Crash Course

A shadow on the Net grew darker and seemed to condense on itself. Small squiggles of electricity briefly crackled across it, only for the whole thing to rip open. Rayner stepped through, the sides of the shadow condensing onto his shoulders and back and sweeping the ground like a cape. There was a moment of stillness, a sense of a grave matter as he surveyed the Net that Joan couldn't quite bring herself to break with words.

Then Rayner lifted a leg and hopped forwards on one foot, lashing out with the other. The 'cloak' behind him shattered and he whirled around. The prongs of his claw were closed and brought to his lips as if for a kiss while his normal hand raised up in the v symbol for victory. He grinned directly at the small floating square that contained a shot of Joan's face. There was another pause as Joan's face when from somewhat solemn to confused, then one of the eyes on the skull mask winked close.

"Tadaaa~"

"Wh-wha-what was that?!" Joan ducked a bit in embarrassment as she realized her voice came out in a bit higher of a screech than she meant. Rayner watched as she glanced around at the park, the eyes on his mask rearranging themselves into an amused expression.

"That, m'dear, was called an entrance!" He swept an arm across his torso and bowed when her attention was on him again. He straightened up, his arm dropping back to his side. "I understand one such as yourself might have trouble understanding things such as 'class' and 'presentation' but do believe me, good miss, I myself am /highly/ refined."

Joan choked down on her next words at his rather haughty tone, an unsure smiled creeping onto the corners of her mouth. He was being so ridiculous, why wasn't he being normal like the first time he entered the Net?!

"I see you are stunned by my fabulous entrance, however please don't let that distract you." Rayner's voice returned to its normal tone as he spoke, even gaining a serious note towards the end. "Let's find use some trouble to tangle with but remember our practice runs! You got this." Joan didn't look convinced, but she relaxed a little.

With a thin-lipped nod from his operator Rayner set off to find either something interesting to explore or a virus (or two) to bust. He just hoped she didn't let her nerves get to the best of her.

(Searching for encounter...)
Rayner's searching brings him across three Metools, spread in V-formation like they had been planning on ambushing him all along. However, something's not quite right...all three of them appear to be asleep, little snooze-bubbles protruding out from under their helmets. The question rang out unsaid: had they been waiting so long for a Navi to challenge that they'd fallen asleep?!

Regardless, one particularly loud step from Rayner startles the three of them awake, snot-bubbles popping in their surprise. The three of them brandish mattocks, chattering excitedly amongst one another. The battle, it seems, is on!

-Viruses-
MetoolA: 40HP
MetoolB: 40HP
MetoolC: 40HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner: 150HP

-A RITE OF PASSAGE-
-BATTLE #1: BEGIN!!-
"Perhaps we shouldn't wake them up." Joan whispered to Rayner, her shoulders hunching as he came across the sleeping viruses. She honestly thought they looked kind of cute like that.

"Naaah, wouldn't be a good practice for you then. HELLOOO METOOLS!" He hollered as he stomped a foot on the ground. He looked pretty pleased with himself as the viruses sprang to alertness. "Alright sweetness, lets get to work. Send me a chip and tell me what to do."

"Gross, don't call me that, and why would you wake them? That's awful and this sucks." Joan dug through her purse to the little container she currently kept her chips in. She paused, recalling the descriptions of the chips. "I'm, I'm sending in Cannon and uh, RageClaw1." Rayner nodded in approval at her choices.

"Alright, remember not to send anymore chips until RageClaw1 deteriorates. It's multi-use so no sense in overwriting it needlessly." He lifted his right arm and then snapped it to the side, claw shut tight as the data from the Cannon began to form around it. Bright green aiming reticle appeared in the skull's eyes, moving back and forth while tracking the first Metool. Abruptly they turned from green to red, locked in place, and began flashing.

"Ahaha!" Rayner steadied his right arm with his left, and then fired away. As soon as the Cannon data began to melt off his arm he was moving, taking a couple small steps to the side. The reticles faded from his eyes as his claw snapped open and his entire right arm began to glow. His claw fingers seemed to bulk up, growing thicker and sharper while taking on a more armored appearance. "Alright Joan, right or left?"

