Syncronize with the Officials!

It had been about a week since the incident as well as the tournament. Byra-ken and Daichi spent the time in the net, training and building on their technique, but there was only so much they could do at this point. Byra-ken had strengthened his normal sword without Chip enhancements and they seemed to be faster on response, but that was all. The school was going to open again tomorrow, so they had this final night of freedom.

Meanwhile, Asari received an e-mail. It seemed be be from the Electopia Police Department, or the EPD for short.

Asari herself was trying to get better at helping Lyre fight as well as trying to obtain stronger chips. To no avail, all she did was make her Navi grow stronger, but that's about it. She got out of the shower, wiping her head as Lyre pulls up the email. "No way...the EPD?!" She was quite stunned, getting emailed this. Quickly, she opens it up to read.

At the same time, Daichi and Byra-ken obtain an email the same as Asari.

The E-Mail said, Come to the Chip Shop within the next 15 minutes. The door will be open within that time for 10 minutes only. This is an important matter concerning the recent Net Terror attacks. Also, bring your PET.

Daichi looked at the E-Mail with a blink. "What could the EPD want with us?" Byra-ken shook his head lightly and said, "I'm not sure, but if its the Officials, we can't be late." Daichi sighed as he started to stretch. He got up and went to the door. It was already dark, but his mother wasn't at home. With a small sigh he walked out, then started to run, allowing his skates to extend to increase his speed.

"What the hell...?" Asari reads the email, sighing as she quickly puts her clothes on. "Lyre...Directions please...? It's not liek we can really ignore this." She mutters, grabbing her PET as she heats out of her home. The shop wasn't particularly far from her house, not taking a long time for her to reach it and head inside. "I'm here! what the hell do you want?!"

The only difference between the two letter was that Daichi's asked him to use the back door and Asari's asked her to use the front. When Asari went inside, a familiar red haired boy was there, sitting on the counter with a small grin. "So you came... Asari Shiwa..."

Daichi went in through the back way, looking around with blinking eyes. It was like a Chip Warehouse behind the shop. "Hello... is anyone around?" he called out.

When she walked in and heard teh familiar voice, Asari froze, glaring at Sean as he sat there. "Y-You?! What do you want...You can't be a part of the EPD...You're too young!"

As Daichi walks in, Mari was sitting on top of of the many boxes with her arms crossed. "Hello there, Daichi Hiruka...You've decided to come. I'm very happy."

"As a matter of fact, I am," Sean said as he started to walk forward towards her with a small grin. "Net Battlers with special skills are given the title of Official Net Battler despite age. I happen to be among them... As for why you're here... I have to let someone else tell you that."

Daichi gave a shocked look as he saw Mari in front of him. He took a step back and said, "Mari? What're you doing here? I thought I'd be the only one the Officials called here. Wait, are we under arrest?!" Byra-ken gaave a small sigh and said, "She's here alone, so she probably sent the mail."

She glares at him, taking a step back. "L-Liar!!! Get away from me!" She hisses. Him, an Official Net Battler?! It was too much for her to even begin processing it as she backs herself up against the door. "W-What do you guys want?!"

"The Navi's right, Daichi..." She simply siad, crossing her legs as she looks at him. "Do you know why I called you here?"

Sean gave a small sigh as his hand moved to her shoulder, not close enough to tough her. He then turned and said, "You were right... I don't see her listening to me." A man came out from the shadows, an older male with a trenchcoat and a 5 o'clock shadow. "I guess that's why I'm here..." he said to her. "I'm Inspector Leon Sanado. I'm in charge of Net Crimes and I've heard a bit about you in a short time..."

"Why... I'm here?" Daichi said, still confused. "Wait, you're an Official?! How does that work? You don't look much older than me!"

Asari was ready to smack his hand away, only to blink as she saw the Inspector walk up to her. "Inspector...Net Crimes?" She thinks for a moment before her eyes widen. "Don't tell me...Did you guys find out about us fighting TorchMan and that weird, crazy guy?!"

Mari sighs, shaking her head as she uncrsoses her legs and arms. "How can you be so simple minded...Yes, I'm an Official. Why else would I be here?"

