Browsing the blogs.

Psi exited the gate....

The area around the Net-Square hyperlink was bustling with activity. This area of Sci-Lab's Network, like the Net-Square, was devoid of viruses of any kind. It served as a sort of travel hub that branched out into the various sections of the local network, both public and restricted. And, as always, there were literally hundreds of Navis (both generic and custom) and Programs moving through this vast space. They were all here for various reasons; be it civilians passing through, network delivery services dropping off or picking up orders, Net Police guards patrolling the area, or Sci-Lab personnel going about their daily business on the net.

Psi was one such civilian, and his business lie elsewhere. The small Navi darted quietly through the crowds of obsolete Progs and Navigators as he made his way purposefully towards one of the gateway lobby exits. He would have much preferred parkouring his way around the crowd, but he knew the boorish guards, likely having nothing better to do with their processing time, would take exception the moment he tried it. They certainly had the last time he was here, at any rate.

Psi made it to the exit that led to the news sites in this Network without much fuss or bother, and proceeded to leave the relative safety of the gateway's protected zone.

"Protected is boring anyway." Psi muttered to himself as he ventured out into the Network.
As Psi went outside of the NetSquare's boundaries, he went along a small strip of glowing ground, meant for Navigators to find their way to the NetSquare. A short walk (float?) along it was his ticket to a chance encounter with a few viruses along the way. A Canodumb blocked the lighted strip, with two Bunnies flanking it on either side. The Bunnies saw Psi's advance, and bounded towards him, ready to fight!

-- VIRUSES --
Bunny A: 50 HP (Metal)
Bunny B: 50 HP (Metal)
Canodumb: 50 HP (Solar)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
10% Solar (Tiny strip running down middle)
90% Metal

-- BATTLE 01, READY? START!! --
"Scarcely a minute out of the gate, and already I find hackers have littered my path with garbage." Psi muttered to himself upon detecting the viruses far ahead. It was true, he hadn't been on the net for even a minute. More insulting, or perhaps telling, was that the first blog site was no more than a few dozen panels beyond the group of viruses. Which meant... "Warren, I think there's been a viral bombing in this area, and within the last hour, no less. I'm not even to NanoPengi's site yet, and, already, viruses."

"Really?" Warren sounded more interested than surprised. Viruses didn't usually appear until well past the second stop on this circuit, but they did appear. He'd been expecting them.... only later. "Very curious.... Anything notable?"

"Nah. It's just a basic CannonDumb and a couple of Bunnies. Amateur stuff." Psi chuckled to himself. "I can even see the entrance to the web site just beyond them. Send me a Spreader2 or any flavor of ElementalRage to swat them with, and you'll be browsing NanoPengi in ten seconds or less."

There was a long pause before Warren responded... "Uhh... how does a Shotgun, a Cannon, and a RageClaw1 sound, instead?"

There was a bit of uncertainty in Warren's voice, which caused Psi to laugh almost in spite of himself. "Hah! That sounds a lot like a shot at the chip trader to me. So about that Spreader...."

Another long pause, and Warren gave Psi the bad news: "Normally, I would agree with you. However, it would appear that my chip case is missing."

Psi began to slow down, eventually coming to a stop a safe distance outside of engagement range with the viruses. Then it hit him: "..... WHAT?!"

"I had it before I got on the bus, but I don't have it now." Warren sighed. "All I have left are those three chips, which, ironically enough, were going into the trader tomorrow while we would be visiting ACDC. They weren't in the case... just loose in my pockets."

Psi, shaking with a mix of negative emotions, was quick to jump to the worst conclusions... "Which explains why the thief didn't need to spend an extra moment opening the case to remove those chips and throw them out the nearest window, I imagine." There was an unspoken 'I would have done just that' with regards to those three chips. Psi thought of them as trash, things to be disposed of and soon forgotten, in much the same way he regarded the viruses clustered ahead.

"Oh, come now... It probably just fell out of my pack." Warren wasn't ready to embrace Psi's darker views on the workings of the world, as he was aware this was all probably a simple mistake. "The ride up here was something else, let me tell you." Indeed it was. Warren was still sore. "Anyway, I'll just call the Metro-Line dispatch office in the morning, and see if anyone turned in my case. Until then..."

"...We'll just have to make do." Psi finished for his operator in a half mocking tone before he groaned agitatedly. He flapped his wings to relieve stress (a nervous habit of sorts), and then became still for a couple of seconds. Eventually he spoke up in an even tone: "Alright; I get it. Send me what we have, and I'll do something about the viruses."

