Chasing the Starry Sky

A flare of light erupted from the jack-in beam as it fell to the surface of the net, materializing Radiance as it landed. The navi stepped out of the light, raising her hand long enough for a lantern to materialize clasped in it. She closed her eyes, taking deep, long breaths before opening them again and looking around. She had materialized in the ACDC net equivalent of the park. Although it was laid out in the same way as the real world park, the trees clustered around the park clearing had grown dense and massive, blocking out the distant wallpaper above them. It was only by being near the edge of the park that Radiance could see out into the distance of the net in one direction, toward the network counterpart of ACDC school. Something, whether it was a not quite conscious memory of it being mentioned or just intuition, told her it couldn't actually be reached from this part of the network, despite always being right in front of it. But that wasn't her target.

No, her target was a bit closer. The highest hill in the region, just beyond the ACDC suburbs but close enough to be barely visible from the park. Stargazer's lookout. She had only seen it once, from up close and during a heated battle. But even from this distance the lookout was unmistakable. There was still smoke rising from that direction, after all.

"So, can you tell where you're going?" Ross asked through the PET. Radiance jumped when the voice sounded directly into her head. Even her coworkers didn't do that. "Without Ganglion I can't track the package he was originally after anymore."

"How are you talking into my head?" Radiance asked.

"You're connected to my PET right now. Don't worry about it. Or would you prefer I use external communication?"

"That would be better, yes," Radiance said. As she did, a window opened next to her, displaying the same outside world scene she had seen from the PET. Ross was looking in, straight-faced as he had been before, while his friend watched curiously over his shoulder.

"Will this do?" Ross asked.

Radiance nodded. "It will. And yes, I can see where I'm going. Stargazer's lookout is at the top of that hill over there." She pointed, then started off in that direction.

"Hey Ross, you need me to do anything?" Chris asked.

"Probably not, unless that...erm...'bear' is still around."

"Got it."


((Battle 1 or something))
If you go out in the woods today
You're sure of a big surprise.
If you go out in the woods today
You'd better go in disguise.

For every bear that ever there was
Will gather there for certain, because
Today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.


A bear... and three smaller creatures, that were not bears but wearing bear outfits, walked into the park where Radiance beamed into. The leader bear was carrying an umbrella, while the three decidedly not bears were carrying a wicker basket, a rolled up, checkered ground cloth, and another wicker basket.

When they noticed the Navi intruding on their favorite spot for a picnic, they dropped their supplies to the ground and growled. The bear showed off its dangerous claws, while the not bears showed off equally dangerous pickaxes.

-Enemies-
Teddy: 100HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP

-Battle 1: Start!!-
"Ah! What are those?" Radiance asked, seeing the picnicking viruses.

Ross blinked. "They're...uhh...bears," he said. For someone who had just been at the scene of an attack by a monstrous bear, she didn't seem all that terrified by similar, if smaller, lifeforms. "Well, the big one's a bear. The other ones are just metools dressed that way."

"Oh." Radiance said. She didn't seem to understand the significance of what Ross had just said. "They're kinda cute."

"Saying that just makes your 'attacked by a bear' story less believable. You're really not scared of a bear virus after that?"

"No way," Radiance answered cheerfully. "That bear was gigantic, and it had spiked fur and swords for claws and a cannon for a mouth. These guys are small! Well...smaller. And fuzzy-looking!"

Ross looked down at his PET with an expression of 'you cannot be serious'. "It's still got claws. And the metools have pickaxes. They attack navis on sight."

"But they're here for a picnic!" Radiance countered. "And they already saw me and haven't attacked yet. Shows what you know." She waved to the viruses, although she did maintain enough common sense to keep her distance and be ready to dodge attacks if they came. "Hi. I'm just passing through, you don't have to worry about me," she said to them, trying to sound as disarming as possible.

Back in the real world, Ross sighed and rested his head in his hands. They were not getting off to a good start at all.
___

1. Talk to viruses
2-3. Prepped Dodge
The viruses hesitated as the Navi made an impassioned plea that she was "just passing through." They turned to each other and began chattering in the strange viral tongue. Every now and then one or all of them would look over at the Navi, and then turn back to the group. It was clear that they were distracted with what they should do with the Navi trespassing in their favorite picnic spot.

