This Calamari Smells Funny

Dharma slapped one palm to her face, but continued watching the screen through one eye and wrote notes with her free hand. She couldn't hold out much hope that her allied operator was going to let that mishap slide without asking about it. Spewing that much ink just seemed downright uncomfortable, if not also harmful in some fashion. "Then again, I already know Phero actually enjoys the feeling of releasing her chemicals, so maybe that octopus girl is the same way," Dharma thought to herself. "But even if she is, doesn't really affect much. That bitch operator's going to get on me about it."

In the mean time, Phero noticed she was having a pretty darn difficult time focusing on any of the questions she'd hoped to ask her ally. For starters, she wasn't particularly fond of ink, as both the slick viscosity of it and the deep black color displeased her somewhat. But that was somewhat offset by an entirely new curiosity towards her partner; one she wasn't terribly familiar with (and interestingly, her operator wasn't either). "I feel curious about her," Phero muttered, trying to make sense of her thoughts. "It could be a result of the glitch, but I think I want to know as much about her as possible."

"That's not so unusual. You're a scientist's navi, after all. Scientific pursuit is one of life's greatest joys," Dharma chuckled. "You should know everything about that which you intend to control."

"I'd like to know more about the way... that she feels and smells," Phero muttered, her skin growing red as she started to approach her ally. "I don't remember feeling this way towards VenusMan. Why is that? But still, I feel like I want to see every inch of her..."

"Perhaps you should be less quick to speak your thoughts, Phero," Dharma coughed, unsure of where all of this was suddenly coming from.

"I-" Phero continued, then suddenly looked into the distance, where another navi had given off a soft chuckle. "Her too! I want to know everything about her," Phero gasped, running girlishly to meet her new acquaintance.

Dharma sighed, secretly relieved. "If it turned out that my test navi had some kind of seafood fetish, I'd have to scrap her right now," the operator thought to herself.

"Who are you? I wasn't aware that anyone was watching us before now," Phero asked, but her curiosity wasn't really staying where it ought to. "I-I feel like I want to learn more about you... Can I t-t... touch you, just a little?" she inquired clumsily, reaching out both hands eagerly. She had no idea what arousal felt like or meant, so it was all very troubling and awkward.
Well, that was it. Cover blown... She hoped Iris wasn't watching. She already knew her story: Oh, yeah, she'd meant to do that! Totally! The battle looked so fun, she felt like joining right in, you know? Except her sister was probably the one person in the world who'd instantly recognize that as a big lie. Still, though, there was something about the pink-haired navi's cheerful greeting that made it tough to stay annoyed. She easily hopped down from the structure's roof, smiling despite her embarrassment as the ink-covered figure rushed toward her.

Cheshire quirked her head to the side as this newcomer drew near. She was a lot... cuter than she'd expected. Minus the weird armour and the liberal coating of ink, of course, but who was Cheshire to make fun of what people were wearing? Especially since at the moment her own sole article of clothing was a broad black ribbon, tied off at the base of the neck and tightly wrapped around her hips and torso in the vague semblance of a leotard or a one-piece swimsuit. Just, er, with a not-insignificant amount of skin visible through the gaps...

She met the sudden onslaught of questions with an offhanded shrug. She'd been caught in the act enough times that explaining herself was practically rote by now. As a result, the full impact of the pink-haired navi's statement didn't sink in until... "It's just something I do some -- Wh-what did you say?" Here was this innocent-looking navi, reaching out like she was about to... Maybe it was just her way of saying hello? There were definitely some weirdos out there, Cheshire most likely among them.

"Um, a-anyway, my name's Cheshire! Sorry about the whole spying... thing..." She faltered. There was definitely no mistaking the look in the other girl's eyes. And (her golden eyes quickly darted over the ink-slick navi's figure) she really was cute... Ugh, what was she thinking!? But all the same...

She pushed the thought away as best she could, greeting the navi with a cordial straight-backed bow instead. "It's, it's nice to meet you!" Despite Cheshire's efforts to put forward a bold and nonplussed face, there was no mistaking her deeply flushed cheeks and the way her eyes avoided Phero's, or the way she fiddled with her hands. "I, um... You're all covered in ink... It'd get us both dirty." She concluded lamely, finding herself strangely unable to articulate a reason why she shouldn't... Well. She really hoped Iris wasn't watching now...
Phero's eyes shimmered, as if she was wildly excited by every little pittance of information Cheshire offered about herself. While the other navi was having a hard time meeting her gaze, Phero found that she was unable to do anything but drink in every detail of her new acquaintance's appearance. "You're right, I'm covered in ink... Don't worry! I have a antibacterial shower function programmed in for my line of work! Well, it won't work against glitches, but I'll be clean," she explained, then lowered her visor.

