Shot's and Ladders

((*resists the urge to bring in Kevlarman*))

A shadow appears in the distance as Valkyrie and Dartman search for the cowardly commander... then another... then another... holy f***, how many are there?! As Valkyrie and Dartman get closer to the shadows, they find no less than 20 guns all pointing at them. "SURRENDER NOW, CRIMINALS!" the voices of the Netpolice Squad shout as one. Hey, what're those other things headed this way...?

DUN DUN DUN!

Netpolice Elite A: 100
Netpolice Elite B: 100
Netpolice Elite C: 100
Netpolice Elite D: 100
Netpolice Elite E: 100
Netpolice Elite F: 100
Netpolice Elite G: 100
Netpolice Elite H: 100
Netpolice Elite I: 100
Netpolice Elite J: 100
Netpolice Elite K: 100
Netpolice Elite L: 100
Netpolice Elite M: 100
Netpolice Elite N: 100
Netpolice Elite O: 100
Netpolice Elite P: 100
Netpolice Elite Q: 100
Netpolice Elite R: 100
Netpolice Elite S: 100
Netpolice Elite T: 100

Dartman: 79
Valkyrie: 70

Oh... shit.

"There definatly fast acting, I have to give them that" thought Dartman. The overwhelming show of police force caught him off guard "Dont you guys have anything better to do?" he asked, not really expecting an answer.

"Hay Dartman" asked Cid "This dosn't look good"

"You opponion has been noted and will be taken into account." replyed Dartman glumly. He was still sore from fighting off a few regular NetPolice. But THIS....THIS was insane.

Dartman, putting his ego aside for a moment, wondered if he should just surrender. Doubtless Cid would be thinking the same thing. But Valkyrie, no she wouldn't surrender. And Dartman couldn't stand the idea of leaving a comrad in battle.

But there was still the little problem of being outgunned ten to one. And they were already worn down from there other encounter. The choice weiged heavily on his shoulders.

"Dartman..." came Cid's voice, timid and shaking "...We.....we should stand and fight"

Well that decided it. Cid, the timid little kid who Dartman had never seen stand up for himself was drawing his line in the sand. Dartman held back a cheer of joy. Cid was slowly emerging from his shell.

"Alright, gimme two shotguns on my mark"

"Ready"

"MARK!" Dartman dived into the air, fireing the shotgun blasts one after the other. Both shots screemd through the air, hurtuling towards there targets. "Lucky me they are standing in nice neat rows".Not waiting to see if his attack found its mark, he landed and was off sprinting. His body was almost a blur as he dashed into the enemie group, Summer saulting once....twice....and springing ito the air. He picked a target and sent his dart flying at the unfortunate officer. Grabbing the edge of the Jammer as he swooped by, he twisted around behind the device, hopeing to find some cover from the return fire.

"What a day" he thought

1. Shotgun+Aim at Netpolice Elite A, secondary hit at Netpolice Elite K (50)
2. Shotgun at Netpolice Elite A, secondary hit at Netpolice Elite K (50)
3. Bulls-eye at Netpolice Elite S (40+dodge, three turn cool down)

The squad of police officers were aiming at Valkyrie, ready to fire off their guns at once. The sheer number of them made navi and operator go speechless. The silence was finally broken by Sieg.

-...Uh-oh...will you run?

Valkyrie remained silent.

- Give up maybe?

The silence was a tad bit more... annoyed this time around.

-Oh who am I kidding...

The female navi summoned her lance and assumed a fighting stance, while measuring the distance and the position of the enemy group.

- It was a pleasure to know you Val. Seriously. Aside from your tantrums, the times when you went berserk, and the constant bitching of course.

- Thanks. I really enjoyed bugging your incompetent, lazy ass, so you'd get up and do something meaningful for once.



- I can't just leave without taking as many as I can with me.

- I... take care of the chips.

- Hey Dartsman!- She shouted - I'll show you now, just how lucky you are that we didn't fight after all.

Taking a deep breath, she charged at the group, picking out one of the officers at random. They look totally the same anyway. "Well, if I'm ever going to use it, now is the time" she thought, and activated the new subroutine she received just a few hours ago. The surge of energy filled her whole body, making her shine with a bright white glow as she dashed towards her target. She let the go of the charge while stabbing forward with the lance, giving it an extra boost of power. Valkyrie felt immense pain, and an awkward feeling of emptiness afterwards as the power left her body. Her vision clouded for a split second, and her legs almost gave up on her when Sieg's voice made her regain consciousness.

- What, kneeling already?

- I can greet the gods kneeling, but I would be ashamed not to have my...

-Sword, slot in!

She stud up while twisting her torso, swunging the sword in a crescent arc, trying to slash as many enemies she could. The sound of bullets whistling from behind her could be heard, which gave her an idea...

- Hey, Darts! The winner is who can delete more of them. Are you in?

[Actions:
1. Valkyrie Ride
2. Skogul's Sacrifice (56+40) NetPoliceK , (10) to self)
3. Sword (80) NetPoliceL + sword dance]

Netpolice Elite A: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite B: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite C: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite D: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite E: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite F: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite G: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite H: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite I: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite J: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite K: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite L: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite M: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite N: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite O: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite P: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite Q: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite R: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite S: DELETED!
Netpolice Elite T: DELETED!

???: ???
Strange Program: ???

Dartman: 79
Valkyrie: 70

Dartman's attacks caught the stunned Netpolice agents off guard, but they recovered before Valkyrie had time to unleash her attacks. "OPEN FIRE!" One of the agents screeched at the top of his lungs, though neither of the two navis could tell who had signed their death sentence. Blast after blast after blast fired at the two navis from all directions in a rapid staccato of gunfire, each shot lethal enough to kill, and aimed with deadly accuracy.

