CoronaMan.EXE VS Aestus.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....
Aestus.exe... Jack In!



* * *
She looked around at the arena and walked around, surveying the large columns coming out of the floor.

"Lots of places for cover. Not great for ranged fighters because there's stuff to hide behind. But then, it's great for ranged fighters because there's stuff to hide behind." Aestus rolled her eyes.

"Insightful, Cassius. Truly..." Cassius laughed and thumbed through the chips he recieved.

"Why so serious, my dear. The fight hasn't started yet. You don't have to worry either, you'll be perfectly fine."

"I'm not worried.." She retorted, gripping onto her blade. Her prismatic armor took form and wrapped around her, glistening with every shade of blue. Her hair took a like quality, or so much that spilled from beneath her battle helm.

"I don't remember having this helmet.." Cassius clicked his tongue and grined.

"I made a rewrite or two, it won't hinder you any. It just looks cool." Cassius' grin faded and he took a deep breath. The navi did the same, noting that he was -finally- settling into a serious mood.

"Alright Aestus. Get yourself ready. It looks like whoever we're fighting isn't here yet." Aestus nodded, clenching her fist around the shaft of her double naginata.
A star appeared. It glistened there, a few feet off the ground and no more than twenty yards from Aestus, before suddenly expanding. The star passed through all the typical stages of its lifetime, from white dwarf to red giant, in a smooth process that took only a few seconds. By the time it had reached the supernova threshold, what had formerly been only an inch across had expanded to ten feet tall. The bloated star exploded in a plasmatic shockwave that was no more than a wave of warm air. The remnants faded like dying fireworks — except, of course, for the Navi that had been inside.

He planted his feet and took a deep whiff of the arena's air. The Navi was large; huge, even. He had to be close on seven feet, and suitably broad-shouldered. His mass was only increased by the suit of armour he wore. It was an orange-and-yellow hodgepodge of splint, scale, and plate mail. The armour was studded with spikes. They were of a wavy sort, like caricatures of the Sun's rays. Those spikes could be found all over him: around the outside of his high neckguard, arranged in circles going over the tops of the pauldrons on his shoulders, running down his back in lines from his shoulderblades to his waist, and in several other locations. The suit of armour also glowed, as if he was constantly backlit by a strong floodlight.

Having found the air to his taste, the Navi lowered his head and sighted Aestus. A pearly grin broke out across his face. His eyes crinkled with the gesture, but the fact that they were completely dark made it remotely creepy. Those eyes evoked the vacuous depths of space, or the perhaps black holes.

"Hi!" said the Navi. He had a voice that had no business being anywhere near someone like him: it was nasally and slightly grating, not the impressive baritone that it should have been. "I guess you're the white corner, huh? Name's Coronaman." He extended one gauntlet for a shake.

"You fraternizing with the enemy?" Sonia demanded from on high. Coronaman's grin twitched into a grimacing rictus.

"Let me have a minute before the fight starts," he replied through gritted teeth. "Just because we're fighting, we don't have to be enemies."

"That sort of junk got you kicked out of the military, Cor!"

"C'mon. Just introduce yourself, Sonia. Sportsmanship."

His Operator tossed her head, causing her dog tags to jangle. She sighed theatrically. "Hi, I'm Sonia Sorensen, nice to meet you, blah blah blah."

"Good girl."

"Can it, Cor."
The loudspeaker crackled and a hush fell across the crowd as the tournament announcer began to speak.

"Welcome one and all to round one of the ONB Netbattling Tournament! We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming out today, and also to thank our generous sponsors." He paused briefly, presumably to take a breath so he could continue in his over-exaggerated announcer voice. "As of this moment, until the end of the tournament, your folders will be locked to the preset tournament folder that you have been assigned."

"And now for the moment you've all been waiting for: the next match of the first block is about to begin! Please give a warm welcome to Aestus and Coronaman!"

The crowd let out a small roar at this point, excited about the spectacle to come.

"Are you ready combatants? The match will last until one of you concede defeat or are ejected from the Colosseum network!" He paused again, for dramatic effect.

In the net, the word 'WARNING' was spelled out in large and flashing red block letters while what sounded like an alarm went off for a few seconds. The announcer yelled an excited "Match, start!" as the letters disappeared and the alarm stopped.
Cassius was taken aback by his opponent, a miliatary woman if her dogtags were any indication. Aestus was equally surprised by the towering figure that was her opponent. Regardless, the operator grinned and took her hand to shake it in his own.

"Cassius Markai. Nice to meet ya. Nice work on your navi's coding, the voice is an excellent touch." The announcer blared his warning for the match to start and the operator jumped a bit. The fight was about to begin.

"Aah, guess it's time to fight now. Wish ya the best." He flashed a playful grin and quickly walked to his terminal. He opened the folder and looked at the chips inside, making a quick inventory of what was inside.

"Wood... that's an interesting coincidence. Aestus, did I ever tell you that I almost made you a wood navi before I decided to make you a water navi?" The navi bristled, keeping her eyes on her opponent.

"Is now really the best time?"

