Not-So-Alien Invasion

The Elewasp charges just as Eternalis teleports, missing him with its electric sting. Eternalis rematerializes behind the twin MagTec+, slashing both with his Katana2. The second pierce that follows the wide slash misses both of the MagTec+, but clips the wings of the Elewasp.

Both MagTec+ charge up their electromagnets and attempt to reel Eternalis in for the shock of his life. Unfortunately, Eternalis is too fast for them and manages to dodge the electric field that nips at his core. The Elewasp zips back and attempts to harpoon the Navi, but misses due to the semi-flickering nature of the residual teleport.

And another swipe and stab of his blade, Eternalis slaughters all three.

-Viruses-
Elewasp: DELETED
MagTec+ A: DELETED
MagTec+ B: DELETED

-Terrain-
60% Solar [Virus Side]
40% Metal [Eternalis Side]

-Navi-
Eternalis: 360HP

~Rogue Battle 1, Victory!!~
Rewards: Arrow2, 1260z
Turning back towards the former viruses, Eternalis found no more to fight, and pumped his fist into the air. His spirit was surging, and he was pumped for more. "Oh, yeah, what'd we get, Harke?" he asked.

"Single-target Elec chip and a chunk of cash. Nice," grinned Harke. It felt like ages since he felt like this. Maybe it was because it was just the two of them. "I'm gonna assume you're not satisfied with one battle."

"Of course not!" exclaimed Eternalis, and the Navi ventured further into the deep space network on his solo trip.

[Battle 2, 360 HP, no SPs.]
The glowing panels stretched into the far horizon. Moving quickly towards the Navi was a quintet of mechs.

-Viruses-
ElecMechA: 200HP
ElecMechB: 200HP
ElecMechC: 200HP
ElecMechD: 200HP
ElecMechE: 200HP

-Terrain-
100% Solar

-Navi-
Eternalis: 360HP

~Rogue Battle 2, Start!!~
Most of the walk afterwards was pretty uneventful, leading both Operator and Navigator to nod their heads occasionally, but not really realizing it themselves. When Eternalis did, he was about to raise the option of going back to sleep, but when he looked forward, he saw the gleaming road become populated with a rather alarming amount of ElecMechs.

Something stirred inside of Eternalis' chest, and his mind floated away somewhere. Looking at the intimidating black sword-machine viruses reminded him of a certain purple-clad sword machine-girl. He wondered what little Rhea was doing, and a thought came to his head. He hadn't done that in a while, and with this battle being a clash of blades, it would be quite appropriate.

He took in a deep breath, and closed his eyes. The green light reflecting on his blue body began to illuminate a different color. Blots of dark purple began to spread all over his armor and body, with some pieces dissolving into the fluid, which begins to noticeably coagulate into a harder form. His head flows up into a more defined shape, with the unmistakable countenance of a stern-looking man.

Eternalis's gauntlets began to shift and morph, with a disk on both showing the swordswoman's emblem clearly. A shaft of purple light blasted out of his hand. He grasped it and swung it out powerfully, turning the solidified energy into a sword.

"Dynamic entry," commented Harke.

"A small bit of entertainment so you don't nod off, my lord," Eternalis smirked.

"All right, I get it, I get it," the operator replied, raising his hands up as he picked out two chips from his folder, which he noticed was almost full. He made a little flashy twirl with both, announcing their arrival into the slot, "LilBoiler, Katana, slot in!"

As the Navi received his armaments, he laughed a little. "Aren't we fancy with the battling tonight?"

"Nah, I did it way cooler than you did."

"We'll see about that," retorted Eternalis, stretching out his hand towards the mech viruses, as if to challenge them. His palm swirled about to form a sphere of murky brown fluid, which he immediately hurled towards the ElecMechs.

The purple swordsman then ducked into an Electopian iai stance, sheathing his sword into an imaginary scabbard. His eyes tracked the flying brown sphere, which had started to grow some features; a short spout and a handle sprouted from the sphere, which was tumbling through the air towards them. The LittleBoiler looked very innocuous; any immediate scan of it would simply designate it as a summoned object, with an integrity of 1 HP. Eternalis, however, had other plans.

Without warning, a duplicate copy of him appeared behind the mechs, and his original phased into nothing. The "copy" then twirled backwards into the viruses, and its energy sword, imbued with the Katana2 battlechip data, performed a brilliant light show. Faded trails of it could be seen making two wide, sweeping cuts, interspersed with two forward slashes. In the middle of his swordplay, the energy sword disintegrated, signalling his time to retreat.

