Wandering Storm

Moving further into the network, in order to test out her new upgrades, Tempest's travels halted when she came across a rather busy-looking data highway, where some Navis and Mr. Progs were zipping along. Someone behind her accidentally shoved her into the road, and before she knew it, she was automatically zipping along at a brisk speed. Luckily, she had got onto a rather vacant spot, though there were also some other riders, namely a couple of Elebees in front of her, and a pair of Champus behind her!

-- ENEMIES --
Elebee A: 90 HP
Elebee B: 90 HP
Champu A: 60 HP
Champu B: 60 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Expressway

Note: Expressway terrain allows for 1 free forward movement for all mobile entities above it, regardless of them being grounded or otherwise. Functionally equal to Metal terrain. All terrain changes are dictated as "coating" on this terrain, and will disappear after one turn due to the forward movement.

-- BATTLE 02, READY? START!! --

Tempest shouded herself as Gale noticed, "Hey, isn't this the same place we bailed from earlier?"

Looking around, it certainly seemed similar, however the track was moving a lot slower and the landmarks were completely different.

"No," Tempest replied, "But this time, we're not running away!"

Gale nodded with a determined look on her face. Tempest peeked around and noticed there were civilians and spectators standing about though none of them seemed intent on lending a hand. She didn't really want them to and prepared to put on a show for her audience. She began to cast her hands up in the air to create her signature clouds, but they had problems catching up to her. The black shapes amassed overhead were largely slow or immobile and Tempest was being whisked away before they could fully manifest.

"Tsk." she clicked and went to plan B.

Charging a more manageable handheld cloud, she looked at the fiery viruses and cursed her luck that rain wasn't an option. Fortunately, Gale came to the rescue, "Tempest, I have a watery card from last time. Water beats fire, right? Does it work like that?"

The navi's lips curled up in a smile and she answered, "It certainly DOES work like that. Hurry up and slot it in!"

Gale slipped it in while Tempest funnel more energy into her cloud. Air began to drift towards her as the cloud spiralled into a black vortex. One current tugged especially hard at the Champu floating further back. Soon, the data transfer completed and she pulled the cloud wide like pizza dough. It popped, releasing a thick wave water surging forward at the viruses.

It wasn't as spectacular as she was hoping for and she sighed again. She felt like she was disappointing her audience and just snapped at Gale, "Zapring!"

"Oh, yeah, sure, one sec." Gale replied, trying to search for the chip.

Tempest waited patiently, spawning another cloud at her fingertip in preparation for the chip.

"Oh, here it is!" Gale chuckled, "Haha, it was hiding under my lipstick! You know, the new cherry rou-"

"Gale!" Tempest shouted, almost losing control of her tiny wisp.

Gale quickly answered, "Right!" and slotted it in as Tempest pointed her finger at one of the bees and released a spinning ring of energy at it. She had complete confidence in her barrier and didn't flinch even as the viruses struck head-on.



1 - Cloud Cover (90 HP barrier)
* - Gust ChampuB (pull)
2 - Wideshot ChampuA, ChampuB (60 damage) x2 from element
3 - Zapring ElebeeA (45 damage + stun)

Protecting herself with the earlier cloud cover, Tempest took care of the two Champu with one WideShot cloud, deleting them instantly with their elemental weakness. The bees swept about quickly, causing her ZapRing to miss, but her cloud barrier remained impenetrable by the bees' electrical stings.

-- ENEMIES --
Elebee A: 90 HP
Elebee B: 90 HP
Champu A: DELETED
Champu B: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Self-Slow 1) (50 HP Barrier)

-- TERRAIN --
100% Expressway

Note: Expressway terrain allows for 1 free forward movement for all mobile entities above it, regardless of them being grounded or otherwise. Functionally equal to Metal terrain. All terrain changes are dictated as "coating" on this terrain, and will disappear after one turn due to the forward movement.

Tempest made a sour face at her failed attack and wondered what she could do against the giant bees. They made her squeamish and the sooner she was done with this, the better. She shuddered at her half-suppressed memory of the weird battlechip Gale had slotted in that one time and tried to shake herself clear of it.

"What's the matter?" Gale asked.

"Nothing! It's fine! Just need a few more chips here." Tempest replied.

Gale shuffled through her purse, pulling out a handful of chips and asked, "Alright well... How do Shotgun and Cannon sound?"

"Sure, whatever." the navi answered with no preference at all.

It was still too hard to conjure anything with the movement up ahead and while the thought had crossed her mind to simply create the clouds up ahead, she'd rather deal with everything here and now. Summoning two more small clouds, she whipped up a small wind to pull herself to the side and line up a good shot. As promised, the Shotgun and Cannon chips loaded, prompting her to fire off the piercing beam from one cloud, before swapping to a heavy burst from the other. She was far from done and released a sudden jolt of electricity from her fingertip at the viruses.