The Navi might be able to avoid a fight with some quick thinking and soothing words.

-Enemies??-
Teddy: 100HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP

-Battle 1: Start??-
Upon not hearing any noises that could be construed as anyone attacking anyone else -- in the net at least, back in his world a couple of kids had taken the opportunity to start arguing over a bench -- Ross peeked out from between his hands at the PET screen. The viruses had hesitated instead of attacking. He breathed out slowly, relaxing before asking himself the all-important question of 'why'?

Radiance, meanwhile, fiddled with her lantern until the light almost entirely went out. Although she had never fought before and had no reason to think she could suddenly do so now, Lumi had given her the lantern 'just in case', and there was no telling what that could mean. If she was trying to look harmless, it was best to be thorough. "There. See? Nothing to worry about. I don't know what this thing does other than light up, but it's not going to be hurting anyone."

"How can that lantern be a part of your program and you not know what it does?" Ross asked, incredulous.

"Maybe it's not," Chris suggested.

"No, I checked. I got some error message when I tried to look at it in detail, but it's definitely not a separate entity." He paused, thinking. "Actually, that may have something to do with why she wouldn't know."

Radiance, meanwhile, wasn't paying attention to the humans' chatter, and began skirting around the edge of the clearing, towards the direction she needed to be going. "I just need to get," she pointed toward the hill she had indicated to Ross earlier, "To that hill over here. I leave you alone, you leave me alone, and we both go on our way. Good?"

She sorely hoped it would work. She had no idea what to do if they started attacking.
___

1-3: Move slowly toward park exit/attempt to pacify viruses
After much hushed foreign whispering, the viruses all seemed to agree on something. It actually seemed like the Teddy was waving Radiance over.

Well then...

-Enemies??-
Teddy: 100HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP
"Ah, no. I really do have to go," Radiance said. "Someone wants me to help him with a rescue mission."

"How in the world did that work?" Ross asked. He also wanted to point out that he was not 'someone', but that was of considerably lesser concern. This navi had just talked down viruses. Just by being cheerful and disarming, at that. There had to be something else at work, there was no other way that could have logically just happened.

"Told you," Radiance said, sounding very content with herself.

"But how?"

"Well I told them I didn't want to fight them, and I guess they understood me."

Ross opened his mouth, then closed it without saying anything. Then, a few seconds later he managed to say "I have no idea what to say to that."

"Quick, someone write that down. That quote'll sell for millions one day," Chris cut in.

"Not now, Chris."

Meanwhile, Radiance gave another wave to the viruses, then turned to go on her way. Hopefully they would still let her leave without any trouble.
((Bump))
Apparently the Navi did not want to join in on the picnic and ran away. Well... more for them I guess.

-Enemies??-
Teddy: 100HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP
Metool: 40HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP

-Battle 1: FLED-
No rewards.
"Well, that went well," Radiance said cheerfully as she left the park behind. The viruses hadn't tried to follow her, she had avoided a fight despite the assurances of the man she'd ended up working with...all in all a good day so far. Aside from everything else that had happened before, of course.

"Except for the fact that you didn't get anything out of that," came Ross's voice to complicate things again.

"Huh? Was I supposed to? I thought we were in a hurry." Radiance gave a puzzled expression as she turned back to Ross's window.

"You said you've never fought before. Don't you think you're better off having that experience before things get...well...bad? I'm not saying you'll have to fight this...bear, as you called it, but if you get thrown into an unavoidable combat situation once you get where you're going you're going to want to have some idea what you're doing."

"Wouldn't it be better to just avoid fighting altogether?"

"You're wasting your time, Miss," Chris interrupted. "Ross here won't do anything important unless he's had at least a hundred hours of prior experience and planned for every unlikely possibility."

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Ross muttered before turning his attention back to the navi. "Look, all I'm saying is that sometimes you can't avoid it, and it's better to be prepared when that happens."

"You're just bitter because I was right about the bear and his friends," Radiance said.

Chris laughed. "He's got you there."

