The Beginning of it All

The morning came in ACDC Town. It was the first day of high school and one boy was still in bed asleep. A yell came to him from the side of the bed, a voice that called out, "Daichi! Wake up! You'll miss the first day if you remain asleep!"

From his bed sheets, a boy rose up, rubbing his eyes in fatigue. He had red hair and green eyes. He turned to a small device he had on his nightstand, picking it up as he said, "Lance! Did ya really have to wake me like that?" An image came up on the screen, a blond male that glared at the boy with green eyes. "If you awoke on time, I wouldn't have to wake you at all." While still yelling and arguing with the male inside the device, Daichi Hiruka got himself ready for his first day of school.

It didn't take long for him to put on his things and rush to the door. Looking at the kitchen, he sighed lightly and said, "Looks like mom's not here today either..." He rushed out. As he ran, the bottom of his shoes let out wheels, allowing him to skate to school.

"Asari, it's the first day of school. You need to wake up or you'll be late."

In another home in ACDC, a young girl with white hair was pulling her blankets over her head, grumbling in frustration of waking up so early. "Five more minutes, Lyre...." Asari hisses as she tries to go back to sleep.

From her desk sat a small, black device on its charger. Inside said device was a humanoid figure that could easily be mistaken for a dancer with long, white hair. Lyre sighs, shaking her head before raising teh volume on the device. Within seconds, a loud, earsplitting feedback sound echoed in the room, causing Asari to fall off her bed and cover her ears as it fades away.

"Are you trying to kill my ears?!" she shouts, glaring at Lyre from the floor as she gets up, checking to make sure she wasn't deaf.

"You had to get up...you only have 10 minutes." Asari blinks, looking at the clock. Within seconds, she freaks out, changing her clothes, gathering her stuff and PET, and bolting out the door in a flurry. What she didn't notice was a skating boy heading off to the same school.

The boy reached the gate, panting lightly as he picked up the device again. He gave a small laugh and said, "I beat the time I set over the summer, Lance!" The navi inside gave a glare to his owner and said, "You should't need to do such things... and my name is Byra-ken! You only call me Lance because you can't pronounce my name!"

Daichi waved his hand as he walked into the gateway. "Don't worry so much about titles, Lance... Anyways, I'm here on time, so there's no problem, right..." Byra-ken sighed lightly and said. "By my count, you have less than 30 seconds to get to class to be "on time", and there's no skating allowed within the gates!" Daichi started to run at his words as he said, "In that case... no time to waste!"

"Crud, crud, crud!!! Lyre, how much time do I have before the bell rings?!" Asari panics as se starts to run fast into the school. Lucky for her, her room is right near the stairway that she'll have to take.

"You have less than a minute before the bell rings, Asari...better hurry." She stucks out her tongue playfully as her operator nearly screams in frustration. Within moments, she passes the gates and rushes inside the building and ran up the stairs. Soon enough, she makes it to the door of her classroom, panting heavily as she tries to catch her breath. The bell rings as soon as she enters teh room, giving her relief that she wasn't late for her first day of school.

Daichi rushed up at top speed, up the stairs and into the class room. He didn't even have time to sit before the bell rang. He let out a sigh of relief as he sat down. The teacher looked around the room, giving a small smile before he said, "Its good to see that everyone made it here on time... even if some were earlier than others..." he said, looking almost directly at Asari and then at Daichi. "I'll be your teacher, Mr. Makoda. Let's all do our best to get along..."

The day began like any other, with a roll call meant to get to know one another. Daichi's name was called, forcing him to stand. "Ah... well, my name is Daichi Hiruka... and I'm the number 1 Netbattler in town!" All the kids seemed to laugh at the remark. It wasn't that they were bad at Netbattling, more that he wasn't taken seriously by anyone.

She couldn't help but blush at Mr. Makoda's comment, scratching her cheek lightly as he started to call out their names. Asari cringes as she hears her own name being called out, standing up lightly nervously. She didn't know how well known her father was in such a small town, especially since he just started his job a few weeks ago.

"Umm...My name is Asari Shiwa...I just moved into ACDC a few weeks ago with my father and Lyre...It's very nice to meet you all." Already, she was having a few guys staring and oogling at her.

