so she leaned forward and clawed her hand, commanding Rock's shadow to disconnect from her and slide straight underneath their opponent. "Elec Pulse," the two of them called out in unison. Rock's shadow loaded the Elec Pulse chip, the electric waves pulling Cometman straight out of Invis and toward the shadow of Rock. The real Rock then shot forward at a downward angle toward Cometman, her blades ripping through his maces along the way, and she kicked him in the chest, sending him flying across the battlefield. Rock wasted no time in tracking him down, gliding across the battlefield and encircling him before he could even give up. Leaving a black trail in her wake, she summoned a horde of shadow clones from the depths, and burst her Roller Blades into a dozen smaller blades with a wave of her hand. Each clone, shimmering with fierce hatred, grabbed a blade and aimed them at Cometman alongside Rock herself.

Cometman exclaimed when the Elec Pulse hit him which made Ellen instantly flinch. She returned to her middle distance stare a moment later; her eyes continuing to weakly flicker as the fight continued. Cometman skid across the arena, used his hit jets to stabilize himself, and arose to see the horde of shadows encroaching him. Not yet. Not until the last bit of health is lost will this be over. We won't be beat so easily!! Wind Racket came out swinging and blew the closest ones back, giving them enough time to use Jet Attack to get closer to Rock with its invincibility frames and prepare a follow up attack. But a frontal assault would be easily read, so with gritted teeth Cometman shot out a mace, wincing as the damage Rock had inflicted was felt down every link in his chains, predicted a dodge and a counter attack to strike him from behind. Break Saber was off cool down and ready to counter Rock's counter as he closed in on the target.

Triese couldn't help but notice that Ellen had gone unnaturally quiet, and narrowed her eyebrows when she flinched from the Elec Pulse's impact. "U-um... Ellen...?" she muttered meekly, her attention slowly falling on Ellen's eyes. That wasn't normal, was it? Definitely not. "Are you, like... okay?" The Wind Racket was surprisingly effective at dissipating the shadows, inexplicably. It appeared only to aggravate Lan and Rock further, especially as Cometman dared to approach them. Unfortunately for him, his prediction was inaccurate; Shadow Trance only emboldened the NetBattler duo further, and Rock simply wound up a punch as Cometman approached. Her fist flew out with a trail of blazing shadows, stopping him dead in his tracks like the force he put into his attack didn't even matter. Each of the Roller Blades then automatically returned to her, forming back into the two giant blades and resuming swirling around her. "Side Bamboo," the two of them called out in unison. Kilbies began to surround Cometman, repeatedly thrusting stalks of bamboo at him when brief silhouettes of Rock commanded them to do so. Rock whirled her blades in front of her as a taunt, letting them spin around her wrists, before bringing them in front of her like they were shields. Smoke continued to pour out from her, and a black aura surrounded her body, like she was charging something up. "This is the power we claimed for ourselves," Lan taunted in the meantime, her voice sounding... strange. The black particles had began to cluster around her shoulders, almost taking the shape of wings. "Maybe it's unneccesary... but I need to prove to you... that we're far from pathetic!"

Triese's worries fell of deaf ears as Ellen was as engrossed as could be in the fight. Jet Attack clashed with Rock's fist and caused a burst of wind and black fire to erupt at the point of impact, swirling and whipping around the battlefield. Cometman pushed harder, flaring his jets as much as he could, but despite his best efforts he couldn't move their impossibly stalwart opponents. As the Kilbies manifested, Cometman disengaged with Rock by pulling himself to the side with a mace grapple into the ground. He spun and parried with a Break Saber, clearing the fodder away as he honed in on Rock once more. "No holding back!" Cometman roared with an odd echo to his voice as be barreled forward, "This is our strength!! The power of our bond!!" A flaming Fire Hit came flying out that met Rock's- no, Rock's shadow that melted away a second later. Undeterred, Cometman continued to dash forward, throwing out a Bubble Hook that captured another shadow, and then a Mag Bolt that pulled a shadow right out of Rock. Each dodge sent Rock further back with a trail of black smoke billowing out of her, but oddly enough she didn't seem too bothered, like this was simple dance to her. "Not yet...! We're not done yet!" Cometman growled, gritting his teeth as for just a moment his eyes flickered orange, "Not until the last point of health is gone, this fight isn't over!!" With a giant yellow fist, Cometman swung a Synchro Hook that struck every shadow, bursting them into thick clouds that partially obscured a glowing green Rock -- invulnerability perfectly timed. And with no more chips off cool down, no more tricks up their sleeve, all that tenacity cracked under the reality of facing an opponent that outclassed them. Frustration fueled rage and Cometman barreled forward, bursting from the black smoke as he launched his chain maces for one final shot, one final try to grapple Rock and claim victory for themselves.

