The Karate Kid, part II

Musou had been watching the viruses' activities curiously, and Kenji gave a 'hrmm' before pointing out "Most of the time we catch them in the midst of random destruction, this is new". Musou considers quietly, then as they take notice of him he figures giving them a chance couldn't hurt. Well it could but he hopes it won't. He remembered what Kenji said about everything having just as much right to exist as him and after all, he's not some blood thirsty psychopath that wipes out everything on sight. Er right? Thats something to consider. How many of those time's he's seen viruses has he just started killing? Didn't Kenji want to be some kind of defender of justice? Did the NetPolice just delete everything that bothered them?

Opting for peace for a change, Musou gives a sheepish smile and a friendly a wave. He holds his hands up over his head, hoping to indicate he doesn't really want to fight. Kenji watches and mumbles "I'm not sure they can even speak, let alone understand us, Musou". His navi whispers "I'm trying here". He stands aukwardly for a moment and points to the hole they blew open and says "Er, great hole you guys made. Awesome teamwork. I'm just exploring, mind if I check it out? It might be dangerous in there anyway".

1 - Trying diplomacy

2 - Hoping it works

3 - Eating a lot of attacks if it doesn't

The Metools reared their pickaxes back a little when they saw that Musou didn't really do anything to fight against them. The Miners had their explosives out, but they were more wary than the Metools were. Musou spoke a little, and the Metools chattered amongst themselves, trying to figure out what to do. The Miners remained unfazed, still on the edge. Eventually, the Metools turned to the Miners, and they all slacked their opposition against him. One of the Miners took out a lantern from its robes, and led the Metools down the stairs, which seemed pretty happy to explore the darkness. The remaining one did the same, and glared menacingly at Musou before gesturing him onwards.

Mousu and Kenji both blink in unison as events unfold and the impact of said happenings hits them. Diplomacy actually worked? Did this mean that all viruses were capable of intelligent though and not killing navis on sight and they just chose not to? Or were these guys special? Either way, he gave a respectfull bow to the Miner who wearily motioned him onward and said "Thank you. I love exploring and if anything nasty in there happens please let me help you and your friends".

Kenji brought the first knuckle of an index finger up to his lip to rest as he considered. He always told Musou that he had as much soul and life as any human being and they cooperated as kindred spirits and companions on this journey. Musou was clearly capable of independant thought and action, as he got mad during one of their arguments and ran off for awhile. Turned out he was off fighting alongside a navi named Delta. If a navi was capable of such action, couldn't a virus as well? Their last partner, Rook, was created from a redeemed or reformatted virus, Jack had said. Were they really right in just attacking them on sight? He was passing his navi the chips and giving orders and advice, which were, to some degree, followed. He was just as guilty of mass virus slaughter as any navi.

He wondered if he was just over-thinking things or if he was even more to blame for his navi running around and deleting viruses then Musou was. His mom bought him a PET and a combat navi to keep him occupied and give him purpose while his leg was healing and it was great to have a friend and partner to train but had he been leading him down a dark path? They would have to see how things turned out from this. What would they do if another navi bumped into them? Honor lied in defending those who extended their trust so Musou would probably have to fight the other navi... But would that be against the law?

The boy's mind boggled as he came to one simple conclusion: This was too deep for an eleven year old to be faced with. Best to just shut up and watch. Passing his navi battlechips or speaking out and giving his presence away to the Metools and Miners might spook or anger them.

Musou meanwhile, oblivous to his operators concerns, remained quiet as he looked around by the light of the Miners' lanterns. He was hoping to keep in the good graces of his hosts and was truely curious as to what could be down in this sealed part of the net.

The walk was mostly uneventful, as the stairs led to an earthen tunnel that bore through the ground deeply. The tunnel gradually grew larger and larger, and Musou started to see side tunnels going off to the side to what seemed like infinite darkness. Suddenly, after a minute or two, they halted for a moment, and the Miner in front chattered something to the lagging Miner.

They quickly shifted their route into a side tunnel, which twisted and turned about, until Musou had absolutely lost any sense of direction he might have had. They stopped when the tunnel abruptly opened up into a large hall, with a circular double-door at the end. The doors were marked with a bunch of colorful images depicting Spooky viruses in various positions. By the looks of the bolts surrounding the doors, it didn't seem like anyone wanted them to get in, either.

The Metools scattered about at a signal from the Miners, and the latter proceeded to extract some more high explosives, setting them around the doors. Musou was left to examine the doors when he noticed something odd in between them: an indentation of a Spooky's cute little skull-face.

