With their rewards safely collected, Mach and his faithful, if slightly battered SPs stepped through the large doorway, and deeper in. That one step through the threshold turns out to be quite a doozy of one, as their vision blurred and most other senses dulled, replaced by a sense of extreme speed, even for Mach. In truth, the portal served as the final uplink gate leading to the core system of one of NAXAs many orbiters, and when the rush of sudden outward momentum stops, Mach and Co find themselves standing in a brightly lit area, positively buzzing with all manner of electrical equipment and delicate looking circuitry.
Around them in all directions, the starry sky stretches out, but a large transparent dome seemed to protect the 'atmosphere', if such could be called so in the virtual environment. In the centre of the area, a large spire reached from base to peak of the bubble, broad in the middle, but tapering at the ends. It seemed to be mate of complicated circuitry and various diagnostic screens, and was replete with a great many sensitive-looking devices sticking off it at various levels. It also housed a number of ladders and platforms, ringing it at even spaces.
Mach and his SPs were standing on the outside edge of the bubble, however, on one of the broad walkways that ran all the way around Rather than guard rails on the inside, there were simply more bands of monitors and consoles, and a quick look over the edge, or upwards, revealed several more such floors both above and below. Each had four narrower, railed walkways that let in to the central spire, so it would be quite possible for non-fliers to still get around without risking life or limb.
All in all, it looked like they were in the middle of a highly sophisticated control system of some sort, and what it was, or what it might be for, was probably anyone's guess. Although... The other navi in the area probably had a fairly good idea.
Standing at what looked like the most central main control bank, was a navi that looked like a haywire mass of many very long, highly fluid arms, each with more fingers than they ought to have. His form was... mostly... humanoid, though the body itself seemed to be comprised of an even mix of intricate circuitry and more robust mechanisation. His... its? hands worked in an efficient, but seemingly unhurried manner. Each action certain and confident, and nothing rushed. This was probably helped by the sheer number of hands and arms he had to work with, though.
His head turned around to look at Mach as the speed navi arrived. Quite literally, the head first rotated, then flowed towards him by about a foot, seeming to stretch the neck it was attached to as it came. It was a moment or two before the rest of his boy followed suite, turning about and catching up with his head. The effect was more than a little disconcerting. Several of the hands twisted and stretched in order to continue whatever it was they were doing at the controls, but more of them came with the body, seemingly dragged along by a force that pulled them to catch up, rather than moving of their own accord. Face on, he was about average height, and his skin, where it was visible, was a deep blue, shot through with pulsing circuit lights. Most of his head was obscured by a simple hood that seemed to blend into his shoulders and back, as though it was a part of him, but a pair of eyes peeked out from underneath; they were green underneath, but housed a constant scroll and flicker of data, flashing by too fast and too small to follow. The navi sighed softly.
"Already? I really had hoped the big guys would slow you down a little more... damn. Oh well." Beside him, the little polyhedron that had harassed them for so long blinked into sight, and began to shout about how the satellite core had been breached, but before it could get out more than a few stuttering and disjointed words, one of the navi's many hands drifted to lie flat against one of its faces. As with most of his other motions so far, the hand moved first, stretching the arm it was attached to, with the arm itself only resettling itself and catching up a few seconds later. A wave of something seemed to pass from the hand to the shape, making it spasm and jerk more wildly than before, but it fell silent.
"Hush. I know." He turned his eyes back to Mach as the shape disappeared again. A small headset mic folded out from under the hood to rest just by his lips. "Hey C-C, You're out of time, man. That navi I told you about? The random? Seems telling him to keep out only made him want to come in. I know, I know, of all the days, huh? Get yourself clean, man, we've got the essentials done. Nah, I doubt it: He's a tough one. I wager I'll be coming back to you beat all to hades and back, but I'll buy as much time as I can. Sure thing. Ahh... Give me folder D4, I think. Thanks. See you shortly, C-C, and get your repair tools ready once you're clean and clear. I think this one's going to hurt..." The mic slid away a second later, and the navi walked a few more steps towards Mach. They were still along way apart, with most of the walkway between them, but his voice seemed to travel well in the space.
"You know, it's one of the primary traits of all hackers, that. You see a big sign that says 'Keep out!', and you've just GOT to see what's behind it. It's an urge, a thirst we all feel. Don't I know it by half? Still. It's a problem, you being here, right at this particular moment. Most things in life come down to what you know, and even if it isn't a lot at the moment, just having seen this, and me, and everything in between, you know too much already. Knowledge is power, as they say." He laughed to himself, then winked one eye at Mach. "Like knowing what the simplest way to do a thing is, for example. Sure, I could have hacked apart this satellite's security system and configured it to attack you, but that would have taken a while and been pretty complicated. But knowledge gives me power: I know a better way. Simple enough just to re-write the system's definitions, so it identifies navis and support programs as viral, and viruses as part of its own systems. Quick, easy, beautifully ironic. No?" He shrugged once and raised a hand on either side in a motion that might have been a part of the helpless gesture.
"Anyway. Maybe we can share some knowledge with one another, before things get messy. Call me CrypticMan... So how do I call the one's that've jammed a great big Mecha-spanner in my works?" As he asked this question, two of his hands came forward to form a picture frame around Mach, Aera and Vector between their thumbs and fingers, in front of his own eyes. He wasn't making any immediate moves to attack just yet, but at the same time... several of his hands were still working away at the consoles behind him.
-=The Scene=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 500Hp [Minding its own Business]
CrypticMan: ???Hp
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 250Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Vector.SP: 29Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
Terrain is arranged as a series of circular rings attached to the inside edge of a very large transparent sphere. Each layer is a broad pathway, with banks of electrical equipment and consoles forming the safety rails on the inner side. Each layer connects to the central spire via a narrower walkway, with simple metal guard rails, at the four cardinal points. The central spire is also traversable, with a smaller ringing pathway at the same points as each layer, to which the joining paths connect. Further. The central rings also have ladders connecting the inner layers to each other. The central inner layer has a slightly larger surface area than the other,s and contains a larger collection of consoles and control nodes. The bottom-most layer is solid all the way in.
-=NAXA Rogue Battle 10 ... Ready, but not Started=-
Vacation in Orbit
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The trio made their way to the door, but the first step was a lot further than they originally figured, effectively warping into a dome-like structure. In their surprise Mach and Aera precautionary defensive positions, expecting yet another wave of viruses. Vector's eye darted around over his armor-like body. He tried to find potential foes, just as Mach and Aera did the same, but they only noted an odd program dead ahead of the group. The program had a multitude of arms, which appeared to move without a rigid structure, and had numerous fingers on each flexible appendage. Aera had a fairly unsettled look on her face as she looked upon the program, her left eye occasionally twitched. [[i]Tentacles... why does it have to be tentacles...[/i]] she thought, having been reminded of an unpleasantly similar encounter last time they ventured into the NAXA networks.
She tried her best not to recoil when the program made it readily apparent it was aware of the group's presence, and proved its head was as non-rigid as its arms. The program didn't appear to be readily hostile, and it attempted to multitask even as it approached. It was certainly a peculiar program, in both design and physical mannerisms. It sighed, then revealed it knew of the trials the group had undertaken, and apparently they were of its own doing. Mach would've been in his right mind to attack right then and there, but he honestly had no idea where he was, and if there was a way out. A diplomatic agreement could be achieved, or at least it could give Mach enough information prior to getting beaten to a pulp. The program activated a mic, and began to speak to an ally, or accomplice after pacifying the polyhedron. As soon as it began to speak, Mach started to make a point of recording the heard audio. It appeared they were in something called the "satellite core," were they in the network of an actual spacecraft?
Mach listened as the program advised its ally. From the conversation, it appeared the program wanted its accomplice to somehow get itself "clean" and stand by after it got through with Mach and the gang. Any attempt to appear innocent faded quickly, it seemed rather obvious Mach and Co stumbled upon a plot, a devious one at that. It attempted to explain its position being the result of rebellious curiosity, before going on some platitude about "knowledge is power." Mach eyed the program carefully, Aera and Vector did the same. It continued by reveling in its own accomplishment of rewriting the security to instead utilize viral signatures to attack Navis. It then seemed to want to at least exchange a few words before things "got messy," and introduced itself as CrypticMan... fitting.
"MachMan," Mach replied coldly, "I'd prefer not to make things 'messy' if possible," he continued, gesturing to the equipment around him with his hand. "It may be wise to just let us know what you were up to, and we can make an agreement that won't involve wrecking the place. After all..." He raised an eyebrow, finally showing some emotion, "... we did go quite out of our way to get here." Mach didn't show any sort of hesitation, though neither showing any outright hostility. Aera managed to keep her expression in check, and stifle the growing disgust she was feeling.
She tried her best not to recoil when the program made it readily apparent it was aware of the group's presence, and proved its head was as non-rigid as its arms. The program didn't appear to be readily hostile, and it attempted to multitask even as it approached. It was certainly a peculiar program, in both design and physical mannerisms. It sighed, then revealed it knew of the trials the group had undertaken, and apparently they were of its own doing. Mach would've been in his right mind to attack right then and there, but he honestly had no idea where he was, and if there was a way out. A diplomatic agreement could be achieved, or at least it could give Mach enough information prior to getting beaten to a pulp. The program activated a mic, and began to speak to an ally, or accomplice after pacifying the polyhedron. As soon as it began to speak, Mach started to make a point of recording the heard audio. It appeared they were in something called the "satellite core," were they in the network of an actual spacecraft?
Mach listened as the program advised its ally. From the conversation, it appeared the program wanted its accomplice to somehow get itself "clean" and stand by after it got through with Mach and the gang. Any attempt to appear innocent faded quickly, it seemed rather obvious Mach and Co stumbled upon a plot, a devious one at that. It attempted to explain its position being the result of rebellious curiosity, before going on some platitude about "knowledge is power." Mach eyed the program carefully, Aera and Vector did the same. It continued by reveling in its own accomplishment of rewriting the security to instead utilize viral signatures to attack Navis. It then seemed to want to at least exchange a few words before things "got messy," and introduced itself as CrypticMan... fitting.
"MachMan," Mach replied coldly, "I'd prefer not to make things 'messy' if possible," he continued, gesturing to the equipment around him with his hand. "It may be wise to just let us know what you were up to, and we can make an agreement that won't involve wrecking the place. After all..." He raised an eyebrow, finally showing some emotion, "... we did go quite out of our way to get here." Mach didn't show any sort of hesitation, though neither showing any outright hostility. Aera managed to keep her expression in check, and stifle the growing disgust she was feeling.
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"MachMan. Thanks for your honesty... and Aera? You should know..." The unusual navi disappeared in a small static flash, reappearing a short way behind Mach and co, and a little to the side. He was facing one of the other terminals, and operating it with several more hands, but then turned his head all the way around to look at the trio again. Two of his limbs slipped along the ground then up to tap the tips of his many fingered hands on Aera's shoulders, before retracting them again just as quickly. His body flowed around to catch up with the position of his head a moment later as he continued. "When they have multi-digital fingers and fully structured hands on the ends, it's not proper to call them tentacles. Most just say I'm all hands." He chuckled softly, as the series of green lights began to turn on all the way up the large central spire.
In a flash, he blinked out of sight again, back to the main console, hands still busily tapping keys, his back remained to them this time, eyes watching the screens. Mach hadn't given the names of his SPs, so it seemed likely that Cryptic already knew their names, and had been testing.
"Truth be told, I'd really rather not fight you. I've been watching you, and listening in. You three really cleaned house on the viruses I sent after you, and I'm really not much of a fighter, myself. But that still leaves us with a problem. I really don't want to let you out of here having seen me. I could always do short term data wipe on you three... knock out your perception of everything that's happened between now, back to when you first brushed the satellite's defence systems." He shook his head. His hands darted across the small open space to another console, and then his head turned, and the rest of his body flowed after them. "But that leaves the problem of your operator, doesn't it? Nothing I can do about him, not from here."
A series of red lights joined the blinking green ones scattered all over the central tower. It might not be wise to let the navi keep talking and working, whatever he was doing.
"Haven't had a chance to do a background on you, but I'm guessing you aren't the sort to want to join up with a group like ours, so there's not much point in me telling you anything. At this rate, I wager you'll probably beat the snot out of me, not know what's going on here, check out, and then I'll have to send Armistice to make sure you don't say anything, after the fact. So untidy. Ah, drat!" The fingers on one hand snapped in annoyance, while another one drummed fingertips on the console edge.
"I can't cut you three off from your PET with just these systems here... pity. Best I can do is... There. Link-out isolation. Can't stop you jacking out, but this data server is isolated firmly enough to stop you going anywhere else, at least." He grinned, and shrugged, almost as though apologising to them for not being able to cut them off more effectively. A moment later he teleported again, now to a smaller control bank a couple of floors above the centre of the main spire.
"Good that you don't want to wreck this place though." His voice carried easily enough, though it was clear that he'd raised it at least a bit to help himself be heard. "We're right in the middle of one of NAXA's orbiter's core control system. It's internally self-served, so, you crash this, and you could well cause the whole physical satellite to come down... us along with it. " Maybe he just liked to talk... maybe he enjoyed sharing information and educating others, or maybe he was rambling for time. Either way, the more he said, that More Mach and co were learning by proxy, and the more they knew, the less likely it seemed that the navi would let them go peacefully. It seemed a very strange approach to be taking, for the peculiar navi... but then, bug types were often very strange.
-=The Scene=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 500Hp [Lit up Red and Green, like a Christmas tree!]
CrypticMan: ???Hp
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 250Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Vector.SP: 29Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
Terrain is arranged as a series of circular rings attached to the inside edge of a very large transparent sphere. Each layer is a broad pathway, with banks of electrical equipment and consoles forming the safety rails on the inner side. Each layer connects to the central spire via a narrower walkway, with simple metal guard rails, at the four cardinal points. The central spire is also traversable, with a smaller ringing pathway at the same points as each layer, to which the joining paths connect. Further. The central rings also have ladders connecting the inner layers to each other. The central inner layer has a slightly larger surface area than the other,s and contains a larger collection of consoles and control nodes. The bottom-most layer is solid all the way in.
-=NAXA Rogue Battle 10 ... Looming and Imminent=-
In a flash, he blinked out of sight again, back to the main console, hands still busily tapping keys, his back remained to them this time, eyes watching the screens. Mach hadn't given the names of his SPs, so it seemed likely that Cryptic already knew their names, and had been testing.
"Truth be told, I'd really rather not fight you. I've been watching you, and listening in. You three really cleaned house on the viruses I sent after you, and I'm really not much of a fighter, myself. But that still leaves us with a problem. I really don't want to let you out of here having seen me. I could always do short term data wipe on you three... knock out your perception of everything that's happened between now, back to when you first brushed the satellite's defence systems." He shook his head. His hands darted across the small open space to another console, and then his head turned, and the rest of his body flowed after them. "But that leaves the problem of your operator, doesn't it? Nothing I can do about him, not from here."
A series of red lights joined the blinking green ones scattered all over the central tower. It might not be wise to let the navi keep talking and working, whatever he was doing.
"Haven't had a chance to do a background on you, but I'm guessing you aren't the sort to want to join up with a group like ours, so there's not much point in me telling you anything. At this rate, I wager you'll probably beat the snot out of me, not know what's going on here, check out, and then I'll have to send Armistice to make sure you don't say anything, after the fact. So untidy. Ah, drat!" The fingers on one hand snapped in annoyance, while another one drummed fingertips on the console edge.
"I can't cut you three off from your PET with just these systems here... pity. Best I can do is... There. Link-out isolation. Can't stop you jacking out, but this data server is isolated firmly enough to stop you going anywhere else, at least." He grinned, and shrugged, almost as though apologising to them for not being able to cut them off more effectively. A moment later he teleported again, now to a smaller control bank a couple of floors above the centre of the main spire.
"Good that you don't want to wreck this place though." His voice carried easily enough, though it was clear that he'd raised it at least a bit to help himself be heard. "We're right in the middle of one of NAXA's orbiter's core control system. It's internally self-served, so, you crash this, and you could well cause the whole physical satellite to come down... us along with it. " Maybe he just liked to talk... maybe he enjoyed sharing information and educating others, or maybe he was rambling for time. Either way, the more he said, that More Mach and co were learning by proxy, and the more they knew, the less likely it seemed that the navi would let them go peacefully. It seemed a very strange approach to be taking, for the peculiar navi... but then, bug types were often very strange.
-=The Scene=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 500Hp [Lit up Red and Green, like a Christmas tree!]
CrypticMan: ???Hp
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 250Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
Vector.SP: 29Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
Terrain is arranged as a series of circular rings attached to the inside edge of a very large transparent sphere. Each layer is a broad pathway, with banks of electrical equipment and consoles forming the safety rails on the inner side. Each layer connects to the central spire via a narrower walkway, with simple metal guard rails, at the four cardinal points. The central spire is also traversable, with a smaller ringing pathway at the same points as each layer, to which the joining paths connect. Further. The central rings also have ladders connecting the inner layers to each other. The central inner layer has a slightly larger surface area than the other,s and contains a larger collection of consoles and control nodes. The bottom-most layer is solid all the way in.
-=NAXA Rogue Battle 10 ... Looming and Imminent=-
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CrypticMan had already known Aera's name, and teleported to a different location, both rather disturbing abilities. More disturbing, however, was his apparent ability to tap into a program's inner monologue, as he somehow "heard" Aera's comment about her arms. She almost shivered as she glanced back and felt the Navi's fingers brush against her shoulders. If he hadn't retracted his arms quickly, Vector would've lashed out in retaliation. In only a brief period, the Navi became much more of a threat; he demonstrated skills in teleportation, telepathy, and a significant amount of intelligence.
CrypticMan started to verbalize potential solutions to his "problem," and even considered attempting memory wipes, etc. Mazer started to get his chips at the ready, as it was fairly obvious this was about to result in violence. "What is this group of yours? If you're so confident this 'Armistice' character will somehow keep us quiet, what do you have to lose? Mach replied, trying to pry any information he could. If anything, his recording could provide enough data to be useful when turned into the authorities. "Who knows? My group and yours might be able to benefit from each other," he added. It was very likely the Neo-Shogunate wouldn't have much use for these kinds of nefarious activities, but better to have a tentative ally than a blatant foe.
The Navi blinked away one last time after he mentioned he blocked their return path, but wasn't able to prevent their escape via log-out. It wasn't much of a cage, it seemed more like a formality, and an attempt to stall for time. He then confirmed Mach's suspicions, they were indeed in the circuitry of an actual satellite, allegedly. While the possibility of bringing the orbiter down wasn't really that dangerous, as they could simply log out, but downing a multi-billion zenny piece of hardware wasn't a favorable outcome. Not allowing the Navi more time to stall, Mach raised his arm, pointing the newly formed buster towards the Navi aggressively. "Alright, are you going to continue talking, or are we going to get back to the business at hand?" Mach didn't have much choice, he couldn't really back down. That being said, Mach hoped he didn't bite off more than he could chew.
CrypticMan started to verbalize potential solutions to his "problem," and even considered attempting memory wipes, etc. Mazer started to get his chips at the ready, as it was fairly obvious this was about to result in violence. "What is this group of yours? If you're so confident this 'Armistice' character will somehow keep us quiet, what do you have to lose? Mach replied, trying to pry any information he could. If anything, his recording could provide enough data to be useful when turned into the authorities. "Who knows? My group and yours might be able to benefit from each other," he added. It was very likely the Neo-Shogunate wouldn't have much use for these kinds of nefarious activities, but better to have a tentative ally than a blatant foe.
The Navi blinked away one last time after he mentioned he blocked their return path, but wasn't able to prevent their escape via log-out. It wasn't much of a cage, it seemed more like a formality, and an attempt to stall for time. He then confirmed Mach's suspicions, they were indeed in the circuitry of an actual satellite, allegedly. While the possibility of bringing the orbiter down wasn't really that dangerous, as they could simply log out, but downing a multi-billion zenny piece of hardware wasn't a favorable outcome. Not allowing the Navi more time to stall, Mach raised his arm, pointing the newly formed buster towards the Navi aggressively. "Alright, are you going to continue talking, or are we going to get back to the business at hand?" Mach didn't have much choice, he couldn't really back down. That being said, Mach hoped he didn't bite off more than he could chew.
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Another teleport, and another casually conversational revelation. CrypticMan had moved to another terminal on the outer edge, about a quarter of the way around the circle from Mach, as he spoke.
"It's quite simple, really. We're a vested interest group. The 'Flexible Ownership Redistribution Fellowship for the Enabling of Inter-societal Trading'. We're interested in acquisitions, of all sorts and from all walks. Most of us have fields of speciality, of course, but I'm just their tech support and intel guy. Not a front liner at all, really" He turned around in that disconcerting delayed slide of his, then blinked clear across the room to the opposite side. "Though I guess that's a form of acquisition in its own right, wouldn't you say?"
The two consoles both started blinking yellow lights, before all of the outer walkways ringing the sphere began a rolling wave of panel flips, spreading out in both direction from each side and turning the ground into the bright glow of solar. With that done, the overly-talkative navi turned back and reappeared a short distance in front of Mach and co. Under the hood, his congenial smile had faded now, and six of his arms rose up in an array behind him. The hands shifted and folded, collapsing down and narrowing away into simple, flexing points, each with a small bright light on the end. NOW they were tentacles.
"I don't want to fight you, but the best thing I can do now is wipe your memories of all this. You don't look like you're going to let me. I've done the math, I doubt I can beat you down enough to do it by force. Don't have much choice but to try though." Another four of his arms reconfigured, forming into broad, curved plates that looked to be made half of cybernetic energy field and half of blunter mechanical tech. They slipped down to drift just a little to either side of him, like shields, ready to intercept. His main body hadn't adopted a fighting stance, per se, but his readiness was clear.
"So let's do this."
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 600hp [4-hit shield][Metal]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 250Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
Vector.SP: 29Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
-=The Setting=-
40% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
60% Solar [Outer Rings]
Terrain is arranged as a series of circular rings attached to the inside edge of a very large transparent sphere. Each layer is a broad pathway, with banks of electrical equipment and consoles forming the safety rails on the inner side. Each layer connects to the central spire via a narrower walkway, with simple metal guard rails, at the four cardinal points. The central spire is also traversable, with a smaller ringing pathway at the same points as each layer, to which the joining paths connect. Further. The central rings also have ladders connecting the inner layers to each other. The central inner layer has a slightly larger surface area than the other,s and contains a larger collection of consoles and control nodes. The bottom-most layer is solid all the way in.
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 500Hp [Lit up Red and Green, like a Christmas tree!][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Notes=-
[Conductive]: Conductive objects will receive doubled damage from any electrical damage source.
Any of the consoles about the area, including those connected directly to the central spire, may be interacted with by anyone, including SPs, and CrypticMan. Exactly what might happen from doing so is a mystery for now.
-=NAXA Rogue Battle 10: The Fight is On (at last)=-
"It's quite simple, really. We're a vested interest group. The 'Flexible Ownership Redistribution Fellowship for the Enabling of Inter-societal Trading'. We're interested in acquisitions, of all sorts and from all walks. Most of us have fields of speciality, of course, but I'm just their tech support and intel guy. Not a front liner at all, really" He turned around in that disconcerting delayed slide of his, then blinked clear across the room to the opposite side. "Though I guess that's a form of acquisition in its own right, wouldn't you say?"
The two consoles both started blinking yellow lights, before all of the outer walkways ringing the sphere began a rolling wave of panel flips, spreading out in both direction from each side and turning the ground into the bright glow of solar. With that done, the overly-talkative navi turned back and reappeared a short distance in front of Mach and co. Under the hood, his congenial smile had faded now, and six of his arms rose up in an array behind him. The hands shifted and folded, collapsing down and narrowing away into simple, flexing points, each with a small bright light on the end. NOW they were tentacles.
"I don't want to fight you, but the best thing I can do now is wipe your memories of all this. You don't look like you're going to let me. I've done the math, I doubt I can beat you down enough to do it by force. Don't have much choice but to try though." Another four of his arms reconfigured, forming into broad, curved plates that looked to be made half of cybernetic energy field and half of blunter mechanical tech. They slipped down to drift just a little to either side of him, like shields, ready to intercept. His main body hadn't adopted a fighting stance, per se, but his readiness was clear.
"So let's do this."
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 600hp [4-hit shield][Metal]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 250Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
Vector.SP: 29Hp [Central Layer, Outside Edge][Solar]
-=The Setting=-
40% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
60% Solar [Outer Rings]
Terrain is arranged as a series of circular rings attached to the inside edge of a very large transparent sphere. Each layer is a broad pathway, with banks of electrical equipment and consoles forming the safety rails on the inner side. Each layer connects to the central spire via a narrower walkway, with simple metal guard rails, at the four cardinal points. The central spire is also traversable, with a smaller ringing pathway at the same points as each layer, to which the joining paths connect. Further. The central rings also have ladders connecting the inner layers to each other. The central inner layer has a slightly larger surface area than the other,s and contains a larger collection of consoles and control nodes. The bottom-most layer is solid all the way in.
