Electown Research (EVENT!)

((Bump))
Red fires a Zapring into the side of Riccio, who clumsily roars out, it's obvious that this assault is taking a toll on the beast. Following up with a wind propelled punch of fire, Riccio is bowled over, laying on his side.

Unfortuently for Red, Ricco did manage to move in such a manner that as he was hit by the Firehit, Red took a full brunt of quill to the face.

Meleeman follows up with a Firehit of his own, which miraculously knocks Riccio back onto his feet, causing even more damage to his weakened legs. Using the smoke produced as cover, he launches a volley of shot from the shadows, striking Riccio yet again.

Argo, now in command of the tiny fusion frame, absorbs everything on the field, bulking him up. Following up with a little 'quill' action of his own, which rend the bewildered Cybeast yet again. With yet a third Fiery punch, Argo shatters one of the front legs of the Cybeast completely, causing him to collapse slightly.

Oberon's almost phycotic leaps at Ricco pay off. Sort of. He manages to stab the beast both times, but as Riccio fell from Argo's punch, a lurch sent Oberon into Riccio's sides, stabbing him with more of his quills, and snapping the Sword off as Oberon fell back to take cover.

Riccio: 1725

R-Kid.EXE: DELETED (EJO)
MeleeMan.EXE: 50 (SeraphimCross)
Red_Riding_Hood.EXE: 15
Argo.EXE: 15 (85HP Barrier)
Oberon.EXE: 30
MistGenerator (Argo): DELETED
WindBox (Argo): DELETED
RockCube (Argo): ABSORBED
Tuby (Argo): ABSORBED
TeleporterA (Argo): ABSORBED
TeleporterB (Argo): ABSORBED

Special: Riccio Minor NetDrain has ended! Full actions restored!
Special: Riccio's legs are severely injured! He will suffer high movement and dodge penalties.
Red rubbed the pain off her face with her hands, well, tried to anyway. She slowly got up as her operator's face appeared right next to her.

"Red! Are you alright?" Shin asked his navi, concerned as her HP had fallen down to a critical level.

"No... but I can't jack-out now. I've got to fight till the very end! I can't give up!" Red proclaimed fiercely, punching her fist in the air.

"Well then, give it your all, go for it Red!" Shin cheered his navi on.

"Right," the red-caped wonder responded and kept her eyes on her massive opponent. She lifted her arms up and gathered the force of wind to the side of the giant hedgehog. "This is my last time with you for the moment," Red spoke to someone, but it wasn't obvious that she was speaking to the very wind she summonded. "So please, help me with this one push!" Red shouted, swinging her arms in the direction of the Cybeast and hoping the gale force produced would knock the electric monster onto it's side.

"Alright Red, let's show our teammates the power of our other allies!" Shin exclaimed as he accessed some of the PET's menus.

"How do we do that?" Red asked, innocently, not knowing what Shin meant.

"The same way Meleeman is of course, by using the Cross System!" Shin explained as he tapped a button with his stylus clearly labeled, "JuniorCross."

"But we- ah!" Red started but was interupted when her whole body began to glow with a light that consumed her entire being. The light quickly dissappated and revealed Red in a new uniform. She now wore a purple bodysuit with her navi crest in the center of her chest. Her hands were adorned by golden-colored gloves and her feet by boots of the same color. To finish it off, a red-cape flowed from her shoulders. The navi marveled at her new apparel.

"Junior-san's outfit. So we had a Cross with Junior-san?" Red asked her netop.

"We sure did, now use his power to kick the Cybeast's spiny butt!" Shin replied, pointing dramatically forward. "Minibomb! Slot-in!" Shin said as he quickly sent the battle chip data to his navi.

The small blue bomb appeared suddenly in Red's hand. The navi was unaccustomed to not having to dig through her basket to find her weapon and so showed a great deal of suprise. "That's sexy..." was the only comment that came out of the navi's mouth as she stared at the minibomb.

"Red! Throw the bomb already!" Shin yelled at his navi, snapping her out of her daze.

"Sorry," Red quickly apologized as she focused on her opponent, then to the explosive in the palm of her hand. "I bet I could make it sexier." Red mumbled to herself, grinning as she concentrated her own power into the Minibomb. The explosive glowed faintly red after the power transfer and Red smiled in glee. She then pointed to the Cybeast. "Now THAT'S sexy! Alright big guy! Take this for size! SEXY BOMB!" Red yelled as she hurled the Minibomb like a fastball at the giant hedgehog.

"That's it for now. Better be ready." Red muttered to herself as she observed her opponent, ready to dive out of the way should it attack.

Turn summary
*Gust: Knock Riccio on it's side.
1. JuniorCross [+5 to Non-Elemental chips, changed to Normal/Normal
2*. Minibomb with Untapped Power at Riccio [70 DMG]
3. Dodge.

