Mission: Lock and Key

So far, all of Eidolon's attacks had failed. She had to give them credit. They didn't mess around. It left her with a problem though, in that if she couldn't get the kid to stop moving somehow, stealing from her as well would be a problem.

Well, there was an easy enough solution to that, assuming she didn't simply avoid that too.

Andrew seemed to be keeping up as well, as the next pieces of chip data to be downloaded would work nicely for that. First, to avoid giving the girl a target to easily locate and avoid, she vanished as she began to fall, fading away into nothing. Rather than reappear elsewhere, however, she stayed right where she was, activating the first chip before she could get too far away and fall out of range. A windstorm started up, blowing down toward the falling Eidolon as she tried to use it to pull Painter in. It was desperate, sure, but at the moment she didn't see too many other options.

Once the wind ran its course, Eidolon lashed out with her red wires, made more akin to vine ropes by chip data, attempting to ensnare Painter with them. If it worked, she could drag Painter back to the ground and hold her there until Decrypt got back within a decent range.

Meanwhile Andrew worked on just that, guiding Decrypt back toward the battle. His Guard data had remained intact, somehow, giving him some protection in the meantime.
___

1. Vanish: Invis
2. AirStorm2: 60+Pull to Painter
3. Rope1: 50+Hold for three turns - Attempt to ensnare Painter and drag her to the ground.

Decrypt:
1. Movement: Move back toward Eidolon and co.

-splice-
"H-Hey, where'd you go?! Aaaaahhh, crud!!" exclaimed Painter, turning and twisting around haphazardly to try and figure out if any attacks were coming at her. Unfortunately for her, Eidolon was pretty much still there, but left to the mercy of gravity. Still, she wasn't going down without a fight, and summoned some winds to assist her. Painter heard the wind coming, and raised her palette to defend against it, as well as still moving around. Unfortunately, erratic movements failed her, and even though her palette-slash-shield managed to stave it off temporarily, the little artist was pulled down as well.

"Uwaaaaa!!" she yelled, as Eidolon's red wires ensnared her, pulling her down to terra firma. "Breath, help me!!" screamed Painter, as she threw some Explosive Color (tm) down where she thought Eidolon was, completely missing her in the panic. Crashing on the ground, they both took a little damage. As luck would have it, Eidolon landed on a Sea panel, and Painter on a nearby Cursed panel. (10)

Meanwhile, on the ground, Decrypt obeyed Andrew's orders, and plodded his way back towards the rest of the action. However, it, and by proxy, Andrew, heard a small voice whisper out. "Come, now... hand me back the key..." said Breath, as she appeared before the little SP. However, just as she was about to deal some hurt to Decrypt, a crash was heard behind her, which was Eidolon and her catch striking the ground.

"Honestly, child, do I have to care for you like this...?" sighed Breath, as she summoned up some winds to patch Painter's wounds up. "Now, where was I...? Ah, yes," she said, disappearing once again into the air. Shortly after, an electrical storm surrounded Decrypt, nearly hitting him in the process.

"Return it to me."

-- OPPOSITION --
Painter.EXE: 200 HP (Cursed) (Shield 0/1) (Held!)
Breath.EXE: 220 HP (Barrier 20/20 HP) (Invisible)

-- ALLIES --
Eidolon.EXE: 130 HP (Sea) (Shield 1/1)
Decrypt.SP: 70 HP (Normal) (Guard2 1/1)

-- TERRAIN --
5% Lava
5% Sea
5% Mud
5% Grass
5% Cursed
5% Holy (Scattered)
70% Normal (Everywhere else)
Eidolon was quick to take advantage of the situation, pushing her visor away from her eyes and allowing corrupted data from her core to flow from them, through the rest of her body, and through the wires binding Painter as spectral energy. If all went well, the corrupted data would spread glitches through Painter's body, and lock up her attack programs in the process. She noted with some minor irritation that she hadn't actually succeeded in glitching any of her target navis thus far, but with any luck this would be a first.

On the edge of her awareness, she noted a storm forming around Decrypt, interrupted earlier only by her falling to the ground with Painter. It seemed that she would have to draw Breath's attention, and likely wouldn't be able to rely on Decrypt for the final key in the process. In which case, she would have to obtain it the hard way.

It was the way she preferred, anyway. Relying on an unfamiliar support program was bothersome.

Focusing energy through the wires binding Painter again, she drew on them in an attempt to drain data and restore her own energy. Perhaps she would get lucky and absorb the key data with it. Or perhaps she would simply damage Painter to the point that she dropped it, like Sculptor did. That worked too.

