Back to back in the Scilab network

"For your own amusement! You sick..." XIII stopped himself, trying not to break his cool mood again. He absolutely hated this kind of person, the kind of person who finds it amusing to cause chaos and disorder just for fun. He always said if thats what they do for fun, he'd hate to see what they do for work.
"State your name and surrender any armaments you may have on your person. I won't hurt you unless given fair reason." He pulled his blade out a little more to add emphasis to the last part of his statement, to show this man he was not playing around.
"What test are you talking about? Setting all the viruses loose?"
Your own amusement? Your "tests" are illegal and destructive to those on the net. Put the cane on the floor slowly and surrender quietly or we will put you down.

Machman's eyes shift quickly between his buster facing the Navi and the other aiming across XIII's flank. Machman remains next to the wall, to cover his own back.

[Machman, I think he's stalling. He probably has viruses or other Navis converging on this building. We need to act soon.]

Machman responds to Mazer silently with a written reply.

Inbound Message. Sender: Machman.EXE MkII
Stand by. XIII retrieving important information about recent viral events. Prepare BattleChips just in case.
Message Ended.

Mazer pulls his chip magazine out of his pocket and responds to Machman.

[Alright Machman. We can wait for now. But if anything goes wrong, engage the Navi first. We cannot let him escape in the chaos of a possible virus attack. For right now, I am accessing SciLab archives to try get some info on this Navi and a possible NetOp.]
((Locking on. Charging... BUMP!))
((Sorry, sorry. I'll update this tomorrow. Work got in the way))
((No problem. I know full well that work takes precedence.))
"Heh," The Navi chuckled to himself. "Quite amusing...Perhaps a tad foolish on your part, but amusing none the less and, just for the sake of manners, I shall concede and do as you ask."

The Navi stepped forward, moving further out of the shadows of the corridor. He held his cane in both hands, his gaze gliding over the smooth ebony finish and silver fixings on either end. It was an exquisite item, crafted from ebony and shod with a silver cap at one end and the silver pommel shaped like an hourglass on the other. As the Navi held it to the light, Machman and XIII could see a band of silver wrapping around the wood about eight inches below the pommel. The Navi ran his left hand along the length of the cane and twisted the silver cap a quarter on an inch, causing a small spike to emerge from the bottom of the cane. Using this spike, the Navi thrust the cane into the ground, where it stood firm once he released his grip. The Navi then proceeded to remove his black jacket and hand it from the upright cane.

"There, that should be a tad less restrictive." He said almost to himself. He turned to the two Navi and bowed low, though his eyes never left theirs'. "I am known by many names, though none concern you as of yet. However, I suppose I am mostly known as Magnus D'Aeon, the Lord of Time. And you are Machman.Exe and XIII.Exe. Don't be surprised that I know of you. We have met before, or will meet again in the near future. Either way, now we are known to each other." He fished around in the left pocket of his slacks and removed a silver pocket watch. He studied the watch for a second before continuing. "Three minutes should be enough."

Magnus placed the pocket watch inside the breast pocket of his jacket, removing it from his person so that it would not be harmed during what was to come. He left the jacket hanging upon his cane and stepped a few feet toward the two Navi so that he stood between them and his bundle. He stood, dressed in a black dress shirt and black slacks with a platinum tie and reading glasses perched on his nose, staring at the two Navi who stood before him. He smiled slightly, a knowing smile that conveyed a sense of having done all this before, of being assured of the outcome, and winked at XIII. A soft blue glow rose up from Magnus' feet to encompass his entire body in a translucent shell of blue light.

"I have done as you asked," Magnus spoke softly. "I have ceased my activities in SciLabs, I have told you my name and have set aside my weapon of choice. My purpose here was to release the viruses in the hopes that someone worthy of my notice would come along. Sadly, that has yet to happen, but I suppose you two will have to do. Now, I know that you could never defeat me in true combat and so I propose a trial of sorts. I have placed around me a barrier. With each passing minute, this barrier will increase in strength. However, with each hit that you land upon my person, the strength of the barrier will decrease. I shall use no weapons, but my fists and my own strength. You may use whatever you have at your disposal. If you can overcome my barrier within...Three minutes, then I shall reward you both and take my leave. However, if you should fail to extinguish this barrier, then I shall beat you both to within an inch of your lives and leave you bloody, broken and weeping upon the floor." The last sentence was said with such vehemence that it sounded as though it came from another person.

Magnus bowed once more and said, "Let the games begin. Time is ticking away, gentlemen."