((I think this counts as my longest post ever.))
"That kid's got spunk. I like her style," MeleeMan nodded, scratching his chin with his fist thoughtfully. "It looks like Rass has some kind of barrier to keep him protected now, but that little red girl and the silverish one look pretty tired. Of course, I'm not feeling great myself either... my arm feels heavier than I can ever remember it being," he grunted, painfully flexing it once to demonstrate that at least he still had that much control in it. "Between the smoke and that awful noise Rass is making, I've got one mess of a headache."

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that your head hurts, MeleeMan," Rania replied with a bit of unintentional sarcasm, "but you're right. Your whole team is getting to be critically overexerted by this point. One wrong move could spell the end for any one of you. I'd also like you to know that you only have a total of... 4 chips left, so you're going to have to make them count." As Rania used up her chips, she tended to switch them from the chest pocket of her jacket to the side pocket on her shorts, but she was a bit disturbed when she felt through the jacket's to discover only a palm full of chips still remained.

"Gah..." MeleeMan grumbled, banging his fist hard against the floor against which he was currently kneeling upon, ready to roll in the case of an attack from the beast. "Well then? What do I have? I've used up all of my favorites already."

"Let's see... there's two heatshots. Those aren't bad," she spoke quietly, looking strange as she appeared to be keeping her eyes rooted on her breasts the whole time she was talking because of the location of the pocket. "Um, there's also a rageclaw; you can use that multiple times before breaking it, hopefully."

"And the fourth?" MeleeMan sighed. "Tell me I still have at least one charge of the super gauge built up to take this guy!"

"A cannon," Rania said quietly, holding up the chip to show him with a frown across her face.

"Oh God!" he grumbled, feeling his hand slip on the ice slightly as she said the name of the chip. "That's reallly it? Oh well... So long as my defenses hold up, I may have a chance. Send me the two heatshots and the cannon for now and we'll see what I can get out of them."

"Alright, but make sure you've got a clear shot in. You wouldn't want to waste any-" she started as she slotted in the chips, but then rethought her words. "On second thought, don't leave your veil of smoke. He's an enormous target, so I really doubt there's any danger of missing him, is there?"

"Are you kidding? Heh. This guy's the easiest one to 100 combo in the entire game, I'm sure, if you can just find something to break his attack and make him flinch. You can watch the face of the sprite to know if it's working, by the way," he muttered absently, feeling heat return to his arm as he summoned a heatshot weapon over his limp right arm. "Alright... let's... hurgh," he grunted, trying hard to hoist the arm up onto his leg. "The warmth feels good... but that doesn't change the fact that I've really overexerted this arm of mine, he thought to himself as he fired off one shot towards his enemy, wincing a bit at the strength of the discharge. As he fired off another, a look of shock overtook him as he fell back against the ice, producing a hard thud as his face smushed up against the surface.

"MeleeMan, what happened? Are you alright?" Rania asked, feeling worried that he may have sustained some sort of injury.

"Nah, I'm just angry that I'm going to have to get that arm up for another shot," he groaned, getting back to his knees and replacing the heatshot weapon with a cannon. "At any rate, let's go for it!" With his teeth clenched tightly, he managed to position the even heavier right-arm weapon atop his knee and release a round in the direction of the gigantic electric beast. "Ha ha...! Stupid thing, doesn't it know that once I've used enough small attacks and epic dodges, I'll have enough super gauge built up to release my real attacks again?" he panted, straightening his knees and maintaining his balance.

"Are you going to be alright, MeleeMan? It seems like you're definitely running out of energy," Rania asked, flipping a bit of hair from in front of one of her eyes and pinning it back with her hairclip.

"I'm okay. My legs are fine," he lied, "it's really only my arm that's giving me trouble. Besides, don't worry. If I'm taken out, you've got enough quarters to continue with a new character, right? A competetive girl like you has to come prepared for any situation, I'm sure."

"A quarter? I've got a bunch of in-pocket zenny, yes, but why would we need...?" she trailed off, putting her fist to her mouth confusedly. MeleeMan didn't respond, however, focusing himself on the enemy before him.

1) Heatshot to Riccio [40]
2) Heatshot to Riccio [40]
3) Cannon to Riccio [45]
4) Dodge
*Dodging ability increased by Survivor's Code (2nd turn)
((My apologies for the short post, I'm rather busy this weekend :P.))

Argo gulped as he skidded to a halt a short distance away from the monstrous cybeast, stabilizing himself with his right hand. Rass' unconscious head lolled to the side as the fusion navi composed himself, preparing for his next assault. A static-filled voice rang from Argo's auditory sensors as the melee subsystem breathed heavily, exhausted from the previous ordeal and still hurting from the previous injuries that had been sustained. The fusion armor was protecting the vital points on his chassis, but that didn't stop the overloaded pain sensors from discharging every once in a while. "Argo! Are you alright? What's going on down there?"

Argo winced, chutching Rass' chest as he replied, I... Yeah, everything's fine! Just waiting on you to send me the next battle routine!