"Uhh, left! Go for the one on the left!" Joan's wonderment at the chip data loading and then her confusion at the question were quickly waved aside. Rayner grinned beneath his mask, the eyes on the skull narrowing dangerously at the Metool he was targeting. With a shove of the Navi's feet against the ground, Rayner launched himself straight towards MetoolC. He right arm came up and lashed out at the poor virus. Rayner didn't wait to see if his attack hit though, he was promptly taking two bounding steps to the side. The eyes abruptly switched from the determined expression from before to one of amusement and Joan felt a small groan in her chest.

"Hey, check this out!" Rayner hopped backwards twice on his left leg, hopped to both legs, and then hopped backwards three more times on only right leg. Sure he was a bit wobbly, but as he stood with both feet on the ground again he was undeniably proud of himself. Maybe it'd loosen up his Operator a bit too."

"You're hopscotching to dodge? What kind of plan is that?" Joan shook her head, certain her Navi was about to take a hit.

--SUMMARY--
1: Cannon 60+Knockback @ MetoolA
2: Rageclaw 40+Slashing @Metool C
3: Backwards hopscotching! (Dodge)

Passives:
Marksmanship: +1 rank to accuracy with Shot Attacks.

RageClaw: 5 of 6 uses remaining
<(Note: RageClaw1 is a one-handed weapon, meaning that even with one active, you can still use other chips with your other hand. This is generally the case with all multi-use chips; exceptions will outright be marked with a 'Two-Handed' tag.)>

Rayner spontaneously grows a cannon over his claw arm. In the real world, this happening, or perhaps the very existence of a man with a claw-arm would be cause for alarm. Thankfully, this is the Net World, and the skull-masked Navi is free to fire his Cannon as he pleases. The shot blasts a Metool clean out of existence, blown away by the comparatively-powerful weapon.

The RageClaw succeeds to similar effect, with Rayner dashing in and slashing through the little hard-hat. The remaining virus squeaks angrily, planting its mattock into the ground and sending a shockwave at its foe. Rayner's wacky shenanigans save him, the hopscotch's path just clearing the blast wave and sending his scarf-tails fluttering.

-Viruses-
MetoolA: DELETED
MetoolB: 40HP
MetoolC: DELETED

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner: 150HP
(Ah, thank you. Also am I correct in believing Snipe can be added to melee attacks as well as ranged?)

"I...I can't believe that worked." Joan was flabbergasted. Rayner's silly game had actually caused him to dodge the attack. Granted it was only missed by a narrow margin, but still.

"Aha! Of course it worked!" Rayner was very pleased with himself, things had gone better than planned. Not that Joan needed to know that. He flexed his claw and narrowed his eyes at the remaining virus, hunching over into an almost-crouch. "Ehehehehehe..."

Joan shivered a bit at the creepy laugh that was coming from under her Navi's mask, wincing a bit. "Just, just finish it off so we can move on to other things! Like, y'know, not this."

The Navi straightened up and sighed loudly and audibly at his partner's lack of appreciation for a good scare tactic. "Alright, alright. But I do want to continue busting after this!" With that he eyed the Metool and raced towards little yellow foe. He dropped to the ground a panel in front of it to slide baseball-style past the virus, lashing out with his claw as he passed. Was he was passed he quickly found his feet and hopped up, dusted himself off. He paid careful attention to the ruffle of fur about his neck even as he took several awkward steps to the side. All without ever looking back.

"I really hope you get hit in the back." Joan muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing!"

--Summary--
1: Baseball slide -> Into position past Metool
2: Rageclaw 40+slashing@MetoolB
3: Do the (awkward) crab! Sideways Shuffle! (Dodge)
[Note: Yes, Cursor's Snipe ability may be added to any attack.]

Rayner baseball-slid like a pro and raked his claw across the angry Metool. It squeeked in pain just before crumbling to junk data. Which was collectable as reward data.

-Viruses-
MetoolA: DELETED
MetoolB: DELETED
MetoolC: DELETED

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner.EXE: 150HP

~Battle 1: Victory!!~
Rewards: 270z
"Aha! See, we did fine! Not even a scratch." Rayner dusted his pants off from his magnificent slide as the RageClaw data faded from his arm. He ambled over to the junk data and scooped it up, promptly sending it off to the PET. "How about another?"

"Oh, money!" Joan was distracted for a moment by the Zenny going in but she heard his question all the same. She still didn't sound sure of herself when she answered. "Um, I guess that fight went alright. Yeah, lets, lets try another one."

Rayner was very pleased with that reply. Sure, the tone in his Op's voice could use some work, but she agreed. A merry whistling tune arose from the Navi's helm as he walked deeper into the ACDC note.