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 500Hp [Lit up Red and Green, like a Christmas tree!][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Notes=-
[Conductive]: Conductive objects will receive doubled damage from any electrical damage source.
Any of the consoles about the area, including those connected directly to the central spire, may be interacted with by anyone, including SPs, and CrypticMan. Exactly what might happen from doing so is a mystery for now.
-=NAXA Rogue Battle 10: The Fight is On (at last)=-
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"Tech support and Intel for F.O.R.F.E.I.T., huh," Mach replied as CrypticMan revealed his organization and "title" of sorts. "Sounds like a fancy name for 'Data Theft Incorporated.' As for me, I'm just rank & file." While Mach addressed the Navi, Aera gave Vector a quick burst of regenerative energy, as well as fashioned an IV before she placed it on the back of the armor. The somewhat contoured patch was white with little red crosses embossed across its face in two perpendicularly intersecting lines, and it seeped little green embers of data into the fractal SP's body.
CrypticMan shifted to a more combat-focused configuration, but uttered an overall distaste towards the prospect of fighting the trio. He didn't seem very confident in his own combat abilities, but still hung the threat of memory erasure over their heads. Worst case it was just a front, which Mach assumed. "You can always surrender, but it sounds like you're set on a memory wipe. That just won't do, regardless of the math." Mach quipped with an added, albeit uncharacteristic, venom to his voice. Incidentally, streams of red color started to 'bleed' into his eyes and blended with the blue to form a more magenta color. His pupils were mostly obscured, the only difference being a slightly darker hue.
Go time
Bolts of purple electricity arced up from the ground below both Mach and Aera, initiating their transformations seemingly in the blink of an eye. The electrical bolts covered their forms in a web-like pattern, then disappeared as quickly as they appeared, revealing their new forms. MachMan's hair had changed to a cyan/light blue, which transitioned to a silvery white near his bangs. Mach's face mask changed to a very dark blue with a white trimmed design, which made it appear as if the mask could split apart into an upper and lower jaw, complete with a pair of angular fangs. The pylons were a dark blue as well, and the front points made a slight angle downwards and extend almost past his mask, somewhat like a spider's mandibles. His normally orange body suit was black with a tinge of red, and the normally navy blue armor was just as dark as his face mask. Each piece of his armor was trimmed with a thin line of indigo, while his gloves and soles of his boots were trimmed in crimson, and the fingers were more pointed like claws. His most striking change were the addition of four multi-segmented mechanical arms mounted to his back. The arm segments didn't appear physically attached to each other, instead they were tethered to each other by some invisible force. Each arm was adorned with a three-clawed hand, seemingly reminiscent to Vector's design. Mach glared CrypticMan, which prompted an additional 4 eyes to open, which formed in two lines from his forehead to his eyebrows. All 6 of his spider-like eyes were fixed on the Navi with an understandably malicious intent.
Though the fractal Navi seemed to be inspiration to Mach's spider arms, he underwent a significant change as well. Instead of the partial jaggedly armored corset/skirt/visor combo, he mostly encompassed Aera's body in armor. Said armor had more natural, form-fitting shapes, and appeared less like worn armor and more like a chitin exoskeleton. Aera was covered pretty much head to toe in insectoid armor, save for a few areas near the back of hear head, which allowed for her cyan hair to flow freely. The rest of her head was encompassed by something akin to a motorcycle helmet, the nose/mouth area was a dull silver with a jagged crease to give the appearance of a fanged maw. The visor was split into two large, pointed ellipse shapes, which glowed crimson. There were four smaller, similar shapes next to the two larger visors, to make a full 6 glowing red spider "eyes." The armor covering Aera's shoulders, forearms, and thighs had several spike-like protrusions, giving her an overall spiny feel. In addition to that, she had four spider-like arms like Mach, which sprouted from four ports on her back.
Though it appeared Mach had simply transformed in front of his foe, he in fact teleported away to the upper ring of the spire and left a decoy in his place. An additional two decoys split from his ruse, which ultimately left 4 MachMen on the battlefield. The original decoy took a combat stance, bringing all 6 of his pointed appendages to bear before it leaped towards CrypticMan. The decoy slashed at the Navi aggressively with a flurry of sharpened hands, which snapped aggressively, as if they were yearning for something to cut and slice. The other two jumped to either side of the middle ring, ready to engage their target if he got close. The armored Aera cartwheeled to the side and helped Vector launch one of the many sharpened spikes adorning her body towards CrypticMan. As the needle-like projectile whistled towards their foe, Aera tried to put the central spire between her and CrypticMan, as ordered by a text from Mach: [[i]Keep clear, try to restore/maintain control of the station. Leave him to me.[/i]]
Mach pointed his right arm towards CrypticMan below, which prompted his trusty vulcan cannon to materialize under his forearm. The triple-barreled weapon formed quickly and flipped its trigger assembly up to Mach's waiting hand, which allowed him to draw a bead on the slightly amorphous Navi. As soon as he got a good firing solution, the weapon spun up quickly before it erupted with a piercing roar. The armor-piercing rounds ripped through the air on their bee-line path towards the Navi, their path was drawn by the bright orange glow of the tracers. As Mach unloaded his vulcan ammunition on the Navi, he jumped to the ceiling and let his mecha-arachnid appendages secure him to the nearly transparent glass and quickly crawl to the outer ring. He ran out of ammunition just before he reached the outer ring. With a quick hop, he disengaged from the nearly transparent glass ceiling and dropped to the platform. "Send me the TankCannon, Counter, and MeteorKnuckle chips, please. I'll likely need the Aura soon, so keep that handy," he requested of his NetOp. Mazer had been watching the entire exchange, ready and waiting for the fight to start. He had his chip magazine ready and slotted in the requested chips, he popped out the ElecAura chip and placed it on his desk, as it was "on deck" for use.
Aera raised her magnetic shielding, which adopted a more web-like appearance (but no less transparent). Vector sent several body plates out to reinforce her defenses, which looked more rounded and organic than his default configuration. Aera dashed to one of the consoles CrypticMan previously accessed, and glanced back to locate the Navi; she wanted to to leave the center spire between her and the Navi, so Mach could deal with him unimpeded. Meanwhile, Mach leaned over the edge to relocate CrypticMan and pointed his right arm towards his foe. A large artillery-esque cannon materialized over his arm, and pointed towards the multi-armed Navi. Mach focused his aim towards the Navi's center mass before he triggered the weapon. The smooth-bore cannon fired its projectile with a ring-like plume of white smoke and a sharp boom, the barrel slid backwards in an attempt to reduce the recoil, but it ultimately fragmented and disappeared. Mach expected his attack wouldn't go without a response, so he prepared to dash and tumble out of the way, even if he had to use his arachnid arms to flip up and over the platform to secure himself on the platform's underside.
Aera moved to one of the consoles CrypticMan previously accessed, and looked over the controls to figure out what to do. Vector kept an eye out, and prepared to fire yet another sharpened spike towards the Navi if he attempted to interfere. Aera tried to determine what CrypticMan changed, and looked over the myriad of displays. She focused on any flashing or warning indications, NAXA would have likely made any faults/unacceptable parameters obvious to its system/users. If she found any, especially ones that affected the orbiter's guidance or telemetry, she would try to restore any of its default "hold" programs to restore a sustainable orbit.
Mach activated his second chip, which caused his right arm to swarm with data. The code manifested itself into a series of yellow armored plates which secured themselves all the way from his fingers to his shoulder, which effectively fitted him with a fully functional GutFist. He flexed his fingers before he tightened them to a fist. If CrypticMan made the unfortunate decision to attack, he would be greeted with a crushing fist to the face. Subtlety wasn't at all considered when the attack was designed; you punch, you get punched back harder. Mach had also planned to follow up on his lighting-fast counter attack utilizing three of his mechanical appendages, which would have delivered a series of sharp jabs towards the Navi. Since the arm segments weren't physically attached to one another, the strikes could look more akin to rocket punches if CrypticMan managed to put some distance between himself and Mach. Mach somersaulted backwards, utilizing his mechanical appendages to send him in an unnaturally smooth backflip and back to his feet.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, Accuracy Enhancement, Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Vector: Equip to Aera
-[Recharge: Vector (Heal 18)]-
-[IV: Vector (Heal 5 per action]-
1. Activate SylkCrosslvl2 [Elec/Shadow] (+20 HP, +0 Action, + 15dmg to Elec Battlechips) -[Activates SylkCross.GMOs for Aera & Vector]-
2. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to upper ring of spire (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Dodge
Vector: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
3. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD) [+ Assassin Bonus]
-[Movement: Crawl down "ceiling" of dome towards mid-level]-
Aera: Repulsion Shield (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced (+2 hits)]-
Aera: Move to console ring
4. TankCannon3: CrypticMan.EXE (160dmg) (A)
-[Dodge]-
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Aera: Access console and attempt to restore function/prevent telemetry failures
5. Counter1 (1-Hit I-Field) + (Counter(70dmg + Impact + Break): On-Hit) [blocks debuffs] (S Block/A return)
6. MeteorKnuckle2: CrypticMan (40dmg + Impact + Break + Knockback + Variable Targeting x 3 Fists) (B)
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Move to the right, engage CrypticMan on sight
DecoyB: Move to the left, engage CrypticMan on sight
ShadowDecoy: Actively engage/chase CrypticMan
CrypticMan shifted to a more combat-focused configuration, but uttered an overall distaste towards the prospect of fighting the trio. He didn't seem very confident in his own combat abilities, but still hung the threat of memory erasure over their heads. Worst case it was just a front, which Mach assumed. "You can always surrender, but it sounds like you're set on a memory wipe. That just won't do, regardless of the math." Mach quipped with an added, albeit uncharacteristic, venom to his voice. Incidentally, streams of red color started to 'bleed' into his eyes and blended with the blue to form a more magenta color. His pupils were mostly obscured, the only difference being a slightly darker hue.
Go time
Bolts of purple electricity arced up from the ground below both Mach and Aera, initiating their transformations seemingly in the blink of an eye. The electrical bolts covered their forms in a web-like pattern, then disappeared as quickly as they appeared, revealing their new forms. MachMan's hair had changed to a cyan/light blue, which transitioned to a silvery white near his bangs. Mach's face mask changed to a very dark blue with a white trimmed design, which made it appear as if the mask could split apart into an upper and lower jaw, complete with a pair of angular fangs. The pylons were a dark blue as well, and the front points made a slight angle downwards and extend almost past his mask, somewhat like a spider's mandibles. His normally orange body suit was black with a tinge of red, and the normally navy blue armor was just as dark as his face mask. Each piece of his armor was trimmed with a thin line of indigo, while his gloves and soles of his boots were trimmed in crimson, and the fingers were more pointed like claws. His most striking change were the addition of four multi-segmented mechanical arms mounted to his back. The arm segments didn't appear physically attached to each other, instead they were tethered to each other by some invisible force. Each arm was adorned with a three-clawed hand, seemingly reminiscent to Vector's design. Mach glared CrypticMan, which prompted an additional 4 eyes to open, which formed in two lines from his forehead to his eyebrows. All 6 of his spider-like eyes were fixed on the Navi with an understandably malicious intent.
Though the fractal Navi seemed to be inspiration to Mach's spider arms, he underwent a significant change as well. Instead of the partial jaggedly armored corset/skirt/visor combo, he mostly encompassed Aera's body in armor. Said armor had more natural, form-fitting shapes, and appeared less like worn armor and more like a chitin exoskeleton. Aera was covered pretty much head to toe in insectoid armor, save for a few areas near the back of hear head, which allowed for her cyan hair to flow freely. The rest of her head was encompassed by something akin to a motorcycle helmet, the nose/mouth area was a dull silver with a jagged crease to give the appearance of a fanged maw. The visor was split into two large, pointed ellipse shapes, which glowed crimson. There were four smaller, similar shapes next to the two larger visors, to make a full 6 glowing red spider "eyes." The armor covering Aera's shoulders, forearms, and thighs had several spike-like protrusions, giving her an overall spiny feel. In addition to that, she had four spider-like arms like Mach, which sprouted from four ports on her back.
Though it appeared Mach had simply transformed in front of his foe, he in fact teleported away to the upper ring of the spire and left a decoy in his place. An additional two decoys split from his ruse, which ultimately left 4 MachMen on the battlefield. The original decoy took a combat stance, bringing all 6 of his pointed appendages to bear before it leaped towards CrypticMan. The decoy slashed at the Navi aggressively with a flurry of sharpened hands, which snapped aggressively, as if they were yearning for something to cut and slice. The other two jumped to either side of the middle ring, ready to engage their target if he got close. The armored Aera cartwheeled to the side and helped Vector launch one of the many sharpened spikes adorning her body towards CrypticMan. As the needle-like projectile whistled towards their foe, Aera tried to put the central spire between her and CrypticMan, as ordered by a text from Mach: [[i]Keep clear, try to restore/maintain control of the station. Leave him to me.[/i]]
Mach pointed his right arm towards CrypticMan below, which prompted his trusty vulcan cannon to materialize under his forearm. The triple-barreled weapon formed quickly and flipped its trigger assembly up to Mach's waiting hand, which allowed him to draw a bead on the slightly amorphous Navi. As soon as he got a good firing solution, the weapon spun up quickly before it erupted with a piercing roar. The armor-piercing rounds ripped through the air on their bee-line path towards the Navi, their path was drawn by the bright orange glow of the tracers. As Mach unloaded his vulcan ammunition on the Navi, he jumped to the ceiling and let his mecha-arachnid appendages secure him to the nearly transparent glass and quickly crawl to the outer ring. He ran out of ammunition just before he reached the outer ring. With a quick hop, he disengaged from the nearly transparent glass ceiling and dropped to the platform. "Send me the TankCannon, Counter, and MeteorKnuckle chips, please. I'll likely need the Aura soon, so keep that handy," he requested of his NetOp. Mazer had been watching the entire exchange, ready and waiting for the fight to start. He had his chip magazine ready and slotted in the requested chips, he popped out the ElecAura chip and placed it on his desk, as it was "on deck" for use.
Aera raised her magnetic shielding, which adopted a more web-like appearance (but no less transparent). Vector sent several body plates out to reinforce her defenses, which looked more rounded and organic than his default configuration. Aera dashed to one of the consoles CrypticMan previously accessed, and glanced back to locate the Navi; she wanted to to leave the center spire between her and the Navi, so Mach could deal with him unimpeded. Meanwhile, Mach leaned over the edge to relocate CrypticMan and pointed his right arm towards his foe. A large artillery-esque cannon materialized over his arm, and pointed towards the multi-armed Navi. Mach focused his aim towards the Navi's center mass before he triggered the weapon. The smooth-bore cannon fired its projectile with a ring-like plume of white smoke and a sharp boom, the barrel slid backwards in an attempt to reduce the recoil, but it ultimately fragmented and disappeared. Mach expected his attack wouldn't go without a response, so he prepared to dash and tumble out of the way, even if he had to use his arachnid arms to flip up and over the platform to secure himself on the platform's underside.
Aera moved to one of the consoles CrypticMan previously accessed, and looked over the controls to figure out what to do. Vector kept an eye out, and prepared to fire yet another sharpened spike towards the Navi if he attempted to interfere. Aera tried to determine what CrypticMan changed, and looked over the myriad of displays. She focused on any flashing or warning indications, NAXA would have likely made any faults/unacceptable parameters obvious to its system/users. If she found any, especially ones that affected the orbiter's guidance or telemetry, she would try to restore any of its default "hold" programs to restore a sustainable orbit.
Mach activated his second chip, which caused his right arm to swarm with data. The code manifested itself into a series of yellow armored plates which secured themselves all the way from his fingers to his shoulder, which effectively fitted him with a fully functional GutFist. He flexed his fingers before he tightened them to a fist. If CrypticMan made the unfortunate decision to attack, he would be greeted with a crushing fist to the face. Subtlety wasn't at all considered when the attack was designed; you punch, you get punched back harder. Mach had also planned to follow up on his lighting-fast counter attack utilizing three of his mechanical appendages, which would have delivered a series of sharp jabs towards the Navi. Since the arm segments weren't physically attached to one another, the strikes could look more akin to rocket punches if CrypticMan managed to put some distance between himself and Mach. Mach somersaulted backwards, utilizing his mechanical appendages to send him in an unnaturally smooth backflip and back to his feet.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, Accuracy Enhancement, Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Vector: Equip to Aera
-[Recharge: Vector (Heal 18)]-
-[IV: Vector (Heal 5 per action]-
1. Activate SylkCrosslvl2 [Elec/Shadow] (+20 HP, +0 Action, + 15dmg to Elec Battlechips) -[Activates SylkCross.GMOs for Aera & Vector]-
2. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to upper ring of spire (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Dodge
Vector: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
3. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD) [+ Assassin Bonus]
-[Movement: Crawl down "ceiling" of dome towards mid-level]-
Aera: Repulsion Shield (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced (+2 hits)]-
Aera: Move to console ring
4. TankCannon3: CrypticMan.EXE (160dmg) (A)
-[Dodge]-
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Aera: Access console and attempt to restore function/prevent telemetry failures
5. Counter1 (1-Hit I-Field) + (Counter(70dmg + Impact + Break): On-Hit) [blocks debuffs] (S Block/A return)
6. MeteorKnuckle2: CrypticMan (40dmg + Impact + Break + Knockback + Variable Targeting x 3 Fists) (B)
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Move to the right, engage CrypticMan on sight
DecoyB: Move to the left, engage CrypticMan on sight
ShadowDecoy: Actively engage/chase CrypticMan
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Despite the battle lines being drawn, CrypticMan seemed more than willing to be drawn out for more dialogue, even as Aera slipped vector a quick boost. His hands, shields and tentacle tips all twitched and shifted a little as the navi himself shrugged.
"Call it what you will. We're interested in all forms of acquisitions, though, not simply data. We navis do out part, but every member of our organisation is a pair, after all. I know I wouldn't be.... Well that's new." He broke off, all of his extraneous limbs snapping back up to their ready positions as Mach began his transformation. Cryptic watched intently, as though one fascinated by the process.
"Glad you have at least one new trick to show me... Let's see..." underneath the obscuring hood, the colours of his eyes kaleidoscoped breifly. "Electric. Makes sense. Looks like you made friends with a spider." His musing was interrupted as the significantly more venomous MachMan made his move. Cryptic took a step back, closing in his shields while his light-tipped limbs jumped up.
"I wouldn't bother trying to catch me with that one..." Four tiny bolts of electrical light shot from the tips of several arms; one each piercing through the two decoys to each side, and then two more to shoot clean through the central figure. The laughter faded from the many-armed navi as all three forms disolved.
"A third? Damnit, where'd you..." his eyes flicked upward, and in a flash he disappeared. Unfortunately for Vector, his quick attack passed through the space where his target had been only a moment ago, and hit nothing.
Up above them, Cryptic teleported into sight on one of the interior platforms, opposite Mach's new position. He opened his mouth to comment, but faltered in the face of Mach preparing his heavy artillery right towards him.
"Oh hell..." There was another crackle of static and the shifty navi was gone again, eluding the opening volley as he blinked down towards the mid level again, part way around the spire from Mach. The more-spidery-than-usual Mach scuttled with him, however, pulling the tracking of his Vulcan around to where his prey appeared smoothly enough to still score a couple of good hits. Cryptic's shields clustered up in front of him, taking the tail end of Mach's barrage, and though they were completely shredded away, the navi himself had managed to escape harm.
Even as the shielding arms covered Cryptic, however, two more of his thin, tentacle-pointed one pointed up back at Mach, taking thin, bright pot-shots of their own. Coming right into line as he was, both managed to clip him, and though they didn't really hurt that much at all (-10, -10), they carried a scrambled mess of corrupting code that immediately set to work messing up Mach's systems.
Mach's limbs suddenly slipped from the walls as though they had ceased to exist at all. Before he could fall, his own thrusters caught him automatically, and it was a good thing, too; whatever corruption of his coding was causing it, he couldn't seem to actually touch anything at all. It was like his body had acquired the phasing property.
It may have been in part due to this realisation, or perhaps a coincidence, but a secondary glitch began to take effect as well: one of his cross-form's mechanical arms seemed to take on a mind of its own. Maybe it was distressed by being able to touch solid objects, but it immediately began to touch and grope Mach himself, focusing mostly on his chest and torso, but also reaching up to paw at his face on occasion, too. If nothing else it proved that the other glitch wasn't preventing Mach from touching Mach, at least.
These new effects didn't stop Mach from continuing his assault, firing off his tankcannon while he still had the glitch-navi in his sights. Still shaking off his damaged arms from before, Cryptic only had enough time to cross most of his limbs over his body and take the shot with a grunt of pain and a rough curse.
From somewhere off and away, one of Vectors attack spikes flew past CrypticMan to the side. Neither navi seemed to notice it.
As much as he had taken the tankcannon's hit, Cryptic was quick to retaliate with his own counter attack, a veritable barrage of thin laser-lights shooting out towards Mach even as the smoke-cloud cleared. One went wide, and Mach managed to dodge two more, but two of the beams struck him, and again the glitch-laden coding went to work.
A second of his mechanical arms went haywire, joining in the first in its touchy-feely exploration of Mach's own body. More pressingly, part of his SAS functions got scrambled, causing his accuracy enhancement processes to jitter out and shut off.
While all this was going on, Aera had moved quickly around the central spire, keeping it between her and the two fighting navis, looking for a console she could use to help the situation. There had to be something here, surely? What she found, putting hands to keys, was that the orbiter was, in fact... functioning perfectly well. It hadn't been altered or diverted from its orbit, and its actual functions all seemed to be working as normal. She did learn that the satellite in question was designated as the NAXA LRBIS24, which apparently stood for Long-Range Broadcast Interceptor Satellite, though exactly what that entailed to NAXA was anyone's guess.
From this point she could also see a monitor read-out of the internal core's defence systems, but there wasn't any time to look further: that was the moment that Aera was, quite suddenly, no longer alone. CrypticMan had blinked again, this time appearing directly behind the armoured girl.
"Don't mess with that." The words were short, and accompanied by one of his tentacle tips lancing a bolt of electrical energy directly into her back. She had tried to dodge away from his sudden appearance, but at point-blank range, there was no escape, and his mass of arms made getting around him away from the console more difficult.
Worse, while the laser shot didn't have very much power, initially, Vector's body amplified the surge of corrupted code, and the effect swelled further as it interacted with the metallic panels beneath them. (-30 Vector)(IV Broken) The chitinous armoured form of Vector began to change hue as the shot coursed through him, shifting through a wide spectrum of colours, before gradually fading from sight altogether. Only his eyes remained: the rest of his armoured body had turned completely transparent by the time the glitch had run its course. On top of that, as strange feeling, if indeed Vector had feelings, had started to take hold. An all-consuming fear of lightning bolts began to dominate his processes. In fairness, given the day's run through NaxaNet, that one might not have been entirely related to the glitching code.
In an unexpectedly creepy moment, CrypticMan leaned on, very nearly touching the two joined SPs with his own body. His hands weren't quite so reserved, and several of them reached past Aera, both over her shoulders and under her arms, to begin tapping away on the very console she was examining. More troubling, two more crept over her shoulders and coiled down her arms, thinning down further until they could find a way to press their pointed tips against Aera's skin directly.
"You shouldn't play with things you don't understand. What you don't know can hurt you." With a small surge, another burst of corrupted coding released from the tips of each limb, injecting directly into Aera's body.
The effect was immediate: The limbs writhing aroundher, and the two coiled about her arms begna to feel... slimy. Slimy and wriggly. Only, it wasn't just them. The console under her hands began to feel like it was coated in viscous goo as well.. and so did Vector's protective armour. Everything, absolutely everything, felt icky and slimy and gooey, even her own armour and clothing! Something must has messed badly with her sense receptors. Worse still, even the floor beneath her felt slippery, whether it was or not, and caution over trying not to slip and fall would make dodging harder.
The creepy moment was interrupted by MachMan, punching out a volley of Meteorknuckles towards the navi that look like all the world to be molesting his SP. Unfortunately for Mach, with two of his mechanical arms... preoccupied, only two of them actually respond to his commands. The two that launch successfully, however, rocket down towards him at speed. The first one misses by a hair, crashing into the panels, but though CrypticMan's head turns around at the sound, the second fist is both fast and accurate, and doesn't even give enough time for his body to follow the motion. What it does do, however, is slam into the navi's back, thrusting him hard against the controls with its force. This is bad news for Aera, pinned between Cryptic and the console, and there was a very compromising moment where she, too, is thrust down, with the other navi pressed against her back, caught in in a writhing, tangled mass of arms, hands and tentacles. And they all feel gross and slimy and wriggling.