"It looks like I don't have to explain..." Sanado said as h looked at her with a serious expression. As you know, most forms of Net Battling other than little Shop Tournaments are illegal due to Net Crimes... One of the big reasons for this is the organization called World Three... Their Net Ops and Navis are o a level above anything you can find on the street. Anyone who isn't a trained Official would be easily overpowered and deleted by one, but during the incident in the school, two Net Ops jacked into the computers before the Officials could and defeated one of those Navis."

"He's like this a lot..." Byra-ken said through the PET. "I suppose this involves the incident in the School. That seems to be the only thing we've done that warrants EPD involvement." Daichi went to his PET and said, "What about that time we went into that dark part of the net? There were a lot of signs that said not to, so I thought it was about that."

"Tch....you can't be serious.....You think I was gonna stand by when the school was gonna be lit on fire?! You're stupid!" She hisses as Asari glares at Leon. "Besides, why would World Three want anything to do with our school?! It makes no sense!!!"

"You really ARE an idiot..." She mutters, shaking her head as she walks. "Yes, it's about the incident at your school...World Three is responsible for it. Normally, we would shrug this off and tend to the Net Crime...but..."

"Even we don't know the answer to that," Sanado said as he closed his eyes lightly. "But its clear that our two Official Net Battlers can't be everywhere at once... so I came to offer you and the other one an opportunity to be Official Net Battlers. If you pass this test, you'll both be given permits allowing you to Net Battle wherever you want against who ever you want."

"But its strange for them to attack a school, so you're looking into it, am I correct?" Byra-ken said. Daichi blinked and said, "Really? But then... what does that have to do with us? We fought who did it and won, but..."

"W-Wait, what?!" She nearly fell over as Asari heard his proposition. "Are you joking?! What kind of Official would walk up to some kid's house telling them to be an Official Net Battler?! If thats how you get the job, I'm sure many other net battlers would have gotten this offer! Screw that, I pass!"

"What I'm asking is that we are offering that you'll be an OFficial Net Battler, seeing as how you fought off Torchman..." Maria said, crossing her arms. "That's the only reason I came...do you accept or will you not?"

"You're sure about that," Sanado said to her. "If you were an Official, you would be able to Net Battle wherever you like without Official Navis trying to stop you. You like to battle and train, as I can see. It would benefit you..." Sean merely gave a smirk as he said, "Officials put their lives on the line on a daily basis to fight the most powerful opponents. I suggested you from our fight, but it looks like I was wrong. Doesn't matter... if we fought again now, it wouldn't prove a thing anyway..."

Daichi's eyes lit up as he rushed to her. "You bet I want it!" he said out loud. Byra-ken shouted out, "Hold on!! We don't know anything about the dangers or the risks of being an Official Net Battler, not to mention the responsibility! Don't just say yes before you know what you have to do!!" Daichi looked down at him with a sour look and said, "Whatever it is, we should be able to handle it, shouldn't we?"

"I can practice jsut fine!" she hisses as Asari stands up form anger, so fast that her chair fell to the floor. "Like I said, it sounds way too fishy for me to be an Official just from a few battles! Now with that said, I'm LEAVING!" she glares at them before trying to leave the shop.

"Then it's settled? I need a definate answer, Daichi." Mari said as she stands up, looking at him. "Being an Official isn't all fun and games. You don't have the limits on the NEt like everyone else, but you'll be seeing many powerful navis and be put in very dangerous situations worse than what happened at your school...in a sense, you're putting yoru life on the line to protect the net. Also, don't think being an Official is going to get you out of class forever..."

"If you can't join us, then you had better stay out of our way..." Sea said, giving her a small smirk. "If you get involved with Official business again, I'll personally delete your little Navi." With that, the door looked as though it was about to open, but in fact, it didn't. The two were now glaring at her as the man said, "And here I thought dressing as a real Official would be enough..."

Daichi nodded and said, "Absolutely..." "Not!" Byra-ken said, as if finishing the sentence. "I cannot stand behind this... it doesn't sound right. If all it took was a single battle to be selected to be an Official, especially after seeing as we're being asked with no sort of test or anything. It can't be this simple, can it?" Daichi glared at him and said, Nuts to that... I know we can do it! Mari, I'm in!"

She reaches to open the door, but her eyes widened as she saw it was locked. "What the...." She tries to open it again before Asari confirms it was locked. When she turns around to see the two males, she saw them glaring at her. "W-What?! Who are you guys?!"

