Ban watched the sky. Trying to imagine it as the sky his mom told him about long when ago from she was human.

  His imagination fell short. Looking up, he could only see the endless torrents of encrypted data flying past, traveling across distant parts of the Net. Bits of light flying across the darkness of the sky.

  His mom compared them to 'shooting stars'.

  Sticking to the sidewalk and walking though the city, searching for the stall his mom sent him to. His mother had a hard time adjusting to the digital world, and when she shared her memories he was often confused. There were no 'buildings' in this zone. At best, it was stalls and tents within tents, at least, from a human perspective.

  Regardless, he finally found his way to the heart of the zone, the marketpce. He walked through the parted doorway of the massive tent.

  Stalls and tents littered the area, with hanging multicolored lights above them all, giving an almost wondrous feeling to the pce. People were selling data and mod chips of almost all kinds, with the less illuminated parts having more shady things being sold.

  Gncing to the side, he saw a young man like himself buy a rather rge pack of compressed data for a new Combat Suite to download back home. Most civilian suites, or 'clothes' as his mother would call them, we're skintight, thinly armored in only a few pces and extremely maneuverable, meant for day to day life.

  Virus combat, data hunting, merely existing in a bad part of the Net, there was many reasons to want something to better defend yourself.

  A shame it was usually so expensive. Unlike the basic suites, an actual effective Combat Suite always had multiple parts, several of which weren't reprintable like the main part itself was. Even then, it took a while to reprint it.

  Ban shook his head and kept walking, he couldn't afford a full one right now anyway. It took a moment of brushing past the many people also looking through the market, but he eventually found the stall he was looking for.

  "You there sir! Are you or anyone you know in need of virus protection?"

  Ban looked at the man, he was older looking, most likely to seem more trustworthy. He wore a dark green suite that was slightly more heavily armored than most others, including a helmet. His skin, like many veterans of the Net Wars, was gray like stone. A popur defensive mod made their natural code more durable, better models existed now though.

  Ban nodded and quickly moved to the stall, "I do, actually. My little sister is sick with a minor virus she caught while trying to fight one if those symbiotic type IV's."

  The man quirked an eyebrow, "Now what business does she have doing Intelligent Virus purging?"

  Ban sighed, "She wants to join a White Hat org when she becomes fully developed, so shes been training hard and figured she could develop combat programs the old fashioned way."

  The old man smirked, "Well, I would suggest a bit more friendly sparring then, she got real lucky this time."

  He grabbed a small box from his side and put it on the counter, "At least I assume so, considering you don't seem all that worried about her at the moment."

  Ban shrugged, "It's a minor virus just imparing her movement a bit. For all her stubbornness, she does know what she can handle. To her credit, she did actually delete the IV by herself."

  A surprised expression crossed the man's face before it quickly changed to being impressed, "Well, sounds like she has a bright future in whatever White Hat org hires her. Anyway, I assume you'll need the basic Anti-Virus package?"

  "Yep. I'll take 3, just in case it spreads to me and my mother."

  He nodded and popped open the box, quickly grabbing three of the basic Anti-Virus data packs, "That'll be 30 Credits."

  With a gesture, a small data stream flew between them, the encrypted currency transferring to the man. Ban reprinted a small case with a wave of his hand and pced the three chips inside, before compressing the data into himself.

  With a quick thanks and a goodbye, Ban started the long walk home.

  It was funny, how much more human, no... How much more physical everything became in the Net after humanity was dragged here. The more technically advanced of them practically raced to reinvent programs to emute sensations and more human bodies.

  And it only started there, the more humanity made, the more they made the Net feel alive. The original CNI made humans like them, and humans ter made all CNI's more like them. These days, almost no one so much as brought up the idea of humans, everyone was simply CNI now.

  Of course, this just made those using Abnormal Suites all the more eye-catching. Like the rge, orb shaped Suite that had just burst through the roof of the tent.

  Ban's head snapped to the new arrival. Sometimes, someone just wanted to arrive in a unorthodox fashion, other times...

  //Scan.CNI Ver.1 Activate//

  His autorun scanning program activated, pulling up some basic information on the intruder. Like a voice in his subconscious.

  Light frame Orb type Suite. Detecting connections to two Drone Type Programs.

  As the message pyed, he saw a much smaller orb descend through the hole the intruder made. A crashing sound startled him, and turning on his heel he barely saw the medium css drone leaping by him and bounding towards the rge orb. A rge pulse rifle was attached to its back, capable of moving on a swivel.

