Cleaning the Bath

As soon as the program began its disgusting wailing, Magna put his hands to his head, reflexes trying to cover his non-existant ears. Mill, meanwhile, was desperately attempting to lower the volume on his PET as the sound split his eardrums. After some fumbling, Mill managed to silence the open channel, leaving him to open a private line with his Navi. "Agh..." grunted Mill as he tried to get his ears to stop ringing, "You think that's the control program, Magna?"

Magna, though, had taken the liberty to disable his own hearing, and as a result didn't hear a single word of his Operator's. Sighing, Mill fiddled with the private channel to have it running on Magna's end as well. "As I was saying..." grumbled Mill, who didn't like repeating himself, "Is that the control program?"

"Possibly. I can not locate any distinct identification on it." reported Magna.

"Hmm... Well, judging from that and its behavior, it's most likely corrupted beyond repair. Since we're replacing the whole filter anyway, there shouldn't be any harm in deleting it." explained Mill, giving justification to remove the source of his annoyance.

"Understood." answered Magna, also having no qualms about this. So, without another word, Magna lifted his hand and fired a series of buster shots and the program.

Actions:
1-4. Buster Shot (4x8 damage) @ Prog
Disregarding trying to figure out what was wrong, Magna went and blasted the Prog full of holes.

The only problem was, it wasn't deleted yet.

"IMMAH CHARGIN MAH LAZOR!" the stupid thing announced annoyingly, something blue forming in the depths of its mouth.

Magna's battle routines went into action, he had to destroy that thing, and fast.

He might want to watch out for that aforementioned laser too.

Malicious Prog: 468 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal

Magna.exe: 120 HP

-BATTLE 5-
-GO-
"Wait... It's actually strong?!" exclaimed Mill in utter shock as Magna's buster shots barely left a mark on the crazed program. It had stopped singing, thankfully, but in return... it looked like it was collecting eneregy for a laser attack in its mouth. Needless to say, something had to be done about that. Knowing their luck, though, trying to disrupt the attack would just earn Magna a face-full of laser. So... defense, then. Mill slotted in his Rockcube, causing the block to appear in front of Magna, prompting the Navi to hide behind it. However... Magna was far too big to get any sort of useful coverage from the object. Realizing this, Mill quickly switched Magna over to his far more reasonably-sized Compressor form, then the shrunken Navi dove for cover as the program continued its charge.

Magna, nervous at the fact that his only clue as to what was going on was the sound of a laser charging, asked Mill, "Should I provide suppresion fire?" hoping that perhaps he could throw off the programs attack entirely.

While he had ruled out that possibility before, Mill figured it couldn't hurt since Magna already had a defense up. "It might help, so... Here, the Boomerang. You should be able to throw that from behind the Rockcube." The chip entered the PET with a single click, and the angled weapon materialized in Magna's hand. With a quick glance around the Rockcube's corner to verify the coordinates, Magna hurled the Boomerang and watched it arc back around his object and out of his sight.

With little time left, Mill slotted one more attack chip in, wanting to figure out what his new AquaNeedle did. As soon as the chip activated, a trio of spikes appeared in the air over Magna's head. Then, without any prompt or command, all three of them shot through the air and straight towards the program. "Wow, that's convenient. You didn't even have to turn around for that." noted Mill, impressed with his new chip. Magna nodded in agreement as he braced himself for the incoming assault.

Actions:
1. Rockcube (200 HP Object) in front of Magna, between him and Malicious Prog
2. Activate Compressor.GMO, hide behind Rockcube
3. Boomerang1 (60 damage, Wood) @ Malicious Prog
4. AquaNeedle1 (3x20 damage, Aqua) @ Malicious Prog
(... Is everyone really that opposed to modding me? Bump, for Christ's sake...)
Magna, for fear of his life, put up a Rockcube, and then shrunk, impressively.

The compressed navi followed through with his attack, as the laser still charged, and the Boomerang hit the Prog in the side of the head.

"SHOOP DA WOOP!" the freaky thing shouted as it fell on its side, blasting a laser at the Rockcube....

...which didn't destroy it at all, but pretty much took a big dent out of it.

Magna activated his Aquaneedle, or Mill did, rather, and three spikes rained down from the heavens where the corrupted program advised (to himself it seems), "DO A BARREL ROLL!" before getting hit in the antennae with one of the spikes. He did manage to, however, roll away from the other two spikes.

Malicious Prog: 388 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal

Rockcube: 120 HP
Magna.exe: 120 HP
Mill sighed in relief as the laser attack subsided against the Rockcube, which had suffered some moderate burn damage on the front, but overall was still surprisingly intact. The Boomerang hit, the AquaNeedle only nicked it... Overall, that went pretty well. An added bonus came to Mill as he realized... that was the program's strongest attack, probably. And now that it's dodging, that probably meant that it had exhausted most of its power. This was the chance to strike! "Magna, I'm sending you some chips. Don't hold back one bit." announced Mill, ready to jump in with guns blazing.