The moment ends as CrypticMan curses. His head turns to keep an eye on Mach, but his body slides away from the girl by a few feet, the hands and arms dragged behind after a moment or two. Alas, there was nothing chivalrous about the swift untangling: it was merely so that he could re-order himself, and restore the broad, defensive plates to four of his arms once more.
While he did this, another annoying side effect of this particular navi's glitches came to the fore. Corrupt code called to corrupt code, and in a sudden cross-flux of data, everything affecting Aera passed across to vector, while everything affecting Vector copied in to Aera as well. Contact contagious glitches spelled bad news for two such closely unioned SPs, it seemed. Now both were experiencing the sensation of the world being slimy, fear of lightning and completely transparent armour. Oh dear.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 400hp [4-hit shield][Metal]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 260/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Outside Edge][Counter Up — 1-hit I-Field][Solar][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(2)][SAS Glitch: Passive Inhibitor(1) (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Wearing Vector][4-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)]
Vector.SP: 32Hp [Equipped to Aera][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!]
-=The Setting=-
40% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
60% Solar [Outer Rings]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] Mach's body has taken on phasing properties. He cannot touch the ground or object,s and can pass right through them without causing damage. He can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks.
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of Mach's mechanical arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to his commands. They seem intent upon feeling him up, for some reason. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms.
[SAS Glitch] Mach's Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of his signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more of his signatures.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity, eventually reaching complete Electrophobia.
"Call it what you will. We're interested in all forms of acquisitions, though, not simply data. We navis do out part, but every member of our organisation is a pair, after all. I know I wouldn't be.... Well that's new." He broke off, all of his extraneous limbs snapping back up to their ready positions as Mach began his transformation. Cryptic watched intently, as though one fascinated by the process.
"Glad you have at least one new trick to show me... Let's see..." underneath the obscuring hood, the colours of his eyes kaleidoscoped breifly. "Electric. Makes sense. Looks like you made friends with a spider." His musing was interrupted as the significantly more venomous MachMan made his move. Cryptic took a step back, closing in his shields while his light-tipped limbs jumped up.
"I wouldn't bother trying to catch me with that one..." Four tiny bolts of electrical light shot from the tips of several arms; one each piercing through the two decoys to each side, and then two more to shoot clean through the central figure. The laughter faded from the many-armed navi as all three forms disolved.
"A third? Damnit, where'd you..." his eyes flicked upward, and in a flash he disappeared. Unfortunately for Vector, his quick attack passed through the space where his target had been only a moment ago, and hit nothing.
Up above them, Cryptic teleported into sight on one of the interior platforms, opposite Mach's new position. He opened his mouth to comment, but faltered in the face of Mach preparing his heavy artillery right towards him.
"Oh hell..." There was another crackle of static and the shifty navi was gone again, eluding the opening volley as he blinked down towards the mid level again, part way around the spire from Mach. The more-spidery-than-usual Mach scuttled with him, however, pulling the tracking of his Vulcan around to where his prey appeared smoothly enough to still score a couple of good hits. Cryptic's shields clustered up in front of him, taking the tail end of Mach's barrage, and though they were completely shredded away, the navi himself had managed to escape harm.
Even as the shielding arms covered Cryptic, however, two more of his thin, tentacle-pointed one pointed up back at Mach, taking thin, bright pot-shots of their own. Coming right into line as he was, both managed to clip him, and though they didn't really hurt that much at all (-10, -10), they carried a scrambled mess of corrupting code that immediately set to work messing up Mach's systems.
Mach's limbs suddenly slipped from the walls as though they had ceased to exist at all. Before he could fall, his own thrusters caught him automatically, and it was a good thing, too; whatever corruption of his coding was causing it, he couldn't seem to actually touch anything at all. It was like his body had acquired the phasing property.
It may have been in part due to this realisation, or perhaps a coincidence, but a secondary glitch began to take effect as well: one of his cross-form's mechanical arms seemed to take on a mind of its own. Maybe it was distressed by being able to touch solid objects, but it immediately began to touch and grope Mach himself, focusing mostly on his chest and torso, but also reaching up to paw at his face on occasion, too. If nothing else it proved that the other glitch wasn't preventing Mach from touching Mach, at least.
These new effects didn't stop Mach from continuing his assault, firing off his tankcannon while he still had the glitch-navi in his sights. Still shaking off his damaged arms from before, Cryptic only had enough time to cross most of his limbs over his body and take the shot with a grunt of pain and a rough curse.
From somewhere off and away, one of Vectors attack spikes flew past CrypticMan to the side. Neither navi seemed to notice it.
As much as he had taken the tankcannon's hit, Cryptic was quick to retaliate with his own counter attack, a veritable barrage of thin laser-lights shooting out towards Mach even as the smoke-cloud cleared. One went wide, and Mach managed to dodge two more, but two of the beams struck him, and again the glitch-laden coding went to work.
A second of his mechanical arms went haywire, joining in the first in its touchy-feely exploration of Mach's own body. More pressingly, part of his SAS functions got scrambled, causing his accuracy enhancement processes to jitter out and shut off.
While all this was going on, Aera had moved quickly around the central spire, keeping it between her and the two fighting navis, looking for a console she could use to help the situation. There had to be something here, surely? What she found, putting hands to keys, was that the orbiter was, in fact... functioning perfectly well. It hadn't been altered or diverted from its orbit, and its actual functions all seemed to be working as normal. She did learn that the satellite in question was designated as the NAXA LRBIS24, which apparently stood for Long-Range Broadcast Interceptor Satellite, though exactly what that entailed to NAXA was anyone's guess.
From this point she could also see a monitor read-out of the internal core's defence systems, but there wasn't any time to look further: that was the moment that Aera was, quite suddenly, no longer alone. CrypticMan had blinked again, this time appearing directly behind the armoured girl.
"Don't mess with that." The words were short, and accompanied by one of his tentacle tips lancing a bolt of electrical energy directly into her back. She had tried to dodge away from his sudden appearance, but at point-blank range, there was no escape, and his mass of arms made getting around him away from the console more difficult.
Worse, while the laser shot didn't have very much power, initially, Vector's body amplified the surge of corrupted code, and the effect swelled further as it interacted with the metallic panels beneath them. (-30 Vector)(IV Broken) The chitinous armoured form of Vector began to change hue as the shot coursed through him, shifting through a wide spectrum of colours, before gradually fading from sight altogether. Only his eyes remained: the rest of his armoured body had turned completely transparent by the time the glitch had run its course. On top of that, as strange feeling, if indeed Vector had feelings, had started to take hold. An all-consuming fear of lightning bolts began to dominate his processes. In fairness, given the day's run through NaxaNet, that one might not have been entirely related to the glitching code.
In an unexpectedly creepy moment, CrypticMan leaned on, very nearly touching the two joined SPs with his own body. His hands weren't quite so reserved, and several of them reached past Aera, both over her shoulders and under her arms, to begin tapping away on the very console she was examining. More troubling, two more crept over her shoulders and coiled down her arms, thinning down further until they could find a way to press their pointed tips against Aera's skin directly.
"You shouldn't play with things you don't understand. What you don't know can hurt you." With a small surge, another burst of corrupted coding released from the tips of each limb, injecting directly into Aera's body.
The effect was immediate: The limbs writhing aroundher, and the two coiled about her arms begna to feel... slimy. Slimy and wriggly. Only, it wasn't just them. The console under her hands began to feel like it was coated in viscous goo as well.. and so did Vector's protective armour. Everything, absolutely everything, felt icky and slimy and gooey, even her own armour and clothing! Something must has messed badly with her sense receptors. Worse still, even the floor beneath her felt slippery, whether it was or not, and caution over trying not to slip and fall would make dodging harder.
The creepy moment was interrupted by MachMan, punching out a volley of Meteorknuckles towards the navi that look like all the world to be molesting his SP. Unfortunately for Mach, with two of his mechanical arms... preoccupied, only two of them actually respond to his commands. The two that launch successfully, however, rocket down towards him at speed. The first one misses by a hair, crashing into the panels, but though CrypticMan's head turns around at the sound, the second fist is both fast and accurate, and doesn't even give enough time for his body to follow the motion. What it does do, however, is slam into the navi's back, thrusting him hard against the controls with its force. This is bad news for Aera, pinned between Cryptic and the console, and there was a very compromising moment where she, too, is thrust down, with the other navi pressed against her back, caught in in a writhing, tangled mass of arms, hands and tentacles. And they all feel gross and slimy and wriggling.
The moment ends as CrypticMan curses. His head turns to keep an eye on Mach, but his body slides away from the girl by a few feet, the hands and arms dragged behind after a moment or two. Alas, there was nothing chivalrous about the swift untangling: it was merely so that he could re-order himself, and restore the broad, defensive plates to four of his arms once more.
While he did this, another annoying side effect of this particular navi's glitches came to the fore. Corrupt code called to corrupt code, and in a sudden cross-flux of data, everything affecting Aera passed across to vector, while everything affecting Vector copied in to Aera as well. Contact contagious glitches spelled bad news for two such closely unioned SPs, it seemed. Now both were experiencing the sensation of the world being slimy, fear of lightning and completely transparent armour. Oh dear.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 400hp [4-hit shield][Metal]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 260/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Outside Edge][Counter Up — 1-hit I-Field][Solar][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(2)][SAS Glitch: Passive Inhibitor(1) (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Wearing Vector][4-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)]
Vector.SP: 32Hp [Equipped to Aera][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!]
-=The Setting=-
40% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
60% Solar [Outer Rings]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] Mach's body has taken on phasing properties. He cannot touch the ground or object,s and can pass right through them without causing damage. He can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks.
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of Mach's mechanical arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to his commands. They seem intent upon feeling him up, for some reason. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms.
[SAS Glitch] Mach's Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of his signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more of his signatures.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity, eventually reaching complete Electrophobia.
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Aera struggled not to overtly shudder as CrypticMan's arms slithered past/over her, it also didn't help the slippery foe inflicted a particularly gross glitch. Every inch of her skin felt like it was dripping with ooze or some sort of invisible goo, she looked down at her hands in an attempt to find the source of the nastiness that seemed to envelop her, but all she noticed was Vector's protective armor seemed to have disappeared. Her Sylk-themed .GMO was revealed in its entirety, her light gray bodysuit was partially covered in dark gray armor with purple stripes, and her hair was very similar to Mach's though its cyan color didn't fade around her bangs. Unseen to her, but Vector's spider-like eyes remained, and still burned crimson in the air just over Aera's face. The spider-like arms which sprouted from her back twitched and swatted at the intruder, but to no avail.
She wanted to violently respond to CrypticMan's patronizing remark, but then the Navi suddenly pressed against her. Her skin crawled with the sensation, changing her mindset from "I'm going to electrocute this jerk" to "ew, ew, ew EW EW EW EW EW!!" She couldn't help but cry out as she attempted to struggle, a sound which made Vector's non-existent blood boil. Unfortunately for the pair, Mach's bad timing was the cause of this close encounter. CrypticMan pulled away from the SPs to face Mach, to give them respite. Two of Mach's mechanical arms were apparently bugged by CrypticMan's attacks, and fiddling over his chest. It was more of an annoyance than anything, one he elected to solve by the quick utilization of his other two mechanical arms, as opposed to his still armored/GutFist'd right arm. The remaining loyal arachnid appendages would've hopefully apprehended their rebellious counterparts with their claws, and pin them firmly behind the Navi's back.
Another side-effect passed amongst the SPs, which added Vector's apparent invisibility to Aera's own programming. A green, glowing veil materialized over Aera's body from a surge of regenerative energy, but its target was to the now nearly-invisible SP which encased her. The light quickly faded and revealed the glitch made quite a bit of her equipment transparent, including her armor and bodysuit. Hopefully, for her own decency, the others *shouldn't* have seen her. Vector would've been looking further forward, CrypticMan would've been looking back at Mach, and Mach's view would've been hopefully blocked by CrypticMan's body. She instinctively tried to cover herself up with whatever she could, luckily she was still facing the consoles. Red flushed over her face, due to a combination of embarrassment and frustration. [You've got to be kidding me!] she fumed to herself.
Mach recognized his mistake, but now he was in prime bludgeoning distance of his foe. Mazer already uploaded the ElecAura chip without Mach's request, which prompted a web of hair-thin veil of electrical bolts to form around the Navi like an electrical bubble. Mach didn't protest, it was exactly what he needed. He quickly sent a message to his NetOp, requesting additional chips. [AirShot3, AirRaid2, and ElecPulse please.] The message popped up near the top of his screen, to which he responded with a nod and began to slot in the chips.
Vector tried to retaliate by extending several spines covering his shoulders, but he noticed they seemed to be nowhere to be found. He knew they were still there, as they were part of his own body, but he couldn't see them at all. A quick glance downward confirmed his suspicions, he had somehow become almost entirely transparent... as well as Aera's armor. His eyes caged forward after catching a flash of Aera's bare skin, but he also noticed the faint crimson glow of his eyes reflecting off the glass. It seemed he wasn't entirely invisible, but good enough. Though he didn't want to leave Aera more exposed, his new stealthy form could prove very useful to disrupt CrypticMan. A flash of white caught his attention, and recognized Aera's Debug program had been activated. He took it as his cue, and immediately fragmented from the SP only to reform a half-foot behind her. The SP was careful with his footing, as he also felt like his armor was coated in some sort of slime. Unseen by all, he swiped his left arm towards the Navi, which caused the normally coiled barbed whip around his forearm to rapidly unravel and lash out. The whip cracked as it slashed through the air, though even if he missed and accidentally struck Mach instead, the aura would've easily shrugged it off. Several rings of light slid over Aera's body, which would've hopefully restored her armor and bodysuit.
While Vector attacked, Mach had planned to utilize one of the glitches inflicted upon him. His enhanced targeting system was on the fritz, but his newly acquired phasic properties could be used quite effectively. Mach sneered at CrypticMan before he dashed forward before ducking down as if he were attempting to slide-tackle the Navi. Instead he attempted to clip through him, then slid to a stop just behind him to quickly snap his left arm up to point towards his back. His left hand had already formed into a buster-like weapon, but it had the addition of two pressure tanks fixed to where his his wrist would be, and the barrel went through a series of step-downs, like a pressure line. With a sharp *POP,* the buster fired a highly pressurized burst of air towards CrypticMan with the goal of sending the Navi flying. Even if he somehow ran 'into' Vector, hopefully his no-clip nature would've prevented an embarrassing collision.
His AirShot buster fragmented quickly, and Mach began his pursuit. He rocketed forward with the help of his boot thrusters, and kept his eyes focused on his enemy. If he were to strike back, he would've utilized his split thrusters to send him zipping to the side, though careful to not rely on the phasic glitch, it likely wouldn't last very long. His second chip materialized a short distance behind him, which revealed a what was supposed to be a FighterPlane, but from the looks of it had been somehow affected by the Navi's cross. Instead of a blue and orange mini jet, the aircraft was a dark blue with several cyan lines which traced down its two curved, fang-like nacelles which bracketed a small fuselage. Two mini cannons folded out from the underside of the slender fuselage and its small rows of panel-shaped thrusters lit off with a magenta glow, which sent the alien looking craft through the air as it searched for its target. It deftly hooked around the myriad of obstacles in its path before it drew a bead on CrypticMan. Once it got profile, the twin cannons opened up with a loud chatter and yellow/green muzzle flash; its goal was to pepper the Navi with rounds, hopefully to at least chew through his shields.
Three MachMen started to stream out the center spire as Mach disappeared in a magenta flash. The decoys swarmed towards CrypticMan aggressively, it was obvious they'd be quickly recognized as decoys, but at least they could've served as distractions. Aera pointed her hand towards CrypticMan (careful to keep Vector and Mach out of her line of fire) and proceeded to charge an attack. However, she shrieked as she saw little bolts of electricity stream down her arm. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but for some reason the sight of it was terrifying. She flailed her arm frantically as if she tried to shake the electricity off; her distraction effectively cancelled her attack before she could even get a shot off. She looked at her hand with a look of shock and confusion. Why did her own powers scare her so? She looked up to see Vector staring back at her, he happened to catch a glimpse of her attempted strike, which left him shook up as well. Maybe it was one of of the many glitches inflicted on the pair.
Mach reappeared with another flash of magenta, next to CrypticMan. He had the chance to deliver a snappy one-liner like "have a taste of your own medicine" or something similar, but he elected to better utilize the time to deliver an open-palmed jab towards the Navi. As he did so, several pink-ish purple electrical rings coursed down his forearm and past his hand. As they passed, the rings quickly stretched outwards as they streamed towards CrypticMan like a rapidly pulsing cone. The electrical rings wreathed a deluge of powerful electrical discharges, and similarly to CrypticMan's own attacks, could infect bugs and glitches in anything caught in its wake. Mach boosted backwards with the help of his boot thrusters just as his oddly-manifested electrical attack expired, with the goal of avoiding a potential counter attack. That being said, if his GutFist was still at the ready, he could've simply responded to the counterattack with one of his own.
Back near the console, the SPs both realized any electrical attacks were out of the question, which essentially nullified Aera's capability to retaliate. She had faced in towards the center of the room to place her shield between herself and any possible threats. Instead of following chase with his Navi, Vector determined he was better suited to stay back and keep Aera safe. He kept his whip at the ready with the intent to lash out at CrypticMan if he attempted to approach again. Aera was limited to bludgeoning an attacker with non-electrically augmented punches or kicks, but she now had a significant desire to smack that creepy Navi in the face.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Aera: Recharge Vector (Heal 72 + 2TCD)
-[Recharge: Vector (Heal 18)]-
1. ElecAura2: MachMan (Negates any Non-Wood attack less than 80HP) {3-turn duration} [blocks debuffs]
Vector: Detach from Aera
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Disarm
Aera: Debug to self (Status Cure + 1TCD) [to Transparent Armour]
2. Movement: No-clip through CrypticMan
3. Airshot3: CrypticMan (120dmg Null + Microburst) (A)
-[Dodge]-
4. AirRaid2 (100HP Object, 10dmg x15 + Multi-hit OR 50dmg + Impact {3 Turn Duration}) (A/A)
FighterPlane: Attack CrypticMan (10dmg x15 + Multi-Hit)
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport in close range of CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
6. ElecPulse: CrypticMan (100dmg Elec + Seeking + Glitch + Cone Attack) (C) [+15dmg bonus]
-[Dodge]-
Aera: Face forward to put her shield between herself and CrypticMan
Vector: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Aera: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (50dmg Null) [Melee Range Only]
DecoyA: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
DecoyB: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
ShadowDecoy: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
She wanted to violently respond to CrypticMan's patronizing remark, but then the Navi suddenly pressed against her. Her skin crawled with the sensation, changing her mindset from "I'm going to electrocute this jerk" to "ew, ew, ew EW EW EW EW EW!!" She couldn't help but cry out as she attempted to struggle, a sound which made Vector's non-existent blood boil. Unfortunately for the pair, Mach's bad timing was the cause of this close encounter. CrypticMan pulled away from the SPs to face Mach, to give them respite. Two of Mach's mechanical arms were apparently bugged by CrypticMan's attacks, and fiddling over his chest. It was more of an annoyance than anything, one he elected to solve by the quick utilization of his other two mechanical arms, as opposed to his still armored/GutFist'd right arm. The remaining loyal arachnid appendages would've hopefully apprehended their rebellious counterparts with their claws, and pin them firmly behind the Navi's back.
Another side-effect passed amongst the SPs, which added Vector's apparent invisibility to Aera's own programming. A green, glowing veil materialized over Aera's body from a surge of regenerative energy, but its target was to the now nearly-invisible SP which encased her. The light quickly faded and revealed the glitch made quite a bit of her equipment transparent, including her armor and bodysuit. Hopefully, for her own decency, the others *shouldn't* have seen her. Vector would've been looking further forward, CrypticMan would've been looking back at Mach, and Mach's view would've been hopefully blocked by CrypticMan's body. She instinctively tried to cover herself up with whatever she could, luckily she was still facing the consoles. Red flushed over her face, due to a combination of embarrassment and frustration. [You've got to be kidding me!] she fumed to herself.
Mach recognized his mistake, but now he was in prime bludgeoning distance of his foe. Mazer already uploaded the ElecAura chip without Mach's request, which prompted a web of hair-thin veil of electrical bolts to form around the Navi like an electrical bubble. Mach didn't protest, it was exactly what he needed. He quickly sent a message to his NetOp, requesting additional chips. [AirShot3, AirRaid2, and ElecPulse please.] The message popped up near the top of his screen, to which he responded with a nod and began to slot in the chips.
Vector tried to retaliate by extending several spines covering his shoulders, but he noticed they seemed to be nowhere to be found. He knew they were still there, as they were part of his own body, but he couldn't see them at all. A quick glance downward confirmed his suspicions, he had somehow become almost entirely transparent... as well as Aera's armor. His eyes caged forward after catching a flash of Aera's bare skin, but he also noticed the faint crimson glow of his eyes reflecting off the glass. It seemed he wasn't entirely invisible, but good enough. Though he didn't want to leave Aera more exposed, his new stealthy form could prove very useful to disrupt CrypticMan. A flash of white caught his attention, and recognized Aera's Debug program had been activated. He took it as his cue, and immediately fragmented from the SP only to reform a half-foot behind her. The SP was careful with his footing, as he also felt like his armor was coated in some sort of slime. Unseen by all, he swiped his left arm towards the Navi, which caused the normally coiled barbed whip around his forearm to rapidly unravel and lash out. The whip cracked as it slashed through the air, though even if he missed and accidentally struck Mach instead, the aura would've easily shrugged it off. Several rings of light slid over Aera's body, which would've hopefully restored her armor and bodysuit.
While Vector attacked, Mach had planned to utilize one of the glitches inflicted upon him. His enhanced targeting system was on the fritz, but his newly acquired phasic properties could be used quite effectively. Mach sneered at CrypticMan before he dashed forward before ducking down as if he were attempting to slide-tackle the Navi. Instead he attempted to clip through him, then slid to a stop just behind him to quickly snap his left arm up to point towards his back. His left hand had already formed into a buster-like weapon, but it had the addition of two pressure tanks fixed to where his his wrist would be, and the barrel went through a series of step-downs, like a pressure line. With a sharp *POP,* the buster fired a highly pressurized burst of air towards CrypticMan with the goal of sending the Navi flying. Even if he somehow ran 'into' Vector, hopefully his no-clip nature would've prevented an embarrassing collision.
His AirShot buster fragmented quickly, and Mach began his pursuit. He rocketed forward with the help of his boot thrusters, and kept his eyes focused on his enemy. If he were to strike back, he would've utilized his split thrusters to send him zipping to the side, though careful to not rely on the phasic glitch, it likely wouldn't last very long. His second chip materialized a short distance behind him, which revealed a what was supposed to be a FighterPlane, but from the looks of it had been somehow affected by the Navi's cross. Instead of a blue and orange mini jet, the aircraft was a dark blue with several cyan lines which traced down its two curved, fang-like nacelles which bracketed a small fuselage. Two mini cannons folded out from the underside of the slender fuselage and its small rows of panel-shaped thrusters lit off with a magenta glow, which sent the alien looking craft through the air as it searched for its target. It deftly hooked around the myriad of obstacles in its path before it drew a bead on CrypticMan. Once it got profile, the twin cannons opened up with a loud chatter and yellow/green muzzle flash; its goal was to pepper the Navi with rounds, hopefully to at least chew through his shields.
Three MachMen started to stream out the center spire as Mach disappeared in a magenta flash. The decoys swarmed towards CrypticMan aggressively, it was obvious they'd be quickly recognized as decoys, but at least they could've served as distractions. Aera pointed her hand towards CrypticMan (careful to keep Vector and Mach out of her line of fire) and proceeded to charge an attack. However, she shrieked as she saw little bolts of electricity stream down her arm. This wasn't an uncommon occurrence, but for some reason the sight of it was terrifying. She flailed her arm frantically as if she tried to shake the electricity off; her distraction effectively cancelled her attack before she could even get a shot off. She looked at her hand with a look of shock and confusion. Why did her own powers scare her so? She looked up to see Vector staring back at her, he happened to catch a glimpse of her attempted strike, which left him shook up as well. Maybe it was one of of the many glitches inflicted on the pair.
Mach reappeared with another flash of magenta, next to CrypticMan. He had the chance to deliver a snappy one-liner like "have a taste of your own medicine" or something similar, but he elected to better utilize the time to deliver an open-palmed jab towards the Navi. As he did so, several pink-ish purple electrical rings coursed down his forearm and past his hand. As they passed, the rings quickly stretched outwards as they streamed towards CrypticMan like a rapidly pulsing cone. The electrical rings wreathed a deluge of powerful electrical discharges, and similarly to CrypticMan's own attacks, could infect bugs and glitches in anything caught in its wake. Mach boosted backwards with the help of his boot thrusters just as his oddly-manifested electrical attack expired, with the goal of avoiding a potential counter attack. That being said, if his GutFist was still at the ready, he could've simply responded to the counterattack with one of his own.
