Raiden in Electown

A bolt of lightning crashed out of the sky and deposited Raiden in a side alley, away from the light, sound, and Navis. It had been a long time since he was last here, although he had been in stasis for the duration. Things had changed. He didn't recognize this place, and doubted that any others would be familiar, either.

"Hey, what's this?" he asked, picking at the coat that had somehow appeared on his person.

Mackenzie's face appeared in a window off to his left. "I nicked that off a customization forum," she said. "Wanted to cover up that...stuff on your chest. Looks kind of weird. NetPolice and stuff might try and quarantine you or something."

He smiled and rolled his arms in circles to get a feel for the material. "Nice. It's stylin'."

"Um. What."

Mackenzie was taken aback by Raiden's sudden shift in personality. He sure hadn't been like that when he was in her PET. Even the sound of his voice had changed to a brighter, more...social?...kind of pitch. She watched as he set off down the alley toward the main thoroughfare.

He was kind of a weird one.

[Battle 1 gogogo]
[Raiden.EXE: 150 HP]
The now-somehow social Raiden walked down the sweeping roadway platforms of the Electown network, and of course, found the requisite welcoming wagon that accompanied anyone that did so. Three Metools stood in his way, ignoring the futility of their quest and just breaking through with reckless abandon. ... Actually, no, they just whirled around their pickaxes and tried to look cute.

-- ENEMIES --
Metool A: 40 HP
Metool B: 40 HP
Metool C: 40 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Raiden.EXE: 150 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

-- BATTLE 01, READY? START!! --
"Hey there, little guys!"

Raiden stopped near the three Metools. With his hands in the pockets of his coat, he squatted down to the viruses' level, grinning at them.

"Aren't you adorable," he remarked, tilting his head. "Sure bring back memories."

"Uh, what kind of memories?" Mackenzie butted in via a window that popped open between Raiden and the viruses. Weren't Navis supposed to, you know, bust these things? Was talking to them even an option?

"When I first started battling with my Operator. It was a situation just like this -- three Metools on the roadside."

Raiden straighted up and took his hands out of his pockets. He was still smiling benignly down at the Metools.

"Anyway," he said to Mackenzie. "I owe you a story, don't I?"

"Yeah."

"Would you mind sending those chips my way first?"

Mackenzie tapped at the three icons on her PET's touch-screen. She felt kind of cheated. This was all Raiden had in his memory? It was barely any better than the junk Sapperman fought with.

"So," Raiden began as he held his hand palm-up, "once upon a time, there was a government development program called the National Netopian Defense Coalition."

"Never heard of them."

"And nobody was supposed to have. What the NNDC did was build a team of infotech weapons to combat cyber-crime. There were four Navis, arranged in two teams that worked symbiotically off one another's abilites. They had the power to manipulate the network itself."

A tiny ball of lighting appeared in Raiden's raised palm. He extended his hand to arm's length, with the ball pointing directly at the first Metool. With a tiny twitch of his fingers, the ball released, slamming into the ground and hurling up a cloud of junk data.

"What do you mean by 'manipulate the network'?" Mackenzie asked.

"Basically what it sounds like. They could take the network and twist it to suit their purposes. It was the dynamo that fueled their power, more or less. The problem was that the Navis' programming was never quite tightened up, and their presence in a fight would crash smaller networks entirely. They were just too much of a strain for the network to keep up."

Raiden lifted his other hand. A second ball of lightning, a little larger than the first, appeared in that one, too. With the same arm-outstretched motion as before, he fired it at the second Metool.

"There were issues with wasted money and vanishing funding. The real kicker came when three of the Navis were infected with a virus and had to be quarantined. The programmers thought it was an accident at the time, but in reality, it was sabotage by one of the workers themselves."

Raiden held his arm out to one side. The ground quavered. There was a sudden lurch, and the panels around him cracked. The fragments rose, guided by an invisible force, and locked into place around his hand. The resulting shape was that of an enormous claw on the end of his arm.

"And let me guess," Mackenzie said. "You were the fourth Navi."

He chuckled, wound up, and slammed the claw down on the third Metool.

"That's right."

[1. Cannon @ MetoolA (40 NORMAL damage)
2. Shotgun@ MetoolB (50 NORMAL damage)
3. Rageclaw @ MetoolC (40 NORMAL damage)]
Talking about his past at the same time as killing viruses was an easy task for Raiden, as he immediately dispatched them in a matter of seconds. All that was left of the Metools was a small pickaxe dropped by one.

-- ENEMIES --
Metool A: DELETED
Metool B: DELETED
Metool C: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Raiden.EXE: 150 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Metal

-- BATTLE 01, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --

[Shockwave] Battlechip, 220z
Raiden laughed. "That was just as easy as it was the first time. Heh, I'd almost forgotten how that felt."

He stooped and picked up the lost pickaxe. It transformed into data in his hand and vanished into the PET.

"So what happened?" Mackenzie prompted, eager to get onto the rest of the story. "How'd you get out in one piece?"

"The guy who sabotaged it never told me why he saved me in particular. Right before he unloaded the virus onto the NNDC server, he ran a compression program to bring me down to a manageable size - the way I am right now - stuck me on a memory stick, and took me home."

