First Run

A bright white beam of light shot down from the digitized sky, touching down on the ACDC netscape and dimming to reveal a larger version of Chaos's head-portal. Through it, a portal-less Chaos emerged and surveyed the Net. After it was through, the portal shrunk and returned to its dock. Aaron watched this with mild fascination... and a touch of confusion. "You enter the Net through yourself?" he asked the strange Navi. In response, the portal once again lifted off its dock and hovered a foot above Chaos's body. Inside the portal, a message formed. MOSTLY COSMETIC. STILL REQUIRED FOR BATTLE. Meanwhile, said body remained completely still. Once Aaron indicated his understanding, the portal reattached to the body and Chaos began moving itself around experimentally. After it was finished, it looked up toward the sky - and Aaron's viewpoint - and shot its operator a query. COMMENCE? the Navi spelled. Aaron nodded his approval. "Let's see what you can do, Chaos."

AFFIRMATIVE, it responded. With that, Chaos set off across ACDC Net.

((Searching for Battle 1.))
Chaos ran into two Metools and a Bunny. The Metools raised their pickaxes high and the Bunny's ears ran a bolt of electricity between them like a Jacob's Ladder.

-Viruses-
MetoolA: 40HP
MetoolB: 40HP
Bunny: 50HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Chaos.EXE: 100HP

~Battle 1: Start!!~
"Alright, get ready!" Aaron exclaimed in a hushed voice as yet another dog-walker passed his phone booth. "No need to get stressed out, we'll take this one nice and slow." As Aaron fanned out his grand total of four battlechips in his hand, Chaos remained motionless while his face spelled something out. When Aaron turned back, he squinted to make out the message from his viewpoint.

BATTLE PROGRAM DOES NOT INCLUDE STRESS. PLEASE PROVIDE MORE RELEVANT OPERATION, it read. Aaron winced. His enthusiasm mixed with more than a little flippancy had resulted in the last "accident". Maybe Chaos had been briefed on it by his father. I wonder how intelligent this guy actually is? Aaron thought, taking a moment to ponder what else it might know before remembering that this was an active time battle. "Oh, right!" he chided himself, bringing up a display of the pair's options on his PET. Chaos eyed... er, portaled the viruses before him warily as blinking dots on its face indicated a slow ellipsis. Several precious seconds passed before Aaron closed the PET menu and began to speak. "Alright, we're gonna hit them with a Cannon!" he said, as if this was the greatest tactical decision since the dawn of time. AFFIRMATIVE, Chaos responded, raising its arm as the Cannon materialized.

"No portal this time?" Aaron asked, genuinely curious. Chaos deftly pointed the weapon at the Bunny and fired, the shot echoing across the netscape as it traveled. UNNECESSARY, the Navi spelled out as the shot's impact rang out. Seeing that Chaos apparently knew what it was doing with regard to weaponry, Aaron returned his attention to his chips. "Now, what next...?" he whispered to himself. Chaos answered for him. A speaker emerged from its portal to attract his attention. "WATCH THIS," it relayed with its tinny voice, prompting Aaron to lower his hand of chips and stare into the device.

Chaos walked toward the viruses and stopped about ten feet from the Metools. "CREATING CONDUCTION FIELD." As the speaker played, Chaos slowly raised its hands and then dropped them to the ground, the action causing the ground under itself and the Metools to glow. A few seconds later, the glow dimmed and revealed a floor covered in metal panels. As Chaos returned to a standing position, the speaker appeared again. "COMMENCING SELF-SUMMON." As this latest update rang out, the speaker withdrew into Chaos' portal and the portal's rim began to expand out to almost three times its normal size. Aaron watched as the portal lifted off from Chaos' body and flew above the Metools before spinning up rapidly and releasing bolts of lightning down on the Metools. He was pretty impressed, to say the least. As Chaos' portal returned to its dock, the Navi adopted a more prepared stance to respond to any counterattacks.

ATTACK ROUTINE COMPLETE, its portal relayed. "Not too shabby," Aaron replied with a smile. "Don't get too complacent, though. We may not be done yet."

Like he was one to talk.

1. Cannon to Bunny (60, Shot type)
2. Movement close to Metools
*. SetMetal around self and Metools
3. Summon: Chaos to MetoolA, B (30 Elec +100% from Terrain, two targets, Drop type)
Commencing battle routines, Chaos showed its operator what it was capable of, pulling out the standard Cannon like any other Navi would, on its arm. It wasn't exactly difficult to land the instant-energy shot, and the Bunny was deleted before it could do much. In response, the Metools raised their pickaxes, and let them crash down, forming two linear shockwaves towards his body. Chaos' body simply walked through them (10x2) before raining down bolts of THUNDERING JUDGEMENT on the yellow-hatted midgets.

-Viruses-
MetoolA: DELETED
MetoolB: DELETED
Bunny: DELETED

-Terrain-
60% Normal, 40% Metal

-Navi-
Chaos.EXE: 80HP

-Battle 1, Victory!!-
Rewards: [Guard1] Battlechip, 220z
Chaos relaxed its stance as the viruses finally dissipated into junk data, leaving it alone in the network. ENEMIES DELETED, his portal display read. It proceeded to approach the virus remains and begin retrieving the leftover data. Meanwhile, Aaron frowned. "That was a little too brazen, don't you think?" he asked Chaos, barely registering the new chip appearing on his PET. Chaos made sure to finish its retrieval before stopping to reply. NEW BATTLECHIP DATA DISCOVERED: GUARD1. 220 ZENNY RECOVERED. The portal cleared before continuing. QUERY UNCLEAR.