Daichi huffed lightly and said, "She gets all eyes while I get laughed off..." Byra-ken grinned lightly and said, "Maybe if you weren't such a class clown, your dream would be taken seriously..." He glared at his PET as Mr. Makoda said, "Oh, you're Dr Shiwa's daughter, aren't you? I heard that his research helped to develop the newer generation PETs. I suppose that means your Net Navi is housed in one as well." With that, the surrounding kids started to look at her even more, becoming more impressed my the second.

"Ahh...Yes. They showed off prototypes back in Cyber City's Expo." She said a bit more calmly as Asari held up her PET to the class. "He finalized it and wanted me to help test it out for any faulty bugs and defects. Because of this, they can't really sell them yet until they know for sure it won't cause any trouble to the Navi or the Operator.."

"You're rambling agian..." Lyre tries to poke her, rolling her eyes as she crosses his arms. "I thought the point was not to attract attention from Takashi's job." Asari pouts lightly, knowing that Lyre was right.

"And just what are they suppose to do, anyway!" Daichi called out, not impressed by her show off nature. "Daichi, its rude to speak in such a way..." Byra-ken said to him. Mr. Makoda cleared his throat to draw attention to himself as he said, "We can all begin the first lesson on this topic, PET basics..." The class wasn't too happy about that. It seemed like first grader material. "Now then, everyone, use your external cables to jack your Navis into your desk. I will do the same so that we can give the lesson from there."

She glares slightly at Daichi, annoyed at his outburst as she sat back down. Unlike everyone else's PET, that came attached with an external cable, Asari's PET showed no cable attached to it. She opens up a small compartment and pulls out the cable, attaching it to her desk. "Jack in, Lyre."

Within moments, her Navi Lyre entered the classroom's network, looking around as she saw the other Navis logging in as well.

Daichi, me as well..." Byra-ken said as Daichi nodded. "Alright, Jack in! Lance!" He plugged the cable in as his Navi was transported, appearing near the front as all the Navis, including a generic green Navi Mr. Makoda owned, were all in a black room with chair-less tables and a screen behind the teacher. "Now then, as you know, the PET is no different from a personal, portible computer. It allows you to enter the net by interfacing with compatible objects. To us Net Navis, its more like a home but its also our primary way of communicating with our Net Ops."

Only about 5 minutes and the class was already getting bored of being repeated of teh basics every first day of class. Even Lyre was getting quite irritated, sighing as they listened to the Navi and Mr. Makoda. "Then we'll get into the virus busting and all those chip combos..." Asari mutters to herself right before the teacher himself starts explaining it.

"Now we'll get into Virus Busting and Chip Combos..." The teacher Navi said, as if repeating Asari's words. "Of course, since you all know the basics, why don't we do something more hands on..." With those words, small yellow viruses in helmets appeared in front of them. "We can call this a Virus Busting pop quiz. You will all get a chance to battle a simulated Virus attack and we'll record the results." The class started to cheer at this point. Even though Virus Busting was an important part of life, to a kid, it was still as fun as a video game.

"Now that's more like it!" Asari says, grinning as she grabs her chips from her pocket. "Lyre, we're up first! Let's show them what they're made of!"

Lyre nods firmly as the small yellow viruses appeared in front of her in quite the number. They didn't wait at all to attack, sending their pickaxes down to send a shockwave to the female Navi. She dodges the attack with ease. Lyre throws her hand down in front of them as a bright light temporarly blinds the peopel around her, more notably the viruses as they all stopped and seemed like they were dazed.

"Cannons, Battle Chips in!" Asari starts plugging in five cannon chips one by one as Lyre uses them to annilate the viruses. "And Download!"

Everyone seemed amazed at the actions and the movements of Lyre, as well as the expert style of Asari's Busting skills. Its like they were completely synced.

"We can do it too!" Daichi called out. "Come on, Lance! It's our turn!" He sighed lightly, moving his hand to his side. A katana-like blade was sheathed out from his side as the viruses reappeared. "I'll end it quickly..." he said as he was signaled to begin. The Navi moved at a break-neck speed, slashing through one of the five viruses like it was nothing. One of them moved to attack him with a Shockwave, but Daichi was faster. "Step Sword, in!" he called out as his Nave disappeared, appearing in front of the virus and away from the shockwave as he slashed again. "Three more... Wide Sword!" His sword morphed, becoming wider as he slashed it, hitting the last three almost all at once. His time was the same as Lyre's.