Lan flinched every time that Cometman punched through a shadow, which only concerned Triese further, but the two NetBattlers were far too wound up to stop, now. The echoed voice meant nothing to Rock, and neither did Cometman's struggle to survive. This was their ultimate power. Nothing was getting past their ultimate power. The Roller Blades whirled across the battlefield wildly, constantly preventing Cometman from closing in as he launched Battle Chip after Battle Chip, giving Rock ample time to prepare herself for shadow-counters. Even she didn't fully understand how easily she was able to slip away from certain attacks, but a voice in the back of her head told her it was okay, that she was helping her always. The Synchro Hook came out, and Rock grunted as she touched one of her wounds with her hands, activating the bugged invincibility once more. She glided to the back of the arena and braced herself as Cometman approached them. Throwing her fist into the palm of her hand was as good a signal as any that it was time to finish this bug off. "Poison Seed! Element Dark! White Capsule!" the two of them called out; the addition of the White Capsule would normally be a dead giveaway for what they were trying, but Shadow Trance's agility too great to outdo with a normal Navi like Cometman. The shadows he'd destroyed reformed around him and simultaneously threw a crowd of Poison Seeds, covering the arena in swampy ooze. Rock dashed straight into the ground at an awkward angle, hitting the ground with such force to briefly stun Cometman. Changing out her weapon, she sprayed him with the Element Dark, boosted by all the poison around her that seeped into the Battle Chip. As the Element Dark paralyzed Cometman, Lan took a step back, slotting in three more Battle Chips at a near-inhuman speed - how had they even saved this many chips, this late into the battle? "Battle Chip! Poison Seed, Voodoo Doll, Bug Charge!!" Lan screamed, her eyes glowing a bright red. Rock's voice joined her own as power surged into her arm. "Program Advance!! Dark Messiah Cross!!" The head of Gospel, the Multi-Bug Organism itself, consumed Rock's right arm as a shadowy power charged up inside of its mouth. With both the Gospel data and Rock herself roaring gutturally, shadowy projectiles shaped like Gospel's head shot at Cometman from all angles, homing in and slamming him to the ground as their maws bit into him. Rock then reeled the cannon back, dismissing it as smoke poured into her. Recalling her blades to her and holding them in her hands, she darted straight for Cometman, leaving shadowy trails in her wake, and sliced straight through him with both blades at once. Touching down on the ground, she lifted her head with a smirk. Both she and Lan took a deep breath, satisfied as data shimmered from the wound across Cometman's chest.

The cloud of poison was felt more than seen as the noxious program latched onto Cometman's frame and ate away at him and his remaining wrapper program. He probably would've been forcefully ejected from the fight if it wasn't for the White Capsule's paralysis holding him in place. He struggled just to move his head, but he had to face his opponent, no closing his eyes, they were going to see this through to the end. But as the Gospel heads slammed into and through him, the light started to fade from his eyes and by the time the final blow was struck he was already collapsing to the floor. The blades tore through him and he yelled a final time, feeling the pain of loss and watching as pixels gently flew out of his body. For a brief moment, he seemed at peace, until he fell in a heap and with a bright flash of light was jacked out of the TV's net. Ellen had fallen at the same time, squeaking some sound as her eyes rolled back and closed. Her head landed on the soft couch behind her and then rolled off onto the floor a moment later. She looked like she had fallen asleep, hands in a death grip on her Game-Xross and a small trickle of blood coming from her nose. She seemed to be breathing at least; her chest rose and fell in the slow rhythmic way someone deep in slumber would breathe. She didn't dream, instead her mind reeled in darkness and felt empty.

As Cometman disappeared in a shower of light, Rock released the Roller Blades and let them spin around her as they revelled in their victory. All she needed to enjoy the moment was a fanged smile, while Lan began cackling, bearing her teeth as she watched Ellen fall into despair. They'd won, they'd annihilated their opponent with the power they'd claimed for themselves, they still had it they could protect everything and impress anyone... "You don't, you can't... you won't be able... to," both Lan and Rock began incomprehensibly muttering. The former's grip on her PET was slowly loosening. "The power to... cut the light..." Lan's eyelids fluttered just as Ellen collapsed into a heap, and her feelings numbed as a familiar exhaustion overtook her. Her PET slipped out of her hands and fell onto the carpet, just as Rock began to tip over woozily. And just a moment later, before Triese could intervene, both Lan and Rock simultaneously collapsed, the former sprawling on the carpet as the latter exited Shadow Trance. The black particles wrapped around Lan like a blanket as they slowly disappeared. Triese was too stunned for a moment to process what the hell was going on, but Ellen's oncoming nosebleed shook her awake. "A-ah- Lan, Ellen, what the heck?!" she shouted, jumping forward to survey the damage. Her attempts to shake the both of them away were completely fruitless. "Oh, man, Lurerre, how'd it happen to both of them?! This is so weird, weird weird weird weird weird!" "...I think... they may have gone a bit too far," Lurerre observed, pausing to stop herself and check the time. When she did, she immediately winced. "...Oh, dear."