There was no longer any concern for putting on a fancy show at this point. She just wanted to finish this fight and ride the rest of the expressway in peace.



* - Gust self to line up shot (knockback or pull)
1 - Shotgun ElebeeA (50 damage + Spread1)
2 - Cannon ElebeeA (40 damage + Knockback)
3 - Zap ElebeeB (40 damage)

Things were dealt with pretty easily, and soon Tempest was moving along the dataway without interruption. She saw a couple of places to her left and right up ahead for disengaging from the speedy road, though she could just go with the flow and see where it led her.

-- ENEMIES --
Elebee A: DELETED
Elebee B: DELETED
Champu A: DELETED
Champu B: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Self-Slow 1) (50 HP Barrier)

-- TERRAIN --
100% Expressway

Note: Expressway terrain allows for 1 free forward movement for all mobile entities above it, regardless of them being grounded or otherwise. Functionally equal to Metal terrain. All terrain changes are dictated as "coating" on this terrain, and will disappear after one turn due to the forward movement.

-- BATTLE 02, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --
560z

Tempest briskly walked away from the scene, not really wanting to deal with any spectators or anything else to do with the fight. She made a personal vow not to step onto anymore moving walkways as she continued deeper into the network.

Gale was too busy checking her account balance to notice anything unusual.

((Battle 3))

With her disembarking, Tempest found herself near a huge display in the middle of an intersection. Some kind of advertisement lauding the effects of a new cosmetics product. A Megalian apparently approved, nodding sagely as it stared at the ad forever. Some Momogra also chattered amongst themselves, poking their heads barely out of some holes. They were either discussing the merits of cosmetics, or just saying mostly nonsense. In any case, one of the Momogra spotted Tempest coming, and alerted its comrades to fight!

-- ENEMIES --
Megalian-E: 130 HP {10HP ElecAura} (Flying/Metal)
Momogra A: 60 HP (Solar)
Momogra B: 60 HP (Solar)
Momogra C: 60 HP (Solar)
Momogra D: 60 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 100 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Solar (Roadway, and intersection)
30% Metal (Sidewalk)

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

Tempest would have gotten into a battle-ready mindset, if she hadn't been engrossed by the advertisements being played on the screen.

"I think those are viruses... Are they? Ohhhh, they're so cute with their little shovels and moustaches! Eeeee..." Gale giggled.

Tempest was too busy watching the commercials to answer. The display showed an advertisement for the newest brand of matching operator and navi lipstick and nail polish. She had no idea the new line was out already and dreamt about how much more ravishing she would be with a new shade of red lining lips and fingertips. Best of all, she and Gale could share the look and be even more compatible. The only problem was the model looked too ugly and was too ineffective at selling such a nice product. She knew she would done the role much more justice. She looked down at one of the moles, bent down a bit and spoke in a cute tone, "You're smart little moles. You think I'm prettier than she is, don't you?"

The Megalian looked the least keen on letting the navi step in on their territory, but she simply glared at it with a harsh look in her eye, pointed a finger at it and gave a reprimanding "Tst!" to put it in its place before staring back up at the big screen.

"Gale, we should totally go check out if they have any in stock later. We'd look super hot with some new make-up..." urged Tempest.

"Mmm... Maybe later." Gale replied, still very aware of her lackluster bank account.



1 - Charm Momogras
2 - Rebuke Megalian
3 - Watch TV

Tempest and Gale were simply too distracted at the advertisement, even going as far as to ignore the threat of the viruses. With her small charms and her stern opticblast glance, she was able to subdue them temporarily...Except for one brave Momogra. Everyone had opinions, and this virus' opinion was that Tempest wasn't as pretty as the model on the advertisement!

Going by its natural order, the lone Momogra dug down and appeared behind the navi for an attack, which fortunately missed the mark. Like all good things, the advertisement passed by and another came into place: A high budget, visually stunning-effect-fest film that showed intense scenes here and there...with no sign of its plot whatsoever.

Again, it took the viruses by its attention, but little less so than the cosmetic ad before.

-- ENEMIES --
Megalian-E: 130 HP {10HP ElecAura} (Flying/Metal) [Diss'd!]
Momogra A: 60 HP (Solar) [Charm'd!]
Momogra B: 60 HP (Solar) [Charm'd!]
Momogra C: 60 HP (Solar) [Charm'd!]
Momogra D: 60 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 100 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Solar)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Solar (Roadway, and intersection)
30% Metal (Sidewalk)

Tempest was fairly confident in her body and ability to charm people, though she wasn't sure if that same allure extended to viruses. The Momogras certainly displayed textbook signs of infatuation and she was curious to see if they were smitten enough to actually help defend her. As loathe as she was to admit it, the Megalian's defiance and power seemed to be just out of her league.