Suien frowned in response, but shook his head. "Whatever you say, Argo," he said, not wanting to hurt the subsystem's ego by expressing any further concern. The dark-haired netOp withdrew a trio of battlechips and placed them into the chip tray, three clicks following the motion. "We don't have much choice in terms of offensive battlechips," said Suien with a frown, "Your 3L3M processor should have cooled down by now as well, so make sure you make good use of it."

Nodding his head solemnly, Argo felt the impact of the dual shotgun battlechips download themselves into his systems. The destructive energies swirled within his palms as he squared Rass' legs and prepared for his assault. Suien knows I'm no good with guns... grumbled Argo as he held his arms aloft, taking aim through his index and middle fingers. His arms quaked with the effort, but before all stability was lost, he discharged the pair of blasts in a brilliant display of light. Hundreds of tiny beams lanced toward the injured cybeast, peppering the ground nearby and generating a mess of smoke and debris. Nearly completely drained from the effort, Argo collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily as he began to charge the 3L3M system to its maximum setting.

At that instant, both of Argo's arms began to glow a bright verdant green color. Plunging both hands into the panel below, several roots began to explode from the ground, twisting around the surrounding panels and giving rise to a large green tree. As the mighty wooden wall erupted skyward from the ground, small streaks of energy could be seen twisting upward from the base of the roots. It seemed as though the network itself were being collected through the tree's massive collecting into a luminescent orb at the tip of the tree. Wasting no time, Argo leaped into the tip of the tree, snatching the large mango in a single smooth motion before landing heavily near the newly-transformed Red Riding Hood.EXE. Looking the young female over before preemptively dismissing any thoughts due to her age, Argo handed her the large, ripe fruit with a quick nod. "You look like you need it more than I do," he said through Rass' mouth before spiraling away in an evasive maneuver and bringing up the guard battlechip.

As the gold-and-green shield formed itself around Rass' shoulder, Argo squinted at the cybeast and began charging the teleporter units on his back. As soon as the monster made its move, he would be there to come to the defense...

1-2: Shotgun (50 Each) Riccio
3: Terraformer Grass - Create 60 HP Tree that recovers 40 HP of an ally every other turn.
*Heal Red for 40 with Tree*
*Teleport in front of the next attacked ally with guard*
4: Guard
*Free Dodge*
The blank-faced archer's body rippled as the holes and tears in his exterior were purged from her appearance, but no amount of programming could change the fact that she had taken a beating. Level-headed though she usually was, desperation was starting to set in. Attempting to reestablish communications with the physical plane was pointless now; if Kazu had been uable to restore the link thus far, then it would seem that establishing an audio link was completely out of both his and Sarah's combined reach. As she took over Oberon's body-- and his retreat from the danger zone in the center of the crater-- Titania closed her fingers delicately around her oversized bow and steeled herself for conflict. She had been trained to fight; she had been an experienced warrior even before she had been activated for the first time.

And yet... this was still the most deadly opponent they had ever faced. If only they had been two again, instead of one. She remembered the times when they, together, had overcome obstacles far beyond the reach of either one, how they had slowly learned the techniques to maximize each other's potential... and then watched it disappear.

Titania and Oberon's allies were on their last legs- That much was plain to him, and he himself was running out of chips. Even though he was merely watching the action through Titania's eyes now, Oberon felt that he was still standing face-to-face with Riccio, blades clenched in his fists, ready to fight, because there was no other option.

Be careful, love, said Oberon. She replied with a solemn nod of her head.

Oberon could almost feel his counterpart brush him aside as Titania cleared her mind and focused on her target. She planted a washed-out white boot in the scorched earth and spun, locking her eyes on Riccio's head and angling her body as she positioned her bow. Even aimed straight forward, the top of the bow reached high above her head. Her pale white ponytail blew in an invisible wind and the gem in her circlet became still, a cold stone of icy midnight-blue as she nocked an arrow and drew, straining just slightly against its clearly massive weight. Though she was focused, Oberon's power was in her hands as she released the bow.

The first arrow flew towards Riccio in a straight line, propelled by the mighty curve, followed by two more. Titania refused to miss.

Blade Minibomb [90 damage]
Unlock Potential Minibomb [60 damage]
Minibomb [50 damage]
Red's Gust makes Riccio wobbly, but the beast somehow managed to stay upright! Now crossed, she/he throws a beefed up bomb, and watched it explode on contact... WITH RICCIO'S FACE!

Meleeman sends volley after volley of power at the injured Cybeast, hitting it with more and more ease, then dodges into the smoke.

Argo shows his green thumbs, and then heals Red, which was fortuenate, as Riccio was sending a volley of quills at her in retribution for the bomb! Using his Guard skillfully, he reflects the volley back, hitting the beast with his own attack!

This proves to be too much for poor Riccio, with a mighty howl, he is overturned, his damaged legs and stump failing him at last. He collides with the ground... And the Terraformed tree! The branches snap away, leaving the mighty beast impaled on the sharpened trunk, now hopelessly pinned. Riccio, does the only thing it can: Blast the entire area with another wash of electricity, hitting everyone one this time!

