Familiar Ground

((Bump))
As Rachna stepped into a clearing about fifty feet forward she stopped abruptly, watching a thin projectile fly by in front of her. The source of the attack was fairly obvious; a pair of Needlers were occupying the clearing along with two lazy looking fish viruses. One Needler launched another volley, which Rachna avoided with a quick step. It was hard to tell whether the fish viruses were hostile, but they did seem to be inching toward her.

Probably better to err on the side of caution.

MudFeeshA: 60 HP (Mud)
MudFeeshB: 60 HP (Mud)
NeedlerA: 70 HP (Grass)
NeedlerB: 70 HP (Grass)

Terrain:
90% Grass
10% Mud (Around fish viruses)

Rachna.EXE: 100 HP (Grass)

BATTLE 2 START!
Were those...fish? Rachna had never seen any viruses like them before. Fish-themed viruses weren't exactly unheard of, but in her time she had never known of the existence of lazy fish viruses that just wallowed in mud puddles. Usually they were at least shooting arrows out of their mouths or something.

Well, no matter.

She charged her staff with magical energies again, pulling it from the grass in the clearing. The crystal set into her staff lit up with a soft light as the charge reached a peak. When it did, she slammed the end of the staff back into the ground, sending a wave of elemental energy toward the fish. Vines, saplings, and taller patches of grass erupted along the trail of the wave, fading back into the steady field of grass of the clearing as it passed. The wave itself, meanwhile, passed through the clearing until it reached and cut through the mud pit.

Mud pits were a fairly new development as well, now that she thought of it. They were certainly present in the more detailed sections of the net in older days, but not so well defined. Maybe the fish were just another upgrade of sorts?

Nah, that was just silly.

As the elemental wave subsided, Rachna dug her staff deeper into the ground, sending another burst of energy through it. This time, instead of causing a wood-powered wave, it ripped a section of it out of the ground. Rachna levitated the chunk of grass terrain into the air, and sent it flying toward one of the Needlers.

Before the other could fire again, she braced her staff in front of her, conjuring a shield to span its length.
___

1. ElementalRage1: 60(+5)+Line+Wood to both MudFeesh
2. PanelShot1: 100(+5)+Wood to NeedlerA
3. Shield NCP
A wave of earthen rage brought itself towards the muddy fish, deleting one in an instant. The other managed to leap out of the way easily, flopping its way towards Rachna. By then, she had also taken out one of the Needlers with a Panel Shot. This caused both of the viruses to retaliate pretty hard. Luckily, Rachna put up a good fight, using her staff to conjure up a temporary shield. It absorbed one of the Needler's shots, but the other stabbed itself into her side. (5) The Mudfeesh's flopping was kind of funny, but didn't really do anything as Rachna merely watched it go around her harmlessly, spreading mud everywhere.

MudFeeshA: DELETED
MudFeeshB: 60 HP (Mud)
NeedlerA: DELETED
NeedlerB: 70 HP (Grass)

Terrain:
85% Grass
15% Mud (Around fish viruses)

Rachna.EXE: 100 HP (Grass)
So far, the mud fish virus wasn't particularly effective at actually doing anything, either. It had spread a bit more mud around, but otherwise didn't even come close to hitting her. It was like the fish didn't even fully realize that she was there, or that she was attacking them. The needler was still of more concern.

Oh wait, no it wasn't.

Rachna pulled the wildly flopping fish toward her with a burst of wind. As the wind subsided, she materialized a gauntlet on her hand, with steel talons extending from the wrist. With this, she thrust her hand toward the fish and flung it in the direction of the needler, hoping to impale it on the talons and toss it.

From what she could tell, the fish itself wasn't particularly good at causing direct damage, and instead worked by altering the environment by means of splashing mud everywhere. While not particularly effective at hurting things, it could still damage important systems, or cause problems for navis. Or, for that matter, other viruses.

For instance, a virus stuck and coated in mud would have a hard time avoiding a bomb.

