To the Weather Station

Beatnik, frustrated with the world, gears up and grabs the fist Champu, and hurls it with all her might at the other one, who was actually getting ready to punch the erratic skater in the face, but only got a facefull of flaming fists himself.

ChampuA: DELETED
ChampuB: DELETED
SwordyA: ROADKILL
SwordyB: DELETED

Terrain: 100% Normal

Beatnik.exe: 90 HP

-VICTORY-
Get: 400z
"Lightweights," Beatnik huffed, slowing to something that was almost a stop. She released the gauntlet. The component plates of armour returned to their orbit around her. "See, Toni? Lightweights."

Antoinette said nothing as she re-organized her chips (quite needlessly, since she only had four). Maybe Beatnik had been left a little more capable than she'd anticipated after she had been kicked out of the NetMafia.

Beatnik checked her directions again as she continued on. "Gotta be getting close by now," she reported. Just a couple more turns and they'd be there. Then again, the last set of directions had taken her to the brink of the Net abyss, but hey, she had a good feeling this time...

[Battle 4, please.]
[Bump.]
Beatnik skates onward, not finding any evidence so far that she wasn't going the right way.

Unfortunately she was surprised by a group of five bird things that appeared in her path, on of which Made a swipe by he, missing narrowly. They were fast, not grounded, and sported a green and yellow color scheme. Coincidence?

Looks like she'd have to deal with these damn things too before moving on.

BATTLE SUMMARY:
FLYING MENACES:
FishyA: 90 HP
FishyB: 90 HP
FishyC: 90 HP
FishyD: 90 HP [This is the one that attacked]
FishyE: 90 HP

HOVERING NIGHTMARE:
Beatnik: 90 HP

TERRAIN:
100% Normal

Good luck...
BATTLE 4, START!
Naturally, Beatnik was fast -- faster than fast. Without that speed, where would she be? She thrived off it, survived off it. Her continuing existence hinged on her ability to not get herself shivved in the face.

So when something just as quick as she was came barreling toward her chest, she was understandably thrown off.

Beatnik was barely able to hurl herself aside in time. The Fishy went wooshing harmlessly past. She skittered dangerously, managed to save herself from falling on her face, and whipped around to take on the viruses that had appeared in her path.

"Oh frig. Oh frig oh frig oh frig Toni this is trouble!"

Antoinette said something generically disparaging as she slotted in selections from her meagre stockpile of chips. Beatnik was too busy skating away at high speed to listen, lest she dawdle and get pegged by one of the other Fishies. She'd encountered these things before, in her Past Life. They hadn't been much fun to deal with then, either.

Beatnik seized upon the first chip she found waiting for her -- the Shotgun. She emptied the plasma charge into the middle of the pack of Fishies. The Cannon met the same fate. Maybe they'd be quick enough to tear apart a virus or two. Her real trump came with the next chip. Beatnik booted up the Fireburn, and with nary more than a thought, she sent a beam of superheated laser light as red as a fire engine ripping through the startled air toward the viruses.

Then she changed tack to skate toward the Fishies instead. Her arm was already pulled back and her hand was half-curled in anticipation of the Rageclaw that she knew was coming.

Gust: Dodge
1. Shotgun @ FishyA (50 NORMAL damage + splash1)
2. Cannon @ FishyA (40 NORMAL damage)
3. Fireburn1 @ FishyB, FishyC, FishyE (50 FIRE damage) [because FishyD already attacked, so I'm going to assume that its charge separated it from the group]
[Bump.]
Zip Zam Zoom, Beatnik Flew into Battle.

She fired a blast of energy at her first target, which hit it. Not only did it hit it's target, though. It was a critical success and blasted apart another Fishy.

Beatnik then fired at the Fishy she had hit first. She missed it, but that wasn't to major.

Beatnik then fired her lazer at three of the remaining Fishies and hit all of them.

The remaining Fishy, coming in from behind, managed to nail her in the back. And whil she was distrancted with that, another one swiped her, knocking her to the ground.

More of them swiped by, and they ended up surrounding her, basically splitting them all up.

Pretty decent though, for the speedster, to only get hit twice againt.

BATTLE SUMMARY:
FLYING MENACES:
FishyA: 40 HP
FishyB: 40 HP
FishyC: -DELETED-
FishyD: 90 HP [This is the one that attacked]
FishyE: 40 HP

NOT-SO-HOVERING NIGHTMARE:
Beatnik: 60 HP [KNOCKED DOWN TO THE GROUND]

TERRAIN:
100% Normal
Beatnik lay in a heap.

