Raising Awareness

Honoo raised her gauntlets up again into a guard position after backing away from her last attack, and brought herself face to face against the last Virus. She was ready to smash the creature's thing in earlier, but now looking at the last virus trembling, she found herself unable to do so. "Honoo, what's wrong? You're slowing down," Kiri said, a tinge of confusion in her voice at her Navi's sudden behavior.

"This virus seems to be having second thoughts about fighting me now. It could've attacked earlier but it's starting to back off," The navigator replied, her armored gauntlet pointing at the suddenly lethargic virus. Kiri raised an eyebrow. "You're showing the virus some compassion? That's relatively... odd of you." Kiri remarked. Honoo bristled at her operator's remark. "Stuff your perceptions of me, I just know an enemy's beaten when I see it." She asserted to the netop. Kiri couldn't help but stifle a small grin at the fact that Honoo has a conscientious personality after all.

"Well, it's up to you. But be prepared to fight back if the Virus chooses death when you offer it surrender," the operator said as she help up a battlechip, ready to slot in the moment things get hairy. Honoo nodded, and stared down the Melody virus.

"G'won. Get. Your team lost, and you're almost wetting yourself with fear, but that's no reason for me to delete you anymore. I've lost the mood to fight you already." the Navi said through gritted teeth to the Virus. She was ready to leap away should the virus attack, but she lowered her guard stance to a less threatening manner to reassure the virus that she wasn't going to attack it with its' back turned.

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS:
1. Dodge (If needed)
== Turnsplice ==

It took an extra moment or two, and it wasn't entirely clear whether the virus was understanding what Honoo was saying to it, but after a couple more timid bobs, the Melody perked up slightly and its eyes grew a little less watery and fearful. It gave a chirp that sounded more like a rising chord of soft, hopeful notes this time, as though played through an old fashioned midi synth of some kind, then hopped in the air. It turned around as it leapt up, and a soft shimmer of music wrapped around it. A moment later, it was gone leaving only the fading sound of its music in the air. Oh, and a sprinkling of zenny, too.



-=Up For A Fight=-

Melody A: DELETED
Melody B: SPARED
Cacty A: DELETED
Cacty B: DELETED

-=Blazing Bright=-

Honoo.EXE: 70 HP [Bottom of slope]

-=Terrain=-

Terrain: 100% Normal

-=Battle 2, Victory!=-

Spoils: 380z

As Honoo watched the Melody virus hopping away out of combat, she turned around and started her climb up the slope where her fragmentation shell had impacted. Bits of cinder still fluttered around the place from earlier, and would probably extinguish itself a while later as the network recalibrated itself back to a clean slate. However, the environment wasn't exactly what was weighing in on her mind. "Hoping that virus doesn't come back to bite you, Honoo?" Kiri chimed in, saying what was already in Honoo's mind.

"I'd like to see it try. Maybe it might have a change of heart from attacking future navigators and refrain itself from doing so again," Honoo replied, though a sense of uncertainty could be felt from her words. "Or it'll stew for revenge and come back with a larger group and try to delete you from existence." Kiri added playfully, though Honoo didn't seem to appreciate it, as she simply muttered a soft "Shut up, you" back at Kiri, before continuing down the path towards the netsquare.

[[Battle 3, ready]]

Whether she was regretting her mercy or not, Honoo continued on her way towards her destination. The path was broad, if a bit winding here. The grass to either side grew steadily taller as she progressed, and it wasn't long before the environment had begun to resemble a single road passing through a field of long reeds. The air stirred and a breeze made the field sway back and forth gently. For a while it seemed like the path would remain peaceful while they made their way through, but the sound of a muffled explosion broke that illusion moments later.

The sound was hard to pinpoint, but it seemed to come from off the road to the left somewhere. As if on cue, Honoo would begin to see a thick plume of dark black smoke beginning to rise from the grass field in the same direction, and the sounds of crackling fire began to drift through the grass. Before she could inspect any further, however, a patch of the grass just in front of her parted suddenly to admit a small swarm of panicked-looking metool. The one leading them had parted the grass with its pick, and was chattering something in a sharp tone, like it was issuing instructions and waving the others through. Most of the others weren't carrying their regular weapons, but seemed to be carrying several blackened and scorched mets instead, bearing them across the road and into the grass on the other side.