Hm.

Musou followed, wondering what was down here while Kenji slid out a piece of graph paper and did his best to map the navi's descent. Unfortunately they moved quickly and mapping on paper isn't very good at tracking ascent or descent but he tries his best. He pushed a few buttons on his PET, trying to bring up a local map of the area, to little avail and decided to try pulling something up from the database while he did. In the midst of it all he noticed a homepage bragging about something along the lines of counterinfectionism. Something about all viruses are evil and need to be wiped out and no laughing or jokes allowed. Some kind of religion, or so it said. That reminded him a little too much of Rook and he couldn't help but drop a reply at what he percieved as blind zealous behavior.

Meanwhile, Musou finally reached the large doors and made note of the spooky outline between them. He brought the spooky mask out that he got for helping the workers earlier and spoke up to the Miners happily laying explosives "Er I found this earlier. It might open the doors". He doesn't mean to ruin the Miners fun, as they obviously love blowing things up but he reaches out and fits the mask to the indent and presses it firmly. If turning is required, he takes that step as well, all the while weary of the explosives near him.

Finding the mask he found earlier, Musou pushed it into the indentation firmly, causing the Spooky images on the door to light up one by one, and the door itself to groan off to the sides. The Metools let out a collective excited squeak, while the Miners stood vigilant, crossing their arms as they watched. Everything seemed to be going along swimmingly, as one of the Miners patted Musou on the back a couple of times.

Suddenly, a high-pitched screech wailed through the passageway, causing the martial arts Navi to be sonic-blasted with a large amount of damage, which locked up his systems! (100, Stun2, Confusion1) A group of viruses started to pour in from the door, and one of the Miners just had enough foresight to pull him back from the deluge. The viruses consisted of four burning stoves, and four rolling tanks, along with a single Spooky far in the back.

He saw something rather strange, though; the viruses were all wearing Spooky masks, and not just the ghost-like virus in the back. Blue wisps of energy surrounded each virus, and their source seemed to be the masks that they were wearing. He also saw that the Miners and Metools were unhurt from the sonic wave, thanks to his role as a meat shield. A blur of yellow helmets began to surround him to protect him, and the sound of pickaxes scraping against the ground echoed through the tunnel.

One of the Miners threw him some unidentified box with a red cross beside it, which he barely managed to catch. Some kind of green orb of light shone from the inside. The Miner loudly chattered at him, pushing the box towards him while it pulled out its trademark mines.

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: 30 HP
OldStove A: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove B: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove C: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove D: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Beetank A: 80 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Beetank B: 80 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Kabutank A: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Kabutank B: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 100 HP (In front of Musou)
Miner B: 100 HP (In front of Musou)
Metool A: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool B: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool D: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 40 HP [Stunned! -2 Actions] [Confused!] [Holding Green Box?]

-- TERRAIN --
100% Normal

-- BATTLE 04, READY? START!! --

Musou yelled in pain as the sonic energy thrashed his body, his arms raised and crossed in front of him as he tries futilely to brace against it. Kenji winces and covers his ears as a much weaker sonic blast belches out of his PCs speakers and leaves a trailing ringing. Or was that just the boy's ears? He couldn't tell at the moment. "M-Musou!!", he yells in panic as he tries and fails to get through to his navi, whom at the moment stumbles and has some sort of green box placed in his hands. He tries to see around him but can only make out basic shapes. He tries to calm himself and feel out the energy around him but he's never trained in a nearly-deleted condition before and this is all rather new and unpleasant.

Unable to feel any chip data in his mind and indeed barely able to form coherant thought, the only thing he can feel and the only thing he knows right now is this green box. If he had his senses about him he might be more cautious or raise a shield or do any number of things but as he is dazed, confused and what options do come to mind are limited, he opens it (or activates/uses it, as the case may be).

A knock comes from Kenji's bedroom door and a voice seems to be saying something in a corrective tone. The boy assumes it is one of his parents and he is being scolded for the booming noise that must have gone through half the house. He said "Sorry", loud enough to be heard, but just short of yelling. Sure didn't want to start that one-sided discussion of 'dont take that tone with me young man' or lack of respect or such.

1 - Use/Open box!

The Metools and Miners around Musou started to fight, with the Metools collectively throwing some weak attacks towards one of the tanks. Their pitiful aim didn't do much, and they did only very minor damage to the group. The Miners also pitched in, sinking into the ground and laying some mines around the area.

