Memoriam.EXE VS Void.EXE

As the Navis jack in, their Net Operators are shown a 3-D model of the arena their Navis will be fighting in with various features labeled and highlighted as the presentation runs. At the end of the presentation, the environmental statistics for this arena are displayed for reference.

Quote (The Underworld)

The center of the arena itself is a flat, circular plane, with a few small walls and columns to use as cover, or as vantage points. The columns are simple rounded rectangles, standing up lengthwise about 8 feet in height. They are not secured to the floor and can be knocked over, unlike the few small walls. At the walls of the arena are four pits. The walls of the upper arena are covered in a large netting that allows it to be grabbed onto and clung to, but is otherwise un-noteworthy.

The pits surrounding the center of the arena drop down into a second, lower half of the arena that is exactly as wide as the first, but is much taller than the upper arena. Close to the edges of this 'underground' arena are four small, circular platforms; these send a navi flying directly upward to ground-level, and are placed below the four pits. They must be specifically triggered, however, and do not trigger when navis enter the lower arena by dropping from above.

At the far walls of the underground arena are four additional, angled boosters which catapult a navi up to one of four horizontal platforms on the walls of the lower arena; these four small platforms each have two hand grips on the wall next to them that will pull a navi to the next platform over, either to the left or right.

---Terrain---
Upper Level: Normal (96%), Hole (4%)

Lower Level: Normal (88%), Spring Panel (4%), Booster Pad (8%)

Note: Hole Terrain means you can fall through it to reach the lower level. Hole Terrain cannot be changed.

Note 2: Breaking the panels of the upper level means creating holes Navis can fall to the lower level through. These are Broken Panels, and can either regenerate in a couple of tuyrns or be repaired/changed into something else, unlike Hole Terrain.

---Objects---

Hematite Column (300 HP) [4 ea. on upper level]
-- Can be knocked over, and rolled.
-- Can be stood upon.
-- Can be used for cover.
-- Too heavy to lift, throw, or send flying with microburst.

Hematite Barricade (150 HP) [4 ea. on upper level]
-- Can be used for cover.
-- Immovable

Hematite Cube (300 HP, extremely heavy) [4 ea. on lower level]
-- Tethered to the ceiling by ropes, which can be cut with a single slashing attack.
-- Can be stood upon, even while tethered.
-- Cannot be moved other than cutting them loose.
-- Immovable once on the ground, and may be used for cover.
-- Deal 100 Null Damage if they fall upon a Navi, and break instantly.

For Reference: The upper area is approximately 15 feet high. The lower area is approximately 45 feet high. The platforms on the lower level are 25 feet from the ground, as are the hanging cubes.


The Navis, on the other hand, appear on the upper level of the arena, a moderate distance from each other, and are not given any of the data their Operators received. The Navis would be given a few moments to themselves before the match actually began....
<Void, jack in!>

Void's data quickly streamed into the arena, forming his shadowy body. Quickly glancing around, the net navi noted that he and Imp had landed on the upper floor of the arena. According to the arena data, most of the objects can't be moved... maybe...

Void stood around, trying to figure out his footwork before the fight started, although he still didn't get a chance to see his opponent before hand...
"I think I like this," were Memoriam's first words as he materialized, a fairly long time after his opponent had already appeared.

Why did you make me leave you in the PET for so long? Don't you want to study the arena? Kazu was already nervous, Memoriam noted. Things weren't normal with him... Memoriam had a hunch, but it would wait.

"Why would I need to study the arena?" Asked Memoriam, almost teasingly. "You programmed me better than that. I'll do it as I go. This way, my opponent--" he gestured at the strange form in front of him-- "-- doesn't get to study me as much. He would get to examine the arena for a while regardless, you see; by coming at the last moment, I minimalized--"

I get it, I get it.

Kazu laid out his chips, took a sip from the bottle of water he'd picked up earlier, and got ready for the last Netbattle session of his life.
((The Battle will start when both of you signal "Ready"))
"Hey boss, he's here..."