Aaron took that as an indicator of how his Navi would respond anyway, but he still clarified. "Just walking through those attacks like they were nothing. You should be more careful." He knew this was kind of hypocritical given what happened last time, but this new Navi was supposed to be a clean slate of sorts. It was less hypocritical and more... meaningful. Or something... he thought. Chaos was fairly indifferent, as Aaron had figured. VIRUSES GONE. MINIMAL DAMAGE SUSTAINED. NO ISSUES ENCOUNTERED. PROCEED? The display fired off this quick series of messages before Chaos' portal turned up toward Aaron's viewpoint. "...yeah, keep going." He was a little worried, but maybe working the flippancy out of his Navi would help to work it out of himself, as well.

((Searching for Battle 2.))
With as nonchalant a response as possible to its operator, Chaos proceeded through the ACDC network. Its travels brought it to a slope leading to a lower level of the area, though not without event. The slope had a few Kabutanks and OldStoves at the end of it, vandalizing the slope with their fiery assault. It doesn't take them long to spot the bizarre-looking Chaos at the top of the ramp, and they immediately aimed their muzzles skyward.

>> Enemies
Kabutank A: 50 HP
Kabutank B: 50 HP
OldStove A: 50 HP
OldStove B: 50 HP

>> Navigator
Chaos.EXE: 80 HP (Top of ramp)

>> Terrain
70% Normal
20% Cracked
10% Broken

>> Battle 2, Start!! <<
"Watch out, you're being targeted!" Aaron cried out, eliciting a strange look from the shirtless man jogging past the phone booth. "Looks like they have explosives."

The speaker emerged swiftly from Chaos' pseudo-cranium as it began to move down the ramp. "OBSERVATIONS UNNEEDED, ENEMY CHARACTERISTICS OBVIOUS." With that, the speaker withdrew and Chaos broke into a full sprint down the ramp. Meanwhile, Aaron tried to address his bruised ego as quickly as his pride would let him. "Man, I was just trying to get in the spirit of things..." he replied weakly, picking a chip up from the phone stand and sliding it into his PET. "Sending you Cannon. Return fire!" The Navi seemed to require no further instruction as it neared the bottom of the ramp and quickly dropped to one knee. Lifting its right arm into the air, Chaos' portal then proceeded to detach from its neck and move to envelop the extended arm. It swept down to the Navi's elbow before returning from whence it came, widening around the bulky profile of the Cannon. Chaos pointed the cannon at the first of the would-be mortars, firing a powerful blast at the virus. The Navi rose from its knee and looked at the other Kabutank, seemingly pondering something.

Meanwhile, Aaron was distracted by a message on his PET's chat client. Normally he wouldn't have stopped mid-battle to check, but he had to wonder who was messaging him so early in the morning. He was almost not surprised to see a single word IM from himself (or more accurately, his Navi).

"GUARD."

Aaron barely had time to close the client and activate their newest battlechip before Chaos ran full-pelt at the second Kabutank, launching into a dive with its arms bent out front of it. Waiting until the last possible moment, Chaos activated the Guard and registered its appearance at the forefront of the Navi's charge only briefly before touching down with the Guard (or what was left of it) and rolling into an upright kneeling position. From there it pressed its hands into the floor and pulled another terrain trick, transforming the surrounding area into solid metal panels. As his Navi reassessed the situation, Aaron rearranged his chat client into a smaller window in the corner of the battlefield view. He couldn't help but smile as Chaos made liberal use of the program.

"STRATEGY EXECUTED. EVALUATING RESULTS."
"PLEASE STAND BY."
"ASIDE: THIS PROGRAM EFFECTIVE FOR COMMUNICATION. MAKE NOTE."

Aaron half-laughed and half-groaned. "Yeah, alright. Glad you like it." He spread out the remaining battlechips before him and returned his focus to the viruses.

1. Advance down ramp toward viruses
2. Cannon to Kabutank A (60, Shot type)
3. Guard dive-tackle Kabutank B (Attempt to catch with own bomb and/or simply reflect up to 60 damage)
*. SetMetal around current location
[Note: Huh... Apparently Kabutanks from a year ago were 40HPs less healthy than they are now. Just be wary of encounters with the currently valued 90HP versions in the future.]

Chaos advanced down the ramp towards the enemies. The OldStoves belched lines of flames at the Navi as he advanced toward them. Unfortunately for them, the fire missed the Navi as it passed into the Broken holes between the Navi and the viruses. Their indiscriminate destruction had proven their downfall as it was harder to hit the Navi as he weaved between them.

Meanwhile, Chaos, having reached an optimum firing point, blasted one of the Kabutanks into deletion with a Cannon.

The other Kabutank launched its payload of bombs at the Navi before retreating to a safe distance. Both of the bombs hit Chaos as he raises his shield. He reflects the first bomb's energy back in a damaging ray while taking the explosion of the second to his body. The beam cuts a swath through all three clustered viruses.

-Viruses-
KabutankA: DELETED
KabutankB: 40HP [One Movement Away]
OldStoveA: 40HP
OldStoveB: 40HP

-Terrain-
70% Normal
20% Cracked
10% Broken

-Navi-
Chaos.EXE: 70HP