The opposing virus team retaliated hard, with a barrage of bombs being blasted towards Musou's side. However, the Metools' stalwart defense made the tanks' attacks relatively ineffective, though their low HP count was reduced even further. The Stoves focused their fire on the Miners, though the explosive-oriented viruses were much more agile in their movements, managing to avoid some of the heavier attacks. Even so, the constant rain of attacks had them weathering some blows soon enough.

All this time, the enemy viruses' constant defense had entirely taken their attention off of Musou, while the Spooky teleported its way across the field towards Musou. Giving him a lick in the face, it was though the ghost virus was mocking him. (-10) At that moment, Musou used the strange orb of light that was thrown towards him, and he felt his systems being repaired at a rapid rate, thanks to the Recover120 battlechip data. (+120)

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: 30 HP (In front of Musou)
OldStove A: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove B: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove C: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
OldStove D: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Beetank A: 80 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Beetank B: 80 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Kabutank A: 20 HP [Spooky-Masked]
Kabutank B: 50 HP [Spooky-Masked]

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 80 HP (Cracked/In front of Musou)
Miner B: 80 HP (Cracked/In front of Musou)
Metool A: 10 HP (Cracked/Surrounding Musou)
Metool B: 40 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool D: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 150 HP

-- TERRAIN --
90% Normal
10% Cracked
10% Mine (Ignores Miners/Metools/Musou)

Following his taking the mystery box, Musou immediately feels better and is rearing to go to help his new friends. Kenji, still in a near panic quickly slides a battle chip in then fumbles and drops the rest on the floor. "Glad your feeling better, my ears are still ringing", the boy complains. His navi feels familiar chip data entering his mind and finally shaking the last of the corruption from his data and the termoil from his head, he leaps into action.

Something about the way all the viruses were wearing spooky masks made him wonder if they wern't all tied together or something, not to mention the only virus that looked normal, the Spooky, was in his face. May as well give a propper response to it's licking. Building surging fire in both fists and indeed the rest of his body, he throws a flaming punch, laced with crackling golden energy at the Spooky, before leaping free of his allies to try and divert the attention from them. "Hey jerks, up here! You cant touch me, just try" he yells as he leaps into their midst and hurls the last flaming punch at one of these new viruses hes never seen before.

Kenji grumbles as he quickly tries to pick up the chips he dropped on the floor, his hands fumbling. Gathering what he could he quickly tried to search the database on this new foe.

1 - Use Battlechip FireHit1 (60+Impact+Double Attack, Elem:Fire, 2nd hit requires xtra action)+Bash @ Spooky

2 - Leap clear of his allies and into the midst of his foes

3 - Second strike of Hirehit1 (" ") @ OldStoveA

With Musou back up and running, some of the Metools decided that they would go into damage control, and ducked into their helmets to protect themselves from attack. The rest piled on some minor damage to one of the Kabutanks, and deleted it! The tanks retaliated towards the Mets and Miners with more bombs, though the confined space of the tunnel made some of their explosives bounce from the walls and explode somewhere else.

Meanwhile, the Spooky was punched out by Musou's fiery fist. This caused a reaction in the viruses' masks, changing them to a fiery red before they burst into flames and disintegrated. However, it seemed to affect their behavior negatively for him; the viruses all turned their collective gazes on him, and focused their offense on him, ignoring the Miners and Metools completely. Unfortunately for them, his leap of courage allowed him to jump over most of the fire, coming out with only minor burns from the Stoves. (15) He managed to punch out one of them, too.

Meanwhile, the Miners laid down yet more mines. Work, work, work.

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: DELETED
OldStove A: DELETED
OldStove B: 50 HP
OldStove C: 50 HP
OldStove D: 50 HP
Beetank A: 80 HP
Beetank B: 80 HP
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: 50 HP

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 80 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Miner B: 65 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Metool A: 10 HP (Cracked/Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)
Metool B: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)
Metool D: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 135 HP

-- TERRAIN --
80% Normal
20% Cracked
20% Mine (Ignores Miners/Metools/Musou)

Tha grin on the navi's face drooped into a grim frown as he realised that killing off the Spooky did more than attract the attention he wanted, it enraged the enemies. Well, this was what he wanted right? Taking a moment in all the chaos to channel his chi for some empowered strikes. Golden tendrils of energy crackle from his fists as he builds, then stores it for use soon. Normally he would have shielded himself or tried to play defensivly now that he is in the middle of the enemy formation but some of his allies didn't look like they could take much more.

