HighwayMan, peeling out again!

Things seem pretty lonely around him and the navi realizes he has no virus left to grab. "Aww f*ck me", he thinks to himself as he stands in place for far too long. A couple sonic pulses rip through the air and through the navi moments later, taking out almost a third of his write protection in an instant.

He brings his hands to his ears and lets out a "Arrrghh", as the blasts throw his flaming form back onto the ground. To make things worse, the flames pouring from him sputter and die down, only steam and smoke coming from his body as everything enters it's post-afterburner cooldown period. No sir, this isn't good at all.

He wants to flip to his feet. He wants to smirk and wipe out these stupid viruses in an instant but, well, frankly that just isn't happening. Ears ringing, it's all he can do to get up to his feet and to keep his eyes skyward. His ears are ringing, his head is killing him and if he were a human he would surely be bleeding from the ears and nose. Instead, small plumes of smoke trail from the orifices, having the same effect. He winces against the acrid vapor wafting up into his eyes and tries to keep on his toes, as he should have done moments ago, but he had no idea two wolves were going to get caught in his DashAttack.

Defenses hopefully taken care of, or as best as he can hope for anyway, and knowing that his panicking operator is cramming the healing chips into the PET, he knows he has to try and bring them down. Flames surge and form in his hand, becoming a green viscous substance, mingling with the claws he still wields. HighwayMan raises the aforementioned hand and fires off the green burning pitch, hoping to get one of the viruses alite.

1 - [Afterburner Cooldown]

2 - Dodge EX (Speed Type GO!)

3 - Activate Sig: Road Rash: (Cost 60) [Delayed Damage 20Fire/turn (Burn), 3 turn duration; 2TCD] @ PulsebatA

[AFTERBURNER: COOLDOWN]
[Rageclaw: Still 6 uses, apparently]
[Chips used: DashAttack1, Cannon, Shotgun, Rageclaw]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 2]

(Meant to say in the previous modding, but yes I like the idea of you making your own summary and status of the battle, great idea!)

Seeing the high risks he was facing, HighwayMan instead took to a more defensive approach to dealing with the bats as he recovered from the overdrive to his systems. And while his surprisingly quick speed was enough to avoid the bat's next attacks, his own managed to nail one of them, leaving a lasting flare that quickly burned up one of the bats, which released a painful cry at the first flame up of the lingering attack.

Enemies
-FRONT-
SpikeyA: Deleted
SpikeyB: Deleted
SpikeyC: Deleted

-BEHIND-
PulsebatA: 60 HP (Burn: 2 turns remaining)
PulsebatB: 80 HP

Terrain
100% Normal

Ally
HighwayMan.EXE: 110 HP

Finding a moment to catch his breath, the navi grumbled to his operator "Pass me the bigger healin' one, Princess". He knew that bat had more time to burn, but as he worked out earlier, all these viruses were fairly tough for ACDC and there was no way it would finish the thing off.

Keeping light on his toes, since that seemed to work in his favor far more often then not, he keeps a careful eye on those damn bats mouths and screeches. The one that's screeching in pain, however is music to his ears. "Aww does it burn? Piece of sh*t", he mocks.

Finally getting the chip data through, HighwayMan's body briefly becomes alite with green flames in the damaged areas, of which there were several. When the flames wash over him and vanish he is left more whole, though all it would take likely was a misstep around one of these bats to go right back.

Though he knows that even the virus on fire likely won't be finished off without some kind of additional prod, he remembers most of his remaining chips are either ground or melee, something the bats are probably going to have little problems with. "Well, shit. Better get thsi started. Pass me the fire", he says as he closes distance with the viruses and gets ready to engage them. At the very least he has to make up the distance he flew with the DashAttack earlier.

1 - Dodge EX (Speed type GO!)