Void looked over at what Imp was pointing at, noting his opponent's casual appraisal of the shadowy navi's form. Then the fashion challenged program promptly stated that having watched Void look around gave him some kind of tactical advantage against Void's attacks.

"Can I ask what you are talking about over there? Watching me look at the ground gives away my fighting style in some incredible way?"

Void chuckled as he got into a fighting stance, "Even though you do seem to be much stronger than me, it's still going to come down to skill. So as long as your fighting style is better than your fashion sense, this should be an interesting fight."

"Heh, dagger or sword? It's not the size of the blade but the skill of the wielder buddy!" Imp cackled at Memoriam.

((ready! 160 hp)
"It talked!" Said Memoriam in mock surprise. "That little black rain cloud's got an attitude..."

His weapon materialized and re-materialized, fading into and out of his protective aura, as he waited for some signal that the round was beginning and he could begin to test out the arena proper. And then-- to Kazu's amazement-- he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and sat on the ground with legs crossed, relaxed and utterly unaffected.

[Ready.]
Suddenly, the Colosseum lights dimmed and two spot lights shined above the two fighters. Everyone in the background screamed with energy, the chanting of the fighters name was heard in cheers and taunts. A navi fully dressed in a white tuxedo appeared in the middle of the arena and cleared his throat.

"AHEM! Welcome all! For today's event! Memoriam.EXE versus Void.EXE"

The screaming cheers became louder as the announcer's name echoed. The white tux navi looked at the two contestants and checked if they were ready for their match. He raised his arm high and started to shout with all his might.

"The battle will commence in 3!!"

Everything suddenly went quite.

"2!!"

You could see it in the faces of the operators and the navis.

'1!!!"

This battle is going to be a decisive one!!

"FIGHT!"

Fighters:
Void: 160 HP
Memoriam: 210 HP

Terrain:
Upper Level: 96% Normal, 4% Hole
Lower Level: 88% Normal, 4% Spring Panel, 8% Booster Pad

Objects:
Hematite ColumnA: 300
Hematite ColumnB: 300
Hematite ColumnC: 300
Hematite ColumnD: 300
Hematite BarricadeA: 150
Hematite BarricadeB: 150
Hematite BarricadeC: 150
Hematite BarricadeD: 150
----
Hematite CubeA: 300
Hematite CubeB: 300
Hematite CubeC: 300
Hematite CubeD: 300

((Please remember to PM me your actions before you post it on this thread!))
"He's a little black rain cloud? How appropriate, you look like a rainbow with that mash of colors. I dunno about you, but at least we could pick ONE theme to stick with. You look like a tornado hit the Smithsonian." Imp spat back to the sitting navi, storming over to him, "I should come over there and straighten you out!"

"Don't do it, he's trying to provoke us into attacking, then deflecting it back at us."

Imp looked up at his partner, "So what do we do then? We can't simply stand around."

<Not really, we have guards too. We could do the same and double our defense at the same time. I'll send you guys a chip, one is a thing called 'panelshot', it must destroy panels, we'll shoot the ground out from under him.>

"Right, downloading..." Void said as the data flowed into him. Feeling the unfamiliar data enter his arms, he quickly raised his hands to aim the forming weapon. A look of shock crossed Void's face as a large chunk of rock broke free of its bindings and was sent hurtling towards Memoriam. "That was not a gun! How does that name apply in any way?!?"

<Forget it, you just made a short cut to the lower stage! GO!>

Looking down, the weapon had indeed opened the ground, revealing the extra space underneath. As Void started to jump through, he noted the spring tiles below other holes in the upper stage. This might work...

Quickly jumping down towards one of the spring tiles Void shouted to Imp, "Quick, distract Memoriam for half a second! Try to keep him still!"

"Right!"

Imp started to charge towards his opponent, his fat legs carrying him as quickly as possible. "Hey, remember how I said you looked like a messed up Smithsonian? Well I'm about to add a Picasso painting to your face!"