Quick on his feet, Eternalis made haste to avoid any attacks directed at him with the momentum gathered from his earlier display. His gauntlets shifted slightly, and a beep could be heard, before a burst of invisible energy blasted him away from the immediate area.

>> Summary
1// Soul Cross: Rhea.EXE >> Null/Sword (Sword Mastery, Swordplay), +20 HP, +15 Null, +1 Action (Cap 6)
2// Chip: LilBoiler1, to ElecMech group >> 1HP Wood Light Object, Aqua (100 + Damage Taken) + Blast3, Delay(2), Acc: E/B
3// Sig: Sublimation, behind ElecMech group >> Teleport (Movement + Dodge + Accuracy Up)
4// Chip: Katana2, to LilBoiler1 and ElecMech group >> Null 80 (+20 to LilBoiler) + Wide, Null 80 + Long, Acc A+
5// Chip: Katana2, to ElecMech group >> Null 80 (+20 to one) + Wide, Null 80 + Long, Acc A
/// Ability: Swordplay, away from LilBoiler1 >> Dodge
6// Sig: Kinetic Generator A, away from ElecMech group >> Microburst
Eternalis donned the purple and summoned a LittleBoiler out in the middle of the field. The ElecMechs close and launch a barrage of thunderballs. Eternalis fades from view just as the projectiles reach him, passing right through the empty space, hitting nothing. Eternalis reappears behind the ElecMech group and lays into them with two strikes of the powerful Katana2. As the ElecMechs, all damaged by the attacks, broke formation to surround the Navi, Eternalis began dodging the thunderballs again before he blasted himself away.

Then the LittleBoiler boiled over.

The explosion of steam engulfed all the ElecMechs. When the steam cleared, there was nothing but melted viruses.

-Viruses-
ElecMechA: DELETED
ElecMechB: DELETED
ElecMechC: DELETED
ElecMechD: DELETED
ElecMechE: DELETED

-Objects-
LittleBoiler1: Boiled Over! [375 Degrees]

-Terrain-
100% Solar

-Navi-
Eternalis: 380HP [RheaCross2]

~Rogue Battle 2, Victory!!~
Rewards: 3150z
The purple energy blade in Eternalis' hand glimmered for a while, before it phased out of existence. The air around him blurred, covering his entire body in a mosaic before his original form reappeared. The blue Navi looked at his hand, closing and opening it again. Something didn't feel right in his systems, but he couldn't pin down what it was exactly. Everything appeared to be running perfectly well...

"Eternalis, do you wanna go ahead?"

"-- Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm going ahead."

[Rogue Battle 3, 360 HP, no SPs.]
For such a quiet, still night, it seemed as though the NAXA Rogue was quite low on supplies of peace and calm. Wherever that group of mechs had been going, or wherever they had come from, the commotion of their unexpected deletion seemed to be setting even the network itself onto a higher state of alert.

As Eternalis moved on, the soft glow of the solid solar pathway beneath his feet began to blink and change, individual panels shifting to metal, then back again, creating an ordered pattern of moving lights. Arrows and lines, racing forward, almost like some sort of runway lights. To either side, several panels pulled back, giving rise to tall pillars at regular intervals at the edge of the sudden light-show, adding to the distinctly landing-strip feel.

Once the pillars were all raised, the progression of the shifting panels sped up, faster and faster, then slowed right back down again, until it stopped completely.

This left Eternalis standing in the middle of a runway, on the foremost point of one solar arrow, with alternating dark and lit chevrons of panels stretching away ahead of him. To the sides, straight lines of solar tiles remained, marking the sides of the strips, and each of the pillars sported their own softly glowing light on top.

Unfortunately, amidst all this sudden motion, he was also no longer alone. Atop the two pillars at the far end of the field, a pair of DemonEyes are both staring back down the runway, while on either side, from behind the two closest pillars, a quiet hum announces the deceptively resilient green domes of two PulseBulbs. Dead centre, about halfway between the bulbs and the eyes, a single Gridder leers back, metallic red face taunting as it hovers above its own lit up solar arrow. The worst part was, now that everything had gone still again, they were all pointed right at the intruding navi.

-=Hostiles=-
Gridder: 190Hp [Solar][Closed]
PulseBulb2A: 180Hp [Metal][Closed]
PulseBulb2B: 180Hp [Metal][Closed]
DemonEyeA: 180Hp [Solar][Atop Pillar G]
DemonEyeB: 180Hp [Solar][Atop Pillar H]

-=Allies=-
Eternalis.exe:360Hp

-=Terrain=-
Solar 60%
Metal 40%

Terrain Objects
Pillars A-H: 100Hp each, equal space apart on either side of the area.