When Lan came to, she found herself sitting right next to Ellen on Triese's couch, with her PET, the Game-Xross, and a box of tissues on the table in front of them. She groaned, putting a hand to her head as she sorted through her fuzzy memories of the battle. Her chest felt a little shaky, like it was sore from all the adrenaline pumping through her body, and... and... As soon as she sat up, a voice made her jump to attention. "Hello, Lan," the voice said. "Do you mind explaining why you and your friend were passed out on our floor?" Her eyes popped open as she was met with Shen Abysa standing just across the room, with an awkward, nervous Triese standing next to him. She gave Lan the most confused smile ever as she clamped her hands together, clearly waiting on if her response was any good before saying something. "U-uhhh. Hi... Mr. Abysa," Lan mumbled, averting her eyes. "We were, um... just... NetBattling..." It was then that Rock appeared on the table, looking equally as groggy as her operator. "Mm-muh," she blubbered, before straightening herself out for Triese's father, who was giving both of them the most parent who just caught you stealing cookies smile ever. "O-oh... Hey. Yeah... um... what she said." (edited)

"Oh hey Lan, how you feelin?" Ellen chirped, tissue sticking out of her nose, watching Lan a little warily, "Told ya she'd wake up soon," she smirked to the Abysas. "Yep!" she stretched out, pulling her arms up and her legs out like she was a starfish, making a tiny grunt, "I woke up a little bit ago with Triese all worried over me and Mr. Abysa looking super concerned. But I'm fine! See?" She smirked a wide cheesy grin and jabbed a thumbs up at herself. "But yeah," she retreated a little and addressed Triese's dad a tad guiltily, "We really were just Net Battling Mr. Abysa. Promise. It just... Got a little intense!" the girl with a bloody nose chuckled. She wasn't going to mention how exhausted she felt and how much she'd love to take a nap. It felt like if she said anything else concerning, these two would insist on bringing her to the hospital or something. Which would be silly and unnecessary seeing as how she was fine! Just a little spent... There was also no response from Cometman. The Game-Xross displayed the loading screen for Netken on it's bottom half and a little repair progress bar that seemed most of the way completed. Every moment Ellen wasn't looking at another human in the room was spent staring at her Game-Xross. She thought she was being subtle, but her worry was painted all over her face for the world to see.

Lan instantly soured the moment Ellen spoke up, pushing herself up off the couch and turning on her heel. "U-uh- what-" she blubbered, giving her an almost accusing glance. "H-hey- wait, why are you still here- y-you're not even-" Triese almost waved her hands to get Lan to shut up, but Shen cut her off before she could say anything. "You seem awfully ready to have her leave, Lan," he pointed out. "Triese told me that you two were friends, but I can't help but feel there's something else going on here." He eyed the Game-Xross with a slightly confused expression. "U-um... well... I invited her over, because, uh, some stuff happened, and Lan ended up NetBattling with her, and..." Triese rambled, clutching the back of her neck. "I-I really don't... know why people keep passing out! I-I mean, I told you it happened with Lan's Shadow Trance thingy before, when we were abroad, but I haven't really seen Ellen battle before and..." "Now, now, Triese. I believe you," Shen assured, before turning his attention to Ellen. "I'm just a little lost, is all. It's been a while since a new face has shown up around here." He extended his hand to Ellen. "Ellen, is it? Your PET is awfully... unique." He paused. "I'm glad to hear that Triese has a few more friends with custom Navis, however."

Ellen just blinked at Lan's reaction, a little confused since after this fight they should be friends right? That's how this works, at least, she thought that's how she assumed it worked. She sheepishly jumped as Triese's dad addressed her directly, but shook the offered hand regardless, "Um, yeah, it's custom. Same with my Navi," she squirmed in her seat and her eyes landed on her Game-Xross once more. This needed a change in subject. "Yeah, I met Triese a while back, it's very nice to meet you Mr. Abysa," she said cheerily, "Triese was talking about how you make Navis! I think that's super cool! Hopefully we didn't mess up your TV too much," she weakly chuckled. A soft ping sound came from her Game-Xross and she leapt over to the table where the device was sitting. She woozily stayed upright as she doted over her Game-Xross until Cometman finished loading in and mumbled something about wondering what happened. "Cometman!" she chirped, lifting him up with a big goofy smile on her face. "Hey," he replied groggily, "Timer says I was out for a couple of minutes there, what'd I miss?" "Well," she grimaced a little, "This is Triese's dad, say hello!" and flipped the device around to face the broad shouldered man. Cometman took a moment as his processors were warming up and then waved at Mr. Abysa, "Nice to meet you, I'm Cometman." though the look on his face was more confused than friendly.