Rachna conjured a hand grenade in her hand as the LilBomb data she had recently acquired activated. She tossed it to herself once, then pulled the pin and chucked it at the needler virus. Once the grenade left her hand, she braced herself and materialized another shield, just in case.
___

*Gust: Pull MudFeesh toward self
1. Rageclaw MudFeesh into Needler: 20 each
2. LilBomb Needler and MudFeesh: 50+Blast2
3. Shield NCP
Rachna was successful at grabbing the MudFeesh with her Rageclaw. thanks to her control over the winds. and managed to throw it straight against the Needler, despite its slippery skin. However, even though the two viruses was slammed against one another, it didn't make them an easy target for the Lilbomb as both of them was able to escape the explosion.

The Needler retaliated by driving straight up to Rachna and firing two needles at the navi, but one missed while the other simply crashed against the shield...

MudFeeshA: DELETED
MudFeeshB: 40 HP (Mud)
NeedlerA: DELETED
NeedlerB: 50 HP (Grass)

Terrain:
80% Grass
20% Mud

Rachna.EXE: 100 HP (Grass) [Rageclaw: 5/6] [Shield BROKEN]
How did that thing miss at such a close range? Not that Rachna minded not taking the hit, but there was just something wrong with a virus missing at such a close range.

Of course, she wasn't going to sit there and be dumbfounded by that. The moment the remains of her shield fell away, Rachna closed the rest of the distance between herself and the Needler, striking with her Rageclaw to impale it like she did the fish before. Instead of tossing it back at the fish, however, she swung her arm to fling it straight up, then dismissed the clawed gauntlet.

In its place, she conjured a massive hand cannon. Tracking the needler's path, she aimed into the air and fired, hoping to send it even further skyward. But just in case it found its way back down or fired a shot from midair, she activated another shield, this time conjuring it as a large and especially durable umbrella.

Holding the shieldbrella in one hand, she held out the other and materalized a shotgun in it. She twirled it in her hand before pointing it at the fish and pulling the trigger.

Somewhere between the umbrella and the shotgun, Ellen happened to look at the monitor of her PET, noticing her navi's actions. "Rachna, what are you doing?" she asked.

Rachna shrugged. "Having fun, like you told me to," she answered.
___

1. Rageclaw Needler into the air: 20
*Gust: Add additional knockback to:
2. Cannon Needler: 40+Knockback
*Shield NCP: Held as umbrella
3. Shotgun MudFeesh: 50+spread1
Rachna slung the hapless Needler into the air and buried a slug in it. The gory fragments of the virus's essential programming splattered and bounced off her umbrella. She swung around and gunned down the Mudfeesh with nary a problem.

MudFeeshA: DELETED
MudFeeshB: DELETED
NeedlerA: DELETED
NeedlerB: DELETED

Terrain:
80% Grass
20% Mud

Rachna.EXE: 100 HP (Grass) [1-hit shield]

--ALL CLEAR!--

Rewards: Needler1, 600z
HP: 60
Properties: FloatShoes, Mobile
Object Damage: 60 Null + Impact + Break
Damage Method: Ramming attack, Telekinesis, Throw
Attack Damage: 30 Null x 3 Targets
Accuracy: A
Description: Summons a hovering gun platform that attacks up to 3 separate targets each turn with it's trio of double spike guns.
Duration: Until destroyed.
Element: Null
Special: RP quality does not boost or reduce this chip's accuracy. - This chip's accuracy cannot be boosted or reduced by any means. - This object can dodge once instead of attacking. - This object may ram a target, but is instantly destroyed in exchange.
"And launching a virus into orbit and letting the pieces rain down onto an umbrella shield doesn't strike you as an odd way to have fun? Not to mention a little disturbing?"

Rachna shrugged. "It's not like you don't have me killing viruses all the time," she said. "Besides, you know how it is. You get old, you have random urges, and you have the chance to satisfy them without getting in trouble so you take it. Like when I was making out with myself earlier. Same thing." She added in a whisper [size0]"Besides, I was quite good..."[/size]

Surprisingly to Rachna, Ellen latched onto something else in her next question. "Old? I was under the impression that you were only a few years old."

"Nnnnope!" Rachna said cheerfully.

"Just how old are you, then?"

"I forgot," Rachna said. She put a finger to her mouth and looked skyward, pondering. "But let's say...if I was a human, I'd probably be a few years dead by now, at least."