But before any of said shots could slaughter their targets, a dome-like barrier sprung up over the two, reflecting the blasts back at the Netpolice agents and eliminating them... with their own fire.

Needless to say, the two navis were stunned as a lone navi, followed by some sort of odd program, walked up to the barrier and knocked on it. "Oy, don't youse punks gots no manners? Youse's supposed to says thank youse when someone rescues youse."

The navi was... odd, to say the least, but no more odd than the two navis trapped in the barrier. He was dressed in a purple, two-piece suit, with a black tie and a white undershirt. He also sported a purple Fedora and a pair of black sunglasses. He grinned. "Well, come on, we don'ts gots all day here!"

"Huh? Wha?.....Who now?" stammered dartman. Clearing his throat toregain his composure, Dartman finaly got out "Um...Thanks." his usual eloquence seem do be malfunctioning.

Dartman tryed to recall what had just happened. He had bravly and heroicly thrown himself into the midst of combat agains overwhelming odds. His grace/skill/overall amazingness didn't seem to cut it, and he sttod ready to die from police fire.

But then he was saved by a barrier the materilized between him and the Police, but more importantly, between him and the polices bullets. The sheild rebounded the bullets back on to the NetPolice and shreaded them with ease. Dartman internaly scolded himself for not detecting the presance of the new navi sooner. He guessed that the jammer was interfearing with his equiptment.

Dartman made a quick cheack of his sensors to see if Valkyrie had survived and found her still alive. His sence of honer told him that he was now horrible indebted to the new navi. Better start geting some information.

walking over to his rescuer, Dartman extended his hand in greeting "Hay there, I'm Daartman, over there's Valkyrie. If you dont mind me asking, Who are you, why did you save us and what did you mean by "we haven't got all day""?

It seemed that Valkyrie had no intent of saying thanks to the purple navi. Maybe she was thankful for granting her chance to fight some more before leaving her inevitable demise, but her stubbornness stopped her from admitting that. Or maybe she was just a pissed that her heroic (heroine-ic?) moment got ruined. No one will ever know. It is certain however, that this turn of events caught her off guard.

- Okay. Now I'm confused...

- There is something fishy here...

- You mean aside from this -Valkyrie nodded in the way of her "savior"- deus ex machina in purple?

-I mean that 20 netpolice guy that popped up from nowhere, spoke at the same time, fired at the same time, and got deleted in the same time, without even touching you, right before this guy appeared...

- Whatever.

She finally turned to the weird navi that was accompanied by the mysterious program. Not having any idea what to do now, she politely asked about his intentions:

- What the f*ck do you want?

The navi didn't take the outstretched hand, but rather pointed at the barrier still separating the Dartman and Valkyrie from the odd navi. He pulled off his sunglasses, blood red eyes staring at Dartman as he grinned. "Da name's Carmichael. But everybody I's knows just calls me 'Bloody Mikey'. I earned dat names trouh tree tings." He gestured to the bloody corpses of the Netpolice navis surrounding the barrier, then spoke again in his slightly broken, heavily-accented English, "Ones, my tendencies to leaves a trail ofs bloody corpses ins my wake." He pointed to his eyes, "Twos, my eyes, for dats bloody red color o' ders. And tree..." He looked at Valkyrie, standing behind Dartman, and licked his lips. "Let's just say... I have a certains knack wit womens as wells. Ands we's haven'ts gots all days 'cause..." He put back on his sunglasses, and pulled up a small device with a screen on it.

Countless white dots were on the screen, all of them heading towards a set of four dots in the center, one red-colored, another blue, and the other two white like the many others. "...We's gots companys. Dem Polices' ares like da bees. You kills somes o' dems, and it's like kicking da nest."

Valkyrie was certain that Carmichael was a "bad guy". However, she wasn't really a "good girl" herself... its not like she didn't just slaughter some policemen a few minutes ago. As for his remark on girls... she didn't want to know what it means, and besides; she was a warrior first.

- Well, Bloody Mikey, why don't you lower the barrier then?

"Because I can'ts trusts youse." Mikey pressed a small button on the side of the Radar, and suddenly Valkyrie and Dartman found they could jack out again! A small, pea-sized hole opened in the top of the barrier. "Youse cans jacks out nows. Just remembers, youse owes the Netmafia nows, and wes nevers forgets a debt." With that, the strange navi Jacked out, leaving his barrier and his prog behind, the latter of which promptly burrowed into the ground, leaving no sign that it had ever been there.

Dartman was for the second time in as meny minutes, speechless. After a second or to of sencless stammering, his mind seemed to reboot "Well goodie, we just became bestis buddies with the mob!" the sacrasim was layerd on so thick that his words almost were dripping with contempt.

Surpressing his anger at being indebted to the mob, Dartman turned back to Valkyrie. "Guess now may not be the best time for our match."he paused for a second to check his sensors "I'd give the NetPolice about thirty seconds before they get here. We'd better Jack out"

"Alright" cimed in Cid "Dartman Jack out"

"Rodger" said Dartman, vanishing in a flash of light.

- Lets see what I have achieved today. I wiped some servers clean of virii, accompanied by a cat, then took a refreshing bath at Yoka, and finally, I've got a Navi join me in a life of crime, slaughtering policemans, and becoming indebted to the netmaffia.

-T'was a busy day.

- IT ISN'T EVEN PAST 4 YET!

- Correction: It is still a busy day.

After swearing a bit, Valkyrie followed Dartsman and jacked out in her own pillar of light, leaving the barrier empty. She was known for repaying debts, but getting affiliated with the maffia... well, they say that they are very family centric guys... thats good... right?