Lan just blinked right back, while Rock's expression was unreadable, like she had no idea how to respond to her operator's attitude. It took a few seconds for Lan's expression to soften as more of the embarrassment set in; the memories of their battle were beginning to replay in her mind, and she couldn't help but feel that she had maybe gone a little too far. "Custom firmware...? Hmm," Shen thought aloud, before giving Ellen a soft nod. "Indeed, I've made a handful of Navis... though it's been quite some time since I've completed one by myself." He glanced at the TV, then smirked. "And trust me... I've made sure that TV won't break again." Triese blinked, then immediately waved her hands defensively at Ellen. "N-not my fault! Technically, it's Flammole's!!" she clarified, which elicited a chuckle out of Shen. Rock gave Cometman a wave once he awakened; Ellen's grimace was weird, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, at the moment. "It's nice to meet you, too, Cometman," Shen responded, before looking at Ellen once more. "This kind of technology isn't common here, so we're lucky to have met another person like you. Where do you live, Ellen?" He smiled. "I've always thought it's rather funny that most of Triese's friends just happened to be somewhere in ACDC Town. This isn't exactly prime real estate."

Ellen pulled Cometman back around and as he caught sight of Rock he waved back. He held off on talking about the fight even though he was quite eager to do so. Ellen, however, was completely blindsided by Mr. Abysa's questioning. She held a stunned, vacant smile on for a few moments as her brain caught up. She at least had the wherewithal to not blurt 'where's ACDC town' out of her giant mouth. "Uh... Spacity, sir," she peeped, though her geography knowledge finally ran up and slapped her in the face. Lan was from Electopia. Spacity, despite being like five hundred years old in her time was definitely Netopian. She blanched and made a tiny noise like a tea kettle for ants. "B-But um!!" she floundered, "Navis are super cool and I really like them and I think customizing them is super cool and I'd love to learn more about that! There isn't many places to learn about Navis and stuff where I'm from s-so...! Um! Navis! Right?" She tried a winning smile and could tell it failed by how it felt on her face. Cometman, feeling the need to support his partner, attempted to back her up, "I also would like to learn more about 'Navis and stuff'." He felt like he was under a microscope, and right after waking up from a fight he was still trying to process too?? He looked... Unnaturally tense.

Shen raised an eyebrow at Ellen's strange reaction and even stranger response. "...Er," he mumbled, watching as his daughter made an equally squeaky noise. "You don't mean to say that you were... born in Spacity, or....?" Triese couldn't hold her reaction back with all the palpable tension. "Y-you know what Spaci-" she blubbered, before stopping when Shen gave her a questioning glance. "Uh... umm... well... I'm just, um, surprised you've... uh..." Lan scrunched her face as she nearly opened her mouth to expose them all, wondering why the hell they were hiding this from someone like Mr. Abysa. He literally already knew about other worlds. (Well. They hid the information from him because they didn't want him to know that Triese was kidnapped... but that was long behind them, now.) Shen gave Cometman another surveying glance. "I can't claim to be an expert... I haven't made a custom Navi on my own since Triese was little," he explained. "But I know enough to keep up. I tend to work on security programs, more than anything. Regardless, I'm glad that there are more children into the idea of Navis nowadays than I thought." He reached behind his shoulder. "Though whatever 'where you're from' means is beyond me," he said. Triese winced - oh my gosh he was totally onto them how the heck were they going to explain...

"Um!!" Ellen squeaked and squirmed in her squatting position in front of the sofa, "Well, you know, Spacity! That's where I'm from! I'm here in Electopia now and I moved over here at a young age and uh-!!" "Ellen," Cometman grumbled loudly, "We should just tell him. I don't like dancing around it. Mr. Abysa, we're from a different time and place from here and through the use of some mysterious and powerful technology are able to visit other times and places. We've become friends with your daughter Triese using this technology. She's very nice. Likewise with Lan over here too." "Cometman!!" Ellen hissed, worriedly looking about like the time cops were gonna manifest because he said that. But when they didn't, she rose from her squat and sat back onto the sofa in a huff, "You didn't have to tell him all that...?" "Why not?" he huffed right back, "There really isn't any reason to hide this stuff from him, right?" Ellen perked up, holding a finger to her chin thoughtfully, "I guess not!" she bounced and faced Triese's dad with a wide smile and wave, "Well! I'm Ellen Stream and I'm from the year 24XX, and I'm glad my Navi didn't blow up your TV! It really is well made!"