As Imp wound up his fist, Void landed near the spring tile on the lower floor. Running over, he leapt onto the spring and spun towards where he last saw Memoriam.I hope that tub of blubber did his job.

Void reached into his cloak, and pulled out two handfuls of deadly looking daggers. As he rocketed through the opening, he gave a quick shout towards Memoriam. "You're about to be caught in this cloud's DAGGER TORRENT!!!"

-----

actions:

1) PanelShot1 (60 + 5% broken) @ memoram
*) Imp distracting/holding memoram( gust ) @ memoram
2) jump to lower level (dodge/tactical move)
3) use spring back to upper level (dodge tactical move)
4) dagger torrent( 5 dmg x 16 hits ) @ memoram
[Passive Shield]

As the lights went down, Memoriam's aura lit up. filling the spotlight he was in, and then invisibly creeping outward and all around, infiltrating the area's data and twisting it to Memoriam's will. It sank into the surface that they sat on under cover of darkness, then as the booming voice counted down the seconds to starting, it did its work. There was no way anyone could have seen it-- not even Memoriam's own operator-- but by the time the words "FIGHT" echoed through the chamber, the upper level of the arena belonged entirely to Memoriam, and had for several nanoseconds prior-- plenty of time for Memoriam to make a change. Nobody had to know; Memoriam had the benefit of flawless acrobatic stealth, the cover of darkness, and an aura that completely shielded his movements from detection.

The lights came up again on Memoriam, Void, and the upper level of the arena, and with a deep humming sound, the entire arena started to glow. It was filled with a potent light, cool blue in color and yet as intense and cutting as the manifestation of an active BattleChip. The light arose in a small pool from the ground beneath where Memoriam was still motionlessly meditating, yet it was plenty sufficient to fill the entire arena. Memoriam still did not move, even though the command to begin battle had already been issued. He sat, and waited, the aura around him increasing in power by the millisecond.

Memoriam sat, waiting, preparing his strike, for the perfect moment, when he could strike unexpectedly from the perfect angle. He waited, utterly unafraid of any attack coming his way. He had the advantage, in a way that none could suspect. When the critical moment came, Memoriam felt as if he moved in slow motion. To Kazu, though, the movement was so fast that it was over before the human mind could fully comprehend it.

At the very last possible moment, when no Navi, no matter their speed, could have avoided disaster, Memoriam fired the TreeBomb-containing seed at the ground as close as possible to where he was apparently sitting, and at a spot on the ground such that, should he drop from the top of the pillar where he'd been hiding, and fire the second chip Kazu had given him while still falling, approximately two-thirds of a second after launching the TreeBomb, then the Aqua attack would strike only nanoseconds after the TreeBomb was formed enough to accept the triggering effect, and the splash from the Bubbler would strike both the tree and the Navi. The height of his fall was such that he could use both chips with precision, then recover from the fall quickly and reach cover almost before the effects of the attack had even resolved...

Memoriam dropped from the top of the pillar, where he had been hiding, fired two bursts of energy in rapid succession in mid-air, then landed on all fours with catlike reflexes and dove behind a pillar for cover.

All told, he was in view for perhaps a second and a half.

1. Misdirection [Sacrifice 15, Illusion of building up a massive attack while still sitting in the starting position]
2-3. Tac Move: Ninja Art of TreeBomb Substitution [TreeBomb plant, Bubbler Shot TreeBomb. 40 damage + 90 Aqua if successful]
4. Column Dive Dodge
"And the match begins!!"

The intensity of the coliseum was bursting with energy and anxiety, but everything got quieter when they saw Memoriam simply sitting and minding his own business. "Hey!! The match already started! I put 5k on you, so get your arse moving!. It seemed like everyone wanted action, but Memoriam wasn't going to give them any...until later on. Void started things off with his PanelShot battle chip and fired off a large chunk of the Arena towards Memoriam. However, the Panel literally disintegrated into tiny fragments and barely hit the navi.