2 - Use Battlechip: Recover30 (Heal 30) @ Self

3 - Movement: Close distance to Pulsebats

[AFTERBURNER: READY]
[Rageclaw: 6 uses left]
[Chips used: DashAttack1, Cannon, Shotgun, Rageclaw, Recover30]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 1]

With one of the bats being damaged, their collective strategy was to just get the hell out of the way. One of the bats still got burned, though, and took a bit of damage for it. Nothing much else happened, and HighwayMan healed a bit. (+30)

-FRONT-
SpikeyA: Deleted
SpikeyB: Deleted
SpikeyC: Deleted

-BEHIND-
PulsebatA: 40 HP (High Altitude) (Burn: 1 turn remaining)
PulsebatB: 80 HP (High Altitude)

Terrain
100% Normal

Ally
HighwayMan.EXE: 140 HP (Melee range of bats' former position) (RageClaw 6/6)

Expecting incoming attacks and seeing nothing of the sort but his enemies get to a more tactical elevation, HighwayMan does what one might expect. He gets pissed. "Oh come ON, what the f*ck, you goddamn pieces of sh*t!" He's running out of chips and he knows it and he hasn't got a lot of ones capable of long-range assault, not that he had many in the first place. He tries to stay light on his feet, after all it would be foolish after the damage he took earlier to undo his brief healing so quickly, but can those things even hit him from that high?

Ah, but his eyes suddenly flash with mischief. Finally time for him to try his other new move. "A'ight, fine. Let's see how you like this", the navi says as he raises his clawed hands toward the wounded virus. He hasn't exactly done this before but, the tactic should be sound. Besides, it's not like these things weigh a lot, what's the worst that could happen?

Clawed hands, again still out, the navi yells out "Eat this", before a black, almost invisible ripple of energy launches out from his hands to the sky, aiming quickly for the Pulsebat. Debris, smoke and any other thing in the airspace between them has it's speed drastically altered as the ripple passes by, violently being drawn back to the navi and his awaiting claws. Hopefully the virus would fare no better.

1 - Dodge EX (Speed type go!)

2 - Activate Sig: Throttle EX (Gravity, 1 TCD) @ PulsebatA

3 - Rageclaw1 (40+Slashing) @ PulsebatA

[AFTERBURNER: READY]
[Rageclaw: 5 uses left]
[Chips used: DashAttack1, Cannon, Shotgun, Rageclaw, Recover30]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 0 READY]
[Sig Throttle EX cooldown: 1]

Starting to grow quite annoyed by the bats, HighwayMan quickly dodged off to the side, escaping a sonic blast from one of them before plucking the second out of the sky and quickly slashed it to pieces before it could even make its own scream as well.

Enemies
-FRONT-
SpikeyA: Deleted
SpikeyB: Deleted
SpikeyC: Deleted

-BEHIND-
PulsebatA: Deleted
PulsebatB: 80 HP

Terrain
100% Normal

Ally
HighwayMan.EXE: 110 HP

HighwayMan lets out a "Yeah!", as his plan works and he scores a kill. "Man, I was worried about that yanking a building or something down on top of me", he says before giving a chuckle. Not wanting to loose his momentum at this point, the navi again makes safety his first priority. That, and he is running out of things to throw at these bats.

As he sticks and moves as he is rather fond of, energy wells within him and manifests as a viscous green flame in one of his clawed hands. He spins to add momentum and fires it off at the last virus, with a "Burn you sonova b*tch" added in for good measure.

"Hey Highway, why are you so mean to everything anyway?", Reilyn asks, finally breaking the silence she has shown almost the entire fight. "I mean, fun is fun but your just-", the girl blinks and pauses to find the right word. "A dick", she finishes.

The navi snorts and flashes a cocky grin "Naaw princess, that's in my pants. Wanna see? 'Got no problem running up and slapping some of these guys with it, if that's what gets you off". He grins and makes a quick pat to his junk, not tarrying long though, he is still in a fight and still trying to actively avoid being hit.

"W-What the f*ck, you-" she struggles against rising bile for a moment. Reilyn clenches her teeth and grumbles "Your f*ckin' sick. Your just like my looser brother or dad".