Shen was quiet as the explanation began, giving Ellen a strangely unbothered nod at first. Triese, meanwhile, continued to squeak like a rubber duck at Cometman blurting out the truth, which only made Shen smile wider. Then Cometman kept talking, and Ellen gave herself up willingly, and Shen's confidence immediately dissolved. Pressing a thumb to his forehead, he closed his eyes. "Now, hold on-" "Sorry! Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!!" Triese interrupted, clasping her hands together to beg. "U-um, yeah, so, uh, I know that you wanted to hide all the portal stuff but this totally different thing got out of control and...!!" "Triese," Shen reassured, putting a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "One thing at a time, here. There's nothing to apologize for." He paused, before giving Ellen a stern glance. "We're well aware of that kind of technology existing... but coming from... 24XX...?" "It's definitely not our future!" Triese quickly pointed out. "'Cuz, apparently, the Lan in their history books is this super-famous scientist, and, uh!" She glanced nervously at Lan, who grumbled at the reminder. "Well, I don't think that's, like... Possible. So." Shen decided not to insensitively point out how anything could change, especially since the damage had clearly already been done. "Right," he said, opening his eyes. "Well, it would certainly explain a lot. Even outside of this, certain things just weren't lining up." He tilted his head. "Should I be wondering why you didn't tell...?" "It was too dangerous," Lan answered, almost too quickly. Rock averted her eyes. "I think it's fine by now, kid..." Shen raised an eyebrow at the two of them bickering, but chose to gesture toward Ellen once more instead of breaking them up. "Well, then," he said. "Let me give you a proper welcome. This isn't the first time we've had visitors, but." He crossed his arms. "It must be very powerful technology, if it's able to send humans..."

"Oh right! Definitely not your future!!" Ellen flustered, scrambling about in her seat, "Some other future!" she nodded along with Triese's explanation. What was that about portal stuff? "Yeah, its pretty powerful tech to be able to teleport humans..." she murmured, reluctant to talk about her own world's teleportation tech, "It really is a weird mystery technology though... No one knows how it works..." "And any attempt to reverse engineer it doesn't provide anything useful and you wind up getting penalized too," Cometman added, feeling the need to dissuade Mr. Security Program from getting too curious about this 'powerful technology'. "But! We've also used it to hang out at the beach!!" Ellen chirped, "That's where I met Triese!! We became fast friends and smashed a watermelon together!" She put on her best, most Triese-like excited pose to hopefully put Mr. Abysa's mind at ease regarding this whole... Time travel dimensional nonsense.

"Any friend of Triese's is always welcome, here," Shen reassured, pausing for a moment as he reflected on a certain memory. Looking back at Triese, he realized, "The beach... Now I realize why you were asking about swimwear in November." "It's not that weird!" Triese pouted, crossing her arms indignantly. "Maybe someone just wants to swim in cold water, you don't know that! It's different! Both physically and as an ecological experience!" Lan was still looking rather gloomy over the reveal. "Don't tell anyone else," she asked Shen. "Please." Shen raised an eyebrow, but could hazard a guess as to what she was afraid of. "Anyone? Well," he said. "That's a rather broad request, but kids like you deserve your privacy. Besides, you've proven yourself to be more than trustworthy with interdimensional knowledge." He gave Ellen another broad smile. "I'll leave you three to your own devices, then. I won't spoil your very... normal hang-out." With a tongue-in-cheek tilt of the head, he left the room and headed upstairs. Once the coast was clear, Triese deflated like a balloon. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," she apologized to Ellen. "I-I mean, Dad wasn't gonna do anything, but I just didn't know that he'd be here at all-" "What's done is done, Lady Triese," Lurerre interrupted. "Now, we can discuss more important matters than cordial introductions. Namely, why a NetBattle can induce a nosebleed?" Lan and Rock didn't say anything immediately, but turned to Ellen expectedly.

"Bye Mr. Abysa!!" Ellen waved, and as the man left their line of sight, her arm slowly fell. And then all eyes were on Ellen and she looked back at everyone with wide eyed glances. "I mean it's not the first time it's happened," she muttered, touching the tissue jammed up her nose, "When me and Cometman fought Scylla I also got a nosebleed. Like I think it's that Synchro thing everyone was talking about in the chatroom, yeah?" There was also that concerning pain that crossed her torso, but if these people were worried about a nosebleed then she wasn't gonna bring that up. "It's still concerning that something that happened in the digital space effected you outside of it," Cometman worried, "That was also an issue with the fight we had with Scylla. I was hoping that our training with Meiru and Roll would've helped manage all that and not offload any damage onto you but now I'm getting worried." Ellen chuckled rather weakly, eyes darting around the room, "C-Come on guys, it's just a nosebleed. Maybe the air is just extra dry here?" And she wasn't gonna let a little thing like blood get in the way of her doing what she loved.

