"...We're home, Sabrina."

"Zzz..."

"...I said, we're home."

"Zzz..."

Suddenly, a loud whistle could be heard.

"Yaah!" Sabrina rose from a start, barely able to avert her head from hitting the car's ceiling. "Who what when where how why?! ...Huh? What happened?"

"You got on a plane, and flew to Netopia. I don't know what you did on the plane, but you were really out of it when I picked you up. The minute you got in the car, you were out like a light, and slept the entire trip back. Now, I'm all for talking with my daughter, but there really isn't a reason to do that in the car, now is there?"

"Uh, right..." It amazed her sometimes how nonchalantly sarcastic he could be at times. Oh well, that was her dad for her. "All right, I'm wide awake now...let's go in!" She stepped out of the car, and a loud yawn could be heard.

"Wide awake, eh...?" The other person, a bearded middle-aged man, shook his head as he got out. "You stay back for a minute, until I give you the signal." He walked over to the house, and opened the door. "Hey, hon."

A woman around the same age walked over to him. "Hi, dear! So, how'd the client turn out?"

"Terrible. I thought he might be a serious client, but he wanted 100 LifeAura3 chips. Outside of the Officials, I doubt anyone even knows where you can get them..."

"Oh...well, that's a shame. So, are you going to hang around the door all day, or are you coming in?"

"Hold on, there's someone I ran into while I was out. I want you to say hi to her."

"...Her? Christopher Jetto, this better not be some trick..."

"Heh heh...all right, come over here!"

Deciding that sooner would be better than later in this case, Sabrina raced over next to her dad. "Hi mom! I'm home!"

"......Sabrina!!! You're home!!" The woman hugged her with enough force to suffocate an elephant. "I didn't know what to do without you or Brandon..."

"Got that right. Once, I saw her just standing in your room, sighing..."

"You told me you'd never tell them that!"

"Whoops, ha ha ha."

"Mom...need...air..." Sabrina thought she could feel her spine being slowly crushed by her mother's arms. "Ghh...let...go..."

"Oh, I'm so sorry..." Mrs. Jetto released her submission hold of love. "I've just missed you so much...tell you what! I went shopping earlier today, and I've got everything I need to make your favorite for supper! I'm going to get started right now! I'm sure you haven't been eating well since you left..." She left her husband and daughter in the dust, heading for the nearby kitchen.

After a few moments of badly needed panting, the youngest Jetto wandered in towards the kitchen door. Sure enough, her mom was getting stuff out, acting like she didn't exist. Whenever she cooked, she blocked everything else in the world out besides cooking. Sabrina had tried it before, but didn't really see what was so great about it...

"Actually, your mom was gonna make it in a couple of days, anyway. But you being here bumped it up to tonight. But I can't say I'm not looking forward to it, myself."

"Oh, cool! By the way...why did you want me to come here? I mean, if you wanted to talk, you could've just called...I mean, I'm glad to be home, but it's really weird for you to just tell me to come back all of a sudden."

"Hmm...all right, we've got some time to kill before supper's ready. I had you come home...to show me something."

"...Show you something?"

"Yep. I'm sure you've been checking the Net for Brandon's Navi, and I bet yours has gotten a lot tougher. Your folder's probably pretty full by now as well, if it's not completely full. So I want to see your skills as a Netbattler."

"See my skills as a Netbattler? ...You don't mean I have to fight F-"

"Heh, nope, You don't have to fight me. But I do want to see how you are at virus busting. I want you to jack in, and see how far you can get into the Netopian net. I'm sure you can do better than last time. Not a single virus deleted..."

"Y-Yeah..." Sabrina pulled out her PET, and looked at her Navi through the screen. "Well, are you up for it? I think Dad'll be surprised at just how good we are now!"

"Yeah!" SplashMan clenched his fists, obviously brimming with excitement and water. "Whenever you're ready!"

"So, Dad! Where are we going to jack in? My room, or what?"

"Nope, this calls for you to use my office computer. I always tell you and Brandon it's for business only...but I think this is close enough to business."

"R-Really?" She had NEVER been able to jack into her dad's office computer before. Even that other time, she had to jack in from her own computer. "Guess you're pretty sure I'll do okay, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure you can win at least one battle in Netopia's Net by now. But I think we've talked about it enough." The older man started walking down the house's lone, long hallway. For some reason, the Jetto house's hallway split the house in two, with all the other rooms connected to it on each side. "Come on, Sabrina."

The two traversed the entire length of the hall, then took a right into a small room, packed with computer and Netbattling related stuff. One shelf in particular caught Sabrina's interest; she had never especially cared before, but it was full of rare chips with their names listed below; FireBlade, GoldFist, Volcano, Sanctuary, GigaWave, LavaBall, Fire+40, Barrier200, FireRatton, LavaDragon, GrabRevenge...a fitting collection for someone that had a great Fire Navi. Sabrina would've asked for one or two of them, but she knew better. There's no way he'd ever part with any of those chips...

"Well, that's the first time I've seen you look at a battlechip like it was actually worth something. Just don't do something stupid with them, like your brother once did."