Ellen stared at the PET wide-eyed and open-mouthed for several seconds before regaining her composure. "And it didn't occur to you to tell me this when you invaded my PET and said 'I'm your navi now'?"

"Your PET was empty. I'd hardly call it invading. Besides, you never asked."

"Yes I did!"

Rachna laughed, waving Ellen off. "Well, now you know, so it doesn't matter."

"Just what did you do all that time, anyway? Did you just force yourself into the service of people like me? Or am I just special?"

"You're special," Rachna said, winking. "As for the rest of what I was doing, that's a very long and interesting story. Let's see...once upon a time...no. The end~" Rachna heard one of Ellen's signature irritated grumbles from the other end, and smirked. Another job well done, for her. "I suppose I can give you parts of it, though. As a reward for putting up with me the last few months."

"Effing finally," Ellen answered, earning another smirk from Rachna.

The navi continued down the path through the jungle, careful to avoid the mud left behind from the last battle as she walked. She was already nostalgia tripping just walking through the jungle, so story time wasn't likely to be too much of a stretch. Besides, nowhere did she say she would do it in a way that didn't still manage to annoy her.

"My legend starts in the first year of the current Net."

((Battle 3))
Story time? Story time!

A bunch of viruses came sweeping through the jungle pretty much out of nowhere. If there was going to be story time, they wanted in on it, too.

Well, it was more like they wanted to brutally murder her, but close enough.

Terrain: 65% Grass, 25% Poison, 10% Soil

BoomerA: 60 HP (Soil)
BoomerB: 60 HP (Grass)
SpidyA: 80 HP (Grass)
SpidyB: 80 HP (Grass)
Teddy: 100 HP (Soil)
Honeybomber: 100 HP (Grass)

Rachna.EXE: 100 HP (Grass) [1-hit shield]

--HERE WE GO!--
--ROUND 3, FIGHT!--
"You seem to have an audience," Ellen commented, noting the viruses that had gathered around. She sent along a set of chips, suspecting that they hadn't actually shown up just to listen in.

"I noticed," Rachna said, lowering her shieldbrella to point toward the closer of two Boomers. She then used the newest chip she had picked up to conjure a hovering needle gun platform in front of her. "Anyway, what do you know about the prototype for the current network?"

"Just that it was apparently sentient or something equally stupid that I have no idea why anybody would think was a good idea. Then it went berserk and had to be shut down and sealed away," Ellen answered. "It's one of the first things we learn about in Internet History."

"And I'm still amazed that that's an actual class. You're mostly right, though. But at the time it didn't seem like such a stupid idea. It was supposed to be self-maintaining. Gone would be the days where entire sections of the net would go down for hours on end because of server maintenance." Rachna finished that thought by telekinetically ripping up a section of grass and hurling it at the teddy bear-looking virus.

"Seems like they didn't actually accomplish much. Didn't you end up manually rebooting a server not too long ago?"

"Oh, you were awake back there," Rachna remarked casually. "But you just said it. That thing went berserk. So instead of creating another autonomous network, the administrators of the new network created admin navis for each country's network to maintain it. These navis were normal in almost all respects, other than not being designed for combat like many other navis were. Their powers weren't even directly wired into their program. It was connected to an admin tag that could be passed on. Or stolen."

The needle launcher fired off a volley of needles. Rachna stopped for a breath, and used the moment to conjure a rock in her hand and toss it toward one of the spider viruses. Not that it was likely to do all that much other than draw its attention, but that was all Rachna needed. She summoned a gust of wind as soon as the rock landed, attempting to blow the targeted spider into the bee virus nearby.

"So let me see if I'm keeping up here," Ellen said. "You're about to tell me that you were one of these admin navis, and that your tag was stolen. Do I have that right?"