"Hey, don't blame me, it's a 'guy' thing. Besides, I'm just an innocent little navi, remember? Someone programmed me to be a giant douche, I'm just lovin' it". Reilyn considered that one for a moment and after responding with a snort, decided the navi was 'real enough' and was just making excuses.

Finishing everything up for the moment, the navi uses the last chip he was passed and a flash of green flame passes over his body. Small nicks and scrapes and errors in fragmented data wash away, leaving him wishing it did more, but thankful none the less.

1 - Dodge EX (Speed type GO!)

2 - Activate Sig: Road Rash [Delayed Damage 20Fire/turn (Burn), 3 turn duration; 2TCD] @ PulseBatB

3 - Use Battlechip: Recover10 (Heal 10) @ Self

[AFTERBURNER: READY]
[Rageclaw: 4 uses left]
[Chips used: DashAttack1, Cannon, Shotgun, Rageclaw, Recover30, Recover10]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 2]
[Sig Throttle EX cooldown: 0 READY]

HighwayMan, surprisingly, took the battle in a slow and steady pace. Despite the clash of his usual, fast motif, it was working out great as he dodged the Pulsebat's attack, landed an attack of his own, while mending his wounds a little. The virus was getting irritated by the pacing of the battle and soon acted violent against the lone navi!

Enemies
-FRONT-
SpikeyA: Deleted
SpikeyB: Deleted
SpikeyC: Deleted

-BEHIND-
PulsebatA: Deleted
PulsebatB: 60 HP [Burn20: 2 Turns]

Terrain
100% Normal

Ally
HighwayMan.EXE: 120 HP

"A'ite, time to end this sh*t", the navi boasts as he reaches his clawed hands out to the Pulsebat. "Yo, Princess pass the flamethrower", he says as he builds power within himself, a few licks of green flame trailing out of the corner of his eyes. Not trying to be foolish, considering how much these things hurt and how pissed this one is, he keeps light on his feet as best he can.

While she fights to get it into the broken PET, Reilyn just mutters "Could say please or whatever".

Loaded and ready to go, HighwayMan grins and replies to the viewpoint behind him "Me? Be polite? Heh, puh-leese". The flames flash and vanish as as a dark, almost invisible ripple tears through the air from him towards the virus. Gravity distorts and bends in on it's self as it works to bring the virus closer, very quickly. Meanwhile, one of his clawed hands becomes engulfed in flames, moments before he thrusts it outward. He times the maneuver carefully to not catch his own fire in his gravity effect, and instead of sending out a long tunnel of flame at the Pulsebat, he condenses it into a raging blast directly in front of him.

1 - Dodge EX (Speed type GO!)

2 - Activate Sig: Throttle EX [Gravity; 1 TCD] @ PulsebatB

3 - Use Battlechip: FireBurn1 (60, Elem:Fire) @ PulsebatB
(Fire Subtype +5 dmg, Used as single-target +5 dmg, looses LineAttack3)

[AFTERBURNER: READY]
[Rageclaw: 4 uses left]
[Chips used: DashAttack1, Cannon, Shotgun, Rageclaw, Recover30, Recover10, FireBurn1]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 1]
[Sig Throttle EX cooldown: 1]

With a quick shift in the gravitational forces of the network, the navi promptly plucked the bat out of the sky before giving it a sudden helping of well-done cooking, which promptly fried the poor thing to oblivion.

Enemies
-FRONT-
SpikeyA: Deleted
SpikeyB: Deleted
SpikeyC: Deleted

-BEHIND-
PulsebatA: Deleted
PulsebatB: Deleted

Terrain
100% Normal

Ally
HighwayMan.EXE: 120 HP

—Battle 4, Victory!—
HighwayMan: 440z, Heatshot

Quote ()

HeatShot
Damage: 40 + Spread 1
Accuracy: A
Description: Shoots a fireball whose explosion penetrates an enemy to hit another one directly behind it.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire

With a resounding "Hell yeah, f*ckers", HighwayMan cleans up another fight and heads to secure his ill-gotten goods. Though he isn't sure what kind of chip dropped, the likelihood of it either being a fire chip or that sonic blast that ripped him apart are pretty high. "Incoming data and cash, Princess. C'mon tell me what I got, c'mon", he says excitedly.