"Hey, what was with the uh, things, in your eyes earlier? When you used the Cannon." Joan clarified, clearing her throat awkwardly. Two thin lines of black pixels took shape over Rayner's eyes and raised in amusement.

"I believe you mean the reticles. That's how my Marksmanship pops up since I'm subtype Cursor." Rayner's eyes narrowed in thought, eyebrows disappearing. "You mean we haven't gone over subtypes and such?"

--Searching for Battle 2--
Rayner's further excursions brings him across a foursome of viruses, taking part in what appears to be some sort of game. Two CannonDumbs swivel on one side of a line painted down a patch of panels. On the other side of the line, two Bunny viruses bounce around, deeking and weaving around what appear to be...dodgeballs? Upon closer examination, the CannonDumbs are not firing bullets, but rather big, red rubber balls, the likes of which one might find in gym class.

As it so happens, Rayner's path takes him right along the painted line between the two sides. All four viruses freeze, unsure of how to process the new addition to the rules. Then, one of the DodgeballDumbs makes the group's decision by firing a dodgeball, angling it to bounce off the ground straight in front of Rayner's feet. The game is on!

-Viruses-
DodgeballDumbA: 50HP
DodgeballDumbB: 50HP
BunnyA: 50HP
BunnyB: 50HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner.EXE: 150HP

-MEMORIES OF GYM CLASSES PAST-
-BATTLE #2: BEGIN!!-
Rayner was distracted enough by his Op's lack of knowledge that he did not see the impromptu gym class before him. Really he should have known by now just how hard Joan had dodged having to learn anything about NetNavis and the like up until this point. Well know she had to put up with him on a daily basis and he was going to make darned sure she learned.

"Uh, what are they doing?" Joan's voice brought him back to reality just as he noticed the game going on. He stopped, and stared for a moment, then the eyes abruptly turned themselves into happy arches as a touch of pink appeared across Rayner's cheek bones.

"Oh my Helvetic, THEY'RE PLAYING DODGEBALL." The Navi was quite pleased with his discovery and proceeded to rapidly jog in place, arms moving in tandem with legs. His prosthetic squeaked a bit as the Elec-element made sure he was all limbered up, and just in time too. The modified CannonDumb shot a dodgeball at Rayner and he dove to the side to get out of the way!

"Uh...oh okay. Do you need any chips?" Joan had never heard of /playing/ with viruses before. Still, she figured she could ask about it after this was over. Rayner shook his head as he clambered to feet, c

"Nah, no reason to be a ...killjoy." He giggled at his own pun as Joan groaned before turning back to the Viruses. For a moment's consideration he paused to contemplate his metal arm. "You know I might be able to change the arrangement of my 'fingers' if you send me RageClaw. Should help me catch better."

"Alright, chip coming your way." Joan slid the chip in, watching as her Navi's eyes seemed to squint in concentration. He focused on his arm as the glow came down, narrowing his eyes even further. A few blue pixels assembled themselves as a sweat drop at the top of his mask and slowly slid down the side of the skull face. Slowly, oh so slowly, his claw creaked and squeaked but it CHANGED. The claws that were to the left and right slowly slid up along his palm to reside near the one at the top. With an exasperated sigh Rayner let his head loll back and sagged backwards slightly before standing up straight again.

"That was awful, how long have I been out of the fight for? I'm surprised they haven't nailed me yet." Joan looked confused at the comment.

"That only took two seconds, at the most." Rayner promptly perked up and started grinning again.

"Alright lets do this then!" He grinned and spread his hands wide, beckoning towards the viruses in a 'come get me' gesture. The Navi shifted his weight to the front of his feet and shuffled around a bit. He had no doubt in his mind the ball-spewing viruses were playing for keeps, he had seen the scuff marks left on the ground. He fully expected the Bunnies to spit electricity at him as well. That was fine. He'd take them all on.

"Let them come." He growled, the sound seeming to come from low in his chest.

"What?"

--TURN SPLICE--
1: CATCH DAT BALL (RageClaw1)
Rayner's dramatic arming happens right in the nick of time, just as a DodgeballDumb decides that that very moment would be a wonderful time to send one of its limitless supply sailing at the Navi. The RageClaw comes up...and successfully catches datthat ball, red rubber squeaking against the metal talons. The DodgeballDumb's turret stares barrel-first at Rayner's (pardon the pun) ballsy action...and promptly self-destructs. The other viruses promptly turn to stare in shock at the scorch mark where their comrade had previously stood; had any of them possessed jaws, they most assuredly would have been dropped. Apparently, the old gym class rules still apply!