A veil of pink mist washed over her, gleaning of any remnants of ink on her. Surely enough, as she'd predicted, the glitch stayed. Without giving Cheshire any further opportunity to resist, Phero clamped both hands onto the spy's shoulders, breathing heavily all the while with a bizarre look on her face, smiling awkwardly while her eyes glistened with delight. "Thank you! It's nice to touch you... and meet you," she continued. "I'm Phero! You can touch me too, if you want!"

Seeing that Phero was on the fast train to disaster, Dharma decided to step in, opening a visual link that allowed her to appear on a screen nearby Phero. "Hello, Cheshire. My name is Dharma Heart-Payne; I'm president of Heart-Payne Pharmaceuticals Incorporated. My navi is acting a little out of sorts right now because of the results of some of the new chemicals we were testing; please try to bear with us until the effects diminish," she offered, giving her most winning smile.

Unfortunately, she offered nothing like a solution. Bearing with it was going to become increasingly difficult, as Phero's gloved hands began to slowly glide from their position at the shoulders, one down to Cheshire's own hand and the other to the base of her neck. Phero's touch was delicate, but shivering with excitement, so that the rubber plungers attached to her palms seemed constantly in danger of being triggered.

Noticing the plunger accident waiting to happen, Dharma withdrew the chemical batch she'd loaded in earlier. "The last thing we need is another navi spewing their juices all over the place," she thought to herself, pressing one hand to her forehead to try to diminish her growing headache. All the while she kept her plastered smile on, but it was sort of difficult without anything more evil or scientific to focus on than Phero's lesbian-seeming, awkward tendencies being put on display.
A weak "Hey!" was all Cheshire managed before Phero surged forward and took her by the shoulders. She met Phero's gaze at last, her slitted eyes full of surprise. She wasn't kidding, was she. And what was that about glitches? It couldn't be. She didn't think she'd ever sustained a glitch that had made her... Well, 'horny' was the only word that seemed to fit. The funny thing was, she felt like she might enjoy this if it hadn't been so abrupt, and so strange...

Well, she'd set out to find something interesting, hadn't she? She didn't often find something that could take her by surprise the way this strange pink-haired navi had. The shock in her eyes softened into a faint smile. "Nice to meet you too... You're pretty weird, you know that?" She laid her right hand on Phero's shoulder in what she hoped the other navi would see as companionship.

Whatever she was about to say next, the dark-haired woman's sudden appearance distracted her. She responded to her various assurances with a mute nod -- Cheshire never had been any good at dealing with suits, that whole branch of work being her sister's job. She supposed the president's spiel explained why Phero was so awful at flirting, but part of her felt a little let down that just a weird reaction to some medicine... Not that she'd admit that.

Her body tensed as Phero began to explore unbidden. She found herself gripping the navi's hand absentmindedly as she traced the other's path... She wasn't sure whether it was simple curiosity that kept her from stopping the slender hand, or something else entirely. She felt her heart pounding in her chest as those fingers drew to a stop at the base of her neck. Why had she stopped there? W-wait, she couldn't be going for the knot that --

"Am I interrupting something?"

"Aagh! N-no, it's nothing!" Such was Cheshire's surprise at Iris' sudden intrusion that she physically recoiled, drawing her hands protectively over her chest -- or at least, that would have been what happened if they weren't both occupied with Phero. The hand resting on her shoulder wound up pulling her close and hugging her tightly to Cheshire's body, Phero's armour pressing somewhat uncomfortably against the silk-clad navi's chest. "I-I, um..." She stammered over Phero's shoulder, her mind racing for a convincing lie.

"Right. Just keep it quiet unless you want to bust -- I'll be taking a bath... Oh, and Ms. Heart-Payne? Please see to it that you don't cause Cheshire undue harm. She is like a sister to me." The calm sound of her voice was all Iris was transmitting; even had she not been slipping into a tub of steaming water, she had never been one to show her face without a reason.