[next battle]
Radiance, distracted while proving her operator wrong, wasn't paying attention to hidden threats. When...

Click.

The ground underneath moved as she stepped on a hidden pressure plate. Suddenly from all around her chain link fences sprouted up from the ground, like daisies! The Navi was boxed in before she could blink. Thankfully the enclosure was a dozen meters in radius from the pressure plate, so she wasn't trapped in a tiny metal cage.

But... out of the ground another set of objects raised up, one in front of each section of wall. They were automated cannons! She was surrounded!

When Radiance stepped off the pressure plate, a green crystal materialized right on top of it.

-Enemies-
CannonDumbA: 50HP [North]
CannonDumbB: 50HP [East]
CannonDumbC: 50HP [South]
CannonDumbD: 50HP [West]

-Objects-
ChainLink WallA: 20HP [North]
ChainLink WallB: 20HP [East]
ChainLink WallC: 20HP [South]
ChainLink WallD: 20HP [West]

GMD: 20HP [center]

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP [center] [Surrounded!]

-Battle 1: Start!!-
"I'm not going to argue this with you. You were right this time, but next time you might not be. And then what?" Ross asked. He checked the PET screen for any oncoming viruses. None caught his eye, although Radiance had just wandered into the middle of a square marked on the ground. From his vantage point, he couldn't tell for sure, but the outline of the square looked a bit like... "By the way, you might want to watch your step, just in case?"

"Huh?" Radiance looked around cluelessly as she walked, right up until her foot continued sinking after it touched the ground. Fences sprang out of the ground around her, boxing her in, while four cannon-like viruses rose from the ground to guard them. "Aah!" Radiance jumped away from the pressure plate but, predictably, the walls and cannons didn't go away. She looked around wildly, panicking as the cannons swiveled to aim at her. There was no talking down automated turrets! "What do I do?"

"First, just calm down," Ross said. He pulled out a set of battlechips, then inserted one into the PET. "I'm sending you something that should help you fight them. You're connected to my PET for the moment so it should work just fine." He hoped so, at least. Never in any lesson or hypothetical scenario did he learn what would happen if an unoperated navi got linked to his PET. But then again, he also had no idea an unoperated navi could ride a jack-out signal to get into his PET, but seeing as that had still only happened minutes ago...

Despite just hearing it from Ross, Radiance still jumped in surprise as unfamiliar data wrote itself into her virtual memory. In response her lantern, which she had left almost completely off after trying to not intimidate the last group, flared back to life entirely on its own. "Hey, what did you do?!" Radiance asked, alarmed. Having never seen an attack script before she couldn't make any sense of the data, other than that if her lantern's sudden reaction was any indication it probably involved fire. "What is all of this?"

"It's a battlechip. It's called FireHit and it...um...punches things with fire," Ross answered, quickly abandoning a more technical explanation for one Radiance was likely to understand. Unfortunately, it also sounded terribly silly. "Now all you have to do is route that into a weapon and launch it as an attack."

"That doesn't make any sense," Radiance said. Weapon? What weapon? She didn't have any weapons! Did he mean her lantern? That wasn't a weapon, that was a...a...

Meanwhile, the lantern had no intention on waiting for Radiance to figure out what she was doing. The fire within it flared up even more, spreading out of the confines of the lantern. Several tongues of flame split off and formed into a small fireball, which swept around the lantern, then around Radiance...then grew to the size of a basketball and slingshot around her and at the nearest Cannondumb. Radiance ducked as it came back around, wondering if it would hit her next, but instead it swung around her a second time, then launched itself at another of the cannon viruses.

"What...in the world...was that," Ross asked as the navi that claimed to have never fought before slung the FireHit around like she had used it a hundred times.

"Shit," Chris added, deciding Ross's exclamation of surprise wasn't colorful enough. "Did she just throw that thing like an Olympic hammer? Twice?"

"I don't know!" Radiance admitted. "It just did it on its own! Now what?"

"Right, one thing at a time. You'll want to make it hard for them to shoot you. Try running between them. If you'll lucky, they'll shoot each other. If not, it should at least keep them from targeting the thing in the middle." He winced at how readily he called the mystery data a 'thing', even if it was for the strange navi's benefit.