"Good to hear." Warren's voice added, with a hint of amusement in the man's tone. "Show me you still got it, Psi."

The moment the chip data arrived in Psi's memory banks, the tiny Navigator locked his wings into combat position. He took off towards the viruses, his covering plates sliding open to expose portions of his physics drive. He entered engagement range of the viruses; the point of no return where both he and the viruses could both attack one another at last. This was it....

Psi's emblem flashed, and suddenly things got strange... As far as any observer could see, Psi had just shifted direction to circle-strafe around to the right and to the left, at the same time. There were two images of the Navi, one real, one not, but who could tell? Both Navis had sprung from a single source seamlessly, and both were mirroring each other with exacting precision as they prepared to attack the viruses from two sides.

"Dance for me, little rabbits, dance." The two Psi clones said darkly as a cluster of four small light sources began to form in the air around each of the two images of the Navi. Each cluster was somewhat reminiscent of a constellation of stars as they pulsed brighter with gathering photonic energy. The miniature spheres of light went nova as the two images of Psi each released bolts of light, one after the other, at the Bunny virus on the left while they continued along their arcs. The bolts of light converged upon the targeted coordinates, and exploded into pairs of star bursts.

As the last of the bolts shot towards the chosen target, Psi used his driver to capture minuscule amounts of energy along the outer spherical edge of his drive field. He then channeled the quickly captured energy, starting from the back, towards a point on the sphere between him and the second Bunny virus. To an observer, it appeared the two Psi clones had raised a pathetically weak energy field, perhaps a failed barrier, at first. A jagged wave then spread outwards along the surface of the sphere from behind each clone as the field disintegrated. The wave gathered in intensity as it swept across the sphere, gathering all of the collected low grade energy in its path into itself as it went. The ripple eventually reached the front of the sphere, and collapsed in on itself as it merged into a point... and exploded.

An expanding ring-like shockwave shot outwards as a large blue bullet of energy shot towards the Bunny from each of the two Psis. The Shotgun bolt from the Psi on the right was real, and would most likely strike the CannonDumb if the bunny didn't dodge it. But which bolt would the Bunny dodge? There were two bolts, coming at it in a V pattern. If the Bunny didn't dodge it, then it too could join the cannon virus in oblivion for all Psi cared.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
-- Clone Tech: Decoy
1: Dodge (secretly to the right)
2: Photon Burst @ BunnyA [(10 Null + Slashing + Blast1) x 4 Shots; 1 TCD]
3: Shotgun @ BunnyB/CannonDumb (50 Null + Spread1)
Splitting himself into two, Psi confuddled the enemy Bunnies as they were confused as to which one they wanted to attack. The attack after the split was even more confusing, as they were then pierced by the anomalous bolts, though they managed to evade a few. (10x2) The Canodumb had a hard time picking as well, and simply went for locking onto the image. Afterwards, blue bolts of Shotgun-imbued power went rocketing across the field, confuddling the Bunnies further and destroying one along with the Canodumb behind it.

-- VIRUSES --
Bunny A: 30 HP (Metal)
Bunny B: DELETED
Canodumb: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
10% Solar (Tiny strip running down middle)
90% Metal
As the energy blast plowed through and deleted the Bunny to strike the Cannondumb, likewise deleting it in a spectacular light show, Psi locked onto the coordinates of his mirror image. The Navi took the opportunity presented by this distraction to generate a fresh holographic image inside the boundaries of the old one, effecting a seamless transition from the current, and soon to fail, hologram to the new one. To further prevent the target from having any chance of figuring out the second Psi was a fake, the real Psi also started up his Shielding protocols. A simple outline of a circle drew itself very quickly in the space before both Navi images. The glowing circle then bled a sheet of blue color along the forward edge of the invisible sphere that made up Psi's drive field. The cerulean energy wash formed a transparent convex energy field that stabilized into calmness before the color faded into nothingness. If that bit of CG didn't cover up any mistakes in the decoy swap, nothing else Psi could try would do so.

With the now-invisible shield guarding Psi's forward arc, the Navi and his Decoy both picked up speed as they arced in towards the lone Bunny virus. As the two accelerated towards the target, the edge of Psi's drive field lit up once again. The wave motion firing sequence from earlier proceeded to repeat itself right up until the moment before it fired. However, this time it shot a smaller, teardrop-shaped projectile that visibly shoved the air out of its way as the cannon shot plowed towards the target.