She drew up a layer of her Cloud Cover as she entered a combat mindset.

Conjuring up her sexiest voice, she groaned, "Oh... There's no way I could fight that thing off on my own. I wish there was someone strong enough to help me..."

She paused only to strike a contemplative, yet entirely seductive, pose as she charged a ball of lightning in her hands. There was no cloud to contain the electrical charge and she released it at the Megalian. She made a big show of releasing the bolt of concussive energy and theatrically fell back on her backside.

"Owww..." she winced, with her pouty lips in a frown.

Gale had been busy following the trailer to notice what her navi was planning. She only started to pay attention when Tempest's noises started disrupting the show.

"What are you doing?" she asked, "Stop being such a klutz."



1 - Cloud Cover (90 HP barrier + self-slow)
2 - Convince Momogras into defending her
3 - Zap Megalian (40 damage) + Gust Knockback

Oh man, the Megalian was totally dissed and pissed now. Surprisingly, the three Momogra seemed happy enough to take up arms against the gigantic head, tunneling under the head to whack it some after Tempest's amusingly theatrical zap diffused its aura. Their collective whacking was surprisingly powerful. The renegade mole tried to give Tempest a thwacking with its shovel, but her cloud cover prevented the attack from connecting.

-- ENEMIES --
Megalian-E: 85 HP (Flying/Metal) [Totally dissed]
Momogra A: 60 HP (Solar) [Posse'd!]
Momogra B: 60 HP (Solar) [Posse'd!]
Momogra C: 60 HP (Solar) [Posse'd!]
Momogra D: 60 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 100 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Solar) (75 HP barrier) (Self-Slow)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Solar (Roadway, and intersection)
30% Metal (Sidewalk)

With the Momogras tentatively enthralled, Tempest cut her act and created two clouds to channel her energy into. There was still one Momogra who was resistant to her feminine wiles, but she planned to deal with it later. On that note, she wondered what would happen to the Momogras that were following her orders. She didn't really have the heart to cut them down. Perhaps they could simply part ways on friendly terms.

"Gale, I need some chips." Tempest said, still working through her moral dilemma.

"Shooting ones or exploding ones?" Gale asked back.

Not wanting to deal with the splash damage prematurely turning her allies against her, she replied, "Shooting ones."

"Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and use the Zapring, the Cannon and the Thunder. Is that alright with you?"

The connection established with her clouds peaked, allowing her to channel chip data as if they were an extension of her body. She nodded and felt the chip data flow through her arms and filling the clouds. They swelled slightly right before Tempest unleashed the power contained within, sending a halo of energy followed up a heavy concussive blast. The clouds, spent, dissapated back into nothing as she charged the final Thunder chip between her hands. A glowing ball of electricity grew in size an intensity, quickly reaching the size of her head. She released her hold on it and watched it crawl its way slowly to the Megalian, seemingly magnetically drawn to its presence.



1 - Zapring Megalian-E (45 damage + stun) {A}
2 - Cannon Megalian-E (40 damage + knockback) {A}
3 - Thunder Megalian-E (45 damage + stun + homing) {C}

The one-two punch from the Zapring and the Cannon was enough to bring down the gigantic head, but unfortunately, it had left the Thunder ball at its own device. It re-guided it self towards the next virus, which happened to be one of the swooned Momogra, and proceeded to zap the unsuspected fellow.

This was immediately seen as an act of betrayal as the rest of the 'hypnotized' viruses soon corrected their ways and teamed up with the one Momogra who was true to itself! With incredible teamwork, the trio of mole viruses began to attack Tempest with their shovels, slowly chipping away her barrier!

-- ENEMIES --
Megalian-E: DELETED
Momogra A: 60 HP (Solar) [Betrayed!]
Momogra B: 15 HP (Solar) [Betrayed!] [Stun'd!]
Momogra C: 60 HP (Solar) [Betrayed!]
Momogra D: 60 HP (Solar)

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 100 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Solar) (45 HP barrier) (Self-Slow)

-- TERRAIN --
70% Solar (Roadway, and intersection)
30% Metal (Sidewalk)

Cupping her mouth in shock, Tempest could only blurt out, "OHMYGODI'MSOSORRY!"

But it was too late, her temporary alliance had been broken and while there was no longer any moral ambiguity about her situation, she still felt awful about having instigated the betrayal. Fortunately, at this point, she had seen how the Momogras attacked and felt she had come up with a suitable counter-strategy. She leapt up, flying high into the air with the help of a jet of wind and held her position in the sky over the street.