Titania manages to recover long enough to hurl the bombs at the now immobile Riccio, striking him easily. Riccio moans in pain, stuck in place.

Riccio: 655 (IMPALED)

R-Kid.EXE: DELETED (EJO)
MeleeMan.EXE: 1 (SeraphimCross)
Red_Riding_Hood.EXE: 1 (JuniorCross)
Argo.EXE: 15 (Barrier destroyed)
Titania.EXE: 1
MistGenerator (Argo): DELETED
WindBox (Argo): DELETED
RockCube (Argo): ABSORBED
Tuby (Argo): ABSORBED
TeleporterA (Argo): ABSORBED
TeleporterB (Argo): ABSORBED
TerraformerTree (Argo): DELETED, sort of.

Special: Riccio Minor NetDrain has ended! Full actions restored!
Sepcial: Riccio is impaled on a tree! He can no longer dodge or move. He also received 250 Wood damage! (500 total!)
"Ha... ha ha ha! Look at the stupid thing! It's got a great spear shoved through its gut now! We may in bad condition... but that guy..." he trailed, trying to get back to his feet. He grunted, finding himself scarcely able to draw up his enormous muscles into an upright position. "The guy's got so little HP that his bar is invisible! I think it's time for a fatality here. I'll... bring the heat on him..." he muttered, rubbing his arm sorely as he talked. "Damn..." MeleeMan thought to himself as his eyebrows twitched nervously. "I can't bluff to Rania at all! It's like she's seeing right through me!" He rubbed his jaw with his left hand irritably, trying to think up some way to overcome his current situation.

"MeleeMan," Rania gasped, "you're holding your left hand to your face now, aren't you? Has something happened to your right? It seems strange that you've suddenly stopped using your prominent one." She looked at him with worry, but still yet with the intense and distinct action of boring through his bluff relentlessly.

"N-Nothing's happened. 'B' button must be jammed, that's all. I'm sure it'll be better in a moment," he laughed, pressing his left palm to his right bicep. He grit his teeth tightly, making an effort to spin his right arm and display its health, but all he managed to accomplish was causing himself to squint in pain and prespire, further revealing his awkward position. "Hey, what do you know? I guess my right arm is just a little busted up, heh. Maybe it's just an inconsistency in the sprite sheet?"

"No," Rania muttered, "take a closer look at your arm. Are you sure it's okay? Even from here, it looks pretty severely bruised." Certainly enough, the sleeve of the coat and undersuit had burned away from his right, revealing many dark blotches of color up-and-down his thick, sinewed arm.

"It... it's fine, really. I'm feeling well enough for another one of my special techniques, actually," he grinned, trying to reassure her to the best of his ability. "I must have at least a bar or two of my technique gauge built up by this point, right?"

"If you say so, MeleeMan. I guess you know your own limits," Rania replied nervously, slotting in a RageClaw chip. "I'm sending you the final chip, but if it's at all possible, please stay out of the way of his attacks. One more hit and you're done; furthermore, that arm could sustain some serious lasting damage if you keep abusing it."

"Thanks, Rania. Don't worry, the game won't let me do any more than is in my move set, I assure you," MeleeMan responded with a solemn nod. "Alright, buddy," he whispered, putting his left gauntlet down heavily on his right arm, wincing slightly at the connection. "One last hit for me, okay? Just hold out on me for this one last time." Producing more smoke as he moved, MeleeMan headed towards Riccio to try to get in the decisive blow. His footsteps were extraordinarily heavy, more so than ever due to the ungraceful, lumbering stance induced by his current injuries. Roaring in a mix of pain and determination, he managed to get his right arm up and curl the hand to a menacing clutch, ready to grasp out at whatever he could get his hands on. As MeleeMan approached the monster, he jumped up to attempt to grab the beast's front-right leg; to his dismay, however, the jump failed, and he ended up tripping as he bent his knees for the maneuver. He toppled to the ground clumsily, looking at once humorous and pitiable in his effort to rend apart the enormous monster.

Any kind of amusement that could have been derived from the situation, however, abruptly fleeted as an alarming crack rang out upon MeleeMan's impact with the floor. He'd fallen hard on his own right arm; the resulting sound had been the result of his collision. Standing, looking relatively calm for his situation, MeleeMan panted quietly, his chest rising and falling unevenly as he surveyed the damage. Data was skewed around the elbow and wrist, and his dark blood now poured from shoulder to wrist. The hand hung limp and useless at the end of the appendage. It was certain now: Rania's navi was completely unable to use his right arm at this point. "It... It didn't hurt, Rania. Don't worry... I feel fine," MeleeMan breathed heavily, straightening himself to an upright position. "Actually, the pain's really only in the shoulder now... heh heh..." He spat upon the ground, looking extraordinarily disdainful.

"B-but MeleeMan!" Rania panicked. "Your arm is broken! The ligaments must be torn to unusability now! Can you move your fingers?"

