Guardless in ACDC

"Have you found it yet?"

"Yep, there's an ad for a pill that fixes your ability to--"

"You know what I mean. Go get that page."

Raiden saluted sloppily as Anti downloaded the Zenny that he had salvaged from the encounter. "I'm on it, lady."

He turned and headed off deeper into the canyon of ads, giving each one a quick read as he passed.

[Battle 2, please.]
Raiden finds another larger group of viruses!

CannondumbA 50HP
CannondumbB 50HP
SeedbatA 50HP
SeedbatB 50HP
SeedbatC 50HP
SpikeyA 90HP
SpikeyB 90HP

Raiden 130HP

BATTLEROUTINE...SET>>>EXECUTE
Anti mashed her knuckles against her forehead in annoyance. "Can I just find that page so that we can get out of here...?!"

"This is what you get when you deal with the Internet," Raiden commented, rather merrily. "Chips."

She slotted in one of her prize chips, and sat back to see how Raiden would work with it. The Areagrab filtered its way down to him, and he grabbed hold of the intangible packet, practically ripping it open. His entire body exploded into a corona of white heat, and pulled together again in the form of a lightning bolt that streaked through the air, right above the group of viruses. The bolt split apart into a flurry of lightning, which focused on two spots less than a foot from each other on the ground. His data converted itself back into his normal humanoid form, and he whipped around on his heel to face the viruses with a wider grin than before on his face.

There were three viruses of the Wood alignment fluttering in the air. He immediately locked onto them, assessing them as the prime targets of the group, because of their automatic strength against him. What was a better way to deal with a threat than destroy it?

"Anti, Flameline."

She obediently slotted in the wide-range chip, and Raiden noted that the data had arrived when he saw the red hue of the network being sapped from its normal positioning across the panels and in the air. It collected in three circles underneath the hovering Seedbats, and Raiden dropped his hand to his hip in preparation to unleash the Flameline's fury. He would have loved to make a dramatic spectacle of it, but he knew that before long the viruses would figure out where he had gone and turn to unleash hell on him. By the time he swung his arm up, calling the chip's fire upwards to consume the three Seedbats, he had already set his sights on the pair of Spikeys. Those had to be taken care of quickly, to make sure that they didn't gang up and cause him some serious problems.

He dropped into a squat and put his palms flat on the panels next to his feet. The air fluttered around his hands, and he drew them upwards, away from the ground. Stuck to his fingers was a large, delicate bubble. He straightened up very, very slowly, his eyes locked on the bubble, as he drew his left hand away. The one separated into two, and as he spread his arms apart, it became three bubbles hanging suspended between his hands. He gave his wrists the slightest flick, and the bubbles were torn from his fingers. They were sent to float serenely towards the pair of Spikeys and whatever else might get in the way.

[1. Areagrab (telepr0t behind virus group)
2. Flameline on SeedbatA, SeedbatB, SeedbatC (70 x 2 = 140 damage each)
3. Bubblestar1 on SpikeyA, SpikeyB, third bubble floating around randomly (3 bubbles, 20 x 2 = 40 damage to each Spikey, possible trap in bubble)]
A canodumb tries to attack, but Raiden vanishes. He then reappears in front of the group, summoning flames that torch all three bats. Then, he sends three bubbles forward. The end spikey manages to work around them, but the other, not sure which way to dodge, just stands there before the bubble envelopes it.

CannondumbA 50HP
CannondumbB 50HP
SeedbatA DELETED!
SeedbatB DELETED!
SeedbatC DELETED!
SpikeyA 50HP(Trapped)
SpikeyB 90HP

Raiden 130HP
In a single instant, the blue flooded away from the network, and leapt from the panels and adware to the air to collect and form a trio of long, vicious-looking spikes made entirely of water. They hovered just in front of him, and as he waved his hand dismissively, and the three Aquaneedles whistled off toward the Spikey that his last attack had missed.

"Careful, there are still those two Canodumbs!"

"I didn't forget about them."

"Yes you did, you were going to go after that trapped Spikey!"

He shrugged, forced a grin onto his face to try and cover himself, and spun to face the two stationary cannons that were swinging around to train their sights on him. Two packets of chip data arrived in quick sequence. Instead of the traditional spread-area chip that Anti ended up using to take down packs of viruses, it seemed as though he was going to be stuck deleting them individually. He knew that he could have been really careful and lined up the two Canodumbs to take them down with one shot, but he was far too high on the heat of the battle for anything that mechanical.

