The First Test.

Voyager found the Network to be a truly fascinating place, and saw much that drew his attention almost everywhere he went. The Navi wasn't used to working with an operator, and said very little to Paul whilst exploring the Network. In fact, so taken with the surroundings was he, that the Navi had all but forgotten about Paul's watchful existence. Had Voyager a face to express himself with, the Navi's child-like sense of wonderment would be on display for all to see. However, since Voyager did not possess this simple quality that most humans took for granted, his only physical means of expressing his insatiable curiosity looked more like a silently hyper-alert state that perhaps bordered on paranoid instead than anything.

Regardless of how it looked, or how it truly was, Voyager's heightened state of awareness allowed him to detect the group of viruses in his path from a great distance away. "I see a group of something ahead." While he did not know what they were, precisely, he did reckon that they were in fact viruses since they appeared in a group and looked identical. "I am not certain, but I think they are viruses. Could you check for me?"

Paul looked at the readouts on the PET: they showed absolutely nothing within range. "Really? Because I don't see anything."

"What?" Voyager did not understand why that was. "They are in a cluster ahead of me."

"There is nothing on my monitor, Voyager." Paul said in a flat, skeptical tone while quietly wondering if Voyager was defective. "And I'm scanning at max range."

"Lame." Voyager said as he mulled that over for a few seconds.

In that few seconds, the Navi moved close enough that Paul's PET picked them up at last. "Wait, I see them." He read the data on the monitor. "Yes, those are Twisty viruses. Five of them."

"Five?" Voyager sounded unsure as he looked upon the ten viral forms clustered ahead. "I see ten."

"The floating ones are Remote Bits." Paul explained. "Look closely. They don't have HP readings."

Voyager did as instructed. "Oh. You're right."

Of course I am. Paul thought to himself while he continued speaking. "The main body of the virus is the stationary controller on the ground. Attack that to damage the virus, but be sure to avoid getting fried by a Remote Bit in the meantime."

"Fried?" Voyager asked in an unsteady tone.

"If I recall correctly..." Paul began in an 'oh by the way' tone of voice while tapping his chin with his fingers. "...They shoot thunderbolts from a coil on the bottom that are powerful enough to blast holes in the ground."

"Oh... Wonderful...." Voyager said as he looked down at the metallic ground. He looked back up at the viruses as he neared, and felt just a wee bit apprehensive. He looked around for a detour, but saw none that didn't lead to a dead end. If Voyager wanted to advance, then it would have to be through these viruses. And that was something he was not looking forward to.

Voyager's operator did nothing to help matters by adding: "Have fun out there."

If Voyager could scowl, he would be doing so right now. Fun my shiny metal a-- Wait a second. A plan began to formulate in the exploration Navi's mind while he stared at the Twisty viruses and their slow moving Remote Bits. It was a silly plan, and a reckless one. However, in the time it took Voyager to come up with it, he'd entered combat range of the viruses, so he was stuck with it.

"Here goes." Voyager muttered as he summoned a little courage, turned up the power on his Delta Drives, and charged straight at the Twisties. Fortunately for him, he was already traveling at a decent pace on his roller blades prior to this added burst of acceleration. Anything that helped him close the distance quicker was a good thing at the moment. Besides, it made him harder to hit from above if nothing else.

Voyager hunkered down a bit as he approached the nearest Twisty bit controller... thing. He prepared himself for a combination jump and air brake maneuver that would plant him squarely atop the spiky virus. It was just a matter of cutting off his acceleration, upping the drive plane particle density, and spreading his 'wings'. The dense 'wings' would catch the currents, and lift the Navi right off the ground while dumping speed. A quick tilt of the 'wings' later and he would swoop right onto the virus like a falcon.

Voyager would have little trouble finding his footing atop the Twisty virus, thanks to his articulated bird-like foot parts. They were normally recessed into the bottoms of his legs, and folded up to form a square footing for the Navigator on flat ground. But the designer had understood, or at least guessed, that there would be times when such conveniently even footing was just not to be found. The result, while tested thoroughly previously, would now be employed for the first time in real practical use. If jumping on a virus is something one would or should consider practical, that is.