  The rge, orange eye of the Orb turned to look in the direction of its approaching drone, and Ban and the Orb stared at the other. The rge, dog-like drone turned around for a moment, most likely listening to it's owners command, and the pulse rifle on it spun towards him.

  A quick spray of light pierced him and sent him flying backwards into a stall, colpsing it onto him. He could hear yelling and screaming as he lifted himself up. With a push, several bits of the stall fell off of him as he stood up.

  Pulse Rifle detected.

  Ban half muttered half groaned, "You don't say?"

  Not wanting to be this close, he sprinted and ducked behind a further stall, just close enough to see what's happening. His hand on his chest, he lightly poked at the holes that went straight through his torso, frayed data at the edges of them.

  Such wounds couldn't kill him, he didn't have organs, it could only impede his basic programs. Battle programs may have made it easier, but deletion needed to be thorough in order to happen.

  If anything, this was more of a warning shot.

  Peeking from his cover, he could see the underside of the Orb begin to glow a bright blue, a program about to run. A moment ter, a mass of tentacles popped out from the glowing spot, data being dispersed as the many arms of it flowed outward, most of which ending with weapons.

  Another glowing spot appeared directly behind it, and as the data dispersed he could see the program gave it an eye on the back of it's head.

  Ban watched as it's drones were guarding the area as the Orb itself reprinted a rge case. It's (retively) unarmed tentacles were snatching up data, programs, and anything else it deemed important from the stalls. The cws at the end of the tentacles grabbing at the valuables with impressive deftness.

  "Cease!"

  The sound of several people's footsteps approached rapidly, and from his hiding spot he could see several others approaching in simir looking Suites.

  Multiple Light armored Suites detected.

  The marketpce guards. All of them wore white Suites, each having a light yer of armor covering their entire body. All of them took cover behind multiple stalls as each one extracted their weapons. Ban could see a tiny, glowing blue object appeared in one of their hands, before it blew up to a normal sized pulse pistol.

  The Orb barely moved before it began unloading into the stalls the guards hid behind.

  //Scan.CNI Ver.1 Activate//

  Two Pulse Rifles detected. Pulse Pistol detected. Beam Rifle detected. Grenade Launcher detected. Two V Pistols detected. Tranq gun detected. Stun Baton detected.

  He didn't need the program to see that most of the Orb's tentacles were armed to the teeth, nor did he need it to see it shred the cover of the guards.

  The stalls splintered and colpsed from the indiscriminate fire from the Orb as well as it's drones. The guards colpsing usually just a moment ter, literally cut in half and full of holes. Another one got his legs blown off as one of the grenades the Orb unched detonated behind the stall. One brave, or foolish, guard charged at the Orb while it began to reload, extracting a small sword to stab through it.

  The dog drone surged forward, shooting simultaneously as it did so, blowing out one of the guards legs with a quick burst of light and forcing him to his stump of a knee. With a swipe of its cws, the drone tore off the arm that was holding the sword and flung it away.

  Before the guard could scream, the drone bit down on his throat and flung him away into a tent. Groaning from the guards could be heard still, shredded as they were, it still wasn't enough to delete them, though it was certainly getting there.

  The Orb went back to quickly snatching up valuables while the rger drone stood watch. Ban couldn't see where the smaller one went, but he was thankful that they were going out of their way to delete the guards.

  "Shit." Ban extracted his own pulse pistol, just in case the smaller drone was searching for stragglers. Civilians weren't necessarily allowed weapons here, even in extraneous circumstances, st thing he needed was a fine to go with his bullet holes.

  He was preparing himself to just run, hoping since he was getting away from it that it wouldn't bother him.

  "Yo ugly!"

  He poked his head out from behind cover once more, seeing a sudden burst of light and something surging forward.

  //Scan.CNI Ver.1 Activate//

  Light armor Suite detected. Thrust system detected. Monobde detected.

  A woman was flying though the air, gleaming sword in hand, she wore a gray Suite complete with a blocky helmet that had multiple wires run along the back of her neck and into her Suite. It covered her entire head except her mouth, her eyes having a visor protecting them. Turning as she flew, she timed her swing perfectly with her turn, the edge of the bde just halfway in its mouth, she dragged the bde along its side like a hot knife through butter.

  ...Human phrases are weird. He had to stop sharing memories with his mother, it was giving him headaches.

  Sparks flew from the woman pcing her feet on the ground, grinding to a halt as she steadied herself. The catastrophic damage left the drone dead on its feet, the literal light in its eyes fading away before finally toppling over with a heavy thump.