Kenji bit his lip, watching the fight unfold quickly, finding it difficult to keep track of all the chaos and trying to figure out which viruses were friendly and which wern't. Well it would have been difficult if the 'bad' ones wern't all glowing red now, anyway. "Er, Musou getting close to those OldStoves might not have been the best idea, flamethrower breath I think", the boy says. His navi clenches his fists and says between clenched teeth "I have to protect my allies no matter what. Giuve me some chips already". Kenji just nods and slides in one of Musou's faves.

Musou's grimace raises into a grin as chip data fills his mind and his upraised fingers become wicked foot-long talons. "Shredding time", he says as he lashes out at the Kabutank his allies already injured with a swipe, then turning back to the stovesm that his operator insinuated earlier, could cook his shield off quickly. He sends another fast slash at one of the stoves, hoping to be done with the thing. The fight was quickly swinging his way but he would feel terrible if he let even one of his allies get deleted.

1 - Activate Sig: Inner Might (40Strengthen; 1TCD)

2 - Use Battlechip: Rageclaw (40+Slashing)+10Strengthen @ KabutankB

3 - Rageclaw (" ")+10Strengthen @ OldStoveB

Shredding time it was, as Musou went to attack the stoves and tanks quickly, deleting two more of them. The stoves released yet more flames his way, and his luck ran out at that moment, torching him with some very large flames. (15x2) His allies sent some attacks at the Beetanks, but they could only do so much. The tanks went on to retaliate with explosive power, reducing his health further. (15) All of the racket going on in the tunnel caused the unstable structure to nearly fail, and Musou would have fallen into some holes, were it not for one Miner's quick pull. He couldn't tell if it was the previous one, though, as they both looked the same.

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: DELETED
OldStove A: DELETED
OldStove B: DELETED
OldStove C: 50 HP
OldStove D: 50 HP
Beetank A: 70 HP
Beetank B: 70 HP
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: DELETED

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 80 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Miner B: 65 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Metool A: 10 HP (Cracked/Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)
Metool B: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)
Metool D: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou/Inside Helmet)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 90 HP (Normal)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Normal
15% Cracked
15% Broken
25% Mine (Ignores Miners/Metools/Musou)

Kenji blinks in disbelief as he watches his navi get burned and torn up the forst hes ever been, twice in the same encounter. "M-Musou, I'm sending you that recovery chip, please use it", he says. He knows it will help, but not eliminate the damage he has sustained recentlly, and thats not even counting what may come in the next few seconds. Is this what real netbattling is like? Watching your friend and companion in pain over and over?

Musou grunted as the last of the flames washed over him. This wasn't going well at all. These OldStoves were going down but they were taking their due first. Maybe diving into the middle of them wasn't the brightest idea afterall. Well, too late to ponder that now, he had to act quickly if he was going to save his allies. As one of the bombs connects and drops the floor out from under him he panics for a moment but finds himself caught by one of the miners. "T-thanks!", he yells as he is able to step out with minimal effort, thanks to the boost, and not go crashing into a hole to get eaten alive to boot. First thing's first, those OldStoves have got to go. They don't seem very, if at all, mobile so they need to be taken out of the picture and fast.

Though Musou would like to focus himself like normal and tap into his foes' energy, hes just finding it too hard with the chaos boiling around him. Besides, hes afraid if he pauses a moment he will be made into a Musou BBQ. So it is for the first time that he processes this new recovery chip. Compared to the data his allies gave him in the beginning it leaves much to be desired, but it's all he has and some healing beats none. As his data repairs it'self a bit, he raises his claws and channels half of his remaining stored energy into each one.

With a quick, yet determined swipe at each of the OldStoves, he hopes to take them out of the battle quickly, before the tanks can blow him through the ground again.

1 - Use Battlechip: Recover30 (30Heal)

2 - Rageclaw1 (40+Slashing)+10Strengthen @ OldStoveC

3 - Rageclaw1 (" ")+10 Strengthen @ OldStoveD

[ Rageclaw1 2/6 remaining ]
Sig Inner Might cooldown: 0 READY

As Musou recovered some of his previous damage with a Recover30 (+30), he continued to wipe out even more of the virus flock, leaving two Beetanks alone. In their desperation, they launched more bombs haphazardly about, with one of them hitting his torso by chance. (15) Thankfully, the small amount of bombs seemed to lessen the effects on the fragile floor, and the cracks didn't seem to be spreading. Some of the Metools slowly peeped out of their helmets, while the ones that had been fighting kept at it, sending minor, yet damaging blows at the tanks.