Raiden swung both of his arms up and held his hands out, with their fingers curled up to seem like twin handguns, at each of the Canodumbs. He closed his right eye briefly to ensure that his aim was perfect and nodded. At his mental command, a small charge of energy formed at the tips of each of his gun-shaped fingers. The recoil of this was going to be immense, but he knew how he was going to handle it.

"Aren't you going to brace--"

"Be quiet for a minute, lady. I'm working."

At exactly the same time he jerked both of his hands slightly upward, releasing the Shotguns. The kickback of one was enough to make him stumble backwards a step or two, but the two recoils combined sent him flying right off his feet. He toppled back, landing hard on his shoulderblades, but grinning as he knew that the drop out of the way would give him a better chance of dodging whatever the Canodumbs may have been firing at him.

[1. Aquaneedle1 on SpikeyB (3 needles, 20 x 2 = 40 damage each, 120 damage total if all needles hit
2. Shotgun on CanodumbA (50 damage, possible splash, using combined recoil to knock self over backwards and perhaps dodge an incoming shot)
3. Shotgun on CanodumbB (50 damage, possible splash, using combined recoil to knock self over backwards and perhaps dodge an incoming shot)]
The needles down the virus, deleting the speedy virii with an unerring accuracy. The immobile cannons are deleted by the shots, and as the spikey frees itself and tries to blast raiden, it misses.

CannondumbA DELETED
CannondumbB DELETED
SeedbatA DELETED!
SeedbatB DELETED!
SeedbatC DELETED!
SpikeyA 50HP
SpikeyB DELETED

Raiden 130HP
"Here comes the new chip."

Something materialized in Raiden's hand. It was a very small point of light with a single pulsing red star right in the centre, so small that it was almost invisible.

"Slap that on the Spikey somehow."

"Yeah, I kind of figured." His mouth twisted slightly, out of the smile and into perplexion. "Looks like a wimpy little thing for the power of a Markcannon, though."

"Just shut up and do it."

"You're the boss," he shrugged as he hopped once on the spot and headed off at a high-speed jog toward the Spikey. "Not," he added under his breath, but Anti heard it anyway. What was the point of a snide line if the recipient never picked it up?

Once he came within perhaps six good strides of the remaining Spikey, he swung his arm mightily forwards in a throwing motion. Then a better idea hit him, and he closed his fingers around the small point of light that he held to keep from flinging it. He completed the pitching motion as if he had indeed released the tiny light, and then kicked off again, heading straight towards the Spikey. He juggled the light to the tip of one finger, and as he bore down on the virus, he lunged forward and touched the light to the place right between the Spikey's eyes. It stuck, leaving a glowing pinpoint right on the virus's forehead.

He leapt backward for several steps, trying to get some distance between himself and the virus. It wouldn't do any good if his hot dogging earned him a fireball to the face. A massive sphere of white light, rippling with black and grey, was forming around his hand like a captured explosion that had been frozen at one point in time. The energy cloud became thicker and thicker, gaining more sustenance, and seemed on the verge of either bursting outward and destroying him entirely or imploding and comsuming his hand when he held out his arm in front of him and opened his fingers. The huge energy sphere burst apart into several dozen individual charges which were expelled from the area of his hand at high speed. The point of light that he had stuck to the Spikey lit up red, and the energy shots that he had released randomly into the air curved around as if governed by one mind. Like a rain of death the bursts of white light fell toward the tracer, and all made contact at exactly the same time.

Turning his eyes from the multiple explosions of white that were taking place just a few steps away, he took off in a wide strafe around what would hopefully be a deleted Spikey, laughing out loud at his total mastery over this spectacular new chip.

[1. Markcannon on SpikeyA (70 damage)
2. Dodge
3. Dodge]
The shot deletes the virus!

CannondumbA DELETED
CannondumbB DELETED
SeedbatA DELETED!
SeedbatB DELETED!
SeedbatC DELETED!
SpikeyA DELETED
SpikeyB DELETED

Raiden 130HP

VICTORY!

Rewards: 400z, Heatshot
"Hey, here it is!"

Raiden pulled up short.

"Back three steps...there, take that turnoff."

He sighed and swung his body around, starting off down a small gap in the adware and informational pages that he had hardly seen.

"I think it's down here--yeah, found it."

What they had arrived before was a rather length page on horsepower--the exact piece of material that Anti had lead him halfway across the Internet looking for.

"There, now I've got it. Raiden, jack out."

"But--"

His protest was almost instantly cut off by his degeneration into a blast of lightning and his subsequent disappearance.

[Done. Close, please.]
<(Done)>