She smirks lightly as she hands him a note and a chip. "All right then...here's a little test for you to do. If you pass, then we'll work on making you an official. I must be off, however...Good luck, and don't get your Navi deleted..." She waves her hand as Mari leaves teh room.

"Did you think you could get away with attacking us without revenge?" Sean said as he disappeared into digital data in front of her. The male removed a mask revealing himself to be a red haired male. He had the creepiest smile to his face as well. "Tourchman, we'll have to do this the hard way," he said. "I'll be deleting your Navi now so you won't be able to repeat what you did at the last time!" He jacked himself into the terminal as it soon started to smoke. "This place'll burn into flames before long, and you'll be going down with it!"

Daichi blinked lightly as he looked at the note. He looked down at Byra-ken and said, "Why didn't you just do what I said without questioning things?" Byra-ken sighed lightly and said, "And why didn't you ask MORE questions? At least look at the note... otherwise this will be a wasted trip." Daichi started to open the note slowly, making sure there was nothing wrong with it as all of Byra-ken's talking had made him nervous.

"H-Huh?!" HEr eyes widened when she saw Sean disappear and Sanado turning out to be the man from before. "Y-You! Why I ought to-AHH!!!" She saw smoke coming out of the terminal, backing away in fear. "Asari! Hurry up and plug me in!!!" Lyre shouts, seeing her operator in danger. Hestitantly, she jacks in as well as her navi apperas in the CyberNet.

The note simply stated for Daichi to go into the Net and locate a piece of data known as BTNT.exe. It was very vague about how to find it, however.

Inside the net, the stadium where she had fought and won just that day was now ablaze. Tourchman was inside, turning to Lyre with a grin. "Looks like I can settle my score..." he said as he moved his arm out towards her. A massive flame shot out, moving straight towards her as he laughed. "What can you do by yourself, little girl?!"

Daichi looked at the note up and down, forward and backward. He blinked as he said, "What the heck is BTNT.exe?"Byra-ken was confused as well. "I've never heard of it... but the note says it's located on the Net. We should look for it if we have nothing better to do." He looked around, moving to the nearest Jack In port as he plugged in Byra-ken. "Okay, Lance! Let's go find it!" Byra-ken appeared in the Net, looking around as the particular area he was in was different from where he would usually go.

"Ahh!" Lyre quickly dodges out of the flames, glaring at him as she lets out an earsplitting screech to confuse Torchman. "Aqua Tower!" Asari quickly puts the chip into the PET as Lyre throws a bomb in front of her, causing a pillar of water to shoot towards Torchman.

As soon as Byra-ken got into the net, a whole mess of viruses ambushes him. Immediately, a Ghost Virus appeared in front of him and attacked before he could react.

"Torchman, left," the man said with a grin. Out of confusion, Torchman went to the right, but that ended up being the perfect area for him to dodge. "Sorry girly, but I know all about the status effects," he said to her as he moved a Battle Chip in. "Heat Cross! Doesn't matter how you aim it, something's gonna go!" He shot outward, his flames moving in the form of a large X that moved towards her. It wasn't completely accurate, but enough so that the end would hit her if she did nothing.

Byra-ken's eyes widened as he was hit, being forced back. Daichi picked up some Battle Chips and said, "No time to just do nothing. Lane, here's a Step Sword! Let em have it!" Byra-ken disappeared, moving to the Ghost first. He slashed it apart before his sword changed to a longer blade, attacking the enemies in front of him.

Lyre's eeys widened as she tries to dodge out of the way, but the attack was so big and far out, it singed her body slightly as she topples over. "Lyre!!" Asari cries out as she pulls out a chip. "Dang it.....You're nt getting away with this! Hi-Cannon!!!" Her arm turns into a blue cannon as she aims it at Torchman, shooting it at him.

The Ghost virus as well as many of the other viruses were defeated. In an instant, shurikens started to shoot out towards Byra-ken.

"Fire Tower!" Mr. Match called out. Tourchman slammed his arm down just as he was hit. When he did, a large pillar of flames came out from the ground at her, aimed to do a large amount of damage. "Ha! And here we thought these two could Synchronize! As if!"

Byra-ken was just barely able to see the Shurikens, jumping back to dodge them. He glared as Daichi prepared his Battle Chips. "Whatever that was much be the cause of all this... Stay sharp!"