Magnus D'Aeon: ???
Barrier: 300Hp

Machman: 80
XIII: 60

Terrain: 100% Metal

3 Minutes remaining!

Battle 5 is a go!
I see. So it's a kill or be killed situation with a time limit. I like a challenge. Mazer, permission to engage?

[Heatshot chip uploaded! Initiating XIIICross program. Engage!]

Machman's eyes flash bright green as he begins to glow a bright crimson and orange.

Lord of Time, huh? Let's put your name to the test! Hrraaaah!!!

Machman's entire body tightens and a spark flashes near his feet. This spark causes a shock wave of flame to erupt around his body, like an explosion and lighting up the darkened room with a blinding flash. The explosion is almost deafening. The flame burns out leaving a pillar of thick smoke. A glow is seen inside the smoke, but it is just that: a glow. A large whoosh sound is heard as a giant hole is punched through the smoke, pushing all the smoke away and dissipating into the air. A red and white blur bolts towards Magnus's barrier. The blur looks to run into the barrier, but disappears suddenly.

*fwoom!* A red and white figure materializes behind the barrier. The navi has the same blue face mask as Machman, but instead of blue armor; the navi is dressed in a red and gold long-sleeved shirt and white cargo pants. Machman's orange spiked hair is replaced with white bangs and a long red, braided pony tail with a gold yellow end. His blue eyes are also now a emerald green. Machman carries two small white hilts in his hands, both of which bear a ~2 foot long white energy blade.
Cleave..., Purify. Lend me your power.
Machman thrusts the two superheated Tantō into the barrier, pulls the blades out, and dissolves into thin air.

Machman materializes off to the right side of Magnus, aiming a red Machbuster covered in vents and glowing. He lines up the navi in his sights and fires the fire-imbued shotgun round at the Navi. The round explodes and covers the area with heat and flames, intensified by the metal floor below. Machman doesn't even wait for the buster to disappear; he bolts away and constantly changes directions. His movements are so quick, so apparently random, he looked like a big red electron bouncing in a big metal box.

ACTIONS:
Initiate XIIICross: Machman.EXE (Change type/subtype to Fire/Sword and activate Precision Strike SigAtk)
Precision Strike: Barrier (130dmg [60+5{Fire type bonus}x2{[color=gray]Metal[/color] Floor}])
Heatshot: Barrier (90dmg [40+5{Fire type bonus}x2{[color=gray]Metal[/color] Floor}])
Dodge
XIII didn't expect Machman's change, and he was visibly surprised. "Wow, Remi, did you see that?!"

"Yeah I did. I was showing Mazer a little of your data and we threw together a merger program. We're going to need alot of power to take down his shield, and this is the way to do it." Kasumi was punching in some codes to the display, finishing the last of the data.

XIII's image seemed to surge with energy and grew dark, and two wings similar to machman's burst out of his back. A second later, large pronounced cracks appeared in the wings, as they shattered like glass, the fragments beginning to spiral around him. His image was changing, his shirt was changing to blue, his shoulders getting armor plates, a dark mask forming around the lower part of his face> even his sword shortened to that of a normal katana, but felt like it had the energy of a star surging within the sheath.

The transformation was complete, and the fragments stopped, suddenly bursting into flame, making it seem like he was surrounded by wil'o'whisps with the wing fragments inside. XIII's felt the change, his body was lighter, but filled with the power of two navi's. This navi, Magnus D'Aeon, his barrier all of a sudden seemed to look more like thick tissue paper to him, instead of some impenetrable wall.
"Mach XIII, reporting for duty! Hey Mach, if you hear a boom, don't worry, thats just me starting to walk!"

He took a step forward, his image blurring as he rushed forward far beyond any normal speed he could have achieved before. This man may claim to be lord of time, but he'd have to slow it way down just to keep up with him now. He was rught up against the barrier before he even knew it, and on impulse launched himself into the air, not expecting to have reached the enemy that quickly.
"Ok, Lets see what firepower this new body's packing! Amatsu Tsubasa Arashi (Heavenly Wing Storm)!"

The twenty wing fragments suddenly focused the flames around them, making it into a jet on each, and causing them to rain down on the barrier like a missile barrage of blades.