"Just hear me out. I did some work on some chips we got in the folder before. Looks like we got lucky."

"We wouldn't have to rely on luck if you just submitted your request for a water folder like I told you time and time again..." She replied tersely through pursed lips.

"Not the point. I'm going to send you something. When you get it, charge in." The navi nodded, watching the flash of code wash over her arm. On her left forearm a black box with a red question mark on each face appeared.

"What the hell... Did the code not translate over?" Cassius was mortified to see the generic glitched object box floating where his chip should have been.

"J-just.. Use it as a shield Aestus. The chip will still do the same thing." The navi nodded, setting her feet and tightening her grip on her naginata in her other hand. She dashed forward, the strange block held in front of her like a shield. A flash took her naginata's form as the operator set another chip. The blade of the back end of the weapon disappeared and the shaft shortened slightly, forming into a much lighter material. The bamboo knife's blade formed at the end, keeping some part of her original blade's shape.

The navi acted without hesitation, feeling the change in weight and size and leapt into the air, aiming to fly past the navi's side. She held the box foward still, the supposed shield to block an oncoming attack, and swung the knife at the navi's side, aiming for the area of the armor beneath his arm socket.

She landed just behind him and quickly swept her leg to turn her self to face the large navi's back and went for the leg-hip joint before making a quick leap backwards in hopes of avoiding a counterattack.

~Synopsis~
RiskyHoney:Damage: 5x10 + Homing (used as the shield)
BambooKnifex2: Damage: 60 + Slashing
Free Dodge Action
The best Cassius got from Sonia was an icy glare. She scowled at him until he got back to his terminal, and then turned to her PET, all business.

"Okay, we're going to start with the usual strategy and adapt as we need to from there, got it?"

Her Navi nodded. "Yeah, got it."

A fireball appeared in Coronaman's hand. It drew itself out into the shape of a long line of flame, almost as tall as the Navi was. The fire expanded and fizzled away, leaving Coronaman's custom weapon in his grasp. Affixed to the top of the polearm was a C-shaped hook, about double the size of Coronaman's head. The inner edge was sharpened to a fine blade; the outer edge was studded with more of those wavy spikes. If it existed in the Real World, the weapon would no doubt be outrageously heavy.

Coronaman spun the polearm in one hand as if it weighed nothing to him. His foot slid back, and he brought the weapon to bear in a horizontal ready position at shoulder level. He was grinning.

A sphere of light popped into existence inside the hook's curve, like Coronaman had somehow captured the sun and put it there. It was nearly too bright to look at. He squeezed his eyes shut. The little sun exploded, and the entire arena flashed the sort of searing white that caused permanent ocular damage.

"Now go get her!" Sonia yelled.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Keep your hair on."

Coronaman flipped the polearm over, raised it above his head, roared, and brought the spiked outer edge down like an axe. The ground directly in front of him caved under the force of the blow. Everything shook. The panels kept breaking; they formed a fissure that grew steadily longer, reaching out towards Aestus.

"Whoa," Coronaman gasped as he collected himself. "Not used to that sort of thing. What's next?"

Sonia slotted in a chip by way of answer. Coronaman accepted the data and funnelled it into his hand rather than his weapon. A little metal ball appeared there. He gave it a couple of tosses, testing its weight and judging the trajectory that he would need to take. Satisfied, Cor hurled the Energybomb up into the air. He pulled back into a batter's stance. His eyes were locked on the bomb as it fell. His huge body uncurled itself. He pegged the Energybomb pretty neatly with the side of the hook.

"Squibbed it a little," Coronaman called. Rather than the nice, arcing flight he'd wanted, the Energybomb sailed towards Aestus in a low line drive. The ball made a tiny tak as it hit the ground and subsequently exploded. Cor just grinned as he watched the plasmatic explosions. He lifted his huge polearm and balanced it across one shoulder. He was prepared to take the retribution head-on.

1. Don't Look Directly (1-turn blind; -1 rank Accuracy, -1 rank Dodge) 2 TCD
2. Sonicwave (80 Normal + Piercing)
3. Energybomb (40 x 3 Normal + blast1)
The battle quickly got under way, with Aestus shielding herself from attack. Unfortunately for her, bright, dazzling light wasn't stopped, and the flash from Coronaman's opener would no doubt leave her seeing spots in a few moments.

Continuing the assault, Coronaman sent a Sonicwave at Aestus, which was absorbed by the RiskyHoney. The bees were none too happy, and they stung him in divine retribution several times. She followed the bees and attempted to slice Coronaman, but she ended up missing due to Coronaman's erratic "Help-I'm-being-stung-by-a-horde-of-bees!" movements.

Coronaman tried to launch a energybomb at Aestus, which she easily dodged, while Aestus used the clumsy attack to launch a successful strike at Coronaman's hip.

-------------------
Aestus.exe: 100 : Blind -1
Coronaman.exe: 40

[Sorry </3, the dice hate you it seems.]
[Send me your next turns so we can keep this party rollin']
Cassius rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times, both stinging from the flash Coronaman produced. When the light faded, he looked just in time to see Aestus dodge the bomb the opposing navi laid down. He had to think quickly. He looked around the battlefield, looking for something to even the odds.