"And stuck you in a safe for ages?"

"Nah, not yet. First, he gave me to his teenaged daughter."

"What."

Raiden grinned and kept walking.

[Battle 2, go]
Raiden happened across his next adversaries after a short time walking. A trio of Bunny viruses were sitting mesmerized as a Champu boxed imaginary foes with its flaming fists. The spectacle was interrupted when Raiden appeared, and the viruses seemed all too eager to deal with him and get back to what they were doing.

Bunny A: 50HP
Bunny B: 50HP
Bunny C: 50HP
Champu: 60HP

Terrain: 70% Normal, 30% Metal (Behind viruses)

Raiden.EXE: 150HP

Battle 2 Start!
"Heh. More of you little guys?" Raiden tilted his head a bit as he smiled at the viruses. Mackenzie had a hard time reading his expression. Was he really fond of those little bastards, or was it pity for them as an apology for the impending beatdown.

Raiden said something, but she missed it, catching only forty percent. "What?" she asked.

"Never mind."

Raiden whipped up one hand. His fingers were folded into the shape of a gun. With a twitch of his middle finger and a little exhalation of breath that sounded like a "pow," he fired a blast of lightning at the rightmost Bunny.

And then he twisted to his left and took off running.

"So," he said, his head half-turned toward the viruses as he judged their positioning, "this teenaged daughter's name was Marina. She wouldn't let anyone call her that, though. She was a confused kid. Her father, the researcher who saved me, hoped that by putting me in her hands, it would keep the NNDC's recovery and damage control agents from finding out that I still existed."

"Wouldn't they kind of wonder where you'd gone?" Mackenzie had pulled her bass guitar out of the closet by now, and was picking idly at the strings. Her chips were already slotted. There wasn't much she could do beyond ask questions.

"They thought I had been deleted by the other three CTRL Navis, or that if I had survived, I was infected, and had taken off out into the Net. Besides, the Navi they were looking for was the fully decompressed version of myself, not the compressed one. Aaaand--there!"

Raiden skidded to a halt. He'd gotten the viruses into what was as close enough to a straight line as he could get. Bunnies were skittish little things, after all. He raised his hand above his head, and a pickaxe of lightning materialized in it. He swung his whole body with it as he slammed the edge down into the ground. A blast of electricity sped away along the panels, flinging sparks in every direction, moving as fast as a bolt of lightning.

[1. Shotgun @ BunnyC (50 NORMAL damage + splash 1)
2. Dodge (run to left / line up Shockwave)
3. Shockwave @ BunnyA, B, C, Champu (40 NORMAL damage, line, ground)]
"Pow" went the bolt of lightning, raking through two Bunnies easily with its penetrating strength. A Bunny shot an electrified ring at Raiden, while the Champu teleported up to him to give him a bit of a socking. Easily evading both, however, he retaliated with a Shockwave. His luck was a bit down on this attack, though, as the wave went harmlessly by the viruses.

Bunny A: 50HP
Bunny B: DELETED
Bunny C: DELETED
Champu: 60HP

Terrain: 70% Normal, 30% Metal (Behind viruses)

Raiden.EXE: 150HP
"So I guess you two went on all kinds of wacky adventures," Mackenzie hazarded, concluding her assumption by tumbling her fingers down the E string.

"More or less, long story short, et cetera." Raiden took a half-step back from the viruses and waved a hand in the air for more firepower. Mack almost dropped her bass as she dove across the bed to shove in her last two chips.

Raiden squared his feet and fired a bolt of plasma from his palm at the remaining Bunny. His blank silver eyes flicked over to the Champu, then back to the rabbit virus. A plan popped into his mind, and he reached for the Rageclaw data on his mental systems deck.

And something went wrong.

As he executed the chip data, he felt a jabbing pain in his chest. His hand leapt up to grab at the bulge on the front of his coat. Something slipped through the tiniest of cracks on his systems deck and burrowed its way into the chip's payload. By then, it was too late; the Rageclaw was already unpacking.

His right arm exploded into a blizzard of data fragments. The ground just next to his foot similarly vaporized. Raiden sucked a breath in between clenched teeth as he watched the two sources of data conbine and re-form below his shoulder.

He remembered what Rageclaws were supposed to look like -- on him, at least. In his mind were aged but still-strong images of an arm and claws that were made almost entirely of panel pieces. This...thing...was like that, but something black and disgusting dripped from between the cracks in the stolen panel fragments. It oozed up and spread up and down the arm, coating it like a fine layer of oil.

"Uh, does it always do that?" he heard Mackenzie ask over the connection.

"Not really." Raiden's systems deck was already going into full damage-control mode, shutting off the connections from his arm to the rest of his body to prevent the spread of this infection that'd come from inside him. He dropped his still-normal left hand from the bulge on his chest.

Then, remembering that the viruses weren't going to sit around and wait for him to deal with whatever this was, he tensed his legs and leapt toward them.