"Nope! That was just backstory. I started out as a support program to one!"
___

1. Shield NCP: Directed forward
2. Summon Needler1: 60HP object, Floatshoes, Mobile
3. PanelShot: 100 (+5 for Wood) to Teddy
*Needler: 30 Null to BoomerA, SpidyA, SpidyB
*Sundry: 5 Null to SpidyA
*Gust: Knockback SpidyA into HoneyBomber
Conjuring up some stuff while revealing some backstory, Rachna pulled up a Needler, as well a solid chunk of grass-laden soil. The Needler shot some well-placed needles into three viruses, while the chunk of soil shaved off half of the Teddy clean. Meanwhile, the Boomers retaliated with a couple of high-speed boomerangs. The first didn't do much, sailing past her side, while the other hit her shield-umbrella. However, moments later, two after-images from the same boomerang sliced through the opening, hitting her. (5x2)

The Spidy teleported around to her, and laid some webbing to her sides, while the Honeybomber bees did mostly nothing.

BoomerA: 30 HP (Soil)
BoomerB: 60 HP (Grass)
SpidyA: 50 HP (Grass)
SpidyB: 50 HP (Grass)
Teddy: DELETED
Honeybomber: 100 HP (Grass)

Rachna.EXE: 90 HP (Grass)
Needler: 60 HP (Floatshoes) (Mobile)

Terrain: 50% Grass, 25% Poison, 10% Soil, 5% Broken, 10% Web
"Wait, so you were a support program."

"Yep."

"And now you're a navi."

"Yep."

"Is that even possible?"

Rachna's eyes swept across the battlefield, noting the location of webbing that one of the spiders had laid, making a note that that would be a very good place to not move to if possible. The needler she had created fired another trio of shots, aiming for both of the boomers while the third set of needles went wide and shot for the Honeybomber. Rachna opened her shieldbrella again, refreshing it from its broken state after taking a direct hit from a boomerang. No way she was just going to let her umbrella go just like that.

"Yes and no," she said, continuing to survey potential targets. Hopefully the bee would retaliate against her needler and no her, so she could continue to leave it alone for the moment. "You can't actually directly turn a support program into a navi. But you can transfer elements of a core program, such as memory and personality routines to a different program. Think about it like copying text from one file to another, only much more complex and involving a lot of extra work."

Ellen slotted in a chip, paying more attention to Rachna's story than the actual battle. It occurred to her that if her navi was being truthful, she could use her as a source for a future paper. Assuming Dentech allowed that, of course. "So who were you a support program for, then?" At this point, it was just curiosity that prompted her to ask that question. It wasn't like she knew the names of any admin navis anyway.

"Not telling!" Rachna teased, winking. "Sorry, don't really know if that's the sort of information I should just be giving away. Let's call him Krishna for now, though. Krishna was a restoration admin from Netfrica. Back when admin navis were most active he got a lot of work, because the network was unstable and large sections of it kept going down. They'd eject all programs in the area before failing, but everything that stayed in the network wasn't always preserved. Sometimes it got bugged, sometimes it got wiped clean. So we had to go in and either fix or redesign those areas and restore it to a working state."

Rachna conjured a shotgun in her hand from the chip she was given, taking aim at one of the spiders. With any luck, she could catch the other in the blast, but with how much they were jumping around she wasn't counting on it. So instead of relying on luck, she aimed a gust at it to knock it into range before firing.

"We weren't entirely bound to our region either, so we ended up doing work in other areas too. My personal favorite was this place. Which is why I came here, actually."

"So how come you're no longer working with this Krishna?" Ellen asked. She sent another chip, which Rachna manifested in the form of a large cannon.

"Thee words. Network Operating System." Rachna punctuated that statement by aiming at one of the boomers and letting loose on it, firing the one shot her conjured cannon had at it. Now useless, she let the cannon fall to the ground afterward, where it dissolved into nothing.
___

*Needler: 30 Null to Boomer A, Boomer B, and HoneyBomber
1. Shield NCP: Refresh Shield
*Gust: Knock SpidyB into a position behind SpidyA
2. Shotgun: 50 Null to SpidyA, Spread1 to SpidyB
3. Cannon: 40+Knockback to BoomerB
((bump2))
With the Needler doing its own thing, Rachna eliminated the two Spidy viruses with a Shotgun burst, and one Boomer with her Cannon as well. The Honeybomber retaliated towards the Needler, not doing much damage. The Boomer, meanwhile, launched another boomerang, this time larger and slower than its predecessor. It was deflected easily, however, by Rachna's shield process.