As the wires did their work, she turned her focus to the support program. Breath was nowhere to be seen, but to one so used to vanishing from sight as Eidolon, it was clear that she was still around. Decrypt, by Andrew's command, hid himself under the shield that had amazingly still not yet been destroyed, and Eidolon took that as her opportunity. Focusing on the shattered emblem of her gauntlets' former owner, she drew more core energy from the cracks, then directed it in a seeking blast through the ground toward Breath.

There was no way to know how effective it would be, but so long as she drew Breath's attention from the nearly dead weight SP, effectiveness mattered little.
___

Eidolon:
*Hack: Add glitch to:
4. Corrosion: 80+Freeze to Painter (x2 Curse terrain)
5. Data Drain: 40 Lifedrain (x2 Curse) to Painter
6. Powerbolt: 70+Seeking to Breath


Decrypt:
2. Hide under Guard2
As Decrypt cowered behind its shield, being given nothing to do but to wait, a small chuckle was heard. "What a pointless little thing to have," Breath's voice said, as a powerful burst of fire appeared from behind the SP, melting it down into a pool of lava and causing it to EJO. Eidolon heard an exasperated click of the tongue moments after the beam appeared to return Decrypt. "Nowhere to be found; isn't that convenient," said the voice.

Meanwhile, Eidolon was administrating some extortion for a certain little Navi, drawing data from her corrupted core and freezing up Painter's offensive systems entirely. However, after a little bit, Eidolon felt her tendrils retract from Painter's body without her consent; perhaps it was a side-effect of the injected corruption? In any case, Painter took the opportunity to make a break for it, coughing as she leapt away. Unfortunately, she wasn't getting away too easily, as the wires still had some form of connection to her, draining away her HP to fuel Eidolon's own. In addition to that, a seeking burst of energy was sent out to locate Breath, but it seemed that the invisible Navi was quite nimble, as the energy ball flew around aimlessly until it leapt off to nowhere.

"Ugh, fine!! I don't wanna play any more!" yelled Painter, still coughing up a storm as she threw her paintbrush and palette down onto the ground. Bawling her eyes out, the child Navi ran off into the factory, leaving her prized possessions. Now was Eidolon's chance!

-- OPPOSITION --
Painter.EXE: Fled
Breath.EXE: 220 HP (Barrier 20/20 HP) (Invisible)

-- OBJECTS --
Paintbrush: 20 HP
Palette: 20 HP

-- ALLIES --
Eidolon.EXE: 169 HP (Sea) (Shield 1/1)
Decrypt.SP: EJO

-- TERRAIN --
15% Lava
5% Sea
5% Mud
5% Grass
5% Cursed
5% Holy (Scattered)
60% Normal (Everywhere else)
"This should be the last of it," Eidolon said over a private line, gliding forward as she reappeared and scooping up the paintbrush and palette dropped by Painter. Eidolon didn't know which of them would be the data she was after, but it had to be one of them. And its owner had run off, meaning that she should have no trouble taking it.

"Good. Our guide's gone, but it looks like he's taken the data with him. Get out of there," Andrew said. He uploaded two final chips just in case, which would hopefully aid in the escape.

"On it." Eidolon answered. She turned, locating the hole she had corroded through the gate around the factory. It wasn't far at all, leaving her to ponder just how convenient it was that all of her targets had come straight to her. Maybe there was something to be said for making a scene and drawing attention when she needed to get things done quickly.

Best not to make a habit of it though.

She took a step forward, or at least the closest thing to a step that could be managed with no visible feet, and then shot forward as the DashAttack activated, propelling her through the hole in the fence. She continued to glide over the ground as the dash cut out, but turned to drop one final measure to aid her escape just in case Breath decided to follow. She brushed her visor up away from her eyes. As soon as they were exposed, data leaked from them, gathering in the air behind her. It formed the outline of a large, disembodied eye, which then filled itself in and pointed itself toward the hole in the fence, tracing out a laser sight in front of it.

Satisfied, Eidolon turned away again and resumed her departure.
___

1. DashAttack: Dash through hole in the fence, away from the battlefield
2. Sensor1: 100 HP object, pointed back through the hole: 100 Elec+Beam+Stun to anything in line of sight
3-6: Get: TFO
With the items safely secured, Eidolon proceeded to get the hell out of Dodge, aided by a nice propellant named DashAttack. Leaving a Sensor in her way, she made sure that Breath couldn't go after her, or at least not without making a new hole of some sort. Behind her, as she disappeared into the distance, the translucent Navigator watched with a disappointed sigh, reappearing into visibility once more.

"Well, old Crypto-freak's going to have his fun again," she sighed, twirling a small ball of wind in her hand. She floated over to the Sensor, and chuckled as she kicked it over. "What a joke," she said, though that statement wasn't exactly put right as the Sensor rolled on its side. This caused the laser detection to fall within her sight, and give her a bit of a shock. Ouch.

[Mission Complete!]