Now that he mentioned it, the Volcano was a little scratched up. That must've been the chip Brandon took once to win a Netbattle, but wound up losing it for a while. He got it back, but there were two scratches that someone like their dad would never overlook. "What? Don't be silly, I'd rather live!" Yep...their dad was usually very even-tempered, but that one time...just the thought of him that angry made her shudder.

"All right, that's enough gawking at my collection. I don't want you getting any ideas. Go ahead and jack into my computer now."

His computer was a little weird; you didn't actually jack into it directly, but through a mini-server located next to it. There was probably a reason behind it, but Sabrina had no clue why..."All right. Are you gonna send your Navi in to check on things?"

"No, I'm not. He'd only serve to distract SplashMan."

"Oh." She pulled out her PET, and checked her Navi one more time. "Well, it's time. Let's show Dad what we've got!"

"Right!"

"Okay, here we go!" Sabrina aimed her PET towards the mini-server. "Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!"

(to Netopia Net!)

"Supper's ready, you two!"

Supper was ready already? Had she really spent THAT much time busting viruses? A quick check at the room's clock confirmed it; yep, she really had. Ah well, she was hungry, and SplashMan needed a rest, anyway. Once her Navi had completely returned to the PET, Sabrina dashed from her dad's office, moving down the hall to the kitchen/dining room area. That smell...there was only one thing on Earth that she knew of...

"Sabrina! How'd I know you'd be first...made your favorite! Homemade pizza!" Indeed, there was a humongous pizza on the dining room table, at least 20 inches in diameter, and completely covered with the greatest toppings ever conceived of on a pizza; pepperoni, sausage, peppers, mushrooms...you name it, it was probably on there, save for anchovies. However, there was one noticable aspect of the toppings; half the pizza was littered with pineapple, and the other hald wasn't. It was little known outside the Jetto household, but both the children absolutely loved pineapple on their pizza. And yet both the parents hated it. As a result, there was a family tradition that whenever they got a pizza, half of it would contain pineapple, and half wouldn't.

Of course, this was all besides the point. The important thing was, she was hungry, and there was a pizza her mom had made on the table. And that meant...

"All right! Time to chow down!" Without even waiting for her father, Sabrina slipped into her seat, and started virtually inhaling a slice.

"Hey! Don't eat that fast!" Even though he was still recovering from injuries and disappointment, SplashMan still knew enough to try and get his operator out of potential trouble. "Your mom's gonna nag to you about-"

"Sabrina Jetto! I slaved over that for a couple hours! The least you can do is take more than 5 seconds to eat it!"

"Mmph, mmph!" The young woman couldn't counter, due to having a mouth full of pizza. A large swallow changed that. "Okay, okay! Relax! I'm just hungry, that's all!"

"By the way, why hasn't your father gotten in here yet?" Mrs. Jetto walked into the hallway, and prepared for some highly aggrivated shouting. "Christopher! Supper's ready!"

"I'll be there in a minute, I'm analyzing some data!"

"It's the first time in over a week we can eat as a family, and you're analyzing data?! Get in here now!"

"I can't, this has to be done!"

"Oh for crying out loud..."

Ahh...the sound of Mom storming off to drag Dad from NetBattling for supper. She had kinda missed that after leaving for a while. "Well, nice to know that some things never change."

Around 30 minutes later, the three Jettos had just polished off that giant pizza. Actually, correction: Sabrina had just polished off that giant pizza, and her parents had gotten what they could while it was still there. "Whew, I'm stuffed! Thanks, Mom!"

"Glad you enjoyed it! Of course, if you REALLY liked it, you'd show your appreciation by doing the dishes!"

Sabrina looked over at the kitchen; it was a mess, and covered with dirty dishes. "Er...I mean, it was good, but it wasn't THAT great..."

"Oh, don't worry about it tonight! You'll be leaving in a day or two to look for your brother anyway, so you just relax until then!" Mrs. Jetto looked up at the clock, only to leap up and look on in horror at the time. "Oh no, I'm going to miss my shows!" And by shows, she meant those forensics shows that always came on tonight. Sabrina didn't care for them; too many dead bodies for her liking.

"...Sabrina. Is SplashMan all healed up?" The young woman's train of thought was interrupted was her father suddenly spoke. "If so, I'd to ask you to do some more busting."

"Uhh..." She pulled out her PET. "Good question. Feeling okay, SplashMan?"

"Physical condition, 100%! I'm ready to go! Just give me the word!"

"All right, I guess so. But, why? Didn't you just see us do it a minute ago?"

"I don't think three battles is quite enough to gauge how much you've improved. And with your mother watching her shows, I doubt you've got anything better to do, anyway. So when you're ready, head back to my office." Mr. Jetto got up and left, leaving Sabrina to her own devices.

"Uhh...well, he's right that I've got nothing better to do tonight. Guess you'll get your second chance, SplashMan!" The young woman raced over to her dad's office, PET in hand. "Okay, we're biting. We'll do some more busting for you!"

"Good. Everything's set up, so feel free to jack in whenever you want."

"All right, then let's gooo!!!" Sabrina aimed her PET towards her dad's computer's jack-in port. "Jack in! SplashMan, Execute!"

(to the Netopian Net again!)