Meanwhile, Cheshire stifled a bemused laugh. Just how long had she been watching?
Dharma placed one hand to her mouth and watched Cheshire eerily, forgetting to turn off her monitor as she did so. "I think I see something developing here... It could be what they call 'love.' On Phero's part it's the aphrodesiac, but this other navi is buying into it quite nicely. It would be worth investigating all of this some more, I think," she considered, smiling maliciously behind the veil of her fingers. "Cheshire, why don't you pass on an offer to your operator?" she asked, retracting her evil face and putting back on her nice one.

In the mean time, Phero stopped moving her hands around, but instead rested her head on Cheshire's shoulder and smiled warmly. "I can feel your heart beating fast, just like mine is..." she murmured embarrassingly, radiating heat. "I guess I am weird though, for feeling like this."

"Ahem," Dharma coughed, trying to draw the focus of the conversation back to her offer. "To Cheshire's operator: I am going to return to my ship. If it interests you, know that Phero will be busting at these coordinates in BeachNet very soon. I will have her fixed by then, and we will be conducting more of our experiments. Should you choose to accept, Heart-Payne Pharmaceuticals and its president would be extremely pleased to see your navi make a showing," she offered.

"But what about Cala?" Phero asked, beginning to look sleepy.

"She's served her purpose well," Dharma chuckled, letting more of her evil show than she might should have. "That is, we've gotten some highly valuable results from these experiments already. I will be sure to thank her operator for her service. The two of you, however, are done."

Before Phero could protest any further, Dharma jacked her out of the net, just as she had during the meeting with VenusMan. "I look forward to talking again later, Cheshire," Dharma finished, then immediately cut the visual link.

*sent BeachNet coordinates to Cheshire's PET*

((Jacking out))
A contented look passed over Cheshire's face as she slowly relaxed in the other girl's soft grip. There wasn't anything about this situation that wasn't weird... But she did enjoy being this close with someone. "Mm...?" Her eyes fluttered, then widened as Dharma spoke; the dark-haired woman wasn't what Cheshire would call a pleasant awakening. Not with that strange look in her eyes.

"Beach Net, is it...? Sounds good to me." With some hesitation, she let her arm slip from Phero's back. She gave the navi's shoulder a gentle squeeze, just before she disappeared in the usual burst of light with Dharma's image following suit shortly after.

Cheshire leaned back against the building, absently folding her hands behind her head. "You hear that, Sister?"

Iris opened one eye. "I heard. She seemed awfully fond of you." She sunk deeper into the water until it was nearly up to her chin. "The other one, though... Miss Heart-Payne. I don't trust her."

"You don't trust anyone." Cheshire dismissed, rolling her eyes ever so slightly. "Besides, what's the worst she could do?"

It was a short while before Iris responded. As much as she hated the idea of letting someone mess around with Cheshire's code, particularly with what she'd just learned in mind, something told her that wouldn't quite dissuade her. So, choosing her words carefully, she began "You... know she probably won't be the same when you meet her again, right?"

"Huh? So what!?" Cheshire huffed. "I just want a busting partner. That was just..." Her voice fell. "Just a moment of weakness, you know?"

Iris smiled faintly. "Alright. Come back for now; we should at least get you wearing proper clothes again. It should be easier for her not to throw herself at you once you're wearing more than a ribbon. Cheshire nodded, hoping Iris wasn't watching the screen to see the way her cheeks flushed. She began to simply fade out of sight as she returned to the PET. Only two guarded golden eyes could be seen, and then nothing at all.

[JACKING OUT]
((At that moment a man in a gray-toned suit walked out from behind a pillar that hadn't existed a moment ago, in a place on the battlefield that never was, and tut-tutted to himself as he shook his head.

"This is terrible!" He said. "Absolutely horrendous! Why, the forces of friendship and love are completely out of shape here!" His voice increased in volume until he was nearly shouting, then he politely cleared his throat.

"I'll have to fix it." He nodded to himself, conjuring up images of Phero and DeepSea.

"These two's bond I shall have to increase by about, oh let's say four points of my special amazing friendship power!" He waved his arms around and the image changed to one of them kissing. "Gah, too much, too much!" He waved his hand again, and the image changed to them shoulder-to-shoulder, walking into the sunset. "There."