Upon seeing Honoo, the leader jumped neatly over the procession to put itself between her and them, lowering its pick across its small body in a cautious gesture. The edge of its helmet tilted down as though it was prepared to guard itself at any moment, but it kept one eye on Honoo all the same - there was something oddly sharp in its gaze as it looked over combat-ready outfit and heavy duty flame throwers. Whenever any of the fleeing metools paused, the leader one gave a short 'meep' that sent them on their way again without looking away from her.

The sounds of blazing fire grew louder from the smoking area that they seemed to be fleeing from, and if she looked int hat direction, through the now pressed down grass, Honoo would see a small collection of domed huts, each looking quite cutely like giant metool helmets, most of which were burning or smoking. In amongst them, a group of other viruses seemed to be having fun torching the place; two Miners in the middle of the compact village, and no fewer than four large OldStoves shuffling about and blowing fire over the huts variously. For its part, the metool watching Honoo flicked its eyes back to the burning village and then back to her. It seemed more interested in evacuating the other fleeing metools than starting a fight today.

-=Smoke and Fire=-

Miner A: 100Hp [Normal][Centre of Village]
Miner B: 100Hp [Normal][Centre of Village]
OldStoveA: 50Hp [Normal][Facing the entrance of Hut A]
OldStoveB: 50Hp [Grass][Behind Hut C]
OldStoveC: 50Hp [Normal][In front of Hut B]
OldStoveD: 50Hp [Grass][Alongside Hut D]

-=Falling Back=-

Metool Leader: 65Hp [Normal][Watching Honoo]
Fleeing MetoolA: 40Hp [Normal][Behind Met Leader][Fleeing]
Fleeing MetoolB: 40Hp [Normal][Behind Met Leader][Carrying Burned Met A][Fleeing]
Fleeing MetoolC: 40Hp [Normal][Behind Met Leader][Carrying Burned Met B][Fleeing]
Burned MetoolA: 25Hp [Carried by Fleeing MetoolB]
Burned MetoolB: 25Hp [Carried by Fleeing MetoolC]

-=Decisions To Make=-

Honoo.EXE: 70 HP [Normal][In Front of Met Leader]

-=Grassy Field=-

40% Normal [Broad path that runs through the middle of the field, and the circular area containing the huts, to Honoo's left]
60% Grass [Rest of the tall grass field]
0% Mines [The Miners like to place Mines. Mind your step!]

Tall Grass: All dodges are 10% more effective when in the tall grass, due to difficult visibility.

-=Village Hidden in the Reeds=-

Metool Hut A: 90Hp [On Fire]
Metool Hut B: 100Hp
Metool Hut C: 50Hp [On Fire]
Metool Hut D: 100Hp


-=Battle 3, Begin=-

EDIT: Begone, foul typos!

The sound of an explosion disturbed Honoo somewhat, and she hastened her pace. Did someone get into trouble somewhere? She saw the smoke rising in the distance moments later, and recognized the tell-tale signs of arson. "Kiri, we should check that out. Someone could be in serious trouble." Honoo said, concern in her tone. Kiri wanted to object to this sudden diversion in their course, but the Navigator was right. The road had been relatively barren and a navigator could seriously be hurt or otherwise. "Understood, but proceed with caution." She replied after a pause.

Just as Honoo was about to head off in the direction of the smoke, a metool emerged out of the tall grass between the path and the origin of the smoke. The virus was just as startled as Honoo was, but it raised its' Pickaxe staunchly. However, behind it was a number of other metools as well. They weren't armed, but Honoo noticed that they were carrying what appeared to be burned and wounded metools. They weren't an ambush on any unsuspecting navigators; these Metools were fleeing from something.