"Ooohh! What is this sudden turn of event, ladies and gents!"

The panel actually missed Memoriam, but the illusion he placed in the upper level made sure that it didn't look that way. Void dropped down to the holes recently created by his PanelShot, despite the obvious failure of his attack, and tried to spring up closer to his enemy. While it was doing so, Memoriam planted his TreeBomb and shot the Bubbler to sprout the deadly spikes.

However...

Void's miscalculation of the arena caused him to flop down to the lower level and made him stay there. The attack done by Memoriam turned out to attack nothing...

Memoriam quickly took cover behind a random Column, making sure that no one knows where he was hiding.


Fighters:
Void: 160 HP
Memoriam: 195 HP [Behind Column [?]]

Terrain:
Upper Level: 91% Normal, 9% Hole
Lower Level: 88% Normal, 4% Spring Panel, 8% Booster Pad

Objects:
Hematite ColumnA: 300
Hematite ColumnB: 300
Hematite ColumnC: 300
Hematite ColumnD: 300
Hematite BarricadeA: 150
Hematite BarricadeB: 150
Hematite BarricadeC: 150
Hematite BarricadeD: 150
----
Hematite CubeA: 300
Hematite CubeB: 300
Hematite CubeC: 300
Hematite CubeD: 300
"Huh? Why didn't the spring panel work?" Void looked down at his feet, still on the lower level.

<I think you have to trigger it.> Damian said, <...and we just wasted a good attack. We could of gotten an early lead.>

A rather large explosion erupted from the upper level, followed quickly by a series of shrill screams from Imp. "Maybe this was better..."

Void quickly tripped the spring panel and launched himself to the upper floor, landing on the edge of the hole. Looking out on the upper stage, Void saw Imp lying in the middle of puddles of water and splintered wood. Hurrying over, the shadowy navi looked at Imp and chuckled, "You were the one who wanted to rush in."

<Touching reunion guys, but we don't know where "dinky doodle" went. That last attack was an illusion->

"Oh, you think?"

Rolling his eyes, Damian ignored Imp's witty comment, <He wasn't on the lower level, so he's obviously hidden behind one of the pillars.>

"Great, so we're sitting ducks while he's winding up his attack..." Imp muttered in annoyance, looking at the towers for some kind of clue.

"Yes, which works perfectly for us."

"What?"

<Damian? You know what to do? Battlechips in...>

Void let the first chip load into his body, his cloak absorbing the power of the guard chip, turning it into a protective armor covering most of his body. Quickly pulling up his hood, Void started to load the other 2 chips, the sword and the area steal. A pretty straightforward tactic, just wait for memoriam to attack and hit his guard, the teleport behind memoriam and hit him with the sword. It's not really my style though, head on leads to too much trouble. And a 'tactics master' will probably try to blind me or something... Void let himself have a chuckle, This is my kind, I wonder if he's looking for a team up...

Actions
1) Trip jump panel (autododge, return to upper level)
2) Guard1(block 60, return 60)
3) Areagrab (teleport) @ behind Memoriam
4) Sword (80 dmg) @ Memoriam
Memoriam, like many Navis, lacked an interior monologue, but if he had one, it would be a nightmare of strategy combined with whims. At this moment, he decided to set a timer at T=0 as he saw that his target was nowhere to be seen, accidentally wasted his attack, noticed the gaping hole in the stage, and then ducked out of sight. At T=3(ms) he was fully concealed. At T=600, his Operator started to pronounce a profanity.

Fortunately, from the urgency and briefness of the Navi's commands, Kazu immediately recognized the urgency of the situation, even if he had no idea what was going to--

"Guard. A-grab. Knife."

Kazu hardly even got one syllable out before Memoriam was muttering orders at his Operator, under his breath. He spoke in monotones, and in short bursts, trying not to attract attention. Memoriam's voice sliced through Kazu's pout, and like a program reacting to an input, the human Operator expertly snatched chips from his open folder and clicked them into the PET.