Once atop the virus, Voyager would watch and wait for a Remote Bit to assume an overhead firing position. In the event that actually happened, the Navi would jump to the next nearest Twisty, and leave his previous perch to get zapped while shooting at one of the more distant viruses with his Buster. If the Remote Bits left Voyager alone, he would just settle for blasting a random Twisty instead. It really didn't matter to him.

--Summary--

S: Gust accelerate @ enemy formation. [Movement/Dodge]
1: Swoop onto TwistyA [Movement/Dodge]
2: Bait & Switch TwistyA to TwistyB [Counter/Dodge]
3*: Charged Photon Burst I @ TwistyE [(4 Elec + Slashing + Blast(1)) x 10 shots ; 1 TCD]

*: 2x Damage [Metal + Elec]

Unfortunately, the Twisty were a little too smart to try and zap something on top of one of their own...a little. One tried to get its RemoteBit on top of Voyager, but promptly got chewed out by another virus. This freed the Navi up to launch a Photon Burst without fear, and managed to land most of the hits, to boot.

-----TWISTED VIRUSES-----
TwistyA: 80 HP
TwistyB: 80 HP
TwistyC: 80 HP
TwistyD: 80 HP
TwistyE: 24 HP

-----UNTWISTED TERRAIN---
100% Metal

-----SEMITWISTED NAVI-----
Voyager.EXE: 100 HP

Voyager belatedly realized he was sort of safe where he was. What's more, he had just witnessed viruses communicating with one another. He had never stopped to think that viruses could possess not only intelligence, but also the capacity for social interaction. Voyager was already unhappy with the idea of fighting viruses that could blast holes in the net at will. He wasn't too proud to admit to himself that he was a tad afraid of that destructive capacity. Perhaps there was a chance he could talk his way out of this?

"Are you done wasting time yet?" Paul asked after having watched the Navi sit there in a thinker's pose atop the Twisty for the past two minutes.

"Say, do I really have to fight these viruses?" Voyager pondered aloud.

"You're asking me after getting yourself smack into the middle of them." Paul said deadpan.

"Well... yes."

Paul sat back in his chair as he laid the situation out for Voyager in no uncertain terms. "Let me put it this way, then: deleting viruses adds resources to our pool. We need them to complete this task. If we don't complete this task, then I don't get hired. If I don't get hired, then I'll bet you get locked away in your PET again collecting dust on a shelf." He leaned towards the screen. "So, if you don't hurry it up, this could be the last time you see the Net for a very long time. Is that what you want?"

"...." Voyager didn't have a response to that. At least, not a response that wasn't insulting to his current Operator.

"Now, back to the business at hand." Paul said as he slotted in a couple of chips. "Use these, and start deleting those viruses, or I'm jacking you out of the Net."

"Despot." Voyager muttered to himself as he stood up and turned towards the damaged Twisty in the distance. Once he was sure he was facing the correct direction, he looked up at the Remote Bits overhead. One or more of these will disappear shortly. That's when I make my break for it. Voyager stomped on the Twisty below him. A Shockwave erupted from the ground, and tore its way across the ground towards the damaged virus. The Navi then followed up by dropping his RageClaw equipped arm on the virus he was standing on.

Voyager watched and waited for the Remote Bits to disappear. His Delta Drives were powered and ready to speed him away on his rollerblades through whatever hole formed in the viral formation. Once he was away, he could focus on further reducing their numbers.

--Summary--
1: Shockwave @ TwistyA & TwistyE [40 Null + Line Attack + Ground Attack]
2: RageClaw1 @ TwistyA [40 Null + Slashing]
3: Make a break for it. [Movement/Dodge]
S: Gust accelerate [Movement/Dodge]

[Gust doesn't add any Wind Attribute to attacks, only Knockback or Pull. Maybe that should have been worded better. "Attacks" in the Terrain topic really only refers to battlechips. Whoops. It does, however, add Blind. Anyway, I'm posting this here because I can't do it on the chat. :'D Edit your post accordingly, and I'll delete this (or someone else) and moderate you.]