She turned her gaze away from the Metool and into the distance again. The Metools had cleared away the tall grass and now gave her a clear view of the origin of the smoke. It was a burning village. These Metools had become the victim of a stronger group of viruses. Fires blazed almost uncontrollably as the group of malicious viruses torched the Metool's huts indiscriminately. Honoo clenched her fist unconsciously, rage building within her as she saw the Virus torch the Metool village like a group uncontrolled thugs. Her honor demanded that these victims be avenged and given a chance to save the village.

The Metool leader that stared at her was certainly thinking that she was in league with these firestarters. Honoo couldn't blame it, since she shared an element with the vandalizing viruses. "Stay out of the grass and wait. I'll take care of this," She said as she turned her gaze away from the Metool and pulled her goggles down over her eyes. She began walking slowly, methodically, towards the besieged village. "Honoo, these -are- viruses, you know," Kiri started to say, but Honoo simply ignored her operator, continuing her walk and readying her gauntlets.

Kiri sighed. She was being headstrong, and she couldn't fault her sense of justice, though she certainly did fault her for not picking battles for when it truly mattered. Still, it was a good opportunity to continue training. She prepared her battlechips for Honoo. "Just so you know, I will forcibly jack you out if I think you've taken too much," Kiri said sternly to her Navigator.
Honoo simply nodded in acknowledgement, and lifted her gauntlet arm. Kiri slotted in the first battlechips. A heat-V battlechip. If Honoo were to strike, she needed to do it now while some of the viruses were still bunched up. The cannon mounted on her right gauntlet chimed with a confirmation beep, notifying the navigator that a firedata-filled Fragmentation shell had been loaded in. She lifted her arm up, and sprinted towards the center, firing the shell straight into the miners bunched in the center. As soon as she got herself into effective range, she brought both of her gauntlets up, and focused both her fists to her front. The smaller muzzles next to the main cannon on each gauntlet ignited as it sent a gout of flame out straight into the miner viruses as a follow up from her initial attack, sending flaming vengeance upon its unfortunate target.

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS:
1: Charging towards Center of Village (Feint)
2: Heat-VDamage: 70 + Spread 2
Accuracy: A
Description: Shoots a fireball whose explosion penetrates enemies to hit up to two other enemies behind and to the side of it, as if forming a V shape.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Trader Rank: C: 70 + Spread 2 (Acc: A) — Miner1, potential spread to Miner 2 — EFFECT: Spread 3 (Mass Destruction)
3: Signature: Fire Blossom: 40 + Spread2 — Miner1, potential spread to Miner 2

As the navigator made her decision, the protecting metool in front of her watched with a careful eyes as she made her way towards the more offensive viruses. As she headed for the village, Honoo would hear it issue a few more hurried orders to the retreating mets in it's unintelligible dialect.

By the time she made the village scene, the attacking viruses had torched the huts a little bit more, but not much, and with the element of surprise she leapt into action and unloaded her first fragmenting heat round into the central cluster. Aimed primarily at one of the miners, the round blasted it solidly, and scattered the fall off in liberal amounts over its nearby companion in crime. further fallout also struck one of the OldStoves with sufficient force to tear its metal body open and render it into broken data, to the other side, and another one at the back, though when the attack cleared she'd see that the back-spreading fall-off hadn't managed to strike with enough force to cause harm.

The stove that Honoo's blast had failed to hit turned away from the hut it was torching now and opened its grate in her direction instead, and while she managed to avoid the gout of fire, just barely, it was enough of a distraction for the two miners to recover, glance to each other with sinister grins, then duck below the surface to hide their worrisome payload of mines through the village. the ground had cracked dangerously where the stove had attacked Honoo, but from her slightly shifted vantage, just off the damaged terrain, she was able to return a fire blossom of her own to the two miners just as they popped back to the surface. Neither managed to avoid the roasting flames, and the subtle beeping of their mines, present only briefly, went quiet again.