"Scylla...?" Lan wondered out loud, her expression finally softening a little bit once Shen left the room and the conversation shifted to quote-unquote 'business'. Triese, too, put on one of her comically-serious expressions as she stepped toward Lan to explain the situation. "Scylla was one of the virus-people that Reg had to fight," she explained. "They're all part of this group named Apex- um, I don't know if he ever told you about that, but-" "He did mention Apex," Lan interrupted. "I guess he just never mentioned Scylla by name." Shaking her head, she turned back to Ellen with a mixture of scrutiny and concern. "Anyways... I don't believe you for a second. Synchro is weird. There's a lot that can affect you that... shouldn't." Rock put a hand to her head, letting out an exhausted sigh. "Shadow Trance," she mumbled to herself. "It's a hell of a rush. I thought we were gettin' a better handle on it, but..." She faked a laugh. "Guess we overdid it, this time." Lan's eyes darted to the side. "I guess," she answered begrudgingly. "I mean, it's not like Cometman is anything like Angel-" "Kid," Rock barked, cutting off her operator's unintentional insult. "Anyways, Cometman, I'd keep an eye out. This stuff happens. At least to the kid... I haven't seen it with anyone else." Pause. "Besides you two, now, I guess. Fuckin' weird." She hesitated, then lost herself in thought; she couldn't help but remember how... puppet-like, Cometman was, back at Serpentine's coliseum.

"Hey wait a minute!" Ellen shot a finger up accusatorily, "Big Netto got all beat up from the fight that we had with his Rockman, so it's not all that weird that I'd get damaged too from a Net Battle! This stuff just happens!" she really tried to play it all off with a sheepish giggle and dismissive hand waves. But even then, it was dawning on her how strange and dangerous all this was. Like there was something wrong with her. Her expression withered from a mask of a smile to a disturbed wide eyed stare into and down at the table in front of her. "Are you embarrassed?" Cometman's sharp voice cut through her wall of despair. She bounced upright and looked over at her Navi, surprised that even though she didn't say or even think that, it did kinda describe how she was feeling... How nice was it to be seen... She squirmed a bit in her seat, feeling embarrassed over feeling embarrassed, then shoved it all aside and blurted out, "Yeah. Yeah, it's just... Weird right? I don't want to be weird. I don't want to be a freak," she weakly admitted, then shook her head like she was tossing the thought out of her, "Like, it can't be bad or weird if it's something powered by our friendship! Right?" she glanced at the others. Cometman nodded in response, liking her answer, "I've been thinking a lot about this Synchro stuff... It's all about sharing. Sharing strengths, sharing weaknesses, working together to make each other better. At least, that's how it feels. So, so what if you get a nosebleed on occasion, right? I'm sure other athletes deal with much worse." Ellen grinned brightly at this, pleased that she was being called an athlete for NetBattling, plus he sounded correct about all this. She felt and ignored another twinge of pain across her whole torso.

All three of Triese, Lan, and Rock balked at Ellen's ridiculous protest. "'Big Netto'...?" they asked in unison. Triese was the first to actually realize what Ellen meant. "Ohhhh! Like, um, the really nice Netto that wears a sweater!" She narrowed her eyebrows at Lan. "You didn't say anything about him being there-" "He was being controlled by Serpentine, too," Lan interrupted solemnly. "I don't really understand what happened, but it had something to do with that Link, I think." She averted her eyes. "That thing is dangerous, but... It doesn't matter to us. Just don't put it on... idiot." Lan and Triese were confused at Ellen's diatribe, while Rock began to look just as weak as her. The operators didn't seem to notice, at least not right away. Then, Ellen bartered with herself about how it couldn't be bad, and Lan's heart dropped. She took a step back, gripping her arm awkwardly. "I-I... right," she muttered, catching herself sounding a bit too genuine for a moment. "Sure. Yeah. Right." Rock rolled her eyes. "Kid, I'm gettin' deja vu," she pressed to her operator. "Ain't this the same kind of convo we had with hoodie-" "There's nothing wrong," Lan interrupted, trying to sound firm. "Y-you're right, it's just sharing. It's our bonds. And I don't want-" She paused. "We don't need to think about it right now. I think." Triese went silent, glancing at both of the NetBattlers with obvious concern.

Ellen blinked back. Deja vu huh? They were dealing with the same sort of stuff she was -- same fears same worries. Well, they did also both pass out from the same fight. They were more similar than she thought, though if she pointed that out she had a feeling she might get torn apart by lions or something. But the fact that Lan was avoiding the topic... She looked over at Cometman who gave her one of his 'I'm gonna talk about this Right Now thank you very much' looks, and gave him a knowing smile. She swung her legs up and hopped off the sofa with a big fluid motion. Since she and Lan were apparently so similar, she thought about how she felt and what she wanted to hear at the moment and faced Lan with unbridled determination. "Well, you know what I think?" she announced, her nose still stuffed with tissue, "We can be weirdos and freaks together! In the end, who cares what other people think! I think it's super cool that you and Rock have this cool power, and that you've made it your own!! And maybe one day, I'll get a cool power too and we can fight again and keep pushing each other to higher and higher heights!!" Cometman chuckled and added, "It's true, it may odd, but it's ours. What'd we say, 'this is the power of our bond'? It's that. So let's not shy away from it." Ellen flushed and sputtered, remembering the fight and how... Huh yeah they did say that at one point. Man, that fight was such a blur. She thought back on it and it didn't even feel real. Navi and Operator caught each other's gaze and gave the other a reassuring smile.