"Why, what is that?"

"I'll explain later. One thing at a time. Now go," Ross said. Radiance did so, running between the two cannons she hadn't (unconsciously) thrown fire at. Not quite 'dodgy', Ross noted, but they could work on that.
___

1. Firehit1 - 60 Fire+Impact+Double Attack - CannonDumbA
2. Firehit1 (second attack) - 60 Fire+Impact+Double Attack - CannonDumbB
3. Feint - Run between CannonDumbs C and D in hopes of getting them to shoot each other
Radiance's lantern whipped a flaming sphere around and incinerated two of the cannons before they even fired. As she ran between the last two turrets, little laser pointers on each turret turned on and began painting the Navi in red light. They didn't fire however.

-Enemies-
CannonDumbA: Deleted
CannonDumbB: Deleted
CannonDumbC: 50HP [South] [Target Lock: Radiance]
CannonDumbD: 50HP [West] [Target Lock: Radiance]

-Objects-
ChainLink WallA: 20HP [North]
ChainLink WallB: 20HP [East]
ChainLink WallC: 20HP [South]
ChainLink WallD: 20HP [West]

GMD: 20HP [center]

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 100HP [South-West]
"Now what?" Radiance asked. The cannons didn't seem to have fired, but they were shining lights of some sort on her. "And what are they doing?"

"They're locking on. Never seen one of them things lock on without shooting though," Chris offered. "Maybe it's out of ammo?"

"Chris, I can handle this," Ross said, waving his partner off. "At the rate you're going though, you're probably not going to be able to avoid them while they're locked on. So you'll have to-"

Radiance was only partially listening though, seeming to be more preoccupied by her lantern's behavior than that of the cannons or the humans. She raised the light fixture, still venting flames into the air around it like it was trying to give them away, and swung it through the targeting laser of the south cannon. In an instantaneous response, a spray of glowing embers erupted from within the lantern, flung directly at the virus.

"...okay, attacking them before they attack you is exactly what I was going to suggest. Have you figured out how to use your lantern properly then?"

"No," Radiance responded, downcast. "It just did that on its own."

Ross sighed. "I can only do so much for you when neither of us know how your own weapon works."

"Dude, just pop in a couple more chips and let it do it's thing," Chris said. "Seems to me like that's easier than trying to teach an inexperienced navi what to do. No offense, miss."

"Right. Fair point. 'Popping in' chips," Ross said, inserting a couple more battlechips.

Radiance's lantern dimmed immediately once the new attack scripts were uploaded. "What was that supposed to do?" Radiance asked. "Did you just put it out?" But the flames had just returned to a 'normal' level for a lantern, not gone out completely. In fact, for the first time since before she had tried to turn it off in front of the picnicking viruses, the lantern was burning just brightly enough to be a source of light, without trying to light everything around it on fire.

"Um..." Ross started, unbelieving of what he was about to suggest, "Try waving it around again."

Radiance did so, sweeping the lantern back through the targeting laser of the Canondumb in the process. The moment the laser point shone into the lantern, the light within grew to the intensity of a spotlight, and fired a pulse directly at the turret virus. Surprised but confident, Radiance swung around to do the same at the other virus, firing a second pulse of light at the other remaining cannon and the fence behind it.

"Yes! I did it!" she said, just happy to have gotten the lantern to do what she wanted. "I...what did I do?"

Ross buried his head in his hands.
___

1. Ember Spray: 10 Fire+Stun - CannonDumbC
2. Cannon: 40 Null+Knockback - CannonDumbC
3. Shotgun: 50 Null+Spread1 - CannonDumbD, Spread to ChainLink WallD
The southern CannonDumb took hot embers to the targeting computer, blinding it for a moment and preventing it from firing. However, the western CannonDumb was not as hindered and fired just as Radiance fired at the both of them. The first shot went wide and struck the ground near the stunned CannonDumb. But both the western CannonDumb and the Navi were struck by simultaneous fire. The virus didn't survive the exchange, but Radiance was damaged.

The fence remained unscathed, the CannonDumb protected it by absorbing all the strength of the blow.