Summary
Activate MachXIII soul cross: XIII(Normal/Fire +10 to all normal chips, subtype sword.)
Cross sig: Amatsu Tsubasa Arashi (20 hits, 3dmg each) (2 turn cooldown) (Normal/Sword type Damage)
Dodge
As Machman and XII unleashed their combined power on Magnus' barrier, the self-proclaimed Lord of Time did little to stop them. He stood where he had been, gazing off into the distance as though seeing something that had yet to appear. XIII's shattered blades sailed toward him, moving like lightning though the air, but still Magnus D'Aeon refused to budge. Then at the last possible second, the lord of Time became a blur. His body still stood where he had been, but it was fuzzy, as though he moved too fast for the eye to see, and the glowing wing fragments imbedded themselves in the floor around him. As Machman's blades thrust forward, they seemed to phase right through Magnus and his barrier, the Time Lord blurring slightly for the brief second it took for the tanto to pass through his body.

"I am afraid that you'll have to do better than that," Magnus chided.

Machman fired his heatshot, the flaming sphere of energy soaring toward Magnus. The Time Lord seemed to vanish completely this time, his body disappearing for a brief second, long enough for the heatshot to pass through him, before returning. In this brief second, another blue glow flashed briefly in front of XIII and the Navi was thrown back as though he had been smashed by ten fists in the span of a second. XIII was thrown to the floor and it looked as though Magnus had never moved at all.

"Much better, I am afraid,"

Magnus D'Aeon: ???
Barrier: 300Hp

Machman: 80
XIII: 40

Terrain: 100% Metal

2 Minutes remaining!!
Tenchi was shocked, but tried to keep a calm look on his face, despite the fact that he was still reeling like he had been hit with a sledge hammer, machine-gun style. "Damn, he's pretty fast too. How the hell am I supposed to hit this guy?"

Kasumi rang in over the conmlink. "XIII, no matter how fast he's moving, he is still touching the floor!"
"How is that supposed to he--" He stopped in mid sentence, realizing what she meant. The floor was completely metal.

"OK XIII! ElecReel1 and ZapRing1, slot in!" his operator yelled, sliding the chips into place.

Instead of the energy surging around his blade, and piece of the shattered wing flew into his hand, the ball of flame encircling it turning into surging energy. Apparently in this form, the use of Chips changed somewhat form the norm. Another four or five shards flew to his other hand, the blade-like fragments forming a discus or ring of sorts, the flames on those also turning to a crackling electrical current.
"Mach, I'd suggest jumping in the air for this one! It might get a little dangerous on this one!"

He charged forward again, slamming the first blade into the ground with such force that the energy dispersed as it would with the ElecReel chip. the energy surged across the ground, electrifying the floor underneath Magnus. "And now for the second!" He yelled again. He had jumped in mid air by this time to avoid the surge across the ground, spun and hurled the shining ring at the so called time lord, the air crackling about it as the electrically charged and bladed chakram sped towards its target.

Summary
ElecReel1 (80 Elec + Metal floor) to Magnus
ZapRing1 (40 Elec + 1 Stun + Metal floor) to Magnus
Dodge
Damn he's fast.

[Machman! We need another plan of attack!]

Machman overhears Kasumi and XIII's exchange and talks back to Mazer.

Requesting ZapRing1, Bubblestar1, and Sword chips. No questions.

[Alright, I hope you know what you're doing. Go!]

Machman leaps into the air. Well, more like disappears and materializes in the air. He whips his arm forward as he continues to climb, he grabs the ceiling of the room as his right hand changes into a large blue oval-shaped buster covered in holes. The bubble film spreads over the barrel of the buster and the internal fan kicks on, inflating the bubble. Sprays of film enter the buster and create smaller bubbles that fill the large bubble almost to bursting point. The end of the bubble is closed off and the smaller bubblettes are contained. The fan increases speed and thrusts forward, firing the bubble down towards the floor. The bubble explodes as it hits the ground, showering almost the entire floor with cage-like bubbles. The bubbles expand as they hit the floor, most of them are almost six feet in diameter.

He continues to aim straight down towards the hopefully stunned or trapped Magnus. His right hand changes into a yellow rectangular buster with two large metal loops protruding from it. He aims directly down towards the metal floor near Magnus as the buster begins to crackle with electrical energy. Little arcs of electricity span between the two loops as a hoop of electrical current forms. He waits for XIII to jump and fires the Zapring. It hits the floor with a small explosion of sparks as it electrifies the floor.

Machman's hand returns to normal and he lets go of the ceiling. He grabs the two Tanto hilts from his pockets and places them next to eachother as he falls. Machman blurs and disappears only to re-appear on the floor of the building. The Tanto hilts are stuck together and he switches them on. The magnificent blue blade bursts forth, extending 3 feet from the top of the hilts. He dashes forward towards the either stunned or trapped Magnus (hopefully). His emerald green eyes begin to glow almost as bright as his blade.

