Meiru looked around the alleyway she’d run down, even toward the rooftops, in an attempt to find the person she thought she’d run after. “Where are you?” she called. “Please come out! It’s not safe here!” R-Blues pushed his way through the office space to the window below. He saw Desertman, the Lion Heads, and the tiny mop of hair in front of the mountainous Navi that the Lion Heads were aimed for; and leapt straight down, landing hard in front of Lan. “Dream Aura!” He’d barely made it in time; sand went flying both inside and out of the Dream Aura as the Lion Heads, too close to completely block, were torn apart instead. R-Blues moved to block as much of it as he could from the human he’d rescued. “We need to get you out of here,” R-Blues said, his eyes fixed on Desertman. It was only then that he turned around and, while reaching a hand out to pick her up, realized, “Netto-chan?!” …Was that a knife in her hand? If she seriously thought she was going to be backing him up with that, she had another think coming…

Lan always felt awkward around Triese's dad, if only because he was just so straightforwardly helpful that it felt weird. Why wasn't he asking questions about all this crap they were doing...? Why wasn't he trying to poke and prod for secret information she didn't want to share?! Maybe it was because Triese told him everything already... She found the exterior of the casino pretty intimidating, if only because they had to have some ridiculous level of confidence to plaster that many gaudy neon lights with outlines of overjoyed humans on a building in the middle of a city. It was like it was screaming to her, "Come here! We do stuff that shouldn't be legal, but it somehow is!" "Now, I have no intention of spending any money... You don't want to be put on these peoples' lists," Shen began to lecture as he parked the car. There was thankfully a secluded enough parking spot for Lan and Kaita to not have to waltz right in. Instead, the plan would be to wait for others to enter, and follow in after them to blend in with the crowd. "But these kinds of places will be on the lookout for loiterers. The faster you get into the network, the better." Lan pouted as she climbed out of the car, still fretting over the dress and the bag that Mary had lent her. She could only fit so many chips in there... "Can't we just get Flammole to do, um, the thing he does?" she mumbled, not quite remembering the details since it had been so long. "To find wherever the vault is..." "I'd certainly like to, but let me put it this way," Shen began. "I can easily explain away two children if they get caught in the network. If I get caught in the network, it won't be quite as simple." Lan immediately pouted. "I'd love not to foist it on you, Lan, but it sounds as if your friend has some experience, anyhow." "You're a weirdo," Rock chimed in. "Can't believe you'd just trust the Net Savior thing right out of the gate. I think the kid's mom would kill her." Much to both Lan and Rock's surprise, Shen was a bit flummoxed by the comment. "...How unflattering," he muttered under his breath, looking past the two kids into the distance. "Shall we get going, then? I can have my Navi pass along some signature masks, while we wait."

It wasn’t something they would normally go for, but it wasn’t nearly as gaudy as the other drink Roll had, so it would certainly suffice. As soon as it was in their hands they immediately went about pushing the straw around to sate their fidgeting. Aon couldn’t even pretend to know the kind of feelings that came with such a reunion personally, though it was easy enough to feign; at least they thought. “Despite whatever there may have been prior– that is a good memory overall, is it not?” When the conversation came back around to their memory though, it hung them up– though of course, they should have been prepared for that. They couldn’t help but let their thoughts escape them for a moment, furrowing their brows under the visor. How Serpentine could have picked anything as mundane as their boss being overbearing with them, over emphasizing how new they were. That was the point of them after all wasn’t it?…The control (specimen?). “What it means to me? Well…It’s more what it means to Ms. Blaire, but I suppose it’s why I’ve stuck around in the chatroom as long as I have.” It came out on the fly. It was true but bullshit at the same time, a convenient answer to take away from that crippling reminder of their lack of significant experiences CometMan was so quick to clock. “I’m sure it’s obvious, you and Ellen being familiar with her. Access to the chatroom falling into my lap made things a lot easier. It was only a matter of time before my suspicions were proven correct.”

Meiru blinked down at all the photographs in amazement. Another life sat there in front of her. “She went into academia? Wow,” she said, genuinely awed. In a world where Netto had never gone anywhere, where she had nothing to prove and nothing to give others as a Netbattler, she was capable of something like this? “That’s such a competitive field—she must be really talented.” Thinking of Mayl’s long hours spent mastering all aspects of her work on her own, her own time training to be able to take Netto’s place protecting Densan City alongside Enzan, Meiru could easily imagine that in a world where she dedicated that time to music theory and technique instead, she would find the potential to go far. It was just so strange to think about, even as Netto asked for more information about the Meiru in front of him. Sad, even, this feeling of looking through a door that had closed. But she had closed it with a purpose, and for a reason. “I guess we used to be called Officials, in the olden days? But I’m a Net Savior,” she explained to Netto. “I always followed you around on your missions, whether I should’ve or not. So when you disappeared, I guess it felt the most natural to me to keep going. Otherwise… I would’ve always wondered if I was doing all I could, y’know?” She smiled. “To be honest, you remind me a lot of the Netto who lives in my world, too, when he was younger.” Thinking about it, she couldn’t help but fondly giggle, “Even now, sometimes. You always sound so happy when you're talking about your friends.”