-Enemies-
CannonDumbA: Deleted
CannonDumbB: Deleted
CannonDumbC: 40HP [South] [Target Lock: Radiance] [Stunned!]
CannonDumbD: Deleted

-Objects-
ChainLink WallA: 20HP [North]
ChainLink WallB: 20HP [East]
ChainLink WallC: 20HP [South]
ChainLink WallD: 20HP [West]

GMD: 20HP [center]

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 80HP [South-West]
((For the record, that is not how spread works. A single target cannot simply absorb the spread from an attack.))

A second later, Ross peeked out from between his hands and reported exactly what he saw. "Well, from the looks of it, what you did was miss."

"What?" Radiance blinked. The cannon right in front of her was nothing more than a smoking base with wires sticking out of it. Her own dress was now smoking after she herself was shot. And behind her...oh. The cannon that had been sprayed with embers and shot first was still standing and still covered in burning embers. Structurally, it didn't seem particularly badly damaged, but at the same time it didn't look capable of firing again right away. "How did I miss?!"

"Well, you were waving your lantern carelessly..." Ross offered.

"Because you told me to do that. And besides, it still did that on its own."

"Well don't blame me for you having no idea how your own weapon works."

Radiance threw her hands up, ignoring for the moment that her lantern was still in one of them. She was completely oblivious to how the flames within began to intensify once more. "I've never done this before! I didn't even know that it was a weapon!"

"And I offered to help you, but it's hard to make any progress when you don't know what you're doing," Ross shot back. "Even after you just did it!"

"Well I'm sorry for being unhelpful," Radiance huffed. She felt like she was forgetting something. A second later, it hit her. "...it shot me!"

"Yes, and you're fine," Ross said. He tried calming down. True, the cannon had shot Radiance, and she was probably unfamiliar with the concept of taking damage in return after attacking. He had to keep that in mind, and talk her away from flying into a panic. The remaining cannon was stunned for a moment, but if they kept going like this it would recover and shoot some more. He calculated that Radiance had only lost a fifth of her total health. If worst came to worst, she could take four more such attacks...five if someone had had the common sense to install an undershirt program. The only issue was making sure that she didn't let that happen. Which...would probably be more difficult than it sounded at this rate.

"But...but...it shot me! And it hurt! Am...am I going to die?"

What.

"Are you too weak to stay standing?" Ross asked.

"No."

"Are you leaking data from where you got hit?"

"...No."

"Are you still capable of complaining about it?"

"Well...yes, but people die when they're shot!"

"Then you're fine," Ross concluded. "And that's just humans. Most navis can take a hit or two. Unless it's a...really strong hit."

Radiance still wasn't convinced. "But Varia got shot earlier and fell over right away!" The lantern's flames grew brighter still as she objected.

Huh? "Varia? Was that one of the other navis with you?"

Radiance put her hands to her mouth. "Oops! I'm not supposed to talk about my coworkers to just anyone."

Ross sighed. On top of continuously evading any line of conversation that would help him actually understand the situation he had managed to get himself into, she was doing nothing to ease his concern that it was something he should have stayed away from. A secret server, secret navi coworkers, a naive navi working with them who had never even seen combat...or the net itself from the sounds of things...and the lantern she held which was acting entirely on its own from the moment the navi got into a battle she couldn't talk her way out of. Just what was going on?

Speaking of which...

"Uhh...not to interrupt, but that lantern's acting funny again," Chris pointed out, gesturing at Ross's screen.

"What now..." Ross asked, looking toward where Chris was pointing. "Holy shit! Radiance, are you okay?"

"Huh?" Radiance asked, glancing down at herself, then catching site of the fireball she was holding. "Aah!" Desperate to get the fire away from her hand, but too panicked to let go of the lantern, she flailed it around until the flames flew away from the metal cage they had since outgrown, shooting directly at the remaining cannon.

It didn't occur to her that the fire hadn't actually been hurting her at all.
___

1-3: Charged Buster Attack: (1+1)x20 = 40 Fire, CannonDumbC
[The aforementioned "absorb" was used as a narrative to explain why the Spread part of the attack missed the fence.]