"As for this other, stranger pair..." As he shrugged, the image changed to Phero and Cheshire staring at each other. "Two points. Chemically-induced friendship... and uh, ahem, other, more unscrupulous feelings, those aren't true friendship! But I feel a connection growing here."

"Right, well." He straightened his suit up. "That should take care of that."

With that, the strange man walked back behind the pillar he had emerged from, and it disappeared alongside its' owner.))


((TL;DR: Phero/DeepSea: 4 FXP. Phero/Cheshire: 2 FXP.))
Cala wandered off in a haze without anyone noticing, and probably ran into something else.

((Battle 1))
That "something else" happened to be a trio of Lark viruses, which were just sorta hanging around a crossroads. The middle of the crossroads had a floating hologram of an advertisement, which depicted some kind of new instant ramen noodle flavor. Of course, just as Cala approached, the hologram shifted to a man slurping some ramen which was advertised as "Seafloor Delights".

... The Larks chose that time to turn around, and find Cala standing there.

-- ENEMIES --
Lark A: 100 HP (Solar)
Lark B: 100 HP (Solar)
Lark C: 100 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 50 HP (Solar)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Deep Sea.DEC: 120 HP

-- TERRAIN --
20% Solar (Surrounding Projector)
80% Metal (Everywhere else)

-- BATTLE 01, READY? START!! --
"...Huh." Cala said, slowly snapping out of the haze and noticing the three larks that seem to be looking at her. ...I wonder where I am... Cala looked around a bit, getting her barrings before focusing more attention on the larks. It seemed that she had probably wandered somewhere, although she didn't know why. First she should get rid of these larks, and then figure out what to do.

"Cala, I'm going to send you some object chips. You want something else to go along with them?" Liliana asked her navi, pulling out two chips from her pack.

"Just send the objects for now Liliana. We'll weaken them first before using the other chips." Cala said, keeping her harpoon at the ready. Liliana sent her navi the Lock-On1 and Needler1 chips, which the navi promptly used.

The lockon appeared near Cala, it's solar panels rotating a bit as it turned to aim at one of the larks. The object's barrel began to turn, firing a round of shots at the lark. The locked moved between Cala Mary and the viruses after the attack.

Next the needler appeared by Cala's side, and was suddenly covered by coral. The object turned to face towards the viruses. The object hovered forward, and sat itself down between the Larks and it's fellow object. The needler fired a volley of needles at the three Larks. Cala decided to hang back behind the two objects she ha summoned, keeping an eye on the lark's movements. If they would fire an attack that could get past her objects and hit her, she should be able to avoid it as long as she keeps watching them.

((Passive: Lockon-1 and Needler gain one time free tactical move
1 Lock-On1: HP: 80: Omnishoes, Mobile
-Lock-On shoot at LarkC: 6 shots of 10: A accuracy
-Lock-On one time tactical move between Cala and Larks
2 Needler1: HP: 60: FloatShoes, Mobile
-Masterwork Needler1: +23hp
-Needler one time tactical move between Lock-On and Larks
-Needler Shoot at Lark A-C: 30 damage: A accuracy
3: dodge))
Faced with some troublesome Larks, Cala resolved to defeat them as her operator provided her with backup. Appearing near her, the Lock-On did as it was designed to do and locked on to one of the Larks. It fired a volley of shots, the entire payload hitting the almost lethargic-looking virus. The supporting machine then slowly placed itself in front of its master. Meanwhile, a second, multibarreled and sleeker turret positioned itself in front of its master before firing. The countless needles assailed the viruses, managing to land hits on two of them. The third barely managed to float out of the way, unfortunately. Desperate, the most wounded virus retaliated with a wave, but the attack merely smacked into the Needler at the front of Cala's defensive line as the two ends of the interrupted wave passed the others harmlessly. A second wave came from the other injured party, but the result was the same as the wave hit the frontline Needler and split in two.

-- ENEMIES --
Lark A: 100 HP (Solar)
Lark B: 70 HP (Solar)
Lark C: 10 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
[Neutral]
Advertisement Projector: 50 HP (Solar)
[Friendly]
Lock-On1: 80 HP (In front of Cala)
Needler1: 53 HP (In front of Lock-On1)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Deep Sea.DEC: 120 HP

-- TERRAIN --
20% Solar (Surrounding Projector)
80% Metal (Everywhere else)