...

Machman holds his sword tightly in both his hands as he draws it back to his left side. As soon as he gets in range, he attacks with unnatural speed. His first slash traveling in a right diagonally rising line is quickly followed with a dip of his sword and a second rising slash to the left. From a bystander's perspective, all that could be seen was a a blue "X" made from the light of the sword and a curving red crossing pattern made by the red glowing orbs on his hands. Machman jumps backwards as he splits the sword handle down the middle, separating the two Tanto. His image seems to warp sharply like a tv screen affected by an interrupted signal then disappears completely with a sonic boom. The entire building rocks from the shock wave created by the Navi surpassing the sound barrier from almost a dead stop. Machman runs as fast as his fire-charged body can move him. He changes directions as fast as he can without pausing, so even a Navi who could slow or stop time would have a hard time finding him.

ACTIONS:
BubbleStar1: Barrier or Metal floor near Barrier (20dmg Aqua + Trap)
ZapRing1: Barrier or Metal floor near Barrier (80dmg Elec + Stun)
Sword: Barrier (80dmg)
Sword: Barrier (80dmg)
Extra Dodge {Sword Subtype Bonus}
Electricity surged across the battlefield, the metallic floors humming as blue and gold arcs of energy danced from panel to panel. There was no escape from such an attack and the barrier that surrounded Magnus D'Aeon felt the full brunt of the blow. The sharp dressed Navi stood still, grimacing slightly as his blue aura overflowed with grasping forks of lightning. Magnus felt no pain from the attack, his barrier protecting him from the flow of electrical current, but he grimaced anyway. The bastards' ploy had worked and his barrier was near defeated.

Electricity pulsed and it seemed that the barrier would fail completely if not for tick of the minute hand as it fell. The barrier repaired itself slightly, enough so that it survived the first onslaught. Magnus swung his left arm in a horizontal chop, a motion to cease, and the electricity died away. His barrier pulsed feebly, a light blue glow that waxed and waned each second. It could not survive much more and his opponents were still attacking. Machman dashed forward, sword in hand, and Magnus disappeared. The blade slashed through where the Navi had been only milliseconds before. Magnus reappeared behind Machman, his fists a blur of movement, and struck Machman five times in the span of a second. The speedy Navi fell to the ground, dazed.

"Clever," Magnus muttered. "Very damn clever. Too bad it was not quite enough. One minute left."

Magnus D'Aeon: ???
Barrier: 30Hp

Machman: 70
XIII: 40

Terrain: 100% Metal

1 Minutes remaining!!!
Machman hits the floor and slides to a stop before hitting the walls of the building. He is more in shock than pain as he lifts his legs up in the air and kicks himself into the air and stands upright.

No matter how fast I go, I can't avoid his attacks...

Mazer's voice pops up in his ear-piece.

[Bad news, Machman! We don't have any chips that can electrify the floor! Now what can we do?]

Machman thinks for a second and replies to Mazer.

Upload a Shotgun, Recover10, and LilBomb chips.

[I don't understand, Machman. Normal attacks won't do anything! They just pass through like he was never there!]

Trust me. I am not gonna let a single Navi walk all over us!

[... Do what you must.]

Machman takes to the air and flashes above Magnus. His two Tanto are floating next to his sides and are glowing a very bright red. They don't emit any sort of targeting lasers and don't seem to be aiming immediately towards Magnus. Bursts of light erupt from both handles as two red plasma beams scream towards the ground below. The two beams hit the ground as the two Tanto hilts-turned laser blasters- orbit 180 degrees around Machman. The beams streak across the ground, kicking up dust, smoke, and debris. The beams continue to curve around Magnus, leaving a circular-shaped ring of blinding smoke and dust. The two Tanto shatter into bits of data due to being overloaded by the over-charged plasma. Machman warps down to the ground and aims his now buster-formed right hand directly in the center of dust cloud made by the perfectly circular plasma blasts.

...

Machman steadies his shotgun with his left hand and fires towards the ground covered by the front of the smokescreen. The projectile hits the ground and shatters into spray of deadly shards. Machman dashes forward to the smokescreen and distances himself away from XIII. He activates a Recover10 chip in XIII in that time. XIII glows a faint green as the chip program re-energizes and repairs some of XIII's programming. Machman calls out to XIII.

XIII! Stay far behind me! I mean it!