-Viruses-
DodgeballDumbA: OUT
DodgeballDumbB: 50HP
BunnyA: 50HP
BunnyB: 50HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner.EXE: 150HP [CAUGHT DAT BALL]
Joan's jaw dropped. Rayner's face went from slant eyed in concentration to confident extremely quickk. The viruses seemed appropriately shocked and the Navi moved to take advantage. The bright green reticles flared to life in his eyes and flashed to blue then back to green as a similar glow surrounded the dodgeball.

"For victory!" With the loud cry Rayner stepped forward and then spun into another step. He uses the momentum from his spinning to fling the dodgeball towards BunnyA. Once the ball leaves the Navi's claw he quickly jogs backwards and to the side, keeping his eyes on the the remaining viruses.

"I..I can't believe you caught it. I can't believe it self-destructed either...do they normally act that way?" Joan questioned, watching the apparent life or death dodgeball match going on.

"Of course I got it! You need to have a little more faith in my abilities!" '..and your own.' He added in his thoughts.


--Summary--
2) CATCH THIS 20 + Impacting (Throw) (Homing with Snipe) @BunnyB
+Snipe
3) Dodge!
<(Just to let you know, Snipe adds Seeking rather than Homing. Seeking bypasses Invis and High Altitude, while Homing gives attacks a chance to hit again the next turn if they miss...I realize it's kinda goofy to have two very different effects with such similar names, but it can't really be helped.)>

Unfortunately for Rayner (but fortunately for the Bunny), his aim is ever so slightly off for the big throw, and he whiffs his screaming line drive. The Bunny sighs in relief, then gathers with its brother-virus around the DodgeballDumb, ready for their retaliating volley. One glowing ring of electricity goes wide and discharges against a wall. The other ring is far more on-target, but Rayner weaves around it relatively easily. To his dismay, his dodge puts him straight in the path of the remaining DodgeballDumb, who takes the opportunity to plant a shot straight into the Navi's skull mask. The impact looks painful...but hey, it could've been a lot worse, as the exploded once-a-DodgeballDumb can attest.

-Viruses-
DodgeballDumbA: OUT
DodgeballDumbB: 50HP
BunnyA: 50HP
BunnyB: 50HP

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner.EXE: 130HP
Rayner did not actually hit anything with his throw. This was rather disappointing when he got the time to consider this. Unfortunately that wasn't before he spoke. He suddenly found himself busy twirling like a ballerina dodging razor blades. Electrified razor blades in fact. He finally stopped and stood up to face his opponents, smug that he had moved so well only for a Dodgeball to slam into his face.

He hit the ground and just laid there in a daze.

"Hey, hey c'mon get up!"

No, he'd rather not. He could float here.

"You can't just lay there!"

Ooooh but he could. It was very easy and required doing nothing.

"Rayner, c'mon you have viruses to beat!"

Perhaps, but did her voice sound more desperate or was that just him?

"UP BITDAMMIT!" The Navi jerked upright at the angry roar, skull blinking away the last vestiges of daze. "Thank goodness." There was a reassuring smile under the mask where Joan would never see it. He was honestly touched by the relief in her voice.

"Sorry for worrying you, but I didn't take that much damage anyways." With a shove and a hop he was back on his feet, shaking out all his non-robotic limbs. He clapped his hands together and gave the floating vid-screen of his Operator's face a thumbs up.

"Yeah but...I thought you were going to get rushed while you were down." Her voice trailed off into a mumble and he could tell by the hunch of her shoulders she was very embarrassed after her earlier outburst. He also noticed she was very steadfast in not looking around and taking stock of any and all weird looks directed her way in the park.

With a head shake and another hidden grin at her ignorance he turned his attention back towards the viruses. "Alright, even you should know headshots are illegal!" He jabbed a finger at the Dodgeballdumb as he spoke and managed to disregard the fact he was lecturing a cannon was kind of silly. "Hey send me Shotgun then Cannon!"

"B-but won't that overwrite the RageClaw?"

"Uh...probably not if you send them one at a time." Joan raised an eyebrow but pulled out the requested chips from her pocket.