Back near the console, the SPs both realized any electrical attacks were out of the question, which essentially nullified Aera's capability to retaliate. She had faced in towards the center of the room to place her shield between herself and any possible threats. Instead of following chase with his Navi, Vector determined he was better suited to stay back and keep Aera safe. He kept his whip at the ready with the intent to lash out at CrypticMan if he attempted to approach again. Aera was limited to bludgeoning an attacker with non-electrically augmented punches or kicks, but she now had a significant desire to smack that creepy Navi in the face.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Aera: Recharge Vector (Heal 72 + 2TCD)
-[Recharge: Vector (Heal 18)]-
1. ElecAura2: MachMan (Negates any Non-Wood attack less than 80HP) {3-turn duration} [blocks debuffs]
Vector: Detach from Aera
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Disarm
Aera: Debug to self (Status Cure + 1TCD) [to Transparent Armour]
2. Movement: No-clip through CrypticMan
3. Airshot3: CrypticMan (120dmg Null + Microburst) (A)
-[Dodge]-
4. AirRaid2 (100HP Object, 10dmg x15 + Multi-hit OR 50dmg + Impact {3 Turn Duration}) (A/A)
FighterPlane: Attack CrypticMan (10dmg x15 + Multi-Hit)
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport in close range of CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
6. ElecPulse: CrypticMan (100dmg Elec + Seeking + Glitch + Cone Attack) (C) [+15dmg bonus]
-[Dodge]-
Aera: Face forward to put her shield between herself and CrypticMan
Vector: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Aera: Attack CrypticMan.EXE (50dmg Null) [Melee Range Only]
DecoyA: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
DecoyB: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
ShadowDecoy: actively chase/harass CrypticMan
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There was a moment of confusion as everyone moved and repositioned themselves, Mach closing into melee range and raising his recently acquired electrical aura while Aera and Vector separated. With his shields refreshed properly, Cryptic's hands flowed immediately back to a different part of the console, threading through the gap between the two SPs before the rest of the navi's body was dragged behind them a moment later. If he notice Aera's state in the sliding motion, there was certainly no sign... but since his head had slipped from facing away, to looking at the screen, it was probable his vision had bypassed her completely. Whew. Unseen for the moment, the detached Vector made a quick attack at Cryptic as he flowed past, but the odd movement of the navi's body proved deceptive, and it slipped out of the way even as the slash fell.
Relief could only last a moment, though. Hands back on the keys, his head whipped up and around, to look at those behind him, with his shield-arms clustering at his back. The tentacle tipped arms fired thin bolts of corrupted lightning at the two nearest targets, more in a 'back-off' signal as he began to tinker, than anything else. Despite how little there was to see of Vector, the bolt rang true (-30), but Cryptic's hooded face whipped to Aera as he fired the second shot, and he started visibly, his eyes swirling through several shades of red and pink suddenly, and his shot went wide. It was a mixed blessing, really; her status cure came moments too late to stop the bug navi from getting a surprise eyeful, but then again, if he hadn't, he probably wouldn't have missed.
Menawhile, something peculiar began to happen to the almost invisible Vector. As the lighting bolt surged across his armoured plates and spikes, the sting of it faded to nothing, and the electrical crackling intensified. More, it became visible and tangible, outlining his form as it danced, until he began to look like a being composed completely of living electricity. Not so good for the Astraphobia, perhaps, but strangely, the electricity no longer hurt at all. In fact, it kinda felt good.
Accidental voyeurism aside, Cryptic's hands never slowed or faltered, even as his face tuned the other way and looked around. A series of blue lights joined the red and green ones covering the spire, and cycling light began to wash the whole spherical area, through red, yellow, green, blue, and back to red again.
MachMan wasn't taking any of this lying down. Or, indeed, standing up. He capitalised on the phasing properties of his body, rushing the navi, only to dive clean through him without slowing.
"What the...!" CrypticMan hissed, half turning as Mach failed to crash into him, pass clean through, only to lash out at his back with a surprise AirShot. His shields may still have been at his back, in position to catch the blast of compressed air, but the wide plating of them only gave it that much more force in flinging him both out to the outer edge of the chamber, and up a floor to boot, such was Mach's angle. He crashed into the hard glass wall and landed on the panels with a curse and the disarrayed crash of many hands all groping for purchase at once.
Mach followed up quickly calling in his remodelled fighter plane to bear down on his foe. Cryptic had forced himself up and jumped to the top of the console line to look down at the scene, only to see a furious MachMan coming towards him, and the bead of a fighter-plane as it locked on to begin a precision accurate tracer strafe at him. He did exactly what one might expect of the navi, by now, when faced with a large amount of incoming pain; in a crackle of electricity, he was gone again.
He reappeared back down below, past where he'd been thrown from, now standing atop the furthest part of the central console bank, face to face and looking down on the once-more opaque-armoured Aera, and the still virtually invisible Vector. The Spider-Plane's stream of shots had already started, and while it banked hard in an attempt to relocate Cryptic, it couldn't make the complete one-eighty before it ran out of fire power, for this pass, at any rate.
Mach wasn't so easily eluded, and less than a moment after Cryptic had blinked away, Mach was there with him again, following hot behind with his own teleport. Perched on the top of the consoles, Cryptic's laser-point arms let off another volley of suppressing bolts, as the navi himself snarled. Perhaps Aera and Vector hadn't expected the glitch navi to reappear again so suddenly after being flung away; both shots connected. Mach, on the other hand, came out of his teleport more than ready to evade the slim bolt of electrical energy sent after him.
"Stay Back!" Cryptic's voice sounded more fraught than they might have expected. It seemed he really had meant it when he said he wasn't big on the fighting.
As Aera's shielding took the electrical shot, whatever shorting that was causing her fear of lightning bolts broadened and grew, expanding to a fear not only of fully fledged lightning bolts, but all forms of visible, arcing electricity now. Just behind her, Vector took a shot and... healed from it? Even so, the glitch portion of the bolt took hold, as part of his own signature system was compromised. The portions controlling safe cool down of signatures grew corrupted, leading to a bypass of the entire safety cool down failsafe. Useful maybe, but failsafes were usually there for a reason.
These strange changes made for minor trivialities alongside what happened a moment after Cryptic and Mach appeared near the SPs again, facing each other down. A flurry of decoys crowded the scene, making Cryptic snarl; they were obviously clones, but that didn't make them any less obscuring of his sight as the darted in front of him around and between Mach and the SPs, harassing and confusing his view. With a shouted "Enough!" Cryptic's main hands extended forward, in the same moment as Mach let loose with his glitch-laden electrical pulse. The same chip, used at the same time, caused a truly impressive shock storm that would have been intimidating even to those not the least bit afraid of lightning. The attacks met, passing through and washing over each other in a swarm of electricity and corrupt data that made the rest of the room seem dark by comparison.
Mach's cone of electricity crashed over Cryptic, and though one of his shielding arms protected him from the wave, he wasn't immune to corruption himself, no matter how buggy he seemed. Unfortunately, due to where they'd all ended up by that point, the indiscriminate cone of Mach's attack also enveloped and washed around the spire itself, causing visible damage, and a small amount of corruption to the system.
Opposite him, CrypticMan's blast found mixed success. The haywire scatter of waves failed to hit Vector at all, and Aera's shields were already in the right place to keep her safe, by chance. As the wave crashed over Mach, it met and successfully cancelled out his Aura, but not without retribution. In the wake of the wave, MachMan closed the remaining space to slam home a brutally strong punch. It took both of Cryptic's remaining shield arms to stop the impact, and afterwards, the two shattered limbs fell limp beside him from the effort of doing so.
The corruption that coursed over as Mach's aura shattered dissipated before it could effect him, but beside him, Aera, suffered from more glitch-laden code. Her armour began to feel heavy, corrupt crackles coursing over it until it was almost enough to drag her to her knees. The effect began to pass gradually, but it didn't go away altogether. The blue and green glitch-crackles remained, even as the worst of it passed, hampering her speed and ability to act.
The glitch affecting CrytpticMan began to manifest as he hunched over, twisting and contorting for a few moments, like he was in pain. Without warning, several of his arms split in two, beginning to lash about wildly, and Cryptic himself was left panting hard as he glared at the navi, then at the spire.
"What part... of don't crash the satellite... did you miss!?" He shouted at Mach, still patently out of breath. With one hand he pointed at Mach, causing a second stream of heavy static and glitch code to arc out to the not-currently-speed-type navi. It was a cheap shot, in the aftermath of their confrontation, and Mach didn't manage to dodge it in time, taking a nasty shock that amplified through the metal terrain that Mach was partially clipped with still (-170), and felt even more corrupting data flood his system. It wormed its way into his chip system, but the exact effects where hard to tell. Some portion of the normal operating data had been corrupted, but what exactly?
With another arm, Cryptic reached up a hand to press against the spire, a flood of glitch-code passing from him into it through the damaged sections. A sheen passed over the length of the spire, and though most of the glitch data visibly remained, it seemed to be nestling into the parts that had already been damaged or destroyed. The same omnipresent voice suddenly echoed out through the chamber.
[Internal Conflict In System Core Confirmed. Viral Definitions Accepted. Activating Internal Defence Systems.]
That probably wasn't a good sign, and CrypticMan didn't seem too pleased by it either.
"Now you've done it..." his mutter was accompanied by several of his arms rising up and reforming into the broad shield-plates he used for defence, even as Vector and Aera lashed out at him. Vector's spike scored true, and the shield plate he hit dropped to the ground, completely limp and useless... but then, Cryptic had a lot of arms to work with. Aera was close enough to attempt her due vengeance with her bare fists, and would have managed it, too, if he hadn't managed to bring a second shield plate up to black her assault. Even so, their opponent seemed far more concerned about the satellite itself now, than what any of them were doing. Close to the girls face as she attacked him, he looked over the sundered shield plate, eyes swirling a myriad of colours.
"I'm not what you need to worry about now, girl. Look around, would you?"
A large circle of panels in the open area before the main console back flipped over, converting itself to magnetically holding tiles. This wouldn't mean much to anyone present, of course, but it was accompanied by the sound of clanks and shifting all around as a series of strangely shaped claw-armed turrets lifted up at evenly spaced points on the outside edges of the three central most layers. No fewer than six of the strange devices were angled to all point directly at the newly formed magnet circle. The spire began to hum. This was probably bad.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 400hp [2-hit shield][Metal][Standing on central console bank][Diverted Energy]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 90/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inner][Metal][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(2)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Inside][1-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)]
Vector.SP: 110Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig (2 turns)]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
55% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 270/500Hp [Lit up Red and Green and Blue][Conductive][All-Brace][Beach Time..?]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
Fighter Plane (Ally of Mach): 100Hp [2 turns Left]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] Mach's body has taken on phasing properties. He cannot touch the ground or object,s and can pass right through them without causing damage. He can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks.
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of Mach's mechanical arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to his commands. They seem intent upon feeling him up, for some reason. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] Mach's Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of his signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more of his signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
Relief could only last a moment, though. Hands back on the keys, his head whipped up and around, to look at those behind him, with his shield-arms clustering at his back. The tentacle tipped arms fired thin bolts of corrupted lightning at the two nearest targets, more in a 'back-off' signal as he began to tinker, than anything else. Despite how little there was to see of Vector, the bolt rang true (-30), but Cryptic's hooded face whipped to Aera as he fired the second shot, and he started visibly, his eyes swirling through several shades of red and pink suddenly, and his shot went wide. It was a mixed blessing, really; her status cure came moments too late to stop the bug navi from getting a surprise eyeful, but then again, if he hadn't, he probably wouldn't have missed.
Menawhile, something peculiar began to happen to the almost invisible Vector. As the lighting bolt surged across his armoured plates and spikes, the sting of it faded to nothing, and the electrical crackling intensified. More, it became visible and tangible, outlining his form as it danced, until he began to look like a being composed completely of living electricity. Not so good for the Astraphobia, perhaps, but strangely, the electricity no longer hurt at all. In fact, it kinda felt good.
Accidental voyeurism aside, Cryptic's hands never slowed or faltered, even as his face tuned the other way and looked around. A series of blue lights joined the red and green ones covering the spire, and cycling light began to wash the whole spherical area, through red, yellow, green, blue, and back to red again.
MachMan wasn't taking any of this lying down. Or, indeed, standing up. He capitalised on the phasing properties of his body, rushing the navi, only to dive clean through him without slowing.
"What the...!" CrypticMan hissed, half turning as Mach failed to crash into him, pass clean through, only to lash out at his back with a surprise AirShot. His shields may still have been at his back, in position to catch the blast of compressed air, but the wide plating of them only gave it that much more force in flinging him both out to the outer edge of the chamber, and up a floor to boot, such was Mach's angle. He crashed into the hard glass wall and landed on the panels with a curse and the disarrayed crash of many hands all groping for purchase at once.
Mach followed up quickly calling in his remodelled fighter plane to bear down on his foe. Cryptic had forced himself up and jumped to the top of the console line to look down at the scene, only to see a furious MachMan coming towards him, and the bead of a fighter-plane as it locked on to begin a precision accurate tracer strafe at him. He did exactly what one might expect of the navi, by now, when faced with a large amount of incoming pain; in a crackle of electricity, he was gone again.
He reappeared back down below, past where he'd been thrown from, now standing atop the furthest part of the central console bank, face to face and looking down on the once-more opaque-armoured Aera, and the still virtually invisible Vector. The Spider-Plane's stream of shots had already started, and while it banked hard in an attempt to relocate Cryptic, it couldn't make the complete one-eighty before it ran out of fire power, for this pass, at any rate.
Mach wasn't so easily eluded, and less than a moment after Cryptic had blinked away, Mach was there with him again, following hot behind with his own teleport. Perched on the top of the consoles, Cryptic's laser-point arms let off another volley of suppressing bolts, as the navi himself snarled. Perhaps Aera and Vector hadn't expected the glitch navi to reappear again so suddenly after being flung away; both shots connected. Mach, on the other hand, came out of his teleport more than ready to evade the slim bolt of electrical energy sent after him.
"Stay Back!" Cryptic's voice sounded more fraught than they might have expected. It seemed he really had meant it when he said he wasn't big on the fighting.
As Aera's shielding took the electrical shot, whatever shorting that was causing her fear of lightning bolts broadened and grew, expanding to a fear not only of fully fledged lightning bolts, but all forms of visible, arcing electricity now. Just behind her, Vector took a shot and... healed from it? Even so, the glitch portion of the bolt took hold, as part of his own signature system was compromised. The portions controlling safe cool down of signatures grew corrupted, leading to a bypass of the entire safety cool down failsafe. Useful maybe, but failsafes were usually there for a reason.
These strange changes made for minor trivialities alongside what happened a moment after Cryptic and Mach appeared near the SPs again, facing each other down. A flurry of decoys crowded the scene, making Cryptic snarl; they were obviously clones, but that didn't make them any less obscuring of his sight as the darted in front of him around and between Mach and the SPs, harassing and confusing his view. With a shouted "Enough!" Cryptic's main hands extended forward, in the same moment as Mach let loose with his glitch-laden electrical pulse. The same chip, used at the same time, caused a truly impressive shock storm that would have been intimidating even to those not the least bit afraid of lightning. The attacks met, passing through and washing over each other in a swarm of electricity and corrupt data that made the rest of the room seem dark by comparison.
Mach's cone of electricity crashed over Cryptic, and though one of his shielding arms protected him from the wave, he wasn't immune to corruption himself, no matter how buggy he seemed. Unfortunately, due to where they'd all ended up by that point, the indiscriminate cone of Mach's attack also enveloped and washed around the spire itself, causing visible damage, and a small amount of corruption to the system.
Opposite him, CrypticMan's blast found mixed success. The haywire scatter of waves failed to hit Vector at all, and Aera's shields were already in the right place to keep her safe, by chance. As the wave crashed over Mach, it met and successfully cancelled out his Aura, but not without retribution. In the wake of the wave, MachMan closed the remaining space to slam home a brutally strong punch. It took both of Cryptic's remaining shield arms to stop the impact, and afterwards, the two shattered limbs fell limp beside him from the effort of doing so.
The corruption that coursed over as Mach's aura shattered dissipated before it could effect him, but beside him, Aera, suffered from more glitch-laden code. Her armour began to feel heavy, corrupt crackles coursing over it until it was almost enough to drag her to her knees. The effect began to pass gradually, but it didn't go away altogether. The blue and green glitch-crackles remained, even as the worst of it passed, hampering her speed and ability to act.
The glitch affecting CrytpticMan began to manifest as he hunched over, twisting and contorting for a few moments, like he was in pain. Without warning, several of his arms split in two, beginning to lash about wildly, and Cryptic himself was left panting hard as he glared at the navi, then at the spire.
"What part... of don't crash the satellite... did you miss!?" He shouted at Mach, still patently out of breath. With one hand he pointed at Mach, causing a second stream of heavy static and glitch code to arc out to the not-currently-speed-type navi. It was a cheap shot, in the aftermath of their confrontation, and Mach didn't manage to dodge it in time, taking a nasty shock that amplified through the metal terrain that Mach was partially clipped with still (-170), and felt even more corrupting data flood his system. It wormed its way into his chip system, but the exact effects where hard to tell. Some portion of the normal operating data had been corrupted, but what exactly?
With another arm, Cryptic reached up a hand to press against the spire, a flood of glitch-code passing from him into it through the damaged sections. A sheen passed over the length of the spire, and though most of the glitch data visibly remained, it seemed to be nestling into the parts that had already been damaged or destroyed. The same omnipresent voice suddenly echoed out through the chamber.
[Internal Conflict In System Core Confirmed. Viral Definitions Accepted. Activating Internal Defence Systems.]
That probably wasn't a good sign, and CrypticMan didn't seem too pleased by it either.
"Now you've done it..." his mutter was accompanied by several of his arms rising up and reforming into the broad shield-plates he used for defence, even as Vector and Aera lashed out at him. Vector's spike scored true, and the shield plate he hit dropped to the ground, completely limp and useless... but then, Cryptic had a lot of arms to work with. Aera was close enough to attempt her due vengeance with her bare fists, and would have managed it, too, if he hadn't managed to bring a second shield plate up to black her assault. Even so, their opponent seemed far more concerned about the satellite itself now, than what any of them were doing. Close to the girls face as she attacked him, he looked over the sundered shield plate, eyes swirling a myriad of colours.
"I'm not what you need to worry about now, girl. Look around, would you?"
A large circle of panels in the open area before the main console back flipped over, converting itself to magnetically holding tiles. This wouldn't mean much to anyone present, of course, but it was accompanied by the sound of clanks and shifting all around as a series of strangely shaped claw-armed turrets lifted up at evenly spaced points on the outside edges of the three central most layers. No fewer than six of the strange devices were angled to all point directly at the newly formed magnet circle. The spire began to hum. This was probably bad.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 400hp [2-hit shield][Metal][Standing on central console bank][Diverted Energy]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 90/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inner][Metal][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(2)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter]
Aera.SP: 106Hp [Central Layer, Inside][1-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)]
Vector.SP: 110Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig (2 turns)]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
55% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 270/500Hp [Lit up Red and Green and Blue][Conductive][All-Brace][Beach Time..?]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
Fighter Plane (Ally of Mach): 100Hp [2 turns Left]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] Mach's body has taken on phasing properties. He cannot touch the ground or object,s and can pass right through them without causing damage. He can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks.
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of Mach's mechanical arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to his commands. They seem intent upon feeling him up, for some reason. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] Mach's Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of his signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more of his signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
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CrypticMan proved to be quite slippery and oddly durable, as he didn't sustain any damage whatsoever from the onslaught. The battle was rapidly tipping to the multi-armed Navi's favor, which further frustrated the Navi. To make matters worse, his chip system became victim to the glitches as well, which further hampered his ability to fight back. The battlefield also started to show signs of wear and damage from the battle, which put everyone involved in a heightened level of peril. [[i]Invis and BambooSword, gotta turn this around[/i]] he sent to Mazer via text. He hadn't used the invisibility chip before, but it seemed to be one of his rapidly diminishing options remaining.
Aera, who seemed to be a constant target of CrypticMan's attacks, made the smart decision to try and hightail it out of there, and attempt to retreat to one of the outer rings on the lower level. If anything, the solar panels would help provide some soothing energy to keep her active. As she made a spider arm-boosted jump, she left behind a pulse of green energy that permeated through Mach's body to help repair some of the hefty damage he sustained. The green light quickly faded just as Mach got the chip upload notification. He quickly reactivated a shadow clone directly where he was standing as his own body faded into the background. Thanks to the chip's rather rapid implementation and the decoy's exact positioning, hopefully it would've been difficult to notice Mach had made a disappearing act. To further enhance the illusion, he only reactivated one other decoy, which would've left only 2 Machmen on the field as opposed to the usual 4. The second decoy materialized on the lower level opposite of Aera before it dashed up to CrypticMan's position.
The FighterPlane was hunting CrypticMan as well, and aggressively pursued its target using sharp banks and turns to try to get a good fix on him. The craft's odd source of propulsion seemed to leave a slight trail of magenta light behind as it streaked through the air. Once the Navi finally paused under its cross-hairs, it opened up with a second volley of yellow/green-tinged cannon fire for a second or so before it banked away to set up a final strafing run. Mach leaped up to get himself away from the decoy that took his place, which seemed to wield a RageClaw chip before it too started to pursue CrypticMan.
Meanwhile Vector, now apparently made into a quasi-elec program, glanced over to make sure Aera made her escape safely. Upon seeing her touch down, he looked back towards CrypticMan as he swiped his arm towards him. A dark spine shot from his arm and hurtled towards the Navi, which seemingly prompted smaller pieces of metal to swarm around the SP to form a web-like protective layer. MachMan raised his own defenses, since his Aura was quickly destroyed moments ago. With his energy shields raised, he shifted his focus to CrypticMan, who appeared to be more focused on the satellite. Though he didn't like admitting it, he was making a mess of the place. Mach knew he had to use more precision to take this foe down without bringing the entire field down with him. Vector sent another needle-like spine on a bee-line path towards his target, and Mach attempted to quietly close the gap.
Aera kept her eyes peeled, and was prepared to dash, slide, or even roll out of the way if CrypticMan attempted to pursue her again. Even the sight of Vector's electrical form frightened her, which made it obvious she couldn't use her own powers to help. The fear didn't help mask the growing feeling of helplessness and lack of worth, she was nearly instantly put on the defensive and became effectively useless as an offensive force. She couldn't help but feel like she was essentially dead weight thus far. MachMan ghosted towards CrypticMan, energy blade in hand. Once he got in range, he delivered a lightning-fast slash towards his target. His blade, which was as invisible as his body, carved a horizontal arc in the air without leaving a trace.
Mach assumed CrypticMan likely either had luck on his side or some sort of way to lift the curtain on his sneak attack, so he knew he would have to move if at least to reposition himself to strike an unguarded spot. He deftly somersaulted over CrypticMan while attempting to find an area not protected by his shield-like arms. Upon finding a target of opportunity, he delivered another wide slash, this time vertically towards CrypticMan. It was obviously not enough to bring down the multi-armed weirdo, but maybe it was enough to even the scales of the battle. Not to leave himself open to an easy counterattack, Mach crouched in the ready to leap out of the way of a likely copious barrage of electrical shots. If CrypticMan blinked away yet again to harass Aera... again, she would try to retaliate again with a physical strike, though it was pretty useless last time. She was quickly out of options, and her allies weren't far behind.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Aera: Move to outer ring, lower level
-[Recharge: MachMan (Heal 18)]-
1. Invis2: Self (Invisibility for 2 turns)
-[FighterPlane: Attack CrypticMan (10dmg x15) (A)]-
-[Dodge]-
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Vector: OBDS to self (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced +2 hits]- [Shield bash active]
2. Heavy Shielding: Self (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
3. Movement: Chase down CrypticMan
Aera: Dodge
4. BambooSword: CrypticMan (80dmg Wood + Slashing {Can hit 3 targets at once}) (B) [1/3]
5. Movement: Reposition to attack non-shielded area
Aera: Dodge
6. BambooSword: CrypticMan (80dmg Wood + Slashing {Can hit 3 targets at once}) (B) [2/3]
Aera: Attack CrypticMan (50dmg Null)
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Pursue CrypticMan
DecoyB: not used
ShadowDecoy: Take Mach's place, then pursue CrypticMan with a "RageClaw"
Aera, who seemed to be a constant target of CrypticMan's attacks, made the smart decision to try and hightail it out of there, and attempt to retreat to one of the outer rings on the lower level. If anything, the solar panels would help provide some soothing energy to keep her active. As she made a spider arm-boosted jump, she left behind a pulse of green energy that permeated through Mach's body to help repair some of the hefty damage he sustained. The green light quickly faded just as Mach got the chip upload notification. He quickly reactivated a shadow clone directly where he was standing as his own body faded into the background. Thanks to the chip's rather rapid implementation and the decoy's exact positioning, hopefully it would've been difficult to notice Mach had made a disappearing act. To further enhance the illusion, he only reactivated one other decoy, which would've left only 2 Machmen on the field as opposed to the usual 4. The second decoy materialized on the lower level opposite of Aera before it dashed up to CrypticMan's position.