"Are you all right?" Toni asked. She was unable to keep the concern out of her question. Beatnik was just sitting there, staring...that was so unlike her that Antoinette could do little more than worry.

Beatnik looked at the Fishies. She looked down.

She started screaming.

"OH GOD OH SHIT OH MY HOLY CRAP THIS IS AAAAAAAAAAAR--"

"Beatnik. What is wrong?"

"--RRRRAAAAUGH THIS IS DISGUSTING OH MAN IT'S ALL NASTY AND DIRTY AND IT HURTS AND WHAT IS THIS!? CRAP CRAP CRAP GOD CRAP SHIT CRAP--"

As she was howling, Beatnik tried her best to get back to her feet. It was no use, though. The magnetic rings that usually separated her from the ground had clattered uselessly to one side. Her magnetic field was in such close proximity to the ground that they could no longer support her, and had cast themselves aside as if in shame. Beatnik was able to get to her knees a couple of times, but when she tried to rise to a standing position, her legs gave out and she wound up on her rear again.

"Beatnik, get up. You can't afford to be messing around right now."

"CAN'T YOU SEE THAT I'M TRYING? I HAVEN'T FRIGGIN' WALKED -- NO, NEVER, I HAVEN'T TOUCHED THE GROUND FOR AGES AND I! DON'T! WALK!"

She flailed around a little more. All she did was make her look kind of like a fish. Maybe the viruses would recognize some kind of kinship between themselves and her and -- yeah, well, no.

"JUST GIMME THE STUPID RAGECLAW!"

Muttering to herself about overreactions, Antoinette did as she was told. Beatnik's plates of armour were somehow still floating around her, and she brought them to fuse into the shape of the gauntlet around her hand.

Roaring in what could be little more than fury, Beatnik pushed herself up to one knee and flung herself straight at one of the injured Fishies. It sure wasn't as stylish as zipping through their ranks and carving them into digital sushi. But hey, a Rageclaw was a Rageclaw and whatever demeaning position you were using it from, it still made stuff die.

Beatnik lost her balance and fell onto her hands and knees. With a snarl of hatred (how could the pieces of trash do this to her!?), she swung the Rageclaw at the next Fishy over. For the last virus, she actually managed to get one foot on the ground, and kicked off into some kind of retarded spiralling fall with the Rageclaw leading the way.

Her magnetic field concentrated on one spot in front of her. The plates of armour that hadn't been used for the Rageclaw followed it and formed a rather threatening looking wall. The field blasted the wall of metal toward the uninjured Fishy to push it back and keep it from taking the initiative of attacking her again while she was down.

1. Rageclaw @ FishyA (40 NORMAL damage)
2. Rageclaw @ FishyB (40 NORMAL damage)
3. Rageclaw @ FishyE (40 NORMAL damage)
Gust: Push back FishyD
Beatnik's random floundering about seemed to surprise the Fishies.

It was effective, too.

As she lunged about on the ground erratically, the poor things had no idea where to aim, or where she'd go next.

Her first hit sliced very cleanly through the target Fishy.

Another one sliced at her, but it missed. She then sliced another Fishy, though this one, while still deleting her target, was agonizingly close to a miss.

She then strangely spiraled to the ground after half standing up and managed to wipe out one last Fishy. This left her prone again.

However, this time, when the last Fishy came to swipe at her, Beatnik was ready. She popped back up with her crazy blocks of floatyness and shoved it back from whence it came. The Fishy was evidently not expecting this, and just floated stationary, looking dumb.

One Enemy left, what would the grounded Air Skater do?

BATTLE SUMMARY:
FLYING MENACES:
FishyA: -DELETED-
FishyB: -DELETED-
FishyC: -DELETED-
FishyD: 90 HP
FishyE: -DELETED-

NOT-SO-HOVERING NIGHTMARE:
Beatnik: 60 HP [STILL ON THE GROUND!?]

TERRAIN:
100% Normal
The whole flailing-around-from-on-her-end thing actually worked surprisingly well. Beatnik was almost shocked as the talons of her Rageclaw carved through Fishy after Fishy.