"Shotgun, slot in!" Rayner narrowed his eyes menacingly at the gym students and raised his clenched fist in the air. He could feel his prosthetic tugging at the chip data and focused on quelling its reach. He had another arm, the chip could go there! The robot arm was persistent in its reach for the new data, but it seemed to loosen its hold on the RageClaw. His eyes abruptly went from angry narrow to wide-eyed inspired.

"HAH!" He switched tactics and found he could quite easily switch the RageClaw to his cyberflesh arm and let the prosthetic greedily suck up the Shotgun. There was a busy swirl of data around his right arm and the claw was gone, replaced by a very generic chip-gun. The green cursors appeared in his eyes and he moved into position before firing at the dodgeball dispenser, aiming to catch a rabbit in the Spread. Two loud shots echoed from his arm and Rayner promptly moved to realign himself with the remaining enemy.

"Cannon now!" Joan gave her Navi an odd look at the snappish tone and slotted in the requested chip without fanfare. Rayner's eyes held the reticles in them, flashing down to lock-on once more. His eyes narrowed at the remaining rabbit and once more his arm fired a ball of damaging compressed data.

From there Rayner began a fine imitation of a dancer, whirling and hopping around although unlike his hopscotch moves from before this was all very serious.

Apparently someone had made him angry. Joan hoped that someone was blasted to bits now, she had questions.

--Summary--
*Snipe
1)Shotgun: 50 + Spread 1, Seeking (Accuracy A) @ DodgeballDumbB & BunnyA
2)Cannon: 60 + Knockback (A) @ Bunny B
3) Dodge sir dodge

Passives:
Passive: Marksmanship - Increased accuracy by 1 rank with Shot type attacks, even when under the influence of status down effects. Accuracy with Shot type attacks can surpass A rank.
((Ba-bump))
Rayner gets back up just in time to avoid a Zapring, courtesy of a Bunny's sparking prong-ears. To his satisfaction, finds his Cursor subtype coming in very handy, as his assortment of firearms flow through the virus ranks with unerring accuracy. The remaining DodgeballDumb is simply blasted out of existence before it can so much as fire a shot; the same electric troublemaker that had tried to potshot Rayner tries hiding behind the immobile turret, only for the Shotgun to tear right through them both.

The final Bunny takes a valiant stand, trading ZapRing for Cannon blast. Unfortunately for it, Rayner's fine dance moves are put to work taking him out of harm's way. The Bunny...isn't so lucky, to put it lightly. As it explodes from the concussive force of the Cannon shot, a lone dodgeball bounces from...somewhere, landing right at Rayner's feet and de-materializing into a Battlechip, along with a decent sum of zenny!

-Viruses-
DodgeballDumbA: OUT
DodgeballDumbB: OUT
BunnyA: OUT
BunnyB: OUT

-Terrain-
100% Normal

-Navi-
Rayner.EXE: 130HP

-GAME, SET, AND MATCH...WAIT, WRONG BALL GAME!-
Rewards: Cannon, 350z
Rayner scooped the data remaining on the field and planted his good hand on his hip. Somehow he managed to give off a very smug air despite having any well defined facial features. Joan allowed him a moment to bask in his glory and then spoke up.

"Hey I signed us up for a mission with someone calllled Matt Wilson and his Navi Condor. They want airshoes, I picked money. Oh stop giving me that look!" The thin pixel eyebrows from earlier had reappeared above Rayner's eyes and had steadily rose higher and higher as Joan spoke.

"I am impressed! Venturing out onto the wide wild Net all by yourself! You even sought out a new partner for us!" He grinned and rubbed his left hand across the bottom edge of his mask, eyes taking on a thoughtful expression. "Airshoes and Condor? I guess he's going to live up to his name." Rayner's eyes took on a typical arced appearance one would expect from a cartoon character. "I am looking forwards to this."

"Ah it will be a moment anyways, we've got to wait for the contact to get back to us but both parties are ready. I hope its not too long. It would be nice if we could finish it today."

"Well.. depending on what kind of mission it is will determine the time involved. If its from the boards it might just be something simple."

"Yeah, at any rate, lets jack-out for now, I want to stretch my legs a bit." Rayner nodded in content, his eyes softening.

"Roger that. Hey not bad for a warm up though!" The shadows on Rayner's body deepened and spread, dimming the light from the symbols on his scarf and legs. Abruptly the shadows ripped apart with a crackle of electricity and the whole mass shot back to the PET.

(Jack Out)