BoomerA: 30 HP (Soil)
BoomerB: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
Teddy: DELETED
Honeybomber: 70 HP (Grass)

Rachna.EXE: 90 HP (Grass)
Needler: 35 HP (Floatshoes) (Mobile)

Terrain: 50% Grass, 25% Poison, 10% Soil, 5% Broken, 10% Web
Rachna reconstituted her shield, folding up and reopening her umbrella into a like-new, repaired state. She doubted she'd need it anymore, at least not for this batch of distractions, but it didn't hurt to be sure. The damaged needler, meanwhile, proved to still be working well enough to fire another burst of needles. One cluster went wild, while the remainder targeted the remaining two enemies.

"If you thought the prototype net was a stupid idea, then you're probably about to facepalm at this next part," she said, continuing her story. "The NOS runs on some of the same principals. It can think and manage the network for itself, although there are a number of failsafes in place to prevent it from going rogue or anyone from messing with it. Once it went online, the need for administrators diminished over time. At first, they were needed to keep it functioning properly, but with subsequent upgrades even that became unnecessary. An admin navi can still access its base programming if they need to, but that sort of thing hasn't happened in almost forty years."

"But what if someone were to have their admin tag stolen, and then decide to mess up the NOS?" Ellen asked.

"Then we're screwed. Well, maybe. There's also a failsafe against that, but it has to be activated manually. You know, so that it doesn't automatically kill anyone who's actually supposed to be there. If it is activated though, then whatever's down there gets hit by a nice big juggernaut of an attack program and blown sky-high. And considering that it's buried somewhere beneath even the Chaos nets, that's saying something."

Ellen had no idea just what her navi meant by Chaos nets, and decided she didn't want to open that particular can of worms at the moment. That would surely be another several pages of notes to have to take later. Instead, she loaded up another chip, one she thought would be good for a finisher, while still hopefully keeping Rachna away from any direct counterattacks. "So I'm assuming you didn't all get stuck on maintenance duty, then, if that stopped being necessary."

"No," Rachna answered, activating the chip. From the hole where she had torn up part of the grass a figure veiled in shadow rose. "I think ENA or Bastion might still do some of that along with their work at SciLab, but the rest of them were pretty much out of a job. Some of them went their separate ways, and some of them were put into stasis in SciLab's secure servers."

The shadowy figure pulled a scimitar from somewhere within its frame, and lunged toward the HoneyBomber, swinging its sword in a wide, devastating arc. As the blade used to execute the attack faded, so too did the shadow. Rachna braced herself to dodge, just in case the bee virus wasn't about to fall to the ground bisected.

"Krishna was one of those who went into stasis. His support programs, meanwhile, were rebuilt into independent navis. And that's how I became me."
___

1. Shield NCP: Refresh Shield
*Needler: 30 Null to BoomerA and HoneyBomber
2. SummonBlack2: 200+Wide+Slashing to HoneyBomber and anything else in its way (BoomerA, if still alive and close enough)
3. Prepped Dodge
The Needler was able to make quick work of the wounded Boomer, but missed the Honeybomber...for better or for worse. The hive virus, unfortunately, wasn't able to celebrate its luck as Rachna swung her sword, cleaving it in half by the sword's powerful slash...

BoomerA: DELETED
BoomerB: DELETED
SpidyA: DELETED
SpidyB: DELETED
Teddy: DELETED
Honeybomber: DELETED

Rachna.EXE: 90 HP (Grass) [Shield]
Needler: 35 HP (Floatshoes) (Mobile)

Terrain: 50% Grass, 25% Poison, 10% Soil, 5% Broken, 10% Web

-BATTLE WON!-
[QuickBoomerang1] Battlechip + 700zQuickBoomerang1
Damage: 10 + Slashing + Group Attack (Arc) x 3 Boomerangs
Accuracy: C
Description: Throws a series of razor sharp boomerangs at the enemy in rapid succession.
Element: Null
Special: Group Attack (Arc): This attack may hit between 1 and 4 enemies on average, perhaps more depending on the situation. This version of Group Attack hits in an arc that loops back to the attacker. If attempting to hit too many targets with poor RP, you may also hit yourself, so be careful.
"So once I was on my own, I didn't really have any duties anymore, or anything I had to do. So I just did whatever. Never stopped, really."