The decoy mirrored everything, from shield to shot, forcing the Bunny to choose which attacker to react to... Not that I particularly care. As far as I am concerned, this virus is doomed to the inevitable.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
--Clone Tech: Maintain Decoy
1: Shield (1-Hit Shield, Forward)
2: Advance
3: Cannon @ BunnyA (40 Null + Knockback)
Preserving the illusion of the twin Psi, the drive unit-Navi proceeded to lift a shield before him just as the Bunny decided to screw it and fire at one of them, with that one being the real Psi. The attempt was foiled soundly by the shielding, and the Bunny got a taste of the Cannon chip.

-- VIRUSES --
Bunny A: DELETED
Bunny B: DELETED
Canodumb: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
10% Solar (Tiny strip running down middle)
90% Metal

-- BATTLE 01, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --

[ZapRing1] Battlechip, 300z
Psi banished the decoy and came to a stop following the defeat of the last Bunny virus. "Amateurs. They never get any smarter, do they..." He lowered his wings and floated there for a moment while he downloaded the leftover data from the field. "I miss fighting Navigators already."

"You mean you miss punching them out with our chips." Warren corrected, only half seriously.

"I miss our chips. Have you seen them?" Psi muttered rancidly to himself as he collected the ZapRing1 chip. He instantly regretted muttering as he had. His operator was perhaps the only living being in the universe he actually had any respect for. A great deal of respect, even. Psi sighed as he sent the data back to the PET, his drive color changing from blue to a deep bluish-purple.

Warren chose to ignore what little of Psi's mutterings he could hear. It was true, losing that chip case had been a crippling blow to their usual way of operating on the Net. But there was always tomorrow, when Warren could check in and see if anyone had turned in his case. Until then, he only needed to distract his Navi from thinking about it... "So how 'bout that blog site?" ...And there was also that.

"I'll be loading the page for you momentarily," Psi said as he floated over to the NanoPengi link and disappeared from the Net.

---- Twenty minutes later....

Psi emerged from NanoPengi's technical web blog, and immediately took off along the lighted strip of solar panels. His next destination was Belfast Avatar's web blog, which was a little further out from the gate facility than NanoPengi's site. Warren and Psi hadn't shared any of the insight either of them had gleaned from their reading material just yet. They would do that later, after visiting all of the blog sites.

((Ready for Battle2))
A stroll through the SciLab networks along the tiny strip of road led Psi to a much larger roadway, probably designed for more throughput of Navis. It looked kind of deserted that day for some reason, however, with only one or two passers-by that walked/hovered by without a second glance. Finding the entrance to the blog site just up ahead, Psi found it blocked, yet again, by viruses. This time, a DBLCUBE hovered near a duo of Kabutanks, looking menacingly in Psi's direction. They fired a warning shot above his head, which exploded behind him. Clearly, they wanted a fight.

-- ENEMIES --
Kabutank A: 50 HP (Metal)
Kabutank B: 50 HP (Metal)
DBLCUBE: 100 HP (Solar)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
30% Solar (Widened road)
60% Metal (Everywhere else)
10% Magnet (Scattered around)

-- BATTLE 02, READY? START!! --
Psi saw the formation of viruses ahead, and sighed as he came to a stop a good distance away from them. When he spoke, he sounded very disapproving. "Really, guys.... Really, now?"

"What's the problem?" Warren asked over his audio-only link. There was no video communication software in this PET, at all, as blind men had no use for it.

"There's a group of viruses standing guard, yes, standing guard in front of the web link. Since when do viruses stand guard over the very web pages they were made to destroy?" Psi observed with mounting disbelief as the viruses turned towards him. "Great, now they see me."

"Hahaha, chill Psi." Warren began as he started slotting in the meager selection of chips they had on hand. "I'm pretty sure you can handle things just fine."

"Oh, that I can. It's just annoying to have to waste the time necessary to mow the mindless beasties down. It's about as interesting as trimming the lawn is for you humans."

"I don't have a lawn, Psi."

"Smart man." Psi shook his head as the Kabutank's bomb went sailing over his head. His tone was entirely mocking as he continued speaking. "Oh look, the weeds are threatening me." Psi's drive field began to spark and shimmer with currents of electricity as his wings rose and locked into place. "Whatever shall I do now that that pest is locked into a reload cycle... Oh, I know!" The electricity surged towards a point directly in front of Psi's emblem, and concentrated. "Terminate it." With that final statement, an electrified ripple beam pulsed from the leading edge of Psi's drive field and flew towards the virus on the right... The same one that had fired the warning shot.