Her magnetic field blew the last surviving virus far enough back to buy her some time for her to get back to her feet. With little more than a shadow of a thought, Beatnik called her magnetic field back. It latched onto the two rings that lay on the ground not far away. They lifted themselves smoothly into the air and paused six inches above the ground. Beatnik managed to wiggle around enough to get into a position that let her plant both feet on the rings. They slid around a little, but managed to hold steady. Beatnik pushed off the ground with her Rageclaw, and suddenly found herself hovering in the air again.

"Aw God," she said, panting from the exertion. "That was crap, Toni. Don't ever let that sorta junk happen to me again, aight?"

"You are a ham. Would you deal with the virus first, before the soliloquy?"

Beatnik reveled in the the feeling of freedom that being airborne gave her. A little bit of fancy footwork got her turned around to face the last Fishy. Her left, un-Rageclawed hand rose, and she pushed it into the keyhole on her chest.

"FIRST LOCK, SUCKER! TECHNO WALTZ!"

Lightning exploded down the length of her right arm and completely engulfed her Rageclaw. What she now had was a giant paw of yellow-white electric death. With a definitely malevolent smirk, Beatnik kicked off and sailed through the air like she was meant to all along.

She'd never been so happy to skate anywhere in her life.

Beatnik wound up and swung her massive electrical claw-hand into the Fishy. It erupted in a blinding storm of discharged lightning.

There was no way the stupid thing would be crawling out of that.

1. Get up
2. Charge Techno Waltz
Gust: Dodge
3. First Lock: Techno Waltz @ FishyD (90 ELEC damage)
[Bump.]
[And another bump.]
As Beatnik was attempting to stand up, the Fishy came back to attention. Just as she stood, the Fishy Prepared to charge.

It closed in, getting closer and closer until the girl burst out and filled it full of zap and death.

Fried, the enemy fell to the ground, and Beatnik was rewarded for her terrible ordeal with some nice rewards.

BATTLE SUMMARY:
FLYING MENACES:
FishyA: -DELETED-
FishyB: -DELETED-
FishyC: -DELETED-
FishyD: -DELTED-
FishyE: -DELETED-

HOVERING NIGHTMARE:
Beatnik: 60 HP [Airwalking once more]

TERRAIN:
100% Normal

RewardData: DashAttack, 160 zenny
"Augh." Beatnik's hand went to the big rent in her midsection that one of the Fishies had left behind as a parting gift. Broken lines of code leaked out like blood. She was in crappy shape, she knew. There was no way she was going to be able to make it to the weather station in one piece in this state.

"Do you still insist on doing this?"

"Well, sure, yeah." Beatnik started skating slowly again, wincing with every stride. "I started this, so I'm gonna get there, and I'm gonna shove your ass outside somehow, Toni. Gimme that Minienergy. I know you got it."

Sourly, Antoinette slotted in the subchip. Immediately Beatnik felt better.

"Aight. Let's keep chuggin'."

[Minienergy used; +50 HP. Battle 5, please.]
Finally Beatnik had reached the Weather Station, it was a tall cybernetic replica of something that looked like five very tall towers of varying heights.
This was all well and good, and Beatnik was about to go check the homepage for the Beach Street weather reports when she saw something odd.
Something... big, yellow, and with a giant mouth seemed to be.... eating? the Weather station.
Of course, the navis around were running in a panic, maybe Beatnik should run too? Of course, if the Weather Station got eaten, she couldn't check the page... what to do?

BIG YELLOW PACMAN THING: ??? HP [3 Actions away]

Terrain: 100% Normal

Weather Station: 5000 HP [4 Actions away]

Beatnik.exe: 100 HP (WTF?)

-Something number 5, start-
"What the fuck?" Beatnik said plainly.

"Do you expect me to have any idea?"

"Seeing as you're the smartass here, then yeah. You think it's gonna come get me?"

"I would doubt that at this distance." Beatnik heard Antoinette shuffling through her chips. The stack had become slightly taller with the recent addition to the DashAttack.

"Right, then." Beatnik kicked off and went sailing directly toward the weather station and the horrible abomination that was consuming it. She countered Antoinette's arguing by snapping off the audio connection.

1. Approach BIG YELLOW PACMAN THING
2. Approach BIG YELLOW PACMAN THING
3. Approach BIG YELLOW PACMAN THING
Gust: Prep a dodge in case the BIG YELLOW PACMAN THING turns out to be hostile, or ghosts turn up
Beatnik zips along toward the GIANT YELLOW PACMAN THING and examines it closely. Apparently, it hadn't noticed her yet, and was focusing on eating the Weather Station, which it was starting to take bits and bits of while producing a "WAKA WAKA WAKA"-like sound while chewing.