"I can't even feel my damn fingers, Rania!" MeleeMan shouted out, trying in vain to lift the heavy appendage, but finding himself without the strength. "It's out, okay? You know it as well as I do! You don't have to use your soul-penetrating interrogation to figure that out, do you?!" he roared, shaking his head violently as he felt himself being overcome with feelings of angst. "I know, I should have listened to your advice. You don't have to tell me... No! I won't give you the pleasure!" he shouted out, lips quivering as he clutched violently at his exposed hair with his one good hand.

Rania started to lash back at him for his unjust reprimand of her character, but she managed to reserve herself. Her anger was quickly overcome by sorrow; her navi was displaying emotions just as real as any human she had encountered. Fighting was his whole life, and there was a chance his career could have just been ended in the course of this battle. MeleeMan valued his body and muscles more than anything, and with the respect she had for her own body, she knew that it must be taxing his stability. "Don't worry, MeleeMan," Rania replied, keeping a resolute expression. "I'm not going to feed you anything you don't want to hear. I know that right now, your sole focus should be defeating Riccio, and so long as you've got one good arm, you can help!"

"That's... that's right. Heh, I can start using the 'One hand behind my back' routine for a while, eh?" MeleeMan laughed, trying to regain his composure. "Yeah. Everyone will wonder how in the world they got beaten by the one-handed fighter! Ha ha ha!"

"That's the spirit!" Rania smiled warmly. "You owe it to all of your team to keep fighting. Rass' strategy got you this far, and you can't give him any less than 100% now!"

"You're right! In fact, I'm going to start," MeleeMan bellowed, "by getting rid of this guy's own right arm! We'll see how he likes it!" Reaching his left arm up to grab the beast's paw, MeleeMan attempted to lock his large hand around the one of the beast's far larger claws. Grimacing with a stiff expression, he aimed to perform a tug so powerful that it could rip the beast's paw from his arm, or at least its claw from its hand. Forming a claw of his own, MeleeMan ran around to the other side, attempting to give the beast's right hand a hard, overhand club, remembering that the enemy's legs seemed to be have been enfeebled earlier. With great strides, he made his way to the side, then attempted to more hard knocks to the feet. "Yeah, you're going to come out of this worse than me no matter what happens! Ha ha ha! I feel sorry for you, sucker. Viral beast, I pity you!" he laughed cockily, dropping back down into his trail of smoke.

1) Soul Fist: Tear Asunder to Riccio [40; +15 damage to all further attacks to Riccio for this turn if it hits]
2) RageClaw to Riccio [45]
3) RageClaw to Riccio [45]
4) RageClaw to Riccio [45]
*)Increased evasion by Survivor's Code, final turn
((FLIP IT OVER FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE!))

"Gragh!" Red yelled as she was hit consecutively by the spikes and the giant blast of electricity.

"Red! Oh god, you're down to your last hit point!" Shin cried worriedly.

"It's not like I can jack-out though," Red replied glumly.

"Then we'll have to give it our all until the very end! Show them your power! Cannon! Shotgun! Sword! Slot-in!" Shin yelled as he swiftly sent the chips into his PET.

Red growled as she held out her right palm to the electric Cybeast and cried out fiercely as she blasted the hedgehof with a strong blast of energy out of her hand.

"It's Sexy Time! RAH!" Red cried out as she focused her inner power into her right hand, making it glow pink, and released it at her opponent, shouting, "SEXY SHOTGUN!" in the form of a giant blast comprised of a million tiny glowing pink bullets.

The navi then rushed at the giant hedgehog while morphing her right arm into a brilliant blue blade and slashed fiercely at the Cybeast with the sword.

Turn Summary
1. Cannon to Riccio [45 DMG]
2. Shotgun with Untapped Potential at Riccio [60 DMG]
3. Sword to Riccio [85 DMG]
The battered body of the unconscious Rass lay inert on the steely network, having taken a direct hit from Riccio's fury. Argo couldn't tell how long he had been laying on the ground, but the seconds seemed like hours as his body throbbed with pain. Every so often, his electricity-saturated body would discharge another series of bright blue coils, sending another spasm through Argo's joints. The fusion armor, which had granted him a brief reprieve from the awesome power of the cybeast, lay useless on the ground beside him, smoldering and shattered by the beast's last assault. A light tingling could be felt throughout Argo's entire body, and everything from his eyes to his toes went completely numb.

Get up... get up, damn you!

Gritting his teeth over the foul, metallic taste of ozone that permeated his mouth, Argo braced his hands against the ground. Digging his fingers into the dented steel, his eyes fluttered momentarily. His body burning from the effort, he pushed downward, striving desperately to struggle to his feet.

Dammit, GET UP!

Argo winced visibly as he managed to stagger to an upright position, lightly swaying as he concentrated on maintaining his balance. Small puddles of thick, dark liquid formed on the ground around him as his grievous burns oozed fusionist protoplasm through breaks in his skin. Shaking his head to clear the static from his eyes, he glanced from side to side and was surprised to see his teammates already engaging the electric monster, despite their rapidly-worsening condition. For a moment, Argo said nothing, opting to simply watch the valiant navi's making their last stand. D...Damn he scowled, grimacing at the situation, Suien... they... they're gonna die! Do something! Anything!