With the strange projectile away, Psi turned took off in a leftward arc meant to flank the viruses. As he began to move, a perfect holographic copy of himself separated and mirrored his movements along a rightward arc. For a fraction of a second before the two images separated, the viruses were treated to an astigmatic double-vision image of overlapping Psis. There was literally no way to tell the real apart from the fake.

The two images of Psi captured a thin layer of bluish-purple colored energy along the outer edge of their spherical drive fields. As the two images raced away from each other, the energy field started to quickly vanish as a jagged wave washed across the surface of each sphere, collecting the captured energy as it went. The wave, now more akin to a collapsing ring, shrunk in on itself as it converged upon the focal point... and exploded towards the viruses as a large bluish-purple energy bullet from each of the images of Psi.

The Shotgun data imbued wave blasts were aimed at the second Kabutank virus, although only the shot coming from the left Psi was real. If the virus didn't quickly make itself scarce, the wave cannon blast would very likely vaporize the artillery virus as it shot clean through it without slowing down, and most likely strike the much larger DoubleCube beyond it. If it missed... well... there were other uses for a perfectly healthy Kabutank.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
1: ZapRing1 @ KabutankA (40[x2] Elec + Stun1)
--Clone Tech: Decoy
2: Dodge (secretly to the left)
3: Shotgun @ KabutankB/DBLCube (50 Null + Spread1)
Irritated by the unworthy viruses in front of him, Psi started off the battle with a ZapRing set into his drive, firing a beam towards one of the Kabutanks. It roasted the virus, leaving the remaining in a bit of a state of shock. The Kabutank attempted to fire one of its explosives at Psi, but was completely dumbfounded as the Navigator split his "existence" in two. The bomb sailed far off into the distance. Afterwards, the Navigator produced a jagged wave, which then exploded towards the other Kabutank and the cube behind it in the form of a purple bullet. The cube left behind attempted to fire a red laser at Psi, but missed its mark.

-- ENEMIES --
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: DELETED
DBLCUBE: 50 HP (Solar)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
30% Solar (Widened road)
60% Metal (Everywhere else)
10% Magnet (Scattered around)
Psi watched as the wave cannon shot vaped the Kabutank on its way to crash into the side of the DoubleCube. He fully expected the strange cube-like virus to retaliate properly, now that he'd actually hit it. And sure enough, it did. A red laser beam suddenly appeared, stretching from the virus, past the Navi, and into the ground instantly. Upon noting the scorch mark the beam left upon the ground... "Woooooooooooooow!" Psi's voice was incredulous as he blurted out: "Seriously? Did that virus really just miss me?"

Warren couldn't help but say something when his little bundle of arrogance he called a Navigator said something like that. "You sound surprised that a virus missed you, Psi?" He paused to laugh in disbelief for a moment. "Are you sure you're okay? Using these 'trader fodder' chips hasn't finally gotten to you has it?"

"This and that are two separate issues." Psi grumbled before continuing in his usual tone of voice. "But, no... This virus is packing a faster-than-light beam weapon. And somehow, it managed to miss me with it. If anything, I am duly impressed by the amount of fail it takes to miss someone with a hit-scan weapon at this range." Psi sounded somewhat disgusted by the time he finished his rant.

While several relevant counterpoints occurred to Warren, he knew better than to offer any sort of counter argument in this case. Anything the man said could easily be interpreted by Psi in a way that would inflate the Navi's ego, and he knew it. Warren would much rather listen to Psi badmouth the virus, which was at least amusing, than sit through the insufferable alternative. So the operator said nothing, while doing his best not to laugh at his Navigator, who was for all intents and purposes, complaining he'd not been hit by an attack.

As Psi's decoy expired, fading away into nothingness, the Navi began preparing to fire his Photon Burst attack. He trapped masses of photons at the edge of his drive field in four different places as he continued to travel around the remaining virus. Once the reservoirs of light particles were sufficient, he opened holes in his drive field to allow them to escape. The end result was a 4 shot burst of bluish-purple beams that lanced through the air towards the remaining virii's coordinates. They exploded into jagged star bursts upon reaching their destination, regardless of whether or not they actually hit anything first.