The fireball from Radiance's lantern burned the CannonDumb to a crisp. Looking around at all the scorched and broken metal things, the Navi could see some data that she could pick up.

-Enemies-
CannonDumbA: Deleted
CannonDumbB: Deleted
CannonDumbC: Deleted
CannonDumbD: Deleted

-Objects-
ChainLink WallA: 20HP [North]
ChainLink WallB: 20HP [East]
ChainLink WallC: 20HP [South]
ChainLink WallD: 20HP [West]

GMD: 20HP [center]

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Radiance.EXE: 80HP [South-West]

~Battle 1: Victory!!~
Rewards: 480z

Open GMD: Y/N?
"For not knowing how to fight, girl's got some pretty impressive firepower," Chris commented as the flames that covered what had once been a cannon died down.

Ross, meanwhile, just gave him a dirty look for the pun, then turned his attention back to the PET. "Okay, you see that crystal-looking thing in the middle of the field there? That's a mystery data."

"Oh, that. I think I've seen those before, actually," Radiance said, looking over the crystal in the middle of the fencing. She knelt down next to it to examine it better. "I didn't get a good look at it before, but it looks like a crystallized data capsule. No indication of what's inside...mystery data. Right. So I just have to open it and find out!"

"How did you not recognize it before? And how do you know what it is at all if you've never been in a fight? And once again, how is that even possible?"

"One thing at a time," Radiance answered, mimicking Ross's strained patience.

"She's got you there," Chris said, holding back a laugh.

"Just...shut up," Ross grumbled. "Today is really not my day. But..." he turned his attention back to Radiance. "If you know what a mystery data is, do you know how to open one?"

"Yep!" Radiance said, reaching out and touching the data crystal. "Just gotta access it like so, annnnnd..."

((Opening GMD))
The GMD opened to reveal... a battlechip!

Quote (Battlechip)

AquaTower1
Damage: 100 + Piercing + Ground Attack + Line-Chain
Accuracy: D
Description: Geysers of water march across the field.
Duration: Once
Element: Aqua
Special: Line-Chain: This attack moves forward in a rough line, but may shift side to side slightly as it advances to engage more targets in its general path. The attack cannot ever stray more than 45 degrees from its original path, and cannot make greater than a 45 degree turn at any given time.


And then all the fences sunk into the ground, leaving the field barren again.
"See? Just like that," Radiance said, taking the battlechip data inside. "But...what is this thing Aqua...tower?"

"It creates a column of water that you can control the direction of, and it mows down anything in its path," Ross explained. "Quite a powerful chip. I'm surprised there was one just laying around like that."

"Cool!" Radiance said, beaming. Then, suddenly, she frowned, holding up her lantern to examine it. "But...how do I use it? I don't think this thing does water."

"That shouldn't be a problem. Battlechips are designed to interface with just about any navi system. I have no idea what would happen, but there's no reason why it wouldn't work," Ross explained. True, there were some odd cases, but no matter what modifications were done to it nearly every combat-capable navi on the net used the same base. Then again...

"You're awfully confident when none of us have any idea how she works," Chris pointed out. "Her included."

"She's used the chips I've given her just fine so far," Ross said.

Chris shook his head. "Technically, her lantern used them. And we have even less of an idea what that thing's deal is."

Ross sat silently for several seconds, then finally said "I hate it when you're right. Radiance, send the chip my way, I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, keep going. We're wasting time here."

As Radiance nodded and continued walking, Ross opened up the Trade BBS and, conveniently found exactly the kind of post he was looking for right at the top of the page. He grinned as he read the post. "Looks like someone's having a bit of trouble with their operator," he said.

"Oh? Lemme see," Chris said, leaning in to read over Ross's shoulder. "Hah. Who even gives a navi named 'Winter' fire, anyway? Almost feel sorry for her, having an operator that stupid. But, bet you wouldn't have much trouble taking that off her hands."

"Waaay ahead of you," Ross said, submitting his offer. Sure enough, it was accepted and traded in a matter of minutes. He turned his attention back to Radiance. "Problem solved."

((Battle 2 go))