Machman stops a few feet from the smokescreen, his right hand formed as a buster pointing towards Magnus's apparent position and his left inconspicuously clutching a small dark ball; a minibomb. Machman's finger presses the trigger, arming the bomb and expiring the 3 second fuse. Now if Machman relieves any pressure on the MiniBomb, it will immediately explode. Machman instantly deactivates all function in his left hand except for one command: If Machman.EXE MkII's body program is hit by any sort of object, LeftHand.pgm shut down.

Machman has turned himself into a trip-bomb; if he is attacked by Magnus, the near instantaneous reaction time will cause Machman's left hand to release the trigger and have the Minibomb explode. The explosion on this bomb is big enough to hopefully catch Magnus in the blast and shut down his barrier. Machman is pretty sure he can take the full force of the blast without being deleted, but he hopes a lot more that his first attack works. He knows XIII and himself don't have enough time to attack again; so the choice is to almost get deleted, or get deleted for good.

ACTIONS:
Tactical Action: Use Thrust Laser on Metal floor around Magnus to erect a 360 degree smokescreen to hinder Magnus's vision (60dmg 2TCD)
Tactical Action: Use Shotgun on the ground just in front of the smokescreen and hope Magnus's barrier is caught in the spray of shrapnel (50dmg + Splash)
Recover10: XIII.EXE (Recover 10HP)
Minibomb: Machman.EXE and Barrier (if Magnus attacks Machman) (50dmg + Splash)
"Stay back? Stay back?!" XIII said in between breaths as his data was being partially prepared. "Oh yeah Mach," He said semi-sarcastically. "I'll stay back alright. I'll stay so far back he won't even see me coming! Remi, give me some barrier breakers."

"Ok XIII, Bubbstar1, slot in!"

XIII fired the bubble at the barrier still standing in front of him as he was dashing backwards. The bubble was relatively slow moving, but he was firing it being the smokescreen and the subsequent blast of the explosion. Magnus wouldn't see it coming behind that, and even if both attacks failed to take him out, he would be trapped and hurting. Thats when the next chip would come in. Kasumi and XIII were practically synchronized as much as an operator and navi could be, both were thinking the same basic strategy.

"Alright, and one more. DblBeam, slot in! Heatshot, slot in!"

The DblBeam was the gamble here. It could either effect the allies or the enemy, albeit both would be in their favor, but the true objective was to take down that barrier. The heat shot was incase the attack side of it had no effect, so the gamble wasn't that great, but any gamble in this situation was a large one. Several of the wing shards started forming a massive, halo like ring swirling in the air between machman and XIII, the energy around them visibly building up in the center of the ring. Just as the energy was being released, he fired a consecutive heatshot, trying to make sure the shotgun-like spread covered as much area as possible.

Summary:
Bubbstar1(20 Water + Bubble Trap + 3 targets) To Magnus
DblBeam1(summon - 40 Null to all Enemies (Red Beam) or- 30 heal to all Allies. (Blue Beam) Random)
Heatshot (40 + 5 Fire) To Magnus (attempting to use the spread to cover a large radius)
Dodge
The DBLBeam turned....Blue! A wave of blue light washed over the battlefield, refreshing XIII and Machman as they continued their assault. This was their last chance, their only chance. It was either win now...Or perish.

Smoke rose up and bubbles rained down, obscuring the battlefield. Machman's shotgun ripped through a layer of smoke, the buckshot marring the ground, but hitting nothing else. Machman healed XIII just in time for Magnus to appear behind the swordsman and deliver a brutal kick to the small of XIII's back. XIII fell forward. Magnus appeared behind Machman and ripped the minibomb from the Navi's hand. He was about to toss the weapon back at XIII and Machman, but a wave of fire caught Magnus full in the chest. The heat caused the bomb to explode and send a shockwave that rippled across the light blue barrier and shatter it once and for all. Unfortunately, Machman wa salso caught in to blast and was knocked to his knees. Magnus stood there, his barrier gone, as the final seconds ticked away.

"Three, two, one..." Magnus intoned. "Finished with seconds to spare. I congratulate you on your teamwork. As you have defeated me, I shall honor my promise and leave SciLabs. And...Since you won with time to spare, I believe further compensation is required. I shall lend you both some of my power for the struggles that await you."

Magnus seemed to blur and two black sacks appeared in his hands. He dropped these sacks to the floor and collected his coat and staff.

"We shall meet again," The Navi promised before blurring completely and vanishing from sight.

Magnus D'Aeon: LEFT'D!
Barrier: SHATTER'D!