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: DELETED
OldStove A: DELETED
OldStove B: DELETED
OldStove C: DELETED
OldStove D: DELETED
Beetank A: 60 HP
Beetank B: 60 HP
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: DELETED

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 80 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Miner B: 65 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Metool A: 10 HP (Cracked/Surrounding Musou)
Metool B: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool D: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 105 HP (Normal)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Normal
15% Cracked
15% Broken
25% Mine (Ignores Miners/Metools/Musou)

Seeing things winding down, Musou is finally able to find his composure. He stumbles for a moment as a bomb tags him in the chest but quickly regains his stance. He focuses, feeling the surrounding energy of himself, his allies and his enemies as it passes through him. Of course he is also dinged up and this is typically his first step in grabbing a quick fix from his foes.

Kenji flips through their remaining battlechips "Want the FireKnife? They look a bit dinged up so I think it'll finish the job", he says. Musou nods, knowing the only reason his claws did the job quickly was due to him powering them up and the OldStoves being weaker. Well 'weaker' is relative, as he remembers being fried just moments ago. As chip data fills his mind, he raises one of his clawed hands, holding them strait up as they burst into flames. He yanks his hand down as the data morphs and his normal hand comes free of the flaming data, a mere moment later he grabs the bottom of the hovering data and shakes the excess free with a single whipping motion. How holding a blade of fire, Musou steps forward and lashes out once at each of the Beetanks!

Not that thoughts of suplexing one of the tanks into each other or kicking them down a hole didn't occour to him, but he has allies to protect and can't afford to mess around.

1 - Activate Sig: Absorb Data (Opponent[Deleted]30Heal; 1TCD)

2 - FireKnife (60+Slashing, Elem:Fire, 1 target per hit, 6-hits max) @ BeetankA

3 - FireKnife (" ") @ BeetankB

[Rageclaw 2/6 hits left]
[FireKnife 4/6 hits left]
Sig Absorb Data cooldown: 1

With the Beetanks being the only enemies left on the field, it didn't take Musou very long to execute them with his FireKnife, ending the battle. (+30) He got a personal cheering squad, too, from how excited the Metools sounded. The Miners were was quiet as ever, though they did tend to some of the wounded helmet-wearers.

-- ENEMIES --
Spooky: DELETED
OldStove A: DELETED
OldStove B: DELETED
OldStove C: DELETED
OldStove D: DELETED
Beetank A: DELETED
Beetank B: DELETED
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: DELETED

-- NOT ENEMIES --
Miner A: 80 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Miner B: 65 HP (Cracked/Behind Musou)
Metool A: 10 HP (Cracked/Surrounding Musou)
Metool B: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool C: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool D: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)
Metool E: 25 HP (Surrounding Musou)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Musou.EXE: 135 HP (Normal)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Normal
15% Cracked
15% Broken
25% Mine (Ignores Miners/Metools/Musou)

-- BATTLE 04, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --
900z

As the battle finally comes to a close, both Musou and Kenji look around to make sure nothing else is going to attack before breathing a sigh of relief. The navi heads back to his allies and looks them over "Are you guys ok? I'm sorry some of that got through. And truely, thanks for saving my butt", he says, along with a deep bow in appreciation.

Kenji finally rests back in his chair, the last battle kept him riding the edge of his seat after all. He doesn't want any disembodied voice to spook their new friends so he just keeps quiet, despite his relief.

The navi scratches the back of his head, looking around the room thats just opened in this strange ruin, this time sans Spooky ambush. He isn't able to see very well but he does pause and close his eyes as he feels the data of the area, like he does in battles. This brief insight leads him to the discovery of a certain amount of fallen prize money from his last fight, which he scoops up and converts back to data for the PET. The martial-arts navi steps around the cracked and broken panels and familiarizes himself with this new room as he waits for his friends to decide what they are going to do.

Walking into the room, the martial arts Navi surveyed the area, while the viruses spread out. It seemed to have been a rather large storage room, which was left in quite a bit of a hurry. Several decoded Mystery Data crystals laid about, with zenny packets still spilling out of them. Inactive data spheres were also scattered around the room. For some reason, there were also some purple splotches of what seemed to be dried paint all over the place, covering what would have been more of the Spooky markings they had seen earlier.