Seeing Byra-ken's skills and his speed made Lyre blink before smiling lightly. It was nice to see such a talented Navi and operator...Not to mention, he looked rather handsome himself. Asari wasn't very happy, seeing the speed of his navi exceeding Lyre by miles. Then again, it seemed like all he could do was slash and hack....If they were to fight, she was sure they would win.

After that, everyone else tested there ability, though no one came to the level of Byra-ken or Lyre. The rest of the day beyond that seemed to go normally. At least it seemed like it would, until lunch time.

During lunch, Daichi sat alone. He usually did as he never really went out of his way to make friends. More to say... no one really liked his attitude or wanted to be around him. He didn't care though... he simply ate with his PET on the table near him.

Asari wanted to sit alone...but she was never give nteh chance to as most of the classmates were swarming her...either guys who were trying to score themselves on a date with her or girls admiring her strength. They were even asking about Lyre and her PET. Eventually, she found herself alone at a table not far from Daichi, eating her lunch as she sighs. "Lyre...Maybe I should just get a normal PET if it means I get this much attention...IT's really annoying."

"Your fault to begin with, Asari...so don't complain." said her navi as she sat there watching her operator. "Besides, once it's done, we can head over to the chip shop and fight...you never know if there's going to be a tournament or something."

"After this..." Daichi said as he was finishing his meal. "We'll head to the Chip Shop and see if we can find a Netbattle." Byra-ken glared at his operator and said, "And what about your homework? Is it suppose to finish itself while we play?" Daichi sighed lightly and said, "The sooner we finish at the tournament, the sooner we can do that stuff. Besides..."

He couldn't finish the sentence as an explosion could be heard within the rooms not far away. Daichi looked up, grabbing his PET as he immediately went to look at what had happened. Byra-ken called out, "Must you always go wherever danger takes you?! Most children your age stay away from loud mysterious explosions!"

"Tournament?" that peaked her interest as Asari looks up. She opens her mouth to speak, but she never gets teh chance to as the room shook from the loud explosion. She turns around, grabbing her PET and heading to the same room with Lyre yelling at her. "Asari! It's too dangerous! How am I suppose to tell your father if you get hurt?"

"Like I care! I can take care of myself, Lyre!" She hisses as she manages to catch up to Daichi.

As Daichi entered the room, it was filled with flames. The Fire Extinguishers kept the fire from spreading, but the room couldn't be entered. He looked around, seeing a port next to the door. He saw Asari and gave a glare before he rushed to the cable on his PET and said, "Let's check it out! Jack in! Lance!!" He plugged it in immediately. Of course, there was another port, but he seemed to want to go in first.

"F-Fire?!" Asari's eyes widen as she saw the flames, stepping back before watching in shock as Daichi jacked in. She wasn't going to lose to him..."L-Lyre! We need to find out what's happening!" Relunlantly, she sighs, shaking her head as she nods firmly. "Jack in, Lyre!!!"

Inside the net were the same rooms like before when they jacked in for class, but now there was fire and Fire based viruses everywhere. "Lance, we have to stop these things before they do real damage!" Daichi called out as Byra-ken drew his blade. "I know... Just support me..."

He started to dash forward. The flames came forth and Byra-ken was able to dodge them with fair ease. "This should do it... Aqua Sword!" His blade became engulfed in water. He slashed it, taking out three of the Viruses at once. "This doesn't seem like a random attack..." Byra-ken said to Daichi. "Someone planted these viruses here..."

Lyre narrows her eyes at the state of the area, seeing all the flames and viruses in the room. "Asari!"

"I got it! Aqua Tower!" Within moments, She throws her hand down, hitting the ground and letting out towers of water shooting towards the flame and virus. It almost seemed endless with the amount of viruses as Lyre's right arm transforms into a sword. Raising her left hand, she opens her mouth and lets out a distorted sound, having it echo around and causing the viruses to confuse. Unfortunately, it wasn't well controleld to the point that other Navis were immuned to it as she dashes ahead and starts slashing away.

Byra-ken stopped for a moment in confusion, unmoving as he felt uneasy from Lyre's attack. Daichi turned to Asari in the real world and said, "What did you do! Now Lance isn't moving because of you!"

At that moment, a figure came down in front of them. He was large, and had a torch for a head and both of its arms. "You were right, Mr. Match... there's two pests here... I'll handle it..." He pointed one of his arms out at Byra-ken. It started to overflow with flames before they shot out, threatening to hit the Navi directly while he was still confused.