"You can't let him hit you with that buster... it's powerful." Aestus grimaced and tried to blink the spots out of her eyes as she stood up, ready to deliver her next attack.

"Wonderful observation! What do you want me to do now?" Cassius smirked and slotted another set of chips into the terminal.

"Alright, here's how it's going to go. Just wait for the next attack, make sure he stays -right- there." A flash of prismatic light enveloped Aestus for a brief moment before fading away as the first of the set chips took effect. As ordered she readied her weapon and stood in wait for Coronaman to make his move. The moment after the first counterattack was delivered, Cassius pushed a button on the terminal. In an instant, Aestus was standing on top of an enormous block suspended from the ceiling. Beneath her was Coronaman in the spot she'd just occupied.

"Keep low, stay quiet.. Use that naginata to cut the cable. When I say so, jump." Aestus nodded, quickly and quietly cutting through the only thing keeping the great cube from the ground. The cable severed and the heavy thing began its rapid descent toward the ground and Coronaman below.

"Okay, now! Jump off and use it for cover!" The navi obeyed, leaping off the block before it landed and took cover behind her new shield.

~Synopsis~
Guard1
AreaGrab (teleportation to the cube above)
Action: (Cut the cable of the cube and leap off to take cover behind it once it hits the ground)
He took the retribution head-on, all right.

Pretty much nothing worked out the way Coronaman had expected it to. He'd somehow screwed up and tripped Aestus' trap, which had been a bunch of bees. As he'd jumped around, desperately trying to keep them from getting inside his armour, Aestus had walked right up to him and jabbed him in the hip with that big stick of hers.

"This isn't working!" Sonia shouted, in a definitely frantic tone. She was going through her chip stack at the speed of light.

"You think? Geez. Ow."

Aestus had seriously gotten the better of him there. Just standing around waiting for her to fall over under the weight of his first volley had been kind of dumb. They couldn't afford to run that kind of strategy now, not against an opponent like this. He really should have known that, ex-Sharoan Army he was.

"Here! Cor, here! Hurry up!"

While he was busy pondering the situation, Sonia had slotted in a recovery chip. Coronaman ducked his head in thanks and booted the packet up. A wave of light spread out across his glowing armour. It filled in the tears caused by the bees, and knitted up the rip in his side that had been left by Aestus' naginata. His hand went to his waist, and came away with a few lines of code sticking. They were the last phrases to escape his program before the recovery chip covered the wound over.

"Right," Coronaman breathed. His former joviality seemed to have gone out of him. Well, he'd just been liberally stung and ripped open. Any Navi had a right to be at least partially annoyed at that sort of treatment.

His black eyes slid back up to fix on Aestus. Another chip had just come down the pipe — the Varitails. Coronaman loaded the data into his weapon. The spikes on the hook's outer edge began to grow. In an instant, they were writhing, orange, two-foot tails. Coronaman took the polearm in both hands, roared, and charged.

Cor was a large, heavy Navi in large, heavy armour. By no means was he the quiet or deliberate type. His feet clanged and the arena quaked with every step forward. The Net air hissed in through his teeth, and he expelled it again in a mighty bellow as he dragged the polearm through the air at Aestus' head level. The impact would be devastating.

His thundering momentum pulled him past Aestus. Coronaman put down his heels and came to a short, skidding halt. He cranked his head around to see the results, but Aestus wasn't there.

"Where'd she go, Sonia?"

"I don't know! Go find her and kill her!"

"Yeah, eventually," the Navi muttered, looking around. He suspected that he was going to have to go down one of those holes.

1. Recov50
2. Varitails1 (10 x 9 Normal damage)
3. Dodge
While Coronaman and Sonia do some much needed healing, Aestus equips herself with a guard. Coronaman then proceeds to charge at Aestus, who activates an Areagrab just before Coronaman's attack would have hit, teleporting to the rock above them. She proceeds to flail around the area and manages to cut the rock free, dropping it downwards towards Coronaman, but his momentum had already taken him out of harm's way. Aestus mistakenly jumps off the rock as it is falling towards Coronaman, and lands withing melee range... just in time for her vision to come back to full ability.

Aestus.exe: 100 : Guard
Coronaman.exe: 90
Still stumbling around in a daze, Aestus was an easy target for Coronaman, who promptly shot her square in the stomach with a break-powered cannon. Activating an aereagrab and a varitails, he continued his assault, hitting the hapless victim with the many tails while teleporting circles around Aestus.

Aestus fell to the ground, unable to continue the fight.

The crowd went wild with Coronaman's display of prowess. He and his operator were asked to join the rest of the winners in the waiting area.

Aestus was jacked out, while the arena helper asked her operator which reward they would like. "Would you like a Recov30 or 1000z?" The helper led the losing pair to the exit of the area, while giving them their selected prize.

--------
[Time-over!]
Coronaman - Round Two get!
Aestus - Recov30 or 1000z!