The viruses didn't mind, though, and started to spread out. The Miners took a couple of the Mets with them, and started inspecting some of the data crystals. The last Metool hung around Musou, hopping about him idly as it wondered about which Miner it was supposed to follow. In the end, it just went to a corner without direction, and Musou found himself also following the Metool.

Not a moment later, he saw something moving about in the corner. A gigantic Spooky, easily about a foot taller than him, was hunched over in the corner, making some faint gurgling noises. Sensing Musou's approach, it immediately turned around, and the sight made the Metool beside Musou shriek in fright, running off towards the door.

An inky-black alien-like creature was attached to its face, and appeared to be consuming the "innards" of the big Spooky. It sort of looked like a heavily-deformed spider, with only a blob defining what all of its insect-like legs were attached to. On the creature's back was a glowing purple rune.

All of the other viruses were also intimidated by the foreign being on the Spooky, and followed the earlier Metool near the door. The "consumed" Spooky gurgled out a "SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEE--" and brought out a giant infected purple tongue from its deformed mouth, ready to lick him to death.

-- ENEMIES --
Lunatic Spawn: 280 HP [Attached to Spookylord]
Spookylord: 180 HP [Infected: Poison20] (on Glitched)

-- ALLIES --
Musou.EXE: 135 HP [Normal]

Miner A: 80 HP (Intimidated!)
Miner B: 80 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool A: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool B: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool C: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool D: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool E: 25 HP (Intimidated!)

-- TERRAIN --
20% Glitched (Purple spots scattered about)
80% Normal

-- BATTLE 05, READY? START!! --

Musou and Kenji both gasped in surprise at the monstrosity, the navi trying to summon up his courage to face it. Kenji bit his lip and just stared at the horror, letting out an "Eew.. Ugh", as he tried to keep his lunch down. He was a martial artist, yes, he had seen blood and broken bones, but he was still a kid and this was just inhuman gore and nauseating. "K-Kenji, what do I do? Go f-for the Spooky or the thing on it? Or just run?", Musou asked, a hint of panic in his voice. Kenji groaned as his imagination got the better of him and he thought he could smell rotting meat. He quickly covered his mouth and closed his eyes, just grunting to his navi in reply.

Musou gulped as he clenched his fists. He had no more time, it was fight or flight. He gave a loud "Keyaaaah", to try and banish his fear as he clenched his fists and quickly gathered stray data, which was plentiful here, and formed it into a shield using his own energy. "Get it together, Sensei I need you!", he shouted as he focused on attuning himself once more to the area and it's dataflow.

Kenji fumbled around with the battlechips, dropping several on the floor as he gave another groan and slid a random one in without looking. As the chip data entered the navis mind, the operator bent down in his computer chair to collect the fallen chips. Musou channels chi into one of his hands as it builds and becomes crackling electricity. He braces himself as he adds a little extra oomph to the shot, just in case, and lets it go as a golden zapring takes flight, illuminating the room and casting wild shadows, eventually to explode in a shower of light and stray voltage.

1 - Activate Sig: Data Shield (3-hit shield; 2TCD)

2 - Activate Sig; Absorb Data (Opponent [Delete], 30heal; 1TCD)
3 - Use Battlechip: ZapRing1 (40+Stun1)+Bash @ Spookylord

Sig Data Shield cooldown: 2
Sig Absorb Data cooldown: 1

Gurgling noises came from the big Spooky's throat, as the infected virus slobbered some purple gunk on the floor about Musou's feet, which looked to be the same purple spots that were everywhere. Musou didn't feel any damage coming from it, but he felt something stir inside his systems from the goo. Retaliating with a crackle of electricity towards the Spooky, he hit the virus successfully. The ghost tried to retaliate with a couple of whips from its gargantuan tongue, but it was unsuccessful, as the thing on its face bogged it down.

His allies from the back were still cowering in fear, not wanting to approach either of the combatants.

-- ENEMIES --
Lunatic Spawn: 280 HP [Attached to Spookylord]
Spookylord: 120 HP [Stunned! -1 Action] [Infected: Poison20] [Updraft: Floatshoes/1turn] [on Glitched]

-- ALLIES --
Musou.EXE: 135 HP [on Glitched] [3-hit shield] [Heal30 on Deletion]

Miner A: 80 HP (Intimidated!)
Miner B: 80 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool A: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool B: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool C: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool D: 25 HP (Intimidated!)
Metool E: 25 HP (Intimidated!)

-- TERRAIN --
30% Glitched (Purple spots scattered about)
70% Normal