Sides of the area have pillars dotted at equal intervals, each topped with a solar panel, while the spaces between are metal. Two solid strips of solar run up the inside of those, and then between those, alternating chevrons of solar and metal cover the remaining space.

-=Rogue Battle 3, Start!=-
The adventure continued as Eternalis ventured into the NAXA Rogue network. "Harke, heads up," he said, as the lightshow started, triggered by his arrival. Clicking and shifting about, the pillars rose up into the air from the ground. "They're really giving you a grand welcome," the operator said, his attention somewhat brought back by the pretty show. Then, Eternalis' eyes narrowed; he had spotted some other guests to the lightshow. From their menacing "eyes" and "smiles", they didn't look like they were there as paparazzi, either.

"Heh, just five signatures?" the Navi mocked, crossing his arms as he scanned through the area. True enough, there were only five viruses in the area, at least as far as he could tell. The grinning virus at the end of the path felt like it was challenging him with its teethy grin. He felt something burning up inside of him.

"I can't see any more, yeah. What's the plan?"

Eternalis was about to answer, but his voice wouldn't come out. Something was stuck in his throat-- Did he even have one? His vision was beginning to blur; was it getting hot or something? He wanted to get in the fight, he wanted to wreak some flashy havoc. And what better way to do that than with some--

"Shock and awe!" exclaimed Eternalis.

His armor dissolved into his body, which slowly darkened and shifted its color into a reddish orange. Heat radiated from his immediate area as he rose slightly above the ground. With his countenance now that of burning lava, he reached out towards thin air, and pulled out a six-foot-long staff. Then, he swung it about, and a fiery explosion engulfed his body in a spectacular display.

"WindRacket, Harke!" he called out. "On it!" Harke responded, slotting in the Navi's request. He hadn't seen the fiery Djinni Soul Cross in a while, and it looked like it had changed a bit. For one, he didn't exactly see any odd gender changes. "Heh, I'd have given him hell over that again," he murmured to himself, watching the spot where Eternalis had made a pyrotechnic smokebomb.

The heat mirage from the explosion still remained, but it was clearing up. He could make out some red lights, but there wasn't really much to see other than that. However, that changed pretty quickly as a figure appeared from within the mirage. A full, shapely female figure was straddling a long, black staff, holding it like a pole. The figure consisting entirely of lava twirled about the staff in a swaying dance, with a loincloth following the fiery dancer's gyrations. Harke barely managed to tear his eyes off the screen. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he had to explain this sort of thing to his own Navi.

"Hyaaaaaagh!" exclaimed Eternalis, whose voice was now oddly pitched much higher. Somehow, he had appeared above one of the DemonEyes, brandishing the lava-rock staff with both hands. Swinging it in an arc, he activated the WindRacket data, unleashing a powerful gust towards the unsuspecting virus.

Then, his feet whiffed against the top of the pillar. Something felt heavier on his chest, but he couldn't afford to dally much longer in the middle of the battle routine. "DoubleBeam and MachineSword, Harke!" he yelled. It took a couple of seconds longer, but soon, the tell-tale orange-and-green cube was revolving in front of him. The staff in his hands also shined against the cube's revolving light, revealing the bladed edge it now possessed.

>> Summary
1// Soul Cross: Djinni.EXE >> Fire/Summon (Mobilize, Masterwork), +10 Fire
// Sig: Alluring Mirage >> Decoy (Original Spot)
2// Sig: Sublimation, above DemonEyeA >> Teleport (Movement + Dodge + Accuracy Up)
3// Chip: WindRacket, to DemonEyeA >> Null 100, Microburst/Gust/Northwind On-Hit, Acc A
4// Chip: DBLBEAM2 >> Random (10 + Stun-All-Enemy OR StatusCure-All-Ally), Acc S
5// Prepared Dodge
In the midst of the flashing lights, Eternalis can't help but upstage a bit, and goes Djinni-cross with some impressive pyrotechnics of his own. If the viruses on the field needed any more of their attention drawn to him, that would sure do it. As the smoke clears, things move quickly. One DemonEye carefully lays a tracer beam into the dissipating cloud, immediately triggering its unerringly accurate beam as it finds a target. One of the Pulsebulbs has the same idea, rushing in to attack what turns out to be a rather alluring lady that is not, in fact, their original target at all. At the sight of the sudden light show beginning so very directly in front of it, the Gridder didn't hesitate in opening its mouth to reveal a charging panel, and now fires a scorching blast dead centre, amplified all the more by its cosy spot on the solar. All in all, this resultes in a very thoroughly dispersed dancer, but there was no sign at all of their actual quarry.