Behind one of the other huts, out of Honoo's sight, there came the sound of metla striking metal, and where she might have expected another of the old stoves to shuffle into view, instead all she saw was a column of flame arc away from the village and out into a section of tall grass. A moment alter she heard a quiet 'Meep!', and the sound of metal on metal again. It had sounded almost taunting.

There wasn't a lot of time to think it over, however, as the final viruses responsible for torching the small collection of homes turned its roaring fire on Honoo as well. this time she wasn't quite so luck in her efforts to avoid the path of fire, and it singed one arm and part of her shoulder as it tracked across the village square at cross angles to the first attack. a small patch of ground where the two lines crossed fell in completely leaving a broken hole, while the land that the flames had crossed elsewhere was left cracked and damaged.


-=Smoke and Fire=-

Miner A: DELETED
Miner B: DELETED
OldStoveA: 50Hp [Normal][Near Hut A]
OldStoveB: [??]Hp [Grass][Behind Hut C]
OldStoveC: 50Hp [Normal][In front of Hut B]
OldStoveD: DELETED

-=Falling Back=-

Metool Leader: 65Hp [Grass][???]
Fleeing MetoolA: [Fled to Safety]
Fleeing MetoolB: [Fled to Safety]
Fleeing MetoolC: [Fled to Safety]
Burned MetoolA: [Fled to Safety]
Burned MetoolB: [Fled to Safety]

-=Decisions To Make=-

Honoo.EXE: 55 HP [Cracked][Centre of Village]

-=Grassy Field=-

25% Normal [Broad path that runs through the middle of the field, and the circular area containing the huts, to Honoo's left]
50% Grass [Rest of the tall grass field]
20% Cracked [A cross in the village area, where the stoves attacked, as well as a line through the grass behind hut C]
5% Broken [Centre of the cracked cross, where the two lines intersected]

Tall Grass: All dodges are 10% more effective when in the tall grass, due to difficult visibility.

-=Village Hidden in the Reeds=-

Metool Hut A: 80Hp [On Fire]
Metool Hut B: 100Hp
Metool Hut C: 40Hp [On Fire]
Metool Hut D: 100Hp

Honoo saw the Stove Viruses turn their attention to her now that the Miners had been eradicated. Despite her response, she was unable to completely evade the stream of fire that the viruses had unleashed upon her, and she clenched her teeth as she withstood the extreme heat that assailed her. When the blinding light died down, Honoo stood in her guard position, a mad, defiant grin on her face. "That all you got, you thugs? My turn." She muttered grimly, before her gauntleted fists erupted into fire.

"FireHits deployed. Try not to burn down the area, Honoo," Kiri advised her Navigator. The Navigator didn't respond, but only grew her grin wider as her blood heated up in the thick of battle.

With a quick swing, she launched a fireball straight into one of the Oldstoves near the Village huts. Using her momentum, she twisted her body immediately to the other side and launched another fireball with her other gauntlet, attacking the other OldStove that had caught her in a crossfire. She didn't stay around for long, immediately moving out of the way and heading for cover behind one of the Huts to stay out of the OldStoves line of sight.

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS:
1: FireHit1Damage: 60 + Impact + Double Attack
Accuracy: A
Description: Throws a blazing punch from a distance, Hadoken style.
Duration: Up to 2 uses before the end of the turn
Element: Fire
Special: Double Attack: After spending an action to attack with this chip, you may choose to spend a second action and attack with it again before the end of the turn.
Trader Rank: D: 60 + Impact + Double Attack (Acc: A) - OldStoveA
2: FireHit1Damage: 60 + Impact + Double Attack
Accuracy: A
Description: Throws a blazing punch from a distance, Hadoken style.
Duration: Up to 2 uses before the end of the turn
Element: Fire
Special: Double Attack: After spending an action to attack with this chip, you may choose to spend a second action and attack with it again before the end of the turn.
Trader Rank: D: 60 + Impact + Double Attack (Acc: A) - OldStoveC - 2nd Use
3: Dodge

With no time to waste, Honoo accepted the challenge of the aggressive OldStoves and gave it back to them in full force. Her first attack melted one where it stood, before it could do anything else, while her second was more than enough to finish the other one. It attempted another get of flame at her before it perished, but failed to connect. Behind her, the sound of tearing metal came again, followed by another 'Meep!', and then the leader-like metool she'd seen before popped up from behind the hut, on top of it. It looked towards Honoo, then put its weapon away and began quickly stamping out the flames that licked at the building.