Post amended. Delete away, sir.

((Bump?))

((Did all the mods drop dead?))

((Sorry for the long delay))

As the shockwave surfed across the metal panels, it struck the targeted Twisties...and more! The weakened Twisty at the end was deleted while the remaining ones began their counter attack, raining down bolts of electricity down onto Voyager. The navi tried his best and finished off one more of the virus...until an unsuspecting remotebit hovered above him and gave him quiet a shock. [-20 ([b]x2 Terrain Advantage[/b])] Voyager continued on and evaded the rest of the attacks.

-----TWISTED VIRUSES-----
TwistyA: DELETED
TwistyB: 40 HP
TwistyC: 80 HP
TwistyD: 80 HP
TwistyE: DELETED

-----UNTWISTED TERRAIN---
100% Metal

-----SEMITWISTED NAVI-----
Voyager.EXE: 60 HP

Voyager had been attentively watching the Remote Bits hovering around him, and yet that did absolutely nothing to explain why or how he found himself beneath one as if it had learned to teleport. "Wait, when did--" The Navi's bewildered observation was cut short as the Bit lit up his day with two million volts. Voyager would have stood there jerking in place like a poorly operated marionette whilst casting off quite a few sparks, but the Delta Drives he had kept powered up for his escape erred first. He found himself rocketing away like an electric comet on an erratic course across the battlefield for the next several minutes. Try as the teleporting Remote Bits might, they simply couldn't hit the Navi again.

----

Paul was more surprised by the sudden display of enhanced mobility than Voyager was. After all, he knew all about the viruses, unlike his Navi counterpart. I suppose this means a new strain has appeared recently, and this just happens to be my first time seeing it for myself. This is somewhat annoying. Still, it was just a minor annoyance. Of more concern to Paul was the fact that the Navi he was partnered with was zigging and zagging across the battlefield like a fool. A fool who could not hear, apparently, since Paul had been trying to talk to him for the past several minutes before giving up and settling into his chair to wait it out. Looks like we're stuck.

Paul had already slotted in the remaining chips while trying to get Voyager to respond to him. Now that he had nothing else to do at the moment, if occurred to him to try accessing the Navi's menu system. However, his efforts proved fruitless. The man found Voyager's menu interface to be completely different from what he was used to. He quickly got himself four layers deep in drop down windows after a few random selections, and did not know what to make of what he was reading. It was a list of something, but everything was marked with Greek symbols. I am in way over my head. Looks like I will need to read the instruction manual. Paul frowned with an unpleasant thought. Is there a manual?

----

Eventually, Voyager regained control of himself, and managed to straighten out his course. However, as high as his momentum was from the burst release of his over-charged Delta Drives' output, slowing down again could take some time. Especially since said drives were now damaged.... "Rrrowarrrwheeepthzzzzt" And if the mess that sounded like someone trying to play a warped vinyl were any indication, so were Voyager's vocal chords. I am in trouble.

"Back with us, I see?" Paul half asked, half stated in a tone of voice that Voyager had begun to find irritating. "You need to--"

I don't have time for you. Voyager thought with agitation as he muted the communication channel, and ran a quick self diagnostic. He allowed the diagnostic cycle to run until it detected the presence of new battlechip data; then terminated it to eliminate the distraction. He looked at the viruses. I have to delete them before they delete me.

The Busters on both of Voyager's arms popped out while the Navi skated past the first virus at high speed, and a fair distance. The chip data was ready to fire a moment later.... Not good. I could not shoot that one. Voyager raised his right arm to the side, and waited. As soon as he coasted forward enough for the other two Twisty viruses to line up, the Navi fired a Shotgun energy blast from his Buster.

Voyager spread his Delta 'wings' out, and struggled to get the Delta Drive to activate. To the Navi's dismay, the Delta Driver was too toasted by the surge of electricity to apply large quantities of direct force, but it did have enough functionality left to affect local air currents. That's better than nothing. It took several seconds, but the Drive gradually did its job as Voyager felt a breeze begin to blow across his 'wings'. The Navi began to curve back the way he'd come with his 'wings' steering him.