Machman: 50
XIII: 50

Terrain: 100% Metal

0 Minutes remaining!!!!

Victory! You are teh winrarest!

Rewards: Both ~ Counter1 and 500z

FXP:
Static ~ 4
Healing ~ 2
Strategy ~ 3
Double Cross Use Share The Love ~ 2

Total FXP: 11!
*While this music is playing in the background*
Machman falls to his knees, his back scorched by the blast of the Minibomb, but the DBLCUBE's healing effects left him with plenty of strength to stand. Machman hears Magnus's congratulations an turns back to him. Machman watches as Magnus drops two bags, hopefully full of goodies, picks up his stuff, and leaves. Machman turns back to XIII as his eyes change back from emerald green to blue and his armor returns to its classic blue and orange colors. Machman then jumps and drives his right fist into the air.

Alright!!! We did it!

A window opens near Machman with Mazer's now relieved face looking at him. Machman touches down and looks back to Mazer.

[I think I can start breathing again now... I guess he is no longer a threat to SciLabs. This Navi... he doesn't seem to be the lying type. He said he wouldn't use any weapons other than his fists and his own innate strength. And he did just that. He followed his own rules to the "T." I just hope we don't run into him again soon, I don't know of any other strategies that could beat him.]

Machman looks inquisitively at the bags. He approaches with caution and gingerly picks them up. He peers inside the bags and smiles as two sets of chip and zenny data flash in the light.

Hey XIII, heads up!

Machman tosses one of the bags to XIII. Mazer looks over to XIII.

[XIII, tell Remii her plan to electrify the entire stage was a godsend. After our first salvo turned up bingo hits, I was at a loss on how to hit him. Everything we could do would be affected by a time shift. Though, I would of thought Magnus would have at least jumped to avoid getting hit by the current in the floor. I guess he just thought we would repeat our first attacks again with a little more tenacity.]

Machman pulls out the data and uploads it into the PET. He then dusts himself off and touches his back gingerly.

Ouch. Remind me not to do that again... XIII! You were awesome out there! We would have been dissolving bits of data by now if you didn't electrify the floor. I'm just glad my "Navi bomb" trap finally broke his barrier.

((Zanallen, thanks for the very exciting and mind-provoking battle!))
((Indeed, you rock Zanellan. That was really good, made it both a tough battle and an enthralling plot. And Mazer, major kudos for the victoly music. Next time, I'll see if we can get the victory part of the Minibosses' megaman 2 score. Damn thats a great band.))

XIII caught the bag just as his soul cross data dispersed and smiled at his busting partner. He looked like sh*t, bleeding slightly form many places, some even running into his mouth from just below his eye. he even tasted the salty-ness, which added to the curiosity of his damage simulation system, but right now he was glad simply to be able to stand after a battle like that.
"Hey what about that last minute heatshot I pulled off? if it wasn't for that, the bomb wouldn't have gone off in his hand." He said with a joking tone. XIII wasn't seriously concerned about that at all really, more exalted that he had enough foresight to upload the data ahead of time. "But yeah, that was some stroke of genius Kasu- er, Remii."

Kasumi was triumphantly standing akimbo (with hands on both hips), laughing like a mad man. "Thats because I'm the greatest genius in the world!" She calmed down a bit and looked at Mazer. "But you did really well yourself, Mazer. I mean, really, you picked up on the floor electrification, a normal operator probably would have taken some time to realize what I was trying to do."
A quick mind is better than a quick body.

[Took the words right out of my mouth, Machman. Ms. Misumaru, due to the security alert in the network, I think we may have trouble jacking out this deep. We may have to get closer to the entrance to get out of here.]

(Translated: We only need 8 FXP for a Level 2 cross. You wanna go for it?)
((sure why not. I like your kind of crazy.))

Kasumi nodded. She had been attempting a set up point for jacking out, but the firewalls were too thick. Apparently the security had jsut reactivated them.

"Lead the way Machman." XIII said. Despite the fact that he looked like crap, XIII still seemed to have a lot of energy.
Machman turns back to the direction of the exit and starts to walk at a comfortable pace.

If we encounter any sort of viruses, lets be sure to heal our wounds and fight conservatively. We can't get deleted after all we have been through. These Counter1 chips from Magnus will work perfectly for this job. I'd also use that DblBeam chip to cut down the enemies quickly.

Machman continues to make his way back. Though still excited about the victory over Magnus, he continues to survey the area carefully.

(prepared for battle #6)