"I noticed," Ellen said in a completely unamused tone.

"Aww, is that a problem?" Rachna teased. "But that's about all I feel like telling. And what a coincidence, I also just ran out of things to throw other things at. So does this mean your break's over, or are you going to procrastinate more?"

"Are you kidding?" Ellen asked, opening a window into the net so that Rachna could see her laptop, complete with a text file full of notes on her story. "I might as well have not been on break at all. Only problem is I'm not really sure how to cite you."

"Call it an interview." Rachna shrugged. "More importantly..." Her expression shifted to one of genuine surprise. "You were actually paying attention?!"

"Shut up," Ellen grumbled. "In the meantime, is there any more you're willing to tell me about...well, everything you just talked about?"

Rachna paused, considering. Telling someone who might as well be providing room and board where she had come from was one thing, but now that she was going to be used as a source for a paper she wasn't so sure. She continued deeper into the net as she finally spoke. "Maybe later," she said. "Right now I'd rather just stick to having fun, since I'm apparently not allowed to do that with myself in the PET."

Ellen flushed. "L-look, it's not a thing I want to hear. So...you can do it if you want...I guess...but shut the volume off first, please."

"Sounds like you don't mind seeing it, at least," Rachna teased again.

"Shut up."

((Battle 4))
Rachna came across one of many strangeness the Yoka net provided as a river of poison was in her way. When things didn't get any stranger, viruses started to pop out from the grass across the river, beginning to mock the navi because of the lone advantage of the poison between them!

-Across the poisonous stream-
AppleSamuA: 70 HP
AppleSamuB: 70 HP
KilbyA: 90 HP
KilbyB: 90 HP
KilbyC: 90 HP
MushyA: 80 HP
MushyB: 80 HP

Terrain: 40% Grass, 20% Poison (Center River), 40% Grass

-Behind the noxious river-
Rachna.EXE: 90 HP (Grass)

-BATTLE FOUR, START!-
"So you did a lot of redesigning in this area, then?" Ellen asked, taking note of various landmarks in the net. Most notably, a decently sized river of poison separating her navi from the latest batch of viruses to come calling.

"Yep," Rachna answered.

"Why would you design large rivers of poison to run through it?"

Rachna shrugged. "Wasn't me. They were already there before I ever saw Yumland for the first time. I did suggest just leaving them in, though. They look cool, give this place character."

Ellen blinked, staring silently at her navi for a moment. When she snapped out of it, she sighed and said "Whatever. You like them, you deal with them. She jammed several chips into the PET for her navi to mess with, then went back to her paper.

"Okay," Rachna said cheerfully. She turned her eyes on the viruses taunting her from the other side of the stream. They were taunting her, right?

Yep, there was no mistaking it. "Well we can't have that, now, can we."

A tug on the air with her staff, and she called forth a gust to pull one of the mushroom viruses toward the deadly stream between them. But that was the simple stuff. Just a test, or perhaps a move to shut the viruses up. Next came the real part. And of course, the first step for executing the dangerous idea that had just come to her was a manic grin. Always an essential.

Donning that manic grin, Rachna dug her staff into the grassy terrain beneath her. Energy from the staff carved out a section of the terrain, not in front of her as she usually did, but directly underneath her. Kneeling down on it, she grasped the edge of the uprooted panel and held tight. At her command, the panel rose from the ground and flung itself across the river with Rachna clinging on and cackling madly.

Once on the other side, she jumped off before the panel could collide with its target, the second mushroom virus. She landed in a crouch turning toward the remaining viruses.

Apples and bamboo groves, was it?

Lifting her staff above her, she conjured a long thread of spider's silk that wove itself into a web pattern as she brought it into being and flung it at the Kilby viruses, hoping to ensnare each of them before they could react to her sudden presence on their side of the river.

"Who's laughing now?"
___

*Gust: Pull MushyA into poison
1-2: Panelshot: Ride panel to other side, 100(+5)+Wood to MushyB
3. WhiteWeb1: 40+snare to Kilbys