As Voyager made his course change, the Twisty he had passed earlier came back into view. He lifted his left arm, pointed the Buster at the damaged virus, and fired a Cannon energy blast at it opportunistically. The Navi waited a few more seconds for his course to change a little more, but the Delta Driver went into emergency cool down before he had the vector he wanted. No, no, no. Just a little more. Come on.... Argh! This left Voyager with a course that crossed the line he needed it to cross, but not at the angle he would have preferred. Tough. It'll do. He thought to himself as he loaded the last Shotgun he had into his left Buster. He waited until just before the two targets lined up again to raise his arm towards them. As soon as they were lined up, he fired a second Shotgun energy blast at them, and continued to coast onward.

--Summary--
1: Shotgun @ TwistyC & TwistyD [50 Null + Spread]
S: Gust vector change [Movement]
2: Cannon @ TwistyB [40 Null + Knockback]
3: Shotgun @ TwistyC & TwistyD [50 Null + Spread]

Voyager strafed by the viruses, unleashing a shotgun blast at one of the Twistys. The spread of energy shredded one virus, ripping through it and beyond but fell short of damaging a second virus. The injured virus countered with a jolt of electricity from a remote bit. Voyager attempted to shift vectors and avoid the sudden charge of energy, but he wasn't fast enough and was grazed by the lightning bolt [-20].

Voyager's second attack deleted one of the Twistys while his third deleted another and wounded the last. Both Navi and virus were injured. A few moments would decide the final outcome of this battle.

-----TWISTED VIRUSES-----
TwistyA: DELETED
TwistyB: DELETED
TwistyC: 30 HP
TwistyD: DELETED
TwistyE: DELETED

-----UNTWISTED TERRAIN---
100% Metal

-----SEMITWISTED NAVI-----
Voyager.EXE: 40 HP

Voyager would have cringed had he a face to cringe with. He was in a lot of pain at the moment, especially after having suffered another electrifying jolt from the tenacious Remote Bit. Further, he couldn't feel anything from his left arm. One look at the severely discolored metal around a blackened crater where his buster used to be would tell anyone that feeling nothing from it was a very good thing. Another silver lining to Voyager's current predicament was that his Delta Driver had been shut down at the time he was struck. If it had been online in its badly damaged state, that second electrical surge could have irreparably damaged it.

Still, there was one virus remaining. And this virus had more than proven its ability to attack Voyager anytime, anywhere. There was no running from it. This virus would have to be deleted before the Navi could even think about repairs. That is, assuming Voyager survived that long. And that little thought made the young Navi silently curse his Operator for forcing him into this situation.

Voyager, now deprived of his Delta Driver, began to push forward with his legs to gain speed on his roller blades. Anyone watching the Navi do this, such as Paul, would have found it to be a profoundly strange experience. Voyager's legs bent forwards just as easily as they bent backwards, and they swiveled and rotated in inhuman ways as well. As a result, the Navi was able to consistently apply more mechanical force upon his pair of over sized skating wheels and apply it at a faster pace than a Human ever could. And all of that translated into acceleration.

Once Voyager was managing a good turn of speed, he waited for an ominous, and by now, familiar shadow to appear. As soon as it did, the Navi would lean sharply to the left, and execute a razor sharp turn towards the only remaining Twisty virus. With the Remote Bit hopefully thrown off by the sudden vector change, Voyager would raise his right arm, and fire a lethal burst from his only remaining gun as he approached the target head-on.

--Summary--
1: Manually skate. [Movement]
2: Sharp Turn. [Dodge]
3*: Charged Photon Burst I @ TwistyC [(4 Elec + Slashing + Blast(1)) x 10 shots ; 1 TCD]

*: 2x Damage [Metal + Elec]

Making the best of things, Voyager went with the manual path, skating along the shining metal floor, biding his time, until finally, he released a few bursts of energy towards the Twisty, deleting it handily. The Remote Bit that was hovering ominously above Voyager's head just a few moments ago dropped unceremoniously to the ground, now devoid of its controller. Fortunately for Voyager, it seemed to have stabilized, and didn't disintegrate!