A single droplet of rain landing on the metal sidewalk heralded the coming of millions as a sudden downpour commenced on Tempest's command. Rain flooded the streets while Tempest watched and said, "Gale, I need Magbombs."

"Oh. I thought those little mole things were friendly." Gale said.

"...Were." Tempest emphasized wistfully.

Gale slotted in the chips, forming an electrical aura around Tempest. The energy field condensed tighter around her body until it finally compacted into two separate points of light in her hands. She bid her furry friends good-bye before releasing the sparks below and watching them explode back to their original sizes.



1 - Airstep (high alt jump)
* - SetSea Momogras (large sea terrain)
2 - Magbomb Momogra C (35 damage + Blast 2 + stun) x2 from terrain {D}
3 - Magbomb Momogra A (35 damage + Blast 2 + stun) x2 from terrain {D}

Blasting herself up into the skies, Tempest made it rain and had some rather painful electrical balls shock her former allies to deletion. Damn, what a cold heart.

-- ENEMIES --
Megalian-E: DELETED
Momogra A: DELETED
Momogra B: DELETED
Momogra C: DELETED
Momogra D: DELETED

-- OBJECTS --
Advertisement Projector: 100 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (Solar) (45 HP barrier)

-- TERRAIN --
10% Solar, 60% Sea (Roadway, and intersection)
30% Metal (Sidewalk)

-- BATTLE 03, VICTORY!! --

-- REWARDS --
[AuraHead1] Battlechip, 560z

Tempest descended back down to street level and stared at where the Momogras had been. She was still heartbroken about having to delete them. It was the first time she had felt any remorse about deleting a virus and it made her question if they were really as mindless as she originally thought.

"560 zenny and a new chipcard is alright, but let's keep going." urged Gale.

Tempest nodded solemnly and pressed on, trying to get her mind off of it.

((Battle 4))

Trying to get her mind off of her encounter with the Momogra viruses, Tempest floated on. Her distracted mind made her not realize that she was walking into a restricted area. Before she knew it, she was surrounded in heavily magnetized paneling in the middle of a cut-off road, being unaffected thanks to her electrical affinity. She only stopped when she saw some viruses blocking her way forward in the form of two Scarecrows and a trio of Bunnies, who didn't seem all too pleased to see her.

-- ENEMIES --
Scarecrow A: 100 HP
Scarecrow B: 100 HP
Bunny A: 50 HP
Bunny B: 50 HP
Bunny C: 50 HP

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP

-- TERRAIN --
100% Magnet

-- BATTLE 04, READY? START!! --

"Aw, it's more of those cute Bunnies and... Some really creepy looking Scarecrow things. Let's kill those." Gale suggested.

The Bunnies were a welcome sight to Tempest as well, seeing as how they were the weakest viruses on this network. She had not seen anything weaker and she was starting to grasp their attack patterns. Fairly confident she would be able to dispatch them with ease, only the Scarecrows were throwing her off. She would have to figure out a way to deal with them later, but for now she focused on deleting the Bunnies. She cracked her knuckles and got to work, drawing up a wispy barrier to protect herself.

"I think... A Shotgun would work here." Gale said, slotting in the chip.

Tempest complimented, "You're getting the hang of this now," charging a cloud as she spoke.

She wanted to use the chip to its full potential and right before releasing the pent-up energy within the cloud, summoned a draft of wind to draw a virus into her line of sight before releasing the piercing bolt at the viruses.

"Gale, can I get the Wideshot next?" Tempest requested.

"Wideshot... Wideshot... Is that the one with- No wait, I think I have it here!" Gale fumbled with her chips, displacing and digging through her purse contents like a mole.

The chip was slotted in allowing Tempest to condense a ball of moisture from the air. Sweeping it in front of her, the liquid spread out into a long wave that splashed out at the remaining Bunnies.



1 - Cloud Cover (90 HP barrier + self-slow)
* - Gust BunnyA in front of BunnyB (Pull)
2 - Shotgun BunnyA (50 damage + Spread1)
3 - Wideshot BunnyB, BunnyC (60 damage + WideAttack)

With her barrier to defend herself against her enemies, Tempest made a gust of wind to blow a Bunny around, and launched a Shotgun bolt at it. Unfortunately, her aim was slightly off as it shot through the bunny's ears, and nothing more. Her WideShot was more successful, taking two Bunnies off the map. Meanwhile, the enemies retaliated with some attacks, but all of them were deflected by her clouds. The attacks seemed pretty strong, though... she might not last all of them now.

-- ENEMIES --
Scarecrow A: 100 HP
Scarecrow B: 100 HP
Bunny A: 50 HP
Bunny B: DELETED
Bunny C: DELETED

-- NAVIGATOR --
Tempest.EXE: 120 HP (40 HP Barrier) (Self-Slow)

-- TERRAIN --
100% Magnet