Eternalis himself used the distraction to teleport right to the back of the stage, dropping into a punishing arc with his WindRacket, on the poor DemonEye that shot at him first, flinging the hapless eyeball across the field to crash against one of the far pillars and drop to ground level in confusion. Not done being fancy, He then sticks a graceful landing right on the spot where his victim had been only moments ago.

The second Pulsebulb, slower to react than the first, turned about as its cohorts gave that decoy what for, and sensing their real target began to move quickly back towards the far end of the area, aiming for the pillar Eternalis had now alighted on. The other DemonEye, however, is far more direct. It turns its gaze across the way as its partner is toppled, and focuses very clearly on the navi now taking its place. It's an unfortunately clear line, straight and highly exposed on the top of that pillar. The tracer beam is almost a formality before it unleashes a light-speed bolt at Eternalis in punishment. (-75, Stun1)

Even as it zaps him one, Etrnalis himself is busy setting up his magic cube. When the colours stop, Yellow bolts of light flash out from the strange object, pinning all and sundry with stunning jolts. Well... Most and sundry, anyway. The DemonEyes both takes their due punishment, but the PulseBulbs don't seem to notice at all, though a faint crackle remains behind on them, just as it does on the other viruses. The Gridder, down below had only just turned to face the Pillar that Eternalis was on, preparing a second brutal beam, and catches the yellow bolt right in its open mouth just before firing...

This does not, however, stop it from firing said beam, which scorches across the intervening space at the base of her pillar. The more cautious of the two PulseBulbs joines in the assault, rushing the last few panels to the base of the pillar and hammering it with its own sonic waves. Between the two impacts, Eternalis' lofty perch begins to crumble and topple, but the navi remaines nimble as it falls, dodging away with neat footwork to land a neat dismount close to where it had once stood.


-=Hostiles=-
Gridder: 180Hp [Solar][Open][Stunned!]
PulseBulb2A: 180Hp [Solar][Closed][Stunned!]
PulseBulb2B: 180Hp [Metal][Closed][Stunned!]
DemonEyeA: 70Hp [Solar][On the ground][Stunned!]
DemonEyeB: 170Hp [Solar][Atop Pillar H][Stunned!]

-=Allies=-
Eternalis.exe:285Hp [Solar][DjinniCross][Stun1]

-=Terrain=-
Solar 60%
Metal 40%

Terrain Objects
Pillars A, B, C, D, E, F, H: 100Hp each, equal space apart on either side of the area.
Pillar G: Destroyed!

Sides of the area have pillars dotted at equal intervals, each topped with a solar panel, while the spaces between are metal. Two solid strips of solar run up the inside of those, and then between those, alternating chevrons of solar and metal cover the remaining space.
"Ugh!" grunted Eternalis, as he landed on the glowing paneling close to where the pillar had stood. The DemonEye's laser had got him right through his left flank, as the familiar shocks arrested his systems. He straightened up himself, and waited out the immobility period, letting it discharge into the ground as it always did.

With the system shocker gone, he righted his stance, as his torso slumped port-side. Eternalis saw that his staff was kind of slanted as well, so he straightened that as well. Oddly enough, it felt like it was being pulled sideways. Was gravity being affected by the strange lightshow of a field as well? Without thinking, his hand went to prop himself up on his left hip.

He felt nothing.

The disorientation from having contacted thin air with his hand threw him off balance, and he fell to the glowing floor. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. He couldn't feel anything. Oddly, that was usually the case, considering his healing factor patched up anything and everything before he even felt it. This was different. This was... empty?

"Eternalis, what's wrong?"

"I--I can't..." he mouthed. Something had locked up inside of him. Recovery-- no, his recovery was working fine. They were-- working fine. 100% capacity. 200% capacity. 350% capacity. Working better than ever before. So why did he feel like he was at the throes of deletion? Turning his head skyward, he watched the starry background of the network quickly fade away. Eternalis' eyes turned white as a cavity yawned open on his face. A torrent of violet ooze blasted out like a fountain. Lines of similar color raced all over Eternalis' blue body like blood vessels. They spewed out tiny but numerous blobs of purple all over.

The operator watching this didn't take long before he covered his mouth and felt like doing the same. Horror struck his eyes as he pulled up an emergency diagnostics panel. The biggest telltale on the panel was the Navi's HP bar rapidly accelerating towards the zero mark. Frantically, he stumbled around the panel until he found the killswitch. As he hit it, Eternalis' body began to spasm erratically before freezing in motion. Then, blocks of his body slowly turned into white light as he was immediately jacked out.

[Emergency Jack Out - Subplot Begin]