Lan backed away a little when Ellen leapt off of the couch, then grumpily averted her eyes when she made her declaration. "W-well... uh," she mumbled, avoiding eye contact with the person that was allegedly like her. "We knew that already. I don't care what other people think about me, not anymore." Triese was far more enthusiastic about Ellen's declaration than Lan was, practically hopping over to her as her eyes shined. Lan's indignance caught her attention, however, and she gave her a cheeky smile. "You don't care that I think you're super cool...?" she teased, which only made Lan even grumpier. "Ellen's right, y'know! I'd kill to have a power like you guys do...!" "Ahaha... well, the kid means, more, uh," Rock interrupted, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "That we already know we're weird. Is all." Lan kept her arms crossed. "We have our own way of doing things," she insisted. "That's what, uh, you have to do... I think. When you're trying to be a vigilante." Triese beamed, giving Ellen another cartoonish smile. "She really wants to be, uh...!" she began, before stopping herself for a second. "Not a 'hero', but, y'know. I mean, she has saved the Net twice by now, so." She gazed at the ceiling as she reminisced, turning her attention back to Ellen a moment later. "But!! I mean, wow!! Cometman was so strong, too!! I bet you guys could get a cool power, too, if Lan was able to!" Lan looked embarrassed about the idea, like her ego was being threatened.

Ellen's mood bounced back brightly, especially now since Triese was backing her up. She scooped up Cometman and turned her Game-Xross around and held it on her shoulder so she could pretend he had one of those hologram thingies too. "Well good!" she smirked, "If you already know you're weird, then no one can make fun of you for it, take it from me! An expert!" her grin went wide with a chuckle. "A vigilante...?" Cometman pondered, "Someone that's like a hero but working from outside the law you mean? Hmm, that does sound like something you two'd do." "Huh!?" Ellen jumped a little, baffled by the statement, "They wouldn't do anything bad!!" "No uh," he lowered his head, put a finger to his helmet and fell deep into thought, "I meant more that... Lan and Rock don't take orders from anyone kind of thing. What's that phrase? They follow their own beat?" Ellen's eyes sparkled and she bounced in agreement, "Yeah!! And one day we'll have our own secret cool power! And then we'll fight again! Or maybe I'll just surpass you with our own power just by training!!" her excitement could not be contained, "Man that agility Rock had was awesome!! It was so hard to keep up with! Oh man if Reflector got off cool down in time I would've absolutely had you! We were so close!! Man, I've never had a match that intense or close ever!" She'd effuse more, but she was starting to feel light headed again. Instead she stared off into space with a big smile on as she recalled the fight wistfully. Cometman snorted at his partner's reaction and looked over at Lan and Rock giving them a warm smile. (edited)

The distaste in Lan's expression finally subsided when Cometman made an accurate summation of how she presented herself, only for Ellen's excitement to make her curl back into herself. "It's like I said earlier... we're making our own path, uh... just for ourselves," she mumbled, just before she raised her voice. "No one's going to control us, alright?! Not you, either- it- it won't, it better not happen again." Rock stared at her operator sympathetically, watching as she lost herself in thought. Choosing to let Lan sort that out herself, she turned to address Ellen. "You've never had a fight that close before, huh?" she asked. "Glad I could live up to your expectations, then. 'Cuz, you know, I've got a reputation for being pretty cool." "It's because you are cool!" Triese interjected, pumping her fists at her, before giving Ellen another enthusiastic look. "She is really fast, right?! But Cometman could totally keep up! I wasn't expecting that at all!!" She bounced in place. "Usually, I get totally curbstomped... but you guys are really strong, too!! That's so exciting!!" Her eyes sparkled. "Maybe you'd finally take me up on my plea to train with you, Ellen, since Lan won't-" "What would I even 'train' you on??" Lan interrupted, completely baffled. Triese leaned her head back. "Ohh, you know... how to be strong, and stuff," she answered awkwardly. "And how you made that crazy Program Advance, and stuff like that." "I can't even answer that," Lan rebutted. She was still giving Ellen the cold shoulder, her eyebrows narrowed as her expression twitched awkwardly. Like hell Ellen was an 'expert' on anything...