The FighterPlane was hunting CrypticMan as well, and aggressively pursued its target using sharp banks and turns to try to get a good fix on him. The craft's odd source of propulsion seemed to leave a slight trail of magenta light behind as it streaked through the air. Once the Navi finally paused under its cross-hairs, it opened up with a second volley of yellow/green-tinged cannon fire for a second or so before it banked away to set up a final strafing run. Mach leaped up to get himself away from the decoy that took his place, which seemed to wield a RageClaw chip before it too started to pursue CrypticMan.
Meanwhile Vector, now apparently made into a quasi-elec program, glanced over to make sure Aera made her escape safely. Upon seeing her touch down, he looked back towards CrypticMan as he swiped his arm towards him. A dark spine shot from his arm and hurtled towards the Navi, which seemingly prompted smaller pieces of metal to swarm around the SP to form a web-like protective layer. MachMan raised his own defenses, since his Aura was quickly destroyed moments ago. With his energy shields raised, he shifted his focus to CrypticMan, who appeared to be more focused on the satellite. Though he didn't like admitting it, he was making a mess of the place. Mach knew he had to use more precision to take this foe down without bringing the entire field down with him. Vector sent another needle-like spine on a bee-line path towards his target, and Mach attempted to quietly close the gap.
Aera kept her eyes peeled, and was prepared to dash, slide, or even roll out of the way if CrypticMan attempted to pursue her again. Even the sight of Vector's electrical form frightened her, which made it obvious she couldn't use her own powers to help. The fear didn't help mask the growing feeling of helplessness and lack of worth, she was nearly instantly put on the defensive and became effectively useless as an offensive force. She couldn't help but feel like she was essentially dead weight thus far. MachMan ghosted towards CrypticMan, energy blade in hand. Once he got in range, he delivered a lightning-fast slash towards his target. His blade, which was as invisible as his body, carved a horizontal arc in the air without leaving a trace.
Mach assumed CrypticMan likely either had luck on his side or some sort of way to lift the curtain on his sneak attack, so he knew he would have to move if at least to reposition himself to strike an unguarded spot. He deftly somersaulted over CrypticMan while attempting to find an area not protected by his shield-like arms. Upon finding a target of opportunity, he delivered another wide slash, this time vertically towards CrypticMan. It was obviously not enough to bring down the multi-armed weirdo, but maybe it was enough to even the scales of the battle. Not to leave himself open to an easy counterattack, Mach crouched in the ready to leap out of the way of a likely copious barrage of electrical shots. If CrypticMan blinked away yet again to harass Aera... again, she would try to retaliate again with a physical strike, though it was pretty useless last time. She was quickly out of options, and her allies weren't far behind.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Aera: Move to outer ring, lower level
-[Recharge: MachMan (Heal 18)]-
1. Invis2: Self (Invisibility for 2 turns)
-[FighterPlane: Attack CrypticMan (10dmg x15) (A)]-
-[Dodge]-
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
Vector: OBDS to self (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced +2 hits]- [Shield bash active]
2. Heavy Shielding: Self (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
3. Movement: Chase down CrypticMan
Aera: Dodge
4. BambooSword: CrypticMan (80dmg Wood + Slashing {Can hit 3 targets at once}) (B) [1/3]
5. Movement: Reposition to attack non-shielded area
Aera: Dodge
6. BambooSword: CrypticMan (80dmg Wood + Slashing {Can hit 3 targets at once}) (B) [2/3]
Aera: Attack CrypticMan (50dmg Null)
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Pursue CrypticMan
DecoyB: not used
ShadowDecoy: Take Mach's place, then pursue CrypticMan with a "RageClaw"
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A lot of things happened at once. Aera got the heck out of dodge, and not a moment too soon. The humming from the tower stopped, and a bolt of light shot down from the top, to the centre of the magnet panels, causing a massive gravitational burst to drag everyone and everything crashing at high speeds, into the centre. Safely behind the console barrier on the outer layer, Aera is merely rammed hard against the unyielding terminals, but otherwise spared the gravity's pull. Everyone else, is less lucky. Mach, Cryptic, Vector, and the unfortunate FighterPlane are all pulled into collision point in the middle of the terrain, causing a tangle of arms and spikes, and a truly spectacular malaise of glitch code to spread back and forth where it could. Cryptic cursed aloud as he untangled himself from Vector, and the FighterPlane immediately flew free again once the pulse stopped. Mach had the strange experience of being clipped back and forth through everyone else, unable to contact or stop them even though their forms passed through one another.
Mach turned himself invisible, leaving his decoy in the same spot, and dodged away from it. Even if there had been any noticeable transition, his timing, amidst the confusion of the gravity pulse, made sure no-one noticed. Unbeknownst to, well, everyone at this stage, the invisibility chip also hid the fact that Mach had acquired the armour opacity bug from Vector, though the others made themselves more apparent: a slight fear of overt lightning bolts, the sensation of being covered in slime, and more notably, the bypass on his signature's cool-down safeties.
Vector, meanwhile, was suddenly dealing with a mutated version of Mach's NoClip bug that let him stand firmly on the floor still, but touch nothing else. Two of the smaller component parts of the often fractal yet currently spidery SP lifted free and began to orbit him slowly, no longer responding to any commands. His SAS also received a dose of Mach's passive lock-out, but without any passives of his own, Vector was really more of a carrier for that one.
The poor FighterPlane was likely having the strangest moment of its brief life as it was assaulted from both sides with a slew of corrupt and garbled data, most of which settled into it without making much tangible sense. A few must have though, as it began to crackle with electricity, just like Vector was.
"Ack, not good..." Even if he was immune to the contagion of his own bugs, Cryptic didn't sound very happy. As if he knew something bad was coming, he blinked out of sight in a crackle of electricity the moment he managed to untangle himself, reappearing up higher, quite close to the top of the area, at another console.
The FighterPlane, which was really more carrier, than plane at this point, tracked him down and made a strafing run at the creepy navi, even as 'Mach' came at him with a RageClaw. Two of CrypticMan's laser points darted up to pin the approaching Navi with glitch beams, as he shouted for it to stay back, but his voice dropped out when the shots went clear through the decoy, dispersing it. Setting aside his confusion for the moment, CrypticMan looked back to his screen.
"Come on, come on... don't do this... Augh... it's got panic mode locks... let's see... come on..."
He was mostly mumbling to himself, but whatever effect he'd used to make his voice carry before had apparently been left on, since it was quiet mumbling that they could all hear. It was in that moment of confusion that the valiant little SpiderPlane bore down on Cryptic, and unwilling to relinquish hands on the console he was tinkering at, all her could do was take cover behind his already damaged shields. The console itself provided a bit of cover, with the angle that the plane approached from, but it wasn't enough: the shield plates were shredded, and four more shots besides also managed to strike through, punching at his body and making it jerk and spasm. It was made a bit creepier by the way this riddling didn't interrupt his fingers or make his hands flinch from what they were doing. After the impacts he looked up.
"You need to go..." his right arm lifted, and as the plane began to bank away, a crackling bar of electricity shot from his fingers, piercing the fighter with enough force to knock it out of the air. It was beginning to disintegrate and fade before it reached the ground.
Down below, Vector made another attack on CrypticMan, but then angle was poor enough to give the navi cover from the shot. It did, however, strike the terminal he was standing before, causing it to begin fritzing madly, and eliciting another angry curse from the hacker.
That was about all they had time for though, as the strange panel turrets all pointing to the magnetic centre a whirred at once. The solar panels in front of them each lifted up, beginning to spin at high speeds, then in a slightly staggered wave, launched inwards towards where Mach and his SP still lingered.
On the whole, it looked like they were firing at very little, given Mach's invisibility, and Vector's transparency. Both Navi and SP managed to raise their shields in time, before the bevy of spinning panels get to them. Mach dodges one, but takes another two on his shields. The contact sends a stunning jolt through his system, that amplifies as the second strikes. Two of the panels miss completely, crunching into the ground, but a sixth finds Vector's shielding, sending a similar disorienting pulse through the SP. Immediately, the six turrets regenerate panels, though they are an assortment of different ones now: One was normal, while another was a small mound of coal. Another was a pit of sand, and the one beside it fresh, soft soil. One panel contained some pale green water that steamed gently, while another glowed bright white.
As the assault ceased, the spire hums again. It probably wasn't finished. Cryptic jumped up on top of his console, reforming his shield plates and looking around down below to try and assess the aftermath of the Spire's defence system. He was met by another sharp spike form Vector, which punched out one of his freshly formed shield plates and made the arm drop limp as well. With a growl, the glitch-navi disappeared in a crack of static, and reformed directly behind the mostly-transparent lightning-absorbing aqua SP, taking a quick series of highly accurate shots at him. Vector's shields didn't much care for that, turning back a minor amount of the already minor damage. It was enough to let his third shot connect directly, but thanks to the very bug he'd ended up giving the SP, it failed utterly to damage him. Cryptic snarled at the rebounded damage, small though it was.
"Stop that!" The words were sharp, but the navi sounded a little more desperate than before as the three shots worked to spread another handful of corruption into the already drastically bugged SP. More of his component parts stopped responding, joining he ones already orbiting his form, but something deeper began to take hold as well; a new energy to move and act more efficiently than before. A third glitch took root in his systems, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would discover it. This one had the strange effect of making Vector give off a slightly minty scent, and, if anyone should happen to lick the SP, a distinctly fresh minty flavour, too.
Cryptic didn't much care if vector tasted like mint jelly. Shields and laser-points bristling, his eyes kaleidoscoped through the spectrum under his hood.
"Where did your master go? In case you didn't notice, I'm not what you need to worry about, now that it's locked me out!" He may have been about to elucidate further, but, moving with all the stealth of an assassin, Mach struck. None of them saw the usual green flash of energy that trailed with his bamboo sword, but Cryptic certainly felt the blow score down across his back, from shoulder to opposite hip, with enough force to tear an agonised cry from him, and drive the twitch navi to his knees. His shields fanned out around him and his laser-tip arms darted up and flexed, firing a spray of quick shots about himself as they tried to find his assailant.
Even though he couldn't see Mach himself, the shots were reflexive, back at where the pain had come from, and at point blank range, so two of the three found the invisible navi's shields. It didn't help Cryptic much, since the navi himself didn't even see whether his shots had connected or not.
"Damnit, no..." It was mostly a forced gasp as Cryptic tried to push himself up again, several of his unused arms making efforts to support him as he began to climb to his feet. He moved his shields about, fanning as he tried to cover from an opponent he couldn't see, but with the leisure of invisibility, it wasn't too hard for Mach to wait for the right opening and take it, connecting a second brutal slash down the bug navi's front this time. The blow threw him back, collapsing in a clatter of arms and another pained shout.
He didn't move for a moment, then his many arms rose up, some grabbing onto the console, others pushing off the floor as the navi slowly picked himself up again. One hand reached as far as the spire, holding onto it for support, and another smalls string of glitch coding passed from him to it. Even so, when Cryptic's body finally followed the movement of his arms, he got only so far as standing weakly by the console bank, resting more weight on his many arms than his own legs.
"Stop, damnit... don't... You'll need my help if you want this thing to stop trying to kill you now, short of crashing it. I can't let it crash. It's too important."
He brought his shields up again, looking around warily, and sparing another glance for Vector nearby. Aera was well out of sight still, on the outside and hidden by her bank of consoles, and Mach was nowhere to be seen, but certainly nearby. The two small shots had affected Mach, even hidden as he was, and a third of his mechanical arms went haywire. Unfortunately, this tipped the balance of power between the appendages, and the three misbehaving ones immediately turned on the fourth, gleefully grabbing hold of it and beginning to tear it apart, between themselves. If they weren't mechanical extras, brought on by a graphical override... and invisible at the time... it might have been a bit morbid. At the same time, his real arms also felt something; an unexpected new strength. His buster statistics all began to read out as one level higher than they had been. Then the spire hummed again.
As before, another massive surge of gravity focused on the patch of magnetic panels they were still somewhat close to, dragging them all in. As it was, there wasn't really a sense of anyone crashing into anyone else this time. With Mach and Vector phasing through everything, the only one to be really discomfited by the pull was Aera ,who was dragged hard against her cover again, but otherwise unharmed, and CrypticMan, who was pulled back into the centre of the magnets. Mach and Vector were with him, mostly invisible and mostly intangible as they were dragged into clipping back and forth through each other, and CrypticMan.
Cryptic looked up as the panel shooters prepared to fire their second volley, and seemed to blur for a moment... he didn't disappear though. Clearly something had gone wrong when he attempted to blink away.
"Oh hell..." was all he managed to mutter before bracing himself behind his remaining shields.
Even if one was invisible, and the other was rather hard to see save for a dancing cloak of lightning, Mach and Vector were still in the centre as well, and as the turrets fired, they also had to contend with the volley of assorted panels. The normal panel dug into the magnet, hitting nothing, but the turret flinging its scorching shot of coal connected with unshielded form (Vector -100). One shooter lifted its panel, but when it fired, all that happened was a volatile puff of sand in front of it, that went nowhere. The soil panel impacted against one of Cryptic's remaining shield arms, as did the bolt of steaming hot water, which spread a small cloud of blinding mist around to all three of them. The holy panel found Mach's shielding, and wasn't able to drain any Hp back to the spire as a result.
At once, before any of them had had time to recover, the panels in front of the six turrets regenerated in another random set. This time there was a soil panel, one that looked suspiciously like mud, a heat mirage-causing furnace, another bright white panel, one beside it that looked a sickly, sticky purple colour, and the last was plain metal.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 1Hp [Shields Broken!][Magnet][Blind1][Diverted Energy]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 108/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inner][Magnet][Blind1][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (2 Turns)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)]
Vector.SP: 10Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Blind1][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Soil, Mud, Metal, Furnace, Holy, Poison, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 280/500Hp [Lit up Red and Green and Blue][Conductive][All-Brace][Beach Time..?][Regen(10)]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
Fighter Plane (Ally of Mach): DELETED
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
Mach turned himself invisible, leaving his decoy in the same spot, and dodged away from it. Even if there had been any noticeable transition, his timing, amidst the confusion of the gravity pulse, made sure no-one noticed. Unbeknownst to, well, everyone at this stage, the invisibility chip also hid the fact that Mach had acquired the armour opacity bug from Vector, though the others made themselves more apparent: a slight fear of overt lightning bolts, the sensation of being covered in slime, and more notably, the bypass on his signature's cool-down safeties.
Vector, meanwhile, was suddenly dealing with a mutated version of Mach's NoClip bug that let him stand firmly on the floor still, but touch nothing else. Two of the smaller component parts of the often fractal yet currently spidery SP lifted free and began to orbit him slowly, no longer responding to any commands. His SAS also received a dose of Mach's passive lock-out, but without any passives of his own, Vector was really more of a carrier for that one.
The poor FighterPlane was likely having the strangest moment of its brief life as it was assaulted from both sides with a slew of corrupt and garbled data, most of which settled into it without making much tangible sense. A few must have though, as it began to crackle with electricity, just like Vector was.
"Ack, not good..." Even if he was immune to the contagion of his own bugs, Cryptic didn't sound very happy. As if he knew something bad was coming, he blinked out of sight in a crackle of electricity the moment he managed to untangle himself, reappearing up higher, quite close to the top of the area, at another console.
The FighterPlane, which was really more carrier, than plane at this point, tracked him down and made a strafing run at the creepy navi, even as 'Mach' came at him with a RageClaw. Two of CrypticMan's laser points darted up to pin the approaching Navi with glitch beams, as he shouted for it to stay back, but his voice dropped out when the shots went clear through the decoy, dispersing it. Setting aside his confusion for the moment, CrypticMan looked back to his screen.
"Come on, come on... don't do this... Augh... it's got panic mode locks... let's see... come on..."
He was mostly mumbling to himself, but whatever effect he'd used to make his voice carry before had apparently been left on, since it was quiet mumbling that they could all hear. It was in that moment of confusion that the valiant little SpiderPlane bore down on Cryptic, and unwilling to relinquish hands on the console he was tinkering at, all her could do was take cover behind his already damaged shields. The console itself provided a bit of cover, with the angle that the plane approached from, but it wasn't enough: the shield plates were shredded, and four more shots besides also managed to strike through, punching at his body and making it jerk and spasm. It was made a bit creepier by the way this riddling didn't interrupt his fingers or make his hands flinch from what they were doing. After the impacts he looked up.
"You need to go..." his right arm lifted, and as the plane began to bank away, a crackling bar of electricity shot from his fingers, piercing the fighter with enough force to knock it out of the air. It was beginning to disintegrate and fade before it reached the ground.
Down below, Vector made another attack on CrypticMan, but then angle was poor enough to give the navi cover from the shot. It did, however, strike the terminal he was standing before, causing it to begin fritzing madly, and eliciting another angry curse from the hacker.
That was about all they had time for though, as the strange panel turrets all pointing to the magnetic centre a whirred at once. The solar panels in front of them each lifted up, beginning to spin at high speeds, then in a slightly staggered wave, launched inwards towards where Mach and his SP still lingered.
On the whole, it looked like they were firing at very little, given Mach's invisibility, and Vector's transparency. Both Navi and SP managed to raise their shields in time, before the bevy of spinning panels get to them. Mach dodges one, but takes another two on his shields. The contact sends a stunning jolt through his system, that amplifies as the second strikes. Two of the panels miss completely, crunching into the ground, but a sixth finds Vector's shielding, sending a similar disorienting pulse through the SP. Immediately, the six turrets regenerate panels, though they are an assortment of different ones now: One was normal, while another was a small mound of coal. Another was a pit of sand, and the one beside it fresh, soft soil. One panel contained some pale green water that steamed gently, while another glowed bright white.
As the assault ceased, the spire hums again. It probably wasn't finished. Cryptic jumped up on top of his console, reforming his shield plates and looking around down below to try and assess the aftermath of the Spire's defence system. He was met by another sharp spike form Vector, which punched out one of his freshly formed shield plates and made the arm drop limp as well. With a growl, the glitch-navi disappeared in a crack of static, and reformed directly behind the mostly-transparent lightning-absorbing aqua SP, taking a quick series of highly accurate shots at him. Vector's shields didn't much care for that, turning back a minor amount of the already minor damage. It was enough to let his third shot connect directly, but thanks to the very bug he'd ended up giving the SP, it failed utterly to damage him. Cryptic snarled at the rebounded damage, small though it was.
"Stop that!" The words were sharp, but the navi sounded a little more desperate than before as the three shots worked to spread another handful of corruption into the already drastically bugged SP. More of his component parts stopped responding, joining he ones already orbiting his form, but something deeper began to take hold as well; a new energy to move and act more efficiently than before. A third glitch took root in his systems, but it seemed unlikely that anyone would discover it. This one had the strange effect of making Vector give off a slightly minty scent, and, if anyone should happen to lick the SP, a distinctly fresh minty flavour, too.
Cryptic didn't much care if vector tasted like mint jelly. Shields and laser-points bristling, his eyes kaleidoscoped through the spectrum under his hood.
"Where did your master go? In case you didn't notice, I'm not what you need to worry about, now that it's locked me out!" He may have been about to elucidate further, but, moving with all the stealth of an assassin, Mach struck. None of them saw the usual green flash of energy that trailed with his bamboo sword, but Cryptic certainly felt the blow score down across his back, from shoulder to opposite hip, with enough force to tear an agonised cry from him, and drive the twitch navi to his knees. His shields fanned out around him and his laser-tip arms darted up and flexed, firing a spray of quick shots about himself as they tried to find his assailant.
Even though he couldn't see Mach himself, the shots were reflexive, back at where the pain had come from, and at point blank range, so two of the three found the invisible navi's shields. It didn't help Cryptic much, since the navi himself didn't even see whether his shots had connected or not.
"Damnit, no..." It was mostly a forced gasp as Cryptic tried to push himself up again, several of his unused arms making efforts to support him as he began to climb to his feet. He moved his shields about, fanning as he tried to cover from an opponent he couldn't see, but with the leisure of invisibility, it wasn't too hard for Mach to wait for the right opening and take it, connecting a second brutal slash down the bug navi's front this time. The blow threw him back, collapsing in a clatter of arms and another pained shout.
He didn't move for a moment, then his many arms rose up, some grabbing onto the console, others pushing off the floor as the navi slowly picked himself up again. One hand reached as far as the spire, holding onto it for support, and another smalls string of glitch coding passed from him to it. Even so, when Cryptic's body finally followed the movement of his arms, he got only so far as standing weakly by the console bank, resting more weight on his many arms than his own legs.
"Stop, damnit... don't... You'll need my help if you want this thing to stop trying to kill you now, short of crashing it. I can't let it crash. It's too important."
He brought his shields up again, looking around warily, and sparing another glance for Vector nearby. Aera was well out of sight still, on the outside and hidden by her bank of consoles, and Mach was nowhere to be seen, but certainly nearby. The two small shots had affected Mach, even hidden as he was, and a third of his mechanical arms went haywire. Unfortunately, this tipped the balance of power between the appendages, and the three misbehaving ones immediately turned on the fourth, gleefully grabbing hold of it and beginning to tear it apart, between themselves. If they weren't mechanical extras, brought on by a graphical override... and invisible at the time... it might have been a bit morbid. At the same time, his real arms also felt something; an unexpected new strength. His buster statistics all began to read out as one level higher than they had been. Then the spire hummed again.
As before, another massive surge of gravity focused on the patch of magnetic panels they were still somewhat close to, dragging them all in. As it was, there wasn't really a sense of anyone crashing into anyone else this time. With Mach and Vector phasing through everything, the only one to be really discomfited by the pull was Aera ,who was dragged hard against her cover again, but otherwise unharmed, and CrypticMan, who was pulled back into the centre of the magnets. Mach and Vector were with him, mostly invisible and mostly intangible as they were dragged into clipping back and forth through each other, and CrypticMan.
Cryptic looked up as the panel shooters prepared to fire their second volley, and seemed to blur for a moment... he didn't disappear though. Clearly something had gone wrong when he attempted to blink away.
"Oh hell..." was all he managed to mutter before bracing himself behind his remaining shields.
Even if one was invisible, and the other was rather hard to see save for a dancing cloak of lightning, Mach and Vector were still in the centre as well, and as the turrets fired, they also had to contend with the volley of assorted panels. The normal panel dug into the magnet, hitting nothing, but the turret flinging its scorching shot of coal connected with unshielded form (Vector -100). One shooter lifted its panel, but when it fired, all that happened was a volatile puff of sand in front of it, that went nowhere. The soil panel impacted against one of Cryptic's remaining shield arms, as did the bolt of steaming hot water, which spread a small cloud of blinding mist around to all three of them. The holy panel found Mach's shielding, and wasn't able to drain any Hp back to the spire as a result.
At once, before any of them had had time to recover, the panels in front of the six turrets regenerated in another random set. This time there was a soil panel, one that looked suspiciously like mud, a heat mirage-causing furnace, another bright white panel, one beside it that looked a sickly, sticky purple colour, and the last was plain metal.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 1Hp [Shields Broken!][Magnet][Blind1][Diverted Energy]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 108/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inner][Magnet][Blind1][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (2 Turns)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)]
Vector.SP: 10Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Blind1][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Soil, Mud, Metal, Furnace, Holy, Poison, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 280/500Hp [Lit up Red and Green and Blue][Conductive][All-Brace][Beach Time..?][Regen(10)]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
Fighter Plane (Ally of Mach): DELETED
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
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Mach and Vector were unfortunately pulled towards the center spire, only to be mixed together into a no-clipping mess of programs and a ridiculous amount of glitches. Mazer saw almost a dozen yellow notifications pop up along the side wall of his screen, reflecting the amount of glitches his Navi sustained. Undeterred, both Mach and Vector continued to engage the Navi, much to his chagrin. Amidst the chaos, his FighterPlane was defeated, Vector took a significant hit, and both the SP and Mach were blinded by a spray of scalding water.
Mach tried to rub his eyes, but everything just felt slimy, as if the water developed a thick film over his body. Vector shook his head a couple times, but elected to drip dry instead of attempting to wipe it away; his armored hands would've just scratched everything up. Aera saw her Navi struggling, and activated her recently recharged debug program in response. While he was afflicted with a myriad of ailments, she aimed specifically to restore his eyesight as she placed an IV on her thigh. A single white ring materialized around Mach's head like a visor over his eyes, with a ghostly green glow over the rest of his transparent body. They disappeared quickly and effectively nullified the previous attack's effect on his eyes, as well as restored a bit of his energy. Everything became much clearer, especially his view of the panel-flinging defensive turrets. [[i]Requesting: MetaGel2 & Magnum[/i]] he sent to his NetOp, they were his *limited* tools to hopefully deal with the turrets.