For now, the battle seemed to have been won, and the damaged terrain in the middle of the village was slowly recovering itself. If Honoo wanted to help put out the remaining fires, no-one would stop her, but eventually a couple of the uninjured mets from before began to peek out from between the grass and assist their leader in cleaning up the village, so she could probably move on safely if she wanted to. That aside, one of the viruses had left behind sufficient data for her to convert to a useful chip, and the rest had degraded into convertible zenny.



-=Smoke and Fire=-

Miner A: DELETED
Miner B: DELETED
OldStoveA: DELETED
OldStoveB: DELETED
OldStoveC: DELETED
OldStoveD: DELETED

-=Falling Back=-

Metool Leader: 65Hp [Wood][On Top of Hut C, working to put it out][???]


-=Decisions To Make=-

Honoo.EXE: 55 HP [Normal][Centre of Village]

-=Grassy Field=-

25% Normal [Broad path that runs through the middle of the field, and the circular area containing the huts, to Honoo's left]
50% Grass [Rest of the tall grass field]
20% Cracked [A cross in the village area, where the stoves attacked, as well as a line through the grass behind hut C]
5% Broken [Centre of the cracked cross, where the two lines intersected]

Tall Grass: All dodges are 10% more effective when in the tall grass, due to difficult visibility.

-=Village Hidden in the Reeds=-

Metool Hut A: 80Hp
Metool Hut B: 100Hp
Metool Hut C: 40Hp
Metool Hut D: 100Hp

-=Battle 3, Victory!=-

Spoils: 600 z, FireBurner1Damage: 50 + Line Attack(3)
Accuracy: A
Description: Looses a stream of fire that can penetrate enemies and keep going.
Duration: Once
Element: Fire
Special: Line Attack(3): Attacks up to 3 targets in a straight line.
Trader Rank: D

Honoo let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding, and surveyed the surrounding area. She suddenly remembered that one of the OldStoves had disappeared into the bushes, towards where most of the evacuating metools and fled. Cursing, she started to make her way there, only to notice that the Metool leader from earlier had appeared. The virus kept its weapon and made its way back into the village, putting out the fires repeatedly with it's tiny feet. Honoo watched in amusement as the small virus put out the entire blazing inferno; it had a spirit and determination that she found admirable, and had it been coded as a navigator, it would certainly be a staunch and loyal ally to fight alongside.

"The area seems to be clear. No more "hostile" viruses in the vicinity," Kiri chimed in, breaking Honoo out of her spiel. "Shall we move on? The Netsquare isn't further off."

Honoo, not taking her eyes off the viruses clearing the area, nodded and turned away. She hoped to help put the fire out, but without any aqua or wind chips she wouldn't really be able to do much. She simply waved to the Viruses farewell, before heading off back to the main path, and continued on with her journey to the Netsquare.

[[Moving to Netsquare]]

As Honoo took a last look around and the mets finished putting out the last of the fires, it seemed as though everything was going to be alright. As she was leaving, she might notice that several of the mets had clustered around the leader excitedly and were chattering away, or trying to offer him small gifts from inside their homes. Apparently he wasn't actually a leader or resident of this little village at all, and had just been in the right place at the right time to help them out. It seemed to be trying to calm them, and shaking its head at the offerings, but eventually they prevailed on him to accept a short cloak, made for travelling but suitably sized for a metool, that was a faded grey on the back, with a blue inner trim. The odd metool put it on, then quickly made his way out of the village. He caught up to Honoo at the main path, but was apparently going in the other direction her and waved his pickaxe in a friendly farewell before setting off down the trail.