"Understood." responded Magna in his usual fashion. First to come through the PET was the MistConv. Magna spawned his misty hand over his own and threw it towards the program, letting it clench into a fist as it tried to plow into its target's face. Not about to let up, Magna activated the next chip, overwriting the steam on his hand with the GutPunch's yellow plating. Rather than rush forward and punch the program, though, Magna slammed his fist into the Rockcube. Having served its defensive purpose, Magna shoved it forward in sacrifice to attack the enemy. Now, with nothing between him and his target, Magna charged forward, lowering his head as he tried to plow into the program. At the end of this flurry of attacks, Magna jumped backwards, wary of a potential counterattack from the program.

Actions:
1. MistConv (100 Aqua damage, Impact) @ Malicious Program
--Equip GutPunch
2. GutPunch (Knockback) Rockcube (200 damage, Impact) @ Malicious Program
3. Cannonball Golem (100 damage, Break, -15 HP Sacrifice) @ Malicious Program
4. Dodge

Cooldowns:
Cannonball Golem - 3 turns
Magna launches into attack, punching the Prog off the ground with a steaming fist, sending it flying through the air. It screams, "IMMA CHARGIN' MAH LASER" again while the compressed giant sends a Rockcube hurtling after it, the attack connecting, but the charge wasn't interrupted.
Magna prepares his Cannonball Golem attack, but suddenly, A Taco appears in the Prog's mouth! "Huh? Oops! I swallowed mah lasor!" the corrupted program commented, "swallowing" this taco. This seems to have restored its systems a bit, but it still got the full brunt of Magna's signature attack...

...the dust clears and...

... DAMMIT, IT'S STILL ALIVE. The Rockcube strike must've been weaker since it was damaged! Or something.

...But it's kind of open to attack at the moment.

Malicious Prog: 68 HP

Terrain: 100% Normal

Rockcube: DELETED
Magna.exe: 105 HP
Mill and Magna were both fully irritated by this program now. Neither of them could really place a finger on it, but something about this thing was just... annoying. Very annoying. "It's way past time for that program to get deleted so we can finish this job, I think." said Mill matter-of-factly. "You already have the GutPunch, Magna, but I'll send you the RageClaw as well. Just finish it off, please..." Mill's patience was really at its limit, and he wasn't sure what would happen if he was pushed any further.

"Understood." answered Magna in usual fashion as he left hand morphed into a series of razor-sharp claws. Without even a moment of hesitation, Magna charged forward, using the momentum of his rush to thrust his RageClaw straight towards the program's face.

"The job is to replace the system's water filter." stated Magna flatly as he pulled back his RageClaw and made a hard right hook with his GutPunch.

"You are impeding the completion of the job." stated Magna again as he withdrew his GutPunch and took a vicious vertical slash with his RageClaw.

"I will not allow that." announced Magna in his flat voice as the GutPunch made a return appearance with a fast jab to the program's face. It was pretty obvious that Magna was angry, but since his monotone voice wouldn't allow him to express it, how he said all that was a little... creepy...

Actions:
1. RageClaw (40 damage, Slashing) @ Mysterious Prog
2. GutPunch (70 damage, Impact, Knockback) @ Mysterious Prog
3. RageClaw (40 damage, Slashing) @ Mysterious Prog
4. GutPunch (70 damage, Impact, Knockback) @ Mysterious Prog

Cooldowns:
Cannonball Golem - 2 turns
Magna rushes forward with the fury of a thousand monkeys typing on a thousand typewriters at 1000 MPH. Baring his Claws and.... Fist, the purple mecha pounds into the Malicious Program, defeating it completely and utterly.

"I HAAAAAAAAAAAATE THAT HEDGEHOG!" screamed the Program as it was destroyed.

A clear female voice, announcing, "System Malfunction Eliminated" echoed throughout the system.

Ok, that was over with.

Malicious Prog: DELETED

Terrain: 100% Normal

Rockcube: DELETED
Magna.exe: 105 HP

-VICTORY-
Get: Powershot, 600z
"... Hedge...hog...?" queried Magna as the program dissipated into nothingness.

"Don't ask, Magna. Just don't ask." muttered Mill wearily. "Anyway, just turn off that security panel so I can finish replacing this thing."

"Understood." replied Magna as he pressed one of his finger on the big green button on the console. A "SECURITY DISABLED" message appeared on the console, informing Magna that it was in fact the correct button.

"Alright, time for you to jack out so I can get to work." said Mill to his Navi. Magna nodded silently as a beam of light engulfed him and returned him to his PET.

(Jack Out)