-----TWISTED VIRUSES-----
TwistyA: DELETED
TwistyB: DELETED
TwistyC: DELETED
TwistyD: DELETED
TwistyE: DELETED

-----UNTWISTED TERRAIN---
100% Metal

-----SEMITWISTED NAVI-----
Voyager.EXE: 40 HP

-- BATTLE 03, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --
[RemoteBit1] Battlechip, 450z

[PS: You misspelled "Operator" in your signature, I believe.]

Paul was appalled at the degree of damage Voyager had sustained from just two attacks, and not just in terms of HP, either. Where to begin? The Navi's verbal communication system was shorted out. The light wings the Navi had been using until now had overloaded, discharged uncontrollably, and then overheated and shut down. They were still glowing a dull red color this very second. There were numerous scorch marks where electricity had arced freely across the Navi's body, which left rainbow hued discolorations all across the formerly pristine silver surface. Such damage was worrisome on a modern Navigator, and Paul couldn't understand how it had happened.

The fact of the matter was, Voyager was not designed with combat in mind. He lacked even the most basic of protective shielding, such as a Body Suit and the Navi Armor worn over it that were both a standard feature on even Generic Navigators from previous decades. It goes without saying that such features were standard issue on today's Navigators, and yet Voyager had none of it. His 'skin', while metallic, was little better than a tin foil covering to keep random debris, like sand and water, from fouling his inner workings. In this respect, the Navi was more like the average Human than most, since he had no resistance to combat damage whatsoever. This would have to be corrected somehow if Voyager was to survive his eventual deep exploration of every Network.

For now, Paul slotted in a Mini-Energy subchip, and hoped that would do. It would also be nice if that idiot would un-mute me.

----

Voyager skated his way back towards the fallen Remote Bit. He rolled to a stop next to the inactive weapon, and stared at it for a few moments. This thing has caused me so much pain. And yet, it looks harmless like this. It was at this point that he remembered he had muted Paul, and undid that little setting. Voyager was about to tell his Operator, but a burst of static from his vocal apparatus killed that idea. I do not like these annoyances. At least make yourself useful. Was Voyager's thought as he picked the heavy Remote Bit up off the ground, and held it over his head with no trouble at all.

Paul laughed as the rain of Zenny fell upon the Remote Bit. "Pfft. Hahahaha!"

The Mini-Energy kicked in, and repaired all the critical damage to Voyager. "What's so funny?" Hey, I can talk again.

"Absurdity." Paul said after a minute or so. "Pure absurdity." He completely forgot to chew the Navi out for muting him.

"If you say so." Voyager mumbled while putting the Remote Bit down. He highlighted everything in the vicinity, cut, and pasted to the PET. It occurred to him, belatedly, that he could have tried to copy and paste the Remote Bit. He resolved to try that the next time he salvaged data from the Net. Maybe next time. Voyager thought as he turned away, and continued on.

((Ready for battle 4, also used a Mini-Energy.))

((3 day bump.))

Voyager continued to go where no Navi had gone before...aside from the dozens that had already done so. And by resuming his trek, he eventually stumbled across a group of more electrical viruses...and a couple of others that were there for no readily apparent reason. Regardless, they seemed more than happy to give him a fight.

On the plus side, if he looked at the ground, there were a few patches that absorbed and reflected light. That couldn't be a bad thing...could it?

---ELEVIRUSES...AND TWO FREELOADERS---
ElecOgreA: 120 HP (Normal)
ElecOgreB: 120 HP (Normal)
EleBallA: 80 HP (Solar)
EleBallB: 80 HP (Solar)
Catack: 120 HP (Normal)
WindBox: 100 HP (Normal)

---SUNNY TERRAIN---
60% Normal, 40% Solar (in 4 patches of 10% each scattered in each cardinal direction of the battlefield)

---ELENAVI---
Voyager.EXE: 90 HP (Solar)

- BATTLE FOUR, READY
- AT LEAST IT'S NOT CONSTANTLY RAINING LIGHTNING
- GO

Voyager was busy running self diagnostics on all the damage he sustained, and wasn't paying as much attention to the net around him as he should have been. He was also running his right hand across his now repaired left arm in wonderment. Sure, it still hurt a bit, but it looked normal... save for a little discoloration here and there. His voice worked again, too. That was something Voyager was especially happy about. But that happiness didn't last long.