"Excuse me," came a spooky voice from behind Beatnik, who boosted around, ready to slash someone to bits, to find 4 Spookys, each of a different color, Blue, Red, Pink, and Orange. The Blue one had extended a limb toward Beatnik.

"If you don't mind, can you help us get rid of that thing?" the orange one murmured, waving in the general direction of the GIANT YELLOW PACMAN THING. "Our master was very displeased at it going berserk, so if you don't mind..."

Well, what to do? These guys seemed alright.

Pacman: ??? (EATIN' MAH WEATHER STATION)

Terrain: 100% Normal

Weather Station: 4980 HP [1 Action away]

SpookyBlue: ???
SpookyRed: ???
SpookyPink: ???
SpookyOrange: ???

Beatnik.exe: 100 HP

-BATTLE 5, GO-
"This is getting more retarded by the second here, Toni."

"And you expect me to do what about it...?"

Beatnik glowered distrustfully at the four multicoloured Spookies. "I dunno. You're the genius here, aren't ya? Make some friggin' sense outta this for me."

"Logic, Beat. The application of logic clarifies all problems. You've got to learn this sometime."

Huffing, Beatnik did as she was told.

Point one. That big yellow thing was eating the weather station. That was...bad, right? Beatnik needed to get herself in there so that shse could check the weather and, if it was good, so she could boot Toni outside to go get herself a life. If that...thing ate the weather station, Toni would stay a useless nerd. Okay, big yellow thing was bad news.

Point two. She was being asked for help by a bunch of Spookies. They were viruses. Even when Beatnik had been booting around with the NetPolice, she had still spent a lot of time deleting the little pains in the neck. Now they were asking her for her help. Were Navis even allowed to talk to viruses?

But if these technicolour Spookies were trying to take down the big yellow thing, which was bad, then the Spookies had to be good.

Right?

Right.

Fair enough.

"Fine," Beatnik said, coming back to herself and realizing that the Spookies were still waiting on her answer. "Fine, I'll give you guys a hand. But no funny business, aight? The second I see any, I'm gonna tear you guys the same new one that I'm gonna rip in this dude over here."

She noticed the appendage that the blue Spooky was holding out, bumped it affirmatively with her own fist, and spun to face the huge yellow abomination that was keeping Toni a pitiful loser.

"YO, 'SUP!?" Beatnik bellowed at the huge yellow thing, regardless of whether it could hear her or not. She seized upon the two packs of chip data that had arrived on her systems from above. They were the reliable old Shotgun and Cannon duet. Her innate magnetic field gathered around her outstretched hands. The dense concentration began to spark dangerously.

She hurled both her arms forward at the same time, sending the dual blasts of electricity whipping straight toward the giant yellow monster. Yelling at the Spookies to keep their heads up, she kicked off to skate away from the creature, already anticipating the next combo of attacks.

1. Cannon @ Pacman (40 NORMAL damage)
2. Shotgun @ Pacman (50 NORMAL damage + splash1)
Gust: Dodge
3. Dodge / retreat
[Bahmp.]
Beatnik and Antoinette started discussing logic, and then Beatnik gave a gangsta pound't to the blue Spooky, who had this giant sweatdrop appear on the left side of his face for comedic effect, but nodded nonetheless. The blue spooky nodded firmly to the others, who moved a far distance to Beatnik's right, giant magic circles corresponding with their colors began to glow under them as they closed their eyes and chanted a spell.
Beatnik gave a firm ghetto-ish shout to the Pacman, who ignored Beatnik and still ate away at the Weather Station with a loud "WAKA WAKA WAKA" sound emitting from its mouth, before being hit by lead from the electric ballerina. This prompted the giant yellow thing to stop what he was doing and slowly turn around to face Beatnik.

"@$#^%#$#@$%@#$%!@#$!@!!!!!!!" was the stream of symbols that came out of the monster's mouth as it gained a more serious face, rather than its originally lax expression. Beatnik barely managed to dodge the stream and got hit with something that looked like a "$" on the left shoulder.

The Spookies were still chanting.

Pacman: 410 HP [RAGE]

Terrain: 100% Normal

Weather Station: 4970 HP [1 Action away]

-CHANTING-
SpookyBlue: 140 HP
SpookyRed: 140 HP
SpookyPink: 140 HP
SpookyOrange: 140 HP

Beatnik.exe: 90 HP (OSHIT)