-*-

The dark-haired netOp adjusted his glasses and frantically flipped through his chip folder in an attempt to find some chip to rectify the situation. Suien's eyes widened in panic as he realized that his stock of defensive chips was completely bare. Rass would be able to use the fusionist energies to reverse the healing engines of a battlechip, but Argo had no such capability. "I... I don't think I CAN do anything, Argo!" he shouted, sweeping his folder to the side and scattering his few remaining battlechips onto the ground, You.... You're just going to have to attack and pray that they don't... wait a minute... Suien's eyes fell upon a long-neglected battlechip, the one with an image of a red-and-blue cube. Snatching it up from the ground, he examined it carefully.

What do you MEAN you can't do anything?! You're a thinker like Tem! You and your... your strategies! Your plans! Say something! Suien was surprised to hear Argo's voice carry such a tone of helplessness and desperation in it. Despite his tough talking, it appeared as though the melee subsystem cared a great deal about protecting his comrades.

Suien gulped and stared at the dblcube battlechip before finally sliding it into his PET with a satisfying click. "All right, Argo. This is what you're going to need." said Suien, as confidently as he could manage, "If you really want to protect the others, then here's what you've got to do..."

-*-

Argo scowled darkly, staring at the monstrous Cybeast with piercing green eyes. In his right hand, he clutched a tiny red-and-blue cube tightly in his fist, the device glowing slightly in the dark atmosphere of the network. Riccio may have been impaled on a tree, but the danger was, as evidenced by his previous attack, still very real. He thought back to his netOp's words, tightening his grip on the DblCube as he steeled his nerves for what was to come. The DblCube battlechip will have a 50% chance of recovering your teammates, protecting them from another blow by Riccio. However, as it stands, you are the one best suited to take another hit from the Cybeast. Should the cube fail, your own body is the last hope for the others. If you can draw its fire and take its final attack, you will increase the chances of survival of the rest of your team.

Argo did not fancy taking another blast from the monstrous opponent, but at this point, little choice was left. I... I guess that's that, then. As much as I hate leaving things up to luck... well, like Suien says, it's our best chance! This is for messing with my friends, jerkwad! Uttering a silent prayer to the gods of war, he steeled his legs and thrust his palm straight up into the air. The tiny dblcube flashed brightly as it spun in midair, its axis positioned to attract the attention of the impaled Riccio. Charging forward through the cube's lightshow, Argo announced his presence with a pair of glowing green fists as he charged directly up to Riccio's face. Placing both of his hands as close to Riccio's snout as he could manage, he overcharged his 3L3M system once more, summoning a trio of cacti viruses and a husk of explosive corn right in the face of the monstrous Cybeast. This is for Tem, Ishamel, and Rass! Nobody beats up on Rasshole except for me! Unable to control the massive amount of elemental energy, the cornshot and cactiball detonated in an explosion of grass-type fury, launching the fusion navi to the ground. Staggering to his feet and wiping a fresh trickle of dark fluid from his mouth, Argo steeled his legs and leaped upward, a sword battlechip materializing on his arm. Time slowed to a crawl as he held the brightly-glowing blade over his head as he closed in once more on Riccio's vulnerable snout. "And this..." he brought the blade around in a brilliant arc, lighting up the front of the Cybeast's face, "...is for forcing me..." Argo's sword swung downward, aimed to pin Riccio's mouth shut by skewering it from the top down, ...to take this STUPID SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR POSITION!

-*-

1: DblCube (30 healing to all or 30 damage to Riccio, 45 if Tear Asunder hits), use to distract Riccio.
2: Cornshot Riccio (50, 100 Wood, 115 if Tear Asunder hits)
3: Cactiball Riccio (20x3, 40x3 Wood, 135 if Tear Asunder hits)
4: Sword Riccio, attempt to seal mouth shut and prevent further breath attacks. (80 Damage, sword broken, 95 with Tear Asunder)
Titania's bow demateria covered her face and head with her arms, but this could not have prevented the blast of pure power that struck her like a wave of water, washing over her body and sending a painful shock through every inch of her shell-body, every corner of her mind, every circut of her system. It lasted for less than a second, but as the attack was passing over her and through her, she thought that the blast would last for an eternity. Just as she considered giving up, and ending the pain, Oberon's face, which she had not seen for years and yet still knew intimately, came to her in memory, and she remembered why she had to stay alive.

For a long moment, she knelt, and her only mercy was the sensation of pain being purged from her body, which was little mercy on her, as no amount of code could erase the damage dealt to her systems.

By some miracle, she managed to keep her footing, and even rise to her feet. Her vision was blurred and her balance was unsteady, but her mind was focused and her concentration on the task of combat was the sharpest that it had been yet. Her bow rematerialized, and even despite the distant, clouded look in her eyes and in the jewel on her forehead, she held it steady as she ran forwards again, towards the helpless Beast. Thought was gone for her; there was only focus. Then, as she neared her massive target, she changed. It was no miracle that she was here, ready to enter the fray once more. Her body shifted, and her limbs melted into her bow as if they were made of water, and suddenly she was in flight, her bow gone, a pair of wide, pointed blades in their stead.