With the light show as a distraction, Psi generated a fresh defensive shield between himself and the DoubleCube as he muttered to himself: "As retarded as this virus is, a laser is a laser. Even retards can get lucky with one of those." The bluish-purple defense field faded into transparency just in time for the edge of Psi's drive field to turn the same color all over again. This time, the Navi was capturing energy from out of the air in preparation for firing a Cannon shot. The wavy line that indicated he was focusing the energy to fire a shot swept its way across the sphere until it converged upon the focal point he would attack from. The process was swift, taking a bit less than a second from start to finish, and the strange teardrop shaped energy bolt soon leaped into existence. The bluish-purple bullet was ringed by shockwaves of smashed atoms as it plowed through the air on its way towards its target.

<!-- THE SUMMARY -->
1: Photon Burst @ DBLCube [(10 Null + Slashing + Blast1) x 4 Shots; 1 TCD]
2: Shield (1-Hit Shield)
3: Cannon @ DBLCube (40 Null + Knockback)
Clearly (and oddly) annoyed that he hadn't been hit by the DBLCUBE's attack, Psi proceeded to rant while his operator avoided commenting. When he finished with his critique of the virus's lasering skills, Psi prepared a barrage of explosive beams and let them fly. The attacks all hit their target dead on, leaving it on the verge of deletion. Psi put up a shield while charging his next attack, and the Cannon blast was soon flying at the DBLCUBE.

In the few seconds before the attack hit, the cube virus probably wished it had been better with its laser.

-- ENEMIES --
Kabutank A: DELETED
Kabutank B: DELETED
DBLCUBE: DELETED

-- TERRAIN --
30% Solar (Widened road)
60% Metal (Everywhere else)
10% Magnet (Scattered around)

Battle 2 Complete!

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP (Solar)

Reward: 350z

Psi downloaded the Zenny data, and hurried into the web link without a word. There was nothing to be said for the previous battle. Psi wasn't wasting any more processing time on the matter.

---- Twenty-five minutes later....

Psi emerged from the web site, his markings having changed to a yellowish-green. He was also in the middle of an argument with his Operator.... "And I'm telling you we wasted our time in there. Belfast Avatars is just a custom CG contracting company. They deal in color porn."

"Yes, that's true, Psi." Warren began, unmoved by his Navi's words. "And that article on adaptive graphics modeling may prove useful in the future. In fact, I have some ideas for how to use it."

"And what possible use do we, of all people, have for graphics?" Psi flapped his wings agitatedly. "I couldn't care less about appearance, and you're a blind man. I really don't see how you can make use of that article on color porn. You don't have any concept of what color IS, Warren."

"I can see just fine, thanks to my braille monitor, Psi. Remember, I also wrote your graphics package, in addition to your code, myself." Warren countered in a lecturing tone. "Graphics have an important role for us, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not. This is especially true in matters of business, where presentation is as important as the information presented. Perception is vital, thus presentation is crucial."

"What, like this decoy?" Psi said as he produced a holographic clone of himself. The decoy faded away almost immediately as Psi continued speaking. "The only business that's good for is trash disposal." By 'trash disposal', Psi of course meant busting viruses and defeating Navigators. Both of which he regarded as 'trash'.

Warren realized he wasn't getting anywhere with this argument, so he changed direction a bit: "Paradigms are important. You'll understand."

"So sayeth the blind man."

"Indeed. Now about my page load times...."

"Erk." Psi realized he'd not moved one bit closer to the next blog site since exiting the Belfast Avatars site. "Right then." The Navi said as he returned to the lighted strip and accelerated towards the next destination: Netopia Technological Industries.

((Ready for Battle3))
Heading towards the Netopian Technological Industries site, Psi found himself on a much more bland area to start with, devoid of any pretty shiny leading pathways to anywhere. He had his directions all worked out, though, so it wasn't a worry. However, as he was approaching the site, he found a small Twisty virus accompanied by two Boomer viruses at its sides. That wasn't the only thing, however, when Psi detected a presence behind him, which was a Bunny that was trying to be sneaky or something. Its bounding was clanking on the metal, so it was fairly obvious anyway.

-- ENEMIES --
Boomer A: 60 HP [Front, left of Twisty]
Boomer B: 60 HP [Front, right of Twisty]
Twisty: 80 HP [Front]
Bunny: 50 HP [Back] (2 moves away)

-- NAVIGATOR --
Psi.XNA: 100 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

-- BATTLE 03, READY? START!! --