Memoriam did not wait for human flesh to catch up with machine thought. He made for the closest drop-hole, and jumped backwards into it at T=763, he was airborne, back to the wall and weapons facing the column where he had been hiding a moment earlier. Hopefully unseen by his enemy, he dropped through the upper part of the stage and fell for 400ms before firing a quick salvo of energy bolts at T=1163, targetted with as much haste as he dared. Memoriam landed at T=1920, fired the last of his energy bursts at T=2200, and at T=2236, the first of his BattleChips was loaded and ready to use. He activated the Guard chip in the span of 12ms and then waited.

Memoriam's sensors and scanners went to full alert as he watched for the critical moment when his enemy would commit to the attack, a melee attack if his understanding of his own energy bolts was correct. He knew it could come from anywhere-- a lunge, a slide, a jump, a side-step, a teleport-- and he knew that with only 128ms of time, he could AreaGrab away from an attack, then cut the rope securing the hanging cube above. All told, his opponent would have perhaps 500ms of time to escape being crushed.

When the heat from Kazu's fingers dispersed from the chips he had hastily clicked into the PET, it was T=3553. Three and a half human seconds had passed since Memoriam took cover behind the column. Kazu blinked, seeing that his Navi had moved to the lower level. Kazu, the old Netbattler, a veteran of the field who had seen more Net combat than some of his competitors combined, felt like an outdated Navi support program, only barely able to keep up, trying not to be a hinderance.

[Passive Shield]
1. [Tac-move: Drop-down] Recklessness [Berserk x2, Knockback x2, mostly want to hit with Berserk]
2. Guard1
3. AreaGrab
4. HematiteCube Drop with BambooKnife
"This match...has taken a very interesting turn of event!"

The spectators saw the two navis doing the exact same thing in synchrony. Both switched spots from the lower arena to the upper level, vice versa, activating Guard, and Areagrab. Things started to get interesting only in the near end of the phase. Memoriam teleported on the lower ceiling of the arena and cut the cube down to the ground, but Void appeared just behind the unsuspecting navi and landed a solid hit with the sword. Memoriam's Guard chip couldn't do anything, entirely since it was facing forward and exposed the navi's back to the sharp sword.

Fighters:
Void: 160 HP [Guard 1] [Lower Arena]
Memoriam: 115 HP [Guard 1 / Overwrote Passive Shield] [Lower Arena]

Terrain:
Upper Level: 91% Normal, 9% Hole
Lower Level: 88% Normal, 4% Spring Panel, 8% Booster Pad

Objects:
Hematite ColumnA: 300
Hematite ColumnB: 300
Hematite ColumnC: 300
Hematite ColumnD: 300
Hematite BarricadeA: 150
Hematite BarricadeB: 150
Hematite BarricadeC: 150
Hematite BarricadeD: 150
----
Hematite CubeA: 300
Hematite CubeB: 300 [On the ground]
Hematite CubeC: 300
Hematite CubeD: 300
"...Ladies and gentleman. There seems to be some problem in this battle. It looks like there was a problem in the battle...The navi, Memoriam acted on his own accord even before the match even started. By the rules, that is automatic disqualification! Making Void.EXE the winner of this match!!"

Fighters:
Void: 160 HP [WON: Round 2 Pass]
Memoriam: 115 HP [LOST: 1000z, Recov 30]
"Wha?"

Imp looked up at the announcer, "A false start? When did that happen?"

<Obviously before the match,> Damian muttered, rolling his eyes at imp's statement. Void continued for Damian, "He started the fight sitting down, which was an obvious trap. Plus he used that illusion attack right after. Any idiot could see that."

"But....oh..."

<Come on guys, lets go...> Damian said as he jacked his navi out, <On a side note, you seem like a really good fighter. Maybe we could meet up again on more... unfair grounds.>

((Void jacked out))