With his eyesight restored and his NetOp quickly uploaded chips, he responded to CrypticMan's quasi-plea. "Fine, see what you can do, we'll handle the turrets" he said, his voice seemed phantasmic as he was still entirely transparent. Aera furrowed her brow at Mach's sudden change of mind, but the message she quickly received from him helped clarify things. [[i]Try to deactivate the defensive systems, can't let this satellite get destroyed and/or destroy us in the process.[/i]] Her expression changed to one of determination, and she moved to one of the consoles. Both Mach and Vector restored their associated defenses, thanks to one of their more advantageous glitches.
Mach's first chip was uploaded, which he activated without delay. Three rapidly glowing blobs of blue gelatinous data materialized over two of the turrets on the upper layer and one on the center level. The blobs bloated to a significant size before they dropped from their unseen perches and fell straight down towards their targets, with the hope of smashing/smothering the turrets with caustic goop. Once the trio of gel blobs fell upon their targets, Mach blinked away to reposition himself with a good line of sight on the remaining three turrets. He wanted to have a clear shot on all three, but his focus was on the remaining turret on the main (center) level. When he reappeared, his decoy trio materialized at near the spire, one at each level. They kicked off their thrusters and started to zip up and down the spire in an attempt to draw the turrets' attention from the Navis and SPs. Aera attempted to access the console and tried to somehow find a way to deactivate the security system, or somehow convince the satellite it wasn't under attack. That being said, if she somehow found an option to have the security system target CrypticMan and him alone, she'd go for that option first. She'd access one of the adjacent consoles if the current one offered no solutions, as time was of the essence.
After Mach was quickly repositioned, he raised his right arm towards the remaining turrets as his sword fragmented, prompting his needlessly large triple-chambered magnum to materialize in its place. It was an absurdly powerful-looking weapon, though no one could see it due to Mach's still-invisible status. Regardless, he moved its targeting "pipper" over the remaining turrets, which left a trio of crimson triangle 'Locked' indications in his vision. With his three targeting solutions acquired, he quickly angled the weapon towards the turret on the middle level and fired off his first shot. The blast resulted in a loud boom that reverberated through the air-tight sealed area, but there was no flash or smoke to be seen. The Magnum's targeting program took over and automatically pointed the weapon towards one of the turrets on the lower level before it fired a second time. As soon as the weapon fully recoiled, it swung again to the previous turret's counterpart and delivered the third and last of its armor-piercing incendiary rounds. To the trio of bystanders, three fireballs appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and myriad of echoes and reverberations of the noise made the origin of the shots a bit difficult to determine.
If Mach managed to miss the turret on the main level near CrypticMan, Vector would have attempted to bring it down himself. He swiped his left arm horizontally forward, which sent a needle-like spine whipping through the air towards the turret. He quickly followed up with a vertical swipe of his right arm, which sent two more spines towards the turret. "Don't try anything funny, pal..." Mach's voice echoed. Mach blinked away again and repositioned himself with a nice wide field of fire directly towards CrypticMan. Unseen by all, his trusty 30mm triple-barreled vulcan was slung under his right forearm, and its trigger was secured in his hand. The weapon was pointing directly at CrypticMan, but if the Navi made the unfortunate decision to evade, the rounds would drill holes in the center spire in his stead. "... or I'll bring this whole thing down. We'll just EJO, but you'll lose a satellite. Your choice," he said coldly, with the full expectation CrypticMan would try to use the tentative ceasefire to direct the full wrath of the satellite's security system against him and his SPs.
If the Navi made any sort of aggressive movements, attempted to flee (with the exception of evading turret fire), or started gloating about his brilliant plan about how he'd secured Mach and Co's fate, Mach would respond with a stream of armor-piercing vulcan rounds. Even as the weapon would've quickly expended his ammunition, he would've utilized his remaining boosters to maneuver around the area to keep his line of fire clear. If it came to that point, he expected counter fire, and was prepared to dodge said retaliations.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
-[IV: Aera (Heal 5 per action]-
Aera: Debug MachMan's Blind1 (Status Cure + 1TCD)
-[Recharge: Machman (Heal 18)]-
Aera: Move to control panel
1. Heavy Shielding to self (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Vector: OBDS to self (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced (+2 hits)]-
2. MetaGel2: Panel-Shooter Turrets 1,2,3 (130dmg Aqua + Slow x3 targets) (B)
3. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to firing line of Turrets 4,5,6 (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Access/manipulate console x2
4. Magnum: Panel-Shooter Turrets 4,5,6 (120dmg Fire + Breaking + Panel Breaking x3 targets) (A)
Vector: Attack Panel-Shooter Turret 2 (40dmg Aqua + Disarm) x3
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to upper level (Teleport + 2TCD)
((If CrypticMan tries something shady))
6. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD)
-[Movement: Keep with CrypticMan's movements]-
-[Dodge]-
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
DecoyB: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
ShadowDecoy: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
Mach tried to rub his eyes, but everything just felt slimy, as if the water developed a thick film over his body. Vector shook his head a couple times, but elected to drip dry instead of attempting to wipe it away; his armored hands would've just scratched everything up. Aera saw her Navi struggling, and activated her recently recharged debug program in response. While he was afflicted with a myriad of ailments, she aimed specifically to restore his eyesight as she placed an IV on her thigh. A single white ring materialized around Mach's head like a visor over his eyes, with a ghostly green glow over the rest of his transparent body. They disappeared quickly and effectively nullified the previous attack's effect on his eyes, as well as restored a bit of his energy. Everything became much clearer, especially his view of the panel-flinging defensive turrets. [[i]Requesting: MetaGel2 & Magnum[/i]] he sent to his NetOp, they were his *limited* tools to hopefully deal with the turrets.
With his eyesight restored and his NetOp quickly uploaded chips, he responded to CrypticMan's quasi-plea. "Fine, see what you can do, we'll handle the turrets" he said, his voice seemed phantasmic as he was still entirely transparent. Aera furrowed her brow at Mach's sudden change of mind, but the message she quickly received from him helped clarify things. [[i]Try to deactivate the defensive systems, can't let this satellite get destroyed and/or destroy us in the process.[/i]] Her expression changed to one of determination, and she moved to one of the consoles. Both Mach and Vector restored their associated defenses, thanks to one of their more advantageous glitches.
Mach's first chip was uploaded, which he activated without delay. Three rapidly glowing blobs of blue gelatinous data materialized over two of the turrets on the upper layer and one on the center level. The blobs bloated to a significant size before they dropped from their unseen perches and fell straight down towards their targets, with the hope of smashing/smothering the turrets with caustic goop. Once the trio of gel blobs fell upon their targets, Mach blinked away to reposition himself with a good line of sight on the remaining three turrets. He wanted to have a clear shot on all three, but his focus was on the remaining turret on the main (center) level. When he reappeared, his decoy trio materialized at near the spire, one at each level. They kicked off their thrusters and started to zip up and down the spire in an attempt to draw the turrets' attention from the Navis and SPs. Aera attempted to access the console and tried to somehow find a way to deactivate the security system, or somehow convince the satellite it wasn't under attack. That being said, if she somehow found an option to have the security system target CrypticMan and him alone, she'd go for that option first. She'd access one of the adjacent consoles if the current one offered no solutions, as time was of the essence.
After Mach was quickly repositioned, he raised his right arm towards the remaining turrets as his sword fragmented, prompting his needlessly large triple-chambered magnum to materialize in its place. It was an absurdly powerful-looking weapon, though no one could see it due to Mach's still-invisible status. Regardless, he moved its targeting "pipper" over the remaining turrets, which left a trio of crimson triangle 'Locked' indications in his vision. With his three targeting solutions acquired, he quickly angled the weapon towards the turret on the middle level and fired off his first shot. The blast resulted in a loud boom that reverberated through the air-tight sealed area, but there was no flash or smoke to be seen. The Magnum's targeting program took over and automatically pointed the weapon towards one of the turrets on the lower level before it fired a second time. As soon as the weapon fully recoiled, it swung again to the previous turret's counterpart and delivered the third and last of its armor-piercing incendiary rounds. To the trio of bystanders, three fireballs appeared seemingly out of nowhere, and myriad of echoes and reverberations of the noise made the origin of the shots a bit difficult to determine.
If Mach managed to miss the turret on the main level near CrypticMan, Vector would have attempted to bring it down himself. He swiped his left arm horizontally forward, which sent a needle-like spine whipping through the air towards the turret. He quickly followed up with a vertical swipe of his right arm, which sent two more spines towards the turret. "Don't try anything funny, pal..." Mach's voice echoed. Mach blinked away again and repositioned himself with a nice wide field of fire directly towards CrypticMan. Unseen by all, his trusty 30mm triple-barreled vulcan was slung under his right forearm, and its trigger was secured in his hand. The weapon was pointing directly at CrypticMan, but if the Navi made the unfortunate decision to evade, the rounds would drill holes in the center spire in his stead. "... or I'll bring this whole thing down. We'll just EJO, but you'll lose a satellite. Your choice," he said coldly, with the full expectation CrypticMan would try to use the tentative ceasefire to direct the full wrath of the satellite's security system against him and his SPs.
If the Navi made any sort of aggressive movements, attempted to flee (with the exception of evading turret fire), or started gloating about his brilliant plan about how he'd secured Mach and Co's fate, Mach would respond with a stream of armor-piercing vulcan rounds. Even as the weapon would've quickly expended his ammunition, he would've utilized his remaining boosters to maneuver around the area to keep his line of fire clear. If it came to that point, he expected counter fire, and was prepared to dodge said retaliations.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
-[IV: Aera (Heal 5 per action]-
Aera: Debug MachMan's Blind1 (Status Cure + 1TCD)
-[Recharge: Machman (Heal 18)]-
Aera: Move to control panel
1. Heavy Shielding to self (6-hit shield + 3TCD)
Vector: OBDS to self (2-hit shield + 1TCD) -[Reinforced (+2 hits)]-
2. MetaGel2: Panel-Shooter Turrets 1,2,3 (130dmg Aqua + Slow x3 targets) (B)
3. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to firing line of Turrets 4,5,6 (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Access/manipulate console x2
4. Magnum: Panel-Shooter Turrets 4,5,6 (120dmg Fire + Breaking + Panel Breaking x3 targets) (A)
Vector: Attack Panel-Shooter Turret 2 (40dmg Aqua + Disarm) x3
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport to upper level (Teleport + 2TCD)
((If CrypticMan tries something shady))
6. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD)
-[Movement: Keep with CrypticMan's movements]-
-[Dodge]-
-[Dodge]-
DecoyA: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
DecoyB: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
ShadowDecoy: Spiral center spire to draw fire from turrets
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((Just realised, I forgot to apply the Stun, from the solar panels. Mach should have gotten two, and Vector one. My fault for missing it though... looks like you get a freebie))
While Aera did some work on remedying the situation, Mach made an uneasy truce. For the most part he seemed to be holding all the cards, particularly in the power stakes, and from where he was still on his knees, Cryptic nodded.
"One more tap and my emergency'll kick in. I leave you lunks here and you'll probably bring the whole thing down. Even if I can't see you, you've got a gun to my head, and don't I know it." His head turned, looking at the spire. "Pulse is coming, cover, quickly!" A moment later he disappeared in a crackle of electricity, reappearing on the far side of a lower platform, sheltering down hard against a console.
His warning could have probably come a bit sooner, truthfully. Mach and Vector raised their shields, but then the beam of light shot down and the gravity pulse dragged them together again. For a third time, Aera was pressed and pulled uncomfortably against her console bank, but otherwise unharmed, and hunkered down opposite her, over the other side, Cryptic also escaped being draw in. It was really rather a non-event for Mach and Vector too; they couldn't crash into each other, and they couldn't pass any more glitches back or forth either, and, truthfully, they were already more or less in the gravity well to begin with.
Mach focused his attentions on the attack turrets before they could fire, sending out his MetaGel, then teleporting out of their line of fire. Without the help of his accuracy enhancement, Mach had to make do with good old fashioned aiming, but he still managed to connect with two of the turrets The shooter with the soil panel was cleanly obliterated, as was the one with the metal panel, leaving the patch of ground laced with cracks. One turret on the highest tier survived the goopy attack, leaving four to actively fling their panels at the magnet circle, and whoever still remained there. That was just Vector, at that moment, but he stood ready to take them, shields raised. A large dollop of mud was ejected from the first turret, and it missed spectacularly, splattering all over the ground. The other three, though, were more on target, and each crashed into his shielding and thinned it out.
The holy Panel, contacting shields, was again unable to drain any Hp back to the spire, however the poison panel fragmented with a splatter and traces of it began to seep inwards, lingering. The remaining turrets had barely finished firing when the panel regeneration rushed over all six spots, replacing both the thrown and not-thrown alike. This time the result seemed to be a Solar and a Holy panel up top, and Onsen and a Sea panel on the central two, and an Ice and another Solar down below. Sadly, no matter how they tried, the decoys could not distract the turrets: their aim seems to be fixed on the focal point of the Spire's gravity well, and they didn't waver from that point, regardless of whether anyone was in their sights or not.
The randomisation for the last three turrets became a moot point moments later as Mach let loose with his heavy magnum, destroying all three and rendering their prepared panels into broken shards. While he did this, CrypticMan had begun to work at the terminal he'd blinked away to, that at the same time, several of his arms restored their shield plating, and lifted into a covering guard between himself, and, basically, everything else. A light green glow suffused his body for a moment as well while he worked.
Across from him, Aera was tinkering with the control panels as well. The firs thing she found was the orbit and telemetry displays she'd already accessed elsewhere... though now they showed that the satellite's orbit was beginning to decay slightly, in a controlled fashion. A target point seemed to be directing it towards a splashdown at the beach street beach. Searching for more useful information, however, she began to come up against a positive wall of panic-locked protocols that made accessing anyhtign slow going... Strangely enough, many of the 'locks' seemed to comprise of simple logic puzzles and pattern games... This was how top scientists protected their work? It wasn't too difficult, but it was slow going all the same. Eventually she'd freed up enough commands to begin reading off the Satellite's primary defensive capabilities, and whether they were active or not.
Below the readout, there are several options that can be selected, though they're printed out in unintelligible symbols. Right to left there are four of them, but there's no telling what any of them will do, without being able to read the system's own basecode. She has the freedom to poke any of the mystery options, of course, even without knowing what they do.... though reasonably, one of them must surely be a 'back' or 'cancel' command of some sort... probably...
Vector takes aim at the last remaining turret and sends a bevy of spines in its direction, successfully tearing it down, but it only stays that way for a moment. As Aera's screen indicates, the spire's TurretRestore function engages, and a slow clanking, grinding sound begins around the room. All six turrets are swiftly reassembled, though three of them still only have broken panels to work with. It was probably worth noticing, though, that while the system was busy restoring its destroyed turrets, it wasn't using its gravity pull, or indeed, firing them.
On he other side of the chamber, Cryptic's own console tinkering seemed to be somewhat smoothly. His many hands danced over three different terminals and there was a look of intent focus on what could be seen of his face. One by one, the lines of lights covering the main spire began to wink out again.
The long absent security polyhedron phased into sight a short way above CrypticMan's shoulder, spinning quickly and hovering back and forth in small jerks.
[Altering Hostile Definitions While In Panic Mode May Potentially Render System Inaccessible!]
"It's fine, it's fine. There's nothing I can't access." Cryptic nodded to himself, but glanced at the annoying thing when it began to repeat its warning several times. "Shh!" He put one hand up to it, pressing it against a surface and stopping its spinning. A swarm of glitching code transferred from his hand to it, and the little node blinked out of sight.
As it turned out, though, its 'resting' place when not visible, was actually a cradle at the top of the spire, and as it returned, the flood of buggy code drained through into the spire itself. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but there was a moment where the hum of the tower quieted to near silence, and, if Aera was still looking at her screen, might see the SystemPurge command switch from 'StandBy' to 'Executing'.
CrypticMan didn't notice, and teleported again, up to one of the highest console banks to keep working at the system, with Mach following his every move for now. The other navi's blunt threat just made him nod again, though he stayed focused on his work. The latter was understandable, since all he had of Mach at the moment was a disembodied voice.
"You're Shogunate, aren't you? I bet you might just bring it down, too, to spite me. It's what your lot are like, sometimes." One of his hands reached over to tap a few strokes on the control pad to his felt, then returned. "Try using your brain for a minute though. You bring this place down, what happens? NetPolice'll be all over it... real police too. This is one of NAXA's orbiters, after all. What'll they find? They aren't going to find any trace that I was ever here, and we've danced long enough that my Op is long since clean. All they'll find evidence of, is you. How's that going to look, when your only answer is to blame some mysterious other navi that they cant find any trace of ever being here.... and you claiming that you just wandered all the way here, by accident." He shook his head, making a slightly derisive sound.
"I get it. You've got the power here, I can't beat you, and I'm not going to try anything, but don't try to bluff me, alright? You don't want to bring this down any more than I want to let you. I'm almost there anyway. We'll have the system normalised in just a moment."
Unfortunately, by irony of bad timing, that was the moment that the spire's self-purge executed. An expanding globe of corrupt static burst out from the spire, washing in an unavoidable wave over the whole area, until it dissipated through the impregnable glass walls. The fall-off of the spire purging its glitches caught everyone in its wake, spreading those effects to every navi and SP it touched.
Most days, this would have been a bad thing.. but by the chances of fate, none of the glitches that the spire had contracted were particularly detrimental. In fact, they were mostly positive. Mostly. At more or less the same time, Mach, Aera, Vector and CrypticMan each felt their bodies acquire an unusual tension. This was particularly odd for those not possessed of actual muscles, but they also felt an upswelling of subtle regenerative energy. Less welcome were the two other glitches; each of them, independently began to feel the strong urge and desire to pursue beach-going and beach related activities. If any of them had swimwear, towels, sunscreen or other such paraphernalia, they began to feel the need to get it out, on and ready. Issues with the satellite began to feel a little bit secondary, alongside the importance of going to the beach and having fun... or they would, unless everyone focused hard on the task at hand. At the same time, each of their internal temperatures began to fluctuate and fall out of balance, fleeing alternately a bit too warm, or a bit too chilled.
If Mach looked to CrypticMan in that moment, he'd see the usually shady navi dressed in a brightly coloured floral Hawaiian shirt and long green board-shorts, complete with loose flip-flops. He had a beach towel over his shoulders, and was looking down at himself in a most perplexed manner. Strangely, he still bore the face-concealing dark hood, completely at odds with the rest of his outfit.
"Ah damn... Sometimes I think it's all just to much work you know. I swear, when I'm done here, I'm going to convince CC to just hit the beach and relax for a bit. Hoodwink and the others can wait..." He blinked a few times, his eyes spinning through several dramatic shades of colour, and shook his head. "Damn bugs..."
It was also about this time that Mach's invisibility began to wear off, revealing his visually compromised but still highly effective armoured form, while the bypass in Vector's signature system reached overload point, crashing his SAS completely for a time. Done with destroying the fourth, still faithful mechanical spider arm, Mach's three misbehaving limbs returned to patting him down and trying to paw ineffectively at his face. On the bright side, freed of its beach-desire, the Satellite begins to swiftly correct and stabilise its own orbit without further need for assistance in that department.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 211Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Upper Level, Outside][Solar][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 151/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Upper Level, Outside][6-Hit Shield][Solar][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turn)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 20Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: CRASHED (2 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Solar, Holy, Onsen, Broken, Broken, Broken, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Lit up just Green][Conductive]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
[Scizothermia] The carrier's internal temperature regulation has shorted slightly, and begun to fluctuate, resulting in the host beginning to feel alternately just a little bit too warm, or a little bit too cold. The strength, extent, and speed of the fluctuations are highly variable, and differ from victim to victim.
While Aera did some work on remedying the situation, Mach made an uneasy truce. For the most part he seemed to be holding all the cards, particularly in the power stakes, and from where he was still on his knees, Cryptic nodded.
"One more tap and my emergency'll kick in. I leave you lunks here and you'll probably bring the whole thing down. Even if I can't see you, you've got a gun to my head, and don't I know it." His head turned, looking at the spire. "Pulse is coming, cover, quickly!" A moment later he disappeared in a crackle of electricity, reappearing on the far side of a lower platform, sheltering down hard against a console.
His warning could have probably come a bit sooner, truthfully. Mach and Vector raised their shields, but then the beam of light shot down and the gravity pulse dragged them together again. For a third time, Aera was pressed and pulled uncomfortably against her console bank, but otherwise unharmed, and hunkered down opposite her, over the other side, Cryptic also escaped being draw in. It was really rather a non-event for Mach and Vector too; they couldn't crash into each other, and they couldn't pass any more glitches back or forth either, and, truthfully, they were already more or less in the gravity well to begin with.
Mach focused his attentions on the attack turrets before they could fire, sending out his MetaGel, then teleporting out of their line of fire. Without the help of his accuracy enhancement, Mach had to make do with good old fashioned aiming, but he still managed to connect with two of the turrets The shooter with the soil panel was cleanly obliterated, as was the one with the metal panel, leaving the patch of ground laced with cracks. One turret on the highest tier survived the goopy attack, leaving four to actively fling their panels at the magnet circle, and whoever still remained there. That was just Vector, at that moment, but he stood ready to take them, shields raised. A large dollop of mud was ejected from the first turret, and it missed spectacularly, splattering all over the ground. The other three, though, were more on target, and each crashed into his shielding and thinned it out.
The holy Panel, contacting shields, was again unable to drain any Hp back to the spire, however the poison panel fragmented with a splatter and traces of it began to seep inwards, lingering. The remaining turrets had barely finished firing when the panel regeneration rushed over all six spots, replacing both the thrown and not-thrown alike. This time the result seemed to be a Solar and a Holy panel up top, and Onsen and a Sea panel on the central two, and an Ice and another Solar down below. Sadly, no matter how they tried, the decoys could not distract the turrets: their aim seems to be fixed on the focal point of the Spire's gravity well, and they didn't waver from that point, regardless of whether anyone was in their sights or not.
The randomisation for the last three turrets became a moot point moments later as Mach let loose with his heavy magnum, destroying all three and rendering their prepared panels into broken shards. While he did this, CrypticMan had begun to work at the terminal he'd blinked away to, that at the same time, several of his arms restored their shield plating, and lifted into a covering guard between himself, and, basically, everything else. A light green glow suffused his body for a moment as well while he worked.
Across from him, Aera was tinkering with the control panels as well. The firs thing she found was the orbit and telemetry displays she'd already accessed elsewhere... though now they showed that the satellite's orbit was beginning to decay slightly, in a controlled fashion. A target point seemed to be directing it towards a splashdown at the beach street beach. Searching for more useful information, however, she began to come up against a positive wall of panic-locked protocols that made accessing anyhtign slow going... Strangely enough, many of the 'locks' seemed to comprise of simple logic puzzles and pattern games... This was how top scientists protected their work? It wasn't too difficult, but it was slow going all the same. Eventually she'd freed up enough commands to begin reading off the Satellite's primary defensive capabilities, and whether they were active or not.
Quote ()
GravPulse: Active, Central.
BatteryShot: Active, Locked
SystemPurge: StandBy
TurretRestore: Engaging... Please Wait.
Below the readout, there are several options that can be selected, though they're printed out in unintelligible symbols. Right to left there are four of them, but there's no telling what any of them will do, without being able to read the system's own basecode. She has the freedom to poke any of the mystery options, of course, even without knowing what they do.... though reasonably, one of them must surely be a 'back' or 'cancel' command of some sort... probably...
Vector takes aim at the last remaining turret and sends a bevy of spines in its direction, successfully tearing it down, but it only stays that way for a moment. As Aera's screen indicates, the spire's TurretRestore function engages, and a slow clanking, grinding sound begins around the room. All six turrets are swiftly reassembled, though three of them still only have broken panels to work with. It was probably worth noticing, though, that while the system was busy restoring its destroyed turrets, it wasn't using its gravity pull, or indeed, firing them.
On he other side of the chamber, Cryptic's own console tinkering seemed to be somewhat smoothly. His many hands danced over three different terminals and there was a look of intent focus on what could be seen of his face. One by one, the lines of lights covering the main spire began to wink out again.
The long absent security polyhedron phased into sight a short way above CrypticMan's shoulder, spinning quickly and hovering back and forth in small jerks.
[Altering Hostile Definitions While In Panic Mode May Potentially Render System Inaccessible!]