"Calm down Highway, you sound like your about to start giggling", Reilyn says with a smirk while she slides (with minimal struggle) a blank chip into the PET and lets it copy over. A short sequence later, the chip ejected (again with minimal struggle), and out came a HeatShot, or so the label said anyway. "Uhh lets see. HeatShot. Another fire chip? Cool", she mumbled.

"Oh what was that? 'Couldn't hear you over the sound of me being awesome. 'Think you said something about heat and shot though", the navi said with a big grin on his face. "I f*ckin' love fire chips. Time to burn up the net , lets go", he says as his hands return to their proper form and he begins jogging to find more trouble.

"Jesus, it's just one chip. It's not like you won the game or somethin', calm the f*ck down", the operator grumbles, accompanied with an eye-roll.

HighwayMan gave a chuckle and added "S' ok, you don't get it. When fire chips go through me it feels good, a'ite? And not just the thrill of battle or burnin' sh*t up either. I'm a fire type, it's my thing, like a quick hit of a drug or somethin' with no down. Makes my blood boil".

Reilyn scrunches up her face as she thinks about that one. "I never heard of that kind of thing in school before. Chips that give you a buzz? You sure about that? Maybe your just programed weird".

The navi laughs as he busts into a full run across the net, he can't wait to fry something "Hey, hey, killing is my anti-drug".

A scowl from the operator following that comment and they are silent, as the navi looks for trouble and the operator mulls over the idea that she is helping trouble.

[Requesting battle 5!]

"BAM! KA-PING! TA-TA-TA-TA!!"

As HighwayMan moved through the ACDC network, he heard a man's voice making eccentric noises, but at the same time, having a time of his life.

"1,000,000,000,000 Point special! Go go go! PA-TA! DING DING DING!"

The navi found that the voice was coming over from an abandoned building, an arcade to be specific, complete with a broken sign and nailed down windows. The door was partially open, leading the way for HighwayMan to come in. Inside of the arcade was just as run down as it was outside. There were games of many variety but all of them were unfortunately broken down... Except a small glimmer of light in the corner.

"Little more, little more...NO! NO NO NO!!!"

As the voice rung out, the light had died down, leaving the arcade in eerie darkness. When HighwayMan came close to the source of the voice, he found a plain looking navi on his knees in front of a busted pinball machine.

"*Sniff*...B-but I was so close...Why did it have to break down now, of all times..."

The navi didn't notice HighwayMan's presence at all as he continued to whine and whimper about... something.

The navi didn't know what possessed him to wander into the old arcade, but here he was. A quick look later, around the room to make sure they are very alone, and he cracks his knuckles. The thought to just burn the normal navi to ash and sift through the remains for loot passes through his mind. But, well, what fun was that really?

A wild grin crossed his face, and he figured he would give the navi one and only one chance to pique his interest in something before just mugging him.

Reilyn knew that look in her navi's eyes, even through her scratched viewscreen. She grabbed her navi's fire chips and stood by for the action.

By the time he made his prescence known, his signature katana and dagger, connected by a chain were out and reeting casually on his shoulder. "Th' f*ck goin' on here, huh", he asked loudly.

"..."

Even after HighwayMan made himself known, even if it was in a threatening way, the normal navi was silent. He finally stood up and turned towards Highway, not even fazed by the dangerous weapon he was holding. "What's going on here? WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?! I lost the chance of my LIFETIME!" The navi even went on to rudely push HighwayMan's chest with his finger, continuing on with what he had to say.

"That was the last, vintage first edition version of the machine, and it's broken! Utterly broken, far beyond repair! And I was only a thousand point away from the high score...THE HIGH SCORE! PING PING, PLUNK PLUNK!" It wasn't long before the eccentric navi fell on his knee again, drowning in sorrow and regret for one pointless game... Ignoring HighwayMan once more.