The loss of contact with the programs that ran his arm made it difficult for him to execute any kind of fine motor control. Twisting the serrated panel-piece claws as best he could, Raiden tried to clamp them over the Bunny's head. Once he thought he'd gotten a good enough grip, he planted his heel and pivoted with the corrupted Rageclaw trailing behind him. With a grunt and a yell, he hurled the arm toward the Champu, hoping the Bunny was stuck on the end of it.

His systems deck informed him that it was going to get to work on patching that crack now.

Raiden got the momentum of his glitched arm back under control and swung it around, hoping to maybe backhand the Champu if he got lucky and his aim didn't stink.

Then he was going to have to figure out just what to do about this thing.

[1. Cannon @ BunnyA (40 NORMAL damage)
*[i]Bug-type passive: Hack[/i]
2. Rageclaw1: throw BunnyA into Champu; Glitch-infused (20 NORMAL damage to each)
3. Rageclaw1 @ Champu (40 NORMAL damage)]
Raiden's cannon blast missed, but that didn't stop his horrible arm-horror from grabbing the poor Bunny by its head. As the pink body collided against the Champu virus, something strange occurred when the two viruses began to...float. Not so high or not so low, these viruses was simply floating idly like a bubble, which made things perfect for Raiden to pop the Champu like one.

The bunny helplessly struggled in air, trying to get down on the ground before it met its impending doom...

Bunny A: 30HP (Hold(???))
Bunny B: DELETED
Bunny C: DELETED
Champu: DELETED

Terrain: 70% Normal, 30% Metal (Behind viruses)

Raiden.EXE: 150HP
"Hey, what the hell's going on?" Mackenzie demanded, leaning forward over her bass to get a better look at the PET's screen.

"I don't know," Raiden replied, surveying the captured Bunny. "It seems like some kind of...systems glitch. There must be something up with my compression subroutines."

"Can you fix it?"

"Don't know. I'll have to go over the coding line by line. I don't even know if I've got the administrative priveleges for that, or whether Dr. Connell locked me out of those so I couldn't tinker."

He curled and uncurled the glitched Rageclaw-hand (and was relieved to find that he still could), then drove the claws forward into the centre of the sphere, aiming to shred the virus inside. He ripped the arm up and then down, ensuring the virus would be torn to ribbons even if it managed to shrug off his first strike.

[1. Rageclaw1 @ BunnyA (40 NORMAL dmg)
2. Rageclaw1 @ BunnyA (40 NORMAL dmg)
3. Rageclaw1 @ BunnyA (40 NORMAL dmg)]
Raiden certainly didn't hesitate to cut up the helpless bunny into worthless, harmless data with his Rageclaw. What was left of the viruses disappeared and left some loot for the victor!

Bunny A: DELETED
Bunny B: DELETED
Bunny C: DELETED
Champu: DELETED

Terrain: 70% Normal, 30% Metal (Behind viruses)

Raiden.EXE: 150HP

-BATTLE WON!-
300z + [Firehit1] BattlechipFireHit1
Damage: 60 + Impact + Double Attack
Accuracy: A
Description: Throws a blazing punch from a distance.
Duration: Up to 2 uses before the end of the turn
Element: Fire
Special: Double Attack: After spending an action to attack with this chip, you may choose to spend a second action and attack with it again before the end of the turn.
Raiden sent a tentative command to his arm to disengage. He was only half-hopeful that it would actually respond. To his relief, though, it did; the stolen panel fragments dropped away and clattered to the ground in a pile. Some of the oily stuff still clung to his jacket arm. He shook it off as best he could. Black droplets sprayed on the ground.

"Well, that's pretty weird," Raiden said with a shrug and a smile.

Mackenzie scowled at the PET screen. "You don't even care?"

"I don't think it's a big deal. Chill out. It only affected one arm, and it doesn't look like it's permanent."

She rolled her eyes. "Throwing you in a vault must have made you crazy."

"Only a little." He turned his grin upon her. "And only most of the time."

"Crazy military-grade experimental Navi. Awesome. Jackpot. You wanna come back now and get that arm thing worked out?"

"Nah."

Mackenzie's fingers took a frustrated tumble down the neck of her bass. "How come?"

"I'd like to keep looking into it. See if I can replicate it. It'll give me more data to go over once I start investigating exactly why it's happening. I'll be fine, I promise."

"All right, whatever. Just call if you want out."

"Sure," Raiden said, and strolled off down the road. "Now, I have a story to finish, don't I?"

[Battle 3, please]
Raiden strolled further through Electown Net searching for viruses when his sensors detected something coming down from right above him!

Jumping back just in time, Raiden grunted as a Powie slammed its heavier form into the area where the thunder god once stood. Another Powie bounced along toward it while the Powie reverted to its lighter, floatier form as two Swordys brandishing electrically charged swords flanked the Powies.

A Momogra popped up a little bit away, watching the encounter curiously.

-ENEMIES-
PowieA: 60 HP
PowieB: 60 HP
Swordy-EA: 80 HP
Swordy-EA: 80 HP
Momogra: 60 HP (3 actions to the left)(Solar)

-TERRAIN-
70% Metal, 30% Solar

-NAVI-
Raiden.EXE: 150HP

-BATTLE 3-
-ROUTINE, SET-
-EXECUTE-