"It's fine, it's fine. There's nothing I can't access." Cryptic nodded to himself, but glanced at the annoying thing when it began to repeat its warning several times. "Shh!" He put one hand up to it, pressing it against a surface and stopping its spinning. A swarm of glitching code transferred from his hand to it, and the little node blinked out of sight.
As it turned out, though, its 'resting' place when not visible, was actually a cradle at the top of the spire, and as it returned, the flood of buggy code drained through into the spire itself. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but there was a moment where the hum of the tower quieted to near silence, and, if Aera was still looking at her screen, might see the SystemPurge command switch from 'StandBy' to 'Executing'.
CrypticMan didn't notice, and teleported again, up to one of the highest console banks to keep working at the system, with Mach following his every move for now. The other navi's blunt threat just made him nod again, though he stayed focused on his work. The latter was understandable, since all he had of Mach at the moment was a disembodied voice.
"You're Shogunate, aren't you? I bet you might just bring it down, too, to spite me. It's what your lot are like, sometimes." One of his hands reached over to tap a few strokes on the control pad to his felt, then returned. "Try using your brain for a minute though. You bring this place down, what happens? NetPolice'll be all over it... real police too. This is one of NAXA's orbiters, after all. What'll they find? They aren't going to find any trace that I was ever here, and we've danced long enough that my Op is long since clean. All they'll find evidence of, is you. How's that going to look, when your only answer is to blame some mysterious other navi that they cant find any trace of ever being here.... and you claiming that you just wandered all the way here, by accident." He shook his head, making a slightly derisive sound.
"I get it. You've got the power here, I can't beat you, and I'm not going to try anything, but don't try to bluff me, alright? You don't want to bring this down any more than I want to let you. I'm almost there anyway. We'll have the system normalised in just a moment."
Unfortunately, by irony of bad timing, that was the moment that the spire's self-purge executed. An expanding globe of corrupt static burst out from the spire, washing in an unavoidable wave over the whole area, until it dissipated through the impregnable glass walls. The fall-off of the spire purging its glitches caught everyone in its wake, spreading those effects to every navi and SP it touched.
Most days, this would have been a bad thing.. but by the chances of fate, none of the glitches that the spire had contracted were particularly detrimental. In fact, they were mostly positive. Mostly. At more or less the same time, Mach, Aera, Vector and CrypticMan each felt their bodies acquire an unusual tension. This was particularly odd for those not possessed of actual muscles, but they also felt an upswelling of subtle regenerative energy. Less welcome were the two other glitches; each of them, independently began to feel the strong urge and desire to pursue beach-going and beach related activities. If any of them had swimwear, towels, sunscreen or other such paraphernalia, they began to feel the need to get it out, on and ready. Issues with the satellite began to feel a little bit secondary, alongside the importance of going to the beach and having fun... or they would, unless everyone focused hard on the task at hand. At the same time, each of their internal temperatures began to fluctuate and fall out of balance, fleeing alternately a bit too warm, or a bit too chilled.
If Mach looked to CrypticMan in that moment, he'd see the usually shady navi dressed in a brightly coloured floral Hawaiian shirt and long green board-shorts, complete with loose flip-flops. He had a beach towel over his shoulders, and was looking down at himself in a most perplexed manner. Strangely, he still bore the face-concealing dark hood, completely at odds with the rest of his outfit.
"Ah damn... Sometimes I think it's all just to much work you know. I swear, when I'm done here, I'm going to convince CC to just hit the beach and relax for a bit. Hoodwink and the others can wait..." He blinked a few times, his eyes spinning through several dramatic shades of colour, and shook his head. "Damn bugs..."
It was also about this time that Mach's invisibility began to wear off, revealing his visually compromised but still highly effective armoured form, while the bypass in Vector's signature system reached overload point, crashing his SAS completely for a time. Done with destroying the fourth, still faithful mechanical spider arm, Mach's three misbehaving limbs returned to patting him down and trying to paw ineffectively at his face. On the bright side, freed of its beach-desire, the Satellite begins to swiftly correct and stabilise its own orbit without further need for assistance in that department.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 211Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Upper Level, Outside][Solar][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 151/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Upper Level, Outside][6-Hit Shield][Solar][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turn)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 20Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: CRASHED (2 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Solar, Holy, Onsen, Broken, Broken, Broken, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Lit up just Green][Conductive]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
[Scizothermia] The carrier's internal temperature regulation has shorted slightly, and begun to fluctuate, resulting in the host beginning to feel alternately just a little bit too warm, or a little bit too cold. The strength, extent, and speed of the fluctuations are highly variable, and differ from victim to victim.
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"No trace? I wouldn't be too sure of that," Mach responded, indirectly referring to the recording he'd started a significant time before the battle began. He all but ignored the Navi's correct theory he was in the NeoShogunate; it appeared the NS was rather well known even outside of the NetPolice and NetMafia circles. "But you can be sure we don't want to bring down this satellite either."
The spire purged, which shed its glitches only to spread them to everyone else. The wave of energy washed over the area, which somehow left both Mach and Aera in their beachwear .GMOs. Mach came back into view, now wearing only a set of navy blue swim trunks with an orange stripe down each side. Though the rest of his armor and bodysuit were gone, his dark blue mask was still over his nose and mouth, with his vulcan still secured under his right forearm. He was a bit appreciative of the attire change, he felt oddly warm, as if the area's thermostat went up a couple degrees. It also effectively removed the trio of spider arms that swatted annoyingly at his face. Hitting the surf seemed like a good idea at the moment.
Aera's armor was gone, including her skin-tight under armor. In its place was a blue two-piece swimsuit over her blemish-less skin. Her top has an orange stripe that faces diagonally up and towards the center of her body, while the bottom's strings were orange, while the material itself was blue. Wrapped and tied around her waist was a semi transparent orange miniskirt made of a light, silk-like material that extended just above mid-thigh. The small orange straps of her top went over her shoulders and crossed behind her back to re-attach to the back of her top in an X-shaped pattern. She seemed to feel slightly the opposite of Mach, she felt the area was too cold, and would prefer to be on a beach under the warm sun. Vector, who did not have a beach .GMO, was physically unchanged, but he too had an odd desire to hit the coast.
Though the trio similarly felt the desire to hit the beach, they still had work to do. The satellite was back in a stable orbit, but its security system was still active, and its turret/gravity well combo was still a significant threat. "Aera, try to disable that gravity well system," he ordered calmly, which caused Aera to nod in response. "Will do!" she replied and looked over the console again. As she did so, she activated her primary recovery signature on Mach, which caused his body to glow green for a couple seconds. The glow quickly faded and restored a good bit of his energy. He continued to keep an eye on CrypticMan, but as he assumed the spire would try to draw them in again, he tried to prepare himself to counter or at least keep himself somewhat oriented.
Aera couldn't readily understand the symbols, but she tried to distinguish a pattern or correlation. The readout had four system statuses, and four buttons. She tried to see if any of the buttons looked similar to the system's gravity pulse, or select a button that corresponded with the GravPulse's #1 spot on the readout list. If there were no other options, she made her selection and pressed the button, hoping for the best.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
-[BeachComber and BikiniBeauty.GMOs active]-
Aera: Electro-therapy to MachMan (Heal 72 + 2TCD) -[Recharge (Heal 18]-
1. Maintain orientation and aim on CrypticMan
Aera: Attempt to deactivate GravPulse, or at least not make it any worse
The spire purged, which shed its glitches only to spread them to everyone else. The wave of energy washed over the area, which somehow left both Mach and Aera in their beachwear .GMOs. Mach came back into view, now wearing only a set of navy blue swim trunks with an orange stripe down each side. Though the rest of his armor and bodysuit were gone, his dark blue mask was still over his nose and mouth, with his vulcan still secured under his right forearm. He was a bit appreciative of the attire change, he felt oddly warm, as if the area's thermostat went up a couple degrees. It also effectively removed the trio of spider arms that swatted annoyingly at his face. Hitting the surf seemed like a good idea at the moment.
Aera's armor was gone, including her skin-tight under armor. In its place was a blue two-piece swimsuit over her blemish-less skin. Her top has an orange stripe that faces diagonally up and towards the center of her body, while the bottom's strings were orange, while the material itself was blue. Wrapped and tied around her waist was a semi transparent orange miniskirt made of a light, silk-like material that extended just above mid-thigh. The small orange straps of her top went over her shoulders and crossed behind her back to re-attach to the back of her top in an X-shaped pattern. She seemed to feel slightly the opposite of Mach, she felt the area was too cold, and would prefer to be on a beach under the warm sun. Vector, who did not have a beach .GMO, was physically unchanged, but he too had an odd desire to hit the coast.
Though the trio similarly felt the desire to hit the beach, they still had work to do. The satellite was back in a stable orbit, but its security system was still active, and its turret/gravity well combo was still a significant threat. "Aera, try to disable that gravity well system," he ordered calmly, which caused Aera to nod in response. "Will do!" she replied and looked over the console again. As she did so, she activated her primary recovery signature on Mach, which caused his body to glow green for a couple seconds. The glow quickly faded and restored a good bit of his energy. He continued to keep an eye on CrypticMan, but as he assumed the spire would try to draw them in again, he tried to prepare himself to counter or at least keep himself somewhat oriented.
Aera couldn't readily understand the symbols, but she tried to distinguish a pattern or correlation. The readout had four system statuses, and four buttons. She tried to see if any of the buttons looked similar to the system's gravity pulse, or select a button that corresponded with the GravPulse's #1 spot on the readout list. If there were no other options, she made her selection and pressed the button, hoping for the best.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
-[BeachComber and BikiniBeauty.GMOs active]-
Aera: Electro-therapy to MachMan (Heal 72 + 2TCD) -[Recharge (Heal 18]-
1. Maintain orientation and aim on CrypticMan
Aera: Attempt to deactivate GravPulse, or at least not make it any worse
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It may have been possible that Cryptic could see the systems that Aera was accessing opposite him, or possibly he was monitoring things some other way, but as he worked his eyes darted up to her, across the space, then back down again.
"I'm through most of the panic locks. I've just got to... Ah, brace!" his call was in time with the gravity pulse beginning again, though this time nothing really happened at all: Aera and Cryptic were equally pulled, but had sufficient cover to resist it. Mach still wasn't able to touch much of anything, but did retain his orientation and aim sight on the excessively appendaged navi even as he was dragged in. Vector... stayed right where he was, having not moved from the centre of the pulse last time.
Aera pressed a button and the display shifted. It seemed she had... probably... made a good assumption, since the new screen showed a split of two things, and this time, mercifully, they had diagrams as well as indecipherable gibberish.
The screen itself darkened out, with what was clearly a large warning, or possibly error message splashed across its centre, and she couldn't proceed any further, until, without warning, the message disappeared.
"There! Panic locks are off. It'll let you in now. Do what you can while I reset its definitions properly." CrypticMan's serious and tired-sounding voice was in stark contrast to his chilled out beach wear, but he seemed to be more or less ignoring Mach's gun-point vigilance as he worked. Either way, with the warning lock gone, Aera could examine the control settings she had accessed.
On the left, there was a diagram showing the entire spherical space, with a highlight on the focal point for the gravity pulse. There were also several other highlighted points on the picture, and if she looked at it with a keen eye, it might be recognisable as other locations that the pulse could be fixed on to draw targets. As well as the dead centre of the space, other options included the very peak of the spire, the lowest base floor, and the four cardinal points around the outside edge, at mid level. There is also a small box with a faded out 'x' in it, in the top right corner of the image, and this also looks to be a acceptable 'focus'. It appears to simply be point and touch, with a single button at the bottom of the picture, currently highlighted in orange.
On the other side of the screen, there are a series of three boxes. The first, highlighted in green, shows a small icon that looks like the turret battery, with tracer lines draw from each all towards a single focal point, which is also intersected by a beam of light. The second box show the same turrets, only they are pointed in a variety of different directions, with small motion lines on them, while in the top right corner, a smaller icon of four arrows pointing outward in each direction. The third box has the same main picture as the second, but the icon in its top right corner is four arrows all pointing inwards to the same point.
Below the three boxes, is a button identical to the one below the other half of the screen, with the exact same symbols, and also lit up orange. A clever observer might be able to deduce them both to be confirm buttons, for changing settings. Below them, at the very bottom centre of the screen, a third button bears the same symbols as the last one on the previous screen.
There was only going to be another moment or two at most before the turrets began to fire their panels again, so if she wanted to make any changes, she would need to do it quickly. While she decided, everyone's regen bugs kicked in early, giving them all a small dose of restoration, though the electrotherapy Mach received from Aera directly was quite a bit stronger. More worrisome, though it could only be the subtlest of internal sensations for Mach at the moment, and hard to notice amongst the plague of other bugs and glitches... but deprived of any sort of outlet, the bug that had affected his mechanical arms began to shift and mutate. At this stage it was impossible to tell what would happen to the corrupt infestation of code.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 226Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Upper Level, Outside][Solar][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 238/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][6-hit Shield][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turn)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)(Carrier) - MUTATING!][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 30Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: CRASHED (2 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Solar, Holy, Onsen, Broken, Broken, Broken, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Lit up just Green][Conductive]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
[Scizothermia] The carrier's internal temperature regulation has shorted slightly, and begun to fluctuate, resulting in the host beginning to feel alternately just a little bit too warm, or a little bit too cold. The strength, extent, and speed of the fluctuations are highly variable, and differ from victim to victim.
"I'm through most of the panic locks. I've just got to... Ah, brace!" his call was in time with the gravity pulse beginning again, though this time nothing really happened at all: Aera and Cryptic were equally pulled, but had sufficient cover to resist it. Mach still wasn't able to touch much of anything, but did retain his orientation and aim sight on the excessively appendaged navi even as he was dragged in. Vector... stayed right where he was, having not moved from the centre of the pulse last time.
Aera pressed a button and the display shifted. It seemed she had... probably... made a good assumption, since the new screen showed a split of two things, and this time, mercifully, they had diagrams as well as indecipherable gibberish.
The screen itself darkened out, with what was clearly a large warning, or possibly error message splashed across its centre, and she couldn't proceed any further, until, without warning, the message disappeared.
"There! Panic locks are off. It'll let you in now. Do what you can while I reset its definitions properly." CrypticMan's serious and tired-sounding voice was in stark contrast to his chilled out beach wear, but he seemed to be more or less ignoring Mach's gun-point vigilance as he worked. Either way, with the warning lock gone, Aera could examine the control settings she had accessed.
On the left, there was a diagram showing the entire spherical space, with a highlight on the focal point for the gravity pulse. There were also several other highlighted points on the picture, and if she looked at it with a keen eye, it might be recognisable as other locations that the pulse could be fixed on to draw targets. As well as the dead centre of the space, other options included the very peak of the spire, the lowest base floor, and the four cardinal points around the outside edge, at mid level. There is also a small box with a faded out 'x' in it, in the top right corner of the image, and this also looks to be a acceptable 'focus'. It appears to simply be point and touch, with a single button at the bottom of the picture, currently highlighted in orange.
On the other side of the screen, there are a series of three boxes. The first, highlighted in green, shows a small icon that looks like the turret battery, with tracer lines draw from each all towards a single focal point, which is also intersected by a beam of light. The second box show the same turrets, only they are pointed in a variety of different directions, with small motion lines on them, while in the top right corner, a smaller icon of four arrows pointing outward in each direction. The third box has the same main picture as the second, but the icon in its top right corner is four arrows all pointing inwards to the same point.
Below the three boxes, is a button identical to the one below the other half of the screen, with the exact same symbols, and also lit up orange. A clever observer might be able to deduce them both to be confirm buttons, for changing settings. Below them, at the very bottom centre of the screen, a third button bears the same symbols as the last one on the previous screen.
There was only going to be another moment or two at most before the turrets began to fire their panels again, so if she wanted to make any changes, she would need to do it quickly. While she decided, everyone's regen bugs kicked in early, giving them all a small dose of restoration, though the electrotherapy Mach received from Aera directly was quite a bit stronger. More worrisome, though it could only be the subtlest of internal sensations for Mach at the moment, and hard to notice amongst the plague of other bugs and glitches... but deprived of any sort of outlet, the bug that had affected his mechanical arms began to shift and mutate. At this stage it was impossible to tell what would happen to the corrupt infestation of code.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 226Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Upper Level, Outside][Solar][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 238/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][6-hit Shield][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: (1 Turn)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)(Carrier) - MUTATING!][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Accuracy Enhance Blocked)][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Solar][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 30Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Magnet][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: QuickSig: CRASHED (2 Turns)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][SAS Glitch: Lockout: Passive Inhibitor(1): (Carrier)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
35% Metal [Inner Rings and walkways]
50% Solar [Outer Rings]
10% Magnet [Circle in the open space in front of the main console bank]
1 Panel each: Solar, Holy, Onsen, Broken, Broken, Broken, before the six Panel-Shooters
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Lit up just Green][Conductive]
Panel-Shooter Turrets: 100Hp Each [Conductive][Spaced evenly on the three central most layers, all aimed at the magnet patch]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=The Bugs=-
[NoClip] The host's body has taken on phasing properties. They cannot touch the ground or objects, and can pass right through them without causing damage. They can still cause damage with attacks, and still receive damage from attacks. (Mutated: On transferring from a navi to an SP, this glitch mutates, allowing the new host to retain contact with flooring, and not fall through it, though elsewise unchanged)
[Mind Of Their Own] Some of your arms have gone haywire, and are no longer listening to their owner's commands. They seem intent upon groping and pawing at their host, for some reason, and apparently, at higher levels of glitch, tearing off anything they don't like. This glitch can be strengthened, taking over control of more arms, as many times as a host has arms to lose control over.
[SAS Glitch: Lockout] The Signature Attack System has been partially corrupted, rendering some of the host's signatures inoperable. This glitch can be strengthened, shutting down more signatures.
[SAS Glitch: QuickSig] Safeties controlling signature Cooldown have been bypassed. All signatures can be used once per turn, every turn, regardless of Cooldown. Two turns after this glitch was applied, the SAS crashes completely for an additional two turns.
[Chip Limiter] Part of the processing space for handling and processing BattleChips has become corrupted and no longer functional. As a result, No more than 2 BattleChips can be used per turn.
[It's all SLIMY!!] Everything feels like it's all gooey and slimy. Everything. This includes other navis, anything you touch, even your own armour and clothing. Even your own skin will feel slimy. In particular, the floor also feels like it's coated in slippery goo, and responding to this, all dodges are decreased by one rank.
[Transparent Armour] You're armour has gone completely transparent.
[Lightning Rod] You will now absorb electrical element attacks directed at you as healing, rather than damage.
[Astraphobic] You've gained an irrational fear of lightning bolts. This glitch can be strengthened, to expand and include other forms of electricity. Stage one is simply fear related to fully formed lighting bolts and beams. Stage two includes all visible forms of electricity and lighting. Stage three is complete Electrophobia, where anything and everything related to lightning or electricity at all induces feelings of fear and paranoia.
[All-Brace] Target is stuck in a permanent state of Bracing, even if they cannot normally do so. This automatically halves all damage.
[Beach Time..?] You feel like you are at the beach, or must surely get to one. You want nothing more than to go to the beach. If you have swim-wear, you want to wear it, so as to go to the beach. You will not forget your towel; if you have one, you'll sling it over your shoulders (if you have them...) What really matters, right now... is that you all find a beach somewhere, and go enjoy it!
[Diverted Energy] Some of your processing action has been diverted and precluded. You receive two free actions of a single basic buster shot per turn, that cannot be modified or augmented in any way, but have one less action as a result.
[Buster Booster] Glitch boosting the general strength of the host's standard buster, or default attack, in SPs. All buster stats are increased by one, and SP attacks increased by a flat 10.
[Action Booster] Host is imbued with greater than normal alacrity, granting an additional action each turn (up to a maximum of 6)
[Tastes Minty!] The host begins to smell faintly of fresh mint, and will also taste like minty as well, if they are licked or tasted in any way. Curiously, this glitch can interact with the [It's All SLIMY!!] glitch, in that a carrier of the Slimy glitch licking a carrier of the Minty glitch will have the sensation of tasting mint jelly.
[Regen(10)] Carrier will spontaneously regenerate 10Hp per turn that they have this glitch.
[Scizothermia] The carrier's internal temperature regulation has shorted slightly, and begun to fluctuate, resulting in the host beginning to feel alternately just a little bit too warm, or a little bit too cold. The strength, extent, and speed of the fluctuations are highly variable, and differ from victim to victim.
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Thanks to CrypticMan, Aera had access to the console, and got a fairly helpful visual display of her options. Vector tried to claw his way out of the gravity well while Mach simply teleported away in a flash of cyan light, which seemed odd because he no longer had any wings due to his .GMO... Regardless, Aera quickly selected the button with the turrets pointing inwards to a central point. She wasn't entirely sure how it would work out, but she pressed what she assumed to be a confirm button and watched cautiously from behind her console. After his attempt to escape the gravity well, Vector ran/leaped to Aera's position to put himself in a better spot on the battlefield.
Mach reappeared quickly off to the side, slightly above CrypticMan with his vulcan still at the ready. He was no longer pointing it directly at the multi-armed Navi, but he was prepared to bring the rain if needed. He sent a message to Mazer, requesting an additional two chips if things went south again. [[i]Requesting CannonBall and BigHammer2[/i]] The NetOp saw the message scroll across the top of his screen, and began to retrieve the chips. Aera continued to watch from her console to see what would happen next. If CrypticMan decided to utilize the relative lull in the battle, Aera would open the GravPulse controls and slide her finger just below the Navi's position to reposition the center of the gravity right under his feet. Upon activation, she hoped the GravPulse would pin the Navi to the ground, or at least slow him down a bit to allow her allies to hit their marks.
That would likely signal start the assault, which would consist of a torrent of armor-piercing vulcan rounds, a super dense cannon ball, and a thrown dagger-like spine. While the vulcan roared away and spewed rounds towards the target, Mach would've tried to keep with the Navi's movements to hopefully circumvent any object cover he attempted to utilize. This would've hopefully set him up well to hurl the CannonBall chip's spherical chunk of iron directly at his target. After hopefully inundating CrypticMan with a barrage metal, another teleport later would reposition Mach directly above the Navi. His goal at that point would've been to leave CrypticMan thoroughly pulverized with a swing of his BigHammer. Considering the sheer mass of its anvil-like head, executing pulverization appeared to be its designed purpose. After attempting to drive the Navi down into the floor like a nail, Mach landed the platform behind him, and dashed away in attempt to avoid a likely counterattack.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Vector: Dodge x2
2. SCRAM Boost: Teleport out of gravity well with a good line of sight on CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Change BatteryShot targeting (3rd option)
Vector: Move to Aera's position
((If he becomes hostile))
Aera: Reposition GravPulse immediately below CrypticMan's position
3. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD)
-[Movement: Keep with CrypticMan's movements]-
4. CannonBall: CrypticMan (150dmg + Break) (C)
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
-[Dodge]-
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport above CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
6. BigHammer2: CrypticMan (220dmg + Break + Impact) (B)
-[Dodge]-
Mach reappeared quickly off to the side, slightly above CrypticMan with his vulcan still at the ready. He was no longer pointing it directly at the multi-armed Navi, but he was prepared to bring the rain if needed. He sent a message to Mazer, requesting an additional two chips if things went south again. [[i]Requesting CannonBall and BigHammer2[/i]] The NetOp saw the message scroll across the top of his screen, and began to retrieve the chips. Aera continued to watch from her console to see what would happen next. If CrypticMan decided to utilize the relative lull in the battle, Aera would open the GravPulse controls and slide her finger just below the Navi's position to reposition the center of the gravity right under his feet. Upon activation, she hoped the GravPulse would pin the Navi to the ground, or at least slow him down a bit to allow her allies to hit their marks.
That would likely signal start the assault, which would consist of a torrent of armor-piercing vulcan rounds, a super dense cannon ball, and a thrown dagger-like spine. While the vulcan roared away and spewed rounds towards the target, Mach would've tried to keep with the Navi's movements to hopefully circumvent any object cover he attempted to utilize. This would've hopefully set him up well to hurl the CannonBall chip's spherical chunk of iron directly at his target. After hopefully inundating CrypticMan with a barrage metal, another teleport later would reposition Mach directly above the Navi. His goal at that point would've been to leave CrypticMan thoroughly pulverized with a swing of his BigHammer. Considering the sheer mass of its anvil-like head, executing pulverization appeared to be its designed purpose. After attempting to drive the Navi down into the floor like a nail, Mach landed the platform behind him, and dashed away in attempt to avoid a likely counterattack.