The face in her mind exploded forth to cover her head. The body that she remembered so well flowed from her skin to replace her form. And the ivory-faced glare and toned, tightly-string ghostly muscles of Oberon sailed through the air, weapons afire with the blazing light of determination that was all that kept him alive.

Both blades plunged downward as Oberon aimed to land on the Beast to finish it off. He thrust both deadly weapons the Beast's exposed underside with all the force he could muster, momentarily extinguishing their glow. The unearthly orange light suddenly ignited again, shining false color over Oberon's forearms and face, as he drew them back and into the air, turning in a full crescent arc, then plummetting back down, point first. Oberon's mind was clear; there was nothing seperating him from her. Now they were truly one, as they struck what could be the final blow in this desperate, hopeless conflict. They had begun together, and if the Net willed it, thus they would end.

Unlock Rageclaw [65]
Strike Rageclaw [115]
MeleeMan rushes inwards as the smoke clears, viciously striking at the wounded hedgehog, tearing him asunder. Riccio looks at Meleeman with a look of utmost contempt.

Little Red fires a powered up salvo of her own, followed by a dramatic sword strike, damaging the once great Cybeast grievously. Riccio's head turns to face Red, with a look of rage.

Argo summons a DblCube, which flashes blue and fills everyone with renewed confidence. Argo follows up by a vegetable assault of corn and cactus. But...

Riccio, sensing his demise, fires off one more blast of electricity around him, striking everyone again. The shock distracts Argo enough to cause his sword attack to fail. Riccio looks at Argo with a look of terror.

Oberon, barely standing after the electrical strike, barely manages to hit Riccio again, right in the neck. Riccio turns, and gives Oberon the strangest look of all.

Triumph.

The holes in Riccio's body begin to glow in a pale yellow light. The light grows brighter and brighter as the stored electrical energy is released, wave after wave, washing over the Navi's. With a horrendous explosion that knocks all of the Navi's down, a swirling vortex of pure Elec Power forms were Riccio once stood. As the jack out barrier collapsed around them and processing speeds returned to normal, a chilling chorus of roars and screams echoes on the Navi's ears. Suddenly, Riccio rushes past them, fleeing from the area. Then a SECOND Riccio runs in another direction. Then another. Then another. So many that the Navi's lose count.

What have they done?

As silence falls in the depressed bowl, the Navi's see only one thing that remains: The charred and petrified trunk of Argo's Terraformer Tree, now forever fixed as a sort of memorial to what happened here today. Buried into the side of the tree are four glowing quills. The only thing left of the massive Cybeast. And, at the foot of the tree, four twinkling pieces of chip data.

VICTORY?

Riccio: UNLEASHED

MeleeMan.EXE: 6
Red_Riding_Hood.EXE: 6
Argo.EXE: 20
Titania.EXE: 6

Rewards:

MeleeMan.EXE: ElecSword, Riccio's Quill
Red_Riding_Hood.EXE: ElecSword, Riccio's Quill
Argo.EXE: ElecSword, Riccio's Quill
Titania.EXE: ElecSword, Riccio's Quill
Oberon silently picked up the chip data at his feet, absorbed it, and then pulled Riccio's quill free of the tree trunk, as a souvenir. He couldn't hope to understand what had happened. Kazu might, but Kazu wasn't talking, and neither was Sarah-- either they were speechless at the sight of the multiple Beasts or they had given up trying to communicate. Either way, the barrier of electricity would be down soon.

Oberon's blades vanished as he turned to face his allies. "This was a mightily fought battle," he said solemnly, full of respect and reverence. "I must count myself fortunate to be in the presence of such worthy fighters. Without you, Titania and I would have been deleted." He looked Rass, then MeleeMan, then finally Red in the eye, acknowledging each one of them.

"Thank you," he said, with a deep bow.
"I see..." Shin muttered after the shock of the multiple Cybeasts spawning from the original had occured.
Red, looking at her operator confused, asked, "What do you see?"
"Well," Shin started, "Apparently a Cybeast as I've heard, is a mass amalgamation of viruses. So, I guess that when we defeated this guy, the leftover viruses combined into more Cybeasts and ran off," Shin concluded, placing his hand on his chin thoughtfully.
"But that was really sexy how we defeated it!" Red exclaimed gleefully before, in a flash of light, returned to her normal form.
"Yeah... Let's take the quills and report back to the NetPolice." Shin suggested, heturned to face the other operators and their navis. "I guess I'll provide a report on this, see you guys around." With that, the screen showing his face dissappeared.
"Bye bye guys! That was really fun adventuring with you! See you around!" Red called at her comrades while taking out the quill from the side of the tree. She turned to the navis once more, "Here's my operator's e-mail if you need contact." Red said quickly as she waved goodbye and dissappeared in a flash of red light.