  The woman quickly threw up a hand, and a psma barrier appeared before her as the Orb once again began unloading its weapons into her general direction.

  Ban ducked back down as he realized that was also his general direction. Moving as low to the ground as he could he, moved slightly away out of the line of fire.

  Light Drone detected.

  His eyes caught smaller drone, slowly approaching the newcomer from behind, two pulse pistols from its sides aimed at her.

  He thought of yelling at her to look out or turn around, but it'd be too te by then. Ban cursed himself mentally as he raised his pistol and fired a quick burst of shots.

  The little thing exploded, with most of it falling to the ground in a smoldering heap while little pieces of it scattered along the floor.

  Both the woman and Orb turned to him, though he could only read the expression of the woman, who seemed surprised and concerned at his presence.

  Before the Orb could mince him with light, it seemed to notice something behind it with it's other eye. Half of its arsenal immediately pointed in the opposite direction, but not before a beam of purple light could give the Orb a gncing blow on the side.

  It fired back with its own beam, and from the distance Ban could see a smaller shape move though the stalls, though his scanner program couldn't pick it up. The Orb dragged it's beam along however, slicing though multiple stalls before finally overheating.

  The woman with the sword stood up, turning back to the Orb, shield still raised, she activated the thruster on her back. The Orb's frantically firing couldn't stop her approach, and she crashed into it with impressive force.

  It was knocked to the ground momentarily, though it quickly drew back as it saw the woman rapidly approaching, sword in hand. She sshed two tentacles off from it, each one holding a pulse rifle and the ser rifle respectively. In a quick motion, she pulled her other hand back in a fist. Lighting danced from knuckle to knuckle viciously before she punched it in its eye, shattering the gss as the front of it crumpled inward a bit, sending it crashing into an already wrecked stall.

  Immediately, it's tentacles retreated into itself, pulling the valuables it stole with it, its extra eye also disappearing. A fsh of blue light on its underside and back showed a massive thruster programs running in sync.

  Evac Mode detected.

  Another beam shot at it st minute missed as it burst into the sky and away, leaving a trail of light as it flew.

  With a breath he didn't need, damn human memories, he rose to his feet. He compressed his pistol back into himself, and surveyed the area. The immediate area was a mess, littered with remnants of stalls and with several guards still trying to regenerate their code.

  Before he could leave the scene and avoid an interrogation, he and the woman made eye contact. She quickly compressed her sword and began fast walking towards him.

  Putting a hand to the side of his face he began to quickly walk away.

  "Hey!"

  Ignoring her, he quickly broke into a jog, "Don't really need an interrogation right now!"

  He heard the telltale sound of her thruster go off, before he could react, she slid right in front of him, blocking his way.

  She was continously getting in his way as she said, "Do I look like a I'm with one of those White Hat corps?"

  Her Suite might have been gray, but it was close enough, though he admittedly didn't see a proper logo on her, "...You don't not look like a White Hat corpo."

  She put a hand to her chest in fake offense, "Ouch. But no, I was just gonna extend a job offer."

  He stopped trying to get around her for a moment, and gave her with an appraising look.

  She smiled, "We're a Gray Hat group. Mercenaries. Or 'private contractors' if your fancy like that."

  Immediately he scowled at the word mercenaries, but before he could say anything she interrupted, "Rex. We do mostly legal work for fellow independents people, including why we were here today. Bounty hunting can pay pretty well."

  He crossed his arms, "And you want to hire me because I shot a light drone?"

  With a smirk, she put her hands to her temples, and with an audible hissing sound, disconnected the helmet from her suit. Shaking her hair out, Ban could see the long, glowing gold hair that flowed from her head. His mother always compared hair in this pce to 'Hard Light'.

  She looked him in the eye, and with unquestionable sincerity, said, "No, I'm telling you that we are hiring, since anyone can show potential. Especially someone who was willing to save a complete stranger from getting filled with holes."

  She put her helmet back on, and finally got out of his way, "I'm Aruna, and if you're interested in making considerable credits, I'd suggest heading to the pleasure district and finding us. We have a small pce rented out, if you can find us, you'll have passed the first part of your intitiation test. We'll be here for the rest of the week, but after that we're packing up to move to other servers."

  He had several questions, like would they train him? Would they be traveling far? What kind of jobs did they usually take? But out of them all, he only asked one as she walked away.

  "Who are you guys?"

  Still smirking, she answered, "We're the NetErrors."