Caught somewhat off guard by the navi's behavior, HighwayMan blinks and says "Uhh so, you just say you got it. The machine is toast and by the looks of this place nobody woulda ever come to check this one machine anyway. Thousand points off a, what, billion or something? F*ckun' close enough. Closer then anyone else will ever get in their lives, right? You did it, gratz man". He grins and adds "It took a force of nature, or act of god or whatever, to stop you from rocking that table even further".

His operator also blinked, in disbelief. Was here asshole navi giving someone advice? Did she hear that wrong? Was he just buttering the guy up to rob him? Her hands start to sweat a little as she puts the first chip in the PET but doesn't push it down far enough to load it, just letting it sit in a half-docked state.

"It's NOT about bragging rights... It was NEVER about bragging! I can lie to others, but can I lie to myself?! Not being able to reach the highscore on the only one pinball machine of its kind?"

The navi stood up once more with even more anger in his eyes, looking right at HighwayMan. "You know what? I think this is your fault! Maybe... Maybe if you haven't come in, the machine would've run perfectly till I made the last score!" All of a sudden, the normal navi's appearance slowly began to change as a strange light began to envelop around him.

First to really change was his... outfit. A blue robe with patterned silver spheres placed all over it suddenly appeared over the navi, complete with a wizard hat with the same design. He then summoned a large staff that looked awfully like a pinball machine's flipper, raising it up above his head before he gave the ground a good stab.

"DING DING DING! Welcome to PinballMan's domain!"

In a blink of an eye, the old arcade disappeared and it was replaced by the bright, neon lit room with strange, yet authentic art of an overly muscular man riding a horse with a woman on one hand and strangling an elephant with the other. With constantly blinking lights and strange contraptions hanging over their heads, one would have thought they have simply shrunk and found themselves inside a pinball machine!

"My highscore, my highscore, my highscore! You won't be able to leave until you regret what you've done!!"

PinballMan.EXE: 400 HP

BumperA: 20 HP
BumperB: 20 HP
BumperC: 20 HP

Terrain:
100% Metal

HighwayMan.EXE: 120 HP

-BOSS BATTLE, START!-

Theme to this fight, I'm guessing

Almost beside himself with disbelief, Highway stands and considers for a moment. "Wha? Y-You attackin' me?" It's not that the idea is alien to him, but going crazy over a pinball game.. Well, who cares, he planned on mugging the guy anyway, now it was 'self defense'.

"Alright, you wanna piece of the Highway? Your gonna burn, you piece of sh*t", the navi spouts out as he finally takes his stance and smirks at PinballMan. "I bet you knock around metal balls all day 'cuz you don't got none of your own", he mocks as he builds fire within his fire quickly. As he raises one of his blades and almost fires a glob of green flames at PinballMan, Reilyn delivers his first battlechip, causing him to pause and change plans. He didn't know what those bumpers could do but he didn't like them.

Converting the manifested flames instead into kinetic energy somehow, he launches himself with a burst of speed at his foe, but not directly at the bastard, oh no, he is actually lining up the bumpers in preparation for... "Suck this sh*tbag", he yells as a long gout of green flame launches from the tip of his katana directly at the bumpers, as many of them as he can line up and hit.

Not waiting to see the results of his handiwork, now the navi spins around, the last sputtering of flames from the chip whipping around him as he fully forms the viscous, green flames from earlier. Not to appear too predictable, even if the current foe didn't call for such tactics, the navi stomps on the ground hard, sending a chip-generated shockwave towards whatever may be left of the bumpers and most importantly, PinballMan.

Following the flames and flying energy, he finally flings the glob at his opponent, who is now hopefully undefended.