Ellen giggled at the other two's banter, but was left feeling... Distant. Like an outsider intruding on their fun. Which was silly cause Triese enjoyed her company! They were friends! But then... What about Lan? The way she turned inward, the way she hardly faced her, it wasn't shyness. Ellen was beginning to get the impression that Lan didn't want her there. And once that thought crept into her brain she began to feel a wretched bile form in her throat. She retreated away just a hair, trying to shove down the thoughts clawing in her mind. "It was pretty cool!" Cometman grinned at Rock, "Most fights end up being pretty straightforward with us just beating our opponents with simple combos. I feel like this fight really pushed us to our limits and made us grow as NetBattlers. So thank you, both of you. I know you didn't expect to be NetBattling today, so I appreciate you guys being so accommodating. I'd like to NatBattle you two again some day, so message us whenever you're feeling hungry for a fight!" Ellen spun around and faced Triese with a forced smile, "Yeah! I'd love to train you! We can work on combos and stuff!" she couldn't think of any specifics, "Um, so! Hit me up whenever! We'll hang out and fight and stuff!" she couldn't stop the creeping thoughts in the back of her mind, "We can hang out and uh! Even watch things! Yeah!" the sting across her torso felt like claws raked against her skin. Cometman raised a brow and asked her quietly, "Are you... okay Ellen?" "Yeah, yeah!" Ellen jumped and flushed, feeling another bout of lightheadedness, "I'm just thinking about stuff! We've gotta head back home soon, didn't expect to be here this long! Didn't expect to take a nap here!" she chuckled weakly. Her Navi gave her a look of concern and sympathy -- whatever this sudden nervousness was about, they'd be able to talk about this once they got home.

Rock was flattered but Cometman's frank feedback, blushing a little as she rubbed the back of her neck. "Ahaha... well, it's no problem, really," she said. "I mean, I'm a battle Navi to begin with, so it'd be pretty bad if I wasn't ready for a fight, wouldn't it?" Her hand slid down her arm. "You really aren't too shabby, yourself. You guys were ready for our usual standby tactics and shit." "Yeah! Lan's super unpredictable, but you somehow predicted her! Multiple times!" Triese added on gleefully. "And! Um! Training with you would be really fun! But school's started back up, so I'll be a little busy, I think..." She averted her eyes. "And, I'm working on, uhh... other non-NetBattling stuff." Lan raised her eyebrow. "What?" she muttered. "You didn't mention this..." "It's! A! Secret~!" Triese barked back, waggling her finger. "But since you came all the way out here, Ellen, it's alright for me to say it! 'Cuz you're my friend, and I'll tell friends secrets all the time!" She curled her lip. "You know, if I can tell them..." As Triese continued nonsensically rambling, Lan snatched her backpack off of the desk and turned toward the door. "I guess I should also go," she said, leaning in Triese's direction. "I'm, um, I'm pretty tired." Triese blinked, then nodded wildly as Lan began to walk toward the door. "Oh! Okay! I'll see you tomorrow, then!" she responded perkily. Rock waved a hand toward Triese, before turning around and looking at Ellen one more time. "Thanks for the fight. See you later," she told her. "Don't, uh, don't get yourself in trouble, alright? I think Meiru'd worry about you. And Lan, uh..." She went silent, unsure of how to word what was on her mind. As her operator stopped in place, she shrugged, and returned to the PET. For a moment, the room went completely silent; Lan, with her back turned, had suddenly become the center of attention just from the moody teenage aura around her. "It was... a good fight," she spoke softly, holding her head low. "Th... thank you for, um. Coming." Before Ellen could respond, Lan went out through the front door, revealing that the weather had become a lot cloudier since their battle had begun.

"It all uh, comes from experience," Ellen chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of her head. She watched the other two girls chat with a hollow stare, hardly hearing a thing as she waited for this moment to pass. She looked over at Lan, watching her walk away simply because she was the only moving thing in the room, and when that girl finally said something to break the silence, Ellen was taken aback. "Yea-" she attempted to respond, reaching out with her hand at the closed door. She held it there, then let it fall slowly. Her brain was wildly swinging between the desire to stay or leave but her compounding tiredness really left no other option. She let out a big sigh and hooked her Game-Xross back onto her arm. She gave Triese the best smile she could muster, thanking and promising her that they had to hang out again soon. Cometman said his goodbyes as well and before long, they were through the portal and in their home world. The sudden silence and darkness of her familiar room was like a slap in the face. She wanted for just a foolish moment to turn back and have an awesome sleepover at Triese's expansive super house. Instead, she flopped on the edge of her bed and let her exhausted head fall into her hands. She tiredly removed her jacket and suddenly felt an uncomfortable pain across her torso. Her shirt moved about and tugged at something underneath. When she peeled it off of her shoulders, the cloth resisted and clung, pulling and then releasing from her skin with a sharp pain. A tiny bit of blood beaded up from the freshly opened wound. Her head felt fuzzy and heavy as everything was drained of color and blood. The sharp pain traced a wound that crossed her chest from shoulders to hips, meeting in the center right over her heart, the exact wound Rock had inflicted on Cometman at the end. It burned like acid as she recalled the fight and all those things Lan had said. Her heart raced and she was struck with intense dizziness. They had gone too far.