ACTIONS: -[Passive Haste, [s]Accuracy Enhancement[/s], Dodge x2, Decoy x2]-
Vector: Dodge x2
2. SCRAM Boost: Teleport out of gravity well with a good line of sight on CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
Aera: Change BatteryShot targeting (3rd option)
Vector: Move to Aera's position
((If he becomes hostile))
Aera: Reposition GravPulse immediately below CrypticMan's position
3. Rising Barrage: CrypticMan (50dmg x4 + Multi-hit + Breaking + Seeking + Impact + Knockback + Movement + BusterLock + 8TCD)
-[Movement: Keep with CrypticMan's movements]-
4. CannonBall: CrypticMan (150dmg + Break) (C)
Vector: Attack CrypticMan (40dmg Aqua + Disarm)
-[Dodge]-
5. SCRAM Boost: Teleport above CrypticMan (Teleport + 2TCD)
6. BigHammer2: CrypticMan (220dmg + Break + Impact) (B)
-[Dodge]-
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Once Aera selected and confirmed the new option for the turret battery, the box she had picked lit up green, showing that it was the currently selected pattern, though the screen remained otherwise unchanged. Though she was ready to refocus the gravity pulse, it didn't prove necessary in the end; it seemed as though receiving one beat-down was enough for the glitch navi, and he wasn't showing any signs of trying to turn the tables on Mach and co any more.
There was a heavy clank that sounded from all of the turrets as their aim locks undocked and they switched to free tracking mode. They tilted and scanned independently for a few moments, sending harmless tracer lights over everyone in the room whole the system determined... something... then as one they all focused up towards Mach. For whatever reason, it seemed as though the system had decided that, of every 'threat' present, Mach was the most important one. In a way it was kind of understandable; he'd already proven himself the toughest navi on the scene, and was, in point of order, the one that had first damaged the spire.
Even so, the sound of the turrets beginning their firing sequence on him, with slightly staggered timing, couldn't have been a wanted sound. On the bright side, several of the turrets had only broken and shattered panels to work with, which they couldn't fling particularly effectively, and with coincidentally good timing, Mach's telportation carried him away from the three that were intact.
Cryptic looked up for a moment, then back to his keys.
"Thinks you're the biggest bad here. Just keep them away from me and your girl a little longer. I'm almost done." In retrospect it was odd that CrypticMan didn't seem to immediately capitalise on the system's self-guided targeting of Mach. Perhaps he'd simply gotten too engrossed in the hacking task at hand to think of it? Meanwhile, the panels regenerated under the turrets again, this time offering ice, solar, grass, normal, poison and another normal. As they began tracking towards Mach, another beam of light, and another forceful gravitation pulled the non-clipping Mach back in, again. That had to be getting old.
The firing came next, though it was somewhat delayed as the turrets tracked back to the central area, to find Mach again. It was enough time for him to be ready for them, at least, and between artful dodging and some slight inaccuracies only two of the shots managed to contact his shields. Thankfully, they were two of the more harmless panels. Less positive was the manner in which the sickly poison from the previous shot was working its way into Vector's code, eating away at his already dangerously low Hp. It would have been worse, if not for some of his glitches working together to counterbalance it, though.
"There!" A triumphant shout from CrypticMan and the last line of lights on the spire winked out one by one. The omni-present voice spoke up, while the little polyhedron, far above, spun gently in its cradle without moving.
[New hostile definitions accepted. Recalibrating... Recalibrating... Calibrations complete. Scanning for threats... Low level viral presence in outer security net. Dispensing antiviral counter measures. Not major internal threats detected. Internal security resetting to default. Non-critical damage to core systems analysed. Danger noted as minimal. Suspected cause of orbital anomaly and other malfunctions. Dispatching request for repair and maintenance team.]
And like that, the chamber fell silent. The small polyhedron stopped spinning, the panels around the area all regenerated back to simple metal, and the turret battery folded down and flipped away out of sight once more. For the most part, everything seemed to take a deep breath; for the moment, things were... surprisingly calm. Except for Mach's left arm. Some aspect of one of his mutating glitches was making it tingle and twitch. If the bug lasted much longer, he might lose function in it. Speaking of loss of function, the override in Mach's own SAS had reached a critical stage, and the whole system crashed out. At least things seemed to be mostly over now... weren't they?
There was a crackle of electrical static, and CrypticMan blinked into sight in front of Mach, a safe and cautious distance away. He had dispelled his 'vacation' .GMO and was dressed in his original, more serious look again, and two of his many arms were folded in a displeased manner over his chest. He was still holding his plated arms to the ready, but his laser point hands had reverted to, well, hands. Overall it was the look of a navi more concerned about being attacked again, than one meaning to try anything.
"So. Where does this leave us then, big guy? Wouldn't make a lot of sense to start throwing down again, after saving each other's bacon like that, and I really have no interest in getting hurt any more. You look like you're almost a bug navi yourself. Tends to happen whenever I scrap with anyone. I can fix it for you, if you'll allow. Call it a peace offering while I work out what to do about this whole mess now." His words were blunt and less talkative than when they'd first met; more than anything, he sounded tired. Apparently he'd been telling the truth about not liking actual fighting. One of his arms drifted out towards Mach, palm up and a faint blue light glowed at the tips of his fingers. "It's a full status clear program. Just touch it if you accept, the repair code will do the rest."
It certainly seemed like the fight was over, if Mach wanted it to be, but the question of how exactly they were going to resolve their differences hadn't been answered yet.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 226Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 238/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][4-hit Shield][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: CRASHED (2 turns)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)(Carrier) - MUTATING!][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 20Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: CRASHED (Rebooting)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Passive][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Battle 10... Winding Up?=-
There was a heavy clank that sounded from all of the turrets as their aim locks undocked and they switched to free tracking mode. They tilted and scanned independently for a few moments, sending harmless tracer lights over everyone in the room whole the system determined... something... then as one they all focused up towards Mach. For whatever reason, it seemed as though the system had decided that, of every 'threat' present, Mach was the most important one. In a way it was kind of understandable; he'd already proven himself the toughest navi on the scene, and was, in point of order, the one that had first damaged the spire.
Even so, the sound of the turrets beginning their firing sequence on him, with slightly staggered timing, couldn't have been a wanted sound. On the bright side, several of the turrets had only broken and shattered panels to work with, which they couldn't fling particularly effectively, and with coincidentally good timing, Mach's telportation carried him away from the three that were intact.
Cryptic looked up for a moment, then back to his keys.
"Thinks you're the biggest bad here. Just keep them away from me and your girl a little longer. I'm almost done." In retrospect it was odd that CrypticMan didn't seem to immediately capitalise on the system's self-guided targeting of Mach. Perhaps he'd simply gotten too engrossed in the hacking task at hand to think of it? Meanwhile, the panels regenerated under the turrets again, this time offering ice, solar, grass, normal, poison and another normal. As they began tracking towards Mach, another beam of light, and another forceful gravitation pulled the non-clipping Mach back in, again. That had to be getting old.
The firing came next, though it was somewhat delayed as the turrets tracked back to the central area, to find Mach again. It was enough time for him to be ready for them, at least, and between artful dodging and some slight inaccuracies only two of the shots managed to contact his shields. Thankfully, they were two of the more harmless panels. Less positive was the manner in which the sickly poison from the previous shot was working its way into Vector's code, eating away at his already dangerously low Hp. It would have been worse, if not for some of his glitches working together to counterbalance it, though.
"There!" A triumphant shout from CrypticMan and the last line of lights on the spire winked out one by one. The omni-present voice spoke up, while the little polyhedron, far above, spun gently in its cradle without moving.
[New hostile definitions accepted. Recalibrating... Recalibrating... Calibrations complete. Scanning for threats... Low level viral presence in outer security net. Dispensing antiviral counter measures. Not major internal threats detected. Internal security resetting to default. Non-critical damage to core systems analysed. Danger noted as minimal. Suspected cause of orbital anomaly and other malfunctions. Dispatching request for repair and maintenance team.]
And like that, the chamber fell silent. The small polyhedron stopped spinning, the panels around the area all regenerated back to simple metal, and the turret battery folded down and flipped away out of sight once more. For the most part, everything seemed to take a deep breath; for the moment, things were... surprisingly calm. Except for Mach's left arm. Some aspect of one of his mutating glitches was making it tingle and twitch. If the bug lasted much longer, he might lose function in it. Speaking of loss of function, the override in Mach's own SAS had reached a critical stage, and the whole system crashed out. At least things seemed to be mostly over now... weren't they?
There was a crackle of electrical static, and CrypticMan blinked into sight in front of Mach, a safe and cautious distance away. He had dispelled his 'vacation' .GMO and was dressed in his original, more serious look again, and two of his many arms were folded in a displeased manner over his chest. He was still holding his plated arms to the ready, but his laser point hands had reverted to, well, hands. Overall it was the look of a navi more concerned about being attacked again, than one meaning to try anything.
"So. Where does this leave us then, big guy? Wouldn't make a lot of sense to start throwing down again, after saving each other's bacon like that, and I really have no interest in getting hurt any more. You look like you're almost a bug navi yourself. Tends to happen whenever I scrap with anyone. I can fix it for you, if you'll allow. Call it a peace offering while I work out what to do about this whole mess now." His words were blunt and less talkative than when they'd first met; more than anything, he sounded tired. Apparently he'd been telling the truth about not liking actual fighting. One of his arms drifted out towards Mach, palm up and a faint blue light glowed at the tips of his fingers. "It's a full status clear program. Just touch it if you accept, the repair code will do the rest."
It certainly seemed like the fight was over, if Mach wanted it to be, but the question of how exactly they were going to resolve their differences hadn't been answered yet.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 226Hp [Vacation.GMO Activated][4-Hit Shield][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 238/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][4-hit Shield][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: CRASHED (2 turns)][NoClip][Mind Of Their Own(3)(Carrier) - MUTATING!][Chip Limiter][Buster Booster][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
Aera.SP: 110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Active]
Vector.SP: 20Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: CRASHED (Rebooting)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia][IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Passive][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Battle 10... Winding Up?=-
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While Aera's turret commands didn't exactly work as she would've liked, but luckily it bought them time for CrypticMan to reset the station's security network. The PA-style voice sounded much more calm as it announced its configuration change and status. It also sounded the system noted the damage was only minimal, the station wasn't in any apparent danger of malfunctioning due to damage. With that, the station reverted back to essentially how they found it, quiet and generally non-threatening. The only thing left to deal with was CrypticMan.
Mach felt his left arm twitch slightly, and felt an increasing numbness throughout the limb. Another glitch, or possibly a mutated one from the .GMO change. He glanced over to CrypticMan just before the Navi blinked in front of him. His vulcan was still active, but his arm likely wouldn't respond effectively in its current state. However, the weapon appeared unnecessary as CrypticMan adopted a purely defensive stance as he spoke. The Navi also offered to remove the glitches in Mach's programming, as a 'peace offering' partially to illustrate his unwillingness to continue fighting, and to indirectly thank Mach for his assistance. Mach stopped the recording program and downloaded a backup copy to the PET before starting another recording. He hoped the glowing light was in fact a status cure program, but he made that quick preparation in case it was a ploy to somehow inflict the memory wipe he spoke of earlier. If the glitches weren't so severe he would've politely declined the offer, but as the tingling and numbness continued to build in his left arm, he felt inclined to accept.
To show good faith, he deactivated the vulcan, which caused the weapon to fragment and disappear. "Much appreciated. Nice work with the security system," he said calmly, his eyes were caged on CrypticMan's face as he reached out with his right hand to activate the "Status Clear" program. Aera and Vector watched on, and were prepared to jump in to attack if CrypticMan's "olive branch" was actually a trap.
Mach felt his left arm twitch slightly, and felt an increasing numbness throughout the limb. Another glitch, or possibly a mutated one from the .GMO change. He glanced over to CrypticMan just before the Navi blinked in front of him. His vulcan was still active, but his arm likely wouldn't respond effectively in its current state. However, the weapon appeared unnecessary as CrypticMan adopted a purely defensive stance as he spoke. The Navi also offered to remove the glitches in Mach's programming, as a 'peace offering' partially to illustrate his unwillingness to continue fighting, and to indirectly thank Mach for his assistance. Mach stopped the recording program and downloaded a backup copy to the PET before starting another recording. He hoped the glowing light was in fact a status cure program, but he made that quick preparation in case it was a ploy to somehow inflict the memory wipe he spoke of earlier. If the glitches weren't so severe he would've politely declined the offer, but as the tingling and numbness continued to build in his left arm, he felt inclined to accept.
To show good faith, he deactivated the vulcan, which caused the weapon to fragment and disappear. "Much appreciated. Nice work with the security system," he said calmly, his eyes were caged on CrypticMan's face as he reached out with his right hand to activate the "Status Clear" program. Aera and Vector watched on, and were prepared to jump in to attack if CrypticMan's "olive branch" was actually a trap.
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As Mach tentatively accepted the small ball of light, the effect was mercifully immediate, sending a dense all-systems restore through his body and ferreting out every last byte of corrupt code with ruthless efficiency. Indeed, the speed and effectiveness with which it cleaned up his buggy system was borderline remarkable. Perhaps it wasn't so surprising coming from a hacker navi who specialised in bugs though. Unfortunately, it hadn't seemed to occur to Cryptic to offer the same to Mach's support programs, and the cleanse itself was localised and specialised to a single entity.
A faint sensation of calm well-being remained after the program had run its course, and a certain amount of lingering sensation from having his coding so meticulously scoured remained, but any checks he might make would show that Mach was firing on all cylinders and healthy as he'd ever been. In fact, the purge seemed to have come with a buffer of HP restoration as well. Bonus. Meanwhile, CrypticMan had been thinking, and his expression was not pleased.
"So, it's like this. Knowledge is power, and right now, you know things you shouldn't. That gives you the power in this situation. My interests have been protected, and for that, thanks, even if the danger came from you in the first place. I can't take what you know away, so that only leaves one real option, if you aren't interested in aligning your own interests with ours." He put one hand to his face, pinching his nose, but even so, he chuckled at the same time, amused at something. "Zenny is going to laugh so hard at me if she learns about this..." Still laughing softly at himself, two of his hands made a diamond shape with each other, and a small glowing light formed between them, resolving into what looked a like a miniaturised blue mystery data. Likely it was just the visual skin he used for his own data packets, though. He held it easily on the palm of one hand, beside him while he looked to Mach.
"9000 in here, and a chip to remember me by. And you leave here conveniently forgetting that you saw me. You can say no, beat me around a bit more, and jack me out, but then you get nothing, and you gain nothing from doing so anyway." He looked over to Aera, then shrugged his shoulders. "I can offer something else that might be of interest to your girl, as well." A second hand extended to hover over his right shoulder, this one holding a similar miniature crystal. "You're already more powerful than some full navis I've met, but, the more you know, as they say." she'd have to come down and collect the little crystal if she wanted it, but as he tilted it bakc and forth between his fingers, the bug navi seemed to notice for the first time that she and Vector were still riddled with corruption.
"I suppose you and metal boy will be wanting a clean up too, no? No skin off my nose." Yet another hand joined the one by the crystal intended for Aera, this one containing another of the bright light balls, like the one that had been offered to Mach. A second status cure was proffered in Vector's direction as well. His gaze didn't move from watching Aera though, and he winked one colour-swirling eye. "Though it's a shame, in a way. Thought you were very pretty underneath, for a moment there. And the swimsuit's not bad either." Creepy to the last, it seemed.
If Mach and the others accepted, The main data packet would indeed channel a direct 9000z to Mach, as well as fairly hard to come by chip, listing itself as BugChain. If accepted and opened, Aera's crystal would offer up 85 BugFrags, though at first if she reached for it, he would tilt it away for a moment with a grin, murmuring "Careful... Potent and volatile, these ones. Enjoy." before relinquishing it to her. Likewise, the status purges, if accepted, would do as the first had for Mach.
Of course, they didn't need to accept his offer.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 236Hp [4-Hit Shield][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 270/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][4-hit Shield]
Aera.SP: 110Hp/110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Metal][It's all SLIMY!!][Astraphobic(2)][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia](-Cured if accepted) [IV Active]
Vector.SP: 20Hp (110 if accepted)/110Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Poison(20)][Lightning Rod][Transparent Armour][Astraphobic(1)][It's all SLIMY!!][SAS Glitch: CRASHED (Rebooting)][NoClip (Mutated)][Mind Of Their Own(3)][Chip Limiter (Carrier)][Action Booster][Tastes Minty!][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia](-Cured if Accepted)[IV Broken]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Passive][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Battle 10... Winding Up?=-
A faint sensation of calm well-being remained after the program had run its course, and a certain amount of lingering sensation from having his coding so meticulously scoured remained, but any checks he might make would show that Mach was firing on all cylinders and healthy as he'd ever been. In fact, the purge seemed to have come with a buffer of HP restoration as well. Bonus. Meanwhile, CrypticMan had been thinking, and his expression was not pleased.
"So, it's like this. Knowledge is power, and right now, you know things you shouldn't. That gives you the power in this situation. My interests have been protected, and for that, thanks, even if the danger came from you in the first place. I can't take what you know away, so that only leaves one real option, if you aren't interested in aligning your own interests with ours." He put one hand to his face, pinching his nose, but even so, he chuckled at the same time, amused at something. "Zenny is going to laugh so hard at me if she learns about this..." Still laughing softly at himself, two of his hands made a diamond shape with each other, and a small glowing light formed between them, resolving into what looked a like a miniaturised blue mystery data. Likely it was just the visual skin he used for his own data packets, though. He held it easily on the palm of one hand, beside him while he looked to Mach.
"9000 in here, and a chip to remember me by. And you leave here conveniently forgetting that you saw me. You can say no, beat me around a bit more, and jack me out, but then you get nothing, and you gain nothing from doing so anyway." He looked over to Aera, then shrugged his shoulders. "I can offer something else that might be of interest to your girl, as well." A second hand extended to hover over his right shoulder, this one holding a similar miniature crystal. "You're already more powerful than some full navis I've met, but, the more you know, as they say." she'd have to come down and collect the little crystal if she wanted it, but as he tilted it bakc and forth between his fingers, the bug navi seemed to notice for the first time that she and Vector were still riddled with corruption.
"I suppose you and metal boy will be wanting a clean up too, no? No skin off my nose." Yet another hand joined the one by the crystal intended for Aera, this one containing another of the bright light balls, like the one that had been offered to Mach. A second status cure was proffered in Vector's direction as well. His gaze didn't move from watching Aera though, and he winked one colour-swirling eye. "Though it's a shame, in a way. Thought you were very pretty underneath, for a moment there. And the swimsuit's not bad either." Creepy to the last, it seemed.
If Mach and the others accepted, The main data packet would indeed channel a direct 9000z to Mach, as well as fairly hard to come by chip, listing itself as BugChain. If accepted and opened, Aera's crystal would offer up 85 BugFrags, though at first if she reached for it, he would tilt it away for a moment with a grin, murmuring "Careful... Potent and volatile, these ones. Enjoy." before relinquishing it to her. Likewise, the status purges, if accepted, would do as the first had for Mach.
Of course, they didn't need to accept his offer.
-=F.O.R.F.E.I.T. Foe=-
CrypticMan: 236Hp [4-Hit Shield][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][Diverted Energy][All-Brace][Regen(10)][Beach time..?][Scizothermia]
-=The Space Vacationers=-
MachMan: 270/270Hp [SylkCrossII: Elec/Shadow][Central Layer, Inside][Metal][4-hit Shield]
Aera.SP: 110Hp/110Hp [Lower Layer, Outside][1-hit shield][Metal]
Vector.SP: 20Hp (110 if accepted)/110Hp [Central Layer, Inside][Metal]
-=The Setting=-
100% Metal
-=Objects=-
NAXA LRBIS24 Satellite Core: 290/500Hp [Passive][Conductive]
A Great Many Consoles and Terminals: 50Hp Each [Conductive]
-=Battle 10... Winding Up?=-
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Mach watched the light flow over his hand and spread throughout his body, and grinned at the fact his temporary trust wasn't entirely misplaced. The light disappeared quickly and left Mach's default form behind. Since the battle was effectively over, the SylkCross was no longer needed. His blue and orange armor was back at its normal sheen, and without that annoying slimy texture. His wings floated behind him, each of their three parts slid and clicked slightly as they recalibrated and performed a quick bit check. Mazer was pleased to see the myriad of system error messages and warnings close out, only to be replaced with "green" diagnostic readouts and statuses.
While Aera and Vector didn't benefit from the program, their appearances changed due to Mach deactivating the SylkCross. Aera's two-piece was replaced by her default Mach-like armor, while Vector's body fragmented into his more angular, silver-trimmed navy blue body plates. His arachnid-like eyes merged into one, before the rest of his head plates slid into position similar to that of a knight's helmet. The two made their way back to Mach, taking up flanking positions just behind the Navi.
Mach listened calmly and looked CrypticMan in the eye as the Navi spoke. With his systems restored fully, he was just a second or two away from warping back into action, but CrypticMan's monologue turned to a bargain. He materialized a data packet and continued, explaining its contents. [So... hush money,] Mazer thought upon hearing the Navi's offer. [not like we have much choice; but let's see what Mach has to say.] CrypticMan also offered up a little extra for Aera, as well as a full system clear for both herself and Vector. Aera's frustration with CrypticMan did a good job covering up her lingering embarrassment, which was again brought up by the multi-limbed Navi. She responded with his creepy compliment with an unamused frown, while Mach wasn't entirely sure what CrypticMan was referring to with his "pretty underneath comment," as his own view was blocked at that brief moment.
Back to the business at hand... "Interesting offer," Mach responded as he slowly crossed his arms. "I'll overlook the fact this is a bribe, and accept with one caveat. It's unlikely our next encounter will end so diplomatically. I assume that's no surprise to you." Mach carefully accepted the mini BMD, and let it open just long enough for him to identify the contents, then kept the items on his person, not electing to upload them to the PET, at least not just yet. [[i]Mazer, see if you can set up a file drop point to quarantine & thoroughly scan/scrub. Wouldn't be surprised CrypticMan bugged them, especially can't expose them to our chipfolder and balance programs.[/i]] Mazer read the text message and raised his eyebrows. [...didn't think of that, good call,] he mused before he started to see what he could do. He started to go through the PET's functions to see if he could create a private folder or something similar, something that doesn't have ready access to the rest of the PET's programs. The PET's firewall was up to date, but it likely would have the sturdiness of tissue paper when subjected to CrypticMan's bugs.
Aera and Vector begrudgingly accepted their own offerings as well. CrypticMan continued to mess with Aera, drawing the packet back before murmuring ominously. "I'll keep that in mind." she said coldly and finally obtained the data packet from CrypticMan. Like Mach, she too was hesitant to access the bribe. However, Vector and Aera didn't have a choice to access the status restore, as it would've likely activated on contact as well.
((Accept))
While Aera and Vector didn't benefit from the program, their appearances changed due to Mach deactivating the SylkCross. Aera's two-piece was replaced by her default Mach-like armor, while Vector's body fragmented into his more angular, silver-trimmed navy blue body plates. His arachnid-like eyes merged into one, before the rest of his head plates slid into position similar to that of a knight's helmet. The two made their way back to Mach, taking up flanking positions just behind the Navi.
Mach listened calmly and looked CrypticMan in the eye as the Navi spoke. With his systems restored fully, he was just a second or two away from warping back into action, but CrypticMan's monologue turned to a bargain. He materialized a data packet and continued, explaining its contents. [So... hush money,] Mazer thought upon hearing the Navi's offer. [not like we have much choice; but let's see what Mach has to say.] CrypticMan also offered up a little extra for Aera, as well as a full system clear for both herself and Vector. Aera's frustration with CrypticMan did a good job covering up her lingering embarrassment, which was again brought up by the multi-limbed Navi. She responded with his creepy compliment with an unamused frown, while Mach wasn't entirely sure what CrypticMan was referring to with his "pretty underneath comment," as his own view was blocked at that brief moment.
Back to the business at hand... "Interesting offer," Mach responded as he slowly crossed his arms. "I'll overlook the fact this is a bribe, and accept with one caveat. It's unlikely our next encounter will end so diplomatically. I assume that's no surprise to you." Mach carefully accepted the mini BMD, and let it open just long enough for him to identify the contents, then kept the items on his person, not electing to upload them to the PET, at least not just yet. [[i]Mazer, see if you can set up a file drop point to quarantine & thoroughly scan/scrub. Wouldn't be surprised CrypticMan bugged them, especially can't expose them to our chipfolder and balance programs.[/i]] Mazer read the text message and raised his eyebrows. [...didn't think of that, good call,] he mused before he started to see what he could do. He started to go through the PET's functions to see if he could create a private folder or something similar, something that doesn't have ready access to the rest of the PET's programs. The PET's firewall was up to date, but it likely would have the sturdiness of tissue paper when subjected to CrypticMan's bugs.
Aera and Vector begrudgingly accepted their own offerings as well. CrypticMan continued to mess with Aera, drawing the packet back before murmuring ominously. "I'll keep that in mind." she said coldly and finally obtained the data packet from CrypticMan. Like Mach, she too was hesitant to access the bribe. However, Vector and Aera didn't have a choice to access the status restore, as it would've likely activated on contact as well.
((Accept))