GET: FujiwaraShin@home.net
MeleeMan gave a wide grin as the beast appeared to be defeated, laughing in its scornful face. "Ha ha ha! Guess there's a new highest tier, eh? Your rank just went down a little, buddy!" he chuckled, pointing one thumb to the ground on his good hand.

"I saw an electric shock burst through the area, MeleeMan," Rania commented with worry, despite the end of the battle. "You didn't sustain any injury?"

"No... thanks to Rass, I'm okay. Wait... what the-?" MeleeMan grunted, then was suddenly repelled backward by the force of Riccio releasing innumerable quantities of miniature Cybeasts. "You dirty vermin! You think you can get away with a lame trick like that? For Christ's sake!" MeleeMan shouted, smashing the giant pillar of wood with his left fist. "What have we done? We thought we'd destroyed the Cybeast, didn't we? All that we've really done is help to spread its power! Now that the things divided into a million damn mini-beasts, it'll spread havoc even faster than it had been!"

"Don't blame yourself, MeleeMan. I'm sure that nobody could have anticipated that such a thing would happen," Rania reassured him. MeleeMan appeared to be silent, so she took the lack of a retort as agreement. "By the way, you also recieved a pretty valuable chip from this, and he appears to have left a little bit of data behind in the form of a quill. The sword weapon that Riccio's data formed will probably be very useful in battles against aqua battles, which are conviniently currently your weakest field."

Rania looked back to her netop partner, grasping one of his hands happily and smiling. "We couldn't have done this without you, Suien. It was great to have Rass aboard for this, and I doubt there's any way we could have survived their at the end without his backup. A few of the other combatants left addresses where we can speak with them too, so hopefully, we'll all be able to meet again in the future." Despite her happiness, Rania was beginning to get slightly disturbed at MeleeMan's abrupt lack of speech. "MeleeMan? Aren't you going to say goodbye to everyone that's leaving?" she asked, arching her eyebrows irritably.

MeleeMan couldn't respond because he'd already fallen unconcious. As he had done so, his head had connected with the giant wooden spike, causing his forehead to begin bleeding. The data of her navi's blood was now covering both his arms and his head, obscuring the white of his emulated coat in random blotches.

"Oh my God! MeleeMan! I stopped paying attention for two seconds and he collapsed!" Rania exclaimed, withdrawing him from the net in a burst of smoke. The cloud of smog was all that remained where MeleeMan had been lying moments earlier, while the navi himself was recovered into the safety of Rania's PET. "This is awful... I hope MeleeMan can bounce back from this somehow," Rania muttered, pocketing her PET.
Suien wasn't quite sure how to respond to Rania's latest comment, but as the firey-haired netOp took his hand, he did his very best to suppress a blush. Jailbait, Suien... Jailbait he thought, gulping as he listened to Rania praise his navi's efforts and contributions to the battle. Smiling outwardly, he couldn't help but think in the corner of his mind, You know, I'm the one who was operating Rass all this time. Maybe you could er... well... take notice of my abilities as an operator instead of... you know what, never mind. Shaking his head to clear the selfish thought, he smiled back and nodded his head. "You and MeleeMan did quite well yourselves. You guys managed to keep cool when the situation demanded it, and really pulled through right to the end."

-*-

B...Bastard... mumbled Argo, collapsing to his knees as a deluge of electric hedgehogs surged across the ground, bolting past the fusion navi and knocking him to the ground in his wake, You mean to say... that all of that... and now there's MORE of them?! Argo clenched his fists tightly as he snapped, slamming the ground with a mighty punch that dented the steel-plated network. Screw it! Binary be damned! I... I don't care if you use your stupid cheap copying tricks! I'll hunt you down! EVERY FREAKING LAST ONE OF YOU! NOBODY MAKES A FOOL OF ARGO AND GETS... Away... with...

UNIT 4RG0 DISENGAGED. FILES R455, T3M, AND 15H, NOT FOUND. NO SUITABLE SUBPROCESSOR FOUND TO REPLACE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR POSITION. SHUTTING DOWN...

The fusion navi, now completely black, fell limply to the ground.

-*-

Suien's eyes widened as his PET made a small beeping noise. Breaking his grasp on Rania's hands, his fingers flew across the PET keyboard at a high speed, entering in a series of commands. "Rass! D... Don't worry, Rass! Just hold on!" he yelled, initializing the jack-out procedures and clutching his PET tightly. As a stream of black light bolted toward the skies of Electown, the dark haired netOp breathed a sigh of relief. Turning toward Rania, he shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head to the side.

"So... what now?" he asked.
As the last of the Navis dematerialized and sailed into the sky, Titania and Oberon felt themselves start to dissolve as well. They felt something-- pride? Victory? But could not identify it. Nevertheless, they felt something, and perhaps that was what mattered.

Kazu's voice-link was likely broken. Two superimposed pairs of wings sprouted from the featureless white Navi's back, and a ray of light from above carried them into the sky, away from the scene and the grim monument.