"Pay attention." Paul said suddenly.

Voyager looked up, and saw that he was about to roll right into the middle of a new group of viruses. "Whoa!" The Navi braked immediately, but it was far too late to avoid them. He twisted sideways and skidded to a stop upon a patch of glowing panels. Voyager found himself staring down the gun barrel of a viral tank from only a handful of meters away. "Is it wrong to hope that that is just a camera?"

"That's a tank." Paul said with strained patience at the Navi's abysmal ignorance. "Hope all you want while it blasts you to smithereens."

"Better idea." Voyager said as he pointed his right hand at one of the floaty-mask-thingies (an ElecOgre), and activated one of his Delta Drives. He commanded the drive to summon a gale with a wave of his extended hand from the floaty-mask-thingy to the... tank (Catack). Voyager was pretty sure the floating mask would catch the wind like a sail, and crash straight into the tank. This would hopefully disrupt them both, and keep them from attacking him. At the very least, it should ruin their aim. But, just to be on the safe side, he fired a Shotgun energy blast at the two viruses.

"You realize you are wide open for the rest of these viruses, right?" Paul chided as he slotted in another couple of battlechips.

"If the last battle has taught me anything, it is that there are just too many of them to dodge." Voyager responded while he summoned a Twisty to stand before him. "I do not even know what they are capable of. So this is the best chance I've got to avoid personal injury." He crouched down behind the Twisty, and raised his left arm towards the Eleball in that direction. The Navi spoke to the summoned Virus: "I've got the one on the left. You take the one on the right." The Twisty buzzed something back at him as a RemoteBit materialized above the second Eleball, and fired a bolt of lightning that punched a hole clean through the battlefield.

In that same moment, Voyager fired a Cannon energy blast at the first Eleball from his repaired Buster unit. If he couldn't kill it, he could at least jar it, or push it out of firing position to buy himself some time.

--Summary--
S: Gust blast floaty-mask-thingy ElecOgreB into Catack
1: Shotgun @ ElecOgreB & Catack [50 Null + Spread]
2: RemoteBit1 on Solar Terrain directly in front (100 HP Elec Element Object)
R: Zap EleBallB w/ RemoteBit (80 Elec + PanelBreak)
3: Cannon @ EleBallA [40 Null + Knockback]

Immediately, the WindBox began to spin its inner workings, blowing away the Navi, who proceeded to knock the floating virus over toward the Catack. Voyager then launched a Shotgun over at the virus pair, but the Gust hadn't been 100% successful, and only the ElecOgre took damage; the tank simply wasn't in a straight line with the other enemy. This did NOT sit well with the latter, who fired its cannon towards the electrical Navi, blasting him with its artillery (20). This was responded to with a swift Twisty based lightning drop onto an EleBall, deleting it instantly.

As Voyager proceeded to shoot the other EleBall, knocking it off the elemental terrain in the process, the ElecOgre started to create electricity between their horns. They didn't shoot it off, but it had to be at least a little unnerving...

---ELEVIRUSES...AND TWO FREELOADERS---
ElecOgreA: 120 HP (Normal)
ElecOgreB: 70 HP (Normal)
EleBallA: 40 HP (Normal)
EleBallB: DELETED
Catack: 120 HP (Normal)
WindBox: 100 HP (Normal)

---SUNNY TERRAIN---
50% Normal, 35% Solar (in 3 patches of 10% each scattered in each cardinal direction of the battlefield, other 5% surrounding cracked area), 15% Cracked (small patch around Voyager, small area where EleBallB was)

---ELENAVI---
Voyager.EXE: 75 HP (Cracked)
RemoteBit1: 100 HP (Solar)