0 - [AFTERBURNER] Movement to line up one or more Bumpers

1 - Use Battlechip: FireBurn1 [55+LineAttack3, Elem:Fire] @ BumperA
(50dmg +5 for fire type)

2 - Use Battlechip: Shockwave [40+Line Attack+GroundAttack] @ BumperC

3 - Activate Sig: Road Rash [Delayed Damage 20Fire/turn (Burn), 3 turn duration; 2TCD] @ PinballMan

[AFTERBURNER: USED] (Pre-Action 1)
[Chips Used: FireBurn1, Shockwave]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 2]

"KA-PING, KLANG KLANG KLANG! You'll be my new highscore, my new trophy!"

The bumpers rose up between Pinball and Highway, setting itself as form of defense against attacks. However, HighwayMan's green flame was so powerful that it was able to burn through it all and reach PinballMan, burning and charring his neat little robe. "Ka-plunk! T-that's hot...But these bumpers aren't normal! TING TING PA-TA! I can see that you haven't played too much pinball!" Just before the Bumpers fully melted, each one formed a red, burning ball and shot out in random directions as if the attack bounced off!

Due to its random nature, the balls hit both PinballMan and HighwayMan, but luckily (or unluckily?), the attack wasn't fully reflected. "Haha...You always got to expect the unexpected when you play pinball...E-even if it hurts me back!"

The next shockwave attack didn't hit its mark, but the hotheaded navi was able to land his signature attack, causing the crazed navi's robe to catch on a green flame. "Hot hot hot! You need to GET AWAY! PA-SHA! With the wave of his Flipper-staff, a giant plunger suddenly appeared right in front of the HighwayMan in a blink of an eye!

Before the navi could properly react, the plunger pulled itself automatically and sent HighwayMan flying far away!

PinballMan.EXE: 305 HP [Burn20: 2 Turns]

BumperA: DESTROYED
BumperB: DESTROYED
BumperC: DESTROYED
Plunger: 10 HP

Terrain:
100% Metal

HighwayMan.EXE: 90 HP [Microburst'd: Far away from PinballMan]

As he flies back through the air, steam and smoke hiss from his ears, nose and mouth as his systems try to vent excess heat. Or is it because he is angry for being shot backwards? At any rate he reaches out a hand as he sails back at PinballMan and with a grunt says "How' bout you come with me, asswipe?!"

A pulse of dark energy ripples out from the navi's arm towards his opponent, producing a powerful attractive force! Though to try and ensure his opponent doesn't come crashing into him, HighwayMan turns in mid-air to spin the gravitational force around him. He would prefer it to be directed into one of the holes or a nice hard surface but whatever.

1 - Afterburner cooldown...

2 - Activate Sig: Throttle EX [Gravity; 1TCD] @ PinballMan

3 - Dodge EX (Speed Type go!)

[AFTERBURNER: COOLDOWN]
[Chips Used: FireBurn1, Shockwave]
[Sig Road Rash cooldown: 1]
[Sig Throttle EX cooldown: 1]

HighwayMan certainly wasn't having fun with this little game of Pinball, but his enemy sure was. "CLANG TING TANG! Time to start the game!" PinballMan was getting something ready while Highway was exhausted from his previous endeavor, giggling and crackling with mischievous intent.

When the opportunity appeared, HighwayMan attempted to pull PinballMan to close the gap, but maybe it was the distance away from one another or slightly skewered aim, HighwayMan had instead pulled the giant Plunger! The navi was lucky enough to prepare for such thing and moved out of the way, causing the plunger to crash into the ground.

"Plunk PLUNK PLUNK! Time to shoot the ball!"

Completely caught up in the "game" and not realizing that he was slowly burning, PinballMan went ahead and summoned a giant silver pinball out of thin air and hit it with his flipper-staff, sending it rolling right towards HighwayMan at an alarming rate!

PinballMan.EXE: 285 HP [Burn20: 1 Turns]

BumperA: DESTROYED
BumperB: DESTROYED
BumperC: DESTROYED
Plunger: DESTROYED

Terrain:
100% Metal

HighwayMan.EXE: 90 HP [Far away from Pinball] [Pinball heading your way!]